PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS IN NEW YORK 413 



Wall and Kruger as to the asphalt lake of the island of Trinidad. 

 [Proceedings, Geological society of London, 1860] 



These gentlemen declare that the organic matter contained in 

 the shaly rocks in which the lake is included has undergone a 

 special mineralization, producing bitumen in place of ordinary 

 anthraciferous substances. " This operation is not attributable 

 to heat nor to the nature of distillation, but is due to chemical 

 reactions at the ordinary temperature and under the normal con- 

 ditions of the climate. The proofs that this is the true mode of 

 the generation of the asphalt, repose not only on the partial man- 

 ner in which it is distributed in the strata, but also on numerous 

 specimens of the organic bodies in the process of transformation 

 and with the organic substance more or less obliterated. After 

 the removal by solution of the bituminous material under the 

 microscope a remarkable alteration and corrosion of the vegeta- 

 ble cells becomes apparent which is not presented in any other 

 form of the mineralization of wood." [Quarterly journal Geolog- 

 ical societj^ of London, 16: 467]. If these claims were substan- 

 tiated the question would seem to be settled, but unfortunately 

 for them several later observers only fail to confirm them, but 

 report distinctly different conditions. 



A few years since the late Dr O. Fraas of Stuttgart, Germany, 

 announced that petroleum is in process of formation in certain 

 coral rocks of the Ked sea, as the result of the direct transforma- 

 tion of the organic matter of the reef. If this statement could 

 be proved it would also meet the demands of Hunt's theory; but 

 geologists recognize the fact that there are other possible sources 

 of the petroleum that appears in the reef, and Fraas's claims can 

 not be counted as established till all such possibilities are ex- 

 cluded. There are other similar cases, but none of them are 

 decisive. 



On the whole it must be acknowledged that the crucial experi- 

 ment remains to be brought forward that will establish the claim 

 that petroleum is now in process of formation by the direct or 

 primary decomposition of organic matter. There are multitudes 

 of geologic facts that seem to be in harmony with this view, 

 and it has never been definitely set aside or abandoned, but to 



