BULLETIN OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 
VOL. 9, PP. 85-100 JANUARY 24, 1898 
GHOLOGICAL PROBABILITIES AS TO PETROLEUM 
ANNUAL ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT, EDWARD ORTON 
(Read before the Society December 28, 1897) 
CONTENTS 
Page 
ILMMOCWCHION. sce tio MaRS RROS Cee eS OU EEO ROL ee Taos ne ae re ae cane 85 
Oicinmo ia mecnoleummyy triers nonin ys cuens A SNeacanpac Sie es tosh totais Wocaiavelicadl ge elece 87 
Permanency of petroleum and its derivatives...............00..s00ee- eee ees 92 
Inability of petroleum and gas to descend in the geological scale........ Mate See 
Inability of petroleum and its derivatives to rise from one formation to an- 
UIAGI. » 6 vido acelgeea ces alte ce ear Miner eccted Soe Rea eter ae eo ee a 94 
Structure or arrangement of strata the dominant feature in accumulation of 
GAS OP Ol c dog somasD PERO ODODE OEE EE OEE ETHOS Te I hea oe me tere 96 
Equality of pressure on the contained Trends ANGEUOASES eh is sess ee eee aecie ener 97 
DnraMonyOtepetroleumn supply. kyjeocc-i + ciiccise sei sias ase eke se cesses 99 
INTRODUCTION 
It has seemed to me that I can turn the hour that you allow me on this 
occasion to the best account in the discussion of some subject connected 
with petroleum and its derivatives. 
Petroleum has long been in the world. Man has been acquainted with 
it through much of his brief day. As soon as he ‘‘came to himself,” in 
the earliest stages of civilization, we find him making use of asphalt, one 
of the best marked derivatives of petroleum. Asphalt took a prominent 
place in his arts and commerce, and frequent mention of it occurs in some 
of the oldest records of the race. 
In later times asphalt, the representative of petroleum, lost to a con- 
siderable extent its relative importance, being replaced in several lines of 
service by other and more easily obtained substances, but within the last 
half of the present century the bituminous series, represented by petro- 
leum and gas, has acquired an importance infinitely greater than it ever 
had before. It has become a factor, and by no means an insignificant 
one, in the commercial exchanges of the civilized world, and it has made 
XI1I—Burn. Geor. Soc. Am., Vou. 9, 1897 (85) 
