THE CANADIAN OIL REGION.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 6, Issue 278, 23 January 1862, Page 4

THE CANADIAN OIL REGION.

[From a Correspondent of the Toronto Leader.]

Leaving London by the 2.40 p.m. train, your correspondent went direct to Wyoming—the debarking point for Black Creek, as any one might suppose who is favoured with a sense of smeli. The peculiar odour of the oil, which is here stored in large quantities for carriage to the Eastern markets, is perceived, especially if the wind happens to be favourable, at the distance of a mile or two.

I found the oil region extending over a limited space. The place—Black Creek —derives its name from a creek of that name running through the oil region. It is about half way between the eastern and western limits of Enniskillen township, but at the extreme south end, distant from Wyoming twelve miles ; from Sarnia twenty-four; and-'from the St. Clair river about sixteen. Black Creek seems to be the richest territory yet discovered in Canada, and, according to some of the best authorities, it is the richest in America. Wandering along the banks and in the fiats of the stream, which certainly deserves the name it bears, I at every few rods came across a well. They were in every stage of procedure. Some were just commenced ; some were just finished ; from many men were pumping oil into huge vats. Here let me say that the wells are of different kinds. First, there are the surface - wells, so called because they are only sunk to the rock ; these are for the most pirt on the flats of the creek.' Some of them, when within a few feet of the rock, quickly filled with oil, which, with much noise and uproar of gas, bursts in from;-the loose, gravelly substa'nce overlying the rock. I have known wells 50 feet deep and five feet square fill to the brim with oil. Nay, 1 have seen it flow over the top and run away in a stream, wasting hundreds of barrels. These wells are dug large, the sides are cribbed and then puddled, so as to keep out the surface water. Surface wells are dug and finished for about 3 dols per foot. The oil from these wells is thicker and less pure than that from the rock wells, but a refiner told me that, though it was harder to deodorise and refine than the rock oil, yet, when manufactured, it made the best oil'; having more body, it gave the best light, and burnt longer. It is also best for lubricating purposes. For rock wells they frequently sink a well like a surface well, and then drill; but more frequently the soil is bored out with a large auger until the reck is I’eached, a distance varying from 40 to 70 feet. Then piping like pump logs is put in and driven down snug on the rock. After this the slow process of drilling is carried on, by foot, horse power, or with steam engines, sinking from a few inches to perhaps ten feet per day, accoi’ding to the nature of the rock. This drilling is done for about 2 dols 50 cents per foot. The character of the rock seems to vary with every well. It is generally, however, soapstone, with layers of shale, which is here in very small quantities, though at other parts of the township I have known drillers to go through 50 or 60 feet without change. There are also layers of sandstone, flint rock, and sulphate of iron ; these vary in quantity at every welt, though distant but a few rods. In the soapstone the oil is generally ajUd at various distances from the surface. - A continuation of little veins may be struck ; then all at once a larger one, which may cause the oil to be forced in immense quantities <?i\it of the pipe. I have been told that before January 500 wells will be down ; and I believe it. I came across a well every few reds, in a few places we encountered buildings of more pretentious appearance than the majority; here were wells ■worked by steam engines. How they were ever got in I know not, but here they are working-night and' day. Large vats and tanks hold the oil. Some of them hold 1000 barrels ; the largest are immense pits sunk in the stiff clay, cribbed and puddled, and these, they say, are better than wooden vats, which leak the oil; out, so penetrating is it. There being no pine) the houses are’ for the most part built of logs or hark of the elm, which is here stripped for- that purpose. Thelife led by the oilmen very much resembles that of the gold-diggers of California. There was much discomfort, but the prospect of gain is better and more reliable than ever held out by California. Scarcely a well at Black Creek fails. Fabulous prices have been paid for good wells. Some acre lots sell as high as. 1000 dols.

As far as I could judge, failure is the exception. Not one man in twenty who pretended to be in the oil regions failed to get oil; nor has any rock well shown signs of drying up. While I was there quietly looking on ; , I saw wells yield dayafter day from, 10. to 50 barrels. Hundreds of people are coming \n every week from all parts of America, most of them from'Oliio and Pennsylvania—men who. have seen the good thing made by those who were lucky in getting into, tb.e Pennsylvania oil regions at" the beginning, but who were too poor to do anything there now. They are men of limited capital for the most part, but of untiring energy and industry. There is ho doubt of it, a source of untold wealth is in our midst—an oil territory richer than any yet discovered—and yet we Canadians know it not; or, rather, we won’t let ourseve3 know it, but shut-our eyes to statements of facts

until people from another country come in and take advantage of opportunities that we let slip. If a particle of gold had. been found there, how soon -woiild tlie country ring with the tidings 1 Yet here is something equally valuable, and, for some unknown reason, all information regarding it has been sedulously withheld from the public until nine-tenths*of the people even in Toronto deem the whole thing a hoax. Thanks, however, to the enterprise of some of the Torontonians, the Americans are no longer to enjoy a monopoly of the oil refining business. One firm in Toronto is buying some thousand barrels, while another is introducing it largely into Europe. Once the European market is opened it must create an immense trade, for a substance of which are made refined toilet soaps, candles superior to wax, oil that gives a cheaper and not less beautiful light than gas, and much moi*e convenient, and furnishing the best machine and lubricating oil yet known, must ultimately be brought into universal use.