ACROSS THE KIRGHIZ STEPPES 45 
The first Russian “ town ” we passed on Asiatic soil was 
Kara-butak, which, like Rome, is built on seven hills, 
though it is somewhat smaller than the latter, as it only 
consists of thirty-three houses, inhabited by thirty odd 
Russians, about a hundred Tatars, and a few Kirghiz, 
'fhe only claim which Kara-butak possesses to notice 
lies in the fact that it is a small fort, erected twenty- 
five years ago by General Obrutcheff, to keep in check 
the Kirghiz, who were then harrying the Russian frontier. 
The vayenny natyalnik, or commandant, in command of 
eighty-four men, told me that his life there was no better 
than transportation, and that he could not endure it for 
longer than one year. His only distractions were reading, 
shooting-matches with the soldiers, and sport. It had 
been very different in the days when there was a daily 
post. There were several large Kirghiz settlements in the 
vicinity ; and several others all the way to Irghiz ; but 
south of that place they became rarer and rarer, until they 
ceased altogether on the border of the Desert of Kara-kum. 
