GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS AND ARTESIAN WELLS. 93 The CHAIRMAN. Below this formation is there a stratum that is impervious to water. Mr. UPHAM. Yes; the glacial drift, as I denominate it, is practically impervious to water. It holds the water down. The water that gets into the lower parts of the sand beds will be held down. The CHAIRMAN. What is beneath this stony clay? What do they find immediately under it? Mr. UPHAM. I think that the water is found in the gravel and sand beds pertaining to the glacial drift formation. The CHAIRMAN. After you pass this stony clay, what do you then find? Mr. UPHAM. Of most of the Red River Valley there is no knowledge deeper than the water-bearing bed of gravel. The CHAIRMAN. Then you meet with sand and gravel? Mr. UPHAM. There have been veins of it in the stony clay, and we may presume that there is stone and gravel at its base. Some of the artesian wells get their flow from the base of the glacial drift. The CHAIRMAN. What do you mean by that? Mr. UPHAM. The bottom, where there is no more glacial drift below, and then the wells come to the water-bearing beds of sand and gravel. Some wells go deeper, but that does not pertain to any artesian flow. The artesian flows in that valley are wholly from the drift and underlying sand river. The CHAIRMAN. First you went through a formation which is commonly called sand, very fine sand, and some clay? Mr. UPHAM. Sand, clay, and silt. The CHAIRMAN. Then you come to clay with gravel in it, which clay and gravel is pretty hard and impervious to water, as I understand you Mr. UPHAM. And a good many pieces of stone; some large enough to be called boulders.. The CHAIRMAN. And below that you find sand? Mr. UPHAM. Ordinarily; the artesian flows come from saud and gravel. They are obviously contained within the glacial drift. They are little veins or stream courses through sand and gravel. The CHAIRMAN. You have not traced any one water-bearing formation of sand that can be identified over the country generally? Mr. UPHAM. It can not be stated that the water-bearing stratum is a unit over this valley. We do not suppose it to be a unit. I remember the town of Grandin, which, the best my memory serves me, is in the Red River Valley, in Dakota. That town has four wells. These wells surprised me; and I know Hillsboro is a similar case. Taking Grandin, for example, and Hillsboro give us similar facts-these four wells, one 100 feet, one 50 feet, and two 250 feet, are within a radius of a quarter of a mile. The CHAIRMAN. They have not found any general water-bearing strata through the country? Mr. UPHAM. It is a water-bearing stratum in that case, but not so generally. This is exceptional. They seem there to be shallow streamscourses pinched out in places, the clay above and the clay beneath pinch them-and in places the sand and gravel bed is pinched; that is to say, reduced to nothing; the drill then goes through that and strikes some stream bed. The CHAIRMAN. How prolific are they in furnishing water? Mr. UPHAM. Their projection is small, in diameter about an inch. The stream is rarely 3 or 4 inches. The CHAIRMAN. They are not used for irrigation purposes? Mr. UPHAM. They have never been used for that purpose. They are bored by the towns, and are used for domestic purposes. Such a well is serviceable to supply a small village, say, of 250 inhabitants, as Ada, in Minnesota. The people of that village get their drinking water from a single well. The stream is not larger than a pencil, and it flows out of the pipe and comes down in a curve very soon. Though it is very small, it supplies all the water in the town. The CHAIRMAN. They do not use irrigation there? Mr. UPHAM. No; they have sufficient rain. The CHAIRMAN. That matter has not been considered there? Mr. UPHAM. No; it is not a practical question. The CHAIRMAN. You have moved forward here into a region where irrigation would be beneficial. Mr. UPHAM. It would be beneficial for many years. The CHAIRMAN. Have you ever been in a country where irrigation is practiced? Mr. UPHAM. I have not been in a country where irrigation is practiced. I have read of it. The CHAIRMAN. You have not been farther west than Dakota? Mr. UPHAM. I have not been west of this mark. [Indicating on a map.] My work has been extensive in Minnesota. The CHAIRMAN. I would like to ask if there is any practical purpose to which you could put your work? Mr. UPHAM. Is that a relevant question? The CHAIRMAN. Will you explain any practical good that will result from your investigation? Mr. UPHAM. I feel free to do that, but I do not consider it a legitimate part of your report. The CHAIRMAN. I maintain that any one who is engaged in scientific investigations should show some practical benefit that will come from them. Mr. UPHAM. I would gladly do so for your benefit, or for the benefit of anybody else who has an interest in them. But I do not think it should be legitimately incorporated in a printed report concerning this interview. The CHAIRMAN. I wish to see what relations they bear to this worldthe uses of man. And it is certainly legitimate to an inquiry in relation to irrigation, so far as that is connected with geology. Mr. UPHAM. As a valid basis for Government appropriations, it is true some economic advantages ought to be shown. I think that is the only way we can place it before the tax-payer and ask him to assist in our researches. The CHAIRMAN. That is the object of my inquiry. Mr. UPHAM. Under that preliminary statement, and considering the U. S. Geological Survey in a very different manner from what I would ordinary geological investigations, I should say that these investigations will be the means of inducing immigration. If you were to ask me the use of geological investigations generally, I should say that they were of an educational advantage-an intellectual advantage to the people at large. But as a justification for the expenditure of public money, we must show some economic advantage. They are of great advantage to immigration. In all these new States it is considered of great advantage to bring in settlers; the people want neighbors; they wish to build up towns; and my work as a surveyor in this region is of great importance to induce immigration. ALTITUDES OF LAKES AND RIVERS IN NORTH DAKOTA. 95 The CHAIRMAN. Of what advantage are your investigations to the State and the immigrants? Mr. UPHAM. Having made these investigations we are able to set forth a truthful, a clear, a comprehensive, a full, and complete statement of the geographical and geological condition of the country, of the material resources and agricultural advantages of this whole district. In order to do this a full and complete investigation should be made. Unless there be a plain and truthful statement of the condition of the soil and the climate the right kind of settlers will not come. The CHAIRMAN. There are not over the country where you have been examining any excavations or borings that gave you any idea of the formation under the ground? Mr. UPHAM. The stream-courses and natural outcroppings of the rock in continuous districts enable us to determine the structure of what is underneath without boring underneath; and that is the case for a good part of the Red River Valley. Underlying a part of the Red River Valley of the North is Cambrian. The CHAIRMAN. What kind of rock is that? Mr. UPHAM. All sorts of rock formation are included in the Cambrian, as in the Cretaceous. We refer to the age of the rock when we use that term. The CHAIRMAN. What kind of rock does it contain? Mr. UPHAM. Limestone, sandstone, and all kinds of conglomerate and slate. The CHAIRMAN. Does it contain granite? Mr. UPHAM. No; granite is not contained there; it is a fossiliferous formation. The CHAIRMAN. Take granite that has been by heat or by chemical action of some kind changed from its original condition, would that be found in the Cambrian ? Mr. UPHAM. No; I think not. Of course this is hardly relative to the case. Yet some geologists maintain that the Cambrian and all other rock formations down to the latest contain granite. The CHAIRMAN. Do you regard geology as a science? Mr. UPHAM. Certainly. The CHAIRMAN. Have you any further facts or statements to offer? Mr. UPHAM. I have some brief data I prepared in relation to artesian wells in the Dakotas, and as to the evidences also of periodic variations of rain-fall as shown by the levels of the lakes east of us, which I would like to present. The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed. Altitudes of lakes and rivers in North Dakota, determined by railway surveys. Feet above the sea. Devil's Lake, August, 1887 (probably 14 feet higher than now)................... At Wahpeton, low and high water... 1,431 1, 430-1, 434 At Moorhead and Fargo... At Grand Forks.... At St. Vincent and Pembina.. At Winnipeg, Manitoba... Lake Winnipeg... Sheyenne River: At bridge of the Jamestown and Northern Railroad, Sheyenne... At Valley City At Lisbon..... At mouth, junction with the Red River 1,417 943-958 866-898 784-828 748-788 723-763 710 1,410 1,200 1,064 857 At mouth, junction with the Missouri, extreme low and high water. 1, 150–1, 195 Missouri River: At mouth of the Yellowstone, near Fort Buford and west boundary At mouth of the Little Missouri River, about of North Dakota, low and high water, about.... 1,860-1,885 1,740 At Bismarck, extreme low and high water 1,618-1,646 At mouth of the Cheyenne River, about..... 1,460 At Pierre, South Dakota, low and high water Altitudes of track at railway stations in North Dakota. 1,426-1,445 1, 157-1, 198 Mr. UPHAM. Hundreds of artesian wells 50 to 300 feet deep are obtained in the drift of the flat plain of the Red River Valley. Such wells can be had nearly everywhere within 10 to 20 miles from the river, both in Minnesota and North Dakota. South of Blanchard and Hillsborough they commonly supply fresh water, but northward it is almost invariably brackish, yet good for constant use to water cattle and horses. Grafton artesian well, 915 feet deep; being drift, 298; Cambrian strata of limestone, sandstone, and shale, 605; Archean granite, 12 feet. The water, which is taken from a depth of 438 feet, is only slightly brackish, deeper flows being shut off because they were very saline. It flows (in August, 1887) through 6-inch pipe 40,000 barrels per day, or about 1,000 gallons per minute. Devil's Lake artesian well, 1,511 feet deep, being drift, 25; cretaceous (Fort Pierre) shale, 1,403; very hard layer of gravel cemented by pyrite, 3 feet, and fine white or light sandstone, 80 feet. The water (brackish) rises from this sandstone, flowing through 34-inch pipe 1,800 barrels per day. This well, in height above sea, depth bored, and section passed through is closely like the Jamestown well. Tower City artesian well, 670 feet deep, being drift, 163; the Fort Pierre shale, 502, and sandstone supplying the water, 5 feet. This may be a sand bed within the Fort Pierre formation. The water flows at rate of 9 gallons per minute, and when piped is capable of rising to a height of 33 feet above the surface. Jamestown artesian well, 1,476 feet deep, being mainly the Fort Pierre shale, but reaching sandstone at bottom. Pressure of water at surface, 100 pounds per square inch; temperature, 70° Fahrenheit. I find no exact record of the section passed through by this well, and should be very glad to obtain it, if any one has preserved such record. Aberdeen artesian well, South Dakota, 904 feet deep, being drift, 94, and the Fort Pierre shale, 810 feet, to sandstone at bottom, after passing through a very hard layer about 10 inches thick. Pressure, 140 to 160 EVIDENCES OF PERIODIC VARIATION OF RAIN-FALL. 97 pounds per square inch; temperature, 60°. The water, though saline, is pronounced very wholesome by physicians, and is much used for domestic purposes. It is drank by stock in preference to any other water. The Grafton well takes its supply of water about 400 feet above the sea level. The wells of Devils Lake and Jamestown go slightly below the sea level; that of Tower City stops 500 feet above the sea, and the wells at Aberdeen, which are 1,300 feet above the sea, obtain their supply 400 feet higher than those of Jamestown and Devils Lake. All these wells, excepting that at Grafton, are in the Fort Pierre shale, which stretches from north to south across a broad belt of North Dakota west of the Red River valley. Within this belt, upon a width of a hundred miles or more, the conditions for obtaining artesian water are similar to those represented by the wells of Devils Lake, Jamestown and Aberdeen. The stumps and fallen trunks of trees of a submerged forest in Stump Lake indicate that probably one hundred or two hundred years ago, or perhaps longer ago, it held for a long time a level several feet, at least 5 to 10 feet, lower than now. But a distinct shore line 15 feet above Devil's and Stump Lakes, below which shore line trees have not yet become established, proves that within a recent time, probably not more than forty or fifty years ago, these lakes held that higher stage. Within the past six years these lakes have fallen 4 or 5 feet. These recent fluctuations of the lake levels are dependent on increase and diminution of the average rain-fall. Further evidence of periodic variations of rain-fall, a series of dry years being succeeded by others of plentiful rains, is supplied by the fluctuations in the levels of the great lakes tributary to the St. Lawrence. These lakes attained their highest stage, within our knowledge, since the coming of white men, in 1838; and they were nearly as high in 1814-15 and 1788. Since 1838 they have reached maximum stages in 1847, 1858, 1870, and 1882. The lowest known stage of the great lakes was in the winter of 1819-20, when Lake Erie was 6 feet lower than in 1838. In 1796 it was 5 feet lower than in 1838. Other years of low stage of the lake levels, mostly somewhat less remarkable, were in 1841, 1853, 1865, and 1875. These maximum and minimum stages of the great lakes have thus alternated in cycles of about a dozen years, in which comparatively scanty average rain-fall for several years was followed by unusually abundant rain-fall. STATEMENT OF T. F. BRANCH, OF JAMESTOWN. The CHAIRMAN. You are a surveyor and engineer? The CHAIRMAN. And have been engaged in your profession in this town for how long? Mr. BRANCH. The last eight years. The CHAIRMAN. Are you familiar with the artesian well that has been sunk here? Mr. BRANCH. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. Will you describe the material through which the drill passed in boring that well, and also the size of the well? Mr. BRANCH. There are two wells here; one in town and one on the bluff west of here. The CHAIRMAN. What is the depth of the well out of town? 138 A L-7 |