The San Francisco call., 1898-11-20

something new in the world, put A this is another of the strange
 things that California can show.
 Among the many interesting things to be seen along the coast of Santa Barbara County in Southern California is an array of long, roughly built wharves extending out several hundred feet beyond the surf at Summerland and bearing a succession of oil der ricks, under which the operations of we'll boring, pile driving and oil pump ing are carried on. These wells are now yielding about 150 barrels of oil a day, the oil coming from 300 and 800 feet below the surface of the water and nearly that far below the ocean bed.
 These pelagic oil wells were begun only about three months or so ago just about the time that the Star of Empire was plainly noted to be start ing on another westward trip. State MineraIogist A. s. Cooper, who is prob ably the most competent authority in the State on our great but slightly de- veloped oil and asphaltum resources, says that elsewhere along the coast oil- bearing formations are known to dip outward under the sea. This being the case it is possible that the future may See similar deep-Sea enterprises else where along the California shore. In that case, in connection with the great Pacific development that is stirring into life, the big ocean might be said to pay from the grass roots west"
 It is not at all strange that il-bear- ing strata should be found at accessible depths under the sea. Very soon after the development of the Summerland oil field 1t was plainly seen that the oil- bearing formation extended seaward The geological formation is roughly de- scrlbed as being in the shape of a stratified dome. Originally there was a flat layer of shale, then a layer Of sand was deposited, and then, as the ages went on, another thick bed of shale overlay the sandstone. Then dur Ing the ages when the Coast Range was uplifted and folded one of these folds occurred where Summerland now IS located.
 Geologists dispute much as to the origin of the so-called mineral oils, but at any rate oil accumulated in the sandstone strata on each side of the fold, being confined by the shales. On the north side surface water naturally accumulated from higher sources in the porous strata reached the lowest depths 1t could, and rising overflowed. The lighter oil was fioated upward to be lost on the surface or was float ed over the crest through the porous stratum to help fill the sandy reser- voir which dipped seaward On this side the water is not forced upward by hydraulic pressure and the oil Is not displaced. So there Is oil in the same formation on one side of the fold and not on the other. The erosion of ages wore off the top of the fold, like the removal of a top section of a cone, and O1e-fa fl at two places. On the seaward side the oil in the sandy stratum confined by the shales rose to the outcropping near the top of the high bluff overlook ing the ocean, and gave surface signs here and there, signs that two or three generations left unheeded. At one place there was a fumarole from which sul- phuretted hydrogen escaped, preventing any vegetation from growing, and there was an awesome Spanish legend about a murder that had cursed the spot. There were oil springs from which oozed greasy slime, and some of these were uncovered at low tide down by the sea.
 Finally in 1895 oil was discovered and the development of the Summerland oil field was begun. It comprised the slope of the bluff for three-quarters of a mile The first wells were sunk near the top of the bluff, and were but 30 to 50 feet deep. The derricks crept down the bluff, across the railroad and to the high water line where the oil stratum lies at a depth of from 250 to 300 feet.
 It was plain that the formation dipped under the sea, but nobody went after it there until a short time ago, when an enterprising MT. Treadwell created a sensation and brought on a little civil war in Summerland.
 The reason of this brings up q pecu- liar legal situation. The laws of the State and nation were not framed for the bottom of the sea. The Federal land and mining laws and the numer- ous and reversible rulings of the Inte- rior Department are supposed to en- courage and protect the production o1 oil and other mineral things on public land and the State of California has laws thereunto. But when MT. Tread