822 THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY. 



strata of the earth exist, is the gas likely to be present in any 

 quantity ; and that outside of where these conditions obtain it is 

 useless to expend money in sinking wells. 



The busy operations thus inaugurated were watched by scien- 

 tific men with great interest. A new horizon for the gas was 

 the point which especially attracted their attention, for the fuel 

 came from a stratum far below those belts which had in Penn- 

 sylvania and Virginia produced the gas and oil. Besides, to 

 the geologist was promised an opportunity of increasing his 

 knowledge of the arrangement of certain strata beneath the sur- 

 face, whose course at the surface had long been known. The 

 geologist knew that, even when the attempt to secure gas was un- 

 availing there was a possibility of the dry well revealing to him 

 a new chapter in the story of the rocks. 



The practical man, for his part, looked upon the new fuel 

 with an eye to its utilization. By lessening the cost of produc- 

 tion, it increased his profits, if indeed increased competition did 

 not keep the price down in proportion. A dry well was to 

 these men a calamity, for it brought them in nothing for their 

 outlay. 



With a third class the new fever opened up a field of specula- 

 tion, of which they were not slow to avail themselves. Theorists 

 are ever ready to thrust upon a patient world their views, even 

 though the chances of formulating a correct theory are small. 

 The origin of the gas has, therefore, formed a fruitful source of 

 speculation with these persons. Some of the causes assigned are 

 so supremely ridiculous as to deserve notice as psychological curi- 

 osities. Two or three of these crude theories will occupy but a 

 few moments. 



One writer asks whether it is safe to bore the earth too much. 

 He assumes the earth to be a hollow sphere filled with a gaseous 

 substance called by us natural gas, and he thinks that tapping 

 these reservoirs will cause disastrous explosions, resulting from 

 the lighted gas coming in contact with that which is escaping. 

 Earthquakes, he says, are probably caused by vacuums created 

 by the outflowing gas. He compares the earth to a balloon floated 

 and kept distended by the gas in the interior, which, if exhausted, 

 will cause the crust to collapse, affect the motion of the e&rth in 

 its orbit, cause it to lose its place among the heavenly bodies, and 

 fall in pieces. He thinks man is too inquisitive ; he w^ants to 

 peer into the earth too far. But let him beware. Children should 

 not be allowed to handle explosives, nor should ignorant man 

 meddle with natural gas. " Let the matter be fully investigated 

 by able, God-fearing men — men who believe in the Bible as well 

 as geology " — and all may yet be well. 



Another writer thinks that boring should be prohibited by 



