246 
which are placed at national bound- 
aries. Our geographic position as a 
compact continent and the geologic 
boundaries which determine where 
our petroleum resources are to be 
found antedate national boundaries 
and are far more fundamental to our 
300 MILES 
ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1948 
together, and there should be no place 
for trade barriers between our peoples. 
It is for these reasons that, in apprais- 
ing our petroleum resources, the 
prospective areas should be considered 
throughout all North America, irre- 
spective of the country within which 
LEGEND 
LC.-JUR. WEDGE 
(>> SOUTHEASTERN STATES 
7 OL ? GAS @ oR 
FicurE 2.—Reference map of North America showing the three prospective types of areas 
selected for analysis. 
future welfare than are any man-made 
rules as to traffic between our coun- 
tries. It seems to me that we in North 
America are extremely short-sighted 
in thinking of ourselves as separate 
and independent countries when we 
are so interdependent in terms of all 
of our natural resources. We on this 
continent are going to stand or fall 
they happen to occur or the distance 
in miles from the market. 
Three of the prospective areas have 
been selected as typical of the kind 
and scale of geologic thought and im- 
agination which it seems is necessary 
to analyze intelligently our undis- 
covered petroleum resources. They 
are presented in the discussion which 
