210 BITUMEN, ASPHALTUM, PETROLEUM, ETC. 



burn when brought into the flame of a candle, yielding a strong bituminous 

 odor.-i^ The village of Hillah, or Hellah, is said to occupy the site of the 

 ancient tower of Babel, and the city of Babylon must have been on or near 

 the present site of Hillah, which is known to have been built of the brick 

 of the ancient city, and even may have been built upon the very site of 

 ancient Babylon. f The bricks examined by Parkinson must therefore have 

 been at least 3,500, or perhaps even 4,000 years old. 



Bitumen flows oat of the ground at Babylon. It is also dug up in Syria, 

 but that used at Babylon was obtained at Hit, or It, or on the river Is, of 

 Herodotus' eight day journey above Babylon. 



Bitumen was also much used in building at other places. The wall of 

 Media, between the Euphrates and Tigris, was built of burnt brick, laid in 

 bitumen. We are also informed that the Persians would dip their arrows 

 in pitch, light them and shoot on to the roofs of their enemies. |" 



The Dead Sea, or Lake Asphaltites, is mentioned by most of the ancient 

 writers as being very bituminous, and Diodorus states that near its middle 

 a mass of bitumen would rise up every year and float oft", appearing in the 

 the distance like an island. This was gathered by the neighboring people 

 who carried it to Egypt and there sold it to the Egyptians, who used it in 

 embalming their dead. In modern times the Arabs procure this bitumen 

 from the shores of the Dead Sea and sell it at distant places. 



Bitumen is spoken of by son^e of the ancient writers as pissa8j)haltum, 

 and at Agrigentum it was burned in lamps in jilaceof oil and called Sicilian 

 oil. 



PETROLEUM — ITS EARLY HISTORY. 



Mr. Wm. Buck, Curator of Eecords of Pennsj'lvania Historical Society 

 in an interesting article read before the society March 13, 1876, states that 

 "the early French missionaries knew of its existence as early as !I627," and 

 Charlevoix mentions that " in 1642 the Jesuits found near Lake Erie a thick 

 oily stagnant water, which, on application of fire, would burn like brand3^" 

 Messrs. Dollier and Gallinee, missionaries of the order of St. Sulspice, pre- 

 pared a map of the country in 1670, on which there is marked Fontaine de 

 Bitumie, about where is now the town of Cuba, Allegheny county, New 

 York. Charlevoix, who traveled through the country in 1721, mentions 

 this water, which resembled oil and had a taste of iron. He also names 

 another fountain containing sirailar water used by the savages to appease 

 all manner of pains. Sir Wm. Johnson, who visited this region in 1767, 

 mentions the fact of oil being upon the water, and SpofforcUs Gazette, May, 

 1822, mentions the Seneca oil spring at Cuba, IST. Y. This spring is on a 

 reservation of one mile square, belonging to the Seneca Indians, and the 

 oil has been long known as Seneca oil. The earliest mention of petroleum 

 in Pennsylvania was by Charlevoix, who obtained his information from De 



* Parkinson, Organic Kemains of a Former World. tib. Also Eng. Cycl., Nat. His. 

 and ]\Ioore's Anc't. Min. j Parkinson, Organic Kemains. 



