[Illustration: A GROUP OF TURKOMANS AT ASKABAD STATION]
Askabad, the capital of Transcaspia, is 322¼ miles from Krasnovodsk, and is reached in twenty hours. The town dates only from 1883, and now has a population of about 16,000, including a garrison of 10,000. It stands on the broadest part of the Akkal oasis, at the foot of the Kopet Dāgh range, which affords a refuge to the European in the fierce summer heats. There are two sanataria,--Fīrūza, in a pleasant valley 2800 feet above sea-level, and Khayrābād, 3000 higher, a Transcaspian Simla sacred to the Di Majores of the official Pantheon. The broad streets are lined with vigorous young trees, and cut each other at right angles. The Anglo-Indian traveller is forcibly reminded of the cantonments, which are believed to have furnished the founder, General Komaroff, with a model for his headquarters. In the matter of roads, the Russian stations of Central Asia would give points to any town in the European dominions of the Tsar. They show no break-neck holes, no boulders which only a droshky can negotiate; and their excellence at Askabad is vouched for by the existence of a flourishing bicycle club, which is the centre of social life for the non-military population. On leaving the station the tourist passes, on the left, the offices of the railway staff, with Oriental arcades surrounding a pretty garden, a technical school, which has recently been enlarged, and a pro-gymnasium, and thus reaches the barracks, which stand at the north-east corner of the town, and accommodate four active and one reserve battalion of Transcaspian Rifles, a regiment of Cossacks from Terek in the Caucasus, three batteries of field and one of mountain guns, and a squadron of 200 Turkoman militia. Their quarters have been arranged on purely Indian lines. Every company or squadron has a lofty one-storeyed building allotted to it, containing a dormitory with a double row of beds, a chapel, and a hall for recreation and military instruction. The latter contains two rifles on stands with targets for aiming-drill, which is illustrated by books containing photogravures of the different positions. Here, too, are always seen oleograph portraits of the reigning Tsar and his consort. So vast is his empire, that unless the personality of the sovereign were not brought home to the people by these perpetual reminders there would be some risk of its becoming a mere abstraction.