in his annual message to the facts already stated, and recommended a re-enactment of the legislation of last winter that had been found defective. This action was promptly taken and the long-delayed volume, considerable portions of which have been twice rewritten, at length sees the light. The bulk of the volume is devoted to the subjects of oil and gas, as is proper, in view of the recent astonishing developments in Ohio. Fortunately for the author, there was, in the latter part of 1887, a little lull in the storm of exploration that has raged in the state for the last four years. Of this he has gladly availed himself in getting his record into print. The statements of the volume are thus a little nearer to the present conditions of the field than they could have been if published at any other time within the period above named, but it does not require a very careful reading to find in the text the traces of frequent revision. More than this, the conclusions which larger experience has given will be found side by side, to some extent, with the earlier generalizations from a smaller and less important line of facts. In spite of all the unpaid labor that has been expended in this revision and extension of the report, there are still some sections of the field to which scant justice has been done. If the volume could be written as a whole with present knowledge, it is certain that the emphasis with which some of the facts are stated and the inferences drawn from them would vary in many points from the inferences and emphasis which now obtain. Such results are to be expected, however, as long as continued study is given to such subjects as these. Something has been learned in regard to the geology of petroleum and inflammable gas from the study of the new fields in Ohio, but a great deal more remains to be learned. There are few, questions pertaining to the subject to which full and final answers can now be given, but the facts relating to Trenton limestone oil and gas that are here presented, are sure to be recognized by all students in this department of geological science as of great significance and importance. The new Ohio field is destined to become classical ground in such study. In the legislation ordering the present volume, it was required that the coal fields of the state which were not treated of in Volume V, should be here described. This work was undertaken, and excellent chapters will be found on the Pittsburgh coal in Eastern Ohio and in the Pomeroy field, by Messrs. Brown and Lovejoy respectively. Reliable maps of the coal areas accompany these chapters. One important section of the first named field was omitted in this review, from want of time in 1886, and from want of funds in 1887. Reference is made to Harrison county. It is a matter of sincere regret that it has been found necessary to do such injustice to its fine body of coal lands as to leave them without mention or mapping in the present volume. Another omission to fully comply with the law providing for publication must be acknowledged. A chapter was to be prepared on the composition, strength and durability of Ohio building stones. In its preparation, a good deal of time has been spent, and the facts accumulated would have been found to possess both scientific interest and practical value, but unfortunately, the data obtained have been mislaid or lost, and time has not been found to repeat the observations and tests. A large part of the work had been done on the Berea Grit. In recording the great number of facts that it has been attempted to incorporate in this volume, it can scarcely be otherwise than that errors of statement will occur. It can be truly said in extenuation of such inaccuracies, that pains have not been spared in gathering the facts. It must be remembered that the sources of such information are varied and unequal in value, and that exactness is not always attainable. To the companies that have been formed in so many of the towns of Ohio to explore the underlying rocks for gas and oil or to utilize the same when found, to the contractors and drillers who have done the practical work of exploration and exploitation, and to a great body of intelligent observers beside, the Geological Survey is greatly indebted. Information of great value has been freely given by all, and few attempts to mislead or deceive have been detected. A half dozen persons have been so painstaking in supplying the accumulating facts from their several fields, that it would be wrong to leave them without special acknowledgments, although such mention may seem almost invidious in the presence of the great number whose services are scarcely less. Reference is made to Hon. L. C. Sawyer, of St. Mary's; Hon. George C. Phelps, of Bowling Green; Capt. George P. Waldorf, of Lima; Milton Taylor, of Toledo, and David A. Wolff, of Bryan. The chemical work of the volume constitutes one of its most interesting and important features. In no other state of the Union has the chemical composition of the s ced out a extensively as in Ohio. Special acknowledgments are also due to the officers of various railroad lines who have contributed greatly to the success of the field-work that underlies this volume, by giving free transportation for all or portions of the time to the officers of the Survey. The appropriations by the Legislature have been small, and it would have been impossible to do what has been done in the accumulation of facts, without the assistance afforded in the way here indicated. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Geological Scale, 3; Geological Structure, 45. CHAPTER II. The Origin and Accumulation of Petroleum and Natural Gas- Modes of Accumulation, 83; Effects of Disturbance of Strata, 89; Rock CHAPTER III. The Trenton Limestone as a Source of Oil and Gas in Ohio- The Findlay Field, 118; The Bowling Green Field, 156; The Lima Oil Field, 165; Trenton Limestone at Other Points in Ohio, 182; Sum- .........476-515 CHAPTER IX. Measurement of Gas Wells and Other Gas Streams, and the Piping of Natural Gas-By Professor S. W. Robinson,...548- 594 CHAPTER X. The Pittsburgh Coal Seam in Jefferson, Belmont and Guernsey Counties-By Professor C. Newton Brown.................595– 626 Natural and Artificial Cements-By Professor N. W. Lord..671- 695 CHAPTER XIV. Gypsum or Land Plaster in Ohio-By Edward Orton......696- 702 CHAPTER XV. The Production of Lime in Ohio-By Edward Orton........703- 771 CHAPTER XVII. Supplemental Report on the New Gas Fields and Oil Fields APPENDIX. Table of Elevations in Ohio ..... Map of the Lima Oil Field and the Auglaize-Mercer Gas Map of the Berea Grit in Ohio, in Outcrop and Under Scale, 2 miles to one inch. Cover............. Scale, 12 miles to one inch. GEOLOGY OF OHIO. CHAPTER I. THE GEOLOGY OF OHIO, CONSIDERED IN ITS RELATIONS TO PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS. BY EDWARD Orton. The subjects to be discussed in this and the four succeeding chapters are of large and increasing interest to the people of the state at the present time. The recently acquired importance of natural gas in western Pennsylvania, and in northwestern Ohio, in particular, has led to earnest inquiry and in many cases to expensive search for this admirable fuel in various districts of Ohio, and this search is certain to be extended until every county in the state not only, but every city and enterprising village as well has made its test. Inasmuch as the utilization of both petroleum and gas on the large scale is of quite recent date, the geological facts pertaining to their distribution and accumulation, to say nothing of their modes of origin, are still but imperfectly known, and consequently the geological theories concerning these subjects are still incomplete and inadequate. These facts are, however, rapidly accumulating, and the generalizations based upon them are consequently becoming more trustworthy as guides in the work of practical development. It is to the well-driller's art that we owe the acquisition of these new sources of power. The drilling of deep wells has long been carried on in various portions of the world; in some countries it has been practiced for many hundred years. The mode of drilling now in use in this country, however, owes nothing whatever to this varied foreign experience, but the art is, in all respects, a native one. The steps of its evolution are all on record and none of them dates beyond the early. years of the present century. |