“Not far from the mouth of the Little Beaver a spring has been found, said to rise from the bottom of the river, from which issues an oil which is highly inflammable and is called Seneca oil. It resembles Barbadoes tar and is used as a remedy for rheumatic pains.” [Illustration: NOTABLE WELLS ON OIL CREEK IN 1861-2-3.] IV. WHERE THE BLUE-GRASS GROWS. INTERESTING PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENTS IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE—THE FAMOUS AMERICAN WELL—A BOSTON COMPANY TAKES HOLD—PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE—REGULAR MOUNTAIN VENDETTA—A SUNDAY LYNCHING PARTY—PECULIAR PHASES OF PIETY—AN OLD WOMAN’S WELCOME—WARM RECEPTION—STORIES OF RUSTIC SIMPLICITY. ---------- “He who would search for pearls must dive below.”—_Dryden_. “Often do the spirits of great events stride on before the events.”—_Coleridge._ “Coming events cast their shadows before.”—_Thomas Campbell._ “In Cumberland county, Kentucky, a run of pure oil was struck.”—_Niles’ Register, A. D. 1829._ “Indications of oil are plentiful at Chattanooga, Tennessee.”—_Robert B. Roosevelt, A. D. 1863._ “Ever since the first settlement of the country oil has been gathered and used for medicinal purposes.”—_Cattlesburg, Ky., Letter, A. D. 1884._ “Everythink has changed, everythink except human natur’.”—_Eugene Field._ “To all appearance it was chiefly by Accident and the grace of Nature.”—_Carlyle._ ---------- Interesting and unexpected results from borings for salt-water in Kentucky were not exhausted by the initial experiment on South Fork. Special peculiarities invest that venture with a romantic halo essentially its own, but “there are others.” Wayne county was not to monopolize the petroleum-feature of salt-wells by a large majority. “Westward the star of empire takes its way” affirmed Bishop Berkeley two-hundred years ago, with the instinct of a born prophet, and it was so with the petroleum-star of Kentucky, however it might be with brilliant Henri Watterson’s “star-eyed goddess of Reform.”