A TRIP TO THE OIL SPRINGS OF HAWKES BAY.

Evening Star, Issue 3434, 23 February 1874, Page 3

A TRIP TO THE OIL SPRINGS OF HAWKES BAY.

The following extract from an account of a trip to the Poverty Bay oil springs, in the ‘Poverty Bay Herald’ of the sth inst., will be interesting to many of our readers - t About three miles from the creek, over the hills, and along the summit of the range, we come to our destination, the first of the oil springs. It is situated on the very highest point of the range. What we see as we alight is a patch of earth, a few yards square, bare of vegetation, and in the centre of this, a hole five or si* feet deep filled with water, on the surface of which floats a red oily substance that looks something like iron rust, This is the petroleum. Gas and oil are con. tinually rising in bubbles to the surface of the water. The ground round abput trembles when walked over, as if it were merely the crust of some large reservoir. The hole was dug when the springs were first discovered, As the water is almost brimming over even in dry weather, the oil has no opportunity of accumulating. Jt is continually being floated off over the brink. The spring is chiefly remarkable owing to its situation, The fact of its being on the highest point of the range seems to show that in it we have tapped the true source of the petroleum, not a mere exudation from a source higher up. In other respects it is not such a good spring as some of those lower down the hill. Passing it, and taking a course due south, we find ourselves in a valley leading downwards toward the flat. The declivity, however, is very gradual, as are also the slopes on each side. In the centre of this valley is the bed of a creek, dry at this time of the year, and in or near the bed are the rest of the oil springs. There are about half a dozen of them in all, probably more. All lie in a line running about due north and south, and all present a similar appearance, being patches of barren ground with water holes in the centre, covered with red oily scum, and having bubbles continually rising to the surface. About a hundred yards, however, from the saddle, at the summit of the valley, is one where the oil is to be found in much greater abundance than in any of the others, and which merits a separate notice. At it, as in others, there are two or three of the holes covered with red scum. Under an overhanging bank, however, and thus shaded from the sun, was to be seen a hole filled with a dark green liquid, which was continually welling up from the interior of the earth. The dark green liquid, we found, was the oil itself ; and in this spring one cannot help asking, have we not what is in the truest sense of the word a ‘ ‘ flowing well ?” True, it did not spout out in a column, “a foot in diameter,” still it did in a steady and continuous stream. The color of the oil, which was lying motionless in the pool ? became transformed to a rusty red, while the bubbles that wpllod up through it were of an extremely pale greem S|nplarly, |t ig WQftfc wtyle tp observe tjiat

though the oil as gathered was green, and indeed remains so, when held up to the eye it has a red light.