WELLS OF MOULTRIE COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 729 



The city of Decatur obtains its public water supply by pumping from 

 the Sangamon River. The city engineer reports that the wells of that city 

 obtain their strongest supply of water at a depth of about 100 feet in beds of 

 gravel below blue clay, and that the water from these wells will rise within 

 20 feet of the top. He estimates the capacity of a good well to be about 

 20 barrels a day. Coal borings at Decatur, reported in the Geology of 

 Illinois, enter rock in one instance at 110 feet and in another at 140 feet, 

 The section of the air shaft, taken from the Geology of Illinois, which 

 appears on page 204, indicates the variable structure of the drift. The 

 shaft is located near the Sangamon River bluff. 



At Maroa, in the north part of the county, the strongest wells are 

 about 100 feet in depth, in gravel below till. This village has waterworks, 

 recently constructed, which obtains its supply from gravel at a depth of 85 

 to 100 feet. At the neighboring village of Forsj^the several good wells are 

 obtained at 35 to 45 feet. 



At Macon a well 120 feet in depth furnishes the public water supply. 

 It terminates in gravel below a thick sheet of till, and the well is practically- 

 inexhaustible. Water rises within 60 feet of the surface, and it is stated 

 by residents that the water rose to that level in less than five minutes after 

 the water bed was struck. 



The well at Blue Mound from which the public water supply is 

 pumped was sunk to a depth of 213 feet without reaching rock, mainly 

 through a hard blue till. As this village stands on the plain outside the 

 Wisconsin drift sheet, the great thickness of drift here penetrated belongs 

 to an earlier stage of glaciation. The principal part of the water is obtained 

 within 40 feet of the surface, and wells in that vicinity are 15 to 40 feet 

 deep. 



MOULTRIE COUNTY. 

 GENERAL STATEMENT. 



Moultrie County is situated southeast of Macon, in the east-central 

 part of the State, with Sullivan as the county seat, and has an area of 

 340 square miles. The Kaskaskia River crosses the southeastern part in 

 a westward course, and most of the county is tributary to that stream. 

 Much of the surface is flat and poorly drained, the county being situated 

 within the limits of the Wisconsin drift, where drainage lines are generally 

 immature. 



