402 GEOLOGY OF OHIO. 



easily burned. The quarries which have been opened in it have not 

 been systematically prosecuted, a fact which has served not only to re- 

 duce the derivable income, but also to discourage others from similar in^ 

 dustry. Where the overlying Waterlime occurs in thick beds it could 

 be profitably worked, but there are no considerable openings in such 

 beds within the county. The formation is chiefly wrought in its thinner, 

 blue layers, owing to the evenness of the stone, and, the ease with which 

 it can be obtained. Much of this kind of stone is used for nagging at 

 Lima, Bluffton, and Delphos. Some of the best quarries are located at 

 Lima, and afford also a handsome stone for walls and foundations. The 

 quicklime made from the Waterlime at Lima not only supplies the 

 local demand, but is used in the surrounding country. The product of a 

 single firm, Delzall and Overmeyer, amounts to about twenty thousand 

 bushels per year. Other kilns would increase the annual product of 

 quicklime to at least thirty-five thousand bushels. In the summer of 

 1871 the retail price per bushel was twenty-five cents. In wholesale 

 amounts the price of lime delivered on the cars was twenty-two cents 

 per bushel. In the eastern part of the county gravel for roads and 

 sand for mortar are not uncommon in the knolls and short ridges of the 

 rolling tracts. Clay, also, suitable for red brick and pottery, is abundant 

 in all parts of the county. There are, probably, but few square miles, if 

 any, within the county from which good brick could not be manufac- 

 tured — a statement which is equally applicable to most of the Fourth 

 District of the State. Brick-yards are met with at the following points, 

 the clay being taken from surface of Drift : 



S. E. J section 24, Marion township, Richard Evans ; Beaver Dam, sec- 

 tion 29, Richland township, Rich and Lewis ; Bluffton, Dr. H. P. Eaton ; 

 Bluffton, Lewis and Baker; Lima, John P. Haller; Lima, Lewis Gott- 

 fried ; Delphos, Joseph Fetter. 



Wells and Springs. — Wells for domestic and farm-yard purposes usually 

 find water in the Drift deposit. Such water most frequently springs 

 from the gravel or sand reservoirs embraced within the Drift, or lying 

 between the hard-pan and the rock. In the eastern portion of the 

 ■ county, in rolling or undulating areas, such gravel deposits are usually 

 met before penetrating to the bottom of the Drift ; but in the western 

 part, where the country is flat, the only gravel bed which supplies water 

 seems to be on or near the bed-rock. Wells, however, on the Van Wert 

 Ridge, in the northern part of Marion township, reach good water at ten 

 or twenty feet, in gravel which lies above the great mass of the Drift. 

 A short distance either side of this ridge wells have to be dug much 

 deeper. 



