Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1890-06-27
ROSSIA'S OIL CENTER.
A SECTION OF THE COUNTRY DE-
VOTED TO NOTHING ELSE.

cry, Appearance and Large Output of
the Beds-A Town of Fire.
Tifiis 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
jestically through wild forests and rich
titled soil, while two chains of snowy
ridges stretch away out of sight in the
distance-the Caucasus to tho 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 un-
healthy that it is dangerous to sleep
there. In spite of these precautions the
peasants whom we see are devoured by
fever; their emaciated yisages remind us
of those of the inhabitants of the Roman
campagna. After leaving Hadji- -Caboul,
the station in Moorish style where new
line branches of-"the Teheran line" L
am told by the engineers who are build
ing it, and who hope to carry it into the
very heart of Persia-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 a crude blue
sky. At their feet the desert, sandy
expanse, covered here and there with a
rose carpet of Towering tamarisks Herds
of camels browse on these shrubs under
the guard Of half naked shepherd, mo-
tionless as a bronze statue. The fan
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 III the ardent haze of the
horizon lakes and forests. From time
to time we meet petroleum train, COM
posed of cistern trucks in the form of
cylinders, sUTmounted by funnel with
a short, thick neck.
When you see them approaching from
a 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 a 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 Petraa, Il mon
strous city rises before our eyes. Is it
once more the effect of mirage. this
town of diabolical aspect, enveloped in
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 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." as the 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 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 pros
trate 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" 1t is no good for
eating, 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 dimin-
ished in any manner. The real practical
working of these oil springs dates back
only dozen years.
At the present day it yields 1000, 900
Ldlogrammes of kerosene per annum,
and disputes the markets of Europe
against the products of Kentucky and
Pennsylvania. The yield might be in
creased tenfold, for the existing wells
give on an average 10000 ldlogrammes a
day, and in order to find new ones it suf-
fees to bore the ground, so saturated is
the whole soil with petroleum. c. Mar
vim, "The Petroleum Industry in South
ern Russia" compares the Aspheron pen
insula to sponge plunged in mineral
oil. The soil is continually vomiting
forth the liquid lava that torments its
entrails, either in the form of mud vol
canoes or of natural springs. These
springs overflow in streams so abundant
that it is hopeless to store their contents
q Il 4