11 PROCEEDINGS OF NEW YORK MEETING. 



■>1J. 



Three Springs, etc., w«re published in Report F, in L878, its illustrations of 

 their excellent geological and topographical work. Mr. Ajshburner's sensible 

 ami full report of it, supplementary to and separate from the special report 

 of Mr. Dewees on the ore, will be found in the last half of the volume. 



Saving thus shown great ability in reading and portraying the geology 

 of one difficult district, Mr. Ashburner was commissioned in l s 7'i to survey 

 McKean, Elk, Cameron, and Forest counties on the northern border of the 

 state, where the development of the petroleum production in the Bradford 

 field was becoming of extraordinary importance, soon to overshadow that 

 of all other oil fields previously or subsequently exploited. This survey 

 occupied him and his aids two years, and his able report upon it (R) was 

 published in 1**0, well illustrated with local maps and sections, a colored 

 geological map of each county, and a topographical map of McKean county 

 in contour lines. His second report (R 2) on Elk, Cameron, and Forest 

 counties, published in 1885, exhibited broad views and sound deductions 

 from surface facts and horing records, which became of great importance to 

 the community, and started him on a career of oil and gas investigation 

 which afterwards extended over a large part of the United State- and Can- 

 ada. His determination of the various rates of increment of the formations 

 intervening between the conglomerate above and the oil-bearing Chemung 

 below had much influence on the depths to which subsequent experimental 

 borings were carried. His differentiation of the conglomerate was also an 

 important contribution to geology. 



In 1880 he was directed to go to the eastern part of the state and plan a 

 survey of the Anthracite region as a whole; and in 1881 he organized a 

 complete corps of assistants, established offices at four centers, and began 

 the systematic survey which has shed such lustre on the Geological Survey 

 of Pennsylvania. Its successful prosecution, in one basin after another, 

 year after year, until he tendered his resignation in L887, was due entirely 

 to his genius for geological work of the highest order, to his disciplined 

 judgment in dealing with men of all ranks and occupations, to his high 

 sense of personal honor, and to his kindness of heart. 



In the fall of 1886 he resigned his commission to become the scientific 

 expert of the VYestinghouse Fuel Gas aud Electrical Engineering Company 

 at Pittsburg, for which he visited various districts of the United States 



which the universal search for natural gas IU turn invaded; and he thus 

 became an authority of the first rank in this branch of geology. 



He was also required to pass judgment upon properties on which mining 

 of the precious metals was proposed, especially in the far west. <>n his Last 

 return from the copper district of Arizona he fell ill ami suddenly died, 

 I » scember 2 I. 1 $89, in the thirty-sixth year of his age, universally esteemed 

 and respected in his profession and in private life. 



