. All the Russias; travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, & Central Asia. BKEAD-SELLERS AT A STATION the working party, and the passage of the sand desert, it pre-sented no difficulties, and the only engineering exploit is thebridge over the Oxus. But, as I said at the beginning, the as-tounding fact is that it is here at all. It was begun on June 30,1885 ; Merv was reached in July 1886 ; the Amu-Darya inJune 1887 ; the bridge, 4600 yards long, was opened for trafficin January 1888; Samarkand reached in May 1888 ; and Tash-kent soon afterward. Thus
. All the Russias; travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, & Central Asia. BKEAD-SELLERS AT A STATION the working party, and the passage of the sand desert, it pre-sented no difficulties, and the only engineering exploit is thebridge over the Oxus. But, as I said at the beginning, the as-tounding fact is that it is here at all. It was begun on June 30,1885 ; Merv was reached in July 1886 ; the Amu-Darya inJune 1887 ; the bridge, 4600 yards long, was opened for trafficin January 1888; Samarkand reached in May 1888 ; and Tash-kent soon afterward. Thus twenty years ago it was not thoughtof as it exists to-day ; the notion of it was even strenuously repu-diated by Russian statesmen when England grew nervous about. THE TRANS-CASPIAN RAILWAY 253 their intentions. Twenty-five years ago Samarkand and Tash-kent were only to be reached by adventurous travellers carry-ing their lives in their hands ; Bokhara was as dangerous and asinaccessible as the capital of Thibet is to-day; Andijan was un-heard of ; England would not have tolerated for a moment theidea of the absorption of all Central Asia by Russia. NowRussia has it all—for ever, beyond the possibility of internalrevolt or external attack; you **book to Kokand as easily as toKent or Kentucky; you are as safe there as in Calcutta orColorado; the raihvay has brought Russian troops once moreclose to the frontier of China, and actually to the frontier ofAfghanistan ; most wonderful of all, this line, planned andcarried out as a purely military work, is already paying its wayhandsomely, and has been transferred from military to civiladministrators. And it has brought peace and commerce andcivilisation, as Russia understands the word, to a vast regi
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