Record. xxxiii 



Louis), and at Sparta, in Randolph County (fifty miles southeast of 

 St. Louis). 



Much of this prospecting has been done in a genuine wild-cat or 

 hit-or-miss manner, in which little or no judgment or geological study 

 have been displayed and without any relation to anticlinal or other 

 favorable conditions. One hole has also been the usual limit of a 

 test, so that the evidence has been largely wasted, even if correctly 

 interpreted. When the drill has been as extensively employed on the 

 western flank of the basin as it has been in the past three years in 

 eastern Illinois, the output of oil and gas is likely to be as large as 

 in this rich field. Since the distance of the Western Illinois field from 

 St. Louis ranges only from ten to seventy miles, its development is of 

 the greatest importance to St. Louis financial and civic interests, espe- 

 cially if it should duplicate the very profitable record of the Eastern 

 Illinois field in growing from a' production of 160,000 barrels in 1905 to 

 25,000.000 in 1907.'° 



May 18, 1908. 



President Woodward in the chair; attendance 15. 



The librarian reported the receipt of twenty-one vol- 

 umes of the first series of Transactions and ten volumes 

 of the first series of Proceedings of the Royal Irish 

 Academy as a gift to the library; also the receipt of the 

 early volumes of the Proceedings of the Natural History 

 Society of Ziirich. 



Professor C. M. AVoodward presented to the museum 

 some specimens of copper from Calumet, Mich., taken 

 from the native rock at a depth of 4600 feet in mine No. 

 3, Tamarack Mine. 



Mr. Lindley Pyle presented a paper entieled ''Meas- 

 urement of the Acceleration of a Freely Falling Body." 



June 1, 1908. 



President Woodward in the chair; attendance 20. 



The Librarian reported the gift to the Academy library 

 of twenty volumes of the Proceedings of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science and ten vol- 

 umes of "Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau" from Dr. 

 Evers. 



In the matter of securing the co-operation of all scien- 



"The production of the Eastern Illinois oil fields in 1908 from 

 about 12,000 wells, ranging from 400 to 1600 feet in depth, was 38,844.- 

 899 barrels, which breaks all records in the history of the industry for 

 such a phenomenal output in only four years of development. 



