The ideas of a man on horseback are different to those which occur to him when he is on foot.  The difference is even more noticeable when he is on the railway.  The association of his thoughts, the character of his reflections are all affected by the speed of the train.  They “roll” in his head, as he rolls in his car.  And so it comes about that I am in a particularly lively mood, desirous of observing, greedy of instruction, and that at a speed of thirty-one miles an hour.  That is the rate at which we are to travel through Turkestan, and when we reach the Celestial Empire we shall have to be content with eighteen.

That is what I have just ascertained by consulting my time-table, which I bought at the station.  It is accompanied by a long slip map, folded and refolded on itself, which shows the whole length of the line between the Caspian and the eastern coast of China.  I study, then, my Transasiatic, on leaving Uzun Ada, just as I studied my Transgeorgian when I left Tiflis.

The gauge of the line is about sixty-three inches—­as is usual on the Russian lines, which are thus about four inches wider than those of other European countries.  It is said, with regard to this, that the Germans have made a great number of axles of this length, in case they have to invade Russia.  I should like to think that the Russians have taken the same precautions in the no less probable event of their having to invade Germany.

On either side of the line are long sandhills, between which the train runs out from Uzun Ada; when it reaches the arm of the sea which separates Long Island from the continent, it crosses an embankment about 1,200 yards long, edged with masses of rock to protect it against the violence of the waves.

We have already passed several stations without stopping, among others Mikhailov, a league from Uzun Ada.  Now they are from ten to eleven miles apart.  Those I have seen, as yet, look like villas, with balustrades and Italian roofs, which has a curious effect in Turkestan and the neighborhood of Persia.  The desert extends up to the neighborhood of Uzun Ada, and the railway stations form so many little oases, made by the hand of man.  It is man, in fact, who has planted these slender, sea-green poplars, which give so little shade; it is man who, at great expense, has brought here the water whose refreshing jets fall back into an elegant vase.  Without these hydraulic works there would not be a tree, not a corner of green in these oases.  They are the nurses of the line, and dry-nurses are of no use to locomotives.

The truth is that I have never seen such a bare, arid country, so clear of vegetation; and it extends for one hundred and fifty miles from Uzun Ada.  When General Annenkof commenced his works at Mikhailov, he was obliged to distil the water from the Caspian Sea, as if he were on board ship.  But if water is necessary to produce steam, coal is necessary to vaporize the water.  The readers of the Twentieth