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Southland Times, Issue 709, 14 August 1867, Page 2

I An Ancient Subterranean City. — An extraordinary discovery is reported from the Q-o---vernnient of Orenbnrgh, in Russia. It appears, says the " Pall Mall Grazette," that the furnishing of bricks used for certain forts in the course of erection there had been entrusted to some Khirgiz people. But among the ordinary ware furnished there were found from time to time specimens of so peculiar and so infinitely superior a kind that inquiry was instituted, and the discovery made that the contractors to jik these peculiar bricks ready made out of sertain he vps of rums clo^e by. A.H Imperial commission has reported on thj subject, the following bein^ tiie chwf pjiuns air i.ly ascertained: — Twenty-one verst undernuih rh fort No. lin question, on the left i»auic •!' th>riter Syr-Darja, there exists an entire subterranean city, which once siood on the borders of the Aral Lake ; this was afterwards covered with sand and ' mud, upon which grew the thistles of the steppe. ■ Thecupola of one edifice had already been taken off by these industrious and simple-minded Khirgiz, and the stonas were beautifully arranged ' in files, ready for use. The commission is of ] opinion that the extent of the city u:ay be about 1 five verst, but it has wisely abstained from his- j torical or ethnographical conjectures. It only points out the one moral, that there are millions of bricks to be got out of it at present, i