198 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
I cannot learn that any considerable part of the large 
quantities of petroleum used in the eastern states, under 
the name of Seneca oil, comes from the Spring now de- 
scribed. I am assured that its source is about one hun- 
dred miles from Pittsburgh, on the Oil Creek, which 
empties into the Allegany River in the township and 
county of Venango. It exists there in great abundance, 
and rises in purity to the surface of the water; by dams, 
enclosing certain parts of the river or creek, it is prevent- 
ed from flowing away, and it is absorbed by blankets, 
from which it is wrung. Although I have this statement 
from an eye witness,* still it would be an interesting ser- 
vice, claiming a grateful acknowledgment, if some gen- 
tleman in the vicinity of the petroleum, or at Pittsburgh, 
would furnish an account of it for this or some similar 
journal; and as there are numerous Springs of this mineral 
oil in various regions of the west and south-west, connect- 
ed especially with the saline and bituminous coal forma- 
tions, it would promote the cause of science, if notices of 
any of them were forwarded for publication. 
The petroleum, sold in the eastern states, under the 
name of Seneca oil, is of a dark brown colour, between 
that of tar and molasses, and its degree of consistence is not 
dissimilar, according to the temperature; its odour is strong 
and too well known to need description. 
I have frequently distilled it in a glass retort, and the 
naptha which collects in the receiver is of a light straw 
colour, and much lighter, more odorous and inflammable 
than the petroleum; in the first distillation, a little water 
usually rests in the receiver, at the bottom of the naptha; 
from this, it is easily decanted, and a second distillation 
prepares it perfectly for preserving potassium and sodium, 
the object which has led me to distil it, and these metals 
I have kept under it (as others have done) for years; 
eventually they acquire some oxygen, from or through 
the naptha, and the exterior portion of the metal returns, 
slowly, to the condition of alkali — more rapidly, if the 
stopper is not tight. 
The petroleum remaining from the distillation, is thick 
like pitch; if the distillation has been pushed far, the re- 
siduum will flow only languidly in the retort, and in cold 
weather it becomes a soft solid, resembling much the mal- 
tha or mineral pitch. 
The famous lake of maltha and petroleum, in the island 
of Trinidad, is well known: I have specimens from that 
place, in all the conditions between fluid, petroleum and 
firm pitch. It is unnecessary to repeat, that the English 
use it on their ships of war, as a substitute for tar and pitch, 
* Mr. Ovid Hard, stage proprietor, of Rochester, N. Y., who mention- 
ed Mr. J. L. Chase, residing on the Oil Creek, Venango County, Penn., 
as a geatleroan from whom exact information may be obtained. 
and that the bituminous mass in the natural lake, (which 
covers several square miles,) is sufficiently tenacious to 
support a man, during the colder part of the year, but at 
the opposite season is too soft to sustain any considerable 
weight. 
In alluding to the probable connexion, with bituminous 
coal, of tbe Oil Spring named at tbe bead of this notice, I 
did not mean to imply that petroleum and other bitumin- 
ous substances necessarily prove, that there is coal beneath; 
for it has been ascertained that bitumen exists, in a limit- 
ed degree, in many minerals, as appears from some of the 
phenomena of volcanos, and was proved experimentally 
by the late Hon. George Knox, in an extensive series of 
researches, published in the Philosophical Transactions of 
London. As regards the probability of finding coal, the 
opinion should be thus modified; if the country on whose 
waters, or in whose rocks, petroleum or other varieties of 
bitumen appear, is such an one as, in its geological struc- 
ture, is consistent with the usual associations of coal, then 
the existence of bitumen, especially if it be abundant, and 
more especially if the rocks themselves are impregnated 
with it, affords a strong presumption in favour of the ex- 
istence of coal beneath. Such is the fact in this part 
of the State of New-York. The shale at Geneseo 
is highly bituminous and burns readily, with abundant 
flame. I cannot answer for tbe rocks in the immediate 
vicinity of the Oil Spring, as they are not in view. The 
people have dug a few feet for coal at the distance of a 
few yards from the Spring; the excavation is too shallow 
to decide any thing, except that the petroleum rose in this 
place also, as the Spring, thus proving, that the bitumin- 
ous impregnation ismot peculiar to that spot. 
If these remarks should excite any interest in the minds 
of landed proprietors in that vicinity, I would venture to 
suggest to them, that it would not be wise, without more 
evidence, to proceed to sink shafts; for they would be very 
expensive and might be fruitless. It would be much wiser, 
to bore; which would enable them, at a comparatively 
moderate expense, to ascertain the existence, depth and 
thickness of the coal, should it exist; but, even this should 
not be done without a previous diligent examination of 
water courses, banks, precipices, excavations for wells, 
cellars, roads, &c., which might perhaps materially aid 
the inquiry. The well known existence of bituminous 
coal beds at the distance of a few miles in Pennsylvania, 
renders it highly probable that they may pass under this 
region, but perhaps at too great a depth to admit of profit- 
able extraction; for tbe abundance of coal in other parts of 
Pennsylvania and the west; — the magnitude and easy ac- 
cessibleness of the beds, and the excellence of the coal, 
will long render it impossible that thin beds, in other 
