The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1906-08-09

when the arttcie promlse stoI
iyonr journal on Oh and gas West
GINA, the frst idea Of its scope
related only 10 the great value and
ldeye lopment OF the production q
these artt cles as q numerical factor
lin the increase Of wealth and bl1st'
Eness DIV the sections Of the State ~
(which they are found, the statistics
4 81 such production, aud their tntt-
mate relation to the phenomena
growth OF the whole State In prospect,
ty and population during the past two
decades These are really the sign4iti-
cant features which must constitute
the actual merits Of this or any other
article which attempts to deal with
the second most important developing
Industry Of West Virginia, but with
reflection comes the impression That
even at the risllof extending tile article
beyond an interesting or readable linn
Itt, a place should BIO found for the
.merest cursory discussion Of the pri-
l.marary elements of geology relating
to its production, which are well
known to all oil operators.
but are generally as seal
ed book to the non-expert OF
one who is only interested in these OBJ
jects f6f the Incidental business they
bring to him orhis community. It sugF
gested itself that these the
cries Of geology, for they
can hardly as yet all be
regarded as demonstrate or proved
scientific facts, might be Of interest to
any who care to read at all on the
subject.
There are some diversity Of opinion as
to the cause of the origin Of oil and
gas for they are SO intimately conect=
ed always in production, that what is
said Of one necessarily follows as to
the other. Some eminent scientific au-
thorities hold that petroleum oil was
originally formed by the action Of heat
and water in steam and carbonic acid
gas upon the alkall metals. Others have
contended that it was produced by the
action Of water on the metallic car
bides. But the now almost universally
accepted theory is, that it was formed
by the distillation of either animal or
vegetable matter.
It is possible that the advocates OF
the vegetable theory have little bet
ter Of the argument, because Of the
scientifically proved fact that coal.
which Is usually found associated with
oil near its strattficatlon, was formed
from immense deposits of vegetable
matter, compressed. hardened and pre-
served by the action successfully OF
water and sand pressure. II certain
chemical and physical action could
convert great forests into coal beds,
by analogy it is easy to believe that
somewhat similar action under some
what different conditions might con
vert other forests of decaying vege-
Itation into oil and gas. OF course IN
an article of this kind, the theoretical
ideas involved in such methods of con-
version must be omitted. Others con-
tend that in that primeval day, when
the earth was being fitted for human
habitatlon, reptilian and fish life exist
ed OH as gigantic scale as vegetation
and that In commissions of the waters
Inv upheavals vast bodies Of these
we're swept as mass into denessions
The waves were followed by immense
bodies Of sand, packing down and har-
dening roof above it, and by the sio"
processes Of nature, distillatton en-
sned in the confined mass. and after
any successive layers of earth ana
sand had covered it, it became the
product that we find to-day by the
exploration of the drill. These are
but feeble hints of the interest the
subject affords to even the casual stu
dent, and are only given for that ptlr-
pose.
For many years oil was only found
in saudstones and shale. but now 1t Is
frequently gotten in limestone, the
oil In parts of Ohio and Illinois being
in rock.beds of this description.
One point the oil expert never neg
4 lects in flguruing on oil development
He will hardly drill in section where
the qualification lies fiat ami und1s'
\ turbed. Experience has taught him
that there must be fluctuations in the
strata if the probabilities Of oil OF
gas promise much for the labors o.
the driller. He equally avoids that
section where the rise and dip Of the
strata are abrupt and broken. From
this 1t may be seen why he avoids
the region near or on mountains where
upheavals have broken the strata anc
permitted the escape OF whatever oil
or gas 1t may have once covered OF
contained. The oil expert follows the
trend of the qualification, and from
line vantage nofnt Of the favorably 10