The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 20, 1898, Page 22

St THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, P — ——0iL RESERVOIR . < Sinking an Oil Well in the Ocean at Summ‘zrland, Near Santa Barbara, oil from away down below the bottom of the ocean and up through its waves is something new in the world, but this is ancther of the strange things t California can show. Among the many interesting things to be seen along the coast of Santa ¥ County in Southern California is an ar of long, roughly built wharves extending out several hundred ond the surf at Summerland and bearing a succession of il der- ricks, under which the operations of wel boring, pile driving and oil pump- ing are carried on. These wells are now yielding about 150 barrels of oil a day, the oil coming from 300 and 500 feet below the surface of the water and nearly that far below the ocean bed. These pelagic ofl wells were begun only about three months or so ago— just about the time that the Star of Empire was plainly noted to be start- on another westward trip. State . S. Cooper, who is prob- the most competent authority in tate on our great but slightly de- »ped oil and asphaltum resources, says that elsewhere along the coast oil- bearing formations are known to dip utward under the sea. This being the case it is possible that the future may see similar deep-sea enterprises else- where along the California shore. that case, in connection with the great Pacific development that is stirring into life, the big ocean might be said to pay from the grass rcots wes It is not at all strange that oil-bear- ing strata should be found at accessible depths under the sea. Very soon after the development of the Summerland oil field it was plainly seen that the ofl- pearing formation extended seaward. I'he geological formation is roughly de- ribed as being in the shape of a stratitied dome. Originally there was a fat layer of shale, then a layer of sand was deposited, and then, as the ages went on, another thick bed of shale overlay the sandstone. Then dur- ing the ages when the Coast Range was uplifted and folded one of these folds occurred where Summerland now is located. UMPING ca Geologists dispute much as to the origin of the so-called mineral oils, but at any rate oil accumulated in the sundstone strata on each side of the fold, being confined by the shales. On the north side surface water naturally accumulated from higher sources in the porous strata reached the lowest depths it could, and rising overflowed. ‘The lighter oil was floated upward to be lost on the surface- or was float- ed over the crest through the porous stratum to help fill the sandy reser- voir which dipped seaward. On this side the water is not forced upward by hydraulic pressure~and the oll is not displaced. So there is oil in the same formation on one side of the fold and not on the other. The erosion of ages wore off the top of the fold, like the removal of a top section of a cone, and then sandstone formations outcropped at two places. On the seaward side the oil in the sandy stratum confined by the shales rose to the outcrooping near the top of the high bluff overlook- ing the ocean, and gave surface signs here and there. signs that two or three generations left unheeded. At one place there was a fumarole from which sul- phuretted hydrogen escaped, preventing any vegetation from growing, and thers was an awesome Spanish legend about a murder that had cursed the spot. There were oil springs from which oozed ‘greasy slime, and some of these were uncovered at low tide down by the sea. Finally in 1895 oil was discovered and the development of the Summerland oil field was begun. It comprised the slope of the bluff for three-quarters of a mile. The first wells were sunk near the top of the bluff, and were but 30 to 50 feet deep. The derricks crept down the bluff, across the railroad and to the high water line where the oil stratum lies at a depth of from 250 to 300 feet. It was plain that the formation dipped under the sea, but nobody went after it there until a short time ago, when an enterprising Mr. Treadwell created a sensation and brought on a little civil war in Summerland. The reason of this brings up a pecu- liar legal situation. The laws of the State and nation were not framed for the bottom of the sea. The Federal land and mining lJaws and the numer- ous and reversible rulings of the Inte- rior Department are supposed to en- courage and protect the production of oil and other mineral things on_public land and the State of California has laws thereunto, But when Mr. Tread- m; well proposed to go to pumping oil at sea nobdgdy could dizcover a law tw either stop him or protect him. The land between the high and low water mark on the beach belongs to the State and there are no laws governing its sale or occunancy in such a case. Beyond low water mark to the three- mile limit the shelving shore is Uncle Sam’'s and he has made no laws gov- erning it. If a man found a rich ledge of gold-bearing quartz pitching off into the sea he could not legally hold it by putting a location notice on an anchor- ed buoy. So Mr. Treadwell and those associa- ated with him could neither buy the sea bottom nor locate claims when they went to pushing a wharf seaward across the ‘State’s property to the Fed- eral domain. There was a fuss in the start. The owners of wells above said he had no rights there and would lower the oil away from them and they mobbed his wharf and chopped it away between high and low water. There was no crime and no redress. 1898. It was sald to be the scheme to rush out two wharves along the opposite sides of the oil field, join them with a lateral wharf and claim and hold the whole watery oil field by mere right of possession. However, a truce was arranged and some wharves have been built straight out from the shore. It appears that the operators have the legal advantage of possession until ejected by State or Federal Government and have about the same general rights that a party of fishermen would have to a strdnded whale. If many more oceanic oil flelds are developed laws and lawyers will be needed. At the point of the shore where these ocean wells are worked the water is shallow for quite a distance out and at the end of a wharf, several hundred feet long, the water is not more than twenty feet deep. The wells are drilled exactly as else- where after the pipe is started down- ward in the sand. Four-inch drills are used and the oil-bearing sands are struck at a depth of from 300 to 500 feet, the depth naturally increasing with distance from shore. The oil obtained from,under the ocean is lighter and better than that from the wells on the bluff above. l The wells cost about $5 a foot. The flow is somewhat interfered with by accumulations of sandy silt at the bottom of the wells, which have to be cleaned out every two or three days. The ocean water gives no trouble. It does not leak downward beside the tightly driven casing. 00000OOOOOO00000000.000000000000000 00000C000000000000000C000000000CO00000C000C000C00C00000000000 QUEER INMATES OF CRANK ALLEY Its in San Quentin, and the Jailers Cannot Tell What Thgir Erratic Charges Are Going to Do Next. F there is any subdivision of the San Quentin penitentiary calling forth more interest than the rest that spot is what in the prison vernacular has been dubbed “Crank Alley.” It is situated between the first and second buildings abutting on the east wall of the institution and is a narrow alley about thirty feet long, with a gate at each end and cells only on the southern side. When the prisoners are not locked up they may be seen lolling around the alley getting the benefit of the sun or amusing themselves in-many ways. “You see,” said Warden Hale, “we 7ave here a number of fellows that are not insane enough to send to an asy- lum, but are so ‘cranky’ that they can- not be permitted to mix with the other convicts on account of the trouble we should have in making them observe the rules. These persons generally are afflicted with melancholia on account of their confinement, which manifests itself in a number of curious ways.” Captain Edgar, who has charge of the inside yard of the prison, happen- ed to be in his office in company with Dr. Lawler, and both had a deal to say about this queer corner of the prison. “Crank alley is a place where some pretty strange specimens flourish. We have to keep them away from the rest of the men or there is a centinual clashing. Yet, as a rule, they are com- paratively harmless. They're erratic. That is where the trouble lies. We don't require any work of them except keeping the alley swept clean and their food is sent to them. Some of them are kept there for no other reason than that they made a disturbance every time they were taken into the dining-room. “Take that fellow Cunningham, who was released from confinement a few | days ago. He used to wear his hair long—not so long as was reported by a certain newspaver correspondent, whose imagination would honor Jules Verne himself, but down on his shoul- ders. He took an oath that he would not speak a word when he was sent here from Orznge County to serve a six-year term for burglary. but al- though he broke his word in a week's | time, he developed so many eccentrici- | ties that it was only a short time until | he had to be placed in ‘Crank alley’ | and kent there until the day he left the | prison. “One day he was in the yard, and without a word of warning fell in what | was thought to be a violent fit. He| was carried to the hospital and placed | on the operating table to receive treat- ment. While Dr. Lawler was busy preparing a dose of medicine, Cunning- ham rolled off on the floor. Doctor, sup- pose you tell the rest.” “That's what he did,” retorted the physician cheerfully, “and it was a long time before I ‘caught on’ to him, | too. Finally I concluded to let him lie on the floor and told him he could make a bed there if he wished. He never rolled off the table again, but he had the fits right along. He would take them in his cell and in the alley, in the yard and nearly everywhere it would cause us the most inconvenience. After a while I concluded the man was really insane, and on my recommenda- tion the Warden sent him to the In- | sanity Asylum at Ukiah, but he never got there. On the way he managed to elude the eye of his guard long enough to escape out of a window and it was two days before he was recap- tured. He was at once brought back. T concluded that a man sane enough to act in that fashion could spend his term here. “Well, this thing of Cunningham’s fits ran on for months. One day the ‘trusty’ who has charge of the alley came to me and told me he was con- vinced the man was shamming. He said that Cunningham went into a most realistic fit a week before and he told him if another fit occurred Cunningham would be found dead in his cell, sup- posedly having dashed his own brains out against the wall. This the ‘trusty’ sald had the desired effect, and for a week Cunningham had not had a single fit. I sent for him and finally he con- fessed that he could bring on these fits at any time he felt like it. During the balance of the time he was here we had no trouble with him.” “Yes,” resumed Captain Edgar, “and this samé fellow was one of the most expert mechanics I ever saw in all my life. He could make anything he ever Jaid his hands to. He used to manu- facture miniature houses out of paper. Inkwells and everything in the way of house ornamentation on a delicate scale were right in his line. There is a sample of his handiwork on the man- tel,” and the speaker pointed to a beau- tiful inkstand and penholder. ““Then there's Johnny Sansome. He has been in seven times for various of- fenses and is familiarly referred to as ‘Samson.’ He is serving a nine-year sentence for burglary committed in Placer County. ‘Samson’ is crazy on the subject of religion. He has used up enough paper writing on that sub- ject to make an unabridged dictionary. He seems to regard the warden., Cap- tain Birlem and myself as a sort of wicked trinity whose salvation depvends on the number of letters we get every day on the subject of looking after the welfare of our souls. We each get one for breakfast, dinner and supper. The fellow has kept this up for months. and now and then inquires if any of us has confessed his sins and joined the church. ““Then_ there is another prisoner we call ‘Old Frenchy.' T can't remember his real name. and it would not inter- est the public, anvhow. ‘Frenchy’ wanders round the alley, and every | it actually time he gets an opportunity he goes into the prison yard looking for bits of ribbon, pieces of thread and tin and such like. These he will sew on the outside of his coat, and each time a new article is added to the collection he will strut up and down for over an hour with not a word to say, but a pleased look on his face that might be worn by a small child. “There is a big overgrown boy in the alley named Jackson. Three or four times a day he takes two large buckets and goes to get water for all the deni- zens of ‘Crank alley.’ If anybody else usurps this prerogative he regards it as an insult and will complain to every official whose ear he can reach for a week. He always walks past the hy- drant and comes around between it and the wall before turning on the water. I have seen him walk ten feet past the hydrant and put himself to the incon- venience of makin~ a large circle in order to come around between to get the water from his favorite position. “A Chinaman named Ah Gin leaves his cell and goes out in the alley to eat his food, no matter whether the sun is shining or it is raining nitchforks. He would starve for a week rather than eat inside his cell. Every time he eats he takes his coat off and places it over his head so as to conceal his .face. Then the food is taken up piece by niéce and eaten out of sight of the other prisoners. “By far the most interesting subject in the place is old ‘Bill' Rodgers. This is his third term and he is serving fourteen years for stage robbery com- mitted in Lake County. He is six feet and one inch in height and could make a lot of trouble if he felt so inclined, but on only one occasion did he show any spleen. Some prisoner said some- thing he did not like and ‘Bill’ prompt- ly whacked him over the head with a broom handle. The next day the papers contained lurid accounts of how he had assaulted and nearly killed another convict with an iron bar. “This man registered a vow when he came in that before he spoke another word people would think he had lost the power of speech. For years he never uttered a word. Every device expedient was tried to make him say something, but it was no go. I say ‘expedient,” because the man is so large that the other convicts were afraid to make him angry. They used to slip up behind and yell at him, stretch wires to trip him up, place buckets of water where he would knock them over in his cell and even tried to coax him to speak by promising to give him a quantity of tobacco. Tobacco finally triumphed. Somebody stole his supply one day to see what he would do. Sev- eral days went by and then he ap- proached another prisoner and asked for a piece of the weed. After that he spoke freely enough on occasion, but now and then he is overcome by fits of moroseness which cause him to go into his cell and refuse to come out for a week. During these periods it is dan- gerous for the other inmates to mo- lest him in any way. Nobody realizes this any better than they. “It is nearlv time to lock up and I cannot tell you more now. Some day I will tell of other peculiar characters, such as the man who tries to imitate a monkey all day long, and the golf fiend. Yes, there is a prisoner in there who practices golf all day long. He's a great enthusiast. ‘Crank alley’ is a great place of its kind.” e e The Bosjesmans in South Central Africa are exceedingly ugly, and exist almost in a state of animalism. They dwell in holes, live on roots and reptiles, and have very much the appearance of the ape. The Calmucks of the great Tartar fam- ily are, although more civilized, extreme- ly ugly. They have short, fat noses, small eyes, high cheek bones, and a pro- truding chin. _—————— Law court records show_ that the de- fendant wins his case in 47 out of every ~100 cases tried. HERE ARE THE FACTS ABOUT DIVORCE Figures to Show How It Increases and Decreases in Different Parts of the World. HE statistics of divorce are very meager. The latest summary was by Carroll D. Wright, Com- missioner of Labor, who col- lected figures to show the in- crease of divorce for twenty years, be- ginning with 1867. The following are his conclusions: Belgium France England 72 Scotland .. 9 Baden 143 Bavaria 238 Saxony 917 Wurtemb: 161 a a18 Switzerland United States Canada had 4 divorces in 1868 and 9 in 1888. The German Empire had vorces in 1882 and 8710 in 1889. Japan had 109,088 divorces in 1899, or one-third the marridges. Separations are, however, included. Connecticut granted 420 divorces in 1886 and 475 in 1891; Indiana, 1655 in 1886, and 2235 in 90 out of 92 counties in 1891. Massachusetts granted 565 di- vorces in 1886 and 1045 in 1893; Minne- sota, 379 in 1886 and 576 in 1892. Divorce is on the increase every- where except in Italy and Austria. The increase is seen in countries of the Greek church, the Lutheran and other Protestant communions and in some Roman Catholic countries. In the United States divorce increases two and a half times as fast as the pop- ulation. 5263 i~ of In the United States 65.8 per cent a5 the divorces are granted on petition the wife. In the United States 38 per cent of the total are granted for desertion, 20 per cent for adultery, 16 per cent for cruelty and 4 per cent for drunkenness. These are the legal pleas. They do not indicate the real causes. Thus, one-half of all divorces for drunken- ness in the United States occur in Ill- inois, Ohio, Jowa and Massachusetts, which indicates that conditions in those States favor the use of that plea. The special examination of 29,665 di- vorce cases in 45 counties in twelve se- lected States shows that in 20.1 per cent of the whole number intemperance is a direct or indirect cause. In these 29,665 cases the average period of mar- ried life between marriage and separa- tion was 6.81 years, while the average period between separation and divorce was 3.02 years, making 9.83 years from marriage to divorce. For the United States the average married life before divorce for a period of twenty yea for which the statis- tics was collected, was 9.17 years. As a rule it is longest in the older States. Out of the total of 328,716 divorces granted in these twenty years 25,371 were granted to persons who had been married 21 years and over, or, on an average, 29 The largest number, however, 27,909, had lived together four vears. The next largest, 27,290, three yvears; 21,525 had been married two years and 15,622 only one year. In 14.6 per cent of the cases the posi- tive statement was made that there were no children. ‘Where children appear in divorece proceedings the average is 2.07 to each couple. 00000000000000000000OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO00000000900000000000000 o0 DIGEING EVEN miles north and a little to the east of the Cheyenne Indian agency in Custer County, Mon- tana, is a well fllled with ice that excites much curiosity among the ranchers and cattle men of that section. Every cowboy who visits the well has much to tell and invariably advances his own explanation. Many ingenious theories are given which tend to indicate that mankind of all degrees of scientific knowledge put forth an ef- fort to find the origin of things; how- ever, they all agree that the ice forms in the well during the summer and that thaws during the winter. This apparent contradiction of the natural laws that govern the outside world has carried the fame of this well for miles around and people have traveled great distances to witness the formation of icicles during the hot weather of July. This well is within a few hundred feet of the summit of the Little Wolf Moun- tains, on the north slope, at the very beginning of Greenleaf Creek, which empties into the Rosebud eight miles below and about fifty miles from where the Rosebud Jjoins the Yellowstone River. This portion of the mountains is covered with a dense growth of tall pines. Fourteen years ago three men pros- pecting for silver, mistaking certain colors in the ricks, began sinking a shaft; at fifteen feet it was disagree- ably cold; at twenty feet the cold had increased so rapidly that they were thoroughly frightened. They could feel currents of cold air rushing up from the crevices in the rock; they imagined they were digging into some mysterious underground cavern; they had heard just enough of wonderful adventures of digging into caves and underground lakes,and being alone in this wilderness where the very stillness permitted the ears to hear and the mind to imagine all manner of grewsome powers hid be- neath the rock, so thoroughly filled them with the fear of impending dan- ger that they. abandoned the work which has since gained such renown. The summits' of the Little Wolf Mountains are covered with scoria, which has all the appearance and tex- ture of a good grade of tiling. It is usually red, but varies in color through all the shades down to black. These varying colors give the beautiful tints to the thousands of buttes throughout the bad lands. In comparatively recent geological times vast beds of lignite coal were formed over the eastern half of Montana extending into Western Dakota. The burning of these beds of coal was the beginning of the bad- land formation; the fine deposits of clay above the coal was burned as brick are burned in a kiln and formed the scoria; where the heat was greater and rock or sand was present it melted and mixed with the coal and coal ash, forming large cinder-like rocks which are sometimes mistaken for lava. As the coal burned out from beneath the clay, now baked into scoria and melted into cinders, broke into small divisions and fell promiscuously down into the pits thus formed. Volcanic ash is found scattered over the Little Wolf Mountains and the eastern portion of Montana, It must have drifted with the wind from powerful eruptions in the Rocky Mountains, as there are no indications of any volcanic action in the vicinity of the ice well. The Little Wolf Mountains are merely a high range of buttes apparently of the same origin as all the bad land buttes. Their summits towering above all the other buttes has given them the name of mountains, but they are only of slight- 1y over 4000 feet altitude. If ice were to be put into the well during the winter it would Kkeep throughout the summer nearly as well as if stored away in the ordinary ice- house. By chance nature has formed almost the identical conditions that man has made use of to preserve ice through the hot weather. The shaft is the cavity in which to store the ice; the volcanic ash filling into the open space between the loosely piled rock serves the purpose of sawdust in keep- ng out the warm draughts of air; the altitude and the north slope are favor- able to the preservation of the ice; the tall, dense forest prevents the heating of the surface rock by the direct rays of the sun; the rocks are too porous for the water to soak up, so to speak, from beneath; the facts are that in many places near the tops of the buttes on the sides where the rocks have fallen loosely together they are perfectly dry for many feet below the surface, be- ing moistened by the winter snow and rain as it may fall and run down from above. During the winter the well is nearly filled with snow; enough water from the early spring rains finds its way through between the rocks to mix with the snow and freeze into one solid mass of ice. The ice in the well is formed by the cold of the winter season, but does not begin to form sometimes till the winter is half gome; in turn it is melted by the heat of the summer, but does not begin to melt until the sum- mer is half over. In the early part .ot the summer it is still freezing in the well, and during the first half of the* winter it is still melting. The well acts as a refrigerator. It receives the heat slowly and then gives it off just as slowly. If the earth received and gave off heat readily the hottest weather would be in June and the cold- ezt in December—in fact, the seasons fcllow nearly a month behind the sun. The conditions surrounding the ice well cause it to foilow the seasons from six to eight weeks later. Those visiting the well during the first half of the winter find water and those visiting during the early summer find it still freezing, even finding small icicles forming as the water, coming from above, drips over the rocks on the sides down near the ice. It is a fact that, if on a hot day, you walk rapidly into the cave to where the ice is, it feels as though a strong cur- rent of cold air were blowing against your face. The sensation is so decid- edly real that it requires careful dem- onstration to prove to the contrary, and even then it almost seems as though the demonstration had Deen a mistake. It can be easily tested by using smoke, or, better still, a rather heavy colored glass. Again, if one should stand without the entrance to the cave on a very warm day, near enough to feel any draught that may be stirring, none can be felt coming from the cave. If one should stand di- rectly above the ice well on a hot, still day, even putting the face down to the very opening into the well, no upward draught of cool alr can be felt; but go down into the well and one would state positively that there was an upward draught of extremely cold air. Fermers at work getting their ‘summer supply of ice out of the ice well.