'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎65] (96/714)

FROM LONDON TO ASHKABAD
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as surpassing all European tunnels in the dimensions of its profile.
The St. Gothard Tunnel has a section of only sixty square metres,
but that of the Sprain Tunnel is ninety metres. Perhaps it is the
expense thus incurred that accounts for the heavy charge for
passenger traffic from Batum to Baku. A first-class ticket costs
47i roubles, for a distance of 560 miles—that is, at the rate of
over 2d. a mile. The locomotives between Batum and Baku are
entirely propelled by residual naphtha, or astathi, as it is called,
driven in the form of a fine spray into the furnace. Over the
Suram mountain a double Fairlie engine pulls in front, while a
second pushes and puffs behind. I found that the time consumed
in getting to Baku was three hours longer than formerly. Upon
inquiring the reason, I was told that the railway used to belong to a
company, but has since been purchased by the State. To those who
know the ways of the Russian Government this was quite enough.
Tiflis is too well known to travellers to deserve mention.
Those only who are unacquainted with the East are likely to go
^ into ecstasies over its modest, though perhaps singular
attractions, among which Orientalism plays every year a
less and less distinguished part. The town was in some excite
ment over an agricultural and industrial exhibition, the first ever
held in the Caucasus, which had just been opened in a series of
wooden pavilions on an open space outside the town. Here were
collected specimens of the agriculture, horticulture, viticulture,
pisciculture, and arboriculture, as well as of the textile fabrics and
manufacturing industries of the Caucasus, together with objects
from Central Asia and Transcaspia. The local manufactures,
whether in metals or textiles, were varied and interesting, but the
general level of the exhibition did not rise above that of an
agricultural show in an English county town ; and the grounds
appeared to be visited quite as much for the sake of the bands and
refreshment booths as for more business-like objects.
The Hotel de Londres at Tiflis is perhaps the most wonderful
rendezvous of varied personalities that is to be found in the East.
Hotel de Situated on the dividing line between Europe and Asia,
Londres and on the high road to the remote Orient, almost every
pilgrim to or from those fascinating regions halts for a while
within its hospitable walls. Here the outgoing traveller takes his
last taste of civilisation before he plunges into the unknown.
Here, too, the returning wanderer enjoys, very likely for the first
VOL. i. F
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