Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1891-07-09
GREAT WAS the GLACIER.
A Government GeOlOgist on Ar.
tesian Strata and Glacial
Movements.
Facts Which Seem to Show That
the Missouri River has
Changed Its Bed.
The Mystery of the Old Lime
stone BOullers-When
COmetll They?
A Geological Journey.

COnleth They?
A Geological Journey.
Prot. Robert Hay of the government
geological survey, who is detailed to the
work of determining the area OF and de-
posits composing the artesian well basin
OF North and South Dakota, says there
is found considerable difference in the
pressure of wells bored near together.
Near Woonsocket, South Dakota. there
are two wells within mile of each other
and the one last bored has reduced the
pressure and volume OF the other. In
Yankton county the same result is notic-
ed. The legislature, which has already
passed excellent irrigation laws, should
require. says Mr.. Hay, that wells be not
located in close proximity, and that this
matter should properly come under thedi-
rection of the superintendent of forestry
and irrigation, which Office is now reg
ularly established function of the state
government.
To an Alert reporter Mr.. Hay stated
that for scientific and other purposes
every contract for an artesian we'll
should require the record kept of the
different formations through which the
excavation passes. No artesian we'll
contractor will do this unless tipulated
in his contract, and final payment ought
to be contingent on the preservation of
the record. The Importance of this is
obvious for various reasons, and will
prove of value both in a scientific and
practical way.
North Dakota presents very attract
i've field for every geologist, and man of
scientific turn OF mind, particularly in
the evidences Of the glacial period that
are SO abundant on every hand. The
hills valleys, lakes. rivers and the innu.
merable boulders that lie scattered over
the prairies, the fertile soils, the crop
thereon, the climate, fauna and fora all
tell, in the plainest language, Of the great
changes and influences wrought by the
passage Of the glaciers southwark. Their
effect on the con6guration OF the land.
scape have been tremendous, changing
and reconstructlng the surface of
the country on grand scale.
The glacial direction has been generally
south and west. The granite boulders,
some OF which are very large, and show
but few evidences Of grinding, are not so
difficult to account for, but what is puz-
zling to the inquirer, Is the origin of the
limestone boulders that are profusely
scattered among the granite rocks. Lime
stone is the product Of deposits of
animals organisms whose abode was in
the ocean. Where these limestone
boulders, now found on the prairies,
came from is hard to determine. The
origin Of glaciers is always in elevations,
regions where there ara mountains and
valleys. The vast and level plain lying
north rs far as the Arctic ocean. includ-
ing the Hudson Bay country, over which
the glaciers have passed does not present
the conditions which are necessary to
glacial formation and progress. Prof.
Hay thinks that different levels have
existed from which we're begun the
glaciers that have passed over North
Dakota.
The limestone boulders, which are con-
tinuai puzzles to the geologist, present
many evidences of oceanic origin. There
are numerous fossil remains found in
em,-molluscs that lived in the old
silurian age. way pack in the early
periods Of the formation of the earth's
crust. These boulders must be of very
ancient origin, because as far as noticed
they contain fossils of the early and
simpler forms, characteristic of those
eras. Among these fossils are the tri-
lobites one Of the commonest of the ex.
tinct species of molluscs that Aourished
in paleazoic times.
The course of the glaciers southwark
IS plainly marked east OF the Missouri
river. West of that stream there are few
or no deposits of glacial drift. Princi-
pally on this account, Prof. Hay says
that 1t Is not improbable that the Mis-
souri, rlver once ran through the center
of the two Dakotas, possibly where the
James river valley now marks long and
depression in the surface of
the country. and that the present turbid
and crooked stream has been literally
pushed westward to its present chan
mel by the encroacbing forces of
glaciers slowly moving southwark
aud filing up the depressions Of the tract
covered with the materials conveyed by
them. The great river, which has it's
source in the mountains, fed by streams
of melting snow and ice, probably ran
eastward as far as the Devils Lake, be-
fore taking its old southerly course.
The only glacial drift found west Of the
Missouri is near the mountains and came
from them, while the drift east OF the
river belongs to other distant and differ
ent formations.
The present existing streams, valleys
and coolies have been formed by the
washing Of great streams Of water, that
have followed the melting Of the glaciers.
The water flowing over the deposits left
by the glaciers earths and shales that
yvara softenad and easily diafnrEad-haa