THE CONQUEST OF NATURE 



now draws largely upon the knowledge of the scien- 

 tist to aid him in his search. Geology, for example, 

 assists him in determining the region in which his 

 mines may be found, if it cannot actually point out the 

 location for sinking his shaft; and at least a rough 

 knowledge of botany and chemistry is an invaluable 

 aid to him. It is obvious that it would be useless to 

 prospect for coal in a region where no strata of rocks 

 formed during the Carboniferous or coal-forming age 

 are to be found within a workable distance below the 

 surface of the earth. The prospector must, therefore, 

 direct his efforts within "geological confines" if he 

 would hope to be successful, and in this he is now 

 greatly aided by the geological surveys which have 

 been made of almost every region in the United States 

 and Europe. 



An example of what science has done in this direc- 

 tion was shown a few years ago in a western American 

 town during one of the "oil booms" that excited so 

 many communities at that time. In the neighborhood 

 of this town evidences of oil had been found from time 

 to time some of them under peculiar and suspicious 

 circumstances, to be sure and the members of the 

 community were in an intense state of excitement over 

 the possibility of oil being found on their lands. 

 Prices of land jumped to fabulous figures, and the 

 few land-owners that could be induced to part with 

 their farms became opulent by the transactions. An 

 "oil expert" appeared upon the scene about this time 

 just "happening to drop in" who declared, after 

 an examination, that the entire region abounded in 



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