The Sun.
London, England, 1865-11-10 00:00:00

COURSE OF EXCHANGE -This Evening

Amsterdam Short. 11 0 12 Oi
Ditto 3 Months. 12 21 12 2/
Rotterdam
Antwerp — 25 55 25 60
Brussels

Hamburg
Paris
Ditto
Marseilles
Frankforl on the Maine
Vienna_
Trieste
Petersburgh
Berlin
Madrid
Cadiz
Leghorn
Milan
Messina

13 0-i 13 10
Short 25 20 25 27
3 Months. 25 52} 25 57
25 55 25 57
1211 121
,
11 lii 11 20
11 17 11 22i
30 - 301
•.• •••
47i- 471
47i 44
25 65 25 70
25 65 25 70
25 65 25 70

Genoa

25 65
25 70

Naples
Palermo
Oporto
Lisbon

25 65 _: ...
25 70
25 65 -25 70
51k 511
511- .51 a

The Oil Regions of Pennsylvannia.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
OIL CITY, Oct. 24.

Difficult to travel as are the roads of the oil regions
in the most favourable weather, they are all but
impassable during the rainy season and on the ap-
proach of winte.i. During the last few days there
has been a rapid accumulation of mud, and a large
party of excursionists from New York and other
cities have found to their cost that explorations in
the oil regions are not to be lightly undertaken, and
cannot be made without serious discomfort and an
exciting amount of risk and adventure. The coun-
try, too, at this time of the year is fast losing many
of its natural charms. The deep and varied tints
of the foliage are daily becoming more sombre and
uniform in their colour, and the leaves which still
cling tenaciously to the forest trees are comparatively
few in number. A visit to Oil City even now will,
however, be amply repaid to those who are desirous
of examining minutely into the strange phenomena
which are presented to view at this season of the
year. The frosts of winter which seal up the sources
of rivers, and which check the flow of water, also
lock up the oil in its mysterious recesses. The mer-
cury in the thermometer, the rise and fall of the
barometer, do not indicate with greater accuracy the
change in the weather than does the rate of supply
of the oil from the well. Strange and unaccountable
as is the source of the supply of petroleum, it is even
still more of a puzzle to account for the influence of
temperature upon the yields of the wells. Thetheo-
ries which are laid down with more or less of dog-
matism on every subject in Petrolia are numerous
and irreconcilable in respect to the fluctuation of the
yield of oil, and there is not an explanation offered,
no matter how inconsistent with another, that is not
certain to be f alsifled by actual facts within a few hours
after it has been offered. A law of lawlessness prevails
here, which it is hopeless to attempt to understand
or explain. The daily experience of the petroleum
industry has a most destructive influence upon all
hitherto prevailing notions of natural philosophy.
Beneath the earth crust of Pennsylvania water flows
on the surface of oil, above the ground the relative
positions are changed ; fresh water lies above salt
water; brine mingles with oil ; and there is scarcely
a fact applicable to one well which will serve as a
guide for its neighbour. There is an amount of un-
certainty about all the operations connected with oil
sinking which to the individual is most annoying,
but which tested by the results iu the aggregate
passes into absolute certainty. Nine men may fail,
but the tenth will win a prize that divided would be
a fortune for each. The freaks of those oil wells
which have been brought under my notice are very
curious, and it is not improbable that many of the
ventures which have been permanently abandoned,
and much of the loss that has been sustained in
seeking for oil, have resulted from temporary causes
only,and from some of those sudden and unexpected
results in which nature in her sportive mood seems
to love to indulge. In some of the wells the flow oil
will cease for 20 out of the 24 hours, and for the
remainder of the time it will belch out at irregular
intervals of a few minutes. Others of the wells work
I short time of six hours, and that only at night ;
others, again, select midday as the hour for com-
mencing their labour ; a third kind, as if solely for
the purpose of vexing its enterprising owner, will
supply for several hours in the day a constant yield
of salt water, then it will rest altogether, and the
hopes of the poor man who has ventured his all in
the undertaking will sink within him, and then,
when all seem dark and hopeless, the wells will
smile upon him, and pour a stream of oil in the
tanks, already full to the brim with the brine of a
few hours previously. The Wild Cat well is sulky
for 40 minutes at a time ; it then spits forth a few
drops of the precious liquid,
then sulks for 20
'
minutes, foams and spurts again, and then gives
forth the petroleum freely for about 10 minutes,
andhef aorerinTghoees her round
Wild
catacoof sulksompan
by a succession of sharp iaensditssuyilleenldnesofs
oil
reports, as though the
majorityearth fro mo f thethe barrelwells
,
t
ypecicisuliclariareghearatheeteroilsltyiefi:ildvh.
which
lEi aLlei
again,ofsupplya small
awree rcieufisi quietin i field-piece.
Pei
icefeir.roimvloirthkhee, but many of them hiss
pwaneerdlfleshcptaulysrtiktusaosoihneto the attendants, and it is usual to
apply to them terms such as would be used in de-
scribing the qualities of a horse or a dog.

SFLIPPING INTELLIGENCE—This day.

---~- --

LONDON, Nov. 10.—Wind
.this day at noon—North-
westerly; moderato breeze, and line weather, but rather
cloudy.

CLYDE, Nov. 9.—Wiud S.W.—Arrived—Tearless, from
Bahia.

SOUTHAMPTON, Nov. 9.—Wind S.E.—Sailed—Douro,
steamer, for Brazils.

lit.NottoAD, Nov. 8.--Wind S.—Arrived—Bessy Parker,
from St. Johu's, N.B. •

[BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH. I
GRAVESEND, Friday Morning.
.A.rrived—Curtis, from Cronstadt ; Lightning from Go-
thenburg ; Elliner, from Koningsberg ; ScandelhaVen, from
Erederickstadt.
Sailed Triton, from Boulogne ; Lord John Russell,
steamer, for Dunkirk.

DEAL, Friday Morning.

Passed, Nov. 9—Victoria, from London, for Rangoon.
Passed-111.S. Bristol, from Shields, for Portsmouth ;
Forester, for Demerara ; Citizen, screw steamer, for
Bordeaux both for London.