NATURAL GAS. How it Was Made and How Preserved.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 413, 23 October 1889, Page 5

NATURAL GAS. How it Was Made and How Preserved.

Pkofkvsor Shaljsr says : — The di&tiiets known to contain natural gas in sufficient quantities to have any economic value within the United States, probably exceed 50,000 square miles, and it is likely that further inquiry will develop numerous fields as yet unknown. A gieat many wells bored for petroleum in the wild search for that earth product which went on twenty or thirty years ago, developed lai'ge quantities of natural gas. The value of the substance was at that time not appreciated. These wells gradually became closed by various accidents, or wasted their contents in the atmosphere. The value of natural gas in the economics of this country is now but little, if any, below that of petroleum, and the probability is that within a few years it may exceed that substance in value. Is is a matter of great interest to determine not only the areas occupied by this valuable resource, but the circumstances of its formation. There can be little doubt that ib represents the decomposition of organic matter, the fossil of old rocks, and that it is usually generated at the same time as petroleum, being only a lighter form of the same varied seiiets of hydrocarbons, The facts appear to indicate that under certain circumstances gas may be produced in large quantities with little or no oil, while at other times the oil may abound and the gas be small in quantity. The preservation of the&o gases, as well as the associated petroleum products in the Mississippi valley, is dtao to the tact .that the rocks of this region have been but little affected by mountain disturbances. If the strata now containing these hydrocarbons had been folded rand riven, as is the case in mountain-built countries, the gas 1 would have escaped and driven before it to I the surface the oil as well, and so these reI sources would have disappeared from under the earth and become decomposed in the atmosphere. — ' Light, Heat and Power.'

Major Isaac Rhodes Cooper, formerly of H.M. 58bh Regiment, died at Manly, Sydney, on the 6th of October. He was an old resident in this colony. When the headquarters of the 58th were removed from Sydney, under Colonel Wynyard, to take part in Hekes war, Lieut. Cooper was left in Sydney, having been appointed to the charge of the Mounted Police. Subsequently, in 1847, he came over to Auckland and was appointed to the adjutancy of the 58th. He held that position until promoted I to captain, aftor which he sold out and set- [' tied near Northcote. At one time he repreI sented the Northern Division in the Provincial Council. Subsequently he was appointed a major in the New Zealand ' Militia, and for some time held an appoint- ' ment at the Thames.' For some years past he has lived at Manly, Sydney. . .