. All the Russias: travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. brownhills and the still blue sea the train runs slowly along for carries, as I said, its oil-fuel, and its water in a huge woodentank on a truck behind the engine, for the country is a desert,and the stations are merely the little white houses of the employees,appearing as specks in the wilderness. The low indented coast- THE TRANS-CASPIAN RAILWAY ^35 line, within a few yards of our right, reminds me of the Mediter-ranean coast, between Marseilles and Nice, but he
. All the Russias: travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. brownhills and the still blue sea the train runs slowly along for carries, as I said, its oil-fuel, and its water in a huge woodentank on a truck behind the engine, for the country is a desert,and the stations are merely the little white houses of the employees,appearing as specks in the wilderness. The low indented coast- THE TRANS-CASPIAN RAILWAY ^35 line, within a few yards of our right, reminds me of the Mediter-ranean coast, between Marseilles and Nice, but here there are inevery bay thousands of white-breasted ducks. For twenty-fivemiles the line runs across an absolutely barren plain; sunset findsus traversing a salty waste, dotted with scanty bushes, and when Ilook out of the window in the middle of the night, a bright moonshines on the same desolate scene. But at eight oclock nextmorning comes a sudden thrill. Over a little station are writtenthe magic words Geok Tepe, and I rush out to see if anythingremains to tell of the terrible battle and more terrible slaughter. Geok Tepe, the Old Ramparts and the New Railway. of 1881. Sure enough, on the opposite side of the line, only fiftyyards away, is the whole story, and luckily the train is accident-ally delayed long enough to enable me to make a hasty visit tothe historic spot. It is a rectangular fortress, a thousand yards square, formedby a high and thick earthen wall and rampart. The sides are rid-dled with bullet-holes—not a square yard is untouched, whilescores of gaps in the top show where shells have burst. Severalcomplete breaches gape wide, and one whole corner is gone—•that is where the mine exploded, giving both the signal andthe occasion for the final attack. Here raged for three whole 236 ALL THE RUSSIAS weeks an almost uninterrupted battle, fought by both sides witha ferocious courage never surpassed in history; here Skobelef,and Kuropatkin under him, won their
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecttolstoy, bookyear1902
