ADDITIONAL DATA 281 



The water found at 6,260 feet rises in the hole to a height of 4,000 

 feet, or to 2,299 feet below the top of the well. Its chemical composi- 

 tion is as follows, according to an analysis of a sample made by the 

 Pittsburgh Testing Laboratory— H. H. Graver, chief chemist : 



Specific gravity at 60° Fahrenheit 1 . 1085 



Oil Trace 



Parts per 100,000 



Alkalinity as calcium carbonate 5 . 50 



Calcium chloride 4,421 . 40 



Magnesium chloride 251 . 60 



Sodium chloride 5,018 . 20 



Sulphuric anhydride Trace 



Iron oxide Trace 



Sediment ( rock powder) 224 . 60 



Total solids 9,921 .30 



Total solids exclusive of pulverized rock sedi- 

 ment 9,696 . 70 



This analysis looks as though we had here a case of fossil ocean water 

 imprisoned since mid-Paleozoic time. An effort is being made to ex- 

 haust it by pumping, so that the well can be drilled to much greater 

 depths in search of the Clinton or Medina petroliferous beds, and pos- 

 sibly to the Trenton horizon, 1,000 feet lower. 



The immense quantity (239 feet) of sandstone at the horizon of the 

 Oriskany, which continues below the present depth, was unexpected at this 

 locality, but is duplicated at the Lehigh Elver, in Carbon County, Penn- 

 sylvania, as described in the writer's Eeport on Pike and Monroe coun- 

 ties, G6, of the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, page 124, 

 where the Stormville shales and sandstones at the top of the Lower Hel- 

 derberg series appear to have coalesced with the Oriskany beds, thus 

 forming one great mass of sandstone over 200 feet in thickness. Hence 

 it is possible that this 239 feet of sandstone may represent a portion of 

 the Lower Helderberg rocks, since a regular sandstone bed, the Deckers 

 Ferry sandstone of Monroe County, Pennsylvania/ 1 sometimes occurs 

 well down toward the base of this group of rocks. 



Mr. Pew and Mr. Barger will make every effort thai financial resources 

 and drilling talent can supply to sink this well to a depth of 8,000 feet. 

 thus making it the deepest well in the world and rendering available a 

 knowledge of the thickness and character of the underlying Paleozoic? 



■>-r 



'Report G6, Pike and Monroe counties, Second Geological survey of Pennsylvania, 

 page 140. 



