498 
GEOLOGY OF THE FOURTH DISTRICT. 
the escape of the gas ; in other places the gas rises alone, and in many places there may be 
seen considerable quantities of petroleum where no gas escapes. 
At Laona, petroleum and gas both escape from the surface, and from the rocks and earth 
beneath the stream ; and there are several other localities where the same phenomena may 
be seen along the outcrop of the sandstone, which is quarried on the line of the railroad. 
Near Forrestville there is a copious discharge of this gas, which it is contemplated to convey 
to the village for the purpose of lighting it. The village of Fredonia is lighted with this gas, 
which issues from the shale forming the bed of the stream passing through the place. The 
light-house at Portland harbor is illuminated with this gas, which rises from a stream three- 
fourths of a mile north. 
In the conclusion of this chapter, I would say, that while I have intended to omit nothing that 
Can be regarded as important to the interests of the inhabitants, or aiding them in the knowledge 
or direction of their available wealth, I have omitted details which can be of no present utility, 
and which may, by seeming to attach undue consideration to things which are only contingent 
and prospective, have a tendency to mislead. For example, masses of beautiful stone, mar¬ 
ble, beds of peat, marl, etc, I have not calculated by the cubic foot or yard, as if already 
worked out and sold ; whence the farmer or speculator, regarding only the ultimate value of 
his wealth, increases his price according to this essentially false estimate. For it must be 
considered that years are required to consume a marl bed, a peat bog or a marble quarry ; that 
the income depends on the demand ; and though its stated value may be realized in twenty 
or fifty years, the capital invested in its purchase might, in the mean time, and otherwise em¬ 
ployed, yield fourfold. Like the products of a cultivated farm, the returns are constant and 
slow, differing from that only in the circumstance that it is not inexhaustible. 
I would not be understood as attaching little importance to such property. To the farmer, 
the value of a marl bed or a peat bog is immense ; but I would say, that geologists, when 
occupied in such objects as calculating the value of a mass, in dollars, while they degrade 
their science, defeat their own purpose; they mislead those who are guided by their repre¬ 
sentations, and foster the very spirit which their researches should allay, viz. the mania of 
speculation. If such a course is pursued, it requires no great foresight to perceive that want 
of confidence will prevail, and geology be ranked with the art of the adventurer with the mi¬ 
neral rod. Besides, there is confessedly room for error in estimating the contents of a bed 
or vein. In the fourth district, we know that beds of limestone, marble, grindstone grits, etc. 
are liable to thin out within a few rods, or they may continue for miles : in this state of the 
case, it is very unsafe to predict or infer that one stratum will extend for a distance of several 
miles because another one has been found to do so, when we know the greater number do not. 
The available resources for agriculture and trade, of the northern range of counties, consist 
in iron ore, gypsum, marl, muck, limestone, sandstone, etc. Those of the middle range con¬ 
sist of gypsum, limestone, marl, muck and some less important objects. 
In the southern range, sandstone for all purposes of building, marl for lime, and muck for 
improvement of the soil, are the principal resources. The inflammable gas is turned to some 
