143 
liquid, but hardens in large drops when the sun sets. On breaking 
many of these drops on the spot, almost every one of them was 
found to have an inner cavity full of very clear water. Who can tell, 
the Abbe exclaims, whence it came there, or what very remote com- 
bustion of woods, or what volcano produced it* ? In the valley of 
Coccorich, in the Primor^e, in Dalmatia, is also a mine of pissas- 
phaltum, resembling, in most respects, that of the Isle of Buaf. 
From the very interesting account of the petroleum wells in the 
Burmha dominions, related by Captain Hiram Cox, in the Asiatic 
Researches, it appears that the strata of the place in which they are 
found, are, first, a light sandy loam, intermixed with fragments of 
quartz, flint, &c.— 2dly, A friable sand-stone, easily wrought, with 
thin horizontal strata of a concrete of martial ore, talc, and indu- 
rated clay.— 3dly, At seventy cubits more and less, from the sur- 
face and immediately below the free stone, a pale blue argillaceous 
earth (schistus) impregnated with the petroleum, and smelling 
strongly of it. This is very difiicult to work, and grows harder as 
they get deeper, ending in schist or slate, such as is found covering 
veins of coal in Europe, &c. Below this schist, at the depth of 
about a hundred and thirty cubits, is coal. Captain Cox procured 
some, intermixed with sulphur and pyrites, which had been taken 
from a well, deepened a few days before, but deemed amongst them 
a rarity, the oil in general flowing at a smaller depth. They were 
piercing a new weU when the Captain was there, and had got to the 
depth of eighty cubits, and expected oil at ten or twenty cubits 
more. When a well grows dry, they deepen it. They say none are 
abandoned for barrenness. 
The oil is drawn pure from the wells, in the liquid state, as used, 
without variation ; but, in the cold season, it congeals in the open 
air, and always loses something of its fluidity : the temperature 
* Travels in Dalmatia, by Abbe Alberto Fortis, p. 
f P. 304. 
