There are no cuttings, no embankments, no viaducts, no works of art--to use a term dear to engineers, very "dear," I should say.

Here and there are a few wooden bridges from two hundred to three hundred feet long.

Under such circumstances the cost per kilometre of the Transcaspian did not exceed seventy-five thousand francs.
The monotony of the journey would only be broken on the vast oases of Merv, Bokhara and Samarkand.
But let us busy ourselves with the passengers, as we can do all the more easily from our being able to walk from one end to the other of the train.

With a little imagination we can make ourselves believe we are in a sort of traveling village, and I am just going to take a run down main street.
Remember that the engine and tender are followed by the van at the angle of which is placed the mysterious case, and that Popof's compartment is in the left-hand corner of the platform of the first car.
Inside this car I notice a few Sarthes of tall figure and haughty face, draped in their long robes of bright colors, from beneath which appear the braided leather boots.

They have splendid eyes, a superb beard, arched nose, and you would take them for real lords, provided we ignore the word Sarthe, which means a pedlar, and these were going evidently to Tachkend, where these pedlars swarm.
In this car the two Chinese have taken their places, opposite each other.