LIQUID SUNLIGHT. 137 



ations of creeks at the surface could have no bearing on the 

 underground distribution of petroleum. The junction of two 

 streams and the location of a sand-flat could sustain no rela- 

 tion to strata three or four hundred feet beneath. Whether 

 the situation were in a ravine or on the upland could make 

 no difference except in the depth of the boring. The notion 

 of "ranges" and "lines" in the distribution of productive 

 territory was illusory ; since this is determined by the direc- 

 tion, the length, and the breadth of the formations which fur- 

 nish the requisite conditions. 



7. Petroleum is not confined to any particular formation. 

 For many years it has been known in limited quantities, from 

 the Eozoic gneisses to the Tertiary. The assumption was mis- 

 leading, therefore, that every oil region must be supplied under 

 the same stratigraphical and topographical conditions as Ven- 

 ango county, Pennsylvania. It was a matter of scientific cer- 

 tainty that another region might be fed from strata of a dif- 

 ferent geological age, of a different lithological constitution, 

 dipping in a different direction, trending to other points of 

 the compass, and overlaid by different topographical features 

 at the surface. 



All these principles, I have said, were known to science, 

 and secured to the scientific man, certain important advan- 

 tages in arriving at judgments concerning prospects of success 

 in a proposed enterprise. All of these principles were disre- 

 garded by a majority of the "oil-prospectors." Some men 

 under pay from capitalists, even resorted to the witch-hazel 

 fork in quest of knowledge on which capital might venture 

 investment. 



Let me now add some principles which experience and ob- 

 servation have pretty well established, and you will have the 

 whole philosophy of oil-finding and oil production. It is gen- 

 erally admitted that the porous stratum in which oil accumu- 

 lates must have an arched or anticlinal form. Otherwise, the 

 oil will spread laterally to an indefinite distance, and no local 

 accumulation will take place. On the contrary, the oil will 

 somewhere find an outlet to the surface. 



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