168 PROCEEDINGS OF THE INDIANA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



and wide. The wild-catter and the oil and gas producer, urged on by the 

 town-site promoter, and the city lot speculator, continued to delve deep 

 into the depths of the Hoosier State in search of those riches of stored power, 

 there hidden since the sun gave up its heat and light to the plant cells of the 

 old Silurian seas. With their iron drills they sunk for gas alone in fifteen 

 years, twelve thousand vents to the Trenton rock. Through these there 

 poured natural gas valued, even at the extremely low price at which it was 

 sold, at $81,213,911. So greedy were they, so ignorant of the real value of 

 this gaseous fuel and the manner of its formation, so reckless in its consump- 

 tion, that at the end of a quarter of a century there remains only the dregs 

 of the plenty that has been. 



One of the most valuable and extensive papers ever published on Indiana 

 gas was the one entitled "The Natural Gas Field of Indiana," by Dr. A. J. 

 Phinney, then of Muncie, Avho had been an assistant on the State Survey 

 under Thompson and Gorby. It appeared in 1891 in the Eleventh Annual 

 Report of the U. S. Geological Surve.y, and contained an introduction by 

 W. J. McGee on "Rock Gas and Related Bitumens," in which he says: 

 "When exploitation for gas began in Ohio, in 1SS6, the geologist literally 

 sat at the feet of the prospector, gathering such crumbs as fell from his hands, 

 and found himself utterly unable either to guide efforts or to predict results. 

 Less than two years later the laws governing the distribution and accumula- 

 tion of gas and oil were so fully developed that the rock gas problem claimed 

 a solution as satisfactory as that of the well known artesian water problem; 

 and to-day the geologist predicts the success or failure of a prospect bore for 

 gas or oil about as readily and relia1>ly as he can })r()gnosticate artesian water 

 or coal." 



With all due res})ect to the opinion of Dr. McGee we must consider the 

 latter part of this statement strongly overdrawn. If the supposed gas or 

 oil field be in a hilly or mountainous country where the outcrops and anti- 

 clines can be readily traced it is probably true, but if in a comparatively 

 level country or in one in which the surface is deeply covered with drift, the 

 geologist cannot accurately jjredict the success or failure of any bore unless 

 it be in a j)artly developed field, where he has ])een able, by a series of accurate 

 surface levels to trace the trend and width of the anticline of the productive 

 formation. Even then the texture of the i)roducing rock may vary greatly 

 and cause many wrong predictions. Had the statement of Dr. Mc(iee proven 

 true, the great majority of working geologists in the United States would have 

 long since adopted petroleum geology as a specialty and would 1>e no longer 

 concerned about the high cost of living. 



Continuing, Dr. McGee says: "The solution of tlic problem of rock gas 

 and petroleum marks an era in science no less than in industry. Millions 

 of dollars were probably spent by prospectors in gathering data, but the 

 credit for the solution of the prol)lem belongs chiefly to three individuals: 

 I. C. White of the University of West Virginia; Edward Orton, State Geologist 



