88 E. ORTON—GEOLOGICAL PROBABILITIES AS TO PETROLEUM. 
In the last named division neither petroleum nor any of its derivatives 
is ever found ; all its occurrences are confined to the fossiliferous division: 
While the Archean rocks do not cover surface areas as large as the vast 
series formed in the ages of life, they are by no means insignificant in 
extent. Two million square miles in one continuous body, more than 
one-fourth of North America, are referred to this series in the Canadian 
protaxis alone. In the other continental masses a like distribution is 
recognized. 
Now, if the real centers at which petroleum originates are to be found 
below the Archean, in the primeval crust, according to Mendelejeft’s 
theory, the carbonated waters of the surface, essential to the process, 
would certainly have a shorter course in reaching these centers when 
descending through the uncovered Archean than by going down through 
thousands of feet of the stratified and fossiliferous rocks overlying them: 
It is hard, therefore, to see why, the whole world over, petroleum is en- 
tirely wanting in the Archean and exclusively confined to the stratified 
rocks. There is not an oil field in the world in rocks of Archean time. 
To this it may be replied that the absence of petroleum from Archean 
rocks may be due to the fact that porous rocks suitable for storage are 
not found in this series ; but according to Mendelejeff the process of petro- 
leum manufacture is in constant operation, and certainly any large stock 
produced within the last 5,000 or 10,000 years, not to speak of the last 50 
or 100 years, would have left some clue or token upon the surface. 
Further, there seems to have been a notable increase of the bituminous 
series as the geological ages have advanced. The maximum of their 
production was apparently reached in the great division that immedi- 
ately precedes the present order, namely, in Tertiary time; but this in- 
crease in the petroliferous series has gone forward contemporaneously 
with the decrease in the internal heat of the earth. There has been, 
however, a gain in the total amouut of life which the rocks contain, and 
this roughly corresponds with the increase in the total accumulation of 
bituminous products above referred to. 
That the organic world is an adequate source of petroleum has been 
abundantly demonstrated within the last few years. The demonstration 
was begun by Warren and Storer in the distillation of a lime soap made 
from menhaden oil. In this operation various compounds belonging to 
the bituminous series were definitely developed. ‘This work was made 
known to the world about 1867-68. 
Investigation was subsequently carried still further in this line and to 
still more striking results by Dr Carl Engler, of Carlsruhe, Germany, who 
has obtained from fish oil, and afterward from lard oil, almost the entire 
bituminous series to which petroleum belongs. In the list of the products 
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