DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4651#0048
38 JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE
oleaginous argil of schist. This will readily be
admitted, when it is known, that the coal-mines
at Whitby are worked below the harbour, and the
roof of the galleries not more than fifty feet from
the bed of the sea. The deficiency of rain in this
tract may be owing to the high range of moun-
tains to the eastward, which run parallel to the
river, and arrest the clouds in their passage ; as is
the case on the eastern side of the peninsula of
India. Solicitous to obtain accurate information
on a subject so interesting as this natural source
of wealth, I had all the principal proprietors as-
sembled on board my boat, and collected from
them the following particulars: the foregoing I
learnt at the wells, from the miners and others.
I endeavoured to guard against exaggeration, as
well as to obviate the caution and reserve, which
mercantile men in all countries think it necessary
to observe when minutely questioned on subjects
affecting their interests; and I have reason to
hope my information is not very far distant from
the truth.
The property of these wells is in the owners of the
soil, natives of the country, and descends to the heir-
general as a kind of entailed hereditament, with
which it is said government never interferes, and
which no distress will induce them to alienate. One
family perhaps possesses four or five wells. I
heard of none who had more, the generality of
oleaginous argil of schist. This will readily be
admitted, when it is known, that the coal-mines
at Whitby are worked below the harbour, and the
roof of the galleries not more than fifty feet from
the bed of the sea. The deficiency of rain in this
tract may be owing to the high range of moun-
tains to the eastward, which run parallel to the
river, and arrest the clouds in their passage ; as is
the case on the eastern side of the peninsula of
India. Solicitous to obtain accurate information
on a subject so interesting as this natural source
of wealth, I had all the principal proprietors as-
sembled on board my boat, and collected from
them the following particulars: the foregoing I
learnt at the wells, from the miners and others.
I endeavoured to guard against exaggeration, as
well as to obviate the caution and reserve, which
mercantile men in all countries think it necessary
to observe when minutely questioned on subjects
affecting their interests; and I have reason to
hope my information is not very far distant from
the truth.
The property of these wells is in the owners of the
soil, natives of the country, and descends to the heir-
general as a kind of entailed hereditament, with
which it is said government never interferes, and
which no distress will induce them to alienate. One
family perhaps possesses four or five wells. I
heard of none who had more, the generality of