EARLY TESTS OF THE ANTICLINAL THEORY. 211 



"The next arch westward from Chestnut ridge is the Indiana axis of Piatt. This 

 is a very sharp and well defined wave in Westmoreland county, the vertical distance 

 from the crest to the bottom of the troughs on either side being in some places not 

 less than 800 feet or even more ; hence, unless its proximity to the great arch of 

 Chestnut ridge should affect it, we would on the 'anticlinal theory' naturally 

 expect it to furnish good gas wells, provided the proper kind of reservoir exists 

 under the surface. Messrs. Guffey and Mellon have recently finished a well on this 

 arch near Latrobe, which yields from five to six hundred thousand feet of gas daily. 

 Some drilling was once done in the vicinity of Blairsville, where the arch crosses 

 the Conemaugh river, but no large flow of gas was obtained, probably because the 

 well was situated too far from the crest of the arch. 



"Going still further northeastward we find the well which supplies the town of 

 Punxsutawney with gas is situated close to this fold. 



" The next arch is the great Saltsburg axis of Stevenson, the descent on each 

 side of which is quite as great as that of the Indiana arch. This is far enough away 

 from the ( Ihestnut ridge disturbance to remain unaffected by the latter, and hence 

 ought to furnish a fair test of the 'anticlinal theory.' The writer recently located 

 a well on this arch for J. M. Guffey & Co., just north from the town of Grapeville, 

 and when the Murraysville sand was reached a few weeks ago an immense flow of 

 dry gas was struck.* 



"Some gentlemen from Greensburg, however, who, like Mr. Ashburner, seemed 

 to think gas could be obtained in a syncline, drilled a well one mile east from the 

 crest of the arch, at a locality where the dip had carried the rocks down "_'">() feet 

 below the crest of the Saltsburg wave. The result was that although a splendid 

 reservoir of great thickness was found, it contained an immense supply of water, 

 and consequently what little gas was obtained was worthless. These wells, theone 

 furnishing a large gqs How and the other a large water flow, are only two and one- 

 half miles apart, the former on the crown of the arch, the latter nearly a mile east 

 from the same. No fairer test than this could be asked for the merits of the "anti- 

 clinal t henry." 



" The next arch westward is the Waynesburg axis, and the only gas wells obtained 

 along I he Monongahela river, among the many that have been bored, are found on 

 its crest at Bellevernon, though the fold being low and flat, no large wells have been 

 struck. 



"The great Murraysville arch was regarded by Professor Stevenson as identical 

 with the Waynesburg fold, the latter having been shifted eastward; but. however, 

 this may be, there is no doubt about the one dying away to the north and the 

 other to the south, and hence I have termed the western fold simply the Murrays- 

 ville axis. This, like many other well known arches in Pennsylvania, is a double 

 fold, with the crests al lout one-half mile apart, though the depression between them 

 is very slight. As every "tie knows, the forty or more great gassers in that region 

 are clustered along the Murraysville anticlinal, water being obtained in the syn- 

 clinal at Irwin on the east and at Walls on the west. ' But,' says the opponent of 

 the ' anticlinal theory,' ' you get water with the gas even along the Murraysville 



*" Since this was written two other wells have i n drilled to the Murraysville sand, on the crown 



of the Saltsburg arch, near Grapeville, and competent judges', who have seen all the great gas wells 



hi the i iii r> . pronounce thei !i the largest that have ever yel i d struck ; 30 that mj > 



diction of tin igo, that the ftrapi 1 ill ■ region would furnish 1 irger wells than the Mm 1 



■ iil'\ 1 1:1- been literati] fulfilled, This conclusion was based on geological structun alone, - n the 



'.. ipeville, "i- Saltsburg arch, is n mm li grander than the Murraysville fold. Van Mi Vsh- 



burner explain this awaj as i ease of coincidence of the \ngell " bell theorj 'Kind'/ 

 SXV1II— B 801 Vti., V.. 1 1, 1891 



