The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-23
PROBABLE OCCURRENCE
 OF OIL IN ALABAMA
Dr. Eugene A. Smith of the State University Deals With the Subject Clearly and COnciScly.
 Indications of Petroleum.

gen, sour water. deposition of sulphur. etc. which are often noticed in connec- tiop with petroleum. All these. there fore may be looked upon as favorable indications. but with limitations. since all of them maysIbe observed where there aa no oil. x
 Beyond the Tennessee Valley to the Southwafd. the antfclinaI arch which.
 in It's eroded part constitutes tho Blount Springs or Browns Valley, ex- tends to the Seuthwestward below Ried's Gap as an unbroken arch or fold. sinking gradually to a level below Toadvine sn Jefferson county.
 This arch known In part of it's course as the Democrat Ridge, Is by it's stritc- ture favorable for the retention of oil and gas, provided they exist in the underlying strata--which has not yet been demonstrated.
 As to South Alabama and the con- nection with the Beaumont fields. Prot Hill thinks. and apparently with good reason. that in Texas the oil occurs in the strata of the Tertiary. formation. while Prof. Harris and others believe that 1t comes from the still older Great ceous rocks, warped up into fold and thus brought comparatively near the surface in the Texas coast plain. Now the later Tertiary formations wfsich
 make the country about Beaumont ex- tend in wide belt Eastward across the great delta region of the Mississ- ippi in Louisiana and Western Miaa- ialiy before the Alabama line is reach- ed. These formations. acc0rdingiy. In Alabama occupy a much narrower belt than they do in the States above named, and oil, If it should occur In our State under the Identical conditions that obtain in the other States named. should be looked for at no great din@l tance from the coast in Mobile and Baldwin counties. But all of cur Ter tiatu strata contain an abundanca of bituminous matters in the form of hg~ nite beds. etc., which might easily be conceived to be the sources of more refined bitumtneus products. oil and gas
 In the Beaumont region, according to. ProE Hiil. the practical oil men take into account in locating their hnrin9s. certain ''indications' which 1t Is worth while to mention again. quoting from Prof. Hill: "First--The oil is aecoia- panied by great quantities of sulphur the areas where there is great ofI satsl- ration. being of unconsolidated nature. in many cases permit the suiphuretted hydrogen gas to percolate upwards uTa~ til 1t reaches the surface, producing a set of phenomena, as follows: Gas blAb- bles in pools of water: sour or acid water. aciduIated by the gases; the de- position of small particles of sulphaR at the surface or in porous strata ha- heath the surface"
 2 In our Coastal Plain regiors as In North Alabama. it must be remembers ed that while bituminouB matters pxp-l vail very generally in the strata. t is, certain that oil, if occurring at ak will not be uniformly distributed. since the strata themselves vary greatly from place to place in porosity, quality etc. and nothing short of actual expertmeIl- tation will prove the existence of oil. or define the limits of productive oil when found.
 From all this I trust 1t will be clear that in a region like Alabama. practi- caIIy untried in this respect. no one can safely predict anything about oil or gas. All that one can do is to point out some of the peculiarities of strata and structure. and the surface tndica-- tions which may be considered as fav- orabIe. and which give greater promise of success in boring for oil in certain regions than in others. have al- ready mentioned the Tennessee Valley. the Democrat Ridge. the Salt We'll re- zion of Choctaw. Washington and Clarke counties as possessing some features of greater promise than other sections.
 1t is of course inevitable that "old oil men," practical oil men," and the like. will swarm over the country claiming to have traced the oil-bearing rocks from Pennsylvania and ohio through Kentucky, Tennessee and Ala bama. direct to Beaumont. Texas. TO AGl he ana.NaFAd thar the surrounding conditions and the geological horizons of the oil in Texas differ in all respects from those oo- taining in the Eastern and Northern States, and that there Is absolutely no connection between the two; and sec- ond, that nothing short of actual DOT ings and finding of the oil can demon strate the continuity of the oil fieids. and we all know that in Alabama the borings have certainly been neitner sufficiently numerous nor productive enough in results to base upon them any unqualified statements as to the location of oil horizons with us. OF ev en as to their existence.
 Those who care to study the suoJect more closely should consult the Tenth Census Report on Petroleum, and the Mineral Resources Volumes of the United States Geological Survey As regards Alabama. all that is definitely known about the occurrence of oil. VIII be- found recorded in our Geologieai Report on the Valley Regions, Part l. and in a paper on the subject by Pror. Henry McCally, published in Vol. l. Part I of the Proceedings of the Ala bama Industrial and Scientific so- ciety. both to be had on application at this office. and enclosing the stamps for postage. 12 cents. The Geological Report which is concerned with the Tertiary and Cretaceous formations IS the Renort on the Coastal Plain. post