the d a rk ! I confess to not liking this, for the guides
were unable to give us any idea how much further we
had to go ; we were leaving habitations behind for
sand in front, and I had heard too much of Turkomans
to have unbounded faith in their honesty. It was of
no use, however, to object, and I was resigning myself
with a heavy heart when the Centurion, going on
ahead, saw, from a hillock, something that caused him
to exclaim, and very shortly I did so too ; for in the
distance were visible a row of lighted windows that I
knew must belong to houses o f Europeans, and it
proved to be the windows of the Russian barracks, 4
miles from Shurakaneh, at Petro-Alexandrovsk. It
subsequently appeared that the distance we had ridden,
instead of being 14, was 40 versts— that is, 27 miles
instead of 9. This, however, was soon forgotten, for
on presenting my letters we received a welcome from
Madame and General von Grotenhielm, the Governor,
in whose house we were not sorry to return once more
to the comforts of a Russian home.
C H A P T E R L IX .
P E TR O -A L E X A N D R O V SK A N D THE LOW E R OXUS.
By what route homewards ?—The Orenburg and Aralo-Caspian routes.
—A social evening at the Governor’s house.—Change of weather.
— Petro-Alexandrovsk and its institutions.—-Proposed desert
journey. B Arrival of tarantass. B Distribution of Scriptures.—
Results of Bible work in Siberia and Central Asia.S-The Lower
Oxus and its hydrography: its delta and fall into the Aral.—
Fish of the Amu-dariaB-Discovery therein of the Scaj)hyrhynchus.
—Geological questions concerning it.
A Q U E S T IO N o f prime importance to be discussed
on our arrival at Petro-Alexandrovsk
was, “ How should we get away a g a in ? ” We had
lighted for a moment upon an oasis of civilization, but
“ many miles from everywhere,” and so completely
desert-locked, that we could not proceed in any direction
without crossing hundreds of versts o f sand. We
were 400 miles west of Tashkend, in which direction
there is a route, on Russian territory, followed, I
suppose, by Conolly when going from Khiva to
Khokand, and striking the Russian post-route at
Jizakh. Another route attaining at Perovsk the
Tashkend-Orenburg post-track would be by the one
just mentioned as far as the Bukan-Tau, and then
proceeding north through Irkibai,— the difficult road
that was so bravely taken by MacGahan, the corre