would be
ruinous. This renders the computation of the weekly yield of the Oil
Creek region comparatively easy. There are at the present time not far
from one hundred flowing wells along the valley of the creek, producing
probably on an average about forty thousand barrels per week. A portion
of this is refined in the county, but by far the largest part is shipped
to a distance, either by the Alleghany River by way of Pittsburg, or by
the Philadelphia and Erie or Atlantic and Great Western Railroads to the
Eastern markets.

The necessities of the trade have given rise to many ingenious
inventions in getting the oil to market. The wells extend along Oil
Creek for a distance of about fourteen miles from its mouth. The ground
is not favorable for land carriage, as the valley is narrow and the
stream tortuous. The creek itself is too small for navigation under
ordinary circumstances, and a railroad with steam power would be in the
highest degree dangerous. To compensate for all these difficulties, a
system of artificial navigation has been adopted. Throughout the whole
distance, at intervals of perhaps a mile, dams have been constructed
across the creek, with draws in the centre, that can be easily opened
at the proper time. In this way 'pond freshets' are arranged one or two
days in a week. By the appointed time, all persons having oil to run out
of the creek have their boats ready, and as the water from the upper dam
raises the creek below, the fleet of boats sets out. Each successive dam
raises the water to a higher level, and as the fleet proceeds, small at
first, it increases until, as it approaches the river, it often numbers
two hundred boats, bearing with them not less than ten thousand barrels
of petroleum.

The advent of this fleet of boats to the mouth of the creek is in the
highest degree exciting. As boat after boat rushes into the river, there
is the dashing to and fro of the boatmen, and the shouts of the
multitude on the shore. Here and there a collision occurs that often
results in the crushing of the feebler boat, and the indiscriminate
mingling of boatmen, fragments of the broken craft, oil, and fixtures in
one common ruin. In this fleet the form and variety of boats beggars all
description. Sometimes there is the orthodox flatboat, filled with
iron-bound barrels, with an air of respectability hovering around it.
Next will follow a rude scow, and close upon it an unwieldy 'bulk,' into
which the oil has b