. The chief towns are Bokhara (about 75,000) and Karshi
(25,000). The chief products are sheep, goats, camels, horses,
rice, cotton, silk, corn, fruit, hemp and tobacco. Gold, salt,
alum and sulphur are the chief minerals. There are cotton, woollen
and silk manufacturers. Many Indian goods such as shawls, tea,
drugs, indigo and muslins are imported. The Amir has 11,000 troops,
4,000 of which are quartered in Bokhara. The Russian Trans-Caspian
Railway runs through Bokhara and there is steam navigation on the
Oxus. A telegraph connects Bokhara with Tashkend.

The conquest of Khiva, another Uzbeg State also founded on the
ruins of Tamerlane's Central Asian Empire, was attempted by Peter
the Great in 1717 and again in 1839 by the Tsar Nicholas. On the
pretext that the Khivans had aided the rebellious Kirghiz, the
Russians invaded Khiva in 1873 and forced the Khan to sign a treaty
putting the Khanate under Russian government. The reigning sovereign
is Seyid Mahomed Rahim Khan who succeeded his father in 1865. He was
born about 1845. The population is estimated at 800,000, including
400,000 nomad Turcomans. The principal towns are Khiva (about 5,000)
and New Urgenj (3,000). The religion is Mahommedan. The army consists
of about 2,000 men. The chief productions are silk and cotton.

[Illustration: KALKSTRASSE AND THE PROMENADE, RIGA.]

In 1898, Russia obtained a lease of twenty-five years from China of
Point Arthur and Ta-lien-wan with the adjacent seas and territory
to the north. To this the name of Kwang-Tung was given in 1899. Port
Arthur, the capital, is a naval station for Russian and Chinese
ships. At the end of the port a new town, Dalni, has been founded;
it is connected by rail with the Trans-Siberian railway system.

Russia's history in 1903 was marked by general disquietude and
turbulence. The disorders among the peasantry in 1902 led to a
special committee being appointed to inquire into and ameliorate
their condition and also to improve agriculture. On March 11, 1903,
the Tsar issued a manifesto promising reform in the government of
local towns and tolerance in religion. As little or no improvement
was noticed, strike riots resulted in Slatoust (Ufa) and at
Nijni-Novgorod, and riots also broke out in the university of St.
Petersburg. In May, the Governor of Ufa was assassinated. To these
disturbances, the Anti-Semitic outrages were encouraged at Kishineff
(Bessarabia) when forty-five Jews were killed, 484 inju