WATER RESOURCES. 133 
SUPPLY OF THE FARMING COMMUNITIES. 
The water supply of the farming communities in this quadrangle 
comes both from springs and wells. The springs are very numerous, 
and the topography is such that on the lower slopes of the hills they 
usually furnish plenty of water. In the valley bottoms and on the 
natter ridges and hilltops wells are more common, but in general it 
is not necessary to go very deep for water. In a number of wells 
drilled for oil or gas which have failed to produce or run dry, the 
upper part has been subsequently transformed into a water well and 
pumped by hand or with a windmill. There are few windmills in the 
quadrangle, as they are generally unnecessary. 
WATER-BEARING HORIZONS. 
Few data are at hand regarding water-bearing strata, for the rea- 
son that the water wells in this quadrangle are, as a rule, too shallow 
to permit general interpretations of this nature, and of the oil and gas 
wells only about twenty record any water horizons. 
The principal water-bearing bed recognized by the drillers is the 
Pottsville formation. For the reason that it contains much salt 
water, it has been named the "salt sand." By some persons it has 
on this account been supposed to mark the depth of sea level, but it 
can be positively stated that the salt sand has no connection with 
the level of the sea. This sand in eastern Ohio was half a century ago 
the source of brine for the salt works which formed an important 
industry at that time. The water generally occurs somewhere near 
the middle of the salt sand, and may possibly occur in connection 
with the Mercer member, which in places forms a break in the sand. 
This supposition is purely hypothetical, however, and it is certainly 
not everywhere true, as in some cases the water occurs near the top 
or bottom of the sand. 
The deeper oil and gas sands in this region are generally dry or very 
nearly so, so far as water is concerned, but where water is found at 
great depths in the wells it is almost uniformly salt. At shallow 
depths, on the other hand, down to several hundred feet, it is usually 
fresh. In several cases, notably in the M. Mounts well in North 
Franklin Township and in the Wherry No. 1 well in West Bethlehem 
Township, salt water is reported in the "Big Injun" sand of the 
Pocono formation. In the Mounts well the water filled the well to 
a depth of 30 feet. 
In general, it may be said that there is a possibility of salt water 
being encountered in any porous oil sand in the synclines. Where 
oil occurs it is lighter than the water and will rest on it, occurring far- 
ther up the flank of the anticline. 
Some of the most common occurrences of water are in coal beds. 
