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MINUTES OF PKOCEEDINGS OF 
of the hill sides given to pastoral pursuits, and those of the valleys engaged 
in agriculture and commerce. There are many large, flourishing cities in 
the upper parts of Bokhara and Kokan. 
The other parts of the country towards the Caspian and the Aral, vary 
much in their character, and large tracts consist of arid, almost pathless 
deserts, sparsely inhabited by wild, nomadic Turcoman tribes. 
These three great principalities are independent of each other, and are 
often at war; but each and all of them are now beginning to feel the 
influence of that great wave of Russian invasion which, slowly but surely, 
is approaching from the north, and which as surely will ere long absorb 
them into one common kingdom. Whatever changes the advance of Russia 
may make, and however much or little it may ultimately affect our position 
in the East, no one can regret that an end should be put to these govern¬ 
ments, which for a long period of time, by their cruel tyranny, fanaticism, 
and depravity, have been a curse to the people placed under their rule. 
Eor many years past the whole country has been so unsafe for travellers, 
that there is hardly an European alive who has successfully passed through 
it, and consequently it has been impossible to ascertain with any exactness 
the real condition of affairs in the three kingdoms. 
In a military point of view, neither Khiva, Bokhara, or Kokan are very 
powerful. Bokhara is the most so, and is said to have an army of 40,000 men 
and some batteries of artillery. 
The chief obstacles therefore to the Russian advance, arise from the want 
of adequate roads, and from the difficulties of obtaining supplies of food and 
water in traversing the wide sandy deserts, which extend over a great portion 
of the country. The distances also are great, so that it is easy to understand 
that any forward movement can only be made by small, detached bodies, 
which are liable to be cut off, or to be at all events detained by the desultory 
attacks of the wild nomadic tribes of the desert. 
The Advance of Russia. 
The old southern boundary of Russia in Central Asia, extended from the 
Ural, north of the Caspian by Orenburg and Orsk, and then across to the 
old Mongolian city of Semipalatinsk, and was guarded by a cordon of forts 
and Cossack outposts. This line was no less than 2000 miles in length, 
and “ abutted on the great Kirghis Steppe along its northern skirts, and to 
a certain extent controlled the tribes pasturing in the vicinity, but by no 
means established the hold of Russia on that pathless, and for the most part, 
lifeless waste.” 
There is an admirable article in the “ Quarterly Review ” of October, 1865, 
written I believe by a very high authority on the subject, which describes 
the position of Russia about thirty years ago, and from which I will quote 
one or two extracts, before I proceed to give an account of her more recent 
conquests. It says :— 
“ A great Tartar Empire, which should unite Siberia with the fertile valleys of 
the Oxus and Jaxartes, had been imagined by the Russian Czars as early as the 
16tli century, and would probably have been realized, either by Peter the Great or 
Catherine, but for the intervening wilderness of the Kirghis-Kazzacks. Extending 
for 2000 miles from west to east, and for 1000 miles from north to south, and 
