3;')2 Sir Boverton Redwood [June 7, 



water along the margin of the land in past ages there would be abun- 

 dant opportunity for the deposition not only of the remains of 

 marine animals and plants, but also of vegetable matter brought 

 down to the coast by the water-courses, and the changes which the 

 earth has undergone would result in the burial of these substances 

 under sedimentary mineral matter, the deposits thus formed being 

 ultimately, as the result of further alterations in the earth's surface, 

 often found occupying positions far removed from the sea, and 

 sometimes beneath immense thicknesses of subsequent deposits. The 

 instance of Karabugas Bay, already referred to, affords an excellent 

 illustration of the manner in which the necessary accumulations of 

 marine remains probably occurred. In this land-locked bay organic 

 matter is being constantly conveyed from the open sea through a 

 very shallow entrance over the bar, and as the water of the bay is 

 rendered more strongly saline by the active evaporation which occurs 

 in this torrid region, all life is quickly destroyed, whilst at the same 

 time putrefactive decomposition of the remains is prevented. 



AVhilst, however, as I have said, there is general agreement as to 

 the organic origin of petroleum, there is considerable difference of 

 opinion as to whether the oil is in all cases indigenous to the strata 

 in which it is found, and as to whether the conversion of the organic 

 matter was practically completed when the strata were formed, so 

 that the age of the rocks is that of the petroleum found therein. 

 There are distinguished advocates of the view that petroleum results 

 from the action of a slow continuous process of distillation of the 

 material yielding it, accompanied by a transference of the product to 

 strata lying above those in which its formation originated. According 

 to some, this process occurred at a definite and distant time in the 

 past, long subsequent to the formation of the petroliferous strata ; 

 but in the opinion of others it may be in progress at the present 

 time. The question is not one of academic interest only, for it 

 obviously would be of vast importance if it could be demonstrated 

 that our stores of petroleum, which are being depleted with alarming 

 rapidity, might be replenished. I fear, however, that there is no 

 ground for such an encouraging anticipation. As Lesley, the 

 United States geologist, remarked in 1886, "I am no geologist 

 if it be true that the manufacture of oil in the laboratory of nature 

 is still going on at the hundredth or the thousandth part of the rate 

 of its exhaustion. And the science of geology may as well be aban- 

 doned as a guide if events prove that such a production ;of oil in 

 Western Pennsylvania as our statistics exhibit can continue for 

 successive generations. It cannot be. There is a limited amount. 

 Our children will merely, and with difficulty, drain the dregs." 



Probably each of the views expressed in relation to the organic 

 origin of petroleum has some elements of truth in it, and it is 

 reasonable to assume that a substance so varied in chemical and 

 physical characters has not in all cases been created under precisely 



