er reservoir, which had been prepared for the oil
of a rival company, but which never came from their own wells.
Eventually the main flow of oil found its own level in a low-lying piece
of ground, about four miles below the broken dam.

As the fountain continued to flow with almost undiminished vigour, the
Governor of Grosnoje began to be alarmed at the damage which was being
done by this deluge of oil, and he therefore placed four hundred
soldiers at the disposal of the English engineer in charge, and by their
organized labour he was able to repair the dam, so that the flow of oil
was checked. A friend, from whom I received this account, visited the
place on November 27, and saw the fountain still playing to a height of
twenty feet, and also the lake of oil which had been formed. The lake
was about three hundred and fifty yards long, one hundred and twenty
yards wide, and from fifty to sixty feet deep. The fountain was still
playing on January 10, but it shortly afterwards ceased to flow. The
same company had another stroke of luck in again 'striking oil' last
month at another spot, some little distance from the original fountain,
while, strange to say, none of the other companies engaged in
prospecting for oil there have as yet succeeded in getting so much as a
gallon. All this flow of fortune to the one firm reads very like the
luck of Gilead Beck in the 'Golden Butterfly.'

Mr. Stevens, H.B.M.'s Consul for the consular district of Batoum, shows
in his report for 1894 that the demand for naphtha fuel is increasing in
Russia at such a rate, owing to it being more and more widely adopted
for railways, steamers, factories, and other undertakings using
steam-power, that the time appears by no means far distant when the
Russian home market may be in a position to consume in the shape of fuel
almost the entire output of the wells of the Caspian, and he adds that
probably the supply will even be insufficient to meet the demand. With
all this in view, the value of the Grosnoje wells, situated as they are
on the main line of railway through the heart of Russia, is likely to
prove very great.

I landed in a heavy snowstorm at Petrovsk on November 30, and found the
whole country under its winter sheet. Since October 1 all railway fares
and charges in Russia have been greatly reduced, and the policy now
appears to be to encourage travelling and traffic, which must result in
a general improvement of the minds and condition of t