EXPLORATION FOR PETROLEUM 15 
into the Gulf Coast. In the exploration of several prospects recom- 
mended by Deussen, the device consistently failed to indicate any 
marked anomalies. One of the prospects was Sheppards Mott, in 
Matagorda County, Texas, and another later proved to be the Rabbs 
Ridge, or Thompson oil field in Fort Bend County. The failures of 
the device to register then at those two prospects is understandable 
now that they are recognized as very deep-seated salt domes, but 
Deussen could not reconcile himself to the possibility that all of his 
carefully studied and chosen prospects were normal areas. Finally, 
in desperation, he tried the device out in another area where, unknown 
to the operators, the shallow salt dome near New Iberia, Louisiana, 
had recently been discovered as a result of drilling a surface prospect. 
We can probably appreciate Deussen’s sigh of relief when the all too 
familiar report “‘No salt dome present”’ was made. 
About this time, a second Mintrop seismograph crew appeared in 
the Gulf Coast, operating under the auspices of the Gulf Production 
Company. Possibly, as H. C. Cortes suggests, the experience gained 
at the cost of the Marland failures had borne fruit by this time, for 
the method showed positive evidence of shallow salt domes in quick 
succession on the Gulf’s chosen surface prospects at Orchard, Fan- 
nett, Hawkinsville, and Starks. 
This spectacular performance, together with the quicker and 
greater operating coverage of the seismograph (as compared with 
that characteristic of the torsion balance), led DeGolyer to recon- 
sider his former unfavorable opinion of the device and to change his 
strategy. Investigation showed that Dr. J. C. Karcher alone re- 
mained available of four American physicists who had participated in 
the first seismograph exploration in the United States in 1919. With 
him as a nucleus, the Geophysical Research Corporation was organ- 
ized and staffed with men trained in operating electrically rather than 
mechanically. This organization invaded a field dominated by a 
successful rival, and quickly set the pace. In less than a year, positive 
results were registered in the discovery of the Moss Bluff salt dome, 
Liberty County, Texas, and the Port Barre salt dome, St. Landry 
Parish, Louisiana, in May and June, 1926. 
As a strategist, DeGolyer properly allowed his tacticians a free 
hand. Rather than a taskmaster, he was a taskmaker. Fer instance, 
before his organization had thoroughly mastered the refraction seis- 
mograph, he set them the problem of quantitatively anticipating the 
drill. In little more than two years after the formation of the Geo- 
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