December 29 1893.] 



SClElNCh 



3j9 



mile of the upper coal beds but separated from them by 

 the whole- thickness of the Eocene and considerable of 

 the Cretaceous. Again these deposits are always in the 

 immediate vicinity of large deposits of bituminous 

 shales or clays quite full of hsh bones and the like but 

 showing few or no vegetable remains. That a distil- 

 late should have come up from the far underlying 

 Cretaceous coal beds through fissures and have spread 

 out ill certain beds only of the Miocene, while exactly 

 the same conditions as to permeability prevail through- 

 out the upper Cretaceous and Eocene with no hydro- 

 carbons, would of itself preclude the supposed origin 

 even if there were great fissures through which the 

 material could come. In addition, however, there are 

 no fissures cutting the formations where the deposits 

 occur ; the beds lie almost and often quite horizontally 

 and show no signs of disturbance for the most part. 

 Here and there are little irregular seams very rarely 

 more than a foot wide, though in one case four feet 

 wide, into which the hydrodarbon has oozed from the 

 surrounding clays and made a deposit of the pure 

 article. Were these fissures, which are evidently only 

 local and shallow, the source and not the receptacle of 

 the hydrocarbons, then the siirrounding shales and 

 clays would be saturated most at the point of contact 

 and less and less as the distance from them increased, 

 but the fact of the case is they are if anything less sat- 

 urated at the point of contact and fully as much im- 

 pregnated miles away from any fissures. Wherever we 

 find even a seam the thickness of a knife-edge in these 

 beds we find hydrocarbons, and where they are absent 

 we find no deposits of hydrocarbons at all. The only 

 beds which show a thinning out of their contained 

 asphalts are the sandstones, which are nowhere evenly 

 impregnated but are full of asphalt only where there is 

 a crack or fissure leading up or down to the bituminous 

 beds in the immediate vicinity. There are also several 

 places where criide asphalt has oozed out of the sand- 

 stones and formed from a thousand to a million tons of 

 matter more or less pure, assaying from 1 1 per cent to 

 75 per cent crude asphalt ; the larger deposits are still 

 flowing slowly, perhaps a barrel a day or the like. 

 This material when it first comes out carries a large 

 percentage of the more volatile hydrocarbons and con- 

 siderable of the paraffine series, while the fixed carbons 

 are low. To my mind these have the same origin as 

 the other deposits, the connection with the overlying bitu- 

 minous beds being very extensive through the small seams 

 in the sandstones and the means of exit being the gentle 

 slope of the beds. That the asphalt is composite is due 

 either to the quantity and its wide origin or to lack 

 of facilities for the volatilization of the lighter elements. 

 Another remarkable feature in our hydrocarbons is that 

 no two deposits so far discovered in Utah are alike in 

 their chemical composition excepting the. asphalts just 

 mentioned. The so-called ozokerite at Pleasant Valley 

 Junction is black and somewhat flaky, containing an 

 excess of fixed carbon for one of the paraffines. Some 

 fifty miles south is a deposit a few inches wide, contain- 

 ing a paraffine as pure as beeswax and of the same 

 color, approaching closely to the typical ozokerite. At 

 a place near Pleasant Valley Junction there are quite a 

 number of seams of the asphalt series and one place 

 where it oozes very slowly out of a layer in the bitumi- 

 nous shales and forms little balls which at length break 

 off and roll down the slope. These have about the 

 appearance of pure Trinidad asphalt and go low in the 

 paraffines and contain small percentages of the lighter 

 hydrocarbons. In the same region are several seams of 

 the pure asphalt, none of them workable, in which the 

 matter is as pure as the Uintahite or Gilsonite of 



commerce and has a fracture varying in the various 

 seams from cubical to conchoidal, according to quantity 

 of contained paraffine. A few miles farther north, but 

 in the same geological horizon, are the only known de- 

 posits of what has recently been called Wurtzellite, 

 which is an asphalt with an excess of paraffine. Some 

 100 miles farther, but in the same horizon, are the o-reat 

 deposits of Uintahite or Gilsonite, which has become S(j 

 well known as a varnish and insulator. In my judgment 

 these variances in composition are due to local causes, 

 affecting the matter as it has oozed out of the shales 

 into the cre\-i;es which have received it, such as expo- 

 sure to the air, oxidation, etc. 



Though the theory of the animal origin of our hydro- 

 carbons, which was long ago ably advocated by Pro- 

 fiss( r Newberry, seems to be the only tenable one, it 

 must not be taken as proved by any rneans, for I have 

 never yet seen sufficient remains of animals to account 

 for the quantity of our hydrocarbons, though there may be 

 sufficient in the beds as a whole. A significant fact is 

 that these beds contain multitudes of tracks of birds and 

 mud cracks indicating; their being nearly on a level with 

 the water. It is possible that many of the bones have 

 disappeared by decay ; this is plausible, since I have 

 never found the bones of any animal intact but always 

 scattered, broken and tangled in wild confusion, and 

 yet plentiful. 



The above remaks apply to the hydrocarbons of 

 which mention has been made in Science and other 

 journals. They are not the only ones in Utah, how- 

 ever. At the base of the Cretaceous, or at least as low 

 as the base of the Colorado of Emmons, are other 

 hydrocarbons wholly different from those mentioned 

 above, which are nearly identical with the petroleum of 

 the east, containing more paraffine only. So far they 

 are not known to be extensive. In one locality there 

 seems to be natural gas, but with what pressure is not 

 definitely known, 



In Salt Lake Valley is quite an extensive local de- 

 posit of natural gas of PHocene age giving a pressure of 

 at least 200 pjunds to the inch. Its composition does 

 not vary materially from that of the east, though it 

 seems to give more heat and less flame. 



BIRDS SELDOM SEEN IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



BY PROF. J. C. HARTZELL, JR., B. S., M. A. O. U., ORANGEBCEG, S. C. 



For some time the writer has been endeavoring to make 

 a list of those birds that are uncommon in South Caro- 

 lina. The undertaking has proved a very arduous task. 

 The following is a partial list as the result of the under- 

 taking. A fuller list is not given on account of the unsatis- 

 factory data of a few species observed. The majority of 

 the species noted below are in the writer's jiossession: 



Clangula hyemalis ; A. O. U. 154. Bays and coast in 

 fall and winter. Food, shell-fish. Nest in long grass. 

 Eggs bluish-white. 



Grus americana ; A. O. U. 204. Salt marshes and 

 swamps. Food, Indian corn and sometimes mice. Nest 

 on the ground. Eggs pale blue, spotted with brown, 



Bonasa umbellus ; A. O. U. 300. Hills, northwestern 

 part of state. Nest under fallen log. Eggs white. 



Aquila chrysictos ; A. 0. U. 349. Food, mammals and 

 birds. Mountains in northern part of state. Nest on 

 ledge of rocks. Eggs whitish. 



Archibuteo lagojius sancti-johannis ; A. 0. U. 347a. 

 Open fields. Nest in tree. Eggs whitisU and drab. 

 Food, field-mice. 



Strix partincola ; A. O. U. 365. Marsh lands and 

 meadows. Food, rodents. Nest in old building. Eggs 

 whitish. 



