Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1861-04-18
Hiatellaneuus.
Rock OIL.

The following article is by Professor
Z b. ANDREWS of Marietta College, who
has given much attention to the geology
Of Southern Ohio, and was contributed
by him to the Marietta Intelllgenccr:
After the great worth of petroleum.
had been discovered in Pennsylvania,
and it had been found as practicable to
bore for oil as for salt, attention vas di.
rected to the oil springs and salt wells
producing oil in this vicinity.
Our geological formation is entirely
different from that of Northern Petn-
sylvania, where the first of oil wells were
bored. The latter is the Wavcrly sat,d-
stone series, and is vertically thousand
or fifteen hundred feet lower than the up
per carboniferous rocks in which we find
the oil here. The Wavery rocks are
thought now to be yielding three thou
sand barrels per day. while the carbohi-
ferrous formation, which is rapidly being
developed, tow gives perhaps twelve or
fifteen hundsed barrels. 1t is possible
that oil " i'll be found all over the wcs-
tern part of our great Appalachian coal
field. l hear of new oil springs in va
rious directions, almost every day
This would indicate that the conditions
essential to the generation of oil have
been present over large area. These
conditions are not completely understood
and yet we are rapidly accumulatiug da-
ia for scientific conclusions. We are
warranted in belief that the oils are the
product of distillatiOn, at very low tenn
perature, from cold and bituminous
states.
Ths oil in the Waverly sand-rocks is.
without doubt, produced from underly-
ing bituminous shales, which are very
thick. This process Of distillation, or
vaporizatson, is doubtless going on at
the present time. though slowly. The
vapor rising from the bituninous strata
enters every possible crevice, and bub-
bling up through the water in those Gre
vices, is partly condensed into oil, which
floats upon the water. and partly remains
uncondensed in the form of infiamable
gas. As the process goes on, more and
more oil is formed, and more and more
gas is pcnt up in the space over the oil.
If the fissure has an outlet the gas will
escape, and the water, as it cfrculaes
through the earth, will brig out through
the outlet more or less oil. The whole
tendency of the oil is upward. The va
por which forms It rise, and the subtcr.
ranean waters lift it up. have found
oil springs on steep side hills hundred
feet above the valley below. Hence, as
general thing, we should expect the
oil at greater or less elevations above th'
bituminous strata from which it is pro-
duced.
If this position be true that the oil i.
condensed from vapor generated from
coal and other bituminous strata, il be
comes matter of importance to know
under what circumstances the oil may b.
accumulated in large quantities. IF ther'
we're no fssures whatever in the rocks
if all everything strata, and especially th'
more compact and impervious clay shaie
and limestones. were perfectly firm anC
unbrokeh, we should expect to find n,
oil; indeed, under such circumstances
the oil vapor could hardly be formed a
all, there being no room for expansion
/ If, or the other hand. the rock is full G
fssures, we should expect the oil to ac
cumulate slowly in them. To what eX
tcrs the rocks. Of Washington. count