In the Burmha Dojnlnhns, 129 



(Irongly of it. This, they fay, is very difficult to work ; and 

 grows harder as they get deeper, ending in fchilt or {late, fuch 

 as found covering veins of coal in Europe, &c. Below this 

 fchill, at the depth of about 130 cubits, is coal, I procured 

 fome, intermixed with fulphur and pyrites, which had been 

 taken from a well, deepenetl a few days before my arrival, 

 but deemed amongd them a rarity, the oil in general flow- 

 ing at a fmaller depth. Ttiey were piercing a new well when 

 I was there, had got to the depth of eighty cubits, and ex- 

 pe6^ed oil at ten or twenty cubits more. 



The machinery ufed in drawing up the rubbifli, and after- 

 wards the oil from the well, is an axle eroding the centre 

 of the well, retting on two rudeforked Ilaunchions, witli a 

 revolving barrel on its centre, like the nave of a wheel, in 

 which is a Icore for receiving the draw-rope; the bucket ii 

 of wicker work covered with dammer, and the labour of the 

 drawers, in general three men, is facilitated bv the defcent 

 of the inclined plane, as water is drawn from d<-'t'p wells iu 

 the interior of Hindoftan, 



To receive the oil, one man is Rationed at the brink of thq 

 well, who empties the bucket into a cliannei made on the 

 furface of the earth leading to a funk jar, from whence it is 

 laded into fmaller ones, and immediately carried down to the 

 river, either by cooleys or on hackeries. 



When a well grows dry, they deepen it. They fav none 

 are abandoned for barrennefs. Even the death of a miner, 

 from mephitic air, does not deter others from perfiding iu 

 deepening them when dry. Two days before my arrival, a 

 man was fuflbcated in one of the wells, yet they afterwards 

 renewed their attempts without further accident. I recom- 

 mended their trying the air with a candle, ike. but feemingly 

 with little effeft. 



The oil is drawn pure from the wells, in the liquid ftate 

 as ufed, without variation ; but in the cold fcafon it conge^ils 

 in the open air, and always lofes fomething of its fluidity; . 

 the temperature of the wells preferving it in a liquid Itate fit 

 to be drawn. A man who was lowered into a well of 110 

 cubits, in my preience, and immediately drawn up, perfpired 

 copioufly at every pore : unfortunatelv I had no other means 

 8 ' of 



