of this new work and for which those military stations--Askhabad, Merv, Samarkand--standing upon the Trans-Caspian railway, and Osh, now serve as a line of advanced bases. It is, therefore, essential to consider in detail this fresh state of affairs; and as knowledge of the Orenburg-Tashkent railway is necessary to the proper understanding of the position of Afghanistan, the following study of that kingdom is prefaced with a complete description of the Orenburg-Tashkent work, together with the remaining sections of railway communication between Orenburg and Kushkinski Post. [Illustration: PALACE OF THE GOVERNOR, BAKU] The journey between St. Petersburg and Orenburg covers 1230 miles and between Orenburg and Tashkent 1174 miles, the latter line having taken almost four years to lay. Work began on the northern section in the autumn of 1900 and many miles of permanent way had been constructed before, in the autumn of 1901, a start was made from the south. The two sections were united in September of 1904; but the northern was not opened to general traffic until July, nor the southern before November, 1905. Prior to the railway communications were maintained by means of tarantass along the post-road, which led from Aktiubinsk across the Kirghiz steppes _viâ_ Orsk to Irghiz and thence through Kazalinsk to Perovski, where the road passed through Turkestan to run _viâ_ Chimkent to Tashkent--a journey of nineteen days. In addition to the galloping _patyorka_ and _troika_--teams of five and three horses respectively--which were wont to draw the vehicles along the post-road and the more lumbering Bactrian camels, harnessed three abreast and used in the stages across the Kara Kum, long, picturesque processions of camels, bound for Orenburg and carrying cotton and wool from Osh and Andijan, silks from Samarkand and Khiva, tapestries from Khokand, lambs’-wool, skins and carpets from Bokhara and dried fruits from Tashkent, annually passed between Tashkent and Orenburg from June to November. [Illustration: THE PICTURESQUE CAMEL] Of late years, the Trans-Caspian railway, begun by Skobeleff in 1880 and gradually carried forward by Annenkoff to Samarkand, has supplanted the once flourishing traffic of the post-road, along which the passing of the mails is now the sole movement. The new railway, too, is destined to eliminate even these few links with the past, although in the end it may revive the prosperity of the towns which through lack of the former trade have shrunk in size and diminished in importance. The line does not exactly follow the postal route; but from Orenburg, which is the terminus of the railway from Samara on the Trans-Siberian system, it crosses the Ural river to Iletsk on the Ilek, a tributary of the Ural. From Iletsk the metals run _viâ_ Aktiubinsk and Kazalinsk along the Syr Daria valley _viâ_ Perovski to Turkestan and thence to the terminus at Tashkent. [Illustration: THE SHIR DAR MEDRESSE, SAMARKAND]