WELLS OF MONKOE COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 765 



Near New Athens coal shafts and borings enter rock at depths ranging 

 from 37 to 75 feet. A well at J. Hardy's, south of New Athens, reached a 

 depth of 90 feet without entering rock, and several wells in that vicinity 

 are 50 feet in depth. Southeast from New Athens rock is usually entered 

 within 30 feet of the surface. Some of the highest points have rock at 

 surface. 



MONROE COUNTY. 

 GENERAL STATEMENT. 



Monroe County borders the Mississippi River below St. Clair County, 

 and has an area of 380 square miles, with Waterloo as the county seat, The 

 western part of the county is largely occupied by the St. Louis limestone, and 

 is characterized by subterranean drainage through sink holes and caverns. 

 The limestone is covered with a deposit of loess, but there is very little gla- 

 cial drift. In the northern end of the county, near Columbia, there is a 

 lowland occupied by Coal Measures, in which drift 40 feet or more in depth 

 has been deposited. The eastern part of the county is occupied by Coal 

 Measures and its drainage is tributary to the Kaskaskia, that stream being 

 the eastern border of the county. 



The belt of drift ridges which have been traced southward through St. 

 Clair County cross the eastern border of Monroe County, following nearly 

 the west bluff of the Kaskaskia River. The drift on this ridged belt has 

 been penetrated in one instance 115 feet and in several instances 60 to 75 

 feet without reaching the rock. It is found to be partly sand and partly till. 

 West from this ridged belt the drift is thin, seldom exceeding 20 feet. Wells 

 are usually obtained from the rock, except along the belt of ridged drift and 

 in the Mississippi bottoms. Strong wells are seldom obtained in the rock 

 at less than 50 feet, and not infrequently they are 80 feet in depth. The 

 wells in the Mississippi Valley are only 40 or 50 feet in depth, and are 

 largely through fine sand. The wells along the belt of ridged drift vary 

 greatly in depth, some being obtained at about 30 feet, while others are sunk 

 to twice or tin-ice that depth. 



INDIVIDUAL WELLS. 



At Columbia the wells are 20 to 45 feet in depth, the deeper ones being 

 from the rock. A prospect boring for artesian water was sunk to a depth 

 of 1,010 feet. It has a head 10 or 15 feet below the surface. No use is 



