HAYES AND"] 
KENNEDY. J 
PORT ARTHUR-SABINE PASS DISTRICT. 
105 
coming from submarine springs spreads over the surface of the water 
for a short distance around the vents, and thus prevents the waves 
breaking. So widespread is this view that accounts of these "oil 
ponds " are common in the literature relating to the use of oil on the 
water during storms at sea. It does not appear, however, that any 
oil film has ever been observed on the surface of these portions of the 
Gulf, and the commonly accepted explanation merely rests on an 
inference from the observed effect of oil artificially applied. 
Dr. A\ r . I>. Phillips" accepts the facts above stated, but offers another 
explanation, namely, that the quiet water is due not to oil, but to the 
presence upon the Gulf bottom of very fine mud containing a large 
amount of decayed organic matter which is stirred up by the waves 
Fig. 4. — Map of Sabine Pass, showing location of so-called oil ponds. 
and produces the same effect as oil spread upon the surface. Quoting 
Dr. Phillips's words: 
The true explanation of the so-called oil pond appears to be as follows: The bot- 
tom of the sea there is composed, for the most part, of a thick black mud in which 
are embedded various animal and vegetable remains. Under the incipient decom- 
position that is nearly always in progress in such material, substances of a more 
or less oily nature are formed. The absorption or segregation of oil by means of 
certain diatoms may also have contributed to the presence of oily substances in 
the ooze. When this mass becomes stirred up by wave action and diffuses itself 
through the water, rising even to the surface, the roughness of the water is affected 
"Texas petroleum: Bull. Univ. Texas No. 5, July, 1900. 
