The Government is alive to the necessity of preventing the importation of firearms, and from time to time seizures are made of consignments smuggled under the guise of merchandise.  With a large nomad and semi-nomad population of warlike and predatory instincts, almost every man of whom lays by money most diligently, bit by bit, for the purchase of a breechloader and cartridges, it is obvious that the interests of Government call for the strongest check to the foreign trade in arms; but it may be taken for granted that so long as the Customs are farmed out on the present system the supply will be passed in to meet the demand.  The favourite weapon is the Martini-Henry, and there are many thousands in the possession of the nomads and villagers.  This rifle, as the Peabody-Martini, was first introduced into the country during the late Turko-Russian War, when, being the Turkish army weapon, it fell by thousands into the hands of Russian soldiers, who sold them to the Persian sutlers and pedlars allowed to accompany the troops.  The Persians had shown their usual energy and enterprise abroad by becoming camp-traders with the Russian forces engaged on active service in Asia Minor, and they sent the captured arms, which they purchased in large numbers, over the border into Persia, where they fetched good prices.  A profitable trade in cartridges followed the introduction of the new rifle, and judging by the well-filled belts and bandoliers which I saw on the North-western frontier (Kurdistan and Azerbaijan), the business appears to be a well established one.  In the course of time and trade this rifle found its way South to the fighting Bakhtiaris, Lurs, and Arabs, and the general vote in its favour brought about a supply of ‘trade’ Martini-Henry arms imported by way of the Persian Gulf, so that now in Persia what is known as the ‘Marteen’ has become the popular arm in private possession.  The ‘Remington’ has its possessors and admirers among the Karun Arab tribes, who get their arms from Baghdad and Turkish sources.  There is a brisk trade in ammunition for the breechloader, and so keen is the desire to secure and supplement the supply that solid-drawn brass cartridge-cases, which admit of being used over and over again, with boxes of caps and sets of reloading apparatus, are now in brisk demand.

At Kasvin our eyes were refreshed with the sight of the excellently-equipped Indo-European telegraph line, which comes in there from Tabriz and the North, and passes on to Tehran and India.  This line, with its wires carried on tall iron standard posts stretching far in a dominating manner over the country, seems to stand forth as a strong witness to the effectual command and control exercised by the Shah’s Government at the present time.  On the first establishment of this line there was much conjecture as to the great risk of continued interruption from the mischief of man; and failure to complete the land working at the outset dissatisfied commercial men in England, so that