1865.] 



39 



[Lesley. 



glomerate is at any greater height than usual above the water- 

 bed, and the slope from it is, therefore, longer than usual. 

 Such is the case at the Old Oil Springs, on the north line of 

 the May & Ross Survey, where it crosses the Oil, Little or 

 South Fork of Paint ; and again 200 yards lower down, at 

 Pendleton's Oil Spring. 



A black reservoir of tar-like oil here occupies the centre of 

 a sloping bog, and is kept always full from a spring at its 

 upper limit, near the top of the slope and the foot of the 

 cliffs, about 20 feet above the level of the stream. Figure 3 

 shows the conformation of the ground ; a, the spring ; h, 

 the reservoir ; c, the bed of Paint Creek. 



A mile further down the stream, but on the opposite or 

 right bank, and apparently 35 or 40 feet above the water, on 

 a steep slope, close under projecting cliffs, is a similar spring, 

 which has not produced any extensive bog, for want of a level 

 receptacle, but which has yielded "large quantities" of oil 

 in past years, and from which the petroleum continues to run 

 slowly all the time. Fig. 4 shows the contour of the ground 

 and the overhanging cliffs, at two places near the spring. 



Three miles further down the stream, and within a mile or 

 less of its junction with the North or Open Fork, at Lyon's 

 Well, the oil is to be seen coming from the edge of the coal- 

 and ore-shales, just under the cliffs, which here tower to an 

 amazing height, especially upon the west, or Emigh Survey 

 side ; the survey cornering upon the stream close by, at a 

 stump, at the mouth of a little run. Fig. 5 represents, in a 

 formal manner, this section, and a pile of Conglomerate 

 crag, called the Crow's Nest, between one and two hundred 

 feet high, wonderfully tower-like and regular, opposite. 



