Claypole on the gas explosion near Akron, . 191 
field. Some of them extended for a distance of 200 or 300 
feet from the focus. The largest was described as resembling 
the furrow left by a plough with the sod thrown back. It 
passed under Mr. Thornton's house and reached his barn, about 
100 feet distant, where it ended. Some of the houses — especi- 
ally Mr. Porter's — still show the cracks in the walls and ceiling 
made at that time. The noise, judging from the account, was as 
loud as that made by the recent explosion. 
Another similar case was reported to the writer by Mr. 
Thornton. It happened when he was a boy or about twenty-five 
years ago, but his memory could not supply any details. Nor 
was the writer able to ascertain the exact date of the explosion 
of 1882 and 1883. 
Sandy Hill lies near the North bank of the Tuscarawas river, 
and at an elevation of probably a hundred feet above that 
stream. It is in the region of the terminal glacial moraine 
which extends for several miles north and south of it' The pre- 
glacial valley now occupied by the Tuscarawas is here deeply 
buried with drift, which, judging from the tokens on the surface, 
cannot be less than one hundred feet deep. There is conse- 
quently no rock very near the surface. 
Of course this phenomenon, though singular, is not of the na- 
ture of a true earthquake. Its limited extent and purely local 
violence exclude it from that category. It more resembles an 
explosion of gas, and to this cause it has been generally attribu- 
ted. During the summer of 18S7, acting on this belief, Mr. W. 
Buckmaster of Akron leased several farms with the* intention 
of boring for gas, and at his request the waiter then visited the 
ground and made a report upon it in which, notwithstanding the 
evident violence of the action, he hesitated to recommend drill- 
ing. Prof. M. C Read of Hudson, O., also examined the spot 
at the request of Mr. Buckmaster and made another report. The 
two were in close agreement in all important points. No at- 
tempt has yet been made to drill for gas, the result of several 
holes sunk in 1887 failing to justify the hope that had been lo- 
cally excited by reports from other places. Out of four wells 
near Akron only one yields a supply of any value, and that one 
does not probably give more than 50,000 feet a day. 
The true explanation appears to be that there is a small sup- 
