Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1859 — A New Source of Wealth. [ARTICLE]

A New Source of Wealth.

We see by the Pittsburg papers that there is considerable excitement' i» that region respecting a subterranean reffervoi'f es ei r which has been recently discovered. Companies are engaged digging wells to ©btain the oil. When procured in its crude state it sells for sixty cents a gallon. It does not. cost more to pump it up than one cfenj per gallon, nine cents more per gallon will pay for barrels and transportation to Pittsburg, New York or Philadelphia. The refined oil sells at a much higher figure. This oil is petroleum, a bituminous substance, which is found floating on the water of springs, excitement does not appear to be altogether speculative, though possibly that may have something to do with the published accounts. One singular fact is mentioned in connection with these oil pits. In manv places i» the valley of Oil Creek, the ground is covered with pits, hundreds and thousands of them, evidently dug for the purpose of gathering oil, and at a period so remote that trees two hundred and fifty years old are growing over them. The query is, by whom were those pits dug, and for what purpose was the oil gathered!— Phila. ledger.