346 aEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



eighty-five feet, and was six feet deep; the third sand-rock at five hun- 

 dred and eighty-five feet, and was nine feet thick. The red shale was 

 reached at five hundred and ninety-five feet. This well still flows oil, gas 

 and brine; the latter yielding two pounds and ten ounces of salt from 

 eleven quarts of water. 



Well No. 4, the " Buckingham Well," yields heavy green oil from the 

 thin sand-rock, which was struck at about five hundred and sixty feet, 

 and is eighty-eight feet thick. The record of this well was imperfectly 

 kept, and the red shale was not certainly located. Mr. Neff, in a supple- 

 mental report, puts it at six. hundred and twenty-eight feet. If this is 

 correct, there is a reverse dip here to the south-west from well No. 5 to 

 well No. 4, of twenty-eight feet. 



In well No. 5, the " Hard Well," the third sand-rock was struck at five 

 hundred and seventy-five feet, and was ten feet thick, yielding gas, oil, 

 and water, which still flow from the top of the tube, about eight gal- 

 lons of oil per day. The red shale was reached at five hundred and eighty 

 feet. If the record of the well is correct, the inter?al between the top 

 of the red shale and the top of the Huron is sixty-two feet less than at 

 well No. 8 or No. 6. 



These borings develop the following interesting facts : 



The surface disturbance is much in excess of that of the deeply buried 

 strata, is therefore in part superficial, and covered by the undermining 

 of the surface, as suggested above. 



There is a deep seated disturbance involving all the rocks down to and 

 including the Huron shale, which is the great oil-producing rock, so that 

 the dip of the strata is substantially northeast. Eastward the silicioiis 

 rocks gradually give place to argillaceous shales, the coarse sandstones 

 becoming thin or disappearing altogether. In the opposite direction, or 

 westward, the materials are coarser, and the sand-rocks thicker. 



On the eastern margin of the territory explored by boring, gas pre- 

 dominates, and at well No. 2 has flowed for t-n years with a continuous 

 pressure of about one hundred and eighty pounds to the inch. Westward, 

 petroleum is more abundant. The oil is thus far nearly all found in the 

 sand-rock directly above the red shales. 



The water obtained above the second sand-rock and that below the red 

 shale is fresh ; that between the second sand-rock and the red shale is 

 salt, and affords a suggestion as to the probable source of the coloring 

 material in the red shale — iron deposited by the salt water. 



The results obtained suggest further explorations in the south-eastern 

 part of the district for gas, and in the western part for oil. With the 

 new uses developed for natural gas, it is diflScult to decide _which would 

 be the more valuable. 



