672 THE ILLINOIS GLACIAL LOBE. 



* At Metamora strong wells are obtained at about 75 feet. A few wells 

 in the vicinity of this town have been sunk to greater depths and some of 

 them pass through a black muck containing wood under the blue till at a 

 depth of about 140 feet. This muck and associated sand is in some cases 

 15 feet in thickness. A thin bed of blue clay underlies it, beneath which 

 is a hard gray till, which in a single boring, reaching the rock, was 115 feet 

 in depth. 



STARK COUNTY. 

 GENERAL STATEMENT. 



Stark County is situated west of Marshall and has an area of 290 

 square miles, with Toulon as the county seat. It is drained by the two 

 headwater forks of Spoon River, which lead southward through it and unite 

 just below the county line. The original drift surface was probably nearly 

 plane, but has been much eroded by the streams, for this county lies outside 

 the limits of the Wisconsin and probably of the Iowan sheet of drift, and 

 in consequence has been subjected to erosion for a long-er period than 

 counties to the east. 



The surface of the county is capped with loess to a depth of about 15 

 feet, beneath which is a deposit of glacial drift seldom more than 50 feet 

 deep and in many places but 10 or 15 feet. Wells are ordinarily obtained 

 in the drift, but a few obtain water in the rock at moderate depths. 



INDIVIDUAL WELLS. 



At Toulon and in that vicinity rock is entered at about 30 feet and 

 water is usually obtained near the base of the drift. 



In the vicinity of Wyoming many of the wells encounter a bed of 

 muck or peat at a depth of 20 to 24 feet. This is said to be overlaid by a 

 blue clay, but opportunity has not been afforded for determining whether 

 it is a glacial deposit or a part of the loess. The wells are usually obtained 

 in sand beneath this peat. 



In the vicinity of Stark, on a low plain in the south part of the county, 

 about 40 feet below the general level of the upland, wells reach a depth of 

 40 feet or more without entering- rock. 



