284 I. C. WHITE— ORIGIN OF GRAHAMITE 



pany drilled a well on the Metz land which gave the following succes- 

 sion, according to Mr W. K. Jacobs, superintendent : 



Material. Feet. Feet. 



Unrecorded 1,380 to 1,380 



Sand 60 1,440 



Slate '. 20 1,460 



Unrecorded 85 1,545 



•' Salt Sand " 58 1,603 



Slate 



Unrecorded and sand 28 1 ,631 



Coal (?) (asphalt) 5 1,636 



Sand 2 1,638 



Big Lime (Greenbrier) 106 1,744 



Big Injun sand (gas, 1,788 ; oil, 1,809) 68 1,812 



Slate and shells to bottom 25 1,837 



The bituminous matter at 1,631, reported as coal by the drillers, may 

 possibly have been of asphaltic origin, since it is situated along the same 

 belt of country where the grahamite of Ritchie county occurs, and about 

 the same distance east from the Burning Springs-Eureka anticlinal dis- 

 turbance as the Broolvs farm in the Whiskey Run oil-pool, where the other 

 anomalous deposit of bituminous material was discovered. 



Summary of Conclusions 



From the foregoing there are drawn the following conclusions : 



The fissure which encloses the grahamite of Ritchie county. West 

 Virginia, was made by tension due to the upheaval of the measures 

 along the Burning Springs-Eureka anticlinal. 



Grahamite, albertite, gilsonite, and asphalt are all derived from the 

 oxidation of petroleum. 



The presence of these substances in undisturbed strata may be used 

 as a guide to the discovery of oil j^ools. 



Petroleum accumulations have taken place in all sedimentary beds 

 from the earliest to the latest, and the graphite beds of the Cambrian 

 rocks originated from oxidized outflows of oil. 



Some outflows of petroleum appear to have occurred in the Cairo 

 region of West Virginia at the close of the Lower Carboniferous epoch. 



