HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 



15 



The next who wrote about the Yenangyoung oil-fields is 



Mr» Crawfurd, who visited the oil-fields in 1826. The following is 



the description he gives 1 : — 



" At three in the afternoon our whole party proceeded to the celebrated pe- 



d troleum wells. Those which we visited cannot be further 



than three miles from the village, for we walked to them 



in forty minutes. The cart-road which leads to them is tolerably good, at least for 



a foot traveller. The wells occupy altogether a space of about sixteen square 



miles. The country here is a series of sand hills and ravines, — the latter, 



torrents after a fall of rain, as we now experienced, and the former either covered 



with a very thin soil, or altogether bare. The trees, which were rather more 



numerous than we looked for, did not rise beyond twenty feet in height. The 



surface gave no indications that we could detect of the existence of the petroleum. 



On the spot which we reached, there were eight or ten wells, and we examined one 



of the best. The shaft was of a square form, and its dimensions ahout four feet to a 



side. It was formed by sinking a frame of wood, composed of beams of the 



Mimosa catechu, which affords a durable timber. Our conductor, the son of the 



Myosugi, of the village, informed us that the wells were commonly from one hundred 



and forty to one hundred and sixty cubits deep, and that their greatest depth in any 



case was two hundred. He informed us that the one we were examining was the 



private property of his father — that it was considered very productive, and that 



its exact depth was one hundred and forty cubits. We measured it with a good 



lead line, and ascertained its depth to be two hundred and ten feet ; thuscorre- 



sponding exactly with the report of our conductor — a matter which we did not look 



for, considering the extraordinary carelessness of the Burmans in all matters of 



this description. A pot of the oil was taken up, and a good thermometer being 



immediately plunged into it, indicated a temperature of ninety degrees. That of 



the air, when we left the ship an hour before, was eighty two degrees. To make 



the experiment perfectly accurate, we ought to have brought a second thermometer 



along with us ; but this was neglected. We looked into one or two of the wells, 



and could discern the bottom. The liquid seemed as if boiling; but whether from 



the omission of the gaseous fluids, or simply from the escape of the oil itself from 



the ground, we had no means of determining. The formation, where the wells are 



sunk, consisted of sand, lose sandstone, and blue clay. When a well is dug to 



a considerable extent, the labourers informed us that brown coal was occasionally 



found. Unfortunately we could obtain no specimens of this mineral on the spot, but 



I afterwards obtained some good ones in the village. The petroleum itself, when 



first taken out of the well, is of a thin watery consistence, but thickens by keeping, 



and in the cool weather coagulates. Its colour, at all times, is a dirty green, not 



much unlike that of stagnant water. It has a pungent aromatic odour, offensive 



to most people. The wells are worked by the simplest contrivance imaginable. 



There is over each well a cross beam, supported by two rude stanchions. At the 



1 Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava in 1827 

 4 London, 1829, p. p. 53—56, 427* and 445. 



( 61 ) 



