358 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. V., No. 117. 



Sarakhs. The rivers Tajand and Murgh-ab 

 run from the mountains of Afghan into the 

 south-western part of the desert, nearly parallel 

 to the Oxus, until the} T are absorbed by the 

 sands of the desert. The old channels through 

 which they once ran into the Oxus can still be 

 traced. Formerly this desert was a rich, fer- 

 tile land, cultivated by irrigation, inhabited by 

 a vast population, where for hundreds of miles 

 44 a nightingale could fly from branch to branch 

 of the fruit-trees, and a cat walk from wall to 

 wall and housetop to housetop." The monu- 

 ments of the old cities are frequently seen by 

 the traveller, half buried in the sand. Now 

 the desert is traversed only by a few wander- 

 ing horsemen, or an occasional shepherd with 

 his flocks, and is sparsely inhabited on the 

 few oases that have been preserved. 



The great cities of Turkestan are Khiva on 

 the Oxus ; Bokhara, Samarkand, and Tash- 

 kend, north of it. The former route from 

 Russia to these cities was hy rail to Orenburg 

 on the dividing-line between Europe and Asia 

 (and the termination of the Russian railways), 

 thence across the desert to Kasala on the Aral 

 Sea, then by steamer up Sir Daria (the Jaxar- 

 tes) or through the Aral Sea, and up the Amu 

 Daria (the Oxus) . These rivers are navigable 

 only at their flood, and are very dangerous 

 even for the smallest steamers. At other sea- 

 sons the route is all the wa}' across the desert. 

 It is 900 miles from Orenburg to Khiva, 1,100 

 to Bokhara, and 1,225 miles to Samarkand, 

 and takes fifty days for the caravans to go 

 from Orenburg to Samarkand. A few years 

 ago this route became for a time impassable, 

 owing to frequent incursions of robber-bands. 

 A trader from Khiva, bound to the great fair 

 at Nijni Novgorod, was compelled to find 

 some other route : he crossed the desert from 

 Khiva to the Caspian Sea (500 miles), and 

 found it easier and quicker than from Khiva 

 to Orenburg. Here he took the Baku steamer 

 np the Volga to Nijni Novgorod. Other car- 

 avans followed. The Russian armies, with 

 their supplies, which had been sent by the 

 waj* of Orenburg and Kasala, were sent by 

 the Caspian route. When the Caspian railway 

 is extended to Sarakhs, Bokhara will be within 

 300 miles, and Merv less than 100 miles, from 

 the line of the road. 



The discovery of oil at Baku has built that 

 city, and made it the entrepot of all kinds of 

 stores ; has opened a railroad from Tiflis to 

 Baku, and created a fleet of steamers plying on 

 the Caspian and Volga ; has turned the course 

 of the Asiatic trade from Orenburg to the Cas- 

 pian, and transferred the government of Asia 



from Turkestan to Tiflis ; has led to the open- 

 ing of the Caspian and the construction of 

 the trans-Caspian railroad ; and has brought 

 Merv, Herat, and India forty days nearer' St. 

 Petersburg than they were six years ago, re- 

 ducing, by fully three-fourths, the cost of trans- 

 portation of men and supplies, and opening a 

 new era for Asia. The great saving in time in 

 the cost of transportation of men, munitions of 

 war, and stores, will amply pay the interest on 

 the cost of the road, and its operating-expenses. 



England and Russia could easily unite in 

 the construction and operation of the Caspian 

 road. They have a common interest, — the 

 shortest wa} r to their respective dominions. 

 The cause which threatens conflict between 

 these two powers on the borders of Afghanis- 

 tan should be the occasion of peace. England 

 wants on the west of India a strong and per- 

 manent power, such as Afghanistan can never 

 be, although supported by constant subsidies, 

 supplemented, when these failed, by an armed 

 force. Russia, on her eastern boundary, also 

 needs a strong and permanent power to re- 

 strain the wandering tribes from despoiling 

 her territory. 



The English complain that the policy of 

 Russia for a hundred years has been to ex- 

 tend her dominions in every quarter, and in 

 proof point to the continual expansion of her 

 territoiy. Scarcely a century ago the eastern 

 and southern boundaries of Russia followed 

 the Volga down toTsaritsin, about three hun- 

 dred miles from the Caspian, then crossed to 

 the Don, following that river to the Black Sea. 

 Since then the Russian army has crossed the 

 Caucasus, conquered the whole of Circassia 

 and a portion of Persia and Turkey in Asia, 

 and pushed its southern boundary two hundred 

 miles south of the Caucasian Mountains. It 

 has pushed its south-eastern boundary down 

 to the Caspian, around the head and eastern 

 shore of that sea, reaching out to the Sea 

 of Aral, annexing Khiva, Bokhara, Turkestan, 

 and the Kirghiz Steppes, even to the western 

 boundary of China. Quite recently it has an- 

 nexed Merv, and threatens Herat ; and now, 

 from the Black Sea and Persia north to the 

 Arctic Ocean, the Russian eagle is the only flag 

 that waves. 



Russia, again and again, through her leading 

 statesmen, has assured England that she had 

 reached her eastern limits, and as often have 

 these assurances been contradicted b} r further 

 conquests in the east. The English naturally 

 regard these assertions as promises made only 

 to deceive, and to be broken as soon as the 

 hostile feeling of Great Britain, aroused by 



