composite elements of Natural Oil are used to light the homes of the civilized world.

NATURAL GAS.

However vast and valuable may be the oil product of the so-called mid-continent field, it is not exaggeration to state that the natural gas industry exceeds it in many particulars. It is generally believed that a good supply of Natural Gas is better for any given locality than a large production of oil. The two commodities are always found together, or in very close proximity. Both are almost entirely composed of the same elementary substances, viz., carbon and hydrogen. Gas and oil pools in the subterranean stratifications are frequently separate and distinct one from the other, but are believed to be somewhere connected together in the porous sand formation, where the two substances always exist. Geologists are practically united in the belief that the sand formations which contain gas and oil, are connected together by narrow, irregular necks, similar in contour to the waters on the surface of the earth. Gas is usually above the oil, where it seems to be crowded into the uppermost fissures or pores of the sand, by the force of its own generation.

While Natural Gas has long been known to exist, yet its qualities and uses, until recently, were but vaguely understood. In early days it was the cause of much superstition. The fires that were fabled to burn forever on the Persian Hills were caused by the igniting of the Natural Gas that constantly escaped from the Caucasian Mountains. At the foot of the eastern end of these mountains, near the shores of the great Caspian Sea and on the northern boundary of the Persian Empire, originated the superstitious creed of the "Fire Worshipers." Thus it appears that the fires so devoutly worshiped by Zoroaster and his followers, were caused by the burning of Nature's gas. These fires still burn with undiminished luster, in plain sight of the great oil wells of Baku, heretofore mentioned.

Within the last twenty-five years Natural Gas has become a very important article of domestic commerce in our country. The devices for its utilization are very interesting. As fuel for domestic use, it has no equal. For mechanical and manufacturing purposes, it is very much more desirable than any other kind of fuel. By means of pipe lines, it is conveyed hundreds of miles, in many instances. The necessary methods and appliances for transporting Natural Gas are expensive, and involve the investment of many millions of dollars. It is now the main fuel supply of several of our largest cities, and of hundreds, and even thousands of smaller ones. On account of its attractiveness for fuel and lighting purposes, the localities where it is found are considered to be highly favored.

NATURAL GAS IN KANSAS.

The first real and practical efforts to use Natural Gas in our State were made in 1882. Ten years ago but little use was made of it. Within the last five years the prospecting and development of our gas resources have been so great that it is difficult to measure or conjecture their extent. Enormous quantities are daily used by various manufacturing concerns. result is a very great increase in the population and assessable value of several counties in the gas belt. The present conditions therefore make the subjects of this article very important.

The

While Gas and Oil have many things in common, so far as their management and discovery are concerned, yet for many purposes they must be considered as separate and distinct from each other. The laws and legislation pertaining to each, are necessarily of a special kind. The consideration of this subject must therefore proceed on special, rather than on general lines. Only a small area and population of our State are directly concerned in this subject, and we shall feel highly satisfied if this treatise is found to be somewhat instructive to those immediately affected, and of passing significance to others.

MINERALS.

Oil and Gas in law are classed as minerals. They are treated as a part of the realty so long as they remain beneath the surface, but as personal property when separated from the soil. Both are denominated as "fleeting or movable" minerals, and this distinguishes them from what are known as the "solid" minerals. While in the ground or under the surface of the soil, these substances pass with the ordinary forms of conveyance of real estate. The doctrine of the common law, however, that the owner of the surface owns whatever exists down to the center of the earth and to the top of the sky, is to some extent violated in the various conditions that surround the utilization of Oil and Natural Gas. These articles being "fleeting or fugitive" so called, may be contained at times below a given surface, and at other times may be found moved some distance therefrom.

In a general sense the word LAND comprehends nearly everything found in or on the soil, and Petroleum and Natural Gas being generally found far beneath the surface of the soil, are very difficult to calculate as to value and quantity. These articles exist generally many hundred feet below the surface, in reservoirs or chains of reservoirs, connected together by a net-work of subterranean channels, and from the nature of such conditions they are believed to move or flow freely from place to place within the gas and oil area. So owners of the surface have no absolute property in either oil or gas as they exist in their natural location beneath the surface of the earth. This doctrine was very fully elaborated in the celebrated case of State of Indiana vs. Ohio Oil Company, 150 Ind. 21.

The solid minerals like gold, zinc, iron, copper, etc., become personal property when severed from their natural resting place in the land, but the rules and laws governing these so-called solid minerals are necessarily quite different from the laws and regulations which govern Petroleum and Natural Gas as personal prop

erty.

The action of trover at common law would lie for the unlawful conversion of any of the solid minerals when detached from the soil, and would also be available for the unlawful appropriation of Petroleum, but not so in the case of Natural Gas. Only equitable actions, or actions for damages for causing waste can be instituted to prevent or recover for injuries arising from the loss or destruction of Natural Gas rights. No title to either of these fugitive minerals vests until they are actually reduced to possession by a private owner. It may further be stated that the title to these minerals is never in the people generally, nor in the state in trust for the people, but it rests entirely in the owners of the land or in the owners of the leases or reservations, which authorize lessees to reduce them to possession. Each owner of land within a particular oil or gas region, has a right in common with all other owners to whatever oil or gas may be brought from beneath the surface, and has an individual right to reduce the common property to possession, and thereby transform what would be property in common to individual property. In other words, the owner or lessee of the land may lawfully extract from beneath the surface all the gas or oil and completely exhaust the whole receptacle or pool of what, while undisturbed is common property, and by reason of his very act of energy or premature effort, lawfully convert the whole of it to his individual ownership. This condition makes it necessary for all owners or lessees of the surface over the Gas or Oil pools to be vigilant in getting their fair and equitable share of the unmeasured and indefinite common property. This doctrine was somewhat new at the time that it was announced by the Supreme Court of the United States in a recent decision.

See 177 U. S. 190.

OIL AND GAS LEASES.

These are of so many varieties with various conditions, that it is impossible to lay down any general

rule governing them, other than that the validity of each particular lease or contract must be determined by the reasonable construction of its own terms. Oil and Gas leases are denominated as "chattels real," and are generally the subject of transfer and assignment the same as negotiable instruments or other articles of personal property. The laws of public registration govern them the same as all other conveyances which carry an interest in real estate.

Our Supreme Court in a recent decision declares that "Oil and Gas leases are in a class by themselves." See 69 Kansas, 106.

In this case the opinion of the Court was delivered by Mr. Justice W. R. Smith, and it is worthy of careful consideration, because it settles in our State one branch of serious contention growing out of the particular subject under consideration. It was stated that Gas and Oil leases are not "leases" in the ordinary sense. "They are in the nature of a license, with a grant conveying the grantors' interest in the Gas and Oil well, conditioned that Gas and Oil be found in paying quantities. When Gas and Oil are found, the right to produce them becomes a vested right, and the lessee will be protected in exercising it agreeable to the terms of the contract."

It will therefore be seen that Oil and Gas leases differ in many respects from the ordinary lease of real estate. The doctrine of landlord and tenant, in its common practical relation, does not apply to this species of contract. They carry with them more than the ordinary rights of land possession. The lessor is never supposed to give up actual possession under them, because in the majority of instances he resides upon the land leased. His general ownership and control of the surface are not changed.

This difference has given rise to some fine legal and technical distinctions between the terms "lease" and "license" as generally understood. The right is granted to go on to the land, not for the purpose of