The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1890-08-02
RUSSIA'S OIL CENTER.
A SECTION OF THE COUNTRY DE-
VOTED TO NOTHING ELSE.

subterranean Sea OF Naphtha-Disoov-
cry, Appearance and Large Output Of
the Beds-A Town OF Fire.
Iiflis is midway on the railway that
cuts the Caucasus in its whole width
and puts the two seas in communica-
tion-the port of Batoum on the Black
sea with that of Bakou on the Caspian.
As we leave the capital in the latter di-
rection 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 ma
j6tically through wild forests and rich
titled SOIL while two chains Of snowy
ridges stretch away out Of sight in the
distance-the 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 builtof planlxs 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 I'M
healthy that it is dangerous to sleep
there. In spite of these precautions the
peasants whom we see are devoured by
fever; their emaciated visages remind us
of those of the inhabitants of the Roman
campagna. After leaving Hadji- Caboul,
the station in Moorish style where new
line branches off--"the Teheran line" /
am told by the engineers who are build
ing it, and who hope to carry it into the
very heart of Persis-we enter an Afri-
can landscape, sad and luminous
REMARKABLE SCENERY.
The mountain chains become lower;
they are now simply cliffs of gilded sand
stone festooning against crude blue
sky. AT their feet the desert, sandy
expanse, covered here and there with a
rose carpet of Towering tamarislxs. Herds
of canels browse on these shrubs under
the guard of half naked shepherd, mo-
tionless as a bronze statue. The fam
tastic silhouettes of these animals are in
creased 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 a petroleum train, com
posed of cistern trucks in the form of
cylinders, surmounted by funnel with
a short, thick neck
When you see them approaching from
distance you might mistake them for
a procession of mastodons, vying in
shapelessness with the trains of camels
which they pass. The sun burns in space.
Yonder green band glitters beneath its
rays; it is the Caspian. We turn around
hill and behold! on this western shore,
in this primitive landscape, which seems
like corner of Arabia Petrea, u mon
strous city rises before our eyes. Is it
once more the effect of mirage this
town of diabolical aspect, enveloped in
a cloud of smoke traversed by running
tongues Of flame, as it were Sodom for
tilted by the demons in its girdle of cast
| iron towers!
/ can find but one word to depict ex-
actly the first impression that it gives
1t is a town Of gasometers, There are
no houses-the houses are relegated
further away on the right, in the old
Persian city-nothing but iron cylinders
and pipes and chimneys, scattered in
disorder from the hills down to the
beach. This is doubtless the fearful
model Of what manufacturing town.
will all be in the Twentieth century
Meanwhile, for the moment, this one i,
unique in the world it is Balou-tht
town of fire." as tine natives call it; the
petroleum town, where everything is de
voted and subordinated to the worship
of the local god.
OIL IN REMOTE AGES.
The bed of the Caspian sea rests upor
a second subterranean sea, which spreads
its foods of naphtha under the Who'll,
basin. On the eastern shore the build
ing of the Samareand railway led to tn,
discovery of immense beds of minera
oil On the western shore, from Tia,
most remote ages, the magi used to adore
the fire springing from the earth at tn,
very spot where its last worshipers pros
trate themselves at the present day. Blu
after having long adored it impious mer
began to make profit by it commercially
In the Thirteenth century the famou
traveller, Marco Polo, mentions "On tn
northern side great spring whenc'
flows a liquid like OIL" 1t is no good 70
eating, but is useful for burning aud al
other purposes; and SO the neighborini
nations come to get their provision of /
and fiji many vessels without tho eve
flowing spring appearing TO be dimin
ished in any manner. The real praetica
working of these oil springs dates bacl
only dozen years,
At the present day it yields 1000, ,00
l0ilogrammes Of kerosene per annum
and disputes the markets of Europ
against the products Of Kentucky an,
Pennsylvania The yield might be in
creased tenfold, for the existing well
give ON an average 10000 kilogrammes
day, and in order TO find new ones it suf
fees to bore the ground, so saturated j
the whole soil with petroleum G. Mar
vim, The Petroleum Industry ia South
em Russia compares the Aspheron pen
insula 10 a sponge plunged in minera
i, oil Tho soil is continually vomiting
/ forth the liquid lava that torments it
entrails, either IN the form of mud vol
canoes or of natural springs, Thes
+ springs overflow in streams 50 abundan
r that it is hopeless to store their content
D for want Of reservoirs; often they cato
+ fire and burn for weeks; the air, impree
q mated with naphtha vapors, is then aglo'
3 all round Bakou. -Harper's.