592 rnrEportT—1883. 
vast population, its gorgeous summer-palaces, its caravan trade, its wealth and 
learning, its marvellous conquests, but, above all, its inviolate and holy character 
as a city of pilgrimage, made it one of the wonders of the Mohammedan world. 
Conquerors of Spain, Barbary, and Numidia, of Corsica, Sardinia, and Crete, 
the warriors of Kairwan carried fire and sword into the suburbs of Rome itself. 
Its influence upon science, commerce, and the arts—in fact, upon civilisation 
generally—has left imperishable traces. 
The recent capture of Kairwan by the French, and the desecration of its 
shrines, was to the natives a shock almost too great to be realised by anyone who 
had not visited the city before its fall. 
4. A Journey in Russian Central Asia, including Kulja, Bokhara, and 
Khiva. By the Rev. Henry Lanspett, D.D., F.R.G.S. 
The author described a six months’ journey performed by him during the latter 
half of 1882, of 12,145 miles (5,000 by rail, 3,400 by water, 3,000 by road, and 
800 in saddle, or cradle), having for its principal object the distribution of religious 
literature in prisons and hospitals, and the collection of ethnological and general 
information. 
Leaving London, June 26, the author arrived at Tobolsk on August 12, and 
steamed up the Irtish to Omsk, the capital of the new general government of the 
Steppe, lately formed of the provinces of Akmolinsk and Semipalatinsk out of 
Western Siberia and the province of Semiretchia, hitherto part of Russian 
Turkistan. This general government, with that of Turkistan (consisting of the 
provinces of Syr Daria, Amu Daria, Fergana, and Zerafshan), now makes up 
‘Russian Central Asia.’ In fourteen days from August 19, the author posted 
1,198 miles through Semipalatinsk, over the Chingiz-tau, passing the east end of Lake 
Balkash, and up the Ili valley to Kulja. Here he visited a Sibo encampment, and 
the Chinese governor at Suidun, after which he followed the post road through 
the towns of Vernoi, Auli-Ata, and Chimkend, to Tashkend. Dr. Lansdell then 
proceeded southwards to Kokand and Samarcand, and crossed the Hissar moun- 
tains at the Takhta-Karacha pass (5,180 feet) to Shehr-i-Sebz, where he was 
received by the Emir of Bokhara, and treated as a guest during his stay in the 
Khanate. Proceeding thence 148 miles, through Chirakchi and Karshi, he 
arrived on the sixth day at the City of Bokhara. Leaving this place on August 16, 
he passed through Kara-kul, and across the Sundukli sands to Charjui, a journey 
of 48 miles in three days, and then, with 6 horses, a tarantass, 2 interpreters, 
8 oarsmen, and 5 mounted guards on shore asa protection from the ‘Turkomans, 
he floated down the Amu-daria 300 miles, to the Russian fort Petro-Alexandroysk, 
reaching it safely on October 26. Dr. Lansdell then re-crossed the Oxus to Khiva, 
and twice had audience of the Khan, after which he left on November 2 for 
a journey of 107 miles on horseback through the cultivated districts of Shahkhavat, 
Tashaus, and Ilyali, to Kunya Urgentch, where a most interesting visit was paid 
to ruins said to date from the time of Genghis Khan. The author next prepared, 
with 2 interpreters, 2 camel-drivers, 2 horses, and five camels, to cross the Aralo- 
Caspian desert. Proceeding by the well of Karategin, the last shepherd was 
spoken with on November 10, after which the party met no human beings for 
eleven days. The route lay along the old Oxus bed to the Sarykamish lake, and 
then continued in a south-wesferly direction to wells at Uzun-kuyu, and 
Kazakhli, after which the travellers descended into the dry bed of an inland sea, 
and skirted the cliffs of Kaplan Kir. The wells of Sekhiskhan and Tuer were 
passed, after which, from the summit of the Sari-baba hills, was seen the Kara- 
Boghaz bay of the Caspian. The well of Demerdjen was safely reached, Suili was 
passed, and on November 22, after a journey of 403 miles from Kunya Urgentch, 
the party arrived at Krasnovodsk. Dr. Lansdell then crossed the Caspian to 
Baku, whenee, after visiting the oil wells and naphtha fires of the neighbourhood, 
he proceeded by the new, but then unopened, railway to Tiflis, and so home by Poti 
and Odessa, having fully accomplished the objects of his journey. 
ey 
