Xotcs on Petroleitni in Calif oniia. — Clay pole. 155 
solid portion, not paraffine but asphaltum. In the mode of 
"getting" it little difference exists between the two regions. 
Nor do the processes of refining differ to any important de- 
gree. But there are great and noteworthy differences be- 
tween the products of the various fields. For example a part 
of the Newhall field yields an oil almost as clear as the refined 
coal-oil of Pennsylvania and fit for use in a lamp without re- 
fining. It is worth at least $4.00 a barrel at the wells. There 
is no difficulty in realizing the effect which the sinking of 
such a well yielding 100 barrels of the oil daily would have 
upon the local market. These are the famous oil-wells of the 
Placerita canon. A heavy oil carrying a large amount of 
asphaltum is found in some parts of Kern county and perhaps 
not half a mile distant a lighter one more like some of the 
eastern oils. Most of the Californian oils however are dark 
and heavy and consequently yield a lower percentage of kero- 
sene. The gravity varies from twelve or fifteen or even less 
in the Kern river and Santa Barbara districts to thirty and 
thirty-five at Puente and to fifty in some wells near Newhall. 
OIL PRODUCTION OF CALIFORNIA. 
1876 12,000 barrels. 
1880 40,552 
1885 325,000 
1890 367,300 
1895 1,208,482 
1896 1,252,777 
1897 1,903,411 
1898 2,257,207 
1899 2,665,709 
Geology. Not the least surprising fact to the geologist 
accustomed to the conditions in the East is the recency of 
the oil-bearing strata and the shallowness of the wells. Most 
of California is a young state geologically and no one of her 
petroleum yielding rocks is of earlier than Cretaceous da^e, 
whereas in Pennsylvania and other eastern states few are later 
then the Chemung of the Devonian and many of them, as in 
Ohio, as early as the Trenton of the Ordovician system. In- 
deed in the western and central parts of the state, strata of 
earlier date than Cretaceous are comparatively rare, almost 
the whole surface being composed of late Mesozoic or Ceno- 
