On hurrying back, we saw the great iron cap, which is swung vertically when the pump is working, lowered and fixed at some height over the mouth of the well, to drive the outward flow down into the hollow all round and out into the ditch leading to the reservoirs.

The force of the gush was shown by the roar of the dash against the iron cap, and the upward rush had the appearance of a solid quivering column.

The flow was calculated at fifty thousand gallons an hour.

The business of refining is generally in the hands of others than the producers; but some of the larger firms--notably the Rothschilds, Nobel Brothers, and Taghioff--are both producers and refiners.

This means of course, the employment of very, much larger capital.
There is a great dash of the gambling element in the oil-well business at Baku.