Claypole on Natural Gas. 31 
the St. Peter's sandstone pass away out under Washington 
practically unchanged, but dolomitic deposits seem not to have 
extended very far sea\\^ard. 
THE FUTURE OF NATURAL GAS. 
BY E. W. CLAYPOLE. 
The excitement over the wonderful supply of gaseous fuel 
which began about four years ago and has since risen to fever- 
heat will form one of the most remarkable events in the history 
of economic geology in North America — second only, if second, 
to the great oil-craze of twenty-five years ago. The narrative 
stripped of all exaggeration is sufficiently striking to sound more 
like a chapter from the Ai'abian Nights, than a plain unvarn- 
ished story from actual history. Both may be fairly entered 
among the "fairy tales of science." The wild sjoeculation — the 
mania which marked the years from i860 to 1865 — was repeated 
on a somewhat smaller scale in 1885 and 1S86. As a forest of 
derricks arose in the few favored spots in Pennsylvania to bore 
for oil so has a similar forest arisen in almost every state in the 
Union to pierce and probe the strata in order to discover 
whether or not they contain any store of natural gas. The re- 
sult as we all know has been that a few places have found a rich 
supply of fuel read}^ to spring forth and do their bidding at a 
mei"ely nominal cost, while the greater part of the country has 
proved to be barren territory, yielding only "dry holes." 
Foremost among these favored spots is Pittsburgh near which 
have been developed surprising quantities of this clean and cheap 
fuel, the effect of which has been to render the once dirtiest city 
of the Union comparatively smokeless, and its air comparatively 
clear. 
Second to Pittsburg, but second only at an enormous interval, 
comes Findlay, O., which town has also found large stores of 
gas. Many other jDlaces in different parts of the country have 
had moi'e or less success in their search and are enjoying pi"o- 
portional advantage. 
The new fuel has naturally attracted manufacturei's to the 
places where it can be obtained, and the towns that possess large 
