60 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



in the eastern and southern parts, amounted to about 1,500,- 

 000,000 cubic feet or approximately 40 per cent of the total for 

 the State. The wells in the eastern section are much the more 

 important. They are largely controlled by the Akron Natural 

 Gas Co., Alden-Batavia Natural Gas Co., Lancaster-Depew Nat- 

 ural Gas Co., Niagara Light, Heat & Power Co., and the United 

 Natural Gas Co. In the southern part of the county the Spring- 

 ville Natural Gas Co. is the principal producer. 



The Pavilion field of Genesee county, the most successful one 

 that has recently been discovered in the State, made a good 

 record in 1909. In all about 20 producing wells have been put 

 down by the Pavilion and Alden-Batavia companies. 



PETROLEUM 



The oil district in the southwestern part of the State con- 

 tinues to afford a fairly large yield, though of course it has long 

 since passed the high mark of productivity. The pools of Cat- 

 taraugus county were first tapped in 1865 and those in Allegany 

 county about 1878, since which times they have been actively 

 exploited. Many of the original wells that were drilled over 25 

 years ago still give a profitable return for pumping. No im- 

 portant discoveries have been reported in recent years, yet by 

 redrilling of territory once abandoned as worthless and by grad- 

 ually extending the bounds of the known pools the natural 

 decline has been so checked that a long career of activity may 

 be confidently expected for the future. 



The productive area in Cattaraugus county is situated prin- 

 cipally in Olean, Allegany and Carrolton townships, embracing 

 about 40 square miles. The oil is found at: depths ranging from 

 600 to 1800 feet. The larger pools are the Ricebrook, Chip- 

 munk, Allegany and Flatstone. They occur in the Chemung 

 formation of the Upper Devonic. 



In Allegany county are the Bolivar, Richburg, Andover and 

 Wirt pools which extend across the southern townships and 

 are tapped by wells averaging from 1400 to 1800 feet deep. The 

 Andover pool lies partly in the town of West Union, Steuben co. 

 A recent estimate placed the number of productive wells in 

 Allegany county at 6000. 



The discovery of a new pool in northern Allegany county a 

 few years ago aroused unusual interest in that it indicated a 

 much wider range of the oil-bearing strata than had previously 



