CONSTRUCTION OF PIT WELLS. 165 



Cox, could have been deceived about the construction of the wooden 

 casing as to state that the frames are added at the top, " the 

 whole regularly sinking" as the depth of the well increases, A 

 short reflection would have shown that the friction between casing 

 and rock must be so great that nothing whatever could force down 

 the casing without its being broken. The tools used for digging are 

 simple enough ; they chiefly consist of a peculiar instrument called 

 tayuwen, that is to say, a chisel shaped iron shoe fixed to a heavy 

 club shaped wooden handle. The iron shoe is round, slightly tapered 

 and ends in a double pointed edge. 



The handle which fits into a hole at the upper end of the bit is 

 club shaped and deeply notched about 6 inches from the upper end. 

 The miner grasps the tayuwen at about half its length with both 

 hands, the upper notched end resting against his shoulder and by put- 

 ting: the whole of his own weight in, drives the pointed edge into the 

 ground loosening it and breaking off small lumps, which are after- 

 wards removed by the hands, filled into a basket, and hauled up. It 

 is of course clear that the tayuwen can only be used in the softest 

 strata, but as not unfrequently streaks of hard sandstone are met 

 with, it remained a problem to me how the miners break through 

 these beds, being deprived of the use of blasting power. During my 

 recent visit I had a chance of seeing how the diggers managed to 

 get through these hard beds, and I must confess it pays great cre- 

 dit to the ingenuity of the Burmese well diggers. A prismatic lump 

 of iron weighing about 150 lbs. (40 viss) pierced at the upper end to 

 allow a rope to pass, is suspended on a beam laid across the mouth 

 of the well. The rope is then cut and the iron falls down striking 

 the bottom of the well with such energy as to produce a consi- 

 derable hole in the hard rock. As the fall of the iron is so directed 

 that it gradually strikes every point of the bottom, the hard bed is 

 eventually smashed, not however without great loss of time and 

 trouble, as can be well imagined, for every time the weight has fallen 

 down a man is obliged to go down and fasten the weight to the 

 rope that it maybe hauled up again. 



( 211 ) 



