6o 
THROUGH ASIA 
for contingencies of the kind, and be continually inspecting 
the vehicle. My astonishment may easily be imagined, 
when, on examining the carriage at Mesheh-uli, I found 
that the front axle was snapped right across, and only 
held by four screws. The staresta gave me the com- 
forting consolation that I should find a blacksmith at 
the town of Turkestan, about 120 miles further on, and 
he thought that the evil moment might be postponed if 
the driver went very slowly downhill. 
Yani-kurgan, a Kirghiz village, with a caravanserai and 
the ruins of an old Kokand fortress, was situated im- 
mediately on the bank of the Syr-daria. The road in 
places was miserable, and I sat on thorns, expecting the 
axle to give way every minute, which would have been 
anything but pleasant in the middle of the steppe. The 
endless monotony of the landscape was at this stage some- 
what relieved by the Kara-tau Mountains, which became 
visible on the left, looking like a low wall. 
At 'I'ash-suat, where the Syr-daria flowed in a broad, 
stately stream, visible to a great distance, we left the 
river on the right hand, and directed our course for 
the old city of Turkestan. The vegetation once more 
became extremely scanty ; but along the hard, level road, 
which not even the continuous fall of rain had succeeded 
in spoiling, we met a number of caravans travelling at 
a steady pace. 
At last we came within sight of the gardens of 
Turkestan, with its tall poplars, long grey, clay walls, 
in part new, though mostly old and ruinous, and its 
magnificent saints’ tomb dating from the time of 
Tamerlane (fourteenth century). We were soon driving 
through the empty bazaar — it was a Friday (December 
1st), the Mohammedan Sabbath — to the station-house, 
where a Kirghiz smith at once set to work to mend 
the broken axle of the tarantass. 
Turkestan, which was conquered in 1864 by General 
Chernyayefif, is at all times a ruinous and uninteresting 
town ; but in the rain and mist it became actually 
disagreeable. The only object that could at all justify a 
