1903- Coi,K. — The UnnaUiral History of an Oil Well. 143 



from the bog, and therefore offered probability of oil. This 

 pleasing assertion was copied into Dublin journals, and the 

 Daily Express of this city obtained a long article from Mr. 

 Henry on February 28th. Interesting accounts were here 

 given of similar appearances of oil in England, including an 

 unexplained occurrence in a well near Shepton Mallet in 1894, 

 on the strength of which a company was floated with a capital 

 of ;^6o,oco. In Ireland, such copious finance almost takes 

 one's breath awa3^ 



The oil was flowing in very small quantity when I revisited 

 Summerhill on February 19th, and ascertained that leakages 

 had taken place in the past from the adjacent oil-store, though 

 none had been detected during recent months. Alterations 

 in drains had, however, been made in the rere of the premises, 

 and old oil might have been thus allowed to flow into the 

 channel of the spring. Mr. Henrj^'s samples must have been 

 collected about this time, for they gave Dr. Redwood very 

 poor results — {Pall Mall Gazette, quoted by Daily Express^ 

 28th February, 1903). 



" G. H. K. ' the well-known Irish geologist, wrote to the 

 Irish Times of Februar}^ 24 Ih, deprecating ** a wild goose chase 

 after improbable oil in the shales ;" and the Free7na7is Journal 

 of February 28th recorded the determination of the refined 

 nature of the oil by Dr. Ryan and Mr. A. J. O'Farrelly of the 

 Catholic University College. The full results obtained by 

 these chemists were published in the same journal on March 

 4th, and confirm, absolutely independentl}", those furnished 

 by Mr. J. Holms Pollok to the Department. In face of Mr. 

 O'Farrelly's paper, no one in Ireland seems to have regarded 

 the occurrence as other than a leakage ; and the E?'eemans 

 Journal pointed out the bearing of .the scientific results in a 

 brief and effective editorial. The credit for the dissemina- 

 tions of correct views on No. 100, Summerhill, rests then with 

 Messrs. R3 an and O'Farrelly. 



This appears to have given some irritation to the energetic 

 editor oiPetroietwi (article often and a-half columns in issue for 

 7th March, 1903). He had personally visited the locality on 

 March ist, and had taken a keen interest in all the published 

 details. He boldly asserts (p. 803) that he is " against the 

 small body of dogmatic academicians at the University who 



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