Progress of Commerce between Europe and Asia.--Success of the Russians.--British Indian Trade.--Alteration of the Routes of Commerce.--Negotiations of Russia.--Exports from India and Russia to Bokhara.--Prices of Merchandize.--Chintses.--White Goods.--Broad Cloth.--Velvets.--Nankeens. Cochineal.--Indian Goods.--Muslins.--Shawls.--Indigo.--Sugar.--Trade with China.-- Exports of Bokhara.--Silk.--Cotton.--Wool.--Skins.--Duties on Trade.--Abuses in the British Custom House.--General Review.--Russian and British Trade compared.--Opening for British Exports 422-444 CHAP. IV. NOTICE ON THE TRADE OF PERSIA. State of Commerce in Persia.--Routes, and their relative Advantages.--Description of Goods.--Hints for improving the Trade.--Singular Instance of commercial Enterprise related 445-454 * * * * * Observations on Lieutenant Burnes’s Collection of Bactrian and other Coins, by Mr. H. H. Wilson, Sanscrit Professor at Oxford; and Mr. James Prinsep, F.R.S., Secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 457 NARRATIVE. CHAPTER XII. JOURNEY IN THE DESERT OF THE TOORKMUNS. ~Journey to the Oxus.~ ~Sand hills.~ At midday, on the 16th of August, we commenced our march on the Oxus, which was about twenty-seven miles distant. After journeying for ten miles, we halted in the evening at a small village, and set out at midnight for the river, under a bright moon. For a great part of the night our route led us among vast fields of soft sand, formed into ridges which exactly resembled, in colour and appearance, those on the verge of the ocean. The belt of these sand-hills, which lie between Bokhara and the Oxus, varies in breadth from twelve to fifteen miles. They were utterly destitute of vegetation. There was a remarkable uniformity in their formation; the whole of them preserved the shape and form of a horse-shoe, the outer rim presenting itself to the north, the direction from which the winds of this country blow. On this side the mounds sloped, while the interior of the figure was invariably precipitous; but loose sand will ever take its position from the prevailing winds. None of the hills exceeded the height of fifteen or twenty feet, and they all rested on a hard base. The wind was high, and the particles of sand moved from one mound to another, wheeling in the eddy or interior of the semicircle, and having now and then, particularly under the rays of the sun, much the look of water; an appearance, I imagine, which has given rise to the opinion of moving sands in a desert. The thermometer, which had risen to 100°, fell at night to 70° among the sand-hills; and I have always observed that the vicissitudes of cold and heat are greatest among sand. About an hour after the sun had risen, we exchanged this dreary route for verdant