SECOND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF PENNSYLVANIA: 18T5 to 1879. .THE GEOLOGY OIL WARREN, VENANGO, CLARION, AND BUTLER COUNTIES, INCLUDING SURVEYS OF THE GARLAND AND PANAMA CONGLOMERATES IN WARBEN AND CBAWFORD, AXD IN CHAUTAUQUA Co., N. Y., DESCRIPTIONS OF OIL WELL RIG AND TOOLS, AND A DISCUSSION OF THE PREGLACIAL AND POSTGLACIAL DRAIN- AGE OF THE LAKE ERIE COUNTRY. JOHN F. CARLL. WITH TWO INDEXES, 23 PAGE PLATES, AND AN ATLAS OF 22 SHEETS OF MAPS, WELL- SECTIONS, AND WOKKINU DRAWINGS OF WELL BIG AND TOOLS. HARRISBURG: PUBLISHED BY THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOK THE SECOND GEOLOGICAL SUBVKY. 1880. Entered, for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the year 1880, according to acts of Congress, By WILLIAM A. INGHAM, Secretary of the Board of Commissioners of Geological Survey, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at WASHINGTON, D. C. Electrotyped and printed by LANE S. HART, State Printer, Harrisburg, Pa. BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS. His Excellency, HENRY M. HOYT, Governor, and ex-officio President of the Board, Harrisburg. AEIO PAEDEE, - Hazleton. WILLIAM A. INGHAM, Philadelphia. HENEY S. ECKEET, Reading. HENEY McCoEMiCK, - Harrisburg. JAMES MACFAELANE, - Towanda. JOHN B. PEAESE, Philadelphia. JOSEPH WILLCOX, Philadelphia, Hon. DANIEL J. MOEEELL, - Johnstown. HEISTEY W. OLIVEE, Pittsburgh. SAMUEL Q. BEOWN, - - - ----- Pleasantville. SECRETARY OF THE BOARD. WILLIAM A. INGHAM, - - - Philadelphia. STATE GEOLOGIST. PETEE LESLEY, Philadelphia. 188O. ASSISTANT GEOLOGISTS. PERSIFOR FRAZER Geologist in charge of the Survey of Chester county. AMBROSE E. LEHMAN Topographical Assistant, for mapping the South Mountain. E. V. D'IXVILLIERS Topographical Assistant, for mapping the Easton-Read- ing range. FRANKLIN PLATT Geologist hi charge of the Satistical Survey of the An- thracite coal fields, Sandstone, flaggy, (see below), .... 12 to 1061 mouth j quarry. ) [Continue down with Dr. Gibson's oil well record, published in I.I., with the 2?o. 1187.} Slate, soapstone, and hard shells, 90 to 971 Sandstone, fine-grained, blue, 20 to 951 Slate, blue, 65 to 886 Sandstone, whiter than the above (thickness estimated,) 25 to 861 Slate, blue, 90 to 771 Sandstone, coarse and pebbly, 18 to 753 Slate and soapstone, soft, 92 to 661 Red rock and hard shale, 100 to 561 Hard sandy slate, 50 to 511 Black slate, 200 to 311 Black slate, no sand, 315 to 4 152. On Cliristy run. Following down a small stream (called above Christy run,) which falls over the lower mem- ber of Snodgrass quarry and runs in a southerly direction into the Shenango, the measures are not very well exposed ; but occasional glimpses caught of them in the side w ils of the ravine are sufficient to satisfy one that they are a com- paratively homogeneous mass of sandy shale similar to those seen below the Adamsville quarry. 153. Cliristy run quarry. In this ravine at a vertical distance of 140' (by barometer) below the Snodgrass Lower quarry another quarry is worked which shows a face of about 12', and furnishes a bluish-grey, flaggy, sandstone some layers of which are locally from 8 to 10 inches thick. GARLAND CONGLOMERATE. Ill, 55 The same sandy band, but not so well defined may be seen just at the mouth of Dr. Gibson's oil well and again along a little run north of the well. 154. Fossils. Mr. J. Dennison who has taken out a large quantity of stone from the exposure in the ravine, states that he found large numbers of fossils, principally Discina and Spirifer, near the base of the rock ; some line specimens of which he kindly donated to the survey. We did not discover any colonies of fossils at this horizon, but obtained several single specimens. 15,1 Gibson' s oil well. The record of Dr. Gibson' s well was, unfortunately, not kept with sufficient care to give us a faithful representation of the strata passed through. The so-called Third sand is no doubt correctly located (as to depth) in the section ; but the positions of the other sands are somewhat uncertain ; and the quality of intermediate strata is very vaguely stated. If this so-called Third sand really belongs to the Yenango oil group it probably repre- sents not the Third but the First sand on Oil creek. The distance from the Snodgrass lower quarry down to it is 442 feet ; which agrees, approximately, with the corre- sponding interval as measured in Yenango county. But this of itself is not sufficient to prove its identity with the First Sand of Yenango county. It may be a different rock, not at all connected with the' Yenango group. The question could only be satisfactorily settled by a careful examina- tion of the character of the measures above and below it in the well ; but as the sand pumpings were not preserved, this of course cannot be done. I therefore give the section, as above, merely to show the general character of the lower measures in this part of my survey. J. II. Christy 1 s quarry. 150. Snodgrass Lower quarry rocJc. About a mite and a half east of Jamestown and one mile south-southeast of the Snodgrass quarry there is a very good exposure of the Snodgrass lower quarry rock. It may be seen in two places just above the forks of a little stream flowing into the She- nango, and about half a mile north of the highway. 56 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. The following is the section at that point : Elevation of top rock above ocean (barometer), .... 1190 . Sandstone, yellow and grey, sometimes massive and in layers from 2' to 3' thick; quite coarse-grained, iron- stained, and containing many impressions of carbo;.- ized plants, 8 to 1182 Sandstone, thin-bedded (plates, 1" to 8"), 12 to 1170 Shale, blue, visible for 10 to 1160 Concealed, 10 to 1150 Shale, blue, 45 to 1105 Sandstone, flaggy, visible for 1 . 10 to 1095 /Survey continued. 157. From Jamestown southwest our levels were con- tinued to the dividing ridge between the Shenango and Py- matuning, &tKi,nney's Corners (cross roads) in the extreme northeastern corner of Trumbull county, Ohio. The high- est point (hill top) in this vicinity, a short distance south of, and 30' higher than Kinney's cross-roads, has an altitude above tide of 1191'. 158. No sandrock was seen in place here, everything being completely covered with Drift ; but the indications are that this little rise in the general level of the crest marks the horizon of the Snodgrass lower quarry rocJc. 159. Conglomerate. Sweeping around at Kinney's Cor- ners from southwest to west no deposit of conglomerate can be reached within a distance of about 30 miles. Every vest- age of it has been removed from all the northwestern town- ships of Trumbull county, Ohio ; although it remains in great thickness in the eastern tier of townships of Geauga and Portage townships. We must look to the south, then, along this Pymatuning- Shenango ridge for the connection of our GARLAND CON- GLOMERATE with the OHIO CONGLOMERATE and our Sub- Garland yellow sandstone with the SJienango sandstone. l6o. Ohio conglomerate. The first prominent exposure of Ohio conglomerate is at Hobarf s quarry in the south- east corner of Kinsman township, about 4 miles south of Kinney's Corners. Half a mile southeast of this at Foulke 1 s quarry in Mercer cer co.. Pa. a higher stratum of sandstone is exposed which GARLAND CONGLOMERATE. III. 57 is probably the one lying above the Orangeville coal beds further south. Mr. Foulke has drilled here .for coal and find a 10' sand- stone 95 feet below the quarry rock which seems to be the Shenango sandstone. This sandstone is also exposed in a small stream falling into Booth run about a mile and a half south of Mr. Foulke' s. A mile and a quarter southwest of this point, and two miles north of Orangeville, both the Conglomerate and She- nango sandstone outcrop one above the other in the cliff facing the Pymatuning. About two miles east of these outcrops the Sharon coal is mined quite extensively. Tims the GARLAND CONGLOMERATE may be traced step by step until it is found coalescing with the Oino CONGLOMER- ATE beneath the Sharon or Block coal. It is unnecessary to go further into details in this report of my work of 1875 since Prof. White's systematic survey of Mercer county in 1878 (See Report QQQ, already published) fully confirms and establishes the connection. CHAPTER VI.* On Hie Panama conglomerate. 161. This conglomerate, which takes its name from the place of its best exposure, in the village of Panama, Chau- tauqua county, N". Y. appears to have a considerable range of exposures in a northeast-southwest direction. But at right angles to this line of its best development that is in a southeast direction it seems to dip rapidly be- neath the general level of the country, to lose its conglom- eritic character, and by reason pf a great acquisition of * Report of work done in 1875. 58 II]. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. argillaceous material, soon becomes unrecognizable, (even as a well pronounced horizon of sandy shale, ) where .pierced by borings for oil. 162. The Panama conglomerate has often been men- tioned by geologists, in the same category with the con- glomerates of Ellicottville or Salamanca, Olean, Wellsville, or Genesee, and Quaker-Hill or Garland. Consequently, it has been represented lying at the base of the coal measures ; which conveys an entirely wrong im- pression of its true age and stratigraphical position. 163. On the other hand also, the Panama conglomerate has been frequently referred to as a Chemung rock ; and also as the northerly outcrop of one of the Yenango oil sands. The first classification is unquestionably erronious ; and there are grave reasons for doubting whether the latter be absolutely correct. 164. As the rock can only be properly studied along its outcrop, we have been compelled to trespass upon 'New York territory, and devote some time to an examination of its exposures in Chautauqua county, in order that we might become acquainted with its character and position there, and thus be better qualified to follow it in its southern ex- tension into our own State. But this examination has not been thorough enough to dispel entirely the obscurity which surrounds the subject, and I am still unable to indicate positively the precise hor- izon of this interesting deposit in our oil well sections; and chiefly for the reason before stated, viz : that it fines down into shale and is lost before reaching the oil-produc- ing districts. 165. The facts about to be given, however, lead clearly to the folloAving conclusions : 1. That it is an older rock than the conglomerates of Olean, Garland, &c., and therefore is not of carboniferous age. 2. That although actually of Chemung age, it probably is not the equivalent of any one of the oil-producing sand- stones of Yenango county, lying much deeper in the series. PANAMA CONGLOMERATE. III. 59 Panama rock city. 1GG. At Panama a north and south ridge, rising on the west of Little Brokenstraw creek, and containing the rock in place, is cut through by a branch heading in the high- lands to the northwest. This branch seems to have formerly plunged over the face of the escarpment of sandstone forming the west wall of the valley of the Little Brokenstraw ; but it has now cut back a gorge, half a mile or more long. At the present head of the gorge the waterfall is quite inconsiderable, except in times of freshets, and the descent over the ledge of pebbly sandstone is made in two leaps, with a sloping cascade between. The bed of the ravine is crooked and obstructed by large blocks of conglomerate dropped from the nearly vertical side walls of the gorge. It is a picturesque spot, p resenting attractive features to the lover of romantic scenery ; and it opens to the student of nature instructive pages in the physical history of the globe, both as to the attitude, structure, and constitution of this remarkable deposit of ancient gravel and sand ; and as to the fossil forms of life, which are in great abundance, en- tombed in it, as well as in the shales underneath it. 167. Level above tide. To place its elevation above tide beyond question a spirit-level line was run from grade at Grant station, on the Atlantic and Great Western railway, to the top of the rock, near the "Rock Hotel," Panama. The rise was found to be 234'. This, added to the altitude of Grant station, (1437', as given in the R. R. levels,) gives 1G71/ as the true elevation of the top of the Panama rock above mean ocean level, at this point. 1GS. Thickness. On the northerly side of the ravine, a short distance from "Rock Hotel," the base of Hue con- glomerate is well exposed by a cutting for a mill Hume. Leveling to this point made the rock 69' thick. 169. Under-sJiales.llvYQ the rock is seen resting on bluish-green shales, very argillaceous and considerably dis- colored by iron. About 25' of these shales are exposed ; and beneath them, for 25' more, (which carries us down to 60 III. -REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. the level of the stream,) may be observed other blue shales, much more sandy than the first, irregularly bedded, and containing several bands richly stored with fossils. 170. The shape of the pebbles. The Panama rock may be described as a massive conglomerate composed of quartz pebbles and sand ; the proportion of sand to pebbles being much larger than in many of the purely conglomeritic masses of northwestern Pennsylvania. The pebbles whether large or small, are almost always of lens shape. They sel- dom measure an inch in their longest diameter ; but one may occasionally be found measuring an inch and a half or even two inches. They are generally of a very pure white quartz, but some are pink ; and quite frequently one may be observed of red or slate colored jasper. One of the first things which attracted my attention while examining the Panama rock, was the marked contrast in form between the pebbles composing it and those of the Pennsylvania conglomerates whicli I had been studying. In these last as far as I have observed them, the pebbles are universally of an irregularly spJieroidal sliape ; Avhile in the Panama rock the pebbles are as characteristically lentiforrn ; a spheroidal pebble being as much an exception to the general rule at Panama, as a lenticular pebble is at Lottsville or Garland. Whether this diversity in the shape of the pebbles amounts to positive proof that the rocks belong to different ages or horizons I do not pretend to decide. But it seems quite improbable, to say the least, that two conglomerates so en- tirely dissimilar in structure and in the shape of the peb- bles composing them, as the lock at Lottsville, and the rock at Panama, separated also as they are by a geographical interval of less than ten miles, should be deposited by the same mechanical agents, and at the same time. Certainly the shape of a pebble must depend not only upon its constitutional structure, but also in great measure upon the manner in whicli the frictional forces have acted upon it. If it has been constantly subjected to a rotary or rolling motion, it would assume a spheroidal form-if abraded by sliding and alternate movements backward and forward. PANAMA CONGLOMERATE. III. 61 without rolling, it must take on the lens-shape. But we may ask if these varying conditions prevailed contempo- raneously in these two localities so close together, and formed such different kinds of conglomerate in one and the same horizon, why should not similar conditions have occurred and produced as conspicuously varied results in other places ? I am not aware that there can be found in the whole range of the Conglomerate series, a single instance where a flat pebble conglomerate of the constitution of the Panama rock is interstratined with the round pebble conglomerates char- acteristic of the carboniferous age. It seems quite probable that the original structure of the q;iartz may have had something to do with the ultimate shape of the pebble ; for in the flat pebble rocks of Chemung and Pocono age the material has a tendency to a lamelate fracture ; while the rounded pebbles of the Pottsville period, break up into more approximately cuboidal masses. I merely call attention here to these facts, for their sig- nificance can only be properly understood after the subject has received further investigation. 171. Alternate layers. The rock at Panama is made up from top to bottom of alternating layers of sandstone and conglomerate blending one with the other as the pro- portions of sand and pebbles varied intermittently during the deposition of the materials composing the rock. Fre- quently a layer of pebbles consisting of only one course may be seen running horizontally for rods along the face of the cliff. The pebbles lie flat, and the sandstone having weathered away from above and below them, their project- ing edges jut out and glisten in the sunlight like a string of beads suspended in front of the sandstone. In some cases two or three courses of pebbles in imme- diate contact have been deposited between purely sandg- lasses, a foot or more in thickness. Several blocks with this structure have fallen from the cliff in such a manner as to split open along the line of pebbles, exposing two plane- surfaces of sand-stone beautifully inlaid with a wonderfully regular and uniform stratum of lenticular pebbles. The whole aspect of the rock suggests the story of a gravel heap 62 III REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. along an ancient shore reached by occasional storms, the waves of which have washed into the beach, the "back tow" bringing out and distributing the pebbles systemati- cally over a smooth and sandy floor. 172. Fallen blocks ; fissures. The disintegration of the soft shales at the base of the conglomerate lias under- mined it. Long ranges of rock have broken off in the lines of cleavage (which here run about X. 00 W.) and settled away one after the other from the undisturbed portion be- hind them, leaving a series of fissures from 2 to 10 feet wide separating the several portions one from the other. These fissures are about 40 feet apart ; and the detached projecting portions of rock are traversed by a secondary series of transverse crevices, and thus split up into huge blocks, 70 or 80 feet long. Some of the blocks along the front of the escarpment have slipped down, rolled over, and now lie near the bed of the stream, 50 feet below. All the rock cities of southern New York and northwest- ern Pennsylvania have been formed in a similar manner. Many of them are situated on the highest hilltops, but they are always composed of rocks in situ. They have neither been brought from a distance ; nor have they been thrown up to their present position (as popularly imagined) by "convulsions of nature." Their formation has been as slow and quiet as the operations of frost and water amid which we live. They are merely the last remnants of thick and extensive deposits of coarse sandstone that once covered the country, and are now everywhere else removed. Their preservation from the destructive erosion which has been going on constantly for an untold number of ages, removing rock after rock above them, and carving out the valleys hundreds of feet deep below them, must be ascribed to one of two causes, or to both combined : either to their peculiar position in relation to the eroding currents, and to the fact that some great change in the direction and energy of these currents occurred at just the proper time to leave the rocks thus exposed to view ; or to the peculiaf constitution of the deposit, its superior thickness, coarseness, homogen- PANAMA CONGLOMERATE. III. 63 eousness, and consequent power of resistance, in those parts of it now occupying these positions. Range of exposures. Taking Panama now as a central point, let us trace the conglomerate and see what is its probable stratigraphical position in the geological series ; in what direction it ap- pears to thicken or thin ; how it dips and what changes of constitution or character it undergoes in the several places where it may be examined. 174. BlocJcmlle or AsTimlle exposure. Going to the northeast, the first exposure found is on Stony ridge, about a mile and a half north of Blockville and two miles north- west of Ashville. Here the rock assumes a mixed character. Some parts are masses of pebbles loosely held together in a scanty sandy matrix, easily disintegrated by moisture, frost, and heat on exposure to the atmosphere, and utterly unfit for architectural purposes. Other positions afford a beautiful white and brownish- grey sandstone suitable for monumental bases, lintels, or any similar work. The precise thickness of the whole stratum was not as- certained, but it can hardly be less than fif ty feet. Elevation (by barometer) of assumed base of rock 1660'. 175. Ellory Centre. Continuing to the northeast, we cross Chautauqua lake, and find the last traces of the rock (in that direction) in loose pieces, but apparently very near- ly in situ, on the highest hills around Ellory Centre. Elevation by barometer 1750'. Huge erratic bowlders of gneissic rock are thickly strewn over the hill slopes (especially the slopes facing the north) to within 40 or 50 feet of the highest summits. 64 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. Beyond this in the same northeast direction there are no hills high enough to hold the rock. If it even were depos- ited there, it has been eroded off. 170. Williams' quarry, on the westerly slope of a hill four miles north from Panama, has been worked for more than forty years, furnishing stone for the Mayville court- house ; and from layers which seem to be those at the base of the Panama deposit. The rock is a fine-grained, free- working, grey sandstone, splitting smoothly and easily ; and readily wrought into fence posts, or into square blocks of almost any desired length. The upper pebbly strata are not present at the quar- ry. The lower compact sandstone layers of the formation underlie a large area covered by only a few feet of surface clay ; and the upper rock surface beneath this clay is in many places plainly glaciated, the direction of the ico scratches being here nearly north and south. Elevation (by barometer) of base of quarry 1660'. On the rise of the hill 30 or 40 feet above the quarry, con- glomerate precisely similar to Panama rock city may be seen in place. 177. Lewis quarry. Half a mile west of Williams' lies the Lewis quarry ; and at many other places in this vicinity the rock could be easily quarried. The character of the stratum is the same throughout, and there can be no doubt of its equivalence to the Panama rock. 178. CJtaulauqua quarry. Near Panama station on the Buffalo, Corry and Pittsburg railroad, five miles west of Panama village, Messrs. Warren and Hammond of May- ville have opened a quarry calling it by the above name. It furnishes a fine-grained, compact, bluish-buff sand- PANAMA CONGLOMERATE. III. 65 stone containing minute, evenly disseminated specks of iron ; dresses very smoothly ; is said to weather without dis- coloration, and to be very strong and durable. The stratum worked is about 12 feet thick. Below it are blue clayey shales ; above it thin bands of flat pebbles loosely held in a sandy matrix and iron-stained. Probably much more conglomerate of a massive character lies above these thin bands since loose blocks are seen on the slopes of the hill. The bed of the rock dips very strongly in a north north- easterly direction as shown by the water on the bottom of the quarry ; but this may be only a local feature which will not continue when the quarry is worked further in. A branch railroad is laid up to the opening from the B. C. and P, R. R. and they have now every facility for quarry- ing and shipping an excellent material for monument cut- ters and builders. Elevation of base of quarry about 1600'. Other exposures in Chautauqua county might be men- tioned, but as they are all on the same range of rock and these are sufficient for our purpose we now pass on into Pennsylvania. The Panama rock in Pennsylvania. 179. BleaJcsley quarry. Passing the State line and pur- suing a southwest course the observer finds the surface of the country heavily covered with northern Drift, and very few attempts have been made to discover the underlying building stone deposits. On the Bleaksley farm, however, 3 miles south of Watts- burg, Erie county, a quarry has been opened, exposing about 15 feet of sandstone and conglomerate. The con- glomerate is of flat pebbles, often thinly bedded and split- ting in layers from six to twelve inches thick. Some of the more sandy layers are quite massive and work up into good building stone. 180. A drill hole for oil was here ".kicked down" a hundred feet or more about the year 1864. It commenced in the quarry-opening seven feet below the top of the rock 5 III. 66 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. and is said to have gone through 60 feet of sandstone at the top. If this be true there must be a heavy deposit at this point, and the base of the rock would lie at an elevation of about 1340'. 181. Large blocks. Two miles south of Bleaksley's, the same kind of conglomerate and sandstone lie scattered along the foot of the hills skirting the westerly side of Beaver run indicating close proximity to the rock in place. 182. Anotlier exposure of the rock occurs about three miles southwest of Bleaksley' s on the farm of Mr. Doolittle, where it is laid bare by a small stream falling into the west branch of Le Boeuf creek, showing a thickness of about 15 feet and quite similar in appearance to the quarry last noted. Elevation of base by aneroid 1330'. 183. Oil well. Mr. Doolittle furnishes from memory, the following record of an oil well drilled here in 1860 : Sandstone, (bottom layer of quarry rock), 2 to 2 "Soapstone," ' 40 to 42 Shelly sandstone, 88 to 130 Slate and shale, rather hard drilling 470 to 600 Gas and oil show all through the 88' of shelly sandstone. Oil of heavy gravity translucent and very clear "looked like honey." Between 200' and 300' a restricted gas reservoir was tapped which flowed strongly for two hours and then ceased. The well was drilled wet and abandoned without pump- ing. Drill hole 4 inches in diameter. 184. The next quarries of importance are those situated in the southeast corner of Waterf ord township, Erie county, on the adjoining farms of J. W. Middleton and J. McClel- land. They have been worked for many years and are men- tioned in Prof. Roger' s Final Report of 1858 as being of considerable note when the first geological survey was made. 185. The Middleton quarry is now worked principally for its flags. It turns out some very fine slabs of bluish- grey sandstone from 3 to 5 inches thick, which find a ready market as they are well adapted for sidewalks, curbing, &c. A section of this quarry, from the top down, would be as follows : PANAMA CONGLOMERATE. III. 67 Flat pebble conglomerate, irregular, false bedded and contain- ing many fossils, 2' White sandstone quite massive, 2' Bluish-grey flags in layers from 3 to 5 inches thick, 4' Flaggy measures said to underlie the band now being worked, 15' ? No systematic quarrying lias been done to make it abso- lutely certain that there remains 15 feet more of flags below the 4' band now worked. The barometric elevation of the conglomerate is 1275'. 186. Moravian or Carroll quarry. The last ledge of this rock in a southwest direction is at the old Moravian quarry near Le Boeuf. Here some fine building-stone is obtained, and being on the line of the Atlantic and Great Western railway and only a few feet above railroad grade, it is easily shipped to all parts. Consequently the quarry is more extensively worked than any of those previously mentioned, except perhaps the Chautauqua quarry. The section exposed here is as follows, from top down : Fossiliferous sandstone, crowded with spinfers and ryncho- nellas, 2' Blue, friable shale, 15' Flat pebble conglomerate, containing fossils and similar to Middletown quarry, 2^' Barometric elevation of conglomerate, 1220' "Yellowish sandstone, with pebbles in seams and pockets, . . 2^' White, massive sandstone, 5' Yellow, massive sandstone, 6' Average fall per mile. 187. We have now followed the Panama conglomerate for about 35 miles in a southwesterly direction ; from its scattered remnants on the highest hilltops in the centre of Chautauqua county, N". Y. to its last appearance, a few feet above the waters of French creek in the southern part of Erie county, Pennsylvania. The difference in altitude between the points of starting and ending is 1750' 1220'= 530' : an average fall of about 15 feet per mile. This rate of descent carries it down below the surface to the southwest of Le Boeuf, (if it continues on in that direc- tion,) and we get no further traces of it. 68 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHIS" F. CARLL. Influence on the topography. 188. It is worthy of passing note that this range of the Panama conglomerate, probably the line of its maximum development, crosses Chautauqua lake at the "narrows;" and the peculiar "saddle-bag" outline of the lake, which is said to have suggested its Indian name, Chautauqua, is no doubt due to this fact. A stratum of massive sandstone interbedded between softer measures and coming up from the south with a very perceptible rate of ascent, could not fail to be influential here in lining out the drainage channels of the pre-glacial system, as well as in directing, locally, the flow of the great glaciers themselves. From Chautauqua lake to Le Boeuf, a high range of hills marks the trend of the Panama conglomerate and forms the water shed for streams flowing in opposite directions. One branch of French creek rises to the north of the ridge and within five miles of Chautauqua lake ; another branch to the south of it, near the east line of Erie county, Pa. ; the two streams running southwesterly, and gradually con- verging, as the conglomerate sinks in that direction, until they meet near Le Boeuf, where the rock has lost much of its massive character, is thin, and lies not far above the flood plain of the creek. The southerly water-shed of the ridge, in Chautauqua county, drains quite directly south, through numerous tributaries of the Brokenstraw creeks ; but the deeply ex- cavated basin of Chautauqua lake cuts entirely through the range, and receiving the water from several small streams rising on the great divide, within five miles of Lake Erie, outlets toward the east into Conewango creek. The only cuts, therefore, through the ridge are on the southwest, where the Panama conglomerate is thin and has sunken nearly to present water level ; and on the northeast, where it is coarse and friable and is seen just scaling the tops of the highest hills now remaining in the vicinity of Chautau- qua lake. PANAMA CONGLOMERATE. III. 69 Quarries in Erie and Crawford. 189. Many quarries have been opened in these counties, to the northwest of the range of the Panama rock as we have traced it. Some of them have been wrought for years, supplying building stone for the villages, and dressed blocks for the old canal locks, so frequently mentioned in the Final Report of the First Geological Survey. An examination of a large number of these quarries has led to the conclusion that none of them can certainly be classified with the Panama conglomerate. They belong to no one constant horizon, but lie at various levels in the softer measures ; and are due to comparatively local causes operating during the deposition of the rocks, and resulting in an intermittent and varying supply of fine sandy sedi- ments carried along to be deposited at one time in this place, at another in that. The variable character of these strata is clearly indicated in the Final Report of 1858, Vol. 2, page 583, where, speak- ing of the numerous quarries of this section, it says : ' k The thickest arenaceous beds measure in some places 12 or 15 inches, and where a number of them occur together with only thin partings of shale, the mass is quarried as a build- ing material. It is seldom possible to trace a particular stratum of the sandstone for any consid- erable distance, for the beds soon thin oif, or deteriorate for economical uses, by becoming too argillaceous, and thus they fade into the great body of the formation." An inspection of the old canal locks, now fallen in decay, and many of them being torn out for the purpose of secur- ing the dressed stone for other uses, shows that some of the material of which those in this section of the country were constructed is not of an enduring quality. A majority of the blocks have weathered badly, some presenting de- squamated faces and rounded corners, while other have a tendency to split into thin laminae, causing them to fall to pieces in removal, and are fit only for rough walls. These characteristics, so entirely dissimilar to those pertaining to more massive formations like the Panama conglomerate, are, aside from other considerations, trustworthy witnesses in 70 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F CARLL. favor of the argument that the quarries furnishing the ma- terial do not belong to the Panama horizon. Panama fossils. 190. One of the exceptional features of the Panama rock, as compared with other conglomerates, is the great abundance of fossils found associated with it, and even in the pebble-mass itself. A large number of specimens have been collected from it, embracing Euomphalus depressus. * Rhynchonella. Cypricardia rJiombea. Productus. " contracta. Fucoids. Spirifer disjunctus. At Williams quarry a small fragment of fisli bone was found ; and at Chautauqua quarry several casts of plants, too imperfect to be identified, one of them two inches in diameter and over two feet long coated with a thin film of coal containing iron pyrites. Associated Strata. 191. Let us now look at the associations of the Panama conglomerate. The measures below it come up to daylight and spread out over all the belt of country between the line we have followed and the shore of Lake Erie. They have been recognized on all hands as of Devonian age, and those im- mediately under the conglomerate as a portion of the Che- mung group, as indicated by James Hall, in 1843. There can scarcely be a question raised, therefore, in relation to the age of these lower measures. 192. But the equivalence of the measures above the Panama rock, by reason of confounding this conglomerate with the conglomerates at the base of the coal measures, has been brought into dispute. Within three miles of Panama, in going south, south- west, and west, we may pass over and inspect from 125 feet to 225 feet of the softer measures superincumbent on the conglomerate. They can be critically examined in many exposures in this locality, and always present the well- PANAMA CONGLOMERATE. III. 71 known characteristic features of the Chemung group blu- ish-green, olive, and brown shales, with occasional local acquisitions of sandy matter, resulting in restricted and irregular bands of thin-bedded, flaggy sandstones. They also contain frequently recurring fossil bands crowded with Spirifera, Rhynclionella, &c.; forms which seem to be identical with those found in similar fossil bands below the conglomerate. There are no massive sandstones ; and nothing to indicate that any of the great changes had yet occurred which are so plainly recorded in the character and arrangement of the sediments composing the oil pro- ducing rocks of Yenango and those above them. There seems to be no good reason, therefore, why these upper measures should not be considered as belonging to the same Chemung age as those immediately below the conglomerate. Dip and physical changes in the Panama rock, going south. 193. Little Brokenstraw creek flows in a southerly di- rection from Panama, crossing the State line about five miles below the village, and continuing on 13 miles further, empties into the Big Brokenstraw at Pittsfield in Warren county, Pennsylvania. Following down the stream for two or three miles from Panama the*presence of the Panama rock is plainly marked in several places on the west side of the valley, by steep bluffs which indicate unmistakably the position of the stratum although it is so drift-covered that no exposures are seen. But at a point a little over three miles (in a direct line) from Panama, the "Eureka oil well," put down in 1869 (?) gives the position of the rock beyond a question. 194. Eureka well. The record can now only be obtained from memory, and the precise depths and thicknesses of the different strata drilled through cannot be stated in de- tail ; but the general facts are these. The drill started on top of the Panama conglomerate. It passed through sand- stone or sandy measures from 60 to 80 feet thick. Then came an interval of blue, muddy rocks ; then a heavy stratum 72 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. of very red shale ; then soft drilling, with some thin, fine sand-shells ; and finally, quite a coarse massive sandrock 18 feet thick, which seemed to contain considerable oil. The drill was sunk in slate 15' below this sandrock, and stopped at a depth of 456 feet from the surface. On the test of the well it produced only a "good show" of oil and was abandoned. One remarkable feature about the well was, that without casing of any kind to keep out the water, it was virtually a dry hole all the water seeping into it from the upper rocks could be bailed out in a few minutes at any time with a sand-pump. 195. In this record we have two important facts to work upon the top of the conglomerate and the presence of red rock beneath it and not far below its base. As to the conglomerate, there can be no mistake. Its pebble-covered top is visible at the well mouth and in the bed of the little side-hill gully in which the well is located. Lower down in another gully branching to the west, the water is seen coming over sandy layers in water-falls, and the structure can be well observed. The rock is not homo- geneous and massive throughout, as at Panama, but con- sists of quite a massive stratum of pebble-sand on top, then fine greyish sandstones in layers from 6 to 15 inches thick. There appears to be several bands of these thin sandstones, separated by thin, soft, greenish shales, and the total thickness of the whole mass exposed cannot be more than 25'. But there may possibly be sandy shells ex- tending down further, as would seem to be indicated by the well record. Elevation of well mouth and top of conglomerate 1569'. Top of same rock at Panama 1671'. Fall per mile nearly due south about 32'. 196. No further exposure of this rock in place was found south of the well. But on the farm of Mr. E. Bord- well, about one mile south of the State line and on the west side of Little Brokenstraw valley a very interesting exhi- bition of conglomerate occurs in loose blocks covering per- haps 40 or 50 acres of ground at an elevation of about 30' PANAMA CONGLOMERATE. III. 73 above the creek bottom. At first sight they have the usual appearance of blocks of this character skirting an outcrop. They lie at proper level to correspond with the dip brought down from Panama through the Eureka oil well, and it can- not be positively asserted that they are not in close prox- imity to the rock in place. But here we are met by a difficulty. If the conglomerate be in place, it is much more massive and ponderous than anything discovered about the Eureka well, and it is very surprising that no traces of it, even as a thin bedded sand- stone, was found in the Lottsmlle oil well, 3 miles down stream ; and that no other outcrop of it is known on either side of the valley south of the State line. A study of the surrounding country, however, afforded a plausible account of the presence of the blocks in this place. They lie on the west side of the stream, at a point where there has evidently been a moraine, or Drift-dam, across the valley, in precisely the spot where they would naturally have been deposited if brought down by ice from the hills at the north. The moraine has since been cut through by the stream, leaving a vertical wall of 20' to 30' of Drift on its easterly bank, and these conglomerate masses intermixed with erratic bowlders of gneissic rocks on the west. I am not certain that this is the true solution of the problem, for time and circumstances did not permit of as full an investigation as was desirable to settle the question ; but if the rock be here in place, it adds additional proofs to the strong dip of over 32' per mile observed between Panama and the Eureka well. 197. The Lottsmlle well, drilled in the autumn of 1877, is five miles from the Eureka well, and its height above tide 1450'. With a dip of 32' to the mile (see 195 above) the top of the Panama conglomerate should lie in the Lottsville well, 41' beneath the surface, i. e. Panama conglomerate at Eureka, 1569' Dip, 32' per mileXo miles=160', 1409' Mouth of Lottsville well, 1450' 1409'=41' 74 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. But the well-record asserts that for the first 90' there is nothing but sandy shales ; and then, 20' of soft red rock. As the red rocks underlie the Panama conglomerate hori- zon (see 195 above) in the country to the north, and as the dip would bring it down into the ninety feet above them here, there is but one conclusion possible, viz., that the Panama conglomerate (coming south) has lost its massive character and been converted into shales or thin argilla- ceous sandstones. The alternative that the rate of dip has been overestimated, and that the Panama horizon overshoots the top of the Lottsville well, is negatived by the fact that, in the bedded rocks exposed in a ravine for a considerable distance above the oil well, some greenish-blue flags have been quarried, here containing very curious fucoidal impressions on their surfaces ; but there is no well-marked horizon of massive sandstone exposed. Unavoidable inferences. 198. These meagre data are all that have been secured in relation to the Panama rock in this part of the State, and it is a matter of great surprise that a rock exhibit- ing such massive proportions as this at Panama (and on the range northeast and southwest, containing the quarries above mentioned) should so quickly merge to the south and southeast into the thick masses of sandy shale accompany- ing it, and become unrecognizable as a distinct stratum in the numerous wells of that section, and in the many cliffs and gorges where a sandstone might reasonably be expected to indicate its presence in the topography at least, although generally so drift-covered as not to be actually in sight. 199. If the Panama rock were one of the Venango oil- sands, as has been claimed for it, we should expect to find some geographical sandstone connection between it and the particular oil-sand (whether the 1st, 2d, or 3d) which is sup- posed to represent it. Any range of sandrock in Venango county from 20' to 7(X thick, outcropping as a conglomerate of similar thickness along the Panama range, only 25 miles to the northwest of PANAMA CONGLOMERATE. III. 75 the oil-belt, would be likely to show unmistakably its hori- zon in oil wells drilled between the oil-belt and Panama. But the fact is, over more than one half of this inter- vening area we get no reliable expression of eitlier the Pan- ama rock or the Venango oil-sands even approximating to their normal condition ; and in the other half of the area what indications of them we do get only serve to prove that the Panama rock is not stratigraphically identical with either of the three (or more) oil-sands ; and that they differ materially also in their respective rates of dip towards the south. 200. Another and collateral proof that the Panama rock is not one of the Venango oil sands is deducible from the abundant evidences presented on all hands of a total dis- similarity in the structure of the oil sands and associate measures when mewed as a group from the structure of the strata accompanying and including the Panama rock when viewed as a group. Facts presented in other parts of this report show that the Venango oil-rocks constitute one well-defined and con- sistent group of sandstones, shales, slates and, red rocks ; and that the sandy members of this group whether three in number, as first discovered on Oil creek, or six or seven in number as afterwards developed in Butler county may all be included between two horizontal planes not more than 350' (on the average) vertically apart. If now the Panama rock be one of the oil sands we should reasonably expect to find some of the other members of the group accompanying it. If it be the First sand, then some evidences of the presence of the Second and Third should appear at proper distances below it. If it be the Third sand, then surely some traces of the First and Second should be found above it. 201. Sub-Panama measures. An oil well put down immediately at the base of the conglomerate at Panama to the depth of 1200 feet encountered nothing but soft shales and slate in the whole distance. Other wells at Clymer, Columbus, Corry, Union and else- 76 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. where near the range of best development of the Panama rock tell the same story. Neither do the outcrops further north, where the under - measures expose themselves on the surface, bring up to view any sandstone at all comparable with the oil sands. Therefore the Panama conglomerate cannot be regarded as the First oil sand, for none of the associate lower mem- bers of the group accompany it. 202. Super- Panama measures. In going over the hill west of Panama to Panama station we can examine 225' of measures overlying the conglomerate. In going from Panama south to the Eureka well we can examine 125' of the same measures. In the railway cut along Coffee creek valley, 1 miles southeast of Bear lake station (A. and G. W. R. R.) where the top of the conglomerate is probably 30' beneath grade, we can examine more than 200' of the same measures. Nowhere does a sandstone stratum appear such as should be expected if the conglomerate be the lowest oil-rock. 203. In this Coffee creek valley are several cuts, and in the deepest one appear the following rocks : Drift on top of the point of hill cut through, 10' Shale, sandy, with thin sandstone layers, 10' Shale, brown, friable, 20' Sandstone, one persistent plate, three inches. Shale, brown, 4' Sandstone, fine, false-bedded, blue, 4' Shale, brown, 6' Total, 54' 204. The bed of Coffee creek as it leaves its winding course through the hills and enters the broad valley near Pine creek station lays bare many fine exhibitions of wave marks. Numerous fossil bands are found here and some in the railway cuts, in which Spirifer predominate, some of them being of very large size. All the fossils have a CJie- mung aspect and seem to be identical with those found above the Panama rock in all this section. 205. The Panama conglomerate, then, tried by this test cannot be the Third or lowest oil-sand ; for there is plenty PANAMA CONGLOMERATE. III. 77 of room for the Second sand, at least, if not for the First, to appear above ; but nothing of the kind can be seen. 206. It follows as a matter of course, that not being the First, nor the Third, it cannot be the Second oil-sand ; and we must conclude that the Panama rock is not any one of the Venango oil-sands ; but that it is a GJiemung rock, of greater age, lying at a greater depth ; and that it fines away rapidly going south and southeast ; and blending with its associate measures soon becomes untraceable in that direc- tion. 207. It seems superfluous now to attempt to prove that the Panama rock is not the equivalent of the Garland con- glomerate, with which it has often been confounded ; but a single fact bearing on this point may be added here. On the west side of Little Brokenstraw creek, about half way between Lottsville and Wrightsville and seven miles southerly from the Eureka well, a rock city of unmistak- able Garland conglomerate may be seen on the crown of the ridge. It is near our line run (over the State road) in 1875, and its top lies about 1950' above tide. The top of the Panama rock at this point should be approximately, 1345.* Here then we have a vertical interval between the hori- zons of the two rocks calculated to be more than 600', and that too without taking into consideration the notable fact that the Panama horizon is apparently dipping south at about double the rate of the Garland horizon. The Salamanca conglomerate. 208. To the foregoing summary of facts in relation to this rock west and south of Chautauqua lake, we have now to add others east of the lake, pointing to the same general conclusions. 209. A line drawn from Panama to the long famous Ellicottmlle or Salamanca rock city, placed upon the ridge between the streams of Little valley and Great valley, 3 miles north of Salamanca, in Cattaraugus county, N. Y., * At Eureka well 1569', 7 miles dip at 32' per mile 224'. 1569224=1345. 78 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. would pass over an area of comparatively low levels, the face of the country having here been subjected to excessive erosion, which has cut down the measures in most places below the horizon of the Panama rock. This break is so wide (about 40 miles) and the chain of outcrops is so completely interrupted by it, that it cannot easily be decided whether the Panama and Salamanca con- glomerates belong to the same horizon or not. 210. Dennis oil well. After making a hasty examina- tion of 'some of the exposures of the Salamanca rock, in southern New York, it was thought advisable to secure a complete record of an oil well on one of the highest hills in the vicinity of Bradford, McKean county, Pa., so that the position of the rock might be definitely fixed at that place, to assist in ascertaining its dip and studying its asso- ciations. This section was completed in February, 1878, and is given in a subsequent chapter. It will be seen, however, on reference to the record, that it does not, as was hoped, unravel the knot, but rather complicates the prob- lem by the total absence, in the suite of specimens pre- served, of any sandstone corresponding in quality to the Salamanca rock. This absence would be a matter of great surprise, were we not, in a measure, prepared for such a result by the ab- sence of any good representative of the Panama rock in the wells holding a similar southerly relation to it, as de- scribed above. We have seen that the Panama rock becomes unrecog- nizable in the Lottsmlle well, ten miles south of a 70' out- crop of it at Panama. Just so, now, at Bradford, twelve miles south of Carroll- ton, where a good exposure of the Salamanca conglomerate may be seen, we are unable to fix the horizon of the Sala- manca rock in the Dennis well, by the lithology of any rock drilled through ; for there is nothing like it in the well- section from top to bottom. 211. This similarity in the physical habits of the two rocks (the Panama and the Salamanca] is suggestive at least of a similar origin and like conditions of deposition ; PANAMA CONGLOMERATE. III. 79 and it may be noted as one of the facts in support of the argument that they both belong to one formation, although their stratigraphical horizons may not be absolutely or pre- cisely identical. 212. The failure to find the Salamanca conglomerate decidedly developed and plainly located in the Dennis well, and the discovery of other rock cities on the hills border- ing the Tunangwant creek, between Carroll ton and Brad- ford, which have not yet been systematically traced, but which apparently lie between the horizons of the Salamanca rock and the Glean (Garland) conglomerate, makes it im- prudent at present to attempt to fix the precise relative positions of these several strata. It appears most probable, however, that there are three ranges of conglomerate sandstones, if not more, outcrop- ing along these State line hills -all forming rock cities of similar character, where the conditions are favorable ; and that they have all heretofore been regarded as parts of one and the same stratum. 213. If this view of the structure should prove to be correct we shall then have in descending order the follow- ing series of sand formations locally conglomeritic : 1. Olean, (=Garland:=Sharon=Ohio.) 2. Sub-Olean, (=Sub-Grarland=Shenango. 3. Tunangwant. 4. Salamanca. 5. Panama. But we must await further investigation before the true sequence can be satisfactorily established. 80 III. Plate XXII. SketchMap showing the geographical position of Well Sections given on Plates IV. V. VIMXII. CHAPTER. VII. On the Mountain sand series, and its contrast with tJie underlying Oil sand group. [Illustrated by Plate IV, Figs. 5 to 12.} 212. The Pleasantmlle section. In Report of Progress I, 1874, a typical section made from oil-well records was given, to show the general geological structure of the meas- ures drilled through at Pleasant ville in Venango county. At that time but little field-work had been done and the collection of facts was not adequate for a proper compari- son and correlation of the leading members of the forma- tion, except over a very limited area. Subsequent investi- gations, covering a broader field and affording better op- portunities for a correct interpretation of structure, make it evident that some modification should now be made in the section referred to. 213. The designations First, Second and Tliird Mount- ain sands, used provisionally in 1874, answered very well for the purposes of that local report ; but, to adhere to the use of these ordinal numbers still, after the comparison of oil well and surface sections has been extended southwest- ward to the very borders of the State of Ohio, and north- eastward into the southern counties of the State of New York, would only perpetuate confusion in our geological nomenclature. Other rocks than those thus numbered in early oil well borings have been found intruding into the series ; and to these additional rocks fixed geographical names have been assigned in districts outside of and adjoin- ing the oil regions proper. I propose therefore to adopt in this report such geographical names, and to drop the use of the terms First, Second and Third Oil sands as no longer available. 6 III. < 81 > 82 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. 214. The The First mountain sand appears to occupy the horizon of the Connoquenessing sandstone of Butler county, and the Kinzua creek sandstone of McKean county, and may as well therefore be spoken of when occasion re- quires under one of those two names. 215. The Second mountain sand cannot indeed be robbed entirely of its name for reasons that will make themselves felt in future pages of this report. But whenever it is thus spoken of, the name must be accounted as a mere synonym for the Garland conglomerate, and not at all as an index to the numerical position of the rock in relation to other sands in the series. To the oil men it will always be the Second mountain sand ; but to the geologist it will sometimes have another number in the series. But it will always be the Garland-Olean-STiaron-OJiio conglomerate. The reason for this will appear further on. 216. The Third mountain sand will receive in this re- port a new name, the Pithole grit. This rock was first recognized as a persistent sandstone in the Pithole oil wells, being well developed in all that coun- try, and making conspicuous outcrops along the Allegheny river on the south and along Oil creek on the west. The term grit sufficiently designates it as a sandstone ; but what is more important, will serve to associate it in the reader's mind with the Berea grit of Ohio, which seems to have been a cotemporaneous formation ; although the two rocks have not been traced across the country towards each other to a common place of actual meeting. 217. Neglecting for the present the mountain sands as separate members of a small series, and grouping them and their intervals together as a whole, I must now show that they constitute one (and the upper member) of a larger series. The vertical section of rocks in the oil-belt, as exhibited by the well-records, shows three characteristic subdivisions : 1. Mountain sands, so called by the oil well drillers. 2. Crawford shales, a group of shales and mud-rocks, in the midst of which lies the PitJiole grit. MOUNTAIN SAND SERIES. III. 83 3. Venango oil sands, a group of sandstones and shales interleaved. These names will be useful in denning those features of hardness and softness by which the driller classifies the rocks through which his well passes downwards ; but they must not be taken by the geologist to signify formations of three successive and distinct ages, plainly and absolutely separated from each other. For such dividing planes can- not be satisfactorily established from the imperfect records of oil wells alone. The oil miner's field of operation is large. He has stretched a broad cordon of wells across Pennsylvania from the Ohio to the New York State lines, and furnished from them an amount of information bearing upon the general underground structure that could have been obtained in no other way. But any attempt to work out the complete geological column of the country which he has thus per- forated at numberless points, or to define the precise limits of the great Palaeozoic formations known in eastern Penn- sylvania as Nos. VIII, IX, X, XI, and XII, solely from the data thus obtained, would only result in diiappointment and confusion. In this report I limit myself to the study of the well records strictly as well records ; and by comparing one record with another I shall endeavor to establish the general features of structure throughout the oil district / leaving the special surveys of adjacent districts to determine how far the several upper Palaeozoic formations can here be recognized. 218. The unity of the Venango oil group, or rather its uniformity as an oil-producing formation, is the first fact to illustrate. It is important to state the fact clearly at the outset, that throughout the whole area which has afforded the Venango oil, that is, along the entire length of the oil producing belt (or belts) of country, the structure of the oil-sand- group is virtually one and the same. On the other hand, the moment we leave the oil-producing-area to the right or 84 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. left, the internal constitution of the oil-sand-group becomes quite different. All the wells which pierce the oil producing belts exhibit remarkably the same group of oil-sands. All wells put down outside of these belts exhibit quite a different kind of deposits when they reach the plane of the oil-sands. 219. To make visible this prime fact of the geology of the region I have selected several series of oil well records, ranged along certain geographical lines upon the map ; some of these lines following the general northeast-southwest di- rection of the oil belts ; others diverging more or less at right angles from it and crossing the barren country. The locations of the wells chosen for this representation are shown by spots upon a, sketch-map, given on page 80 above, which extends from Tidioute in Venango county to Pittsburg. Five wells in Venango county are so marked ; 10 in Clarion county ; 3 in Armstrong ; 7 in Butler ; 2 in Allegheny ; 3 in Beaver ; 3 in Lawrence ; and 1 in Mercer. The vertical sections into which the records have been translated occupy Plates IV, V, VI, VII and XII, accom- panying this volume ; and they are arranged with the south- westernmost to the left, the northeasternmost to the right of the reader as he sees them on the map. 220. TJie first series to be discussed (see Plate IV, Figs. 5 to 12) is composed of wells stretched along a line of about 80 miles in a southwesterly direction extending from Pleas- antville in Venango county to Smith's Ferry, at the Ohio State line, in Beaver county. Fig. 5. Smith's Ferry, Ohio township, Beaver county, Pa. (Record from Report Q, page 270.) Fig. 6. Ohioville, Ohio township, Beaver county. (Re- port Q, p. 271.) Fig. 7. Beaver Falls, Beaver county, Economy well No. 2. (See Appendix.) Fig. 8. Iron Bridge, Perry township, Lawrence county, Nesbitt or Chew well. (See Appendix.) Fig. 9. Cove Hollow, Slippery rock township, Lawrence county, Nesbitt or Shaffer well. (Appendix.) MOUNTAIN SAND SEEIES. III. 85 Fig. 10. Muddy Creek, Brady township, Butler county, John Smith well. (Appendix.) Fig. 11. Bullion, Clinton township, Yenango county, Phillips Bros. well. (Report I.I., No. 1093.) Fig. 12. Pleasantville, Venango county, Reliance well. (See Appendix.) 221. Between Pleasantville and Bullion the essential elements of structure are so uniform and they are so well established by records from the large number of wells drilled in the interval, that there is no need of introducing intermediate sections between these points. A section made from one of the valley wells at Bullion is used, because no detailed record of a hill-well could be obtained. The length of column is sufficient, however, for all the purposes of this comparison". It shows the oil group ; an interval with red rock above the First oil sand; then a 20 foot sandstone with another mass of soft rock above it, and then a heavy sandstone at the top.* The stratigraphical agreement between the Pleasantville and Bullion sections is so apparent that there can be little risk of error in identifying the sandstones and shales in one well with those lying at the same horizon in the other, and we thus trace a continuance of the Oil creek structure nearly to the southern limits of Yenango county. 222. A similar arrangement of strata might be shown to prevail in oil wells at Tidioute and Colorado in Warren county ; Church run in Crawford county ; and Sugar creek and Raymilton in Yenango county, f 223. Southwest of Bullion. In carrying forward our comparison of sections to the southwest of Bullion, the *The record gives no intimation of the constitution of this 100' SS., but it is most probable that it contains shaly layers near the centre as shown at the corresponding horizon in Fig. 10, and is not a massive sandstone from top to bottom as here represented. f Going still further northward, the outcrop of the Garland conglomerate (with the Pithole grit where the exposures are favorable, appearing at the proper distance beneath it) might be traced in the hills of Warren county at Tidioute, Garland and West Spring Creek; and of Crawford county at Sparta, Meadville, Evansburg and Jamestown. But these details need not be repeated here as they have been sufficiently described in preceding chapters of this re- port. 86 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Ferriferous limestone (the "key-rock" of the Butler county driller) becomes an important auxilliary and guide. It is well to note, therefore, that its place in the Bullion Run section would be about 870 feet above the First oil sand; which fact is ascertained thus : At Clintonville, 3| miles southwesterly from Bullion run, the Ferriferous limestone is found in the hilltops, and wells drilled near its outcrop show an interval of about 870'. On the highest hill immediately south of Bullion the limestone and underlying shales cannot be found. They have been eroded off. The erosion seems to have been checked by the Homewood sandstone, which usually lies from 30' to 50' below the limestone. Wells on this hill find First sand at 830 to 840 feet ; which would make the interval between the Ferriferous limestone and First sand, at this point, agree substantially with that observed at Clintonville. 224. John Smith well. We may now pass on to Fig. 10, which is made from the register of the John Smith well, put down in 1877, by Messrs. Phillips Bros., in Brady town- ship, Butler county, southwest (and about sixteen miles in advance) of the termination of the Bullion Run develop- ment, and twenty miles from the location of Fig. 11. The section is so remarkably in accord with the two al- ready compared, that it might be viewed with suspicion as having been made up from some established formula, in conformity to the views of those who always find the rocks "regular" no matter where they drill, did it not present in itself many strong evidences of its fidelity to truth, and were we not assured by the owners of the well that it was carefully watched and measured by themselves while being drilled. The record need not be accepted, however, on its own merits alone. From the Ferriferous limestone down to the red rocks and First oil sand it is confirmed in a remarkable manner by wells not far distant from it on Wolf and Slippery Rock creeks wells put down by other parties, and whose records have probably never before been brought into comparison with this well. MOUNTAIN SAND SERIES. III. 87 Below the red rock there is a marked disagreement be- tween the Smith well record and the others ; but this is not at all surprising ; it is, in fact, in keeping with observed facts in well, developed territory, where the oil group changes materially in structure, or fades out quickly, in directions transverse to the trend of the deposit. 225. If then the Smith well section may be relied upon there need be no hesitation in concluding that the general structure shown in the oil wells of Yehango county pre- vails here also ; and we may now take this well as a pivotal point from which to carry forward the further identifica- tion of these measures to the northwestward, to the west- ward, and to the southward. 226. Southwest of the Smith well. Continuing our course in the same direction, then, we may now compare the Slippery RocJc well, Figs. 9 and 8 ; the Beaver Falls well, Fig. 7, and those near the Ohio line, Figs. 6 and 5. 227. The Ferriferous limestone is not seen in any of these sections, as it lies above their tops.* But since it is seen outcropping above the well mouths, on the hillsides along Slippery Rock creek and the Beaver river, its place over each section is readily ascertained ; and the sections are adjusted mutually by reference to the horizon of the limestone, f 228. Tlie Mountain sands unreliable guides. The variableness of the several members of the sandy deposits belonging to the Mountain Sand series is well illustrated in these figures ; as indeed it is in every case where well sections are placed side by side for comparison. It is quite evident from a study of these sandy deposits, that no one of them, however locally thickened or largely developed in this or that particular locality, can be trusted as a sure guide to the geology (whether in an oil well, or in a surface section where the rocks are exposed to view) any further than it can be actually traced without break from * Only the Ohioville well is high enough to catch it, and in the record of this well it is wanting, the deposit being either absent, or so thin and poor as to be overlooked by the driller. f This is shown by the addition to the Beaver Falls well of a portion of Prof. White's surface section, given in Report QQ. 88 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. place to place. When a sandstone is once lost sight of it is very hazardous to attempt to take it up again in a dis- tant place without other proofs of identity than an appar- ent similarity of composition and structure ; for it is plain to see that the Carboniferous measures are full of these varying strata, and one band of them often imitates so closely another in all its characteristics that no depend- ence can be placed on any one of them unless its identity is well assured by collateral evidence. 229. Reliability of well records when properly grouped. I have said a great deal in other places about the unreliability of well records. It is quite true that in most cases they are faulty in detail, and particularly so in their upper parts ; but whenever a number of them are available for comparison in the same locality the general structure can be made out almost to a certainty. The Slippery Rock wells furnish an instance. The record Fig. 8 exhibits the sandstone producing heavy oil, which must have been wanting (or very poorly developed) in record Fig. 9 ; for it is not probable that the drillers overlooked it, since it is one of the oil horizons which they were searching for, and the place of which they were well acquainted with. Again, a combination of the two sections Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 taken thus as a type of the stratification in that locality harmonizes well w T ith section Fig. 10. So, too, a combination of Figs. 5 and 6 confirms the structure of Fig. 7. But if we had merely Figs. 6 and 7, or merely Figs. 5 and 9, and no more definite horizon than the sandstones themselves to guide us, a mistake might easily be made in attempting to identify any particular stratum in one well with that in another. 230. These sections on Plate IV are given, it must be remembered, for the purpose of correlating the geology of Venango and Butler counties, along a geographical interval of about fifty miles. And they are amply sufficient for the purpose ; seeing that they are confirmed by scores of other wells along the line. MOUNTAIN SAND SERIES. III. 89 The uniform thickness of the 'Crawford shales between the Mountain sands and the Pithole grit, the persistency of the Pithole grit, the interval of shales always to be seen below it, carrying the characteristic red rock of this horizon, and the well-sustained integrity of the Oil group at nearly every point, clearly establish the identifications here claimed. 231. The red rocks grow thin in a southwest direction from the Smith well to Slippery rock creek. The Venango oil sands as a group not only thin away, but disappear and are wanting in the Slippery Rock coun- try. Both these guides to the mutual adjustment of the well sections are therefore lost, as we proceed southwestward. But on the other hand, the Ferriferous limestone in the hillsides above the derricks becomes a good guide horizon. From the Ferriferous limestone down to the Red rocks the section type on Slippery rock is very much the same as that on Muddy creek. From the Red rocks down to the Oil sands there is great variation, as just observed. But the variation is confined to this interval. Whatever may have been the cause pre- venting the deposit of the Oil sand group in the Slippery rock vicinity, it evidently operated only up to the time of the deposit of the Red rocks. After that time uniform de- posits were spread over both districts, and .the well sections become generally alike, up to the Ferriferous limestone. 232. Southwest of Slippery rock. At Beaver Falls and Ohioville the Ferriferous limestone is the key rock. In this part of the country the cause which prevented the oil group deposits 'on Slippery Rock creek seems to have lasted longer. Its effects are observable in higher strata ; above the red rocks. Not only is the Oil group cut out, and also the red rock over it, but the sandstone deposit oc- cupying the horizon of the Pithole grit is enlarged: the shaly interval above the sandstone becomes sandy ; and thus the true base of the Mountain sand series becomes some- what obscure. 233. The Homewood and Connoquenessing sandstones. 90 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN E. CARLL. fortunately, can now be added to the Ferriferous limestone as guides. These constitute two well marked horizons, quite reliable as bases of measurement for adjusting our well sections : the Homewood sandstone at Beaver falls and Smith' s ferry the Connoquenessing sandstone (seen lower down in the sections Figs. 5 to 10) containing in some places thin beds of shale, but recorded variously as 84', 40', 50', 67', 75' and 100' thick. 234. PitTiole grit. The general harmony of structure being thus well established, there can be little doubt that the Eighty foot sandstone at Beaver Falls is the equiva- lent of the Pithole grit, which we have therefore now traced through from Pleasantville in Venango county to the Ohio State line. 235. The Amber oil and Heavy -oil horizons. It fol- lows from this study of our sections that the Ohioville am- ber oil must be derived from the horizon of the Pithole grit, which also furnishes amber oil in small quantities on Slippery Rock creek. It follows as logically, also, that the Slippery rock heavy oil is found in one of the lower members of the Mountain sand series, an horizon which also produces heavy oil in many wells at Smith' s ferry. CHAPTER VIII. On tlie identity of the Pithole grit with the Berea grit. [Illustrated by Plate JF, Figs. 1 to 4.} 236. The Pithole grit forms one of the most prominent features in the sections referred to in the foregoing chapter. It appears to be more constant in its horizon, and to pre- serve its identity more unmistakably than any of the other sandstones along the line where the wells are located. We know, however, that in some parts of Clarion county and Butler county it is very inconstant, and is frequently un- recognizable. It may be well then to examine somewhat into its north- ern and western extension with a view of ascertaining its character in that direction, and seeing what the probabili- ties are of its being the equivalent of the Berea grit in Ohio, the oil-bearing rock of the Mecca oil district. 237. Four well sections are added to those described above, on plate IV, to assist in this investigation.* Fig. 1. The upper portion of the deep well at New Castle in Lawrence county ; continued upwards as a generalized section of the surface rocks, after Mr. Chance's survey along the Shenango river valley, in 1875. See Report of Progress V, page 228, Fig. 151. Fig. 2. The John Smith well in Brady township, Butler county. Its rocks have been identified in the description of Fig. 10. See 224 above. * For full records of these wells, see Appendix. ( 91 III. ) 92 HI. Plate XXIII. PITHOLE GEIT. JII. 93 Fig. 3. The upper portion of the deep well at SJiaron in Mercer county ; continued upwards by the addition of Mr. Chance's section of the surface rocks. Fig. 4. The Raymond well, No. 6, at Raymilton in Ve- nango county; continued upwards so as to include the Mercer coal group outcrops, in the hillsides above the well mouth. 238. In studying sections made from the records of wells drilled outside of the oil producing areas, where the Oil sand group is not found in its integrity, and the sur- face rocks belong to the Mountain sand series, errors of identification may readily be made if one is compelled to to depend on the well records alone. In all cases where it can be done, then, it is advisable to lengthen the well section upwards as high as to the outcrop of the Ferriferous limestone on the hill slopes. With this key rock in the sections comparisons can be confidently made with other wells situated in any direction. This plan has been adopted in Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4 ; which are all four adjusted to a horizontal line above the well-mouths repre- senting the position of the Ferriferous limestone. 239. The horizontal coincidence of the horizons of lime- stone, coal and red rocks in these sections leaves little room to doubt that the Pithole grit is represented lying at a depth of 382' in the New Castle well by the 78' sand- stone, and of 185' in the Sharon well by the 75' sandstone. 240. The Mecca oil Jield in Trumbull county, in Ohio, lies about eighteen miles northwest of Sharon. The geologists who have surveyed the State of Ohio assert that the oil-bearing rock of that district is the Ber.a grit, named from the famous quarries worked at Berea, Inde- pendence, Amherst, and other places in that State. If, then, the 75 foot sandstone in the Sharon well could be shown to be the equivalent of the Mecca oil-rock, the pro- priety of identifying the Pithole grit of Pennsylvania with the Berea grit of Ohio could hardly be questioned. But as no well sections offer themselves for comparison across this interval of eighteen miles, we are compelled to resort to a 94 III. k REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. calculation of dips, and a consideration of collateral evi- dence. * 241. The following figures, taken from the Ohio Geo- logical Reports, show the relation of the Berea grit to ocean level at the places named. See map, page 92 above. Above tide. Near the mouth of Vermillion river, ...... base 673' top 733 Amherst ..................... "714 Elyria, ..................... "638 Berea, ........ (80' thick,) ....... "713 Cuyahoga Valley, N. line of Summit Co., ..." 748 774 698 793 808 1081 Little Mountain, ................ Where the base of the rock is given in the Report, I have added a constant 60' to get the top elevation, which may not be absolutely correct in every instance. The levels of places further east, determined by our sur- vey, are as follows : Above tide. Powers Corners, oil-bearing rock, (Berea Grit,) Mecca town, O., ................... top 915* Jamestown, Mercer Co., Pa., . . . (Berea?) ..... Sharon, Mercer Co., Pa., (Pithole grit,) New Castle, Lawrence Co., Pa., . . " " Meadville, Crawford Co., Pa., ... " " Ray mil ton, Venango Co., Pa., . . . " " Fresh- Water rock, at Warren, Ohio, (Berea?) . . . 1095 715 428 1303 765 242. The calculated average dip per mile of the Berea grit is then as follows, (in feet :) A. From Little Mountain, Geauga Co., O. * It is not to be supposed, nor is it here or anywhere else in this report in- tended to be asserted, that this stratum of sandstone (or any other in fact) lies in an uniform plane, susceptible of accurate and indisputable tracing in this or that direction, by the extension of the slopes which are known to ob- tain in on locality, into an undeveloped district miles in advance. Undoubt edly there are slight undulations and warpings in the most undisturbed of- strata; but it is nevertheless evident from experience in similar* cases that the general gradual southwestward and southward sinking of the formations, relative to ocean level will plainly manifest itself when a considerable dis- tance intervenes between the points of comparison, whatever local irregular- ities may exist. The figures given in the text, therefore, are not intended to represent the exact slopes of the Berea grit, or of the Pithole grit ; for in some cases, no doubt, the formations run across slightly disturbed areas; but they show the position of the rocks approximately; and they thus indicate the horizon at which one may reasonably look for them, in sections. * By barometer observation. PITHOLE GRIT. III. 95 1. Southwest to Berea, 8' 2. South to Cuyahoga Valley, 9' 3. Southeast to Warren, Trumbull county, O., ....... 8' 4. Southeast to Powers Corners, (Mecca,) 5' B. From Jamestown, Mercer county, Pa. : 1. West-southwest to Powers Corners, Ohio 9.5' 2. Southwest to Warren, Ohio, 12' 3. South to Sharon, Pa., 22' 4. South to New Castle, Pa., 15' C. From Meadville, Crawford county, Pa. : 1. Southwest to Jamestown, Pa., 11' 2. South-southwest to Sharon, Pa., 18' . 3. South by west to Newcastle, Pa., 20' 4. South by east to Raymilton, Pa., 20' D. From Powers Corners, (Mecca,) Ohio: 1. South by west to Warren, Ohio, 14' 2. Southeast to Sharon, Pa 12' 3. Southeast to Newcastle, Pa., . , 14' E. From Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio : 1. East by south to Sharon, Pa., 3' 2. East-southeast to Newcastle, Pa., 10.5 F From Sharon, Pa. : 1. South-southeast to Newcastle, Pa., 15' 243. Of course, the concordance of these various calcu- lations, even were it perfect, would not prove the rock at all these points one and the same, i. e., Berea grit=Pithole grit ; but it lends an additional reasonable coloring to the hypothesis. For, in a country so little disturbed by crust- warpings as this confessedly is, some reliable conclusions may be drawn from a study of the slopes of the strata when extended over considerable areas. 244. The remarkably uniform declension of the Oil rocks towards the southwest, shown in the large diagram Plate VIII, is merely a parallel fact, illustrative as well as confirmatory of the general slope of the (higher lying) Pit- hole-Berea grit in that direction. 245. The red rocks offer another open line of evidence to the above presumed identity of the Pithole grit with the Berea grit further west. 96 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. The 'probabilities of the correctness of the identification are greatly strengthened by the fact that a thick and persist- ent band of red shale is known to underlie the Pithole grit, all the way from the south line of Warren county to the John Smith well (Fig. 10) in Butler county, a distance of about 55 miles, that it appears in proper place at New Castle, 17 miles in advance to the southwest, and that the geologists of Ohio state that in their northeastern counties the only red rock known to them in this part of the geological col- umn is the red member of tJte Bedford shale, which comes in immediately below the Berea grit. * * "Beneath the Berea grit, in northern Ohio, we find 70' to 75' of argillaceous shale, of which the upper portion is generally of a marked red color, while the lower portion is dark bluish grey. These shales are very variable in their relative thickness, sometimes one or the other filling the entire interval be- tween the Berea grit above and the black Cleveland shale below, sometimes that interval being equally divided between them, and sometimes again one or the other greatly preponderating, while both are present. In the section ex- posed at Bedford the red shale is scarcely visible ; while it is met with at New- burg, five miles distant, and in the hills east of Cleveland fills the larger part of the interval that separates the Berea grit from the black shale which un- derlies the East Cleveland quarries. At Berea and Elyria both shales are visible ; while on the Vermilion which takes its name from this circum- stance the red shale is much more largely developed and attains a thickness of something like sixty feet." Geology of Ohio, vol. 2, page 90. "Below the Berea grit comes in the Bedford shale, and this is exposed in all places where the sandstone is cut through. In L/orain county the upper part of the Bedford shale is generally red, and this will serve as a convenient guide in future explorations made in search of the Berea grit, it being un- derstood that the only red shale in the county lies immediately beneath the sandstone. This red shale is well shown at the village of French Creek, in the gorge- of Black river, at Elyria, in the railroad cut between Elyria and Amherst, in the quarries at Amherst and in the cliffs bordering the Vermil- ion in Brownhelm." {Vol. #, page 212.) "In some localities [in Summit county] the Bedford shale is more or less red, and has been here, as elsewhere, used as a mineral paint." Geo. Ohio, vol. 1, p. 209. "Section of the rocks in the valley of Black River: 1. Berea grit, thickness, 40' to 70' 2. Red shale, thickness, } ( ... 30' to 60' 3. Grey shale, thickness, 10' 4. Grey limestone, thickness, < Bedford shale, Cleveland shale, < . 7' 8. Black shale, like No. 6, > ' . . . 50' 9. Grey shale to water-levelErie Shale, 40' " (Geol. Ohio, vol. 2, p. 215.) PITIIOLE GRIT. III. 97 246. The Red SJiale belt. In Pennsylvania this par- ticular stratum of red shale seems to have been deposited in a long irregular and comparatively narrow belt,* seldom more than 12 or 15 miles in width. It is well developed at New Castle, which is probably near the center of the de- posit ; but only traces of it show at Sharon, on the north, and none is seen at Beaver Falls, on the south. In Ohio, red shales are noted at various places between East Cleveland and the Vermilion river, and the limiting lines of the formation may therefore be traced approxi- mately as shown on page 92 above. The continuity and constancy of this red band over such a stretch of country can hardly be without some important significance in a study of the structure where the deposit is found. CHAPTER IX. The two oil belts. {Illustrated by Plates V, VI, VII; and diagrams, on pages 99, 101, IDS.] 247. No direct connection^ has yet been discovered be- tween the Upper or Tidioute-Bullion oil belt, and the Lower or Clarion-Butler Oil belt.f 248. The Upper belt. The present southern termina- tion of the line of productive wells on the Upper belt, is * The supposed limits of this belt are marked by dotted lines upon the little map on page 92, above. f The popular names Upper and Lower Oil belts have no geological value, the rocks being the same. They do not mean two oil formations one lying over the over; but two parallel strips of oil-producing territory one further up country from Pittsburg than the other. It is a purely geographical dis- tinction and has its convenience in being understood and used habitually by all oil men. The two names arose naturally out of the fact that the Upper Belt was first developed, far north, and high up the valley of the Allegheny river ; while the later developed Lower Belt lies to the south and east of the other, and crosses the river valley as low down on the Allegheny river as Parker in Armstrong county. 7 III. 98 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. near Clintonville in Venango county. This is about 12 miles northwest of Columbia Hill in Butler county, which is the nearest point of development on the Lower belt. 249. The Lower belt is known to extend south-south- westerly from Columbia Hill into Summit township, Butler county, some 20 miles ; and northeasterly into Elk town- ship, Clarion county, some 15 miles. (See Map and Section, Plate IX.) 250. The interval between the belts. The area of coun- try separating the two belts (say 12 miles between Clinton- ville and Columbia Hill, and 17 miles between Oil City and Shippenville) has been tested in hundreds of places with results in most cases quite unsatisfactory. Nevertheless, several good pools of oil have been discovered, one on Slate run and one at Gas City, both in Cranberry township, Ve- nango county ; and subsequently one at Six-Points, near Crawford's Corners, on the Venango-Butler county line, about 3 miles west of Emlenton, the development of which is now progressing. These however do not establish a con- nection between the belts ; for the stratification is somewhat irregular throughout all this district, as far as known, and the continuity of the oil-producing rocks seems to be here interrupted. We cannot therefore speak of the Upper belt as being directly connected by a line of paying wells with the Lower ; yet the main structural features of the group in the Upper belt are observable across the interval, and the rocks them- selves reappear with their characteristic aspect as soon as the Lower belt is reached. 251. The two belts are of the same age. That the de- posits of the Lower belt have been subjected to more vicis- situdes of water level than those of the Upper belt, result- ing in a greater number of alternating bands of sandstone and shale within the vertical limits of the group, seems evident : yet it cannot be doubted that the deposits in the two belts were being laid down at one and the same time. They occupy the same geological horizon ; they are asso- ciated with similar strata ; and they exhibit a like parallel- ism of structure. Geologcally, therefore, the two belts may Plate XXIV. III. 9 9 The Six Petroiia wells. 1. Tlieir geographical positions. Morehead&L. JV?2. 2. The basal plane of the ferriferous limestone. Its height above tide,and amount of slope in feet. J. Tlie basal plane of the Mountain sand group Its height above tide.arid amount of slope in feet. 100 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOIIX F. CARLL. be viewed as one and may be studied and described accord- ingly. 252. The Ferriferous limestone is the drillers' key- rock in Butler county and in some parts of Clarion. In all places where it is found he knows very nearly the depth to which his well should be sunk. The interval between the limestone and the Oil Sands varies indeed somewhat in dif- ferent places ; but the rate of the variation, in any given direction is soon ascertained as development advances, and the well-sinker seldom makes a mistake in his calculations. 253. From the Ferriferous limestone down to the Oil sand group the distance is astonishingly constant, as will be seen from the following tables : DISTANCE FROM BASE OF FERRIFEKOUS LIME- STONE TO TOP OF 1st SS. 3dSS. 4th SS. In the Upper Belt. At Bullion 870 823 847 860 898 942 980 '905 947 910 882 919 916 933 902 950 1105 1100 1075 1140 1147 1205 1205 1190 1226 1189 1182 1129 1155 1165 1185 1173 1170 1152 1152 1155 1214 1217 1285 1275 1270 1308 1234 1249 1189 1228 1270 1266 In the Lower Belt. Edenburg (McGrew No. 4), Columbia Hill (Columbia No. 4), Parker (Sheasley), Sheakley Station (Ed. Bennet), Petrolia (Hazel wood No 21) Karns (Matteson & McDonald), Millerstown, St. Joe (Mead well), Carbon Centre (Thompson), Across the Lower Belt ; E, & W. Greece (Morrison), ...... Modoo (Sweepstakes), Fairview (Sutton No. 4), Between Petrolia and Kama (Evans No. 21) , . . . Frederick (Kern No. 6), Crisswell ( Boss Well) 254. The variability of the distance in different locali- ties, observable in the above table is certainly less than might be looked for under the circumstances. For the limestone itself is slightly undulating ; the sandrocks, also are locally irregular ; and the drillers measurements are always subject to unavoidable accidental inaccuracies. 205. The maximum of interval appears, curiously enough, to lie vertically underneath the maximum of lime- Plate XXV. III. 101 The SixPetrolia wells. 4. The plane of the top of the Oil sand group. Its height above llde.cuicl amount of slope infect. ,140'. 149 The plane of the top of the Third Oil sand. Itsheiqht above tide, and amount of slope infect. -K5 6. The basal plane of the Oil sand group. Its height above tide, and amount of slope in feet. Scale 6400=1 Inch. 102 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. stone ; that is in the central portion of the great water-basin in which the limestone was deposited. Now, if this be anything more than an accidental coincidence, it suggests the proba- bility that the interval does not keep on increasing south- westward, southward and southeastward from Butler, where both it and the limestone have reached their maxima of thickness ; but that it will be less at Beaver Falls, Pitts- burgh, Tarentum and Millville, where the limestone is com- paratively thin. The sections to be given presently sup- port this view of the case. 256. Local variability of the oil sands. To illustrate the local variations which occur in so-called parallel strata, not only in one locality and at one horizon, but everywhere and in all sedimentary rocks, we give below an analytical study of the six wells measured carefully for the survey, while being bored, near Petrolia, in six little diagrams and two vertical profile-sections, showing the undulations of limestone and sandrock over a small area,* A glance at these sections will suffice to impress upon the mind the rad- ical contrast between the rude symmetry of nature and the absolute parallelism of human art. 257. Sufficient data may be found in the chapter on the Venango Oil group, in the diagram showing the dip of the Oil Sands (Plate VIII), and in other parts of this Re- port, to prove that the Venango and Butler oil-rocks were cotemporaneous deposits and have a similar general struc- ture throughout the oil producing districts. But in look- ing for a geographical extension of the Oil Sand group from the Butler oil field towards the southwest, south and southeast, very important and significant stratigraphical changes are noticeable ; so that any proposed identification of the Butler rocks in wells at Pittsburgh, at Tarentum, or at places further round toward the east, must demand care- ful consideration. To illustrate these changes, and the numerous obstacles they place in the way of such identifications, I have pre- sented on Plates V, VI and VII, four series of grouped well sections, selected along lines starting from the oil belt where all the features of its stratification are well known, * Plates XXIV, XXV, XXVI. Plaie XXVI. III. 103 TheSixPetrolia wells. l.JVbrihern line of the polygon. K" Tide 1. NO 2 N? 6 TOe.^ >ioi JSase of +M6 Jiase of + ii7 m^ tfernf. .Lime. as Mountain- sands. -1U74 90 mo Top of 449 Oil- sand,- group. +140 fe] -no Top of -93 Third- oil-sand. -19^ pS Of ^) J$a#e of Oil -sand -group. 2. Southern line of the polygon < 2K Ti'rfe 1. N93. N94. N9 '<* Ml ^*e o/* ^648^1/OZ^/:." H033 Limestone. K52 sands. noo Toff of Oil +119' &ctnd 110' Top of -120' Third 4U oil-sand. 1 -19tf 7 -i\i -211 /- sand-group. Vertical sccde 8OO':l" *s 1 fc 1 % ill & illilil J| )'.. 1 i i i ! P iiii m p * 1- 1 & 111 Q III. 130 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. down through it than in any other section of the wells of equal volume. Taking the Pithole grit at say 20 feet, the whole Crawford Shale formation may be said then to measure about 400 feet, along the Venango oil-belt. 317. Where the Pithole grit does not split it into two main divisions, i. e., in 'parts of Butler, Armstrong, and Clarion counties (where the horizon of the Pithole grit is obscure, and the Crawford Shale is not so homogenous a formation) there are nevertheless always to be found above the Oil-sand group from 300' to 400' of soft measures, through which the drills go faster than anywhere else ; a visible evidence of which fact is presented in the curious diagram of the Relative rates of drilling in the six Petro- lia wells, Plate XVII.* 318. The sandy layers at the top of the Crawford shale are of no moment in the present discussion. The sole fact here insisted on is this : 1. That oxer the Oil-sand group lies a distinct soft forma- tion, 300' or 400' feet thick, in all parts of the oil regions of western Pennsylvania, which, for the present, we call the Crawford shale, and in the middle of which appears, in some parts of the region, a massive sand deposit called in this report the Pithole grit. 2. That the well sinker will find an abrupt change of character when he gets through this soft formation and strikes the top of the Oil-sand group. The transition from the soft Crawford shales or slates to the First oil-sand is sharply defined ; and the geologist is obliged to see here the close of one period of deposits of one kind, and the beginning of another period of deposits of a very different kind. 319. The name adopted, therefore, Venango Oil-sand group is not an arbitrary designation, suggested merely by the fact that petroleum was first discovered in them in Venango county, nor by the fact that our oil surveys com- menced with them in Venango county, but a designation f See also photographs of the cabinet arrangement of the specimen, drill- ings from these \vclls. Plate XXVIII. HI. 181 132 III. .REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. based npon a sound geological generalization of all the facts obtained thus far in our surveys of the whole oil field be- tween Pittsburg and Lake Erie, confirming the integrity of the group' as a group, its type being in Venango county. The Warren oil sands are quite a different older and lower group ; and the Bradford oil sands also. 320. Under the Oil-sand group, again lies a perfectly well marked different formation. The driller having gone through the Venango Oil-sands and their separating shales, and reached the base of the group, suddenly, by as abrupt a transition as that which he encountered at its top, enters a different set of rocks. Wherever the group is normally developed, the drill passes at once from sandstone into shale, and continues from that point in the well, to go steadily down through shales for hundreds of feet, without encountering any sandstone lay- ers like those above. A large majority of oil wells were never drilled below the Third sand, or base of the group ; for experience had con- vinced operators that it was useless to expect another sand layer below that horizon, along the whole line of the Ve- nango and Butler belts. Several hundred wells, however, were put down to depths of 100' to 500' beneath the lowest Venango Oil-sand. Their numbers and the extent of ground over which they lie scattered, afford conclusive evidence that the measures beneath the Oil-sand group have everywhere the same clay character. The universal testimony of their records is soft drilling and no coarse massive sandrocJc after leaving the Productive oil measures. Occasionally, indeed, a "sand" has been reported ; and some fine-grain sandstone layers were to be expected, for they are not unknown in the Chemung series ; but it is now conceded that such layers never resembled the Oil-sands, and that they occurred so rarely, and the reports of them are so vague and questionable, that we are warranted in treating them as mere local variations of some of the beds of the Chemung shales. Plate XXIX. 111. 133 5 g i $$;:] 2 i pi ii i \ ' \ \ i \ ^ 1 1 1 iiliiil i| g s si : ! j B. 134 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. The whole experience of deep drilling proves that nnder the Oil-sands lies a mass of rather soft shale, sometimes pure argillaceous shale (red or blue), sometimes "shelly," but always a quiet deep water deposit, totally unlike the oil-sands, with their shore-deposit aspect. 321. The Venango Oil-sand Group, itself, is seen in the sections to be a mass of sandstone deposits, from 300' to 380' thick, with layers of pebbles, and many local partings of shale and slate. As a whole, it is a well-defined group of sandstones lying between the two shale formations above and below it de- scribed above ; so sharply separated from them, so persist- ent, so characteristic, and so uniform in structure and thick- ness, that it deserves the special name which it receives. 322. Its thickness, as measured in different parts of the district is seen in the sections, thus : Fig. Well. Feet. At Tidioute, . 300 ' Pleasantville, 322 " Rouseville, 318 " Reno, 301 Fosters, . 306 Scrubgrass, 310 Bullion, 331 Shippenville, (278', 3d SS.+30'to 4th=) 308 Edenburg, 339-[- Pickwick, (293', 3d SS.-f 30'=) 323 Keating, 308-}- Ritts, between St. Petersburg and Emlenton, 304 Foxburg, 325 Reddiokfarm ("Columbia Hill "), 332 Parker's Landing, 325 Sheakley Station, (255'+81'=) 336 Petrolia, (25S'+80' Dougherty No. 2=) 338 Karns, 325-f- Millerstown, ? St. Joe, (265'-f 75'=340 ; or 265'-f 75'-f 30'=) 370 Carbon Centre, (351' ; or 351'+30'=) 381-}- Greece, 333^ Modoc, 372-f. Fairview, Suttoii No. 4, (295'-f-86'=) 381 Fairview, Evans No. 21, 334 Frederick, (260'+75'=) 333 Criswell, 3SO-}- Crisvvell, 34^ Plate XXX. III. 135 136 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. 323. These figures may be varied somewhat by taking other well records ; but it will be found, as a general rule, that a thickness of 350 feet, as claimed in Report I, will in nearly every case embrace all the sands belonging to the Yenango group even the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth sands, as the lower members of the group, in some localities have been called. 324. That the confessedly variable thickness of its indi- vidual members should vary the dimensions of the group as such, might be expected. It is wonderful therefore how the group maintains its total thickness with such uniformity for a distance of 62 miles in a straight line, from Tidioute in Warren county to Herman station in Butler county. The top sand is sometimes 10' thick and sometimes 85' ; the bot- tom sand may be 5' thick orit may be 120' ; and so, either one of these members may individually vary in thickness about as much as the whole group is found to vary. 325. Shape of the Oil-sand deposits. It has sometimes been asserted that the top of a sandrock is always uniform, and that any irregularity of thickness necessarily implies an uneven base. But facts do not seem to warrant the ac- ceptance of any such law of structure as universally preva- lent. The commencement of sandy deposits upon soft ones would no doubt, under certain circumstances, be attended by some unevenness of bottom. Strong currents bearing course materials might excavate first to a certain extent, and then deposit ; while sluggish waters would lay down finer sand on the original floor undisturbed. And this has some- times happened ; for we not infrequently discover by actual levels and measurements, that where a thin fine sandrock swells into a thick pebbly one, there is a more uniform level at the top of the stratum than at the bottom. Still, where the conditions of deposition were so variable and uncertain as these must have been, it would be unsafe' to formulate any fixed rules for universal guidance in these particulars. 326. The importance of mewing the oil-rocks as a group by itself, and of studying them individually, always with a view to their natural association as members of such a group, cannot be too earnestly impressed upon oil producers. It VENANGO OIL GKOUP. III. 137 is the true key to a correct understanding of the structure of the oil regions, the only one indeed which unlocks the complications and involutions of the drillers oil sand nomen- clature, some specimens of which are given in Chap. XIX. If for example the pioneer operators in Butler county had only always kept in mind the fact which they very well knew tliat above the first oil sand they had always found a mass of soft rock about J^OOfeet thick, and if they had always noted the relative positions of all the sandy members of the oil-sand group, instead of confining their scrutiny to that one of them from which the oil came, they would have soon remarked that what the driller called Second sand in Butler county was really nothing else but the First sand of Venango county. 327. If, at Petrolia, the oil drillers had observed care- fully when and where they struck the top of the Oil-sand group, they would have noticed in going deeper that their so called Third sand lay only 250 feet beneath it, and there- fore could not be the Oil creek Third sand; for they would have inferred that the group had been only two thirds pierced, and that there must be other sands still below them. The result in some cases was disastrous enough. There were men in the Petrolia district who, relying on their own judgment, and ability to indentify the Third sand any- where, and knowing by experience that no oil was to be expected under the Third sand of Oil creek, stopped their borings at the first rock that yielded oil, calling it the Third sand, and then, getting little or no oil from it, sold out at a loss, without an effort to go deeper. The name of Third sand stopped them. It is easy to imagine their surprise and chagrin when new owners suspecting the right applica- tion of the name, or for other reasons, carried down their holes to the bottom rock of the group and got hundreds of barrels of oil per day. Territory which the first owners had condemned and sacrificed through the mistake of a name, came to rank in second hands among the most valuable in the country. 328. I could cite several cases where the knowledge of the simple fact, that all the oil-sands lie in one group and that 138 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. this group lias a well defined soft top and a well defined soft bottom, would have saved the operator more money than the whole expense of the geological survey of the oil region. But this fact simple as it is became known, and could only become known, by a strictly geological method of observation. Yet the average oil producers sees no util- ity in a geological investigation ; shifts his tools from place to place ; puts down his wells ; and decides for himself, by surface levelings in reference to some assumed dip of the oil- rock, where his Third sand will be, stamping a charac- ter, productive or unproductive, on the territory, which the geologist can easily show to be unmerited. CHAPTER XV. The dip of the Venango oil sand group. Plate VIII, (with a map, Plate IX.) 329. The unity of the group having been exhibited, and its identity proved both in the Venango and the Butler-Clar- ion belts, it remains to show how it lies in reference to sea l^vel ; how it dips southwestward, Plate VIII, and the tables below, tell the whole story without more words. It is to be regretted that the exhibition in the. Clarion county part is not fuller; but although the oil develop- ments have there spread out much wider than is shown on Plate VIII, or on the large map Plate IX, I have limited myself to facts in hand ; omitting several interesting calcu- lations for which my data were still insufficient. The map however is complete enough for the purpose intended ; and others may place upon their copies of it additional facts as they get them, and so extend the calculations. alt was intimated in Report I (page 30) that there were reasonable grounds for supposing that the Stray and 3d sand had coalesced and united into one in the Tidioute and Triumph district. Additional facts since obtained leave little doubt that such is the case. Accordingly, in the arrangement of the sec- tions on Plate p. 129, the top of the Tidioute and Colorado sands have been placed to correspond with the top of the Stray in other localities. This view of the order of stratification would require a reduction of the elevations of the Tidioute and Colorado sands of about 45', in order that they may agree with the top of the Oil Creek 3d sand, (which lies about 45' below the top of the Stray, ) this being the horizon used in all the other elevations given on the northern belt, from Tidioute to Clintonville. The Tidioute Third sand horizon will then be ... 100845=963' The Colorado Third sand horizon will then be ... 85345=808' The dips in Table A 3 will be changed as follows: Tidioute to Fagundus, from 30.9 per mile to 20.0 Tidioute to Church Run, from 11.9 per mile to 9.6 Church Run to Colorado, from per mile to 6.8 Colorado to Pleasantville, from 20.2 per mile to 10 Fagundus to Colorado, . . . from 5 per mile to 14.0 ( 139 III. ) 140 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F- CARLL. 330. Table A 1 ; giving the Elevation of the Top of the Third oil sand above sea level, at the points along the belt, in Warren and Venango counties (designated on Plate VII) from Tidioute to Clintonville ; as follows : Table A. 1 Warren and Venango counties. Tidioute to Clintonville. Height of top of Third sand above ocean level. See Plate VII. Tidioutef, *1008' Fagundus, *878 Colorado *853 Church Run, .' *853 Titusville (Watsons Flats), *793 Pleasantville, *768 Shamburg, *723 Pithole, *683 Cashup, *708 Petroleum Centre, *653 Rouseville, *558 Clapp Farm, 550 Siverly Farm, 528 Reno, 472 Milton Farm, . 455 Franklin, near A. V. RR. Depot, 421 Raymilton, Raymond estate, 360 Fosters, 363 Scrubgrass, 340 Bulion run, Gealy Farm, 345 Clintonville, Cross Farm, 230 Emlenton, near town, 130 Table A z . Warren and Venango counties* Tidioute to Clintonoille. Dip of top of Third sand, in feet, per mile. > A a II l-a 2 c Vt 5 i 1 |1 1 1 From Tidioute to Church run, 13 S. 840 w. 1008 to 853 155 11.9 Colorado, 6? S. 720 w. 1008 to 853 155 22.8 Fagundus, . a S. 270 W. 1008 to 878 130 30.9 * These points were used on a diagram in Report I, 1874, but the elevations as there given are all now raised 13' to cause them to conform to ocean level, as explained in Report II, 1877. f See note a previous page. VENANGO OIL SAND GROUP. III. 141 From Fagundus to Colorado, 5 71 N.710W. S. 77 W. 878 to 853 878 to 768 25 110 5.0 14.7 8' S. 41 W. 878 to 708 170 21.0 From Colorado to 6| N. 820 W . 853 to 853 0- 0.0 -U S. 390 W. 853 to 768 85 20.2 From Church run to Titusville (Watson flats) .... Pleasantville 3 S. 50 E. S. 420 E. 853 to 793 853 to 768 60 85 24.0 15.5 From Titusville to 7 S. 120 w. 793 to 653 140 20.0 4A S. 20 E. 793 to 723 70 16.3 Pleasantville, From Pleasantville to Sliamburg, Pithole, Cashup, . From Cashup to Pithole, From Shamburg to Petroleum Centre, Rouseville, Pithole, From Petroleum Centre to Rouseville, From Pithole to 3& 3 ? if k 3& 7JL S. 650 E. S. 400 w. S. 40 E. S. 25 E. S. 680 w. S. 470 W. S. 30 W. S. 420 E. S. 90 W. S. 590 W. 793 to 768 768 to 723 768 to 683 768 to 708 708 to 683 723 to 653 723 to 558 723 to 683 653 to 558 683 to 558 25 45 85 60 25 70 165 40 95 125 6.4 14.1 16.3 12.0 13.6 17.5 22.6 10.8 25.7 17.6 JP S. 47 W. 683 to 550 133 17.3 J S. 38 W. 683 to 528 155 16.8 From Rouseville to Clapp, Reno, . From Clapp farm to Siverly farm, . 11 2 S. 120 E. S. 400 W. s. 30 w. 558 to 550 558 to 472 550 to 528 8 86 22 6.0 16.4 11.0 Reno, . . . .... From Siverly farm to Reno, 4| 3 1 s. 530 w. S. 780 w. 550 to 472 528 to 472 78 56 17.3 16.0 Milton farm, 4> S. 63 W. 528 to 455 73 16.8 Foster's 8 S. 41 W. 528 to 363 165 20.6 From Reno to Milton farm, n S. 200 w. 472 to 455 17 11.3 Franklin . . . . v S. 63 W. 472 to 421 51 15.7 From Milton farm to 4' S. 21 W. 455 to 363 92 19.7 n West. 455 to 421 34 13.6 From Franklin to Foster's, a S. 10 E. S 68 W. 421 to 363 421 to 360 58 61 13.4 6.6 From Foster's to Raymilton, Scrubgrass, Bullion run, From Raymilton to Bullion run, Clintonville, ..:.... From Scrubgrass to Clintonville, . From Bullion run to ClintonvilLe, 95 y & 5 3 3 N. 85 W. S. 220 w. S. 360 w. S. 480 E. S. 300 E. S. 370 W. S. 180 w. 363 to 360 363 to 340 363 to 345 360 to 345 360 to 230 340 to 230 345 to 230 3 23 18 15 130 110 115 0.3 5.1 3.0 1.8 13.0 22.0 34.1 Scrubgrass, 2 N. 680 E. 345 to 340 5 2.5 142 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHJST F. CARLL. Table B 1 . Clarion county. SMppenmlle to Foxburg. Height of top of Third sand above ocean level. See Plate V1I1. Foxburg. Shippenville, 1 m. N. E. of town, 370' Edenburg, {, m. S. E. of town 325' Beaver City, ^ m. S. W. of town, 255' Dogtown, \ m. west of town, 230' Turkey City 220' Foxburg, 100' Table B 2 Clarion county. SMppenmlle to Foxburg. Dip oftJie Third sand in feet per mile. Shippenville to Edenburg, .... Eden burg to Beaver City, 1 S. 450 W. s. 770 w. S. 46 W. 370-325 325-255 255-230 45 70 25 14' 40' V Dogtown to Turkey City, Turkey to Foxburg, 1 J 4J S. 60 W. S. 440 W. 230-220 220-100 10 120 10' 25' Foxburg to Parker (Island], . . Foxburg to Columbia Hill, .... 3 South, S. 480 w. 100-60 100-100 40 27' 0' Table C 1 . Armstrong and Butler counties. Parker's to Herman's Station. Height of top of Oil-Sands above ocean level. See Plate VIII. Columbia Hill Reddick farm 3rd SS. +100 4th SS. Parker Island, at mouth of Clarion -j- 60 4- 10 Stonehouse, in valley, near R'y station, 8 Frousinger farm, 1 m. E. of Martinsburg, 20 Martinsburg, Say farm, S. E. of town, Argyle, near the pump station, 30 70 Petrolia, near the post-office, 100 Frederick, Mortimer farm, 108 Criswell, vicinity of Boss well, 105 190 Brady's Bend, at furnaces, . (_130?)* 215 Fairview, McCleary farm, -90 175 Modoc, near town, (120?) 200 Greece, near town, KarnsCity, McClvman's farm, . Millerstown, (4th v SS. on eastern belt?) St. Joe, J. Now farm, . (220 ?.) 160 245 260 300 250 320 (_33n?) Carbon Centre, R. Thompson farm, 294 376 Humes, Herman station, ' . (_375?) (418?) 457 500 * The figures given in brackets have been supplied for the purpose of keep- ing the horizons of 3d and 4th sands separate. To preserve uniformity and avoid confusion, the dips are calculated throughout for the "3d sand," and where its exact position was not noted at the points designated, because it was imperfect and not oil-bearing, we have located it from 80 to 85 feet above the "4th SS." The 3d and 4th sands appear to lie very nearly parallel in this section, therefore the dips here given may be considered as representing the slopes of both sands, one lying about 80 feet below the other. VENANGO OIL SAND GROUP. Table C z . Rate of dip in feet per mile. III. 143 Table 0*. Columbia Hill to Parker (Island), Miles. 12 2i Bearing. N. 850 E. S. 35 E. Ocean level. +100' to + 60' " " + 10 Fall. 40' 90 Rate. 23' 36' Stonehouse, Parker (Island) to Farrentown, Farrentown to Stonehouse, 2J 2^ 2 S. 11 W. S. 13 W. S. 66 W .. " 8 + 60 to + 10 + 10 to 8 108 50 18 39' 21' 9' Fronsinger Farm, 2 S. 250 W . r --20 30 15' Stonehouse to Fronsinger Farm, Martinsburg, a S. 350 E. S. 200 W. 8 to 20 " " 30 12 22 8' 20' Fronsinger Farm to Martinsburg, 11 N.830 W. 20 to 30 10 8' Argyle, 2 S. 240 w. " " 70 50 25' Frederick, 2? S. 10 W. " " 108 88 32' Criswell, 8l S. 190 E. 105 85 24' Bradv : s Bend, ?! S. 43 E. " " 130 110 20' Martinsburg to Modoc, 61 S. 40 W. _ 30 to 120 90 14' Fairview, r S. 120 w. " 90 60 20' Argyle, . . . 2 S. 120 E. " " 70 40 20' Argyle to Fairview, Petrolia . > s. 470 w. S. 150 \v. _ 70 to 90 " 100 20 30 13' 30' Frederick, Petrolia to Frederick, Karns, 1J 1 13 S. 400 E. S. 880 E. S. 210 w. 108 100 to 108 " " 160 38 8 60 30' 8' 34 Fairview to 1 N. 80 E. _ 90 to 100 10 10' 11 S. 120 E. " _160 70 47' 4J S. 60 W. 120 30 7' Frederick to Karns, 2i S. 420 w. 108 to 160 52 23' Karns to Millerstown, Milierstown to St. Joe, St. Joe to Carbon Centre, Carbon Centre to Humes. . Herman Station, Humes to Herman Station, Modoc to Karns, 3i 8| 2 2 3? 2J 4 S. 150 W . S. 35 W. S. lio W. S. 250 E. H. 240 W. s. 550 w. N. 820 E. 160 to 245 245 to 260 260 to 294 294 to 375 " " 418 _375 to 418 120 to 160 85 15 34 81 124 43 40 26' 4' 17' 40' 33' 15 10' Millerstown, Greece, 1 S. 510 E. S. 51 W. " " 245 " " 220 125 100 31' 50' Greece to Millerstown, ... .... St. Joe, 42 4| S. 730 E. S. 34 E. 220 to 245 " " 260 25 40 5' 8-1' Herman Station, 91 S. 50 E. _4i8 198 | fll' Criswell to Frederick, n N. 63 W. 105 to 108 3 2' Karns, ? S S. 730 W. _160 55 18' Millerstown, 51 S. 43 W. " " 245 140 25' Brady's Bend, ........ Hrady's Bend to Millerstown, *. . .... , ; , . 21 7 S. 760 E. S..620 W. " " 130 130 to- 245 25 115 10' 16' 144 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. Table I) 1 , Along the axis of development. Northern ( Venango) belt. Tide. 1008 853 768 723 558 472 455 363 345 Tidioute Colorado Pleasantville Sham burg Rouseville Reno Milton Farm Fosters Bullion Run Tidioute Tidioute Ti to to to to to to to to to to to p of Third Sand at Colorado, Fall. 155 85 45 165 86 17 92 18 116 Miles. 6.75 4.20 3.20 7.30 5.25 1.50 4.66 6.00 3.37 Rate. 22.8' 20.2' 14.1 22.6' 16.4' 11.3' 19.7' 3.0' 34.1' Pleasantville, Shamhurg, Rouseville, Reno, Miiton Farm, . . . Fosters, Bullion Run, (230) Clintonville, . Clintonville total, Clintonville, bee line, S. 39 W., 778 42.23 39.5 18.42 19.70 Table D 2 , Along the axis of development. Southern (Butler-Clarion) belt. 230 Doo TOO ! JIOOH paa -g eiqqaj aumspuBS ^^ ^ *."" j> . | o o j ^- ^> ypoa pnn aoeuo^sdBos i ...'.'....'..'. | ="- 5 OMS \ : : K : .* s . : : :a -g : : j|! I ; I ^3 g CJ . 9TBqs \ .% ::::::::::::%:.::... \ %% - i : 1 ^ jopnpuoo ^ I H \ i "o WITHHOLDING WELL-KECOKDS. III. 169 364. Value of the circulars returned. The blanks and key were sent out together and it was expected that this would insure uniformity in the records and result in the acquisition of much valuable information. But these an- ticipations were not realized. Not one blank out of ten was returned, and many of those that did come back bore such palpable evidences of having been written up from memory after the well was completed rather than from actual meas- urement and annotation during the period of drilling, that their value rated very low and some of them had to be dis- carded altogether. 365. Utility of well records not appreciated. In many .cases it is not alone the pecuniary consideration involved in a loss of time, that prevents a contractor from keeping a detail record, but he fails to do so because he sees no utility in it, being perfectly satisfied in his own mind that he thoroughly understands the structure where he is drill- ing and honestly believing that he can give a record from memory sufficient for all economical or scientific purposes. Other obstacles are encountered in endeavoring to obtain records, which, while they are only what should naturally be expected under the circumstances might seem very singu- lar to the uninitiated if left without explanation. 366. Secrecy observed about trial wells in new terri- tory. Wells that are drilled in new and untried territory, and those that are sunk to exceptional depths, are of es- pecial value to us. Their records, as a general rule are much more accurately kept than others, for the owners and drillers pay closer attention to the changes in stratification as a general rule, too, no one can find out any thing reliable about them. Quite often it is so much to the interest of the driller, land owner and lessee to falsify or at least ob- scure the records by varying versions, that it is very unsafe to base conclusions upon them eA r en if they can be obtained. 367. The interest of the driller in doctoring the record. We must not presume the average driller to be less or more scrupulously honest than other men. He is working for money and is shrewd enough to know how to take advant- age of opportunities for advancing his own interests. If 170 III. KEPOKT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. he is drilling for a strong company who have faith in their territory and pluck to continue to drill notwithstanding a few dry holes, he in all probability will assure them, that in the first well put down, the rocks were "regular" but the third sand was a little to fine and close in texture, show- ing plainly the edge of the belt. The question then arises which way to move the rig for another -venture. In this discussion he is uncertain and wavering until the spot is selected by the owners. Then, although he acquiesces in their decision and readily goes to work on No. 2 he begins to express doubts as to the location of it, and feels pretty con- fident they ought to have moved east instead of west, or nice versa. No. 2 is finished. It is dry ; and of course the sandrock is reported thinner and finer and not so good as in No. 1. Evidently the rock must thicken on the other side of No. 1. Result, another dry hole put down in that direction. Three wells secured to be drilled, by a little manipulation of the contractor, and the profits pocketed, when in all probability there was nothing in the first one, if the stratification had been properly watched and studied, to warrant even a second venture. Some of the most unreliable records I have examined are those returned to extensive operators and systematically re- corded in their books, by men whose interest it was to agree with the theories of their employers, and who found it more profitable to arrange the records in accordance with their ideas of structure, than to follow with fidelity the precise stratification as the drill disclosed it. 368. Tlie interest of the land owner in doctoring the record. In the case of land owners and lessees very cogent reasons frequently present themselves for witholding well records from the public. Acting on some closely kept the- ory of his own which he has worked out from pervious suc- cesses in prolific areas ; or guided by spiritual influences ; or led by the divining rod or magnetic-oil-indicator of some professional well-locator ; or following lines drawn from one district to another, regardless of the age or stratigraph- ical relationships of the rocks he is attempting to trace ; or governed by the appearance of conglomerate on the surface ; WITHHOLDING WELL-RECORDS. III. 171 or directed by whatever controlling influence it may be the operator goes out into a new field in search of oil. He secures large bodies of land by lease or purchase investing perhaps tens of thousands of dollars. He adds to this the cost of sinking a well. Is it to be wondered at if he feels that the information he gains is his own, or that he should lepel with jealous care every attempt made to pry into the history of his venture ? If the well is not a pronounced success, he may be satisfied from indications discovered in drilling, that he is near the belt and can locate his next well on the right spot. But this may necessitate the securing of more land which he can only get by concealing his record, feigning discouragement and temporarily abandoning the enterprise, until those who hold the land he wants, expecting to make him pay roundly for it in case of success, are induced to forfeit their leases or transfer them for a nominal consideration to some party secretly employed by him to secure them. 369. Traditional sentiment that wells have failed be- cause not deep enough. If on the other hand the well is unquestionably a failure and he sees that he has made a mistake and located in hopelessly dry territory, it is equally to his interest to prevent the record from being made pub- lic. There is no difficulty in assigning some plausible reason for the non-productiveness of a well bad management of the contractor ; water not effectually cased-off ; inadequate testing; insufficiency of depth, only discovered after aban- donment, *&c., &c. Rumors like these, particularly the one in relation to depth, once started, are readily taken up by the land-owners in the vicinity. They all honestly believe, as they assert, that "there is no reason why there should not be just as much oil here as on Oil creek if a well is put deep enough." The idea that a failure to find oil always proves the well not to be deep enough, seems to be univers- ally prevalent among old settlers, and it matters not whether the location is on the Lake-slope, where the drill starts geo- logically 1000 feet below the Yenango oil sands, or in the center of the coal fields of Westmoreland county, where it commences its work 2000 feet above them. Deeper drilling 172 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. in every case is supposed to be the only thing needed to procure oil. After a rest of a few years the oil-fever will in all prob- ability again break out in the abandoned district. By this time the unwritten history of the old well has become a family legend in the neighborhood. No one knows defi- nitely anything about the stratification, but everybody near it knows that the well was not deep enough that the rocks were "regular" as far as drilled, the oil- show good and the prospects decidedly encouraging. A new party now comes into the field, bated by these common reports, which agree perhaps with what he conceives should be the situation ac- cording to some theory upon which he is operating, and ventures a second well. This attracts attention in that di- rection and creates more or less excitement which the first party probably helps to fan, and then before the second well is down, he quietly sells out to some of the sanguine new-comers, thus materially lessening the losses the enter- prise would otherwise have entailed upon him, had he made the true situation known by putting on record for public use a carefully kept register of the well when drilled. 370. Publicity opposed by good business policy. From a business point of view and looking only to personal interest, there is no reason why any oil-producer should allow his well records to become public property. If he has made a successful venture, the prompt publication of the fact causes an eager crowd to rush in around him on all sides, and he is often obliged in consequence to drill more rapidly than he otherwise would, to protect himself, or in other words to secure his share of oil in the pool which he has discovered for it is now well known by experience that oil cannot safely be "tanked in the rock" as formerly sup- posed, to be drawn forth when wanted, if in the meantime wells are drilled and pumped all around the borders of the oil-bearing "tank." Many farms known to be good, and held in reserve for development when the price of oil should warrant, have been found when subsequently tested, to the chagrin of their owners, to be almost completely drained by the wells WITHHOLDING WELL-RECORDS. III. 173 on adjoining lands that had been steadily at work during the intervening time in depleting the reserved pool which no farm lines could protect a thousand feet below the sur- face. 371. The geologist's difficulties. There can be no ques- tion but that these are some of the causes that have de- prived the survey of much valuable information of which it otherwise might have been able to avail itself, and it is to be regretted that it is precisely that kind of material most needed in working out broadly the underground structure of the oil regions. But who can censure the oil-producer for it. He is only doing, as he conceives, what any prudent man would do to further his own plans and facilitate the advancement of his own interests. The verdict of "no one to blame," however, does not help the geologist in this dilemma. He is left to grope on in the dark, in relation to every new field forced to calculate and work out deductions as best he can from data obtained at a distance, or culled from a mass of contradictory and un- satisfactory statements as liable to mislead as to instruct. At the same time he is expected to know all about it, and his views of its structure, extent and possibilities are often sought by the very men who are withholding or purposely mystifying the facts on which alone a reliable opinion could be formed. He is thus frequently exposed to the hazard of error in judgment, sometimes by relying upon plausible representa- tions which prove not to be well founded in fact, and some- times by unwittingly rejecting absolute facts because tney are presented to him in such shape and under such circum- stances that he has no confidence in their authenticity. His task is a thankless one at best. His vocation seems to be as generally misunderstood by the well-informed oil-pro- ducer as by the most illiterate rustic. The one supposes him capable of telling from the size or shape of a pebble or from a pinch of soil just what may lie below for thou- sands of feet, the other is confident that a twenty-two and a half degree compass line is a safer guide for oil operations 174 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. than all the geology in the world. If lie attempts to trace the probable outlines of the oil-bearing rocks, he at once incurs the displeasure of all the land- owners and interested parties left out of his lines if he makes no exhibit of the underground structure, he is set down as a failure, so that in either case his position is an unenviable one. 372. Obligations of the survey to oil-producers for good records. But it must not be understood that these remarks universally apply without exception. We are under obli- gations to many of the oil-producers of the district for special favors ; for the privilege of copying their well re- cords and maps ; for specimens of sand pum pings, oil and gas from their wells ; for fossils &c ; and within the devel- oped districts, free access has been had to all the facts and data preserved. The gentlemen who have thus kindly as- sisted us are too numerous to mention individually, and an acknowledgment of their courtesy and good will can only be made in this general manner. As before stated, however, these data are principally such as have been furnished by the well-borer for purely practi- cal purposes in immediate connection with the wells to which they appertain, and are frequently imperfect and emissive in those portions most essential for broad geolog- ical study. 373. Plan adopted for securing good records. To remedy these defects, it was found necessary to employ a special assistant for the purpose of securing a few accurately measured and detailed well sections in different localities The results of his work will be given in the following chap- ters. CHAPTER XIX. 1. Bad well records tlie true cause of the confusion in the popular names and positions of the Oil rocks. (Illustrated by Plate XXXI.) 2. Method of measuring two groups of wells by the Survey. 374. How to secure well records in a complete and reli- able form has been one of the perplexing questions of the Survey. A number of plans were tried during the first two years, but with quite unsatisfactory results. The dif- ficulties in the way are numerous and sometimes insur- mountable. Some of them are stated in Chapter XVIII, and others may here be added. 375. In the last chapter it has been intimated that in the ordinary course of development, proper records for geological study cannot be obtained. Every interest of the business is against it. The contractor is drilling to make the best time possible, that he may reap the largest margin of profit on his contract. The well owner cares nothing for the structure, except as it relates to the oil-producing sand, and with him too time is of great importance. The work cannot be delayed by superfluous measurements, and washing of sand-pum pings, to satisfy what they consider to be, only scientific curiosity. In districts which are being rapidly developed and where the drill-holes are clustered closely together, a delay of a few days in the completion of a well may make a difference of thousands of dollars in the total receipts from it. There is a certain amount of oil in a pool, and those who reach it first have the advantage of a strong flow and full supply until others tap it and assist in diverting and relieving the pressure. In such situations contracts are often made giving the men employed on a well fifty cents or a dollar a day extra if they succeed in reaching the rock within a (175 III.) 176 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. specified time. Everything is rushed with the utmost speed. There is no time for scientific inquiry with the pos- sibilities of a hundred or perhaps a thousand barrel well in prospect. Even the most staid and methodical student of nature is apt to forget himself when he becomes a well- owner and is caught up and carried along in the whirl of excitement pervading the atmosphere of a new and prolific oil field. 376. The drillers'' record is almost always defective for geological purposes, and sometimes in very essential particulars. To him nothing in the well has any particular significance but sandrocks, and these are only deserving of careful examination when lying near the oil-producing hor- izon. Consequently the upper strata are carelessly noted, and the characters of shales and slates indefinitely given. He has not yet learned the importance of a close scrutiny of all the measures drilled through particularly the oil group proper and by reason of this inattention to the character and position of the upper rocks, has been led into many errors of judgment and prevented from obtaining as comprehensive an idea of the general structure of the meas- ures as he might otherwise have acquired. 377. The driller recognizes no geological distinction between the higher sands and Hie oi\ group ; assigns no fixed relative positions to the 4 respective horizons of the several oil sands, in harmony with their arrangement where first found and named on Oil creek ; but uses the designa- tions 1st, 2d, stray and 3d sand indiscriminately in different districts, sometimes applying them to higher rocks in the series and sometimes to lower thus introducing great con- fusion and disorder into the nomenclature of the oil meas- ures. 378. The careless numbering of the sandrocks gave us the 4th sand above the true 3d at Pithole and Pleasantville ; carried the stray up to the lower division of the 2d at Tidi- oute ; brought the 2d down to the stray at Church run ; raised the 1st up to the Pithole girt horizon in Butler coun- ty, and introduced under it in that locality new names the 50 foot rock, 30 foot rock, Blue Monday, Bowlder, &c., POSITIONS OF OIL ROCKS. III. 177 making it appear as if there was no regularity in the gen- eral structure of the oil producing rocks, and so involving and obscuring the order of stratification that no one could tell positively how the sands of one district were related to those of another. 379. Sections 68 to 73. This popular Babel of oil rock stratification is graphically illustrated by the plate of sec- tions on pages 178 and 179. The same plate also shows how simple the language of nature is, after all, if we will only stop to read, and study to interpret it aright. Six sections made from actual oil well records in different localities, and drawn to an uniform scale, are grouped upon the plate for comparison. The complete registers may be referred to as follows : Fig. 73 Tidioute'; Report II, well No. 765. " 72 Church run ; Report II, well No. 965. ' ' 71 Pithole and Pleasantville ; Report II, Nos. 1 and 24. " 70 Oil creek ; Report II, well No. 112. " 69 Clarion co. Chapt. XXI, this volume. " 68 Butler co. Report II, well No. 1170. 380. Local popular arrangements of the sands. These records are selected because they give the order of the sands in accordance with their numbers and relative positions as named and popularly recognized by operators and drillers in the several districts where the wells are located. They may be viewed as typical representatives of the general structure of the areas named, although a com- parison of them with other records from the same neigh- borhoods, but given by other drillers, will disclose almost as much local variation and disagreement of names and hori- zons in ea;ch of the respective districts themselves, as is to be seen here in these six widely separated wells. 381. True and universal arrangement of the oil sands. But whatever irregularity of the oil rocks may be observed in the sections given or the well records examined this one universally prevailing characteristic will be noticed in every part of the oil field immediately above the true 1st sand lies a mass of soft rocks from 150' to 200 feet thick 12 III. 775 III. Karns Gty. Hg69 Ec/enburg. Plate XXXI. Kg. 70. l Cs-eeA. $ m-^:y all tJie facts obtained at the loells while they were being drilled, and consequently they may not always give & precise description of the par- ticular specimen referred to. 407. Records written out from an examination of speci- mens have been productive of an abundance of error, when unaccompanied by explanatory notes. Specimens do not always correctly represent the character of the rocks drilled through. A great deal depends upon the manner of wash- ing and drying them. A series of -sand- shells and argilla- ceous shale may be so ground up together by the drill that a thorough washing will leave nothing but sand. Fre- quently all traces of the soft red shales are thus entirely lost. A small percentage of pebbles in an argillaceous or slaty matrix, may be washed and manipulated so as to present a very good pebble specimen. A muddy sand may be washed so that it can scarcely be distinguished from a pure sand. The natural color of a specimen may be entirely changed by oxydation of the small particles of metal worn from the tools, especially if the hole contains salt water and the material is not quickly dried. Careless sand-pumping while in a hard sand may leave the bottom of the hole full of drillings to be ground over and over, and they then come up as tine as flour, and ap- pear more like clay than sand. Specimens also change very perceptibly in color by age, some bleaching in the light, others growing darker. 408. A well-record should be made at the well, and no- where else. There a person can see the sand-pumpings as they come up ; examine the tools, which show unmistaka- bly the character of the rock they have been working upon, by being either sharp or dull, scratched or polished ; and converse with the drillers, who alone can tell at what point a change of rock occurs. A record thus made should never be altered, even if the SIX WELLS NEAR PETROLIA. III. 193 descriptions given do not always exactly fit the specimens preserved. 409. How specimens should be collected. When a well cannot be visited by the person who wishes to study its record, a duplicate set of sand-pumpings should be kept by the drillers. It can easily be done in this way : Dump the sand-pump into a pail; let the sediment settle ; pour off the top ; take a handful of the sediment and dry it immediately ; then wash out an equal quantity and dry that. Put them in small paper bags and mark plainly the depth from which they came, and the thickness of rock they represent. It is also a good plan to put on the date. From specimens thus kept a very satisfactory study of the character of the measures drilled through could be made at any time. 13 III. 194 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. f! II II II II II II II II O US O O O O !N < p> ^oeggj 122222222222 2 2222333 -.a >> >> > .3.^ . .j4 .^j .^| . .a ,| "3 .A . . >|6. - -fee: -2 ,^3. tc II I:;:::: :;:|:1 PP o "2 '-5 ^g, | :::::::: :i .1 riS 'I ; ; ;-2 -5 - " >i"3 ^3 *S -g iT ' ' ' aT ii HI us; Pfsif - -a " ^" s g '3 2 ^ g ft ^2 3 *o|5 |Al !tl 3 as Of . . % so c3 fl 5tf 59-2 a -pa .2 r 2 2 " !K WELL KECOED. III. 195 + 1 I I I I I I I I II II II II II II II II II II I! .233 '8 'a ""ESS II I! ' r S38S838S ^~ g -2 a - s ^ 00 CO ^- 3" * S S 8 5 I ill 196 III. KEPOET OF PEOGKESS. JOHN F. CAELL. . II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II :?3 222222222222222222 2 2222222 ill ; | i|i ii 3 |^ ; s ;s '"iE"3 WELL RECORD. III. 197 + I I I I I I I I 233 S S 3 ' 3 S n Is vflv :I!i : ! :|I!l u So jj 3 !i 1 s I ll S s 3 x -/ / ; I % bg-^ K O 'S O 1 "=. -d^S, ? a r^ '- Ssl 198 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. tc oc cc cc cr, ~ ~ -r ~ j -r ~ c P- 3 i-5^ ; ? ! '^S '3B3S32SS3S332332SS2 3. 33333333 o -2 21 jg a Pv, . teg .1 :lll .M :isi ii KIM ' *H r s . -J f c s ' y .3 floc^.^.-co.. ^3 = 3 M ^ C8^ ^c, ^-o<2 '^_r S^r II l||-g"s|g r *li Wo , ..H-efeoaT troTd sr -i r-a r- 2^03 QODODC N CO i-H rH a WELL KECORD. III. 199 200 III. EEPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. 5 '33333333333333 3 33SS333S3 :SS83' H $88 N 8S88 I |8|i28 . . -1:61111 ' ::J : *:::-i :::.:!:: : ::f :::::: ^ tx a ag | T3tC * C t, fl i! I III is a. **".. If Jl d ^S a? r^ QO ft ijii - c^ bc-S . .^-s WELL KECOED. III. 201 (I] + 1 II I I I I I I I II I I 11 II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II ^2 S SS2SSS3S S -S 3 3S2 3 S ^^ 00 ^ M -a" : f :i 1 f ' * | "o g .tS 01) .-o oi^ 1 :!:::: 1 : J; .:::;: = o ^ 'I- 8 - - ft ts ^ 0) . . . ."Second Sand" . . '. '. '. " 5O' and 30' Rocks '. '."Blue Mon day" . . . . "Big Red Rock" . . . . "Bowlder" . . . . . . ."Stray Third" . . . . ."Third Sand". . . . . "Fourth Sand" . 8 J2 . . . . - * gi |5 II 1 *3. 1-^ CSM >> M oo co 0205^ co cc g^-^ S S ^" S !5 202 III. REPORT OF PEOGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. 3 3 S22S23S3B22 333 &2 s*s S o o II 'S =8 if fl ~"^G^'O 6 -|]i : 1P S ! :a^^ .:: :-s c 2 8*3 .TSWM .55 ^ ^2 : !|i 'Sis' -5 bC .**$ > &* ."1 2 5 ss^2, S 'C S3 . Cj 1" ;1 is : ' c ** - ' B . . .8 . 6 . . i i i 1 ' ' . . .h . . 5 . O OO5 s^s^*-\ . . .S8S ' ' '-s " . S5S S" b b . .ja i . ;-fc; ; : iS ; : . .TJ . ' '3 ' '43 ' . . 03 . . .-g . . .M . r- - '18 -s^^ : *& .I**: : : : : . S , i . . i i 5 . fit g g 2 "3 S3 -B b>. C !>O 02 Ji;-l E l b > * 42 ~ .'5 t/: 1 x a; a: 53 55 WELL RECOED. III. 203 + 1 I I I I I I I I g II II II II II II II II II II II II II : 22 22Si6?3gS?fei 2 S S B. 23BBBB322 S 5 -2 8 IS23Sc$^ M S S S J ' 'I *1 '* ' t :: MS;M ^ ^ 5 cc'S rfj 3 at! w" of 2^^? g ^ ^ODKOOOj^OQasS 03 03X 9* i"ss s ^"".S ^ fe s 5 b^ :- -".I a 204 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. CM Tt< -^ t--. ^ < S' i fc-,3 * * "- El the W. Snow Morehead & . 22 2 2222222 -i 5 - c >i ja a, II! If Hi: a l > "1 5 i ;*:| : a so s < rf 2 ^ -1 2222 ^H 7-1 00 O 22 Sfc I 1 II ill &'f :: i til::! I . ' a? ' tor, d s; ne, ri .2 ^ -3 ^H r^ (-1 iS W Co Sl 13 53 OJ t S u3 53 53 02 53 rH (M CC ^ lO CO Oi < WELL KECORD. III. 205 + 1 I I 1 I I I I I I 82 g 206 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. c % Q : S s >sssss >s- ^s > > >e I 1 1 8 t d 1 $ ' CQ & Q 8 si ^ O c ^ 0 1010U5. ..OlOOiMCi.OOi 8 1, * f 1 : g a 'Si*i :ll^ fefefe >IS3sl :1 -2 % e ..00 0.0. 10. IMIMQOOOffllM. ^ i g B eft - ' , n '^^^o , '^^ JS ^ 9 S^S oq ci S'S^5w^5< r^ ^ -S ^ -4J I I 1 8 >s > >- >aass ;sss : ; : sa *r<) O *<> O II d Igs^s^sg^sssas'sssB- ; se ^^ ^ ?! ^ ^ f| e IC-* rjH S| CO II II II II II II II II II II II II SB3 e II " !! II I! II II L7 C t SO b* I s * f* a aaasss w ...... QD TJ .2 "... j* ... a . . . f ... v a I i i i a * ::::::::: : : : II : I ^*. 5 gSS . .882SS8 ^ ; M .;.;;:::> jj i ;:--;jf : ; p:j : ;iiiif::j'iiii.ifJ:;: O> .73 tB.vT. ^^""^S "3 . g . =3 S 2 IS-sJ -S . II :ifi::::1^:f!!|:,^:PB:!i 1 s I K*.-:: -^1 : :|P!:f&?: '^I'^s ? cS 08 ^ p>T3 > ^a^i^^^ ^xxxaro! : x x x y. x a: xKxxxocl Ed 'HNM^.ffi -H *. o - Si-7- -5 o 3 < WELL EEC O ED. III. 219 II s So5o*o6a656boa> o &&& S eS o * 22222222 2 222 2 22* o :::::: i :::: * : i | ;K ! :| I I 1 a -3 ::::::.!::: t : g i SM... 3 . I g ^2 9 c ;;;;;;;;;; H ; fe r ^ CCCi * * " O rt< C5 C* ::t,llh.lllll^|U 1| :^ 220 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. 418. A diary of each day 's drilling, in a tabular form, with notes of drawbacks encountered by accidents, &c. Edenburg wells. (NOTE. The number marks the well. The column under it gives its suc- cessive daily increasing depth in feet. The columns headed rf. a. give the daily advance of each well in feet. 1877. No. 1. d.a. No. 2. d.a. No. 3. d.a. REMARKS. May 8. o may g , 10, 46 77 4<> Bl .... 32 66 32 S4 No. 3, breakdown 5 h. lost. 11, 12, 130 F 58 30 30 85 116 19 31 No. 3, cable parted ; 8 hours lost. 14, 15, 16, 17, 13, 19, Sunday, 21 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 146 193 235 260 274 318 '351 380 A 407 B410 427 477 18 47 42 25 14 44 33 20 27 17 50 52 104 142 175 218 258 '295 F F F F F 22 52 38 33 43 40 37 140 189 225 265 296 325 '355 394 413 430 452 530 24 49 36 40 31 29 30 39 19 17 22 78 No. 3, broke crank box. No. 1, "Rubber rock;" tough drilling. No. 2, lost bit in the well. No. 3, cased at 430. No. 1, cased at 427. l\ 29, 30, 31, June 1, 2, Sunday, 531 616 662 743 759 804 :,4 85 40 81 1G 46 F F F F F F 585 640 716 756 795 . F 55 66 76 40 39 No. 1, repg. boiler ; 18h. lost. No. 3, dril'gout S. pump bot. No. 2, bit taken out and hole 5*, 6, 7, 8, 9, Sunday, 850 895 967 1006 1042 1093 46 45 72 3ft 86 51 F 340 372 402 441 465 45 32 30 39 24 850 890 939 981 1003 1014 55 40 49 42 22 11 prepared for drill. No. 1, cleaning water well ; 6 hours lost. No. 1, repairing boiler ; 6 hours lost. Jl, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 mo 1172 1197 1208 1217 1220 17 9-2 25 11 9 | 497 515 533 551 563 567 32 18 18 18 12 4 1018 1026 1050 4 8 24 No. 2, repairing rig. No. 2, cased at 567. Sunday, 18, 19 '585 625 18 40 No. 2, breakdown ; 5 h. lost. 20 655 30 21 713 58 22 731 18 23, Sunday, 768 37 25 820 5? 26 851 31 27. 8H4 33 NOTES. III. 221 28, 899 15 29, 932 33 30, 972 40 No. 2, breakdown ; 4 h. lost. Sunday, '. '. '. \ \ July 2, . 1012 40 3, . 1061. 49 4, 1123 62 5, 1129 6 6, 1136 7 7, 1113 7 Notes to the preceding Table in J+18. Column No. 1. A. Upper part. Haney & Bartlett's Well No. 4, Haney farm, four fifths of a mile S. 65 W. from Edenburg and a quarter of a mile N. 20 E. from Brun- dred Well No. 4. Elevation of well mouth above ocean I486'. This well and McGrew Bros'. No. 4, commenced to drill on the same day, but after the former had been carried down to 407 ft. and cased, drilling was suspended on it to await a better price of oil. No. 1, B, was then substituted for it, making a compound section 400 ft. belonging properly to Haney and Bartlett well and the remainder to Brundred well No. 4. B. Lower part. Brundred Well No. 4, Capt. Kribb's farm, Beaver city; 1 mile S. 55 W. from Edenburg. Benj. Brundred owner. Jas R. Adams, contractor and tool dresser. J. A. McQuade, tool dresser. Lee Herron, driller. R. E. Deyoe, driller. Actual drilling time, after the casing was put in, 15 days. Average drilling 53 ft. per day. Best 24 hours' work 85 ft. The contractor asserts that this well was drilled with a remarkably small amount of fuel. Only 800 bushels of coal were used, while Brundred No. 3, with the same "crew,." consumed 1200 bushels and Brundred No. 2, 3800 bushels. The wells were near together and did not vary much in depth. A singular accident happened while drilling, caused by the melting of the "soft plug" in the crown sheet of the boiler, while covered by two "flush gauges " of water. This must have been owing to the formation, from the im- purities in the water, of a conical incrustation over the "soft plug," thus allowing it to heat up and melt. This well was not taken in charge until May 24, after the Haney No. 4 stopped drilling. It was then about 400 feet deep. The precise date of its com- mencement could not be ascertained, but it was probably about the 1st of May, as the workmen had been delayed by several fishing jobs, and encoun- tered a vertical crevice in the mountain sand which the drill followed for 60 or 70 feet, during which time no water could be kept in the hole, and conse- quently the work progressed very slowly. 222 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Column No. 2. Columbia Oil Company's Well No. 19, J. H. Riser farm ; f of a mile S. 20 E. from Eden burg. Columbia Oil Co., owners. John McCool, contractor. Mike McCool, driller. Jas. Kearney, driller. Barney McCool, tool dresser. Phil. Dougherty, tool dresser. Actual drilling time 36 days. Average drilling 31.8' per day. Best 24 hours' work 66 feet. Column No. 3. McGrew Bros'. Well No. 4, Mcllhatten farm ; 1 mile S. 50 E. from Eden- burg. McGrew Bros., owners. W. G. Southwick, contractor and driller. D. R. Blair, driller. John A Patterson, tool dresser. A. A. Bell, tool dresser. Actual drilling time 29i days. Average drilling 36 ft. per day. Best 24 hours' work 80 feet. 419. Elevations of a number of wells near Edenburg; incidentally taken by J. H. Carll while running the levels for the three wells measured by him. B. M. on maple, W. of RR., between State street and Penna. avenue, Edenburg, on authority of W. H. Smith, Chief Eng. of E. & S. RR. = 468.74' above A. V. RR. depot at Emlenton. = above ocean, 905' -f- 468.74' = 1373.74' Oak Shade Well No. 2, 1464 " " No. 5, 1341 " " No. 6, 1335 " " No. 8 1459 No. 10, 1450 Columbia Oil Co. Well No. 7, J. H. Riser farm, 1330 " " " No. 9, " " 1447 " " No. 10, " " 1342 " " No. 13, " " 13S1 " " " No. 14, " " 1330 " " " No. 18, " " 1358 No. 19, " " 1443 McGrew Bros. Well No. 1, Mcllhatten farm, 1347 " " No. 2, " 1316 ". No. 3, " " 1345 " " No. 4, " " 1316 Brundred Well No. 4, Capt. Kribb's farm, 1480 Haney " NO. 4, Bower's farm, 1486 Base of Ferrif. limestone near Columbia Well No. 19, .... 1445 " " " " church in Edenburg, 1429 Plate XXXIV. HI. 223 /Sketch map shelving the geographical positions of the three wells measured by JohnH.Ctnrll near Edenbwg in Clarion Cfounty. Scale 4OOOfeet*lInch. TRIANGLE ^BEAVER CITY Brundred JW4. Columbia ( Oil* C9 IX JW19. I P~ EOENBURC 224 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. CHAPTER XXII. One well near Bradford, accurately measured. (Illustrated by Plate XII.) 420. For the following, record and catalogue of speci- mens we are indebted to the courtesy of Messrs. C. W. Dennis & Co., and their drillers, who kindly consented to subject themselves to the annoyances attending frequent measurements and the preservation of sand pumpings, in order that the Survey might obtain a complete register of the rocks drilled through in the Bradford oil district. Dennis well No. 1, is located on a high and narrow ridge between the east and west branches of Tunangwant creek, about three quarters of a mile in a southwesterly direction from Bradford, in McKean county. 421. The Olean conglomerate caps the crest a short dis- tance south of the well, its base being only 115 feet above the well mouth. This record, therefore, furnishes a section showing nearly all the strata lying between the Conglomer- ate series and the Bradford oil sand. 422. To insure an authentic history of the well for the Survey, Mr. Arthur Hale was detailed to supervise it while drilling. From the time the tools were swung in the der- rick until the last sand-pumping came up, he devoted his whole attention to it ; and probably no well record was ever kept with greater care or more in detail than this one. A portion of nearly every sand-pumping was preserved, and the suite of specimens when bottled and arranged to a scale of 5^ as described in Chapt. XX, gives a fine exhibtion of the character of the measures drilled through. DENNIS OIL WELL. III. 225 423. The distance from Dennis Well No. 1 to the Clar- ion wells described in the last chapter, is about 65 miles, in a direction south 48 west. It cannot be expected, there- fore, that any very satisfactory comparison of the section of this well, as seen on Plate XII, can be made with the others there shown. A number of reliable sections are needed at intermediate points, before the horizon of the Venango oil group can be positively fixed at Bradford, or the place of the Bradford oil sand be satisfactorily deter- mined in Clarion county. From the imperfect records of wells scattered along this interval, it is evident that import- ant changes of structure occur, particularly in the rocks belonging to the Venango group and the mass above it, provisionally called, in this report, the Crawford shales. We are not able to recognize any one of the oil sands of Venango in the Dennis well, neither can we yet trace the red rocks seen in the section and exposed on many of the hillsides of McKean county, to a direct coalescence with the red bands in the oil wells of Warren, Venango, or Clarion. 424. As Mr. Asliburnef 's Reports on McKean and Forest counties will contain all the information obtained on these subjects, no attempt is here made to identify the Bradford rocks with those of Clarion ; and the Dennis well record and section are only published in this volume for the purpose of grouping together all the facts in relation to these ten measured wells, so that they may be convenient for reference hereafter. 15 III. 226 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. II II II INI II II II II II II II II II I-! II II II II -2^SS^S2||||fe2||g|2i WELL RECORD. III. 227 o 3 | II II II II II il II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II II I! II II II II II >> ....... ...**. ^. . . . . ' .... ...... Ml B -5 ::::::::: : ::::::::::::::: : :::::::: ::::::::: : :::::::::::::::; :::::::: I ilbi :!:::::::i:::::::::::::::l::::::!:f if ;; :!;! \----m^il :;;;:;?: | " ? S ? ' * :j ::::::: I : : : : :| ::::::::: a : : : : : :| : a I:::::::! :::: :| :::::::::! : : : : : :| : It :f| ::;; :A, ::::,:::::::: :J. ::::::*: 1| ts 1 -5" eoco ^S -^ w .-2 . _ .| . . .1 | ..-... 8 Ilil;i^^!^i : -r1 ; l^^l 6p2 ** ' &>s ' 'S - -^ ^ a 73 -H < IE.*''.! i ' .S ffl" ' 73 ' ' ^ ' ' ' "g ' ' ' irj ^'^5 S S ' * ilmll'! I il i 4 1 i :fl ; ! s - ::;: is 1|||9^| V&:& V-s ; - >'*ii : ^ll l i|l? ; S s f4l1:!ji?ffiillj : ^^i liiijSilil nil ?" "i 11 ii P--i^ilr-^'iViiiiiii^*iiIiii ia -i s~ JBOOMSaQS-CMaQGCM'DOScOOM^SSMWXwSoDScCQCiKSSSKKQQS jf.9 228 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. 426. A diary of eacli day 1 s drilling, in a tabular form, witJi notes of the drawbacks encountered by accident, &c. Dennis Well: Daily 1877. advance. Depth, Nov. 29, Conductor, 21 ft. previously set, 12 to 33 30, Thawing supply pipes, Dec. 1, Pulling tubing from water well, Sunday, 3, 34 to 67 4, 48 to 115 5, 60 to 175 6, '. 35 to 210 7, . 50to 260 8, Engine gives out, 31 to 291 Sunday, 50 to 341 10, . 49 to 390 11, 45 to 435 12, Putting in casing, 10 to 445 13, 101 to 546 14, 86 to 632 15, 66 to 698 Sunday, _ _ 17, 72 to 770 18, 68 to 838 19, 81 to 919 20, 34 to 953 21, 34 to 987 22, 34 to 1021 Sunday, 24, Broke jars and lost tools at 1056', 35 to 1056 Christmas, 26, Fishing, _ _ 27, Fishing, _ _ 28, Fishing, got tools out, minus bit, _ _ 29, Fishing, _ _ Sunday, _ _ 31, Fishing, _ _ 1878. Jaa. 1 , Fishing, pin broke above jars, 2, Fishing, _ 3, Cleared the hole, 7 to 1063 4, 7 to 1070 5, 15 to 1085 Sunday, _ _ 7, 15 to 1100 8, 16 to 1116 9, 9 to 1125 10, . 19 to 1144 11, 31 to 1175 12, . 39 to 1214 WELL KECOKD. III. 229 Sunday, _ _ 14, 40 to 1254 15, 33 to 1287 16, 30 to 1317 17, 29 to 1346 18, 55 to 1401 19 49 to 1450 Sunday, 21, 27 to 1477 22, 38 to 1515 23, . . 35 to 1550 24 , Bull wheel broke down, 12 to 1562 25, 21 to 1583 26 , Cable parted, 9.30, P. M., tools and 1400' rope in hole, 62 to 1645 Sunday, 28, Fishing, 29, 17 to 1662 30, Struck the oil sand at 1664', 9 to 1671 31, 14 to 1685 Feb. 1, 14 to 1699 2, 20 to 1719 Total time of drilling about 47 days. Average progress, about 36^ ft. per day. Sixty-six days from time drilling began to completion of well. Best 24 hours' work, 101 feet. Contractors, O. P. Boggs and L. B. Andrews. Drillers, Lester B. Andrews and J. W. Boggs. Tool dressers, H. W. Thomas and C. M. Andrews. 230 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. CHAPTER XXIII. Structure of the Venango Oil Sands. 427. In investigating any branch of physical science, as in all other logical processes of the human mind, true deductions depend upon and can only be drawn from cor- rect premises. The operations of many natural laws are so patent, and the results produced so plain, that there is no difficulty in following the chain of events up from cause to effect, or down from effect to cause. But there are other more mysterious and occult agencies, which have been and still are at work, and the effects of which we see, that are not so readily understood or explained. The mountains rise above us, but who can write an indisputable history of the precise manner of their construction ? the oil sands spread out beneath our feet, who can go down into the dark places of the deep, or back into the unknown ages of the abysmal past, and gather the facts for a special and detailed account of their deposition which shall carry the convic- tion of truthfulness to all who may read it ? In all subjects of this kind, where positive proofs cannot be readily adduced to sustain every position assumed, there is always room for great diversity of opinion for vague theories, bold hypotheses, bald assertions and all kinds of crude speculations. Still, there may usually be found a common sense way of arriving at a reasonable solution of these mathematically undemonstrable problems, by ap-' pealing to analogies in nature, where cause and effect are open to investigation and the conclusions reached by a study of them cannot be gainsayed. The manner in which the oil sands were deposited is one of these measurably uncertain problems, and one to which may be obtained a very erroneous solution, unless the premises upon which the deductions are based be previously well established. VENANGO OIL SANDS. III. 231 428. Many strange and fanciful theories have been advanced to account for the presence of the oil sands in the positions where they are found. They have been supposed by some to have been ejected through a portion of the super- strata by subterranean forces operating beneath them. They have been described and by reputable geologists, too on the one hand as fractured anticlinal arches, on the other as synclinal troughs, traversed by fissures and crevices con- taining salt water, oil and gas. They have been pictured as long sand-cores cast in grooves a few yards wide and running as straight as an arrow for miles as if some huge grooving-machine had passed over the bed rocks of shale in a northeast southwest direction, making an uniform furrow a few rods wide and 30 feet or more in depth in the center, which was in some unaccountable manner filled in at a latter day with coarse sand and gravel. We shall not stop to attempt to refute these baseless theories and speculations, for they are shown to be unten- able by the many facts givendn other parts of this report, but proceed at once to a consideration of the question involved in a study of the physical structure of the oil sands. 429. These questions are, (1) what dynamical agents were employed in the construction or building up of these rocks ? (2) what was the character of the materials used in the formative processes ? and (3), with such forces and such materials, what would be the probable structure of the rocks, judging from what we see under analogous circumstances at the present time t Fortunately we are not driven into a discussion at the outset, to prove in which grand division of the consecutive series of formations composing the earth crust the oil rocks are found. Lying as they do at the top of the Devonian system, or, perhaps, more properly speaking, in the transi- tion measures deposited while the Devonian was merging into the Carboniferous, their sedimentary origin cannot be disputed. The question thus narrows down at once to a consideration of those forces alone which have been energeti- 232 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. cally engaged in the past, and are still employed in the de- position and building up of this class of rocks. 430. Sedimentary rocks are defined by Lyell, as those which "are formed from materials thrown down from a state of suspension or solution in water." This definition, at first sight, seems hardly broad enough to cover the ponderous mechanical sediments of conglom- erate and sandstone composing the oil sands. But a second thought will vindicate its correctness, for even the largest pebble of the conglomerate must have been, temporarily at least, held in suspension by the energy of the transporting current as it was swept along rolling or ricochetting near the bottom. Sea-beaches of sand and gravel which were thrown up along shore by waves and winds, high above ordinary tide level, belong also as truly to the sedimentary series when sunken and covered with other stratified deposits as do the accumulations of finer materials at a distance from the shore which have been in a more literal sense, "held in a state of suspension in water." 431. If then the oil sands are of sedimentary origin, it therefore follows that they could only have been laid down in oceans, lakes, or rivers, beneath the water level, or at or near its surface. The forces employed in their construction could only have been those prevailing through aqueous conditions, and they are the same, and no others, that are possessed by water to-day, to wit : The buoyancy of the fluid, the trans- porting capacity of swift currents and the tremendous energy of rolling waves and dashing breakers. These forces, in connection with probable terrene oscillations causing al- terations in relative levels of land and water, are sufficient to account for all the phenomena discovered in studying the structure of the sedimentary strata. 432. What the component materials of the oil group are, may readily be ascertained by an inspection of the con- tents of sand-pumps, coming up from thousands of drill- holes, scattered throughout the oil district, and by an ex- amination of the exposed portion of the out cropping oil VEJSTANGO OIL SANDS. . III. 233 measures and the coal rocks above them, as seen in north- western Pennsylvania for both masses appear to be gen- erically the same, and have evidently been deposited under similar conditions. The materials vary from coarse conglomerates contain- ing quartz pebbles occasionally two inches in diameter, through all grades of conglomerates, down to pebble -sand, sandstone, sandy-shale, slate, and the most finally levigated mud rock or "soapstone" of the driller. 433. With such forces in action as are enumerated above, varying in energy abnormally, with winds, and tides, and storms ; affected by changes of levels, intensifying their powers at one time in this place, at another time in that, and with such heterogeneous materials to work upon, as the resultant strata indicate, we could only expect to find our oil-sands and their associates, (as indeed we do find them,) a variable mass of pebble, sand and shale beds, laid down locally with great irregularity and disorder, within the areas most sensibly affected by these changing conditions. 434. Water as a vehicle of transportation for substances of greater gravity than itself, is strong or weak in propor- tion to the velocity with which it moves. It follows, then, that the character of the sediment laid down is an index of the strength of the current depositing it. The oil-sands are frequently massive conglomerates, made up of the coarsest materials to be found in the for- mation to which they belong; the influence is unavoidable, therefore, that they owe their origin to the action of the strongest depositing currents prevailing at the period of their deposition. There are but three classes of currents that may be presumed to possess the adequate requisites for the performance of this kind of work, river currents, deep-sea currents and shore currents. Let us see which one of these has left the recognizable marks of its paternity upon the rocks in question. Flumatile Currents. 435. In attempting to refer these sandy deposits to flu- viatile currents, many objections present themselves, al- 234 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. though this view of the origin of their sedimentation is stoutly maintained by some experienced and well informed oil miners who claim to have closely watched the structure of the rock as interpreted by the drill and sand-pump. Allowing that a river current was competent to bring down sandy material, and deposit it in islands, sandbars and marginal banks along its borders at any given period of its history, how are the intermittent intervals to be accounted for, when line materials, only, were deposited above the sand-beds ? How are we to explain the strewing again and again of alternating sand and mud over the same areas, when the river beds meantime had filled up hundreds of feet and ample opportunity was afforded for the channel to mark out a new bed at each successive period ? Or for the wide diffusion of similarly arranged sediments over the whole of the Appalachian basin, for we cannot ignore the fact before stated, that the impress of the same mechanical agencies which fashioned the structure of the oil-strata, is stamped upon all the measures deposited above them. Those who advocate this view, looking only at the ar- rangement of the pebbly, or oil-producing portions of the sand rock, seem to lose sight of the fact that the synchronal equivalents of these pebble-pockets can be unmistakably traced in almost continuous, although variable, sheets of sandstone and sandy-shale, for miles in either direction transversely to the axes of their assumed river currents. Another argument against the river current theory, is found in the even assortment and systematic arrangement of the sands and pebbles composing the strata. There is no confusion in tlie strewing of the materials, no inter- mixture of angular, partly worn fragments of local rocks, as would necessarily be the case in sediments piled up by fiuviatile forces but everything betokens that the material has been subjected to the sifting, assorting, triturating pro- cesses, which are known to belong only to the action of sea waves. Deep Sea Currents. 436. The comportment of deep sea or off shore currents and the results of their actions, are not so open to observa- VENANGO OIL SANDS. III. 235 tion as are the like characteristics of fluviatile and littoral currents. We cannot therefore' judge so confidently by analogy concerning them. It appears quit(^ probable, how- ever, from what is known of ocean currents of the present day, that one having sufficient velocity to transport for long distances, such coarse materials as the oil sands in many cases are composed of, would keep its own channel clear, if indeed, it did not also wear away the floor upon which it moved ; and that the pebbles and sand carried along by the flow would only be thrown off along the margins of the submerged stream ; in which case, so long as the trans- porting forces occupied a fixed channel, geographically, two sand-bars would be formed, separated by a distance corre- sponding to the width of the central, rapid current, without any direct communication of sandy deposits between them. But if the position of the ocea^ stream was not constant if liable at one time to swing to the right, at another to the left this lateral movement might cause a partial re-arrange- ment of the sand-bars and a silting up of the old channels as the deposits accumulated. The hypothesis that the position of the current was de- pendent upon the geographical outlines of the sea basin through which it flowed ; that these outlines were subject to great variation by reason of changes in relative levels of land and water ; and that thus the current was made to swing at one time east, at another west ; strewing the materials over a broad area transverse to its axis sometimes going so far to the one side or the other, as to leave its previous sandy deposits on the side of its recession in comparatively quiet water during a period of time adequate for the accu- mulation of those finer sediments which are found inter- stratified between the sand beds might plausibly account for many of the phenomena discovered in the drilling of oil wells. But, if as before claimed in discussing the possible effects of fluviatile currents, there are good reasons for in- ferring that the oil rocks were deposited in a similar manner to the coal rocks that the laws of mechanical deposition which in after ages controlled the stratification of the latter, were then in force, and in like manner governed the sedi- 236 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CAELL. mentation of the former then it can hardly be admitted that they were deposited by deep sea currents ; for we have indisputable evidence that the coal rocks could not have been deposited under these conditions, but must have been laid down at or near water level. Other objections to this hypothesis are found in the dis- continuity of the sandy deposits along what would appear to be the margins of the ocean stream ; the intermingling of red shale with the oil sands at different horizons in dif- ferent localities, the splitting of the sands into two or more members going in a southeasterly direction from the main deposit, all seeming to indicate the effects of disturbing causes, due apparently to shore influences which could hardly be expected to affect a grand ocean- current capable of transporting and strewing such a ponderous deposit of pebbles and sand along its course, as is here found for a dis- tance of seventy-five miles at least. The methods of deposition still in doubt. 437. After a patient study of the geological structure of the oil region for years, before, as well as since the or- ganization of the present survey, with all the data collected ^by the survey at command and all the assistance that the researches of geologists and the practical operations of oil developments can give, I cannot butf* acknowledge that I am still unable to offer any well digested theory of the pre- cise methods by which the oil sands were deposited. To my mind there are many facts in connection with their stratigraphy, structure and geographical position, pointing strongly toward the probability of their being shore-line or sea-coast accumulations, and it will be noticed that this re- port is written throughout on the assumption that they were so formed. But the task of proving this is by no means an easy one. I shall not attempt it. The problems involved are so complex, the operations of nature so erratic, (paradoxically speaking,) because controlled by fixed laws which must produce, under certain circumstances, one class of results, and under other combinations, another ; and the physical forces and mechanical sediments we have to deal VENANGO OIL SANDS. III. 237 with in our investigations waves and currents, winds and tides, sand and mud are so variable in their actions and so mutable and prolific in specific results, that they all must be subjected to a closer and more comprehensive study than they have yet received, before the varying results of their combined action can be fully understood or satisfactorily explained. The aim in these pages is to put on record the facts as we find them, and when conclusions are drawn, as they sometimes necessarily must be, for the purpose of argument, or as a base to work out from, they must be considered as tentative only, and held subject to such modifications as future developments and discoveries may demand. With this acknowledgement of an inclination to view the oil group as virtually a shore deposit we will now review this method of deposition and see if it does not give results more in consonance with the observed phenomena exhibited in the structure of the oil-sands than either of those pre- viously considered. A new epocJi commencing with the Venango group. 438. The lowest member of the Venango oil group whether it be called third sand, or fourth, or fifth appears to mark the commencement of a new era in the history of that part of the Appalachian basin where it is found. Anterior to its formation, the conditions of the ocean bed geographically coincident with the trend of the group, seems to have re- mained comparatively constant and uniform for ages. Drill- ings from rocks lying from one to two thousand feet below it, disclose only such finely levigated sediments as would naturally be deposited in comparatively still, deep water, beyond the perturbing influences of surface or shore. There are abundant evidences in other parts of the coun- try to prove that during the time this immense deposit of underlying soft rocks was being formed here, several im- portant and widely-felt oscillations of the earth-crust oc- curred, resulting, in other localities, in alternations of sediments at this horizon, which exhibit, lithologically, marked constitutional differences, and are readily distin- 238 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. guishable one from the other by the genera and species of fossils found entombed in them. That these changes were not more definitely recorded in like lithological variations of the cotemporaneous strata beneath the oil rocks, (of the palreontological variations, of course we cannot speak, as fossils are seldom brought up in the sand-pump,) can only be accounted for on the presumption that the area over which the latter were afterwards superimposed, was at that time so far seaward and so deep below the water surface, as not to be sensibly affected by these great physical move- ments, which must have been broad and almost continental in their scope. So long as these broad oceanic conditions which had ob- tained for ages in this latitude, continued, so long the same kind of sediments resulted. But at this point of time (the commencement of the oil group) a new class of sediments come in ; coarse sand and gravel are now laid down over large areas, where previously only mud and occasionally are- naceous shales and slates had been deposited. A radical change evidently must here have taken place both in the physical conditions and geographical outlines of the great basin receiving the sediments, and the adjacent lands sup- plying the materials ; and it is to be remarked, too, that the new order of stratification here introduced sands and shales alternating continued' ever afterward during the deposition of all the oil and coal rocks, and until the final post carboniferous uplift. TJie base of tJie oil group appears to furnish a well de- fined plane of demarkation between the mud-rocks of an age of uniform conditions and the sandstones and shales of a period of mutability and unrest. Below this horizon everything appears to be of a deep-sea, still-water type ; above it, strong transporting currents, shifting in position and level, and locally intermittent or variable in action, have inscribed the evidences of their presence, and left us the witnesses of their achievements, in irregularly alternating strata of conglomerate, sandstone, and shale, all the way up to and through the coal measures. VENANGO OIL SAKDS. III. 239 Possible elevation of sea-bottom above water level. 439. We may reasonably infer that the crust of the earth has always been rugose ; that inequalities both of sea-bottom and dry land have existed ever since the Azoic rocks first raised their crests above the universal "waters of the great deep." If, then, in after times, a broad and gradual uplift of the bed of the old Devonian ocean should have occurred, say at or near the close of the Chemung period, it would in all probability have brought up to day- light large tracts of the uneven sea-bottom, particularly those portions of it adjacent to the shoaling shores ; and who knows but that some islands might have appeared also, while the ancient sub-marine valleys remained submerged ? New shore lines would thus be formed, new currents established, new sources of sedimentary supplies become available. The emerging land would be simply a broad stretch of sea-bottom, composed of mud and fine sand, which for hundreds of feet in depth had not yet been sub- jected to the proper conditions of pressure, heat and desic- cation to become concreted into rock. Under these circumstances we may suppose that a system of drainage would soon inscribe its outlines upon the newly formed land, bringing down to the sea immense volumes of mud from the flats and sand from the old beaches, to be transported, assorted, and deposited in the basin, according to the direction of the currents and quality of materials. The new shore-lines, composed of soft and easily abraded mud banks not yet adjusted to the sweep of ocean currents or accustomed to the lash of waves, were subjected, no doubt, to numerous transformations, while the relations of land and water were being established on a natural basis ; and these transformations were multiplied and complicated by the varying contour of the upland and by the unequal shrinkage, vertically, of the newly raised measures, as they began to feel the physical effects of their altered position the amount of shrinkage depending in a great measure on the position of the beds affected by it, and the quality of the materials locally composing them. Thus, for instance, if one part of a coast line, backed by 240 III. EEPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. a stable and rather abrupt mainland, so situated in relation to the currents as to receive and retain the sandy accumula- tions swept along in front of it, should meantime slowly and steadily sink, might not a deposit of sand pile up in an unbroken mass over a restricted area, forming, as at Triumph, in Warren county, 120 feet of Third sand, while at another point, say in Butler county, an unequal and ir- regular rate of shrinkage and subsidence, along a coast line not yet established in harmony with the currents, (but to which they were obliged, temporarily, to conform until they could work out their own natural boundaries,) assisted by a low sloping shore which the waves were incessantly im- pinging upon and cutting away, and where a few feet of subsidence might let the waters sweep inland for miles, cause a similar volume of wave-washed sand to be laid down in several beds and spread it out transversely for miles over the sinking and corroding shore, thus forming successively the Fourth and Third and Stray sands of that district, w T hich altogether occupy only about the same vertical space that the solid Third sand does at Triumph. Alternating cJianges in relative levels of land and water. 440. There seems to be no plausible way of accounting for the alternations of sandstones and shales piled up one over the other all through the oil and coal measures, except on the hypothesis that many changes in the relative levels of land and water occurred during the periods in which these rocks were being deposited. Whether these changes were caused solely by the rising or sinking of the land while the ocean level remained constant, or whether the ocean level has been periodically affected by cosmic causes as some astronomers and geologists have claimed, or has fluctuated at different times by reason of sub-marine eleva- tions or depressions of large tracts of its deep water bed in distant parts of the globe, is immaterial to our discussion. The effect, if the oscillations were uniform throughout the oil district would be the same in either case ; we may, there- fore, speak as if it were only the land levels that changed. The evidences of these elevations and depressions as re- VENANGO OIL SANDS. III. 241 corded in the rocks, indicate that they were quite irregular both as to the periods of their occurrence and the methods of their accomplishment. Sometimes they appear to have been slow, uniform and inconsiderable in vertical range, making but slight alterations in relative positions of sea and land ; at others quick and grand rising or falling hun- dreds of feet at a throe, and completely obliterating or con- fusedly obscuring all traces of their previously existing geo- graphical relations. In the former case they seem to have occurred consecutively in regularly alternating sequence, in the latter they were intermittent being interrupted by long periods of comparative repose. By this oscillating method of deposition it is clearly to be seen that we should have two lines of shore deposits ; one made when the land was at its highest elevation, the lower shore-line along the base of the recently uplifted mainland ; the other made when the land was at its lowest level, the upper shore-line, laid down along the face of the sunken mainland hills 100', 500' or 1000' as the case might be, above the former beach according to the amount of depression suffered by the land. It is also evident that so long as these oscillations continued, no deposits could be permanently laid down, except those that remained below the water at its lowest stages, for all the upper, inland de- posits would be exposed to sub-aerial erosion whenever a recession of the waters occurred. In this way an unlimited supply of loose materials derived from these unconsolidated upland deposits was always at command though the con- stant action of inflowing streams, for the rapid building up of the permanent formations at low water levels. There can be little doubt that our oil sands are simply the re-arranged materials of otlier ancient sliore deposits, which have been wrought over many times in this manner, without having been previously consolidated into rock. The pebbles and sand have not been brought down direct from their place of origin, broken up, triturated, assorted and deposited where we now find them, by the currents of a single period ; but they have traveled by stages, as it were, 16 III. 242 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHJT F- CARLL. and made many a halt along the sandy beac7tes of previ- ously existing seas. We said above that no permanent deposit could be laid down except at low water level, but it may have happened that some portions of the mountain or high water beaches were so situated in relation to the agencies of sub-aerial erosion as to escape destruction ; in which case patches of them might remain almost intact during the interval re- quired for filling up the basin below, and when by subsi- dence they were brought down to the horizon of low .water or permanent deposits they might be incorporated with' very little alteration into the then forming strata. Where such an occurrence happened, there would be an apparent exception to the well established geological rule that the sequence of sedimentation is always upward, from the older to the newer; and if the rocks chanced to carry fossils purely distinctive of their age some confusion, palseontologically might arise, for here would be an older rock, lying in the horizon of the new and apparently stratigraphically the same as those of the horizon in which it was found. It seems quite probable that a composite stratification of this kind has occurred in several places in northwestern Pennsylvania, where occasional beds of massive sandstone and conglomerate are found, which cannot be correlated with any of the continuous sand-belts of the country. They have every appearance of being nothing more than fragmentary patches the isolated remnants of some old mountain beach. Structural variations in sandrock due to varying physi- cal agencies of deposition. 441. The structure of a sandrock formed under the con- ditions above alluded to, would depend very much upon the details of the movements accompanying the changing levels of land and sea whether the oscillations were regu- lar or intermittent as to time, quick or slow as to motion, great or small as to vertical range. Let us see what some possible combinations of these several circumstances would result in. VENAKGO OIL SANDS. III. 243 First, suppose the levels to have remained constant, or to have varied only a few feet for a long period. Where the conditions were favorable, long stretches of sandy beaches have accumulated, with bays in many places be- tween them and the main land, as seen at the present day all along our ocean coasts. Deltas have formed at the con- fluence of rivers with ocean. The mechanical sediments have been sifted and assorted, arranged and re-arranged by tides and currents, by winds and storms, and perhaps they have been further wrought upon, also, by tidal waves, oc- casioned by earthquakes at a distance ; but the materials are all arranged in lines, rudely parallel with the average trend of the shore or of the currents depositing them. If now a rapid and considerable subsidence of the land occurs allowing the ocean to flow far inland, and this be followed by another period of comparative rest, the old sea-beaches will be deeply covered with water, and receive above them the off-shore muddy deposits brought into the newly out- lined basin, without involving any material change in their position or structure, except, perhaps, a leveling off of some of the uneven surfaces as the rising waters sweep over them. The buried deposit might be described as consisting of (I) a rather narrow and somewhat continuous main-belt of sand, containing lenticular patches of coarse grave], flanked seaward by finer and more uniform sand, gradually becom- ing argillaceous and finally merging into shale ; (2) sand- bars at the river mouths containing more or less coarse material laid down in lines corresponding to the direction of the currents ; (3) occasional coarse sandy deposits of the same character as the main belt, formed along the currents of the inlets, outlets, and channel- ways of the shallow land- locked bays and estuaries, and perhaps, also, in some places adjacent to the upland shores. This structure seems to correspond with what the drill has developed in connection with the lowest or green oil member of the Venango group. For another example, suppose the land to be slowly ris- ing. The sandy beaches are drawn out and widened along 244 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. the gently sloping shore, as the waters recede, leaving long parallel lines of hills and ridges exposed to the action of atmospheric agencies, ponds with connecting drains are formed among them ; these depressions are occasionally overflowed by unusually high tides, and become the re- ceptacles for seaweed, mud and the wind- driven sand and dust of the beach which eventually accumulate to a con- siderable thickness; a rise of say thirty feet along a shore of this character, sloping seaward at the rate of eight or ten feet per mile, might thus widen out one of these beaches three or four miles. Now let the motion be reversed and the waters again slowly encroach upon the land. The last made sand ridge is driven back land- ward, filling up all the inequalities of the beach, covering the mud deposits in pond and creek with sand, and the water line sweeping onward leaves behind it a perfectly even floor to receive the muddy deep-water deposits, when it has sunken to a suffi- cient depth to retain them. The structure of this rock would be similar to that of the chief oil producing rock of Clarion county, the third sand belt of Butler, and the stray sand of the old Venango district. The sand or pebble drifts lie in approximately parallel belts in some places over wide areas, they are irregular in thickness, sometimes in one member and sometimes in two or more, the splitting being occasioned, we may suppose, by the mud deposits in pond and creek which were subse- quently covered with sand. A well drilled through one of the original sand hills finds a continuous sandrock, Avhile one driven down through an old pond site encounters a vari- able sand with "mud veins" and interstratified shales. Many other possible and very probable combinations of the varying agencies of sedimentary deposition might be imagined, but combine them as we may and study their effects under every possible combination as best we can, and still we shall find many extraordinary features in the struc- ture of the oil sands which might be as plausibly accounted for under the deep sea-current hypothesis as by the shore- line theory; CHAPTER XXIV. Crevices in the Sandrock. Are they essential to a paying oil well ? 442. During the early years of petroleum development, the theory of oil rock crevices obtained great currency, not only among well-drillers and well-owners, but also among geologists, who examined and reported upon the the underground structure of the oil country. It was the popular belief that a fissure must be struck in the oil sand or a well would be a failure. Entertaining this idea, the driller, upon reaching the sand, was constantly on the alert to find a crevice ; and if he happened to get a good well, he always remembered that at a certain spot the drill dropped, and his judgment of the distance it fell would now, of course, be influenced somewhat by the production of the well. As a consequence, we have had crevices reported all the way from one inch to three feet in depth. It was not to be wondered at, perhaps, if the driller did find crevices, when the geologist told him they ought to be there and his employer considered them essential to a paying well. Nei- ther was it surprising that those who had never seen an oil well should freely accept the opinions of those who were supposed to understand the subject thoroughly. 443. Crevice searcher. The crevice furor finally became so prevalent that an instrument was devised and patented, called a "crevice searcher." It was lowered into a well by means of poles like sucker-rods, and designed to indi- cate how many, where located, and how deep were the crevices in the oil sands. The cylindrical body of the "searcher," which was about two feet long, nearly filled the bore-hole. In lowering it, whenever a crevice was reached a little finger about an inch long,, (which was kept pressed out against the wall of the well by a spring) snapped out into the opening and checked the downward (245 III.) 246 III. KEPOKT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. movement. Then by raising the rods until the finger struck the top of the crevice, its exact measurement could be ob- tained. When this was done and the depth recorded, the finger was drawn back by a cord running up along the rods to the well mouth, thus unlocking the instrument from the crevice and allowing it to be lowered until another one was found. This was an excellent device for measuring the depth of a well, for the rods were accurately marked in feet and inches, and there could be no stretch or slack to mislead, as in the case of measurements made by rope or wire. For several years it must have been the source of considerable revenue to its owners, as it was largely employed at a charge of thirty dollars for an insertion, to ascertain the most favorable point at which to explode a torpedo, when the original driller's record had been lost or could not be relied upon. The operators of the machine became so pro- ficient in its use that they claimed to be able to tell the difference between shale, slate and sandstone, by the sound and jar communicated through the rods at the well mouth, as the finger scratched against the changing strata in de- scending. But however this may have been, it is plainly seen that the snapping out of a catch or finger into a re- cess in the well-wall was no proof of a crevice. A rough spot occasioned by a spalling of the rock while drilling, would allow the catch to comport itself precisely as it would in a crevice. There was nothing to show whether the stoppage was occasioned by a crevice or a rough spot ; whether the cavity extended half an inch back from the wall, or half a mile. Since the introduction of the plan of drilling wells dry, that is through large casing which prevents the surface waters from entering the hole, this device has gone into dis- use. Since that time too, crevices are not so much talked about. This method of drilling enables the well-borer to tell just how his work advances, for there is no water in the hole to buoy up and obscure the action of the tools, or to hold back the gas and oil when their reservoirs are pen- .etrated. And now, the driller, having discovered that large CREVICES IN THE SANDROCK. III. 247 wells can be obtained in porous sandstone without any discoverable fissures, will tell you that crevices in the oil rocks, especially where they lie deep below the surface, are of rare occurrence, and may be considered as exceptions to the general rule. Crevices in the Upper Sands. 444. But this subject of fissures and crevices should not be treated flippantly or dismissed summarily, whatever may have been the extreme notions of fifteen years ago. It demands a careful consideration. That crevices or verti- cal fissures do ramify through all our surface sandstones, is plainly manifest. We see them in every quarry that is opened, in nearly every water- well that is blasted into sand- rock. TTiey are encountered in many oil wells where a sand- rock lies near the surface, particularly where shafts are located on the top of an escarpment along a stream, or on a hog-back between two ravines, and are often the fruitful source of a great deal of annoyance and expense to the well sinker. They are seldom found to be absolutely ver- tical ; their walls may stand apart a few inches or a foot or more ; their faces are often oxydized and hardened almost like iron ; where the auger strikes into one, it will glance and follow the lead in spite of the most judicious manage- ment of the workmen, and result in a "crooked hole." Sometimes torpedoes are exploded in the crevice in hopes of fracturing the face of the rock, so that the hole may be straightened. Large quantities of broken stone are then thrown in and rammed down to fill the hole and crevice to the top of the rock where the trouble occurs ; wings or guides are put on tho tools to keep them plumb and steady in the perfect hole above ; but all to no purpose the drill still glances and follows the inclined face of the rock. The only remedy now is to abandon the shaft, move the rig a few feet, and commence anew. In all probability no diffi- culty whatever will be experienced in sinking the second well through the creviced rock. 445. Smaller crevices containing fresh water are fre- 248 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOIIX F. CARLL. quently found below the surface or bluff sand. As the Mountain sand group is generally composed of several arenaceous and sometimes pebbly bands, interstratified with slates and shales, the drill may penetrate a water- crevice in an upper stratum, and afterwards another in a lower. If the lower one be connected with a free outlet, the water from the upper one falls down and is carried off by it, thus draining the upper rock and creating a waterfall in the well which can be plainly heard in the derrick and clearly seen by lowering a candle in the hole. Many in- stances have occurred where valuable never failing springs and wells fed from an upper stratum, have been almost in- stantly dried up and ruined by the striking of a lower crevice of this kind in an oil well in the neighborhood. It is not always, however, the nearest boring that taps a spring or well, but the one that happens to strike the same water lead in the rock. The points of interference are some- times one hundred rods apart. 446. In every new oil development on high ground, one of the first effects noticed is a diminution in quantity or a total failure of the normal water supply in springs and wells. The shallow wells of the country, dug only to the first sand beneath the surface, soon fail, and a permanent supply of water can now be obtained only from sandrocks lying at a lower horizon. It then becomes necessary also to drill wells to furnish the water required for the pur- poses of steam. These holes are drilled in the derrick, about three feet from the oil well and are usually from 200 to 300 feet deep, (see Plate XIV.) They sometimes go dry, however, for when the deep oil hole is opened below the level of the sandrock supplying them with water, the fluid may flow into it, follow on down and pass out through a lower rock as mentioned above. The remedy in such cases is to drill the water well doep into the slates or shales be- low the sandrock so that it may have a pocket to collect and hold the water coming into it. There are seldom any fissures or water courses in these compact shales to furnish a communication from one well to the other, although they are generally only about three feet apart. CREVICES JN THE SANDROCK. III. 249 447. Below the fresh water-bearing rocks the crevices are quite infrequent and smaller, as a general rule. Still there appear to be localities, where, judging from the heavy flows of salt water, quite extensive fissures exist in some of the lower sandstones, as at Pittsburgh, Sharpsburg and other places which might be mentioned. When the flow of salt water is not so copious and is accompanied by a large amount of gas, it may be inferred that there are sufficient avenues for its inflow through the porous sandstone with- out requiring the aid of crevices. Occasional fissures in tlie oil sands, but no communication between the different members of the group. 448. In the oil rocJcs it seems quite probable that in some localities and under certain conditions, fissures do exist. Several instances have been known where one oil well interfered with another in such a way that the accom- panying phenomena could not be satisfactorily explained on any other hypothesis. But these occurrences are com- paratively rare, and may be said to be confined to isolated areas of the rocks. The principal points where these crev- ices are reported, are in the Venango district, where the drilling is the shallowest ; at Tidioute, in Warren county, the rock lying about 100 feet below the river ; on Oil creek, depth about 450 feet ; near Franklin (in First sand), from 200 feet to 300 feet. In the hill wells of Venango district, which are from 800' to 900' deep, and in the 1500' wells of Butler county, crevices in the oil rocks are very seldom re- ported, and when they are there is always a shadow of doubt resting upon the authenticity of the record. 449. It is also quite apparent that the fissures belonging to one stratum or member of a sandstone group are not connected with those of another stratum above or below it. For instance, in the vicinity of the Noble well, on Oil creek, where these connecting crevices seem undoubtedly to exist, as shown by the action of the wells, confirmed also by the drillers' report of crevices struck while drilling, the stray Third sand and regular Third sand are separated by only about twenty feet of shaly slates; still the Third sand 250 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. produces the typical green oil, and the Stray, (when pro- ductive), the typical black oil, showing quite conclusively that there can be no direct crevice connection between the two strata. Crevices more numerous in the upper sands than in the lower. 450 Reviewing the subject, then, we find the upper sandstones much more frequently and extensively fissured than the lower ones, and containing fresh water ; the mid- dle series occasionally fractured and producing salt water ; the lower series seldom fractured, and containing salt water and oil. But the terms upper, middle, and lower, are not fixed terms, as here applied. The upper sandstones of Butler county have no existence in the high Pleasantville district of Venango county ; the upper sandstones of Pleasantville are wanting in the valley wells at Tidioute, in Warren county. This is due to the gradual rise of the whole mass of rocks going northeast from Butler, by which the higher strata crop out successively and terminate, one after the other, on the hilltops in that direction. As a result of this, the upper or fresh water rocks at Tidioute embrace all the measures from the Second Mount- ain sand, capping the hilltops, down to and including the First oil sand, while in Butler county these strata bear only salt water, and in intermediate places the bottom of the fresh water series is in some cases the Second Mountain sand, and in others the Pithole grit. The lower fresh water sands of Tidioute yield salt water at Pleasantville, and going higher up in the series the Pleasantville fresh water sands are in turn found to be charged with salt water in Butler and Clarion. Thus we see that these sandstones, which all, no doubt, at some time contained salt water, have experienced radical changes in their water-bearing at- tributes, according to the several conditions in which they have been placed since their uplift from the ocean bed. The facts recited above point plainly to the conclusion that the surface sandstones have been more fractured and CREVICES IN THE SANDROCK. III. 251 disturbed than those lying at a greater depth; and that wherever the position of a bed offers an opportunity for it to be affected by atmospheric agencies, or traversed by water from the surface, it has been so thoroughly washed by the percolation of rain ; water that no trace remains of the saline materials it formerly contained. Porous Sandstone as a reservoir and channel for large flows of oil. 451. Some oil producers stoutly maintain that a flow- ing well of one, two, or three thousand barrels per day can- not be obtained unless a crevice is struck ; that a sandrock, however porous it may be, cannot afford a sufficient chan- nel for so large a quantity of fluid to come into a well. If we examine a piece of oil rock brought up after a tor- pedo has been exploded, or some of the Third sandstone taken by hand from the stratum in place and laid open to view at the bottom of the large oil-shaft sunk by blasting, at Tidioute, we shall find it simply a conglomerate of peb- bles seldom larger than grains of wheat, loosely held to- gether in a sandy matrix. At first sight it hardly seems possible for any large quantity of oil to pass into a well through the interstices between the pebbles, but experi- ments made in a crude way on a number of pieces of this oil rock, prove quite conclusively that it is capable of ab- sorbing and holding from one-fifteenth to one-tenth of its own bulk of water or oil,' this, too, when the pores of the rock are more or less clogged with residuum from the oil previously held by it, and without its being charged under pressure. 452. The diameter of an ordinary oil well being 5" the circumference of the circle is therefore 17 T Va inches and the area of its cross section 23 T Va square inches. Suppose the interspaces of the oil rock to amount in proportion to its whole bulk, to only one-seventeenth, instead of one-fif- teenth, or one-tenth, as we have ascertained it to be in some cases ; then for every inch of depth drilled in an oil sand, by which 17 T 2 c 8 s square inches of its surface is laid bare, (say- ing nothing about the bottom area of the hole,) we shall 252 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F CARLL. have at least one square inch of oil ducts, venting into the well. A depth then of 23 T y ff inches would give 23 T 7 A square inches as the combined area of the inflowing oil leads, and this equals the full capacity of the 5 inch hole. In other words the aggregate sum of the -pores or interspaces of a sandrock of this kind, as exposed in the walls of a well of 5f inches diameter, is equivalent to the area of an open crevice one inch wide, extending from top to bottom of the gravel bed, whatever its thickness may be. No account is here made of the friction encountered by the oil in passing through the thousands of pores in the sandstone, nor of the compensating force of gas impelling the oil under a tremendous pressure through them. This imperfect calculation is not intended to show just how much oil a porous rock could deliver, but simply to exhibit the possibilities of a flow through and from it, equal even to the full capacity of the well-bore. When there is from five to ten feet of this kind of rock to drill through, it can readily be seen that a flow of three or four thousand barrels per day might easily be maintained through the operation of these numerous oil leads, making ample allow- ance for friction and all other contingencies, without requir- ing the aid of crevices to convey the oil into the well. 453. There are others who imagine that the oil lies in a series of lakes or caverns connected together by under- ground streams and sometimes receiving supplies from long distances. Otherwise, they affirm, individual wells could not produce so largely as some have done, nor could farms and districts have such an immense amount of oil stored beneath them as has been extracted from some localities, particularly along Oil creek. In answer to this idea we append a few figures below, which will afford the means of readily calculating the pos- sible capacity of a porous sandstone, and any one who will take the trouble to study and apply them will perceive that " lakes of oil" may be stored in a sandstone 30', 50' or 100' in thickness without the intervention of extensive caverns or fissures. CREVICES IN THE SAKDROCK. III. 253 Superficial quantities. 43.560 square feet in an acre. 27.878.400 square feet in a square mile. 6.272.640 square inches in an acre. 4.014.489.600 square inches in a square mile. Cubical quantities. 9.702 cubic inches in a barrel of 42 gallons. Production of oil per acre. 646 &% barrels if the sheet of oil be 1 inch deep. 1293 T o D % " " 2 4.997^ " 7rffr " Production of oil per square mile. 414.779$}, barrels if the sheet of oil be 1 inch deep. 827.559$% " " " 2 " 1.241.338^ " " 3 3.198.515^ " " 7rf& 454. We have said above that experiments made in a crude way indicate that an oil sand may contain as much as one tenth of its bulk in oil. There can be little doubt, how- ever, that a good rock in its normal condition and under pressure might hold an equivalent of one-eighth. This would be equal to a solid sheet of oil one and a half inches in thickness in every vertical foot of good oil sand, or nearly 1000 barrels per acre. On Oil creek there is gen- erally from 30' to 50' of Third sand, and also from 15' to 30' of Stray sand, both locally producing oil. Of this total, suppose only 15' is good oil-bearing pebble ; we shall then have a producing capacity of 15,000 barrels per acre, or 9,600,000 barrels per square mile, which is adequate to the requirements of the most exceptional cases known. Nothing need be said of small wells and moderately pro- ductive districts, for there is no difficulty whatever in dis- covering ample storage-room in porous sandstones of very inferior quality for all the oil that may be obtained from them. 455. The above remarks having been confined exclu- sively to the Venango Oil Group and strata above it, the 254 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. question may be asked, do the same conditions exist in the Warren and Bradford oil-fields ? To a certain extent they undoubtedly do. But nearly all the valleys of the last named sections are cut down into the Chemung formation ; consequently the sandstones of the Lower District only appear in the high land and ridges of the Upper Dis- trict, and those which are the most prominent belong prin- cipally to the Mountain sand series. These form "rock cities" on the hilltops, are creviced and broken in a man- ner similar to those of Venango and Butler, and frequently perplex the driller with similar difficulties. So far, there is no point of difference to be noted. But the character- istics of the principal oil-producing sands of the three dis- tricts are entirely dissimilar. The Venango Third sand is a coarse pebble-rock associated with a clean white sand ; the ''Warren Third sand" is fine-grained, bluish-grey, and somewhat muddy; the "Bradford Third sand" is of medium grain, friable, but sometimes almost floury and of a decided brown or snuff color. Still, while these sands differ so notably in composition, texture and color, and while they differ also in the charac- ter and color of the oils produced, there is nothing in the action of the wells, as far as I can discover, to warrant the inference that crevices are more frequent in one stratum than another. 456. But the measures above the Warren and Brad- ford "Third sands" have produced considerable "shale or slush oil," which may perhaps be attributed to a fissured condition of these rocks. At North Warren oil is obtained irregularly in shale or sandstone, and at very variable depths ; one well may find it in shale at 300 feet, the next one in sandstone at 600 feet, and others in the immediate vicinity at almost any inter- mediate point. The character of the shales, the variability of the points of inflow, and the action of the wells, which start off at the rate of two or three hundred barrels per day and soon dwindle down to ten barrels, lead to the in- ference that the oil lies in crevices. As far as known, how- ever, these conditions exist over but a limited area, and CREVICES IN THE SAND ROCK. III. 255 are undoubtedly due to comparative^ local causes, not at present sufficiently understood to be satisfactorily ex- plained. 457. In the Bradford district "slush oil" is also ob- tained in some localities under conditions very similar to those above described, and it is furthermore claimed that on the "Tuna flats," in the neighborhood of State line, wells but a few rods apart strike oil in rocks below the " Third sand" at unequal distances, and in such an un- usual manner that the occurrence can only be accounted for on the supposition that the rocks at that horizon and in that locality are fissured in an exceptionable manner. 256 III. HEPOItT OF PROGRESS. JOIIX F. CAULL. CHAPTER XXV. (Illustrated by Plate XXXV.) '''Flooded territory.' 1 '' How water invades the sandrock to the exclusion of oil and gas. A review of some of the circumstances attending its occurrence. 458. As a general rule, the first oil wells in a prolific district produce but little salt water with the oil, unless they are located in shallow territory where the oil rock lies in such a position as to be somewhat affected by communica- tion with the surface. The movement of water through the oil sands, called "flooding" is an abnormal condition following development, and occurs only after the oil has been partially exhausted from the rock. It may always be attributed to the letting down of surface water through abandoned well-shafts no precautions having been taken when wells were dismantled, to effectually shut off all com- munication between the upper, or water bearing rocks, and the oil sands ; either by filling up the lower part of deserted wells with sand and sediment ; or by inserting wooden plugs in the borings, below the horizon of fresh water veins. Now as the partial drainage of a district must first be ac- complished before it can suffer from the effects of flooding, and as a structure of sandrock which facilitates a rapid delivery of oil affords a correspondingly free medium for the reception and onward movement of water, we may very properly in a consideration of the subject of flooding, com- mence with a "pool" of oil in its normal state and follow it through all of its changes until finally invaded and de- stroyed by water. 459. The word "pool" has been rather arbitrarily pressed into service in this connection. It is an oil miner's term intended to convey the idea of a body of oil stored in the porous portions of a sandrock and practically independ- FLOODED TERRITORY. III. 257 enfc of other pools or deposits of the same character : thus he speaks of the Pithole pool, the Cashup pool, the Church run pool, &c. It is also used in a more restricted sense to designate rich spots in the same district which may have some slight connection with each other as the United States well pool ; the Homestead well pool ; the Burtis well pool all near together and within the great Pithole pool, but having small wells or dry holes between them. 460. It is a fact well established by experience, that the pioneer wells of any district, if drilled within the possible limits of a productive pool, are more certain to prove re- munerative than those put down at a later date after the field has been fairly developed although the latter may be sunken through a sandstone of better quality than the for- mer ; and the reason of this is obvious if our theory of the physical structure of the oil sand be correct. Suppose a lenticular deposit of pebble rock stored with oil, to lie embeded in fine argillaceous and almost imper- vious sandstone which completely isolates it from other de- posits of similar character lying perhaps but a short dis- tance from it. In this shape it is practically an hermetically sealed oil tank full of oil and gas, under a tension not sus- ceptible of precise calculation, but which, judging from the effects observed when the pool is tapped, may be 300 pounds or more to the square inch. The first well piercing this deposit, although it may only touch the extreme thin edge of it, will have a large reservoir to draw from, and a tremend- ous pressure of gas to assist and augment its delivery ; whereas one put down after the bulk of oil has been ex- tracted and the pressure reduced to two or three atmos- pheres, receives but sluggish streams of oil and feeble gas aid, even if it passes through a much greater thickness of oil bearing rock, and cannot therefore yield so largely. Those who still adhere to the old notions of crevices and fissures ramifying through all the measures, with free circu- lation of fluids through them, will object to this hypothesis of sealed reservoirs. But we submit that in view of the many facts cited in these pages, which harmonize with such a conclusion, the inference that they do exist, practically, 17 III. 258 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. is not an unreasonable one, even if the proofs of it do not amount to actual demonstration. 461. Geologically speaking as to time, there is no doubt a slow process of circulation through all the measures ; for nature is ever active and on the alert to restore any disturb- ance of an equilibrium. But practically, during the short time they are being drained, the oil pools are sealed reser- voirs. A thoroughly drilled district partially deprived of its oil and relieved from excessive gas pressure, will undoubtedly be again supplied and filled with water, oil, or gas from the contiguous rocks, until the equilibrium is restored for "nature abhors a vacuum" but this re-filling would be a slow process, were it not for numerous free passages opened by the drill, through which surface water may find access into the oil rock. The manner in which the intruding cur- rents deport themselves, will be seen to be, as we proceed, a strong argument in favor of the inferred discontinuity and isolation of the pebble deposits of different districts. 462. The first wells to tap a new pool of oil have more vitality than those which follow, but these wells do not al- ways happen to be on the best part of the rock. For in- stance, National well No, 1, situated within a few rods of No. 2, (II, No. 57.) was struck in February, 1866. It was very near the northwesterly edge of a large and well stored pool, and passed through rather an inferior oil rock, as com- pared with that afterwards found on the axis of the belt. Still it had a sufficiently free connection with the supply- ing reservoir to furnish a delivery of about 85 barrels per day, and it maintained its production with wonderful con- stancy for two years, having only declined to about 60 bar- rels in that time. In the summer of 1868 wells were drilled on the center of the deposit from which it had been deriv- ing its supply. Some of these wells produced as much as 150 barrels per day. The effect on the National was im- mediately apparent. Its production dropped off rapidly and dwindled down to 10 barrels or less per day. 463. Rock well No. 1, (II, No. 359,) in the same neigh- borhood, but on the opposite (south) side of the pool, had FLOODED TEREITORY. III. 259 a similar history although it never was so large a producer as the National. A few rods north of National No. 1, a fine, close rock with very little oil was obtained in drilling other wells. In wells a few rods south of Rock well similar features pre- vailed, but a number of other pools, not directly connected with this one came in at intervals to the southeast between it and Pithole city. 464. Harmonial well No. 1, (II, No. 24,) was on the thinning northerly edge of the Pleasantville belt. The main body of oil and the best sandrock as afterwards demon- strated, lay to the south. It started with a small yield and at the end of a fortnight was pumping about 30 barrels per day. Gradually increasing its production, as if en- larging and cleaning out the passages leading into the sup- plying reservoir, it finally commenced to flow and ran up to 125 barrels, where it remained until wells of larger flow were drilled on the center of the belt and relieved the gas pressure, when pumping had to be resumed. After this it soon fell down to an unremunerative production and was abandoned. 465. Nettleton wett No. 1, (II, No. 8,) another edge well furnishes a similar history. It maintained a comparatively steady production for two years, but quickly succumbed when the center of the pool was attacked. 466. Holmes and Brown well No. 1, GasTiup, (II, No. 981,) may be referred to as another example of the com- portment of these edge wells. 467. Scores of similar references could be ffiven, but these are ample to show that where direct communication does exist through the porous sand rock or through crevices it is soon made manifest in the action of the wells. There- fore the inference is, that if the oil deposits do not lie in practically disconnected pools as above suggested, we should not from year to year find new oil fields within short dis- tances of exhausted areas, lying under a normal pressure of gas and not having been sensibly affected in any manner by the depletion of contiguous territory. If but a small communication exist between two reser- 260 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. voirs each filled with oil and gas under a pressure of from 100 to 300 fcs. to the square inch, and the pressure in one of them be reduced to a point within three pounds of an absolute vacuum, (as has been done by the agency of gas pumps at Triumph in Warren county and elsewhere,) it would seem that at least a partial restoration of an equi- librium ought to be effected within two or three years' time, even if a considerable distance intervened between them. 468. Pithole was practically exhausted in 1867. Yet Cashup, only two miles to the northeast, lay undiscovered until 1871. When the latter district was tapped it exhibited all the normal conditions of new territory, a tremendous pressure of gas and an abundance of lively oil which at- tested their energy and force by a well flowing over 1000 barrels per day, 469. Shamburg was discovered several years after the Oil creek rock had been practically drained and although not more than three miles from the world renowned Noble well district, no direct communication has ever been traced between the two oil fields. 470. Bullion the champion district of 1877, lay with its wonderful store of oil and gas within a mile and a half of Scrubgrass, unaffected by the drainage and almost com- plete exhauston of the latter six or seven years before. : 471. Butler and Clarion are now constantly furnish- ing new pools outside of previously developed areas, which show no symptoms of having been interfered with or weak- ened by any of the previous operations. -Facts like these, (and many more might be given in de- tail were it necessary,) point strongly to the correctness of the inference 'that the oil producing pebble sands lie in pockets or patches so completely surrounded by an almost impervious rock, that practically they may be considered as independent masses and treated accordingly. In conformity then with this view of the subject let us trace the history of one of these oil pools from its first tap- ping by the drill to its final abandonment on account of 'becoming flooded with water. 472. With the present method of drilling through cas- FLOODED TERRITORY. III. 261 ing and thus preventing the surface water from following down to the lower rocks, the effect upon tapping the oil sand is quite different from what it was under the old process when the drill hole was full of water. In the latter case the column of water in a deep well held the gas and oil in check and but slight indications of oil would be seen until the well was tubed and a portion at least of the water pumped out. But now the hole having only a few feet of fluid in it when the sand rock is pierced, the effect is simi- lar to the sudden liberation of the safety valve to a steam boiler under a full pressure of steam. The tremendously compressed gas and oil rush at once into the opening the drill hole is soon filled and when the depth of well is not too great in proportion to the force of gas, the boiling, foam- ing mass is driven upwards against the forces of gravity, against the resistance of the atmosphere, and vents at the well mouth or shoots high above the top of the derrick. 473. The date of the first flow from one of these pools marks the commencement of a new era in its history. For ages the oil has been locked up in the pores of the rock, and there can be little doubt but that an equitable pressure has been established throughout every freely communicat- ing portion of it. The equilibirum is now suddenly de- stroyed in the immediate vicinity of the well by the libera- tion of compressed gas and oil seeking a rapid exit through the drill hole, because the pressure in the rock is greater than the forces to be overcome by the oil in its ascent. The result is the rarification of the elastic and expansile materials filling the pores of the sand rock immediately surrounding the perforation made by the drill. Suppose the pressure in a radius of ten feet to be thus quickly reduced from 300 Ibs to the square inch to 150 fbs, this allows the next con- centric area proportionately to expand and reduce in like manner, and that the next and so on, the movement gradu- ally widening, the pressure gradually reducing until all the freely communicating portions of the rock are relieved, when the oil for lack of propelling force ceases to flow. An equilibirum has been restored. The rock is still full of oil and gas under pressure, .biit it is counterbalanced by the 262 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. weight of the column of fluid in the hole and the atmos- phere above it. 474. The pump is now introduced, and lifting the fluid from the level of the sand rock relieves it of a pressure equivalent to the weight of the oil in the hole and leaves the gas free to again go through with the expanding and rarefying processes as before, it having now to overcome only the weight of its own column of gas ascending between the tubing and well walls against atmospheric pressure. After the introduction of the pump a generous flow cen- tres toward the well, and this continues for a longer or shorter period, dependent in a great measure upon the num- ber of wells at work in the immediate vicinity ; t but gradu- ally in any case the pressure in the rock is relieved, it falls to 50 fbs. 40 fcs. 30 fts. 20 ft>s. ; both oil and gas decreas- ing as the pressure decreases. When it lowers to 16 or 18 fos. very little gas can make its way to the surface ; but still the rock contains an abundance of oil, for when a gas-pump is now attached to the casing-head to further relieve it of atmospheric pressure, the effect is quickly apparent, in an increase of both gas and oil. If the gas-pump be a good one we have by this means, in effect, added from 10 to 12 ft>s. pressure to the oil in the rock by relieving the gas from that amount of atmospheric opposition which it previously had to overcome. Still, after all this is done and the well cham- ber is so thoroughly exhausted by the gas pump that a vacuum gauge may show a downward pressure of 13 Ibs. to the square inch, the rock contains oil, as is proven by the manner in which it is further acted upon by the introduc- tion of water into it. 475. Oil and gas in their normal conditions, appear to lie in the sandrock not as distinct bodies occupying separate portions of the rock, but as one substance, the gas being as thoroughly incorporated with the oil, as gas is with water in a bottle of soda-water. Drawing oil from the rock may be compared to drawing beer from the barrel. The barrel is placed in the cellar and a bar pump inserted at first the liquor flows freely through the tube without using the pump, but presently the gas weakens and the pump is called into FLOODED TEREITOEY. III. 263 requisition ; and finally the gas pressure in the barrel be- comes so weak that a vent hole must be made to admit at- mospheric pressure before the barrel can be completely emptied even by the pump. 476. The flooding of an oil district is generally mewed as a great calamity, yet it may be questioned whether a larger amount of oil can not be drawn from the rocks in that way than by any other, for it is certain that all the oil cannot be drawn from the reservoir without the admission of something to take its place. If one company owned all the wells drawing upon a pool, and had accurate records of the depths and characteristics of the oil producing stratum in each well, it is quite pos- sible that some system might be devised by which water could be let down through certain shafts, and the oil forced towards certain other shafts w r here the pumps were kept in motion, and thus the rocks be completely voided of oil and left full of water. As it is however, no systematized plan of action can be adopted. The careless handling of one well, by which water is let down to the oil rock, may spoil several others belonging to different parties. A clashing of interests at once arises and is likely to result in disaster to the whole district. 477. The early operators on Oil creek knew nothing about ' ' casing. ' ' Wells were drilled * ' wet ' ' no effort being made to shut but the surface water ; consequently when oil was struck, it met a static pressure of water corresponding to the depth of the well. In new and shallow territory the pressure in the rock was sufficient to hold the water in check and prevent it from entering the oil sand and sometimes it had force enough to eject a column of water from the hole and flow on steadily for some time in defiance of it. But as developments progressed and oil currents began to b3 diverted towards numerous outlets through pumping and flowing wells, it often very naturally occurred where the circumstances favored it, that this column of water in a well just completed would force itself into the oil sand, driving the oil before it, and quickly flood a neighboring well. When the new well was tubed and seed-bagged it frequently 264 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOIIX F. CARLL. took several days pumping to relieve the sandrock of the water thus forced into it, and regain the oil. These troubles increased more and more as territory became older and the pressure of gas in the rock decreased through the removal of large bodies of oil. At that time the seed-bag which prevented the surface water from passing down, was affixed to the tubing, and any difficulty in the working chamber or valves which necessitated the withdrawal of the tubing, (and these contingencies occurred frequently,) involved the let- ting in again of the surface waters upon the oil rock. Fre- quent repetitions of this operation finally brought ruin not only on the well itself but on others in the vicinity. In the abandonment of a well thus spoilt, or of one which had been drilled and proved unproductive, no care was taken to prevent the water from entering the oil rock. Indeed it seemed to be a satisfaction to those who had been unsuc- cessful in their ventures, to spoil if possible the good wells of the more fortunate. From these causes it happened that nearly all the farms along oil creek were very much injured by water before the true situation of affairs was rightly understood. 478. Small casing (?") was first introduced in 1865. This held the seed bag on its lower end and extended down below the fresh water veins, so that the tubing could be in- serted inside of it and withdrawn at pleasure without letting in the water (see Plate XIV). Many of the old wells were then cased the abandoned holes were filled up or stopped., with a wooden plug above the oil sand to prevent the further admission of water large pumps were set in motion to ex- haust the water and after great expenditures and persistent effort some tracts were partially reclaimed and certain wells yielded oil freely, for a time. But conflicting interests and a want of cooperation among the many well owners prevented systematic work, the flood consequently again became unmanageable, and large areas oi; old oil territory were finally abandoned. 479. The manner in which water invades and takes possession of the oil sands, has created a great deal of discussion among well owners and others. Some producers FLOODED TERRITORY. III. 265 have imagined they so thoroughly understood the subject that they could go ahead and put down new wells or operate old ones in flooded territory, in such a way as to catch the oil driven before the water- wave and make a profitable busi- ness of it ; but they have generally been convinced by ex- perience if they persisted in their operations long enough, that success in this kind of oil producing might be attributed to chance quite as reasonably as to good judgment. It is an easy thing to theorize as to how the water cur- rents might conduct themselves, but quite another to show precisely how they do act, for we can only have, at best, a very imperfect knowledge of the constitution of the sand- rock, and therefore cannot foresee all the contingencies de- pendent upon details of structure, which may arise to thwart the most shrewd and judicious calculations. 480. In judging of the probable effects of the introduc- tion of 'Water into any particular oil district several things are to be considered. (1) The time of flooding whether early in the progress of development, while yet a large percentage of oil remains unexhausted, or at a later period after the supply has suf- fered from long continued depletion. (2) The structure of the rode whether regular and homogeneous throughout, or composed of fine sand interbedding connected and irregu- lar layers of gravel, sometimes lying near the top and at others near the bottom. (3) The shape of the area being flooded. (4) The position of the point at loJiich water is admitted, in relation to the location of the surrounding wells still pumping oil (5) The height (which governs the pressure) of the column of water obtaining admittance. (6) The duration of the water supply. It will readily be seen that a temporary flooding in com- paratively fresh territory, such as frequently occurred in early days along Oil creek from the drilling of new wells without casing or the overhauling of old ones where the seed bag was attached to the tubing in the primitive way, must necessarily be quite a different affair from one caused by a permanent deluge through unplugged and abandoned wells in nearly exhausted territory. 266 III. KEPOET OF PKOGKESS. JOHN F. CARLL. In the former case the flood may be checked before much water lias accumulated in the rock, and then the oil flow can be reclaimed after a few days of persistent pumping ; in the latter the recovery of oil is very uncertain, because from its long continued extraction a greater capacity has been given to the rocks for storing water, and this being sup- plied from scattered and obscure sources, there is little probability that it can be shut oif, although the most thor- ough and systematic attempts may be made to check it. 481. A good illustration of the action of a temporary flood in comparatively new territory was furnished years ago by a well on Oil creek. It was drilled in close prox- imity to large producing wells, and seems to have pierced the oil rock at a point where the water let in by drilling and overhauling surrounding wells had accumulated to the exclusion of the oil originally stored there as well as in other portions of the rock. On starting the pump nothing but water was obtained. Day after day the machinery was kept in motion, but no improvement appeared. All but the owner rated the well as a total failure and he came to be looked upon as a man with a great deal of faith but very little judgment. The pumpers at adjoining wells delighted to annoy him and thought it a good joke to send every traveler who inquired for a drink of water, to the "water well" as they had named it. Still the owner kept pump- ing night and day, and at the end of six weeks the Avater exhausted, oil immediately appeared in large -quantities and the well proved to be an exceptionally remunerative one. After flowing and pumping for a long time, however, I believe it again became flooded, when the surrounding ter- ritory had been nearly drained of oil, and much uncontroll- able water had found access to the rock, and then a large amount of time and money were fruitlessly expended in trying to regain the oil. 482. The following sketch (Plate XXXV) was made from the records of three oil wells at Triumph, Warren county : It probably exhibits the general structure of the oil sands not only at that point but in many other parts of the oil district, and it will serve to show on a small scale how the Plate XXXV. III. 267 268 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. introduction of water at various points might affect the flow of oil in the several wells drawing from a deposit. In No. 773 a pocket of pebbles lies near the top of the rock, where only fine grained sand was found in Nos. 769 and 776. Suppose No. 773 had not been drilled until Nos. 769 and 776 had partially exhausted the oil and been abandoned, letting the water down into the oil sand. The heavy gravity of water would cause it to seek the lower portion of the peb- ble rock, thus lifting the oil and gas remaining in the rock and compressing them in the upper parts. Thus the peb- ble pocket A would be filled with oil and gas, for by reason of its high position and impervious surroundings it had no lateral escapes for its .contents when the water line rose above a certain point. If the body of oil contained in A, when thus cut off from escape, had already been compressed to a sufficient degree to withstand the static pressure of the column of water operating upon it, the water could have no further effect, but must pass on to points of less resist- ance, but if they had not yet been sufficiently compressed, the water line would rise in the arched basin until the proper compression had been accomplished. If now, after the lower part of the rock has been flooded, well No. 773 be drilled, the pool of oil stored in pocket A will yield freely until it is exhausted and the water fills the rock, when it will be useless to expect a further supply. 483. * When water is let down into the center of a dis- trict which has been rapidly drilled and partially ex- hausted, at it was, for instance, at Pithole City in 1865, the effect must be to drive the oil remaining in the rock in all directions. Not only will it force down the dip of the strata (the direction which some assert it must always take), but up the dip also ; for being supplied from sources several hundred feet above the oil-sand, a slight dip in it of 15 or 20 feet to the mile practically amounts to nothing. It must naturally travel the fastest towards the points of least resistance. If the district be an elongated one, with the pebble deposits lying in beds, as is usually the case, and a line of wells be pumping, up the dip, or above the point at which water is admitted, and none below, thus FLOODED TERRITORY. III. 269 creating a draft in the up-dip direction, these higher wells will be attacked one after the other as the water wave ad- vances, just as surely as if the conditions in relation to slope were reversed. But as the flood advances, and well after well is reached in succession and flooded, it must naturally sometimes happen that in consequence of the irregular structure and geographical outlines of the rock and the accidental locations of the wells drawing from the deposit, that stray marginal pools of oil will be forced out into the pebble pockets not yet drilled upon, and from which it can find no outlet, as illustrated in the preceding sketch. 484. Two or three such pools containing a large amount of oil have been discovered on the outskirts of Pithole since the central district was flooded, and several others also bor- dering on Oil creek. That they were pools stored and held in place by the flooding of the central district, was shown by the fact that when oil failed in the first well, water imme- diately came in, and the wave followed on from well to well in regular succession, as if radiating from a central source. 485. The first intimation of the flooding of a district is given by an increased production from the wells affected by it. Old wells, without any observable cause, improve gradually, running up from five barrels per day to ten or twenty, or even fifty. After pumping in this way for some time the oil quickly fails and they yield only a few barrels of salt or brackish water. As the wave moves on, the wells in advance, one after another, are affected in the same way. In some districts the movement is quite rapid, and wells are invaded and "watered out" in quick succes- sion ; in others it is so slow that large quantities of oil are obtained from those which are favorably located to receive a "benefit." Flooding a well is sometimes a very profit- able way of closing up its career, inasmuch as it thus yields more in a few months than it otherwise would in years, and when the water reaches it the owner knows at once what it betokens and stops work, thus saving the time and money usually expended in fruitless efforts to reclaim a well failing through natural decline. 270 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. CHAPTER XXVI. Origin of petroleum. A chapter of queries. 486. " What is your theory concerning the formation ff petroleum?" is one of the first questions asked of the geologist when matters connected with the oil regions are mentioned, and the question is put as if it were one on a simple subject, surrounded by no obscure and perplexing conditions and therefore easily answered by any person who might be conversant with the general structure and charac- teristics of the rocks containing oil and the methods of its procurement. A superficial or partial examination of the facts connected with its origin has led to the publication of various and con- flicting theories regarding it. Many of these are evidently based upon insufficient hypothetical premises, and we ap- prehend that even the most plausible one of them now in vogue will need much modification as our knowledge on the subject becomes more comprehensive. When we have discovered the place of its nativity, ascer- tained the horizon and conditions of its birth, obtained an approximate idea of its age, studied its constitution and habits, so to speak, and become in like manner familiar with its cognate associate gas, then we may possibly be able to propose a tenable theory to explain the genesis of petroleum. But at present, with all these points in dispute or ill under- stood, we must treat the question above propounded as one which may be discussed but cannot be satisfactorily an- swered. 487. Tliere are many grades of petroleum even in the comparatively thin band of Pennsylvania oil rocks. They may be readily distinguished one from the other by marked variations in gravity, color, smell, and the manner in which they are affected by heat and cold. Have they all one conv ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. III. 271 mon origin or are they the products of different ages ? Do they vary in composition and character because of the strati- graph ical position and chemical constituents of the several rocks in which they are stored, or do they vary on account of local peculiarities obtaining in successive ages, in the growth of the assemblages of marine flora and fauna from which they are supposed by some to have been derived ? 488. If the originating organic matter has been con- verted into oil at different periods during the earth's his- tory, corresponding chronologically with the deposition of the sands in which the oils are found, what effect has this difference in time of birth had upon the character of the sev- eral oils since their generation ? In view of the universal law of mutability, to which both organic and inorganic matter is subject, the law of growth, or progressive development from generation to maturity, of decay, or gradual decomposition from maturity to dissolu- tion, should we not expect to find certain distinguishing characteristics in the several oils, (if they were formed at widely separated periods of time,) from which some idea of their relative ages might be obtained ? But there are so many unknown factors involved in a solu- tion of these problems that we must be content to work slowly and wait. 489. The fundamental questions to be answered seem to be these : From what source does petroleum originate and when was it formed ? and a consideration of them involves a review of two of the most popular theories of the day, the one claiming that it has been elaborated by nature from materials contained in the rock where it is now found, that the oil producing rock is the parent rock ; the other, that it is the product of gas originating in much deeper strata, the sandstones being merely condensing reservoirs for its stor- age. There are strong arguments in support 'of both theories and they each have their earnest and distinguished advo- cates, but it is not an easy matter to prove either the one of them or the other to be universally applicable to facts as we find them. The probabilities are that we shall discover, 272 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOIIX F. CARLL. when the subject is more thoroughly understood, that there is what might be called an indigenous oil in conformity to the one theory and an exotic oil in agreement with the other. Genesis of petroleum in the sandrocTcs. 490. Reviewing the facts connected with the produc- tion of oil from the Venango group, we find that the largest wells are those which are sunk through the coarsest part of the oil bearing sandrock. The drillings show nothing but coarse sand and pebbles. Pieces of the unpulverized rock one or two cubic inches in bulk are often brought up after torpedoing, but nothing can be detected in them that could possibly originate petroleum. Could a rock of this charac- ter have originally contained a quantity of organic matter sufficient to yield a cubic foot of oil to every ten or twelve (mine feet of rock, and these organic remains be so com- pletely converted into oil as to leave no residual trace of their existence ? Could so large a quantity of organic mat- ter be held by such loose sands during the slow processes of their deposition, without decomposition and waste? and if so held, wJien was the organic tissue thus preserved con- verted into oil ? It could not have been while the sands were lying at sea level as sand beaches exposed to atmos- pheric influences, for then the oil would have been vola- tilized and dissipated in air. Neither could it have been while the sands were in contact with the water, (if they were formed beneath water level,) for then the oil would have risen to the surface and floated away as fast as gener- ated. It must have been then at a period subsequent to this. But if no oil was stored in the sand beds as they slowly sank to receive the succeeding deposits upon their backs, the interspaces between the grains of sand and pebbles which now r contain oil, must have been filled with salt water, for they could not go down unoccupied, and the sand-beds must also have contained within themselves large quantities of organic matter, which sooner or later, when the conditions became favorable, was to be converted into oil. ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. III. 273 491. What are the requisite conditions to convert this organic matter into oil ? Presumably a certain degree of heat and pressure to be attained only when the strata have reached a proper depth below the surface or ocean level. At what depth this horizon which may be termed the plane of spontaneous distillation may lie, we do not know, and it is_ immaterial to our present purpose that it should be definitely fixed. Wherever it may be, however, it must be reached and occupied successively by each one of the oil producing sands in order that the organic matter from which the oil is to be evolved, may be subjected to the proper con- ditions and the transformation effected. We will suppose that the Venango Third oil sand has gradually sunk as the sediments accumulated above it, un- til it has arrived at this oil making horizon. Spontaneous distillation now ensues. The salt water contained in the sand is partially absorbed or displaced in the process, and the stratum is charged with oil. But the measures still continue to sink and other rocks are deposited above ; the Second oil sand, First oil sand, Pithole grit, Serai Con- glomerate and Malioning sandstone, must all, one after the other, have been brought down to the oil making horizon, according to this hypothesis for they all now contain oil in one place or another. The vertical distance between the Third oil sand and Malioning sandstone as shown on generalized section Plate XI, is about 1550 ft. Therefore, when the Mahoning sand- stone occupied the plane of spontaneous distillation, the Third oil sand must have been 1550 ft. below it, and sub- ject, by reason of this additional depth, to a degree of heat much greater than that of the horizon in which the oil con- tained in it was formed. , 492. Supposing all the oils in the several sands to have been identical in character when first formed as they passed through the oil making horizon ; must not that in the TJiird sand at least, have undergone a great change during the immense period occupied in slowly sinking 1550 ft. while the sand beds above it were being successively stored with oil and especially so, when to the changes incident to age 18 III. 274 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. must also be added the changes wrought by chemical action under such altered conditions and so considerable an in- crease of temperature. Would not the increase of heat in deeper horizons have had a tendency to reduce the gravity of the oil, so that we should now find the Third sand oil heavier than that of the Second* and the Second heavier than the First, whereas we now find it in exactly the reverse order \ 493. The depth of sedimentary strata known to have been deposited above it, shows that the Third oil sand must have been at some time at least 3000 ft. below ocean level. It now lies at Tidioute 1000 ft. above this datum plane. How much deeper it may have sunk, or how much higher it may have been elevated, we do not know. If now the oil was formed during its descent while passing through the oil making horizon (and AVC can imagine no other point or time at which it could have been formed, according to the hypothesis under consideration) and the stratum after being charged with oil slowly sank 1550' as argued above ; then came up again, it may be slowly or it may be quickly, several thousand feet, who can imagine the changes the oil would be likely to undergo during all these varying circum- stances of depression, elevation, temperature and time. 494. And then what further mutations may be supposed to have taken place in such variable and volatile hydro- carbons as these during the long periods intervening be- tween the post carboniferous uplift and the present time, while the sands containing them have been lying in various positions in relation to surface erosion, some of them being far above sea level and some below ; having lost their origi- nal horizontality, and being in consequence, more or less affected in some localities, by underground drainage, local escapes of gas and oil at the surface and accessions of sur- face water. We are hardly prepared to assign so great an age to petroleum as the above view of its formation would require ; and yet, if it is generated in the sandrock, from organic matter intermixed and buried with the sand, we can im- .agine no more probable sequence of events than those out- ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. Ill, 275 lined above, by which, to arrive at some idea of its age and the possible horizon of its birth. 495. So far we have spoken only of the Venango oil sands and those above them ; and if we are already amazed at the immense age of their respective oil deposits, as meas- ured by the theory under review and are inclined to doubt whether oil could be preserved unchanged for such incal- culable ages in rocks exposed to such vicissitudes as these have experienced, our amazement will only increase if we go on and apply the same line of argument to the Oil meas- ures of Warren and Bradford which extend down more than 1000 ft. below them, and whose oils must therefore be much older. 496. Further ; It is evident that an oil producing rock of the character we are speaking of, could only be formed by the conjoint action of two classes of widely differing physical agencies one to furnish the organic matter, the other the inorganic. If only sand and pebbles were de- posited in any place, they could make no oil. Sea weeds and mollusks must live and flourish in great abundance on the forming sand beds, or be within reach of the waves and currents to be brought in and deposited with them other- wise the materials for generating oil would be wanting. It is reasonable to infer that these two necessary conditions did not everywhere conjointly prevail ; that in some locali- ties sand was deposited without organic matter and in others organic matter without sand ; and that consequently we should now find considerable areas of sandrock barren of oil. In that case, no doubt, great irregularity would be noticed in the distribution of these barren spots through- out the oil producing sand sheets. Each stratum would have a structure in that respect peculiarily its own, regard- less of the local variations of the one below it or the one above; but the same general features observed in the dis- tribution of the productive and non-productive spots in one stratum, ought to obtain in the others also. Thus if the Third sand produces oil almost universally wherever its characteristic oil bearing rock is found ; then the Second sand should in like manner produce oil wher- 276 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. ever Us characteristic oil bearing rock is found ; and so on with all the other oil sands above. Or, in other words, if oil is generated solely from materials deposited cotempora- neously with and contained in the rock where it is now found, there can be no reason assigned why there should not be good oil deposits, scattered over the whole area of one sand as well as of another, wherever the typical oil bear- ing rock is well developed, regardless of the measures above or below it ; no reason why, all other things being equal, the Conglomerate and Mountain sands should not produce oil as freely where the Venango group lies below them as where it does not ; no reason why the First and Second oil sands should not produce their normal quantities as well where underlaid by the Third sand as where the latter is wanting, or imperfect. 497. Now what do we find the facts to be. Where the Third sand of the Venango group is well developed it almost universally contains oil in one or the other of its three or four divisions, and where these productive mem- bers spread over a wide area as they do in parts of Venango, Clarion and Butler counties, the sands above them, although they are frequently of excellent quality and exhibit every characteristic of the oil producing portions as found else- where, yield scarcely a show of oil. Yet the Second sand produces oil in large quantities in many places skirting the edges of the Third sand, where the latter is of inferior quality or wanting the First sand produces oil in similar situations over an inferior Second and Third sand, or where one or both of them are wanting the Mountain sands produce oil in some localities, but only where- the / Venango group in its integrity is wanting all of which ( circumstances lead to the inference, that softiehow, the ab- V sence or presence of the lower sands exercise a controlling influence upon the productiveness of those above them, / which should not be the case if the oil in each rock was generated in the rock where found from organic matter I interbedded in the stratum itself. ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. III. 277 Genesis of petroleum from condensed gas. 498. The hypothesis, that petroleum is the product of condensed gas evolved from carbonaceous shale lying at a greater or less depth below the oil sands, while, as before intimated, not yet sufficiently understood to claim the place of a demonstrable theory, seems nevertheless not to be open to so many cogent objections as the one just considered. As generally understood at present, this hypothesis also requires organic growth to furnish materials for generating the hydro -carbons, and mechanical agents to prepare the sand-bed reservoirs to collect and retain them ; but the operations of the two classes of agencies need not neces- sarily have been synchronous, nor is it requisite that the areas primarily occupied by them should have been geo- graphically co-extensive. The carbonaceous gas-produc- ing materials may have been brought into the Appalachian basin from various sources, at different times, and by many channels, long anterior to the deposition of the sand-beds. But they only become oil producing through the superven- tion of the sandstones ; therefore, to secure this end, both carbonaceous shale and sandstone must underlie a produc- tive oil field, for if the shale be wanting, no gas can come up for condensation in the sandrocks, if the sandrocks are wanting, there being no reservoirs to receive and condense the gas, it continues on upward and escapes imperceptibly as gas at the surface. 499. When we reflect that large quantities of organic matter were stored in the limestones and shales of the im- mensely thick beds of the Silurian formation, that they were augmented in a later period by the contents of other rich carbonaceous deposits of Lower Devonian age, that these all now lie far below the Oil sands, and that we may reasonably suppose many of them are now or have been, buried at a depth which would subject them to a degree of heat competent to all the requirements of spontaneous dis- tilliation of gas, we cannot but admit, in view of the known intimate relationship and association of gas and oil, that the hypothesis of the formation of petroleum from this source is worthy at least of a candid consideration. 278 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. The great bituminous coal basin of western Pennsylva- nia and Ohio, under which the Silurian rocks plunge from the east and northeast to appear again as they come up and fold over the Cincinnati anticlinal on the west, seems to be, so to speak, one vast cauldron filled with deeply buried car- bonaceous matter subjected to great heat, and therefore constantly generating gas. It may be doubted whether a well was ever drilled in all this area, where gas was not obtained, or at least where it might not have been found if drilling had been continued to a proper depth. 500. It is true that in many wells the volume of gas is small and sometimes almost imperceptible, and this fact has been brought forward as an argument against the theory of a general diffusion of gas throughout the lower measures, traveling from its assumed source in deeper rocks through every available avenue to find an exit at the surface. But let us examine this point and to illustrate, suppose a gas holder with an unlimited supply of gas under a con- stant pressure of three or four hundred pounds to the square inch, to be buried thousands of feet beneath the surface. From this reservoir let numerous pipes varying in size from one sixteenth of an inch to three inches in diameter, run up in branching and tortuous lines toward the surface. If now, in drilling an oil well one of the smaller pipes should be tapped at a depth of five hundred or a thousand feet, the small volume of gas emitted, mixing with the air in an ordinary well shaft, would make but little show at the sur- face we should have a well with "no gas." But if one of the larger leads were tapped a lively gas-flow would at once ensue. Yet, here both leads come from the same source and vent under the same normal pressure ; and although the different measures of friction belonging to pipes of large are small diameters would exercise some influence, still for all practical purposes we may consider cause and effect as operating the same in one pipe as the other, the only marked difference being in the amount of product; and even this difference, in so far as it relates to their ca- pacity for filling limited reservoirs, is equalized by time, ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. III. 279 for a gasometer which would be filled by the larger pipe in a day, would as surely be filled by the smaller one, eventu- ally, if a sufficient period of time were allowed for the work. Let the buried gas holder and ascending pipes, represent the gas generating measures of the lower rocks and the in- numerable natural leads and fissures through which the gas is constantly rising to the surface. The supplying reser- voir is never reached by our drill holes ; the escape pipes may be tapped or may not as the accidental circumstances of location of well and structure of rock may determine we see then that a varying volume of gas-flow in a well, or even an almost entire absence of it cannot be considered as a good argument against the theory in review. 501. Wherever the drill descends below the horizon of the Venango group, a large proportion of mud rock (the drillers "soapstone") is found, interstratified with slate and occasional "shells," or thin bands of hard, flaggy, fine grained sandstone. These mud-rocks are compact and im- pervious and must necessarily interpose an almost impass- able barrier to the upward flow of gas. Probably all the measures have been fractured more or less by oscillations, shrinkage and warpings of the earth crust, and the main avenues for the passage of gas through them follow princi- pally these lines of fracture. It may be x inferred then that a porous sandstone which chanced to overlie one of these crazed lines, would be much sooner filled and stored with gas than another of the same quality not so favorably situated. But this does not imply that the latter would never be filled, for we must not lose sight of the fact that nature works slowly and that there has been no lack of time for the accomplishment of all her un- dertakings. Forgetting this we frequently misinterpret her operations and overlook the achievements of some of her slow but most effective agents. The smallest jets of gas, scarcely noticeable in an oil well, insignificant as they ap- parently are. have no doubt had ample time during the geo- logic ages, through their agencies alone, to deposit in the 280 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. retaining sandrocks the immense volumes of gas which now so astonish the world in flowing gas and oil wells. Water drops falling one every hour will till a barrel in time, when full, an inch opening empties it in a few min- utes. So with our underground gas and oil reservoirs we draw out through drill holes in a few months, what nature has been ages in accumulating. 502. The question previously asked: "What are the necessary conditions for converting organic matter into oil ?' ' repeats itself here in a slightly varied form ; what are the requisite conditions fo converting organic matter into gas and gas into oil f and must receive again only an hypotheti- cal answer. If in the one case an horizon of distillation be required, in the other horizons of distillation and condensation seem to be demanded, but it is as impossible to precisely locate or define the latter as the former. The disquisition which might very naturally here intrude, 'as to whether it is possible or not for gas to be converted into oil, must be left for those who have made a special study of such matters. On the presumption that nature has some way of accomplishing the fact, although her pro- cesses are not at present understood by us, we may pro- visionally admit the possibility and pass on to notice some of the physical conditions which would seem to be required to bring about such results, and then see if the significant phenomena exhibited by the oil development are in har- mony with these requirements. 503. According to this hypothesis there must have been two distinct stages in the genesis of oil, a gas-making stage and an oil-making stage, two distinct and dissimilarly conditioned natural laboratories where the work was per- formed, one possessing all the requirements for generating gas from the carbonaceous shales brought within its limits, the other containing all the essential qualifications neces- sary for reducing the gas entering within the sphere of its influence into oil. A study of the latter, which, for conven- ience, may be called the horizon of condensation, concerns us most at present, as that is the one where oil is found and ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. III. 281 below it (if this hypothesis be correct) it will be useless to sink the drill, whatever the character of the strata may be, except in expectation of finding gas. Whether this hypothetical horizon of condensation should be expected to embrace a uniform* thickness of measures lying in a horizontal band having a fixed relation to ocean level throughout the several oil fields, or may be supposed to vary from horizontality in consequence of the gradual uplift of the rocks toward the northeast, its position being dependent more upon surface influences than sea level, we do not know. The facts as developed by the drill are these, and they seem to suggest that both of the above propositions should be kept in view while attempting to ascertain the limits of this horizon. 504. At Tidioute, Warren county, the oil producing sand lies about 1,000 feet above ocean level, the highest altitude, I believe, at which oil has been obtained in the State. At Parkers, Armstong county, the rock has sunk to very near tide level, and at Herman station, or Great Belt city, Butler county, to 500 feet below tide. Thus the Venango Third sand in its range from Tidioute to Herman station, a distance of about sixty-five miles, runs diagon- ally through a horizontal section of the earth crust 1500 feet in thickness. 505. It will be seen by reference to the generalized profile section from Black Rock, N". Y., to Dunkard Creek, Pa., (Plates X and XI,) that the Warren and McKean oil hori- zons as well as those of Slippery Rock, Smith' s Ferry and Dunkard Creek all lie within the same vertical range of 1500', covered by the Venango group. Therefore all the oil thus far produced in Pennsylvania has come from strata lying between a point 500 feet below ocean level, and one 1000' above ocean level ; and, as far as I am informed, no oil has yet been produced here from rocks below ocean level, ex- cept from those wells located in Armstrong and Butler counties south of a latitudinal line crossing the Allegheny river a short distance south of Parker city, as shown on dip diagram, Plate VIII, (see also Plate IX,) and perhaps from 282 III. KEPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. one or two small wells near the south line of McKean county, where the "Bradford Third Sand" which lies at Bradford 400' above ocean level just begins to dip below that datum plane. 506. Another suggestive fact may be mentioned. Not- withstanding the large number of deep holes put down in the country I have never heard of a well producing oil from a depth of 2000 ft. below the surface. Some of the Mc- Kean co. wells may closely approximate to that depth, but if they do they are located on high ground, more than 2000 ft. above ocean and the oil rock still lies above tide level.* A list of some of these dry holes which have been put down more than 500 ft. below ocean level, may be given to show that the absence of oil below the point named is not an inference based upon negative evidence alone. Depth of Bottom of Well Well. below ocean level. Well at Sharon, Mercer co., Pa., 1600' 700' " New Castle, Lawrence co., 2700' 1890' " Beaver Falls, Beaver co., 2330' 1600' " Pittsburgh, Allegheny co., 2360' 1508' " Tarentum, Allegheny co 2284' 1416' " Pine creek, Armstrong co., .... 1693' 893' " Titusville, Crawford co., 3553' 2203 " Jackson station, Warren co., .... 2041' 835' " Fentonville, Warren co., 1830' 590' 507. I do not mention these circumstances to prone that there is no oil below a plane 500 ft. below ocean level, or that it is useless to look for it in a well over 2000' deep ; but simply to place the facts on record and to call attention to them, let their significance be what it may, so that if hereafter, deeper productive wells and deeper oil horizons are found, (as it is quite possible they may be) their import as new features in a study of the oil rocks may be properly understood and appreciated. 508. Geologists as well as oil producers have been in- clined to look upon the question of the origin of oil as one of secondary importance, and have apparently acted upon the presumption that the oil bearing strata were to be studied * Since this was written productive oil wells about 2100 feet deep have been obtained on some of the high hills in McKean county ; but still the oil rock lies above tide level. ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. ' III. 283 and traced just the same whether petroleum was indigenous to the rocks where found or a foreign deposit accumulating there from other sources. But we see even from the above very imperfect review of some of the conditions which ap- pear necessarily to belong to the two methods of generating oil that this is a great mistake. If oil originates in the rock where found, our business is simply to trace that rock ; for it may reasonably be sup- posed in that case, that the oil was formed and stored there before the uplifting of the strata, and similar conditions prevailing at that time (as far as we can perceive) through- out the whole range of rock, similar oil deposits ought to be expected over all parts of it, regardless of the subsequent elevation which destroyed its horizontality. But if it is formed from gas, it has probably been collected and stored since the uplift and we can only expect to find it in certain kinds of rocks lying within a definite horizon. Where those rocks by reason of their dip rise too near the surface or plunge too deep below it, no oil has been elaborated and stored in them. How important then to decide which is the correct theory, so that we may study the subject aright and obtain an ap- proximate idea of the maximum depth to which it is judi- cious to bore for oil. 509. Why have all the deep wells proved failures ? Is it because no proper oil bearing rocks were perforated, or because they were encountered at too great depth to be em- braced within the oil making horizon ? Why have these' wells found only gas and salt water where oil was expected ? Why does the Venango group so abundantly productive above ocean level, and so freely yielding oil in Butler co. down to about 400 feet below the ocean become an uncer- tain oil horizon at 500 feet below ocean, and after that fur- nish only salt water and gas, in all the wells further down the slope toward the south ; as at Beaver Falls, Pittsburgh, Sharpesburg, Tarentum, Leechburg, &c. ? Why does the McKean oil rock, so completely stored with oil at Bradford, 400 feet above tide, become the depository of immense sup- plies of salt water and gas with but little oil, near the south 284 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. line of the county, as the oil horizon sinks beneath ocean level? Why do all of our oil producing rocks (with the excep- tions above mentioned) lie above ocean ? The equivalents of the Venango, Warren and McKean groups plunge to the feouth and southwest far below that level, and if the home of oil is in the rock where it is found why should there not be oil in these deeper rocks ? Is it not a singular coinci- dence that the deposit was only made in such portions of each several stratum as chanced subsequently to be elevated in a slightly inclined position above the surface level of the ocean, w T hile the balance of the rock remained barren ? These and many other curious and pertinent questions may be asked not merely to arouse idle curiosity in the matter but to incite to judicious inqifiry. If there be a point in depth below which it is useless to look for oil, (and all our practical experience thus far warrants the entertain- ment of the supposition that there is) then the sooner the probability is admitted the sooner will investigations be made to establish the fact, and when the point of maximum depth is ascertained it may be the means of saving large expenditures of money which would otherwise be lost in blindly sinking wells to unreasonable depths in search of oil. CHAPTER XXVII. Description of the above ground machinery employed at an oil well; derrick, running-gear, rig-irons, boiler) engine, &c. (Illustrated by Plate* XIII, XXXVI, XXXVII, and XXXVIII.) 510. " Carpenters' 1 rig" Having secured his land and selected a location for his well, the first step of the oil- pro- ducer is to contract for the erection of a complete "carpen- ters' rig" over the spot where the bore hole is to be sunk. This "carpenters' rig" consists of (1) a derrick, with bull- wheels and crown pulley, for raising and lowering the drill- ing tools while drilling, and for handling the tubing, supker- rods, &c., after the well is completed ; (2) heavy mud-sills, main-sill, and sub- sills carrying above them the samson- post and jack-posts ; (3) walking-beam, band-wheel and sand-pump reel ; (4) mud-sills and block for the engine to rest upon ; (5) an engine-house and all the necessary wood work required about a well, so that drilling may commence as soon as the boiler and engine are put in position and the belt is attached to the band-wheel. 511. Cost of rig. This part of the work costs from $400 to $700, varying according to location, price of lumber and season of the year when erected. A "winter rig," or one put up for winter use costing somewhat more than a "summer rig" on account of extra lumber required in tem- porarily housing in the lower part of the derrick to protect the workmen from the inclemency of the weather. (285 III.) 286 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. 512. Wooden conductors. The next step is to sink a "conductor" through the loose surface accumulations of gravel and clay, to the "bed-rock." If the location be on a hillside, where the superficial clays and gravels are seldom more than ten or fifteen feet thick, a common well shaft six or eight feet square, is dug with pick and shovel until the solid rock is reached. A wooden conductor eight inches square in the clear, made by spiking together two 2 r/ X10" plank of the proper length, is then set up perpendicularly between the "bed-rock" and the derrick floor, the lower end being carefully adjusted in the rock in such a manner that no gravel or mud from the washings of the surrounding surface can enter the well at this point. Meantime, the boiler and engine having been "setup" all things are now ready for the driller to commence his work. Quite frequently all of this work building the "rig," "setting up" the boiler and engine, and adjusting the con- ductor, is included in the contract for the carpenters' rig. 513. On Plate XIII will be found complete mecJianical drawings of every part of the carpenters' rig ; prepared in minute detail by Mr. H. Martyn Chance, from working plans furnished by Mr. J. H. Carll, while engaged in securing the Butler county well records given in another place. These drawings should enable a mechanic in any part of the world, to construct a first class "rig" adapted to the sinking of a bore hole 2500 or 3000 feet deep, although he may never have seen an oil well. It may assist him how- ever if we briefly refer to some important points in con- struction, and then show how connections are made between the several parts so that the machinery may be directed to do the work required of it. 514. Foundation timbers. Practically, the quality and dimensions of the foundation timbers are governed by no arbitrary laws, but depend very much upon the circum- stances surrounding the well. In some places, sawed tim- ber like that shown in the drawing, can be obtained ; but generally, 'it is cheaper to fell trees as near the well as pos- OIL WELL EIG. III. 287 sible and flatten them on two sides only, in which case the hewed sticks will necessarily vary somewhat in size. We have given the dimensions for a good, solid foundation, and any competent mechanic can judge how far he may safely alter the details. The mud-sills, a, (Plate XIII,) are generally sunk in trenches, where the nature of the ground admits of its be- ing done. They have gains cut into them to receive the main-sill, d, and sub-sills, e and e' '. After all have been put in place and leveled up, the keys or wedges, h, are driven, and the whole foundation is thus firmly locked together. 515. TJie Samson-post, 7c, and Jack-posts, I, s, & r, are dovetailed into the sills and held by properly fitted keys, li, as seen in the side elevation. The braces are all set in gains, and keyed up, no mortises and tenons being used in the structure. The advantages of this method of 'construction are: (1) greater strength; (2) the keys can be driven from time to time to compensate shrinkage ; (3) the posts and braces being adjustable, the different parts are easily put into line and kept there ; (4) the whole is quickly taken apart in a convenient shape for removal, when the well is abandoned. 516. Center line of main-sill not always parallel with center line of walking '-beam. Referring to the horizontal projection on Plate XIII, it will be observed that the sam- son-post is placed flush with one side of the main-sill, and the band- wheel jack-post is put flush with the other side. In this way the walking-beam is made to run parallel with the main-sill. But if the main-sill be less than 24 inches wide say 20 inches, for instance the samson-post must necessarily be moved two inches in one direction to get a full bearing upon it, and the jack-post two inches in the other direction. The effect of this will be to swing the derrick end of the walking-beam six inches away from the well-hole as here located, and to throw the engine founda- tion and all the running-gear out of line. If, then, a smaller main-sill is to be used, the work may be laid out as follows : 288 III. EEPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. After placing the main-sill in the position desired, mark the point on it where the center of the samson-post is to come ; then mark also the point on which a perpendicular will fall from the center of the wrist-pin. Knowing the size of samson-post, length of walking-beam and dimen- sions of band- wheel irons (that is, the length of box, thick- ness of arm and length of wrist-pin to the center of pitman), these points are easily fixed. Now snap a chalk line pass- ing through these two points and take that to work from, squaring everything to this line, the same as if it ran par- allel to the main-sill, as seen in the drawing. It virtually alters nothing except the main-sill which is thus thrown a little out of square with the other work. A crooked sticTc is sometimes used to very good advan- tage for a main-sill, for a slight bend in the right direction gives both posts a more central bearing upon it than if it were straight. These points are mentioned to put the inexperienced on their guard, should they attempt to build on the general plan here given, without properly considering the trouble an alteration of a few inches might make, especially if it affected the center line. Any intelligent mechanic, how- ever, when he understands the plan, will readily see how he can vary the details to meet the requirements of his case and still secure the results desired. 517. The boiler supplying steam for the engine is not shown on Plate XIII, but a cut of one now in popular favor is given on Plate XXX VI, opposite. It was formerly set up in the engine-house in fact, portable boilers and en- gines were generally used, the engine being bolted on the top or side of the boiler, and the boiler sometimes mounted on wheels. But deep wells and heavy drilling tools now make it necessary to have a stationary engine ; and since the plan of drilling through dry casing has been univer- sally adopted, so many explosions and iires have occurred from the ignition of gas at the furnace fire that it is found more prudent to place the boiler at some convenient spot outside of the engine-house, and then when the oil rock is approached by the drill and danger from a sudden out- Plate XXXVIII. III. 289 19 III. 290 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOIIX F. CARLL. burst of gas and oil is apprehended, drilling is suspended and the boiler (together with the tool-dressing forge which up to this time has occupied one side of the derrick) is re- moved to a safe distance perhaps 20 or 30 rods from the well. After the well is completed and the gas and oil are under control, the boiler will again be moved and permanently set up in the engine-house, if the well is an isolated one, and is to be pumped independently of others. But if, as is frequently the case, the owners have already drilled or intend to drill live or six wells in the vicinity, it is more economical to centrally locate a 30 or 40 horse-power boiler, and from it convey steam to the engines at the sev- eral wells, through pipes wrapped with felt or encased in boxing ten inches square and filled with saw-dust, tan-bark, or some other partial non-conductor of heat. Thus the small boilers become available for drilling in other places, and two engineers or pumpers, working alter- nately twelve hours each, can look after all of the wells in the cluster.* 518. The engine, b', a twelve or fifteen horse-power, * A still more economical method for pumping groups of wells has come into very general use in some localities, within the last five years. It is called the Sucker Rod connection, and by it as many as a dozen wells may be pumped by one boiler and engine, but slightly increasing the usual cost of pumping a single well. From the central well strings of sucker rods branch out in all directions and form direct connections with the other wells, so that when the central one is put in motion all the others must move also. To avoid friction, the rods are held suspended a few feet above the surface of the ground and swing on cords depending from the tops of posts set at proper intervals along the line ; or they are supported by placing triangular horses under them, which rock backward and forward with the alternating movement of the rods. Wells 1500 feet apart are thus connected and successfully pumped, and by ingenious applications of rocking-levers, elbows, knuckle-joints, and tees, the lines are made to run up hill or down, straight from one well to another, or to turn at any angle desired. The wells are balanced in pairs and so con- nected that when the pump-rods in one come up those in the other go down ; therefore but little increase of power is needed to pump additional wells. Sucker rods were first used for these connections, because they were con- venient, and old rods were plenty and cheap ; but as they became scarcer, other things were substituted scantlings nailed together in continuous strings hoop-iron and wire all of which are successfully used. OIL WELL KIG. III. 291 reversible movement, is bolted to the engine block, 5, and by means of its driving pulley, carrying belt, o o, (which is made of four- ply rubber, eight inches wide,) communicates motion to the band- wheel, m, and through it to all other parts of the machinery. To make the above descriptions more plain, we give two full page cuts of a popular style of boiler and engine, on Plates XXXVI and XXXVII ; the electrotypes for which were kindly loaned by the Gribbs & Sterrett Manufacturing Company of Titusville. Probably over 10,000 boilers and engines are constantly at work in the oil region, and of course there are many manufacturers of them and a va- riety of patterns. The well-sinker may have a preference for this machine or that, according to his own ideas of ex- cellence ; but for the purposes of illustration there need be no choice between them, for they are all constructed essen- tially after one model and vary only in details which can not here be referred to. 519. The tJirottle-valve, II, is operated by a grooved vertical pulley. From this pulley an endless cord or wire (technically called "the telegraph") extends to the derrick and passes around a similar pulley, nn, fixed Upon the headache post, z, within easy reach of the driller. With the two pulleys thus connected, the movement of one com- municates a like motion to the other; consequently the driller has only to place his hand upon the derrick pulley to operate the throttle- valve, and thus he starts or stops the engine and increases or decreases its speed, without leaving his position at the well mouth. 520. The reverse link, pp, is also operated from the derrick by the cord, q q, which passes over two pulleys, one fixed in the engine-house, and the other in the derrick. A slight pull upon the cord raises the link and reverses the movement of the driving-wheel of the engine. When the cord is released the link drops back and restores the regu- lar motion. In deep wells and with such heavy tools as are now em- ployed, it is laborious work for non-reversing engines to make the first two or three revolutions upon starting to 292 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. drill, and they frequently "stall" or come to a stop on the "dead center ;" but with the devices here shown, the driller commands the throttle with one hand and the reverse with the other, and by adroitly manipulating them both together, he is enabled to start without difficulty. 521. The band-wJieel, m, receives its motion direct from the driving-pully of the engine, to which it is connected by the belt, oo. On or near the end of its shaft, o, is the bull- rope pulley,* ?i ; and to its other end is attached the arm or crank, o'. In this arm a number of holes are drilled to receive an adjustable wrist-pin, p, which may easily be moved from one hole to another, to regulate the length of stroke required in drilling or pumping. As the band- wheel communicates motion through the pitman, , backward so as to throw the fric- tion pulley w, against a post, or a curved piece of sheet iron set behind it in proper position to act as a brake when the wheel is pressed against it. The sand-pump line is coiled upon the shaft, x. It is a cable laid rope $ of an inch in diameter, and passes direct from the shaft over the pulley, ii, and thence down inside of the derrick to the well mouth, where it is secured to the bail of the sand-pump. Sand-pumps and bailers of several kinds are in use. The most common one is a plain cylinder of thin galvanized iron with a bail on top, and either a leather flap-valve or a metal stem-valve in the bottom. It is usually about 6' long, but when large quantities of water or oil are to be dipped from the well, it may be lengthened to 15 or 20 feet. Stem-valve bailers are much esteemed on account of their convenience in discharging contents. The valve stem pro- jects downward a few inches beyond the bottom of the cylinder. To empty the pump it is only necessary to let it rest on the bottom of the waste-trough, when the stem opens the valve and the sediment escapes. The flap-valve pumps are emptied through the top, by inverting them. Other sand-pumps are made of wrought iron casing and in addition to the bottom valve they have a plunger attached to an iron rod which passes through a hole in a stirrup spanning the top of the case. The sand-pump line is secured to an eye in the top of this rod and the pump chamber hangs suspended from the bottom of it held by the plunger, which cannot pass through the hole in the stir- rup. When the pump stops at the bottom of the well, the slack of the rope allows the plunger and rod to settle down into the pump chamber ; consequently on an upward move- ment the plunger and rod start first and travel the length of the cylinder drawing in the sediment from the bottom ; but when the plunger readies the stirrup the cylinder starts upward also, closing the lower valve and retaining the sedi- ment thus drawn into it to be delivered at the well mouth. 523. The butt-wheels, bt>, are driven bv the "bull- OIL WELL RIG. III. 295 rope," rr, which is made of two inch plain-laid cable, joined together by iron couplings.* When not in use the rope or belt is thrown out of its grooved pulley on the bull-wheel and thus remains lying so loosely in the grooved pulley, n, on the band-wheel shaft, that there is no friction upon it, and the pulley revolves so smoothly that the rope is sel- dom displaced from the groove. When the rope is raised to its place on the bull-wheel pulley and drawn taut, mo- tion is communicated from the band-wheel, it slips into its groove and the bull-wheels revolve. It can be thrown on and off at pleasure when the engine is not running too rapidly. 524. TTie walking -beam connections cannot be made or broken while the band-wheel is in motion. To disconnect at the pitman, g, the engine must be stopped. The wedge seen above the wrist-pin, p, is driven back to loosen the follower, f and then the pitman is pulled forward off of the wrist-pin, carried back toward the samson-post, #, and lowered to the main-sill out of the reach of arm, o ', when again revolving. This tips the walking-beam to an angle of about 25 to the horizon, in which position the derrick end of it is thrown back a foot or more from its former perpendicular over the hole, and there is thus no danger of *As the band-wheel and bull-wheels revolve in opposite directions this rope must be crossed, and it is advantageous to have it so, for it thus gets more bearing surface upon the pulleys, by which its tractive power is mate- rially augmented. f The dimensions of the lower part of the pitman are 4" X6". After insert- ing a stout bolt near the end to prevent its splitting, a hole is bored for the wrist-pin and a slot about six inches long cut upward from it. to receive the follower which is made of some hard durable wood and forms an adjustable box for the wrist-pin to work in. Another mortise, say 1^" wide and 4" long is then cut for the wedge at right angles to the other, the bottom of it being an inch and a half below the top of the follower slot. But the corresponding cut in the top of the follower should only be one inch deep, so that when the wedge is driven it bears upon the follower alone and holds it tightly against the wrist-pin, preventing the "chuck" which would otherwise occur if no means were provided for keeping this important joint in proper adjustment. The wrist-pin has a hole drilled in it and is furnished with a washer and pin to prevent the pitman from working off in front. The driller seldom takes the trouble to use them, however, for the pitman never flies off if the machinery is kept in proper running order. 290 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. its interference with the cable, tools, or sand-pump as they are run up and down in the derrick. 525. The ^headache-post, z, also called a "life-pre- server," is comparatively a recent improvement, designed, as its name implies, to save the driller a headache or per- haps his life, in case the wrist-pin should break or the pit- man fly off of it while drilling, thus suddenly causing the derrick end of the walking-beam to drop under the great weight of the suspended drilling tools and endangering the safety of ail who might be within reach of it. This post, which may be made from any sapling six or eight inches in diameter cut to the proper length, is set upon the main- sill immediately under the Avalking-beam, so that if such an accident occur the walking-beam can fall but a few inches and do no harm. It is also useful when some slight repairs to the pitman or band- wheel crank are needed while the tools are suspended in the well. By placing a block between it and the walking-beam, the pitman is relieved of weight and can be unshipped without disconnecting the tools from the temper screw. Oil Well Rig Irons. 526. The details of Plate XIII may be further illus- trated and explained by the figures on page Plate X XXVIII, which represent the complete set of irons belonging to a carpenter' s rig. They are as follows : a, Walking-beam stirrup. 6, Bolts for securing it by a wooden cap to walking-beam. c, Boxes for band-wheel shaft. d, Band- wheel shaft, arm, and flanges. e, Center irons for walking-beam and samson-post. e', Bolts for securing the saddle to walking-beam. /, Derrick or crown pulley. <7, Walking- beam hook, to hold temper-screw. 527. Cost of Rig-irons. In 1879, when low prices were ruling, these irons complete, (shaft 3'' in diameter and 4' 6" long, flanges 20" in diameter,) together with a sand-pump pulley and two gudgeons and two bands for the ends of the bull-wheel shaft, cost $75 00. Ill (' he! p! XXVI Plate XXXVIII j n Ill Chap! XXIX Plate JCXXIX OIL WELL RIG. III. 297 For parts of sets the following prices are given in the price list of Jarecki Manufacturing Company of Erie, date 1876: f Shaft, 4' 6" long, 3" diameter, $9 50 Crank, 14" to 46" stroke, 6 holes, 7 00 Wrist-pin, 2f" diameter, 3 50 Pair of flanges, 24" diameter, 8 25 Pair of flanges, 20" diameter, 5 60 Flange-bolts, 7" long, f" diameter, each . . . 12 Steel keys for flanges and crank, each .... 50 Collar, with steel set-screw,* 1 20 c, Two boxes, babbitted and with bolts, 8 50 a, Walking-beam stirrup, 2|" X f ", 5 00 &, Four bolts for securing the cap, 1 00 e, Saddle for walking-beam, 4 50 e, Side-irons, boxes, and bolts for samson-post, . 7 00 e', Four bolts for saddle, 1 20 /, Derrick-pulley, 20" diameter, 5 00 g, Walking-beam hook, heavy, . . 3 35 Sand-pump pulley, 3 25 Two gudgeons with bands, for bull-wheel, . . 5 00 *This collar belongs on the shaft, and is clamped to it by a set-screw, close to one of the boxes, to prevent the shaft from moving endways. It is not shown in d, because the llanges of the bull-rope pulley are outside of the box, and may be keyed close against it, so as to answer the same purpose as the collar. 298 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. CHAPTER XXVIII. (Illustrated by Plate XVI.) Description of drilling tools. ^ Stringing" them in the derrick. "Spudding" and drilling. 528. But little need be said in explanation of plate XVI. The tools are drawn to scale so accurately and their dimen- sions given so fully that each figure speaks for itself. Only the plain drilling tools are shown, for it would re- . quire a large volume and be almost an endless task to de- scribe and illustrate the thousands of fishing tools that have ' been invented and used by the driller and well manager to meet the varied accidental emergencies daily occurring in well boring and well pumping. These tools are of all kinds, from the delicate grab designed to pick up a small piece of valve leather or a broken sucker-rod rivet from the pump chamber to the ponderous string of "pole tools" contain- ing tons of iron, which, at a depth of 1500 feet or more, can unscrew a set of "stuck tools " and bring them up piece by piece, or cut a thread upon the broken end of a sinker-bar or an auger-stem, so that it can be screwed fast to and loosened by the use of "whiskey jacks" at the surface. 529. li A string of drilling tools" consists of rope- socket, sinker-bar, jars, auger-stem and bit, weighing al- together about 2100 pounds as will presently be shown in detail. It is divided by the jars into two members, one delivering its blow downward, the other upward. 530. The auger or drill which cuts and pulverizes the rock by its impact, weighs about 1320 pounds, and consists of the bit, the auger-stem and the lower wing of the jars. 531. The sinker -bar with the upper wing of the jars and the rope-socket attached, and weighing about 780 pounds, adds no force to the blow of the auger-stem, for it- hangs at all times suspended on the cable. Its function is to deliver a blow to the auger-stem on the upward stroTce DRILLING- TOOLS. III. 299 so that the jar may loosen the drill in case it should wedge or stick in the rock it is cutting. If an auger-stem be attached directly to the cable it will be found impossible to drop and raise it with a regular motion, for the bit will frequently stick, when the cable al- ternately stretching and contracting allows the walking- beam to make its accustomed sweep while the drill remains stationary at the bottom. A slight jar on the upward stroke prevents this sticking. 532. The jars, therefore, form a very important mem- ber of the drilling tools, being the connecting link between the drill and the means of operating it. Fig. C, on Plate XVI, is a very good representation of them,* but as they are there shown closed, or with the upper wing resting upon the lower one, (instead of the lower suspended from the upper, as they would appear when in use,) and as the improved rounded wing in front entirely conceals the cen- tral slot from view, we give a sketch of another pair, where both wings are made alike and the links are open. (See Fig. K, page Plate XXXIX.) The two sets are precisely alike in principle, and vary only in details of construction. If the upper wing in Fig. C be drawn up, it will move 13 inches before the cross-heads, (that is the solid part play- ing in the slot,) seen in section C', strikes the cross-head seen in C", and we shall then have the upper part of the slot in the upper wing in view, as in Fig. K, Plate XXXIX. This slot is If inches wide and 21 inches long, exclusive of the 5-inch narrow crotch-slot, already in sight in Fig. C. Both wings are slotted in the same manner, and when put together, the cross-head of the upper one passes through the slot of the lower ; and the cross-head of the lower one through the slot of the upper like two flat links in a chain. As the cross-heads are each 8 inches long, and the slots 21 inches, there remains 13 inches of the slots unoccupied, which represents the "play" of the jars. 533. The manner in which the jars perform their work may be best explained, perhaps, in this way. Sup- * The jars are sometimes welded to the auger-stem instead of being con- nected by a box and pin, as here shown. 300 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. pose the tools to have been just run to the bottom of the well the jars are closed, as in Fig. C the cable is slack. The men now take hold of the bull- wheels and draw up the slack until the sinker- bar rises, the "play" of the jars al- lowing it to come up 13 inches without disturbing the auger- stem. They watch for the coming together of the cross- heads, which will be plainly indicated by a tremulous mo- tion communicated to the cable, and by the additional weight of the auger-stem. When the jars come together they slack back about four inches and the cable is in posi- tion to be clamped in the temper-screw. If now the vertical movement of the walking-beam be 24 inches when it starts on the up stroke the sinker-bar first moves ; it rises 4 inches the cross-heads come together with a sharp blow, and the auger-stem is picked up and lifted 20 inches. On the down stroke the auger-stem falls 20 inches, while the sinker-bar goes down 24 inches to tele- scope the jars for the next blow coming up. This is the theory of the movement, but of course in practice the spring of the cable in deep wells and the weight of tools make many modifications necessary. Some writers, in describing the manner of drilling, con- vey the impression that the sinker-bar is used as a mall to drive the auger into the rock ; but this, we see, is entirely erroneous. A skillful driller never allows his jars to strike together on the down stroke. They are only used to "jar down" when the tools stick on some obstruction in the well before reaching the bottom, and in fishing operations. An unskillful workman sometimes " looses the jar," (es- pecially if the well be deep and nearly full of water,) and works for hours without accomplishing anything. The tools may be standing on the bottom, while he is playing with the slack of the cable, or they may be swinging all the time several feet from the bottom. If he cannot recog- nize the jar he is working entirely in the dark ; but an ex- pert will tell you the moment he puts his hand upon the cable whether the drill is working properly or not. As the "jar works off," or grows more feeble, by reason of the downward advance of the drill, it is "tempered" to DKILLING TOOLS. III. 001 the proper strength by letting down the temper-screw to give the jars more play. 534. The Temper screw, I, forms the connecting link between walking-beam and cable, and it is "let out" gradually to regulate the play of the jars, as fast as the drill penetrates the rock. When its whole length is run down, the rope clamps play very near the well mouth. The tools are then withdrawn, the well sand-pumped, and preparations made for the next "run." With the old fashioned temper-screw, a great deal of time was spent in readjustment, for it had to be screwed up thread by thread, by tedious revolutions of the clamps. But this delay is now obviated. The nut through which the screw passes is cut in halves, one half being attached to the left wing of the screw frame, the other half to the right wing. An elliptical band holding the set-screw, Z', passes around the nut. It is riveted securely to one of the halves, and the set-screw presses against the other half to keep the nut closed. The wings are so adjusted that they spring out- ward and open the nut whenever the set-screw is loosened. To " run up " the screw, the driller clasps the wings in his left hand, and loosens the set-screw ; he then seizes the head of the temper-screw in his right hand, and, relaxing his grip upon the wings, the nut opens, when he quickly shoves the screw up to its place, again grips the wings and tightens the set-screw the whole performance occupying less time than it has taken to describe it. But as this is heavy work, even for a man of great strength, some inventive, and probably unmuscular driller has recently added a very clever improvement which merits a passing notice. In the top of the screw is fixed a small swivel, and in the crotch of the wings above it a small pul- ley ; a cord passes from the eye of the swivel over the pul- ley, and thence over two similar pulleys placed on the under side of the walking-beam, and the end of the cord suspends a weight about equal to the weight of screw and clamps. As the screw runs down the weight rises, and when it is to be run up again, this counterbalance carries it up to its place, requiring but little assistance from the driller. 302 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. 535. Dimensions of Drilling Tools, Plate XVI. Pins, each, 3" long, 2f" diameter, 8 threads to an inch. Collars, each, 3" long, 4" diameter. Length of boxes auger-stem, 10"; ring socket, 6"; others, 8". Diameter of boxes auger-stem, 4" ; others, 4i". Square shoulders, 3i"X3i". Diameter of auger-stem and sinker-bar, 3". Length in detail. Rope-socket, Wings, 2' 6" ^ ' Square shoulder, 0' 4" 3' 6" Box, 0'8" . Sinker-bar, Collar, 0' 3" s Bar, 17' 1" > 18' 0" Box, 08') Jars, .... Collar, 0' 3" j Links, (open,) 6' 5" 7' 4" Box, 0' 8" J Auger-stem, Collar, 0' 3" j Stem, 28' 11" V 30' 0'' Box, 0' 10" ) Center-bit, Collar, 0' 3" > Bit, 3' 0" $ ' Total length of "string" of tools, 62' 1" Temper. screw. The ironside pieces or wings are l^'xt" and 4' 6" long. The screw is If " in diameter, 4' long ; square thread ; two threads to an inch. Sometimes a double thread, three to an inch, is cut. 536. A wing rope socket to be secured to the cable by rivets, is shown in fig. d. Other styles have been invented, which are tubular in form, and have a central opening pass- ing through them smaller at the top than at the bottom. The end of the cable is passed through the tube and fitted into clamps, which wedge and hold it firmly without riv- ets, when it is drawn back into the tapering sleeve. Many contractors prefer to use the patent sockets, because they have suffered from loss of tools by breaking the wings or rivets of the other kind. Let me explain why these breaks occur. Usually the end of the cable to be inserted in the wings is simply wrapped with marline and forced into its place, when the rivets are hastily driven and clinched down DRILLING TOOLS. III. 303 on an anvil. This is all wrong, as a moment's thought will show. The end of a new cable is less firm, and contains more stretch than other parts of it, and being thus thought- lessly crowded into the socket, the result is that the upper rivet must take all the strain alone, and bend or break be- fore the stretch in the rope will allow the others to render it any effective support. To prove this, take a socket thus prepared for the rivets, and put in the lower one only. Fit it in one of the wrenches firmly secured behind the sam- son-post ; attach the cable to the band- wheel shaft, and let two or three men put a heavy strain upon it, when it will be seen that the part in the socket has stretched an inch or two, and reduced so much in size that the coils of wrapping slip loosely upon it. The cable should be under a strain like this while it is being wrapped. Then after the lower rivet has been put in it should be again subjected to ten- sion and held so while the upper rivet is being driven. After this it may be released, and the center rivets be put in and clinched in the usual way. I know from experience that a socket put on in this way can be depended upon under all circumstances. 537. Weight of drilling tools. Rope-socket, 80 pounds. Sinker-bar, 3J,', 540 pounds. Jars, 5 1", 320 pounds. Auger-stem, 3^", 1020 pounds. Bit, 140 pounds. Total weight when " strung up, " 2100 pounds. The other parts of the set weigh as follows : Temper screw, 145 pounds. Jars for 8" hole, ... . . 565 pounds. Two bits for 8" hole, (each 160 pounds,) 320 pounds. Reamer, . 180 pounds. Two bits for 5i" hole (each 140 pounds), 280 pounds. Reamer for 51" hole, . 140 pounds. Ring-socket, . . 50 pounds. Two wrenches, (each 105 pounds,) 210 pounds. Total weight of complete set, 3990 pounds. 304 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Cost of drilling tools. Rope-socket, $20 00 Sinker-bar, 38 00 Jars, 5|", 110 00 Auger-stem, 60 00 Two bits, 5i", 75 00 One reamer, 5jj" 33 00 Two wrenches, 24 00 Temper screw, 40 00 Ring-socket 15 00 Total cost for 51" tools, $417 00 Additional for tJie 8" hole at the top. Jars, 8", $140 00 Two bits, 8", 85 00 One reamer, 8", 50 00 275 00 Total cost of complete set, f692 00 538. Materials. The sinker-bar and auger-stem are made of rolled iron, collars and boxes of hammered iron, and pins of Norway iron. The jars are faced with steel on the inside wearing sur- faces and in the crotches, the other parts are of Norway iron. The lower half of reamers and bits are made of the best steel, the upper half of Norway iron. All of the above facts in relation to drilling tools were kindly furnished by the Ames Manufacturing Company of Titusville, Pa. Preparing to drill and drilling. 539. "Spudding" With rig put in complete running order and conductor sunk to bed-rock, the contractor is now ready to commence to drill. But the common boring tools are about 60 feet long and therefore cannot be operated by the walking-beam in the usual way until the hole is deep enough to allow them to sink beneath the derrick floor. He must "spud" the first sixty feet, then, without the aid of the walking-beam. To do this a short cable is run up over the crown pulley in the top of the derrick. One end SPUDDING. III. 305 of it is attached to the ring-socket and screwed to the auger- stein, the other is passed around the bull-wheel shaft two or three times and the end left free. The bull-rope is now put on and the engine started. A man stationed in front of the bull-wheels, seizes the free end of the rope coiled around the shaft, a slight pull causes the coils to tighten and adhere to the revolving shaft, the auger-stem rises in consequence until it hangs suspended in the derrick, when it is swung over the hole and lowered through tho conduc- tor to the rock. The engine is kept running and the bull- wheels revolve all the while, but the man holding the shaft- rope has full control of the tools. When he pulls on the rope, the coils at once ''bight" the revolving shaft, the tools rise, when he gives his rope slack they fall, and so long as the coils remain loose upon the shaft it revolves smoothly within them and communicates no motion at all. Thus, then, alternately pulling and slacking the rope, this ani- mated substitute for a walking-beam raises and drops the tools as much or as little as may be required, while the driller turns the drill to insure a round hole.* 540. Drimnrj Pipe. When a conductor cannot be dug to the rock, and drive-pipe is to be inserted, a mall and "guides" must be provided for the purpose. The mall is made of any tough, hard log, that will dress 15 or 18 inches square, and 10 or 12 feet long. Two sides only are dressed ; one end being rounded and encircled by a heavy iron band to prevent its splitting, the other having a strong staple driven into it to tie the cable in. Two pairs of wooden pins are put in each of the dressed sides, one pair near the top, the other pair near the bottom ; they are two inches apart, and two inches long, and serve instead of grooves in the mall the guides fitting in between them. To erect the guides, draw a line on the derrick floor, through the center of the well and at right angles to the walking-beam ; on this line place two 2-inch plank perpen- * Sometimes connections are made with the walking-beam at a less depth by using a short auger-stem and the jars without a sinker-bar above them, but a description of every variation from the general plan of drilling cannot be attempted. The intention here, is simply to describe the usual modus oper- andi. 20 ITT. 306 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. dicularly and stay them securely at the bottom and from the sides of the derrick. They are to be 15 or 18 inches apart, according to the width of the mall to be used, and may be continued upward by adding two or three more plank, as circumstances require. They are strengthened by spiking a narrower plank on each side, leaving the cen- ter one projecting a couple of inches to enter between the pins in the mall. After spudding awhile, as above described, to prepare the way for the drive-pipe, the drill is set aside the pipe to be driven, armed at the bottom with a steel shoe, as shown in Fig. 3, Plate XIV, is put in place the mall is attached to the spudding cable and let down between the guides, where it is alternately raised and dropped upon the casing or drive pipe by the man at the bull- wheels, precisely the same as in spudding. The casing used is of wrought iron, screwed together in thimbles the same as tubing. A heavy cap of iron is screwed in the top when driving, to prevent its being injured by the blows of the mall. When two or three hundred feet of pipe are to be driven, as is frequently the case in some of our northern valleys, it requires a great deal of skill and judgment to put it in successfully. In these deep drivings, after a sufficient depth has been reached to admit of the introduction of a string of tools, they are put in and operated by the walking-beam in the usual way ; the cable (a short one, tarnished for the purpose) being coiled upon one end of the bull- wheel shaft, while the other end is left free to work the mall-rope on. To facilitate the necessary changes which must be made every time the drill is stopped and pipe driven, the lower part of the guides are cut and hung on hinges some 10 or 12 feet above the derrick floor, and when not in use may be swung up overhead out of the way of the workmen. 541. "Stringing" the Tools. When a sufficient depth has been reached by spudding to admit of the introduction of a full "string of tools," the spudding machinery is abandoned. Now the coil of drilling-cable is rolled into the derrick and set upon end. The free end in the centre of the coil is DRILLING. III. '307 tied by a connecting cord to the rope just detached from the ring-socket, and by it drawn up over the crown-pulley and down to the bull- wheel shaft, where it is fastened ; the bull-rope is put in place ; the- engine started, and the men carefully watch and guide the cable as it is wound coil after coil smoothly and solidly upon the shaft. When this is done the end of the cable depending from the crown-pulley is secured to the rope-socket, as above described, and the full set of tools are attached and swung up in the derrick. After carefully screwing up all the joints, (the bull-rope having been unshipped,) the tools are lowered into the hole by means of the bull- wheel brake, cc. The band-wheel crank is then turned to the upper center ; the pitman is raised and slipped upon the wrist-pin, where it is secured by the key and wedges ; the temper-screw is hung upon the walking-beam hook ; the slack in the cable is taken up by the bull- wheels until the jars are known to be in proper position ; the clamps are brought around the cable (after a wrapper has been put on it at the point of contact,*) and securely fastened by the set-screw ; the cable is slacked off from the bull-wheels, and the tools are now held suspended in the well from the walking-beam instead of from the top of the derrick, as before. Some fifteen or twenty feet of slack cable should be pulled down and thrown upon the floor to give free movement to the drill. When the drill is rotated in one direction for some time the slack coils around the cable at the well mouth ; if it becomes troublesome the motion is reversed and it uncoils. Only by this constant rotation of the drill can a round hold be insured. 542. Drilling. Having now made all the necessary connections, it only remains to give the engine steam, and the drill will rise and fall with each revolution of the band- wheel, and commence its aggressive work upon the rocks below. * A small handful of untwisted strands of cable, say two feet long, is gen- erally used for a "wrapper." It is quickly wound tightly round and round the cable with a greater thickness at the upper part of the clamps than at the bottom. This prevents their slipping and preserves the cable, which must be cautiously protected from harm above ground, or it will be unsafe to use when the defective parts have entered the hole. 308 III. JIEPORT OF PKOGKESS. JOHN F. CAttLL. From this point downward the daily routine of the work is very monotonous unless some accident occurs to diversify it. l3ay and night the machinery is kept in motion. One driller and one engineer and tool-dresser work from noon until midnight, (the "afternoon tour,") and another pair from midnight until noon, (the " morning tour.") Up and down goes the walking-beam, while the driller, with a short- lever inserted in the rings of the temper-screw, walks round and round, first this way then that, to rotate the drill. He watches the jar, and at proper intervals lets down the tem- per-screw as the drill penetrates the rock. When the whole length of the screw has been " run out," or the slow pro- gress of the drill gives warning that it is working in hard rock and needs sharpening, he arranges the slack cable upon the floor so that it will go up freely without kinks, and informs the engineer that he is ready to " draw out." 543. "Drawing the Tools" After attending to the needful preliminaries, the driller throws the bull-rope upon its pulley, and quickly steps to the bull- wheel brake, while the engineer commands the throttle of the engine. The walking -beam and the bull- wheel are now both in motion, but at the proper moment one man stops the engine, and the other holds the bull- wheels with the brake just when all the slack cable has been taken up, and the weight of the tools is thus transferred from the temper-screw to the crown-pulley. This is a performance requiring experience and good judgment, for should any blunder be made a break-down must certainly result. To loosen the clamps on the cable, and unlock the pitman from the wrist-pin and lower it to the main-sill, is but the work of a moment. Dropping the pitman raises the end of the walking- beam with the temper-screw attached to it, and throws them back from their former perpendicular over the hole, so as to allow the cable and tools to run up freely without interfer- ence with them. Steam is now turned on again, and the tools come up. When the box of the auger-stem emerges from the hole, the engine is stopped. A wrench is slipped on the square shoulder of the bit, and the handle dropped behind a strong pin fixed for that purpose in the floor ; DRILLING. III. 309 another wrench is put on the shoulder of the auger-stem ; a stout lever is inserted in one of a series of holes bored in the derrick floor in a circle having a radius a little less than the length of the wrench handle, it is brought up firmly against the upper wrench handle, thus making a compound lever of the wrench, and greatly increasing its power. Both men give a hearty pull on the lever, which "breaks the joint," or, in other words, loosens the screw joint connect- ing the bit with the auger-stem, so that the bit can be un- screwed and taken off by hand after it has been brought up above the derrick floor. The wrenches are then thrown off, steam is let on again, the bit rises from the hole. Now the driller throws off the bull-rope by operating a lever with one hand, * while with the other he catches the bull-wheel with the brake, holding the tools suspended a few inches above the derrick floor. At the same instant the engineer shuts off steam, or else suddenly relieved of its heavy work by unshipping the bull-rope, the engine would "run away " with lightning speed. It only remains now to hook the suspended tools over to one side of the derrick, and the hole is free for the sand-pump. While the driller is sand-pumping, the engineer unscrews the worn bit and replaces it by one newly dressed, so that there may be no delay in running the tools into the well again when sand-pumping is ended. 544. Sand pumping. The "line" to which the sand- pump is attached (as before described) passes up over a pulley near the top of the derrick arid thence down to the sand -pump reel, which is operated from the derrick by * A piece of plank five or six feet long, on one end of which three or four short pieces are spiked one on top of the other, until it has a thickness of about ten inches, with a hole for the pivot near the center, and another for a hand rope in the other end, makes a very simple contrivance for unshipping the bull-rope. A stout pin is put in the derrick floor, say two feet from the bull-wheel, and in a line toward the well mouth, and on this the lever is piv- oted. As the rope plays near the floor, and travels toward the wheel, a pull on the hand rope presses the thick end of the lever against the bull-rope, and being thrown out of line, it runs off of its pulley and drops upon the bull- wheei shaft. When the bull-rope is thus thrown off, the weight of the tools would instantly reverse the motion of the wheels, and, therefore, the driller operates the lever with one hand and the brake with the other, catching the wheels with the brake at the instant the bull-rope falls. 310 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CAELL. means of hand-lever, v and connecting levers, u and t. While sand-pumping the pitman remains disconnected, the bull-rope lies slack on its pulleys and the band-wheel is kept constantly in motion. A slight pressure on lever v brings the friction pulley w in contact with the band- wheel, and the pulley immediately revolves, the slack sand-pump line is quickly wound up and the sand-pump, which is usually left standing at one side of the derrick, swings out to the center and commences to ascend, just now the lever is thrown back and the connection between the friction pulley and the band-wheel being thus broken the sand-pump commences to descend into the well by its own gravity. If it be likely to attain too great speed in its de- scent, a movement of the lever to bring the pulley either forward against the band-wheel, or backward against the brake post previously mentioned, will quickly check it, and thus the speed may be regulated at will. As soon as the pump strikes bottom, additional steam is given to the engine, and the lever is brought forward and held firmly while the sand-pump rises rapidly from the well. The sand-pump is usually run down several times after each removal of the tools, to keep the bottom of the hole free from sediment so that the bit may have a direct action upon the rock. 545. Drilling resumed. After the hole has been suf- ficiently cleansed, the sand-pump is set to one side, the drilling tools are unhooked, and swinging to their place over the well mouth are let down a short distance by the brake, the wrenches are put on and the lever is applied to "set np" the joint connecting the replaced bit to the auger-stem. Then removing the wrenches, the tools are allowed to run down to the bottom under control of the bull- wheel brake. Connections are now made as before, the driller commences his circular march, the engineer examines the steam and the water gauges and the fire, and then proceeds to sharpen the tool required for the next "run," and thus the w r ork goes on from day to day until the well is completed. CHAPTEE XXIX. (Illustrated by Plates XIV, XIV bis, XV and XXXJX.) Different methods of drilling and pumping oil wells from 1861 to 1878. Progressive improvements. Relative cost of wells, &c. 546. Every oil well shaft is naturally divisible into tliree sections : First, unconsolidated deposits surface clay and gravel. Second, stratified rocks containing more or less water shales and sandstones. TTiird, stratified rocks seldom water bearing slates, mud rocks, shales and sand- stones, including the oil sands of the different districts. The first division always requires a conductor-pipe or casing of some kind to prevent caving. It varies in thick- ness in different localities from four feet to four hundred feet, the deepest accumulations always being found in val- leys. The second division requires no support for the walls, but must be cased to prevent the water contained in it from following the drill down to the oil sand. Its thickness may be one hundred, or six or seven hundred feet, depending on location. In the third division the bare rocks form the well-wall, and it is not an unusual occurrence to pierce a thickness of ten or fifteen hundred feet of these strata without encount- ering enough water to supply the ordinary demands of the sand-pump. In Watson's deep well at Titusville, 3300 feet feet of the wall was bare rock, but water had to be poured in at the top to moisten the drillings. Therefore each of these divisions must be considered sepa- rately in describing the well shaft and its appurtenances. ( 311 III. ) 312 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. 547. On Plate X/Tthe reader will find sectional draw- ings of three oil wells representing different periods and designed to show the improvements made in the style of drill-hole and also in its furniture since the year 1861. As the horizontal and vertical scales of the drawings are the same, (j$ of nature,) the sections necessarily show but a mere fraction of the total length of an ordinary well, for to thus fully represent one only 1500 feet deep, would re- quire a roll of paper 75 feet long. TJie "surface section' 1 '' shows about 4 feet of the well shaft below the derrick floor, and 7 feet of the well fittings above it, and is intended mainly to explain the details above ground. The "bottom of drive-pipe section" shows about 4^ feet of the well shaft at the junction of the superficial deposits with the bed-rock, being the termination of the first divi- sion mentioned at the head of this chapter. The "seed-bag section" shows about 5 feet at the junc- tion of the water-bearing and non-water-bearing rocks, being the termination of the second division as aforesaid. The "bottom section" shows about 10^ feet of the oil sand, being the termination of the third division and bot- tom of the well. The artist's representations of shale, sandstone, &c., are merely illustrative, and not by any means typical. 548. TJie three cross sections of well mouths drawn to natural scale (see Plate 14, bis.) will materially assist one in understanding the details of conductor, drive-pipe, cas- ing, tubing, sucker-rods, &c., as seen in the wells on Plate XIV. No. 1 belongs to the well of 1861, No. 2 to the well of 1868, and No. 3 to the well of 1878. As these drawings represent "the actual dimensions of the drill holes and all the materials belonging to them that can be seen in cross sections of the well mouths, they present the facts in a very clear and comprehensible manner, and need no further comment. DRILLING AND PUMPING OIL WELLS. III. 313 Fig. No. l. Well of 1861. 549. The primitive style of drilling and tubing an oil 'well is illustrated in Fig. No. 1, Plate XIY. It shows a simple wooden conductor* with a 4-inch "wet hole" con- tinuing down below it to the oil sand, and a string of tub- ing having an old fashioned seed-bag attached to it. By this method of drilling, as the hole was generally nearly filled with water from the gravel-beds, and kept so by it and accessions from lower water-courses, it was not possible to note exactly where the lowest water-vein was passed ; consequently the point for seed-bagging became a matter of doubt, and frequently the tubing had to be drawn several times to change the position of the seed-bag, before the water could be effectually shut off. It is desirable always to stop the water as near as possi- ble to 1 the bottom of the stratum where it enters the well, for if it be allowed to pass down the shaft below the imper- vious rocks immediately underlying its natural horizon, it may find access into some more porous stratum beneath it, and pass through into and flood adjoining wells which are seed-bagged in a higher geological plane. 550. In preparing to tube a "wetlwle" the point at which the seed-bag is to be placed must first be decided upon. Suppose it to be 300 feet from the bottom. Then the tubing is carefully measured joint by joint, and 300 feet (less the length of the working-barrel, and whatever dis- tance is to be left between it and the bottom of the well,f) is placed in a pile upon the derrick floor. The working- * The conductor plank in Fig. 1, is shown by scale as one inch thick. It should have been two inches. f Sometimes the working-barrel was put 20 or 30 feet, or even more, from the bottom of the well, on the theory that the pump worked more effectively when placed as near as possible to the point at which the oil was supposed to come in. But this resulted in many expensive accidents, for if the tubing chanced to part above, it would be ruined by so great a fall. To prevent this an anchor, or piece of perforated tubing of the proper length should be put below the working-barrel, reaching to within three inches of the bottom, and thus, while the tubing hangs suspended from the top, (which keeps it much straighter than if it rested on the bottom,) it cannot fall to its injury if a break occurs in it. 314 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F- CARLL. barrel is first put in the well and held by clamps fitting under the thimble ; then a swivel attached to the tubing cable, which runs up over the crown-pulley and down to the bull- wheels, is screwed into a joint of tubing, and it is elevated and screwed fast to the working-barrel ; the clamps are opened to allow the thimble to pass, and the tubing is lowered into the well until the upper thimble rests upon the clamps ; the swivel is unscrewed and put into another joint, which is manipulated in the same manner, and thus the work of tubing goes on until the point for seed- bagging has been reached. Now a pause is made and a leather bag like a boot-leg, two or three feet long, and when expanded exactly fitting the well bore, is slipped over the tubing and securely fastened to it by wrapping its lower end with cord. The wrapping is put immediately under a thimble, to pre- vent the bag from slipping up as it goes into the well, for if the bag be a little too large, or a contracted spot occurs in the shaft, the tubing may have to be forced down occa- sionally by levers at the top. After the bottom has been tied, the bag is packed with common flaxseed, and a ring having the same diameter as the well bore is passed over it to make sure that it is of proper size. The top is then tied like the bottom, but not so securely (for it is designed to break loose here and turn, when the tubing is to be drawn out,) and it is lowered into the hole by adding the remain- der of the tubing joint by joint, as before, until the amount required to place the seed-bag in the position designed has been put in, when the head-block is screwed up, the clamps are permanently secured beneath the thimble by inserting the safety-bolt, and the tubing is ready to receive the sucker-rods. 551. The sucker-rods are introduced in a similar man- ner to the tubing ; but as the tubing is full of water, which the rods must displace and cause to flow over at the top as they descend, they can frequently be inserted the first time by hand, without the assistance of pulley-rope or swivel. Indeed, when they are dry and somewhat crooked they re- quire considerable downward pressure to overcome the buoyancy of water and friction against the tubing. After DKILLING A1SD PUMPING OIL WELLS. III. 315 the rods are in and connections with the walking-beam made, the well is left over night to allow the seed-bag time to moisten and swell so that it may fit sungly to the walls of the well. 552. When the pump is started, it can draw its supply only from the well chamber below the seecl-bag, if the latter is effective and accomplishes the purpose intended. Hence (provided there are no water veins below the seed-bag) the water is soon pumped out from the bottom of the well, the oil-rock is relieved from its pressure, and the oil and gas now meeting with no opposition, come into the chamber and pass up through the tubing as the water exhausts. 553. Very grave defects were soon discovered in this method of managing oil wells. Ordinary wear and tear of machinery or accidental break-downs often made necessary the removal of the tubing before repairs could be made, and this could not be done without disturbing the seed-bag and again letting down the surface water in full force upon the oil-rock. In new wells and new territory this might be fraught with little damage; but in an old district, after large bodies of oil had been drawn from the sandrock, it often proved disastrous. Consequently some plan had to be devised whereby the tubing could be withdrawn at pleasure without disturbing the seed-bag, and the first one adopted was to shut the water off by inserting 3^-inch casing, as will be described below. ' Fig. No. %. Wells of 1868. 554. No great changes were made in the style of drill hole or the methods of drilling between the years 1861 and 1868. All parts of the machinery and tools employed were made heavier and stronger, of course, for the shafts were larger and deeper, but the wells of 1868 were still drilled as before, through a simple drive pipe or conductor, the holes being full of water while drilling, and remaining so until the pumping machinery was put in motion. 316 III. KEPORT OF PROGRESS. JOIIX F. CARLL. Fig. 2 shows a cast iron drive pipe* instead of a wooden conductor, through which a plain 5 inch hole was sunk to the oil rock. 555. To introduce the 3-J" inch casing was the first step in preparing to tube a well of this date. On the bottom of it was affixed the seed-bag, and consequently the length of casing required depended upon the distance the base of the water bearing rocks lay below the suface. In some wells one hundred feet would suffice, in others three or four hundred were necessary. Sometimes an ordinary seed-bag was used, and sometimes a patent water-packer consisting of a heavy iron ring a quarter of an inch smaller than the size of the hole, supporting a leather cup similar to the leathers on the cup valve used in the pump barrel. The rim of the cup is thrown open and held against the walls of the well by static pressure as soon as the water below it commences to exhaust. But as the casing was a permanent fixture intended to re- main in place for years, or as long as the well lasted, many well owners preferred to put on both styles of seed-bags one above the other as shown in Fig. 2. *The following note from Report II, page 136, may very properly be re- printed here : " Where it is suspected that the floor of the drift lies too deep to be reached by digging, cast iron " drive-pipe " is used. This pipe is cast in sections about 9' long. A space of 4" at each end is carefully turned in a lathe to a certain gauge, and the end is cut smoothly at right angles to the axis of the pipe, so that the joints will stand perpendicularly one upon the other. A joint of pipe is placed on end in the center of the derrick between two " guides," which have been temporarily erected for the purpose of driving it. A heavy "mall" working between these guides is raised and dropped upon the pipe, slowly forcing it into the ground, precisely as pile? are driven for docks, bridges, &c. When the top of a joint has been driven to the level of the derrick floor a band of wrought iron, made to fit the turned ends of the pipe, and heated red hot, is quickly slipped upon the end of the driven pipe and another joint at once set up. The contraction of this band in cooling holds the two joints firmly together, and the driving process then goes on. In this way joint after joint is added and driven until solid rock is reached. As many as 23 joints have been used in a well. Great care is required when so long a " string of pipe " is driven to keep it straight and perpendicular, a broken bank, or a large bowlder encountered may cause the pipe to so far deviate from the perpen- dicular as to necessitate the abandonment of the well. To avoid this the pipe should be frequently cleaned out by the drill while being driven. DEILLING AND PUMPING OIL WELLS. III. 317 The casing-head was screwed to the top of the casing and formed a substantial hea.d block for the tubing to rest upon. It was very similar to the one shown in Fig. a, Plate XXXIX. 556. Tubing. The work of casing completed, the next step was to insert the tubing. As the inside diameter of casing was 3^ inches, and the outside diameter of tubing thimbles or collars 2f inches, the latter moved freely inside of the former, and could be put in quickly, there being no delay for seed-bagging, and no measurements necessary. An anchor was put below the working-barrel, and the tub- ing added on until it struck bottom, when a mark was made on the tube projecting from the well mouth, and the whole string drawn up again to the first thimble. After taking off the first joint, another of proper length, with the casing flange attached to its top was substituted for it, so that when lowered again into the well the tubing would be suspended from the casing head, and the anchor swing just clear of the bottom. 557. Pumping. If the seed-bag proved effective, the space between tubing and casing was quickly relieved of water when the pump was put in motion, and as its sur- face lowered in the well a partial vacuum formed above it, as was plainly demonstrated by the force with which the air rushed into the well chamber on opening the stop cock at the casing-head. When the water surface drew down below the oil vein, a reaction occurred ; the well chamber quickly filled with gas and oil, the former turbulently seek- ing an exit at the casing-head, while the latter was drawn into the pump barrel as the water at the bottom exhausted, and gradually filling the tubing from the bottem expelled the water at the top, and made its appearance at the deliv- ery pipe in due time. 558. Water Pump. In situations where water was needed for boiler use, a inch pipe and pump were run down between the casing and well- wall into the water chamber above the seed-bag. Its little sucker-rod of inch pipe or of iron rods was attached by a clamp to the 318 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN" F. CARLL. polished rod * of the oil well, and thus by working con- stantly furnished all the water required. 559. Defects in these methods of managing wells. Although the well of 1868 was a great improvement over the well of 1861, still it did not meet all the requirements of the situation. In deep shafts the presence of water in the hole greatly retarded the speed of drilling, and it was real- ized that a column of water a thousand or fifteen hundred feet in height must have an injurious effect upon the oil rock. Experience proved also that many accidents were possible which necessitated the drawing of the casing be- fore the wells could be put in running order ; for the cased part being only 3 inches in diameter, and that below it 5 inches, adequate fishing tools could not be introduced when any serious accident happened from dropping tubing, &c. And again, if the well needed to be cleaned out or sunk deeper only a 3 inch hole could be drilled, and that with tools necessarily so light that the work was slow and un- satisfactory. These and other considerations naturally led to the experiment of drilling through large casing, and this was found to be so great an improvement over the old plan that it soon entirely superseded it. jy 0m 3. Wells of 1878. 560. This well differs from the last described in many particulars. Its drive-pipe consists of an eight inch wrought *The polished rod is a bar of cold rolled iron 12' long and li" in diameter, having on one end a box to fit the sucker-rod pins, and on the other a thread for a swivel. In conjunction with the adjuster, it affords a ready means for connecting the sucker-rods to the walking-beam without the delay of cutting the rods to the exact length required. The adjuster is attached by its bear- ing to the walking- beam, and by means of set screws can be clamped immov- ably to the polished rod at any point, when it becomes a cross head pivoted upon the walking-beam, and supporting and operating the sucker-rods in the well. After the sucker-rods are put in the tubing, and the working-valve rests upon the standing-box at the bottom, the upper joint of rods may pro- ject above the well mouth a few inches or three or four feet. The walking- beam is now put in position, and the polished rod is run u p through the adj uster and screwed to the sucker-rods. Then by means of the sucker-rod rope and swivel on top of the polished rod, the whole string of rods is raised as much as is required to give the necessary play between the pump valves, when the polished rod is clamped in the adjuster, the swivel is detached and the well is ready to puinp. DRILLING AND PUMPING OIL WELLS. III. 319 iron tube armed at the bottom with a steel shoe and driven to the rock as described in the previous chapter. The 8 inch jars, bit and reamer, mentioned among the drilling tools are employed while sinking this pipe. After it has been driven to bed rock the 8 inch hole is continued down to the base of the water bearing strata, one, two, or three hundred feet as the case may be, when drilling is suspended and another tube 5f inches in diameter, (technically called "the casing.") is inserted. Before stopping to case, how- ever, the bits are drawn down gradually to reduce the diameter of the hole from 8 inches to 5 inches, thus form- ing a beveled shoulder for the casing to rest upon, into which the collar fitted to the bottom of the casing for that purpose, is ground and seated by revolving the casing a few times while it is resting on the bottom. This usually pro- duces a water-tight joint, but if a little sand-pump sedi- ment be thrown in between the casings it will settle at the bottom and make the joint still more secure. After casing, the 8 inch jars and bits are laid aside for the regular 5 inch tools, which pass freely through the casing and cut a hole of that diameter to the bottom of the well. Quite frequently veins of water are encountered after a well is cased, and if it does not exhaust by sand-pumping, drilling is stopped, the casing drawn, the hole reamed out to 8 inches and more casing put in. In new territory where the depth of the water-bearing rocks is not known, this ' operation may have to be repeated several times. As wells are now drilled, a contractor is not allowed to continue his work unless he succeeds in effectually shutting off all water before striking the oil rock. 561. Deep "wet wells" seldom give much show of oil either on tools or in the sand-pump while drilling, and it is only after they are tubed and exhausted of water that the oil makes its appearance. But in dry cased wells, the moment a vein of oil is tapped it gives notice of its presence and frequently flows out at the surface before the tools can be drawn. Thousands of dollars have been spent in testing hopelessly unproductive wells that were drilled "wet," be- 320 III. REPORT OF PKOGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. cause it could not be known until they were tubed and tested, whether they contained oil or not. But with dry casing the owner knows when the well is finished whether it will be productive or not, and all the testing required can be done with a sand-pump. Thus a considerable item of expense is saved to the operator who is so unfortunate as to get a genuine "dry hole" or "duster." 562. The average cost of drilling cased wells, (especially if we take into account the reduced liability to accidents from tool sticking, &c.,)is probably but little if any greater than .it would be if they were drilled wet. The additional expense of boring an 8 inch hole two or three hundred feet, and the increased cost for large casing, is often fully offset by the time and money saved in more speedily drilling the remainder of the well. Quite an item in the cost of fuel is also sometimes realized, for a vein of gas may be struck several hundred feet from the bottom of the well, which will fire the boiler until the work is finished. * 563. Some of the obvious advantages which a cased well has over the well of 1868 are these : Fishing operations can be successfully prosecuted, for the bore is of the same size all the way down. A deep hole, five and a half inches in diameter, can be carried on down without letting the surface water in. Torpedoes can be put in safely and with better efect. The water -packer can be introduced on the tubing at * When gas is obtained from the upper rocks in sufficient quantity to fur- . nish fuel for the boiler during the remainder of the drilling, it is conveyed to the boiler through a two-inch pipe, connected with the casing beneath the derrick floor, as seen in Fig. 3. Just before this gas-pipe enters the fire-box, a quarter-inch steam-pipe from the boiler passes into it through a tee, and terminates in a quarter-inch elbow, which is thus held in the center of the two-inch pipe. Another piece of quarter-inch pipe, with the opening in one end reduced to Jess than an eighth of an inch, is then screwed into the elbow with the reduced end pointing toward the fire-box. When steam is let into the small pipe, it vents in the center of the gas-pipe and forms an "injector,-' which forces a current of gas and steam into the fire-box, while the draft occasioned by it in the lead-pipe, draws in the pas from the well, although the well mouth is entirely open, and also prevents all danger from "back suction." Without an "injector" the burning gas is liable to run back through the delivery pipe to the well mouth, where it will explode and set the rig on tire, DRILLING AND PUMPING OIL WELLS. III. 321 any point desired, either to confine the oil and gas and in- duce them to flow, or simply to prevent the seepings of salt water which sometimes come in below the casing in quan- tities so small as to be scarcely noticed while drilling, from reaching the bottom of the well, to the detriment of its oil-production. Geological Sections. Plate XV. 564. Placing this plate by the side of Plate XIV, we see that the geological structure of the areas operated upon at different periods has largely directed and influenced im- provements in the methods of drilling and the appliances for pumping oil wells. The system of operating which met the requirements of the situation in 1861, would have been worse than useless in the deep territory of 1878. The problem forced upon the oil producers has been how to ac- complish a greater depth of drilling without increasing the cost of his well ; and it has been worked out with such success by the thousands of energetic, inventive minds, en- gaged in the business, that the average cost to-day of a well 1500 feet deep is less than one of 500 feet was in 1861, and our present wells are also much more fully equipped, and with a better class of machinery. 565. A little profile section at the bottom of Plate XV shows that the additional depth of drilling was not required alone on account of a greater altitude of areas drilled upon, but was due mainly to the southwesterly dip of the oil sands. 566. Geographical positions of the vertical sections. Section No. I is typical of the geological structure on Oil creek, near the celebrated Noble well ; No. 2, of the higher table lands at Pleasantville ; and No. 3 is made from the record of Button well, No. 4, near Petrolia, in Butler county. The distance from No. 1 to No. 3 is about 36 miles. The well mouth of No. 3 is only 324 feet JiigJier above ocean level than the well mouth of No. 1 ; but the oil sand of No. 3 is 846 feet lower than the oil sand of No. 1. Therefore 21 III. 322 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. over 70 per cent, of the additional depth of drilling is oc- casioned by the dip of the oil sand. Page Plate No. XXXIX. 567. Explanation of Figures Illustrating some of the details of oil-well machinery mentioned in the preceding pages: Cost. a, Casing head for 5 in. casing, $7 65 6, Sand-puinp pulley, 3 25 c, Working-barrel, extra heavy brass, 13" dia. (for 2" tub- ing), 5 feet long, ... 21 75 d, Upper valve for 1J in. chamber, 7 50 e, Lower valve for 1J in. chamber, 4 00 /, Water-pump and valves, 1 in. dia., 14 75 ff, Rivet catcher, 2 35 A, Bull-rope couplings, 3 holes, for \\" rope, 1 33 Bull-rope couplings, 4 holes, for 2i" rope, 1 90 i, Armor's water packer, 21 35 k, Jars. See Chapt. XXVIII. The cuts and price-list are taken from catalogue of Jar- ecki Manufacturing company, dated 1876. It will be seen that some of these prices vary considerably from those given in "cost of well at Bradford," in 1878, when well fittings were down to their lowest figures. 568. The rivet-catcher is a perforated cup, to be at- tached to the valve stem above the valve, and is designed to catch broken rivets, in case any should work out of the sucker-rod joints, and prevent them falling upon the work- ing valve, where they would quickly wedge and score the working-barrel spoiling it, perhaps, for future use, before the pumper was aware that anything was wrong. 569. The water -packer only came into general use about the year 1875. It is one of the several improvements upon the old-fashioned seed-bag, made possible by and naturally following the use of dry casing in wells. Its design is to prevent any water that may seep into a well below the casing, from gaining access to the oil sand, and to stop the ascent of gas on the outside of the tubing. The oil and gas are thus confined in the well chamber, below the water- packer, and the diameter of the tube through which they DRILLING AND PUMPING OIL WELLS. III. 323 must pass to reach the surface, is reduced from 5|- inches to 2 inches. As a result, many wells flow when treated in this way, that otherwise would require pumping. A number of patented packers are in use. The one shown above is simple in construction and effective in operation. It is made of malleable iron and rubber. The top piece, 1, is connected with the bottom, 3, by a slip-joint, the upper tube, 1, passing through the rubber band, 2, and sliding inside of the lower tube, 3. Fig. i shows the packer open ; to close it as in the well, the top is shoved down so that the flange of 1, rests upon the rubber band, 2. This forces the cone into the rubber band and compresses it against the well walls, and causes the lower part of 1 to project be- low 3, and on this projecting end of 1 is affixed the work- ing-barrel, when one is to be used. To 1 is attached the 2" tubing reaching up to the well mouth, and to 3, the "anchor" extending down to the bottom of the well. The length of ik anchor" decides, of course, the point at which the well will be packed, for when it strikes bottom the weight of tubing above the packer telescopes the slip-joint, expands the rubber and shuts off all communication be- tween the annular space outside of the tubing above the packer and the well chamber below it. 570. The " ancJior " is made of a piece of perforated 3J" casing, say 6' long (it must be long enough to receive the working barrel.) This is screwed on to 3. A reducer is inserted in the bottom of the casing, and a proper amount of 2" tubing is added to make the anchor of the requisite length. 571. "Packed Wells." A. large number of wells in the Bradford district are ''packed" in this manner at the top of the oil sand, and they flow periodically several times a day without requiring any attention, for months at a time, ex- cept to watch the receiving tank which quickly tells when a falling off in production occurs and an " overhauling" is necessary. Cost of an Oil Well in 1878. Bradford District. 572. An extensive oil producer in Bradford, McKean 324 III. EEPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. county, gives the following figures in detail to represent the actual cost of drilling and equiping an oil well in De- cember, 1878. But it should be understood that this was a period when both labor and well machinery were at their lowest values : Carpenter's rig, complete, 350 Belt, bull-rope, engine "telegraph," water pipes, steam pipes and fittings to connect boiler and engine, 100 Boiler, (20-horse power,) and engine, (15-horse power,) on ground, 750 Contract for drilling, contractor to furnish fuel, tools, cable, sand, pump line, 1111' do. do. 6,116 16 1870 4, 1262' do. do. . . '. 10,405 62 1870 5, 1105' do. do 7,827 88 1871 6, 1290' Drilling contract, $3,500, 8,132 86 1871 7, 1414' do. 3,500, . .., . 8,401 41 1871 8, 1345' do. 3,600, 9,017 80 1871 9, 1065' Everything furnished by contract, 5,750 00 1872 10, 1300 Everything,$6,700; extras, $317 12, 7,017 12 1872 11, 1200' Everything, 6,300; extras, 380 95, 6,630 95 1872 12, 1212' By day's work, 6,557 04 1872 13. 1402' do. do. 6.671 06 Nos. 9, 10 and 11 were put down by contract ; the con- tractor in each case to furnish the rig, boiler, and engine, casing, tubing, and sucker-rods and to drill the well to the oil rock and tube and test it for the price named. The extras are for drilling deeper after finding the oil sand un- productive. Torpedoes. 576. Torpedoes have been so often referred to in these pages, and they are now employed so generally in oil wells as socn as drilling is completed, and before the tubing is inserted, that it seems proper to close the details of drilling and pumping with a short account of the invention, and a description of the manner in which it is applied. The following quotations from k 'The Early and Late His- tory of Petroleum," by J. T. Henry, 1873, are presumed to contain the facts in relation to its early history, as the ar- ticle was prepared under the eye of the inventor. "In 1862, Col. E. A. L. Roberts, then an officer in the 326 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. volunteer service, and with his regiment in the army of the Potomac, in front of Fredericksburg, conceived the idea of exploding torpedoes in oil wells, for the purpose of increas- ing the production. He made drawings of his invention, and in November, 1864, made application for letters patent. In the fall of the same year he constructed six torpedoes, and on the 2d of January, 1865, he visited Titusville to make his first experiment. Col. Roberts' theory was re- ceived with general disfavor, and no one desired to test its practicability at the risk, it was supposed, of damaging a well. On the 21st of January, however, Col. R. persuaded Capt. Mills to permit him to operate on the Ladies' well, on Watson Flats, near Titusville. Two torpedoes were ex- ploded in this well, when it commenced to flow oil and par- affine. Great excitement of course followed this successful experiment, and brought the torpedo into general notice. The result was published in the papers of the oil region, and fiVe or six applications for patenting the same inven- tion were immediately filed at Washington. Several suits for interference were commenced, which lasted over two years, and decisions in all cases were rendered declaring Col. Roberts the original inventor. " Notwithstanding the success of the first experiment, operators were still very skeptical as to the practical ad- vantages of torpedoes, and it was not till the fall of 1865 that they would permit the inventor to operate in their wells to any extent, from fear that the explosion would fill them with rock, and destroy their productiveness. "In December, 1866, however, Col. R. exploded a torpedo in what was known as the ' Woodin Well,' on the Blood farm. This well was a 'dry hole,' never having produced any oil. The result of the operation secured a production of twenty barrels per day, and in the following month, January, 1867, a second torpedo was exploded, which brought up the production to eighty barrels. This estab- lished for the torpedo, beyond question, all that Col. Roberts had claimed, and immediately the demand for them became general throughout the region." This historical sketch is followed by a tabular statement TORPEDOES. ' III. 327 showing the effects of the first thirty-nine torpedoes ex- ploded, and giving the names and locations of the wells in which they were used. According to this statement, the flow of six of these wells was greatly increased the small- est to the extent of 125 barrels, the largest 200 barrels while the others ranged from four to ninety barrels. In the aggregate the thirty -nine torpedoes caused an increased production of 2227 barrels, or an average of over fifty-seven barrels per well. It must not be understood, however, that this increase was permanent ; for although wells may flow or pump freely immediately after being torpedoed, in a few weeks or months, at most, they will drop back to their natu- ral production again. 577. The torpedo as first used consisted of a simple tin case or shell filled with gunpowder, and having a percus- sion cap fixed in the upper end of the case in such a man- ner that a slight blow upon it would cause an explosion. It was lowered into the well by a cord or wire, and held suspended at a point in the sandrock where the oil was be- lieved to enter. When in proper position, a cylindrical weight through which the wire passed, was dropped from the well-mouth, and guided by the wire, fell upon the cap and exploded the charge. The water in the hole acted as tamping, confining the effects of the explosion to the imme- diate vicinity of the torpedo, and thus excellent results were obtained. Since then every kind of explosive has been employed, and every device which ingenuity could invent has been tried by parties endeavoring to introduce rival torpedoes without infringing upon the first patent. But all these efforts have failed. The Roberts' patent has been sustained in every contest in the courts and the original torpedo with such improvements as practical experience has suggested is the only one now in use. But nitro-glycerine has been substituted for gunpowder, dynamite, and other explosives, it being more easily intro- duced and more certain in its effects. The charges exploded in deep wells to-day are enormous when compared with those of a few years ago. Formerly a shell holding from 328 III. EEPOKT OF PROGRESS. JOHN" F. CARLL. two to ten quarts was considered a good shot, but now from thirty to sixty quarts (100 to 200 fes.) are required. The shells or cases containing the explosive are sometimes over twenty feet long ; but large charges are generally inserted in sections. If, for instance, the oil sand is thirty feet thick, and it is desired to cover the whole of it with one explosion, the process will be something like this : Take a case, say fifteen feet long, and attach an "anchor" on the bottom corresponding in length to the depth of the well-pocket be- low the oil sand. Introduce the case into the hole, and holding it suspended at the well mouth, fill it with water. Then pour in the nitro-glycerine until the water has been displaced and the shell is full. Lower this carefully by the torpedo wire to the bottom of the well and unhook from it, thus leaving it standing upon the bottom and covering the lower fifteen feet of the sandrock. Now fill another shell in the same manner, and in the top of it affix the device con- taining the percussion cap to explode the charge. Lower this also into the well, and when it rests upon the one already put in, unhook the wire and withdraw it. * Nothing now remains to be done but to drop into the well a weight made for that purpose and run ; for sometimes these ex- plosions, even at a depth of 1SOO feet or more, are followed by a discharge of water, oil, mud, and broken rocks some pieces of which are nearly the full size of the well-bore which shoots up higher than the top of the derrick, and makes it disagreeably exciting to those who happen to be too near when the miscellaneous shower comes down. With nitro-glycerine the firing of one charge explodes all the others in the well, and hence a large surface of rock can be covered by it with more ease and certainty than it could if any other explosive were used. 578. The simplicity of the torpedo, and the method of introducing and exploding it, and a desire to evade the payment of the large profit or royalty, demanded by the *In cased holes containing but little fluid, it is necessary to withdraw the wire before the shell is exploded, otherwise it is driven up into a wad and de- stroyed. In this shape it may lodge somewhere in the well and cause con- siderable delay in removing it before the tubing can be inserted. TORPEDOES. III. 329 Roberts' Torpedo Company, (but which royalty, after all, does not seem so extortionate when the immense advantage the invention has been to the oil producer and the extremely hazardous nature of the business are taken into considera- tion,) have induced many well-owners to buy the materials and prepare their own torpedoes. These are secretly put into the wells at night by professionals called "moonlight- ers," who follow the business of inserting them, charging from five to ten dollars for their services. But this kind of work generally ends in an injunction from the court, and a costly settlement with the torpedo company. Another shrewd way of defrauding the patentee has been practiced to a considerable extent by using what has been appropriately named a "sleeper." An operator orders from the torpedo company a small ten-quart shot, to be put in on a certain day, "just to stir up the well a little." He then procures a case and say thirty quarts of nitro-glycerine from some of the "moonlight manufacturers," and secretly lowers it to the bottom of the well some time during the night previous to the day appointed. When the compariy"s agent arrives everything is in readiness for him, and he quickly shoots off his ten-quart shell and goes away, little thinking that he has exploded forty quarts of nitro-glycer- ine in the well, while the company receives their royalty only on ten. 330 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. CHAPTER XXX. On the Glacial Drift. 579. Many curious and interesting facts relating to the Drift deposits* of northwestern Pennsylvania presented themselves to notice at the commencement of the present survey. Heavy surface accumulations were frequently met with by oil miners where least expected, both on ridges and in valleys. The beds of streams north of the main range of outcropping carboniferous conglomerate were found to be more deeply filled with Drift than their southern outlets ; and it often happened in these northern valleys that a con- ductor hole could be dug to bed rock in one well, while a hundred feet or more of drive-pipe would be required in another but a few rods from it. What might be the significance of these facts, with others bearing upon the topography and drainage of the country, no one could tell ; for they were then too meager and dis- connected to be intelligently discussed or understood. Since that time I have embraced every opportunity offered for studying these phenomena ; but as my observations have been necessarily restricted to a very small portion of the drift-covered area stretching across the continent at this latitude from the Atlantic to the Mississippi valley, the conclusions based upon them may not always be in accord with those drawn from a larger field of experience. Still, I trust that some of the local details about to be presented may be found to be of sufficient novelty and interest, even to those who possess a wider knowledge, and who have had enlarged opportunities for investigations in this branch of * We use the term "Drift," in a very general way in these chapters and perhaps rather improperly sometimes to designate any and all of the uncon- solidated deposits lying above bed rock. ON THE GLACIAL DRIFT. III. 331 our science, to secure for them a thoughtful consideration, and for my effort in their presentation, however faulty it may be, a charitable criticism. 580. A synopsis of some of the principal inferences which appear to be reasonably deducible from a study of the topography, drainage, and drift deposits of northwest- ern Pennsylvania, may be given in a few brief paragraphs in advance of the detailed facts. 1st. That a system of drainage was here inaugurated by the post-carboniferous uplift, the main features of which are still preserved ; although many important changes have since occurred, by which some of the old outlets have been closed and new deliveries established, so that certain streams which formerly ran north now fall in an opposite direction, and the drainage of large areas has thus been transferred from the great valley of the lakes to the Griilf of Mexico. 2d. That there was a triplicate water-shed then, as now ; one portion contributing to the Lake Erie basin, another to the Mississippi valley, and the third to the Susquehanna valley. 3d. That the pre-glacial conditions of sub-aerial erosion must have been in operation for long ages, seeing that some of the ancient streams are found to have cut out channels for themselves at least 1200' in depth and of regular gradi- ent, notwithstanding the varying structure of the rocks over which they flowed. 4th. That then succeeded a glacial epoch, during the con- tinuance of which the whole northern country was covered with an unbroken canopy of ice, and the gorges of the Lake Erie slope were partially filled up (indeed some of them were entirely obliterated) with disrupted fragments of mountain-top and canon-wall, intermixed with immense burdens of foreign detritus, brought down on the crystal currents from the Azoic highlands of the north. This also was an age of very great duration ; and to be studied prop- erly, it should be divided into 1, a period of accumulation and advance, 2, a period of maximum development and in- tensest cold, and 3, a period of recession and decay. 5th. That during the Ice Age the basins of the Great 332 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Lakes were formed by the widening and deepening of old river valleys through the agencies of ice and sub-glacial water ; the northeastern outlet was obstructed, holding back the sub-glacial waters and throwing the overflow across the low spots in the ridge at the south, where new avenues of drainage were brought into operation at differ- ent points and at various elevations, and maintained for un- equal periods of time dependent upon the accidents of northeastern obstruction and the topography of the country where the outlets occurred. That during the age of reces- sion, while some of the ancient channels were being widened and enlarged, others were being partially or completely filled with glacial detritus ; while some of the southern out- lets were being abandoned by reason of lowering water-lev- els to the north, others were still kept in operation ; so that, when the ice finally disappeared, a new system of drainage had been established, according to which the waters of the four basins shown on Plates 1 and 2 were diverted from their former outlets into the valley of the Lake Erie basin, (as seen on Plate No. 2,) and made to deliver through the Allegheny and Ohio rivers into the valley of the Mississippi, (as seen on Plate No. 1.) 6th. That since the Ice Age, atmospheric agencies of ero- sion have been effectively at work upon indurated rock and glacial debris ; deepening outlets and bursting barriers have drained nearly all of the lakelets left in the trails of reced- ing glaciers, and lowered, by successive stages, the whole water-surface of the basin of the lakes. Thus the mixed foreign and local detritus of the ice age has been rearranged and modified in its character, according to the measure of these accidental conditions to which it was subjected, and the rugged pre-glacial orographic features of the country have been sculptured into more graceful outlines, while the truncated sub-structure remains to point out the probable topography of the country anterior to its envelopment by ice. 7th. That no phenomena have thus far presented them- selves to notice in this district, which absolutely require for their explanation the hypothesis of submergence be- DRAINAGE OF THE CHAUTAUQUA BASIN. III. 333 neath ocean level since the close of the Carboniferous period. Changes of levels may and probably have occurred ; but the present outlines of topography and drainage do not demand such a supposition ; and the deposition of the al- luvions appear to be as susceptible of explanation without them as with them. 581. It may be well to add here, also, that I have studied the phenomena of ice-action, as they are exhibited in this district, on the theory that the natural laws which govern the movements of water are not abrogated by its congela- tion, but merely modified and retarded in their action ; that owing to the properties of plasticity, viscosity and regela- tion possessed by ice, there may be different currents of it, as we know there may be of water, moving with different velocities, one above the other, and gliding either in paral- lel lines, or at divergent angles ; the laws of velocity, grav- ity, and friction operating the same in ice as in water, but not with equal degrees of activity. Drainage of the Chautauqua Basin. 582. All the drainage of the Chautauqua Basin now cen- ters in the Allegheny river at Irvineton, in Warren county, Pa., as described in Chapter 1, and delineated on Plate No. 1. But, that this channel could not have been the outlet for the pre-glacial basin, which varied but little from this in outline (See Plate No. 2) without intermediate unequal or contorted elevations and depressions of the earth crust, of which there is now no evidence, seems to be decidedly apparent from a study of the following facts : 583. The valley of Tunangwant creek, a stream rising in McKean county, Pa., and trending northerly until it joins the Allegheny river at Carrollton, in Cattaraugus county, N. Y., has been very thoroughly pierced by oil well shafts within the last three years, thus affording a good opportu- nity for making actual measurements of the thickness of drift lying between the present water-plain and the bottom of the ancient valley. 584. The table below shows the maximum thickness at stated points between De Golier and Irwin' s Mills, a dis- 334 III. REPOET OF PROGBESS. JOHN F. CAELL. tance of 14 miles ; and the borings over this section have been so numerous that the results obtained cannot be ques- tioned. 585. Elevation above ocean of the present and ancient valley-floors of the Tunangwant creek, with the thickness of drift now found in the valley. Well mouth. Drive pipe. Old floor. DeGolier, 1490 155 1335 Bradford, 1440 218 1222 Tarport, 1425 240 1185 1415 255 1160 Limestone, 1405 270 1135 Irwin's Mills, 1400 280 1120 Supposing the water- plain slope to very nearly represent the slope of the water surface, we get the following : Approximate fall in present stream. ELEVA- TION. Ii 111 5 g is 1490 De Golier to Bradford, 50 3 16' 8" 1440 1425 Bradford to Tarport, Tarport to State Line, 15 10 10' ' 4' 0" 1415 State Line to Limestone, . 10 3 3' 4'' 1405 Limestone to Irwin's Mills, (1400,) 5 4 1' 3" 1490 De Golier to Irwin's Mills, (1400,) 90 14 6' 5" 587. Slope of Ancient Valley-floor. ELEVA- TION. 3d 3l! ,_ 1335 De Golier to Bradford, 113 3 37' 8" 1222 1185 Bradford to Tarport, Tarport to State Line, 37 25 u 2 2 24' 8" 10' 0" 1160 1135 State Line to Limestone, Limestone to Irwin's Mills, (1120,) 25 15 3 4 8' 4" 3' 9" 1335 De Golier to Irwin's Mills, (1120,) 215 14 15' 4' DRAINAGE OF THE CHAUTAUQUA BASIN. III. 335 588. It will be observed in the above tables that the super- ficial deposits in the bottom of the valley thicken as they are followed down stream or northward, from 155 feet to 280 feet in a distance of 14 miles ; and that the old valley floor has more than twice as rapid a fall as the bed of the pres- ent stream. As the bordering hills rise abruptly from the modern water-plain to the height of 800 feet or more, it follows that the ancient current which eroded this valley must have flowed through a canon not less than 1100 feet deep, (say- ing nothing about the degradation which the hilltops may have suffered,) excavated entirely by its own and atmos- pheric agencies. 589. At Irwin's mills our chain of closely connected vertical measurements ends ; but we have already caught a glimpse of the underground structure of drift-filled valleys in studying the preceding brief tablet of geologic history, as thus interpreted by the drill, which will b of great as- sistance in our further investigations of the subject. The Tuna* joins the Allegheny river at Carrollton, three miles below Irwirf . milesX6' 8" fall=70')= 920' Meadville, on French creek, (15 milesXS' 8" fall=lOO) = 820' Cantield well, on French creek, (3 miles><6' 8" fall=20') = 800' Mouth of Conneaut outlet, (3 milesX6' 8'' fall=20') . . . = 780' 617. From these elevations we may ascertain the proba- ble amount of superficial deposits at each point, thus : * Surface. d P Old floor. Grey's Well (measured ) 1260 226 1034 1358 344 1014 Little Cooley, 1200 210 990 1140 220 920 Meadville 1075 255 820 Canfield Well, (measured,) 1070 270 800 Conneaut Outlet 1065 285 780 Nothing improbable appears in the above exhibit. The depth of drift required to make this route available is in no place greater than what might reasonably be expected ; for both on the summit where the branches of Oil creek and Muddy creek rise interlocking together among a nest of low drift hills, and also at Little Cooley, Cambridge and Mead- ville, everything betokens very heavy drift deposits. The valleys are broad, the side hills sloping, affording ample room for a grand old channel of the depth and width re- quired ; and all the surroundings favor the inference that such an one once existed there. No one who examines the superficial features of the coun- try can fail to conclude that all the drainage of Oil Creek basin and so much of the Conneaut as did not fall directly into Conneaut outlet, once centered in French creek and passed down as far as its junction with the Conneaut Lake outlet,* From this point then it must either have gone * In 1877, before the idea of a northern outlet to the Oil Creek basin had been entertained, Prof. Chas E. Hall, who had been giving considerable at- tention to the drift-deposits in eastern Pennsylvania, came out to inspect the drifts in the vicinity of Titusville. After a thorough examination of the sin- gular deposit lying basined in the hills south of Titusville flats, and nearly op- 360 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. southeasterly into the Allegheny river, or northwesterly into the Lake Erie basin. These are the only two possible channels for it ; which one did it follow \ TVe have very good evidence that the ancient valley floor at the Conneaut outlet junction is not higher than 780' above tide. At the best then it is 168' below the bottom of the mouth of French Creek at Franklin, and 60' below the old floor of the Allegheny at Parker's, 60 miles further south. There could have been no outlet, therefore, in this southward direction with the present status of levels. But the northward outlook is more favorable ; for, the bed rock at the junction lies about 207' above the surface of Lake Erie ; and this free delivery can be reached by the valleys of Conneaut outlet and Conneaut creek in a travel of about 43 miles ; which gives an average fall of 4 feet 10 inches to the mile. The distance would be greater, fol- lowing the present windings of Conneaut creek, but the probabilities are that the old stream did not wander to westward as far as the present one does ; but rather, that poslte the mouth of Caldwell creek, we became convinced that it filled an old vaJlay that it had been transported from the north through Crouse run and Caldwell creek and that there could not possibly be any continuation of the buried channel leading into Oil creek toward the southwest. Then, knowing the fact tint th3 old floor beneith Oil creek on Watson's flats was from 50 to 60 feet lower than it was a mile further south where the stream enters the gorge cut through the highlands, we conclu led to look for a northern outlet. Procuring a conveyance we drove up Oil creek to Clappville ; pas-ed over the divide to Muddy creek, thence to Little Cooley, and so on to Cambridge on French creek. Down to this point there was no apparent difficulty in the way, either in levels or in the width of valleys and probabilities of drift-fill- ing, and wo felt confident that we had been fallowing the coursa of the ancient stream. From Cambridge a very broad valley ex.ends northward to Conneautee Lake, Avhich lies about 70 feet above French creek. It looked as if the an- cient stream had found its way into the Lake Erie basin through this depres- sion but on arriving at Conneautee we were met bj- a broad ridge of strati- fied rocks through which it was evident no buried channel could extend. We then drove northeaster^- to Waterford, on Le Boeuf creek, where the R. R. elevation isonlyOO feet above Cam bridge. The width of valley and great accu- mulation of drift here seen, made an outlet in this direction seem possible. We then turned north toward Lake Erie, but on reaching the summit swamp on the divide, r.t an elevation of 1260 feet above tide, became satisfied that this route was also impracticable, and consequently abandoned all expectations of finding an outlet except through the southwesterly continuation of French creek. THE CO^JNTEAUT JSTOKTIIERX OUTLET. III. 361 it flowed through a more direct but now obliterated or con- cealed channel leading from the big bend into Lake Erie. 618. There is no necessity for confining this fall within the narrow limits afforded by the present Lake Erie surface, for the old valley-floor may have been far below the present water-level of the Lake. It has been demonstrated that the bottom of ancient Cuyahoga valley at Cleveland lies at least 228' below the present level of Lake Erie ; and other streams entering the lake are known to be flowing far above their former beds. * There is no difficulty, then, in obtaining ample fall to carry the French creek waters into the great valley now occupied by Lake Erie, provided the old floor could be shown to have an uniform slope. This unfortunately can- not be done, for no wells have been sunk along the course of the old stream. But having seen that the waters could not have had an outlet towards the south, and that this is the only oilier available outlet for them, we are warranted in concluding, in the absence of positive evidence to the contrary, that the old stream-bed was adjusted to proper grade ; and more especially so, if we shall find that this grade would not require an extraordinary amount of drift- filling on the supposition that the old stream has been ob- literated and the current reversed. From French creek to the head of Conneaut lake is a dis- tance of about 15 miles. By adopting a slope of five feet per mile from our ascertained elevation of bed-rock on French creek, 789', we get a fall of 75' to Conneaut lake, which puts the old valley-floor there at 705'. The present surface water-level of Conneaut lake is 1082'; consequently (1082' 70.5'=) 377' is the required thickness of filling un- * "All these streams [Grand river, the Cuyahoga, Black river, the Huron, Portage, Maume, &c. ] now enter the Lake from one hundred to two hundred feet above their ancient beds, and when they flowed in their deeply buried rocky channels, Lake Erie had no existence as a lake, but was a valley tra- versed by Detroit river, which flowed north of Point Pele island, at least two hundred feet below the present lake level, and received the streams I have mentioned as its tributaries." Dr. J. S. Newberry, iu Geology of Ohio, Vol. II, p. 199, 362 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. derneath it, and not extraordinary, considering the charac- ter of Conneaut outlet and the surroundings of the lake.* 619. The surroundings of Conneaut are similar to those of Cassadaga lake ; and here also a low barrier of drift pre- vents the Conneaut water from flowing northward. But the descent from Conneaut lake to Conneaut creek is not nearly as great or as abrupt as it is from Cassadaga lake to Canadaway creek ; consequently the drift-filling is not * It should not be inferred from the methods above pursued in tracing the old valley-floors by relative levels above ocean, that we are attempting to give actual profiles of the beds of pre-glacial streams. This could not be done, even if all our valleys were as thoroughly perforated by drill-holes as parts of Allegheny river, Oil creek, and the Tunangwant have been, for the present contours of the old floors do not represent what they were at the commencement of the Ice Age, but what they came to be long subsequently, when the conditions had become such as to allow them to begin to retain the drift deposits now found lying upon them. I have no doubt whatever that these channels were greatly altered and modified during the continuance of the Ice Age, some of them having been considerably and regularly deepened, and others, owing to some peculiar action of the ice and under-ice-currents, (operating in a manner which, as yet, seems obscure,) having been actually excavated in long basins or sink-holes considerably deeper than their outlets. The point in discussion is, not what were the precise ph3 r sical conditions of cut and slope in these old valleys, but did our streams always flow in the directions they now flow, or have some of their currents been reversed? Did the immense amount of excavated material from these deep old valleys of the north, draining an area of more than 7500 square miles, all pass out in one turbid stream through the Allegheny river below Franklin, or did they flow northward by several channels into the valley of Lake Erie? In preparing to answer these questions, one would naturally be led to first examine the Allegheny river below Franklin, where it must have received and forwarded all of these concentrated waters, to see if the depth and width and topographical aspects of the valley were such as might be expected in one through which had passed the currents of ages, carrying mam r cubic miles of sediment eroded from the mountains and valleys to the north ; and which, consequently, must have furnished a free avenue for the unobstructed flow of glaciers during the whole of the Ice Age. And if, upon such examination, he became satisfied that the channel did not present satisfactory evidences of having been subjected to the tremendous wear and tear of the mechanical agencies belonging to such currents of water and ice, he would then look elsewhere, not only for other outlets to convey the waters, but for additional facts to support his conclusions in relation to the inadequacy of the Allegheny channel for the performance of the work required of it, if it had always been the only outlet. In the pursuance of these latter objects the above levels are given, and they are to be taken for what they are worth, as collateral aids to assist in weigh- ing the probabilities for or against the theory of northern drainage in pre- glacial times. PL XLI. Conneaui Northern Outlet. TIL 363 \Ibotonulla* 364 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. so well exposed below lake level at the north. Conneaut barrier lies like a core in the old valley, with a surface sloping quite gradually both north and south from its point of maximum thickness ; while Cassadaga barrier slopes very gradually to the south, but cuts off abruptly on the north, as seen in the following sketches, Plate XLI : The shape of the trough receiving the deposit, necessarily determines the shape of the core within it. Cassadaga lies so high above Lake Erie (1305' 573'=732 / ) and so near the lake plain bordering it, (being only about five miles from Laona, where the elevated side-walls of the old valley ter- minate,) that there is not length enough in the excavation for such materials as these to form a permanent, gradual slope. They could not stand at a surface gradient as steep as one hundred and forty-five feet per mile if any consider- able volume of drainage passed over them. The waters of Canadaway creek entering the old valley from the east, about midway between Cassadaga and Laona, have carried out a large amount of material and reduced the slope of the drift-filled valley below that point. But above this a natural dam stretches across the valley, rising steeply to the height of 350 feet and holding Cassadaga lake upon its top. This steep slope is subject only to the wash of the rainfall received upon it ; and how quickly the barrier would be removed if once broken by a stream of water passing over it, may be judged from the following circumstance : Some thirty or forty years ago the mill owners on Cana- daway creek desiring to increase their supply of water dur- ing dry weather, cut a small ditch through the low gravel hills at the head of Cassadaga lake., thus allowing lake water to flow north into Canadaway creek. The stream, small at first, soon began to cut. It quickly excavated a gulley fifty or sixty feet deep on the steep slope of the loose materials which formed the dam, and cut back to- wards the lake so alarmingly that the people of the neigh- borhood were called out in haste to fill up the ditch, that the lake might be preserved from drainage and the country below from inundation. THE CCWISTEAUT NOETHEEN OUTLET. III. 365 620. But the situation of Conneaut is quite different from that of Cassadaga lake in important respects. It is 223' lower than Cassadaga (being 1305' 223'=1082 / ; or 509 feet above Lake Erie) and the old trough below it to the north is protected by side-hills for a distance of about 20 miles. In addition to this, Conneaut creek, on emerging from the hills forming the Lake Erie escarpment, turns shortly to the west, and after a very devious course enters Lake Erie in Ohio ; thus adding materially to the length of its channel. As the current runs, this stream must be about 60 miles in length. I have not examined that part of it north of Crawford county line, but suspect that it leaves the old valley near where it turns westward. The conditions of this ancient valley, therefore, favored the re- tention of the glacial debris swept into it. It filled in deep and broad between the protecting hills, and, having been leveled off on a natural slope as the waters lowered in the lake basin to the north, has not been materially altered by subsequent erosion. How deep the drift of this valley between the lakes may be, we have no positive data for determining. It has every characteristic of the oil region valleys, where actual meas- urements show from 200 ft. to 450 ft., and is unquestionably very deeply filled. About a mile from Conneautville and eight miles north of Conneaut lake, an oil well was sunk in which 112 ft. of quicksand and gravel were found above bed-rock. The well mouth is 150' below Conneaut lake, and it does not ap- pear to be located in the center of the old valley. Conneaut lake was the summit reservoir of the old Beaver canal, supplying water for locking down both north and south. To increase its capacity, an aqueduct about twenty- one miles in length was constructed, through which the water of upper French creek flowed directly into the lake and raised its water-level about eight feet.* This open ca- *The elevation herein used for Conneaut lake (1082 ft. above ocean) is the old canal summit level. Since the abandonment of the canal and aqueduct and the dredging of the lake outlet, the water surface has been lowered from 10 to 12 feet. 366 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. nal tapped French creek at Bemustown, two and a half miles above Meadville, and following the east side of the creek to its junction with the lake outlet, there crossed over the stream in an aqueduct and then followed along the north-east side of the outlet to the foot of the lake. It is here interesting to note, as showing the relative lev- els of different localities, that if this canal were cut through to Titusville on the alignment of the ancient stream, as shown on Plate No. 2, all the waters of upper Oil creek, Pine creek, and their tributaries would flow into Conneaut lake, instead of passing to the south down the main trunk of Oil creek as they do at present ; and the current would have a total fall of about ninety feet between Titusville and the lake. 621. We might go on now to speak of the evidences of a new cut, made during the Glacial epoch, on Oil creek, between Titusville and Petroleum Centre, and of another on French creek, between Utica and Franklin ; and call at- tention to the trend of lateral valleys and the aspects of their terminal bluffs, on that part of Oil creek between Ti- tusville and Clappville, and on French creek, where the streams seem to have been reversed but it would only be a repetition of what has already been said in describing similar features in the Chautauqua basin. A reference to the map will show where the ancient dividing ridges and more recent glacial-barriers are located, as indicated by a study of the topography of the country. While it is to be regretted that more abundant and posi- tive proofs in confirmation of the hypothesis of a former northern drainage for these basins cannot be offered, it must be admitted that the facts already presented are suffi- cient to make it appear not only possible but very probable, for in no other way can the phenomena observed in connec- tion witb the drainage and the drifts be satisfactorily ac- counted for. CHAPTER XXXIII. Excavation of Lake Erie. 622. Ancient valleys, similar to those mentioned in the preceding chapter, are known to enter the lake-basin in Ohio, as shown in the extracts before quoted. The drift-filling in them, like that in those of our own State, is an unim- peachable witness of pre-glacial excavation ; and the direc- tion in which they all trend proves plainly the former exist- ence of a main channel of delivery to ocean through the present Lake Erie basin, and an ancient divide between the water-sheds of the Mississippi valley and the lakes. How did the crest of that divide compare, geographically, with the present one ? In Pennsylvania, if the above expressed views regarding the pre-glacial flow of the upper Allegheny and its tributaries be correct, the old crest must necessarily have been many miles south of the present one, and have had quite a different trend. From the lack of requisite data, the old ridge cannot be located with so much assur- ance in New York and Ohio as in Penn'a ; but I have en- deavored to trace it approximately both east and west, on contour map, Plate No. 2 bis., in order that the continuity of the divide might be preserved to illustrate what is to follow. That such a ridge existed somewhere in this region can- not be doubted, and the reasons for locating it, as seen on the map, will be apparent as we proceed. It was the bar- rier between two systems of river drainage and the source of their supplies one delivering to the north of it, and the other to the south. The table-lands of its summit may have had considerable width, and the head-water streams .may have interlocked, some of those flowing south rising north of its average medial crest, and some of those flowing north rising south of it, as we frequently observe in similar cases ( 367 III. ) 368 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. now ; but it was an unbroken divide, extending from the Catskill mountains in New York, sweeping around the head of Lake Erie, and thence northwardly through Mich- igan to the vicinity of the straits of Mackinaw, and had sufficient altitude to originate the two systems of drainage referred to, and prevent any inter-communication between the waters of the one series and those of the other. 623. What was the actual elevation of the country above ocean at that time, who can say ? It would appear that it could hardly have been lower than at present ; for the old floor of Cuyahoga river at Cleveland is now 228 feet below lake level, or only 345 feet above ocean ; and the bottoms of lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, and Ontario in some places are known to be from 200 to 500 feet below the present ocean level. It might have been higher, (and indeed it seems quite probable that it was,) but inasmuch as any change that did not materially alter relative levels, would not affect our argument ; and as there seems to be nothing discoverable in relation to the old streams of Pennsylvania which requires a supposititious change of elevations for its explanation, we prefer to continue our discussion on the basis of the present status of levels ; for, by so doing we shall avoid unnecessary complications, and be able to pre- sent more concisely the facts and inferences to which they lead. We want it distinctly understood, however, that we are not attempting to advance a new theory, but only aiming to record some conclusions (and they are largely tentative) drawn from local observations in northwestern Pennsylvania, hoping that they may prove suggestive, at least, and be of some assistance to others in a more com- prehensive study of the drift phenomena of this latitude. Judging then from the present configuration and altitude of this divide it is inferred that, at the commencement of the glacial-epoch, its summit could not have been less than 900 feet above ocean in its lowest part which was in north- western Ohio ; and 2600 feet in its highest part which was in northern Pennsylvania; and considering the extent of erosion accomplished since that time, on mountain top as well as in valleys, it may safely be assumed that it was EXCAVATION OF LAKE ERIE. III. 369 much higher. In any event it was high enough to originate the streams flowing northward into the basin of the lakes, and southward into the Mississippi valley the buried chan- nels of which still remain on both sides of the divide as witnesses of the fact. At that time, we may picture the country north of the divide (and that to the south must have been very similar) as a region of sharp and broken ridges, traversed by pro- found gorges, some of them no doubt more than 1500 feet deep, and occupied by rapid streams, all delivering into a grand trunk river which probably swept around somewhat centrally through the basins of lakes Erie and Ontario into the St. Lawrence* the drainage and detritus of a vast area being thus poured into the ocean through a single channel, and this stream meeting tide-water in latitude more than eight degrees north of some of its sources of supply. This is the situation as it presents itself to our view be- fore the country was invaded by ice. Then, probably owing to cosmic causes, an arctic climate supervened. But the * Whether this stream headed in Lake Huron basin or on the southeastern slope of the Cincinnati anticlinal, is left an open question. Possibly the con- nection between Erie and Huron was made through the anticlinal during the Ice Age, and that previously the waters of Huron basin flowed out through the Maumee, and those of Michigan through the buried channel connecting it with the Mississippi. In the absence of positive knowledge to the contrary, and because no other avenue seems feasible, I have assumed that the St. Lawrence valley must have been the ancient ocean outlet for the pre-glacial waters. A buried channel several hundred feet in depth, beneath the present bed of the Mohawk, has frequently been referred to as a probable connection between Lake Ontario and the Hudson. But a brief study of the gap at Little Falls, in Herkimer county, N. Y., ought to satisfy any one that no buried channel exists there, whatever the conditions may be to the east or to the west of that point ; and I can see no possibility of there being an abandoned channel either to the north or to the south of it. Here the metamorphic rocks come up at a sharp angle and form not only the bed of the stream, but a considerable portion of the side-walls. The cut can scarcely exceed 100 rods in width the side hills rise abruptly at least 300 feet in height and the elevation of the top of the falls is about 380 feet above ocean, or ISO feet above the surface of Lake Ontario. An- other gap of about the same width, and cut through similar rocks, may be seen at the "Nose," near Yost, about 24 miles east of Little Falls. These facts induce me to regard the Mohawk valley only as an auxiliary outlet, opened during the Ice Age by the overflow of ice and water from the great central mer de place. It has neither the depth nor the width that we should expect it to have, if it had been opened anterior to that time. 24 III. 370 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN" F. CARLL. glaciers did not come down at once from their northern fastnesses like an irresistible avalanche, plowing up every- thing before them scooping out the lake basins, filling up old channels, scaling the dividing ridge, and re-sculpturing the Mississippi slope as they passed on with a grand sweep towards the south. Ages on ages were consumed in accom- plishing all this, and the specific methods by which the transformations were wrought varied at different periods and in different places, as the relative relations varied be- tween the eroding agents and the eroded rocks. In one place, advantage of position saved soft rocks from destruc- tion ; in another, direct exposure insured the degradation of the hardest. We may study now on the surface only the particular features resulting from the concluding por- tion of the work the faint marks, as it were, of the sculp- tor's finishing- chisel upon the statue; what the different stages were in the process of quarrying the block and out- lining the figure in the rough, and just how the work pro- gressed from time to time may be conjectured, but cannot with exactness be described, for the petrographic inscrip- tions by which alone this detailed history could be read have mostly disappeared with the wasting rocks upon which they were written; the last tablet alone remains to be studied. 624. But in imagination we may look back into the abysmal past and attempt to briefly outline some of the sequences which would probably result from the natural advance, occupation and retreat of a continental glacier in a district presenting the features above described. On the hypothesis of a gradual increment of ice proceed- ing from a northern nucleus, and a steady southward pro- gress of arctic conditions of climate, we should expect to see the great ice wall from the north creeping down slowly partly by a movement of its own, but more sensibly by the accumulations of new materials along its face and in front of it. Step by step it advances it stretches across the mouth of the St. Lawrence, travels onward, occupying more and more of its valley. and soon seriously impedes the de- livery of its waters, which now can only find an outlet be- EXCAVATION OF LAKE ERIE. III. 371 neath the ice, or through a channel way which the ice-move- ment tends to constantly fill and obstruct. Meantime the increasing rigors of the climaf 3 begin to produce their effect along the great divide to the south. The snow and ice of winter, which at first barely melted before another crop appeared, now remain over and accumulate from year to year. They slip from the steep hill-sides, carrying with them large masses of disintegrated rocks, and fill up the deep gorges. Thus the process goes slowly on until the whole basin draining into the St. Lawrence becomes one grand mer de glace whose overflows of ice must now neces- sarily be toward the south. Through all this period, and indeed during the entire duration of the Ice Age, immense quantities of water must have been accumulating beneath the ice sheet. The under- ice-currents conforming to the general outlines of drainage already established, all converged toward the common trunk- stream, and this channel by reason of its trend to the north- east, was the first one to be seriously obstructed by solid ice. No doubt the ocean- seeking currents still flowed through crevasses, and in ice-arched channel ways beneath the glacier, but the capacity of the aqueducts was inadequate to the delivery required. The water accumulated as in an ice- filled lake, until the surface level rose and another outlet was established through the Mohawk valley ; but even with this auxiliary in operation the sub-glacial waters still in- creased, finally filling the basin and overtopping the rim at several low places in the crest at the south. But these results were accomplished only through the greatest irregularity in the operations of the physical agen- cies combining to produce them. The peculiar situation of the basin induced and perpetuated a continual antagonism between the dynamic forces of the ice and water centering toward or contained in it. The main shove of ice was to- warfl the south while the only egress for the sub-glacial and crevass waters was to the northeast. Where a glacier and its under- water drain move in the same course, we may suppose that the ice-arch will be kept open with compara- tive ease ; but where the ice- movement is at right angles, 372 III. KEPOKT OF PROGKESS. JOHN F. CAKLL. or approximately so, to the water-flow, a frequent settling of the ice-roof and obstruction of the channelway must occur. Imagine an unbroken sheet of ice, say 2000 feet in thick- ness, gliding down the Canadian slopes into and across the old valleys of Erie and Ontario and impinging with tre- mendous power upon the southern cliffs. See the strug- gling waters beneath, impelled by a static pressure of from 300 to 600 feet, (varying at different times and in different places according to the fluctuating height of the water sur- face above the valley floor,) seeking an outlet in the direc- tion of the old channel through a labyrinth of ice-arches supported largely by pillars and walls of soft rock left between the eroding sub-glacial streams.* The cross-move- ment of the ice current would undoubtedly topple over and crush down these combination supports of ice and rock, shifting the currents to new channels, and repeating the op- eration again and again. By the crushing and grinding of the rock the material was prepared for easy removal ; by the changing channels the bottom was broadly excavated ; by the letting down of the ice -roof the water and ice were kept constantly at work upon the rocks ; and thus the val- leys were gradually widened and deepened. May not some of the lake basins have been partly exca- vated in this way ? Erie and Ontario are situated precisely where agencies like these may be supposed to have operated most actively. 625. To recapitulate, it seems clear that a system of pre- glacial valleys and streams existed in this region ; that their accumulated waters reached the ocean either through the St. Lawrence or the Mohawk and Hudson, most probably through the former ; that the great divide at that time could not have been less than 600 feet above the ancient valley-floor near the present head of Lake Erie, and 2000 * It may be questioned whether the depth of water in the basin was not sufficient at some stages of the growth and decline of the ice sheets, to float large fields of it. But even if the mass was too thick to float, we may be sure that it was buoyed up by the water beneath it and rendered more susceptible to the guidance of the influences which were propelling it forward. EXCAVATION OF LAKE ERIE. III. 373 feet near the head of Lake Ontario ; that there is no evi- dence of a change of levels at any time sufficient to throw the waters, (if they were free from ice,) from the bottom of this old channel backward or southward over the old di- vide into the Mississippi valley. We cannot avoid the in- ference, therefore, that causes similar to those described above bore an important part in the excavation of the lake basins, whether they were competent to the performance of all the work that has been done or not. 626. It is also clear that at some period subsequent to the erosion of the ancient river valleys, several important gaps were cut through the crest of the great pre-glacial divide, between streams previously taking their rise upon it and flowing in opposite directions. One of these cuts may be found near the head of Seneca lake, opening a communication with the Susquehanna river ; present elevation above ocean 880 feet. There are five others in Ohio, as follows :* 1. Between Grand river and the Mahoning, elevation .... 936' 2. Between Cuyahoga river and the Tuscarawas, elevation . 968' 3. Between Black river and the Tuscarawas, elevation .... 909' 4. Between Sandusky river and the Scioto, elevation .... 910' 5. Between Maumee river and the Miami, elevation, .... 940' Still another gap, the lowest in elevation, the broadest and most important one of all, connects the valley of the Maumee with the valley of the Wabash, the summit eleva- tion being only 790 feet. It will be noticed that these southern outlets to the lake basin are cut down to varying levels, being precisely of such a character as might be expected to result from the conditions above described. They appear to have been surface outlets for the overflow of the under-ice waters fol- lowing the moving glaciers during the period of greatest accumulation of ice intermittent streams dependent upon the fluctuating levels of the interior sub-glacial lake. These water levels, I imagine, were very inconstant. When the sub-glacial streams were delivering freely to the northeast the water line would fall ; when they were obstructed, it * Geology of Ohio, Vol. II, page 47. 374 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. would rise. There were sudden, partial stoppages in the main channels, periodic accessions to the quantity of water accumulating, diversion of currents by crevasses in the ice, and barriers formed by the tortuous movements of ice cores which projected down into the old valleys hundreds of feet below the free-moving ice-sheets of the surface in such a manner as to practically separate, for a time, different parts of the basin one from another. The area of the basin was so large, the water communication so retarded and ex- posed to so many accidental conditions, amounting at times to almost complete stoppage of inter-communication, that temporary outlets to relieve these possible contingencies might be maintained intermittently in this place at one elevation, and in that at a different level until time was afforded for an equilibrium to be restored. It may be said that I have laid too much stress upon the accumulation and action of sub-glacial water (a). But witness the facts. The idea that the Ice Age was a period of cold so intense that it was not possible for water to re- main in a fluid state beneath it, is evidently an erroneous one. Arctic glaciers to-day are the sources of immense water-flows. The cold producing glaciers is atmospheric, not terrene. A non-conducting ice-sheet, by preventing radiation and induction must necessarily increase the tem- perature of the earth' s surface beneath it, and to a greater degree, probably, under a continental glacier than under one of restricted dimensions, where numerous avenues of ventilation or radiation exist around its edges (b). The luxuriant growth of vegetation in close proximity to the ice- wall of a glacier is a proof that the soil is as warm there as at points remote from it (c). The following quotations may be given to sustain the views above advanced : (a) "Our progress on the 5th [Sept.] was arrested by an- other bay much larger than any we had seen since entering Smith's Straits. It was a noble sheet of water, perfectly open, and thus in strange contrast to the ice outside. The cause of this, at the time inexplicable phenomenon, was found in a roaring and tumultuous river, which, issuing EXCAVATION OF LAKE EKIE. III. 375 from a fiord at the inner sweep of the bay, rolled with the violence of a snow-torrent over a broken bed of rocks. .This river, [Mary Minturn river,] the largest probably yet known in North Greenland, was about three quarters of a mile wide at its mouth, and admitted the tides for about three miles ; when its bed rapidly ascended and could be traced by the configuration of the hills as far as a large inner fiord. Its course was afterward pursued to an interior glacier, from the base of which it was found to issue in numerous streams, that united into a single trunk about forty miles above its mouth." " Some seven miles further on, a large cape projects into this bay and divides it into two indentations, each of them the seat of minor water-courses, fed by the glaciers." From "Arctic Explorations in the years 1853, '<%, '55 By ElisTia Kent Kane." Vol. /, p. 97. "The glacier was about seven miles across at its 'de- bouchd ;' it sloped gradually up for some five miles back, and then, following the irregularities of its rocky sub- structure, suddenly became a steep crevassed hill, ascend- ing in abrupt terraces. Then came two intervals of less rugged ice, from which the glacier passed into the great mer de glace." "The discharge of water from the lower surface of the glacier exceeded that of any of the northern glaciers ex- cept that of Humboldt and the one near Etah. One tor- rent, on the side nearest me, overran the ice-foot from two to five feet in depth, and spread itself upon the floes for several hundred yards ; and another, finding its outlet near the summit of the glacier, broke over the rocks, and poured in cataracts upon the beach below." Vol. //, pp. 270-272. (b) "A body of ice, resplendent in the sunshine was en- closed between the lofty walls of black basalt ; and from its base a great archway or tunnel poured out a dashing stream into the lake, disturbing its quiet surface with a horse-shoe of foam. * * * The stream which tunnels its way out near the glacier-foot is about ten feet in diameter ; and I was assured that it never completely suspends its flow. 376 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL Although the tunnel closes with ice, and the surface of the lake freezes for many feet below, the water may still be seen and heard beneath, even in midwinter, wearing its way at the base of the glacier." " This fact is of importance, as it bears upon the tempera- ture of deep ice-beds. It shows that with an atmosphere whose mean is below zero throughout the year, and a mean summer heat but 4 above the freezing-point, these great Polar glaciers retain a high interior temperature not far from 32, which enables them to resume their great func- tions of movement and discharge readily, when the cold of winter is at an end, and not improbably to temper to some extent the natural rigor of the climate. Even in the heart of the ice nature has her compensations." Vol. If, p. 207. "I have found in midwinter, in this high latitude of 78 50', the surface so nearly moist as to be friable to the touch ; and upon the ice-floes, commencing with a surface-tempera- ture of 30, I found at two feet deep a temperature of 8, at four feet-j-2, and at eight feet-j-26. This was on the largest of a range of east and west hummock-drifts in the open way, off Cape Stafford. The glacier which we became so familiar with afterward at Etah yields an uninterrupted stream throughout the year." Vol. /, p. 267. (c) "The glaciers are moving masses, urged down the in- clined planes upon which they are situate by the mutual pressure of their parts, a movement which the seasons accel- erate or retard, according to their character. This motion gives rise to the extraordinary spectacle, of summer produc- tions and winter formations being sometimes in immediate contact with each other, the ice-fields obtruding into flowery meadows, and gradually forcing their way into the regions of cultivation. According to Professor Forbes, the very huts of the peasantry (in the range of the Alpine glaciers) are sometimes invaded by this moving ice, and many per- sons now living have seen the full ears of corn touching the glacier, or gathered ripe cherries from the trees with one foot standing on the ice." "The Gallery of Nature" ~by Thomas Milner, CHAPTER XXXIV. The Canadian mer -de- glace, and the Appalachian mer- de-glace / their encounter, and movement westward / northern drift, and southern drift ; local erosion; erra- tics, and local deposits. 627. Two movements of ice over the highlands of north- ern Pennsylvania and southern New York will be described in this chapter ; one from the north and the other from the south. 628. After the formation of the great mer-de-glace on the Laurentian mountains of Canada, and its progressive envelopment of the Adirondack mountains of New York, and of the entire region of Lake Ontario, southward, to the highlands which enclose the Chautauqua basin of the up- per Allegheny river in Pennsylvania (described in the pre- ceding chapters,) this continental sheet of ice, always aug- mented in thickness, continued to rise and advance, and finally overtopped and flowed over those highlands. To what height above tide its surface attained we have no means of ascertaining, but reasons will be given further on for believing that the sheet upqn the highlands was com- paratively thin ; for, the main body occupying the lower country evidently parted into two lobes, one of which was deflected southeastward down the Susquehanna valleys, the other south westward over the lower highlands and through the river gaps of the State of Ohio. 629. On Plate No. 2, Ms, I have endeavored to show, with sufficient approximation to exactness, the geographi- cal position of the Chautauqua highland divide and its continuation to the east and west ; defining it, as closely as our scattered and imperfect data will permit, by contour lines 200 feet apart (vertically) from the 800' tide level up- wards. ( 377 III. ) 378 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. These contour lines, of course, are only intended to rep- resent the general topograpJiical features over which the ice moved, all the minor details requisite for a detailed topo- graphical map of the region being omitted, many of which are indeed still wanting. 630. It will be noticed that the area of the 2400' sum- mit is small. It is however most important, from the fact that it forms a water-shed with three slopes, contributing to the St. Lawrence through the Genesee river, to Chesa- peake bay through the Susquehanna river, and to the Gulf of Mexico through the Allegheny and Ohio river valleys. West and northwest of this solid continental summit there are several isolated knobs and ridges of equal or superior altitude ; but they all drain into the valley of the Allegheny. 631. It will be noticed also, that inside of the 2000' con- tour line there are both elevations 2500 feet above tide, and valleys with buried bottoms not more than 1100 feet above tide. In other words, erosion has here cut down through a vertical section of surface rocks at least 1400 thick. This deeply and broadly trenched plateau deserves par- ticular study ; for, as it was the last to be covered by the growing glacier, so it was also the first to be relieved when the great ice-sheet melted. It probably supported an in- dependent mer-de-glace both before the advance and after the retreat of the greater northern ice-sea, which in the in- terval of time overflowed it ; and to the agency of this local Appalachian mer-de-glace both the sculpturing of its hills and the drift-filling of its valleys may in the main be re- ferred. Its greatest average height is in the southeastern portion, where the Allegheny river takes its rise ; and it is split in- to two unequal areas by the deep valley through which the Erie E. R. passes (the larger area lying to the south of that valley) which receives the drainage of streams coming in both from the north and from the south. 632. I have discovered no evidences that the great North- ern ice, so far as its Drift bearing part was concerned, ever ICE MOVEMENTS. III. 379 passed over this highland. Indeed ample evidence to the contrary exists in the following facts : 1. No northern Drift is observed to the south of it ; nor in any of the streams which rise upon its southerly slope ; but large quantities of foreign detritus have been swept around to the east into the north branch Susquehanna water- ways. Similar drift deposits are also piled up in immense quantities all around its northern slope and fill the water- ways of the upper Allegheny and its western branches. 2. No northern Drift, as far as I have observed or am informed, can be seen in the upper reaches of the streams falling north from its southerly rim. Such Drift has in- deed intruded into it, through low spots in its northerly rim, and has descended the southerly flowing streams as far as the east and west Erie R. R. valley before mentioned. But this valley is practically the limit of the Drift. The ice current which bore it appears to have been met here by ice-currents from the south. It is plain to be seen from the lithology of the Drift alone, that in this valley two ice streams encountered, joined and flowed out together towards the west. The upper branch valleys of the Allegheny river in Potter and McKean coun- ties are excavated largely in measures lying beneath the Pottsville conglomerate (No. XII), viz., in the Mauch Chunk (Umbral, XL) Pocono (Vespertine, X) and Catskill (IX) formations ; and the conspicuous red sands and shales of these formations are plainly traceable along the valleys of the north-flowing streams and on the river flats as far as Olean and Allegany, where they mingle with the North- ern Drift swept down the opposing streams from the north. Now, as there is no red rock in the northern branch valleys and no northern detritus in the southern branch valleys, as every feature in the main valley shows the movement of a glacier toward the west, as every feature in the Allegheny valley south of Olean shows an ice movement toward the north, and as every feature in the northern branch vall- eys shows an ice flow toward the south, it follows that the northern ice-flow, southward, met a sou them ice-flow, north- ward, and both moved westward side by side. 380 III. EEPOET OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. 633. But although the Drift-bearing portion of the northern ice sheet may not have passed over this summit land, nevertheless the sculpturing of its surface and the character of the streams falling from it toward the south make it almost certain that at one time the upper non- Drift bearing clear ice did flow over it. This seemingly paradox- ical statement needs explanation. 634. I intimated in Chapter XXX my belief that ice flows in different currents, at various horizons, with un- equal velocities and in divergent lines, dependent upon circumstances controlling its movements. To illustrate : Suppose the surface of the front of the Northern Mer-de- Glace to have been 2600 feet above ocean, and the land ele- vations in northern Pennsylvania to have been the same then as now. If the average height of the Chautauqua basin highland summit was at 2500', then the 100 feet of ice which overtopped that summit would have no impedi- ment to its southward flow at any point along the whole front of the glacier ; no inducement to turn either to the right or to the left except as it might be slightly influenced by the draft of side currents in the general mass. The next stratum of 500 feet (from 2500' down to 2000') would strike the headland and must either rise up and go over it or split and pass around it. Of course it would not ascend so long as it had free passage sideways. The next 500 feet, (from 2000' down to 1500') encountered a broader and still more preventive barrier, along which it would necessarily be compelled to flow, and could do so, since a free exit at that level (1500') existed towards the east ; while in northwestern Pennsylvania and Ohio there were probably only a few isolated knobs higher than 1500'. But the next 500 feet (from 1500' down to 1000') was checked in many places ; and now moreover ice moved upon rock instead of ice upon ice as was the case with the ice strata above. But still this stratum also had many avenues of escape to the south even at a level of 1000', as may be seen on Plate 2, bis. Considering now the ice from 1000' down to 750', it is probable that its lower strata met an unbroken mural ob- ICE MOVEMENTS. III. 381 struction along its front which it could not pass around to the right or to the left, but must either scale or breach to make any further progress southward. From the 750' level down to the bottoms of Lakes Erie and Ontario the ice must have lain in a closed trough, and could have had no possible outlet to the south without as- cending a barrier which at the present day is nowhere breached to a level less than 500 feet above the bottom of Lake Erie and 950 feet above the bottom of Lake Ontario.* 635. Obviously, then, both in central Ohio and in cen- tral New York, the ice-sheet would have had (with an em- pirically adopted surface level of 2600') unobstructed flow for its upper 1600 feet ; but on the Chautauqua basin sum- mit, only for its uppermost 100 feet. The strongest and most rapid currents would, therefore, be where the greatest volume found freest movement, and the broad, unobstructed upper strata would undoubtedly have a more rapid motion than those at a lower level, because these, impinging upon the barrier divide, would be deflected along its face if they could not ascend to pass over its crest. The free movement which the upper zones of the glacier had in central Ohio would increase the velocity of its cur- rents there, thus somewhat concaving its upper surface and necessarily inviting all the other currents in that direction ; while the same thing would happen to the east, although not to so noticeable a degree, because the overflow through central New York would not be so wide and free. 636. While these upper currents were thus flowing freely by east and west movements towards the south,, the lower ice in the deep old valleys would be moving more slowly in quite different directions, impelled by the weight }, of the upper ice, aided by the drainage water beneath, and directed by the trend of the gorges from which they could not escape. Thus, after a southwestern outlet for the lower strata of *The breach in Trumbull county, O, is 936' above tide ; that in Summit 968'; that in Medina county 909 ; that in Wyandot county 910' ; that in Auglaize county, near the Indiana State line, 940' ; that in Allen county, Indiana, near Fort Wayne, 790'. 382 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. ice and the under ice currents of water had been established through the Maumee and Wabash valleys (with their pres- ent low divide of about 800') the Lake Erie ice-core would slowly advance south westwardly along the face of the great divide, while the upper and freer ice would pass over the crest in a southerly direction across the lower level high- lands of Ohio. The melting of its base would keep the glacier always at work upon the rocks beneath ; its pressure toward the south would keep it constantly grinding along the face of the escarpment in front of it as it moved southwest- wardly, and the result would be the production of a some- what abrupt and sharp cut northern face to the Pennsyl- vania divide. This feature of its form has, in fact, been reproduced in detail, but on a smaller scale, in many places in southwestern New York and northwestern Pennsylvania, along the larger streams which run approximately parallel with the lake shore.* 637. We may form some idea of the trend of these ice currents by studying the topography which they have carved out, and noting the geographical positions and phy- sical characteristics of the principal lines of northern drift deposits ; but it seems fairly questionable whether these deposits necessarily represent the lowest southern reach of the continental glacier. Let us examine this question. 638. The first piece of Drift that left the northern high- lands had of course a point of departure, a time of starting, and a certain average rate of speed for its journey. It could not start until the ice which bore it had accumu- lated to a certain height over it, and commenced to move ; and* this movement implies the advance, also, of all the ice in front of it, which of course contained no Drift. If it commenced its journey 200 miles north of the glacier front, then 200 miles of clear ice free from this kind of de- tritus must pass on to the south in advance of it. Its move- [* It must not be overlooked, however, that aerial erosion, in the absence of glacial action, would accomplish the same result, seeing that the dip of the rocks constituting the great divide is universally towards the south, so that their basset edges face northward ; and consequently, the northern escarpment (if so irregular a country can be said to have one,) should be steep, whether ever touched by ice or not J. P. L.[ ICE MOVEMENTS. III. 383 ment was slow, and the possible distance it could travel would be measured by the time allotted to its journey. Suppose it advanced at the rate of one foot per day ; it would then consume 3000 years in traveling 207 miles. It may have journeyed that distance, or it may have traveled farther ; it may have moved faster or slower, we do not know ; but in any case, there would seem to have been time enough for great modifications of climate to have taken place between the inauguration of the ice age (which must have been long before the Drift commenced its journey) and the moment when this first emigrant of foreign rock plunged into some crevasse along the Pennsylvania divide, or melted out of the southern ice front of the glacier. The advance sheet of clear ice formed during the period of snow, neve and ice accumulation, and during the suc- ceeding period of intensest cold, may have spread many miles to the south, and then been cut back again many miles by an amelioration of climate, before the Drift-bearing bot- tom ice reached the glacier's front. This hypothesis is suggested, however, merely as furnish- ing a possible explanation of some of the traces of ice action apparently discoverable beyond the southern limits of these northern Drifts. Other causes might have had, and no doubt did have, an important influence in limiting the Drift- deposits to cer- tain areas. 639. If these ideas regarding the movement of ice be correct it would naturally follow that the upper ice -cur- rents, those which reached the farthest south, would con- tain but little, if any, Drift. For, by the constant under- waste of ice the debris which it received and bore from the Canadian hills would drop lower and lower as it crossed the lake basin ; and the upper ices, formed from atmospheric accumulations and carried forward by more rapid currents near the surface, would pile up above it. The glacier north of the barrier- divide and below its crest was moving in a southwesterly direction and struggling to overtop the summit ; while to the south, in many places, there was a natural slope to the rock surface which induced 384 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOH1S T F. CARLL. an accelerated movement in the ice passing over it. Cre- vasses resulted, and into these the northern debris was free- ly poured. Such primary deposits have been greatly modi- fied both in position and structure by the various agencies which have wrought upon them during succeeding ages. The pre-glacial divide being as we have viewed it, a broad and deeply trenched plateau, certainly from 30 to 60 miles wide, the ice-movement was again checked when it reached the southerly rim of the summit basins, and here other crevasses occurred and more debris was dropped. 640. All the low areas of these basins are covered by mixed Drift-beds, some of the valleys being filled to the known depth of 450 feet. These were the grand glacial dumping grounds ; and it would seem that the currents bearing northern material never passed beyond them, ex- cept as local glaciers creeping down through the several gaps already referred to. Here, during the immeasurably long ages of the recession period (when the ice-sheet had become so much reduced in thickness and power that it was scarcely able to overtop the hills in front of it) the southern lip of the great glacier lay and wasted, and its heterogeneous burden of foreign and local rocks was pro- miscuously dropped, to be re- worked and re-arranged by the peculiar agencies which control the movements of ice and water in such situations as these. 641. If we pause here to consider the location and sur- roundings of the Summit basins, we shall see that they must have been, during the final retreat of the Continental glacier, under climatic and dynamic influences quite differ- ent from those obtaining in districts both to the north and to the south of them. If the ice-front was cut back by a gradual amelioration of climate, the southerly slope of the divide would first be sensibly affected by it ; and here the ice-sheet, (being com- paratively thin and thoroughly under-drained,) would waste rapidly from the higher grounds, leaving only local glaciers, urged down the valleys from the mer-de-glace behind or north of them. But when the ice-front had been melted back to the south- ICE MOVEMENTS. III. 385 erly crest of the Chautauqua divide, the battle between the elements of heat and cold commenced in earnest. North of the barrier, the ice-king had massed his forces ; lake Erie basin was full of ice, and all the reserves of the north were freely moving down into it. As fast as one skirmish line on the summit w r as repulsed, another was thrown forward ; and thus alternately advancing and retreating the contest raged for ages before the invading ice was forced back and permanently confined within the limits of the present lake basin. 642. During this period the surface of the summit basins was wrought upon by almost every possible com- bination of the powers of ice and water. In some of the valleys there were local glaciers ; in others, inter -glac'lal lakes. There were temporary ice-dams and ice-gorges ; in- termittent deliveries of ice and water, now in one place, now in another, as accidental obstruction or free delivery might direct ;* and as a natural result, we now find almost *Avalanches of rock and earth, snow and ice from mountain heights fre- quently produce notable changes in the forms and deposits of the valley beds below. Damming the gorges they produce temporary and even permanent lakes. When such a dam bursts, either from the pressure of the water behind or after being weakened by the long erosion of its outlet, deluges and debacles desolate the lower reaches of the valley for many miles ; load it with a new covering of sand and gravel ; and oblige the stream to adopt a new water bed. A memorable instance, occurring in 1818, is described by Escher von der Linth. The Val de Bagnes is a rocky glen among the Alps, thirty or forty miles long opening into the valley of the Rhone at Martigny. Its cliffs are covered with perpetual snow. At its head are two glaciers, out of which flows the little river Dranse, in a gorge between Mont Pleureur (the mourn- ful) and Mont Mauvoisin (the bad neighbor), which has often been blocked by huge masses of ice falling from the end of the glaciers. By April, 1818, the accumulated obstruction of previous years had grown into a cone a hun- dred feet high, behind which the Dranse began to form a lake. The cantonal authorities employed M. Venetz to engineer a tunnel through this conical dam of ice. The tunnel was begun May 10th and completed June 13th. The lake already contained 800,000,000 cubic feet of water In three days the new out- let reduced the amount to 530,000,000 ; but the swift outrush melted the ice, widened the mouth of the tunnel, hurled forward masses of the adjoining glacier, and reduced the length of the floor of the tunnel from 600 to only 8 feet. The torrent then attacked the dgbris at the foot of Mont Mauvoisin, against which the ice cone had rested, thus undermining the glacier itself, and making a water-way between it and the mountain wall. At this moment the ice gave way, and the whole of the lake water precipi- tated itself in 30 minutes past the gorge down into the Val de Bagnes, carrv- 25 III. 386 III. EEPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. every variety of Drift-deposits within their limits -finely levigated clays, pure sand-beds, beaches of lake shingle, coarse gravel banks, windrows of huge metamorphic bowl- ders, and sometimes all of these promiscuously intermixed within a limited area. 643. A similar disorder saems to characterize the deep deposits also, as shown by oil wells ; in one locality quick- sand predominates, in another clay, in another gravel ; or they may all three be present, or repeated in layers in the same well ; but they do not lie, as far as I have been able to discover in any regular order of superposition.* 644. The Chautauqua basin appears to have been filled with bodies of ice and water possessing all the powers and motions requisite for lake- making. Under their actions streams were cut together, valleys were broadened, bowl- shaped basins were formed among the hills ; and had not the processes been interrupted, either by the failure of ice ing off the Mauvoisin bridge, 90 feet above the ordinary level of the Dranse. It deluged the wider part of the Val below, poured through the next gorge, deluged the next open reach, and so on through a succession of basins and gorges it swept its burden of rocks and ice, forest timber, houses, barns, and the very soil itself, forward to Le Chable. Here the half solid deluge became banked between the piers of a stone bridge 50 feet above the level of the Dranse, and attacked the slope on top of which stood the church and houses of the town. Fortunately the bridge gave way, and only the houses at its two ends went down with the debacle. The wide reach of valley from here to St. Branchier was then overwhelmed ; houses, roads, fields and crops, or- chards loaded with fruit disappeared in a moment into the long narrows be- tween St. Branchier and Martigny, and were strewn on the plain of the Rhone Le Burg and Martigny were both ravaged, and the wreck of the spent flo >d was scattered along thirty miles to the Lake of Geneva. M. Escher calculated that 300,000 cubic feet of water issued from the barrier per second, at the rate of 20 miles an hour. The Rhine at Basle delivers only 60,000 It reached the lake of Geneva (45 miles) in tfi hours. A new coat of alluvion, several feet thick, was spread over all the lower Val de Bagnes, but so irregularly that roads had to be cut through it as if through snow-drifts. Isolated masses of rock were carried great distances, one of which, hurled from the gorge on the plain below, measured 12' by 12' and 27 paces around. S.ill larger masses showed that they had been moved. The Dranse adopted, after some fluctuations, a wholly new water bed ; and the whole plain of Martigny was changed in feature by the outspread of a layer of detritus. (See Gallery of Nature, by Rev Thos. Milner, p. 412. * Bowlders of metamorphic rock, and blocks of sandstone and conglomer- ate are quite frequently encountered, and trees a foot or more in diameter have .been reported, at a depth of over 100 feet. ICE MOVEMENTS. III. 387 supply or by the wearing down of its outlet (which re- sulted in drainage) it is evident that the agencies at work would have here formed a lake, in the same manner as they formed one in the Lake Erie basin, where, owing to lower levels and a more favorable situation they continued to operate for a much longer period. * As the glaciers did not withdraw from the basins with a steady and uniform rate of retrogression, but evacuated only after long periods of alternating advances and retreats, moraines were formed in many places; and hence, when the ice disappeared, chains of small lakes stretched all along the broad valleys north of the outlets. Periodical freshets, bringing down the waters accumulating from broad sur- faces, eventually cut channels through the moraine bar- riers / and thus, one after another, the lakelets were drained ; but their old outlines may be traced in many places by the terraces and beaches which surrounded them, and by the lacustrine deposits left in their beds. 645. It is often remarked as a curious fact that nearly all our small lakes lie on summits at the heads of streams. But this should excite no surprise. They remain there as lakes to-day, because they have always received the drainage of but small areas, and have not been seriously affected by an- nual freshets ; consequently their outlets cut down very slowly, and they have not yet had time to drain. We see evidences, however, in nearly all of them, that the water once stood at a higher level than it stands at present. Chautauqua lake may be taken as an illustration ; it has [*This must not be taken in so large a sense as to make the whole valley now occupied by Lake Erie the work of the Canadian mer-de-glace, for the whole discussion of the subject of this chapter presupposes a topography ex- isting before the ice age essentially the same with that which exists at present. To suppose Lake Erie excavated by ice, is to ignore all the knowledge we have acquired by forty years of study of the Appalachian topography from Canada to Alabama. The preglacial existence of the present basin of Lake Erie is as necessary to the argument of this chapter as the preglacial existence of the 1 great Chautauqua barrier overlooking it. It must also be remembered that an eminent difference in the two cases re- ferred to in the paragraph above arises from the fact that the Lake Erie basin valley has a special and r emarkable barrier to the north formed by the up- lifted outcrop of the Niagara Limestone, &c., through whi -h the Niagara out- let has been cut. J. P. L.] 388 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. cut down an outlet through about 50 feet of stratified rock. This has of course reduced its surface level by that much. What proportion of this cut was made during the ice age cannot be known ; but the proofs are patent that a higher water level than the present has been maintained in com- paratively recent times ; and probably the lake area would not have been nearly as large as it now is, if, like other summit lakes, its outlet had been through Drift instead of through solid rock. 646. The southeastern limit of northern drift is very closely defined by the Allegheny river valley in north- western Pennsylvania ; and the locations of the most no- ticeable deposits, when viewed in connection with the trends of the channels through w r hich the materials must have been transported, and by the sculpturing of the hills surrounding the mountain fiords in which they lie, furnish good evi- dence in support of the hypothesis advanced in relation to the methods of ice movement on the divide. From Olean in New York to Smith's Ferry on the Ohio line the Allegheny-Ohio river bed is strewn with rounded water- worn pebbles of northern rock; but the percentage and quality of foreign material varies quite materially at different points. All the tributaries which come into the valley from a northerly direction, and which rise in or near the summit basins, are also strewn with Drift ; while those flowing from opposite directions contain only such local deposits near their mouths as have been forced up stream, sometimes a mile or more, by the Drift-bearing glacier of the Allegheny. 647. At Olean, heavy bodies of ice were forced in from the Genesee valley,* and meeting the ice-current of the Alle- *The manner in which ice-currents were forced into the summit basins through every available opening, may be profitably studied along the westerly branches of the Genesee River. All the larger ones which take their rise on the divide are flowing in broad and deeply cut valleys which connect directly with others leading to the Allegheny River. It may be noticed on the county maps that the highways frequently follow these streams, passing over the ridge from one river to the other. So continuous are these valleys, and so similar are the cuts at the summits to some of the passes below, that the or- dinary traveler might pass over the road a number of times and not be able to tell where the waters divide. The cuts are generally characterized by pre- EDDY HILLS. III. 389 gheny, an ice-eddy resulted, which cut out a broad basin, and deposited heavy masses of Drift, partly foreign, partly local, which, however, was not carried southward far up the Allegheny river valley. This action of the two currents is made manifest both by the shape of the basin, and by the position of the eddy- lulls. Across the river, southwest of the village, a very peculiar hill may be noticed, rising from the plain with a straight- cut side of almost bare rock, in appearance like the side of a truncated pyramid. This sharp-cut hill- face, so in con- trast with the smoothly rounded slopes forming the other sides of the amphitheatre, would be hard of explanation on any theory of sub-aerial erosion ; but as a result of ice- action it speaks for itself. Here was an elbow in the an- cient-river ; and when the ice came in south west wardly from the Genesee valley, it struck the current coming down the Allegheny almost at right angles and held it against this point until its projecting nose had been ground squarely off. A little north of this, the eddying ice has cut another point into a detached, elongated pyramidal hill, and formed several conical drift-hills in the valley basin. 648. Between Carrollton and Great Valley the river has a northerly trend, and here the undercurrents of ad- vancing ice were met and held in check by another import- ant stream pouring down Great Valley. The upper strata of ice found outlets in several places across the hill-tops to the west. One of these waste- weirs between Great Valley and Little Valley was occupied long enough to cut down cipitous banks, a rather narrow stretch of creek-bottom, and an appearance of but little depth of Drift. They alsa usually occur at or near a considerable curve in the valley. The Genesee valley is so located as to have received the full force of the ice- thrust, and its headwater streams rise upon the highest portion of the divide, through which no important southern outlets of overflow have been cut; hence the forward movement of the glacier was impeded and the ice crept through and deepened every possible avenue leading into the Chautauqua basin. The summit divides of several streams inside the limits of the Chautauqua basin have been cut down in a similar manner, and they all clearly show the action of ice. for they are in situations where water alone could never have accomplished such results. 390 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. through a considerable thickness of rock, stopping at the Salamanca Conglomerate, a massive layer forty feet or more in thickness. When the ice-sheet wasted and the valley channel became able to carry the ice and water at lower levels, this outlet was abandoned ; and now, the ice- cover having been removed, a mysterious "Rock City" remains perched upon a narrow ridge the admiration and wonder of thousands of visitors, the subject of many art- istic sketches and pen-pictures, and the suggestive prompter, to many strange and some ridiculous hypotheses as to its origin. South of Salamanca other cuts, but not so deep, were made, as attested by elongated Mil-tops trending in an east and west direction and by deep bowl-shaped basins (now occupied by insignificant streams) into which the overflow has poured. 649. At the mouth of Great Valley there are thick gravel- beds particularly deserving of notice, because they are com- posed of a large percentage of the hardest northern rocks, and the pebbles are unusually spheroidal, as if shaped by attrition under a rotary motion facts which well support the other evidences of an ice-eddy at this point.* 650. At Steamburg the old valleys were wrought into a broad basin ; an elliptical, truncated hill was cut off from the point in the elbow of the ancient river (see Plate XL), and a number of conical ice-eddy Drift-hills were left upon the flats. 651. At Jamestown the old Chautauqua outlet was filled up and a group of Drift-hills were stretched across the valley, completely closing the old outlet and forcing the pent-up waters over a point of fixed rock through which they have since cut a narrow channel 50 feet or more in depth. 652. At Warren the eastern and southern walls of the * Not that ice itself is capable of grinding blocks into a spherical shape, for the characteristics of ice-d6bris are 1. angularity, 2. striation, 3. commix- ture, and 4. range of distribution. But, where glacial-water-streams can manage drift pieces in confined places, they are capable of rounding these in a remarkably symmetrical manner. ICE EROSION. III. 391 basin at the intersection of the Conewango with the Alle- gheny are faced with gravel-batiks, from which I have made a collection of pebbles which can scarcely be distinguished from a similar one picked up from the strand in Dunkirk harbor. As before explained, the ice-sheet here had a southward draft, one current having an exit through the Barnesville cut into Tionesta creek. This carried the Drift up to Stone- ham and Clarendon, about three miles from the Allegheny, where it forms the present divide, at an elevation of about 1400 feet above ocean, and underlies the area covered by Cranberry swamp. More or less of it was also carried forward by the glacier into Tionesta creek. In no other locality has it penetrated so far to the south-east of the Allegheny valley as it has here. But the reason for this is obvious no other stream had an outlet cut at the south, consequently the ice-flow elsewhere was checked and thrown back upon the main stream. 653. Brohenstraw, west of Irvineton in Warren county, flows in an east and west trough occupied by the Allegheny river at its east end. This trough naturally received the full force of a number of ice currents from the north. Near Spring creek, just where such a result might be expected, the erosion has been very extensive. An isolated pyramidal hill has been carved out from one of the old points, and the valley after being widened and deepened was studded with gravel hills. 654. Opposite Garland a stream comes in from the south (Grouse or Mullingar run) through which the ice-current pressed, effected a connection with Caldwell creek, cut down the divide to within 150 feet of the Garland level, and poured an immense amount of mixed debris into the Oil creek basin. It landed in the elbow where the old stream turned north, about three quarters of a mile from the present outlet of the basin, the high hills on all the outer circle of the curve preventing further progress. Here it filled in to the depth of 300 feet or more, when a new passage was opened leading more directly toward the present outlet. But this delivery from the Brokenstraw was only a temper-' 392 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. ary waste weir to the Chautauqua basin, and was aban- doned as soon as the Allegheny channel at Irvineton be- came sufficiently enlarged to accommodate all the out-flow. 655. At Irmneton the evidences of a long continued ice- gorge while the Allegheny was being prepared to convey the additional amount of drainage now forced into it, are plainly seen in the wide cut basin, in the topography of the hills and in the character and positions of the drifts 656. At Oil City and Franklin other accessions of northern material were brought into the Allegheny valley. The contour map at the junction of French creek with the Allegheny (Plate XVIII) shows how the confluent glaciers have sculptured (or completed the sculpturing of) the topography there. The Big &Lndy is the last northern inlet of importance to the Allegheny. Below this little foreign matter has come into the valley until the Big Beaver river is reached, where, as may be noticed on Plate No. 2 bis, a short and quite di- rect avenue is opened up into a large area of low levels. As might be expected, therefore, here lie immense deposits of Drift, largely composed of northern rocks transported and dropped by the local glacier which must have crept down the Beaver valley and occupied it for ages.* 657. Reviewing the above facts, we see that the most conspicuous Drift-deposits lie precisely where they should be looked for if the ice movement were such as we have supposed it to have been, and the relative surface levels the same as at present. The glacial cuts in every instance have been made in curves in the hill-barriers where the full force of the ice- shove was concentrated ; and, through those which were ex- *I strongly suspect that Big Beaver river is a glacial enlargement of a small ancient stream, formed in the same manner as th'ise found in the sum- mit basins ; and that anterior to the Ice Age the Shenango and other head- water streams of the Beaver, including the Connoquenessing, delivered north- wardly through the Mahoning and Grand rivers into Lake Erie basin : but having had no opportunity of verifying my suspicions I can say nothing lur- ther about it. The tendency of all the summit streams to flow southwesterly down the dip for a certain distance and then to swing round toward the north into the lake basin, is witnessed by the course of the Cuyahoga, and also by many of the modern streams along the lake slope. RIVER TERRACES. III. 393 cavated to a sufficient depth to remain as permanent south- ern outlets immense burdens of northern debris have been delivered, which the transporting glacier threw off at every sharp bend in the valley and on every nose where two con- fluent ice-streams met. For the sculpturing of the summit basins, the excavation of the glacial cuts, and the trans- portation of the gravel beds, we seem therefore to have a very plausible explanation. 658. The origin of river terraces has been a much mooted question, which I do not feel prepared yet to dis- cuss. There are peculiar difficulties in it to be encountered. While there can be no doubt of the passage of a valley glacier of great depth along the Shenango and Beaver risers through the westernmost tier of counties, to within a few miles of the Ohio river,* and probably into the Ohio river valley, blocking up for a time the outflow of the Allegheny and Monongahela water basins, there is entire absence of evidence in the shape of striae and erratics that a glacier ever tilled the lower Allegheny river valley; and a complete lack of northern Drift in the Monongahela river valley, f If the Allegheny and Mononaghela valleys before and dur- ing the retreat of the northern ice may be conceived as filled with two local ice streams, moving independently along those deep and narrow water ways, meeting at Pittsburgh and pass- ing together (as one) northwestward down the Ohio river val- ley, cutting off in their deflection the point of highland and leaving the conical hill:}: in Allegheny city, now support- *See for the proofs Prof. White's Reports of Progress Q, QQ. f See Prof. Stevenson's Reports of Progress K, KK ; Mr. W. S. Platt's Report of Progress in Armstrong county, H. 5 ; and Mr. H. M. Chance's Re- ports of Progress in northern Butler and Clarion counties, V, VV. [t The explanation of such conical hills is still difficult. In my Manual of Coal and its Topography (1856) page 153, I give a sketch which I made some years previously, of two such eddy-hills projecting into the valley of Pine creek in L/ycoming county ; of another similarly half-attached to the sides of gaps in the Conglomerate of Broad Top in Huntingdon county ; and of two others connected at gaps in the Bald Eagle mountain near Wilkes-Barre and Jersey Shore. Another occurs in a gap in Nittany mountain, southeast of Bellefonte in Clinton county. No trace of ice-action has been remarked in the neighborhood of these eddy- hills. They are evidently features of the general topography of the country, due entirely to water-erosion in some one of its forms. Those in Pine Creek 394 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. ing the soldiers' monument the combined stream would encounter the Beaver river glacier in Beaver county. Over or through such ice in the Allegheny and Mononga- hela valleys all the drainage of their water basins must pass, a drainage increased in volume in the melting epoch at the close of the ice-age. The thin upper edges of the ice-core in each valley would melt first and more rapidly, the lateral vales would become water pools, and violent water currents would set down the main valley between the ice and the hill sides whenever the under-ice water-way became ob- structed. Thus the materials thrown off sideways by the valley ice would be rearranged, at various heights of 200, 300 or 400 feet above the valley bed, into terraces or flood- plains, like those which now cling to the hill sides. The quality and structural arrangement of the materials composing the terraces and gravel banks, and the positions of the deposits, when studied in connection with the sur- rounding topography, seem to me to favor the view that they were formed by agencies immediately connected with the Ice Age, rather than that they are remnants of the silts of valleys which have been filled up three or four hundred feet and re-excavated since that time. 659. The distribution of erratic bowlders remains to be referred to. The highest point at which I have myself seen large blocks of metamorphic rocks is on the table-land east valley have their summits one of them on a level with an upper (horizontal) stratum of massive sandstone the other (in front of it) on a level with a lower stratum of massive sandstone, as shown in the section accompany ing t lie sketch. These two hills seem to me to show progress of erosion ; the one in front be- ing about half as high as the one behind it ; and the higher one being two thirds as high as the tableland, which is about 1000' above the bed of the val- ley. Their attachment to one another and to the tableland, their shape, and respective positions lead me to believe now that they were cut off from the point of tableland and from each other by accidental differences of hard- ness in the horizontal formations which ran through all three ; and that their quasi c mical shape has resulted from the quaquaversal drainage of vertically descending rain water, and from the universal surface-erosion of frosts and winds; as in the case of all " pulpit rocks." The other eddy-hills mentioned above are by no means so easily explained. But the Allegheny City hill may have owed its birth to ordinary river erosira when the bed of the Allegheny river was 303 feet higher than at present, and may have been receiving its present shape by the agency of river freshets from that time to the present J. P.L ] ERRATICS. III. 395 of Chautauqua lake, at an elevation of about 1750 feet above ocean; the lowest (that is, the lowest broad table-land summit), in Conneaut township, Crawford county, near the Penn'a-Ohio State line, at an elevation of about 1070 feet. All along the divide and at any elevation between these points they may be found. It has been asserted by some that they always lie upon the surface, and that therefore they must have been dropped by icebergs. That they do lie upon the surface in many notable instances will not be disputed ; but it is well proven now that they also frequently lie imbedded in Drift many feet below the surface. Both on the surface and in the gravel-banks they have a vertical range of several hundred feet. The iceberg theory, therefore, in every aspect in which it may be viewed, seems to me to be entirely inad- missible ; we must look for some other agency. For 1. The proportion wliich the erratics bear to the whole mass of glacial debris, if it could be calculated, would be found to be very small indeed ; consequently, where deep deposits of Drift occur they might be so sparsely scattered through it as to attract but little attention, while in exposed situations and in a thin Drift-sheet they would be very prominent. 2. We must consider also the peculiar manner in which they have been distributed. Where comparatively undis- turbed along the divide they are almost always found in colonies, stretching in long and narrow lines, while for miles on either side of these rock-windrows scarcely a bowlder can be seen. , Probably they lie in a similar manner where buried in the Drift, and this would account for their absence in some gravel-banks and their presence in others. They appear to have been thrown off from the glacier moving south-westerly through Lake Erie into crevasses along the summit. Those which came last, after the great ice-flow was checked and the ice commenced to melt back into the lake basin, remain where they were dropped. Many of them were covered at first to a considerable depth by glacial debris ; but subsequent denudation has laid some 396 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. of them bare, and others which lay within the range of frost-action have been brought up by degrees until all such now lie on the surface. The tendency of large blocks of local rock to congregate along certain lines is finely illustrated in many places in the summit basins, where the sandstones and conglomerates have been taken up by the ice and dropped in reefs, exactly as the azoic bowlders have been dropped ; and in some cases near the northern front of the divide the two kinds of rocks are promiscuously intermixed. 3. Another suggestive fact is that northern bowlders are only found in situations where a free movement of glacial ice has been possible. Thus at Cuba, N. Y., in the draft between the Genesee river and the Allegheny, they may be seen at an elevation of about 1600 feet, while at Wellsville on the Genesee, 100 feet lower, not a large bowlder can be found. In fact all the valley Drifts here are composed mostly of local materials, the ice sheet in this stream hav- ing been held in check by the unbroken divide at the south, so that the Drift-bearing currents of the north could not in- trude ; or if they did force up this far, the older Drifts were afterwards covered up by new debris brought from the south when the glacier receded. The conclusion that northern bowlders and Drift have been landed in noticeable quantities on the great divide, and south of it only along certain lines where the glaciers were not permanently checked but had a free southerly draft and delivery, is further sustained by the evidences of ice action in Tioga and Bradford counties over which part of the east- ern lobe of the mer-de-glace passed after breaching the sum- mit at the head of Seneca Lake. No attempt has yet been made to interpret the Drift phenomena of this region by the hypothesis of ice movement advocated in this chapter ; but it is evident from the facts given in Mr. Sherwood's Report G, that the foot-prints of the same mechanical agencies which fashioned the summit basins lying further west are clearly traceable here. The present main trunk of Pine creek, in the southwestern part of Tioga county, looks like a glacial cut similar to those which I have been describing, ICE MOVEMENTS. III. 397 and it is certain that in preglacial times upper Pine creek at least contributed its waters to Tioga river through the old valleys of Marsh creek and Crooked river, now cut off from Pine creek by a long moraine. See Report G, p. 53, &c., and accompanying maps. It is highly probable that the Drift deposits of the North Branch Susquehanna basin when they come to be studied in detail will shed much light upon structural questions relat- ing to the smaller lakes of the State of New York ; for up along through the deep valleys in which these lakes lie came forward one section of the Drift-bearing northern ice sheet. 398 III. KEPOET OF PROGRESS. JOIIX F. CARLL. CHAPTER XXXV. Well Records referred to on the plates accompanying this Report, as published in Appendix III. Boyd Hill Plate VII, Fig. 31. Economy, No. 2, IV, 7. Summit, V, 15. Mahan, V, 17. Graff, Bennett & C.>., j yjj' 32 ' j Pine Creek, No. 1, VII, 34. Midland, No. 1, VII, 35. (V 21. ) Cherry Run [ vn ^ j Ortowold.No.1, |^J; | Kohrer, No. 2, VI, 29. Strotman, VI. 26. Hains, VI, 22. IronB.idge, . IV, 8. Cove Hollow, IV, 9. John Smith, IV, 2 & 10. Boyce, Rawle & Co., IV, 3. Raymond, No. 6, IV, 4. Reliance, IV, 12. 660. Boyd's Hill Well (Plate VI L Fig. 31.) 1876-77. This well is located in the city of Pittsburgh, on a plat- form overlooking the Pittsburgh steel works, near the north bank of the Monongahela river. A full history of it has already been given by Prof. Lesley, in Appendix E of Re- port of Progress L. Below we give a catalogue and description of the speci- mens of sand-pumpings, which were regularly preserved in glass jars as the boring progressed, by Dr. Hunter, who was one of the owners of the well, and personally superin- tended the drilling of it. BOYD'S HILL WELL. III. 399 These specimens were carefully taken from the original jars, brought to Pleasantville, put in separate bottles, num- bered and arranged in order as below, for preservation in the State museum, the owners of the well having kindly made a donation of them to the Survey for that purpose. The thickness of rock assigned to each specimen is that which was marked on the jar. As some of the intervals are large, of course it cannot now be positively known whether the single specimen preserved faithfully represents the character of the whole vertical distance covered by it or not. It is fair to presume, however, that the specimens were taken carefully, as they were intended to exhibit a correct representation of the entire stratification when packed in the jars (one layer on top of another) as the sediment came from the well, and that therefore no material change in the constitution of the rocks was overlooked and no important specimen omitted by Dr. Hunter. Well mouth above ocean in feet, 852 S %o C Conductor, 8 to 8 = 844 1. Shale, fawn color and blue, with layers of micaceous sandstone, 78 to 86 = 766 2. Coal 8 to 94 = 758 3. Shale, sandy, dark, bits of lime, 211 to 305 = 547 4. SS., light grey, micaceous, hard, 45 to 330 = 502 5. Shale, fawn and lead c >lor, some lime, 132 to 482 = 370 SS., as given in record, but no specimens preserved, (see note 2), 100 to 582 = 270 6. SS., light reddish grey, with white specks, soft, fine grained, . 5 to 587 = 265 7 . Shale, slate, and brownish sand-shells ; trace of lime, 25 to 612 = 240 8. Coal, 3 to 615 = 237 9. Slate, hard and firm 6 to 621 = 231 10. Sand-sh ells, grey and sandy-shale, dark, 21 to 642= 210 11 . Shale, bluish-grey, slaty, micaceous, containing frag- ments of limestone. (Ferrif rous limestone,) . 15 to 657= 195 12. Shale, slaty, dove color, soft, 18 to 675 = 177 13 A. i Shale, yellow-brown and black, micaceous, gritty, 13 B. $ soft; Top (13 A) darker than bottom, . . . . . 20 to 695 = 157 (13' A and 13 B' same as above, but washed.) 14 . Shale, slaty, micaceous, dark, 25 to 720 = 132 15. Coal, 9 to 729 = 123 16 A. SS., very fine, grey, . . . . \ 16 B SS., very fine, white, . . . . [ 60 to 789 = -f 63 16 C. SS., fine, hard, iron stained,. ) 400 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Spec tfo. 17 . Slate, nearly black, 90 to 879 == 27 18. Limestone, very dark, 10 to 889 = 37 19 . SS. , white, very fine, and intermixed with particles of grey limestone, 25 to 914 = 62 19 ^ ( | Same, coarse and fine, separated and washed. 20 A. SS., white, very fine and hard. The specimen is iron stained, 80 to 994 = 142 20 B j (Sifted spec., lower part of rock.) 21. Slaty-shale, dark, 82 to 1076 = 224 22. SS., gray, with white specks, fine hard, micaceous, no pebbles, (sifted No. 22 fine, No. 22' coarse.) . 110 to 1186 = 334 23. Slate, micaceous, gritty, 154 to 1340 = 488 24. SS.,light-gray,ftne,flaky,(c >al probably accidentally dropt in,) (sifted No. 24 fine, No. 24' coarse.) 35 to 1375 = 523 25 . Slaty shale, dark, micaceous, with gray sand shells, 30 to 1405 = 553 26A. Slate, shaly, lead color, J 185 to 1590 = - 738 26 B. SS., greenish and red, fine, flaky, . . > 27 . SS., olive-gray, soft, some pebbles, probably in layers of white sand, (sifted, No. 27 fine, No. 27' coarse.) 110 to 1700 848 28A. SS., gray, fine, ^ 28 B. SS., gray-green, red, some slate, . 40 to 1740 = 888 28 C. SS., gray-green, red, some slate, . . 5 29A. Slate, shaly, dark, . . j 29B. Slate, shaly, dark, . . 20 to 1760 = 908 29 C. Slate, shaly, dark, . . 5 30A. SS., very fine and hard, gray, (specimens oxydized \ ) , r . 1775 __ 903 (Sifted No. SOB fine, No. 30B' coarse. ' $ 31. Shaly, gray and red, with thin sand shells 70 to 1845 = 993 32. Slaty shale, with gray sand shells, traces of red, . 15 to 1860 = 1008 33. Slate, with thin white shells, 40 to 1900 = 1048 34 . Slate, common, 38 to 1938 = 1086 35. Slaty, shale, red, green and blue, shelly, 12 to 1950 1098 36. SS.. light-gray, fine, hard, flaky, 15 to 1965 = 1113 (Sifted No. 36 fine, No. 36' coarse.) 37. Shells red green gray with black slate, 45 to 2010 = 1158 38. SS., olive-gray, very fine, flowery, flaky, 25 to 2035 = 1183 (Sifted No. 3S fine, No. 38' coarse.) 39 . SS., white, very line, flaky, some slate, (" 3d SS ,") 15 to 2050 1198 40. Slate, shaly, with sand shells, 40 to 2090 = 1238 41A. SS,veryfine, I 27 to 2117 - -1265 41 B. Slate with close thin layers of fine SS., . .1 ' (Sifted No. 41B fine, No. 41B' coarse.) 42. SS., olive-gray, very fine and hard, flakey, mixed with slate, as if in thin layers, . 21 to 2138 = 1286 (Sifted No. 42 fine, No. 42' coarse.) 43. Slate, common, soft, . . . . 100 to 2233 1386 Slate, common, soft to bottom, 122 to 2380 1508 ECONOMY WELL NO. 2. III. 401 NOTE 1. Specimens marked A B and C are from the top, middle and bot- tom of the Ia3 r ers of sediment as originally packed in the large jars. The du- plicate numbers have been washed and sifted, so that the true character of the rock may be more plainly exhibited. NOTE No. 2. The 1'ollovviug quotations from Dr. Hunter's letter to the State Geologist, dated March 20, 1876, 110 doubt gives a more correct description of the strata occupying the interval between specimens Nos. 5 and 6, than the record which was made after the well was completed, for then the facts were fresh in mind. He says : "We hive passed through 86 feet of sedimentary friable rock, at the bot- tom of which we found fresh water ; then 8 ft. of coal ; [the coal is included in the 6 ft., according to the jars,] followed by 211 feet of rock similar to the 80 ft. ; then 45 ft. of close white sandstone, hard ; then 132 ft. of slate, to u . Calcareous iron ore, 2 to 109 = 621 7. Shale, muddy, light-gray, 10 to 119 = 611 8. Shale, slaty, dark-gray, 50 to 169 = 561 2G III. 402 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHX F. CARLL. Spec. Nos. 9. SS., white with black seams, ^ 41 to 210:= 520 10. SS., white with slate and pebbles, 6> 11 . Shale, dark and muddy, 40 to 250 = 480 12. SS., shelly, tine, micaceous, gray and brown, ... 24 to 274= 456 13. SS., fine, gray, with white specks, 5^ 14. Mud rock, 1 ( 26 to 300 = 430 15. SS., gray, white specks, no pebbles, 20 J 16. Shale, slaty, and shells of micaceous SS., 40 to 340 = 390 17. SS., fine, greenish gray and red, 5 15 to 355 = 375 18. SS., fine, gray and fawn color, soft, 10 ) 19. Slate, shale and mud rock, 75 to 430 = 300 20. SS., flaggy, fine, hard, 40 to 470 = 260 21 . Shaly slate, with fine sand, 12 to 482 = 248 22. SS., fine, hard, greenish and brown, 5 to 487 = 243 23. Slaty shale, ^ * 43 to 530 = 200 24 . Slaty shale, somewhat sandy, 18 S 25 . Sandy shale and mud, 7 to 537 = 193 26. SS., gray, pebbly, 3 * 23 to 560 = 170 27. SS., light gray, fine, 20 S 28. Slate, with sand from above, .... 10 to 570 160 29. SS., yellowish, very tine, 20 to 590 = 140 30. Slate, with sand from above, 5 to 595 = 135 31. SS., gray, very fine, . . 15 to 610 = 120 32. Sandy slate, dark, 4 to 614= 116 33. SS., fine, nearly white, 80 to 694 = + 36 34. Sandy slate, dark, 10^ 35. Sandy slate (specimen lost), 82 [ 235 to 929 = 199 36 . Slate, 143 J 37 . Red clay and dark slate, 15 to 944 = 214 38. Slate, 116 to 1060 = 330 39. SS., light-gray mica, with white specks, 30 to 1090 = 360 40. Slate and mud rock, ^ 1 400 to 1490 = - 760 41 . Slate and mud rock, 40 > 42. SS., gray, very fine, flaky, 100 to 1590 = 860 43. Slate, (42 B mud at 1580,) 10 to 1600 = 870 44. SS., whitish, very tine, hard, flaky, 10 to 1610 = 880 45. Shale, muddy, 55 to 1665 = 935 46 . Slaty shale, sandy, 40 to 1705 = 975 47 . Mud rock, 75 to 1780 = 1050 48. SS., flaggy, very fine, micaceous, 30 to 1810 = 1080 49. Mud rock, 10 to 1820 = 1090 50. Sandy slate, very fine sand, 15 \ 51. Sandy slate, very fine sand, 20V 85 to 1905 = 1 175 52. Slate and fine sand shells, 50 ) 53. Black slaty shale, 5 per ct. of carbonaceous matter, 35 to 1940 = 1210 54. SS., very fine, flaky, 10 to 1950 = 1220 55 ' Slate ' 5 | 150 to 2100- -1370 56. Slate, 100$ 58. Mud rock, 50 to 2150 = 1420 ' ' 50 j 180 to 2330 = -1600 59. Slate, 130 i ECONOMY WELL NO. 2. III. 403 Work on the above well was commenced in May, 1876, and suspended about the 1st of July, 1877. At the solici- tation of Prof. White who was making his survey of Beaver county in 1876, Mr. J. W. Ramsey, superintendent of the drilling operations of the Economy society, carefully pre- served samples of the sand pumpings wherever a change in the composition of the rocks occurred. These specimens, 59 in number, were designed for the museum of the Survey and were consequently added to my collection at Pleasant- ville, so that all oil well specimens might be grouped to- gether. The above record is made from the specimens and labels on the bottles, and is no doubt as specific as a record can be made under the circumstances, where a single speci- men represents so great an interval as some of these do. In January, .1877, I visited the well, then 1300 feet deep and from Mr. Ramsey received the following particulars relating to it. A twelve inch hole was drilled to the depth of 557 feet and cased with 8 inch pipe (inside diameter) which effect- ually shut off all fresh water. A little gas was noticed at 430 feet. From the large casing an 8 inch hole was sunk to 820' at which depth 5f inch casing was put in to shut out a heavy vein of salt water encountered in the 80 foot sand at 614 feet. In this part of the hole gas was struck at 517 feet, sufficient in quantity to fire a 12 horse boiler, and this was still further increased by the gas coming in with the salt water at 614 feet. After inserting the inside casing the gas and salt water flowed constantly over the well mouth between the two casings. The water was very salt, yield- ing on a rough test made by Mr. Ramsey, seventeen ounces of salt to one gallon of water. From 820 feet a 5 inch hole, was drilled on down. At 1060 feet another salt water vein was struck but as it was small and could be kept down by the sand pump, drilling was not interrupted, until at 1280 feet another supply was tapped which proved to be so copious that it could not be exhausted and therefore at 1300 feet it was thought advis- able to stop drilling, pull the casing and ream down the 8 inch hole to that point. After this was done and the 5f 404 III. HEPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. inch casing inserted to 1300 feet, no further trouble was ex- perienced from water, and the hole was then drilled on down to 2330 feet, where, meeting with neither gas nor oil, the work stopped. Summit Well. (Plate V, Fig. 15.} 1876. 662. Near Great Belt city or Summit, Summit township, Butler county. Authority, Kirk & Dill worth. Well mouth above ocean, in feet, 1326 ?, 120 to 120= 1200 Coal, 120 = 1206 ?, 205 to 325 = 1001 Coal, 325 = 1001 ?, 223 to 54S = 778 Limestone, 14 to 562 = + 764 ?, 778 to 1310 = 14 Large flow of gas, 1310 = 14 ?, . 152 to 1492 = 166 SS., "2d Sand, 11 20 to 1512 = 186 ?, 234 to 1746 = 420 SS., "Stray," 16 to 1762 = 436 ?, 10 to 1772 = 446 SS., "3d Sand," 36 to 1H03 = 482 ?, 14 to 1822 = - 496 Mahan Well. (Plate V, Fig. 17.) 1875. 063. On Mahan farm, Middlesex township, Butler county. Hart&Conkle, owners. Authority, F. A. Conkle and C. E. Hart. Well mouth above ocean, in feet : Conductor, 12 to 12 = ?, 63 to 75 = "Bluff sand," followed by?, 125 to 200 = Coal, 4 to 204 = ?, 86 to 290 = Coal, 2 to 292 = Slate, 3 to 295 = Limestone, 20 to 315 = ?, 85 to 400 = SS, 60 to 460 = ?, 180 to 610 = Coal and coal shales, water and gas, 8 to 648 = ?, (cased at 660',) 27 to 675 = SS., very hard, 90 to 765 = ?, 385 to 1150 = 8S., shelly, 100 to 1250 = ?, . 90 to 1340 = GRAFF, BENNETT & CO.'S WELL. III. 405 SS., black ; brackish water, 10 to 1350 = SS., fresh water, 50 to 1400 Slates 70 to 1470 = SS-, black and loose,* 10 to 1480 = SS., grey, 50 to 1530 = Slate, 15 to 1545 = Red Shale, 10 to 1555 = Slate, 10 to 1565 = Bowlder, 20 to 1585 = Slate, 38 to 1623 = SS., "corn meal," 37 to 1660 = Slate, 40 to 1700 = SS., Pink pebble, 25 to 1725 = ?, 15 to 1740 = SS., fine white, 15 to 1755 = Shales and slates, 30 to 1785 = SS., white and pebbly, 17 to 1802 = Slate, 28 to 1830 Shales and sand, 10 to 1840 Shales, blood red, 90 to 1930 = Tills record is compiled from the record given by Mr. Conkle, in Report II, page 271, compared with the record given by Mr. Hart, in Report Q, page 81. Graff, Bennett &Co:s Well. Plate V, Fig. 18, and Plate VII, Fig. 32. June, 1878. 644. Located on west side of the Allegheny river, Tarentum, Allegheny county. Authority, James E. Karns. Well mouth above ocean, in feet 872 ?, 418 to 418 = 454 SS., white, coarse "4ff rode," 49 to 467 = 405 Slate, black, . [Brine and red oil horizon, see note,] . 53 to 520= 352 SS., white, hard, fine "70' rock," 75 to 595= 277 SS., green, soft, ) f 95 to 690 = 182 SS., gr^y, hard, } " Mountain Sand," . . . . I 85 to 775 = 97 SS., white, hard J t 43 to 818 = 54 Slate, blue, shelly, 10 to 828 = 44 Slate, red, hard, 5 to 833 = -(- 89 Slate, dark, gritty, 128 to C61 = 89 SS., gray to white, hard, " 1st SS.," 199 to 1160 == 28S Slate, dark, gritty, shelly, 58 to 1218 = 346 SS., dark to white, 1 ( 29 to 1247 = 375 SS., blue to white, ! "0dSS" J 40tol2G 7= 415 SS., blue to white, [ ' ' j 50 to 1337 = 465 SS., blue to white, ) [ 25 to 1362 = 490 *Mr. Conklesays, " 10' SS., black and loose, with amber oil and salt water." Mr. Hart, 60' SS.. very white, amber oil, 5 barrel well. Whatever the " show of oil " may have been, it was not considered worth pumping, and the well was put deeper and then abandoned. 406 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Slate, dark, gritty, shelly, 68 to 1430 = 558 SS., deep red, hard, > u < 15 to 1445 = 573 SS., blue to gray, $ ' 1 35 to 1480 = - 608 Slate, dark, gritty, shelly, 27 to 1507 = 635 SS., light red, 3 to 1510 = 638 SS., black, 5 to 1515 = 643 Slate, dark, 12 to 1527 = 655 SS., blue, bottom pebbly, } ( 10 to 1537 = 665 Slate, black, I 30 < rock" J 5 to 1542 =- 670 SS., blue to white, . . . [ ' 1 10 to 1552 = - 680 SS., red, ) { 10 to 1562 = 690 Slate, pink to white, 18 to 1580 = 708 Slate, blue and shelly, 22 to 1602 = 730 SS., bluish, very hard,- . . . " Blue Monday," 8 to 1610 = 738 Slate, black, 12 to 1622 = 750 Slate, red, 2 to 1624 = 752 Slate, gray, shelly, 2 to 1626 744 SS., gray, 2 to 1628 = 756 Slate, red and black mixed, 36 to 1664 = 792 SS., gray, 3 to 1667 = 795 Slate, red to blue, shelly, ' 16 to 1683 = 811 SS., gray to white, "Bowlder," 25 to 1708 = 836 Slate, white, 2 to 1710 = 838 SS., dark to light gray, "Stray 3d," 12 to 1722 = 850 Slate, black, shelly, 40 to 1762 = 890 SS., gray, pebbly at bottom, .... "SdSS.," 20 to 1782 = 910 Slate, red to gray, 10 to 1792 =920 Slate, gray, 28 to 1820 = 948 SS , gray, loose, pebbly, "jthSS.," 8 to 1828 =956 Slate, purple to black, 98 to 1926 = 1054 Sand-shells, gray and green, 7 to 1933 = 1061 Slate, gray, 25 to 1958 = 1086 Slate, black, gritty, 20 to '1978 =1106 Slate, gray, no grit, 44 to 2022 = 1150 Slate, black, no grit, 120 to 2142 = 1270 Slate, blue, no grit, 30 to 2172 = 1300 Slate, brown, soft sand shells 20 to 2192 = 1320 Sand shells, light-green, 10 to 2202 = 1330 Slate, dark, no grit, 25 to 2227 = 13-55 SS., gray, flaggy, hard, 5 to 2232 1360 Slate, dark, no grit, 30 to 2262 = 1390 SS., light-gray, coarse, 8 to 2270 = 1398 Slate, dark, soft, 14 to 2284 = 1412 findinos in well : 1st. Salt water, copious, 4 at 454 ft. Mud vein, at 451 ft. 2d. Salt water, copious, . . 4 at 461 ft. 3d. Salt water, less in quantity, 8 at 476 ft. 4th. Salt water, small quantity, 14 at 828 ft. Fresh water (brackish) and gas, at 1247 ft. 1st. Gas, small quantity, at 634 ft. PETERSON WELL. III. 407 2d. Gas, small quantity, with fresh water, at 1247 ft. 3d. Gas, strong, flame 50' high, at 1287 ft. 4th. Gas, small but oily, at 1705 ft. On closing the well mouth the gas pressure has run up to 130 fcs. to the square inch, and would go higher if not relieved. The well has been cased at five different points, thus en- abling the testing of each product separately. It is now cased at 1328 feet. Mr. Karns says in his letter accompanying the record : 11 You will observe the brine marked 8. This is always obtained (if found at all) between the 40' and 70' rocks, and with it comes the red oil of this district. We got the brine, but merely a show of oil." "I commenced this record at the top of what is known in this county as the 40' rock, the stratum which has furnished nearly all the salt which has been made in the county, al- though some brine has been got in the 70' rock, the top member of the mountain sand series. The stratification above this 40' rock was so well known that I only thought it necessary to see that this well coincided with it. En- closed is a record of the Peterson well near by, which will explain it." Peterson Well. 1861. 665. Located near the West Penn'a R. R. about half a mile southeast of the Graff, Bennett & Co. Well, drilled for L. Peterson by F. W. flumes iu 1861. Level of well mouth 100 below G. B. & Co. well. Elevation of well mouth above ocean, in feet, 772 Conductor, 50 to 50 = 722 Sandy flags, 25 to 75 = 697 SS., white, flaggy, 50 to 125 = 647 Coal, 1 to 126 = 646 SS., brown, 4 to 130 642 Slate, gray, 30 to 160 = 612 SS., white, sharp, 20 to 180 == 592 SS. and slate, dark, 16 to 196 = 576 Coal, 2 to 198 = 574 Slate, white, 26 to 224 = 548 SS., white 16 to 240 = 532 SS., dark, 19 to 259 = 513 408 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Limestone, 9 to 268 = 504 SS. and slate, 18 to 286 = 486 SS., white, 8 to 294 = 478 Slate, white, 28 to 322 = 450 Slate, dark, 27 to 319 = 423 Slate, white, 13 to 362 = 410 SS., dark, 3 to 365 = 407 SS., white, coarse, sharp, "40' rock," [Brine, see note,] . . 42 to 407 = 365 Mud vein, to 407 = 365 SS., dark, 23 to 430 = 342 Slate, white, 50 to 480 = 292 SS., dark, top of 70' rock," 2 to 482 = 290 "The salt measures here have been worked since about 1832, the brine coming from a sandrock about 40' in thick- ness, and lying about 380' below the level of the West 'Penn. R. R. track. This rock contains salt water of 4, and in some localities a pebble stratum below it yields brine of 8, accompanied by oil and gas. Mr. Peterson sunk a well here in 1852 and not finding salt water in the usual place drilled down to 1237' striking fresh water and gas. The well continued to flow fresh water, and is still flowing (June, 1878) just as when drilled. Two years ago the well was reamed out and cased at 600' but no accurate record could be had of it, as the drillings flowed out with the water." Graff, Bennett & Company^ s well produces a large quan- tity of water which is ejected with varying force as the gas pressure increases or intermits. It quickly forms a deposit in the delivery pipe, and every pebble, twig and blade of grass along the sides of the ditch dug to convey the water from the well is beautifully encrusted by it. A specimen sent to Mr. A. S. McCreath for analysis gave the following results : "The deposit consists of a thin nodular material, filled with a light brown clay. The shell after being tolerably well separated from the clay contains : Carbonate of lime, 53.910 Carbonate of magnesia, 11.351 Carbonate of baryta, 8.884 Oxide of iron and alumina, 3.640 Insoluble residue, . . 19.160 PINE CREEK WELL NO 1. III. 409 Pine Creek Well No. 1, (Plate VII, Fig. 34.) 1877? G66. In Pine twp., Armstrong Co., east bank of the Allegheny river and a short distance above the mouth of Pine creek. Authority Coi. Jos. D. Potts, per A. B. Howland. Well mouth above ocean in feet, about 800 Drive pipe, 47 to 47 == 753 Bed, rock, surface sand, 33 to 80 = 720 Slate, 15 to 95 = 705 Coal, 1 to 96 = 701 SS., 150 to 246 = 554 Slate, 5 to 251 = 549 SS., strong gas, 257 to 508 = 292 Slate, (cased at 512',) 12 to 520 = 280 Red rock, 20 to 510 = 260 Slate and shells, 35 to 575 = 225' Sand shell, oil and gas, 4 to 579 = 221 Red rock, 21 to 600 = 200 Slate, '. 7 to C07 = 193 SS., gas, 20 to 627 = 173 Slate and shells, 43 to 670 = 130 SS., gas, 8 to 678 = -f 122 Slate and shells 142 to 820 = 20 Red rock, 4 to 824 = 24 Slate, 6 to 830 = 30 SS., gas, 10 to 810 =_ 40 Slate and shells, 10 to 850 50 SS., hard, gas, 20 to 870 70 Slate and thick shells, 30 to 900 = 100 SS., gas, sufficient to fire the boiler, 70 to 970 = 170 Slate, 20 to 990 = 190 Slate and shells, 18 to 1008 = 203 SS., pebble, heavy gas, salt water, 43 to 1051 = 251 Slate and shells, 39 to 1090 290 Bedrock, 10 to 1100 = 300 Slate, 5 to 1105 = 305 Red rock, 15 to 1120 = 320 Slate and shells, 30 to 1150 350 Red roc7cf.nd shells, 26 to 1176 = 376 Slate and shell, 4 to 1180 = 380 SS., . . 2 to 1182 ==382 Slate, ... 7 to 1189 = 339 SS., ., . 1 to 1190 = 390 Slate, . .' 2 to 1192 = 392 SS., 2 to 1194 == 394 Red rock, 1 to 1195 = 395 SS., 7 to 1202 = 402 Slate and shells, 13 to 1215 = 415 Red rock, 7 to 1222 = 422 SS., and shells, 10 to 1232 = 432 Slate, 8 to 1240 = 440 410 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Red rock, 4 to 1244 = - 444 Slate, 4 to 1248 = 448 SS., blue, white, and pebble, 9 to 1257 = 457 Slate, 13 to 1270 470 Bed rock, 2 to 1272 = 472 Slate, 5 to 1277 = 477 SS., white and hard 18 to 1295 == 495 Red rock, 7 to 1302 = 502 Slate, 6 to 1308 = 508 Red rock, with shell of slate, 17 to 1325 = 525 SS., gray, 2 to 1327 = 527 Red rock, with 2 feet of sand shell, 11 to 1338 = 538 Slate, dark, 12 to 1350 = 550 SS., dark gray thin white and very hard, 18 to 1368 = 568 Slate and shells, 10 to 1378 = 578 SS., 10 to 1388 = 588 Slate, 8 to 1396 = 596 Shell, 2 to 1398 = 598 Slate, 32 to 1430 = % 630 Red rock, . 40 to 1470 = 670 Slate and shell, 30 to 1500 = 700 Slate, 50 to 1550 = 750 Shells and slate, 25 to 1575 = 775 SS., pebble, 1 to 1576 = 776 Slate and shell, . 21 to 1597 = 797 Red rock, very hard 88., 15 to 1612 812 Slate and shell, 18 to 1630 = 830 SS., dark, 8 to 1638 = 838 Slate and shell, 4 to 1642 = 842 SS., light colored, 8 to 1650 = 850 SS., red, 10 to 1660 = 860 Shell, hard,thin slate, 20 to 1680 = 880 SS., 6 to 1686 = 886 Slate, 4 to 1690 890 SS., 3 to 1693 = 893 "The Ferriferous limestone is supposed to lie about 35 feet above the well mouth." Midland Well No. 1, (Plate VII, Fig. 35.) 1876. 667. On Jacob Brinker Farm, near Millville Clarion county. Authority Col. Jos. D. Potts, per A. B. Rowland. Well mouth above ocean in feet, about, 1080 Conductor, to, . 8 to 8 = 1072 Limestone, Ferriferous 2 to 10 = 1070 MIDLAND WELL NO. 1. III. 411 Coal, 1 SS., black, . 18 Goal, > 26t 36= 1044 SS., black, 4 Slate, . 40 to 76 = 1004 Shells, 2 to 78 = 1002 Slate, 33 to 111 = 969 SS., white, 3 to 114 = 966 Slate, 32 to 146 = 934 Coal, 1 to 147 933 Slate, ' . 4 to 151 = 929 Coal, 2 to 153 = 927 Slate, 17 to 170 = 910 Coal, 4 to 174 " 906 Slate, 44 to 218 = 862 SS., gray, 10 to 228 = 852 Slate, 2 to 230 = 850 SS., white 57 to 287 = 793 Slate, 24 to 311 = 769 SS., " Mountain Sand," 251 to 562 = 518 Bedrock, 15 to 577 = 503 SS., white, . 10 to 587 = 493 Slate, shelly, 75 to 662 = 418 SS., white, gas, 20 to 682 = 398 Slate, with shells, 128 to 810 = 270 Pebble shell, 1 to 811 = 269 Slate, 10 to 821 = 259 Shell, white 5 to 826 = 254 Slate, 12 to 838 = 242 SS., pebble, 10 to 848 = 232 Slate, 8 to 856 = 224 SS., white, 14 to 870 = 210 Slate, 2 to 872 = 208 SS., white, 80 to 952 = 128 SS., gray, 20 to 972 = 108 SS., and slate, 18 to 990 = 90 Red rock, 5 to 995 = -J- 85 Slate, shelly, 135 to 1130 = 50 Red rock, 22 to 1152 = 72 Slate and grey shells, 33 to 1185 = 105 Slate, 11 to 1196 == 116 Red rock, 4 to 1200 = 120 Slate, shelly, 10 to 1210 = 130 Red rock, 43 to 1253 = 173 Shell, 1 to 1254 = 174 Slate, 30 to 1284 = 204 Shells and slate, 24 to 1308 = 228 Shell, 3 to 1311 = 231 Red rock, 5 to 1316 = 236 Slate, shelly, 7 to 1323 = 243 SS., 9 to 1332 = 252 Slate, 8 to 1340 = 260 412 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Shells and slate, 10 to 1350 = 270 SS., 5 to 1355 = 275 Slate, shelly, 40 to 1395 = 315 Red rock, 45 to 1440 = 3GO Red mud, 5 to 1445 = 3G5 Slate, blue, . 105 to 1550 = 470 Red rock, 60 to 1610 = 530 Shells and blue slate, 100 to 1710 = 630 Red rock, very pale, 5 to 1715 = 635 Shell and blue slate, .' 10 to 1725 = 645 SS., gray, "Drillers' First Sand," 40 to 1765 = 685 Slate and shells with red streaks, 110 to 1875 = 795 SS., grey, (show of oil and gas)" Second sand," .... 45 to 19JO = 840 Slate, blue, 30 to 1950 = 870 Sand shell, light gray, 4 to 1954 = 874 Shells and blue slate, 56 to 2010 = 930 Pebble shell, 1 to 2011 = 931 Slate and shells, 21 to 2032 = 952 Shell, gray, 4 to 2036 = 956 Shells and blue slate, 27 to 20fi3 = 983 Sand shell, 6 to 20G9 = 989 Shells and blue slate, 39 to 2108 = 1028 SS., white, 10 to 2118 = 1038 Slate, blue, 4 to 2122 = 1012 Pebble shell, 2 to 2124 = 1044 Shells and blue slate, , 42 to 21f 6 = 1086 SS., gas and oil show " Stray," 60 to 2226 = 1146 Slate, blue, 22 to 2248 =1168 Slate blue, 32 to 2280 = 1200 Cherry Run Well. (Plate V, Fig. 21, and Plate VII, Fig. 36.) 1878? 5 668. On Plyer farm near center of Toby twp., Clarion co. Authority, Col. Jos. D. Potts, per A. B. Howland. Well mouth above ocean in feet Conductor, ( Ferriferous eroded here, ) 5to 5 = SS., and shells, 56 to 61 = SS., 15 to 76 = Slate, 35 to 111 = SS., 150 to 261 = Slate 5 to 266 = SS., 385 to 451 = Slate and shales, 130 to 581 = SS., 44 to 625 = Slate and shale, (oil,) 283 to 908 = SS., gas, ... . . ) Slate, 5 > 105 to 1013 = SS., gas, pebbles, . . . ) GEISWOLD WELL NO. 1. III. 413 Slate and shells, (5 feet red.) 35 to 1048 = SS., blue, 12 to 1060 = Slate, red, with sand shells, 30 to 1090 = Slate, 5 to 1095 = Sandstone bowlder, solid 23 to 1118 = Slate, 3 feet, red, 15 to 1133 = SS., red brown and yellow, oil show at 1143', 15 to 1148 = Slate, blue, with hard shells, 28 to 1176 = SS,, black and yellow pebbles, 3 to 1179 = Bed rock and brown and olive sandy shale, 9 to 1183 = SS., (pebbles, and oil show at 1193'; 15 to 1203 = Red shales with white and blue (lags, 32 to 1235 = Red, olive and white shells and blue slate, 26 to 12(51 = SS., close white hard, 9 to 1270 = Slate, 13 to 1283 = SS., (oil show at 1287') 9 to 1292 = Slate, 10 to 1302 = SS., loose, oily, 5 to 1307 = Shells Ac., 11 to 1318 = SS., oily all through, 19 to 1337 = Slate, blue, 63 to 1400 = The Ferriferous limestone is seen in place a short dis- tance from the well. The conductor occupies its horizon, it having been eroded at the spot where the well is located. Griswold Well No. 1. (PL VI, F. 30, and PL VII, F. 38.) May, 1878. 6G9. "This well is located on Rattlesnake gulch, north of Clarion ; about one mile from the river and one mile east of Toby creek ; on the property for- merly known as the 'Penn Mill Tract,' and now owned by Win. Griswold, of Philadelphia." Authority : John W. Griswold. Well mouth above ocean, in feet, Conductor, 22 to 22 = Shales, soft, dark, 26 to 48 = SS., "bluff sand," 52 to 100 = Slate, dark, with gray sand shells, 10 to 110 = Coal, trace, to 110 = Slate, dark, with gray sand shells, 110 to 220 = SS., gray, 20 j SS., white, .110 j Mt. sand, 160 to 380 = SS , gray, 30 > ,' , Slate and sand shells, 50 to 430 = SS., (cased at 440') " salt water sand," 70 to 500 = SS., some pebbles, 25 J 60 56Q = SS., white, .... 35 ) Slate, 185 to 745 = 414 III. RKPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. SS., hard gray shell, 5 ^ SS., yellow, . . . . 107 " 1st sand," 130 to 875 = SS., white, 18 ) Slate, sandy, 15 to 890 = Red rock, 5 to 895 = SS., with gas, 5 to 900 = Slate, with sand shells, 53 to 953 = SS., "Zdsand,' ' . . 42 to 995 = Red rock, " Big red," 90 to 1085 = Slate, traces of red, 5 to 1090 = Red shale, 5 to 1095 = Slate, 5 to 1100 = SS., " Green bowlder," 3 to 1103 = Slate, 3 to 1106 = SS., "Stray 3d," .' 3 to 1109 = Slate and shells, 6 to 1115 = SS., "3d sand," 40 to 1155 == Slate and shells, 21 to 1176 = Red shale, 7 to 1183 = Slate, with layer of gray SS., 27 to 1210 = Red rock, 5 to 1215 = Slate, 4 to 1219 = Slate, with sand shells, some pebbles, 11 to 1230 = Slate, 8 to 1238 = " Some gas, but not quite enough to fire the boiler. Only a ' show' of oil." Rohrer Well, No. 2. (Plate VI, Fig. 29.) 1877. 670. On Deer creek 1| miles S. of Shippenville, Elk township, Clarion co., Pa. "Well is located on the bank of Deer creek about half way between Black's furnace and the old forge about 125' below the level of the surround- ing country." Authority, C. E. Hatch, Edenburg. Well mouth above ocean in feet. ?, 660 to 660 = 1st red rock with layers of slate, 48 to 708 = Shell, very hard, ... 4 to 712 = Red rock, with small streak of slate, 24 to 736 = Slate and shells, . 20 to 756 = Red rock, soft ; hard shell at bottom, 44 to 800 = Slate, 20 to 820 == Red rock, 15 to 835 = Slate; with one hard shell, 18 to 853 = SS., (oil rock?) hard, blue to lighter color, 17 to 870 = Slate ; with hard shell, 34 to 904 = SS., very hard, small flow gas, 16 to 920 = Slate and hard shell, 50 to 970 = Red rock and shell, . 40 to 1010 = STROTMAN WELL. III. 415 Slate and shells, 95 to 1105 = Red rock with very hard shells, 25 to 1130 = Slate, with some shells, 170 to 1300 = Slate ; soft, pale red, 40 to 1340 = Slate, with very hard sand shells, 50 to 1390 = SS., hard and tine, 30 to 1420 = Slate; soft and "milky," 50 to 1470 = SS., hard and shelly, 8 to 1478 = Slate ; soft and white, with shells, 112 to 1590 = SS., strong smell oil, 12 to 1602 = Slate ; soft, with shells, 138 to 1740 = SS., with heavy gas vein, 11 to 1751 == SS., similar to cornmeal, 10 to 1761 = SS., gray and coarse, 19 to 1780 = SS., smells strong of oil, (lighter color,) 10 to 1790 = SS., and shells, (50 ?) 40 to 1830 = Shell, very hard, 4 to 1834 = SS., with shells and some slate, . . . i c ....... 42 to 1876 = SS., with shells and some slate, . . . \ 191/ \ 149 to 2025 = " The last 149' was a mixture of gray and blue sand with an occasional hard shell and a very little slate in thin streaks. The well is 2025' deep and stopped in sand. Cased at 260'. No record kept of 1st and 2nd sands, but they were passed through in their proper positions." The well is about half way between Black's furnace and the old forge. Unproductive. Strotman Well. (Plate VI, Fig. 26.} Summer 1877. 671. Elk township, Clarion co., 2 miles N. E. of Berlin's Tavern. Peter Schreiber, owner. Authority, J. R. Smith, contractor. Well mouth above ocean in feet. ? 573 to 573 = Shells, gas, 7 to 580 = Slate, 167 to 747 = SS., pebble on top, gas, " 1st sand," . . 58 to 805 = Slate, 37 to 842 = Sand shells, gas 38 to 880 = Red rock 10 to 890 = Sand shells, 10 to 900 = Red rock, 14 to 914 = Slate, 26 to 940 = Sandy shells, 10 to 950 = Slate, 34 to 984 = SS., dark, few pebbles, " and pebbly, 5 \ " .id sand," . . 20 to 1004 " very dark and fine, 416 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Slate, gas, 15 to 1019 = S3., coarse pebble, gas, 3> 12 to 1031 = " fine, ' 9 $ Slate, 17 to 1C4S = Yellow pebble, 2 to 1050 = Slate, 6 to 1050 = SS. and yellow pebbles; gas, 2) 8 to 1034 " white and hard, 6 > Slate and shells, 35 to 1099 = Bed rock and shells, "chocolate," in layers, 16 to 1115 = Some little oil in top of 3d sand, but not in paying quan- tity. Bains' Well. (Plate VL Fig. 22.} February, 1876. G72. On Holliday run, near Oil City. Authority, Jos. D. Potts, per A. B. Hovvland. Well mouth above ocean in feet. Conductor, 18 to 18 = ? 242 to 260 = Shelly rock, '. 39 to 299 = SS., Mountain sand ... 44 to 313 = Slates, &c., 108 to 451 = Red rock, 86 to 537 = S3., "Isisand," .... 37 to 574 = Slates, &c., 107 to 681 = SS., "Sdsand," . ... 28 to 709 = Slates, &c., 81 to 790 = S3., gray, 14 to 804 = Slates, ]9 to 8^3 = S3., oil, "3d sand," . ... 18 to 841 = Slate, 25 to 86G = Shelly rock, 50 to 910 = SS., dark, 30 to 955 = Slate, dark and shelly, 115 to 1070 = Iron Bridge or Chew Well. (Plate IV, Fig. 8.) 1870-7. C73. Located on hillside, 20 rods east of Slippery Rock creek, 40 rods south of Iron Bridge, Perry township Lawrence ex, Penna., and 2 miles S. 20 W. of well at mouth of Cove Hollow. Authority, Geo. H. Nesbitt, owner, per Geo. II. Dimick, manager. Well mouth above ocean in feet. Bluff sand, 15 to 15 = Slate, 10 to 23 = Coal, 2 to 27 = COVE HOLLOW OE SHAFFER WELL. III. 417 Slate,* 143 to 170 = SS., 67 to 237 = Slate and sand shells (fresh water,) . . 50 to 287 = SS., light gray and close, 21 to 308 = Slate, 20 to 328 = SS., (saltwater,) 25 to 353 = Slate, 213 to 566 = SS,, a little amber oil, 30 to 596 = Slate; 18" sand shell at 690,' 194 to 790 = Red rock, (stopped in it,) 1 to 791 = Cased first at 237' then at 267' and finally at 370'. Unproductive, very little show of oil or gas. The record adds : "The lubricating oil rock was passed through from 287' to 308', and it is evident that the oil must be found in crevices, as this well is located on a line between two well known producers of 1865, and should have found either water from the old wells or a supply of oil, if the rock had riot been too close for the movement of fluid through it." The proximity of the old wells probably accounts for the fresh water in the shelly measure above this close sandrock. At 690' a slight show of oil and gas was found in a sand shell about 18 inches thick. Cove Hollow or Shaffer Well.^ (Plate IV, Fig. 9.) 1876-7. 674. Situated on Slippery Rock creek at the mouth of Cove Hollow, Slip- pery Rock township, Lawrence co., Pa. Two miles N, 20 E. of " Iron Bridge Well." Authority, Geo. H. Nesbitt, owner, per Geo. H. Dimick, manager. Well mouth above ocean in feet. Conductor, , . 8 to 8 = Bluff sand, SOto 38 = Slate, 42 to 80 = Blue limestone, 3 to 83 = Slate 12 to 95 = SS., gray, "60 rock," 75 to 170 = *The figures down to 170 feet do not agree with Prof. White's section of this well (QQ. page 89), but they are copied from Mr. Dimick's letter con- taining the well record in his own handwriting. t This record like that of " Iron Bridge Well " disagrees with Prof. White's, (QQ. p. 154.) The disagreement illustrates the unreliability of oil well records even when they are given by the same party, but to different persons and at different times. 27 III. 418 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Slate, 340 to 510 = SS., gray, (a little amber oil,) 40 to 550 = Slate, with an occasional shell, 150 to 700 = Red rock, 26 to 726 = Slate, sand shell at 800', black oil 164 to 890 = Red rock, 40 to 930 = Slate and occasional shells, 313 to 1273 = Conglomerate, black and red slate and pebbles, 10 to 1283 = SS., brown or light gray, fine, 5 to 1288 = SS., black, dark gray when dry, 32 to 1320 = Slate dark, a few shells, 116 to 1436 Cased at 249 feet. Unproductive. "At 800' struck a shell yielding a few gallons of black oil of light gravity supposed from 46 to 48." John Smith Well. (Plate IV, Figs. 2 and 10.) 1877. 675. On John Smith farm, Brady township, one and a quarter miles north- west from the Prospect bridge, over Muddy creek. Owners, Messrs. Phillips Bros. Authority, E J. Agnew, per W. G. Power. Well mouth above ocean in feet, (barometer,) 1325 Slate and fireclay, . .230 to 230 1095 Limestone, Ferriferous, . . 15 to 245 = 1080 Slate and clay, . . 27 to 272 = 1053 SS., . . 18 to 290 =a 1035 Slate, black, . .110 to 400 925 ss., . . 65 to 465 = 860 Slate, . . 3 to 468 = 857 SS., "Mountain sand," . . .100 to 568 sa 757 Slate and shells, . . 72 to 640 685 SS., gray, . . 50 to 690 B9 635 . . 10 to 700 ss 625 SS., . . 30 to 730 595 Slate, . .180 to 910 415 SS., . . 26 to 936 389 Slate and shells, . .119 to 1055 = 270 Red rock, . . 60 to 1115 = 210 Slate and shells, . . 15 to 1130 195 SS., "1st sand," . . . 60 to 1190 135 Slate . . 85 to 1275 = + 60 SS., rotten, 20 j Slate, 20 [ '-2d sand," . . . 65 to 1340 = 15 SS., 25) Slate, . . 55 to 139- 70 Granite, . . 5 to 1400 as 75 Slate, . . 31 to 1431 = - 106 SS., ("off color,") "Sdsand," . . . 19 to 14.50 =-. 125 Slate, black, . . 8fc to 14581= 133^ EAYMOND WELL NO. 6. III. 419 The Third sand was poor, and quite shelly, and produced no oil. This well was subsequently sunk to a depth of 1596'. A thick mass of red, rocJc was found near the bottom. Boyce, Rawle & Co.'s Well, (Plate IV, Fig. 3.) Spring of 1877. 676. At Sharon Furnace, 1> miles above Sharon. Authority, Mr. Hall Sharon Furnace. Well mouth above ocean in feet, (by barometer,) 900 Clay and gravel, > Coarse gravel, C 100 to 100 = 800 Bowlders, Shale, "soapstone," 85 to 185 =: 715 SS., white, sharp, "Mountain sand," . . 75 to 260= 640 Shale, light-blue and some red, .... 305 to 565 = 335 SS., gray, tine oil, "1st sand," 30 to 595= 305 Shales, lead color, 23 to 618= 282 Shelly, oil and gas "Stray," to 618= -f 282 Shales, lead colored and brownish, turning to dark-blue near bottom, 607 to 1225 = 325 Shales, blue-gray and brown, with thin layers of fine grit, 375 to 1600= 700 Fresh water at 46', 175', and 280.' Gas at 485' and 618'. Cased 5|" casing, at 175' ; cased 4J" casing, at 280'. Traces of oil either in "1st SS.," or at 618'. Amber oil, heavy gravity ; no salt water. Raymond Well No. 6. (Plate IV, Fig. 4-} 1877. 677. At Raymilton, Sandy Creek township, Venango county. Authority, A. K. Williams' note book. Well mouth above ocean, in feet, 1196 Conductor, 19 to 19 = 1177 Slate, ? 51 to 70 = 1126 SS., (cased at 191'), ? 100 to 170 = 1026 Slate (shells and gas at about 360'), 262 to 432 = 764 Red rock, 100 to 532 = 664 SS., (oil,) 10 j Slate, . . 19 ["3d sand," 47 to 579 = 617 SS., . . .18) Slate, no" stray sand," 259 to 83S = 358 SS., oil show, "3d sand," 10 to 848 = 348 420 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Slate 152 to 1000 = 196 Red rock, 100 to 1100 = 96 Slate, 250 to 1350 = 154 Shells and shale (oil show and gas), 20 to 1370 = 174 Shells, mud and slate, 40 to 1410 = 214 Reliance Well. (Plate IV, Fig. 12. 678. Located on land of A. W. Brown, near the corner of Myrick and Chest- nut streets, in the borough of Pleasant ville. Authority, E. S. Nettleton. Well mouth above ocean, in feet, 1652 Sandy shale and surface clay, 141 to 141 = 1511 SS., /Second mountain sand, .... 35 to 176 = 1476 Shale 208 to 384 = 1268 SS., Pithole grit, 22 to 406 = 1246 Shale 139 to 545 = 1107 Red rock, 55 to 600 = 1052 SS., First sand, 28 to 628 = 1024 Shale and slate, . . . . W 113 to 741 = 911 SS,, Second sand, 42 to 783 = 869 Slate 71 to 854 = 798 SS., Stray Third, 11 to 865 = 787 Slate, 20 to 885 = 767 SS., Third sand . 37 to 922 = 730 Slate, 94 to 1016 = 636 Prilled wet. But little gas or oil. CHAPTER XXXVI. Gravel Pit Oil Wells. Grey's Well and others in Ohio, 679. The history of petroleum developments in Penn- sylvania has been a record of wonderful incidents and repeated surprises. When Messrs. Eveleth and Bissel or- ganized "the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company"* for the purpose of collecting ' ' Seneca oil ' ' from a series of trenches and pits on Watson's flats near Titusville, where the strange fluid came up in globules and spread upon the water when- ever a ditch was dug, they little thought what was to be the ultimate results of their enterprise. It was a suprise to them, therefore, when after nearly five year's ill success and discouragement with the pick and shovel, their first ven- ture at drilling, the Drake well, yielded barrels of oil where they had only anticipated gallons. It was a surprise to the world when a couple of years later several wells along Oil creek started to flow at the rate of from one thousand to thirty-five hundred barrels per day. It was a surprise to the ' ' experienced operator ' ' when the highlands were found to be as good for oil as the creek bottoms ; when the deep rocks of Armstrong, Clarion, and Butler proved to be so largely productive ; and when the hidden treasures of War- ren and McKean counties began to be revealed. It was also a surprise when it was announced that on the 6th day of April, 1877, a pit only fifteen feet deep had been dug on Watson's flats which was yielding by a common hand-pump thirty barrels of oil per day, and this within a few rods of territory which had been thoroughly operated upon ten or *This was the first oil company organized in the United States, the certifi- cate of incorporation having been filed in the cities of New York and Albany on the 30th of December, 1854. The " Seneca Oil Company " operating under a lease from the above, and embracing several of the original stockholders, came into existence on the 23d of March, 1858, and under its direction the Drake well was drilled. ( 421 III. ) 422 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CAKLL. fifteen years before. At first many were disinclined to be- lieve the report and for some time the novel development attracted but little attention. But the original discoverers Messrs. Herron and Potts kept quietly at work and opened several additional pits which added to their production, and it became clearly apparent that they were shipping considerable quantities of oil. An excitement on a limited scale then suddenly broke out which rivaled the liveliest days of Pithole or Pleasant ville. Operatorsfrom every part of the oil regions flocked in to see the novelty. Crowded stages lined the highway leading from Titusville to "Grass- hopper City," (so named from the singular manner in which the hand-pumps were coupled together and worked, at first by horse-power and afterwards by steam,) and it is said that from 1000 to 1500 visitors were daily upon the ground. But inasmuch as the extent of territory supposed to be good was limited to a few acres, at most, the excitement soon abated for want of something to feed upon. 680. The following letter written for StoweW s Petro- leum Reporter, and dated Pleasantville, August 28, 1877, is re-printed here as a part of the history of this remark- able development : In August, 1859, just 18 years ago to-day, the quiet little hamlet of Titusville was electrified by the report that pe- troleum had been found in large quantities at a depth of 70 feet, in the Drake well. Since that time probably 30,000 oil wells have been sunk, and great improvement has been made in the art of drilling. An ordinary 1,500 foot well is put down to-day with more ease and dispatch than was this little 70 foot well in 1859. We are not even surprised to learn that the Watson well, within two miles and a half of this first venture, has been carried down to the great depth of 3,553 feet, for we have become prepared for almost any achievement of the drill. But now appear new claimants for our notice. The pick and shovel step forward to take the place of the drill. A 15 foot gravel pit assumes to supersede the 1,500 foot drill hole. And curiously enough, this happens on the same creek flat, and within a mile of the old Drake well. GRAVEL PIT OIL WELLS. III. 423 The gravel-well district of Titusville is the latest wonder of oildom at least it has been made such by the exagger- ated reports and astounding theories in relation to it, that have gained currency through the daily press. Let us see what are the geological facts concerning it, and what the relations it bears to the regular oil producing rocks of the district. Titusville is situated in abroad irregularly outlined basin of erosion, between hills more than 300 feet high, at the junction of Pine creek and Oil creek. The "flat," or old water plain, contains perhaps 1,000 acres, having its greatest length in a N. W. and S. E. direction. Oil creek enters it at the N". W. angle and sweeping around to the east and south leaves it at its S. W. angle. Pine creek falling from the N. E. and east, enters at the S. E. angle, and joins Oil creek near the outlet. Church run from the north, Shaffer and McGee runs from the south, and several other minor runs likewise empty into it. "Watson flats," a locality re- nowned in the early history of petroleum developments is included within these outlines. The new oil pits are near the Pleasantville plank road, which passes along the northeasterly side of the basin before crossing Pine creek. More than 100 oil wells have been sunk on these flats in the usual way since 1859, and by the length of drive pipe required to reach the bed rock, they conclu- sively demonstrate the fact that the channel of the old stream, once flowing between these hills, was a hundred feet or more below the present surface. Within a rod or two of some of these oil pits 53 feet of pipe was driven through these su- perficial deposits ; a little further out towards the center of the basin 80 feet ; and in the center about 100 feet. As the oil pits on the creek-flat are only from 15 to 18 feet deep it will be seen at a glance that the oil is not obtained from the stratified rocks, for the old wells referred to show that they lie much deeper, and have not been reached by the pick. This basin, then, as it existed in pre-glacial times, must have been at least one hundred feet deeper than it is at present. It was occupied by a stream whose birth could 424 III. EEPORT OF PKOGRESS. JOIIX F. CAELL. scarcely have antedated the close of the carboniferous period, and whose great age can only be surmised from the evidences it has left behind in the magnitude of the work performed. At this point it had already cut down through the solid rocks to within fifty feet of the first oil sand. This would be equivalent (if the rocks originally lay here as they now lie at Pittsburgh) to a vertical excavation of 1.900 feet. It is quite probable that it flowed to the north (as did others of these northerly streams at that day) delivering its waters into the Lake Erie basin. But now a great change occurs the glacial epoch comes on a thick ice-sheet covers all the northern country ; slowly advancing and holding in its icy grasp fragments of rocks, gathered along its track, all the way from Northern Canada, it levels off the hilltops, widens out the valleys, and plunges into the old river beds its burden of mixed transported debris. The northern outlets of drainage are all covered with ice and obstructed, and when long afterward, under a modification of climate, a recession of the glacier commences, pools and lakes of water accumulate in front of it ; they fill up and overflow at the lowest depressions in the hills at the south. As these new outlets gradually deepen, the lake surfaces lower, the lake bottom fills up with detritus brought in by the melting ice, and finally when the ice disappears, we find the old river beds at the north filled with hundreds of feet of Drift, the valleys almost obliterated, and a new direction given to all the drainage of this section of the State. This is but a brief and partial statement of the probable sequence of events during this epoch. It may serve to show, however, that the beds of gravel or sand from which these pick and shovel wells obtain their oil, could not have been deposited until near the close of the Glacial period, for they lie very near the top of the Drift. Examination of the sand or gravel shows that it is com- posed of a mixture of water- worn comminuted particles de- rived from the Primary rocks, the Silurian limestones, and the Local measures of the surrounding hills. It is a com- paratively recent deposit, filling up an old deeply excavated GRAVEL PIT OIL WELLS. III. 425 channel in the sedimentary rocks, which channel had pre- viously been the bed of a stream ages before. There is no marked difference between the deposit here and thousands of other Drift deposits scattered all across the country in this latitude. They were all laid down in the same era, and by similar agencies. The fact that this particular spot produces oil, while others apparently just as favorably located do not, seems to indicate that the oil is not indigenous to the gravel bed itself. It is evidently derived from some other source, the gravel bed acting only as a reservoir for its reception and storage. Many stories are afloat concerning the bursting of a pipe line near these pits, and the leakage of storage tanks for- merly located in this neighborhood ; and some affirm that the oil has soaked into the gravel bed from these sources. Others contend that it has ascended from the regular oil sands below through the old abandoned bore holes on the flat. But we think a much more probable explanation of the phenomenon can be found in the operations of natural agencies alone, unaided by the accidents or interventions of men. The gravel bed (the thickness of which is not at present known, as it has not been dug through,) is capped by a sheet of tough, impervious blue clay, varying from two feet to twelve feet or more in thickness. This clay seems to cover the gravel bed like a hood, and the retention of oil in the gravel bed is no doubt due to the peculiar shape of the clay sheet. Oil formerly issued with the waters of springs, and through the gravel of the creek bottom, in many places along the valley of Oil creek. The Drake well and some others of the early wells struck oil before reaching the first oil sand. But it is now well understood that this oil came up from the first oil sand which was in these places surcharged with oil. In the same manner, no doubt, the gravel beds have been supplied with oil. The first oil sand lies, as has been stated, only 50 feet below the bottom of the drift deposit. For ages the oil has been slowly escaping into the drift and working its way to the surface. In the locality of the 426 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. gravel pits it was obstructed in its passage to the present surface of the Watson flats by an impervious sheet of clay lying immediately over a good deposit of coarse sand or gravel. In this almost hermetically sealed reservoir it has collected and has here remained until now set free by the piercing of the clay hood above it. How considerable the deposit of oil may be in this locality of course no one can tell. The agencies depositing the clay and gravel were wide-spread and general in their action, but extremely variable in their local results. An examina- tion of any railway cutting through a gravel bank will illus- trate this. Small bowlders, gravel, sand and clay, will be found in many cases to be almost indiscriminately mixed, and no one class of material can be traced for any great distance. We should not, therefore, expect this peculiar structure of a clay-capped sand bed, which seems to be the requisite basis of a paying gravel well, to extend continu- ously over a very wide area. The whole question may be briefly resolved thus : Given the clay-sheet without the sand-bed ; the sand-bed without the clay-sheet ; or the clay and sand in reversed positions, and no oil could be obtained. So also given the clay and sand in good condition and proper position, but in a locality where there is no oil-producing sand beneath, and the same result would follow. If then the success of a gravel well depends upon the rare and rather accidental conjunction of the several neces- sary conditions above mentioned, we need not apprehend any danger of an overflowing of the storage tanks, or an overstocking of the oil supply from the products of these drift deposit wells. 681. Area of the Gr ami pit Oil Pool. The location and surroundings of the gravel-pits may be seen by reference to Plate XIX. The Drake well is not noted on this map ; it should be on the island in Oil creek, at the entrance of the highlands below the intersection of Pine creek. It will be observed that the productive spot is on the nose GKAVEL PIT OIL WELLS. III. 427 of a point projecting down into the old valley ; and proba- bly the peculiar position of this head-land in relation to the transporting currents of the glacial period caused the de- posit in this place of coarse quicksand, which contains oil, and afterward covered it with the irregular hood-cap of clay; for the two deposits seem to thus lie in conjunction only on this point. The thickest part of the clay is on the point of the hill, and it thins and slopes rapidly towards the flats. The shallowest pit was iifteen feet deep, with only two feet of clay the deepest fifty-two feet, with fifteen feet of clay. An abrupt rise in the surface accounts for the difference in depth. A superficies of a little over one acre will cover all the productive territory at this date, (Dec. 1879,) and on this small area about one hundred pits have been sunk 70 on the flat below the plank-road, and 30 above it those on the lower side having been the most productive, probably owing to the fact that they were first opened. Many other pits were dug outside of this cluster, but no indication of oil was found. 681. Production and Value of the Gravel pits. From the Pioneer well dug at a cash outlay of six dol- lars, and opened on the 6th day of April, 1877 four hun- dred and seventy-three barrels of oil were sold up to the 30th of June. At first it only brought light oil prices (about $2 50) notwithstanding its gravity of 32 ; but after its true value became known it readily commanded the same price as other heavy oils, and was shipped to the lubricating re- fineries of Franklin and Rochester, at $4 90 per barrel. Supposing the oil from this well to have averaged $3 50 per barrel, it is easy to see how enticing the "dug- well oil business" would appear to the many who possessed the necessary capital to engage in it muscle and a pick and shovel when they figured up something like the following : 473 barrels of oil, @ $3 50= $1,655 50 Less i royalty, 413 88 Gross receipts, . . . $1,241 62 428 III. EEPOBT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Cost of well, $6 00 Cost of pump, tank, &c., say ..... 50 00 Cost of pumping 85 days, say 170 00 226 00 Net profits for 3 months' work, $1,015 62 It was this feature of little outlay with quick returns and large profits, that drew so many people to the spot, and created such an unusual excitement. So eager was the crowd to get a foothold within the charmed district that leases twenty feet square were readily taken at $20 bonus and half the oil, and larger ones in proportion. A steam engine was soon brought into requisition, and the pits were so crowded that twenty-five pumps could be operated with it at once. The net- work of vibrating walk- ing-beams, joined together in every conceivable manner by bolts and links, or tied by ropes, formed when in motion one of the most novel sights ever seen in any country. The ludicrous movements of these pumping arrangements, suggested in some one's mind a resemblance to a mass of huge disabled grasshoppers writhing and kicking upon the ground, and thereupon the place was immediately dubbed "Grasshopper City." The "city," however, like its namesake, was destined to be short-lived. With the early frosts of October it per- ished. On the 10th of August the Oil Oily Derrick, after a careful examination of the field, reported 23 wells pump- ing, with an aggregate production of 170 barrels per day, and 46 pits in different stages of completion. But by the middle of October everything was quiet ; a few old wells were pumping, but probably the whole output did not then exceed 40 barrels a day. In 1878, Messrs. Potts & Johnson having secured control of all the desirable territory, managed, by judicious pump- ing and frequent additions of new wells, to keep up an av- erage production of about eight barrels per day for nearly the whole year; but the following season the new wells were more uncertain and the yield of oil gradually declined to almpst nothing. GEAVEL PIT OIL WELLS. III. 429 No accurate account has been kept of the quantity of oil actually drawn from this pool, which may be said to have been practically exhausted by the winter of 1879, but from the best information to be had it appears to have been from ten to twelve thousand barrels. The largest well in the pool is said to have yielded 30 barrels of oil the first day ; but they all ran down rapidly and very few of them paid to pump longer than three months, notwithstanding that they could be kept profitably in mo- tion if they produced only a fraction of a barrel of oil. As the oil came in with an inexhaustible supply of fresh water it was useless to pump longer when the water once became clear. In digging one of the deep pits a pebble sandstone five feet thick and entirely covering the bottom of the hole, was encountered at a depth of 25 feet from the surface. It had to be drilled and blasted the same as fixed i*ock, but it was not in place, being evidently a large block of Church run conglomerate slipped from the hilltop half a mile away. The edge of the same block was supposed to have been struck in another excavation a rod or more from this one. In another pit at a depth of 20 feet the workmen passed through a one foot layer of black peaty material contain- ing matted masses of small twigs and rootlets. A trace of this was only seen in one other well although there were several that should have shown it if it had been of any con- siderable extent. 682. Powers' Corners district in Ohio. The Oil sand in this section is about 60' thick in layers of varying character. In some wells the oil is found at three points in the rock, at say 5', 40', and 55'. The wells are gen- erally short lived, but some exceptional ones have produced lightly for 6 or 7 years. A well pumping 100 barrels dur- ing its life is considered an average well. One of the most prolific wells in the district the Thompson well, near Pow- -is said to have produced from 1800 to 2200 430 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. barrels. But this was one of the first wells, and none like it have since been found. The oil brings from $12 to $15 per barrel of 40 gallons, (September, 1878.) About 1 mile north of Grey well three shafts were dug during the excitement, about the year 1865. A drift was run in the oil rock from No. 1 north to No. 2 about 150', and also part of the way from No. 2 westerly to No. 3, the interval between No. 2 and No. 3 being about 300'. The design was to expose a large surface of the oil rock, and thus secure a greater flow of oil. But it was a failure finan- cially. The amount of oil is limited it is heavy and almost free from gas, and can only be obtained by washing the rock as it were with water. Some of the wells furnish all the water a 4" pump can handle. The oil comes in globules with the water, and collects at the top of the tank while the water is let off at the bottom. When the water comes clear the well is abandoned, as it is an indication that the rock has been washed out within the reach of that well. Then another hole is put down, and the current directed in that direction, and another portion of rock is cleaned, thus the whole territory is gone over, some farms having had as many as 80 wells put down upon them. The old wells are sometimes re-tubed and pumped the second time, produc- ing in some instances quite an amount of oil. The effect of these drill holes so thickly scattered over the tongue of clayey land between Grand river and Mosquito creek, has been to much improve the soil for agricultural pur- poses. The wells afford a ready exit for the surface water, and a system of drainage has thus unintentionally been established of nojittle value to the farmers of that section. The oil appears to come into the wells from a band of coarse gray sandstone, described by those who have seen it in the shafts and drifts, as "honey-combed." It is not more than from one to three feet thick, and lies between bands of flags and fucoidal sandy shales. The pieces of sandstone thrown out on the surface weather white, with iron specs thickly scattered over their surfaces. On break- ing them they are found to be still saturated with oil and give out an unmistakable odor of petroleum. The wells TKUXALL WELL. III. 431 show that the rock dips quite strongly to the south, or per haps a little west of south, and the best wells have been on the higher part of the rock or north end of the district. Grey Well. 683. On road running south from Powers' Corners, 1 m. N. of its intersec- tion with the road running west from Baconsburg, Trumbull countj r , Ohio. Authority, Mr. Grey. Elevation of well mouth above tide, (barometer,) 940 Conductor, 14 to 14 Blue slate and shale 33 to 47 = 893 In sand, 4 to 51 Pumping about \\ barrels per day. An old well recently re-opened, (September, 1878.) A deep well was put down on the Cowdry farm about two miles south of Powers' Corners. The following record from memory, by one of the drillers, indicates the charac- ter of the formation in this section : 684. Cowdry farm well, Deep well. Elevation of well mouth above tide, about 940 Conductor, 10 to 10 = Blue sandy shale, 35 to 45 = 895 Bereagrit (oil sand), 110 to 155 = Blue shale, 580 to 735 == Sandstone, 2 to 737 = "Soapstone," 198 to 935 = Sandstone, 3 to 933 = "Soapstone," 176 to 1114 = No red rock was found, and the drilling below Berea grit was all of a homogeneous character. No oil below Berea grit. 685. Truxall Well, \ mile south of Powers Corners. Elevation of well mouth above tide, about 945 Conductor, 10 to 10 = Flags, 3 in. to 1 ft. thick, 8 to 18 = Bluish shale, 12 to 30 == 915 SS., honeycombed and creviced (not through), 8 to 38 = In this neighborhood the drill has been sunk 70' in the sand without going through it. 432 III. REPORT OF PBOGEESS. JOHN F. CAELL. Water Wells at Warren, Ohio. Eagle House Well. 686. Elevation of well mouth above tide, about .... 890' Conductor (set in an old water well,) 25 to 25 Slate with hard shells, 85 to 110 SS., white, fine, solid, no seams saturated with oil but water fresh and good, . . 40 to 150 Shales and slates free from shells, 250 to 400 No red rock in well. At 313' heavy flow of gas for three days, then ceased. Some salt water below gas vein. Water now stands within 4' feet of surface and is excellent for or- dinary use. Diameter of drill hole 3". Van Gorder Well. 687. Elevation of well mouth above tide, about 890' Conductor, surface clay and gravel, 20 to 20 Hard flaggy slates, .. 20to40 Soapstone, 20 to 60 Hard slates, 40 to 100 Slate with some pebbles, 33 to 133 SS., white, (not through,) 20 to 153 No red, sandpumpings grayish-blue to white, water stands within 6' of top. Remarkably soft and pure. Chase Well, at the National Hotel. 688. Elevation of well mouth above tide, about 890 Conductor, surface clay and gravel, 23 to 23 Sandy shale, 60 to 83 " Loadstone," . 1 to 84 Soapstone, 46 to 130 SS., white and fine, (not through,) 14 to 144 Copious supply of soft water, used in preference to rain water for washing and all hotel purposes and standing con- stantly within 5' of the well mouth. CHAPTER XXXVII. Notes on various building stone quarries in Ohio. Nelson Ledge. 689. In the northeast corner of Portage county, Ohio, about If miles northeast of Nelson Centre. Elevation of base (by barometer) 955' above ocean. A reproduction of a Pennsylvania or New York ' ' Rock City," with the exception that the exposure lies but a few feet above the level of the plain below it, and not conspicu- ously on a ridge or hilltop, as is the case in Penna. and N. York. From 50' to 60' of rock exposed at the ledge, con- glomeritic in places from top to bottom. Pebbles pea to hazelnut, ovoidal, and of same aspect as those of Garland, Olean, &c. Many of the pebbles are crushed and fractured as if the mass had been subjected to heavy pressure, and the weaker material had yielded to the stronger. The in- terspaces between the pebbles are but partially filled with sand and clay. This fact no doubt accounts in part for the crushing of the least resistant quartz one pebble ground directly upon another, the cementing material being too scanty to fill the interstices and assist in equalizing the pressure. It also accounts for the rapid disintegration of the rock when exposed to the action of moisture and frost. So porous a conglomerate as this is seldom seen. Other sandrocks, sometimes conglomeritic, are seen in different exposures, extending up 100' or more above the top of the ledge. These are massive, frequently obliquely bedded, and precisely similar in character to rocks of the same horizon in Penna. The conglomerate may be said then, to be about 150' in thickness in this locality, but it is probably in two or three bands with thin local partings of shale. A constant and copious rain during my visit to the 28 III. (433) 434 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. ledge prevented as full an examination of these points as was desired. 690. Quarry in Fowler township, O. (About 1 m. S. E. of Baconsburg. ) A massive coarse firm sandstone, excellent for architec- ural and engineering purposes, in courses from 2' to 6' thick. Some of them olive gray, others yellow and iron stained. About 20' seen. Elevation of top 1130'. No fossils noted. Escarpment faces the west. Top oxydized and sharply gla- ciated. Direction of striae S. S. E. Large granitic bowld- ers along the face of the escarpment. 691. Burgliill Conglomerate. On farm of Mr. Hayes half a mile south of depot. Ele- vation of top about 1125', bottom 1100'. A fine exposure covering a large area. Pebbles ovoidal from the size of a grain of wheat to a hazelnut. About 25' of cliff exposed, but probably more below. The rock is broken in large masses and scattered to the north and west below the face of escarpment. On the southeast slope of the hill the rock is bare in many places and always plainly glaciated, the grooves running with the trend of the slope, about S. S. E. A similar exposure may be seen about 2 miles E. of Burg- hill on the farm of Mr. Turnkey. It caps the ridge east of the Pymatuning and forms perpendicular cliffs 20' to 25' in height. Elevation of top about 1200'. From the topogra- phy below this ledge one would infer that another sandrock lies a short distance below it. 692. FoulJce 1 s quarry. (One mile south of Mossmantown, Mercer Co., Pa.) Top 1290'; 12' to 15' thick. Coarse yellowish soft sandstone in massive layers from 4' to 5' thick. Of irregular fracture ; iron stained on top and in the seams ; containing scattered pebbles, small and ovoid- al, with clay balls and iron concretious. Some impressions of carboniferous plants. Glacial scratches on top. Escarp- BUILDING STOISTE QUAKKIES. III. 435 ment faces the west and extends south a mile or more, bor- dering the level drift-filled plain below. Large granitic bowlders lie scattered over this ridge, but principally along the escarpment, and intermixed with well rounded bowlders of this local sandstone. 693. Austin Flag quarry. (3 miles JV. of Warren, Ohio.} Elevation of top above tide, (aneroid,) 915 Drift clay overlying the quarry, = 8' Flags, blue and gray, rather irregularly bedded, 2' 6'' Olive shales, friable, .... 2' 6" Flags, blue and gray, 1" to 8" thick, 2' Black shale, containing Lingula melia, seen, 2' This quarry is the most remarkable one of the kind I have ever seen. The upper band furnishes some good flag- ging, but it also works up nicely into blocks for street pave- ments, for which it is largely used. This stratum alone would make a valuable quarry. But it is the lower stratum which has given the quarry its wide-spread reputation. The stone is reached by stripping. The surface clay, upper flags and shales, have been removed, and several acres of the lower band lie open to daylight. A stone floor stretches out over the whole area more smooth and uniform than the best laid pavement in a city. One could hardly believe that any sediment could be laid down over large spaces in so complete a plane. Here are 2' of perfect flags, lying in from 6 to 10 courses, and separated from each other by invisible parallel planes of division ; and these lines of separation .are so complete that the quarrying of the stone becomes a mere'matter of cutting out the squares into the dimensions required. Large areas a rod wide, perhaps, and four or five rods long, are sometimes cut loose from the main body by wedges inserted at short intervals along a line and driven simultaneously ; and when the connection is thus broken the mass moves as readily on the bed-plate as the top plank in a pile would move upon the one under it. 436 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. There is little or no waste in this lower stratum, every layer being perfect. They vary in thickness in different portions of the quarry from one inch to eight inches. The top of the upper stratum is smoothed and polished in some places as nicely as any stone worker could do it by rubbing two plane surfaces together ; in others sharply cut striae run in parallel lines across the polished surface as nearly as could be ascertained in a S. S. E. direction. There is a uniform dip to the south, making the drainage very easy. In opening the drain 2' of black shale is dis- closed. This shale is very hard, requiring nearly as much labor in its excavation as if it were ordinary sandstone; but on exposure to air and moisture soon crumbles into a blue- black clay. Some layers of this shale contain immense numbers of Lingula melia, principally in broken fragments. The flags themselves are said to be remarkably void of fos- sils. Occasionally a single shell has been found, and sev- eral small beds of apparently drifted coal plants have been noticed, but they are not of usual occurrence. The only fossil seen at the quarry was a small fragment of lepido- dendron ? about six inches in length, water- worn, and im- perfect. About two miles S. E. of Warren, on the Howland road, at an elevation of 915, a band of flags shows itself in the roadway apparently from 5 to 10 feet thick. This would appear to be a higher band than the Austin quarry, and affords another proof of the variable character of the Cuy- ahoga shales in this section. 694. Section at Oil City, Venango county, Pa.* S. S., massive, in hill top ; crops out in cliffs ; elevation not accurately as- certained, but the top of the hill is about 1515' ; and the base of the rock is between 1350' and 1400' above ocean. ? Unseen, between 100' and 150' to 1241 SS., beds 2' to 4' thick, parted by shale and slate, 20') ^ to 1206 SS., massive and hard, 15' > * By H. M. Chance. BUILDING STONE QUARRIES. III. 437 Slate, 5 to 1201 SS., massive and hard, 6 to 1195 Shale, slaty or shaly slate, with some sandy layers, . . 21 to 1174 SS., hard and fine-grained beds, 3'' to 2' thick, .... 11 to 1163 Shale ; sandy, greenish-gray, 19 to 1144 ? Unexposed, 96 to 1048 SS., fine-grained beds 1' to 3 thick, 10' exposed, ... 10 to 1038 Shales, sandy, thin-bedded and fine-grained, .... 8 to 1030 SS., thin-bedded and fine-grained, with shale, j (forms roof of L. S. & M. S. RR. tunnel,) . . 6' V 23 to 1007 SS., thin-bedded and fine-grained, to RR. level, 17' J ? Unexposed to river level (low- water), 22 to 985 695. Section at Franklin, Venango county, Pa.* Coal 2 miles east of river, at elevation of 1479 ? Unexposed 65'-40' dip,= 25 to 1414 SS., massive and coarse-grained, (about) 30 to 1384 ? Unexposed, 104 to 1280 SS., flaggy, 5 feet exposed, 5 to 1275 ? Unexposed, 167 to 1108 SS., Bell's quarry, 28 to 1080 L. S. & M. S. R. R. depot, to 1014 A. V. R. R. depot, to 988 The top of the SS. in the quarry south of the Galloway farm is at an elevation of 1109'. The rock is here a gray- ish drab colored flaggy SS., rather fine-grained, and split- ting into plates from V to 6" in thickness. SS., thin-bedded, spliting into flags i" to 2" thick, 10' SS., flaggy, splitting into flags 1" to 6" thick, 15' SS., more massive than above (in floor of quarry). 696. Section compiled near Cranberry Coal Ferriferous Limestone on the farm of Jacob Fox, 8' exposed. Elevation of base of F. L. above tide=1587'. Exposure of F. L., 8 feet. Height of F. L. above coal bank, at least 74'. Slate, blue, 2' Coal (Clarion), 1' to 2' Interval at least, 8' to 10' Sandstone yellowish, whitish and reddish brown, loose and coarse (inairshaft), 56' 0'' Slate (inairshaft), 6' 0" * By H. M. Chance, f By H. M. Chance. 438 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Coal; Cranberry Bank. (A. T.=1531'), 2' Fireclay, varying from, 2' to 10' Sandstone thin bedded, hard and full of roots, . . . . 2' to 3' Shale soft olive, 11' Ball iron ore, 0' 4" Shale, 1' Bituminous slaty shale, 0' 3" Fireclay, ..... Interval concealed, \ Coal, reported 4' thick, but with a thick parting slate, 4' Fireclay (at least), 3' Sandstone hard (at least 2' and possibly), 10' Sandstone thin bedded, 2' Shale soft, about, 25' Sandstone white shaly, 4' Fireclay and shale, 5' Sandstone fine grained, 6' to 10' exposed. The place of the ferriferous Limestone at the coal bank would be at or near the level at which the air shaft was started. In this shaft the coal was struck 82' below the surface. The section reported is Surface clay, 20' Sandstone, 56' Slate, 6' Coal 2' The Ferriferous limestone was not found here ; but the blossom of a coal is reported as having been found a short distance off. This is evidently the Clarion coal which un- derlies the limestone at the limestone workings. Between the coal bank and the limestone quarry a ridge intervenes which rises to 1631'. This should contain the limestone ; but the residents in the vicinity state that none has ever been seen, although much sought after. 697. Note on Pre-glacial erosion. At the meeting of the British Association in 1880, Mr. De France described the pre- and jwst-glacial surfaces of northwestern England, between the Welch mountains and the Cumberland lakes. To the west of the Pennine chain of carboniferous hills spread the plains of Lancashire and Cheshire, covered with Drift, deep enough at one point (near Ormskirk) to measure 230 feet. NOTE ON PKE-GLACIAL EEOSION. III. 439 The valley gorges of Cumberland were excavated before the Ice age. Windermere and the other lakes were excavated during the ice age ; Windermere to a depth of 230 feet, i. e. 100 feet beneath present sea level. The marine Drift covers so thickly an extensive area in Lancashire, Cheshire and Flintshire that vales 200 feet deep (like the Kibble and the Irwell) have been post-gla- cial excavated in it ; the lowest places in the vales being be- low present tide level, showing that the laud has more recently subsided (or the ocean risen.) In the Cumberland mountain valleys the marine Drift no longer exists (if it ever did, ) having been subsequently re-excavated and swept out. " A terrace of post-glacial deposits fringes the glacial area at, and often below (in one place 70') the sea level, con- sisting of peat, with a forest at the base, resting on a ma- rine post-glacial deposit." (Report in Nature, Sept. 9.) INDEX TO III. A. Nominal and Geographical. Page. Adams (Jas. R.), 221 Adamsville, Crawford Co., 11, 51 Adamsville quarry, 51,52, 54 Adirondacks Mountains of N. Y., 377 Agnew, E. J., 418 Alabama, 387 Albany, 421 Allegany, N. Y., 379 Allegheny City, 391,393 Allegheny County, 157,405 wells, 84,282,104,105,106,115 East Brady Township, 115 Allegheny Mountain, 13,165 Allegheny River, 3 to 7,13,14,82,146,150,160,281,332 335,339,340,343,344,346,348 to 358,360,362,377,379,388,389,391,396,409 bed channel, 362,388,392,394 drainage, 352,349 glacier 388 headwater branches, 4,5,335,348 valley, 4,97,340,352,354,378,379,388,391,392,394 water basin, . 393 slope or fall preglacial, 337,338,339 ancient floor, 337,360 ancient course, 367 at Carrollton, 333 at Irvineton, 333 at Thompson's station, . 6, 28 Allegheny Township, Westmoreland Co., Leechburg gas well, 115 A. V. RR. depot, 140,222,437 Allen's creek, 152 Allen County, Indiana, 381 Alpine glaciers, 376,386 Ames Manufacturing Co. of Titusville, 304 Amherst quarries, 93,94, 96 Andrews, C. M., 229 Andrews, Lester B., 229 Andrews, Seth, 209 Aqueduct (Upper French creek), 365 Argyle (Level), 142,143,144 ( 441 III. ) 442 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Page. Armstrong County, . . . .84,97,127,130,142,143,145,158,159,231,336,409,421 Ashburner, C. A., 11,20,108,225 Ashland Township, Clarion County, Oelschlager well No. 1, Ill Ashville, N. Y., 63 Atlantic station, 43,48, 50 Atlantic and Great Western RR., 42,43,46,50,59,67,76,340,344 Auglaize County, 381 Austin Flagstone quarry, 435,436 Baconsburg, 429,434 Bailers, 294 Bald Eagle Mountain, 393 Barnesville 349 to 353, 391 Bates' (F.) section, 30 hill 34, 33 3, Wiconisco basin, 17 Bear lake station, 76 Beaver canal, 6,365 Beaver city, 97,142,221 Beaver county, 84,157,158,159,282,394,403 Beaver Falls, 64,87,89,90,102,185,282,283,401 Beaver River, 4,5,6,87,392,393 country, 16 glacier, 394 valley, ' 14,392 Beaver run, 66 Bedford county, 19, 96 Bell, A. A., ' 222 Bell's quarry, 437 Bellefonte, . 393 Bemustown, 366 Bennet (Ed.) Sheakley Station, 100 Bennett, Graff & Go's well, 106,111,398 Berea, Ohio, 94,95, 96 quarries, 93 Berlin's Tavern, 415 Big .Bend in Warren Co., 20,361 Big Sandy creek, 392 Binkard well No. 1, (Fig. 20,) Ill Bissell ,fe Eveleth, 421 Bissellfarm, (Level,) . 357,358 Black River, 93,361,373 valley section, 96 Black Rock on Niagara river, 150,152,153,281 Black's furnace and the old forge, 414,415 Blair, D. R., 222 Bleaksley quarry, 65,66 Blockville, N. Y., 63 Blood farm, Avoodin well on, 326 Blooming Valley 36 Blue Eye run, 3,26 INDEX A, NOMINAL. III. 448 Page. Blue Monday rock, 17(1 Blyson run, James well, ... 115 Boggs, J. W .229 Boggs, O. P., 229 Booth run, 57 Bordwell (E.) farm, 72 Boss Well, Criswell, 100,142 Boughton, (Level), 357 Bower's farm, 222 Boyce, Rawle & Co., (well), 398,419 Boyd Hill well, Fig. 31, .115,398 Bradford, McKean Co., 78,79,182,334,322,323 oil well, 187,224,225,226 oil sands, 162,163,164,282,283 oil district 149,150,151,155,224,254,255 oil measures, 275 Bradford County, ice action in, .396 Brady's Bend, 142,143,145 Brady Township, Butler Co., 85,86,418 Brinker (Jacob) farm, 410 Broad mountain, 18 Broadtop, Huntingdon County, 19,108,393 Brokenstraw creek, 3,4,6,25 to 30,68,71,150,354,391 Brown, A. W., 420 Brown, Holmes & well No. 1, Cashup, . 259 Brownhelm, (cliffs bordering the Vermilion), . . 96 Brundred wells, 2,3,4,214,216,221,222 Burtis well pool, ' 257 Buffalo, Corry and Pittsburgh RR., 64,65 Bullion, Venango County, . . 85,86,99,100,127,129,134,260 Bullion run, 86,140,144 Burghill, 434 Buried valley, 29 Burns, gas well, 110 Busti, Chautauqua County, N. Y., 11 Butler, 102 Butler County 75,82,88,100,127,130,158,159,177,240,244,421 Middlesex Township, 404 Summit Township, 404 Butler, Venango County line, 98 Butler, Clarion oil district, 102,113,146,155,225 Butler, Clarion oil belt, 97,98,132,139,145,147,151 Butler County, "Cross Belt," 128 Butler County wells, 84,125,281 new pools, 260 Caithness flagstone, 122 Caldwell creek, 7,28,360,391 Cambridge (Level), 359,360 Cameron County, 11 Canada, Lauren tian Mountains of, 377,385 " Northern, 424 444 III. KEPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Page. Canadian mer-de-glace 377,387 Canadian oil, 152,164 Canadaway creek, 7,346,362,363 Canfieldwell 356,357,358,359 Cape Stafford, 376 Carll, John H., 111,182,187,213,222,286 Carroll (Moravian quarry,) 41, 67 Carroll's (College Hill) quarry, . . 37, 38 Carrollton, 78,79,335,336,337,340,350,389 Carbon Centre, Butler County, 100,105,127,134,142,143,144 section, Fig. 47, 131 Cashup, 140,141,257,259,260 Cassadaga Creek, 346,351,354,363,365 Cassadaga lake, 3, 7,9, 340 to 346,351,352,355, 362, 363 lake level, 350 Cassadaga Valley ; outlet; ancient, 343; 345; 352 Cassadaga barrier, 363 Catskill mountains, 368 Cattaraugus County, N. Y., 2,13,77,124,164,333,337 Cattaraugus creek, 339 Cawdor, 123 Cemetery (Greendale), 39 Cemetery run, 41 Chance, H. M., 20,42,108,145,146,158,286,393,436,437 section, 93 survey along Shenango River valley, 91 Chase well, at the National Hotel, 432 Chautauqua basin highland barrier, 380,7,9,377,381,387 Chautauqua basin, . . . .4,5,9,345,349,351,353,354,356,366,377,386,389,392 drainage, 333 ancient drainage, 339 Chautauqua County, N. Y., 11,13,57,58,66,67,68,123,152,346,351 Chautauqua lake 3,5,6,63,68,77,340 to344, 354, 387, 395 Chautauqua outlet (old) , 390 Chautauqua quarry, 64,67, 70 Cherry run, 104 wells, Figs. 21,36, 111,115,118,398,412 Chesapeake bay, . 5,378 Chew (Nesbitt) well, Fig. 8, 84 Chew, Iron Bridge well, 416 Christy run; Gibson well, 53; 54 Christy's quarry, 52,54, 55 Church run, 140,141,160,176,181,257,423 oil wells, 85,177 section; dip, Fig. 72, 179; 139 Cincinnati anticlinal, 9,278,369 Citizens' oil well, 40 Clapp Farm, 140,141 Clappville, 356,360,366 Clarendon, 350,391 INDEX A, NOMINAL. III. 445 Page. Clarion County, 100 104,111,115,127,130,142,158,159,177,212,225,244,410,413,414,415,421 Clarion-Butler oil belt, 97,98,113,149,155 Clarion oil wells, 84,111,112,115,117,118,125,190,225,224,260 Clarion River, 115,142 Cleveland, 96,361,368 Clinton County, 13,108,393 Clinton Township, Venango Co., 85,105 Clintonville, 86,98,139,140,141,144 Clymer well, 75 Coal Pit section, 44 Coburn gas well at Fredonia, N. Y., 152,153 Cochran, 337 Coffee creek, 76 Colburn, (Mr.,) 153 Cold Spring, 337,340,342 College Hill & quarries, Meadville, 36 to 42 Colorado, 7,85,139,140,141,144,160 Columbia Hill, Butler county, 98,100,127,134,142,143 Columbia Oil company, 216,112,214,218,222 Columbus well, 75 Conewango creek, 3,4,68,338 to 342,348 to 354,391 Conewango Valley, 6,340,342,343 Conglomerate ridge, 358 Conkle, F. A., 404,405 Conneaut barrier, 362 Conneaut lake, 5 to 8,43,44,358 to 366 Conneaut marsh and swamp, .... 6 , 7 Conneaut creek basin, 4,5,6, to 9,339,356 to 365 Conneaut outlet, 3,43,46, 356 to 362 Conneaut Township, Crawford Co., 395 Conneautee Lake, 360 Conneautville oil well, 365 Connoquenessing River, 392 Corry in Erie county, 6,75,344 Cotter farm, 27, 29 Coudersport, 5 Cove Hollow well, 417,416,398, 84 Cowdry farm well, 431 Cranberry Coal Bank, 437 Cranberry swamp, 349,350,391 Cranberry Township, Venango Co., 98,111,112 Crawford County, 85,94,95,125,128,395 line; geology, 365, 33 highlands of Southern, 159 cliffs, 159 coal beds, 14, 43 oil wells, 85,282 quarries, 69 Report, 11 Crawfords's Corners, 98 446 III. REPORT OF PROGRESS. JOHN F. CARLL. Page. Criswell City, Armstrong Co., 128,134,142,143 Criswell wells, 100,210 Crooked creek, 3,5,6,43,50, 52 valley, 51 section, 51 Crooked River (old valley), 397 Cross Farm, Clintonville, 140 Grouse, or Mullingar run, 28,360,391 Cuba, N. Y., 396 Cummings No. 1, Criswell, 100 Cutlery works of the Economy Society, 401 Cuyahoga creek, 360,368,373,392 Cuyahoga Valley, 94,95,361 Dauphin, 17 Dayton, 351 Deer Creek, 112,414 De France (Mr.), 438 De Grolier, 324,333 Delemater gas well, 110 Dennis (C. W.) & Co., 224,225 Dennis oil well, 78,224 to 228 Dennis run, deep gorges, 160 Dennison, J., 55 Detroit river, 361 Devlin & Dougherty, , 198,209 Dexterville, 343 Deyoe, R. E., 221 Dillworth & Kirk, . . 404 Dimick, Geo. H., 416,417 Dodge, C. A., 12 Dogtown, 142,144 Donegal Township, Butler County, 104,105,168 Doolittle, 66 Dougherty, , 222 Dougherty* Devlin, 196,209 Dougherty farm, Fairview Township, Butler Co., .198,209 Dougherty well No. 2, 198,169,198,209 Drake well, 421,422,425,426 Dranse river. 385 Dry run (junction), 29 Dunkard creek oil field, 150,157,281 Dunkirk harbor, 346,391 Dutchman's run, 349,350 Eagle House well, 432 East Brady Township, Allegheny County, 115 East Cleveland quarries, 96, 97 East Fallowfield township, 43 East Oil creek, 7 Eastman (J.) house, 34 Economy well No. 2, 401,84,185,398 Economy Society cutlery works, 401,403 INDEX A, NOMINAL. III. 447 Page. Edenburg 133,178,134,142,182,187,213 to 222 wells, 220,100,112,187,213,222 Elk County Report, 11 Elk Township, Clarion county, 98,112,414 Ellicottville, 58, 77 Ellis (or Thorp) quarry, 37, 42 Ellory Centre, 63 Elyria, 94, 96 Emlenton, 98,134,140,222,337 Erie, 110 Erie County, . 5,65,67,68,124 Report, 11 quarries, 66, 69 Erie County, N. Y., 150 Erie Extension Canal, 6 Erie RR. valley, 378,379 Escher, M., . 386 Etah (glacier near), 375,376 Eureka oil well, 71,73,76, 77 Evans & Co., 198,209 Evans well No. 21, Fig. 19, 198,100,111,117,134,189,200,209 Evansburg; station, ' 43, 85 Eveleth & Bissell, 421 Fagundus, 139tol41,160 Fairview (Sutton No. 4) 100,134,142,143 Fairview Township, Butler County, 104,105,194,196,198,200,202.204 Falconers, Chautauqua County, N. Y., 340, 342 to 346, 348, 354 Farrentown, 142,143,144 Fee, Wm., 209 Fentonville, N. Y. (well in Warren Co., Pa.), . . 282,338,342,343,345,350,351 Fontaine & White, 156 Forbes (Prof.), 376 Forest County, 11,20,159,225,337,349 Fort Wayne, 381 Foster (section) Fig. 42, 129,134,140,141,144,337 Foulke's quarry in Mercer County, Pa., 56,57,434 Fowler Township, Ohio, quarry, 434 Fox.(Jacob) farm, 437 Foxburg, 133,134,142,144,145,150,350 Franklin, . 5,7,20,104,112,141,160,249,337,348,356,357,358,362,366,392,427,437 wells, 111,117 A. V. RR. depot, 140 Frazer well, 181,182 Frazier (Thompson), 210 Frederick, 100,134,142,143 Fredonia, N. Y., ', .110,152,153,164 Freehold Township, * 23, 25 French creek, 3,5,7,8,20,36,40,41,67,68,344,356 to 361,365,366 Village, ' .... 96 Fronsinger, Martinsburg, 142,143,144 Galloway farm (quarry S. of), 437 448 III. KEPOKT OF PEOGEESS. JOHN F. CAELL. Page. Garland, 6,23,26,27,28,58,60,85,125,391,433 quarries, 26 to 28 Gas City (Pool oil at), 98 Gealy Farm, Bullion Eun, 140 Geauga County, Ohio, Little Mountain, 94 Geauga Township, 56 Geikie (Prof.), 122 Genesee Co., (N. Y.), LeEoy, 152 Genesee river, 5,58,378,396 Genesee valley, 388,389 Gibbs & Sterrett Manufacturing Co. of Titusville 291 Gibon's oil well, 53,55 Grace & Criswell, 210 Graff, Bennet & Go's well, Fig. 18, 105,115,398,405,407,408 Grampians, 123 Grand river, 361,373,392,430 Grant Station A. and G. W. ER., 59,344 "Grasshopper City," 422,428 Great Belt City, 150,281,404 Great Bend, 336 to 339,348,349,352 to 355 Great Valley, 77,389,390 Greece City, 100,128,134,135,142,143,145 Greendale cemetry (Eavine E. of) 39 Greene County, 150,156,157,158 Greenland (North), 375 Greenville in Mercer County, 5,48,52 Gregg farm, .... . . . 357 Grey 'swell, Crawford Co., Pa., 356 to 359 Grey's well, Trunbull Co., Ohio, 421,429 Griswold, John W., 413 Griswold well, Fig. 30, 112,115,398,413 Gulf of St. Lawrence, . 2 Gulf of Mexico, 2,5,331,378 Hains well, Fig. 22 111,398,416 Hale, Arthur, 12,145,182,224 Hall, C. E 32,359,419 Hall, James, 70,152 Hall's run (McGrew well near), Ill Hammond & Warren, 64 Haney well, 110,214,221,222 Haney & Bartlett's well No. 4 221 Harmonial well No. 1 259 Hart, C. E 404,405 Hart & Conkle, 404 Hartstown, 6 Harvey gas well, 105,109,117 Hatch, F. A., ; 12,33,145 Hatch, C. E., Edenburg, 414 Hayes' farm, 434 Hazen farm and mine, 44,48,49,50 Hazel wood Oil Co. and wells, . . . 100,189,200,202,209,210 INDEX A, NOMINAL. III. 449 Page. Hazle creek gap, 18 Henry, J. T. (The Early and Late History of Petroleum, by) 325 Henry's bend, 337 Henry's run, 50, 51 Herkimer County, N. Y., 369 Herman Station, 105,136,132 to 145,160,281 Herron, Lee, 221 Herron & Potts, 422 Hickory corners, 33, 36 Hill well, at Bullion, 85 Hobart's quarry, 56 Hodge, J. T., 39 Hollidayrun (Hams well), 111,416 Holmes & Brown well No. 1, Cashup, 259 Homestead well pool, 257 Hooks' run branch, .353,354 Hope well, 112,113 Hoppin, Mr., 24 Horn, C., 28 Horn's cliffs 28 Hosmer run oil, 32 Rowland, A. B., 409,410,412,416 Howland road, 436 Hudson River, 369,372 Humboldt glacier, 375 Humes; F. W., 142,143,144; 147 Hunter, Dr., 116,398,399,401 Huntingdon Co., 19,103,393 Huron, 361 Hyde (or Little Oil) creek, Crawford Co., 3, 34 Independence (quarries), 93 Indiana .State line, ... 381 Iron Bridge; well, 84,398,410; 417 Irvineton, Warren Co., 4,333,336,337,318,353,354,391,392 Irwin's Mills, N. Y., 333,334,335 Irwell (Valley, England), 439 Jackson Station, Warren Co. (well), . . 382 Jackson's quarry, * 46 James; well, 119; 104,115,117,118 Jamestown, Pa. (on Mercer-Crawford line) , . . 1,3,11,20,53,55,56,85,94,95 Jamestown, Pa., section S3, 54 Jamestown, N. Y., 150,343,390 Jaquay (J S.), water well, 24 Jarecld Manufacturing Co. of Erie, 297,322 Jersey Shore, 39& John Smith well, . 393, 41S Johnson & Potts, 428 Johnson's saw mill, 30 Jones