On the confines toward Georgine there is a fountain from which oil springs in great abundance, inasmuch as a hundred shiploads might be taken from it at one time. This oil is not good to use with food, but 'tis good to burn, and is also used to annoint camels that have the mange.
People come from vast distances to fetch it, for in all countries round there is no other oil.
This is at the eastern end of the Caucasus Mountains. An island lies well to sea, across the mouth of the bay - providing a breakwater for the harbor, a protection from wind, and anchorage for several hundred vessels to tie up in perfect safety. Shipping vessels belonging to Ludwig Nobel ply the Caspian. This was the Apsheron peninsula, whose heart was the city of Baku. It has always been thought of as a bottomless well, inexhaustible of supply.