62 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



Emperor, in his memoirs, recalls with loving recollec- 

 tion the scenery of Ferghanah — its snow-clad moun- 

 tains, its clear running streams, its green meadows 

 carpeted with violets. In his then dreary surroundings 

 these memories, as they arose, so saddened him that, 

 as he relates, he wept. 



While I have been contemplating the melon-beds 

 a line of native boats has come in sight round a bend 

 of the river below. Clumsy, awkward structures in 

 reality, at this distance they look picturesque. Besides, 

 moving along each behind the others, they give some 

 little appearance of life and animation to the landscape. 

 They are being tracked up the river along the further 

 bank of the main stream. The tracking ropes are 

 fastened to the summit of the tall, thick mast, and 

 each man of the crew, fifteen or twenty, perhaps, in 

 number, pulls by a separate rope. From here, where 

 I sit, neither men nor ropes are visible ; but when near 

 enough to be just in sight the effect is curious : the men 

 appear like ants harnessed to the mast, as it were, by 

 the section of a spider's web. 



Before the days of the railways the entire heavy 

 traffic of the country from east to west and the reverse 

 was carried on by means of these boats, and they still 

 convey a large proportion of it. 



Formerly these boats were also much used by 

 European families in ascending and descending the 

 river. A boat was hired, a sort of bungalow erected 

 on the deck, and the travellers performed the journey 

 carrying with them their servants and all the comforts 

 of home. The downward voyage was well enough, for 



