EXPEDITION TO THE ALTAI 141 



Bamaoul is the centre of the most thickly popu- 

 lated district in Siberia, which contains 580,344 

 inhabitants, or an average of ten to the square mile. 

 The original inhabitants of the country belong to 

 various tribes of the Ural Altai races, vi^ith an ad- 

 mixture of 4^ per cent, of outlanders. The former 

 belong to four principal branches: Finns, Turks, 

 Mongolians, and Samoyeds. The number of pro- 

 fessing Christians is small, the predominant religion 

 being Shamanism". Within the last ten years 17,659 

 exiles, with their voluntary companions, have been 

 sent to the Tomsk Government, besides 300,000 

 voluntary settlers. The allotment of new grants of 

 land has been temporarily suspended to allow the 

 settlers to establish themselves. Only one-twentieth 

 part of the total quantity of arable land is under 

 cultivation, yet there is a surplus of 300,000 tons 

 of grain per annum' in the Government of Tomsk, 

 which is practically the Altai region. Before the 

 outbreak of hostilities with the Japanese, moreover, 

 the district possessed over two million head of cattle, 

 about two million sheep, and the same number of 

 horses. Apiculture is a source of considerable wealth 

 to the inhabitants. Model apiaries, with grand hives 

 on a new and improved system, are in use in the 

 Barnaoul district, and a bee-keeper residing at Bar- 

 naoul edits a journal called Northern Apiculture, 

 which is subsidised by the Government, and the 

 object of which is to instruct the population and 

 to introduce the most approved methods in the 

 industry. Other industries are sure to spring up 

 as soon as the proposed new railway is laid through 

 the fertile regions at the foot of the Altai Moun- 

 tains. The most important of these new lines is 

 the one which will connect Tashkent with one of the 

 stations of the mid-Siberian line, taking Bamaoul on 

 its way. 



