356 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. V., No. 117. 



THE RUSSIAN BASE OF OPERATIONS 

 AGAINST INDIA. 



At Baku, on the Caspian Sea, there stands 

 an old temple, where for centuries a beacon has 

 been kept continually burning by the fire-wor- 

 shippers of India and Persia. The priests in 

 the olden time declared that the light was su- 

 pernatural, the gift of the god of fire. Mod- 

 ern science shows that the supply comes from 

 gas-wells. On one side of this temple are der- 

 ricks and oil-wells ; on the other side, a great 

 stone embankment stretching for over a mile 

 along the seacoast, several hundred steam and 

 sailing vessels, long trains of railroad-cars 

 loading with oil, and a population of fifty 

 thousand where ten years ago were less than 

 fifteen thousand. The Parsee, tending his eter- 

 nal fire, is the emblem of the past : the Russian, 

 with his oil-wells and embankments, his rail- 

 roads and steamboats, is the emblem of the 

 present. 



From Baku, steamers run north, through 

 the Caspian Sea, to Astrakhan, near the mouth 

 of the Volga ; thence up the Volga and Kama 

 to Perm (25 miles by rail from Ekaterinburg 

 in Siberia, whence come the best iron rails and 

 manufactures of iron and steel), up the Volga 

 and the Olga to the neighborhood of Moscow, 

 up the Volga to Rybinsk, whence a canal con- 

 tinues the navigation to the Baltic. On these 

 waters the cotton from Khiva and Bokhara, 

 the oil from the Caspian, the wool from Astra- 

 khan, and the grain from the lower Volga, are 

 borne to the Baltic and the North seas, while 

 material and supplies from all parts of Europe 

 are brought as return cargo. Some of the 

 steamers plying on the Volga resemble our 

 Mississippi steamers, and are as large and 

 commodious : others, two hundred feet long, 

 are fitted with cisterns, into which the oil flows, 

 through pipes from reservoirs at the refineries, 

 at the rate of from a hundred to two hundred 

 tons an hour. Kerosene from Baku has nearly 

 superseded the American oil in Russia, and 

 now competes with it in Berlin and Vienna. 

 From Baku the railroad runs west (561 miles 

 in thirt}'-six hours), along the foot of the 

 Caucasus Mountains, through Tiflis, to Poti 



The map published in the present number, to accompany this 

 and other articles, is based upon one issued from the office of the 

 superintendent of the .^reat trigonometric survey of India. The 

 original was mapped on the bases of the surveys made by British 

 and Russian officers up to 1881, and was published in Dehra 

 Dun in September, 1881. As slightly reduced here, it represents 

 the territory on a scale of an inch to forty miles. The upper 

 broken red line represents the boundary of the territory in dis- 

 pute as given on the map of which this is the copy; and it also 

 appears in precisely the same place, in the latest reduction of 

 the Russian staff map obtainable in St. Petersburg two years 

 ago; but the lower broken red line indicates what is supposed to 

 be the extreme Russian claim, and does not appear on the 

 original from which the map is taken. 



and Batum on the Black Sea. From these 

 seaports, Russian steamers, the best on the 

 Mediterranean and Black seas, make quick 

 trips to Sebastopol and Odessa ; and railroads 

 connect these cities with all parts of Russia, 

 eastern and western Europe. Directly across 

 from Baku (sixteen hours by steamer), on 

 the other side of the Caspian Sea, the trans- 

 Caspian railroad commences, runs to Askabad 

 (280 miles), and is being rapidly extended 

 towards Sarakhs (185 miles from the present 

 terminus) . From Sarakhs to Herat is about 

 200 miles up the river Hari Rud, or Tajand. 

 The construction of a railroad would be more 

 difficult between these places than between 

 Sarakhs and the Caspian Sea ; though, as it 

 must follow the line of the river, there would 

 be no obstacles that cannot be easi^ sur- 

 mounted. 



Sibi is the present terminus of the Indian 

 railways, though the English government is 

 extending the line 135 miles to Quetta, 470 

 miles from Herat by the way of Kandahar. 

 This route crosses many rivers and mountain 

 ranges, and will be a difficult and expensive 

 road to build. It requires twice as long for 

 the transit of men and supplies from Sibi to 

 Herat as from Herat to Baku, though the dis- 

 tance is but little more. 



The Caspian line is the most feasible and 

 shortest route for a railroad from Europe to 

 India. 



Hours. 



From London to Berlin 24 



Thence by Breslau and Lemburg to Odessa . . 48 



By steamer to Batum 48 



By rail to Baku 24 



By steamer across the Caspian 10 



By rail to Askabad J 2 



From London to Askabad 1 (7 days) . . . 172 

 Thence to India, 1,000 miles, in 40 



Nine days' running time, if the railroad were 

 in operation, from London to India . . . 212 



While from London to Herat, by the Suez Canal and 

 India, is nearly three times as long. 



The trans-Caspian railroad, from the Caspi- 

 an to Sarakhs, runs in a south-easterly direc- 

 tion, at the foot of a long range of mountains 

 separating Turkestan from Persia. Small 

 streams, ev r eiy few miles, run down the sides 

 of the mountains into the valley, and are soon 

 lost in the sands of the desert. Wherever 

 these streams appear, there are fertile oases. 

 This desert extends from the foot of these 

 mountains, north-east to the River Oxus, about 

 500 miles at the Caspian Sea, and 300 miles at 



1 Here ends the present line of railroad. 



