IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
63 
bed of several feet in thickness was passed through. In this 
gravel deposit well preserved bones were found. They were 
crushed into fragments by the drill, but a number of pieces, 
from one inch up to three inches long, were brought up in the 
wash. I saw these fragments about a week after they were 
discovered, and they had the appearance of having belonged to 
a living animal not longer ago than that time. Mr. Jennings, of 
New London, Iowa, who had charge of the drilling, told me 
that the bones had quite a fetid odor when first brought up. 
It was difficult to determine from what particular bones the 
fragments were, but I would place them as parts of the leg 
bones of some animal of slender build. Below the gravel bed 
the drill passed through a black deposit, which the well drillers 
call “sea mud,” and which rests directly upon the blue shale 
of the Kinderhook, 231 feet below the surface. 
A quarter of a mile north of the Aspelmeier well the rock 
bed is reached at a depth of less than thirty feet. It is the 
hard, compact limestone of the Upper Burlington. This shows 
a drop of over 200 feet in within a distance of 80 rods. 
Half a mile south of the Aspelmeier well, on the farm of 
Fred Timmerman, there is another deep well which reaches a 
depth of 184 feet without striking rock. The bottom of the well 
is in a gravel deposit, T7hich partakes of the nature of a forest 
bed. From it much woody matter was brought up. 
A half mile still further south, making a mile south from 
the Aspelmeier well there is still another deep well. It is on 
the place of H. C. Timmerman. It reaches a depth of 188 feet 
without striking rock. It likewise terminates in a gravel bed 
containing much woody matter. In the two Timmerman wells 
the water rises seventy-five feet. When last heard from the 
Aspelmeier well was not furnishing a satisfactory supply. 
These wells indicate an old channel of great depth, and of 
not less than a mile emd a quarter in width. The width is 
probably much greater. Mr. Frank Leverett suggests that 
this ancient river bed was the water outlet of part of the ter- 
ritory now drained by the Skunk river. 
