am about
sixteen feet in length: one end of this beam is attached to the crank of
the engine, and the other to the implements in the well. The power is
applied to raising the bit--the blow is produced by the fall of the same
when relieved by the downward motion of the working beam.

In the process of boring, the workman is seated over the well, and, by a
transverse handle attached to the machinery just above the rope, turns
the rope, and with it the bit, partially around, so that each stroke of
the bit on the rock beneath is slightly across the cut that has preceded
it. After the fore bit has proceeded about two feet, or until the work
begins to clog with sand, it is withdrawn, and the next is inserted in
its place, and the work is then finished as it goes by the last bit. The
fragments of rock that are cut away descend to the bottom of the well in
the form of sand, and are readily withdrawn by means of the sand pump.
This is a simple copper tube about six feet in length, with a diameter
something less than that of the well, and furnished at the lower end
with a simple valve opening upward. This pump is let down into the well
by a rope, and, when it reaches the bottom, is agitated for a few
moments, when the sand is forced up through the valve, and thus
withdrawn from the well, when the boring is again resumed.

As the work proceeds, a register is kept by the judicious borer of the
different strata passed through, and also of the veins of water and oil
passed through, in order to the formation of an intelligent judgment in
tubing the well.

As might be supposed, this operation of descending amid the rocks is not
without its difficulties and discouragements. Sometimes the bit breaks
or becomes detached from the auger stem, leaving a fragment of hardened
steel, or an entire bit, deep in the recesses of the rock. When the
latter is the case, recourse is had to divers expedients, by means of
implements armed with sockets and spring jaws, in order to entrap the
truant bit. And it is marvellous what success generally attends these
efforts to extract bits that are oftentimes two or three hundred feet
below the surface. Sometimes, however, these efforts fail, and the well
must be abandoned, with all the labor and anxiety that have been
expended upon it.

During the progress of the boring there is more or less carburetted
hydrogen gas set free. This supply is so abundant at times as to cause
an ebullition in the water of the