HAYES AND 
KENNEDY. 
PORT ARTHUR-SABINE PASS DISTRICT. 107 
sion, of spreading in a thin film, it could scarcely sink to the bottom 
and become entangled in mud to the depth at which it is now found. 
Again, the oil is found only along the west jetty, whereas, if it had 
floated down the river it should be found in equal or greater quanti- 
ties along the east jetty, owing to the direction of the prevailing winds 
and currents. Finally, while the chief attention has been attracted 
to it since the discovery of the Beaumont field, it is reported on good 
authority that the oil was observed while the jetties were being con- 
structed, many years before it could possibly have been derived from 
Beaumont. 
The conclusion appears inevitable, therefore, that the oil is either 
indigenous in the mud forming the Gulf bottom, or, if derived from 
any extraneous source, that this source is the underlying beds. It is 
of course possible that it has been formed in place, through chemical 
or organic agencies, chiefly by living diatoms, as suggested by Dr. 
Phillips in the report above quoted. While he does not state his con- 
clusion explicitly, he apparently inclines to the view that while the 
oil actually found is derived from the Beaumont field, oil of similar 
character may be secreted by the diatoms living in the mud. In order 
to determine this point numerous samples of mud were collected at 
various places in the vicinity, from the surface, at different depths 
of water, and from a considerable depth below the surface. These 
were submitted for chemical and microscopical study to Dr. Harold 
J. Turner, of Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Turner's results are 
here given in full: 
EXAMINATION OF MUD FROM GULF OF MEXICO. 
By H. J. Turner. 
"In the plasma" of certain species of diatoms numerous minute 
globules of oil are contained. They are distributed irregularly 
through the body. In the genera Navicula and Pleurosigma the 
globules are relatively large, and in Navicula most numerous. Under 
the microscope the globules of oil in the body of the diatom strike the 
eye at once by their great refraction of the light. The fatty nature 
of the globule is shown by its immediately turning dark upon stain- 
ing with osmic acid, as was first pointed out by Schultze. 6 Diatoms 
are plants, and build up their organic structure under the influence 
of light from carbon dioxide and water. Starch and sugar are not 
formed, and it may well be that the oil is the first product of assimila- 
tion. Both Li'iders'' and Pfitzer'' have observed that the fatt}^ oil is 
«E. Pfitzer, Ban mid Entwickmng der Baoillariaceen, in J. Hanstein's Botanische Abhand- 
lung, 1871, p. :«. 
bSchultze, Bewegung der Diatomen, p. 874. 
c Liiders, Beobaehtung, n. s. w., p. 42. 
^Pfitzer, Hanstein's Botanische Abhandlung, p. 34. 
