Some parts of Africa are known to contain petroleum springs, and there are many of these springs throughout China and various other regions of the East; Australia and New Zealand claim their share, and it is probable that every country on the globe could, by means of proper borings, be made to yield petroleum.
SENECA OIL AS A MEDICINE.
As before stated, America is the great petroleum-producing country of the world. Rock oil is found in various parts of the American continent, from Hudson’s Bay to the Gulf of Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The most prolific oil region in America is in Western Pennsylvania, and millions of dollars’ worth of petroleum have been obtained there. Thousands of men have made fortunes in petroleum, and a great many have made fortunes in it the wrong way. The early settlers of that region were well aware of the existence of petroleum, having obtained their knowledge of it from the Indians. The Indians used to collect the oil on the shore of Seneca Lake, and it was sold as a medicine, in small quantities, under the name of Seneca Oil. A stream in Alleghany County, New York, was named Oil Creek, on account of the petroleum floating on its surface, and the same name was given to another stream in Venango County, Pennsylvania. On the old maps of that region several localities were marked as affording oil, but it is only within the past thirty years that the oil product has been of any importance.
The substance, as before stated, was used as a medicine, and the inhabitants collected it by spreading blankets on the surface of the stream, and then wringing out the oil which they absorbed. There are indications that the oils were collected long ago, as several deep and very old pits have been discovered. Some people attribute the construction of these pits to the early French settlers, some to the Indians, and some to the predecessors of the Indians. A history of Pennsylvania, published thirty years ago, says that the Indians used the oil to mix with paint in dressing themselves, and refers to an old letter, written by the commander of Fort Duquesne to General Montcalm, describing an assembly of Indians at night on the banks of the creek; and in the midst of their ceremonies they set fire to the oil on the surface of the water. As the flames burst out, the Indians gave wild shouts, which recalled to the writer many of the ceremonies of the ancient fire worshippers at Baku.
BORING FOR SALT WATER.
The early settlers did not collect great quantities of oil, probably not more than twenty-five or thirty barrels a year. In 1845 operations were being conducted for obtaining salt at a place above Pittsburg, on the Alleghany River. Several springs of petroleum were struck, but the value of the material was not known. In Ohio, over fifty years ago, borings were made for salt water. An account, descriptive of the work, said, “They have sunk two wells, which are now more than four hundred feet deep. One of them affords very strong and pure water, but not in great quantity. The other discharges such vast quantities of petroleum, or, as it is vulgarly called, Seneca oil, and besides is subject to such tremendous explosions of gas, as to force out all the water, and afford nothing but gas for several days. We make but little or no salt.”
This story of the ignorance of the value of petroleum and the disappointment of the salt-makers at finding springs of petroleum instead of salt water, reminds one of the account of the Irishman who complained of his trouble in shooting ducks: “I was not able to fire a shot,” said he. “Every time I got sight of a duck another one swam in between him and me, and I could not kill anything.”
PUMPING WELL ON OIL CREEK, VENANGO COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.