E. B. Andrews on Petroleum in its Geological Relations. 39 
indefinite period. It is possible even, that in some localities all, 
or nearly all, the oil has been bro ought up from its deep birth- 
places to very near the surface. In such localities very deep 
wells would avail nothing. It is certainly evident that on Oil 
Creek, Pit-hole, &c., the oil has come from below. and aceumu- 
lated in the fissures of the lower sand-rock. It could not have 
been forced down from strata above. Confining the winds in 
ags were an easy task compared with forcing down and shutting 
up the oil with its furious gases in the cavities of the third sand- 
moved under this cover to the northwest. These suppositions 
are entirely untenable. The oil is found in independent fissures, 
is 
and combinations. Such facts forbid the supposition of great 
lateral subterranean movements. The same reasoning would 
apply to the theory sometimes published, that oil passes down 
the long slopes of gradually descending strata to the lowest part 
of synclinal basins, and there accumulates. Strong brine in an 
open permeable rock ean thus descend, but not oil. If the brine 
earried the oil down with it, we should expect to i in the 
salt wells of Pomeroy, O., no little oil with the brine. The 
brine there is obtained in the conglomerate a thousa te feet 
down. When oil is obtained it is from fissures comparatively 
near the surface. 
f the origin of the oil fissures in the sand-rocks on Oil 
Creek, Pit-hole, Tideoute, &c., in western cg aca I cannot 
speak with entire confidence. The whole region is covered 
with drift materials hiding the seit rocks. There are 
nited to the axial lines of these undulat 
"Tho limits of a single article forbid ap :comaiticaes other oil 
fi ere are some other localities of great promise, but to 
difficult task. A little oil is to be found almost everywhere in 
our country where the rocks are not metamorphic, and in almost 
every geological formation, from the Lower Silurian upward. 
I have seen samples of oil from nearly every western and south- 
western state. I have myself found it in every stage of the 
