The Chu rises in the Tian-shan Mountains and flows north-westwards through Akmolinsk; and the Naryn flows south-westwards along a longitudinal valley of the Tian-shan, and enters Ferghana to join the Syr-darya.
There the Volga, the Ural, the Syr-darya and the Amu-darya discharge their waters without reaching the ocean, but they bring life to the rapidly desiccating Transcaspian steppes, and link together the most remote parts of Russia.
Livonia Minsk Mogilev Moscow Nizhniy-Novgorod Novgorod Olonets Orel Orenburg Penza Perm Podolia Poltava Pskov Ryazan St Petersburg Samara Piotrkow Plock Radom St Michel Tavastehus Uleaborg Stavropol Elizavetpol Erivan Kars Saratov Simbirsk Smolensk Tambov Taurida Tula Tver Ufa Vilna Vitebsk Vladimir Volhynia Vologda Voronezh Vyatka Yaroslavl Siedlce Suwalki Warsaw Viborg Vasa Terek Kutais Tiflis with Zakataly Akmolinsk Semipalatinsk The Steppes Turgai Uralsk Semiryechensk Samarkand Ferghana Syr-darya The effects of emigration and immigration cannot be estimated with accuracy, because only those who cross the frontier with passports are taken account of.
In 1905 a second totally independent line was opened from Tashkent down the Syr-darya to Kazalinsk, and thence to Orenburg.
The area between the northern border of the Persian high lands and the Caspian and Aral Seas is a nearly desert low-lying plain, extending to the foot of the north - western extremity of the great Tibeto-Himalayan mountains, and prolonged east- Trans- ward up the valleys of the Oxus (Amu-Darya) and Caspian Jaxartes (Syr-Darya), and northward across the country re ior, and of the Kirghiz to the south-western border of Siberia.