The comfort and efficiency of the directing and the subordinate staff were the subject of equal anxiety. The labourers, whether Russian soldiers or natives of the soil, worked in shifts of six hours, and were free for eighteen hours out of the twenty-four to enjoy repose in their moving barracks and kibitkas. The sleepless activity of the chief was contagious, and his behests were obeyed with a devotion which few generals on the field have commanded. But when the arduous day’s work in the burning sun or the icy blast was done, the sturdy Russians were wont to break into song. Beautiful, indeed, was the effect of their melody wafted on the still desert air; and finer still the spectacle afforded by groups of the toilers, their faces glowing with the ruddy bivouac fire, while from their midst came the rhythmic strain of some chant, now breathing profound melancholy, and anon rising high in notes of fierce martial passion. General Annenkoff justly said that “one of the sources of Russian strength is that we are a singing people.”[643] And thus the work of piercing these hitherto unknown steppes was pushed onwards with a rapidity which was the wonder and envy of Europe. Merv, 352 miles from Kizil Arvat, was reached in fourteen months. The arrival of the latest product of civilisation at the old robbers’ lair was made the occasion of brilliant fêtes, and six weeks of rest were given to the toil-spent men. The works on the section between Merv and Charjūy began on August 1886. Here the engineers had to encounter an obstacle even more formidable than Chat Moss presented to George Stephenson. This was the famous sandy tract--a stretch of nearly sixty miles extending to a strip of land fertilised by the great river. It resembles nothing so closely as the mountains of the moon as seen through a powerful telescope. The eye ranges over a boundless expanse of sandhills covered in the near foreground with camels’ grass. Here, when the wind blows fresh, the air becomes charged with sand, which blinds the drivers and accumulates in deep drifts on the line of rail. At such times night-running is suspended, and detentions of several days are frequent. The construction of stone galleries was at first considered inevitable, but the expense involved was prohibitive. The desired object has, to some extent, been achieved by planting the saxaul, a gnarled shrub which thrives on the desert soil and throws out spreading roots for many feet. On the Merv and Charjūy section, too, the earthwork was far heavier than had hitherto been encountered,[644] and it is highly creditable to the engineering staff that 141 miles should have been completed in little more than four months.