No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 493 



maps, long since published, that one at this late day who would as- 

 sume to conjecture or figure absolutely what extent of territory is 

 barren and what productive, may justly be termed a tyro, fakir or 

 empiricist and places himself within the province of rational, con- 

 sistent and scientific geology and acquired truth in that respect. 



The theory that oil, with its associated gas, is only found in a 

 trough or basin, while the gas alone may be located on an anticline, 

 its slope or arch, by certain drillings, does not obtain everywhere, 

 and the assumption that oil cannot be found on the slopes of anticlines 

 has been nullified by recent experience and by the highest scientific 

 authority. But the contention yet remains, with very many people, 

 that gas alone should be sought on the slopes and arches of anti- 

 clines, as being derived from oil in the basin proper and finding its 

 way from the oil pools to the slopes and arches through continuous 

 rock fissures, tlie oil, of course, being supposedly present in or near 

 the bottom of the trough ; that is, close along the cynclinal axis and 

 one or more miles fiom the point where the gas issues from the well, 

 as drilled. In other words, the oil should be in the trough between 

 the anticlines that have their respective crests on each side of the 

 basis of the trough. The facts that might seem to establish a theory 

 and distinguish it as a rule to be applied with exact certainty and 

 verification in certain localities, or even states, may not suffice for a 

 certain guide or rule in other localities or states. 



Much remains yet to be learned and proved by years of experi- 

 ence and careful investigation, and the somewhat exceptional and 

 anomalous discovery of gas and oil beyond the assumed limits of a 

 district or basin and located by guess or random, afl'ords no basis 

 for a methodical drilling by a rule or assumed sequence derived, in 

 part, from the well known and thoroughly tested fields where the 

 trend and outline of the oil pools, at least, may be fairly understood 

 and surveyed. 



Such isolated distircts as Gaines, in Tioga county, have no prece- 

 dent in the discoveries of many years ago, but, however, much oil 

 or gas may be hereafter derived from this field, the very pertinent 

 query arises, whether along the trend of the several wells that have 

 been productive and ceased as of those that still afford some oil, 

 there may not be other localities northeast or southwest, that will, 

 in some measure, greater or less, respond favorably to the drill. 

 Therefore, we may logically expect new efforts, made in an intelligent 

 manner, to be repaid by the revelation of new fields. 



Broadly speaking, geologists have so arranged and formulated the 

 great mass of information, otherwise not so accepted, as to be able 

 to afl'ord to the driller more definite suggestions as to the locality 

 that promises success, than the driller is willing to accord to the 

 geologist. 



In some measure, the experimental driller towards the finding of 

 oil or gas may hereafter realize the advantages of consulting a good 

 geologist, as in other fields of that science, such as coal, iron ore and 

 many other minerals, concerning which the geologist alone has any 

 clear and positive knowledge. I remark, also, that the oil and gas 

 of Russia, Canada, Texas, California, Pennsylvania, West Virginia 

 and many other states and nations, are mostly found in different 

 formations ; so that we are not so free to deny the presence of oil or 

 gas in those strata that have not yet proved productive and which, 



