Sistersville oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1896-1901, 1898-10-19
A Theory Based Upon Scien-
tifc Facts and Figures.
WHERE FIRST FOUND.
Written by One Who Lives in
the Largest Oil Regions.

on the western side of theAppalach-
! ian mountain system, and the gen.
eral course is that of the mountain
trend, generally spoken of by the
operators as the "45c (degree) line"
which line is in many places 100
miles wide, but whose general direc-
is very nearly As degree line
from northeast to southwest, which
is easily determined by the direc
ton of a shadow cast by a straight
pole at the hour of three O'Clock p.
m. (sun time); yet while the gener-
al course of this belt is northeast to
southwest, transverse belts may be
found within the limit of the gen.
eral belt, a few miles in length,
which oftentimes so confuses the
operator that itrequires many "test
wells" to exactly locate it. The
general belt trends from southern
New York to Alabama; while it is
true that it is not found at all places
throughout this distance, yet by
passing over breaks for short dis
tances, it will be found again. The
most productive oil fields which
have been opened up in the western
hemisphere are to be found in
Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
There are many theories relative
to the origin of this greasy liquid,
and biologists the world over differ;
yet many of their theories seem
very plausible, however your audi
| tor has not wholly accepted any of
them as whole, but has his own
view about the matter, brief out
line of which is here given.
Geological science in the past
quarter century has revealed many
mysterious relative to the genesis
of rocks of all kind. Strata, mineral,
land trends, slopes, animal and veg
etable life, land many other branches
of this science to which I have not
time nor space to refer; and I pro-
pose to deal principally with those
above referred to.
In the first period of time all
science proves that in the first di-
vision, or Eozoic age, that the
earth had sufficiently cooled to per-
NIT precipitation of an immense
amount of vapor from the atmos-
phere, which water sought its level,
and found it in the crevices or
cracks in the earth's surface, caused
by gradually, which cracks in
many instances extended far down
toward the center of the earth, the
interior of which was as it is now,
densely heated; and when the water
poured into these openings, in such
abundant quantities, it produced
wonderful upheavels, which in
many instances threw out what is
termed the igneus rocks, and so
dislocated the general strata or sed-
imentary deposits as to produce
what is known as metamorphic
rocks which do not lie in superb
eial strata, but dip or slant down
into the earth with nearlya uniiol m
pitch, often extending to great
depth, and as a rule belongs to the
impervious class, or in other words
are hot subject to saturation, as
they are slanted, and all liquids
drain along their surface.
Now, following the Eozoic era,
Paleozoic time came in, during
which period minute animals, and
even very large cnes in the form OF
crustacea and eventually fishes
hoated about in the water, and up
on the surface grew very dense fol-
iage, which gave rise to the car
boniferons or age, which animals,
in many instances, were composed
of lime and many other ultimate
elements, and a large amount of
fats and oily substances. The chem
ical elements of which, after death,
harden and produced fossils and
the fatty or oily substances were
soaked up by the soil, and gradual
ly percolated through the perVious
strata until it came in contact with
the impervions metamorphosed
strata, and then drained down their
sides until it came in contact with
an impervious rock at the bottom,
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