Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1866-03-08

PETROLEUM.


the U. q. Revenue Commission.
The report of the Commission on Petro-
leum as a source of national revenue con-
tains much interesting information, which
we condense in some cases and present
below:
1.-THE Commissioners proceed to give an
interesting history of its discovery in this
country, its rise and fall in prices with
the gold market, speculation in oil lands,
foreign demand, and also an extended
analysis of petroleum.
The springs of Baku, near the Caspi-
an Sea, are well known. The region
around the Caspian could furnish an I'M
limited supply. The oil is in common
use among the inhabitants. The great
natural depression of the Caspian Sea, and
the other salt lakes in Asia, including the
Dead Sea, is ar interesting feature in o n
nection with the petroleum springs and
the deposits of asphaltum.
Along the river Tigris springs of nap
tina, petroleum. are found in great num-
Der. 1t is used in lamps by the inhabi-
tants. "This substance exists in such
abundance that it is allowed to flow into
the Tigris, where, floating on the surface,
it Is sometimes set on fire by the boatmen,
and exhibits the appearance of a burning
river"
1t is a well aseertained fact that petro-
leum was used by the ancient Assyrians
as a cement with which to lay the bricks
in building the city of Babylon. 1t was
obtained from the fountain Of Is, the mod
ern Hit, on the right bank of the Eu-
pirates. They continue to flow eopiously.
and are considered to be inexhaustible.
Their celebrity was 30 great that they
were visited in turn by Alexander the
Great and the Roman Emperors Traian
and Julian.
A reddish eolered petroleum is found
in Japan and is used by the inhabitants
for burning in lamps and for other pur-
poses.
Petroleum is obtained and used for light
in some parts of China.
Celebrated and very productive petro-
leum wells exist in Burmah. They yield
a large revenue to the government, being
retained as a monopoly. The oil is used
for Illuminating by all ranks of the in
habitants, andis sold in the interior, where
it comes in competition with the sesamum
oil, and is displaced by it when the dis
lance from the wells has increased the
cost of transportation beyond a certain
point.
There were formerly, and probably are
at present, abundant springs of petroleum
in the mountains of Zarka, in Tartary.
Petroleum is found upon the Black Sea
and Sea of Arof. The attention of British
capitalists has been drawn by the extraor-
binary surface indications. One or more
companies have been formed and prepa-
ratlons are in progress to sink wells and
ship the product.
In Parma, Italy, near Salzo Maggiore,
at Amiano, ten leagues south of the CAPT
tai, salt springs exist, from which large
quantities Of salt are obtained, amounting
to over 10000 q%uintals per annum. Pc
troleum oil, used by the inhabitants, is OBJ
tanned in great quantities from the neigh
borhood of the same springs. 1t is drawn
up in buckets from wells sunk in the earth
for that purpose.
Petroleum is found at Tegern Lake, in
Bavaria; also at Sales, in the Pyrenees.
Surface indications are met with in other
local ties, about which we have no definite
information.
We cannot report to what an extent pc
troleum has been found in South America,
except in regard to one locality, about
which we have precise information. On
the northern coast of Peru, not far from
the port of Payta, surface indications ex-
tend over a territory of fifty miles square.
A grant of the lands has been obtained by
some New York capitalists. They have
sent out skilled operatives from Oil Creek
with all th0n eeruI machinery and appara-
tus. These operatives report that there
are ten times the surface indications of
petroleum that they ever saw at any pOr-
ton of Pennsylvania. The first we'll had
reached a depth Of seventy-three feet, and
contained four or five feet in cepth of pure
oil. The quality and gravity of the oil
proved, upon analysis, to be about the
same with that of the Allegheny river.
Raw labor costs there sixty-two and a half
to seventy-fve cents per day. Water is
scarce, being obtained by condensation.
There are good harbors in the oil territory
for vessels of ordinary ~draught.
Quite a number of wells have been sunk
in Canada West. Some have Welded
largely, and the supply is said to be CON
siderable.
The conclusion of the Commission is
that the American supply of petroleum
might entirely disappear, and enough
could be obtained from foreign countries
to supply the markets of the world for
generations to come.
The supply of fatty Goals, shales and
schists, which can be used to advantage in
the distilation of oil, is i~nexhaustible.
The following table will show the ex-
ports for the last four calendar years, from
the United States