The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-03-04

Average yield. bbls. -..--.---..-----A'5 50
No of wells to be put down .--------- o42
It ia proper to remark that the yield
estimated above is probably somewhat
exaggerated.
We quote the following from the con
clusion of the writer's article:
"In the early part of the present CEN
fury, petroleum springs were yielding In
the Ionian Islands. But those evidences
which bear more directly and positively
upon the subject are found i'll Burmah.
English newspapers have stated during
the past year that the petroleum wells
of Burmah have yielded an unfailing sup
ply for many generations and that the
article has been used by the Burmese for
illuminating and other purposes in its
cradle or original state to the extent OF
several hundred thousand hOgsheads per
annum. Sims, in his history of Avail,
says that the petroleum wells and springs
near RangoOn, in Burmah, have prOduc-
cd annually some 10000 hOgsheads for
more than three centuries These wells
are still in operations and native Bur-
mese, now being educated near Warren,
Pennsylvania, for missionary to his ma
tive country, relates some interesting
facts concerning them, and the mode OF
mining petroleum i'll that country There
are about three hundred of these wells,
which average daily yield of from sew
en- to ten barrels each. Pits are sunk
from two to three hundred feet deep
The oil accumulates III the pits with wa
ter, and is raised 80 the surface by means
r re nt tn fn "A
rope running over apulley. This man
ner of obtaining the oil appears clumsy
enough to us, who make steam pumps
perform tho work.
The history aG the first well on Oil
creek is generally misunderstood. MIR.
George II. Bissell, of Oil City, was the
first gentleman outside what is now
known as the oil region whose attention
was first called to the possibility of OBJ
tanning the OIL This was in 1858. After
visiting, examining and purchasing, in
company with Mr.. Eveleth, certain tracts
of land in the vicinity of Titusville and
elsewhere. Messrs. Eveleth and Bissell
forwarded to Professor Silliman speci-
mems of the oil obtained below the sur
face. The report of Professor Silliman
being satisfactory, company was FORM
ed called the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Com
pany, of which Professor Silliman was
elected President This company con-
fined its operations TO the pumping Of
surface oil, mixed with water from
trenches into watts, by means of water
power, until 1858, when Mr.. +. l.. Drake
was selected as the agent OF the company
to put down an artesiau we'll The well,
after more than II years delay, was sunk
in 1859 On the 18th day of August, the
first vein of oil was struck at Il depth of
sixty-nne feet four inches from the sur
face.
During the examination which pre-
ceeded the sinking Of this well, some cX-
traordinary discoveries were made, which,
it is believed, have never before been al
luded to i'll print. Numerous pits were
found, distributed all along Oil Greek, OF
the following character: The pits were
from fifteen to twenty feet in depth, and
from five to eight feet i'll diameter, care
fully walled around their sides with
iointed wooden beams, which the petrO-
leum in the soil had completely preserv-
ed from decay. 1t was evident at once
that this joinor work could not have been
done by Indians Inquiry among the
Co,nplanter Indians in the vicinity, de-
veloped tie fact that tradition existed
in Ito tribe, to the effect that another
and :, different race had long ago mhab
itcd the soil and dug these pits for the
oil thaC even yet collectedin them. This
race may be identified with that sup
posed to have built the western mounds.