ir own
use. Yet, for ordinary purposes, a pint bottle was sufficient for a
year's consumption. Indeed, half a dozen barrels were all that could be
disposed of throughout the entire oil region of Western Pennsylvania up
to a period when the researches of science were brought to bear upon its
purification as an illuminator. Almost every good housewife was supposed
to have a small store of Seneca oil, as it was popularly termed, laid by
in case of accident, for the medication of cuts and bruises; and not
even the most popular of the nostrums of the present day is so much
relied on as was this--nature's own medicine--by the early settlers in
these valleys.

In the mean time a well was bored on the bank of the Alleghany, within
two miles of the mouth of Oil Creek, in quest of salt water, with a view
to the manufacture of salt. This was some forty years ago. After sinking
the well through the solid rock to the depth of seventy or eighty feet,
oil presented itself in such quantities, mingled with the salt water, as
to fill the miners with the utmost disgust, and induce them to abandon
the well altogether. They were boring for salt, not for petroleum. Salt
was an article of utility and large demand; oil was of comparatively
small importance, and already a drug in the market, through the
spontaneous yield of nature. Again, a well was dug in the town of
Franklin, about thirty years ago, for the supply of a household with
water. At the depth of thirty feet there were evident signs of
petroleum, that were annoying to the workmen; and although the water of
the well was used for culinary purposes, it always bore a trace of oil,
and was absolutely offensive to those unaccustomed to it. A hole has
since been sunk in this well through the rock, but the yield of oil has
not been as great as in some other wells in the immediate neighborhood.
In the cases cited above were strong hints of the existence of the
treasure concealed in the rocks beneath, and even of the manner of
obtaining it. It was in fact the treasure knocking at the door, and
asking to be released, in order to contribute to human wealth and
enjoyment.

But the time had not then arrived for the grant of this great boon. The
earth was at the first made the repository of all the gifts that man
should need until the end of time. But they were not all revealed at the
first, nor to succeeding generations, until the fitting time arrived,
and man's necessities induced the great Gi