THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



205 



success for the industry in the United 

 States. Not only is the oil content of 

 the American deposit larger than that of 

 the Scotch — in some cases more than 

 three times as large — but the American 

 rock can be mined more cheaply. 



The Scotch shales lie far below the 

 surface and must be mined by hand and 

 hoisted through shafts like coal or hauled 

 up inclines. Most of the Rocky Moun- 

 tain shale lies from a few feet to 2,500 

 feet above the valley floors and much of 

 it can be. mined in a wholesale manner 

 by steam-shovels and lowered by gravity 

 to the reducing plants. 



OIL FORMERLY DISTILLED FROM SHALE IN 

 PENNSYLVANIA AND UTAH 



The Scotch shales occur in irregular 

 beds which here and there thin out and 

 have been thrown into geologic faults and 

 folds that greatly increase the cost of 

 mining. The western shales, on the other 

 hand, are more uniform in thickness and 

 lie in a horizontal position. Despite their 

 handicaps, the Scotch deposits are worked 

 at a large profit, yet their average con- 

 tent of oil is only about 25 gallons to the 

 ton, whereas vast quantities of easily 

 mined American shales that lie in benches 

 6 to 10 feet thick will average perhaps 

 a hundred per cent more oil. 



Oil-shale distillation is not new in the 

 United States ; yet it is doubtful if there 

 are many people alive who remember 

 anything about the earlier industry. Be- 

 fore petroleum was discovered in Penn- 

 sylvania, about 50 small companies in the 

 eastern United States were crudely dis- 

 tilling oil from shales ; but after subter- 

 ranean pools were discovered these com- 

 panies went out of business. 



Long ago the Mormons also distilled 

 oil from shale near Juab, Utah, where 

 the ruins of an old still can yet be seen. 

 We are now about to return to this dis- 

 carded industry and produce hundreds of 

 millions of barrels of oil where formerly 



the output was comparable to the pro- 

 duction of oil from sperm whales. 



America's immense mineral wealth 



The discovery of these vast deposits of 

 oil-bearing rock in the United States, the 

 petroleum content of which can be esti- 

 mated in nothing less than hundreds of 

 billions of barrels, is one more evidence 

 of the abounding wealth of the North 

 American Continent. No sooner does one 

 of our resources show limitations in pro- 

 duction and the pessimists begin to cry, 

 "What shall we do when our reserve is 

 gone?" than immense additional deposits 

 or satisfactory substitutes are discovered. 



During the last few years petroleum, 

 with its most valuable constituent, gaso- 

 line, has become one of our most vital 

 resources, so than even the most cheerful 

 optimist might well begin to question the 

 immediate future prospects of the in- 

 dustry; but with thousands of square 

 miles of rock lying above ground, within 

 sight of trunk-line railroads and con- 

 stituting an unfailing oil reservoir, we 

 can feel assured of a supply of gasoline 

 for many generations to come. 



The United States is indeed a country 

 blessed by a generous Providence. Ger- 

 many, to supplement its stock of pe- 

 troleum and gasoline, laboriously raises 

 potatoes from which to distil fuel alcohol ; 

 but here in America there are mountains 

 of oil rock which can be blasted and 

 steam-shoveled and transported by grav- 

 ity to great retorts which will turn out 

 oil and fertilizer in limitless quantities. 



The production of oil in this country, 

 instead of decreasing, will continue to 

 grow; it will even, because of the shale 

 resource, greatly increase its present im- 

 mense output of 340,000,000 barrels a 

 year and will keep pace with the enor- 

 mously increasing demand. No one may 

 be bold enough to fortell what tremend- 

 ous figure of production may be reached 

 within the next ten years. 



