234 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



Bushire they follow along the Mekran coast through 

 Beloochistan into India north of Karachi, where the 

 chain, which has been on foreign soil from the west 

 coast of Belgium, debouches upon British territory. 



These numerous groups and isolated subjects of 

 Victoria, Queen of England, Empress of India, are 

 simply the working force of the largest and finest- 

 equipped telegraph line in the world. From the Bel- 

 gian coast to distant India, there stretches one con- 

 tinuous long row of splendid iron poles, climbing over 

 rugged mountains in the Caucasus; stretched out 

 across the level Persian deserts in long, straight 

 reaches; protruding like black, tapering stems from the 

 white, glaring sand-waves of Beloochistan. My first 

 acquaintance with this remarkable telegraph line was 

 made at Tabreez, during my bicycle ride around the 

 world. In riding from Constantinople, through Ana- 

 tolia and Koordistan, I had been accompanied from 

 time to time by stretches of dilapidated Turkish line, 

 usually one wire mounted on rough poles, twice as far 

 apart as they ought to be and leaning toward all points 

 of the compass. At Erzeroum I seemed to have got 

 beyond the territory covered by the Turkish system, 

 and had ridden several days' journey into Persia. 



It was a wild, barbarous country about the Turko- 

 Persian border, inhabited chiefly by nomad Koords, 

 and I missed even the occasional welcome company of 

 the Turkish telegraph line. Its disappearance seemed 

 like casting off the last strand of Western civiliza- 

 tion. 



At that time I hardly expected to see another tele- 

 graph line until I should reach Japan, my intention 



