ISO The American Geologist. March, looi. 
NOTES ON PETROLEUM IN CALIFORNIA. 
Prof. E. W. Clavpole, D.Sc, I'asadena, Cal. 
The existence of petroleum in California has been known 
from very early times. The old Mission Fathers in the Span- 
ish days made use of it, or rather of its solid residue after 
evaporation (usually natural), under the name of "brea," or 
asphaltum, for various purposes, chiefly for roofing-. Many 
attempts have also been made during the past half century 
to refine it but from various causes they have all failed more 
or less completely until recently. 
Prof. B. Silliman's report in 1865 ^^'^s the earliest scientific 
statement concerning the Californian oils, and during the fol- 
lowing fifteen years the attempt to establish a profitable in- 
dustry were several times renewed. One of the causes of their 
failure was the nature of the materials which differed from 
that of the eastern oils, and presented problems not solved by 
eastern experience. 
The memory of men not beyond middle life will easily sup- 
pi}- illustrations of the wild craze that swept over Pennsyl- 
vania about 1865, when the desire to become suddenly rich 
was met by the opportunity ^s the two have seldom met be- 
fore. The mad excitement that almost carried the sober Key- 
stone state "off its leg's," to speak figuratively, has perhaps 
not been equalled since the day of the "south sea bubble" in 
the lifetime of Robert Walpole. The narratives of both read 
in the present day more like fiction than the literal facts of his- 
tory. In reality the facts surpass fiction. 
But the craze passed in California as it passed in Pennsyl- 
\'ania and petroleum-getting has settled down into a steady 
industry. Less steady, it is true, than in Pennsylvania, because 
the ground is less investigated and consequently the element 
of chance is a larger factor in the problem than in the East. 
The conditions are less understood. Pennsylvanian exper- 
ience is not necessarily or always useful in California. The 
high price of fuel on the Pacific coast renders profit attain- 
able in places and among circumstances which would, in the 
Atlantic state, entail only loss. Consequently operators have 
been compelled to a large extent to exploit the new field under 
