GNITE, NATUllAL UAS, AND WATEK TOWER. 631 



NATURAL GAS. 



A few years ago, after the wonderful discoveries of natural gas in 

 Pennsylvania and Oluo, many people held the delusive hope and belief 

 that it could be obtained in valuable amount by boring deepl}' in almost 

 any locality or geologic formation. In the Red River Valley this hope was 

 fostered by the occurrence of combustible gas issuing from wells in the 

 drift in Artlmr Township, Traverse County, at Argyle, and in section 

 10, Wanger, Marshall County, Minn., and near Argusville and Gardner, at 

 Hillsboro, near Ciumnings, and near Mayville, in North Dakota. These 

 flows of gas, though readily ignited and burning for a time with consider- 

 able flame, are of small amount, and are proljabU' derived from fragmentary 

 lignite and other vegetal uiatter very scantily contained in tlie drift. 



To test the questions whether either artesian water or gas could be 

 obtained from the rock formations underlying the drift at Moorhead, a well 

 was bored there in 188!) to tlie depth of 1,750 feet (page 556). Below the 

 ilepth of 365 feet this boring, which was done at public cost by order of 

 tlie city government, was in Archean granitoid and gneissic rocks, in which 

 a large expenditure was wasted after the State geologist, Prof N. H. Win- 

 ched, had informed the mayor that the samples of the drillings forbade 

 "any hope of obtaining artesian water or other product of value." ^ It is 

 well-nigh certain that nowhere in this lacustrine area can either lignite or 

 natural gas be found in sucli quantity as to be practically utilized. 



WATER POWER AND MANUFACTURES. 



Very valuable water powers, some of which are now used, while many 

 others have not been improved nor surveyed, exist on the head stream of 

 the Red River above Breckenridge, on its triljutary, tlie I'elicau River, 

 on the Red Lake River and its tributary, the Clearwater, on the Rainy and 

 Winnipeg rivers, at the Grand Rapids of the Saskatchewan, and on the 

 Nelson. There are also small and less constant water powers, several of 

 which are utilized, on the Buifalo and Wild Rice rivers, in Miianesota, on 

 the Sheyenne, Goose, Turtle, Forest, Park, and Pembina rivers, in North 

 Dakota, and on the Souris and Assiniboine rivers, in Manitoba. 



' Geol. and Nat. Hist. Survey of Minnesota, Bulletiu No. 5, 1889: Natural (ias in Minnesota, p. 39. 



