150 THROUGH THE PORTALS OF PERSIA. 



the gun square and into the slums beyond, I supposed 

 that I had started. Not at all. By the time we 

 reached the carriage depot, just outside the town walls, 

 my driver (oh, clever one !) discovered that we had no 

 lamps, and when the lamps were found to be missing 

 it was further discovered that there were no brackets 

 to hold them even if there had been any. I spent an 

 interesting half- hour watching a cautious carpenter 

 drilling holes, putting in screws, and finally, when, 

 more Persico, he found he had drilled holes too large 

 for the screws, tying everything up with string, and 

 then at last we started. It was all a silly, useless 

 waste of time, because the lamps, like those of the 

 foolish virgins, when required for use were found to 

 contain no oil ! These are the little matters which 

 keep you informed that you are in Persia. 



For the first half of the journey the road runs over 

 a level plain and passes through Kazvin, a fair-sized 

 town, and centre, so to speak, of recent E-ussian con- 

 cessions for road -making. Thirty miles beyond, one 

 plunges headlong down the mountains along a fairly 

 well-planned mountain road, which presently launches 

 you through a belt of olives into the riotous profusion 

 of the woods below, and finally on to a jungle-covered 

 plain which stretches from the mountain base to the 

 shores of the Caspian Sea. At one end of this plain is 

 situated Resht, the capital of Ghilan, a town of 70,000 

 inhabitants and centre of the silk industry, which since 

 its recovery in 1893, after a period of extinction due to 

 disease, has steadily increased, and is now carried on 

 on a larger scale than at any previous period of its 

 history, the disease difiiculty having been got over by 

 importing all the eggs from Europe and Asia Minor. 

 Here the carriage service ends, which again calls to 

 your mind the fact that you are in Persia, because you 



