WATONWAN AND MARTIN COUNTIES. 457 



Wells.] 



J. A. Armstrong; S. E. } of sec. 9: well, 81 feet; soil, 2; yellow till, 22; gravel and sand, 6 

 inches, yielding enough water for ordinary house use; blue till, very compact, but moist and soft 

 to bore, 56J feet; the auger then dropped, and within fifteen minutes the water rose through 

 thirty -one feet of two-inch boring so fast as to fill in this time thirty feet of the larger boring 

 above, three feet ih diameter, rising thus sixty-one feet. Within a distance of six rods around 

 this place, six wells have found quicksand at a depth varying from 12 to 16 feet, thence extend- 

 ing, at least in some of these wells, to a depth of five or six feet, but not passed through by any of 

 them, because of its immense supply of water. These shallow wells, however, were unservice- 

 able from becoming filled with quicksand. 



J. H. Smith, in sec. 3 of this township, has a well about 75 feet deep, which has several 

 times become filled nearly to the top with quicksand. 



Most of the wells in northeastern Martin county are only 10 to 30 feet deep, finding plenty 

 of water in the lower part of the yellow till, or in gravel and sand under this and overlying the 

 bine till. Lignite is occasionally found, the largest fragments being three or four inches long. 



Center Creek. Ilosea True's well, in the north part of this township, is reported to have 

 been till, 60 feet, yellowish near the surface and dark bluish below ; then sand 8 feet, containing 

 "elm leaves and clam shells in abundance, the latter three to four inches long." This is on the 

 ordinary undulating surface of the drift-sheet, south of the valley of Elm creek. Mr. Alexander 

 Douglas, who bored this well and reported it thus, states that in his work boring nearly forty 

 other wells in this county, he nowhere else found leaves, but in several instances found similar 

 shells in coarse dark sand, at depths varying from 20 to 60 feet below the surface, under yellow 

 and then blue till. 



Westford. E. Huber, sec. 34: well, 45 feet; soil, 2; yellow till, 10; blue till, softer, moist 

 and tenaceous, most gravelly in its lower part, 33 feet; water, seeping from the lower part of the 

 blue till, filled this well to a depth of ten feet in three days. 



Rutland. JR. J. McCadden; sec. 5: well, 32 feet; soil 2; sand and fine gravel, somewhat 

 clayey, 6; yellow till, 5 ; blue till, about the same as the yellow till in respect to hardness, 16: 

 sand and gravel. 2 feet; blue till, 1 foot and extending below; water rose ten feet in one day. 



Fairm'mt (also see page 477). Occidental hotel: well, 85 feet; yellow till, 24; softer blue 

 till, 60; water rose about forty feet from gravel and sand at the bottom. 



E. M. Ward; Fairmont: well, 40; soil. 2 ; quite hard yellow till, 22; blue till, softer, but 

 very tenaceous, 16 feet and lower ; water seeps in a moderate supply from the lower part of the 

 yellow till. 



Silver Lake. A. W. Young; sec. 29 : well, 30 feet ; soil, 2; yellow till, picked, 8 feet; blue 

 till, 20 feet, harder to excavate because more tenaceous, but not harder to drive a pick into ; 

 gravel, one inch ; underlain by fetid clay, containing decaying vegetation ; water rose six feet in 

 a quarter of a day from the gravel. This blue till contained a few pieces of lignite, the largest be- 

 ing six inches in diameter. Pieces of wood are also found occasionally in the till by wells in this 

 vicinity, and in one instance a log a foot in diameter was encountered thirty feet below the 

 surface. In digging O. H. Roice's cellar on sec. 27 of this township, gasteropod shells were 

 found at a depth of six feet below the surface, in a layer of sand and gravel two inches thick, 

 overlain and underlain by yellow till. These organic remains, like the chains of lakes, are rec- 

 ords of an interglacial epoch. 



East Chain. W. II. Rich ; at the village, sec. 7 : well, 44 ; soil, 2; yellcw till, 6 ; reddish 

 gravel, 4 feet ; light-colored till, 20 feet; dark, bluish "hardpan," six inches; gravel, 3 feet; blue 

 till, 8 or 9 feet, and extending below; a running stream of water was found in the gravel at 32 to 

 35 feet, not rising; it was ruirning toward springs that occur a little above the level of East Chain 

 lake, which is a short distance west of the well. 



Tenliassen. William Merry; sec. 29: well, 21 feet; soil, 2: yellow till, 19; water rises twelve 

 feet from sand at the bottom. No wells in this region exceed 25 feet in depth, and the water is 

 uniformly good. 



Lake Belt. J. II. Headly; S. W. i of sec. 18: well, 18 feet deep; soil, 2; light gray till, 16; 

 water rose four feet from springs in the lower part of the till. 



Manyaska. Henry Hulsemann; N. E. }, see. 12: well, 26; soil, 2; yellow till, spaded, 24; 

 water seeps ; about a dozen small pieces of lignite were found. 



