JOURNEY FKOM HERAT TO ORENBURG. 243 



construction is coarse in the extreme ; the wheels are 

 of an enormous height, and the fellies absurdly deep ; 

 there is no tire, but the breadth of the wheel is not 

 more than that of a common cart ; the naves are 

 exactly double the thickness necessary, and with all 

 this wood the body of the cart is not larger than a 

 good-sized wheelbarrow. The whole affair looks like 

 the " grandpapa " of the carts of the present century 

 in England. Iron is too precious a metal at Khiva 

 to be used if any substitute can be found, and con- 

 sequently the carts here have hardly a single nail in 

 them, and roll along screeching ludicrously on wooden 

 axles. Instead of using iron bolts for the different 

 fastenings, they fix them by a very strong glue which 

 they procure from Eussia, and which does not sepa- 

 rate by immersing the parts so joined in water. This 

 is the seat of the Inak, the brother of the Khan 

 Huzarut of Khiva, and a very powerful and influential 

 person in all affairs of government. He received me 

 very kindly, assigning me quarters in the house of his 

 Vizier, who is the brother of the Khan Huzarut's 

 minister. 



June llth, Thursday. Came on this day thirty- 

 eight miles, the road very circuitous, and through 

 the cultivation, which is divided alone by small 

 ranges of sandhills. I have never in India seen the 

 ground more carefully cultivated nor more densely 

 populated the whole country is beautifully wooded. 



June l'2th, Friday. Entered the city of Khiva. 



