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 OiS U.C. Libiary
 
 EOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA
 
 Front is piece.\ ROBERT L. JEFFERSON
 
 EOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE TRANS-SIBEBIAN 
 
 BAIL WAY, AND THE G0LD-3IINING 
 
 INDUSTRY OF ASIATIC BUSSIA 
 
 EOBEET L. JEFFERSON 
 
 AUTHOE OP " AWHEEL TO MOSCOW," " ACROSS SIBERIA ON A 
 BICYCI-E," ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 LONDON 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY 
 
 LIMITED 
 
 5t. Sungtan's ^ouic 
 
 Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, E.G. 
 
 1897
 
 
 To 
 
 JOHN KEMP STARLET, ESQ. 
 
 Dear Me. Starlet, 
 
 Appreciating the j^ractical and 
 sympathetic interest which you have for 
 some years taken in Russian affairs, I 
 venture to dedicate this volume of mine — 
 " Roughing it in Siberia " — to you, as a 
 small token of my esteem. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Robert L. Jefferson. 
 
 ^s^ 
 
 5j':. O '*5 f" 'H
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. The First Day in Asia ... ... ... 1 
 
 II. Eussia's Colonization Scheme ... ... 12 
 
 III. Arrival at Omsk ... ... ... ... 31 
 
 IV. A MOST Palatial Hotel! ... ... 4,3 
 
 V. Across the Steppe ... ... ... ... 55 
 
 VI. In the Obi Valley ... ... ... 68 
 
 VII. Impressions op Tomsk ... ... ... 79 
 
 VIII. The End of the Railway ... ... 101 
 
 IX. Krasnoiarsk ... ... ... ... 120 
 
 X. Down the Yenesei ... ... ... 138 
 
 XT. An Exciting AcvENTrRE ... ... ... 152 
 
 XII. Nearing the Chinese Frontier ... ... 166 
 
 XIII. In the Syansk Mountains ... ... ... 181 
 
 XIV. Siberian Gold-mining ... ... ... 195 
 
 XV. Life at the Mine ... ... ... ... 210 
 
 XVI. A Trip into China ... ... ... 224 
 
 XVII. Looking Westward ... ... ... ... 241
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 TO FACE r.\GP. 
 
 Portrait of the Author ... ... Frontispiece 
 
 Sketch Map of the Author's Eoute ... ... 1 
 
 A Train on the Trans-Siberian Kailway ... ... S 
 
 Emigrants at Chelabinsk ... ... ... 16 
 
 Omsk ... ... ... ... ... ... 40 
 
 A Station on the Siberian Railway ... ... 64 
 
 Tomsk ... ... ... ... ... ... 80 
 
 Krasnoiarsk from ihe Eiver ... ... ... 112 
 
 The Yekesei Eapids — Summer ... ... ... 136 
 
 On the Yenesei — Summer ... ... ... 160 
 
 Minusinsk ... ... ... ... ... ... 16S 
 
 Karatuski ... ... ... ... ... 176 
 
 Gold-mining Apparatus on the Upper Yenesei ... 192 
 
 Tribute Workers in the Syansk Gold-mines ... 208 
 
 Our Camp in the Mountains ... ... ... 224 
 
 A Gold-mine on the Top of the Syansk Mountains 240
 
 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE FIRST DAY IN ASIA. 
 
 The short winter clay was waning when the 
 Chelabinsk train, seven clays out of Moscow, 
 sluggishly passed the big stone erected in a 
 defile in the centre of the Ural mountain range, 
 and which marked the geographical boundary 
 of Europe and Asia. Since yesterday, when 
 we had left the level plains of Eastern Europe 
 for the uplands of the Urals, the pace had 
 been tantalizingly miserable. Some people 
 say that man can get accustomed to anything, 
 but it absorbs an enormous amount of patience 
 in getting accustomed to Russian railway 
 
 B
 
 2 ROUOniNQ IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 travelling; the further eastward one goes, 
 the slower becomes the pace, the longer the 
 stoppages at insignificant stations, and the 
 greater the demonstration — beating of tin cans, 
 blowing of whistles, and ringing of bells — which 
 accompanies each arrival and departure. But 
 now, with Europe behind, the whole wealth of 
 Asia before one, combined with the uncertainty 
 of the unknown, and which was backed up 
 by popular prejudice and travellers' romantic 
 tales, the thinking man has food for reflection, 
 and much of it. 
 
 We were rounding curves, sharp ones too, 
 on a badly ballasted track, that caused the 
 heavy Russian cars to oscillate alarmingly, 
 notwithstanding the crawl at which we w^ere 
 proceeding. The views to be obtained from 
 the carriage windows were superb, in spite of 
 the wintry aspect which everything bore. 
 It was January — time of deep snow, frozen 
 rivers, and biting atmosphere — everything 
 around (except the interior of the car) was 
 wintry to the last degree. Snow piled up in
 
 THE FIRST DAY IN ASIA 3 
 
 great drifts on the sharp spurs of the mountain- 
 side ; the branches of the melancholy birches 
 bowing down with the weight of their snowy 
 covering; icicles hanging in the crevices of 
 the rocks, where, in summer, splashed a moun- 
 tain cascade. Deep below us, in a narrow 
 gorge, lay the tortuous course of a fast-flowing 
 river, but now frozen to its very bed, and 
 its surface cut and streaked by the runners 
 of many sledges. Now and again we could 
 catch a glimpse of some woodman's hut 
 perched up on the hillside — a veritable house 
 of snow, and as cold and bleak-looking as 
 any one could think to see. 
 
 Hurtling violently around the corner, we pass 
 a level-crossing, where stands a caravan of 
 patient horses waiting to cross, with white 
 frost hard on their shaggy coats, and icicles 
 from their eyes and nostrils ; a sheepskin-clad 
 moujik, with fur hat over eyes and ears, and 
 feet encased in huge felt boots, complacently 
 puffing at a stunted papiros. Here, too, an 
 old woman comes out to flao; the train — a
 
 4 BOUQHINO IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 woman who looks, from the amount of heavy 
 clothinir she wears, more like an animated beer 
 barrel than a hmnau being, and on whose 
 stolid visage is nothing except an expression 
 of tremendous importance at the position she 
 occupies in the service of His Imperial Majesty 
 Czar Nicholas the Second. 
 
 Darkness fell ; my three companions were 
 asleep. The conductor came and inserted in 
 glass boxes at each end of the long car two 
 diminutive candle-ends, the wicks of which 
 he lighted laboriously. He looked at the 
 thermometer to see how far off roasting we 
 were, and then, after gazing superciliously 
 around, left us. The heat in the car was 
 fearful, beads of perspiration stood out on the 
 faces of my sleeping companions, and yet this 
 is only the Russian way of doing things. 
 The Reaumur glass outside showed thirty-six 
 degrees below freezing-point ; inside, the heat 
 was sufficient to almost roast one. And thus 
 for seven days had we sat and lounged, 
 talked and read, and stewed gradually, with
 
 THE FIRST DAY IN ASIA 5 
 
 no greater diversion than the rush for the 
 biifTet at each station, an occasional row with 
 some blustering traveller who would hustle us 
 for places, or the periodical breaking down of 
 the locomotive, which event occurred about 
 once a day on an average. 
 
 It was impossible to read, for the light in 
 the car was so dim that one could scarcely see 
 a couple of yards away. The train jolted and 
 groaned and jarred, the candles flickered and 
 guttered, people in the adjoining berths snored, 
 a child was wailing dismally at the other end 
 of the carriage ; the heat became more in- 
 tolerable, and I thanked Heaven when, two 
 hours after darkness had fallen, the creaking 
 of brakes and the distant rinc^ino- of bells 
 announced our immediate arrival at Chelabinsk 
 — the terminus of the European system of the 
 Russian State Railways . 
 
 The arrival of a train at a Russian station is 
 attended with an amount of excitement which 
 it is hard to associate with the usually stolid 
 Russian. Particularly is this so in Eastern
 
 6 ROUQEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 Eussia, where railways are new and interesting. 
 As the train slowly steams in, the assembled 
 mob of sightseers and officials raise shouts of 
 welcome — at least they seem to be. A man 
 hard by the ticket-office performs a terrific 
 tintinabulation on a large suspended bell. 
 All the conductors blow whistles, while the 
 locomotive syren goes off in spasmodic squeal- 
 ings. Slowly, but with many jerks and much 
 grinding, the train comes to a standstill. But 
 the passengers are not allowed to descend all 
 at once. First of all the ensrine-driver must 
 get off and shake hands with the first half- 
 dozen men that happen to be hanging about 
 near, no doubt receiving in return a sort of 
 congratulatory address to the effect that he 
 has got so far safely. Half a dozen gaily 
 caparisoned policemen, in red hats with white 
 cockades, and armed to the teeth with revolvers 
 and swords, parade up and salute gravely. All 
 the conductors get off — there seems to be 
 quite a crowd of them. All salute a red-hatted, 
 despotic-looking individual, who is gazing
 
 THE FIRST DAY IN ASIA 7 
 
 about with tremendous scorn and indifference, 
 as if this sort of thing was very boring, 
 although ten to one his heart is thumping 
 with pride and excitement ; for he is the 
 stationmaster, salary one hundred pounds a- 
 year, princely for him, indeed. This indi- 
 vidual, on thoroughly satisfying himself that 
 beyond the possibility of the remotest doubt 
 the train is really there, raises his hand as if 
 he were about to pronounce a benediction, and 
 instantly there belches from the heart of the 
 mob a smaller mob of much-bewhiskered men 
 in white aprons. These are the porters. 
 These gentlemen throw themselves upon the 
 train in a frenzy of hurry ; tear open the 
 doors, push, scramble, and fall over each 
 other in their endeavours to get in first, and 
 ultimately disappear from view. The crowd 
 outside grows silent in expectancy ; but the 
 racket which proceeds from inside the train 
 tells eloquently that the porters are doing their 
 fell work. The cars now begin to disgorge 
 boxes and men, bundles and women, baskets
 
 8 BOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 and babies, everything mixed up, everybody 
 talking. The crowd outside parts, and the 
 Qxowdijust out slides over the slippery platform 
 in a hard mass to the buffet doors. These 
 always open outwards, and are generally just 
 wide enough for a thin man to get in sideways. 
 Then the crush commences. You are in the 
 middle of the crowd with a corner of a box in 
 your ear and four men standing on your feet. 
 You worm and edge your way out of reach of 
 the box and run your chest against the side of 
 a kettle, blacker than the blackest hat, and 
 which is tied around the neck of an evil- 
 smelling moujik in front of you. Somehow 
 the door gets open ; the janitor inside scuttles, 
 in order to prevent being swept off his feet. 
 In we squeeze, and find ourselves in a long 
 white-washed apartment, heated to a suffocating 
 dcOTce. 
 
 CD 
 
 Down the centre of the apartment runs a 
 long table covered with glasses, plate, and 
 cutlery. Over on one side is a long bar, 
 covered with smaller glasses and large bottles.
 
 THE FIRST BAY IN ASIA 9 
 
 mostly containing voclki, as well as at least 
 half a hundred dishes of the hors cVceuvre 
 style — sardines, bits of sausage, sprats, 
 caviare, sliced cucumber, pickled mushrooms, 
 artful dabs of cheese, raw radishes, smoked 
 herring, and such like. For the nonce the 
 crowd ignores the long table, equally so 
 a kitchen-like arrangement in the corner 
 where steams a heterogeneous mass of cutlets 
 and " Russian " beef-steaks, and which is 
 presided over by a couple of marvellously 
 clean-looking men who are rigged out d la 
 chef. Vodki is the lodestone of the arrived 
 passengers. Each man gulps down a small 
 glass of the fiery liquid, seizes a piece of 
 fish, or sausage, or cheese, or whatever he may 
 fancy or may be handy, and subsides to the big 
 table, chewing vigorously. Energetic waiters 
 pounce upon him, lay before him a big plate 
 of the universal " stche," or cabbage soup, over 
 which our Russian hangs his head and com- 
 mences ladling away, apparently oblivious to 
 its boiling heat or the feelings of the people
 
 10 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 ciround. The tables fill uj). Great slabs of 
 brown meat, floating in fat, are distributed with 
 rapidity, and wliicli are with equal rapidity 
 demolished. Manners are delightfully absent. 
 People jostle, growl, and gulp ; smoke iiapiros 
 and puff the smoke in each other's faces ; or 
 make the most diso-ustino- noises with their 
 mouths. At last, having got through several 
 pounds of meat and fat, and drunk about six 
 to eight glasses of lemon-coloured hot water, 
 which is called tea, per man, the crowd 
 lounges around in contentment, and waits 
 patiently for the bell to announce the probable 
 departure of the train — which may be anything 
 in the reo^ion of one hour to four, or while there 
 is a bit of food in the buffet uneaten. 
 
 What a relief to get out of such an evil- 
 smelling mob and the heat and general 
 nauseating surroundings, and, wrapt warmly in 
 furs, to] promenade the ice-covered platform ! 
 They have unscrewed the engine from the 
 cars, and it has disappeared into the blackness 
 of night on a search for wood and water.
 
 THE FIRST DAY IN ASIA 11 
 
 At one end of the platform the third and 
 fourth class passengers, peasants of the 
 humblest order, are huddled together — sitting 
 or lying, some asleep, some laughing boister- 
 ously — a group of girls in their midst crooning 
 forth a wailing song to the accompaniment 
 of a harmonica, the national musical instru- 
 ment of the Russian moujik. Over to the 
 left, twinkling lights denote the town of 
 Chelabinsk. Eastward all is black, save for 
 the blinking of a signal light a mile away. 
 That is the road to Siberia, and here is the 
 commencement of the Trans-Siberian Railway.
 
 12 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 Russia's colonization scheme. 
 
 I haven't yet introduced you to my com- 
 panions. Thomas Gaskell, citizen of tlie United 
 States of America, sliort, fair, a little bit bald, 
 with a record of having travelled through the 
 whole of Asia from end to end, and still only 
 twenty-eight years of age. John Scawell, 
 British subject, tall, dark, reserved, and just 
 fresh from Western Australia, India, and the 
 Transvaal. Evan Asprey, also British subject 
 and also slightly bald, medium height, fair 
 and good to keep close to, as he had already 
 spent five years in Siberia, and was the only 
 one amongst us who understood clearly more 
 than twenty words of Russian. Here w^e 
 were, then, at the commencement of Siberia,
 
 EUSSIA'S COLONIZATION SCHEME 13 
 
 and bound to one of the wildest regions of 
 that wild country — the Syansk Mountains 
 on the Chinese frontier. Our mission was 
 one entirely of peace, although the customs 
 officials at the Russian frontier had con- 
 fiscated Scawcll's Mannlicher rifle and Webley 
 revolver, and might have done the same 
 with my Smith and Wesson, if I hadn't had 
 it up my sleeve at the time. We were 
 going out just to see what Siberia was like. 
 Half pleasure, half business. People at home 
 thought Siberia was a land of promise. The 
 Trans - Siberian Railway was opening the 
 country. Germans with a loose eye for busi- 
 ness had announced their intention of lookino: 
 up Asiatic Russia. Being English, we wanted 
 to get in also — if not the first, at least in 
 the van. 
 
 The station at Chelabinsk was not a cheer- 
 ful place to spend six hours in — for that was 
 the amount of time which had to lapse ere 
 the train bound for Kreveschokovo on the 
 banks of the river Obi was billed to leave.
 
 14 BOUGHINQ IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 Gratuitous iuformatiou concerning the Trans- 
 Siberian Kailway was freely offered by fellow- 
 passengers, and we began to fear the worst. 
 Tales about three hours' stoppages at small 
 stations ; half a day here and a day there. 
 No bridges over the Obi and Chulim rivers ; 
 so that the monotonous train journey should 
 be relieved by a little sledging. An affable 
 man is the Russian traveller, and a cheerful 
 liar. The Russian for " I know " and " I do7i't 
 know " are so nearly alike that only a Russian 
 can tell the difference, and maybe this is why 
 he would rather tell an untruth than confess 
 ignorance. Beneath his affability, however, 
 the observer can easily detect a purpose. His 
 soul-absorbing desire is to know who and what 
 you are, where from, where going to, and 
 what you are going to do. "What do you think 
 of Russia ? How old are you ? Will England 
 let Russia have Constantinople ? How many 
 millions of roubles have you got ? Have you 
 seen absolutely the finest city, and the finest 
 street in the world — St. Petersburs^ and the
 
 JRUSSIA'S COLONIZATION SCHEME 15 
 
 Nevsky Prospect respectively ? If one is wise 
 he will be frank. But the torrent of reiterated 
 questions at every fresh acquaintance becomes 
 boring after a bit, and oftentimes we preferred 
 to keep in our bunks in the train rather than 
 be compelled to go over the jargon of stereo- 
 typed replies in the buffet. English is almost 
 unknown in this region of the Urals ; next to 
 Eussian, German seems the language most 
 freely spoken. Military officers and function- 
 aries of upper rank know French, but English 
 we never heard spoken in all our railwav 
 journey from Moscow. I tliink that some- 
 times we wxre looked upon as curiosities, if 
 one might judge from the number of glances 
 and finger points directed towards us, and 
 the oft-repeated word " Anglichiny," or 
 "Englishman," when circumstances compelled 
 us to declare our nationality. But I must 
 say that though they were inquisitive we were 
 invariably treated with respect by our fellow- 
 travellers. 
 
 But on one occasion, three overbearing
 
 16 liOUGIIING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 Russian functionaries, who arc revered as 
 Chinovniks, tried to take advantage of our 
 slim knowledge of things Siberian. The 
 Russian cars, I might say, by way of pre- 
 face, are built on the side-corridor principle ; 
 each coupe is designed to hold four persons — 
 two on racks, which are formed by lifting up 
 the back of each seat and securing them by 
 means of iron outswinging tee-pieces, and two 
 on the main seats themselves. AVe had 
 liberally bribed our porter to get us a complete 
 coupe, but it was while we were partaking of a 
 last glass of tea in the buffet that the three 
 Chinovniks referred to, being probably dis- 
 satisfied with their own quarters, removed our 
 ba2;c;ao;e and installed themselves in our 
 places. One of us had slipped out of the 
 buffet to see that nothing was being stolen, 
 and brought back the dismal news. There 
 was scant hope of our getting justice, but 
 we awaited our opportunity. Thinking them- 
 selves safe, the Chinovniks could not resist 
 the fascination of tea-drinkiug, and their
 
 "^
 
 liUSSIA'S COLONIZATION SCHEME 17 
 
 departure was a signal for a combined attack 
 on their baggage, its removal, and the replace- 
 ment of our own. The Chinovniks returned 
 as the train was on the point of leaving. 
 They glared at us. We gazed blandly back. 
 They spoke loudly and long to us. We re- 
 plied by unrolling our blankets and pillows 
 and preparing for slumber. They raved at 
 us ; but we only looked at them with mild 
 reproach. They fetched the conductor, who, 
 after listening to their tale, which was shouted 
 with three voices in his two ears, addressed 
 a question to us, which to three of the four, 
 at any rate, was as incomprehensible as 
 Afghan or Volapuk. We could only fall back 
 upon our standard saviour, and that was 
 to cry simultaneously, " Neo panimio paa 
 Rushi I " — " I don't understand Russian ! " 
 The conductor slirugged his shoulders and 
 looked inquiringly at the Chinovniks. The 
 Chinovniks raised their voices in their great 
 ire, and then the conductor did absolutely the 
 wisest thing he could, and that was to leave 
 
 c
 
 18 BOUOHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 the car. The Chinovniks were nonplussed, 
 vocal persuasion had utterly failed to move 
 us ; forcible was entirely out of the question 
 for a Russian, and so they had to leave us. 
 
 This little incident may serve as some illus- 
 tration of the Russian character. I have seen 
 two men in a car, one at each end, quarrelling 
 in the most terrible manner, hurling invectives 
 at each other and boiling over with rage, but 
 never getting one inch nearer one to the 
 other. A tenth of the inducement would be 
 enough for a free fight in England. 
 
 It was in the early hours before the Siberian 
 train crawled slowly out of Chelabinsk station 
 and commenced to bump miserably over the 
 badly laid road. The boy-stoker at the stove 
 end of the car commenced his infernal work, 
 and in half an hour the temperature was some- 
 thins; abominable. The heat was bad enous^h, 
 but as the car contained some twenty-four pas- 
 sengers, and all possessed a large number of 
 damp furs, in all conditions of cleanliness, and 
 possessing all varieties of odour, the atmosphere
 
 BUSSIA'S COLONIZATION SCHEME 19 
 
 Wcas one almost unbearable. The worst of 
 it is, that the passengers abhor ventilation 
 of the slightest degree. In the roof of the car 
 there is a ventilator, but it is always tightly 
 closed. The windows are double and immov- 
 able ; the doors at each end are double, one 
 being closed before the other is opened ; and 
 thus, day in and day out, scarcely a breath of 
 fresh air can enter the carriage. Inside we 
 sweated and gasped for breath ; the instant 
 we alighted at a station our hair, moustache, 
 beard, and eyelashes would become covered 
 with hard white frost, and the exhalations from 
 our lungs would be converted into fine snow. 
 
 When morning came, and we arose from our 
 uncomfortable couch, it was to find the train 
 jolting slowly over a level stretch of country ; 
 quite uncultivated, and with here and there 
 a melancholy clump of stunted birch trees. 
 We were on the edge of the great Tartar 
 steppe, which stretched north and south for 
 thousands of miles, and which is bounded on 
 the east by the Irtish River, from whose banks
 
 20 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 stretches eastward Siberia's longest steppe — 
 the Baraba, home of the Khirghiz hordes. 
 The Urals were completely out of sight, and we 
 had the not very cheerful prospect of a fifteen- 
 hundred-mile journey over an absolute desert. 
 Seen in the summer, the steppe lands are by 
 no means displeasing, although their monotony 
 is trying. Instead of the inevitable snow 
 which now stretched in all its glaring whiteness 
 before us, the steppe is a carpet of variegated 
 bloom. The grass is stunted ; not nearly as 
 long as that of the American prairie, this 
 probably owing to the fact that much of the 
 water in the plains is strongly impregnated 
 with alkali. These steppes are, w^ith the 
 exception of the vast plains of perpetually 
 frozen ground adjacent to the arctic circle, 
 the most unpopulated part of all Siberia. 
 Bevond the few miserable villages which occur 
 every thirty or forty miles, there is no sign 
 of life except the occasional kibitka of the 
 nomadic Khirghiz. North or south of the 
 high-road the steppe goes uninterruptedly for
 
 RUSSIA'S COLONIZATION SCHEME 21 
 
 many hundreds of miles, roadless, treeless, not 
 a landmark to guide one, swampy, sandy, 
 and unprofitable. Under its snowy shroud the 
 steppe looks better. 
 
 Late in the day we arrived at Kurgan, a 
 tolerably large town, with the railway station 
 miles away from the nearest house. Unwilling 
 to take the bread out of the mouths of the 
 horse-breeding populace of Siberia all at once, 
 it would seem that the Russian Government 
 has purposely fixed the stations of the Siberian 
 railroad as far away from the towns as possible, 
 in order to give the great army of drosky- 
 drivers a chance. Kurgan was interesting 
 as being the first point where we saw the 
 debarkation of outward-bound emigrants. 
 
 Emigration to Siberia is now going on very 
 vigorously, and not before it is wanted, for the 
 population of Russia, European and Asiatic, is 
 very disproportionate. The nomadic tribes 
 of Siberia, such as the Bashkires, Khirghiz, 
 Tuugus, Buriats, Votiaks, Kamchakdales, and 
 Samoyedes scarcely count, so small are their
 
 22 BOUGEINa IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 numbers in comparison to the millions of acres 
 comprising Asiatic Russia. The official com- 
 putation of the population being (including 
 both Russians and aborigines) one man to 
 every five square miles. The first cause of the 
 extremely slow progress in populating Siberia 
 may be set down to its distance and inaccessi- 
 bility from the congested districts of Russia. 
 The only means of reaching its heart, up till 
 the commencement of the Trans-Siberian 
 Railway work, being by the lonely tarantass or 
 the occasional steamers plying the tortuous 
 waterways of the Irtish and Obi systems. 
 The Siberian railway, however, promises to 
 considerably alter this state of things — com- 
 bined with the startling facts that Southern 
 Russia is rapidly getting overcrowded. 
 Another stumbling-block to the rapid develop- 
 ment of Siberia hitherto has been the great 
 prejudice existing against it throughout 
 European Russia, a prejudice which may be 
 said to be far o-reater than that among: 
 foreigners. For many years Siberia has been
 
 BUSSIA'S COLONIZATION SCHEME 23 
 
 the dumping-ground for criminals of the worst 
 class. It has been held up as a Bastille-like 
 threat to every Muscovite. Mothers have for 
 ages quieted their noisy children with, " Hush ! 
 or I will send you to Siberia ! " And thus every 
 man who goes to Siberia, voluntarily or other- 
 wise, is looked upon as an exile. Although 
 the want of communication may be set down 
 as the first, the chief cause undoubtedly exists 
 in Siberia having been made a penal colony. 
 
 It is said that the great famine of 1890-1 
 which spread throughout Southern Eussia, 
 turned the eyes of the Government Siberia- 
 wards as a possible outlet for surplus popula- 
 tion. The late Czar had ever taken a kindly 
 interest in his Asiatic possessions, and it was 
 the dream of his life to see Siberia developed 
 to its fullest extent. The wish was commend- 
 able, but the means were lacking. It was in 
 order to see with imperial eyes what Siberia 
 was that the present Czar (then Czarevitch) 
 took his memorable journey across the steppes 
 and mountains from the Pacific coast, and
 
 24 EOUOniNG IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 then came Alexander's famous ukase : " Let 
 there be a railway built across Siberia — the 
 shortest way possible." The Czarevitch was 
 then in Vladivostock, the Russian Pacific port. 
 A telegram from St. Petersburg bade him 
 remain there and await the corner-stone, which 
 was to be laid in that town as the foundation- 
 piece of what will, in the course of a few years, 
 rank as the monumental railway enterprise of 
 tlie nineteenth century. Alexander, right up 
 to his death, cherished his colonization scheme, 
 and the herita2;e he left his son has been 
 energetically pushed forward. 
 
 Some assert that the idea which dominated 
 the Siberian railway scheme was that of 
 strategy. While there may exist the strate- 
 gical undercurrent, no one who has passed over 
 the line from end to end as far as it is con- 
 structed can be oblivious to the fact that at 
 present, at any rate, one of the principal objects 
 of the railway is the transportation of emigrants 
 to the fertile valleys of Central Siberia. The 
 train-bound traveller passes train load after
 
 BUSSIA'S COLONIZATION SCHEME 25 
 
 train load of outward-bound emigrants. At 
 the principal stations of Chelabinsk, Kurgan, 
 Omsk, Kainsk, and Atchinsk, emigrants by the 
 hundreds are detrained, and may be seen en- 
 camped by the roadside awaiting their further 
 transportation north, south, or east. The 
 numbers are evidence complete that the attrac- 
 tions offered by the Government outweigh 
 entirely prejudice and the discomfort of a long 
 journey. 
 
 The principle underlying Russia's coloniza- 
 tion scheme is similar to England's policy with 
 regard to Canada, only that the means are 
 easier and the efforts and influence more 
 energetic and widespread. The agents of the 
 Government are sent to the most thickly 
 populated or distressed portion of European 
 Russia, and there the desirability of emigrating 
 to Siberia is impressed upon the more indus- 
 trious of the peasantry, who, in Russia itself, 
 can scarcely make ends meet. Neer-do-wells are 
 not catered for, but the Russian Government 
 offers inducements to the willing, and at the
 
 26 ROUOEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 same time fixes a nominal fare to Siberia, in 
 order to keep out the absolute drones. This fare 
 is fixed at the rate of one-twentieth of a penny 
 per verst ; and thus it is possible for a peasant 
 to travel, say, three thousand versts (two 
 thousand miles) for the moderate sum of six 
 roubles (13s. 3cZ.). From Southern Kussia this 
 w^ould land the emigrant in the heart of 
 Siberia. 
 
 On arrival at his destination, the colonist is 
 given a free grant of land, ten deseteens in 
 area, which equals about twenty-seven acres 
 English. He has permission to cut enough 
 wood to build his house and fencing and to 
 provide him with fuel for one year. Thus, 
 with a clear start, and providing the peasant 
 is industrious and frugal, there is every oppor- 
 tunity for him of not only being able to feed 
 and clothe himself and his family warmly and 
 cleanly, but of making a small profit out of 
 agricultural pursuits. For purposes of com- 
 parison, it may be as well to state that in 
 Russia itself the peasant is allowed only four
 
 BUSS/A' S COLONIZATION SCHEME 27 
 
 deseteens of land, but, as the price of 
 agriculture is abnormally low, it is next door 
 to impossible for him to make ends meet, 
 inasmuch as the rude ao-ricultural instruments 
 he uses, and the entire absence of artificial 
 fertilization, in a few years impoverishes his 
 property to such an extent that it is hopeless. 
 With the increased acreage in Siberia, a better 
 climate, and a richer soil, his chances are 
 enhanced, while a powerful factor is that agri- 
 cultural prices all round rank from fifty to a 
 hundred per cent, higher than in European 
 Russia. Of course such prices will not last 
 for ever, but as Siberia, minerally and com- 
 mercially, is far richer than Russia itself, the 
 peasant is bound to come in for some of the 
 reflected prosperity. 
 
 The Westerner might perhaps take excep- 
 tion to the manner in which the emigrants 
 are transported to Siberia. I confess it came 
 upon me at first with a shock. The emigrants' 
 train is simply one of cattle trucks, each car 
 being marked on the side for " forty men or
 
 28 BOUQEINQ IT IN SIBEBIA 
 
 eight horses." There are no seats or lights 
 provided, and into each of these pens forty- 
 men, women, and chiklren have to herd over a 
 dreary railway journey of fourteen or fifteen 
 days. They have to provide their own food, 
 but at every station a large samovar is kept 
 boiling in order to provide them with hot 
 water for their tea. At the points of detrain- 
 ment the emigrants are compelled to camp on 
 the steppe or on the mountain-side until 
 provision is made for them to proceed to the 
 land apportioned off to their use. The filth, 
 the rags, the utter woe-begone aspect of the 
 Russian emigrant is something inconceivable 
 to the European, but then it must be remem- 
 bered that the Russian moujik is used to 
 roughing it all his life, and to hog, forty a 
 time, in a cattle truck, or to sleep by the camp 
 fire, with no more covering than the sky, is 
 no very great hardship for him. 
 
 It must be gratifying to the Russian 
 Government that the privileges offered to the 
 peasant have been keenly appreciated, and the
 
 liUSSTA'S COLONIZATION SCHEME 29 
 
 difficulty which now exists is to get the land 
 ready for the overwhelming tide of colonists 
 flowing into Siberia. In 1896 alone nearly a 
 quarter of a million peasants left Eussia for 
 Siberia. At that time neither the railway 
 nor the colonizing department could cope 
 with the rush, and the Emperor was com- 
 pelled to issue the ukase commanding the 
 officials of the various Siberian Governments 
 to drop all other State work and devote, 
 for the time being, their efforts to the coloni- 
 zation movement. For a time things were in 
 rather a chaotic state, and a large number of 
 emigrants, finding no land ready for them, 
 returned to Russia. 
 
 Anticipating my journey a little, I had at 
 Omsk a long and interesting conversation with 
 one of the head officials of the Colonization 
 Department. He was on his way to Turkestan, 
 there to confer with the officials regarding the 
 colonization of that valuable and practically 
 un-Russianized possession. He assured me 
 that the rush for Siberia had not only
 
 30 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 completely astonished the authorities, but was 
 rather startling in the fact that it threatened 
 to deplete portions of Kussia of labour. The 
 Eussian peasant is of such a simple disposition 
 that he is apt to think the inducements offered 
 him are the means to a comparative paradise. 
 Thus many of the emigrants have suflfered 
 sore disappointment, and, partly from this and 
 from home-sickness, have returned to Russia. 
 The Government is, however, grappling man- 
 fully with the task that it has set itself, and 
 it will take but a few short years to even up 
 the disproportionate population of Russia con- 
 siderably. One fact cannot be overlooked, and 
 that is that the Trans-Siberian Railway, apart 
 from its political and commercial significance, 
 is likely to be handed down to posterity as 
 the means by which the riches of the great 
 white Czar were brought to the thresholds of 
 his people.
 
 ( 31 ) 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ARRIVAL AT OMSK. 
 
 From Kurgan to Omsk the railroad track 
 passes over a wilderness of snow — a dead 
 level, absolutely devoid of interest. It was 
 a relief even to see at long intervals a group 
 of wooden huts, huddling close together, as if 
 for warmth, in that biting cold ; the thin blue 
 smoke curling from their several apologies for 
 chimneys, and the glint of the sunlight on tlie 
 double windows. Melancholy these villages 
 looked, cut off from the entire world as they 
 must have been before the locomotive came 
 snorting its way along. One pleasing feature, 
 or picturesque feature, I might say, was the 
 inevitable round domed church which reared 
 its height above the ramshackle shingle roofs.
 
 32 BOUGHINO IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 Green and white these churches were, with a 
 golden cross perched on the highest dome, 
 and which shines and glitters for miles after 
 the huddle beneath has merged with the snow 
 and disappeared from vision. No matter how 
 small and miserable the village, no matter 
 how poverty-stricken its inhabitants, the 
 church was ever there, ever resplendent, and 
 apparently opulent. 
 
 One fact always strikes the traveller in 
 Russia, and that is the overpowering influence 
 of the Church. Densely ignorant as he is, the 
 average moujik's religious devotion is little 
 better than slavish. One wonders whence 
 comes the money to build and to keep up 
 such magnificent ecclesiastical edifices which 
 predominate everywhere throughout the 
 Russian Empire, and only close inquiry and 
 persistent observation can reveal the truth. 
 From high class to low the first duty of the 
 Russian is to his religion. In every house, 
 from the finest mansion to the humblest hut, 
 the gilded ikon hangs in the corner, before
 
 ABRIVAL AT OMSK 33 
 
 which the devout Catholic prostrates himself 
 twenty, aucl perhaps thirty, times a day. 
 Before every piece of bread he eats, before 
 every glass of vodki he drinks, he will cross 
 himself and murmur his prayers. I do not 
 fear contradiction when I say that every 
 believer in the Russo-Grseco faith wears 
 underneath his sliirt, attached to a string or 
 chain, around his neck, a metal cross, put on 
 when he was a child and worn till death, and 
 even until his body has crumbled to the earth 
 in which it lies. On the large stations of the 
 Russian railways there is always a chapel 
 w^ith its glittering altar, its ikons and its 
 burning candles, where services are held 
 daily. 
 
 The Church seems to stand even before the 
 Czar, though it must be said the Czar comes 
 in a very good second. Great as is the State 
 aid, the help of the people is undoubtedly the 
 mainspring of the Church's revenue. Time 
 after time I have had it brought to my notice 
 that however improvident the moujik may be 
 
 u
 
 34 BOUGEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 in his domestic life, liis decath will furnisli the 
 pretext for lifting the slab of the stove to see 
 how much money he has been able to accumulate 
 in his lifetime for his beloved faith. His 
 blind devotion to the Church is nearly equalled 
 by his discipline as a soldier, and without 
 wishing to detract from his character as a man, 
 I must say that, so far as my observation goes, 
 these very qualities, if qualities they can be 
 called, shows how little removed from a mere 
 animal he is. As a Russian, body and soul he 
 belongs to the Church. As soon as he dons 
 the brown jacket of the soldier, body and soul 
 he belongs to the Czar. It is inconceivable to 
 the Westerner that men could withstand the 
 hardships and yet retain such cheerfulness 
 and such patriotism as do the Russians. Iron 
 discipline, which would make the educated 
 and better civilized soldier mutiny or desert in 
 a week, he submits to with equanimity. Kind 
 words he knows not ; ill fed, ill clothed, 
 wretchedly housed, and with seldom or never 
 a kopeck in his pouch; yet he maintains even
 
 ARBIVAL AT OMSK 35 
 
 gaiety iu his desolate life. This utter abase- 
 ment of the man is very difficult to realize, 
 it is so essentially Russian that none but one 
 who has seen it can fully comprehend its 
 significance. 
 
 An officer of cavalry once told me a little 
 story concerning the discipline and devotion 
 to duty of the Russian peasant. The scene 
 was at Cronstadt, the island fortress off St. 
 Petersburg, where three officers, respectively 
 English, German, and Russian, were discussing 
 the merits of their men. Each maintained his 
 was the better disciplined, and on the argu- 
 ment growing hot the Russian proposed a test. 
 They repaired to one of the batteries, and 
 there the Eno-Hsh and German officers each 
 ordered up one of their men, as the Russian 
 did one of his common soldiers. These men 
 drew up iu line before their captains. 
 
 The English officer pointed to the port, below 
 which the rocks lay some hundreds of feet. 
 
 " Attention ! Walk out of that port ! " he 
 cried in a voice of command.
 
 36 ROUGHING IT IN SIB Eli I A 
 
 The man stepped forward, white as a sheet, 
 but hesitated. 
 
 "What good am I doing my country by 
 this ? " he asked huskily. 
 
 " Stand back," said the officer. 
 
 Tiie German officer motioned to his man. 
 
 " Walk out of that port 1 " he commanded. 
 
 The German stepped forward, he too hesi- 
 tated, and glanced appealingly at his com- 
 mander. 
 
 ''AVill you keep my mother and father, 
 sir, if I do it ? " 
 
 *' Stand back," said the officer. 
 
 The Russian officer motioned to his man. 
 
 ''Walkout of that port!" 
 
 The man was livid, but he stepped forward 
 briskly ; as he did so he raised his eyes and 
 made the sign of the cross, the next second 
 he would have precipitated himself on the 
 rocks below, had not the officer's iron grip 
 restrained him. 
 
 This tale was told me with great unction, as 
 illustrative of the superior discipline of the
 
 ARRIVAL AT OMSK 37 
 
 Russian soldier ; but I did not care to offend 
 my friend by giving voice to my opinion that 
 the demeanour of the English and the German 
 soldiers illustrated that fact which has so often 
 been emphasized in warfare, that an intelligent 
 preservation of one's life is far better for the 
 cause than blindly throwing that life away. 
 
 Bump, bump, bump ; rattle, rattle, rattle ; 
 on hurtled the train, morning merged into 
 afternoon, and the grey shadows which heralded 
 night came stealing over the steppe. Dark- 
 ness black and heavy enveloped us. Once 
 more we made up our crude beds, and settled 
 for the night. Peterpavlovsk we reached in 
 the middle of the night, and where we sleepily 
 alighted for something to eat, and participated 
 for the hundredth time in the rude scramble 
 which ever accompanied that procedure. Back 
 to bed again, and sometimes sleep, helped 
 thereto by a concert of gurgling snores, tobacco 
 smoke, and odours of vodki. Morning broke, 
 and for all the difference in our surroundiD2;s 
 we might as well have been where we were
 
 38 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 the day before. Grubby, weary, and pro- 
 foundly sick of each others company, since 
 we had told every story we knew, and had 
 long since comfortably settled the afifairs of 
 the world in long-continued argument, waiting 
 patiently, till afternoon, when we should reach 
 our first Siberian city, Omsk. 
 
 Our literature was long since exhausted. 
 It was useless to play cards, as one man had 
 constituted himself treasurer, possessed all the 
 money, and it seemed a hollow mockery to 
 borrow under such circumstances ; everybody 
 voted chess a bore, dominoes childish, while 
 our only musical instrument — a Jew's harp — 
 had lonof since lost its soothino^ influence. We 
 could only glare at each other and grumble, 
 find fault with everything, and say what 
 ought to be done and what we would do if 
 only 
 
 " Omsk ! " The silver-embroidered con- 
 ductor punched another little hole in our 
 much-perforated ticket, pocketed his tip, and 
 left us to scramble our baggage together.
 
 ARRIVAL AT OMSK 39 
 
 And even this was a delight. We were to 
 stay over two days in Omsk, and those two 
 days were to be a welcome relief from the 
 seemingly never-ending train journey. Soon 
 we came in sight of the Irtish, one of those 
 magnificent rivers which Siberia abounds in, 
 but now silent and still under its thick coating 
 of ice. The train rattled over the high iron 
 bridge which spanned this noble waterway, 
 and ten minutes later drew up at Omsk 
 station. 
 
 I mention the word "station" advisedly, 
 because, as in duty bound, the Eussian engi- 
 neers had put it as far away from the town as 
 they conveniently could — this time they had 
 managed it by exactly three versts, and no 
 doubt considered they had achieved a triumph. 
 What the idea is in calling a station Omsk, 
 when Omsk is two miles away, yet remains to 
 be explained. Nobody that I have asked has 
 been able to give me a satisfactory answer. 
 Whether they expect the town to grow out 
 tovrards the station, or whether it is out of
 
 40 HOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 sheer and simple cusseduess, I do Dot know ; I 
 fancy it is the latter. 
 
 On the station steps we held a levee with 
 half a hundred isvoschiks, who wanted to drive 
 us to town. Honour there may be amongst 
 thieves, but there is certainly very little 
 amongst Siberian isvostchiks. The manner 
 in which they fought and scrambled with each 
 other in order to get hold of our baggage was 
 highly diverting. They implored us singly 
 and wholly to follow them. Each man held 
 out such inducements that the brain fairly 
 reeled. 
 
 " Come with my little horse, dear barins ; 
 it is the fastest trotter in Siberia, it is a 
 beautiful dove, and goes like the wind." 
 
 " Bah ! Do not believe him, barins ; he is 
 a liar. His horse is covered with ulcers, and 
 may drop down dead before you go a verst. 
 Come with me, barins. Here you are, a lovely 
 sledge, just painted, but quite dry, and 
 splendid cushions. Think how much money I 
 have spent on that sledge."
 
 ABBIVAL AT OMSK 41 
 
 " No, Larins, none of these cliildren know 
 tlie way to Omsk. 1 am the only one who 
 knows the nearest and the best road. Take 
 any of them you will, and they will go the 
 longest way and over a miserable road, which 
 will bump you to pieces, perhaps throw you 
 out and break your neck, and then what will 
 you do ? " 
 
 And amid all this flood of eloquence, 
 smothered in furs and loaded down with 
 baggage, we were jostled and pinched and 
 pulled until a white-aproned porter rescued us 
 and took us to the sledge he had selected. 
 Then all the voices died away in a long-drawn 
 sigh ; envious looks were bestowed upon the 
 favoured one, who gathered up his reins, gave 
 vent to a sort of war-whoop, fell rather than 
 got upon the sledge, and away we went at a 
 mad gallop down the narrow roadway, scatter- 
 ing the snow right and left, and swinging 
 from side to side in the most perilous manner 
 imaginable. 
 
 It took us all our time to hang on, the v.'hile
 
 42 EOUQEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 that the fierce rush through the bitterly cold 
 air made breathing difficult ; tears forced from 
 the eyes by the cold instantly congealed ; 
 nostrils, too, became closed with ice ; mous- 
 taches and beards hard lumps of hoar frost. 
 With a cold which it is impossible to register 
 on a Fahrenheit glass we didn't, I am sorry 
 to say, appreciate the novelty of this break- 
 neck ride as we ought to have done. In less 
 than a quarter of an hour we passed through 
 the gates of the city and stampeded like fury 
 down several wide streets, bordered on either 
 side by one-story frame houses, and ultimately 
 pulled up with a jerk, which flung us in a 
 heap at the bottom of the sledge, before 
 a low, mean-looking wooden house which a 
 dilapidated signboard announced to be the 
 " Grand Hotel Moscow."
 
 ( 43 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A MOST PALATIAL HOTEL ! 
 
 The Grand Hotel Moscow, in the good city of 
 Omsk, was grand in name only, and we liad 
 only to step inside its portals to realize to the 
 fullest extent that at length we were in Asia. 
 Bad as had been the generality of hotels in 
 European Russia, they seemed like palaces 
 beside this ramshackle affiiir which was dio-nified 
 by the name of hotel. A few broken and 
 wretchedly dirty stone steps led us into a 
 white-washed passage, which was flanked on 
 either side by low doorways leading to the 
 six bedrooms — all the " hostinitca " possessed. 
 Scawell barked liis shin badly by falling over 
 the brick which, suspended on a rope over a 
 pulley, kept the inner door of the passage
 
 44 HOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 closed. Gaskell gave vent to an American 
 expression when lie tripped over a long stretch 
 of dirty canvas which was lying, as a sort of 
 apology for a carpet, down the length of the 
 corridor. 
 
 The proprietor of the hotel received us with 
 the glare of avarice in his grey eyes. We l)ar- 
 gnined with him at length for merely the favour 
 of a shelter ; for that was all we could expect. 
 He gave us a room for the outrageous charge 
 of four roubles (eight shillings and sixpence), 
 and that was thirty per cent, below his original 
 demand. A lovely room it was too ! Two 
 rickety, broken-backed chairs, a small square 
 table, and a truckle bed, on which reposed a 
 filthy and suspicious-looking mattress, formed 
 its sole furniture. The floor was carpetless 
 save for a canvas strip by the door. The 
 usual domestic utensils were absent ; there was 
 not even a washstand. There was no lock 
 on the door ; the vrindows were immovable ; 
 the walls were of beams laid one on top of 
 another, with the interstices filled with moss
 
 A MOST PALATIAL HOTEL I 45 
 
 and hay to keep out the draught. A delect- 
 able hotel this, but in nowise worse than the 
 majority of such places throughout the whole 
 of Siberia. 
 
 In case my readers may think I am over- 
 painting this description, it may be as well to 
 explain the why and wherefore of this seem- 
 ingly barbaric state of things. In the first 
 place, up to the commencement of the Siberian 
 railway, as I have explained in a previous 
 chapter, the only means of communication 
 with interior Siberia was by means of horses. 
 Such enormous distances had to be covered 
 between towns that, in order to accommodate 
 the large number of travellers, the Government 
 erected, on the great high-road which pierces 
 the heart of Siberia, stations at intervals of 
 twenty -five to thirty miles. At these stations 
 horses could be hired at rates set down on a 
 Government schedule, but beyond this and 
 the shelter afforded nothing was provided. It 
 was thus necessary at the outset of the system 
 for the traveller to provide everything requisite
 
 46 HOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 for the journey himself. In addition to his 
 luo-o;ao-e, the wise Siberian traveller carried 
 his bed, bed-clothing, food, and, in short, every- 
 thing that he might require, rendering himself 
 absolutely independent of hospitality on the 
 way. On his arrival at a post-station, he 
 asked for, and wanted nothing but the samovar, 
 or machine for boiling water, with which he 
 made his tea. The charge for the samovar is 
 ten kopecks, which equals twopence-halfpenny. 
 No charge whatever was or is made for the 
 use of the post-house. If one, therefore, ex- 
 cluded the cost of horses, the traveller's outlay 
 was wonderfully small. 
 
 As the towns contained the post-stations as 
 well as the villages, and as the traveller came 
 provided with everything he wanted, it may 
 be readily inferred that the chances of a hotel 
 succeeding are very small, inasmuch as the 
 average Eussian is parsimonious, even at the 
 expense of his personal comfort. With, how- 
 ever, the opening of the country by means of 
 the railway, it stands to reason that a new
 
 A MOST PALATIAL EOTEL \ 47 
 
 class of travellers will spring up, and thus 
 better accommodation may be provided. The 
 demand for this better accommodation must 
 come from the foreigners, for the Eussians 
 themselves are sticklers for custom and habit, 
 and the finest hotel erected for their use would 
 meet but mean patronage at their hands. 
 
 Thus it was that the accommodation we 
 received at Omsk was of such a wretched 
 character. Unfortunately we were not so 
 versed in things Russian as the Russians 
 themselves, and our inquuy for four beds was 
 met with a stare of astonishment. We did 
 not press the matter, however, after one of us 
 had made an inspection of the mattress which 
 had already been provided. We thought it 
 safer to sleep on our rugs on the floor. 
 
 And so it was in this city of Omsk, capital 
 of the Government of Omsk, a military 
 garrison, the residence of a general governor, 
 four Englishmen could get no better dinner 
 than hard-boiled eggs, a tin of sardines, and 
 black bread, to be washed down with tea, out
 
 48 ROUGniNG IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 of glasses, and made from the steaming samovar. 
 Of course, had we been of the usual run of 
 travellers, that it to say functionaries, we 
 should have probably possessed papers which 
 w^ould have admitted us to some Government 
 residence. Being, however, only Englishmen, 
 we had to put up with what we could get. 
 
 And as the time wore on, our love of the 
 place did not intensify. AVe did not mind the 
 blackbeetles so much as the animals which 
 dropped from the ceiling in order to distur)) 
 our slumbers. I think we were all pretty 
 hardened members, but the vermin of that 
 room rather o-ot the best of us. Yet this hotel 
 should not be singled out as a speciality in that 
 direction. Conversation on the subject once 
 elicited a tale from a fellow-traveller who, as 
 well as carrying his bedstead with him took 
 four saucers and a can of kerosene. On fixing 
 up his bed for the night, his invariable custom 
 was to fit the legs of the bed one into each 
 saucer and to fill the said saucer with kerosene 
 — the suggestion being that nothing alive would
 
 A MOST PALATIAL HOTEL ! 49 
 
 pass the kerosene without being asphixiated. 
 But even that, said our traveller, did not 
 keep him out of trouble, for these things of 
 life, with a sagacity which one would hardly 
 credit in so small an insect, would make a 
 detour by getting up the wall, on to the ceil- 
 ing, and then, having accurately poised, drop 
 down upon the victim — no doubt to his ex- 
 treme discomfort. A painful and disagreeable 
 subject this, and one which I shall not allude 
 to again. 
 
 Our ablutions in the morning were performed 
 in what will, no doubt, be considered a highly 
 original manner. Having conceived the idea 
 that the removal of at least one layer of grime 
 from our hands and faces would not prejudice 
 our case in Omsk, the difficulty was to find how 
 this was to be accomplished. Judicious in- 
 quiries revealed the fact that at the end of the 
 corridor the proprietor of the hotel had 
 provided an arrangement for the convenience 
 of those who were so fastidious as to desire to 
 wash. This arrangement was nothing more
 
 50 HOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 or less than a brazen bowl, about the size of a 
 small kettle, which was nailed on the wall. A 
 knob protruded from the bottom of the bowl 
 which, on being jerked up vigorously, let 
 forth a few drops of water on the hands ; and 
 so with drops so obtained we managed with 
 extreme economy to get through the mockery 
 of a wash. The waste and the drips went on 
 our knees and splashed around generally, but 
 as nobody cavilled we were content. Having 
 primed ourselves on eggs, bread, and tea, we 
 felt fit to do the town ; so, after getting into 
 our felt boots and our furs, we sallied forth. 
 
 Omsk is the second city of Western Siberia, 
 and its population, excluding the large pro- 
 portion of Khirghiz, has been variously esti- 
 mated at between twenty and thirty thousand. 
 It is a trading centre, for here the steamers 
 from Tinmen and Tobolsk call, and a large 
 quantity of merchandize is landed or shipped. 
 European goods come through Moscow, to 
 Nijni Novgorod by rail, are shipped then on 
 the Volga and Kama to Perm, by train again
 
 A MOST PALATIAL HOTEL! 51 
 
 through Ekaterinburg to Tiumen, and by 
 steamer once more on the Toura, Tobol, and 
 Irtish to find destination at Omsk, whence 
 they are distributed to the outlying towns and 
 villages of the great Baraba steppe. It has in 
 its time been a very prosperous town, and for 
 many years the shopkeepers, cut off from 
 direct competition, have made enormous profits 
 and amassed huQ-e fortunes. The merchants, in 
 fact, form the only society of the city. All 
 seem opulent ; and no wonder, when one con- 
 siders the prices which are asked for even the 
 common necessaries of life. There is a shadow, 
 however, looming over the fortunes of the 
 Omsk merchants, and that is the Trans-Siberian 
 Railway. None realize this better than the 
 merchants themselves, who see that in a few 
 years they will have to face something which 
 they have heard of but never experienced — 
 competition with the outside world. It is 
 said that the community of Omsk was bitterly 
 opposed to the railway passing through the 
 city. " You will ruin our trade," they cried
 
 52 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 as with one voice ; but the decree of the 
 Emperor had gone forth, and through Omsk 
 went the railway. Ultimately, of course, the 
 city w^ill benefit enormously by being in touch 
 with Europe, but narrow-minded and short- 
 sighted as is the Siberian, it is hard to convince 
 him of this at the present time. 
 
 The internal opposition to the Trans-Siberian 
 Railway was widespread, and at Tomsk — one 
 of the most imjDortant cities of Siberia — the 
 representations made were so strong that the 
 course of the line (which I am led to 
 understand was orginally planned to take in 
 that city) was altered, and passed in a straight 
 line some sixty miles south. The citizens of 
 Tomsk, however, speedily realized the terrible 
 blunder they had made in isolating themselves 
 from the civilizing trading influence of the iron 
 road. The tide of trade flowing into Siberia 
 passed by Tomsk and ebbed into Krasnoiarsk, 
 five hundred miles further on. Tomsk was 
 stranded, and the doom of the city almost 
 sealed. Representations were made, and a
 
 A MOST PALATIAL HOTEL! 53 
 
 branch line was constructed to connect with 
 the main road ; but even this will not repay 
 the initial mistake, and people who ought to 
 know assert that Tomsk, which was once, 
 next to Irkutsk, the most important city in 
 all Siberia, must by force of circumstances 
 sink into insiarnificance. 
 
 But reverting to Omsk, I do not think that 
 it was the opinion of any one of the four of us 
 that it was the most agreeable place to spend 
 any length of time in. A city of wide streets, 
 handsome churches, big Government buildings, 
 and a multitude of frame houses. The 
 governor's palace and the military academy are 
 perhaps the finest edifices apart from the 
 cathedral and the churches, which are always 
 the most handsome buildings of any Russian 
 centre. I had the pleasure of an interview 
 with M. Boulanger, a French gentleman of 
 culture who was head of the academy. He 
 confessed that it was like a ray of sunlight from 
 his beloved France to speak to one who knew 
 his land, for he had lived in Omsk for thirty-
 
 54 BOUQHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 live years. I gazed upon liim in astonishment. 
 Thirty -five years in Omsk ! That dump of 
 houses in the middle of a wilderness ! With a 
 seven months' cruel winter ! Out of touch with 
 the world ! But time had worked its charm, 
 no doubt ; he had resigned himself. He spoke 
 feelingly, though, of the land of his birth — 
 for who, be he native or alien, can do aught 
 but love the fair land of France 1 — and I, being 
 fresh comparatively from the Western lands, 
 could not but sympathize with him in that 
 resignation.
 
 ( 55 ) 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ACROSS THE STEPPE. 
 
 But uninteresting as Omsk appeared as a 
 town, it is unique in being the extreme north- 
 ward point where migrate the wandering tribes 
 of Khirojliiz Cossacks. The term Cossack 
 seems to be very little understood outside 
 Siberia or Eussia. One is prone to associate 
 it with a soldier, but Cossacks in Russia 
 simply means a tribe that receives special 
 concessions from the Czar for services 
 rendered or likely to be rendered. The Don, 
 Ural, and Khirghiz Cossacks are exempt from 
 certain points of taxation by reason of the 
 military ability of the male members of the 
 tribe. The Khirghiz, for instance, are born
 
 56 BOUQEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 soldiers and bom horsemen. They look with 
 no uncertain disdain on the Russian moujik, 
 who, poor fellow, is taxed up to his eyes, and 
 who is but a foot soldier when conscription 
 claims him for its own. The Cossack of the 
 Khirghiz steppe is a servant of the Czar 
 possessing such privileges that make him in- 
 dependent of the Russian altogether. 
 
 Some few Khirghiz there are who have 
 settled in the various towns of South- Western 
 Siberia — at Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk, and at 
 Omsk — but the great bulk of the tribe is 
 nomadic. The steppe, which extend north- 
 wards for thousands of miles into the regions 
 of Turkestan, forms their home. They move 
 their " kibitkas," or tents, about from place to 
 place, pay no rent, know nothing of taxation, 
 ignore the Russian language, worship Mahomet, 
 live by the gun, and have a good time 
 generally. As a conquered race it appears to 
 me they are exceptionally fortunate ; but the 
 Czar, with his far-seeing eye, knows their 
 worth. In time of war and trouble no soldier
 
 ACROSS TEE STEPPE 57 
 
 of the empire is likely to serve him so well as 
 this fierce and warlike horseman. 
 
 Next to the Buriats, the Khirghiz are, 
 perhaps, the most interesting of Siberian 
 nomads. The Buriats are Buddists or 
 Shamists ; the Khirghiz are Mohammedans. 
 So far as my observation goes, I do not think 
 that they possess the mosques as do the 
 Tartars, but nevertheless they are fervent 
 followers of the Prophet. The vast steppe is 
 their home. They are rarely or never seen in 
 the mountains, but on the steppe, that vast 
 melancholy plain, with its stunted grass and 
 its far-reaching horizon, they live, multiply, 
 and die ; their only business, beyond the hope 
 of fighting, being in the breeding of horses, 
 which they sell at ridiculously small prices 
 either to the Government or to Siberian 
 traders. 
 
 During my stay in Omsk I had occasion to 
 visit a Khirghiz encampment, and although I 
 had been told I should find them an exceed- 
 ingly ill-tempered and ill-favoured crowd, I
 
 58 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 must confess that the reception I received was 
 one which rather prejudiced me in their 
 favour. It was a kibitka on the steppe ; three 
 or four tents made of rough canvas supported 
 on birch poles, and with a corral outside for 
 innumerable horses, all hobbled by the hind 
 leg. The tent itself, black and unprepossess- 
 ing on the outside, was a revelation inside. 
 Gimcrack and gaudy perhaps, but nevertheless 
 picturesque. I can only compare it to the 
 interior of a canvas circus — cut down to small 
 proportions, but of the same shape and 
 possessing much of its gaudiness. Lattice- 
 work, painted a brilliant red, blue, or pink, 
 surrounded the sides. Shields of various 
 colours were hung on the walls, together with 
 festoons of antidiluvian weapons in the shape 
 of knives, arrows, bows, clubs, long swords, 
 and old guns. The floor of the kibitka was 
 covered with the foliage of the fir tree, and in 
 the centre a little raised platform formed the 
 table of the inhabitants. 
 
 I went to this kibitka under escort, and was
 
 AGE OSS TEE STEPPE 59 
 
 glad to fiDd tliat at least one of tlie tribe was 
 able to speak to me, in spite of the short stock 
 of Russian I possessed. Amiable as he was, 
 yet I detected in the sunken black eye of this 
 nomad the fire of a latent warlike spirit, which 
 needed very little to arouse, and which would 
 make him a formidable antagonist. 
 
 The Khirghiz are essentially horsemen, and 
 in the streets of Omsk one never sees a Cossack 
 but what he is riding. What they do, how 
 they live, what is their ambition, — all alike 
 seems more or less wrapped in mystery. The 
 Russian population ignore them, and in return 
 the Cossack ignors the Russian. It is the 
 bayonet of the conscript, however, which keeps 
 them in their place ; and it is very rare that 
 they do anything against law and order. 
 Every year the governor of the province will 
 go amongst them, and from the number of 
 their tribe will select one who shall be the 
 headman, and responsible for the doings of 
 his flock for the time being. 
 
 Strangely enough the Russians seemed ever
 
 60 EOUQIIING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 willing to warn us against the Cossacks. They 
 are thieves, murderers, anything you like, 
 according to the Siberian, but when one con- 
 siders that the Khirghiz Cossacks are merely 
 a conquered race, and that seventy-five per 
 cent, of the Eussian population of Siberia 
 consists of convicts, exiled for all sorts of 
 crimes, one is apt to think and compare. 
 
 In a former journey through Siberia I had 
 closer acquaintance with the Khirghiz than 
 many men liave had the opportunity of. I 
 had slept in their tents, I had drunk their 
 " koumiss," and had eaten with them from the 
 same pot, but never once did I have occasion 
 to complain of their treatment. 
 
 We w^ere o-ettino; tired of the Grand Hotel 
 Moscow. There was nothing about it which 
 was attractive enough for us to prolong our 
 stay within its shelter. As soon as our busi- 
 ness had been completed it was the train again. 
 Back over that dreary road to the station ; the 
 same old familiar buffet ; the same white - 
 aproned porters ; the same officious soldier-
 
 ACROSS THE STEPPE 61 
 
 policeman, ceremonious conductors, and all- 
 important engine-drivers ; the same slow- 
 moving cars ; the same heat and smell and 
 general discomfort of those miserable coupes. 
 
 Our next important point was Tomsk, one 
 of the most celebrated of Siberian cities, and 
 to reach which we had to pass over the full 
 length of the Baraba steppe. We started at 
 night, and the next morning found us out 
 on the great white plain. The snow was 
 deeper here, and the occasional long grass 
 which we had seen on the Tartar steppe w^as 
 absent. Nothing, look which way we would, 
 was there to relieve the eye. A white plain, 
 a circular horizon — the perspective so deceiving 
 that we seemed ever to be at the bottom of 
 a basin, and ever toiling upward. 
 
 We had two days of this, with nothing to 
 relieve its drear monotony but the occasional 
 halt at a wayside station. As we progressed 
 further eastward, so things generally became 
 more humble and more primitive. The stations 
 dwindled down in size and in importance.
 
 62 BOUGEINQ IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 The cockaded soldier gave way to a slouching 
 policeman in rusty top boots, brown overcoat, 
 battered sword, and dirty peaked cap. Our 
 stoppages became longer — from minutes they 
 went into half-hours and half-hours into hours. 
 Nobody cared, we drifted on entirely at the 
 mercy of the man who drove us, and, I must 
 say, getting gradually habituated to Siberian 
 ideas. Hurry is a thing not to be dreamt of. 
 We would pull up at a station, which consisted 
 of no platform and but a small hut combining 
 both telegraph-office and sleeping quarters. 
 Food, too, began to get scarce ; but the inevit- 
 able sardine, and the equally inevitable tea 
 w^ere always to be had. Now and again, at 
 some larger village station, we would almost 
 shout for joy when an unexpected and long- 
 since-despised edible would be placed ostenta- 
 tiously before us. Cabbage soup, for instance, 
 that nauseating compound which in Russia we 
 had loathed. Now w^e swallowed it with relish, 
 and smacked our lips in satisfaction. Vodki, 
 too, which we had shuddered at in Russia,
 
 ACBOSS TEE STEPPE 63 
 
 we were gradually beginning to think was 
 not such bad stuff after all. Our little party, 
 I perceived, were adopting Siberian manners 
 to an alarming extent. It was the Siberian 
 custom to always take a nip of vodki before 
 eating, but we, being superior foreigners, had 
 ignored this habit. I do not know who started 
 it, but long before we reached Tomsk it was 
 a settled custom amongst us to take that 
 nip of vodki, and sometimes even to indulge 
 in the grimace after swallowing which was 
 orthodox amongst Siberians. 
 
 AVe got careless, we took little trouble now 
 about our beds and our general comfort. Now 
 and again we forgot to wash, and went around 
 dirty, just as other Siberians did. Our boots 
 had not been blackened for weeks, neither had 
 our clothes been brushed, nor had our toilet 
 arrangements been properly supervised. It 
 was hard work to shave on such a rattling 
 train as that, and those who sported the razor 
 in their travelling trunks left it there for days 
 together. It was not exactly wearisome, it
 
 64 BOUGH IN G IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 was a sometliiug which was indescribable, a 
 feeling that prompted a desire to go to sleep 
 for at least three weeks on end and wake up 
 at the end of the journey ; but there was no 
 Rip Van Winkle amongst us, and, although we 
 did put in an enormous amount of time in 
 somnolent attitude, Nature was not to be 
 thwarted, and many hours had to be spent in 
 loafinsj around and in conversational reitera- 
 tion. 
 
 With what avidity we pounced upon any- 
 thing which would disturb the even tenor of 
 our way ! I verily believe that a railway 
 accident would have been welcome ; and, once, 
 something very near this did happen, although 
 beyond giving us food for talk and a little 
 healthy exercise, nothing more serious hap- 
 pened. 
 
 Bang out in the middle of the steppe, miles 
 from anywhere, the train one day brought up 
 suddenly, and stuck there for three hours. 
 As there was only one train a day, it was 
 hardly possible that we had been side tracked,
 
 ACEOSS TEE STEPPE 65 
 
 waiting for a Siberian "Flying Scotchman" 
 to come along. None of our Russian passengers 
 ventured to inquire the cause of the train's 
 inertion, neither did the conductor, who 
 periodically passed through the train with 
 a face about as intelligible as a sphinx, 
 volunteer any information on the subject. 
 Gaskell and I, however, descended, walked 
 along the line to the engine, and discovered 
 that the tank had burst and the water was 
 cheerfully washing away the track. The 
 engineer was complacently leaning against the 
 buffers smoking papiros, his fireman was 
 asleep in the cab of the tender, nobody else 
 was about, and the whole situation was so 
 truly sublime that, being in the condition to 
 laugh at anything, we both laughed heartily. 
 
 The engine had broken down, that was 
 clear. How were we going to get on ? The 
 engineer didn't know, and apparently didn't 
 care. Had anything been done ? The engineer 
 thought that somebody had walked along the 
 line to the next station, fifteen versts (ten
 
 66 BOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 miles) away, and would telegraph for a new 
 engine. Did he know when a new engine 
 would come '? He hadn't the slightest idea. 
 To-day or to-morrow ? It was possible, one 
 or the other. 
 
 Back in the car we tackled the conductor, 
 and he, too, evinced as much interest in the 
 proceedings as an ordinary sheep does when it 
 goes to the slaughter-stool. The opportunity 
 for a walk, however, was too great, and so, in 
 high spirits, Gaskell and I set off and walked 
 that fifteen versts to the next station. The 
 line ran dead straight across the steppe, and 
 when we had traversed ten versts we looked 
 back and saw the train still standing there, a 
 tiny black mass on the shining metals, with 
 as much life about it as would appear in a 
 prison. 
 
 Our energy, however, was rewarded by 
 forestalling the occupants of the train in regard 
 to the buffet arrangements. The station- 
 master had prepared quite a decent dinner, 
 and he alone, of those concerned in the matter,
 
 ACBOSS THE STEPPE 67 
 
 seemed to be perturbed at the train's delay. 
 We had a very good time in the selection of 
 the best dishes to be had, and on being assured 
 that there was no possible hope of the train 
 arriving that night, we curled ourselves up 
 on benches and slept the sleep of the well 
 satisfied. 
 
 Next morning the train rolled up, and 
 hungry and cursing passengers descended and 
 raided the buffet like so many wild beasts. 
 The over-bearing spirit of the Russian came to 
 the front in all its intensity. They jostled 
 and pushed each other without a word of 
 apology, but rather with a growl of resentment 
 and aggression. And yet not one of all that 
 crowd had been able to shake off the laziness 
 inherited from centuries of lazy progenitors 
 and to tramp the ten miles in order to secure 
 a little food and comfort.
 
 68 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 IN THE OBI VALLEY. 
 
 Three days after leaving Omsk, the train 
 drew up at the rather important station of 
 Kreveschokovo. It was important as a station, 
 because here was the first check in our train 
 journey from the Hook of Holland. We had 
 arrived, as a matter of fact, at the end of the 
 railway metals which lay in one continuous 
 line from the most western part of Europe 
 right to the banks of the Obi River. The 
 bridge had not yet been completed over this 
 colossal water highway, and in order to resume 
 our train journey it was necessary to take 
 sledges from the station of Kreveschokovo, 
 across the river to the station of Ob. 
 
 I think that everybody was more or less
 
 IN THE OBI VALLEY 69 
 
 glad tliat the bridge was not completed. To 
 ride in a sledge, after being cooped up in the 
 overheated train, was a bit of a change, at any 
 rate, and I must confess that we four English- 
 men jumped at the chance. 
 
 We had reached the end of the steppe, and 
 before us now lay mountainous country, and 
 the difficulties which the engineers of the 
 Trans-Siberian Eailway had experienced were 
 evident on all hands. The Obi at this point 
 was some two miles wide, and a bridge over 
 such a distance as that was no mean task. 
 The railway, we understood, was completed 
 almost as far as Kansk, nearly a thousand 
 miles further on ; but in spite of all the haste 
 of the Russian engineers, the Obi bridge was 
 yet far from completion. 
 
 In the gathering twilight of an early 
 February afternoon we stood out on a bluff 
 overlooking the frozen river and surveyed the 
 workinsfs of what must rank as a monumental 
 
 O 
 
 engineering enterprise. The Obi bridge is 
 built on the suspension plan on high tiers.
 
 70 BOUQHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 and is simply a network of girders and 
 stanchions, great earthworks running up 
 from the level plain on either side to a 
 considerable heioht. 
 
 We alighted, and the kind Russian officials 
 left us to shift for ourselves with regard to 
 transportation across the river. We got out 
 our baggage, which was immediately dis- 
 tributed by energetic porters in various and 
 inaccessible portions of the station, and then 
 wandered out to find something in the shape 
 of a sledge which would carry us to the 
 station of Ob, seven miles away. Unfortu- 
 nately for our plan, the whole of the passengers 
 of the Siberian train were on the same tack, 
 and knowing Russian better than we, managed 
 at any rate to get hold of the best isvostchiks 
 who ply for hire. Ultimately we were able 
 to secure a basket-work arrangement, tied on 
 a couple of runners, and which was supposed 
 to be drawn by a pair of horses, the size of 
 which, in comparison to the size of the vehicle, 
 was rather ludicrous. Whether it is the cold.
 
 IN THE OBI VALLEY 71 
 
 or whether it is the terribly hard work which 
 Siberian horses undergo, I don't know, but I 
 am safe in saying that the average Siberian 
 horse is not much larger than an Enolish 
 donkey. There was, of course, the usual long 
 and interesting bargaining encounter with the 
 driver of the vehicle. From five roubles we 
 got down to two at length, bundled in our 
 baggage, pushed our way through the crowd 
 of harpies who had looked at the whole 
 proceedings and wanted tipping for so doing, 
 and set off. 
 
 Down a little road past the station at a 
 mad gallop ; swish ! round the corner, and out 
 over a level plateau. We banged against tree 
 stumps which stuck out through the snow, 
 cannoned against fence corners protecting 
 some agricultural property, until, with a whirl 
 and a clatter, we dashed down a short slope 
 and were out on the river. 
 
 Before us lay the white expanse of ice, but 
 all hummocky and broken. It is difficult to 
 describe the appearance of that frozen river.
 
 ir2 novo MING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 Instead of a smooth level plain of ice, as one 
 would expect to see, the whole surface was 
 one jumbled mass of broken ice, which seemed 
 as if at the very moment of its breaking, it 
 had been arrested by King Frost and frozen 
 solid. Great lumps, ten to fifteen feet higli 
 and four to five feet in thickness, towered 
 above us ; smaller pieces hung on to the larger 
 by mere strips, and through this wilderness of 
 congealation, a narrow road had been formed 
 for the passage of vehicles. Over this road 
 we galloped at a terrific pace, bumping and 
 scrunching, whirling and swishing, the drosky 
 clattering from side to side, now on one 
 runner, now on the other, and all our traps 
 jerking about like peas in a frying-pan, while 
 we, poor unfortunate mortals, hung on by one 
 hand, and with the other hand endeavoured 
 to smother the mouth in order to warm the 
 air for the lungs. A few minutes of this 
 brought us into the centre of the river, where 
 the ice was clearer, and a level plain stretched 
 before us. It was a sublime sight then to see
 
 IN TEE OBI VALLEY 73 
 
 that noble river so silent and still, and it was 
 somethino; to realize tlie marvellous work of 
 Nature in havino- secured the means to that 
 
 O 
 
 end. 
 
 On again, with the light fadiug away 
 behind us and the greyness of night creeping 
 up ahead. Through the jagged ice once more, 
 until, with a whoop and a halloo, we scuttled 
 over a narrow stretch where the water oozed 
 and spirted between a crack ; then up the 
 bank at a mad scramble, to disappear in a 
 miniature forest, to whirl around at a break- 
 neck speed on the edge of an embankment, 
 and to clatter into the station yard at Ob with 
 smoking horses, excited driver, and bruised 
 bodies we, but pleased nevertheless. 
 
 The station at Ob is singular from the fiict 
 that previous to the Trans-Siberian Eailway 
 passing that way the region was a complete 
 wilderness. Four years ago, when the rail- 
 way reached that far, houses began to spring 
 up with marvellous rapidity, and at the 
 present time it is difficult to buy a plot of land
 
 74 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 in tlic vicinity of the stcation. Nor is this 
 all. Recognizing that the Trans-Siberian Kail- 
 way is bound to bring a large number of 
 travellers from the East, who will probably in 
 the summer make use of the great steamboat 
 highway of the Obi system, hotels and 
 magazines have been opened in anticipation 
 of that traffic. All this was very surprising 
 to us in face of the extreme apathy which 
 seemed to obtain in every other part of 
 Siberia so far. But the houses in Ob, although 
 constructed of wood, and the magazines and 
 hotels built on the orthodox Russian principle, 
 were at any rate superior looking to those we 
 had seen thus far. 
 
 Next day we arrived at the small station of 
 Tigre. It was called Tigre because *'tigre" 
 is Russian for "forest." This little station 
 was bang in the midst of the most impenetrable 
 forest I had ever set eyes on. It lay, in fact, 
 in the centre of a clearing — in the centre of a 
 pit, it seemed, for the great black trunks of 
 the pines went up all around and left only a
 
 IN THE OBI VALLEY 75 
 
 circular space of blue sky visible. When the 
 eno;ine whistled the noise echoed and re-echoed 
 through the still forest. When we looked 
 around, what was there to see ? We might as 
 well have been dumped out of a balloon in 
 the middle of an uninhabited land, only that 
 the railway gave the lie direct. A small hut 
 representing the station, a side-track with a 
 few waggons, a glimpse of a house amongst the 
 trees, a forlorn-looking engine-shed away up 
 the line, and that was all — all except that 
 bewildering mass of trees packed so closely 
 together that it seemed as if one could scarcely 
 put one's arm between each trunk — sombre, 
 still, and awe-inspiring. And here, in this 
 inspiriting place, we had to wait no less than 
 nine hours for the train to take us to Tomsk ! 
 
 Tigre is the junction of the Tomsk railroad, 
 and I have already mentioned the fact that 
 the main line in its neglect of Tomsk has left 
 that town very much stranded. It seems, 
 too, that the Government, resenting the in- 
 dependence of the great Siberian city, has
 
 7Q ROUGHING IT IN 8IBEBIA 
 
 put as many obstacles in the way of travellers 
 thereto as it possibly can. To wait nine 
 hours in a station like Tisjre was the sort of 
 thing sufficient to make a man's blood boil — 
 that is if anything could boil in a temperature 
 of thirty-six below zero, Eeaumur. 
 
 The Krasnoiarsk train departed. We 
 watched it as it drew slowly out of the station 
 and disappeared in the forest, sparks flying from 
 the funnel of its engine and a wealth of smoke 
 mingling with the snow which covered the 
 tree-tops. There were only a few of us bound 
 for Tomsk — seven, as a matter of fact — and we 
 made four of them. Three were Chinovniks, 
 very much uniformed and very supercilious. 
 There was a buffet of insignificant proportions 
 attached to the station, and in this we did our 
 best to while the time away. It was a hard 
 matter, and an experience well to be forgotten, 
 for, with true Eussian perversity, the Tomsk 
 train was got ready to start just about the 
 time when we were all in the middle of 
 slumber.
 
 IN THE OBI VALLEY 77 
 
 Our natural ill humour was not reduced upon 
 finding that the Tomsk train contained no 
 first-class coupes. Some one explained that up 
 to the present the Tomsk section had received 
 no first-class carriages from the works ; so, 
 although we possessed first-class tickets, we 
 were forced to put up with the miserable 
 accommodation provided by some old time- 
 worn cars, which by some chance or other had 
 managed to get so far. 
 
 The Tomsk section of the Siberian Railway, 
 being, as it was, a something apart from the 
 great enterprise, was if anything worse than 
 the main line itself It was miserably laid, 
 andthe jerks and joltings which we experienced 
 on that ninety- versts ride did not altogether 
 inspire us with confidence. We slept on bare 
 boards in third-class compartments, because 
 the second-class cushions, after an hour or two's 
 experience, became altogether too suspicious for 
 longer stay. So we groaned through the night 
 and woke stiff and bruised, unrefreshed and 
 jll tempered. On we hurtled, at the excessive
 
 78 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 pace of eight miles an hour, seemingly never 
 coming to the end. Day broke, and passed, 
 and afternoon and its darkness came again. 
 Ninety versts were all we had to do, but what 
 with hours spent at wayside stations, which 
 seemed to have no more importance than one 
 hut could show, we got through time grandly, 
 and, just when it was too late for anything, 
 pulled up at Tomsk. 
 
 The usual ceremonial, the usual clanging of 
 bells, blowing of whistles, general excitement, 
 and we descended to shake hands with each 
 other on the fact of having arrived in the very 
 centre of Siberia.
 
 ( 79 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IMPRESSIONS OF TOMSK. 
 
 Our arrival at Tomsk was signalized by the 
 greatest cold which we had experienced so 
 far. The Reaumur glass showed more than 
 forty degrees of frost, and in this bitter atmo- 
 sphere it seemed impossible to keep up one's 
 circulation. In the miserable drosky which took 
 us from the station to the town wo became so 
 numbed that on arrival at the portals of the 
 hotel it was with difficulty that we could 
 dismount. Gaskell was unfortunate enough to 
 get one of his hands frost-bitten, and the thaw- 
 ing of that member was accompanied by pain 
 so intense that he almost screamed in agony. 
 Nor was the hotel at which we were forced 
 to put up conducive to comfort. There is in
 
 80 BOUQEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 Tomsk one very good hotel, called the Europa, 
 but unfortunately we were unable to obtain 
 apartments here, and were forced to seek 
 shelter in a hostinitca, which was, to say the 
 least, decidedly third class — inferior, in fact, 
 to the accommodation which we had received 
 at Omsk. 
 
 Bad as was the bedroom accommodation and 
 the general eating arrangements, the hardened 
 traveller could perhaps put up with them, 
 but what was worse than all was the shockinsf 
 sanitary arrangements of the place — a state 
 of things, however, which is pretty general in 
 Siberian houses. The stench of that hotel was 
 something abominable, a stench carried on 
 the hot air which crowded and filtered into 
 every corner and crevice of the place. All 
 the windows were tightly closed, being con- 
 structed on the double plan, with cotton wool 
 in between, in order to preclude the possibility 
 of a particle of air entering one's chamber. 
 To sleep in such an atmosphere was out of the 
 question, and we got out of the difficulty by
 
 IMPEESSIONS OF TOMSK 81 
 
 breaking a couple of panes of glass in the 
 Avindow and tying a piece of sacking over the 
 orifice. That hole in the window, viewed 
 from outside, was something like the funnel 
 of a steamer, the hot air rushing out in clouds 
 of steam to be immediately converted into fine 
 snow. But even this novel means of ventila- 
 tion did not rid us of the smell, which per- 
 meated everything from the door of the hotel 
 to the tiniest room or passage. 
 
 The red-shirted and long-haired individual 
 who acted as proprietor and servant combined, 
 intimated that it was quite impossible to get 
 anything to eat. The samovar we could have 
 with pleasure, but of food the only thing in 
 that direction which it was possible to obtain 
 would be black bread. Our supply of pro- 
 visions being exhausted, and being in a town 
 of some thirty thousand inhabitants, black 
 bread was not the sort of thing to satisfy four 
 hungry Englishmen ; so I wandered forth, 
 chartered a drosky, and drove down to the 
 market-place, or bazaar, which turned out to 
 
 G
 
 82 HOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 be a big square siiiTOimded by rows of dismal 
 wooden huts in the last stages of decrepi- 
 tude. Afar off, over a wooden bridge which 
 spanned the bed of a small river, I could see 
 blinking electric lights, and marvelled con- 
 siderably. 
 
 Here was a town which sported one of the 
 greatest inventions of the age, and yet four 
 travellers, willing to pay anything in reason 
 for decent accommodation, could get no better 
 than that of wdiich I have spoken, and no better 
 food offered than black bread ! Most of the 
 masjazines were closed. A few skin-clad 
 moujiks, muffled up to the eyes, shuffled along 
 in their huge felt boots, and a few horses 
 hobbled at the heel, looked forlorn and 
 miserable by the huge scales which marked 
 the centre of the bazaar. 
 
 My driver, on learning by mission, drove 
 me to a magazine, which fortunately was open, 
 and here I was able to purchase a couple of 
 dozen eggs, frozen as solid as stones, a loaf or 
 two of white bread, a box of sardines, and some
 
 IMFBESSIONS OF TOMSK 83 
 
 sweets. The manner in which the eggs were 
 thrown into the bottom of the drosky was a 
 touching tribute to the severity of the Siberian 
 winter. 
 
 By dismal candlelight, seated on rough 
 wooden chairs around a rougher table, with the 
 steaming samovar in the centre, we made our 
 meal. Such luxuries as plates or knives we 
 knew not. We carved our bread with a bowie ; 
 we held our eggs in our hands, and consumed 
 the contents, not by the use of a spoon, but by 
 jerking all that would come out into our 
 mouths, then breaking the shell and sucking 
 away what remained attached to the skin. 
 For four of us the proprietor had found one 
 spoon, so the bread-cutting bowie served also 
 to stir up our tea. AVe started on eggs, made 
 a second course off sardines, and had sweets 
 for dessert. Only our perennial good temper 
 made the meal enjoyable. It was not so much 
 that what we had was not satisfying, but the 
 great fact that here we were in a town, one of 
 the richest in Siberia, and one of the most
 
 84 HOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 populous, and that it was impossible to get 
 better fare than this. 
 
 No wonder that Siberia is looked upon by 
 the traveller with abhorrence. Apart from its 
 inhabitants, no one can say that Siberia is not 
 a land of beauty, plenty, and promise ; but it is 
 the nature of its inhabitants which make it 
 the terrible place it is. The independence, the 
 filth, and general want of comfort which 
 characterize every effort of the community 
 serve to make a visit to any Siberian centre a 
 thing to be remembered for many years, and 
 an experience not desirable to repeat. 
 
 Yet Tomsk is not without its attractions. 
 It is divided into two towns, the upper and 
 the lower ; the latter being on the banks of 
 the Tom, and the former on the brow of the 
 high clifis which divide the river into two 
 sections. There are some very fine buildings 
 in the city, notably the Military Academy, 
 the Government Mining Laboratory, the 
 governor's residence, the theatre, and half a 
 dozen magnificent churches. The main street
 
 IMFEESSIOXS OF TOMSK 85 
 
 is built ou the side of ta hill, east to west, but 
 the mean character of the houses and magazines 
 on either side, as well as the dilapidated and 
 broken wooden pavement outside them, turns 
 what would be a mamificent avenue into one 
 by no means pleasing to the eye. At night 
 the electric light casts a white glare upon this 
 huddle of houses, and serves to show the 
 unwary pedestrian the pitfalls in the road and 
 the pavement. What this town is like in 
 summer, when the hot sun beats down upon its 
 unpaved roads and serves to accentuate its 
 predominant smell, it is not difficult to realize. 
 Happily for the health of the Tomskite, there 
 is an eight-months' winter, and to this almost 
 perpetual time of frost I certainly think that 
 much of the good health of the Siberian is due. 
 I have travelled in many lands, but I must 
 place it on record that for absolute neglect of 
 the most elementary stages of sanitation the 
 Siberian authorities surpass the efforts of all 
 others I have seen. 
 
 Prior to the establishment of the Trans-
 
 86 BOUGIIING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 Siberian Eailroad, Tomsk, being situated at 
 the very centre of Siberia, became the entrepdt 
 for the general commerce of tlie country. 
 Westward, the magnificent water system of 
 the Obi put the traveller in touch with 
 Tobolsk, Tiumen, and the Trans-Ural Railway 
 to Europe. Tomsk was, and still is, the 
 biggest debarking point for European goods. 
 Here, too, are centred some of the great tea 
 magazines, and the residences of several 
 millionaire gold-miners and merchants. Its 
 society is distinctly that of the trading classes. 
 Eich men abound — made rich by the profits 
 of monopoly, but with that monopoly steadily 
 slipping at the present time from their grasp. 
 The gold-miners are, perhaps, the most 
 influential, inasmuch as the industry of gold- 
 mining in Siberia is one in which the Govern- 
 ment takes an active interest. They are 
 represented in Tomsk by many of the leading 
 gold-miners of the country, notably M. 
 Siberikofi", one of the richest men in all 
 Siberia, and who has done much towards the
 
 IMPRESSIONS OF TOMSK 87 
 
 improvement of the city. In 1888 lie 
 founded the University, the first one, I 
 believe, in the whole of Siberia, and to which, 
 at the present day, students journey from all 
 parts of Siberia in order to complete their 
 education. 
 
 While in Tomsk I had the opportunity of 
 visiting one of these millionaire gold-miners, 
 a man whom popular repute said was one of 
 the richest in Tomsk. He possessed, at any 
 rate, the largest and most sumptuously 
 furnished private residence, and was said to be 
 extremely hospitable. And yet this man 
 could with difficulty sign his own name. 
 Forty years ago he had been an ordinary gold- 
 washer in the Semipalatinsk Mountains. That 
 was in the days when gold was found by the 
 handful, when there was very little competi- 
 tion, less Government supervision, and plenty 
 of opportunities for stealing. From a moujik 
 the particular gold-miner I am speaking of 
 became a renter of Government land, and in 
 the course of the next twenty years amassed
 
 88 LOUGHIKG IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 nearly a million roubles. He piircliasecl 
 houses and land freely in Tomsk, and ultim- 
 ately became, as I have hinted, one of the 
 wealthiest men in the community. 
 
 It is the custom in Siberia when paying a 
 visit, even if it be at ten o'clock in the 
 morning, to go in evening dress. To neglect 
 this is to offer one of the greatest insults you 
 can to the Siberian. Excuses avail nothing ; 
 it is a case of beiug in a land where such a 
 thing is necessary, and if you are unprovided 
 with the customary black coat that is entirely 
 your look out, and by far the best thing to do 
 is to decline the invitation. Fortunately, I 
 was aware of this custom, and had brouoht 
 with me the necessary costume, and I made 
 the visit at midday. 
 
 My host received me with considerable 
 enthusiasm, but although accustomed some- 
 what to Siberian manners, it was with difficulty 
 that I could repress my repugnance of him. 
 He was unshaven, dirty, and the rusty black 
 clothes which he wore fitted him as a sack
 
 IMPRESSIONS OF TOMSK 89 
 
 would a broomstick. He smoked ixtpiros, 
 spat, and made horrible noises with his nose. 
 He invited me to drink vodki, which I did. 
 It was his custom to take a glass, swallow its 
 contents, and then eructate noisily ; in which 
 performance he was aided and abetted by 
 several of the male members of the family and 
 some visitors. 
 
 Dinner in the house of a wealthy Siberian 
 is a peculiar custom. There is no formal 
 sitting down, to be waited upon as with 
 us of the w^estern world. The apartment 
 into which I was ushered was large, bare, 
 and uncomfortable. An enormous piano 
 occupied one corner ; chairs were scattered 
 around on the polished floor ; the walls were 
 whitewashed, but without a picture or other 
 ornamentation to relieve their bareness ; a 
 great stove, which occupied another corner, 
 sent out radiating waves of heat. Down one 
 side of the room ran a long table, decked out 
 with glasses, bottles, plates, knives and forks, 
 and many and varied articles of food in the
 
 90 BOUGEING IT IN SIBEBIA 
 
 way of canned goods. This table was faced 
 by three smaller ones, covered with red baize, 
 and around which, in the intervals of eating 
 and drinking, our host's party would assemble 
 to throw dice or play cards. The Siberian 
 luncheon or dinner occupies hours. You sit 
 around and take a hand at cards or form one 
 in a dice party. Ten minutes elapse, the host 
 comes round, pats each one of his guests on 
 the shoulder, and at the same time flicks his 
 third finger against his neck. This is the 
 Siberian invitation for a drink. The crowd 
 collects around the table, each takes a glass 
 filled with vodki, or with some one or other of 
 the many mysterious compounds which go 
 under the name of Siberian liqueurs, tosses it 
 off, makes a grimace, sometimes the sign of 
 the cross, gulps down a bit of bread and 
 sardine, and wanders l^ack to the card-table. 
 
 In another ten minutes a huge sturgeon, 
 smoking hot, is brought in on a dish. The 
 host comes round again, again pats shoulders, 
 but this time moves his jaws convulsively, as
 
 IMFBESSIONS OF TOMSK 91 
 
 if in the action of eating. Up rises the crowd 
 once more, in order to make a combined attack 
 upon the sturgeon with finger or with fork, 
 washino; down toothsome morsels with more 
 vodki. Back again to card-playing, and up 
 again to eat or drink — so the day wears on. 
 Conversation is not very brilliant or long sus- 
 tained. There is a moody, dissatisfied air about 
 everybody — a general, as it seemed to me, 
 want of confidence in one's neisfhbour — which 
 
 o 
 
 makes the whole meeting oppressive, so much 
 so that I was glad when the time for departure 
 came, and I was able to get out into the street. 
 At that moment it is necessary again to 
 observe Siberian customs, this being to shake 
 the hand of the host, the hostess, and every- 
 body who has got any connection with the 
 house, and to thank them for the food you 
 have had ; to declare that it is the finest food 
 you have eaten in all your life, that you 
 have never tasted such vodki, and that, as 
 long as you live, you will remember the 
 hospitality you have received. Mine host
 
 92 EOUGEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 hurries to help you into your shouba ; but you 
 must on no account let him do that, as it 
 would imply that you have not had enough 
 to eat to make you strong enough for that 
 particular office. You gently ward him off 
 and laugh idiotically ; he insists, and you 
 insist, until ultimately you manage to get into 
 your furs, shake hands again, cross yourself 
 before the ikon on the Avail, bundle down the 
 steps into the yard, where dogs snarl around 
 your legs, open the big gate, and emerge 
 into the street. 
 
 The ceremony of Siberian hospitality is 
 almost ludicrous, viewed of course from the 
 light of things at home. It is impossible for 
 the Westerner to feel comfortable, and I have 
 it on the authority of a French gentleman 
 who has lived in Tomsk for fifteen years, and 
 is compelled by his position to move about 
 considerably in the so-called society of the 
 place, that he cannot get himself to enjoy the 
 various functions at which he is always an 
 honoured guest.
 
 IMFItESSIONS OF TOMSK 93 
 
 While in Tomsk, it was my privilege <and 
 good fortune to make the acquaintance of M. 
 Sliostok, the chief of the Mining Department 
 of Central Siberia, and who probably ranks, 
 next to the General Governor himself, as the 
 most important personage in all Tomsk. I 
 found M. Shostok an extremely agreeable and 
 cultured gentleman, who had travelled much, 
 and was keenly alive to the shortcomings of 
 the Siberian populace. His particular depart- 
 ment was one which required a tremendous 
 amount of work, for he was the receiver of all 
 the gold and other precious metals mined in 
 the provinces of Tomsk, Atchinsk, Semi- 
 palatinsk, Minusinsk, and Yeneiseik, a district 
 covering many thousands of square miles, and 
 including in its area all the richest gold mines 
 north of the Altai range. 
 
 At Tomsk the gold is received, assayed, and 
 smelted, its actual value, less 3 per cent, or 
 5 per cent., according to the district, being 
 credited to the miner on a six month's accept- 
 ance. The average amount of gold received
 
 94 UOUOEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 yearly by the Tomsk laboratory amounts to 
 some hundreds of poods, the latest statistics 
 showing 170 poods in 1891, being 7' 15 per 
 cent, of the production of the whole country. 
 Eastern Siberia, of which the receiving depot 
 is Irkutsk, produces far more gold, 1510 
 poods being the receipts in 1891 — 63*32 per 
 cent, of the production of the whole country. 
 Considering that Western Siberia is for the 
 main part comparatively flat, the production 
 is looked upon as extremely encouraging, 
 although Eastern Siberia offers greater scope 
 to the capitalist and to the foreign miner. 
 
 So far, owing to lack of information con- 
 cerning the country, and to the universal 
 suspicion attaching to enterprises in Eussia, 
 combined with the formidable red-tapeism of 
 the Russian Government, very few foreigners 
 have attempted gold-mining in Siberia ; al- 
 though, from the little that I have learnt of 
 it, I can see that it is as safe, if not safer, to 
 work for gold in that country than in others 
 where the Government itself is not the
 
 IMPRESSIONS OF TOMSK 95 
 
 protecting agent. One thing, however, must be 
 borne in mind : in order to pose as a successful 
 miner in Siberia it is necessary first of all to 
 clearly understand the conditions implied by 
 the Government, and to have a complete 
 knowledge of the language and the customs 
 of the people ; for the pitfalls are many, and 
 the Russian Government is not the sort of one 
 to excuse mistakes. 
 
 Thanks to M. Shostok's kindness, I was 
 taken into the laboratory, and shown into the 
 safety vaults, where was stored something like 
 two hundred poods of smelted gold. The 
 deep dungeons of mediaeval history may be 
 compared to the safety vaults at the Tomsk 
 laboratory. Subterranean passages, guarded 
 by heavily armed soldiers ; ponderous iron 
 gates and doors ; keys a foot long ; rust}^ 
 hinges, bolts ; and all that sort of thing. Four 
 soldiers took us into the store-room, where 
 three enormous iron safes let into the walls 
 glared at us. The locks of these safes were 
 sealed with wax, of which M. Shostok alone
 
 96 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 possessed tlie seal. This wax was broken, 
 the safe door unlocked, and there, reposing 
 on shelves, lay bars of the dull yellow metal, 
 representing some millions of roubles and the 
 work of thousands of men for many months. 
 
 I had the opportunity of trying to carry as 
 much gold as I could lift, and it was surprising 
 to me what a small quantity it seemed, and 
 yet it would have been sufficient to have made 
 my Siberian journey distinctly remunerative — 
 if I had been allowed the further opportunity 
 of getting away with it. But there were too 
 many soldiers about ; far too many revolvers, 
 guns, swords, big gates, ponderous locks, and 
 such things as that, to permit feelings of 
 cupidity even in sight of such wealth. I went 
 out as poor as I entered, except from an 
 intellectual point of view, and proceeded to 
 the smelting-room, where I saw tiny pellets 
 of gold extracted from masses of baser mineral ; 
 saw the smallest and most sensitive balance I 
 have ever had the luck to look upon. This 
 balance was so true that a piece of paper was
 
 IMPBESSIONS OF TOMSK 97 
 
 weighed against so many hairs. I afterwards 
 wrote my name on the paper in pencil, and 
 the weight of my signature was clearly shown. 
 A word now as to the investment of foreign 
 capital in the Siberian gold-mining industry. 
 In England, at any rate, there is, or seems to 
 be, an idea prevalent that before any one can 
 undertake mining enterprise of any sort in 
 Siberia, it is necessary to get a concession from 
 the Russian Grovernment. This is entirely 
 erroneous. All that is necessary is that the 
 intending prospector or purchaser of land 
 shall be rated a good citizen of his particular 
 country. He should possess a paper from his 
 consul or ambassador which gives him that 
 honour. The presentation of this paper, at 
 Tomsk or Irkutsk, to the Minister of Mines 
 will secure for him a Russian privilege-paper, 
 which gives him the right for as Ions; as he 
 lives to prospect for gold or other precious 
 metals in any part of Siberia. He can either 
 break fresh ground or rent or buy existing 
 mines, for the terms of the contract arc these : 
 
 H
 
 98 ROUGEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 All the gold he obtains must be handed over 
 to the Government. He must obey in every 
 particular the rules laid down by the Mining 
 Department as to the conduct of his affairs. 
 He is not allowed to have more than five versts 
 of gold-bearing land in any one sjDot (this in 
 order to give other people a chance). But the 
 Government, it seems to me, in this particular 
 makes one rule and another to obviate it. 
 Thus, although he may not possess more than 
 five versts of land, his son may possess the 
 next five versts, his mother the next, and all 
 his uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers, grandfathers, 
 and grandmothers can go on at five versts a 
 time consecutively, or as long as the money 
 holds out or there is land available. 
 
 The penalties for breaking any of the rules 
 of the Mining Department are very severe. It 
 is forbidden to sink a shaft more than ten feet 
 deep without the presence of a Government 
 inspector. Every piece of gold obtained from 
 the workings must be carefully weighed in 
 the presence of the Cossack provided by the
 
 IMFBESSIONS OF TOMSK 99 
 
 Government, duly sealed, and its weight, 
 value, and venue entered into a gold book. 
 If any mistake be made in the entry, the 
 miner is subject to a fine of twenty-five 
 roubles for every error, and in this particular 
 the siornatures of the mininoj eno-ineer and the 
 mine owner must be attached to the book 
 plain and unvarnished, the shghtest flourish 
 or tailpiece to the signature costing twenty- 
 five roubles. Here, again, the Russian system 
 of making one rule to upset another comes in ; 
 for all that is necessary to get back the money 
 expended in fines, is to write a letter to the 
 Minister of Mines pleading for pardon, and 
 I believe that this pardon is very rarely 
 withheld. 
 
 The gold obtained from the mines must be 
 sent at periods of not more than three months 
 from each other to the laboratory. If any of 
 the gold should be lost in transit, the Govern- 
 ment will shut down the mine until that orold 
 
 O 
 
 or its equivalent value is found. Again, if 
 more than two strikes occur amonsfst the
 
 100 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 workmen in one year the Government may 
 exercise its rio-ht to close the workinofs. If 
 one of the workmen be killed by defective 
 machinery, or even in brawling, the works are 
 stopped. 
 
 Little things like these may not tend to 
 encourage foreign capital, more especially 
 when above all there exists that autocratic 
 right, which the Emperor reserves, to present 
 you with your passport without explanation 
 or reason, and to give you twenty-four hours 
 notice to leave the country. 
 
 So much for the general principles of gold- 
 mining in Siberia. Of the actual detail work 
 of that industry I shall have more to say later 
 on, when, in contact with the rough gold- 
 miners of the Syansk Mountains, I had 
 practical experience of the hunt for that noble 
 metal which has caused some happiness and 
 untold misery for mankind in general.
 
 ( 101 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE END OF THE RAILWAY. 
 
 Eastward from Tomsk the Trans-Siberian 
 Railway passes through a country of moun- 
 tainous aspect. The foothills between the Obi 
 River and Tomsk itself develop into mountain 
 ranges, up which the road-bed of the railway 
 is taken by many tortuous windings to the 
 very top. As an engineering feat, the rail- 
 way engineers have to be commended for the 
 enterprise as a whole, but the shocking manner 
 in which the line itself is laid will always 
 preclude any decent pace being attained on its 
 metals. Instead of cuttings or tunnelings, the 
 whole line from Tigre to Krasnoiarsk is but a 
 series of sharp curves. Rather than tunnel or 
 cut through a bluff of insignificant proportions,
 
 102 ROUOniNG IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 the banking will be carried around in zigzag 
 fashion, only to meet another bluff not a 
 quarter of a mile away, which needs further 
 curves. 
 
 Haste is shown in every feature of this 
 section of the Siberian railroad. At the outset 
 of the enterprise it was estimated that Irkutsk 
 would be reached by the end of 1897 ; but 
 while the laying of the road over the flat 
 -Steppes from Chelabinsk to the Obi Eiver 
 offered no insuperable difficulties to the engi- 
 neer, the mountains which had to be traversed 
 further on had been looked upon with too 
 optimistic an eye, and the consequence is 
 that, in order to avoid borings or cuttings, the 
 line has been carried many miles out of its 
 way, at a cost far exceeding that which would 
 have covered a properly laid and properly 
 engineered road-bed. 
 
 I had conversations wdth several enmneers 
 
 o 
 
 on this subject, but I must confess that what I 
 heard came rather as a shock to my ideas of 
 Eussian State enterprise. '^ You see," said one,
 
 THE END OF THE RAILWAY 103 
 
 " that we are engaged to lay this railroad. 
 It is to be finished all the way in about three 
 years' time ; after that what are we going to 
 do ? " In other words, the suggestion was that 
 it would be foolish to kill the goose which 
 laid the golden eggs. And in corroboration 
 of this I have heard many suggestions from 
 influential people in Siberia that the con- 
 struction of the railway has from its very 
 commencement been one vast scheme of 
 bribery, corruption, and general mismanage- 
 ment. Accidents to the first trains to run 
 over new sections have been numerous. On 
 one new piece of road between Marinsk and 
 Atchinsk the first ensfine to travel over 
 the road disappeared bodily through the 
 ballast into a small river below, necessitating 
 a delay of several months for repairs and 
 another excuse for extra pay. Still, all along 
 that line there are signs of prosperity. The 
 peasantry, heretofore employed in agricultural 
 pursuits or the breeding of horses, are employed 
 at wages which to them seem fabulous. Prices 
 
 "&'
 
 104 EOUGniNG IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 have gone up all round, and everybody seems 
 more or less independent — and cheeky at that. 
 Short-sighted, perhaps, for in a few years, 
 when the construction of the line shall be 
 completed, they will have to go back to their 
 old pursuits, with less chance of making those 
 pursuits remunerative. 
 
 A day and a half after leaving Tomsk the 
 train arrived at the banks of the Chulim River, 
 rather a small stream when compared to the 
 Obi, Tom, or Irtish, but still broad enough to 
 make two of the River Thames at London 
 Bridge. A novel experience awaited us here, 
 and one which we had not baro;ained for. As 
 on the Obi, the bridge was not finished — in 
 fact, only a couple of spans had been completed. 
 The Russian engineer, however, did not do 
 here what he did at Kreveschokovo. Instead 
 of landing us out of the train to take sledges 
 across the river, he made use of Nature's 
 bridge, and that was the ice itself. A quarter 
 of a mile from the river the rails diverted 
 from the main road, and continued down the
 
 TEE END OF TEE RAILWAY 105 
 
 slope, and so on across the ice to the Atchinsk 
 side. The whole thing was so unexpected 
 and so novel that each one of us four gasped 
 in astonishment. How deep the river was 
 we did not know ; and whether the ice was 
 thick enough to bear the several hundreds of 
 tons of locomotive and fifteen heavy carriages 
 was another problem. Anyway, we were all 
 glad when, as the train drew slowly up on the 
 bank of the river, the conductor came up and 
 requested us to descend and walk to the other 
 side — cheerfully remarking that if the train 
 went through only he, his fellow-conductors, 
 and the engine-drivers would be drowned. 
 We descended. A cheerless waste of ice 
 stretched before us ; beyond, over the river, 
 we could see the glint of the sun on the 
 brazen dome of a church in Atchinsk, with 
 the twilight gathering in its greyness behind. 
 The half-finished bridsfe stood out on our 
 
 o 
 
 right, gaunt and spidery, and nothing around 
 us but the eternal white of the snow. 
 
 Out came the passengers, a nondescript and
 
 106 BOUGHINQ IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 heterogeneous crowd, smothered in furs, and 
 all looking like gigantic bales of wool. Down 
 the bank and out on to the ice of the river 
 we went ; moujiks jabbering, Chinovniks 
 hustling through the crowd, and we, more 
 interested than any, slowly progressing in 
 order to see the effect the train would have 
 in its passage across the ice. A whistle 
 sounded, then another, and yet another. The 
 engine snorted, puffed, snorted again, puffed 
 three or four times and got up way slowly, 
 drew to the shelving bank and laboriously 
 descended on to the ice. There was a distinct 
 crunch as it did so, and another crunch when 
 the first car rolled on ; but gradually the whole 
 train descended, and, at a pace not exceeding 
 five miles an hour, moved across the frozen 
 surface. As it passed us we felt the ice quiver, 
 and heard innumerable cracks, like the reports 
 of pistols in the distance ; but the train got 
 across the centre safely, spurted when near 
 the bank, climbed up, and was on terra Jirma 
 again.
 
 THE END OF THE RAILWAY 107 
 
 As a novel piece of railway engineering, 
 I think the passage of the Chulim River 
 deserves commendation. Naturally it was 
 impossible to nail the ties to the ice, but the 
 Russian engineer had obviated this difficulty 
 by freezing them on, and kept them frozen 
 on by continual douches of water which was 
 brought in buckets from a hole in the ice. 
 I do not know the exact weight of that train, 
 but it must have been considerably heavier 
 than an ordinary English train, inasmuch as 
 the carriasfes are built on a much more solid 
 plan than our own. What struck me more 
 than anything was the indifference which all 
 the passengers, except ourselves, displayed in 
 the affair. The taciturnity and nonchalance 
 of the Russian becomes almost exasperating 
 at times. Here, in face of what was distinctly 
 a novel piece of railway travelling, there was 
 no one with the exception of our four selves 
 to pass a word of commendation, condemnation, 
 or admiration of the feat. 
 
 Five minutes later we rolled into Atchinslc,
 
 108 ROVGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 where three mortal hours were spent in a 
 station which was, metaphorically speaking, 
 little larger than a bandbox, and not half so 
 comfortable. 
 
 Through the night on we went, toiling over 
 mountain passes, through deep glens, or in 
 and out gigantic forest glades, but with that 
 eternal snow everywhere, with nothing around 
 us which was inspiring or inspiriting. No 
 moon, but with glinting stars that shed a 
 pale light down upon a melancholy and 
 deserted country. Morning broke, still we 
 clattered on, but thankful that we were 
 nearing our journey's end. In a few hours 
 we should reach Krasnoiarsk, and there the 
 Trans-Siberian Eailway would end, and we 
 should have to resort to the primitive method 
 of locomotion which Siberians have known 
 for hundreds of years, and which they still 
 cling fondly to — the tarantass sledge. 
 
 In the early morning we were descending the 
 slopes of the mountain range towards the valley 
 of the Yenesei. Our train, in spite of the
 
 THE END OF THE HAIL WAY 109 
 
 indifferently laid road, got up something like 
 a speed at times, although I must admit the 
 effect was not one to inspire confidence. 
 Kound narrow curves and over trestle bridges, 
 high embankments, and across deep, sullen 
 gorges, down which latter the very snow 
 looked black and forbidding. It was a great 
 time, then, when the conductor came and in- 
 timated that in one hour we should arrive at 
 our journey's end. We commenced packing 
 our traps with feverish haste ; unpacked them 
 again when we found that we wanted some- 
 thing; packed them up, and unpacked, in a 
 delightful mood, engendered by the thoughts 
 of something fresh in store. At lens-th we 
 
 o o 
 
 descended into tlie valley of the Yenesei, and 
 soon observed, from the end windows of the 
 corridor carriages, the little white town of 
 Krasnoiarsk away in the distance. 
 
 At the station we repeated our experience of 
 Tomsk — with one stupefying alteration. This 
 was the presentation of a hotel card by a dirty 
 looking individual who said, in broken German,
 
 110 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 that he was an interpreter. Could it be pos- 
 sible that here, right out in the wilds of Siberia, 
 we had struck some sort of civilization ? An 
 interpreter ! Wc questioned him eagerly. 
 What sort of hotel was it that he owed alle- 
 giance to ? — meanwhile that clamorous drosky 
 drivers, crowding around us, expatiated at 
 length upon the merits of their particular horses. 
 
 More sledging and more bumping over the 
 frost-bound roads. The station, as in duty 
 bound, was three miles from the town, and a 
 brisk drive of half an hour landed us into its 
 main street. 
 
 I must confess, however, that my impres- 
 sions upon arrival were considerably better 
 than they had been on landing at Tomsk. 
 Krasnoiarsk is smaller, but it is much cleaner, 
 and its situation is one which cannot fail to 
 elicit admiration. The tall mountains rear up 
 all around it, and in the narrow cleft on a low 
 belt of land, past which the broad and majestic 
 Yenesei has its course, Krasnoiarsk lies. With 
 the exception of the one opening in the cliffs
 
 TEE END OF THE RAILWAY 111 
 
 the town is entirely sheltered ; thus it was not 
 surprising to find the snow not nearly so deep 
 as we had found it in other parts of Siberia — 
 in fact, on several parts of the high street we 
 found our sled2:es runninoj on the brown 
 earth of the roadway — while the atmosphere 
 was distinctly warmer than we had ex- 
 perienced so far. 
 
 The hotel which we put up at was attached 
 to the post-station, a long low building, but 
 surprisingly clean and well ordered in com- 
 parison with other Siberian hotels "which we 
 had stayed at. We even found, when on a 
 voyage of discovery, a billiard-table in the 
 basement, and great was our amazement 
 thereat. The proprietor of the hotel, who was 
 a Jew of the most Hebrew cast of countenance 
 possible to conceive, busied himself to a great 
 extent. He got us food in an incredibly short 
 space of time, he did all that he could to assist 
 us in our difficulties, and he did something 
 more — and that was to ingratiate himself into 
 our favour of his race.
 
 112 ROUGHING IT IN SIBEBIA 
 
 It is freely stated that Krasnoiarsk will 
 become in the space of a few short years the 
 most important city in all Siberia. At the 
 present time it is, like Tomsk, a town of 
 merchants and gold-miners. It is something 
 more — it is a penal settlement. About eighty 
 per cent, of the population of Krasnoiarsk con- 
 sists of exiles, and these include not only the 
 very lowest class of the peasantry, but some 
 of the wealthiest and most influential men of 
 the town. In Siberia it holds something of 
 a black name on account of its enormous 
 percentage of exiled criminals, and I have 
 heard it said that, so great is the bond between 
 exile and exile, that the inhabitant who is a 
 native-born Siberian, and not the descendant 
 of a convict, is not only tabooed from the so- 
 called society of the town, but has a very bad 
 time in commercial matters. I give the follow- 
 ing story for what it is worth, but it is related 
 that a certain merchant of Krasnoiarsk found 
 such difficulty in doing business with the 
 inhabitants, in view of that bond of sympathy
 
 "^
 
 THE END OF THE RAILWAY 113 
 
 existing between the exiles, that he determined 
 to become one of their class. To this end 
 he journeyed to St. Petersburg, committed a 
 crime, and was sent to Siberia in chains. After 
 doing a short term of imprisonment in the 
 Alexandre vsk prison at Irkutsk, he journeyed 
 back to Krasnoiarsk, recommenced his busi- 
 ness, and got on famously. Lie or no lie, I 
 saw enough in my little stay in this penal 
 settlement to convince me that, however little 
 honour there may be amongst thieves, there 
 is a great deal of sympathy. 
 
 To Englishmen Krasnoiarsk will be interest- 
 ing from the fact that it is the jDoint of 
 debarkation for English steamers. A few 
 years ago Captain Wiggins, an explorer of 
 Northern seas, conceived the idea of forcing 
 the passage of the Kara Sea to the mouth of 
 the Yenesei Eiver, and then to proceed by 
 stream over a thousand miles to Krasnoiarsk. 
 After many fruitless attempts he succeeded in 
 his object, and to his success was due the 
 formation of the Siberian Trading Syndicate.
 
 114 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 The Russian Government was approached, and 
 in order to encourage foreign enterprise in 
 Siberia a special concession was given to the 
 English syndicate, which allowed them to carry 
 goods via the Kara Sea and the Yenesei River 
 into the heart of Siberia, free of duty. At the 
 time, it was predicted that nothing could stop 
 the gigantic success of the enterprise, but 
 bungling at home and an ignorance of the 
 requirements of the Siberian trader led to com- 
 plications and vicissitudes. Goods were sent 
 out which were of no earthly use to the 
 Siberians. Ships came along loaded to the 
 very decks with goods which are to this day 
 lying rotting or rusting on the banks of the 
 Yenesei. Much money was lost, but consider- 
 able experience gained. The company was 
 reconstructed again and again ; but, hard on 
 the heels of the enterprise, came the Trans- 
 Siberian Railway, and whatever chances the 
 Kara Sea route to Siberia may have had in 
 the past, it is difficult to reconcile its suc- 
 cess in the future with the construction of
 
 THE END OF THE RAILWAY 115 
 
 railway commuuicatiou from the Baltic to the 
 Pacific. 
 
 In this Siberian enterprise the name of Mr. 
 Leylancl Popham, a well-known London 
 financier, stands out prominently. He has 
 spent many thousands of pounds in the 
 development of his hobby, and it is to be 
 regretted that with special and unheard of 
 concessions to foreigners in Siberia his enter- 
 prise should not have borne better fruit. It 
 only exemplifies, however, the difficulty which 
 all foreigners must experience in trading with a 
 country so different in every respect to Europe. 
 
 The conditions of Siberia, it should always 
 be remembered, are diametrically opposed to 
 those of the Western states ; but it is a difficult 
 matter to convince the stay-at-homes of this 
 fact, that they are not dealing with a civilized 
 country, but one which is even more barbarous 
 and primitive than the most barbarous and 
 primitive of the British colonies. It is a 
 country w^here prejudice ranks above every- 
 thing, and where it is almost impossible to
 
 116 EOUGTIING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 convince. The Siberian is notthe sort of man 
 who will accept for gospel truth, by means of 
 an advertisement, that such and such a 
 pick, or such and such a machine, are better 
 than the implements which his grandfather 
 used. What he wants you to do is to go 
 there, demonstrate by actual working that 
 your instrument is better than his, and then 
 he will buy. This feeling has contributed 
 more to the failure of foreign enterprise in 
 Kussia than many people are prone to admit. 
 
 Krasnoiarsk is also famous in connection 
 with the Chinese tea trade. The tea traffic of 
 Russia, as my readers are perhaps aware, is 
 one of enormous proportions, and the Chinese 
 tea which travels overland from the fertile 
 valleys south of the Great Wall, over the Gobi 
 Desert, through Urga, Kiakta, and Irkutsk, is 
 handled in its commercial sense by the great 
 tea-merchants of Krasnoiarsk. Most of this 
 traffic occurs during the winter, when the 
 frozen roads oflfer greater facilities for travel 
 than during summer, when mud, sand, and
 
 THE END OF THE BAIL WAY 117 
 
 deep dust makes travelling on the post-roads 
 an extremely difficult under takinef. From tlio 
 time when the snow fairly settles on the high- 
 road, some time in October, until the break 
 up in April, the whole road over the desert 
 south of Lake Baikal, and the Yeneseik 
 Mountains, is one line of tea caravans. It is 
 sent in its original bales by the Chinese grower, 
 but in Krasnoiarsk is redistributed to the 
 various centres of the Empire. Many men 
 have made fortunes out of the tea trade, 
 which soon became almost a monopoly, and 
 how this came about forms the subject of an 
 interesting story. 
 
 Some forty years ago a certain merchant in 
 Krasnoiarsk, who handled an enormous amount 
 of Chinese tea, conceived the rather novel idea, 
 at least to Siberians, of insuring his caravans. 
 This was in the time when escaped prisoners, 
 brigands, cut-throats, and general desperadoes 
 thronged the high-road between Irkutsk and 
 Krasnoiarsk, and as the caravans, each one 
 consisting of some forty to fifty sledges, were
 
 118 jROuaniNG it in Siberia 
 
 in tlie charge of only two men to Ccacli caravan, 
 there was considerable danger of not only 
 losing the tea but also the horses. Our wily 
 tea-trader, however, went even one better than 
 the insurance scheme could give him. He 
 actually employed thieves to stoj) his own 
 caravans and steal his own tea. The stolen 
 tea the hired thieves brought along to him by 
 a circuitous route, and was sold by him sub 
 rosd, while he pocketed the insurance indemnity 
 which the then guileless companies paid up 
 with a liberal hand. By such methods as 
 these, this particular tea-trader grew up in 
 affluence, and, being in a land where swindling 
 was only part and parcel of the general condi- 
 tion of things, when the bubble burst things 
 were hushed up, and he went on his career 
 smilingly, a rich man and an independent. 
 Being an exile, however, and forbidden to 
 leave Siberia for life, his wealth availed him 
 little, for it could not be spent beyond the 
 confines of his home. Still, the exercise of 
 his capital was so great that in the few years
 
 THE END OF THE RAILWAY 119 
 
 of his tradinsf he had been able to crush all 
 formidable opposition, and could not only 
 supply all markets of Siberia and European 
 Eussia at a cheaper rate than any other trader, 
 but he was able to purchase from the Chinese 
 grower a class of tea which could not be 
 rivalled. Whether the Government was re- 
 luctant to make a scandal of his pecadilloes, or 
 preferred to let things slide in consideration 
 of the excellent tea with which this trader 
 supplied the community it is difficult to say, 
 but it only constitutes one of those peculi- 
 arities of Russian customs which are for ever 
 offering problems to he who cares to think.
 
 120 BOUGEINQ IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 KRASNOIARSK. 
 
 We had now arrived at the terminus of the 
 Trans-Siberian Railway — the terminus so far as 
 the early spring of 1897 was concerned. The 
 road, we understood, would be completed as 
 far as Kansk by May, to Nijniudinsk by the 
 autumn, and to Irkutsk, the capital of Siberia, 
 by the spring of 1898. Our journey from 
 Krasnoiarsk was due south, towards the Syansk 
 Mountains, and in order to cover the eight 
 hundred odd miles which separated us from 
 our goal, we had perforce to fall back upon 
 the original Siberian method of locomotion, 
 the troika sledo;e. 
 
 Pausing here, as we did, for several days, in 
 order to complete our arrangements for that
 
 KRASNOIABSK 121 
 
 long and tedious journey, it may not be out of 
 place to present a few facts with regard to the 
 construction of the great Siberian railroad, an 
 enterprise which is bound in future years to 
 become a very important factor in the 
 commerce of Asia. There are many political 
 writers who assert that the great scheme 
 covering the idea of a railway across Siberia 
 was one of strategy. Considering the wealth 
 of her Asiatic provinces, the Pacific littoral, 
 and the Chinese border, and which have ever 
 been poorly protected, and in the hope of 
 bringing her Asiatic ^possessions into closer 
 touch with Europe, Russia had looked at the 
 matter in a calm and far-seeing light. 
 Russians themselves, however, argue other- 
 wise. They say that the main idea which 
 dominated the scheme was commercial enter- 
 prise. For very many years, while Siberia 
 has been growing in richness, and has supplied 
 the mother-country with most of its commercial 
 products, that country has been, even to 
 Russians themselves, a land of mystery. It
 
 122 BOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 was the late Emperor Alexander's idea to 
 construct the line — he was an imperialist if 
 ever one sat upon the throne of Russia. His 
 predecessors, however, if they had not shame- 
 fully neglected their Asiatic possessions, had 
 at least treated them with indifference. 
 Siberia has supplied for many years the finest 
 furs to Moscow and St. Petersburg, the im- 
 perial coffers have been loaded with Siberian 
 gold, and the finest stones have been sent 
 from Siberia to Russia. There was the great 
 Chinese tea trade passing through its heart, 
 there was a demand all over that vast country 
 for European goods, and yet there was no 
 better means of sending them, or of bringing 
 goods from Siberia itself, than by way of 
 cumbersome and completely out-of-date cara- 
 vans such as had toiled across those plains 
 back in the dark ao;es. 
 
 The scheme of the Siberian railroad was 
 one which recent political movements have 
 had the effect of altering considerably. 
 Starting from Chelabinsk, the line goes
 
 KRASNOIABSK 123 
 
 straio-lit across the Tartar and Barabinski 
 steppes, through the towns of Kurgan, 
 Petropavlovsk, Omsk, Kainsk, to Krevescho- 
 kovo, crossing the important rivers of the 
 Tobol, Ishim, and Irtish on its road. This 
 section of the line is no less than 1320 
 versts long. I have already alluded to the 
 reason why the railway, instead of describing 
 a northerly course and taking in the town 
 of Tomsk, went straight ahead to Atchinsk 
 and Krasnoiarsk. After crossing the Obi, the 
 line is continued to Atchinsk, 551 versts 
 further on, crossing the rivers Tom and 
 Chulim ; then to Krasnoiarsk, another 169 
 versts; and after that Irkutsk, 1005 versts 
 from the last-named town. So far, and in 
 spite of the rather mountainous country 
 between the Obi Eiver and Lake Baikal, the 
 laying of the line, it was considered, would 
 not offer many difficulties to the engineer. 
 The further project is to continue the line 
 round the southern shore of the Baikal as 
 far as Mysofsk, but here it is estimated
 
 124 ROUQEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 tremendous difficulties will liave to be en- 
 countered, for the line is to ptass along a 
 valley which is frequently inundated, and 
 will necessitate the buildino- of huo^e embank- 
 ments. The valley of the Irkut is to be 
 followed as far as the slopes of the Sirkisinsk 
 Mountains, where it is to pass through the 
 first tunnel constructed. In fact, the whole of 
 that portion of the line running around the 
 Baikal offers tremendous difficulties to the 
 engineer — marshy grounds, hard rock, and 
 numerous rushing streams having to be 
 encountered. From here the line, according 
 to the original plan, was to follow the course 
 of the Seleuga, which river it was to cross 
 on a trestle bridge. Thence through a country 
 of extreme mountainous character, including 
 the Yablonoi chain, to the watershed of the 
 Lena and Amoor, the course of the railway 
 was one which only the most scientific rail- 
 way engineers in the Avorld would care to 
 tackle. Nearing Stretinsk the line would be 
 close to the Chinese border, which it was to
 
 KBASNOIARSK 125 
 
 follow closely, by the banks of the Amoor 
 and the Ussuri, until it emerged from the 
 mountains on to the coast and terminated at 
 Vladivostock. 
 
 The railway was commenced at both ends, 
 and the Vladivostock station was the first to 
 be completed. A glance at the map will 
 show that from Vladivostock the railway had to 
 take an extreme northward course, in order 
 to follow the Manchurian border, and at the 
 time many of those interested in the enterprise 
 looked longingly at that portion of Manchuria 
 which alone obstructed a straight run across 
 a flat and easily engineered country from 
 Stretinsk to the coast. The Chino-Japanese 
 War, and the political complications with 
 Eussia whicli occurred afterwards, came, for 
 the latter country at any rate, at a most 
 opportune time, and the result now is that 
 the railway, instead of going to Vladivostock, 
 as was the original intention, will now depart 
 from the course at first laid down, and will 
 cut into Manchuria and drive a straight
 
 126 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 course down to the Pacific coast at Port 
 Arthur. 
 
 The save which will be effected in this later 
 development of the Trans-Siberian Railway 
 plan can only be appreciated when it is said 
 that the original line from Stretinsk to 
 Vladivostock would offer almost precisely 
 similar difficulties to the engineer as those 
 which the constructors of the Union Pacific 
 Railroad met with, and that the new project 
 involves nothing more terrible than laying 
 the line on what is practically a hard, sandy 
 desert. On top of this political stratagem 
 comes the important fact that by cutting 
 rio-ht into the heart of Chinese tributary states 
 the Trans-Siberian Railway must and will 
 absorb the bulk of the Chinese tea trade. 
 As an instance of what this tea trade really 
 means, it is as well to mention that while the 
 greater portion of it heretofore has been carried 
 by camel caravan across the Gobi Desert and 
 through the heart of Siberia to Russia, enter- 
 prising traders have found that even a cheaper
 
 KBASNOIABSK 127 
 
 way to get tea into Russia has been to ship 
 at Shanghai, and then by the Colombo, Suez, 
 and Mediterranean route into the English 
 Channel, trans-ship from here into the steamers 
 for the Arctic seas, and thence by the Kara 
 Sea route down into the centre of Siberia 
 through the Yenesei River to Krasnoiarsk. 
 
 From end to end the line will be about 
 seven thousand versts — 4666 miles — but the 
 construction of the main line itself does not 
 complete the whole enterprise, which will be 
 further increased by the development of the 
 river traffic, in order to bring towns far inland 
 in direct steamboat communication with the 
 railway. Wharves and quays are to be built, 
 branch lines sent out, and, in fact, as time 
 progresses, the whole scheme is one ambitious 
 enough to bring all the most important towns 
 in Siberia into direct railway communication 
 with the Western world. Of the colonization 
 value of the railway I have already spoken. 
 Siberia as a country is far richer agriculturally, 
 and in many other respects, than is European
 
 128 ROUOniNG IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 Russia, and although it will take time to con- 
 vince the somewhat slothful Russian that Siberia 
 is not all so black as it has been painted, the 
 outlook is one decidedly of promise. As an 
 earnest of the Government's endeavours to 
 popularize this land so little known, foreign 
 traders and travellers are offered privileges 
 which one would scarcely dream of in connec- 
 tion with a country which heretofore has seemed 
 unapproachable. For travellers, as a matter of 
 fact, the Siberian Railway will offer many 
 advantages. The zone system of railway 
 travelling, which originated in Hungary, is in 
 force throughout Russia, and at the present 
 time it is possible to buy a first-class railway 
 ticket at the port of Riga, on the Baltic coast, 
 to Krasnoiarsk, right in the centre of Siberia, 
 for the sum of £5 155. This price is in such 
 violent contrast to the excessive charges for 
 horses under the older system of Siberian 
 travelling that it surely cannot fail to have a 
 very great effect upon the passenger trafiic of 
 Siberia in future years.
 
 KRASNOIARSK ' 129 
 
 Having now done with the railway, we four 
 exiles had perforce to turn our attention and 
 our thoughts towards horses and sledges. The 
 first thing to do was to buy sledges, and the 
 next to hire horses. We had been told that, 
 owing to the competition offered by the rail- 
 way, we should find sledges cheap, especially 
 in Krasnoiarsk. A decent sledge, new, will 
 cost anything from two hundred to three 
 hundred roubles ; but this was not anything 
 like the price which we intended to pay. 
 
 Realizino: the fact that we were foreigners, 
 with but a scanty knowledge of Russian, we 
 were prepared to be fleeced a bit ; but thanks 
 to the good offices of our Jewish landlord, we 
 got through the ordeal of sledge-buying to our 
 complete satisfaction. The landlord knew a 
 man who had a sledge to sell. I saw his little 
 eyes twinkle with cupidity when we broached 
 the subject of sledge-buying to him. He 
 asked how much we were prepared to spend 
 on the sledges. I casually mentioned twenty- 
 five roubles. He raised his hands in horror. 
 
 K
 
 130 HOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 Twenty-five roubles ! Why, that would not pur- 
 chase the runners ! But we had a scheme which 
 brought him to the business-like point, and 
 that was to offer him a commission on the 
 purchase, provided we were present, so that he 
 should have no chance of making any ulterior 
 arrangement with the seller. We arranged 
 the commission on a sliding scale, so based that 
 for every rouble he saved us so many more 
 kopecks commission for him. Being shrewd, 
 he saw the force of our argument, and I must 
 say that in the subsequent proceedings he 
 behaved as honestly as we could desire. 
 
 We drove down to his friend, where, under 
 a shed, the sledge for sale was frozen hard and 
 fast to the ground. We called forth the pro- 
 prietor and demanded its price. 
 
 " A hundred roubles." 
 
 Our Jewish friend spat vigorously on the 
 ground, called the other a moujik and a thief 
 and several other hard names. 
 
 " A hundred roubles ! Preposterous ! " The 
 foreigners would not dream of paying more,
 
 KRASNOIAESK 131 
 
 tlian ten. There were plenty of other sledges 
 in the town : and, in fact, if he did not want 
 to sell, why the Jew himself, in commiseration 
 for the foreigners, would lend them his own 
 sledges ! 
 
 This brought the proprietor down to seventy- 
 five roubles. More spitting and more ejacula- 
 tions on the part of the Jew. 
 
 At a sio-nal we all walked towards the 
 gate and our drosky. The proprietor ambled 
 after us. 
 
 " Fifty roubles, then," said he. 
 
 " Fifteen roubles ! " said the Jew. 
 
 "It is the only sledge I have," cried the 
 other, raising both his hands in mock supplica- 
 tion. " If you take it from me I shall have to 
 walk, for I must go to Irkutsk next week. 
 There, there, it is a lovely sledge. Look at 
 the runners, sound and bright as on the day 
 they were put in. The body of the sledge too, 
 roomy and comfortable ; two gentlemen can 
 sleep here day and night, if they wish. Come 
 now, forty-five roubles."
 
 132 EOUOniNG IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 '•'Twenty roubles," cried the Jew, with his 
 foot on the step of the drosky. 
 
 " Bah ! " cried the other, *' you would rob me. 
 Go your way." 
 
 He slammed the gate at us, and we all 
 made as if to get into the drosky. But the 
 Jew, however, motioned to us to wait for a 
 moment ; and then the gate opened, and the 
 hairy face of the sledge-proprietor appeared. 
 " Forty roubles," he cried in a sort of half 
 howl. 
 
 " Twenty-five," responded the Jew. 
 
 " Not a kopeck less," said the owner. 
 
 "Then drive on, isvostchik," commanded 
 the Jew. 
 
 The isvostchik struck the horse with the 
 end of his reins ; but the gate of the moujik's 
 hut opened, and out the sledge-proprietor 
 dashed. 
 
 " Thirty-five roubles." 
 
 " Twenty-six." 
 
 " Bah ! you would rob me ; say thirty." 
 
 " Not a kopeck more than twenty-seven,"
 
 KRASNOIAESK 133 
 
 " Twenty-seven, very well ; but I must have 
 ten kopecks for vodki." 
 
 Out of the drosky we bundled cagcain into 
 the ycard; inspected the sledge, paid twenty- 
 seven roubles for it, and ten kopecks for vodki ; 
 found the first three men we could in the 
 street, and gave them a few kopecks to run 
 the sledge round to the hotel, and the bargain 
 was completed. 
 
 Another sledge was purchased with pre- 
 cisely similar proceedings, but I must confess 
 that the whole business, irrespective of the 
 undoubted fact that our Jewish friend pocketed 
 a good round sum on the deal, turned out much 
 cheaper than we had expected. 
 
 The next thing was to purchase our store 
 of provisions, which was to last something 
 like seven days ; for during our passage of the 
 Yenesei River as far as Minusinsk, the villages 
 would be few and far between, and even in 
 these villages the traveller would fare badly 
 if he wanted food. The main post-road to 
 Minusinsk was from Atchinsk, but the river
 
 134 liOUGIIING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 road, we had been told, was vastly preferable 
 to the post-road, in spite of the discomfort 
 which would be experienced in having to 
 travel lonoj distances between villao;es. Nor 
 could we have the assistance of the Govern- 
 ment post-horses, and should have to rely 
 upon what horses we could hire along the 
 route in order to forward our journey. Why 
 we had been advised to take the river route I 
 cannot tell. I can only say that as it turned 
 out it was a hundred per cent, dearer, two 
 days slower, and a hundred times more un- 
 comfortable than if we had taken the regular 
 post-road through Atchinsk. But this fact 
 was not brought home to us until the return 
 journey was made and the regular method of 
 communication resorted to. 
 
 The packing of a sledge is a task which 
 only the experienced Siberian traveller should 
 undertake. The body of the vehicle almost 
 touches the ground, and it is in the body that 
 all the stores are placed ; careful packing with 
 hay and straw, canvas and rope, ensuring a
 
 KRASNOIAESK 135 
 
 certain amouut of rigidity. The goods are 
 packed as nearly level as possible, and on the 
 top are thrown heaps of straw, then the 
 pillows, rugs, and furs of the traveller, who, 
 poor fellow, is compelled, owing to the general 
 flatness of the vehicle, to assume, during the 
 whole of his journey, a more or less recumbent 
 attitude. At the first set ofi", and when, 
 smothered in our furs, we laid down in our 
 sledges, everything seemed very jolly and 
 comfortable, and I am sure we all looked 
 forward with much avidity to our long sledge 
 ride. It was after two days of it, however, 
 when, what with the packages shifting and 
 our cramped positions, we began to feel that, 
 wretched as had been the accommodation of 
 the Siberian railroad trains, one could at least 
 move about in them with some desfree of 
 
 o 
 
 freedom. 
 
 It was afternoon before we were prepared to 
 start on the first stage of the journey. The 
 nearest village was fifty versts away, and a 
 Krasnoiarsk moujik had guaranteed to take
 
 13G nOUOniNG IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 lis there for the sum of eight roubles per sledge. 
 Hours after the time appointed, he turned up 
 with his six horses, a douga with its jangling 
 bells hanging over each shoulder, a bottle of 
 vodki under his arm, and a wooden pipe tucked 
 between his teeth. Night was already falling, 
 and we were anxious to be off, as we had no 
 desire to have the first stasre of our sledcfincj 
 accomplished in the dark. The leisurely 
 manner in which this particular yemshik went 
 about his business exasperated us, and it was 
 already dark before we were able to scramble 
 in, tuck ourselves in our furs, shake hands 
 with the hotel proprietor, and give the signal 
 to start. 
 
 And the start was made. The yemshik 
 cracked his knout, gave vent to a piercing 
 scream, followed it up by a whoop, and then 
 the horses dashed forward as if they were 
 pursued by demons. We went out of the yard 
 of the hotel in a sort of a side slide, which 
 brought us up against a wooden lamp-post on 
 the opposite side of the road with a tremendous
 
 THE VENESEI RAI'IDS— SUMMER. {.To faCC page I36.
 
 KRASNOIABSK 137 
 
 jerk. Then down the road we careered ; 
 helter-skelter, bells jangling, and ycmshiks 
 shouting. Kound a turn, under a wooden 
 archway, erected to commemorate the visit 
 of the Czarevitch ; and then, with a plunge 
 and a vision of flying snow from horses' feet, 
 a cloud of steam from horses' nostrils, and 
 with a sort of hold-on-or-be-thrown-out feeling 
 permeating us, we went down the slope of the 
 river-bank, out upon the glassy ice, with the 
 whole broad expanse of the frozen Yenesei 
 before us.
 
 138 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 DOWN THE YENESEI. 
 
 Night had already come on, but away beliind 
 us we could see the few pale lemon-coloured 
 rays betokening the departure of the sun to 
 other climes. Before us the river stretched, 
 a great white mass with a low horizon and 
 a mist beyond. We had got into a narrow 
 cleft of the roadway, which zig-zagged in and 
 out of gaunt pieces of ice, still and ghostly in 
 the gloom. 
 
 Like the surface of the Obi, that of the 
 Yenesei was all broken, jagged, and ragged, 
 and the wonder was to me, as we passed swiftly 
 over the bed of snow which concealed the 
 ice beneath, how, in the first instance, the 
 Siberian yemshiks had been able to make a
 
 DOWN THE YENESEI 139 
 
 passage over sucli a tumbled surface. The 
 roadway was extremely rough, and we had 
 not long been travelling before we began to 
 feel how uneven was our bed, and how sharp 
 w^ere the corners of the boxes and bundles 
 which made that up, comfortable indeed as it 
 had seemed at the moment of setting out. 
 
 But there was a solemnity about it all which 
 could not fail to make the experience one to 
 inspire thought. The front of the sledge was 
 open, but, in spite of the still air which reigned 
 around, the speed of the horses caused a 
 draught which sent quite a cutting wind in 
 our faces, to leave congealations of frost on 
 eyebrows, eyelashes, and beards. Wrapped 
 up almost to our eyes in furs, and with such 
 an amount of rugs on top of us that it was 
 c[uite impossible to move, we did not, at least 
 for the first hour or so, feel the cold. But 
 how cold it was one could realize when looking 
 out, with blinking eyes, at the expanse beyond ; 
 or, closer in, to the yemshik, whose burly figure 
 was limned against the white and yet whose
 
 140 BOUOniNQ IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 clothing was covered with hairs of frost ; or 
 upon the horses at the side, whose backs and 
 whose legs were white. Beyond the jangle 
 of those donga bells, beyond the crack of the 
 yemshik's knout, beyond the occasional wailing 
 cry which he gave vent to in order to en- 
 courage his willing steeds, or beyond the 
 crunch of the runners on the snow, or the 
 patter of the hoofs when the snow was left 
 for some expanse of bare ice, there was no 
 sound to be heard. Dimly to the right and 
 the left we could see the banks of the river, 
 simply mounds rising above the surface. And 
 thus on we went ; the horses ever at a gallop, 
 the yemshik sitting on one side of the sledge, 
 feet dangling almost beneath the runners, 
 whip trailing idly in the snow, head bowed, 
 and face smothered in his sheepskin pelisse. 
 Nothing to break the monotony of it all, 
 unless it were sleep. Behind us every now 
 and again, when some turn in the roadway 
 brought us round, we could hear the tinkle 
 of the bells of our companions' troika.
 
 DOWN THE YENESEI 141 
 
 Occasionally, as if only to break the awful 
 solitude which seemed to fill the very air, one 
 or the other of us would shout, and shout 
 back ; occasions which called forth no resent- 
 ment on the part of the yemshik, in spite of 
 the fact that every shout made the horses go 
 faster. 
 
 What a ride that was ! My companion 
 Gaskell sought slumber ; but I, filled with the 
 mood of reflection, could only sit and gaze 
 upon — what ? the nothingness around me ! To 
 listen to the musical clanging of the bells, 
 to the hoof-beats of the horses, and to wonder 
 what in the name of Heaven the yemshik was 
 talking about. 
 
 For he had a peculiar way, this yemshik. 
 The little I could catch of his talk referred to 
 doves and pigs. He would address the star- 
 board horse in the most aflfectionate terms, 
 and a second later would bring his long knout 
 with a swishing crack above the head of the 
 beast to port, and hurl terrible invectives at 
 it, meanwhile that the equine representative
 
 142 ROUGEINQ IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 in the centre went along with great swinging 
 strides, loaded down, as it seemed, with the 
 great douga, and undoubtedly deafened with 
 the noise of the bells around his ears. 
 
 Minutes went into hours, but there was no 
 cessation in the pace ; there was no alteration 
 in the surroundings, unless it was that with 
 the advent of the stars thino-s became clearer 
 and more distinct. Thus I could see on either 
 side the greenish l)lue ice which stood up 
 like points of rock all around us, and I could 
 more distinctly perceive the rugged banks of 
 the river which now began to tower on either 
 side. Once, when we had travelled some two 
 hours out of Krasnoiarsk, we burst suddenly 
 on a plain of ice uncovered by snow, and 
 over whose clear surface the horses scrambled 
 at a mad pace, and the runners swished as a 
 fast steamer would through water. Passing 
 over such a surface as this could be compared 
 to nothing so much as riding in a boat, for 
 the ice beneath was black, and glittered like 
 still water. But we were soon over that
 
 DOWN TEE YENE8E1 143 
 
 expanse, swept clean as it had been by bluster- 
 iug winds, and in among the hummocky ice 
 again, on the bed of snow ; ever tearing 
 onward, the yemshik ever talking, the whip 
 occasionally cracking, a periodical shout from 
 our comrades, a far-off tinkle of the bells of 
 their sledge, and the more clamorous tones 
 of our own. 
 
 Three hours of this, and I saw the driver 
 making a bee-line for the bank. As he 
 approached nearer and nearer, he urged his 
 horses to faster pace, stood up on the seat, 
 shouted and gesticulated as a madman would ; 
 while his little horses tugged and strained at 
 the traces, galloping like fury all the time, 
 clouds of steam pouring from their nostrils and 
 rising above their heads, and with every hair 
 upon their bodies coated with white ice. The 
 bank was reached, a short sharp clatter over 
 the bare ice by the side, and then up the slope 
 at a swinging pace, round the corner, and, 
 almost before I knew it, we had passed a house, 
 another, and then another, all black and sombre
 
 144 HOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 in this darkness. One more corner, and we 
 swung into a street ; not a light to be seen, 
 not a sign of life ; still on at that wild gallop, 
 until, with a jerk and a huge side-slip, avc 
 pulled up before a small hut, which, to say the 
 least, looked anything but hospitable. 
 
 " First station," cried the yemshik, as he 
 laboriously descended from his seat and went 
 round to pick the ice from the nostrils of his 
 horses. "First station, barins. Please go in 
 and have the samovar." 
 
 Out we bundled. The second troika had 
 arrived, and out they bundled. We asked each 
 other what we all thought about it, and the 
 general verdict was one of approval. Novelty 
 is a great thing, and w^hile variety is the spice 
 of life, how could any one grumble, spite of 
 hard corners and that biting cold ? 
 
 The moujik's hut which we were bidden to 
 enter was graced with one of the smallest 
 doorways I have ever seen. It was certainly 
 not more than four feet high. There was 
 much banging of heads in order to get through,
 
 DOWN TEE YENESEI 145 
 
 more banging in ascending a short flight of 
 wooden stairs which led us into a small 
 corridor, imlighted, but smelling very badly. 
 By diligent groping, one of us managed to 
 find the handle of a door, which door, owing 
 to the enormous amount of padding on its 
 edges, persistently refused to open until two 
 of us had exerted our strength upon it, although 
 it was no bigger than the one which gave 
 entrance to the passage. 
 
 A burst of light and a cloud of steam 
 preceded our entrance. Bending low we 
 entered the single room of the moujik, a room 
 not more than six feet high, and which poor 
 Sea well, who was tall enough to be a Lifeguards- 
 man, found to be particularly inconvenient. 
 It was a veritable moujik's apartment, and one 
 which was so truly Eussian that it deserves 
 more than passing description. 
 
 As we entered, it was to perceive on one 
 side a huge brick stove, which gave off a 
 fierce heat, and upon the top of which the 
 lord and master of the house reposed in slumber. 
 
 L
 
 146 HOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 A bench, in no wise dissimilar to the tap-room 
 benches of the English public-house, occupied 
 another side. Depending from the ceiling 
 upon the end of a long birch pole was a 
 curious arrangement, which, upon closer in- 
 spection, turned out to be a cradle. This was 
 simply a shallow wooden dish, supported at 
 each end by string, terminating in a knot tied 
 upon the end of a rope, which in turn was 
 attached to the birch pole. Little curtains 
 hung on the rope and surrounded the peace- 
 fully sleeping infant in the dish, the limber 
 pole above giving this primitive cradle a gentle 
 motion, highly calculated to soothe the slumber 
 of the moujik's baby. 
 
 But the heat — pouf ! it was terrible. Coming 
 in as we had from that piercing cold right into 
 a perfect hothouse, our beards and eyelashes 
 thawed in a moment, and the water streamed 
 down our faces. There was a smell of furs and 
 skins, which did not improve the atmosphere. 
 A little old woman was sleeping on the bench 
 in one corner ; a younger woman, in short red
 
 DOWN THE YENESEI 147 
 
 petticoat, a red shawl around her head, and a 
 thin cotton blouse open at the front and 
 exposing her whole bust, and with bare feet, 
 had busied herself on our entry. Without 
 signal or asking she had put some pieces of 
 paper and sticks in the samovar and was 
 engaged in lighting it. 
 
 Such is the way of the Siberian traveller. 
 This was no post-station — it was simply a 
 peasant's hut ; but it was the custom of 
 travellers to enter unannounced, uninvited, 
 any house in a village and demand accom- 
 modation. 
 
 It was while consuming the contents of the 
 samovar, and some food which we had brought 
 with us, that our yemshik, who by some 
 manner of means had got rid of the thick 
 coatins^ of ice which covered his features on 
 our arrival, entered, and, after laboriously 
 crossincr himself before the small ikon in the 
 corner of the hut, requested to know if it was 
 the wish of their excellencies to proceed to the 
 next stage that night, or to remain until day
 
 148 ItOUGHING IT IN SIBElilA 
 
 broke. Anxious to get on, we plumped for 
 proceeding without deLay ; and tlie yemshik 
 departed in his search for horses. 
 
 We now began to see the folly of not 
 having taken the main post-road, for it was 
 some three hours before six horses could be 
 found in that village to take us on to the 
 next stage ; even then it was only by paying 
 exorbitant prices, and after much harangue 
 with half a dozen sturdy and extremely voci- 
 ferous moujiks, who crowded heavily into the 
 chamber, that we were able to get horses at all. 
 
 Looking back at that scene — that tiny, low- 
 pitched room ; my lord of the house slumber- 
 ing comfortably on top of the stove ; the bare 
 floor; those walls constructed of unplaned 
 tree-trunks ; the tiny windows ; the bench 
 with its ornament of a steaming samovar ; the 
 swinging cradle, and the general primitiveness 
 of everything — it is hard to realize it all 
 occurred so short a time ago. The remem- 
 brance comes vivid of the patient, yet inde- 
 scribable look of the woman, her wondering
 
 DOWN THE YENESEI 149 
 
 eyes at our, to her, iucompreliensible tongue. 
 But with the discomfort of it all worn off by 
 the swift hand of time, one comes to almost 
 appreciate its primeval originality. 
 
 We paid a few kopecks for the accommoda- 
 tion we had had. The yemshik received his 
 roubles and a few kopecks besides, which is 
 humorously called " tea money " in Siberia, 
 although it is safe to say it is always spent in 
 vodki. Then off we went again. 
 
 A fleeting vision of village huts ; down the 
 bank and out upon the river once more ; a 
 different yemshik, but with precisely similar 
 methods and mannerisms as characterized our 
 first. Another three hours of it, during which 
 I tried to snatch a little sleep ; only to be 
 awakened at intervals when the runners of 
 the sledge would strike some obstruction, and 
 force the corner of some more than particularly 
 hard box into my ribs. Well into the night 
 the second stage was reached ; more horses 
 procured, then on we went again, obtaining 
 spells of sleep of ten minutes to a q^uarter of
 
 150 ROUQUING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 an hour's duration, and thus wc managed to 
 get through the night. But, as the grey 
 morning began to creep over the hilltops 
 ahead of us, it was cold, weary, and sore that 
 we were. In spite of our heavy clothing it 
 had been an utter impossibility to keep out 
 the cold, for it attacked us in all directions, 
 and it was only by liberal doses of cognac 
 that we seemed to manage to keep our circu- 
 lation going at all. 
 
 It was a sublime sight to see the sun rise 
 over the frosted peaks ahead, while the 
 hummocky ice around assumed all the colours 
 of the rainbow. As the sun's rays became 
 stronger, they tinged in glowing colours the 
 hillsides, which now reared themselves up 
 from the very banks of the river. We could 
 perceive great stalactites of ice depending from 
 rocks, and which were, in summer, cascades. 
 The huge pieces of ice which crowded in on 
 all sides of us, forming the surface of the 
 river, at times assumed enormous proportions 
 and most grotesque designs. Sometimes they
 
 DOWN THE TENESEI 151 
 
 would tower right above, or would appear as 
 mounds ; piece piled upon piece until they 
 looked like small pyramids. The banks, too, 
 were heaped with these broken lumps, not one 
 of them less than three to four feet in thick- 
 ness. When the sun finally burst over the 
 hilltops it was a magnificent spectacle which 
 met our gaze down that wide river, all 
 hemmed in as it was by beetling rocks. One 
 could realize then what this river was in 
 summer; a great rushing waterway, passing 
 through scenery majestic in its grandeur, but 
 now with its water held tight and immovable 
 in the grasp of the ice king.
 
 152 BOUGHINa IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 AN EXCITING ADVENTURE. 
 
 For two days and nights we travelled thus, 
 and, as we progressed up the river towards 
 the mountain ranges, the scenery around 
 became extremely grand and wild, the banks 
 occasionally crowding into a narrow gorge, 
 with the cliff-sides of black slate and sand- 
 stone rearing themselves up in perpendicular 
 walls for many hundreds of feet. Villages 
 became few and far between, and more primi- 
 tive, so that occasionally we were compelled to 
 remain in some woodman's hut for hours at 
 a stretch, awaiting as patiently as possible the 
 arrival of fresh horses. Nor did the surface 
 of the river road improve, for the traffic 
 became less and the track frequently ran
 
 AN EXCITING ADVENTURE 153 
 
 through virgin snow. Four days out of 
 Krasnoiarsk the cliffs on either side of the 
 river road subsided, and we passed into the 
 steppe of Minusinsk. This steppe is one of 
 the most peculiar in Siberia, situated as it is 
 at the bottom of a circle of huge mountains, 
 through which the Yenesei runs. 
 
 It was while traversing this region that we 
 experienced a sensational incident which served 
 considerably to break the monotony of the 
 journey. At a small viUage, some one 
 hundred miles north of Minusinsk, we had 
 chartered six sorry-looking steeds to drag us 
 on to the next stage. It was a case of taking 
 them or nothing, and, to add to the difficulties 
 of the situation, the yemshik who was to drive 
 the first troika, containing Gaskell and myself, 
 was hopelessly drunk at the start. The 
 horses, it was clear, had been wretchedly kept, 
 two of them being nothing but skin and bone ; 
 still, we had seen some wretched specimens of 
 equine prowess so far, and did not pass much 
 comment.
 
 154 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 Ifc was niglit when we started — a night so 
 black that the darkness couki almost be felt. 
 The driver, maudling and hiccoughing, had 
 been helped to his perch by some of the 
 villagers, and we set off along the narrow 
 roadway at the usual gallop, which, however, 
 owing to the inferiority of the horses, soon 
 dwindled down into a mere shuffle through 
 the snow. We had gone to sleep, and it must 
 have been some hours after our departure 
 from the village when Gaskell awakened me 
 and said he thought something was the 
 matter. 
 
 Looking out through the tarpaulin of the 
 sledge, we could see nothing but blackness 
 around, with the exception of the thin light 
 thrown up from the snow. The sledge was at 
 a standstill, and our shouts to the yemshik 
 brought forth no response. 
 
 Where were our companions ? 
 
 I bundled out of the sledge, feeling at the 
 same time so numbed that it was with diffi- 
 culty I could move. I shouted when I got
 
 ^xV EXCITING ADVENTURE 155 
 
 out, in the hope of attracting our companions ; 
 but no response came. I felt along the sledge, 
 thinking that perhaps the driver, drunk, had 
 gone to sleep and allowed his horses to 
 wander, and as I went, sunk up to my knees 
 in the deep fleecy snow. 
 
 The driver's perch was empty ; and just 
 then I stumbled over one of the horses, which 
 was lying buried up to its neck in the snow. 
 Gaskell joined me, and at once the full horror 
 of our situation burst upon us. It was clear 
 that the driver had fallen from his seat, and 
 that the horses, left to themselves, had 
 wandered off the track at their own sweet 
 will. 
 
 We had in the sledge a bicycle lantern 
 which had been brought with us from England. 
 This we lit, and by its feeble light took in as 
 much as we could of the situation. The 
 runners of the sledge were completely buried 
 in deep snow ; the horses were likewise stuck 
 fast ; and a closer inspection showed one of 
 them to be dead — literally frozen to death.
 
 156 EOUGEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 How were we to get out of tlie difficulty ? 
 Gaskell suggested shouting for our companions : 
 but that was little use. The second troika had 
 probably gone straight ahead on the track, and 
 we had no means of knowino; how far off it wc 
 were, and there was no telling how soon the 
 other horses, sorry animals that they were, 
 would survive the piercing cold and their 
 inertion. 
 
 A glance at the watch showed us that it 
 was three o'clock, and another five hours must 
 elapse before dawn would appear. What to 
 do was at first difficult to decide. To wander 
 off in search of assistance was not to be 
 thouo-ht of, as we had no means of tellinsj in 
 which direction the horses had wandered — 
 whether to the north or the south bank of the 
 river. We made a short circuit of the sledore, 
 but nowhere could we find traces of ice. To 
 go forward seemed impossible, and yet to 
 remain as we were was equally risky. Food 
 and drink we had with us, fortunately ; but 
 with no means of knowing where we were, it
 
 AN EXCITING ADVENTURE 157 
 
 was impossible to tell liow loDg it might l)e 
 before we could get succour. 
 
 There was, however, just one way out of 
 the difficulty, and that was to retrace on the 
 marks made by the sledge runners, if that 
 could be done with two horses. This was the 
 plan decided upon. We cut the dead horse 
 adrift, and, using some of the spare rope as 
 whips, we stood on either side of the living, 
 and lashed them until our arms ached. The 
 poor beasts were nearly succumbing. They 
 lay flat on their stomachs, nibbling at the 
 snow, and our kicks and blows for a time 
 seemed to have no more effect upon them 
 than if they were made of wood. At length, 
 however, we succeeded in getting them to 
 move. AVe helped by pushing the sledge, and 
 gradually got it round into the track. Then, 
 step by step, w^ith much floundering and many 
 falls, we began to retrace our way. AU this in 
 a pitch darkness, in a raw cold that pierced us, 
 and in momentary expectation of one or the 
 other or both the horses dropping dead.
 
 158 no UGH IN a IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 An hour of tliis sort: of work brought us to 
 the river-bank, and here we were so exhausted 
 that we were compelled to rest a few moments, 
 while the horses, with drooping heads and 
 trembling frames, looked fit to fall. To have 
 arrived at the river was at any rate something 
 of a blessing, but how to get on the road 
 again was another difficulty ; for on the river 
 surface we could trace no sign of the sledge 
 runners, while the jagged pieces of ice which 
 stuck up all around made forward progress 
 look impossible. The only way out of it was 
 for one of us to go across the river in order to 
 discover the road. 
 
 This duty Gaskell took on. He carried the 
 lantern with him, and I was to show the 
 whereabouts of the sledge after his departure 
 by signals with lighted matches. He disap- 
 peared into the darkness, but the occasional 
 flash of his lantern as he crawled over the 
 hummocks showed me in his direction. Across 
 the river he went, the spark of light growing 
 fainter and fainter as he progressed, ultimately
 
 AN EXCITING AD VENTURE 159 
 
 disappearing altogether, and I was left alone 
 in that vast solitude, in the middle of the 
 night, with no sound but the heavy breathing 
 of my two exhausted horses or the just faintly 
 perceptible rumble of the river beneath the ice. 
 
 Five minutes, ten minutes passed, and then 
 a shout was wafted to my waiting ears on 
 the cold air. I shouted in reply, and saw the 
 faint glint of Gaskell's light away in the 
 distance. He was coming round by a cir- 
 cuitous route, and in a quarter of an hour 
 rejoined me, with the welcome intelligence 
 that by following the bank of the river for a 
 short distance a gap in the hummocks led to 
 the road. 
 
 The work it was to get those poor tired 
 horses to start ao;ain ! It was useless to show 
 mercy, for it was clear that they could not 
 last out much longer. Our compass told us 
 which was the direction to follow, and once 
 having gained the track we set off as hard as 
 we could get the horses to go, both of us on 
 the seat, alternately shouting and whipping.
 
 160 EOUGBING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 What relief we both experienced when, 
 around a bend in the river, we saw a sparkle 
 of light away up on the left bank ! I got 
 out the bicycle lantern, lit it, and waved it in 
 the air. Then on the faint breeze came the 
 sound of a cry. Some one was evidently 
 looking out for us, and we urged our horses 
 to their topmost pace. Another shout, and 
 yet another, and presently we distinguished 
 the voices of Scawell and Asprey. Ten 
 minutes later we struggled up the bank of 
 the river almost into the arms of our com- 
 rades, who had been anxiously awaiting our 
 arrival. 
 
 Judge of our astonishment when we learned 
 that they had had an almost similar experience 
 to our own. They had been travelling behind 
 us, and not four versts out of the village from 
 which we had started one of their side horses 
 dropped dead, was cut away, and the journey 
 resumed with the two remaining horses. But 
 their sledge being heavy they could not travel 
 at more than a walking pace, and their anxiety
 
 'S.
 
 AN EXCITING ADVENTUBE 161 
 
 can be imagined when, on arrival at the 
 village, they found that we were absent and 
 nothing had been heard of us. In this part 
 of the country, where murder and robbery are 
 of frequent occurrence, all sorts of surmises 
 and conjectures may be aroused ; but, safe out 
 of the difficulty, we had no mood now but to 
 give our first thoughts to the fate of the 
 yemshik. It was obvious that the poor fellow 
 must have dro^^ped asleep and fallen off" his 
 box. Where and when it was impossible to 
 say, and his fate seemed as good as sealed, 
 for in that terrible cold, hardened Siberian 
 though he might be, he could scarcely survive 
 the inevitable. 
 
 One thing was remarkable, and that w^as 
 the indifference which the villagers and his 
 brother yemshik displayed regarding his fate. 
 AVe were anxious to organize a search-party, 
 but none of them evinced any great willingness 
 to enter upon the expedition. He would be 
 sure to turn up, they said ; why bother ? If 
 he had liked to make a beast of himself and
 
 162 EOUGHINQ IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 fall from his sledge, that was surely his look 
 out 1 No self-respecting yemshik ought to do 
 such a thing as that. Our arguments had 
 little avail, and, I confess it with shame, none 
 of us four felt called upon to undertake the 
 task on our own responsibility, even if we 
 had horses with which to perform the task. 
 
 Life is cheap in Siberia ! We had already 
 heard so much of men being frozen to death, 
 of murders, and of general carelessness in 
 regard to human life, that even we, I fancy, 
 were growing somewhat callous, and we did 
 what Nature called for first, and that was to 
 sleep. We were awake with daylight, prepared 
 to continue our travelling, when our inquiries 
 regarding the fate of the yemshik revealed the 
 fact that a couple of men had gone down the 
 road in order to find him ; and we were 
 fain to leave the matter at that. 
 
 Fresh horses being engaged, we resumed 
 our journey, and that night galloped into the 
 town of Minusinsk, the last township north 
 of the Chinese border. There was no inn or
 
 AN EXCITING ADVENTURE 163 
 
 hotel at Minusinsk, but our yemshik had a 
 friend whose practice it was to put up travellers 
 for the night ; so we drove immediately to the 
 house, in order to obtain its shelter and comfort, 
 however poor that might be. To our delight 
 the house turned out to be superior, if any- 
 thing, to the hotels which we had seen so far 
 in Siberia. It was at least roomy and clean, 
 and was kept by a Livland exile, who spoke 
 German. We had the experience of a meal 
 of cutlets and white bread, washed down with 
 a flagon of red Caucasian wine. What matter 
 if we did sleep on the bare boards, or that the 
 only illumination we had was by means of 
 candles which wanted perpetual snufling ! To 
 what we had been accustomed during the 
 past few days on the river, the exile's house 
 in Minusinsk was a veritable palace. We 
 slept, and slept soundly ; awoke and had our 
 samovar, more white bread, and some eggs. 
 We made a tour of the town, our exit into 
 the street being signalized by the a^Jj^iearance 
 of a Chinaman on the opposite side removing
 
 164 BOVGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 the sliutters of a tea-house. It was a glimpse 
 of the Oriental which had a significance for 
 us — a hint that we were close upon the borders 
 of another land. Bad as were the Russian 
 facias to decipher, they were easy compared 
 to the numerous hieroglyphics in Chinese 
 which we now occasionally stumbled across in 
 our perambulations of Minusinsk. 
 
 There was not much to be seen in the town. 
 It was a mere huddle of one-story frame- 
 houses, with a rather fine church and a 
 barracks — for Minusinsk was the depot for 
 the Cossacks used in the control of the Altai 
 gold-mining system. There was a bank also, 
 merely a hut in itself, but sufficient for our 
 purposes, and here we changed some of our 
 big paper money into small silver pieces, for 
 south of Minusinsk we were to go into a 
 country which was almost uninhabited. 
 
 As an illustration of the manner in which 
 the Russian officials keep watch over all 
 strangers in the vast dominions of the Czar, 
 it was interesting to find that we had been
 
 AN EXCITING ADVENTURE 165 
 
 expected. Our return from the ramble fouud 
 the chief of police in our apartment, attended 
 by a couple of Cossacks of most formidable 
 dimensions. He knew all our names, knew 
 where we had come from, and where we were 
 going. He signed our passports ; urbanely 
 drank tea and vodki with us, shook hands on 
 his departure, and wished us the best of luck. 
 
 An incident like this was very instructive 
 as to the manner in which the eye of the 
 law is fixed upon the foreigner in autocratic 
 Russia.
 
 166 HOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 NEARING THE CHINESE FRONTIER. 
 
 At Minusinsk we were to leave the Yenesei, 
 and continue our journey to the Syansk 
 Mountains over the foothills, which now inter- 
 vened between the Chinese border. Beyond 
 one or two villages at decidedly long intervals, 
 we could look forward to nothing in the shape 
 of accommodation until we reached Karatuski, 
 a village of rather larger dimensions than the 
 majority, and which was the last Siberian 
 habitation before the frontier. From Minu- 
 sinsk to Karatuski, there was no semblance 
 of a road, merely a track formed in the snow 
 by the telegas of the gold-miners going to or 
 returning from the mines. Southward from 
 Minusinsk the whole country was gold-bearing,
 
 NEARINO THE CHINESE FRONTIER 167 
 
 and Karatuski itself was the head-quarters of 
 the goldmasters during the summer operations. 
 After a day's rest in Minusinsk we once 
 more resumed our journey, our way being 
 over the barren uplands which were ever 
 rising towards the mountain range. Very 
 little incident marked our progress during 
 the first day's journey, and on the second we 
 came in sight of the ragged spurs of the 
 mountains which mark the Chinese frontier. 
 At midday on that day we had reached, 
 after a long toilsome drag up-hill, the top of 
 one of the foothills, and the scene round us 
 was one truly magnificent. To the north the 
 whole snow- covered country lay stretched 
 like a panorama. To the south tumbled 
 hills dwindled away in the distance, and, 
 then, above them, with peaks glittering and 
 glinting in the sunlight, rose the cones of the 
 Altai range. To the east more mountains, all 
 peaked, shaggy, and uneven. They were hills 
 and mountains such as are seen in no part 
 of the world except Asia. There were no
 
 168 BOVOIIING IT IN SIBEBIA 
 
 bluffs or rounded domes, but sheer heaps of 
 rocks pointing up to the sky like reversed 
 stalactites. 
 
 On the evening of the third day we passed 
 through a narrow gorge on the ice of a small 
 river, and ultimately came to Karatuski. 
 Here we were met by several Siberian gold- 
 miners, who had been expecting our arrival, 
 and who were, even so early in the year, 
 making their preparations for the forthcoming 
 season's work. Karatuski was but a village, 
 still we had no difficulty in finding fairly 
 comfortable quarters in a moujik's house, and 
 as our stay in the village was to be of some 
 days, during which we had to buy provisions 
 and engage men for our expedition in the 
 mountains, we made no bones about engaging 
 two houses in which to get as much comfort 
 as it was possible during the time. 
 
 On the very day of our arrival, and while 
 we were doing full justice to our first meal, 
 we were besieged by quite a crowd of peasants 
 who came to be engaged. Somehow the
 
 NEAEING TEE CHINESE FRONTIER 1G9 
 
 rumour had o-one forth that foreisfners were 
 coming into the country, and would require 
 labourers. Whether the peasants thought that 
 they were likely to get better pay or better 
 treatment from the foreigners, I do not know, 
 but anyway they came in their hundreds, 
 and not even our oft-repeated refusals to 
 have anything to do with them until next 
 day would rid us of them. Some assured 
 us that they had walked forty or fifty versts 
 from neighbouring mines on the chance of 
 being engaged, and one interesting party, 
 consisting of nearly two dozen Livlanders, 
 who all spoke German, and were all convicts, 
 begged and prayed of us to engage them. 
 Our interview wdth some of these worthies 
 threw some sidelights upon Siberian gold- 
 mining, for ninety per cent, of the workers at 
 the mines, it appeared, were of the criminal 
 class. 
 
 At Tomsk we had been very careful to 
 make inquiries as to the class of workmen to 
 be obtained in the Minusinsk district, and
 
 170 SOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 had been assured that no criminals were sent 
 to the gold-mining districts. The contrary 
 we found was the case, for out of over two 
 hundred men who presented themselves to us 
 not one per cent, bore the passport of a free 
 man ; but had, instead, the police certificate 
 which detailed the crime and the sentence of 
 the holder. It is interestinq; to record that 
 we engaged six men, the most likely -looking 
 and the most intelligent of the mob, and that 
 each one of them had been banished for life 
 to Siberia for no less a crime than violent 
 murder. The most intelligent of the lot 
 was a German Livlander, name, August 
 Schultz, who had committed two murders, 
 one in Courland and one in Siberia, and 
 enjoyed a wife who had distinguished herself 
 by beating out the brains of a former husband 
 with a hatchet. We engaged Schultz as our 
 interpreter, and his wife as our cook, although 
 mentally resolving at the time that it would 
 be necessary to keep a loose eye on the doings 
 of our employes.
 
 NEARING THE CHINESE FRONTIER 171 
 
 When one of the gold-masters came to assist 
 us in getting the police permission for these 
 men to travel with us, his horror at the dis- 
 covery of the sort of people we had engaged 
 was something most interesting to witness. 
 
 "If you had searched all Siberia," said he, 
 "you could not have found six worse des- 
 j)eradoes than those you have got. Why did 
 you not come to me and let me get you 
 different men ? " 
 
 "But they are the most likely-looking of 
 the lot who came for engagement ! " 
 
 '' That I agree ; I have had one or two of 
 them working for me, and they have been 
 amongst the best, until they broke loose and 
 started fighting. These men, realizing that 
 they have to remain in Siberia, and always as 
 the meanest of workmen, care nothing for 
 their lives ; but you are responsible for them, 
 and if one kills the other you will have to pay 
 the bill. However, I wish you the best of 
 luck." 
 
 As events turned out, we had nothing to
 
 172 EOUGEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 complain of with regard to our men. We 
 paid them liberally, and they appreciated the 
 fact, and it was a spectacle to behold when, 
 after giving them hand-money for their engage- 
 ment, they simultaneously flopped down on 
 their knees and severally kissed our boots. 
 According to them we were all " excellencies," 
 and they paraded the little village to the 
 envy and chagrin of the rest of the crowd 
 who had come on the chance of being engaged. 
 Our first duty was to proceed to a gold- 
 mine some three or four versts north of the 
 frontier. Our papers, brought from Moscow, 
 duly vised and passed in Tomsk, had to be 
 laid before the local mining inspector at 
 Karatuski, and it was then that we began to 
 realize what red-tapeism in Russia means. I 
 had already received from the Minister of 
 Mines a personal concession which gave me 
 the right to explore for gold in the whole of 
 Siberia, either to rent or buy existing mines 
 or to prospect for new ground. Our object in 
 first of all looking over a mine already in
 
 NEARING TEE CHINESE FRONTIER 173 
 
 existence was to o^et an idea of the manner 
 in which the Siberian works for the precious 
 metal. Two of us were experts from Vf estern 
 Australian and South African gold-fields, and 
 one of us had practical experience of Siberian 
 mining on the Amoor River. From Western 
 Australia and South Africa to the Sjansk 
 Mountains is a far cry, and customs and 
 methods were naturally expected to be very 
 diverse. Having deposited our papers, it was 
 my pleasant duty to sign a formidable-looking 
 document which bound me responsible for the 
 lives of the seven human beings in our employ. 
 I then signed another paper guaranteeing that 
 I would not sink a shaft more than so many 
 feet deep, that I would never allow any 
 brawling or strikes, that I would not encroach 
 upon another man's land, that I would faith- 
 fully keep a record of every particle of gold 
 from wheresoever obtained while prospecting, 
 and a dozen or more similar documents which 
 tied our little party hand and foot to the 
 Government, each document having to be
 
 l74 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 stamj)ecl, sealed, tied up with red tape, signed 
 by half a dozen functionaries, and so on, until 
 we all became heartily sick of the whole pro- 
 ceedings. They gave us a gold-book in which 
 was to be entered most accurately every piece 
 of gold obtained, how much earth was dug 
 out in order to obtain it, its weight, nature, 
 and consistency. I must admit, however, 
 that while all these rules and regulations looked 
 bewildering in their formidability, the Russians 
 did their very best to impress upon us the 
 necessity of following them to the letter. 
 
 While in Karatuski, it may not be out of 
 place to give a little idea of how some of the 
 rich Siberian gold-miners spend their time 
 during their self-imposed exile in this bleak 
 and inhospitable region. Karatuski is simply 
 a village, and the dwellings composing it, 
 althoufifh at least a dozen of them are owned 
 by rich miners, are nothing more than mere 
 log houses. In honour of our visit we received 
 many invitations to parties and to dinners, 
 and here the ludicrousness of Siberian customs
 
 N EARING THE CHINESE FRONTIER 175 
 
 came once more very mucli to the fore. 
 Imap-ine a loo; house in a villaoje of less than 
 a thousand inhabitants. Imaoinc a room the 
 
 o 
 
 walls of which are composed of beams laid one 
 on the other, the floor bare boards, a rough 
 table in the centre, and scarcely any more 
 ornamentation. Imagine, on top of this, a 
 dinner-party given in the middle of the day 
 and everybody in evening dress ! The stiff- 
 ness and formality were really embarrassing at 
 times. Most of the miners, rich men though 
 they were, were of the commonest type of 
 Russians, uncultured either in manners or 
 education. Their very riches seemed to press 
 upon them like a load. They had some idea 
 that it was necessary to be hospitable, but 
 they had not the experience or the knowledge 
 which would tell them how to go about it. 
 
 On several of our visits I noticed many side- 
 glances of suspicion, as to whether or not we 
 were criticizing them. Their intentions were 
 good ; they did the best they could for us 
 according to their light, and we appreciated
 
 176 BOUQHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 that sentiment above everything. It was im- 
 possible, however, not to realize how farcical 
 the whole thing was. There was nothing 
 homely about it, nothing that would tend to 
 make a man feel as a guest should amongst 
 friends ; and, above all, it was impossible for 
 us to talk much with them, on account of our 
 limited knowledge of the language. Neither 
 could we enter upon the drinking bouts which 
 were so frequent ; nor take part in those 
 solemn card-parties which extended far into 
 the night. 
 
 For the Siberian there is but little excitement 
 or amusement than that afforded by cards. In 
 every house that we went to in Karatuski, at 
 least those possessed by the miners, there were 
 the inevitable card-tables, their solemn-faced 
 ring of players, the heaps of paper money at 
 each man's elbow, the eternal shuffle and click 
 of the cards. High stakes are the rule. Gold- 
 mining in any country can hardly be set down 
 as a commercial enterprise, and in Siberia least 
 of all. Men who were peasants a few years

 
 NEARING TEE CHINESE FRONTIER 177 
 
 ago find themselves millionaires to-day, arc 
 overwhelmed by their wealth, and in cards seek 
 a relaxation from the monotony of their lives. 
 I have it on good authority that several of the 
 richest men in Siberia have lost their whole 
 fortune in one night's play, have started work 
 again, and in a few years have made another 
 only to be spent once more at the card-table. 
 One of our hosts related Cjuite frankly, and 
 with a smile on his face, that in three nights 
 he lost two hundred thousand roubles. Cer- 
 tainly one of the most peculiar aspects about 
 it is that in the matter of playing it was the 
 millionaire gold-miner who lost and invari- 
 ably the Government functionary who won. 
 It was common sight for us in our various 
 visits to see the staff, mere clerks, of the 
 mining inspectors, the honoured guests of the 
 establishment. Most of these men receive 
 from the Government not more than seventy- 
 five roubles a month, but that little oval 
 cockade in their caps and their shoulder straps 
 which make them Chinovniks, have nn awe- 
 
 N
 
 178 ROUGEINQ IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 inspiring effect upon the average Eiissian. I 
 have seen such clerks playing for stakes of a 
 thousand roubles upwards, and a close obser- 
 vation has shown me how little they lose. One 
 is apt to cogitate, then, on the possibility of a 
 good proportion of the miners' losses not being 
 quite unintentional. 
 
 In order to proceed to our destination, it 
 was necessary to abandon our big sledges at 
 Karatuski, and to take smaller sledges, each 
 drawn by one horse, for the rest of the journey. 
 These sledges, as well as the horses which 
 were to take us to the mountains, had to be 
 purchased. The former were merely tiny 
 basket arrangements fixed on a couple of 
 runners, and were about as ramshackle as one 
 could possible conceive. The track over the 
 mountains being an extremely narrow one, it 
 would be quite impossible to take the larger 
 and wider sledges. The purchase of fifteen 
 horses and fifteen sledges, which were to form 
 our caravan — one man to each sledge, and 
 three sledges to contain our provisions — was
 
 NEABING TEE CHINESE FRONTIER 179 
 
 naturally an expensive undertaking in such 
 a place as Karatuski. I liave no doubt that 
 we were cheated right royally, but that could 
 not be helped under the circumstances. 
 
 Our first day's journey was to be one of 
 eighty versts along the course of the Eiver 
 Armeul, one of the tributaries of the Yenesei. 
 At eighty versts from Karatuski, the miners 
 of the district had erected a hut for the shelter 
 of those making their way to and from the 
 mines, and at every succeeding eighty versts 
 a similar hut had been placed, these being all 
 maintained by the miners, who contributed a 
 certain amount per year for their maintenance. 
 
 On the morning of a day late in January, 
 our preparations being all complete — the 
 baggage-sledges packed, the men all together, 
 the horses in their sledges, and everything 
 ready for our two hundred miles' drive to 
 the mine — we set out. Each man had to 
 drive, but as the roadway was one cut through 
 the deep snow, the question of getting off the 
 road was not one to be concerned about, as
 
 180 ROUGniNG IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 right or left of the track tlie snow was ten to 
 twelve feet deep, and impossible to get through. 
 The whole population of the viHage turned out 
 to see us off. There was much cracking of 
 whips, shouting, and other to-do as the caravan 
 moved slowly up the hill, rounded the corner, 
 and in a few moments was out of sight of 
 Karatuski, with nothing but the glaring white 
 uplands ahead.
 
 ( 181 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IN THE SYANSK MOUNTAINS. 
 
 For some distance our way led over a few 
 short liills to the banks of the Armeul, our 
 progress being characterized from the very 
 start by frequent upsets. I can only describe 
 the roadway, if roadway it can be called, as 
 one of the most villainous I had ever seen. 
 The method of making it was indeed primitive, 
 for instead of selecting a circuitous route, in 
 order to avoid bad places, it went dead ahead, 
 and in doing so, yawning gaps occurred, down 
 which our sledges fell, almost on top of the 
 horses, and with jerks and creakings which 
 threatened to dismember every vehicle. The 
 horses slithered down the slopes, struggled 
 and squirmed up the other side, and could
 
 182 BOUaniNO IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 only be kept goiug at times by much whipping 
 and fierce shouting. 
 
 Nearing the Armeul, we came out on the 
 crest of a small hill which bordered the river, 
 and here an amusing, although somewhat 
 serious, incident befell our party. The runners 
 of previous passing sledges had cut a deep 
 groove in the snow, and so long as we kept 
 in this groove all was well. Arrived on the 
 slope, Gaskell's horse, infuriated at the frequent 
 whippings he had received, plunged heavily 
 sideways, the runners of the sledge got out of 
 the groove, and in a second the whole lot — 
 sledge, horse, and driver — went rolling down 
 the snow in one confused heap towards the 
 river. As chance would have it, the edge of 
 the river was bare of ice, where the border 
 had been broken away by water-carriers. 
 Into this the horse fell with a tremendous 
 splash, dragging with him the sledge, and 
 sunk in about eight feet of water. For a time 
 it was impossible for us to do anything to 
 assist our companion, who, fortunately, had
 
 IN TEE STANSK MOUNTAINS 183 
 
 been thrown clear of the sledge, and was stuck 
 fast up to his armpits in the soft snow. When 
 we did reach him, it was gratifying to find 
 that no bones were broken, and we quickly 
 hauled him back on to the roadway. With 
 the sledge and horse, however, matters were 
 more difficult, for the former had got fixed 
 under the ice, and the horse, with the instinct 
 of self-preservation, just showed his nose 
 above water. There was much lusfo'inof and 
 hauling, shouting and halloaing, on the part 
 of our men to get the poor animal out, and 
 ultimately a success was made of the effort. 
 But the sledge was smashed quite beyond 
 repair, and perforce we had to abandon it. 
 Koom had to be made for Gaskell, therefore, 
 and this was accomplished by half emptying- 
 one of the baggage-sledges, panniering the 
 baggage on the spare horse's back. 
 
 Right once more, we continued our journey, 
 all of us considerably more careful now, and 
 ultimately we got down on to the ice, and felt 
 safer. The little river Armeul was not more
 
 184 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 tlian a furlong wide, and wound tortuously 
 through gaps in the hillsides. In summer it 
 was simply a torrent, and going up-stream 
 was simply going up-hill, for we were to 
 follow its course right up into the mountains. 
 We went along at a jog-trot, varied by spells 
 of walking, and so the day passed. Night 
 came on, and with the blinking stars we en- 
 deavoured to get a little sleep ; but this we 
 speedily realized was quite out of the question, 
 for the fearful bumps and jolts which were 
 occasioned by the deep holes in the road made 
 it a difficult matter to hang on, let alone to 
 repose. In that faint starlight it was a weird 
 proceeding to be travelling over this uneven 
 surface ; to dimly see your horse suddenly 
 disappear before your eyes, and then to feel 
 yourself sink down as if you were going into 
 the bowels of the earth, only to be brought 
 up with a crash at the bottom of the hole, 
 sufficient to shake every bone in your body. 
 Then, the next second, up would go the horse 
 on the other side of the hole, struggling.
 
 IN TEH SYANSE MOUNTAINS 185 
 
 kicking, and straining, with snow flying from its 
 hoofs in all directions, and with you, hanging 
 on to the reins with the tenacity born of tlic 
 love of self-preservation, nearly falling out of 
 the back of the sledge. Well into the night 
 we rounded a huge cliff, which, towering U}), 
 blotted out the firmament, and left only a 
 small circle of the dark blue sky, and sighted, 
 away ahead, a light winking solemnly. Simul- 
 taneously we all raised a shout, for it was the 
 light of the hut of the first stage, and even 
 the horses, after their eighty versts' toilsome 
 pull, seemed to recognize it. Pace was put 
 on, and in a few minutes our caravan drew up 
 at the side of the river, before the hut. 
 
 Now we were roughing it with a vengeance. 
 The hut was a small affair, built of logs and 
 mud, its roof of twigs and hay, and with no 
 vestige of comfort within. It was simply a 
 shelter, but we were glad of that. After the 
 horses had been unhitched and hobbled, one of 
 our men started a roaring fire with some fuel 
 which we had brought with us, and which was
 
 186 HOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 made outside in the open. An iron tripod was 
 erected, kettles and saucepans hung over, and 
 we prepared for our meal. The custodian of 
 the hut, a decrepit old man, smothered in the 
 filthiest sheepskins that ever I clapped my 
 eyes on, busied himself on our behalf. It was 
 easy to see the pleasure which animated this 
 poor old fellow, who for days, and sometimes a 
 week at a stretch, never saw a human face, and 
 who had no more chance of getting food than 
 was given him by the miners going to or 
 coming from the mines, or by the fish he could 
 catch through a hole made in the ice. 
 
 Cold as it was, the fire outside the hut was 
 warm enough for anything. Some of our men, 
 intent on not doing things by halves, had dis- 
 appeared in the forest with their hatchets, and 
 presently we heard the clump, clump, of the 
 steel against the tree-trunks, and soon we had 
 whole trees blazino- and cracklino- on the river- 
 bank, while the light cast up by this huge 
 bonfire spread red and white across the frozen 
 river to light up with its lambent glare the
 
 IN TEE SYANSK MOUNTAINS 187 
 
 fagade of the cliffs on the opposite bank. It 
 was a wild-looking crowd we made, seated 
 around on the hay bags, with feet almost in 
 the crackling embers, furs still on, and eating 
 almost ravenously the soup which had been 
 prepared in the huge saucepan. How delicious 
 it was, although it was eaten out of rough 
 wooden bowls, with no cutlery save our 
 hunting-knives, and with our fingers as forks ! 
 What matter if we licked our fingers, if we 
 gnawed the bones, or were even guilty of 
 wiping our mouths on our sleeves ! Pocket- 
 handkerchiefs had been given the go-by some 
 time before, and this part of Siberia was no 
 place for ceremony. We ate, and we drank 
 heartily, meanwhile that the fire blazed, and 
 roared, and lit up in fantastic light and shadow 
 the motley crowd around it. 
 
 The hut would not hold more than four, 
 but, unfortunately for our peace, it was alive 
 with vermin. We brought in plenty of straw 
 and hay from the sledges and spread it on the 
 earth floor, and then, wrapping ourselves in
 
 188 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 our slioubas, sought sleep. For our employes 
 there were the sledges, and in these they slept. 
 It was still dark when Schultz awoke us 
 and intimated that it would be better to get 
 on. A glance at our watches showed that it 
 was 6 a.m., and though we w^ould fain have 
 had more sleep, the necessity of the case knew 
 no delay. The second stage threatened to be 
 even more difficult than the first, for we were 
 informed in several places the ice of the river 
 was broken owing to the water passing away 
 underneath, and there would be much trouble 
 in order to get through to the next hut, eighty 
 versts away. I must confess that when I 
 staggered out of the hut in the bitter cold air, 
 I felt anything but happy or cheerful. The 
 romance of the thing was all right, and the 
 experience one to be always remembered. Its 
 actuality, however, was the sort of thing to 
 make a man cross or even despondent. Out- 
 side, the fire had dwindled down to a few 
 glowing embers and wreaths of smoke ; the 
 stars had gone out, and a faint mist was in the
 
 IN THE SYANSK MOUNTAINS 189 
 
 atmosphere. I stood there for a moment, and 
 as I did so heard two or three lons^-drawn 
 howls. Dogs, I thought. I asked Schultz, 
 who was by my side, what it was. 
 
 " Vulka" he said, and at the time I did not 
 know that he meant wolves. 
 
 We shambled oflf in the darkness, Schnltz 
 leading the way with a lantern, and soon the 
 hut, distinguished alone from the darkness by 
 the tiny fire in front of it, grew fainter and 
 fainter to our vision as we progressed, and 
 soon a bend in the river obliterated it entirely, 
 and we plunged on into the darkness. Day 
 came imperceptibly — the grey creeping over 
 the hill-tops ahead of us and gradually suffus- 
 ing the horizon. Then a few glints of gold on 
 the very tops of the mountains, the reflection 
 of which shed roseate hues upon smaller and 
 more insignificant hilltops. This glowing 
 light, heralding the arrival of the sun, caused 
 the mountain crests to assume most grotesque 
 shapes. One stood out like a gigantic frog, 
 another was like a man's face, a third was like
 
 190 EOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 an alligator, and so on. With the rising sun 
 the mist cleared off, and we were able to 
 traverse the ice at a better pace. But soon 
 the road became next door to impassable. 
 Here and there the river ice had broken in, 
 and the water, freezing again, left but a thin 
 coating, which was quite insufficient to bear 
 the weight of our caravan. This necessitated 
 the dragging, one by one, of the sledges 
 over the hummocky ice, or up on the pathway 
 which was here and there formed on the river- 
 bank, where the cliflfs did not run sheer. At 
 midday we encamped on a small plateau by 
 the side of the river, built our fire, made more 
 soup and more tea. It was cheerful, at any 
 rate, to note the good humour which charac- 
 terized all our men. No matter how difficult 
 was the passage of the ice, they all went at it 
 like bricks, and when one way failed they tried 
 another. Schultz, a gigantic fellow of six feet 
 four, or thereabouts, was ever to the fore, 
 hauling and tugging, or with his huge pick 
 breaking away the impeding ice ahead.
 
 IN TEE SYANSK MOUNTAINS 191 
 
 To record the details of our journey forward 
 would be but reiteratiou. Thoroughly ex- 
 hausted, we arrived at our second stage late in 
 the afternoon, and put in eight hours' good 
 solid sleep. On the third day we arrived at 
 the headwaters of the Armeul, where the river 
 was only a few feet wide, and where the springs 
 feeding it burst from the rock, but now hung 
 masses of huge icicles. There was a pathway 
 through the forest to the eastward, and over 
 this we had to go to our destination. This path- 
 way had been formed by the miners cutting 
 their way through with the hatchet. The trees 
 were so close together that, although it was day 
 when we entered, once inside the wood, things 
 were almost as black as night. Now and again, 
 as w^e progressed, we caught sight of animals 
 flitting about the underwood of the forest, but 
 with all the nonsense about wolves knocked 
 out of us by travel, we gave them no heed, save 
 for an occasional rifle-shot which Scawell sent 
 after them. 
 
 On the afternoon of the fourtli day we
 
 192 BOUGEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 arrived at the top of the first range of moun- 
 taius, and below us lay a deep valley through 
 which the tiny stream known as the River 
 Isinsoul wound its course, and upon whose 
 banks was the property which formed our 
 destination. Right ahead of us, towering up 
 almost perpendicularly, rose the final range of 
 the Syansk Mountains, the barrier between 
 Russia and China, and now not more than five 
 miles away. 
 
 Our descent into the valley was rapid and 
 exciting. The road was every bit as bad as 
 it had been on the river, and was, moreover, 
 precipitous. Horses stumbled, fell, and rolled 
 over into the snow. Once I was shot out of 
 the sledge, and my feet, catching in the reins, 
 I was dragged along a considerable distance 
 before my horse could be stopped. Scarcely 
 a minute after my accident, Asprey was thrown 
 violently out, and his head, striking a project- 
 ing tree-trunk, he was knocked nearly insen- 
 sible. A little later one of the baggage-sledges 
 overturned, and we had the glorious spectacle
 
 ^
 
 IN TEE SYANSK MOUNTAINS 193 
 
 of our goods and chattels flying in all directions 
 down the hill. 
 
 Passing through the fringe of the forest we 
 came out upon the slopes of the valley, and 
 now could clearly see, on the banks of the river 
 below us, traces of the work of man in the 
 shape of huts and long aqueducts, but all 
 covered in snow and silent as the grave. At 
 length we were fairly down in the bed of the 
 valley and making our way along the course 
 of the Isinsoul, hoping to reach our destination 
 before darkness fairly set in. What a shout 
 we gave when, just as the sun was sinking 
 over the mountains to our back, Schultz an- 
 nounced that we had reached the edge of the 
 property ! Huge mounds of earth, the tailings 
 of the washeries, but covered in deep snow, 
 lay scattered all around. A few dismantled 
 huts, some heaps of logs here and there, the 
 traces of an abandoned washery, all looking 
 desolate and forlorn underneath their snowy 
 covering. Three versts more and we came in 
 
 sight of some huts away up on the hillside, 
 
 o
 
 194 BOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 which we learned were to form our head- 
 quarters for the next two or three weeks. A 
 man came out of one of the huts and waved 
 his hand. Schultz responded with a whoop 
 that would have done credit to a North- 
 American Indian, and the horses, scenting rest, 
 sprung bravely forward. On we rattled and 
 creaked, jerked and bumped, until with a 
 simultaneous sigh of most intense satisfaction 
 we drew up before the sluice-house of the 
 mine. Our destination at last, after five and 
 a half weeks' almost continual travelling from 
 England !
 
 ( 195 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 SIBERIAN GOLD-MINING. 
 
 It is not my intention to go into very intricate 
 details regarding gold-mining in Siberia, but 
 would rather give a few personal observations 
 of what is undoubtedly a very interesting 
 phase of Asiatic life, inasmuch as gold-mining 
 in that country is very different to what it is 
 in any other part of the world. The Minusinsk 
 district, in which we were now located, 
 though not by any means the richest in 
 Siberia (that distinction being held by the 
 mines of the Lena district, in the province of 
 Yakutsk), is nevertheless looked upon as an 
 extremely promising province. The richness 
 of the Lena district is considerably counter- 
 balanced by the high price of provisions,
 
 196 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 labour, and material there, and its inaccessi- 
 bility. The Minusinsk district, on the other 
 hand is the most remarkable in all Siberia for 
 its cheapness, while transportation is fifty per 
 cent, lower than on the Lena watershed. 
 From Krasnoiarsk, where the trunk line of the 
 Siberian Railway passes, there is steamboat 
 communication in the summer with Minusinsk 
 itself, and, as I have already said, the gold- 
 bearing district extends from there southwards 
 to Chinese territory. 
 
 The majority of the mine-owners in the 
 district were, I found, of very humble origin, 
 and it may be said, with the exception of one 
 man, Kuznetsofi", not one works on a large 
 scale, while the majority have started without 
 initial capital whatever. The consequence of 
 this is that the works are generally of a mean 
 character. Machinery is of the most primitive 
 order, and what there is is so badly and un- 
 scientifically made that in all cases some 
 twenty per cent., and in many cases fifty per 
 cent., of fine gold is lost. Hydraulicing is
 
 SIBERIAN GOLD-MINING 197 
 
 quite unknown, and the chemical process has 
 never been tried thoroughly, the nearest 
 approach to it being the fixing, on some of 
 the Kuznetsoff' mines, of amalgamating plates 
 in the sluices. 
 
 Most of the mine-owners, being without 
 initial capital, are forced at the onset to resort 
 to tribute work, which is done by men who 
 provide their own food, tools, and houses, and 
 erect their own washeries. These men are 
 given so many "archines" of land to work, 
 and the gold obtained they sell to the mine- 
 owner for from three to four roubles per 
 "zolotnik" (about one-seventh of an ounce, 
 Troy), the miner re-selling the gold to the 
 Government at its current value, the price of 
 the zolotnik varying from four and a balf to 
 five roubles. But the damage which is done 
 to the property by tribute labour is enormous. 
 The men work in gangs of three or four, 
 burrow and scratch like rabbits here and there, 
 and dump their tailings wherever it is most 
 convenient to do so (frequently on new
 
 198 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 ground) ; so that before the whole of the mine 
 can be worked out, the virgin alluvial has to 
 be got out from under tons of debris. This 
 improvidence on the part of the tribute workers 
 naturally ruins mine after mine. The men 
 are content to get a zolotnik per man per 
 day, and in order to obtain this erect fast 
 sluices, and put over an enormous amount of 
 alluvial so as to get the big pieces, complacently 
 letting the fine gold escape. One of the mines 
 we saw during our stay had been worked for 
 some forty years mainly by tribute labour, 
 and the consequence was that although the 
 property was by no means worked out (it 
 extended some three and a half miles up a 
 rich valley) it was impossible to make a profit 
 out of it on account of the thousands of tons 
 of tailings which encumbered the remaining 
 portions of unworked ground. And this is no 
 single instance. The Mining Department is 
 continually hammering away at the mine- 
 owners to exercise more system in their 
 work, hinting broadly that not only are they
 
 SIBERIAN GOLD-MINING 199 
 
 losing themselves but that the Government 
 suffers. 
 
 I have already said that the machinery used 
 is of a primitive character. The tribute 
 workers use the box-sluice, or " Long Tom." 
 This is a wooden structure from twenty to 
 thirty feet long, tapering from two feet at its 
 top to one foot at the bottom. It is generally 
 erected on the level of the stream, and, as 
 most of the tributaries of the Yenesei have a 
 very rapid current, the drop is pretty acute. 
 There are no riffles or cross-pieces in the 
 sluices to catch the fine gold, but an iron plate 
 pierced with half-inch holes is set at the end, 
 and through these holes the gold drops by its 
 own weight into a shallower undercurrent 
 sluice, where a slow stream of water carries 
 away the lighter sand and leaves the gold 
 exposed. The " Long Tom " constructed by 
 the Siberians is, however, so unscientifically 
 made that it would be hopeless to expect it to 
 catch all the gold. 
 
 The machine of the mine-owner is a more
 
 200 BOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 elaborate, but at the same time far from ideal 
 structure. The sluice-house is built up over 
 the stream, and usually contains three wide 
 box-sluices, dropping one into the other, the 
 last one being riffled with one or two bars. 
 The length of the run would not be more, on 
 the average, than forty feet, while the angle 
 is such that the water flows in a perfect swirl 
 from start to finish. At the back of the house, 
 and above the sluice-boxes, an iron cylinder, 
 pierced with half to three-quarter inch holes, 
 is erected on a wooden axle. The cylinder 
 tapers from one end to the other, and at its 
 largest end a shoot is erected, under which the 
 carts, which carry away the big boulders, can 
 be backed. The cylinder is revolved by water 
 power, carried along an aqueduct which varies 
 in length according to the fall of the stream. 
 Into the cylinder at its smaller end the 
 auriferous sands are pitched, water at the 
 same time being conducted upon it by pipes 
 along the axle, and thus the whole mass is 
 churned up. The boulders and stones which
 
 SIBERIAN GOLD-MINING 201 
 
 will not pass through the holes gradually roll 
 down the declivity of the drum to its larger 
 end, and thence into the shoot, while through 
 the holes the fine sands containing the precious 
 dust fall into the sluices below. At the shoot 
 end, the collectors of the boulders carefully 
 examine the stones for the presence of any 
 nuggets ; but, as a general rule, the wealth of the 
 alluvial consists in the small pieces which pass 
 through the holes. If the sluices were longer, 
 and the angle so arranged that the water flowed 
 smoothly and evenly over them, there would 
 not be much to object to in this system, but 
 the miners acknowledge that fully twenty per 
 cent, of fine gold escapes into the tailings, 
 without endeavouring in the slightest to 
 remedy the defect. Amalgamating plates, or 
 even a judicious use of mercury, would prevent 
 much of this loss, but these appliances are 
 almost entirely ignored. 
 
 It is the very cheapness of labour and 
 material in the Minusinsk gold region which 
 is accountable for the absence of modern mining
 
 202 ROUaniNG IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 machinery, and the unscientific method of 
 washing. In nineteen cases out of twenty the 
 present gold-miners have been washers, who, 
 having at some time or other hit upon an 
 unclaimed gold-bearing spot, have applied to 
 the Mining Department for permission to work 
 it. Instead of getting capital they have invited 
 tribute workers to extract the gold, until, 
 after a few years of rigid economy they have 
 saved enough money to erect a machine and 
 can continue the work by ordinary labour. 
 Meanwhile, the value of the mine has been 
 woefully depreciated by the methods of the 
 tribute workers. 
 
 The alluvial deposits of the Minusinsk 
 district do not vary to any great extent in 
 richness ; the average being generally under 
 one ounce to the ton. This is, compared 
 with alluvial working in Australia, Africa, 
 and California, rather poor, but the cheap- 
 ness of everything must be taken into con- 
 sideration as a big set-off. Men cost in the 
 winter twelve to fifteen roubles (255. to 31s.)
 
 SIBEBIAN QOLB-MINING 203 
 
 per month, and in the summer eighteen to 
 twenty roubles (385. to 425. Qd.) per month. 
 Wood is abundcant, and costs nothing except 
 the labour of cutting it. Provisions are like- 
 wise very cheap ; bread, meat, eggs, hay, and 
 such like necessities being cheaper in the 
 Minusinsk valley than in any other part of 
 Siberia. 
 
 Mining material and provisions are generally 
 carried from the townships to the mines 
 during the winter, so that the ice on the rivers 
 can be taken advantage of. The cost of trans- 
 port is twenty-five kopecks (6|c/.) per pood 
 per 100 miles. The pood equals 36 lbs. 6 ozs. 
 English. The Minusinsk mining region covers 
 about three hundred square miles, so that an 
 approximate estimate of the cost of transport 
 can be made. 
 
 One of the great features about the district 
 is its great suitability for hydraulic working. 
 Water is everywhere abundant, and the cost of 
 erecting a modern hydraulicing plant would 
 be undoubtedly very much cheaper than in
 
 204 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 any other gold district. The alluvial deposits 
 are eminently suited for such work, and where 
 virgin ground is touched, all things being 
 equal, hydraulicing ought to increase the profits 
 on the Russian methods by twenty-five to 
 thirty per cent. For purposes of comparison, 
 the Russian gold-seeker looks to a profit of 
 twenty-five per cent, on whatever small capital 
 expended. With labour-saving machinery, 
 and the ability to tackle five or six times as 
 much stuff in the summer as under the Russian 
 system, it stands to reason that the initial 
 cost of machinery would soon be wiped out 
 and the increased percentage of profit obtained. 
 To show how arduous the Russian method 
 of working is, there is one mine in the Minusinsk 
 valley which has been worked for upwards of 
 thirty years. The claim is three miles long 
 by a quarter of a mile wide. During the 
 thirty years an average of thirty men per year 
 have been employed in gold washing, and the 
 mine has already yielded gold to the value of 
 about 56400,000. Even after thirty years, yet
 
 SIBERIAN GOLD-MINING 205 
 
 one-third of the claim is virgin soil. With 
 hydraulicing methods, and with no more men 
 employed, the mine could have been exhausted 
 in two or three summers. 
 
 There is no working for quartz gold in the 
 Minusinsk region, and but very little in any 
 other part of Siberia. There ar^ quartz de- 
 posits, and the alluvial strata shows indication 
 of the proximity of reefs. Want of capital, 
 want of machinery, and lack of enterprise 
 have, however, prevented the exploitation of 
 this profitable branch of the gold-mining in- 
 dustry so far. 
 
 We were very much struck to find the 
 enormous number of mines the owners of which 
 were most anxious to get rid of them, although 
 their gold-books showed that even under 
 primitive]conditions the various properties were 
 showing handsome profit. It was strange to 
 interview sheep-skin cladmoujiks who had rich 
 mines to sell, and who could not work them 
 themselves simply by reason of their lack of 
 capital or their ignorance as to the right way
 
 206 BOUQEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 to go about the work. Fancy prices were 
 asked at first, only to come down to an " old 
 song," when we evinced no anxiety to buy. 
 
 Most of the worst features of gold-mining in 
 any part of the world are to be seen in Siberia. 
 Stealing and murder are of frequent occurrence, 
 in spite of the large number of Cossacks which 
 are employed to keep law and order. One 
 great grievance of the miners in the Syansk 
 Mountains is the stealing propensity on the 
 part of the workmen, and the open dishonesty 
 which one owner shows to the other. For 
 instance, an owner will give his tribute workers, 
 say, three and a half roubles per zolotnik of 
 gold obtained. The tribute worker, however, 
 hands over only a portion of what he finds, 
 reserving the remainder for sale to a neighbour- 
 ing miner, who will probably pay him four and 
 a half roubles for it. Thus many of the miners 
 prefer to work on the tribute system instead of 
 getting an ordinary wage. Even the paid 
 labourer steals his master's gold, to sell it to 
 some neighbouring miner ; but as each owner
 
 SIBEBIAN GOLD-MINING 207 
 
 adopts precisely the same methods, and the 
 utmost secrecy has to be maintained, duplicity 
 is rampant all over the fields. 
 
 Various prices were asked for mines, from 
 50,000 roubles down to 20 roubles. Another 
 plan freely offered is to rent an existing mine 
 with option of purchase, the rent demanded by 
 the owner varying from 200 to 300 half- 
 imperials per pood of gold obtained. The 
 half-imperial is 7| roubles paper currency, and 
 equals approximately 165. The value of a 
 pood of ligature gold ranges from c£l700 to 
 J62200, the general average value being about 
 £2000. 
 
 On the whole, while the Russian mine-owner 
 may make, what is to him, a fortune out of 
 gold-mining, the general prospect for foreign 
 capital in the Syansk Mountains is not a very 
 alluring one if the workings are continued on 
 Russian ideas. There is plenty of gold in the 
 district, but an enormous quantity of alluvial 
 has to be moved before it can be won, and 
 while this removal yields a profit to the
 
 208 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 Russian owner, that profit would perhaps be 
 wiped out if on top of the ordinary expenses 
 such as those to which the Russian miner is 
 subjected are placed director's big fees, large 
 salaries for engineers, and other expenses which 
 are generally incidental to British gold-mining 
 companies. The men who have made fortunes 
 in Siberia are the owners who have in tlic first 
 instance taken an active part in the working, 
 and have geuerally superintended the business 
 themselves. The overseers, engineers, and such- 
 like officials work for salaries which would not 
 buy the clothes of similar individuals in 
 Western Australia or South Africa. One of 
 the mines we visited, belonging to the Kuznet- 
 soff group, had a responsible manager at a 
 salary of 1500 roubles (£160) per annum. 
 It would, however, be in buying groups of 
 mines, and by working with enormous numbers 
 of men and with the most modern machinery, 
 hydraulicing, or otherwise, that the Siberian 
 gold-fields might be made to pan out as pro- 
 fitable and with far less risk than that usually
 
 
 
 
 •^KJ 
 
 xA)r 
 
 . 1
 
 SIBERIAN GOLD-MINING. 209 
 
 experienced in the hunt for the precious metal 
 in other countries. To work on a small scale 
 one must adopt the Siberian methods, and the 
 foreigner's chance of doing this at a profit 
 is not enhanced by the fact that he is likely 
 to be cheated and robbed far more than his 
 Russian compeer.
 
 210 HOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 LIFE AT THE MINE. 
 
 Although somewhat rough and primitive, our 
 quarters at the mine were by no means 
 uncomfortable. There were in all four loo; 
 houses, tolerably large, two of which were for 
 the workmen, and the other two for ourselves. 
 Of course there was not the slightest attempt 
 in the way of luxury ; rough wooden walls, 
 dirt floors, hard benches for beds, a board 
 resting on a tree-stump for a table, and an 
 iron stove, with several feet of piping, as our 
 heating accommodation. A little ingenuity on 
 our part, however, soon rigged up things in 
 businesslike fashion. Some roughly made 
 shelves were requisitioned, and with other 
 boarding and the assistance of Schultz we
 
 LIFE AT THE MINE 211 
 
 made a tiny office, and spread around our books 
 in ostentatious display. We made up our beds 
 with the spare clothing we possessed, and that 
 was ample. We provided a tablecloth out of 
 a huge towel which was fished from the bottom 
 of Asprey's trunk, and we decorated the walls 
 with various pictures cut from old comic 
 papers. We got one of the men to go into 
 the forest and bring us several armsful of fir 
 foliage, and thus, after an hour or two's hard 
 work was done we had succeeded in completely 
 altering the appearance of the interior of our 
 quarters, and to its general improvement. 
 
 It was a sight to see the manner in which our 
 men hoo-cjed in tos^ether in one hut. Instead 
 of doing the slightest in the way of improving 
 their situation, they simply laid around on 
 the floor, as closely as possible to each other, 
 in order to get warmth, and covered with their 
 sheepskins. By the regulations laid down by 
 the Mining Department we had to allow each 
 man so many poods of meat perw^eek, so many 
 candles each, tea, butter, and cabbage. AVe
 
 212 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 had brought with us three frozen oxen, four 
 sheep, and forty poods of cabbage, and the task 
 of weighing out the various portions to each 
 man was by no means a light one, which, as it 
 devolved upon me, I speedily found. As well 
 as providing the men with food, we had to 
 supply them with certain portions of clothing, 
 should they require them, writing off against 
 their wages the cost of such articles. It is 
 astonishing how minutely the Russian Govern- 
 ment goes into these matters, providing a 
 schedule of prices which shows how much a 
 pair of boots or articles of clothing must be 
 charged the workmen,, If nothing else, the 
 authorities fully protect the peasants from 
 extortion on the part of the mine-owner. 
 
 For several days we did little else but get 
 things shipshape. Wood had to be cut in 
 order to provide firing. Several of the men 
 were kept hard at work cutting pathways 
 through the deep snow down to the river-bed. 
 The stream, as a matter of fact, was solid ice 
 nearly to the bottom, and only near the sluice-
 
 LIFE AT THE MINE 213 
 
 house, wliere the channel had been cut deep, 
 could we find much water. Our first endeavour 
 Avas to discover whether or not in the tailings, 
 which had been idly thrown away after nearly 
 thirty years of washing, there was sufiicient 
 gold to warrant its exploitation on European 
 plans. To the reader it may seem rather 
 incongruous that we should have to conduct 
 an inspection as this in such weather ; but 
 time was pressing. Whatever was done in the 
 district had to be finished before the ice broke. 
 If this occurred, the transportation of men and 
 provisions from JMinusinsk to the gold-fields 
 would be delayed until the summer roads were 
 ready, which, by the way, rarely happened 
 before the beginning of July. 
 
 It is not my intention to weary the reader 
 with a detailed description of our work, con- 
 ducted as it was under such difiiculties of 
 weather and with but scant assistance from 
 the local ofticials. The statements which were 
 made by one and the other were so conflicting 
 that the greatest care had to be exercised,
 
 214 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 while we had not been long in the district 
 before we found that the gentle art of " salting " 
 was not entirely unknown to the apparently 
 guileless Siberian. What freezing work it was 
 to be from daybreak to sundown on the banks 
 of the river, pan-washing the pay dirt, which 
 had to be got out from under tons of ice and 
 snow, and dug out bit by bit with light steel 
 picks ! We commenced at the bottom of the 
 mine, and worked gradually up by burrowing 
 in through the snow to the scene of summer 
 operations, and there only to find the earth 
 frozen as hard as granite, necessitating 
 occasional blasting and much hard and un- 
 profitable labour. 
 
 The particular mine we were on, during the 
 whole course of its existence, had been mis- 
 managed to a terrible degree. It had been 
 worked for the most part by tribute labour, 
 and, in consequence, the richest parts of it 
 were encumbered with tons of ddbris which 
 would all have to be removed before the virgin 
 alluvial could be got out. Frequently wq had
 
 LIFE AT THE MINE 215 
 
 to work with snowshoes on, for some portions 
 of the mine, where drifts had occurred, were 
 under ten to fifteen feet of light snow. Snow- 
 shoeino; at the best of times is a laborious 
 undertaking, but to work with them on is a 
 feat which requires some patience and a 
 tolerable amount of agility. 
 
 One of our little experiences of snowshoeing 
 was amusing, as well as being somewhat un- 
 comfortable. Desiring a sample from the head 
 of the mine, I had gone out with Gaskell and 
 two of the men. The men were loaded up 
 with picks, bags, shovels, and other mining 
 paraphernalia, and, being more expert on the 
 " skis " than we, soon outstripped us. It took 
 us nearly an hour to do a little over a mile, 
 for, what with frequent falling, our progress 
 was one of labour and confusion. Snowshoes 
 have a happy knack of sliding away from you 
 when you least expect them, so that you come 
 down with a thump on your back, and bury 
 yourself up to the armpits in snow. No 
 matter how you struggle, it is impossible to
 
 216 BOUOHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 get up again, for the loDg shoes prevent that. 
 The only thing is to unstrap the shoes, kneel 
 on them, gradually insert one foot and then 
 the other into the straps, and then by an 
 cquilibristic effort assume the perpendicular. 
 The slightest want of balance and over you 
 go again. The snow affords no foothold, for 
 you sink into it the moment the shoes 
 are off. 
 
 The spot from which we desired the sample 
 was reckoned to be one of the richest portions 
 of the mine. It was a tunnel cut into the 
 river-side, but which was now completely 
 covered with snow, so much so, in fact, that 
 we could not even see the entrance. Our 
 men, Merkoff and Nikeveroff, set to work 
 spading out the snow, and gradually got to 
 the tunnel entrance. Merkoff was in advance 
 of his companion when, with a suddenness 
 which made us gasp with astonishment, he 
 disappeared completely from sight. Where 
 he had o'one none of us knew. The snow 
 before us showed no trace of his disappearance.
 
 LIFE AT THE MINE 217 
 
 for there was no hole. Presently, however, 
 we saw a hand come up through the snow and 
 wave about frantically. In another second 
 the whole bank on which we were standing, 
 gave way with a rush, and down we went, 
 snowshoes, picks, shovels, bags, candles, and 
 everything in one confused heap, sliding and 
 slipping some twenty or thirty feet below the 
 level. 
 
 It was some time before we sorted ourselves 
 out and got over the shock of our descent. 
 AVe then found ourselves in a narrow gallery 
 supported by beams, and which ran for some 
 considerable distance into the earth. For a 
 minute or two we could only sit and laugh, 
 for our entrance of the tunnel had been highly 
 successful if somewhat precipitous. The floor 
 of the gallery was covered with ice, formed 
 by the oozing of water through the bank, and 
 for some time it was impossible to get at the 
 alluvial owing to the excessive hardness of 
 the ice flooring, which we were compelled to 
 break with hammers. Strangely enough,
 
 218 BOUQEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 althougli we had all got down so cleverly, 
 none of us gave a thought as to how wc were 
 to get back. The samples obtained, this 
 difficulty at once presented itself, and we 
 could only gaze at each other blankly. 
 
 We were twenty or twenty-five feet below 
 the level of the snow, and it was a matter of 
 impossibility to think of climbing to the top 
 of that fleecy substance. There was only one 
 thing to do, and that was to batten the snow 
 as hard as possible and to get up inch by inch 
 to the surface. This was a long and laborious 
 undertaking, and occupied us well into the 
 afternoon, but ultimately Merkofi" reached the 
 top, and, his snowshoes having been thrown 
 after him, he was able to stand up. Then 
 the samples, by aid of rope, we got up, and 
 eventually we all managed to get out of the 
 hole. 
 
 The next thing to do was to get the samples 
 back to the camp, a distance of a mile. Each 
 was as much as one man could carry, provided 
 that the roadw^ay was hard. The weight of
 
 LIFE AT THE MINE 219 
 
 one, however, on Merkoff's back, sent tlie 
 snowslioes so deep that it was impossible for 
 him to move. We tried various ways, but 
 none succeeded until it was decided to form 
 a temporary sledge of the snowslioes, and for 
 one of the men to drao* the baffs in this manner 
 to the camp. At the time we did not think, 
 when we gave up the shoes so cheerfully and 
 sat down in the snow in order to prevent going 
 in deeper, how we were ourselves going to get 
 back to the camp. We formed the sledge by 
 tying the shoes tog-ether, then fixed the bags 
 and tools on top of them, and away went 
 Merkoff, with Nikeveroff behind, crawling on 
 his hands and knees, and giving the improvised 
 sledge an occasional push. Gaskell and I 
 attempted to walk. We might as well have 
 tried walking on the sea. Every effort landed 
 us deeper in the snow. There was only one 
 way and that was to go down on all fours and 
 wriggle along as best we could. Only thqn 
 could we make progress by carefully beating 
 down the snow as we went, to put the whole
 
 220 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 length of the arm down in one place, and drag 
 the body after with a squirming motion. 
 That mile was one of the hardest miles I have 
 ever travelled, for darkness was falling when 
 we came in sight of the huts. In spite of the 
 cold, we were sweating with the labour, and 
 to add insult to injury, our companions came 
 down on the bank and howled with laughter 
 as we progressed inch by inch along the surface 
 of the snow. 
 
 A little incident like this will give some 
 idea of the difficulties under which we worked. 
 Another stumbling-block was the inability to 
 wash the pay-dirt with ordinary water. Close 
 by the sluice-house we had a huge iron cauldron 
 suspended over a roaring fire. One man was 
 kept continually employed dumping in snow, 
 while another was ladling out buckets of hot 
 water. The process was then to dump so 
 many poods of earth on the wash-table and to 
 break it up by continual basting with hot 
 water. The washer (who stood on the table, 
 and with his rake or wooden shovel kept the
 
 LIFE AT TEE MINE 221 
 
 mass in motion) frequently got frozen to the 
 wood, in spite of the fact that the water which 
 flowed around his feet had only a few seconds 
 before been thrown boiling hot on the dirt. 
 
 During our stay we were able to make 
 several little excursions to neighbouring mines, 
 and with the exception of one or two we found 
 a shocking want of system everywhere. In 
 the best-conducted gold-fields the disposal of 
 the tailings is always a matter of grave 
 moment, but in Siberia it is one of the least 
 considerations until it is too late, and the 
 property is ruined. There is, however, some 
 hope that the future may be better, for the St. 
 Petersburg Department, being now brought 
 into closer contract with Siberia by means of 
 the railroad, intends to formulate a better 
 system of inspection, which, provided Siberian 
 miners will only endeavour to look at matters 
 in a broader spirit, should increase the revenue 
 considerably. 
 
 A pleasing feature in connection with min- 
 ing in Siberia is made by the little courtesies
 
 222 HOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 which one owner extends to the other. Thus 
 we were continually receiving invitations to 
 dinner at some mine or the other, and would 
 drive over in our sledges to be welcomed 
 literally with open arms by the rough but 
 hospitable miners, to be kissed on both cheeks, 
 and to be liberally supplied with everything 
 the owner possessed in an eating way. Very 
 pleasant indeed were these little functions, for, 
 out of touch of anything like civilization, the 
 grotesque customs which obtain in the towns 
 of " dress " went to the winds, and the Siberian 
 appeared for what he really was. There was 
 perhaps a little bit too much drinking, and 
 at times a want of manners Avhicli jarred 
 unpleasantly, still one could not help but 
 appreciate the hospitality which was extended 
 to us, rough as it was. It was gratifying on 
 those eveninojs after we had ofone throuoh the 
 long dinner which is invariably the rule in 
 Kussian houses, to sit around and listen to the 
 harmonica and to watch, between the puffs of 
 our cigarette smoke, some big-booted miner
 
 LIFE AT THE MINE 223 
 
 going through that extraordinary dance made 
 famous by the Little Russians. Considering 
 what a clumsy, heavy, and ungainly lot the 
 Russians generally are, one can scarcely 
 associate them with the graceful mazurka, a 
 dance of which they are passionately fond and 
 perform creditably. 
 
 These visits of ours to neio-hbourino; mines 
 tended much to take away the monotony of 
 our three weeks' stay in the mountains, and 
 we had the pleasure, too, of receiving in our 
 own camp the mine-owners who would pay us 
 return visits. They had a happy way, some 
 of them, of bringing whole cargoes of vodki, 
 cigarettes, meat, vegetables, and, in short, 
 everything deemed necessary for the occasion. 
 Every man would lend his hand at the culinary 
 arrangements ; songs and dances interspersing 
 various items of the menu ; while, to add to our 
 enjoyment, our own men would range up 
 outside the hut and sing with lusty voice one 
 of those peculiar national songs, the cadence 
 of which once heard can never be forgotten.
 
 224 HOUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A TRIP INTO CHINA. 
 
 With tlie frontier of China so close, what was 
 more natural than that the desire should 
 spring up within me to penetrate, at any rate 
 a little way, into that mysterious country ? 
 So far as I knew, and could gather, no 
 European had yet crossed those mountain 
 ranges into the valley of the Upper Yenesei, 
 which runs between the Syansk range and the 
 eastern slopes of the Altai. 
 
 The delimitation of the boundary-line 
 between Eussia and China is one of those 
 ludicrous things which only the wily Muscovite 
 knows so well how to manage. Maps showed 
 the boundary to run along the tops of the 
 Syansk range, yet when I asked where was
 
 A TRIP INTO CHINA 225 
 
 the actual frontier-line, not a man in the 
 Minusinsk valley could tell me. Amongst 
 the officials the idea of a frontier seemed to 
 be a huge joke, and, penetrating deeper into 
 the subject, the solution of the mystery was 
 simply this : that the southern slopes of the 
 Syansk Mountains were as rich in gold as the 
 northern, with the additional qualification 
 that they were less exposed to the rigour of 
 the winter, and that the Russians coveted the 
 district. In consequence of this, and mainly 
 owing to the lax attitude of the Chinese 
 Government, Siberian miners had penetrated 
 beyond the geographical frontier, had opened 
 mines, and were in quite a flourishing con- 
 dition. The Russian officials meanwhile 
 " winking the other eye," and accepting the 
 gold from the miners just as if it had been 
 obtained from mines well within the border. 
 Not only that, but enterprising miners had 
 conceived the idea of penetrating even further 
 towards the Altai range, which is well within 
 Chinese territory ; but owing to the treachery 
 
 Q
 
 226 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 of some busybody the news of their programme 
 reached official ears in Pekin. Complaints 
 were lodged at St. Petersburg, and the 
 diplomatic shuffle began. 
 
 Said the Russian, ''Where is the frontier? 
 If you know it to be at the top of the Syansk 
 Mountains, why did you not prevent Russians 
 from coming over into your country and 
 operating ? " 
 
 Said the Chinaman, " North-AVestern China 
 is practically uninhabited. We cannot keep 
 officials all along that frontier to prevent your 
 people coming in ! " 
 
 Said the Russian, "Well, what are you 
 going to do ? Our people have been there, 
 have established themselves, and it would be 
 a shame to oust them now. Suppose we 
 arrange it this way. Let them go on working 
 just as they are, and we will promise that no 
 more Russians shall open mines in your 
 country." 
 
 To this Pekin agreed. No surveillance was 
 or is kept, and the consequence is that
 
 A TRIP INTO CHINA 227 
 
 gradually, but nevertheless surely, the Russian 
 is creeping into North-Western China. On 
 the very top of the Syansk Mountains, and 
 quite half a mile over the boundary line, as 
 marked geographically, I have myself seen no 
 less than five shafts sunk at spots which are 
 supposed to lead to quartz veins. 
 
 The ludicrousness of the situation is shown 
 by the fact that the officials of the Russian 
 Grovernment are well aware of the whole 
 business, as it is necessary that before a man 
 can prospect he must lay before the Depart- 
 ment exact details as to the locality in which 
 he intends to operate. 
 
 Having some interest in geography, I made 
 some searching inquiries into this matter, 
 but, as I have hinted, everywhere I was met 
 with evasive replies. One of the chief officials 
 whom I met, said, in so many words, that the 
 frontier was where you could not find a 
 Russian, and then burst into a hearty laugh. 
 
 Beneath this supposed nonchalance, how- 
 ever, it is easy to detect the trace of Imperial
 
 228 ROUOniNG IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 designs. "It is absurd," said one official, " to 
 call the top of the range the frontier. The 
 natural boundary is of course, the Yenesei 
 River, which, as you see, after winding through 
 the mountains, curves round in a semicircle 
 to the mountains again." Then, emphatically, 
 " It must be Russian." 
 
 Again, I had an interesting conversation 
 with a Russian official on the subject of the 
 railway. The Mongolian map was spread 
 before us, and I traced from memory the 
 course the line would take over the north- 
 eastern Gobi. " Do you think you will have 
 difficulty with the natives in this province ? " 
 I asked. My official friend simply winked. 
 "If we do," said he, " we have plenty of 
 Cossacks to keep them in order ; and if the 
 Cossacks are once in they won't come out very 
 soon. And," continued he airily, " of course 
 that part of the country north of the line 
 must eventually become Russian." 
 
 Recent events tend considerably to corro- 
 borate these statements. One very singular
 
 A TRIP INTO CHINA 229 
 
 f\ict about the matter is that the maps issued 
 by the Russian Government to the ofificials close 
 to the border do not show a single trace of 
 the frontier-line. At present there is nothing 
 to stop the slow but steady creeping of the 
 Russian grey coats into Chinese Mongolia all 
 along the frontier from west to east. 
 
 It was in order to find out more about this 
 frontier business that I planned a little ex- 
 cursion to China, being aided and abetted by 
 Scawell, who also had desires in that direction. 
 We started out early one morning with one 
 sledge, and with Schultz as our driver. For 
 some distance the snow had been kept hard, 
 and a decent road took us up the mountain- 
 side. After an hour or two, however, the way 
 got very precipitous, and perforce we had to 
 abandon the sledge and continue our journey 
 on snowshoes. Halfway up the mountain- 
 side we passed though a dense forest, which 
 obliterated, for the time being, all view of the 
 surrounding country, and where it was terribly 
 hard work pushing our snowshoes through the
 
 230 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 undergrowth which stuck out here and there 
 through the deep snow. At length we got 
 through the forest, and came out on the 
 edo-c of a bluff which overlooked the whole 
 
 o 
 
 surrounding country. The sight was one 
 which no pen can describe. 
 
 Below us to the northward lay Siberia, a 
 tumbled, mountainous country, which seemed 
 to lie at our very feet — jagged masses of rock 
 sticking out, cones of huge hills far below us, 
 all silent, and white, and ghostly. Afar off 
 we could just dimly see, by the aid of our 
 field-glasses, the huts which formed our camp ; 
 beyond that, hills upon hills, clothed with 
 fir, or pine, or birch, undulating away into 
 space. To the south was a different scene, 
 for here the mountains sloped away gently 
 to a plain, and, singularly enough, here and 
 there, instead of the great mass of white 
 whicli was everywhere on the Siberian side, 
 we detected patches of green and brown. 
 "We were some six thousand feet above the 
 sea-level, and fleecy clouds at times swept
 
 A TRIP INTO CHINA 231 
 
 around us, obliterating on one hand or the 
 other the magnificent views which, as we 
 stood, we drank in with keen enjoyment. 
 
 Our descent of the southern slopes of the 
 Syansk was rapid and exciting. Only those 
 who have travelled on snowshoes can realize 
 what it means to go slithering down a slope 
 with absolutely no prospect of stopping yourself 
 except by falling backwards heavily. I am 
 sorry to say, occasionally, and quite uninten- 
 tionally, we did stop ourselves, and by this 
 method. It had taken us the best part of a 
 day to get up the northern heights. It took 
 us less than an hour to get down three 
 thousand feet on the southern side. To our 
 surprise we found here not more than a few 
 inches of snow, and we were safe in taking off 
 our snowshoes in order to continue our journey, 
 trailing them behind us in order to leave a 
 mark in the snow which would show our 
 direction for the return journey. Before us 
 stretched almost a level plain, but, tapering 
 away off to the right, we could dimly discern
 
 232 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 the blue tops of the Altai Mountains, in the 
 intervening distance being occasional clumps 
 of trees of much the same character as those 
 on the Siberian side. Progressing on, we now 
 and again came to patches of brow^n earth 
 or grass with no more snow on them than 
 might be seen in England at midsummer. 
 This complete transition from the terrible cold, 
 snow, and ice on the other side of the 
 mountains Avas a revelation to us. The very 
 air was warmer — in fact, it seemed as if in 
 the space of a few hours we had jumped from 
 the middle of an Arctic winter into spring. 
 We doffed our fur caps and pelisses, carrying 
 them over our shoulders, and weighty they 
 seemed now, for the walking brought the 
 sweat out. 
 
 We had paused by the side of a stream which 
 was brawling away merrily, as innocent of ice 
 as ever one could conceive, and, while sitting 
 on its bank, partaking of a nip of spirit, 
 Scawell espied, away across the plain, a tiny 
 wreath of smoke curling upwards. Our first
 
 A TRIP INTO CHINA 233 
 
 tliouglit was that this probably came from one 
 of the Russian mines which we had heard of, 
 and so, anxious to see how the operations were 
 being conducted, we immediately set out 
 towards it. 
 
 An hour's stiff walk brought the smoke much 
 nearer, and we were able to see that instead of 
 a mine we were coming upon an encampment 
 of some sort. Through our field-glasses we 
 could see several black tents, and around them 
 some strano;e animals, which in the distance we 
 could not make out, although it was clear they 
 were neither horses nor oxen. Another half- 
 hour and we were within hailing distance 
 of the encampment, and saw that instead of 
 Russians we had fallen in with some of the 
 natives of the province, the aboriginal Syots. 
 The strange animals, we now perceived, were 
 reindeer. We held a little council of war as 
 to what to do, and the outcome of it was to so 
 on and see all we could. 
 
 Strange-lookiug beings appeared before their 
 tents, shouting excitedly as we approached.
 
 234 BOUGEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 They were attired in the most grotesque 
 fashion, huge skins forming one garment from 
 head to foot. Their faces were of the true 
 Mongolian type, and far more hideous than the 
 Chinese. The eyes were big, oblique to a degree, 
 cheek bones very high, and the skin almost 
 black. One of these individuals came running 
 towards us and addressed us in Russian, and 
 the words, " Morjna hopeet saahle, horeshee 
 suable,'' gave us a hint. We had heard that 
 the Syots are sable-hunters, and what they 
 had said was a request to know if we had come 
 to buy good sables. With nothing else to do, 
 under the circumstances, we assented, and 
 entered the encampment. One of the men, 
 the chief evidently, conducted us to a tent 
 which we entered with the gravity and 
 solemnity due to the occasion. The tent was 
 a primitive affair — merely undressed skins 
 stretched over a few poles which tapered up 
 to a point like the tepee of the red man. 
 There was nothing inside except a few skins 
 scattered over the earth of one corner, and
 
 A TRIP INTO CHINA 235 
 
 which probably formed the resting-place of 
 the inhabitant. 
 
 Our host, in broken Eussian, made references 
 to tobacco, tea, sugar, and gunpowder. Had 
 we brou2jht them ? He had magnificent sables 
 he would give in exchange — all the time that 
 we, in the first novelty of our discovery, 
 scarcely realized what it all meant. It was 
 not long before we were surrounded by some 
 twenty to thirty Syots, the dirtiest, ugliest 
 crowd of humanity which it has ever been my 
 lot to see. They looked at us curiously, 
 evidently perceiving that we were not the same 
 sort of Kussians to which they had been 
 accustomed. Their bewilderment at our in- 
 trusion became greater when it dawned upon 
 them how little we knew of the Russian 
 language, and I really began to fear that our 
 hospitable reception would not end so peace- 
 fully as might have been anticipated at the 
 outset. Scawell was for making tracks and 
 getting out of it, and I, seconding his motion, 
 rose to leave, but the chief bade us be reseated.
 
 236 ROUGEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 and brought for our inspection some fifty skins, 
 which even the unpractised eye could detect 
 as being magnificent specimens of the sable. 
 Had we got any tobacco, tea, gunpowder, or 
 shot ? Scawell had some cartridges, but these 
 were useless for the weapons used by the Syots. 
 They brought forward for our inspection one 
 of the most unearthly looking guns, surely, 
 that man has ever constructed. It was an 
 arrangement consisting of a long piece of iron 
 piping, plugged up at one end and fastened to 
 the apex of a tripod ; the tube had a hole bored 
 about three inches from the plugged end, and 
 this formed the touch-hole. Inquiries elicited 
 the information that this is the usual instru- 
 ment employed by the Syots in their cap- 
 ture of sables. How tenderly they caressed 
 Scawell's Mannlicher ! what wondering eyes 
 they cast upon its mechanism ! while my 
 revolver astonished them. They could not con- 
 ceive that so small a weapon could have such 
 deadly efi'ect as I told them. They asked us 
 who we were and where we had come from ;
 
 A TRIP INTO CHINA 237 
 
 but, think of it, ye Englishmen, these Syots 
 knew of but two people — Mongolian and 
 Russian ! 
 
 Out there on the Chinese plain we sat in a 
 tent endeavouring to explain to a crowed of 
 swarthy aborigines that there was another 
 country in the world called England, and that 
 the whole of the earth's inhabitants did not 
 consist entirely of Chinamen and Russians. It 
 was interesting to hear from the lips of a Mon- 
 golian nomad his ideas of things in general. He 
 had heard, he said, that afar off there lived a 
 being called the " Ruski Imperator," who knew 
 everything and could see everything. I asked 
 the chief about the Emperor of China, but he 
 looked in wonderment upon me, and it was 
 clear he had never heard of him. I mentioned 
 the name " Li Hung Chang," but again there 
 was no recognition. How far-reaching and 
 how omniscient must be the power of a king, 
 therefore, who, like the Czar of Russia, could 
 be known to a man who has never heard of 
 the existence of a king of his own country !
 
 238 ROUGHING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 Fortunately, I had brought with me several 
 handsful of cigarettes, and these I distributed 
 amongst the crowd, telling them at the same 
 time that if they cared to come over the 
 mountains to our encampment I would pur- 
 chase their sables from them. Of money they 
 knew nothing, but I dieted that an ordinary 
 sable was worth half a brick of tea, which 
 would weigh something about half a pound. 
 A handful of gunpowder and a handful of 
 small shot would be its equivalent, and that 
 the Russian traders never gave more. When 
 one considers that in Moscow and St. Peters- 
 burg a single sable skin of good quality 
 will fetch J610 to £15 sterling, the fur-traders 
 of Siberia must be doing a rather lucrative 
 business. 
 
 We were anxious to get back, for there was 
 not much daylight remaining, and impressed 
 this upon our hosts, who good naturedly 
 suggested that we should ride some of the 
 reindeer back to the mountains — an offer which 
 we gladly fell in with, as the tramp to the
 
 A TRIP INTO CHINA 239 
 
 slopes was over three miles. I have ridden 
 some curious animals in my time, but the 
 reindeer with its long, shambling stride is 
 something peculiar. One has to keep a sharp 
 look out for his horns, which he occasionally 
 throws back with a sweep sufficient to knock 
 your head off if you are not careful. It was 
 not a very enjoyable ride, I must admit, 
 encumbered as we were with our snowshocs 
 and our heavy pelisses, and we were glad when 
 the slopes of the mountain had been reached 
 and we were able to dismount and thank our 
 strange conductors for their courtesy. 
 
 At sunset we scrambled to the top of the 
 Syansk again, and commenced our descent into 
 the snow and ice of Siberia. It was then 
 that we fully realized the great change between 
 these two climes. On went our pelts, our 
 gloves, and our fur caps ; then slither, slither, 
 slither, we careered through the forest ; down 
 and down until we came out into the open 
 again, and discovered our faithful Schultz 
 comfortably asleep in the sledge and our poor
 
 240 ROUOEINO IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 liorse, which had somehow got out of the track, 
 buried up to its neck in the snow. Night liad 
 fallen when we reached the camp, well pleased 
 with our day's excursion ; for, if it yielded 
 nothing else, it had given us an insight into 
 the character of a people whose very existence 
 is perhaps unknown to Europe.
 
 ( 241 ) 
 
 CHAPTEE XVII. 
 
 LOOKING WESTWARD. 
 
 For the next two weeks matters went on 
 smoothly at our encampment. Days spent in 
 labour, and evenings relieved by reading or 
 the occasional visit from some neio-hbourinir 
 miner. How the world was getting on we 
 had not the slightest idea, for, since leaving 
 Moscow, we had received no word from those 
 at home. We were now eagerly looking 
 forward to the time when we should receive 
 the first batch of correspondence. Arrange- 
 ments had been made to forward our post 
 from IVIinusinsk by horseback, and when, on 
 the eventful morning, the news was brought 
 up to our hut that the postboy was seen 
 
 R
 
 242 ROUQEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 approaching, the excitement amongst us all 
 was great. We almost fell upon the bundles 
 of letters and newspapers which the faithful 
 messenger had brought, sent work to the winds 
 for the rest of that day, neglected our meals, 
 and did nothing but devour the intelligence 
 which cold print conveyed. 
 
 Signs were not wanting that it would not 
 be very long before the break up of the 
 winter wovild come about. The sun was daily 
 getting warmer, and here and there the ice 
 and snow were melting. The postboy told us 
 that the River Armeul was thawing rapidly, 
 and that if it was our intention to get back 
 to Minusinsk on the winter road it would be 
 necessary to speedily bring our operations 
 to a close. There was, indeed, but little to 
 detain us. Our expedition had been practi- 
 cally completed, and we needed now only 
 the visit of the mining inspector to relieve us 
 of the responsibility of our present position by 
 handing over to him the enormous number of 
 books and papers with which it had been
 
 LOOKING WESTWABD 243 
 
 necessary to burden ourselves in order to 
 undertake our project. 
 
 Gaskell and I were to return straight to 
 England, but Scawell and Asprey had other 
 fish to fry, as they were to go further eastward 
 into the provinces of Northern Manchuria. As 
 the time approached for our departure our 
 cao;erness to be ofi" became chronic. Visions 
 of other lands and other peoples, of more 
 cheerful surroundings, were ever before us — 
 anything, now, to get out of this dreary waste 
 of snow which for more thau three months 
 had enveloped us. 
 
 Our camp was the scene of some mild excite- 
 ment when one day the Government inspector, 
 attended by several servants and a whole 
 string of horses, arrived. It was a great to-do, 
 for he was an important-looking personage, 
 very much epauletted and be-buttoned and 
 extremely officious. His first duty was the 
 inspection of our gold-book, and, as bad luck 
 would have it, a couple of trivial mistakes had 
 crept in, and within half an hour of the
 
 244 HOUGHING IT IN SIBEBIA 
 
 inspector's arrival we had to pay out fifty 
 roubles as fines. It was a scene, too, later on 
 in the day, when we called up our men for 
 their pay and gave them their discharge. 
 Criminals of the worst class though they were, 
 we had got to like our little staff, and I think 
 they in return reciprocated the feeling. 
 Several of the men had made tremendous 
 inroads on their wages in the matter of 
 purchases of vodki and clothing, and one 
 cheerful individual, after his sheet had been 
 reckoned up, owed us a bit, although he 
 humorously remarked that our chances of 
 getting it were rather remote. 
 
 This was our last night in camp. On the 
 morrow we were to depart on our westward 
 journey, and to signalize the event our men 
 got up an impromptu concert, which lasted 
 well into the small hours, meanwhile that 
 they drank themselves into a maudlin state. 
 
 Morning broke — ^just the same sort of 
 morning as we had experienced during the 
 whole time we had been in Siberia — cloudless,
 
 LOOKING WESTWARD 245 
 
 brilliant, white. Our little caravan was 
 already ranged up outside the hut. The 
 mining inspector was there to see us oft". 
 Asprey and Scawell had risen betimes, and had 
 loaded us with messages to friends at home. 
 It was a break indeed to part with those two 
 good fellows who had been our boon com- 
 panions for so many weeks in this cheerless 
 land. The Siberians, I think, wondered why 
 it was that we did not fall on each other's 
 necks and kiss each other rapturously, as is 
 the custom there. " You Eng^lish have cold 
 blood," said Schultz, " that you can part with 
 your comrades like this ! " For a hurried shake 
 of the hand, "Good-bye, old boy, and good 
 luck," was all. AVe ambled out of the camp, 
 and then down the narrow pathway through 
 the property. At the bend of the river we 
 surmounted a small hill and looked back. 
 Asprey and Scawell were on the roof of the 
 hut, waving their scarves at us. The sound 
 of a pistol-shot reached our ears. It was the 
 parting salute, and we fired our revolvers in 
 
 R 3
 
 246 ROUQEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 reply. Then we passed tlie brow and went 
 down the great dip towards the Armeul, and 
 we saw no more of our camp in the mountains, 
 or of our comrades. 
 
 It took us five days to reach Karatuski, 
 for it was now late in March, and the ice on 
 the Armeul was breaking up right and left, 
 rendering our passage one of extreme danger 
 and difficulty. How welcome that little 
 village seemed after the roughing-it we had 
 experienced in the mountains ! A man's 
 appreciation of comfort depends considerably 
 on where he has come from, and though 
 Karatuski might be voted one of the most 
 miserable spots on the face of the earth by 
 he just fresh from Europe, it was a veritable 
 city of plenty to us now. 
 
 From Karatuski to Minusinsk, and from 
 Minusinsk to Atchinsk, with galloping horses 
 night and day ; for every morning saw the 
 snow getting less and the great Yenesei crack- 
 ing on all sides. Once, in the night, while 
 travelling up the river, the ice broke under
 
 LOOKING WESTWARD 247 
 
 US, and we lost one of our horses. Only the 
 fact that we were on the side, and not in 
 the centre, of the river saved us from com- 
 plete destruction. How welcome was the 
 sound of the locomotive's whistle at the station 
 of Atchinsk ! and again when, as the cars 
 rolled slowly in, what a link they seemed with 
 the civilization of the West ! 
 
 Day succeeded night and night succeeded 
 day with us ever journeying westward. 
 Familiar now were the names of the stations — 
 Tigre, Kreveschokovo, Kainsk, Omsk, Kurgan, 
 Chelabinsk. Only drifts of snow now in the 
 mountain passes ; buds to be seen on way- 
 side trees ; everything betokening the rapid 
 approach of the Asiatic summer. Late one 
 evening Oaskell awakened me from the nap 
 into which I had fallen. The train was slowly 
 grinding through a defile in the Ural Moun- 
 tains. He looked at his watch. " In three 
 minutes," said he, " we shall be in Europe." 
 The minutes slowly ticked off, and then, round- 
 ing a bend, the sluggish train passed slowly
 
 248 ROUOEING IT IN SIBERIA 
 
 the stone monument which separates Em'ope 
 from Asia. 
 
 There is nothing more of moment to tell in 
 connection with our journey to the Syansk 
 Mountains. With the exception, probably, of 
 the Captain Wiggins' expedition, we consti- 
 tuted, I think, the first English party to enter 
 Siberia in order to inquire into the commercial 
 resources of that vast country. The general 
 impressions created by our visit I have endea- 
 voured to set down as clearly as possible, and 
 at a time when considerable attention is being 
 directed towards Asiatic Russia it it possible 
 they may be of some value. Travellers to 
 Siberia hitherto have mainly consisted of 
 those who have travelled through the country 
 with the express desire of writing a book, and 
 have confined themselves principally to the 
 standard questions of the day ; in which 
 prisons, exiles, wolves, and bears form no in- 
 considerable part. The lasting impression 
 which Siberia has upon me is that, while it is 
 undoubtedly a land of promise, yet some few
 
 LOOKING WESTWARD 249 
 
 years must elapse before Europe can be brought 
 into direct commercial contact with it. Anxious 
 as the Government is to promote trade in 
 Siberia, the distance and the primitiveness 
 of the country will do much to delay matters ; 
 while, so far as Englishmen are concerned, the 
 autocratic laws of the great White Czar can 
 never be palatable. That there exists in Siberia 
 a big field for the investment of foreign ca]3ital 
 goes without saying, but whether Englishmen 
 will grasp the opportunity is another matter. 
 Ten years may see Siberia a far different country 
 to what it is at the present time, and in this 
 connection nothing will have tended more to 
 remove the mystery and gloom of that great 
 country than that magnificent State enter- 
 prise — the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Armeul, The river, 182, 191 
 Atchinsk, The town of, 107 
 
 Baraba steppe, The, 20 
 
 Chelabinsk, 1-13 
 Chulim river. The, 104 
 Colonization, Russia's scheme, 
 
 21 
 Criminal workmen, 170 
 Czar, The late, and the Siberian 
 
 railway, 23 
 
 Emigrants' fares to Eussia, 26 
 Emigrants' train, 27 
 Ensjlisli language in Eussia, 15 
 Exiles, Condition of, 113 
 
 Frozen river, The, 72 
 
 Gobi desert, The, 228 
 Gold averages, 94 
 Gold-miners, Amusements of, 
 
 174, 222 
 Gold-miners, Siberian, 174 
 Gold-mining, Accoiint of, 195 
 Gold-receiving depots, 94 
 Grants of land to emigrants, 26 
 
 Irtish river, The, 19 
 
 Kansk, 69 
 
 Kara sea route, 114 
 
 Karatuski, Village of, 166 
 
 Khirghiz Cossacks, The, 55 
 Kliirghiz horsemanship, 59 
 Kliirghiz Kibitkas, or tents, 58 
 Krasnoiarsk, Population of, 112 
 Krasnoiarsk, The city of, 101, 
 
 110 
 Krasnoiarsk, The valley of, 108 
 Kurgan, 21 
 
 i\rachinery for gold-mining, 199 
 INIerchandise, Siberian, 116 
 Millionaires of Tomsk, The, 87 
 Mining concessions, 97, 172 
 Mining laws, 98 
 Minusinsk, 133, 162 
 Bloujiks, Siberian, 145 
 
 Nomadic tribes, 21 
 
 Ob, The station of, 74 
 Obi l^ridge, 69 
 Obi river. The, 69 
 Obi valley. The, 68 
 Omsk, 31 
 
 Eivcr sledging, 70 
 Russian Church, The, 32 
 Eussian corruption, 102 
 Russian curiosity, 14 
 Russian incivility, 16 
 Russian railway travelling, 
 
 Economy of, 128 
 Russian trade with Siberia, 51 
 Russian vigilance, 165
 
 252 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Sable hunting, 235 
 
 Siberian cabmen, The, 40 
 
 Siberian food, 82 
 
 Siberian forest, A, 75 
 
 Siberian hospitality, 88 
 
 Siberian hotels, 43 
 
 Siberian posting stations, 45 
 
 Siberian railway station, De- 
 scription of, 5 
 
 Siberian trains, Slowness of, G2 
 
 Siberikoff, M., 86 
 
 Sledging, 129, 139 
 
 Sledging, Dangers of, 153, 182 
 
 Sledging, Discomforts of, 186, 
 192 
 
 Snowshoeing, 215 
 
 Syansk mountains, 100, 181 
 
 Syots, The, 234 
 
 Tartar Steppe, The, 10 
 Tea-trade of Siberia, The, 116 
 
 Tigre, The station of, 74 
 
 Tom, The river, 86 
 
 Tomsk and the railroad, 52 
 
 Tomsk mining laboratory, The, 
 92 
 
 Tomsk, The city of, 76 
 
 Tomsk university, 87 
 
 Trans-Siberian Railway, De- 
 scription of, 101, 120 
 
 Trans-Siberian Railway, Im- 
 portance of, 126, 128 
 
 Transport, 202 
 
 Ural mountains, 1 
 
 Vladivostock, 24 
 
 Wiggins' expedition, 113 
 
 Yenesei, The valley of, 108 
 Ycnesei river. The, 138 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PRINTED BT WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 BTAMTORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
 
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