Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1865-06-03
VOLUME 90.

IS Mr' wan has shown that the asphalt
oil Trinidad and Venczuea( belonging how.
ever TO much lster--upper mioceno or
lower pioccncc-tort'sry age) urs in
limesones, sandsioncs, and shales, asso--
ciated with beds of Ignite or fossil wood,
and is confined to particular strata which
were originally shales containing vogeta.
bic remains which have undergone ia
special naturalization, producing bitu-
m'nous matter instead Of coal or Ignite
and not attributable to heat, nor Of tho
nature Of a distilation, bu, due to chemi.
cal reaction at the ordinary temperaturo
and under tho normal condiioao of eli.
mate" He describes, also, wood partially
converted into bitumen, when removed by
solution, woody fbre -emoins.-( (Pioc,
0ool. Soc, Lond,, lay 1860. Hunt,)
The theory Of The genesis Of coal oil is,
however, far from being cleared up by
such facts. 1t is true that the oil is not
found iu immediate contact with coal beds
made of land or freshwater plants bu,
on the other hand, coal oil regions are
aphically connected with ooal.bed re-.
gions, whether Of devonian ,carboniferous,
oolitic5 or tertiary age. Coal beds ore
said to undcrlio The Rangoon oil wcrls.--
Tertiary lignitos abound in Trinidad,
Venezuela Lombarly, and middle Asia,
The lover de7onian horizon of the Casa.
da black slate oil reg,oa yield. coal beds
in Pennsylvania. The structural Difficult.
ties atteDding tue solution Of the problem
remain.
Fissures arc filled with oil, and gas and
sat water, and different wells strike them
at different depths. The oil.bearIpg sand
rocks seem charged from top to bottom
with gas and blow of from every 6s u.e
as it is passed through by khe auger.-
Whence comes this gas, if not by subte,s
raoean distillaton 1t is impossible to
poStulatc the gus FIRST and the oil after.
wards Tor that order would require the
generation ofpressure sufficient afterwards,
and :he oil would be 10 the condition of a
mechanically ezplosible duid. The gas
must be- subsequent expansion Of the oil.
as it is in the csse Of &C Il mine IRE. damp.
Whence, then, coraes the oil ,and Why has
it collected in reservoirs -! How a.e such
reservoirs preserved, and what is thei. OK.
tent? 1t is easy after these questions hees
been answered, TO describe The mechanical
propulsion Of the oil to the surface, partly
by gravity and partly by the pressure o,
the gas it has itself generated, through
natural assures producing natural oil
springs, or through artificial suger holes.
The intermittent action of most of tic
flowing and spouting wells is like that Of
the Iceland gcysers, where steam is The
motive power. Tto oil men of the Ma.
hoping valley say that more gas is blown
Of in winter than in summer.
At the Edeuburg well, above referred
to, the blast Of gas is sometimes violeu!
enough 10 stop tho pumping engine for
half an hour at time. Mr.. Clark re.
ports periodicity or daily maximum in
the paro xisms. He noticed for several
weeks tha! they REQUIRED with singular
regularity a few minutes after eight
o'clock in the evening, when the engine
was forced to stop for twenty minutes or
half an hour.
In the almost unchanged horizontal pos.
ture Of the western coal measures no cor.
siderable fracturiugor or assuring took place.
! Faults of all kinds arc uncommon and
very small when they exist at all. Tho
rise Of the stratiication from the Allc.
ghany river towards Lake Erie is a frao-
ton of one degree. The original contents
Of The rocks have therefore been preserved,
Not so with the anthracite basius on the
southcastern side Of the great coal area.
| Crushed and upiurned and overturned,
contorted and fractured in every part, this
! part Of the earth's crust has been dried
and hardened, and exposed to chemical
action from tue suporiucumbent drainage
waters, until its various formakons (hc
coal beds included ir the number) have
been netamorphoscd and partially recrys-
talized The oils which they contained
have been lost by dissolution and evspo-
latiop. The tituminous Goals have be.
come anthracitea, and the lest oil spring
on the headwaters of the Lehigh, the
SoLuykill, the Juniata, the Potomac, or
the New river, ceased to flow many mid
lions Of years ago. In the west, on the
contrary, in equally aneient, nay, in idsh-'
tically the same rocks, the petroleum still
remains, having had no outlet always
Theoretically scaled and under pressure. -
1t remains partly condensed in coal bedG
and black shales, partly distributed thrO