286 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



ty feet of the hole, and begins to submerge the fissure at 

 which the gas is escaping. The gas forces its way through 

 the oil with a sputtering sound, bubble after bubble rising 

 to the surface. As the oil ascends, the gas makes louder 

 and louder complaints, till finally, summoning all its accu- 

 mulated energies, it hoists the superincumbent column of 

 oil to the surface, and pours it out in a stream of a few 

 seconds' duration. The flow then ceases, and the same 

 operation begins to be repeated. After a minute or more 

 of renewed grumbling and sputtering, the pent-up gas 

 again relieves itself, and thus the work continues. The 

 same results would ensue if oil and gas found entrance at 

 the same fissure, or even if the gas were admitted at any 

 distance beneath the entrance of a small supply of oil. 



The amount of oil that has been ejected from certain 

 wells is marvelous to relate. Though Western Pennsyl- 

 vania has produced numerous flowing wells of wonderful 

 capacity, there is no quarter of the world where the pro- 

 duction has attained such prodigious dimensions as in 1862 

 upon Oil Creek, in the township of Enniskillen, Ontario. 

 The first flowing well was struck there January 11, 1862, 

 and before October not less than thirty-five wells had com- 

 menced to drain a store-house which provident Nature had 

 occupied untold thousands of years in filling for the uses — 

 not for the amusement — of man. There was no use for the 

 oil at that time. The price had fallen to ten cents per bar- 

 rel. The unsophisticated settlers of that wild and wooded 

 region seemed inspired by an infatuation. Without an ob- 

 ject save the gratification of their curiosity at the unwont- 

 ed sight of a combustible fluid pouring out of the bosom 

 of the earth, they seemed to vie with each other in plying 

 their hastily and rudely erected " spring-poles" to work the 

 drill that was almost sure to burst, at the depth of a hun- 

 dred feet, into a prison of petroleum. Some of these wells 



