OIL SANDS. 37 



Yenangyat contain petroleum oil, or water, or 



Oi! sands. , ' _, .. . . . . . 



both. The oil-bearing sandstones which have 



been met with in the bored wells are twelve in number, and there are 

 probably more lower down, in the strata which have not yet been 

 reached by the boring tools, but whether they will be rich in oil or not 

 it is impossible to say. Most of the known oil sands only contain 

 small quantities or traces of oil, and the great bulk of the oil extract- 

 ed from the bored wells comes from only three or four of these 

 sands. 



The following is a list of these oil sands in descending order: — 

 The first oil sand is from 15 to 50 feet in thickness, average 

 thickness 30 feet. In two wells it is under 15 feet thick 

 and in two wells it is apparently wanting, but in these 

 four cases the shale above is thicker than usual ; in the two 

 wells, where the first oil sand is not recorded, the shale above 

 is referred to as sandy, and in three of the four wells it 

 shows signs of oil, and so part of this shale ought to be 

 included in the first oil sand which it evidently replaces. 

 The second oil sand is from 4 to 40 feet in thickness, average 

 21 feet. This sand is thickest in the wells south of the 

 Yenan-C Chaung, indeed in one of these wells 151 feet of 

 sandstone is recorded, but this is due to lower beds of 

 shale being absent, so that it is a union of several sandstone 

 beds. This sand is absent in three wells, and in one bore 

 hole, No. 6, it is divided by a clay band. 

 Third oil sand, — This when separate varies from 5 to 35 feet in 

 thickness, average 16 feet ; but in seven wells the next bed 

 of shale is wanting, and so this and the fourth oil sand are 

 united, when as great a thickness as 88 feet has been 

 recorded. 

 The fourth oil sand, where separated from the third, is quite 

 a thin layer of average thickness, 10 feet, and where thickest 

 it is only recorded as 15 feet thick. 



( 37 ) 



