. Elements of geology : a text-book for colleges and for the general reader. Geology. BITUMEN, PETROLEUM, AND NATURAL GAS. 387 although combustible gases may issue from decomposing organic matter of any kind, or from coal. Some of the burning springs in the oil- region of Kentucky are said to produce a flame twenty to thirty feet long. It is a significant fact that petroleum is often associated with salt. It is so in Pennsylvania, in Virginia, and in many other localities. Oil-Formations.—I have said that petroleum and bitumen are found in all fossiliferous formations, but in each country ther
. Elements of geology : a text-book for colleges and for the general reader. Geology. BITUMEN, PETROLEUM, AND NATURAL GAS. 387 although combustible gases may issue from decomposing organic matter of any kind, or from coal. Some of the burning springs in the oil- region of Kentucky are said to produce a flame twenty to thirty feet long. It is a significant fact that petroleum is often associated with salt. It is so in Pennsylvania, in Virginia, and in many other localities. Oil-Formations.—I have said that petroleum and bitumen are found in all fossiliferous formations, but in each country there are certain for- mations where it especially abounds: in Europe it is found principally in the Tertiary; in Eastern United States it is found almost wholly in the Palaeozoic, below the Coal-measures; in California it is found in the Tertiary. Principal Oil-Horizons of the United States.—In Pennsylvania and Kentucky oil is found in the Upper Devonian; in Canada and Michigan, in the Lower Devonian; in Western Virginia it is found in the sub- Carboniferous ; in Ohio, in Lower Coal-measures, in the Upper De- vonian (Huron shales), and even in the Lower Silurian (Trenton lime- stone) ; in California it is found in the Miocene Tertiary of the Coast Kange, all the way from Los Angeles to Cape Mendocino. These have been called oil-horizons. Laws of Interior Distribution.—The mode of interior distribution of petroleum and bitumen is similar to, yet different from, that of Avater. Like water, it occurs in porous strata and collected in fissures and cavities; like water and with water, it issues in hill-side springs; like water and with water, it collects in ordinary wells, or sometimes spouts in immense quantities from artesian wells. Some of the great spouting-wells of Pennsylvania, when first opened, yielded 3,000 barrels, some in Ohio 5,000 barrels, and some of the great wells & c Jb^ «^ 5 of Baku, on the borders of the Caspian Sea, even 1,000,000 gallons per day. But, un
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