vin, a, 5 Pratt and Smith: Petroleum Resources 355 



fairly level ground. Each has an area of several square meters 

 which is barren of vegetation. The ground to a depth of a meter, 

 at least, below the surface is unusually warm and feels hot to 

 the hands. The temperature is not so high at the surface as 

 it is at a depth of 30 centimeters, where the ground has a moldy, 

 charred appearance and emits a rancid odor. 



The sandy strata on which these bare spots occur are decidedly 

 carbonaceous, and the surface is covered with decaying vegetable 

 matter. It appears that a slow oxidation of the carbonaceous 

 material in the sandy beds and of plant remains on the surface 

 is in progress locally in this vicinity. The combustion may have 

 been started originally by the fires which burn off the surround- 

 ing grass periodically. While the sandstone and shale near Bon- 

 doc Head are strongly carbonaceous, they show little evidence 

 of oil or gas. 



PETROLEUM AT BACAU 



Petroleum at Bacau appears as films or small globules on the 

 surface of a pool in Canguinsa River at the foot of a steep bank 

 of massive, blue-black shale. The oil comes up intermittently 

 from several places at the bottom of the pool, in quantity about 

 equal to that encountered at Banco. The seeps are at an eleva- 

 tion of about 100 meters. The shale in the adjacent bank is 

 petroliferous, and when fresh pieces are raked down into the 

 stream they give off a film of oil. The strata dip to the east 

 at angles of from 50° to 60°, and apparently lie in the eastern 

 limb near the axis of the Central anticline. The Canguinsa 

 sandstone occurs in the walls of the valley on either side im- 

 mediately above the petroliferous shale, which is the type ex- 

 posure of the Bacau stage of the Vigo shale. 



PETROLEUM ON MALIPA CREEK 



Inflammable gas bubbles up continuously from the bottom of 

 Malipa Creek about 800 meters above the confluence of this 

 stream and Vigo River. Small films of oil are observed occa- 

 sionally on the surface of the water in the vicinity. The gas 

 seeps from the Vigo shale in the south limb of the Malipa anti- 

 cline. A thickness of approximately 550 meters of shale is in- 

 dicated by the outcrops between the horizon from which the gas 

 comes and the axis of the anticline, while 250 meters of shale 

 lie stratigraphically above the seep and below the Canguinsa 

 sandstone. 



A sample of the gas collected and analyzed by the Bureau 

 of Science showed the following composition. 



