To properly commence our sketch of this truly gigantic enterprise, we must go back to the discovery of petroleum in the existing oil regions of Pennsylvania and adjacent States. Its presence as an oily scum on the surface of ponds and streams had long been known, and among the Indians this "rock-oil" was highly appreciated as a vehicle for mixing their wax paint, and for anointing their bodies; in later years it was gathered in a rude way by soaking it up in blankets, and sold at a high price for medicinal purposes only, under the name of Seneca rock oil, Genesee oil, Indian oil, etc. But the date of its discovery as an important factor in the useful arts and as a source of enormous national wealth was about 1854. In the year named a certain Mr. George H. Bissell of New Orleans accidentally met with a sample of the "Seneca Oil," and being convinced that it had a value far beyond that usually accorded it, associated himself with some friends and leased for 99 years some of the best oil springs near Titusville, Pa. This lease cost the company $5,000, although only a few years before a cow had been considered a full equivalent in value for the same land. The original prospectors began operations by digging collecting ditches, and then pumping off the oil which gathered upon the surface of the water. But not long after this first crude attempt at oil gathering, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co. was organized, with Prof. B. Silliman of Yale College as its president, and a more intelligent method was introduced into the development of the oil-producing formation. In 1858, Col. Drake of New Haven was employed by the Pennsylvania Co. to sink an artesian well; and, after considerable preparatory work, on August 28, 1859, the first oil vein was tapped at a depth of 691/2 feet below the surface; the flow was at first 10 barrels per day, but in the following September this increased to 40 barrels daily. [Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE NATIONAL TRANSIT CO.'S PIPE LINES.] The popular excitement and the fortunes made and lost in the years following the sinking of the initial well are a matter of history, with which we have here nothing to do. It is sufficient to say that a multitude of adventurers were drawn by the "oil-craze" into this late wilderness, and the sinking of wells extended with unprecedented rapidity over the region near Titusville and from there into more distant fields.