HOW SMUGGLING IS CARRIED ON.

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for kerosine. In one word, Batoum is a contraband centre, and fortunes are being made by taking advantage of its privileges as a free port to introduce without paying duty all manner of European wares into Russia.

This explains the bazaar-like character of Batoum, and the extraordinary expansion of its trade. In excess of its contraband intercourse with Russia, it carries on a lucrative smuggling trade in a smaller way with the Caucasus, which has recently received a great impetus by the suppression of the free transit of goods to Persia formerly enjoyed by Europe. Up to the present summer foreign goods could be landed and sealed at Poti, and conveyed thence across the Caucasus to Tiflis for Tabreez, or Baku for Astrabad, without paying duty to Russia. Envying the trade Europe carried on by this means with the East, Russia resolved to seize it for herself by suppressing the transit, and compelling Western wares to take the long and roundabout caravan route via Trebizond. One of her reasons for doing this was the alleged prevalence of an extensive system of smuggling, in connection with the transit across the Caucasus. Last summer the free transit was finally abolished, and the main result of this would appear to be, that all the old smuggling has been transferred to Batoum. The modus operandi of the wholesale smuggling is kept a secret, but that of the retail is obvious enough. Every night large numbers of Armenian and other merchants arrive by the Tiflis and Baku train, with very little baggage. Every morning the train leaves for Tiflis and Baku, swarming with Armenian and other merchants, who require a host of native porters to convey their luggage to the station. For quite an hour before the train leaves, the station is crammed with merchants and their mushirs, all groaning beneath the weight of bales and packs. In advance of mounting the platform all luggage has

to be examined by Custom House officials, and this is done amidst a scene of confusion and din impossible to describe. The curious part of the affair is, that all the packs opened reveal nothing but dirty clothes when the officials poke their hands into them, and that the revenue benefits little or nothing by the investigation. Yet, if the packs were properly rummaged, it would no doubt be found that they consisted largely of manufactured goods wrapped in a few old garments, and that much of the confusion and din is a farce arranged between the officials and the contrabandists to make appear that the examination is a genuine one. Thanks to this system of smuggling, pedlars recruit their packs with the greatest ease, and whole consignments of goods make their way to Tiflis. Things are so cheap at Batoum compared with Tiflis, that a man who wants a new outfit can pay his expenses there and back and leave a margin of profit besides by taking a trip to the free port to get them.*

It may be said that smuggling is a precarious thing for a town to thrive upon, and that if a purer atmosphere were introduced, Batoum would at once be subjected to depression and decay. Odessa was once a free port, but it had at the back of it an immense area of corn land, which extended its prosperity after its contraband trade was extinguished by the abrogation of the porto-franco privileges. At the rear of Batoum is nothing but uninhabited hills, which cannot be readily colonized by the peasants of Russia, accustomed to a different climate. Malaria has already killed off or driven away many settlers who arrived after its first occupation, and, at present at least, the Government

A few weeks ago, a correspondent of the Moscow Gazette at Tiflis described the visit of a pedlar to his house, with packs full of contraband goods from Batoum. The authorities subsequently made a raid upon the bazaar, and brought to light many thousand roubles' worth of smuggled goods, including hundreds of Persian carpets secretly introduced from Tabreez without paying the heavy duty.

EXPORT OF OIL FROM BATOUM.

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has no intention of rendering the country inland fit for European life by sanitary improvements. But there is one thing that Batoum possesses which seems likely not only to enhance its present trade, but also to sustain it if smuggling ever falls off. That thing is the best harbour on the Black Sea coast for the exportation of Caspian oil, and a railway already conveying to it consignments of petroleum from Baku. The petroleum export trade was in an embryotic condition when I was at Batoum, and it has hardly yet assumed definite form. Still, although the railway from Baku to Batoum was not opened until May, and the oil traffic did not commence for some time after, 8,301,289 gallons of Baku petroleum products were shipped from Batoum in 1883. The total number of vessels clearing Batoum in January 1884 was 140.

The export trade showed an increase last year upon 1882 of £250,000 to foreign countries, and £135,000 to Russian ports. The increase was largely due to the export of oil, which found its way from Batoum to almost every part of Europe, and laid the foundations of what must some day become an enormous trade.

At present there is only one packing establishment at Batoum. The kerosine brought in tank-cars from Baku is there barrelled or canned, and shipped to the Continent and the East. Nobel Brothers and other large firms, however, have bought sites for factories, and in a few years' time there will be a score or more in active existence. If the trade makes anything like the progress it has achieved in the Caspian and on the Volga, we may expect to see Batoum a great, prosperous, populous port in less than a decade, and fleets of cistern oil steamers conveying Baku petroleum from its harbour to every part of the West and the East.

CHAPTER VIII.

BATOUM TO TIFLIS ACROSS THE LESSER CAUCASUs.

The Transcaucasian Railway and its Present and Prospective Ramifications—The old Trade Route from India to the Black Sea, via the Caspian and Lesser Caucasus revived by the line-The future Russian Railway to India-Luggage Troubles at Batoum-The Batoum Railway: Cost of Constructing it-ShowerBath Railway Carriages-Lovely character of the Scenery-The Route must some day become popular with Tourists-Cheapness of Fruit along the LineTracking the Rion to its source-Romantic Views-Crossing the Suram Pass -Heavy Gradients-A Two Thousand Feet Rise in Four Hours-The Projected Tunnel-Congestion of the Petroleum Traffic-Ludwig Nobel's Plan for Overcoming this-Remarkable Climatic Differences between the East and West side of the Suram Pass-The Passengers on the Line to Tiflis.

THE Transcaucasian Railway, connecting Batoum on the Black Sea with Baku on the Caspian, is 561 miles long. Poti, which was originally intended to be the Black Sea terminus, is 24 miles nearer the Caspian than Batoum. The section from Poti to Tiflis, 196 miles, which owes its construction entirely to English enterprise, capital, and skill, was commenced in 1871, and opened for traffic a few years afterwards. The section from Tiflis to Baku, 341 miles, was taken in hand soon after the conclusion of the Russo-Turkish war in 1878, and completed a few months ago. The branch line joining Batoum to the railway at Samtredi, 65 miles distant, was also finished at the same time. The railway possesses only one other offshoot, running a short distance to Kutais, whence it is now being pushed on 25 miles further to the coal fields of Tkvibooli. A project, already sanctioned by the