100 Notice of a Fountain-of Petroleum. 
co; we had just passed the Genesee, which flows into Lake Ontario, : 
and is thus seeking the Atlantic through the St. Lawrence; and alit- 
tle east, rise waters which flow to the Susquehannah and the Chesa-- 
peake Bay, and thus this elevated land, (said to be one thousand 
five hundred feet above the ocean level,) is a grand rain shed, for 
the supply of rivers, seeking their exit through very remote —_ 
posite parts of the continent. 
I cannot learn that any considerable part of the lisa quantities of , 
petroleum used in the eastern states, under the name of Seneca oil, 
comes from the spring now described. I am assured that its source 
is about one hundred miles from Pittsburgh, on the Oil Creek, whieh 
empties into the Allegany River in the township and county of Ve- 
nango. _ It exists there in great abundance, and rises in purity to the 
surface of the water; by dams, enclosing certain parts. of the river 
or creek, it is prepsntess from flowing away, and it-is absorbed in 
blankets, from which it is wrung. Although I have this statemen 
eye witness,* still it would be an interesting service, clefting 
a Eretolal acknowledgment, if some gentleman in the vicinity of the 
petroleum, or at Pittsburgh, would furnish an account of it, for this 
or some similar Journal; and as there are numerous springs of this 
mineral oil in various regions of the west and south west, connected 
especially with the saline and bituminous coal formations; it would 
promote the cause of science, if notices of any of them were for- 
warded for publication. 
The petroleum, sold in the eastern states, under the name of Sen- 
eca oil, is of a dark brown color, between that of tar and molasses, 
and its degree of consistence is not dissimilar, according to the tem- 
perature ; its odor is strong and too well known to need description- 
‘T have frequently distilled it ina glass retort, and the naptha which 
collects i in the receiver is of a light straw color, and much lighter; 
more odorous and inflammable than the petroleum ; in the first dis- 
tillation, a little water usually rests in the receiver, at the bottom. of 
e naptha; from this, it is easily decanted, and a second distillation 
parieres. it perfectly for preserving potassium and sodium, the object 
me to distil it, and these metals I have kept under it 
(as others have done) for years; eventually they acquire some oxy- 
he * Eat 
2 Me. ard, stage proprietor, - Rochester, N. ¥Y. who mentioned Mr. 5. LL. 
Chase, retin on the Oil Creek, 
County, Penn. asa Be 
whom exac enorme may be obtai a. 
