26 NOETLING : PETROLEUM IN BURMA. 



and contortions, and the ravines run in a westerly direction. Hence a well at the 

 head of a ravine, on the top of the hill, may reach the oil-bearing stratum as soon 

 as one at the bottom. We saw a well being dug at the top of the hill. They had 

 reached a depth of 135 feet. They were cutting through a hard blue shale full of 

 cracks filled up with sand. The sand was wet with oil, but not enough to drain 

 out. Another well, about 50 yards off in the ravine, was 250 feet deep. It was 40 

 years old, oil had been reached at 160 feet, and it had been gradually deepened 

 to its present depth as the stratum of shale had been exhausted of oil. We saw 

 some fragments of rock that had just been brought up. It was this same hard 

 blue shale with cracks filled up with sand that we had seen at the other well. Go- 

 ing down the ravine I found a stratum of this oil-bearing rock cropping up, but 

 apparently higher than that into which the wells were sunk. 



" This was the only well we saw at work, the others were stopped for the day. 

 It gave 150 viss daily, and might give more were there means'of carrying away the 

 oil. The oil is raised in earthen pots shaped like a gourd holding about 8 to 10 

 viss, from these it is decanted into larger pots of the same shape holding about 15 

 viss. Ten or twelve of these make a cartload estimated at 150 viss = about 5 cwt. 

 The work of raising the oil was performed by a labourer and his wife, who were 

 paid 8 annas per diem, 4 annas each. They work in connection with a carter who 

 is paid Re. 1 for himself and a pair of bullocks making one trip a day to the 

 river shore, whence the oil is carried in bulk in boats to the steamers. The capa- 

 city of the boats is said to be about 25 tons of oil. 



" The method of raising the oil is very rude. Two forked branches set up- 

 right carry a horizontal beam bearing a roller over which passes the rope. The 

 labourer takes the end of the rope and runs down hill with it and holds it while his 

 companion runs down with another length, and so on. While the last length of 

 rope is being drawn out, one of the men is waiting at the mouth of the pit to 

 exchange the full pot for an empty one. 



" It is impossible to say what the real maximum yield may be. Many of the 

 wells are not worked ; some of them are exhausted. We found that there were 

 130 cartloads brought from the great wells, 1 and this represented the accumulation 

 of five days. Dr Oldham, thirty years ago, was told that the yield was 150 carts 

 daily. If the wells are worked to their utmost now, unless Dr. Oldham was 

 misinformed, the productiveness has greatly fallen off. 



" We were told that two wells had been sunk at a point to the south-west of 

 the smaller wells on the other side of the watershed ; that oil had been obtained, 

 but it was mixed with water, and the wells had been abandoned. I think it very 

 probable that oil-bearing strata may be found all over that strange barren table 

 land, of which Yenanchoung is the centre. 



" The rock formation seems to be much more recent than that in which we find 

 the petroleum of Yenantaung in the Myanaung district and the coal of 6kpo. 



" I found many fragments of fossil bones but none perfect. The ferruginous 

 concretions referred to by Dr. Oldham turn out on analysis to be principally oxide 

 of manganese ; some calcaceous-looking nodules are carbonate of magnesium. 



" The curious concretions which Ur. Oldham found on the shore are really 

 cases of the roots of plants and of very recent formation. I found many in situ 



1 i.e., Twingon, F. N. 



( 72 ) 



