HAWORTH. | Origin of Oil and Gas. 193 
the ice and setting fire to the gas as it escapes. The name 
marsh-gas is given to the product because it is found in marshy 
places. The fact that this name has been incorporated into the 
language of organic chemistry and used the world over by be- 
ing applied to a great series of hydrocarbons, the marsh-gas 
series, shows the thinking person how wide-spread such gases 
ere. 
In many places throughout portions of America and Europe 
covered with a mantle of glacial material, gas in varying 
quantity has been found. For example, during the summer of 
1891 a party was drilling a well near Letts, Iowa. Ata depth 
of between 100 and 200 feet, and while still in the glacial ma- 
terial, he came upon a small volume of gas which burned read- 
- ily and seemed to have all the properties of natural gas. It 
seems that no chemical analysis was made of it, but from its 
general qualities there is no room to doubt its being practically 
the same as other natural gas. The quantity was sufficient to 
induce men of means to form a company and pipe the gas into 
the village, where it was used for a time for domestic purposes. 
Likewise, a few miles north of Des Moines, in 1887, a similar 
well obtained a similar quantity of natural gas from the glacial 
material. At this place a well was sunk hundreds of feet be- 
low the bottom of the glacial material with entirely negative 
results, the supply coming entirely from the glacial material. 
This same glacial material has in it in certain places compara- 
tively large quantities of organic matter, and it would seem we 
are compelled to admit that the gas in each of these two places 
was produced by a partial decomposition of such organic ma- 
terials. Could the sum total of gas already discovered in 
glacial material be bunched together it would form a very con- 
siderable amount, and would be well worth utilization. It is 
probable that in future time like amounts will be discovered in 
areas not yet penetrated by the drill. 
Now, if organic matter is decomposing before our eyes in 
this manner, forming a complex series of hydrocarbons, some 
of which are gaseous in nature, the question may well be asked: 
Why not account for the large bodies of hydrocarbons in a 
similar manner? Observation shows that shale-beds and sand- 
stones and limestones, practically of all geologic ages, contain 
varying amounts of organic matter. Indeed, we often have 
shale-beds containing so much oil material that it becomes 
profitable to distil such oil in commercial quantities. It is an 
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