DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4651#0047
IN THE BURMHAN EMPIRE.
37
renewed their attempts without further accident.
I recommended trying the air with a candle, 8rc,
with seemingly little effect.
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 al-
ways loses something of its fluidity; the tempera-
ture of the wells preserving it in a liquid state fit
to be drawn. A man, who was lowered into a
well 110 cubits, in my presence, and immediately
drawn up, perspired copiously at every pore: un-
fortunately I had no other means of trying the
temperature. 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) for paying
the timbers of houses, and the bottoms of boats
$*c, which it preserves from decay and vermin.
Its medicinal properties known to the natives,
cause it to be employed as a lotion in cutaneous
eruptions, and as an embrocation in bruises and
rheumatic affections. The miners positively as-
sured me, that no water ever percolates through the
earth into the wells, as has been supposed. The
rains in this part of the country are seldom heavy,
and during the season a roof of thatch is thrown
over the wells. The water that falls soon runs
off to the river, and what penetrates into the earth
is effectually prevented from descending to any
great depth, by the increasing hardness of the
37
renewed their attempts without further accident.
I recommended trying the air with a candle, 8rc,
with seemingly little effect.
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 al-
ways loses something of its fluidity; the tempera-
ture of the wells preserving it in a liquid state fit
to be drawn. A man, who was lowered into a
well 110 cubits, in my presence, and immediately
drawn up, perspired copiously at every pore: un-
fortunately I had no other means of trying the
temperature. 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) for paying
the timbers of houses, and the bottoms of boats
$*c, which it preserves from decay and vermin.
Its medicinal properties known to the natives,
cause it to be employed as a lotion in cutaneous
eruptions, and as an embrocation in bruises and
rheumatic affections. The miners positively as-
sured me, that no water ever percolates through the
earth into the wells, as has been supposed. The
rains in this part of the country are seldom heavy,
and during the season a roof of thatch is thrown
over the wells. The water that falls soon runs
off to the river, and what penetrates into the earth
is effectually prevented from descending to any
great depth, by the increasing hardness of the