84 sibi:kia. 



ine be left out of ilic accouni, ilie proportion of llio perinanoiit Russian population in the 

 Kirghiz stoppe will not oxceeil 2 or :J per cent. On the whole the towns of the steppi- zone 

 contain KXVKX) souls or 10 per cont of the total population. Of the towns, actual importance 

 as centres of trade ami imlnstry, possess only Omsk (34,rKK) inhabitants), Semipalatinsk 

 (18/X)f) inhabitants) and Tctropavlovsk (IfijfKJO inhabitants). 



The subinoiiiitainous zone of tho Kirghiz region is situated under different circumstances. 

 Here 860,fX)0 inhabitants find a place, there being over 120 to the square geographical mil"-. 

 Russians form 7 per cent of the total population or 00,000. Adding to them the Tartars and 

 Sarts which have their permanent abodes in the Russian settleuKints, as well as the agricultural 

 Dungans and Tarandi, the number fd' the fixed jxtpiilation forms 18 per cent, while in the 

 towns alone dwell less than 6 per cent of the total population (50,000). Among all of them 

 Vierny, with its 25,000 inhabitants, alone possesses the importance of a true town, and 

 which enjoyed a flourishing existence until its destruction by an earthquake. 



Tlie distribution of the population in the subniountainous zone and in particular the 

 relation of the fixed population to the nomad, can be made quite clear by dividing the whole 

 submountainous zone according to absolute altitude into vertical zones or levels. The lowest or 

 steppe zone, the liottest and driest, and in winter the freest from snow, occupies the portions of 

 the foothills lying below 2,500 feet, and is taken up with the winter quarters of the nomafls, 

 who here find abundant fodder for their herds under the snow. This fodder is formed of grasses, 

 such as schismus minutus, crypsis schoenoides, small species of triticum and the like which 

 rapidly dry up on the approach of the summer heats. The true submountainous zone, following 

 with an elevation of 2,500to something over5,000 feet, includes all the fixed settlements and arable 

 laud of the country and represents a level occupied almost exclusively by a permanent population, 

 through wliich the nomads pass without stopping by definite roads or tracts, proceeding in 

 summer from the wintin- quarters to their beautiful cool mountain pastures. Before the airival 

 of the Russians, the Kirghiz were employed, although to a limited extent, with agriculture in 

 this cultivated level, and had here their fields which they sowed with the aid of irrigation on 

 their way to their summer grounds. With the coming of the Russian settlers, the Kirghiz 

 suiTended to them the whole of the second level of the country, but lost nothing by this, 

 as the abandonment by theip of inconsiderable tracts of arable land was fully compensated 

 by the sale to Russian agriculturalists of the produce of Kirghiz cattle breeding; the former 

 supplying them in turn with grain. The third level, from 5,<300 to 8,000 feet in altitude, is 

 the forest zone, providing a subsidiary industry to the Russian permanent settlements of the 

 submountainous zone. Finally, the fourth level, upon which the Kirghiz have their excellent 

 summer pastures, extends from 8,000 to 11.000 feet, that is to the limits of eternal snow. 

 This is a zone of alpine meadows, occupied only in summer almost exclusively by Kirghiz 

 nomad camps. 



The pastoral life of 80 per cent of the population of the country is reflected in the 

 number of domestic animals bred in the Kirghiz steppe zone, the proportion of which to 

 every 100 inhabitants here attains the maximum dimensions for the whole of Siberia. To 

 each 100 inhabitants fall 100 horses, the absolute number being 1,800,000, 60 large horned 

 cattle of a total 1,050,000, and 580 goats, the absolute number being 10,400,000. Finally, 



