PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
NATURAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION 
OF STATEN 
Vou. VII. No. 8. 
The regular meeting of the Association 
was held at the residence of Mr. J. B. 
‘Hillyer, West New Brighton. 
In the absence of the President Mr. 
Hillyer was elected chairman pro tem. 
Dr. Arthur Hollick gave the following 
NOTES ON DEEP WELLS, AT PR'NCE’S BAY 
AND HUGUENOT. 
We are all familiar with the fact that 
Cretaceous strata outcrop at the surface in 
the vicinity of Kreischerville and that 
theoretically they underlie the whole of 
the plain region south of the serpe:tine 
ridge and the Fresh Kills marshes, but 
they are everywhere so covered with 
superficial deposits that, except in the 
Kreischerville region, we know but little 
in regard to them. 
Recently, however, I reccived from Mr. 
A.W. Johnston, of Prince’s Bay, a sample 
of fine micaceous, sandy clay, identical 
with the ‘‘kaolin’”’ of Kreischerville, which 
was obtained at a depth of about 130 feet, 
in a test well driven near the S S. White 
Dental Works, in 1886. Following is the 
record, kindly sent at my request: 
Surface, 4 ft. above tide level. 
sand, 16 ft. . 16 ft. 
Coarse sand and gravel, (water brackish, 
flow good), 15 ft a 
Soft mud, 25 ft. fs 
Coarse saud and gravel, (water salt), 14 ft.| 70 ‘ 
Mud, 50 ft. T2720". 
Fine sand, r ft. , rar \ 
Hard pan and gravel, 3 ft. 124 “* 
Fine white sand [‘‘kaolin’’], (no water), : 
147 “ 
23 ft. 
Clay at t ottom 
On May 30th I visited the new resort 
at Arbutus Lake and found a well being 
driven, on the strip of beach between the 
lakeand thesalt water. Atthe timeofmy 
visit a depth of about 220 ft. had been 
reached and samples of the material 
pumped out from that level showed 
ISLAND. 
JUNE roth, 1899. 
“‘kaolin’’ similar to that from Prince’s 
Bay. No water had been struck. 
These and the strata below them are un- 
questionably the equivalents of those in 
New Jersey, where the depth at which 
water-bearing strata may be found in any 
locality can be predicted with reasonable 
accuracy, and there is but little question 
that a careful study of and calculation 
from the facts now in our possession 
would result in at least an approximate 
location of the depth at which certain of 
these strata should be found on Staten 
Island. It may be incidentally men- 
tioned in this connection that two calcu- 
lations for the region near Prince’s Bay, 
each based upon a different series of f. cts, 
gave 280 ft. and 312 ft. respectively, as 
the probable depth at which a recognized 
water bearing stratum should be struck. 
This 1s not only a matter of concern to 
those who are interested in !he two wells 
in question, but it is of far-reaching im- 
portance in connection with the future 
water supply of all Staten Island, as there 
is no doubt that we must sooner or later 
abandon our present superficial sources 
and depend upon deep wells in the coastal 
plain region. 
lor those who may be interested in the 
subject a comprehensive avd exhaustive 
discussion may be found in NH, Dar- 
ton’s ‘‘Aitesian Well Prospects in the 
Atlantic Coastal Plain Region’’ (Bull. U. 
S. Geol. Surv. No. 138.) 
Reports by Lewis Woolman, on artesian 
wells, may also be found in the annual 
reports of the New Jersey Geological Sur- 
vey for 1895-1897. 
On motion the Association adjourned 
until the second Saturday in September, 
