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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 1879)
372 THE WEST SHORE. A WONDERFUL OIL WELL. A lingular fruit of nature occuni in the Kane peveor or HtMintincr witr well whir-l. ,i. the put year haa attracted auch general atten tion in Pennsylvania. The cauae of the action has leen ao erroneously ropreaonted that a oor reet eiplanation seems to bo dcmsnileil. Thia well ii situated in the valley of Wilaon'i Run, near the line of the Philadelphia and Krie railroad, four milea aouthcaat from Kano. It waa drilled hy Meaara, Ghihout and Taylor, in the spring of 1878, to a total depth of 2,000 feet. No prtn.li urn waa fouud in paying quan tities and the casing was drawn ami the hole abandoned, sinoe which time it haa been throw ing periodically -10 to IS minutes a column of watoraud gaa to highta varying from 100 to ISO feet. During the oieration of drilling, fresh "water veins" were encountered down to a depth of .KM feet, which waa the limit of the casing. Atadepthof Lei IS feet a very heavy "gaa vein" waa struck. This gas waa permitted a free es oaMi during the tune the drilling was continued to 'J.000 feet. When t In well waa ahandonod, from failuro to liud oil, and the casing drawn, the fresh water flowed into the well and tho conflict letween December, i879, the "water and gaa geyaer wells." StomKa Petrolrum Rtporttr. LARCE TL0WS. As an illustration of the immenae in land worrying machinery, we give on this page an engraving nf a mammoth plow recently built by the well-known plow makers, Deere ft Co., Moline, III., for a Missouri railway company. It is calculated to cut a ditch 30 inches wide and 2 feet deep, aud is attached to a platform car of a oonstruotion train by meana of timbers framed and extending out, so that the plow cuts its ditch a sufficient distance from the track. It requires the full power of the locomotive to draw it through the soil, whioh is a black muck surface and hard clay subsoil Thrco furrows, of 8 inches in depth, are required to complete the ditch. One mile of ditch, 2 feet deep and .1 feet wido, is mado every four hours. The plow weighs 1,700 pounds, and thus does the work of 1,000 men. The beam is made of swamp oak, the toughest kind of timber, and is 14 by 8 inches in its dimensions, and of pro portionate length. No handlea are used, the plow being regulated in the manner already ORIGIN OF THE CRATA Pah-goo, a Ute Indian, rlt.. t- some of tho traditions of his tribe rtspT cataolyim whioh gave Colorado its preisnt culiar appearance. Pah-goo calls the Color!! river the Toom-pinto-weep, and say. that thJ is an old river bed fully half a mile dtep Hi, forefathers had a tradition that, long yean ta they had lived near a vast warm lake northeu' of the big river; that the oountry was wm full of big trees and big deer, and big oxen with white horns; that big fishea and snakes as lot, aa a 100 lodge poles abounded in this ujl that one day all the big oxen began to roar to! gether, and that they raised such a steam (rom their nostrils the earth reeled and the inn w obscured; that suddenly the lake fell, and an. tinued falling for three moons, and then beoamtio much reduced that tbey knew it not any am but that tho big lake they found had beet drained away to the south, and that its vara waters bad out out through the mountains the present canyon of Green river, and of tbe big river (the Colorado); and that the oU bed in the Toom-pinto-weep is when the laki kjan eft.- BBBK BKi BBBa ?-m. the water and the gas ciniiineiiciid, rendering the well an object of great interest. Tho water flows into the well on toil of the gas, until tho pressure of the ooniine.l gaa becomes greater than the weight of the superincumbent water, when an explosion takes place and a column of water and gaa is thrown to a great hight This occurs at ureaent at regular intervals of minutes ami the sKiutiiig contiuupn for 1 I, min utes On July :tlst, Mr. Kheafer (aid McKean oounty) measured two columns, which went Ui highU respectively of 120 and 128 feet ('. A. Ashburuer says: On the evening of August 2d, I measured four columns in succession, and the water was thrown to the following hiuhli- 108 1.12. 120 and 138 feel. The oolumits arc OOMfOMd nJ mingled water and gas, the latter bring readily ignited. After nightfall the sinwtacle is grand. The antagonis lie elements of Hre and water are so promiscu ously blended, that each seems to le fighting for the mastery. At one moment the tUme is almost entirely extinguished, only to burnt forth at the next instant with increased energy and greater brilliancy. During sunshine the sprays form an artificial rainbow, and is wintei the columns heoonie in cased in huge transparent ioa chimneys. A number of wella in the oil regions have thrown water geysers similar to the Kane well, but none have attracted such attention. As early aa Ivu a salt well, drilled in the vallsy of the Ohio, threw column of water aud gas at inter vals of 10 to 12 hours to hight varying from .Ml to 100 feet Thia well u possibly the lint o( A LARGE PLOW. uanu-d. The laudsMe is a picco of bar iron 8 inches wide and 1 inohes thick. It is larger than merchant iron is made, aud was especially forged for thia job. Tho share is of the best cast steel, inch thick by 0 inches in width. This is also of extra large site, and waa rolled to order in Pittsburg. The top of the mold board stands M inohes from the ground, or tho base of the plow. It ia made of tho best oast steel, with iron lining securely bolted to the liack. The plow is rigged out with an im mense gauge wheel and atanding cutter. It is said that ita performauoe is entirely satisfactory to the railroad company. a A.u y"',1"-1. "fWi - Weetohester, .South Carolina, hasaoottoo factory that spins yarn directly from the eeed ootton. The ma chinery is simple, and it ia claimed that by ita use the value of the staple can be increased nearly 100 ,;, taking into conaideration the amount of money aaved on bagging, ties, pack ing, weighing, atoring and shipping. The At lanta Coiutilulion predicts that in the course of the next two years at leaat 100 of these factories will be in operation, in Georgia, as " wherever there is a grist mill, planing mill or saw mill a yam factory can be added without an increase f power, and at a very little increase in oost" Tin: highest inhabited house in the world is said to I. the on. erected for the miners em iJoyed on Mt Lincoln in the main range of the locky mountains, Park county, CoL It is 14 -I.', feet above the level of the sea waters were drained. All the big deer and the oxen with white hnrns strayed away eoitward and perished in the mountains. A big Mod soon after tbe shore occurrences formed Grand River canyon, and after thia flood corns a sbsU raco of people who bad akin canoes, brought seed corn of a email kind, oausd is Spanish ohiquito mays; that these people " almost white, and that they taught tie W how to make good spears and bows and sWj ware; that they built stone houses in the mm, and cultivated pumpkins, com and beans; wm they had ailver and gold in abundance, aid ins tools that they bad obtained in the hih aw" taina to the northeast; that afterwards, WJ the north wee t, big red Indians came overt' this oountry and killed and drove offthsWB people, who finally all went south, a the big red men, who are the Apache joes and Kiowaa. Theae small and nearly white people doubtedly the Ax tecs, who certainly the direction of Colorado, being drivsatnars the occasional plagues whioh nearly dp"P"7" northern Mexico centuries ago. Pf-e!K'r olares that "grande lagarioe" (prorsT aUJ tors) were found among the Apache and flS'jr lii.liana Knt tl,.t ((, .11 duanoeared as nniintrv ti.t.-ftn.M it rir ami miller. It ' from the trail itions that melted rooks Soured out every where and left the ""P esolate. It is, also, of tradition J "j old river bed of the Colorado there is pf gold, which fact waa related by the Astern -small men.