6-GO 



PETROLEUM, OR ROCK OIL. 



Inug, the county seat of Wood Co., situated at 

 the junction of the Little Kanawha with the 

 Ohio River. 



"Wood County stretches along the Ohio above 

 and below Parkersburg. To the northeast from 

 it lie along the river, in succession, Pleasants, 

 Tyler, and Wetzel Counties. East from Pleas- 

 ants and Wood are Doddridge and Ritchie 

 Counties ; while to the southeast of Wood, and 

 like it divided by the Little Kanawha, is Wirt 

 County, in which the celebrated " Burning 

 Spring Run" the original centre of the oil 

 interest in this State, as was Oil Creek in Penn- 

 sylvania flows from the north into the river 

 just named. In all the counties thus far men- 

 tioned, with the exception, perhaps, of Dodd- 

 ridge, petroleum is obtained; while, to the 

 south and southwest from these, it is found also 

 in at least the counties of Kanawha, on the 

 Great Kanawha River, and Cabell, south of 

 that river on the Ohio, and perhaps in many or 

 all the intervening counties of Putnam, Mason, 

 Jackson, Roane, and Calhoun, as it has lately 

 been declared to be also in the more eastwardly 

 counties of Gilmer and Braxton. 



Burning Spring Run was so named from the 

 existence along it, in former years, of one or 

 more gas-springs, yielding a stream of gas suf- 

 ficient to maintain a constant flame. The oil 

 district upon this and on the river just below it 

 is small, being only about one mile square ; and 

 the part of the State out of this district, in 

 which thus far the productive borings, and 

 those in process of sinking, are most numer- 

 ous, is a strip of variable width stretching north 

 from the springs to the Ohio River at the 

 Horse Neck district, a distance of about forty 

 miles. From the Burning Springs, if not from 

 points still farther south, a line of upheaval 

 of strata is easily traced, its course being 

 nearly due north. This is the middle line of 

 what is called the " great oil-belt" of the State, 

 and which is by some estimated as about thirty 

 miles in width. Thus far, however, no portion 

 of the State has equalled in production that of 

 the best parts of the northwestern Pennsylvania 

 oil region. 



OHIO. The Virginia line of upheaval, and 

 the oil-bearing territory extending to greater or 

 less width on both sides of it, alike reappear on 

 the northern side of the Ohio River, the latter 

 being found along the bottom-lands of many 

 creeks and rivers tributary to the Ohio, from 

 about Pomeroy, in Meigs County, on that river, 

 up to, if not beyond, the Little Muskingum, in 

 Washington and Monroe Counties. Marietta, 

 at the mouth of the Muskingum River, and 

 about twenty miles above Parkershurg, is the 

 commercial centre of the Ohio rU territory. 

 Washington County, of which it is the county 

 seat, and which stretches along the Ohio oppo- 

 site Wood and Pleasants, in Virginia, produces 

 probably more largely than any other part of 

 the State, among its most important districts, 

 not yet named, being those on the Ohio, near 

 Marietta, and those of the Paw -Paw, Long, 



Morse, Eight- Mile, Fifteen-Mile and Cow Runs, 

 Oil is found around Washington County, in 

 those also of Monroe, Noble, Morgan, Guern- 

 sey, and Athens, and south of the latter in 

 Meigs. In Morgan County, oil is found about 

 McConnellsville, forty miles above Marietta, or 

 McConnell's and Doudas's Runs ; and also on 

 Wolf, Federal, and Sandy Creeks. The consid- 

 erable extent of the oil region to the northwest, 

 along the Muskingum, and to the south along the 

 Ohio, while the line of upheaval already referred 

 to crosses into the eastern part of Washington 

 County, suffices to show that in this State, aa 

 in West Virginia, the oil-producing lands do 

 not constitute strictly a " belt," but in fact a 

 territory of quite irregular form. Indeed, in- 

 dications of petroleum have been found and 

 borings commenced in many counties of the 

 State other than those just named. 



The yield of the principal Ohio region has 

 at no time been near as large as that of the 

 northwestern Pennsylvania region ; but the Ohic 

 oil, like that of West Virginia, averages a much 

 greater density than the latter, and commands, 

 as the rule, a higher price. 



CANADA WEST. The oil supply in this prov- 

 ince seems also to have relation to a line of 

 upheaval, and which here runs nearly east and 

 west through the peninsula lying north of Lake 

 Erie. The most productive oil districts, thus 

 far, are found in a southeasterly direction from 

 Sarnia, or Port Sarnia, which is near the foot 

 of Lake Huron, on the St. Clair River. They 

 are not far from the Thames River, and lie 

 principally in the township of Enniskillen, and 

 in that of Bothwell. In Enniskillen occurs a 

 small surface deposit or lake of bitumen. A 

 large number of wells have been sunk in the 

 southern part of Enniskillen, along Black Creek, 

 and about ten miles further north, on Bear 

 Creek. One account states that in Nov., 1862, 

 the supply of oil obtained from the wells in 

 this section amounted to 3,000 barrels a week. 

 In the Bothwell district, up to a recent date, 

 about thirty wells had been sunk, and some of 

 these with success, into the strata of high bluffs. 

 The oil product here, up to near the close of 

 1864, is stated at 7,714 barrels, the largest daily 

 yield from a single well being from forty to 

 fifty barrels. Wells are quite recently being 

 sunk in Barton, south of Hamilton. 



The petroleum district of Canada East is on 

 and near St. John's River, above Douglastown, 

 and not far from Gaspe" Bay. 



CALIFORNIA. Springs and large surface wells 

 of rock oil (often or usually of thick and tarry 

 character), and which are frequently accom- 

 panied with surface collections of asphaltum, 

 are found in many sections of this State ; these, 

 chiefly confined to the coast range and adjacent 

 valleys, to some extent appear in the northern 

 part, but are more extensive in the southern, 

 and especially so in the counties of Santa Bar- 

 bara and San Luis Obispo. A very remarkable 

 region of the kind alluded to is that near 

 Buenaventura, Santa Barbara County, about 



