shore, the rise and fall lasting from �alf an hour to .an own elements. Carbon l!-nites with hydr<?gen to forlfl ,ori!:\,inally contain�d in the rocks in which . it is fo�nd, hour or more. This has occurred dunng a comparatIve marsh gas, CH.; also wIth oxygen, formIng carbomc or In closely assoCIated strata . As we saw In conslder calm on some occasions, while on others, though a acid, CO., while hydrogen. and oxygen unite, producing ing coal, the deca;v of vegetation at ordinary t�mper.a

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... gale has been setting inshore I have not noticed water, H.O . These reactIOns are proved to take place tures, when takmg place out of contact wIth arr , any difference in the lake's level ; s� it would seem that by the continual g�ving. off of marsh gas and c�rbonic produces I marsh ?-,as. Peat bogs yield infla�mable this occurrence is not altogether attributable to the I acid from the coal m mmes, these two gases beIng the I gases, and sometllles also members of the bItumen wind backing up the water. Another curious feature iR I fire da�p and choke damp, so dreade� by: miners. i series. closely allied to . �etroleum an� asphalt, thus the periodical rise and fall which, according to the na-AnalysIs also shows that the bubbles WhICh rIse to the showmg the decompOSItIOn of orgamc matter to be tives, takes place every tw�nty-five years, and which is surface when we stir up the decaying vegetable matter 1 competent to pro�uce petrole � m . . shown by the water marks on the shores. At the time at the l ?ottom of a �nd are composed of these gases. I • There are two VI�W� as to tl: llS method of de<;o,mposI of my visit the lake was between eight and nine feet be-Startmg now Wlt� 2 molecules of cellulose, or tIOn:. One, th�t It IS a . pnma�y decompOSItIon of low high-water mar.k, and the people told me that cer-C"H,oO", by subtractmg 9 molecules of CO" 3 of CH4, organ!c matter III or assocIate� WIth the strata . whe�e tain lands then under cultivation would again be flooded and 11 of H.O, we have left C .. H .. O-the formula f?r tI;e oil IS found-the pro�uctIOn, therefo:r:el bemg 'tn in due season, and that the peninsula �n which �y an average cannel coal. In the sam� wa� we obtam s'tfu; . the other, that a pnmary decompOSItIOn of the camp was pitched would again become an Island." SIm-C .. H.oO.-the formula for average bltummous coal-}OrganIC matter .to hydrocarbon . compounds first t�kes ilar changes of level have been noticed both in Lake by the subtraction of 7molecules of CO", 3 of CH" and * Read at the recent annual meeting of lhe Western Gas A.sociation at organic o rig in of petruleum; that is, to its derivation atures of destructive distillation are reached. Still he Detroit.--Anuric(ln GCl$I-igkt JCntrnat. fro� the decomposition of vegetable or animal matter admits that every theory in regard to petroleum �s