trip. The design is to compete with the American petroleum trade. M. Trodel, a Russian contractor, is preparing to send oil in bulk to London from Libau, on the Baltic, next spring." Fifteen hundred tons represent nearly fourteen thousand barrels. This dispatch does not state the number of steamers to be built, which of course will depend upon the success of the enterprise; but it is safe to say no competition of this magnitude has ever before been met with in any foreign market. The reader will also shortly be informed that the port of Libau on the Baltic is only one of the many depots already established by the immense concern, The Nobel Brothers, and forms part of their plan for the complete occupancy of the European markets.

We derive our information respecting the wonderful development of this modern Russian industry chiefly from the accounts recently published by Mr. Charles Marvin,' a writer who appears to be thoroughly well informed on the subject about which he writes. The oil territory to which attention is now being directed is situated in the southeastern part of Russia, lying between the Caspian Sea on the east, and the Black Sea on the west, in the region known as the Caucasus. This by no means limits the oil region, which, from surface indications is known to extend as far north as Saratov on the Volga River, and to Afghanistan toward the south and east. The chief point of interest now is Baku, a port on the western coast of the Caspian Sea. Petroleum has been known to have

1 Region of Eternal Fire; Petroleum Region of the Caspian. London, W. H. Allen & Co., 1884.

existed in this region for a period of 2500 years. Six hundred years before the Christian era, Baku was a resort for the fire worshippers from the east. At this time it was under the Persian rule, and the flames of fire issuing from the ground on the banks of the sea suggested this to the superstitious mind of that age, as a spot particularly suitable upon which to render homage to the "fire god." Six centuries after the birth of Christ we read that the Byzantine emperor, Heraclius, on his triumphant march to the conquest of Persia, sought out and destroyed the temples of the magi there. These were afterwards rebuilt, and it is a matter of tradition that this superstition has been maintained in the vicinity until within a few years. There appears to be a clear chain of evidence existing from the remote antiquity which we have mentioned, both of the presence and of the abundance of oil in this region. From the journal of Marco Polo, the celebrated traveller, written in the thirteenth century, we learn that at Baku was "a fountain of oil of 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 anoint camels that have the mange. People come from vast distances to fetch it, for in all countries round there is no other oil." From this statement we at least learn that the trade in Russian petroleum is not a new thing.

The value of this territory on account of its wealth of oil was the occasion of many sanguinary contests between the Armenian emperors and Persian shahs, until finally Russia, in the time of Peter the Great, absorbed the Cau

casus, and one of his first acts was to have shiploads of petroleum dispatched up the Volga for the use of the towns lying on its banks." We learn from the statement of Jonas Hanway, 1754, that "the Persians load it in bulk in their wretched vessels, so that sometimes the sea is covered with it for leagues together. When the weather is thick and hazy the springs boil up the higher, and the naphtha often takes fire on the surface of the earth, and runs in a flame into the sea in great quantities to a distance almost incredible. In clear weather the springs do not boil up above two feet or three feet; in boiling over, the oily substance makes so strong a consistency, as by degrees almost to close the mouth of the spring; sometimes it is quite closed and forms hillocks that look as black as pitch, but the spring which is resisted in one place breaks out in another. Some of the springs which have not been long open form a mouth eight feet or ten feet in diameter. The people carry the naphtha by troughs into pits or reservoirs, drawing it off from one to another, leaving in the first reservoir the water or the heavier part with which it is mixed when it issues from the spring. It is unpleasant to the smell, and is used mostly amongst the poorer sort of the Persians and other neighboring people, as we use oil in lamps, or to boil their victuals; they find it burns best with a mixture of ashes. As they obtain it in great abundance, every family is well supplied."

The same writer notices two varieties of the oil, the heavy and the light; of the latter he says, "the Russians drink it both as a cordial and medicine, but it does not

intoxicate." In bringing the history of this remarkable place down to our times, we reluctantly pass over a number of interesting statements of travellers and others. In 1801, Baku, which on account of its valuable mineral wealth and the supposed sacredness of its fire-producing soil, had been the scene of many hotly contested battles, again passed under Russian supremacy. From the Geographical Memoir of the Persian Empire,' published in 1813, we learn that "the quantity of naphtha produced in the plain to the southeast of the city is enormous. The oil is drawn from wells, some of which had been found by a computation of the inhabitants to yield from 1000 to 1500 poods a day. These wells are to a certain degree inexhaustible, as they are no sooner emptied than they begin to fill, and the naphtha continues gradually to increase, until it has attained its former level. It is used by the natives as a substitute for lamp oil, and when ignited emits a clear light with much smoke and a disagreeable smell. The whole country around Baku has at times the appearance of being enveloped in flames. It often seems as if the fire rolled down from the mountains in large masses with incredible velocity; and during the clear moonshine nights of November and December a bright-blue light is observed at times to cover the whole western range." In 1819, according to Colonel Yule, "the quantity of petroleum collected from the springs about Baku was estimated at 241,000 poods, nearly 4000 tons (or about 35,000 barrels), the greater part of which went to Persia." We may form some idea from this statement how copious were the surface

supplies. Up to this time, and for many years after, the method employed by the natives for gathering the oil was both crude and wasteful. Shallow pits were dug, and as the oil would percolate through the superficial earthy strata and collect in them, it would be bailed out.

We now come to a period in the history of Baku, when, it may be said, it began to feel the impetus which the developments in the far-distant oil region of Western Pennsylvania had given to the petroleum industry in many other parts of the world. In 1860, we learn of a "naphtha manufactory" having been established in the vicinity of Baku, which paid to the Crown of Russia an annual rental of 117,000 roubles (about $87,000) from which fact alone we may form an idea how extensive the trade was even at that early date. Mr. Osmaston describes many scenes peculiar to the place, and which have been so frequently described by others. Among other phenomena he noted the petroleum fires on the surface of the Caspian Sea. In many places, quite frequently, the water is covered for many square miles with petroleum, which boils up from the bottom of the sea, thus clearly showing that the oil-bearing stratum extends from Baku on the western coast of the Caspian Sea, that it underlies this body of water and reappears in the trans-Caspian region, where the same abundant surface indications present themselves that we find on the opposite shore.

In 1870, we hear for the first time of its favorable comparison with American oil. Mr. Herbert Barry, an