626 M. L. FULLER APPALACHIAN OIL FIELD 



strictly by the local geology and usually coincided with the strike of the 

 beds or the axes of the folds. Where founded on sufficient data, they 

 were naturally a great help in drilling; but, unfortunately, they were 

 often applied to districts other than those from which they were derived. 

 The use of a north 22^/2° east line in a region where strike was north 

 45° east meant failure from the start. Nevertheless, some drillers con- 

 tinued to place implicit faith in them for many years. Even within a 

 few years the management of one of the largest Pennsylvania companies 

 conducted its explorations in one field on degree lines running in all 

 directions of the compass, the sole basis being the positions of scattering 

 wells located miles apart. Yet this was in a country where the structure 

 was absolutely clear and many years after the anticlinal principle had 

 been firmly established. 



The first recognition of the anticlinal principle in literature appears to 

 liave been by T. Sterry Plunt in 1861 ;^ but the same conclusions as to the 

 relation of oil to anticlines were reached independently, and almost simul- 

 taneously, hf Prof. E. B. Andrews,^ of Marietta, Ohio. The publication 

 of these views made no impression on oil men, if indeed they ever heard 

 of them, and prospecting was continued for the next 20 years on the basis 

 of degree lines, divining devices, or mere impressions. 



Although the relation of oil to anticlines continued to be pointed out 

 from time to time by N'ewberry, Stevenson, and others, it was not imtil 

 the beginning of the great boom in natural gas that the attention of oper- 

 ators and scientists was finally riveted on the anticlinal principle. Mr. 

 William A. Earseman, an operator who had noted the coincidence of the 

 great Pennsylvania gas wells with the anticlinal axes as drawn on the 

 maps by the Second Geological Survey, suggested a geological investiga- 

 tion to Mr. J. J. Vandergrift, then President of the Forest Oil Company. 

 Dr. I. C. W^hite was engaged to make this investigation, and in June, 

 1883, he visited all the big gas wells of the Appalachian field. From these 

 studies he found that "every one of them was situated on or near the 

 crown of an anticlinal axis, while wells that had been bored in the syn- 

 clines on either side furnished little or no gas.^^^^ 



The correctness of Doctor White's conclusions were verified within the 

 next few years by the location of the Grapeville, Washington, and other 

 great gas pools. Guided by the same principles, Doctor White pointed 

 out for Pittsburgh parties in 1884 — long before the drill finally located 

 them — the probable locations of what have since proved to be the great 



8 Montreal Gazette, March 1, 1861 ; Canadian Naturalist, vol. 6, 1861, pp. 241-255. 

 oAm. Jour. Sci., vol. li, no. 32, .Tuly. 1861. p. 85 (article dated May 20, 1861). 

 1" Science, June 26, 1885. 



