Lesley.] ^A [April. 



the process being accompanied at every stage with the gene- 

 ration of gas. Therefore, the quantities of lubricating oil 

 coming out from the Conglomerate, along the valleys of 

 Paint Creek, prove the existence of immense quantities back 

 from the cliffs in the rock itself, under all the highlands. 

 And for the same reason, the heavy oils obtained first from 

 Lyon's and Donnell's and Warner's wells, followed by lighter 

 oils from a greater depth, prove the existence of yet uncal- 

 culated quantities of still lighter oils, at still greater depths ; 

 and of a world of gas-pressure which ought to make its pre- 

 sence known wherever there have been rents in the crusts, 

 downthrows, fallings-in, or serious slopings of the stratifica- 

 tion ; in a word, any sort of natural vent. 



Burning springs are instances of this very thing. One on 

 Licking River, 4 miles above Salyersville, the court town of 

 Magoffin County, and only about 12 miles in an air line 

 southwest from the Lyon Well, has been celebrated since the 

 settlement of Kentucky.* 



Another still stronger burning spring exists at a distance of 

 35 miles in the opposite direction, one mile above Warfield, in 

 the bed of the Tug Fork of Sandy, on the Virginia State line.f 



* This Spring was described to me by Mr. Patrick, whose house (16|- 

 miles from Paintsville by road) stands half a mile higher up the valley. 

 It stands about 15 feet above water-level, in a dry place, the ground 

 being burnt around it. The gas roared continually, and, when fired, 

 would blaze 40 feet high. No oil was known there until a well was 

 bored, from which the principal part of the gas now blows oft", roaring 

 and fluttering in it, so as to be audible for one or two hundred yards, 

 scaring timid horses, before the well is within the rider's sight, and dis- 

 tinguishable by the smell for a quarter of a mile to leeward. The rock 

 was found to be fissured in all directions to a depth of 3 or 4 feet, so that 

 a knife could be thrust into the cracks. The auger went through about 

 150 feet of sandstone, &c., and is said to have got oil at every change 

 of rock, and to have dropped IJ inches at the end, where oil and water 

 rushed up, so that from 500* to 1000 barrels were estimated to have run 

 ofl" per year. The rebellion put an end to operations. A second well 

 was put down 100 yards distant down the stream, 130 feet deep, more or 

 less, which got oil; and a third well at Patrick's house, 160 to 170 feet 

 deep, which only got a small show of oil with some gas. These are the 

 only wells in the county, except a fourth at the extreme west end of it. 



I This Burning Spring is in 15 foot water, the whole of which is kept 



