s which direct it into the Aral are said to be
maintained with difficulty. It has been proposed to send an expedition
to remove these barriers and turn the river into its former bed.

Coupled with this project is another to divert the course of the
Syr-Daria and make it an affluent of the Oxus. This last proposition
was half carried out two hundred years ago, and its completion would
not be difficult.

By the first project, Russia would obtain a continuous water-way from
Nijne Novgorod on the Volga to Balkh on the Amoo-Daria, within two
hundred miles of British India. The second scheme carried out would
bring Tashkend and all Central Asia under commercial control, and have
a political effect of no secondary importance. A new route might thus
be opened to British India, and European civilization carried into a
region long occupied by semi-barbarian people. Afghanistan would be
relieved from its anarchy and brought under wholesome rule. The
geographical effect would doubtless be the drying up of the Aral sea.
A railway between Balkh and Delhi would complete an inland steam route
between St. Petersburg and Calcutta.

Surveys have been ordered for a Central Asiatic Railway from Orenburg
or some point farther south, and it is quite possible that before many
years the locomotive will be shrieking over the Tartar steppes and
frightening the flocks and herds of the wandering Kalmacks and
Kirghese. A railway is in process of construction from the Black Sea
to the Caspian, and when this is completed, a line into Central Asia
is only a question of time.

The Russians have an extensive trade with Central Asia. Goods are
transported on camels, the caravans coming in season for the fairs of
Irbit and Nijne Novgorod. The caravans from Bokhara proceed to
Troitska, (Lat. 54 deg. N., Lon. 61 deg. 20' E.,) Petropavlovsk,
(Lat. 54 deg. 30' N., Lon. 69 deg. E.,) and Orenburg, (Lat. 51 deg.
46' N., Lon. 55 deg. 5' E.) There is also a considerable traffic to
Sempolatinsk, (Lat. 50 deg. 30' N., Lon. 80 deg. E.) The Russian
merchandise consists of metals, iron and steel goods, beads, mirrors,
cloths of various kinds, and a miscellaneous lot "too numerous to
mention." Much of the country over which these caravans travel is a
succession of Asiatic steppes, with occasional salt lakes and scanty
supplies of fresh water.

After passing the Altai mountains and outlying chains the routes are
quite monotonous. Fearful bourans are frequent, and in