UC-NRLF 
 
 u n 
 
 PETROLEUM 
 1 CANADA 
 
THE WORLD'S LARGEST OIL WELL, MEXICO 
 ESTIMATED FLOW 170,000 BARRELS PER DAY. 
 
PBTROLEUM/tfCANADA 
 
 x^K Victor Ross 
 

 Copyrighted, Canada, 1917 
 
 PRICE $1.00 
 
THE preparation of this volume has been as 
 much a matter of editing as of original research, 
 so many and so varied have been the sources 
 of information drawn upon. Indeed, it would be 
 difficult to apportion the responsibility, but in 
 passing on the result to the reader one is glad of 
 the opportunity to extend grateful thanks to all of 
 those who have so generously and so ably assisted, 
 and in doing so to say that while this assistance has 
 come from authoritative sources the book pretends 
 to be nothing more than a somewhat casual and 
 deliberately non-technical commercial story. 
 
 VICTOR Ross 
 Toronto, 1917 
 
 M236782 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 1. INTRODUCTORY -------- 1 
 
 2. THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM - 6 
 
 3. THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY IN WESTERN ONTARIO - 12 
 
 4. EARLY HISTORY OF THE WESTERN ONTARIO OIL FIELDS 24 
 
 5. THE DRILLING AND SHOOTING OF OIL WELLS 31 
 
 6. METHODS OF STORING AND REFINING 39 
 
 7. BOOM DAYS IN ALBERTA 52 
 
 8. PETROLEUM IN WESTERN CANADA . ... 66 
 
 9. PETROLEUM IN EASTERN CANADA - 79 
 
 10. COMPANIES, REFINERIES AND INDIVIDUAL PRODUCERS 85 
 
 11. SOME PRODUCTS AND USES OF PETROLEUM - - 100 
 
 12. THE FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY IN CANADA - - 105 
 
CHAPTER 1. 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 r I ^HE beginnings of all industries are gilded 
 I by legend and shadowed by mystery and the 
 * petroleum industry is no exception. It is 
 at once one of the oldest sources of commercial 
 gain, and one of the youngest developments of 
 vast productive trade. Today it is a basic in- 
 dustry in the sense that many other industries 
 depend upon it; fifty or sixty years ago it was 
 regarded in no such light. Today the known 
 possession of large deposits of petroleum, which 
 in its Latin derivatives means literally "rock-oil," 
 gives to any nation or territory economic im- 
 portance; a half a century ago statisticians seldom 
 thought of it as adding materially to any 
 community's wealth and power. Its development 
 as a factor in the industrial progress of mankind 
 has been almost coincident with electricity, and 
 it may be safely said that, in the arts of peace 
 and war, it is a hardly less important factor. 
 The oil deposits of the earth are the objectives 
 not merely of commercial conflict, but of military 
 enterprise. 
 
 In the greatest of wars, which at the time of writing 
 is in progress, we read of armies striking at 
 or tenaciously defending territories, for the main 
 reason that petroleum abounds therein. Its rapid 
 production has revolutionized transport on sea 
 and land. It, in common with electricity and steam, 
 
has relegated the horse to a secondary place in 
 the solution of the problems of transport. It has 
 made submarine and aerial warfare possible, and 
 has revolutionized naval construction. Yet its 
 possibilities were undreamed of by the grandfathers 
 of boys still at school. 
 
 Nevertheless petroleum was collected for the use 
 of mankind, and for the service of religion before 
 the dawn of recorded history. It plays its part 
 in the earliest annals of the human race. It is 
 one of the bitumens that were in familiar use by 
 the ancients; the fluid relative of the pitch with 
 which Noah was directed to tighten the seams of 
 his ark. 
 
 The "oil out of the flinty rock" alluded to in Deuter- 
 onomy and other books of the Old Testament is 
 the veritable fluid from which so many sudden for- 
 tunes have been made in these latter days. Bib- 
 lical allusions indicate that the priests not only 
 of the Hebrews but of the other tribes of the East 
 used natural oils for their altars. Like many gifts 
 of nature it was regarded as miraculous by the 
 ancient peoples who knew nothing of scientific 
 theory. The burning wells of Baku were an object- 
 ive of religious pilgrimage among prehistoric peoples, 
 and despite the waste that went on in ages past, 
 they still flow, though the output is now devoted to 
 practical uses, and no longer plays its part in religious 
 mysteries. The Zoroastrians, or fireworshippers of 
 Persia and India, saw in these wells the manifestation 
 of a great spirit imprisoned deep in the earth, who 
 was supposed to breathe an inflammable vapor 
 
from his nostrils. Zoroaster had his fire temple 
 at Baku, and it is probable, that these inflammable 
 wells did much to confirm the literal idea of 
 Hell, common to many religions of Semitic origin. 
 Alexander the Great, the conqueror of Asia, saw 
 the burning lake of Ectabana centuries before the 
 birth of Christ, and Marco Polo, the mediaeval 
 explorer, with all his romancing, revealed the truth 
 about the oil resources of Baku in later centuries 
 and discerned their commercial value. Before his 
 time the Roman conquerors had realized the value 
 of the mineral oils of the near East and used them 
 as illuminants. Nor were the ancients ignorant 
 of the value of petroleum in its various forms as 
 a cure for natural ills, and used it both externally 
 and internally. The fact that it had, in their 
 eyes, a magic origin, heightened its curative value 
 for them. 
 
 The ancient peoples of the regions of the Black 
 Sea and the Persian Gulf were not alone in appreci- 
 ating the practical uses of this gift of bounteous 
 nature. The oldest records of China and Japan 
 contain allusions to the use of natural oil and gas 
 for heating and lighting, while Europe in the middle 
 ages was aware of the medicinal value of the oil 
 deposits of Galicia, Northern Italy and Bavaria. 
 Since the middle of the nineteenth century the 
 most prolific source of oil in the w T orld has been 
 the continent of North America, but the knowledge 
 of its resources in this respect are not entirely a 
 modern discovery. As early as 1632 Joseph de la 
 Roche d'Allion gave an account of oil springs he 
 had seen in what is now the State of New York, 
 
and his record was published in Sagard's "Histoire 
 du Canada." 
 
 Modern investigation and modern invention, going 
 hand in hand, have swept away the old legends 
 which gave a magical glamor to petroleum and have 
 made it the vehicle of vast commercial expansion. 
 Strangely enough, oil production as a commercial 
 enterprise, in the present-day acceptation of the 
 term, began not in the United States, as many 
 suppose, but in the little land of Roumania, where 
 the industry was started in 1857 and has steadily 
 increased ever since, though production has never 
 reached anything like the volume it has attained 
 in States like California and Pennsylvania. The 
 United States entered the field in 1859 and Italy, 
 where the industry has never assumed serious pro- 
 portions, a year later. Other countries have be- 
 come producers in the following order: Canada, 
 Russia, Austria (Galicia), Japan, Germany, India 
 (Burma), Dutch East Indies, Peru and Mexico. 
 The Mexican industry dates only from 1907 and 
 experts are unable to say what country may become 
 a new producer tomorrow, for no territory of con- 
 siderable extent is free from indications that may 
 bear fruit in the future. Prospecting has been 
 carried on in almost every part of the habitable 
 globe; much of it has been misdirected, but much 
 of it has also brought petroleum to light in unsus- 
 pected places. 
 
 Petroleum and its sister, natural gas, rank today 
 among the great natural resources of the world, 
 sought as eagerly as gold. Fortunate indeed is the 
 
country which possesses stores of petroleum, for, 
 like gold, it brings other industries with it, and a 
 healthy prosperity which helps to weave the ever- 
 growing fabric of international trade. 
 
CHAPTER 2. 
 
 THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF 
 PETROLEUM 
 
 SCIENTISTS have long been in dispute as to the 
 origin of petroleum. At one time the oil was 
 generally ascribed to inorganic sources, 
 and distinguished chemists expounded the various 
 chemical reactions by which petroleum could be 
 formed from various substances which might be 
 present deep beneath the earth's crust. The inorganic 
 theories, however, were not founded on observa- 
 tions in the field, but were constructed in labora- 
 tories by chemists who were not geologists. The 
 deeper the exploration into the earth the less 
 carbon and hydrogen is found, when the primary 
 crystalline rocks are composed of minerals which 
 are practically free of these elements. Thus the 
 carbides and other substances on which the theory 
 "inorganic origin" depends have not yet been 
 found, and this means of accounting for the sources 
 of petroleum remains purely hypothetical. 
 
 In recent years geological study of the world's oil 
 fields has led to the general conclusion that petroleum 
 is derived from organic material originally imprisoned 
 in the sediments which now compose the sedimentary 
 rocks. These sedimentary rocks are formed mainly 
 as the result of the erosion of the primary rocks, but 
 they contain in addition the remains of the organic 
 life, both animal and vegetable, which invested 
 
the earth through many age-long geological 
 periods. A part of this organic matter was pre- 
 served in the form of coal, other parts doubtless 
 decayed away and were not preserved, but a mere 
 fraction of the vast amount of organic matter 
 which must have originally accompanied the sedi- 
 ments would be ample to yield incalculable quan- 
 tities of oil and gas. 
 
 ANTICt-INAL FORMATION, NORTHWEST 
 TERRITORY. 
 
 There is much difference of opinion now as to the 
 particular kinds of animal or vegetable matter 
 that gave birth to petroleum; as to the particular 
 mode of decomposition by which it was generated; 
 as to the conditions favorable to the process; and 
 as to stage in the history of oil-bearing rock at 
 which the chemical transformation took place. One 
 of the important features, however, in the 
 occurrence of petroleum which is not yet satis- 
 factorily explained, even in the organic theories, 
 is the general association of salt with oil. Not 
 
only is strongly saline water commonly present 
 in the vicinity of petroliferous rocks, but in a num- 
 ber of fields the oil is closely connected with large 
 masses of rock-salt, gypsum and dolomite. It 
 seems likely that eventually some more satisfactory 
 modification of the organic theories will be evolved 
 in which these circumstances will have a place. 
 
 The term "coal-oil" applied to the form of petroleum, 
 at one time most generally in use, was born of a mis- 
 apprehension. It is said that in 1790 miners in 
 the Shropshire coal mines in England observed oil 
 trickling from the fissures in the veins and naturally 
 believed that it came from the coal. Many years 
 later this circumstance was quoted to sustain the 
 theory that soft coal beds were the source of supply. 
 When the first large deposits of petroleum in the 
 United States were discovered, bitumen coal was 
 also found in immense quantities in the same 
 regions: thus the belief that the two were of 
 common origin was fixed more firmly and the term 
 "coal-oil" came into general use. This belief was 
 common among operators until oil was found 
 at points far removed from any coal, as for 
 example in the Petrolia and Oil Springs fields of 
 Ontario. 
 
 Natural gas is a usual and extremely useful accom- 
 paniment of oil. With the "gushers" it is the gas that 
 sends the oil spouting into the air. From the tre- 
 mendous volume of oil that bursts from a flowing well 
 (170,000 barrels a day has been recorded) comes the 
 familiar and not unnatural belief in the existence of 
 huge subterranean pools or lakes of oil. But in reality, 
 
_l 
 
it is the solid rock itself 
 which is the reservoir 
 for the oil. When a 
 piece of oil rock is ex- 
 amined under a power- 
 ful glass, millions of 
 tiny interstices appeal- 
 between the different 
 sand grains. This 
 porous, oil-bearing sand 
 stone may very readily 
 contain one-tenth or 
 one-eighth of its bulk 
 in petroleum. Indeed, 
 some of the oil sands 
 of the Russian fields 
 have been estimated 
 to contain not less than 
 one-fifth of their bulk in petroleum. 
 
 The accumulation of oil in the earth, therefore, 
 would seem to call for the presence of a coarse grained 
 porous rock which may be roughly described as a 
 reservoir divided into infinitesimal compartments. 
 The usual reservoir rocks are sandstone, which 
 explains the common term "oil sands," although 
 certain limestones and occasionally conglomerates 
 serve the same purpose, but whatever the character 
 of the reservoir rock, it must be covered over 
 by some non-porous layer whose impervious 
 nature holds the oil until the drill penetrates the 
 strata, releasing the pent-up gas, oil, or water, so 
 that the liquid comes to the surface, either by 
 the natural pressure, or by pumping. 
 
 10 
 
There is no fixed rule governing oil-well production, 
 nor can the period of complete exhaustion be 
 accurately calculated. The yield may continue 
 years before the final cessation. If the well is then 
 abandoned for a period, it will not renew its full 
 former activity, but generally will yield some oil, 
 and this is taken to prove that the liquid mineral 
 is migratory. 
 
 11 
 
CHAPTER 3. 
 
 THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY IN 
 WESTERN ONTARIO 
 
 In the introduction to this volume allusion has 
 been made to the ancient recognition of the 
 uses of petroleum. In Canada the discovery of 
 such deposits and the subsequent growth of a 
 great industry therefrom belong wholly to the 
 modern and scientific era, and constitutes a very 
 interesting chapter in the history of the in- 
 dustrial development of this country. The in- 
 dustry is but little more than half a century old 
 and, until recent discoveries in the West, was 
 wholly centred in Lambton County, Ontario, on 
 the shores of Lake Huron. The peninsula which 
 extends between Lake Huron and Lake Erie is 
 rich in natural gas, which is usually associated with 
 petroleum, while the shores of Lake Huron, to the 
 north of it, are marked by salt deposits, which are 
 also a frequent accompaniment of oil deposits in 
 various parts of the world. 
 
 The discoveries on Black and Bear Creeks, in 
 Lambton County, from which the nourishing indus- 
 tries of Petrolia and Oil Springs have grown, were 
 due to the excitement which attended the 
 Pennsylvania discoveries, and set geologists and 
 prospectors scouring the whole Lake Erie region for 
 similar finds. 
 
 12 
 
The Province of Ontario has an area equal to 
 that of Germany and France combined. Southern, 
 or Old Ontario, is the oil and natural gas region 
 of the Province, nine-tenths of whose population 
 is concentrated within this territory, covering an 
 area greater than England. 
 
 Reference to the occurrence of oil, asphalt and 
 natural gas dates back to the earliest history of 
 Canada. In 1830 the settlers in the vicinity of 
 Enniskillen, in Lambton County the extreme 
 western part of Old Ontario noticed the presence 
 of oil in the swamps of that region. It was 
 called "gum oil" and was present in such quan- 
 tities as to be regarded as a nuisance because 
 it killed vegetation and so detracted from the 
 value of the land. 
 
 This is the district that was destined to figure as 
 the centre of oil production in British North America. 
 The two fields in Lambton County Petrolia and 
 Oil Springs became the most important in the 
 Dominion. To all intents they are one in 
 community of interest, although there is a slight 
 difference in the grade of oil that comes 
 from each. 
 
 The paying wells in this territory are confined to 
 a belt running northwest and southeast for about 
 twenty miles with a width varying from one to 
 four miles. The centre of the belt is situate about 
 sixteen miles southeast of Sarnia. The area of 
 the Petrolia field is twenty-six square miles, and 
 of the Oil Springs pool, two square miles. In 
 
 13 
 
structure the formation is scientifically described 
 as anticlinal, that is to say, the strata are folded 
 in the form of an arch. 
 
 Oil has been found in the various parts of the 
 Devonian and Silurian formations, but the produc- 
 tion has been derived mainly from the Corniferous 
 Limestone, which is a member of the Devonian. 
 Oil was discovered in the adjoining county of Kent, 
 south of Lambton, soon after the first drilling in 
 the Petrolia district, and at one time its average 
 production exceeded the pioneer producer. 
 
 Commercial petroleum was brought into existence 
 in Canada in 1858 by J. H. Williams, of Hamilton, 
 who was attracted by what was known as the 
 "gum beds" of Oil Springs. Because he was 
 familiar with the discovery of petroleum in the 
 Old World, Mr. Williams set about extracting what 
 he believed to be the same sort of naphtha as 
 that produced by the wells in Baku. His first 
 effort took the form of a retort and the gum was 
 boiled. This primitive attempt at distillation pro- 
 duced a comparatively light, irridescent liquid. 
 In the hope that he might obtain greater quantities 
 by digging beneath the surface of the gum beds, he 
 excavated a well, and found that the deeper he 
 penetrated the earth, the greater the yield. This 
 was really the first oil well in America and was dug 
 a year before Drake's well in Pennsylvania, 1859, 
 although it did not pierce the limestone. 
 
 The experiment attracted many persons to the field, 
 and ten or twelve shallow wells were opened at 
 Black Creek, in the vicinity of Oil Springs. It 
 
 14 
 
was not until February, 1862, however, that what 
 may be termed the first real oil well was drilled. 
 This was the achievement of James Shaw, a poor 
 photographer, who had lived in the vicinity for 
 many years, and had been a close observer of the 
 methods of the prospectors. With the old-fashioned 
 spring pole worked by foot-power Shaw punched 
 the cap of the upper vein of oil rock at a 
 depth of 165 feet at Oil Springs. The result was 
 a well that gushed thousands of gallons an hour and 
 flowed for a comparatively long period. 
 
 Shaw received no permanent benefit from his dis- 
 covery and is said to have died in poverty. He was 
 offered $25,000 in gold for his property when the 
 well began to flow, but declined all proposals and 
 lived to see the day when it dwindled down to a 
 "pumper" of a few barrels a day. 
 
 The excitement in the oil regions of Pennsylvania 
 was keen when Shaw made his strike and this was 
 communicated to Oil Springs and to Petrolia, the 
 tremendous yield leading to the belief that the 
 region was richer than that of Oil Creek, Venango 
 County, Pennsylvania. Speculators were pouring 
 in by hundreds and land values experienced a sud- 
 den appreciation. The prediction was made (al- 
 though it was not based on scientific knowledge) 
 that the field would continue long after the Penn- 
 sylvania field had become exhausted. Many of 
 the wells produced as high as 2,000 barrels a day. 
 Three yielded 6,000 and the Black and Mathieson 
 had a record of 7,000 barrels a day for more than 
 two months. 
 
 15 
 
Another prolific oil deposit was struck at Bothwell, 
 in Kent County, and the story goes that the first 
 well was sold for a wheel-barrow filled with gold 
 coin. Investors and promoters came from the 
 United States and many crossed from England to 
 make their fortunes in the new Oil Eldorado. 
 Operators were working independently without any 
 idea of concentrating their energy, and there was a 
 great deal of confusion and loss in the marketing of 
 the product. 
 
 The first oil refinery in Canada was established 
 at Oil Springs. Its nearby neighbor, Petrolia, came 
 into existence later. 
 
 Petrolia, or Petrolea, as it formerly was spelled, is 
 the hub from which the oil industry of British 
 North America has radiated to the thirty-two 
 points of the compass. It is to the Dominion of 
 Canada what Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, is to the 
 United States the genesis of the development of 
 
 16 
 
one of the mightiest factors in modern industry, 
 and, like its contemporary across the border, is an 
 inconspicuous dot on the map of the North 
 American continent. The bustle and feverish 
 energy of the early days of oil discovery have 
 departed, and Petrolia has in their stead the 
 wholesome repose of a quiet, well-ordered society 
 in possession of all of the social and educational 
 advantages enjoyed by larger communities. 
 
 From an inconspicuous, unknown hamlet it quickly 
 rose to prominence. An oil exchange was estab- 
 lished and the operators met daily to fix prices and 
 to discuss ways and means for the promotion of the 
 industry. 
 
 The co-operation of the oil men on the ground, which 
 provided large quantities of crude at reduced prices, 
 opened an export market that kept the field clear 
 until 1873, when the suddenly increased output 
 
 17 
 
from the McKean County field of Pennsylvania 
 paralyzed the Canadian trade. For a considerable 
 period the home market could not take even one- 
 half of the output, but in time the consumption in- 
 creased as new products created new uses. The 
 development of the vast agricultural resources of 
 the Dominion had then scarcely begun. Settle- 
 ments in the West were still small and scattered, 
 and the situation demanded that the energy and re- 
 sources of the oil producer and oil refiner should be 
 directed towards the expansion of the export trade. 
 
 From 1870 to 1873 sixty per cent, of the refined 
 product the burning oil was sent to the United 
 Kingdom, the Continent and Mediterranean ports. 
 Gasoline was then unknown. Benzine was the 
 nearest approach to it, but it was regarded with a good 
 deal of disfavor. Little was known of the process by 
 which lubricating oil could be manufactured, and 
 the demand for lubricants was limited. 
 
 From Petrolia to Oil Springs is eight miles as the 
 crow flies. Between these points that mark the 
 first and greatest productions of petroleum in British 
 North America, the land is totally barren of oil 
 or natural gas. Oil Springs is the older, but as the 
 oil region was developed, the interests of the two 
 communities ran parallel. Both sought oil in the 
 territory that lay between them, but without suc- 
 cess, as the scores of dry holes testify. The spec- 
 tacle is presented today of a forest of three-legged 
 derricks that stand over producing wells on either 
 side of a tract that, as far as oil is concerned, is a 
 desert as dry as Sahara. 
 
 18 
 
The first newspaper devoted to the oil interests to be 
 published in the Dominion of Canada appeared April 
 23, 1862, under the title of the "Oil Springs Chron- 
 icle." To the first issue was contributed a remark- 
 able prediction as to the future uses of petroleum, 
 and although practically nothing was known of the 
 value of the residuals of petroleum fifty-four years 
 ago this look into the future revealed with mar- 
 vellous clearness the picture now familiar to all. It 
 was written by Professor J. Y. Hind, of Toronto, 
 who, after discussing the chemical constituents of 
 the fluid as they were known in his day, made the 
 following prophecy: 
 
 "From its cheapness, petroleum will necessarily 
 supersede alcohol, which is commonly used 
 for fuel for cooking purposes during the summer 
 months, and we may look for its adoption as 
 fuel for the generation of steam in our ocean 
 steamers where economy in bulk and weight 
 
 19 
 
is so great a desideratum; petroleum is, as it 
 were, the essence of coal, and the question of 
 its adoption as a steam generator is dependent 
 on the abundance of the supply, to which a 
 satisfactory answer recently has been given by 
 the flowing wells of Enniskillen. 
 
 "Even crude oil is sought for with eagerness 
 in many workshops in England for the purpose 
 of lubrication where swift motion is em- 
 ployed. When mixed with fat or resin, it 
 acquired greater consistence, and is more 
 generally applicable to ordinary purposes, 
 but it is the lubricating oil which is one of the 
 results of the destructive distillation of the 
 crude product that is and will be most 
 extensively used. 
 
 "Even should the heavy lubricating oil be not 
 used for the purpose its name implies, the 
 paraffine can be extracted by cold and pres- 
 sure and candles made from it, so that under 
 all circumstances there is no waste or loss. 
 
 "Enough has been said to show that the Enniskil- 
 len petroleum is admirably suited for many 
 purposes as an illuminator, as a fuel, as a 
 material for the manufacturing of gas, as a 
 lubricator and as an antiseptic, and to these 
 may be added its use in the practice of medicine." 
 
 Up to that time the only known value of petroleum 
 as a medicinal remedy was in its employment as a 
 liniment. It may be assumed, therefore, that 
 Professor Hind, who had such remarkable prevision 
 
 20 
 
as to other things, foresaw the utilization of one 
 of the products of petroleum in the internal human 
 organism. This actually came to pass nearly forty 
 years afterwards, when the virtue of white mineral 
 oil as an intestinal lubricant was recognized. 
 
 Petrolia did not have a newspaper to represent it 
 until some time after the "Chronicle" started at 
 Oil Springs. The title was "The Valuator and 
 Petrolia Reporter." It had only a brief existence. 
 When in August, 1863, crude oil was quoted at five 
 dollars a barrel and refined oil forty cents a gallon, 
 the Reporter's comment on the situation was : 
 
 "With crude oil at five dollars the refined may 
 be sold at forty cents a gallon without loss, 
 but with very little gain, if indeed any, taking 
 into consideration the great wear and tear 
 on the machinery employed. But aside from 
 this, the risk is greater than in most other 
 kinds of business, and it is our opinion that 
 no one is warranted in investing in a refinery 
 here or in sinking wells without a pretty fair 
 prospect of two hundred per cent, dividend 
 every season." 
 
 But before this before the floods of oil had 
 swamped the demand, demoralized the market 
 and sent prices tumbling the whole Canadian 
 oil region was joyous. Ten dollars gold a barrel 
 was the price for oil, and there were many large 
 transactions at that level. Nine dollars was main- 
 tained for months, and the prediction that there 
 would be a drop to six or even lower was regarded 
 
 21 
 

 I 
 
 
 PICTURES FROM TWO OUD PRINTS MADE EARLY 
 IN 1870. BY H. L. McCANCE. 
 
as unduly pessimistic. Then came the gushers, and 
 the higher the oil spouted the lower prices dropped, 
 until finally from ten dollars the price went to ten 
 cents. The oil was coming too fast to be stored, 
 and there was too much to be profitably marketed. 
 Operators paid scant attention in those days to a 
 five-barrel well. Not infrequently these would be 
 plugged, as the output scarcely met the expense of 
 operation. It was not until the producers, acting 
 in concert and for the mutual welfare, forced an 
 expansion of the export market that the situation 
 was relieved. The five-barrel wells held in such 
 contempt then are now giving oil that is measured 
 in gallons. One barrel a day from the hole that used 
 to give a hundred is now regarded in high favor. 
 
 The best results for six or seven years after the first 
 oil was struck, came from a depth of less than 
 350 feet. 
 
 23 
 
CHAPTER 4. 
 
 EARLY HISTORY OF THE WESTERN 
 ONTARIO OIL FIELDS 
 
 The most successful 
 of the operators in 
 Petrolia between 1863 
 and 1865 were Messrs. 
 J. H. Fairbank, Dow 
 Elwood, Judge Avery, 
 H. W. Lancey and Dr. 
 Underwood. John D. 
 Noble came to Petrolia 
 about 1866, as did 
 Edwin D. Kerby. In 
 1868 the Crude Oil 
 Association was formed 
 with Dow Elwood as 
 
 President and J. H. Fairbank as manager. In 
 the spring of 1869 came Charles Jenkins, and in the 
 following year J. L. Englehart, who continues to be 
 an active figure in the oil industry, took his first 
 survey of Petrolia. Mr. Fairbank was one of the 
 most prominent men in the Ontario field. It was 
 due largely to his practical methods and sound 
 business principles, that the Petrolia development 
 was so rapid and so helpful an influence in commerce 
 generally and became the important factor that it 
 did in the Canadian oil industry. 
 
 24 
 
No other oil centre on the American Continent 
 has contributed so many expert drillers and oil 
 operators to foreign countries for the production 
 and development of the industry as Petrolia. 
 They have gone from there to the United States, 
 Mexico, Central and South America, the West Indies, 
 Austria, Germany, Russia, Egypt, Sinai, East Africa, 
 Madagascar, Persia, India, Burma, the Orient, 
 Sumatra, Borneo, Java, New Guinea, Australia and 
 New Zealand and have been foremost in locating 
 oil territory, in mechanical inventions, in their 
 methods of production and in the marketing of 
 the product. 
 
 One of the most noteworthy of these was the develop- 
 ment of the Canadian system of drilling of the 
 great oilfields in Galicia by William H. McGarvey, 
 of Petrolia. He became interested, as others, 
 in oil development and made a study of the 
 most effective methods of drilling. He was part 
 owner of the once famous "Deluge" well, one 
 of the large flowing wells which brought wealth to 
 its owners. He took a corps of expert drillers and 
 with his family went to Germany, where he remained 
 a short time in Hanover, thence to Vienna and 
 formed the partnership of Bergheim & McGarvey, 
 who were largely instrumental in the development 
 of the Galician oilfields. 
 
 William Swan, one of the old-time characters in 
 Petrolia, is remembered as having possessed what 
 seemed to be an uncanny faculty for finding oil 
 sands. His first prospecting resulted in tapping a 
 flowing well that yielded 1,000 barrels a day. 
 
 25 
 
The start had been made without the necessary pre- 
 parations and there were no means of controlling 
 the tremendous rush of oil that came from 
 the depths, so that Swan saw thousands upon 
 thousands of gallons escape without being able 
 to hold but an infinitesimal proportion. Black 
 Creek, during the summer of Swan's chance strike, 
 had the appearance of a solid river of oil. The 
 water was not visible, buried as it was beneath a 
 film of from two to four inches thick. Scores of 
 flowing wells added to the volume, and in six 
 months it is estimated that more than a million 
 barrels of petroleum were carried off on the creek 
 to the St. Clair River. 
 
 Scientific exploration of the Petrolia district con- 
 tinued from month to month and from year to year. 
 Geologists made exhaustive tests in the hope, and 
 many with the expectation, that the field was 
 simply the starting point, and the guide to other 
 and more prolific territory. F. J. Carman, a 
 scientific operator, undertook drilling to determine 
 the character of the lowest strata of rock formation 
 that had been investigated up to that time. He 
 drilled the deepest well that had ever been 
 attempted in Canada, going to a depth of 3,770 
 feet. The trenton limestone was reached, but 
 no oil or gas was discovered. The Carman 
 well, although it did not strike oil, has been 
 a valuable aid to scientific knowledge, and the 
 record of the character of the successive forma- 
 tions, preserved in the geologic records, has been 
 and will continue to be valuable for future 
 guidance. 
 
 26 
 
It was in Petrolia that the radical change in the 
 method of pumping oil wells was made, and this 
 method subsequently was adopted in oilfields of 
 similar depth in all parts of the world. In the five 
 years following the first forcing of oil to the sur- 
 face, it was the practice to have each individual 
 well equipped with a boiler and engine to work 
 the pump, so that if twenty wells were being oper- 
 ated, twenty men would be required to take care 
 of as many different rigs. 
 
 A plan gradually developed for correcting this waste 
 of energy, practically revolutionizing the whole exist- 
 ing plan, by doing away entirely with an engine for 
 each well and transmitting power from just one 
 engine to as many wells as it was necessary to pump. 
 This is accomplished by a system of shafts or rods 
 laid horizontally a few inches above the surface 
 of the ground and connecting one well with 
 another through the entire group. 
 
 27 
 
These shafts are called "Jerker Rods," and are 
 coupled to the periphery of a vertical half-wheel (or 
 cam) corresponding with a similar cam in the 
 power-house that is rocked back and forth by 
 the main shaft of the engine. This motion 
 is communicated to each of the walking beams 
 over each well and gives the stroke to the plunger 
 in the pump cylinder. The length of the stroke 
 is regulated to conform to the quantity of oil 
 required to be pumped. When a long stroke 
 is required the plunger is placed at the extreme 
 end of the beam, and for a shorter stroke it 
 comes up nearer the axis. 
 
 The introduction of this system reduced the cost of 
 pumping very materially and the example set by 
 Petrolia was quickly followed all over the United 
 States. One of the earliest operators to do away 
 with the engine-to-a-well plan was J. L. Englehart 
 & Company, on whose tract 225 wells were operated 
 by two engines of forty horse-power each. 
 
 From the beginning of the oil industry in Old 
 Ontario, Petrolia and Oil Springs were the Mecca 
 for geologists and also for pretenders who followed in 
 their trail and who offered their services in locating 
 oil deposits for a consideration. While the practical 
 operators paid little or no attention to the claims 
 of "oil smellers," as these unorthodox professors 
 and diviners are called, it is reasonably certain 
 that many thousands of dollars were spent by 
 intelligent men in attempts to make a strike 
 through the affinity supposed to exist between 
 hazelwood and subterranean liquids. The forked 
 
 28 
 
hazel stick is familiar throughout Canada to 
 farmers as well as to oil operators, and even now 
 it is frequently employed in the effort to locate 
 water. Instances are numerous of water having 
 been actually found at the spot where the finder 
 stood with the stick, which seemingly turned with- 
 out apparent effort on his part. 
 
 There is no doubt that chance was responsible for 
 the discovery of a good deal of oil in the Petrolia 
 field, and it is equally certain that the prospector 
 who put down a drill at random had about the same 
 hope of success as the diviner with the forked stick. 
 No record of the failures has been preserved. Only 
 the successes are remembered. The procedure was 
 about the same in all cases. The first requisite was 
 payment in advance to the "smeller" for his ser- 
 vices, for he did not believe in a contingent fee. 
 He claimed that the best results were obtained from 
 a forked branch cut in the dark of the moon, with 
 
 29 
 
a knife, never before used, and that the sap must 
 flow otherwise the twig would not respond. 
 
 The genuine scientists were of real aid to the 
 prospectors, although the majority of the oil men 
 depended more on the drill than they did on infor- 
 mation which they believed to be based principally 
 on theory. The pretenders for a time were a 
 numerous class and they prospered. They were 
 finally exposed and after several attempts to revive 
 confidence, disappeared from the field. 
 
 30 
 
CHAPTER 5. 
 
 THE DRILLING AND SHOOTING OF 
 OIL WELLS 
 
 The system of drilling 
 for oil now in use in the 
 Canadian wells, was de- 
 vised to meet the spe- 
 cial conditions of the 
 field. Since the infancy 
 of the industry Cana- 
 dian oil operators have 
 been foremost in pro- 
 moting improved prac- 
 tices, although in the 
 beginning the appli- 
 ances were extremely 
 primitive and, in fact, 
 represented but a small 
 advance on the meth- 
 ods devised in China 
 centuries before the 
 
 Christian era. The Chinese used an auger attached 
 to a pole that was held in a vertical position 
 from a cross pole supported on a post. The end 
 of the cross pole was fastened under a springboard 
 while a driller guided the vertical pole, or some- 
 times a cable, to which an auger or boring tool 
 was attached. One coolie after another jumped 
 from a platform and jarred the board so that the 
 
 31 
 
tool would plunge down and deepen the hole with 
 each stroke. The deeper the hole became, the 
 heavier the coolie required for the "kicking down." 
 
 Jumping men were not a part of the early Petrolia 
 drilling equipment, but foot-power was employed 
 for the same purpose the driving of the drilling- 
 tools into the ground. The excavation to the 
 surface of the rock was curbed with timber 
 and the slow and tedious task of drilling to 
 the oil vein was begun. This was called the 
 spring pole method and was succeeded by the 
 pole tool drilling rig which has been extensively 
 adopted in different parts of the world. In 
 Canada, of late years, it has been almost entirely 
 superseded by what is known as the Canadian 
 Wire Line System. 
 
 In one of the older systems, known as the cable 
 or standard system, a drill with a face in the 
 
 32 
 
shape of a blunt wedge is raised and dropped 
 through a space of about six feet. In the other, 
 the hydraulic rotary system, there is employed a 
 rigid stem of heavy pipe that rotates a fishtail bit 
 at the bottom of the hole, cutting and stirring 
 up the formation to be drilled. The drillings are 
 continuously washed out by a stream of water 
 reaching the bottom through the drill, tf neces- 
 sary mud is pumped instead of water through 
 the drill, and by thus plastering the walls of the 
 hole, caving is prevented when drilling through 
 quicksand or other formations. 
 
 The standard or cable drilling system is used in 
 hard rock, and the rotary in softer formation, while 
 frequently both are combined. 
 
 Sometimes the oil is struck suddenly and is driven 
 to the surface by the imprisoned gas. But when the 
 well does not flow a pump is inserted. 
 
 33 
 
The early days of the oil industry were not 
 unattended with serious hazards to life, but 
 modern invention has in a considerable degree mini- 
 mized these dangers. Moreover, with growing scien- 
 tific knowledge of petroleum, many fears once enter- 
 tained have been dissipated. In 1860 the people 
 of Western Pennsylvania were thrown into a panic 
 by the proposal of a stranger, claiming to be an 
 European scientist, to shoot a white-hot bolt into 
 the bowels of the earth through an iron pipe driven 
 to a great depth for the purpose. By the ignition 
 of inflammable gases, thought to exist in the great 
 cavities beneath the earth's crust, the promoter ex- 
 pected to produce a sufficient explosion to lay bare 
 the subterranean reservoirs of oil. The Pennsyl- 
 vanian populace, instead of viewing this proposal 
 with the distrust and apathy traditionally accorded 
 the first efforts of inventive minds, possessed suffi- 
 cient imagination to picture the possible results, 
 and were so convinced that the scientist minimized 
 rather than exaggerated the feasibility of his under- 
 taking, that they selected a small but representative 
 committee to hang him on the spot. Because 
 he had conspired to disturb not only the peace 
 but the actual foundations of society in Pennsyl- 
 vania he was taken into custody and solemnly 
 warned to desist. 
 
 Less than a year afterward nitro-glycerine was 
 being exploded in large quantities deep down in 
 the earth to shatter the rock and give an outlet to 
 the oil without disturbance to the landscape. 
 
 A large proportion of the wells in this country are 
 
 34 
 
"shot" wells, and to 
 create them required 
 men of steady nerve, 
 for well-shooting is one 
 of the most hazardous 
 of occupations. The 
 high explosives utilized 
 are kept in specially 
 constructed magazines, 
 the maximum amount 
 of nitro - glycerine 
 stored being rarely over 
 300 quarts. A "shot" 
 is sometimes as little 
 as eight quarts and in 
 certain instances as 
 much as 160 quarts 
 
 have been used. The explosion of a charge of this 
 size is followed by an earth tremor for a radius of a 
 thousand yards even when the charge is placed from 
 one to two thousand feet below the surface. It 
 sometimes occurs that the resultant flow is so 
 great as to be temporarily beyond control, but 
 ordinarily the flowing well is giving its regulated 
 yield within forty-eight hours. In the early days 
 when the explosive was conveyed to the oil dis- 
 tricts over rough roads in jolting wagons, accidents 
 were common. 
 
 When ready for use the nitro-glycerine is contained 
 in tin tubes or shells five feet long, and two inches 
 or more in diameter, pointed at the lower end and 
 having bail handles at the top. From five to fifteen 
 shells are lowered with extreme delicacy to the bottom 
 
 35 
 
of the well and then the "go-devil" a five-pound 
 shell, pointed, from ten to twelve inches long is 
 released point downward. The "shooter" dashes for 
 safety and the explosion follows. As an example 
 of the mental alertness and quick judgment of the 
 well-shooters it is recorded that upon one occasion 
 the first tin of explosive was being lowered when the 
 rope suddenly slackened. This could only mean that 
 the well had unexpectedly begun to flow. The 
 shooter realized that in a matter of seconds six 
 quarts of nitro-glycerine would be hurled out of the 
 well carrying death to himself and his comrades. 
 There was no time to run; there was just one thing 
 to do and he did it with extraordinary nerve. Stand- 
 ing directly over the well he grasped the shell by the 
 bail handles as it came shooting up on the breast of 
 the flowing oil, and although the impetus which it 
 had gained threw him across the derrick and 
 dislocated his shoulder, he held on and saved the 
 crew. 
 
 36 
 
Fatal and even minor 
 accidents resulting 
 from wells are rare in 
 these days. Experi- 
 ence has suggested 
 many precautions, 
 chiefly in preventing 
 premature explosions, 
 which was the com- 
 monest danger in the 
 early days. In the 
 modern method the 
 nitro- glycerine "jack 
 squib" is used. This 
 is a tin tube three- 
 quarters of an inch in 
 diameter and two feet 
 
 in length. A three-minute fuse with a fulminate cap 
 attached to the lower end is wound around the tube 
 to the top and extends three or four inches above. 
 This with the fuse is placed inside of a tin about two 
 inches in diameter and slightly longer than the inner 
 tube. Dry sand tamping fills the space between the 
 two tubes. The top of the larger or outside tube is 
 folded in and pressed down on top of the same, 
 retaining it in place. The inner tube is then filled 
 with nitro-glycerine and corked. The fuse is 
 lighted and the "jack" is dropped into the hole. 
 The explosion follows. 
 
 Sometimes it is necessary to case a well near the 
 top of the pay sand. When that is done an electric 
 torpedo is used to prevent damage to the casing. 
 The torpedo is placed in proper position in the 
 
 37 
 
hole ; a squib containing two or three quarts of nitro- 
 glycerine and attached to an insulated wire is then 
 lowered to the top of the torpedo. The casing is 
 pulled out of the hole over the wire and the squib 
 is exploded by a battery and it in turn explodes 
 the torpedo. The casing is again put into the well 
 and the hole cleaned out. This is the safest plan of 
 all, but it is only used in developed territory where 
 there is good rock pressure. The most dangerous 
 "shooting" is the torpedoing of a flowing well or 
 "gusher" to improve the yield. This operation re- 
 quires the greatest care. Flowing wells have a 
 maximum and a minimum flow and close watch 
 must be kept for the exact minute when the torpedo 
 can be lowered into the hole. If the flow should 
 start while it is being lowered the torpedo will be 
 hurled out, perhaps with disastrous result. 
 
 38 
 
CHAPTER 6. 
 METHODS OF STORING AND REFINING 
 
 The problems of the oil industry only begin with tap- 
 ping the subterranean stores of petroleum and increas- 
 ing its flow to the surface. Collecting the flow and 
 preventing wastage present further difficulties. In 
 the centuries that preceded the scientific organiza- 
 tion of oil production the wastage was incalculable. 
 The old legends of flaming wells and rivers of oil, 
 used to promote religious superstition, represent 
 sheer loss. It is gratifying to remember that 
 Canadian producers have led the world in grappling 
 with this question of the conservation of petroleum. 
 One of the chief difficulties encountered by the early 
 operators in the Petrolia field was that of storing 
 the immense volume of oil that was coming to the 
 surface. The suggestion of dams was abandoned 
 as impracticable and carpenters were set to work 
 to building immense wooden reservoirs which be- 
 came larger and larger as the demand for storage 
 increased. Some of them were 24 feet in diameter 
 and 20 feet in height. Although bound with iron 
 hoops they proved unsatisfactory and there was 
 considerable leakage as well as danger from fire. 
 Large iron tanks followed the wooden ones, but 
 they were both cumbersome and costly. 
 
 Then came the discovery of the clay tank. Some 
 genius realized that the Erie clay, which- is a 
 
 39 
 
40 
 
characteristic of the geological formation, was of 
 such an impermeable texture that it would make 
 an absolutely oil-proof reservoir. 
 
 Being of a solid, tenacious quality, and easily 
 moulded, the clay underground tank proved cool 
 and absolutely free from fire peril or from leakage 
 or evaporation. Lying close at hand it was nature's 
 first aid in the problem of conservation. 
 
 The clay tanks first built were formed by excavating 
 a circular hole some thirty feet in diameter to a 
 depth of fifteen feet through the porous top soil 
 found all through the Petrolia and Oil Springs 
 district. A wooden crib was set in, formed of 
 double inch rings, five inches wide, outside of 
 which boards were nailed and clay from the strata 
 below packed solidly between the curbing and the 
 wall, making a firm "puddling" about five inches 
 thick. With all the improvements in the refining 
 and distribution of oil, nothing yet has been devised 
 to improve upon the clay storage tank in localities 
 where clay strata are found. 
 
 Following the problem of storing at the well-mouth 
 comes that of transporting the crude product to the 
 refineries and from thence to the distributing centres. 
 When the wells of Oil Springs and Petrolia were 
 first opened, the oil was stored in barrels and con- 
 veyed in wagons to Wyoming, at that time the 
 nearest railroad point in Lambton county, lying 
 five miles north of Petrolia. Those were the days 
 of corduroy road, and much no doubt was spilled 
 in transit. Subsequently, specially constructed tank 
 
 41 
 
wagons were brought into use to convey the petro- 
 leum from the wells to the refineries that began to 
 grow up, and to the warehousing company's receiving 
 stations. Later a system of pipe lines were con- 
 structed to convey the oil from the wells to refineries. 
 
 After transportation comes the process that prepares 
 the raw material for the market the distillation or 
 refining of the crude oil a business that has 
 grown to enormous proportions in all the coun- 
 tries of the civilized world, since the discovery of 
 the uses of the many by-products of petroleum. 
 
 Until clay storage was devised, it was the practice 
 to bring the crude oil to the refineries in wooden 
 containers that were carried on wagons and emptied 
 into underground tanks built of wood or iron. From 
 these tanks the crude oil was pumped to the still and 
 the heating was started with wood fuel. This con- 
 sisted largely of walnut and oak, of which there 
 
 42 
 
THE GREAT INTERNATIONAL PIPE L.INS 
 FROM CYGNET, OHIO, TO SARNIA, ONT. 
 
 43 
 
were extensive forests in the vicinity of the re- 
 fineries. Sometimes the residual matter from the 
 stills was used under the boilers but wood was pre- 
 ferred. This was later succeeded by coal because 
 of the higher temperature and steadier heat secured. 
 At that time no method for the utilization of natural 
 gas as fuel had been invented. Millions of cubic 
 feet went to waste. Gas wells were plugged up or 
 sometimes set on fire. Nowadays, wherever natural 
 gas is obtainable, it is used not only in the dis- 
 tilling processes, but in pumping the wells either 
 by gas engines or as fuel under the boilers. 
 
 The first stills in Canada were what was known as 
 the cheese-box still. They were of small capacity 
 and were succeeded by the horizontal cylindrical 
 stills of 500 to a 1,000 barrel capacity. 
 
 The problem of purification of crude petroleum 
 produced at Petrolia and Oil Springs was most 
 
 44 
 
important. The petroleum as it came from the wells 
 was laden with sour-smelling sulphur compounds 
 that persisted in the naphtha and burning oil 
 distillates. 
 
 These sulphur compounds could not be removed 
 from the distillates by any of the then existing 
 methods of refining, to the extent which would 
 admit of the finished products competing in 
 burning quality with the high-grade product 
 obtained from the Pennsylvania crude which was 
 free from these objectionable sulphur compounds. 
 After many trials, a method and apparatus was 
 devised which enabled the refiners to make 
 naphtha and burning oils sweet, free from sulphur 
 and almost equal in burning quality to the best 
 oils obtainable elsewhere. 
 
 Oils are here freed of sulphur by copper oxide. 
 
 The process which was discovered by Herman Frasch 
 while employed as a chemist^in one of the Canadian 
 
 45 
 
refineries, begins by introducing finely divided cop- 
 per oxide into a still equipped with a stirring ap- 
 paratus. The mechanical stirrer keeps the copper- 
 oxide in intimate contact with the distillates being 
 treated, and as fire is applied to the still, the dis- 
 tillates pass over free of sulphur. The sulphur 
 enters into combination with the copper oxide 
 and remains behind in the still. The copper sul- 
 phide formed is removed from the still, its sulphur 
 contents roasted out and the resulting oxide finely 
 powdered and used again. The method is still 
 used in the leading refineries of Canada and the 
 United States. 
 
 Copper Sulphide is here purified so that it may 
 be used again. 
 
 At first, in making burning oil, the refineries did 
 not free it of the necessary proportion of the 
 naphtha content to make it safe. So much 
 naphtha remained, and the burning oils were 
 therefore so inflammable, that the government 
 
undertook to reduce the danger by a regulation 
 called the flash test. This means the momentary 
 ignition or flash caused by applying a light or 
 spark to the vapor arising from the fluid through the 
 application of heat. The smaller the naphtha con- 
 tent the higher the temperature the oil will reach 
 before the vapor from it takes fire. The govern- 
 ment fixed this temperature at 85 degrees Fahren- 
 heit and inspectors were assigned to all refineries 
 
 Separation of wax from oil by refrigeration. 
 
 to make the necessary tests, using a device called 
 the pyrometer or flash test apparatus. 
 
 While present-day methods of distillation differ to 
 some extent, the general methods and results are 
 practically the same in all oil refineries. Crude 
 petroleum is composed of a large number of dis- 
 tinct hydro-carbons, each of which is transformed 
 into vapor at a specific boiling point. When the 
 oil is placed in the still and subjected to heat, 
 
 47 
 
vapors are given off as the temperature reaches 
 the boiling point of the most volatile hydro-carbon 
 present. The action is very similar to the generation 
 of steam from water in a steam boiler. As the fire 
 beneath the still is increased in intensity, the 
 temperature of the oil rises steadily. As it reaches 
 each successive boiling point, the hydro-carbon cor- 
 responding in boiling point is vaporized and passes 
 from the still through the coil of pipe which is 
 cooled by contact with cold water. The resulting 
 condensation which reconverts the vapor into liquid 
 flows into receiving tanks. The sediment left behind 
 is a very heavy tar. Sometimes this tar is further 
 distilled until the product remaining in the still is 
 a dry, hard coke. 
 
 As each hydro-carbon has a definite specific gravity 
 as well as a definite boiling point, the refiners are 
 able to separate the different hydro-carbons, as 
 
 Where Paraffine Oil is purified with acid. 
 
 48 
 
they flow from the condenser, by means of the 
 specific gravity of the liquid. 
 
 The first distillate that passes is crud.e naphtha. 
 This is followed successively by refined oil dis- 
 tillate, fuel and gas oil, lubricating oil distillate and 
 wax distillate. These are finished by treating with 
 chemicals, by redistillation, by pressing, or by filter- 
 ing, as the demands of the consumers require. 
 
 In some refineries crude oil is distilled continuously 
 that is to say, a series of from three to ten stills, 
 depending upon the grade of crude oil and the 
 products to be made therefrom, are used and so 
 arranged that as the first still is heated to a certain 
 temperature the light products are distilled off and 
 as more crude is pumped into the still the residual 
 oil overflows into the second still which is heated 
 to a higher temperature than the first still and 
 
 >US STEAM STILUS, 
 For separation of Naphthas and Refined Oil. 
 
 49 
 
distills off a heavier product. The residual oil 
 then overflows into the third still and so on until 
 the oil in the last still consists of a more or less 
 heavy oil or tar, the crude oil being pumped into 
 the first still continuously and tar being pumped 
 from the last still continuously. The tar may be 
 removed and marketed as such, or is placed in other 
 stills and run until all that remains in the still is 
 the coke. The distillates so obtained are treated 
 in the same way as those from the single stills. 
 
 Sometimes the residual oil in the stills after the 
 naphtha, kerosene, and other light oils have been 
 
 Here acids are freed of impurities for re-use. 
 
 taken off is treated with chemicals or filtered, and 
 the resulting product constitutes steam cylinder 
 lubricating oil. When occasion demands, the 
 crude that contains large amounts of asphalt, and 
 the residual oils in the still after the removal of 
 
 50 
 
naphtha, kerosene and other light products are 
 used for road-making purposes, and by still further 
 carrying on a distillation the resulting products are 
 solid asphaltic pitches. 
 
 Many of the crude oils yield only small percentages of 
 gasoline under the ordinary distillation processes, so 
 that their utilization in this way has been uneconom- 
 ical and wasteful. The Burton pressure process, is a 
 method of re-distillation effected by closing the outlet 
 from the still, increasing the temperature to a high 
 degree, and at the same time exerting an atmosphere 
 pressure that changes the heavy oil into the light 
 products of the gasoline series. Thus, a large part 
 of what would eventually become a less valuable 
 residium, is recovered. This is the highest type 
 of conservation, and the gasoline so produced is 
 equal, in all respects, to that yielded by the ordinary 
 process of distillation. 
 
 For obtaining additional yield of Gasoline by Burton process. 
 
 51 
 
CHAPTER 7. 
 BOOM DAYS IN ALBERTA 
 
 The story of the part played by the City of Cal- 
 gary in uncovering to the world a new supply of 
 oil is one of psychological rather than economic 
 interest. Time may yet give some importance 
 to the Southern Alberta field from the oil-seeker's 
 point of view, but thus far a great deal of money 
 has been spent in the search for oil in that part of 
 the country and hardly any has been taken out of it. 
 But the discovery of oil in the foothills of Alberta, 
 forty miles southwest of Calgary, will be long 
 remembered as an illuminating incident in the 
 history of Western Canadian development. 
 
 Long before the spontaneous outburst of excitement 
 in Calgary, in May of 1914, rumors of oil had gone 
 the rounds of Alberta and had stirred the imagin- 
 ations of the earliest settlers and traders in that 
 far Western section of the prairies. An old servant 
 of the Hudson's Bay Company, who is still living 
 in the West, likes to tell of the time, in the early 
 eighties, when an Indian arrived at the Company's 
 post at Edmonton bearing in his pack a bottle 
 partially filled with petroleum. When questioned, 
 the Indian said that he had found this strange liquid 
 oozing out of the ground at a spot somewhere 
 east of Edmonton along the banks of the Saskatche- 
 wan River. Two traders immediately set forth 
 
 52 
 
53 
 
with the Indian to find the source of the oil, but 
 unfortunately they took with them a two-gallon 
 keg of whiskey to act as an incentive to their 
 guide. The Indian drank himself crazy and finally 
 died before he was able to reveal the location of 
 his find of oil. 
 
 In the south country where the ranchers held undis- 
 puted sway for many years before the homesteader 
 and the wheat farmer began to invade the land, the 
 story is told of certain wells in the foothills where 
 the cattle and horses refused to drink on account 
 of the oily scum that formed on the surface of the 
 water. Another oldtimer's yarn tells about one of 
 the Mormon settlers in the late eighties finding a 
 little lake up in the hills whose surface was com- 
 pletely covered with an oily scum. The settler hit 
 upon the ingenious scheme of sopping up the oil 
 from the top of the water by the use of woollen 
 blankets. After wringing the blankets dry and 
 collecting the liquid extracted therefrom, he was 
 able to sell considerable quantities of oil amongst 
 the people of his community. On account of these 
 tales, therefore, it has been claimed for a long 
 time by the most enthusiastic and hopeful of 
 Southern Alberta's residents that a great oilfield 
 certainly must lie somewhere in the foothill region 
 skirting the eastern slope of the Rockies. 
 
 Possibly it was due to the rampant speculation in 
 real estate during the years immediately prior to 
 1914 that the oil boom did not occur at an earlier 
 time. When it did come, however, it found a com- 
 munity of receptive minds in Calgary, where real 
 
 54 
 
estate for some time had been rather inactive, and 
 a new form of speculative amusement was most 
 acceptable. 
 
 First, however, it is of interest to record certain 
 events leading up to the boom days of two and a 
 half years ago. In 1911 a Mr. W. S. Herron, after 
 spending eight years as a miner in the Cobalt 
 district of Northern Ontario, took up farming near 
 Okotoks, Alberta. Mr. Herron was not long in 
 Southern Alberta before he became interested in 
 the possibilities of finding oil in that part of the 
 Province. 
 
 He first attempted to interest the Calgary Council 
 Board in oil, but to no purpose. Then he went to 
 Toronto, where he succeeded in interesting in the 
 project of drilling for oil, Mr. A.W. Dingman and Mr. 
 Eugene Coste, who later became the manager of the 
 Calgary Light, Heat and Power Company. Both 
 Messrs. Dingman and Coste went to Alberta to 
 investigate Mr. Herron's proposition for themselves, 
 and on August 30th, 1912, the Calgary Petroleum 
 Products Company was formed. The capitaliza- 
 tion of the company was fixed at $150,000, repre- 
 senting the value of 15,000 shares of stock at a par 
 value of $10 per share. The assets of the new com- 
 pany were mainly 7,000 acres of petroleum and 
 natural gas rights, and 1,200 acres of surface rights, 
 all of which had been secured by lease from the 
 Dominion Government by Mr. W. S. Herron. 
 Mr. A. W. Dingman became manager of the Cal- 
 gary Petroleum Products Company, and in January 
 1913 he began to drill for oil at a point situated 
 
 55 
 
about three miles west of the village of Black 
 Diamond, or, more exactly, in Section 6, Township 
 20, Range 2, west of the fifth meridian. From 
 Calgary the scene of Mr. Dingman's operations lay 
 forty miles directly southwest. The town of Okotoks, 
 eighteen miles east, was the nearest point at which 
 a railway line approached the Dingman wells. 
 
 The Calgary Petroleum Products Company, which 
 began life in a very modest and unassuming way, was 
 soon to become the centre of great excitement. 
 At a depth of 180 feet Mr. Dingman struck a power- 
 ful flow of natural gas which was controlled and 
 made the source of power for the operation of the 
 drilling machinery. On October 7th, 1913, the 
 beginning of the boom which obsessed the people 
 of Calgary for the greater part of the following 
 twelve months was marked. On that date, the 
 first discovery of oil was made in the Dingman well. 
 It proved to be only a "pocket," but was sufficient 
 to set the wheels of speculation rapidly in motion. 
 
 56 
 
A rush was made upon the government land office, 
 and within two months leases covering an area of 
 more than sixty miles square, surrounding the sec- 
 tion on which the Dingman well was located, 
 were taken up. Possessed of leaseholds of various 
 sizes which were secured from the Dominion Gov- 
 ernment at the rate of twenty-five cents per acre, 
 groups of individual speculators banded themselves 
 together and organized companies. 
 
 It was found when the "pocket" in the Dingman 
 well was tapped that it contained an oil which 
 tested ninety per cent, pure gasoline. This was 
 regarded by some as promising evidence of the 
 presence close at hand of a body of crude petroleum 
 from which the gasoline was merely a form of 
 seepage. Everything conspired to whet the public 
 appetite to the point of predatory keenness on the 
 subject of oil. All Calgary was ripe for the boom 
 which came six months later. 
 
 As soon as the first pocket of oil in the Dingman well 
 had been exhausted, drilling was recommenced. All 
 winter long the drill was kept in operation, and 
 when spring came it brought encouraging news from 
 the Dingman property. Sand saturated with oil 
 had been constantly appearing in the excavated 
 material at the well mouth and it was felt that in a 
 very short time the oil would be reached. The 
 only danger was that it might prove to be such 
 a powerful "gusher" that it would be impossible 
 to control the flow. 
 
 By this time "eminent" geologists had begun to 
 appear in the field the field being very often a 
 
 57 
 
58 
 
suite of rooms at the best hotel in Calgary. They 
 played a prominent part in fostering the boom which 
 followed. Some few of these men had genuine scien- 
 tific qualifications, but either they erred greatly in 
 judgment, or else they misled the public for their 
 own gain. 
 
 It is fair to add that there were one or two well 
 known geologists who emphatically refused to lend 
 their names to the promotions. And finally, on the 
 evening of May 14th, the magic word was spoken 
 "The Dingman has struck oil at a depth of 2,700 
 feet." 
 
 It was on a Thursday night that the news of the big 
 strike was reported. On Friday every available motor 
 vehicle in Calgary was forced into service in 
 
 carrying hundreds of men down the Macleod trail to 
 Okotoks and west through the foothills to the 
 Dingman well. There the inquisitive crowd of 
 
 59 
 
embryo oil magnates amused itself by filling 
 bottles with the gasoline-like liquid which had been 
 taken from the well, and in surmising what Ding- 
 man Well No. 2 (located a thousand feet from 
 No. 1) might bring forth. 
 
 At any rate, enough was seen to enable the pilgrims 
 from Calgary to return home with the most opti- 
 mistic reports of the discovery and stimulated with 
 a determination to make their city the greatest 
 industrial centre on the map. 
 
 Then came the wild scramble after shares of stock. 
 New companies were organized every day, and 
 
 every spare bit of space in the stores and offices 
 fronting the main business streets in Calgary was 
 hired by the selling end of some new oil company. 
 More than 500 companies were formed. The whole 
 down-town district was literally swathed in great 
 cotton streamers bearing the names and the prices 
 
 60 
 
of new issues of stock. For the first five or six days 
 following the report from the Dingman well, 
 Calgary's legitimate business activities were 
 paralyzed completely. The main streets where the 
 oil companies had established themselves were the 
 scene of the wildest and most irresponsible kind of 
 delirium. All day long men, women and children 
 crowded and jostled each other in an attempt to gain 
 entrance to the counter of the oil broker's offices 
 where shares might be purchased. Shares were 
 sold during the first days all the way from ten cents 
 to a dollar and a quarter each. 
 
 In the ticket office of one of the railway companies an 
 oil company ; had succeeded in renting a small space 
 
 for stock-selling purposes. It was a good stand and 
 the people were lined up for yards outside the door 
 trying to get in to spend their money. One of the 
 railway company office inspectors from Winnipeg 
 
 01 
 
happened to arrive in Calgary just at the height of 
 the excitement, and he found it impossible to ap- 
 proach his company's property by the ordinary en- 
 trance, so he managed to get in by a rear door opening 
 on a lane. What he saw inside was the busiest scene 
 that particular office had ever afforded. The selling 
 of railway tickets had been side-tracked entirely. 
 Waste paper baskets stood about the floor, con- 
 spicuously filled to overflowing with checks and 
 
 paper money. The entire staff was busy receiving 
 money from a crazy mob which merely demanded 
 shares and a receipt for its money. The inspector 
 soon found himself engaged in the same popular 
 business, and afterward he told of one old lady who 
 had finally succeeded in getting close to the sales 
 counter eagerly demanding "some oil stock." She 
 had one hundred dollars to invest. The inspector 
 said that he didn't know anything about the stock 
 that was being sold didn't even know the name 
 
 62 
 
of it. "Oh, that doesn't matter," she exclaimed, 
 "anything will do as long as I get some stock." 
 
 That was simply a typical instance of the condition 
 which prevailed without abating in the slightest 
 degree for a whole week. Over a million dollars 
 were withdrawn from the savings accounts of the 
 Calgary banks, and this represented the small 
 deposits of clerks, laborers, domestic servants, and 
 the general class of people in the community which 
 is usually styled "the public." 
 
 It was inevitable under such circumstances that wild- 
 catting should have flourished like the proverbial 
 green bay tree. Calgary soon became the Mecca of 
 stock gamblers, and every train from the East and 
 South brought its delegation of promoters. Exchanges 
 sprang up over night and within a month or six weeks 
 some half-dozen of these centres were established for 
 the benefit of those who wished to deal in oil shares. 
 Printers made small fortunes producing prospectuses 
 and the "eminent" geologists made larger fortunes 
 issuing reports upon the physical character of lease- 
 holds. By the end of July, 1914, the greater part of 
 the foothill country extending from the international 
 boundary northward as far as Rocky Mountain 
 House, immediately west of Red Deer, had been 
 leased from the Dominion Government by oil pros- 
 pectors and speculators. The total capitalization 
 of the companies amounted to something over four 
 hundred million dollars, which simply represented 
 the value of an unlimited area of leaseholds, as set 
 by the hopeful gentlemen composing the directorates 
 of the various companies. Out of that array of five 
 
hundred companies only about fifty actually under- 
 took to erect derricks in the Southern Alberta field 
 and drill for oil. 
 
 The gathering of the war clouds at the beginning of 
 August, and the final outbreak of hostilities in Europe 
 soon checked the oil boom in Calgary, and the crowd 
 of speculators and promoters melted away. Those 
 who had sunk their savings deposits at the rate of 
 ten cents and a dollar per share alone remained. 
 
 hit 
 
 Other discoveries followed that made at the 
 Dingman well, but they failed to attract the 
 attention or arouse the excitement which charac- 
 terized the period of two months of June and July 
 1914. The aftermath of that memorable time came 
 in the form of a judicial inquiry into the affairs of 
 numerous companies which were organized osten- 
 sibly for purposes of development. The Alberta 
 Government too has since appointed a high-salaried 
 
 64 
 
Utilities Commission whose business in future it 
 will be to prevent such reckless exploitation as 
 occurred during the late spring and summer of 1914. 
 Much litigation has developed as the result of the 
 Calgary boom, and one magnate who had charge 
 of the famous Black Diamond Company is now 
 serving a sentence in the penitentiary. All one 
 hears of the Southern Alberta field today is an 
 echo of the boom of two years ago. Interest in 
 oil prospecting has been transferred in the mean- 
 time to the more northerly districts of that Province, 
 around the Peace and Athabasca Rivers. 
 
 65 
 
CHAPTER 8. 
 PETROLEUM IN WESTERN CANADA 
 
 In the great Northwest territory most of it beyond 
 the reach of economic development at present 
 occur some of the most promising indications of 
 oil fields in Canada. As yet but little scientific 
 study of the region has been made, though reference 
 to the occurrence of oil and natural gas dates back 
 to the earliest history of the country. In his work 
 entitled "Voyages from North America to the 
 Frozen and Pacific Oceans" (which is a record of 
 experiences from 1789 to 1793), Sir Alexander 
 McKenzie describes seepages which he refers to 
 as "tar springs." 
 
 Subsequently a geological report on the Yukon and 
 McKenzie basins was made by Mr. R. G. McConnell, 
 
 66 
 
67 
 
of the Canadian Geological Survey, 1888 to 1889. 
 In this report Mr. McConnell calls attention to 
 the presence of shales saturated with petroleum 
 which are seen in the Devonian formation 
 along the banks of the MacKenzie River in 
 various localities, and also especially to pools of 
 tar and oil near the west end of the Great Slave 
 Lake. 
 
 The Province of Alberta is especially interesting 
 to oil men on account of the remarkable tar sand 
 
 beds of the Athabasca River region the most 
 extensive natural exposure of asphaltum in the 
 world. This rock, which is the basal member 
 of the Cretaceous formation in Northern Alberta, 
 is seen forming cliffs along the river for a distance 
 of a hundred miles; it is a bed of sandstone about 
 200 feet thick, saturated with tar and heavy oil. 
 Some twenty wells have been drilled in the tar 
 
 68 
 
FROM HAZELTON, B.C. 
 
 BY DOG TEAM. 
 
sand region, but in nearly all cases they have been 
 located upon the Devonian rocks and so have not 
 been drilled into the asphaltic beds. These wells 
 have not met with any success, but there are also 
 a few holes which have been drilled on the out- 
 cropping tar sands, and these have found a small 
 yield of heavy viscous oil. 
 
 The most important investigation of the prospects 
 in the Canadian West in recent years was that made 
 by Dr. Bosworth and his assistant geologists during 
 1914 and 1915. These observations extended over 
 Alberta from south to north and right through the 
 Northwest Territories to the Arctic Ocean a further 
 distance of 1,200 miles and, although the full results 
 of the investigations have not been made public, 
 a brief account of the findings was published 
 in the "Petroleum World" of February 1915. 
 The section of the article referring to the tar sands 
 territory is: 
 
 "These regions," writes Dr. Bosworth, "have 
 been referred to in print, but have been visited 
 by few experienced geologists. The region 
 is difficult of access separated from the 
 northern terminus of railroad systems by 150 
 miles of thick forest; the only road to them 
 is by way of a winding river with ninety miles 
 of dangerous rapids. The great sheet of 
 asphaltic rock is evidently present over an 
 area of two thousand square miles and probably 
 it extends over as much as ten thousand 
 square miles. Experiments by the writer show 
 that it contains some fourteen gallons of 
 
 70 
 
petroleum per ton, of which a considerable 
 portion is gasoline. 
 
 "The exposure of asphaltum visible along this 
 river is greater than all the other known 
 asphaltic outcrops, pitch lakes and oil seepages 
 in the world put together. 
 
 "The amount of petroleum in this tar sand, 
 presuming the bed to extend over ten thousand 
 square miles, and if it be constant in character, 
 must be near two hundred thousand million tons, 
 that is to say, sufficient to satisfy the world's 
 demand (at present rate) for 2,000 years." 
 
 The final paragraph of 
 the article is signifi- 
 cant: 
 
 "The proper ex- 
 ploitation of the 
 Tar Sands region 
 may be considered 
 as not yet com- 
 menced." 
 
 In other parts of the 
 Province also some 
 small quantities of oil 
 have been found in 
 sands of Dakota age 
 and in other sands low 
 
 down in the Cretaceous formation. Thus, from a 
 well recently drilled on the Peace River, a few bar- 
 rels of oil have been baled out and also in a deep 
 
 71 
 
OiL SEEPAGES, NORTHWEST TERRITC 
 
 well near Viking, eighty miles southeast of Edmon- 
 ton, there is some showing of heavy oil. 
 
 In the southwest corner of Alberta, at Pincher 
 Creek, some wells were drilled about fifteen years 
 ago and from one of them there was a considerable 
 flow of oil. This was stored in wooden tanks and 
 was used chiefly for treating a skin disease then 
 prevalent among the cattle. Recent attempts to 
 produce oil at Pincher Creek have not led to any 
 important results. The recent discovery of small 
 quantities of oil in the Calgary region, and the "oil 
 boom" which followed, have already been described 
 in Chapter Seven. 
 
 Although the oil resources of Alberta have not been 
 proved to be of commercial value, there is no doubt 
 that the Province is possessed of a wealth of natural 
 gas. All but a small part of Alberta is occupied 
 by the Cretaceous formation, and wherever a hole 
 is drilled into it natural gas is almost always found 
 
 72 
 
in more or less volume. The chief gas-bearing strata 
 are the Dakota Sand, at the bottom of the 
 Cretaceous formation, and the Belly River sand near 
 the middle of it. Natural gas is obtained and used 
 in many small towns, but the two principal 
 developed fields are those at Bow Island and 
 Medicine Hat. 
 
 The Bow Island Field is situated on the Sweetgrass 
 anticline in Southeastern Alberta, which extends 
 into Montana, and the gas is derived from the 
 Dakota sands. There are twenty-one wells at 
 Bow Island capable of productions varying from 
 one to thirty million cubic feet per day. The 
 pressure also is unusually high, being 795 pounds 
 to the square inch. The city of Calgary and 
 several smaller towns are supplied with gas from 
 this field by means of a 16-inch pipe line which is 
 161 miles long. The annual consumption of gas 
 supplied by this line is almost four and a-half billion 
 cubic feet. 
 
 73 
 
The gas-field of Medicine Hat is situated in the 
 same anticlinal region, but the production is 
 derived from the Belly River sand. Here there 
 are twenty-five wells, all of them about one 
 thousand feet deep, and capable of yielding 
 from two to four million cubic feet per day. The 
 pressure is about six hundred pounds to the square 
 inch. Good gas wells have been brought in in 
 many other districts during the search for oil, but 
 generally these supplies of gas are too far away 
 from any city to be of present use. 
 
 At Viking, about eighty miles southeast of Ed- 
 monton, two or three good gas wells have been 
 drilled in 1916 on the Battle River anticline. It is 
 said that these wells, which are about two thousand 
 feet deep, can produce several million cubic feet 
 of gas per day and that there is a pressure of 
 five hundred pounds to the square inch. It is 
 intended to supply the city of Edmonton from 
 this field. 
 
 In the northern part of Alberta gas is obtained 
 in every well which has drilled down anywhere 
 near to the great sheet of "tar sand" which under- 
 lies that region. Thus at Pelican, on the Athabasca 
 River, there are several large gas wells, and from 
 the old Government Well drilled there a large 
 flow of gas has been going to waste for nearly twenty 
 years. Formerly these wells were intended for the 
 supply of gas to Edmonton, but they are much more 
 distant than the Viking field. In the foothill district 
 southwest of Calgary also, some large flows of gas 
 have been found during the drilling there in search 
 
 74 
 
of oil. In the Dingman well there was a yield esti- 
 mated at several million cubic feet per day. 
 
 In Manitoba a few holes have been drilled, some of 
 them to a depth of over twelve hundred feet, but 
 as yet no deposits of importance have been found. 
 Over much of this country the rocks are concealed 
 by glacial drift and much of it has not yet been 
 thoroughly examined, so that the details of the 
 geological structure are unknown except here and 
 there. Natural gas is reported to have been struck 
 in August, 1912, at a depth of 120 feet, in a well 
 being drilled for water three miles west of Miami. 
 
 During 1913 two or three wells were drilled in the 
 Pembina River valley, where oil indications had 
 been found in 1907. A little natural gas was 
 developed, but no oil. 
 
 No petroleum has been encountered in any of the 
 prospect wells put down in Saskatchewan. 
 
 75 
 
There is, however, an occurrence of bituminous 
 shales in the Pasquia Hills of east-central Sas- 
 katchewan, which may eventually serve as a source 
 of oil and ammonium sulphate by distillation. The 
 best exposures are found in the valley of the Nabi 
 River. A sample of this shale taken at random 
 gave 40 gallons of crude oil and 33 pounds sul- 
 phate of ammonia per ton. 
 
 The situation in British Columbia was described 
 by William E. Park in October, 1913, whose 
 discussion includes the following: 
 
 "Though the Pacific Province of Canada is 
 more than usually stirred by oil excitement, 
 the oil industry west of the Rockies and north 
 of the International Boundary is still in the 
 purely wild-cat stage. There has been no 
 discovery of commercial importance made in 
 the Province up to the moment of writing; 
 though in many quarters drillers are at work, 
 
 76 
 
and, as is always possible with the driller, a 
 new day may change the entire aspect of affairs. 
 "The possible oil and gas resources of the Pro- 
 vince are a matter of opinion; and this opinion 
 is in some instances extremely optimistic, and 
 in others just the contrary. The story of what 
 has already been done or is now under way in 
 the course of developing these possible resources, 
 reveals the fact that tests have been made in 
 several sections of the Province. So far, 
 neither oil nor gas has been found in anything 
 approaching commercial quantities, though 
 indications have frequently been met with." 
 
 Small seepages of crude 
 oil were reported many 
 years ago by officers of 
 the Geological Survey 
 as having been found 
 in the southeastern 
 corner of the Province, 
 
 t"| i t i _, in the valley of the 
 
 ^; i; . Flathead River. The 
 
 - *" ^3il oil secured is of good 
 
 "*. quality, but so far it 
 
 has been met with only 
 3k in the form of seepages 
 
 1!^ coming up with water 
 
 in a spring. Similar 
 seepages occur just 
 over the summit to the 
 eastward in the Prov- 
 ince of Alberta, where two or three holes have been 
 drilled to a depth of from 1,200 to 1,500 ft. 
 
 77 
 
Oil seepages have also been reported on Vancouver 
 Island, and oil shale deposits of a considerable extent 
 are said to exist in the vicinity of Ashcroft. On Van- 
 couver Island, on the southwest coast, two holes were 
 drilled to a depth of approximately 1,000 feet, with- 
 out success. A year's boring on the Queen Charlotte 
 Island, farther north, has developed nothing. Little 
 of importance has been discovered on the island 
 between Vancouver Island and the mainland, except 
 nitrogen gas, which has no commercial value. 
 
 These lesser islands have been carefully investi- 
 gated by a responsible geologist, however, and his 
 report indicates considerable possibilities for 
 oil and gas. Operators have been drilling indus- 
 triously, and are sanguine of success. Their 
 optimism is due largely to the presence of seepages 
 of oil found floating on the adjacent waters and 
 supposed to come from submarine fissures. 
 
CHAPTER 9. 
 PETROLEUM IN EASTERN CANADA 
 
 Oil men generally are deeply interested in the promise 
 held out in the Province of New Brunswick. Indica- 
 tions of oil had been known for many years, but 
 did not arrest attention until 1859 just after the 
 Drake strike in Pennsylvania. A Canadian woods- 
 man, visiting Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, told of these 
 oil indications and so interested Dr. Tweedel, re- 
 finer and chemist, that he made a trip and after 
 investigation and satisfying himself that oil was 
 present, secured an option and then leased a tract 
 of land in Westmoreland County, where he drilled 
 four wells that average about 190 feet deep each. 
 He got a flow of gas at once and a small quantity 
 of oil, but as he found it impossible to shut off the 
 flow of water which poured in, the wells were 
 ruined. They were abandoned and nothing further 
 was done for fifteen years. 
 
 American capital again was enlisted and the St. 
 Joseph Petroleum Company and The Emery Oil 
 Company were organized to develop production. 
 Wells were sunk to a depth of 1,000 feet and several 
 yielded petroleum in paying quantities, but the 
 same trouble with an inflow of water was encoun- 
 tered, and this, added to the low price of the oil, 
 because of the tremendous output from the many 
 
 79 
 
fields in the United States, put the two companies 
 out of business. 
 
 The New Brunswick Petroleum Company, organized 
 in 1899 by Matthew Lodge, of Moncton, N.B., under- 
 took drilling operations in this field from 1900 to 1906. 
 Some 72 wells were drilled in the Dover and St. 
 Joseph districts in Westmoreland County, one at 
 Beersville, Kent County, and four on the west 
 shore of the Petitcodiac between that river and the 
 present gas field in Albert County. Of the wells 
 in the St. Joseph and Dover fields, about half pro- 
 duced oil in commercial quantities, the majority 
 yielding from one-half to two and one-half barrels 
 per day. The rights and properties of this company 
 were acquired in 1908 by the Maritime Oilfields, 
 Limited, which company has been more successful 
 in the production of natural gas in the Stony Creek 
 field. Up to January 1st, 1914, this company had 
 put down forty-two wells, of which thirty-one were 
 producing oil or gas, or both. Since 1910 there 
 
 80 
 
IK STEAMER tOCOUTE OISCHARQ1N6 
 AT ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND. 
 
 has been an annual production of petroleum of 
 from 1,500 to 2,500 barrels, principally from the 
 Stony Creek field. 
 
 Albertite, a black, shiny, mineral pitch, or bitumen, 
 was discovered near the present site of the Albert 
 Mines in 1849 by Dr. A. Gesner. This substance 
 is a solid bitumen representing the residuum of 
 petroliferous seepages; it occurs in veins in the 
 shales at several points in Albert and Westmore- 
 land Counties. While in itself an indication of 
 petroleum in past times rather than the present, it 
 is generally associated with petroliferous shales, and 
 in the Albert Mine liquid petroleum was actually 
 collected in buckets from seepages from sandy 
 beds included in the shales associated with the 
 albertite. 
 
 Petroliferous shale beds occur somewhat extensively 
 in Albert and Westmoreland Counties, and are found 
 also in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. About 
 
 81 
 
forty years ago works were in successful operation at 
 Rosedale, near Hillsborough, extracting oil from 
 the Albert shales. However, the opening of the 
 great oilfields of Ontario and the United States 
 compelled these works to close. 
 
 The recovery of oil from shale had its origin in 
 Scotland about sixty years ago, where, although it 
 has had many vicissitudes, the industry is being 
 successfully conducted at the present time. Con- 
 siderable attention is now being given to the pos- 
 sibilities of again developing this industry in Canada. 
 A test made in 1908 at the works of the Pumpher- 
 son Oil Company, Scotland, on thirty-six tons of 
 New Brunswick oil shale showed an average recovery 
 of forty gallons of crude oil and seventy-seven 
 pounds of sulphate of ammonia per ton (report by 
 R. W. Ells for the Mines Branch, Department of 
 Mines, Ottawa). 
 
 Shale beds are mined exactly like coal deposits, 
 and some of the large commercially valuable 
 
 82 
 
deposits that outcrop 
 on the surface like the 
 Newfoundland deposits 
 and some of the New 
 Brunswick beds can be 
 openly quarried. When 
 the mines are opened 
 out by shafts or slopes, 
 levels are run and con- 
 nected together as in 
 coal mines. Then the 
 beds are prepared for 
 working either on the 
 long wall or the pillar 
 and stall systems. 
 
 Up to the present time 
 oil and gas have never 
 been found in commercial quantites in Nova 
 Scotia, though some seepages have been reported 
 at various times. 
 
 Efforts were made in 1864 to find oil by the Pioneer 
 Oil and Salt Company, near Lake Ainslie in Cape 
 Breton, where for many years oil had been seen to 
 rise on the water. The wells were sunk 600 feet and 
 only traces of oil were found. At a later date, a 
 test-well was sunk to a depth of 500 feet at Bad- 
 dock with no better results. Several companies 
 were organized about that time to test for oil in 
 the vicinity. 
 
 In July 1912 the Lake Ainslie Oil Company, of Lake 
 Ainslee, C.B., was putting down a number of wells 
 and claimed to have struck a 75-foot oil sand. It is 
 
 83 
 
probable, however, that the drill penetrated 75 feet of 
 an oil shale, either of that thickness or cutting across 
 the beds of the rocks dipping at a high angle. 
 
 Oil-bearing shale, however, is now becoming 
 generally known in portions of Nova Scotia, and 
 promises to furnish material at least as good as the 
 oil shales of Scotland. 
 
 No oil or gas have ever been found on Prince Edward 
 Island. 
 
 Gaspe,the most northeasterly county of the Peninsula 
 of Gaspe, is the only county in Quebec which has 
 ever produced oil in commercial quantity; but this 
 field was never profitable. Between 1889 and 1901 
 wells were sunk in this vicinity by the Petroleum Oil 
 Trust of Montreal, the Canadian Petroleum Com- 
 pany, and the Petroleum Oil Trust of London; at 
 least 52 wells having been drilled in the field to 
 depths ranging from 684 feet to over 3,000 feet. A 
 small showing of oil was obtained in one of the wells. 
 
 84 
 
CHAPTER 10. 
 
 COMPANIES, REFINERIES AND 
 INDIVIDUAL PRODUCERS 
 
 Oil production in Canada in the early sixties, even 
 as now, was a fruitful field for the promoter. Many 
 scores of companies, syndicates and partnerships 
 were formed in the two or three years following 
 the first discoveries in Oil Springs and Petrolia, 
 scarcely any of which survive today. When orderly 
 business methods succeeded the haphazard ventures 
 pursued by the operators who came first into the 
 field, bona fide investment took the place of specu- 
 lation, and the organizations formed to sell worth- 
 less stock, one by one went to the wall. 
 
 Of the various producers who have been successful 
 under normal conditions and who have continued 
 in the field down to the present time, the principal 
 are: 
 
 John H. Fairbank Estate, J. L. Englehart & Co., 
 Ontario Lands & Oil Co., John D. Noble, J. E. 
 Armstrong, M.P., J. & J. Kerr Co., Crocker Parks 
 Oil Co., John Anderson, John Walker, Alex Wilson, 
 Richard Callinan, C. O. Fairbank, R. I. Bradley 
 Estate, Walker Oil and Gas Co., Carman & Fair- 
 bank, T. H. Smallmah & Co., and the Beaver Oil 
 and Gas Co. 
 
 The refining companies now in operation are four 
 in number and consist of the Imperial Oil Company, 
 
 85 
 
Limited, the Canadian Oil Companies, Limited, the 
 British American Oil Company, Limited, and the 
 British Columbia Refining Company, Limited. 
 
 The largest of these is the Imperial Oil Company, 
 Limited, incorporated by Dominion Letters Patent 
 dated September 8th, 1880. Sixteen men identified 
 with the oil industry signed the petition for the 
 charter, and it is interesting to note that all of 
 these who are still living are actively interested in 
 the company notably, Messrs. J. L. Englehart, 
 Petrolia; Thomas H. Smallman, William Melville 
 Spencer, C. N. Spencer, and F. A. Fitzgerald 
 of London, Ontario. The present authorized 
 capital of the company is fifty millions of 
 dollars, of which twenty-five millions has been 
 issued. The officers and directors of the company 
 are: Walter C. Teagle, president; C. O. Stillman, 
 J. L. Englehart and G. W. Mayer, vice-presidents; 
 W. T. McKee, secretary and treasurer. Directors: 
 T. H. Smallman, A. S. Rogers, J. P. Rogers, W. J. 
 Hanna, K.C., G. H. Smith and W. W. Oswald. 
 
 A noteworthy development in this organization 
 has been the large number of those on the Company's 
 pay roll who have availed themselves of the oppor- 
 tunity opened to them to become stockholders. The 
 Company maintains a pension fund for the benefit 
 of aged, infirm and disabled employes the work- 
 ing out of which has been an interesting and suc- 
 cessful venture in co-operation between employer 
 and employe. 
 
 The Canadian Oil Companies, Limited, was incor- 
 porated by Letters Patent of the Province of 
 
 87 
 
88 
 
Ontario, December 4, 1908, and has a present 
 authorized capital of $2,600,000. 
 
 The officers and directors are: J. I. Lamprecht, 
 president; F. B. Fretter, vice-president; F. H. 
 Littlefield, secretary; F. C. West, treasurer. Direct- 
 ors W. D. Ross, G. H. Muntz, Jas. Playfair, 
 Simon Dyment, Frank Ginn, Edward S. Page. 
 
 The British American Oil Company, Limited, was 
 incorporated by Dominion Letters Patent June 4, 
 1909, and has a present authorized capital of 
 $1,500,000. 
 
 The present officers are: 
 
 S. R. Parsons, president; C. L. Suhr, vice-president; 
 A. L. Ellsworth, secretary-treasurer; W. A. Manion, 
 general manager. 
 
 The British Columbia Refining Company, Limited, 
 was incorporated September 2, 1902. Officers 
 C. H. Leckie, president; Leon Melekeov, vice- 
 president; J. A. Cunningham, managing director 
 and secretary-treasurer. 
 
 There are a great many other Companies and in- 
 dividuals from coast to coast in Canada engaged in 
 the production, manufacture or sale of the products 
 of Petroleum, and among these the following may 
 be prominently noted: 
 
 McColl Bros. & Co., Toronto. Operate branches 
 at Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver and 
 other points. This Company was started about 
 1870 by Mr. J. B. McColl, who is still at its head. 
 
 89 
 
90 
 
The Galena Signal Oil Co., Toronto. Specializing 
 in the manufacture and sale of lubricating and 
 illuminating products for railway use. 
 
 The Winnipeg Oil Co. Ltd., Winnipeg. President 
 C. W. Fillmore, Vice-President Andrew Wright, 
 Secretary-Treasurer L. A. Warren. This company 
 is one of the best known in the west, having been 
 established some years ago, and the business has 
 grown so as to have recently necessitated a reor- 
 ganization and an increase in capital to cope with 
 operations on a larger scale. 
 
 Prairie City Oil Co. Ltd., Winnipeg. Operated 
 by Mr. A. E. Lewis, is another well known company 
 which has grown with the country. The company 
 carries on a large business among merchants in the 
 prairie provinces. 
 
 Among many other companies who are identified 
 
 with the petroleum industry may be mentioned : 
 
 Beaver Oil Co. Ltd., of Montreal. 
 
 Canadian Economic Lubricant Company, Montreal. 
 
 The R. C. Miller Oil & Supply Company, Montreal. 
 
 Tate Oil Company, Sherbrooke. 
 
 W. L. Thorn Oil Company, Montreal. 
 
 George W. Grant & Company, Toronto. 
 
 Brooks Oil Company, Hamilton. 
 
 The Commercial Oil Company, Hamilton. 
 
 Ontario Lubricating Company Limited, Hamilton. 
 
 C. C. Snowden, Calgary. 
 
 Western Oil & Supply Company, Vancouver. 
 
 There are now (March 1917) seven refineries in the 
 Dominion of Canada that are recognized as of 
 
 91 
 
92 
 
commercial importance, one each at Montreal, 
 Toronto, Petrolia, Sarnia, Regina and two at 
 Vancouver. 
 
 The Petrolia plant is supplied with crude oil from 
 the Oklahoma and Illinois fields, the crude being 
 shipped from Toledo by barge to Froomfield, 
 whence it is piped to the refinery. 
 
 The refinery in Toronto is located in the Ashbridge 
 Bay district, where the City of Toronto is now 
 spending over $20,000,000 in extensive harbor and 
 other improvements. This plant is supplied prin- 
 cipally from the Illinois and Oklahoma fields, 
 the crude being transported to the refinery in 
 tank cars. 
 
 The refinery at Sarnia is the largest of the seven. 
 The first buildings were erected in 1872, and the 
 property used for refining, storage and all other 
 purposes originally covered an area of fourteen 
 acres. Not until 1899 was any considerable enlarge- 
 ment of the plant made. In that year the rapidly 
 increasing consumption throughout Canada necessi- 
 tated a change of policy. From time to time since, 
 additional land has been acquired to provide for 
 the manufacture of all the different products of 
 petroleum, so that at the present time this plant 
 covers an area of nearly 150 acres, below the city and 
 running along the St. Clair river. Independent of 
 the city of Sarnia, the refinery maintains its own 
 extensive waterworks system, with a pumping 
 capacity of over 20,000,000 gallons a day, thus 
 assuring added fire protection to the entire property. 
 
 93 
 
The mechanical department of this refinery em- 
 ploys a force of six hundred skilled mechanics, 
 machinists, boilermakers, riveters, pipefitters, etc., 
 and is equipped with improved machinery for 
 fabricating storage tanks, tank cars, steel barrels, 
 drums and other equipment. 
 
 Of the two refineries at Vancouver, the one located 
 at Port Moody is run on crude oil imported from 
 California and manufactures principally pitch and 
 asphaltum products. The other and larger re- 
 finery is at loco, on the Burrard Inlet, about 
 twelve miles east of Vancouver. The plant covers 
 an area of eighty odd acres and employs about 
 275 men. 
 
 It is one of the most complete and modern 
 of refineries. Its crude oil supply is transported 
 from Peru in tank steamers and the output of 
 finished products distributed by tank car to the 
 trade in British Columbia and Alberta. 
 
 94 
 
95 
 
The Province of Saskatchewan has a refinery at 
 Regina, outside of the northern limits of the city. 
 Its crude supply is transported by tank cars from 
 the oil fields in the northern part of the State of 
 Wyoming. The plant covers sixty acres and was 
 built recently to supply the increased requirements 
 in Saskatchewan. 
 
 The "Good Roads" movement in Canada has re- 
 sulted in an increased demand for petroleum asphalt 
 and road making materials, and a refinery has just 
 been completed at Montreal to supply this demand 
 and manufacture in Canada these products which 
 heretofore it has been necessary to import. This 
 plant is designed to refine only high-grade asphaltum 
 crude oils, producing therefrom approved asphaltic 
 road materials. Its equipment consists of fourteen 
 large crude stills, several reducing, re-running and 
 pressure stills, agitators and a special drum plant 
 for the manufacture of the metal package in which, 
 together with tank cars, shipment is made. The 
 refinery is located at Montreal East, on a plot 
 of over seventy -five acres fronting on the St. Law- 
 rence River. It has at its own wharf a sufficient 
 depth of water to accommodate the ocean-going 
 tank steamers in which the crude oils will be 
 imported, as well as facilities to make shipments by 
 water, either in bulk or in packages. 
 
 There is also now in course of construction at Dart- 
 mouth, across the harbor from Halifax, another 
 large refinery to supply the trade in the Maritime 
 Provinces as well as to furnish fuel oil for the 
 bunkering of ocean going steamships. 
 
 96 
 
SUPPLYING THE CANADIAN ARMY WITH 
 GASOLINE. 
 
Since 1904, when the customs duty on the refined 
 products of petroleum was put on a moderate pro- 
 tection basis and crude oil was put on the free list, 
 there has been invested in the refineries of Canada, 
 $13,700,000. 
 
 In the past year these refineries paid salaries and 
 wages amounting to $4,500,000, contributed nearly 
 $2,000,000 to the customs revenue, paid in other 
 forms of taxation $812,000, and in railway freight 
 charges to the Canadian roads $5,440,000. These 
 disbursements were undoubtedly an important con- 
 tribution to the industrial and commercial develop- 
 ment of the Dominion and aided in maintaining a 
 home market for agricultural and other products. 
 
 The refining industry has a prospective and import- 
 ant value to the Dominion through the reasonable 
 expectation of the discovery of new oil fields in the 
 Canadian North West referred to elsewhere. When 
 such discoveries occur an expectation justified by 
 the best geological opinion their value as an asset 
 to Canada will be greatly enhanced by the possession 
 of refineries which will make possible the whole 
 benefit accruing to Canada. The refineries will 
 enable Canadian industry and enterprise to advance 
 the raw material to the highest point of manufacture 
 instead of being obliged to export it in crude form, 
 to be exploited by foreign manufacturers. 
 
 Under the tariff which has made the establishment, 
 maintenance and expansion of this important indus- 
 try possible, fully one-half the volume of petroleum 
 products enters the Dominion free of any duty 
 
 98 
 
except the temporary war tax. The free list 
 includes asphaltum, oils for road making purposes, 
 and gasoline. A moderate duty secures to Canadian 
 refineries the home market for illuminating and 
 lubricating oils. Without this the industry which 
 plays an important part in the development and 
 prosperity of Canada would be established and 
 operated elsewhere. That the loss of a great wage 
 bill, a material contribution to Canadian revenue, and 
 a proportionate freight bill would be an economic 
 misfortune need not be emphasized. 
 
 The mutual dependence and beneficial relationship 
 of all industries under a protection system points to 
 the conclusion that oil refining would be lost to 
 Canada but for the moderate tariff which secures a 
 home market for a part of the output. The pro- 
 tection afforded industries supplying the needs of the 
 refineries makes a material difference between the 
 cost of construction and maintenance in Canada and 
 in the United States. Structural steel, machinery, 
 stills, pipe, boilers, acid, etc., and almost all requisites 
 are most costly in Canada. It is estimated that a 
 refinery could be built in the United States at about 
 one-third less cost than here. The advantage of 
 local refining counteracts this to such an extent that, 
 having regard for freight charges, the special war 
 tax and the difference between the Imperial gallon 
 used in Canada and the wine gallon, the unit of 
 measurement in the United States, prices to the 
 consumer are no higher in Canada than in the 
 United States. 
 
 99 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 SOME PRODUCTS AND USES 
 OF PETROLEUM 
 
 Fifty years ago, the principal product of crude 
 petroleum was illuminating oil. Most of the 
 residues resulting from the distillation (now the 
 base of many valuable commodities) were regarded 
 as waste and a nuisance that not infrequently had 
 to be disposed of at an expense. 
 
 Today, crude petroleum is the source of: benzine, 
 gasoline, kerosene, paraffine, paraffine wax, vaseline, 
 white mineral oil, axle grease, lubricating oil, fuel 
 oil, gas oil, road oils, asphalt and petroleum coke. 
 
 These are what may be termed the chief primary 
 products of petroleum, each having a familiar use. 
 The unfamiliar uses are so numerous that a complete 
 and accurate record would embrace a list of not 
 less than four thousand individual employments. 
 
 Paraffine, for instance, is best known in the form 
 of candles, but it is used for a great many other 
 things besides that. The modern match factory 
 coats the head of the matches with paraffin to 
 make them waterproof; manufacturers of confec- 
 tioners' wrapping paper glaze the paper with a 
 paraffin coating; paper drinking cups are water- 
 proofed with it; barrels are lined with it and it is 
 used in the manufacture of ornaments from gypsum 
 
 100 
 
and other minerals; in the domestic canning of 
 fruits, paraffin is indispensable; workers in wax 
 flowers must have it; no modern laundry could 
 be operated without it. It is the most effective 
 protector known for stoppers in bottles containing 
 corrosive liquids, and as an insulator for electric 
 wires. In the etching of metals it protects the 
 surface outside the lines against the acid. 
 
 The importance of petroleum lubricating oil is 
 rarely under estimated. Every grade of oil, from 
 the thinnest and lightest down to the thickest axle 
 grease, finds a place in the list of petroleum lubri- 
 cants. Animal oils cannot be used in high pressure 
 steam engines, because fatty acids are formed and 
 act injuriously on iron, steel, brass and copper. 
 Pure petroleum oils are impervious to the action 
 of the steam in an engine, because they are not de- 
 composed. Unlike the vegetable or animal lubri- 
 cants, petroleum does not "gum." Ground with 
 
 101 
 
102 
 
graphite, mica or insoluble soap, a petroleum lub- 
 ricator for heavy slow-moving machinery is the 
 only known agent that reduces friction and so 
 lengthens almost indefinitely the life of the bearings. 
 There is also manufactured from crude petroleum 
 a substitute for turpentine known as "mineral turps." 
 
 The oil stove of the present day really came into 
 existence to take the place of the early type kerosene- 
 oil stoves and the dangerous gasoline stoves. 
 
 The first kerosene oil stoves built were unsatis- 
 factory because they were designed on the same 
 principle, practically, as the early kerosene oil 
 lamps. When these stoves were made they pro- 
 duced an odoriferous yellow flame. A flat wick 
 and a short tapered chimney were used. After a 
 short period of services, the wicks and burner 
 parts became coated and fouled with carbon, and 
 in addition to the smell there was a good deal of 
 smoke. Furthermore, these stoves did not produce 
 enough heat for general cooking. In an attempt to 
 overcome the difficulties of this type of stove, the 
 short-drum, perforated tube type of stove was pro- 
 duced. The early short-drum stoves, built between 
 twenty-five and thirty years ago, were noted for 
 their odor and lack of heat. 
 
 To overcome the difficulties experienced with these 
 two types of kerosene oil burners, the gasoline 
 stove was produced, and while very dangerous to 
 operate, it produced a clean and powerful flame. 
 Owing to the cheapness of the fuel which was at 
 that time only a by-product the sales were large. 
 
 103 
 
The evolution from the primitive, ill-smelling and 
 dangerous devices of that period to the modern, odor- 
 less cooking appliances was even more rapid than the 
 evolution from the stage coach to the railroad train, 
 and just as pronounced and radical. In the latter 
 part of 1901 the increased demand for gasoline began 
 to manifest itself, and gasoline at that time was 
 no longer the indifferently regarded product of 
 the primitive days of the early gasoline stoves. As 
 the price of gasoline increased and as the danger of 
 the gasoline stove began to be more thoroughly under- 
 stood, the real work of producing a satisfactory kero- 
 sene stove began. In the manufacture of the new 
 one a radical departure was made from the early 
 type. The new stove was designed to produce a blue 
 flame instead of a yellow, with clean white points, 
 burning from a circular wick over three inches in 
 diameter. In order to secure clean and perfect 
 combustion, a long chimney was used in combination 
 with the burner. This stove gives perfect com- 
 bustion and a flame powerful enough for all kinds 
 of general cooking. Because of the economies 
 which they afford in household use, especially in 
 localities in which ordinary fuel is expensive, both 
 the oil stove and the oil heater are coming into 
 general use. There has been established at Sarnia, 
 Ontario, a factory with a yearly output of 100,000 
 stoves and heaters, all of which is to meet the 
 demand of the Canadian market. 
 
 104 
 
CHAPTER 12. 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY IN 
 CANADA 
 
 The zeal which has brought the keenest 
 minds of modern science to bear upon the con- 
 servation of the world's precious and dwindling 
 store of petroleum, to obtain from it the maximum 
 benefits for mankind, and has secured from the 
 ablest administrators in modern industry such 
 perfection of manufacturing and distributing pro- 
 cesses, is exhibited in no less degree in the persistent 
 and unwearying search for new sources of supply. 
 
 The possible exhaustion of petroleum, coal, 
 and many other mineral resources is generally con- 
 ceded. The question of time is largely a matter of 
 speculation, based chiefly upon possibilities of dis- 
 covery of new fields or deposits or of drilling to much 
 greater depths. The earlier the depletion of supplies 
 outside of Canada, the more important would become 
 any resources that may be discovered or developed in 
 this country. 
 
 Undoubtedly the problem of increasing the produc- 
 tion, which has stared oil producers and consumers in 
 the face for several years, has had much to do with 
 the efficiency of the methods adopted for conserving 
 and utilizing to the utmost extent commercially all 
 of the constituents of crude petroleum. Ever since 
 
 105 
 
106 
 
the annual consumption of oil began to approach the 
 annual production there has not been a year when 
 some calculation could not be made to support a 
 prophecy of the extinction of the industry, in the 
 event of the known oil areas of the world continu- 
 ing to contract. Predictions of the ultimate ex- 
 haustion of natural resources, other than oil, are 
 fairly common; but while capital, and facilities for 
 the exploration of new territories continue to ac- 
 cumulate and the demands of civilization become 
 more urgent, it is unsafe to assume that the history 
 of the past may not be repeated, and that some new 
 discovery may not come to assure the world of a 
 supply which will at least extend the life of the oil 
 industry. Canada, Russia, Mexico, South America 
 and India, all continue to offer wide opportunities 
 for the oil prospector, and it is not too much to 
 say that the northern regions of this country will 
 be one of the world's famous mineral centres to 
 the importance of which oil may contribute no small 
 part. 
 
 Our own production at present is not merely an 
 insignificant contribution to the world's output, 
 but a small part of our own consumption. From 
 1865 to 1870 the yield in the Western Ontario field 
 was about 200,000 barrels annually. The export 
 demand produced wide fluctuations in the produc- 
 tion and brought the output up to half a million 
 barrels per year at times, until 1877. There en- 
 sued successive increases and declines until 1907, 
 when the production reached 800,000 barrels, 
 which would appear to be the maximum for the 
 Canadian field. 
 
 107 
 
The total quantity of crude petroleum entering the 
 world's markets in 1915 amounted to 426,892,673 
 barrels, exceeding the former record established in 
 1914 by 28,194,307 barrels, or seven per cent. 
 
 The distribution of production is shown in the 
 following table which gives the total yield since 
 the year 1857. 
 
 Quantity 
 1857-1915 inc. 
 bbls. of 42 gals. 
 
 United States 3,616,561,244 
 
 Russia 1,690,781,907 
 
 Dutch East Indies 148,999,921 
 
 Galicia 136,032,500 
 
 Roumania 130,012,287 
 
 Mexico 123,270,377 
 
 India 80,789,711 
 
 Japan and Formosa 30,169,622 
 
 Canada 23,709,074 
 
 Peru 16,794,223 
 
 Germany 13,961,333 
 
 Trinidad 2,819,430 
 
 Egypt 1,308,496 
 
 Argentine 1,033,121 
 
 Italy 842,020 
 
 Other.. 372,000 
 
 6,017,457,266 
 
 The science of geology in its relation to oil fields 
 has progressed so far that the possibility of much 
 effort being wasted in prospecting barren country is 
 
 108 
 
eliminated, and the resources of the industry will 
 be centred upon the exploration of any territory 
 which affords promising possibilities, however slight, 
 to the oil prospector. The historian of the future 
 may yet have the privilege vouchsafed the compiler 
 of these fragmentary notes of glimpsing the moving 
 episodes which make up the life of a new oil field, 
 and if this boon is accorded, may it be as fruitful 
 not only in its contributions to the world's wealth, 
 but in the advancement of the sciences, as was the 
 discovery of petroleum in Canada. 
 
 109 
 
YC 70226 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY