MODE OF EXTRACTION. 167 



The system is simple and ingenious, and it seems to me to have 

 been based on a long experience of the condition of the strata to 

 be pierced. The fixed rate for the first 80 cubits seems certainly to 

 indicate that the oil bearing sand was originally found at that depth 

 and that only afterwards when the uppermost bed was exhausted did 

 it become necessary to adopt a progressive scale, because it was not 

 quite certain at what depth oil bearing sand would be met with 

 again. 



No detailed information about the wages paid for digging will be 

 found in any of the earlier accounts, than that of Captain Cox, According 

 to his statements the progressive scale per cubit was paid after the first 

 fixed 80 cubits had been gone through without oil being found. The 

 amount of 300ticals paid for the first 80 cubits and 30 to 50 ticals per 

 cubit seems so enormous that I hardly feel inclined to consider it as 

 correct. There is a general agreement in the Burmese statements 

 that the prices for digging have only quite lately risen, and that in 

 former times the construction of a well was much cheaper. In my 

 opinion it is not likely that a century ago the prices should have been 

 more than three times of their present amount, it being generally 

 agreed that they are now higher than in former times. ' 



Machinery used for hauling up the oil, etc. — If anything has 

 changed since the 100 years, it is not the machinery which is used for 

 letting down the diggers to the bottom of the well and hauling up the 

 oil after the well has been finished. " The machinery used in drawing 

 up the rubbish and afterwards the oil from the well is an axle, cross- 

 ing the centre of the well, resting on two rude forked stanchions, 

 with a revolving barrel on its centre, like the nave of a wheel in which 

 is a score for receiving the draw rope. " Ihus runs the description 

 of Captain Cox : " A rude windlass, mounted on the trunk of a tree 

 laid across two forked stems is all the machinery used." With these 

 words, about 60 years later, Yule describes the arrangements fo r 

 hauling up the oil. Now, one should think that it is quite impossible 

 to make a mistake in describing such a simple machinery, but strange 

 to say such a mistake has really occurred from Captain Cox down to 



( 213 ) 



