168 TEE TRANSGASPIAN RAILWAY IN 1903. 



sidered that he laid a way 4600 yards in length, includ- 

 ing 2270 yards of water-way, resting upon no less than 

 3330 wooden piles, between June 1887 and January 

 1888, for the very moderate sum of £44,000,^ he must 

 certainly be credited with an excellent performance. 



In September 1887 the 216 miles between the Oxus 

 and Samarkand were taken in hand, the latter place 

 being reached in May 1888, and by June 1 trains were 

 running regularly from the Caspian to the ancient 

 capital of Timur, a distance of 879 miles. Here for 

 the moment the railway halted; but in 1895 works 

 were begun for the prolongation of the line to Andijan 

 and Tashkent, a distance altogether of 401 miles, and 

 at the present time trains run regularly to both these 

 places. In addition to the main line, a branch of 192 

 miles has been built from Merve to Kushk on the 

 Afghan frontier, which has been open to traffic since 

 1899. 



Such in brief is the history of the construction of 

 the Transcaspian railway ; let me now invite the reader 

 to accompany me in a journey over it as it exists at 

 the present day. 



At five o'clock one evening towards the end of April 

 I boarded the steamship Skoheleff, a new vessel belong- 

 ing to the Mercury and Caucasus Steam Navigation 

 Company, lit throughout with electric light, and pos- 

 sessed of comfortable cabins and an excellent cuisine, 

 and two hours later we left noisy, smelly, money- 

 making Baku behind and steamed eastward into the 

 night. Seventeen or eighteen hours is ample time to 

 cross the Caspian in fine weather, and by midday, the 



1 This is the sum given in Messrs Skrine and Eoss's ' Heart of Asia ' as 

 the actual cost, without the pay of transport, and of the railway battalion 

 engaged in erecting it. In Lord Curzon's ' Eussia in Central Asia ' the cost 

 is stated to have been only £30,000. 



