{p. 355}

by vegetable decay, has covered their works to the depth of seventy feet?

I come now to the most singular and marvelous revelation of all: 

Professor Alexander Winchell, in an interesting and recent work,[1] says: 

“I had in my possession for some time a copper relic resembling a rude coin, which was taken from an artesian boring at the depth of one hundred and fourteen feet, at Lawn Ridge, Marshall County, Illinois.

“Mr. W. H. Wilmot, then of Lawn Ridge, furnished me, in a letter dated December 4, 1871, the following statement of deposits pierced in the boring: 

Soil 3 feet.

Yellow clay 17 "

Blue clay 44 "

Dark vegetable matter 4 "

Hard purplish clay 18 "

Bright green clay 8 "

Mottled clay 18 "

Soil 2 "

Depth of coin 114 "

Yellow clay 1 "

Sand and clay.

Water, rising 60 feet.

“In a letter of the 27th of December, written from Chillicothe, Illinois, he stated that the bore was four inches for eighty feet, and three inches for the remainder of the depth.  But before one hundred feet had been reached the four-inch portion was ’so plastered over as to be itself but three inches in diameter,’ and hence the ‘coin’ could not have come from any depth less than eighty feet.

“’Three persons saw “the coin” at the same instant, and each claims it.’  This so-called coin was about the

[1.  “Sparks from a Geologist’s Hammer,” p. 170.]

{p. 356}

thickness and size of a silver quarter of a dollar, and was of remarkably uniform thickness.  It was approximately round, and seemed to have been cut.  Its two faces bore marks as shown in the figure, but they were not stamped as with a die nor engraved.  They looked as if etched

### ###

   COPPER COIN, FOUND ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN FEET UNDER GROUND IN
                              ILLINOIS.

with acid.  The character of the marks was partly unintelligible.  On each side, however, was a rude outline of a human figure.  One of these held in one hand an object resembling a child, while the other was raised as if in the act of striking.  The figure wore a head-dress, apparently made of quills. Around the border were undecipherable hieroglyphics.  The figure on the opposite side extended only to the waist, and had also one hand upraised.  This was furnished with long tufts like mule’s ears.  Around the border was another circle of hieroglyphics.  On this side also was a rude outline of a quadruped.  I exhibited this relic to the Geological Section of