'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎67] (98/714)

FROM LONDON TO ASIIKABAD
67
industry. When I inquired the basis of this calculation, the
reply was given that it was only an approximate census f and that,
when asking for accurate or official statistics, I was surely forgetting
in what country I was travelling. I remember once being told in
Russia that the only really scientific table of statistics which the
Government had issued for some years was one relating to the
consumption of vodka and its effect upon the national mortality.
The population was divided into three classes; the moderate
drinkers, the excessive drinkers, and the total abstainers; and it was
triumphantly demonstrated by the returns that the first named
were rewarded with the longest span of life ; a result which was
as warmly welcomed by the Excise Department as it was acceptable
to the consuming public. The story, se non e vero, e hen trovato.
From Baku to Uzun Ada I crossed the Caspian in the same
English-built boat, the ' Bariatinski,' in which I had made the
Across the passage last year. Though now an old vessel, she is still
Caspian one 0 f the best of the Caucasus and Mercury Company's
fleet. The total number of their steamers plying between the
different ports of the Caspian is fifteen, and they are in receipt of
a large annual subsidy from the State for the conveyance of mails
and troops, and also for the use of their boats for transport in case
of war. One of these steamers sails from Baku to Uzun Ada
twice a week—on Wednesdays and Fridays, leaving at 5 p.m.
We had a beautiful passage, the Caspian having exhausted its
humours after a storm of ten days" duration; and, after a long
steam up the serpentine channel framed in yellow sand hills,
reached Uzun Ada at 2.30 the next afternoon.
General AnnenkofF was residing at Uzun Ada at the time,
and extended to me his customary hospitality, talking with enthu-
Generai siasm of the present and future of his railway, and
Annenkoff expounding his well-known ideas of a Russo-Indian
railway and an Anglo-Franco-Russian alliance. Subsequently,
at an improvised entertainment, he drank courteously to the health
of the English visitor, who, if he did not altogether share these
roseate views, had, at any rate, on a previous occasion shown his
willingness to do justice to the Transcaspian Railway, and honour
to the policy of its promoters. Uzun Ada appeared to me to have
somewhat extended its scanty and unstable dimensions during the
past year ; 1 and the piers and surrounding sand were literally
1 The population in October 1889 was 1,650 persons.
f 2