The age-herald., 1901-06-19

In consequence or the excitement cduseo by the discovery of oil at Beaumont, Tex. great interest the subject has been aroused throughout the southern states, and letters asking for opinions and advice as to the probabilities of finding oil in Alabama and the best places for boring for oil come daily to this office. have therefore thought that a short statement of some of the conditions sur rounding tho oil districts in the different parts of the country, together with such inferences as may be legitimately made from the known facts, might be timely.
 The mode of occurrence. geological for nations and character of the strata in the oil districts of the eastern states diff fer very widely from those in the Texas field, so that the experience gained In the one field will be of comparatively little service in the other.
 First-In the Pennsylvania, West Vir- ginia and Ohio region the oil occurs in the more or less consolidated strata of the older formations, coal measures, sub-car- boniferous, devonian and silurian. and the most productive fields seem to be in regions where the strata lie In compara- lively undisturbed position or in low but WlQG dHLlCllIldi ttICtleS lHt UebL kIOWH of these great anticlinal folds Is one that passes through the city of Cincinnati, hence known as the Cincinnati aAticlinal, and extends southwestward through Ken lucky and Tennessee into Alabama, where its extreme limit seems to be in the coun- ties of Lauderdale, Limestone, Madison, Morgan, Lawrence and Colbert. This arch may extend still further to the south ward under the strata of the coal meas tI1 1Ia1.1 4I.1.- 4n1- ness, but to reach the oil horizon beyond the counties named above the borings would have to be very much deeper.
 In all this region experience has shown that the oil is by no means uniformly dis tributed through the oil-bearing rock, whatever it may be, but that 1t Is more or less concentrated in so-called pools" separated by comparatively barren stretches. The localities and limits of these pools or productive areas can, so far as I know, be ascertained only by ex- permentation, and 1t is therefore inev- itable that many useless borings will be made to one that is productive of oil. This remark applies to the regions where the oil in paying quantity Is known to oc- cur; the uncertainties of those sections where the presence of oil remains still to be demonstrated must necessarily be cor respondingly far greater.
 It would take us too far to go into any details as to the distribution of oil in the strata and the characters of the great oil fields of Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, etc., all of which can be found by those who care to pursue the subject further in the books noticed below.
 The general opinion among geologists as to the origin of oil and gas is that they are the products of the decomposition of organic matters. vegetable or animal, in 0f lar nd or complete exclusion of air. According to this view, oil, gas and salt water are necessarily associated and the occurrence of one or two of these Is, so far as it goes, a favorable indication" of the presence of the other. It must be noticed on the other hand, that there are hundreds of artesan wells in Alabama which yield salt water unaccompanied by any trace of oil, though in a few instances, as at Gull lom Springs, and in the salt region of Choctaw, Washington and Clarke coun- ties, infammable gas comes up along with the salt water. Another view as to the origin of oil and gas is that they are produced by chemical reactions in the earth's interior and are therefore in no way connected with the decomposition or organic matters.
 In whatever way produced, these prod ucts would be disseminated through the strata so sparingly as to be of no use to man, or they would escape to the sur face and thus be lost, unless confined be- tween impervious beds, and experience has shown that oil and gas occur in DOT ous strata with compact beds, usually of clay or shale, above and below, by which their general dissemination upwards or downwards Is hindered. Then, again, in regions where the strata have been much folded or broken or otherwise disturbed, the conditions are obviously unfavorable for the occurrence of productive oil and gas accumulations. Our Alabama Valley regions, therefore, with the exception of the Tennessee Valley ,are hardly to be reckoned among the probable oil and gas producing areas. Where the strata are only slightly disturbed, or are disposed in low, gently arching domes or folds, there we may expect to find the most favorable conditions for the storing and retention of these bituminous matters, and these conditions in Northern Alabama seem to be best met in the Valley of the Tennes- see..
 As to surface indications, naturally, the best and surest Is the oil itself oozing from the strata, or spreading as on irri- descent scum on the surface of water. It must be remarked, however. that an iri- descent rainbow colored film on water may be produced by other substances than oil the most common being iron. Such
 films may be observed on the surface of the water of any chalybeate spring. and might easily be mistaken for oil. In many parts of North Alabama, "tar springs" have been known and described in the geo. logical reports for many years At these a tarry bituminous matter issues from the cracks or Assures of the sandstone or limestone strata. These have been eener- ally considered as certain indications of the presence of petroleum below, and number of borings have been made in connection with them in past years. but without obtaining as yet anything of com mercial value, although small quantities of oil are said to have been obtained from some of them in Moulton Valley and in the vicinity of Hartsell Here, again, the experience of other States has shown that there is no necessary connection be- 4x.- Io- af a tnr