CHAPTER II.SEARCHING THE WORLD FOR OIL

FIFTY—EVEN FIFTEEN—YEARS AGO IT WAS the discovery of a new gold, diamond, or silver field which set the world agog, sent a throb of excitement round the globe, and precipitated frenzied rushes of hare-brained fortune-seekers. The stampedes to California, Coolgardie, the Rand, Kimberley, and the Klondike are vivid memories still; but to-day it is not the “find” of metal which fires the imagination and determination of the get-rich-quickly, so much as a “strike “of oil, though with this difference: Whereas the metallic mineral storehouse may be rifled by all and sundry equipped with a spade, pick, and rocker, with the glorious possibility of proving a rich claim for an insignificant outlay, oil imposes a heavier demand upon skill, knowledge, patience, and capital. As a rule mineral is struck upon the surface: traces of colour lure the toiler on. With oil, however, things are quite different. Signs may be observed upon the surface—as, for instance, in the form of oil-springs—but such evidence does not indicate necessarily the presence of the deposit immediately below the outlet, or that the strike is going to be made easily.

The oil-seeker’s task is not to be envied. In the early days oil prospecting was comparatively easy and simple, because the work was confined to settled and well-populated territories, such as the State of Pennsylvania; but as the years wore on, and the accessible regions became well developed, the oil-seeker was forced to travel farther afield. This development brought about a complete change in men and methods. The haphazard was superseded by the skilled, scientific worker; the search for the liquid mineral had to be conducted upon systematic lines.

It is a somewhat curious circumstance that, although Great Britain is deficient in native oil resources, British endeavour has played, and still is playing, an exceedingly prominent part in the revelation of new and unexpected sources of supply . British engineers are in universal demand for prospecting and proving oil deposits in new countries. The reason may seem somewhat obscure, because one would naturally imagine that the men with the greatest command of practical or field experience, s