Parts.] Mallet: On the mineral resources of Rdniriy Chedula, Sj'C. 
213 
west of the above, is about 40 feet deep, with water and oil at the bottom, which 
seems to boil gently from the issue of gas. The yield is said to be about 
25 bottles twice a day. I was told that these wells have been in existence since 
the time of the Burmese domination, and that the yield of oil has not diminished. 
I am unable to say whether this statement is correct. The yield of oil, however, 
is only a few gallons a day, a quantity that a large reservoir, tapped only by a 
small duct leading to the bottom of the well, might sujjply for a veiy long 
period. The locality is worth notice. Close to the north-westerly of the above 
wells a new one was being sunk, in which the rock below the surface soil was a 
gray clay with a tendency of a peculiar kind of irregular ilakiness. The strike 
cannot be seen, but to the north-east of the wells there is a ridge (doubtless 
as usual parallel to the strike of the beds composing it) running north-west—> 
south-east, or parallel to the direction the wells bear to each other. It is 
noticeable that the clay from some wells that were being sunk last December 
at the village of Tsi Chang (near Kyauk Phyu) was of a character similar to that 
at the Letaung wells, and that the oil was of a similar kind also, both in color 
(a pale yellow) and in specific gravity. 
The not unfi-equent fiery eruptions from one or other of the mud volcanoes 
occurring in a line near Tsi Chang leave but little room for doubt that there is a 
fissure beneath them, in which large quantities of gas are generally stored up, 
and it is at least highly probable that a considerable quantity of oil is associated 
with the gas. A lucky boring might strike a spouting reservoir of great capacity, 
but of course such an undertaking would be of a speculative kind. There are no 
data to determine at what depth the od is stored, nor what the inclination of 
the fissure may be, whether vertical or at a greater or less angle. A boring 
therefore sunk actually along the line of vents might miss it altogether. A few 
holes, however, sunk in a line at right angles to the line of vents, could hardly 
fail to strike it if sunk sufficiently deep. The experiment would certainly be 
an interesting one whether rewarded with success or not. 
Gas is stored beneath the other active volcanoes also, but the linear arrange¬ 
ment of the Kyauk Phyu vents gives a better clue to the direction of the fissure 
than is obtainable elsewhere. 
The wells in the southern pai-t of the eastern Baranga, from which Mr. Savage 
has recently obtained such encouraging results, are evidently of the class now 
alluded to. They are sunk in giay shale which splits with a rather smooth 
fracture having a slightly unctuous feel. The bedding is very nearly vertical. 
It appears from the official correspondence on the subject that “ Mr. Savage 
dug two wells about 500 feet apart, and then commenced boring. On the 
25th February he struck oil in one well at a depth of 66 feet; the oil at 
once rose in the well .... to a height of four feet; it kept at this level for 
about seven days, and in that time yielded, Mr. Savage thinks, 1,000 gallons 
a day; since then the oil has remained in the bore-hole a few feet below the 
bottom of the well, and 120 gallons or more a day can be dipped out with a 
dipper. A great deal of the oil escaped from the well through fissures.” “The 
well at its mouth was some 15 feet in diameter, and had been dng with those 
dimensions of a depth of some 30 feet. Here boring commenced, and had been 
