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92 KE. ORTON—GEOLOGICAL PROBABILITIES AS TO PETROLEUM. 
easiest possible character. Witness, for example, the decomposition of 
carbonic acid in the cells of every growing plant. 
PERMANENCY OF PETROLEUM AND ITs DERIVITIVES 
It is geologically probable that petroleum and its derivitives are permanent 
substances—that is, stable in the chemical sense of the word. Petroleum, 
when confined in the rocks, may take the simpler form of the gas which 
belongs to its own series. This often happens, and in some cases, no 
doubt, all the oil is so transformed; but there is nothing to show that 
the oil or gas may not continue indefinitely within the crust of the earth 
when once formed there. Petroleum, for aught we know, is as durable 
as coal. 
When petroleum is in direct contact in any way with the atmosphere 
a process of reduction goes on in it by which its gravity is increased 
through the elimination of volatile elements. When the petroleum has 
an asphalt base, the reduction finally results in the separation of this 
substance as a residue, but asphalt is in a high degree durable. 
As implied in the preceding statement, we may have petroleum and 
gas of various geological ages. They may be recent, cenozoic, mesozoic, 
or paleozoic. ‘They undoubtedly come down to us from some of the most 
ancient strata in the geological column that have remained unaffected 
by metamorphic agencies. 
INABILITY OF PETROLEUM AND GAS TO DESCEND IN THE GEOLOGICAL SCALE 
It is probable that neither petrolewm nor its derivatives ever descend in the 
geological scale. Petroleum is specifically lighter than the liquids associ- 
ated with it inthe rocks. These liquids are generally saline waters, and 
their gravity is greater than that of fresh water, sometimes by as much 
as one-tenth. Oil consequently rises in the rocks by means of this 
well-nigh universally distributed water just as far as the possibility of 
movement is allowed to it. Natural gas, the most common derivative 
of petroleum, in like manner rises as far as it finds any open way, but 
no agencies are known by which either petroleum or gas can be carried 
to lower horizons than those in which they originate. 
You will not fail to note an important consequence that follows from 
this principle, namely, that petroleum or gas is as old as the lowest 
stratum in which it is found. 
In the town of Parish, Oswego county, New York, a well was drilled 
two years ago to a depth of 2,160 feet. It was begun in the Medina sand- 
stone. The drill was stopped in red granite seven feet below the surface 
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