The daily tribune., 1903-02-26
in SAN LUIS

| contracting OF the interior OF the earth,
The low land or depressions Of the crust
are constantly sinking closer TO the in
terror and becoming heated even to the
point converting the water contained in
| the shales into its component gases
hydrogen and oxygen and also the ear.
bon OF Goals and oils into gases, causing
| violent volcanic eruptions and the estab-
llshment OF new fractures and breaks in
the earths crust, the making Of new
mountain ranges where once were smooth
| valleys and an even surface 1t is very
possible that the San Luis hills OF this
valley were formed in this manner as we
lind them capped with the same lava
| that is found on every side several
hundred feet lower. This view is
strengthened by the fact that the lava
! flow is of about the thickness on top OF
| these hills as in the valleys at their base
and gradually thickens as we proceed
| south to the San Antoine mountains and
other extinct VOLCANOES.
The consensus OF opinion is that oil
was formed from microscopic animal and
cellular plant life in salt water sea, and
that coal was formed under similar
| climatic conditions but of terrestrial
plant life in fresh water sea. As men
toned above, one proof of this is in the
fossil remains of the various organisms
IN the oil shale on the one hand and in
the coal on the other. Again, oil and
salt water are generally associated to-
gether 1t seems very plain to me, that
while these valley lands which we're the
| fields of the densest growth of vegeta
ton were being constantly submerged,
that immense deposits would and could
be formed, as are now being formed in
| the peat bogs of Ireland and that by
volcanic disturbances and sudden sub
sidence, silt and dirt washed in and
formed the base of the shale OVERLAPPING
the embryo beds of coal In other cases
sand washed in and we find the coal
seams capped with sand rock as roof,
At the north end OF the San Luis val
ley, where the strata are upturned
against the Sangre de Christie range,
| Hyden has estimated from two to five
thousand feet of sedimeItry deposits.
In the south end of the valley, bounded
on the east by the Culebra range ard on
the west by the Conejos range. have
failed to find all the strata uEturned,
| making it possible to estimate the thick
ness OF these strata, but in very many
places erosion has cut into the shale and
sandstone. exposing several hundred
| feet of such sedimentary deposits, in
nearly all of which we find more or less
evidence Of oil. In the Conejos range
on the west of the valley and the foot
hills Immediately east of the range we
lind mountains of porphyritic rock
heaved up through the sedimentary
shales and sands rock, making the esti-
mate of the thickness of the sedimentary
| deposits of the south end of the valley
very uncertain. 1t is very safe to state,
| however, that such deposits are more
| than fifteen hundred feet thick, as that
much different strata is exposed at the
\ various points in the Conejos river
canon.
In conclusion will state that the oil
OF this valley may be encountered in any
of the sandstone strata lying between
the shale strata which stretch across
the valley in great sheets far beneath
the lake drift which carries our artesian
water. These oil strata reach from the
| Conejos on the west to the Culebra on
the east from Poncha pass on the north
to San Antoine mountains on the south,
country fifty miles by one hundred.
I Oil, Of course, will not necessarily be
| found at all points, but will follow the
anticlinal swells.
| But that oil is here and in large guam
titles is very certain, as certain rs one
| could wish without actual demonstra-
tion in the existence OF gusher. With
oil in the dirt, with oil in the various
springs, with gas in the artesian wells,
with gas escaping from springs and from
| the earth in many parts of the valley, in
fact, generally over all parts of the val
ley, with shales cropping along the Rio
Grande river, near the New Mexico line,
emitting asphaltum, with similar shale
in the mountains en- either side, and
those shale known to cross under the
valley, what can man want short OF actu-
al demonstration to convince him that
this is one OF the most propitious pros
pective oil fields in the world? Again,
from all visible indications the strata of
} the valley is practically unbroken, with
the single exception of the San Luis
mills, thus affording a basin in which
| there has been the least possible seep-
age, where there has been the greatest
possible quantity conserved for the use
of man.