176 I. C. WHITE HISTORY OF PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS 



theory to guide the drill in its search for the hidden treasures of oil 

 and gas. Indeed, to such a low estate had the efforts of geologists 

 fallen in their attempts to aid the drill in discovering petroleum and 

 natural gas previous to the publication of the "Anticlinal Theory" by 

 your speaker, in the issue of "Science" for June 26, 1885, and his 

 successful demonstration of its great value in locating pools of oil and 

 gas, that one prominent oil operator, disgusted at frequent failures of 

 geologists to locate productive oil pools for him, was heard to remark, 

 that if he desired to be absolutely sure of getting a dry hole he would 

 employ a geologist to make the location. But with the new announce- 

 ment of the "Anticlinal" or structural theory as a guide, the develop- 

 ment of oil and gas spread across West Virginia into Kentucky, and 

 passed from Ohio into Indiana on its westward march to Kansas, Texas, 

 and Louisiana, finally reaching California and Mexico before the close 

 of this second 20-year epoch, in 1902. 



Characteristics of the third Epoch 



The third 20-year epoch of petroleum and natural gas history is 

 nearing its close. It has been characterized specially by the large pro- 

 duction and utilization of gasoline, brought about principally through 

 the invention of the internal combustion engine and the general intro- 

 duction of liquid fuel where available for locomotive, steamship, and 

 other industrial purposes, the Diesel engine having done for heavy 

 liquid fuels what the general internal combustion engine has done for 

 gasoline. The automobile and the aeroplane are only two of the inven- 

 tions made practical through gasoline and the internal combustion 

 engine. In the meantime the structural theory of oil occurrence has led 

 to a world-wide development of oil fields. It has added Kansas, Okla- 

 homa, Wyoming, Montana, Texas, Louisiana, California, Cuba, Haiti, 

 Colombia, Venezuela, Guiana, Trinidad, Barbados, Equador, Peru, 

 Argentina, and other regions of the new world, while Rumania, Galicia, 

 Italy, Persia, British India, Egypt, Dutch East Indies, Japan, Formosa, 

 and many other countries of the old world have yielded rich supplies of 

 oil, the latest reports being that the domes and anticlinals of Australia 

 as well as of the Arctic regions of America are proving rich in oil and 

 gas. Who is there that can doubt that Africa (outside of Egypt), Avith 

 its unexplored and unknown mineral wealth, will yet yield large 

 quantities of petroleum and natural gas when its sedimentary terranes 

 are intelligently explored. 



