1890.] 57 [Lesley. 



able assistants ; established his offices at several points of the region ; 

 entered into personal relations with railroad and coal companies ; made 

 friends and correspondents of all the civil and mining engineers, colliery 

 managers, superintendents, and mine bosses ; laid out a general map of 

 the region ; planned its division into sheets to be successively published ; 

 and gradually, by a wise and skillful system of proof reading of each 

 advance sheet by all intelligent interested parties previous to actual print- 

 ing, he acquired the entire confidence and respect of the mining com- 

 munity. 



The sheets that appeared with his first report on thePanthar Creek basin 

 (the east end of the Southern field, between the Lehigh and Little Schuyl- 

 kill rivers) showed what was to be expected of this great geological survey. 

 Those of the Northern field (Wyoming basin), of the Eastern Middle 

 field (Beaver Meadow group), and of the Western Middle field (Mahanoy 

 and Shamokin basins) followed during the years 1881 to 1887, when he 

 resigned his commission to accept business relations with Mr. Westing- 

 house, of Pittsburgh, as geological expert of his companies. 



Previous to this, however, Mr. Ashburner had a heavier load laid upon 

 him, for he acted as responsible First Assistant Geologist of the State 

 Survey, and had a general supervision of all that went on in the State, 

 being the trusted adviser and executive officer of the State Geologist. 

 The anthracite survey was finished by his accomplished first assistant, Mr. 

 Frank A. Hill, who resigned with all the other members of the corps, 

 June 1, 1889, the term fixed by the last act of Legislature for the comple- 

 tion of the work of the Survey. 



Mr. Ashburner, for two years before his death, was chiefly occupied in 

 visiting and reporting upon supposed new oil and gas regions in Canada 

 and the United States, and also upon gold and copper properties in the 

 Rocky Mountain regions. On his last return from Arizona he fell ill and 

 suddenly died at his home in Pittsburgh, at the age of thirty-six, leaving 

 a wife and two children, and a multitude of ardent friends and admiring 

 acquaintances, to lament an irreparable loss. 



His contributions to the current literature of his science may be found 

 in the Proceedings of this Society under the titles : "On Kintzie's Fire- 

 damp Indicator," Vol. xxi, p. 283 ; "Notes on the Natural Bridge of Vir- 

 ginia," xxi, 699 ; " Remarks on the Recent Publications of the Geological 

 Survey of Pennsylvania," xxii, 86. 



He was a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers from 

 1875, and one of its managers in 1885, 1886, and 1887 ; and his papers will 

 be found in its Transactions, entitled : "The Bradford Oil District," vii, 

 316 ; "The Bragos Coal Field, Texas," ix, 495 ; "New Method of Map- 

 ping the Anthracite Coal Fields of Pennsylvania," ix, 506 ; "The Flan- 

 nery Boiler setting for the Prevention of Smoke," x, 212; "The Anthra^ 

 cite Coal Beds of Pennsylvania," xi, 20 ; "The Product and Exhaustion of 

 the Oil Regionsof Pennsylvania and New York," xiv, 419 ; "The Geology 

 of Natural Gas," xiv, 428 ; "The Classification and Constitution of Penn- 



PROC. AMEK. PHILOS. SOC. XXVIII. 132. H. PRINTED MARCH 31, 1890. 



