Bituminous and Oil Rocks. — Broadhead. 31 
iferous limestone of southwest Missouri. Nearly all of the 
coal and many of the rocks of the southwest when freshly 
broken, emit an odor of oil. Free bitumen from Ononogo, 
Jasper county, gave bitumen 95.75 per cent, ash (pale yellow) 
4.25. Bitumen mixed with sand, from Barton county, gave 
bitumen 44.74, ash 55.26. 
Prospecting for Oil. 
Between 1864 and 1868 several deep wells were bored for 
oil in western Missouri with no profitable result, although 
rocks containing oil are of frequent occurrence. 
On the MacCausland farm, near Higginsville, in Lafayette 
county, there is an extensive exposure of sandstone mostly 
black and quite sticky with bitumen. This attracted specu- 
lators soon after the first excitement in Pennsylvania, and 
about 1865 a well was bored over 700 feet deep, showing no 
downward increase in the amount of oil. The sandstone here 
belongs to the age of the lower Coal Measures. 
About the same time a well was bored over 700 feet deep 
on r^Iormon Fork, in Bates county, in search of oil. All the 
oil at this place was contained in about thirty feet of sandstone 
at the surface. On Fishing river, in Ray county, some bitu- 
men appearing in the surface sandstone caused a boring of 
over 800 feet to be made, but no oil was found below. 
In boring at the foot of the bluffs in Kansas City, in 1872, 
bitumen was encountered at 180 and at 291 feet, and it was 
reported to flow to the surface. Gas escaped from 450 feet. 
A well was drilled at St. James Hotel. Kansas City, and oil 
and gas were both obtained at 245 feet, and also at 300 feet 
in sandstone, and again at 313. and gas at 345 feet. At Dr. 
Ridge's well. Kansas City, gas was found at 282. 371 and at 
398 feet and was used for illuminating purposes.. 
At the foot of the bluffs. Randolph. Clay county, two bor- 
ings were made, one of 690 feet the other 848 feet. The sur- 
face at these wells is at about the base of limestone No. 78 of 
my section of the upper Coal Measures, or just below the base 
of the upper Coal Measures. One well passed through the 
Coal Measures at 671 feet, the other a little deeper. No gas 
was observed, but between 118 and 133 feet petroleum pre- 
vailed, deeply coloring the sandstone. The oil here, also in 
Kansas Citv, at the Mormon fork well, and that on Fishing 
