“SIGNS OF RUSSIAN PROGRESS.

“The completion of the Trans-Caspian Railway to Samarcand marks another stage in the Russian occupation of Asia. That city was the objective point of the earlier campaigns from Orenburg and the sea of Aral, which ended in the conquest of Khiva and Kokan and the establishment of Tashkend as the military headquarters, with railway connections northward. Bokhara was reduced to the condition of a protected province and Samarcand was virtually converted into a Russian centre of trade on the border of China. An interval of twelve years has elapsed, during which Samarcand, already within easy reach from Tashkend, has been gradually approached from the Caspian Sea. The Trans-Caspian Railway is now in operation from Michailovsk to Samarcand, a distance of 885 miles, by way of Askabad, Merv and Bokhara. This na. . . Read More