400 JOSEPH STRUTHERS 



taminated. There is a similar lake deposit near San Timolis, 

 in Venezuela, the product being known commercially as Ber- 

 mudez asphaltum. 



At the present time the chief producing locahties are Trin- 

 idad, Dalmatia, Syria, Cuba, and the Seyssel, and Val de 

 Travers deposits of bituminous limestones; local supplies of 

 more or less value are obtained from other localities. 



An asphaltum property near Pike City, Pike county, 

 Ark., consists of a stratum of sand from 6 to 12 feet thick, con- 

 taining various proportions of semi-fluid asphaltum. The 

 product is obtained by sinking shallow pits, into which the 

 material oozes from the bed. Borings have proved that the 

 asphaltum beds extend over an area of several acres. A pit 

 100 feet in diameter has been dug, and a spur has been built to 

 the railroad a half mile distant. A special feature of some 

 portions of the bed is the occurrence of limestone with the 

 sandstone, which yields a product available for paving pur- 

 poses without the addition of other material. 



The utilization of the asphaltum deposits in this state 

 is solely a matter of cost of transportation. The average 

 grade product should easily control the markets of Little 

 Rock, Texarkana, and Fort Smith, and the higher grade ma- 

 terial should compete advantageously with other asphaltum 

 in cities as far distant as Memphis and St. Louis. It is also 

 probable that pure asphaltum could be extracted from the 

 asphaltic sandstone at a profit greater than that obtained bj^ 

 the crude product. 



On the Sisquoc ranch, Santa Barbara county, Calif., 

 the principal asphaltum property is the mesa deposit, 1,300 

 by 5,000 feet in area and of a reported minimum depth of 

 125 feet, which is estimated to contain 25,000,000 tons of 

 bituminous rock, equivalent to 5,000,000 tons of asphaltum. 

 The rock is mined, elevated bv an electric crane, and shipped 

 in steel cars to the refinery works on the mountain side, where 

 gravity is utilized to move the materials. The crude rock is 

 crushed by steel rolls and heated in revolving steel jacketed 

 drums, and as it becomes softened by heat it is treated with 

 gasohne until thoroughly saturated. It is tlien passed into a 



