The line to Andijān follows pretty closely the old trade-route eastwards, crossing the Zarafshān by a viaduct 392 feet long, near the remains of the famous bridge attributed to Tīmūr, and passing the towns of Jizāk, Khojend, and Kokand. At Khavast, 110 miles west of Samarkand, a branch runs to Tashkent which traverses the Sir Daryā at Chināz by a wooden bridge, on the Oxus model, 1120 feet in length. Another bifurcation connects the main line at Khwāja Maghiz with New Marghilān. The engineers have encountered enormous difficulties in the construction of these branches, arising from the fact that they run at right angles to the watershed of the country. The innumerable torrents which pour down the mountain flanks on either side cause extensive inundations during the rainy season. The water-way on this section is greater than on any other portion of the line of equal length, and heavy protective works have been deemed necessary to divert the floods into the channels provided for them. The activity with which the construction was pushed forward may be gauged by the fact that 63,000 tons of railway material were carried over the trunk line between July 1897 and May of the following year. The extensions will serve a rich and thickly peopled country, and open up the vast mineral wealth of the mountain system whence the Zarafshān takes its rise. An annual movement of goods to the extent of 240,000 tons is predicted, which will increase by leaps and bounds when the great irrigation works now under construction in Farghāna are completed. Another branch line has been constructed between Merv and Kushk, on the Afghan frontier, a distance of 192 miles. It follows the left bank of the Murghāb as far as Pul-i-Kishti at the embouchure of the river Kushk, and the latter up to the Russian cantonment bearing that name.[652] The economic advantages of this line, which was thrown open for through traffic in January 1899, are enormous. It passes through a tract which was once among the richest in the world, and will soon regain a share of its ancient fertility when the irrigation projects, which have received favour, become accomplished facts. Its strategic value is equally indisputable, for it will enable troops and supplies to be massed in a few days within striking distance of Herāt. For Englishmen, however, the importance of the Merv-Kushk branch lies in the fact that it is designed to serve as a link in a project which germinated in General Annenkoff’s fertile brain--that of uniting England with India by railway. A glance at the map of the eastern hemisphere will show that the shortest practicable line of communication between London and the Indus passes through Russia and Central Asia. The direction would be _viâ_ Calais, Berlin, Warsaw, Rostov-on-Don, Petrovsk, Baku, Krasnovodsk, Merv, Kushk, Girishk, and Kandahār. The whole of this distance has now been covered by railway, with the exception of the 195 miles of Caspian between Baku and Krasnovodsk, and the gap of 450 miles which still separates Kushk from Chaman. If the last-named hiatus were bridged the journey from London to the Indus would easily be performed in seven days, assuming that the present rate of speed--thirty-two miles an hour on the European and twenty-five on the Asiatic lines--were maintained. The net saving in time, if the railway were completed, would be ten days, while the horrors of the Red Sea and the monsoon would be bad dreams to the Anglo-Indian traveller. The country between Kushk and Chaman presents no obstacle to the engineer. The Paropamisus range would be crossed by the Khombau, or the Chashmi Sabz Pass, neither of which is more than 3400 feet above sea-level, or 1000 higher than that on the tableland on either side.[653] From this point, Herāt, the garden and key of Afghanistan, is only 30 miles; and thence the line would be carried by way of Sabzawār, Farrah, Girishk, and Kandahār to Chaman. India is now awaking from her long sleep, and is permeated by new and unsuspected forces. If the tie which binds her to ourselves is to be a lasting one, it must be drawn more tightly.