183 REPORT 1871. 



titles of oil, olDtained then cliiefly from certain islands in the Caspian. Descriptions 

 are given by other old and modern travellers of this oil-region, the copious discharges 

 of the white and black naphtha, the streams of flaming oil on the liill sides, the 

 gas and the fire-temple, and the explosive effects of the ignition of the gas mixed 

 with atmospheric air*. An interesting communication was made in 1808 to the 

 Geographical Society of Paris by Dr. Boerklimd on the results of his trans- 

 Caucasian explorations, in which he describes the naphtha-regions of the Caspian. 

 On the lie Sacree, he mentions, not far from the Abscheron peninsula on which 

 stands Bakii, there is now a manufactory of paratfine. 



Dr. Boerklund notices also the association of these petroleum-fields with active 

 mud-volcanoes. The connexion of petrolemn with eruptions of mud and agita- 

 tions of the earth's surface is noteworthy and important t- The most complete 

 observations on mud-volcanoes, and the relation of these and similar phenomena 

 to deposits of petroleum, are to be found in Prof. Ansted's paper on the subject 

 communicated to the Royal Institution in May 186G, with immediate reference to 

 the mud- volcanoes of Sicily and the Crimea which he had recently visited. There 

 are mud-volcanoes in other parts of the world, in connexion with which petroleum 

 has not hitherto been found. There are large volcanoes of this kind at Hiuglaj 

 near the south coast of Belochistan, which have been visited by a few British 

 officers. So far as I am aware, no signs of petroleum have been found in their 

 neighbourhood ; but the country has not been well explored J. The petroleum of 

 Kerman has been noticed by Pottiuger§. One of the allied substances, ambergris, 

 has long been a noted product of the adjacent seas. 



The similarity of the jihenomena shown by mud-volcanoea and gas-spriugs in 

 the Italian peninsula, in the Caucasus, and iu South America, is displayed over 

 great tracts of country in the Chinese Empire ||. The use of the natural fires of 

 petroleum and gas in the province of Shan-Si is described in an old account of the 

 province by a native writer, Dionysius Kao, who says that in all parts of the pro- 

 vince are fierj^ weUs, which conveniently serve the people for cooking their victuals. 

 (Possibly the " Temple of the Limit oJ Fire," mentioned by Fa Hian the Chinese 

 Buddhist pilgrim, was a temple over natural gas-flames like those of Bakii and 

 Jwala-Mukhi^.) Similar gas-flames on the Caramanian coast are described by 

 Capt. Beaufort **, as before by Plinj-. 



The country from which the principal supplies of petroleum were obtained in 

 Britain, previous to the discovery of the enormous quantities to be obtained in 

 America by boring, was Burmah. Of the petroleum wells in that comitry a full 

 account is given in Colonel Yule's ' Narrative of the Mission to the Court of Ava,' 

 and in the notes in the Appendix by Mr. Oldham, Director of the Geological 

 Survey of India. In the Province of Pegu there is a burning hillock called the 

 Nat Mee or Spirit Fire, of which an account is given by Lieut. Duil) Deputy 

 Commissioner of Thyct Myo, in a communication to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 

 July 1861. The gaseous exhalations at Chittagong, called the Burning Fountains 

 of Brahma, have been described bj' Turner, and more recently by a writer in the 

 Journal of the Asiatic Societ}- of Bengal ft. 



There are many other parts of Asia and Europe iu which these products, in 

 some of their forms, are found and liave long been known. In Assam petroleum 

 is now obtained in considerable quantity by boring. The native petroleums of 

 Southern India and of Australia have been shown in recent local exliibitions. 

 In the interior of Sumatra springs of sulphur and petroleum were discovered 

 in 1869. The petroleum of the north-western parts of the Punjab, known 



* Wonders of the East, by Friar Jordanus fCoI. Yule's note), p. 50 ; Hon. G. Keppel's 

 ' Journey from India to England,' 1824; 'A Journey from London to Persepolis,' by J. 

 Usslier, 1865 ; Morier's Journey ; Kinneir's ' Persia,' &c. ; ' Some Years' Travels,' by The. 

 Herbert, 1638. t Cosmos, i. 212; Scrope on Volcanoes. 



X An account of them by Col. A. C. Eobertson, 8th Regt., is given in the Journal of the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1849. § P. 312. 



II Humboldt, ' Cosmos,' iv. 216 ; Hue, ' Chinese Empire,' ch. vii. ; Davis's ' Chinese,* 

 chap. V. 



^ Beat's 'Buddhist Pilgrims,' ch. xvi. p. 68. ** Cosmos, i. 210. 



tt Yol. xii. p. 1055. 



