BOOKS.

RUSSIAN CENTRAL ASIA.* Mu readers of .Dr. Lansdell's former work on Siberia will not require to be told that he is an observant and entertaining traveller. These two volumes will, we think, confirm his repu- tation in the former character, and qualify it in the latter.

-*Russian Central Asia, including XuZdja, Bokhara' Khiva' and Herr. By Henry Lansdell, D.D. With Frontispiece, Maps, and LUnstrations. .2 vole. London : Sampson Low and Co. 1885.

The most friendly critic will pause before declaring this work anything but heavy reading. With judicious skipping, the two volumes may, no doubt, be read from beginning to end, and those portions relating to the journey will be generally allowed to be of great interest. But Dr. Lansdell is not content to be a traveller. He endeavours to combine with that char- acter the parts of historian and man of science. With regard to his history, which occupies no inconsiderable part of these two bulky volumes of nearly 1,400 pages, it may be said that most of it might be dispensed with, as it is culled from easily accessible sources, and adds absolutely nothing new to our information. And the scientific descriptions in the body of the book might have been judiciously compressed, seeing that there is a copious appendix of flora and fauna at the end of the second volume. Had these simple principles been observed, we should have had a much more interesting book than this is, and one of about half its dimensions. One word more, and we have done with adverse criticism. We fail to see what connection the two chapters on the prisons of Siberia and St. Petersburg have with Russian Central Asia, even although some of the author's previous statements on the subject have not commanded the complete assent which possibly they deserved.

Dr. Lansdell's journey was a very remarkable one, even in these days of extensive travel and of the opening up of regions long inaccessible to Europeans. It was remarkable for the rapidity with which it was performed, as well as for the distance traversed. Dr. Lansdell computes his journey to have covered 12,000 miles, and his absence from England being only 179 days, it follows that he travelled on an average nearly 70 miles a day. He also says that he slept half the nights in his clothes. Dr. Lansdell would have been unable to accomplish this feat but forthe general support accorded him by the Russian officials, who were ordered by the highest personages in the Empire to give him every assistance not merely in his travels, but also in collect- ing information and in distributing his tracts. It is unnecessary to inquire too closely whether they were actuated in this by a belief that the Russian Government would find in Dr. Lansdell a friendly critic ; it is sufficient to say that a very considerable time will have to elapse before another English traveller will find himself in as favourable a position for exploration in Russian Central Asia as it was Dr. Lansdell's good fortune to enjoy. We had marked many passages referring to the obligations conferred by Russian officers on our author ; but perhaps the following incident, which happened at Semipalatinsk, will serve to show how great these were :— "After this flourish of truMpets respecting the trade of the capital, it will sound somewhat strange that our departure was delayed by reason of our being unable to purchase throughout the town a sufficiency of white bread. Foreseeing that we should have to travel many miles before we could reckon on the possibility of replenishing our stores, we purchased sundry provisions, leaving the article of bread to the last so that it might be new ; but we could find only one baker of white bread, a German, who inveighed against the badness of the local flour, and said that he should leave the place. He could promise no supplies till next morning, and thus we were prevented starting on Thursday night. The incident tended, however, to evoke a well-known trait of Russian character. The Governor. General's telegram commended me not only to the good offices in general but also to the hospitality of the authorities, and this proved to be no empty form, for when in the evening, after a call from Mr. Michaelis, General Protzenko did me the honour of a visit, and I mentioned that we were delayed for lack of bread, his Excellency expressed his regret that his own cuisine was already packed and started, and asked Colonel Ilyinsky, Chief of the Staff, to come to the rescue. We had already tried to purchase from one or two private persons, but they had only sufficient bread for the day. Early next morning, however, good things were showered upon us in abundance. Not only did the baker bring his tale of loaves, but Mr. Michaelis added to their number, and Colonel Ilyinsk-y himself brought us bread, butter, cakes and jam, and wished us bon voyage t"

But the most cordial assistance of the R,ussian officials could not remove all the natural difficulties of travelling in Central Asia, and many times our author had to undergo hardships and deprivations which would effectually deter the ordinary tourist

from proceeding to any part of the Czar's dominions between the Irtish and the ()KIM Travelling is performed in the northern part of this region by tarantass from one post-house to another; and Dr. Lansdell gives the following account of how

highly inconvenient this may be :—

"It was a picket of the most desolate—the most miserable station we had seen' —a tumbledown house in the desert. Here we breakfasted, and took our morning wash, but both under difficulties. One of the inconveniences' of post-travelling in Asiatic Russia is the absence of good lavatory accommodation. The common method among the Russian peasants of washing the hands is-to place them beneath a bowl of water fixed at a height, out of which a stream trickles. Oral accustomed, therefore, to the orthodox 'tub' wherein to splash about finds himself inconveniently restricted in his trilet. Moreover, as these washing contrivances in Asia are frequently placed out of doors in the yard, it will be understood what a comfort it was to have brought with me an indiarubber basin. Some travellers had arrived before us—an officer, I think, and his wife—who consequently occupied the guest- chamber, and there being no room for us in the inn the post-mistress brought the samovar outside the stable and spread for us a table in the wilderness. AB around was a barren steppe, without a blade of vegetation the horses could eat. It was truly pitiable to see them crawling around us almost starved. It appeared that their usual supply of corn had not been brought, and the poor creatures were trying to pick up the handfuls of chaff lying about. I offered them a piece of white bread, but they would not eat it, and I began to wonder how we should get on. It was needless to ask whether

the post-master had horses. There were plenty before us, but they were reputed to be sick, and they certainly looked so. Nor did they possess at this station tar enough to lubricate the wheels of our waggonette. A fine place truly to be stuck fast,' at the mercy of a Cossack post-master, till his horses could be fattened for work ! Bat, most fortunately, the news of our coming had preceded us, and they said that we should have horses."

Dr. Lansdell has necessarily a great deal to say about the natural resources of Turkestan ; and one of many interesting passages on the mineral wealth of Kuldja, the province which was recently restored to the Chinese, is given in the form of a foot-note. From this we learn that mines were worked by means of vertical inclined shafts. The Chinese used to form com- panies of eight men, who worked on co-operative principles. The Calmucks served under Tungan or Tarantchi capitalists, and generally in gangs of twelve. Under this old arrange- ment coal, owing to the cheapness of labour and other essentials, sold at the pit's month for three-farthings a hundredweight. Dr. Lansdell procured some particulars from a coalmaster, showing that the sinking of a vertical shaft of 300 feet, and making an inclined adit 400 feet long, cost B80, taking twelve Calmucks two and a half years to complete them. Previous to 1873 the approximate output of coal in Kuldja alone was from 10,000 to 13,000 tons a year. The iron mines were worked in the same manner ; but they seem to have been less successful, although the profit to the manufacturer was about 100 per cent. The quality of this iron was of the worst description. We do not know what is the present condi- tion of mining in the Kuldja province, but Dr. Lansdell makes a general admission that the Chinese have taken steps to im- prove its material condition even within the short period which has elapsed since they were reinstated in their authority. In several respects Dr. Lansdell's description of his residence in Kuldja forms the most interesting portion of the tour ; and we may, before closing our remarks on it, quote what he says of the enormous sheep called Ovis Polii, which the Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, first described six centuries ago :—

"I saw at the Kuldja Consulate, as also at Tas13kend, specimens of the skull and borne of this remarkable animal, which is bigger than a donkey. The animal's horn is more than four times the length of the skull. All round the neck there is a pure white mane, and the light greyish-brown of the sides shades off into white towards the belly, the legs being brown. It inhabits high hilly plains, and runs with great speed. The Cossacks say that the wild sheep, in jumping from one rock down to another, alight on their horns—a statement that Dr. Severtseff thinks improbable, though, since the head and horns of one he shot weighed upwards of 70 lbs., he seems to think it just possible such a weight might cause the animal to lose its balance."

Dr. Lansdell reached more important ground when he left Semirechia behind him and entered the districts of Turkestan Proper. Before leaving the former province he pays a warm tribute of thanks to General Kolpakoffsky, of whom most foreign travellers have given a flattering account. His description of Tashkend, the centre of the Russian administration in Turkestan, is the first that offers itself for mention :— "And so we approached Tashkend, the head-quarters of the Russian Administration. In size and extent, it covers as much ground as Paris. It is one of the largest towns, not only of Turkestan, but of the whole of Central Asia, wherein the immber of its population is said to be equalled only by Bokhara, and its extent by Kbokand. Tashkend is, moreover, an ancient town, with a beginning lost in the depths of time. It is situated on a high plateau we had commenced to mount twenty miles from Chimkent. On one side Tashkend touches the Russian quarter, but on the remaining sides it is sur- rounded by gardens, through which we were passing. Like all large Central Asian towns, Tashkend was surrounded by a high castellated wall, and was pierced by twelve gates, called darwavas. The wall took a circular form, and had a circumference of thirteen miles, the gates bearing the names of the towns in the direction of which they faced. Now, towards the Russian quarter, the whole of this wall has been taken down, and the ground levelled. The gates too, here have been removed, though they still remain in the other direc- tions. Through one of these gates we entered about eight o'clock on the evening of the 15th of September, not a little pleased at being back once more within the region of comparative civilisation, and perceiving Russian cabs and soldiers about the streets, though there was little enough of light proceeding from the street oil-lamps to see them very clearly. We made for what had been recommended to us as the best hotel, but where they had no room, so that we had to try the Hotel Nicolaeff,' a sorry place, yet we were glad of a rest, and still more of a bath, after which it was a real comfort once more to get into beds, to which we had been strangers since leaving Vierny."

Dr. Lansdell found most of the Central Asian towns dis- appointing in their appearance, and with very few interesting buildings or monuments. Tashkend was, perhaps, the most striking instance of this, as he says that the Medresse Bekler Bek was the only old building about which it was worth while to make a single note ; and the view from the top of this building only served to expose one of the most dismal cities he had ever seen. The bazaar in the Russian town, however, is well stocked, and the amount of trade very considerable, when allowance is made for the very imperfect means of transport available. Dr. Lansdell gives some statistics showing the number of animals employed in this trade, and from them it appears that the in- credibly small number of 1,200 camels only are used in transport- ing goods between Tashkend and Russia. Even Samarcand did not impress our traveller as favourably as might have been expected, although he quotes official records justifying a glowing account of the fertility of the Zerafshan Valley in which Timonr's capital is situated. This is what he says :—

"I gained from him a great deal of information, especially in matters that touched at all upon botany and agricultural produce. There are in the province 4,475 square miles of irrigated land, and of non-irrigated 35,804. They have not much black earth, but very fertile argillaceous less, which, in certain places when there is plenty of rain, has been known for one bushel of wheat sown to yield 90 bushels ; even where the ground is not much worked but irrigated, the yield is from 40 to 45-fold, and, on an average, the cultivated land throughout the country gives a 20-fold crop."

At Bokhara the Holy, Dr. Lansdell succeeded in hearing a Mahommedan sermon ; but his conductors resorted to several expedients to baffle his purpose, or, at all events, to make him arrive at the mosque when the Jumma service was over. He,. however, managed to reach the Baliand, Buland, or Kelan mosque in good time ; and, although he was put as much as possible out of sight, he remained a spectator of a Mahommedan service in what has been called the most fanatical city of Islam. He thus describes the ceremony :—

"This mild altercation was going on near a corner at the back of the worshippers, when suddenly the mullah's voice sounded. This put an end to all discussion, and the Emir's men, with Yakoob among them, went off to take their places The service began on a long-sustained note uttered by a mulish from the sanctuary upon which the men arranged themselves in ranks with strictest precision ; all knelt, then rose, and stood praying and bowing in silence. Some of the worshippers knelt in clusters of two and three, but always in a line. Looking under one of the covered steam, I saw a man whom I was uncharitable enough to fix upon in imagination as the Pharisee who went up to the temple to pray. He was clad in a crimson velvet robe, with the purest of white turbans, and had taken a chief room in the synagogue; whilst a poor fellow, with bare feet, whom thought to be the publican, came in later, took a hindmost place, where, having no costly prayer-cloth on which to perform his devo- tions, he took off his upper coat, laid it on the ground, and so prayed standing afar off. As for the behaviour of the congregation, I can. only speak of it as most reverential. One or two did now and then look round at the infidel strangers in the corner, showing that Yakoob's fear was not altogether groundless; but their eyes were quickly withdrawn, and the service as a whole was outwardly far more decorous than that of an average Christian assembly, whether Anglican, Roman, or Greek."

Dr. Lansdell is not very skilful in delineating character ; and although he had interviews with the Ameer of Bokhara, the Khan of Khiva, and several distinguished Russian Generals,. his readers will not carry away from his pages the same vivid impression of having been brought into contact with living people as Professor Vamb6ry succeeds in making, when describing frequently the very same personages. In this respect, too, Dr. Lansdell is inferior to Mr. Schuyler, and his account of Mahomed Rabim, Khan of Khiva, will not supplant that left us by the late Colonel Burnaby. Dr. Lanedell's volumes differ from those of the ordinary traveller, because he has elaborated his subject ; and by making use of the information derived from many sources, he has compiled a work, which may, to some extent, be accepted as a text-book on the Central Asian question. It is a sort of compromise in its structure between Schuyler's widely read Turkestan and the very little known work on the Russian provinces in Central Asia by M. Ujfalvy. We should like to have spoken in terms of more unqualified praise of this work, for Dr. Lansdell undertook his distantand dangerous journey from motives of the most laudable enthusiasm ; and, moreover, it is sufficiently rare to come across an English traveller whose sympathies are not anti-Russian, to make us loth to criticise severely what he has written. Dr. Lansdell is, of course, very much in the right when he points out what the Russians have done and are doing of good work north of the Oxus and among the Tarcomans ; and our chief complaint against him is that in this big work the smaller portion only contains what he tells us himself, and by far the larger that which can be ascer- tained from other and easily accessible authors. It must not be supposed that Dr. Lansdell is blind to some of the short- comings of Russian administration, and in concluding our notice we cannot do better than repeat what he says on the subject of the barracks of the Russian troops in Central Asia :—

"After seeing the observatory we went to pay an evening visit to the camp, where we found Colonel Ferpitzky in command of a battalion of a thousand men of the 12th Turkestan Infantry. We were shown the canteen and barracks. They struck me as decidedly lacking in comfort, and, although the men looked cheerful enough, I could not help suspecting that English soldiers would not have been so amiable in such quarters. The St. Petersburg Gazette, alluded to earlier in this chapter, speaks of a recent revision of the Turkestan province by Senator Giers, who found that enormous sums of money had been recklessly spent on handsome buildings, club-houses, luxuriant dwelling-houses for military and other officers, while the troops have been located in unhealthy and hastily, as well as cheaply and badly built barracks. This last charge, judging from the one barrack I visited, I should be disposed to confirm. There were not wanting tokens, however, that Colonel Serpitzky personally took great interest in the welfare of his men, for.whom he evidently spent both time and his private means."