  ROSAT HRI observations show complicated substructure in the X-ray surface
brightness within $\sim$5 arcminutes around NGC 1275 -- the dominant galaxy of
the Perseus cluster. The typical amplitude of the variations is of the order of
30% of the azimuthally averaged surface brightness at a given distance from NGC
1275. We argue that this substructure could be related to the activity of NGC
1275 in the past. Bubbles of relativistic plasma, inflated by jets, be forced
to rise by buoyancy forces, mix with the ambient intracluster medium (ICM), and
then spread. Overall evolution of the bubble may resemble the evolution of a
hot bubble during a powerful atmospheric explosion. From a comparison of the
time scale of the bubble inflation to the rise time of the bubbles and from the
observed size of the radio lobes which displace the thermal gas, the energy
release in the relativistic plasma by the active nucleus of NGC 1275 can be
inferred. Approximate modeling implies a nuclear power output of the order of
$10^{45}$ erg s$^{-1}$ averaged over the last $\sim 3~10^7$ years. This is
comparable with the energy radiated in X-rays during the same epoch. Detailed
measurements of the morphology of the X-ray structure, the temperature and
abundance distributions with Chandra and XMM may test this hypothesis.
