458 GLACIAL FORMATIONS OF ERIE AND OHIO BASINS. 



Section of drift in French Creek Valley near Meadmlle. 



Feet. 



1. Soil (alluvium) 10 



2. Drift (alluvium) - 8 



3. Gravel 27 



4. Blue clay 30 



5. Quicksand 325 



6. Gravel 75 



Distance to rock - 475 



The rock surface is therefore about 600 feet above tide and only 27 

 feet above the surface of Lake Erie. Putnam also reports a well made by 

 Mr. Flood in the midst of the valley near the Meadville post-office which 

 has 182 feet of drift. No other wells have been reported from the midst 

 of the valley in Meadville, consequently the breadth of the deep portion 

 is not known. Possibly there was excessive cutting here, such as Carll 

 suggested for the Lottsville gorge (p. 454). 



At Cochranton a well at the creamery penetrated 155 feet of drift 

 without reaching rock. The altitude of the well mouth is 1,064 feet. The 

 following is the section as reported by the well driller: 



Section of well at Cochranton, Pa. 



Feet. 



1. Gravel and sand with some cobble and bowlderets 40 



2. Blue pebbly clay (till?) 105 



3. Gray and blue sands, with gravel at bottom of well 10 



Total depth 155 



N. R. Pressler, of Cochranton, states that an oil well boring 4 miles 

 below Cochranton, near the east side of the valley, on ground about 1,130 

 feet above tide, has 155 feet of drift, and another a few rods distant has 136 

 feet. From these wells a lowland tract connects toward the southeast 

 with Sugar Creek Valley below Coopei'town. This lowland or valley is 

 interpreted to be the old channel of the Middle Allegheny discharging to 

 the Lake Erie Basin, as shown in Chapter IIL 



About 4 miles northeast of Cochranton, in a small valley near Decker 

 Run post-office, a well penetrated 71 feet of drift and obtained a flow of 

 water from the rock at 78 feet. The drift in this well is nearly all gravel. 



In the lower part of French Creek Valley, for 4 or 5 miles above its 

 mouth, oil wells are very numerous, and so far as learned none of them 

 pass through more than 60 feet of drift. The rock floor is 950 to 975 feet 

 above tide, or 350 to 375 feet higher than it is 25 miles upstream at the 

 distillery well near Meadville, reported above. 



