100 JVotice 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 a lit- 

 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 and op- 

 posite parts of the continent. 



I cannot learn that any considerable part of the large 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, which 

 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 prevented from flowing away, and it is absorbed by 

 blankets, from which it is wrung. Although I have this statement 

 from an eye witness,* still it would be an interesting service, claiming 

 a grateful 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. 



I have frequently distilled it in a glass retort, and the naptha which 

 collects 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 

 the naptha; from this, it is easily decanted, and a second distillation 

 prepares it perfectly for preserving potassium and sodium, the object 

 which has led me to distil it, and these metals I have kept under it 

 (as others have done) for years ; eventually they acquire some oxy- 



* Mr. Ovid Hard, stage proprietor, of Rochester, N. Y. who mentioned Mr. J. L. 

 Chase, residing on the Oil Creek, Venango County, Penn. as a gentleman from 

 whom exact informalion may be obtained. 



