Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1886-05-13

For nearly thirty years past the question
as to the true orieion Of petroleum has en-
gagged the careful attention of many clos
students and observing ren, but up to thl
present time the-e isnot settled and uni
form opinion. By some writer's on the sub
ject IL Is contended ttat petroleum is th,
product Of chemical action constantly going
on in the interior OF the earth, that salt watel
and heat combine to act upon j1on ores ant
acids to proddce constant supply of tn,
ceudle oils that are now found in very man,
parts Of the world, and that as the oils ar,
found they rise to the surface, SO far as pos
sible, and float away on the streams to the
ocean where they are again so changed and
mingled as to be practically lost except as
the internal labratory of the earth, and again
appear and float away. Others maintain
that petroleum is the product of an age long
past, and 10 derived from animal or vegeta-
BILE remains.
There are in fact several kind of petroleum,
or in other words all earth oil, are now COM
posed Of the same materials. There are those
that form asphaltum and do not contain
parafine. Another kind does not form
asphaltum and contains parafine. Then
there are solid bitumens or those that require
high temperature to make liquid; SO that
until the whole subject is most carefully ex-
amined and all the characteristics of every
kind fully observed and made known there
will continue to be advanced different
theories as to the true o.'g.on of petroleum.
As to what it is we may sey, briefly, that it is
composed of hydrogen and carbon varying
in different localities, and often mingled
with many ether substances which one could
not enumerate without taking up two much
SPICE, but Easte, Ohio and West Va. oils
contain almost 70 parts of hydrogen to 81
paris of carbon.
As to where petroleum is found, we may
say in all parts of the world and new fields
are constantly being discovered as in Western
Ohio. In Penn. and Eastern Ohio it seems
TO have accumulated in beds or sand stone
deposits, ranging North of East and South
of West and not under the crown of an arch
of the OVERLAPPING rocks, while the Canadian
field lying Northeast of Detroit shows its
greatest products Immediately under or near
the crown Of the rocky arch. If the Western
Ohio oil field is an extension Of the Canadian
oil field then the best results should be OBJ
tanned under the rocky arch or anticlinal
fold as 1t is geologically called.
The highest fold of rock between this point
and Lima is near Barrods station, as shown
by the profile of the Chicago & Atlantic rail-
way, and the next highest fold is between
this point and the Soioto Marsh, but the drill
is only sure test OF the oil field, and until
wells are bored there is no certain rule or
theory that will guide to complete success in
developing oil territory. When well strikes
the oil then the field is found, the next point
is the course and extent of the oil bearing
rocks. One eminent writer on petroleum
says: "It occurs saturating porous strata
aud over laying superficial gravels; it occurs
beneath the crowns of anti-clinals in Canada
and West Va, and does not occur in Penn,
but in the latter region it occurs saturating
the porous portions of formations that lie far
beneath the influence Of the superficial
erosion like sand bars in q flowing stream or
detritus on a beach and generally lie con-
formally with the iuclosiag rocks, and slop
gently to the southwest. The Bradford field
in particular resembles sheet of coarse
grained sand stone 100 square miles in extent
by from 20 to 80 feet deep lying with its |
southwestern edge deepest and submerged in |
salt water, and its northeastern edge highest
and filed with gas under an extremely high
pressure, and it is now found in ell the rocks |
from the oldest to the newest between the |
lower Devonian and Upper Carboniferous.
Prof. 7. s. Hunt, of Montreal, says that |
he oil comes from the limestones at the base !
IF the Devonian formation, that it is indigo |
nous in those rocks, and has accumulated
lnder the crowns of the anti-clinal. He |
yives an interesting account of the oil wells
With both in the everything quadornary
travels and in the assures and cavities of the
Hamilton shales, but in some cases the bor-
ngs have been carried through these strata
nto the corniferous lime stone before get
ing oil. One well at Ennis X Killen was bored
o depth Of ass feet from the surface, and
0 feet into the solid limestone beneath the
hamilton shales before meeting oil. Another
veil at Both was bored 40 feet from the
urface, and 120 feet in the limestone when
ii was struck. Another well at Thamesville
so feet deep struck oil 90 feet in the LIME
tone, and yielded no oil until 16 feet in the
ime stone. At Chatham well was bored
81 feet through shales and So feet in the
ime stone beneath when oil was struck, and
ome wells have been bored where no shales
7ere encountered, and after reaching depth
f 209 feet in the lime stone OIL was found.
Whether the Western Ohio oil field is an
xtension of the Canadian field lying north
asst of Detroit or is continuation of the
'enn. oil territory, or is district field by
tself having features peculiarly its own, is a
natter to be determined after it has been
more fully developed.
~ The practice of the boycott is not a
lew one by any means, even for this country.
british tea traders were boycotted by Ameri-
ans just before the Revolutionary war, over
century ago. The papers use the term SO
just at present that the origin o.
he word may prove interesting. Captain
boycott was the name of an I-ish landlord
rho was unusually tyranical and oveebearing