Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/384

 iToL. v.. No. Jfl

��At Baku, on the Caspian Sea, there stands an olil temple, where for ccDtnries a beacon has been kept con I inn ally burning by the flre-wor- ahippers of India ami Persia. The priests in the oldon time deL-lured that the light was su- pernatural, the gift of the god of fire. Mod- em science shows that the supply comes from gas-wells. On one side of this temple are der- ricks and oil-wells; on the other aide, a great stone cmliankment stretching for over a mile along the searoast, several hundred steam and sailing vessels, long trains of rail road -i^nrs loading with oil. and a population of fifty thousand where ten j'ears ago were less than fil1«en 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 8te:imboat9, is the emblem of the present.

From Baku, steamers run north, through the Caspian Sea, to Astrakhan, near the mouth of the Volga; thcuce up the Volga and Kama to Perm (J5 miles ity rail ftom Ekaterinhui^ in Siberia, whence come tlic best iron rails and manufactures of iron and steel), up the Volga and the Olga to the neighborhood of Moscow, up tlu' Volga to Uyl>inBl:. wlience a eanal cod- linnes the navigation to the Baltic. On these waters the cotton from Khiva and Bokhara, the oil from the Caspian, the ivool from Astra- khau. 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. Home of the steamers plying on the Volga resemble onr Mississippi steamers, and are oa large and commodious: others, two hundred feet long, are fitted with cielerns, into which the oil flows, through pipes from resenoirs at the rcfineiies, at the nue of from a hundreil to two hundred tons an liour. Kerosene from Baku has nearly su|x.-rseded the American oil in Russia, and now competes with it in Berlin and Vienna. From Baku the railroad runs west (5G1 miles in thirtj'-six hoin's}, along the foot of the Caucasus Mountains, llii-ough Tiflis, to Poti

ThB mmp pDbllitKd In Ihc pmeot oumbvr, to moeompvi; ttili md oUitr irtlclH. la biuail upun nnc iHiudrrum UisaOnerihi! ■Uiwrlowndfiit af Ihs grait IrlHODDmatrle lumj of India. Thd orhdnal wm mspprd on lb« biMAoTlhaiiDiwya oiWl* by BrIUah ud Kaoilni offinn np to l«SI. Md wu publlabed tn Dtbrn Dun In Beptenlxr, 1W1. Ai illKbtlf ndond btra. Ii repnaenoi Ibl tarritory on n Mubt at ui Incb lo fotly mlln, Tbe ugiper brok'B nd lint ropmviiu iho buundiry of the lerrltory In dla- pule» ^vcu DB ihc nupof vbicb Ibis litbdcopr; tad liaJao appvun Id pmclKly Lha ■bda plaoa, Id the latent reduDLIOD of Ibc B4nalui daff map obialnnbla In St. Frii'nbarg Iwo ynin agoi bat Ibe lowar bnikan r«t line Indluiva what <■ nappnanl lo

■iHglnal frum which Iht map In Ia1ii']i,

��and Batum on the Black .Sea. From tkea«,| seaports, Russian steamei's, the best on the Mediterranean and Black seas, make quick trips to Sebastopol and Odessa; and railroads connect these cities with all parts of Russin, eastern and western Europe. Directly aci-ow from Baku (sixteen hours by steamer), on the other side of the Caspian Sea, the trangj Caspian railroad commences, runs to Askabadf (280 miles), and is being rapidly extendec towards Sarakhs {\S5 miles from the presenC i terminus). From Sarak lis to Herat 200 miles up the river llari Rud, or TajandA The construction of a railroad would be mor^ djfflcult between these places than Itetweei Sar.tkbs and the Caspian Sea; thougl must follow the tine of the river, there wouldTf be no obstacles that cannot be easily mounlcd.

Sibi is the present terminus oF the Indiaoj I railways, though the English government i^ I extending the line 135 miles to Quelta. 470 | miles fi-om 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 anil supplies fmm Sibi to Herat as from Herat to Baku, though the (lis-? tance is hut little more.

The Caspian line is the moat leosible anct shortest route for a railroad from Europe to j India.

Prom London tn Berlin

Thriiee by Breslau anil Lembui^ to Odessa. . M '

llj steamer to BHtiim 44 i

ByrailtoBukii ^|

Bj steamer si^ross Itie Cnsplan ....... IQ I

By rail to Askabii.l — "

From London to Askabad' {1 day*) ., . ni'l Tbetice to India, l.OOU miles, ill 49'-^

Nine days' runnbig time, if the rnllrnHiI n _

in operation, from London to India. . . £lt I

While from London to Herat, by the Suez Cnnal aii4 India, is nearly three times xs long.

The trans-Caspian railroad, fiom the Caspi- an to Sarakhs. runs in a south-easttrly dii-cc* tion, at the foot of a long range of mountains separating Turkestan from Persia. streams, every few miles, run down the sitli of the mountains into the valley, and are a lost in the sands of the desert. Wherevt these streams api>ear, there are fertile c This desert extends fi-om the foot of lUee mountains, nortb-cast to the River Osus, alx hOO miles at the Caspian Sea, and 300 mllta H

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