REPORT ON DUPONT'S ARTESIAN WELL AT 

 LOUISVILLE. 



This work was commenced in April, 1857, from the bottom 

 of a well that had a depth of twenty feet; the boring tools 

 employed made a hole five inches in diameter to the depth 

 of seventy-six feet from the surface ; the boring was now re- 

 duced to three inches, and thus continued to the bottom of the 

 well. The depth of well is two thousand and eighty-six feet, 

 flow of water three hundred and thirty-thousand gallons in 

 twenty-four hours, rise above the surface one hundred and 

 seventy feet. 



The rock struck, which geologically belongs to the Devonian 

 series, is for thirty-eight feet shell limestone, then for forty 

 feet coralline limestone, at which depth the Upper Silurian is 

 reached. Without being able to make out with any degree 

 of certainty the amount of Upper Silurian passed through, we 

 suppose it to be over twelve hundred feet. At the depth of 

 sixteen hundred feet a sandstone was reached, doubtless of the 

 Lower Silurian, and ninety-seven feet deeper was encountered 

 the first stream of water which reached the surface. This 

 flowed out abundantly and with much force. The quantity 

 not being sufficient, the boring was continued. After this it 

 was unnecessary to use the bucket to take out the material 

 detached by the borer, the force of the water bringing up the 

 fragments very readily. The water increased in quantity in 

 going deeper, the increase being more -marked at eighteen 

 hundred and seventy-nine feet, and still more at nineteen 

 hundred feet, where pieces of rock weighing an ounce or two 

 came up with the water. The water increased every ten or 

 twenty feet to the depth of two thousand and thirty-six feet; 

 here a very hard magnesian limestone was encountered six feet 

 in thickness, after which the sandstone re-appeared, and for the 

 next fifty feet there was no increase of water. 



The following table exhibits the series of rock as far as it 



