FROM GOKTCHAI TO LENKORAN. 295 



possible out of the droves of mice who made a 

 playground of our prostrate forms. 



After leaving Tchaillee we got down again into 

 the plains, where the weather was much milder, and 

 travelling more interesting to a sportsman, since 

 wild-fowl began to abound by the roadside, owing 

 probably to the proximity of the Kiir. Between the 

 third and fourth station from Shemakha, the names 

 of which were apparently of such a crack-jaw nature 

 as to render all reproduction in English hopeless, we 

 crossed a tract of land covered with mud volcanoes, 

 some of which were as much as fifteen feet in 

 height. Here, too, we saw naphtha Avelling up from 

 the ground and running across the post-road in 

 large quantities. The yemstchik told me that the 

 whole country for miles round was full of it, but very 

 little was utilised, as the difficulties of transport 

 rendered the working of the oil unprofitable. 

 Should a line of rail ever be opened to Baku from 

 Tiflis, I should imagine that these naphtha springs 

 will become valuable property. 



Whilst staying at the next station after the mud 

 volcanoes, I was lucky enough to witness a passage 

 of the strepita or lesser bustard (ofi* A/r<7.r). These 

 magnificent birds were in millions all over the 

 steppe. The ground was grey with them ; the nir 

 full of their cries, the sky alive with the movement 

 of their wings. With them were a few small Hocks 

 of another bird, which 1 thought J recognised as the 



