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36
THE MEXICAN PROBLEM

the wind through the canebrake and the bamboo of the jungle up hill and down and around sharp curves. Before you can get your breath you are amid the oil derricks of several American and English companies drilling on their border lines as in Texas and California.

But here the contests between contending interests must be sharper, for no man knows in this country to what extent at two thousand feet in depth a neighboring oil well may exhaust his land.

The Mexican Petroleum Company would appear to have the advantage at this point, as no other American company has yet a pipe line.

MEXICAN GUSHERS

Pausing before Chinampa Number 1, the oil was found bubbling up around the drill, and orders were given by Mr. Doheny to entertain the American party if possible on the return trip in the afternoon with the bringing in of the well. A few more strokes on the drill and the gas and oil bubbled higher, but it did not flow that day.

In this entire territory there is no pumping of wells as in California. Every well flows or gushes. Two days later, or Friday, March 16, Chinampa Number 1 "came in" and flowed for two