SOMETHING ABOUT OIL. 287 



flowed three hundred and six hundred barrels per day. 

 Others flowed a thousand, two thousand, and -three thou 

 sand barrels per day. Three flowed severally six thousand 

 barrels per day; and the &quot;Black & Mathewson&quot; well flowed 

 seven thousand five hundred barrels per day ! Three years 

 later, that oil would have brought ten dollars per barrel in 

 gold. Now its escape was the mere pastime of full-grown 

 boys. It floated on the water of Black Creek to the depth 

 of six inches, and formed a film upon the surface of Lake 

 Erie. At length the stream of oil became ignited, and the 

 column of flame raged down the windings of the creek in 

 a style of such fearful grandeur as to admonish the Cana 

 dian squatter of the danger, no less than the inutility and 

 wastefulness, of his oleaginous pastimes. From detailed 

 determinations, I have ascertained that, during the spring 

 and summer of 1862, no less than five millions of barrels 

 of oil floated oif upon the water of Black Creek a nation 

 al fortune totally wasted, as inherited fortunes are apt to 

 be wasted, by those not educated to an understanding of 

 the amount of labor and time consumed in the accumula 

 tion of such fortunes. [See Appendix, Note VIII.] 



The general conditions of oil-accumulation may be thus 

 epitomized : 



1. A formation containing the material for the produc 

 tion of oil by slow spontaneous distillation. 



2. A porous formation or reservoir above the mother 

 rock, or within it, in which the oil may be accumulated. 



3. An overlying impervious formation, which shall pre 

 vent the escape of the product to the surface of the earth. 



4. A dome-shaped conformation of the impervious roof, 

 which shall prevent the lateral escape of the oil, or its dis 

 semination through spaces too extensive. 



The failure of either one of these requisites will convert 

 all the other indications into illusory and seductive temp- 



