426 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



alarm wliistle and float, which indicates that the barrel is filled to the 

 required gauge, it is said one man can do the work of three men with the 

 ordinary tunnel. 



The Geology of Petroleum. 



Dr. E. P. Stevens said the subject of petroleum is becoming' of such vast 

 importance that we can liardiy dwell upon the subject too long, or bring 

 it too often before the community. It is the AUadiu lamp, destined to 

 illuminate the world. 



In a few preliminary remarks I wish to correct some of the errors that 

 occasionally find their way into the newspapers. In the first place, there 

 are no Alleghan}' mountains in the State of New York nor in Ohio. The 

 great Alleghany range of mountains pass through the State of Pennsyl- 

 vania and cross the west branch of the Susquehanna river, and are then 

 deflected northward. The eastern ridge dies out before it reaches the Hud- 

 son river. 



If we travel westward in a direct line from the Hudson river, we go up 

 and down a dozen or more rills and valleys, some of them 800 feet deep; 

 at times we ascend from a valley, and the top of the hill looks like a moun- 

 tain, but it is not. On the contrary, the ridges of land from Lake Ontario 

 are but plateaus, and these plateaus extend from the Catskill mountains to 

 the Tennesee river, in Georgia. On the north and northwest, streams cut 

 through from the summit of the plateaus doWfji to the level of the St. Law- 

 rence. And here, on these plateaus, are the oil regions. All of these val- 

 leys are valleys of erosion. There are no upthrows, no downthrows, but 

 throughout that great extent in every direction, as far as the eye can see 

 when standing upon the summit, it appears to be still a vast plateau. In 

 McKean county there is the longest remnant of the preserved plateau. It 

 is 20 miles long, and 1| miles nearly a dead level. The rocks lay in a suc- 

 cession of gentle waves. Writers in the sensation papers speak of this 

 appearance as due to volcanic action. Such an idea simplj' shows that 

 these writers do not know what they are talking about. 



Some 15 years ago a geologist of Cleveland tabled all the rocks that con- 

 tained petroleum^ Only a few, of these have been worked, and I will only 

 speak of those that are a commercial success. Tlie upper Helderberg lime- 

 stone, which is seen at Kingston, appears on the upper surface of the soil 

 in Madison county, and goes clear through New York, Canada, Wiscon- 

 sin into Illinois. These rocks show petroleum, and as we come to Chicago 

 it increases, so much so that it oozes out of the houses that are built with 

 this material. The limestone is merely composed of granules of lime and 

 sea shells 'and corals. The petroleum is in the cavities of the corals and 

 shells, and from this fact some theorists have arrived at the conclusion that 

 all petroleum is the result of a change in the coral animal. If they had 

 taken the pains to examine that limestone a little further, they would find 

 other shells there also. Now,' I do not thint that a coral animal is capa- 

 ble of making petroleum. I cannot conceive how a mere animal gluten 

 can be made into an animal oil. This may be true, but I cannot compre- 

 hepd it. Another rock seen here is the Marccllus shale, and the Oieory is 



that all the petroleum in the United States is derived from this bituminous 



cilu 

 deri 



