WELLS OP. EFFINGHAM COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 753 



A boring- for coal made at this city reached a depth of 574 feet. It entered 

 rock at about 95 feet, after penetrating a complex series of drift beds. 



From the report in the Geology of Illinois (Vol. VI) the following 

 information concerning wells is obtained. In the north part of the county 

 the wells are 12 to 18 feet, with weak veins of water. A well near Ramsey 

 was dug 100 feet through clay and gravel to solid rock. Wells about a 

 mile south of Vandalia are reported to reach a depth of 60 or 65 feet on 

 the drift ridges and about 30 feet on the bordering plane tracts. The wells 

 usually pass through a small amount of clay at the top, beneath which they 

 are largely through sand. 



EFFINGHAM COUNTY. 

 GENERAL STATEMENT. 



Effingham Count}' is situated in the south-central part of the State, 

 immediately east of Fayette County, with Effingham as the county seat, 

 and has an area of 490 square miles. The greater part of the county is 

 tributary to Little Wabash River, which has a southward course through its 

 central portion. From the western border of the county the drainage is 

 westward to the Kaskaskia. The divides in this county are poorly drained 

 as in neighboring counties, and there is a coating of white clay over the 

 entire upland surface which absorbs water very slowly. 



The drift surface is generally plane, there being no prominent l-idges 

 or knolls, such as occur in the neighboring counties on the north and west. 

 Rock is exposed along the Little Wabash and its tributaries and also along 

 tributaries of the Kaskaskia at levels only 20 to 40 feet below the border- 

 ing uplands. The thickest section of drift obtained within the county is 

 only 60 feet. The upper part of the drift to a depth of 25 feet or more is 

 composed of clays of yellow or brown color which usually afford water for 

 the wells. Under these clays is a hard blue till extending frequently to 

 the rock. 



INDIVIDUAL WELLS. 



At Altamont a well at the Boyer House penetrated about 15 feet of 

 white and yellow clays with few pebbles, beneath which a hard brown till 

 was entered, and below that, at a depth of a few feet, a blue till. The well 

 terminated in this blue till at a depth of 47 feet, Other wells in the village 

 obtain water without entering the blue till. Within a few miles southwest 



MON XXXVIII 4S 



