The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1890-08-28
THROUGH THE CAUCASUS.



Pecuiiarities Of Bakou, Russia,s Great Pc.
troleum Town. -
Tiflis Is midway on the railway that
cuts the Caucasus in its whole width
and puts the two seas in communication
Tho 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 atshrst ravished AND
then desoIated BY the changing aspects
of the land The track follows the
Kour, which rolls its broad sheet Of
water majesticaIly 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
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-tawers The in
habitants OF the village, VINO are all
Tartars in this region, take refuge at
night-in these aerial nests; the marshy.
land is so unhealthy that it is Danger
GUS 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 in
habitants of the Roman Campagna. Af-
ter leaving Hadji-eaboul, the station In
Moorish style where new line branches
off-"the Teheran line, / am told by
the engineers who are building it, and
who hope to carry il into the very heart
OF Persia-we enter an African land
scape, sad and luminous. The. mount
DIN 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 tamarisks. Herds of camels
browse on these shrubs, under the guard
Of. half-naked shepherd, motionless as
a bronze statue. The fantastic silhou-
cites Of these animals. are Increased in
size and changed in form by the effect
OF the mirage, which displays before
our eyes, iag the ardent haze of the heri-
zon, lakes and forests. From time to
posed of cistern trucks in the form of
cylinders, sHHmeHnted by a funnel with
short thick neck. When you see
them approaching from a distance, you
might mistake them for procession OF
mastedons, yying in shapelessness with
the trains of camelswMhichr they#pass.
The sun burns in space Yonder q green
band glitters beneath its rays; it is the
Caspian. We turn around hill, and
bcholdt on this western Shore. in tflts
primitive landscape, which seems like
a corner of Arabia Petr;ea, monstrous
city arises before our eyes Is it once
more the effect of mirage, this town OF
diaboiical aspect, enveloped in cloud
OF smoke traversed by running tongues
of flames, as ii were Sodom fortified by
the demons in its girdle of cast-iron
towers? ! can find but one word to de-
pict exactly the first impression that it
gives it is town of gasom-
eters. 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 tho
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 every thing is devoted and subor-
dinated to the worship Of tho local god.
Tho bod If tho Cao,,i,. No. ,.aa4r 80.
second subterraneans ea, which spreads
its floods OF naphtha under the whole
basin. On the eastern shore the build
ing of the Samarcand 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 worship
pers prostrataxt hemselves at the present
day. But, after having long adored it,
impious men began to make profit by it
commercially. In the thirteenth cent
ury the famous traveller Marco Polo
mentions ''on the northern side a great
spring whence flows liquid like oil. IT
is no good for eating, but it is useful
for burning and for 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 @te@besAd diminished in.
any manner. The real practical work
ing of these oil springs dates back only
dozen years. At. the present day it
yields 100000 ki1ogrammes of kero-
sene per annum, and disputes the mar
kets of Europe against the products OF
Kentucky and Pennsylvania. The yield
might be increased tenfold, for the ex-
listing wells give on an average 40. 600
kilogrammes day, and in order to find
new ones it sufiices to bore the ground,
so saturated is the whole soil with pc
strofettm. @ Marvin Che Petroleum In
dustry in Southern Russia) compares che
Apsheron peninsula to a sponge plunged
in mineral oil The soil is continually
vomiting forth the liquid lava that tor
ments its entrails, either in the form of
mud volcanoes or of natural springs.
These springs overflow in streams SO
abundant that it is hopeless to store
their contents for want of reservoirs:
often they catch fire and burn for weeks;
the air, imprcgnated~ with @naphtha va
pors, is then aglow all round Bakou.--
Vicomte Eugene Melchoir, deNagne, in
Harper's Magazine,
Not Such-an Ass as He Looks.
Once upon a time there was donkey
who was turned out to feed in field