June 24, 1887.] 



SCIEWCE. 



623 



Well drilled for gas at Oxford, O. 



The accompanying cut represents a section of the 

 (strata passed through in a well recently bored in 

 Oxford, 0., for the purpose of finding oil or natural 

 gas. A very full series of samples, eighty-seven in 

 number, was saved as the drilling proceeded, and by 

 their means it is possible to give an accurate account 

 of the strata passed through. The drill penetrated 

 the soil and drift to a depth of from forty to fifty 

 feet. Immediately below, the bed-rock was struck. 

 This consisted of layers of solid blue limestone, in- 

 terstratified with beds of indurated clay or shale at 

 various depths. The rock came up generally in 



BaseofCin'ti.Group. 



SECTION OF STRATA PENETRATED BY THE OXPOKD GAS AND 

 OIL COMPANY'S WELL. 



small, angular fragments, often of the size of peas, 

 sometimes larger, but always recognizable as the 

 true blue limestone of the Cincinnati group. At a 

 depth of 302 feet a small vein of gas was struck. 

 When lighted, the flame was ten or twelve feet 

 high, but it soon went out, accumulating in small 

 quantities, and being lighted from time to time after- 

 wards. 



The limestone continued to the depth of 400 feet, 

 and was succeeded by a bed of exceedingly compact, 

 blue shale. This showed no change in character for 

 380 feet, and it seems to be the equivalent of the 

 Eden shales of the Ohio geological survey. Below 



this, and at a depth of about 780 feet, there was 

 struck a stratum of hard, dark, almost black lime- 

 stone, which was penetrated but slowly, the drill 

 making only three feet in two and one-quarter hours. 

 The fragments came to the surface very finely ground 

 up, the pieces seldom as large as wheat-grains. This 

 rock continued for a depth of fifty feet, and it marks 

 the dividing-line between the Cincinnati group and 

 the Trenton. This is the only stratum which can be 

 referred to the Utica slate ; and, if it is this, it is 250 

 feet less in thickness than at Findlay and other places. 

 The rock immediately below this stratum, reached 

 at 830 feet, is a whitish limestone, evidently foreign 

 to the surface of Ohio. It may be the equivalent of 

 the bird's-eye limestone of New York, as certain 

 specimens show the ' bird's-eye ' feature with greater 

 or less distinctness. The rock was much the same, 

 whitish, and containing appreciable quantities of 

 magnesia, down to 1,100 feet. Here it became darker, 

 was more compact, and this continued to 1,280 feet, 

 being alternately lighter and darker in bands. Be- 

 low 1,280 feet there came another decided change. 

 It was a change from very light to very dark lime- 

 stone, coarser, with at times a greenish, then a blu- 

 ish tinge. Some samples had a strong smell of oil, 

 and this could also be readily seen floating on the 

 water. It was also magnesian. This possibly repre- 

 sents the Chazy of New York. At 1,325 feet the 

 drillings were coarse, blue and white, and argil- 

 laceous. At 1,330 it was a coarse white rock, but 

 arenaceous ; so much so, that the drillers said 

 ' sand ! ' Each successive drilling, at 1,340, 1,345, 

 1,350, 1,355, 1,360, 1,365, was finer than before ; and 

 when the last depth had been reached, and the drill 

 was withdrawn for pumping, the rope showed the 

 presence of water in what had previously been a dry 

 hole. Soon a strong smell of sulphuretted hydrogen 

 told the story that sulphur-water had been struck, 

 and the drilling was at an end. The last forty feet 

 passed through is in all likelihood the upper portion 

 of the calciferous sand-rock of New York. 



The following table represents the formations 

 passed through in the well, with their respective 

 thicknesses : — 



Drift 40 feet. 



Cincinuati group 790 " 



Trenton 495 " 



Calciferous 40 " 



Total 1,365 feet. 



Jos. F. James. 

 Oxford, O., June 6. 



Another muscle in birds of taxonomic value. 



Whatever laborers in ornithotomy in past times 

 may have done, it is certainly chiefly due to the late 

 and talented British anatomist, Garrod, that certain 

 muscles, and groups of muscles, found to be present 

 or absent in natural divisions of birds, were pressed 

 into service with telling effect in the taxonomy of the 

 class. 



There are three principal muscles in the jjectoral 

 limb of a bird, or rather in one that possesses them 

 all, which Garrod, by dwelling upon their modifica- 

 tions, their constancy, their various modes of origin 

 and insertion, throughout the group, brought into 

 classificatory play : these are the tensor patagii 

 longus, the tensor patagii brevis, and the ' bicipital 

 slip to the patagium.' He referred to no others 

 especially, in this patagial region, and these three 

 are now sufficiently well known to anatomists to ob- 



