JSotices oj Fossil Wood in Ohio. 105 



whole shafts. These were at various depths— some were more than 

 forty feet below the surface. 



Harp Peterson, half a mile north-east of Mr. Lon'g's, dug three 

 wells, in each of which, he found grape vines, and a stratum of soil, 

 or black mould four feet thick. In one of these he found lying across 

 the well, a tree nine inches in diameter, which he supposed to be 

 pine or cedar. In conversation with him upon the subject, he re- 

 marked, " It is no great miracle, to find wood in digging wells here." 

 The place where these wells were dug, is near the top of a ridge, 

 from which the ground gradually descends, in every direction, for 

 about half a mile. The wood, in each, was found thirty feet below 

 the surface. 



William Slayback, in 1825, two miles and a half west of Spring- 

 field, found a tree twelve inches in diameter, lying horizontally, at the 

 depth of thirty-six feet ; and it being necessary to cut the tree, I have 

 obtained a piece sawed from one end of it, fourteen inches long and in 

 good preservation. It is now eight inches in diameter. In digging an- 

 other well a few rods from the former, he found several small pieces of 

 wood, at the depth of twenty-five feet. The farther digging of the 

 well he was compelled to. abandon, on account of the looseness of 

 the earth. 



William Bellas, about thirty rods from the preceding, on ground a 

 little higher, sunk two wells in 1827, in both of which he occasionally 

 found wood from seventeen to thirty-five feel below the surface. On 

 account of the looseness of the earth, he left digging when he had 

 come upon the top of a tree lying horizontally. He remarked to me, 

 that he had not known a well dug any where in his vicinity, without 

 finding wood. The wood was found in a bluish earth, mixed with 

 gravel, which continued, below seventeen feet to the depth of thirty- 

 five feet. 



Forty rods north of the preceding, wood was found in each of three 

 wells, at the depth of twenty feet, on the farm of Thomas Skillman. 

 The ground slopes all the distance from the site of Mr. Skillman's 

 wells, to that of Mr. Slaybach ; the distance is about forty rods, 

 and the descent about twenty feet, so that the wood of the former 

 was about even with the surface of the latter. What is more parti- 

 cularly worthy of remark, in relation to the three wells of Mr. Skill- 

 man, is, that they were dug upon the top of a ridge, and upon the 

 highest point of it, the ground sloping more gradually north and south, 

 and descending more abruptly east and west, and no higher ground 



Vol. XXV.— No. 1. 14 



