rests upon the
solid rock, usually at a depth of about fifty feet. The earth is then
removed from the inside of this pipe by means of a sand-pump, and the
"tools" attached to a cable are placed within it.

These tools, consisting of a centre-bit and a rammer, are each thirty or
thirty-five feet in length, and weigh about eight hundred pounds. At
short intervals these are replaced by the sand-pump, which removes the
drillings.

The first three strata of rock are usually slate, sandstone, and
soapstone. Beneath these, at a depth of two hundred feet, lies the
second sandstone, and from this all the first yield of oil was taken;
but, though good in quality, this supply was speedily exhausted, and the
modern wells are carried directly through this second sandstone, through
the slate and soapstone beneath, to the third sandstone, in whose
crevices lies the largest yield yet discovered. The proprietors of old
wells are now reaming them out and sinking their shafts to the required
depth, which is about four hundred and fifty feet.

The oil announces itself in various ways: sometimes by the escape of
gas; sometimes by the appearance of oil upon the cable attached to the
tools; sometimes by the dropping of the tools, showing that a crevice
has been reached; and in occasional happy instances by a rush of oil
spouting to the top of the derrick, and tossing out the heavy tools like
feathers.

Such a well as this, known as a flowing well, is the best "find"
possible, as the fortunate borer has nothing more to do than to put down
a tubing of cast-iron artesian pipe, lead the oil from its mouth into a
tank, and then, sitting under his own vine and fig-tree, leave his
fortune to accumulate by daily additions of thousands of dollars. A
flowing well, struck while Miselle was upon the Creek, yielded fifteen
hundred barrels per day, the oil selling at the well for ten dollars and
a half the barrel.

But should the oil decline to flow, or, having flowed, cease to do so, a
force-pump is introduced, and, driven by the same engine that bored the
well, brings up the oil at a rate varying from three to three hundred
barrels per day. The Phillips Well, on Tarr Farm, originally a flowing
well, producing two thousand barrels per day, now pumps about three
hundred and thirty, and is considered a first-class well.

Before reaching oil, the borer not unfrequently comes upon veins of
water, either salt or fresh; and this water is excluded from th