uld certainly make a
similar and better cloth and easily undersell the Russian material.

It is most satisfactory to find from Captain Webb-Ware's statement that
Indian trade by the Nushki-Sistan route, which was absolutely nil in the
year 1895-96, and only amounted to some 64,000 rupees in 1896-97, made a
sudden jump to 589,929 rupees in the following twelve months, 1897-98. It
has since been steadily on the increase, as can be seen by the following
figures:--

1898-99 Rupees 728,082
1899-1900 " 1,235,411
1900-01 " 1,534,452

These figures are the total amount of imports and exports by the Nushki
route, beginning from 1st of April each year. In 1900-01 the imports were
Rs. 748,021; the exports Rs. 786,431.

When the route comes to be better known the returns will inevitably be
greatly increased, but of course only a railway--or a well-conducted
service of motor vans--can make this route a really practical one for
trade on a large scale. The cost of transport at present is too great.

A point which should be noted in connection with the railway is that
every year a great number of horses are brought from Meshed to India
_via_ Quetta for remount purposes. In 1900-01 the number of horses
brought by dealers to Quetta amounted to 408, and as the Khorassan horses
are most excellent, they were promptly sold at very remunerative prices.
The average price for a capital horse in Persia is from 80 to 100 rupees
(15 rupees to L1). I understand that these horses when in Quetta are sold
by dealers to Government at an average of 300 rupees each, leaving a very
large profit indeed. As horses are very plentiful in Khorassan, if a
railway existed the Government could remount its cavalry at one-third of
the present cost.

Adjoining Sher-i-Nasrya to the south is the partly ruined village of
Husseinabad. It has a wall, now collapsed, and a moat which forms an
obtuse angle with the east wall of Sher-i-Nasrya. There are in this
village some miserable little mud houses still standing up and inhabited,
and the high-walled, gloomy mud building of the Russian Vice-Consulate
which has lately been erected, opposite to an extensive graveyard.

The site and the outward appearance of the Russian Vice-Consulate, which
one can only reach by jumping over various drain channels or treading
over graves, was decidedly not one's ideal spot for a residence, but once
inside the dwelling, both house a