PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS IN NEW YORK 469 



The presence of the sulfureted hydrogen is not an unmixed 

 disadvantage to the gas. By its odor it gives prompt warning 

 of leaks in the lines of supply, and does a good deal to protect 

 the users against danger from this source. 



It would seem as if its presence is to be ascribed to the sul- 

 fureted water which is found in contact with the gas in many 

 parts of the field. The Kingsville gas field of Ontario furnishes 

 gas from an entirely distinct horizon, but under conditions simi- 

 lar to those found in Findlay and its gas has the same composi- 

 tion in all respects, including the sulfur contents. 



The danger in the handling of the gas of the western fields 

 lies in this fact, i. e. that the plumbing in many towns is so 

 poorly done that the air is constantly loaded with the odor of 

 the leaking gas, so that even dangerous leaks may escape obser- 

 vation. Careful and thorough work in plumbing should be in- 

 sisted on in every town and in fact in every house in which gas 

 is introduced. 



It must be added, however, that no serious accident from ex- 

 plosions in connection with the recent discovery of gas has thus 

 far been recorded in this state. 



Is Baldwinsville gas shale gas ? 



To refer Baldwinsville gas, with its wells of large volume 

 and of extremely high rock pressure, to the somewhat inferior 

 division of shale gas as contrasted with reservoir gas, seems at 

 first sight invidious and unjust, but the insignificant gas-flows 

 from the rocks of Jefferson county, already described, where the 

 Trenton limestone occurs in outcrop, admit of no other reference. 

 They agree in all particulars with the small wells derived from 

 shale formations of typical occurrence. But the gas at Sandy 

 Creek and Pulaski clearly belongs to the same division as the 

 gas of Jefferson county, being found in unmistakably the same 

 horizon and having the same general characters. These charac- 

 ters can be stated as follows: 1) No two wells draw their supplies 

 from exactly the same horizon, but the gas. is frequently dis- 

 tributed through one or two hundred feet of the strata, the total 

 flow being made up of numerous small veins. It is true, however, 

 that gas is looked for more confidently at one particular range 

 than another. 2) No two wells have the same rock pressure. 

 The records of the Pulaski field, for example, have shown from 



