NINETEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 59 



gas from distances of from twelve to thirty miles, and Buffalo has just begun to 

 have a supply from a distance of ninety miles. 



In Miami county, Kansas, small quantities of oil have been seen in springs and 

 wells from the date of the earliest settlements, and borings have been made from 

 1862 to the present time. It was not, however, till 1883 that a strong flow of gas was 

 obtained. Now the Paola Gas Company, of which B. Miller, Esq., is president, has 

 drilled four wells, of which three are now yielding a steady supply of rock gas. These 

 wells are situate on the Westfall farm, N.E. quarter of section 1(5, T.17, R. 24, seven 

 miles east of the city of Paola. They substantially have the same level at the sur- 

 face, and reach the gas sand, which here is a sandstone, at a depth of three hundred 

 feet. One of the wells pierces this sand, and shows its thickness to be 35 feet, and 

 above and below it are dark-colored beds, which, being laminated and jointed in 

 their structure, are by the miners called "slates." The gas is piped seven and a half 

 miles into the city of Paola, where it is used as fuel to steam engines, bakers' ovens, 

 heating-stoves, and also to some extent as an illuminant in the stores of the city. 

 At two of the wells the pressure of the gas is 66 lbs. to the square inch, at the other 

 well it is under fifty. 



Within three miles of the Westfall wells, at the small town of Louisburg, a well 

 325 feet deep gives a supply of gas which is utilized for heating and lighting Gun- 

 solus's Hotel. Another company is drilling nearer Paola. 



At Wyandotte not less than six wells have been drilled, which yield gas and some 

 oil. They give the gas all apparently from the same horizon, which is about 340 

 feet below the level of the Kaw bottom. Unfortunately, some of the records of these 

 drillings have been lost, and others are not available. The gas of three of these 

 wells, owned by Mr. Ryas and Messrs. Northrop, is being used for heating steam 

 boilers, and it is not improbable that gas from these sources and new wells will be 

 much more extensively used. Over the border, in Kansas City, Mo., a number of 

 wells are yielding gas which is being utilized both as an illuminant and for fuel in dwell- 

 ing houses, by Messrs. Tobener and Dr. Ridge, and on the outskirts of the city by Mr. 

 J. N. Dietz for burning lime. The wells at Wyandotte and Kansas City form one 

 group, but unfortunately the drill records of none of those utilizing the gas are 

 available for a proper comparison. The pressure from the Ryas (brickyard) well is 

 150 lbs. to the inch, and it displaces ninety per cent, of the coal formerly used for 

 an engine of forty horse power. 



In Linn county, about two miles east of LaCygne, gas has been issuing from the 

 ground from a period "beyond which the memory of man runneth not back to the 

 contrary." It is not marsh gas, but rock gas, and around its flame Indians have had 

 their assemblies. Through the enterprise of Mr. T. McCarthy, who has leased the 

 land, a well has been bored 180 feet deep, and a continuous supply of gas at a con- 

 siderable pressure is now blowing off. Owing to lack of capital this fine supply is 

 not being utilized. A mineral well 125 feet deep, at Mound City, owned by Mr. T. 

 Ellwood Smith, yields a steady but not very copious supply of gas. Another well, 

 owned by Mr. E. M. Adams, of greater depth, also yields gas, which it is intended to 

 use at an early date. At Pleasanton and Blue Mound borings have been made, with 

 no remunerative result yet. 



In Crawford county a small quantity of gas was found at a depth of 173 feet, in 

 the mineral well owned by the city of Girard. At Pittsburg a larger supply is being 

 obtained, at a depth of 163 feet, and will be immediately utilized. At a much higher 

 horizon, at a depth of 45 feet, in the northwest of the county, some oil and a bubbling 

 as of gas has been found in a well east of Hepler. 



In Labette county borings have been made near Parsons without result, but at 

 Mound Valley there is a well 700 feet deep which yields gas at depths of 203 and 449 



