296 GEOLOGICAL EXCURSION TO THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. 



per diem, when first drilled. One well recently finished is even said t<» 

 rival the great. fountains of Baku. 



lloomdale. This village is in the center of the original dry gas tern 

 tory. The gas rock is struck at 1,065 feel (320 tn.) below the surface, 

 or 310 feet (93 m.) below tide. The wells in this immediate neighbor- 

 hood yielded, when the Held was fresh, between 3,000,000 and 4,000,000 

 cubic feet (80,000 to 1.00,000 en. m.) per diem. The original pressure 

 was 440 pounds to the square inch (29.3 atmospheres). The largest pus 

 wells of the field have produced uoi less than 30,000,000 oubic feel 



(800,000 m.) in twenty-four lionis, hut such Hows are short lived. 

 Wells of this character are invariably overtaken by oil or saltwater 

 within a tew days or weeks, if allowed to flow unrestrained. 



North Baltimore.- 1 - On the east side of the town dry pis was origi- 

 nally found, bul on the west side a peat oil field 1ms recent ly been 



developed. Hundreds of derricks can he, seen from the ears. In the 



Oil wells t lie Trenton limestone is struck at 1,190 feet (360 m.) below the 

 surface, or 460 feet (146 m.) below tide. Three miles further west, the 



Trenton limestone sinks to 600 feet (160 m.) and more below tide and 

 salt water occupies it every where, except in narrow ridges that are 

 sometimes found in which a little pis or oil is contained. 



These towns of the oil region all stand u])on lacustrine deposits 

 belonging to the period of the melting of the great ice sheet (('ham 

 plain). When the ice front occupied a position in the basin of Lake 

 Erie a large body of water was held between it and the uplands to the 

 south and west. At first this lake found outlet westward to Fort 

 Wayne, hid., but afterwards as the ice retreated further, other avenues 

 of escape were opened and flu- water level fell, recording its position at 

 different horizons by beaches. A beach line is crossed at Fostoria and 

 another near Defiance, and still another near Hicksville. These old 

 beaches, composed as they are largely of sand and limestone gravel, 

 give rise to light and warm soils and sometimes to soils of extreme 

 fertility. 



Defiance. 1 -' The Devonian hlack shale is found on the western 

 slope of the arch at this point, though generally concealed under heavy 

 beds of boulder (day. The eastern outcrops of the shale were left at 

 Chicago Junction. The drift beds seldom fall below KM) feet (30 m.) in 

 thickness in tins portion of the State, except in the river valleys, and 

 they often rise to 200 and 300 feet (00 and 90 m.) in thickness. One 

 section to the southward showed 530 feet (100 in.) of drift without 

 reaching bottom. 



Between Hicksville, Ohio, and St. Joe, Intl.." a narrow moraine line 

 is crossed. 



At Concord is a morainie line, perhaps to he regarded as a part of 

 that just east of St. Joe, separated from it by the valley of the St. 

 Josephs River. 



