THE OIL-FIELDS OF EASTERN CANADA. — ELLS. 621 



siou is beyond the scope of this });ii)er, and if indulged in would 

 probably leave the final determination of the problem in its 

 present unsatisfactory position. 



We may, however, glance for a moment at the enormous 

 output of crude Petroleum which has been obtained from cer- 

 tain parts of the well known oil-fields of the eastern and 

 western hemispheres. Without considering the amounts de- 

 rived from the smaller areas it will suffice to note that from 

 the official returns of the Geological Survey of the United 

 States, the number of barrels of crude petroleum of 42 gallons 

 capacity, taken from the oil-fields of that country since the 

 commencement of the industi-y forty-five years ago, amounts to 

 1,382,815,000, or nearly sixty billions of gallons, by far the 

 greater part of which has been obtained from what is known as 

 the Appalachian district, comprising the states of New York, 

 Pennsylvania, West Virginia, south-east Ohio and Kentucky, 

 only comparatively small portions of which are oil-bearing. 

 These oils are all obtained from the Palaeozoic formations. The 

 recent discovery of the immense stores of petroleum in Texas, 

 California and from other areas on the Pacific slope is to some 

 extent already revolutionizing the industries of that portion of 

 the republic bv the substitution of oil for fuel on railways and 

 steamships. These oils are from the much more recent horizon 

 of the Cretaceous and Tertiary formations, and some of the 

 areas are already rivalling in productiveness the original seat of 

 the industry in the Appalachian district. The value of the oils 

 for the time mentioned for the entire outDut to the end of 1904 

 is given as $1,302,781,879. 



The value of the petroleum produced in Canada from the 

 commencement of the industiy cannot be correctly stated owing 

 to the fact that for some years the returns were loosely kept. 

 For the period extending from 1881 to 1903, both inclusive, the 

 production of crude petroleum in this country was not far from 

 530,000,000 gallons, the output being practically all from the 



