VAN WEKT COUNTY. 319 



it contains the common hard-pan Drift only, the same as that which pre- 

 vails on either side of the ridge. This occurs in some wells at Van 

 Wert. Water of excellent quality for domestic use is almost invariably 

 found in penetrating the gr.avel of the ridge, and occasionally an artesian 

 well is obtained, having a depth of but few feet. Such are usually on 

 the northward slope. The underlying hard-pan clay being impervious 

 to water, and the ridge lying in a slight depression of its surface, the 

 water of surface drainage naturally gathers in the trough, and is held as 

 in a reservoir by the gravel, by which it is also filtered and cleansed from 

 impurities injurious to health, while it is apt to take up the salts of the 

 protoxide of iron. Capillary attraction also serves to hold the water 

 within the gravel, thus preventing it from completely draining off at 

 the low places, or into the streams that intersect it. If wells find no 

 water in this gravel, they are necessarily sunk below the hard-pan ; and 

 at Van Wert a second water-bearing stratum of sand and gravel is found 

 lying on the bed-rock. From this a number of artesian wells are derived. 

 Their head and source must be several miles further south, the descent 

 being to the north, and the county being very flat. The confining stra- 

 tum is the hard-pan Drift. In west Delphos wells are shallow. Some 

 are in gravel, probably penetrating the Van Wert ridge. Such are eleven 

 or twelve feet deep. Others are fifteen to eighteen feet, striking the 

 rock. At Middlepoint, and southward, in Washington and Jennings 

 townships, wells are twenty to twenty-five feet deep, frequently going to 

 the rock. At Van Wert, in the central part of the city, some of the cel- 

 lars which are dug in the gravel of the ridge have springs of good water. 

 One man walled his well by inserting two flour barrels. The following 

 is a record of a well drilled by the city corporation, at Van Wert, reported 

 by Mayor Geo. C. Wells : 



Soil : U ft. 



Subsoil .' 2J " 



Yellowish-brown clay ; traces of iron and sand 11 " 



Dark, bluish-gray sand 2 



Sky-blue clay, little or no stone, including two inches of gravelly 



hard-pan •■• 5 



Bowlders and gravel, with water which rose to within fifteen or 



eighteen inches of the surface 9 



Limestone 1 



Waxy, light-blue clay 5 



Crystalline, compact or slightly porous, dark-drab limestone, ap- 

 pearing a little granular 22 " 



Fine-grained drab waterlime, very hard drilling 28 " 



Blue clay, very waxy ; light blue 6 " 



