ss, spread flat on their faces or
backs, uncared-for by everybody. Some sleep it off, and, if not run over
by a droshki, eventually go home; some sleep it on, and are eventually
conveyed to the graveyard, and nobody seems any the wiser except, of
course, the people who do not drink bad votka to excess.

Rostoff stands at the head of the Delta of the Don, a position of great
strategical importance, where of course the Russians have not failed to
build strong fortifications. These were begun as early as 1761. Now very
active ship-building yards are found here, and extensive caviare
factories. Leather, wool, corn, soap, ropes and tobacco are also
exported, and the place, apart from its military importance, is steadily
growing commercially. The majority of shops seem to deal chiefly in
American and German made agricultural implements, machinery and tools,
and in firearms and knives of all sizes and shapes. The place is not
particularly clean and certainly hot, dusty and most unattractive. One is
glad to get into the train again and steam away from it.

As we get further South towards the Caucasus the country grows more
barren and hot, the dust is appalling, but the types of inhabitants at
the little stations become very picturesque. The Georgians are very fine
people and the Armenians too, in appearance at least. The station sheds
along the dusty steppes are guarded by soldiers, presumably to prevent
attacks on the trains, and as one gets near the Caspian one begins to see
the wooden pyramids over oil wells, and long freight trains of petroleum
carried in iron cylindrical tanks. The wells get more numerous as we go
along; the stations more crowded with petroleum tanks. We are nearing the
great naphtha wells of Baku, where at last we arrive, having travelled
from Tuesday to Sunday afternoon, or five days, except a few hours' halt
in Kiev, Kharkoff and Rostoff.

[Illustration: The Baku Oil Wells.]

The first-class railway fare from Warsaw for the whole journey was fully
covered by a five-pound note, and, mind you, could have been done cheaper
if one chose to travel by slower trains on a less direct route!

CHAPTER III

Baku--Unnecessary anxiety--A storm--Oil wells--Naphtha
spouts--How the wells are worked--The native city--The Baku
Bay--Fortifications--The Maiden's Tower--Depressing
vegetation--Baku dust--Prosperity and hospitality--The Amir of
Bokhara--The mail service to Persia on the Ca