GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS AND DISCOVERY. 



375 



following departments are proposed: 1. Min- 

 eralogy, geology, botany, zoology, zootomy, 

 and anatomy; 2. Geography, cartography, 

 commerce, statistics, climatology, earth-mag- 

 netism; 3. Anthropology, ethnography, and 

 archeology; 4. Mining and the working of 

 metals; 5. Industry and hand-labor; 6. Do- 

 mestic industry; 7. Land and forest culture, 

 fruit and vegetable raising, hunting and fishing. 



The Norwegian explorer, L. Stejneger has 

 made a report giving full information concern- 

 ing the present condition of Bering's Island, 

 which he sailed around and explored thorough- 

 ly in August and September, 1882, adding many 

 details and some corrections to the descriptions 

 given by the German naturalist Steller, whose 

 unhappy winter in the island made the years 

 1741 -'42 memorable in the history of discovery. 

 In his memory, Stejneger named the highest 

 point of the island Mount Steller. From many 

 evidences he believes the island to be rising. 

 He agrees with Nordenskiold that the climate 

 and vegetation are favorable for cattle-raising, 

 but the want of markets would prevent it 

 from being profitable. 



A portion of the Trans-Siberian Railway has 

 been opened from Eketerinburg. It is to ex- 

 tend to Tuimen, 208 miles from the former 

 place, and will there meet the great water- 

 way of the country. The work of piercing the 

 water-shed between the basins of the Obi and 

 the Yenisei is nearly completed, so that com- 

 munication between these rivers will soon be 

 opened. It is also proposed to join the basins 

 of the Petchora and the Obi by a railroad over 

 one of the passes of the Ural mountains. 



A report of the French consul at St. Peters- 

 burg gives the population of Turkistan, nomad 

 and sedentary, as 2,355,000. The factories 

 have greatly increased since the coming of the 

 Russians, and now include twelve brandy-dis- 

 tilleries, five tobacco-manufactories, seven tan- 

 neries, and others. The commerce has doubled 

 since 1866. The production of silk is an im- 

 portant industry in some parts. The sedentary 

 population chiefly occupy the mountainous 

 regions, raising wheat, rice, barley, millet, cot- 

 ton, hemp, flax, and melons; and potatoes 

 have been cultivated since the establishment 

 of the Russian colonies. The nomads raise 

 animals goats, horses, camels, and horned 

 cattle and occupy the low lands. 



The much-discussed question whether the 

 Usboi ever formed a natural connection be- 

 tween the Caspian and Aral Seas, remains still 

 undecided. Recent researches by A. Konschin 

 tend to confirm the opinion that the Usboi, 

 from the Ssarykamisch Lake to the Caspian, is 

 not the ancient bed of the classic Oxus, but a 

 result of the separation of the Aral from the 

 Caspian, and the outflow of the salt water of 

 the Aral and Ssarykamisch into the latter. The 

 old bed of the Amu-Darya does not in reality 

 appear between Bala-Ischem and the Ssary- 

 kamisch Lake so definitely as it is represented 

 in the maps. The Usboi first appears in dis- 



tinct form below the water-shed near Bala- 

 Ischem. Above this lie a number of rows of 

 kettle-like depressions bordered by high sand- 

 hills. This region must have formed, at some 

 time, a basin filled with water, half fresh, half 

 salt, connected, at high water, with the for- 

 mer Bay of Aibugir, and receiving from the 

 southeast the waters of the Amu-Darya. After 

 the bay was separated from the Ssarykamisch 

 Lake by the turning of the Amu, the whole 

 basin was divided into the Tschetkou Lake in 

 the south, and in the north the Chorawemisch 

 Sea, until here, too, by means of evaporation, 

 and probably also the elevation of the earth, 

 the present condition of things was brought 

 about, and the Amu-Darya was turned entirely 

 to the Aral Sea. This turn in the channel of 

 the Amu must have taken place within the 

 limits of the present Chiwa-Oase, on the space 

 between the Ssarykamisch and Aibugir border 

 of the Usturt and the declivity of the plateau 

 Dus-kyr, and on this very spot the old bed is 

 distinctly recognizable. Now whether the 

 western part of the Usboi that belonging to 

 the Caspian was in part an arm of the sea, in 

 part the outlet of the Ssarykamisch Lake, or 

 only a channel for freshets, it could in no case 

 have been the majestic Oxus of the ancients, 

 who could only have regarded the Chowares- 

 misch Sea as the one into which it flowed. 



This western part of the Usboi could not 

 have been navigable, on account of its many 

 waterfalls ; neither have any traces of settle- 

 ments been found on its banks. Kouschin's 

 evidence establishes fully the impossibility of 

 the Amu- Darya having flowed through the 

 Usboi into the Caspian, for, in order to reach 

 the Usboi from the north at Bala-Ischem, it 

 would have had to make a circuit of 300 kilo- 

 metres around the depression forming the 

 Ssarykamisch Lake. But if this depression 

 were to be filled it would form an artificial sea 

 where one has disappeared through mighty 

 geological agencies. 



In July the Trans-Caspian Railway was 

 opened as far as Merv. That part extending 

 from Kizil-Arvat to Merv, 531 versts or 566 

 kilometres, was built in a little less than a 

 year. The entire line will measure 1,065 kilo- 

 metres, and will extend from the port of Mi- 

 khailovski, on the Caspian, where the bay has 

 been deepened to admit the largest vessels, to 

 Chardjui on the Oxus. A special line of steam- 

 ers is to be established on the Oxus. Later 

 the line is to be extended by Bokhara to Samar- 

 cand. The work is in charge of Gen. An- 

 nenkov, who describes in a letter the districts 

 through which it is to pass. The line runs 

 southeast for 243 miles, from Kizil-Arvat to 

 Duchak, parallel with the Kopeth-Dagh mount- 

 ain-chain, which forms the Persian frontier, 

 and crosses the oasis Akhal. The most im- 

 portant station is Askabad, a little town only 

 three years old, but already of some commer- 

 cial importance. The region is for the most 

 part level and sandy, sprinkled with villages 



