98 
GEOLOGY OF THE FIRST DISTRICT. 
Ballston Springs. 
The water of the Ballston springs rises from a bed of quicksand, beneath the bed of clay 
filled with pebbles, boulders and gravel, and which is comm only, called “ hardpan.” This 
sand bed is supposed to rest on the fucoidal or graptolitic slate, (and this slate is seen in 
place at a very short distance.) The water is acidulous, and more or less sparkling. The 
proprietors of these springs have difficulties that have thus far proved insurmountable. The 
mineral water rising through a bed of quicksand, carries much of this sand along with it, and 
this packs so tight in the tubes as to obstruct the free flow, and frequently causes it to break 
out elsewhere. The springs are thus lost. Springs of fresh water also frequently break into 
the wells, and dilute the mineral qualities of the water. This last may be obviated by tubing 
down the springs to some little depth below the issue of the fresh water, as they do in salt 
wells; but the tube would probably become so tightly packed with sand as to obstruct the 
flow. It is probable that the mineral qualities of the water originate at the contact of the 
fucoidal slate with the underlying trenton limestone, which is probably not more than fifty feet 
below the level of the valley at the springs. If this be true, (and it is thought highly probable,) 
mineral water may probably be obtained in a permanent fountain, and free from the difficul¬ 
ties the proprietors now labor under, hy boring into the slate rock (at some suitable point, at 
as low a level as practicable,) until they strike the limestone below. Water impregnated with 
carbonic acid would probably rise from this junction, and perhaps before, if the drill should 
strike a seam or joint of the slate. It is necess.ary to select a point where the slate rock can 
be uncovered at as low a level as practicable, else the water might not rise high enough to over¬ 
flow at the surface, which is always desirable. 
A well was dug at Ballston-Spa, near the creek, during the spring or winter of 1840 ; and 
after digging some thirty or forty feet through the hard aggregate of clay, gravel, pebbles and 
boulders, the man in the well struck his crowbar down while digging, and it nearly slipped 
from his hand, striking through into a softer material. The bottom of the well is described 
as then swelling up and bursting, with a torrent of water following, so that it was with diffi¬ 
culty the man escaped from the pit. A stream sufficient to drive a mill continued to flow 
from the well from that time until the period of my visit in June. The water was slightly 
acidulous, and seemed to be a mixture of the mineral water of this vicinity with fresh unim¬ 
pregnated water. 
Should it be deemed advisable to bore for water at Ballston-Spa, I would advise the boring 
to be carried even into the calciferous sandstone, if water should not be obtained before; for 
the source of the mineral qualities may lie deeper than the junction of the trenton limestone 
with the slate. At Saratoga, the source of the water is supposed to be in the limestone ; and 
this limestone, which is the lower portion of the Mohawk, or upper part of the calciferous 
sandstone, must lie at a depth of one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet at Ballston. I 
would not strongly recommend such a boring, as it might very possibly penetrate even below 
the level of the source of the mineral qualities, without striking any seam or fissure through 
