WAVERLY GROUP. 8 1 



certain species of fossils for itself or more abundant than in others, 

 nearly all as casts, but sometimes with the shell, with all its delicate 

 surface decorations, most perfectly preserved. Other exposures 

 of the Waverly sandstone are near Homer, and near Condit 

 Station, south of Albion. At the latter place a quarry is opened 

 in a sand rock exactly similar to the Napoleon sandstone, and like 

 it perfectly destitute of fossils. The beds of the quarry amount to 

 about 20 feet ; below them are a bluish-colored micaceous sandstone 

 alternating with shale beds, and from this seam issue copious springs. 

 Besides that afforded by the superficial outcrops of the district, 

 something is added to our knowledge of its geological structure by 

 deep artesian borings. In the Court-house square of Hillsdale two 

 artesian wells have been drilled, one to the depth of 1350 feet, 

 and another to that of 1550. No register of the borings was kept ; 

 however, from some attentive citizens, who watched the progress 

 of the boring, I have received the following general statements, 

 drawn from memory : Under a cover of several feet of drift, a 

 soft, thinly laminated, micaceous, bluish sand rock, 20 feet in 

 thickness, was first penetrated ; under it, to a depth of 1120 feet, 

 the principal rock found was shale of bluish color, interlaminated 

 with arenaceous seams, and sometimes with harder ledges, be- 

 lieved to be of calcareous nature ; the color of the shales became 

 dark bituminous in the lower portion of the section. Next to the 

 shale a hard, red-colored rock containing much iron pyrites was 

 found, and the water was strongly saline. In the deeper of 

 the two borings, below the hard red rock, a white limestone 50 

 feet in thickness was penetrated, and below it a softer, likewise 

 calcareous rock continued downward as far as the drilling went. 

 The lime rock in the bottom part of the drill hole very probably 

 represents the Helderberg limestone, which, according to the 

 record, is in that locality about 1400 feet below the surface. The 

 dark bituminous shales above, equivalent to the black shales, can 

 not be distinguished from the incumbent shales of the Waverly 

 group, but we can see the considerable aggregate thickness of 

 these formations. 



In the city of Albion, several borings were made to a depth of 300 



or 400 feet. Near the flour mill at Albion, a flowing well of slightly 



mineral, palatable drinking-water was opened by boring to a depth of 



281 feet, all through solid sand rock, with the exception of 10 feet of 



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