Such was the narrow ravine, nowhere sixty rods in width, that figured so grandly as the Valley of Petroleum.

FARMS ON OIL CREEK, VENANGO COUNTY, PA., IN 1860-65.

A SPLASH ON OIL CREEK.

The dark mud of Oil Creek! Unbeautiful mud,

That couldn’t and wouldn’t be nipped in the bud!

Quite irreclaimable,

Wholly untamable;

There it was, not a doubt of it,

People couldn’t keep out of it;