The National tribune., 1892-09-08

sessions. 1t will bring them right down to the
Himalaya Mountains, and the English fear
that il will not be long before they swallow up
Cashmere The Pamir country now piactic-
ally belongs to China, but the Chinese are
said to have ceded it to Rcssa, and if so it will
make great difference in their march into
Asia.
The Russians are slowly but steadily swal-
towing up Asia. Russian Turkistan is an En-
pire in itself 1t extends from the Caspian,
the Ural River and the mountains to this Pam r
plateau, and it has total area of nearly half
The size of the United States. and population
of 6, 100000 1t is 1400 miles wide, and it is
1000 miles long from north to south. 1t is IN
habited by the widest of tribes, but it is said
TO contain some very good country, and since
the opening up of a part of it by the Trans
Caspian Road it has brought good deal OF
trade to Russia.
This Trans Caspian Road is less than FIVE
gears old. 1t was built as a military project
and it cost about $4,000 mile. 1t runs from
the Caspian Sea nearly loco miles right into
the heart of Asia, and it has opened up vast ter
ritory which was supposed to be almost impene-
frable. Since il has been built the people along
the line have improved, trade has increased, and
the probability is that it will be better civlizer
than 1000 missionaries. 1t passes through
Merv, and its terminus is now az SRmarkaDd.
1t brings you within 600 miles of India, and il
the RGssians acquire Pamir it may be that it
will be extended on almost to the foot of the
Himalayas.
The Russians are to-day in fact the railroad
builders OF Asia, and they doing more TO
civilize Asia than any other nation. Their
traders are found in all parts of west Asia, and
for years the fair at Nijni-Novogorod has been
frequcnted by them. They are DOW building
railroad across Siberia and of this they have con-
siderably more than 100 miles completed. The
line will cost in the neigborhood Of 100000. 600,
and il viii make the time from Nladivostock
TO Moscow about Is days. When this road is
completed il will reduce the trip around the
world to about ~ days. In this estimate l
figure that man starting from New York will
get TO Hamburg in eight days to Moscow III 10
days, TO kladiyostock, on the Pacific IN %
days and from thence to Vancouver in 10 days,
making 81 days; and to New York FIVE days
later; or total of IL days. This will reduce
sea travel around the world to 20 days, and tho
route will be a most interesting one.
Another interesting route around the world
will eventually be by the Trans Caspian Rail-
road. This will sooner or later be connected
with the railroads of India, and one can then
20 by rad from Paris to Constantinople
and thence through the Crimea and the
Caucasus till be gets this road on the Caspian
Sea and finally lands at Calcutta, where he can
get ships for China aud San Francisco. Or he
can 90 TO Moscow and thence by rail to the
Caspian and have an almost continuous rail
route from London TO Calcutta
By all odds the most interesting part of
Russia is that along the Caspian, the Black Sea.
and Asiatic Russia Russian geography changes
go rapidly that il is almost impossible to follow
It. and The maps OF to-day do not give you
fair idea OF tue Russian possessions, nor will
you find in the histories of the time good
story Of the Russian people. Some of the
finest wines / find here at the hotels come from
Russian countries that / never heard OF, and
the wines of the Caucasus and the Don are
very fine.
Bessarabia produces a very good quality of
wine. and there is champagne from the Cau-
casns which is quite equal to {" Mumm's Extra
Dry" see here the streets of st. Peters
burg tall Circassians with their breasts covered
with cartridges. and with silver knives at their