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sylvania have made a hilly, poor section of country rich, in which ciites have heen built, and to which railroads have been made by its petroleum. Crowds have gathered there from far and near, all anxious to become very wealthy, for they have heard or read that sudden and large fortunes were made at the "oil dig gings ;" and why may not they do likewise. There a man may be so poor as to be deemed unworthy of being trusted to the amount of five dollars in the morning, arid be a millionaire in the evening, for he owns either the whole or part of n well which strikes the oil stream or fountain, and it rushes to the surface at the rate of several hundreds of barrels per day. Still, boring for oil in what is termed the oil region of Pennsylvania, is a very uncertain business, because it is impossible, from external in dications, to determine the exact spot of the oil stream or re servoir beneath the surface. Hence a well may be sunk within a few feet of the supply of oil, and yet not obtain any. Again wells sometimes cease to flow, the supply may give out, or the stream may have been f tapped 1' by other wells higher up the valley. With all its uncertainties the business increases rapidly.. In the year ending Juue Ist, 1866, there were exported from the single port of New York 11,212,647 gallons of petroleum, which is but a small part of what is retained in the country for home consumption.
The oil wells in Pennsylvania and Virginia are sometimes sr.nk into the subcarboniferous strata, and at others still lower into the Devonian, both of which are beneath the coal measures. In the Northern counties of Texas, bordering on the lied River, and also in the Indian Territory, near the State line, bitumenous springs occur. Mr. Russel, of the Texas Boundary Commission, told us of one which he saw that had a constant flow. This is somewhere in that section, but we cannot specify the locality. In the geological rooms are specimens of indurated petroleum or bitumen from Northern Texas. Specimens of bitumen have been lately brought to us which are said to have flowed from rocks a few miles north of Austin. Thei'e are tar springs near the town of Burnet, in Burnet county, from which the bitumen is ;-aid to flow at particular seasons. There are said to be several situated in a line extending nearly north-east and south-west. We visited one of these springs in the fall of 1860. It was then dry, but indurated bitumen was on the rocks. This spring is on the top of a small cretaceous hill. Bitumen is also reported to W found in the vicinity of Sour Lake, in the south-eastern part of the State, and in the neighborhood of Nacogdoches. The Isovthern coal fields and the lignite beds of Southern and East
