Year: 1866

We publish, as matter of interest
the following letter from w. G. Kerr,
A. NJ, State Geologist, late Professor
Of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology
at Davidson College.


Messrs. 4. G.. Breuizer, e. P. Jones


and others Of &C The North Carolina


Petroleum. and Olining Company"


Greensboro, N G.:


S1Rs In your letter asking my
opinion of the prospects and probabll-
tiles of Petroleum operations in n orth-
Carolina, you state that your procedure
will be much Influenced by my answer
to your inquiries. Let me say in the
beginning therefore that there is yet
too much doubt and uncertainty envel-
oping the geological theory of that sub
iect, to make itprudent to base an opera
ton upon any scientific opinion, which in
the present state of our knowledge of
the matter, can claim to be little more
than conjecture. The whole subject is
so new and the facts have accumulated
so rapidly and cover SO wide field,
and so many points remain still in OBJ
security, that it would be unsafe to ven
ture a prediction that oil will or will not
be found in any given locality.


The only satisfactory method of set
Ting the question of its presence is to
make an experiment by boring. And
this is no very difficult or costly affair;
to such degree of simplicity and per-
fection has the manufacture OF the I'M
plements for the purpose been brought
and so much skill has been acquired
in the use of them. And [ was glad to
find on visiting last week the ground
where your machinery has been erected
and the preparations nearly completed
for sinking the first we'll, that compa-
nv of citizens of North-Carolina have
the enterprise and public spirit to make
this exploration, which must lnure to
the common benefit as well as that Of
the immediate members of the company.
For YOU will decide satisfactorily and
finally, and in the only way i'll which it
can be decided, the question Of the ex-
istence of petroleum in available guam
tity in North Carolina.


And whether you succeed in finding
oil or not, your experiment, besides its
general scientific interest and the light
which it must throw upon several veXed
questions, will probably bring to view
new resources of coal and iron and i'm
probably also of lime, salt and gypsum,
whose presence in association with the
coal, there are good reasons for suspec-
ting.


In reference to the question of the
probability of your finding oil, 1t is
proper to state, as | shall do briefly and
frankly, in answer to your inquiries,
what consider the fixed and ascertained
facts and principles bearing on that
point, emitting whatever is merely con-
jectural.


Petroleum or mineral oil is of organic
origin, being derived from the accumu-
lations of the remains of vegetables and
(chiehy of animals of former ages,
which lie buried deep i'll the rocks. Oil
may be expected therefore only where
these fossils abound. 1t is seldom found
(if at all in the rocks where it origina-
ted, but at higher level. 1t is found
chiefly in sandstone which is never the
source of its production 1t does not
occur in metamorphic or altered(s call
ed primary rocks.


The rocks of n North-Carolina, except
the Deep and Dan River coal measures
land the mari region of the coasD are
of this description and contain no fos
sils; so that you have selected the only
localities in the State where there is any
probability of success because there |
only the rocks are not metamorphic and
there sandstones abound, and since
these coal formations are of no great
thickness and the oil lies above the hori- |
zon of its production, you may expect
to findit, if at all, at no great depth be-
low the surface.


1t is important in fixing the location !
of your wells in coal region to seek |
indications of bituminous coal, the pres !
ence of anthracite denoting a degree of
metamorphism Tor ALTERATION of the con-
stitution of the .rocks) which implies |
the absence Of petroleum and the chan
ces Of success will be further increased
if you select point towards which the
rocks incline upwards from opposite di-
rections, an anticlinal axis, in geological
phrase.


Believing that you have the energy
and perseverance to carry through your
laudable undertaking and hoping that,
it may result protitably to yourselves,
in the complete realization of your hopes,
and to the State by the development Of
her stores of hidden wealth, let me as
sure you that no one will rejoice more
sincerely in your success than myself


Yours respectfully,


w. G. KERR,


State Geologist, n. c.