It is safe to say that the past two or three decades have witnessed marked progress in perfecting the methods by which crude petroleums are refined into the innumerable common commodities of commerce, and it is doubtful whether in any branch of chemical research there has been such concerted energy shown as in regard to the refining of mineral oils. Signs, however, are not wanting to show that the zenith of this progress has by no means been reached. CHAPTER V TRANSPORT BY LAND AND SEA The remarkably perfect methods by which petroleum and its products are transported by land and sea before they reach the consumer may not at first sight appear to be anything but commonplace, but a moment’s reflection will be sufficient to suggest that a vast and complete organization must be required in order that petroleum may be brought from practically the ends of the earth to the consumer in the most remote village in the British Isles. But it is the demands of necessity that have been responsible for the building up of this vast organization of transportation which represents, in the United States alone, the investment of many millions of pounds sterling. Taking first the methods of oil transportation by land, in no other oil-producing country do we find such an elaborate system for dealing with enormous quantities of petroleum as in America, for it is safe to say that at least 500,000 barrels of crude oil have to be dealt with daily at the present time. Going back to the time when petroleum first became a commercial commodity--when the first wells in Oil Creek commenced to open up a period of new prosperity for the United States--these wells were situated so close to the water that their product could easily be loaded into canoes and barges, and floated down the Alleghany river. In the dry season, the flow was insufficient to float the craft, and then some hundreds of the boats, carrying each from 50 to 1,000 barrels, would be assembled in a mill-pond near the wells, and the water impounded while the loading was in progress. Then the gates would be opened, and the fleet, carried on the flood of rushing water, would be hurried down the river in charge of pilots. The fleet of creek and river boats engaged in this novel work at one time numbered 2,000.