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occupation of this "no man's land; an advice the adoption of which soon followed after the conquest of Merv, a place ridiculed by a certain class of English statesmen as a collection of a few mud huts, and certainly an unworthy object to make the British public nervous about.

As the country intervening between Herat and Persia had remained hitherto almost a terra incognita, we shall try to give to the reader, as briefly as possible, a description of it. In glancing at this portion of the map of Asia, the reader will discover two rivers which run in an almost parallel direction from the east towards the south, and then suddenly turning towards the north, disappear in the sands of the Karakum. One is the Murghab, which rises in the north slope of the Sefid-Kuh Mountains, traverses the mountainous district occupied by the Hezares, and enters beyond Maruchak the plain bordering on the Turkoman country, after having united with the Khushk beyond Penjdeh at a place called Pul-i-Khishti, i.e., brick bridge, or as the Turkomans call it, Dash-Köpri, i.c., stone bridge. The other river, the Heri-Rud, i.e., Heri river, rises 232 miles east of Herat, flows in a westerly direction, passing the places of Shekivan, Rusenek, Shebesh, and Tirpul, and turning near Kuhsan, goes in an almost northerly direction along the eastern border of Persia,

passing Sarakhs to the so-called Tedjend oasis, where it loses itself in the sands.

Now the country between these two rivers, intersected by other minor rivulets, such as the Kash, the Egri-Goek, the Gurlan-Su, the Khombou-Su (affluents of the Murghab) forms the so-called debatable ground between the Afghans and the Russians, and is really worth the dispute it gives rise to, considering its fame for fertility and the varied productions it is capable of bringing forth. In the southern portion we find the Borkhut Mountain, a prolongation of the Sefid-Kuh, increasing in height as it approaches the Persian frontier, and forming the principal branch by which the Paropamisus is united with the Elburz. Farther up, about thirty-six degrees north, we discover the much lower chain, called by Lessar the Elbirin-Kir, rather a succession of hills stretching to Pul-i-Khatun, whilst the mountainous district through which the Khushk and its tributaries flow, the so-called outskirts of the Paropamisus, are not of a much higher elevation, affording, therefore, full facilities for agricultural purposes-in fact, the whole district may be called arable up to Noruzabad and Sarakhs, where the desert begins.

The climate is very dissimilar in the various portions of the country; it may be called an agreeable one on the whole, excepting for the strong winds,

which generally blow from the north towards the south, and which gave rise to the whole district being named in ancient times Badkhyz-i.e., the place where the wind gets up. The vegetation can, therefore, be called not only a rich, but even a luxuriant one. Along the banks both of the Heri-Rud and the Murghab (says Lessar in The Scottish Geographical Magazine of May, 1885), "great quantities of poplars, mulberry trees, willows, and bushes of various kinds occur, so dense that in many places it is not only impossible to approach the river on horseback, but even to make one's way on foot. Fodder for horses is everywhere in abundance, and of good quality. The trees growing there reach no inconsiderable dimensions. In the district

between the rivers, on the sandy clayey soil, mulberry trees occur only near the springs, and pistachio trees are scattered on all the hill-slopes, for the most part singly, with considerable intervals between."

I can add to what Lessar says, that grain is found growing richly, if the husbandman be undisturbed by Turkoman inroads, in the whole country as far as to the north of the Elbirin-Kir, whilst in the country to the east-namely, on the banks of the Khushk and the Murghab-the profuse irrigation affords ample opportunity for all kind of cultivation, and grain, rice, a great variety of fruit,

thrive with small care. As to the mineral wealth of the country, the chief production of the plains is salt, taken from the lakes, which constitutes the chief export for the Turkoman population ; the quality of the salt is excellent. Other kinds of

mineral wealth may be found in the hills, and only await utilisation. If I remember well, I even heard of the existence of coal from one of the Hezares in the north of Herat; but, at all events, English geologists travelling just now in that country, will, I am sure, furnish us the best information on the subject. In conclusion, I must remark as to towns, villages, etc., that all the highsounding names which have of late come to the notice of newspaper-readers, either consist of a collection of a few wretched huts, or mark the ruins of towns which existed in bygone ages; for, owing to the constant dangers arising from Turkoman inroads, the whole country is desolate and deserted, and there is only the memory of the past which enlivens the fancy of the traveller. Starting from the Bundehesh-that curious repository of ancient Aryan legends, up to the Persian written historical records, reaching to the seventeenth century -we read in books describing this part of Central Asia, of the marvels of fertility for which the country on the banks of the Murghab and Heri-Rud was

noted.

But, as I said before, the wanton desolation by wars, the tyrannical despotism of the native rulers, and, above all, the depredations inflicted by reckless Turkoman robbers, have deprived the country of its splendour, and have made it naked and bare like the desert in the north.

It is therefore quite superfluous to remark that Russia had a sharp eye when she directed her steps towards this country, and when she began to use it as a wedge between Persia and Afghanistan; a wedge through which she will be able to extend, without any difficulty, her line of conquest towards Herat. In former times, want of geographical information induced us to believe that these out-runners of the Paropamisus Mountain form an impassable barrier to the traveller coming from the west, although nothing like this has occurred to the student of Oriental history in reading of the marches made by various armies, from Merv and from Persia, towards Herat. Quite recently that imaginary barrier has utterly disappeared. We know that

the highest pass does not reach beyond 900 feet, and the traveller could drive with great ease a calesh, four-in-hand, from Sarakhs to Herat. The passes leading across the Borkhut Mountain, as well as across the Elbirin-Kir, are very numerous, and present no difficulty to the invader.

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