56 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



permanent supplies seem to be confined, however, to the western 

 section. 



The geologic features of the gas fields have been described in 

 several reports and papers of the New York State Museum. In 

 particular may be noted the report of Edward Orton (Museum 

 Bulletin 30) which described the field of northern Chautauqua 

 county and the pools near the eastern end of Lake Ontario in 

 considerable detail. Notes on the developments in Erie county are 

 given in Bishop's " Structural and Economic Geology of Erie 

 County" (Museum Report 49, vol. 2) and the oil and gas fields 

 of southwestern New York are covered by the same writer in 

 special papers (Museum Reports 51, vol. 2, and 53, vol. 1). Field 

 notes of more recent date have been included in some of the issues 

 of the mining and quarry bulletin. 



Geologically the occurrence of natural gas in the State has a 

 rather wide distribution. Flows have been encountered from as 

 far down the column as the Potsdam sandstone and upward as far 

 as the Portage and Chemung strata at the top of the Devonic system. 

 The more productive horizons are in the Trenton limestone (Os- 

 wego county), the Medina sandstone (Genesee, Erie and Chautau- 

 qua counties) and the Devonic formations (Allegany, Cattaraugus 

 and Chautauqua counties). The Medina sandstone has been the 

 main source of supply in the more recent explorations in Erie, 

 Chautauqua and Genesee counties. 



The business of distributing the gas is in the control of relatively 

 few companies who have pipe lines connecting the fields with the 

 cities and communities which they supply. The Iroquois Natural 

 Gas Co. of Buffalo is the largest single distributor and collects gas 

 from Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and Erie counties, with 

 Buffalo as the principal consuming point. The Alden-Batavia 

 Natural Gas Co. and the Pavilion Natural Gas Co. are important 

 distributors in the Genesee-Erie county district. In Chautauqua 

 county are a great number of small producers who supply one 

 or two families, besides these large distributors : The South Shore 

 Natural Gas & Fuel Co., the Silver Creek Gas & Improvement Co. 

 In Allegany and Cattauraugus counties the Empire Gas & Fuel Co. 

 and the producers Gas Co. have pipe lines. A rather productive 

 field has been opened in the towns of East Bloomfield and West 

 Bloomfield, Ontario county, the gas being distributed by the Ontario 

 Gas Co. Among the smaller companies engaged in the business 

 are the Consumers Natural Gas Co. with wells in the town of Dix, 



