WELL DIGGING. 



169 



these two slings by passing his legs through them, the knot 

 being over his left shoulder; to prevent shifting a thin rope runs 

 down from the knot across the breast underneath the right shoulder 

 to the back, where it is fastened to the right sling ; a second rope is 

 fastened round the hips. At a given signal the coolies holding the 

 other end of the rope gradually lower the digger into the well ; the 

 work of hauling him up again is facilitated by an inclined plane which 

 the coolies run down, thus pulling him up more by their weight than 

 by their physical strength ; in lowering the weight of the digger 

 assists the coolies coming up the incline. This arrangement neces- 

 sitates of course a gangway to each well, which must be so situated 

 as to facilitate the work as much as possible. There are often as 

 many as 11 coolies used to haul up a single man, to whose weight of 

 course that of the rope must be added. 



Any one unacquainted with the oilfields will be rather 

 puzzled when approaching a well in construction to see the diggers 

 lying around the well with their eyes closed or even tied up (fig. 9 ) 



Fig. 9. Oil well diggers, Yenangyoung oilfield. 



( 215 ) 



