SPEED ATTAINABLE ON POST- ROADS. 205 



The rate of speed attainable varies according to 

 circumstances. If you are a Russian official you travel 

 fast, for both postmaster and driver stand in awe of 

 officialdom, and you have preference over ordinary 

 travellers in the matter of horses. One gentleman in 

 an official position told me that before the days of the 

 railway in Siberia he once travelled 1000 versts (660 

 miles) in forty-eight hours ! And a lady, the wife of 

 an official, travelled from Verni to the Chinese frontier, 

 a distance of 237 miles, in thirty-five consecutive hours, 

 while I was at Kulja. My own rate of speed, however, 

 rose little above an average of 100 versts a-day, horses 

 being scarce in parts, and long dreary waits at the miser- 

 able post-houses frequent. Thus I find that I occupied 

 thirteen days and two hours in driving from Tashkent 

 to Kulja, a distance of 1224 J versts, or 808 miles, of 

 which time 124|- hours were spent waiting for horses 

 at various post-stations, including a wait of 17|- hours 

 at Verni while my passports were undergoing exam- 

 ination. Allowing a further average wait of an hour 

 at each post-station while horses were being changed, 

 meals taken, and, as was often the case, the convey- 

 ances being repaired, I was on the move for 133|- 

 hours, which gives an average speed while actually 

 travelling of a fraction over six miles an hour; this 

 low rate of speed being due chiefly to the badness of 

 the road and to the slow progress we made at nights. 

 I remember reaching a post-station one evening with 

 both carriages in urgent need of repairs. On arrival 

 I immediately requested the postmaster to send for 

 the blacksmith. " Very good," he replied ; "I will 

 bring him if he is not drunk ! " I suppose he was — it 

 was Sunday evening — as nothing was done till next 

 morning. 



The country which one traverses is possessed of a 



