The oil lands are situated between the Sekoendar and Lepan rivers, immediately south of Acheen, along the north-east coast, and westward from Aroe Bay up to the lower slopes of the high mountain range which runs south-east and north-west throughout the entire length of Sumatra Island. There is "deep, well-sheltered anchorage and berthage alongside the concession lands, both in Aroe Bay and up the rivers flowing thereto, these rivers intersecting and forming partial boundaries of the concessions, which extend some 8 or 10 miles inland, and aggregate some 190 square miles, or about 121,000 acres in area.' The best approach is stated to be from the Straits of Malacca by the Besitung or Sekendar Rivers, entered by the comparatively deep, wellsheltered south or north channel, where there is 10 to 11 feet of water on the bar at low tide. Aroe Bay is in latitude about 4° 15′ north, and longitude about 98° 15' east of Greenwich, 170 miles south-west of Penang, or 360 miles north-west of Singapore. It is practically the only deep-water harbour on the coast. There is a depth of 18 feet at high water, or 11 feet at low water in the south bar channel, and once over the bar, there is from 20 to 32 feet of water at low tide alongside the land at Sembilan Island Steam Saw Mills, and from 3 to 4 fathoms to about 2 miles further inland. The petroliferous formation, which is probably of Tertiary age, consists of a belt of coarse, uncemented, blue to grey sandstone, of characteristic appearance, interstratified with marls and shales, running 22° west of north, east of the mountain range, on the slopes of which, as well as 10 to 12 miles eastward on the coast, oil outflows abound. Contiguous to the oil-belt, but to the southward and further inland, there are outcrops of rich bituminous coal, exhibiting thick seams interstratified with nummulitic limestone. From deep pits, and from borings made, with hand-drilling appliances, from the bottom of such pits, the samples of oil described in the following table were obtained:

On the neighbouring Boeloe Telang and Bukit Forwa estates, surface indications occur along a line extending in a S.E., N.W. direction, and a number of test-holes have been bored, from one of which, at a depth of 48 metres, oil is stated to have spouted to a height of 3 metres. Samples of petroleum from this locality, examined by the author, had a light brown colour and pleasant odour, a specific gravity

ranging from 0.771 to 0.789, and a flashing point below zero F. They contained an unusually large proportion of the more volatile hydrocarbons, and yielded kerosene of excellent quality. A sample of Sumatra petroleum more recently received by the author, was of reddish-brown colour, strongly fluorescent, and of agreeable odour. Its specific gravity was 0.857, at 60° F., its flashing point (Abel test) 46° F., and it remained fluid when cooled to zero F.

At Banjoe-Asin, near the northern shore of the south-eastern end of the island, opposite to the island of Banka and close to Palembang, springs of petroleum and deposits of asphalt are reported to occur.

Borneo. In Borneo, petroleum appears to occur in the Tertiary rocks, and a number of places where indications of its presence are found, have been mentioned by Dr. Theodor Posewitz.1 În Southern Borneo, a petroleum spring, yielding a litre daily from Eocene sandstones, occurs in Martapura (district of Riam Kiwa), at the foot of the Pakken mountains, near Rantan Budjur, and further north, between Lampeon and Pringin, there is a spring which yields about 3 litres daily in dry weather. The oil is dark brown, thick and tarry. Down stream from Tandjong, near Poin (?), there is a petroleum spring which is liquid in the middle but hard like pitch at the edges.

In Eastern Borneo, a petroleum spring occurs in the kingdom of Kotei, not far from the mouth of a wide river known as the Mahakkam. The spring is on the Sanga-sanga tributary of the Mahakkam, and is said to have covered an area about 1,000 metres wide with asphalt. About 500 metres to the south-west, natural gas fires occur in the hills. It is stated that small petroleum springs were found in 1863 on the island of Tarakkan, near the mouth of the River Sibawang.

In Northern Borneo, petroleum has been found in the Sadong district of Sarawak, on the River Seknati, in the territory of the British North Borneo Company, at Brunei, to the west of that territory, and on the island of Labuan. In respect to the deposit on the Seknati, it is reported that a swampy piece of clayey ground, not far from the coast, is soaked with petroleum. This ground is flooded at high water. A shaft sunk to a depth of 35 feet encountered, under a bed of clay 4 feet in thickness, a ferruginous sandstone, interstratified with shales, from which the petroleum is apparently derived. The oil is thick and asphaltic. Petroleum has long been known to exist in the Island of Labuan, on the north-west coast of Borneo. Some prospecting was undertaken in 1866, and a well bored to a depth of 19 feet 6 inches, at a distance of about 100 yards from the shore, and 3 miles along the northern coast from a place known as Reffles Anchorage, gave a small flow of oil. This well was found to be still flowing in 1879, at an estimated rate of 12 gallons daily. A sample of the oil, examined by the author, had a dark brown colour, very little odour, a specific gravity of 0.965 at 60° F., and a flashing point of 216° F. (Abel test). It remained fluid at the temperature of zero F.

1 Borneo: Its Geology and Mineral Resources. Translated from the German by F. W. Hatch. London, 1892.

Timor.-In 1891, a geological survey of Timor was made by Dr. G. Seelhorst, from whom the author has received much interesting information respecting the occurrence of petroleum on the island. Oil was found oozing out in the bed of a river named the Mota Mutike at the estimated rate of about 15 gallons a day, at a place called Pualaka, in the kingdom of Laclubar, whilst in the jungle, at a spot about 2,000 yards distant and at about 1,000 feet higher level, natural gas issuing from a calcareous rock was found burning. Both the oil and the gas appear to have been known to the natives from the earliest times of which there are any records. The fire, which is said to burn more brightly during the rains, is regarded by the natives as sacred, and the oil is collected by them for use in lamps. In another locality named Daifavasse, east of Laclubar and at a greater elevation than Pualaka, there is a deposit of bituminous shales, which the natives use as fuel, and the stones in the river bed were here covered with a coating of bitumen. A considerable distance to the west of Laclubar, on the northern shore, near a place named Okussi, the surface of the hills, where the formation is of a porphyritic nature, was covered with a layer of asphalt a quarter of an inch in thickness. The geological observations led to the conclusion that a belt of oil-bearing rocks extends in a straight line across the eastern part of Timor, south of the mountains in the interior in the eastern, and north of them in the western part, but interrupted in the middle by older formations (slates), so that the greater part lies to the east, the western part near Okussi being merely a detached spot. The slate or schist formation probably belongs to the upper and non-productive Carboniferous period. Raised by the central formation, are the more recent calcareous deposits on the south side towards the east, but owing to the absence of fossils, the geological age of these deposits, where the petroleum occurs, has not been determined. The calcareous rocks on the north shore are partly Tertiary and partly still more recent. There is marked similarity in a geological sense between Timor and Sumatra. The oil-bearing calcareous rocks extend in a comparatively narrow belt along the southern slope of the high central mountain range, and a broad flat level plain, only here and there broken by porphyritic boulders, stretches all along the south coast, as far as it is Portuguese, from Suai to the east cape. The access to the oil field is therefore very difficult from the north, as mountains 3,000 to 4,000 feet in height have to be crossed by narrow and precipitous paths, but it is very easy from the south, one point at which oil occurs not being more than 1,000 feet above sea level, and being easily approached up the River Mota Sahe, of which the oil creek Mota Mutike is a tributary. There is, however, no port or landing-place on the south coast at present. Subsequently to Dr. Seelhorst's visit, a hole was drilled by a hand machine to a depth of about 30 feet from the bottom of a pit 5 or 6 feet deep, dug in the spot where the principal surface outflow had been found, and between 2,000 and 3,000 gallons of oil was collected. A sample of this oil examined by the author was of dark brown colour, and exhibited considerable fluorescence. The odour of the oil was not

The oil

strong, and was free from any disagreeable characteristic. was very mobile, its viscosity at 70° F. being only 5.86 (rape oil at 60° F. 100). It had a specific gravity of 0-825, a flashing point of 105° F. (Abel test), and a solidifying point of 10° F.

=

The Philippine Islands.—In the island of Cebu there are considerable surface indications, and two wells have been drilled by hand to a moderate depth. Oil was obtained in both, but from the second it flowed continuously, and much gas was also emitted. The oil was found by Mr. Warren to have a specific gravity of 0.809, and it contained so much paraffin that at a temperature of 73° F. or a little below, it ceased to flow. A specimen of this petroleum, which the author received from Mr. Warren, is of brown colour, with some fluorescence, and disagreeable odour, and at common temperatures is filled with crystals of solid hydrocarbons. The strata in which the oil occurs have been much upheaved. Mr. Warren believes that if the course of the oil-bearing formation is at all regular, petroleum will be found in other islands of this group-viz., in Leite and Bohol, to the eastward, and in Negros, Guimaras, and Panay on the west, some favourable indications having, indeed, been met with at or near Massim, a place not very far west of Iloilo.

Formosa. In this island, a certain amount of drilling for petroleum has been carried out by the Chinese, and it is reported that a flowing well was obtained.

WEST INDIES.

In some of the West Indian islands, petroleum occurs abundantly, especially in the forms of "asphalt" or "pitch," and "tar."

Havana was in early days known to sailors as Carine, for there they careened their ships and pitched them with the tar of the locality. Boring for oil was undertaken in San Domingo in 1865, but negative results were obtained. In a communication to the author, Mr. Nelson Boyd states that when on the island of San Domingo in 1886, he was told that large quantities of oil were found on the surface over a considerable area, at a point on the coast beyond a place called San Cristobel, about 10 to 15 miles west of the town of San Domingo. A sample of this oil, analysed at the École des Mines in Paris, was described as very liquid and free from water.

The asphalt of Cuba is an article of commerce.

The petroleum deposits of Barbados, yielding "Barbados Tar," occur in the "Scotland" district, which includes the parishes of St. Joseph and St. Andrews. The rocks in the district consist of thick-bedded sandstones, coarse grits, bituminous sandstones and shales, and dark grey and mottled clays. The strata are much disturbed, and are broken by many faults. At some places they are vertical, while close by they may be seen at an angle of 13° to 15°.

In many places, the oil is found in pools on the fields, and in a little valley about 1,000 yards east of the Lloyd wells, at St. Andrews, the oil trickles out along the foot of a hill. In this district there is

also what is known as the "boiling" spring, which consists of a pool of water through which inflammable gas bubbles. The Lloyd wells formerly numbered twenty-one, but only five now exist. They are dug wells 5 feet in diameter, and from 80 to 140 feet in depth, lined with pinewood. They all yield oil, and it is estimated that from one to two barrels can be obtained daily per well. Specimens of the oil from three of these wells, examined by the author, were of black colour, tarry character, and free from disagreeable odour. Their densities ranged from 0.946 to 0.971, and their flashing points from 248° to 300° F. (close test). One of the destroyed wells is said to have yielded a light green oil.

The "Pitch Lake" of Trinidad appears to be the largest and most important deposit of solid or semi-solid bitumen known. It has an area of 11,467 acres, and is said to be sufficiently firm in places to support a team of horses. The deposit is worked with picks to a depth of a foot or two, and the excavations soon become filled up by the plastic material rising from below and hardening. Much doubt exists as to the origin of this deposit. According to Wall, the asphalt appears to be derived from the Upper Miocene deposits. Dr. Orton' considers it to be constantly forming from shales belonging to the later Tertiary period. Mr. Rupert Jones has found large numbers of Nummulites and other foraminifers in it, and states that it is almost exclusively accompanied by animal remains.

The depth of the deposit is not accurately known, and it has been found that in pits dug some little distance from the edge of the "lake," the flow of bitumen from the bottom has been so great that a depth of 12 feet cannot be exceeded. The surface of the lake is not level, but is composed of spherical, polygonal, and mushroom-like masses, which vary from 30 to 200 feet in diameter, and are said to be each subject to a motion of its own, whereby the lower portions are brought up and roll over from the centre towards the edges. As the depressions between these separate masses are constantly filled with water, they are prevented from coalescing.

The softer portions of the lake constantly evolve gas, which is stated to consist largely of carbon dioxide and sulphuretted hydrogen, and the pitch, which is always found honeycombed with gas cavities, continues to exhibit this action for some time after its removal from the lake. Very large quantities of this pitch are exported from Trinidad for paving and other purposes. In 1885, 34,874 tons were shipped; in 1886, 35,920 tons; in 1887, 42,157; in 1888, 49,677; and in 1889, 72,050 tons. The working of the deposit is in the hands of Messrs. Previté and Greig, who pay to the Treasury a royalty of $1.60 per ton, as compared with $1.20 paid by the owners of "village" lots at La Brea and elsewhere outside the lake. The concessionaires have secured their rights subject to a payment of royalty amounting to not less than £10,000 yearly for fourteen years, from February 1st, 1888. An additional period of seven years has been allowed, conditionally on the payment of an additional £28,000 during the first fourteen years, and 1 First Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Ohio, 1890, 81.