It is known that the soil of Central Asia is like a sponge
impregnated with liquid hydrogen. At the port of Bakou,
on the Persian frontier, on the Caspian Sea, in Asia Minor,
in China, on the Yuen-Kiang, in the Burman Empire, springs of
mineral oil rise in thousands to the surface of the ground.
It is an "oil country," similar to the one which bears this
name in North America.
During certain religious festivals, principally at the port
of Bakou, the natives, who are fire-worshipers, throw liquid
naphtha on the surface of the sea, which buoys it up,
its density being inferior to that of water. Then at nightfall,
when a layer of mineral oil is thus spread over the Caspian,
they light it, and exhibit the matchless spectacle of an ocean
of fire undulating and breaking into waves under the breeze.
But what is only a sign of rejoicing at Bakou, might prove
a fearful disaster on the waters of the Angara. Whether it
was set on fire by malevolence or imprudence, in the twinkling
of an eye a conflagration might spread beyond Irkutsk. On board
the raft no imprudence was to be feared; but everything was to be
dreaded from the conflagrations on both banks of the Angara,
for should a lighted straw or even a spark blow into the water,
it would inevitably set the whole current of naphtha in a blaze.
The apprehensions of Jolivet and Blount may be better understood
than described. Would it not be prudent, in face of this
new danger, to land on one of the banks and wait there?
"At any rate," said Alcide, "whatever the danger may be,
I know some one who will not land!"
He alluded to Michael Strogoff.
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