Between Tashkent and Kauffmanskaya which, although insignificant, is equipped with hospital accommodation for six patients, the railway crosses by an iron bridge of 8 sagenes the Salar river, itself a tributary of the more important Chirchik. The line then passes Zangi-ata and the post station of Nialbash, crossing the Kur Kulduk arik by an iron bridge 3 sagenes in length and running near Vrevskaya through the Chirchik Valley, a region of special interest to archæologists. Stari Tashkent or Old Tashkent, rich in historical associations, is in this neighbourhood. It was inhabited at one time by the Sakis who, in bygone centuries, offered a stubborn resistance to Alexander of Macedon. Now it is only an insignificant hamlet, mere flotsam which has been thrown up and left by the advancing tide of Russian conquest. Lying to the east of Stari Tashkent and opposite Kirshul upon the left bank of the Chirchik river are the ruins of Shuturket or Ushturket--the Town of Camels; in the country between it and Binket, by which name Tashkent is known among the natives, there are other ruins. After skirting Bodorodski and Kaunchi the station of Syr Darinskaya, lying about 1 verst from the hill and lake of Utch Tubeh, follows, the line crossing the Bos-su arik by a second bridge of 5 sagenes. Until this point the general direction has been south-west. Ten versts from Syr Darinskaya station, at a point where it crosses the Syr Daria by a four-span iron bridge 160 sagenes in length, the railway runs by the ancient fortress and lake of Urumbai and turns to the east to thread the hills which surround Utch Tubeh lake. The point now arrives where the train enters the region distinguished by the Emperor Nicholas I. Canal, an extensive system of irrigation from the waters of the Syr Daria. These works, which the Ministry of Agriculture introduced, have brought more than 100,000 acres of the Golodnaya steppe under colonisation. It is due to the initiative and generosity of the Grand Duke Nicholas Konstantinovitch that the scheme was executed and its success is illustrated by the fact that seven villages--Nikolaievski, Nadejdinski, Verkhni, Nijni Volinski, Konnogvardeiski, Obyetovanni and Romanovski--have been established upon the reclaimed areas. In the main they are devoted to the cultivation of the smaller crops, although one or two are given up to the growing of cotton. The prosperity of the undertaking entails elaborate precautions; in order that the works should be unobstructed the head waters of the system are watched continuously by relays of guards.