Before the Senate committee of 1907 Mr. von Hamerstein was examined at length regarding these beds of tar sands, or “asphaltum,” as he called it, and as it is generally called in the district. He described these beds as occurring where petroleum seemed to have broken through the surface and soaked the ground for miles around. This substance, Mr. von Hamerstein remarked, could scarcely be termed asphaltum. It is oil gum—something the nature of tar. He produced a piece of this material which he had taken out himself. He also produced a bottle containing liquid taken from springs in the ground. He described it as nothing else but a heavy petroleum, which comes out of the ground. There are inexhaustible quantities of that. It has formed pools over the land which are of considerable size in some places. In summer time it comes out in large quantities, but it hardens in the winter, and of course the springs take time to get started again. It is not flowing continuously, but flows whenever it has a chance. The cold seems to draw it together and bake it. This is the largest quantity of petroleum witness had ever seen in the world. This area extends from McMurray for fifty miles along the road.
Mr. von Hamerstein said he thought there was
He had been in Texas, Kansas, and Indian Territory, and had looked over the asphalt beds in California, but had found nothing to compare with it. This “asphalt” does not resemble Trinidad asphalt, for the latter comes from a crater, and the substance is not the same. The Athabaska substance is not straight asphalt; it is nothing but oil gum, out of which asphalt can be made. There is a large amount of petroleum in it. He tested it himself, and got some paraffin out of it. If he could obtain transportation, he could apply it for practical purposes. After it is refined, and all the foreign substance taken out of it, it can be used for road making.
Lubricating oil can be made out of it, and in fact he made cylinder oil for his machinery out of it, and also got some paraffin out of it. The rest he used for making tar paper. This product would certainly become valuable as soon as there was transportation. The area covered by this substance amounts to about twenty square miles.
