"Some of these are gorgeous pago- 

 das, sculptured in the usual fashion, 

 and ending in sharp finials at the sum- 

 mit. Others are the cloister buttes with 

 wing-walls and gables, panels and al- 

 coves. All are quarried out upon a 

 superlative scale of magnitude, and 

 every one of them is a marvel. The 

 great number and intricacy of these 

 objects confuse the senses and do not 

 permit the e}e to rest. The mind wan- 

 ders incessantly from one to another 

 and cannot master the multitude of 

 things crowded at once upon its atten- 

 tion. There are scores of these struct- 

 ures, any one of which, if it could be 

 placed by itself upon some distant 

 plain, would be regarded as one of the 

 great wonders of the world," and of the 

 colors he says: 



"The color-effects are rich and won- 

 derful. They are due to the inherent 

 colors of the rocks, modified by the 

 atmosphere. Like any other great 

 series of strata in the Plateau Province, 

 the carboniferous has its own range of 

 characteristic colors, which might serve 

 to distinguish it even if we had no 

 other criterion. The summit strata are 

 pale-gray, with a faint yellowish cast. 

 Beneath them the cross-bedded sand- 

 stone appears, showing a mottled sur- 

 face of pale-pinkish hue. Underneath 



this member are nearly i,ooo feet of 

 the Lower Aubrey sandstones, display- 

 ing an intensely brilliant red, which is 

 somewhat masked by the talus shot 

 down from the gray, cherty limestones 

 at the summit. Beneath the Lower 

 Aubrey is the face of the Red Wall 

 limestone, from 2,000 to 3,000 feet high. 

 It has a strong red tone, but a very pe- 

 culiar one. Most of the red strata of 

 the west have the brownish or ver- 

 milion tones, but these are rather pur- 

 plish-red, as if the pigment had been 

 treated to a dash of blue. It is not 

 quite certain that this may not arise in 

 part from the intervention of the blue 

 haze, and probably it is rendered more 

 conspicuous by this cause; but, on the 

 whole, the purplish cast seems to be 

 inherent. This is the dominant color- 

 mass of the caiion, for the expanse of 

 rock surface displayed is more than 

 half in the Red Wall group. It is less 

 brilliant than the fiery-red of the Au- 

 brey sandstones, but is still quite strong 

 and rich. Beneath are the deep browns 

 of the lower carboniferous. 



"The dark iron-black of the horn- 

 blendic schists revealed in the lower 

 gorge makes but little impression upon 

 the boundless expanse of bright colors 

 above." 



OIL WELLS. 



OIL IS found in Penns)lvania in 

 oil bearing sand-rocks, which 

 are considered as the reservoirs 

 in which the distilled product 

 has found a permanent lodgment. The 

 depth of the oil-sand or sand-rock in 

 this state is from 800 to i.goo feet. 

 There are often several strata, one 

 above the other, containing oil. 



It is the uniform experience that the 

 lightest oils are found in the lowest 

 sandstones, while the heaviest oils are 

 drawn from the shallowest wells; and 

 as we approach the surface where it is 

 gathered from the pools dug to the 

 depth of only a few feet, it becomes 

 sticky, semi-fluid, and finally a solid 

 asphalt. 



Man made no attempt to bore a deep 

 hole through soil and rock, hundreds 

 of feet down, to reach oil, until the 

 summer of 1859. The first oil com- 

 pany was formed in 1854, with Mr. 

 George H. Bissell at its head, which 

 bored the first oil well in the summer 

 of 1859 under the direction of E. L. 

 Drake. It was about the middle of 

 June that "Uncle Billy Smith" and his 

 two sons arrived in Titusville, on Oil 

 Creek, Pa., the scene of operations. 



"The pipe was successfully driven to 

 the rock, thirty six feet, and about the 

 middle of August the drill was started. 

 The drillers averaged about three feet 

 a day, making slight 'indications' all 

 the way down. Saturda}- afternoon. 



122 



