THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY OF CANADA 



Government jMaced a heavy duty on Canadian oil, 

 which duty still remains, although it is many years since 

 there was any possibility of the Canadian oil competing 

 with the American product, in fact a large proportion of 

 the oil burned in Canada has been imported from the 

 United States. 



Although "shows" of oil have been discovered in 

 Canada, from the Gaspe Peninsula on the Atlantic to the 

 Rocky Mountains on the west, the only really important 

 petroleum fields yet worked in Canada are those of 

 Lambton County in the south-west corner of Ontario. 



Even these, despite the utmost activity of the oil men, 

 have been unable to keep up the growing demand for coal 

 oil and the other petroleum products, and for years past 

 over thirty per cent, of the oil used in Canada has come 

 from the other side. 



It was away back in the early sixties that petroleum 

 of Lambton County was discovered to be of commercial 

 value. Long before the white men ever visited the county 

 the Indians knew that it was rich in oil. It oozed up out 

 of the ground and floated down the streams. The Indians 

 used it as a medicine, ayd when the early settlers appeared, 

 three quarters of a century ago, they did the same — the oil 

 being regarded as good for rheumatism. Many of the early 

 settlers made considerable money by gathering the oil off 

 the surface of the waters of Bear Creek and peddling it 

 around in small bottles as medicine. Their method of 

 gathering the oil was to float a blankent on the surface of 

 the water and let it absorb the oil, and then remove the oil 

 from the blanket by wringing. 



These conditions did not last long however. The fame 

 of the oil soon spread, and it was not long before 

 prospectors and others figured out that there must be some 

 resevoir to supply this surface oil. A surface well was dug 

 about 1863 on the edge of Bear Creek, close to the present 

 site of the town of Petrolia, and a good supply of oil was 



