The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-23

caused by the discovery of oil at Beau mont. Texas, great interest in the sub Ject has been aroused throughout the Southern States, and letters asking for opinions and advice as to the 1ossi- biiities 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 surrounding the 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 formations. character of the strata in the oil districts of the Eastern States differs very widely from those in the Texas field. so that the experience gained in the one field will be of com paratively little service in the other.
 First.-In the West Virginia-Oh region the oil occurs in the more or less consolidated strata of the older formations, Coal Measures, Sub-Carboniferous Devonian and Si- lurian. and the most productive fields seem to be in regions where the strata lie in comparatively undisturbed posi- ton, or in low but wide anticlinal arches. The best known of these great anticlinal folds is one that passes through the city of Cincinnati. hence known as the Cincinnati anticlinal, and extends Southwestward through Ken lucky and Tennessee into Alabama, where its extreme limit seems to be in the counties of Lauderdale, Limestone, Madison. Morgan, Lawrence and Col bert. This arch may extend still fur ther to the 3outhward under the strata of the Coal Measure which come in there in great thickness, but to reach the oil horizon beyond the counties named above the horings would have to be very much deeper.
 In all this region experience has shown that the oil is by no means uni- formiy distributed through the oil- bearing rock whatever 1t may be. but that 1t Is more or less concentrated in so-called "poois.'' separated by com paratively barren stretches. The To- calities and limits of these pools or pro- ductive areas can. so far. as know, be ascertained only by experimentation, and 1t is therefore inevitable that many useless borings will be made to one that is productive of oil. This remark applies to the regions where thWeoil in paying quantity Is known to occur; the uncertainties in those sections where the presence of oil remains still to be demonstrated must evidently be corre- spondinglv far greater.
 It would take us too far to go into any details as to the distribution of oil In the strata the characters of the great oil fields of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and 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 petroleum and gas Is that they are the products of the de- composition of organic matters, vege- table or animal. in presence of salt water, and with partial or complete ex- cluslon 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 1t goes, a favorable indication" of the pres- ence of the other. It mSgt be noticed on the other hand that there are hun- dreds of artesian wells in Alabama which yield salt water unaccompanied by any trace of oil, though at a few instances, such as at Cuilom Springs, and in the salt region of Choctaw, Washington and Clarke counties, in- fiammable 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 decomposi- tion of organic matters.
 In whatever way produced, these pro- ducts would be either disseminated through the strata so sparingly as to be of no use to man. or they would es- cape to the surface and thus be lost, unless confined between impervious beds. and experience has shown that oil and gas occur In porous strata with compact beds usually of clay or shale; above and below. by which their gen eral dissemination upwards or down. wards Is hindered. Then again. in re- 0ions where the strata have been much folded or broken or otherwise disturbed. the conditions are obviously unfavorable for the occurrence of pro- ductive oil and gas accumulattons. Our A Alabama Valley regions, therefore with the exception of the Tennessee. Valley. are hardly to he reekoned among the probable oil and gas producing areas. Where the strata are only slightly dis turbed. or are disposed in low. gently arching domes ar folds, there we may expect tn find that the most favorable conditions for the storing and reten- tion of these bituminous matters. and hese conditions in Northern Ala bama seem to ho hest met in the Valley of the Tennessee.
 As to surface indications" naturally The best and surest is the presence of ihe oil itself oozing from the strata, or spreading as an iridescent scum upon the ~lirfa~e of water. It nlvs+ he re- ma rked. however that an iridescent, rainbow colored film on water may be ~roducea bv other substances than oil. the most common being iron. Such films may he observed on the surface of the water of any chalvbeate spring. and might easily be mistaken for oil. Tn many parts of Northern Alabama "tar s1riros' have been known and dascribed in the geological reports for many years. At these tarrv bitum- inons latter issues from the cracks or Assures of the sandstone or lime stone strata. These have been gem eraTiv considered as certain 'nSications of the rresence of petroleum below. and 2 number nF horinFs have been made in connection with them in mast years. hut without obtaining as vet anythir0 of commercial value. altbough small quantities of oil are said to have been obts ined from some Of them in Moul- ton Valley and in the vicinity of Hart sell Here again the experience In other states has shown that there is no necessary connection between the oc- currence of the tarrv matter at the surface and the existence of productive pools of netroleum below. though the proba biIities of findiug oil where the tar spring is a surface indication are greater than where no indication what ever exists.
 Tn most places where bituminous matters occur there is more or less of iron pYrites the deconr nesitioa of