Daily Davenport Democrat. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1864-1874, 1866-05-15
81 IN the MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.
vvkerc - sAe qsowcse Bee 49,
SsresE ChsfhenesA DasNs



s,ppi Valley" are meeting wi b on the psr
OF The public. I observe they are being
copied BY the Eastern - well Is the Wet
crn paperA My attention has been turned
60 this subject for some time, not as matter
| of peculiarly advant age, but purely as SCI
su.,tic question. I do not assume that OIL,
n any considerable quantities., u q sal, OK
st. in this valley; but Il does, then -
.ume. that when distilled from the co9 of
whatever other substances may produce H.
II wiIl-indeed must-obey the laws o.
| ,ray,tation. precisely like water, or any
| cher fluid. Inst IL, hat il must aecesssr'-
" seek sts lowest level, whcsever that may
be. think no one will be hardy enough 10
| ,.nv that uronos,,ioo. Where is that low
o., Icv,l, If it is under the immediate bed
e the Mississippi then to that point WIZ IL
a',w aud far more readily than water or
indeed any ott or liquid. because it will pen
citrate v here no other liquid can 60. cask
which will hod water, alcohol. all other
xipds Of al, and even turpent ne, Tor months
md even year, would not hold this OH 'o'
a week. That has been too often demon
,trated to need further proof. Inc ohiy
question then which appears to me TO DE ~
ioubt il, whether the immediate bed Of the
Mississippi river is, in fact, the lowest Level
| # this great Continental basin. THIS ques
Ilion does not depend entirely upon the geo.
Logical structure Of the valley. Its present
topography is rather photographic tlan
geological. That is, although the ge'log'
cal conformation OF the several seiies oil the
tratifed rock may Indicate that some other
locality may Le Liver than the bed Of the
river, still the photographic conformation
most unmis .akeabIy and necessarily leads
20 the conclusion that the bed of the river
5 in fact the lowest level. think II will
rot, indeed cannot be, successfully denied,
| that the underlying rock, on both sues on
The river, incline, by very consideraoie
angle. TO that common center. The exact
l,nrle Of that inclination, has not, and prob
ab'y cannot be, readily ascertained. as>
sumo that it is at the rate Of about Two feet
! to the mlle. Perhaps it is more, perhaps
ess. But whatever that inclination may
be, it is sufficient to cause the water 10 How
| 10 that common center and has been caused
by the upheavals, which arc entirely 'nde
pendent Of the geological laws, n the more
| restricted sense Of that term. When, there
fore, the valley rose from the depths Of the
ocean, the waters flowed to the lowest level
and there formed the Mississippi river, just
as in . shower the waters will run in the
cutters instead Of the middle Of the streets
think you can at once understand my pc
sition on the subject OF hat lowest level.
think that point is not a matter OF donbt.
Ii there is still a lower level, photograph
cally speaking th n the present bed Of the
river. then the Mississippi is running on a
ridge instead Of in valley. But how deep
is that reservoir OF oil, if here at ALL do
not know; only this, it will only be found
where cavities exist in tue rock suili lent to
hold the oil. But as to the depth OF those
rocks, you can tell that better than /, as
you have the means Of informing yourself
aud have not. But when you do get down
to the lower rock, it may be that you will
not find the precious fluid. II you do not,
am q, tie confident the reason will be that
there rs no oil in the valley at all; that is, in
sufficient quantities to gather in those rcs>
ervoirs which | am confident do exist it,
the lower rock strata. lam quite confident,
however. that you will lind it. think that
oil will not be found in any considerable
quantities above SIX hundred feet, and prob
aoly not less than one thousand feet.
The similar ty Of the several strata pass
ed through by on, to those in Pennsylv; MIA
are Ger AMY very great and striking.
think, however, you will have to 90 u ch
deeper han mos Of the wells in the oil re-
gions Of that great State, rom the ,act that
| cavates necessary o contain the oil will be
much.deeper or lower in the geological sc
RES. 1t is certainly q very great and indeed
worthy enter rise for company OF men
. unite in efforts to test the truth Of such
| a theory especially where here are no more
.finit fac $ and developments tlan b 70
| been made in this valley. II YOU sucec.u
however, you will not only confer a grea,
benefit pom the whole people Of the west.
bit. hope, will secure very e eat pecu>
iarly advantage to yourselves. TIE we'll
at Prairie Du Chen has, beyond all doubt,
struck oil. Iiecei ed letter from the su
perintendent few days since, saying that
they have not been doing any hing here for
some time. lie states that in the month OF
February last they tested it with the
Jumps They saved about one and half
barrel o. sery good oil, and that Eat least
tive times that amount was wasted have
clso learned the same facts from iters, and
haye no doubt Of the truth OF the statement
| One gentleman who had examined it him
self, says that they have apparently struck
into pocket, little enc side Of the main
body" lie says THAT the oil is soon OK,
haus;ed in the we !. but after standing
few days it will Gil up again after being
pumped dry" Now t..at theo. may be
co rect, Tut it looks to me more likely tia,
they have just penetrated the mere upper
strata OF the oil deposits, like striking upon
the surface of water when boring Or digging
for tina, article
There are very many oil indie alters in
this section. There are many places where
certain strata OF the rock are SO ,hroueLlv
saturated or rather penetrated with btt ner,
OF petrol UNI hat hey will burn with a m, st
lniensc hea, that j. the rock DOES not burn.
nut the oil burns out of it, One place alou,
hiteen miles above this place, there a, strata
oil STATE, betwee layers of lime stone. ii Al
are so iriilmn.able that when tho on9hlv
>ry that they csn be igrited merely with
hatch. lncSc streta are near the waters
edge on the Missssip i. At Shulsbury
"ls.,'is 'ound a burning rock but that is
The magnetism lime stone. 1t is at least $50
| leet higher than the former. A dfiIt lad
oeec run INTO the bluff in search oil mineral.
The work had been abandon. for some
time. II January last some miners were
sinking shalt near the-''dirt pile" Of the
rAt and il being a very cold day they had
set on ii'c brush heap lying near and used |
some OF these rocks to weight down the |
brush so tint they would burn better.
Presently the rocks were in blaze. The
men were scared nearly out Of their
senses. For y time they were not
entirely sure but the bad Place"
was breaking cut there, but soon being re- |
opened they proceed d 10 test the rock NOR
thoroughly. They found that the rock tax |
en- out furtherest in the bluff was far richer |
in pc roleum than tat lyi near the sur
face. Since then many other like discoveries
have becn made. but none Of them on I e
same level aswiah another. This it sccms
to me Is TIE i6Cs' seonducivc proc. that the
oil is a idteign substance, and in its pros
grcss to the common center, crosses out.so
to speak arbitrarily .sn-its progress tow srds
the surface Of the gath. But must close.
hope you will pardon me for mis- very
long AID very dull letter. My only excuse
i. my very great Interest in ths question.
u