THE OIL-SUPPLY OF THE WORLD. 



253 



and even seriously to affect the interests of our indigo-planters, as they 

 have already injured the madder-cultivators of Turkey and Holland. 



America has devised various furnaces, of which petroleum is the 

 only fuel. These are chiefly used by metal-workers, as it is found 

 that in such labor as bending armor-plates, and iron-work generally, 

 mineral oil raises the required heat in half the time required by iron. 



From America we turn to Asia, which, in more senses than one, 

 may be called the Cradle of Light ; for there is good reason to believe 

 that, upward of four thousand years ago, the jjeople of Nineveh and 

 Babylon had found out this use for the mineral oil which flowed from 

 the fountains of Is, on the Euphrates. It was collected in great pits, 

 and the more solid deposits formed the asjDhalt (or, in Biblical phrase, 

 " slime ") which was used by the builders of Babylon to cement their 

 sun-dried bricks. 



Whether the petroleum-springs and asphalt-shores of the Dead 

 Sea — the Lake AsiDhaltites — were ever turned to equally practical pur- 

 pose does not appear ; but Burmah has long recognized the value of 

 her home supplies of earth-oil, derived from wells near the river Irra- 

 waddy ; and Burmese naphtha and Rangoon tar find their way even 

 to British markets. These Burmese wells are sunk to a depth of about 

 sixty feet, and yield an oil of the consistency of treacle. 



I am told that Hindostan and Siberia have alike received their share 

 in this distribution of the earth-mother's gifts, and that both in China 

 and Japan native naphtha has long been employed in certain districts 

 for burning in lamps. I infer, however, that the production can not 

 be very great, as the consumption of American kerosene in those coun- 

 tries is already enormous, and it has found its way to small villages in 

 remote districts of Japan, to which no less than 5,600 tons were last 

 year imported from America. China generally welcomes such foreign 

 boons less readily ; but even the Celestial Empire does not disdain to 

 accept cheap oil, and 82,000 tons were there disposed of last year, while 

 India consumed 94,000 tons. 



The Guebres of Persia have ever recognized a sacred fire-symbol 

 in the flame of the native naphtha which flows from the soil in various 

 parts of Persia in so pure a form as to burn without rectification — in 

 fact, the name, though now applied to various artificially produced 

 fluids, is derived from the Persian word nafata^ " to exude." In its 

 purest natural form it is a light, colorless fluid, consisting of carbon 

 and hydrogen, without any oxygen. In Persia, fire-temples were 

 erected near the naphtha-springs, and reverent pilgrims came from 

 afar to worship at the temple of Surukhani, on the western shore of 

 the Caspian, where, for at least two thousand years, the sacred earth- 

 fed flame burned unceasingly. 



In the American consul's report for 1880, he mentioned that this 

 temple was still frequented, that priests came from India to conduct 

 the services, and that inexhaustible supplies of gas to feed the sacred 



