History of the Water Supply of the World / arranged in a comprehensive form from eminent authorities, containing a description of the various methods of water supply, pollution and purification of waters, and sanitary effects, with analyses of potable waters, also geology and water strata of Hamilton county, Ohio, statistics of the Ohio river, proposed water supply of Cincinnati.

by Thomas J. Bell

The succeeding articles, viz.:

1. The Geology of Hamilton County;
2. Our subterranean water resources and well-boring;
3. The adjacent water-sheds in Ohio;
4. Kirkwood’s survey for a water supply—1865;
5. The Ohio River;
6. Scowden’s survey for a water supply—1872;
7. Moore’s survey for a water supply—1882;

have been prepared expressly for the dissemination of that information bearing upon the proposed new water supply, that will be useful, as well as interesting, to the citizens of Cincinnati at this particular time. These subjects have their respective bearing on our water supply,—that of the geological structure being especially important, because we learn from it a more accurate knowledge of our subterranean resources; of the impossibility of infiltration of the Ohio River waters, and of the formation and availability of our water-sheds.

No. 1.
GEOLOGY.

(Arranged from the Ohio State Geological Reports, 1873.)

The rocks of Ohio are:

SYSTEM.	GROUP.	STRATA.			THICKNESS IN FEET.
		{	Delta sand.	}
Quaternary.	Drift.	{	Forest bed.	}	200
		{	Erie clay.	}
	Coal.	{	Upper coal measure.	}	—
		{	Barren “	}
	Measures.		Lower coal measure.		1,200
Carboniferous.	Conglomerate.		Conglomerate.		100
	Lower carb.		Chester limestone.		20
	Limestone.
	Waverly.	{	Cuyahoga shale.	}	—
		{	Berea grit.	}
	Group.	{	Bedford shale.	}	500
		{	Cleveland shale.	}
Devonian	Erie.		Erie shale.		400
	Huron.		Huron shale.		300
	Hamilton.		—		20
	Corniferous.	{	Sandusky limestone.	}	100
		{	Columbus “	}
	Oriskany.		Oriskany sandstone.		10
Upper Silurian.	Helderburg.		Water lime.		100
	Salina.		Salina shale.		40
	Niagara.	{	Hillsboro sandstone.	30 }	275
		{	Niagara limestone.	180 }
		{	Niagara shale.	60 }
		{	Dayton “	5 }
	Clinton.		—		50
	Medina.		—		20
Lower Silurian.	Cincinnati.	{	Lebanon beds.	}	1,000
		{	Eden shales.	}
		{	Mt. Pleasant beds.	}
	Calciferous.	{	Calciferous	}	475
		{	Sand rock.	}
	Potsdam.		Potsdam sandstone.		300

The oldest rocks are designated by Eozoic system, consisting of Laurentian and Huronian groups, and are metamorphic rocks underlying a broad belt in Canada, from Labrador to the Lake of the Woods, and thence to the Arctic Sea. It is computed that this group of strata attains a thickness of 47,000 feet in Canada.