The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1901-09-14
HOW NATURE
MAKES OIL
Petroleum the Result of a Great
Catastrophe
FISH ARE THE BASIS
Countless Millions of Fish Were Ruthlessly
Destroyed in Great Cataclysm.-
Petroleum the Result.
FISH ARE THE BASIS

Wnlt Is an oil SuSner! WHAT
makes it gush? Where does the oil
come from? Why does it spout into
the air? How can the presence of oil
be detected from surface Indications?
What natural conditions result in the
| formation of petroleum? Can these
cond,iO be brought about artificial
| ly?
These are questions that have been
asked by thousands since the Texas
oil boom began, says the Philadelphia
| Times Every man VINO owns an acre
| tract in the "hopefu. district is won
dering whether his real estate is mere
ly the cover of natural oil tank.
Professor Gustav Hambrach, in
structor in geology at Washington uni
versity, says:
| Petroleum is one of the results of a
great catastrophe. Scientists agree
that at some period in the worlds his
tory there was an upheaval of some
kind which completely changed the
character of the earth's surface. AS a
legacy to the world Death left petro-
leum. Geology teaches us that animal
and vegetable life was ruthlessly de-
stroyed in this great cataclysm. Count
less millions of fishes were carried on
the crest Of the flood. Then the waters
subsidized and the fish We're left found
ering in the mud. They could not re-
lease themselves. They sank deep
er and deeper in the thick deposit
which closed over them and hardened
rapidly. The fate of animal and vege-
taDle life on land was the same.
The clay gradually hardened into
rock which inclosed these animal and
III Il
| imbedded. In some places this hard
| ening process was so rapid that air
was completely excluded from the
buried forms before decomposition set
in. The animals, fishes and plants
remained in their rocky repositories
in state Of perfect preservation for
centuries. But changes in the earth's
composition are constantly taking
place. Improvements made by man or
natural shifting Of the strata gradual
ly caused conditions which admitted
air to the imprisoned fossils. Disin-
tegration ensued The result was pc
troleum.
| 1t is possible that this decaying ma
ter which has been incasad in rock for
millions of years does not always re-
suit in the formation of petroleum.
| nc pl'SsiItt vi ptHtl tlltullNdl tlt'-
ments is necessary to this, but what
they are is one of the mysteries on sci
ence. All that chemists know is that
petroleum is mixture of carbon and
hydrogen. But .ey do not know the
proportion in which these elements
are combined to make it, Attempts
to analyze it have always failed and
no means of manufacturing it ar iii
l al hnAn ,l,,,r ,tu
leum is not found exclusively in any
particular stratum of the earth's crust
On the western boundary of Wyoming
there is ledge of rock of the tertian
period If you scrape a piece of this
rock you will find that it smells strong
ly of petroleum. Behring'S have been
made out there and enough oil is being
taken out to supply the demands oil
Wyoming and Idaho. The tertian age
was the one Immediately preceding
tho prescn period of the worlds life
This shows that the oil Of Wyoming
is of mparatively recent origin.
The oil of Pennsylvania is found in
strata of the devonian period. This
was a part of the paleozooc age, tn.
earliest of which geologians have an,
record. This shows that the oil ii
years before that of Wyoming
! 1t has not yet been determined il
what stratum the oil recently discover
ed in Texas originated. 1t may b,
found that it is neither triassic nor de
vonlan. These great differences il
the time at which oil originates al
various places show that there is nc
set rule by which biologists can GOV
ern themselves in an attempt to de
termine whether or not certain 10
2 cality is oil bearing. 1t is certainl,
not found in the tertian or devonial
| strata everywhere. Rocks of these
= periods found in southwestern Mis-
2 souri,. for instance. snow no trace o
4 petroleum.
l fhe decomposition of animal ant
l vegetable mater is found to have
: taken place Just as in Wyoming ant
Pennsylvania. but there was an alb
l sence of those unknown chemical Gle
ments which were necessary to pro
duce oil in this process. From this il
follows that there are no surface indi
cations which will point infalibly Il
the presence of petroleum. BORN.
: alone will settle the question Ever
4 boring is not always satisfactory. The
4 drill might so straight to the source
| of petroleum supply without showins
D satisfactory result.