THE 



JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY 



FEBRUARY-MARCH, 1904 



ARTESIAN WELL SECTIONS AT ITHACA, N, Y/ 



THE WELLS. ^ 



During the typhoid epidemic at Ithaca, N. Y., in 1903, a com- 

 mittee of citizens began explorations for a source of artesian 

 water to replace the surface supply then in use. This work was 

 continued by the Ithaca water board, and the result was the sink- 

 ing of thirteen wells in a limited area on the southern outskirts 

 of the city. Prior to this an artesian well had been developed 

 in the same area, yielding a daily flow of about 300,000 gallons 

 from a series of Pleistocene gravels at a depth of about 280 feet. 

 A majority of the new wells found water in what appear to be 

 the same gravels; others failed to develop water. 



Besides these deep wells, there are a large number of shal- 

 lower ones in the city of Ithaca which obtain artesian water in a 

 gravel series found at depths usually from 50 to lOO feet. 



'Published by permission of the Director of the United States Geological Survey. 



I am indebted for valuable assistance in the preparation of this paper to the fol- 

 lowing gentlemen : Mr. C. C. Vermeule, engineer in charge of the boring of the wells, 

 for directing that samples be preserved for me ; Mr. F. L. Getman, his assistant, for 

 collecting the samples and for other valuable information; Mr. Lawrence Martin, of 

 Cornell University, for aid in gathering information, and in consideration of the nature 

 of the well sections; Dr. G. K. Gilbert, for placing at my disposal certain facts from 

 his notebooks bearing upon the question of tilting of the land in central New York ; 

 Dr. William H. Dall, for identifying the mollusca ; and Professor D. P. Penhallow, 

 for identifying the plant remains. 



^A more detailed statement of the bearing of this exploration on local water sup- 

 ply will be published by the U. S. Geological Survey. 

 Vol. XII, No. 2. 69 



