The herald., 1895-05-01
Elephant neat and Coal Measures


Editor Herald There are some features
OF the development of the hydrocarbons
in this vicinity which demand intelligent
analysis. My friend Ivar A. Weld, when
he proposed to bore for artesian water in
as to the proba of success in strik-
ing either water or oil. l then gave it as
an opinion, after cursory examination
of the surrounding hills. that at a depth
of 1900 feet either flowing water or, pos
sibly. oil might be expected. have
never seen cause to change that view
Having investigated thoroughly the or
igin and nature of these oils. the only
remaining problem left is the question
OF their extent and permanence.
DR.. Nordensjakhold. the Norwegian
explorer, when he found the immense
deposits of elephant meat at the delta OF
the Lena river, on the north coast of
Siberia. settled the probable origin of all
the so-called hydrocarbons, by showing
the possibilities of those cataclysms that
occurred at the time of the last change i'll
the earth polar axes.
In, the so-called carboniferous period
the large mammalia and saurians that in
habited the earth were in such excess, as
compared with the present, as to be
almost inconceivable. 1t could only be
compared with a shallow pond in the
tropics, now, inhabited by frogs and all
other amphibia. only the flying dactyls
of that period, an immense flying lizard
that caught its prey on the wing, the re-
mains of which are found in Kansas and
elsewhere, thirty feet in length. This
proves beyond the peradventure OF doubt
that the sudden destruction of nearly all
animal and fish life on the earth and the
crowding of their remains into the bays.
inlets, rivers and shallow lakes, to be
covered by the debris of rapidly melting
glaciers, is the origin of all the so-called
coal measures of the earth. 1t must be
borne in mind that these cataclysms have
not been confined to one change Of polar
axis To account for these changes in a
thorough, commonsense way, one has
only to consider the condition the earth S
crust was in at one period.
1t might be called planetary smallpox.
the highest volcanic conditions OF the
carboniferous period. When the whole
globe was in a continent condition with
these eruptions-as though millions of
Krakatoas we're belching their fires and
flowing sulphur-at once. Under these
conditions. when volcanic action was at
its highest intensity, land from this
source was as likely to be formed at or
near one or both poles as elsewhere. This
being the case, gave room for the forma-
tion of an ice cap at either or both poles
simultaneously-as was actually the case
when the CordillersS OF this continent
and the Himalayas of Asia were up
heaved. Professor Louis AgasSlZ. than
whom there is no hig her authority, stated
to the writer that at one time the ice cap
lay on Mt. San Bernawdino twenty miles
in depth. probably increasing in depth
southwark toward the, present equator.
These immense ice protu berances grew
until the earth beca ame slightly egg
shaped. Then in obedience to an ineyi-
table law of motion, the longest axis sud
denly takes the line of greater motion,
and these immel Sc glaciers are brought
under an equatorial sun 40 melt and carry
their terminal morain,,s seawaId and
bury under them with tho glacial silt the
animal remains on the shores or in the
shallow lakes or salt seas s in the case of
the Caspian sea in Southern Siberia.
Right there is the complete veritication
of the foregoing data. in oil wells of Baku
on the south end of that sea, just south
of the present deposits of frozen elephant
meat at the Lena delta.
This coast being more precipitate than
that, the amphibia could not be carried
SO far inland by the sudden change, and
therefore the origin of our coal oil. So
called, is comparatively near and limited
probably the origin of the local deposit
or outflow is in the Chino valley, and the
origin of the Puente deposit in the San
Bernardino basin. The great butte that
fianks the Cahuenga Pass on the north
east was pushed bodily out to it's present
position by the toe of glacier and ar ..
rested there by the granite protuberance
at the head of Laurel canyon.
FREDERICK MERRILL SHAW.
Little Mt Olympus.