PRESS) L „ I)A U,Y (SUNDAYS EXOEPTEB) BY JOHN W. F»RN*T. ill SOUTH FOUKTH STBBHT. - rJIE IJAII.V PRESS, 'ibetß, IbTes Dollars Per Aojrtfil. 1» ,f:ir pI,; T-pm Certs Per week, payable to or Mailed to Subscribers out of the elty, '■■ >,ir« r * S„aA»»c«! POOR Dollars and Firrr VftETBSI TWO Dollars and Twssti ! ' fl ,j SiS BB Months, invariably in adTaaei P' r ( f jW Tfß ** rtSents inserted at the nsnal rates. ' i'' Jt .fp TBI-WEEKET PRESS, T sabseribers, Five Dollars Peb Aseitm, in SCALES, gCALES WAREHOUSE, Jls CHESTNUT STKEET. ItaUU DBI eOODD. tfp&T display. 0 , , w- Ha nae thow of properly rtrt r C* 0 ** ud foments, for fall and winter wow. S lofl VBLOUB CLOAKS. giNDBOMK BBAYBK DO. fINKST FBOBTED BEAVER DO. BIACK TBIOOT AND BEAVEB DO, ?1 p BLACK GARMENTS. w ateb PROOF CLOAKS. C iOAKB MADE TO ORDIiSK. COOPER lßea Bets, Ice Pitchers, Walters, Goblets, Porks, Spoons, Ac. Watches repaired and Warranted. Old Gold, Diamonds, and Silver boniht no!9-3m DIES’, ' SILK , HAT S', IKSKCH BHAPKB. BIRDB, FEATHERS, FLOWERS, ALL THE HOTEIiTIBS IH THIS MILLUfKRT LIHJ. THOS. KENNEDY & BRO., 0«13-Wfmam 80. TOO CHBSTHTOT Street BUCKWHEAT FLOUR. WHITB CLOVBB HONKY. MBW FABBB PBACHBB. OULTIVATBB OEAHBKRRIBB, »«. ALBERT O. ROBERTS, Bwlulu Fine Groceries; •01-tf Comer ILIYBBTH and TIBB Btreeta, JOOKIHG GLASSES. JAMES S. EARLE & SON, 816 CHBSTHXIT 6TBBBT, PHILA., W* now In »tore a tbit too a«wrtment of LOOKING GLASSES, of BTory oharaeter, of the 7BET BEST KABOTAOTOB* ABB LATEST STILES, on, paintings, engravings, awn PICTPBB ABB PHOTOGRAPH PRAMM- QENUmE BETHL o EHm FMuEi aad SEW MAPLE SYBPP. ForBila.br RnnKRT DONNELL & BON, BOBEBT street. V'tkßD AND FATJOT AT RJKfiWAtT & BROWN’S, XUS- FOURTH St. MASONIC HALL, HARRISON JABDBN. jHUjUDYERYT* l/jje |jms. MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1864. THE OIL REGIONS. A* VISIT TO THE HEW EL DORADO. THE WEALTH OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA. Three Years of Enterprise and Industry. Pennsylvania Finds her Barren Books Richer than Ormus or Ind. FAMILIAR LIFE IN WESTERN VIRGINIA How a'flreat Staple has Taken its Place In the Industry of .the World, PETROLEUM RULES A KINGDOM LARGER THAN COTTON Where Petroleum is Found—How it is Discovered— What It is Worth—Who are Gathering It— How Poor Men are Getting Rich, and Blch Men Becom ing Poor— - The New Aristocracy—The Fever and the Relapse, •and home Speculations as to What We are all Coming to. INSIDE AND OUTSIDE LIFE IN THE OIL BEGION6. "Special Report to the Press.] * TBB LITTLE KANAWHA VALLET. La arranging my tour through the oil regions as the representative of The Tress, It ooourrod to me (hat, as West Virginia presented more romantle and peculiar features than any other part of King Petroleum’s new and marvelloußly-extending do main, it would he well to bend my steps thither ward. So I found myself In the cabin of a cosy Ohio steamer, sluggishly steaming along the narrow and long river that separates Ohio from Virginia, It was a cold November day, but we managed to coax enough sunshine out of the leaden skies to make pur trip rather pleasant. It was in the morning when we left Wheeling, and the night was far advanced when we reached Parkersburg. A reconnoitring party reported that there was neither room nor en tertainment for man in the town, and we were con tent to pass the night in our little cubby-holed state rooms. As the boat returned before sunrise, we were driven on shore-by a pertinacious olerk— sleepy, sullen, and hungry—and disposed to be re ' sentful towards the failing rain. I should cer tainly recommend Parkersburg to any gentle man whose propensities are amphibious. The delightftal uncertainty as to whether we were on land or water, and the ingenuity with which every deceptive pool was scanned, would have been charming to philosophic men; We were not phi losophers, who had huddled around the stove In the bar-room of the Swann House and looked at the bar keeper deprecatingly, as men who had neither house .nor home, and, therefore, were hr the condition of uninvited guests or poor relations. We were no thing but poor oil hunters, who carae-merely to get rich. We had heard of the many fbasts and the great good things that Petroleum was giving his subjeots, and we came aS crumb-hunters. Where so much was given there might be something to spare, and what is the use of working for a living when wo can prosper by our wits 't I believe tht a was the feeling of a majority of all who splashed through the mnd and groped their way to the'hotel. One of them was a sight-seeing gentleman all' the way from England, who carried with- him a number of old-fashioned trunks, and, not being in theroil business, felt disposed to be cross. We became friends—for I had neither oil stocks nor oil lands;. and no. interest in King Petroleum beyond the bright'.' . golden, dazzling light that brightens up this page as* I write. So we felt : the sympathy of petulance;, and the vengeance bestowed upon ill-natured domestics and tardy waiting-men was sublime. - My En gllah friend gave us a dissertation upon coffee that astonished the breakfast-table, and when, after re jecting four eupß, he expressed a profane willing ness to'go down into the. kitchen and make it him self, the money-changers and speculators of Par kersburg began to feel that there was one of the number who could- not be tempted Into An un complaining allegiance to the now regime, I gave that Englishman my love, and when he told me, through two weary hours, about toejmnnds of York shire and the many virtues possessed by his cousin, the Lord ofKoastbeef, I felt that my self-denial and long-suffering found a slight return for his frank, ness and energy. PARKERSBURG. Parkersburg Is the oil metropolis of the West Virginia district. At the junction of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, and connected with the north and west by a branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail way, It commands all the trade of the West Virginia valley. It iff within easy distance of Marietta, the metropolis of the Ohio district; of all the railway connections of the country, and but thirty-six hoars from New York or Ohieago. It is a straggling, im perfect, unfinished town, which had In earlier days been prosperous, but upon which the blight of war had fallen and dried up the sap and vigor. .Many rich men live-here. How rich men could content themselves to-dwell In a place of this hind Is a mya tery of money-getting that I cannot explain. The oil princes—to use a common phrase—do not spend -all their wealth here, however-. They make their money and hurry away with It, regarding this as a kind of oily Rialto, where good money is to he gathered up and carried to other markets. The class of men who live here are, therefore, unlike the men who ploughed up- California and are now ploughing np Colorado. There Is very little gambling, no bowie-knives, and little of that primi tive civilization which disgraced the Pacific coast and , mads a vigilance committee necessary. We are so near New York and Philadelphia that capitalists may come and see for themselves and re turn In ten days. ThSNaly difficulty Is with the guerillas. If a man Is' nervous and hot a believer in predestination he had better not venture far be yond the regions of Burning Springs. Still thlß Iff merely a fear, that looks dismal when read from newspapers in Northern parlors, but is laughed at in Western Virginia In 1861 there was really cause tor alarm. In 1862 the guerillas had complete possession of the country, and a man’s horse was about as safe as the life of a lamb In a wolf-infested forest. Beyond that, however, no danger exists, or has over existed. No Uveß have ever been lost by on-hunters, and bnt rarely a horse is taken. The people are so much attached to the Union* that they give no succor to bushwhackers, and our soldiers have a way of taking no prisoners. Guerilla-life cannot subsist on this regimen, and a journey from Parkersburg to Burn ing Springs Is as safe as from Philadelphia to Ger mantown. Even beyond that point, and far on In the rich counties that are now regarded as neutral but dangerous ground, the military authorities are busily making arrangements tor securing rebels and robbers, and In a few weeks Northern capital and enterprise will be permitted to enter and possess these coveted aoreß. BURNING SPRINGS AND THBRBABOT7TB. Although I began thls'paper by making Parkers burg the centre of the sketch, and, as it were, the base of operations for. my West Virginia campaign, the town Itself does not lie In what is called the geological “ oil-belt.” That Is to say, that no great oil deposits have beenfound In the eonntry Immedi ately around it. Yet to the north and the south, the east and the west, we find many good wells and successful enterprises. Why this plateau should be so barren eannotbe accounted for, except as a freak of nature that we must submit to when we wander Into these oily mountains and valleys. It should be constantly borne In mind that in dealing with petroleum we have a science -that is entirely new, and that all of our 'investigations have arrived at no rule by which to determine "its nature or origin. I fancy, however, there are very few geologists or men of science among the busy crowds that are seen around Parkersburg. They cling to the Burning Spring as the nnclens of aU their speculations. When land Is bought, the first question Is, How far are you from the Burning. Spring! Wien land is sold, the seller is Impressed with the belief that he is In the same belt. with the Burning Spring. “ Every road leads to Rome,” and with the gentlemen In Wirt county every road leads to the Burning Spring. ‘ So, like a true travel ler, when 1 came to Parkersburg, and found all the world was pushingto Burning Spring, I chartered a homely and comfortable Roslnante and went on my way along the Elizabeth pike, with the rest of oily mankind. Take the map of Virginia, and you wUlfind that jn a southerly direction fitom Parkers-' bnrg, In the adjoining county of Wirt, a small creek empties into the Kanawha river, known as Burning Spring Greek. There are a number of other streams in the neighborhood, snob as Standing Stone Run, Nettle Run, Reedy Run, Two Riffles Run, Chestnut Run, and others that only make their appearance in the-oil company maps. This point, lying In a southwesterly direction from Oil City, Is the heart ortho present Virginia oil region, - -and around it, for a radius of fifty miles, embracing the counties of Tyler, Pleasants, Wetzel, Bltcile, Wooa, Wirt, Roane, and Calhoun, we have what Is known as the Weat Virginia pit Territory.. The road was very soft and yielding, and a heavy shower of fain was falling as we rode along the Parkersburg pike. My companion was an old settler, one who had lived there aU his- life, and a ' man of much Intelligence. His home was on the banks of the KanaWlia, a few miles from Burning Spring, and he promised to accompany me to Eliza beth, help me ford tire river, and send me on my way rejoicing. Alter leaving the town we pass into a low rolling country,' and find for a few- miles the leaves and fields to be as unostentatious as those in Chester county. Very quickly the soene begins to change. Hills that we city people would very gladly call mountains, that seemed to Use and ’sfell against each other as though in auger venting tjielr animosity in numerous smaU and narrow ravines, through wMqb the falling rein kissed tie mountain PHILADELPHIA. MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1864. wrath, We were constantly ascending or descend-- lno a hill, and at every turn of the road wo came to Eomo unaccountable cleft or abyss; over which the moss was growing, and down in whose oreviee dark streams of greasy water would arise. Oil men had been here with stiokß and divining rods,, ana - wherever there was the odor of gas or a mere globule upon the water, straightway Ite value ad vanced a thousand per cent. As we approach Elizabeth we cross a very high bllll and descend Into a plain formed by the Kanawha river. Here we have the first indications' of oil enterprise. There is a tradition that man; years ago, when breaking:, a rock and endeavoring to sink a salt spring, a stream of greasy water gushed forth,, whloh became! gnifced , and burstlnto a flame, whereupon all the world for' twenty miles came to seen, and those who wenare llgious said their prayers, for according to the Scripture the world was to be destroyed by fire, apd behold nothing waß necessary to consummate the Divine decree but the application of a -match. However, that generation- passed away,'told still another generation, until a people came who eared neither for fire nor Scriptures, and began to offer the farmers large sums for their acres and to bore fof oil. Then the old men told the story of toe fire, and,, although the site was designated, . men hove hunted and bored and even pray ed'in vain tir toe burning stream. In iB6O, when-toe excitement 'Was at its height, there were at least three to|4K sand people in and around Elizabeth boring for 611, r and endeavoring to develop oil lands.. There cajae a crisis. The price of petroleum suddenly decreased; until the barrels, as they came from tho hands of the cooper, were of more value than -toe oil that filled them. Two causeß led to this. Tho woridhad not learned the useß of petroleum, and toe early surface-wells threw forth so many barrels of oil,-that toe supply was larger than toe demand, and i%s market became overstocked. This disheartened capitalists, and lands fell; Then came toe W*ar. Virginia seceded, and toe line of too Ohio beohme contested ground. McClellan crossed, J>ut,his fdrceß were too busy with the Baltimore and Ohio Ekil road to think of protecting the three toonsitnd oil-hunters then swarming along toe .Kanaka, Although there was ho organized army of toe COn federates in West Virginia, there was nevertheless a body of guerillas who were constantly harassingtoe country, . The result .was that a panic ensued. Li a WWk toe whole party left. The derriok stood lnjthe field with the haifbored well; toe oil gufmdfup and overspread the ground, toe houses werc torn. down for camp-fires, and toe whole enterprise pe rished, It is now rising again, under toe impetus of toe great excitement in Pennsylvania. . Elizabeth is an astonished town to-day. The peo- ple do not know what all this means. Their lands, that were but recently of no value but for sheep feeding, are-in as great a demand as turkeys, on - Thanksgiving day. You will find, on looklhg at toij map, that after leaving the Kanawha, at Parkers burg, we touch It again at Elisabeth, There Is no. ' bridge oyer toe river, but we manage to ford it, aindjf taking toe road that leads through toe Two Rifflek 1 ' Run, push'directly on, leaving toe river behind andi striking for toe headquarters of Burning creek. I.could not imagine a more disagreeable day than that on which I made this remarkable journey. The thin was pouring In torrents, a dead, steady, incessant rain, as though Jupiter Pltivlas had become .weary of this dirty earth, and was de termined to give it a thorough drenching. The run crosses and reerosses toe road, and as the rain had swollen it hey bud all recent precedent we were com polled to ford it at least twenty times, when another mountain arose before us. The road wound around toe mountain, and as we came to the summit, far below the Kanawha. circled itsway,until toe eye oould no longer tinguish it from toe clouds. Notwithstanding ltwas \ November—and of all days toe most Novemberish —there was something ecstatic - in toe wild freedom or this gorgeous scenery- (Jo to. West Virginia that you - ' may ollmb toe high hills and bow down before toe sublimity of Almighty (Jod. I oheoked toe pace of my patient and homely Roslnante, and thoughtless of the rain, of toe journey that lay, beyond, and the many miles I Rad l given myself; on the map,- surrendered my whole send to toe eh 3 rapturing scene. Now that I write these lines far away from the Kanawha, and think of .to* Burning Spring, Its mud mid ram, and greasy waters, asck eager, avaricious, hungry men, in muddy boots— that glimpse of nature rises to tho mind and brighten b all. All along the liter and on the banks of ltd 1 tribu-' tary rivers, we find- evidences of toe great panic.. that suddenly strangled toe enterprises of I 860.: Every few rods. we see the blaok and mouldering 5 derrick and toe unfinished well In the ground. - The ? few breve men who remained have made princely fortunes—the Camdens and McFar- 1 : lands being among thS'oilprinces-ofthlß now do- - , main. The; made their money by buying these: - lands at lowfigures, sinking good wells, an 4 dlS'-i , posing of their ptirchaaes'to' too companies rroSnt- - ’ I ly formed In New Yorkand - Philadelphia. Around the Burning Springs theraarebut few weljs throw ing up oil, and these are not recently developed;' but toe remnants of wells 'that have produced as many as one thousand barrels- per day, lit their time,■ the j£as sending up toe-olllna stream a%hlgh as toe tree" tops; 80" that po ; "tSnk_ could-hold it, and It rushed out Into the river, and covered the stream.VThe old- 11 Etersal OentrW” well is- eccentric. It was discovered by one of the Bathbones to 1860, and when', .struck the finder clapped Us hands, and shouted, tor he had found,'' he said, “the etsr&al 1 centre of the great oil l basin.” It does not- flbw'iiv a stream, but every sir hours sends forth 1 a tow bar- - xels, making a-yield of about twenty or twenty-five barrels a fifty. The other wells tothis vicinity are pumping weHr, and some of them- reach-as high as fifty or a hundred barrels a day. And yeti lajustioe to those wtorhave spent large sums here; It toast be said that when we speak of West Yirgiala’wuspeak of a business that Is In Its absolute-lfif&ney,. It is but a tow weeks since men of capita} Visited it. They have invested largely in obedience to ■* scien tific principle, and no doubt exists to the- mlcds of men who have-thrown their millions overtheserale and ragged hills that their Investments- alb will come hack to them again. TBS USB OF THK GREAT kPHEAVAB. , ; Although I confine my remarks to this-narrow spot, oalled the wells of the Burning Spring, It mash he remembered that the territory I trayersaMton*! Bull Creek to Tyler county, and thenoo-to Parb Crpek, embraced the greater part of a. hundred 1 miles. There Is what the geologists oaH* a-beltof oil land running from Tyler county. Ylrginia, to- Charleston, to Kanawha county. Take a-map-of Virginia and stick a pin at the point marked’ Mid dlcbourne, iff Tyler county. Thence carry toe-eye to a southwesterly direction until you reach Charles, ton, to Kanawha eounty, to the Great Kanawha river. We will suppose this belt, to be thirtymilod* In width, end we have the oil territory before ns- It embraces nine ooantles: Tyler, Pleasants, Ritchie 1- Wood, Wirt, Galheun, Roane, Jackson, and: Ks* nawha. Inwall these counties oil has been-found” In Wirt county more wells have been struck—an|d to Tyler county, which seeinß to be a counterpart of Wirt, the geological features are strongly marked, I did not visit Kanawha or Jackson county, as the;, oountry was too unsettled for 'random .-travellers- 1 — but in all the other counties I found the same-sin gular geological formation. Regarding Wefct - Yiiglnla as- a picture, or . an assortment for scenery, it Is unlike anything we-have in tiio Middle States. The moment you look upon, the rooks and hills you see that Nature had been to great trouble some day, and these are the results of her agony. The hills seem to pitch and toss- and tumble as though the Titans had been hurting mountains at each other to some early supernatural war. They have a confused, whimsical look, and by their combinations excite odd and amusing fancies. Yet these strange rooks are followed! by the oil-hunters -with as much avldity as' gold diggers in the beds of California.rivers. I do-not propose to tempt any criticism upon my geological acquirements by endeavoring to explain thesc hiUs or to read the rlddlestoatlie hidden to their coveted caverns. We know that water and fire are the agen cies that have revolutionized the surface of the earth; and that, in following up our oil-investiga tions, we have merely to oonsider the the stratified and unstratified rooks that ran along the Alleghenian ridges. ! Coal, which!, :1s; a near relation to petroleum, aooordlng to-jjuany, nothing more than petroleum hardened ibgjsoffip. hidden chemistry of nature, Is found to ,thtorgroup of secondary rocks which Includes the red .sand stone and mountain limestone formations; Petro leum is found to the bituminous measures and the sandstone rocks. The men who work tho-wells will tell you that there are three sandstone-rooks to which oil Is found. They.bore until they strike the first rock, at a distance of from sixty tea hundred and fifty feet, and find what they call, the surface oil. This exhausts rapidly, and in many cases does nothing more than emit gas and salt water, and* thin streamsof ally water. Some of the most sue. cessful wells in Western Virginia were surfaoe wells; but in Pennsylvania the borers try to reach the third-rook. Bure, at a depth of fromthpe hundred to a thousand feet; as theformatlof varies, the large basins of oil are found—the basins which have given Pennsylvania sixty millions of wealth. The ignorance of- this foot led many of our early pioneers to abandon to despair, their enterprises. They sank a well to a first or second sandstone, and .finding a trickling stream of oil;, and no more, they abandoned the enterprise poor men. Shrewder managers drove their drills deeper, and gloried to wealth. THE GEOLOGY; OF PETROLEUM. This “ belt ” of oil land lies to what the geologists call the ooal measures. Ibis not lndependent or ex. elusive, hut reappears in the southwestern' oountles of Pennsylvania, and again in Ohio along the val ley of the Muskingum. It Is one of many similar deposits or formations. We find It to Canada, to Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Kentucky,,and New - York. It has come forth plentifully InourVenango county. Yet we know'toat'toeto are oil :springs In - Russia where the traveller can push his cane into the earth and see it bubble around him, and that at Burmah, India, there is the celebrated Batoanghong oil district with Its* five hundred wells. -‘Science Is busy glvtag-us rules for gathering the oil, and labor and capital are busy showing Science how she is partly right and partly wrong, aUd not to befce pended upon to her petroleum Investigations. Now, in comparing results we find that on-’is found In the cornlterous limestone, a rockcomposedof fragments of coal and seashells-fllted with bitumen. Overly- • ing this we have the rook known as the Marcellas shale, a kind of hard slate formation. Between ' these two rooks, the limestone and shale, all the oil reservoirs are found. In Canada, we find there rocks not to he more>.toan one hundred. and fifty feet thick, making the oil comparatively surface oil. In New-YUrk 01l Is found in another group of rooks similar In formation, but at toast three hundred feet deep'.' IffWest Yirglnta-these geolo gical Indications arevery strongly marked, and I think upon -kite praet’.ort operations of the next three months much of what we call the science of petroleum will depend. The surface Indications are more remarkable than In Ohio or Pennsylvania.' These tumbled rocks certainly show large crevices beneath, in which oil might distil for ages. We have bitumen and aspbaltum, and we have had oil; and so, if there is any logio in Nature, oil must be here. Yet we find on Bull Creek, in toe very line of this upheaval, and within a. few rods of the Hoiße neck Well, borers have found large oavities empty or filled with mud. I saw a forlorn young oil hunter at Bull Creek, who, after boring for some weeks with good, Indications, came to a oreviee where his tools wei e lost. He had not found a bottom to his Ssßure - when I left, although he was bravely determined to, fathom it. it is possible that here, - os on toe Little Kanawha, below Parkersburg, the fissures are occa sioned by toe drying or shrinking of toe rooks. .0 HUGHBS’ BUN. Having spoken of Burning Springs, and given you an idea of toe great enterprises there existing, it is proper that I shouidjnake more particular allu sion to other polnts wblqb are now in toe hands of capitalists, and which command toe attention of boyersand sellers in toe East, Next to Bunting Spill®® proper, toe most Important part of West - Virginia seems to be Hughes river. It is a stream about half as wide as the Schuylkill, and so shal 4pw that at most seaMSus of the yearahorse can ford it. Flowing Into lESfEanaWha, and running in/k northwesterly direction, ■'ll’ forms a part of . toe boundary line of Bltohle and Wirt coun ties, and intersects the Little 'Kanawha at. a -point called Newark, some twenty miles from the Burning Springs run,' It is in toe line of toe great 'upheaval ; and there are man; interesting geologi cal features in this country. It is evident that la 'toe.petroleum age the geological disturbance was very.great. Through this tine of, upheaval the -Hughes river forests way, and - ardund It we find ijnany new and interesting strata, jvbioli seem to have been thro-giftup from too very centre of toe -earth; The w|||pif Hughes river seem toibeofa * light colored'compact flint, of about ten or, twelve feet in tolokness, beneath which are seen the shale rooks strongly impregnated with bitumen—a ■ rock which ia often seen in our coal measures. I do not know that any coal has been found on toe Hughes river, nor have any fossils, such as are so often seen in the shale rock, been dis covered. At toe same_tlme, the oil won,, whether - ttustinf la their owe Instincts or toe teachings' of ''goologistPj'have laid violent hold upon these high and rooky banks, and now ask large sums for their possessions. In former years, large quantities of petroleum were take o °ut of the alluvial bank of the Hughes river by a natural process. The rook was separated, and through toe fissure toe oil ran for years, saturating the stream. Former settlers, , .who gathered toe oil in small quantities for medlol* - nal and domestic purposes,were in toe habit of laying bare this stratum byreinovingtoe earth and digging ■ont the oil with hoes, axes, and farming utensils, lb been said that, with the exception of Venango, -YhS.pll has flowed here in greater quantities than - anywhere else. A number of wells have been sunk, "but when I passed through too country toe enter prise had not been far enough developed to'make Burning Springs and Oil Creek in any way dread its rivalry. suit CBBBK. Another point In Virginia Is known as .Bull Greek —a stream which runs Into the Ohio river some thirty miles above Parkersburg, taking its rise In Wood county, and being one of the number of streams which are known as French Greek, Oow -Creek, McElroy Greek, and by other names that be long to the classic vocabulary of Virginia. The 801 l Creek company la a PlttsburgJenterprise, principal ly in. the Interests or the Phillipses, whose names * are familiar to all happy oilmen aa being those of the princes of their aristooracy. The Horse-neck - well, someslx or eight miles from the source of the -creek, has attained.great celebrity, and . was, In Its. day, one of the most successful enterprises In Vir ginia. The supply of oil has greatly decreased, I!am told, but, at the same time, It Is a curiosity, and Is always visited by travellers through this region. y The country around Bull Greek Is tame when com /pared with the vicinity of Burning Springs, and might be. regarded lit Pennsylvania or New Fork as very pleasant farming land. /Here, as In Ohio; the capitalist and the' artisan are very busy. Wells have been sunk, leases are constantly granted, an* as we ride along the quiet, old-fashioned turnpike, - the tall derrick,’with its skeleton pillars and quick, busy engine, and the? swearing teamster, as he tolls ' through the mud'with his load of oil, give us, on a tjSmall scale, the busy sights of Venango. Further ippthe Ohio, at Slstersvllle, we come to what seems to me to be the beginning of the Virginia line of .^upheaval.; In Tyler bounty, 'especially around . the county-seat, Middlebourae, the evidences of oil are very abundant! This ,1s so near our State that one almost imagines he Is going oh; Pennsylvania' 'Sams' £nd. homesteads. '. The ' people of Tyler county are aa intelligent,'busy class, and inure enterprising than any of the other .counties I have visited. They have -taken their ' own lands in hand, and'do not invite the outside . world with as much avidity as their more humble .neighbors on.the tittle Kanawha-. As an evldenoa |io? thelriconfidenoo In their own-enterprise, I know /jf.one gbhtlemau-now living near Slstersvllle who '‘refused forty thousand dollars for. atraotof land not more than eighty acres-In extent. ■ He was boring a well at the time, and the neighbors around r him were also boring wells; The Indications ‘ around him seemed to jnstHy him, in refusing this ..large offer, But even Tyler—reticent; shrinking, . uncongenial Tyler—is beglnnlng to give way before the great Impetus of Northern money and North ern genius. Companies are ■ being formed, em bracing within their' limits large- traots of Tyler county land. The capitalists' of- tire- West, from Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati,’ as well as the capitalists from Boston, who eamejrather l&te Into this new business, are greedily 'and* eagerly env deavoring to supplant the masters of these coveted lands. FORMER ESTEBPRISBS. The first operators in West Virginia were mer chants from Pittsburg, who began-operations In Hughes, river. They sank a well to November, 1869, and bored a number of-wells with dlfibrent success. -Oil was then unknown to the commercial world, be ing generally used for medicinal purposes, and to a small extent for lubrication and. Illumination. The success of these Pittsburg capitalists-ledn Wheel ing firm to begin operations near a»small station known as Petroleum, on the Northwestern Virginia ; Railroad. Petroleum is now a busy, thriving, popu ; lous village. Although the Hughes-river.territory : was the first developed, fame extended l towards Burning Spring. Mr. J. C. Rathbone,- an old set ! tier, near the Kanawha, whose old-fashioned frame jßjnslon may stil Ibe seen, in iB6O leased l * well to fMr. Karnes, who succeeded In obtaining, a- supply : ranging from fifteen hundred to two 'thousand gal lons daily. Mr. Rathbone bored a weß rwhtoh yield ed as ranch as ten thousand gallons dally, and toe excitement became very great, capitalists rushing hither from the East. The Rathbone -farms l began te look like a city of toe forest, and where the sheep ! and cattle were wont to live to undisturbed, content 1 derricks and cisterns, and barrels and- soaflblds, 'formed a busy and exciting v scene. As an evidence of toe Buooess of the early enter prises' to - this country, in the Burning Spring region alone, during 1881, four million gallons were produced. l In 1862, however, it, felfc off l to, a little over three millions of gallons, while In 1863;.50-rauoh had the guerillas Interfered with business that the product did not .exceed two minions, of: gallons. All this was produced to a territory, of, not more than a mile square, and, under proper-enterprise an d skill, 1866 may surpass all the years- that have passed. This territory of Burn ing. Spring is'gene rally admitted to be the beginntog.-of the Itoeof the great upheaval to which I have- alluded, which causes a vein of rock some twenty.feet to width to stand perpendicular on edge, and; running north ope degree east, crossing Hughes” river at toe "oif wells, and touching Bull. Greek, In all this oountry we-find gas and burning springs, which are generally known to he. excellent Indica tions of oil. If we follow this-Une of upheaval we will find that the territory of Virginia fs three times bb large as that of Pennsylvania. Penn sylvania leads Virginia In productiveness. The rivalry is a generous one, however, and we ean well afford to stimulate it. Thus far toe faots have not' borne out toe suppositions, of toe scientific men. : Professor Rogers regards toe line of toe Ohio as the great-oil basin, bnt our little- Oil oreek iB richer and more productive. Oil is transported from B urn ing Spring to Parkers burg by way of the Kanawha, on flatboats, at a cost of seventy-five cents a barrel. In the.summer and winter seasons, when toe stream is noftnavlgable, it is carried- in wagons at a cost of two dollars a barrel. A- company has been orga nized to perfect toe navigation of toe river, under the provisions of a bill recently passed by the Le gislature of the State, and enough stock has been subscribed to carry out the improvement. From Hughes river toe oil ls-hatded. to toe railroad at a cost of fifty cents a barrel, and from Bull Creek It fs taken to the Ohio for fifty cents a barrel. BBOAPITinULmOS OB WBBT VIKOraiA. Whether petroleum Is found to toe black shales of the Hamilton grouper not—or whether we have, to admit that there was onoea.petrolenm age to which this oil covered .toe earth and secured for Itself a cosy resting place under toeße troubled rocks,—or wheth er It Is toe distillation of some wonderful chemistry of whose laws we- know nothing and upon whose works we hasten to grow rich —or whether we take the comforting assurance of those who find their fancies to be “ according to the Soriptures,” and he-' Have that petroleum has been stored away as toe great resource of Divine vengeanco—lt Is not for a poor belated traveller like toe writer of this artiste to determine. My mission is to tell .you whatlsaw, In.this great oil kingdom. A very difficult mission, ; let me assure toe patient reader, and one not to be : rashly undertaken unless we hav&a good supply of stocks to. our account. I asked a number of ques tions during my journeys, and met hundreds of men. brlmfUl of Information, all of whom, were anxious, that it should be given to thepubllc. I found toys* variable rates, which toe reader may eopy to his pockebbook and commit te memory. Whenever a stranger begins to sing toe praises of a. par ticular run, or stream, or mountain, or terri tory, or county,' you will find that he has .land, for sale. Every owner and* lessee on these streams aqd rivers is confident that he has purchased the eternal centre Of the great o» basin, and that he has only to strike the rock and the oil will gush, forth. I was shown at least a hundred ol these oily Herebs. My English iriend, whohad bam Induced by a specula tor to Ride to Hughes’ river to see a. tract of land which, contained,, attoousaud-barrel well In every rod, and; slipped-from!his horse in-fording the stream, madethis propensity toe subjeot of an em phatic diieourse aewe (twenty of us, and one a ge neral who had been member of Congress and who knew -Mr. Polk, as every one to toe room constantly learned) sat around Mr. Verhink’s toe, at & Jlitte ffieoty sear BunUpg Springs oalled a hotel. In England, he said, such men would be punished according to an act of Parliament, and as to toe blasted river, you know, why in England every river is covered with bridges. In addition to this, toe traveller is told stories of marveilous wells. At such a plaee, “near my tract of land,” a-well spouts forth three thousand barrels a day. At an other place, (t just across from my tract of land,” there are four wells flowing a thousand barrels a day. On toe forks of such a river, “whlohgoes through my territory,”' the oH is in such quantities that the people cannot drink the water, and the fish cannot live. Out of all this speculation and fanfaro nade, I can sum up the results of my ten days’ jour neying thus: I. West Virginia is but partially developed, and, therefore, all purchases of land are speculative, and hot Investments. 11. oil territory that extends from Middle bourne, Tyler county, if toe surface indications are borne out, will be toe great oil basin of toe Conti nent. 'W- , . 111. That in West Virginia, if capital should fall to find recompense In petroleum, the abundant mineral indications will repay enterprise and skill, IV. That with toe pacification of the country, the slack-water of toe Kanawha, the building of a rail road along the tine of toe great upheaval, and the erection of mining and manufacturing faoilltlea, West Virginia wlll beoome an empire: of industry, wealth, and skill, and toe valley of the Ohio beoome as prosperous as toe valley of toe Merrimae or toe Delaware. mBBBAL BBSOCBOBB OP WBST VIBSINIA. Before leaving West Virginia let me step aside from toe direct purpose of this letter, and say a word In reference to toe other great resouroes of this new sister State. Apart from oil, It. Is rich in great mineral resources, I was shown a lump of rudely refined ore at Sistersville, which seemed to he an alloy of silver, and whloh I was informed had been obtained in a neighboring bill. A joyous settler as sured me at Elizabeth that he had a brass mine on his farm! and another disconsolate borer, who had' been jinking a well without many Indications of oil, had placed over his deriek this despairing resolu tion ; “OH, silver, Hades, or Ohina.” In the county ofPocohontas iron ore is found predating 83'per cent, of pure metal, and lead, copper, and silver exist. Coal may be found cropping out of toe ranges of toe Western mountains, and rich veins of asphal turn have been found in Wirt county/In Morgan and Hampshire Counties medicinal springs exist. The highest mountain In this State is 2,500 feet, but toe upper valley of the Kanawha is luxuriant in verdure, and as fertile and temperate as the counties further north. You can imagine toe op portunities presented by West Virginia, when I say that, while there ore 2,340,137 acres of improved lands, 8,550,257 are unimproved. Before this-01l ex citement toe lauds averaged eight dollars an aore; now many undeveloped tracts have been refused at a thousand dollars. Although New Hampshire has but forty per dent, of the territory of West Virgi nia, yet,’ under toe more extended and vigorous sys tem of Improvement, It surpasses it In every respect. Still there is a great future for West Virginia, par ticularly when New Hampshire money and genius are Introduced. In Mason and Kanawha countie 8 salt has been found. These salt formations accom pany toe vast strata of sandstone that underlies toe whole of toe northwestern counties of Virginia, and toe works were used hy the rebel authorities. A few miles 'from Charlestown, on the great Kana wha, and in the line of toe great upheaval, toe salt wells are very productive. They are several hun dred fret in depth, yielding a lime of remarkable, purity, free from sulphate of lime or gypsum, and crystallized with less trouble than customary, and sent into commerce as a superior muriate of soda. Mason county is also famed for salt mines, but toe rebellion has quite ruined the .manufacture, Incon sequence of rebel "'lncursions and the dearth of labor. In ther valley and in Preston county iron lurnaces are in operation, and toe ores of Laurel Hill are rich sm& pure. These ores oocur in two groups upon toe - western slope, toe upper group above toe second seam - of coal resting upon a lead colored sandstone, and , overlaid byslllcian slates. The orais found In large nodules resembling sand stone, and is easily blasted. The coal produets of toe State are boundless; The fields of the Kanawha Vallty are among the most’ valuable on the conti nent. Indeed, for salt, oohlj iron; and probably pe troleum, West Virginia bids fair to rival,-If not sur pass, any State of toe UnioN. - FA2SILIAB HUB IN WBSTfcSk VI EOntl'A, “ Judge M—said a wky-companlorr who jogged with me over the Mils on oar way tor Eliza beth, “was a wheezy old follow who got into- some diSffculty in New Orleans about thirty years' ago, and was troubled with' a grea® lemorSo.of mat solence. He came to Western Virginia'andsettled in West-county because he wanted tb blda’hlmself, and get'as near Hades . ’The emptsSlSef my companions lUoatratlon must excuse ltwprofanlty, but In a rude way rcOold give you no bOtterldea of the first Impressions made upon ’ the traveller by thls : country.: The population is sparse, and'we find few 6f the noble traltsithat poets - lead us to suppose are found in the character of the mountaineer: The-rudest dwelling in Moyamenslng or Kensington would be a palace In Wirt' county. The broad hills and sweeping streams which group together many-sweet pictures of Nature, are dull and heavy In the eyes of these men. Let me take one out of a hundred—such a. one as I found loung ing at the tavern-corner in Elizabeth, and a man of great importance In his own coun ty. Tall, gaunt? unshaven and uncombed; with' a cold gray eye- that never seamed to smile ■ hard, long fingers; that made a perpetual appeal ’ for soap and water, and narrow, Ugh cheek bones; very gaunt and cadaverous, straight, coarse hair; and Imperfect teeth. The shoulders were Ugh and perched, and the long 1 arms swung over the body, like branohes of a weeping willow tree. “ They are go much given to-living on mountain sides,” said my companion, “that they can’t stand straight—one Wot Is always Ugher than the other.” His body, that might he realized, If the reader took a carica ture of the Yankee, the Southerner, and the negro’ and combined the ridiculous traits of all, was oo" vered with A homespun cloth, that came from the dylng-vat blue, bnt had assimilated to Itself every color that could be gathered from the clay on the roads and the bark of the trees.' These people are clannish hi their traditions and friendships. The families have Intermarried, and the offspring of. three generations lle-soattered over the hills.. A father has a large 'farm,.and as each son mantles, he receives a slice, builda-himself a log cabin, proba bly obtains a horse for a-dowry, plants com, sends Us wife into the field with hoe and harrow, and, with Us gun and dog,,lonnges off amid the moun tains to shoot squirrels, rabbits, and foxes. He has. never been to" school—he cannot read or write—he never sees- a newspaper; there is a town called Parkersburg, where many great men live, who can read and. write, and call themselves lawyers; and another town called Elizabeth, where < the squire lives, and which contains the village tavern, at which placOiOvery. Saturday afternoon he can hear the news. There Is a Methodist and Baptist church within ten miles, where the young people are married, and the children are christened, and the dead ones are bnrled. These people bury their dead on tho high blllß. One or two of the cemeteries form scenes-of-snrpassing loveliness, and dwell In the recollection as the only tUngs of beauty In-Western Virginia, Gnly-ln thelr graves do these people approach the taste and decorum of life, and the civilization of the-last-hundred years hits been the civilization of death-, TUs apathy to tho-world, that lies beyond and around them enters-into the- affections of these, people. Parents love theln-ohffldren and husbands love thelrwlves, bnt Loould see nothing of the pure love that sanctities our own childhood home and makes life sacred.' Premember the shook my feel ings once received as I heard a poor emigrant' woman lamenting fora husband whom death had taken away after, a-wedded life of twenty years. “ He was a decent, hardworking man, was Barney;” die said amid hertears, “ and always earned all-ring for Us family.” Tether twenty years of companion sup had been notUng-but child-bearing and bread and butter. I have found few exceptions to this illustration among the people I have seen in Western Virginia. Marriages are made to unite oontlguons tracts ,of land or to keeep desirable possessions In-the same family. Children come to them, and they are huddled into the MBs to track rabbits, to follow- the plough, or to drop corn over many a weary acre. The boy loams to shoot, dig, row, and swim. The girl learns to sew, coarse sew ing, spin, make, apple butter, and cook. Beading and writing, are unnecessary accomplishments. There have bean but'two Presidents—Andrew Jack son, the great tradition of the rnde American mind, and AbrahamLinooln, whose name hag been dinned into their ears by the tumult of a mighty war. So that these .children are kept from starvation and frost, the whole duty of the parent is performed. I spent a night, at a form-house on the Kanawha a few eventagp-stoce, as I was travelling to the dlreo tion or Hughes river. White, there, one' of toe boys, who had been to., Sherman's army, returneditem toe wars. He hack been absent from bis home for three years, and as he came-up toe road he seemed to be a stout, manly boy, whose-mtod had been developed by toe atraUge school he had just left. His father was loungingat the door, with his hands to his pockets, as theboy came, forward. “Well, fathery how do you do 1” “ Well, Thomas!» ' A pause. ‘‘Them’s goocEioota you've got, anyway.” Not another word, and toe hoy passed tote toe house. Affdyetthe father, had - a certain pride to his hoy, “ Thomas was always a .good boy,” he said. “He could hit a squirrel on the. top of a tree, and whem.there’s fighting to be done.he’s always around. Them hoots hssgot heels on them, and’ill be mighty good for ploughing.” l This man bad no politics. He had not voted during the past election. “ Yon, see,” he say?, “Pve go* : three go&d horses and a colt, and when a man tftkes sides, toe bushwhackers .steal his horses. I didn’t ! vote for Lincoln became, he fteed toe niggers, and. I didn’t vote for McClellan because if I did the bug-hunfors would caU me a JetfDavlsman, and some day I might he. took off toWhcellns.” The euphonious name of, “ Bug. Hunters ” is given to a eompa,ny of home, guards'who scour-toe coun try for guerillas, and and are much dreaded by.-toe sympathizers with socos sicn. Among thase people vsoman beccsuesa drudge. The) higher relation or llte,'which, we gladly Bur render to hco, is never ; recognized here;,. I took dinner with, a farmer whose home had more’&i-, dences of taste and comfort than any I had seen in' my journeytogs- His wife was a demure, sad faced, afjeotlonate little woman, who would have shown a very sunny*bmito If the elbuds around her had only Broken. We sat at the table, and phe waited Upon ua as a Qomestio—a blundering, nnsa tisfactory domestic, who excited her husband’s anger because, the fire wouldn’t burn, and for not whipping the hounds more frequently, and particu larly because Bhe' neglected to give the writeip of this artiste & Mfr wWM« p?«- TWwme B»eBi® a FOUR, CENTS. cold) and cheerless, and vacant whore woman was ties deprived of her mission, I felt a sympathy for her sad faee, and as I rode away I felt that If. I could only have leaned over and kissed' her, or said some sweet word of affection, or spoken of other homes where women were honored and loved, I should have been answering the impulse of ray heart, and certainly not doing violence to her own. it was not to bo. I rode into the lane and under the walnut trees. As I turned she was standing In the door. Her- husband was oaresslng his honnds. There are no schools here, and bnt one or two chnrohes outside of Parkersburg. The only deno minations represented are the Methodists and Bap tists, and these are feebly supported. The people have a kind of stupid, Improvised morality. It is wrong to kill a man, lint It is very wrong, to steal a horse. Horse-stealing is the highest erlme known to them. One reason, it oeeurred to mo, why so many are for the Union Is because, to them, seces sion means horse-stealing. When Davis’ men want horses they come and take them; Lincoln's men bny them. So that, step' by step, their minds have anlved at the conclusion that the only question at stake between Davis and Lincoln is a question re lating to the proprietorship of their horses, and their dislike to horse- stealing is synonymous with their dislike to rebellion. A citizen whom I met sum med up the "evils of the war something jn this vein: “ There has been a mighty and ' mighty power of men killed—but that ain’t so much, you know, for its life for life—for you kill a man to-day and be killed yourself to-morrow, which makes It all -right, and no one’s to blame. Bnt think of the horses that’s gone. The hones don’t fight, and their lives Is their own, forthey don't make war on each other. As many as four horses taken last week from near Unele Dick’s, and one a young colt. The war'has sent the Union to smash.” Another citizen, who -amused na an hour as we waited for dinner at a country tavern, was Severn on McClel lan, because some of his soldiers killed one of his hogs during the West Virginia campaign, if it had been Page’s hog he would’nt have minded it, for Page was against the Union. But since that time he knew that there was no use of fighting. And yet, even here, among these rude people, the true spirit of this war has occasionally made a true impression. I sat around a country ' tavern fire the other night.’ There were a number of oil speculators In the party, and one of them, a Copperhead, was engaged In a conversation with the landlord, whoso Intense but rude Unionism was - delightful In these wild woods. “I hate these sneaks and Copperhead! who stays at'home and fights the Government. I would a great deal rather shoot one of them than a rebel.” ' “ Yea,” replied the Copperhead, “ bnt you must make a distinction. We can assail the Administration and support the Government.” “No, sir,” was the qutok reply, “ there are hut two parties In this war, aHd bath are fighting," That illiterate man, whose grammar was bad, and who oonld scarcely write his own name, had In him tbo philosophy of the war, and his simple reply had more force and beauty than many of the most labored arguments of our statesmen. In their dealings with the new race of men who have come upon, them so suddenly, these people show a great deal of the rude cunning of the In dians. Many, amusing stories have already been told of their bargains. These barren hiUsthat have sent forth so many scanty crops of com, and which conld scarcely be persuaded to bud and blossom, have suddenly become mines of wealth. And yot those who own them have a vague and wild Idea of , the sudden riches that have swollen up Ground them. They know that there is oil In the ground, and that a great many well-dresßed gentlemen who wear gold watches and have pen-knives are anxious to buy these lands. But with them It Is little more than a trade, like the barter for a horse or a-oow at a village felr. They ask some vague sum for tholr acres, twenty times what It formerly cost, but. scarcely a fourth oflts value In New York. The bar gain Is made. Then all manner of contrivances are : made to Induce the buyer to give -tho children pre sents. Thecommonsubsldyls“aCroak.” A wUewill not sign a deed unless she gets “ a frock.” in early times the buyers compromised this demand with* the present of a five-dollar bill. Then the sum arose to ten, and finally to 1 twenty-five, as the price of lands advanced. A terrible example oeeurred a few Bays ago, which threatens to raise the prioe of frocks. A couple eame fie town to convey a farm. The wife demanded “a frock.” The buyer told heri to go to a eertain store an® buy one, and have It 1 charged to; him. The next day he was called upon to pay a bill of a hundred dollars for said “ frock.” The story has become general,” and the “Hook” question threatens to embarrass all future opera tions. OKKrJOCD THE MUSKIBStTM. Although we havebeen devoting ourselves to the (-netgsaxHjiooa of Burning Springs, we find, by.avain referring to the map of Virginia, that the ou halt of which we "have Kara spooning mends across the valley of the Ohio totothe valley of the Muskin gum, and the excitement which has been raging in this "West Tlrglnla l wilderness for the last six months has now been chiefly transferred to your own distant counties’ of Greene and Fayette, and along the Ohio river from Pomeroy to MeConnells vlUe. The presence of eU in McOonnelbvllle, on the Muskingum river, about forty miles from the town of Marietta, In the county of Morgan, destroys therlheory of those who Imagine that the oil deposits of the valley of the Ohio are confined to the line of upheaval which runs from' Middlebourab, in Tyler county, to Charleston, in the Great Kanawha, river; But lnaeConnelleville Is not In the direct line of the Burning Springs range, it certainly has the same relation to our own oil gprtogs in Pennsylvania, fora llne'drawn directly southwest from Franklin or OH City would strike MoConnelJaville more readily ah any point In the counties through which I have been' travelling. The OU territory of Ohio Is by no means so wild or romantic as the counties - of West Tlrglnla, and the absence of warfare, the comparative quietness that reigns all through that regton, and the protection given by the Govern ment, have enabled the citizens to more thoroughly develope thbfr resources than our Mends In the Kanawha; The oil In Ohio has : not been found in as large' quantities as at Burning Springs or Oil City, and the quality Is thicker, as If containing more carbon, and, coming from the well, has a black, .heavy leek, unlike the green or yellow ap pearance-of the common petroleum. For com mercial purposes the Ohio oil Is more-valuable, and Is- known Is the market as lubricating on. It bas more the appearance and consistency of tar, wMle petroleum, although various in Its shades, might be-mlstakea for a combination of Peruvian bark and Sherry wine. The town of Marietta Is the centre of the oil district, and divides the honors with. Parkersburg, from which It Is' not more than twenty miles distant. It Is connected* with Ctoctonatiand the West by rail with Wheeling, and theßastby the navigation of the Ohio. I arrived there early In the morning. A heavy snow storm • having fallen during the night, made the prospect of • our triplntothe Ohio regions very bleak and'dlsmal. The city wascrowdedwlth visitors—eager, anxious oil men— and only bythe particular kindness of a gentle- - man to whom we had an Introduction, could wo ob tain accommodations for the night. The excitement In McConnelsville is of recent origin, and has been stimulatedimore particularly by tbe vast ontrepriaes in Bower Pennsylvania and West Tlrglnla, at a place called Duck Creek, a stream in the neighbor hood of Pomeroy. At Pomeroy itself,' and Just beyond McConnelsville, very fine wells have been fbnnd, and,- as a consequence, lands In- Morgan, Meigs, Athens, and Noble oounties command very large sums. The enterprises In Ohio are mostly in charge of'Pittsburg capitalists—men who have tri umphed in Pennsylvania and Tlrglnla, and, thirst- - tog for other worlds to oonquer, have directed their efforts to- the development of the valley of the- Muaktognm. For a mere looker-on like myself there was nothing in McConnelsville more attrac-- tlvo than the hills of Tlrglnla, and, indeed, so far - as the natural beauty of the place was concerned, I f found IS* more information and Interest In the wild ravines-that He along the Little Kanawha thauin, the flak-and heavy lands of Lower- ©hio... Ohio however, Is to the hands of vigorous men; her own sons are turning up tbe bowels of the earth and de veloping every spring and ravine. Great efforts ere being jnade in McConnelsville to create an oil trade which will rival that which Is now enriching theJn habitaateof Venango. Cincinnati to here.- Her mer chants, In a spirit of State pride, and the merchants of St. Lento and Chicago, with a pride peculiar to the West, are sending down machines and workmen and laying ont their, tracts with avidity and prompt ness, determined by tbe next spring .to .test, every acre or land that lies within .what might beualled, to use a pleasant application of an unpleasant term, “-the affected district.” As I moved among;'these people, and heard their stories, how -they, had IWSd on these bins for generations, and-the quaint tradi tions that surrounded their .springs .and- streams, r and saw them tough and grow merry, over their newly acquired,riches, and at the sama-tlme looked at the keen, eager, - pale-facod,; men,from Northern oonntlng. houses were chaffering&boutthe prices of acres and.petolStt over the Integrity deeds,'! conld not resist a comparison between the oil-hunt erg of tils century, and tha-gold-huntMß who oame under the grim Pissarro and the -haughty Cortez, hundseds of years ago, conquering, an empire and annihilating a race while they, wore digging for gold and sliver. The apirit.of Elzarro and Cortes lives to these keen, pale-faced, counting-house men. They do net, bring ships and armies; they do not carry knives or- guns; they have no majestic banner, like that / of Castile mid |j Arragon; but this, money-thirst is Intense, and | the love ofwealth If more unreanonable and grasp ing than any other passion, of man. Nor Is this an easily satiated desire. IVlen who came here anxious . to make a. few thousands of dollars and go home again have made hundreds of thousands, and now look haggard and hungry because they can make : no more. The most restless, uneasy, selfish, and ; oovetons man whom I have met to my many jour ney ingswas an oil speculator on the bulks of the : Ohio river, whose gains reached, I was told, many - hundreds of thousands of dollars—a man who came : here In poverty, who has succeeded In every enter ! prise, and whose wealth placed Mm far above any possible contingency of want. Tot to him every new oomer seemed to be an enemy, and every dollar that was hot gained by himseli east sadness over his soul; It was a strange and suggestive Illustration, as I looked upon the man and heard him talk, and saw how Mb keen, wistful gray eyes dwelt upon maps and deeds and records, and saw with what longing envy heepoke of others who had succeeded around him. I thanked my own destiny that I was not allied-to this Mephlstophties, Gain, who seems rarely toglve Mb friendship without bargaining for the happiness of his victim’s eternal soul. . If any reader or thlß article wishes to be particu larly good, let him by all means eome to the eosy, clumsy town of Newport. We were doomed to re-' main here on our return from the Ohio region, and we pasßed a day amid the eoow and the ftost.w ; THE WAK I iPUBUSBBD WEEKUS.t Wa Knn Will heart to subssrlberiby U aSvtaoe) at™.—~ ™™*3 00 eoplss .. i. ■«. . » .—..■ ■ nil.,nmt,B OO Ten soples- 15 OO totfcardafei than Tea will beohorsed at to* same nt >.H.Wn r «n; Tbs monr* must always oeeomjww Ot* order, aiut she evidently had been In the the Kanaw ha. The aati-elimal pitch,of the-rocks, or, as the people about here , cell It,- 11 their-dip and lay,” is marked, although thoy do not form as many scenes of naturaibeauty ami saw .elsewhere fa my travels. Indeed, to compare .Venango county, as a piece of scenery, with West Virginia, cr. evon with the coun try around McCoanelaville, would bo to decide agatestlts morlta3 an oil-producing district. How ever, In this oase, experience has quarrelled with the mow of science. Notwithstanding the less marked'’’surface Indications” of Oil Creek, petro , leum.has been found in. apparent Inexhaustible quantities. And here I may appropriate a theory of a writer In a scientific, journal, who, in speaking of petroleum, assumes that It has generated away down in the arevloesof thoearth; that these crevices were ohoe the shores.ofi a great sea which covered part of North America during what Is called the Chemung, period of the Devonian age. This sea 1 was suppesedto be-shallow, as Is judged by the Ab sence of limbs tens. Its marshes were covered with ! a dense salt grass ;. such, perhaps, as might beseen In the neighborhood of Atlantic City. When the face of the earth changed, and the sea became dry land, and the aHttrial formation made It habitable, rar down In toe crevices of these rocks the-vegeta tlon of. these marshes was slowly distilled, into on. Now, It is known that in moat wells, when the boro strikes on, salt water, petroleum, and a csebonlo arid gas are thrown up. Therefore, In these crevices, it Is supposed'thafi. three sub stances rtst-salt water,gas,and petroleum; toe saltwater being apart of the "distillation, the gas another part, and the petroleum a third. There they exist together, In some respects antagonistic olementß, without force enough to afiect too forma-, tlon of the earth,‘but hidden, cramped away, and so eager for roloaso that when thelrprlson-door is un locked by these Sharp, keen oil-diggers, they rush forth upon the earth fa dense, large, gnshing streams. The gas escapes to the air, sad as, of oourse, there canbsno affinity between ©R. and water, when the itream pours Into the tank, the oil rises to toe top end the water sinks. In aH oil wells more or less of water Is found. Even when crude petroleum is gathered, and the first natural process of separation •g effected, asltlies In the tank, the process of re fining shows the presence of still gas, naptha, water fa a. small quantity, burning oH (the refined petroleum of commerce), and the lubricating oil, which is made by chllltog the petroleum with ice, rery much the same as linseed oil la made for com mercial purposes. -As this geological formation was ■rot confined at all to the continent of North Amo ica, neither, as I have before stated, has petroleum •11 Seen alone found fa the Internal sea which, inrfag too Chemung period of the was supposed to cover - America. Off the shares of the Caspian Sea petto