1890 .] 
429 
[Wright. 
machinery we had a fishing tool with jars and the party drilling 
the well welded a piece of sharp, broad iron on the bottom of it 
which he used only when in the clay. The sand pump with the 
coupling at the top is a little over five inches in the chamber. The 
sand pump proper is 4^- inches on the outside and the valve is 
about 3± inches on the inside. Anything put in from the top 
would have floated on top of the water and been ground to powder 
by the action of the sand pump. If there is an} r way to remove 
the implied doubt in your letter as to the genuineness of the im- 
age please inform me. You can have the affidavits of the only four 
persons present, any time you may think them necessary. 
The obstruction noted in your comments in the lower part of the 
. valley are not difficult to trace, and a gentleman of some scien- 
tific information and well informed as to this country made a state- 
ment to me several months ago that this wash or fill in the valley 
had occurred since the Spanish conquest of Mexico and that it was 
a matter of record. 
Hoping to hear from you again, I am, 
Yours very truly, 
M. A. Kurtz. 
In order to get information in regard to the geological horizon 
of the beds from which the image was taken I made inquiries of 
Prof. S. F. Emmons and received the following repty. 
Department of the Interior , 
United States Geological Survey. 
Washington , D. (7., Oct. 21, 1889. 
Prof. GL F. Wright. 
Dear Sir : 
reply to your letter of Oct. 9, asking information with 
regard to the geological horizon of the beds, from which the image 
from Nampa, Idaho, is said to have been obtained, has been de- 
layed from day to day in the hopes that I might obtain additional 
information either by records or personal communications from 
fellow geologists that would supplement the rather meagre data 
which I myself possess. As I have as yet been unable to obtain 
any further knowledge on the subject, I must needs content my- 
self with tiie surmises I was able to make during a visit of a few 
