Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1892-01-08
OILIN NEVADA.
Dan De Quill Thinks There Is
The Mining Outlook.

|
lQuille says:
Salt, petroleum and natural gas
are found to be associated in most
places throughout the W rid. Pros
lessor Stickenberger of Cairo, Egypt,
who has made the origin Of petroleum
study, has arrived at the conclus.o
that it is the oil of kind Of insect
produced Sin closed seas Of high
salinity, and IN such position and
surroundings as to produce a sup
erabundance Of animal life, espec~
tally IF the lower orders, and not
sufficient scavengers to remove
the dead bodies H is of the
opinion that the oil is produced by
the decomposition and fermentation
Of the fatty bodies of these insects.
It is found that where water becomes
too salt through evaporation, as in
the Dead Sea, the petroleum produc-
ing insects are killed off and the
process of oil deposition ceases.
1t may at first sight seem that it
would be impossible for the immense
stores of petroleum found in various
places in the world to have been pro
duced by ali insect, but we see in
many places large islands and great
reefs built up by the insignificant
coral insects. In Mono Lake and
other lakes in the Great Basin region,
the alkaline waters swarm with. q
species Of grub that presently bee
comes fly The flies do not leave
the water, but swarm OIL its
surface On the shores of Mono
lake the dead bodies # these insects
accumulate to a depth IF from me
to two feet The flies are eaten by
the Indians, who catch them rs soon
as the swarms begin to hatch. The
bodies Of these insects turn red in
hot water, and white men who have
eaten EN- say they taste like hashed
salr-on. Ducks feeding - them be-
come almost too fat 10 IS eaten and
have strong fshy taste
4 NEVADA EXPERIMENT.
At ono time, about twenty years
ago, parties OF tais city began boring
for petroleum at little alkall lake
near Ra town They bored about
one hundred feet and obtained a
small quantity of brown oil. Finds
ing the oil remains of the alkali insect
the grub mentioned about our
petroleum hunters concluded that
2ll2their oil Indications come from
the dead bodies Of the insects and
ceased their prospecting operations.
If we may believe Profess Strick-
enberger, Professors Ochsenines,
Jalozieski, and others, our oilseekers
We're after all on the right track. 1t
may be that we have natural gas
and petroleum in this part of the
Great Basin region about Owens's
lake, Humboldt lake and other places
= were search made by experienced
The insects found in the alkaline
waters of our lakes may be only a
member of the ancient
family of petroleum bugs" but
it certainly is a creature of an oil .
nature. If Professor Strickenberger +
s right about the origin of petroleum
We have in the Great Basin region
he conditions for immense oil de-
oosits whole basin probably ]
warmed ages ago with petroleum
Bugs.
THE MONO LAKE INSECTS.
Professor Strickenberger' insect
heory may seem very wild to per>
ons in some parts of the world, but
me who has seen creatures of the
Kind he refers to, in masses, will be ;
Inclined to give him respectable I
fearing. When a man starts on the
hore of lake, to walk upon what
appears to be beach of brown sand
as | have at Mono) and finds hin~
elf sinking to knees in mass of de- i
aging insects, he obtains a new in a
light into what prolific nature is Ca
,able of performing under circum-
tancss apparently the most difficult
In water almost as
trong as I've one finds such myriads
f insects that there dead bodies form
Vinrows on the beach and the air is
ainted for miles to the leeward.