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Fearful and wonderful tales were told me of the enormeus 
pressures developed in this well by confinement ; for example, 
that two men with sledges had driven into the upper: end of 
the tube a carefully whittled plug of hard wood, as hard and 
fast as possible; but that scarce had they ceased driving when 
the plug was ejected, with a stupendous uproar, and shot up 
to a height whereto the eye of man reacheth not. This narra- 
tive I do not endorse, and it does not seem calculated to 
command conviction. 
I wish to take the opportunity here to add some views of 
my own, bearing on the important questions of the future 
development, to the highest attainable degree, by the appl- 
cation of science and art, of these treasures of Nature. The 
points to be considered are three, the Geology, the Chemistry, 
and the Engineering of gas wells. 
1. GEOLOGY. 
This subject is one upon which we have already some 
valuable light, though many obscure questions yet remain, 
to be cleared away as explorations advance. At the same 
time the scientific consideration, even of our present develop- 
ments, cannot fail to be of great service, in guiding our 
future work. | 
Upon this subject I had many consultations, some years 
since, with my friend Dr. R. P. Stevens (now at the Guayana 
gold fields in South America,) whose familiarity with the 
geology of the eastern United States is minute. He believed 
the gas of the Bloomfield well comes from the Marcellus 
shale, which crops out some miles north of the place, dipping 
south. This shale is so black as often to have been mistaken 
for coal, and sometimes will even burn. This he stated to 
be the lowest or deepest gas-producing horizon he had 
knowledge of. The facts stated, however, of the Buffalo well, 
630 feet deep, which must have been sunk in rocks of the 
Corniferous period (Upper Helderberg,) below the Marcellus, 
seem clearly to indicate another productive horizon far below 
this, and even altogether below the Devonian; and, as at 
Buffalo, the Lower Helderberg (the upper member of the 
