Activities are reported in a program to determine the relationships between shale characteristics, hydrocarbon gas content, and well location to provide a sound basis for defining the productive capacity of the Eastern Devonian shale deposits and for guiding research, development, and demonstration projects to enhance the recovery of natural gas from the shale deposits. Major effort during the period was devoted to the characterization of samples with respect to gas release, chemical composition, and physical characteristics. An additional 15 sealed core samples were acquired and an additional 41 samples were entered into the characterization chain making a total of 97 samples from 6 wells that are partially characterized. Because of the limited amount of data that are available on any one sample or on all of the samples from a given well, only limited examinations of relationships among the data have been possible. These initial examinations have indicated some apparent trends in gas content and gas composition with sample depth and some possible differences in relationships among samples that may be associated with geographic location. The data are too limited and scattered for any firm conclusions to be drawn. Some of the initial observations are discussed.