Notes on Petroleum in California. — Clay pole. 159 
the eastern states where it is sold at a good profit. Being a 
soHd it canot be passed through pipes but a very ingenious 
device has been recently adopted to transmit it. The as- 
phaltum is dissolved in naptha and in this condition of solu- 
tion passed through the pipe-line from the mines of Santa 
Barbara county to the coast where the naptha is evaporated 
and sent back for another load of asphaltum. 
Little has been said here about the gas that accompanies 
the petroleum, though its quantity and value are large, be- 
cause it has not yet come extensively into use as an illuminant. 
L'n fortunately the wells where the gas pressure is greatest 
are usually far removed from cities and sufficient confidence 
is not yet felt in its persistence to warrant the laying of pipes 
to carry this most valuable and convenient fuel from the place 
of production to the place of consumption. Should its flow 
continue and increase there is no doubt that the day of its 
utilization will soon arrive. As yet, however, no Murrays- 
ville or Grapeville or New Washington has been evolved in 
California. 
Since the above paper was written news has come from 
Texas of a discovery of petroleum which may fairly be com- 
pared with some of the greatest on record. At Beaumont, 
near the mouth of the Nachet, a tributary of the Sabine river, 
a bore-hole was drilled with the intention of experimenting 
but apparently without any very strong confidence in the re- 
sult. 
Allowing for considerable exaggeration in the early re- 
ports, we cannot doubt that a new and important factor has 
come into the problem and one which may have great conse- 
quences. It must equal most of the great giishers even if it fall 
far short of the 25,000 barrels a day first reported. From a six- 
inch hole the oil is said to jet to the hight of 200 feet. 
For four days the flow continued and to check it was im- 
possible. Before this was at last accomplished it was esti- 
mated that 150.000 barrels had flowed out much of which had 
been saved in hastily constructed earthen tanks. The well has 
been since reported to yield 8,000 barrels daily. It is onl\- 
twenty miles from the coast. 
Later still comes a similar report from the older oil-field 
of Indiana which, though on a rather smaller scale indicates 
that the days of "oil-strikes" have not yet altogether gone by 
