1

the dear friends on the Thames. Such polite but meaningless answers were vouchsafed at the time. when Russia rectified her frontier on the Gurgan with Persia. Of a similar tenor was the excuse sent, after the Russian victory at Geok-Tepe; and who does not remember the glorious tidings Sir Charles Dilke brought to the House of Commons, announcing that the Czar, in order to allay the apprehensions of the British, had recalled General Skobeleff from the scene of his heroic exploits, and that henceforward not a single step would be made towards the east, for it was solely and exclusively the intention of the Czar to chastise the reckless Turkoman robbers, and to put an end to that horrible man-stealing occupation of these lawless tribes. Humanitarian England exulted with joy thereat, and those who ventured to view things in a different light were stigmatised as reckless barbarians. A short pause set in ; but with the insatiable earth-hunger of Russia, who, as we related, very soon stretched out a feeler towards Merv, the party could, unfortunately, but a very short time enjoy their rest.

At the Russian plea that the last named place

had voluntarily submitted, even the staunchest believers in Muscovite promises began to shake their heads. Merv was the last straw which broke the back of the British ministerial camel, and poor Sir Edward Thornton in St. Petersburg had the worst

of it, for he had to keep up an incessant running from the Czar to Giers and from Giers to the Czar. At one moment he got a despatch from London to ask for an explanation concerning the seizure of Merv. The Czar gives a decided denial to the statement, vowing that he never had the slightest intention of taking Merv, and that he will never take it. Sir Edward telegraphs home the reassuring answer of his Russian Majesty; but, on hearing a statement to the contrary from London, he has to inquire again, and now he learns how displeased and angry his Russian Majesty was with his generals on the frontier, who always act in disobedience to his orders, causing so many, many worries to him. The poor Czar is really the most troubled man in the world; but, as a good-natured ruler, he ultimately gives in, and not only retains the object of vexation, but bestows even honours upon those who have trespassed upon his forbearance. This has been the history

and process of many Russian annexations in Asia; it would have proved equally efficacious with Merv, had it not been for the fact that this was the last drop which filled to overflowing the cup of Russian lies and breaches of faith. This fact startled even the most optimistic politicians on the Thames. The flood of English diplomatic despatches to St. Petersburg went on swelling, the machinery in Downing Street

was worked at a high steam pressure, and, strange to say, the anxiously looked for explanation had not yet arrived when Liberal England awoke to another surprise-namely, the seizure of Sarakhs, of a place which lies beyond the so-called Turkoman country, and could have nothing to do with the civilising measures taken against the Turkomans.

I call this new Russian move a surprise, although, from the very beginning, it must have been patent to everybody that, having succeeded in annexing the country north of Persia, she would glide down also on the eastern frontier of the same country; this all the more as the tract intervening between Afghanistan and Persia is deservedly called "No man's land," and, in fact, could not have been designated as the property of anybody for the last two hundred years, since when the Turkomans, becoming masters of the Tedjend and Murghab oases, have used this intervening track as a highway for their robberies into the interior of Persia. Of this fact Russia was fully aware, even at the outset of her conquering trips against the Turkomans; for attentive readers of Russia's doings in this quarter of the world will remember the elaborate report General Petrusevitch made, when Governor of Krasnovodsk, in which he earnestly advised his Government to thrust a wedge between Persia and Afghanistan, through the

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.e., 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,