'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎39] (70/714)

WAYS AND MEANS
39
not exist, but where he can, as a rule, adopt pretty well what line
lie pleases in getting from place to place. The absence of any
boundary marks between properties, and of hedges or ditches
(except irrigation ditches) between arable plots, the wide stony
plains over which one may gallop in any direction for miles, and
the choice in many cases of a number of passes through the moun
tain ranges, leave the traveller in Persia a greater freedom of
movement than in any other inhabited country in the world. By
the carriage road, which is usually followed, the time occupied
upon the entire journey from Resht to Teheran will be, according
to the rate of progress in the earlier stages on horseback, from
three to four days.
Such is the main and the easiest avenue of approach to the
Persian capital from the Caspian. Under peculiarly favourable
Length of conditions, and with a perfect correspondence of trains
journey and steamers, the journey from London to Teheran can
be accomplished in a fortnight. In the majority of cases it occu
pies a little less than three weeks. I pass now to the overland
routes which enter Persia from the north-west, and have for their
immediate objective the commercial capital Tabriz, Teheran being
reached therefrom, via Kazvin, by a postal road whose length from
Tabriz is about 360 miles.
Of these routes there are two, of which the one is taken by
caravans laden with other than Russian merchandise, and, in order
II. Trebi- to escape the prohibitory tariffs of Batum and the
Tabriz freight charges of the Transcaucasian Railway, starts
rente f rom the Turkish port of Trebizond, in the south-east
corner of the Black Sea, following from there a very steep line ot
country, 500 miles in length, to Tabriz. This route, as I shall
subsequently show in a chapter upon the commerce of Persia, has
been somewhat extensi vely adopted by English trade during the last
half-century, and particularly since the final abolition by Russia of
the free transit across the Caucasus in 1883, and is unquestionably
the shortest way by which merchandise can reach Tabriz. It is not
likely, however, to be followed by the traveller, unless he is anxious
to visit the Turkish fortress of Erzerum en route, or to pursue a
local examination of the Kurdish or the Armenian Question. 1
1 It is described by Lieut.-Col. Stuart (1835), Journal of a Residence in A.
Persia, pp. 76-138; Ch. Texier (1839), Description de VArmmie, la Perse, J-c.,
vols, i., ii.; M. Wagner (1843), Travels in Persia, vols, ii., iii., part iii.; Arm. Vambery