PETROLEUM, OR ROCK OIL. 



659 



Titusville, ia Crawford Co., Pa., and in sinking 

 which he " struck oil" on the 2Gth of August, 



1859, at a depth of about 71 feet. This well at 

 once yielded several barrels of oil daily ; and 

 under improved pumping arrangements the 

 quantity was increased. Before the close of 



1860, there were 2,000 wells opened, 74 of which 

 were alone yielding 46,600 gallons of oil daily. 

 'While, also, many refineries at once sprang up 

 in towns in or adjacent to the newly developed 

 oil territory, the year 1860 not only witnessed 

 the opening of a large export trade in .the 

 crude and refined oils from Xew York and 

 other ports of the country, but before its close 

 showed that the importation and distilling of 

 American petroleum had already become im- 

 portant items with European manufacturers and 

 dealers. Many of the deeper borings completed 

 in the course of the year 1861 struck upon 

 reservoirs of oil and gas, from which the press- 

 ure of the latter at first for a time caused the 

 oil to be ejected with great force, and in 

 some instances to a height of many feet above 

 the surface ; and the wells of this character, 

 known as "spouting" or "flowing," in dis- 

 tinction from "pumping" 1^611?, resulted in 

 rapidly increasing the -total yield of oil ; while 

 they have, even up to the present time, con- 

 siderably modified the course of the oil-busi^ 



at least in the northwestern Pennsylvania 

 region. 



th American Oil Regions. The most 

 important of such regions are those of Pennsyl- 

 vania, northwestern part of the State ; West 

 Virginia, northern and westerly portion ; 

 Ohio, chiefly the southeastern part ; Canada 

 West, in the peninsula lying north of Lake 

 Erie ; and southern California. Petroleum has 

 long been found in Xew York, in the southern 

 counties of its western portion; in parts of 

 Mexico and Texas, and in Canada East, near 

 Bay. More recently, it has attracted 

 attention, or has been newly discovered, in 

 Kentucky, Michigan, Indiana, Colorado, and 

 Oregon, and from some late statements it 

 would appear, also, in Tennessee, Illinois, Mis- 

 souri, and Montana. 



PEXXSTLVAXIA. Venango County is the 

 heart of the most important oil region of this 

 State. Oil Creek, along -which the wells were 

 first sunk, received its name from the appear- 

 ance of mineral oil at points along its course 

 and upon its waters. The creek flows in a 

 generally southerly course through the eastern 

 part of Crawford County, and south and south- 

 west through the middle of about the northern 

 half of Venango, emptying into the Alleghany 

 at a point a little to the east of a line due north 

 from Pittsburg. On the right bank of this 

 creek, at its niouth, Oil City has lately sprung 

 into existence. 



Venango County is, on the north, separated 

 from the southern line of Xew York by War- 

 ren County (eastward) and Crawford County 

 (westward), while north of the latter, again, 

 Erie County cxM-nds from it to Lake Erie. To 



the west of Venango County, Crawford and 

 Mercer Counties reach from it to the Ohio 

 line ; and nearest to Mercer and Venango 

 Counties on the south are Lawrence, Butler, 

 Armstrong, and Clarion Counties. Within the 

 counties now named, with the exception per- 

 haps of Butler, the principal part of the great 

 oil territory of the State, as now worked and 

 in course of development, is situated; though 

 it appears that recently the borings for oil are 

 being extended into the more easterly counties 

 of Forest, Elk, and Jefferson ; and that as a 

 portion of the same general territory must be 

 reckoned the district, of much less extent, 

 which makes its appearance in the adjoining 

 counties of Trumbull and Mahoning, in north- 

 eastern Ohio. In the great northwestern Penn- 

 sylvania oil regions, the borings are as yet 

 chiefly confined to the low lands bordering the 

 course of streams. 



Of course a certain proportion (and some- 

 times a large one) of the wells bored are finally 

 abandoned, from the fact of their proving un- 

 productive, or yielding so little as not at any 

 time to afford a profit on their working. The 

 most important of the wells of Oil Creek which 

 have been or are now "flowing," have dis- 

 charged each from 500 to 2,000, and in one case 

 3,000 barrels of oil daily. They are situated 

 within a stretch of the valley, extending from 

 about four to nearly ten miles above the mouth 

 of the creek. 



Of flowing wells, the yield, as a rule, tinder- 

 goes a great diminution with time ; and while 

 some wells never produce, others which are 

 pumped fail sooner or later ; and still others 

 which would yield have, at least np to a quite 

 recent period, not been pumped, on account of 

 the abundant supply of the flowing wells and its 

 effect on the price of the oil. It appears that 

 in 1861 and 1862 the total yield of the north- 

 western Pennsylvania oil region amounted to 

 an average of nearly 8,000 barrels a day. From 

 this point considerable diminution occurred; 

 the total yield was generally stated at between 

 5,000 and 6,000 barrels daily; but during the 

 summer of 1864, it fell to 4,000 barrels, or less. 

 Since that time the yield has again augmented, 

 and it is now nearly 6,000 barrels daily, though 

 still, notwithstanding the great increase in the 

 number of wells, in reality no greater than it 

 was two years ago. 



WEST VIEGIXIA. The oil territory of this 

 State is much more extensive than that of north- 

 western Pennsylvania, and, in fact, with the im- 

 mediately adjacent districts of sontheasternOhio, 

 along the opposite shore of the Ohio River, con- 

 stitutes but one great oil region, and, so far as 

 yet positively known, the largest on the conti- 

 nent. The proximity of the northeastern ex- 

 treme of this region, in Wetzel Co., Va., to 

 Greene and Fayette Counties, Pa., would sug- 

 gest that possibly the oil lands in the latter 

 constitute but an outlying portion of this great 

 oil-basin. The chief commercial focus of the 

 West Virginia oil region is the city of Parkers- 



