56 THE OCEAN RIVER 



and Russia. In the same way, in Permian days the foundations 

 of oil fields in west Texas and New Mexico were laid down. 

 Most of the oil-bearing sediments of the Gulf states were 

 formed later during late Mesozoic and Cenozoic time, when 

 branches and eddies of the River also flowed not only over the 

 ancient gulf but also over the site of the Venezuelan oil fields. 

 During the same time the Sea of Tethys deposited its dead 

 plankton in the future petroleum strata of Rumania, Iran, and 

 Iraq. The California fields and a number of others throughout 

 the world were not connected with bygone extensions of the 

 North Atlantic Ocean, but were most likely formed under 

 extensions of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. 



Though the major production of oil has been from sediments 

 in the gulfs and bays and inland seas that were formerly con- 

 nected with the path of the Ocean River, it is also to be ex- 

 pected that similar conditions existed in relation to other 

 oceans throughout the world, and it is therefore not unlikely 

 that future exploration will yield oil in such areas as those 

 between Australia and Asia and around the margins of the 

 landlocked Arctic Sea. We can still say, though, that our oil 

 is mostly wrung from the old Atlantic marginal sea floors. 



The plankton of ancient seas is known to us mainly by these 

 important consequences of its existence. No less important to 

 man are the present-day activities of plankton and the migra- 

 tions of the fishes which depend on the plankton for food, for 

 man in turn depends in some measure on fish for his existence. 

 The story of how man came to live on the Atlantic seaboard 

 and to migrate in many directions across the River comes first, 

 however, and this is compounded of many ingredients — part 

 legend, part unchallenged and documented history, and part 

 in the making today. 



