288 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



tations. Some of these conditions it is impossible to ascer 

 tain without considerable general geological knowledge, 

 and a minute acquaintance with the local geology of the 

 region under consideration. 



In determining upon the first condition, it is necessary 

 to know what are the characteristics of a formation con 

 taining the materials for oil, and what particular forma 

 tions in the chronological series have been proven to con 

 tain such materials. Experience has shown that commi 

 nuted vegetable matters disseminated through a matrix 

 of fine argillaceous materials, and forming a black, or car 

 bonaceous, or bituminous shale, are the chief source of sup 

 ply in all the productive regions of the United States and 

 Canada. The intimate mixture of vegetable and argilla 

 ceous particles seems to facilitate the chemical rearrange 

 ments involved in oil- genesis. Pure vegetable matters 

 form beds of coal, in which the organic material is approx 

 imately fixed. The distinction between the &quot;splintery&quot; 

 and &quot; fatty&quot; coals corresponds with their difference in pu 

 rity. Cannel coals are highly carbonaceous shales. Like 

 the &quot; black shale&quot; of the West, they afford copious supplies 

 of liquid hydrocarbons. 



The mother-rock of the oil in some of the most produc 

 tive regions of the continent seems to be the &quot;black shale&quot; 

 of the West, which is the Genesee shale of the New York 

 geologists. This fact was first pointed out by my friend 

 Professor Newberry, now of Columbia College. I have 

 little doubt that this formation affords the oil obtained in 

 Northwestern Pennsylvania; parts of Enniskillen and Both- 

 well, in Ontario ; in Eastern and Central Eastern Ohio ; in 

 the Glasgow region of Southern Kentucky, and in North 

 ern and Middle Tennessee. It is also probable that it sup 

 plies the oil in most of the wells of South western Pennsyl 

 vania, West Virginia, Southeastern Ohio, and Northeastern 



