Ninth Annual Meeting. 13 



sible by physical means. This iron was malleable even when cold, very tough, and of 

 bright metallic luster. A portion of it was subjected to analysis, and yielded the follow- 

 ing results : 



Sulphide of iron A trace, undetermined. 



Iron 90.47 



Nickel 7.81 



Cobalt 1.72 



100.00 

 Of the history of the stone little is known. For the few facts I have been able to obtain 

 concerning it, I am indebted to its possessor, Dr. Geo. W. Chapman, of Waconda. The 

 weight of the stone when secured by him, in 1873, was about 120 pounds.* Several per- 

 sons remember to have seen it in the same locality as early as 1870, at the time of the 

 first settlement of the town, but at that time it attracted no special attention. Dr. Chap- 

 man also informs me of a fact of which I was ignorant until after my examination was 

 completed, namely, that the stone had been recognized as a meteorite by Prof. C. U. 

 Shepard, Sr., and also by Prof. J. L. Smith, each of whom had obtained a specimen of it. 



THE lOLA GAS WELL. 



BY PEOF. G. E. PATRICK. 



A recent visit to the locality, and a chemical examination of the water, enable me to 

 present a few facts concerning the very interesting natural phenomenon which forms the 

 subject of this paper. 



The lola gas well or mineral well is situated at lola, Allen county, Kansas, on the 

 line of the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston Railroad. It was sunk in the early 

 part of 1873, not as a well, but as a boring for coal, the occurrence of which as an under- 

 lying deposit of that section of country was thought quite probable, though not at all 

 certain, by those best versed in Kansas geology. 



A cylindrical diamond drill was employed; and the core taken out, representing the 

 numerous and varied strata passed through, forms an interesting stratigraphical study. 

 The drill was put down 400 feet, and no coal-bed of paying thickness was reached; still 

 the pluck of the managers survived, and with exceptional perseverance they went down 

 without encouragement over 200 feet further. But at a depth of 626 feet they met with 

 a novel change; at that depth the drill suddenly dropped into and through a cavity of 

 about 20 inches in thickness, and water and gas began to be forced up around the drill. 



But the object of the boring being neither water nor gas, but coal, with almost unpre- 

 cedented perseverance the company put their drill down still another hundred feet, but 

 without success; and at a depth of 736 feet gave it up as a lost cause. 



The flow of water and gas that commenced at a depth of 626 feet, has continued ever 

 since, and it is a fact worthy of notice that the velocity of the flow has materially in- 

 creased since that time, the increase being estimated by competent judges as at least 100 

 per cent. 



Soon after the completion of the well, Prof. Stimpson, then of the State University, 

 from measurements made on the spot, estimated the discharge of gas to be about 5,200 

 cubic feet per day; but from its greatly increased velocity, its daily discharge is now es- 

 timated at nearly or quite 10,000 cubic feet. Of water the yield is said to be now about 

 95 barrels daily. 



The velocity of efflux, both of water and of gas, is not at all constant; for the flow is by 

 intermittent pulsations, as mu.st necessarily be the case in such a well. It is not an arte- 



*That I infer was its original weight when it fell; but of this I am not certain. 



