6 University Geological Survey of Kansas. 
““Asphaltum is found in the Dead Sea, the supposed site of 
Sodom and Gomorrah, and on the surface of a chain of springs 
along its banks, far below the level of the ocean. Strabo re- 
ferred to this remarkable feature 2000 years ago. The destruc- 
tion of the two ill-fated cities may have been connected with, 
if not caused by, vast natural stores of this inflammable petro- 
leum. The immense accumulations of hardened rock-oil in the 
center and on the banks of the sea were oxidized into resin-like 
asphalt. Pieces picked up from the waters are frequently 
carved, in the convents of Jerusalem, into ornaments, which 
retain an oily flavor. Aristotle, Josephus and Pliny mention 
similar deposits at Albania, on the shores of the Adriatic. 
Dioscorides Pedanius, the Greek historian, tells how the citi- 
zens of Agrigentum, in Sicily, burned petroleum in rude lamps 
prior to the birth of Christ. For two centuries it lighted the 
streets of Genoa and Parma, in northern Italy. Plutarch de- 
scribes a lake of blazing petroleum near Ecbatana. Persian 
wells have produced oil liberally for ages, under the name of 
‘naphtha,’ the descendants of Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes con- 
suming the fluid for its light. The earliest records of China 
refer to petroleum, and small quantities have been found in 
Thibet. An oil-fountain on one of the Ionian islands has 
gushed steadily for over twenty centuries without once going 
on a strike or taking a vacation. Austria and France likewise 
possess oil-springs of considerable importance. Thomas Shir- 
ley, in 1667, tested the contents of a shallow pit in Lancashire, 
England, which burned readily. Rev. John Clayton visited it 
and wrote in 1691: ‘I saw a ditch where the water burned like 
brandy. Country-folk boil eggs and meat in it.’ 
‘“‘Near Bitche, a small fort perched on the top of a peak at 
the entrance of one of the defiles of Lorraine opening into the 
Vosges mountains—a fort which was of great embarrassment 
to the Prussians in their last French campaign—and in the 
valley guarded by this fortress, stand the chateau and village 
of Walsbroun, so named from a strange spring in the forest 
behind it. In the middle ages this fountain was famous. In- 
scriptions, ancient coins and the relics of a Roman road attest 
that it had been celebrated even in earlier times. In the six- 
teenth century a basin and bath for sick people existed. No 
record of its abandonment has been preserved. In the last 
century it was rediscovered by a medical antiquarian, who 
found the naphtha, or white petroleum, almost exhausted. ; 
‘““Around the volcanic isles of Cape Verde oil floats on the 
water, and to the south of Vesuvius rises through the Mediter- 
ranean, exactly as when ‘the morning stars sang together.’ 
Hanover, in Germany, boasts the most northerly of European 
‘earth-oils.’ The islands of the Ottoman archipelago and Syria 
are richly endowed with the same product. Roumania is liter- 
ally flowing with petroleum, which oozes from the Carpathians 
and pollutes the water-springs. Turkish domination has hin- 
