than ourselves had sufficient faith in the continuity of the gas supply
to offer to furnish us with gas for a sum per year equal to that hitherto
annually paid for coal until the amount expended by them on piping had
been repaid, and afterward at half that sum. It took us about eighteen
months to recoup the gas company, and we are now working under the
permanent arrangement of one-half the previous cost of fuel on cars at
work. Since our success in the use of this new natural fuel at the rail
mills, parties still bolder have invested in lines of piping to the city
of Pittsburg, fifteen to eighteen miles from the wells. The territory
underlain with this natural gas has not yet been clearly defined. At the
principal field, that of Murraysville (from which most of the gas is
obtained to-day), I found, upon my visit to that interesting region last
autumn, that nine wells had been sunk, and were yielding gas in large
quantities. One of these was estimated as yielding 30,000,000 cubic feet
in 24 hours. This district lies to the northeast of Pittsburg, running
southward from it toward the Pennsylvania Railroad. Gas has been found
upon a belt averaging about half a mile in width for a distance of
between four and five miles. Beyond that again we reach a point where
salt water flows into the wells and drowns the gas. Several wells have
been bored upon this belt near the Pennsylvania Railroad, and have been
found useless from this cause. Geologists tell us that in this region a
depression of 600 feet occurs in the strata, but how far the fault
extends has not yet been ascertained. Wells will no doubt soon be sunk
southward of the Pennsylvania Railroad upon this half-mile belt. Swinging
round toward the southwest, and about twenty miles from the city, we
reach the gas fields of Washington county. The wells so far struck do not
appear to be as strong as those of the Murraysville district, but it is
possible that wells equally productive may be found there hereafter.
There are now four wells yielding gas in the district, and others are
being drilled. Passing still further to the west, we reach another gas