dertook to find out. He raised the hammer to full cock, and,
placing the muzzle in his mouth, he blew down the barrel, with his
finger on the cap nipple, to feel if the air passed through. He naively
explained to me the certainty of this mode of discovering whether a
percussion arm is loaded or not. In this instance the pistol was thought
to be loaded, but it was found to be only choked with rust.

I had intended to return _via_ Constantinople, but on arrival at Baku I
learnt that the damage done to the railway between Tiflis and Batoum by
a storm of unprecedented fury and unusually heavy floods was so extended
and bad as to stop all traffic for a long time. I went to Oujari, a
station one hundred and sixty miles from Baku, where I was hospitably
entertained by Mr. Andrew Urquhart, a Scotch gentleman, established
there with a factory and hydraulic presses for the liquorice-root
industry, and from there I entered into telegraphic communication with
Tiflis to ascertain if I could get a carriage to Vladikavkas, so as to
join the railway and proceed home through Russia. There was such a
number of passengers detained at Tiflis, _en route_ to Batoum, and all
anxious to go to Vladikavkas by road, that I found I should have to wait
long for my turn. Accordingly, after six days' stay with my hospitable
friend, I went back to Baku and took steamer to Petrovsk, whence I
travelled by rail to Moscow and St. Petersburg on my way to England
_via_ Berlin.

A great petroleum field is now being developed near Grosnoje, a station
on the Petrovsk Vladikavkas railway, north of the main Caucasus range;
and an English company has had the good fortune, after venturing much,
to find the fountain for which they and others have long looked. After
carrying on 'sounding' operations for some time, and sinking several
wells, oil was at length 'struck' towards the end of August at a depth
of three hundred and fifty feet, and it came up with such force as to
reach a height of five hundred feet above ground. The well was on a
hillside, and the valley below had been dammed up previously to form a
reservoir capable of holding a large supply of oil. But such was the
flow from the fountain, that after a few days it rose above the dam,
and, although every effort was made to raise and strengthen it, the oil
overflowed, and the top of the dyke was carried away. Millions of
gallons were lost, though on its course down the valley the oil
completely filled anoth