212 I. C. WHITE — THE MANNINGTON OIL FIELD. t 



arch when you come south of the Pennsylvania railroad; hence of what account is 

 the theory, anyhow ? ' 'My critical friend,' we answer, 'you have not observed 

 wisely, else yon would have seen that the Murraysville arch dies down and flattens 

 out very rapidly into the greal cross-cut syncline trough which embraces the city 

 of Pittsburg, and a broad bell on either side, and tin- •anticlinal theory' of gas 

 teaches that it is quite a- unwise to expect large gas wells on an arch so situated 

 structurally as in a genuine syncline; for whenever the dip along the axial line 

 begins to equal or surpa>^ the total height of the wave, water may he confidently 

 expected.' Hence, although some very large flows of gas have been struck near 

 where the Murraysville arch crosses the Youghiogheny river, yet the quantity of 

 water in the rock was so great that the gas was soon drowned out. The same 

 principle accounts for the water in the Venice well of Washington county, which 

 is located near the structural line of the Bradys bend axis, and so of others that 

 have been pointed to as contradicting the •anticlinal theory.' And thus we might 

 •jo over the entire list of anticlinals ; hut as the story would be practically the same 

 everywhere, it is useless to tire the reader's patience with details. It has been 

 shown that the great gas wells cluster along the anticlinals. and where any marked 

 exception to this rule occurs we tind a cross-cut arch is the disturbing cause, and 

 hence the seeming conflict is the strongest confirmation of the real essence of the 

 'anticlinal theory,' which, condensed and simplified into the fewest words, means 

 that structun is the main factor in a search for great gas wells; that disturbance in 

 the rocks by which they have been elevated above the same beds in contiguous 

 regions, either on the crest of an anticlinal arch or along the axial lines of the syn- 

 clines themselves where cut by the cross-arches) is an essential element in finding 

 large ami lasting wells, free from water, and therefore entitled to be called ' great.' 



•• It is true that a considerable quantity of gas may he so shut in by close rock 

 (through which it cannot pass as to be imprisoned even in a syncline, and when 

 first struck may deliver a large quantity of gas, and the same may he true where 

 the rocks are nearly horizontal, especially in regions contiguous to oil territory ; hut 

 such wells soon blow themselves out and cease to deliver gas, like the famous 

 ■ .Mullen Snorter' and ' Kane Geyser,' which figure so largely in Mr. Ashburner's 

 criticism of the 'anticlinal theory.' 



"Reference has also been made to the gas well- at Erie and Fredonia as evidence 

 against the 'anticlinal theory,' since it is claimed there are no anticlinal wave.- near 

 these localities. To any one who deems these wells evidences against what 1 

 have claimed for the •anticlinal theory,' 1 must request him to read more carefully ■ 

 the quotations from my original paper found in this article, where he will not find 

 the statement that all gas wells occur on anticlinals, hut instead, all great gas wells 

 are found close to anticlinal arches. Now what is a ' great well'.'* It is probable 

 that no L:as well yet struck ever delivered more than thirty to thirty-five million 

 cubic feet of gas daily. Some have been measured in the Murraysville field that, 

 if we can believe the figures, have yielded thirty-three million feet daily. This is 

 one extreme; hut certainly by no stretch of language could the term 'great' be 

 applied to wells like those of Erie, Fredonia and elsewhere along lake Erie which, 

 according to Professor Orton's measurements, yield only from twenty to sixty 

 thousand feet daily. 



" Moreover, so far as Erie is concerned, a recent and careful study of the stratifi- 

 cation there has revealed to the writer the presence of low waves in the same. 

 approximately parallel to the lake, which were undetected in the necessarily hasty 

 examination made several years ago for the Pennsylvania geological survey. 



