1865.] 



Notes and Correspondence. 



761 



to the action of disturbing forces, 

 which, in other ways and other 

 places, have poured forth floods of 

 molten rock upon the surface, or 

 beneath the sea have thrown into 

 the air gases, smoke, and fine dust 

 to cover and influence the earth, 

 and have shaken, by systematic 

 convulsions, the part of the crust 

 of the earth too tense or too well 

 defended by overlying masses to be 

 broken asunder. Mountain chains 

 have been lifted up both to the 

 north and south of the great axis of 

 elevation, and within open spaces 

 formed in the rocks there has been 

 at certain points a considerable 

 amount of chemical action, result- 

 ing in the eruptions from volcanoes 

 and the issue of mineral waters. 



It will always be a question of 

 great interest whence the carbon 

 was obtained for the manufacture 

 of those hydrocarbons, of which 

 petroleum is one, and those gaseous 

 emanations, in which carbon forms 

 an important part. There can be 

 no doubt that in the great majority 

 of cases in America and Canada, 

 the carbon has previously been 

 accumulated by vegetable or animal 

 organisms, buried under favourable 

 circumstances, and retained during 

 successive ages, until an outlet is 

 found whence they may once more 

 come to the surface. It is, how- 

 ever, equally certain that such 

 accumulations as the great pitch 

 lake of Trinidad, and some others 

 less extensive, cannot be traced to 

 have a history of this kind, and 

 thus the question remains open. 

 It is a matter of some interest 

 that lignites consisting of vegetable 

 matter in a state of only partial 

 metamorphosis, have been found 

 in the tertiaries on the flanks of the 

 Caucasus, not far from Anapa, and 

 also in the Carpathians. Similar 

 accumulations, of very large propor- 

 tions, are well known in other parts 

 of the great expanse of middle ter- 

 tiaries east of the Alps. It remains, 

 therefore, possible, though there is 

 as yet no proof obtainable on the 

 subject, that the petroleum wells of 



the Crimea are connected with old 

 accumulations of vegetable carbon. 

 The fact is worth recording, that it 

 may be proved or disproved in the 

 particular case. 



Speaking chiefly of the oil wells 

 and oil supplies, I have said httle 

 of the mud volcanoes and the salt 

 lakes. Both are peculiar, and in the 

 highest degree interesting in refer- 

 ence to the oil supply. The vicinity 

 of the mud volcanoes to petroleum 

 springs, is very marked in one of 

 the cases I have described, and the 

 presence of numerous small wells 

 in the line of mud volcanoes, be- 

 ginning with those of Taman and 

 crossing the northern end of the 

 peninsula of Kertch, is suggestive. 

 Petroleum is also found oozing 

 through the earth and rising to the 

 surface of the water in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Tchongolek. Sulphur 

 springs, of which the water is so 

 loaded with sulphur as to cover 

 with a film every surface over which 

 it runs, and leave a thick scum on 

 the water as it runs away into the 

 valleys, are by no means rare within 

 a few hundred yards of well-marked 

 lines and belts of old wells. Here, 

 again, there is an evident tendency 

 to volcanic origin in the whole of 

 the phenomena. As it is well 

 known that the volcanic fires have 

 only recently become extinct in all 

 this neighbourhood, and as volcanic 

 rock of modern date is extremely 

 abundant at some little distance to 

 the south of the central part of the 

 Caucasus, covering with only oc- 

 casional small exceptions a lenticu- 

 lar space six hundred miles in length 

 and two hundred miles wide in the 

 widest part, it need not excite as- 

 tonishment that there should be 

 important incidental results of this 

 energy. The volcanic centres must 

 be deep-seated, compared at least 

 with any ordinary thicknesses of 

 strata, but the work of nature in 

 this part of the world has been on 

 a very large scale in recent times 

 and chiefly in the work of recon- 

 struction, lifting up the wide tracts 

 of sea bottom into plains and even 



