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Where the oil flows at the rate of 1,500 barrels every twenty-four hours.

saving every cent they could get hold of to invest in oil. Maricopa, Taft, Fellows and McKittrick, the other Kern County oil towns, sprang up as by magic, and are now considerable places of several thousand population each.

In connection with the actual working of the leases, the following story is told of Lyman Stewart, the venerable president of the Union Oil Company. He is a firm believer in the observance of the Sabbath, and his orders to his lieutenants since the beginning have been: "No more work than is necessary on Sundays." As a result, while work is being carried on vigorously by its neighbors, the Union is often found slacking up on the Sabbath. This was particularly true in the old days.

It was in the early years of the industry in Ventura County, and the Union men were at work late one Saturday night on a hole which was almost finished. They worked at a top rate of speed, and before Sunday morning, the well, one of the largest in the district, was brought in.

There was no telephone or telegraph communication, so two of the men mounted horses and started for Mr. Stewart's home in Los Angeles to inform him of the strike. They arrived there on Sunday morning, and met Mr. Stewart as he was leaving his house, a Bible under his arm, on his way to church.

The messengers, overflowing with enthusiasm, at once burst into their subject.

"It is business which will be taken up to-morrow," said Mr. Stewart, and went on his way to church.

Showing the tremendous change in the industry when it is remembered that now a gusher will frequently produce 25,000 barrels a day, is the record of a well struck in the Newhall field in 1882. This well flowed at a rate of 300 barrels a day. This production was thought stupendous, at that time, and in a few months the yield paid the owners for the amount they had expended in drilling the well

and likewise for putting down numerous dry holes. The prices which oil from the "big" well brought-$2.50 and $3 a barrel-threw the company into a state of excitement, and development work was rushed.

The Honolulu gas well, which burned, was one of the most famous of the State's gassers. of the State's gassers. Frequently gasser flows are tremendous. At this time there is sufficient gas being produced in half a dozen wells in Kern County alone to meet the demands of more than half the State. In fact, most of the population of the southern. part of California is to be supplied by a pipe line to Los Angeles. There has been a good deal of talk of running a gas line from Kern County to San Francisco Bay, but thus far there has been nothing actually done. Certain it is that in Kern County millions upon millions of cubic feet of gas, which might be utilized for cooking and heating purposes, are going to waste every month.

The magnitude of the output of California gas wells may be estimated when it is remembered that one of several that might be mentioned could supply the entire city of Los Angeles with gas for cooking and fuel purposes were they able to keep up their maximum flow.

The Standard Oil Company has brought in many of the largest gassers in the State, one recently in Kern County flowing at an estimated rate of 25,000,000 cubic feet a day for some time. This company brought in two famous gassers in the Buena Vista hills. No. 1 produced 12,000,000 cubic feet the first day. The second came in completely beyond control, tearing out the casing, wrecking the rig and injuring the workmen who were not able to get out of harm's way, so suddenly did the terrific force of gas come.

The production of this gasser in its first days could not be gauged, but it was estimated by experts who saw it at being close to 30,000,000 cubic feet. Last September, the Associated Oil Company, near the town of Taft, brought in a gas well which yielded

THE ROMANCE OF CALIFORNIA OIL.

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40,000,000 cubic feet a day, the largest on record in this State.

Were the gas output of the Kern County fields. alone controlled, it would be sufficient to supply all of California with her millions of inhabitants and some of the adjoining States besides.

There are abundant uses for California oil. Almost every class of petroleum by-products is made from it, excepting those which are distinctly paraffin. Most of California's oil is on an asphaltic base, where the strata in the Eastern States are generally on paraffin bases. In the early days of the industry, when all sorts of rumors were afloat about the country and little real investigation had been done, it was thought that California oil was adaptable for fuel purposes only. But this theory was exploded long ago. Oils of varying degrees of gravity are produced. The output from some wells is SO heavy with asphalt that asphalt companies take over the entire production. Other wells are producers of very light gravity oil. The huge refineries which have been erected by the Standard Oil Company and other large concerns are proof sufficient of the possibilities of California oil.

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The late Admiral "Fighting Bob" Evans looking over oil properties of the California Consolidated, of which he was president.

That the future of oil, however, rests largely in its value as fuel is the belief of the oil men of the State at the present time.

The early experiences of the railroads and the efforts which were made by the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe to perfect oil burners stand out as milestones in the history of fuel oil. Time after time, great trains were stalled out on the desert, and the rail

roads lost thousands of dollars through damage to perishable goods, while to perfect making admirable efforts their oil burners.

Of course these experiments were not of an altruistic nature by any means, for with the perfection of oil burners there came cheap fuel and larger profits. But the fact remains that the railroads of the West did much to make the use of oil as fuel practicable. Steamship companies and other agencies also helped to a greater or less extent to make the improvement a possibility.

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The Fisheries of the Northwest

Their Immense Growth in Recent Years and Their

A

Great Future

By Monroe Woolley

NEWS despatch flashed over the daily press wires the other day that should cause the nation, and particularly Westerners, to awaken to the remarkable growth of the fishing industry of the Pacific Coast.

The despatch told of the departure of the gasoline fishing schooners Victor, Ethan and Athena from the banks off the Massachusetts coast, which are nearing exhaustion, for the richer, practically untouched fields in the Northwest.

These little craft were sent around the Horn under their own power with skeleton cruising crews, and upon their arrival in Puget Sound were manned by full fishing crews sent from Boston across the continent by rail.

In speaking of the departure of the vessels from the Atlantic, the New York Journal of Commerce said:

"Will the fish industry assume greater proportions on the Pacific Coast in years to come and wrest from Boston the honor of being the greatest

THE FISHERIES OF THE NORTHWEST.

fish market in the world? This question is being carefully gone over by Gloucester fishermen, who are watching with much interest the experiment of a Boston company, which has equipped some of their schooners with motive power, and has despatched them to the Pacific Coast with Puget Sound as their ultimate destination."

From this clipping, which is quoted only in part, it will be noted that Easterners have been awakened rather suddenly to the unpleasant fact that the West has fish, not to throw at the birds, but, contrarily, to ship to the four corners of the earth. And the shipments are what count. Statistics. of a year already gone by probably had something to do with sending these ships to the new fields, as well as to cause the transfer of whole fishing villages from the East to the West coast. In that year there were sold on the Atlantic Coast 22,299,000 pounds of salted codfish, 3,698,000 pounds of fresh halibut, and 19,000 pounds of fresh salmon. The amounts sold on the West coast for the same year are surprising no doubt they were shocking to some of the Eastern companies. Of salted codfish, for decades exclusively produced about Boston, the Pacific Coast fishermen cut in with a promising output of 7,946,000 pounds, besides 30,088,000 pounds of fresh halibut, and 90,360,000 pounds of salmon.

The fact is, that people in the East seem to have awakened to the fertility of Western fields to much extent before the average Westerner has had his eyes opened. Fishing industries have grown so rapidly on the Pacific that the residents have had scarcely time to note the details as they followed with rapid strides one upon the other.

Just when the industry took on a national scope is not remembered by many outside the fishing business. When the industry became world-wide may be news to still more people. In this connection, the reminiscences of Mr. John Jardine, a pioneer of Victoria, British Columbia, is interesting.

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Speaking of the salmon canning industry in the Northwest, Mr. Jardine not long since said:

"It was really started by James Symes, a plasterer. Symes lived for a while at New Westminster, and afterwards at Victoria. It was he who conceived the idea of an experimental test for the preservation of salmon for commercial purposes by the use of hermetically sealed tins. He was working at that time for my friend, John Graham, who, up to the time of the Confederation, was receiver-general, with headquarters at New Westminster. After having soldered the tins, the salmon was prepared by boiling on Mr. Graham's stove at New Westminster, and to their great delight the experiment proved entirely satisfactory. The money necessary to send some of these tins to Australia was advanced by Mr. Graham. But the new food did not take very well at first, and the attempt to establish it on a commercial basis was abandoned for the time, though it has since been revived, with the results that we all know."

Many Westerners remember when salmon, caught in the old-fashioned way with hook and line, used to retail at five cents apiece. Sometimes the Indians traded ten-pound Steelheads or Sockeyes for a brass button or a smoke. Now, with traps catching thousands at a haul, the price over the fish market counter ranges anywhere from ten to fifteen cents per pound for the fresh article, and from ten to twenty-five cents per pound for the canned variety. Herein lies the only objectionable feature in the development of the canning industry. Still, few Westerners complain because of this phase of the situation. The farmer who consumes all his own crop when, by shipping the most of it away, he may get three or four times its value to himself as food, is not a good business man. And above all else, Westerners like to believe they are up to snuff in bargaining.

Should all the salmon catch be kept on the Pacific each year, instead of

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