1865.] 



Notes and Correspondence. 



755 



On Petroleum Springs in the Eastern Crimea, and on the Shores of the Sea 

 of Azof. By Professor D. T. Ansted, M.A., F.R.S. 



Among the many sources of supply 

 that the demand for illuminating 

 and lubricating oils has brought 

 into notice, there are some that 

 have been known to half-savage 

 races from time immemorial, and 

 actually used for similar purposes 

 to those for which they are now 

 applied. Some of these, though 

 hitherto neglected, are both abun- 

 dant and important. The shores of 

 the Caspian Sea where the perpetual 

 fires of Baku have been objects of 

 pagan worship for at least two thou- 

 sand years, and some islands of the 

 Caspian where naphtha springs yield 

 a yet larger supply, are well known 

 instances. These places now supply 

 petroleum and oils, such as we call 

 " paraffin oil," to a great part of 

 Asia Minor and the south of Russia. 

 Conveyed by water to Astrakhan, 

 and thence by the Volga, they reach 

 Nijni Novgorod and, are carried 

 to Moscow. Conveyed by land 

 across Georgia, the prepared oils 

 are used almost to the exclusion of 

 every other kind of illuminating 

 material at Teflis, now a large and 

 important city, and there seems no 

 limit to the quantity that could be 

 used even at a very high price if 

 the supply were sufficiently large. 

 At various places, as near Teflis 

 itself, there are petroleum springs, 

 but they are not available, as the 

 rock oil cannot be used without 

 distilling, and there is no apparatus 

 for that purpose. Still farther west, 

 at the extremity of the great chain 

 of the Caucasus, there is a large and 

 remarkable district, more than a 

 hundred miles from east to west, 

 commencing with the delta of the 

 Kuban and the peninsula of Taman, 

 and ending in the Putrid Sea, 

 remarkable throughout for those 

 curious phenomena known as "mud 

 volcanoes " or " salses," — some in an 

 active state, and some recently ex- 

 tinct, — for springs of mineral water 

 loaded with sulphur, sulphuretted 

 hydrogen, nitrogen, and other gases, 



and for wells of petroleum, either 

 with or without water. 



These latter are far too important 

 in the present state of the oil mar- 

 ket to be matters of indifference. 

 Wherever petroleum can be ob- 

 tained of tolerably good quality, 

 and in tolerable abundance, not too 

 far from a place of shipment, it will 

 of course attract attention. Oils 

 from certain deposits near Kertch, 

 in the eastern part of the Crimea, 

 have already been shipped to Eng- 

 land, although the local demand 

 will probably prevent any great 

 exportation, even if the quantity 

 raised should be very much larger 

 than it has hitherto been. 



The Crimea is by no means inac- 

 cessible, and even the extreme ports 

 of the sea of Azof, Berdiansk, and 

 Taganrog are well known to all 

 interested in the bringing of corn 

 from the vast steppes of Russia to 

 the English market. The sea of 

 Azof is approached by the some- 

 what shallow straits of Kertch, the 

 ancient Cimmerian Bosphorus, a 

 passage between the peninsula of 

 Kertch, a long straggling tract of 

 land terminating the Crimea to the 

 east, and the peninsula of Taman, 

 an equally long and much more 

 straggling land projecting from the 

 western extremity of the great Cau- 

 casian chain, and containing the 

 low swampy delta of the river 

 Kuban, which is the main stream 

 conveying the water falling on the 

 northern watershed of the Caucasus. 

 The upper part of the Black Sea 

 where it enters the sea of Azof is 

 shallow, and the sea of Azof itself 

 has nowhere more than a few 

 fathoms of depth. Older tertiary 

 rocks covered by tertiavies of newer 

 date are here the only rocks to be 

 seen, but they are often much al- 

 tered, though the country is either 

 a dead level, or consists of rolling 

 ground, formed by the removal of 

 beds of hard limestone, by denuda- 

 tion probably after fracture, and by 



