Through Persia in a Motor-car. By Claude Anat. Translated by
M. Beresford Ryloy. (Hodder and Stoughton. 16s. net.)— The title should, strictly speaking, have been "Through Persia in Three Motor-cars." There were six travellers, two of them being ladies, and three chauffeurs, a Swiss, a Frenchman, and a. Roumanian. Two of the cars were of the MereAcRs pattern, one a Fiat, and the horse-powers were forty, twenty; and sixteen ; all built in 1904. The route followed was through Bessarabia, the Crimea, and the Caucasus ; Persia is reached on p. 84, but the motoring does not begin till p. 151. It consisted of a run from Ispahan to Teheran. Ispahan is reached on p. 192. A week in that city, which excites the enthusiasm of our traveller, occupies thirty-eight pages. And then we have about fifty pages in which the return is described. The distances are as follows :— Teheran to Kum, ninety-four miles ; Kum to Kashan, sixty ; %ashen to Ispahan, one hundred and thirty-eight. "It is impossible," says our author,. ".to go beyond Ispahan in a motor-car," and he does not seem to be easily deterred. For the first stage the road is narrow, with sharp turnings, and in the second there is no road, only a track. Still, with a powerful machine it appears possible to travel quickly. Directions are given which should prove helpful to intending travellers, whom we should be sorry to deter from the undertaking.' Obvieusly it requires courage, endurance, and money. The book has some interesting details about English-Russian rivalry in Persia. The Agreement just arrived at seems not to have bden arrived at too soon.
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