Originally one of three suggested routes the Orenburg-Tashkent road was the more desirable because the more direct. Alternative schemes in favour of connecting the Trans-Siberian with the Central Asian railway on one hand and the Saratoff-Uralsk railway with the Central Asian railway on the other were submitted to the commission appointed to select the route. Prudence and sentiment, as well as the absence of any physical difficulties in the way of prompt construction, tempered the resolution of the tribunal in favour of the old post-track. It was begun at once and pushed to completion within four years--a feat impossible to accomplish in the case of either of the two rival schemes. The former of these, costly, elaborate and ambitious, sought to connect Tashkent with Semipalatinsk, the head of the steamboat service on the Irtish river, 2000 miles away, _viâ_ Aulie-ata, Verni and Kopal. Passing between the two lakes Issyk and Balkash alternative routes were suggested for its direction from Semipalatinsk: the one securing a connection with the Trans-Siberian system at Omsk, the other seeking to pass along the post-road to Barnaul, terminating at Obi where the Trans-Siberian railway bridges the Obi river. The supporters of the scheme, which aimed at uniting the Saratoff-Uralsk railway with the Central Asian railway, proposed to carry the line beyond Uralsk to Kungrad, a fishing village in close proximity to the efflux of the Amu Daria and the Aral sea. From Kungrad, passing east of Khiva, the line would have traversed the Black Sands following a straight line and breaking into the Central Asian system at Charjui, opposite which, at Farab, a line to Termes _viâ_ Kelif has been projected; and where, too, an iron girder bridge, resting on nineteen granite piers, spans the Amu Daria. It is useless at this date to weigh the balance between the several schemes; one of which, the Orenburg-Tashkent route, has become an accomplished fact to provide, doubtless in the near future, matter for immediate concern. From Orenburg, of which the population is 80,000, the line 4 versts[1] from the station crosses the Ural river by an iron bridge, 160 sagenes[2] in length, running from there south to Iletsk, formerly the fortress Iletskaya Zashchita and at present a sub-district town of the Orenburg government with a population of 12,000. [Illustration: ON THE ROAD IN ASIA]