IOWA ACADEMY OP SCIENCE 
141 
of abandoning the well. Finally an agreement was reached to clear the 
well to the bottom and place the foot of the casing at 1460 feet. The 
work of putting down the casing progressed rapidly and without diffi- 
culty, proving the practicability of sinking casings of such dimensions. 
Three short sections were lowered, and the final 600 feet were put 
down in one piece. The sections of tubing as they were received were 
screwed together with wrought iron couplings, so threaded that the 
cast iron sections came into contact. The long sections as they were 
lowered into the well, were connected by ground joints. 
The length of the casing has been given. Certain other facts that 
may be of interest are as follows: The diameter of the casing is 5% 
inches, and the weight 31 pounds* to the foot. The tubing was sup- 
plied as a special order by the United States Cast Iron Pipe and Foundry 
Company, 71 Broadway, New York, at a cost of $1,040, which is very 
little more than the cost of wrought iron tubing. 
It is to be regretted that the original contract could not be adhered 
to. A casing to the St. Peter sand-stone would have prevented possible 
caving of shale. From both the scientific and practical standpoints it 
would have been of much interest to know the quality of water drawn 
from the St. Peter and New Richmond sand-stones only, and to have 
known the capacity of those formations to supply water in this part of 
the state. The well has apparently shown no signs of exhaustion in the 
course of the ordinary pumping of the last few months. 
An analysis of the water shows that its mineral content is about the 
same as that of the water from well number (2) when in the best of con- 
dition ; that is, -about 900 parts per million. The best water analyzed 
from well number (3) contained about 1,100 parts per million. There 
is a tradition handed down from the date of drilling the first well that 
there is a flow of very highly mineralized water at about 1,550. If so, 
the water from well (4) would be contaminated by this hard water 
Mr. L. Nichols, in charge of the construction of well (4), discredits the 
existence of this flow. It is his opinion, rather, that there are small 
flows of water from point to point in the thick layers of limestone above 
the St. Peter, but that the whole is comparatively insignificant. If this 
opinion be correct it seems probable that the quality of the water now 
supplied by the well may not be very different from that of the com- 
bined waters of the St. Peter and New Richmond sand-stones at this 
point. 
