1897.] PETROLEUM AXD NATURAL GAS. 97 



Other critics of this theory that in many localities fucoid remains 

 are abundant without a trace of bituminous products accompanying 

 them. 



E. W. Binney having observed petroleum oozing from a decom- 

 posing bed of peat in England, which had been covered in with 

 sand, considered that it came from a decomposition of the peat out 

 of access of air. However, it has been pointed out that this was 

 an isolated observation, and that in many other peat bogs similarly 

 covered no evidence of petroleum has been found. 



Wall and Kruger, after studying the asphalt occurrence in the 

 island of Trinidad, proposed the theory that asphalt and petroleum 

 were formed by the decomposition of woody fibre, of which they 

 found abundant traces in the asphalt deposits. A later observer, 

 Rupert Jones, however, on extracting Trinidad asphalt with hot 

 turpentine found animal remains so clearly that a derivation from 

 these is at least as probable. 



We may mention also the earlier views of Reichenbach, who 

 viewed petroleum as formed by a destructive distillation of vegeta- 

 ble remains simultaneously with the formation of the coal deposits, 

 but in answer to this it is only necessary to note that the petroleum 

 and the coal do not occur together in the majority of instances and 

 that petroleum differs essentially in chemical composition from 

 either wood-tar or coal-tar as ordinarily obtained. 



The eminent French geologist, Daubree, also found a vegetable 

 origin for petroleum. He says that '* it appears not to be a simple 

 product of dry distillation, but to have been formed with the con- 

 current action of water and perhaps under pressure." He adduces 

 in support of his view the fact that by the action of superheated 

 steam upon wood he had obtained both liquid and gaseous products 

 analogous to petroleum. 



The belief in the animal origin of petroleum has had advocates 

 equally as positive and persistent. In this country, J. D. Whitney, 

 the former State Geologist of California, and T. Sterry Hunt, who 

 was well acquainted with both the Canadian and Pennsylvania oil 

 fields, were its chief advocates. The latter has produced many 

 strong illustrations in his study of Canadian formations of his view 

 that fossiliferous limestones, the remains in which are mainly if not 

 exclusively of animal origin, were the original beds in which the 

 petroleum was formed. 



In Europe, the most prominent advocates of the animal origin of 



