โ Scribed by B.F. Isherwood
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
A note in the M~moires et Compte Rendu des Travaux de la Soci(t~ des Ing~niers Civils de France (March, I9~4 ) , regarding the naphtha in the Extreme-Orient, has much interest in the present conditions of the Russo-Japanese struggle for supremacy in that region. The note referred to, represents oriental Asia as one of the richest parts of the globe in mineral combustibles. The area in l~urope of all the coal basins under exploitation is an aggregate in round numbers of about 23,ooo square miles, an area equal to only that of the Russian Province of Kasan alone. The extent of the coal deposits in oriental Asia, although they have received up to the present time but little attention, may be considered as incalculable. In addition to these deposits, that country possesses subterranean lakes of naphtha which can become in the near future the base of most important industries. Naphtha is found nearly everywhere in China, in Manchuria, in the U~uri, in Japan, and in the island of Saghalien, which island also possesses a very rich coal basin, besides its very considerable lakes of naphtha.
An engineer who has examined the coal basins and the petroleum deposits of Texas and of Pennsylvania, and who lms also made an exploration of the sources of the naphtha in the island of Saghalien, declared on his return to Bakou, that what he had seen in the United States was as nothing in comparison with what existed in that island. According to a report made by the consular agent of the United States at Vladivostok, the sources of naphtha near the river Nooteva in Saghalien, surpass in all respects the sources of petroleum in Bakou. There are subterranean lakes of naphtha in Saghalien, of which the largest alone has an area of about 72,ooo square yards.
A:ote by Translator. The marvellous development of wealth, prosperity, knowledge and power that constitute the present civilization of the world, rests upon, and is measured by, the conversion of the heat ot mineral combustibles into physical work; and as fuel and power are convertible terms, and as the wonderful renaissance of Japan has shown that the Asiatics are in no respects inferior in imagination, intellect, ingenuity and personal prowess to Europeans and their descendents elsewhere, while their command of fuel and of population is vastly greater, the question arises whether in the not very distant future, that " star of empire which westward took its way" may not have reached its zenith and commenced its retrograde eastward march. Tile figure of Macauley's New Zealander standing on the ruins of London Bridge, may not prove to be altogether a figure of rhetoric. Never ceasing change is the law of the Universe.
New York, June 18, 19o 5. B.F. ISHERWOOD.
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