60 Transactions of the KTansas 



The Iodide and Bromide of Sodium, though in minute amount, are present in very 

 appreciable quantities in the water of the lola well, and to their influence is un- 

 doubtedly due much of the asserted beneficial effects of this water upon scrofulous 

 and other allied difficulties. The Carbonic Acid present in the lola water is con- 

 siderably less than that afforded in the waters of the Saratoga Springs, though an 

 abundance is present to remove, by its sparkling influence, much of the disagree- 

 able flavor of the water, which otherwise, from the large amount of mineral matter 

 present, might prove somewhat unpleasant. 



The gas, which is thrown from the well with such force and in such quantity, is 

 almost wholly made up of Light Carburetted Hydrogen, commonly known as 

 "Marsh Gas." From its very slight solubility (1 part in 37 by volume, Storer), it 

 of course exists in very small quantities only m the water itself, though it is con- 

 stantly bubbling up through it. Notwithstanding the views of many observers 

 and writers, the escape of this gas in such abundance from this well is neither 

 anomalous nor startlingly unusual. It is no uncommon occurrence in many portions 

 of the country in sinking similar borings for coal, salt or oil, to find this gas sud- 

 denly escaping with force sufficient to stop or reverse the engine. This Light Car- 

 buretted Hydrogen is produced in immense quantities in nature from the slow de- 

 composition of all deposits of vegetable matter, and frequently escapes naturally in 

 great abundance. The l.irge supply of this gas near Fredonia, N. Y., by which the 

 entire village is lighted, is too well known to need comment here. Near Oberlin, 

 Ohio, is a spring from which I have frequently discovered the gas escaping in great 

 quantity, forming, when lighted, a flame of large size. Near Kanawha, Va., and 

 at many other places too numerous to mention, this same gas has been known to 

 escape for years without cessation. It is this gas which constitutes the dreaded 

 "fire damp " of our coal mines, the cause of all the terrible disasters and explosions 

 with wlii ;h the history of coal mining is filled. Points from which it escapes in 

 much the same manner as at lola, without the efflux of water, are known to the 

 miners as " blowers," and are liable to suddenly appear at any time upon opening a 

 new seam. 



Nor, upon the other hand, is it at all necessary, in endeavoring to explain the origin 

 of such large quantities of this gas as escaj^e from the lola boring, to resort to the 

 popular but very improbable hypothesis of the decomposition of the coal itself by 

 the agency of heat ; especially inapplicable to this uniformly undisturbed portion 

 of the Lower Coal Measure of Kansas. There is no evidence to show that this va- 

 cant seam of twenty inches encountered at this great depth was originally f)ccupied 

 by a coal bed at all, and such a supposition is not in any way essential. There can 

 be no doubt but that this opening, whether produced by flexure of lower strata or 

 otherwise, communicates laterally with a very large tract of coal-bearing forma- 

 tions, possibly with a good portion of the Western Interior Coal area. And when 

 we remember the fact that this Light Carburetted Hydrogen is given ofi" in large 

 quantities from many varieties of bituminous coal at oi'diimry temperatures, we 

 need be at no loss to account for its appearance at this opening in such considera- 

 ble amount. It is from this cause that the gas accumulates in coal mines in such 

 dangerous quantities ; and it is by no means impossible that this lola boring may 

 serve as the " vent hole '' for a considerable area of coal-bearing territory. This 

 escape of Light Carburetted Hydrogen from soft bituminous coal at ordinary tem- 

 peratures is of course a continuation of the original coal-forming process : a slow 

 decomposition of vegetable matter under a very limited supply of atmospheric 

 oxygen, in which the gaseous products are principally Light Carburetted Hydro- 

 gen with Carbonic Acid (di-oxide), small portions of Carbonic Oxide and occasion- 



