THROUGH ASIA 
76 
recommendation of the governor-general, I was enabled 
to purchase the latest and best ten-verst maps of the 
Pamirs, a chronometer (Wiren), and a Berdan rifle, with 
cartridges and twenty pounds of shot. 
When at length my preparations were all completed, 1 
bade farewell to my friends in Tashkend, and started again 
on January 25th 1894 at three o’clock in the morning. 
I had not got farther than Chirchick, where I had to pay 
37 roubles (^3 H.s'.) for the ninety odd miles to Khojent 
and for eight horses (for two carriages were now necessary), 
when I was delayed for want of horses, d here was so 
much traffic that, although the stations keep as many as 
ten troikas, they are often short of horses ; and when 
a traveller is unfortunate enough to clash with the post, 
for which the station-masters are responsible, there is 
nothing for it except to possess one’s soul in patience. 
It had turned considerably colder again, and at nine in 
the morning the thermometer registered only i2°2 Fahr. 
(-11° C). The face of the country was hidden under 
snow ; but the road was hard and lumpy, and made the 
tarantass shake to such an extent that it was more like an 
instrument of torture than a means of locomotion. The 
quicksilver barometer was again in the utmost danger ; and 
to protect it I was obliged to lay it on a cushion on my 
knees, and nurse it like a baby. Through the thick, chilly 
mist, in which everything was enveloped, I caught occa- 
sional glimpses of the camel-caravans we met or overtook. 
The town of Biskent possesses a certain interest in the 
recent history of Central Asia, as being the birthplace, about 
the year 1825, of Yakub Beg, who in 1865 conquered the 
whole of Kashgar. He was one of the most remarkable 
rulers that have ever lived ; and his memory in the interior 
of Asia, where he was usually called “ Bedawlet ” or “ the 
Happy,” will long remain green. Ever since he was 
murdered in Korla, in the year 1877, the country has 
been in a state of great confusion. His son Hak Kuli 
Beg marched with his father’s army, which was fighting 
against the Chinese, to Kashgar, where he too was 
murdered, according to report by his brother Beg Kuli 
