HAWORTH. | Discoveries of Oil and Gas. 9 
the description of the high mountains west of the Caspian Sea 
where the hero and his little band laid down their lives in de- 
fending their country against Mohammedan invaders, although 
declared by Moore to be fanciful, does not differ very materi- 
ally from the high Caucasian range near by to the west. 
Mr. A. Beeby Thompson, in his admirable book, The Oil- 
fields of Russia, has given us so good a description of the oil- 
wells, of the escaping gas, and of practically everything con- 
nected with this wonderful country, that it is deemed best to 
quote from him quite extensively: 
“The natural gas exudations and the petroleum deposits of 
the Apsheron peninsula have been known for many centuries; 
indeed, it is asserted that the existing site of the temple of 
fire-worshipers, situated near the extremity of the peninsula, 
at Surakhany, has been frequented by Parsee devotees for 
more than 2500 years, and, according to the statement of the 
British consul at Batoum, the last priest departed only a few 
years ago. It is also affirmed by historians that the Baku 
petroleum has for centuries been collected by the Persians and 
sent into the interior of Persia and India, where the white 
variety, found in some districts, was employed as a medicine 
for curing divers internal complaints, or applied externally 
as a dressing for relieving irritant sores, etc.; but there is lit- 
tle evidence to show that the common ‘crude’ was used as an 
illuminant or a source of heat, except in the form of briquettes 
made by mixing the oil with ashes or earth. In 1723 Baku 
was annexed by Peter the Great, but in 1735 the territory was 
restored to Persia, being eventually reoccupied by Russia in 
1806. 
“When Russia took possession of Baku a second time there 
was a small trade in oil, and the government, after delibera- 
tion, granted to a merchant named Meerzoeff a monopoly for 
extracting oil from the petroleum deposits, in return for pay- 
ment of a royalty on all oil raised, the effect of which was to 
restrict the output of petroleum, which, in 1872, only amounted 
to about 1,500,000 poods per annum. A popular demand for 
the abolition of the monopoly arose, to which the government 
ultimately assented (1872) but its removal was followed by 
the imposition of a tax in the form of excise duty. The oil 
industry showed a marked improvement under the altered con- 
ditions, although still impeded from full development, but in 
1877 the excise duty was also canceled, and the business, 
freed from all restrictions, rapidly increased in magnitude and 
importance. 
“Previous to the year 1871 all the Russian petroleum was 
obtained from hand-dug surface pits, the deepest of which 
rarely exceeded fifty feet: but in the year named the first oil- 
well was bored on the Balakhany plateau, and the highly suc- 
