52 APOCRYPHAL STORY. much of the ideal and sentimental. They sometimes worshipped the sun, but the oblations were generally in the form of a sacrifice laid upon the altar. The victim usually offered by the Senecas was a white dog, and there is no reference in any well established account of anything like fire-worship, a form that seems to have been Persian in its origin. In support of the theory of Indian origin, reference is sometimes made to a letter said to have been written by the commander of Fort Du Quesne (Pittsburgh) to Gen. Montcalm, describing a grand scene of fire worship on the banks of Oil creek, where the whole surface of the creek, being coated with oil, was set on fire, producing in the night season a wonderful conflagration. But there is room for the suspicion that this account is apochryphal. Such scenes as are there described have been witnessed on Oil creek since the beginning of the modern oil trade. During the continuance of several accidental conflagrations, the scene has been awfully grand and impressive. It has been strongly suggestive of the conflagration of the last day, when "The lightnings, barbed, red with wrath, But these terrific scenes were when hundreds of barrels of oil had been stored up in tanks, and when the combustible fluid was spouting from the wells, mingled with columns of gas, at the rate of many hundred barrels per day. Before the present deep wells were bored, oil was not produced in sufficient quantities to cause such a con flagration, and previous to the date of modern oil operations, there was never seen upon the creek a stratum of oil of sufficient consistency to be inflammable. The remains of the once powerful confederacy of Indians known as the "Six Nations" still linger in Western Pennsylvania, in a region not very remote from Oil creek, and at the time this region was settled by the present inhabitants were found in great numbers, but they can throw no light upon the origin of these pits. In regard to their history they can give no more information than they can concerning the mounds and fortifications, ruined castles and dismantled cities, that tell us of a once glorious past, of a mysterious decadence, and of the utter vanity of all merely earthly glory. There are men still living in the oil valley who were on terms of familiar intimacy with Cornplanter, a celebrated chief of the Senecas-the last of a noble and heroic line of chieftains that had borne sway from the Canadas to the Mississippi,-and who was living at the time of the French occupation of the country. He had been in his time a mighty man of war-was born about 1735-was with the French and Indians at Braddock's defeat in 1755-at the Wyoming massacre; but afterwards became the friend of the white man. His home during the last years of his life was on the Allegheny, about seventy miles above Franklin. Here he died in the year 1840 or 1841, at the age of about one hundred and five years. Cornplanter, although allied to the white race, and having their blood in his veins, was essentially an Indian in all his feelings and instincts. He was an eloquent orator, a shrewd tactician, a bold warrior, and possessed the entire confidence of his own people. He was one of the great men of the 54 GREAT ANTIQUITY. dusky races that are now so rapidly passing away. For nearly a century he had had intercourse with the chiefs and braves of different tribes, and was well versed in their traditionary lore; but in reciting his own deeds and memories, and those of his fathers who had gone to the silent hunting grounds of the spirit land, he could say nothing of early oil operations, any further than the collection of it in small quantities for medicinal or ornamental purposes. Of French operations on Oil creek he could say nothing, and on the origin of these pits he could throw no light. This would be inexplicable on the theory that they were due either to French or Indian labor. And finally these ruins presented the same appearance precisely to the early settlers, who appeared amid these scenes seventy years ago, that they do now. They appeared as ancient then as now-the same traces of a bygone age, the rounded outline, the absence of any recent traces of labor, the luxuriant growth of timber on the pits, and on the ridges that separated them-there has been little change. The only rational conclusion, therefore, at which we can arrive in regard to these early oil operations is, that they are due, not to the Indians, or French, or early white settlers, but to some primitive dwellers on the soil, who have long since passed away, leaving no written records to tell of their origin or their history, but stamping the impress of their existence on our mountains and in our valleys, assuring us of their power and the magnificence of their operations, yet leaving us to wonder that such strength could fail, that such magnificence could perish, and that such darkness could settle over the memory of a great people. There are such remains of antiquity scattered all over MOUND-BUILDERS. 55 this continent; sometimes they are of a military character, sometimes of a peaceful nature. In all the ordinary trees of the forest are found growing upon and around them, apparently of the same kind and of the same age as those found in the unbroken forest. We can ascribe them all to the same age and the same origin—the age an indefinite one; the origin, a race of people who, for want of a better name, are sometimes called "mound-builders." CHAPTER V. ` MODERN WAY OF COLLECTING OIL. As before intimated, petroleum was found in Venango county by the earliest white settlers, and was esteemed for its medical properties. But it was found only in minute quantities. It was found in particular localities along Oil creek, in the town of Franklin, and other places along the banks of the Allegheny, just where there happened to be fissures in the rock permitting it to escape. It would be found issuing with the water from springs, sometimes bubbling up from the bottom of the river in small globules, that, rising to the surface, disperse themselves upon the water and glide away in silent beauty. Many such indications were seen in the creeks and rivers. A drop of oil would escape from the rocks or gravel beneath, and, accompanied by its gaseous attendant, would appear like an air-bubble until it 56 MODERN OIL PITS. reached the top, when a beautiful surface would be presented on the water, reflecting all the colors of the rainbow. These hints had been indicating the presence of the immense treasure house beneath for ages, yet no wild dreamer seized the idea, for the time had not yet. arrived for the revelation and the use. Many families drew their supply from little springs of water on the river bank, contiguous to their dwellings. This was done by simply damming up the little spring and skimming the oil from the surface when a thin stratum had accumulated. But the principal oil spring, or that from which the largest quantity of petroleum was collected, was located on Oil creek, about two miles from its mouth. This was on the "McClintock Farm," so much celebrated in the history of modern petroleum operations, and whose possession at the present time would be equal to the patrimony of the great "kingmaker," the last of the Barons. From this point the main supply was drawn for the wants of the earlier inhabitants. And as the demand was limited, no great amount of enterprise was called forth in its production. The capital invested was small, the labor demanded in carrying it on was limited in its amount, the modus operandi was most primitive, and yet, withal, the results were satisfactory. A point was selected where the oil appeared to bubble up most freely, when a pit was excavated to the depth of two or three feet. Sometimes this pit was rudely walled up, sometimes not. Sometimes it was near the edge of the water on the bank of the stream, sometimes in the bed of the stream itself, advantage being taken of a time of low water. In these pits the oil and water would collect together, until a stratum of the former |