wheat belt to the south, between latitudes 55 and 57, had the effect of diverting much of the traffic from the old waterways, and at the present time only bulky articles like grain and timber go by the Obi water route to Tiumen and thence by rail to European Russia. All small and more valuable traffic, such as butter, minerals and furs, go now by the Siberian railway, which has not only captured most of the traffic of Western Siberia, but has stimulated great economic activity all along its route. Wherever it crosses the principal rivers flourishing towns are springing up. Thus Petropavlovsk on the Ishim, and Novo-nikolaevsk on the Obi River have within the last ten years grown from mere collections of huts to busy transport centres, through which commerce between Europe and the producing centres of Siberia passes. The most important towns, therefore, from an economic point of view, in Western Siberia are those where the great railway crosses the principal waterways, and those points which have been selected as the junctions for the new branch lines to the Altai and other districts.
These towns of quite recent growth have already seriously affected many of the old towns as, for instance, Tobolsk and Tomsk, which lie off the main railway, and many of the principal merchants and transport firms now have their head offices at such places as Novo-nikolaevsk. The towns of Tomsk and Tobolsk are still, however, the principal seats of Siberian local industry and of the small manufactures which have grown up within the last fifty years. Moreover, the importance of Tobolsk and Tiumen will probably revive when the north-west Siberian railway from Omsk to Tiumen, with its
