Rcviciv of Recent Geological Literature. 261 
REVIEW OF RECENT GEOLOGICAL 
LITERATURE. 
The occurrence and c.vl^loitation of petroleum and natural [:os in Ohio. 
John Adams Bownocker. Fourth scries, Bulletin No. i, of the 
Geological Survey of Ohio, Edward Orton, Jr. State Geologist, 
Columbus. O. December, 1503, pp. .125, xxi with maps. 6 plates. 
Excepting a brief historical sketch of the organization and work of 
the Geological survey of Ohio by Prof. Orton, this volume is devoted 
to oil and gas by Prof. Bownocker. The chupters nr^; The oil and gas 
producing rocks of Ohio ; The Trenton limcsfone as a source of oil and 
gas; The Clinton formation as a source of oil and gas; The Carlx)nif- 
crous rocks as a souroe of oil and gas ; The origin of oil and gas, 
and geological conditions under which they are found. 
Above the Trenton limestone, the lowest gas producing rock of 
Ohio, commercial quantities of oil and gas hive been found in a large 
number of formations reaching as high as the Monongahela forma- 
tion, the Upper Productive Coal Measures of the Carboniferous. The 
author discusses fifteen. He gives in detail *he histgry of exploitation 
at the various fields, entering into the methods of various municipalities 
to secure free gas for manufacturing establishments, and cheap gas for 
the citizen. Toledo has had a very unfortunate and costly experience. 
After an expenditure of two millions of dollars to establish a munici- 
pal gas plant it has now only an annual income of $6,500, derived from 
the rent paid by a private company for the use of the city's distribut- 
ing gas lines. The history of Findlay reads like a romance — discovery, 
excitement, speculation, extravagant use and waste, boom, wane, col- 
lapse, and a scampering of the speculators to the new fields 01 Indiana. 
Oil when it accompanied gas, was at that time regarded a nuisance. 
This was in the eighties. Gradually, as the prevalence of oil in the 
same regions and in the same rocks, became an aggressive economic 
fact, efforts were turned to its utilization. At the date of 1901 the 
Trenton limestone produced in Ohio the cncrmcus supply of 16.176.2g2 
barrels. The greatest supply from this source in Ohio was in 1896, reach- 
ing 20,575,138 barrels. The total oil supply m the United States for 
those years was respectively 69,389,194 barreis and 60,960.361 barrels. 
Oil is therefore now by far the greater of these sources of wealth, 
but according to sj'mptoms that are well known it also is fast going 
dvcr the same read to pxhaustion. Wells are being abandoned, and 
the great flowers are much reduced, salt water threatening to be their 
doom. The counties of the state have all been tested by drilled wells, 
some of them haying scores and even thousands, so that the resources 
of the state in this direction are practically kiiown. The reservoirs, or 
'■pools'' of oil as well as of gas have probably all been discovered. 
This report serves to put on record and to preserve the history of 
what has been probably the most important and exciting run of 
