R. S. Bassler — Deep Well at Waverly, Ohio. 19 



Art. II. — The Stratigraphy of a Deep Well at Waverly, 

 Ohio ; * by R. S. Bassler. 



Some months ago, in the course of routine work at the 

 National Museum, the writer had occasion to identify a num- 

 ber of characteristic Eden fossils from a set of photographs 

 sent for determination by Mr. Peru Hutt, of Waverly, Ohio. 

 The occurrence of this fauna at Waverly, in a region of Missis- 

 sipian strata more than 60 miles from the nearest outcrops of 

 the Eden formation, led to a correspondence with Mr. Hutt, in 

 which it was learned that the originals of the photographs had 

 been obtained from a deep well drilled for oil at that place. 

 Mr. Hutt had carefully saved enough samples from all of the 

 material resulting from the boring to prepare two very detailed 

 logs, which he was kind enough to forward for study. He is 

 to be commended for his zeal in the matter, for, without his 

 care, the following determinations, which are believed to be of 

 some interest, concerning the underground stratigraphy could 

 not have been made with any degree of accuracy. 



The notes resulting from the study of the two series of sam- 

 ples were discussed with Dr. E. 0. Ulrich at the time, and then 

 set aside for future reference. Later the suhject was mentioned 

 by Dr. Ulrich to Professor Schuchert, who, in turn, deemed the 

 section of sufficient importance to request a short article tipon 

 it for this Journal. 



The well was drilled to a depth of 3,320 feet. The upper 

 1,100 feet were cased, so that the samples from this portion 

 were little mixed and afforded an accurate idea of the various 

 formations penetrated. The lower 2,220 feet, however, were 

 left open, and the samples from this part required more careful 

 study. Still, this latter portion was not difficult to decipher, 

 since the predominating foreign material in the lowest samples 

 was the blue limestone and shale of the Cincinnati group, 

 which had fallen from above, and which, on account of litho- 

 logic characters totally different from those of the white mag- 

 nesian limestone and sandstone of the lower formations, could 

 easily be eliminated. 



Instead of giving a detailed description of each of the many 

 samples, the results of the study are arranged below in the 

 form of a geologic section. Drilling commenced at a point 

 100 feet below the top of the sandstone quarries of the town, 

 and the first 35 feet of the well passed through the lower por- 

 tion of this sandstone. Then in descending order came the 

 black Ohio shale, the limestones and sandstones of Devonian 

 and Silurian ages, a good representation of the various Cincin- 



* Published by permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



