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of the wells preserving it in a liquid state fit to be drawn. The 
oil is of a dingy green, and odorous ; it is used for lamps, and boiled 
with a little dammer (a resin of the country) ; it is employed for 
paying the timbers of houses, the bottoms of boats, &c. which it pre- 
serves from decay and vermin. It is said, that no water ever per- 
colates through the earth into the wells ; that which penetrates into 
the earth is effectually prevented from descending to any great depth 
by the oleaginous clay and schist : this will be readily admitted, 
when it is known that the coal-mines at Whitby are worked below 
the harbour, the roof of the galleries being not more than fifty feet 
from the bed of the sea. 
From a careful inquiry, the Captain makes the average produce 
of each well, per annum, to be seven hundred and ninety-three 
hogsheads, of sixty-three gallons each ; and, as there are five hun- 
dred and twenty wells registered by government, the gross amount 
of the produce of the whole, per annum, is 92,781 tons, l,560lbs. or 
412,360 hogsheads. 
Captain Cox observes, this oil is a genuine petroleum, possessing 
all the properties of coal tar ; being, he thinks, the self same thing ; 
the only difference is, that nature elaborates in the bowels of the 
earth that for the Burmhas, for which European nations are obliged 
to the ingenuity of Lord Dundonald*. 
From the observations of Professor Pallas, as well as from the ac- 
counts of Mr. Tooke, it appears that fluid bitumen is found in various 
parts of the Russian empire. Naphtha sources are discovered on 
the stream Igar, fifteen versts from Sergiefsk, on the Samara, and 
others forty versts from it. They yield considerable quantities of 
naphtha. On the Terek, in the mountains about the warm springs 
at Baragun, near Deulet, Gueray, &c. naphtha and petroleum are 
often found ; and the sources of Ischelschengisk, are particularly 
* Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. 
