24 BULLETIN 102, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
the caprice of nature for first the finding, and secondly the continuity 
of the supply of its primary source of public utility service. 
NATURAL GAS SERVICE AND OIL BUSINESS DISTINGUISHED. 
Gas can not be gathered, stored, or transported in the same manner as oil. 
If found in sufficient quantity, it is turned from the well into the line and the 
pressure at the mouth of the well is the motive power by which it is driven 
through the line to the consumer miles away. If the pressure at a given well 
is much below that in the line with which it is connected, the gas from that 
PIG. 7. DECLINE IN NUMBER ACRES AVAILABLE NATURAL GAS LAND RESERVED 
POR EACH NATURAL GAS WELL OP THE UNITED FUEL GAS CO. 
well can hot enter the line, but will be driven back by the superior force it 
encounters at the point of connection. For this reason, a well, producing gas 
in sufficient quantity to be profitably utilized, if there was a market for it near 
at hand, may be entirely valueless if its product must find a market at a 
distance too great to justify its transportation by a line of its own. In an oil 
district each well, no matter how large or how small its product may be, is 
separately operated, and a well may be profitably operated so long as its yield 
