XXIV INTRODUCTION. 



Baihvay. whose construction from tlie Caspian Sea into the heart of the southern 

 part of the Central Asiatic district Mas projected at first with purely strategical 

 objects, to overcome the sandy deserts surrcunuling the highly favoured regions of 

 the slopes of the vast Central Asiatic mountain ranges. 



The average condition of the district must be called steppe and woodless, and 

 therefore the lack of fuel is very much felt in the case of all industrial undertakings. 

 However coal has already been found in some places, as also naphtha, while the 

 comparative nearness of Baku with its abundant supply of liquid fuel and the easy 

 delivery of the latter by sea and by the Transcaspian Eailway help out even tlie 

 pioneers. It is impossible not to point out that the fisheries, especially of the Ural 

 territory, the naphtha springs found in various parts of the ste*ppe, the richest de- 

 posits of native sulphur, cropping out almost on the very surface among the sands 

 of the Kara-Kum, the most various ores discovered both in the Kirghiz steppes and 

 in Turkestan, and the rapid development of ease and industry in the region, in some 

 places so richlj' endowed by nature, furnish a guarantee that here is being formed 

 a centre for the quick development in an economical sense of all the peoples ot 

 Central Asia, which again is greatly assisted by the friendly spirit and the tran- 

 quility introduced with the annexation to Eussia. 



To show how rapidly the desired development is proceeding here it is suffi- 

 cient to say that the chief town of the territory of Semiretchinsk, Viernj^, situated 

 43' 16' N., and 79^ 59' E., already counts twenty-two thousand inhabitants and is sur- 

 rounded by many Eussian settlements, although the whole of this Transilian region 

 has been occupied by Bussians only since 1853, and the first stones of the fort- 

 ress were laid in 1854. At any rate the southern parts of the described territory, 

 >imply because they are capable of growing cotton, jute, indigo and similar products, 

 present a great importance from the point of view of trade and industry, as these 

 articles are now engaging the attention both of the local inhabitants and of Moscow 

 industrial circles, with every assistance from the government. 



VIII. The Caucasus. 



This region reckoning all the possessions lying between the Black and Caspian 

 seas, namely Transcaucasia, the Black sea district, the government of Stavropol and 

 ilie territories of the Kuban cossacks on the west, and of those of the Terek on the 

 east, occupies a surface of 415,000 square versts, or 8,580 square geographical miles, 

 and has a population of about 8,000,000 inhabitants. With the cessation of hostilities 

 :a the Caucasus about 1865 the extremely rich region began to develop rapidly, not 

 ■nly in all other matters of civilisation but also in respect to the growth of manu- 

 facturing and mining enterprises. To confirm this statement it is sufficient to men- 

 tion the development of the production in this region of petroleum, copper, coal, 

 rock salt, Glauber's salt and sulphur. And as not only the obtaining of ores, espe- 

 cially of manganese, the usual grain growing and cattle raising, silk growing, wine 

 making and the cultivation of all kinds of plants from hot countries, including among 

 the latter the cotton plant, have already taken deep root in the region and as ores 

 <f lead and zinc have been discovered and even begun to be worked with increased 

 efforts this district is capable of occupying an extremely prominent position in thr/ 



