13 



BOKHARA. 



BOLIVIA. 



inclose a spacious court-yard. In each atory are two rows of cham- 

 bers, one having its windows and doors to the court-yard, and the 

 other to the street These chambers are sold to the students, who 

 in this manner acquire a claim to a certain yearly maintenance from 

 the college. The medresses have considerable revenues, the whole of 

 the bazaars and baths of the city having been erected by pious persons 

 and left for the maintenance of the medresses and mosques. The 

 number of public baths, some of which are of large dimensions, is 

 eighteen. Several vaulted chambers are built about a large basin 

 filled with warm water. The fuel used is small shrubs brought from 

 the desert. 



As Bokhara is the most commercial town of Central Asia much has 

 been done to facilitate the sale and transit of merchandise. There 

 are fourteen caravanserais, all of them built on the same plan, though 

 of very different dimensions. They are square buildings of two 

 stories, inclosing a court-yard. The rooms round the court-yard are 

 used as warehouses and let to the merchants. The bazaars are nume- 

 rous and extensive, some of them being upwards of a quarter of a 

 mile in length. In the shops with which they are lined on both sides 

 every sort of merchandise is exposed to sale, with the exception of 

 woven goods, which are sold in large edifices built for that purpose. 

 Several of them, consisting of some hundreds of small shops, contain 

 only the silk goods which are manufactured in the town, and 

 other* the cottons, linens, and brocades of India, Persia, England, 

 unil 1- --i:i. 



The number of shops on the great square, or Segistan, is likewise 

 considerable. Tents of different colours are filled with the more 

 common manufactures of the country; but the greater part of the 

 place is a market, in which the fruits and' grain of the country and 

 all the necessaries of life are exposed for sale. The active commerce 

 which Bokhara carries on with all the neighbouring countries brings 

 to this town the merchants of nearly all the nations of Asia. On the 

 Segistan a stranger may converse with Persians, Jews, Turks, 

 Russians, Kirghiz, Chinese, Turkomans, Mongols, Coasacka, Hindoos, 

 and Afghans, besides the Tajiks and Uzbeks, the inhabitants of the 

 town. The Tajiks compose by far the greater part of the inhabitants 

 of Bokhara, amounting to three-fourths of the whole. They are 

 merchants, manufacturers, and artists. The number of Jews and 

 Hindoos settled at Bokhara is considerable. 



<lutiea are levied on commodities exported, and only a small duty 

 on imports, and this is paid only when the articles are sold. Bokhara 

 has for many centuries been a place of extensive commerce, and its 

 geographical position must always ensure it considerable advantages 

 in this respect. It is the centre from which six commercial routes 

 divrrge ; three towards the north lead to Russia and the table-land 

 of Central Asia, and three towards the south connect it with Persia, 

 Afghanistan, and India. 



The road which leads to the high table-land of Central Asia runs 

 from Bokhara along the banks of the Zar-afshan to Samarcand, ami 

 thence northward over the mountains, pauses the river, and then 

 extends into the basin of the Sir-Deria (Jaxartes). Along this river 

 it passes through the towns of Khoend and Khokand to Marghilan, 

 and then in a south-eastern direction to Oush, from which place il 

 lends by the mountain pass of Terek to Koksoo and Khashgar. The 

 Bokharians take on camel-back to Khashgar woollen-cloth, coral, 

 pearls, cochineal, brocade, velvet, fur (especially of otters and martens) 

 leather, sugar, large looking-glasses, copper, tin, needles, glass, am! 

 Borne iron utensils. They bring back in exchange a great quantity o 

 tea, china, some silk goods, raw silk, rhubarb, and silver. In this 

 branch of commerce from 700 to 800 camels are employed. 



Two roads lead to Russia ; one on the east of the Sea of Aral 

 across the desert of the Kirghiz to Orenburg or Troisk ; and the 

 otluT down the valley of the Oxus, between the Aral and the Caspian 

 to Astrakhan. From the towns mentioned on the Russian frontier 

 the goods are transported to the fair of Nishnei-Novogorod, where 

 nine-tenths are sold. The Bokharians bring to Russia rhubarb, raw 

 cotton, cotton goods, skins of martens, lamb-skins, fox-skins, dried 

 fruits, silk goods (especially for morning dresses), carpets, Cashmere 

 and Persian shawls, and tea ; and take in exchange cochineal, spices 

 sugar, tin, sandal-wood, woollen-cloth, leather, wax, iron, copper 

 rteel, small looking-glasses, otter-skins, pearls, Russian nankin, uten 

 sils of cast-iron, needles, coral, cotton-velvet, cotton-handkerchiefs 

 some brocade, glass, and a small quantity of linens and Indiai 

 muslins. They employ 3000 camels in this trade. 



Three roads lead from Bokhara to Persia and Afghanistan one tc 



Meshed, the second to Herat, and the third to Cabul. The Bokha 



rinns bring to Persia a portion of the goods imported from Russia 



besides raw cotton, silk, cloth of their own manufacture, woollens 



I rhubarb ; they take back the common shawls of Persi 



in i'.'.kliani as turbans, girdles of a yellow colour, wooden combs 



carpets, and turquoises. About 600 camels are employed annuall 



in thin branch of commerce. 



The road to Cabul passes from Bokhara to Kurshee, and thenc 

 through a desert to the Amoo Deria, which it passes at Khojusali 

 afitward, and passes through Balkh and Khulum 

 from which latter place it runs southward along the river Khulum 

 till it enters the Hindu-Koosh. Before it reaches Cabul it traverses th 

 Ylley of Bameean. This road and its continuation through Penh; 



ur, Attock, and Lahore, connects Central Aaia with India. The 

 ommerce along this route ia entirely in the hands of the merchants 

 : Cabul, and of the Hindoos of the Panjab and Shikarpore. They 

 import shawls from Cashmere and Cabul, silken brocade, tine muslins, 

 earls and precious stones, and a great quantity of indigo ; and 

 sport raw cotton, paper, iron, copper, glass, cochineal, and some of 

 le goods manufactured in the country. 



(Meyendorff and Burnes.) 



BOLAN PASS. [AFGHANISTAN; BSLOOCHISTAN.] 



BOLBEC. [SEINE INFERIEURE.] 



BOLCHOW, or BOLKHOV, the chief town of the circle of Bolchow, 

 n the government of Orel, or Orlov, in European Russia, is situated 

 t the confluence of the Nugra with the Bolchowka, feeders of the 

 )ka, in 53 26' N. lat., 35 53' E. long., and has about 14,000 iuha- 

 litants. Though most of the houses are of wood the town is well 

 iuilt Its foundation is of remote date, for it was an ancient family 

 possession of the Russian sovereigns. It contains 22 churches, 14 of 

 vhich are of stone and 8 of wood, a monastery, and the convent of . 

 f ova-Petsherskoi. The town has manufactures of leather, soap, hats, 

 hoes, gloves, stockings, Ac., and carries on a brisk trade with the 

 nterior in hemp, rape-oil, tallow, hides, colonial produce, shoes, 

 tockings, &c., together with fruit grown in the immediate neigh- 

 >ourhood. 



BOLINGBROKE. [LINCOLNSHIRE.] 



BOLI'VIA, Republic of, South America, was originally called 

 Jpper Peru, and formed a portion of the viceroyalty of Buenos 

 Ayres. Being separated from the more populous parts of Buenos 

 Ayres by the desert of Chaco and a very rugged and dreary mouu- 

 ain region, it had little in common with that state, and it conse- 

 quently soon separated from it after the subversion of the Spanish 

 authority. The republic declared itself independent on the 6th of 

 August, 1824, and assumed the name of Bolivia in honour of General 

 Jolivar, on August llth, 1825. 



The northern boundary of Bolivia is formed by the parallel 10 S. lat. 

 rora the river Purus on the west, to the peninsula formed by the con- 

 luence of the rivers Sarare and Mamore, thence called the Madeira, 

 on the east. The most southern point is on the shores of the Pacific 

 ,t the Bahia de Nuestra Sufioru, between Punta del Norte and Puuta 

 Irl Sur, about 25 S. bit. It consequently extends over 15 degrees 

 of latitude, or upwards of 1000 miles from north to south. The 

 most eastern part in contiguous to the river Paraguay, where after 

 .caving Brazil it forms for some space the boundary between Bolivia 

 ml Paraguay, and extends to 57 30' W. long. The most western 

 portion of the republic borders on the Pacific at Puntn del Norte, 

 ibout 70 30' W. long. Bolivia is bounded on the west for about 

 250 miles by the Pacific Ocean ; the remainder of its western and 

 north-weatern frontier is formed by the republic of Peru. It borders 

 on the north-east and cast on the empire of Brazil, 'except the most 

 south-eastern corner, where it joins Paraguay. To the south of it 

 extends the republic of Buenos Ayres, and where it approaches the 

 Pacific that of Chili. Under the parallel of 22 the extent of the 

 country from east to west may be about 750 miles, but towards the 

 north it is less. 



Surface, Population, <kc. The area of the republic of Bolivia is 

 estimated at 318,750 square miles. The following table shown the 

 area of each of the provinces, and also the population according to 

 the semi-official estimate of 1843, the latest which gives the number 

 of inhabitants in the several provinces : a more recent return gives 

 the entire population as 1,330,000. 



As nearly the whole of this country is situated within the tropics 

 it might be expected that its climate and productions would corre- 

 spond to its geographical situation ; but perhaps not more than one- 

 half of its surface has a tropical climate. The other half is occupied 

 by high mountain ranges, table-lands of great elevation, high valleys, 

 and widely extending slopes. This mountainous portion of Bolivia 

 belongs to the great range of the ANDES, under which head will be 

 found a general description of it. 



Where the Andes running from south to north enter Bolivia they 

 send off at about 24 S. lat. a lateral branch to the east, which 

 extends to a great distance, and separates the aillueuts of the Rio 

 Bennejo from those of the Pilcomayo, both of which fall into the 

 Paraguay on its right bank. This lateral mountain range, which 

 constitutes the southern boundary of Bolivia and separates it from 

 Buenos Ayres, does not rise to a very great height, but is extremely 

 rugged and barren. The principal chain of the Ancles here runs nearly 

 south and north, and contains some peaks which rise above the snow 

 lino. The Nevado de Chorolque (21 30' S. lut.) is said to rise to 16,648 



