194 I. C. WHITE — THE MANNINGTON OIL FIELD. 



geologists generally have not read, and as they mark a new and impor- 

 tant epoch in the history of gas and oil geology, and are therefore worthy 

 of being preserved to geological literature in a more permanent form than 

 they have heretofore had, I shall append to this paper a fairly complete 

 history of that discussion so far as my own part in it was concerned, the 

 same being compiled from the pages of Science, The Petroleum Age and 

 the American Manufacturer, in which journals my contributions to this 

 subject were originally published. 



The essential principles involved in the paper and discussions referred 

 to, as embodied in the " anticlinal theory," have been verv forcibly and 

 graphically set forth by Professor Edward Orton, whose philosophic mind 

 and skillful hand have grappled with and raveled so many tangled 

 threads of geologic history. Grasping at once the truth of the " anticlinal 

 theory," he applied its principles in a striking and beautiful way to the 

 explanation of the oil and gas deposits of Ohio. Expressed in his words, 

 relief or structure is the essential element in the accumulation of large 

 quantities of either oil or gas, for if the rocks lie nearly horizontal over a 

 wide area we find, when we bore through them, "A little oil, a little gas. 

 a little water, a little of everything, and not much of anything; " while 

 if the rock reservoirs be tilted considerably, so that the small quantities 

 of oil, gas, and water in all sedimentary beds can rearrange themselves 

 within the rocks in the order of their specific gravities, then and then 

 only can commercial quantities of each accumulate, provided the reser- 

 voir and cover are good. The anticlinal waves which traverse the great 

 Appalachian plateau westward from the Alleghanies and practically 

 parallel to these mountains present just such relief as the theory requires 

 in the New York, Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, and West Virginia oil 

 and gas fields, while the more ancient flexures in northern Ohio and In- 

 diana account for the large accumulations of oil and gas in the Trenton 

 limestone of those states. The Florence (Colorado) and other oil fields 

 in the far western states and territories have this tilted rock structure, 

 and the same relief is plain in the Canadian oil and gas fields, according 

 to Selwyn ; while Tschernyschew, Sjogren, and other geologists who have 

 studied the foreign oil fields, report an identical geological structure there. 



This theory, so simple and consonant with well known physical laws, 

 as well as so harmonious with the facts of geology, was heartily welcomed 

 by most of the oil and gas operators, and by nearly all geologists that 

 have given any thought to the matter, as a satisfactory solution of the 

 geologic problem connected with oil and gas accumulation. A few have 

 attempted to relegate the great principle of relief to a subordinate posi- 

 tion, but the facts have pointed so conclusively in the other direction 

 that opposition has been silenced at least, whether convinced or other- 

 wise. 



