probably finding its way up from some coal seam,
carried up tlie petroleum mechanically. I took samples
of the sliale to-day, and also the sandstone for analysis.
Curious, the absence of oxide of iron in the pit. The
heading will be begun to-morrow. Had a bother with
the man in the praliu to-day. Hq refused to give
up Ivajangs, he was ill also. Grave him S 0 2M8.
Made compass survey of river to-day; finish it
to-morrow. Heading going to be cut through the dip
of the strata following the gas blower.
On the next day I had door-heads of mine partly put
in. Sandstone and shale still yield much oil. Searching
for coal, every prospect of finding it. Another
pocket of lignite taken out to-day. Heading driven in
three feet. I made a map of the district and got it
coloured in. Praliu passed, went out to her in the
Singapore Sampan. She was twenty days away from
Sandakan. No rain at all; fine day and night.
Saturday, Dec. 2nd.—Went down the pit, the heading
of which was four feet square. I stopped as the picks
had cut through two feet of blue clay and come upon
the bed rock again. The bed rock here is the non-
ferruginous sandstone, full of oil and containing innumerable
little veins of lignite. This may be the coal-
seam “ thinning out.” I ordered the pit to be sunk
ten feet deeper, or at least until we have got through
the oil-bearing rock. With proper machinery to get
out the shale I should think that 100 gallons of oil
could be turned out daily. However, this can only be
ascertained by distillation of the shale in Labuan.
Both shale and oil-bearing sandstone must be tested
quantitatively for percentage of petroleum. I collected
some test tubes of gas which comes up in bubbles from
the river-bed in the immediate neighbourhood of the
shaft. The gas does (as I expected) carry up oil mechanically.
I t is itself a colourless, tasteless, and
inodorous gas. I t is inflammable, is not to any extent
absorbed by potash, or bichromate of potash. I t
burns with a blue flame, slightly tinged with yellow.
I therefore conclude that the gas is CH4, (CO, ?) with
perhaps some higher gaseous compounds of the marsh
gas series, such as CZH6 or C3H8 which often exist in
connection with petroleum. Marsh gas itself is a very
common gas of coal-beds and bituminous deposits, so
that this gas may be rising from some thick coal seam,
or from the oil-bearing stratum. I t rained heavily in
the night, but cleared towards the morning.
Sunday, Dec. 3rd.—The high tide comes in to-night,
and as there was water in the pit last night all hands
were taken getting clay to-day. I t rained heavily all
the afternoon and the whole of the night. Water
about five feet deep got into the pit. Everything was
done to get it out, and at five o’clock this morning the
pit was dry. A piece of one of the mineral resins was
found to-day in the sandstone at a depth of twenty-
four feet. I shall examine it at leisure. I t is in a tin
and marked No. 1. A most interesting thing, perhaps
anew mineral; if so, call it Hattonite. One of the
black men was very sick to-day, and I think he is down
with fever.
VI.
S econd Y is it to S e q u a t i.
Saturday, Dec. 24th.—Christmas Eve. I t rained only
a little, nothing happened. My leg was a little worse.
Sighted two prahus.