Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/481

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Turcomans, Kirghese, Persians, Armenians, and Jews, and I don't know how many other races and kinds of people. There is a good deal of commerce, mostly in the hands of Armenians and Russians, but much less than when the railway terminated here. The business of Merv and the Penjdeh district is at the end of the railway; in this respect the commerce of Central Asia is much like that of our far-western country, and changes its base with each change of the means of transport.

"There is a fort at Kizil Arvat, and also a bazaar, and we are told that Askabad is similarly provided. Whenever the Russians establish