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EVERY AGE LIBRARY 
 
 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 By CHARLES WENYON, M.D. 
 
THE PUBLISHER OF THE EVERY AGE 
 LIBRARY WILL BE PLEASED TO SEND, 
 POST FREE, PARTICULARS OF 
 VOLUMES READY & CONTEMPLATED 
 
 the scope of the series 
 will comprise books in 
 tpie following cate- 
 gories : travel, biography, 
 fiction, poetry, religion, 
 modern missionary enter- 
 prise, belles lettres, 
 translation of classical 
 :masterpieces, adventure, 
 school life, & fairy tales 
 
/ \ 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 In the preface to the four earUer editions of 
 this book it was said that the great post-road of 
 Siberia would, ere long, be superseded by the 
 railway, as the old post-roads of Britain had 
 been. That is now an accomplished fact. Ex- 
 press trains run from Moscow to Lake Baikal, 
 and from Lake Baikal to Vladivostock. In the 
 vast and little known regions, north and south, 
 there will not, for years to come, be any more 
 comfortable and expeditious mode of travel 
 than sledge and tarantass. But, east and west, 
 a journey which then involved many months 
 of difficult and hazardous wayfaring can now 
 be performed in less than half the number of 
 weeks, and with no more hardship and exposure 
 than one may expect to meet with in a first- 
 class railway carriage, with well-warmed, double- 
 windowed compartments, and well-appointed 
 sleeping-cars and restaurant. This more rapid 
 and luxurious mode of travel has, however, one 
 drawback. It takes us through the country 
 without seeing it. It does not permit us to 
 
6 PREFACE 
 
 observe even the configuration of the land to 
 the best advantage, nor to enter at all into those 
 intimate relations with the people, without 
 which it is impossible to understand the con- 
 ditions of life among them. Crossing the 
 country, as I did, sixteen years ago, I spent 
 much more time upon the way than travellers 
 do now, but I saw much more both of the country 
 and the people. In the following pages I have 
 endeavoured to describe what I saw. 
 
 For such references to the liistory, customs, 
 and religion of native tribes as are beyond the 
 range of personal observation, I am indebted, 
 among other sources, to valuable papers in the 
 Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal 
 Asiatic Society. 
 
 CHARLES WENYON. 
 
 London, 1909. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 OFF THE SIBERIAN COAST 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Crowded deck — Navvies for Siberian Railway- 
 Chinese gamblers — Fight for food . . . .11 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 THE EASTERN TERMINUS 
 
 Harbour and town of Vladivostock — Mixed population 
 — German merchants — A Siberian Sebastopol — 
 Argus-eyed police ,17 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE GREAT POST-ROAD 
 
 An inunense covintry — Diversified configviration^ 
 Track of early settlers — The Great Plateau — 
 Alpine ranges — Rigorous climate — Sparse popula- 
 tion — Modes of travel — Post-horse system . . 24 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE START 
 
 A traveller's narrative — Presentiments — A wintry day 
 — Turning back — A royal traveller — Appalling 
 distances — Poor accommodation — Monotony — 
 Tlie sort of people to enjoy it . . . .31 
 7 
 
8 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 FROM THE COAST TO LAKE KHANKA, BY TARANTASS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 First post-station — Attempted extortion — Lonely 
 country — A Siberian graveyard — Heating appar- 
 atus — A night in the travellers' room — Noisy 
 company — Description of a tarantass — Russian 
 horses — Use of pillows — Corduroy bridges and 
 roads — Fast driving — Stuck in a bog. . . 38 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 LIFE IN A SIBERIAN VILLAGE 
 
 A post-road of ice — Crossing Khanka in a sledge — 
 Waiting for a thaw — Kamenrubeloff — A Russian 
 land-surveyor — Our lodgings — A small dinner- 
 party — Washing — Siberian peasants — Extension of 
 Russian territory — Cossacks — Gipsies — !BIusic — The 
 chiirch and its services — Sacrament of Lord's 
 Supper — St. George's day — Contentment of vil- 
 lagers — A wedding — Clouds in the sky ... 59 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 BY STEAMER FROM KHANKA TO THE AMOOR 
 
 Crossing Khanka Lake — Sungacha River — Wild ducks 
 — Fellow passengers — Tea and vodka — ' Siberian 
 wives ' — A drunken engineer — Usuri River — Fish- 
 skin Tartars — Yukola — Shamanism — Sable-hunting 
 — Khabarofka — Russia and Cathay — Cathedral — 
 Martial music 84 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 UP THE AMOOR 
 
 Confluence with the L^suri — A set of gamblers — 
 Baccarat — Flowery hillsides — Salmon — Anglers — 
 
CONTENTS 9 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Blagovestchensk — Gold-mining on Zeya River — 
 Russian defence of frontier — Apathy of China — 
 Sociability of Russian people — Military officers 
 ■ — Jews — Deck passengers — Priests, emigrants, and 
 soldiers — Wood-stations — Purchase of provisions — 
 Wild scenery — Night on the river — Forest fires — 
 Men overboard — Shilka and Argun rivers — 
 Stretensk 109 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 FROM STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL, BY TARANTASS 
 
 Crossing the Shilka — A telyega ride — In the MTong 
 house — Nertchinsk and Kara — The higher terrace 
 of the plateaii — Cold nights — Tchita — Raft-build- 
 ing — Dry climate — Exiled Socialists — An English 
 resident — At a picnic — Prince Datpak — The Tun- 
 gus — On the Buriat steppe — Trinity Sunday — ■ 
 Drunkenness and worship — The Buriats — Popoo- 
 tchiks — Verchni-Udinsk — Russian lovers — Sign- 
 boards — Raskolniks — Summer flowers — Selenga 
 River — Trout-streams — Approaching Baikal — 
 The lake — Its size and loneliness — The post- 
 station on the shore — An unamiable wife — An 
 overcrowded lodging-house — Fish and flowers . 136 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK, BY TARANTASS 
 
 Distant view of Irkutsk — Its wealth and public 
 institutions — The taiga — Not so deserted as it 
 seem.s — Bears and wolves — Alone in the forest — 
 Caravans — Exiles going east : criminal, political, 
 and religious — Penalties of dissent — Strange sects 
 — Treatment of exiles on the road — Irregularities 
 — Convict stations — Attempts to escape — Bradyaga 
 — Diseases of Siberia — Cholera — Hiring outside 
 horses — Out in a thunderstorm — Crossing the 
 
10 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Yenisei — Krasnoiarsk — Atchinsk — Cheap horses 
 and pro\'isions — Tartars — Samoyedes — The last 
 stage on the post-road 181 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 FROM TOMSK TO THE URAL MOUNTAINS, BY RIVER 
 AND RAILWAY 
 
 The city and government of Tomsk — On the Obi — 
 Rafts — A camp of Ostiaks — Russian methods of 
 evangehsm — Long days — The Irtish River — The 
 Tobol and the city of Tobolsk — Fertile plains — 
 The great northern swamps — Mammoth remains — 
 Religious refugees — Russian undergraduates — Con- 
 fluences of Siberian Rivers — The Toora River and 
 city of Tiumen — On the railway — Ural Mountains 
 scenery — Ekaterinburg — ' Evu-ope ' and ' Asia ' . 221 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER 
 
 Suspicious of strangers — Heterogeneous population — 
 Difficulty of government — Detectives at frontier 
 station — Detained on suspicion — The village of 
 Wirballen — The frontier line — Russian and German 
 sentinels — Out of the cage at last . . . 247 
 
FOUR THOUSAND MILES 
 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 OFF THE SIBERIAN COAST 
 
 * We are nearing Vladivostock,' said the captain, 
 and the only European passenger was very glad 
 to hear it. 
 
 To think of reaching port always gives a thrill 
 of pleasure even on the happiest voyage, and it 
 naturally gave a deeper thrill to one who had 
 endured the misery of a voyage such as this. 
 In some respects it could not have been more 
 favourable — calm sea and cloudless sky, a well- 
 found ship, obliging officers, and a quick run of 
 twelve days from the China coast, including a 
 stay of thirty hours at Nagasaki ; but the crowd 
 of passengers we had on board spoiled every- 
 thing. 
 
 Those who have travelled by excursion 
 steamers on the Enghsh coast perhaps know 
 something about crowded decks ; but between 
 living in a crowd for a few hours and living in 
 
 11 
 
12 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 one for tmce as many days, there is a vast differ- 
 ence ; and there is a still vaster difference be- 
 tween a crowd of English lads and lasses and 
 such a crowd as ours. 
 
 It all came about through the restless enter- 
 prise of the Russian Government, which, not 
 content with its great high road through Siberia, 
 must now seek to supersede it by a railway. The 
 eastern section — a stretch of about two hundred 
 miles, from the coast to the Usuri River — had 
 already been commenced ; but, all the European 
 labour available not being sufficient for the 
 work, the officials had at last decided to import 
 ten thousand Chinese coolies to complete it. 
 
 The first gang of eleven hundred were shipped 
 by the steamer on which I had the misfortune 
 to be a passenger. She was not a large vessel, 
 and with five hundred persons on board would 
 have been uncomfortably crowded ; having 
 more than twice that number, the decks were 
 literally covered with them, and outside the 
 cabin there was hardly room to move. 
 
 The crush was no inconvenience to the China- 
 men ; they rather seemed to hke it, and required 
 no urging to squeeze themselves into tighter 
 compass that they might make room for the 
 little gambhng-tables, on which dice, dominoes, 
 and fantan helped to keep their little stock of 
 cash in circulation. 
 
OFF THE SIBERIAN COAST 13 
 
 There was room enough to gamble, but not 
 room enough for the inevitable gambling fight — 
 if ' fight ' it may be called ; for when an alterca- 
 tion arises among Chinese gamesters, though 
 there is always a good deal of violent gesticula- 
 tion and a good deal of noise, it is seldom that 
 any injury is done except to the vocal chords of 
 the disputants. But such innocent termination 
 of a Chinese quarrel implies plenty of room for 
 the free play of the muscles, and this, unfortu- 
 nately, could not be obtained on our crowded 
 deck. When the aggrieved gambler, in Chinese 
 fashion, raised his fist over his shoulder to give 
 emphasis to some awful imprecation, of neces- 
 sity he thrust his elbow against the nose or into 
 the eye of some innocent observer in his rear. 
 As the man thus unexpectedly assaulted raised 
 his fist in the same way, he inflicted like injury 
 upon some one in the crowd behind him. Thus 
 every blow threatened or inflicted brought a new 
 combatant into the fray, until what was at first 
 a simple dispute between a couple of gamblers 
 became a general fight. The consequences might 
 have been disastrous, but at this stage the chief 
 officer adroitly turned the water-hose upon the 
 battlefield, and, if the courage of the combatants 
 had been a candle-flame, the cold water could 
 not have more quickly and completely extin- 
 guished it. In a few minutes the gambling-tables 
 
14 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 were set up again, and the yellow sea of living 
 beings between the bulwarks of our vessel was, 
 like the blue sea outside, as peaceful as if it had 
 never been ruffled by a storm. 
 
 But what excitement there was at feeding- 
 time ! Twice a day the Chinese cooks boiled 
 for their fellow countrymen three hundred-weight 
 of rice. It was distributed in wooden buckets 
 — one bucket for ten men ; and, if anything like 
 order had been observed by the distributors or 
 the recipients, there would have been abundance 
 of food for all. But Chinese stewards would no 
 more think of enforcing discipline than would 
 Chinese coolies of submitting to it ; and so, as 
 soon as the rice was ready, there was a wild rush 
 upon the galley. Over every bucket there was 
 a tug of war, dozens of pairs of hands struggling 
 for possession of it. In the tussle many a bucket 
 was upset, and its contents trampled under foot ; 
 and so the supply of rice was exhausted long 
 before all had received their share, some of the 
 coolies having to endure an absolutely unbroken 
 fast for several days. 
 
 Naturally, the struggle became fiercer as time 
 went on. Standing with the captain on the 
 bridge one morning, and looking down upon that 
 fight for food, it was hard to believe that those 
 engaged in it were human beings. All were 
 stripped to the waist, and, with a babel of con- 
 
OFF THE SIBERIAN COAST 15 
 
 fused shouting, they wrestled and fought with 
 one another hke beasts of prey. 
 
 One sinewy, Httle man, with eager, hungry 
 look, was struggling vainly in the background. 
 He had not had a morsel of food for a couple of 
 days, and it seemed impossible that he should 
 get any now ; but suddenly a thought struck 
 him, and, springing on to the bulwarks of the 
 steamer, he threw himself — not into the water, 
 but into the seething mass of heads and shoulders 
 between him and the cook-house. He HteraUy 
 swam through them to the front, and went down 
 head first among the rice buckets. The first one 
 he touched he seized, and, putting his head inside 
 it, began to eat like a dog. The crowd tried to 
 pull the bucket away from him, but, with one 
 hand on either side, he gripped it Hke a vice. He 
 was pinched and pommelled, but he would not 
 let go his hold. Even when his feet were lifted 
 from the ground — and men, on the top of the 
 galley, seizing them began to haul the gormand 
 up — for a space the bucket went up with him, 
 and, though his face was hidden, I could see, by 
 the working of the muscles of his neck, that he 
 was still bolting great gulps of rice as fast as 
 he could swallow. 
 
 The bucket was torn from the man's grasp at 
 length, and he was flung into the rear. But he 
 seemed little the worse for the conflict. He had 
 
16 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 received a drubbing, but had been compensated 
 for it by a hearty meal ; and, as he rubbed his Mps 
 with the back of his hand, his eyes twinkled, and 
 his face beamed with the famihar Mongolian 
 smile — ' a smile that was pensive and bland.' 
 
 But twelve days of this kind of diversion was 
 enough, and hence the joy wdth which I heard 
 the captain say, on that raw April morning, that 
 Vladivostock was in sight. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE EASTERN TERjVnNTJS 
 
 There is something forbidding in the aspect of 
 the wild mountain ranges which rise sheer up 
 from the sea to the height of 3,000 feet or more 
 along the eastern coast of Siberia ; but near the 
 Manchurian frontier, where the Suifoon River 
 finds its way into the sea, there is a break in the 
 range, and the mountains on either side fall away 
 into a group of gently sloping, round-topped 
 hills. Over the lower slopes of these hills, in the 
 summer-time green with grass and foliage, and over 
 the narrow space between them and the shore, 
 is spread the town of Vladivostock, the eastern 
 terminus of the longest post-road in the world, 
 and of the prospective Trans-Siberian railway. 
 
 This town has sprung into existence within the 
 last thirty years, but it is already a well-estab- 
 lished settlement, with a population of twenty 
 thousand, half of whom are Europeans. It has 
 not yet attracted much attention in Western 
 Europe, but is regarded by Russia as of great 
 
 17 2 
 
18 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 strategic importance, and is likely to become, if 
 it is not already, the most powerful military post 
 in the Far East. 
 
 Opposite the town lies an island several miles 
 in length, and the strait included between it and 
 the mainland forms the harbour — an unusually 
 fine one, deep enough to admit the biggest ship 
 afloat, capacious enough to accommodate the 
 largest fleet, and in all weathers affording safe 
 anchorage. 
 
 The general appearance of Vladivostock is 
 very different from that of any other settlement 
 in this part of the world. It seems at first more 
 European, for one is struck at once by the pro- 
 minence of certain red-brick buildings — barracks, 
 I was told they were, but in size and obtrusive 
 ugliness they reminded one of some newly built 
 cotton-mill in Lancashire. A few of the business 
 houses and residences are also built of red brick-; 
 but buildings of this kind are rare, and appear 
 as blots upon the prevailing whiteness of the 
 cosy wooden dwellings which compose by far the 
 greater part of the town. Most of the houses 
 are detached, and, except in the business quarter, 
 stand in gardens. In these gardens there are 
 plenty of trees — oak, lime, maple, walnut, and 
 such fruit-trees as the apple, pear, and cherry. 
 When these are in full leaf and blossom, Vladi- 
 vostock, looking down upon the sea from the 
 
THE EASTERN TERMINUS 19 
 
 verdure-covered hillside, is no doubt quite as 
 beautiful as people say ; but it seemed dreary 
 enough when I saw it at the end of winter, for 
 the keen frosts had destroyed the foliage and 
 withered up the grass, and there was nothing to 
 be seen but houses and leafless trees. 
 
 For nearly six months every year the harbour 
 itself is frozen, and our steamer was one of the 
 first that season to effect an entrance. The few 
 steamers that had got in before us had the paint 
 scraped from their sides by the pack through 
 which they had forced their way ; and when we 
 ourselves arrived, the sea to the northward of 
 the harbour was one mass of broken ice as far as 
 the eye could see. 
 
 Though in some respects a characteristically 
 Russian town, Vladivostock is very cosmopolitan 
 in its inhabitants. The boatmen who took me 
 ashore, and the porters who carried my luggage 
 to the hotel, were, like most of the day-labourers 
 of the town, Koreans. Many of the smaller shops 
 are kept by Chinamen — from Canton, of course, 
 the most distant but most enterprising portion of 
 the Empire ; and very delighted these Cantonese 
 were to meet with a white-faced European who 
 could converse in their own patois. Other shops 
 are kept by Japanese, but these are few. 
 
 The principal merchants here are Germans. 
 In the early days of the port two German sailors 
 
20 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 ran away from their ship here, and opened a little 
 store. That store has developed into the leading 
 mercantile and banking firm in Eastern Siberia ; 
 it employs in its house here upwards of fifty 
 European clerks, and has branches in many of 
 the interior towns. There is not a single British 
 merchant at this port, and never will be if the 
 German settlers can have their way ; they are 
 angry at the very thought of British competition, 
 and are determined to keep the field they have 
 exploited to themselves. 
 
 Russians are, of course, more numerous than 
 other European residents, but, except the drosky 
 drivers and a few merchants and hotel-keepers, 
 almost all are in Government employ. The mili- 
 tary element predominates. The finest plot of 
 land in the neighbourhood is the parade ground ; 
 the biggest buildings are the barracks ; men in 
 uniform are met with at every turn ; and the 
 bray of trumpets and the roll of drums are sounds 
 too familiar to be noticed. The town has also a 
 well-equipped arsenal, a capacious floating dry- 
 dock, and a fleet of torpedo-boats ; men-of-war 
 are lying at anchor in the harbour ; the heights 
 above the town, though looking innocent enough, 
 are all supposed to have their masked batteries ; 
 and it seems to be the ambition of the Czar to 
 make this port a sort of Siberian Sebastopol. 
 
 The ice-bound winter, which was just over 
 
THE EASTERN TERMINUS 21 
 
 when I arrived, must have been a lonely time for 
 the European population — cut off from all the 
 world by the frozen sea in front of them, and the 
 5 000 miles of snow behind. But the winter here 
 is far from an unmixed evil, and to the military 
 authorities and the police it is a veritable boon. 
 In the summer they must be always on the war- 
 path. Regarding every stranger as a spy or a 
 rebel, or a villain of some sort, unless he can 
 prove that he is not, their suspicions keep them 
 continually on the alert. If no stranger is in 
 sight, a sharp lookout must be maintained for 
 those who may be coming, and, as if all the world 
 had its eye upon Vladivostock, its brave defenders 
 stand with finger on trigger ready for the fray. 
 
 Such vigilance must be very exhausting, and, 
 after the nervous strain of five or six months of 
 it, the relaxation brought by winter must be an 
 unspeakable relief. No hostile fleet can break 
 through those barriers of ice, and no hostile army 
 can reach them through that wilderness of snow. 
 Even the merchant, however reluctantly, must 
 take a holiday, as free from all shipping worries 
 as if he lived in an inland town. But the 
 whole community responds to the reaction, and 
 the winter season is an unbroken succession of 
 festivities. 
 
 At the time of my landing there, Vladivostock 
 was just waking up again to a sense of its re- 
 
22 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 sponsibilities. The ice has broken up, and who 
 knows what may happen ? The merchant is on 
 the lookout for a fresh cargo of provisions from 
 Odessa. The fighting men must again mount 
 guard against the enemy. The police are par- 
 ticularly busy, for steamers are coming in from 
 Japan, and Korea, and China ; and aliens are 
 appearing in the streets, whose passports must 
 be examined, and whose movements must be 
 watched, lest, prowling about the town, they 
 should get to know something of the nature and 
 position of its defences. 
 
 A fellow countryman, who had come up from 
 one of the China treaty ports for a holiday, was 
 walking, on the day of his arrival, along the main 
 street of the town, and, because he had a photo- 
 graphic camera in his possession, the police at 
 once arrested him, marched him back to the 
 steamer which brought him, and told him that 
 if he set foot on shore again he would be provided 
 with accommodation which would limit his move- 
 ments more effectively. The example of this 
 unfortunate photographer was a warning to me, 
 and I did my very best to escape his fate. I 
 tried to appear uninterested, to be content with 
 furtive glances at the things about me, to have a 
 vacant, expressionless countenance, and, as far 
 as possible, to look like innocence itself. 
 
THE EASTERN TERMINUS 23 
 
 But all this circumspectness did not save me 
 from suspicion ; and when the superintendent 
 of police came to see my passport, he said, in a 
 most searching tone, ' On your v/ay from Canton 
 to London ? then what brings you here ? ' 
 
 ' You have no commission from the British 
 Government ? ' 
 
 ' And are not sent out by any English news- 
 paper ? ' 
 
 ' Have no other motive than a desire to see 
 the country ? ' 
 
 Then he ceased questioning, and sank into a 
 profound reverie. I could see plainly that he 
 was trying to determine between the two alter- 
 natives : was the individual before him a liar 
 or a fool ? 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE GREAT POST-ROAD 
 
 Following one of the main streets of Vladivo- 
 stock to the top of the low range of hills it crosses 
 on the outskirts of the town, the street is seen 
 to be continuous with a road which stretches on 
 before us, until it becomes in the distance a mere 
 brown streak upon the hillside, and then is lost 
 in the forest. That brown streak, running 
 like a thread right through the country and 
 over the Ural Mountains into Europe, is the 
 great post-road which, mainly for military pur- 
 poses, the Russian Government has constructed 
 across Siberia. 
 
 It is a wonderful achievement. Even the 
 Romans, renowned road-makers as they were, 
 never attempted a task of the kind so formid- 
 able. Rough enough in many places, and in 
 others little more than a beaten track across 
 the steppe ; but it is a marvel to find any prac- 
 ticable way at all across a country not only so 
 unsettled, but so immense. 
 
 24 
 
THE GREAT POST-ROAD 25 
 
 ' If *' Britannia rules the waves," ' once said 
 a Russian officer to me, ' remember that Russia 
 rules the land ' ; and when I stood shivering 
 on the shore at Vladivostock, and thought of 
 the vast expanse of country between me and 
 Europe, I felt as I had never done before the 
 force of that remark. Extending westward 
 from the Pacific Ocean to the Ural Mountains, 
 and northward from the Chinese frontier to the 
 Polar seas, Siberia covers an area of six millions 
 of square miles, is at least a hundred times as 
 large as England, and forms with European 
 Russia the widest contmuous stretch of empire 
 in the world. 
 
 And the country is as wild as it is extensive. 
 The uniformity of configuration which popular 
 opinion attributes to Siberia is true only of the 
 extreme north, where, along the shores of the 
 Arctic Ocean for a distance of 4,000 miles, and 
 inland for a distance of from 150 to 400, lies a 
 dreary waste of treeless and swampy lowland, 
 known to Russians as the Tundra, and which 
 is one immense unbroken plain. The general 
 misconception of Siberia may have arisen from 
 the fact that the earlier Russian settlers in this 
 region made their way eastward across this 
 plain. They did so to avoid the forests and the 
 mountains which made the southern route so 
 difficult, and, still more, to escape the numerous 
 
26 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 tribes of aborigines, who savagely resisted in- 
 trusion into tlieir domains. 
 
 But this course across the swamp was practic- 
 able only in the winter : it was impossible to 
 establish settlements along the way, and the 
 part of the Pacific coast to which it led was far 
 away from those districts of Eastern Siberia 
 most suitable for agriculture and for pasturage. 
 So at length this northern route to the Pacific 
 was abandoned for one farther south. Ad- 
 venturous freebooting Cossacks attended to the 
 aborigines, and the engineers set themselves 
 to make the road. 
 
 They had no easy task, especially in the 
 eastern half of the country, which is crossed 
 near its centre by the Great Plateau — that 
 immense swelling of the earth's surface which, 
 from the foothills of the Himalayas, extends 
 in a north-easterly direction through Central 
 and Northern Asia to the Behring Straits. This 
 vast table-land tapers towards the north ; but 
 in Southern Siberia, where the post-road crosses, 
 it is nearly 1,000 miles in breadth, and attains 
 an elevation of 3,500 feet above the level of the 
 sea. It is buttressed on either side by mountains 
 which rise to a higher level than itself, forming 
 a sort of Cyclopean battlement, and making the 
 plain in this direction inaccessible but for the 
 fact that, like all other battlements, it has its 
 
THE GREAT POST-ROAD 27 
 
 notches — great gaps in the mountain wall 
 through which the ancient glaciers passed to 
 score a winding passage for themselves down 
 to the sea below. Through one of these great 
 natural furrows, a long circuitous valley between 
 ranges of rugged hills, the post-road finds its 
 way on to the table-land. 
 
 ' But this eastern plateau of Siberia is by no 
 means a continuous plain, for ridges of low hills, 
 following generally a north-easterly direction, 
 break through it here and there, and from its 
 centre rises a second loftier table-land, also 
 walled on either side by mountains, some of 
 whose peaks attain the height of 8,500 feet. 
 
 East and west of the Great Plateau the road 
 passes through alpine ranges covering an exten- 
 sive area. Filling many of the valleys of these 
 regions, and spreading far over the table-lands, 
 are immense forests of birch, and larch, and cedar, 
 through which, step by step, the makers of the 
 road have had to cleave their way. 
 
 Outside these chains of mountains are other 
 heights and other table-lands, including the 
 western steppes, which, with occasional breaks 
 for the passage of great rivers, extend as far as 
 the Ural Mountains. 
 
 The construction of such a length of road was 
 made more difficult and dangerous by the rigour 
 of the climate. The name Siberia has become 
 
28 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 almost synonymous with wintry cold and desola- 
 tion, and in this respect the popular opinion is 
 correct. Though it has in most parts a warm, 
 bright summer, beautiful with flowers, and 
 musical with birds and insects, its winters are 
 long and extremely cold. There is not a river or 
 lake in Siberia, nor a harbour on its shores, which 
 is not frozen for about six months in the year. 
 In the northern districts the frost never dis- 
 appears, for the thaw of the short summer only 
 affects a shallow surface of the soil ; and in 
 some of the largest settlements on the Lena the 
 people use ice instead of glass for their window- 
 panes. 
 
 If there had been a considerable European 
 population the climatic difficulties would not 
 have been so serious ; but the road was carried 
 through extensive tracts of country which, but 
 for a few nomadic Tartars, were absolutely 
 uninhabited, and the workmen had to depend 
 upon themselves for shelter and supplies. The 
 number of settlers in the country has greatly 
 increased since the road was made, but even now 
 the total population of Siberia is not equal to 
 that of London. 
 
 Such, then, is the region crossed by the great 
 post-road — an immense expanse of thinly-popu- 
 lated country, in some parts sinking into swamps, 
 in others rising into lofty mountain ranges, and 
 
THE GREAT POST-ROAD 29 
 
 then again spreading itself out in almost inter- 
 minable plains ; — stretches of gloomy forest, 
 and then of treeless waste, with great lakes, wild 
 torrents, and here and there some mighty river 
 rolling northward to the Polar seas. 
 
 In a few years more, as the swarm of Chinese 
 navvies on the steamer told me, trains will be 
 running through Siberia. But, at the time now 
 referred to, the short line which runs across 
 the Ural Mountains into Europe was the only 
 railway in the country. Steamers were plying 
 on some of the Siberian rivers, and at certain 
 seasons a considerable part of the journey across 
 the country can be accomplished in this way ; 
 but from the coast to the first navigable river, 
 and between one navigable river and another, 
 lay an extensive tract of country, which could 
 only be traversed on the post-road, and where 
 one's only choice was whether he would walk or 
 ride. 
 
 Soldiers, poor emigrants, and non-political 
 exiles have to walk, and they spend from six to 
 nine months upon the way. Travellers who can 
 afford to pay for them use horses and a kind of 
 rough phaeton — a springless, four-wheeled car- 
 riage, half covered by a hood, and called by the 
 Russians a tarantass. 
 
 Except in a few settled districts, we depend 
 for our supply of these conveyances upon the 
 
30 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 Russian Government, which, for military pur- 
 poses, has placed a cordon of post-horse stations, 
 from sixteen to twenty miles apart, on all the 
 Siberian roads. A few yemschiks — as the post- 
 horse stablemen are called — and in most cases 
 their wives with them, are put in charge of 
 the station, which is often situated in such a 
 lonely region that these yemschik-households 
 are the sole inhabitants. At these stations 
 officials travelling on urgent business expect to 
 find vehicles and teams of horses ready for them 
 on the shortest notice, and the communica- 
 tions between one military post and another are 
 thus maintained in great efficiency. 
 
 Civilians who wish to travel in this way must 
 apply at one of the Government centres for a 
 podorojtia — a written certificate of permission 
 to use any such vehicles and horses which are 
 at liberty, hiring them from one post to the 
 next at a certain charge per mile. The amount 
 is fixed by Government, and a printed table of 
 the charges is posted up on the walls of the 
 travellers' room at every station. 
 
 In Vladivostock I obtained a podorojna, and, 
 except when steamers were available, travelled 
 on the post-road with horses and tarantass. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE START 
 
 The worst thing about a cold bath in winter 
 is the first plunge, and in a journey across Siberia 
 there is nothing more trying than the contem- 
 plation of the start. 
 
 It is better to commence such a journey on 
 the western side, for in this way we reach the 
 wilds by imperceptible degrees, and, what is a 
 still greater advantage, we can start without 
 attracting the attention of our neighbours. 
 The European population of the Far East is 
 small ; everybody knows everybody and every- 
 body's movements ; and as Siberia is generally 
 regarded as a dreadful country, the man who 
 thinks of crossing it may expect to receive such 
 comments from his compatriots as will not be 
 conducive to his equipment for the journey. 
 
 A European resident in China, who attempted 
 to cross Siberia a few years ago, has thus de- 
 scribed, with not less truth than simplicity, 
 some of his initial experiences. 
 
 31 
 
32 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 ' I knew that a journey across Siberia, with- 
 out a companion, and with barely sufficient 
 funds to secure native means of travel and 
 accommodation, was not a task to be lightly 
 undertaken ; but if I had been rash enough to 
 start without sufficient consideration, I met 
 with so many Job's comforters between Hong 
 Kong and Vladivostock that I could not fail, 
 before I got there, to be fairly well acquainted 
 with the risks and hardships of the journey. 
 
 ' " Good-bj^e," said one of my friends, " I 
 never expect to hear of you again." 
 
 ' One told me that I should catch my death 
 of cold ; another that I should be arrested as a 
 spy, and perish miserably in a Siberian prison. 
 
 ' Some said it was most likely that I should 
 get lost, and die of starvation in the depths of 
 the forest ; others feared that I should be 
 drowned in crossing some of the great rivers ; 
 or that I should fall over a precipice ; or be 
 devoured by wolves ; or kicked to death by 
 wild horses ; or murdered by escaped exiles, or 
 some of the wild tribes of the country.' 
 
 Gloomy as were these premonitions, the 
 traveller declared that they would not have 
 affected him at all ' had they not taken a mean 
 advantage — as such evil omens will — of an 
 hour of physical depression due to an attack 
 of aonie.' 
 
THE START 33 
 
 This reference to an ague fit is suspicious. 
 Fevers of this kind are rare in Vladivostock ; 
 and were it not for the writer's definite assurance 
 to the contrary, the word in this connexion 
 could only be read as a synonym for funk. 
 
 The narrative proceeds : ' That fit of ague, a 
 parting buffet from the malarious climate I had 
 left, happened to strike me on a typical Siberian 
 winter's day — a day dismal enough to make 
 the blithest spirit pessimistic. A cold, raw, 
 searching wind was blowing ; banks of fog were 
 drifting before it ; the sky was overcast ; and 
 before me in the bay were fields of ice. Chilled 
 to the very bones, and unable to get warm any 
 other way, I went to bed. Then it was that 
 those miserable forebodings, which hitherto had 
 kept at a respectable distance, came buzzing in 
 my brain, — " devoured by wolves," " lost in the 
 forest," " murdered by brigands." 
 
 ' The fog was still drifting past the window ; 
 I could hear the wind whistling through the 
 leafless trees ; and then, on the table, I caught 
 sight of a portrait which I had been foolish 
 enough to place there, and that made me think 
 of happier scenes. The voice which seemed to 
 whisper in my ear, " It is not too late, come 
 back ! " was only fancy ; but it spoke the 
 truth. It was not too late ; the steamer wbjch 
 hadj brought me was still at anchor in the 
 
 3 
 
34 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 harbour ; to-morrow I could re-embark ; and 
 this, at length, I resolved to do — I would return 
 to Hong Kong and take a passage to Marseilles 
 on a comfortable steamer in the usual way. This 
 resolution was such a soothing one, I fell asleep. 
 
 ' When I woke next morning the fever had 
 gone, and with it the bad weather. The sun 
 was shining brightly through the window ; he 
 had swept the fog from the street and the clouds 
 from the sky, and he swept away the mists 
 from my spirit too. I could laugh at the croak- 
 ing ravens now, and, lest I should be again 
 tempted to take them seriously, determined to 
 start off at once. So, procuring at the market 
 a 6-lb. loaf and other provisions for the journey, 
 in a few hours Vladivostock, with its steamers, 
 was behind me, and, as fast as three Russian 
 post-horses could go, I was making my way to 
 the Siberian wilds.' 
 
 This is, in some respects, a representative 
 experience ; and few, except Russians, attempt 
 to cross the country from this side without 
 hearing plenty of these gloomy admonitions. 
 It is not merely those who know nothing of 
 Siberia who offer them. A Russian consul, 
 who had once performed this journey, told me 
 that nothing in the world could induce him to 
 attempt it agam, and he did his best to persuade 
 me to turn back. Such turning back is not 
 
THE START 35 
 
 infrequent. Quite recently a party of French 
 residents in China, who had set out for Europe 
 by this route, after a three or four days' journey 
 gave it up, and came back to the coast in a 
 woeful plight. 
 
 The present Czar of Russia returned by the 
 Siberian post-road to St. Petersburg after his 
 visit to China and Japan ; but all the resources 
 of the country were at his disposal, and such 
 luxurious accommodation and entertainment 
 were provided for him at every stage, that the 
 journey was one long pleasure-trip. 
 
 Ordinary travellers who need not hurry, and 
 who have funds enough at their disposal to pro- 
 vide their own conveyance and take a servant 
 with them, together with a good supply of pro- 
 visions, cooking utensils, and bedding, may 
 escape the most serious hardships of such way- 
 faring ; but those who have been accustomed 
 always to the comforts of Western life and modes 
 of travel, and who attempt to cross Siberia in 
 the usual way, must expect to find the journey 
 rough and wearisome in the extreme. 
 
 There are no great dangers to be feared. Ex- 
 cept a few special ones connected with the wild 
 and unsettled state of the country, the risks of 
 Siberian travel are simply those of a ten miles' 
 drive along any country road, multiplied by a 
 few hundreds to represent the longer distance. 
 
36 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 It is these appalling distances which make the 
 prospect of a journey across Siberia so porten- 
 tous, and the actual experience of it so fatiguing. 
 From one town to the next is sometimes as far 
 as the whole length of England. It is not the 
 demands upon one's strength or patience made 
 by any one day's journey, but the uninter- 
 mitting succession of them from week to week, 
 and month to month, which makes this travel 
 so exhausting ; and, unless one has the means 
 of carrying a good supply of provisions with 
 him, he must be content with the simplest 
 fare. After leaving Vladivostock there is no 
 hotel of any kind within a thousand miles. Ex- 
 cept when on a steamer, I did not get meat at 
 more than half a dozen places between the Pacific 
 coast and Europe. Milk and eggs and bread 
 and tea make a fairly nutritious dietary ; but, 
 after a few months of such a menu, a little variety 
 appears desirable. 
 
 But it is not the diet only which is mono- 
 tonous. There is a monotony of everything. 
 Siberian scenery, as we have already shown, is 
 varied by river, forest, mountain, plain ; but 
 of everything there is too much. The rivers are 
 so long, the plains so wide, the forests so vast, 
 and the mountain ranges cover such an extensive 
 area, that one tires of each by turns. 
 
 It is no wonder that some of those who com- 
 
THE START 37 
 
 mence this journey soon give it up. Except 
 they have been accustomed to the hardships of 
 Siberian Hfe, no women or chilchren, nor any one 
 not in robust health, should be subjected to it. 
 But if you are a seasoned traveller, not de- 
 pressed by solitude, tough as leather, patient as 
 a mule, not at all fastidious about what you 
 eat or drink, nor about the condition of your 
 skin and clothing, nor about where you sleep at 
 night, — whether in bed, or on the floor, or in 
 a jolting cart, — if you are such a traveller, you 
 may cross Siberia as the Russians cross it, and 
 quite as much enjoy the journey. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 FROM THE COAST TO LAKE KHANKA, BY TARANTASS 
 
 Outside Vladivostock we are in the wilds, for 
 there are no suburbs, and, as we lose sight of 
 the buildings of the town, the primaeval forest 
 at once comes into view. A broad avenue has 
 been cut through it, and this is our road. We 
 cannot see far before us, for this forest-covered 
 land has been tossed into big, billowy undula- 
 tions, and our way winds among them. Turning 
 to the right or left, hour after hour, reveals but 
 an endless variety of the same woodland scenes ; 
 but at length we emerge into the open, and from 
 the summit of a treeless knoll have a distant 
 view of the white ice-fields of the sea ; then 
 again we dip down into the forest, and between 
 ' palisades of pine-trees ' go on and on, until 
 after a run of twenty miles we come suddenly 
 upon a clearing, and our tired horses are pulled 
 up at the post-station, which terminates the first 
 stage of our journey. 
 
 I had looked forward to my arrival at this 
 
 38 
 
THE COAST TO LAKE KHANKA 39 
 
 first post-station with some misgiving, for the 
 yemschiks are reputed to be arrant cheats, and 
 I had been assured in Vladivostock that my 
 ignorance of the country would place me entirely 
 at their mercy, and that, unless I had allowed a 
 considerable margin for this cheating, my funds 
 would be exhausted before I had completed haK 
 my journey. As I had allowed no such margin, 
 there was some reason for misgiving. 
 
 The usual method of extortion practised by 
 the yemschiks is to tell the traveller that no 
 Government horses are available ; that the half- 
 dozen or more seen in the stables are bespoken, 
 or have just returned from a journey, and can- 
 not, of course, go out again until they have had 
 their prescribed eight hours' rest ; and then 
 obligingly to offer a private team of their own 
 at an exorbitant charge. 
 
 The yemschik here did not think that any 
 subterfuge was needed for imposing upon me, 
 and I had myself inadvertently helped him to 
 this opinion. My knowledge of the language of 
 the people, though sufficient for all the require- 
 ments of the journey, was very imperfect, and, 
 to avoid unintelligible questioning, I thought it 
 well to inform the yemschik, after ordering a 
 change of horses, that I did not understand Rus- 
 sian. By the sinister smile upon his face, I saw 
 at once the mistake I had made. These Siberian 
 
40 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 peasants know nothing of any language but 
 their own, and its importance is, in their judge- 
 ment, not only relative but absolute ; so that 
 for an Englishman to learn English, or a French- 
 man French, without learning Russian at the 
 same time, is to them an evidence of quite phe- 
 nomenal stupidity. 
 
 ' Does not understand Russian ! ' I heard the 
 yemschik repeat, with a chuckle to himself. 
 
 He repeated it again while sitting at the table 
 to write my bill, and, as he was just then scratch- 
 ing his head over what ought not to have been 
 a very puzzling calculation, I think he must have 
 been trying to decide how much beyond the 
 tariff rates he might prudently extort. 
 
 He evidently put some restraint upon his 
 cupidity, for he only added about 50 per cent, 
 to the legitimate charge, and, as the excess 
 amounted to less than two roubles, I would gladly 
 have paid it to avoid delay had I not known 
 that doing so would expose me to similar exac- 
 tions at the hundred and more post-stations 
 ahead of me, and thus increase my expenditure 
 by many pounds. So I flatly refused to pay 
 more than the authorized charges posted on the 
 wall before me. The yemschik M^as quite taken 
 aback at finding that one who did not under- 
 stand Russian was yet able to read it, and he 
 could hardly have looked more bewildered if be 
 
THE COAST TO LAKE KHANKA 41 
 
 had seen a new-born baby get up and speak ; 
 but, as I persisted in my refusal, his surprise gave 
 place to indignation, and he declared that if I 
 would not pay the sum he asked, I should not 
 have the horses, ' I must then,' said I, ' try to 
 make myself as comfortable as I can here.' 
 
 The post-station was simply a series of wooden 
 huts and sheds and stables, around a large quad- 
 rangular yard, the whole being enclosed within 
 a strong pine-log stockade. One of the huts at 
 every post-station is reserved for the use of 
 travellers ; and this hut is not merely the best 
 but often the only shelter of any kind obtainable 
 throughout a journey of many hundred miles. 
 It measures about twenty feet long bj^ about 
 fourteen mde, and is usually divided by a par- 
 tition into two apartments. The inside arrange- 
 ments are of the simplest kind. Its walls and 
 floors are of plain deal, and so is its furniture, 
 which consists of a table, a few chairs, and a 
 bench about two feet wide. 
 
 In such a room I established myself to try the 
 issue with the yemschik. The day advanced, 
 and darkness at length came on, but the man 
 showed no sign of yielding, so I spread my 
 blankets on the floor and went to sleep. In the 
 middle of the night I woke at the sound of some 
 one in the room, and saw a man -wath a lantern 
 moving towards me. It was only the yemschik ; 
 
42 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 and when I asked him what he wanted, he said, 
 ' I will take a rouble less for the horses.' 
 
 ' Not a kopek more than the tariff rate,' was 
 my reply, and the man left me again to the dark- 
 ness and my reflections. 
 
 But he was evidently beginning to feel uneasy 
 lest some Russian officer should pass that way — 
 as at any hour he might — and the attempted 
 extortion should get reported at head quarters. 
 The next morning he was most obliging, inquired 
 when I wished to start, had the horses brought 
 out at once, asked for and received the legal hire, 
 and I was soon on my way again. 
 
 I had no further difficulty of this kind. At 
 the next station I said nothing about the slender- 
 ness of my acquaintance with the Russian 
 language, but simply gave my orders to the 
 yemschik, and they were promptly attended to. 
 Though I had to change the whole turnout — • 
 horses, tarantass, and driver — I was off again 
 within twenty minutes from the time of my 
 arrival. 
 
 This part of the post-road ran through a lonely 
 and unsettled country. There was no house of 
 any kind, not even a wayside cottage, between 
 one station and another. A wreath of smoke in 
 the distance sometimes led us to expect one, but 
 on coming nearer we found a Httle company of 
 Russian emigrants or soldiers, who, after a long 
 
THE COAST TO LAKE KHANKA 43 
 
 tramp, had found a convenient resting-place, 
 and, on the ground padded with withered pine- 
 leaves, were lounging round a fire to boil the 
 millet which, with black bread and tea, con- 
 stitutes their daily food. 
 
 To make up for time lost at the first post- 
 station, I pushed on all day from stage to stage 
 as fast as possible. The air was cold and brac- 
 ing, and there was not at this season anything 
 to tempt one to linger by the way. The frost 
 had only just broken, and the whole country was 
 still in winter dress. The snow had gone from 
 the level ground ; but the places where it had 
 gathered in deep drifts, or banked itself up beside 
 the road, were still marked by heaps of ice. All 
 around us was a waste of faded leaves and 
 withered vegetation ; and in one place, giving 
 a deeper shadow to the desolation, was a lonely 
 Siberian graveyard. It was only a small en- 
 closure, separated from the wilds by a rough 
 wooden paling, and containing fifty or sixty 
 graves, each marked by a white wooden cross. 
 Except on the fir-trees there were no green leaves 
 to be seen, but the sombre brown of road and 
 forest was not without relief, for the sun was 
 shining over white banks of cloud, and every- 
 thing which could refiect his radiance — the silver 
 bark of the birch-trees, and the clumps of ever- 
 lasting daisies which here and there shone out 
 
44 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 from the surrounding masses of dead leaves like 
 bits of gold — did their best to brighten up the 
 scene ; while the catkins hanging from the 
 v»dllow-boughs told us of the coming spring-time, 
 and the white crosses on the graves of the resur- 
 rection morning. 
 
 After a long spin through this %vild scenery 
 and wintry air, one can appreciate the comforts 
 of the travellers' room at the post-station. In 
 summer these wooden shelters swarm with ver- 
 min, but from such torment travellers at this 
 season of the year are free. There is no fire- 
 grate to be seen, but a big brick bread-oven, 
 whose mouth opens outside on to the stableyard, 
 projects into one corner of the room. Whether 
 the yemschiks are baking bread or not. Imperial 
 order directs that plenty of good logs shall be 
 burnt in this oven every day, and so, however 
 intense the cold outside, the travellers' room is 
 always comfortably warm. In Siberia this is 
 not so much a luxury as a necessity, for it would 
 be impossible to cross these extensive tracts of 
 country in the mnter-time without the oppor- 
 tunity of thawing oneself now and then upon 
 the way. There are no provisions to be had 
 at any of these stations except milk and eggs 
 and coarse black bread, but there is always 
 ready for the traveller at five minutes notice a 
 samovar of boiling water. A samovar is simply 
 
THE COAST TO LAKE KHANKA 45 
 
 a large brass urn with a hollow cylinder running 
 up through the middle of it to contain burning 
 charcoal, and thus to keep the water boiling 
 as long as required. With the samovar the 
 yemschik brings a small teapot and a glass 
 goblet ; the traveller himself must provide the 
 tea and sugar. 
 
 The sissing of the samovar sounded specially 
 cheerful to me that night after my first long 
 day's journey. We did not arrive at the station 
 until an hour after sunset, but had covered a 
 distance of over a hundred miles, and I had 
 not tasted food since early morning. In such 
 circumstances, eggs and milk, with the tea and 
 bread and tinned butter brought with me from 
 the coast, were enough for a hearty meal ; one 
 craved no other luxuries. 
 
 Travellers in Siberia do not usually limit their 
 travelling to the daytime. They get what sleep 
 they require in the tarantass, and never stop 
 except to change their horses until they reach 
 their journey's end. But, not being yet accus- 
 tomed to this mode of travel, one long day of it 
 was sufficiently fatiguing, and as the travellers' 
 room at this station seemed so snug and quiet I 
 resolved to stay here till morning. It was a 
 lonely spot, no other house Avithin many miles, 
 and the forest closed round the station on every 
 side. The yemschiks and their families were in 
 
46 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 the neiglibouring log-huts, and I had the travel- 
 lers' hut to myself. On the pre^aous night, not 
 knowing what might happen, I had slept in my 
 clothes, but all seemed so private and secluded 
 here that I thought I might venture to sleep in 
 the ordinary way. So, having arranged my 
 rugs and blankets on the wooden bench, I un- 
 dressed, turned the lamp low, and lay down for 
 a long night's rest. 
 
 I suppose I had been asleep for several hours, 
 when the tramp of horses woke me, and a minute 
 afterwards a yemschik entered the room to 
 turn up the lamp, and in came a company of 
 travellers — four gentlemen and two ladies. To 
 have one's sleep disturbed and one's bedroom 
 invaded in this unceremonious fashion was more 
 than I was prepared for ; but when I caught 
 sight of the ladies I was horrified to think of 
 my deshabille, and I had barely time to snatch 
 my garments from the chair on which I had 
 placed them, when one of the ladies advanced 
 to take possession of it. I bundled my clothes 
 under the blankets as quickly as I could, and 
 then made desperate efforts to put them on ; 
 but any one who has ever tried, as an experi- 
 ment, to dress himself beneath heavy blankets 
 and a big fur rug on a rickety bench scarcely 
 eighteen inches wide, will understand how im- 
 possible it is. I was once within a hair's-breadth 
 
THE COAST TO LAKE KHANKA 47 
 
 of a dreadful catastrophe ; for, had not a heavy 
 person been sitting on the chair I suddenly 
 gripped to restore my lost equilibrium, the bench 
 would have turned over and rolled me into the 
 middle of the room. 
 
 I was not rash enough to disregard this warn- 
 ing, and, lest something worse should happen, 
 I resolved to lie as still as possible until the 
 people were asleep. I had not to wait long. 
 The travellers had evidently had a weary journey, 
 perhaps of many days, and after a hasty supper 
 each selected a place upon the floor for rugs 
 and blankets, and in a few minutes I was the 
 only one in the room awake. And there was 
 no mistake about it, for the sleeping was not 
 only audible but loud. The room was a small 
 one, and I doubt whether the same number 
 of accomplished snorers have ever been as- 
 sembled at once in a space so limited before. 
 It was awful. The cacophony was by no means 
 uniform, and I could easily distinguish at least 
 five distinct varieties of snoring. One was 
 in high-pitched key like the subdued mewing 
 of a cat, another like distant moaning of the 
 wind, another like the squeaking of an unoiled 
 pump, another like the growling of a dog, and 
 yet another like the snorting of a horse. When 
 the concert was in full swing I got up to dress, 
 the noise assuring me that I might take my 
 
48 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 time about it. I never knew before that dis- 
 cord could be so composing. 
 
 Being dressed, I felt like a different being. 
 The craven, shrinking, coward spirit which I 
 had before gave place at once to one of inde- 
 pendence and defiance. I began to feel indig- 
 nant with the sleepers for making such a noise, 
 — for the snoring, having served its purpose, 
 was no longer interesting, and threatened to 
 keep one awake all night ; but, like all other 
 noises, one can get accustomed to it, and at 
 length in spite of it I slept in peace. 
 
 When I woke next morning the other travel- 
 lers were sleeping still, and I had to stride over 
 them to get out of the room. The yemschiks 
 also, though moving about in the stables, were 
 hardly yet awake, and took nearly an hour to 
 get my horses yoked. When at last all was 
 ready, and I was about to step into the con- 
 veyance which I had waited for so patiently, 
 another tarantass came dashing down the road, 
 and was pulled up at the station. Its occupant 
 was a Russian officer, who no sooner alighted 
 from his own conveyance than, with a word to 
 the yemschik, he sprang into mine and at once 
 drove off. This is one of the commonest vexa- 
 tions of civilian travellers on the Siberian post- 
 road, but they cannot reasonably complain. 
 ' The king's business required haste.' The road, 
 
THE COAST TO LAKE KHANKA 49 
 
 the supply of horses, and the line of post-stations 
 have all been established by the Government 
 for its own purposes. It is only by courtesy 
 that other travellers have permission to use 
 them, and they receive that permission on the 
 distinct understanding that if Government 
 officers require their horses they will deliver 
 them up at once. 
 
 Another tarantass is soon brought out, and 
 while the horses are being yoked we have time 
 to observe the characteristics of this strange- 
 looking type of vehicle, A tarantass is not a 
 trap, nor a buggy, nor a cart, nor a wagon, 
 but a sort of conveyance which combines the 
 inconveniences of all. I suppose it is specially 
 adapted for Siberian post-road service, and, in 
 the language of the naturalists, owes its pecu- 
 liarities of structure to the exigencies of its en- 
 vironment. 
 
 There are two pairs of wheels, whose axles 
 are fixed under the extremities of a couple of 
 parallel poles made of some tough kind of timber, 
 and measuring from 10 to 15 feet in length, 
 according to the distance between the fore and 
 aft pair of wheels ; these poles compensate 
 to some extent for the absence of metal springs, 
 which would be smashed to pieces in the first 
 wild gallop on these rough roads. Resting upon 
 the parallel poles is the cradle-shaped body of 
 
 4 
 
50 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 the vehicle, from six to eight feet in length and 
 about five feet wide, and in most cases made 
 of sheet-iron supported by a frame of wood. 
 This frame is extended upward at the back and 
 sides, so as to form over the hinder half a sort 
 of hood, which is made water-tight by an out- 
 side covering of leather. There is a box in front 
 for the driver, but there is no other seat of any 
 kind. The passenger's luggage is carefully ar- 
 ranged at the bottom of the conveyance, a layer 
 of straw is spread over it, and the passenger 
 himself must keep things in position by sitting 
 or reclining on the top. 
 
 The tarantass is usually drawn by a team 
 of three horses. The steadiest and strongest 
 animal is put in the shafts, each of which is loosely 
 hooked on to the vehicle, but is united to its 
 fellow shaft in front by a wooden yoke of horse- 
 shoe shape, which arches over the horse's neck. 
 To the top of this yoke is attached the bearing- 
 rein, and from it are suspended two or three 
 bells, which jingle in time to the horse's trot, 
 and perhaps help to drive off the wolves. The 
 other two horses to the right and left of the 
 central one are attached by strong rope traces 
 to the projecting ends of the fore axle-tree. 
 Thus yoked, the three horses strikingly remind 
 us of the teams we have seen in pictures of the 
 chariot races of ancient Rome. 
 
THE COAST TO LAKE KHANKA 51 
 
 Having arranged our baggage in the tarantass, 
 and placed ourselves upon the top, we are ready 
 to start. The horses are of medium size, rough- 
 haired, raw-boned, and altogether sorry-looking 
 beasts ; but their looks are the worst part of 
 them, for they have not only plenty of ' go ' 
 in them, but plenty of staying power as well, 
 and, often after a most despondent contempla- 
 tion of the team provided for me, I have found 
 myself travelling at quite unusual speed, and 
 keeping it up from hour to hour. 
 
 And now the yemschik, in his sheepskin coat, 
 and with a fur cap upon his head, mounts the 
 box, and off we go. He has, of course, a whip, 
 and the two side horses stand out on either side, 
 at an angle of several degrees from the line of 
 progress, that they may keep their eye upon 
 that whip. But the driver does not use it much ; 
 he can do so when required, as the horses evi- 
 dently know, but on ordinary occasions it is 
 quite enough to raise his hand. He regulates 
 his horses' speed by talkmg to them ; whether 
 or not they understand Russian, he treats them 
 as if they did. While they are going satisfac- 
 torily he calls them his ' little turtle-doves ' ; 
 as their speed slackens he begms to use terms 
 which are not so complimentary and endearing ; 
 and when at length his patience is exhausted 
 he calls them awful names — names so awful, 
 
62 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 indeed, and uttered with such emphasis, that 
 at the sound of them the horses usually rush 
 off in a fright. 
 
 Every Russian traveller in Siberia carries one 
 or two large pillows with him. He may have 
 little other baggage, no box or bag or portman- 
 teau, but he always has his pillows. We are 
 inclined to laugh at him at first, but before one 
 stage of our journey is completed we see that 
 laughter would be more appropriate the other 
 way. The roads of Siberia are as well made 
 and as well preserved as one could reasonably 
 expect in such a thinly-populated region, but 
 they are rough roads at the best. If the course 
 is obstructed by a bit of swampy land or a mud- 
 hole, a few logs are rolled into it, and sometimes 
 a considerable extent of quaggy road is made 
 practicable in this way — by covering it with a 
 transverse layer of tree-trunks. The tarantass, 
 wherever possible, is always driven at full 
 gallop, and as we go bumping over these 
 tree-trunks we know why travellers acquainted 
 with the country are careful to take pillows 
 with them. 
 
 In some parts the road crosses range after 
 range of hills, and there is a long succession of 
 deep declivities and steep ascents. At the bot- 
 tom of almost every valley runs a small river ; 
 and if it is too deep to ford, we find that several 
 
THE COAST TO LAKE KHANKA 53 
 
 tall pines have been thrown across from one 
 bank to the other, a sufficient number of pine- 
 logs have been laid athwart them, and thus is 
 produced that peculiar structure known as a 
 * corduroy bridge.' 
 
 When we arrive at the brow of the hill over- 
 looking one of these deep valleys, the driver 
 looks not only at the slope before him but at 
 the steep ascent beyond, and his aim is to go 
 down the hill at such a speed that the horses 
 cannot stop themselves until they get well up 
 the acclivity upon the other side. So he leans 
 suddenly forward, spreads out his hands like 
 wings over the horses, shouts at the top of his 
 voice, ' Hee ! hee ! ' and away down the steep 
 we go, at such a break-neck pace that when we 
 reach the corduroy bridge at the bottom we 
 strike it with a shock which makes the tarantass 
 leap into the air. 
 
 Then we know not only why the Russians 
 always take pillows with them, but why there 
 is a cover at the back of the conveyance. Here- 
 tofore we had innocently thought it was in- 
 tended to screen us from the sunshine and the 
 rain, but wo see now that it must be meant also 
 to prevent us from being shot too far into the 
 air, for after going up a certain distance one's 
 head strikes against the woodwork, which sends 
 us down again more quickly even than we went 
 
54 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 up, and happy are we then if we have some good 
 soft pillows to fall down upon. 
 
 How did I like it ? Wh}^ at first — to speak 
 guardedly — not much. None of my joints were 
 actually dislocated, though several of them 
 felt as if they were, and for a week or more every 
 bone in my body ached. Many a time I re- 
 gretted that I had not brought more pillows 
 with me. But the instinct of self-preservation 
 led me at length to discover the position of most 
 stable equilibrium ; and I learned so to adjust 
 myself — holding on to ropes and straps, with 
 one foot pressed firmly against this projection 
 and the other against that — and so to arrange 
 the straw and pillows, that after a little time 
 for training I could travel like this all day and 
 all night, and from day to day, and even week 
 to week, without feeling much the worse. 
 
 But it was trying to the nerves as well as to 
 the coarser tissues, and my first few days of 
 tarantass-riding were days of great anxiety. 
 Often, as at headlong speed we shot down some 
 deep descent, I thought we should be dashed 
 to pieces ; but as this did not happen, I came 
 at length to regard these mad gallops with in- 
 difference, and at last with reckless enjoyment. 
 The spirit of the Russian driver so infected me 
 that we never seemed to go too fast. I could 
 feel the exhilarating influence of the wild rushing 
 
THE COAST TO LAKE KHANKA 55 
 
 of the steeds ; and often, as we prepared for a 
 daring dash down some precipitous hillside, 
 when the yemschik shouted ' Hee ! Hee ! ' the 
 horses heard a second voice repeating it. 
 
 Our tarantass experiences in this part of the 
 journey were not always so exciting. About 
 a hundred and fifty miles to the north of Vladi- 
 vostock the post-road dips down from the hill- 
 country, and half loses itself in a swampy plain. 
 This plain is part of an extensive tract of low- 
 land, which fills up the angle betv/een the right 
 bank of the Usuri and the lower waters of the 
 Amoor. In a comparatively recent geological 
 period it was covered by the sea, and some of 
 the rivers which run through it do not even 
 yet seem quite decided as to the channel in which 
 they ought to flow. Often in the early summer 
 they break out over the plain, inundating hun- 
 dreds of square miles of country, and making 
 this part of the post-road quite impassable. 
 
 We had no fear of floods so early in the year, 
 but the winter is the only season in which this 
 marshy region can be crossed without some 
 apprehension of disaster or delay. For eight 
 hours we had been picking our way through 
 the morass ; we ought to have reached the next 
 station in less than half the time, but no station 
 was yet in sight, nor had we, since we started, 
 seen a sign of any human being or human dwell- 
 
56 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 ing-place. There was no reliable track for us 
 to follow, and our yemschik made many a long 
 detour in the hope of keeping on solid ground. 
 But in spite of his care and patience our taran- 
 tass gave a sudden lurch, and sank up to the 
 axles in a mud-hole. All our efforts to extricate 
 it were in vain. The driver urged the horses 
 until the two side ones broke their traces and 
 scoured away over the plain. The horse in the 
 shafts did his best to follow them, but his hind 
 feet were fast in the slough, and he could only 
 use the one free forefoot to dash mud mto my 
 face. I leaped out on to a little patch of dry 
 land — a sort of island in the swamp — and then 
 the driver, having released the horse from the 
 shafts and caught the two others, rode away 
 with them to the next station, six or seven miles 
 distant, to get another vehicle. 
 
 We had to wait three hours for his return ; 
 and for testing the delights of isolation in a swamp 
 three hours is long enough. A Russian traveller 
 had asked me at a previous station to allow 
 him, for the next stage or two, to share my taran- 
 tass, so I had one companion. The day was dull 
 and dreary, and the scenery was like it. We 
 had an uninterrupted view of the horizon and 
 the intervening plain, but there was nothing 
 better to be seen than a few tufts of withered 
 grass and bulrushes. 
 
THE COAST TO LAKE KHANKA 57 
 
 Our presence in this sequestered spot was 
 slightly suggestive of a picnic, but when I tried 
 to fancy that it was — to make the time pass more 
 pleasantly — my imagination was not equal to 
 the effort. Picnics usually take place in warm 
 summer weather ; I was shivering with cold. 
 At a picnic a provision basket is essential, and it 
 was specially essential in this case, for I had not 
 had anything whatever to eat or drink since the 
 preceding day. Picnics are always graced with 
 a few fair specimens of the heavenher half of our 
 humanity, but the wildest vagaries of fancy 
 could not associate ideas of beauty with this 
 rough, bearded Russian. 
 
 No ; whatever else our position was, it cer- 
 tainly was not romantic. There was not much 
 to see, and there was still less for us to do. The 
 Russian wished he had a pipe, or at least some 
 tobacco ; and I mshed I had — it must have 
 been a book ; but whichever was the more 
 virtuous Avish, both v/ere equally in vain. We 
 could either sit on the cold ground or stand, 
 but if we attempted walking we got into a quag- 
 mire. The only exercise available to keep our 
 blood in circulation was shouting, and our only 
 amusement was scanning with a field-glass that 
 point on the horizon where the yemschik had 
 disappeared. Sometimes these two occupations 
 were combined, for our vision was too eager to 
 
58 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 be true, and the sight of a bird flying low in the 
 distance, or of a reed shaken by the wind, so 
 raised our hopes of rescue that we yelled at one 
 another, ' Horses ! ' ' Horses ! ' ' Horses ! ' — until 
 at length, out of humour with disappointment, 
 and out of breath with exertion, we dropped 
 again into a morose silence. When we had 
 given up looking for them, the horses came ; 
 we did not see them until w^e heard the yem- 
 schik's voice, but we were soon on our way 
 again, and at four o'clock in the afternoon we 
 reached the post-station, having left the previous 
 one at about the same hour in the morning. 
 Here I got my breakfast. 
 
 After five or six days of this kind of travel 
 I was quite ready for a change, and was not 
 sorry, on crossing the brow of a low range of 
 hills, to see before me in the distance the white 
 surface of Lake Khanka, and to know that the 
 troubles of tarantass-riding were for the 
 present at an end. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 LIFE IX A SIBERIAIN- VILLAGE 
 
 The next two thousand miles of the post-road 
 only exist for six months in the year. On no 
 other part of it is travelling so easy and so ex- 
 peditious, and yet it cost absolutely nothing in 
 the making, for it is simply the frozen surface 
 of Lake Khanka and of the river system com- 
 municating with it. 
 
 Except for its unwonted smoothness — the 
 absence of shocks and bangs and joltings — 
 travel on the ice is very similar to that upon 
 the land. At the post-stations on the banks of 
 the river teams of horses are supplied, and 
 the sledge behind them is simply a tarantass 
 provided with runners instead of wheels. 
 
 When this part of the post-road has been 
 obHterated by the heat of summer, steamers 
 take the place of sledge and horses, and thus 
 maintain the continuity of route ; but at the 
 beginning and end of every winter there is an 
 indefinite period in which neither mode of travel 
 
 69 
 
60 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 is available, the ice being too abundant for 
 navigation, and too weak and broken for surface 
 traffic. 
 
 In such a period — just at the close of the 
 winter season, too early for a steamer and too 
 late for a sledge — I reached the shores of Klianka 
 Lake. A fortnight before a traveller had crossed 
 upon the ice, but I gathered from his conversa- 
 tion that he had not very much enjoyed the 
 trip. He had set out from the other side with 
 a sledge and three horses at ten o'clock at night, 
 and, as the distance from one bank to the other 
 is about forty miles, it took upwards of four 
 hours to complete the journey. As the ice even 
 then was not considered absolutely safe, an 
 extra fee had been paid to the driver to reconcile 
 him to the risk. The easy motion of the sledge 
 soon lulled the traveller to sleep, and he did 
 not wake until midnight, when he was annoyed 
 to find they were standing still. The yemschik 
 had only stopped to get his pipe and some to- 
 bacco for a smoke ; but as this is a rather slow 
 and difficult operation for one so encumbered 
 with heavy sheepskins, he tried to divert the 
 attention of the evidently impatient traveller 
 by narrating a few reminiscences. ' I recollect,' 
 said he, ' that just about a year ago, on a pitch- 
 dark night like this, as near as possible to this 
 same hour, and within a yard or two of the 
 
LIFE IN A SIBERIAN VILLAGE 61 
 
 very spot where we are now — some twenty 
 miles or so from either shore — the ice suddenly 
 gave way, and a sledge and three horses, with 
 two travellers and a yemschik, went down 
 wdthout a moment's warning to the bottom of 
 the lake.' 
 
 The traveller did not seem to appreciate this 
 story, or, if he did, he showed his appreciation 
 in a very peculiar way. He called the man a 
 di'i veiling idiot, and threatened to knock him 
 off the box if he did not instantly shut up his 
 yarning and drive on. 
 
 I don't think the traveller slept much during 
 the remainder of the journey. He was an 
 educated man, and was reputed to have some 
 taste in music, but I heard him say that the 
 sweetest sound he ever heard was that of sledge- 
 runners, in the early morning, crunching through 
 the shingle of a beach. 
 
 There was evidently no chance for me to 
 continue my journey until the south wind brought 
 a thaw, but the delay was not without its com- 
 pensation. I had been so shaken, not to say 
 bruised and battered, by the antics of the taran- 
 tass, that I could appreciate the benefit of rest ; 
 and a week or two in Kamenrubeloff could not 
 fail to give me some interesting information 
 with regard to Siberian village life. 
 
 Kamenrubeloff means ' fisherman's rock,' and 
 
62 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 there is no doubt a romance connected with 
 the designation, but I only know it as the name 
 of a village on Lake Khanka. It is a dreary 
 httle place, and especially so at this season of 
 the year. One could not walk far eastward 
 without coming abruptly to the edge of the 
 cUff-like alluvial bank, which falls precipitously 
 forty or fifty feet to the lake shore ; but around 
 the village on all other sides lay an open, un- 
 dulating country, only partially reclaimed and 
 cultivated. On some of the hillsides were woods 
 of birch and alder, but, except the brown rem- 
 nants of the pre\ious summer's foliage, there 
 was hardly a leaf or a grass blade to be seen. 
 
 Most Siberian villages have only one street, 
 which, however, is broad enough for a market- 
 place ; but Kamenrubeloff has a second equally 
 broad street, cutting the first at right angles. 
 The village has no terraces and no two-storied 
 houses, its dwellings, with the exception of the 
 soldiers' quarters in the suburbs, consisting 
 entirely of pine-log cottages, which, with a 
 varying interval between them, are ranged on 
 either side of the road. Though small, they are 
 snug and substantial structures. The logs of 
 which they are built are so shaped as to fit 
 closely to the adjacent ones, they are dovetailed 
 into each other at the ends, and support a double 
 roof of thatch and boarding. With few ex- 
 
LIFE IN A SIBERIAN VILLAGE 63 
 
 ceptions the outside timbers are discoloured by 
 age, and the only paint about them is on the 
 window-frames and doors. 
 
 Most of the cottages stand back from the 
 road, each one in a small fenced enclosure of 
 its own, within which might be seen some farm- 
 ing implements, a rough Siberian cart, a horse, 
 a cow, a few black pigs, and perhaps some barn- 
 door fowls. Among the houses which stand 
 close upon the street are a few shops for the 
 sale of vodka, groceries, and clothing ; but 
 there is nothing to distinguish them from the 
 neighbouring cottages except the wares exposed 
 in their ^\indows. 
 
 As there was no hotel in the village, nor a 
 lodging-house of any kind, I had to seek for 
 shelter in one of the private houses. Pushkoff, 
 the Russian land surveyor who was with me 
 in the swamp, had come to the village, and was 
 also waiting for a steamer, so he proposed that 
 if he could find a room I should share it and its 
 expenses with him. The first place we secured 
 was such a den of misery that even Pushkoff 
 was dissatisfied, but the next day we succeeded 
 in finding more comfortable quarters — a clean 
 little room of about fourteen feet by ten, its 
 walls, ceiUng, and floor of smooth unpainted 
 pine, and having two small windows — one 
 looking into the farmyard at the back, and 
 
64 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 the other out upon the road. Its furniture 
 consisted of two chairs, a table, and a broad 
 wooden bench, which served me for a bed ; the 
 Russian, characteristically, preferred to sleep 
 upon the floor. 
 
 He was vexed that I would not consent to 
 share board as w^ell as lodging with him, but I 
 knew too much already of his household ways. 
 He was a good-natured man, and when I was 
 passing through the village where he lived he 
 invited me to dinner at his house. There were 
 three of us at table — Pushkoff, his wife, and 
 myself ; we had each a knife and fork, but there 
 were no plates, and we all three had to help 
 ourselves out of the one dish, which contained 
 a mixture of some kind of minced meat and 
 vegetables. Such an arrangement is convenient ; 
 it saves a good deal of dish-washing and other 
 labour, but it has this great disadvantage — it 
 makes it impossible for a slow eater to get his 
 fair share of the feast ; so I told Pushkoff that 
 it would be better for each of us to cater for 
 himself. 
 
 Soon after he brought in a pickled salmon, 
 which he had purchased from a farmer in the 
 village, and laid it, dripping with brine, upon 
 our only table ; there it lay until the Russian 
 had eaten it, which, as the fish weighed over 
 twenty pounds, was not for a considerable time. 
 
LIFE IN A SIBERIAN VILLAGE 65 
 
 He had no stated hours for meals, and no stated 
 number of them ; but whenever he felt hungry 
 he cut, with a large pocket-knife, a slice out of 
 the salmon and ate it raw, washing it down 
 with a glass or two of tea or vodka. 
 
 The table was soon covered from one end to 
 the other with brine and fragments of fish, and 
 the only place where I could have meals in com- 
 fort was the window-sill ; but during my first 
 few days in Kamenrubeloff the difiiculty was to 
 get the meals. Black bread and salt fish seem to 
 be the staple food of these Siberian peasants, 
 and I did not find either to my taste. The rye- 
 flour, of which the bread is made, is said to be 
 mixed with powdered pine-bark, and certainly 
 its taste is pungent enough for anything ; how- 
 ever hungry, a finger's-breadth of it was sufficient 
 to take away my appetite. I had to have salt 
 fish, whether I would or not ; though I never 
 actually ate a morsel of it in this village, I feasted 
 my eyes on it all day, and imbibed its exhala- 
 tions all night ; and if I ever felt a craving for 
 food I did not possess, I had only to look at that 
 fish-smeared table, and the pangs of hunger were 
 allayed. Beef and mutton were only seen among 
 the villagers on rare occasions, and, as to milk 
 and eggs, the people told me that the cows were 
 dry, and that the hens had not yet begun to 
 lay. But by persistent search I discovered one 
 
 5 
 
66 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 milch cow at a farm on the outskirts of the village ; 
 by going from house to house I managed to 
 buy up, one here and another there, a score 
 or so of eggs ; then I met a Chinaman, who 
 sold me a dozen pounds of rice ; and at last I 
 was so well provided for — in the opinion of these 
 villagers — that I could fare sumptuously every 
 day. 
 
 It is a saying of the Chinese that ' Europeans 
 must be a very dirty people, or they would not 
 find it necessary to wash so frequently.' They 
 would form a higher opinion of us if they saw 
 us here. There were no facilities for washing 
 in these cottages, and cold water for such a 
 purpose is quite out of favour in Siberia. The 
 peasants sometimes take a vapour bath, or, in 
 the absence of convenience for this, get into the 
 bread oven when it has sufficiently cooled down, 
 and, when they have soaked in perspiration long 
 enough, come out and rub themselves briskly 
 all over with a handful or two of snow. This is 
 expected to keep their skin clean and supple 
 for at least half a year. 
 
 At one of the post-stations I ventured to hint 
 that I would like a wash. I was asked to go 
 out into the yard, where I saw a servant standing 
 with a teacup of cold water. Holding out my 
 hands she poured a little of the water over them, 
 I rubbed my hands together and held them out 
 
LIFE IN A SIBERIAN VILLAGE 67 
 
 again, when the remaining water in the cup 
 was emptied over them that I might rub it on 
 my face ; and this is all the ablution which even 
 the most fastidious consider necessary. 
 
 At other post-stations the assistance of the 
 servant is rendered unnecessary by what the 
 people regard as a very ingenious contrivance. 
 A small brass funnel is fixed against the wall, 
 about four feet from the ground. Any one 
 anxious for a wash has only to pour a teacupfiil 
 of water into this funnel, and if he is quick enough 
 he may lave his hands and face while the water 
 is trickling through. 
 
 Pushkoff told me, the first day I spent with 
 him, that cold tea was better than water for 
 washing purposes ; and in the evening I noticed 
 that, when he had drunk all he required, he 
 filled up the teapot again. The next morning, 
 before I had risen from my bench, I saw my 
 companion sitting on the front-door step with 
 the teapot in his hand. He put the spout to 
 his lips, as if to take a deep drink, then replacing 
 the teapot by his side, and making a syringe of 
 his mouth, he held up his hands and spirted 
 the tea out over them ; when he had rubbed 
 them sufficiently, he applied more tea in the 
 same way to rub over his face, and his ablution 
 was complete. 
 [ There was plenty of tea left in the pot, but I 
 
68 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 preferred to take my towel to the shore of the 
 lake ; the ice had melted along its margin, and 
 its clear cold water was good enough for me ; 
 but every splash involved a penalty, and some- 
 times for nearly an hour after my hands were 
 completely paralysed. 
 
 With the exception of a few Chinese, the 
 people of this village were typical examples 
 of Siberian peasantry. Some of them were 
 always in sight from the window of my room — 
 the men in blue blouses and top-boots, with their 
 long hair cut evenly all round, and half covered 
 by bearskin caps, were busy preparing their gear 
 for tillage, mending their houses, or fetching 
 cartloads of fuel from the forest ; and the women 
 in their short print gowns, bareheaded, and as 
 often as not barefooted, were hurrying about 
 the little farmyards, attending to their poultry 
 and cattle. 
 
 The more one knew of these people, the more 
 interesting they became. Beneath their rugged 
 features and coarse manners beat kind and 
 honest hearts ; and, dull and slow-witted as 
 they seem, their energy of character reveals 
 itself not only in their power of enduring hard- 
 ship, but in the dogged determination with which 
 they are subduing this wild country to their 
 service. In contrast with the most refined of 
 the natives of that so-called Celestial Empire to 
 
LIFE IN A SIBERIAN VILLAGE 69 
 
 the south of them, their superiority is striking. 
 In every circumstance of life but their religion, 
 the Chinese seem to have the advantage of them 
 — better climate, more fertile soil, and easier 
 life ; but to compare the two is like comparing 
 uncut diamonds with pieces of polished jade- 
 stone. 
 
 Some of the villagers were exiles whose term 
 of imprisonment had expired, but most of them 
 were free emigrants. Many of the settlers in 
 these remote regions came here to escape oppres- 
 sion, either in the shape of the conscription 
 or of religious persecution. To save themselves 
 from being sent out to Siberia, they came here 
 of their own freewill. The security of such 
 fugitives depended upon the distance to which 
 they wandered, and, as on Russian territory 
 they might at any time be arrested and punished 
 for their flight, they aimed at going beyond 
 the frontier, and forming settlements on alien 
 soil. This district was the home of Russian 
 emigrants before it formed part of the Russian 
 Empire ; but in no case did such settlements 
 remam long outside ; no sooner did the Govern- 
 ment hear of a colony of Russians in a region 
 beyond the frontier, than the frontier was ex- 
 tended to include it. It was as if the boundaries 
 of the Empire had been an elastic cord, which 
 clung to the fugitives as they tried to push beyond 
 
70 ■ .-, ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 it, so that whatever spot they selected for their 
 settlement became, because of such selection, 
 Russian soil. The hardy Cossacks, living, eating, 
 sleeping in the saddle, kept the forefeet of their 
 horses on the receding frontier ; and if, after the 
 inclusion by it of some extensive tract of country 
 in Manchuria, a Chinese mandarin ventured to 
 suggest that yesterday this boundary stone was 
 a score of miles to the westward of its position 
 now, the Cossack curtly answered, ' Well, there 
 the stone is now, and I am here ; what have 
 you to say ? ' 
 
 Well for him he said nothing, but went quietly 
 away. And so the Czar's dominion, with the 
 steadiness and persistency of an advancing tide, 
 has spread itself over the vast territories of 
 Northern Asia, until it has become conterminous 
 with the Pacific Ocean and the Japan Sea. 
 
 The nearest settlement to Kamenrubeloff was 
 many miles away, and there was absolutely no 
 scattered population ; but a company of gipsies 
 happened to have pitched their tents on the 
 outskirts of the village, and had spent the winter 
 there. They were the most respectable and 
 romantic-looking gipsies I have ever seen — 
 altogether different from the ragged, unkempt 
 creatures one meets sometimes in English lanes. 
 By their aristocratic bearing as they strolled 
 about the village, and by the rough courtesy 
 
LIFE IN A SIBERIAN VILLAGE 71 
 
 with which the people treated them, it was evi- 
 dent that they were by no means regarded as 
 pariahs either by the villagers or by themselves. 
 
 The men wore top-boots, black sheepskin coats, 
 and fur caps ; the chiefs of the tribe being dis- 
 tinguished from the rest by a row of bulb-shaped 
 buttons of chased silver as large as a medium- 
 sized apple. The women were fond of red cotton 
 dresses ; and those of higher rank were made 
 still more conspicuous by a string of forty or 
 fifty silver dollars round the neck. Every morn- 
 ing a number of them passed my window on the 
 way down to the lake for water, which they 
 carried up in bright copper vessels on their head. 
 They were anything but shy, and the visits of 
 these gipsy ladies were most unceremonious and 
 inopportune. They simply opened my door 
 and walked in ; and if, as was frequently the 
 case, I happened to be having dinner when they 
 called, they drew up to my window-sill dining- 
 table in a most free and friendly way, and helped 
 themselves to whatever they fancied of my frugal 
 meal. 
 
 The gipsy men called once or twice, and kindly 
 tried to dissuade me from venturing farther on 
 this journey by telling me of the dangers and 
 difficulties encountered by themselves in coming 
 here, and of the number of their tribe who had 
 perished on the way. 
 
72 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 One of them sometimes came into the village 
 in the evening, and borrowed an accordion, upon 
 which he played a lively polka ; and at once, 
 as by a spell, the doors of the log-cottages flew 
 open, and the villagers came out and danced 
 until the darkness and chill air of night sent 
 them all home to bed. 
 
 This was not the only music the village could 
 supply. One day, when quietly sitting in my 
 room, I heard a burst of singing which quite 
 startled me, for it was not the careless droning of 
 some peasant sauntering about his farm, but 
 singing by a multitude of voices, and with heart 
 and will. The air was a strange one, but there 
 was plenty of wild stirring music in it, and the 
 time was perfect. I could see nothing of the 
 singers, but the sound of their voices seemed to 
 approach so rapidly I might have thought them 
 a troop of angels bearing down upon the village 
 from the sky, but for the moving cloud of dust 
 which now appeared in the distance, and through 
 which at length I saw the shape of horses and 
 riders and the gleam of polished steel. The 
 cloud came on apace, and in a few moments 
 a company of Cossacks, still singing their wild 
 martial ballad, went sweeping by on their way 
 to some distant station. 
 
 British cavalry sometimes relieve, by singing, 
 the monotony of a long journey ; but in England 
 
LIFE IN A SIBERIAN VILLAGE 73 
 
 we generally associate a vocal chorus out-of-doors 
 with Salvation Army services or Methodist camp- 
 meetings. Neither the one nor the other is yet 
 known in Siberia, but every important village 
 has its church. 
 
 The church is the only public building here. 
 It stands in the middle of the village, and is con- 
 spicuous not only by its size but its appearance, 
 for the pine-logs of which it is constructed are 
 painted white, its tower is topped by a pale- 
 green dome, and above all shines a gilded cross. 
 To see the building at a distance, with a cluster 
 of cottages around it, suggests the fancy of some 
 gigantic bird among its fledgelings — a fancy not 
 altogether false, for the relationship between 
 the church and the dwellings which surround 
 it is not one of juxtaposition merely : without it 
 Kamenrubeloff would be but a miscellaneous 
 Orssemblage of independent homesteads ; the 
 presence of a place of worship establishes a bond 
 between them, and gives to the village some- 
 thmg of organic unity. 
 
 Whatever the moral character of these villagers 
 may be, they always reverence the church. 
 Whenever they pass by it they doff their hat, 
 and there are few who do not sometimes attend 
 its services. For those who have to mind the 
 house on Sunday mornings, to allow the other 
 members of the family to go to church, a special 
 
74 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 service is held every Saturday night. Pushkoff, 
 my companion, responded promptly to the call 
 of church bells, and when he attended service 
 I generally went with him. 
 
 Compared with its exterior of spotless white, 
 the inside of the church looked gloomy, its dark 
 pine-wood walls being left unpainted ; but the 
 lower part was relieved by numerous pictures 
 and images of saints, and there was no lack of 
 paint and gilding on the reredos and altar, which 
 in Russian churches generally are even more 
 ornate than those of the Church of Rome. A 
 seller of candles stood in the porch ; and all who 
 came to church, except the very poor, were 
 expected to purchase one. It was passed by a 
 verger to the front, where it was lit and fixed 
 in one of the numerous candle-holders near the 
 altar ; the brilliancy of the illumination being 
 supposed to represent the size and devoutness of 
 the congregation. 
 
 There are no seats in the building, so that 
 worshippers must either stand or kneel. The 
 service was intoned throughout, the clerk giving 
 the responses in deep bass. There was no sermon, 
 and it is very seldom that there is one in any 
 of these Russian churches. The universal sur- 
 veillance of the Government, and the ease with 
 which an innocent expression may be construed 
 into heterodoxy or high treason, make preaching 
 
LIFE IN A SIBERIAN VILLAGE 75 
 
 too risky ; and as sermons are not prescribed 
 parts of the service, it is the safest course to 
 omit them altogether. 
 
 At the end of the service every Sunday morn- 
 ing the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was 
 administered to a number of recently baptized 
 infants. Adults think it sufficient for them- 
 selves to partake of the ordinance once or twice 
 a year, but it is considered advisable for baptized 
 babies to do so every Sunday until they are 
 twelve months old. In all Russian churches 
 the bread and wine are mixed together, and the 
 mixture is administered, both to children and 
 adults, in a silver spoon. A dozen infants were 
 carried by their mothers to the altar ; each in 
 turn had a silken bib arranged under its chin by 
 the priest ; and then, while the choir chanted, 
 the frightened children, some of whom screamed 
 outright, received, much against their will, the 
 sacred elements. 
 
 After the conclusion of the service, the priest 
 — or pope, as the Russians call him — stood in 
 front of the altar, holding out a large silver 
 cross. The entire congregation filed forward to 
 the front to kiss this cross before they left the 
 church. 
 
 It was rather surprising to find that a church 
 so ritualistic sometimes held outdoor services ; 
 but I happened to be in this village on St. George's 
 
76 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 day. ^-VTiile having breakfast in the early morn- 
 ing I heard the tramp of many feet, and, going 
 to the door, saw the priest in his robes of office 
 at the head of a procession, following the banner 
 of St. George. At the crossways in the centre 
 of the village the procession halted, and soon 
 I saw, drawing towards it from every side, the 
 strangest crowd I ever heard of in connexion 
 with church services. 
 
 St. George is regarded as the patron saint of 
 domestic animals, and it is believed that some 
 special blessing will rest upon the cattle if once 
 a year, on this saint's feast-day, they join in 
 public worship. And so they were now on 
 their way to the service — flocks of sheep, with 
 herds of cattle, swine, and horses, making when 
 they came together a most motley congregation. 
 But the poor beasts were not religiously in- 
 clined, or did not appreciate this kind of worship, 
 and it took half the bipeds of the congregation 
 to keep the quadrupeds from bolting, one or 
 two of the pigs being so depraved that they 
 knocked their benefactors over and ran away. 
 But when at length the service opened, and 
 the congregation began to sing, what with the 
 bleating of the sheep, the neighing of the horses, 
 the bellowing of the cattle, the squealing of the 
 pigs, and the barking of a score or two of 
 irreverent dogs who would neither join the 
 
LIFE IN A SIBERIAN VILLAGE 77 
 
 circle of the worshippers nor go away, but stood 
 around protesting loudly while priest and people 
 did their best to make their voices heard above 
 the others, the combination made a chorus the 
 like of which, even in Bedlam, you might listen 
 for in vain. 
 
 The social life of a little community of peasants, 
 in such a remote corner of the earth, might 
 seem to an outsider dull. But the people them- 
 selves are not conscious of this dullness ; they 
 know nothing better than their village Ufe, and 
 are content. They never see a newspaper, 
 and except by an occasional letter from their 
 friends, or the arrival of some passing traveller, 
 have no means of knowing what is happening 
 in other portions of the world ; but this only 
 makes them take a deeper interest in local cir- 
 cumstances, and in one another's family affairs. 
 With so much in their own circle to awaken 
 interest — births and deaths ; betrothals and 
 marriages ; the fortunes of the battle in which 
 they are engaged with nature ; the varying 
 aspects of sky and lake and forest, from season 
 to season, and even from day to day ; the play 
 and interplay of human passions and affections, 
 with their multiform developments, tragic, 
 pathetic, or amusing ; and the frequently re- 
 curring services at church, with the glimpses 
 they get there of the infinite and the eternal, — 
 
78 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 with all this, these simple villagers cannot under- 
 stand why we should consider their position 
 lonely or their life monotonous, and they never 
 think with anything like envy of the residents 
 in busy towns. 
 
 A day or two after St. George's festival I 
 noticed that something unusual was astir, and 
 presently one of the villagers asked me if I was 
 not going to see the wedding. No one whose 
 human sympathies are not completely petrified 
 can fail to feel some thrill of pensive interest 
 in a wedding, though the bridal pair are utter 
 strangers and of the humblest class ; but a 
 Siberian wedding had for me the added charm 
 of novelty, and I hastened with the others to 
 the church. A good congregation was assembled, 
 and the bride and bridegroom, children of peasant 
 parents in the neighbourhood, were evidently 
 well known to all. They each appeared to be 
 about twenty-five years of age ; and with the 
 limited means at their disposal they had done 
 their best to give to their appearance a neatness 
 befitting the importance of the occasion. The 
 bridegroom appeared in top-boots, velveteen 
 trousers which in some places had lost their 
 bloom, and an old-fashioned dark-blue coat. 
 The bride wore a gown of bright blue stuff, and 
 her head was covered with a cream-coloured 
 woollen handkerchief fastened beneath her chin. 
 
LIFE IN A SIBERIAN VILLAGE 79 
 
 The wedding ceremony was not performed 
 at the altar, but in the centre of the church. 
 The priest received the couple at the door, led 
 them to their place, and the chanting at once 
 began. Two wax candles, each with a piece 
 of red ribbon tied in a bow around it, were 
 lighted and handed by the priest, one to the 
 bridegroom, and the other to the bride ; re- 
 minding both of the necessity for heedfulness 
 and circumspection — keeping both eyes open, 
 and taking a good look before they make the 
 contemplated leap ; and reminding each of the 
 necessity to be candid as well as cautious, to 
 beware of all suspicion of dissimulation or re- 
 serve, to let their minds to one another be honest 
 as the hght and open as the day, and so to pHght 
 their troth. 
 
 A large handkerchief was next spread out on 
 the ground, and upon this handkerchief both 
 were required to stand ; expressive of the fact 
 that henceforth they were to sail over the sea 
 of hfe in the same boat, and share each other's 
 lot. A Bible was then given them to kiss ; 
 signifying their acceptance of that book as the 
 chart by which to regulate their course. 
 
 A couple of gold rings were now handed to 
 the priest, who, having dipped them in holy 
 water, gave one to each of the bridal pair. The 
 man put his ring on the middle finger of the 
 
80 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 woman's right hand — a token that henceforth 
 she belonged exclusively to him ; and then the 
 woman put her ring on the middle finger of the 
 man's left hand, as a token that he belonged 
 exclusively to her. 
 
 A gilded crown was then brought out and 
 placed on the head of the bridegroom ; pro- 
 claiming him the king of the new home. Before 
 I had recovered from my surprise at this, another 
 crown was brought and placed upon the head 
 of the bride ; proclaiming that, if her husband 
 was to be king of the household, she was to be 
 its queen. 
 
 The priest having next thrown a fold of his 
 robe over their joined hands, grasped them, 
 and led the man and woman three times round 
 a table, on which lay a Bible and a crucifix ; to 
 teach them that the truth and the love of God 
 must be the centre of all their movements. 
 They then partook of the Sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper, to remind them of the price at 
 which their happiness had been procured ; the 
 crucifix was held out for them to kiss, to signify 
 that, in all the relationships of life, love for 
 Christ must be supreme ; then, to show that 
 wedded love is also sacred, and a thing of which 
 no one need be ashamed, before the whole con- 
 gregation they kissed each other ; and so the 
 ceremony was complete. 
 
LIFE IN A SIBERIAN VILLAGE 81 
 
 The happy pair now left the church, and, 
 amid the ringing of the bells and the congratu- 
 lations of the people, went down to their little 
 cottage by the lake, to spend, let us hope, a 
 lifelong honeymoon. 
 
 I strolled out towards the open country after 
 the wedding, infected naturally enough with the 
 good-humour of the occasion, and one's nature 
 responded cheerfully to the inspiring influence 
 of the sunshine and the bracing Siberian air. 
 But though the blue expanse above me was 
 unsullied, there was a bank of cumulus on the 
 horizon. It is seldom at this season that one 
 sees a sky absolutely cloudless ; and social 
 life, even in remote Siberian villages, seems 
 very much the same. 
 
 A man ran out of a cottage I had just passed, 
 and asked me if I would oblige him by coming 
 to see his son ; and as the look upon his face 
 told me that the case was an urgent one, I 
 followed him at once. 
 
 The son referred to was a tall, well-built youth, 
 within a few weeks of twenty years of age, and 
 the eldest child of the family. He had been to 
 the forest for a load of wood, and had returned 
 with it to the village, when the horse became 
 restive at the gate, and, in the effort to con- 
 trol him, by a sudden jerk a gun which the 
 young man had with him in the cart went off, 
 
 6 
 
82 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 inflicting most serious injury upon his left arm 
 and hand. 
 
 The mother — a kind but energetic-looking 
 woman, nearly fifty years of age, and with hair 
 already grey — had been watching the wedding 
 in the church, wondering when she would have 
 the privilege of witnessing a similar ceremony 
 for her son. She returned just in time to see 
 him carried wounded into the liouse. 
 
 A few neighbours had come in to help or to 
 console, but they knew neither what to do nor 
 what to say, and from the low doorway of the 
 room, before I entered, I could see them and 
 the members of the family standing in speechless 
 horror, as if watching tlie approach of some 
 di'eadful apparition. And death was not very 
 far away ; his shadow was already creeping 
 over the young man's face. 
 
 A sudden eagerness of hope ht up the face 
 of the mother when she saw me, and with one 
 authoritative word she swept the bystanders 
 aside that I might not be impeded in my Avork. 
 The wounded arteries being secured, life soon 
 began again to struggle for the mastery, and 
 the threatening spectre, seeing he was baffled, 
 fled. 
 
 It seemed almost impossible to preserve the 
 hand, but an attempt to do so was worth the 
 while ; so with stitches and bandages, and such 
 
LIFE IN A SIBERIAN VILLAGE 83 
 
 splints and dressings as could be manufactured 
 on the spot, the torn and contorted tissues 
 were replaced in their position, and, thanks 
 to the mother's care and the splendid health of 
 the young man, both life and limb were saved. 
 
 I had no trouble after this in getting eggs and 
 milk in Kamenrubeloff ; and when I set out 
 again on my journey, the whole family came to 
 say farewell. The young man still had his arm 
 in a sling, but otherwise seemed little the worse 
 for his accident ; the mother got far beyond 
 my depth in Russian speech, but the look upon 
 her face was my interpreter ; and the father, 
 though embarrassed in his manner, and less fluent 
 than his wife, insisted upon taking me and my 
 baggage to the steamer wharf, two or three 
 miles from the villa,ge, with his own horse and 
 cart. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 BY STEAMER J'ROM KHAISTKA TO THE AMOOR 
 
 The clouds which I had seen gathering on the 
 horizon brought a change of weather. A strong 
 south wind began to blow, and by its warmth 
 and vehemence, as it swept over the surface of 
 Lake Khanka, speedily broke up the ice, and 
 drove it in piled-up masses northward, leaving 
 the southern half of that great sheet of water 
 clear. As soon as the course was open, a steamer 
 came over from the other side ; and as several 
 people had been waiting for it in the village for 
 days and weeks, in a few hours it had booked 
 its full complement of passengers, and was 
 ready to start again. 
 
 We found the steamer waiting for us at a 
 roughly-constructed wooden jetty a few miles 
 from the village. It was a small craft, little 
 more, indeed, than a steam-launch, and could 
 barely accommodate the cabin passengers ; those, 
 therefore, who had deck tickets — soldiers, poor 
 emigrants, and a few Koreans and Chinese — 
 
 84 
 
FROM KHANKA TO THE AMOOR 85 
 
 were placed, with the cargo, on a big lumbering 
 barge, absurdly named the Little Son, and which 
 was towed astern of us by a long hawser. 
 
 We loosed from our moorings an hour or 
 two after dawn on a murky, miserable morning, 
 and the outlook from our deck was a very dreary 
 one. The few trees on the banks were leafless, 
 the surface of the lake to the northward was 
 a mass of ice, and over all rested a cold depress- 
 ing haze. There were no other signs of naviga- 
 tion, and no boats of any kind in sight except our 
 steamer and its barge. As the lake was forty 
 miles across we could not see the other side, 
 and the expanse of water which stretched away 
 before us might have been mistaken for the 
 sea ; all the more so now because of the big 
 waves which the wind had beaten up upon its 
 surface, and which made our Uttle steamer roll 
 and pitch in a very uncomfortable way. 
 
 All day long we were tossing on the lake, and 
 for several hours were out of sight of land ; 
 but in the afternoon, against the grey, cloud- 
 covered sky, the farther shore appeared — a long, 
 low bank, sentineUed by a few ragged, weather- 
 beaten trees. 
 
 In trying to enter the Sungacha River, the 
 principal outlet of the lake, we ran aground, 
 and our Uttle steamer had to be fairly lifted 
 again into deep water by the leverage of long 
 
86 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 spars thrust under her keel from the barge. 
 This so delayed us that it was nearly dark when 
 we found our way into the river, and were able 
 to anchor for the night. 
 
 We started again at daybreak, and it was 
 astonishing to find that the river we were navi- 
 gating was so small. Throughout its course 
 of 350 miles, from the Khanka Lake to its con- 
 fluence with the Usuri, the Sungacha is seldom 
 more than a hundred feet wide ; and it runs 
 such a winding course that sometimes we had 
 turned round a sudden bend, and were steaming 
 westward, while our barge, which we could see 
 through the shrubbery, abreast of us, was still 
 running in the opposite direction. But the Httle 
 river has a deep channel, and flows through a 
 soft moorland country, so there was Uttle fear of 
 grounding ; and if we did happen to run against 
 the bank, it was the bank which suffered for it, 
 and not the steamer. 
 
 Clumps of willow just breaking into leaf, 
 and closely clustered to the water's edge, fringed 
 the river on either side ; and it was evidently 
 a favourite haunt of water-fowl, for ducks, 
 often in great flocks, flew up before our steamer 
 at every turn. Some of them did not fly fast 
 enough, and so were shot by an alert sportsman 
 at our bow. They were picked up by a long- 
 handled landing-net, and passed over to the cook. 
 
FROM KHANKA TO THE AMOOR 87 
 
 On all Siberian steamers wood is used for 
 fuel, and, as this burns much more rapidly than 
 coal, we had to stop at least once every day to 
 fill our bunkers. This gave us an opportunity 
 to ramble on the bank, and look more closely 
 at the country, which, from its appearance out- 
 side the settlements, might never have been 
 trodden by the foot of man. At intervals of 
 from fifteen to twenty miles there were the post- 
 horse stations to supply teams for sledges in 
 the winter ; at longer distances apart there 
 were the wood-stations to provide fuel for the 
 steamers ; and the people at these stations — 
 a few yemschiks and wood-cutters — seemed to 
 be the sole inhabitants. But the spring had 
 come, and there was plenty of life about us in 
 the bursting leaf-buds on the trees and the young 
 grass covering the earth ; and when I heard 
 the lark singing as he soared, and saw the plovers 
 tumble and heard their familiar cry, I almost 
 forgot I was in such a solitary country and so 
 far from home. 
 
 There were about a dozen other passengers 
 upon the steamer, all of whom were Russian 
 Government officials either in civil or military 
 service. Five of them were quartered with me 
 in the after-cabin — a small apartment measur- 
 ing fourteen feet by ten. Here we lived and 
 feasted, and here, on the settee around tha 
 
88 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 table, we had to sleep at night, for there were 
 no berths or separate cabuis. 
 
 The steamer was moored agamst the bank 
 at dark ; and as there was not population enough 
 in the neighbourhood to encourage thieves, and 
 no other boat upon the river, we had no need 
 of lights or watchmen, so towards midnight 
 every lamp upon the steamer was put out, and 
 everybody went to bed. The stillness and 
 darkness ought to have helped us to slumber 
 soundly, but there seemed to be always some 
 one keeping vigil, and, at whatever hour of 
 night I happened to awake, it was seldom that 
 the black canopy around me was not relieved 
 by one little Mars-like star low down on the 
 horizon, declaring itself at length, by some 
 erratic movement, to be nothing but the burn- 
 ing tip of a cigarette. 
 
 Very polite are these Russian officers, but, 
 though we slept in the same room, we rose in 
 the mornmg and put on our clothes without a 
 single word to one another ; and it was not 
 Until some water had been poured upon our 
 hands by a sailor, and our toilet was complete, 
 that we reassembled in the cabin, shook hands 
 all round, and wished each other good-morning. 
 
 According to Russian custom we had two 
 substantial meals a day — a dinner of three courses 
 at noon, and a supper of one savoury dish at 
 
FROM KHANKA TO THE AMOOR 89 
 
 eight in the evening ; also two lighter meals of 
 tea and white bread and rusks, at seven in the 
 morning and four in the afternoon. We had 
 no butter with our bread — Russians are accus- 
 tomed to eat it dry ; and in Eastern and Central 
 Siberia, though milk and curds and clotted 
 cream are plentiful, butter and cheese are hardly 
 known. 
 
 The ordinary bread used by the people is the 
 black bread already described. It always has 
 an acid taste, and a very small slice of it sufficed 
 for me ; but black bread with a little salt on it 
 is very much relished by all classes of Russians. 
 Wheaten bread in Siberia is a luxury only rarely 
 to be obtained, — and that made of fine white 
 flour is rarer still ; it is known as French bread, 
 and the people regard it very much as the English 
 regard sponge-cake. 
 
 What tea-drinkers these Russians are ! A 
 Chinaman in Kamenrubeloff told me that one 
 of his principal difficulties in associating with 
 the people of this country was his inability to 
 drink such quantities of tea. The Siberian 
 peasantry use what is called ' brick- tea,' — 
 Kerpichni chai — which is simply pure tea-dust 
 pressed by hydraulic power into slabs for con- 
 venience of transport. It is used in some parts 
 of Siberia instead of money as a medium of 
 exchange, and the value of a horse or cow or 
 
90 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 plot of land is estimated at so many bricks 
 of tea. To prepare a drink of it, a piece is cut 
 off with an axe and boiled for at least a quarter 
 of an hour ; simple infusion will not suffice to 
 separate the hard-pressed particles. 
 
 It is only the poorer classes who habitually 
 use this kind of tea, the dried leaf in its usual 
 form being preferred by others. It is sometimes 
 said that the best tea produced in China goes 
 to Russia, but this is a mistake. The finest 
 qualities of Chinese tea, which always yield a 
 pale infusion, and are sold in native tea-shops 
 at various prices, rising to upwards of five pounds 
 sterling per pound avoirdupois, are entirely 
 consumed by the Chinese ; but of the coarser 
 kinds, prepared expressly for foreign markets, 
 and which mostly yield a dark infusion, probably 
 the best is that which is carried overland through 
 Siberia to Russia. 
 
 The tea the Russians drink is generally well 
 diluted. A strong infusion having been made 
 in a teapot, a small quantity (one or two table- 
 spoonfuls) is poured into a half-pint goblet, 
 which is then filled with boiling water from the 
 samovar. A slice of lemon added is rightly 
 considered an improvement, but milk or cream 
 is never put in Russian tea ; nor is it ever sweet- 
 ened, though a lump of sugar is frequently 
 placed on the table beside the tea-glass, and a 
 
FROM KHANKA TO THE AMOOR 91 
 
 small piece is bitten off it before each drink. 
 If four or five Russians sit round a samovar of 
 gallon size, they seldom leave off di'inking until 
 the samovar is dry. 
 
 But tea is not the only beverage of the Russians 
 in Siberia, nor by any means the strongest, 
 and, great as is the quantity they drink, it is 
 not easy to decide which the average Russian 
 drinks most of — tea or vodka. 
 
 Two days after entering the Sungacha River, 
 at one of the wood stations, a civil engineer in 
 Government uniform wished to take a passage 
 on our steamer ; but he was so noisily and 
 helplessly drunk that our captain had him 
 placed with the steerage passengers on the 
 barge. He had a big bold Siberian peasant 
 woman with him, who was scolding him roundly. 
 She was his ' Siberian wife.' 
 
 A considerable number of the Government 
 officials appointed to Eastern Siberia leave their 
 wives at home, not caring to subject them to 
 the hardships of life and travel in this wild 
 country. The term of service here is three years, 
 which counts for promotion as the equivalent 
 of five elsewhere, and for this period it is usual 
 for these officials to engage a peasant woman 
 of the country as housekeeper and wife. There 
 is no attempt at concealment, nor does such 
 proceeding involve any reflection whatsoever on 
 
92 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 a man's respectability. The woman is not 
 deceived ; she fully understands the temporary 
 nature of the relationship, and is generally 
 faithful to it. 
 
 Whether or not such a man desires from his 
 wife in Europe a constancy greater than his 
 own, he has usually sufficient sense of justice 
 not to insist upon it, and an act of unfaithfulness 
 which on the part of a concubine would inevit- 
 ably lead a man to a duel with his rival, would 
 on the part of a lawful wife be quietly ignored. 
 
 The civil engineer was sober enough by the 
 next morning, and was admitted to the cabin 
 of our steamer. I was surprised to find him 
 such a modest, gentlemanly, and cultured man. 
 He held an important post in connexion with 
 the construction of the Siberian railway ; be- 
 longed to a good family in St. Petersburg ; had 
 read extensively ; and spoke English without 
 suspicion of an accent. He professed to be of 
 a decidedly religious turn, and told me that in 
 this lonely region, where he was seldom within 
 reach of a church, the study of the Scriptures 
 was his principal relaxation and delight. I did 
 not allude to the disgraceful condition in which 
 I saw him on the previous day, though doing 
 so would not, I think, have seriously offended 
 him. In his judgement, drunkenness, unless too 
 frequently repeated, was at worst but a pardon- 
 
FROM KHANKA TO THE AMOOR 93 
 
 able indiscretion. But he seemed to have no 
 idea that he himself had been drunk at all. 
 
 ' I had a hard day yesterday,' he said, ' sur- 
 veying a stretch of marshland, and from dawn 
 to noon was up to my waist in mud. To save 
 myself from getting fever, I went home and 
 drank a pint of strong spirit, but I suppose I 
 did not drink enough, for the fever came on in 
 spite of it, and was so bad when I reached the 
 steamer that the captain would not let me 
 come on board. How this marsh fever does 
 upset a man ! ' 
 
 At the confluence of the Sungacha and Usuri 
 Rivers we were transferred to another steamer, 
 somewhat larger than the first, but with similar 
 arrangements and accommodation. For the 
 next five hundred miles our course lay down 
 the latter river, which, with many windings east 
 and west, makes its way northward to the Amoor. 
 The Usuri is a much larger river than the Sun- 
 gacha, and its water is clearer, but it flows 
 through a similarly lonely and uncultivated 
 country. Large fish darted from the bows of 
 our steamer, and aquatic birds were still abun- 
 dant. Flocks of ducks and geese frequently flew 
 past us ; and the inlets of the river and lagoon- 
 like pools, of which we caught glimpses through 
 the trees and shrubbery which fringed the 
 river-bank, appeared to be covered with these 
 
94 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 and other kinds of waterfowl. At one of the 
 wood-stations we heard of the depredations of 
 a tiger. It had not only made havoc among 
 the horses, but quite recently had killed two 
 men. The district could ill afford this loss, for 
 its human population is extremely small, the 
 only signs of Western immigration being a few 
 widely severed settlements of Cossack wood- 
 cutters. 
 
 In addition to these Russian settlers, I saw 
 at several wood-stations some interesting speci- 
 mens of aboriginal tribes. A week or two later, 
 on the banks of the Amoor, I saw them more 
 frequently. Called by various names — Goldi, 
 Orotchis, or Manegrs — according to the locality 
 in which they settle, and some peculiarities of 
 life, the natives of this region are all branches 
 of the Tungusian tribe of Mongols, and are 
 known to the Chinese by the name Yii-'pi ta-tsz, 
 the meaning of which is roughly represented by 
 the European designation, ' Fish-skin Tartars.'' 
 
 A queer-looking little people they are, with 
 their characteristically Mongolian features — 
 black hair and eyes, flat flabby noses, broad 
 faces and prominent cheek-bones ; and are so 
 dwarfish in stature that a man of 5 feet 4 inches 
 and a woman of 4 feet 10 inches are considered 
 tall. 
 
 Their dwellings are huts of birch-bark ; and 
 
FROM KHANKA TO THE AMOOR 95 
 
 half a dozen of them, sheltering as many families, 
 and fifty or sixty dogs, make a Goldi or Oro- 
 tchi village. These rude huts, though effective 
 enough in protecting from the rain and snow, 
 are too full of apertures to keep out the wind 
 and cold ; and, though the peoj)le have plenty 
 of bear and reindeer skins to cover them, it is 
 not surprising to find that painful rheumatic 
 affections are very prevalent among them. 
 
 They appear to be as free as the Chinese 
 from squeamishness with regard to what they 
 eat, anything that will answer the purposes of 
 food being, in an emergency, acceptable ; but 
 bear's flesh is their greatest luxury, and fish 
 their most usual fare. 
 
 During the few months of their brief summer 
 large quantities of fish are caught and dried 
 for winter use. This dried fish, or yukola, is 
 often ground into a sort of meal, which can be 
 used instead of flour for making cakes. A 
 most important commodity is yukola, both for 
 man and beast ; for towards the end of winter, 
 when supplies of hay and barley are exhausted, 
 even such strict vegetarians as cows and horses 
 become carnivorous, and are glad of a good 
 feed of fish-meal. 
 
 Most of the fish are caught in nets, but the 
 children of the village are expected to contribute 
 to the store with rod and line, and youngsters 
 
96 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 of eight or ten years old become skilful enough 
 to land a fish of fifteen pounds. The twine of 
 which the nets are made is prepared from the 
 stalks of nettles which, in the summer-time, are 
 found growing wild near every settlement. 
 Before a net is used, it is boiled in reindeer blood 
 to make it durable. 
 
 But it is not merely as food that fish are in 
 such requisition, for the skins of fish are used 
 not only to mend their houses, but even to make 
 their clothes ; and this is why these people 
 have received the name of ' Fish-skin Tartars.' 
 The dried fish-skin is first crumpled up by the 
 hands into a ball, then rolled and pounded in 
 a sort of wooden mortar, and when it has 
 acquired the necessary suppleness it is sewn to- 
 gether and made up into trousers, tunics, aprons, 
 and shoes, the soles of the latter being usually 
 strengthened by a piece of reindeer hide. 
 
 The garments of most of the men I saw 
 appeared to be made of salmon-skin ; but fashion- 
 able ladies of the tribe selected, for their own 
 and their children's clothing, skins with pretty 
 stripes and markings ; and after seeing one of 
 these Orotchi nymphs in full fish-skin dress, if 
 her face had only been a little prettier, I think 
 I should henceforth have ceased to regard the 
 mermaid as a myth. 
 
 These people have no literature or written 
 
FROM KHANKA TO THE AMOOR 97 
 
 language, and no wealth of historical tradition. 
 They have a keen memory for landmarks, and 
 can retrace their steps with unerring accuracy 
 after a week's journey in the trackless forest ; 
 but they can remember little else, and a woman 
 is seldom able to keep count of her children's 
 age beyond five years. 
 
 Their family life is simple. Girls are usually 
 married at from fifteen to sixteen, and boys at 
 from eighteen to twenty years of age. As no 
 females remain unmarried beyond girlhood, the 
 range of selection for a man who desires a wife 
 is a narrow one ; but, having made his choice, 
 he need have no fear of a refusal if he is able 
 to pay to the girl's father the stipulated price, 
 which is usually fifty sable-skins, a few pieces 
 of silk, and a kettle. 
 
 There is no wilful polygamy among the Fish- 
 skin Tartars, but, as all married women are 
 entailed, involuntary polygamy is by no means 
 rare. When a man dies, his widow becomes 
 the wife of his next elder or younger brother, 
 or, if he has no brother, of his nearest male 
 relative ; and the survivor of several brothers 
 may have so many wives thus added to his own, 
 that, however angelic they may be, he finds 
 his little birch-bark hut uncomfortably crowded. 
 
 The Orotchis are proud of their children, and 
 treat them just as kindly whether they are girls 
 
 7 
 
98 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 or boys. Babies are put to lie in birch-bark 
 cradles, padded with moss and shavings, and 
 which are suspended from the roof of the hut. 
 Dangling over them, to amuse the child, and 
 rattling as the cradles swing, are strings of 
 teeth and claws of various wild animals. When 
 the infant is a few months old a fish's head is 
 given it to suck and cut its teeth upon, and 
 in a little while it is ready for its first suit of 
 fish-skin clothes. 
 
 The religion of these tribes is a form of the 
 Shamanism which once prevailed throughout 
 Siberia, and was the religion of the ancestors 
 of the modern Turks before they became Moham- 
 medans. They recognize a supreme divinity, 
 whom they call Anduri ; and two subordinate 
 ones — Kamtchanga, the god of the dry land, 
 and Yemu, the god of the sea. 
 
 It is believed that the two latter gods may, 
 on special occasions, make themselves manifest 
 in material form to men ; but the supreme god, 
 Anduri, remains always invisible, though he 
 may, to the Shaman, directly reveal his will. 
 
 The Shaman in an Orotchi settlement is a 
 sort of wizard priest, corresponding to the medi- 
 cine-men of African and Polynesian tribes. He 
 is consulted by the people with a view to finding 
 lost articles, avoiding some threatened disaster, 
 or foretelling the issue of some contemplated 
 
FROM KHANKA TO THE AMOOR 99 
 
 enterprise, but especially to drive away disease. 
 His power to help is supposed to depend upon 
 some special revelation from Anduri, to receive 
 which the Shaman works himself into a frenzy,, 
 dances about frantically, shouts, screams, and' 
 beats himself until he falls exhausted to the 
 ground. In the dream which follows, Anduri 
 is supposed to supply the necessary information, 
 and on the morrow the Shaman communicates 
 it to his client. 
 
 If the case be medical, the remedy usually 
 prescribed is the construction of a rough wooden 
 image of a wild beast or a man, its suspension 
 from a tree in the neighbourhood of the Sha- 
 man's hut, and liberal supplies of oil and yukola 
 to be placed before the image every evening, 
 for it to feed upon in the darkness of the night. 
 In the morning the bowls are always found 
 empty, ready for a fresh supply. If recovery 
 ensues, it is believed that the evil spirit of the 
 disease has gone out of the patient into the 
 wooden image, as the devils from the maniac at 
 Gadara went into the herd of swine. If the 
 sufferer dies, the Shaman, of course, declares 
 that his directions with regard to the construc- 
 tion of the image and its nourishment have 
 not been duly carried out. 
 
 These people believe that the soul is immortal, 
 and that it remains in its old haunts for a 
 
100 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 fortnight after death ; during which period, 
 therefore, the place of the deceased is always left 
 vacant in the family circle, and at meal-times 
 the bowl and chop-sticks are placed before it. 
 The corpse is laid in a pine-wood coffin, which 
 is not buried, but fixed on a wooden stand a 
 few feet above the ground, and a small birch- 
 bark hut is constructed over it. Sepulture is 
 considered so important, that when the body of 
 a relative who has been drowned cannot be 
 recovered, a rough wooden image of him is coffined 
 and entombed instead. 
 
 The only public religious festival now ob- 
 served among these people is the ' Bear Feast,' 
 which usually takes place in the middle of winter, 
 as an expression of gratitude for success in hunt- 
 ing or for some other benefit received. The 
 ceremony consists in leading round from hut 
 to hut a three-year-old bear, which has been 
 caught and fattened for the purpose. The 
 bear is decked with ribbons and ornaments, 
 and is kept under control by ropes attached to 
 its body, neck, and forepaws, and held tight 
 in opposite directions. At each hut visited a 
 feast is provided for both bear and people ; and 
 at the end of the third day the animal is tied 
 to a tree, and shot at -udth bows and arrows by 
 the best marksmen of the tribe. If they fail 
 to kill it at seventy yards, they come gradually 
 
FROM KHANKA TO THE AMOOR 101 
 
 nearer until they succeed. When the bear is 
 dead, pine-log fires are kindled, the flesh is cut 
 up and roasted, and all the people gather round 
 and feast until there is nothing left. 
 
 The favourite occupation of the Orotchis is 
 sable-hunting, and almost all the adult male 
 population is engaged in it from the end of 
 September to the beginning of May. Far away 
 to the eastward, as we steamed down the Usuri, 
 we could see long ranges of mountains. They 
 are very imperfectly known to European geog- 
 raphers, but are generally grouped together 
 under the name Sikhotaahn. Among the wild 
 jungles and almost impenetrable forests which 
 cover this region is the Orotchis' hunting-ground. 
 
 Each Orotchi selects his own district, and 
 goes out to the hunt alone. As soon as he reaches 
 the confines of the forest, he stops to ask the 
 favour of the gods upon his enterprise. To 
 Anduri, the Supreme, whom the poor hunter 
 regards as too great to need or to accept an offer- 
 ing, he simply prays ; but he seeks to propitiate 
 Kamtchanga, the god of the forest, by a gift 
 of fish-meal cakes. Then he continues his 
 journey until he comes upon a stream, when 
 he begins at once to ply his craft. As shot- 
 holes in a sable-skin lessen its value, the shrewd 
 hunter tries to capture the animals by various 
 kinds of snares. Cutting down a number of 
 
!i02 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 pine saplings, he proceeds to lay them across 
 the stream at intervals of a dozen or more yards, 
 iiaving first fixed in the centre of each a spring 
 noose. The sables trying to make use of these 
 saplings as bridges in crossing from one bank 
 to the other, can hardly fail to get the slip-knot 
 round their necks. 
 
 "Wlien the stream is frozen this method fails, 
 for the sables are not likely to try the saplings 
 when, on the ice, they can cross the river where 
 they like. But the experienced sable-hunter 
 can adapt his methods to the altered circum- 
 stances, and, watching quietly until he sees a 
 sable run into a hollow tree, he quickly adjusts 
 a net over the opening, and then drives the 
 frightened sable into it by loud shouting, and 
 by beating against the bark with a club. Other 
 kinds of trap and snare are also used ; and the 
 hunter does not hesitate to shoot a sable with 
 a small-bore rifle when he can obtain it in no 
 other way. 
 
 Though mainly in pursuit of sable, he has ever 
 a keen eye for other marketable spoil ; and fox, 
 otter, muskdeer, wild boar, bear, elk, and rein- 
 deer often reward his toil. A skilful Orotohi 
 hunter will secure in a good season as many as 
 seventy sables, thirty foxes, and seventy-five 
 head of other game. 
 
 These native Siberian hunters have great 
 
FROM KHANKA TO THE AMOOR 103 
 
 powers of endurance. The only provision they 
 take with them on their excursions is a few 
 pounds of fish-meal cakes and a piece of brick- 
 tea. In addition to these things they have 
 a kettle, flint and steel, rifle and ammunition, 
 bows and arrows, and an assortment of nets 
 and snares. They go on from day to day, plung- 
 ing deeper and deeper into the forest, and never 
 think of turnincf back until their stock of victuals 
 is exhausted ; the return journey, though en- 
 cumbered perhaps with half a hundredweight of 
 skins in addition to their gear, and occupying 
 the best part of a week, being performed by 
 them without any food at all. 
 
 The Orotchis and their kindred tribes were 
 once very numerous in this region, but since 
 the advent of Europeans their numbers have 
 seriously declined. They are all more or less 
 the victims of oppression — oppression arising 
 not so much from the harshness of Russian law 
 as from the irrepressible cupidity of the tax 
 collector. The tribute fixed by Government is 
 a rouble and a half per man, to be paid in sable- 
 skins, but the collector will never accept the 
 skins at more than a third of their market value. 
 In the interests of the aborigines, the Govern- 
 ment has made it illegal to supply them with 
 intoxicating drink ; but this only exposes them 
 to new exactions, for the itinerant Chinese or 
 
104 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 Manchu spirit-vendor still carries the forbidden 
 poison from one village to another, and demands 
 an extortionate price for it as compensation for 
 the risk of his defiance of the law. In this and 
 other ways the conditions of their Ufe are be- 
 coming harder and more impracticable every 
 year, and in a few decades the race will be 
 extinct.* 
 
 A little after dawn one morning, about a week 
 after leaving Khanka Lake, we saw ahead of 
 us against the sky a great mountain-bluff, on 
 its western side rising abruptly from the river, 
 but continuous to the eastward with a low range 
 of hills. There was a silver streak along its 
 summit, and, as we drew nearer, this streak 
 resolved itself into a line of low, white-painted 
 cottages — a Siberian village, so it seemed ; but 
 the captain of our steamer told us that it was 
 the city of Khabarofka, the metropolis of the 
 Maritime and Amoor provinces of Siberia. 
 
 The Governor-General of these provinces re- 
 sides here ; but the office happened to be vacant 
 at the time of my visit, Baron Korf, the last 
 Governor-General, having died a few months 
 before. His son, a fine young Cossack ofiicer, 
 
 ^ An interesting risume of facts respecting the social life 
 of the Orotchis, from Margaritoff and other Russian writers, 
 is contained in a paper by M. F. A. Fraser, published in tho 
 Journal of tho China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 
 
FROM KHANKA TO THE AMOOR 105 
 
 had just arrived from St. Petersburg to take his 
 widowed mother home. 
 
 Here it is that the hunters of Far Eastern 
 Siberia find a market for their furs, and some- 
 times more than twenty thousand pounds worth 
 of sable-skins alone have passed through the 
 city in one season. It will be a busy grain- 
 mart some day, for around it are tens of thou- 
 sands of acres of virgin soil waiting only for 
 the husbandmen. 
 
 It was a stiff climb to the top of the great 
 rocky platform on which the city stands, and 
 it did not, on a nearer view, look much more 
 like a city than when I saw it from below — 
 except perhaps in size, for it has such wide streets, 
 and its single-storied wooden houses have been 
 built so far apart, that when Khabarofka has 
 a population of 100,000 — forty or fifty times 
 the number of its present one — it need not cover 
 a more extensive area than it does to-day. 
 
 The houses look neat and clean, but every- 
 thing else is in the rough. Some planking has 
 been laid down on the side-walk, but there has 
 been no metalling of the streets, which are simply 
 enclosed portions of the moor. The ground in 
 the centre has been broken up by the droskies, 
 but on either side of the track grass was growing, 
 and a few wild flowers, and I suppose it was 
 the sense of loneliness which made one's heart 
 
106 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 swell so at finding among them a cluster of homely 
 dandelions. 
 
 The citj'' has, in addition to a couple of small 
 churches, a fine new cathedral. It is hexagonal 
 in shape, and has five towers, each covered with 
 a light green cupola, and sui mounted by a gilded 
 cross. 
 
 The cathedral stands away from the houses 
 on the western extremity of the rocky platform, 
 which is also its highest point, having a fall 
 to the river, almost precipitous, of over six 
 hundred feet. The situation is an ideal one, it 
 commands such an extensive prospect. The vast 
 plains which spread themselves out on the other 
 side of the river are part of the Empire of China. 
 The rest of the city is hidden from those plains 
 by the contour of the bluff, but the cathedral 
 is a conspicuous landmark, and anywhere within 
 a score of miles it should be plainly visible. 
 
 Old Cathay is here brought into the closest 
 contact with Western civilization. The Russian 
 advance has been checked by the river, but only 
 for a moment ; that river will soon be crossed ; 
 and if Chinese watchers in the distance are aware 
 of the power which is invading them, and can 
 foresee its victory, it should be some relief to 
 the gloom of their forebodings to see in the van 
 of the invading force a Christian church. 
 
 The civihzation of Russia may be less highly 
 
FROM KHANKA TO THE AMOOR 107 
 
 developed than our own, but it is very far ahead 
 of the civilization of the Chinese ; and what 
 is spoken of as Russian encroachment in Eastern 
 Asia may be not only the best thing for the 
 welfare of our race, but, in the nature of things, 
 inevitable. The healthy tree must take up 
 and assimilate whatever is nutritious in the de- 
 caying vegetation round about it ; light cannot 
 co-exist with darkness, nor heat wdth cold ; 
 and when two such races as the Russians and 
 Chinese are brought so close together, these 
 claimants of the future and dreamers of the 
 past cannot both be masters ; sooner or later 
 a struggle for supremacy — not of necessity by 
 force of arms— ^must arise, and in that struggle 
 the fittest will survive. 
 
 I was sitting alone on the edge of the ch£F, 
 on the evening after my arrival in the city, think- 
 ing of these problems. The cathedral was at 
 my back, far below me was the river, and beyond 
 it the Manchurian plains, bounded in the far 
 distance by a low range of hills, behind which 
 the sun was sinking fast. Suddenly there fell 
 upon my ears the inspiring strains of a fine mili- 
 tary band. The players were hidden from me 
 by a clump of trees, but the beautiful blending 
 of sweet sounds flowed into the current of my 
 thought ; and as the waves of this martial 
 symphony rose and fell, challenge and defiance 
 
108 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 now softening into pity and now swelling again 
 into exultation and triumph, it seemed to me 
 like the march music of that Christian civilization 
 which some of us believe is destined to regenerate 
 China and overspread the earth. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 UP THE AMOOR 
 
 Winding half-way round the foot of the Khab- 
 arofka bluff, beneath the shadow of its northern 
 wall, the Usuri River meets with the Amoor ; 
 and thence, in united strength, the two con- 
 fluent rivers roll down towards the coast-range 
 mountains to force a passage through them to 
 the sea. Our way to Europe lies westward, up 
 the stream to the wild table-lands, where the 
 Amoor musters its forces for the sweep it makes 
 through these lowland plains. It is indeed a 
 noble river. Here at Khabarofka, nearly eight 
 hundred miles from its mouth, it is half a mile 
 in width, and is navigable for a farther distance 
 of twice as far again. 
 
 The steamers for ascending the Amoor are 
 larger and more comfortable than those on the 
 Usuri ; and fortunately I had not long to wait 
 for one, the steamer on which I took my passage 
 leaving Khabarofka the day after that of my 
 arrival. 
 
 109 
 
110 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 There were eight of us in the after-cabin, and 
 my companions were a set of good-natured, 
 careless young men, most of them in Govern- 
 ment employ. They spent the whole day plajdng 
 baccarat, had hardly patience enough to desist 
 while the table was cleared for meals, and played 
 far on into the night. However small their 
 stakes, several of the players in the course of 
 a few days lost all they had. When this hap- 
 pened to one, he slunk from the table and went 
 up on deck ; and there we saw him sitting, 
 hour after hour, with liis elbows on his knees 
 and his chin on his hands, heedless of his 
 fellow passengers, heedless of the scenery on 
 the banks, heedless even of the dinner-bell, and 
 apparently interested only in one little portion 
 of the deck, at wliich he continued to stare 
 vacantly. 
 
 We all live and sleep in the one cabin, as on 
 the two previous steamers ; but on neither of 
 them was the discomfort of the arrangement so 
 intrusive as it is on this. Our gamblers sat up 
 too late at night for the cabin to be made tidy 
 after they were asleep, and, v/hen the steward 
 came in at eight o'clock in the morning to set 
 the breakfast, he found the table littered from 
 one end to the other with pieces of bread, tea- 
 glasses, vodka-bottles, playing-cards, candles, 
 hats, tooth- and hair-brushes, towels, soap, shav- 
 
UP THE AMOOR HI 
 
 ing apparatus, books, matches, cigarette-ashes, 
 and perhaps the clothes of one or two who were 
 not yet dressed. 
 
 It was a reUef to go up on deck and look at 
 the river, or even at the virgin forest on its banks, 
 for, with all its wild luxuriance, there was in that 
 tangled mass of vegetation no suggestion of con- 
 fusion. Masses of ice were floating down the 
 river, and their white, gleaming surface was all 
 the more conspicuous, because the water of the 
 Amoor, stained with pine leaves, is of a dark- 
 brown colour, like that of a peat-moss stream. 
 The little gullies between the hills were filled 
 with compressed snow, moving down slowly, 
 like miniature glaciers, towards the river. The 
 banks, which rose on either side above the snow- 
 filled gorges, wherever clear of forest, were covered 
 with rhododendrons, now in full bloom ; the 
 bright red patches extending downward to the 
 green willows on the margin of the river, and 
 upward to the dark pine-trees, which stood 
 between them and the sky. 
 
 Immense shoals of salmon were making their 
 way with us up the stream, and they seemed to 
 think so little of the long voyage from the sea — 
 a thousand miles and more — which they had 
 already made, and of the still longer one which 
 yet lay before them, opposed by a strong adverse 
 current, that in sheer exuberance of energy they 
 
112 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 kept leaping their whole length from the water 
 as they went along. 
 
 Lovers of the gentle craft could hardly wish 
 for better fishing-waters than those of the Amoor. 
 On its banks, beneath the cliffs of Khabarofka, 
 anglers were always to be seen in the day-time, 
 and, though provided only with rough home- 
 made rods and lines, every one who had been 
 fishing for any length of time had a good basket 
 of fish — pike, bream, carp, perch, with several 
 other kinds of fish not found in British waters. 
 Salmon, though usually caught by means of 
 nets, are frequently taken by the angler with 
 sunken bait, but fly-fishing in this part of Siberia 
 appears to be unknown. Sturgeon are very 
 plentiful, and one of 20 lb. could be bought for 
 about a shilling. To this family belongs the 
 Kalooga — the largest fish in the Amoor. It 
 often attains a weight of 2,800 lb., the head 
 alone of such a fish weighing 360 lb. 
 
 Fish are so abundant in this river that even 
 dogs have learned to catch them, and in walking 
 on the bank a native of the country is not at all 
 surprised to find one of these canine fishers, 
 dripping wet, and making a meal of a fine salmon 
 which he has seized by the head and dragged 
 out of the water. 
 
 At noon, on the fifth day of our voyage, we 
 arrived at Blagovestchensk, a town whose ap- 
 
UP THE AMOOR 113 
 
 pearance is by no means so imposing as its name. 
 It straggles along the left bank of the Amoor 
 for several miles, but its wooden houses are so 
 small, and are built so far apart, that the total 
 population cannot much exceed twelve thousand. 
 There are hills in the distance, but the country 
 in the immediate neighbourhood is flat and 
 uninteresting, and there is nothing to attract 
 the visitor either in the town or its surroundings. 
 
 Yet Blagovestchensk is regarded by the people 
 as, next to Vladivostock, the most important 
 town — or rather city — in Far Eastern Siberia ; 
 and there is even a sort of see-Mecca-and-die tone 
 in the conversation of settlers respecting it. 
 This extravagance is excusable enough, for the 
 area of the province is so vast, and its total popu- 
 lation is so small, that a city with upwards of a 
 myriad of people in it is of as much relative 
 importance to the country as its largest cities 
 are to England. 
 
 But, apart from such considerations, the 
 simplicity of its appearance cannot conceal the 
 fact that Blagovestchensk is a prosperous Uttle 
 settlement. Its numerous, well-stocked stores, 
 the quality of the wares exposed for sale, the 
 comparatively high prices which they command, 
 and the evident contentment of its inhabitants, 
 are plain proof of the sufficiency of its resources. 
 So enlightened and enterprising are its citizens, 
 
 8 
 
114 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 that they are taking steps to estabUsh here a 
 Bacteriological Institute for the inoculation of 
 horses against a form of anthrax which is very 
 prevalent among the equine population of the 
 country, and is known as the ' Siberian Plague.' 
 Commercially, this city owes its importance 
 to its situation near the confluence of the Zeya 
 with the Amoor, for on the banks of that little 
 river have been discovered some of the richest 
 gold-fields in the empire. The mining is mainly 
 in the hands of three large Russian companies ; 
 but there are also many syndicates, and even 
 individual diggers working on their OAvn account. 
 The work is at present confined entirely to 
 alluvial deposits ; and the yield of gold which 
 passes through Blagovestchensk averages 200,000 
 ounces every year. 
 
 The city is politically important as the capital 
 of the great Amoor province. It has a large 
 military depot, and in the city and its neighbour- 
 hood there is abundant evidence of the energy 
 and sagacity with which Russia is establishing 
 her power in this most easterly part of her 
 dominions. It is only a few tens of years since 
 she gained possession of this province, and though 
 for upwards of a thousand miles there is only 
 the breadth of the Amoor between the territory 
 of Russia and of China, the defence of this ex- 
 tensive frontier is, on the Russian side, complete. 
 
UP THE AMOOR 115 
 
 In addition to infantry, whose numbers I could 
 not ascertain, there are in this province 30,000 
 Cossack regulars, and twice as many more re- 
 serves, who, with their families, are posted along 
 the river in little townships twenty miles apart, 
 and who support themselves by the cultivation 
 of plots of land which have been granted to them 
 by the Government, on condition that each man 
 keeps himself and a good horse in readiness for 
 active service at a moment's calL 
 
 The Chinese territory on the other side 
 appeared, over extensive areas, to be neither 
 protected nor inhabited. Whatever might be 
 the nature of the country, whether pine-clothed 
 mountains or rolling plains, for hundreds of miles 
 there was no town or village, nor even house, 
 to be seen. It looked hke a veritable No-man's 
 Land. During the last few years the Peking 
 Government has made some attempt to es- 
 tablish colonies along the Manchurian frontier, 
 but with indifferent success. Tliere is one fair- 
 sized town, called SakaUn, nearly opposite to 
 Blagovestchensk, and within a few miles above 
 and below are a few small villages ; but, with 
 these exceptions, the only signs of human life 
 on the Chinese bank of the Amoor — and these 
 but rarely — were the wigwams of some wandering 
 Tartars. 
 
 The transference of this extensive, valuable. 
 
116 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 but altogether undeveloped territory from 
 Chinese to Russian rule is only a question of 
 time ; and let us hope, in the interests of 
 humanity, that the time will not be long. 
 
 On a fine calm evening, with the sun just setting 
 in the west, and the moon rising shyly in the 
 east to peep at him, we loosed from our moorings 
 and recommenced out run up the Amoor. We 
 had been transferred to another steamer, longer 
 and broader than the pre^^ous one, but of lighter 
 draught, and propelled by a single paddle-wheel 
 at the stern. In the second cabin I had with 
 me an entirely new set of fellow passengers. 
 There were too many of us for the size of our 
 saloon, but my companions were far more inter- 
 esting than those I had left behind ; and as 
 they were not in bondage night and day to 
 baccarat, we had diversity of occupation, with 
 plenty of entertaining and instructive conversa- 
 tion, and so our life was less monotonous. 
 
 No other European people that I know, and 
 least of all the English, are equal to the Russians 
 in the freedom with which in a promiscuous 
 company they can make themselves at home 
 with one another ; and, now that serfdom is 
 aboUshed, there is probably less of hereditary 
 exclusiveness in Russia than in any other country 
 in the world. We had no barge in tow after we 
 entered the Amoor, so first and second cabin 
 
UP THE AjVIOOR 117 
 
 and steerage passengers had all to be accommo- 
 dated on the steamer ; and a very miscellaneous 
 company we were. But we got on very well 
 together. Natural barriers were respected, but 
 there was no attempt by those on the other side 
 to buttress them, or to enlarge the area they 
 enclosed by artificial ones. 
 
 In the first saloon were a dozen military officers 
 of high rank. One of them was a General 
 Gemelman, over sixty years of age, but still hale 
 and active. He seems to enjoy this rough 
 Siberian service, and, after spending six or seven 
 hours in the saddle, says he thinks nothing of 
 responding to some urgent message by another 
 ride of twenty miles on the same day. He did 
 not know EngUsh, but was fond of talking French, 
 and we had many an hour's interesting conversa- 
 tion. He first saw active service in the Crimea, 
 where he made the acquaintance of General 
 Gordon, and commenced with him a lifelong 
 friendship. To these two, ' Love your enemies ' 
 was evidently not an impracticable command. 
 The last letter he received from Gordon was 
 written from Khartum, only a few months before 
 its fall. 
 
 Another noteworthy passenger was the colonel 
 of a Cossack regiment — a man in the prime of 
 life, and a splendid specimen of mascuHne 
 physique. He spoke English fluently, and was 
 
118 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 full of information about the history and re- 
 sources of Siberia. There appeared to be no 
 reserve whatever in his conversation, and he 
 seemed ready to talk with the utmost freedom 
 on all sorts of subjects ; but in reality he was 
 ever on his guard, and the slightest and most 
 delicate suggestion or inquiry with regard to the 
 probable extension of Russian territory on the 
 Chinese side of the river invariably led to an 
 adroit change of subject, or to an abrupt termina- 
 tion of the conversation. One could not but 
 entertain a high respect for the wariness and 
 «eK-control which enabled this officer to associate 
 such perfect reticence with so much frankness 
 and affability. 
 
 A number of younger officers were with me 
 in the second-class saloon, and these I got to 
 know more intimately, but acquaintance only 
 confirmed my first opinion with regard to their 
 courtesy and culture. One of them, indeed, 
 had a lurking suspicion that I was a British spy, 
 and he shook his head kno\\dngly whenever he 
 caught sight of me. This suspicion probably 
 persisted to the end, but -svith ever-lessening 
 strength and definiteness. The suspicious one 
 was never impolite ; and anything hke snobbish- 
 ness in any of them I never saw. They were 
 open and communicative on all but forbidden 
 topics, and were very well informed, not only 
 
UP THE AMOOR 119 
 
 on such subjects as the geology, fauna, and flora 
 of Siberia, but even on Enghsh literature. In 
 the course of my journey I met with hundreds of 
 men in their position, and was not surprised to 
 find a few boors among them ; but, taking one 
 with another, it is only just to say, that in educa- 
 tion and refinement ; in frankness, intelligence, 
 and common sense ; in uniform courtesy of 
 demeanour ; and, above all, in freedom from 
 bondage to the absurd conventionahsms of caste, 
 Russian miHtary officers appear to be at least 
 the equals of any other members of their pro- 
 fession in the world. 
 
 We had other cabin companions of a rougher 
 mould, including a Mohammedan Tartar, named 
 Aplin, who had been down the river to purchase 
 hides ; and three horse-dealers from Tomsk, 
 who had just brought a drove of four hundred 
 horses to Blagovestchensk for the Russian 
 Government, and now were returning home. 
 In appearance these were Russians, but they 
 told me that their nationality was Ivry, and 
 asked if I had ever met any of their race in Eng- 
 land. The name was strange to me, and I could 
 not for a time imagine to what portion of the 
 world or to what people it referred ; but one 
 day, when leaning on the bulwarks of our steamer 
 gazing at some passing scene, I quoted in soliloquy 
 a passage from the Hebrew Bible, which a 
 
120 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 friendly rabbi once tauglit me, and, being over- 
 heard by one of the horse-dealers, he ran up to 
 me excitedly and said, ' So you are Ivry, too ? ' 
 Honesty compelled me to disclaim the suggested 
 kinship, but I knew now that Ivry was only 
 another name for Jew. 
 
 I saw many of these people afterwards — 
 both exiles and free emigrants — and some of 
 them appeared to be very estimable persons ; 
 but in most of the Russian Jews to be met with 
 in Siberia, craft and cupidity are so conspicuous, 
 that though they do not of course justify their 
 persecutions, they do much to explain them. 
 The Ivry always complained bitterly of the 
 treatment they received, and when I asked them 
 why they were thus treated, they invariably 
 replied, ' Because we crucified Jesus.' 
 
 This historic fact, ancient as it is, would be 
 likely enough to feed the flame of resentment 
 among the lower orders of a people whose 
 Christianity is of the Russian type ; but for the 
 kindling of the flame we need not look for so 
 remote a cause — we have it in the heartless 
 avarice which marks the monetary deahngs of 
 this people with the Russian peasantry. Re- 
 leased from serfdom within the last thirty years, 
 these peasants have not yet learned to manage 
 prudently their own affairs. When money is 
 needed to work their land, the simplest way is 
 
UP THE AMOOR 121 
 
 to get it from the Jews, and they thus fall an 
 easy prey to the pitiless exactions of these un- 
 scrupulous money-lenders. The property of one 
 after another of the peasant farmers of a district 
 being appropriated by the usurers, the wrath 
 of the people at length breaks out. The fire 
 once kindled, all that is bad in Jev.dsh reputation 
 and history becomes so much fuel to support 
 it, and a terrible vengeance is inflicted. 
 
 Our third-class passengers had to make them- 
 selves as comfortable as they could upon the 
 deck. There were about two hundred of them, 
 the majority being through-passengers ; but a 
 few joined and left us at some of the river-side 
 wood-stations. Among these transient deck 
 passengers were several popes, this name being 
 in Russia the designation of ordinary priests. 
 At various towns and villages upon the way, as 
 well as on the steamer, I had the privilege of 
 frequent interviews with men of this fraternity. 
 They are easily distinguished from the rest of 
 the people by their striking appearance ; their 
 hair, which is allowed to grow as long as a woman's, 
 being parted in the middle, and hanging loosely 
 down their back ; and their robe, which is 
 often of a light-blue colour, being long enough 
 to reach almost to their feet. 
 
 Though the people here esteem so highly 
 the church and its services, they do not seem 
 
122 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 to entertain any special veneration for their 
 priest. But if they do not reverence him like 
 the Irish, they neither laugh at him like the 
 French, nor shun him like many of the English. 
 They believe that priestly functions are impor- 
 tant, just as we believe the delivery of letters is 
 important ; but, apart from those functions, a 
 pope is of no more consequence to the people 
 of Siberia than a postman off duty is to us. 
 But though a pope of the Russian Church is 
 on ordinary occasions treated by the people 
 with mere ordinary courtesy, like an ordinary 
 man, he is regarded by the Government as an 
 essential part of the machinery of State, and 
 is protected from injurj/ and insult by most 
 rigorous laws. 
 
 Personally, the popes of Siberia appear to be 
 a very simple-minded set of men ; knowing 
 little except theology, and not much, I should 
 think, of that. I never met one who could 
 speak any other language than his own ; and 
 their education as a class compares very un- 
 favourably with that of Russian naval and 
 military officers, and still more unfavourably with 
 that of the priests of the Church of Rome. 
 
 Their moral character is held to be without 
 reproach. Each is supposed to be ' the husband 
 of one wife,' and, according to the Greek Church 
 interpretation of that apostolic phrase, he is 
 
UP THE AMOOR 123 
 
 not allowed to marry another wife when the 
 first is dead. But the letter of this requirement 
 is evidently believed to be more important than 
 its spirit, and a widower-pope, though forbidden 
 to re-marry, may take a mistress with impunity. 
 When little children are left upon his hands who 
 require a mother's care, the poor pope is almost 
 forced to such a compromise ; but in no case 
 is such an irregular alliance formed surrepti 
 tiously. The relationship is recognized by th 
 parishioners without any reflection upon their 
 pope's virtue or respectability, and there is no 
 more reserve in speaking of one woman as 
 a pope's mistress than there is in speaking of 
 another as a pope's wife. 
 
 The churchmen on our steamer were only travel- 
 ling short distances, and were never more than a 
 day or two on board ; but most of our steerage 
 passengers were time-expired soldiers going home, 
 and they remained with us throughout our three 
 or four weeks' run. They had no accommodation 
 but the deck, with an awning to protect them 
 from the rain, but with no shelter from the wind 
 and frost. In the sunshine at noonday the air 
 was comfortably warm, but with masses of 
 ice upon the river, and of snow upon its banks, 
 it was bitterly cold at night. No food was 
 provided for the deck passengers, who had to 
 be content with what they had brought with 
 
124 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 them or what they could purchase at the wood- 
 stations ; and not being allowed to cook on 
 board, at meal after meal their only fare was 
 old toasted bread and coarse rusks dipped in hot 
 tea, with the occasional luxury of hard-boiled 
 eggs. 
 
 These Russian soldiers were exceedingly well 
 behaved, and were models of patient endurance 
 — sleeping on the bare deck, eating the plainest 
 food, working like slaves at the wood-stations 
 carrying fuel to the steamer, with the prospect 
 of two thousand miles of hard walking when 
 their voyage on the river was completed ; yet 
 they never complained. They did their best 
 to keep themselves and each other cheerful ; 
 whenever there was any one to fiddle for them 
 they were always ready for a dance, and often 
 after sunset they tried to keep themselves warm 
 till bedtime by singing ballads, in the choruses 
 of which every one appeared to join. 
 
 Some of the soldiers were married, and had 
 their wives and children with them ; and every 
 afternoon we saw these soldiers and their wives, 
 utterly regardless of their own personal comfort, 
 carefully rearranging their boxes and bundles 
 on the deck, so as to form snug recesses in which 
 their little ones might safely sleep while the 
 chill night winds blew. 
 
 Steamers on the Amoor, like those on the 
 
UP THE AMOOR 125 
 
 Usuri, use wood as fuel, a fact which is as evident 
 to passengers on deck as to firemen in the engine- 
 room, for not only is an awning necessary, but 
 it must be made of sheet-iron ; and abaft the 
 funnel there are frequently repeated showers 
 of red-hot charcoal, in pieces larger than a hazel- 
 nut. At night, when we happen to be steaming, 
 they illuminate the ship like showers of falling 
 stars. 
 
 It is said that sjjrings of mineral oil have been 
 recently discovered on the island of Saghalien, 
 and that very soon petroleum will take the place 
 of wood in the firing of these steamers. Such 
 a substitution will mean a considerable economy 
 both of space and time, for the quantity of wood 
 required to keep up steam is enormous ; and 
 I was surprised to find that the continual demand 
 had not yet made any perceptible inroad upon 
 the forests of this region. With wood filling 
 our bunkers, and stacked up in every available 
 space upon the deck, in less than twenty-four 
 hours we had to stop again at a wood-station to 
 replenish our supply. 
 
 At each of these wood-stations was a settle- 
 ment of ten or more log-huts, the settlers not 
 only cutting wood for the steamers, but rearing 
 a few cattle, and sometimes cultivating small 
 plots of land. No sooner was our steamer 
 moored, than the wives and daughters of the 
 
126 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 settlers, with tlieir short print-dresses, hand- 
 kerchief-bound heads and bare feet, came to the 
 top of the bank above us with bottles of milk, 
 basins of clotted cream, loaves of bread, and 
 baskets of eggs. The steamer was the only- 
 market available for the sale of their farm pro- 
 duce, but they generally found there a sufficient 
 number of purchasers. 
 
 Board was not included in our passage money, 
 but was supplied to order by the ship's steward 
 at a fixed charge per day. It was, however, 
 much cheaper for each passenger to provide 
 board for himself, and on this steamer all except 
 the Government officials did so. We could not 
 in this way have much variety, being limited 
 to such provisions as we could carry with us, 
 and the few simple articles of diet to be obtained 
 at the wood-stations. There were so many 
 passengers on our steamer — the first this season 
 to ascend the river — that the demand for milk 
 and eggs was in excess of the sup23ly, and the 
 only way to be sure of getting any was to be 
 among the first ashore. This often meant a 
 long jump from the steamer, and a quick run 
 up a steep bank, but I generally managed to 
 reach the sale-ground before the last bottle of 
 milk had gone. 
 
 One evening at dusk we found ourselves 
 running for several miles under a gigantic clifi', 
 
UP THE AMOOR 127 
 
 which rose from the left bank of the river almost 
 perpendicularly to the height of several hundred 
 feet. In the twilight it was impossible to ob- 
 serve its structure, but it appeared to be of 
 a pale grey colour, and at the height of about a 
 hundred feet from the river was cut by two 
 horizontal strata of some black substance which 
 looked like coal. On the face of the cliff, at 
 various elevations, were ridges which we should 
 have believed to be little more than a finger's- 
 breadth in size, had we not observed the rows 
 of fir-trees which found footing there. 
 
 There are few, if any, rivers in the world whose 
 scenery surpasses that of some parts of the Amoor. 
 As we ascended, it became wilder and more 
 romantic every mile, until at length we seemed 
 to be enclosed on every side by mountain ranges 
 and primaeval forest. 
 
 Waking very early one morning, and finding 
 the cabin stuffy — as it well might be, with every 
 window closed and twelve of us sleeping round 
 the table — I gathered my rugs around me and 
 went up on to the deck. The air, though intensely 
 cold, was pure and bracing, and its inhalation 
 refreshed one like new wine. A fog was resting 
 on the river, and for a time this gauzy veil of 
 overhanging mist was all that I could see, but 
 as the sun came nearer the horizon the veiling 
 became thinner and more transparent, and soon 
 
128 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 the shadowy outline of some bold headland 
 loomed out upon us through the haze. As the 
 sun rose higher the outline became more dis- 
 tinct ; other bluffs began to show themselves ; 
 and when at length the sun broke out, the mist 
 had vanished, and we found ourselves cowering 
 in the midst of a titanic concourse of hills and 
 mountains, the nearer ones clad in a shaggy 
 vesture of virgin forest, and stooping, as it were, 
 with age, while their brothers in the purple dis- 
 tance seemed to stand on tiptoe to peer over the 
 shoulders of the rest. But it was not at us they 
 gazed ; in the light of a new day they were 
 looking forth upon the Infinite, and were rapt 
 in such absorbing contemplation that our little 
 steamer and its puny freight were far beneath 
 their notice. 
 
 We thought we were alone upon the river, 
 until our attention was arrested by an object 
 floating towards us with the current, and which 
 proved to be a pine-log raft, upon which a com- 
 pany of Siberian peasants were making their 
 way to some distant settlement. They had built 
 for themselves a small log-hut, and planted 
 young fir-trees round it, whose roots or severed 
 trunks must have reached into the water, for 
 the foliage looked as fresh as if the saplings were 
 in their native soil. There was an oar for steering, 
 but there were no means of propulsion, the 
 
UP THE AMOOR 129 
 
 stream carrying the men along as fast as they 
 wished to go ; so they had leisure to enjoy 
 themselves, and in their tunics of Turkey-red 
 they lounged in all sorts of easy attitudes upon 
 the raft as it drifted past us down the river. 
 
 Sometimes a thickly wooded group of islands 
 appeared ahead of us, breaking up the channel 
 of the river, and as we steamed between them 
 it seemed as if the great Amoor had dwindled 
 to a small fishing-stream ; but past the islands 
 it broadened out again into a magnificent ex- 
 panse of water. 
 
 Siberian sunsets, if less gorgeous than those 
 of hotter climes, are often exquisitely beautiful, 
 and none are more so than those which are 
 observed amidst the scenery of the Amoor, 
 As our course lay westward we saw them to 
 advantage, and one evening the colours of the 
 sky — azure, pink, and orange — were reproduced 
 in all their splendour on the surface of the river, 
 the light of heaven marked off from its reflection 
 by a line of forest-covered hills. 
 
 These hills seemed to gather closer round us as 
 the sun went down ; and when the darkness was 
 too dense for us to see our course, or the reaches 
 immediately above us were difficult to navigate, 
 our steamer was moored for the night against 
 the bank. This gave our poor deck passengers 
 the only opportunity they had of getting a 
 
 9 
 
130 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 genuine hot meal. They could not cook on 
 board, and during our short stay at a wood- 
 station they were busy carrying fuel to the 
 steamer ; but stopping for the night gave them 
 a chance, of which they so quickly availed 
 themselves that in a few minutes our decks 
 were quite deserted. 
 
 Those who were not engaged in cooking 
 climbed higher up the wooded steep, and sat 
 there singing wild, cheery choruses which echoed 
 among the hills. We could not see the singers, 
 for the whole scene was wrapped in darkness, 
 save in a few spots below where the forest was 
 lit up by blazing logs, around which, their faces 
 glowing with the flame, were a group of eager 
 men, each with a pine-branch, holding in fishrod- 
 fashion his kettle of millet and potatoes over 
 the fire. 
 
 An hour later the fires were out, and all the 
 rest of the passengers and crew were in their 
 beds. The forest-covered mountains stood black 
 against the sky, their shadows lay black upon 
 the river, and all was still as death, save for the 
 occasional splash of a fish or a fiight of nocturnal 
 birds. Then I began to shiver with the cold, 
 and remembered that it was time to creep under 
 the blankets and go to sleep. 
 
 We went on all night whenever the sky gave 
 light enough for us to see our way ; and some- 
 
UP THE AMOOR 131 
 
 times, when the stars were dim, we found the 
 river was lit up for us by wide-spread forest fires. 
 How, in these unpopulated districts, such fires 
 are kindled no one seems to know ; perhaps by 
 a flash of lightning, or a spark from a passing 
 steamer, or the smouldering brands of a camp- 
 fire left by some careless hunter ; but, however 
 caused, when once started these conflagrations 
 are beyond control. They burn for weeks, 
 and spread over the forest-land for miles. One 
 night we passed through a region where the whole 
 mountain-side seemed to be in flames. We had 
 seen other forest fires before, but none on such 
 a scale as this. It took our steamer nearly an 
 hour to pass it. We heard the flames roar as 
 they attacked new areas of stubble, and crackle 
 among the prostrate trees ; while the sky above, 
 and the surrounding river, and the awe-struck 
 faces of the people on our deck, reflected the red 
 light. 
 
 The underwood and saplings were the first to 
 yield, and in the midst of the space covered by 
 their burning ashes we sometimes saw a group 
 of cedars — giants of the forest — still standing 
 defiantly amidst their fallen brothers, as if to 
 challenge the advance of the destroyer. Their 
 shaggy forms looked black as night against^the 
 glowing background, save where, like fiery 
 serpents, the flames twined round their trunks 
 
132 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 and branches ; and with a clinging persistency 
 which told us that in this Lao coon struggle, the 
 serpents, however desperately resisted, will secure 
 their prey. 
 
 The night appeared unusually dark when the 
 burning forest had been left behind, and the stars 
 seemed almost afraid to shine. But the officers 
 on watch said they could make out the course, 
 and we should not have chopped anchor had 
 we not been compelled to do so by an exciting 
 incident among our passengers. 
 
 On the morning of that day a soldier had 
 fallen overboard. The alarm was given while we 
 w^ere at breakfast, and, rushing from the table 
 to the deck, I could see at some chstance astern 
 of us the man's head above the water. No 
 life-belt was thrown to him, and though the 
 engines were promptly stopped, and a boat was 
 at once lowered, the strong current had carried 
 the man half a mile away before the rescuing 
 party left the steamer. With a glass, I could 
 still see the soldier swimming for his hfe, but 
 just before the boat got to the place he disap- 
 peared. We all gave him up for lost, and were 
 not a little surprised, when the boat's crew 
 returned, to find that they had the soldier with 
 them. Omng to the clearness of the water, the 
 drowning man had been still visible to his rescuers 
 after he had sunk, and catching his garments 
 
UP THE AMOOR 133 
 
 with a boat-hook they hauled him on board. 
 He was quite unconscious, and more dead than 
 aHve when brought to the steamer, but ^dth a 
 little medical attention he soon revived. 
 
 In confirmation of the adage that troubles 
 seldom come to us singly, a little before midnight, 
 on that same day, the cry was raised that a man 
 was missing. Again it was a soldier, and, as 
 a long search had been made for him before 
 the announcement was given, there could be 
 little doubt of its truth. It was this report 
 which led to the sudden dropping of our anchor 
 an hour or two after the great forest fire was 
 passed. Of course we could see nothing, and 
 though profound stillness followed the stopping 
 of the engines, for some time nothing could be 
 heard ; but at length there reached us a faint 
 but distinctly human call. It seemed to come 
 up the river, and from a distance of several 
 miles, but our whole ship's company united in 
 sending back a call of recognition, and then the 
 boat was lowered. We watched its lamp-light 
 fading in the distance until it became invisible, 
 and then waited in suspense for it to reappear. 
 More than an hour we waited, but at length 
 the boat was again alongside, and it brought 
 the missing soldier safe and sound. He must 
 have been an unusually expert swimmer, for he 
 had been in the ice-cold water for upwards of 
 
134 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 an hour, and had succeeded in taking ofiE, while 
 swimming, not only his heavy sheepskin coat, 
 but even his top-boots. 
 
 We had now reached the lower terrace of 
 the table-land, 3,000 feet above the sea, and 
 still we were ascending. The river was now 
 called the Shilka, for it does not take the name 
 of the Amoor until it joins the Argun, some 
 1,600 miles above its entrance to the sea. The 
 Argun runs along the frontier of Mongoha, 
 and when we passed its confluence with the 
 Shilka, and continued our course westward along 
 the latter river, we no longer had Chinese territory 
 on our left hand ; the country on both sides 
 of us was Russian. 
 
 The banks of the Shilka were mountainous 
 and densely wooded ; but in some parts the 
 ranges receded from the river, leaving on its 
 banks wide fields of grass-land. These fields 
 were generally the sites of settlements, and in 
 one of them we saw a convict station — a big 
 pile of buildings, white and clean, and cheerful 
 outside, but di'eary enough within ; for the 
 penal laws of Russia are intended to be ' a terror 
 to evil-doers,' and its convict system an object- 
 lesson to enforce the truth that ' the way of 
 transgressors is hard.' The pity of it is that 
 the innocent so often suffer with the guilty. 
 
 On the following morning we reached Stretensk, 
 
UP THE AMOOR 135 
 
 a small town on the right bank of the river, the 
 head of its navigable portion ; and so the ter- 
 mination of our voyage. More than a month 
 had passed since we left Lake Khanka, and we 
 were now two thousand miles above the mouth 
 of the Amoor. For the next two thousand 
 miles, with the exception of one day's steamer 
 trip across Lake Baikal, we must travel again 
 by tarantass. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 FROM STRETEN3K TO LAKE BAIKAL, BY TAEANTASS 
 
 It was about nine in the morning when our 
 steamer moored, and at once there was a general 
 rush to the post-horse station to secure con- 
 veyances. I did not take part in it, for the 
 fifteen horses kept here were not sufficient for 
 the mihtary officers among our passengers, and 
 their claim would have precedence of mine though 
 I might arrive at the post-station before them. 
 So for a few hours I was content to stroll about 
 the town — a few rambling rows of log-houses, 
 surrounding a small market and a church, and 
 extending for about two miles along the right 
 bank of the Shilka River ; and then, in the early 
 afternoon, having purchased enough bread to 
 last me for the next ten days, I made my way 
 to the horse-station, and learned that a convey- 
 ance would be ready for me at six o'clock. 
 
 A few hours before sunset, on a fine calm 
 evening, with a tarantass and three horses, I 
 set out from Stretensk on my journey of a thou- 
 
 136 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 137 
 
 sand miles across the Trans-Baikal province to 
 the lake from which it takes its name. I had 
 a companion with me, a local Russian tradesman, 
 who asked me to allow him to join me in hiring 
 horses as far as Nertchinsk, the next town, but 
 distant about a hundred miles. 
 
 Just outside the settlement we had to cross 
 the Shilka by ferry-boat, and this was my first 
 experience of a mode of ferry navigation which 
 is common to all the great Siberian rivers. The 
 motive power is simply the force of the current, 
 which is made available for this purpose by a 
 simple mechanical device. The big, ungainly, 
 punt-hke ferry-boat, on whose broad deck two 
 or three tarantasses, each with a team of three 
 horses, can be accommodated, is attached by 
 a cable to a small boat-shaped buoy ; by a second 
 length of cable this buoy is attached to another ; 
 this also to a third ; and so through a series of 
 a dozen or more, until lying on the surface of 
 the river is a chain of buoys and cables half a 
 mile or more in length, the upper end of which 
 is fixed by a strong anchor in the middle of the 
 stream. When the ferry-boat is loosed from 
 its moorings, the helm serves to keep it at such 
 an angle to the current that it is carried by it 
 over to the farther shore ; by another turn of 
 the helm, it is when required brought back 
 again ; and so, like a big horizontal pendulum, it 
 
138 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 swings to and fro from one side of the river to 
 the other. 
 
 We were told at the next station that no 
 horses could be supplied to us within eight or 
 nine hours, and had it not been for my Russian 
 travelling companion I should have had to stay 
 there all night. But with his assistance I man- 
 aged to hire, from a farm near the station, a team 
 of three horses, and a light four-wheeled waggon 
 called by the people a telyega. 
 
 One of the civilian passengers from our Amoor 
 steamer had been waiting at this station with 
 his wife and sister for several hours, whihng 
 away the time by drinking vodka. When he 
 saw me, with so little delay, mounting the cart 
 to continue my journey, he was very angry ; and 
 having imbibed enough spirit to deprive him 
 of his power of self-control, he stood on the 
 doorstep and abused me roundly — being specially 
 indignant, as he expressed repeatedly, that I, 
 a fool of an Englishman, could actually travel 
 along a Russian road, and with Russian horses, 
 faster than he could himself. 
 
 A telyega is by no means an improvement on 
 a tarantass. The wheels and shafts of both are 
 similar, but the body of our telyega was simply 
 a cradle of rough lattice-work, so shallow that 
 our baggage more than filled it ; and as we lay 
 or sat on the top, there was not an inch of 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 139 
 
 projecting timber, either at the back or on either 
 side, to prevent us from falling off. The road 
 was rough, the roUing prairie across which it ran 
 being indented with numerous hollows, which the 
 darkness converted into pitfalls. We went down 
 "wdth a sudden jerk into the smaller ones, and 
 had several narrow escapes of being upset in 
 the larger. The hours were the drowsy ones 
 immediately before and after midnight, but as 
 a moment's relaxation of our grip upon the 
 ropes which bound our luggage to the cart 
 meant an ugly fall, we were too much on the 
 alert to sleep ; and, for comfort and security, 
 I don't think there is much to choose between 
 the top of a telyega and the back of a buck- 
 jumping horse. 
 
 The stage was an unusually long one of twenty- 
 five miles. We did not pass a single habitation 
 on the way, but a small village clustered round 
 the post-station, which we reached between one 
 and two in the morning. The village was in 
 total darkness, and as still as death, when we 
 approached ; but the rattle of our waggon on 
 the well-trodden street woke up a community 
 of dogs, which began to bark ferociously. Our 
 driver not being a regular post-horse yemschik, 
 was not sure which house was the station, but, 
 as locks are not much used in Siberian villages, 
 every house was open to us. 
 
140 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 The one we stopped at was a fairly large one, 
 but with all its rooms on the ground floor. My 
 Russian companion opened the door, and we 
 went in together. We could hear no voice or 
 sound ; and except for the starlight through the 
 windows, all was dark. Groping our way towards 
 the interior of the dwelling, we found ourselves 
 at length in a room where evidently some one 
 was sleeping. My companion, familiar with the 
 customs of the country, did not seem at all 
 disconcerted, and I tried to participate in his 
 indifference ; but our movements disturbed the 
 sleeper ; and whether that white figure which 
 sprang up in bed, and asked us in such shrill tones 
 who we were and what we wanted, was a man 
 or woman, I do not know, for at that moment 
 we heard the voice of our driver shouting to 
 us from the street that we were in the wrong 
 house, so we got out as quickly as we could, 
 and found the post-horse station on the other 
 side of the road. 
 
 Horses were soon ready for us at this station, 
 and, after the last few hours' experience of a 
 telyega, a tarantass seemed a very comfortable 
 vehicle. What sort of a road we had to travel 
 on I never knew, for soon after we started I fell 
 asleep, and I slept on until the familiar call of a 
 cuckoo woke me, just in time to see the sunrise 
 before our road dipped down into the valley, in 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 141 
 
 which, on the banks of the river which gives to 
 it its name, the city of Nertchinsk stands. 
 
 The little city of Nertchinsk was, up to the 
 beginning of the century, the eastern extremity 
 of the Russian dominion. Until recent years 
 it was the principal mart for trade with China, 
 but most of this trade has now been trans- 
 ferred to Kiakhta — a town four hundred miles 
 to the south-west, on the northern frontier of 
 Mongolia. Nertchinsk again became notable for 
 its proximity to the gold-mines and convict settle- 
 ment of Kara. Most criminal exiles are now sent 
 farther eastward to the island of Saghalien, but 
 the lonely settlement of Kara still contains over 
 a thousand prisoners, washing for the Govern- 
 ment — from the alluvial river-bank — about 
 50,000 ounces of gold per year. 
 
 Nertchinsk is well situated on a steppe of the 
 Lower Plateau, and about a mile from the Nertcha 
 River ; but it is an irregular, poorly built, and 
 unattractive-looking wooden city, with a popu- 
 lation of not more than 4,000, most of whom are 
 engaged in cattle-breeding, and the cultivation 
 of tobacco or cereals. A few merchants, trading 
 in furs and brick-tea, also reside here, and the 
 house of one of them — a palatial structure — is 
 the only ornamental building in the place. 
 
 Before noon I was on my way again, but my 
 progress was soon arrested ; for, on reachmg the 
 
142 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 banks of the Nertcha, we found such a strong 
 wind blowing that the ferrymen refused to run 
 the risk of taking us across, and we had to drive 
 back to the city. After sundown, the wind 
 abating somewhat, we made another start, and, 
 though big waves were still breaking on the sur- 
 face of the river, we succeeded in getting with 
 our horses to the other side. 
 
 Through gorges in the Yablonovoi Mountains, 
 which form the eastern border-ridge, we now 
 began by gradual ascents to climb to the higher 
 terrace of the Great Plateau. Most of the sur- 
 rounding heights were thickly wooded, but some, 
 with bare dome-shaped summits, rose above the 
 others to an elevation of 8,000 feet — beyond the 
 tree-line in this latitude. The top of the plateau, 
 5,000 feet above the sea, is wild and bleak, and 
 farther northward is covered with perpetual snow. 
 Its undulating prairie land is broken in some 
 places by ranges of hills which rise from 1,000 to 
 2,000 feet above its surface, and are covered with 
 forests of larch and fir and cedar, relieved by 
 thickets of birch. The land between the hills is 
 generally swampy and impassable ; in other 
 parts it is fertile, and ajffords good pasturage ; 
 but even in its most favoured spots, so exposed 
 is its position and so short and uncertain is its 
 summer, that agriculture is impossible. 
 
 In the daytime the cold did not seriously trouble 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 143 
 
 us ; the thermometer told us that the tempera- 
 ture was low, but the sight of sunshine was 
 suggestive of the summer, and there was some- 
 thing in the going of these Russian horses which 
 helped to warm one's blood. When warily pick- 
 ing their way through a broken bit of road, one 
 shivered with the cold ; but when the horses 
 broke into their customary gallop, and with the 
 jingling of bells, and the shouts of the yemschik, 
 went up-hill and down-hill at their topmost speed, 
 a thrill of sympathetic stimulation at once made 
 the pulse beat faster, sent the tingling heat to the 
 tips of one's fingers and the ends of one's toes, 
 and, while the run lasted, made it easy to forget 
 that the wintry air of the high Siberian table-land 
 was round about us. 
 
 But we went on continuously night and day, 
 only remaining at a station long enough to change 
 horses and conveyance ; and from sunset to dawn 
 not only was the temperature lower but there 
 was nothing to divert our attention from it. 
 One night there was a fall of sleet, which a strong 
 wind drove fiercely in upon us. The wind was 
 so cold he seemed to come direct from the North 
 Pole, and so penetrating, that if there were the 
 slightest chink or crevice in the arrangements 
 of our rugs he was sure to find it, and then he put 
 his icy finger through and touched one's arm or 
 neck or leg — sending a shudder through our 
 
144 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 frame, and making us clutch desperately at the 
 coverings to shut him out. But it generally 
 happened that, in closing one aperture against 
 him, we opened several others for his admission, 
 and so we were driven to make another futile 
 effort to exclude him ; and thus through the cold 
 night — with a few intervals of broken sleep — we 
 managed to keep our blood in circulation. 
 
 After such a night, with joints almost dis- 
 located by the jolting, and limbs almost frozen 
 by the cold, it was cheermg to look out in the 
 early morning and see through an opening in the 
 pine-forest the light of the sunrise on the neat 
 white houses and churches of the city of Tchita. 
 It was not so pleasant at midday to be trudging 
 through its streets, over shoe-tops in sand ; and 
 still less pleasant in the evenmg, when a stiff 
 breeze was blowing, to have that sand sweeping 
 round one in clouds as dense as those of the sand- 
 storms of the desert, or say, of other Siberian 
 towns. And, welcome as this city is as a tem- 
 porary oasis to the traveller, it must be rather 
 a dreary spot to make one's permanent abode. 
 Eastward and westward there is no other town 
 within hundreds of miles ; southward, at a con- 
 siderable distance, are the waterless plains of 
 Mongolia ; and northward one might walk as far 
 as the Polar seas without meeting any sign of 
 human habitation. Yet there are twelve thou- 
 
STRETEXSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 145 
 
 sand people here, and the city is relatively im- 
 portant enough to be the capital of this extensive 
 Trans-Baikal province. 
 
 Several thousands of the residents are soldiers, 
 and a large proportion of the rest are in the em- 
 ploy of the Government. Not less than four 
 thousand soldiers from Europe and Western 
 Siberia pass through this city ev^-y year on 
 their way eastward, and, as very few of them 
 return, the Russian forces on the frontier must 
 be accumulating fast. 
 
 The journey as far as Tchita is j)erformed on 
 foot, but the soldiers are sent on from here by 
 raft, for, the Tchita River being a tributary of 
 the Shilka — ^which forms, by its confluence with 
 the Argun, the Amoor — there is a continuous 
 water-way for rafts from this city to the Pacific 
 coast. The rafts are broken up and their timbers 
 sold on reaching the lower part of the Amoor, 
 so that a fresh fleet is required every year. Some 
 of the Government officials manage to make a 
 good deal of money out of this raft-building ; 
 having them constructed less than the regulation 
 size, and of slighter timbers, and then pocketing 
 the balance of the contract price. 
 
 About two miles from the city, in a lonely spot 
 on the banks of the Ingoda, enclosed by plain 
 white wooden railing, I saw one day the grave 
 of a former governor of this province, who, after 
 
 10 
 
146 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 embezzling large sums of money from the State 
 by this raft-building, lost all that he had gained 
 and more by gambling, and then came out here 
 and shot himself. They buried him on the spot 
 where he was found. 
 
 The climate of Tchita is peculiar. There is 
 little rain in summer, and though there is a long 
 ice-bound winter of over eight months, snow is 
 as rare as rain ; and, except on the rivers, wheeled 
 vehicles take the place of sledges the whole year 
 round. This scarcity of moisture is so seriously 
 detrimental to agriculture, that the amount of 
 grain produced is not sufficient for local require- 
 ments. 
 
 In the city of Tchita, and throughout this 
 province, exiles are very numerous. Almost all 
 the people engaged in menial employments — farm- 
 labourers, herdsmen, and yemschiks — are ticket- 
 of -leave convicts ; and the Trans-Baikal is, in 
 this respect, what Botany Bay and Van Diemen's 
 Land were at the beginning of the century — a 
 cesspool for the rascality and crime of the home 
 provinces. 
 
 A dozen political offenders, exiled, not for any 
 suspicion of a crime, but for sympathy with 
 Socialism, are now located in Tchita. Though 
 not allowed to leave the city, they move about 
 freely within it, and in various kinds of skilled 
 handicraft are earning their own living. They 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 147 
 
 are in this way quite an acquisition to the town. 
 If any one wants a piece of ornamental furniture 
 constructed, or a scientiific instrument repaired, or 
 has any work to be done which requires delicate 
 and dexterous manipulation, he sends for one 
 of these exiled Socialists. They do not visit 
 among the people, though there is no wish to 
 stand aloof from them, and they are often invited 
 to social gatherings. Probably they attribute 
 their exile to the reporting, by false friends, of 
 some careless word spoken in such circumstances, 
 and they do not mean to be caught in the same 
 way again. The people here are very much 
 surprised to find that men whose opinions are 
 considered dreadful enough to merit exile are so 
 well behaved ; and the superintendent of the 
 Tchita police remarked one day that if all the 
 people here were as peaceable and law-abiding 
 as these Socialists, there would be no work for 
 him to do. 
 
 I met with an English lady in Tchita, the wife 
 of a Russian physician who holds a Government 
 appointment there, and it was an exquisite relief 
 to the monotony of Siberian travel to spend an 
 hour or two in their snug and hospitable home. 
 The home was pervaded by the best of Christian 
 influences, for the religion of the doctor and his 
 wife was not of the superstitious Russian type, 
 nor of that dreamy sort which begins and ends 
 
148 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 in heart-musings and soliloquies. They believed 
 the faith of Christ to be indissolubly related to 
 the progress and uplifting of the world, and so 
 they were practical and warm-hearted philan- 
 thropists. 
 
 A few years ago the doctor visited America, 
 and, after his return, his friend, Count Tolstoi, 
 asked him what was the best new thing he had 
 met with there. The doctor at once replied, 
 ' The Temperance movement.' 
 
 To Tolstoi this idea was a revelation, but he 
 eagerly embraced it, and set himself at once to 
 organize the first Temperance Association in what 
 is — with the possible exception of England — the 
 most drunken country in the world. 
 
 A picnic had been arranged for that afternoon, 
 and I was invited to join it. In the bright, warm 
 sunshine we drove out to a narrow and secluded 
 valley a few miles distant from the town. The 
 deep, clear water of the Ingoda flowed with a 
 strong current through it, and on either side rose 
 rugged cliffs almost precipitously from the river. 
 The rock was fissured and furrowed, and scooped 
 out into caves and hollows and recesses, but 
 evidently by no recent action of the elements, for 
 the lichens had covered its surface with their 
 hieroglyphics ; every projecting ledge was fringed 
 with fern-tufts ; the mosses had woven a thick 
 carpet at its feet ; and the solemn pines which 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 149 
 
 look down into the river from the top seemed to 
 have stood on that brink so long they had lost all 
 sense of danger. 
 
 The cliff-line in one place curves back abruptly 
 to enclose between it and the river a broad green 
 grass-plat ; and here, as we lounged round the 
 white tablecloth to our picnic entertainment ; 
 as we ate our English cakes and drank our English 
 tea — or rather Russian tea in English fashion, 
 with sugar and good cream ; and as we talked 
 in Enghsh — the first long English conversation 
 I had had for weeks — of English friends and 
 English homes, it was not easy to believe that 
 I was in the very heart of the wildest province 
 of Siberia. 
 
 Among my fellow guests at this picnic was a 
 prince. Datpak, or some such name, they called 
 him, and he was a prince of the Tungus. It is 
 well to meet a prince sometimes, if only to remind 
 us how much like ordinary people princes are ; 
 and travelling in remote regions gives some of us 
 the only opportunities we are ever likely to have 
 of such interviews with royalty. The King of 
 Tonga or of Timbuctoo is not so very unapproach- 
 able, and to meet him is to break at once the 
 spell of a delusion to which perhaps we have been 
 in bondage from our childhood. By right and 
 birth and blood, as true a king as ever reigned ; 
 but having seen him once we henceforth know 
 
150 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 that our nationality is more important than our 
 rank, and that more important even than our 
 nationality is our kinship with the human race. 
 
 This Tungu prince had taken service in the 
 Russian Army, and had been admitted to official 
 rank. He was dressed in the military uniform 
 of his promotion, and, having received a European 
 education, was familiar with the conventionalisms 
 of Russian social life ; but in other respects 
 he was a typical specimen of his race — of short 
 stature, and slim but well-proportioned frame ; 
 with dark, widely separated, and slightly slant- 
 ing eyes ; small but well-shaped nose ; and 
 squarish head covered with black hair. 
 
 Tchita seems to be the head quarters of the 
 Tungus. They do not reside there, nor indeed 
 anywhere else, for they are here to-day and 
 gone to-morrow, being so persistently nomadic 
 that they rarely remain forty-eight hours in 
 the same place. Their houses are simply hollow 
 cones of poles and reindeer-skins, set up in a 
 few minutes, and as quickly taken down ; and 
 as they have no cumbrous furniture, this fre- 
 quent change of residence involves little ex- 
 penditure of time or effort beyond that of the 
 journey from one place to the other. They 
 come into Tchita to dispose of the furs which 
 they have obtained in hunting ; men and women 
 riding into the city astride on reindeer. 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 151 
 
 Their clothing is made of the untanned skins 
 of reindeer fawns ; and both sexes dress so- 
 much ahke, that, but for her veil and shorter 
 stature, it would be hard to distinguish a woman' 
 from a man. 
 
 The vast forests of the High Plateau and of 
 its eastern border-ridge are the favourite haunts 
 of the Tungus, and the pursuit of game is almost 
 their only occupation. The life of an agri- 
 culturist or cattle-breeder is altogether too 
 tame for them, and Prince Datpak was the 
 only one of his tribe I heard of who had adopted 
 European civiUzation. 
 
 They are evidently a Mongol race, and are- 
 probably the parent stock of the various tribes 
 of aborigines — Goldis and Fish-skin Tartars — 
 met with in the lower Amoor and Usuri regions. 
 Some of the Tungus are reputed to be Christians ; 
 but though desultory efforts have been made 
 to persuade them to submit to the rite of initia- 
 tion to church membership, no pains have been 
 taken to instruct them, and it is said that most 
 of the supposed converts know nothing what- 
 ever of Christianity beyond the remembrance of" 
 the saint's name given to them in their baptism. 
 
 Their beliefs with regard to the Supreme 
 Spirit and the future world are those of Sha- 
 manism ; and either as the result of these beliefs, 
 or in spite of them, the Tungus have attained 
 
152 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 a rectitude of life which has greatly impressed 
 those who are best acquainted with them, and 
 has placed them ethically far above all other 
 Siberian tribes. Self-reliant and self-respecting, 
 they will not brook an insult nor inflict one. 
 Dishonesty is considered a disgrace, and thefts 
 by them are said to be unknown. Courageous 
 and persevering in the chase, they are able to 
 enjoy and do full justice to a feast when they 
 have been successful ; but failure does not dis- 
 turb their equanimity, and they can so patiently 
 endure the pangs of hunger that, after a daj'^'s 
 laborious and useless effort, they will come back 
 empty-handed to their empty wigwam, and, 
 without a word of complaint, pull their waist- 
 strap tighter, and lie down to sleep in the hope 
 of better luck to-morrow. 
 
 Western settlers are encroaching more and 
 more upon the hunting-ground of these people, 
 and as they show no tendency to assimilate 
 with their invaders, their numbers are steadily 
 decreasing. The Government has tried to foster 
 and protect them by special legislation, but so 
 far these efforts appear to have been in vain. 
 Races may, like men, be stricken with incurable 
 decline ; and this misfortune seems to have 
 happened to the Tungus and their kindred 
 tribes. 
 
 It is a stiff climb to the level of the Buriat 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 153 
 
 steppe, one of the highest portions of the Great 
 Plateau, and for more than an hour after leaving 
 it Tchita was still in view. We had started at 
 dawn on a fine calm morning, and when we 
 reached the top of the ascent I turned to take 
 a last look at the city. The mist which had 
 been lying along the river had curiously gathered 
 into a white dome-shaped cloud above the 
 houses. Fires had been already kindled on 
 many a hearth, and in the still air the chimneys 
 sent up their lines of light-blue vapour directly 
 to the cloud, which, with these filmy bands 
 binding it to earth, seemed like a great white 
 pavilion spread out over the city. A desert 
 may be as safe to live in as a town, but, to the 
 imagination, communities of men seem always 
 to be canopied by some mysterious protective 
 influence. We did not notice the paviHon while 
 we were beneath it, but we missed its screening 
 shadow when we went away. We had nearly 
 four hundred miles to travel before reaching the 
 next town, and as our horses turned over the 
 ridge on to the steppe, whose grassy undulations 
 spread before us like the sea, a thrill of lone- 
 someness, like a sudden fall of temperature, 
 reminded us that the sheltering canopy was 
 gone. 
 
 For scores of miles there was nothing to be 
 seen except this rolling grass-land, which would 
 
154 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 have been an unbroken expanse of green but 
 for the shallow pools which, here and there, 
 reflected the blue sky. In some parts of the 
 steppe we saw herds of horses'^and cattle grazing, 
 and they relieved the solitude ; their herdsmen 
 were not visible, but we knew they could not 
 be very far away. In other portions of the 
 plateau, from one horse-station to another, 
 there was no living creature to be seen. 
 
 Hills and forest land at length appeared again 
 on the horizon, and soon our road turned down 
 into a broad open valley, where on the border 
 of a wide mere lay a small village. We arrived 
 there on the morning of Trinity Sunday, and all 
 the people were dressed in their best clothes. 
 But for this the village would have looked very 
 dreary, for there was no paint on the houses, 
 and nothing about them to relieve the dinginess 
 of their old weather-beaten timbers. The land 
 around them was trodden bare, and there was 
 no such thing as a garden. It is a true instinct 
 which leads the people of these villages to choose 
 such warm, gay colours for their garments ; 
 and as on that Sunday morning the cottagers 
 crowded to their doors to see us pass, the fan- 
 tastic head-dresses and pink-flowered gowns of 
 the women, and the red blouses of the men, 
 did much to alleviate the otherwise universal 
 sombreness. 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 155 
 
 But these Siberian peasants have other ways, 
 less innocent than wearing their best clothes, 
 of showing their appreciation of the fasts and 
 festivals of Christianity. On Trinity Sunday 
 evening, after the church services were over, 
 the principal men and women of the village 
 assembled in the travellers' room at the post- 
 horse station, to honour the day by dancing 
 and vodka drinking. 
 
 The piety of these people is peculiar. In the 
 observance of Christian ceremonies they are 
 most exemplary, and manifest for the externals 
 of religion an almost superstitious reverence. 
 Of those accounted orthodox among the poorer 
 classes, few will enter or leave a room, or pass 
 a church, or take anything to eat, without making 
 the sign of a cross ; and I have known the mere 
 sight of a New Testament arrest a flow of bad 
 language, and make a set of gamblers desist 
 from play. But to many this reverential re- 
 cognition of sacred objects is the sum-total of 
 religion, and all that is believed essential for 
 salvation is to admit the truth of the facts and 
 traditions of the gospel, and to take part in 
 the ceremonies which symbolize them. Of the 
 spiritual meaning of those facts, and their bear- 
 ing upon character and life, they seem to be 
 unaware ; and it never occurs to them that 
 there is anything at all incongruous in showing 
 
156 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 their respect for the teachings of the Church 
 by getting drunk. 
 
 The heaviest drinking is at Easter, which is 
 perhaps the most popular religious festival in 
 Russia. Whole villages then give themselves 
 up for several days to \vine-bibbing ; and if an 
 astonished stranger asks the meaning of such 
 carousing, a chorus of voices instantly replies — 
 and without the slightest intention of irreverence 
 — ' Why, because Christ has risen ' ; and at 
 the word they chink their glasses and drink 
 again. 
 
 There were similar scenes on Trinity Sunday ; 
 and, in some cases at least, the drinking was 
 continued through the night, for passing through 
 another village in the forenoon of the following 
 day we saw a number of the revellers lying in 
 drunken stupor about the road, and our yemschik 
 had to turn his horses aside repeatedly to avoid 
 running over them. 
 
 Having passed the steppe, we were among 
 the trees again, and from the branches of one 
 or more of them, on every little elevation near 
 our track, strips of rag were fluttering. They 
 had been placed there by the Buriats as charms 
 against evil spirits. We were now in the heart 
 of the Buriat country. The plain we had just 
 crossed was called the Buriat steppe ; Buriat 
 yemschiks drove our horses ; and at every 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 157 
 
 post-station the Government notices had Buriat 
 translations affixed to them. 
 
 The Buriats have characteristic Mongol 
 features, but they are taller and more strongly 
 built than the tribes met "with farther east, and 
 have much more energy of character. They 
 maintained for many years an effective resistance 
 to the Russian invasion, but the omens were 
 against them : a great forest fire destroyed 
 over an extensive area the dusky pines, and 
 white-barked birch-trees sprang up in their 
 stead, and so the swarthy Mongols knew that 
 they were destined to give place to the white- 
 faced Russians. 
 
 But conquest does not to the Buriats mean 
 destruction. Unlike the other tribes of aborig- 
 ines, they have been able to adapt themselves 
 to the new circumstances, and, side by side 
 with the Russians, seem likely to hold their 
 own. A few of them are engaged in hunting 
 and fishing, but large numbers have become 
 agriculturists, and tens of thousands of acres in 
 this province are cultivated by Buriat farmers, 
 producing abundant crops of wheat, rye, spring 
 corn, and oats. 
 
 But by far the larger number of these people 
 are employed in cattle-breeding. The herds 
 we saw grazing on the Buriat steppe were Buriat 
 property, and one individual sometimes owns 
 
158 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 as many as five hundred oxen and one thousand 
 horses. They are good riders, and perform 
 most of their journeys on horseback. We often 
 met parties of them travelHng in this way, the 
 women sitting astride in the saddle like men. 
 But this fashion of riding is not peculiar to 
 Buriat women ; many of the Russians have 
 adopted it, and, judging from the number of 
 officers' wives and other gentlewomen we saw 
 taking horseback exercise in the neighbourhood 
 of the settlements, the side-saddle appears to 
 be quite discarded by the European equestriennes 
 of Siberia. 
 
 The dress of the Buriats resembles that of 
 the Russian peasantry ; but the hair is cut 
 short except on the crown, where it is allowed 
 to grow to its full length and is formed into a 
 pig-tail — much smaller, however, and more like 
 a genuine pig-tail than the long, heavy plait 
 of the Chinese. Women dress their hair into 
 four pig-tails, and in married women these are 
 coiled round a carved piece of wood about a 
 foot in length, which lies across the back of the 
 neck — a symbol of the marriage yoke. The 
 pig-tails of girls not yet betrothed are, for the 
 information and encouragement of wife-seeking 
 young men, allowed to hang freely over the 
 shoulders. 
 
 The religion of most of the Buriats is the 
 
STRETENSK .TO LAKE BAIKAL 159 
 
 Tibetan form of Buddhism, but even among 
 these the superstitions of their ancestral Sha- 
 manism are by no means extinct, as the bunches 
 of torn rags which we saw hanging from the 
 trees beside our road so plainly prove. The 
 spread of Buddhism among them is compara- 
 tively recent, and has been fostered by the 
 Russians ; but efforts are now being made to 
 convert them to Christianity, and, from a long 
 conversation I had with a Russian priest who 
 is engaged in mission work among them, I gather 
 that the enterprise has met with encouraging 
 success. If less easily persuaded to submit to 
 baptism than other native tribes, they are far 
 more staunch and thorough in their adherence 
 to the faith when once they have accepted it ; 
 and Buriat members of the Church, who number 
 now about ten thousand, are perhaps, next to 
 the Russians, the only genuine Christians in 
 Siberia. 
 
 They speak a language similar to that which 
 prevails throughout Mongolia ; but for their 
 letters, which resemble Syriac though written 
 vertically like Chinese, they are indebted to 
 the Nestorian missionaries, who made such 
 noble and self-sacrificing efforts to evangelize 
 Far Eastern Asia a thousand years ago. Most 
 of the books in circulation among the Buriats 
 appear to be translations from Tibetan. 
 
160 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 The Russian settlers in this province, though 
 far superior to their Mongol neighbours, associate 
 freely with them ; and at one of the post-stations 
 a Buriat offered himself to me as travelling 
 companion. It is such a common thing for 
 Siberian travellers to lighten the expenses of 
 their journey in this way that a special word 
 is used to describe these post-road partnerships ; 
 and when one traveller speaks of another as 
 his poyootchik, he simply means that the person 
 referred to is sharing the expenses of his horse 
 and carriage hire. 
 
 Though I did not accept the offer of the 
 Buriat, in one part or another of my journey I 
 had a number of popootchiks. Some of them 
 were homely, honest Russians, who not only 
 made[^my travelling cheaper, but pleasanter and 
 more expeditious. Others did directly the re- 
 verse. One man showed his appreciation of 
 my company by borrowing from me, to meet 
 some pretended temporary emergency, a sum 
 of money large enough to leave me stranded in 
 the middle of Siberia. When he reached his 
 destination he vanished like a ghost, and I had 
 to get upon his trail, track him from one part 
 to another of the settlement, and corner him 
 at last, before he showed any disposition to 
 refund. 
 
 But the worst of my popootchiks was one 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 161 
 
 who joined me at a station on the other side of 
 the Buriat steppe. He was a tall, big-boned, 
 dark-complexioned man of about forty years 
 of age, with some such name as Bruffski, He 
 wished to share with me the expense of horse- 
 hire as far as the next town, a distance of about 
 three hundred miles, and Avith some misgivings 
 I consented to the arrangement. We were to 
 start at four next morning, but Bruffski did not 
 turn up until six, and not only had he a bottle 
 of vodka in his hand, but by the colour of his 
 face and his demeanour it was evident that he 
 had already a fair quantity of the same strong 
 spirit in his head. As soon as we started he 
 began to drink again, so I took the bottle from 
 him and hid it in the straw ; but he found and 
 refilled it at the next station, and took care 
 henceforth to keep it out of my reach. So drunk 
 was he after the first day that he was seldom 
 able to get into the tarantass or out of it without 
 assistance. 
 
 He had a deep bass voice, and probably had 
 been employed, at some time or other, as clerk 
 of the responses in one of the Russian churches. 
 He seldom spoke, but sometimes exercised his 
 voice by sounding a long oo in a fairly deep 
 tone, and then rolling it out an octave lower. 
 The last oo generally resolved itself into a snore, 
 and Bruffski lay beside me like a log. 
 
 11 
 
162 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 But even the heavy stupor of intoxication 
 could hardly render a man quite insensible to 
 the erratic motion of a tarantass. In one place 
 we were jerked about so violently that my 
 cow-hide portmanteau was ripped open at the 
 seams, and I had to gather its contents together 
 at the next station in a blanket. That one's 
 own skin remained unbroken in such circum- 
 stances is an unquestionable proof of its perfect 
 toughness and elasticity. 
 
 But how the shaking jarred one's nerves ! 
 BruflFski had a big feather pillow at his back, 
 but in his helpless drunken coma any unusual 
 jerk made his head rattle against the side of the 
 tarantass like an auctioneer's hammer on his 
 block. At this he usually awoke, but only just 
 l6ng enough to shout, in stentorian voice, ' Yem- 
 schik, stop ! ' And the Russian driver, accus- 
 tomed to prompt obedience, at once pulled up 
 his horses and stopped. But in less than a 
 minute Bruffski was asleep again, and when I 
 heard him snore I gave the signal to the yemschik 
 to drive on. 
 
 And so we went on together all day and all 
 night, and from day to day, the only compensation 
 to me for the misery of such companionship 
 being the thought that Bruffski was sharing 
 the expenses of the journey. But even with 
 regard to this some doubt at length arose. The 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 163 
 
 man had, plausibly enough, suggested that, to 
 save the trouble of dividing our expenses at 
 every stage, it would be better for me to advance 
 money for the first half of the journey, and let 
 him do so for the second. But when my portion 
 of the payments was completed, he coolly told 
 me that he had no funds ; so I had to continue 
 my payments to the end, relying upon Bruff ski's 
 promise to refund his share of the expenses as 
 soon as we reached the town. 
 
 Several days afterwards, late in the afternoon, 
 we arrived at the little town of Verchni-Udinslc ; 
 and if I was glad to see it as the first town we 
 had come to during the last four hundred miles, 
 I was still gladder because here I was to part 
 company with my drunken popootchik. My 
 baggage was carried into the travellers' room, 
 and Bruffski was surprised to see me take from 
 my pocket a roll of rouble notes, thinking — as 
 I had intended he should think — that I had 
 only enough money with me to meet the actual 
 expenses of the journey to this town. But for 
 this opinion, and his own drunkenness, travelhng 
 with such a companion on dark nights and in 
 lonely places might not have been particularly 
 safe. 
 
 Bruffski soon went out and ordered another 
 tarantass, telling me that he was only going to 
 his house in the next street, and that^ if I would 
 
164 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 go with him, he would at once pay me what he 
 owed. As we drove out of the stable-yard I 
 heard my companion mutter to the yemschik, 
 and I caught the words ' out into the forest.' 
 Away we went at full-trot down one street 
 after another till we reached the main road 
 which leads out of the town, and I saw the 
 fringe of the pine forest about half a mile 
 ahead. 
 
 There were houses on either side of us, and 
 peopla standing at the doors watching us, but 
 in less than two minutes the last house would 
 be passed, so I called upon the driver to pull 
 up. Bruffski told him to drive on ; and, as 
 the horses were now going at a gallop, if I did 
 not mean to be taken out into the forest against 
 my will, it was evident that something must 
 be quickly done. So, gripping with both hands 
 Bruff ski's pillow, I pulled it from behind him, 
 and hurled it out into the road. At once he 
 shouted, as I had so often heard him shout 
 before when disturbed in his drunken sleep, 
 ' Yemschik, stop ! ' 
 
 He told the yemschik to fetch the pillow, and 
 tried to detain me while he did so, but I was 
 too quick for him ; and as people from the 
 houses came running up to see what ' was the 
 matter, Bxuffski thought it was time^ to get 
 away, so he drove off into the forest, leaving 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 165 
 
 the pillow in the road as his sole contribution 
 to the expenses of our journey. 
 
 They told me at the post-station that all 
 the horses were engaged, so I had to wait at 
 Verchni-Udinsk until the next day. I went into 
 the travellers' room, but found that it had 
 already other occupants — a cosy company of 
 two, which the addition of a third would spoil. 
 They were a young Russian officer and his wife ; 
 and if it be true that courting habits do not 
 persist long after marriage, this must have been 
 a newly wedded pair. The lady was resting her 
 head against the shoulder of her husband, whose 
 arm was around her waist, and they were very 
 affectionately holding each other's hand. 
 
 Facing away from the door, they could not 
 see me enter, and, thinking how shocked they 
 would be to know that they had been caught 
 in this position, I stealthily stepped back into 
 the stableyard. But it was very cold out there, 
 and, after walking up and down for half an 
 hour, I went back to the room. The young 
 couple were still in the same position, but as 
 there was no other room available, and I was 
 cold and hungry, I coughed, to warn them of 
 my presence. I coughed very gently, but if I 
 had had a fit of whooping-cough I don't think 
 it would have made any difference ; for after- 
 wards I whistled, and then walked boldly up to 
 
166 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 the window without producing the slightest 
 symptom of confusion, or the sHghtest change 
 of attitude, either in the wooer or the wooed. 
 
 Others came into the room presently, both 
 men and women, but, being Russians, they 
 neither laughed nor frowned nor looked surprised, 
 and it was evidently only to the Englishman 
 that the situation seemed in any way peculiar. 
 In China a man may not walk out with his wife, 
 nor appear with her in public, under any cir- 
 cumstances whatsoever. In England a man 
 need not shun his wife's company in places of 
 resort, but he must not give any public sign 
 that he has any special affection for her. In 
 Siberia public manners are not so restricted, and 
 the people evidently think no more of a kiss or 
 a caress between persons who are married or 
 betrothed than they do of ordinary hand-shaking 
 among friends. 
 
 Verchni-Udinsk is a cheerful-looking little 
 town, with the Uda River bounding one side of 
 it, and the pine forest every other. It has a 
 population of about five thousand, whose white 
 dwellings are overlooked by the towers of three 
 or four churches. The streets are very wide, 
 but they have no pavement of any kind, and 
 making one's way along them is like walking 
 on some sandy shore above the water-line. In 
 this respect it is worse even than Tchita. 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 167 
 
 Around the market-square are some good general 
 stores, and the bazaar building in the centre is 
 partitioned into a number of little shops, where 
 some of the exiled Jews, who form such a large 
 proportion of the residents, sell furs and jewellery 
 and other kinds of Siberian produce. In most 
 of the towns of England there are shops which 
 advertise the wares they have for sale by a 
 painted representation of them on the signboard. 
 This custom, which is very general in the towns 
 of European Russia, is almost universal in Si- 
 beria, and is a great convenience in a country 
 where so large a number of the people cannot 
 read. The signboards form together a sort of 
 pictorial epitome of the social life of the neigh- 
 bourhood. Various articles of male and female 
 dress, house furniture, saddles and harness, 
 agricultural implements, cutlery and crockery- 
 ware, carpenters' tools, packs of playing-cards, 
 writing-paper and envelopes, firearms, musical 
 instruments, plates of cakes and French rolls, 
 dishes of sausages and brawn, steaming samovars, 
 bottles of frothing kwass, decanters of vodka, 
 pestle and mortar and boxes of pills, coffins and 
 crucifixes, — all these things, and many more, may 
 be seen represented in full-sized painted pictures 
 on the signboards of any important Siberian 
 town ; and a stranger, wishing to make purchases, 
 has only to walk along the street until he sees 
 
168 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 the likeness of what he wants, and he knows 
 at once where it may be obtained. 
 
 Having replenished my store of provisions, I 
 was ready to start again. The road from Verchni- 
 Udinsk to Baikal — a two days' journey — crosses 
 part of the north-western border-ridge of the 
 High Plateau — a romantic region of rolling 
 table-land and forest-covered mountains, afford- 
 ing from their slopes far-reaching panoramas of 
 fertile valleys and winding rivers, with horses 
 and cattle on their banks, and here and there 
 a lonely farmstead. 
 
 Most of the settlers in this region are Raskolniks 
 or Nonconformists, and are descendants of the 
 men who, in protest against the Patriarch Nikon's 
 innovations, severed themselves from the national 
 church ; and who, a hundred years ago, flying 
 from the persecuting wrath of Peter the Great, 
 came to these remote valleys. They and their 
 children have steadfastly maintained their re- 
 ligious independence, and preserved their purity 
 of blood ; for among the Raskolniks on the 
 banks of the Uda and Selenga may be found 
 to-day some of the noblest specimens of the 
 Russian race. 
 
 Near the town a second road branched off 
 from ours to the southward. It leads to Kiakhta, 
 and is the direct route through Mongolia to 
 Peking. These two are the onlv roads in this 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 169 
 
 province, and so the greater part of the Trans- 
 Baikal region is inaccessible except to foot and 
 horseback travellers. 
 
 It was a splendid morning when I set out 
 from Verchni-Udinsk. Only the yemschik was 
 with me ; I had had enough of popootchiks, 
 and was glad to be alone. The country looked 
 extremely beautiful, for the winter had passed 
 and summer had come. In Siberia there is no 
 spring to speak of. As the sun gains strength 
 he melts the ice and dissipates tlie fog, and then, 
 as if the face of nature had been touched by 
 some magic wand, verdure and flowers break 
 forth from every inch of soil, and in a few weeks 
 the landscape has something of tropical luxuri- 
 ance, ^^^len I left Lake Khanka, only a month 
 before, there was hardly a leaf or grass-blade to 
 be seen, and now there was vegetation every- 
 where. The higher slopes were red vnih azalea 
 flowers, and many of the shrubs and bushes in 
 the foreground were masses of white or pinkish 
 bloom. The roadside was lined with purple 
 crocuses, filling the air with a fragrance hke that 
 of violets. Then we saw beds of yellow daffodil 
 and white lilies, and, more rarely, isolated 
 specimens of that beautiful red lily which is 
 peculiar to this part of Siberia. One's eye passed 
 from these to throngs of pearly-white anemones, 
 parades of poppies, and acres of orange-coloured 
 
170 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 peony, until, fairly dazed, it was a relief to rest 
 on a soft blue area of forget-me-nots. 
 
 For a long distance our course lay between the 
 pine-clad hills which enclose the Selenga River. 
 Through the dense shrubbery on its banks we 
 caught glimpses of the flowing water long before 
 the river itself came into full view. It is a stream 
 of considerable size, and at this season was 
 rising rapidly from the inrush of melted snow. 
 But the rise of the river from this cause is soon 
 over. A little later comes the melting of the 
 subterranean ice, and the release of pent-up 
 springs. The inflow which results from this lasts 
 longer, and so swells the river that cargo-steamers 
 are able to run from far above Verchni-XJdinsk 
 down to Baikal and Irkutsk. 
 
 We forded many of its tributaries, and among 
 them were some ideal trout-streams — tumbling 
 over stony ridges, racing down beds of pebble, 
 resting for a while in deep dark pools, and then 
 flashing out again among rocks and boulders on 
 their way to the larger river. Though I call 
 them trout-streams, I could not obtain reliable 
 assurance that trout are found in them ; but if 
 they are not they ought to be, for they are just 
 the kind of stream that trout and anglers love. 
 
 Towards evening, losing sight of the cultivated 
 land, we entered upon a long stretch of dense 
 and continuous forest, and, about sunset, arrived 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIIvAL 171 
 
 at a solitary post-station, over which, on a 
 Government notice-board, I read — ' To Moscow, 
 5,496 versts. To Petersburg, 6,100 versts.' 
 
 With such a distance yet to travel there was 
 no time for other rest than that which the taran- 
 tass afforded, and as soon as fresh horses could 
 be yoked we were off again. 
 
 Our halt was just as brief at the next station, 
 which we reached about five hours later. It 
 stood quite alone in the depths of the forest, 
 from which it was fenced off by a rough pine-log 
 stockade. The night was starless, there were 
 no lamps on our tarantass, and when, half an 
 hour after midnight, we turned out of the ghm- 
 mering candle-light of the stableyard into the 
 impenetrable blackness of the forest, the sensation 
 was not a pleasing one. Before me I could just 
 see the shape of the fur-clad yemschik, and up- 
 ward, on either side, the outline of the pine tops 
 black against the sky. It must have been by 
 these that the yemschik made out his way, for 
 there was nothing to be seen below. Then it 
 began to get colder, and hour by hour, as the 
 night advanced, colder still ; until, starting from 
 my dozing dreams, I half expected to look out 
 upon the Polar seas. 
 
 The da}^ dawned at length — a cold, grey 
 morning, with a sky overcast, and a keen wind 
 blowing. The very pines looked ragged and 
 
172 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 forlorn, as if they too felt the sharpness of the 
 wintry air. Suddenly the forest opened, and 
 immediately in front of us lay the edge of the 
 table-land. Beyond it there was nothing but a 
 limitless expanse of hazy white, and it seemed 
 as if we were driving off the world. But a nearer 
 prospect showed that what lay before us was 
 not so unsubstantial, for the white surface we 
 looked down upon was not thin air, as it appeared, 
 but a vast plain of ice, which stretched away 
 beyond the reach of vision to right and left, 
 and on before, seeming in the distance to be 
 continuous with the sky. This, the yemschik 
 told me, was Lake Baikal. 
 
 Now I knew the meaning of this sudden 
 change of temperature. Yesterday driving 
 through fragrant valleys, beautiful with flowers 
 and warm with summer sunshine, in the darkness 
 of the night we had passed into another zone. 
 It was this great mass of frozen water which 
 had chilled the air ; and if in June the Baikal 
 Valley is so cold, in winter, when the snow lies 
 deep for months along its shores, and fills the 
 surrounding glens and valleys, the climate must 
 be terribly severe. 
 
 After a few hours, as we drove southward 
 towards the post-station, the frozen portion of 
 the lake was left behind, and we saw only a sheet 
 of steel-bright water, broken by a few detached 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 173 
 
 ice-masses slowly di-ifting before the southern 
 breeze to join their predecessors in the north. 
 
 Baikal is a fresh-water lake, and is one of 
 the most remarkable inland sheets of water in 
 the world. Its surface is 1,500 feet above the 
 level of the sea ; it is nearly a mile deep ; its 
 length is equal to that of England ; and it covers 
 an area of 12,430 square miles. The Selenga 
 and Upper Angara, and a large number of moun- 
 tain streams, flow into it ; and the Lower Angara, 
 its only outlet, carries off its surplus waters to 
 the Yenesei. Except whore these rivers join it, 
 the lake is surrounded on every side by moun- 
 tains. Most of them are covered with dense 
 forest, and one of the peaks which look upon its 
 southern shore attains the height of 7,000 feet 
 above the sea. 
 
 A striking feature of Lake Baikal is its loneli- 
 ness. Both its surface and its shores are almost 
 an unbroken solitude. There is not a single town 
 upon its banks, and its villages are few and 
 small. A steamer crosses its southern portion 
 once a week during the short summer, but there 
 is little other navigation. And the lonesomeness 
 of Baikal is not relieved like that of the ocean 
 by roaring surf and rushing waters, for, though 
 its surface is sometimes swept by terrific storms, 
 and at a few miles' distance from the shore there 
 in generally a strong breeze blowing, the water 
 
174 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 at its margin is often too still to give a sound. 
 But this region is liable to frequent subterranean 
 convulsions — rumblings and quakings and even 
 rendings of the earth ; and the constant appre- 
 hension of these portents makes the stillness 
 weird and painful. The early Russian settlers, 
 looking out upon the surface of the lake from 
 the gloom of the forest which overspreads its 
 bordering mountains, were so impressed with the 
 mystic silence of that vast solitude that they 
 named it ' the Holy Sea.' 
 
 I was glad of an opportunity of warming myself, 
 and getting a breakfast of bread and milk and 
 eggs at the Mecooski post-station, for this was 
 wintry weather, and I had been out in it all 
 night. No steamer had yet crossed the lake 
 this year, but, as the ice on the southern half 
 had been broken up and driven northward by 
 the wind, traffic might recommence at any time. 
 As I could obtain no information more definite 
 than this, I had to make up my mind to wait 
 at the post-station until a steamer came. 
 
 The hut for the accommodation of travellers, 
 with the stables and yemschiks' cottages, stood 
 on a small promontory jutting out into the lake. 
 The sloping hillside at the back was covered with 
 virgin forest, consisting chiefly of dark-leaved 
 pines and larches, which crowded close up to the 
 station buildings. No other traveller was there 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 175 
 
 when I arrived, but I was not left long alone. 
 In the evening a couple of Turco-Tartars came, 
 one of them being the man Aplin who was a 
 fellow passenger on the Amoor. Other travellers 
 came on the morrow, and in a few days our 
 waiting-room was full. 
 
 Some poorer travellers found lodging for 
 themselves in the outbuildings. Among these 
 was a typical Siberian peasant farmer returning 
 from Blagovestchensk to the Volga, and whom 
 I had met with before on the way. His hair, 
 which was getting grey, was long, and parted in 
 the middle, according to the custom of Russian 
 peasantry. He wore a coarse frieze frock, 
 gathered in at the waist with a girdle ; and his 
 trousers, of similar material, were tucked into a 
 pair of top-boots. 
 
 His wife had died at his little farm on the 
 Amoor ; and, if he could himself manage to get 
 on in Siberia without her, he did not think his 
 three children could. All his relatives were in 
 Europe, so he sold out and set off with his family 
 for the old home. He had a rough canvas- 
 covered wagon of his own, for which he hired 
 horses from station to station. He seldom came 
 into the travellers' room, but often sent the 
 children in to warm themselves. At night he 
 prepared a comfortable bed for them in the 
 wagon, he himself sleeping among the straw 
 
176 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 in one of the stable-lofts. The eldest child, a 
 girl of thirteen, was delicately formed, refined 
 in behaviour and appearance, but much too 
 pensive for her age. She was doing her best 
 to take her mother's place, not only in caring 
 for her two younger brothers, but also in trying, 
 timidly but anxiously, to relieve the sense of 
 desolation which weighed upon her father's 
 heart, and made him sit for hours, bare-headed, 
 gazing with a sad abstracted look at Baikal, as 
 if thinking of the now lost companion who was 
 with him when he crossed the lake before. 
 
 The travellers' room was a fairly large one, 
 being really two rooms made into one ; but it 
 was much too small for the number of people 
 in it. Our fellow guests comprised three women, 
 half a dozen children, and as many men. One 
 woman was travellmg with her two little boys 
 to Western Siberia. She was a tall, strong, 
 resolute, but kindly-looking person, evidently 
 well educated, and of good social position. 
 Another younger woman had her husband with 
 her and an infant child. The third woman in 
 our party was the wife of a Siberian trader — 
 a most phlegmatic man — and the couple were 
 travelling together to Irkutsk. 
 
 Tarantass-riding seems to be specially trying 
 to the weaker sex, and when first alighting at a 
 post-station most of the women that I met were 
 
STRETENSK TO LAIvE BAIKAL 177 
 
 in no very amiable mood. In most cases a glass 
 of tea and a cigarette did much to calm their 
 irritated nerves and smooth their ruffled tempers ; 
 but our trader's wife was not so easily appeased. 
 
 ' I have ordered the samovar for you,' her 
 husband said ; ' and here are the matches and 
 some cigarettes.' 
 
 ' Sohaka ! ' — you dog — was all the thanks 
 he got. 
 
 With no perceptible change of colour, and with 
 no suspicion of tremor in his voice, he turned to 
 me and said, ' Shall we go for a walk ? ' 
 
 The poor woman's anger had time to cool 
 while we were out, but it had not taken advantage 
 of the opportunity ; and when her husband 
 asked her, ' Is your headache better ? ' her only 
 reply was the same uncomplimentary reference 
 to himself. She could talk fluently enough to 
 others, but, until a day had passed, she had for 
 her beloved only that one expressive word, and 
 he listened to it every time with the same 
 imperturbable tranquillity. 
 
 These, with the Turco-Tartars, and a couple of 
 hide merchants and myself, were the company 
 which lived and slept in that one room during 
 the weary days of waiting for a steamer. We 
 each had our own provisions with us, but, as 
 there were only two small tables, we had some- 
 times to wait inconveniently long for an oppor- 
 
 12 
 
178 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 tunity to get a comfortable meal. At night we 
 had only to select a place on the floor to spread 
 our rugs and blankets, and then lie down to 
 rest. But with so many sleepers in one small 
 room, the windows and doors of which were 
 always tightly closed, the atmosphere soon 
 became oppressive, and it was a great relief at 
 sunrise to go out into the crisp morning air. 
 Most of my fellow travellers were content with 
 a Siberian wash, and thus left more room for the 
 eccentric Englishman, who, in spite of the almost 
 paralysing cold, preferred a splash in the big 
 basin of the lake. 
 
 After the first day we had perpetual sunshine, 
 making it a pleasure to wander in the pine-woods 
 or on the shore. The lake was clear as crystal, 
 and, at a little distance from its margin, blue 
 as sapphire ; but if a crag of ice came drifting 
 by, it broke up the sunbeams which fell upon 
 it into their prismatic colours, and the skirts of 
 its robe of light were spread out upon the Avater 
 like a rainbow. 
 
 Fish in the lake were rising freely at a small 
 grey fly — very provoking, when with so much 
 leisure there was no angling apparatus within 
 reach. Baikal abounds in fish of many kinds. 
 Salmon appear to be most plentiful, and thousands 
 of pounds' worth are caught and dried here every 
 season. One curious fish, the comephorus, is 
 
STRETENSK TO LAKE BAIKAL 179 
 
 found only in this lake. It is of small size, and 
 of the codfish family, but has never been caught, 
 and never even seen alive. But after an earth- 
 quake, or an unusually severe storm, large 
 numbers of dead ones are washed ashore. They 
 are, when found, of the loose texture and mucila- 
 ginous consistence which characterize fish living 
 under the enormous pressure of great ocean 
 depths, and so it is inferred that the comephorus 
 haunts the profoundest recesses of the lake. 
 "When exposed to sunshine on the shore their 
 substance rapidly evaporates, leaving only a thin 
 strand of integument behind. 
 
 Seals, though not fish, are a fishy sort of 
 animal, and Baikal is the only fresh-water lake 
 in the world where they are found. They are 
 met with in great numbers at the north end of 
 the lake, and the Buriat and Russian hunters 
 sometimes secure as many as a thousand seals 
 in one season. 
 
 The few days of sunshine quite changed the 
 climate of the Baikal Valley, and made a great 
 difference in the appearance of the country. 
 Willows, birches, and aspens were seen bursting 
 into leaf ; and on a moist spot of sheltered 
 land, on the outskirts of the forest, I found 
 some flowers — beds of marsh-marigold, cinque- 
 foil, wood-strawberry, meadow-rue, violets, and 
 forget-me-nots. I might have found other spots 
 
180 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 as beautiful if I could have stayed a few days 
 longer, but just then I caught sight of a steamer 
 making its way towards us across the lake, and 
 I had to hurry to the post-station to inform the 
 others, and to pack my things. 
 
 In a few hours we were all aboard, and long 
 before sunset were on our way to the farther 
 shore- 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK, BY TARANTAS3 
 
 I CANNOT say that I saw the western shore of 
 Baikal, for it was midnight when we arrived, and 
 SO dark that I am not sure whether what loomed 
 before us was a hillside forest or a thunder-cloud. 
 Before dawn I was far away from it, for the post- 
 station at Leestvaneeshnia — the long name of 
 the little port where our steamer stopped — ^was 
 quite close to the mooring-place, and had such a 
 good supply of horses and tarantasses that I 
 was able to start at once ; and so, by seven in 
 the morning, the fifty miles of intervening table- 
 land was crossed, and I was looking down from 
 the western edge of it at the city of Irkutsk. 
 
 A traveller approaching from the west can 
 only see it piecemeal as he passes tlirough its 
 streets, but from this point the whole city could 
 be seen at once, and to one just emerging from 
 the eastern solitudes the sight was an impressive 
 one. The plains below were covered for several 
 miles with the white buildings of the city, among 
 
 isi 
 
182 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 which, overtopping all the rest, stood the towers 
 of numerous churches, their crosses gleaming in 
 the sunshine, their base hidden by the thick foliage 
 of the trees which had clustered round them. 
 The beautiful Angara River, a third of a mile 
 in breadth, curved half-way round the city on 
 its way from Baikal to the Yenesei. There were 
 gardens on its banks, and most of the surrounding 
 land was under cultivation. Other towns and 
 cities of Eastern Siberia are important only 
 because they happen to be situated in a sparsely 
 populated country, but Irkutsk is a city which 
 would attract attention anywhere. 
 
 It is much older than the cities farther east, 
 and occupies the site of a still older Buriat town 
 — a dirty Mongol settlement, which has now 
 given place to the broad streets, handsome shops, 
 substantial business offices, commodious hotels, 
 and neat, cosy dwellings of the present prosperous 
 city. 
 
 Much of its commercial importance is due to 
 its situation near the junction of the two main 
 routes by which tea is conveyed from China to 
 European Russia — the sea route from the Yangtse 
 to the Amoor, and the land route through 
 Kalgan and Kiakhta. But the chief source 
 of its wealth is in the mineral treasures of its 
 neighbourhood. The gold-mines on the Lena 
 have long been, and are still, very productive ; 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 183 
 
 and large fortunes have been made there by 
 Irkutsk settlers. 
 
 Much of the wealth thus acquired has been 
 expended on the improvement of the city, several 
 of its citizens having made munificent bequests 
 for this purpose. It has more than one good 
 school, from which youths go direct to the Euro- 
 pean universities ; two large public gardens ; a 
 well-kept museum ; civil and military hospitals ; 
 and several orphanages, one of these being 
 specially provided for the children of Siberian 
 exiles. Such an institution, like a silver lining 
 to a cloud, helps to soften the rigorous aspect of 
 the great AlexandrefPski prison in the suburbs 
 of the city, and which, though only a temporary 
 halting-place, sometimes contains as many as 
 two thousand convicts waiting to be drafted to 
 the eastern mines. 
 
 Irkutsk is the residence of a governor-general ; 
 and of an archbishop, whose new cathedral, not 
 yet completed, has cost upwards of a million 
 roubles. The city is also a fortified mihtary post, 
 and the seat of several learned and philanthropic 
 societies, notable among the latter being a branch 
 of the Imperial Society of St. Petersburg, whose 
 special object is the prevention of abuses in the 
 acbninistration of prison disciphne. 
 
 I reached this city on Sunday morning, and 
 before Monday noon was on the road again, 
 
184 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 commencing another tarantass journey of a 
 thousand miles to Tomsk. There is much more 
 traffic on this part of the post-road, and it is 
 better made than its continuation farther east ; 
 but in other respects, beyond the suburbs of 
 Irkutsk, the features of both are very much the 
 same. Towns are still hundreds of miles apart, 
 but villages are more numerous, and every fifteen 
 or twenty miles there is a post-station. 
 
 A considerable portion of the first half of the 
 way is an avenue cut through one of those im- 
 mense tracts of virgin forest called by Russians 
 the taiga. In a few days we were in the midst 
 of it, and, except at the lonely post -stations, 
 there was nothing but the beaten track to in- 
 dicate that human beings had ever visited these 
 wilds before. Everj^-where around us was the 
 forest. It dipped down into the valleys, and 
 spread itself out over the hills ; all day and all 
 night, and on from day to day, away from the 
 stations, there was nothing to be seen but these 
 close-clustered pines and cedars, and the dense 
 underwood which found shelter at their feet. 
 
 One of the most marked features of the forest 
 in the dtaytime was the absence of all signs of 
 animal life. In the open country ground-squirrels 
 were numerous all along the road. They sat on 
 their haunches watching our approach, and with 
 something like defiance in their look, but as we 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 185 
 
 drew nearer their courage failed, and with a 
 sudden somersault they dived head-foremost into 
 their burrows. But the forest seemed forsaken. 
 Even birds were seldom either seen or heard, 
 and, with the exception of a few moths and 
 butterflies, winged insects were just as rare. A 
 month later the place would be all aUve with 
 them, and mosquitoes in overpowering swarms 
 make the forest uninhabitable for either man or 
 beast. It is when crossing rivers, and flying 
 towards the treeless plains to escape from these 
 tormentors, that reindeer fall such an easy prey 
 to their more formidable enemies the Tungu and 
 Orotchi hunters. 
 
 The forest was not so deserted as it seemed. 
 Often at nightfall, as the odour of the pine-trees 
 began to exhale into the air, and their shadows 
 to gloom upon our path, I saw wild deer bound 
 across the track from one part of the forest to 
 another. And there were plenty of other animals 
 as well, some of which we were particularly wish- 
 ful not to meet. Tigers have never been seen 
 west of Baikal, and rarely outside the Usuri 
 region ; but no unsettled part of the country 
 is free from the ravages of bears. Travellers 
 who have to camp out in the woods at night 
 run the greatest risks from these animals. Even 
 a ring of fire around their sleeping-place is not 
 a rehable defence, for a hungry bear is cunning 
 
186 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 enough to know that, having first got dripping 
 wet in a brook, he has only to roll over on the 
 burning brands and extinguish them. 
 
 But the most numerous and destructive beasts 
 of prey in Siberia are wolves. They commit 
 great havoc among sheep, but with a sort of 
 cannibal propensity prefer to all other food the 
 flesh of a dog, and often succeed in snatching 
 one from between the very knees of its master 
 while travelling at full gallop in a sledge or 
 tarantass. 
 
 In the winter, when scarcity of food drives 
 them to desperation, they do not hesitate to 
 attack men ; but a well-mounted Cossack will 
 boldly ride into a moderately sized pack of them, 
 and, though armed only with a knout, will use 
 it to such purpose that the wolves fly howHng 
 to the woods. When pursuing a tarantass, the 
 pack, if not too large, can be kept at bay by tying 
 a garment to a cord and letting it trail behind 
 the vehicle ; the wolves shy at the mysterious 
 object like a timid horse, and will not venture 
 to run past it. But a Siberian priest, a few 
 months before I was there, when driving out 
 alone in the forest, was killed by a pack of wolves. 
 The horse brought the cart into the village mth- 
 out a driver, and, a few hours later, the search 
 party found not only the bones of a man, but 
 quite near them the fresh remains of a wolf. In 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 187 
 
 the cart also had been found a recently discharged 
 rifle ; and so it was inferred that the priest 
 having shot one of the wolves pursuing him, 
 and venturing to alight to secure its skin, the 
 horse had bolted, leaving his master defenceless 
 to the returning pack. 
 
 At night the cold compelled me to keep well 
 under my rugs and blankets, but sometimes I 
 ventured to look out ; and if those black things 
 which I saw beside the road were not what they 
 looked like — wolves, but only what the driver 
 said they were — burnt stumps of trees, I cannot 
 say that I ever saw a wolf in Siberia. 
 
 But I had once a chance of doing so. I had 
 been talking about these animals, and that even- 
 ing, a httle after sunset, the yemschik suddenly 
 pulled up in a dark corner of the forest and said, 
 ' Would you like to see some ? ' 
 
 ' Where ? ' I inquired ^^dth some eagerness. 
 
 ' Well,' said he, ' if you will just walk straight 
 down into the forest there, while I stay here with 
 the horses, I'll bet my bear-skin cap that before 
 you have gone half a verst you'll see some wolves.' 
 
 I did not go. The situation was one in which 
 I appreciated company, and, if it were only a 
 Russian yemschik, it seemed better to have him 
 near. 
 
 Apart altogether from the wolves, the sensation 
 of being alone in a Siberian forest, especially at 
 
188 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 night, has a flavour of its own. I had already 
 had a taste of it in the Trans-Baikal region. The 
 night was calm and clear, but the noonday sun- 
 shine could hardly have dispelled the gloom 
 of that hollow in the woods. It may be that 
 spots as dark, and to all appearance as secluded, 
 are to be found in England, and even in the 
 neighbourhood of busy towns ; but it was not 
 easy to believe it at the time, for imagination 
 insisted upon looking at the actual scene in its 
 relationship to the untraversed wilds around it, 
 and the long interval between it and the nearest 
 human dwelling. It was this which made the 
 situation weird, and quickened one's inner senses 
 into such unwonted acuteness and activity. 
 
 The fir-trees, for ever brooding over some 
 great secret, made morose companions ; but theirs 
 was not the only presence. The Orotchis, in 
 addition to the supreme god Anduri, and the 
 gods of the earth and sea, believe in another 
 spirit which haunts the deep forest shades. They 
 caU him Shahka, and, whenever they pass a 
 spot like this, seek to propitiate his favour. It 
 was not hard for me that night to understand 
 the feeling which led the Orotchis to their belief. 
 The very air seemed to palpitate with super- 
 natural life ; and, with no chirp of bird or hum 
 of insect to disturb the silence, one could almost 
 hear the music of the spheres ; the tread of 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 189 
 
 spirits on the vault of heaven ; the heart-throb 
 of the universe ; and it was a positive rehef when 
 a crash among the shadows recalled one's thoughts 
 to material concerns, as some bear plunged 
 through the saplings, or some decayed giant of 
 the forest fell. 
 
 Sometimes, and more frequently after we 
 passed Irkutsk, we met other travellers going 
 eastward — military men or emigrants ; and at 
 other times we overtook caravans, of perhaps a 
 hundred or more carts, carrying tea to Europe. 
 Almost every caravan we met going eastward 
 was a caravan of big-wheeled barrels, in which 
 vodka, the favourite strong drink of the Russians, 
 was being conveyed from Western Siberia to 
 remote settlements. 
 
 Occasionally when we thought we were alone 
 we were startled by a sudden clank of chains, 
 and, coming round a bend in the forest road, 
 we met a gang of exiles on their way to the prisons 
 of Kara or Saghalien. There were seldom less 
 than two hundred persons in a gang — women 
 as well as men. They wore long coats of coarse, 
 earth-coloured frieze, and were chained together 
 as they walked. A file of soldiers with fixed 
 bayonets marched on either side ; there were 
 vehicles in front for those who were sick, and 
 for the little children of the exiles ; and so, be- 
 neath the shadow of the pines, without a word. 
 
190 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 and with no sound but the confused tramp of 
 feet, and the mournful clanking of the chains, 
 the procession wended its way eastward, never 
 to return. 
 
 Exiles were first sent to Siberia in 1591, and 
 for the last hundred years they have been going 
 there in an almost continuous stream. It is 
 said that from seventeen to twenty thousand are 
 now sent out there every year ; but this number 
 includes many of the near relatives of convicts, 
 who voluntarily go into exile with them, and 
 some who are banished for a few years only to 
 the towns of Western Siberia. 
 
 The gangs of exiles we met on foot consisted 
 entirely of criminals, and included amongst them 
 some of the vilest of the human race. Capital 
 punishment is extremely rare in Russia, and 
 villains who in England would receive a death- 
 sentence, and in some parts of the United Sates 
 be lynched without judge or jury, are in this 
 country sent out as exiles to Siberia. It is said, 
 also, that Russian criminals are generally of a 
 more hardened and desperate type than those 
 of other European countries ; and certainly, if 
 the expression of their countenance may be taken 
 as an index to their character, it is not easy to 
 believe that there are any worse. 
 
 As in other similar companies of outlaws, we 
 noticed many who appeared to have become 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 191 
 
 criminals through the neglect or misuse of their 
 faculties — their moral malady was functional. 
 But one look at others was enough to give the 
 observer the impression that they were born 
 for crime ; that they evidently lacked some of 
 the normal moral endowments of mankind, and 
 ought, perhaps, to be classed with the maimed, 
 the halt, and the blind. Congenital deficiencies 
 and deformities had contributed largely to make 
 them what they were — their moral malady was 
 organic. 
 
 The appearance of the women convicts shocked 
 me most. If not actually worse than the men, 
 they seemed so ; perhaps because of the beautiful 
 background of ideal womanhood against which 
 their moral deformity was shown. Such faces I 
 had never seen. Some of them still haunt my 
 memory — deceit and malignity and other evil 
 passions had traversed them so often, that they 
 had trodden the features into a stony hardness 
 from which nothing beautiful could grow. 
 
 A large proportion of these female prisoners 
 were dissipated women, bloated with self-indul- 
 gence, and apparently dead to every consideration 
 except that of personal profit and enjoyment. 
 Others were evidently the prey of influences more 
 malign. One woman I noticed in the gang 
 walking along, in spite of fetters, with a defiant 
 air ; with black, short-cropped hair, sun-bronzed 
 
192 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 countenance, high cheek-bones, Ups as thin as 
 paper, and compressed so tightly one could hardly 
 see that she had a mouth at all, and eyes — with 
 the very devil in them. 
 
 At some distance behind her was another 
 woman — a different, but probably as desperate 
 a character. Only three or four and twenty 
 years of age, her face of pink and white was sur- 
 rounded by a wealth of flaxen hair, and she had 
 such large, light-blue, dreamy eyes, it was a 
 puzzle for a while to tell whether the look in 
 them was one of childish innocence or precocious 
 maturity of crime. But on closer observation 
 one was irresistibly reminded of that sleek do- 
 mestic animal which sits purring on your knee, 
 with paws as soft as velvet, and the most harm- 
 less-looking creature in the world — until it sees 
 a mouse, and then how the tiger nature of the 
 animal reveals itself as, like a fiend incarnate, 
 she tears the little wretch to pieces ! If this girl 
 had been guilty of the crime charged against 
 her, these feline resemblances were true to life. 
 But the pity of it that the sweet angel-nature of 
 a woman should be brought so low ! 
 
 There were many others there whose faces 
 were engraved with tragic histories, and one 
 would have liked to stop the gang to study them. 
 But a glimpse had to suffice, for the chains clanked 
 to the pace of its advance towards the next 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 193 
 
 turn in the forest road, and in a few minutes we 
 were left to the companionship of the sombre 
 pine-trees and our own more sombre thoughts. 
 
 But some of the gangs of exiles that we met 
 were not on foot, but riding in little carts. They 
 wore convict dress like the others, and so there 
 was nothing in their appearance to indicate 
 superior social position ; but a glance at their 
 faces was enough to prove to us that morally 
 they were of a very different type ; and I was 
 not surprised to learn that these were not criminal, 
 but pohtical, exiles. I have referred already to 
 some such in Tchita, and I met many others 
 afterwards — men and women — in some cases of 
 high character and blameless life, who, because 
 within the circle of their acquaintance tliey have 
 given expression to opinions which are considered 
 to be unfavourable to the existing form of govern- 
 ment, are sent out to spend the remainder of 
 their lives in the desolate seclusion of some remote 
 Siberian settlement. 
 
 There is no doubt that opinions subversive 
 of social order and poUtical stability are particu- 
 larly rife in Russia, but the Government has 
 yet to learn that its policy of severe repression 
 is increasing the evil it wishes to destroy. It 
 is illegal to give a public lecture in Russia, or 
 to call together more than a very Hmited number 
 of people for any private purpose whatever, 
 
 13 
 
194 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 even for a dinner-party in one's own house, 
 without the special permission of the poHce, and, 
 if such permission is granted, it is on the express 
 understanding that detectives shall be admitted 
 to the assembly. The intelligence of the Russian 
 populace is increasing in vigour and activity, 
 and thought cannot be much longer denied 
 utterance. With a continually increasing pres- 
 sure in the boiler, there is only one alternative ; 
 and if in Russian society the safety-valve of 
 free discussion is to continue weighted thus with 
 exile and Siberia, sooner or later the pent-up 
 forces Avill release themselves by the explosive 
 violence of revolution. 
 
 A large proportion of the exiles of Siberia are 
 either political or religious ; but in Russia the 
 distinction between these two classes is not very 
 clearly defined. The Russian Church is so closely 
 connected with the State that dissent from it is 
 a political offence, and the object for which re- 
 ligious Nonconformists are sent into exile is not 
 so much to extirpate false doctrine as to uphold 
 the power of the Government. It is said that 
 there are not less than fifteen millions of Dis- 
 senters in European Russia, and this is evidence 
 of a considerable degree of toleration. So long 
 as a religious sect continues stationary, does not 
 promulgate its doctrines, and only enlarges by 
 the natural increase of its own families, it is 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 195 
 
 generally free from molestation. But when, 
 like the Stundists, a sect becomes aggressive, 
 disseminating its opinions, and seeking to win 
 outsiders to its fellowship, it comes at once into 
 collision with the ruling powers ; and any member 
 of another church — whether Dissenting or Estab- 
 lished — who joins it, puts himself thereby outside 
 the law, and forfeits all claim upon the Govern- 
 ment for the protection of either property or life. 
 The only change of religious denomination allowed 
 to a Russian subject is from one of the sects to 
 the Imperial Church. 
 
 There is no attempt to extort a disavowal of 
 heterodox opinions, and the only semblance of a 
 religious test imposed upon the people is the 
 paying of tithes, and the attendance once a year 
 at the parish church. If there is any narrowness 
 about the clergy, it is rather ecclesiastical than 
 moral. They have their stated round of duties, 
 and they do not allow their calm performance of 
 them to be disturbed by much zeal for righteous- 
 ness, or love for the souls of men. They are very 
 lenient to their parishioners. Habitual drunken- 
 ness, dishonesty, licentiousness, even atheism 
 itself, if not too noisy, seldom provoke serious 
 denunciation, and are regarded as venial offences 
 compared with' that of joining the Dissenters — 
 a mortal sin, which no amount of intelligence, 
 education, or saintliness can palliate. So long 
 
196 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 as a man can keep himself above the suspicion of 
 such a crime as this, the priest will treat him most 
 indulgently ; and, if his tithes are regularly paid, 
 even the annual attendance at church will not 
 be rigorously enforced. 
 
 The priests of the Russian Church have some 
 excuse for their lack of ethical enthusiasm in 
 the restrictions imposed upon themselves. Their 
 duties are rigidly prescribed, and there is little 
 liberty allowed for spontaneous evangelical effort. 
 They are not required to preach, and if they 
 wish to do so they must first submit their sermon 
 to the inspection of the clerk of the diocese. 
 Even after it has been thus inspected, an un- 
 guarded sentence in its delivery may expose the 
 preacher to degradation and imprisonment. 
 
 So far, the efforts of the Russian Government 
 to enforce religious conformity have failed. The 
 more Dissenters it sends out to Siberia, the more 
 there are to send. Exclusion of the light has 
 not so much prevented development as changed 
 its character, and made what would have been 
 otherwise a blessing a curse. In the darlaiess 
 noxious moulds and fungi flourish, and even 
 wholesome plants, if forced to grow there, are 
 apt to assume grotesque shapes and ghastly 
 colours, and acquire deleterious properties. So 
 with independent religious thought in Russia : 
 having been denied the light of day it has had 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 197 
 
 to do its best to flourish in obscurity, and there 
 is perhaps no other country in the world in which 
 that thought has, in the name of Christianity, 
 attained such preposterous developments. 
 
 Many of the Dissenting churches of Russia are 
 of the Lutheran type, and share the beliefs of 
 the most influential parts of Christendom. One 
 modern sect resembles, in name at least, our 
 Salvation Army, for its members call themselves 
 ' Soldiers of the Spirit.' They are great colonizers, 
 and are numerous in some parts of Siberia. 
 Other small bodies of Christians there are, scat- 
 tered about the country, which have also un- 
 mistakably among them the Life which was the 
 light of men. But side by side with these are 
 some of the strangest Christian sects in the world. 
 Most of the dissent of Russia is characterized by 
 a leaning towards the communistic teaching of 
 the earliest days of Christianity, but in some 
 cases it is avowedly seditious and anarchicaL 
 One sect refuses to recognize the State, regards 
 the Czar as Antichrist, and allows no prayer for 
 him. Another sect does not pray at all, teaching 
 that all rites and ceremonies, including prayer, 
 have been abolished by command of God. An- 
 other sect derives its name from its belief that it is 
 wrong to pay taxes. Another openly advocates 
 armed resistance to the civil and ecclesiastical 
 authorities. Another sect obliges its members 
 
198 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 to associate only with one another, and refuses 
 to hold any communication whatsoever with the 
 wicked world. The sect of ' the Denyers ' holds 
 that nothing sacred now exists on earth. Other 
 sects are grossly immoral — some making marriage 
 dissoluble at will ; others prohibiting it alto- 
 gether, and advocating free love. One sect 
 enjoins self -mutilation ; and another teaches 
 that as God called upon Abraham to offer up his 
 son, so He may call upon us to do the same, — 
 and hundreds of children, fourteen years old 
 or under, are said to have been put to death in 
 this way. 
 
 The very idea of sending people into exile for 
 their opinions, and especially for their religious 
 opinions, naturally excites the indignation of all 
 who have been taught to regard liberty of con- 
 science as the inalienable right of man. But a 
 careful study of the eccentricities of Russian 
 religious life and teaching — so grotesque, so im- 
 practicable, and, in some cases, so subversive of 
 all law and order and morality — would show us, 
 perhaps, that the problem before us is by no 
 means such a simple one as we supposed. Other 
 powers might find for these evils a milder and 
 more effectual remedy, but for a despotic Govern- 
 ment like that of Russia the method of dealing 
 with them, however unwise, could hardly at 
 present be other than it is. 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 199 
 
 On my way through this and the adjoining 
 provinces I not only met many companies of 
 exiles, but sometimes stayed in the village where 
 they halted for the night ; and, apart from the 
 question of their innocence or guilt, they had, 
 as prisoners, little to complain of except the 
 hardships inseparable from such a long and 
 difficult journey. Criminals had to travel the 
 whole distance between the Ural Mountains and 
 the Amoor on foot ; but they were never required 
 to walk farther in a day than from one post- 
 station to the next. Free emigrants often do 
 the same ; and so of course must the soldiers in 
 charge of the gang. Political exiles, and such 
 criminal exiles as are pronounced by the medical 
 inspector too weak to walk, have horses and 
 carts provided for them. Neither class of con- 
 victs travels more than three or four days without 
 being allowed one for rest. At the stations 
 where they halt, log-huts are provided for them, 
 and they are supplied with two substantial meals 
 a day, each of which includes beef or fish. 
 
 Arrived at their destination, criminal exiles 
 are generally sent to work in some of the Govern- 
 ment mines, but after about eight years of servi- 
 tude, unless they have been guilty of some flagrant 
 breach of prison discipline, they are set free, 
 and permitted, under the surveillance of the 
 police, to make a home for themselves in one of 
 
200 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 the neigliboiiring settlements. Those who are 
 exiled for their opinions — whether political or 
 religious — are never sent to the mines, but are 
 located at once in one of the towns or cities of 
 Siberia, being allowed to live in their own house 
 and get their living as they choose. 
 
 Such are the Government regulations for the 
 disposal of its exiles, and in the great majority 
 of cases these regulations are faithfully observed. 
 But complications may easily arise. It is not 
 strange if an honourable man, sent into exile 
 for his convictions, has his temper ruffled by a 
 rankling sense of the injustice of his punishment, 
 and if he is in some instances provoked thereby 
 to resent and resist the indignities to which he 
 is subjected. But such resistance is a crime, and 
 renders its perpetrator liable to be transferred to 
 the gang of felons on their way to penal servitude. 
 And if any one, of either class of exiles, has the 
 misfortune to bring upon himself the ill-will of 
 the officials near him, there are plenty of ways 
 in which, outside the law, he may be made to 
 suffer for it. However good may be the inten- 
 tions of the Government at St. Petersburg, and 
 however humane its laws, it cannot, in such a 
 distant and unsettled country as Siberia, exercise 
 efficient control over the executive ; and as 
 throughout the empire there is no free press, 
 the exiles have little except the Christian honour 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 201 
 
 of their overseers to protect them from the freaks 
 of arbitrary power. 
 
 It is not, therefore, at all surprising that 
 irregularities occur, but they do not appear to 
 be as frequent as some suppose. In reading 
 descriptions of prison life in Siberia, we often 
 commiserate as hardships deprivations which be- 
 long to the ordinary lot of Russian and Siberian 
 peasantry. And the actual instances of cruelty 
 and oppression which are from time to time 
 reported, and which, justly enough, fill us with 
 horror and indignation, are breaches of the law 
 which the Government has neither sanctioned 
 nor approved. They are to be classed with the 
 similar outrages which m former times not in- 
 frequently occurred at our own convict stations 
 in Australia, and with the lynchings which are 
 so common to-day in some parts of the United 
 States. 
 
 The convict stations of the Trans-Baikal pro- 
 vmce resemble in many respects ordinary Siberian 
 villages ; there is no insurmountable surrounding 
 wall, and it is by no means difficult for an exile 
 to run away. But more effective than artificial 
 barriers is the broad area of wild, inhospitable 
 forest which on every side surrounds the settle- 
 ment. No one ever thinks of attempting to 
 escape in the winter, nor when winter is ap- 
 proaching, but the spring seems to offer a 
 
202 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 favourable opportunity. The cuckoo is always 
 heard in his season in Siberia. The exiles speak 
 of him as ' the king of the woods ' ; and when, 
 after the long winter, his first familiar call is 
 heard, the prisoners say among themselves, ' The 
 king of the woods is calling, it is time to get 
 away.' 
 
 Every year a considerable number respond to 
 the cuckoo's invitation. The watch is not par- 
 ticularly close, and they need not wait long for 
 an opportunity to slip away unobserved into 
 the forest. But most of them soon find that 
 flight does not mean freedom. Once, on an 
 ocea,n steamer, a thousand miles from land, some 
 ducks whose pen had been carelessly left open 
 flew overboard. When last I saw them they 
 were flapping their wings, and scuttling about on 
 the water, in high glee at their escape. Before 
 night, if a shark had not already snapped them 
 up, they were no doubt bitterly regretting that 
 they had left the ship. Such liberty as the ocean 
 gave those ducks, the forest gives the exile. He 
 may in the autumn sustain life for a time with 
 berries and cedar-nuts, but nothing edible is ripe 
 until the end of summer. The wilds around him 
 are infested by beasts of prey ; the nights are 
 bitterly cold ; and he has no place of shelter. 
 He must not show himself in any village nor at 
 any house, for his passport would be at once 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 203 
 
 demanded, and he has none to show. He dare 
 not even meet a fellow man, except to overpower 
 and kill him ; and it is only by some such des- 
 perate deed that he can preserve his own liberty 
 and life. Plunging into the depths of the forest, 
 a month of continuous plodding will hardly be 
 sufficient to bring him out upon the other side, 
 and, apart from the other risks of such a journey, 
 he finds himself at the very outset perishing with 
 cold and hunger. So formidable are the diffi- 
 culties which confront these fugitive exiles, that, 
 of all those who escape from the convict stations, 
 one-third come back and ask to be readmitted, 
 and one-third perish in the forest, the remaining 
 third only managing to maintain themselves in 
 freedom. 
 
 These escaped exiles — called by the settlers 
 hradyaga or varnahs — are the terror of the Trans- 
 Baikal province. They are said to number not 
 less than twenty thousand. One by one, as they 
 manage to obtain passports, they set out for 
 Europe, keepuig well hidden by the forest while 
 following the direction of the post-road. Most 
 are content to run the risk of travelling with 
 forged papers. An escaped exile who is deter- 
 mined to have a genuine passport must murder, 
 rob, and personate a man who has one. Such a 
 vamak is to be feared. He cannot procure 
 firearms, but has taken care to bring a knife 
 
204 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 with him from the prison, and that suffices for 
 his work. Takmg liis stand beside the forest 
 road, in the morning or evening twiUght, he 
 awaits his opportunity, and then springs into a 
 tarantass upon some soUtary sleeping traveller, 
 cuts his throat, appropriates his papers, hides 
 his body in the forest, and bribing the driver — 
 who is probably himself an exile — to secrecy, he 
 continues his journey with the post-horses in 
 the dead man's name, 
 
 I passed a lonely cottage in which, only a day 
 or two before, a peasant and his wife had been 
 murdered for the sake of their passports by one 
 of these varnaks. Every traveller I met in that 
 region was armed ; and one who for a few hundred 
 miles shared my tarantass, always sat for an 
 hour or two at twilight, revolver m hand, looking 
 down at the road from his side of the conveyance. 
 He insisted upon me doing the same on my side, 
 giving only one direction simple and precise : 
 ' Any man who shows himself here is a bradyaga, 
 so shoot him without a word.' 
 
 Happily, while this bloodthirsty companion 
 was with me, we met no one ; but one day when 
 travel Img alone through a wild part of the Trans- 
 Baikal country, at about three o'clock in the 
 morning, I awoke with a start. The sky was 
 grey with the early dawn ; the yemschik was 
 nodding half-asleep on his box ; the horses were 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 205 
 
 pacing lazily along the track ; and stepping out 
 towards me from the forest, only a dozen yards 
 away, was as desperate-looking a villain as any 
 convict gang could show. He abruptly stopped 
 at the first sight of me, and, seeing that I was 
 prepared for him, slunk back into the forest and 
 disappeared. 
 
 Wliat it was that aroused me at that moment 
 into such alert wakefulness must, like many 
 similar experiences in men's lives, be left as an 
 enigma, — unless what Dibdin's ballad says of 
 sailors is true also of others, and that travellers 
 by land have some sleepless unseen attendant, 
 like the 
 
 sweet little cherub that sits up aloft, 
 To keep watch for the life of poor Jack. 
 
 But what Russian travellers from the East to 
 Europe were that year specially afraid of was, 
 not the knife of the assassin, but the pestilence 
 that walketh in darkness ; for the rumour had 
 spread abroad that cholera had broken out again 
 in Tobolsk and Tomsk, and the post-road crossed 
 the infected region. Central and Eastern Siberia, 
 except on the coast of the Pacific, are free from 
 epidemics ; and, rigorous as is the climate, it is 
 one of the healthiest in the world. Some of the 
 doctors holding Government appointments there 
 complain that they are in danger of forgetting all 
 
206 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 the practical part of their profession, they have 
 BO little to do. The air on the Great Plateau 
 appears to be too cold and pure and dry for the 
 germs of tubercle ; and I did not see a single 
 case of pulmonary consumption, nor even hear 
 of one, throughout the Amoor and Trans-Baikal 
 provinces. 
 
 Acute inflammation of the lungs is perhaps 
 the commonest serious disease, but it either kills 
 its victim outright in a few days, or leaves him 
 with his breathing apparatus unimpaired. Val- 
 vular diseases of the heart also occur here, and 
 generally run a rapid course. Owing to the 
 large amount of salt fish which enters into their 
 winter dietary, scurvy sometimes appears among 
 the peasantry ; and diseases due to an immoral 
 life are not only found among the Russian settlers, 
 but have been communicated by them to the 
 aborigines. 
 
 Considering the amount of talk which has 
 been rife in England on the subject of Siberian 
 leprosy, I was surprised to find it such an ex- 
 tremely rare disease. I inquired for it every- 
 where from Vladivostock to the Ural Mountains, 
 but the very name for it was unfamiHar to or- 
 dinary people, and I did not meet with a single 
 leper from one end of the country to the other. 
 There is a small leper settlement among the 
 Yakuts on the Lena, and another near the coast, 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 207 
 
 but all the lepers in the country, according 
 to the carefully prepared Government register, 
 number less than seventy. Being so few, they 
 are well provided for ; and the poorest of them 
 owns a cow and a plot of land. 
 
 It was stated in the English newspapers, a 
 few years ago, that somewhere in Siberia a 
 herb had been discovered which was a specific 
 for this terrible disease, and a successful appeal 
 was made for subscriptions to send a costly ex- 
 pedition to the Lena to ascertain what this herb 
 might be. The price of a few postage stamps, 
 and a letter to any respectable Russian physician, 
 would have elicited the information that the 
 herb referred to was the well-known sarsaparilla, 
 that it had unaccountably acquired a temporary 
 reputation as a cure for leprosy, but that, after 
 zealously administering it for a considerable 
 length of time to every known victim of this 
 disease in Siberia, with no improvement what- 
 soever, the employment of this herb in the 
 treatment of leprosy had been abandoned. 
 
 It was probably because of the general im- 
 munity from epidemic diseases enjoyed by Eastern 
 Siberia that the rumours of cholera in the West 
 created such alarm. Several of my fellow 
 passengers on the Amoor steamer were so dis- 
 turbed by the reports received, that they gave 
 up the journey, and postponed their return to 
 
208 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 Europe to another year. The prompt and vigor- 
 ous measures adopted by the Central Government 
 to cure, if not prevent, the malady, increased 
 the panic of the people. No attempt was made 
 to warn them against the danger of drinking 
 contaminated water, and filters in Siberia are 
 unknown. If I asked for water, they never 
 brought me any that it was safe to drink. 
 Sometimes it was green, and sometimes brown, 
 and always tainted with decayed organic matter. 
 But, as the average Siberian peasant only uses 
 water to dilute his vodka and infuse his tea, 
 the danger may have been less serious than it 
 seemed. 
 
 There was no stint in the supply of disinfectants, 
 and around every post-station between Irkutsk 
 and Tomsk there was always a strong odour of 
 carbolic acid. Every sniff of it awakened gloomy 
 apprehensions in the people ; but what disquieted 
 them most was the rough wooden shed which, 
 by Imperial order, had been erected on the out- 
 skirts of every town and village as a hospital 
 for those who might be stricken with the disease. 
 Its isolated position, and the new white deal 
 boards of which it was constructed, made it a 
 conspicuous object ; but, in passing the first 
 one I had seen, it was necessary to ask the yem- 
 schik what it was, and putting his hand to his 
 mouth, with awe in his look, he whispered in my 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 209 
 
 ear — as if afraid to hear his own voice utter it — 
 the one word, ' Cholera.' 
 
 The dread of this mysterious enemy produced 
 a strange effect upon the superstitious imagination 
 of the people. In some parts of the country 
 they personified the evil, expecting to see it 
 walk into the settlement in human form ; and on 
 one occasion, a stranger, who appeared suddenly 
 in a village, was declared to be the cholera. 
 The villagers at once seized him, and he was 
 only saved from a violent death by the timely 
 arrival of his friends. 
 
 Towards the middle of this portion of the 
 journey I sometimes found it convenient to hire 
 outside horses. They were cheaper than those 
 supphed at the post-station, and quite as good. 
 Many of the farmers were able to supply us, and 
 some of them were so anxious to earn money in 
 this way, that they often rode out several miles 
 from the settlement to meet in-coming travellers, 
 and strike a bargain with them for the ensuing 
 stage. The disadvantage to the traveller was 
 that tarantasses could only be obtained at the 
 post-station, and if he went elsewhere for horses 
 he had to be content with a telyega — one of the 
 shallow, open wagons already described. Such 
 a conveyance is bad enough in the daytime, but 
 is almost unendurable at night, for, however 
 carefully the baggage is arranged, it is impossible 
 
 U 
 
2i0 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 to find a position in which we can sleep securely, 
 and we have to be thankful for a few minutes of 
 semi-conscious dozing when the road happens 
 to be smooth. 
 
 To make matters worse, there was one night a 
 continual fall of drizzling rain, which, an hour 
 or two before dawn, culminated in a violent 
 thunderstorm. It burst upon us suddenly — a 
 few premonitory rumbles, and then the din of 
 universal battle, as the thunder, peal after peal, 
 crashed and roared and echoed through the forest, 
 while, the dome of darkness round about us 
 riven by the concussion, the gleaming fissures 
 here and there ran down its ebon walls, only to 
 be instantly repaired. 
 
 We were in a fine position to see it all, perched 
 on the top of a pile of baggage, with only the 
 sky above us, and the wild taiga around. And 
 we had to see it to the end, for neither coaxing 
 nor imprecation nor any amount of whip could 
 make our horses face the rain and sleet which 
 the wind was now sweeping furiously along our 
 course. At first there was a sense of danger 
 and of loneliness, but soon the impressiveness 
 of the phenomena made us forget all else — until, 
 drenched to the skin with the cold rain, we 
 became conscious only of intolerable discom- 
 fort ; and then, at last, in our despair we too 
 caught the defiant mood of nature, and told 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 211 
 
 the contending elements to do their worst, we 
 did not care. 
 
 Four hours later we emerged from the chaos 
 of the storm, and of the forest, to see before us 
 on the plain a settler's homestead ; and no palace 
 parlour can appear more cosy to a king than 
 did that well-warmed hut to me, nor can the 
 daintiest dishes at a banquet be more inviting 
 than was that basin of hot bread and milk. 
 
 When we drove forth again, the winds were 
 hushed and the birds were singing. Before us 
 lay the flowery beauty of the steppe ; above us 
 was the calm blue sky ; around us everywhere 
 the genial warmth and golden glory of the sun- 
 shine ; within one short hour pandemonium had 
 been transformed to paradise — ' so soon a smile 
 of God can change the world.' 
 
 We had only passed two small towns, Nijni- 
 Udinsk and Kansk, in the six hundi'ed miles we 
 had already travelled from Irkutsk, but we had 
 not gone far this morning over the undulating 
 plain when we found it suddenly sloping down 
 into a deep broad valley, so broad that the high 
 lands on the other side of it appeared only hke 
 a sinuous purple line on the horizon. This was 
 the valley of the Yenisei ; but the great river 
 keeps so close to the western border that we could 
 hardly see it at this distance, and could only be 
 sure of its position by the city of Krasnoiarsk, 
 
212 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 which stands upon its banks, and whose white 
 church towers, illuminated by the sunshine, were 
 distinctly visible some twenty miles ahead. We 
 reached the river in a couple of hours, the yem- 
 schik driving down into the valley at such a furious 
 pace that when one of our horses fell the two 
 others dragged him along for at least a hundred 
 yards before we could bring them to a stand. 
 
 The eastern bank of the Yenisei was quite 
 busy that day "with a traffic representing very 
 adverse interests. Old topers would have been 
 filled with a hankering desire at the sight of 
 a caravan which had just crossed the river — a 
 caravan of vodka, great hogsheads on wheels, 
 convejring to the settlements of Eastern Siberia 
 the strong rye-spirit of which Russians are so 
 fond, and which so ill repays their fondness. 
 Members of temperance societies would have 
 been delighted to see there, waiting to cross over, 
 a caravan of nearly a hundred cart-loads of tea 
 on its way from China to Europe. Those who 
 were too whimsical to look with any favour upon 
 tea might yet find satisfaction in thinking of that 
 simpler beverage, of which they had such an 
 inexhaustible supply in the clear cold water of 
 the river. 
 
 This river is the largest in Asia, and one 
 of the five or six largest in the world. Rising on 
 the table-lands of Mongolia, 5,000 feet above the 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 213 
 
 level of the sea, before it reaches that level it 
 must run a course of more than 3,000 miles. 
 At the spot where I crossed it, more than 2,000 
 above its entrance to the Arctic Ocean, it is half 
 a mile wide ; and it is navigable for several 
 hundred miles above this place, steamers running 
 regularly in the open season as far as JMinusinsk, 
 on the frontier of the Chinese Empire. We 
 crossed the river with our horses on a sort of raft 
 — a large platform supported on three parallel 
 boats, and which was swung over to the other 
 side by the force of the current acting on the 
 pendulum arrangement already described. 
 
 The province through which this river runs is 
 named from it Yeniseisk. The vastness of Siberia 
 may be inferred from the fact that this one pro- 
 vince is more than half as large as European 
 Russia. Krasnoiarsk is situated on the western 
 bank of the river ; has a population of fifteen 
 thousand ; and, though not the capital, is the 
 largest and most important city in the province. 
 It is well suppKed with churches, and their tall 
 painted towers serve as landmarks for long dis- 
 tances away on the bordering steppes. The city 
 is well laid out, its streets are straight and wide, 
 and it has a considerable number of substantial 
 brick buildings — residences, offices, and shops. 
 One of the latter is known as ' The Enghsh Store,' 
 a name which irresistibly attracted me to visit 
 
214 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 it ; but none of the people about it now are 
 English, and its present claim to the title of 
 ' English Store ' rests only on the stock of Bir- 
 mingham hardware it has for sale. But the 
 business was established by an Englishman, 
 and until quite recently was in his charge. He 
 was greatly interested in the efforts made to 
 open direct sea-traffic between England and 
 Siberia, and when the enterprising English captain, 
 who has been the pioneer of this service, arrived 
 in the Yenisei off Krasnoiarsk, the owner of the 
 * English Store ' at once set out for the ship to 
 offer his congratulations, but his boat capsized 
 and he was drowned. 
 
 Glass and soap and pottery-ware are manu- 
 factured here, and there are some large tanneries ; 
 but the prosperity of the city and its neighbour- 
 hood depends mainly on the mines of the Yeniseisk 
 taiga — the best-paying gold-fields of Siberia. 
 
 It is intensely cold here in the winter, and 
 the low temperature is made more trying by the 
 strong winds which then prevail. In one way 
 these winds are very serviceable — they keep 
 the streets clear of snow, sweeping it away as 
 fast as it falls ; but they cannot melt the ice, 
 and the river remains frozen over for about half 
 the year, 
 
 A hundred miles west of the Yenisei we crossed 
 the Tcholym. At certain seasons of the year 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 215 
 
 this river, which is a tributary of the Obi, is 
 navigable for several hundred miles, and affords 
 a good water-way to Tomsk ; but I arrived 
 too early in the year for this mode of travel, 
 and so had to continue my journey with horses 
 as before. 
 
 The little town of Atchinsk, where the post- 
 road meets the Tcholym, is the centre of one of 
 the principal horse-breeding districts of Siberia, 
 and these animals are so plentiful and cheap that 
 the charge for hiring them at the Government 
 post-stations is only half what it is at the stations 
 farther east. At one village, where the stables 
 of the post-station happened to be empty, to 
 save delay we hired from a farmer a team of 
 three horses and a telyega for the next stage of 
 about twenty English miles, and the total charge 
 for horses, vehicle, and driver was one rouble — 
 or two shillings in English money. 
 
 A good horse — equal to the best at the post- 
 stations — could be purchased for £3 sterling. 
 Cattle were equally abundant. The average 
 price of a milch cow was £1, and I have seen 
 calves a few weeks old sold for Is. 6d. each. There 
 are few other civilized countries in the world 
 where all the necessaries of life can be obtained 
 so cheaply as here. Ten pounds of Russian 
 bread could be purchased for 2ld., a pound of 
 beef or mutton for Id., a hundred cucumbers 
 
216 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 for 2d., thirty-six pounds of potatoes for 2\d.y 
 a fowl for Ihd., a duck for 2\d., and a goose for 
 %d. Fresh eggs were regularly sold at five or 
 six for \d., and new milk at a halfpenny per 
 quart. Most of the settlers build their own 
 houses, but any one wishing to rent a substantial 
 little log cottage in one of the villages could do 
 so for about £1 sterling per year. 
 
 This is a poor district for earning money, 
 though such a good one for economically spending 
 it. The population is not nearly so sparse as 
 in the Amoor and Trans-Baikal regions ; and 
 though the soil is fertile, and a small fraction 
 of it suffices for local requirements, it is impossible, 
 in the absence of cheap and rapid means of 
 transit, to find a market for the surplus produce. 
 The establishment of regular steam communica- 
 tion between the Yenisei and Obi Rivers and 
 the chief ports of Europe would greatly enrich 
 this district, and at the same time confer benefit 
 upon the dense populations of Western Europe, 
 by placing a larger wheat supply at their disposal, 
 and opening new markets for their manufactures. 
 
 A considerable proportion of the present popu- 
 lation of this part of Siberia are Tartars. Except 
 in the large towns they do not mingle with the 
 Russian settlers, but have their own separate 
 villages, which are distinguished by a special 
 style of building, and a central mosque, which 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 217 
 
 looks so much like a church, that I had seen a 
 considerable number of them before I noticed 
 that the gilded object surmounting the tower 
 was a crescent and not a cross. 
 
 The word Tartar — or, more correctly, Tata — • 
 was originally the special designation of a Mongol 
 tribe in the desert of Gobi, but was thence adopted 
 by the people of the West as a convenient term 
 to describe the composite hordes of Turks and 
 Mongols which devastated Eastern Europe six 
 centuries ago. The Manchurian race which now 
 rules the Chinese Empire is often spoken of in 
 the West as Tartar ; but, as generally understood 
 to-day, the Tartars are a Turkish people mixed 
 in various degrees with some of the aboriginal 
 races of Finland and Mongolia. They have 
 crossed the Ural Mountains, and formed large 
 settlements in European Russia ; Kazan, on the 
 Volga, is a Tartar city, but Siberia is their native 
 land. From the banks of the Lena, where they 
 were first heard of, and where they still have 
 the important township of Yakutsk, they have 
 spread over a considerable area of the province 
 of Yeniseisk and the governments of Tomsk 
 and Tobolsk. Most of them are engaged in 
 cattle-breeding and agriculture, but some of 
 them travel about the country buying and selling 
 various kinds of merchandise, and some are 
 employed as artisans in the larger towns. 
 
218 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 The Tartars living on the Lena, and in the 
 neighbourhood of 3Iinusinsk on the Upper Yenisei, 
 are at least nominally Christian ; but the great 
 majority of the Tartars of Siberia are Moham- 
 medans. They are faithful to the outward 
 observances of their religion, dropping down on 
 their knees to pray at the appointed times, 
 wherever they may be, and in whatever com- 
 pany ; but it is to be feared that in most cases 
 their religion ends with these observances, which 
 are valued not so much as a means of virtue as 
 its substitute. 
 
 The Tartar men are moderately tall, broad- 
 shouldered, and strong. Their eyes and hair 
 are black, but their prominent and well-shaped 
 noses distinguish them at once from their Mon- 
 golian neighbours, and are strongly suggestive 
 of Semitic relationship. 
 
 Closely associated with the Tartars of this 
 region, but quite distinct from them, are tribes 
 of another aboriginal people — the Samoyedes. 
 They are a stunted race, and their round fiat 
 faces, with black hair and eyes, plainly indicate 
 their Mongolian affinities. Within the last few 
 years grave-mounds have been discovered near 
 the upper waters of the Yenisei, and from these 
 mounds various remains of the Bronze period 
 have been unearthed, together with a number 
 of what are believed to be Runic inscriptions. 
 
THROUGH IRKUTSK TO TOMSK 219 
 
 These relics most probably belong to the ancestors 
 of the modern Samoyedes, who have many tradi- 
 tional references to this region as the early home 
 of their race. The Tartars who are now settled 
 there must have conquered and expelled them, 
 and since that time the history of the Samoyedes 
 has been one of continual degeneration and 
 impoverishment. Once not only successful agri- 
 culturists, with a very effective system of artificial 
 irrigation, but enterprising miners and skilful 
 workers in bronze and gold, they have quite lost 
 the arts of their ancient civilization. They still 
 cling to the superstitions of Shamanism ; but 
 their character is marked by a degree of firmness 
 and independence, and they have the reputation 
 of being honest and hospitable. Most of them 
 are extremely poor, and they are made still 
 poorer by the avarice of Russian and Tartar 
 traders ; while their fondness for ardent spirits, 
 and the ravages of smallpox, are reducing their 
 numbers more and more, and threaten their 
 speedy extermination. 
 
 Before I reached the Obi River I had hired 
 for this journey not less than 360 horses. Upon 
 the Avhole they served me well, and for axles 
 broken, wheels off, horses down, and other acci- 
 dents, the blame may justly rest on the bad 
 roads, dark nights, and furious driving. But, 
 however good the horses, I had by this time had 
 
220 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 quite enough of this kind of travel, and was 
 more than ready for a change. 
 
 Westward of Marinsk — the second town I had 
 seen since leaving the Yenisei — our road lay 
 through a beautiful country, not wild like the 
 taiga, but suggestive of old parks in England — 
 broad grassy spaces, backed by bossy woods, 
 and cut by winding streams. Then again we 
 entered upon a stretch of treeless steppe, and at 
 about two o'clock one fine June morning the 
 yemschik pulled up at a post-station right on the 
 brink of a steep descent to what appeared to be 
 an interminable plain. In the dim twilight I 
 could see that the slope, and the adjoining portion 
 of the land below, were covered with houses, 
 and I knew at once, before the yemschik told 
 me, that this was Tomsk : I knew it, and was 
 glad, for here the long ordeal of tarantass-riding 
 was at an end. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 FROM TOMSK TO THE URAL MOUNTAINS, BY RIVER 
 AND RAILWAY 
 
 Tomsk city is the capital of a government of 
 the same name, and which covers an area equal 
 to one and a half times that of France. It is a 
 region of most diversified contour. To the south 
 is a mountainous country, with snow-clad peaks 
 1,200 feet in height, gorges filled with glaciers, 
 and open valleys of most fertile soil, either already 
 under cultivation, or persuasively inviting it 
 by the beauty and fragrance of its flora and the 
 general luxuriance of its vegetable life. Around 
 the bases of the mountains to the northward 
 spreads an undulating plateau 200 miles in 
 breadth, and upwards of 1,000 feet above the 
 level of the sea. Its surface is mostly steppe- 
 land, and comparatively treeless ; but around 
 its numerous lakes there is rich pasturage, and 
 extensive tracts are under cultivation. To the 
 northward of the steppe are the lowlands around 
 the Obi River, continuous with the swampy 
 
 221 
 
222 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 tundra which skirts the Arctic seas. The tran- 
 sition from one region to another is abrupt. As 
 there is a sudden fall from the peaks of the Altai 
 Mountains to the plateau, so the plateau itself 
 falls suddenly away by a steep declivity to the 
 level of the north-western plains. 
 
 The city of Tomsk lies just on the margin of 
 the lowland, hugging a portion of the western 
 foot of the ascent to the plateau, so that in 
 approaching it from the east — open as is the 
 surrounding country — one cannot see the city 
 until quite close to it. There is nothing, moreover, 
 to indicate the direction in which it lies except 
 the road, and, as this is a mere track across the 
 steppe which a fall of snow may obliterate, a 
 traveller may be within an hour's walk of the 
 city and yet lose his way hopelessly. During the 
 previous winter a partyof nearlya hundred return- 
 ing emigrants and soldiers thus met their death, 
 the frozen corj)ses of some of them being found 
 within three miles of the suburbs of the city. 
 
 This city is, after Irkutsk, the largest in 
 Siberia, having a population of forty thousand. 
 It has been well laid out, and, though there is 
 nothing striking in its streets, the appearance 
 of the whole city, with its white houses and 
 numerous churches, as seen from the brow of the 
 steppe above it, is both cheerful and imposing. 
 The river Ushaika, spanned by a well-made 
 
TOMSK TO THE URAL MOUNTAINS 223 
 
 bridge, runs through the middle of the city to 
 join the Tom, a fine navigable river, which can 
 be seen winding through the plain beyond the 
 western suburbs on its way to the still larger Obi. 
 
 By far the largest building, or rather series of 
 buildings, in Tomsk, is the university — the only 
 one in Siberia. It was opened in 1889. The 
 buildings had been completed long before, but 
 the Government was so afraid of the heresies 
 and treasons which might possibly be bred and 
 nurtured there, that years were required to 
 screw up its courage to the risk of permitting the 
 inauguration of a Siberian university. Further 
 delay was occasioned by the difficulty of obtaining 
 professors. There appears to be such a wide- 
 spread horror of Siberia among educated Russians, 
 that suitable men could not be obtained for the 
 various chairs except by offering larger salaries 
 than those connected with similar positions in 
 St. Petersburg. Even to obtain students, the 
 regulations had to be made much less stringent 
 than those of universities in European Russia. 
 The medical faculty is at present the most 
 completely equipped. 
 
 Almost all the various industries of Siberia 
 are represented in the government of Tomsk ; 
 its rivers abound with fish, and its forests with 
 game ; in the hilly regions of the south there is 
 mining for gold and silver and precious stones ; 
 
224 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 in the wide valleys farmers have tens of thou- 
 sands of acres of fertile land under cultivation ; 
 and other settlers rear great herds of horses and 
 cattle on the plains. The wealth thus acquired 
 enriches the provincial city, whose importance 
 as a mercantile centre is greatly enhanced by its 
 situation between the water-way to the Ural 
 Mountains and the post-road to the Eastern 
 provinces. For six months in the year, by the 
 Obi and its tributary the Irtish, several lines of 
 steamers run between Tiumen (the terminus of 
 the Ural Mountains Railway) and this city, which 
 is therefore a convenient market for the exchange 
 of European and Siberian merchandise. As it 
 is at Tomsk where emigrants and travellers 
 usually commence their land journey to the East, 
 there is a great demand for carriages, and as 
 many as fifty thousand sledges and tarantasses 
 are manufactured in the city every year. 
 
 The voyage from Tomsk to the Ural Mountains 
 usually occupies a week, but the steamer by which 
 I took passage had a barge in tow, and did not 
 therefore progress so rapidly. But we had the 
 current with us, and a couple of hours after 
 leaving had reached the mouth of the Tom River, 
 and saw around us the broader waters of the 
 Obi. The elevated table-land and bordering 
 hills soon sank below the horizon, and we had 
 on every side of us the beginning of the great 
 
TOMSK TO THE URAL MOUNTAINS 225 
 
 northern plains. The country was so flat that 
 we could see nothing beyond the river-banks, 
 which were covered with forest to the water's 
 edge, and, at the distance of our steamer, seemed 
 only like serrated bands of green and purple 
 separating the expanse of water from the sky. 
 
 In the Tom River we saw a dozen sturdy 
 Russians with a long tow-line hauling a large 
 cargo-boat up towards the city, just as Chinese 
 boatmen do when working against wind and 
 current. Near the junction of this river with the 
 Obi was an immense raft of pine-logs, which was 
 being ingeniously carried up the stream by means 
 of a cable, one end of which was attached to an 
 anchor fixed half a mile or so ahead, and the 
 other to a capstan worked by four horses on the 
 fore-part of the raft. When the raft had nearly 
 reached the anchor, a second one, with another 
 length of cable, was sent ahead in a small boat, and, 
 as soon as it was fixed at the required distance, the 
 horses began again to turn the capstan. A still 
 larger raft was seen a few hours later ; it must have 
 measured from six to eight hundred feet in length, 
 and had a capstan with four horses at each end. 
 
 After the first day we saw neither rafts nor 
 boats of any kind. Every hundred miles we 
 stopped at a lonely wood-station to take in fuel, 
 and generally from one wood-station to another 
 was an unbroken solitude. Little groups of 
 
 15 
 
226 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 islands here and there appeared, and sometimes 
 we saw smaller tributary rivers flowing into 
 ours ; but, apart from these, there was nothing 
 but the increasing broadness of the river to in- 
 dicate that we were not to-day passing precisely 
 the same place we passed yesterday. 
 
 At one wood-station, where our steamer was 
 moored for the night, I had an opportunity of 
 visiting a camp of Ostiaks — another interesting 
 tribe of Siberian aborigines, once very numerous 
 in the country, but now rapidly succumbing to 
 the ravages of vodka and the venom of Russian 
 sensuality. 
 
 Some of these Ostiaks are working as agri- 
 culturists upon the southern steppes ; others, 
 scattered over the northern tundra, keep herds 
 of reindeer ; but the purest specimens of the 
 race are those engaged m fishing on the Obi. 
 They are a diminutive people, the average height 
 of the men being about five feet, and that of the 
 women six inches less. They have dark-brown 
 hair, small eyes, broad flat noses, thick lips, 
 and scanty beard. Their clothing consisted of 
 trousers, tunics, and mocassins of reindeer skin ; 
 and they lived in huts of birch-bark, some of 
 them conical in shape, like an Indian wigwam. 
 
 Birch-bark is not only used by the Ostiaks 
 for house-building ; beaten until it is soft and 
 supple, it serves them for blankets and outer 
 
TOMSK TO THE URAL MOUNTAINS 227 
 
 garments ; and whatever baskets, milk-basins, 
 and clothes-boxes they have are made of the 
 same material. The inner, smooth surface of 
 the bark, which forms the outside of the boxes, 
 is often ornamented with quaint lines and figures, 
 which have evidently been burnt into the tissue 
 with a red-hot piece of iron or stone. Some 
 of these boxes, about a foot in length, and very 
 neatly made, were offered for sale at what some 
 of my fellow passengers considered the exorbitant 
 price of ten kopeks, or 2^. each. 
 
 It is said of the Ostiaks, by those who know 
 them well, that, in spite of the hardships of their 
 life, they are honest and kind ; and from the 
 little I saw of them, I can well believe that such 
 praise is deserved. Their religion, like that of 
 most other native races in Siberia, is Shamanism. 
 Efforts have again and again been made to con- 
 vert them to Christianity, or rather something 
 has been done with this end in view ; it hardly 
 amounts to effort. Simple as is the life of a 
 Siberian priest, he could not, without a good 
 deal of self-denial, spend any considerable length 
 of time among such people as the Ostiaks ; and 
 therefore, if ordered by his bishop to go and 
 convert a tribe of them, he contents himself 
 with making a bonfire of their idols, administering 
 the rite of baptism, and distributing some small 
 silver coins. 
 
228 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 When the priest has left them, the poor, iin- 
 instructed people, feeling lonely without their 
 fetiches, begin at once to manufacture now 
 ones. There is no time for elaborate carving, 
 so, getting an ordinary board, they burn with 
 a hot iron, upon one end of it, the rough image 
 of a face — eyes, nose, and mouth ; and this 
 serves as their mediating divinity, the link 
 between themselves and the spirit-world, until 
 a priest happens to come round again. 
 
 The great defect in the missionary agencies 
 of Russia, as indeed in all the ministrations of 
 the State Church itself, is the lack of instruction. 
 The ritual of the Church is believed to be sufficient, 
 and an intelligent conception of the spiritual 
 meaning of the rites a matter of very subordinate 
 importance. 
 
 Converts are being slowly made among the 
 Buriats of the Trans-Baikal province ; but the 
 only great success I have heard of in connexion 
 with the missionary operations of the Russian 
 Church is the conversion of the Tartar tribes 
 upon the Lena. The method adopted in this 
 case, though so successful, is hardly likely to 
 commend itself to the missionary societies of 
 Britain, but it illustrates the Russian notion 
 of evangelism, and shows not only a shrewd 
 knowledge of human nature, but a readiness to 
 take advantage of its weaknesses. Instead of 
 
TOMSK TO THE URAL MOUNTAINS 229 
 
 sending a band of missionaries to live among 
 them, and lead tliem step by step into the light 
 of Christian truth, a decree of State was 
 passed, and transmitted by Imperial messenger, 
 informing these Lena Tartars that, in recognition 
 of their loyalty and good behaviour, the Czar had 
 by special edict graciously conceded to them 
 the privilege of being admitted to the Imperial 
 Church ; that a band of instructors was on the 
 way to prepare them for the initiatory rites ; and 
 that, at any early date, such of them as had pro- 
 fited by their mstruction would be baptized. 
 
 The bait was successful. The Tartars felt 
 themselves so flattered by this mark of the 
 Czar's favour, that the whole tribe applied for 
 admission to the Church. 
 
 As we proceeded northward the June days 
 lengthened until, when we had passed the latitude 
 of 60°, there was no night at all. The sun just 
 dipped below the horizon, but the sunset glory 
 never faded, and as banners waving above 
 hedgerows indicate the progress of an unseen 
 procession, so the golden splendours of the 
 evening followed the sun's movement round 
 the north until again they brightened into day. 
 Because there was no darkness, we seemed for 
 a while to become oblivious of the time, whether 
 of day or night. Walking up and down on the 
 shore at a wood-station one day, I found it was 
 
230 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 two o'clock in the morning. Not having been 
 accustomed since infancy to go to bed by daylight, 
 I was waiting for the familiar curtains to be 
 drawn. When I woke and called for breakfast 
 it was afternoon, and all the rest of my fellow 
 passengers were still asleep. 
 
 The confluence of the Obi with the Irtish was 
 the limit of our voyage northward, and turning 
 into the latter river we began to steam again 
 towards the south. 
 
 The Irtish, though smaller than the Obi, is a 
 magnificent river, running a course of 2,500 
 miles, three-fourths of which is navigable. The 
 scenery around the lower portions of its course is 
 similar to that upon the Obi — bright water and 
 blue sky, with an intervening strip of low forest- 
 covered bank ; but, the river being confined in 
 a narrower channel, the trees on either side, and 
 any bit of rising ground, seem much larger, and 
 do more to relieve the flatness of the landscape. 
 
 The current was against us now, and, having 
 the broad, heavy-laden barge in tow, our speed 
 was considerably slackened. But wo never 
 stopped except to take in fuel, and on the fourth 
 day after entering the Irtish we turned from 
 it into the River Tobol, which soon brought us 
 to the city of Tobolsk. It had been in sight 
 for several hours before we reached it, the river 
 here running a very winding cour.re, and the city 
 
TOMSK TO THE URAL MOUNTAINS 231 
 
 being made conspicuous by its situation on the 
 top of an isolated crag — a peculiar rocky plat- 
 form, which rises two hundred feet above the 
 surrounding plain. 
 
 Tobolsk is the oldest city in Siberia, dating 
 from the middle of the reign of our Queen Eliza- 
 beth, and it has an ancient, settled look. The 
 population does not exceed fifteen thousand, 
 and is not increasing ; but the streets being 
 wide, and separated from one another by open 
 spaces of grass-land, the city occupies a large 
 area, spreading itself out beyond the surface 
 of the rock, to cover, with its poorer suburbs, 
 most of the flat between it and the river. 
 
 In going from the steamer to the centre of 
 the town we passed through busy streets of 
 little open-fronted shops, where small traders — 
 many of them Jews — offered for sale various 
 kinds of Siberian produce, among which was a 
 very miscellaneous assortment of tanned and 
 untanned skins. The side- walks are paved with 
 planks, which bend and rattle beneath our 
 feet, and look so worn that they cannot be very 
 frequently renewed. In the middle of the city 
 is a square, one side of which is occupied by an 
 immense prison with accommodation for two 
 thousand prisoners. It is chiefly used as a place 
 of temporary detention for exiles on their way 
 to the East. 
 
232 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 One of the strangest exiles ever sent out to 
 Siberia has been located for more than two 
 centuries in this city — the bell of the church 
 at Uglitch, which had the audacity to ring an 
 alarm when Boris Godunoff, to secure for himself 
 the throne, was accomplishing the murder of 
 his nephew the Czarowitz Dmitri. 
 
 Around these emblems of the rigorous govern- 
 ment of an autocratic Czar, twenty-one churches 
 and two cathedrals remind the people of the 
 overruling power of God. Mental culture is by no 
 means disregarded, for the city has in its museum 
 a good collection of aboriginal implements, natural 
 history specimens, and paleontological remains. 
 There are also several educational establishments 
 of good repute ; and most of the girls' schools 
 in Siberia are indebted for their teachers to the 
 Marie Training Institution of Tobolsk. 
 
 This city does a considerable trade in timber 
 and salt fish, but its commercial importance 
 depends mainly on its corn market ; and the 
 small and comparatively stationary number of 
 inhabitants in what was once the capital of 
 Siberia, and is still the chief city of its most 
 populous province, arises from the fact that by 
 far the larger portion of the settlers are engaged 
 in agricultural pursuits. It could not easily be 
 otherwise, for the vast province of Tobolsk, with 
 an area equal to at least six times that of Great 
 
TOMSK TO THE URAL MOUNTAINS 233 
 
 Britain, consists almost entirely of alluvial plains, 
 the only exceptions being the rocky northern 
 extremity of the Ural Mountains, and a few such 
 lonely crags as that upon which this city stands. 
 
 The great plain which we saw on either side 
 of the river, and which is known as the Tobol 
 Steppe, comprises twenty-five millions of acres 
 of rick black soil, and is one of the most fertile 
 tracts of country in the world. Of the one 
 and a half millions of people in the province of 
 Tobolsk, about one million are settled on this 
 steppe ; and the district is said to be more 
 characteristically Russian than the plains on 
 the banks of the Volga. 
 
 The climate is trying to the settlers, but not 
 detrimental to the crops, for, though the winters 
 are terribly severe, the sun in the summer shines 
 through the clear, dry atmosphere with such 
 unusual power, that wheat and other cereals 
 come to maturity with a rapidity which would 
 astonish Western cultivators. The area now 
 under tillage on this steppe amounts to about three 
 and a half millions of acres, by far the greater part 
 of its fertile surface still waiting for the plough. 
 There are other steppes of similar fertility and 
 almost equal size ; and the total arable surface 
 of this province is so extensive, that if only 
 half of it were utilized, enough wheat could be 
 produced to supply all Europe with bread. 
 
234 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 These fertile steppes are in the southern half 
 of the Tobolsk government ; farther north we 
 passed through a very different region — a region 
 still of alluvial soil, but spread out in those vast 
 quivering morasses which form the dreadful 
 urmans of Siberia. For hundreds of miles this 
 region is covered with forest ; gigantic cedars, 
 larches, pines, crowded together in the marsh, 
 the space between them filled with such dense 
 growths of underwood that even in the winter, 
 when hard frost gives solid standing-ground, 
 without a hatchet to clear the way, progress is 
 impossible. 
 
 Outside the forest areas are immense level 
 tracts of open country covered with a grassy 
 carpet of the tender est green, varied by flowery 
 patches of white and gold and pink and purple, 
 and all so smooth, and fresh, and beautiful, as 
 if inviting the traveller to wander there. But 
 such invitation is a delusion and a snare. Only 
 in the winter can these flowery meads be visited, 
 and then they are no longer flowery ; but to 
 attempt to traverse them in summer, except 
 with special apparatus, means being sucked 
 down alive into the grave. 
 
 Even to wild animals these urmans are 
 forbidden ground. The nimble-stepping, broad- 
 hoofed reindeer can sometimes cross them safely 
 in the summer-time, but most other large animals 
 
TOMSK TO THE URAL MOUNTAINS 235 
 
 attempting to do so would quickly be engulfed, 
 and this may be a partial explanation of the 
 remains of mammoth and rhinoceros which are 
 so abundant and so widely diffused through 
 these northern marshlands of Siberia. 
 
 In the museum here at Tobolsk are numerous 
 specimens of mammoth, and throughout this 
 region they are by no means rare. When an 
 ice-pack breaks down a river-bank, or floods 
 tear up a frozen marsh, or the summer thaw 
 penetrates a little more deeply than usual into 
 the ground, some of these antediluvian monsters 
 are sure to be exposed. In many cases they 
 are so fresh and well preserved, with their dark 
 shaggy hair and underwool of reddish brown, 
 their tufted ears and long curved tusks, that 
 all the aborigines, and even some of the Russian 
 settlers, persist in the belief that they are 
 specimens of animals which still live, burrowing 
 under ground like moles, and which die the 
 instant they are admitted to the light. 
 
 The farther one goes northward the more 
 abundant do these remains become. They are 
 washed up with every tide upon the Arctic 
 shores, and some extensive islands off the coast 
 seem to consist almost entirely of fossil ivory 
 and bones. Tusks which have been long or 
 repeatedly exposed to the air are brittle and 
 unserviceable, but those which have remained 
 
236 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 buried in the ice retain the qualities of recent 
 ivory, and are a valuable article of merchandise. 
 There is a great market for these mammoth tusks 
 at Yakutsk, on the Lena, from which they find 
 their way not only to the workshops of European 
 Russia, but even to the ivory carvers of Canton. 
 
 Various trinkets and works of art are made 
 of these remains, and are sold at the shops, 
 and especially at the museum of Tobolsk, as 
 mementoes of a visit to this graveyard of the 
 mammoth. One of the favourite curios very 
 accurately resembled a slice of Russian bread 
 and cheese. But the bread was really a 
 transverse section of one of the long bones of 
 a mammoth, and the cheese was a piece of ivory 
 from his tusk ; the two thus joined together 
 being sold at a price which enabled the ingenious 
 contriver to obtain for himself many times their 
 weight of the homely fare they simulated. 
 
 This paludal region of Tobolsk is not altogether 
 uninhabited. Ostiak hunters roam over it in 
 winter in search of pelts, and even in summer 
 a few of them contrive, with something like 
 snow-shoes on their feet, to penetrate for twenty 
 or thirty miles into these swampy wilds. I 
 saw one day a pair of wild swans rise from the 
 water, near the mouth of the Irtish, and sail 
 far away over the marshes. As from time to 
 time they stretched their long necks to inspect 
 
TOMSK TO THE URAL MOUXTAINS 237 
 
 the country over which they flew, they must 
 sometimes have seen human dwellers there, and 
 with eyes so keen as theirs have recognized that 
 they were not Ostiaks, but white-faced Europeans. 
 
 For some of the best of Russian Noncon- 
 formists, goaded to distraction by oppression, 
 and wishful both to be true to their convictions 
 and to preserve their liberty, have, by toilsome 
 winter explorations, discovered patches of dry 
 land in these swamps, and, joined by such of their 
 relatives and friends as v/ere like-minded, bringing 
 with them a few cattle and bushels of seed-corn, 
 here they have settled with their families, and, 
 protected by these impenetrable wastes of urman, 
 fear no more either the eye of the informer or the 
 hand of arbitrary power. Only the wild swans 
 know where they are, and they will tell no tales. 
 
 Three new passengers joined us at Tobolsk — 
 young men of about twenty years of age — sons 
 of Russian settlers at Omsk, and who, having 
 completed their course at the gymnasium, were 
 now on their way to the University of St. Peters- 
 burg. If they were at all typical of the educated 
 youth of Russia, the prospects of the empire 
 are bright. While frank, honest, and hght- 
 hearted, they had the reverence which taught 
 them to take their shoes off their feet when 
 approaching holy ground. By no means deficient 
 in intelligence or manly independence, they yet 
 
238 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 showed none of that siiperciHousness on the one 
 hand, nor of morbid self-consciousness upon the 
 other, which mar the disposition of so many of 
 the same class of young men in England. 
 
 One of them played the violin \vith rare taste 
 and proficiency, and all three were aspiring 
 vocahsts — if aspiring be an appropriate word to 
 represent their evident desire to reach a lower 
 note than any other bass singer in the world. 
 The first thing in the morning, the last at night, 
 and many times during the day, one or another 
 of them might be heard and seen attempting to 
 run or rumble down the gamut — deeper and 
 yet deeper still, from a groan to a roar, from 
 this to distant thunder, and then a fall to vocal 
 depths which were quite inaudible ; the only 
 sign that the singer was still singing being his 
 attitude and his grimace. 
 
 A voyage of three days up the Tobol brought 
 us to its confluence with the Toora, a small 
 navigable river which runs down from the Ural 
 Mountains. The river systems of Siberia are 
 remarkable for their numerous confluences, and 
 the facilities for inland navigation thus afforded 
 explain the wide dissemination throughout the 
 country of Russian settlements. With the ex- 
 ception of the Amoor, all the great rivers of 
 Siberia run from south to north, but each of 
 them is formed by the union of two other navigable 
 
TOMSK TO THE URAL MOUNTAINS 239 
 
 rivers ; and the course of a Siberian river system, 
 as shown upon a map, may be roughly represented 
 by an inverted Y. Each of these confluent 
 rivers receives its own navigable tributaries, 
 the general direction of whose course is east 
 and west, — and thus regions, not only far apart, 
 but in all sorts of directions, are brought into 
 communication ; so that at certain seasons of 
 the year, with a suitable boat, the whole of 
 Siberia might be crossed from the Pacific Ocean 
 to the Ural Moimtains, with only a few days' 
 interval of land travel. 
 
 The present voyage commenced upon the 
 River Tom, from the Tom we passed into the 
 Obi, from the Obi to the Irtish, from the Irtish 
 to the Tobol, and, last of all, from the Tobol to 
 the Toora — travelling for considerable distances 
 up or down these five rivers without a single 
 change of steamer. 
 
 A fine country lay around us as we steamed 
 up the Toora River. Farmsteads and villages 
 were continually in sight, surrounded by culti- 
 vated fields, or tracts of meadow-land on which 
 large numbers of cattle and horses, and some- 
 times sheep, were grazing ; and there was nothing 
 but the architecture of the churches to remind 
 us that we were not in some of the rural districts 
 of Western Europe. 
 
 The barge we had in tow was left behind in the 
 
240 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 Tobol, so we made more rapid progress now ; and 
 towards the end of June, two days after entering 
 the Toora, and twelve days after leaving Tomsk, 
 we finished our voyage at the city of Tiumen. 
 
 The river here is about as wide as the Thames 
 at Richmond. On its left or northern bank is 
 a low-lying plain, covered near the river with 
 the huts of the poorer settlers. A bridge connects 
 tliis district with the city, which lies on the 
 south side of the river, covering the slopes of 
 a somewhat steep ascent to the plateau and a 
 considerable area of the plateau itself. Most 
 of the houses are built of wood, but they look 
 neat and comfortable, and many of them are 
 surrounded by gardens. 
 
 This city is almost as old as Tobolsk, and 
 has not only a larger population, but its citizens 
 are reputed to be the best-looking people in the 
 country. But this does not mean much ; for 
 however kind and honest and intelligent and 
 persevering the people of Siberia may be, an 
 unprejudiced observer can hardly overlook the 
 fact that nature seems to have fashioned their 
 features into harmony with the rugged aspects 
 of the country in which they live. 
 
 As a trading city, Tiumen is only outrivaUed 
 by Irkutsk and Tomsk, and the enterprising 
 industry of its inhabitants has made it an im- 
 portant manufacturing centre. It has the only 
 
TOMSK TO THE URAL MOUNTAINS 241 
 
 paper mill in the country. The coarse carpets 
 woven in this city are finding their way as Oriental 
 curiosities into the markets of the West, There 
 are over a hundred tanneries, and Tinmen leather 
 is found in all parts of the country ; but a con- 
 siderable number of the hides prepared here 
 are used in the town itself, which turns out 
 every year not less than seventy thousand pairs 
 of top-boots and three hundred thousand pairs 
 of leather gloves. 
 
 But to emigrants and travellers Tiumen is 
 chiefly interesting as the first place of embarka- 
 tion on the navigable rivers of Siberia, and the 
 eastern terminus of the railway across the Ural 
 Mountains. The station is two miles distant 
 from the town, and is an imposing building of 
 red brick, much too large for the requirements 
 of present traffic, which is limited to one arrival 
 and one departure every twenty-four hours. 
 
 Our train left a Uttle before midnight, and it 
 took us, even by railway, two nights and a day 
 to reach the Kama River, on the western side 
 of the range. It was tantalizing to commence 
 this journey in the dark — being impatient for 
 a look at the mighty range of mountains which 
 has been the scene of so many romantic stories. 
 Information received in later days had tended 
 to abate, or to destroy, the awe with which one 
 had been taught to think of the Ural Mountains, 
 
 16 
 
242 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 but I still half expected to see something of the 
 dreadful precipices, dizzy heights, "wild gorges, 
 and gloomy caverns of which I had so often heard. 
 
 Nothing could be seen from the train, for the 
 night was dark, and the lights in the carriage 
 made the outside darker still ; so at length, 
 tired of looking, I fell into a sound sleep, and 
 did not wake again until after dawn. Sure of 
 having a good view of the Urals now, I hastened 
 to the outside platform at the end of the carriage, 
 but it appeared that we had not reached the 
 mountains yet, for whichever way I looked I 
 could see nothing of them. What I did see, as 
 I sat and watched, was a forest of fir-trees, with 
 dense undergrowth of bushes, close up to the 
 line on either side, and, at intervals of half a 
 dozen miles or more, a quaint little wooden 
 station, looking smaller than it was because of 
 the tall cedars which stood round it. Then 
 came a break in the forest, and the line passed 
 through rolling plains of luxuriant grass-land, 
 sloping down gently here and there into a hollow 
 through which some peaceful river flowed, its 
 waters almost hidden sometimes by the groves 
 of willow, alder, and wild cherry on its banks ; 
 and then the shadow of the forest fell upon the 
 line again. 
 
 Some rain had fallen in the night, and the 
 vegetation had enjoyed it, as the beauty and 
 
TOMSK TO THE URAL MOUNTAINS 243> 
 
 freshness of its many shades of green this morning- 
 showed. There was plenty of interesting scenery, 
 but no Ural Mountains. I strained my neck 
 out of the window to look ahead, but there was- 
 nothing between the verdure and the sky. 
 
 Having another twenty-four hours of railway- 
 ride before us, I comforted myself with the reflee- 
 tion that we should reach the awful mountains- 
 by-and-by ; but soon we approaclied a busy town, 
 and as our train drew up at the station I saw 
 with astonishment that it was Ekaterinburg — a 
 town which is represented on the map as being 
 only 350 feet below the summit of the range. 
 
 ' Where are the Ural Mountains ! ' exclaimed 
 a fellow passenger of whom I had ventured to 
 inquire. ' Why, unless you have been looking 
 at the sky, you have seen nothing else all da.y.' 
 
 The Ural chain of mountains is a long one, 
 and its northern and southern extremities may 
 be as wild and rugged as ancient descriptions 
 represent, but the Middle Urals, which we crossed, 
 are simply broad, unbroken swellings of the earth, 
 and, though they attain in one place an altitude 
 of over 4,000 feet, they reach it by a slope too 
 gentle to be perceptible. We must perform a rail- 
 way journey equal to half the length of England 
 to gain an elevation of 1,000 feet, and in no place, 
 to the eye of the observer, can the mountain-side 
 be distinguished from an undulating plain. 
 
^44 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 ^ This region has great attractions for the 
 Russians in its fertile soil and mineral wealth, 
 and spread over the slopes of the Middle Urals 
 are nearly two million settlers. All the platinum 
 and one-fifth of the gold produced in the whole 
 empire are obtained in this region ; and the 
 103 blast-furnaces between Ekaterinburg and 
 Perm supply two-thirds of aU the pig-iron manu- 
 factured in the country. Copper also is abundant, 
 and here at Ekaterinburg the Government has 
 a mint for making copper coin. 
 
 This city is one of the most important centres 
 of the Ural mining industry. It is well built, 
 occupying both sides of the River Isset, and has 
 a population of nearly thirty thousand. The 
 railway affords a good view of it, and its look 
 of prosperity and comfort Is not deceptive, for 
 with its numerous churches, substantial houses, 
 schools, hospitals, orphanage, and museum, it will 
 compare favourably a\ ith any European city of 
 equal size. 
 
 In addition to the mint, the Government has 
 a factory here for cutting and polishing jasper, 
 malachite, porphyry, and other ornamental 
 stones which are met with near the city. Many 
 of the working people increase their income by 
 doing a httle of this kind of work on their own 
 account. The women and children go out and 
 find the stones, and, when they have been carved 
 
TOMSK TO THE URAL MOUNTAINS 245 
 
 into the shape of polar bears, wolves, reindeer, 
 and various domestic animals, the women and 
 children take charge again, and walk up and 
 down the platform of the railway station, or 
 about the streets, seeking purchasers for these 
 specimens of Ekaterinburg produce and handi- 
 craft. Emeralds, amethysts, and other precious 
 stones are also found in the neighbourhood of 
 the city ; and connected with the railway station 
 is a stall, at which Ural jewellery, mounted in 
 rings and brooches of Ural gold, may be bought 
 at reasonable prices. 
 
 What we saw of Ekaterinburg had to be 
 accomplished quickly, for after little more than 
 an hour's delay our train went on again. The 
 scenery was similar to that which we had already 
 passed — woodland, meadows, cultivated fields ; 
 but no appearance anywhere of mountains, nor 
 even of elevated ground, and we did not pass 
 a single tunnel, not even deep cutting, in the 
 whole distance between Tiumen and Perm. 
 
 But we were continually ascending, and in 
 the late evening twilight stopped at a small 
 station bearing the great name of ' Asia.' After 
 a short run beyond it we reached a precisely 
 similar station, called ' Europe.' Both stations 
 were built in lonely spots, the few dwelhngs in 
 their neighbourhood being probably occupied by 
 people connected with the Hne ; but these two 
 
246 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 groups of workmen's houses are supposed to be 
 'the nuclei of future townships called by these 
 high-sounding names. 
 
 They are not merely names. ' Asia ' is a 
 Siberian village, on the continent of Asia, and 
 must bear the burden of the heavier charges 
 for telegrams and postage which it pleases the 
 Russian Government to impose upon its Siberian 
 subjects. ' Europe,' though only two miles 
 distant, is a European village, and has all the 
 .^privileges associated with the name. 
 
 Midway between these two stations is a marble 
 pillar, of triangular section, which has been 
 erected as a landmark by the Government, and 
 so placed that the apex of the triangle lies upon 
 the line of that parting of the waters which 
 indicates the summit of the Ural range. Any 
 spring of water bursting from the ground east- 
 ward of that line will flow down the eastern 
 slope and connect itself with the river systems of 
 Siberia ; a spring to the westward will as surely 
 find its way down the western slope to join some 
 European river. This line of the parting of the 
 waters, therefore, is also the boundary line betAveen 
 the continents ; and so the marble pillar bears, 
 on one of the two sides adjacent to its apex, the 
 name ' Asia,' and on the other ' Europe.' When 
 that pillar was behind me I knew that I had 
 completed my journey across Siberia. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER 
 
 Whatever dangers, either to liberty or life, 
 may be associated with travel in Siberia, it 
 seemed natural enough to think that, having 
 entered Europe, these were passed. But the 
 Russians are suspicious of strangers, especially 
 of strangers from the East, and I was not yet 
 so safe as I supposed. 
 
 Within the confines of the Czar's dominion 
 there was no interference with my movements. 
 Saihng on the Kama and the Volga Rivers, and 
 strolling through the booths of the great fair at 
 Nijni Novgorod, or round the Kreml at Moscow, 
 or about the streets and bridges of St. Petersburg, 
 I was free — as free as a bird is in its cage. The 
 cage was in this case a big one — as big as the 
 Russian Empire ; but, like all other cages, it 
 presented to its inmates on every side impassable 
 barriers and bolted doors. 
 
 The Russian Government has no doubt some 
 excuse for the strictness of its laws, and the 
 
 247 
 
248 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 close espionage under which, its subjects are 
 compelled to live. It is no easy task to control 
 such a great and heterogeneous population — 
 Mongols, Tartars, Finns, and Jews intermixed, 
 but unassimilated with the Slavonic people ; 
 and not in Siberia only, for there are large com- 
 munities of Mohammedan Tartars, and even of 
 Mongol Kalmucks, in the very heart of European 
 Russia. It is easier and more usual for one tribe 
 to learn the vices of another than its virtues, and 
 this may account, in some degree, for the pecu- 
 Uarly desperate character of Russian criminals. 
 
 But it is impossible to have different sets of 
 laws for each separate tribe, and equally im- 
 possible for a despotic ruler to restrain effectually 
 the evil passions of the bad without imposing 
 irksome restrictions upon the good. The meshes 
 of a net must have their size regulated by the 
 kind of fish we wish to catch ; and the penal 
 laws of Russia, expressly made to hinder crime, 
 appear to be based on the assumption that it 
 is better to let ten who are innocent be punished 
 than one who is guilty escape. But Russia is 
 growing fast, and she can hardly fail to learn from 
 these experiments, as other Governments have 
 learned before, that the evils of licence are less to 
 be dreaded than those of tyrannical repression, and 
 that only in an atmosphere of liberty can those 
 virtues flourish which make a country truly great. 
 
CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER 249 
 
 Reaching the Lithuanian city of Vilna, I took 
 a through-ticket to the nearest town in Germany, 
 and after a five hours' run our train reached the 
 little frontier station of Wirballen. We had to 
 wait here while passports were examined, and 
 detectives made a careful survey of the passengers, 
 lest any one under the suspicion of the authorities 
 should slip out of their hands. 
 
 It afforded some diversion to watch the process 
 of inspection, and I was more amused than 
 frightened at the attention which some of the 
 detectives paid to me. Then they retired to 
 consult, and soon after a couple of soldiers and 
 an officer were seen advancing towards the train. 
 Evidently, some suspect had been discovered. 
 As the men were approaching directly towards 
 my carriage, I looked round searchingly at my 
 fellow passengers, wondering which of them it 
 could be, and was not a little astonished when 
 the soldiers came straight up to me, and, seizing 
 my baggage, told me to get out of the train. As 
 soon as I had alighted on the platform, the 
 guard gave his signal to the engine-driver, and 
 the train moved off. 
 
 The colonel who had ordered my detention was 
 a cultured and gentlemanly officer, and he 
 treated me with as much courtesy as was possible 
 under the circumstances. As my passport had 
 been submitted to the inspection of Russian 
 
250 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 officers in every city, town, and village at Vv^hich 
 I had rested for an hour, from one end of the 
 Empire to the other, I was not surprised at his 
 admission that it was not in any way irregular. 
 He would not compromise himself, nor hurt 
 my feelings, by definitely stating the nature 
 and grounds of his suspicion, but M'ould merely 
 say that I had come from Siberia, that my dress 
 and my general appearance told him so apart 
 from my frank confession, and that there were 
 circumstances in the case which made it his duty 
 to detain me until he had received instructions 
 from head quarters at St. Petersburg. 
 
 The soldiers were not so reticent. They 
 plainly told me that I was not an Englishman, 
 but a Russian ; that my blundering way of 
 speaking the language was a pretence ; that 
 there was reason to believe me to be an escaped 
 exile ; and that the passport produced by me 
 had no doubt been taken from some traveller 
 whom I had murdered. When I innocently 
 called attention to other proofs of my identity — 
 a banker's letter of credit, visitmg cards, pocket- 
 book, and correspondence — the soldiers gave a 
 knowing chuckle, and replied, that of course 
 when I took the passport from the traveller I 
 took his other papers too. 
 
 Wirballen, or, as tlie Russians call it, Verzh- 
 bolovo, is only a small village, and most of its 
 
CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER 251 
 
 inhabitants are either persons employed on the 
 railway, or Government officials. The surround- 
 ing country consists of meadow-land and corn- 
 fields, dotted here and there with farmhouses 
 and clumps of trees. I had to sleep in the 
 waiting-room at the railway station, but was 
 allowed to walk about freely in the neighbourhood 
 of the village, though no doubt under continual 
 observation. No food was provided ; and as 
 my stock of Russian currency was running low, 
 and could not be easily replenished in a village 
 too small to possess a bank, I had to exercise 
 the most rigid economy, and be content with 
 the homeliest fare. Having purchased a big 
 loaf of bread, a slice from it whenever I felt 
 hungry enough to appreciate such wholesome 
 dietary, with a drink of water from a spring, 
 had to serve me for my daily meals. 
 
 I went out one day to a little farmhouse 
 near the village in the hope of being able to 
 procure some milk, but rumours had got afloat 
 of the dangerous character who had been arrested 
 here, and the people were afraid. Several 
 women were moving about in the farmyard 
 when first I turned towards it, but the place 
 was quite deserted v/hen I arrived, and, though 
 I knocked at the door and shouted for a quarter 
 of an hour, no one ventured to appear. 
 
 The same evening, towards dusk, when walking 
 
252 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 quietly along a country lane, I saw three gentle- 
 men approaching. They were dressed as if 
 going to a party, and were engaged in such 
 earnest conversation that they did not notice 
 me until they had approached within a dozen 
 yards, when all at once, as if panic-struck, they 
 scrambled up the bank into the fields. 
 
 One morning I strolled on to the highway 
 which crosses the frontier into Germany. The 
 boundary line between the two countries is 
 marked by a deep, narrow, grass-covered gully, 
 at the bottom of which is a ditch. A small 
 wooden bridge connects the two banks, but 
 beyond the bridge on the German side I could 
 see nothing, the road turning abruptly to the 
 left behind a mass of shrubbery and trees. 
 
 A soldier was guarding the Russian end of 
 the bridge, and there were other soldiers in the 
 house beside it. Market women, with baskets 
 on their arm, were crossing in one direction or 
 the other frequently. Each one showed her 
 passport to the soldier and went on ; but, as 
 soon as I was spied upon the road, an alarm was 
 given, and several soldiers with fixed bayonets 
 stood out across the entrance to the bridge. 
 They had evidently been warned that I might 
 attempt to get across the frontier with a rush. 
 The span of the bridge was only about thirty 
 feet, and if I could reach the other side of it 
 
CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER 253 
 
 I should be free ; but it would be madness for 
 any one whose life is not already forfeited to face 
 the risks of such a rush. ' I only want to look 
 at the bridge,' I said. ' But you cannot be 
 allowed to look,' the officer in charge replied, 
 * and must at once go off this road.' 
 
 Not being sufficiently interested in the skilful 
 marksmanship of Russian soldiers to lend myself 
 as a target for their rifle-practice, I retraced my 
 steps. 
 
 Life in Wirballen was becoming somewhat 
 monotonous. I had watched the coming and 
 going of the trains at the station, explored every 
 street and alley of the village, and there appeared 
 to be no interesting occupation left. But when 
 I asked permission to return to St. Petersburg 
 or som« other Russian town, they told me in 
 reply, that if I would be patient for a few days 
 longer I should probably find myself on my way 
 back to Siberia. 
 
 The British Embassy at St. Petersburg, in 
 reply to a telegram of mine, returned a prompt 
 promise of assistance ; but the Russian police 
 insisted upon such a complete investigation, 
 extending as far back as the remotest Siberian 
 settlements, that, though the inquiries were 
 made by telegraph, they involved a considerable 
 expenditure of time ; and it was not until the 
 evening of the third day that the colonel in- 
 
254 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 formed me, by a note in French, that a message 
 had just arrived from St. Petersburg ordering 
 my release, and that I was at liberty to cross 
 the frontier whenever I wished. 
 
 Naturally, I wished to do it there and then. 
 If the cage-door is open, the sooner one gets 
 outside the better, lest it should close again. 
 As no train was leaving for the West until the 
 following morning, I hired a cart, and at once 
 set out for the German railway station at Eydt- 
 kuhnen. As we turned into the road which 
 leads to the frontier, the sentry at the bridge 
 again gave the alarm, and the soldiers ran out 
 from the house to block the passage. Waving 
 the letter in my hand, I told the driver to 
 go on, but we were forced to stop at a con- 
 siderable distance from the bridge while the 
 epistle was examined. It was passed from one 
 to another, and they all declared it to be a 
 forgery. In vain I protested, and in vain the 
 driver helped me. The only favour the soldiers 
 could be persuaded to allow, was to let one of 
 their number go with me to the colonel for a 
 verbal confirmation of the note. 
 
 A soldier joined me in the cart, and back we 
 went to the town again. The delay was vexing, 
 and all the more so because I had hoped to 
 catch a train which was that night leaving the 
 German station for Berlin. But this was not 
 
CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER 255 
 
 the last of my vexations. In springing from the 
 cart at the officer's residence a projecting nail 
 caught the soldier's trousers and gave them an 
 ugly tear, so the man sprang back again into 
 the cart, made the driver move on a few hundred 
 paces, and declared that he would not present 
 himself before the colonel until his torn garment 
 was repaired. The carter borrowed a needle 
 and thread from a roadside cottage ; and while 
 I endeavoured, with indifferent success, to look 
 on with equanimity, the soldier proceeded de- 
 liberately to stitch up the long rent. Then we 
 went in to see the colonel. 
 
 He did not, of course, repudiate his letter, so 
 we were soon on our way to the bridge once more. 
 There I had to wait for half an hour while the 
 officer in charge took a copy of my passport, 
 and wrote out a description of my dress and 
 appearance. Then I received permission to 
 proceed ; and when the hollow beat of the 
 horse's hoofs upon the bridge told me that I 
 was outside the cage at last, I felt inclined to 
 give expression to my feelings by an English 
 cheer. But just then, at the bend of the road, 
 I was confronted by two tall German soldiers, 
 and for a few moments seemed in danger of 
 being a sort of shuttlecock between the keepers 
 of the two ends of the bridge. 
 '[_ But as soon as the German soldiers knew my 
 
256 ACROSS SIBERIA 
 
 nationality they handed back my passport, would 
 not trouble me to open my portmanteau, said 
 that, if I had come across Siberia, I must have 
 had already my full share of annoyances ; and, 
 telling the carter to drive on, they shouted after 
 me their wish that I might have a quick and 
 pleasant journey home to England. 
 And so I had. 
 
 
 Printed and hound by Hazell, WaUon £ Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury. 
 
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