384 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tible, like those of our springs, of being refilled, as the springs are 

 kept full of water by the penetration from the surface. 



If, then, we put aside the eruptive process as not well founded, 

 it follows that the search for petroleum should be made with ac- 

 count taken of the conditions of formation of the sedimentary- 

 beds, of the extension of the basins in which they are deposited, 

 and of the formations over them. 



While the natural hydrocarbons are indisputably found in the 

 sedimentary beds, from the most ancient to those which are still 

 in process of formation, it is nevertheless certain that so far they 

 are most extensive and most generally distributed in the Tertiary 

 formations excepting always the Silurian and Devonian deposits 

 of North America, which were formed under geophysical conditions 

 which have not yet been recognized in other regions where forma- 

 tions of the same age exist. 



In a general way, the signs of the existence of solid, liquid, or 

 gaseous hydrocarbons, exhibited by mud volcanoes, disengage- 

 ments of natural gas, etc., authorize the presumption of beds near 

 the surface, so that it is useless in such cases to anticipate a favor- 

 able result from deep borings. 



All the facts noted by students of the natural hydrocarbons 

 may be explained without difficulty under the hypothesis of the 

 organic origin of the natural hydrocarbons, which becomes a com- 

 plete system, the value of which imposes itself upon every one 

 seeking the solution of the question. All is easy of conception if 

 we suppose a simultaneous precipitation of mineral matters and 

 organic substances derived from the decomposition of animals and 

 plants, when these are found in suitable conditions of the medium 

 and of their own being at the moment they are buried. But all 

 becomes obscure and inexplicable under the hypothesis that these 

 substances are formed in the depths of the globe under the influ- 

 ence of a high temperature and considerable pressure. 



Captain F. E. Younghusband is a scientific explorer of much experience 

 in the mountain regions and high plateaus of Central Asia, who has ob- 

 served the men as well as the topographical features and natural history of 

 those regions. He declares in his latest book that while the traveler sees in 

 his journeys every step of the ladder of human progress, from men who are 

 little more than beasts of burden to the statesmen, men of science, and men 

 of lettere of the first rank in the most civilized countries of the world, he 

 has " not been impressed with any great mental superiority of the niost 

 highly developed races of Europe over lower races with whom I have been 

 brought in contact. In mere brain power and intellectual capacity there 

 seems no great difference between the civilized European and the rough 

 hill tribesmen of the Himalayas; and in regard to the Chinaman, I should 

 even say that the advantage lay on his side." 



