Vor. 111] ANDERSON—NEOCENE DEPOSITS OF KERN RIVER 117 
in positions inclined toward the interior of the basin. If such 
organic deposits give rise to any supply of petroleum or other 
liquid or gaseous substances, these may be forced to migrate 
laterally along the bedding-planes of the strata, and into the 
sandy strata of the border, far more readily than they could be 
forced upward through the clays and shales and into overlying 
beds. 
And, if deposits of petroleum are subsequently found in 
sandy shore-deposits, we may expect to find not far away in the 
same beds the source and origin of it. Along the Kern River 
the conditions are all that could be required to support the view 
that lateral migration has been the means by which accumula- 
tion has taken place, and the same may be said of all the other 
producing or non-producing fields in the Temblor basin. The 
extent to which water, oil, and gas may migrate laterally along 
bedding-planes in the progress of geologic periods is, of course, 
very great; but the fact that it is retained at all in the rocks, 
even under enormous pressure, is very good proof that it 
cannot migrate in a vertical direction, transverse to the bed- 
ding-planes. 
Thus far but little effort has been made to discover or 
develop water for irrigation or for other uses in the Neocene 
beds about the Kern River, except for field use within the 
Kern River district. It is worth while to note the fact, how- 
ever, that water of economic value has been found in certain 
strata of both the Temblor and Kern River groups. In neither 
case has the water been found free from objectionable sub- 
stances, though in each it is usable for all ordinary purposes 
in which relatively pure water is needed. 
One of the most important attempts to develop water for 
economic use has been made by the Associated Oil Company 
in the «western part of the district: On Sec. 5, Ts 29S; 
R. 28 E., several wells have been devoted to, or drilled for, 
the production of water, and these wells are supplying large 
volumes of water at a cost that brings it within economic 
limits for irrigating some kinds of crops. 
None of these wells are more than 400 feet in depth, and 
most of the water is within 375 feet of the surface, and above 
the oil-measures. 
