| Description |
In presenting the following account of the asphalt and bituminous rock deposits of the United States, the desire has been to afford a general conception of the nature of the materials discussed, their mode of occurrence, and the stratigraphy and structure of the attendant geology. The information presented is, in the main, the outcome of the writer's personal investigation of the deposits, but wherever the results of others have been deemed advantageous to a clearer conception of the subject they have been freely incorporated in the text. In the same way the maps prepared by others have also been employed. Especially, however, does the writer wish to acknowledge his indebtedness to Prof. I. C. White, of West Virginia; Mr. S. D. Averitt, of the State Agricultural College of Kentucky; Judge John E. Stone, of Leitchfield, Ky.; Mr. C. O. Baxter, of St. Louis, Mo.; Col. James F. Randlett. U. S. A., at the time of the investigation in command of Fort Duchesne, Utah; Prof. A. S. Cooper, State Mineralogist of California; Mr. H. W. Fairbanks, of the University of California; Mr. W. E. Dennison, of San Francisco, Cal., and to A. W. Dow, inspector of asphalts for the District of Columbia, to whom the greater part of the samples collected by the writer were submitted for analysis. The value of the results of the investigation has been enhanced also by the interest which the managers of the various properties have taken in the investigation, and it is a pleasure to acknowledge their uniform courtesy. This report is a general and comparative review of the deposits of asphalt and bituminous rock in the United States. There will be no attempt to discuss the many varieties of material from a chemical standpoint, nor their merits for paving and other uses; these fall within the province of the chemist and technical expert. In the course of the discussion, however, numerous references to such points will be found. |
