248 An Aecoiijit of the'Vetroleum Wells 



faun^ alfo a very durable timber for lining the oil wells ; and 

 laiUy the hardy h'lar or wild plum, cv)mmon in IJindoftan. 



The iky was cloudlefs, fo that the fun flione on us with 

 nndiminiflied force; and being alfo unwell, I walked flowly; 

 and as we were an hour walking to the wells^ I therefore con- 

 clude they are about three miles diftant from the river; thoft* 

 we faw ar« fcattered irregularly about the downs /at ho great 

 diftance from each other, fome perhaps not more than thirty 

 or forty yards. At this particular place we were informed there 

 are 180 wells, four or five miles to the norih-eall 340 more. 



"In making a well, the hill is cut down fo as to form a 

 fquare table of , fourteen or twenty feet lor the crown of the 

 well, and from this table a road is formed by fcraping away 

 an inclined plane for the drawers to delcend, in railing the 

 excavated earth from. the well, and lubfcquently the oil. The 

 fliaft is funk of aJquare form, and lined, as the miner pro- 

 ceeds, "with fquares of caffia Avood Haves: thefe Oaves are 

 about fi5^ feet long, fix inches broad, and two thick ; are 

 rudely jointed, and pinned at right angles to each other, 

 forming a fquare frame, about four and a half feet in the 

 clear for the uppermoil ones, but more contracted below.- 

 When the miner has pierced fix or njore fe^.^ of the Ihaft, a 

 feries of thefe fquare frames are piled on each other, and re- 

 gularly added to at top ; the whole gradually finking as he 

 deepens the fliaft, and fec|.|ripg him againft the falling in of 

 the fides. 



The foil or ilrata to be pierced is nearly fuch as I have 

 defcribed the cliffs to be on the margin of the river; that is, 

 firft, a light fandy loam internnxed with fragments of quartz, 

 filex, Sec; fccond, a friable fand-llone, eafily wrought, with 

 thin horizontal firata of a concrete of martial ore, talc, and 

 indurated argil (the talc has this fingularity, it is denticu- 

 lated, its lamina being perpendicular to the horizontal la- 

 mina of the argil on which it is feated) at from ten to fifte<in 

 fpet from the furface, and from each pther, as there are fe- 

 veral of thefe veuis in the great body of free-ftone : thirdly, 

 at feventy cubits, more or lels, from the furflice, and imme- 

 diately below the free-ftone, a pale b|ue argillaceous earth 

 Ifchifius) impregnated with the petroleum, and fmelling 



Itrongly 



