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102 PROBLEMS CONFRONTING RUSSIA
inexhaustible deposits of coal, which can be mined without
great difficulty and at comparatively small expense. Their
exploitation has been hitherto handicapped by the
insufficiency of transport facilities and the lack of industrial
development of the country. There is no doubt that with
the establishment of proper communication and the
investment of sufficient capital, a brilliant future awaits these
coal-fields.
In Eastern Siberia and the Pri-Amur region, the southern
reaches of the Ussuri River and the Island of Sakhalin must
be specially mentioned. The coal of Sakhalin is of excellent
quality and has the reputation of being equal to the coal
found in the Cardiff collieries. The region watered by the
Selinga and Burea Rivers, tributaries of the Amur, is known
to contain coal-fields of great magnitude. The coal-mines
of the Caucasus, of Turkestan, and of the Tkvartschelsk
district on the shores of the Black Sea are full of promise,
although they are only partially worked at present.
This stupendous wealth of coal supplies Russian industry
with possibilities which will assure to skilled labour, capital,
and railway extension an unprecedented reward and
prosperity.
Mineral Oil.—The resources of mineral oil in Russia are
as considerable as those of coal. The Baku oil-fields extend
over an area of 2700 acres according to the estimates
of geologists. Recently in the Apsheron Peninsula the
Surakhany and Binagody grounds have considerably
increased their output of oil. The oil deposits at Grosny
are also very rich. There is oil at Tcheleken, an island near
the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, near the River Emba
in the Urals, in the somewhat overrated oil-fields of Maikop,
in the Ferghana region of Turkestan, in Transcaspia, and
the Island of Sakhalin.
The right of exploitation of oil-bearing lands was sold by
auction by the State to the highest bidder. The royalty
to be paid to the State had gradually increased and had,
in some cases, reached 50 per cent, of the total oil extracted ;
consequently the price of oil had considerably increased.
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