Page:England & Russia in Central Asia,Vol-I.djvu/32

This page needs to be proofread.
12
ENGLAND AND RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA.
12

khanate of Bokliara has oozed out in the proceedings of the Russian Geographical Society. The khanate is, as is known, subdivided into several bekdoms, which re- mained very imperfectly known until M. Maieff explored them. Three of these bekdoms — Chirakcha, Gruzar, and Shirabad — are on the route from the town of Guzar to Kilif, on the ^Amou Darya. That of Chirakcha occupies the mountains of Djam, and the neighbouring steppe, which last reaches the Kashka Darya river. Both mountains and steppe are but scantily watered, and therefore but poorly peopled with Usbegs of the Saray-kipchak branch, who are engaged in agriculture and cattle-breeding. Grain is raised on the steppe and exported to Samarcand and Katty-kurgan ; the crop is estimated to produce annually six thousand four hundred hundredweights of wheat, and three thousand two hundred hundredweights of barley ; rice is not cul- tivated, because of want of water. The bekdom of Guzar also is rich in wheat, and especially in cattle, which is bred on the hilly part of the bekdom. More than four thousand head of cattle may be seen at once in the weekly fairs of Guzar. The bekdom of Shirabad is rather poor, the export of grain being difl&cult; owing to the great distances from the larger centres of Karshi and Bokhara, agriculture cannot be profit- able ; and the trade in grain is in the hands of the tuachi, or travelHng merchants, who purchase the grain at very low prices. The bekdom of Kobadgan lives on silkworm culture. The inhabitants of Kilif town, on the Amou Darya, live mostly by the salt trade, rock-salt being raised on the mountains, Kuityn