Page:Kennedy, Robert John - A Journey in Khorassan (1890).djvu/71

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six to ten broad, and is watered by a stream which finds its way to the Atok, near Abivard; the general elevation of the plateau is from four to five thousand feet; the whole circuit is about fifty miles, and contains eight small villages, with a population of about fourteen hundred souls. The land is said to be fertile and productive; but no strangers are under any pretext allowed to penetrate this mountain fastness, as it is well known that the greedy eye of the restless Russian invader is fixed with a covetous glitter upon this military prize. Eighteen miles from Karatagan, the valley along which we had been riding, due north, suddenly closes up, leaving but a narrow exit between some high cliffs. Though there was no formal indication of this being the frontier, neither guards nor frontier pillars being anywhere visible, General MacLean decided that it would be advisable for us here to separate. Under the shade of the rocks, near a pool of running water, in which hundreds of sheep, goats, lambs, and kids were slaking their thirst, we lunched for the last time in company with our host. Then, mount-