As coal was stored up for the use of man, formed in ages past from the
giant vegetation which then covered the face of the earth, so the
Creator has caused to be deposited in subterranean caverns large
quantities of valuable oil, which not only serves man for light, but is
useful to him for many other purposes.
Whether that oil was produced from animal or vegetable substances,
appears, even now, a matter of dispute. Some naturalists suppose that
vast numbers of oil-giving creatures had been assembled in the districts
in which these oil wells are now found, and the oil was pressed out of
them by a superincumbent weight of rock. Others assert that the same
result might be produced from a vast mass of oil-giving vegetation
having been crushed by a similar process. Be that as it may, in several
parts of the States, as well as in Canada, enormous pits exist full of
this curious oil. It is obtained by boring in the ground in those spots
where the oil is likely to be found. Often, however, the speculator,
after spending time and capital in the experiment, finds that no oil
appears at his call.
In some spots, where it was first discovered, after the boring was
completed, some hundreds of tons flowed up so rapidly, that it was
difficult to find casks sufficient to preserve the produce. The whole
region round is impregnated with the odour of the oil. Long teams of
waggons come laden with casks of oil on the roads approaching the wells.
Sheds for repairing the casks, and storing the oil, are ranged around.
Every one gives indubitable signs by their appearance of their
occupation, while rock-oil, as it is called, is the only subject of
conversation in the neighbourhood.