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Show NATURAL GAS. ' ; The Unsolved Problem of Its Source - and Cause. No sooner do, the people of Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania find that the rock strata underlying underly-ing certain portions of the State is a great natural gas reservoir, waiting to be tapped tap-ped and its contents conveyed to thousands thou-sands of forges and furnaces as a cheap and convenient fuel, than they begin to ask questions as to its origin Not content con-tent to accept the gift horse which Providence Provi-dence has bestowed upon them and be thankful for it, they must needs begin to look it in the mouth and indulge in sundry other impertinences. ' True to their Yankee natures, they hazard all sorts of guesses as to where it came, from and how long it has been accumulating, together with certain business-like calculations calcu-lations as to how long it will last. . Professor Ashburner, of the State Geological Survey, has prepared a paper on the geology of natural gas, which was read before the American Institute of Mining Engineers at its September-meeting. In this essay he lays down a ; few general conditions Upon which the presence pres-ence of : natural gas seems to depend I The most important of these conditions seems - to be the existence of a porous sand rock, hermetically sealed at the top and lying in nearly a horizontal position at a depth varying from one to three thousand feet below the surface. The gas is found to exist in the oil formation chiefly, oftentimes in the same rock with the oil, although in the most prolific gas fields near Pittsburg there does not seem to be any oil in the gas rock. . The field is confined to the western part of the State beyond the base of the Allegheny Mountains. Moun-tains. The same rocks exist in the Allegheny range and to the east of it, but the strata having been upheaved and rilled with fissures the gas, if any ever existed, ex-isted, has escaped. Ashburner's observations, which are based upon the discoveries of the practical practi-cal oil and gas driller rather than , upon those of the professional geologist, still leave the main . problem that of the origurof the gas unsolved. The most that can be said so far is that it is closely related to petroleum, being in fact the lighter and more volatile portions of the petroleum which have escaped condensation. condensa-tion. Tho only guess hazarded by the geologists at present is that gas and oil are the product of the decompositions of animal and vegetable matter in the strata underlying the deposits in which they are now found and that they have risen in the form of gas through fissures to the sand rock reservoirs, where the heavier portions por-tions of the distillation have been condensed con-densed into the liquid form of petroleum, the lighter ones still retaining the form of gas. A more practical inquiry would be one in the direction of the extent and duration dura-tion of the gas supply. What it is and where it came from are questions of comparatively com-paratively little moment as long as its useful qualities are apparent to everybody. every-body. How much there was of it and how long it will last, however, are questions ques-tions that go right to the heart of the matter,' and if the geologists can throw any light on the branch of the subject their researches will prove of great practical value to the" business interests of the State. Philaddphia Times. |