We left Batoum on the night of the day of our arrival.  The departure of the through train to Baku had been changed from morning to night, and this allowed of travelling by day over that part of the line which before used to be passed at night.  We had previously seen Tiflis, and therefore did not break our journey.  The weather was warm, but not such as to cause discomfort.  As we approached Tiflis the carriages and buffets became crowded to excess, with townspeople returning from Saturday-to-Monday holiday, the fine weather having enticed them out to various places along the line.  The railway-carriages on the Batoum-Baku line are very comfortable, and the refreshment-rooms are frequent and well provided, so travelling there is made easy and pleasant.  The journey occupies thirty-two hours.

We reached Baku on September 16, the ninth day from London, and arranged to leave for Enzelli, on the Persian coast, the port for Tehran, at midnight the next day.  Through the kindness of a member of the Greek house of Kousis, Theophylactos and Co., we were shown over the oil-wells and refineries belonging to M. Taghioff, a millionaire of Persian origin (the name probably was Taghi Khan).  The story goes that, on becoming wealthy through the oil industry in its early days, he presented the young township with a church, school-house, and hospital, and, in recognition of his generous public spirit, the Government gave him a grant of the waste land on which his works now stand, and out of which millions of roubles have come to him from oil-springs.  Our visit had the appearance of bringing him luck in the form of a new fountain rush.  We had seen all the works and wells; none of the latter were flowing, and the usual steam-pumping was going on.  We were about to leave, when a commotion at the wells attracted our attention, and we saw the dark fluid spouting up from two to three hundred feet through the open top of the high-peaked wooden roof erected over each of the wells.  On hurrying back, we saw the great iron cap, which is swung vertically when the pump is working, lowered and fixed at some height over the mouth of the well, to drive the outward flow down into the hollow all round and out into the ditch leading to the reservoirs.  The force of the gush was shown by the roar of the dash against the iron cap, and the upward rush had the appearance of a solid quivering column.  The flow was calculated at fifty thousand gallons an hour.  The business of refining is generally in the hands of others than the producers; but some of the larger firms—­notably the Rothschilds, Nobel Brothers, and Taghioff—­are both producers and refiners.  This means of course, the employment of very, much larger capital.