IN THE BURMHA DOMINIONS. I29 



walked ilowly, and as we were an hour walking to 

 th« wells, I therefore conclude they are about three 

 miles diftant from the river ; tfiofe we faw are fcatter- 

 ed irregularly about the downs at no great diftance 

 from each other, fome perhaps not more than thirty or 

 forty yards. At this particular place, we were inform- 

 ed there are one hundred and eighty wells, four or 

 five miles to the N. E. three hundred and forty more. 



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

 a fquare table of fourteen or twenty feet for the crown 

 of the well, and from this table a road is formed, by 

 fcraping away an inclined plain for the drawers to de- 

 fcend, in raifing the excavated earth from the well, and 

 fubfequently the oil. The (haft is funk of a fquare 

 form, and lined as the miner proceeds, with fquaresof 

 Cajfia wood ftaves ; thefe Haves are about fix feet 

 Jong, fix inches broad, and two thick 5 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 uppermoll ones, but more contra6ted 

 below. When the miner has pierced fix or more feet 

 of the fliaft, a feries of thefe fquare frames are piled 

 on each other, and regularly added to at top ; the 

 whole gradually finking, as he deepens the fhaft, and 

 fecuring him againft the falling in of the fides. 



The foil, or ftrata 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 intermixed with 

 fragments of quartz, filex, &c.; fccond, a friable fand 

 ftonc, eafily wrought, with thin horizontal ftrata of a 

 concrete of martial ore, talc and indurated argill (the 

 talc has this fingularity, it is denticulated, its lamina 

 being perpendicular to the horizontal lamina of the 

 argill on which it is feated) at from ten or fifteen feet 

 from the furface, and from each other, as there are 

 feveral of thefe veins in the great body of free ftone. 

 Thirdly, at feventy cubits, more or lefs, from the 

 , furface, and immediately below the free ftone, a pale 



Vol. VI. I blue 



