'Military Report on Russian Turkistan or Central Asia' [‎34r] (72/168)

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* In Ferghana,
f Chiefly in Samarkand,
CHAPTER V.
Resources.
Mineral—Agricultural-Forests—Cattle—Trade and
Industry—Resources of the Neighbouring Steppe
Provinces, Persia, and Afghanistan.
The mineral resouices of Turkistan, great as they Mineral,
may be, must still be considered as latent and unde
veloped. In the mountains of Ferghana and Samarkand,
naphtha, asphalt, coal, as well as small quantities of
gold, copper ores and sulphur are found. Rock salt
covers 80 acres on the island of Cheleken, and is also
found along the Uzboi and elsewhere in Trans-Caspia, as
well as ozokerite and gypsum.
There is a remarkable deposit of pure Epsom salts,
of vast extent, in the Kara Bugaz gulf of the Caspian
Sea. In 1899 about 1,500 tons of asphalt,* 6,000 tons
of coal, - ) - 30,000 tons of salt, and in 1897. 14,000 tons
of naphtha, 1,240 tons of gypsum, and 5,000 tons of
sulphur were obtained.
According to recent Russian estimates the area of Agricul-
irrigated land under cultivation in the various provinces tural.
of Turkistan is approximately as follows:—
Acres.
Ferghana
- 2,565,000
Syr Daria
- 1,485,000
Samarkand
- 1,107,000
Trans-Caspia
202,500
Semi rechi a
540,000
Bokhara
- 1,080,000
Khiva
540,000
Total
- 7,519,500