Letter from Thomas Gold to Mr Porfir'ev Thanks him for his two letters. States Gold's efforts have been directed towards finding all the evidence of outgassing processes, including the phenomena associated with earthquakes. His work has also led him to understand some features of the chemical processes occurring in the ground, and some of the reasons for detecting the evidence for biological processes in petroleum. States his paper on some of this work has appeared in the Journal of Petroleum Geology, Vol 1, No. 3. Other work is in preparation and he will send copies. Gold will be glad to see Porfir'ev's recent work in this area (the reprints have not yet arrived). 30 January 1979