202 ACROSS THE STEPPES OF TURKESTAN. 



delay at the Tashkent end of the line, where 130 

 versts had been finished at the time of my visit, 

 while I was informed that at the Orenburg end a 

 distance of 200 versts had been completed and was 

 ready for traffic.^ 



The second great line which is being discussed is 

 that known as the Tomsk-Tashkent line, which will 

 follow the direction of the post - road over which I 

 travelled via Tchimkent, Verni, Semipalatinsk, and 

 Barnaul, whence it is suggested that it should make a 

 bend in order to take in the government coal and iron 

 mines at Salaiire. From here a branch would be built 

 to Kunetzsk, and the main line would have its junction 

 with the Siberian system at the station of Polonosh- 

 naya. It is not proposed, however, to embark upon 

 this line until the Tashkent-Orenburg line is finished, 

 when the Minister of Finance has promised the scheme 

 his serious consideration. I may point out, that in 

 addition to the obvious strategic importance of such 

 lines, they will possess the further advantage of putting 

 the valuable cotton -growing lands of Ferghana into 

 close touch with the great corn-growing districts of 

 Siberia,^ and then, when no apprehension need be felt 



* A telegram from Orenburg at the end of June of the present year 

 (1904) states that the navvy ing work on the section of the line linking 

 the northern and southern stretches is approaching completion, and that 

 900 versts of the line have already been successfully laid from the Oren- 

 burg end, virhile 540 have been laid from the Tashkent end. Passenger 

 trains run twice a- week from Orenburg to Aktiubinsk, and, adds the 

 telegram, in a few days' time the railway will be opened to " commercial " 

 traffic between Tashkent and Perovsk. 



' The system of charges on Russian railways, whether for passengers or 

 goods, is known as the zone system, which necessarily favours long journeys, 

 the charges for long distances being relatively much lower than those for 

 short ones. To such an extent did this system favour the corn-growers 

 of Siberia, that it was found necessary, in the case of the Siberian railway, 

 to break the tariff at Cheliabinsk, to prevent an outbreak among the 

 farmers of the Volga basin, owing to the market being upset by the low 



