THE MINERAL OILS OP AMERICA. 363 



Kentucky, and other States are laden with items announcing fresh and 

 valuable discoveries ; and these openings seem to inspire explorers with still 

 greater zeal, and many new sources will doubtless be inaugurated. It is not 

 strange that, amid all the authenticated accounts of valuable openings, 

 numerous exaggerated and untrue statements should likewise appear, and 

 frauds be perpetrated by unscrupulous landowners, desirous of realising 

 by swindling inexperienced operators. Of course, many of the reports of 

 enormous yields are bare falsehoods, issued by designing speculators to 

 deceive the unwary : but, notwithstanding this, we may regard the petro- 

 leum basins as sources of great wealth, and which promise to be productive 

 of large revenue. 



Thus far the demand for the oil has been far in excess of the supply, and 

 the rapidity with which it is forwarded is indicative of the energy of those 

 engaged in raising it. A very large portion of it is shipped to France and 

 Germany, where it is extensively employed in the manufacture of aniline, 

 fuschine, and other brilliant colours for dyeing. It is principally used in 

 America as an illuminating agent, and as a lubricator ; for both of which 

 purposes it is, after a slight rectification, admirably adapted. Already the 

 greatly-increased supply of this fluid is having a damaging effect upon other 

 articles which have been relied on as artificial illuminating agents, and it is 

 proper to suppose that it will eventually become the main reliance of all 

 who desire a cheap, pleasant, and safe light, where gas is not used. The 

 popularity of petroleum and coal oils as illuminators has seriously inter- 

 fered with the whaling trade, and the statistics of that traffic show a 

 remarkable falling off in the supply of whale-oil, and a diminution in the 

 number of the vessels employed. In the year 1844, the total number of 

 vessels engaged in whaling in the United States was 635, the aggregate 

 tonnage being 200,485. In 1857 the number of vesssels was 655, aggregate 

 tonnage 204,209. In 1861 the number of vessels has decreased to 514, 

 aggregate tonnage 158,746. In 1858, 200 ships went into the North Pacific 

 for whale-oil, whereas in 1861 less than 100 are expected to go. These 

 figures exhibit a large decrease within the past four years, and this will 

 probably continue. The diminution in the number of vessels is attributable 

 in some measure to difficulties experienced by the whalers, owing to a decrease 

 in " catch." The whales, it is said, have grown wild, and are constantly 

 changing their position. This, together with severe weather experienced 

 in their usual latitudes, has contributed to the disastrous result. But 

 the most important cause of the falling off is undoubtedly the largely- 

 increased consumption of petroleum and coal oils, and the inauguration of 

 gas-works in towns where whale-oil was previously used as an illuminating 

 agent. If the statistics of the petroleum business could be accurately 

 compiled, they would present a long array of figures, representing the 

 amount raised and forwarded to market, and would afford an evidence of 

 its importance as an article of trade. Already it has diffused a spirit of life 

 and energy into a before comparatively quiet region ; it has swelled the 

 population of villages and projected new towns. The industrial arts have 



