PETROLEUM. 



681 



1865, to obtain oil in commercial quantities in 

 southern California. But little success attend- 

 ed these efforts until about 1880. Several wells 

 have been successful at or near Los AM. 

 also near Newhall and in the Sespe" Canon, and 

 on the Ojai Ranch. These last-mentioned lo- 

 calities lie along the Santa Clara valley, east 

 of San Buenaventura, in Ventura County. The 

 oil is chiefly used as fuel. 



Distribution. Petroleum, as well as other 

 forms of bitumen, is one of the most widely 

 distributed substances in nature ; but its occur- 

 rence in commercial quantities is limited to 

 comparatively small areas. Besides the petro- 

 leum regions of the United States, the only 

 region that furnishes petroleum to commerce 

 is Galicia and Roumania and the Apsheron 

 peninsula of the Caspian Sea, which really 

 form one region, extending from central Aus- 

 tria along the line of the Transylvanian Alps 

 and the Caucasus to the shores of the Caspian 

 and farther east into Central Asia. Other lo- 

 calities of less importance, together with the 

 "oil regions" of the United States, form an 

 ellipse around the Cincinnati anticlinal, which 

 is in general an uplift of Silurian rocks sloping 

 in all directions, and extends from central Ken- 

 tucky to Lake Erie. Starting at Great Mani- 

 toulin Island, in the northern part of Lake 

 Huron, and passing southwesterly to Chicago, 

 petroleum is encountered at several points in 

 eastern Michigan, near Chicago in limestone, 

 in northwestern Ohio, at Lima, rarely in Indi- 

 ana, and in Illinois, Kentucky, and Tenn 

 as far south and east as Chattanooga, where 

 the line of outcrop turns north and appears 

 in Cumberland and Johnson Counties, Ken- 

 tucky, and in West Virginia, southeastern Ohio, 

 Greene and Washington Counties, Pa., and 

 all through the valley of the Alleghany into 

 New York. The oil-fields of Canada complete 

 the ellipse. In Kansas, Missouri, Lousiana, 

 and Texas, springs of petroleum occur, but leu- 

 wells have proved productive, Farther west, 

 in Wyoming. L'tah, and Colorado, several lo- 

 calities produce petroleum for local uses. Along 

 the mountain-range from Alaska to Pat:;_ 

 petroleum has been found at intervals, and it 

 has been produced in commercial quantities in 

 California and Peru. In Cuba and the Wind- 

 ward Islands, including Trinidad, and on the 

 mainland in Venezuela, and southward into 

 Bolivia, the outcrops of bitumen of various 

 forms are of marvelous extent, especially the 

 famous Pitch Lake of Trinidad. An area fifteen 

 hundred miles long and of unknown breadth 

 extends from the Saskatchewan northward 

 along the valley of Mackenzie river to its 

 mouth. On the Eastern Continent petroleum 

 has been observed in insignificant quantities in 

 the British Islands, along the Pyrennees, in cen- 

 tral France, in the valley of the Rh6ne, in the 

 Tyrol. Italy, Sicily. Dalmatia. and the Ionian 

 Islands; in Egypt along the Red Sea; in Mo- 

 rocco. At various points in China, and in 

 Japan, oil-springs have been known from time 



immemorial, and oil-wells have occasionally 

 been productive. 



Beginning on the Luneburger heath, south 

 of Hamburg, a line of outcrops extends through 

 Germany and Austria-Hungary, through the 

 principalities north of the Danube, the Crimea, 

 Kertch, the Caucasus, through Armenia and 

 the mountains that surround the plateau of 

 Iran, along the valleys of the Euphrates and 

 the Tigris, eastward through the Punjab, 

 through the Burman peninsula, end into Java. 

 In Austria-Hungary the production has been 

 of moderate commercial importance for many 

 years. In the Caucasus and at Baku wells 

 have poured forth enormous quantities and are 

 now rivaling those of the United States. In 

 Armenia and Persia, the Punjab and Burmah, 

 and the Assyrian valley, the use of petroleum 

 and other forms of bitumen fur local purposes 

 has been continuous from remote antiquity, but 

 the amount produced is nowhere of commercial 

 importance. A careful study of all the locali- 

 ties mentioned will show tlnni to be intimately 

 connected with the principal mountain-chains 

 of the world. 



Geological Relation*. Petroleum occurs in. or 

 issues from all geological formations, but this 

 statement alone would be misleading. There 

 have been two bitumen-producing eras in geo- 

 logical history, viz.. the series older than the 

 carboniferous, especially the Silurian, and the 

 older Tertiary. The vast accumulations along 

 the principal axis of occurrence in North Amer- 

 ica are found in Silurian and Devonian rocks; 

 the most productive axis of occurrence in the 

 Eastern Hemisphere lies in the Eocene and Mio- 

 cene of the Carpathians, Transylvanian Alps, 

 and the Caucasus. In England the sn;all quanti- 

 ties obtained have sprung from the Coal-Meas- 

 ures; in the valley of the Rhone from Jurassic 

 limestones. The little that is known concerning 

 the geology of the oil-bearing strata in I' 

 the Punjab, and Burmah. leads to the conclusion 

 that they are of the same age. At Great Mani- 

 toulin Island, in Canada, and in northwestern 

 Ohio the oil is found in the Trenton limestone; 

 at Chicago and Terre Haute, Ind., in the Niagara 

 limestone; both of which are Silurian. The 

 Great Devonian black shale is considered to be 

 the source of the oil in Kentucky. At Glas- 

 gow the oil is found saturating sandstone; near 

 Burkesville in crevices in a sort of marble ; 

 near Nashville, Tenn., it is often found in 

 geodes in the Silurian rocks of that region; in 

 Johnson County, Ky.. it lies in the Subcarbon- 

 iferous sandstones, often above the drainage- 

 level of the country. In West Virginia the 

 so-called ' oil-break " yields oil from several 

 strata of sandstone that lie within the Coal- 

 Measures. Throughout the oil regions of 

 Pennsylvania and New York the "oil sands'' 

 are found beneath the Coal-Measures, in the 

 Upper Devonian. '-Petroleum exists in the 

 Cretaceous rocks which extend along the east- 

 ern slope of the Rocky mountains from Brit- 

 ish Columbia to Mexico, and in many of the 



