384 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



gate, are year after year, absolutely wasted in a vain search for 

 mineral wealth. Gold, silver, coal and oil are sought in areas where 

 there is not the slightest chance of obtaining them in commercial 

 quantities. While there is some excuse for the layman, there is 

 absolutely none for the inexperienced persons, who claim to be geolo- 

 gists, etc. That such should be allowed to deceive the people is 

 unfortunate. 



A few examples of some senseless prospecting will be given, in 

 order that a better understanding of the situation can be had. Some 

 of these, I am sorry to say, occurred in our own county (Schuylkill). 

 How far the farmers were influenced by so-called "Experts" I am 

 unable to say, but I am sure that some of the work was not under 

 taken before a so-called expert, old miner or oil man advised it. 



For five years, perhaps, interruptedly, some farmers and others 

 have been making a vain search for a workable bed of coal near 

 Auburn. The formation in which they are digging and blasting 

 is the lower part of the Hamilton, known as the Marcellus Shale. 

 There is not the slightest chance to obtain a coal bed that can be 

 worked in this formation but, notwithstanding this fact, of which 

 they have been informed, they are spasmodically working away. I 

 am told that |4,000 in time, labor and explosives have been wasted 

 here. 



Let me give another: In one of the eastern townships of the same 

 county, some laud owners sunk an oil well, at the suggestion of 

 some one who was either ignorant of the geology of oil or wanted 

 the job to drill the well. If any oil ever existed in that locality, it 

 has long since volatilized and escaped, since the rocks are on a 

 heavy dip and outcrop; that is, in this case the ends of the strata are 

 exposed or but slightly covered. It is useless to drill for oil in 

 Pennsylvania, where such structure is found. Now, about all these 

 people have learned is something about the color and character of 

 the rocks penetrated and how foolishly they have parted with their 

 hard earned dollars. By going a few miles westward, they could 

 have learned more about the rocks than they did through drilling 

 the well. 



Still another example: In one of the western townships of the 

 same county, a company has been formed to mine coal in the Pocono 

 Sandstone formation or the False Coal Measures. The result of 

 this operation will be disastrous to those who put their time and 

 money into it, for no beds of coal of commercial value have ever 

 been or ever will be found in this formation in Pennsylvania. 



The Marcellus Shale and the Pocono Sandstone are favorite locali- 

 ties for the prospecting for coal in this State, but although many 

 thousand dollars have been expended in work on them, no coal beds 

 of value have ever been found in these formations in Pennsylvania, 

 or is there any probability of ever finding one. No competent geolo- 

 gist could possibly fail to identify these formations, but to the un- 

 initiated, the Pocono, because of its resemblance to the True Coal 

 Measure formation, might readily be mistaken. Some years ago, I 

 was called to Lebanon county to examine a property. Carbonaceous 

 matter had been found. A few moment's examination was sufficient 

 to determine the formation (Utica Slate) and the Carbonaceous mat- 

 ter was very probably of animal origin. Of course, no coal bed ex- 

 isted there, yet the owner had spent quite a sum of money to develop 

 his find. 



