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 artesian w/ell. 
 
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 digitized through 
 the generosity of 
 
 Robert O. Blissard 
 Class of 1957 
 
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 University of Illinois Library at Urbana-Champaign 
 
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 HISTORY 
 
 THE LIBRARY 0f| Tff 
 
 JUN *4 19$: 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF lljjikbiS. 
 
 A DEMONSTRATION OF THE TRUTH OF THE SPIRITUAL 
 
 PHILOSOPHY: WITH AN ESSAY ON THE ORIGIN 
 
 AND USES OF PETROLEUM. 
 
 BY GEO. A. SHUFELDT, JR. 
 
 FIFTH EDITION, 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 Rellglo-Philosophlcal Publishing Association Print, 64 Dearbern Street. 
 
 I860. 
 
 «*V- aft-*^* -^^^•*3&**3&r*&**&^'*T&r~.-- 
 
 
 PRICE, 25 CENTS. 
 
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Chicago, December -27th. 
 Mr. Shffeldt : 
 
 Dew Sir: I send herewith the result of a chemical 
 examination of the sample of water which was transmitted to me by you, 
 as coming from the Artesian Well. A gallon of this water holds 71 7:2-100 
 Troy grains of solid mineral substances in solution. They consist mainly 
 of carbonate of lime and carbonate of magnesia, with smaller proportions 
 of sulphate of lime and sulphate of magnesia, chloride of magnesium, very 
 little chloride of sodium, and traces of alumni and silicic acid. 
 
 Owing to the mineral ingredients which it contains, it deserves the 
 name of a (" temporary") hard water. I found it, contrary to the prevail- 
 ing opinion, free of sulphuretted hydrogen. It is beautifully clear and 
 transparent, and therefore most admirably adapted for drinking purposes. 
 I am yours, very respectfully, 
 
 Dr. F. MAHLA, Practical Chemist. 
 
 Copies of this History, price 25 cts., also, Photograph 
 copies of the picture " Emancipation," the largest pencil 
 drawing under glass in this country, and of the Artesian 
 Wells Mammoth Ice House — the originals of which 
 were executed through the mediumship of the under- 
 signed — can be had by addressing 
 
 J±. JAMES, 
 
 Box 2070. Chicago. 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OP THE 
 
 CHICAGO ARTESIAN WELL, 
 
 A DEMONSTRATION OP THE TRUTH OP THE 
 
 This Edition of this History contains an account of 
 the successful boring of the Second Well— with a diary of 
 the mechanical part of the operations, and some other 
 matters of general interest. Each future edition will con- 
 tain accounts of the general progress and development of 
 the work. 
 
 «»»■ 
 
 IRE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 JUN 24 m> 
 
 CHICAGO: DIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. 
 
 RELIGIO-PHILOSOPniCAL PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION. 
 
 1866. 
 
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 «®ma win wat«, 
 
 Chicago, December 27th. 
 Mr. Shufeldt: 
 
 Dear Sir: I send herewith the result of a chemical 
 
 drawing under glass in tnis country, ana 01 ine artesian 
 Wells Mammoth Ice House — the originals of which 
 were executed through the mediumship of the under- 
 signed — can be had by addressing 
 
 J±. JAMES, 
 
 Box 2079, Chicago. 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHICAGO ARTESIAN WELL, 
 
 A DEMONSTRATION OF THE TRUTH OP THE 
 
 SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY, 
 
 "WITH 
 
 AN ESSAY ON THE ORIGIN AND USES OF PETROLEUM. 
 
 4 » » 
 
 BY GEO. A. SHUFELDT, JR. 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 JUN 24 m> 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 RELIGIO-PHILOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION. 
 
 1866. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/historyofchicagoOOshuf 
 
r THE LIBRARy OF THE 
 
 JUN *4 m, 
 
 IMIVutoii (if ILLINOIS. 
 
 PREFATORY. 
 
 This work, as a Spiritual demonstration, has become known 
 throughout our entire country, and a great degree of curiosity 
 has been manifested to learn the manner in which the revelation 
 of the existence of water and oil beneath this ground was 
 
 \ made. To gratify in a measure this curiosity, and to contribute 
 — only a mite perhaps — to the great mass of facts now rapidly 
 accumulating in support of the truth of Spirit communion, the 
 following details are given. They are vouched for by the writer, 
 
 j so far as his personal knowledge goes; and those matters of which 
 he is not cognizant are testified to by reliable witnesses to that 
 extent which admits of no possible contradiction. It has here- 
 tofore been a common practice to sneer at and ridicule such new 
 truths and developments as were not comprehended by the ordinary 
 understanding of men ; but it will not do in this day, and after 
 the demonstrations of the Steam Engine, the Locomotive, Hoe's 
 Press, the Magnetic Telegraph and the Telescope, to repudiate 
 anything for the single reason that it is new and not generally 
 understood. There are things in Philosophy and Science every 
 day revealed which cannot be laughed down nor sneered out of 
 existence ; and with all due respect to the men of learning and 
 the wise ones of the world, I venture to suggest that this fact of 
 the Spirit communion is one of that class. The daily accumula- 
 tion of proofs is too great, the mass of testimony in its favor is 
 too strong, to permit any mere passer-by to laugh it down ; — like 
 Banquo's ghost, "it will not down " — but is ever, with its simple 
 philosophy, with its Divine justice and morality, rising upward 
 and marching onward; numbering its followers by millions; 
 attracting the simple and lowly of the world as well as the 
 
 84 k*3 
 
11 
 
 learned and the great; uprooting Atheism, Deism and Panthe- 
 ism; it destroys that skepticism and infidelity to God, which 
 have cast so many shadows on the natural religion of man. 
 
 The facts detailed in the following pages — "The History of 
 the Chicago Artesian Well" — are given and intended as mere 
 links in the great chain of proofs, to demonstrate the reality of 
 the Spiritual communication. The revelation of the existence 
 of water and oil underneath this ground, where geologists 
 declared they did not exist, and the proof of the truth of that 
 revelation, by actual boring into the ground, the result of which 
 can now be seen by all, in the perpetual, never-ending flow of 
 this splendid fountain, is the great fact to which we point, as 
 conclusive proof of the matters which are here alleged. 
 
 It was sometime in the summer of 1863 — in July or August — 
 two gentlemen from Maine, Mr. Thos. J. Whitehead and Mr. A. 
 E. Swift, visited Chicago on private business of their own. They 
 were strangers here, ignorant of Chicago, its soil, surface and 
 surroundings, and bent wholly upon matters foreign to the subject 
 and substance of this narrative. 
 
 These gentlemen happened to be of the Spiritual faith, 
 and met many times in a circle formed by themselves, Mrs. 
 Caroline Jordan, a writing medium, and Mr. Abraham 
 James, hereafter referred to. The meetings of these persons 
 and the holding of circles were, apparently, accidental, and 
 without any particular designs other than those which usually 
 attend such gatherings, and attention was first attracted by a 
 communication in writing given through Mrs. Jordan — that a 
 matter of great importance and significance would soon be 
 made known ; and, in pursuance of this intimation, it was 
 shortly thereafter written, with an explanatory preface, to the 
 effect that great doubts prevailed in the human mind as to 
 the reality and truth of the spiritual communion, many per- 
 
Ill 
 
 sons altogether disbelieving in the existence of any of the 
 alleged phenomena; hence, a practical test or demonstration 
 was necessary, in order to remove these doubts and to place 
 this fact beyond the possibility of cavil or dispute ; and then 
 the revelation came: That beneath a certain tract or piece of 
 land, near the city of Chicago, Petroleum existed in large 
 quantities, and could be obtained by the ordinary process used 
 for that purpose. And it was further declared and stated 
 that underneath this ground would also be found a well or 
 stream of the best, purest and healthiest water known any- 
 where, which would rush to the surface with great force and 
 power, and was in quantities sufficient to supply the people 
 of this city for all time to come, and that this water would 
 be found and used for that purpose. No very great degree 
 of attention was paid to these statements until after many 
 earnest repetitions of the same story and a specific location 
 of the land was made. The medium, Mr. James, was taken 
 to the ground, was there entranced, and, in that state, selected 
 a point for boring the first well ; and at that precise spot 
 this well is now flowing 600,000 gallons per day of the best 
 and purest water in the world. 
 
 About the time of the occurrence of these matters, my 
 attention was called to it by Messrs. Whitehead and Swift, 
 but not then understanding the object of the communication, 
 and thinking that it was a mere search after money, which 
 I knew was never sanctioned by spirits of truthful charac- 
 ter, I declined to have anything to do with it, and for the 
 time paid no further attention to it. But, as these gentle- 
 men were persistent in their efforts and evidently honest in 
 their faith, I was finally induced to attend the circle, which 
 I did for the purpose of learning more definitely the charac- 
 ter of the communications and the probable truthfulness of 
 
IV 
 
 the matters referred to — and here, for the first time, I heard 
 this revelation in full, and its objects and purposes explicitly 
 stated, and being convinced that such objects and purposes 
 were for the accomplishment of a great good, negotiations 
 were opened for the purchase of the land. This purchase 
 being consummated in the month of October, 1863, the drill 
 was shortly thereafter started, in pursuit of the facts which 
 had been thus revealed. The one fact — the water — has been 
 found; the other will come in due season. 
 
 Many times during the progress of the work — I may say 
 many hundreds of times — these things were repeated and 
 insisted upon by different spirits through the same medium. 
 A diagram was made showing the location of the water, and 
 the workmen were advised to be on the lookout for it only 
 one or two days before it was finally reached. As to the? 
 existence of oil beneath this ground, we who have carefully 
 watched the descent of the drill and studied its products, 
 have no doubt of the fact — for we see it every day and every 
 time the sediment comes to the surface. We were told that 
 the oil was to be found in quantities below this water some 
 fifty or sixty feet, and, when the proper time arrives, we 
 shall demonstrate the truth of this assertion, or prove its 
 falsity. At present our business is with the water, and our 
 efforts are directed to the one result, i, e., to make this the 
 largest and most magnificent fountain of pure cold water to 
 be found anywhere in the world. 
 
 It has been, also, frequently stated, through the medium, that 
 the Petroleum and gases from this ground, and their products, 
 would be used for the purpose of illuminating the streets and 
 houses of this city, but as this statement may seem extremely 
 problematical to many, I simply give it as it came, and leave the 
 future to prove or disprove it. 
 
THE CHICAGO 
 
 ARTESIAN WELL. 
 
 A DEMONSTRATION OF THE TRUTH OF THE SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 The history of this work may be briefly written : 
 
 In December, 1863, the boring was commenced, with a diame- 
 ter of five inches. In January following, the well was lost at a 
 depth of sixty-five feet — the tools getting fast at the bottom. 
 Another was commenced in February, 1864, and the work pro- 
 gressed slowly and gradually until November, when the water 
 was struck, at a depth of seven hundred and eleven feet. And 
 this water is now flowing to the surface, with a head of about 
 eighty feet. There are no striking geological peculiarities found 
 in this boring. 
 
 The alluvial formation or deposit around Chicago is about one 
 hundred feet in depth ; at this particular point, however, by a 
 natural upheaval of the earth's crust, the rock is thrown to the 
 surface, so that, instead of sinking the usual soil-pipe, common 
 to the boring of Artesian wells, the drill was started in the rock 
 itself directly from the surface ; and, with a single exception, 
 the boring was continued through the rock all the way down 
 
 At the surface, this rock is the upper stratum of the upper silu- 
 
rian, the formation in this part of the State being usually in the 
 Devonean. The first thirty-five feet is limestone, saturated with 
 and greatly discolored with petroleum to such an extent that the 
 rock will burn as freely as coal ; and frequently, in blast- 
 ing, petroleum in quantities of one or two gallons have been 
 thrown out with a single charge of powder. Immediately under- 
 lying this is a stratum of what we call here Joliet marble, one 
 hundred feet in thickness. This is one of the very best building 
 stones in existence, and many of the public buildings in Chicago 
 are constructed from it. It crops out at Athens and Joliet, about 
 thirty or forty miles from here, at which places it is obtained 
 for use. 
 
 Below this marble lies a stratum of conglomerate of sand and 
 flint about one hundred and twenty-five feet in thickness. This 
 band was marked by the occasional presence of iron pyrites, and 
 with one trace of copper. The drill went through it very slowly. 
 Wherever crevices appeared in this rock strong indications of oil 
 were found. Beneath this conglomerate we entered the shale, a 
 blue clay or unformed rock, which separates the upper and lower 
 Silurians. This band is one hundred and fifty-six feet thick, 
 characterized by no special peculiarities. We met with nothing 
 but a few bushels of nodules, or more perfectly formed shale, 
 which occasionally dropped into the well ; but this entire band 
 was saturated with petroleum, the sediment coming up like putty, 
 thick and greasy. A test by distillation afforded a small quantity 
 of oil, and naptha in abundance. Gas now began to escape and 
 signs of oil were abundant. After this the drill penetrated the 
 upper surface of the Galena limestone ; and where this shale 
 rests upon the underlying rock, at a depth of five hundred and 
 twenty-seven feet, the largest quantiy of oil yet seen was found. 
 The drill and drill rods were covered so thickly that the oil ran 
 from them in considerable quantities. 
 
3 
 
 At five hundred and thirty-nine feet the first regular band of 
 sandstone was entered, and here again oil was visible in quan- 
 tities sufficient to produce satisfaction. This sandstone is seventy- 
 one feet thick, and shows oil through the entire stratum. At six 
 hundred and eight feet another band of limestone containing flint 
 and sulphurets of iron was struck. It was very hard, and the 
 progress through it slow. 
 
 At this point the well was in constant commotion from the 
 action of escaping gasses — the water at times fell thirty and 
 sixty feet and then suddenly rose to the surface. Shortly 
 after this the water commenced overflowing the well. The quantity 
 was small, but sufficient to carry up with it the sediment from the 
 bottom, and hence from this point, the chippings of the drill 
 being washed away and lost, we had nothing by which to deter- 
 mine anything further in relation to the geological formation. 
 The drill continued to go down until, at the depth of seven hun- 
 dred and eleven feet, the arch of the rock was penetrated, and 
 the water suddenly burst forth. This was about the 25th of Novem- 
 ber, 1864. The water flows at the rate of about six hundred 
 thousand gallons per twenty-four hours, through an orifice four 
 and a quarter inches in diameter at the bottom. The temperature is 
 58° F. and is uniform. It is clear as crystal, as pure as the dia- 
 mond, free from all animal or vegetable matter, and from any 
 injurious mineral substances, and its composition is such that it 
 is better adapted for drinking purposes, and for health, than any 
 other water known. 
 
 Taking into account the low temperature of this water, the 
 great depth from whence it comes, its head, or the force with 
 which it comes to the surface, and the quantity discharged, it may 
 be said to be the finest Artesian well in the world. There is no 
 well known which discharges so large a quantity of pure healthy 
 cold water. There is one well — that of Passy, near Paris — of 
 
large bore, which furnishes more water ; but it is warm, and can 
 only be used to supply the lakes in the Bois de Boulogne, and for 
 irrigating purposes. The water of the well of Grenelle, also, is 
 unfit for other than mechanical uses, and this is true of the ma- 
 jority of deep wells in this country. 
 
 Immediately after reaching this water, we proceeded to tube 
 the well through the thirty-five feet of surface rock, which was 
 much broken by the commotion and upheaval. To that end a four- 
 inch pipe was inserted and driven down forty feet, until it reached 
 the solid marble. This tube, or pipe, is now carried twenty-five 
 feet above the surface, and out of the top of this pipe the water 
 flows into a flume, and is conveyed to the water wheel, twenty 
 feet in diameter, which is used as power to drive the drills and 
 machinery for other wells which are now in process of construction. 
 
 We have a power which is as near perpetual motion as can be 
 got. The water flows on and on in undiminished force and undi- 
 minished quantity — the water flows and the wheel revolves. We 
 are now engaged in boring a well, which, when completed, will be 
 fifteen inches in diameter, and will discharge ten and a half mil- 
 lions of gallons per day. When that is done, we shall rim out 
 the other well to the same diameter, and will then have a quantity 
 of water equal to twenty millions of gallons per day. 
 
 It is the object and intention of this work to supply the city of 
 Chicago with pure and wholesome water. We can do it at one- 
 half of the cost of the present method, and then we shall have 
 the great advantages — 
 
 1st. That neither expensive engines nor fuel is required ; there 
 is no labor ; no work ; no machinery. It will flow into the reser- 
 voir with a force and power which steam engines and force pumps 
 cannot expect to equal. 
 
 2d. It can be done at one-half of the cost to the poor man 
 which the present method entails. 
 
3d. The water is perfectly, chemically pure — free from all 
 animal and vegetable matter — and consequently not obnoxious to 
 the charges of disease and death which now lie at the door of the 
 present Chicago Water Works. When this water is once in com- 
 mon use, erysipelas, boils, and eruptive diseases, will disappear, 
 and that bane of our Western cities, low typhoid fever, will be 
 abated in Chicago. The advantages which attend upon this pres- 
 ent comparatively insignificant well of water are too great to be 
 reported here. Let it be sufficient to say, that there is in the not 
 distant future blessings connected with it which cannot be paid 
 for in dollars, nor rendered in detail upon paper. 
 
 This living well of water will be the poor man's friend for all 
 time to come, and the doctors enemy for eternity. 
 
 BORING FOR OIL. 
 
 Shortly after reaching the water, as above described, we sunk 
 another well, to the depth of about forty feet, for the purpose of 
 finding oil. This well will eventually go down to the depth of 
 fifteen hundred feet, if necessary ; but at present it is stopped to 
 test the surface rock and see if any oil can be obtained from it. 
 This well has been pumped for about three weeks, and about sev- 
 enty-five to one hundred gallons of Petroleum secured. But this 
 surface stratum of fossiliferous limestone, before mentioned as 
 being saturated with Petroleum, is so broken and distorted by the 
 upheavals that it seems to be impossible to exclude the surface 
 water and produce a vacuum below so as to draw the oil into the 
 well from the seams and crevices. That oil exists here, and can, 
 with perseverance, be obtained, there is no manner of doubt ; 
 eventually that question will be decided by actual experiment. 
 
LOCATION OF THE LAND. 
 
 The tract of land on which this well is located is forty acres in 
 extent, and lies at the city limits of Chicago — at the corner of 
 Chicago and Western avenues — three and one-half miles from the 
 Court House, or center of the city. Buildings of all kinds are 
 gradually approaching it, and the onward course of the great city 
 of the West will soon surround it. The elevation is thirty-one 
 feet above the level of the lake, and is the highest ground within 
 the corporation limits ; the water has a head of at least eighty 
 feet above the surface of the ground, giving one hundred and 
 eleven feet above the lake, thus warranting an ample head for all 
 practical and useful purposes. 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF THIS WELL. 
 
 Most persons of the present day have heard of the doctrine of 
 Modern Spiritualism. Some, whose educational or other feelings 
 teach them a different theory of religion, treat it with derision 
 and ridicule. Others who do not profess to understand it, but 
 pursue a wiser course, and are content to await the developments 
 of time and experience, neither reject nor adopt that which they 
 cannot explain or understand ; there is yet another class who pro- 
 fess to understand what they teach, and can give reasons for their 
 faith, who have adopted the principles of this beautiful philosophy 
 as their rules of conduct in life, and on which they base their 
 knowledge of immortality and the Eternal World. We do not 
 intend to enter deeply into this subject at present, nor to take 
 issue with any person who sees fit to differ with us in the conclu- 
 sions to which after a careful investigation we have arrived. That 
 is no part of our business now ; holding to the broad doctrine 
 
that every man is entitled to the fullest scope in the enjoyment of 
 his religious opinions — that he alone is his own saviour and 
 accountable to God for his own actions — and hence we ask no man 
 to believe as we do, nor to adopt our faith. We may place before 
 him certain facts on which our knowledge is based, and they may 
 be accepted or rejected as may seem to him fit. 
 
 True Spiritualism, as it exists in its beauty and purity, and 
 divested of the charlatanry, humbug and imposture, with which 
 knaves and rogues sometimes encumber it, is nothing more nor 
 less than the Philosophy of Life — of your life and mine — Life in 
 the Physical and in the material world, and Life in the Spiritual 
 and the Eternal world — nothing but human existence — here and 
 there. 
 
 Many persons doubt, or altogether disbelieve, in the power of 
 the Spirit after leaving its form to communicate with those remain- 
 ing in the body, while those who believe in the truths of the Spir- 
 itual Philosophy know this to be a demonstrated fact, and also 
 know that through this means the great truths of the Life here- 
 after — the immortality of the Soul and the existence and manner 
 of life of the human spirit — may be learned. Its birth and educa- 
 tion on earth, the death of the body, and the passing on of the 
 Spirit to immortality, become facts cognizable to the human intel- 
 lect and comprehension. It is these facts, viz. : The existence of 
 the Spirit after death, and its consequent immortality — its power 
 to communicate with those still in the body, and from this source 
 and through this means to learn the truths of Immortal life — to 
 which we are now calling the attention of man, and which we hope 
 to demonstrate beyond question or dispute, and so to establish 
 forever that there may be no further cause of contradiction, we 
 desire to make it plain to the mind of every man capable of forming 
 a thought, that his spirit lives always — that when he passes 
 through the dark valley called death it is but the changing of a 
 
8 
 
 garment, not death, but eternal life — that he becomes neither an 
 angel nor a demon — that he is not raised up to an incomprehen- 
 sible heaven nor cast down into an impossible hell, but that he 
 remains, himself, an existing, individualized spirit, whose future 
 life is development and eternal progress. 
 
 While Spiritualism is as old as history, running through the 
 records of all ages, times and people, manifesting itself in one 
 way and another for thousands of years, yet it is only in compar- 
 atively modern times — within our own generation — that the Spirit 
 world has been able to make such communications to man as to 
 lead his mind in the right direction in pursuit of that knowledge 
 which is of itself immortality. 
 
 These communications, or manifestations, have assumed all 
 conceivable forms and shapes — physical, as table-tippings and 
 movings, ringing of bells, playing on musical instruments, raising 
 persons from the floor, sustaining heavy bodies in the air, and 
 thousands of things of a like character too numerous to repeat in 
 detail ; mental, as talking in strange tongues ; ignorant men, 
 uneducated women, and little children, delivering discourses on 
 political and scientific subjects with all the freedom of men of 
 great education and wisdom, and displaying a knowledge which is 
 only acquired by men of studious habits and great experience. 
 
 Such manifestations have been made for the one purpose, among 
 others, of calling the attention of man to the great truths of life — 
 what he is and what he is to be — that he may understand his 
 existence here and his Immortal life beyond the grave ; that dark- 
 ness, ignorance and bigotry may be dispelled ; that superstition 
 may be destroyed, and the light of the new truth be installed in 
 its supreme majesty and glory. 
 
 Long and fearfully has the world struggled with ignorance and 
 barbarity ; thousands of martyrs to Liberty and Religion have 
 perished on the scaffold or at the stake of fire. Imprisonment 
 
and disgrace were thrust upon Copernicus and Gallileo for the 
 utterance of a simple and sublime Truth. Cranmer perished in 
 the flames, and thousands died under the tortures of the Inquisi- 
 tion, that ignorance might live, and that bigotry might rule with 
 fire and sword. But we thank the Eternal God that these times 
 have passed away — that a new era is inaugurated — that a new 
 light has dawned upon a regenerated world, and no more need 
 man fear a return to the darkness and prejudices of past ages — tG 
 dark ignorance and blind bigotry. In our country and our times 
 the fullest scope of religious liberty is the birth-right of every 
 freeman. 
 
 Evidences of the truth of the Spiritual Philosophy, of the 
 power of the spirit to communicate with man in the body, have 
 been from time to time submitted to the world — thousands and 
 tens of thousands have heard and seen these proofs, and have 
 believed, until the numbers have been swelled to millions. But 
 there are those who demand a potent physical manifestation of 
 the power of the spirit, so that all men may see and comprehend, 
 and go away believing. Eor such a purpose, and to all the 
 world, the revelation of the existence of water and oil underneath 
 this ground was made. It was stated by these spiritual intelli- 
 gences, among many other things, that this, the city of Chicago, 
 was the grand center of population, and the capital of the Valley 
 of the Mississippi, in the heart of a great Continent, whose people 
 were grandly and rapidly rising to greatness and renown ; that 
 here were attracted representatives of all nations, tongues and 
 peoples, and hence if a great practical, sensible demonstration of 
 spirit power were made here, intelligence of the fact would spread 
 far and wide over the world, and that all men would come at last 
 to hear of the new truth, and spread the tidings among all man- 
 kind. It was farther stated, that the revelation of the existence 
 of water and petroleum near Chicago, and the securing of these 
 
10 
 
 articles would confer everlasting blessings, of a substantial kind, 
 on a great population ; would bring health, and life, and light, to 
 the people of this city for all time to come; and would be 
 a perpetual memento and land mark, to which all in the future 
 could look back in testimony of the rise and progress of the New 
 Philosophy. 
 
 That there was a quantity of this water amply sufficient to 
 supply the people of this city for all time ; that from its far dis- 
 tant source in the Rocky Mountains, away off in the Northwest, 
 Nature has placed a fountain head, and sent the streamlets down 
 far among the rocks and stones of earth, on its mission to bless 
 and help mankind. 
 
 That the quality of the water is such as to adapt it admirably 
 to the use of man — it is pure and sweet, and clear as the crystal 
 springs, and possesses a power of invigorating the body not com- 
 mon to any other water known — it is filtered through the sand- 
 stones and gravel beds of Earth, and comes to the surface with a 
 surprising force and power ; has a head sufficient to elevate it 
 above the highest buildings in the city, and power equal to the 
 largest engines. 
 
 Dispensing with expensive fuel, steam pumps, and great engines, 
 it will fill the reservoirs of the city, without cost, in the shortest 
 possible time. 
 
 It was further, also, stated, that petroleum, in large quantities, 
 existed underneath this land ; that it could and would be obtained 
 and used by the people of this city, for all the purposes to which 
 this article is applied. 
 
 The one part of the revelation is fulfilled, the other is yet to 
 come. I have no manner of doubt but that the entire prediction 
 will be fulfilled in letter and spirit ; such evidences of the exist- 
 ence of oil have already been obtained as to render it almost cer- 
 tain that the future will demonstrate the truth of the statement. 
 
11 
 
 When baring the water well — as will be seen by referring to 
 previous pages in this narative — oil was obtained in quantities 
 sufficient to warrant the introduction of a pump, had we only 
 possessed a knowledge of the matter which would have enabled 
 us to obtain the oil by the means now in use for that purpose, 
 but we did not have that knowledge, and thus the well went down 
 to the water. 
 
 During the past winter, we have bored a well only forty-five 
 feet in depth, in order to test the surface rock for oil; out of this 
 well have been pumped about one hundred gallons of petroleum. 
 But the broken nature of the surface rock, which is characterized 
 by large seams and crevices, prevented the exclusion of the sur- 
 face water, and the attempt was therefore abandoned, and the 
 well is now being sunk to a lower stratum, to obtain the oil there. 
 During the present year this well will be thoroughly tested, and 
 the result made public. 
 
 THE FUTURE OP THIS WORK. 
 
 We are now engaged in boring a well for a further supply of 
 water, which, when completed, will be from fifteen to twenty 
 inches in diameter — most probably the latter — and will discharge 
 from ten to seventeen millions of gallons per day. This water 
 will be first used to supply the City Reservoirs and the people 
 of Chicago with this indispensable article, of such a quality as the 
 people of no other city enjoy. A cheap, inexpensive, perennial 
 river, will flow outward to our citizens forever. We shall then 
 apply the water to the making of ice, by constructing a pond of 
 about forty acres in extent, and putting up, in the winter 
 season, from fifty thousand to seventy-five thousand tons of the 
 clearest, purest ice to be found anywhere in the world. Shade 
 
12 
 
 trees and shrubbery will ornament the banks, and walks will be 
 laid all about it, and thus it will be made to serve the double 
 purpose of a Pleasure Lake in the summer time, and an Ice Pond 
 for the winter. The next thing now in contemplation is the erec- 
 tion of a cast iron column, or cylinder, about four feet in diame- 
 ter and about one hundred feet in hight, to carry this water to 
 the level of its fountain head. Prom this column it can be con- 
 veyed in any direction, and to any place, for use, as a power to 
 drive machinery, for which it is admirably adapted. Paper mills, 
 cotton or woolen factories, can be erected on this ground, and be 
 run with a cheap and lasting power for all time to come. There 
 is, in fact, scarcely a conceivable use to which this power may not 
 be cheaply and advantageously applied. 
 
 In the not distant future we shall lay out a pleasure-ground and 
 garden, shade-trees and shrubbery, grass and flowers, fountains, 
 springs, and little lakes, of this crystal water, will ornament and 
 adorn this spot of ground — baths and bathing-houses will be built, 
 and this great gift dispensed on every side with a free and liberal 
 hand. 
 
 There is also a promise on record, of the spiritual intelligence 
 who made this revelation, that the main object and design of this 
 work, not being to put money into the hands of one or two or 
 more individuals — nor for the mere accumulation of wealth by 
 particular persons — that the day will come when the funds, to be 
 derived from this source, will be applied to charitable, benevolent 
 and educational purposes, and for the spreading and dissemina- 
 tion of the principles of this simple and beautiful philosophy 
 
 That, on this ground, a great and magnificent temple will be 
 reared to the Supreme Intelligence of the universe, whose portals 
 will ever be open to the entire human family, and where all, 
 casting aside the old creeds, forms, and theologies, may enter the 
 vast halls of mind, and learn the eternal truths of God. Free 
 
13 
 
 schools and colleges will grow up about it, in which the children 
 of poverty may enter, and receive that education and instruction 
 which will enable them to advance their condition in life, and to 
 contribute to the general welfare and progress of the country in 
 which we live. Hospitals will be erected for the sick and desti- 
 tute, and schools of the arts and sciences will be established to 
 promote that intellectual culture which goes so far towards that 
 refinement which is indispensable to a great people. 
 
 All of this may seem wild and extravagant to those "who have 
 given no thought to the subject ; but as the tendency of this 
 seeming extravagance is to contribute to the general welfare of 
 the people, and to the advancement of the public good, the writer, 
 who has given many days and weeks of thought to this and kin- 
 dred subjects, craves the indulgence of a liberal people. Satisfied 
 in my own mind that all of this and much more will surely come 
 to pass, and that the future of this great work can be compre- 
 hended by every person of common intelligence who will devote 
 a little thought to the matter, I do not hesitate to place these 
 anticipations in print, and to make a public record of my own 
 convictions. But a few years, and the story will be told, its 
 truth or falsity known to men. 
 
 THE MANNER IN WHICH THESE REVELA- 
 TIONS WERE MADE. 
 
 The method or manner in which communications usually come 
 from the spirit world, are well understood by those who study the 
 philosophy, but not perhaps so well understood by the world at 
 large. Like all other things which the Creator has made, these 
 manifestations are as various and diversified as any. In the ear- 
 lier times, and when the fact was first brought to the notice of 
 
14 
 
 man, it was by raps, table-tippings, spelling out words by means 
 of the alphabet, and other simple but effectual devices, that the 
 spirit made known its intelligence and its wants. Many persons 
 were brought to a knowledge of the truth of this spirit commun- 
 ion, by this plain and simple method. As man became somewhat 
 familiar with the subject, and the progess of knowledge became 
 more emphatic, the communications assumed other shapes, per- 
 sons who possessed certain electrical or vital conditions became 
 enabled to write out communications at length — to express 
 thoughts and ideas in a tolerably clear and perspicuous manner, 
 this in a measure depending on the power of the spirit to place the 
 medium under a greater or less degree of control. When the 
 spirit got an absolute control over the medium, the communica- 
 tions were more likely to be clear and intelligible than if the sub- 
 jection were only partial, in which case the matter communicated 
 partakes of the ideas and thoughts of the medium. Another 
 phase of this phenomenon is that quite as general and common 
 now as either of the others ; it is, speaking the thought and lan- 
 guage of the spirit through the medium. When in a state of syn- 
 cope or trance, unconscious, oblivious to all surroundings, and, as 
 it were, locked fast in sleep, ignorant, uneducated men have been 
 known to speak strange tongues. Men who are familiar with no 
 other language than their mother tongue, have spoken fluently in 
 French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, and lan- 
 guages of various Indian tribes. They have delivered discourses 
 on philosophy, religion, astronomy, chemistry, geology, and all 
 the natural sciences, displaying a diversified knowledge which 
 can only be acquired by years of study and thought. There is 
 still another form in which this intelligence has manifested itself, 
 and that is in the arts of drawing and painting. I have seen some 
 most wonderful and beautiful manifestations of this power partic- 
 ularly illustrated in pencil drawings. There is now in Chicago, 
 
15 
 
 in the possession of a gentleman whose name, as I have not 
 requested it, I am not at liberty to use, but who no doubt would 
 cheerfully acquiesce if requested, a pencil portrait of his wife, 
 life-size, with a countenance of most angelic beauty ; her hair 
 falls in elaborate ringlets over a neck and shoulders of exquisite 
 mould ; her head is adorned only with a boquet of roses, a moss 
 rose in full bloom and an opening bud of the same ; her right 
 hand is raised to the cheek and her fingers clasp a most delicate 
 fuchia ; the left hand rests across the waist — and such hands and 
 arms, perfect in their symmetry and beauty, only Raphael him- 
 self could hope to equal — the whole form is robed in a figured 
 lace which falls in graceful folds to the feet, and the elaborate 
 tracery of the design is most wonderful. As you look upon this 
 figure it seems to be the work of years and of a most finished 
 artist ; and yet this picture was made in a few days by a jour- 
 neyman cabinetmaker, Anderson of New York — a man totally 
 ignorant of drawing or portrait painting. And this talent, or 
 inspiration, or whatever else you may call it, came upon him 
 uncalled for and unsought, without masters and without teaching. 
 And those who are fortunate enough to have visited this well can 
 see the same thing illustrated in the pictures exhibited here. 
 
 The medium through whom the revelation of the existence of 
 this water came, Mr. Abraham James, was born in Pennsylvania, 
 is of Quaker origin, was unfortunate enough in early life to be 
 deprived even of the rudiments of a common school education. 
 As he himself expresses it — " his father, instead of sending him 
 to school in the winter kept him laying stone walls." Later in 
 life he has been employed by different Railway companies in 
 the West, sometimes as conductor, at other times as a pilot, earn- 
 ing only ordinary wages. It is known to me to be a fact that he 
 is entirely ignorant of any language except the English ; docs 
 not know the meaning of a single French, German, Italian, or 
 
16 
 
 Spanish word. He is a simple-minded man, in the sense that he 
 knows nothing of frauds, trickery, or imposture — perfectly truth- 
 ful and upright in his character, unostentatious, and seeking no 
 publicity or notoriety — he pursues his own way in the world, a 
 natural, honest man. His mind is as free from a , knowledge of 
 the sciences as that of a child of five years. He has had no 
 instruction in drawing, and, in his normal state, has no knowledge 
 of the art of any kind or description. There are hundreds and 
 thousands of people hjere among us who know him well, and who 
 can testify to these facts. Now, with a full knowledge of this man 
 — his antecedents, education, and history — I know it to be a per- 
 fect impossibility for him, in his natural state, or unaided by the 
 higher powers, to do what he has done and what he is doing every 
 day of his life. 
 
 Here on this ground, and in the rooms of this building, can be 
 seen, by all persons who choose to visit the spot, some of the 
 most elaborate and beautiful pencil drawkigs in the world. A 
 series of geological pictures, illustrating the formation and strat- 
 ification of the earth's crust — some showing the simple strata of 
 the formation in this vicinity, which were drawn before the drill 
 was even started, and which were demonstrated to be accurate 
 and truthful by the descent of the drill for over seven hundred 
 feet — other pictures show great caves and caverns in the rock, 
 created either by vast upheavals, or by erosion — the action of 
 water upon soluble rocks. The floors of some of these caverns are 
 composed of great masses of the most beautiful fossil shells, 
 which, in their shadings and perfection, are evidently the work 
 of a master hand. The elaborate character of this shell-work, 
 which runs through all these geological pictures — the millions of 
 accurate pencil strokes necessary to complete them, and the very 
 short time in which they were executed — are matters of great 
 wonder and astonishment to all who have seen them. Many of 
 
17 
 
 these drawings are on full-sized sheets of paper, 26x40 inches, 
 and cover the entire surface ; they were completed in from three 
 to nine hours each — the latter being the longest time given to any- 
 one picture. Mr. James has also made many smaller sketches 
 illustrating the same subject, viz : the fossils of Earth. These 
 latter are perfect gems of beauty, and all of his work seems to be 
 geologically correct, and is so pronounced by those who under- 
 stand these matters. By reference to standard works on geol- 
 ogy, I find their accuracy proved to a demonstration. A greater 
 work than all is now on exhibition here. It is a diagram of this 
 stream of water, fifteen feet in length and twenty-six inches in 
 width. It is understood as a clairvoyant view of the stream from 
 its source in the Rocky Mountains to its outlet on this ground. 
 It may be called a "bird's eye" view. It exhibits on a general 
 scale the principles of artesian wells, and demonstrates the man- 
 ner in which water finds its way through the rocks and sands of 
 earth, and finally raises to the level of its fountain head. This 
 picture is composed of six sheets of drawing paper, each one of 
 which was finished separately, and without any apparent refer- 
 ence to the others, by the medium, and were joined together 
 afterwards, when they were all found to match exactly and make 
 one complete work. This was the labor of only sixty hours. 
 Persons familiar with the subject say that no ordinary artist can 
 do the same amount of work in many months. 
 
 There has been recently added to this collection a full length 
 portrait of the martyred President, Abraham Lincoln ; this also 
 is a work done through the same medium. The sheet of paper 
 on which this likeness is drawn is seven and a half feet long by 
 four and a half in width ; it exhibits the President, life-size, as 
 standing upon a rock, the broken chain of African slavery 
 beneath his feet, and in his left hand the scroll of American lib- 
 erty. This picture was put upon paper in about twenty hours, 
 
18 
 
 and is in itself a most remarkable production, even of the power 
 through which it is claimed to be received. 
 
 It is a matter of great difficulty, by any mere description in 
 print, to convey even a tolerable idea of the nature of these works; 
 they should be seen and carefully examined by all who are curi- 
 ous in the mysteries of nature. 
 
 A not less wonderful part of the matter is the manner in 
 which the work is done. The medium labors in an unconscious 
 state, with from two to six pencils, and with one or both hands, 
 the pencils are placed between the fingers, and the hand moves 
 with a rapidity which troubles the eye to follow, each pencil doing 
 a separate part of the work at the same time, and it makes no 
 difference whether in the dark or light; indeed his best pictures 
 are made in a dark room. I have frequently bandaged his eyes, 
 and held a paper between his face and his picture, and it made no 
 difference; the pencils did theirwork equally as well as when his 
 eyes were free and there were no obstructions. 
 
 There is another fact illustrated in these works, i. e. the 
 medium draws a square or a circle to accurate measurement, with- 
 out other implements than the mere pencil, and this with the 
 right hand or the left. 
 
 Mr. James has gone further than these physical manifestations 
 of the spirit power. In common with hundreds of others who can 
 verify the facts here stated, I have for the past two years heard 
 through him a series of discourses on all conceivable subjects, 
 political, scientific, and philosophical, which would not disgrace 
 the greatest intellects that ever lived. With equal freedom and 
 facility he discusses questions of political economy and political 
 science, geology, chemistry, medicine, astronomy, the philosophy 
 of life, the structure of the earth, and all of the physical and 
 natural sciences. 
 
 A distinguished professor of the science and a State Geologist, 
 
19 
 
 after listening to a discourse from Mr. James on the subject, 
 remarked, that "I have met a man who knows more about geol- 
 ogy than I do." 
 
 I have also heard him speak fluently, and with an evident 
 knowledge of the whole, in French, Italian, Spanish, German, 
 and an Indian tongue, and I am confident of the fact that he is, 
 in his natural state, wholly ignorant of any other than the Eng- 
 lish language. There is neither deception nor fraud about this 
 man. He is beyond all question above suspicion. He makes no 
 exhibition for money, gefls no money out of it, lives a retired and 
 secluded life. Now what is it? Upon what hypothesis can this 
 seeming mystery be solved ? These things are facts — hard, stub- 
 born, unyielding facts. Let those who do not believe as I do in 
 the intelligence which operating through this instrument,performs 
 all of these wonders, solve the mystery, it is not for me. 
 
 It was through this medium that the fact of the existence of 
 water and oil underneath this ground was revealed ; this was as 
 eaily as the autumn of 1863. And from that time until the water 
 was reached, the fact was more than one hundred times re-stated 
 and repeated, in the presence of the writer and numerous other 
 persons, who can verify and prove this statement. 
 
 The land was selected, and the point for boring marked out by 
 the medium in a trance state, the drill started, and the well bored 
 at this point, with the result which is now visible to all — (a synopsis 
 of the objects and purposes of this revelation is given in a previ- 
 ous page.) They will be carried out by the parties in whose hands 
 the matter rests. Chicago is now on her grand march to her 
 position as the second city on the continent, and there are those 
 now living who will see her reach it. And such will also see on 
 this ground, and from this simple commencement, a structure 
 reared which will be, not only an ornament to the great North- 
 west, but a shrine of religious liberty and truth, around which 
 shall gather pilgrims from all the wide world. 
 
20 
 
 In the fullest confidence that the Supreme Ruler and Creator 
 of the Universe has done all things well, "that everything that is, 
 is right," that eternal progress is the law of nature and nature's 
 God, that no man should call God his Father who does not also 
 call man his brother, we launch our little barque, freighted only 
 perhaps with the germ of a truth, out upon the great waters. 
 She will return before many days, laden with the fruits of her 
 mission. 
 
 Chicago, Juxe, 1865. 
 
 ARTESIAN WELLS. 
 
 The following are among the principal wells of the world : 
 
 The Grenelle well, at Paris, depth 1,806 feet, flows 500,000 gallons of water hi 
 twenty-four hours — temperature of the water 82° F., and salt — used only foi 
 heating the hospitals. 
 
 The well of Pass} r , in the same basin, and about the same depth, is the largest 
 well in the world — two feet in diameter and discharges 5,660,000 gallons of 
 water per day. 
 
 The Belcher well, at St. Louis, is 2,199 feet deep, and discharges 75 gallons per 
 minute. Water 73° F., highly impregnated with mineral substances, and has a 
 strong odor — useless for any except medicinal purposes. 
 
 The Kissingen well, in Bavaria, is 1,878% feet in depth and four inches in 
 diameter. Temperature 66° F. — discharges 750 gallons per minute. 
 
 The well of Munden, in Hanover, is nearly 2,000 feet in depth ; other particu- 
 lars not known. 
 
 Two wells at Charleston, S. C, are 1,250 feet in depth, each discharge about 
 1,200 gallons per hour ; water salt, and temperature 87° F. 
 
 The well at Jackson, Mich., is over 2,000 feet deep — no water, and is now 
 abandoned. 
 
 There is also a deep well at Columbus, Ohio, and another at Louisville, 
 Kentucky ; and hundreds of others scattered over the United States, which 
 have no special public significance. 
 
OF THE ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. 
 
 ITS USES AND APPLICATIONS. 
 
 The present state of geological knowledge is not such as to 
 warrant the assertion by any of its professors, that oil will or 
 will not be found in particular localities— among particular 
 rocks, or under certain peculiar conditions, and none other. The 
 subject is too new, of too recent an origin to come as yet fully 
 within the scope and understanding of this, the youngest sister of 
 the sciences. 
 
 She can only determine that this article has been found and 
 brought to the surface in certain specified districts of country, 
 and then the facts, which have been demonstrated and gathered 
 in the experience of mining for oil, may be collected by geology 
 and brought to bear on the subject with all the force of which 
 they are susceptible, but she cannot go further and lay down 
 arbitrary rules as to the origin of this article and the laws of its 
 existence and production. This is beyond the present range of 
 knowledge. Nor can geology determine and decide, that oil 
 will or will not be found beneath the ground from mere surface 
 signs or indications. It may know what these indications are in 
 districts where oil is found, but it cannot be said that the absence 
 of such signs in another district proves also the absence of oil, 
 for the indications, when there are any, vary, in different locali- 
 ties, and oil may exist, in places where no indications of any 
 kind can be discovered. 
 
22 
 
 Time and experience will, in all probability, develop a state of 
 facts which will enable us to determine with some degree of 
 accuracy, the primary laws relative to this wonderful product of 
 our Mother Earth, and in the meantime we can only speculate 
 and reason upon probabilities : that is the extent and the purpose 
 of this paper, to examine and to reason. If I succeed in throw- 
 ing any light upon the subject, it will be well ; if not, no harm 
 will ensue. A great variety of theories as to the existence and 
 origin of petroleum have from time to time, found place in the 
 current literature of the day. Some of these are reasonable and 
 plausible ; others are ridiculous and absurd ; men of solid, 
 scientific acquirements ; those who have familiarized themselves 
 with, and possess a substantial knowledge of the history of the 
 earth's crust, are slow to propound any solution of the subject, 
 and only state such results as the known facts of the case seem 
 to warrant, while the rise and rapid progress of this article, its 
 great commercial value, and the wild, speculative fever engen- 
 dered thereby, have brought forth a swarm of empirics, men. 
 ignorant of the first principles of natural science, and bent- 
 wholly upon the mere matter of money which could be obtained 
 by presuming " to know all about it," have vented a thousand 
 wild theories and vagaries, which have no other foundation than 
 their own visionary imaginations. 
 
 One of the earliest suppositions, and which obtained a degree 
 of credit, by certain superficial reasons urged in its favor, was, 
 that oil was in some manner in the great laboratory of nature, 
 distilled from the coal beds. It was stated in support of this 
 position, that the same article was obtained by the distillation of 
 coal in a retort ; and hence, that the article found in the earth, 
 and which came rushing to the surface in great volumes, must 
 have been made in the same way, but the supporters of this 
 theory overlooked the one important fact, that when coal is 
 
23 
 
 artificially decomposed and separated into fluids and gases in a 
 retort, there is a residuum left which is called coke, and that if 
 nature had so distilled the coal, she had forgotten to leave the 
 product, as there are no great beds of coke found anywhere upon 
 the earth's surface. When this objection was first urged, it was 
 after some time replied, that the anthracite coal, of the Alle- 
 ghanies, was the product or residuum of Nature's still ; but as 
 man cannot distill coal and make the anthracite in the process, that 
 supposition, was soon abandoned; and there was another fatal 
 objection to this theory, and that was this : that no bituminous 
 coal from which it was supposed nature had distilled the oil, has or 
 could be found anywhere in the region of the largest oil deposits, 
 and the anthracite was still farther removed. 
 
 Another great fact which operated against the truth of this 
 hypothesis, was proved by the borings into the earth and the dis- 
 covery of oil, hundreds of feet below the coal measures. This 
 oil, as shown in the flowing wells, having a powerful tendency 
 towards the surface, and not downwards— the question naturally 
 arose, how did the oil ever get so far down into the rock, 
 when according to its natural law it should come to the surface? 
 And for these reasons, among others, the coal theory was dis- 
 posed of— and it now seems more probable, and stronger reasons 
 can be urged in support of the proposition, that coal was formed 
 from oil, rather than that oil was formed from coal ; and the day 
 may not be distant when this position will be demonstrated by 
 incontrovertible facts. 
 
 There was another theory once started by a professor of 
 Geology in a college in Ohio— " That oil was projected to the 
 surface by the direct pressure of a stream of water whose head 
 was higher than the issue." This professor did not, I believe, 
 attempt to account for the origin of the oil, but simply to explain 
 the manner in which he thought it came to the surface. It is 
 
24 
 
 sufficient to refute this absurd position by simply saying, that, if 
 it were true, that the water forced the oil, (being an impediment 
 in its way,) to the surface, then when the oil ceased flowing, it 
 would be followed by the water, which, as a matter of fact, never 
 occurs, though hundreds of wells of oil have ceased to flow ; yet, 
 not one has ever became a flowing well of water. While in the 
 earlier days of the history of petroleum, and when it had as it 
 were, thrust itself with a presuming air upon the notice of men, 
 numberless crude and uncertain speculations concerning its 
 origin and existence, were put afloat ; yet, within the past year 
 or two, much genuine scientific knowledge has been brought to 
 bear upon the subject, and a light thrown about it, which will in 
 all probability eventually elucidate the whole matter. More 
 attention has, however, been paid to that branch of the subject 
 which pertains to the refining of petroleum, and its applications 
 and uses than to mere speculations as to its. origin, and the laws 
 which govern its existence in its native beds among the rocks of 
 the earth. Dr. Thomas Antisell, Abraham Gessner, and Dr. 
 Theodore Opplerr have published treatises pertaining to this 
 branch which are highly valuable and useful. While Professor 
 Henri Erni, of Washington, has recently published by far the 
 most valuable work on the origin of oil, which has yet appeared 
 anywhere. 
 
 Professor Erni is of the opinion that "Petroleum is a product 
 of chemical decomposition, derived from organic remains, plants 
 and animals, whole generations of which perished and accumu- 
 lated during many destructive revolutions at the various ages 
 or epochs of our planet." 
 
 But as to the manner in which these oily hydrocarbons were 
 originally produced, he says that scientific men are still divided 
 in opinion. I have italicised a portion of the last sentence for 
 the reason that, as I believe, an elucidation of the doubt therein 
 
25 
 
 expressed, contains the key of the whole subject of the origin of 
 oil. Deferring for the moment what is to be said in this respect, 
 let us see Professor Erni's further opinions on the subject : 
 
 " That petroleum is of vegetable or rather of organic origin, 
 is too manifest from its composition to require argument." 
 
 There are but two opinions, he says, in regard to the manner 
 of its production which require notice. " The one is that oil was 
 derived during the first bituminization or conversion of woody 
 fibre into coal. The other maintains that coal beds or bituminous 
 rocks, such as schists and shales have by a process of distillation 
 yielded up their oily matter which they derived from plants and 
 animals." 
 
 The arguments in favor of and against these opinions are 
 stated fully and at length, the professor finally inclining to 
 sustain the first hypothesis. 
 
 But it is manifest that whichever of these opinions be true, 
 they both fail to account for the primary origin of the oil. The 
 first, stating "that oil was derived during the first bituminization 
 or conversion of woody fiber into coal," fails to account for the 
 manner in which the primary elements of the oil found its way 
 into the woody fiber, in order to be extracted by this process of 
 conversion into coal, whence they came, and what these elements 
 are or were, the opinion does not explain. 
 
 The second also fails, to the same extent, in not accounting for 
 the manner in which, or the source from which, the rocks and 
 schists and schales derived the bituminous matter which it claims 
 was yielded up in the process of distillation. Hence, while 
 either of these positions may be true as far as they go, they do 
 not reach the root of the matter, nor decide the question as to the 
 primary origin of oil. 
 
 The expression "primary origin" maybe open to criticism, for, 
 the reason that if we once determine the origin of a substance 
 
26 
 
 there can be nothing more primary than that ; but I use it under- 
 standingly, and for the purpose of showing that I intend to go 
 beyond the point where oil is commonly supposed to originate. 
 
 There may now be no reasonable doubt of the fact that this 
 substance has been traced back to a plaee where it has some con- 
 nection with the article coal and its relatives ; .and if it be true 
 that " petroleum is a product of chemical decomposition derived 
 from organic remains, plants and animals," whence came the 
 substance contained in these organic remains from which it was 
 derived ? An answer to this question will carry us far back in 
 the darkness of Time, to a period in the Earth's history which 
 may be styled the beginning of all created things. 
 
 The great mass of solid and liquid matter — the earth, the 
 rocks, the water, and the fire which now constitute our planet, 
 were once but a shapeless mass of nebulous matter, imponderable 
 and without form. This matter was gaseous in its nature, and 
 contained within itself the primitive elements of all things which 
 have subsequently and do now appear on the face of or beneath the 
 surface of the Earth. By the fiat of the Supreme Ruler of the 
 Universe, this matter was given motion and sent on its mission 
 among the celestial spheres. Gradually, by its revolutionary 
 motion condensing its materials about the center, and assuming a 
 spheroidal form, the surface became more condensed and a crust 
 began to appear, and here beneath this crust, and mingled in 
 seeming confusion, were contained all the elements, all the prim- 
 itive principles of everything we see, and know, and feel — the 
 ground that we stand upon — the rocks and stones beneath our 
 feet — the gold, the silver, the copper, tin, lead, and all mineral 
 substances — the waters of the ocean and of the land, of all plants 
 and vegetable matter — and of the whole animal kingdom, from 
 the lowest in the order up to the great pinnacle, the microcosm 
 man. 
 
27 
 
 These primary elements were, and are yet — for creation has 
 not ceased — in commotion; boiling, surging and upheaving; par- 
 ticular principles seeking and finding chemical affinities, and 
 rushing from the center to the circumference, slowly, but gradu- 
 ally and surely, compounding themselves into the material things 
 which we now see around us. Low down in the Earth's crust, as 
 far as man's knowledge has enabled him to penetrate, we find the 
 primitive or crystallized' rock, such as the granite and the gneiss, 
 wholly devoid of all appearances of vegetable or animal matter ; 
 then the Silurian, or the age of mollusks, the lowest order of 
 animal life; the Devonian, or the age of fishes, the first verte- 
 brates; and then the Carboniferous, or the age of coal, in which 
 the flora of Earth probably reached its rankest and most luxu- 
 riant growth. And thus upward did creation go, until the soil 
 was prepared for man's occupation, and the surface of the Earth 
 became lovely and beautiful to behold. 
 
 All of this occupied countless millions of ages, so long that 
 numbers fail to express any meaning, and the mind of man can- 
 not comprehend the numberless centuries which have elapsed 
 since the "earth was without form and void." All of this is 
 clearly demonstrated by what little we yet know of the science 
 of geology, though it may contravene some of the established 
 opinions on the subject, and it is now considered a w^ll-settled 
 fact among the scientific men of the world, that the story of the 
 creation in six days occurring a few thousand years ago, is a 
 mere fable related at a time when the human intellect was inca- 
 pable of comprehending any more elaborate theory, and it doc3 
 not require any given amount of mere book learning to under- 
 stand this great truth. But take your stand for once on the 
 banks of that great chasm at Niagara, and cast your eye down 
 the river toward Lewiston — behold this mighty rush and whirl of 
 the terrible river, learn what you can of the wear of the water on 
 3 
 
28 
 
 the rocks at the brink, and then ask yourself the question 
 whether this great gulf was cut in six thousand, or six hundred 
 thousand years. 
 
 But as this is rather a diversion, let us return to the main 
 question, the origin of petroleum. 
 
 We believe that this article is one of the primates of earth — 
 one of the primitive elementary principles — originating in the 
 earth's centre and finding its way to the surface just as all other 
 things do, combining here with one substance, and then with 
 another ; that certain original gases combining to form bituminous 
 matter, and the hydrocarbons of commerce, struggle through the 
 rocks of the earth, find their way into the caverns and seams 
 made by erosion or upheavals, and these sublime or condense 
 into the substance we find and call Petroleum or Rock oil. This 
 may be a mere opinion, founded upon no substantial facts ; but 
 are there not reasons strong in its favor ? Whence come the 
 gold and silver, the precious stones and gems of earth ? whence 
 the rocks, and stones, and soil ? how were they formed if not by 
 a chemical combination of primitive gases and elements — and 
 why not oil ? 
 
 And we further believe that all of the oils and oily matter 
 found everywhere in nature, has a common origin, and that 
 origin the same as petroleum. The chemical combinations are 
 different, and so is the result, and thus one oil differs from 
 another in particulars, but all have a common parentage. 
 
 There is no substance, no one principle more common in nature 
 than this. It is found in various minerals, in the rocks and 
 stones of earth, and it pervades the entire vegetable and animal 
 kingdoms. It can be extracted by distillation or chemical opera- 
 tion from anything that grows or lives, the common oil of 
 turpentine ; of the castor bean, and the fusel oil of grain, are 
 familiar examples. And even the simple grasses which grow 
 
29 
 
 on our broad prairies, contain the same principle ; else where do 
 the cattle which live almost solely upon grasses and grain, obtain 
 that oily or fatty matter which alone renders them fit food for 
 man ? whence comes it, if not from the very heart of Mother 
 Earth herself? 
 
 There is no animal that lives, not excepting man himself, that 
 does not from the very necessities of its existence, extract 
 greater or less quantities of this element from the food upon 
 which it thrives. And hence, the inference is plain and simple, 
 that this common, necessary, and all-pervading element, and 
 without which there would be no life, is one of the primary 
 elements of earth — one of the first principles of nature. In the 
 article petroleum, it is true that it assumes a shape different from 
 those with which we have heretofore been familiar, but this fact 
 does not invalidate the truth of this position ; on the contrary, it 
 rather tends to strengthen it, for it exhibits the principal sub- 
 stance in a state or condition more primitive and fresher from its 
 fountain head. We find it deep down among the rocks and stones 
 long before it reaches the surface, or is called upon to enter into 
 or take its part in the vegetation which grows upon the soil. 
 
 From these facts, we reason that this oily substance is one of 
 the primates of earth — one of the first elements. "VVe infer this 
 from its universality ; it is everywhere present — it is all-essen- 
 tial — it is necessary to the growth of all vegetable matter, °ii 
 the animal kingdom cannot exist without it. It is in the blade 
 of grass, the grain of corn, and in the bodies of men and of 
 beasts ; it is one of the very elements of life itself, and yet this 
 statement is subject to a qualification; while we say "one of the 
 first elements of earth" it is, well also to say that the strictly simple 
 elements arc few in number. Chemistry has as yet found only 
 about fifty-five of these, and nearly or quite all of the various 
 forms of matter are compounds of some two or more of these 
 
30 
 
 simple elements; and to this rule petroleum is not an exception, 
 for it is a compound of a number of gases and substances. We 
 call it a primate in a general sense, and not under the rules of a 
 chemical analysis, addressing rather the common understanding of 
 men, than the critical examination of some particular science ' T 
 and as it has been a common supposition that this article had its 
 origin in the coal measures, which we believe to be erroneous, 
 this theory is intended more to correct this impression and to 
 elucidate the truth, than to lay down any arbitrary rule on the 
 subject. We have urged the primitive nature of this article as 
 much from the fact that it is a substance primitive to the senses 
 of man, as for any other reason. As we find it away down in the 
 rocks, among the first of the solids and fluids, it is sensible to the 
 touch, to the sight, to the smell ; in this shape or form this is the 
 first we know of it, and in that sense it is primary to us ; and 
 so the very rocks themselves — though readily resolved by the 
 chemist into their component gases — are called primary; they 
 are the first which we know of that form of matter which is 
 termed rock, and hence are primary to the senses. 
 
 In the beautiful Laboratory of Nature the creative process is 
 in continual operation — it goes on forever and forever; the simple 
 elementary principles are ever forming new combinations, new 
 substances, and new forms of matter. The chemist who resolves 
 and re-resolves some particular substance into its original 
 elements, is simply unfolding or disclosing the process by which 
 his great Teacher had before resorted to, to compound that 
 specific article, and while nature continues at her work the man 
 of science will ever find new fields for the exercise of his special 
 talents. 
 
 As the necessities of man require it, or as the progress of the 
 race in civilization requires it, nature brings forth from her great 
 store house, beneath the soil and the rocks, such articles and 
 
31 
 
 substances as the time and the occasion demand. And she is no 
 niggard with her wealth, but deals it out in profusion and Avith a 
 bounteous hand. Nor does she recognize an elected few upon 
 whom alone her favors are bestowed, but she gives alike to the 
 whole brotherhood of man. She is ever forming new combinations, 
 evolving new substances and creating such new materials as are 
 required by the progressive development of mind; and in this 
 material which we call petroleum, she has produced an article, of 
 which as yet we have but a limited knowledge, but which when 
 we come fully to understand, will no doubt prove in its results and 
 its uses one of the most beneficial ever bestowed upon mankind. 
 
 The article petroleum or rock oil has been known and used for 
 hundreds of years in the East, but the quantity was limited and 
 its uses circumscribed. It was left to«the energetic, intelligent 
 men of the present day to develop it in vast quantities — to dis- 
 cover its virtues and its uses, and to apply it to the benefit and 
 comfort of the race. It would seem that in the wisdom of the 
 Creator, this now invaluable product had been, as it were, con- 
 cealed in the depths of earth, until civilization and education had 
 brought the human race up to that position, at which it could be 
 most beneficially applied, and its many virtues be most fully 
 developed. 
 
 Rapidly has it grown into favor, and many are the uses and 
 applications of this article. But there are other purposes for 
 which it will in time be used which will far surpass any now 
 known. It will no doubt eventually be produced in such quanti- 
 ties as to render it economical as a fuel for ocean navigation — 
 for why carry or load down a vessel with hundreds of tons of 
 cumbersome coal, when one-third the weight in petroleum would 
 answer the same purpose ; the fires can be regulated and the fuel 
 fed with less than one-quarter the labor it now takes to fire with 
 coal, and the room which the latter now occupies would be free for 
 
32 
 
 other and more useful purposes. The great steam frigate Dun- 
 derberg cannot now carry coal enough to take her across the 
 Atlantic. With petroleum she could cross three times with the 
 one supply. In short, there is no possible argument against the 
 use for this purpose, except the present cost ; but the time will 
 eventually come when this objection will be obviated by the 
 enormous product of the country. Another article of great 
 domestic consumption will some day be manufactured from 
 petroleum, and that is the gas of cities — this gas now made from 
 coal, costs from two dollars and a half to four dollars per 
 thousand cubic feet. It can be made from Benzine — a product 
 retained in the refining of petroleum, for less than one-quarter 
 the price of ordinary coal gas — and it will yet be done. This 
 question has been already opened, and a number of machines 
 have been constructed to convert atmospheric air into illumina- 
 ting gas, by simply passing it through or over the surface of 
 Benzine, and these machines work successfully. One city, 
 La Crosse, in Wisconsin, is now lighted in this manner, and 
 several large factories in the East are lighted in the same way. 
 Among many others, a part of the United States Armory at 
 Springfield, Massachusetts; and Parker, Snow & Co.'s factory at 
 West Meriden, Connecticut. Other cities, towns, and villages, 
 will follow the example, and soon the cheapness and utility of 
 this method will supersede the old one, and coal gas will pass out 
 of existence. A new machine has been recently introduced in 
 the West, which for simplicity of construction and practicability 
 appears to be unequaled. It consists simply of a series of shallow 
 pans, placed one above another. These pans are partially filled 
 with Benzine; the pans are connected, and from the lower one the 
 main gas-pipe issues. Here the inventor avails himself of a well- 
 known law in Natural Philosophy — the expansive nature of gas — 
 calls it to his aid and makes it do his work. This is all the 
 
33 . 
 
 machinery there is ; the burner is opened, the current of aL 
 commences, passing downward and over the fluid, and by the 
 time it enters the pipe, is sufficiently charged. This operation 
 continues until the Benzine is consumed, when the pans are 
 again filled. This machine can be placed anywhere in a dwell- 
 ing house, and makes gas for less than fifty cents per thousand 
 feet. 
 
 Petroleum is also fast growing into favor as a fuel, for domestic 
 uses. We already have numerous cooking stoves, designed for 
 and successfully using this substance. It is said even at the 
 present prices, to be quite as economical for summer stoves, as 
 either wood or coal. 
 
 A learned and careful authority says : 
 
 "As a fuel, petroleum enters into numerous French patents. 
 The people of the Caspian Sea mix it with clay; the Norwegians 
 with sawdust and clay. The refuse charcoal of the French fur- 
 naces is mixed with charred peat or spent tar, and tar or pitch is 
 added, and the whole ground or coked. As an illuminating agent, 
 coal oil is fast supplanting the animal and vegetable oils. It has 
 always been a lamp oil of India. It lights the streets of Genoa ; 
 but its natural odor is so disgusting that its use in Europe was, 
 for a long while after its discovery in Lombardy, interdicted. 
 Since the refining process was discovered, the trade has spread 
 to every city in the Old and New World, and the annual number 
 of patents for new forms of lamp and new kinds of candle shows 
 how completely the kerosenes and parafines are banishing the 
 whale oils and tallows from the market." 
 
 And we are informed that — 
 
 " The experiment is being practically tested at the Downer 
 Refinery, in Corry, Pennsylvania ; where it was giving much 
 satisfaction, producing a heat as powerful and regular as any 
 ever produced from either bituminous or anthracite coal. It 
 
34 
 
 must be remembered that this article is produced from what was 
 at first rejected as the debris or useless residuum of petroleum, 
 but it is now coming into market as one of the most valuable 
 products/' 
 
 Petroleum has produced new colors. Says a scientific traveler : 
 
 " Among the mos*t favorite colors for silk goods, ribbons, etc., 
 in the market, is a color produced from the residuum of the 
 petroleum, and manufactured at the Humboldt refinery, near 
 Plummer, in the Oil Creek region. It is a bright and fixed 
 cerulean blue, or perhaps a shade darker, but still as brilliant, 
 and is called the Humboldt color. The process of manufacturing 
 is kept a profound secret by the discoverers, who are German 
 chemists, and do not speak, if they understand, English. No 
 stranger is allowed to enter their works except by special 
 permission. " 
 
 I do not understand that as yet the beautiful aniline colors, 
 manufactured from coal tar have been found to exist in 
 petroleum, but new developments may be expected in this 
 direction, and the chemists may yet startle the world with the 
 intelligence of some new and wonderful substance discovered in 
 Petroleum. 
 
 " Greek fire" is a compound of petroleum. One author on 
 the subject says : 
 
 "The 'Greek fire' of more modern times was probably 
 compounded of petroleum from the Zantean springs. From the 
 time of Zoroaster the Naphtha of Baku has been sent all over 
 Asia for the service of the sacred fire of the Parsees. The 
 liquid streams spontaneously through the surface, and rises 
 wherever a hole is bored. But especially at Belegan, six miles 
 from the capital village, the sides of the mountain stream with 
 black oils, which collect in reservoirs constructed in an unknown 
 ancient time, while not far off a spring of white oil gushes from 
 the foot." 
 
35 
 
 As an illuminating oil, petroleum is too well known to need 
 any description ; for a rapidly acquired and deserved popularity 
 it has never had an equal. 
 
 Just as the sea had about given up its last monster to furnish 
 light for man, the creator placed the knowledge of the existence 
 of this oil before the human mind ; man was prepared to receive 
 it, and it came, and although it has been known for centuries in 
 the older countries — yet it seems that until the present day, it 
 was not needed — and hence attracted but comparatively little 
 attention. 
 
 I have thus attempted a theory on the origin of this article, 
 and have enumerated a few of its uses. If the first does not 
 commend itself to the judgment and reason, let the fact that all 
 matters pertaining to this most w r onderful substance, possess at 
 the present time an unusual interest, be my apology. 
 
 The following paragraph from a writer on petroleum, will take 
 us back to the spirit of the work in which we are engaged on 
 this ground : 
 
 " Many years ago, as the Seneca Indians have the tradition, the 
 Great Spirit appeared to one of their chiefs in a dream, and told 
 him that if he would proceed to a certain part of the country he 
 w T ould find, oozing up from the earth, a liquid which would prove 
 a balm for the cure of many ailments to which red men as well 
 as white men were heirs to. The chief proceeded to the spot, 
 and there found the balm flowing copiously from the bosom of the 
 earth. The instructions of the vision were complied with, and 
 sure enough the liquid proved a healing ointment to the tribes of 
 the Senecas. There are white people now living who were treated 
 medicinally by these Indians with this ointment, and we believe 
 there is still an article known and sold in the drug stores as 
 ' Seneca oil.' " 
 
BOEING THE SECOND WELL 
 
 In May last, a twenty foot overshot wheel and the necessary 
 machinery for boring, with the water power, having been con- 
 structed, the work on this well was commenced, the power being 
 furnished by the water from the first well, which is carried up 
 twenty-five feet above the surface in a three and a half inch tube 
 to the flume, which discharges it over the wheel. Although the 
 volume of water is comparatively small through an orifice of this 
 size, yet the great diameter of the wheel is an ample compensation 
 in this respect, and furnishes sufficient power for the purpose. 
 For the construction of the machinery, and the successful intelli- 
 gent application of scientific and mechanical knowledge in boring 
 this well from the surface to the water, we are indebted to our 
 friend, the general superintendent of this work, Mr. W. T. B. 
 Read. As he has ever manifested an interest in the work, 
 equaled only by the energy and skill with which he personally 
 directed its execution, it is but just that we pay him this tribute, 
 by connecting his name with its history. 
 
 This well, like its predecessor, was located through the clair- 
 voyant powers of Mr. James. In a state of unconscious trance, 
 the sniritual intelligences through him selected the precise spot, 
 
37 
 
 on the surface beneath which the water would be again found ; 
 and here the drill went down, and here the water was found. 
 
 This fountain lies deep down in the bowels of the earth, con- 
 cealed from the natural sight. The physical senses cannot 
 perceive it, and man cannot find it, but the intelligence which 
 made this revelation, with powers of vision which pertain only to 
 the Immortal, said to us, " Come, and we will show you the 
 exact location of this water, and we will demonstrate at once 
 the truth of clairvoyance, and the fact of the spiritual com- 
 munion." 
 
 While we frankly admit the existence of a bare possibility of 
 coming upon the first well of water by chance accident or guess 
 work, yet the discovery of the second well by the same means, 
 and through the same source as that which indicated the first, 
 reduces this possibility to a very slight thread ; in fact turns the 
 scale the other way, and as a mere matter of evidence the pre- 
 dicted result twice recurring, seems conclusively to demonstrate 
 the fact that these things are what they claim to be, and not 
 chance accident or guess work. 
 
 The second well is located about nine feet distance from the 
 first ; is 694 feet 4 inches in depth, to the surface of the water ; 
 was commenced on the 8th of May, and reached the water on the 
 1st day of November following. There are no striking geological 
 differences in the two wells, the rock penetrated being almost the 
 same in character, and exhibiting the same signs of oil. The 
 water in the new well is entirely free from the odor of sulphur 
 perceptible in the first well ; this is owing to the fact that the 
 vein of sulphuretted hydrogen gas which enters the well before 
 it reaches the fountain, was not touched in boring the second 
 well. 
 
 This water may now be considered as the clearest, purest and 
 
38 
 
 best in the world. On the surface of the ground there is 
 none like it, and no other Artesian well approaches it in purity or 
 temperature. 
 
 In the absence of any accurate measurement, we conjecture 
 that the two wells are now flowing about twelve hundred thou- 
 sand gallons per day. 
 
 The subjoined diary of the practical part of the boring of this 
 well, with some remarks on the subject generally, may be of 
 public interest, and are given accordingly : 
 
 May 8, 1885. Commenced drilling with rods, in the solid rock, at the surface, 
 having first blasted and removed the loose rock, to the depth of five feet. Drilled 
 eleven feet this day, in the dark, porous limestone, sixteen feet from the floor of 
 the derrick. 
 
 May 9. Eight feet. Gray limestone. Total, twenty-four feet. 
 
 May 10. Drill fast in the Well, at twenty-six feet. Jarring all day and all 
 night. Suppose that a loose stone fell on the top of the tools. 
 
 May 11. Still jarring. The tool was a single-faced, five inch chisel drill. 
 Stone probably caught on the shoulder of the drill. 
 
 May 12. The continual use of the jar loosened the drill to-day, and it was 
 recovered. 
 
 May 13. Drilled six feet, to-day — total, thirty-two feet. At thirty feet, pene- 
 trated the buff' limestone called here the Athens or Joliet Marble. 
 
 May 15. Drilled five feet. Depth thirty-seven feet. Marble. 
 
 May 1G. To-day, eight feet — same as above. 
 
 May 17. To-day, six feet — same as above. 
 
 May 18. To-day, two feet — same as above. 
 
 May 19. To-da} r , four feet — same as above. 
 
 May 20. To-day, four feet — same as above — total sixty-one. 
 
 May 22. Drill got fast. Probably falling stones. Recovered same day by 
 use of jars. 
 
 May 23. To-day, six feet. Marble. Total sixty-seven feet. 
 
 May 24. Today, eight feet. Marble. Total seventy-five feet. 
 
 May 25. To-day, ten feet. Marble. Total eighty-five feet. 
 
 May 26. To-day, nine feet. Marble. Total ninety-four feet. 
 
 At this point, we introduced a new reamer, for the purpose of trueing up 
 the Well, and spent five days in reaming that which had been already drilled. 
 And now, instead of using the single five inch drill, a new drill, 3% inches in 
 diameter, was inserted, and followed by a five inch reamer, and this manner of 
 drilling was retained to the end. 
 
 June 2. To-day, nine feet. Marble. Total, one hundred and three feet. 
 
 June 3. To-day, twelve feet. Marble. Total, one hundred and fifteen feet. 
 
 June 5. To-day, six feet. Gray stone, six feet thick. 
 
 June 6. To-day, twelve feet. Marble. Total, one hundred and thirty-three 
 feet. 
 
39 
 
 June 7. To-day, nine feet. Marble. Total, one hundred and forty-two feet. 
 
 June 8. To-day, nine feet. Marble. Total, one hundred and fifty-one feet. 
 
 June 9. To-day, six feet. Marble. Total, one hundred and fifty-seven feet. 
 
 June 10. To-day, three feet. Marble. Total, one hundred and sixty feet. 
 
 June 12. To-day, six feet. Marble. Total, one hundred and sixty-six feet. 
 
 June 13. To-day, seven feet. Marble. Total, one hundred and seventy-three 
 feet. 
 
 June 14. To-day, three feet. Marble. Total, one hundred and seventy-six 
 feet. 
 
 Straps pulled off the poles and the tools left in the well. 
 
 June 15. Working for the tools in the Well. 
 
 June 16. Tools recovered. 
 
 June 17. To-day, six feet. Marble. Total, one hundred and eighty-two feet. 
 
 June 19. To-day, nine feet. Gray limestone, twelve feet thick. 
 
 June 20. To-day, six feet. Marble, again. Total, one hundred and ninety- 
 seven feet. 
 
 June 21. To-day, six feet. Marble. Total, two hundred and three feet. 
 
 June 22. Repairing. 
 
 June 23. To-day, three feet. Marble. Total, two hundred and six feet. 
 
 June 24. To-day, nine feet. Marble, perfectly white, and very fine grained. 
 
 From June 26 to July 10, we were engaged in changing the machinery, from 
 the pole drilling to that of a rope, and from this date the rope was alone 
 used — having abandoned the poles, as an old and hazardous method, and adopted, 
 in their stead, the more modern, and safer and more expeditious method of the 
 rope. We use a four and one-half inch three-ply cable laid hawser. 
 
 July 10. To-day, four feet. Marble. Total, two hundred and nineteen feet. 
 
 July 11. To-day, six feet. Marble. Total, two hundred and twenty-four 
 feet. 
 
 July 12. To-day, three feet. Marble. Total, two hundred and twenty-seven 
 feet. 
 
 July 13. To-day, three feet. Marble. Total, two hundred and thirty feet. 
 
 July 14. To-day, six feet. Gray limestone. Total, two hundred and thirty- 
 six feet. 
 
 July 15. To-day, six feet. Gray limestone. Total, two hundred and forty- 
 two feet. 
 
 July 17. To-day, six feet. Gray limestone, dark. Total, two hundred and 
 fort} r -eight feet. 
 
 July 18. To-day, twelve feet. Gray limestone, dark. Total, two hundred 
 and sixty feet. 
 
 This gray limestone was thirty feet thick. 
 
 July 19. To-day nine feet. Marble, again, nearly white. 
 
 July 20. To-day, twelve feet. Marble. Total, two hundred and eighty-one 
 feet. 
 
 July 21. To-day, nine feet. Marble. Total, two hundred and ninety feet. 
 
 July 22. To-day, twelve feet. Sediment, mixed gray and white, evidently 
 running into a darker stratum. 
 
 July 24. To-day, ten feet. Dark gray stone. Total, three hundred and 
 twelve feet. 
 
 July 25. To-day, eight feet. Gray and white mixed running out. Eighteen 
 feet of dark gray limestone. 
 
 July 26. To-day, twelve feet. Light gray limestone. Total, three hundred 
 and thirty-two feet. 
 
 July 27. To-day, eleven feet. Light gray limestone. Total, three hundred 
 and forty-three feet, 
 
 July 28. To-day, ten feet. Light gray limestone. Total, three' hundred and 
 fifty-three feet, f 
 
 July 29. To-day, nine feet. Light gray limestone. Total, three hundred 
 and sixty-two feet. 
 
 July 31. To-day, eight feet. Dark stone, very hard. 
 
40 
 
 August 1. To-day, five feet, 
 and seventy-five feet. 
 
 August 2. To-day, four feet, 
 seventy-nine feet. 
 
 August 3. To-day, four feet, 
 eighty-three. 
 
 August 4. To-day, two feet, 
 to twelve inches. 
 
 August 5. To-day, five feet, 
 feet. 
 
 August 7. To-day, five feet. 
 
 Dark stone, very hard. Total, three hundred 
 Hard and flinty. Total, three hundred and 
 Hard and flinty. Total, three hundred and 
 Still harder. Wears out the drill in from six 
 Very hard. Total, three hundred and ninety 
 Gray limestone and flint. Total, three hundred 
 
 and ninety-five feet. 
 
 August 8. Lost the drill to-day. The bit or drill became loosened where 
 the auger stem joins, and washed oft*. The loss was not discovered for three 
 hours, and, during the whole of that time, the entire weight of the tools, about 
 eight hundred pounds, was falling upon the head of the bit, in the bottom of 
 the Well. By these repeated blows, the upper end of the drill was driven 
 one and one-quarter inches in the side of the well, under a shelf or shoulder. 
 The Well had rather a dark look to-day. 
 
 August 15. Drill recovered, after a week's work, and recovery effected by 
 means of a ring grab. Particulars cannot be given without drawings. Four 
 hundred feet. Drilled five feet today. Stone and shale. 
 
 August 16. To-day, eight feet. Rock and shale mixed. 
 
 August 17. To-day, seven feet. Clear shale, very tough and sticky. This 
 shale is very dark blue, is saturated with petroleum and appears like putty. 
 
 August 18. To-day, five feet. Shale. Total, four hundred and twenty-five 
 feet. 
 
 To-day, ten feet. Shale. Total, four hundred and thirty -five feet. 
 To-day, nine feet. Shale. Total, four hundred and forty-four 
 
 August 19. 
 
 August 21. 
 feet. 
 
 August 22. 
 feet. 
 
 August 23. 
 feet. 
 
 August 24. 
 feet. 
 
 August 25. 
 feet. 
 
 August 26. 
 
 August 28. 
 
 August 29. 
 feet. 
 
 August 30. 
 
 August 31. 
 feet. 
 
 September 1. To-day, ten feet. Shale. Total, five hundred and forty-three feet. 
 
 September 2. Accident to tools. Screws broken at all the joints, but nothing 
 in the Well. Depth, by accurate measure, five hundred and fifty-five feet, and 
 good showing of oil. 'Sediment shows a coating of oil at every pumping, as it 
 has done all through this band of shale. 
 
 September 4. To-day, three feet. Plard rock. Sandstone. The first encoun- 
 the drill very fast. This stone is reddish in color, and seems 
 
 To day, eleven feet. Shale. Total, four hundred and fifty-five 
 
 To-day, twelve feet. Shale. Total, four hundred and sixty-seven 
 
 To-day, thirteen feet. Shale. Total, four hundred and eighty 
 
 To-day, twelve feet. Shale. Total, four hundred and ninety-two 
 
 To-day, eleven feet. Shale. Total, five hundred and three feet. 
 To-day, eight feet. Shale. Total, five hundred and eleven feet. 
 To-day, nine feet. Shale. Total, five hundred and twenty-five 
 
 Repairing. 
 Tc-day, eight feet. 
 
 Shale. Total, five hundred and thirty -three 
 
 To-day, six feet. 
 
 Good show of oil. 
 
 To-day, six feet. 1ST© change 
 
 Same as above. Total, five hundred and 
 
 tered. Wears 
 filled with oil. 
 
 September 5. 
 sixtj -four feet. 
 
 September G. 
 feet. 
 
 September 7. To-day, four feet. No change. Oil. Total, five hundred and 
 seventy-four feet. 
 
 Total, five hundred and seventy 
 
41 
 
 September 8. To-day, six feet. White flint. Iron pyrites. 
 
 September 9. To-day, five feet. Very hard. Oil at every pumping. 
 
 September 10. To-day, Sunday, measured Well, five hundred and eighty-eight 
 feet, and shows oil. 
 
 September 11. To-day, five feet, through very hard flinty limestone. Renewed 
 drill every twelve inches. Shows of oil. Total depth, five hundred and ninety- 
 three feet. 
 
 September 12. The hardest rock yet met with. One drill only went two 
 inches. The second, only three inches. Still shows oil. Drilled six feet. Total, 
 five hundred and ninety -nine feet. 
 
 September 13. At ten, P. M., this day, the jars broke, leaving reamer three 
 feet long, auger stem, twenty feet long, and lower part of the jar, eighteen inches 
 long, in the bottom of the Well, six hundred and five feet. 
 
 September 14 to 20. Making a grab to recover the tools. This grab is a 
 hollow cylinder, with a loose pawl or valve, made to go over the lost tools, and 
 catch as it comes up. Cannot be described without a drawing. 
 
 September 22 to 24. After several attempts, and breaking and losing a num- 
 ber of pawls, finally got over and a firm hold of the tools, and at six, P. M., on 
 the 24th, they were all safely brought to the surface. 
 
 September 26. Made seventeen inches, with foui drills — the broken pawls 
 and pieces of steel in the bottom of the Well retarding the progress of the drill. 
 Six hundred and six feet, five inches. 
 
 September 27. Very hard sand and flint rock. Made two feet, in twenty-four 
 houis. Six hundred and nine feet. Shows of oil lost. 
 
 September 28. Hard, reddish sandstone. Three feet. Total, six hundred and 
 twelve feet. 
 
 September 29. Same stone. Three feet. Total, six hundred and fifteen feet. 
 
 September 30. Same as above. Three feet. Total six hundred and eighteen 
 feet. 
 
 October 1. To-day, three feet. Same rock. Broke the jars last night, but the 
 tools came out safely. Total, six hundred and twenty-one feet. 
 
 October 2. To-day, six feet. Same rock. Total, six hundred and twenty- 
 seven feet. 
 
 October 3. To-day, three feet. Same rock. Total, six hundred and thirty feet. 
 
 October 4. To-day, six feet. Same rock. Total, six hundred and thirty-six 
 feet. 
 
 October 5. To-day, six feet. Same rock. Total, six hundred and forty-two 
 feet. 
 
 October 6. To-day, six feet. Same rock. Total, six hundred and forty-eight 
 feet. 
 
 October 7. To-day, eight feet. Sandstone, but much softer. By accurate 
 measure, to-day, six hundred and fifty-six feet and 'six inches. 
 
 October 8. Six hundred and sixty feet, this morning. No sediment from the 
 sand pump. Well commenced overflowing quite freely last night, and the old 
 Well diminished in its overflow three-fourths of an inch — showing that a crevice 
 or seam, leading from the old well, had been tapped by the new one. 
 
 October 9. Drilled three feet. No change. Total, six hundred and sixty- 
 three feet. 
 
 October 10. Drilled six feet. No sediment. Water washes it all up. Total, 
 six hundred and sixty nine feet. 
 
 October 11. Drilled, to-day, six feet. Total, six hundred and seventy-five feet. 
 
 October 12. Drilled, last night, three feet. At nine o'clock, to-day, the Jan. 
 broke off, leaving drill, auger stem and broken jar in the bottom of the Wefl. 
 
 October 13, 14 and 15. After several attempts with the hollow grab, finally 
 got hold of the tools, on the 15th, and recovered them. 
 
 October 16. Drilled all day, but made no progress. Some iron cuttings on 
 the drill. Water flowing very freely. 
 
 October 17. Drilled all night. Made three feet. Depth, six hundred and 
 seventy-eight feet. 
 
42 
 
 October 18. Drilled three feet. Total, six hundred and eighty-one feet. No 
 special change. 
 
 October* 19. Drilled four feet. Total, six-hundred and eighty -five feet. 
 
 October 20. At nine o'clock this evening, jars broke, split open, left the lowei 
 part of the jar, auger, stem and reamer in the Well, at 686 feet. 
 
 October 21, 22, 23 and 24. Made several attempts with the hollow grab to get 
 hold of the tools, but were unsuccessful. 
 
 October 25. Cut off and pointed the broken part of the jar, and inserted in the 
 side a steel drop key, with a slot cut in the opposite side of the jar ; lowered 
 this in the Well with a sinker bar and another pair of jars attached. The 
 broken jar thus arranged, slipped at once over its counter part in the Well, the 
 key dropped to its place, and the tools were caught. They came to the surface 
 in less than thirty minutes. 
 
 October 27. Drilled three feet last night. Depth of Well this morning, six 
 hundred and eighty-eight feet, ten inches. 
 
 October 28 and 29. Drilled forty-eight hours and made no progress — drills 
 not worn or defaced — come up as sharp as they go down, but the bevel sides of 
 the drills are highly polished, and magnetized steel filings adhere to the sides of 
 the drill, which assume the appearance of having been covered with quicksilver, 
 like the back of a mirror. Face of the drills perfect, but much worn at the 
 sides — finally conclude that we are drilling in a crevice, the sides of which are 
 composed of iron pyrites, the drill never striking on its face. 
 
 October 30. Appearance of working through — made some better progress — 
 some sediment showing in the water, and finally made three feet. 
 
 October 31. At three o'clock this morning the screw on the auger stem broke, 
 and left it and the reamer in the bottom of the well. Depth six hundred and 
 ninety-one feet and ten inches. This is the fourth time the tools have been lost 
 since the Well was down 600 feet. At twelve o'clock the u ring grab" was 
 lowered and made fast, and the tools came out at once — at work drilling again 
 at one o'clock. 
 
 November 1. Wednesday. At a quarter before one A. M., this morning, the 
 drill penetrated the arch of the rock in the cavity before referred to, and 
 the water came to the surface in great volumes. Depth of the Well to the top 
 of the cavity, six hundred and ninety-four feet and four inches. 
 
 November 2. Reamed out the last* three feet, to the water, making the Well 
 full size of five inches all the way down — the volume of water much increased 
 by the reaming, and the overflow in the old Well much diminished, having fallen 
 to about four inches. This diminution is caused by the elevation of the water 
 in the former Well to a height of twenty -five feet above the surface, whije the 
 new Well is discharging upon the surface. If both Wells were discharging at 
 the same level, the overflow would of course be the same, and each well would 
 discharge relatively a quantity of water in proportion to its size. 
 
 A FEW REMARKS ON THE PRACTICAL PART 
 OF WELL BORING. 
 
 Formerly the boring of an Artesian well was regarded as an 
 extremely difficult and hazardous undertaking, and even now with- 
 all of the experience furnished by the Pennsylvania oil wells, 
 there are frequently great troubles encountered, and many wells 
 are lost by accidents to the tools, &c. 
 
43 
 
 We have learned one or two important facts, which may perhaps 
 be profitably considered by those who are engaged in operations 
 of this kind. 
 
 First. — The greatest desideratum, the end of the chief and 
 first importance, is to get a 'perfectly true, round well ; this secured, 
 all other things are comparatively easy. 
 
 Second. — No single tool, whatever may be its shape, whether Z., 
 H., or Star, will at one cutting make a true well; it will more than 
 likely worm a hole in the earth like an auger or a cork-screw. 
 
 Our second well is as true as a gun barrel, and perfectly round. 
 We have introduced a tool grab, sixteen feet in length, its diameter 
 within less than one-quarter of an inch of the size of the well, 
 and it descended six hundred and ninety feet in one minute by 
 the watch, without a touch or a jar. This well was bored with a 
 three and three-quarter inch chisel bit, sharpened to a knife edge, 
 as sharp as it could be made and stand the force of the blow, 
 (about 900 pounds raised two feet,) and then followed every three 
 feet (the length of the bit) with a full five inch rimmer. This 
 rimmer is of a peculiar construction, and we believe unlike any in 
 use, and for the purpose intended, is a perfect tool ; it has two 
 three and a half inch faces, the outer edges of which are of 
 course circular, conforming to the circumference of the well, and 
 the tool is so made that bits of rock or stone falling into the well 
 above the rimmer, will work down below it, and thus prevent the 
 binding and fastening of the tools. This tool drives down a three- 
 quarter inch shoulder, knocking the spawls into the centre already 
 cut out by the bit, and makes a mechanically true round well. 
 
 The value of this latter fact will always be seen in cases of 
 
 accidents to the tools. You can recover tools from a true well in 
 
 ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, when in an imperfect well 
 
 the reverse of the proposition would be true, and the well almost 
 
 inevitably be lost. 
 4 
 
44 
 
 Boring with rods is out of date, a thing of the past, yet there 
 are persons who still persist in it ; and such will spend one-half 
 of the working hours in getting the tools out of the well and then 
 putting them back. By all means use the rope, it is safe and ex- 
 peditious. Beware of patent tools, cutters and drills, especially 
 those " which drill from thirty to one hundred feet per day in the 
 hardest rock" The simple chisel bit and rimmer will do the work 
 well, and as fast as it is wanted. 
 
 A well of five inches is better than one of four or four and a 
 half, for it enables you to use stronger tools, and in case of acci- 
 dent it enables you to get around and hold them. Get the 
 best Lowmoor iron jars ; have them made good and strong, and 
 never drill more than 300 feet with one pair. You should have 
 three pairs for a well of 600 feet and over, and should have all of 
 your tools in duplicate. Use a tin or a thin copper sand pump, 
 and never permit an iron pump to be inserted in your well. You 
 can drill the tin one out in an hour if it should get fast, but with 
 an iron one you would probably lose the well. 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHY AND GEOLOGY OP UNDER 
 GROUND STREAMS. 
 
 It is a well settled fact that a large portion of the water which 
 falls upon the surface of the earth penetrates the soil and porous 
 rocks, and becomes subterraneous. And there are also under- 
 ground streams which are not the result of this law, but which 
 have their rise in hills, mountains and elevated lands, and are fed 
 by the rains and snows. Professor Dana says that these waters 
 become underground streams by following the dip of tilted strata. 
 The layers of limestone and sandstone never fit together so closely 
 but that waters may find their way between them. 
 
 Many of these subterranean streams are of great size, quite 
 
45 
 
 entitled to the name of rivers, as is witnessed in the Mammoth 
 Cave in Kentucky, the Adelsburg Mountains in Austria, and in 
 the Jura Mountains, in Switzerland, where the waters pour out of 
 the sides of the hills, in quantities sufficient to turn the machinery 
 of a mill. 
 
 Pervious strata beds of sand and gravel and sandstones fre- 
 quently alternate with those which are impervious, such as lime- 
 stones, granite, and beds of clay. Water finds its way through 
 the pervious strata, descending until it rests upon the impervious 
 rock, which becomes the bed of the stream ; here it winds its way 
 along, following the tilts and inclinations until it finally becomes, 
 as it were, compressed between two impervious layers, and is simi- 
 lar in many respects to water in a pipe leading from a reservoir ; 
 there is neither current nor motion until the pipe is tapped, when 
 it rushes to the surface, often with great force. Artesian wells 
 are usually bored (and it has hitherto been considered necessary 
 to success that the rule should be followed) in vallies or on plains 
 surrounded by hills or elevated lands. 
 
 Theoretically water rises to the level of its fountain head, but 
 practically it falls much short of it, owing to the friction and the 
 resistance of the atmosphere, so that water which rises one hun- 
 dred feet above the surface at its outlet, has a head or source much 
 higher. 
 
 The water furnished by Artesian wells increases in temperature 
 in proportion to the depth, so that taking the average of the 
 known wells of the world, this increase has been proved to be 1° 
 F., for every fifty-one feet of descent. Water is discharged 
 by various wells from 65° to 95°, and this temperature is always 
 below the mean of the location of the well. It is by this means 
 that geologists determine the heat of the earth's crust, arid can 
 with a tolerable degree of accuracy fix the point at which the 
 mass is liquid fire. 
 
46 
 
 These are a few of the simple principles applicable to Artesian 
 wells. 
 
 The boring of the two wells in Chicago has brought to light 
 some new facts which I think have not been heretofore known, 
 and which are at variance with supposed well settled principles. 
 
 The first of these facts, is, that Chicago, where these wells are 
 located, is a plain or prairie, nearly level, and surrounded by a 
 level country for many hundreds of miles ; there is neither valley 
 nor depression here, as there is neither hill nor mountain. Lake 
 Superior, some three hundred miles distant, has a level of only 
 thirty-nine feet above that of Lake Michigan, and there are no 
 intervening highlands ; there is simply a rolling prairie extending 
 north into Wisconsin, and west into Iowa, while south for some 
 two hundred miles, stretches the Grand Prairie of Illinois. About 
 ten miles west of Chicago is a ridge called the " Summit," the 
 elevation of which is about twenty-five feet above the level of 
 Lake Michigan. This ridge divides the waters which empty into 
 the St. Lawrence from those which flow into the Gulf of Mexico. 
 On the western slope of this summit is the Desplaines River, a 
 tributary of the Illinois, while the Chicago River flows from the 
 eastern slope into Lake Michigan, and these waters through the 
 St. Lawrence into the ocean. 
 
 As the water from these wells has a head of about one hundred 
 and twenty-five feet above Lake Michigan, and eighty-six feet 
 above Lake Superior, we must look to some more remote point 
 for the head or true source of supply. 
 
 And here another consideration presents itself which may throw 
 some light on the subject. When the water first came to the sur- 
 face the temperature was nearly 59° F. After discharging some 
 two hundred millions of gallons, the temperature has fallen to 
 57°, or about two degrees lower than when first struck. Now the 
 fact that this water was found so muc 1 " 1 colder than the mean tern- 
 
47 
 
 perature of Chicago at a depth of 700 feet, and that the tempera- 
 ture decreased with the descent of the drill, instead of increasing 
 as had been the usual experience, presents an anomaly which 
 geologists may profitably study. And then comes the fact still 
 more strange that the temperature of the water is still falling — 
 that the more it discharges the colder it gets. There is seemingly 
 no solution of this problem but to locate the head or source of 
 this water at some remote point in the mountains of the North or 
 Northwest, some place where the mean temperature may be 57° 
 or less, as there is a probability that the diminution in tempera- 
 ture may continue, and the continuous discharge at the outlet has 
 drawn the water from nearer its fountain head and consequently 
 much colder water is obtained now than when it first issued from 
 the ground. 
 
 The fact of the low temperature of the water taken in con- 
 nection with the head of one hundred and twenty-five feet, seems 
 to point almost conclusively to its source in some of the distant 
 mountains beyond the Mississippi; and these two facts also show 
 that the wells are not supplied by the percolations of water 
 through porous strata, finding its way to the depressions of a val- 
 ley, but that it comes through the seams and crevices of the rocks, 
 working its way for many hundreds of miles through the crust 
 of the earth. 
 
 CONCERNING SPIRITUALISM. 
 Thus one by one the great facts in support of the Spiritual 
 Philosophy accumulate; manifestations of the spirit power are 
 now of daily occurrence, and tens of thousands of investigators 
 are increasing the immense volume of testimony now on the record 
 in proof of its truth. At no distant time it will be ranked among 
 the positive nhilosophies. Its principles, at once simple and sub- 
 
48 
 
 lime, commend themselves to the human heart, and its facts to 
 the human reason. To those who come unprejudiced, and impar- 
 tial to an investigation of its merits, there is no escape from 
 its conclusions. Discarding the fables of antiquity, and shat- 
 tering the fetters which bind the mind down to the slavery of the 
 past, Spiritualism rises at once grandly and proudly to an exalted 
 conception of creation; studying the Creator, not in the tales 
 and traditions of the dark ages, but in the manifestations in the 
 works of God which everywhere surround us. 
 
 As the geologist, the reader of the great stone book, unfolds its 
 leaves and tells us of the millions of years of creation; of the 
 gradual development of vegetable aod animal life through thou- 
 sands of centuries, and demonstrates its truth by pointing to the 
 record which God has written in the rocks; so Spiritualism adopts 
 what geology teaches, and casts aside the fabulous story of a 
 special creation in a few days of time, preferring the more enlarged, 
 more comprehensive, and more natural view of the work of God, 
 to the purely mythical view resting only upon a fatherless tradi- 
 tion. The astronomer who maps the skies and exhibits to us the 
 architecture of the heavens, exposing to the admiring gaze of 
 man the countless millions of worlds and suns, of beauty the most 
 transcendent, who, penetrating to the remotest depths of space 
 reveals the existence of unnumbered orbs of light, of vast systems 
 of stars, which can be likened only to the sands upon the seashore, 
 also, bears witness to the falsity of another of the traditions 
 of our childhood, viz : that which taught us to believe that this 
 earth was the chief result of the creation; that the sun and moon 
 and stars were made to give light for and to adorn, and beautify 
 it, and that on this earth alone, was man, the sole recipient of the 
 Divine Spirit, placed. Can it be that God has made the whole 
 of this wondrous creation, these millions of worlds, and on this 
 mere mote, amid the vast ocean, the earth, and on it alone, that 
 
49 
 
 He has been pleased to locate the image of Himself? Astronomy 
 answers, No. Spiritualism believes — nay, it knows — that intelli- 
 gence, even like unto the Great Creator himself, is omnipresent; 
 that all of these worlds are peopled, or are in the process of per- 
 fection to that state, which will eventually fit them for the habi- 
 tation of intellectual beings. That intelligence is the culmina- 
 tion of creation, and is not confined to any one orb or sphere, 
 but is universal, co-extensive with the stupendous works of God. 
 Spiritualism is a liberalizing power, she takes science by the hand 
 and bids her go on, unravel, investigate and develop the laws of 
 nature, to expand the human intellect, and to learn what she can 
 of the manifestations of God. Spiritualism does not meet the 
 investigator as the Church met Capernicus and Galileo; she has 
 no prison houses for the men of genius, for the leaders of the 
 human race ; she has no fear that scientific knowledge will contra- 
 dict the sayings of some musty old saint, or the traditions current 
 in the barbarous ages of the world, for she believes that God 
 intended man should learn, should raise himself up, should exalt 
 his moral and intellectual faculties to the highest possible stand- 
 ard. The truths of Nature, the revelations of the Divine are 
 scattered throughout the universe; they are there for man to 
 grasp and understand — like the peaks and ranges of the great 
 mountains, we have no sooner compassed one but others higher 
 and greater, rise in majesty and grandeur before us ; and that in 
 this order knowledge ever continues to progress until we reach 
 even to the confines of the great Infinite mind. 
 
 Such is a glimpse of the Spiritual Philosophy. Wider fields 
 and broader avenues are every day opening to the view, and at no 
 remote day Spiritualism will demand and receive from the judg- 
 ment of men its proper place among those philosophies, which are 
 based upon and supported by indisputable facts. 
 
 Chicago, January, 1866. 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 JUN 24 ir 
 UNIVfcBSlI* Of ILUN0I1 
 
A. F. CROSKEY. GEO. A. SHUFELDT, Jit. 
 
 A. F. CROSKEY & CO., 
 
 PROPRIETORS OF THE 
 
 ARTESIAN WELLS 
 
 70 WASHINGTON STREET, CHICAGO. 
 
 WILLIAM T. B. READ, 
 
 GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT, 
 
 At the Wells, corner of CItic<(</o and Western Avenues. 
 
RELMO-PHILOSOPHICAL 
 
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