Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/181

Rh Chinese feet. In a shed a short distance from the boring, four buffaloes harnessed to an immense drum were being driven round and round by running attendants. The rope was thus wound up, and at the expiration of about a quarter of an hour the "baler," a cylinder of bamboo, 80 feet in length, with a valve at the bottom, was brought to the surface. The brine was emptied from this into a small tank, from which it was conveyed by pipe to a reservoir. Close by the brine well was a gas well. The natural gas was collected and distributed from the mouth of the well by a series of bamboo pipes to the evaporating house near by, where it was made use of in a number of small furnaces, over each of which stood a large, shallow, circular pan containing the brine. Each pan, we were informed, could yield from 130 to 140 catties (173 lb. to 186 lb.) a-day, and this particular gas well supplied sufficient fuel for 200 pans. "How many wells are there in the district?"