II.
A GLIMMER IN THE WEST.
Numerous Indications of Oil on this Continent—Lake of Asphaltum—Petroleum Springs in New York and Pennsylvania—How History is Manufactured—Pioneers Dipping and Utilizing the Precious Fluid—Tombstone Literature—Pathetic Episode—Singular Strike—Geology Tries to Explain a Knotty Point.
“Thou who wouldst see where dawned the light at last must westward go.”—Edwin Arnold.
“America is the Lord’s darling.”—Dr. Talmage.
“Thee, hid the bowering vales amidst, I call.”—Euripides.
“A Mercury is not to be carved out of every wood.”—Latin Proverb.
“Never no duck wasn’t hatched by a drake.”—Hall Caine.
“Near the Niagara is an oil-spring known to the Indians.”—De la Roche D’Allion, A. D. 1629.
“There is a fountain at the head of the Ohio, the water of which is like oil, has a taste of iron and seems to appease pain.”—Captain de Joncaire, A. D. 1721.