372 A. W. McCOY 



point could be considered seriously it would be necessary for Mr. 

 Washburne to show the chemical equations of the action, the 

 amount of heat absorbed or given out by each combination, and 

 the resulting heat from the summation. 



From the literature available, the author has been unable to 

 secure enough detail on the geology of the Scottish oil shales to 

 determine to what extent the shales have been altered, and how 

 tests for liquid oil have been carried out in relation to such places. 

 It is a well-known fact, however, that there are a few veins of 

 gilsonite and other heavy hydrocarbons in joints or small fault 

 planes of the Colorado-Utah oil shales, although they have not 

 been altered by any widespread movement. These shales, as well 

 as those of Scotland, are most probably non-marine in origin and 

 differ somewhat from the marine type of bituminous shales which 

 furnish petroleum. 



The suggestion that the experiments should be carried out under 

 pressures and temperatures prevalent for .depths of several miles 

 is good but unnecessary. At any given depth the temperature 

 could be estimated, so that with temperature and the size of the 

 openings known, it is merely a physical problem to determine the 

 action. Pressure has such a small effect on surface tension that 

 it may be neglected. Moreover, the majority of the oil sands in 

 the Mid-Continent Field have never been buried more than five or 

 six thousand feet and the actions at such depths are similar to those 

 described in the experiments. 



Mr. Washburne states that the asymmetrical distribution of oil 

 in the Cushing and Yale fields indicates that lateral migration up 

 the slope of sand beds is an important element in anticlinal accumu- 

 lation. The author disagrees with this statement, as it is only a 

 popular notion among oil geologists which has never had any 

 substantial, scientific backing. On the other hand, the arrange- 

 ment of the oil in these pools has a marked relation to the stress 

 lines of the region and can be explained satisfactorily by this method 

 as in the other pools of the mid-continent. Such an explanation 

 would necessarily be long and does not directly refer to the subject 

 of the original paper. 



