Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1865-06-03

the more soluble lime stone strata. Es-
pecisliy importsn. are the wa'er besring
horizons
The vertical cleavage planes and few
down throw assures which exist play but
0 subordinate role to these. Rain waters
percolate from every hill surface and val
ley bed, sidewise and down wards, leecb.
ing every psrmeablc STRATUM that will give
up its salt and oily contents. Along the
oatcrops Of every coal bed issue innumer.
ablc springs Of painted water. At the
base Of every great san rock, aud on the
Top Of the olayey deposits next below it,
collect the mixed proceeds Of the drainage
in standing sheet Of oily brine. Capil-
larry a.tra olion and hydro.ta,ic pressure
perpetually re.enioree the reservoir. The
weight OF rock on top and the pressure Of
disongaged oil gas sends its flameut, for.
ward and upward By every secret crack to
the surface again, holding it in every part
ready for IN explosive lush into the air
when an artificial ou.le. is provided II
there be no assure 10 the locality, the oil
wells descend 10 the sheet Of water at
about the same depth. Where assures iu-
tercept them they are Of variou, depths
and fortune, for we'll may pass assure
where its walls are polished aud tight to-
gether. A we'll may also pass the water
sheet where some change in the porosity
OF the rocks above and below has taken
place to oppose like obstruction. 10
some parts Of the western coal field the
dip is as high as Ave degrees, and the bs-
sins from Ave to ten miles wide. Sharp
textures make local dips Of thirty degrees
or more, and esa,ral sub -an,clinal is
sure to subdivide tho basin. In tho see
ondsry bssins thus formed the wells are
more perfectly artesian as to tho salt
water but it 10 upon the subdividing an
ticlinals that the gas aud oil collect. In
such regions it is asserted that all the
bloscing and mauy Of the ,poutiug wells
are ranged along the submits oi such an-
tielnsls. In the case of some Of tho old
gas-blowipg salt-wells, their action, dem
onstra.e that they have bcen bored past
one gas-bearing stratum to another deeper
salt water stratum for when the water
is allowed to risa in the auger hole. BY
stopping the pumps awhile, then the "a,
and oil no longer come up, the brino stop
ing their issue. 10 the case Of neighbor.
ing wells Of different depth, striking q
slsting assure, the one which strikss il
highest up will deliver gas another,
striking il lower down, will deliver oil q
third, striking it still lower down, will de-
liver nothing but salt water.
The eompressibilisy Of coal oil gas il,
one Of it's most dangerou, qualities, in
ereasing indefinitely the dangers of those
explosions which sunusIly cost so many
valuable lives. Confined in tho walls Of
the gangways and fooms, it Issues from
innumsrable cells and pockets, the larger
OF which are called "blowers ;" sometimos
with the noise Of heavy rain sometimes
with small reports. It collects among the
simbers Of the roof, 10 the upper galleries
OF the mine, in deserted por.ious Of the
oolliery, and especially in those aocumu-
lations Of refuse coal aud slate, called
"gob," or goat" with which the miners
pillar UP the superintendent. rocks. These
acres Of worked'out and filed up galleries
become vast reservoirs Of fire damp. The
gas collects especially over the snticIisal
rolls. From these great powder maya
xines, solicited b. the least diminutiou of
barometric pressure in the atmosphere )! he
gas rushes out to fill tho working rooms
Long experience has shown that tsll ing
barometer and explosions in coal mines
always 60 tosether. But tAe mischief is
accumulatve. The vacuum produced by
the first explosion is new provolation to
the world of black gas to leave its hiding
places, come forward afresh, and produce
snothsr, and again another, until the pro.
portion OF air to gas becomes too small to
mako an explosive mixture so that, like
the stroke Of lightning, tho coal mine ex.
plosion is no. unit, but series, cause
and effect reciprocally acting TO produce
the last result.
Among the most curious exhibitions of
superior lightness Of petroleum to other
minerals with which it is found, aud of
the nice train of reasoning dependent
thereon, is the observation Of Mr.. Va
rnuxem that the elm of black bitumen
found in the cavities Of the cslciferous rand
rock Of New York, with crystals of bitter
spar and quartz, occur on the upper side
Of The crystals. on the mother liquor Of
which they once aoatod as Peliclcs of oil;
and, as the crystal hardened and grow, it
moulded the oxydated oil to sheet Of bi.