98 



725—760 feet, soft red shale; 



760 — 785 feet, white solid quartzose sandstone, very hard; 



785 — 1305 feet, soft red shale. 



At 1305 feet the drill was stopped. Permanent water was 

 struck at 43 feet; gas, of fair quality as well as quantity, at 452 

 feet; salt water, leaving on evaporation about 12 per cent, of 

 salt, was found at 555 feet. A shaft, 2u feet square, was sunk on 

 the premises later, for the purpose of determining the feasibility 

 of mining the gypsum, but the rush of water through the gyp- 

 sum layer at 43-47 feet, was so strong that a pump with a 

 capacity of 2000 gallons per minute failed to make any impres- 

 sion upon it, and the attempt was abandoned. 



The average dip of the rocks from the north to the south, in 

 this vicinity, is about 20 feet to the mile.- The top of the 

 Niagara limestone, ten miles north of Buffalo Plains, is about 20 

 feet above the level of Lake Erie, or 593 feet above tidewater; 

 hence, as the drill started at 70 feet above the. lake level, Niagara 

 limestone ought to be found at a depth of about 250 feet; but 

 in fact the drill penetrated down to 1305 feet in the soft red 

 shale, characteristic of the lower part of the Onondaga Salt 

 Group, according to Hall, demonstrating that the Niagara lime- 

 stone, if present, has between Niagara Falls and Buffalo, a dip 

 of at least 130 feet to the mile. 



Mr. Bennett, the president of the Cement Co., has promised 

 to deposit the core of the drill in the museum as soon as it is 

 established in the fire-proof building of the Buffalo Library. 



