Instead of doing this, they too headed for the ditch, and plunged into it, just in front of the glycerine buggy. There they fell over each other, broke the pole, upset their wagon, and became so entangled in the wreck that they were incapable of further mischief. All this took place within ten feet of where Brace Barlow sat, on top of his load of nitro-glycerine, as steadily as though he did not expect, with each instant, to be blown into a million fragments, and hurled into eternity.
Then Colonel Dale explained what torpedoes are, and why they are used; and Miss Hatty said she hoped their well would have to be shot, so that she might witness the operation. Seeing that his companions were interested in the subject, the Colonel continued to talk of it. He said:
“Although we, naturally, know and hear more about the oil fields of Pennsylvania than any other, petroleum is also found in a dozen or more of our own States and territories, as well as in many other countries of the world. In Pennsylvania it exists in a narrow territory, lying about fifty miles west of the Alleghany Mountains; and, as the oil-bearing belt extends in a general northeast and southwest direction, it is spoken of as lying on a forty-five-degree line.”
“Exactly,” said his grandfather, “and I only hope it may not lie over one of the many barren places that exist on that line.”
“In this part of the country,” he continued, “the drilling of wells and the handling of oil have been reduced to a state of perfection and simplicity unknown elsewhere. Consequently, Pennsylvania well drillers, with their tools, are in demand in many foreign oil fields, and may be found, commanding large salaries, in Russia, Japan, China, New Zealand, Canada, the various countries of Western South America, in several of the West Indian islands, and elsewhere.
“In China immense oil fields exist, in which wells, drilled centuries ago, are still in use. Natural gas has also been used in that country for hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of years. It is conveyed from the wells through bamboo pipes tipped with rude clay burners.
“Petroleum has also been known and used in Burmah for an unknown length of time, both for light and fuel. Into a shallow oil well of that country an iron bucket is lowered by means of a rope, passing over a wooden cylinder. When the bucket is full, two men take hold of the other end of the rope, and, by running down an inclined plane as long as the well is deep, draw it to the surface.”