The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1890-07-30
RUSSlA'S TOWN OF FIRE.
VIVID DESCRIPTION OF THE GREAT
PETROLEUM CENTRE.
The Basin of the Caspian Sea Rests
ON Subterranean Sea of Naphtha
"A City Without Houses.

cuts the Caucasus in its whole width,
and puts the two seas in communication
the port of Batoum on the Black Sea
with that of Bakou on the Caspian. As
we leave the capital in the latter direc-
ton, the eye is at first ravished and then
desolated by the changing aspects of the
land. The track follows the Kour,
which rolls its broad sheet of water
majestically through wild forests and
rich, titled soil, while two chairs of
snowy ridges stretch away out of sight
in the distance-thc Caucasus to the
left, the mountains of Armenia to the
right. Soon we leave the river, which
goes to join the Araxes toward the south;
the plain gets broader and barer; tall
cages built of planks perched on four
tree trunks rise in the midst of the rice
fields like watch towers. The inhabitants
of the villages, who are all Tartars in
this region, take refuge at night in
these aerial nests; the marshy land is
so unhealthy that it is dangerous to
sleep there. In spite of these precau-
tions, the peasants whom we see are de-
voured by fever; their emaciated visages
remind us of those of the inhabitants of
the Roman campagna. After leaving
Hadj Caboul, the new station in Moor
ish style where a new line branches off
"the Teberanline," am told by the en-
gineers who are building it. and who
hope to carry it into the very heart of
Persia-we enter an African landscape,
sad and luminous. The mountain chains
become lower; they are now simply cliffs
of gilded sandstone festooning against a
crude blue sky. At their feet the desert,
a sandy eXpanse covered here and there
with a rose carpet of Towering tamarisks.
Herds of camels browse on these shrubs,
under the guard of a half-naked shep-
herd, motionlcss as bronze statue. The
fantastic silhouettes of these animals are
increased in size and changed in form by
the effect of the mirage, which displays
before our eyes, in the ardent haze Of the
horizon, lakes and forests. From time
to time we meet petroleum train, com
posed Of sistern trucks in the form of
| cylinders, surmounted by funnel with
short, thick neck. When you see them
approaching from distance you might
mistake them for a procession of masto-
dons, vying in shapelessness with the
trains of camels which they pass. The sun
burns in space. Yonder green band gilt
ters beneath its rays; it is the Caspian.
We turn around hill, and behold on
this western shore, in this primitive
| landscape, which seems like a corner of
| Arabia Petr9a, a monstrous city rises be-
fore our eyes. Is it once more the effect
of mirage, this town of diabolical as
pect, enveloped in a cloud of smoke
traversed by running tongues of flame,
at it were Sodom fortified by the de-
mons in Its girdle of cast-iron towersl l
eau find but one word to depict exactly
the first impression that it gives. 1t is
town of gaSometers. There are no
houses-the houses are relegated further
away on the right, in the old Persian
city-nothilg but iron cylinders and
pipes and chimneys, scattered in disor-
order from the hills down to the beach.
| This is doubtless the fearful model %
what manufacturing towns will all be in
the twentieth century. Meanwhile, for
the moment, this one is unique in the
world it is Bakou-the "town of fire, I"
as the natives call it; the petroleum
town, where everything is devoted and
subordinated to the worship of the local
god.
The bed of the Caspian Sea rests upon
a second subterranean sea, which spreads
its floods of naphtha under the whole
basin. On the eastern shore the build
ing of the Samareand Railway led TO the
| discovery of immense beds of mineral
| oil. On the western shore, from the most
remote ages, the magi used to adore the
! fire springing from the earth at the very
/ spot where its last worshipers PROSTATE
themselves at the present day. But,
after having long adored it, impious men
began to make profit by it commercially.
In the thirteenth century the famous
traveller, Marco Polo, mentions "on the
northern side great spring whence flows
! a liquid like oil. II is no good for eat
ing, but is useful for burning and all
other purposes; and so the neighboring
nations come TO get their provision of it
and fill many vessels without the ever
flowing spring appearing to be diminished
in any manner"
Inc fedl pTacIlcal Workings OF Iuese
oil springs dates back only a dozen years.
At the present day it yields 1000, 900
kilogrammes Of kerosene per annum and
disputes the markets of Europe against
the products of Kentucky and Pennsyl-
yania. The yield might be increased ten
fold, for the existing wells give on an
average 40, 900 kilogrammes day, and
in order TO find new ones it sufiices to
bore the ground, so saturated is the whole
soil with petroleum. c. Marvin ('The
Petroleum Industry in Southern Russia')
compares the Aspheron peninsula TO Il
sponge plunged in mineral OIL The soil
is continually vomiting forth the liquid
lava that tOrments its sntrails, either in
the form of mud volcanoes or of natural
springs. These springs overflow in
streams so abundant that it is hopeless TO
restore their contents for want of reser-
voirs; often they catch fire and burn for
weeks; the air, impregnated with naptha
yapors, is then aglow all round BakOu.-
HdrPer's Monthly.