four days'
journey of 180 miles along the regular Russian post-road was attended with
only the usual vicissitudes of ordinary travel. Wading in our Russian
top-boots through the treacherous fords of the "Snake" defile, we passed
the pyramidal slate rock known as the "Gate of Tamerlane," and emerged
upon a strip of the Kizil-Kum steppe, stretching hence in painful monotony
to the bank of the Sir Daria river. This we crossed by a rude rope-ferry,
filled at the time with a passing caravan, and then began at once to
ascend the valley of the Tchirtchick toward Tashkend. The blackened cotton
which the natives were gathering from the fields, the lowering snow-line
on the mountains, the muddy roads, the chilling atmosphere, and the
falling leaves of the giant poplars--all warned us of the approach of
winter.

We had hoped at least to reach Vernoye, a provincial capital near the
converging point of the Turkestan, Siberian, and Chinese boundaries,
whence we could continue, on the opening of the following spring, either
through Siberia or across the Chinese empire. But in this we were doomed
to disappointment. The delay on the part of the Russian authorities in
granting us permission to enter Transcaspia had postponed at least a month
our arrival in Tashkend, and now, owing to the early advent of the rainy
season, the roads leading north were almost impassable even for the native
carts. This fact, together with the reports of heavy snowfalls beyond the
Alexandrovski mountains, on the road to Vernoye, lent a rather cogent
influence to the persuasions of our friends to spend the winter among
them.

[Illustration: A RELIGIOUS DRAMA IN SAMARKAND.]

Then, too, such a plan, we thought, might not be unproductive of future
advantages. Thus far we had been journeying through Russian territory
without a passport. We had no authorization except the telegram to "come
on," received from General Kuropatkine at Askabad, and the verbal
permission of Count Rosterzsoff at Samarkand to proceed to Tashkend.
Furthermore, the passport for which we had just applied to Baron Wrevsky,
the Governor-General of Turkestan, would be available only as far as the
border of Siberia, where we should have to apply to the various
governors-general along our course to the Pacific, in case we should find
the route across the Chinese empire impracticable. A general permission to
travel from Tashkend to the Pacific coast, through southern Siberia, could
be obtained