1 882. 43 Trans. N. Y. Ac. Set. 



were not rare 25 to 30 years ago. The crystal of andalasite pre- 

 sented faces and distortion which were novel and well worth de- 

 scription in detail. 



A paper was then read by Mr. William L. Lay, 



ON THE DEPOSITS OF EARTH-WAX (OZOKERITE) IN EUROPE AND 



AMERICA. 



(Abstract). 



There exists a large mining and manufacturing industry in Austria, 

 that of ozokerite, or earth-wax — which has nothing like it in any other 

 part of the known world, an industry that supplies Europe with a part 

 of its beeswax, without the aid of the bees. It may not be generally 

 known that the mining of petroleum was a profitable industry in Austria 

 long before it was in this country. In 1852, a druggist near Tarnow dis- 

 tilled the oil and had an exhibit of it in the first World's Fair in Lon- 

 don. In America the first borings were made in 1859. Indeed, the 

 use of petroleum as an illuminator was common at a very early age in 

 the world's history. In Persia at Baku, in India on the Irawada, also 

 in the Crimea, and on the river Kuban in Russia, petroleum has been 

 used in lamps for thousands of years. At Baku the fire worshippers 

 have a never-ceasing fiame, which has burned from time immemorial. 

 The mines of ozokerite are located in Austrian Poland, now known as 

 Galicia. Near the city of Drohabich, on the railway line running from 

 Cracow to Lemberg, is a town of six thousand inhabitants, called Bor- 

 islau, which is entirely supported by the ozokerite industry. It lies at 

 the foot of the Carpathian Mountains. About the year 1862, a shaft 

 was sunk for petroleum at that place. After descending about one 

 hundred and eighty feet, the miners found all the cracks in the clay or 

 rock filled with a brown substance, resembling beeswax. At first, the 

 layers were not thicker than writing paper ; but they grew thicker grad- 

 ually below, until at a depth of three hur.dred feet they attained a thick- 

 ness of three or four inches. Upon examination, it was found that a 

 yellow wax could be made of a portion of this substance, and at once a 

 substitute for wax was manufactured. 



The discovery caused an excitement like the oil fever of 1865, in 

 America. A large number of leases were made. When I saw the 

 wells of Pennsylvania, in 1879, there were more than two thousand. 

 The owner of the land received one-fourth of the product and the 

 miners three-fourths. In the petroleum region, the leases at first 

 were whole farms, then they were reduced to 20, then 10, then five, 

 and at last to one acre, which is a square of 209 feet. 



But in the ozokerite region of Poland, where everything is done on a 



