78 



iron. This looks black by transmitted light, for it is not transparent 



But by reflected light it shows brightly, almost like burnished gold. 



So the deposit in Mors in Denmark shows the carbonaceous 

 matter along with the Diatoms, but not changed to asphaltum. Now 

 we can reason that the asphaltum carne from the Miocene or even the 

 Eocene period. Can we also truly seé that it comes from the sea 

 bottoni I think we can for asphaltum is seen ozing from the sea of 

 southern California. And where asphaltum is present now petroleum 

 must be also present. And we can immagine the sea plants, the 

 algae, and Iikewise the Protista, the Bacillaria, and the Radiolaria, 

 besides the sponges and the Foramenifera when they die and their 

 protoplasmi changes to petroleum, and rock oil, and evaporating 

 leaves the asphaltum behind. And this is the way asphaltum of Ca- 

 lifornia carne. From protoplasm. 



It is interesting to note that petroleum is said to come from 

 inorganic substances by chemists as Berthelot in 1866, by Bryasson 

 in 1870, by Mendeljeff 1877, by Cloes in 1877, by Von Humboldt 

 in 1804, by Rozet in 1 835, by Prott in 1S46, by Parvan in 1854, 

 by Thore in 1872, but these theories are untenable. It. is regarded 

 of organic origin and from plants by Lesquereaux. He thinks ma- 

 rine algae are the origin of it. But he did not study the Protista 

 being mearly a fossil botanist. Sterry Hunt mentions a certain black 

 band in the Hamilton period, but does not consider the petroleum 

 in connection therewith. 



Wall and Kruger in 1880 pointed out that petroleum, or ra- 

 ther asphaltum, was present at the island of Trinidad and Rupert 

 Jones, without refering directly to the Diatoms or Bacillaria that 

 they are the cause of it. From animals it is supposed to be obtai- 

 ned. And from a mixture of vegetables and animals. Ali of these 

 observers do not take into consideration that proplasm is the same 

 thing in one-Protista, vegetable and animai. So that we see that pe- 

 troleum, rock oil or asphaltum may be obtained from organic matter 

 of any kind. In California at least it comes from the recent strata 

 of the coast, the Eocene as the geologists terni it, the infusorial 

 earth, the clay or Bailey and Ehrenberg and Blake at Monterey 

 and near San Francisco. 



