liquid, but hardens in large drops when the sun sets. On breaking 

 many of these drops on the spot, almost every one of them was 

 found to have an inner cavity full of very clear water. Who can tell, 

 the Abbe exclaims, whence it came there, or what very remote com- 

 bustion of woods, or what volcano produced it*? In the valley of 

 Coccorich, in the Primorte, in Dalmatia, is also a mine of pissas- 

 phaltum, resembling, in most respects, that of the Isle of Bua-f-. 



From the very interesting account of the petroleum wells in the 

 Burmha dominions, related by Captain Hiram Cox, in the Asiatic 

 Researches, it appears that the strata of the place in which they are 

 found, are first a light sandy loam intermixed with fragments of 

 quartz, flint, &c. 2dly, A friable sand-stone, easily wrought, with 

 thin horizontal strata of a concrete of martial ore, talc, and indu- 

 rated clay. 3dly, At seventy cubits more and less, from the sur- 

 face and immediately below the free stone, a pale blue argillaceous 

 earth (schistus) impregnated with the petroleum, and smelling 

 strongly of it. This is very difficult to work, and grows harder as 

 they get deeper, ending in schist or slate, such as is found covering 

 veins of coal in Europe, &c. Below this schist, at the depth of 

 about a hundred and thirty cubits, is coal. Captain Cox pro- 

 cured some, intermixed with sulphur and pyrites, which had been 

 taken from a well, deepened a few days before, but deemed 

 amongst them a rarity, the oil in general flowing at a smaller 

 depth. They were piercing a new well when the Captain was there, 

 and had got to the depth of eighty cubits, and expected oil at ten 

 or twenty cubits more. AVhen a well grows dry they deepen it. 

 They say none are abandoned for barrenness. 



The oil is drawn pure from the wells, in the liquid state, as 

 used, without variation ; but, in the cold season, it congeals in the 

 open air, and always loses something of its fluidity : the tempe- 



* Travels in Dalmatia, by Abbe Alberto Fortis, p. 176. f P. 304. 



