CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS. 47 
son and make a geological survey of the vicinity, in the hope that his report 
would be favorable and arouse new enthusiasm. This Professor Haworth did, 
and the report which he sent to Wm. F. Dolan, president of the company, ex- 
pressed his belief that no well had as yet entirely penetrated the Cherokee shales 
at Atchison, and that their lower surface would probably be reached there at 
from 1200 to 1300 feet. The report summed up the whole matter as follows: 
‘Tt seems to me that the probabilities of a workable vein of coal underlying 
Atchison are fairly good.”’ 
The directors finally collected the subscriptions, but still lacked sufficient 
money to pay the price asked by reliable diamond-drill companies for the amount 
of drilling it was desired todo. Later, one of the drill companies, the Sullivan 
Machinery Company, of Chicago, took a contract to do some drilling near St. 
Joseph, Mo., nineteen miles northeast of Atchison, for a lower price than they 
had asked of the Atchisoncompany. This reduction in price was made, presum- 
ably, because the state of Missouri would have considerable drilling to do, as it 
had a fund to be expended in prospecting, under the conditions that, if the pros- 
pecting was successful, the parties interested should bear the entire expense, but 
if unsuccessful, the state was to bear one-half the expense. 
When the directors of the Atchison company learned of this reduction in 
price, they immediately sent Mayor Donald and S. C. King to see the represen- 
tatives of the Sullivan Machinery Company, at St. Joseph. The price at which 
the work was being done there was such that the Atchison company could pay 
for the actual drilling desired; but they were unwilling to proceed without 
watchmen, and they did not have sufficient money to pay reliable men for watch- 
ing at the drill day and night. The reason the Atchison company were unwilling 
to proceed without watchmen was because there were so many stories to the ef- 
fect that the correct records of some of the old prospect holes had been sup- 
pressed; and it was determined that there should never be any question in regard 
to the correctness of the record they proposed making. 
The writer was then sent to St. Joseph to obtain such geological information 
as was possible, in order that a comparison might be made of the strata at places 
near Atchison. A-complete copy of the record of the St. Joseph well, as far as 
it had then gone, was obtained; and this compared so favorably with the known 
record at Leavenworth, twenty miles southeast of Atchison, that it made the 
directors still more anxious to proceed with the drilling at Atchison. But as the 
Atchison company did not have sufficient money to pay watchmen, Professor 
Haworth wasappealed to. Heresponded by agreeing to send Mr. L. N. Morscher, 
at the expense of the University Geological Survey, to act as one of these watch- 
men, the writer to act as the other, and to keep a record of the strata passed 
through, for the survey. In return, the directors agreed to give the university 
the entire core from the hole. 
As it was thus made possible to finish the hole to a depth of 1000 feet with 
the money then on hand, a contract was made with the Sullivan Machinery Com- 
pany to drill a prospect hole at Atchison. It was provided in this contract that 
the hole should be 1500 feet, if necessary ; that a two-inch core should be brought 
up; that the price of the first 1000 feet should be three dollars per foot; that 
the price of the next 200 feet should be four dollars per foot, and the price of the 
next 300 feet should be five dollars per foot; that the Atchison company should 
furnish fuel and water at the drill; and that there should be on deposit, in the 
bank, at no time less than the contract price of 100 feet of drilling. 
Under this contract work was commenced July 23, 1900. At a depth of 799 
feet the Leavenworth seam was found; and when a depth of nearly 1000 feet was 
