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103 Russia's military strength in central asia. 103 or other exiles are separated from each other by im- mense distances, which for two-thirds of the year are wholly impassable. They have no organization, no common bond, and are perhaps in the main ignorant of each other's existence. Once they depart from the settlement to which the beneficent care of a paternal government has assigned them, they enter npon a wild and desolate region, in which they can find no friend. The terrors of a semi- Arctic climate become more terrible, and the dangers from man and beast grow greater and more difficult of being avoided, as the lonely settlement is left behind. Sometimes, despite all these difficulties and dangers, an unfortu- nate exile, gifted with more than usual boldness and strength, flees from the abode where he is safe from temporal want, to seek in or beyond the solitude that freedom of which he has been deprived. But of such an one all trace disappears. No one has ever broken out from that vast prison-house. The defences that nature has erected around it are impenetrable, and as completely shut out the interloper from beyond as they inclose the unfortunate occupant. If Russia's only internal danger is from either of these causes, she can banish all apprehension from her mind, for from them there is nought to fear. The army of Orenburg has always been, and is still, considered the reserve of the army of Turkestan. This army is supposed to consist of eighty thousand men, but as this is the strength given on paper it is neces- Bary to deduct a considerable number from it to arrive at its actual strength. It is also very weak in artil-