

4 NOETLING : PETROLEUM IN BURMA. 



called Thelagaza or Kyouksin (= Rock elephant) to Thawanagiri 

 (= Minlindoung), then from the centre of this line to mark off two 

 points, one on the west at the same distance as from this centre to 

 Minlindoung, and that the boundary be from Kyouksin to a point 

 east, thence to Minlindoung, thence to a point west, and thence to 

 Kyouksin. After these commands the king was able to leave for 

 Pagan, reaching it on the 14th of that month." 



I may be permitted to dwell a little on this remarkable legend 

 because it contains a very curious fact, of which an explanation is 

 highly difficult. 



At first the legend seems to prove the great age of the 

 Yenangyoung oil-field. We may conclude that in remote times the 

 Yenangyoung oil-field was systematically exploited and the oil used 

 for all sorts of purposes. 



A remarkable fact furthermore is the allusion to the 24 descend- 

 ents of the man who first dug the tank, that they were to be the 

 sole owners of the Yenan. In a later chapter it will be seen that 24 

 families claim the hereditary right of exploiting the oil. Of course 

 this may be a subsequent addition to the original legend, recently 

 inserted at the instigation of a crafty Twinzayo in order to give an 

 ancient legendary background to their claims. 



The most remarkable part of the legend is the delimitation of 

 the area by the king. The magnetic bearing of the long axis of this 

 tract agrees with the strike of the strata : in fact it coincides with 

 the axis of the anticline. The recent borings have proved the limited 

 extension of the Yenangyoung oil-field which falls rather short of 

 the boundaries laid down by King Alaungsitha. 



B.— Historical Times. 



I think there is hardly a volume of travels in Burma in which 



the Yenangyoung oil-field is not mentioned. The reason of this 



is quite plain. Yenangyoung being on the banks of the Irawadi, 



the highway of Burma, every traveller who visited Upper Burma 



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