A few words of explanation as to what these chap ters do, and what they do not, profess to be. Their pre tensions are of no very exalted order. They are, in the main, a record of a journey, taken under circumstances of exceptional advantage and ease, through a country, the interest of which to English readers consists no longer in its physical remoteness and impenetrability, but rather in the fact that those conditions have just been superseded by a new order of things, capable at any moment of bringing it under the stern and immediate notice of Englishmen, as the theatre of imperial diplo macy; possibly - quad di avertant omen - as the thresh old of international war. Travel nowadays, at least in parts to which the railway has penetrated, is unattended with risk and is relatively shorn of adventure - a de cadence which separates my story by a wide gulf of division from that of earlier visitors to the Transcaspian regions. These pursued their explorations slowly and laboriously, either in disguise or armed to the teeth, amid suspicious and fanatical peoples, over burning deserts and through intolerable sands. The later traveller, as he follows in comparative comfort the route of which they were the suffering pioneers, may at once admire their heroism and profit by their experi ence. With such forerunners, therefore, I do not pre sume to enter into the most remote competition.

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