WELLS OF ADAMS COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 717 



A well at Mr. Grrubb's, on ground 20 feet higher, entered Coal Measures 

 shale at 47 feet. The drift is largely gravel. Mr. Grrubb, who has had 

 some experience as a well driller, reports that over an area of several 

 square miles northwest from Liberty the till has a thickness of about 50 

 feet and is underlain by a dark-blue clay similar to that of wells at Liberty 

 and probably similar to that at the infirmary noted above. In a well exam- 

 ined by the writer while in process of excavation, a section of which appears 

 on page 61, it was found that the dark-blue clay is a calcareous silt free from 

 pebbles. 



In the vicinity of Burton wells are usually obtained at about 30 feet, 

 near the base of the drift. Two wells southwest of the village reach a 

 much greater depth and apparently strike into a preglacial valley. One at 

 Mr. Dietreck's, on the east bluff of Mill Creek, has a depth of 200 feet and 

 enters rock at 160 feet. A well at Mrs. Ihrig's, on the west bluff of Mill 

 Creek, reached a depth of 155 feet without entering' rock. It was mainly 

 through yellow clay to a depth of 105 feet, beneath which the clay is of 

 blue color. Sand was struck near the bottom. 



In the vicinity of Newtown (Adams post-office) wells not infrequently 

 reach a depth of 75 feet, there being a ridge of drift leading past the village 

 in a northwest-southeast course, in which wells are sunk to a greater depth 

 than on the bordering plains. The village well, 75 feet in depth, is reported 

 to be mainly till with gravel at bottom. Another well on the ridge south- 

 east of the village, at the residence of Mrs. Wittemeyer, the section of 

 which is given on page 59, passed through a gray muck or soil below till at 

 40 to 45 feet, which is about the level of the base of the ridge. Beneath 

 this soil was a sandy till grading into sand below, and water is obtained 

 in this sand at 80 to 82 feet. 



At the village of Payson, which is located on a ridge of drift, rock is 

 entered at a depth of about 90 feet, and the drift is largely of sandy consti- 

 tution. A well at Mr. Barnard's, 1 mile west of this village, after penetrat- 

 ing alternations of clay and gravel to a depth of 60 feet, passed into a 

 reddish clay, apparently formed by the decomposition of limestone, which 

 was 17 feet in thickness and extended to the rock. 



At Plainville the village well penetrates about 20 feet of clay contain- 

 ing few pebbles, beneath which is ordinary till extending to the rock, which 

 is entered at about 40 feet. The drift in that vicinity seldom exceeds 40 



