Gas Wells Near Letts, Iowa,.— Witter. 321 
to believe from these tests that the water contained a carbonate 
and some compound containing iron in solution. 
At a depth of 18 or 20 feet, water has generally been found in 
this locality, but the supply is variable. Mr. Robt. Lee has a 
well which he dug several years ago, the water of which was ex- 
cellent and in good quantity. This well is about 18 feet deep and 
carefully walled. Last summer he bored for water about 100 feet 
from this well. At a depth of a little more than 100 feet he 
found a little gas issuing at irregular intervals. Immediately 
after the appearance of the gas the water in the shallow well 
became muddy and unfit for use, and has remained so, though 
the water seems to be much worse at times, which are irreg- 
ular. 
It seems to me that the gas rises outside of the casing to the 
porous bed holding the water of the shallow well, and passes 
through this to the well and injures the water. 
The country in which these wells are located is comparatively 
level. Indications. are at hand everywhere of a boggy or peaty 
nature. There are but few low hills and no ravines of any note. 
The soil is a rich black loam, and the whole region is said to be 
destitute of the boulders so common in many parts of Lowa, and 
especially of Muscatine county. Mr. J. E. Lee stated that wells 
in this region had been sunk 280 feet, and no rock had been 
reached. 
The well in Muscatine county from which gas is used is 
on the farm of Mr. Jno. Idle, in Section 35, Township 76, Range 
4 W. j 
The farmers in the neighborhood of these gas wells are about 
to complete an arrangement to put down a_ well 2,000 to 
2,500 feet deep. This is to determine whether there is oil below 
the gas. 
It is my own impression that the gas comes from considerable 
beds of vegetable matter buried in this unusually heavy drift de- 
posit in this region. The area, it seems to me, which is thus un- 
derlaid, is 6 or 8 miles long, and perhaps 3 or 4 miles wide. 
I should expect to find the rocks here directly below the drift 
to be of the Devonian age. 
This locality is on the east side of the Cedar river. The near- 
est well to the Cedar is about two miles distant. No gas has yet 
been found on the west of the Cedar, 
