280 SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. 



progressive diminution of supply. We shall not be suddenly 

 deprived of this important source of light and cheerfulness; 

 but we may at any time begin to feel the pinch of scarcity 

 and consequent rise of price. This rise of price will check 

 the demand, and bring forth other supplies from sources 

 that now cannot be profitably worked on account of the 

 cheapness of American petroleum. 



Many of the countries now largely supplied from America 

 have oil-springs of their own, which a rise of price will 

 speedily bring into paying operation. 



We have nothing to fear. The fact that in spite of the 

 ruinous prices that have recently prevailed the Scotch oil- 

 makers continue to exist at all, shows us what they may do 

 with a rise of even a few pence per gallon. The thickness 

 and area of the dark shales from which their oil is distilled 

 are so great that their exhaustion is very far remote indeed. 

 The Americans have similar shales to fall back upon when 

 the spontaneous product ceases to flow, but they are quite 

 incapable of competing with us at home on equal terms 

 that is, when both have to 'obtain the oil as a manufactured 

 product of artificial distillation. 



If anything like moderation were possible in America, 

 the first indications of scarcity would be followed by some 

 economy in working; but this is not to be anticipated. It 

 is more likely that the first rise of prices will attract addi- 

 tional speculatidn, and the sinking of more wells in the hope 

 of large profits, and this of course will shorten the period 

 of gradual exhaustion, the commencement of which may, 

 for aught we know, be very near at hand, especially if the 

 new projects for using petroleum as furnace fuel under 

 steam boilers, and for the smelting, puddling, and founding 

 of iron and other metals, are carried out as they may be so 

 easily at present prices, and with the aid of pipe-lines to 

 carry the crude or refined oil from the wells to any part of 

 the great American continent where it may be required in 

 large quantities. 



The old story of the goose that laid the golden eggs seems 

 to be in course of repetition in Transatlantic Petrolia. 



Since the above was written I have received from Dr. 



