lines of junction with Chaman, Quetta, and the Bolan would most naturally be laid. permission Kelat and Some of my friends on our return journey con- Refusal of templated making a little excursion from Dushak over to visit the Persian frontier to the native Khanate of Kelat-i- Meshed Nadiri and possibly even as far as Meshed, a distance over a very rough mountain road of eighty miles; but on telegraphing to the Russian authorities at Askabad for permission to pass the frontier and to return by the same route, we were peremptorily forbidden, the officer who dictated the despatch subsequently informing me that the frontier was not safe in these parts, a murder having recently been committed there or thereabouts, and that the consent of the Persian authorities would have had to be obtained from Teheran, as well as a special authorisation from St. Petersburg-an accumulation of excuses which was hardly wanted to explain the refusal of the Russians to allow three Englishmen to visit so tenderly nursed a region as the frontiers of Khorasan. Kelat, indeed, is understood to be the point of the Persian frontier where Russian influence, and, it is alleged, Russian roubles, are most assiduously at work; and where the troubles and risk of future conquest are being anticipated by the surer methods of subsidised conciliation. Nadiri I should greatly like to have seen Kelat-i-Nadiri, Kelat-iwhich is a most interesting place, and of which more will be heard in the future. Visited, or mapped, or described, by Sir C. MacGregor (Journey through Khorasan'), Colonel Valentine Baker (Clouds in the The Tejend oasis East'), O'Donovan (The Merv Oasis'), and Captain A. C. Yate (Travels with the Afghan Boundary Commission), it is known to be one of the strongest natural fortresses in the world. An elevated valley` of intensely fertile soil, irrigated by a perennial stream, is entirely surrounded and shut out from externalcommunication by a lofty mountain barrier, from 800 to 1,200 feet high, with a precipitous scarp of from 300 to 600 feet. The cliffs are pierced by only five passages, which are strongly fortified and impregnable to attack. The entire enclosure, which O'Donovan very aptly compared with the Happy Valley of Rasselas, and which is a kingdom in miniature, is twenty-one miles long and from five to seven miles broad. Its value to Russia lies in its command of the head-waters of the streams that irrigate the Atek. In the spring of this year (April 1889) it was rumoured that Kelat had been ceded by Persia to Russia; but enquiries very happily proved that this was not the case. From Dushak, where we finally lose sight of the great mountain wall, under the shadow of which we have continued so long, the railway turns at an angle towards the north-east and enters the Tejend oasis. Presently it crosses the river of that name, which is merely another title for the lower course of the Heri Rud, where it emerges from the mountains and meanders over the sandy plain (the oasis is a thing of the future rather than of the present) prior to losing itself in a marshy swamp in the Kara Kum. Among the rivers of this country, none present more striking contrasts, according to the season of the year, than the Tejend. At time of high water, in April and May, it has a depth of forty feet, and a width, in different parts, of from eighty yards to a quarter of a mile. Later on, under the evaporation of the summer heats, it shrinks to a narrow streamlet, or is utterly exhausted by irrigation canals. The Tejend swamp is overgrown by a sort of cane-brake or jungle teeming with wild fowl and game of every description, particularly TEKKE CHIEFS OF THE TEJEND OASIS. wild boars. General Annenkoff's first bridge crosses the river at a point where it is from 80 to 100 yards wide. Then follow the sands again; for wherever water has not been conducted there is sand, and the meaning of an oasis in these parts is, as I have said, simply a steppe rendered amenable to culture by artificial irrigation, there being no reason why, if a more abundant water supply could either be manipulated or procured, the whole country should not in time, if I may coin the word, be oasified. The sands continue for nearly fifty miles, till we again find ourselves in the midst of life and verdure, and on the early morning of our second day after leaving the Caspian glide into a station bearing the historic name of Merv. CHAPTER V FROM MERV TO THE OXUS But I have seen Afrasiab's cities only, Samarkand, Bokhara, and lone Khiva in the waste, And the black Toorkmun tents; and only drunk MATTHEW ARNOLD, Sohrab and Ruslam. Appearance of the modern Merv-The Russian town-History of the ancient Merv-British travellers at Merv-Russian annexation in 1884-Fertility, resources, and population of the oasis-Adminis. tration, taxation, and irrigation-Trade returns-Future develop. ment of the oasis-Turkoman character-Strategical importance of Merv-Ferment on the Afghan frontier arising out of the revolt of Is-hak Khan-Movements of Is-hak and Abdurrahman-Colonel Alikhanoff, Governor of Merv-The Turkoman militia-Possible increase of the force-The Turkoman horses-The Khans of Mery at Baku-The ruined fortress of Koushid Khan Kala-Old cities of Merv Emotions of the traveller-Central Asian scenery-The Sand-dunes again--Description of the ancients-Difficulties of the railway-The Oxus-Width and appearance of the channelGeneral Annenkoff's railway bridge-Its temporary characterThe Oxus flotilla. ance of the WHEN O'Donovan rode into Merv on March 1, 1881, Appearafter following on horseback much the same route modern from the Persian frontier as we have been doing by The Kohik is the modern Zerafshan, which waters Samarkand and Bokhara. Merv |