STKPHKXSOX corxTY. 6i 



a great part of the year 1865. At that time the oil fever was prevail- 

 ing extensively. Some surface indications were noticed in a small brook 

 running through the north part of section six. in the town of Lancaster. 

 A company was formed, an engine was obtained, and a hole six inches 

 in diameter drilled into the earth for over eight hundred feet. Xo oil 

 was obtained, and no indications of oil noticed after leaving the surface, 

 and the enterprise was finally abandoned. Although very unprofitable 

 to the company, this boring was not devoid of scientific interest. After 

 boring about eight feet through the overlying soil and clays, the Galena 

 limestone was struck. No very accurate record of the material passed 

 through for the first one hundred and twenty feet was kept, but from 

 the fact that the Galena limestone outcrops heavily at Cedarville, only 

 a mile or two distant, being there seventy-five or eighty feet thick in 

 the exposure on Cedar creek. \ve believe the well, in this one hundred 

 and twenty feet, passed out of the Galena limestone, and reached per- 

 haps a considerable distance into the Blue limestones, immediately un- 

 derlying. Commencing at one hundred and twenty feet beneath the 

 surface, we ,ui\e a section of strata and materials bored through, until 

 the depth of six hundred and eight feet was reached, as indicated by 

 the detritus brought to the surface by the auger. Xo record of the last 

 two hundred and fifty feet seems to have been kept. 



Section of Oil Well on Rotky Farm. 



120 to 130 feet, blue limestone and mud veins 10 feet. 



130 146 " gray limestone, containing crevices 16 " 



146 168 " shaleaof various kinds 22 " 



:<7fi St. Peter's sandstone, soft, very -white 207 " 



375 464 ' red sandstone, with tough, paint-like mud veins 109 " 



484 467 ' yellow sand, like surface sand 3 ' ' 



487 491 " quick sand and salty water 4 " 



491 494 " bright yellow, fine, salty sand 3 " 



494 501 " slate <>f chalky color and nature 7 " 



301 520 ' snuff colored, slaty rocks '. 19 " 



520 532 " sharp, slate colored sand 12 " 



532 564 " dark red stoue, like soap stone, with thin flinty strata and iron pyrites 32 " 



564 5s6 bright red stoue. slightly >ily 22 " 



586 608 ' dark, reddish slate, with iron pyrites 22 " 



At the depth of about sixty feet from the surface, some dark colored 

 carboniferous shales were struck. These must have belonged to the 

 Blue limestones underlying the Galena, and perhaps are near the divid- 

 ing line between the two. From thence to the depth of one hundred 

 and sixty-eight feet, the Blue and Buff limestones of the Trenton period 

 were undoubtedly the rocks passed through. The next two hundred 

 and seven feet was the St. Peter's sandstone. There could be no mis- 

 take as to this : the auger brought it up. pure, cruinbh' and white. The 

 next one hundred and nine feet, although it strongly resembles the St. 

 Peter's sandstone when stained by water holding iron in solution, be- 



