portion of the Pamirs. Moreover, he likewise
raises pretensions to the province of Seistan, which is also claimed by
Persia. Now this province is of peculiar importance, because the English
could seize it from Baluchistan without much difficulty, and, if so,
they would obtain a strong flank position to the south of our line of
march, Merv-Herat, by way of Kandahar-Quetta."

"The conditions are, certainly, very complicated."

"So complicated, indeed, that for many years past we have had
differences with the English touching the frontier question. Our British
friends have over and over again forced the Ameer of Afghanistan to
send troops thither; an English expedition for the purpose of frontier
delimitation has been frequently camped on the Pamir Mountains. Of
course, in this respect, we have not been behindhand either. I myself
have before now taken part in such a scientific expedition."

"And it really was merely a scientific expedition?"

"Let us call it a military scientific excursion!" replied the Prince,
smiling. "We had 2,000 Cossacks with us, and got as far as the
Hindu-Kush--the Baragil Pass and another, unnamed, which we called,
in honour of our colonel, the Yonov Pass. There we were confronted by
Afghan troops, and defeated them at Somatash. By order of the English,
who were paying him subsidies, Ameer Abdur-Rahman was obliged to resent
this and petition their assistance. An English envoy arrived in Cabul,
and negotiations were entered into, which we contrived to spin out
sufficiently to gain time for the erection of small forts in the Pamirs.
Finally an arrangement was arrived at in London to the effect that the
Pench should be the boundary between Russia and Afghanistan in the Pamir
territory. A few months later we were met by an English expedition on
the Sarykul; we were to determine the exact boundary-line together. It
was great fun; our English comrades tried hard not to let us see that
they had orders to be complacent. We had soon discovered it, and drew
the line just as we pleased. The upshot was that only a very narrow
strip of land between Bukhara and the Indian border remained to the
Ameer, and that he had to undertake neither to station troops there nor
to erect fortifications. Our territory had been pushed forward up to
within about twelve miles of English territory. It is there that we are
closest to India, and we can, if we choose, at any time descend from
the passes of the Hindu-Kush to the C