regions to which the oktriti list alone will procure admission. With this magical piece of paper in our possession we started without any further delay by the single daily train, that leaving Tiflis at ten in the evening arrives at Baku between four and five on the following afternoon. There we spent a day inspecting the peculiar features of the place and visiting the works of Balakhani, some eight miles from the town, where a forest of tall wooden towers like chimneystacks marks the site of the deep wells from which the crude naphtha either springs in spontaneous jets from hidden subterranean sources, or is drawn up by steam power in long cylindrical tubes, and despatched to the distilleries in the town. Of this petroleum industry which has reached the most gigantic proportions, I will say nothing here; because I should only be repeating secondhand what is already to be found in works specially devoted to the subject.1 I have the further incentive to silence that of previous visitors who have described their journey to Transcaspia scarcely one has resisted the temptation to speech. At 5.30 in the afternoon we put off from the wharf in the steamboat Prince Bariatinski,' belonging to the Caucasus and Mercury Company, which was frequently impressed by Skobeleff and his troops in the Turkoman campaigns of 1879, 1880, and 1881. As we steamed out on the placid waters of the Caspian, whose surface far out to sea gleamed dully under the metallic lustre of the

Vido a new edition of The Region of Eternal Fire. By Charles vin. London, 1888.

Approach

to Uzun Ada

floating oil, the setting sun lit up an altar of fire behind the pink cliffs of the Apsheron peninsula, which would have turned to ridicule the most prodigal devotion, even in their palmiest days, of the defunct fire-worshippers of Baku. On the other side a leaden canopy of smoke overhung the petroleum works, and the dingy quarters of the manufacturing

town.

At sunrise on the next morning rocky land was visible to the north-east. This was the mountainous background to Krasnovodsk, the first Russian settlement twenty years ago on the eastern shore of the Caspian, and the original capital of the province of Transcaspia. Thither the terminus of the railway is likely to be transferred from Uzun Ada, on account of the shallow and shifting anchorage at the latter place. Later on low sandhills, clean, yellow, and ubiquitous, fringed the shore or were distributed in melancholy islets over the surface of the bay. The whole appearance of the coast is strikingly reminiscent of a river delta, a theory which is in close harmony with the admitted geological fact that the Oxus once emptied itself by one at least of its mouths. or tributaries into the Balkan Bay. Soon we entered a narrow channel, at the extremity of which the masts of ships, the smoking funnels of steamers, and several projecting wooden piers and wharves indicated a position of considerable commercial activity; and at 2.30 P.M. were moored to the landing stage of Uzun Ada, on which appeared to be gathered the entire population of the settlement, whose sole distraction.

the arrival and departure of the steamer must be. This is the present starting point of the Transcaspian Railway; and here accordingly I pause to give a historical retrospect of the origin, raison d'être, construction and character of this important undertaking. Let any reader who revolts against dull detail omit the next chapter.

D

CHAPTER III

THE TRANSCASPIAN RAILWAY

I'll put a girdle round about the earth

In forty minutes.

SHAKSPEARE, Midsummer Night's Dream, Act ii. sc. i.

Origin of the idea of a Central Asian railway-Scheme of M. Ferdinand de Lesseps-Attitude of England-Idea of a Transcaspian railway Adoption of the plan by Skobeleff-Completion to Kizil Arvat in December 1881-Ideas of further extension-Opposition to the Transcaspian scheme-Extension from Kizil Arvat to the Oxus -- From the Oxus to Samarkand-Technical information about the line -Exclusively military character-Material of the lineCharacter and pay of the workmen-Method of construction-Cost - Facilities of construction-Difficulties of water-Difficulties of sand Contrivances to resist the sands-Difficulty of fuel and lighting Rolling stock of the railway-Stations-Duration and cost of journey,

VERY early after the Russian occupation of Turkestan in 1865 - I must ask my readers to bear very closely in mind the distinction between Turkestan, or Central Asia proper, the capital of which is Tashkent, and Turkomania, or the country of the Turkomans, which extends from the Caspian to Merv-and its conversion into a Russian possession, administered by a Governor General, in 1867, the question of more

d communication with Europe was raised. For ne the idea was entertained that the streams of