820 On the Assam Petroleum Beds. [No. 167. 



Province, and the fact, that the motions of our earthquakes are gene- 

 rally from south to north, I have often thought that during an active 

 state of some of the volcanoes in the Gulf of Martaban, they might 

 affect us here. 



The Tel Doongs, or Oil-springs, and probably containing salt, are the 

 resort of the wild animals of the forest, who eat the mud, particularly 

 elephants, buffaloes and deer, and securely placed on a Michong, formed 

 in one of the largest trees overlooking these pools, the Shikarrees of 

 this frontier silently await, in the moonlight nights, the visits of these 

 animals, and with a poisoned arrow fired from a musquet, shoot the 

 largest elephants, which are afterwards tracked down probably for days. 

 If the animal has a fine pair of tusks, the price of these amply repays 

 the trouble and privations suffered in obtaining them ; — most of the 

 ivory of the Singpho country is obtained in this manner. The springs 

 in this neighbourhood afford good sport to the Shikarrees of the corps, 

 and many a load of Saumer Deer flesh comes into cantonments, the result 

 of a night's watch at, or an early morning visit to, the Tel Doongs. 



No. 1 Basket, contains specimens of soft rock through which the 

 Petroleum rises : the whole mass of substance seems to be impregnated 

 with it ; the soil however, is sometimes by itself in fissures and seams, 

 running out as these are cut open. The Nodules are found embedded 

 in regular veins intersecting the soft rock, and more or less oil is found 

 mixed up with them. I have not dug deeper than ten feet into the bed. 

 No. 2, contains the Earthy Asphalte which is found in consider- 

 able quantity, where the Petroleum oozes out, and also adhering to the 

 soft sandstone rock impregnated with, and laying in, the Petroleum bed. 

 No. 3, contains the indurated sandy Asphalte rock, which I found 

 overlying the spot where Petroleum exudes from under the low hills, 

 of which it is in fact a portion, more or less of the red clayey soil being 

 also impregnated with the bitumen ; and the distinguishing feature of 

 the soil of the hills in the Petroleum vicinity, is a peculiar dryness, 

 however wet the weather may be. The soil bears a thick tree jungle, 

 principally of a species of oak, the acorw-fruited Hingooree of these 

 parts. None of the specimens shew the presence of lime, but a hard 

 rock, which effervesces slightly with acid, does not slake when burnt, 

 and flies into splinters when heated, passes through the Petroleum bed ; 

 specimens of this limestone I sent to you some years ago, calcined and 



