In many places the 'weathering of this ferric oxide has
stained the sand yellow and red. “ Pockets ” of blue
clay also occur. The sandstone is quite destitute of
organic remains: perhaps the fossils have been destroyed
by oxide of iron. I took samples of the rock
along the Kurina to-day, for about 100 yards on the
left b an k ; and in doing so I came upon a very thin
seam of impure coal (about an inch thick). I also observed
that the shale (at the foot of the rocks on the
left bank of the Kurina) for about 20 feet, contained
oil. The length of the dock round the “ Sequati”
main oil spring is 20 feet by 18 feet 3 inches. This
is the richest portion of the shale.
I t rained up till eight o’clock to-day, so no work
could be done. The tide was very high.' If it rains
much more, I am afraid the river will swell and overflow
its banks. The boring machine was got in order, oiled
and covered up to-day, and some more kajangs put on
my house as the rain was coming in heavily. Just
before dinner there was an alarm, “ a prahu is coming,”
but on looking out with my glass I made it out to be a
Nipa palm floating ashore.
II.
There was a large crane standing out in the sea
when I left my hut at six; the next morning. I t rained
most of the day, but towards evening it cleared up. I
told Smith to make a square dock round the main oil
spring, and when he had puddled with clay up to high-
water mark, to sink a pit. This was begun to-day.
The stakes are in and well filled up with green boughs.
The clay is near at hand, a ferruginous clay very fit
for the purpose. The pit is now three feet deep and the
oil is bubbling up very freely. I propose to tap the
shale, that is strike the shale, and then run a level
under the water to the other springs close at hand.
I t is very difficult and hard work, as everything must
be done at low water in the morning.
I had a hole drilled at the outcrop of the seam of
lignite on the left bank of the so-called Kurina River.
[I learnt to-day that both of these rivers are called
Sequati. Two hours’ rowing takes one to the swamp
in which the Sequati proper rises; that is the Sequati
in which the oil occurs. I rowed up this river for
about two miles to-day. The whole country is a
gigantic swamp. Plenty of Nipa palms. Met with
no people, but there were stakes for fishing fixed up,
showing that the inhabitants do come down the river
on fishing excursions.] I put a charge of powder in.
On exploding with the magnetic-electro exploder I
found that the seam is of no account. Only three
small veins of half an inch thick. The sandstone is
full of this black carbonaceous matter, which indeed is
neither a true coal nor a true lignite. Pockets of this
substanbe are to be found in the sandstone, as also
pockets of a blue plastic clay, and nodules of oxide of
iron. Wherever water runs out of the sandstone from
the side of. a hill or elsewhere, stalactites of oxide of
iron are found, which consist of almost pure Fer. Ox.
I took a set of specimens of the local rock to-day, and
two photographs of the place4—-one of my hut and
one of the boring machine. Everything gets very
mouldy, and living on a sand-heap is not pleasant.
4 These and other photographs have not yet been found.