324 HISTORY OF PETROLEUM OR ROCK OIL. 



Persia and other parts of Asia, although in former ages the wells of 

 the Island of Zante, described by Herodotus, furnished large quanti- 

 ties of it to the Grecian Archipelago, and Pliny and Dioscorides de- 

 scribe the petroleum of Agrigentum, in Sicily, which was used in 

 lamps under the name of Sicilian oil. The value of the naphtha an- 

 nually obtained from the springs at Bakoum, in Persia, on the Caspian 

 sea, was some years since estimated by Abich at about $600,000, and 

 the petroleum wells of Rangoon, in Burmah, are said to furnish not 

 less than 400, 000 hogsheads yearly. In the last century the petroleum 

 or naphtha obtained from springs in the Duchy of Parma was em- 

 ployed for lighting the streets of Genoa and Amiano. But the thick- 

 ness, coarseness, and unpleasant odor of the petroleum from most 

 sources were such that it had long fallen into disuse in Europe, when 

 in 1847 the attention of Mr. Young, a manufacturing chemist of Glas- 

 gow, 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 ex- 

 hausted he turned his attention to the somewhat similar oils which 

 Reichenbach and Selligue had long before shown might be economi- 

 cally obtained by the distillation of coal, lignite, peat, and pyroschists. 

 To this new industry Mr. Young gave a great impetus, and in con- 

 nexion 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 deposits of 

 bitumen in Enniskillen, just described, but it was not till 1857 that 

 Mr. W. M. Williams, of Hamilton, with some associates, undertook 

 the distillation of this tarry bitumen, when they soon found that by 

 sinking wells in the clay beneath it was possible 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 further north on Bear creek. Nearly one 

 hundred wells had been sunk when I visited the phice 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 difficulties of communication and of 

 procuring casks sufficient 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 continu- 

 ously worked the supply would be still greater. Here, as iu Penn- 

 sylvania, considerable variations are found in the quality 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 re- 

 cently 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, delivered at the Wyoming station on the 



