42 
THROUGH ASIA 
day in, day out at a giddy speed; but the landscape always 
remained the same. The tarantass was always the centre 
of a vast expanse without boundary or horizon, so vast 
indeed that it seemed almost possible to discern the 
globular shape of the earth. Spring is the only season 
in wTich it can afford the stranger any jDleasure to visit 
these regions. The air is then perfumed with the delicious 
scent of flowers ; for vegetation develops with incredible 
rapidity, in order to make the most of the short space of 
KIRGHIZ C.4MEL RIDER ON THE STEPPE 
time before the burning sun of summer comes to scorch 
everything up. 
As might be supposed from the physical conditions of 
the region in which they live, the sense of locality and 
power of vision displayed by the Kirghiz are developed to 
a high degree of keenness and exactitude. In a country 
across which the stranger may travel for days and days, 
without, so far as he can perceive, anything to vary its 
uniform flatness, and across which there is not the slightest 
indication of a road, the Kirghiz finds his way, even at 
night, with unerring certainty. Nor do the heavenly 
