130 AN ACCOUNT OF THE PETROLEUM WELLS 



blue argillaceous earth (fhiftous) impregnated with the 

 petroleum and fmelling ftrongly of it. This they fay is 

 very difficult to work, and grows harder as they get 

 deeper, ending in fliift or flate, fuch as found cover- 

 ing veins of coal in Europe, Sec. Below this fliift at 

 the depth of about 130 cubits is coal. I procured 

 fpme, intermixed .with fulphur and pyrites, which 

 had been taken from a well, deepened a few days be- 

 fore my arrival, but deemed amongit them a rarity, 

 the oil in general flowing at a fmaller depth. They 

 were piercmg a new well wlien 1 was there, had got 

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

 or twenty cubits more. 



The machinery ufed in drawing up the rubbiOi, 

 and afterwards the oil from the well, is an axle crofilng 

 the center of the well, refting on two rudeforked ftaun- 

 chions, with a revolving barrel on its center, like the 

 nave of a wheel, in which is a fcore for receiving 

 the draw rope ; the bucket is of wicker work, covered 

 with dammer, and the labour of the drawers, in 

 general three men, is facilitated by the defcent of the 

 inclined plain, as water is drawn from deep wells in 

 the interior of Hindofian. 



To receive the oil, one man is ftationed at the brink 

 of the well, \^o empties the bucket into a. channel 

 made on the furface of the earth leading to a funk jar, 

 from whence it is laded into fmaller ones, and im- 

 mediately carried down to the river, either by coolies 

 or on hackferies. 



When a well grow\s dry, they deepen it. They fay 

 none are abandoned for barrennefs. Even the death 

 of a miner, from mephitic air, does not deter others 

 from perfifting in deepening them when dry. Two 

 days before my arrival, a man was fuffocated in one 

 of the wells, yet they afterwards renewed their at- 

 tempts, without further accident. I recommended 

 their trying the air with a candle, &;c. but feemingly 

 with little effeCl:. 



The 



