Clayfole on Natural Gas. 35 
chapter in the history is then written. The well is dying and 
its extinction is near at hand. 
The analogy of the past enables us to develop the future. 
The history of hundreds of wells has been as above given — ■ 
gas in their early days, oil later, and lastly brine. Nor is there 
any reason to suppose that the existing wells ^vill, in spite of 
their vast present production be any exception to the general 
rule. They too will fail and cease to flow. The cities that 
now so complacently regard their store of gaseous fuel as prac- 
tically inexhaustible will be disappouited and will rue too 
late the enormous waste of the past. The preeminence which 
they now enjoy from this cause will pass away and they will 
be as they were before natural gas was discovered. 
The evil day may in some cases be staved off by sinking 
new wells and by the discovery of new territory adjacent to 
the old, but this can be only a temporary expedient, and as the 
petroleous glory of Franklin has passed away so will also pass 
away the gaseous glory of Findlay and Pittsburg. 
Some of our readers may ask how long it will be before 
these sayings are fulfilled. A definite answer to this question 
is impossible. We know not the extent of the reservoirs in the 
strata below us, nor the rate at which the gas is now coming off. 
But it will not be very long. The golden harvest will be of 
short duration, and those who are gathering it will do well to 
keep this truth constantly before them. 
It does not follow that a year or two will sec the exhaustion 
of the supply, though our own opinion is that before that time 
comes signs of the end will not be lacking. Already rumors, 
in most cases soon contradicted, have been afloat that the great 
Karg well at Findlay is beginning to spurt oil. It is very diffi- 
cult to learn the exact truth about the Pittsburg supply, especi- 
ally as new wells are constantly drilled and their supplies 
turned into the mains. But time will show, and when the 
yield seriously falls off concealment will be impossible. 
Some will object and say, "Is not gas being continually 
formed in the earth?" Possibly so. We do not suppose the 
processes of nature in the past are suspended in the present. 
But granting this uncertainty, the rate of formation must be far 
inferior to the rate of exhaustion. Indeed it is probably so 
