21r> I. C WHITE — THE MANNINGTON OIL FIELD. 



The -rent gas fields of Washington and Grapeville, which the writer located on 

 this theory,are sufficient evidence to most people that its claims are not entirely de- 

 lusive, or the result of coincidence, as my friend Ashburner would have us believe. 



A map which the writer prepared to accompany an article on natural gas in The 

 Petroleum Age has also been a source of trouble to some of my former associate's on 

 the Pennsylvania geological survey. One in particular says some very unkind 

 things about it: First, that the scale is too small ; second, that the anticlinals are 

 incorrectly placed; and, thirdly, that Mr. Ashburner's "great" Kinzua-Emporium 

 cross-cut anticlinal is a myth, as likewise all the others, both "great " and small, 

 which appear on the map in question. 



As to the first count in this indictment, I claim exemption from blame, for the 

 original map prepared for this purpose was on a scale of six miles to the inch, 

 instead often, as published, and the editors of the Age will bear witness that I 

 desired the larger scale, which they declined to publish on account of expense. 



As to the second Count, I would say that the mechanical execution of the map 

 was committed to Messrs. Johnson and Grafton, two young engineers and experi- 

 enced draftsmen, who put the anticlinals on the ma]) from data furnished by 

 the publications of the Pennsylvania geological survey, except, as stated in my 

 accompanying paper, I took the liberty of correcting some of my own work from 

 later and more detailed observations in the southwestern part of the state; and 

 hence, if any serious error exists in the placing of the anticlinals, it is not the fault 

 of the writer. 



With regard to the last count, the writer pleads that he did not invent the term 

 •' cross-cut anticlinal." since, in the paper to which reference has been made, he 

 gives due credit to its author and discoverer, Mr. Ashburner. If the black line 

 which has been stereotyped so Long on the McKean, Elk and Cameron county maps 

 of the Pennsylvania geological survey, under the name of " Kinzua-Emporium 

 cross-cut anticlinal," is really a myth, as Mr. Ashburner himself seems now not 

 unwilling to admit, then the writer shall certainly raise no objections to having the 

 term erased from geological nomenclature, as well as from the maps in question; 

 but the structure that the writer described under this term will not he changed by 

 a change of name. 



As is well known, the main anticlinals of western Pennsylvania extend in a 

 northeast-and-southwest direction, and, as a general rule, the rocks dip down to the 

 southwest along the lines of the anticlinals as well as those of the synclinals; but 

 in some regions, notably at Washington and < hrapeville, there is such a swelling up 

 of the anticlinals that the rocks rise rapidly to the southwest instead of dip, and as 

 some of these bulges on the different anticlinals are in a line with each other, I 

 thought it not improbable that they might be connected in origin at least, and 

 hence, having no other name at hand, adopted the one already coined by Mi-. Ash- 

 burner for what I supposed represented a similar structure. 



But whatever we may call the structure in question, whether a swell, bulge, or 

 "hog-back," as one gentleman terms it, the localities where it occurs are those par 

 excellence where we may expect large deposits of natural gas; and when large wells 

 have been obtained in the trend of a syncline the structure is found to he compli- 

 cated by the presence of such a bulge, or else a long and rapid rise from the southwest. 



The writer knows that the anticlinal theory, taken in connection with thelimita- 

 tions, which are a necessary part of it, is a valuable guide to the geologist in search 

 of natural gas deposits, because he speaks from an experience of more than three 

 years, in which the theory has been put to many practical tests. 



