HISTORICAL SKETCH. [ 7 



eonsldonibly enlightened hy a large internal idual enterprise, namely by the siiiuiltaneoiis 

 (thscivaiidns of a series u[ pular meteorological stations erected in 1883 to 1884 on a common 

 }ilaii. with the consent of many Powers along the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Two of iliese 

 stations were erected hy tiie Russian Geographical Society, one at the mouth of the Lena, 

 the other at Xova Zembla. The Russian Academy of Sciences also took advantage of tlie 

 staff of the Lena ohservatory, for a new scientific exploration of the jSTovo-Sibirsk islands in 

 1885 under Bunglie and Baron Toll. 



The opening of the Tomsk rinversity in 1888, thanks to the large donations of the 

 Siberian magnates. A. M. Sibiriakov and Tsibulski, made Tomsk a third centre of culture 

 within Siberia proper and greatly aids the direction and development of the young scientific 

 forces in the depths of Siberia. 



The Russian rule has also gradually advanced into the depths of Asia on the other 

 froutim- opposite the Arcti<3 Ocean, namely the Kirghiz steppes. This movement was started 

 as early as 1731 by the acceptation of the Little Kirghiz Horde into the Russian rule. The 

 fall of the r)zhuiigar kingdom to tin,' Chinese in 1769 deprived the Kirghiz Kaissacks of a 

 firm ally and obliged them to ultimately gravitate towards Russia. The daring and clever 

 Jvhan of the Central Kirghiz Horde, Alhai, managed to preserve the nominal ind<»pendence of 

 his people by artfully playing between China and Russia. But after his death in 178 J, the 

 feeble character of his successor Bali-Khan and the constant disputes among the difl'erent 

 Kirghiz tribes and hordes resulted in one tribe after another seeking salvation from the oppres- 

 sion of its neighbours by submitting to the sway and powerful prot(!ction of Russia. These 

 neighbouring tribes, placed, as it were, between the hammer and the anvil. betwe(ni tlie plun- 

 dering onslaughts of their still independent neighbours, on the oiu; hand, ami the Russian pro- 

 tection of its already subjected tribes on the other, sought the Russia rule, one after another. 

 Such a gradtial subjection of the Kirghiz steppes obliged the Russian (iovernnii'ut to ad\aiice 

 its foreposts far beyond the Irtysh into the depths of the Kirghiz steppes. 



BetW'Cen 1824 and 1834 the first Russian settlements were founded in the steppes of the 

 Kirghiz of the Siberian department; the numher of these settlements afterwarils inereased. but 

 between 1836 and 1847 the successes of the Russian rule (i\erilic Kirghiz steppes, were hindered 

 hy a ten years struggle with the energetic grandson of Rhaii Ablai, the sultan Kenissara, who 

 succeeded during ten years to play between the two neighbouring Russian Governor-Generals, on the 

 one hand, and the independent Tnikestaii rnlei's on the oilier, until at last he fell in an insig- 

 nificant dispute at the hands of his noinadic: neighbouis. the Karakirghiz, in 1847. Unfortun- 

 ately th(! Russian settlements in the country of the Ci'iitral horde were founded in places 

 ([uite inilit lor a settled agricultiii-al life, loi- e\iini|i|e. r>ayan-Aoul, Larkarala, Akm(dinsk, 

 Atbassar et cetera, and ctmld not therefore serve as points of support for the Russian control 

 over the steppes of the Kiigliiz limits (d' Siberia. But as soou as the beginning of the forties 

 tiie explorations made iiy Russian naturalists and geologists, sncli as Karelin, Kirilov, A. Shrenk 

 and ATangali, showed thai ind all of tin; counliy is nnlitied i'nv selilenient, imt that on the 

 contrary, at tin; foot id' the Taibagataia and Sendrechinsk Altai, there are excellent and 

 convenient lands for agriculture ami cidouization. Since the subjection in 1847 of the Great 

 Kirghiz horde, whose lands were situated abiu.u the luMUtiriil ami fertile slopes of the Semi- 



