“At eight hundred and twenty-one feet six inches a very hard stratum of slate was encountered, which we penetrated about three inches. We could get no water down the well on account of the strong flow of gas, so we could make no further progress with the drill in this hard cutting. The danger to the men was so great that they refused to work longer over the bore. We then put the four and five-eighths inch casing down to the very bottom, hoping to shut off gas, but it failed to do so.” TERRIFIC PRESSURE OF NATURAL GAS. Work was resumed here in 1898 (Geological Survey Report, Vol. XI, page 33a). It was thought that the flow of gas might have decreased, but on work being resumed and the hole being cleaned out “the gas which had increased in power with the cleaning of the hole cut the walls down and blew great clouds of sand and gravel higher than the derrick.” Subsequently at eight hundred and thirty-seven feet such a strong flow of gas was struck that they were obliged to suspend operations. Mr. Fraser further says in the same report:—“I proved the general excellence and utility of the gas during the season, using it for my boiler, cookstove and for lighting. I had only a one inch pipe, tapped into the side of the casing, and probably did not use the one-hundredth part of the gas coming from the bore, but there was sufficient to make all the steam necessary on my twenty-five horse-power boiler, keep fire in the stove, and also to supply a strong flare-light. The gas burned beautifully clean. In working at the bore, the screeching and hissing of the gas, when at all confined by the presence of the tools inside the casing, or from other causes, was so great that the men complained of pains in their ears and heads.” BEGGED TO BE EXCUSED. When giving his evidence before the Senate committee of 1907 Mr. von Hamerstein begged to be excused from divulging results of his work in boring for petroleum in the McMurray district, as other people had entrusted their money with him in the enterprise. He said he felt at liberty to state that their works so far made him very confident that they were going to have one of the biggest petroleum fields in the world. There was no doubt he said, petroleum would be found all through that country, from Athabaska river to Peace river. He remarked that when his party was boring once they struck natural gas, and one hundred and fifty feet of salt. They went down through a hundred feet of salt, and then they abandoned it. At this particular place they went about eleven hundred feet altogether. They never went lower than eleven hundred feet.