Bisbee daily review., 1911-06-27
WHAT CONSTITUTES
 OIL LAND OF VALUE
(mining science.)

mercially or prospectively valuable for oil unless it has ben reasonably proven by a well or wells put down on it or in the vicinity, which have found and brought up oil in commer- cial quantities. It is not enough for an area to show good surface signs, such as oil springs, oil seeps, oil scum floating on watery patches Of "brea or asphaltine matter. These indica- tions merely show that oil does ex- ist or has once existed at some un- known depth near to or within the area. These surface signs, however. may be a long way from the main source or reservoir of oil of true com mercial value. Oil seeps, for example. may issue from fault Assures or ap- pear along the lines of igneous dikes quite remote from the available source of the oil or where it will be advisable to bore for it.
 In Colorado there are large areas, showing abundant surface oil signs, in which well after well has been put down to considerable depth with out encountering any merchantabie quantities of oil. Perhaps they did not locate the wells advisedly or did not 20 deep nough to the oil. Perhaps they chose the synclinal or troughs of the valleys and meadow strata rather than the anticlines on the hin tops or sides and so got water instead of gas or oil: If they may have bored too near the seepags or oil springs. too near the fountain head, rather than farther away at the oil reservoirs CT Assures where the oil collects.
 Surface signs merely prove that oil is somevhere in the vincinity, though where or at what depth may only be surmised or guessed at by geological acumen, or proven by the actual put ting down of a well To speak with any degree Of assurance of an area being underlaid by valuable bodies of oil has far less certainty in it's favor commonly than has coal, because coal lies in broad sheets or beds in coal bearing starta, whereas oil ts' fire nuently contained or collected in fis- sures or in lenses of porous sand stones of uncertain size or limits, or along narrow zones coincident with 'he line of antieIi~ when oil is actually solnd in certain ounn- titles by boring. and it's true habitat, depth or zone discovered. it may not yield sufficient auanf;tirs by jumping to be in that oarticnla- sphere Of com mercial value, owif e CT distance from railroads, markets, etc or the reservoir when tapped may prove to be one that has been nearly exhausted by some profound canyon cutting through the region.
 These and many other circumstanc- es may initiate against an area show ing good surface signs being of neces sity of commercial value. On the othei hand. few enterprises are more vslua- bie than when large bodies of oil are struck and other features are fayora bic to prospecting. These desirable bodies are commonly found by aid oi surface signs, though in some eases without them and by accident
 A curious feature of great oil dis coveries hes sometimes been that tor much oil has ruined both wells and
 market. or the natural supnlv of oil as in some Of the fields Of Califorcia
 has been gratIy in excess Of tho Uaean. or transporting it to rarket althouTh that market was ready tn receive it
 Coal and the precious metals hay. treir uncertainties. hut tbe mining o of is even more uncertain. while i-' successes are often the greatest.