. The boy travellers in the Russian empire: adventures of two youths in a journey in European and Asiatic Russia, with accounts of a tour across CURIOUS ROCK FORMATIONS. pipe-lines, or other means of transporting the product, and as long as theold spot holds out they prefer to stick to it. Our guide said there were about five hundred wells at Balakhani;there are twenty-five thousand wells in America, but it is claimed thatthey do not yield as much oil in the aggregate as the wells in this region. From the wells the oil is conducted into reservoirs, which are nothingmore than pits du
. The boy travellers in the Russian empire: adventures of two youths in a journey in European and Asiatic Russia, with accounts of a tour across CURIOUS ROCK FORMATIONS. pipe-lines, or other means of transporting the product, and as long as theold spot holds out they prefer to stick to it. Our guide said there were about five hundred wells at Balakhani;there are twenty-five thousand wells in America, but it is claimed thatthey do not yield as much oil in the aggregate as the wells in this region. From the wells the oil is conducted into reservoirs, which are nothingmore than pits dug in the earth, or natural depressions with banks of sandraised around them. Here the sand in the oil is allowed to settle; whenit has become clear enough for use the crude petroleum is pumped intoiron tanks, and then into the pipe-lines that carry it to the refineries inChorney Gorod. Some of the ponds of oil are large enough to be called lakes, andthere are great numbers of them scattered over the ground of Balakhani. A VISIT TO BALAKHANI. 423. MODERN FIRE-WORSHIPPERS FARSEE LADY AND DAUGHTEK. The iron cisterns or tanks are of great size; tlie largest of tliem is said tohave a capacity of two million gallons. There is no hotel, not even a restaurant, at Balakhani, and we shouldhave gone hungry had it not been for the caution of the hotel-keeper, whoadvised us to take a luncheon with us. The ride and the exertion of walk-ing among the wells gave us an appetite that an alderman would envy, 424 THE BOV TRAVELLERS IN THE lUJSSLVN EMPIRE. and we thoronglily enjoyed tlie cold chicken, ])read, and grapes which weate in the carriage before starting back to tlie town. We reached theliotel without accident, though considerably shaken up by the rough roadand the energetic driving of our Tartar coachman. While Frank was busy with his description, Fred was looking up thehistory of the oil-wells of Baku. Here is what he wa-ote concerningthem : For twenty-five hundred years Baku has been ce
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