nd engine-buildings, each representing a distinct
well, with a name of its own,--as the Hyena, the Little Giant, the
Phoenix, the Sca'at Cat, the Little Mac, the Wild Rabbit, the Grant,
Burnside, and Sheridan, with several hundred more. The flats themselves
are generally known as Farms, with the names of the original proprietors
still prefixed,--as the Widow McClintock Farm, Story Farm, Tarr Farm,
and the rest.

Few of these god-parents of the soil are at present to be found upon it:
many of them in the beginning of the oil speculation having sold out at
moderate prices to shrewd adventurers, who made themselves rich men
before the dispossessed Rip Van Winkles awoke to a consciousness of what
was going on about them. Some, more fortunate or more far-sighted, still
hold possession of the land, but enjoy their enormous incomes in the
cities and places of fashionable resort, where their manners and habits
introduce a refreshing element of novelty.

Few proprietors can be persuaded to sell the golden goose outright; and
the most usual course is for the individual or company intending to
sink a well to buy what is called a working interest in the soil, the
owner retaining a land interest or royalty, through which he claims half
the proceeds of the well, while the lessee may, after months of expense
and labor, abandon the enterprise with only his labor for his pains.
These failures are also a great source of annoyance to the proprietors:
for many of these abandoned wells require only capital to render them
available; but the finances of the first speculator being exhausted, no
new one will risk his money in them, while the old lease would interfere
with his right to the proceeds.

Even the land for building purposes is only leased, with the proviso
that the tenant must move, not only himself, but his house, whenever the
landlord sees fit to explore his cellar or flower-garden for oil.

A land interest obtained, the precise spot for breaking ground is
selected somewhat by experience, but more by chance,--all "oil
territory" being expected to yield oil, if properly sought. An
engine-house and derrick are next put up, the latter of timber in the
modern wells, but in the older ones simply of slender saplings,
sometimes still rooted in the earth. A steam-engine is next set up, and
the boring commences.

By means of a spile-driver, an iron pipe, sharp at the lower edge and
about six inches in diameter, is driven down until it