254 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



flame were obtained by merely inserting pipes into the earth. A later 

 report, however, states that since this spot has become so important a 

 center of busy trade and the springs have been desecrated by the im- 

 prisonment of the oil and gas in vulgar commercial tanks and pipes, the 

 ancient fire-temple has been abandoned, and in place of reverent wor- 

 shipers, wondering travelers go for an evening row on the Caspian, to 

 visit the submarine oil-springs to the south of the town of Baku, 

 whence petroleum and naphtha rise to the surface, forming little ed- 

 dies on the shallow waters (the depth of the sea at this point being 

 only about fourteen feet). On to each eddy they throw a handful of 

 blazing straw, to ignite the naphtha ; and thus, on a still, calm night, 

 the sea itself appears to be in flames at a dozen spots — a truly fairy- 

 like illumination. 



Besides these submarine springs, the naphtha which exudes from 

 the ground on every side of the old Persian seaport town of Baku is 

 so exceedingly inflammable that the light naphtha-gas was often known 

 to ignite spontaneously, and play in pale lurid flames above fissures in 

 the rock. On stormy nights, fanned by the wind, these flames blazed 

 up, and this led to the town being considered by the Guebres a place 

 of great sanctity. Arabian chroniclers likewise tell of a great volcanic 

 mountain, now extinct, but which, eight centuries ago, was in full ac- 

 tion, and doubtless contributed to inspire the fire-worshipers with rev- 

 erence for the neighborhood. 



Great, however, is the change that has come over the sleepy Per- 

 sian town, with its limited trade in silk and opium, salt, naphtha, and 

 perfumes, since the genius of commerce here established itself, and 

 commenced working so thoroughly in earnest that Baku, which ten 

 years ago was the peaceful home of some 12,000 persons, has now de- 

 veloped into a great commercial center, and a place of daily increasing 

 political importance. It already numbers 30,000 inhabitants, and has 

 very large shipping interests. And this transformation is wholly and 

 solely due to petroleum. 



The town which has acquired a new celebrity with such strange 

 rapidity is situated on the Apsheron Peninsula, which is a high, sandy 

 plain, about fifteen miles in width, and projecting thirty miles into the 

 Caspian, from the point where the Caucasus (the mighty boundary 

 which divides European Russia from Asia, Circassia from Georgia) 

 terminates on its shores. It certainly can not be described as an in- 

 viting place of residence, for the dry and desert sand is only varied by 

 patches of clay, through which here and there crops up a blue gray- 

 stone. 



On every side the ground is black with waste petroleum ; indeed, 

 the whole surface of the soil is as a sodden crust, into which, in hot 

 sunshine, the foot sinks to a depth of two or three inches, while in cold 

 weather it hardens to the consistency of asphalt. Every breath of 

 wind raises blinding clouds of parched sand ; and water is so scarce 



