The Portland daily press., 1866-03-16
The on Regions of Canada West.
PETRoLIA,C. W., March 12. 1885,

u
To the Editor Of the Press - g.
: For ten days ! have been drifting about the
celebrated oil regions OF this western canadi-
an peninsula, lying between Lake Erie on
the South and Lake Huron on the North,-
and thus far have purposely withheld all ex-
pressions of opinion as to the productiveness
the oil wells lest should do injustice to
parties, or give undue preference to one sec
ton over another.--I- am satisfied no person
who has derived his information from a single
oil centre, will be likely to do justice to all par
ties At Boutwell,, Oil Springs and Petrolia
are spoken OF sneeringly; at the latter places
the operators insist that boutwell, IS about
'played out" and that more gas is found in
the village than oil in the wells two miles dis
tant. -. al, 40 .,,,,f ,,,.l. II bns =
/ Shall not with my present limited means
of Judging attempt to draw the line too ex-
aetly, or to speak oraculaIly in relation to the
oil interests. may soon be able to speak
with more deiniteness Of localities, but for the
present 1 prefer to generalize. Let me say
once for all, thatthe people Of Maine cannot be
too cautious about investing their money in
the schemes presented for their considera-
ton. Ii is safe to estimate aiaetenths of all
such "schemes"-this is the name given them
here-as consummate swindles doubt If one
in fifty of those who subscribe to such oon-'
Germs will ever see the first cent OF 'eturn ior
their money. The usual way Of hlahlns up up
these schemes is, to take parlaps haitian acre
ofwhat is called "tested" land, thatsiis, land
wing inside of points where oil has been
struck and connect with it perhaps dozen or
tweng acres of"wild cat" land--and entirely
eatside of the developments on such a
basis make mp a company of fifty, seyenty-five
or a hundred shares, when the whole value Of
the property is perhaps estimated here at not
over one or two thousand dollars There are
honorable exceptions, but such is the rrale: 1
have in mind now scheme that was "put
through" before left Portland, and in which
was urgently solicited to inyest,-but fortu-
nately deciined,-the land located In an oil re-
gion which the very party who manipulated
the scheme has since told me Is of no accounn
wonld say to friends in Name, be cautious;
the chances are decidedly against them; and
in nine cases out of ten where they have in
vested, they would not have done so if they
had carefully investigated in the first place.
The only safe rule is to ignore such very
tempting schemes altogether ssgI5s la1f
At eight hundred or thousand miles Dis
tant nearly every advantage of oil mining is
over-colored, while the drawbacks are kept
from view For example: You hear of oil sell
at S11, in gold, at the tanks; it actually sells
now at from $3.50 to $500. It has been $11,
| but it will scarcely touch such figure again,
because the re6ners have learned that they
can import Pennsylvania oil and pay the du-
ties, laying it down at their works in London,
Hamilton, &C., at SO or less getting better
article than ,here---better because cleaner or
freer from water. II BID -di 10 70
Again you hear that all the Canadian oil is
of the quality known as the thick, ,lubricating
OIL, worth much more than the oil from We
mango county across the Lake. This is not
81. There is asmaA quantity of surface oil
here that Is thick, but the rock oil of Canada
Is not the lnbricating oil, and is actually worth
less than that of Penn, not because of inferi-
or quality but because of its being less free
from water. .-.., t-t.f ---,,,T ,.-i .,ai,,fgi
Once more; you hear of the cheapness of
operations here, but board at hotels has gone
up from 81 OF $3.50 to $40 week in coin !;
lumber has increased in nearly the same ratio,
and every article required in Oil operations
has advanced, and is still advancing towards a
high figure. Spectators are as thick as horse
flies around an old stage stable in dog-days,
and no stone is left unturned to pick the pock-
cts and deceive, cheat and swindle the YER
dant and unwary. Unless a man has his
mouth full of eye-teeth, all aoeH cut, I advise
him to stay away and the man who is doing
"a comfortable business that yields small
though sure profits, is foolish to disturb that
business or even, to cripple it by, Withdrawing
one cent of needed capital, to engage in the
hazards Of oil mining; the most hazardous of
all mining, because the only kind where he is
obliged to operate beyond the reach of sight
and hearing do not mean to Intimate that
the oil business is not a great interest, often
lucrative, but the advice once given to me by
a rough fellow on the Sacramento, fifteen
years ago-wise though coarse-is as perth
nent here and now as it was there and then.
"Don't believe more than half of what you
see, and not a id aoord ofivhat you hear"
will go more into detail in another commu-
nication. ,,,i .t,,+f.s,,e,s ,i SPURw1NK.