g98 THE GEOLOGY OF MINNESOTA. 



[Drilling for artesian well. 



Black and red loam ... 2J feet. 



Hard, yellow clay 2 feet. 



Blue stone, in layers two to five Indies thick, extending to surface of water 7 feet. 



Below this there is no more rock until the county line is passed. No 

 fossils were found in the rock. This stone is used for nagging and other 

 purposes at Owatonna, and is considered a good stone.* 



Some evidence of the existence of Cretaceous beds was found. On the southeast quarter of 

 section 26, of Deerfleld, on the farm of Aug. Hoffmann, coal has been found in sinking a well. 

 Dr. G. A. Rossbach states that they went through twenty-five feet of blue-black clay, in the un- 

 der part of which were fragments of coal. After that they passed through gravel in which also 

 were coal fragments. At the depth of sixty-three or sixty-four feet rock was struck; the drill 

 showed it to be black shale with pieces of coal imbedded in it. Although no specimens of the 

 coal were seen by the writer, the description given would answer for Cretaceous lignite. The 

 evidence from the geology of adjoining counties, as well as the nature of the rock itself, justifies 

 us in calling the rojk Cretaceous. Just west of Owatonna another farmer is said to have struck 

 coal also, though the writer was unable to get any further information on the matter. 



n rilling for an artesian well. By a subscription of the citizens of Owa- 

 tonna, a well was drilled in 1878, near the center of that city, to a depth 

 of 887 feet. No artesian flow was obtained. Its site, a few feet higher than 

 the depot, is approximately 1150 feet above the sea. being twenty -three 

 feet above the top of the dam in Straight river, and some fifty or sixty feet 

 below the average hight of the surrounding region. Mr. John Shea and 

 Mr. Samuel H. Baker have furnished notes of the succession of beds pene- 

 trated by this well, as follows: 



Section drilled for an artesian well at Owatonna. 



Thickness Depth to top Hi^'M of topof strutu 

 infect. of strata. above the sea. 



1. Gravel and sand 20 1150 



2. Blue, stony clay 14 20 



3. Gravel and boulders, with much water 5 34 1116 



4. White quartz sand 21 39 1111 



o. Soft limestone, decayed 1090 



6. Yellow clay, making the water very yellow 1 62 1088 



7. White sandstone, quite hard 35 63 1087 



8. Blue, compact limestone 20 



9. Blue sandstone, "like grindstone grit" 10 118 1032 



10. Blue shale 10 128 1022 



11. Light gray shale 10 138 1012 



12. Shale, "full of specks of iron pyrites, very hard to 



drill" 3 148 1002 



13. Blue shale 20 151 999 



14. Light gray shale 5 171 979 



15. Blue clay 12 176 974 



16. "Yellow, pyritous, very hard rock, appearing to 



contain scales of mica" 2 188 



17. Blue clay and shale SO 190 



18. Lead- colored clay, making the water dark-bluish. . 3 240 910 



See also the chapter on the building stones of Minnesota, pp. 176 and -JOC-303. 



