Page:The Mexican Problem (1917).djvu/180

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124
THE MEXICAN PROBLEM

and consider it a good investment because it was worth it without regard to the oil derricks looming on the hillside in the distance.

SUPREME FAITH IN OIL

Between the Ferndale Ranch and Sulphur Mountain we rested for a few moments to note the oil-bearing shale on the face of both mountains at the head of Ojai Valley; one dipping south and the other dipping north. Some of the party looked for trout in the brook, but Doheny noted a ten-inch curl of black oil ooze out from the spring by the brookside and flow down stream.

"Look at that," he shouted. "That is worth more than all the trout in all the springs and streams in America. You can put trout in the stream, but you can't put oil in the ground."

Then we passed on through the cypress and the yew trees and filled our pockets and mouths with sun-kissed oranges, and then down the valley of the Santa Clara, noting the oil derricks on the south mountains across the valley, some of them belonging to the Ventura Oil Company and some of them to Doheny, for Doheny's interests in California about equal his interests in Mexico.