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 <Ss COSTARD.
uX-rawS® Southeast comer NINTH and MARKET.
CHE3TKDT STREET.
"T. «. UBIDIBS
H »AILT BECEIVIHO
NOVELTIES
LACES,
WHITE GOODS,
l EMBROIDERIES,
| VEILS,
r. HANDKERCHIEFS, «fto.
HM CHBBTNOT BTBBBT.
•ngp POPLINS.
a Mid colors, extra flas quality, for #2.
fijared reps, Mohairs, and Merinoes.
137 nieces newest unioae American Delaines, some
of them choice and neat, others wry say stripe.
OrerlOOpteoes American prints, 31,3§,98, and 40 ct»,
Black Mohairs and Alpacas, 65 cts to $1.75.
Balmorals, fresh lot for misses, maids, and matrons.
Cloaks and Shawls in Cloak room.
|alesragA
8, S. Cor, NINTH and MARKET Ste.
HOLIDAY CONFECTIONS.
TjiRE and fabhionable
* confections
FOR THE HOLIDAYS,,
IN NEAT BOXES,
SUITABLE FOB PRESENTS
FAMILY USB,
FRESH EVERY DAY,
E..G. WHITMAN & CO.’S,
iel lm No, 318 CHKSTNUT Bt., below Fourth.
MERCHANT TAILORS.
|I)WABD F. KELLY,
JOHN KELLY,
TABLORS,
m CHESTNUT STREET,
Kill from tola date (Oetohor Id) MU al
REDUCED PRICES,
worn
CASH.
tECTff HBMIgHPIg COOPS.
§■ AROH STREET. ggg
REMOVAL.
8. A, HOFF3IAM,
% PRimm mbbi uro wbutii
USUPACTOBT, ARB aENTLEMBIPB
•' I.’RNISSINfO EMPORIUM.
UMOVKD lEOH m ABGH STREET
TO THE MEW STORE,
*» ABOH STREET.
M-IIBWta
tffIOHEBT * BLMR BOORS.
AIL, MINING, GOAL, AND OTHER
- SEW COMPANIES.
t* are prepared to famish Nerr Corporations With all x
■■ ~ they require, at short notice and low prices.
1 - :!S Wrtity. All styles of Binding.
SIBt PLATE CERfIFIOATESQF STOCK,
LITHOGRAPHED
HiHSFIE BOOK.
SSBEEB OF TRANSFER,
STOCK LEDGES,
STOCK LEDGER BALANCES,
KMISTEB OF CAPITAL STOCK.
BP.OKEK’S PETTI LEDGER,
iCCOOTT OF BALES,
mtibeso book.
MOSS A CO.,
aSK BOOK MANUFACTURERS AMD STATIONERS,
43'A OHBSTHOT Stmt
carpets and oa-CLoias,
1864.
isr
TALL
SLENKOHO mills,
&EBMAWTOWH.
MoO ALLXJM * GO.,
OARFXT WABBHOTJB*.
VM OHIBTMUT BTBIOT,
randtuntPHiA.
MoCAXLUM A CO.,
detail department,
•19 OHIBTITOT STREW.
i!!fo orfoscti hall
CANTON MATTINOS.
T RBOEIVBD,
a übbx iirvoioi or nm
cocoa mattings.
MoC&IiLUM & GO.,
SOB OHBgMCOT 8to«*
hocseB.
ft HDTOHIKSOM,
*», ii* cHßSTjnrr btksit,
C() Mmission merchants.
ro* txa iaiii ov
HntADKKrau-MAPI fIOOIW.
I^cFyTl.
B - J. WILLIAMS,
MAHDEAOTURBB Of
' E N E T!A N BLINDS
ARB
„ WINDOW BHADES,
®°VEd from No. IB (la oonseauenee of Bxo) to
85 Sixth street,
sat? hi* J V[ Bry ,lad *P se * W« customers and
' 1 “I* old establishment Is rebuilt, a 029 Ut
* C0 -i BTBAM BM.
VOL. B.—NO. 109.
SEWING MACHINES.
SEWING MACHINES,
715 CHESTNUT NT.
THE “FLORENCE"— AMERICAN
a INVENTORS' GREAT TRIUMPH—THE SEWING
MACHINE PERFECTED.-All the objections to other
Ma.Mnes are overcome In the FLORENCE. It makes
FOUR DIFFERENT STITCHES with the same ease,
and with as little machinery as others make one. Be
sides, it haethe REVERSIBLE FEED MOTION-a uni
form, self* regelating tension of thread and ho springs,
cog-wheels, or cama to get ont of order. It does ALL
KINDS OF FAMILY SEWING, from tho heaviest
woolens to the most delicate fabrics, nslnc all kinds of
silk, cotton, and linen thread, from No. 20 to 200.
NO OTHER MACHINE does so largo a range of work
as the FLORENCE.
NO OTHER MACHINE pleases the ladles so well as
the FLORENCE.
More than ONE THOUSAND of tho FLORENCE have
been sold In Philadelphia within the last few months.
The FLORENCE is the only PERFECT FAMILY SEW
ING MACHINE, warranted to give entire satisfaction,
or money returned. There is no one who owns a
FLORENCE that would sell It at cost.
Call and tee lie operations, whether you wish to pur
chase or not. Sampios of sewing, with price list, sent
free by mail. ,
FLORENCE SEWING MACHINE COMPANY,
n022-tf 830 CHESTNUT Street.
CURTAIN GOODS.
ALBAVEN.
NOVELTIES
IN
RICH CURTAIN GOODS,
WINDOW SHADES,
AND .
FURNITURE COVERINGS.
WiLfi ATEN,
119 CHESTNUT STREET
CHESTNUT SIRES'
§TORB,
1036 CHESIKUT STKEET. 1036
BROOATELLE CURTAINS.
COTELINE CURTAINS.
TERRY CURTAINS..
MUSLIN CURTAINS.
SATIN DE LAINE CURTAINS.
REP CURTAINS. -
\ LACE CURTAINS, /
AND
Window shad e s.
Our workmanship is unsurpassed.
O. M. STOUT .fc CO„
oc3l-2m 1096 CHESTNUT Street.
THE HOLIDAYS.
go LID AY GIFTS
OF MAGNIFICENT AND ELEGANT DESIGNS.
DRESSING! AND ODOM CASES,
Cigar and Pnff Boxes,
BUFFALO COMBS, TOOTH, NAIL, AND
HAIR BRUSHES,
SATCIIELS, POCKET BOOKS,
SOISSOR3 IN- OASES',
TAKEE AND POCKET KNITES,
RAZORS AND STROPS,
WITH A FTJLI. ASSORTMENT, OF ,
FINE CUTLERY
PARI 8 FANCY GKJODB.
SNOWDEN & BROTHER*
IMPeOTBBS,
33 SOUTH EIGHTH STREET.
dcs-fmw6t&dlSft
JJOLIDAY FBESENTS.
CHARLES DUMMIG,
HO. 818, OBSSTHOT STREET,
begs leave to Inform bis esteemed customers that bis
present stock of
FANCY GOODS AJTO: TOYS
surpasses that of any former Importation. Haying se
lected with care every article.himself, hecan trnly «ay
there is no similar establishment In the country that can
compare with his. As to prioes, gsttingMs goods from
the first • mannfaotnrers and artists in Europe, those
' dealers who buy from the Importers here to sell again can
certainly not compete with him Of the following geode
he keeps a large a variety, and in, such entirely new
styles aa no other store lathis city can offer:
LADIES’ WORK BOXES.
JEWELRY, ODOR. AND GLOVEROXR3.
NECESSARIES FOE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.
WRITING DESKS—DRESSING CASES.
FANS. PARIS GILT AND BRONZE GOODS.
FABIAN WARE—BOHEMIAN GLASS. _
vasesTof FINEST ANTIQUE.AND MODBRN.
CUTLERY—FIN BBT ENGLISH WALKING OAKES.
CRICKET AND ARCHERY IMPLEMENTS.
FANCY LEATHER GOODS, - .
LADIES' BAGS—OVER TWENTY DIFFERENT
"KINDS
CABAS, FOCKBT-BOOKS, CIGAR CASES.
PURSES AND FORT MONNAIES.
GAMES OF ALL KINDS. 1
CHESS, DOMINOES. MOTTOES.
CRIBBAGB. COUNTERS. CHESS, AND BACK
GAMMON BOARDS
BAGATELLE AND TIVOLI.
IN TOYS—This department is complete In every va
riety known, with many novel things never before im
ported Dolk-the very Barge variety, of every kind
known, kept In this store, surpasses in beauty and taste,
fnl dressing any thing known h ere and In Europe. Thiels
no idle boast. Ladies should call and see them. deS-iBt
pHRISTMAS PRESENTS.
\j What could be a more acceptable Christmas Fee-
FOR A GENERAL,
FOR A COLONEL,
FOR A CAPTAIN,
FOR A LIEUTENANT, l :
FOR A- SURGEON •'
than a handsome PRESENTATION SWORD. SASH,
and BELT, such as canalways he obtained-in the high
est artistic finish, at GEORGE W. SIMONS ft BROS.,
Manufacturing' Jewelen, Saneom-etreet Hall, 610
SAN SOM Btreet, Philadelphia? ,no&-12t
1864.
FINE WATCHES, JEWELRY,
■“* ' SILVER AND PLATED WARE,
CORNER ARCH AND TENTH STREETS.
Brooches, Sleeve Buttons, Armlets, Bracelets, Sear!
Piss and Bln*s>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
<nstan<M eon the « form# to deviate* from, at
thevaford wry Uitle more than the ooet of paper.
tnimniM to rt a*ac«nbf«r
TBn. waa Fasau.
Olmb ®f toa «twenty. «
extra edw”T oftoe Paper will ba riven.
too obeerMt? B buDb of the Ohio river, waiting for
the tardy boat. Newport la what might he calls!
a very good tows In the worst sense of that charm
ing phrase. The people all go to ohorch and save
their money, wear plain clothes, charge large prices
for their comforts, anti strictly prohibit the sale of
intoxicating liquors. It is a settlementof members
of a predomlnantrellglons denomination, and the
laws of too municipality seem to be based upon the
lawß of the ecclesiastical association.,. St is crowded
with oil men,-as every village and town on the
banks of the Ohio at this time happens to be-; and
there was something amusing In the self-denial
which they were compelled to show while
among these good people. Not to say
It offensively, yon mast know that your true
oil hunter has no fondness greater than that for
whisky. It had a great effect in the development
of West Virginia. “ Ton will find,” said a travel
ling companion, who had spent some time in the
Kanawha region, •« that a demijohn of whisky and
apiece of calico or muslin, to make [rocks for the
women and girls, to be of as much advantage to
you as even gold or silver.” Thls.was the way in
which onr early Indian fathers were despoiled of
their lands and homes. And I have no doubt that
if the secret history of many of the trades that now
lie hooked and docketed away In the coart houses
at Elizabeth, .. Parkersburg, Mlddleboome, and
Ritchie, could only be told, It would bo fonnd that
this great Western Btaple had as much to do with
controlling and determining the minds of the origt
“al,ow“erB of these lands as a string of beads or a
high Bilk hat, or a pair of very red pantaloons, had
to do with persnadfag onr Indian ancestors to sur
render their right to many a lovely and fertile
plain. So, if you come after oil in Virginia, bring
whisky. In Newport resign yourself to older.
PHKITSVtVAKIA OIL RXOtOMS.
It was with something or.a gratified feeling that I
bid farewell to Virginia and Ohio, and theelasslo
regions of Ball Creek, Duok Creek, BurnlngSprings,
SlstersvUle, and passing hastily through Wheeling,
arrived at Pittsburg on a oold, dismal evening, on
my way to Venango county. Early In the morning,
accompanied by a new wayfaring mend, whose ac
quaintance I had made, by some fortunate accident,
on the way, I started on the Fort Wayne and Chi
cago road for Mead villa. I saw enough of Pitta
burg, during the few hours I had passed with its
people, to enable me to assure our Mends to the
East that it is not only reeking with smoke but
dripping with oil. m fact, you hear so much of oil,
and Bee. bo much of It, and you are constantly made
aware of its presence, that the whole city as
sumes a greasy appearance—the men walk as
tenderly and as daintily as though they were
afraid of "slipping, and the ladles seem to draw
their beautiful Magenta-colored dresses around
them as if In dread 01 contamination, and the very
skies had a petroleum look, as though the
heavens were becoming jealous of the earth, and,
Instead of oil spouting up from the crevices or the
rocks, It was about to oome out from the windows of
the great deep. Ido not know If there Is more capi
tal Invested there than fa Philadelphia or New
York, but It is certain_ that the people make toe
greater show of it. Men are pointed out to you In
the streets as having, become suddenly rich with
this new staple, and stories are told very much like
the romance of poor Johnny Jones, which I shall
relate In a moment or two. Thriving, lusty, free
dom-loving Pittsburg has grown too wealthy to call
upon this new staple. The gentlemen of the East
must look to their laurels or King Petroleum will
erect his throne on the banks of the Allegheny.
EH xoutb'xok vbhanso.
The little towns along the route from Pittsburg to
Meadville have also received many good
the oil trade. The large travel which has recently'
been going on, the number of rich men who are
constantly passing through these places, and the
great demand for oil-lands or lands that show any
geological similarity to the oil districts, have In
creased ,the wealth of the eastern i.audriwestern
counties of Pennsylvania three to. five-hundred per
cent. Towns are springing up in this-formerty
deserted country that show a great deal of the pure
and mature Eastern takte. Mead ville especially Is
a charming specimen of Pennsylvania industry and
skill. It is on the line of the Great Western and
Atlantic Railroad, whlel£ with Its magnificent ears
and. broad gauges,! makes railroad travelling a
luxury which we 'of the narrow track have never
been able to . enjoy. It has grown up Into a
young city In the coarse of the last few
months. We were delayed at MeadvlUe a few
hours. Accordingly, together with a travel
ling Mend, I made a tour through the streets.
There are dwellings here which would not do discredit
toyour.own Rlttenhouae andEogan squares, and the
McHenry Hotel surpasses anything I have ever
seen outside of Philadelphia or New York. The
dining-room Is the finest, perhaps, In the United
States, and the traveller may receive the fa*=rta* „
of the, Easr’wKbonrpaying near as- large a price
as 1b generally asked" in town. The Atlantic Rall
road and the oil business have madbMeadvilla, and
ebrry, and Tltustllle, and Oil City, four of the most
flourishing towns fa our State, and ! should not be
at all surprised If they became rivals of Lancaster,
and Reading, and Easton, and even; perhaps, of
Pittsburg. From MeadvlUe we travelled on the
Atlantic road until we came to Franklin, and here
we are within toe limits of King. Petroleum’s do
mlons. Franklin Is the county seat of Yenango,
and 1# an old town situated upon a broad plain a
little above the mouth of- French Creek; on the Al
legheny river, at the head of the navigation of the
Allegheny. Twenty years ago the population was
not more than six hundred; It now numbers over
twothonßand. It was.first Bettlea In the early part
of this century, and grew quietly and- unosten
tatiously, as all country towns do, .until petro
leum began to take Its place among the king
doms of the earth. Franklin Is seven miles front
Oil City,, and around about the town some
good Welle have been found. I saw no evidences,
however, of the existence of such large deposits of
oil as are found at OR Creek; but It Is thought that
when capital becomes more eager,- and scienoe
enables us to find some rule governing the discovery
of the production of'oil, wells will be found here
surpassing those farther up the stream. The-theory
that the petroleum thus far found Is nothing more
than a surface formation, and that to reach-great
deposits we must drill to the extent of perhaps two
or three thousand feet, Is one which has never yet
received a practical illustration, for thereason that
none have been bold enough to sink their drills to a
sufficient depth. It is a theory muph cherished by
the people of Franklin, who feel confident that If
they could only get their fingers into the-depth of
their own land, they would find a harvest of wealth
producing oil. Oil speculators and capitalists have
taken possession of Franklin, and even If no springs
were found" around it, there Is enough wealtfefa Oil
City, and among other parts of Venango to make it
In time a great metropolis. Franklin, by.lts- posi
tion as the termination of the branch of the-Great
Western and Atlantic Railroad, and holdings direct
railroad connection with Corry and‘Philadelphia,
must become a point of great interest-and necessity
to the oH men.-
VBXAX&O COOTTEV
The barrenness of Venango county, and the-wild,
uneven character of Its lands, have been subjects of
jest-among the good folk of Western-Pennsylvania.
Ear beyond the memory of the present generation,
an -smigrantto Venango or toßutler was always con
gratulated upon the fact that If. he could met get
wheat or com, or raise good cattle, he mlght-ot least
make hla family clean from.. thq|pap.mine. “The
soap mine” was a humorous phrase, need to-desig
nate the character cithe country hereaboutepwhlch,
from the exudations of oil, had a greasy, dank, slip
pery appearance. The good folk of. ike-early times
; who jested with their neighbors on the- greasy
: streams and rocks-little thought that enhof those
! streams a staple would oome moro valnable than
; oofs or wheat. The i geology of Venango oounty Is
: not. as marked oe Hurt of West Virginia. Weses
i the lower conglomerates of. the coal formation, and
. I was told that beyond Oil City the lowest strata of
coal reck cropped out on the top of-the- hills. The
shale rook andrsandstone abound, and- the country
along the riven banks Is lugged and wild; the river
hills being precipitous and steep. The geologist
would call these valleys, the valleysof.erosion, show
ing that Nature had onaday been in trouble here, aa
> 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