FARIBAULT COUNTY 471 



Fountain!. Mounds.] 



The ground upon which these artesian waters are gathered and whence they receive the 

 pressure that causes them to rise here above the surface, is probably Freeboru county, which be- 

 gins four miles east of Wells, and extends thirty miles to the east, with an average elevation 

 about a hundred feet higher above the sea. From this station the railroad rises 108 feet in going 

 nine miles southeast to Alden; while its summit, six miles farther east, is 170 feet, and the 

 depot at Albert Lea is 68 feet above Wells. 



Other artesian fountains are obtained in this county from water-bearing beds of gravel and 

 sand included in the glacial drift, at depths from thirty or forty to nearly a hundred feet. They 

 are most frequent in Dunbar, Minnesota Lake and Lura, and especially near the Maple river 

 through the second and third of these townships and through Mapleton and Sterling in Blue 

 Earth county. Rarely artesian water is found farther to the south and southwest in Faribault 

 county. The only instances learned of are Ole E. Johnson's well, about 90 feet deep, in the 

 southeast part of Emerald, and two in Pilot Grove, one being on the farm that was owned by the 

 late Dr. Cr. D. Winch, in section 8, about 60 feet in depth, which after overflowing four years 

 ceased in the autumn of 1879, and the other bains; Mr. Wilson's, in the S. W. J of section 20, 

 which was sunk in 1880, 70 feet deep, and at the time of this examination had been rnnning four 

 months. 



All these artesian wells, as also the common wlls of the county, already described in 

 treating of the glacial drift, invariably have good water, and nearly always in ample amount 

 within twenty-five to fifty feet from the surface. It is, however, hard water, holding the car- 

 bonates of lime and magnesia in solution, and requires cleansing with ashes or otherwise before 

 it can be satisfactorily used for washing with soap. 



ABORIGINAL MOUNDS. 



Numerous circular mounds, apparently artificial, one to one and a half feet high, and fif 

 teen to twenty feet across, are seen near the road along a distance of three miles about half way 

 between Freeborn and Wells; and a few similar mounds were seen in and beside the road two or 

 three miles west of Wells. 



Two mounds, twenty feet in diameter and one and a half feat high, occur at the south side 

 of the S. W. J of the S. W. } of section 13, Brush Creek, about a third of a mile east of the 

 bridge over the East branch of the Blue Earth river. 



Again, in Kiester, two mounds of about the same size as the foregoing were noted near 

 the middle of section 19. 



In Mansfield, the most southwest township of Freeborn county, lying next east of Kiester, 

 two or three such mounds were observed in the N. W. i of section 13; also, at the south side of 

 section 34 of this township, close to the state line, are two or more of these small mounds . 

 Passing the last, a road extends south into Iowa, and about a mile beyond the state boundary 

 a mound of this form but two feet high, being larger than any of the others here mentioned, was 

 seen six rods east of this road, with a second of the smaller size near it. 



