The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-04
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SUIT AGAINST J.. ]. HILL.
ii. w. Pearson Demands $i.5OO,O0O
for His Coal Theory

%
7 for His Coal Theory.
DULUTH, MINI, Feb. Sin the suit fol
/ Sl,50e.000 brought by II. w. Pearson, Of
this city. against the Great Northern Rail-
road and James ]. Hill a new geological
theory is virtually on trial. 1t involves
the driftwood theory of the origin of coal
MIR. Pearson in the fall ofs1S96 went TO
Montana under contract with Mr.. Hill,
ne alleges, TO explore for coal under his
tneory. He went to a district where a
company OF Mr.. Hills had for years been
exploring without results, though more
than 100000 had been spent When he
arrived the company was drilling a boIe
nve miles south of the coal measures, as
PEARSON located them He told the COM
pany that NJ coal would be found in that
mole, but 1t was sunk more than $50 feet,
az cost OF more than s., 600. only to prove
MS statement correct Then he mapped
out the coal-bearing formation and drills
were set at work within it. They all
found coal at depths varying from 100 to
$50 feet from the surface
Mr. Pearson Ind an agreement. he says
IN ms complaint, that he was to receive a
certain sum fer expenses and to have a
snare in the profits. His expenses were
paid for many months, but he has never
been able to get his share in the profits.
he declares. He found the coal so he
says, with no underground development
without even going to the spot in some
Instances. study of the elevations, con-
tours. etc, Of the region with relation to
his theory OF deposition enabled him to
place his hands On the proper spot,
though many miles distant.
This result is. he says. the logical out
come of a law that he has discovered.
He began his investigations after a study
of the weil-known beaches of ancient Lake
Superior, which, at Duluth, form boule-
ward drive nearly 600 feet above the pres
ent lake level. This beach has been sup
posed to be the shore of the lake as it
existed when damned toward its eastern
end by ice OF the later glacial period.
This theory Pearson discarded for many
reasons. He began collecting data as to
ancient beaches elsewhere and found
correspondence in elevation among them.
Among other facts discovered was that
the boulevard beach at Duluth was of ex-
actly the same elevation as the more
prominent beaches OF the great ancient
Lake Agassiz, which at one time covered
the whole of the Red River valley and
stretched 1000 miles to the north and
west. 1t was also found that the beaches
Of ancient Lake Ohio, which at the close
of the glacial period covered a vast area
in New York. Pennsylvania and Ohio, and
stretched down into Kentucky, were
identical with those of Agassiz and Su-
perior This same beach was traced to
the tenth parallel of latitude to the South
and to the eighty-fourth in the North.
Mr.. Pearscns theory holds that at a
certain period OF the carboniferous age the
continent to the east of the Western noun
tains out-cropped above the sea only at the
higher levels of the .Appalachiana and
around the Ozark uplifts, the latter in Mis-
souri, and the former along the Eastern
coasts. Then the great currents sweeping
nOrthward along the general course of the
Gulf Stream had a very different course.
1t swept up past the shores OF rankest veg
citation far to the south, struck the south
ern uplift, swung around both sides of the
outcropping mountains and joined again
somewhere near the site of New York.
Now this current bearing an inconceiv-
able mass Of vegetation against these
shores would leave the debris in the
various basins and depressions Of the
coast line, and between the various ISL
ands that are now the higher peaks of the
ranges. The mass OF Grift would be left
in these basins just as similar matter is
today left by winds and tides against
shores and obstacles to it's progress.
BY marking the northerly limits of this |
mass Of vegetation along the shores as they |
then existed and by marking the water |
side limits as they would naturally appear I
Mr.. Pearson was able to get an outline of /
the coal measures OF Pennsylvania and |
Ohio. which when applied to the known |
limits Of those fields as shown by explora- |
ton and mining. coincided precisely. This /
was proof of the correctness of the the
Dry The same process was carried out in /
the various known coal regions of the !
United States and Europe, in England. |
Wales, Scotland, and Germany. In every |
case the coincidence was perfect. The the
Dry was proved in the minds of Mr.
Pearson and his friends.
Mr.. Pearson began his investigation in /
1884 1t was 1896 before he reached a
,oint where he saw that his theory might
,e made commercially valuable. Then he
ormed a syndicate to acquire the rights
or this country, and it is this syndicate
hat is in reality bringing suit against
he Great Northern and Mr. HILL A SINH
ar syndicate was formed in Europe.
The discoveries made in Montana and |
were based on the same rea-
oning that was tested in the known fields
" the East. The oceanic currents that i
wept vegetation into the foothills of the
rockies have no counterpart in the oceans
# today. but their direction and origin
we're readily traced.
II is not alone in coal that these inves-
igations are alleged to nave a value.
'ther minerals come under the same law,
Ir. Pearson believes and were governed
4 their deposition by the same lines. The
indicates of which Mr.. Pearson is
irector have all eady made some progress
n the search for minerals other than
GAL and have been successful to some ex-
emit.