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��[Vol. v., No. I
��Saraklis. TIil' rivers Tajand aud lliirgli-ab run from tli« mountains of AfgUan into the Bouth-westernpartof the desert, neiii'ly parallel to the Osua. until they are absurbeil by the Bands of the deeert. The old channels through which thej' once ran into the Osus 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 " a nightingale coiild fly from branch to hraut-li of the fruit-trees, and a c-at walk from wall tu wall and housetop to houaetop." The inonii- ments of the old cities are fre(|uently seen by the traveller, lialf buried in the sand. Sow the desert is traverseil 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 Tasb- kend, uortli of it. The former rout^' from Bussia to these cities was by rail to Orenbut^ on the dividing-tine between Europe and Asia (and the termination of the Russian railways), tiience across the deseit 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 daugeroiis even for the smallest steamers. At other sea- sons the route is all the way across the desert. It is 900 miles from Orenbui^ 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 ii|i the Volga to Nijni Novgorod. Olhcr car- avans followed. The Russian armies, with their supplies, which had beeu sent by the way 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 Tillis to Baku, and created a fleet of steamers plying on the Caspian and Volga ; has turned the course of the Asiatic trade from Orenliurg to the Cas- pian, and transferred the government of Asia
��from Turkestan to TiHis ; has led to the opeiml ing of the Caspian and the construction of the tmns- Caspian railroad ; and has hroaght Merv, Herat, and India forty days neai'er St. Petersburg than they were six j*ears ago, re- ducing, by fully three-fourths, the cost of trans- portation of men nud supplies, and o[>ening a new era for Asia. The great saving in time in the cost of transiM)rtation of men, niiuiitions of war, and stores, will amply pay the interest on the cost of the road, and itsoperating-exj^enaes.
England and Russia could easily unite in the construction and operation of the CasptuiJ road. They have a common interest,- " shortest way to their respeuti\'e dominionc The cause which threatens conflict betwet these two powers on the borders of Afghani**^ tan should be the ocatsion of peace. England 'I wants on the weat of India a strong and peiv ' maoent |K>wer, such as Afghanistan can u be, although supported by constant subsidiea, supplemented, when these failed, by an armed force. Russia, on her eastern boundary, also needs a strong and permanent power to re>J strain the wandering ti-ibes from despoiUiq her territory.
The English complaiu that the policy ^ Russia for a hundred years has been to ex*l tend her dominions in every quarter, and IQ I pmof point to the continual expansion of li^l territory. .Scarcely a century ago the eastent^-* 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 Se». Since then the Russian army has crosse<l the J Caucasus, conquered the whole of Circassia ' and a portion of I'ersia and Turkey in Asia, and pushed its southern boundary two hundred miles south of the Caucasian Mountains. It has pushed its south-eastern boundaiy down to the Caspian, around the head and eaatera shore of that tiea, leaching out to the Seit. ^ of Aral, annexiug Khiva, Bokhara, TurkesUn,^! and the Kirghiz Stepjies, even to the westePtt* boundarj- of China. Quite recently it b« nexed Merv, and threatens Herat ; and noir, 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 herleadin| statesmen, has assured England that she 1 reached her eastern limits, and as often havi these assurances been contradicted by flirtb^ conquests in the east. The English naturftlj^ regai'd these assertions as promises made on^ to deceive, and to be broken as soon aa t' hostile feeling of c;rcat Britain, aroused 1
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