June, 1903. I^j 



THE UNNATURAL HISTORY OF AN OIL-WELL. 



BY PROF. GRENVIIvIvK A. J. COI,E, F.G.S., M.R.I.A. 



Of late a considerable literature has arisen, especially in the 

 London press, in regard to the alleged rise of petroleum in 

 the cellar of a house in Dublin. The Editors of the Irish 

 Naturalist have in consequence asked me to make some com- 

 munication on the subject. The Secretary of the Department 

 of Agriculture and Technical Instruction has kindly allowed 

 me to use the information collected during recent official 

 inquiries, and this help I gratefully acknowledge ; at the same 

 time, any statements in the present note are made entirely on 

 my own responsibility. If I remain sceptical as to the alleged 

 " discovery," the scepticism is personal to myself I trust, 

 however, to show that doubt is in this case philosophic. 



On Saturday evening, Januar}^ 31, 1903, Mr. Christopher 

 Moran, of 100, Summerhill, Dublin^ called at ni)' private house, 

 and brought with him two bottles containing a small propor- 

 tion of water and a large proportion of ^-ellow fluorescent 

 mineral oil. He stated that this oil had been noticed on the 

 previous morning on the surface of a spring of water, which 

 runs in a little conduit through the cellar of his mother's 

 house at the address given ; the occurrence of a trap enabled 

 the family to collect enough oil to fill several pails. 



The matter was of sufficient interest to merit immediate in- 

 spection. On the following morning I called on Mr. J. Holms 

 Pollok, B.Sc, who kindly came with me as an expert chemist, 

 and we saw the oil running freely, and pans and pails filled 

 with it in the cellar. It burned well in a common lamp ; but 

 we naturally recommended caution. 



We learned that a neighbouring oil-store had an underground 

 pipe from which leakage might occur. The source of the water 

 in the cellar was not apparent, but it clearly runs in from the 

 higher ground that stretches towards Mountjoy-square. It 

 may be a true spring from the underlying limestone, and yet 

 be liable to contamination where it traverses the superficial 



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