ar the sea. Dust rose up in clouds and
penetrated through all the chinks of the compartment, the air became
thick, heavy, and suffocating, and outside nothing could be seen but a
universal grey veil of impenetrable mist. But the worst was that the
storm struck the train on the side, and at last the engine was scarcely
able to draw the carriages along. Twice we had to stop, and on an ascent
the train even rolled back a little.

However, in spite of all, we at last reached the shore of the Caspian
Sea, where clear green billows rose as high as a house and thundered on
the strand. At seven o'clock in the evening we were at Baku, and drove
ten miles to Balakhani, where I remained seven months.

I remember that time as if it were yesterday. I struggled hopelessly
with the Russian grammar, but made great progress in Persian, and
learned to talk the Tatar language without the least difficulty.
Meanwhile I indulged in plans for a great journey to Persia. How it was
to be managed I did not know, for my means were not large. But I made up
my mind that through Persia I would travel, even if I went as a hired
servant and drove other people's asses along the roads.

The whole country round Baku is impregnated with petroleum, which
collects in vast quantities in cavities in the earth. To reach the oil a
tower of wood 50 to 65 feet high is erected, and a line with a powerful
borer runs over a block at the top. A steam-engine keeps the line in
constant motion, perpendicularly up and down, and the borer eats deeper
and deeper into the earth. The first section of piping which is forced
down into the bore-hole is about 40 inches in diameter. When this can go
no farther the boring is continued with a smaller borer, and a narrower
tube is thrust down within the first. And so the work is continued until
the petroleum level is reached and the valuable oil can be pumped up.

But it often happens that the oil is forced up through the pipe by the
pressure of gas in the bowels of the earth, and when I was at Balakhani
we often used to go out and look at this singular display. With a
deafening roar, a thick greenish-brown jet shot up out of the ground and
right through the derrick (Plate III.). It was visible from a long
distance, for it might be as much as 200 feet high, and the oil was
collected within dams thrown up around. If there was a strong wind the
jet would be dispersed, and a dark mist would lie like a veil over the
ground to leeward