THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY OF CANADA 



obtained. At first it was thought that it was all " surface 

 oil," which was then regarded as a very valuable lubricant. 

 Later, however, several adventuresome spirits resolved to 

 try deeper down, and with infinite pains and labor a hole 

 was drilled several hundred feet into the ground. The 

 result justified their work and a flowing well was struck, 

 flooding the district with oil, which ran away down the 

 creek. 



News of the strike spread quickly and a terriffic oil 

 craze set in. Prospectors came from far and near, through. 

 the woods of the oil fields property was taken up in all 

 directions, and hundreds of wells were soon under way. 

 There was any amount of excitment and industry, but very 

 little money in those days, but every one was confident 

 that they were on the edge of a bonanza, and worked with 

 feverish enery to get their wells down and watch the oil 

 waste itself away on the ground or down the creek. 



Putting down a well in those days was a matter of 

 tremendous labor, and took several months, while to-day a 

 well is sunk 475 feet with little trouble in a week or less. 

 After the surface earth was bored through to the depth of 

 nearly a hundred feet, there was three hundred feet of 

 hard limestone and other rock strata to be drilled through 

 before the oil bearing strata was reached. This is a strata 

 of porous brown rock, limestone, from five to ten feet in 

 thickness, heavy with petroleum. To drill these wells in 

 the old days a heavy drill and sinker was hung in the well 

 from a long pole, and balanced over the hole on a fulcrum, 

 which gave strong leverage. The driller walked to the 

 end of the pole which pulled the drill up, and then jumped 

 off letting the drill go down with a bang, this slow process 

 was repeated until after months of effort the well was 

 finished. It was an infinitely tiresome process, but was 

 generally rew^arded as almost every well flowed immense 

 quantities of oil, which was then very valuable indeed, at 

 one time going as high as eleven dollars per barrel. 



