round is, however, impregnated
with oil, and even the sea in one or two bays near Baku is coated with
inflammable stuff and can be ignited by throwing a lighted match upon it.
At night this has a weird effect.

Apart from the oil, Baku--especially the European settlement--has nothing
to fascinate the traveller. In the native city, Persian in type, with
flat roofs one above the other and the hill top crowned by a castle and
the Mosque of Shah Abbas, constant murders occur. The native population
consists mostly of Armenians and Persians. Cotton, saffron, opium, silk
and salt are exported in comparatively small quantities. Machinery, grain
and dried fruit constitute the chief imports.

The crescent-shaped Baku Bay, protected as it is by a small island in
front of it, affords a safe anchorage for shipping. It has good
ship-yards and is the principal station of the Russian fleet in the
Caspian. Since Baku became part of the Russian Empire in 1806 the harbour
has been very strongly fortified.

The most striking architectural sight in Baku is the round Maiden's Tower
by the water edge, from the top of which the lovely daughter of the Khan
of Baku precipitated herself on to the rocks below because she could not
marry the man she loved.

The most depressing sight in Baku is the vegetation, or rather the
strenuous efforts of the lover of plants to procure verdure at all costs
in the gardens. It is seldom one's lot to see trees and plants look more
pitiable, notwithstanding the unbounded care that is taken of them. The
terrific heat of Baku, the hot winds and sand-storms are deadly enemies
to vegetation. Nothing will grow. One does not see a blade of grass nor a
shrub anywhere except those few that are artificially brought up. The
sand is most trying. It is so fine that the wind forces it through
anything, and one's tables, one's chairs, one's bed are yellow-coated
with it. The tablecloth at the hotel, specklessly white when you begin to
dine, gets gradually yellower at sight, and by the time you are half
through your dinner the waiter has to come with a brush to remove the
thick coating of dust on the table.

These are the drawbacks, but there is an air of prosperity about the
place and people that is distinctly pleasing, even although one may not
share in it. There is quite a fair foreign community of business people,
and their activity is very praiseworthy. The people are very
hospitable--too hospitable. When they do not