Cox, Hiram: Journal of a residence in the Burmhan Empire and more particulary at the court of Amarapoorah (London, 1821)

IN THE BUUMIIAN EMPIRE. 39

them have less, they are sunk by, and wrought
for, the proprietors. The cost of sinking a new well
is 2,000 ticals, flowered silver of the country, or
2,500 sicca rupees, and the annual average net
profit 1,000 ticals, or 1,250 sicca rupees. The
contract price with the miners for sinking a well
is as follows: for the first forty cubits they have
forty ticals, for the next forty cubits 300 ticals,
and beyond these eighty cubits to the oil, they
have from thirty to fifty ticals per cubit, according
to the depth (the Birmah cubit is nineteen inches
English,) taking the mean rate at forty ticals per
cubit, and 100 cubits as the general depth at
which they come to oil; the remaining twenty
cubits will cost 800 ticals, or the whole of the
miners'wages for sinking the shaft 1,140 ticals.
A well of 100 cubits will require 950 cassia staves,
which at five ticals per 100, will cost forty-seven
lieals and a half. Portage and workmanship, in
fitting them, may amount to 100 ticals more. The
levelling the hill for the crown of the well, and
making the draw-road, #-c, according to the
■common rate of labour in the country, will cost
about 200 ticals, ropes, §c, and provisions for the
workmen, which are supplied by the proprietor.
When making a new well, expenses of propitiatory
sacrifices, and perhaps a seigniorage fine to govern-
ment for permission to sink it, consume the remain-
ing 512*. ticals. In deepening an old well, they