CHAPTER II.
THE CASPIAN--ASTARA--RESHT.
I arrived in Baku on (the Russian) New Year's Eve, and found railway officials, porters, and droshki-drivers all more or less fuddled with drink in consequence.

With some difficulty we persuaded one of the latter to drive us to the hotel, a clean and well-appointed house, a stone's throw from the quay.

Our Isvostchik [A] was very drunk.

His horses, luckily for us, were quiet; for he fell off his box on the way, and smilingly, but firmly, declined to remount.

Gerome then piloted the troika safely to our destination, leaving Jehu prone in the mud.
Baku, a clean, well laid-out city of sixty thousand inhabitants, is the most important town on the shores of the Caspian.