Pipe-lines are quite a modem institution at Baku,
having only been introduced by Nobel Brothers during
the last few years. Previous to that the oil used to be

I conveyed in barrels down to the coast. Mr. Arthur
Arnold, M.P., who viBit<?d Baku in 1875. gives aa inter-
esting account in his " Through Persia by Caravan," of
what the system was then : — "All day long petroleum
rolls into Baku in carts of the most curious pattern
ima^nablo. A Neapolitan single-horse two- wheeled
carriage for fifteen people is unique, but it is common-
place in comparison with an oil cart of Baku. Few
men would have the courage to impwrt a Baku oil cart
and drive it even for a VC17 high wager through Begent
Street or Pall Mall. Where is the man who would dare
to pose himseK there, perched and caged in a little rail

Peart big enough to hold one barrel of petroleum, and
lifted BO high on wheels seven feet in diameter, that
another tub can he alung beneath the axle, the whole
thing being painted with all the colours of the rainbow,
and creaking londly as it is drawn by a diminutive h-Qtsa,



F

■ 200




I



A DRIVE TO THE OIL WEIX6.
