THE OIL-SUPPLY OF THE WORLD. 255 



that the streets are watered with coarse, black naphtha, which lays the 

 dust effectually for about a fortnight, and then forms a thick, brown 

 bituminous dust, that ingrains clothes indelibly, but over which car- 

 riages glide noiselessly, so that the inhabitants are at least spared one 

 item of torture. On the other hand, they have to breathe an atmos- 

 phere poisoned by the dense smoke pouring from the chimneys of about 

 two hundred and fifty reiining-factories, and the whole air is redolent 

 of all-pervading petroleum. 



Equally desolate and dreary is the surrounding country, which by 

 nature is totally unproductive. Some morsels are carefully cultivated, 

 but there is no natural vegetation, nothing but great dismal flats satu- 

 rated with the naphtha, which lies on the surface in pools and lakes. 



The principal oil-wells of the Baku district lie at Balaxame or 

 Balakhani, about six miles to the northeast of the town : this is an 

 oil-field about three and a half miles in length by one and a half in 

 breadth. To the south lies a smaller field called Bebeabat. One 

 fountain at Balakhani, ninety-eight feet in depth, is noted as having 

 been flowing steadily for upward of two years, and still continuing to 

 yield 800 barrels a day. Another well not far off, 490 feet deep, com- 

 menced its career by throwing up a jet thirty feet in the air, and then 

 flooding the land with oil for a considerable distance all around, over- 

 flowing other wells and several small refineries, so as effectually to 

 stop their work. The roar of the rushing oil and gas could be heard 

 a mile from the spot. 



Various flowing wells are said to yield 6,000 barrels a day, and some 

 far more ; but, from the fact that these quantities are generally stated 

 in the Russian measure of poods, it is not very easy to realize what 

 is meant. One pood, we learn, is equal to thirty-six pounds English. 

 Hence one thousand poods represent somewhere about sixteen tons. 

 Accounts have just reached England of an oil-fountain which was struck 

 last December, and flows at the rate of from fifty to sixty thousand poods 

 daily, gushing forth with such force as to break in pieces a three-inch 

 cast-iron plate which had been fastened over the well in order to divert 

 the flow in a particular direction. In the same district a huge heap of 

 sand marks the spot where an oil-spring, on being tapped, straightway 

 threw up a column of petroleum to twice the height and size of the 

 Great Geyser in Iceland, forming a huge black fountain two hundred 

 feet in height — a fountain, however, due solely to the removal of the 

 pressure on the confined gas, for there is no trace of volcanic heat. 

 The fountain was visible for many miles round, and on the first day 

 it poured forth about two million gallons, equal to fifty thousand 

 barrels. 



An enterprising photographer who was on the spot secured a pho- 

 tograph which places this matter beyond cavil. The fountain con- 

 tinued to play for five months, gradually decreasing week by week, till 

 it finally ceased to play, leaving its unfortunate owners (an Armenian 



