HISTORICAL SUMMARY. 19 



article from Rangoon to England, and one of the Rangoon houses had a European 

 agent residing on the spot. The demand in England is, I believe, for use to some 

 extent as a lubricating oil, but it is also employed by Price's Company at Lambeth 

 in the manufacture of patent candles, and has been found to yield several valuable 

 products. It has sold in the London market at from ^40 to £45 a ton. 



" The oil itself looks like thin treacle of a greenish colour, and the smell is not 

 unpleasant in the open air, and in moderate strength. 



" The northern group of wells contains, as well as could be learned, about 80 

 wells now yielding oil. The southern group contains about 50, which yield an 

 inferior kind of oil mixed with water. At either place there are many exhausted 

 wells. Each group occupies a space of about half a square mile or somewhat less. 

 There appears to be no record or tradition as to the original discovery of the 

 petroleum, or as to the lapse of time since it was first worked. The wells are 

 private property, the ground they occupy being owned by 23 families, inhabitants 

 of Yenangyoung, and the representatives, it is believed, of those who first dis- 

 covered and worked the petroleum. Among these is the hereditary Myo-thoo- 

 gyee of the place, who holds at present the office of Myit-tsin-vooon or chief magis- 

 trate of the great river. They do not allow any stranger to dig a well ; and al- 

 though a respectable owner stated that they had no written grant or confirmation 

 of their exclusive privilege, yet it is upheld by the local Burmese authorities, and 

 apparently they have sufficient influence to prevent any wells being dug by inter- 

 lopers in the vicinity of their groups or clusters of wells. But, independently of 

 the influence they thus exert to prevent any interference with their privileges and 

 profits, the great expense in the present dearth of capital, and the uncertainty of 

 return, prevents any one trying seriously to compete with them. The twenty-three 

 proprietors constitute a kind of corporate body, as regards their joint interests in 

 the land, but possess individual property in their own wells. When once a well 

 has been dug, no one else is allowed to dig within 30 cubits of it. No proprietor is 

 allowed to sell or mortgage his well to anyone not a proprietor. They mortgage 

 them among themselves. Formerly they intermarried among themselves only ; 

 but, latterly, an old and respectable proprietor informed Major Phayre, this custom 

 had been broken through by the ' young people. ' 



"The cost of digging a well 150 cubits deep was said to be 1,500 to 2,000 

 tecals, sometimes even more ; and after all, the money might be thrown away, as a 

 well dug within a few yards of others yielding a good supply often proves a failure. 

 The work of excavation becomes dangerous as the oily stratum is approached, 

 and frequently the diggers become senseless from the exhalations. This also 

 happens in wells that have been long worked. ( If a man is brought up to the 

 surface with occasionally his tongue hanging out,' said one of our informants, 'it is 

 a hopeless case. If his tongue is not hanging out, he can be brought round by 

 hand-rubbing and kneading his body all over.' 



"The yield of the wells varies greatly. Some afford no more than five or six 

 viss, whilst others give 700, 1,000, and even, it is said, 1,500 daily. From all that 

 we could learn, the average yield of the wells in the northern group to be 40 viss. 

 Generally the supply from a well deteriorates the longer it is worked. And if it 

 be allowed to be fallow for a time, it is said that the yield is found to be diminished 

 on the recommencement of the work. 



C 2 ( 65 ) 



