August 17, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



155 



the memory of the man who had discovered 

 oxygen one hundred years hefore. In the 

 account of the proceedings detailed in the 

 American Chemist for 1874, we are told that 

 a movement was there begun which led later 

 to the establishment of the American Chem- 

 ical Society. 



And as the foundation of the American 

 Chemical Society has been thus linked with 

 the name of Joseph Priestley, it would seem 

 proper that we should seek in some lasting 

 way to commemorate his work as an inves- 

 tigator and philosopher and tireless searcher 

 after truth. 



It is earnestly hoped that the plans now 

 proposed by the committee for a memorial will 

 meet with approval and that we shall be able, 

 by means of an adequate subscription fund, 

 to render such honor as is due to the memory 

 of John Priestley. 



F. C. Phillips, Chairman, University of 

 Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. 



M. T. BoGERT, National Research Council, 

 Munsey Bldg., Washington, D. C. 



E. D. Campbell, University of Michigan, 

 Ann Arbor, Mich. 



C. F. Chandler, New Hartford, Conn. 



r. W. Clarke, U. S. Geological Survey, 

 Washington, D. C. 



E. C. Franklin, Leland Stanford Jr., 

 University, Cal. 



J. L. Howe, Washington and Lee Uni- 

 versity, Lexington, Va. 



J. H. Long, Northwestern University, 

 Chicago, 111. 



Edward W. Morley, West Hartford, 

 Conn. 



A. A. NoYES, Mass. Institute of Tech- 

 nology, Boston, Mass. 



W. A. NoYES, University of Illinois, Ur- 

 bana. 111. 



Ira Eemsen, Johns Hopkins University, 

 Baltimore, Md. 



E. F. Smith, University of Pennsylvania, 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



Alfred Springer, Cincinnati, O. 



F. P. Venable, Chapel Hill, N. C. 



Committee 



SCIENTIFIC EVENTS 



A STRUCTURE POSSIBLY FAVORABLE FOR OIL 

 UNDER THE CENTRAL GREAT PLAINS 



In consideration of the present great inter- 

 est in oil prospects in the Great Plains region, 

 the United States Geological Survey, Depart- 

 ment of the Interior, has prepared a report 

 giving aU available information regarding the 

 structure of that region. No oil or gas has 

 been found in most of this wide area, but it 

 contains several anticlines and domes like those 

 which yield oil and gas in central Kansas, 

 Oklahoma and Colorado, so that the conditions 

 are encouraging for exploratory borings. 

 Wells have been drilled at a number of places, 

 but most of them have either been sunk where 

 the structure was not favorable to the occur- 

 rence of oil or gas or have not been drilled deep 

 enough to test all the strata. 



The structirre of the Central Great Plains 

 north of latitude 37° has been investigated by 

 geologist N. H. Darton, who has prepared a 

 map shovring by contour lines the location and 

 configuration of a number of promising anti- 

 clines and domes. One of these domes lies on 

 the Nebraska-South Dakota line northeast of 

 Chadron, its crest being on White Eiver. It 

 may continue southward under the great sand 

 cover in Nebraska to join an anticline of mod- 

 erate prominence which crosses the Eepublican 

 Valley just above Cambridge, Nebr., and ex- 

 tends into the western part of Norton county, 

 Kans. 



A local dome of considerable height occurs 

 in Hamilton county, Kans., its crest being 6 

 or 8 miles southwest of Syracuse. It is on the 

 flank of the largest dome in the Central Great 

 Plains, which arches up the strata in Baca, 

 Las Animas, and Bent counties, Colo., and ad- 

 jacent parts of northern New Mexico. Its 

 crest is under the Mesa del Mayo, on the state 

 line. A dike of igneous rock not far west of 

 this place contains petroleum, which undoubt- 

 edly had its source in some of the uplifted 

 strata. 



A dome east of Fort Collins, into which a 

 drill has penetrated 3,900 feet, also presents 

 structure favorable for oil, and when the driU 

 reaches the beds that yield oil near Boulder it 

 may find in them a possible reservoir. There 



