Not very far below Pagan, illustrative of a strange mingling of ancient and modern, is the most productive of the oil-fields of Burma, that of Yenangyaung. In 1886, reviewing the prospects of mineral discovery in Upper Burma, we prophesied before we knew. We went nap, as might be said, on coal, and took but little interest in petroleum. The development of the oil-fields is the most striking feature of the economic history of the Province for the past twenty-five years. The search for coal has been uniformly disappointing. The Yenangyaung field was worked in former times by crude native methods. Into shallow wells dug by hand men went down, clad in a sort of diver’s costume, and laboriously baled out oil with a bucket. The out-turn was comparatively small. The wells were owned by a close corporation of local Burmans known as twinzas,[276] who had exclusive hereditary rights. All the oil extracted had to be sold to the King at a fixed price. Of late years the oil-fields have been exploited with all the resources of modern science by companies who, by grant or purchase, have acquired rights over wells and oil-bearing land. The Burma Oil Company were pioneers of the industry. It was under the auspices of my friend Sir Campbell Kirkman Finlay, Managing Director of the company, that I twice visited Yenangyaung. One of my visits was marked by the spouting of the most productive well yet struck in Burma. The oil-field is a busy bustling place, covered with tall derricks and giving employment to many drillers and mechanics. Side by side with modern scientific extraction may be seen the primitive native methods still practised. Over all is a Warden to enforce the elaborate rules necessary to safeguard the field against danger from fire and to prevent its premature exhaustion. From the wells runs a pipe-line conveying oil for about two hundred and seventy-five miles to the refinery at Syriam, where a populous town has sprung up. The latest report gives the total quantity of petroleum produced in Burma as 222,000,000 gallons, a very small fraction of the world’s production. Our tours on the Irrawaddy and Chindwin were made in steamers of the Royal Indian Marine and in the house-boat already mentioned. Among Indian Marine officers I had many friends. One I may mention by name, Lieutenant H. R. Bowers, was with us on several tours. The son of Captain A. Bowers, R.N.R., long resident in Burma, who had accompanied Colonel Sladen’s mission to Yunnan in 1868, he had close hereditary associations with the Province. From the first he impressed us as an officer of great promise, capable and self-reliant. I bade him farewell on the eve of his departure, full of hope and pride, for the journey whereon he died a hero’s death among Antarctic snows. His memory lives in the hearts of his countrymen.