Luther — Geology of the Salt District. 



191 



The other well, known as the State well, was sunk at the expense of the 

 state. It is situated near the southeast end of the lake, and about a mile 

 southeast from the Gale well. Its surface elevation is 365 feet A. T. 



The record of this well, also published by Dr. Englehardt, is here 



condensed as follows : 



Clay, sand and gravel ..... 400 feet. 



Red shales - - - - - 178 - " 



Niagara and Clinton = 497 " 



Medina - - - - 830 " 



Bluish black slate and grey sandstone ; Hudson river - - 64 " 



1969 feet. 



Xo brine was found, except a little in the upper shales, nor gypsum 

 except in traces, and no rock salt. 



In 1888, the Solvay Process Company, of Syracuse, in its search for an 

 adequate and cheaper supply of salt for its very large manufactory of soda- 

 ash, began the sinking of a well at the south end of the valley of Onondaga 

 creek in the town of Tully, Onondaga county, about seventeen miles south of 

 Syracuse. 



This valley has an average width of little more than half a mile. The 

 sides are steep slopes, the adjacent hills rising toward the south end to the 

 height of 500 to 800 feet above the bottom, which has a descent toward the 

 north of twenty to twenty-five feet per mile. 



The first well was located near the middle of the valley, at the foot of an 

 immense mass of drift that fills the valley from side to side to the height of 

 nearly 400 feet. The top of this morainic filling is a rolling plain that extends 

 many miles southward through the southern extension of this ancient river 

 channel. 



After penetrating 400 feet of drift this well was abandoned, and another 

 begun one-fourth of a mile east, at the mouth of a small ravine. 



The surface elevation of the mouth of this well, now known as Well No. 1, 

 Group A, is 901 feet A. T. The geologic horizon is a little above the middle 

 of the Hamilton shales. 



The Corniferous limestone was reached at 718 feet, and at 1216 feet the 

 drill entered a bed of rock salt that proved to be 45 feet thick. The total 

 depth of the well was 1261 feet. 



In 1889, ten new wells were put down to the salt by the same company, 

 in 1890 ten more, and in 1891 nine more, all on the east side of the valley. 



