GRUNDY COUNTY. 205 



All deficiencies in this respect, however, can be readily supplied from the 

 neighboring quarries of Joliet. 



Lime. The limestone of Waters's quarry is burned for lime in large quan- 

 tities, and is said to furnish a very good article, though care must be taken to 

 exclude from the kiln the more ferruginous layers. 



Hydraulic Lime. The only hydraulic limestone found in the county occurs 

 in nodules along the Kankakee, and in very small quantity. The abundant 

 supply of this material from LaSalle county, makes these deposits valueless. 



Builder's Sand can be obtained in limitless quantities from the sand ridges 

 of the river valley. From one of these ridges, about one mile south of Morris, 

 large quantities of road gravel are also obtained. 



Iron Ore. The ironstone nodules (carbonate of iron) of the Mazon andWau- 

 pecan, are not sufficiently abundant to supply a furnace ; and the bog-ore, no- 

 ticed near Waters's limestone quarry, has not yet been tested for either quan- 

 tity or quality. 



Water. In a dry season, large portions of this county are very scantily sup- 

 plied with water. In ordinary seasons, wells running ten or fifteen feet into 

 the top of the Drift, supply all needs; but in the western part of the county, 

 reliable wells can be obtained only by passing through the boulder clay to the 

 underlying quicksand. The lower seam of coal is everywhere accompanied by 

 an abundance of water, which is pure and good, until the working of the coal 

 exposes the accompanying pyrite to decomposition. A well recently bored at 

 the tile factory in Jugtown, struck the coal at about thirty feet, and gave exit 

 to a strong stream of water highly charged with sulphuretted hydrogen. Small 

 springs of similar character are said to accompany the supposed line of outcrop 

 of this coal seam, along the foot of the first terrace, from Mazon creek nearly 

 to the Morris bridge. A very strong spring of this character flows from be- 

 neath the Drift gravel, over the black shale, No. 3, of the Upper Mazon section, 

 in the southwest quarter of section 6, township 32 north, range 8 east, leaving 

 a heavy white deposit of sulphur on the surface of the shale. 



The artesian boring of Mr. Samuel Holderman, on the northeast quarter of 

 section 3, township 33 north, range 8 east, brings to the surface a small, but 

 constant supply of slightly sulphurous water from the upper part of the Tren- 

 ton limestone, at a depth of about one hundred and thirty-seven feet. Mr. 

 John Holderman's well, on section 18, of the same township, has met with no 

 flowing water at 320 feet, after penetrating one hundred and eighty-five feet 

 of the Trenton limestone. The more recent successful boring at Morris, shows 

 that this limestone is two hundred feet thick, and that in this county, as well 

 as in LaSalle, to the west, and Will, to the east, the underlying St. Peters 

 sandstone is full of pure water, which is ready to flow to the surface wherever 



