314 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



I Di ift 



ridge, with blue clay above and below it, and lay at the depth of about twenty-five feet below the 

 surface. It had a thickness of seven feet, and contained "decayed stuff, like pressed hay." 



N. E. ] sec. 1, LeBoy, Mower county, land of Ole Knutson (Stoley); found at the depth of 

 thirty feet, five feet thick; blue clay above, and two feet of black clay below; then limerock. 



Sec. 30, Beunington, Mower county; on land of Gents Everson. This is situated on a flat, 

 and was found from thirty to thirty-two feet below the surface. It was three feet thick and lay 

 below blue clay. Below it was gravel to the thickness of eight feet, when the well stri.ck lime- 

 rock. 



S. E. J sec. 9, Bennington, Mower county; land of John Meehan. It here had blue clay both 

 above and below it, and had a thickness of two feet. It lay at the depth of twenty feet. The 

 underlying blue clay was gravelly. 



It was met in the same town on Robert Cooper's land, at the depth of twenty-five or thirty 

 feet. It was here on a' very high ridge. It was in a blue clay, with gravel both above and below, 

 and three or four feet thick. This well was abandoned on account of quicksand. 



On the slope northeast from Mr. Cooper's it was reported to have been met with at the depth 

 of six or seven feet from the surface, on the land of Mr. Bap. 



Sec. 2, Sumner, land of Win. Bailey; met a deposit which was embraced between layers of 

 what was then supposed to be limerock. This deposit was two feet thick and consisted entirely of 

 wood. Eock was struck at the depth of eight feet. This wood was thirty-five feet below the sur- 

 face. The owner called the rock "grindstone rock." This is probably a Cretaceous sandrock em- 

 bracing a bed of lignite. 



H. part of sec. 28, Spring Valley, land of A. B. Hutchinson. An irony deposit having an 

 unknown thickness, was struck at the depth of thirty-five feet. 



This was also met in the central part of Racine, Mower county, on the farm of D. Reed, at the 

 depth of twenty-five or twenty-six feet. It came up in chunks which; glistened and looked like 

 iron ore. 



Under the head of Cretaceous the reader will find further statements concerning this iron 

 ore. Two miles west of Spring Valley, on the land of O. II. Rose, is a deposit of conglomerate. 

 This is abundantly cemented with iron, lying on a sloping surface covering twenty-five or thirty 

 square rods, rendering the land unfit for cultivation, in the vicinity of DO rock-bluff, and on a 

 prairie country. Iron ore was thrown out of a well on S. W. J- sec. 24, Bloomfield. It was said 

 to hare come out in lumps, and to be as heavy as iron. It rises to the surface and a plow cannot 

 be passed through it. This is owned by Geo. H. Smith. Again on H. T. Odell's land, sec. 36, 

 BJoomfield, it is found in scattered lumps variously mingled with the soil and with other stone. 

 These surface pieces are impure, and often hold cemented gravel and pebbles. They are also 

 loose and porous, and pass into ochre. Similar pieces occur on sec. 1 , Beaver, land of O. A. Boyn- 

 ton. 



Wood was taken from two wells in Jordan township, sees. 29 and 30, on land of M. Rob- 

 bins and Geo. Hare. This is also on a high prairie. In Mr. Hare's well_was said to have been a 

 tree. 



In order to study further the thickness of the drift, and its lateral ex- 

 tent in the county, a great many observations were made on the pheno- 

 mena of common wells, and the tabulated list herewith appended will give 

 the results of some of those examinations. It has already been said that 

 there are a great many subterranean streams, especially within the area of 

 the Trenton limestone. Some of these streams gush out along the river 

 bluffs and give rise to copious springs. Wherever there is an open rock- 

 structure, which is not imperviously covered by the drift or by the loam, 

 it acts to receive the surface water and to allow its passage along lower 

 levels to the main river valleys. This necessitates the drilling of a great 



