PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS IN NEW YORK 417 



The distillation theory allows that the organic matter of the 

 rocks passed for the time being through the anthraciferous state, 

 in which it could remain indefinitely. Peckham's original theory 

 referred the oil of Pennsylvania to the close of the Appalachian 

 revolution, but his later statements seem to imply that he no 

 longer considers this date of special importance. Newberry 

 held that the process of petroleum production was in constant 

 operation, but he. recognized that the world is old and that vast 

 periods of time have been open to the action of this process. 



What geologists would be glad to find in nature as matching 

 to and harmonizing with the facts with which they are obliged 

 to reckon would be a process in which the products of the organic 

 world are transformed into mineral oil at ordinary temperatures 

 and with complete consumption of the substances acted on, so 

 that no carbon residue would be left behind. They would also 

 expect the transformation to be accomplished while the organic 

 matter still retained essentially its original character. 



The point of greatest importance is the ultimate source of the 

 bituminous series. In regard to this, as already implied, both 

 geologists and chemists are coming into full accord. Both find 

 in the organic matters which the rocks contain or have contained 

 in their past history a source at once abundant, everywhere at 

 hand and competent to meet every demand. The oily substances 

 escaping from the waste in gas manufacture naturally float on 

 the surface of the water into which such waste may be conducted, 

 but the fine particles of clay in the water unite with the oil and 

 settle with it to the bottom. This represents a very important 

 fact in nature and meets the objections that Mendeljeff and 

 others have urged to the effect that petroleum, unless confined in 

 the rocks, would rise to the surface of the sea and be at once 

 wasted by exposure to the atmosphere. On the contrary we see 

 that clay, the second substance in abundance in the crust of the 

 earth, absorbs and protects the petroleum. 



To this statement we can add another, namely, petroleum 

 seems to be, when thus protected from the air, one of the durable 

 forms that organic matter can assume. There seems no reason 

 to believe that it is less permanent than coal. Stored in the 

 rocks in the morning of the world it can apparently remain in 

 this condition through the vast and indefinite ages of geology. 



