had received any o f the books I sent in 1879 to the
Governor-General Kaznakoff for the prisons and
hospitals of the Semipolatinsk government. General
Protzenko, however, was willing to accept a New
Testament for each room of every prison and hospital
throughout his province, estimating the net number at
about 210 rooms in all, after making allowance for the
number o f Kirghese prisoners and patients who could
not read Russ. With the Moslems the Governor did
not like to attempt much, but consented to accept 10
copies of the Kirghese New Testament, to be used
as opportunity might serve. Accordingly I sent with
these 100 New Testaments, 65 Gospels, and 50
Psalms in Russ, some German, Hebrew, and Polish
Scriptures, and about 400 tracts, etc. T h is done, I
repacked some o f my boxes, so as to have as few as
possible on my second conveyance. A t the stations
as we came along I continued my plan o f nailing up
in the post-houses the engraving o f the “ Prodigal Son,
and offering my books for sale. Blessings indeed they
must have been, I should think, in these solitary houses
in the wilderness, and the postmasters seemed so to
regard them. A t the last station before Semipolatinsk
an old man said, “ T h e Lord must have sent these
books for us,” and his delight was great at getting them.
Between Semipolatinsk and Sergiopol almost every
post-master purchased books, and some bought at a
stroke all the selection I offered, as at Uluguzk and
Uzun-Bulak. E v en this did not satisfy my^ customer
at Altyn-Kalat, for he wanted another rouble’ s worth.
T h e Russians took up their position at Sergiopol,
previously called Ayaguz, and subsequently_ named
after Sergius, a younger son o f the Emperor, in 1831
since which date, their frontier having advanced southwards,
the place has greatly declined in importance.
The inhabitants number 1,000. The town is situated
within sight of, but at some distance from, the poststation,
near which is the fortress containing the church,
the house of the nachalnik, or chief, and the barracks.
About 16 miles from the town, in the Saikemir defile,
beside the River Badpak, Mr. Ujfalvy states there have
been found cut in the rock rude representations, resembling
those found by Pallas and Spasky in Siberia, of
wolves, stags, camels, dogs, snakes, etc.*
There should also be mentioned, as existing within
120 miles of Sergiopol, several mineral deposits, such
as silver and lead, to the south-east near Chuguchak 4
graphite within 20 miles of the town ; oil in four places
to the south, and copper on the southern slopes of the
Tarbagatai, in the neighbourhood of Abket, where lie
three beds belonging to Mr. Permikine, who formerly
worked them.f
During my short stay at Sergiopol I heard of a fellow-
countryman, Mr. -Delmar Morgan, who has laid the
* The same author, one of whose principal functions was the measuring
of human heads and skulls, to the unconcern of course of the dead,
but to the utter amazement, and sometimes terror, of the living, natives,'
states that the crania found in this region— that is, to the south-east of
the province o f Semipolatinsk— present anthropological features exceedingly
remarkable, the protuberances above ■ the eyebrows being very
marked, the separation between the nose and the glabella (or space
between the eyebrows) be in g unusually deep, and the internal commissures,
or angles of the eyes, being very close together. It is impossible,
he says, that these can be Mongolian skulls, and adds that some others
found in the neighbourhood of Lake Issik-Kul present analogous
features.
t According to Mr. Tatarinoff the lodes ate nearly two feet thick, and
are formed almost exclusively of the following kinds of copper ore ■
oxidulated earthy copper, cuprite, azurite, and even native copper. The
lodes traverse argillaceous schists. From the mines of Gratchevo and
Gregory was obtained “ mineral ” producing from 20 to 30 per cent, of
copper.
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