248 Notes on Petroleum 



chemist of Glasgow, was called to the petroleum which had just 

 been obtained in considerable quantities from a coal mine at 

 Biddings in Derbyshire, from which by certain refining processes 

 he succeeded in preparing a good lubricating oil. This source 

 however soon becoming exhausted, he turned his attention to the 

 somewhat similar oils which Reichenbach and Selligue had long 

 before showed might be economically obtained by the distilla- 

 tion of coal, lignite, peat and pyroschists. To this new in- 

 dustry Mr. Young gave a great impetus, and in connection with 

 it attention was again turned to the refining of liquid and solid 

 bitumens, it being found that the latter by distillation gave great 

 quantities of oils identical with those from petroleum. About 

 the year 1853 the attention of speculators was turned to the de- 

 posits of bitumen in Enniskillen just described, but it was not till 

 1857, that Mr. W. M. Williams of Hamilton, with some asso- 

 ciates undertook the distillation of this tarry bitumen, when they 

 soon found that by sinking wells in the clay beneath, it was pos- 

 sible to obtain great quantities of the material in a fluid state. 

 Large numbers of wells were subsequently sunk by Mr. Williams 

 and others in the southern part of the township of Enniskillen 

 along the borders of Black Creek, and also about ten miles farther 

 north on Bear Creek. Nearly one hundred wells had been sunk when 

 I visited the place in December last, and many more have since 

 been bored. Of these but a small proportion furnish available 

 quantities of oil, but the whole amount already obtained from the 

 district is perhaps not less than 300,000 or 400,000 gallons. 

 Owing to the difiSculties of communication and of procuring 

 casks suflScient for the oil, these wells have not yet been wrought 

 in a continuous manner ; large quantities of oil are however 

 taken out at intervals of some days, and it is probable that 

 if continuously worked ^he supply would be still greater. Here 

 as in Pennsylvania considerable variations are found in the qual- 

 ity of the oil ; that from the wells on Black Creek is more liquid 

 and less dense than the oil from Kelly's wells on Bear Creek, and 

 it is said that wells recently sunk to a considerable depth in the 

 rock have yielded an oil still thinner, lighter colored and less 

 dense, which is prized as being more profitable for refining. The 

 present wholesale price of the crude oil from Kelly^s wells, deliv- 

 ered at the Wyoming station on the Grand Trunk Railway, 

 is about thirteen cents a gallon. The oil obtained by Mr. 

 Williams is refined in Hamilton, while that from the northern 



