28 Geological and Statistical Account of the [Jan. 



At the foot of the volcano, adjoining the sea-beach, I perceived several 

 boulders of a rock, resembling clink-stone ; it was very hard and so- 

 norous when struck with the hammer, of a sea-green colour, and inter- 

 sected with veins of calc-spar ; it was not improbable that it had been 

 at one time ejected from these volcanoes in a state of igneous fusion, 

 along with other substances. 



Crossing the Kaeng creek, I entered a district of Ladong ; extensive 

 plains devoted to the cultivation of rice, and only separated from 

 each other by the narrow strips of Girjun trees and underwood, 

 mark the fertility of this part of Rambree ; the soil is so exceed- 

 ingly fruitful that the principal exportations of rice from the island 

 are derived from Ladong. There are many Petroleum wells in this 

 district, some of which yield a very fair supply of oil. The whole 

 of the wells known to exist in the islands of Rambree and Cheduba 

 are farmed by Government, and sold annually to the highest bidder ; 

 I conceive it would be (in the end) far more advantageous to 

 Government was the sale to take place every three years, instead of 

 annually : was more labour bestowed upon these wells, the produce 

 would be greater ; but the present system deters a purchaser from 

 devoting his labour to the production of an article that may become 

 the property of a more successful candidate, before he shall have receiv- 

 ed any return for the capital he had already invested in them. The 

 wells were sold this year for 1 20 rupees. I am told that six only of 

 the Ladong wells are worked. One well is said to yield as much as 

 three quart bottles of oil (or 1\ seers) per diem, and allowing that the 

 remaining five are nearly as productive, the quantity of oil collected 

 during a season (from the 1st November to the 1st June), would 

 amount to as much as 70 maunds. 



The oil is sold in Ladong at the rate of one-half tillia per rupee. 

 The weight of a tillia varies from nine to sixteen seers. The Ladong 

 tillia of oil is said to be as much as can be contained in 18 bottles or 

 13^ seers. The oil is much used, especially for burning ; it burns 

 long, and gives a fine clear flame ; it has, however, a very disagreeable 

 smell, and is so highly inflammable, that it must be used with caution. 



The oil produced on the Island of Cheduba is not so abundant or so 

 pure as that of Rambrej?. One of the Petroleum wells in Ladong is 

 said to exist on the site of a dormant mud volcano — a circumstance not 

 at all improbable, when it is considered, that the gases and imflamma- 

 ble substances forming the constituent parts of either, are, as far as 

 has been hitherto discovered, essentially alike. The soil thrown up 

 from these wells is highly bituminous, and in some instances abounds 

 with very beautiful crystals of iron pyrites. 



