FROM GOKTCHAI TO LEMtORAN. 289 



ing week, leaving their cart with the baggage to 

 take care of itself. 



I used to believe, before I saw Aksu, that no- 

 where in the world did magpies more abound than 

 in Galway round Loughrea, or in some favoured 

 parts of France ; but here in Aksu I counted seven- 

 teen of these poaching rascals all together like a 

 flock of sparrows. In the hills halfway between 

 Aksu and Shemakha I saw quite a mob of eagles 

 and hawks, busy, I presume, with the half-frozen 

 smaller birds and hares. Two or three lammer- 

 geiers tempted me to a prolonged chase ; but 

 though I hit two of them, my number four shot 

 would not bring them down, and I confess to 

 being unable to touch them with my rifle, in spite 

 of their slow wheeling flight. 



Shemakha is not a town to detain a weary 

 traveller long. The only inn I could find was an 

 underground 'duchan,' to which access was obtained 

 by a flight of stone steps leading from the road 

 above to a kind of vault, in which puddles stood 

 on the floor, drained off from the mud above ; and 

 here the cooking and liquor were as infamous as 

 the accommodation. Shemakha is mainly com- 

 posed of flat-topped Asiatic houses and a few 

 smart new ones of the common Russian stamp, 

 with white plastered sides and green roofs that 

 looked bitterly cold and out of place in their 

 setting of snow and winter storm. 



u 



