NATURE'S REVENGE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1688, 15 October 1887, Page 3

NATURE'S REVENGE.

A warning voice is raised against the indiscriminate boring for gas m the United States. A scientist predicts an overwhelmiog disaster to the Bectiona of the country occapied by natural gas wells, end fs so positive m his assertions that he urges the calling of an extra session of Congress to take Bomo action m the matter. According to him, further boring for natural gas should be prohibited by stringent laws. The good people of Ohio and Indiana, while trying to develop the gas magazines, do not take time to consider, he says, that they are toying with a force tbafc may destroy their country and themselves. The danger that impends is well known to ecientieta. Two hundred years ago m China there was just such a craza about natural gas as there exists m the United States at the present day. Gas weMa were sunk there with as much vigour as the Celestials were capable of ; but owing to a gas explosion that killed several millions of people, and tore up and destroyed a large district of country leaving a large inland sea* known on the maps as Lake Foo Chang, the boring of any more gas wells was then and there prohibited by law, According to Chinese accounts many large and heavy pressure gaa wells were struck, and m some districts wells were sunk quite near to each other. Gaß was lighted as soon as struck, as is now done m America. It is stated that one well, with its unusual pressure, by induction or back draught, pulled down Into the earth the burning gas of "a smaller well, resulting m a dreadful explosion of a large district and the deatruction of the inhabitants thereof. Lake Fco Chang rests on this dißtriot. The same cataßtrophe is imminent m the United States, the writer m question urges, unless the lawß reßtriot further developments is boring so many wells. Should an exploa'on occur, there will be such an upheaval as will dwarf the most terrible of earthquakes erer knowD. Tne country along the gas belt from Toledo through Ohio, Indians, s>nd Kentucky will be ripped up to the depth of 1200 and 1500 feet acd flopped over like a pancake, leaving a chasm through which the waters of Lake Erie, will come howling down, filling the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and blotting them out for ever. Some prompt action should be taken at onoe to prevent this catastrophe. —lron.