258 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the American oils flow in the heart of the forests, while in Central 

 Asia the oil-fuel makes existence and travel possible. 



As regards quantity, in the year 1872 only 212,000 barrels were 

 saved from the waste at the Caspian wells. In 1881 the amount res- 

 cued was 4,000,000 barrels, equal to 160,000,000 gallons. In the same 

 year America produced 1,450,000,000 gallons. Commenting on these 

 figures, Ludwig Nobel says that the same amount could annually be 

 produced at Baku without the slightest difficulty, but that at present 

 it would be useless to do so, owing to difficulties of cheap transport. 

 As it is, great stores lie waste for lack of purchasers, and the amount 

 wasted is fully equal to that which is exported. 



As regards price, which in America has varied from tenpence to 

 one penny per gallon, it has at Baku fluctuated from one shilling and 

 eightpence to one penny. In like manner, the barrel of forty gallons 

 of crude petroleum, which in the days of monopoly sold at Baku for 

 eight shillings, has latterly fetched fourpence, and by the latest ac- 

 counts was further reduced to threepence halfpenny per ton on the 

 spot ! This is due to the enormous increase in the supply. Thus, last 

 November a steady-going old well, which for the past ten years has 

 been quietly yielding a fair amount of oil, suddenly commenced 

 to play, and thenceforth threw up a daily average of five hundred 

 tons ! 



The supply is apparently altogether inexhaustible, for already 

 twelve thousand square miles in this region have been proved to be 

 oleiferous, and of this vast surface only six miles are as yet being de- 

 veloped. The oil-bearing stratum is found to extend beneath the Cas- 

 pian Sea, where it crops up in Tcheliken, a true isle of oil, which lit- 

 erally streams into the sea from hills and cliffs which are entirely 

 formed of ozokerite — in other words, of crude paraffine. 



On the eastern shore of the Caspian it reappears at Krasnovodsk 

 and elsewhere. A hundred miles inland lies the Neft, or Naphtha 

 Hill, whose deposits are officially valued at £35,000,000 sterling — oleo- 

 napht, as this particular material is called, being found especially valu- 

 able for lubricating machinery ; so it promises to become an impor- 

 tant article of export. 



The oil-bearing stratum also reappears in the opposite direction ; 

 for as Baku lies at the eastern extremity of the Caucasus range, so at 

 its western extremity, on the shores of the Black Sea, lies another 

 great petroleum-region in the river-basin of the Kouban River, in the 

 province of the same name. This oil-field, extending over about two 

 hundred and fifty miles, terminates in the peninsula of Taman, between 

 the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof — a strange region, abounding in 

 mud-volcanoes, some extinct, others still active, which, combined with 

 strong outflows of gas and occasional earthquakes, prove subterranean 

 action to be only quiescent. 



The natural petroleum-pits are scattered in all directions ; some lie 



