144 



rature of the wells preserving it in a liquid state fit to be drawn. ] 

 The oil is of a dingy green, and odorous ; it is used for lamps, and 

 boiled with a little dammer (a resin of the country) ; it is employed 

 for paying the timbers of houses, the bottoms of boats, &c. which 

 it preserves from decay and vermin. It is said, that no water ever 

 percolates through the earth into the wells, that which penetrates 

 into the earth is effectually prevented from descending to any great 

 depth by the oleaginous clay and schist ; this will be readily ad- 

 mitted, when it is known that the coal-mines at Whitby are worked 

 below the harbour, the roof of the galleries being not more than 

 fifty feet from the bed of the sea/ 



From a careful inquiry, the Captain makes the average produce 

 of each well, per annum, to be seven hundred and ninety-three 

 hogsheads, of sixty-three gallons each ; and, as there are five hun- 

 dred and twenty wells registered by government, the gross amount 

 of the produce of the whole, per annum, is 92,781 tons l,560lbs. or 

 412,360 hogsheads. 



Captain Cox observes, this oil is a genuine petroleum, possessing 

 all the properties of coal tar; being, he thinks, the self same thing; 

 the onlv difference is, that nature elaborates in the bowels of the 



* 



earth that for the Burmhas, for which European nations are obliged 

 to the ingenuity of Lord Dundonald*. 



From the observations of Professor Pallas, as well as from the ac- 

 counts of Mr. Tooke, it appears that fluid bitumen is found in various 

 parts of the Russian empire. Naphtha sources are discovered on 

 the stream Igar, fifteen versts from Sergiefsk, on the Samara, and 

 others forty versts from it. They yield considerable quantities of 

 naphtha. On the Terek, in the mountains about the warm springs 

 at Baragun, near Deulet, Gueray, &c. naphtha and petroleum are 

 often found; and the sources of Ischelschengisk, are particularly pro- 



* Asiatic Researches, vol. vi 



