The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-02 00:00:00

TETROLEI;N.

This unsavoury production of the prolific earth is now
imparting a taste of its quality to everything wearable,
eatable, and drinkable, throughout whole sections of the
Union, from the eggs and muffins you devour at breakfast,
to the sheets in which you lie at night, the soap-and-water
with which you wash your face, the towels with which you
would gladly cleanse the oleaginous particles from your
skin, and the railway carriage in which you vainly seek to
escape your persecutor. The whole Atlantic and Great
Western Railway smells like a leaky parafine lamp; and
unless some means can be discovered of overcoming the
miasma, an American and a Canadian will be detected in
society by his scent, as easily as a musk deer, or a civet
cat, In spite of the important advantages which the
pc:omes within its
inha-
bitants of the petroleum districts are deriving, and must
continue to derive, from the springs, it is a serious draw-
backice tid tabna t
odour thei rt a
that produce
every
twatheichoinhaitssonsce
influence is rendered so noisome as to be all but unendur-
thininga
petroleum, is thereby baebelen.
employed
trunk,
in conveying
cart,conv
eay
iwn waggon, g n
ren-
dered for ever unfit to carry wine, flour, bacon, cheese; or
whicherau ship,
coal, or ;imber may,
it is assumed, be conveyed. in such ships or carriages with-
out • but it may well bo doubted whether wood
out detriment
intended for house building or furniture would not be so
any other article of human food. iron,
deeply impregnated by the offensive miasma as to be ren•
dered completely worthless. Meanwhile the flowing wells
which both in the States and Canada are daily multiplying,
throw forth oil in quantities so vast as to appear altogether
fabulous. One spring, it is said, yields at the rate of 160,000
gallons a• day ; and from the wells in the States alone up-
wards of five millions of gallons are estimated to have been
produced; the whole earth in the district is saturated, and
the surface of the Delaware is covered with petroleum. It
is impossible 4% contemplate without uneasiness, the immi-
nent danger of such a state of things; for should any mis-
chievous person apply a torch, a candle, or even a lighted
cigar to the oily pellicle, the whole expanse of the Delaware
would be instantly in a blaze, and all the ships in the river
end towns on its banks would probably be consumed, since
water, instead of extinguishing the fire of petroleum, only
causes it to burn more fiercely,

Ainsworth' s New Story.
We are precluded by want of room from taking
more than the merest momentary glance to-day at
the new instalment of that capital tale of a hundred
years ago, now adorning every month the pages of
Bentley's Miscellany —Harrison Ainswarth's ro-
mantic narrative of " The Lord Mayor cf London,"
Hero is one small fragment from the June
number, descriptive of the famous gambling-house
in the City in the middle of the last century, the
ruinous den known then familiarly to all the flash
men about town as—.

" PICARD'S.
" Seated at the table with a pile of reuleaux of gold and
a glittering heap of crown•pieces befo'o him, constituting
the bank, was a tailleur, or dealer—, young man, rather
showily dressed, with a perfectly impas-ive countenance.
No turn of fortune, it was evident, was likely to move him.
On his right stood the croupier, likewise a young man, but
Apparently of a very different temperament from his phleg-
matic companion, his eyes being bright and quick, and his
fe,tures extremely mobile. For the convenience of the
punters, a little book containing 13 oards was placed on the

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