The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-06-10


vent many from crossing the ocean to spend
their money abroad. We have plenty of men
who "know how to keep hotel" Who
among them will commence the needed
reform?
The Rival Indo-European Railway
Enterprises.
The mammoth enterprise recently fore
Swallowed by the HERALD kilograms regard
ing an lndo-Russan railway continues to eX-
cite widespread interest Some days pre-
vious to our announcement of M. Lesseps'
plan of an iron way from Orenburg to Cal
cutta, via Samarcand and Peshawur, the
HERALD gave the first tidings of the silent but
earnest movement in England towards
similar work, destined to link London with
Calcutta, by way of Constantinople, Teheran,
Herat and Peshawur These rival schemes of
transasiatic communication are among the
grandest conceptions of the age, and, in the
opinion of many qualified to judge, are des-
tined to on early realization. We pointed out
in our first article concerning the English
scheme that the route which it contemplates
lies in the land of ancient splendor and en-
pire-in the land of the silkworm, the olive
and the rose-and, in part, through the GEN.
trail Persian belt, of temperate climate and
well watered, fertile fields After passing
eastward beyond the Persian frontier the
English road would traverse the less prom
Using northern portion of Afghanistan, pro-
tected, however, from the furious snow storms
of Turkestan by the mountain wall of the
Hndoo-Kosh.
Turning, now, to the Russian route from
Orenburg to Samarcand, the line marked out
by the great engineer Lesseps and really the
only one which is at present at Russia's COM
mand, we find the most appalling obstacles to
the construction of railway. Although the
former town is the fourishing emporium of
the Bokhara trade the intervening country is
swept in Winter by the most devastating
train would be safe, while in Summer the vast
seas of sand which intervene tremble with the
terrific heat and render the soil incapable of
any but the most precarious and scanty vege-
tation. The snow problem, it is true may be
solved, as it has been on our trans-continental
roads to the Pacific, although the precipita-
ton on the Asiatic steppes is much greater
and more insuperable than on our own Cont
nent But far greater obstacle than snow
confronts the engineer who attempts to span
the arid wastes which lie between Oren-
burg and Samarcand with an iron road.
When Alexander the Great commenced his
famous march through Beloochistan toward the
close of 1926 B. c., the Valley of the Indus
was like fragrant paradise compared with
the region he traversed to the northwestward
doomed up in its dazzling brilliance, blister
ing the feet of his soldiery, and the enormous
masses of soft, fine sand, shifted necessarily
by the winds, driftei into trackless ridges
obliterating every vestige of road, and COM
pelling his most sagacious guides to steer their
course by the stars. Indeed this region is less
easily crossed than the waters of the wide
ocean. In modern times the traveller finds
on the steppes north of Bokhara high waves
Of sand, constantly changing their place; and
one Of the most eminent authorities of Gen.
tral Asian geography has gravely expressed
the opinion that but for the shelter Of the
Bukan and Ak-tan mountains, to the north of
Bokhara, that city, with its 70, 900 inhabitants,
would be in imminent peril of being buried
beneath the surging seas of sand which roll
over the Kill Kun, to the northward. What
is true of the wastes crossed by Alexander is
realized, with more forbidding circumstances,
in the North Caspian Basin, the Khivan terri
tory and nearly the entire country through
which Lesseps would have to lay his
proposed railroad. Samarcand, lying about
one hundred and twenty miles east of
Bokhara, is supplied with water by canal from
the Samarcand River but the latter in Sum-
mer is dry, sandy bed, and those who de-
pend upon it almost perish with thirst every
Summer The country around for many hun
dreds of miles glistens with the solar glare
the winds are hot and blasting as the breath
of the sirocco, and man is enervated beyond
the power of exertion.
The water of the Aral Sea is not SO saline in
its taste for horses drink it freely as the salt
wells and springs of the rainless and mobile
sand bays which cover this more than sterile
wilderness. The few scattered wells lie in q
country interpreted with salt marshes where
the caravan is endangered from sinking in
the quicksand and where the construction of
railroad would be more difficult than over
on Alpine pass.
II has been the hosst Of N. Lessons that ho