OIL WELLS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1951, 28 March 1885, Page 2

OIL WELLS.

Over twenty years have elapsed since Colonel Drake first' "struck oil" in America. Petroleum springs, however, were not unknown before. St. Catherine's Well, near Liberton, in Scotland, was a famous resort of invalids three centuries ago, whatever virtue. its waters possessed in the cure of..cutaneous diseases being due to the constant pre, sence on its surface of a small-quantity of petroleum—an oil whicn it still, continues to yield. It was from a petroleum spring issuing from the crevices of the coal in a Derbyshire mine.that Mr James Young first obtained, in 1848, the, crude oil from which he extracted paraffin. It was, only when this source "gaveout" that, luckily for Scotland, he hit upon his method of obtaining artificially the crude oil by the' distillation of shale, and thus established an industry whose rate of growth has been unparalled in the history of our manufactures. At the present- time about WOOOtonsofshalearethusannuallymined in Scotland, yielding nearly 30 million gallons qf crude oil. The method of'thus obtaining mineral pil artificially affords a probable clue to its formation by nature. Petroleum occurs in strata of-all/ageß; from the lowest fosgUiferous formations' to the most recent; but in these it is chiefly found in connection with beds of coal, and other rocks of more or less organic composition; and the most probable theory of its origin is that it has been distilled from rooks In whioh ancient vegetable and animal life has been entombed, by the action on these of slow subterranean heat. On this theory, the oil, which forms a scum on the waters of St, Catherine's Well, is the result of Nature's distillation of the same shales which are now being made to yield up their oil much more rapidly in the retorts that now abound in that neighbourhood. During the millions of years which are supposed to have elapsed sinoe the deposiiion of the richest oil-yielding strata, there has been ample time for the production and storage of vast quantities of petroleum; and that such accumulations have taken place the oil wells of America abundantly testify. The quantity of petroleum that has been raised in Pennsylvania since the first well was sunk, in 1859, would seem to indicate the presence of vast subterranean lakes, which twentytwo years of constant outflow had not sufficed to drain. In the State alone, 1,800,000 gallons are said to be brought daily to the surface; and although the various oil companies have storage for at least five million barrels, of 49 gallons each, these often prove insufficient for the quantity of oil raised, In these circumstances the material runs to waste,; audit was lately computed that, from want of sufficient storage, 300,000 gallons were lost daily in Pennsylvania,