Part 14 (1/2)
If we cannot use coal without wasting so much, would it not be wiser for us to turn our attention more fully to the sources of power in the streams which are flowing down all our mountain sides? The use of this power when turned into electricity would enable us to save a large part of the coal, oil, and gas that are now used, and so make them last longer.
It is far easier to waste oil and gas than coal, for, when we have drilled holes in the earth, unless we are very careful the gas will escape into the air and the oil will become mixed with water, so that it will be difficult for us to get it.
Oil and gas are confined under great pressure hundreds and often thousands of feet below the surface. To make clear how easy it is to waste them, we might compare them to the compressed air in an automobile tire. If the tire is punctured by a nail, the air issues suddenly with a sharp, whistling sound until the pressure inside is gone and no more will come out.
For many years we have been puncturing the crust of the earth, where oil has been discovered, and letting the oil and gas escape. We have saved most of the oil, but nearly all the gas has been wasted. The gas will finally stop coming out when the pressure is gone, just as the air did in the automobile tire.
On the opposite page is a picture of a ”gusher” in the Sunset oil field, California, which tells the story of how we are permitting the valuable substances within the earth to be wasted. In drilling this well the oil men suddenly struck a deposit of oil and gas under great pressure. The drilling tools were blown out of the well and a column of oil and gas shot up 150 feet. For a time the well flowed forty thousand barrels of oil each day, and an unknown quant.i.ty of gas. Much of the oil was scattered around the surrounding country, and all the gas was lost. Men worked for weeks making reservoirs of earth in an attempt to save the river of oil.
Another well a few miles distant struck an enormous quant.i.ty of gas. It blew off for days with a roar like that of the steam from a giant engine. Then it took fire, and the column of flame at night was a fearful sight. There was gas enough lost from this one well to light a city for months.
Gas has been escaping during many years from hundreds of wells in the Pennsylvania, Ohio Valley, Oklahoma, Texas, and California oil fields.
The gas from all these wells together has been estimated to be equal in value to a river of oil flowing several hundred thousand barrels each day. In many districts the gas was nearly gone before people discovered its great value. It is impossible for us to realize the waste which this represents.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _Myrl's Studio, Bakersfield, California_ A ”gusher” in a California oil field wasting great quant.i.ties of oil and gas.]
It has taken Nature a long time to make the oil and gas which we are losing. When she began this work, the oil regions which have been mentioned were beneath the sea. In its waters lived countless numbers of minute organisms, as well as fish of many kinds. As they died, their bodies acc.u.mulated in beds which finally became thousands of feet thick.
Then the currents of the water changed and sand and mud were washed over these beds, burying them deeply.
Finally the bottom of the sea was lifted and became dry land. The movement squeezed and folded the rocky layers made of the skeletons of the animals and plants. The soft parts of their bodies held in these rocky layers produced a greenish or brownish oil and gas. The gas tried to escape from the rocks, for they were hot and it wanted more room. In some places it found openings through the rocks and escaped to the surface, usually bringing some of the oil with it. The gas was lost, but a part of the oil remained, forming deposits of tar. In other places the oil and gas could not reach the surface, but found porous, sandy rocks into which they went and remained until the oil driller found them.
The tar springs, or ”seepages,” indicate to the oil prospector where deposits of oil may possibly be found. He examines the country about and, selecting a favorable place, drills a well. If he is successful, he will strike oil-bearing rocks. The oil may be a few hundred feet below the surface, or it may be a mile below. In the latter case it takes months to drill the well.
If a robber came and attempted to take by force the coal, oil, and gas which we are daily losing through our carelessness and indifference, even though he might put it to better use than we put it, there would at once go up a great cry. We would raise an army and fight for our property, and perhaps suffer great loss in defending it. But, day by day, without making any serious objection, we are letting these natural resources go to waste.
Perhaps in some far distant future, after we have used up the stores of fuel in the earth, we may discover something to take its place; but wise and thoughtful people should make the most of what they have.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
NEED FOR PROTECTION OF CREATURES THAT LIVE IN THE WATER
Perhaps you think it is absurd to talk about caring for the creatures that live in the water, since they can so easily hide away in its depths where we cannot follow. Perhaps you think that because the ocean is so great it would be impossible ever to catch all the fish that live in it.
It is easy to understand how all the fish might be caught out of the creeks, rivers, and shallow lakes, since fish are hungry and we put before them such attractive bait; but with the ocean it seems different.
It stretches so many thousands of miles and is so very deep that there does not appear to be any danger of exterminating the animals of the ocean as we have some of those of the land.
Is it true, however, that all the vast waters of the ocean are full of fish, or are they found only in certain parts? The fishermen can tell us about this matter. They know where to set the hooks and nets, and where they are most likely to get a good catch. They do not go far out where the water is deep but seek, instead, the shallow waters near the sh.o.r.e or about the reefs and islands. They know that the deep water of the ocean contains very few fish and none that are of any value as food.
Each kind of fish has become adapted to certain parts of the ocean, for both the food supply and the pressure of the water differ with different depths. Fish caught in deep water are often dead before reaching the surface, because of the decrease in the water pressure.
One reason why fish are not numerous far out in the ocean is because there is little food to be had there. The reason no fish are found in the very deep parts of the ocean is because the water there contains no air particles. Strange as it may seem, although fish breathe water, they cannot live unless it contains oxygen from the air.
The fish, then, that interest us because of their value for food, are found only in the shallow waters usually near the sh.o.r.e and in the lakes and rivers. Because of this fact it is possible, as we have learned from experience, to set so many traps and use so many nets and hooks as entirely to destroy certain species.
The fish have their natural enemies, and there is warfare among them just as there is among the land animals. The larger and more powerful live upon the smaller ones, but, seemingly to make up for this, Nature has given the small fish quickness of movement--which the large fish do not possess--to aid them in escaping. They have also the power of increasing very rapidly. The little herring, which is the chief food of many of the large fish, maintains its countless numbers against all its enemies except the fishermen.
The Indians, with their crude traps, hooks, and spears, could obtain but few fish at a time and did not reduce their numbers. But civilized man, with his cunningly contrived hooks and nets, has the same advantage over the fish that the hunter, with his repeating gun, has over the land animals. Nature, not foreseeing how destructive man would be, has armed neither the creatures of the land nor the creatures of the water against him.