Lesley.] gg [April. 



In the above section, begun in the Freeport Series, it seems neces- 

 sary to take the 10'6" limestone at 242' — 253' as the Ferriferous 

 Limestone of the Clarion Series, and the 37' white sandrock at 

 281' — 318' as the Tionista sandstone. The Conglomerate, No. XII, 

 will then be represented by the 89' of ''blue sandrock with nodules 

 of iron ore," or the two " white sands" further down, or by both, 

 in which last case, we have a total thickness of XII (494 — 334 = ), 

 160 feet. From this to the bottom of the well is (891 — 494= ) 400 

 feet ; not enough by 200 or 300 feet to reach even the first of the 

 Venango County oil sandrocks. But in these 400 feet we see black 

 slate and coal (at 645), and limestone (at 672), apparently repre- 

 senting the sub-conglomerate coal shales and sub-carboniferous lime- 

 stone of Kentucky, No. XL Thick strata of so called "blue" sand- 

 rock, seem to take here the place of No. X ; and the bottom of the 

 well may, perhaps, with propriety be said to stop in the upper layers 

 of VIII. Everything depends upon the rapidity with which the 

 Devonian and Sub-carboniferous formations are thinning in their 

 course, southwestward, from Northern Pennsylvania towards Ken- 

 tucky. The coarse white sandrock at 845 — 849 must be observed. 



It is at Tarentum, near this section, and on nearly the same level 

 with it, that the old salt-wells were so much tormented with oil, that 

 their proprietors contracted for its constant removal with Mr. Samuel 

 M. Vier, of Pittsburg, seven years before Dwight struck oil at 

 Titusville. From his skimming of these wells, Mr. Vier made what 

 he called " carbon oil," which he refined by a process of his own, 

 and sold quietly with the camphenes and burning fluids of the East, 

 until it won the market. At first his oil was sold in twenty-five cent 

 bottles as a medicine ; and then as an oil for lamps. To Mr. Vier, 

 who had made a large fortune, and retired from the field at its be- 

 ginning, the oil-well excitement was, of course, a matter of great 

 amusement. But the history of his process is the best illustration 

 we could have of the permanent supply to be expected from those 

 Alleghany River wells which penetrate deeply enough the Devonian 

 measures. 



Mr. Lyon furnishes the record of one more well still further south, 

 and only 354 feet deep, and entirely in the Coal Measures, which, 

 however, ought to be preserved, continuing, as it does, upward to 

 the water-level at Pittsburg, our knowledge of the minutise of the 

 Palaeozoic column, from otherwise inaccessible depths, to where it can 

 be studied in the open air. The absence from this section of any 



