PAKTON.l NEW YORK. 37 
determined the southeastern limits of the water-bearing beds. They 
did not, however, test the availability of the still deeper horizons. 
Long Island is a great reservoir of water, for the rain falling on its 
porous surface sinks in large proportion into the sands and spreads 
widely under the clay, and unless there is subterranean outflow into 
the ocean it should be expected to accumulate in large volumes in every 
porous stratum down to the rock bed. The flow-off' is not so large as 
in many other regions, for the drift materials are sufficiently porous to 
hold much of the waters. There are no large surface streams on the 
island, and the small ones never experience any noteworthy freshets. 
The volume of water falling on the island, of which the area in round 
numbers is about 1,200 square miles, is nearly 2,200,000,000 gallons a 
day. Of this, from 50 to GO per cent runs off, and some more is lost by 
evaporation, but it may be quite safely estimated that 500,000,000 gal- 
lons a day pass underground. This is an average for the year, and is 
based on a 40-inch rainfall, which has been the average for the Brook- 
lyn region of readings extending over a half century. 
STATEN ISLAND. 
The southern and eastern portions of this island are underlain by 
Cretaceous sands and clays, which are overlain by a greater or less 
amount of glacial drift. In the northern section of the island the 
crystalline rocks, mainly serpentine, rise in high hills, and on the north- 
western side there are Newark red shales and sandstones with a large 
intruded trap sheet. The Cretaceous beds lie on a floor of the crystal- 
line rocks, but the depth to this floor has not been ascertained. The 
sands offer favorable conditions and relations for the transmission of 
underground waters, but I have learned of no deep wells to them. 
Several wells have been bored in the crystalline rocks on the northern 
end of the island, which yield water, and large supplies are obtained 
from wells in drift formations in that region. 
Mr. H. Kies 1 reports a boring at Bachman's brewery in Annadale, 
Staten Island, in which at a depth of 200 feet a bed of yellow gravel, 
containing shells, was penetrated and found to be 36 feet thick. It is 
underlain by a 10-foot bed of whitish or bluish clay. 
A well at Kreischerville is reported to have been sunk to a depth of 
196 feet without finding water. The following record is given : 2 
Feet. 
0-4 gravel. 
4-40 sand. 
40-61 white clay. 
61-91 white sand. 
91-101 bine clay. 
101-191 fine, white sand. 
191-194 sandstone-(l)lack). 
194-196 quicksand. 
1 Clay industries of New York, Bull. N. Y. State Museum, Vol. Ill, No. 12, p. 135, 
Albany, 1895. 
2 New Jersey report for 1895, p. 90. 
