ers' room, we would proceed at once to place our
dust-covered heads beneath the spindle of the washing-tank. Although by
this dripping-pan arrangement we would usually succeed in getting as much
water down our backs as on our faces, yet we were consoled by the thought
that too much was better than not enough, as had been the case in Turkey
and Persia. Then we would settle down before the steaming samovar to
meditate in solitude and quiet, while the rays of the declining sun shone
on the gilded eikon in the corner of the room, and on the chromo-covered
walls. When darkness fell, and the simmering music of the samovar had
gradually died away; when the flitting swallows in the room had ceased
their chirp, and settled down upon the rafters overhead, we ourselves
would turn in under our fur-lined coats upon the leather-covered benches.

In consequence of the first of a series of accidents to our wheels, we
were for several days the guests of the director of the botanical gardens
at Pishpek. As a branch of the Crown botanical gardens at St. Petersburg,
some valuable experiments were being made here with foreign seeds and
plants. Peaches, we were told, do not thrive, but apples, pears, cherries,
and the various kinds of berries, grow as well as they do at home. Rye,
however, takes three years to reach the height of one year in America.
Through the Russians, these people have obtained high-flown ideas of
America and Americans. We saw many chromos of American celebrities in the
various station-houses, and the most numerous was that of Thomas A.
Edison. His phonograph, we were told, had already made its appearance in
Pishpek, but the natives did not seem to realize what it was. "Why," they
said, "we have often heard better music than that." Dr. Tanner was not
without his share of fame in this far-away country. During his fast in
America, a similar, though not voluntary, feat was being performed here. A
Kirghiz messenger who had been despatched into the mountains during the
winter was lost in the snow, and remained for twenty-eight days without
food. He was found at last, crazed by hunger. When asked what he would
have to eat, he replied, "Everything." They foolishly gave him
"everything," and in two days he was dead. For a long time he was called
the "Doctor Tanner of Turkestan."

[Illustration: UPPER VALLEY OF THE CHU RIVER.]

A divergence of seventy-five miles from the regular post-route was made in
order to visit Lake Issik