AMALGAMATION. 403 
bags." These are sacks filled with flax seed, which are sunk around the 
shaft bore, in the manner of a boot. 
If the existing oil springs should fail, of course there is no danger 
that the country or the world will fall short of oil. The article has 
only been discovered in four or five States, and we have others left 
wherein to " prospect " for new discoveries. There is oil in Illinois ; 
there comes an oily murmur from Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Kansas ; 
oil has been discovered in California. Young America with his enter- 
prising caduceus, has smitten the gold-veined rocks of the Pacific 
coast, and they have spouted forth oil, as did the rocks of Syria to the 
stroke of Moses's wand, when his followers were athirst in the desert. 
The location of oil may be determined only by the geological forma- 
tion of the ground, but there are many places in the broad compass of 
the United States where one can dig for oil and dig hopefully. 
Petroleum may justly be considered as one of the greatest blessings 
ever bestowed by Providence on man. It increases our national wealth, 
gives employment to our railroad and shipping interests, and supplies 
the place of gold as a purchasing medium in foreign markets. 
Its magnitude cannot be estimated even by the immense amount of 
capital nominally employed by the large number of companies already 
organised, which, in our principal cities alone, has already reached the 
enormous sum of over 500,000,000 dollars, exclusive of a large number 
of private companies, whose existence is entirely unknown to the 
public. 
Its discovery seems to have been Providential, occurring just at the 
moment when our whale fisheries were giving out, and when we had 
but very little cotton or other produce for shipment to meet our obliga- 
tions in foreign markets. 
When we consider the enormous and valuable tracts of territory 
lying in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, New York, and many other 
sections of our country, which are just as likely, judging from existing 
indications, to be as valuable oil-producing lands as any yet developed, 
we must admit that the trade in petroleum is but in its infancy, and 
that it is destined to become one of the greatest commercial interests in 
the world. 
AMALGAMATION. 
The { Mining Record ■ of Victoria publishes the following :— A pro- 
cess which may, we consider, be correctly styled a discovery, has 
just been patented, by Mr. W. Crookes, the discoverer of the new metal 
thallium, a discovery of double interest, interesting on account of the 
singular properties of the body itself, and no less interesting from its 
vol. vi. u n 
