_Males._ _Females._ _Total._ 7624 6461 14,085 Orthodox Russians 441 Dissenters 31 Jews 460 Natives 13,153 The outward appearance of the town is extremely handsome. There is much vegetation, many wide streets and large open spaces. [Illustration: NATIVE QUARTER, TASHKENT] There are: _Russian Quarter._ _Native Quarter._ Houses 73 Houses 2140 Orthodox churches 2 Schools 5 Synagogues 2 Native schools 22 Mosques 58 Medresse 1 Military hospital 1 together with the administrative bureau of the sectional commissioner, besides district military headquarters, a district court and a post and telegraph office. In respect of trade Turkestan occupies a prominent place. The great bulk of the raw products of the nomad cattle-farming industry is brought to it for the purpose of exchanging with articles of Russian manufacture. The yearly returns of the bazaars amount to 4,000,000 roubles; an increase upon this sum is expected now that in the Karatavski mountains, which are close at hand, lead mines have been discovered. The town revenue is 19,350 roubles. The Tashkent district is more densely populated and possesses a more productive soil than Chimkent. The mineral resources, too, present greater promise while the trade returns reach a total of 50,000,000 roubles a year. Merchandise comes from Siberia into Orenburg and Tashkent; while, in addition, there are the local products and those from the interior of European Russia. The line serves, also, as the shortest route between Tashkent and the rich corn region at Chelyabinsk and Kurgan. Undoubtedly it will assist to supply the whole of Turkestan with Siberian corn, thereby setting free some of the land now under corn for the cultivation of cotton. Further, it connects Tashkent with the centre of the mining industry in the Ural mountains; and dense streams of Russian colonisation and trade pass by it into the heart of Central Asia. The prosperity introduced both into Orenburg and Tashkent by the creation of railway communication between these two centres will exercise a very beneficial effect upon the capacity of their markets. Already improvement has been marked, the flow of fresh trade through these new channels following closely upon the advance of the construction parties. The period available for statistics does not represent the effect of the new railway upon local trade. The work of construction had not begun at the time the returns, which are given below, were drawn up. At that moment the commercial activity of Tashkent was shown by the following table: _Table of Imports--1901_