DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4651#0044
34 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE
tered plants of euphorbium, the cassia tree, which
yields the cutch or terra japonica, used through-
out India, to add to the astringency of the betel
when formed into pawn: it also yields a very
durable timber for lining the oil-wells, and, lastly,
the hardy biar, or Avild plum of India. The sky
was cloudless, so that the sun shone upon us with
undiminished force, and, as I had been unwell
for some days, I walked rather slowly ; but at the
expiration of an hour we reached the wells. I
compute the distance therefore to be three miles
from the river. The wells we saw arc scattered
irregularly about the downs at no great distance
from each other; some, perhaps, not more than
thirty or forty yards. At this particular place we
were informed, that there are 180wells; and four
or five miles to the north-cast there are 310 more.
In making a well, the hill is cut down, so as to
form a square table of 14 or 20 feet for the crown of
the well, and from this table a road is formed by
scraping away an inclined plane for the drawers to
descend, in raising the excavated earth from the
well, and subsequently the oil. The shaft is sunk
of a square form, and lined as the miner proceeds
with squares of cassia wood staves ; these staves
are about six feet long, six inches broad, and two
thick, and are rudely jointed and pinned at right
angles to each other, forming a square frame about
four and a half feet in the clear for the uppermost
tered plants of euphorbium, the cassia tree, which
yields the cutch or terra japonica, used through-
out India, to add to the astringency of the betel
when formed into pawn: it also yields a very
durable timber for lining the oil-wells, and, lastly,
the hardy biar, or Avild plum of India. The sky
was cloudless, so that the sun shone upon us with
undiminished force, and, as I had been unwell
for some days, I walked rather slowly ; but at the
expiration of an hour we reached the wells. I
compute the distance therefore to be three miles
from the river. The wells we saw arc scattered
irregularly about the downs at no great distance
from each other; some, perhaps, not more than
thirty or forty yards. At this particular place we
were informed, that there are 180wells; and four
or five miles to the north-cast there are 310 more.
In making a well, the hill is cut down, so as to
form a square table of 14 or 20 feet for the crown of
the well, and from this table a road is formed by
scraping away an inclined plane for the drawers to
descend, in raising the excavated earth from the
well, and subsequently the oil. The shaft is sunk
of a square form, and lined as the miner proceeds
with squares of cassia wood staves ; these staves
are about six feet long, six inches broad, and two
thick, and are rudely jointed and pinned at right
angles to each other, forming a square frame about
four and a half feet in the clear for the uppermost