A7'tesian Wells in Kansas. — Hay. 297 
•dred and eighty feet 3'ield a good water suitable for domestic 
purposes in quantities varying from three or four gallons per 
minute to over sixty. The largest yields 66 gallons per min- 
ute and on another farm there are three Avells with an aggre- 
gate flow of 98 gallons. Some, but not nearly half, of the 
water of this district is used for irrigation and two of the pro- 
prietors turn it into carp ponds. This water is obtained from 
debris of the miocene grit probably broken up in pliocene 
time and covered by a light blue impervious clay. The grit 
outcrops on the edges of neighboring high prairie ; the wells 
are all in the valley, so the source and course of the water 
are easily determined. 
The wells in Hamilton, Meade, and Pawnee counties owe 
their waters and their force to the usual causes of artesian 
flowage. These are, the not very distant outcrop of porous 
strata catching the rainfall of a considerable area, the dip of 
these porous strata towards the wells and the overlying and 
underlying impervious beds of clay or clay shales. These 
conditions are illustrated in the diagram. (See page 298.) 
The cause of the flow may be called hydrostatic pressure. 
The artesian flow at Mound Valley in Labette county is a 
remarkable example of another force. The well was bored for 
gas or coal. Water was encountered at two places in the 
first hundred feet and a small quantity of gas at 203 feet. At 
277 feet there was a copious inflow of strong brine which rose 
some distance in the tube. At 449 feet there came a flow of 
gas so powerful that it lifted the column of water to the sur- 
face and maintained it as a flowing well. This example is a 
good one of gas pressure as an efficient cause of artesian 
flow. There are other wells in which this is a probable cause 
also, but not so certainly indicated as in this case. These 
might be called gas artesian, or in more direct reference to 
their cause gas pressure wells. 
There is besides the true artesia,n wells and those which we 
have called "gas artesian" another class of wells which have 
the artesian flow, but which do not seem to be accounted for 
by the principles illustrated in either of those groups. These 
wells have tAvo characteristics in common : they are <af(?e/) wells, 
and they have only a small iJow. There are doubtless some 
others but there are three which will serve to illustrate what 
we have to say. They are at St. Mary's and Wamego in Potta- 
