Record. XXXili 
Louis), and at Sparta, in Randolph County (fifty miles southeast of 
St. Louis). 
Much of this prospecting has been done in a genuine wild-cat or 
hit-or-miss manner, in which little or no judgment or geological study 
have been displayed and without any relation to anticlinal or other 
favorable conditions. One hole has also been the usual limit of a 
test, so that the evidence has been largely wasted, even if correctly 
interpreted. When the drill has been as extensively employed on the 
western flank of the basin as it has been in the past three years in 
eastern Illinois, the output of oil and gas is likely to be as large as 
in this rich field. Since the distance of the Western Illinois field from 
St. Louis ranges only from ten to seventy miles, its development is of 
the greatest importance to St. Louis financial and civic interests, espe- 
cially if it should duplicate the very profitable record of the Eastern 
Illinois field in growing from a production of 160,000 barrels in 1905 to 
25,000,000 in 1907.7 
May 18, 1908. 
President Woodward in the chair; attendance 15. 
The librarian reported the receipt of twenty-one vol- 
umes of the first series of Transactions and ten volumes 
of the first series of Proceedings of the Royal Irish 
Academy as a gift to the library; also the receipt of the 
early volumes of the Proceedings of the Natural History 
Society of Ziirich. 
Professor C. M. Woodward presented to the museum 
some specimens of copper from Calumet, Mich., taken 
from the native rock at a depth of 4600 feet in mine No. 
3, Tamarack Mine. 
Mr. Lindley Pyle presented a paper entieled ‘“Meas- 
urement of the Acceleration of a Freely Falling Body.’’ 
JUNE 1, 1908. 
President Woodward in the chair; attendance 20. 
The Librarian reported the gift to the Academy library 
of twenty volumes of the Proceedings of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science and ten vol- 
umes of ‘‘Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau’’ from Dr. 
Evers. 
In the matter of securing the co-operation of all scien- 
* The production of the Eastern Illinois oil fields in 1908 from 
about 12,000 wells, ranging from 400 to 1600 feet in depth, was 38,844,- 
899 barrels, which breaks all records in the history of the industry for 
such a phenomenal output in only four years of development. 
