The most important are those of Russia, particularly the deposits of Baku, which, as has been related, figured in ancient history and legend. The unsettled condition of Russia renders an exact statement of the condition of its oil industry impossible at the present time, but prior to the war the Russian oil-fields had an output of approximately 72,000,000 barrels annually, or 15 per cent. of the then world’s production. During the past fifty years the Russian fields have produced at least 1,650,000,000 barrels; but, though this aggregate seems large it represents less than half of the petroleum production of the United States during the same period. It is believed, however, that Russia possesses great wealth in undeveloped oil fields, particularly in the south-western Caucasus. As yet the main part of the production of this vast country has come from an area of about 4,000 acres in the Baku region, near the Caspian Sea. Prior to 1870 Russia’s output of petroleum came from surface pits, dug by hand, rarely more than 50 feet deep. Boring by steam power after the American method was first systematically introduced by Robert Nobel, the famous scientist and expert in explosives, who went to Baku in 1873. Even in 1893 the number of bored wells in Russia was less than 500, but at the last census in 1911 wells of this type had increased to over 3,000. The Nobel brothers also assisted Russian oil production by introducing improved methods of transporting the crude oil, based on American experience, as well as improving refining processes through their own ingenuity. Many other companies operating in Russia prior to the Bolshevist régime have showed some disposition to follow their example, but the progressive spirit that has actuated the oil pioneers of North America has been lacking. One great obstacle to development which existed long before the Russian revolution of 1917 was the intractable character of the Russian workmen, encouraged, it must be admitted, by the reactionary spirit of the Russian capitalist. In contests between capital and labour much loss was sustained through incendiarism, and there are recorded instances where in a single night dozens of productive oil-wells, which had taken years to “bring in,” owing to the special geological difficulties of the Russian fields, were destroyed. Such catastrophes of course represent economic loss to the whole people; and Americans have good reason to congratulate themselves that in the oil fields of the United States labour conditions have been such that conflicts have been almost unknown.