Merv, the Queen of the
World;
and the Scourge of the Man-stealing Turcomans. With an
Exposition of the Khorassan Question:
By Charles Thomas Marvin, Published by W.H. Allen, 1881
CHAPTER II. TUKKMENIA.
Page 30
- Page
31 - Page 32
- Page 33 - Page 34
- Page
35 - Page 36
- Page
37 - Page 38
Page 33
THE DESERT ON FIRE. 33
scheme for converting the Turkmen
desert into pastoral plains, for rearing Russian cattle.
“The grass of the steppe," states Terrier
“is sweet and nutritious, but is found only in the
spring. It produces in the Turkmen
horses a higher temperature and better condition of
blood, as well as a peculiar elasticity and strength of
muscle quite wonderful." When the Russian army
returned defeated from Dengeel Tepe in October 1879, the
troops found the Atrek desert, which they had traversed a
few weeks earlier, when it was blazing hot, waterless,
and as bare of vegetation as a baker's oven, to be
transformed into meadow land, dotted with numerous lakes
and streams, and covered with grass and reeds. Of the Turkmen
summer Vambery “During the hot season of the year,
when the scorching sun has dried shrubs and grass till
they become like tinder, it often happens that a spark,
carelessly dropped, and fanned by the wind, will set the
steppe on fire. The flame, finding ever fresh fuel,
spreads with such fearful rapidity, that a man on
horseback can with difficulty escape. It rolls over the
scanty herbage like an overflowing stream, and when it
meets with thicket and shrubs, it flares up with wild
wrath. Thus traversing large tracts of country in a short
time, its raging course can only be checked by a river or
a lake. At night such conflagrations must present a
terrible appearance, when far and wide the horizon is lit
up with a sea of flame. Even the bravest heart loses its
courage at the appalling sight. The cowardly and
hesitating are soon destroyed, but one who has sufficient
presence
Page 30
- Page
31 - Page 32
- Page 33 - Page 34
- Page
35 - Page 36
- Page
37 - Page 38
|