BAKER 388 BALAKLAVA Color Line" (1908) ; "New Ideals in Healing" (1909) ; "The Spiritual Un- rest" (1910). Under the pen name of David Grayson he wrote "Adventures in Contentment" (1907) ; "Adventures in Friendship" (1910) ; "Great Possessions" (1917). BAKER, SIR SAMUEL WHITE, an English traveler, born in 1821. He re- sided some years in Ceylon, and, in 1861, began his African travels, which lasted several years, in the upper Nile regions, and resulted, among other discoveries, in that of Albert Nyanza Lake in 1864, and of the exit of the White Nile from it. Upon his return to England he was knighted. In 1869 he returned to Africa as head of an expedition sent by the Khedive of Egypt to annex and open up to trade a large part of the newly ex- plored country, being raised to the dig- nity of Pasha. He returned in 1873, hav- ing finished his work. His writings include "Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon," "The Albert Nyanza, etc.," "The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia," "Ismailia : a Narrative of the Expedition to Central Africa," "Cyprus as I saw it in 1879," "Cast Up by the Sea" (1869). He died Dec. 30, 1893. BAKER, MOUNT, an occasionally active volcano in Whatcom co., Wash., belonging to the Cascade Range; very active in 1880; elevation, 10,827 feet. BAKERSFIELD, a city of California, the county-seat of Kern co. It is on the Southern Pacific and the Atchison, To- peka and Santa Fe railroad and on the Kern river. There are several handsome public buildings, including a public li- brary. The city is the center of a nat- ural gas, agricultural, and fruit-growing region. It contains foundries and machine shops. There are important gold mines in the vicinity. There are also deposits of fullers' earth, gypsum, marble, salt, copper, borax, iron, and sul- phur. Pop. (1910) 12,727; (1920) 18,638. BAKST, LEON NIKOLAJEWITSCH, a Russian artist, born in Petrograd in 1886. He studied art in Petrograd and Paris, and began his career as an artist in Moscow, where his treatment of polit- ical subjects in his paintings so dis- pleased the Russian authorities that he removed to Paris in 1906. There he took up stage direction and his work as an original designer of stage settings cre- ated an immediate impression. He de- signed settings for several well-known plays and operas, including "Salome," "The Butterflies," and "The Orientale." He designed stage settings and decora- tions for many plays and operas given in New York and several exhibitions of his designs and drawings were held in that and other American cities. BAKU (ba-ko'), a Russian port on the W. shore of the Caspian, occupying part of the peninsula of Apsheron. The naph- tha or petroleum springs of Baku have long been known; and the Field of Fire, so called from emitting inflammable gases, have long been a place of pilgrim- age with the Guebers or fire-worshippers. In modern times, from the development of the petroleum industry, Baku has greatly increased, and has become a large and flourishing town. Hundreds of oil wells are in operation, producing im- mense quantities of petroleum, much of which is led direct in pipes from the wells to the refineries in Baku. Baku, previous to the World War, was the sta- tion of the Caspian fleet, was strongly fortified, and had a large shipping trade. In 1901 and 1905 conflicts between the Armenians and Tartars resulted in the partial demolition of the town and costly conflagrations in the oil fleld. During the World War (1914-1918) Baku was the scene of severe fighting. In May, 1918, Baku became the capital of the new republic of Azerbaijan. The liberal government formed at that time was overthrown by the Bolsheviki in April, 1920, and Baku again was the scene of much fighting. BAKUNIN, MICHAEL (ba-ko'nin), a Russian anarchist, the founder of Nihilism, born in 1814 of rich and noble family, entered the army, but threw up his commission after two years' service, and studied philosophy at Moscow. Hav- ing adopted Hegel's system as the basis of a new revolution, he went in 1841 to Berlin, and thence to Dresden, Geneva, and Paris, as the propagandist of an- archism. He was handed over to Russia, in 1851, by Austria, imprisoned for five years, and finally sent to Siberia. Es- caping thence through Japan, he joined Herzen in London, on the staff' of the "Kolokol." His extreme views, however, ruined the paper and led to a quarrel with Marx and the International. He died suddenly and almost alone at Berne, in 1878. He demanded the entire aboli- tion of the state as a state, the absolute equalization of individuals, and the ex- tirpation of hereditary rights and of re- ligion. BALAKLAVA, a small seaport in the Crimea, 8 miles S. S. E. of Sebastopol, consisting for the most part of houses perched upon heights. In the Crimean War it was captured by the British, and a heroically fought battle took place here
