more incumbent
than on others--"

It is Dr. Tio-King reading Cornaro aloud, in order that he may remember
his principles better. Eh! after all, this principle is not to be
despised. Shall I send it by telegram to our cabinet ministers? They
might, perhaps, dine with more discretion after it.

During this afternoon I find by the guide-book that we shall cross the
Yamanyar over a wooden bridge. This stream descends from the mountains
to the west, which are at least twenty-five thousand feet high, and its
rapidity is increased by the melting of the snows. Sometimes the train
runs through thick jungles, amid which Popof assures me tigers are
numerous. Numerous they may be, but I have not seen one. And yet in
default of redskins we might get some excitement out of tiger-skins.
What a heading for a newspaper, and what a stroke of luck for a
journalist! TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE. A GRAND TRANSASIATIC EXPRESS ATTACKED
BY TIGERS. FIFTY VICTIMS. AN INFANT DEVOURED BEFORE ITS MOTHER'S
EYES--the whole thickly leaded and appropriately displayed.

Well, no! The Turkoman felidae did not give me even that satisfaction!
And I treat them--as I treat any other harmless cats.

The two principal stations have been Yanghi-Hissar, where the train
stops ten minutes, and Kizil, where it stops a quarter of an hour.
Several blast furnaces are at work here, the soil being ferruginous, as
is shown by the word "Kizil," which means red.

The country is fertile and well cultivated, growing wheat, maize, rice,
barley and flax, in its eastern districts. Everywhere are great masses
of trees, willows, mulberries, poplars. As far as the eye can reach are
fields under culture, irrigated by numerous canals, also green fields
in which are flocks of sheep; a country half Normandy, half Provence,
were it not for the mountains of the Pamir on the horizon. But this
portion of Kachgaria was terribly ravaged by war when its people were
struggling for independence. The land flowed with blood, and along by
the railway the ground is dotted with tumuli beneath which are buried
the victims of their patriotism. But I did not come to Central Asia to
travel as if I were in France! Novelty! Novelty! The unforeseen! The
appalling!

It was without the shadow of an accident, and after a particularly fine
run, that we entered Yarkand station at four o'clock in the afternoon.

If Yarkand is not the administrative capital of eastern Turkestan, it
is certainly the most importa