92 NINETEENTH REPORT. 



It follows, if these deductions be correctly drawn, that west of Port 

 Huron and toward the centre of the state there is hut little reasonable 

 expectation of oil or gas in paying- quantity, since the strata dip rapidly 

 westward, a dip which may be illustrated by the comparative statement 

 that the salt horizon at the foot of Saginaw Bay is 2,200 feet lower than 

 it is in Goderich harbor on the opposite side of Lake Huron. 



The cause of change of direction of the field from N. lO^ E. across 

 Ohio and Ontario to Chatham and beyond to northwesterly, by way of 

 Oil Springs and Oil City and Port Huron, was unquestionably the moye- 

 ment which produced the uplifted exposure of Hamilton rock across the 

 northeast corner of Lambton County from Arkona to Thedford and the 

 shales at Kettle Point. 



FURTHER EyiDENCE SUSTAINING THE .ARGUMENT. 



If, by earth movement, or a series of movements somewhat violent in 

 character, a major anticlinal reservoir is faulted laterally, gas and oil 

 will escape and be forced by the dynamic of the reservoir into liiglier 

 strata adjacent. 



If the line of fault be continuous across country the escape of gas and 

 oil from the reservoir is facilitated. 



If the strata into which the oil flows be laid down in a major syndine, 

 as from Lake Erie across to Lake Huron and northward, "lakes" and 

 "pools" of oil and "pockets ' and reservoirs of gas will result, deposited 

 according to the natural inequalities of the synclinal floor and of the 

 overlying strata, inequalities probably emphasized by disturbance. 

 Crevices, unless on a major scale, are nearlj' always capped by beds that 

 overly, whether by deposit or by readjustment, or capped and plugged 

 by glacial detritus. Consequently botli gas and oil are confined and 

 forced into the interspaces of the strata. Pressure from behind, both 

 hydrostatic pressure and the pressure of gas, w^ill continue to force both 

 oil and gas further afield, even beyond the reach of the fault line. And 

 always the tendency will be for the escaping substances to find their 

 way into strata of ascending horizon and to higher elevations. 



As an oil field is pumped and the oil pressure decreases because the 

 supply begins to be exhausted, if there be a suitable reservoir left tlius to 

 receive and retain the gas the supply and 2)ressure of gas will be increased. 

 This for two reasons: gas rises naturally from the oil and, as the more 

 volatile substance, it finds freer vent from the main reservoir. 



Accordingly, in addition to these peculiarities in the southwestern 

 Ontario field already read as lateral phenomena, there is this series of 

 facts to be considered: 



