& F. Peckharn — Origin of Bitumens. 395 



in vast quantities in rocks that are filled with the remains of 

 the marine mammalia that swarmed in the Miocene Ocean.* 



Shall we apply Hunt's theory, and regard these wonderful 

 compounds that appear nowhere else in nature as the product 

 of some sort of ill-defined, inexplicable decomposition to 

 which the animal remains have been subjected ; or shall we 

 believe that the metamorphic action which has converted into 

 gneiss the sandstones and shales that flank the low mountains 

 of that region, which gradually passes by insensible degrees 

 into the granite core of the same hills in which the bitumens 

 occur, has distilled the mixture of benzoles and Dippel's oil of 

 which they apparently consist ? To my mind the latter hypoth- 

 esis alone conforms to the experience of technology and the 

 demands of a logical scientific enquiry. 



I do not wish to enter here upon any intricate inquiry con- 

 cerning the nature and origin of metamorphism. I would, 

 however, note by the way, that in addition to that unknown 

 quantity, the internal heat of the earth, the spontaneous gene- 

 ration of heat by chemical action within the influence of the 

 atmosphere has played an important part in the metamorphosis 

 of shales in the region in which the bitumens of Ventura 

 county occur. Locally such action has often been very recent, 

 while, at the same time, the major portion of it belongs to a 

 very remote past. I do not consider it necessary to represent 

 in terms of Fahrenheit's thermometer the temperature at which 

 any particular sample of petroleum was produced, nor do I 

 intend to produce the coke that resulted from the distillation. 

 The coke, if there is any, is where the distillation left it. It 

 is not possible to furnish the details of a natural process the 

 conditions of which are unknown to us. JSTor can we reason 

 from the processes of technology, bounded as they are by time 

 and space, to the infinity of nature, which it is impossible to 

 imitate. In order to establish the hypothesis that anthracite 

 was once bituminous coal, it is not required that the distilled 

 gases, and possibly petroleum, shall be produced, nor that it be 

 stated where they now are. Let it be constantly borne in 

 mind that time has always entered into the operations of 

 nature, in sufficient quantity, and that heat, steam and pressure 

 have invaded immense areas of the crust of the earth through 

 vast cycles of the infinite past and the vision becomes clear : 



" For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and 

 a watch in the night." 



University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 12th, 1894. 



* In the course of an afternoon ramble in one of the small canons of the moun- 

 tains on the south side of the Santa Clara Valley near Bardsdale, Ventura Co., Cal., 

 portions of three whales' vertebras were found, one of them quite perfect. Also 

 in one mass of rock, three vertebras were found in contact that appeared to be those 

 of a saurian. Besides these were innumerable fragments of ribs and other bones, 

 in a stratum about J 8 id. in thickness. 



