THE KIRGHIZ STEPPE REGION. 83 



Alpian zone, numbers of mouutainous birds, the greater part of which are natives of the 

 Asiatic mountains. 



Even the fauna of the mammals is much richer and more varied than in Siberia. The 

 tiger and the irbis (felis irbis) reach the northern limit of their distribution in the reeds 

 of Balkhash, but occasionally stray northward into the neighbourhood of the Alatau. Wild boars 

 occur in all the submountainous zone, in the Thian-Shan and Transilian Alatau. There are 

 two species of bear belonging to the Pamir and the range of the Himalai (ursus thibetanus 

 and Isabellinus). Besides the <;arkhar» (ovis argali), extremely common in the alpine and sub- 

 alpine zones of the Thian-Shan and both Alatau, the kochgar, a mountain sheep first des- 

 cribed by the celebrated traveller, Marco Polo, and subsequently called in his honour, ovis 

 Polii, from the bonis and skeletons found in abundance on the Pamir, breeds in the wildest 

 parts of the Thian-Shan. This species was long considered extinct, until discovered by the 

 most recent Russian travellers, Semionov, Sievertsov and Przhevalsky. In the mountainous 

 zone of the submountainous region also breed the cervus pygargus, capra sibirica, several species of 

 <csaiga» (for example antilope subgutturosa) and the porcupine (hystrix), while the steppe 

 zone contains «kulans» (eguus hemionus). 



Passing next to man, it must be observed that the whole population of the Kirghiz 

 steppe region amounts to 1,860,000 souls, of whom the immigi-ant Russians form only l-t 

 per cent (260,0C0), and the remainder, 86 per cent, belong to the native tribes of Central 

 Asia. Of the latter, the Tartars and Sarts (35,000) live principally in towns and per- 

 manent settlements, the Dungans and Taranch (86,000) employed in agriculture, may also be 

 reckoned to the settled population of the country, while the Kirghiz (146,000) and Kalmyks 

 (25,000) are nomads, living almost exclusively by cattle breeding. The Kirghiz, in number the 

 predominating tribe of the region, speak a Tiurk idiom, but in effect in their origin form a 

 motley amalgamation of various tribes, who were attracted hither in the Xlllth century by 

 the last mass migi-ation of Mongols and who squatted here, on the road taken by the great 

 migration, on the first spots suitable for a nomad life met with by the wanderers from the 

 mountainous region of Asia. As among the people who entered into the composition of the 

 Kirghiz alliance, the Tiurk tribes had a numerical preponderance, all the Kirghiz adopted 

 their language, but the various clans and tribes have preserved to this day their clannish and 

 tribal names, thus betraying their true nationality. The total number of the Kirghiz exceeds 

 3,000,000 souls, of whom 1,470,000 dwell in the steppe Governor-Generalship, 760,000 in the 

 Turgai and Ural territories, 740,000 in Turkestan, and over 140,000 in the home Kirghiz 

 Bukeev horde in European Russia. 



In the two component parts of the Kirghiz steppe region the population is unequally, 

 divided. In the steppe part of the region live 1,000,000 inhabitants, making 55 to the square 

 geographical mile. Russians form here 20 per cent, or 210,000, of the population, merely 

 because the former Siberian Irtysh colony, except three large towns, Semipalatinsk, Omsk 

 kud Petropavlovsk, is wholly settled by them, as well as a whole string of Kossack camps or 

 «stanitsas» and hamlets which served formerly as the fortifiications of the frontier line. 

 "Within the steppe zone there are very few permanent Russian settlements, as suitable spots 

 for agricultural colonies occur hero only as rare and limited oases, and if the Siberian Irtysh 



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