N'otcs on Petroleum in California. — Clay pole. 153 
depth of sixty feet. So striking a result immediately at- 
tracted attention and wells rapidly multiplied in number and 
increased in depth. The sand thickens to the north and west 
and is so reliable that few or no dry holes have been sunk in 
this field. The sand has been tested for about ten miles in 
one direction and on an average for a mile and a half in the 
other. 
An unusual circumstance connected with the Kern county 
field is that the strata are almost undisturbed and few indi- 
cations of oil are seen on the surface. The greatest depth ot 
the oil-sand is about 1,000 feet but the average is much less. 
The quantity contained in the ground must be enormous, the 
sand being more than 300 feet thick and containing, by con- 
servative estimate, ten to fifteen per cent of oil. 
Ventura county was the first paying oil-field of California 
but until within the last twenty years the results were small. 
Then began a more thorough exploration and some wells ex- 
ceeding 2,500 feet in depth were sunk in Adam cafion. 
There are at present more than three hundred wells in Ven- 
tura county, most of them productive, but on the whole their 
paying life is not long for in a year or two their yield by 
pumping falls below paying level. Some have started with 
300 barrels daily and are already practically dry after yield- 
ing probably 100,000 to 150,000 barrels during their life- 
time. 
Summerland in Santa Barbara county is remarkable 
among oil-fields everywhere because the work is carried on 
partly under the sea. Not only are wells drilled close to the 
water but many are sunk from wharves run out into the 
ocean for the purpose. Of these very few disappoint reason- 
able expectations. Some of these marine bores have reached 
a depth of 800 feet penetrating two oil-sands and oil has some- 
times leaked into holes dug on the beach to the depth of only 
six or eight feet. No one of them gives a great yield of oil, 
a few barrels a day being the average, but almost all are in 
a paying condition. 
The view from the beach at Summerland is unicjue resem- 
bling no other in the world. Slender wharves of seemingly 
frail construction run out from the beach and are crossed by 
others like themselves so that the bav is a maze of timber work 
