Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1864-12-09

TO hundred and htty feet, and ma Wha
they call the surface oil. This exhausil
rapidly. and in many casees does nothing
more than emit gas aud salt water, and
streams of oily water. Some of the most
successful wells in Western Virginia were
surface wells; bat in Pennsylvania the
borers try to reach the third rock. Here
at a depth of from three hundred to g
thousand feet; as the formation varies
the large basins of oil are fOuud-the ba-
sins which have given Pennsylvania sixty
millions of wealth. The ignorance of this
fact led many OF our early pioneers to aban-
don in dispair their enterprise. They
sank q well TO a first or second sandstone
and finding a trickling stream of oil, and
no more, they abandoned the enterprise
poor men. Shrewder managers drove theiI
drills deeper, and eloried in wealth.
HUGHES RUN.
Having spoken of Burning Springs, and
given you an idea of the great enterprise
there existing, it is proper that l should
make more particular allusion to other
points which are now in the hands of cap
italists, and which command the Atte lion
of. buyers aud sellers in the East. Mex to
Burning Springs proper, the most impor-
tant Of West Virginia seems to be Hughes
river. 1t is stream about half as wide
as the Schuylktll, and SO shallow that at
most seasons of the year horse can ford
it. Flowing into the KauaWha, and run
ming in a northwesteriy direction, it forms
part of the boundary line of Ritehie and
| Writ counties, and iuterseots the Little
KanaWha at point called Newark, some
| twenty miles from the Burning Springs
run. 1t is in the line of the great upheay-
al; aud there are many interesting geOlog-
ical features in this county. II is evident
that IN the petroleum age the geological
disturbance was very great. Through this
line of upheaval the Hughes river forces
| it's way, and around it We fad many new
and interesting strata, which seem to have
been thrown up from the very centre of
the earth. The rocks of Hughes river
seem to be of light compact flint,
of about ten or twelve feet in thick.
ness, beneath which are seen the shale
| rocks strongly impregnated with bitumen
"a rock which Is often seen in cur coal
measures. do not know that any coal
has been found ou the Hughes river, nor
have any fossils, such as are often seen iu
the shsle rock, been discovered. At the
same time the oil men, whether trusting
in their own instincts or the teachings OF
geologists, have laid violent hold upon
these high and rocky banks, and now ask
large sums for the pOssessiOusS In former
years large quantities OF petroleum were
taken out OF the aluVial banks of the
Hughes river by a natural process. The
rock was separated, and through the 6s-
sure the oil ran for years. saluratiDg the
stream. Former settlers who gathered
the oil in small quantities for medicinal
and domestic purposes, were in the habit
of laying bare this stratum by removing
the earth and digging out the oil with
NNW han
been said that, with the exception of We
mango, the oil has flowed here in greater
quantities than anywhere else. A number
OF wells have been sunk, but when pass
ed through the country the enterprise bad
not been far enough developed to make
Burning Springs And Oil Creek in any way
dread lie rivalry.
BULL CREEK.
Another point in Virginia is known as
Bull Creek-a stream which ruus iEto the
Ohio river some thirty miles above Park
ersburg, taking its rise 10 Wood county,
and being one of the number of streams
which are known as French Greek, Cow
Creek, McEiroy Creek, and by other names
that belong TO the classic vocabulary of
Virginia. TIE Bull Greek company is q
Pittsburgh enterprise, principally in the
interests of the Phiitipses, whose names
are familiar TO all happy oil men, as being
| those OF the princes OF their 0ristOcracy.
Tue Horse neck we'll, some six or eight
miles from the source OF the creek, has
attained great celebrity, aud was in it's
day, one OF the most successful enterprises
in Virginia. The supply of oil has greatly
decreased, am told, but, at the same
time, il is curiosity, and is always vis-
tied by travellers through this region. The
county around Bull Greek is tame when
compared with the vicinity OF Burning
| Springs, and might be regarded in Penn
| sylvania or New York az very pleasant
| farming land. Here, as in Ohio, the cap
italist aud the artisan are very busy.
| Wells have been sunk, leases are constant
| Iy granted, and as we ride along the quiet,
! old fashioned turnpike, the tall derrick,
with its skeleton pillars and quick. busy
engine and the swearing teamsLeT, as he
| tolls through the mud with his load of oil,
give us, on Il small scale, the busy sights
| OF Veuango. Further up the OHIO,
at SistersViIle, we come 10 what eeems
to me to be the beginning of the
Virginia line of uPheaval. In Tyler
county, especially around the county
seat, Middlebourue, the evidence OF
oil are very abundant. This is so near
our State that one almost lm8gines be is
| riding ou PennsylvRDiA farms and home
steads. The peeple OF Tyler county are
an intelligent, busy class, aud more enter
prising than any of the other counties
have visited. They have taken their own
lands in haad, and 10 not invite the out
side world with as much aVidity as theiI
more humble neighbors on the Little Ka.
uawha. As an evidence OF their conf
deuce in their own enteTprise, know Ot
one gentleman now living near SistersVille
who refused forty thousand dollars for Il
tract of land not more than eighty acres
in extent H. was boring a well at the
time, and the neighbors around him we're
also boring wells. The indications around
him seemed to justify him in refusing thi;
large offer. But even TyIer-reticent
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