Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-12-10


try along the river banks is rugged and
wild, the river hills being PERCEPTIONS and
steep. The geologist would cali these val
Ieys the valleys Of erosion, showing that
Nature had one dsy been in trouble here
as she evidently had been in the valley of
the Kanawha. The anti-climal pitch Of
the rocks, or, as the people about here call
it, i4heir dip and lay, is marked, although
they do not form as many scenes of natu-
raj beauty as saw elsewhere in my trav-
els.
indeed, to--compsre Venango county, IS
q piece of scenery, West Virginia, or even
with the country around MeCOnnelsville,
would be to decide against its merits as an
oil producing district. However, in this
case experience has qusrreled with the
men of science. Notwithstanding the less
marked "surface indications" Of Oil Creek,
petroleum has been found in inexhastible
quantities. And here l may appropriate
theory of writer in 8 scientific Journal
whe, in speaking of petroleum, assumes
that It has gen, rated away down into the
creYices of the earth that these crevices
were once the shores of q great ses, which
covered part of North America during
what is called the Ohemung period Of the
Devonisn age. This sea was supposed to
be shallow, as is judged by the absence OF
limestone. It's marshes were covered with
a dense salt grass such, perhaps as might
be seen in the neighberhood Of Atlantic
CITY. When the face of the earth chang
al, ard thasea became dry land, and the
aliuvial formation made 1t hsbItable, lar
down in the crevices Of these rocks the
Vegetation Of these marshes was slowly dis
titled into oil. Now, it is known that in
most wells, when the bore strikes oil, salt
water, petroleum, and g carbonic gas are
thrown up. Therefore, in these creviees,
it is supposed that three substances exist
salt water, gas and petroleum; the salt
water being part of the distillstion, the
gas another part, and the petroleum a
third. There they exist sogether, in some
respect antagonistic elements, without
force enough to effect the formation of the
earth, but hidden, cramped away and so
eager for release that when their prison
door is unlocked by these sharp, keen oil
diggers, they rush force upon the earth in
dense, large gushing streams. The gas
escapes TO the air, and as, of course, there
can be no affinity between oil and water,
when the stream pours into the tank, the
oil rises 10 the top and the water sinks. In
oil wells more or less of water is found.
Even when crude petroleum is gathered,
and the first natural process Of separation
is effected, as it lies in the tank, the process
Of refining shows the presence Of still gas,
naptha water in small quantity, burning
oil (the refined petroleum Of commerce.
and the lubricsting oil, which is made by
chilling the petroleum with ice, very much
the same ss iinseed oil is made for CONNER
cisl purposes. AS this geological fOrma-
ten was not confined at sll to the eontin-
ent of North America, neither, as have
before stated, has petroleum oil been alone
found in the internal sea which, during the
Chemung period Of the Devonisn age was
supposed to cover the greater part of North
America. On the shores Of the Caspian Sea
petroleum isburned by the French as a fuel,
Captain naptha is world-renoTned; in
Norway it serves the same purpose; in
India and parts Of Italy it is an illumins-
ting agent, and is fast supplsnting the ami
NAL and vegetable oils; and there are
those who suppose that the slime with
which the artisans of the Tower of Babel
built their great structure was composed of
coal oil. Others, who added imagination
to their science, tell US that the walls of
Babylon we're strenthed with it, and that
when the Judgment of the Almighty God
fell upon SOdom and Gomorrah, tho Im-
mortal bade the rocks to open, and the
burning springs of petroleum to cover
them forever. There is a tradition that in
Trinidad the Spsnisrds found 8 lake Of
pure petroleum. We know that it exists
in Sicily, and that there are deposits in
Italy, France, and England. Bnt Ameri-
ca has found it in the largest quantities,
has refined and developed it made it an
article of commerce, and, after Lighting up
our houses, has taken its dregs and com
pounded some of ihe most beautiful dies
known to the chemist or haberdasher.