The bitumen which floats to shore is also collected.
But given time, all such compounds, if they contain enough bitumen to render them water-tight, appear to settle down even at ordinary temperatures as heavy viscous fluids, retaining their fluidity permanently if not exposed to the air.
Bitumen is, in its various forms, one of the most widel y -distributed of substances, occurring in strata of every geological age, from the lowest Archean rocks to those now in process of deposition, and in greater or less quantity throughout both hemispheres, from Spitzbergen to New Zealand, and from California to Japan.
All these commodities are exported in considerable quantities, besides bitumen, which is obtained from a mine worked by a French III.
The characteristic craft for local service in the immediate environment of Bagdad is the kufa, a circular boat of basket-work covered with bitumen, often of a size sufficient to carry five or six horses and a dozen men.