THE OIL-SUPPLY OF THE WORLD. 113 



attempted. He imported first-class machinery and skilled workmen ; 

 but the Poles combined against the interloper, and refused to supply 

 his refinery with crude oil, so for a while he actually was driven to 

 import crude petroleum from America. The people finding that he 

 could not be crushed, desisted from their opposition, and the Ameri- 

 can refiner now works in peace. He estimates the annual production 

 of Galicia at a hundred thousand barrels, but its quality is generally 

 very inferior to that of Pennsylvania ; the sinking of the wells is at- 

 tended with far greater difficulty, owing to the loose character of the 

 soil, and the singular manner in which the rock strata are found 

 tossed about at every conceivable angle. It is also necessary to bore 

 to a far greater depth than in America. But the chief disadvantage 

 of Galician oil is its liability to explosion, owing to the extreme difii- 

 culty of separating the benzine and other explosive elements from the 

 illuminating oil. Altogether Galician oil does not sound very desirable. 



In Roumania, in the districts of Bacan, Serata, Buzen, and Dambo- 

 vitza, petroleum has recently been discovered in such large quantities 

 that there is every prospect of its developing into a very important 

 industry. Prussian Saxony has already established extensive bitumi- 

 nous shale-works, for the supply of shale-oil, in the neighborhood of 

 Weissenf els. Wallachia, Sweden, and Switzerland, also possess depos- 

 its of bituminous asphalt, which when systematically worked will, 

 doubtless, be turned to good account. 



For a moment let us glance at the principal sources of animal and 

 vegetable oil-supply, ere the fountains of mineral oil were revealed for 

 the use and comfort of the human family. 



First and foremost, of course, ranked the fish-oils — the well-known 

 train (or drain) oil which drained from the blubber of the great Green- 

 land whale (a large whale sometimes yielding fully thirty tons of blub- 

 ber — each ton representing nearly two hundred gallons of oil. Though 

 the cachalot, or sperm-whale, could never rival the Greenland whale 

 in the quantity of its contribution, it had at least the advantage of 

 quality and variety, since, besides ordinary blubber, it yields a large 

 amount of sperm-oil, and also of spermaceti. Of the latter valuable 

 product, the head alone often yields ten barrels. 



Next among oil-yielding fish come the grampus, or dolphin, the 

 porpoise, the shark, the seal, the cod, the herring, and others. 



Of animal fats are butter, tallow, lard, goose-grease, neat's-foot oil 

 (prepared from the feet of oxen, and used by curriers in dressing 

 leather), and mare's grease (imported from Buenos Ayres and Monte- 

 video, where a multitude of horses are annually slaughtered for the 

 sake of their hides, tallow, and bones !). In Russia, especially at Mos- 

 cow, yolk-of-egg oil is in great repute for making soap and pomatum. 



Vegetable oils form a very important item in our supplies, inas- 

 much as oil-seeds to the value of £5,500,000 are annually imported 

 into Britain for crushing purposes, and our exports of oil are roughly 



TOL. XXVI. — 8 



