Artesian Water for Minneapolis. — Winchell. 277 
I am informed by Mr. McCarty, who has drilled many wells 
in the city of Minneapolis and in the surrounding country, and 
in St. Paul, that habitually water rises nearly or quite to the 
surface from below this shale. Air. Hogeland states that he 
has drilled more than 50 wells in the city which obtained abun- 
dant water from below this shale, the water rising nearly or 
quite to the surface. Mr. McCarty states, however, that al- 
though it is impossible to exhaust the water found in this under- 
lying sandstone, in case of hard pumping, the sand itself, which 
is incoherent, is apt to come with the water and injures the 
pumps. In order to obviate this difficulty he has resorted to an 
ingenious method of sinking the well into the underlying lime- 
stone (the Shakopee), which he finds is fissured and veined 
and so open that water usually flows freely into the bore hole. 
Such water is the same as in the sandstone above, and passes 
downward into the crevices of the limestone, which acts as 
a filter and abstracts the sand before it reaches the bore hole. 
This water-bearing stratum, lying below this shale, is substan- 
tially the same water as in the sandstone above the shale, but 
as a system of wells these should be kept distinct from those of 
the St. Peter sandstone already mentioned, held under hydro- 
static pressure by the brick clay. 
While, as already stated, the ground and the rocks underly- 
ing are permeated by water and often saturated, there should 
be made an important exception so far as Minneapolis is con- 
cerned. Not only is the drift itself drained sometimes very dry, 
by reason of the shedding of the surface waters by means of 
springs into lakes and streams, but the St. Peter sandstone it- 
self is in many places, especially in proximity to the river gorge 
below the falls of St. Anthony, found to be dry through its 
upper 25 to 30 feet. The dryness of the St. Peter sandstone 
of course has to be attributed to the action of the river gorge 
in draining the upper portion of the sandstone down to the level 
of the river, below the falls of St. Anthony. At some distance 
from the river gorge beyond the immediate action of the drain- 
age of the river this sandstone is filled with water. 
Objections. 
1 wish to consider now some objections that have been 
brought against the idea of deep well water for the city. 
