People can say that in hindsight. But no one in the early to mid-1800s believed that oil seeps implied anything significant, or that oil was a plentiful substan

People can say that in hindsight. But no one in the early to mid-1800s believed that oil seeps implied anything significant, or that oil was a plentiful substance. It was a geological curiosity at the time. Most people had no idea they even existed.