BORING FOR OIL 225 



version of the Bible) in place of calcareous mortar in 

 building ; and to this day it is used largely in this country 

 as a " damp-course " in walls built of brick. Great deposits 

 of asphalt are found in Central America and some of the 

 West Indian islands, and "quarried" for commercial 

 purposes. The great pitch-lake of Trinidad yields an 

 abundant supply. In the Val de Travers, in the Canton 

 of Neuchatel (Switzerland), a rich deposit is worked which, 

 mixed with earthy material, forms a road-making con- 

 crete, largely used in London and other cities, and also for 

 main roads in country districts. The ancient Egyptians 

 used asphalt for embalming the dead. But the ancients 

 also knew natural springs of liquid bitumen that which 

 nowadays we call petroleum some of them freely flowing 

 like water, which would take fire and burn for long 

 periods, and were described as fountains of "burning 

 water." We find, as we pass from the Middle Ages to the 

 days of geographical exploration, records of such springs 

 of inflammable oil and of natural inflammable gas in all 

 parts of the world Japan, China, Burma, Persia, Galicia, 

 Italy (Salsomaggiore), Central and North America, and of 

 not a few in these islands for instance, in Shropshire, 

 Derbyshire, Sussex, Kimmeridge and various sites in the 

 southern counties. The oil was, until the middle of the 

 last century, valued chiefly as a medicinal application, and 

 " Seneca oil " and " American medicinal oil " were largely 

 sold and used as an embrocation in the United States. 



We owe the introduction of the name " petroleum " to 

 Professor Silliman, who in 1855 reported upon the "rock 

 oil or petroleum " of Venango County, Pennsylvania. 

 The first attempt as a commercial enterprise to obtain 

 rock-oil or petroleum by boring into the strata in which 

 there was local evidence of its existence in greater or less 

 quantity, was made in 1854 by the Pennsylvania Rock Oil 

 Company. After some unsuccessful attempts, when the 



