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

	GRAINS IN EACH GALLON.
Chloride of Sodium	33.21
Chloride of Calcium	4.20
Chloride of Magnesia	1.17
Sulphate of Lime	10.64
Carbonate of Lime	26.64
Carbonate of Magnesia	3.15
Oxide of Iron	12

The gas burnt out in a few days.

White Mills Distillery has four wells, from 4 to 6 inches in diameter, and 220 to 235 feet in depth, bored through, respectively, 50 feet of clay, 40 feet clay and quicksand, and balance soapstone or shale and limestone, where water was found in a crevice, highly charged with gas and very brackish.

The following wells secure their water from drift terraces:

OWNER.	LOCATION.	FORMATION.	DEPTH IN FEET.	TOTAL DEPTH IN FEET.	SIZE OF BORE IN INCHES.	REMARKS.
Hulsman	W. S. John,	Fill.	30
	near Lib’ty.	Blue clay.	}			Bored to the
		Quicksand.	} 131	161	4	rock.
		Gravel.	}
Windisch,	Brewery on	Sand.	}		4½	Driven to
Muhlhauser	the Canal	Quicksand.	}			the rock.
& Co.		Gravel.	}
		Sand.	}	180	4½
John Hauck	Brewery on	Quicksand, yellow.	}
	Dayton St.	“ blue.	}	170
Emery Hotel.	Vine St. bet.	Gravel.	46
	4th and 5th.	Blue Clay.	}			From the
		Black mud.	} 40			cellar.
		Quicksand.	}
		Gravel.	60	146	3
W. W. Johnson.	Sycamore &	Alluvial.	12
	Yeatman.	Gravel.	68	80	3½	To the rock.
City Infirmary.	Hartwell.	Black loam.	12
		Blue clay.	13½
		Blue clay mixed	} 6½
		with gravel.	}
		Bowlder gravel.	15
		Quicksand.	15			Also another
		Gravel.	29	92	3½	well 73 feet.

Upon the limestone lays the drift, consisting of water-worn pebbles, gravel, sand, and clay. The porous nature of this formation, with the assistance of a level surface plain, absorbs a very large percentage of the rain-fall, and produces a fertile subterranean water supply, whose depth varies from 30 to 200 feet.

There are in this vicinity about 250 wells that secure the water from this source. The water is strongly impregnated with iron and magnesia—a ferruginous decomposition from the fossil drift-wood found in this formation. The availability of these wells is in proportion to the capacity of the respective pumps attached to them, but their combined requirements have had no apparent effect, at present, on the source. Yet the fact can not be disputed, that this drift supply of water is a very limited one.

The practical experience in London and Liverpool substantiate the above fact, for there the underground sources have been materially lessened by the demands made upon them, notwithstanding they are the richest resources of this nature, and vastly superior to ours.

Prof. Orton, of the Ohio Agricultural College, in a valuable paper on the “Relations of Geology to the Water Supply of the Country,” refers to the purity of the drift water in the south-western part of the State. He says: “The broad and fertile terraces of the river valleys constitute, especially in the south-western corner of the State (Ohio), the most attractive and most valuable portion of its area. They consist of sand and gravel in large measures, and to this structure they owe their chief attraction. But this same structure renders them unfit to be used for the water supply of the towns built upon them; for, although an abundance of clear and sparkling water can easily be reached, it must not only be looked upon with suspicion, but must be positively condemned as unsafe.