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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77742 ***
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: GOLD-MINE AND WASHING-HOUSE AT KARA.]
+
+
+
+
+                            THROUGH SIBERIA
+
+                   BY HENRY LANSDELL, D.D., F.R.G.S.
+
+                      With Illustrations and Maps
+
+                            _FIFTH EDITION_
+
+                                 London
+              SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, AND RIVINGTON
+                           188, FLEET STREET
+
+                                  1883
+
+                        [_All Rights Reserved._]
+
+
+
+
+                         I inscribe these pages
+
+                         TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE
+
+                HUGH McCALMONT, EARL CAIRNS, P.C., LL.D.,
+
+            CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN, AND LATE
+
+              LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND, IN GRATEFUL
+
+                    APPRECIATION OF OFFICIAL KINDNESS
+
+                       MORE THAN ONCE ACCORDED ME
+
+                         IN FURTHERING MY VISITS
+
+                            TO THE PRISONS OF
+
+                                 EUROPE
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.
+
+
+Being about to leave England on a projected tour through Russian
+Central Asia, and the second edition of “Through Siberia” having
+become nearly exhausted, I find myself called upon to make preparation
+for a third and cheaper issue. It is only necessary to say that the
+subject-matter of the third and second editions is alike, the third
+edition, however, being bound in one volume, and printed on thinner
+paper, with somewhat fewer illustrations.
+
+                                                               H. L.
+
+  BLACKHEATH,
+    _21st June, 1882_.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
+
+
+Being unexpectedly but agreeably obliged to prepare a second edition
+before the day for the public appearance of the first, I can do little
+more than express my gratitude for the favour with which my book has
+been received, and repeat what has already been printed. The kind and
+too favourable reviews that have thus far come under my notice seem to
+call for little remark but of thanks. One journal, however--the _St.
+James’s Gazette_--has stated, on the authority of a Russian informant,
+that ‘official orders were sent before me to the prisons to make
+things wear a favourable aspect for my visit.’ I venture therefore
+here to repeat what I wrote to the Editor (but which he did not think
+fit to publish), that if his Russian informant, or any other, thinks
+that I have been duped or misinformed, I am perfectly ready to be
+questioned, and shall be happy to discuss the question in the public
+press, provided only that my opponent give facts, dates, names, and
+places, and do not hide behind general statements and impersonalities.
+My own conviction is that in the overwhelming majority of cases, at all
+events, I saw Siberian prison affairs in their normal condition.
+
+With the exception, then, of a corrected note which appeared on
+page 37, vol. i., a slight re-arrangement of the bibliography and
+appendices, a few verbal alterations, and a _new and improved index_,
+this second edition is the same as the first.
+
+                                                               H. L.
+
+  THE GROVE, BLACKHEATH,
+    _20th February, 1882_.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
+
+
+This book is a traveller’s story, enriched from the writings of
+others. In San Francisco an American Bishop said to me, “I hope, sir,
+you will give us your experience, for Siberia is a country of which
+we know so little.” Accordingly, on my return, two courses presented
+themselves--either to confine myself to an account of my personal
+adventures, or to supplement them from published information, and
+describe the country as a whole. I chose the latter course, and the
+result is in the reader’s hands. At the end of the work will be
+found a list of books consulted, to the authors of many of which I
+must acknowledge myself indebted for much scientific and technical
+information.
+
+My speciality in Siberia was the visitation of its prisons and penal
+institutions, considered, however, not so much from an economic or
+administrative as from a philanthropic and religious point of view.
+Much has been written concerning them that is very unsatisfactory, and
+some things that are absolutely false. One author published “My Exile
+in Siberia” who never went there. “Escapes” and so-called “Revelations”
+of Siberia have been written by others who were banished only a few
+days’ journey beyond the Urals; whereas it is only east of the Baikal
+that the severest forms of exile life begin. None, so far as I know,
+who have escaped or been released from the mines, have written the tale
+of what they endured, and very few authors have been in a position even
+to describe what the penal mines are like.
+
+It has been comparatively easy, therefore, in England for writers to
+exaggerate on this subject almost as they pleased, because scarcely any
+one could contradict them. Comparatively few travellers cross Northern
+Asia to the Amur. I doubt if any _English_ author has preceded me.
+Probably also I was the first foreigner ever allowed to go through the
+Siberian prisons and mines. Perhaps none before have asked permission.
+That I obtained such an authorization astonished my friends, though the
+open manner in which the letter was granted seemed to show that the
+authorities had nothing to hide. A master-key was put into my hand that
+opened every door. I went where I would, and almost when I would; and
+on no single occasion was admission refused, though often applied for
+at a moment’s notice. Statistics also were freely given me; but this
+was “not so writ in the bond.” An afterthought, in Siberia, emboldened
+me to ask for them in various places, and they were usually furnished
+then and there. All these are displayed before the reader. I have
+exaggerated nothing,--kept nothing back.
+
+I speak thus in case I should be thought to have written with a bias;
+but I had no reason to be other than impartial. Of politics I know
+next to nothing, and so was not prejudiced in this direction. Nor had
+I anything to gain by withholding, or to fear from telling, the whole
+of the truth. I did not travel as the agent or representative of any
+religious body. Two societies, indeed, at my request, made me grants
+of books, and a generous friend provided the cost of travel; but the
+expedition was a private one, and implicated none but myself. I could
+not, of course, see matters as a prisoner would; but I wish to state
+that, having visited prisons in nearly every country of Europe, I have
+given here an unprejudiced statement of what I saw and heard in the
+prisons and mines of Siberia
+
+That a foreigner, flying across Europe and Asia, as I did, is
+exceedingly likely to receive false impressions and form erroneous
+conclusions, is obvious to every one, and I claim no exemption; for
+though I have journeyed in Russia, from Archangel to Mount Ararat, yet
+my experience is that of a traveller only, and not of a resident. I
+do not even speak Russ, but have been dependent on interpreters, or
+information received in French. I trust, therefore, that no one may be
+misled by taking my testimony for more than it is worth. I have tried
+to be accurate, and that is all I can say.
+
+Perhaps I may add, however, that my proof-sheets have been revised by
+Russian friends among others, and that most of the chapters concerning
+exile life have been submitted not only to a Russian Inspector of
+Prisons, but also to released political exiles who have worked in
+the mines. The latter endorse what I have said, and (with reference
+to the chapters on “Exiles,” “Political Prisoners,” and the “Mines
+of Nertchinsk”) the Inspector has done me the compliment to write,
+“What you say is so perfectly correct that your book may be taken as a
+standard, even by Russian authorities.” I have good hope, therefore,
+that in this feature of my work, at all events, I have avoided
+misrepresentation.
+
+On scientific subjects I cannot speak with authority; but I have
+been allowed to submit the proof-sheets to various friends, who
+have kindly read them with an eye to their particular studies. My
+thanks, accordingly, are due to Sir Andrew Ramsay, LL.D., F.R.S.,
+Director-General of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom; to Mr.
+James Glaisher, F.R.S., formerly of the meteorological department of
+the Greenwich Observatory; and to Mr. Trelawney Saunders, Geographer
+to the India Office. Mr. Henry Seebohm, F.L.S., F.Z.S., has read
+such paragraphs as relate to zoology and ornithology; and Mr. Henry
+Howorth, F.S.A., author of “The History of the Mongols,” has afforded
+suggestions from his extensive reading in Siberian ethnology. I am also
+indebted for information concerning many Sclavonic words, manners, and
+customs to Mrs. Cattley, formerly of Petersburg, and a great traveller
+in Russia; and to the Rev. C. Slegg Ward, M.A., Vicar of Wootton St.
+Lawrence, for literary help. It is difficult to restrain my pen from
+mentioning others--the scores of friends who gave me introductions, the
+scores of others who received and honoured them--but if I once begin in
+this direction, where shall I end? I can only say that, for hospitality
+to strangers, Siberia carries the palm before every country in which I
+have travelled, and that from the day I crossed the Russian frontier
+till I reached the Pacific I met with nothing but kindness.
+
+                                                               H. L.
+
+  THE GROVE, BLACKHEATH,
+  _20th December, 1881_.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+ CHAPTER I.
+
+ _INTRODUCTORY._
+
+                                                                    PAGE
+
+ Object of the journey.--Interest in prisons.--Visitation of
+     prisons in 1874.--Distribution of religious literature in
+     Russia.--Tour round Bothnian Gulf, 1876.--To Russo-Turkish
+     war, 1877.--To Archangel, 1878.--Origin of Siberian
+     journey.--Alba Hellman and her correspondence.--The way
+     opened.--Projected efforts of usefulness.--Books to be
+     distributed.--Final resolve                                       1
+
+
+ CHAPTER II.
+
+ _ACROSS EUROPE._
+
+ Departure for Petersburg.--Official receptions.--Minister of the
+     Interior.--Metropolitan of Moscow.--Introductions.--Books
+     forwarded.--Departure for Moscow.--Nijni Novgorod.--Site
+     of the fair.--Joined by interpreter.--Kasan.--Bulgarian
+     antiquities.--Neighbouring heathen.--Idolatrous objects
+     and practices.--Departure from Kasan.--The Volga and the
+     Kama.--Arrival at Perm                                            9
+
+
+ CHAPTER III.
+
+ _THE URALS TO TIUMEN._
+
+ A new railway.--The Ural range.--Outlook into Russia in Asia.--Nijni
+ Tagil.--The Demidoff mines and hospital.--May weather.--Russian
+ railways.--Arrival at Ekaterineburg.--An orphanage.--Precious
+ stones.--Orenburg shawls.--Tarantass and luggage.--Departure for
+ Tiumen.--The exiles.--Visits to the authorities                      17
+
+
+ CHAPTER IV.
+
+ _THE EXILES._
+
+ Reasons for and history of deportation to Siberia.--Number
+     of exiles.--Their education.--Crimes.--Sentences.--Loss
+     of rights.--Privileges.--Proportion of hard-labour
+     convicts.--Where located.--Release.--Escapes.--Causes and
+     methods of flight.--Transport.--A convoy of exiles.--Moscow
+     charity.--Conveyance to Perm and Tiumen.--Their
+     distribution.--Order of march.--Sea-borne exiles.--Mistakes
+     of English newspapers.--Conveyance of political exiles           31
+
+
+ CHAPTER V.
+
+ _FROM TIUMEN TO TOBOLSK._
+
+ General remarks on
+     Siberia.--Limits.--Area.--Temperature.--Divisions.--Roads.--
+     Ethnography.--Language.--Posting to Tobolsk.--Floods.--Spring
+     roads.--Villages of Tatars.--Their history.--Characteristics.--
+     Costume.--Occupation.--Worship.--Language                        49
+
+
+ CHAPTER VI.
+
+ _SIBERIAN PRISONS._
+
+ Old Finnish prisons.--Model Petersburg
+     prison.--Officers.--Contraband importations.--Russian
+     prisons of six kinds.--Siberian prisons of three kinds:
+     their number, location, structure, furniture.--Prisoners:
+     their classification.--Kansk statistics.--Method of
+     trial.--Remands.--Exchanging names and punishments               63
+
+
+ CHAPTER VII.
+
+ _SIBERIAN PRISONS (continued)._
+
+ Charitable committees.--Prison food.--Clothing.--Work.--Hard
+     labour.--Exercise.--Amusements.--Privileges.--Intercourse
+     with friends.--Punishments.--Capital
+     punishment.--Corporal punishment.--Irons.--Prison
+     discipline.--Flogging.--Exceptional severities                   77
+
+
+ CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ _THE OBI._
+
+ Dimensions of river.--Its tributaries.--Province
+     of Tobolsk.--Geographical
+     features.--Population.--Voguls.--Samoyedes.--Intemperance.--
+     Commercial prospects of Obi.--Siberian produce.--Corn
+     land.--Timber.--Cost of provisions.--Carriage.--Discoveries
+     of Wiggins.--Followed by Nordenskiöld.--Ship-building at
+     Tiumen.--Navigation of Kara Sea.--Books on basin of Obi          96
+
+
+ CHAPTER IX.
+
+ _TOBOLSK._
+
+ Early history of Siberia.--Yermak.--Conquest of the
+     Tatars.--Tobolsk the first capital.--The exiled bell.--Our
+     visit to the Governor.--Hard-labour prisons.--Interior
+     arrangements.--“_Travaux forcés._”--Testimony of
+     prisoners.--Books presented                                     109
+
+
+ CHAPTER X.
+
+ _FROM TOBOLSK TO TOMSK._
+
+ The steamer
+     _Beljetchenko_.--Fellow-passengers.--Card-playing.--Cost
+     of provisions.--Inspection of convicts’ barge.--An exile
+     fellow-passenger.--Obi navigation.--The Ostjaks.--Their
+     fisheries.--Feats of archery.--Marriage customs                 117
+
+
+ CHAPTER XI.
+
+ _TOMSK._
+
+ The province of Tomsk.--The city of Tomsk.--Visit to the
+     Governor.--The prison.--Institution for prisoners’
+     children.--A Lutheran minister.--Finnish colonies in
+     Siberia.--Their pastoral care.--Dissuaded from visiting
+     Minusinsk.--Distribution of Finnish books.--_Détour_ to
+     Barnaul                                                         127
+
+
+ CHAPTER XII.
+
+ _SIBERIAN POSTING._
+
+ Travelling by post-horses.--The courier, crown, and ordinary
+     _podorojna_.--The tarantass.--Packing.--Harness.--
+     Horses.--Roads.--Pains and penalties.--Crossing
+     rivers.--Cost.--Speed.--Post-houses.--Meat and drink            134
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIII.
+
+ _FROM TOMSK SOUTHWARDS._
+
+ Application for horses.--Effect of Petersburg letter.--A false
+     start.--A horse killed.--Attempted cooking.--Siberian
+     weather.--Meteorology.--Scenery.--Trees, plants, and
+     flowers.--An elementary school.--Education in Western Siberia   143
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIV.
+
+ _BARNAUL._
+
+ Situation of town.--Cemetery.--Burial of the dead.--The Emperor’s
+     usine.--Visit to Mr. Clark.--Visits to hospital and prison.--A
+     recently-enacted tragedy.--Crime of the district.--Smelting
+     of silver and gold.--Price of land and provisions.--Return to
+     Tomsk                                                           152
+
+
+ CHAPTER XV.
+
+ _THE SIBERIAN CHURCH._
+
+ The Russian Church.--Geographical area.--History, doctrines,
+     schisms.--Ecclesiastical divisions of Siberia.--Church
+     committees.--Russian Church services.--Picture
+     worship.--Vestments.--Liturgy.--Ordination.--Baptism.--
+     Marriage.--Minor services                                       161
+
+
+ CHAPTER XVI.
+
+ _THE SIBERIAN CHURCH (continued)._
+
+ Parochial clergy.--Their emoluments.--Duties.--Official
+     registers.--Discipline.--Morality.--Status.--Our
+     clerical visits.--Monastic clergy.--The Metropolitan
+     Macarius.--Fasting.--General view of Russian Church.--Compared
+     with Roman.--Teaching respecting Holy Scripture and salvation
+     by faith.--Needs of Russian Church                              171
+
+
+ CHAPTER XVII.
+
+ _FROM TOMSK TO KRASNOIARSK._
+
+ Book-distribution in Western Siberia.--Departure
+     from Tomsk.--Postbells.--How to sit in
+     posting.--Sleeping.--Boundary of Western Siberia.--Wild
+     and domesticated animals.--Birds.--Scenery.--Roadside
+     villages.--Peasants’ houses.--Hammering up “the
+     Prodigal Son.”--Siberian towns.--Houses of upper
+     classes.--Misadventures.--A hospitable merchant.--Frontier
+     of Eastern Siberia                                              183
+
+
+ CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+ _THE YENESEI._
+
+ Sources of the river.--Discoveries of Wiggins and
+     Nordenskiöld.--The Yenesei at Krasnoiarsk.--Current,
+     width, depth.--Breaking up of ice.--The Yeneseisk
+     province.--Geography.--Meteorology.--Forests.--Timber.--Fish
+     of Yenesei.--Birds.--Russian population.--Navigation.--Corn
+     and cattle.--Towns.--A Scoptsi village.--Salubrity of
+     climate.--The aborigines.--Ethnology.--Tunguses.--Fur-bearing
+     animals.--Methods of hunting.--Minerals                         196
+
+
+ CHAPTER XIX.
+
+ _A VISIT TO A GOLD-MINE._
+
+ Gold in Siberia.--Where found.--Gold-hunting.--A
+     prospecting party.--Thawing the ground.--Subterranean
+     passages.--Hardships.--Mining calculations.--Building of
+     barracks.--Preparations for our visit.--Costumes.--Road
+     through “the forest primeval.”--Luxuriant
+     vegetation.--Crossing mountains.--Arrival at mine.--Labour
+     of miners.--Gold-washing machine.--Government
+     inspection.--Wages.--Hours of labour.--Miners’
+     food.--Pay-day.--Drink and its follies.--Miners’
+     fortunes.--Mines of Eastern Siberia.--Return to Krasnoiarsk     211
+
+
+ CHAPTER XX.
+
+ _FROM KRASNOIARSK TO ALEXANDREFFSKY._
+
+ Situation of Krasnoiarsk.--Our hotel.--Dr. Peacock.--Visit
+     to prison, hospital, and madhouse.--Cathedral.--Drive
+     in “Rotten Row.”--Shoeing horses.--Bible affairs at
+     Krasnoiarsk.--Consignment to Governor for provinces of
+     Yeneseisk and Yakutsk.--Departure from Krasnoiarsk.--Change
+     of scenery.--Kansk _Okrug_.--Our arrival anticipated.--Visit
+     to Ispravnik.--Statistics of crime.--The Protopope of
+     Kansk.--Parochial information.--Demand for Scriptures.--A
+     travelling companion.--Further posting help.--Butterflies
+     and mosquitoes.--Nijni Udinsk.--Telma factory.--A
+     _détour_.--Alexandreffsky                                       227
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXI.
+
+ _THE ALEXANDREFFSKY CENTRAL PRISON._
+
+ Prison wards.--Punishment cells.--Communication with
+     friends.--Nationalities of prisoners.--Their
+     work.--Food.--Distribution of books.--Our
+     reception.--Lunch.--Departure.--Runaway horses.--An
+     accident.--Left alone.--Return to post-house                    245
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXII.
+
+ _A CITY ON FIRE._
+
+ Approach to Irkutsk.--The city entered.--Remains of a fire.--A
+     second fire.--Our flight.--Crossing of the Angara.--A
+     refuge.--Inhabitants fleeing.--Salvage.--Firemen’s
+     efforts.--Spread of the catastrophe.--Return to lodging.--A
+     chapel saved.--Spectacle of fire at night.--Reflections         253
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+ _IRKUTSK._
+
+ Province of Irkutsk.--The capital.--Its markets.--Telegraph
+     officers.--Visit to the Governor.--Ruins of the
+     city.--Attempt to establish a Bible depôt.--Supposed
+     incendiarism.--Benevolent arrangements of
+     authorities.--Wife-beating.--Servility of Russian
+     peasants.--Visit to a rich merchant.--Ecclesiastical
+     affairs.--Visit to the acting Governor-General.--The
+     prisons.--A prisoner’s view of them.--Prison
+     committee.--Distribution of books.--Visit to inspector of
+     schools.--Change of route                                       264
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+ _THE LENA._
+
+ History of Russian invasion.--Former travellers to
+     Okhotsk.--Cochrane, Erman, and Hill.--Down the Lena to
+     Yakutsk.--Prevalence of goitre.--The Upper Lena and its
+     tributaries.--The Lower Lena.--Discoveries of mammoths.--New
+     Siberian islands.--Nordenskiöld’s passage                       281
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXV.
+
+ _YAKUTSK._
+
+ The province of Yakutsk.--Rivers.--Minerals.--The town of
+     Yakutsk.--Its temperature.--Inhabitants.--The
+     Yukaghirs.--The Yakutes.--Their dwellings.--Food.--Dress.--
+     Products.--Occupations.--Industries.--Language.--Religion.--
+     Route from Yakutsk to Okhotsk.--Reindeer riding.--Summer
+     journey.--Treatment of horses                                   294
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+ _ACROSS LAKE BAIKAL TO TROITZKOSAVSK._
+
+ Leaving Irkutsk.--The Angara.--Approach to the Baikal: its shores
+     and fish.--Steaming across.--Seizing post-horses.--Arrival
+     at Verchne Udinsk.--Smuggling at the prison.--Arrival at
+     Selenginsk.--English mission to Buriats.--English graves.--Old
+     scholars.--Story of the mission.--Journey to Troitzkosavsk      309
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+ _THE SIBERIAN FRONTIER AT KIAKHTA._
+
+ Hospitable reception.--History of Kiakhta.--Treaties between
+     Russians and Chinese.--Early trading.--Decline of
+     commerce.--The tea trade.--Troitzkosavsk church.--Miraculous
+     ikons.--Kiakhta church.--Russian churches in
+     general.--Bells.--Valuable ikons.--Climate of Kiakhta.--Drive
+     to Ust-Keran                                                    322
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+ _THE MONGOLIAN FRONTIER AT MAIMATCHIN._
+
+ Outlook into Mongolia.--Town of Maimatchin:
+     without women.--Visit to a Chinese
+     merchant.--Refreshments.--Attendants.--Purchases.--Tea
+     bricks for coin.--The town.--Buddhist temple.--Chinese
+     malefactors.--Their punishments.--Chinese
+     dinner.-Food.--Intoxicating drinks.--Route to
+     Peking.--Travellers.-Modes of conveyance.--Manners of the
+     desert.--Postal service                                         337
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+ _FROM KIAKHTA TO CHITA._
+
+ Farewell ceremonies.--Writing home of changed
+     plans.--Caravans.--An iron foundry.--Buriat
+     yemstchiks.--Methods of driving.--Salutations.--Insignificant
+     post-stations.--Visit to a missionary to the Buriats.--Russian
+     missions in Japan.--A remarkable meeting.--The Yablonoi
+     mountains.--Chita.--Visit to the Governor and prison            353
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXX.
+
+ _THE BURIATS._
+
+ Country of the Buriats.--Their physiognomy
+     and costume.--Habitations.--Mongol
+     yourts.--Hospitality.--Fuel.--Possessions in
+     cattle.--Character of Buriats.--Their religions.--Buddhist
+     Buriats.--The soul of Buddha.--The lamas.--Their celibacy,
+     classification, employments, disabilities.--Buddhist
+     doctrines.--A prayer cylinder.--Christian Buriats.--English
+     missions.--Reports of English travellers.--Results of Russian
+     missions.--Distribution of Buriat Scriptures                    364
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+ _SIBERIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS._
+
+ The Za-Baikal, a natural prison.--“Decembrists” of
+     1825.--Misapprehensions respecting political prisoners.--The
+     “Story of Elizabeth.”--Vindictive foreign writers.--Palpable
+     misstatements.--Misleading information.--Dostoyeffsky’s
+     “Buried Alive.”--Rosen’s “Russian Conspirators.”--Present
+     condition of political prisoners.--Testimony of
+     Poles.--Treatment of an attempted regicide.--The number
+     of “politicals” exaggerated.--Calculations concerning
+     them.--Their mode of transport.--Paucity of statistics
+     accounted for                                                   377
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+ _FROM CHITA TO NERTCHINSK._
+
+ The Trans-Baikal province.--Books deposited with the
+     Governor--Specimen letter of consignment.--Prisons and
+     hospitals.--Governor’s distribution of books.--Satisfactory
+     results.--Journey from Chita.--Buriat _Obos_.--Russian
+     emigrants.--Salutations.--Approach to Nertchinsk.--Its
+     mineral treasures                                               400
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+ _THE SILVER AND (SO-CALLED) QUICKSILVER MINES OF NERTCHINSK._
+
+ The supposed quicksilver-mines.--Inadequate evidence of their
+     existence.--Unsupported statements of writers.--Not
+     known to Anglo-Siberians.--Silver-mines, perhaps,
+     intended.--Deleterious fumes a myth.--Questionable
+     allegations regarding silver-mines.--Sensational
+     writers.--Misstatements exposed.--Testimony of Collins and
+     other eye-witnesses.--Accounts of ex-prisoners and Lutheran
+     pastor.--Nertchinsk Zavod and work in the mines.--Condition
+     of affairs in 1866.--Present state of things.--The Nemesis
+     of exaggeration                                                 408
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+ _FROM NERTCHINSK TO STRETINSK._
+
+ Nertchinsk.--Its climate and history.--Scene of a
+     Russo-Chinese treaty.--Appearance of the town.--Visit to
+     the authorities.--Dinner with a rich merchant.--Siberian
+     table customs.--Poverty of travelling fare.--Fine arts in
+     Siberia.--Painting and photography.--Journey from Nertchinsk    425
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+ _FROM STRETINSK TO UST-KARA._
+
+ Arrival at Stretinsk.--Recorded distances from Petersburg.--Taking
+     in a passenger.--Travelling allowance to officers.--Parting
+     with interpreter.--Farewell to tarantass.--Starting
+     to Kara.--The world before me.--Previous writers on
+     the Amur.--Gliding down the Shilka.--Talking by dumb
+     signs.--My Cossack attendant.--Taking an oar.--How Russians
+     sleep.--Arrival at Ust-Kara                                     436
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+ _THE PENAL COLONY OF KARA._
+
+ Evil reputation of Kara.--Testimony from Siberians and
+     exiles.--My own experience.--The Commandant.--Our evening
+     drive.--Hospitable reception.--Statistics respecting
+     prisoners: their crimes, sentences, and settlement as
+     “exiles.”--The Amurski prison.--Cossack barracks.--The upper
+     prison.--Convicts’ food.--Prisoners’ private laws.--Middle
+     Kara prison.--Mohammedan forçats.--Sunday labour.--Convict
+     clothing.--Guard-house.--A genuine political prisoner.--The
+     church.--Lack of preaching.--House of the Commandant            445
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+ _THE CONVICT MINES OF KARA._
+
+ Gold-mines not underground.--Hours of labour.--Visit to a
+     mine.--Punishments.--Branding abolished.--Miners marching
+     off.--Statistics respecting runaways.--Women criminals at
+     mines.--A new building for expected politicals.--Superannuated
+     forçats.--The hospitals.--“Birching” and its effects.--Kara
+     in 1859.--Improvements effected by Colonel Kononovitch.--A
+     children’s home.--Return to the gold-mine.--Comparison of
+     Siberian and English convicts.--Distribution of books           462
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+ _THE SHILKA._
+
+ Departure from Kara.--Parting hospitality.--Ust-Kara
+     police-master.--The head waters of the Shilka.--Collins’s
+     descent of Ingoda.--The Onon.--Formation of
+     Shilka.--Scenery below Stretinsk.--Shilkinsk.--Hospitality
+     of police-master.--Non-arrival of steamer.--Efforts
+     at conversation.--Steaming down the river.--Shilka
+     scenery.--Tributaries from north and south.--Arrival at
+     confluence of Shilka and Argun                                  480
+
+
+ CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+ _THE HISTORY OF THE AMUR._
+
+ Divisible into three periods.--Period of Cossack
+     plunder.--Poyarkof.--Khabarof.--Stepanof.--Discovery and
+     occupation of Shilka.--Chernigovsky.--Period of conflict with
+     Chinese.--Russo-Chinese treaty of 1686.--Russian mission at
+     Peking.--Affairs on the Amur during Russian exclusion.--Third
+     historic period from 1847.--Preparatory operations on Lower
+     Amur.--Muravieff’s descent of the river, 1854.--Influence
+     of the Crimean war.--Colonization of Lower Amur.--Further
+     colonization, 1857.--Chinese protests.--Influence of
+     Anglo-Chinese war.--The Sea Coast erected into a Russian
+     province.--Renewed difficulties with China.--Treaty of
+     1860.--Review of Russian occupation                             489
+
+
+ CHAPTER XL.
+
+ _THE UPPER AMUR._
+
+ Formation of the Amur.--Chinese boundary.--Our
+     steamer.--Captain and passengers.--Natives of Upper
+     Amur.--Orochons.--Manyargs.--Their hunting year.--Our
+     journey.--Run aground.--Table provisions.--Notes on
+     cooking.--Scenery.--Albazin.--Cliff of Tsagayan                 503
+
+
+ CHAPTER XLI.
+
+ _BLAGOVESTCHENSK._
+
+ Blagovestchensk and Russian missions.--Particulars of
+     orthodox missionary society.--Visit to telegraph
+     station.--Seminary for training priests.--Salaries of
+     Russian clergy.--Blagovestchensk prison.--Leafy
+     barracks.--View of the town.--Molokan inhabitants               518
+
+
+ CHAPTER XLII.
+
+ _THE MIDDLE AMUR._
+
+ Departure from Blagovestchensk.--The Zeya.--Climate.--A
+     bath under difficulties.--Occupation of time.--Russian
+     tea-drinking.--The Bureya river and mountains.--Delightful
+     scenery.--Ekaterino-Nicolsk.--Distribution of books and
+     Scriptures.--Reception and recognition of passengers.--Prairie
+     scenery.--Shooting a dog.--The Sungari.--Chinese
+     exclusiveness.--Course of the river.--The Amur province.--An
+     excise officer.--Remarks on alcohol.--Teetotalism in Russia     531
+
+
+ CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+ _THE MANCHURIAN FRONTIER._
+
+ Manchuria and its aboriginal inhabitants.--Their history.--The
+     Daurians.--The Manchu.--Visit to Sakhalin-Ula-Hotun.--Manchu
+     dress.--Music.--Conveyances.--Articles of commerce.--Treatment
+     of dead.--Boats.--Methods of fishing.--Archery.--Town of
+     Aigun.--Buildings.--Temples.--Difficulties of access            547
+
+
+ CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+ _THE PRIMORSK OR SEA-COAST PROVINCE._
+
+ Fuller treatment of this province.--Boundaries and
+     dimensions.--Mountains, bays, and rivers.--Climate.--Fauna and
+     flora.--Aboriginal and Russian population.--Government.--Food
+     products.--Imports.--Taxes.--Civil government.--Health of the
+     people                                                          560
+
+
+ CHAPTER XLV.
+
+ _THE LOWER AMUR._
+
+ My plans altered.--A serious alternative.--Khabarofka.--Fur
+     trade.--Post-office and bank.--A Siberian garden.--Started for
+     Nikolaefsk.--The Lower Amur.--Its affluents.--Fish.--A Russian
+     advocate.--Goldi Christians.--Sophiisk.--A procureur.--Lake
+     Kizi.--Mariinsk.--Snow mountains.--Mikhailofsky.--Hot-springs
+     of Mukhal.--Beautiful scenery.--Tyr monuments.--The “white
+     village.”--Mouth of the Amur                                    574
+
+
+ CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+ _THE GILYAKS._
+
+ The Gilyaks perfect heathens.--Their habitat,
+     number, and form.--Diseases, generation, and
+     character.--Habitations.--Living on fish.--Winter
+     and summer clothing.--Methods of fishing.--Dirty
+     habits.--Domestic animals.--Boats.--Marriage customs.--Price
+     of a wife.--Foreign relations.--Fair at Pul.--Manchu
+     merchants.--Conversation with Gilyaks.--Gilyak and
+     Goldi languages.--Education.--Superstitions.--Idols and
+     charms.--Method of bear catching and killing.--Alleged
+     worship of the bear.--Shaman rites.--Gilyak treatment of the
+     dead.--Romanist mission to the Gilyaks.--Martyrdom of the
+     missionary                                                      593
+
+
+ CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+ _NIKOLAEFSK._
+
+ My arrival.--Visit to prisons and hospitals.--Health
+     statistics.--Siberian hospitals in general.--A Sunday
+     service arranged.--Visits to inhabitants.--Russian customs,
+     superstitions, and amusements.--Dancing.--Nikolaefsk town,
+     arsenal, and commerce.--Mr. Emery.--Russian bribery.--Cost of
+     provisions and labour.--Plans for return                        614
+
+
+ CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+ _KAMCHATKA._
+
+ The Upper Primorsk.--History of north-eastern maritime
+     discovery.--Russian navigation of Siberian
+     ocean.--Explorations in the North Pacific.--Wiggins and
+     Nordenskiöld.--Exploration of Siberia by land.--Travellers in
+     Upper Primorsk.--The Sea of Okhotsk and fisheries.--Bush’s
+     journey.--Okhotsk and its natives.--Kamchatka.--Its
+     volcanoes, earthquakes, springs.--Garden produce
+     and animals.--Kamchatdales.--Their number and
+     character.--The Koriaks.--Their warlike spirit.--Houses
+     of settled and wandering Koriaks.--Food.--Herds of
+     deer.--Marriage customs.--Putting sick and aged to
+     death.--The Chukchees.--Their habitat.--Diminution of fur
+     animals.--Vegetation.--Intoxicating plants.--Kennan’s
+     tales of the Chukchees.--Nordenskiöld stranded on Chukchee
+     coast.--Onkelon antiquities                                     630
+
+
+ CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+ _THE ISLAND OF SAKHALIN._
+
+ Geographical description.--Meteorology.--Flora and
+     fauna.--Population.--Cultivation.--Mineral
+     products.--Coal-mine at Dui and penal settlement.--Prison
+     statistics.--Flogging.--Desperate criminals.--Complaints of
+     prison food.--Prison labour.--Difficulties of escape.--Prison
+     executive and alleged abuses.--General opinion on Siberian
+     prisons.--Comparison of Siberian and English convicts           648
+
+
+ CHAPTER L.
+
+ _THE USSURI AND SUNGACHA._
+
+ Ussuri little known.--From Nikolaefsk to Khabarofka.--Proposal to
+     move the port.--Military forces in the province.--Departure
+     for Kamen Ruiboloff.--The Ussuri.--Visit to a parish
+     priest.--The native Goldi.--Missions of the Russian
+     Church.--Pay of missionaries.--Head waters of
+     Ussuri.--The Sungacha.--Cossacks.--Visit to a Cossack
+     stanitza.--Chinese houses.--Lake Khanka.--Arrival at Kamen
+     Ruiboloff.--Anticipated wedding                                 665
+
+
+ CHAPTER LI.
+
+ _LAKE KHANKA TO THE COAST._
+
+ Difficulties in prospect.--Appearance of the
+     country.--Vegetation.--Garden produce.--Medicinal
+     plants.--Ginseng.--Country almost uninhabited.--A serious
+     loss and its recovery.--Remarkable landscape.--Distribution
+     of animals in Siberia.--Little-Russian settlers.--Peasant
+     affairs and taxes.--Travelling by night.--Arrival at
+     Rasdolnoi.--Clerical functions in request.--War in the
+     post-house.--Summary of tract distribution.--Russia
+     as a field for Christian effort.--The Suifun.--Cheap
+     travelling.--Baptizing children.--Arrival at Vladivostock       688
+
+
+ CHAPTER LII.
+
+ _VLADIVOSTOCK._
+
+ Situation of town.--Lodged with Captain de Vries.--Chinese
+     labourers.--Chinese convicts.--Coreans.--Inhabitants of
+     Vladivostock.--Presented at the Governor’s house.--Admiral
+     Erdmann’s improvements.--Visit to barracks.--Boys’
+     high school.--Education in Russia, its cost and
+     method.--Vladivostock Girls’ Institute; and Free
+     School.--Statistics of crime.--Telegraph companies.--Sunday
+     services.--Protestantism in Siberia.--Village of
+     exiles.--General remarks on exiles.--Preparations for
+     departure                                                       711
+
+
+ CHAPTER LIII.
+
+ _RUSSIANS AFLOAT._
+
+ Reflections on leaving Siberia.--Departure.--The Russian
+     navy.--The _Djiguitt_.--Seamen’s food, clothing,
+     work.--Relation between officers and men.--Received as
+     captain’s guest.--Progress.--Hospital arrangements.--Arrival
+     at Hakodate.--Divine service.--Religious professions
+     of seamen.--Inspection of ship.--A “strong
+     gale.”--Russian sentiments towards Englishmen.--Cause of
+     dislike.--Misrepresentations by English press.--Russian
+     writings.--Transhipped to American steamer.--Arrivals at San
+     Francisco and London                                            732
+
+
+APPENDICES.
+
+ A. The History of the Russian Church                                751
+
+ B. The Doctrines of the Russian, Roman, and English Churches        754
+
+ C. The Schisms of the Russian Church                                756
+
+ D. The Discoveries of Wiggins and Nordenskiöld                      761
+
+ E. The Early Exploration of Siberia by sea and land                 766
+
+ F. The Author’s Itinerary round the World                           770
+
+ G. Bibliography of Siberia, and List of Works consulted             772
+
+ INDEX                                                               779
+
+
+
+
+OBSERVANDA.
+
+
+In proper names the letters should be pronounced as follows:--_A_ as
+in f_a_ther; _e_ as in th_e_re; _i_ as in rav_i_ne; _o_ as in g_o_;
+_u_ as in l_u_nar; and the diphthongs _ai_ and _ei_ as in h_i_de. The
+consonants are pronounced as in English, save that _kh_ is guttural, as
+in the Scotch lo_ch_.
+
+The dates are given according to the English reckoning, being in
+advance of the Russian by twelve days.
+
+All temperatures are expressed according to the scale of Fahrenheit.
+
+The ordinary paper rouble is reckoned at two shillings, its value at
+the time of the Author’s visit; but before the Russo-Turkish war its
+value was half-a-crown and upwards.
+
+English weights and measures are to be understood unless otherwise
+stated.
+
+  The Russian Arshin                  equals    28 inches    English
+         ”    Sajen                     ”       7 feet          ”
+         ”    Verst                     ”       ⅔ mile          ”
+         ”    Pound                     ”       14.43 ounces    ”
+         ”    Pud (or Pood)             ”       36 lbs.         ”
+         ”    Rouble (or 100 Kopecks)   ”       2 shillings     ”
+         ”    _Silver_ rouble           ”       3     ”         ”
+
+[Illustration: MAP OF SIBERIA, SHEWING THE AUTHORS ROUTE--3000 MILES BY
+LAND AND 5000 BY WATER.]
+
+
+
+
+THROUGH SIBERIA.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+_INTRODUCTORY._
+
+ Object of the journey.--Interest in prisons.--Visitation of prisons
+     in 1874.--Distribution of religious literature in Russia.--Tour
+     round Bothnian Gulf, 1876.--To Russo-Turkish war, 1877.--To
+     Archangel, 1878.--Origin of Siberian journey.--Alba Hellman
+     and her correspondence.--The way opened.--Projected efforts of
+     usefulness.--Books to be distributed.--Final resolve.
+
+
+The object that took me through Siberia was of a philanthropic and
+religious character; and before proceeding to a general description
+of the country, I should like to acquaint the reader with the
+circumstances that led me there. My interest in prisons dates from
+a visit to Newgate jail in 1867, followed by others to prisons at
+Winchester, Portland, Millbank, Dover, York, Exeter, Geneva, Guernsey,
+and Edinburgh: but this interest amounted to little more than
+curiosity. Two years later it took a practical turn. My summer holidays
+up to that time had been spent on the principle, “Play when you play,
+and work when you work,”--a proverb that is doubtless true, but which I
+had not found entirely satisfactory. I was minded, therefore, to test
+another saying, that “the way to be happy is to be useful,” and in 1874
+was casting about as to how the principle could be applied to a tour of
+five weeks through seven countries, not one of whose tongues I could
+speak, when the visitation of continental prisons suggested itself,
+and the distribution therein and elsewhere of suitable literature. The
+Committee of the Religious Tract Society generously placed a supply at
+my disposal, and in company with the Rev. J. P. Hobson, then curate of
+Greenwich, I started for Russia _viâ_ Denmark, Sweden, and Finland,
+intending to return through Poland, Austria, and Prussia. We saw the
+prisons of Copenhagen and Stockholm, but they were well supplied with
+books, and needed not our help; whereas, in the old castles used as
+prisons at Åbo and Wiborg, our papers were thankfully accepted, and
+in Russia quite a surprise awaited us. Without reason, I had feared
+that perhaps the orthodox Russians would decline to receive books from
+Protestants, as do the Romans. We found, however, that they would
+accept such books as had been approved by the censor, and accordingly
+we sent 2,000 pamphlets into the prisons of Petersburg, reserving a
+third thousand for giving away on the railway to Moscow, not knowing
+at that time that for such open distribution a permission is needed.
+I can never forget the surprise of the people and their desire to get
+the books. The peasants came and kissed our hands; the railway guards
+directed to us the attention of the station-masters, who came to
+receive our gifts. Priests took the books, and approved them; and many
+who offered money in return were puzzled to see it declined. Our stock
+was soon exhausted, and I determined some day to make a tour in Russia
+to distribute on a larger scale.
+
+In 1876 my holiday weeks were spent in a journey across Norway and
+Sweden and round the Gulf of Bothnia. Twelve thousand tracts were
+distributed, and visits made to prisons and hospitals, those of Finland
+being found inadequately supplied with both Scriptures and other
+books. On my return I brought this before the Committee of the Bible
+Society, and asked for a copy of the Scriptures for every room in every
+prison, and for each bed in every hospital, in all Finland. This they
+kindly granted, so far as to offer to bear half the expense with the
+Finnish Bible Society; and the plan, after some delay, was carried out.
+Scriptures were also to be provided, at my request, for the Finnish
+institutions for the deaf and dumb, and for the saloons of the steamers
+plying on the Scandinavian coasts.
+
+In 1877 Roumania and the seat of the Russo-Turkish war was chosen
+for my holiday resort, with a view to being useful in the Russian
+hospitals. But I was too early, and my vacation too short; so that
+after visiting, on the outward trip, some of the prisons of Austria
+and Hungary, I returned, doing the like through Servia, Sclavonia,
+the Tyrol, Basle, and Paris. The mass of the prisoners were Roman
+Catholics, for whom I do not remember a single case in which the
+Scriptures were provided. Some of the authorities, however, said they
+would accept them if sent, and I therefore asked the Bible Society
+again for a liberal grant for the prisoners, the sick, and others of
+the countries through which I had passed. They were willing to make the
+grant, but the local agents reported many difficulties, and the result
+fell short of my expectations.
+
+In 1878, therefore, I resolved upon a change of tactics, to take my
+ammunition with me, and carry out my cherished scheme for Russia.
+Considerable difficulties, however, lay in the way. An Englishman,
+unable to speak the language, going into the interior of Russia to
+distribute books and pamphlets, in the year of the Berlin Congress,
+towards the close of the war, would certainly not have been safe. No
+amount of official papers and permissions would have kept him out of
+the clutches of ignorant officials. It seemed necessary, therefore, to
+take an interpreter; and as the transport of heavy luggage in Russia
+is slow, and my books would accompany me as personal baggage, it was
+clear that the cost would be a great increase to holiday expenses.
+A generous friend, however, at this juncture, as also subsequently,
+came to my aid; and in the month of June I trotted out of Petersburg
+with about two waggonloads of books, a companion, an interpreter, and
+a sufficiency of official letters. We went by rail through Moscow and
+Jaroslav to Vologda, and thence by steamer on the Suchona and Dwina
+to Archangel. We distributed everywhere,--to priests and people, in
+prisons, hospitals, and monasteries, and created such a stir in some
+of the small towns that people besieged our rooms by day, and even by
+night. Our travel was necessarily so quick that we could not always
+inform the police beforehand of what we were doing, and more than once
+they came (as was their duty) to arrest us; but our encounters always
+ended amicably, and we reached home after a happy six weeks’ tour,
+extending over 5,500 miles, in the course of which we distributed
+25,000 Scriptures and tracts. These experiences in some measure
+prepared me for my longer journey in 1879, the origin of which was
+somewhat remarkable.
+
+When travelling round the Gulf of Bothnia in 1876, my steamer
+unexpectedly stayed for a day at a town on the coast of Finland. I
+was anxious to visit the hospital, and was inquiring about a horse,
+when a passenger said she had friends in the town, who, she thought,
+could render assistance. I went with her; and that simple incident
+may be said to have originated my subsequent tour through the prisons
+of Siberia; for it was followed by correspondence with a lady member
+of the family to whom I was introduced, Miss Alba Hellman, who began
+by modestly asking me, chiefly because I was an Englishman and the
+only one she knew, whether I could not do something for the welfare
+of the Siberian exiles. I confess that at first I thought this the
+most extraordinary request ever put to me, and it seemed too great an
+undertaking even to be thought of. Already immersed in work, regular
+and self-imposed, I had no time or means for such an undertaking; and
+if the money were forthcoming, who would go? Another question, too,
+arose: Would the Russian Government allow anything to be done?
+
+The case of my Finnish correspondent, however, was a touching one.
+When in health she had been wont, like Elizabeth Fry, but on a smaller
+scale, to spend part of her time in visiting prisoners. Now, acute
+heart disease forbade such visits, and even compelled her to sleep in
+a sitting posture, so that for 2,068 nights, or nearly seven years,
+she never went to bed. My coming to Finland, visiting prisons, had
+awakened memories of her former work, and she set herself, after my
+departure, to write me a letter in English. She had had only a few
+lessons in this language when a girl; but, possessing a Swedish and
+English New Testament in parallel columns, and a dictionary, she set
+herself, with an industry and patience almost incredible, to find
+clauses and expressions that conveyed her meaning in Swedish, and then
+to copy their English equivalents, her letter ending, for example,
+“Here are many faults, but I pray you have me excused.” The force of
+her language, however, was unmistakable, thus: “You (English) have sent
+missionarys round the all world, to China, Persia, Palestina, Africa,
+the Islands of Sandwich, to many places of the Continent of Europe; but
+to the great, great Siberia, where so much is to do, you not have sent
+missionarys. Have you not a Morrison, a Moffatt, for Siberia? Pastor
+Lansdell, go you yourself to Siberia!”
+
+What, then, could I say to this? To have spoken the real language of my
+thoughts would have been cruel. So I thought to shelve the question by
+returning an oracular answer, that “the letter contained much that was
+interesting, and that I would think the matter over.” My correspondent,
+however, was not to be discouraged, and wrote another letter, giving
+further information concerning Siberia, and drawing a gloomy picture
+of the religious condition of the natives and exiles. Others followed,
+and at last I began to think that, after all, the project was not quite
+so unfeasible as it first appeared to be. My generous friend, who
+had read the letters and was interested, both urged me on and again
+offered help; and when it was determined that I should leave a clerical
+appointment I had held for ten easy and happy years, I resolved, in
+the absence of another suitable post presenting itself, at once to
+“rough it” for a summer in the wilds of Asiatic Russia.
+
+But what could I do towards the object my friend had at heart?
+Ignorance of the Russian language and of the Siberian dialects would
+prevent my speaking to the people. I might, however, visit prisons,
+hospitals, and mines, and at least provide them with the Scriptures
+in various languages, and with books, as in previous holidays. When
+travelling in the Russian interior in 1878, persons were met with who
+had never seen a complete New Testament, and I reasoned that a general
+distribution of such books in Siberia, whether by sale or gift, would
+be doubly useful, besides which I meant to be on the look-out for such
+other opportunities of usefulness as might present themselves and be
+allowed me.
+
+But what were the books you were to give away? and how is it that you
+were allowed to distribute them? are questions that have often been
+asked with surprise. An answer to the first will prepare the way for
+the second. The Scriptures included the four Gospels, the Book of
+Psalms, and the New Testament. These were for the most part in Russian;
+but there were a few copies in Polish, French, German, and Tatar, with
+certain portions of the Old Testament for the Buriats in Mongolian, and
+for the Jews in Hebrew. Besides these Scriptures there were copies of
+the _Rooski Rabotchi_, an adapted reprint in Russian of the _British
+Workman_, full of pictures, and well suited to the masses; also a large
+well-executed engraving, with the story written around, of the parable
+of the Prodigal Son, together with broad-sheets suitable for hospital
+walls, and thousands of Russian tracts. The Scriptures were printed
+for the Bible Society by the Holy Synod, and the tracts had passed
+the censor’s hands. All was therefore in order, and before going to
+Archangel I had received a permanent legitimation to distribute, duly
+endorsed by the police.
+
+So far, therefore, things in England looked promising for Siberia, but
+the way thither was by no means clear. In April, 1879, the plague was
+said to be raging in Russia, and towards the end of that month came
+one of the attempts on the late Emperor’s life. This led to Petersburg
+being placed in a state of siege, and few of my friends felicitated me
+on my intention to go thither. Some thought I should not obtain the
+required permissions for Siberia, and advised accordingly. But having
+always before succeeded through the courtesy of the Russians in getting
+what I asked, I resolved to be deaf as an adder to everything short of
+a denial at the capital from the lips of the authorities, and, being
+thus resolved, I set out on my journey.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+_ACROSS EUROPE._
+
+ Departure for Petersburg.--Official receptions.--Minister of the
+     Interior.--Metropolitan of Moscow.--Introductions.--Books
+     forwarded.--Departure for Moscow.--Nijni Novgorod.--Site
+     of the fair.--Joined by interpreter.--Kasan.--Bulgarian
+     antiquities.--Neighbouring heathen.--Idolatrous objects
+     and practices.--Departure from Kasan.--The Volga and the
+     Kama.--Arrival at Perm.
+
+
+On Wednesday morning, 30th April, 1879, I left London, and reached
+Petersburg on the following Saturday evening, to find at my hotel a
+pleasant welcome in the shape of an invitation to breakfast with Lord
+Dufferin on the Monday morning. This was due to letters with which
+I had been favoured from high quarters in England, and one result
+of which, thanks to the kindness of the British Ambassador, was an
+introductory letter to M. Makoff, the Minister of the Interior, which I
+presented to his Excellency on Tuesday. Whilst waiting in the ante-room
+with other suitors, there was time for cogitation as to what the
+answer might be. My Petersburg friends gave me small hope of success;
+on the contrary, one of them, high in authority, who had helped me
+before, had gone so far as to say, “Why, it is not likely that, with
+so many political prisoners therein, they will allow him to go through
+the prisons of Siberia now.” I drew encouragement, however, from the
+fact that a ministerial letter had been given me the previous year,
+which I thought would be registered in the archives, and, trusting
+there was on it nothing against me, I hoped that this would be in my
+favour. At length, when I was ushered into the Minister’s presence, he
+scarcely looked at the Ambassador’s letter, but referred to my having
+had the document the previous year, and said at once that there was no
+objection to my having another; upon which, flushed with success, I
+bowed and retired.
+
+This emboldened me to go to another dignitary, and, having a friend to
+interpret, I went straight from the Minister to the new Metropolitan
+of Moscow, to present a letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury,
+addressed “To the Metropolitans of the Church of Russia, or others whom
+it may concern.” His Eminence appeared in a brown silk moiré-antique
+robe, glittering with jewelled decorations, and wearing as is usual
+the white crape hat of a metropolitan, with a diamond cross in front.
+He stood on little ceremony, and, almost before I had made my bow, he
+shook my hand, gave me a fraternal kiss on either cheek, and motioned
+me to a seat beside him. He then entered with zest into my scheme for
+distributing the Scriptures, said that the Russians had not the means
+to perform all they would, and commended the English for what they were
+doing. He asked a few questions relative to Church matters in England,
+regretted that we had no language in common in which we could converse,
+and then cordially wished me God speed.
+
+I had thus made an excellent beginning. The next thing to be done
+was to get additional introductions, and this I tried to do so as
+to find my way amongst various classes of people. A letter from Mr.
+Glaisher, the aeronaut, and formerly of the Greenwich Observatory,
+opened the way for me to scientific people, more especially those
+taking meteorological observations in European and Asiatic Russia; an
+introduction from a German pastor brought me into contact with the
+educational world through Mr. Maack, the late General-Inspector of
+Schools for Eastern Siberia; a third and a fourth introduction procured
+letters to the Finns and the German pastors throughout Siberia; and a
+fifth to the telegraph officers, most of whom speak English, French, or
+German. Messrs. Egerton Hubbard took me under their wing, and kindly
+arranged to forward money and letters; and I had various mercantile
+introductions, together with several of a social character, to persons
+of different standing, from the Governors-General of Siberia downwards.
+All told, my introductions, as far as Kiakhta, numbered 133. It is,
+however, a traveller’s axiom that, “Of good introductions, store is no
+sore,” and many of mine proved to be worth their weight in gold.
+
+My Petersburg friends were delighted at the Minister’s reply, and, as
+the sun was shining, they determined to make their hay. They urged
+me to take still more books--5,000 additional pamphlets of one kind,
+especially suited for schools; and this notwithstanding that upwards
+of 25,000 of a miscellaneous character had already been forwarded by
+slow transit to the Urals. My willingness, however, was limited only
+by my capabilities of carriage, and, accordingly, as many more books
+were taken as, together with my personal baggage and those gone before,
+would fill three Russian post waggons; and this I thought would be
+about as many as, under the circumstances, it was possible for me to
+take.
+
+After a busy stay of nine days in the Russian capital, I left for
+Moscow on the afternoon of Monday, the 12th of May, and arrived the
+following morning. The only business that detained me there was to
+inquire of some ladies, who devote themselves to work among the
+prisoners, how many and what books they were distributing among the
+exiles, so that I might not do their work over again. I found, however,
+that their labours were directed more especially to the temporal
+good of the prisoners--looking after their wives, placing out their
+children, finding them clothes, and such like useful works, rather than
+seeking directly their spiritual good, though this had to some extent
+been attempted by lending and occasionally giving them books to read in
+the prison. Accordingly, I left Moscow by rail on Wednesday evening, to
+arrive after thirteen hours at Nijni Novgorod, on the Volga.
+
+May is not a good time to see this famous place. The river overflows
+its banks in spring to a depth of several feet, and covers the site
+of the wonderful fair, in anticipation of which the lower storeys of
+the warehouses and buildings are cleared; and to cleanse them before
+July is one of the first things to be done by the owners, who with
+their goods arrive yearly from all parts of the world. I was rowed in
+a boat through the streets (which are called after the names of the
+merchandise sold therein) to see the Chinese quarter, with pagoda-like
+buildings; the Persian quarter, the two cathedrals, the theatre, the
+Governor’s house, etc., all of which are used only during the fair,
+and were now empty. The nearest approach to a fair that I saw was a
+gathering near the entrance to the Kremlin, where were men standing
+with their stock-in-trade in their hands or slung over their
+shoulders--one with a pair of boots, another with a shirt, and a third
+with a pair of trousers or other garments, and for which each was ready
+to bargain and chaffer. Hitherto I had travelled alone. I now stayed at
+Nijni Novgorod to be joined by a young man who was to be my companion
+and interpreter, and then, leaving by steamer on Friday at mid-day, we
+reached Kasan early on Saturday morning, there to spend Sunday, the
+18th of May.
+
+[Illustration: THE NICHOLAS GATE, MOSCOW.]
+
+The covered heads and veiled faces of the women, together with the
+tawny porters carrying their huge burdens, speedily reminded us that we
+had reached an ancient Tatar city. The only tourists’ lion we visited
+was Mr. Lichatcheff’s collection of Bulgarian antiquities. He very
+kindly and politely showed us through the rooms of his house, which
+were crammed with curiosities. Among them were rude implements of the
+stone age, ancient oriental lamps, and ancient crosses, one of which,
+dating from the eleventh or twelfth century, was without the foot-piece
+now found on the Russian cross, which foot-piece, our informant
+considered, was not used on Russian crosses in the earliest times.
+There were also some stone Byzantine crosses. The Bulgarian antiquities
+had been found on the banks of the Volga, showing the location of that
+people before their migration further south.
+
+Another point of interest in Kasan must not be passed over. I had
+supposed that heathen rites and practices were now in Europe a thing of
+the past. We heard, however, of five nationalities scattered through
+Russia, but found more, especially in the Kasan government, who, though
+nominally Christian, still resort to idolatrous superstitions. They
+are called Tcheremisi, Mordvar, Vodeki, Tchuvashi, and Tatars; and the
+Russian Government is adopting means for their enlightenment by taking
+peasant boys from among them, and training them for schoolmasters and
+priests. A seminary devoted to this purpose, situated near the Tatar
+quarter of the town, was shown to us by the principal, Professor
+Ilminski.[1]
+
+In or near the Bishop’s house in the Kremlin we were introduced to
+Mr. Zoloneetski, who trains young men to be mission priests to the
+nationalities whence they have been brought. In 1878 he had twenty-one
+students, some of them from the seminary just mentioned. He gives them
+lectures on aboriginal languages, customs, and superstitions, and
+shows them how to bring the natives to Christianity. This he does in
+part by exposing various idolatrous objects, of which he has a curious
+collection. Among them was a Tchuvash idol, consisting of a block of
+wood, to which pieces of cloth were brought as offerings. This had
+been used less than ten years before. Another piece of superstition
+came from the Tcheremisi,[2] and was less than twelve months old.
+There was also to be seen a rudely-cut box containing coins. Some of
+them were ancient, but were supposed to have been offered recently by
+Tatars, nominally Christian. It would seem that a Tatar sometimes makes
+a vow to the spirit of the forest to dedicate a horse, cow, or some
+other animal; but not having a victim, or not having it to spare at the
+time, he leaves money as a pledge of good faith, and then, when able to
+fulfil his vow, reclaims his coin.
+
+Some of these objects had been obtained through friends and some
+by fraud, but there was a curious story connected with the boxes.
+A missionary priest (a friend of our informant), knowing of their
+existence, went to a family in his parish, and asked if he might take
+away their idolatrous things. They answered at first in the negative;
+but, after he had left the house, a woman came out to draw water,
+and told him she thought it would be much better if he would _steal_
+the things, for then they would have less money to bring and fewer
+prayers to say. The priest, therefore, returned at night, when the
+family pretended to be soundly asleep (so that the spirit might not be
+offended with what took place whilst they were unconscious), mounted
+the loft, took the things, and subsequently gave them to our informant.
+
+We quitted Kasan on Monday morning in one of Lubimoff’s steamers, and,
+after proceeding two or three hours down the Volga, left that river
+to finish its career of 2,200 miles, whilst we turned into one of its
+affluents, the Kama, which is no mean river in itself, having a course
+of 1,400 miles. The junction of the two streams presents a fine expanse
+of water, but the banks are too flat to be pretty. Steamboat travelling
+in Russia is not expensive, the first-class fare from Nijni Novgorod to
+Perm, a four days’ journey, being only 36_s._
+
+After a voyage of three days and a half from Kasan we reached Perm,
+where the people were in great excitement consequent on the burning of
+two “quartals,” or large blocks of buildings. The roofs and houses of
+the town were described as being covered, during the previous night,
+with women, watching lest sparks should fall on their property, whilst
+their husbands helped to extinguish the fire; and so great was the fear
+of a general conflagration, that some sent their wives and families
+into the neighbouring villages. Others we saw encamped by the bank of
+the river, whilst on a grass plot near a church were others tired out
+and fast asleep beside the chattels they had rescued. Not long before,
+Orenburg and Irbit had been burnt, and were supposed by some to have
+been wilfully set on fire, and so excited were the inhabitants of
+Perm, and so ready to snap up persons at all suspected, that we were
+cautioned, as being strangers, to walk in the middle of the road. We
+then visited the hospital, saw the Governor, and left some books for
+the Perm institutions; but I was reserving my strength for Siberia, and
+the same evening the train was to carry us to the top of the Urals.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The Government provides support for 150 scholars, half of whom
+are Russians, and the remaining half are from the five nationalities
+already mentioned. They have no difficulty in procuring the requisite
+number of scholars. Such as can say their small Russian catechism
+intelligently are received, and kept for three years as pupil-teachers,
+at the expiration of which time they serve the Government for six years
+by way of return for their education, and receive salaries of from
+twelve to thirty pounds a year. A New Testament, we found (but not the
+Bible), is provided for each youth in the higher classes.
+
+[2] Their worship was thus described: The priest takes in one hand a
+piece of burning wood, and in the other a branch (such as we saw, and
+on which the leaves were still green, though dry), and then walks in
+a circle, the area of which is thus, for the time being, consecrated
+for worship. Then he fastens round a tree a withe, and sticks therein
+a branch with the bark peeled something like a whip, which is supposed
+to represent a fir-tree; on this is hung a piece of lead, previously
+melted, poured into cold water, and molten so as to form roughly
+the figure of a head, which is called an _eeta_. Towards this they
+afterwards say their prayers. The priest kills the victim, which may be
+a horse, a cow, a chicken, a duck, etc., and sprinkles the blood on the
+tree and the withe. (The blood was yet visible on the one we saw.) Then
+they proceed to peel or chip pieces of wood, making them fly off in the
+direction of the tree; and according as the chips fall, with the bark
+or the white side upwards, so they divine an answer to their prayer.
+The branch we saw was brought away by a friend of our informant just
+after the offering.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+_THE URALS TO TIUMEN._
+
+ A new railway.--The Ural range.--Outlook into Russia in Asia.--Nijni
+     Tagil.--The Demidoff mines and hospital.--May weather.--Russian
+     railways.--Arrival at Ekaterineburg.--An orphanage.--Precious
+     stones.--Orenburg shawls.--Tarantass and luggage.--Departure for
+     Tiumen.--The exiles.--Visits to the authorities.
+
+
+Those who have hitherto written of journeys to Siberia have told of
+a dismal drive from Perm to Ekaterineburg; but this misfortune did
+not fall to our lot, since in the autumn of 1878 a railway was opened
+over the mountains, and the journey is now accomplished in about
+four-and-twenty hours. The distance is 312 miles, and between the two
+termini are about 30 stations.[1]
+
+From the prominence given in maps of Europe to the Ural chain, one
+is apt from childhood to expect in these mountains something grand.
+The entire length of the range, including its continuation in Novaia
+Zemlia, is about 1,700 miles. Its highest peak, however, does not
+attain to more than 6,000 feet, and many parts of the range are not
+more than 2,000 feet above the sea level. No part of it is permanently
+covered with snow. Travellers by the old route describe, in passing
+it, a never-failing object of interest on the frontier in the shape
+of a stone, on one side of which is written “Europe” and on the other
+“Asia,” across which, of course, an English boy would stride, and
+announce that he had stood in two quarters of the globe at once.
+Travellers by the new route miss this opportunity; but they have its
+equivalent in three border stations, one of which is called “_Europa_,”
+the next “_Ural_,” and the third “_Asia_,” through which those who have
+journeyed can say what no other travellers can, that they have passed
+by rail from one quarter of the globe into another.
+
+Thus the ease with which one reaches the summit of the Urals is
+somewhat disappointing, but no such thoughts are suggested by an
+outlook into the immense country that now lies before the traveller.
+There stretches far before him a region known as Russia in Asia, the
+dimensions of which are very hard for the mind to realize. It measures
+4,000 miles from east to west, about 2,000 from north to south, and
+covers nearly five and three-quarter millions of square miles. It is
+larger by two millions of square miles than the whole of Europe; about
+twice as big as Australia, and nearly one hundred times as large as
+England.
+
+The general aspect of the surface may be easily described. The Altai
+range of mountains, with its offshoots to the east, forms the general
+features of the southern boundary, and from these heights the land
+gradually slopes towards the northern _tundras_ or bogs, which extend
+to the frozen ocean. The country is intersected by three of the largest
+rivers in the world, the Obi, the Yenesei, and the Lena, not one of
+which is much less than 3,000 miles long, and all of them, through
+great part of the year, flow under masses of ice to the Arctic Ocean.
+A fourth river, the Amur, rising in the Yablonoi mountains, which may
+be regarded as a part of the eastern slopes of the Altai chain, runs a
+course also of more than 2,000 miles, but takes an easterly direction,
+forming part of the southern boundary of the country, and empties
+itself into the Gulf of Tartary.
+
+The country largely consists of immense steppes, marshes, and pools.
+Lakes, properly so called, are not numerous, but the greatest of them,
+the “Baikal,” is in some respects the most remarkable in the world.
+No less remarkable is the great variety of the inhabitants. They are
+sometimes classified into five typical races: _Sclavonic_ (including
+Russians and Poles); _Finnish_ (including Finns, Voguls, Ostjaks,
+Samoyedes, Yuraki); _Turkish_ (including Tatars, Kirghese, Kalmuks,
+Yakutes); _Mongolian_ (including Manchu, Buriats, and Tunguses--the
+last of various denominations); and _Chinese_, with whom may be
+classed, though not very accurately, the Gilyaks and Aïnos. In fact,
+an ethnographical map of Asiatic Russia I bought at Petersburg shows
+therein no less than 30 peoples or nations.[2]
+
+Many of them, it is true, are but feebly represented, for the entire
+population does not number more inhabitants than are to be found in
+seven of the counties of England, and they have not enough men and
+women in Russian Asia to put one of each in every square mile, whereas
+every square mile of the seven English counties alluded to has on an
+average 573 inhabitants. It is difficult to give exact statistics,
+because, from the wandering life led by many of the aborigines, it
+is impossible to ascertain their number, and so authorities differ;
+but the total population, including Russians, is estimated at
+about 8,000,000. Our attention, however, is to be chiefly confined
+to Siberia, and it should not be forgotten that Siberia is not
+co-extensive with the whole of Asiatic Russia, and does not begin,
+properly speaking, till Ekaterineburg is passed. We have been merely
+taking a look, from the government of Perm, out of European into
+Asiatic Russia; this government, as also that of Orenburg, lying partly
+in Europe and partly in Asia.
+
+Before descending to the foot of the Urals, we arrive at Nijni Tagilsk.
+At this place we halted for a day to look over the famous Demidoff
+mines and works. There had been a fire in the town, as at Perm, on the
+night preceding our arrival; and in seven hours 78 houses had been
+burnt. Pieces of smoking wood were still flying about. The common
+people, as before, attributed the fire to incendiaries, such as escaped
+prisoners, who hoped to profit by the turmoil, and find an occasion
+for plunder; but more thoughtful people traced it to accidental
+causes. Demidoff’s workmen had been called out at night to assist as
+firemen, and were in consequence resting. We could not, therefore,
+see everything in motion, but enough was visible to make it clear
+that they were carrying on enormous metallurgical operations. One of
+the remarkable things to be noticed was a surface mine of magnetic
+iron ore, blasted and dug out in terraces, carted down by horses and
+taken to the furnace, where the ore proves so rich that it yields 68
+per cent. of iron. We also descended a copper-mine, the mineral from
+which yields 5 per cent. of metal. We were dressed for the occasion
+in top-boots, leather hats, and appropriate blouses and trousers,
+each carrying a lamp, and thus by ladders we descended one shaft of
+600 feet and came up another, the water meanwhile trickling upon us
+freely. At the bottom of the mine they were erecting an English machine
+for pumping 80 cubic feet of water per minute to the surface. In the
+engine-room two men at a time spend eight hours daily, for which they
+each receive in money about fifteen pence. We promised ourselves,
+as a great feature in the descent of the copper-mine, the seeing of
+malachite in its natural state, and we were not disappointed. The
+captain took us through long galleries of timber beams, and then to
+the spots where the miners had been working. Here, by the light of our
+lamps, the pieces of green mineral could be clearly seen, and we had
+the pleasure of digging them out with a pick, and bringing them away
+as specimens. The price of malachite at the mine is six shillings a
+Russian pound, if in moderate-sized pieces; twenty shillings when the
+lumps are large, but only two shillings if they are small.
+
+Besides these copper and magnetic iron mines, they have others of
+manganese iron ore, which contains 64 per cent. of binoxide of
+manganese, the peroxide being sold at the rate of about eighteen
+shillings per hundredweight. Specimens of these and other minerals of
+great interest to the geologist are exhibited in a museum not far from
+the works.
+
+Among the remarkable things to be seen at these hives of industry
+were--a machine for drawing water by a cord from a copper-mine two
+miles off, a steam-hammer of seven tons weight, an iron furnace of
+10,000 cubic feet dimensions, said to be the largest high furnace for
+_wood_ in the world, and a machine for splitting their fuel wood, of
+which they burn annually 100,000 _sajens_--that is to say, a 325 feet
+cube, or, roughly speaking, a pile of logs twice as big as St. Paul’s
+Cathedral.[3]
+
+They make steel for Sheffield, and can do castings up to more than 30
+tons in weight. Their iron is excelled in quality, I believe, only
+by that of Dannemora. They have 11 _zavods_, or “works,” of which
+eight are connected with iron. But perhaps a better idea can be formed
+of their vastness by the mention of the number of persons employed,
+which amounts to 30,000. I heard also 40,000, and both numbers were
+from heads of departments; but probably the latter estimate includes
+carters, labourers, and perhaps even women. The Demidoffs pay annually,
+by way of rates and taxes--to the Commune, £5,000; the Church, £1,500;
+schools, £2,500; poor and aged, £3,000; together with other sums,
+amounting in all to about £20,000 a year. Wages, as compared with those
+in England, appeared low. Common workmen receive from 7½_d._ to 1_s._
+a day, puddlers 3_s._, and those in the welding furnace 4_s._, whilst
+good rollers receive from 3_s._ 6_d._ to 6_s._ It should be observed,
+however, that they all have houses rent free, with the piece of land
+they formerly occupied as serfs.
+
+Before the emancipation, the riches of the Demidoffs were counted in
+the phrase then usual in Russia as amounting to 56,000 souls.[4] A
+small church, built on the crest of a neighbouring hill, was pointed
+out as having been built by the serfs in memory of their freedom; and
+I was glad to hear from the director, Mr. Wohlstadt (by whom we were
+courteously entertained), that since the emancipation the men work
+better and better, knowing, I presume, when serfs, that idleness would
+be repaid with something not much worse than a beating; whereas now
+they know they may be discharged.
+
+We slept at the club; and in the morning, before leaving, visited the
+Demidoff hospital, upon which, and upon institutions of a similar kind,
+the proprietors spend nearly £4,000 a year. The dimensions of the rooms
+were such as to allow of three cubic _sajens_, or 1,200 cubic feet, of
+air for each of the patients, of whom there were 120 at the time of
+our visit. Many fractured and amputated limbs were seen dressed with
+gypsum, alcohol, and camphor; but the most extraordinary thing was a
+machine in the director’s private room, in which he placed frozen human
+brains, and for scientific purposes cut them in very thin slices to
+photograph. The photographs are to be purchased in Paris.
+
+On leaving Tagil we found the temperature much colder,[5] and our
+journey to Ekaterineburg was somewhat comfortless, from the fact that,
+anticipating no more cold weather, the officials had not brought in the
+train the apparatus for heating by steam. At Ekaterineburg I finished
+railway journeys, amounting to 2,670 miles; and as I was now to bid
+farewell to the horse of iron and travel by horses of flesh, it is
+only right to say that of the iron horses which took me across Europe
+the Russian on the whole was, I think, the best.[6] Our arrival at
+Ekaterineburg on Saturday evening was expected, and quarters were
+provided for me through the kindness of Messrs. Egerton Hubbard.
+Ekaterineburg is a handsome town of 30,000 inhabitants, and has many
+fine churches and other buildings. On Sunday I visited the hospital,
+and also an orphanage for 100 children, which has been built and is
+supported by local voluntary effort. This kind of institution is not
+yet very common among the Russians. It was regarded as a novelty, and
+was the only one of its precise kind that we saw in Asia.
+
+Formerly there were several Englishmen living at Ekaterineburg, but
+a few only are now left, and so little practice do they have in the
+tongue of their fathers that some of them are rapidly forgetting it.
+Instances of this were met with further east, and another case in which
+English parents were allowing their children to grow up speaking only
+Russian, the result of which would be that the son who had been sent
+for his education to England would forget Russian, and, on coming back
+to Siberia, would not be able to speak to his sister who had not learnt
+English.
+
+Ekaterineburg is a famous place for the cutting of precious stones, in
+which Siberia is rich. Near the river Argun are found the jacinth, the
+Siberian emerald, the onyx, and beautiful jaspers, of which there are
+at least a hundred varieties. Near Lake Baikal are found red garnets
+and lapis lazuli, and the Altai mountains furnish the opal. Several
+of these are also found near Ekaterineburg, together with the beryl,
+the topaz, the chrysolite, the aqua marine, the tourmaline, rhodonite,
+nephrite, ophite, selenite, and the recently-discovered Alexandrite,
+which exhibits two colors--crimson and green--the one by day and the
+other by night. The stone derives its name from the Emperor Alexander,
+whose colours it shows. These stones are cut in the Government
+workshops and in private houses, and may be purchased at moderate
+prices.
+
+South of Ekaterineburg, towards Orenburg, are villages where may be
+purchased uncommon souvenirs in the shape of gentlemen’s scarves and
+gloves, together with _kozy pookh_, or, as they are more commonly
+called, Orenburg shawls. They are made from the wool of the goats of
+the Kirghese, who allow the Cossacks to comb their flocks at the rate
+of from eight-pence to a shilling per head. Twice a year the goats
+are washed and combed, first with a coarse and then with a fine comb.
+To make a good shawl employs a woman six months, and then, if it be a
+large one, it sells at first hand for about fifty shillings; but very
+much higher prices are asked in Petersburg.
+
+We stayed three days at Ekaterineburg to lay in provisions and gather
+our forces for proceeding by horses. The greater part of my heavy
+luggage had been dispatched by slow train to Ekaterineburg fully a
+month before me, but it did not reach its destination till the day
+after my arrival. The agent said it might have been waiting on the
+road for the chance of other goods to make up a load. A tarantass had
+been very kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. Oswald Cattley, whose
+name, some time since, was before the public in connection with the
+opening up of a new trade on the Obi; and in this we packed ourselves
+and some of our personal baggage, placing the rest with several boxes
+in a second conveyance, and leaving still a third load of boxes to
+be forwarded as luggage. In this fashion, after receiving all sorts
+of kindness and hospitality from our English friends, we started on
+Tuesday evening, May 27th, for Tiumen, a distance of 204 miles, which
+was accomplished in 43 continuous hours.
+
+Tiumen is situated on the Tura, and has a population of from 15,000 to
+20,000 inhabitants. Commercially speaking, it is the most important
+town in Western Siberia, and through it pass the water carriage of the
+Obi, as well as the caravans coming from China and the East. Here we
+found an English engineering firm, conducted by Messrs. Wardropper,
+who were particularly kind to us. To Tiumen all the exiles are brought
+from Europe, and from thence are distributed over Siberia. I needed
+not, therefore, the eye of a general to see that, for my purpose of
+distributing books over the land, this was the key to a very important
+position. It was desirable, therefore, that I should see some of the
+magnates of the town who were members of the prison committee, and, if
+possible, secure their sympathy and co-operation.
+
+Accordingly I was taken to visit the Mayor, who was building a large
+commercial school for the benefit of the town, at a cost of more than
+£20,000, which, when finished, was to be handed over to the Government.
+He is a merchant who has made his way to the front, and now entertains
+the Governor-General when he passes through, though otherwise he lives
+quietly. His house, when we called, was in preparation for one of those
+viceregal receptions, and, knowing that his worship was rich, I busied
+myself, during the Russian conversation, in scanning what I supposed
+might be considered appropriate study furniture for a wealthy Siberian.
+The Mayor, I had heard, was fond of good horses, which accounted for
+the winner-of-the-Derby-like engravings hanging on the wall, the whole
+of which might have been purchased, I judged, in London for twenty
+shillings. The room, as is the custom of the country, was not carpeted,
+and the furniture consisted of a bare, polished, wooden bench, bored
+with holes, in patterns after the fashion of American street cars. The
+chairs were of wood, similarly ornamented. The table had about it some
+fretwork, and on it various writing materials, and accompaniments more
+or less artistic. I mentally appraised the whole as being worth about
+£20, and admired the simplicity of a man who could be content with a
+study thus furnished, whilst he was giving away a thousand times its
+value. My cogitations served to recall what had struck me in Norway and
+Sweden, when observing how much simpler, as regards furniture, people
+are content to live in these northern countries than in England, though
+I did not discern that they were less happy than we are. After leaving
+the house, I broached the subject approvingly to my friend who was with
+me, upon which I found that I had undervalued the furniture, and that
+it was of American manufacture, and the first of the kind imported into
+the town.
+
+I was taken also to call upon a prominent member of the prison
+committee, Mr. Ignatoff, of the firm of Kourbatoff and Ignatoff. They
+have steamers on the Kama and Obi, and hold the Government contract
+for the transport in barges of exiles. He was much interested in my
+scheme of visiting prisons, and was so pleased with my account of the
+Howard Association in London, of which I said I was a member, and which
+had for its object the prevention of crime and promoting the best
+methods for the treatment and reformation of prisoners, that he spoke
+of asking to be allowed at once to join the Association.[7] He kindly
+undertook to do all he could to further the distribution of the books I
+engaged to send to him; and I was glad to have called, not only for the
+information obtained, but for the interest excited, though I was hardly
+prepared for the very practical and generous form which this interest
+took, which will be hereafter alluded to.
+
+We called afterwards on the Ispravnik, or chief man of the district,
+and presented my letter, with the view of visiting the prisons. I
+heard that in his district there were 24 schools, and, having made
+arrangements for providing them with tracts, I went to see the prison.
+From statistics given me for the previous year, it appeared that a
+total of 20,711 prisoners passed through the hands of the authorities
+in 1878.[8] This opens up the whole subject of prisons and exiles,
+which is to form a leading feature of these pages, and therefore I
+think it will be better to devote separate chapters to both, in which
+general ideas can be given. This will save repetition, and it will then
+be easy to illustrate general principles by particular incidents as we
+meet them from time to time in travelling and visiting prisons from the
+Urals to the Pacific.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Of the three divisions, the Northern or barren Ural, as the
+Russians call it, beginning at the source of the Pechora, is the most
+elevated and the least known. The Southern Ural begins about midway
+between Perm and Orenburg, and descends to the banks of the Ural river.
+It is a pastoral country, and about 100 miles in width. The range is
+here less than 3,000 feet in height. The central Ural may be considered
+as a wide undulation, beginning on the west on the banks of the Kama.
+Perm, situated on the right bank of the river, is 378 feet above the
+sea level, and on the post road to Ekaterineburg the highest point is
+1,638 feet, which, if my reckoning is correct, is 40 feet less than the
+highest station on the railway. I set my aneroid at Perm, and found
+that at the fourth station, Seleenka, a distance of 172 miles, we
+had mounted 470 feet; the next 22 miles brought us down again to 120
+feet, after which for 60 miles we continued to ascend to Bisir, which
+registered 1,300 feet above Perm, and was the highest station on the
+road. Level ground succeeded for about 30 miles to the border station,
+after which in 50 miles we descended 750 feet to Shaitanka, 10 miles
+beyond which we had remounted 200 feet; and on this level we kept to
+Iset, the last station but one. The road then descended about 150 feet
+to Ekaterineburg, which is said to be 858 feet above the sea level.
+
+[2]     1. Slavs.
+        2. Zeryani.
+        3. Voguls.
+        4. Votyaks.
+        5. Tatars.
+        6. Kirghese of little horde.
+        7. Kirghese of middle horde.
+        8. Kirghese of great horde.
+        9. Buruti Kirghese.
+       10. Karakalpaks.
+       11. Sarti.
+       12. Uzbeki.
+       13. Turks.
+       14. Altai Kalmuks.
+       15. Teleuti.
+       16. Ostjaks.
+       17. Samoyedes.
+       18. Yuraki.
+       19. Yakutes.
+       20. Tunguse.
+       21. Goldi.
+       22. Gilyaks.
+       23. Yukagirs.
+       24. Chukchees.
+       25. Koriaks.
+       26. Kamchatdales.
+       27. Aïnos.
+       28. Buriats.
+       29. Manchu.
+       30. Chinese.
+
+[3] What extent of land must be cleared to furnish such a quantity of
+fuel I know not, but the railways of Central Russia are said to consume
+yearly the timber off 90,000 acres of forest--an area, that is, about
+the size of Rutlandshire.
+
+[4] That is, men, or at least _males_; for I am told that male children
+are called “souls,” but female children never. An English lady of my
+acquaintance informs me that she was told scores of times in Russia
+that she was not a _doash_, or soul, but only a woman; and when her son
+was born she was congratulated on being the mother of a soul!
+
+[5] Concerning the weather in crossing Europe, I may say that, from
+the Russian frontier to the capital, on the 2nd and 3rd of May, a fire
+was provided in the railway carriage, and on approaching Petersburg
+there was just a little snow left here and there in drifts. On the 4th
+the last of the ice was floating down the Neva. In less than a week it
+became positively hot in the middle of the day, and the trees opened
+their foliage rapidly. At Nijni Novgorod, on the 15th, the foliage was
+all but full. On the banks of the Kama the trees were covered with
+leaves, which the captain of the steamer said had come out within the
+previous five days; and on the 20th, when stopping for wood, some of
+the passengers found strawberry blossoms and violets. Fine weather then
+continued up to the 23rd.
+
+[6] The new first-class carriages running between Petersburg and Moscow
+have _fauteuils_, which form couches at night; and one I saw was so
+fixed on springs as to furnish almost the softness of a feather-bed.
+They have also writing tables, and are more luxurious than anything
+I have seen elsewhere in Europe, or even America. The lavatory
+arrangements “on board” in all three classes are exceedingly good.
+There only lacks the receptacle for iced water provided in Norway,
+and, perhaps, the dining cars run in America, to make Russian railway
+accommodation perfect. The guards, it is true, are somewhat pompous
+as compared with the English, and the speed of the trains is slower;
+but, on the other hand, the refreshments are very much better, and the
+prices more reasonable. There is time allowed, moreover, to eat them,
+though I am thinking more especially of the line between the capital
+and Moscow, which is naturally one of the best.
+
+[7] He had made private notes concerning the exiles, of which it
+appeared that, during the last ten years, from 9,500 to 10,500 yearly
+had passed through his hands. Of these there were adults about
+9,000; under 15, 1,500; and under 2 years of age, 150. About 3,000,
+he thought, could read. The professors of various religious beliefs
+prevailed, he said in decreasing numbers, in the following order: (1)
+Orthodox Russian, (2) Mohammedan, (3) Jewish, (4) Roman Catholic, (5)
+Protestant. Drunkenness, he believed, was directly or indirectly the
+cause of the crimes of half of the whole number sent to Siberia, and
+these were found to be the worst prisoners and the most troublesome.
+He looked forward, therefore, with pleasure to the expected and now
+long-waited-for prison reforms, one of which, it was said, would be the
+sending no more exiles to the western part of Siberia.
+
+[8] One-fourth of these (4,995) were women, and 215 were _local_
+offenders, of whom 10 were women and 3 were minors. In the course of
+the year were located in the Town Prison 157 men and 5 women; in the
+Police Prison 4 men, and in the Central Prison for exiles 15,111 men
+and 4,985 women.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+_THE EXILES._
+
+ Reasons for and history of deportation to Siberia.--Number
+     of exiles.--Their education.--Crimes.--Sentences.--Loss
+     of rights.--Privileges.--Proportion of hard-labour
+     convicts.--Where located.--Release.--Escapes.--Causes and
+     methods of flight.--Transport.--A convoy of exiles.--Moscow
+     charity.--Conveyance to Perm and Tiumen.--Their
+     distribution.--Order of march.--Sea-borne exiles.--Mistakes of
+     English newspapers.--Conveyance of political exiles.
+
+
+In dealing with criminals, the Russian Government has to act as best
+it can for the good of the community in general. If, in particular
+cases, it seems likely that the criminal may be reformed, he is sent
+to one of the prisons or houses of correction at home; but if, on the
+other hand, the crime of the malefactor demands a severe punishment,
+and, after repeated correction, he seems to be incorrigible, then he
+is banished to Siberia, the people being thus rid of a corrupting
+member of society, whilst another unit is sent to assist in developing
+the resources of a large territory of the Russian empire, which has
+great need of population. This, I presume, is the theory, or part of
+it, of the deportation of prisoners to distant parts of the empire.[1]
+The number of ordinary exiles sent to Siberia for several years
+past has been from 17,000 to 20,000 per annum; but this includes
+wives and children who choose to accompany the prisoners. Of these
+nearly 8,000, on their arrival in Siberia, are set free to get their
+own living; about 3,000 of them being sent to Eastern and 5,000 to
+Western Siberia. The exiles come from all parts of Russia in Europe,
+and include about 300 a year from Finland. In 1879 there were 898
+sent from Poland. Some idea may be formed of the education of the
+exiles from the fact that on the day we visited Tiumen prison there
+were, out of 470 prisoners, 42 who could read and write well, 32 who
+could do so a little, and 12 who could sign their names. At Tiumen,
+however, we heard from one who had to do with a great many exiles,
+and who had several statistics about them, that one-third of those
+with whom he had been brought into contact could read. Again, in the
+district of Kansk, in Eastern Siberia, in 1877, of 226 criminals, only
+two were marked as “well-educated,” whilst in 1878, of 182 prisoners,
+none stood high enough, intellectually, to be thus designated. The
+figures from Kansk are not quite to the point in speaking of European
+Russia, but they help, with others, to give an approximate idea, not
+only of the education, but also of the social rank of the Siberian
+criminals. Again, for statistical purposes, the Russians are sometimes
+marked off into five classes, thus: nobles, merchants, ecclesiastics,
+citizens, and peasants; and in prison the higher grades receive better
+allowance, and are not mixed with the peasant prisoners, but have rooms
+apart. In going through the principal prisons of Siberia, however, we
+found the number of rooms thus occupied decidedly small; so that this
+observation, taken with the educational state of the prisoners, would
+seem to confirm what I was told by one prison official, that probably
+not more than 3 or 4 per cent. of the exiles are from the upper classes.
+
+As to the crimes of the exiles, they are not all political, nor even
+chiefly so. A large proportion--4,000 out of 18,000, or say 20 per
+cent.--of them are charged with no one particular offence, except that
+they have rendered themselves obnoxious to the community among which
+they lived. If a man in Russia be incorrigibly bad, and will not pay
+his taxes nor support his wife and family, but leaves these things to
+be done by his neighbours, his commune--which may consist of one or
+more villages--meet in their _mir_, or village parliament, vote the man
+a nuisance, and adjudge that he be sent, at their expense, to Siberia.
+This judgment is submitted to higher authorities, and, unless just
+cause be shown to the contrary, is confirmed. The man is then taken to
+Siberia, not to be imprisoned, but to get his living as a colonist.
+Those sent thus by the villages, I was told, are chiefly drunkards. We
+saw a whole wardful of them at Tiumen, dressed in private clothes, and
+not in prison garb; and a second ward, of a similar mixed multitude,
+consisting of men, women, and children. The perpetrators of political
+crimes, as those of the “black Nihilists,” are, when caught, usually
+accommodated with free lodgings in Siberia; and so with revolutionary
+offenders, who make insurrection in Poland, Circassia, or elsewhere.
+Of offenders such as these I must speak hereafter. Formerly religious
+dissenters were largely deported, but this has not been done since the
+proclamation of what may, in a fashion, be called religious liberty,
+unless in the case of one or two--more especially one sect--whose
+practices no enlightened Government could tolerate, and which are so
+extraordinary that, if they obtained universal acceptance, there would
+be no further increase of population, and the human race would become
+extinct. The fact is that the great mass of exiles are nothing more
+nor less than ordinary criminals, such as may be found in any of the
+prisons of Europe.[2]
+
+The sentences of the exiles vary widely according as they are condemned
+to one or the other of two classes, namely: those who lose all their
+rights, and those who lose only partial or political rights, which
+deprivations may be thus explained:--
+
+Those who lose all their rights are not in an enviable position. These
+are some of the things they lose:--If a man have a title or official
+rank, he is degraded. An exile’s marriage rights are broken, so that
+his wife is free to marry another. Neither his word nor his bond is of
+any value. He cannot sign a legal document or serve any office, either
+municipal or imperial. He can hold no property, nor do anything legal
+in his own name. In prison he must wear convict’s clothes, and have his
+head half shaved; and, in the case of a woman, she cannot marry after
+her release from prison till by good conduct she has placed herself
+in a certain category; and, whether man or woman, they may, for new
+crimes, if the authorities see fit, after they have served their time
+in prison, and are living as colonists, be sent back again. They may
+be thrashed with rods and with the “_plète_,” and, even should they be
+murdered, probably little trouble would be taken to find the murderer.
+In fact, as the words imply, they lose all their rights, though I
+believe they can appeal to the law in case of being grossly wronged.
+
+I have said that an exile’s marriage rights are broken, and I was
+told that it is the same with convicts in America. Were it not so, it
+might be very hard upon a young wife whose husband, for instance, had
+committed murder, and who, for her husband’s crime and banishment,
+should be compelled to remain single for the rest of her life. A
+Russian wife with her children, however, may accompany the husband
+if she chooses; in which case they go with the exile and receive from
+the Government prison food and accommodation. If, on the other hand, a
+husband wishes to accompany a convict wife, he travels at his own cost.
+To the honour of the Russian women be it said that the proportion of
+men accompanied by their wives and families is one in every six. The
+proportion of women accompanied by their husbands is, I am told, not
+exactly known, though it is very much less.
+
+Those who suffer the loss of particular rights lose certain of their
+privileges (but not family or property rights), and are settled in
+Siberia, to get their living in any way they are able. They may,
+however, in some cases, have first to serve for a period in prison;
+or, again, they may be allowed to live in their own houses and give a
+portion of their time to Government work.
+
+Commonly, they are condemned first to serve a certain time in
+confinement, with or without labour. If they behave well they are,
+after a while, and in some cases, allowed to live outside the prison
+with their families, if they have any, but still to do their allotted
+work, until the period arrives for them to be liberated and located
+like colonists. Some of the women who are condemned to the far east
+have the good fortune to be taken as domestic servants by officers, and
+even favoured civilians, who, in a new country where ordinary servants
+are not to be had, are allowed for this purpose to take the prisoners,
+subject to inspection, of course. Lastly, some exiles, though
+comparatively few, I believe, are condemned to prison, or to prison and
+labour, for life.[3]
+
+The localities to which the exiles are sent vary according to their
+crimes. Speaking generally, those deprived of partial rights are sent
+to Western, and those deprived of all their rights to Eastern, Siberia.
+On this point I have no official statistics, but a legal officer gave
+me these particulars concerning the location of convicts. Murderers are
+sent to Kara. My finding 800 there would seem to confirm this, only
+that their presence was manifest in so many of the other prisons also.
+Political prisoners go to Kara, to the Trans-Baikal district, and (as
+I heard from other sources) to the Yakutsk government; also to this
+latter province are sent those who commit fresh crimes in Siberia.
+Vagrants or vagabonds are dispatched to the far east, to the government
+of the Sea Coast and Sakhalin. On the other hand, Western Siberia
+would seem to be reserved for minor offenders, and those deprived
+of certain particular rights only. It should be observed, however,
+that exiles, wherever they may be, are under police inspection, are
+furnished with papers which they have to show at intervals, and which
+tie them to a certain place, whence they can move to a distance only
+by permission. When at large, and in some cases when in prison, the
+exiles may correspond with their friends through the post; but the
+letters must of course be read by the authorities. The hardest part of
+the lot of those who lose all their rights seems to be that they cannot
+look forward to the hope of returning. Not that a release is _never_
+granted even to these; for I am told that political offenders are
+sometimes seen hurried out of, as fast as they are hurried into, exile.
+The late Emperor, too, when he came to the throne, began his reign by
+an act of clemency on a larger scale, and allowed certain exiles whom
+his father had banished to return. Again, I have heard of a Polish
+exile in good circumstances who was fortunate enough to win the love
+of an English young lady connected (by name at all events) with one of
+the ducal families of Great Britain, through which it is said the ear
+was gained of a member first of the English royal family, then of the
+imperial family of Russia, and finally of the Emperor himself.[4] I
+have met with another case of a released exile who was liberated under
+curious circumstances. He gave me his story thus:--When Alexander II.
+visited Paris in the time of Napoleon III., the Tsar asked the Emperor
+if there were anything he could do for him. Upon which the Emperor
+replied: “You have a Frenchman who, in young and silly days, joined
+the Polish insurrection. He was made prisoner, and is now in Siberia.
+Will you do me the favour to release him?” The request was granted,
+a messenger despatched, the happy prisoner in forty-five days and
+nights drove back from the mines to Moscow, not with a couple of horses
+merely, but troika fashion, between a couple of gendarmes, and received
+his pardon. But such cases, of course, are rare.
+
+It is well known that many of the exiles escape--some from the prisons,
+and others from the districts where they are living free. A Russian
+authoress, “O. K.,” in “Russia and England from 1876 to 1880,” says
+that in January 1876, out of 51,122 exiles supposed to be in Tobolsk,
+only 34,293 could be found, which figures an Englishman living in
+the Tobolsk government (speaking offhand) told me he should doubt,
+though he thought “O. K.’s” statement _might_ be right regarding the
+government of Tomsk, in which the same authoress states that 5,000
+were missing out of 30,000. For my own figures I am indebted to a
+prison official very high in position, who told me that nearly 700
+get away yearly, and in 1876 as many as 952 escaped the control of
+the police. Thus the mere feat of running away does not seem to be
+difficult; but this does not imply that it is equally easy to get away
+from the country. A few roubles slipped into the hands of a Cossack or
+petty officer have a wonderful effect in blinding his eyes. Again, an
+escape is sometimes made from the gold-mines thus:--The convicts work
+in gangs, and one lies in a ditch for the others to cover him with
+branches and rubbish. The numbers are called on leaving off work, and
+one is missing. Search proves fruitless, and, after all have left the
+mine, the man rises from his temporary grave and makes for the woods.
+The great difficulty is not to get away, but to keep away. The country
+is so vast that they cannot travel far before the approach of winter,
+and then, if they have escaped in company, they have the choice of
+returning to prison food or eating one another. They have, moreover,
+another difficulty with the natives. In the Trans-Baikal district, the
+Buriats are said to hunt down escaped convicts, and shoot them like
+vermin; which is probably explained by what was told me of the Gilyaks
+on the Lower Amur, that they receive three roubles a-head for every
+escaped convict they bring to the police, whether dead or alive. The
+natives argue thus: “If you shoot a squirrel, you get only his skin;
+whereas, if you shoot a _varnak_” (which is the nickname they give to
+convicts), “you get his skin and his clothing too.” Thus it is very
+difficult for them to get out of the country.
+
+There are several reasons, however, which conduce to their running
+away. A long-term prisoner, for instance, condemned to twenty years’
+labour, makes his escape from a penal colony, wanders about the country
+during the summer months, and, on the approach of winter, commits a
+crime and is caught. He is asked for his name, to which he replies that
+it is _Ivan Nepomnoostchi_--that is, “John Know-nothing.” He is asked
+where he comes from. He replies that he entirely forgets. What has been
+his occupation? His memory fails him. He is asked for his papers. He
+says that he has none, or perhaps trumps up a story that he has lost
+them--and so on. Accordingly he is tried, and is sentenced, say to
+five years’ hard labour, for which he inwardly thanks the Court, and
+goes off, it may be, to a new prison, having effected a saving of the
+sorrows of eighteen years. Should he not play his game aright, however,
+and should he be detected, then his past service goes for nothing; he
+is most likely flogged, and sent back to a harder berth than he had
+before. Some run away under the influence of drink, and discover their
+mistake too late. Again, other reasons which may be supposed to conduce
+to flight are--the fear of punishment for new faults committed, the
+desire to get back to social and family ties in Europe, or, in the
+case of those twice imprisoned, to ties which they have formed whilst
+settled in Siberia.
+
+I am disposed to think that the severance of family and social ties is
+with many the really hard pinch of Siberian exile. One lady, who had a
+convict for her nurse, told me that she gave her her own clothes, paid
+her £1 a month, provided her a home in the best house in the province,
+to say nothing of sundry perquisites, and yet she sometimes found her,
+when alone, in tears; and, on asking what was the matter, the answer
+was--“Oh, if I only knew something of my friends in Russia!” She had
+not learnt to write, her friends were in the same position, and the
+difficulty of procuring an amanuensis, together with uncertainty as
+to address, made communication almost impossible; and so she said she
+could not tell whether her friends were dead or alive, or what might
+be their fate. I recollect, too, in a prison at Uleaborg, in Finland,
+finding a woman who had escaped from exile, of whom I asked how she
+liked Siberia; to which she replied that as regards the country she
+had nothing to complain of; but, she pathetically added, “I did _so_
+want to see my mother!” And to do this she had taken flight, during
+three years had traversed more than 2,000 miles, had reached her old
+home, and was then retaken!
+
+But nothing has yet been said of the transport of the exiles. Of old
+they had to walk all the way, and the journey and stoppages occupied a
+long time. The woman at Uleaborg said she was eight months going from
+Petersburg to Tobolsk. In this matter, however, as in many others, the
+lot of the banished was much mitigated during the reign of the late
+Emperor, especially after 1867. The introduction of railways and river
+steamboats greatly facilitated this. Accordingly, those in Russia who
+are condemned to Siberia are now first gathered to a central prison
+in Moscow, where they may be seen entering the city in droves. A very
+affecting sight was the first of these droves I saw in 1874. The van
+consisted of soldiers with fixed bayonets. Behind them marched the
+worst of the men prisoners, with chains on their ankles, the clanking
+of which as they moved was most unmusical. Then followed men without
+fetters, but chained by the hand to what looked like a long iron rod;
+and next after them the women convicts; and then the most touching
+part of the whole--women, not convicts, but wives who had elected to
+be banished with their husbands. Then there were wagons containing
+children, the old and infirm, baggage, etc., the rear being brought up
+by armed soldiers. As the prisoners moved along the street, passengers
+stepped from the pavement to give them presents. To this the guards who
+walked at the side made no objection, and in this way, in some of the
+towns, the prisoners gather, or used to gather, a considerable sum of
+money; for the woman at Uleaborg said that the money given to her drove
+of 156 prisoners, during their three days’ stay in Moscow, amounted to
+about 30_s._ each.[5] More recently, however, a Pole, who began his
+walking in 1871, farther east, at Perm, told me his receipts from the
+wayside charity of the people were insignificant.
+
+Being gathered then at Moscow, the prisoners are sent off in droves of
+about 700 each by rail to Nijni Novgorod. This commences in spring, as
+soon as the river navigation opens, and two or three parties go off
+each week. They began, the year of my visit, on May 8th. On reaching
+Nijni Novgorod they are placed in a large barge built for the purpose,
+which carries from 600 to 800, and is tugged by steamer to Perm.
+
+Hence they are taken twice a week by rail to Ekaterineburg; 350 on
+Wednesday, and 500 on Saturday. Their walking, however, does not
+yet begin; for the 200 miles remaining to Tiumen is got over by
+conveyances, each of which, drawn by three horses, carries about six
+prisoners; and thus they arrive at the first prison in Siberia proper.
+
+Now begins their distribution. Those who are condemned to Western
+Siberia are assigned to particular towns or villages, whither they
+are sent by water, if possible, or, if not, on foot. Those, however,
+who are condemned to Eastern Siberia are placed in another barge, and
+taken on the Tura, Tobol, Irtish, Obi, and the Tom, to Tomsk, whence
+their walking eastward begins. When not hindered by accidental causes,
+they usually rest one day and walk two, marching sometimes twenty
+miles or more a day. Temporary prisons called _étapes_ are erected
+along the road to receive them for the night, and in the towns are
+larger buildings called _perisylnie_ prisons, in which they may rest,
+if necessary, a longer time, and where there are hospitals, medical
+attendants, etc. Thus they go on day after day, week after week,
+month after month, to their destined place or prison, to Irkutsk, to
+Yakutsk, to Chita, or, if perchance they are destined to Sakhalin, they
+continue to Stretinsk on the Shilka, thence by steam on the river Amur
+to Nikolaefsk, and so by ship to the island. Two years since, however,
+the Russian Government adopted a new and better plan with prisoners
+intended for Sakhalin, and, instead of sending them across Asia,
+shipped them from Odessa, _viâ_ the Suez Canal, to the Pacific direct.
+A large merchant steamer, the _Nijni Novgorod_, was employed for the
+purpose, sailing under the Government flag, which made the passage
+in about two months, the prisoners arriving in excellent health, and
+without one death on the passage.
+
+I mention this fact the more readily as I heard it in the Admiral’s
+house at Vladivostock, where the ship arrived a week or two before I
+did, and where it was said that one of the Japanese newspapers had
+copied from an English paper to the effect that half the prisoners
+had died on the passage, and that the rest were in a terribly sick
+condition. As an Englishman I was called to account for this, and
+I found that the minds of some of my Russian friends were very
+sore with the editors of English newspapers, by reason of alleged
+misrepresentations received at their hands. They complained, moreover,
+that whereas some of the newspapers were ready enough to publish
+against the Russians all they knew that was bad, they were slow to
+acknowledge the good, and were not always ready to recall what had
+been said, even when proved to have been false. Not having the facts
+before me, I could only put in a plea regarding the desire of English
+journals to be first in the field with news, and the consequent rapid
+manner in which editorial work has to be done. Knowing something of an
+editor’s difficulties, I felt justified in expressing the hope that
+there had been no intentional departure from fairness, uprightness, and
+integrity. I am not sure, however, that I should have been ready with
+an answer had I known how the case really stood.[6]
+
+I have thus described the transport of ordinary exiles to Siberia.
+There is another category of prisoners--arch-heretics in political or
+revolutionary affairs, Nihilists, etc., of whom the authorities wish
+to take special care, who are not sent with the common herd, but are
+individually placed between two gendarmes, and sent off to travel alone
+direct to their destination. I am of opinion that the popular notion as
+to their numbers is exaggerated, and that they are much fewer than is
+commonly supposed. I shall offer my reasons for thinking thus later on.
+These persons, while travelling, are never allowed, under any pretence,
+to be out of sight of their keepers, who are charged to allow no one to
+speak to them. This, however, is not always carried out to the letter;
+for a friend of mine, coming one day to a swollen river in Siberia,
+near Omsk, where a gendarme was also waiting with a young lady prisoner
+of seventeen, was allowed to speak to her, and she told him that since
+she left Petersburg, a distance of 1,700 miles, she had not once had
+a gendarme out of her presence. When there are several prisoners of
+this character travelling in a manner together, they are kept separate,
+and are not allowed to speak to each other. But even this cannot
+always be enforced; for not long before my arrival at Tiumen a batch
+of about ten such persons had passed. On arriving at Ekaterineburg, a
+separate carriage was taken for each; but when they came at Tiumen to
+the riverside, standing and waiting for the steamer, they were able
+to snatch a few moments for conversing together. I know of another
+instance, in which a young woman had been suspected of a political
+offence, and been warned by the authorities to desist; but, not
+profiting by the warning, she was arrested, sent off with a gendarme,
+and on her way met a gentleman whom she asked to convey a letter to
+her friends. This of course was against the gendarme’s orders, but, on
+being assured that the letter should be only of a private nature, and
+three roubles being put into his hand, he allowed it to be written and
+taken. This was in European Russia. Further east they become still more
+lax.
+
+There is yet a third case, in which exiles are permitted to journey
+by themselves like ordinary travellers. We met a lady who was forced
+to quit Petersburg at twenty-four hours’ notice; but owing to her
+position, or through interest, she was allowed to travel alone; and
+in this manner, by reason of illness on the way, during which her
+money was stolen, she was a twelvemonth reaching her location in
+Eastern Siberia. This, however, was the only case we met with of an
+exile travelling privately, and I presume similar cases are very
+exceptional. Whilst the exiles are on the march, and, in certain
+cases, whilst they are living like colonists, they receive clothing and
+an allowance for food, either in money or in kind; but this subject
+will be best treated under the description of prisons, to which
+subsequent chapters will be devoted.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] According to M. Réclus, the first decree of banishment fell
+upon the insurrectionists of Uglitch, in 1591; in the days of the
+Tsar Boris Godunof, and for a century afterwards Siberia received
+scarcely any exiles but State prisoners. At the end of the seventeenth
+century, however, some of the vanquished Little Russians of the
+Ukraine were deported thither; and they were followed by the religious
+dissenters--the first accompanied by their families. The Streltzi
+were banished by Peter the Great to garrisons in the most distant
+parts of the empire; and after the reign of Peter, the intrigues of
+the palace were the cause of exile to some of the Court celebrities,
+such as Menchikoff, Dolgoruki, Biron, Munich, Tolstoï, and others,
+some of whom, however, were brought back when their friends came into
+favour. In 1758 began the deportation of Poles to Siberia, but their
+banishment in large numbers dates from the reign of Catherine II., with
+the confederates of Bar, and then with the companions of Kosciuzko.
+Nine hundred Poles, having served under Napoleon, were exiled to
+Siberia, and large numbers of the insurrectionists of 1830 followed.
+The exiles whose names awaken perhaps the most sympathy among the
+Russians were the Decembrists of 1826, who endeavoured to deprive the
+Emperor Nicholas of his throne; but of these, and political prisoners
+generally, I shall treat hereafter in a separate chapter.
+
+[2] There are upwards of thirty crimes for the commission of one or
+more of which a man may be sent to Siberia. In fact, I have been told
+that all the crimes of the country are reduced to these thirty-three
+heads, viz.: insubordination to authorities; stealing or losing
+official documents; escape, or abetting the escape, of prisoners;
+embezzlement of Government property; forgery while in Government
+employ; blasphemy; heresy and dissent; sacrilege; sheltering runaways;
+forging coin or paper money; without passport, or passport with term
+not renewed; vagrancy; bad conduct and petty crimes; murder, and
+suspicion thereof; attempted suicide; wounding with intent to do
+grievous bodily harm; rape and seduction; insult; attacking with intent
+to wound; holding property falsely; practices of the “Scoptsi”; arson;
+robbery and burglary; thieving and roguery; horse-stealing; dishonesty
+and false actions; debt; dishonouring the name of the Emperor; assuming
+false names or titles; bestiality; usury and extortion; eluding
+military service; smuggling and illicit distilling.
+
+[3] Some idea may be formed of the proportion of the banished who are
+condemned to hard labour by observing that, of 17,867 exiles passing
+eastwards through Tiumen prison in 1878 (the year before my visit),
+2,252, or one-seventh, were transported for hard labour, and the
+remainder for “residence for life, or for certain terms in East and
+West Siberia.” I was told likewise by Mr. Ignatoff, at Tiumen, that
+about 2,500 hard-labour convicts passed yearly through his hands, and
+that they spent the first part of their time at Tobolsk. It may be
+further noticed from my statistics, that during the same year which
+saw the above number of exiles going eastwards, there passed through
+the same prison 2,629 persons returning westwards “to their respective
+homes in Russia;” which expression I do not understand, since I am
+informed from an official source that the number of persons returning
+after temporary exile is very small. The law permits those only to
+go back who are banished by the communes (and then not without their
+permission), and those who are deprived of _particular_ rights. Four
+hundred and sixty-two of those condemned to “hard labour,” and 3,488 of
+those going into “residence,” are marked as _minors_,--that is to say,
+children of exiles, and _offenders_ under twenty-one years of age; of
+which last, I am told, the annual total sent to Siberia does not exceed
+300.
+
+[4] I have heard parts of this story in various places--in Hampshire,
+in Devon, in Siberia, and on the coast of the Pacific--of the heroic
+conduct of a Scotch Professor, who gallantly escorted this young lady
+to her lover in Siberia, sat by her side for 3,000 miles, watched over
+her, saw her married, and then, returning, gave no rest to friends or
+officials till he had obtained the Pole’s release. The incidents would
+doubtless suffice for a three-volumed novel, which, however, I will not
+begin, as I know only one of the parties concerned, and him only by
+correspondence, and I have not had the recital from his own lips.
+
+[5] M. Andreoli, in the story of his exile, remarks that the Moscow
+merchants had established a considerable fund for dividing among
+prisoners going to Siberia, and that when a party arrived, the director
+of the fund was at once informed. He then divided equally among them
+the means at his disposal, which was never less than 14_s._ or 16_s._,
+and sometimes as much as 30_s._ or 32_s._ to each person. Men, women,
+and children shared alike, so that a man with a family got substantial
+help; but this fund, I am told, no longer exists. Both M. Andreoli and
+Baron Rosen speak of the kindness of the Siberian peasants to exiles on
+their journey.
+
+[6] On reaching England I was referred to what had appeared in the
+_Daily Telegraph_, first, on June 2nd, under the heading, “Reign of
+Terror in Russia,” where it was stated that “a large number of convicts
+are about to be despatched to Sakhalin from Odessa, the service which
+provides for the ordinary transportation of criminals to Siberia
+being already overtaxed.” Again, on July 28th, under the same heading
+appeared half a column of large print, speaking of “the appalling
+evidence of Russian barbarity” which their “own correspondent” had
+obtained. The correspondent informant visited the ship, and observed
+to the officer in command that the prisoners so badly provided for
+would never survive the passage, to which the Russian officer was
+said to have replied, “Well, so much the better for all parties if
+they do not,” and so on. On the next day, under the heading “Russian
+Barbarities,” it appeared that Mr. Joseph Cowen asked in Parliament
+whether the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs had received
+information that 700 persons, mostly men and women of education, had
+been packed in the hold of a small ship--(the _Daily Telegraph_ had
+described it the same day as a man-of-war of 4,000 tons)--that 250
+had died on board, and 150 were landed in a dying state, etc. Most of
+this appeared in large print, and attention was called thereto. But by
+August 5th a change had come over the scene, and all or nearly all the
+foregoing was found to be untrue; and then, in their _smallest_ print,
+simply headed “Reuter’s Telegram,” the _Daily Telegraph_ informed its
+readers in six lines that “the _Novoe Vremya_ of August 4th states that
+the steamer _Nijni Novgorod_ arrived at Nagasaki on Friday last, and
+that the convicts were well in health.” Now here would appear to have
+been ample room for, if not an apology, yet an expression of regret
+that the Russians had been so very much misrepresented; but, if such
+appeared, it has escaped me. On August 9th, the Russian journals are
+alluded to as joining in a chorus of indignation against Messrs. Cowen
+and Mundella for their motion in Parliament, but nothing is recalled of
+what had been said. I know not how the foregoing extracts may strike
+the reader, but the perusal of them did not cause me to plume myself on
+the score of English fairness and our supposed love of justice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+_FROM TIUMEN TO TOBOLSK._
+
+ General remarks on Siberia.--Limits.--Area.--Temperature.--
+     Divisions.--Roads.--Ethnography.--Language.--Posting
+     to Tobolsk.--Floods.--Spring roads.--Villages of
+     Tatars.--Their history.--Characteristics.--Costumes.--
+     Occupation.--Worship.--Language.
+
+
+Between Ekaterineburg and Tiumen, as already intimated, the traveller
+passes into Siberia,--concerning which country it may be well here to
+make some general observations, with a view to the better understanding
+of future chapters. The western boundary of this immense region runs
+from the Arctic Ocean along the chain of the Northern Urals to a point
+in about the same latitude as Lake Onega; then, leaving the mountains
+a little to the left, it comes down in a tolerably straight line to
+a point midway between the Sea of Aral and Lake Balkash; thence it
+turns eastward to and along the northern shore of the lake, and, going
+further east, joins the Altai Mountains. All Russia lying to the west
+and south of this line is either in Europe or in Asia; all lying to
+the east of it is Siberia, the length and breadth of which are the
+same as of Russia in Asia; whilst its area, as given in recent Russian
+statistics, is 4,750,000 square miles, or more than three thousand
+millions of acres (3,185,510,900), of which nearly one-fifth is arable.
+The river Yenesei (roughly speaking) divides the country into east
+and west, the surface of the western portion being almost entirely
+flat, whilst the eastern portion, especially towards the Pacific, is
+mountainous. Siberia extends over nearly 40 degrees of latitude, and
+in climate ranges from arctic to semi-tropical. In passing through the
+country from west to east, from the end of May to the beginning of
+October, between the 50th and 57th parallels, we found the temperature
+much the same as during the same period in England. When steaming on
+the Obi, at the beginning of June, on the 62nd parallel, my minimum
+thermometer fell during the night as low as 35° Fahrenheit, but rose by
+9 o’clock to 75°. English winter clothing, therefore, by day was not
+too warm. Again, at Vladivostock, lying on the 43rd parallel, the heat
+towards the end of September was not too great for clothing suited to
+an English summer. All through the journey, however, when sleeping in
+the tarantass, it was sufficiently cold in the early morning, whatever
+might be the heat of the day, to make an ulster coat acceptable.
+
+The political divisions of the country are two vice-royalties, called
+respectively Western and Eastern Siberia. Each of these is divided into
+“governments” and “oblasts.”[1]
+
+The means of communication in Siberia are more ample than a foreigner
+might suppose. There are, indeed, no railways; but when the line, now
+in course of construction, from Ekaterineburg to Tiumen is finished,
+the English traveller will be able to go by steam from Charing Cross
+to Tomsk, a distance of 5,000 miles, and further east than Ceylon.
+As it is now, when Tiumen is reached, river communication becomes
+possible with each of the four capitals of Western Siberia. Again,
+the Amur presents a water passage inland from the Pacific, by which
+Nikolaefsk, Blagovestchensk, and almost Chita, may be reached; and
+now that Captain Wiggins has led the way through the Kara Gates, and
+Professor Nordenskiöld has followed on to Behring’s Strait, Russia
+may congratulate herself on having for the commerce of Siberia three
+additional outlets--the Obi, the Yenesei, and the Lena--to both Europe
+and Japan.
+
+Again, there is the communication by roads, which is the more important
+on account of the many months the rivers are frozen over. There are
+two post roads by which Siberia is entered from the west; one through
+Orenburg, which is little used, and the other through Ekaterineburg
+to Tiumen. There is also a third road, not much used, which crosses
+the Urals further north, and connects _Veliki Ustiug_, on the Northern
+Dwina, with Irbit. The high road to China leaves Tiumen in an easterly
+direction to Omsk, where the routes from Orenburg, Semipolatinsk, and
+Central Asia converge. The main road goes east to Tomsk, where it is
+joined by roads on the north from Narim, and on the south from Barnaul;
+it then continues eastward to Krasnoiarsk, where it is joined by roads,
+on the north from Yeneseisk, and on the south from Minusinsk. After
+this it takes a south-easterly direction to Irkutsk, whence there go
+two ways--one to the north-east, to Yakutsk, and so on to Kamchatka;
+the other, and principal one, to the south-east and round the base of
+Lake Baikal to Verchne Udinsk. Here it divides into two, that to the
+right leading to Kiakhta and China; that to the left running east,
+through Chita to Stretinsk. Thence the traveller proceeds on the
+Shilka and Amur--by boat in summer, and on the ice in winter--past
+Blagovestchensk to Khabarofka, whence, to the left, he continues on
+the Amur to Nikolaefsk, or he turns to the right up the Ussuri and the
+Sungacha to Vladivostock. Along all these roads there is postal and,
+except towards Yakutsk, telegraphic communication also.
+
+An ethnographical map of Siberia, coloured according to the area which
+is occupied by its various nationalities, reveals the fact that only a
+very small portion of the country is inhabited by Russians.[2] In fact,
+a narrow strip of country suffices to show their _habitat_, if drawn
+on either side of the great land and water highways, and somewhat
+widened in the mining districts of the Yeneseisk and Tomsk governments;
+and as the aborigines do not generally follow agriculture, it will
+be inferred that those parts of the land which are under cultivation
+lie within this narrow strip. The same observation will also indicate
+that, whilst the language of the towns and the highways is Russian, a
+knowledge of other tongues is needed for extensive intercourse with the
+natives.
+
+Having made these general remarks concerning Siberia, we proceed on our
+journey from Tiumen to Tobolsk, _en route_ for Tomsk, which is best
+reached in summer by river, steaming for 1,800 miles, the post road
+from Tiumen to Tomsk passing through Omsk, or by a somewhat nearer way,
+leaving Omsk to the south, and then crossing the Barabinsky steppe.
+
+We arrived at Tiumen on Thursday, the 29th May, bringing with us two
+loads of luggage, and leaving the rest to follow by “goods’” transport.
+There was steam communication between Tiumen and Tobolsk twice a week,
+the passage occupying a day and a half; but the steamer that went on to
+Tomsk was to leave on the following Monday, by which time the remaining
+luggage could not arrive. It became, therefore, a question whether
+we should wait for it or go before, in the hope that, whilst we were
+making _détours_, our books might overtake us. My Finnish friend, Miss
+Alba Hellman, had sent me some pamphlets for distribution amongst a
+colony of Finns and others from the Baltic provinces, numbering about
+1,800, and located at Ruschkova, not far from the city of Omsk. We at
+first thought, therefore, to make this _détour_, and then, instead of
+returning to Tiumen, to go “across country” to Tobolsk, and thus see
+the prisons, and wait for the next steamer but one, in which we hoped
+all our luggage might be forwarded; but this plan our friends at Tiumen
+condemned. The question then remained, How could we see Tobolsk? The
+steamer in passing would stay but for an hour or two, and another boat
+would not follow for a week. The only alternative was to drive. But
+terrible accounts were given of the roads, which had not yet dried
+after the breaking up of the frost. Not to see Tobolsk, however, was
+out of the question, and we therefore determined to make the attempt by
+road, hoping to reach the city on Saturday, see the prisons on Monday,
+and take steamer the following day.
+
+Accordingly, on Friday night, late, we left Tiumen in two tarantasses,
+with three horses to each. At the first station the post-master gave
+us warning that the roads were very bad, and that only one or two
+travellers had passed that way since the waters had subsided. On coming
+to the first river, it was found to be unapproachable at the usual
+place of embarkation. A ferry-boat had, therefore, to be brought to us,
+some six miles out of the way, and so we were kept waiting five hours.
+Whilst thus delayed, report said that the post-master kept hardly half
+the men required by his contract for working the ferry, and, further,
+that the men were sometimes extortionate. When, therefore we had rowed
+six miles down the stream to the landing-place, and the post-master
+could give no satisfactory reason why we had been thus kept, we thought
+it right, for the benefit of future travellers, to enter in his “book
+for complaints,” bearing the Government seal, our regrets that his
+neglect had detained us five hours.
+
+About eleven o’clock the same night another episode occurred, which
+illustrates the pleasures of spring travelling in Siberia. The
+post-master gave us, what we never had before or after,--two outriders
+to convey us over a bad place on the road. Towards midnight we slept,
+when, being awakened by repeated shouting, I peeped out and saw that we
+were plunging among willows and mire. The outriders were holding up the
+tarantass to keep it from toppling over. Then came more shouting, with
+desperate jerking and pulling of the horses, which were up to their
+knees in bog, till solid ground was gained, and all stopped for breath.
+The next thing was to get the luggage tarantass through. We heard in
+the distance a crash, and lo! one of the shafts was broken. A horseman
+went back to the village for a new one, but in vain, and the old one
+was repaired. Whilst waiting we had time to look around. It was not yet
+morning, but the rays of the sun, which in northern countries are seen
+above the horizon all the night through at this time of the year, shed
+sufficient light on our darkness to give a weird appearance to all that
+was visible.
+
+Silence was broken only by the incessant croaking of frogs, and by the
+men, who were relating to each other how they had got through. One
+had slipped into water up to his waist. The temperature was anything
+but warm; but, poor fellows! they seemed to regard things as in their
+normal condition, and uttered repeated thanks when they were dismissed
+with a gratuity of a few extra kopecks. Further on we had to wade
+through water above the axletrees, and during the last stage to cross
+five streams, the last of which was the Irtish. Tobolsk at length was
+reached, but not until Sunday night, and after a journey of forty-eight
+hours instead of twenty, as we expected.
+
+[Illustration: TATARS OF KASAN.]
+
+By posting from Tiumen to Tobolsk, we purchased experience of early
+summer roads; and, in so doing, saw things which I should be sorry to
+have missed. Among these were several villages peopled exclusively by
+Siberian Tatars. These people differ in one important respect from
+most of the other nations living with the Russians in Siberia, in that
+they have a history and can look back to great princes who have made a
+name for themselves in the annals of the world. They are remnants of
+those who, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, in the days of
+Genghis Khan and his descendants, overran Northern Asia, and wrested
+the land from its aboriginal inhabitants. They pushed their conquests
+to the Volga, and Serai, on that river, became the capital where their
+great Khans (known as the Khans of the Golden Horde) lived and reigned,
+and whence they long proved formidable antagonists to the Russians.
+At length came their disruption. Kasan was founded in the fifteenth
+century, and was the capital of a small khanate. A second khanate was
+that of Astrakhan, a third that of Krim, a fourth that of Tiumen--all
+fragments of the main horde which had collapsed in the fifteenth
+century. Towards the close of the sixteenth century, the Russians took
+from the Tatars Kasan and all else west of the Urals, and those on the
+east of the mountains, in the region of the Irtish, were afterwards
+subjugated by Yermak and his followers. Tatar villages may still be
+found between Kasan and Tobolsk, beyond which these people inhabit a
+district stretching south to the Kirghese hordes, and south-east as far
+as the Altai Mountains, and so joining the territory west of Irkutsk
+peopled by the Buriats.[3] The Tatars live among and are subject to
+their Russian conquerors; but the two races do not blend--one race
+being Christian, the other Mohammedan. The traveller is reminded of
+this by noticing that the Tatars, when on a journey, carry with them
+their wooden basins, for they will not drink from a vessel used by
+Russians; and so, in some parts, Russians will not drink from Tatar
+cups, though this exclusiveness wears away where Russians are many and
+Tatars are few. The Tatars have a good physique: dark eyes, swarthy
+skin, black hair, and high cheek-bones. Their strength of body is such
+as to make them excellent workmen, as may be seen by the enormous
+burdens they carry in loading vessels at Nijni Novgorod and Kasan.
+They are much liked in the capitals as coachmen, for they understand
+horses well. I heard good accounts of them likewise as servants in the
+hotel at Petersburg. They are not drunken, and are therefore valuable
+as waiters. Their women are supposed to wear veils, and do so in the
+cities. In the villages they content themselves with shawls, which are
+drawn nearly over the face when a stranger approaches. Men and boys,
+whether in the house or abroad, wear a small skull-cap, sometimes
+richly embroidered; and on high days some are seen with white turbans.
+These and their long cassock-like coats give the men a decidedly
+oriental appearance. Both men and women wear top-boots, and generally
+goloshes over them, so that, on entering the house or the mosque, they
+have only to slip off the goloshes to secure clean shoes.[4]
+
+In the Tatar villages the green domes and pinnacles of the Russian
+church, surmounted with the cross, were of course wanting; and in their
+places were found Mohammedan mosques, with minarets surmounted with the
+crescent. These latter reminded one of the shingled steeples of English
+village churches. Our first sight of Tatar worship was on the Volga, on
+board the steamer at sunset. Three Tatars approached the paddle-box,
+on a clean part of which they spread a small carpet. Leaving their
+goloshes on the deck, they knelt on the carpet, bowed their heads to
+the ground, and, rubbing their hands as if washing, chanted their
+prayers. They then appeared to pray silently in deepest reverence with
+closed eyes, and as if in total oblivion that a crowd was looking on.
+We were told that the pious pray thus at least three times a day,
+wherever they may be. At Kasan we had an opportunity of seeing their
+congregational worship in a Tatar mosque. Permission was given us to
+enter, if at the bottom of the stairs we would take off our goloshes,
+or, having none, our boots. The Mohammedan reason for this practice
+seemed to be that they did not wish to bring into the place anything
+soiled or unclean.
+
+The building inside had a square room, with the barest of bare white
+walls, without attempt at ornament of any sort or kind. The only piece
+of furniture even was a high wooden rostrum approached by stairs, from
+which exhortations are delivered on Fridays. There were no chairs or
+benches, or any resemblance to an altar or table. Those who assembled
+early sat on the ground with their legs beneath them, apparently for
+private prayer, reading, and meditation; but upon some one beginning to
+murmur in a low strain, all jumped up, ran to the front, and arranged
+themselves in ranks. They commenced their prayers by placing the thumb
+into or on the lower part of the ears, with the palms of the hands
+outwards. Then they stood, bowed, knelt, and then lowered the head
+to the ground. This is done a certain number of times, according to
+the hour of the day, twice at early morning, and increasing till five
+or more at the last of the five daily services. At the conclusion of
+prayer they passed their hands over their faces. All these external
+acts of devotion were done by each rank with the utmost precision,
+and the histrionic effect, as some would call it, was excellent; only
+that to one in the rear of four or five ranks of men, of each of whom
+nothing could be seen but the soles of their feet and the seats of
+their trousers, the spectacle was somewhat grotesque. In the less
+demonstrative parts of the service, however, there was not an eye that
+wandered, with the single exception of a man who bestowed a glance on
+us strangers; nor a man who did not behave in a manner becoming the
+occupation in which he was engaged. Some few who came in late did not
+join those whose service had begun, but commenced a separate one for
+themselves.
+
+The floor was covered with clean matting, on which lay here and there a
+common rosary made of date-stones, ninety-nine in number, and divided
+by beads into three sections.
+
+The Tatars objected to give us a translation in Russian of the prayers
+they said thereon. We heard elsewhere that they have ninety-nine names
+of God; and a Tatar prisoner--apparently a gentleman--told me that
+they had a separate prayer for each bead. The uneducated, however, do
+not know these many names of the Deity. On the following day we had
+the opportunity of asking a monk concerning the Russian rosary, which
+differs from both the Mohammedan and the Roman.[5]
+
+The Tatars can read the Scriptures in Turkish, and are apparently
+not indisposed to do so, provided it does not attract attention. A
+colporteur at Moscow told me that he sold fifty-seven copies to Tatars
+in the villages between Kasan and Perm, though they became angry in
+the larger towns if he attempted openly to sell them in the Tatar
+quarter. I took with me a few Turkish gospels, and among the prisoners
+at Barnaul found three Tatars, one of whom could read. As we repassed
+the door of their room, all three were seen sitting with their legs
+beneath them, the two illiterate ones listening to their scholarly
+friend with eager attention. We met several of this race in prison
+and elsewhere, as we proceeded onwards, but I do not remember passing
+through whole villages of Tatars after we left the district of Tobolsk.
+Hence we were the more glad not to have missed these.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] I am not clearly informed as to the exact difference between a
+government and an oblast, but I am under the impression that an oblast
+(which means a “province”) is a territory often newly acquired and
+under martial law, whereas, in a “government,” things have settled
+down, and the civil and military organizations are under separate
+control. The word “oblasts” is sometimes translated “territories”;
+their relation to “governments” being similar to the relation between
+“Territories” and “States” in America. The oblasts in Siberia are
+Akmolinsk and Semipolatinsk in the west, and Yakutsk and the Sea Coast
+in the east; but, to avoid confusion, we will speak of them all as
+governments or provinces. Each province has its capital, which ranks as
+a “government” town, and each _uyezd_ has likewise its principal town.
+Each province is subdivided into districts, called _uyezds_; _uyezds_
+into _vollosts_; and _vollosts_ into villages, called _selo_, if with
+a church, or _derevnia_ if without. In the villages the chief man is
+called a _starosta_; in the vollosts a _zasidatil_. Over each uyezd
+commonly presides an ispravnik; over each province a governor; and over
+each vice-royalty a governor-general. Western Siberia is divided into
+four provinces, namely: Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Semipolatinsk, each of
+which has a capital, bearing the name of the province; and Akmolinsk,
+which has Omsk for its capital. Eastern Siberia is divided into six
+provinces: Irkutsk and Yakutsk, with capitals of the same names; and
+Yeneseisk, Trans-Baikal, Amur, and Sea Coast (or Maritime), with
+capitals named Krasnoiarsk, Chita, Blagovestchensk, and Nikolaefsk.
+
+[2] The total population, Russian and aboriginal, according to the
+_Journal de St. Petersbourg_, August 7th, 1881, quoting the most
+recent statistics, numbers 1,388,000 souls; but I am not sure whether
+“souls” may not mean _males_ only, as it sometimes does in Russia. They
+are divided among the provinces as follows: Tobolsk, 463,000; Tomsk,
+324,000; Irkutsk, 165,000; Yeneseisk, 164,000; Trans-Baikal, 141,000;
+Amur, 3,000; Sea Coast, 13,000; and Yakutsk, 112,000. This says nothing
+of Akmolinsk and Semipolatinsk.
+
+[3] Mr. Wahl, in his “Land of the Czar,” which contains much valuable
+ethnographical information, gives the number of the Siberian Tatars
+of the governments of Tobolsk and Tomsk at 40,000. Dr. Latham also,
+in his “Native Races of the Russian Empire,” traces their affinities
+with many peoples both in Europe and Asia, all of whom he classifies
+under the general name of Turks, and points out that the area covered
+by the Turkish stock is perhaps larger than that of any other race in
+the world. The general name of Turks includes the Tatars of Kasan, of
+Siberia, the Caucasus, and several other places; also the Kirghese,
+Yakutes, and many smaller tribes, some of which will hereafter be
+referred to under the respective provinces which they inhabit. The
+Turkish stock are, as to their religion, Christians, Pagans, and
+Mohammedans: Christians where they have been won over by the Russians
+to the Greek Church; Pagans where they have not been reached even
+by Mohammedanism, but have remained in the darkness of aboriginal
+Shamanism, as is still the case with a few of the Yakute Turks; and
+Mohammedans, which is the case for the most part with those of the
+country through which we passed.
+
+[4] The natural home of the Turk or the Tatar is the steppe, where
+they dwell in tents, and are herdsmen, horsemen, and in some cases
+camel-drivers. Those we passed gain their livelihood by agriculture,
+by the breeding of cattle, and by the transport of goods. Their houses
+were neat and cleanly, and compared favourably with those of the
+Russians.
+
+[5] The mention of all three invites a short study in “comparative
+religions,” which may be briefly made as follows:--The complete Roman
+rosary consists of 150 beads on a string, divided into 15 decades,
+between each of which is a large or distinctive bead. Where the two
+ends join there are 5 other beads attached, and at the loose end a
+crucifix. It is used thus:--On the crucifix is repeated the Creed;
+on the first bead the Lord’s Prayer; on each of the next three the
+“Hail, Mary!” and on the fifth bead the Lord’s Prayer. This is by way
+of introduction. Then on each of the first 10 beads are said these
+words: “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee! Blessed art
+thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,--Jesus. Holy
+Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our
+death. Amen.” When this has been said ten times, the “Pater Noster”
+is said on the dividing bead, and this is continued till 150 prayers
+have been offered to the Virgin, and 15 to “our Father,” and then the
+odd beads are used in inverse order for a conclusion, as before for an
+introduction.
+
+The Russian rosary looks smaller, but has also certain beads larger,
+or at least distinguishable from the others. It is not worn or used by
+ordinary members of the Russian Church, but only by monks and nuns.
+I was told by a nun at Moscow that they say on each bead, “May Jesus
+Christ have mercy on sinners!” but a monk at Kasan said (what is not
+irreconcilable with the former) that on each ordinary bead they say,
+“Lord God of heaven and Jesus Christ, have mercy upon us”; and on the
+large and distinctive bead they say a prayer either to Jesus Christ or
+the Virgin, the latter beginning something to this effect: “Thou mighty
+Mary, hear our prayers, and take away from thine unworthy servants all
+sin,” etc. Lastly, we were told that the Mohammedan continues to say on
+his rosary, “There is but one God, and Mohammed is His prophet”; and
+that if they do not know the ninety-nine names of God they merely count
+the beads.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+_SIBERIAN PRISONS._
+
+ Old Finnish prisons.--Model Petersburg prison.--Officers.--Contraband
+     importations.--Russian prisons of six kinds.--Siberian
+     prisons of three kinds: their number, location, structure,
+     furniture.--Prisoners: their classification.--Kansk
+     statistics.--Method of trial.--Remands.--Exchanging names and
+     punishments.
+
+
+The prisons of Russia occupy a position midway between the dungeons of
+the Middle Ages and the modern cellular abodes for criminals of the
+nineteenth century. A few of them, however, approach very near these
+extremes on either side. With regard to Finland, it is hardly fair to
+hold the Russian Government responsible for the condition of its prison
+affairs, because, although the Emperor is Grand Duke of that country,
+he allows these liege subjects to make their own laws. Nevertheless,
+I can never forget the vividness with which my boyhood’s reading came
+back to me or Robin Hood and the dungeons of Nottingham Castle, when I
+first visited the old prisons of Åbo and Wiborg. The descent by steps
+with candles to prisoners in the lower rooms, the dim light entering by
+windows in walls ten feet thick, the clanking of chains, the like to
+which I have seen in no other country except perhaps Mongolia--these
+things spoke more eloquently than a visit to the former prison of Sir
+Walter Raleigh, or even the unused Ratisbon chamber for the torture
+of Protestant heretics; and that because these northern prisons
+were inhabited by living men. The majority of the Finnish prisons,
+however, and certainly all the new ones, are better than the two I
+have mentioned; though, unless a change has taken place since 1876,
+the Finns still have and use sets of irons nearly ten times the weight
+of any others I have seen in Europe. To pass to the other extreme.
+One sees in Petersburg a brand-new prison, which may be supposed to
+represent the very beau ideal of what a house of detention ought to be.
+
+It is only right to say, however, before going further, that the
+condition of prisons and criminals in Russia is in a transitional
+state. The authorities have seen the necessity for reforms for at least
+20 years, and great pains have been taken that these reforms should
+be made judiciously and effectively. Deputies have been sent to visit
+the prisons of other countries and report thereon; a commission has
+been appointed to receive the reports, to consider and debate, and
+so thoroughly to “shed upon the question the light of science.” All
+this has been done, and the reforms are yearly expected to take place,
+pecuniary reasons alone delaying the change for the better. Meanwhile a
+model prison has been built in the capital, and those who wish to see
+what Russia _can_ do should visit this house of detention for persons
+awaiting their trial. It is built in the shape of a right angle, having
+two long corridors four storeys high. There are 285 separate cells
+for men, 32 for women, others for confinement in common, as well as
+places for associated and solitary exercise. Into cell No. 227 the
+late Emperor once entered, of which they keep up the remembrance by
+allowing no one to be confined therein. No expense appears to have
+been spared in building the prison. The floors are of asphalte, and
+the door of each cell is of solid oak. Within are iron bedsteads, made
+to fold and hook up neatly against the wall. The tables and seats are
+of sheet iron, with hinges; and, both within the cells and without,
+every article and fitting of brass is rubbed to a high degree of
+polish. The officers move about noiselessly in felt shoes, so that
+they can unexpectedly and at any moment observe a prisoner through the
+wire-covered inspection-holes. In the infirmary are 10 cells for those
+who are to be kept apart, and 32 beds for those who live in common.
+There is likewise a room in which 40 men may mingle by day, and a
+general sleeping apartment with 36 bedsteads, across each of which wire
+is stretched, making for the prisoner a hard but clean, and, I should
+imagine, not uncomfortable bed. There is also a room for bookbinding,
+where a few can work.
+
+The building contains three places of worship, for Russians, Roman
+Catholics, and Protestants respectively, the Russian having a very
+handsome _ikonostasis_ and chandelier; and I was pleased to find that,
+if a man can read, he has always a New Testament in his cell, and
+further that, by asking, he can obtain from the library other books in
+addition. This is as it should be.
+
+In the female division we found for warders superior-looking young
+women dressed in uniform, the insignia of office on their collars
+being a pair of crossed keys. Some of the women prisoners, as with the
+men, are placed together in common, and in some cases they have their
+choice of solitary or social life. This is true in a sense other than
+that which first appears; for one lady prisoner, a criminal condemned
+to Siberia, was about to take to herself a husband before proceeding
+thither, and the happy event was to be celebrated in the prison on the
+morning after my visit. Peeping through the food aperture of one of the
+doors was the face of a pretty young woman, a political prisoner, in
+whose possession had been found suspicious books. There was a women’s
+reception-room, having a bath warmed by gas; but as it was found to
+cost about five shillings to heat, it is not surprising that this
+particular bath is seldom used.
+
+Dark cells were shown to us, in which a prisoner may not be put for
+more than six successive days. The place where prisoners were allowed
+to converse with their friends was dark, which is not usual; and I
+observed in it no place for an officer to sit between the parties
+whilst they were speaking.
+
+The attempts of the authorities to keep the prisoners from intercourse
+with one another, and with the outer world, do not yet appear to be
+perfectly successful.
+
+                         ┌───┬───┬───┬───┬───┐
+                         │ A │ B │ C │ D │ E │
+                         ├───┼───┼───┼───┼───┤
+                         │   │   │   │   │   │
+                         ├───┼───┼───┼───┼───┤
+                         │   │   │   │   │   │
+                         ├───┼───┼───┼───┼───┤
+                         │   │   │   │   │   │
+                         ├───┼───┼───┼───┼───┤
+                         │   │   │   │   │   │
+                         └───┴───┴───┴───┴───┘
+
+The Polish prisoners in Warsaw, according to M. Andreoli, had a plan by
+which they could pass news in a couple of hours to all the prisoners in
+the fortress. A square was divided into 25 spaces for the 25 letters
+of the Polish alphabet. One knock was understood to mean A, two knocks
+B, and so on; or, again, these signals might be changed by one knock,
+signifying V, and so forth; this dumb speech being kept up by tapping
+on the walls. This, however, is only one method.
+
+In the chapel of the model prison at Petersburg are 24 boxes for
+prisoners whom they wish to keep from holding communication with each
+other, even by a look. But the partitions which separate them are only
+of wood, and I observed that those I entered had been furtively bored
+with small holes, through which conversation could be held. Again,
+the prisoners are allowed to receive food from their friends outside,
+and, although it is first examined by the officials, the friends
+manage sometimes to introduce for the prisoners some strange culinary
+concoctions. There were brought to a man, for instance, one day 230
+roubles in a basin of buttermilk. Again, another man was frequently
+found the worse for drink in his cell. Milk was regularly brought to
+him, and duly tasted by the authorities; but still the man got drunk.
+At last they discovered that the jug in which the milk was brought
+had a false bottom with an aperture in the handle, and so the mystery
+was solved. What will not topers do to procure drink? On arriving at
+Werchne Udinsk, we heard that a drunken woman had just been detected in
+trying to smuggle spirits into the prison in a pig’s entrails!
+
+I saw quite a collection of contraband articles at Petersburg, which
+had been found in the possession of prisoners. Among them were
+knives (one ingeniously made from a steel pen), playing cards, and
+dominoes--all of them of original and unique, if not of artistic,
+character; also a file, for which a prisoner had given a warder 50
+shillings. The man, too, had made busy use of his purchase. He set his
+mind upon breaking loose, and thought to file through a bar of iron an
+inch or more thick that confined him. But he could do his work only
+during the time that the warders were at dinner and at supper, and
+then not too loudly, giving 200 strokes of the file at dinner and 100
+at supper time. He went on thus for three months, and then managed to
+break the iron. But he was detected, and condemned to Siberia, whither
+he had already been sent before, and whence he had managed to escape.
+There he has probably by this time found less costly and well-built
+prisons from which to break loose.
+
+Before speaking, however, of the prisons of Siberia, it may be well to
+observe that in European Russia there are at least six various kinds of
+prisons. There is, first, the fortress--such as that at Schlüsselburg,
+in which it is generally supposed are confined grave offenders,
+especially the political and revolutionary. I have not visited one
+of these. Next there are military prisons, in which severity of
+discipline is said to be similar to that of the fortress. Then there
+are hard-labour prisons, in which long-term convicts work out their
+sentences. There are also houses of correction, where short-term
+prisoners do the same; likewise houses of detention, in which persons
+are kept awaiting their trial. I heard also of “houses of industry,”
+which, unless I am mistaken, are somewhat like our reformatories;
+and, lastly, there are buildings in which prisoners on their march to
+distant places stay temporarily--some only for a few days, others for
+weeks. These nice distinctions, however, can be drawn only in large
+towns in European Russia. In Siberia, especially in small towns, the
+same building serves for all classes of prisoners, the best arrangement
+practicable being made for special cases. Speaking generally, and
+from my own observation rather than from accurate information upon
+the subject, there appeared to me to be in Siberia three classes of
+buildings which the English would call by the general name of prisons.
+There is, first, the _étape_, in which exiles on the march rest for
+a night or two; next, the _perisylnie_ prison, in which, for various
+reasons, exiles may have to wait--it may be during the winter, or
+until the ice be broken up on the rivers; and, thirdly, the _ostrog_,
+which means a stronghold, and is a prison in general, where a man may
+be simply confined, work at a trade, or eat and sleep after working
+outside in the fields or mines. I have no statistics of the total
+number of prisons of all sorts in Siberia, but suppose it cannot be
+less than 300, which may be roughly computed thus: Nikolaefsk is more
+than 9,000 versts from Tiumen, and, supposing that convicts walk 30
+versts a day, they would require 300 resting-places for that route
+alone. Some parts of the way, it is true, are traversed in summer
+by river communication; but no notice has been taken in my estimate
+of off-lying routes north and south, as, for instance, to Yakutsk,
+Barnaul, etc. The expenses, therefore, of building and keeping in
+repair this vast number of prisons must be very considerable.
+
+As to the location of the prisons. The _étapes_ are found all along
+the road from Tiumen to the Amur. There will also be found a prison or
+lock-up in most of the principal towns. But of the larger buildings
+there is one at Tiumen for the reception of all the ordinary exiles
+as they come from Russia, and from which, as already stated, they are
+distributed over Siberia. At Tobolsk are three hard-labour prisons,
+with about 1,000 convicts, in which prisoners often spend part of
+their terms before going further east. The next building of similar
+dimensions is called the Alexandreffsky central prison, about 50 miles
+from Irkutsk, where are some 1,500 hard-labour convicts. Continuing
+east, there were formerly some large hard-labour prisons at Chita and
+Nertchinsk, tidings from which, in years gone by, have caused many
+an ear to tingle; but since the Russians have gained the Amur, and
+many of the mines have passed from Government into private hands, the
+great bulk of the convicts have been sent further east. At Kara, on
+the Shilka, for instance, is a large penal colony, where there are
+upwards of 2,000 convicts living in and about six prisons, the men
+being supposed to work in the gold-mines. After Kara, the next large
+colony is on the island of Sakhalin, which represents the utmost bound
+of Russian penal life. I have said nothing of the prisons in the
+provinces of Akmolinsk and Semipolatinsk, as I did not go there. There
+is or was a large prison at Omsk, through which exiles used formerly
+to pass; but, now their route has been changed, it serves only for
+local purposes. They have no prisons in these provinces, I believe, of
+considerable dimensions.
+
+Some of the larger prisons in Siberia, especially those of stone, were
+not originally built for their present purpose. There are certain
+features, however, about the others which are more or less common to
+all. The Siberian prison, like the houses of the Siberian people, is
+usually built of logs calked with moss to keep out the cold. Near
+the principal building, but generally detached, are the kitchen, the
+bath-house, exercise-yard, stores for provisions, out-houses, etc., and
+enclosing the whole is a high palisade of wooden poles pointed at the
+top. From the fact that almost all the new prisons of Europe are built
+upon the cellular plan, the detained being kept solitary, it appears
+to have been recognised as a principle that the old method of herding
+prisoners together is a bad one. The same principle would seem to have
+been adopted also by Russia, in that the plan of the new house of
+detention in the capital is in the main cellular. In Siberia, however,
+the old plan continues, and usually the prisons inside are divided into
+large rooms or wards, in each of which the principal feature is an
+inclined wooden plane, resembling that of a guard-room bed, upon which
+the prisoners sit and lounge by day, and sleep by night. If the room be
+square, this divan or platform is placed against three of the walls,
+or, if it be oblong, there may be a passage up the centre, from which
+the sleeping places ascend to the walls on either side; or, lastly,
+if the room be very large, there are two platforms meeting like a low
+gable in the centre of the room, and two others against the walls. Thus
+space is economised, and as many as 40 or 50 men (once I found 100) are
+packed in a room. There are usually a few separate cells for political
+or special offenders, and one or two for punishment.
+
+Connected with the large prisons are usually a hospital, one or more
+chapels, sometimes a school-room, and a few workshops.
+
+The large rooms or wards have little or no furniture. Each is provided
+with an _ikon_, or sacred picture, and sometimes with a shelf on which
+the inmates may put their spoons, combs, and other table and toilet
+requisites with which they provide themselves.
+
+Concerning the prisoners, it has been already intimated that those
+belonging to the upper classes are kept apart. There is a further
+classification in some of the large prisons according to the crimes
+committed: a room for murderers; a second for forgers and utterers
+of base money; a third for thieves, and generally two or three for
+“vagabonds”--that is, not merely for vagrants in the English sense of
+the word, but generally for persons who have run away from supervision,
+who have no papers, and can give no good account of themselves.[1]
+
+The number of persons in Siberian prisons awaiting their trial, or the
+confirmation of their sentences, is very considerable. This leads me
+to speak of the courts, the judges, and their mode of trial. Since
+November 20th, 1860, law reforms were begun in Petersburg, Moscow, and
+Odessa, with their respective districts; and the new method of trial
+resembles that of England, with a mixture of certain French elements
+and some local introductions from Russia. Under the new _régime_ in
+European Russia there are three courts, namely: those of the Judge of
+the Peace; the Assizes; and the Senate. A Judge of the Peace tries
+civil cases involving interests up to £50, and criminal cases involving
+a year’s punishment or less. Appeal from his decision may be made to
+a periodical meeting of Judges of the Peace for the district. At the
+court of Assizes, which consists of from three to nine persons with
+a president, trial is made by jury. The names of persons liable to
+serve are put into an urn, from which 36 are drawn by lot. From these
+the procureur, who is the public prosecutor, may, without assigning
+any reason, strike off eight, and likewise the prisoner’s advocate a
+greater number, bringing them down to 14. Then, if this jury decide
+that the prisoner be guilty, the opinion is asked of both procureur and
+advocate as to what punishment, according to the code, in their opinion
+should be inflicted; after which the president gives the decision of
+the court. The Senate is simply a court of appeal--does not re-try
+cases, but merely judges whether or not in the lower court the law has
+been rightly administered.
+
+Trial by jury is not yet introduced into Siberia, but offenders are
+judged by a tribunal consisting of odd numbers, of not more than
+seven nor less than three. The tribunal is a standing institution,
+the members of which are paid according to their grade--from about
+£70 to £100 a year. A procureur (who is an officer of the Government)
+prosecutes; and a barrister, retained by the prisoner, defends.
+Witnesses are called on both sides, and the tribunal decides by a
+majority of votes whether the prisoner be guilty or not. In case of
+even numbers being present, or of equal voting, the president has a
+vote and a half; but should the president be absent, and there be an
+even number for and against the prisoner, then the defendant in this
+and all similar cases has the benefit of the doubt. Should a verdict
+of guilty be returned, the tribunal decides the punishment according
+to the regulation of the code. In capital or important cases, however,
+in Siberia, such as murder, the judgment of the tribunal must be
+confirmed by the Governor-General; and hence, when the vastness of the
+country is considered, it will be seen why prisoners sometimes wait so
+long uncondemned. Suppose, for instance, a man commits a murder in a
+place which happens to be at a distance from the town where a tribunal
+sits. Some one goes to the authorities, deposes that a murder has been
+committed, gives evidence in writing, and the culprit is arrested. If
+the culprit can find bail he may remain free till wanted (in Russia it
+is enough for this purpose to deposit, as a guarantee of returning,
+a certain sum of money); but if unable to find bail he must go to
+prison till he can be sent, suppose, to Nikolaefsk. If it be winter,
+it would be too costly--the Amur being frozen--to send him by horses;
+he must therefore wait till the following June for the opening of the
+navigation. Then, having proceeded to Nikolaefsk, he is tried, perhaps
+within a week, found guilty, and his punishment determined, after
+which it is necessary that the papers concerning his case be sent to
+the Governor-General at Irkutsk, a distance, there and back, of 5,000
+miles; and so the prisoner must wait till his sentence is confirmed.
+Meanwhile he is supplied with a paper, which is, I presume, his ticket
+of indictment.[2]
+
+Whether, when the case is fully ended, the prisoner keeps this or a
+similar paper, I am not quite sure. I am under the impression that he
+does, at all events whilst he is on the road to his destination; and,
+further, that these papers serve as capital on which the prisoners
+exercise their ingenuity for their mutual convenience. I mean in this
+fashion: Ivan Nepomnoostchi has a ticket condemning him to five years’
+labour in the coal-mines of Sakhalin, whilst the ticket of Augustus
+Poniatowski condemns him for a similar time to the gold-mines of Kara.
+For reasons best known to themselves, the one prefers country life
+and a cottage or prison near a wood, whilst the other inclines to a
+residence at the sea-side. So they change their tickets, their names,
+and, as far as they can, their beings, and sometimes manage in this way
+to effect what they wish. I have even heard of prisoners inducing those
+who are free to exchange places with them, the bargain being effected
+of course by money, and carried out whilst a gang of several hundreds
+is marching on to a steamer, for instance, where heads are counted,
+but where they cannot recognize faces. Goryantchikoff represents
+the “changing of names” as taking place in the presence of prisoner
+witnesses, and when several of the party are more or less intoxicated,
+the price given being sometimes as much as 30 or 40 roubles. All are
+bound to secrecy by esoteric law, and as the man receiving the money
+generally spends it quickly in drink and so cannot restore it, he not
+infrequently finds, when too late, that he has sold his liberty, or
+exchanged a lighter to receive a heavier punishment for a few glasses
+of brandy. This is dangerous work, however, for at some of the jails
+they take down a full description of the prisoners, though they do
+not usually photograph them, as in England. At Alexandreffsky, for
+instance, they have a large book, the pages of which are filled with
+columns headed as follows:--Name, age, crime, and punishment; from
+whence; appearance; term of punishment; arrival; single or married;
+religion; date of sentence; from what prison in Russia; remarks, etc.
+
+I am not sure that I have given all the process by which they manage
+the transfer of tickets, but what is written may perhaps render
+intelligible the crime charged upon a roomful of prisoners at Irkutsk,
+who, we were told, had been “changing their names.”
+
+The present state of things, however, as regards prisons and exiles,
+must, as already stated, be regarded as temporary, since the reforms
+of 1860 have been now extended as far as the Urals, and it is only a
+question of money when they shall be spread to Siberia also.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Some statistics with which we were favoured from Kansk for the
+previous year, 1878, give interesting facts, showing the ages of
+criminals when they committed their crimes, their education, condition
+as to marriage, religion, place of birth, and also their repetition of
+crimes. It should be borne in mind, however, that the figures refer
+only to a small district of Eastern Siberia, an _okrug_ or circle, 200
+miles in diameter, and with a population of 40,000. They are therefore
+primarily of local value, though in their general aspects they are
+highly suggestive. The number of criminals was 121 male and 61 female:
+in all, 182. Of these there were 31 from 17 to 21 years of age; 83 from
+21 to 33; 45 from 38 to 45; and 33 from 45 to 70. The figures, too,
+show curiously enough that up to the age of 33 the proportion of male
+criminals is largely in excess of the females, but that after that
+age this order is reversed, and the proportion of female prisoners
+preponderates over that of the males. Of the entire number, 182, not
+one is marked “well educated,” only 46 could read and write, and 136
+could do neither; 129 out of 182 were married, leaving 53 widows,
+bachelors, and spinsters. With respect to religious profession, they
+were classified thus: 112 were orthodox Russians, and 19 of other
+Christian denominations; 34 were Jews, and 17 of other non-Christian
+religions: 180 were born in the province; 22 had offended twice, and 3
+had done so thrice.
+
+[2] The following is a translation of such a paper, which is divided
+into six columns, with a printed heading to each, and filled up as
+follows:--
+
+1. Surname, patronym, Christian name, and occupation of prisoner.
+(_Gregory, son of Nicholas M----, a peasant._)
+
+2. Age. (39.)
+
+3. Crime. (_Wrong passport._)
+
+4. When and by whose order imprisoned. (_On 9 April. Tomsk district
+police._)
+
+5. When the case was tried and how it stands. (_Terminated on 4 May,
+1879. Now under revision._)
+
+6. Remarks. (_He begs it may be quickly ended._)
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+_SIBERIAN PRISONS (continued)._
+
+ Charitable committees.--Prison food.--Clothing.--Work.--Hard
+     labour.--Exercise.--Amusements.--Privileges.--Intercourse
+     with friends.--Punishments.--Capital punishment.--Corporal
+     punishment.--Irons.--Prison discipline.--Flogging.--Exceptional
+     severities.
+
+
+The Russians introduce or allow the introduction into their prisons
+of an ameliorating influence, in the form of local committees, for
+furthering the temporal welfare of the prisoners. “You see,” said to
+me the president of one of these committees, “we have two elements in
+the government of our prisoners. The police strive for the letter of
+the law, whilst we strive for kindness to the prisoner.” Thus justice
+and mercy go hand in hand; and when they happen to fall out, I fancy
+that in Siberia, after their easy-going fashion, mercy not unfrequently
+wins the day. Whether all prisons have local committees I do not know;
+but we came in contact with the operations of several. The members take
+upon themselves to superintend, clothe, and educate the children of
+prisoners; and in more than one place we found admirable asylums built
+for this purpose. They also lend a helping hand to prisoners’ wives,
+and at Irkutsk we found they had supplied the prison with a library.
+Their exertions, however, do not stop here; for they look after and in
+some cases improve and augment the prisoners’ food. The Government
+allows for each prisoner so much money a day. At Ekaterineburg, for
+instance, to the common exiles 10 kopecks; to the upper classes 15
+kopecks. At Irkutsk we met an upper-class prisoner who had 17½ kopecks,
+which he received in money. The prisoners who remain at Ekaterineburg
+are allowed 6 kopecks a day. Instead, however, of each spending his
+6 kopecks, the whole is taken and dispensed by the committee in the
+purchase for the general caldron of meat, vegetables, etc.; and they
+somehow manage out of threehalfpence a head to give to each prisoner
+two dishes of food. Whether the committee appeal to the public for
+funds I know not. At Tomsk we heard that each director of the prison
+committee gave his ten roubles annually, whilst from the neighbouring
+villages were brought presents of flour and other kinds of food. Again,
+it is common to see, outside prison gates, boxes in which may be placed
+offerings for the welfare of the prisoners; and such is the liberality
+of the people in this direction, especially on festivals, that in
+Petersburg those detained get more Easter eggs than they can eat. All
+this speaks of kindness on the part of the public towards prisoners,
+in which particular I know no nation that equals the Russian. Further
+allusion will be made to this hereafter.
+
+Apart, however, from these philanthropic efforts, the reader will
+perhaps get a better idea of Siberian prison diet from details which
+came under our own observation. At Tiumen each man was said to receive
+daily 2½ lbs. (Russian) of bread, ½ lb. of meat on ordinary days, and
+¾ lb. on holidays, with salt, pepper, etc., also a daily allowance of
+quass for drink. The fare in Tobolsk prison was the same, a bucketful
+of quass or small-beer being provided for every ten men. At Nikolaefsk
+I heard of corned beef and _kash_, or corn, substituted for vegetables.
+At the Alexandreffsky prison they had ½ lb. of meat, including the
+bone, and 2½ lbs. of bread. At Kara, however, where the men work in the
+mines, the allowance is still more liberal. Each receives daily 4 lbs.
+of bread, 1 lb. of meat, ¼ lb. of buckwheat, with tea, but no quass.[1]
+At Kara, when not working, they receive 3 lbs. of bread, ½ lb. of meat,
+and 1/12th of a lb. of buckwheat. We found in some of the prisons
+that, if they do not eat all their food, the prisoners may sell the
+remainder; or again, the surplus bread may be used for making quass,
+which, when given, always comes, I believe, from these “economies.”
+The diet, however, is considerably affected by the rigour with which
+fast-days are observed in the prisons. Every Wednesday and Friday are
+fast-days, and there are four great annual fasts, with an aggregate
+of at least a hundred days, so that there are probably quite half the
+days in the year when the prisoners get fast diet, which excludes
+flesh food. I understood, however, that this does not apply to those
+at hard labour; while other prisoners, during some of the long fasts,
+receive fish and fish-soup--the latter _ad libitum_. So at least it is
+at Tobolsk. If a man happens to be in a position to buy tea or such
+luxuries, he may do so, and his friends may, if they please, bring him
+food daily. Thus a man ought not to starve in a Siberian prison.
+
+Nor is he left without clothing. Prisoners awaiting their trial,
+also exiles losing partial rights, may, if they choose, wear their
+own clothes, or, if they have none suitable, they are supplied by
+the Government. Those who lose all their rights, however, must wear
+convicts’ clothing. This consists, in summer, of a linen shirt and
+pair of trousers, and a peasant’s coat of camel’s hair, a specimen of
+which last I bought for five shillings. Those condemned to hard labour
+have two yellow diamond-shaped patches sewn on the back; those without
+labour have one piece only. Other marks of a similar character indicate
+the province from which they come. At Kara a coat of felt is given
+yearly. A shirt must last six months, and is washed once a week; whilst
+in summer a pair of rough leather shoes or slippers is served out every
+22 days. Those working in the mines are provided also with leather
+gloves.[2]
+
+Concerning their labour, I seriously avow my belief that in many cases
+the hardest part of a Siberian prisoner’s lot is not the work imposed
+upon him, but the _absence_ of it. This appeared to prevail among the
+prisoners up to Kara.
+
+I met at different places two Poles, who came to the east condemned
+to hard labour, but who got off exceedingly lightly. What one said
+amounted to this: that if he liked to work he worked, but if not he let
+it alone. The authorities told me, in one instance, that they cannot
+now find enough work for the exiles. Many of the mines have passed from
+Government into private hands, and some even of those remaining are
+more or less exhausted. Hence a part of the Russian criminals, who of
+old would probably have been exiled, are now detained in large prisons
+in European Russia, such as at Pskof, Wilna, Kharkhof, Orenburg,
+Simbirsk, Perm, etc.; but the plan has only lessened, not removed,
+the difficulty of finding useful yet laborious occupation for the
+condemned. When, therefore, it is remembered that a large number of the
+criminals cannot read, and that for those who can there has hitherto
+been, to say the least, but a poor supply of books, the tedium can be
+easily imagined of imprisonment without work in Siberia. Accordingly,
+it was little matter for surprise that we heard at Alexandreffsky of
+prisoners begging for work. In some of the prisons opportunities are
+afforded for the detained to work, which gives them employment, and
+also enables them to earn a little money with which to buy comforts.
+Some, however, are condemned to labour, which labour may be done for
+the Government direct, or it may be let out by the Government to
+private persons or companies, as at Kara, where some of the convicts
+work in private mines belonging to the Emperor, and at Dui in Sakhalin,
+where the coal-mines are worked by a commercial company.
+
+Thus the work of convicts, when they are put to it, is mainly of
+three degrees of severity,--that of the fabric, the zavod, and the
+mines, which I understand to mean as follows. Fabric work is that of a
+manufactory, or the labour of ordinary mechanics, such as carpenters,
+blacksmiths, joiners, shoemakers, tailors, etc. The best Russian
+prison I have seen of this kind was at Petersburg, on the Wiborg
+side of the Neva, which had almost the busy hum of a factory, where
+everything seemed well arranged and kept going; but in the prisons
+of Tobolsk, which I understood to be of this character, there seemed
+an insufficient number of workshops in proportion to the number of
+criminals. The word _zavod_ is synonymous with our “works” for the
+founding and casting of metals; and for this, I presume, is sometimes
+substituted heavy outdoor or indoor work, such as making bricks,
+mending roads, or manufacturing salt. But of this class of work we saw
+next to none, save a handful of men at Alexandreffsky, returning from
+making bricks. Once more, the mines are of at least three sorts--gold,
+silver, and coal. The work of the gold-mines resembles the labour of
+English navvies in making a cutting, whilst that of silver and coal,
+being underground, is more difficult. From reports I heard, however, of
+these latter two, it did not appear that the convicts were by any means
+overworked; but further details upon this matter will be furnished
+hereafter. Those condemned to the hardest labour need, of course, no
+special time for exercise. The prisoners without labour are allowed at
+Alexandreffsky an hour a day for this purpose, which appeared to me too
+little. More generally, however, we found they had a happy-go-lucky
+way, especially in the smaller prisons, of opening the doors in
+the morning, and letting the prisoners, if they did not misbehave
+themselves, go in and out of the yard as they liked--to sleep, talk, or
+bask in the sun, and in some cases to smoke.
+
+I am not aware that the authorities permit the prisoners any
+amusements, though it has been already intimated that they find them
+for themselves--sometimes in the shape of cards, with which, if report
+be true, having nothing else to play for, they gamble away their food.
+
+But we have not yet exhausted the prisoners’ privileges. Here are some
+more of them, though probably they are not the same in all the prisons.
+According to a convict’s behaviour he is placed in a certain category;
+and the longer he remains therein, and the better he behaves, the more
+ameliorations he gets. For instance, if a man condemned to fifteen
+years’ hard labour conducts himself well, he serves only thirteen years
+and two months, and, towards the end of the time, gains certain other
+privileges. If condemned to wear irons four years, he may, in a similar
+manner, lessen the time by one-third; if in the higher category, he
+receives 15 per cent. of what he earns by working for the Government,
+and in his spare time he may work on his own account; if in the lower
+category, he earns money, but it is withheld until he advances higher.
+At Alexandreffsky prisoners may receive money from their friends, up to
+a rouble a week, but not more. At Kara some prisoners are not allowed
+thus to receive money, but I heard of others there who receive as much
+as £15 a year, and who also receive visits once or twice a week from,
+not mere acquaintances--which is not allowed--but their families, who
+may also daily, if they please, bring them food.
+
+I was told at one large prison that, strictly speaking, it was not
+permitted to prisoners (except political ones) to write to their
+friends, which seemed to confirm what I had heard and what I have
+written elsewhere. But unofficial persons denied this, saying that
+prisoners are free to write, and this also we heard at some of the
+prisons. The two statements may perhaps be reconciled thus: that it
+is one of those cases (and there are many such in Siberian prisons)
+in which the letter of the law is supposed to be more honoured in the
+breach than in the observance.
+
+Once more, if men are well behaved, they get, before the expiration of
+a long sentence, into a position comparatively comfortable. They are
+allowed to live outside the prison with their wives and families; they
+may have their house and garden, still working a certain number of
+hours per day, and obliged to be in their homes by night; but otherwise
+they are free to do what they list, and are much in the same position
+as that of an ordinary labourer.
+
+I have yet to speak of punishments, which are of two kinds--those
+decreed by the civil courts and courts martial, and those subsequently
+incurred in Siberia. Concerning the former two, it is not quite
+accurate to say that in Russia there is no capital punishment, since
+there are at least three offences for which death is the penalty,
+namely: (1) offences against the persons of the Imperial family,
+and certain laws concerning them; (2) military crimes, or, what is
+equivalent, crimes committed when a place is in a state of siege; (3)
+breaking quarantine laws, such as permitting a vessel with infectious
+diseases to come into a Russian port. But in these cases culprits are
+turned over to a military tribunal, which alone can sentence to death;
+in accordance with which I was told of a case happening in 1877 in
+Sakhalin, wherein some convicts, with much brutality, killed a whole
+family, and were sentenced to be shot; but this is rare, and since the
+convicts had already lost all rights, it would perhaps be considered
+hardly an exception to the rule that murder in Russia is not followed
+by capital punishment.
+
+Nor, again, does the Russian law inflict upon any _free_ man corporal
+punishment. The knout has been abolished for some years. They do,
+however, put their prisoners in irons, which for the legs weigh from
+about five to nine pounds English; and if a man rebels, he may get them
+as heavy as fourteen pounds. I was told, however, that the new chains
+weigh only five pounds. Those for the wrists weigh two pounds.
+
+As to the period for wearing them, accounts differed. At
+Alexandreffsky, up to eighteen months usually; at Kara, four years;
+whilst, at Tobolsk, it was said that prisoners might be in chains
+from two months to eight years. The manner of carrying the fetters
+is as follows. Over the leg is worn a coarse woollen stocking, and
+over that a piece of thick linen cloth; then come the trousers, over
+which is bound on the shins a pad of leather. A stranger might wonder
+at first how the trousers could be taken off; and to satisfy our
+curiosity, a prisoner in Tiumen showed us how it was done, which gave
+me the opportunity to observe, when his leg was bare, that it had no
+marks from wearing the irons. On each leg a ring is not locked, but
+_riveted_. To these rings is attached a chain of about three feet in
+length, which, for convenience in walking, is usually suspended in the
+middle by a string from the waist. This may seem severe enough for
+English ideas of the present day, but I saw heavier on the legs of two
+murderers in America. Russian chains, however, are playthings compared
+with some to be seen in Finland, and which I have put on. In bringing
+the prisoners in Finland from the country districts to the towns, they
+make use of the farmers’ carts; and it sometimes happens that the cart
+is waylaid by accomplices, and the prisoner delivered. To prevent this,
+therefore, they in some cases put on an extraordinary suit of irons,
+which outdo those I saw even in China. First, there is a collar for
+the neck and a girdle for the body, which two are connected by means
+of chains, the hands likewise being fastened to the girdle. On each
+ankle is put an iron stirrup or socket, which projects over the front
+of the feet far enough to receive through its holes a heavy iron bar,
+weighing thirty-six pounds, the whole weight of which is made to rest
+on the prisoner’s insteps and to connect the feet. Then from the middle
+of the bar comes another chain, fastening it to the girdle. The whole
+is of iron, and weighs about 108 lbs. It should be added that these
+are seldom used in Finland, and then only for desperate characters;
+but in Russia no such chains exist. The heaviest of the Russian irons
+are about the weight, I imagine, of those formerly in use in England,
+if one may judge from the pair called “Jack Sheppard’s irons,” which
+are kept as a curiosity in Newgate. Moreover, if report be true, there
+is a good deal of _hocus-pocus_ connected with Siberian fetters. To
+an ordinary observer the fetters look riveted on in such a manner
+that without a smith it would appear impossible to get them off. The
+largeness of the rings, however, to allow of their fitting over the
+stocking, the bandage of linen, the trousers, and then the leather
+gaiter, will make it probable that, on the removal of these bandages,
+it may be possible in some cases to slip out the naked foot. However
+that may be, I heard from another source, not to be doubted, that a
+certain governor of a province, on visiting one of his prisons, was
+moved with compassion, and ordered that the chains should be struck off
+the prisoners; upon which they wriggled and kicked them off with such
+alacrity as to leave no doubt on his mind that they had been donned as
+uniform in which to receive his Excellency’s visit. A released prisoner
+has told me that so dexterous do they become in pressing the thumb
+into the palm of the hand, that they used to slip off their handcuffs
+and sleep without them. M. Andreoli also mentions in his account that,
+whilst on the march, the payment of four roubles to the soldiers in
+charge got them free of the chain to which they were attached, on the
+understanding, however, that the guard should not be got into trouble
+by any one running away, and that the iron should be properly affixed
+when approaching the town or their resting-place for the night. He also
+mentions that, in a drove of 147 prisoners, there were 21--that is, a
+seventh--wearing chains. Throughout Siberia I saw only one man wearing
+handcuffs; but, in Western Siberia, chains were seen on the legs of
+many--how many I cannot say, but less, I should think, than a seventh;
+and this proportion markedly decreased as we proceeded further east.
+
+[Illustration: A FINNISH MURDERER IN TRAVELLING IRONS.]
+
+The courts sometimes order a man--generally one who has run away
+repeatedly--to be chained, on reaching his destination, to a barrow
+or implement, which thus always accompanies him wherever he may go. A
+doctor informed me that he had seen a prisoner’s ticket with such a
+doom thereon within the previous twelve months; and I heard that at
+Sakhalin one or two ferocious characters were thus confined; but I saw
+none. There were none, I found on inquiry, among the two thousand at
+Kara; and such treatment was said to be exceedingly rare.
+
+With regard to punishments inflicted for insubordination to prison
+authorities, or for subsequent crimes of convicts, the mildest form
+is incarceration in a solitary cell. A man is next deprived, in part,
+of food and minor comforts, as in England. Then, if not already
+in irons, he may have them put on; or, if this do not suffice, he
+may be “birched,” after the fashion in which our fathers corrected
+us. I witnessed this performance at Nikolaefsk. Having heard on
+a Saturday--which is there the day for flogging--that a man was
+to receive 60 stripes with the rod, I thought it right, since the
+visitation of prisons was my speciality, to go and see it, and thus
+shirk no occasion of witnessing with my eyes what I learned through my
+ears. The man was a released convict, of horrible countenance, who had
+served his time in confinement, and was subsequently taken as a joiner
+into a merchant’s establishment, and he had rewarded his employer by
+robbing him. Accordingly, in the police station, he was brought from
+his room to the presence of the police-master. Behind the culprit stood
+a Cossack, and at his side a clerk, who read over his sentence. The
+prisoner then signed the paper, to signify that he had heard it read,
+and was marched back to another room and placed on the floor, with his
+back laid bare, one Cossack holding his head and another his feet.
+Two soldiers then inflicted the stripes successively, whilst a third
+counted aloud the number administered. The man wriggled and roared, and
+the skin became very red, but I saw no blood, and the operation was
+soon over.
+
+I came away, I confess, considerably perturbed; but the Nikolaefsk
+folks said that was _nothing_, and further informed me that, for the
+commission of other than very serious offences, they frequently deal
+in this summary manner with released convicts, both male and female.
+The switches composing the rod, according to M. Andreoli, must, by law,
+be sufficiently small to allow of three being passed together into the
+muzzle of a musket. Those I saw reminded me of a dame’s birch, save
+that they were longer, and the switches somewhat stouter than those
+formerly seen in schools--indeed, _facsimiles_ of those used in the
+prison of Cold Bath Fields in London. A marvellous feature of the case
+is that some of the men (ay, and women too) not only receive the rod,
+but laugh and are impudent after it. One of my hosts in another town
+told me that some years ago, soon after the Amur came into the hands of
+the Russians, he was robbed by a soldier of some clothes, upon which
+the police-master sentenced the thief to receive 500 stripes with
+the birch rod; but the governor hearing of it increased the number
+to 1,100. My host was asked if he were willing to see the stripes
+inflicted; and, going at five in the morning, he saw 500 administered.
+As the man lay on the grass, and as each rod was worn out, it was
+replaced by a new one from a heap lying by. The prosecutor begged
+that the rest might be remitted, and came away. The whole number,
+however, were administered, and the man was kept in the hospital for a
+fortnight, at the end of which time he came to his prosecutor to ask
+for a glass of grog, and said that for a bottleful of spirits he would
+not mind having another 1,100 if it might again be followed by a fine
+time in the hospital!
+
+I heard of others laughing at the birch. But there is yet one thing
+they fear, and that is a whip called the “_troichatka_,” or “_plète_.”
+I forewarn the reader that the treatment of this subject may harrow
+his feelings; yet, if a writer is to present a true picture of what
+has come under his observation, he must delineate not only the lights
+of his picture but the shadows also. The author of “Tom Brown’s School
+Days,” when about to describe a fight at Rugby, recommends any of his
+readers who feel particularly sensitive to skip the chapter; and I
+venture to give similar advice with regard to the next few paragraphs.
+
+The knout, as already said, has been abolished for some years,
+notwithstanding the persistent introduction of this instrument into the
+pages of some of the vindictive class of writers on Russian affairs. I
+found it had been discontinued sufficiently long to make it difficult
+for me to get an explanation of what it used to be like. M. Pietrowski,
+in his “Story of a Siberian Exile,” De Lagny, and one or two other
+writers of his class, do their very best to invest the knout with every
+horror, and to make it appear that a long strip of flesh was torn off
+the culprit’s back at every stroke. A more trustworthy account is
+that of M. Andreoli, which I am the more disposed to believe, because
+it agrees pretty accurately with the description of the instrument
+given me by an old man who had seen it used at Chita. The Russian
+post-drivers still use for their horses what they call a “knout,”
+which is a short whip like a heavy English hunting-whip, only that the
+lash consists of three or four pieces of twisted hide linked together
+continuously by metal rings. It makes a formidable instrument even
+for driving a horse. But on comparing this with our two descriptions,
+I make no doubt that the genuine knout for criminals was a somewhat
+similar whip to that now employed sometimes for horses. M. Andreoli
+gives it a handle from one to two inches in diameter, and 9 inches in
+length. At the top of the handle is a ring, then a lash of raw hide 18
+inches long, with a ring at the end; then a second lash and ring; and
+thirdly came the part which is the “knout” proper, namely, a flat lash
+of hard leather, 21 inches long, bent to a curve and ending with a
+hook something like the beak of a bird--the entire length of handle and
+lash being 2½ _arshines_, or nearly 6 feet. The instrument used to be
+wielded by a convict, who received his liberty or certain privileges
+for doing this work. I heard from a lawyer that the public flagellator
+in Moscow was so skilful in the manipulation of his weapon, that he
+could with it snip a cigarette off a window without breaking the glass,
+or at a single blow break an inch board, and, therefore, the spine of
+a man’s back. He was said to have found his profession so lucrative
+that, when his daughter married, he gave her a dowry of 60,000 roubles,
+at that time equal to, say, £9,000. He made his money from those he
+flogged. The law demanded that the person to be beaten should receive
+a certain number of stripes, but did not exact that the recipient
+should suffer; and thus, when well paid, this hero let the knout fall
+lightly--so, at least, the story goes.
+
+The “_troichatka_,” or “_plète_,” is a whip of twisted hide, fastened
+to a handle 10 inches long and an inch thick. The lash, about the same
+thickness at the top as the handle, tapers for 12 inches, and then
+divides in three smaller lashes, 25 inches long, and about the size of
+the little finger, the whole measuring 4 feet in length, and weighing
+nearly 15 ounces. M. Pietrowski represents the plète as consisting of
+“three thongs weighted at the ends with balls of lead.” The balls of
+lead, however, if I mistake not, are a piece of invention to harrow
+the feelings. At all events, none of those I saw (and I saw a boxful)
+had anything attached to the lashes, nor did they need it, for the
+instrument is quite severe enough in itself. From 20 to 50 lashes is
+the number usually given, though they may go up to 100. The criminal
+is bound to a thick board, wide at the top and narrowed towards the
+bottom, called a _kobyla_, or “mare,” which, by means of an iron leg,
+is made to incline at an angle of about 30 degrees. At the upper end
+of the board are three places hollowed out to receive in the centre
+the face and head, and on either side the hands, all which are bound
+down with leather thongs. A little lower and at either side are two
+iron loops, which confine the arms, whilst the feet are secured at the
+bottom. At an execution (for such as described to me by eye-witnesses
+it almost amounts to) a medical man and some of the authorities must
+be present. The convict executioner takes three or more plètes, and,
+having stretched them to render them supple, takes up his position
+about 10 yards distant, walks quickly to secure a momentum, and brings
+down the lash with full force on the lower part of the culprit’s back.
+This he repeats two or three times, letting the lash fall in the same
+place. Then he walks from the other side, so as to bring it down in
+a different direction, and, after a few strokes, changes his whip
+and walks from a third point, the strokes thus falling upon the man
+something in the shape of a star or an asterisk. M. Andreoli intimates
+that the flagellator is often bribed by the culprit or his friends, in
+which case he brings down the first blow with terrible severity, making
+the poor creature writhe and scream horribly, but then diminishes the
+force of his blows as he proceeds; whereas, if he be not bribed, he
+begins gently and gradually increases in severity, which is far worse.
+He has, however, to be wary, for if he does not strike hard enough
+he is threatened with twenty-five stripes for himself, which were
+given the summer before my visit to an executioner in Nikolaefsk. Most
+descriptions of this punishment represent the culprit’s back as raw,
+and running with blood--and it is better for the man when this is the
+case. A skilful flagellator draws little or no blood, and more pain
+is caused when the skin simply rises in wales; but, when this is the
+case, mortification sometimes sets in, and the prisoner speedily dies.
+One thus thrashed in the morning had died at night during the week
+preceding that in which I received my information.
+
+Before passing from this dreadful subject I wish to make quite
+clear what was told me: that no man for the first offence can, by
+Russian law, be condemned to corporal punishment. Also I was given
+to understand, by a legal authority, that the plète exists only at
+three places in Siberia--Kara, Nikolaefsk, and Sakhalin, (though I was
+informed by a released exile that he saw it, 15 years ago, at Chita,
+and nearly everywhere,) so that only the very worst criminals ever
+see it at all. If they were moderate offenders they would not be so
+far east, and those who get it have usually gone through deportation,
+prison, and irons, and yet remain incorrigible. Also it should be
+remembered that in these localities the inhabitants are few, and are
+surrounded by hundreds of convicts or ex-convicts; that a very large
+proportion of the women-servants, and men-servants too, are of the same
+class, some of them not having even finished their terms; and that,
+in addition to these ex-prisoners, who are supposed to be corrected
+and better behaved, a considerable number of the worst characters are
+constantly escaping. More than 100 escaped from Sakhalin, I was told,
+the winter before my visit. When free, they make for Nikolaefsk to
+escape starvation, caring little what they do. In 1877 three convicts,
+to get the paltry sum of £12, brutally killed a woman and put her down
+a well. Hence the inhabitants say that, were they not defended by some
+very strong deterrents, they would not be safe a moment, since, if a
+man commit half-a-dozen murders, he knows he is not to be hanged.
+
+I have thus forced myself to mention all the kinds of punishment,
+painful as some of them are, that came under my observation or to my
+knowledge in Siberia; and I have done so in part because I desired to
+leave no room for uneasy suspicions that aught had been kept back from
+the reader. Moreover, I should not think it right to contradict the
+many false statements which have appeared from time to time concerning
+the punishment of Siberian exiles without giving a picture of things as
+I really found them.
+
+On the whole, my conviction is that, if a Russian exile behaves himself
+decently well, he may in Siberia be more comfortable than in many, and
+as comfortable as in most, of the prisons of the world. There are yet
+other points to be mentioned in connection with Siberian prisons, but
+these can be best treated of as we visit, in succession, the various
+towns in which they are situated.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] If this highest scale of Siberian diet be compared with the highest
+scale in the prisons of England and Wales, as printed in the Reports
+of the Commissioners, Inspectors, and others for 1878, it will be
+found that the English prisoner gets per week of bread 10 lbs. against
+the Russian 25; the Englishman has 8 oz. of cooked meat and 14 pints
+of soup against the Russian’s 6 lbs. of meat; whilst the Russian has
+besides 1½ lb. of buckwheat and tea against the Englishman’s 5 lbs. of
+potatoes, 1½ lb. of suet pudding, 14 pints of porridge and cocoa. In
+fact, the Englishman has per week 17½ lbs. of solid food, 3 pints of
+soup, 14 pints of porridge and cocoa, whilst the Russian has 33 lbs. of
+solid food, and tea.
+
+[2] The annual cost of provisions for each prisoner at Kara is 65
+roubles and 72¾ kopecks--say £6 10_s._, and for men’s clothing 39
+roubles 8⅜ kopecks, or £4. Women’s clothing is rather less expensive,
+so that the annual cost for food and clothing of men is £10 10_s._, and
+of women £10. In the new prison at Petersburg my notes give 25 kopecks
+a day as the cost for each prisoner, 15 kopecks being spent for food.
+This represents for the year 91 roubles 25 kopecks (rather more than
+£9), and 54 roubles 75 kopecks (£5 10_s._) respectively, and excludes,
+I presume, the item of clothing, since this prison at the capital is
+for those awaiting trial, and who consequently wear their own clothes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+_THE OBI._
+
+ Dimensions of river.--Its tributaries.--Province of Tobolsk.--
+     Geographical features.--Population.--Voguls.--Samoyedes.--
+     Intemperance.--Commercial prospects of Obi.--Siberian
+     produce.--Corn land.--Timber.--Cost of provisions.--Carriage.--
+     Discoveries of Wiggins.--Followed by Nordenskiöld.--Ship-building
+     at Tiumen.--Navigation of Kara Sea.--Books on basin of Obi.
+
+
+The Obi is one of the largest rivers of the Old Continent, and seems
+destined to play an important part in opening up to commerce the
+immense wealth of Western Siberia. Something, therefore, should be said
+of this enormous stream, and the province of Tobolsk through which
+it flows. The basin of the river contains more than a million and a
+quarter of square miles; an area nearly 2,000 miles in length, and,
+at the widest part, 1,200 in breadth.[1] This vast area is covered
+with a network of streams, navigable from the Arctic Ocean to the
+best parts of Western Siberia, the importance of which can hardly be
+overestimated, when it is borne in mind that the success of recent
+enterprise has demonstrated the possibility of carrying produce by
+water to Europe.
+
+But let us now speak of the province, inhabitants, and aborigines of
+Tobolsk, which, though not the largest, is at once the oldest and by
+far the most populous of the governments of Siberia. It extends from
+the frozen ocean down to the 55th parallel, a distance of 1,200 miles
+from north to south, and of 700 miles in its widest part from east to
+west, its total area covering 800,000 square miles--a country, that is
+to say, seven times as large as Great Britain and Ireland. The surface,
+save where the western border approaches the Urals, is flat--so flat,
+indeed, that Tobolsk, which is 550 miles from the sea, is only 378 feet
+above its level. It has no large lakes, but there are several small
+ones, from which salt is obtained.[2]
+
+Ethnographically considered, the province is not so varied as some
+others, the people being for the most part Russians, Tatars, Voguls,
+Ostjaks, or Samoyedes; the Tatars belonging to the Turkish, and the
+Voguls and Ostjaks to the Finnish stock. Some writers classify the
+Samoyedes as Finns, but Mr. Howorth considers they should be treated
+as a race apart. Mr. Rae, in his “Land of the North Wind,” and Mr.
+Seebohm, in his “Siberia in Europe,” have recently given interesting
+information concerning the Samoyedes.
+
+The Voguls inhabit a district which coincides pretty closely with the
+ridge of the Northern Urals, and were estimated in 1876 at 5,000 in
+number. Their country makes them hillmen and foresters, for they lie
+within the northern limit of the fir and birch, in the country of the
+wolf, the bear, the sable, the glutton, the marten, the beaver, and
+the elk. They usually dress like the Russians, and live by hunting,
+for they have no plains for the breeding of cattle, and no climate for
+agriculture. They are said to use no salt. Their villages are scattered
+and small, consisting of from four to eight cabins. Obdorsk is their
+trading town. To this town, on the Arctic circle at the mouth of the
+Obi, come also the Samoyedes and Ostjaks, of which latter I shall speak
+as I saw them further east.
+
+The Samoyedes inhabit a larger tract of country, stretching along
+the shore of the frozen ocean from the north-east corner of Europe,
+all across the Tobolsk government to the Yenesei, descending to the
+region of the Ostjaks, and on some parts of the southern border to
+Tomsk. With the Samoyedes I felt already in a measure acquainted,
+partly by correspondence from my friend in Finland, and partly by a
+near approach to them in 1878, when I travelled to Archangel. Their
+numbers were estimated, in 1876, at 5,700. Their riches consist of
+herds of reindeer, which they pasture on the mosses of the vast bogs or
+_tundras_, from which the animals in winter scrape the snow with their
+feet, and thus find their sustenance. To the Samoyede the reindeer is
+everything; when alive, the animal draws his sledge, and, when dead,
+its flesh is eaten and the skin used for tent and clothing.
+
+[Illustration: MY SAMOYEDE DRESS.]
+
+At Archangel I bought a _sovik_ or tunic, a cap, and a wonderful pair
+of Samoyede boots; and as the Samoyede manner of dressing resembles
+in its main features that of other northern aborigines in Siberia, I
+may as well describe it particularly. In winter, then, to be in the
+(Samoyede) fashion, one should dress as follows:--First a pair of short
+trousers made of softened reindeer skin, fitting tight, and reaching
+down to the knee. Then stockings of _peshki_, the skin of young fawns,
+with the hair inwards. Next come the boots, called _poumé leepte_,
+which means boot-stockings, reaching almost to the thigh, the sole
+being made of old and hard reindeer hide, the hair pointing forward
+to diminish the possibility of slipping on the ice or snow. Common
+boots have the hair only on the outside. Mine are a gay “lady’s” pair,
+lined inside with the softest fur, and made of white reindeer skin
+without, sewn with stripes of darker skin, and ornamented in front
+with pieces of coloured cloth. The clothing of the lower limbs being
+completed, one must work one’s way from the bottom to the top of the
+tunic, or _sovik_, which has an opening to put the head through, and
+is furnished with sleeves. Mine has a high straight collar, but in some
+brought by Mr. Seebohm from the Yenesei this collar rises behind above
+the top of the head. The costume is completed by a cap of reindeer
+skin, with strings on either side ornamented with pieces of cloth.
+The hair of the _sovik_ is worn outside in fine weather, and inside
+when it rains; but when prolonged exposure to cold is apprehended, a
+second garment, called a “_gus_,” is worn, with the hair outside, and
+a close-fitting hood, leaving exposed only a small portion of the
+face. The Ostjaks are said to have at the end of the sleeve a glove
+or mitten, made of the hardest hide of the reindeer, and suitable for
+heavy work, and also a slit under the wrist to allow of the fingers
+being put through for finer work. A girdle is worn round the loins,
+over which the _sovik_ laps a little, and thus forms a pocket for small
+articles.
+
+[Illustration: SAMOYEDES OF ARCHANGEL.]
+
+I have been told, by one well acquainted with the Samoyedes, that
+it is often very difficult to trade with them before giving a glass
+of _vodka_, and that, when once given, they are irrepressible in
+clamouring for more. Men may sometimes be seen who have brought in
+their wares to barter for winter necessaries, and who will exchange the
+whole for spirits, and reduce themselves to beggary. This has caused
+the Russian Government to forbid the sale of spirits in these northern
+regions, but the traders smuggle them in.[3]
+
+I must not forget to add that some pleasing accounts of the honesty of
+the Samoyedes and Ostjaks were related to us. The merchants of Tobolsk,
+for instance, when they go north in the summer to purchase fish, take
+with them flour and salt, place them in their summer stations, and,
+on their return, leave unprotected what remains for the following
+year. Should a Samoyede pass by and require it, he does not scruple to
+take what he wants, but he leaves in its place an I.O.U., in the form
+of a duplicate stick, duly notched, to signify that he is a debtor;
+and then, in the fishing season, he comes to his creditor, compares
+the duplicate stick he has kept with the one he left behind, and
+discharges his obligation. Captain Wiggins also records that when, in
+the winter months of 1876-77, his ship the _Thames_ was laid up in the
+Kureika, it was surrounded by hundreds of Ostjaks and other natives,
+but that nothing was stolen.
+
+The difficulties of educating and Christianizing these wandering
+tribes are very great.[4] I heard, however, that in European Russia
+a priest is sent yearly to a town in the far north of the Archangel
+province, to baptize the children and marry such among the Samoyedes
+of that region as are professedly Christian. Réclus, however, speaks
+of the Yurak-Samoyedes as still practising their bloody rites, and
+thrusting pieces of raw flesh into the mouths of their idols. In 1877
+the Russians opened a school at Obdorsk for the natives. We may hope,
+therefore, that for them better days are coming, both by reason of
+what the Russians are doing, and also, possibly and indirectly, by the
+efforts which certain Englishmen are making to invade the lands of
+these aborigines for the purposes of trade.
+
+[Illustration: A YURAK-SAMOYEDE.]
+
+That the commercial value of the basin of the Obi and a large part
+of Western Siberia is not yet realized by European capitalists is
+the opinion of most of those that I have met who have been there. A
+limited demand exists for English merchandise, and the possibility of
+an almost unlimited supply of products needed by England. The Altai
+mountains, for instance, are rich in silver, copper, and iron, which
+last is also abundant in the valley of the Tom. But these are as
+nothing compared with grain, for the production of which the country
+is admirably fitted. From the southern border of the Tobolsk province,
+for 600 miles northward, lies a district of fertile black earth; and
+so exclusively is it of this character in the valleys of many of
+the rivers, which overflow like the Nile, and leave a rich deposit,
+that the geologist finds it difficult to pick up even a few specimen
+pebbles. It is like a vast tract of garden land, well suited for the
+production of wheat, oats, linseed, barley, and other cereals. Farther
+north are prairies for cattle, and a wooded region, inhabited by
+various fur-bearing animals, where the pine, fir, and birch abound.
+These remarks apply to the valley of the Obi no less than to that of
+the Yenesei, where Mr. Seebohm found he could purchase a larch, 60 feet
+long, 3 feet diameter at the base, and 18 inches at the apex, for a
+sovereign, and that a hundred such could be had to order in a week. In
+the city of Tobolsk the cost of provisions, we were told, had advanced
+to five times what it was 30 years ago; but even so, the present
+price of meat was quoted at 2_d._, and rye flour at a halfpenny, per
+pound.[5] Again, north of the wooded region come the _tundras_, over
+which roam the reindeer, wild and tame; and about 100 miles up the
+Kureika, which flows into the Yenesei, there is a valuable mine of
+graphite lying on the surface; besides which the rivers are so full
+of fish that the fishermen try not to catch too many, because of the
+frequent breaking of their nets.
+
+These riches have long been known to the Siberians, to whom they were
+practically useless for export, by reason of expensive land carriage
+over the Urals; and the only other way of transit to Europe was through
+the Kara Sea, which was supposed to be ice-blocked perpetually. So far
+back as the sixteenth century, the English and the Dutch tried hard
+to penetrate the Siberian ocean, but were always stopped at Novaia
+Zemlia; so that for two centuries no fresh effort was made. Of late
+years, however, Captain Wiggins, of Sunderland, who, from his youth,
+appears to have been a bold and adventurous seaman, happened to read
+in Wrangell’s “Polar Sea” that, three centuries ago, the Russians were
+wont to coast from Archangel, for purposes of trade, to Mangasee, on
+the Taz, near the gulf of the Obi; and it occurred to him that, if
+they could do it in their wretched “kotchkies,” or boats of planking,
+fastened to a frame with thongs of leather, and calked with moss, he
+ought much more easily to be able to do so with the aid of steam.
+With his characteristic love of adventure, therefore, and at his own
+expense, he determined to make the attempt; and on June 3rd, 1874, he
+left Dundee in the _Diana_, a small steamer of only 104 tons. In little
+more than three weeks the Kara Sea was entered, and found free of ice;
+and the _Diana_ entered the gulf of Obi on the 5th of August--the
+first sea-going vessel that had ever done so. Circumstances did not
+permit of his ascending the river; he returned, therefore, paid off his
+crew, and employed the winter in making known the feasibility of the
+route. He found great difficulty, however, in persuading the mercantile
+world, and applied in vain to the Royal Geographical Society for help
+to follow up his discoveries. Whereupon there came forward another
+explorer to snatch the rose from the captain’s hand; for Professor
+Nordenskiöld, seeing what Wiggins had done,--amply supported by his
+Government, by private enterprise, and without cost to himself (as it
+should be)--followed next year through the Kara Sea, passed the Obi
+gulf, and entered the Yenesei, from whence, having sent back his ship,
+he returned overland to Petersburg. The feasibility of the sea-route
+was now manifest; and, as I passed through Tiumen, Messrs. Wardropper
+were building, at a distance of 700 miles from the ocean, two sea-going
+ships, for Messrs. Trapeznikoff and Co., of Moscow, to be floated down
+the Obi and round the North Cape to England.
+
+It is the opinion of both navigators that “a regular sea communication
+between Siberia and Northern Europe, during a short season of the
+year, ought not to be attended with greater risks and dangers than
+seamen encounter on many other waters now visited by thousands of
+vessels.” These are the sober words of Professor Nordenskiöld; and
+to the same effect are the words spoken publicly by Captain Wiggins,
+in whom we have a brave and honest seaman, and concerning whose work
+England need only be ashamed that he received so little support. He
+has shown, however, by a voyage made in 1878, that steamers of any
+size, but of shallow draught, can go some 400 miles up the Obi. On
+the 2nd of August he left Liverpool in the _Warkworth_, an ordinary
+steamer of 340 tons net register, chartered through Mr. Wm. Byford,
+of London, shipbroker, for sole account of Mr. Oswald Cattley, first
+guild merchant of Petersburg, with a miscellaneous cargo, and arrived
+in 15 days. He was met by lighters from the Barnaul district, with
+wheat, flax, etc., to load the steamer, and then convey inland the
+cargo from Liverpool. No mishap occurred on the outward voyage; but,
+in consequence of the Obi falling so rapidly, the steamer touched the
+ground on coming down the river. He arrived safely, however, in London
+on the 3rd of October; thus occupying two months on the passage out
+and home. Subsequent trading voyages have been attempted, some of
+which failed; but the causes of failure were such as may in future be
+overcome, the _Neptune_ of Hamburg having made successful voyages in
+1878 and 1880. It appears, then, that the trade only awaits further
+development,[6] and if, with specially strengthened steamers, the
+carriage of produce can thus be arranged between England and Siberia,
+both countries will doubtless be gainers thereby.[7]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The principal branch of the Obi is the Irtish, which, rising in
+Mongolia, passes through Lake Zaizang, about 1,720 feet above the sea
+level. It then passes Ustkammenogorsk, in the Altai region, where it
+becomes navigable, and, flowing on to Omsk, is subsequently joined by
+the Ishim and the Tobol, which last is made up of the Isset, Tura,
+and Tavda, the last three descending from the watershed of the Urals.
+The Obi proper rises in Siberia, and runs with a rapid course through
+the northern ridges of the Altai mountains, amid scenery resembling
+in beauty and grandeur that of the Lake of Lucerne. It is joined
+north of Tomsk by the Tom and the Tchulim, and then it flows on in a
+westerly course, swelled by many minor streams, to its junction with
+the Irtish, on the 60th parallel. Before reaching the Tom the current
+becomes gentle, and allows of easy navigation, especially in spring,
+when water is abundant; but, in approaching the Irtish, shoals become
+numerous. The Obi then takes a northerly course, and frequently divides
+as it traverses an alluvial and low plain from 40 to 50 miles wide, the
+greater part of which, after winter, is inundated. This enormous river,
+having now a course of 2,700 miles, falls into the Obi Gulf, which is
+400 miles long, and from 70 to 80 miles wide. For a large part of the
+year the water flows under ice, which at Tiumen is from 3 to 4 feet,
+and on the gulf is 7 feet, thick.
+
+[2] There are nine uyezds in the province, and among its prominent
+towns are Turinsk and Tiumen, on the Tura; Kurgan and Yalutorofsk on
+the Tobol; Ishim, on the river of that name; and Tara, on the Irtish;
+together with Surgut, Berezov, and Obdorsk, on the Lower Obi; whilst
+the capital town of the government is Tobolsk. Hoppe’s Almanack for
+1880 gives the population at 1,102,302, but the Almanack for 1878
+gives a smaller number, which represents an earlier census, and is
+mentioned here only for the purpose of giving the reader some idea of
+the social position of the inhabitants, who in 1870 were classified
+thus: hereditary nobles, 404; personally noble, 3,025; ecclesiastical
+persons (which includes not only all grades of clergy, but also their
+families), 3,045; a town population of 30,000, and a rural population
+of 436,000. To this must be added a military force of 50,000, 25
+foreigners, and an aboriginal and mixed population of 142,000; the
+exact total of which then amounted to 666,800.
+
+[3] We heard from other sources that for brandy these aborigines
+will sell everything short of their souls, and even these would
+appear sometimes to tremble in the balance, if the following story
+be true:--A Russian priest, it seemed, intent upon adding sheep to
+his fold, even though by very questionable means, sometimes gave
+drink to the Samoyedes and Ostjaks, and, when they were in a muddled
+condition, baptized them, put round their necks the cross, and thus
+brought them into the fold of the orthodox Russian Church. On coming
+to their senses they sometimes objected to what had been done, but,
+like the recruit who took the Queen’s shilling, they were caught, and
+the only way to escape was to bribe the priest to erase their names
+from his register, and let them go. This was told us by a man who had
+lived in the Samoyede country. The story presented such a _bathos_
+of proselytizing zeal, that I asked particularly if it were really
+true, and was answered in the affirmative. In the time of the Emperor
+Nicholas, zealous missionary priests received honours and decorations
+in proportion to the number of Pagans and Jews they baptized; but
+this, I believe, is not the case now. I heard, further east, of other
+questionable means taken by a priest to obtain proselytes from the
+aborigines of the Amur. This, however, was done by one who, during my
+stay in the town, publicly disgraced his cloth by intemperance. These
+enormities, therefore, must be laid to the account, not of the Russian
+Church, but to that of certain of its corrupt officials. They are
+mentioned here on the principle that not only the truth but the whole
+truth should be told; and, further, because I would fain not have to
+allude to the subject when I come hereafter to record better things, as
+I shall have to do, of the missionary efforts of the Russian Church in
+Siberia.
+
+[4] In 1824 a commencement was made to translate into Samoyede the
+Gospel of St. Matthew, but it did not go on after 1826. The same gospel
+was translated some years ago into the language of the Ostjaks by the
+_protohierea_, or chief priest, at Obdorsk, and was forwarded to the
+Russian Bible Society, but not published; and, up to the present time,
+neither that nor any other part of the New Testament exists, as far as
+I know for the Samoyedes, Ostjaks, or Voguls.--Dr. Latham mentions 11
+dialects in the Samoyede language, and refers to the work of Professor
+Castrén, who, about 30 years ago, studied closely the languages of the
+Finnish and Samoyede nations, and to whose labours we owe dictionaries
+of some of these tongues,--published after his death by Schiefner.
+
+[5] The surprisingly small cost of provisions on the Obi will be
+referred to hereafter; but some idea may be formed, for the purposes of
+trade, of the cheapness of provisions, from the fact that a merchant
+told me that in 1877 he bought up meat at Tobolsk for less than ½_d._
+per English pound, and that, more recently, he sold for the Petersburg
+market ten thousand brace of black grouse, capercailzie, and hazel
+grouse at 9_d._ a pair all round. The cost for transporting from
+Tiumen to Petersburg is as follows: heavy goods, going by land where
+necessary, and floated on the rivers where possible, take 12 months
+in transit, and cost about 5_s._ a cwt.; if, however, goods are sent
+by road to Nijni Novgorod, and thence forwarded by rail, they take 2½
+months in transit, and cost up to 12_s._ a cwt.; or, again, if goods
+are sent “express”--that is, put into large sledges, carrying each from
+a ton to a ton and a half, placed under charge of a man, and drawn by
+three horses, to Nijni Novgorod, and thence by rail--the transport
+costs 18_s._ a cwt. Notwithstanding this heavy cost of carriage,
+however, the merchants at Tiumen can bring their fish from the mouth of
+the Obi, forward it to Petersburg, sell the sturgeon at 24_s._, and the
+_sterlet_, _nelma_, and _moksun_ at 30_s._ the cwt., and then secure a
+handsome profit for everybody concerned.
+
+[6] For further remarks on the commercial prospects of Western Siberia,
+see Appendix D.
+
+[7] There are two books written by scientific explorers of the basin
+of the Obi, which it may be useful to mention for the sake of any who
+wish to study this part of Siberia. One is that of Adolph Erman, who,
+for the purpose of making magnetical observations, travelled in 1828
+to Tobolsk, and then descended the river as far as Obdorsk; the second
+is the German work of Dr. Otto Finsch, who, from Tiumen, ascended the
+Irtish, in 1876, towards the Altai mountains, and then, turning north
+to Barnaul and Tomsk, followed the Obi to its mouth. Another class
+of books, written for the most part by returned exiles, throws more
+or less light upon Western Siberia, such as “The Exile of Kotzebue,”
+published in 1802, and “Revelations of Siberia,” by a banished lady,
+who spent a short time on the Lower Obi at Beresov.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+_TOBOLSK._
+
+ Early history of Siberia.--Yermak.--Conquest of the Tatars.--Tobolsk
+     the first capital.--The exiled bell.--Our visit to the
+     Governor.--Hard-labour prisons.--Interior arrangements.--“_Travaux
+     forcés._”--Testimony of prisoners.--Books presented.
+
+
+Tobolsk, for a long period, was the capital of the whole of Siberia.
+This will be a suitable place, therefore, in which to treat briefly
+the history of the Russian subjugation of the country at large. It can
+hardly be said that Siberia was familiar to the Russians before the
+middle of the sixteenth century; for, although at an earlier period
+an expedition had penetrated as far as the Lower Obi, yet its effects
+were not permanent. Later, Ivan Vassilievitch II. sent a number of
+troops over the Urals, laid some of the Tatar tribes under tribute,
+and in 1558 assumed the title of “Lord of Siberia.” Kutchum Khan,
+however, a lineal descendant of Genghis Khan, punished these tribes
+for their defection, and regained their fealty, and so ended again
+for a while the result of the Russian expedition. A third invasion,
+however, was made in a way quite unexpected. Ivan Vassilievitch II.
+had extended his conquests to the Caspian Sea, and opened commercial
+relations with Persia; but the merchants and caravans were frequently
+pillaged by hordes of banditti, called Don Cossacks, whom the Tsar
+attacked, killing some and taking prisoner or scattering others. Among
+the dispersed were 6,000 freebooters, under the command of a chief
+named Yermak Timofeeff, who made their way to the banks of the Kama,
+to a settlement at Orel, belonging to one of the Stroganoffs, where
+they were entertained during a dreary winter, and where Yermak heard of
+an inviting field of adventure, lying on the other side of the Urals.
+Thither he determined to try his fortunes, and after an unsuccessful
+attempt in the summer of 1578, started again with 5,000 men in June of
+the next year. It was eighteen months before he reached the small town
+of Tchingi, on the banks of the Tura; by which time his followers had
+dwindled down, by skirmishes, privation, and fatigue, to 1,500 men.
+But they were all braves. Before them was Kutchum Khan, prince of the
+country, already in position, and, with numerous troops, resolved to
+defend himself to the last. When at length the two armies stood face
+to face, that of Yermak was further reduced to 500 men, nine-tenths
+of those who left Orel having perished. A desperate fight ensued, the
+Tatars were routed, and Yermak pushed on to Sibir, the residence of
+the Tatar princes. It was a small fortress on the banks of the Irtish,
+the ruins of which are still standing, and of which I have seen a
+photograph, if I mistake not, among Mr. Seebohm’s collection.
+
+Yermak was now suddenly transformed to a prince, but he had the good
+sense to see the precariousness of his grandeur, and it became plain
+that he must seek for assistance. He sent, therefore, fifty of his
+Cossacks to the Tsar of Muscovy, their chief being adroitly ordered to
+represent to the Court the progress which the Russian troops, under
+the command of Yermak, had made in Siberia, where an extensive empire
+had been conquered in the name of the Tsar. The Tsar took very kindly
+to this, pardoned Yermak, and sent him money and assistance. Reinforced
+by 500 Russians, Yermak multiplied his expeditions, extended his
+conquests, and was enabled to subdue various insurrections fomented by
+the conquered Kutchum Khan. In one of these expeditions he laid siege
+to the small fortress of Kullara, which still belonged to his foe, and
+by whom it was so bravely defended that Yermak had to retreat. Kutchum
+Khan stealthily followed the Russians, and, finding them negligently
+posted on a small island in the Irtish, he forded the river, attacked
+them by night, and came upon them so suddenly as with comparative ease
+to cut them to pieces. Yermak perished, but not, it is said, by the
+sword of the enemy. Having cut his way to the water’s edge, he tried
+to jump into a boat, but, stepping short, he fell into the water, and
+the weight of his armour carried him to the bottom. Thus perished
+Yermak Timofeeff, and when the news reached Sibir, the remainder of his
+followers retired from the fortress, and left the country.
+
+The Court of Moscow, however, sent a body of 300 men, who before long
+made a fresh incursion, and reached Tchingi almost without opposition.
+There they built the fort of Tiumen, and re-established the Russian
+sovereignty. Being soon afterwards reinforced, they extended their
+operations, and built the fortresses of Tobolsk, Sungur, and Tara, and
+soon gained for the Tsar all the territory west of the Obi. The stream
+of conquest then flowed eastward apace. Tomsk was founded in 1604,
+and became the Russian head-quarters, whence the Cossacks organized
+new expeditions. Yeneseisk was founded in 1619, and, eight years
+afterwards, Krasnoiarsk. Passing the Yenesei, they advanced to the
+shores of Lake Baikal, and in 1620 attacked and partly conquered the
+populous nation of the Buriats. Then, turning northwards to the basin
+of the Lena, they founded Yakutsk in 1632, and made subject, though not
+without considerable difficulty, the powerful nation of the Yakutes;
+after which they crossed the Aldan mountains, and in 1639 reached the
+Sea of Okhotsk. Thus in the span of a single lifetime--70 years--was
+added to the Russian crown a territory as large as the whole of Europe,
+whose ancient capital, as I have said, was Tobolsk.
+
+The citadel and upper town stand on a hill, with a precipitous front,
+at the foot of which lies the lower town. The two are now connected by
+a winding carriage-road, but formerly the only entrance to the citadel
+was by a very steep incline through the fortress gates. From the top of
+the hill an extensive view is obtained of the Irtish, flowing close by
+the town to its junction with the Tobol. The town below is built with
+regularity, and contains many churches and monasteries. The houses are
+chiefly of wood, and the streets are paved with the same material. But
+the glory of Tobolsk has long been waning, and, when this is the case
+with a Siberian town, wooden roadways degenerate into a delusion and a
+snare. They rot and remain unrepaired, and one is in danger at night
+of tumbling into holes. The population of the town consists mainly of
+Russians, Tatars, and Germans, and in it are manufactured leather,
+tallow, soap, tiles, boats, and firearms.
+
+In the upper part of the town are some handsome churches, and a
+cathedral, near which is the famous bell from Uglitch, that was exiled
+by Boris Gudonoff because it gave signal to the insurrectionists. On
+their being quelled, the unfortunate bell was deposed, had two of
+its ears broken off, was publicly flogged, and sent to Siberia and
+forbidden for ever to ring again. But the ban has since been removed,
+and it now is hung, not in a belfry, but alone, and assists in calling
+the people to church.
+
+Not far from the fortress are the pleasure-gardens, and also the three
+hard-labour prisons, which we wished particularly to see. My letter was
+therefore presented to M. Lisagorsky, the Governor, who immediately
+sent for the police-master; and we proceeded at once to visit our first
+hard-labour prisons in Siberia. For many years Tobolsk was a principal
+place of punishment, and even now prisoners condemned to the east
+frequently spend here the first portion of their time. On the road we
+had heard it spoken of as a place of considerable severity, in which
+were kept those condemned to “travaux forcés.” On entering, therefore,
+I braced my nerves for such horrors as might present themselves. The
+authorities seemed determined that the prisoners should not harm us
+(or them?); for, as we moved from ward to ward and section to section,
+there followed us four soldiers with fixed bayonets. The buildings
+were large and of brick, with double windows to keep out the cold;
+and I noticed that, in addition to a pillow and covering, mattresses
+stuffed with old clothes were also provided for the prisoners. These,
+I presume, were furnished by the local committee. They had a few
+books, and as one man only in ten could read, it was usual during the
+evenings for these to read aloud to their less instructed fellows. I
+saw a copy of the “Lives of the Saints” in one room, but no Bibles.
+The guard-room for the military was furnished much the same as the
+prisoners’ rooms. There were likewise other wards of various sizes: one
+for murderers, having five occupants (most of whom, we were told, had
+committed their crimes in fits of drunkenness); another for eight men
+without passports; and other rooms for thieves. One was occupied by
+a man who had run away, and another by a man who, for selling things
+belonging to an altar, had been found guilty of sacrilege.
+
+In the first prison were nine single cells, in one of which was a
+Polish doctor, a political offender, who had surrounded himself with
+such small comforts as Polish books, eau-de-Cologne, and cigarettes,
+which last _he_ (by way of privilege) was allowed to smoke. One or two
+cells were set apart for punishment.
+
+After marching through room after room, corridor after corridor, now
+across yards with prisoners lolling about, and now through sleeping
+apartments, where some were not even up, though breakfast-time had long
+gone by, I began to wonder where the _work_ was going on, and asked
+to be shown the labours of those condemned to “travaux forcés”; upon
+which we were taken first into a room for wheelwrights, and next into
+a blacksmith’s shop. Then we were introduced to a company of tailors,
+and another of shoemakers, and last of all we saw a room fitted for
+joiners or cabinet-makers’ work. The amount of labour going on appeared
+to be exceedingly small, and the number of men employed (or apparently
+that could be employed) to be only a sprinkling of the 732 inmates in
+prisons Nos. 1 and 3, and 264 in prison No. 2. I believe some reason
+was given why more were not at work, though whether it was a holiday
+or bathing-day, or what, I forget; but I came to the conclusion that
+they had not appliances enough to find occupation for 1,000 prisoners,
+and that one need not have come to Siberia to see the severity of a
+hard-labour prison, since the same might just as easily have been
+witnessed in Europe. Had I entered with any of the curiosity that takes
+people to the chamber of horrors at Madame Tussaud’s, such curiosity
+would certainly have remained ungratified. The prisons of Tobolsk
+reminded me most of those I had seen in Vienna and Cracow, in which,
+however, in some respects, a comparison would result in favour of
+Siberia; for at Cracow the convicts had not only to work at the bench
+by day, but, if my memory does not fail me, to sleep on it at night.
+At Tobolsk a set portion of labour is imposed daily; but when this is
+done, the prisoner is at liberty to work for himself. Various specimens
+of their handicraft were shown to us.
+
+Prison No. 2 contained criminals who were sentenced to terms ranging
+from one year to the whole of life, and who, when liberated, were to
+be sent east to live like colonists. I do not know to whom the credit
+of superiority is due, whether to the governor of the province, the
+governor of the prison, or the local committee; but I was struck with
+the fact when I subsequently asked two prisoners who had been deported
+across Siberia, as to which prison west of Irkutsk they thought, from
+their point of view, the best, they both mentioned that of Tobolsk. We
+left with the governor of this province nearly 500 Scripture portions,
+such as copies of the Gospels, Psalms, and the New Testament in
+Russian, Polish, German, French, and Tatar, together with 400 copies
+of the illustrated _Russian Workman_, and 1,000 tracts, his Excellency
+kindly undertaking to distribute the papers and tracts in the schools,
+and in the best way he could through the province generally, and
+to place the books for permanent use, not in the libraries, but
+within reach of each person in every room of every prison, hospital,
+poor-house, or similar institution under his administration. Having
+made these arrangements, committed them to paper in the form of a
+letter, and delivered it to the governor on the Monday evening, we
+awaited the arrival of the steamer to take us to Tomsk.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+_FROM TOBOLSK TO TOMSK._
+
+ The steamer _Beljetchenko_.--Fellow-passengers.--Card-playing.--Cost
+     of provisions.--Inspection of convicts’ barge.--An exile
+     fellow-passenger.--Obi navigation.--The Ostjaks.--Their
+     fisheries.--Feats of archery.--Marriage customs.
+
+
+The Siberians are rich in time. Days to them are of little consequence;
+hours of no moment. With them “Time is _not_ money.” “What difference,”
+said a coachman at Ekaterineburg to a friend of mine for whom he
+had lost his train, “what difference one way or other could an hour
+make, or for that matter _two_ hours either?” Moreover, the arrival
+and departure of steamers are not announced by a.m. and p.m., but
+the date simply is given; and of course you are expected to be in
+readiness to start at any moment of the twenty-four hours. We deemed
+it unsafe, therefore, to sleep at the hotel on Monday night, the 2nd
+of June, lest we should be left behind; so, getting our tarantass and
+luggage on the pier, I crept inside the vehicle, and there spent the
+early part of the night, till, at dawn, the steamer arrived. For a
+Siberian steamer, the _Beljetchenko_, belonging to Messrs. Kourbatoff
+and Ignatoff, was good, and her dimensions, compared with others upon
+which I subsequently travelled, were large. She was a paddle-boat, with
+fore-cabins and saloons for first-class passengers, and after-cabins
+for those of the second class, whilst the deck was allotted to a
+considerable number of third-class passengers and discharged soldiers
+who were “homeward bound.” All told, the passengers, I should imagine,
+could not have counted less than from 100 to 150. Among those of
+the first class were some pleasant people, such as officers of the
+army, navy, and gendarmerie, and a few school girls going home for
+summer holidays from Petersburg, a distance of 3,000 miles. There
+were specimens also of the ubiquitous Russian merchant, travelling on
+business. Our first impressions of these travellers were unfavourable.
+Some of the gentlemen were taking leave, if I mistake not, at Tobolsk,
+of friends, and this event is usually accompanied in Siberia with
+the drinking of a great deal of wine; so that, when one of the naval
+officers came to take his place in the sleeping saloon, he was in a
+condition “unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.” We were spared
+further inconvenience of this kind by the captain, who had received
+injunctions from one of the proprietors, Mr. Ignatoff, to look after
+“Mr. Missionary,” as the captain insisted upon calling me, and on which
+I did not undeceive him. For the payment of three second-class fares
+he gave us for sleeping the second-class ladies’ cabin--intended for
+five persons--in which we were comfortable enough at night, whilst we
+sat where we pleased by day. The captain was also instructed to charge
+£2 instead of £4 for the carriage of our tarantass, and also to deal
+leniently with our heavy excess of baggage and books. As our voyage
+lasted several days, it was not a matter for surprise that time hung
+heavily upon the hands of some of the passengers, but I was hardly
+prepared for the amount of card-playing with which much of it was
+killed. In no country that I have visited have I seen a tenth part of
+the card-playing that I witnessed in Siberia. The Russian Government
+exercises a monopoly in the manufacture of playing-cards, the profits
+being applied to the support of the Foundling Hospital at Moscow,
+and 110 tons of cards are annually carried on the Petersburg-Moscow
+railway. I am told that the amount of card-playing in European Russia
+also is very considerable; that there are clubs in Petersburg where
+the gambling is frightful. As for our fellow-passengers, there was a
+clique who played by day and quarrelled by night, and sometimes did
+not leave off their games till seven in the morning. By the time the
+journey was five days old, £20 had been lost by a young officer, who
+told me that in the small towns of the interior, in which soldiers are
+quartered, where there is little congenial society and nothing to do,
+card-playing is the daily constant resource of the officers. The habit,
+moreover, is not confined to men, but is indulged in, though apparently
+in a less degree, by women also. On board the steamer the game was
+not accompanied by excessive drinking, and, happily, several of the
+passengers--especially the ladies--spoke French, and a few could read
+English, so that in their society we passed an agreeable time.
+
+The fares for travelling and the charges for provisions were low. The
+three second-class tickets for the whole journey of 8 days cost only
+£4, and for a dinner of 4 or 5 courses--soup, fish, meat, game, and
+pastry,--only 2_s._ were charged. I remembered this tariff with a sigh
+in California, where the price was double for a meal not half so
+good, with wretched attendance into the bargain. It must be confessed,
+however, that provisions on the river’s bank were extremely cheap--so
+cheap that one almost hesitates to put it on paper. At Surgut I was
+offered a pair of ducks for 2½_d._; 10 brace of _riabchiks_, a sort
+of grouse about the size of a partridge, cost 1_s._; a couple of fish
+called _yass_, weighing, I supposed, 1½ lb. each, were offered for
+1½_d._; and 10 large fish, as a lot, for ¼_d._ each. At Juchova I was
+offered for 5_d._ a couple of pike, weighing probably 20 lbs., and a
+live duck for 1¼_d._; whilst at the villages in the district we passed,
+which are not easily accessible, a young calf, I was told, could be
+bought for 6_d._
+
+[Illustration: THE “IRTISH,” A CONVICT BARGE ON THE OBI.]
+
+As we ploughed along, there was tugged at our stern a barge laden with
+convicts, to which Dr. Johnson’s definition of a ship as “a prison
+afloat” would with accuracy apply. The barge was a large floating
+hull, called the _Irtish_, 245 feet long, and 30 feet beam, 11 feet
+high from the keel to the deck, with a 4-feet water-line. It was made
+expressly for the transport of convicts, of whom it was intended to
+carry 800, with 22 officers. Below it was fitted with platforms for
+sleeping, like those described in the jails, whilst at either end
+of the craft were deck-houses eight feet high, containing a small
+hospital, an apothecary’s shop, and apartments for the officers and
+soldiers in charge. The space between the deck-houses was roofed
+over, and the sides closed by bars and wires, painfully suggestive of
+a menagerie, or reminding one of the cage-cells in the old jail at
+Edinburgh. The vessel had neither masts nor engines, and bore a pretty
+close resemblance to a child’s Noah’s ark. At one of our stoppages
+I was trying to make a sketch of this unique craft, when the officer
+came and invited me to inspect it. We therefore went on board, with
+hands and pockets full of reading matter for distribution; and if the
+bars were suggestive of a menagerie, so, I must add, was the mode in
+which the occupants received our literary food. Not that they were
+rude, but so delighted were they with the pictures, and so eager to
+get the papers that contained them, that we found it hard work to
+hold our own. We had afterwards an opportunity of testing the value
+in money of this apparent eagerness for reading material. In former
+years I had always _given_ both Scriptures and tracts. This year it
+was urged, and I think rightly, that it is better, when possible, to
+sell them. To offer them, however, for money to convicts seemed almost
+a mockery. Nevertheless we tried it, and requested the officer to let
+us know how many prisoners would like to give 2½_d._ for a copy of
+the New Testament, or the Book of Psalms. To my surprise he came at a
+subsequent stopping-place, bringing the money for 44 copies, and said
+that one man was in such haste to get his book that he had been to him
+three times to ask for it. As we proceeded on our course, and, looking
+back, saw the broad keel of the barge ploughing its way after us, one
+could not help feeling for its strange freight, and the many heavy
+hearts that were being tugged along further and further from the dear
+place called “home.” But such thoughts received little enlargement at
+the halting-places, when the barge was drawn up to the bank; for the
+hilarity thereon of men, women, and children was much more noisy than
+that of the free people on the steamer. One might have thought that
+the convicts were having a good time of it; and it had been observed
+to us at Tiumen, as a noteworthy remark, that although, of the 800
+prisoners on board, probably 250 would be murderers, nevertheless
+20 soldiers would suffice to control them. They had a considerable
+amount of freedom on the barge, though they could not go, of course,
+indiscriminately to whatever part of the vessel they pleased.
+
+At one of the halting-places we dropped a Polish exile, a doctor. He
+was the same man we had seen with his little comforts in the prison
+at Tobolsk. He was not on the barge, but travelled, as such prisoners
+usually do, on the steamer, as a second-class passenger, in a cabin
+near ours, with a gendarme who kept him, and who, we had opportunities
+of observing, never allowed him to go for a moment out of his sight.
+We had ingratiated ourselves into the gendarme’s favour by giving
+him books, as we had given also to the soldiers, passengers, and all
+on board, and we wished to chat with the prisoner; but his guard was
+faithful to his duty, and would not suffer him to be spoken to. When
+it was time for the prisoner to go on shore, he walked erect out of
+his cabin, dressed in private clothes, wearing shaded spectacles, and
+smoking a cigar. But he was landed at a miserable place on the 62nd
+parallel, where, at the beginning of June, the leaves were not out, and
+it had not ceased occasionally to snow; at a village where an educated
+man could, I presume, find little agreeable society or congenial
+occupation. His hair was already grey, and as he sat upon his little
+stock of clothes, with the gendarme standing near, and watching our
+ship as it glided away, we felt we had left him in a sorry place in
+which to spend his declining years. We heard that he had a second time
+incurred punishment, by trying to escape from Nertchinsk. But it was a
+melancholy illustration of the meaning of Siberian exile.
+
+The distance from Tobolsk to Tomsk by water is 1,600 miles, which we
+accomplished in 8 days. We overtook more than one freight steamer, but
+saw few other vessels, and no timber rafts. The banks were low and
+flat, and houses of rare occurrence. On the second day from Tobolsk we
+stopped at Samarova, where the Irtish runs into the Obi; and on the
+third day we stopped at Surgut, a place of 1,200 inhabitants. Three
+days later we touched at Narim, which has a population of 2,000.
+
+We did not land sufficiently near to any of these towns to allow of a
+visit, and the steamer picked up and set down few passengers. Herds
+of half-wild horses were seen from time to time on the prairies. They
+were not shod, were unfamiliar with the taste of oats, and had in the
+summer to find their own living. In the winter they are used for the
+transport of dried and frozen fish. The natives have an ingenious way
+of catching fish through holes in the ice, especially in the case of
+the sturgeon, which in winter congregate in muddy hollows in the bed
+of the river, lying motionless in clusters for the sake of warmth.
+The Ostjak cuts a hole above them, sets a spring rod, and then forms
+a number of balls of clay, which he makes red hot and throws into the
+river below his bait. The heat rouses the sturgeon, which rise, swim
+up stream, and are caught. There are large fisheries in the gulfs of
+the Obi and the Taz, where the Russians pay rent for the sandbanks to
+the Samoyedes, and, having caught the fish in summer, they put them in
+ponds till the approach of winter. They are then taken out and frozen,
+and in this condition sent as _fresh_ fish a journey of 2,000 miles to
+Petersburg.[1] A large quantity of dried fish is also forwarded from
+the Obi to the great fair of Nijni Novgorod. Furs and hides likewise
+are sent there from the northern part of the province, together with
+rye, barley, oats, and buckwheat from the south.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Nothing, however, that we saw on the banks was more interesting perhaps
+than the aborigines, especially the Ostjaks, some of whom appeared
+paddling in their tiny canoes, and stealthily gliding among the bushes
+as the steamer approached. The Ostjaks inhabit a tract of country on
+either side of the Irtish and Obi, extending as far north as Obdorsk,
+on the south to Tobolsk, and nearly as far east as Narim. There is
+also a territory over which they roam on the left bank of the Yenesei
+below Turukhansk, though Mr. Howorth thinks that these are miscalled
+Ostjaks, being really Samoyedes. Their numbers are estimated at 24,000.
+They have no towns or villages, though they sometimes settle among the
+Russians. We saw on the banks the frames of some of their _yourts_,
+or tents, though the people were just then driven by the floods
+to higher ground. In the neighbourhood of the Obi they possess no
+reindeer; their wealth consists of boats, fishing-tackle, clothes,
+and utensils; and a nomad Ostjak who possesses goods to the value of
+£10 is deemed a rich man. In this district they have ceased to wear
+their native costume; and are become more or less Russianized; but the
+Ostjaks of the Yenesei still dress in the costume of their forefathers.
+These people are short of stature, with dark hair and eyes, and flat
+faces; in complexion and general appearance those we saw were not much
+unlike some of the Siberians. They live principally by fishing and
+the chase, and are very skilful in the use of the bow. In shooting
+squirrels, for instance, they use a blunt arrow, and take care to hit
+the animal on the head, so as not to damage the fur.[2]
+
+[Illustration: OSTJAKS ON THE OBI, IN SUMMER YOURT.]
+
+I had heard of these aboriginals, before leaving England, from Miss
+Alba Hellman in Finland, who thus writes of some of their marriage
+customs in expressive English: “The Ostjaks are carrying on the most
+shameless commerce with their daughters. A girl is a valuable thing
+while she is yet in her parents’ home. She then gets all possible care
+and protection. But is it therefore that she may be a good daughter,
+wife, or mother? By no means for that cause: an Ostjak father has the
+same object in his daughter’s feeding as he has in feeding his animals.
+Well fed, she will not long stay at home without the father getting
+good payment for her. The price of an ordinary wife was at the river
+Irtish (on the Obi the price is higher), first, from £20 to £30 in
+money; next, a horse, a cow, and an ox; then from 7 to 10 pieces of
+clothing; and lastly, a pood of meal, a few hops, and a measure of
+brandy for the wedding feast. And when a man cannot afford to pay all
+these things, he often steals the girl. So says Professor Castrén.”
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The fish of the Obi are generally pike, perch, bleak, and a kind of
+red mullet, and are of less importance than the migratory fish from the
+sea. These are chiefly the sturgeon, the _nelma_, and _muksum_, several
+kinds of salmon, and the herring. In the first weeks of June, when the
+ice breaks up, they commence their ascent of the river, avoiding the
+rapid parts, the quick swimmers soon getting ahead of the rest: 30
+miles below Obdorsk they form shoals, and have all passed in a week,
+by which time, 150 miles higher, the quickest salmon arrive. The nelma
+comes two days later, but the sturgeon not till five days afterwards.
+Erman reckons this annual migration of fish to be at the lowest
+computation 26,000,000.
+
+[2] Their bows are 6 feet long, with a diameter of an inch and a
+quarter in the middle, and are made of a slip of birch joined by
+fish-glue to a piece of hard pine-wood. The arrows are 4 feet long, the
+head consisting of either a ball for shooting small fur animals, or an
+iron spear-like head for killing larger game. The bows are exceedingly
+powerful, and the archers wear on the left forearm a strong bent plate
+of horn to deaden the blow of the string. We heard of feats of archery
+accomplished by them which far outdo the traditional deed of William
+Tell. Our captain told a lady on board that on one occasion he saw
+an Ostjak mark an arrow in the middle with a piece of charcoal and
+discharge it in the air, whilst a second man, before it reached the
+ground, shot at the descending shaft and struck it on the mark.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+_TOMSK._
+
+ The province of Tomsk.--The city of Tomsk.--Visit to the
+     Governor.--The prison.--Institution for prisoners’ children.--A
+     Lutheran minister.--Finnish colonies in Siberia.--Their pastoral
+     care.--Dissuaded from visiting Minusinsk.--Distribution of Finnish
+     books.--_Détour_ to Barnaul.
+
+
+The province of Tomsk is, in some respects, the most favoured in
+Siberia. It is not so huge and unwieldy as some of the others, and does
+not, like its two neighbours of Tobolsk and Yeneseisk, extend to the
+Frozen Sea; but, beginning on the 62nd parallel for its northernmost
+boundary, it continues southward as far as the borders of Mongolia,
+from which it is separated by the Altai mountains. The climate is
+good, and the land is valuable for agricultural purposes, while the
+mountainous districts are exceedingly rich in minerals.[1]
+
+The city of Tomsk is situated on the river Tom, whence it derives
+its name, and has a population of 30,000. Its streets are wide but
+steep, and in the centre of the town is a good specimen of that
+prominent feature in so many Russian towns--a _Gostinnoi Dvor_ (bazaar
+or market). It is an aggregation of shops and open spaces, to which
+the stranger is constantly sent for anything he may require. If a
+countrywoman has butter or milk to sell, she takes up her position
+there; so do hucksters with small wares. Larger establishments are to
+be found elsewhere, but the _Gostinnoi Dvor_ of a Russian town contains
+a concentration of goods that supplies all wants. Many of the houses
+at Tomsk are of brick; it boasts of several hotels, two banks, and two
+photographers. In a distant part of the town is an imposing building,
+the law courts, etc., also a large church or cathedral, which is still
+unfinished.
+
+We called upon M. Sooproonenko, the Governor, who was very obliging,
+and sent us at once to see the two prisons, in one of which criminals
+are kept, whilst in the other they only stay whilst passing through to
+their destinations. The condition of prison affairs in Tomsk showed
+that there was an active local committee. The jail in which criminals
+are permanently confined is a heavy brick building, with low, vaulted
+corridors, in which prisoners may be kept for terms varying from one
+month to four years. The authorities complained that in winter it is
+damp. This was one of the few prisons where there was a school, which
+such prisoners as chose might attend; but out of 640, when we were
+there, only 30 did so. Among those confined was an old man who had
+been condemned to hard labour further east, but on his way his penalty
+had been mitigated, and he allowed to stay at Tomsk. There was some
+little show of work going on in the shoemakers’, carpenters’, and
+blacksmiths’ shops; but the great mass of the prisoners was herded
+in rooms where they had nothing to do. When invited by the Governor
+to point out any defects I had noticed, I mentioned, first, that I
+thought all should work. He replied that they have no laws to compel
+them (I presume he spoke of a certain _class_ of prisoners), and that
+the severest punishment they are allowed to inflict is three days’
+solitude with bread and water. We saw so many prisons in Siberia in
+which the majority of the prisoners had nothing to do, that the sight
+became wearisome; and when the authorities told us that they could
+not find them work, I was vain enough inwardly to say, “It strikes
+me that _I_ could.” But on reaching San Francisco, I altered my mind
+when inspecting a prison managed on modern principles, where they can
+manufacture in a day more than a thousand doors, to say nothing of
+hundreds of other articles of wood, leather, iron, and I know not what;
+and yet, even there, they had men condemned to hard labour twirling
+their thumbs for want of a job. The difficulty of employing a large
+number of Siberian convicts is vastly enhanced by the difficulty and
+the expense of the carriage of raw materials, and the comparatively
+small demand for manufactured articles.
+
+Our distribution of books was highly appreciated at Tomsk, and one
+prisoner gave me in return a paper-knife he had made, for which he
+would accept no money. In the underground storehouse we saw quass
+in huge vats worthy of an abbot’s cellar, and large receptacles for
+sour cabbage, of which the Russians make soup. The cabbage is salted
+in September and pressed, and in ten days is ready for use. The store
+contained also a large number of tongues, which cost on the spot from
+2_d._ to 6_d._ each. In one of the wards, the men who formed the
+church choir asked permission to sing us a hymn, which they did very
+creditably.
+
+The most pleasing part of our visit, however, was that made to an
+adjoining building within the prison grounds--an institution for the
+children of prisoners and of the poor, which had been built by the
+local committee. The matron apologized that they were not in holiday
+trim, but the place was as neat and clean as could be. We called in the
+afternoon. The girls had an English sewing-machine, and were busy at
+work, whilst some were embroidering elaborate initials in the corners
+of handkerchiefs, to the orders of ladies in the town. Some of the
+boys were learning shoemaking, whilst others were taught to be of use
+in waiting on the doctors in the prisoners’ hospital. Such progress do
+some of them make that one boy had recently left the school to go to
+help a doctor at the gold-mines, for which he was to receive his board
+and lodging, and £30 a year. There are certain funds in connection with
+the institution, by means of which the girls, on leaving to go out to
+service, receive various gifts up to about £50; and with this, one of
+the committee told us, they not unfrequently take away an education
+which makes them better informed than their Siberian mistresses.
+
+Before we had been many hours in Tomsk we discovered an English lady,
+with whom and her husband we dined, and who told us that a certain
+Finnish pastor--Roshier, who had been named to me in my Finnish
+correspondence--was staying in the town. We therefore sought him out to
+ask advice concerning the whereabouts and the mode of approach to some
+of the Finnish colonies which I was anxious to visit.
+
+The reader will perhaps wonder how there come to be Finnish colonies
+in Siberia at all. Often when a Finnish prisoner is condemned to a
+certain term of imprisonment in his own country, he petitions the
+Grand Duke, who is the Emperor of Russia, to send him instead to
+Siberia as a colonist, and the request is usually granted. I recollect
+meeting a young man at Wiborg, in the castle prison, in 1874, who
+told me that, rather than serve for three years as a convict in the
+town of his birth, he had asked to be allowed to go to Siberia. The
+Finns do not usually speak Russian. Consequently, on arriving in
+Siberia, they are quasi-foreigners, and, accordingly, are not scattered
+hither and thither, but put together in villages with Lithuanian,
+Esthonian, Lettish, and other convicts from the Baltic provinces.
+Of this nature are the colonies I wished to visit near Omsk, called
+Ruschkova and Jelanka, each with 400 inhabitants, and near to which
+are four villages, bearing the home-names of Riga, Reval, Narva, and
+Helsingfors. Another colony of a similar kind is Werchne Sujetuk, about
+50 miles south of Minusinsk.[2] Pastor Roshier had been settled there
+for 15 years, and was returning home. The Finnish Government were
+looking out for one to fill his place, to whom they offered a stipend
+of £150 per annum; but when I heard from Mr. Roshier that he had not
+conversed with an educated fellow-countryman for 10 years, that he
+could speak no Russian, and that his dwelling had been in the midst of
+convicts only, I was not surprised to hear that the Finnish Government
+had a difficulty in finding a successor.
+
+For my own part, it had been my intention certainly to turn aside to
+Werchne Sujetuk, thinking to go across country to Minusinsk, return by
+raft on the Yenesei, or by road, to Krasnoiarsk, and there await the
+arrival of the remainder of our luggage--plans which a better knowledge
+of the country afterwards taught me were visionary indeed. When we did
+subsequently arrive at Krasnoiarsk, we found persons who, on account
+of the floods, had been waiting a fortnight to go to Minusinsk.[3] The
+remainder, however, of our baggage was not yet come from Tiumen, and
+could not arrive for a week; so we agreed meanwhile to make a _détour_
+to Barnaul. There we should find a prison, and another in the same
+direction, at Biisk, to which we could send; priests and people would
+be benefited by the way; and we hoped to see the Emperor’s _usine_
+for the smelting of gold and silver. This looked more inviting, even
+though it involved a journey of 700 miles, than loitering at Tomsk for
+a week. We were now to begin tarantass travelling in earnest, which
+I think had better be once for all described, partly for the benefit
+of the uninitiated, who may possibly become Siberian travellers, and
+partly that the reader may not be wearied hereafter by a too frequent
+recurrence to the same topic.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] It is the most populous province of Siberia after that of Tobolsk,
+and contains 838,000 inhabitants. Another reference to Hoppe’s Almanack
+shows the vast preponderance of its rural population over that of other
+provinces, and shows also a large population of the upper classes, many
+of whom, doubtless, are descendants of noble exiles. In 1875 the number
+of hereditary nobles in the province was 2,400; ecclesiastical persons,
+4,000; town population, 4,400; and rural population, 725,000; whilst
+the military forces numbered 30,000; foreigners, 48; and the mixed
+races (chiefly Tatars, Teleuti, and Altai Kalmuks) numbered 130,000,
+the population being spread over an area of half a million square
+miles--a territory bigger than any two countries in Europe except
+Russia. The government is divided into six uyezds. It has seven prisons
+and four large hospitals. The principal towns are Barnaul, Kainsk,
+Biisk, Kuznetsk, Mariinsk, Narim, and Tomsk, which last is the capital
+and residence of the Governor.
+
+[2] Since 1850, it appeared, 541 persons have been sent there, of whom
+142 are dead; 20 for fresh crimes were transported further east, and 80
+have disappeared--probably run away to live by pilfering and plunder.
+Some of the last-named possibly have been killed by the Russians
+and buried; for when the peasants catch men of this kind doing them
+mischief, so far off are the courts, and so difficult is the bringing
+of witnesses, that they take the law into their own hands, and put the
+malefactors to death. In all, there should be now 547 persons living
+at Werchne Sujetuk, including 358 Finns. But about 300 live away at
+the gold-mines, and so it comes to pass that not more than 10 or 12
+families reside there regularly.
+
+[3] Apart from and in addition to these difficulties, however, there
+were other considerations that dissuaded me from going--such as the
+small number of Finns I should find, my ignorance of their language,
+their not being in particular need of books, and the offer of the
+pastor to enclose mine in a parcel he was sending to the catechist
+he had left in charge. All this caused me to listen to what proved
+good advice, and instead of going, I determined to send about a third
+of my books by the pastor. When further east, I elected to go home
+through America, consequently another third of my books was sent to the
+Lutheran pastor at Omsk. Some were left also for the Lutheran pastor at
+Irkutsk; and I gave the remainder to various prisons and persons for
+the Finns in the east.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+_SIBERIAN POSTING._
+
+ Travelling by post-horses.--The courier, crown, and ordinary
+     _podorojna_.--The tarantass.--Packing.--Harness.--Horses.--
+     Roads.--Pains and penalties.--Crossing rivers.--Cost.--Speed.--
+     Post-houses.--Meat and drink.
+
+
+When you purpose to travel “post” in Russia, your first business is to
+get a _podorojna_, or permit, of which there are three kinds. The first
+is a “courier’s” podorojna, which is used by passengers travelling
+in hot haste upon important--generally Government--business. Each
+post-master reserves three horses in case a courier should arrive, in
+which event only a certain number of minutes is allowed for changing
+the horses, and away goes the courier at breathless speed. Not long
+before my visit an exile, condemned to the east, had reached the city
+of Tomsk, a distance of nearly 3,000 miles from the capital, when,
+for some reason, his presence was required by the authorities in
+Petersburg. They telegraphed, therefore, that he was to be brought back
+_couriersky_; whereupon he was placed between two gendarmes, and then
+over the stones they rattled the bones of that unfortunate man, till in
+11 days they brought him to his destination. This sort of podorojna is
+reserved for special messengers and persons of importance; but, after
+hearing the foregoing story, I came to the conclusion that it is not
+every one who would appreciate the privilege of travelling couriersky.
+
+Number 2 is a “crown” podorojna, recognised by post-boys who cannot
+read by its having two seals. This is not paid for, and is usually
+given to officers and persons on Government service, and sometimes to
+favoured private individuals. The bearer crosses bridges and ferries
+free, and need not pay for greasing his wheels; but its great advantage
+is that, when there is a lack of horses, the owner of a crown podorojna
+has a preferential claim. Podorojna number 3 is that used by ordinary
+travellers, for which at the outset you have to pay, by way of tax,
+a trifling amount per verst, according to the distance you intend to
+travel.
+
+And now, having secured your podorojna, your next concern is for a
+vehicle. If you simply take that to which your podorojna entitles
+you, it will be a roofless, seatless, springless, semi-cylindrical
+tumbril, mounted on poles which connect two wooden axletrees, and out
+of this at every station you will have to shift yourself and your
+baggage. This is called travelling _pericladnoi_. From such a fate,
+gentle reader, may you be delivered! No, better buy a conveyance of
+your own. The vehicle I have alluded to is called by the general name
+of _tarantass_. The one you will purchase, though in many respects
+similar, and by some called also a tarantass, will be dignified by the
+post-boys with the appellation of an “equipage.” Like the other, it
+will be mounted on poles for springs, but the axles and body of the
+carriage will be of iron, and it will have a seat for the driver, and
+a hood, with a curtain and apron, under which you may sit by day and
+wherein you can sleep by night. The equipage may cost you from £20 to
+£30, and, if given to mercantile transactions, you may consider on the
+way how much you will gain or lose (for that is possible) by the sale
+of your vehicle at the end of the journey. A third way is to get a
+vehicle from one who--having come to Tomsk, for instance, to proceed
+to Russia--wishes his carriage taken back to Irkutsk. It was our good
+fortune to borrow the two we used, one being kindly lent by Mr. Oswald
+Cattley.
+
+The packing of the vehicle requires nothing short of a Siberian
+education. Avoid boxes as you would the plague! The edges and corners
+will cruelly bruise your back and legs. Choose rather flat portmanteaus
+and soft bags, and spread them on a layer of hay at the bottom of the
+tarantass. Then put over them a thin mattress, and next a hearth-rug.
+When we entered Tiumen, women besieged us with these hearth-rugs, as
+I thought them. Not knowing what they were for, I could not conceive
+what they meant by such conduct. Had my companion been a lady, I should
+have deemed that they thought us on a bridal trip, and about to set
+up housekeeping. But I was innocent of all such devices, and chased
+the women away. When it was discovered what the carpets were for, I
+regretted not having bought one. Next, put at the back of the carriage
+two or more pillows of the softest down, for which please send on your
+order in advance, because these must be bought as opportunity offers.
+If a housewife has finished the manufacture of a down pillow she wishes
+to sell, she will bring it into Ekaterineburg to market; but, if you
+want such a thing on a given day, you may search the town and not get
+one.
+
+You may now get in, cover your legs with a rug, and watch them
+harness the horses. Siberian post-horses are sorry objects to look
+at, but splendid creatures to go. A curry-comb probably never touches
+their coats; but, under the combined influence of coaxing, scolding,
+screaming, and whip, they attain a pace which in England would be
+adjudged as nothing short of “furious driving.” They are smaller than
+English horses, but much hardier, and are driven two, three, four,
+or even five or more, abreast. The Russian harness is a complicated
+affair, the most noticeable feature being the _douga_, or arched
+bow, over the horse’s neck. To the foreigner this looks a needless
+incumbrance, but the Russian declares that it holds the whole concern
+together. The rods are fastened to the ends of the bow, and the horse’s
+collar in turn to the shafts, so that the collar remains a fixture,
+against which the horse is obliged to push. The shafts are supported by
+a saddle and pad on the back, and do not touch the horse’s body. The
+centre horse only is in rods; those on either side, how many soever
+they be, are called a “pair,” and are merely attached by ropes. If you
+have been wise, you have bought at the _Gostinnoi Dvor_ about 20 yards
+of inch-rope to go all round the back of the vehicle, and to which are
+attached the two outer horses. The post-men are supposed to supply
+such a rope, but theirs are often thin and rotten. It is well, too, to
+take several fathoms of half-inch rope. One of the wheels may become
+rickety, and threaten to fall to pieces, in which case the rope will
+be needed to interlace the spokes. A third supply should be laid in of
+still smaller cord, in case of spraining a pole or the rods. Do not
+forget to purchase besides a hatchet. All these we took, and more than
+all were wanted.
+
+When the driver, or _yemstchik_, has taken his seat, the horses will
+not stay a minute. Indeed, in some districts, the horses’ heads are
+held while the driver mounts, and, when freed, they start with a bound.
+And now begin your pains and penalties!
+
+When, at Nijni Tagilsk, we descended by ladders 600 feet into a
+copper-mine, and came up in the same manner, we were warned that on
+the following day we should be terribly stiff; but I aver that the
+consequences were as nothing compared with those of the first day’s
+travelling by tarantass. The roughness of the roads and the lack of
+springs combine to cause a shaking up, the very remembrance of which
+is painful. Let the reader imagine himself about to descend a hill
+at the foot of which is a stream, crossed by a corduroy bridge of
+poles. The ordinary tarantass has no brake, the two outer horses are
+in loose harness, and the one in rods has no breeching. The whole
+weight of the machine, therefore, is thrown on his collar, and the
+first half of the hill is descended as slowly as may be. But the speed
+soon increases, first because the rod-horse cannot help it, and next
+because an impetus is desired to carry you up the opposite hill. All
+three horses, therefore, begin to pull, and, long before the bridge is
+reached, you are going at a flying pace, and everybody has to “hold
+on.” The bridge is approached, and now comes the excruciating moment.
+Most likely--almost to a certainty--the rain has washed away the
+earth a good six inches below the first timber of the bridge, against
+which bump! go your fore-wheels, and thump! go your hind ones; whilst
+fare and driver are alike shot up high into the air. I have a lively
+recollection of these ascents, some of which were so high that, when
+travelling from Archangel to Lake Onega, we had the hood removed,
+lest our skulls should strike the top. Happily, all roads are not so
+perilously rough, and, briefly to summarize my experience of them,
+I should say that those of Tobolsk and Tomsk are muddy, causing the
+yemstchiks, when possible, to avoid them--to go into lanes and by-ways,
+over hillocks and fallen timber, and down into holes and ditches, all
+of which give variety to the route. The Yeneseisk roads deserve nothing
+but praise; they are well kept, and would be reckoned good in England.
+The Irkutsk ways deteriorate, and those beyond Baikal are worse than
+all; for the Buriat yemstchiks drive you furiously over hillocks,
+rocks, and stones.
+
+Nor are roads the only things to be traversed; there are numerous
+streams and rivers--some with bridges, but more without. Through some
+of these your horses simply walk; on others there is a well-kept ferry,
+upon which you and your carriage are drawn or rowed. On one occasion
+our vehicle was put on the ferry, and the horses made to swim the
+stream. It sometimes happens, however, especially in early spring,
+that the ice or floods have carried away or damaged the ferry, and
+a flat-bottomed boat is temporarily substituted. In this manner we
+crossed the Tom. The tarantass was lifted by degrees into the boat,
+one wheel at a time. The boat was only just wide enough to take the
+vehicle, and we were advised to let down the hood, lest the wind should
+blow us over. This was about the only time I felt nervous, and I
+confess being thankful when we safely reached the opposite shore.
+
+The cost of these pleasures of travel is not so great in Siberia as
+might be supposed. In the western division, where pasture is abundant,
+the hire of each horse is only about a halfpenny per mile. In Eastern
+Siberia the fare is exactly double. Horses are changed about every
+ten or fifteen miles, and each new driver looks for a gratuity,
+euphemistically called “money for _tea_.” On the amount of the “tip”
+depends your speed. Ten kopecks are often given, but we found fifteen
+put the boys in better humour, and we made from 100 to 130 miles a
+day. Two hundred versts in a day and night, for summer travelling, is
+considered good, and we sometimes did it; but given a Russian merchant,
+bound for a fair, where his early arrival will give him command of the
+market, and then a “tip” of, say, a rouble a stage will in winter get
+him over 300 versts, or 200 miles a day. It is common to hear Siberians
+boast of quick journeys made thus, but they are usually attained only
+at cruel cost to the horses. The reader may judge what speed can be
+made from a story told us at Tiumen of a Governor-General of Eastern
+Siberia, whom the late Emperor, some 12 winters ago, required on an
+emergency at Petersburg, a distance from Irkutsk of 3,700 miles. The
+General was put in a bear’s skin, wrapped up like a bundle, placed in
+a sledge, and in 11 days was brought to the capital. Several horses
+dropped dead on the way, an ear was cut from each as a voucher, and
+the journey continued. When governors of provinces travel, they are
+supplied with the best horses in the villages, and sometimes have them
+changed at the half stage, so as to spare the animals whilst securing
+extra speed.
+
+Having said this much about the vehicles, horses, and roads, the reader
+may wonder how it fares with the traveller in the matters of lodging
+and board, which brings me to the subject of post-houses. These, like
+the post-horses, are the property of the Government, and are of very
+varied quality, from the best--which have all the appearance and the
+comfort of a roomy, well-established English farm-house or country
+inn--to the worst, which are little better than hovels. Certain
+features, however, are common to them all. On one side of the door, as
+you enter, will be found the room in which the post-folks and their
+children live, and on the other will be one or more rooms reserved
+for travelling guests. The guests’ room will never contain less than
+the following articles: a table, a chair, a candlestick, a bed, or
+rather a bench--padded, if in a good house, but of bare boards in the
+humbler ones--an _ikon_ or sacred picture, a looking-glass, and sundry
+framed notices. One of these notices is a tariff of meat and drink--not
+that you are to suppose for a moment that any amount of money would
+purchase the luxuries named thereon, but the Government makes every
+post-master take out a victualler’s licence, and named thereupon are
+the prices which he would charge for the delicacies IF HE HAD THEM!
+No--bed and board are the rub of Siberian travel. You may safely rely
+upon getting at any station a supply of boiling water, and probably
+some black bread; but beyond this all is uncertainty. In Western
+Siberia milk and eggs are plentiful and cheap--the latter a farthing
+each; and everywhere, if you arrive at dinner-time, there is a chance
+of getting some meat, which you may or may not be able to eat. The fact
+is, you must take your own provisions, and for this winter is better
+than summer, because then you have simply to freeze your meat and chop
+off a piece with your hatchet when required. It is easy, moreover,
+to start with a stock of frozen meat pies, one of which, thrown in
+hot water, is eatable in a few minutes; and so with lumps of frozen
+cream. Tea and sugar are carried, of course, by every traveller in
+Russia; and to these were added a small quantity of tinned meat, fresh
+butter, anchovy paste, and marmalade--the last two as qualifiers in
+case we were reduced to black bread. These things, with a stock of
+white bread taken from the larger towns, formed a base, for which we
+were thankful. If anything better fell in the way, it was so much to
+the good; if white bread and butter failed, then we hoped for improved
+circumstances. These remarks apply, of course, to the hundreds of miles
+of country between the towns. In the towns we fared comparatively well.
+Such are some of the features of tarantass travel for which we prepared
+ourselves at Tomsk. What occurred will be related in its proper place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+_FROM TOMSK SOUTHWARDS._
+
+ Application for horses.--Effect of Petersburg letter.--A false
+     start.--A horse killed.--Attempted cooking.--Siberian
+     weather.--Meteorology.--Scenery.--Trees, plants, and flowers.--An
+     elementary school.--Education in Western Siberia.
+
+
+Though our journey to Barnaul took place quite early in our posting
+career, it was by no means devoid of incident. On Thursday, June 12th,
+we sent for a “troika” of horses at noon, and were coolly told by the
+postal authorities that we could have them towards midnight. Now the
+chief of their department at Petersburg had favoured me with a special
+letter, addressed to the post-masters on our route, enjoining them to
+help me, and requesting that I might be delayed as little as possible.
+We had been favoured likewise with a crown podorojna. This latter had
+been presented, but to no purpose; and it seemed a clear case for
+bringing our heavy artillery into action. We presented, therefore, the
+postal letter, and the effect was magical. Before the official had half
+read it, he sprang to his feet, eyed me respectfully, bustled off to
+his chief, and, speedily returning, promised the horses in an hour.
+They appeared punctually, and we started “troika” fashion--that is,
+three horses driven abreast. Unfortunately, however, the _starosta_,
+or man in charge of the postal yard, could not read our podorojna,
+and he took it for granted that we wished to go towards Krasnoiarsk,
+and told the yemstchik to drive us thither. Nor was it till we had run
+some dozen miles or more that it was discovered we were not on the road
+to Barnaul. We had, of course, to retrace our steps to Tomsk, and then
+we heard that it was not the first time this starosta had sent off
+travellers in the wrong direction. The mistake in our case had caused
+the extra expenditure of eighteen pennyworth of horse-flesh, and I
+thought it right to visit the loss of this sum on the starosta for the
+benefit of future travellers as well as our own. I therefore declined
+to pay for the privilege of having been taken out of our way, and left
+the starosta to settle with the post-master.
+
+Making a fresh start, we found ourselves by nightfall near the river
+Tom. The ordinary road was under water, and the banks of the stream
+were so flooded that we were obliged to take a cross-country road
+leading some 25 miles out of the way; and as it went over hill and
+dale, and almost “hedges and ditches,” we were advised to stay till
+morning. But we pushed on, crossed the river at daybreak, and at the
+third station, in the direction of the Barabinsky steppe, turned
+southwards, and travelled well till Saturday evening, when, on stopping
+awhile to rest the horses, one of them dropped and died upon the
+spot. We were pulling the creature off the road--one having hold of a
+leg, another of her tail, and so on--when the remaining horses, as if
+indignant at such conduct, rushed over the bank, and tore away with the
+tarantass into the forest. Some of us pursued, and fortunately caught
+and brought them back without further harm. The loss of a horse is
+more serious in Eastern than in Western Siberia, where people have
+herds of horses worthy of patriarchs. One lady told me that her husband
+possessed from 4,000 to 5,000 horses, and about as many cows. Pasturage
+is abundant, and horse-flesh is cheap. Our horse was reckoned a good
+one, and valued at £4 10_s._ The post-master could claim nothing from
+us for its loss, and thanked us warmly for 10_s._ towards repairing his
+damage. As we went along we saw large herds of mares with their foals,
+turned loose for the summer in company with a single horse to guard
+them. Should danger approach, in the form of a wild beast for instance,
+the stallion drives all the mares within a circle with their heels
+outwards, and the foals in the centre, whilst he stamps the ground with
+rage and dares the wolf to come within reach of their hoofs.
+
+When we reached the last river we had to cross, which at ordinary
+times was probably not half a mile wide, we found it so flooded that
+the ferry-boat had a journey of more than five miles. This took a long
+while, and, when returning, we thought to save time by eating a meal on
+the water. In my luncheon-basket is a “Rob Roy” cuisine, with a view
+to the using of which, before leaving England, I took an evening’s
+cooking lesson. I was now anxious to demonstrate to the Russians that
+it was possible to make a cup of tea without the aid of a _samovar_.
+We therefore commenced operations, there being on board not only our
+own three horses, but half-a-dozen others with their drivers and
+tarantasses. The great advantage of this cuisine is that, whereas a
+puff of wind may extinguish an ordinary spirit-lamp, the “Rob Roy,” by
+setting fire to the steam of the spirit, burns so furiously that a
+hurricane will not blow it out. It makes, however, a considerable roar;
+and when matters reached this stage, not only were all the natives
+surprised, but the horses began so to kick and to plunge that we feared
+an upset. One of the drivers said his horse was 30 years old, and had
+never heard such a noise in his life! So, for the general safety of all
+on board, I packed up my kitchen and had to forego the tea.
+
+Hitherto our Siberian tour had been highly enjoyable. South of Tomsk
+the weather was charming, and the new spring vegetation lovely. A
+question that has been repeatedly put to me since my return to England
+is, “Did you not find it very cold in Siberia?” It may be well,
+therefore, that this question should here be answered. Snow fell on
+the night we entered the country, and the ground next morning, May
+29th, was white; but the snow disappeared after an hour or two, and
+we saw no more for some days. By the 5th of June we reached on the
+Obi a latitude 100 miles north of Petersburg, where the buds had not
+yet opened, nor had the winter floods subsided. I heard subsequently
+that the opening of spring had come that year unusually early in
+Petersburg, and exceptionally late in Siberia, where the ice usually
+breaks up at Tobolsk at the end of April. On the 6th of June we had
+snow, and the trees on the banks had little verdure till we reached
+Tomsk on the 9th, after which fine weather set in, and was followed by
+almost uninterrupted sunshine till the beginning of autumn. The summer
+climate, therefore, of those parts of Siberia through which I passed
+I consider simply delightful--neither oppressively hot by day nor
+unpleasantly cold by night.
+
+Before leaving England, my neighbour, Mr. Glaisher the meteorologist,
+had urged me to take a few instruments for the purpose of making
+observations, and had kindly lent me for the journey a valuable
+unmounted thermometer. I took, besides, an aneroid barometer, a
+compass, an anemometer, maximum and minimum thermometers, and two
+others. With these instruments I felt very much like a boy leaving
+home on a summer morning with excellent fishing tackle, and bent on
+taking nothing less than trout. When returning, I felt that I had
+brought back minnows. On my first night out, at Cologne, my apparatus
+was duly exposed from the hotel window, and on reaching Petersburg I
+climbed daily to the top of the hotel to measure the velocity of the
+wind. At the copper-mine at Nijni Tagilsk I was resolved on being very
+learned, and took my instruments to test the temperature of springs and
+the velocity of air currents. But, alas! I broke my thermometer, and,
+having reached the bottom of the mine, had forgotten, when undressing,
+to take my watch. On the Obi I was able to take a few observations, but
+it was impossible to continue this during posting journeys; and further
+on I broke my minimum thermometer, after which I abandoned hope of
+attaining meteorological distinction.[1]
+
+The journey to Barnaul revealed to us beauties of scenery and
+vegetation for which we were hardly prepared after the flat and
+leafless districts through which we had been passing. The landscape
+now became undulating, and the traveller who passes further south to
+Biisk, and beyond, approaches the regions of the Altai chain, which are
+spoken of as well worth seeing.[2] The grass between Tomsk and Barnaul
+was remarkable, and the further south we went the more luxuriant it
+became. Much of the flora was familiar, but we were now introduced to
+a good many trees, shrubs, plants, and flowers, found more or less in
+the country west of Irkutsk, that were new to us. The most prominent of
+the trees was the white-barked birch, justly called the “lady of the
+forest.” We saw also the cedar-nut tree, the pitch pine, the larch,
+the flowering acacia, spruce fir, and alder, the white-pine, willow,
+lime, Siberian poplar, laburnum, and white-flowering cheriomkha--the
+last a beautiful object when in blossom, and yielding for fruit a small
+bird cherry. Among the shrubs appeared the white hawthorn, and an
+abundance of wild red currants, which, like bird cherries, are eaten
+by the people--the latter being made into bread and cakes, and, in
+common with other fruits, put into brandy to make _naliphka_. These
+fruits are very sour as compared with the English kinds. Strawberry
+and raspberry plants abounded, though we did not get our first plate
+of wild strawberries till 11th July. In autumn, numerous berries
+are plentiful, such as cranberries (called _klukva_), bilberries,
+cowberries, bearberries, stoneberries, the mountain ash berry, and
+the Arctic bramble. All these are found, too, in European Russia,
+north of Petersburg, the last having a blossom like a single rose, a
+strawberry leaf, and a fruit resembling the English blackberry. In
+summer, strawberries and raspberries are the best fruits within reach
+of the Siberian traveller until he reaches the southern region of the
+Amur. Among the spring flowers we missed (or perhaps overlooked) the
+pale primrose; but violets are found, also sweet-williams, daisies,
+foxgloves, rich camomile flowers, the wild rose, crocus, lily of
+the valley, and many others. The fields were actually blue with
+forget-me-nots. We noticed also on this journey what was to me a new
+plant, bearing an orange flower something like a buttercup, but very
+much larger, and of which there were many. Also east of Tomsk we saw
+a large red lily, made much of in English gardens, but which here was
+growing wild; also, in great abundance, a red flower very much like the
+peony.
+
+On the road to Barnaul, at a place called Medvedsky, is an elementary
+school, to which, in returning, we paid a visit, and so were brought
+into contact with village education.[3] There were in attendance 32
+boys and girls, of ages varying from 6 to 16, most of whom came from
+distant places (some 30 miles off), and lodged in the village. Only
+8 were from the immediate neighbourhood. Adults sometimes attend the
+school, in which the education is free, the school being supported by
+the commune or _mir_. The scholars attend daily from 8 o’clock till 2,
+after which hour some of them learn bookbinding. Sundays and saints’
+days are holidays, but the children are required to be every Sunday
+at church. There was a priest in the room giving instruction. I asked
+the children some Scripture questions, but was poorly answered. Many
+of the children, however, jumped at the opportunity of purchasing a
+New Testament for 1¼_d._, and we left a supply for them. The master
+wished the boys to be examined in arithmetic, whereupon, among other
+questions, I asked them, “What two numbers multiplied together make
+7?” They knitted their brows as if making a great effort--and even the
+master’s countenance seemed to betray that he thought the question too
+difficult. All laughed heartily, however, when, on giving it up, I told
+them that the factors were 7 and 1. The master lived in an adjoining
+part of the house; and in this far-off place I observed on the wall of
+the schoolmaster’s room, as I had seen on that of one of the prison
+officials at Tiumen, an English engraving of the portrait of Professor
+Darwin. The schoolmaster said I was the first Englishman he had seen,
+gladly purchased some of our books, and thanked us for our visit.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] My scientific attempts brought me in contact with some pleasant
+people; notably Captain Rykatcheff, of the Observatory in Petersburg,
+and with others at Moscow, Ekaterineburg, Tomsk, etc.; at all of which
+places they have observatories, that near Petersburg being, I was told,
+in some respects better than ours at Greenwich. The Russians take
+considerable pains in collecting data from 103 stations throughout
+the Empire, of which 14 are in Siberia, namely: at Omsk, Akmolinsk,
+Semipolatinsk, Tomsk, Barnaul, Kuznetsk, Yeneseisk, Turukhansk,
+Irkutsk, Kiakhta, Nertchinsk mines, Blagovestchensk, Nikolaefsk, and
+Vladivostock. The Russians have an observatory also in China, at
+Peking; and I think I heard of some new ones established on the Obi.
+They register thrice daily--at seven, one, and nine--the readings of
+the barometer, the dry and wet bulb thermometers giving the temperature
+and humidity of the atmosphere, the direction of the wind, and the
+amount of clouds, rain, snow, etc.; and these statistics are collected
+and published at Petersburg with a fulness which exceeds, I am told,
+anything that we do in poor England. I was presented with the Report
+for 1877 (the last then published)--a great volume of 600 pages. It
+will be from this source that I shall from time to time air before the
+reader my meteorological learning. Tomsk was the first of the Siberian
+stations at which we arrived, where the maximum temperature of the year
+rose, at one o’clock on the 6th August, to 106°.9, and the minimum
+temperature, 83°.2 below zero, occurred on Christmas Day. At Barnaul,
+some 200 miles south, it was a little hotter and a little colder, the
+maximum being 107°.8, and the minimum 84°.8 below zero. On the Sunday
+we spent there, June 15th, the temperature was the hottest we had
+experienced up to that time in Siberia; and we heard it is so cold in
+winter that small birds sometimes drop dead in the streets.
+
+[2] The entire Altai system extends in a serpentine line, and under
+various names, from the Irtish to Behring Strait. The breadth of the
+chain varies from 400 to 1,000 miles. Its entire length is about 4,500
+miles, but it is only to the portion west of Lake Baikal that the term
+Altai is applied. This part consists of a succession of terraces with
+swelling outline, descending in steps from the high tableland, and
+terminating in promontories on the Siberian plains. On these terraces
+(some of them at great height) are numerous lakes. The ordinary
+tablelands are given as not more than 6,000 feet high, and as seldom
+covered with perpetual snow, though it is otherwise with the Korgan
+tableland, which reaches 9,900 feet; and the two pillars of Katunya,
+which are said to attain to nearly 13,000 feet above the sea level. At
+the western extremity of the chain are metalliferous veins, in which
+several important workings have been established since 1872.
+
+[3] In the uyezd or district of Tiumen, which is one out of 9 in the
+province of Tobolsk, there are 24 schools; at Tobolsk we heard of 12
+schools more. In the villages about Barnaul there are few schools, but
+there are some in the district of the mines and the works. In Tomsk
+are a few upper-class schools, as also at Tobolsk; and we met at Tomsk
+a school inspector. Further, from the _Golos_ of 25th June, 1879 (old
+style), it appeared that the Russian Government had lately opened
+a classical school, or _gymnase_, at Omsk; a _real_, or commercial
+school, at Tomsk; and _pro-gymnases_, or preparatory classical
+schools for girls, at Tomsk and Barnaul. It was further stated that
+in 1878 there were in Western Siberia 22 upper-class schools, with an
+attendance of 3,200 scholars; and that other such schools were asked
+for at Semipolatinsk, Petropavlovsk, Kainsk, and Barnaul. In Western
+Siberia, in 1878, 546 schools of a lower class existed, numbering
+15,000 scholars, of whom, however, the remarkable preponderance of
+13,000 boys over 2,000 girls is startling. The Russians have had
+schools for some time for Kirghese boys, and they have two also for
+Kirghese girls; whilst, as observed before, they opened in 1879 a
+school at Obdorsk for the Ostjaks and Samoyedes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+_BARNAUL._
+
+ Situation of town.--Cemetery.--Burial of the dead.--The Emperor’s
+     usine.--Visit to Mr. Clark.--Visits to hospital and prison.--A
+     recently-enacted tragedy.--Crime of the district.--Smelting of
+     silver and gold.--Price of land and provisions.--Return to Tomsk.
+
+
+We reached Barnaul very early on Sunday morning, having traversed,
+after leaving the flooded river Obi, a miniature _Sahara_, or desert
+of sand. Barnaul, like Tobolsk and Tomsk, lies at the foot of a hill.
+It has 13,000 inhabitants. On the top of the hill is a cemetery, which
+was the first we had met with; but it did not convey a favourable
+impression of Siberian burying-places. Indeed, I have not been greatly
+struck by Russian cemeteries, whether in Europe or in Asia, though
+on the graves of their emperors the Russians place monuments of
+considerable taste, which deserve to be placed in the same category
+with memorials of the departed such as those of Frederick William
+III. and his Queen at Charlottenburg, or the tomb of Napoleon in the
+Hotel des Invalides. But it is otherwise, as I have said, with average
+Russian tombs.[1]
+
+From the cemetery at Barnaul are seen its half-dozen churches and a
+large building known as the Emperor’s _usine_, or gold and silver
+smelting works. Most of the business of the town is connected with
+mining; and many surveyors and engineers live in the adjacent mountains
+in summer, and in Barnaul in winter. The discovery of the precious
+metals in the Altai regions was made by one of the Demidoffs, who is
+said to have been sent there by Peter the Great. His monument in brass
+stands in the public square at Barnaul. We had an introduction to the
+manager of the usine, Mr. Clark, who is the son of an Englishman, and
+who reads but does not speak his father’s language. We found in his
+spacious house a good collection of English books, together with copies
+of the _Nineteenth Century_, the _Graphic_, _All the Year Round_, and
+the weekly edition of the _Times_. On the Sunday afternoon our host
+took us to visit the poor-house and the hospital. In this latter were
+14 rooms, which had the advantage of being very lofty and airy, though
+they struck me as not particularly tidy.
+
+In the 9 rooms of the prison were 120 criminals, one of whom, a day
+or two previously, had within the prison walls enacted a tragedy,
+the circumstances of which would furnish material for a sensational
+novel. The rooms of the prison are ranged on either side of a wide
+corridor, and in one of them was a number of women, one of whom had
+murdered her husband and was condemned to Eastern Siberia, to which
+she was on her way, though for some reason detained at Barnaul. In one
+of the male wards was a young man, formerly under-manager of a shop in
+the town, who had been suspected of stealing, and was imprisoned for
+three months. He had served out this time within a week; but during
+his stay in the prison he made the acquaintance of, and became more
+or less attached to, the murderess, holding conversation with her
+from the corridor during the time allowed for exercise. Another male
+prisoner was by these two taken into council, and the three determined
+to attempt an escape, by means of wooden keys which the men were to
+make. The plot, however, was discovered, and the woman, finding that
+she must proceed to her destination and leave her lover, tried to kill
+herself. But she was prevented. She therefore adopted another plan of
+ridding herself of life. In the door of the women’s chamber was an
+inspection-hole, unusually large. This she cut a little larger, thrust
+her head through into the corridor where the man was walking, and
+begged him, if he loved her, to take her life; upon which he took a
+knife, cut her throat, and so effectually killed her. We saw the stains
+of the blood still on the door, for the deed had been done only a day
+or two before our visit. Close at hand was the prisoner, placed in a
+separate and rather dark cell, and chained hand and foot--the only man
+I saw so chained in Siberia. As he walked out of his cell, I walked in,
+and found on the floor a quantity of cigarettes and a book of songs.
+Upon my pointing to the cigarettes, the officer said that the prisoners
+managed to smuggle them in; and then came out the old story, that this
+prisoner had managed also to smuggle in drink, under the influence of
+which he had committed this horrid murder. On asking what punishment
+he would be likely to receive, we were told that he would probably
+be condemned to hard labour for about 16 years; and we were further
+informed that in the small district of Barnaul, consisting of less than
+half the population of Liverpool, there are usually about 10 murders
+a year. As we went from room to room, the police-master introduced me
+to the prisoners as an Englishman travelling through Siberia who had
+brought them books, which usually elicited an expression of thanks. We
+left them a New Testament and papers for each room, doing the like also
+for the hospital and poor-house, and sending a supply for the prison at
+Biisk.
+
+[Illustration: CONVICT SUMMER CLOTHING AND CHAINS.]
+
+On Monday we went with Mr. Clark to see the Emperor’s usine, to which
+is brought mineral from Smirnagorsk, 200 miles distant, as well as from
+other parts of the Altai mountains, where are mines, the ore from which
+contains for the more part copper and silver. They find there but very
+little lead. Nor is the quantity of iron worked at all large--chiefly,
+I believe, for lack of capital and energy. In 1879 only 507 tons of
+iron were cast, and 238 tons wrought in the government of Tomsk. Many
+thousand _poods_ of copper are obtained annually in the district, but
+not smelted at Barnaul. These mines are called the private mines of the
+Emperor, and the revenues belong to the Crown. In them are employed
+from 1,500 to 2,000 men (not, in this case, convicts), and the ore from
+the Altai regions is brought to be smelted to four different works for
+silver, and one for copper.
+
+The smelting of silver is carried on at Barnaul all the year round.
+They burn charcoal, which costs 10_s._ a ton. The ore as brought from
+the mine is called _mineral_, and 4,000 tons of mineral yield 2 tons of
+silver--that is, 2,000 parts of ore yield one part of pure metal.[2]
+
+We went from the usine to the museum, which could not fail to be
+interesting to a mining engineer or a geologist. There was a large and
+well-assorted collection of minerals; models of the principal Altai
+silver-mines, showing the shafts, adits, and galleries, with their
+machinery; models of gold-washing machines, of quartz mills, and of
+furnaces and works in various parts of Siberia. Among the natural
+curiosities of the museum were the stock of a tree, with branches that
+represented pretty accurately a man in a sitting posture; and a piece
+of wood, which, when split, had been found to contain a cross inside.
+In the ethnological department were some good costumes of the Kirghese
+and of a Tunguse _shaman_, or priest and priestess. They had also in
+another room an eagle’s nest, and several specimens of the Altai eagle;
+but in the zoological department the most remarkable specimen was the
+stuffed skin of a tiger killed in the southern part of the district,
+where this animal is usually unknown.
+
+The price of land and provisions at Barnaul was such as might make many
+a man sigh to live there. The price for the hire of cleared black soil
+was 3½_d._ an English acre. We saw them scratching the surface of it
+(for their instrument was so shallow that it was a mockery to call it
+ploughing), and yet such farming yields there an abundant crop. They
+take just a little of their stable manure for cucumber beds, but burn
+the rest to get rid of it, never thinking of putting it on the land;
+but when they have used a field for a few years, and it is becoming
+exhausted, they take fresh ground. The cost of provisions in this
+fertile district is on a level with the prices quoted on the Obi. Black
+rye flour costs half-a-farthing per English pound; undressed wheat
+flour, such as we use for brown bread, costs 2_s._ per cwt.; whilst
+white wheaten flour costs up to 16_s._ for a sack of 180 pounds. The
+price of meat is similar. In the summer, when it will not keep and is
+dear, beef costs 1¼_d._ per lb.; but in winter, when it can be kept in
+a frozen condition, it sells for less than ½_d._ per English pound.
+Veal is more expensive, and costs 1½_d._; whilst aristocratic persons,
+who live on grouse, have to pay as much as from 2_d._ to 2½_d._ per
+brace. In this part of Siberia it is rare to find a peasant without
+a stock of horses and cows, and a man with a family to help him can
+make an excellent living. When I wrote, in April 1880, some letters to
+the _Times_ on Siberian prisons, one gentleman said he thought there
+would be a _rush_ thither, because I made things look so comfortable.
+In case, therefore, the quotation of these prices should tempt any of
+my readers to emigrate, I think it right to point out that in this
+district carriage is dear and labour is scarce, a workman earning 1_s._
+3_d._ a day, or, if provided with food, 6_s._ a month.
+
+We should have liked well to have stayed longer in this part of the
+country, and to have made our way among the hordes south and west,
+in the provinces of Akmolinsk and Semipolatinsk, which contain a
+population of 10,000 and 9,000 respectively.[3] Our time, however,
+did not permit of our so doing; and therefore, after a very pleasant
+stay at Barnaul, and a final lunch with Mr. Clark, we bade our host
+adieu, and on Wednesday, June 18th, we re-entered Tomsk, where we found
+our luggage arrived, and for the carriage of which, by steamer, Mr.
+Ignatoff--to his liberality be it said--would make no charge. When I
+added this concession to the reduced rate we had paid on the Obi for
+our tarantass, our berths, and excess luggage--to say nothing of the
+personal attention shown on board to “Mr. Missionary,”--and all this
+without my having breathed a word as to charges, I thought it very
+handsome, and I gladly record this good deed spontaneously emanating
+from beneath the double-breasted coat of a Russian merchant.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] In the Russian Church there are five offices for the burial of the
+dead, namely, two for the laity, and one each for monks, priests, and
+children. The priest is sent for immediately after death, and performs
+a service. The rich usually have relays of priests to continue praying
+so long as the corpse remains in the house. Burials always take place
+in the morning. The corpse is taken into the church with the face
+uncovered, looking eastward, and before removal is kissed by the priest
+and relatives. At the grave the priest casts earth upon it. Further
+(though this is not ecclesiastically prescribed), the Russians have
+services for the dead at the grave, or at the church, on the third, the
+ninth, and the fortieth day, also on the anniversaries of the departed
+one’s death and birthday, the last two being continued for some persons
+for many years. They do not, however, believe in purgatory.
+
+[2] The processes of smelting are three. The mineral is first powdered,
+and a handful taken to the assaying house. Here we saw a man making
+small crucibles of clay, at the rate of 1,000 a day. In two cups, one
+having bone in its composition, is put an ascertained quantity of the
+mineral: both are placed in the furnace, and the result shows what
+proportion of pure metal the mineral will yield. The powdered mineral
+is then taken to furnace No. 1, which is like an iron furnace, and from
+20 to 30 feet high. Into this the mineral is put with charcoal, and,
+after remaining there about 12 hours, there comes out of the furnace
+a black compound of lead and silver called _ruststein_. The ruststein
+is then placed in furnace No. 2 with lead, and, after remaining there
+for a short time (three tons, for instance, for an hour), the silver
+is extracted by the lead, and the compound which comes out is called
+_werchblei_. This is put into furnace No. 3, where 16 tons would remain
+three days, with the result that the lead oxydizes into _glot_, and
+is run off, whilst the silver remains and sinks to the bottom of the
+furnace. It is then taken out in round cakes from 12 to 15 inches in
+diameter, and sent to Petersburg. The cakes we saw had a dull hue, very
+much resembling lumps of newly molten lead, and were valued at £3 6_s._
+8_d._ per pound.
+
+A simpler process is the smelting of gold, carried on in a room about
+20 feet square, having a tall furnace in the centre, in which are fires
+not much larger than those in a laundry copper. The gold is brought
+to the usine in dust and small nuggets, tied up in leather bags, and
+begins to arrive from the mines at the end of June. The smelting goes
+on to the end of October. Some of the leathern bags were shown to us,
+duly sealed, and with particulars written thereon. One, about the size
+of a hen’s egg, was worth £36; and another, the size of a blackbird’s
+egg, was marked £5. When opened, the gold, just as it comes from the
+washings, with borax as a flux, is put into an earthenware pot, and
+then placed in the fire, after which it fuses, and is poured out into
+an iron mould in the shape of a flat bar. A bar we saw weighed 15
+pounds.
+
+In the season they sometimes have in the strong-room 250 poods--say
+from four to five tons--of gold, which the previous summer had been
+worth £2,000 a pood, making a total value of £500,000 for gold alone.
+At the end of the season the silver and gold are sent to the capital,
+under charge of a military escort.
+
+[3] Dr. Finsch, who travelled with an exploring party up the Irtish
+in 1876, has put on record much information of a scientific character
+about this part of Siberia. Mr. Atkinson, an English artist, with his
+wife, also spent seven years in Central Asia and the Kirghese steppes.
+He gives fuller information than I have met elsewhere of the Kirghese,
+who number nearly 1,500,000 souls. They live either in tents or in
+caverns resembling rabbit burrows, both of which are filthy beyond
+measure. The appearance of the Kirghese, judging by those I saw in the
+prisons, is anything but prepossessing--the nose sinks into the face,
+and the cheeks are large and bloated. They eat chiefly mutton and
+horse-flesh, and drink tea and mare’s milk. The last, when fermented,
+is called _koumis_, and is kept in the tent in a large leathern sack,
+said to be never washed out. The Kirghese are splendid horsemen; and
+their usual occupation is tending sheep, goats, horses, and camels,
+of which they possess immense herds. Indeed, I was told that, in the
+_aoul_ or encampment of a rich Kirghese chief, one can see in the
+present day the principal objects that were witnessed 4,000 years ago,
+when the patriarch Abraham was a dweller in tents, and pastured cattle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+_THE SIBERIAN CHURCH._
+
+ The Russian Church.--Geographical area.--History, doctrines,
+     schisms.--Ecclesiastical divisions of Siberia.--Church
+     committees.--Russian Church services.--Picture-worship.--
+     Vestments.--Liturgy.--Ordination.--Baptism.--Marriage.--Minor
+     services.
+
+
+It will be expected, of course, in a journey from the Urals to the
+Pacific, that something should be said of the Siberian Church, to treat
+of which is to treat of the Russian Church in Siberia. Wherever the
+Russians carry their arms, there, like the Romans, they carry their
+creed; and consequently all along the great Siberian highways, where
+the Russians dwell, they have their ecclesiastical system as in Europe.
+I shall therefore speak generally of things concerning the Greek
+Church, whether in Russia or Siberia, and illustrate them by what I
+have seen.
+
+Our knowledge of the Russian Church comes to us chiefly from two
+sources: from the pens of ecclesiastical authors, and from the writings
+of modern travellers. From the latter, it is not too much to say that
+the Russians and their religion often receive a scant measure of
+justice, not to add misrepresentation; for when the British tourist
+looks upon the gorgeous and elaborate ritual of an Eastern Church,
+sees the picture-worship of the people, their kissing of relics, and
+invocation of saints, he is reminded of like things in the Churches of
+Italy and Spain, and he not unfrequently condemns both East and West
+as superstitious and corrupt alike. Such a charge, however, is far too
+sweeping, and betrays a lack of knowledge of many points which, if
+more generally known, would certainly bring English Churchmen nearer,
+at least in sympathy, with members of the Church in Russia. On the
+other hand, the writings of ecclesiastical authors are usually so
+technical as to fail in bringing before us what the traveller sees as
+the everyday religious life of a people. It is desirable to avoid these
+two extremes, and to distinguish between the recognized standards of a
+Church’s teaching, and the correspondence therewith, or otherwise, of
+the daily lives of its members.[1]
+
+I do not propose to enter here upon the history,[2] doctrines,[3] or
+schisms[4] of the Russian Church, but proceed to observe that, for
+ecclesiastical purposes, Siberia is divided into six dioceses, presided
+over by 7 bishops. It contains 1,515 churches and 1,509 clergy; 14
+monasteries containing 147 monks, and 4 nunneries containing 62 nuns.
+Russian dioceses are subdivided into rural deaneries, each consisting
+of a circle of from ten to thirty parishes, some of which, in Siberia,
+must be very extensive, though not necessarily populous. A priest near
+Tobolsk, however, told me that he had 5,000 parishioners; another
+at Kansk, near Irkutsk, had 2,000, widely scattered; whilst on the
+Siberian coast of the Pacific, Nikolaefsk and Vladivostock, towns of
+3,000 and 5,000 inhabitants respectively, form only one parish each.
+Every _selo_ or town of a certain grade has a church; and in some of
+the _derevni_, or villages, churches and small chapels, or oratories,
+are built, in which latter, services, other than the liturgy or holy
+communion, may be performed. The churches and vestments are furnished
+and kept in repair by parochial committees, of not less than five
+persons, elected annually, who, on retiring from office, are called
+“church elders.” They visit every house in the parish, and determine
+what proportion of the expenses should be paid by each householder.
+There would seem to be no difficulty in raising the necessary funds;
+and I must add that I was agreeably surprised in Siberia to see how
+well and how clean the churches were kept, even in the remotest and
+most out-of-the-way places.[5]
+
+We had several opportunities, in passing through Siberia, of attending
+the Church services. Picture-worship is an almost universal attendant
+of Russian devotion--more so, if possible, than in Roman countries;
+and the Russian Church has found it necessary to issue many warnings
+against the perils of idolatry.[6]
+
+Another prominent feature of “orthodox” worship is the plentiful use
+of lighted candles bought at the church entrance. In one church in
+Petersburg, and that not the largest, I was told that money is taken
+yearly for candles up to 10,000 roubles--say £1,000.
+
+The vestments of the priests and bishops are gorgeous in the extreme. A
+metropolitan’s “_sakkos_” is shown at Moscow, which is said to weigh 50
+pounds, by reason of the pearls and gems with which it is embellished.
+At the Troitza monastery are fifteen dresses for the Archimandrite, one
+of which, for the mere making, cost the Empress Elizabeth £600, the
+robe itself being valued at £11,000. This monastery is said to possess
+amongst its treasures two bushels of pearls, and, from what I have
+twice seen there, I am inclined to add an estimated _pint_ of diamonds,
+to say nothing of emeralds, rubies, and sapphires innumerable!
+
+The Church services are of a monastic character, long and tedious, read
+in Sclavonic, “which is to the modern Russian,” it is said, “about what
+the language of Chaucer is to us”; so that, what with its ancient form
+and the rapidity with which the ecclesiastical language is read, it is
+practically unintelligible to many of the people. From time to time
+in the services commemorations are made of the Virgin and saints; and
+prayers are offered to them, blessings are asked of God through their
+intercessions, and the response, _Gospodi Pomilui_, “Lord, have mercy!”
+is uttered thirty, forty, fifty times or more, almost at a breath.
+
+No instrumental music is allowed in the Russian Church; but the singing
+in large cathedrals, such as St. Isaac’s at Petersburg (where they have
+30 choristers dressed in blue and gold tunics), is exceedingly grand.
+I do not remember to have heard elsewhere such extraordinary harmony.
+The basses descended to depths almost abyssmal, and the trebles soared
+to and were sustained at a height perfectly marvellous, whilst other
+voices were so profusely blended that I can compare the effect of
+the whole to nothing better than to an exquisite colored window. The
+hymn called “The Cherubim,” with music by Bortnyanski, I heard sung
+at Petersburg and Kasan; and at the latter place was not surprised to
+see tears falling from the eyes of a peasant woman near me, for my own
+were uncommonly moist. I made bold to approach and look over the music
+of one of the choristers, thereby alarming the Monk director, who,
+mistaking my interest, said afterwards he thought I had perchance come
+from the Imperial choir to take away some of his best voices.
+
+The ritual and services of the Russian Church are contained in twenty
+volumes folio. The greatest part of the service varies every day in the
+year except in the Liturgy, where the greater part is fixed.[7]
+
+As we passed through Kasan we happened to see the ordination of a
+priest and a deacon, which was interesting. Holy orders are regarded by
+the Russian Church as a sacrament or mystery, but are not indelible.
+If, for instance, a widower priest wishes to marry again, he can do
+so by resigning his priest’s orders and taking some inferior place
+among the minor orders, or by giving up his ecclesiastical profession
+altogether. They have five orders, namely, bishop, priest, deacon,
+sub-deacon, and reader; and the episcopal dignitaries consist of
+metropolitans, archbishops, and bishops, some of which latter are
+suffragans.[8]
+
+The services connected with baptism in the Russian Church were formerly
+very numerous, though now they are frequently more or less combined;[9]
+one principal difference in _practice_ between the Greek and English
+Churches being that the former _always_ baptizes by immersion. The
+child is usually named after one of the saints in the Russian calendar,
+the yearly recurrence of whose festival constitutes the person’s
+“name’s-day.” This is observed in Russia more than the “birth-day,”
+which practice has the advantage that if the Christian name of a
+friend is familiar, one always knows when to congratulate him.
+
+Marriage is counted one of the sacraments or mysteries of the Greek
+Church, but virginity is taught to be better than wedlock. Priests are
+commanded, under pain of degradation, not to join in wedlock persons
+of unsuitable ages, nor those ignorant of the essential articles of
+the faith, and in no case without due notice given. The Russian Church
+fixes the age of majority for the bridegroom at twenty-one, or, by
+permission of parents, as early as eighteen, and sixteen for the bride;
+it frowns on second and third marriages, and forbids fourth marriages
+altogether.[10]
+
+There are yet other services, such as the so-called sacrament of
+penance, which closely resembles, but differs in two important respects
+from, that of the Church of Rome.[11]
+
+And, again, the Russian sacrament of unction differs in more than one
+respect from the Roman.[12]
+
+For the benediction of water there are two offices: the lesser, which
+is used whenever consecrated water is required, and the greater, which
+is performed at the Epiphany, in memory of the baptism of Christ, and
+is carried out with great ceremony. Another office in the Russian
+Church is that of “Orthodox Sunday,” which is in form somewhat similar
+to the English “Commination Service,” and in which anathemas are
+pronounced against those who impugn various articles of the Russian
+faith. Yet another service is “the Office of the Holy Unction,” that
+is, for preparing the chrism,[13] and there are other occasional and
+curious services, such as for the consecration of a church; for an
+icon or picture; washing the feet on Thursday in Holy Week; prayers on
+laying the first stone of a house; for seed time; longer offices to
+be used in drought, earthquake, plague, incursion of barbarians, for
+children when they commence their education, and many more; but I think
+that on this head I have said enough.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] In connection with this subject, we constantly meet with the
+terms “Eastern Church,” “Greek Church,” and “Russian Church.” Let
+us distinguish between them. If on a map of Europe a line be drawn
+from the White Sea southwards to Petersburg, thence along the western
+border of Russia to Cracow, then along the eastern and southern
+frontier of Austria to the Adriatic, this line will roughly divide
+Christendom between the Churches of the East and of the West. Eastern
+Christendom is sometimes divided into three main groups of Churches,
+the _first_ group being the Chaldean, the Armenian, the Syrian, the
+Egyptian, and the Georgian Churches. The second is the _Greek_ Church,
+whose members, speaking the Greek language, are found as far south
+as the desert of Mount Sinai, through all the coasts and islands in
+the Levant and the Archipelago, and whose centre is Constantinople.
+This is the only living representative of the once powerful Church of
+Constantine, called the “Orthodox Imperial Church.” The _third_ group
+of Eastern Churches consists partly of the Sclavonic peoples, found in
+the provinces of the Lower Danube, Bulgaria, Servia, Wallachia, and
+Moldavia; and partly, and much more largely, of the Sclavonic people
+of Russia. The Russian Church, therefore, is an offshoot of the Greek
+Church of Constantinople, once the centre of Eastern Christianity,
+which Greek Church, by reason of its former Imperial grandeur,
+sometimes gives its name to the other Oriental communions.
+
+[2] _See_ Appendix A.
+
+[3] _See_ Appendix B.
+
+[4] _See_ Appendix C.
+
+[5] Besides this parish church committee, there was formerly, and may
+be now in some instances, in large towns, a “directory,” consisting of
+about four members. In each diocese there is a “consistory,” of from
+five to seven members, presided over by the bishop, the whole being
+under the synod. Appeals, therefore, lie from the directories (where
+they exist) to the consistory, from the consistory to the bishop, and
+from the bishop to the synod. The synod, which has equal civil rank
+with the senate, and the ecclesiastical rank of a patriarch, consists
+of bishops and priests, whose nomination, appointment, and length of
+membership depend on the will of the Sovereign. There sits also with
+them a lay procurator, who is the crown representative, and who has a
+_veto_ which can be reversed only by appeal to the Emperor.
+
+[6] The “orthodox” Church draws a nice distinction between the
+unlawfulness of using in church an image proper, and the lawfulness
+of using the same image if carved on a flat surface; but the ordinary
+observer, who beholds people in an Eastern Church bowing down before
+graven images and likenesses of things that are in heaven and in earth,
+must find it exceedingly difficult to determine where reverence ends
+and idolatry begins.
+
+[7] This Liturgy (which in the Greek Church always means the office for
+the Holy Communion, and is the ordinary morning service) is divided
+into three parts, namely, “the offering,” during which the bread and
+wine are offered by the people, and prepared by the priest; “the
+liturgy of the catechumens,” during which the Epistle and Gospel are
+read; and “the liturgy of the faithful,” during which the elements
+are administered. The priest and deacon receive the bread and wine
+separately, as with us; the laity receive bread and wine mixed
+together from a spoon, and standing; whilst to infants wine only is
+administered, for fear of ejection. The priest receives daily, the
+devout quarterly or oftener, and every one by _law_ yearly.
+
+[8] Each of the five orders has a separate ordination. At the
+ordination of a _reader_, he is clothed with a vestment called a
+_sticharion_; and the bishop among other things says to him, “Son, ...
+it is your duty daily to study the Holy Scriptures, and to endeavour
+to make such proficiency therein that those who hear you may receive
+edification.” A _sub-deacon_, on ordination, wears an _orarion_, like
+an English stole, girded crosswise over his shoulders. The bishop
+puts a towel also on the left shoulder of the newly ordained, and
+delivers him a basin and ewer, in which the bishop washes his hands.
+A _deacon_, when ordained, kisses the four corners of the holy table,
+the bishop’s hands and shoulder, and the part of his garment called the
+_epigonation_. He kneels on his right knee, lays his hands crosswise on
+the holy table, and puts his forehead between his hands. The bishop’s
+_omophorion_, or pall, is placed on his head, the stole on his left
+shoulder, and he is presented with sleeves or cuffs, and a fan with
+which to fan the sacramental elements. When ordained _priest_, the
+stole is exchanged for a similar vestment, called an _epitrachelion_,
+and there are also added a _phelonion_ and a girdle.
+
+The consecration, however, of a _bishop_ is much more elaborate. He
+is called upon to confess the Nicene Creed. He anathematizes sundry
+heretics in particular, and all of them in general; confesses the
+Virgin Mary to be properly and truly the mother of God; and prays
+that she may be his helper, his preserver, and protectress all the
+days of his life. He promises to preserve his flock from the errors
+of the Latin Church; declares that he has not paid money for the
+dignity about to be conferred upon him; promises not to go into other
+dioceses without permission, nor to ordain more than one priest and one
+deacon at the same service; further, that he will yearly, or at least
+biennially, visit and inspect his flock; and among other things take
+care that the homage due to God be not transferred to holy images. He
+puts on his sakkos and other episcopal garments; and there is delivered
+to him the _panagion_, or jewel, for the neck; _mantyas_, or ordinary
+cloak; the cowl, mitre, rosary, and pastoral staff; after which he
+walks to his house attended by two of the superior clergy.
+
+[9] 1, On the day of delivery the priest goes to the house, and prays
+for mother and child; 2, on the eighth day the child should be taken
+to church to receive its name; and 3, on the fortieth day it should
+be taken by the mother to be received into the Church, according to
+the service for the reception of catechumens. In the course of this
+service the priest breathes in the catechumen’s face, pronounces
+three exorcisms, calls upon the catechumen or his sponsor to blow
+and spit upon Satan, which he essays to do, not metaphorically, but
+visibly; after which follows, 4, the administration of baptism, when
+the candidate is first anointed with oil, then completely immersed
+three times, then clothed by the priest with a white garment, and a
+cross is suspended on the neck. Immediately after the baptism follows,
+5, confirmation, or anointing of the baptized with chrism on the
+forehead, eyes, nostrils, mouth, ears, breast, hands, and feet, with
+the words repeated each time, “The seal of the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
+Prayers are offered, an Epistle and Gospel read, and the benediction
+pronounced. Eight days after, the candidate is brought again to the
+church for, 6, the ablution of the chrism. The priest looses the
+candidate’s clothes and girdle, and with a sponge washes the parts that
+have been anointed; after which follows the last part of the service,
+namely, 7, the tonsure, in which the priest cuts the hair of the newly
+baptized in the form of a cross, in the name of the Father, and of the
+Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
+
+[10] The marriage service consists of two distinct offices, which are
+performed at the same time. The first is called the “Betrothal,” when
+rings are given and exchanged; the second is the “Coronation,” in which
+the bride and bridegroom are crowned, and are thrice given wine to
+drink from a common cup, and thrice led round a lectern on which lie
+the Gospels. Weddings in Russia are usually celebrated in the evening,
+and among the friends are persons corresponding to a godfather and
+godmother, before whom, previous to coming to church, the happy pair
+kneel in the house, and ask a blessing. The godfather holds in his
+hand an ikon, usually of Christ, with which he makes the sign of the
+cross over the head of the bridegroom, and then gives it him to be his
+peculiar treasure. In old-fashioned places the godmother gives the
+bride a loaf of bread, symbolical of worldly prosperity, making the
+sign of the cross. The godmother also presents the bride with an ikon,
+usually of the Virgin Mary; and these two ikons are carried to the
+church, figure in the wedding ceremony, and are afterwards taken to the
+new home, to be sacredly preserved for life, and afterwards bequeathed
+to their children.
+
+[11] Both Churches require contrition, and also confession. Confession
+in both Churches begins at the age of seven years, and is a _secret_,
+_periodical_, _compulsory_ acknowledgment of mortal sins to a _priest_;
+but it is made less _complete_ in Russia than in Rome--has less of an
+inquisitorial character; and hence Dean Stanley says, “The scandals,
+the influence, the terrors of the confessional are alike unknown in
+the East.” The other important difference between the two Churches is,
+that subsequent exercises of piety, commonly called “penance,” when
+enjoined upon the penitent in the Russian Church, are not performed as
+_satisfaction_ offered to God. This, it will be seen, closes the gate
+against a great deal of Roman teaching concerning the meritorious value
+of good works.
+
+[12] In the East the oil is not previously consecrated by the bishop,
+but at the time, by seven priests; and, further, whereas extreme
+unction is not administered by the Romans until the sick person is
+beyond hope of recovery, the Russians call for the elders of the
+Church, pray over him, even though the sickness be but slight, and
+anoint him with oil, in the hope that he may be healed both spiritually
+and bodily. The service is performed by seven priests (or at the least
+three), who place a table in the church or house, on which is set a
+dish with wheat, a vessel for the oil, and seven twigs with cotton tied
+around, one for each of the priests, who first anoint the sick and
+subsequently spread the Gospels, with their hands laid thereon, over
+his head.
+
+[13] This ointment, made of 23 ingredients, can be consecrated only
+by a bishop, and in Passion Week. It boils three days, with a depth
+of five fingers of wine below the oil, and priests and deacons by
+turns read the Gospel day and night, without ceasing, from Monday till
+Thursday.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+_THE SIBERIAN CHURCH (continued)._
+
+ Parochial clergy.--Their emoluments.--Duties.--Official
+     registers.--Discipline.--Morality.--Status.--Our
+     clerical visits.--Monastic clergy.--The Metropolitan
+     Macarius.--Fasting.--General view of Russian Church.--Compared
+     with Roman.--Teaching respecting Holy Scripture and salvation by
+     faith.--Needs of Russian Church.
+
+
+The Russian clergy are of two orders--the parochial and the monastic;
+or, as they are sometimes called, the white and the black--the
+secular and the regular clergy. Such was the plethora of them in
+the time of Peter the Great that they had to restrict the number of
+ordinations and of those who should serve.[1] Now, however, there is no
+superabundance.[2] Speaking generally, every parish church is under the
+control of _prikhod_ or corporation, consisting of the priest, deacon,
+and two _dïechoks_, or bell-ringer and reader, and also a widow-woman
+to prepare the sacramental bread.
+
+The parish priest may rise to be a protopope or head priest of an
+Episcopal Church, or one who holds a position in which there are other
+priests under him; but so long as his wife is living he can go no
+higher. Should he become a widower, and take the monk’s habit, he is
+then eligible to be made a bishop.[3]
+
+The pay of the town clergy in Russia is better than of those in the
+country, where it is very little. The salaries of the Siberian clergy,
+to judge from the district of the Amur, vary from £125 to £180 a
+year.[4] Hence those who have families are miserably poor. It is not
+uncommon to hear them spoken of as exacting, avaricious, and grasping
+(such charges are easily made, all the world over); but due allowance
+is not always made for the dire needs of poverty; and they sometimes
+are obliged almost, if not quite, to beg their bread.[5]
+
+It must not be supposed, however, that, because the pay of the priests
+is so small, their duties are light. Of their three daily services, the
+first often begins between four and five in the morning (fancy that
+with a thermometer below zero!), vespers at sunset, and the liturgy
+before mid-day. To these must be added occasional services in district
+churches or chapels, as well as in houses; at every birth, every death
+in the parish; when a building is begun, after it has been repaired,
+and when it is supposed to be haunted; together with the blessing of
+school-houses and children before they begin work after the holidays;
+to say nothing of processions through the streets with miraculous
+pictures in times of harvest, pestilence, and danger. In Siberia we saw
+one of these processions, with a picture, lanterns, and flags, leaving
+a village church at four o’clock in the morning.
+
+But this is not all. There are the church registers to be kept--all the
+more important because in Russia no one can stir hand or foot without
+a character paper, which sets forth, with the minutest details, the
+particulars of his birth, baptism, marriage, etc. These papers have to
+be signed and countersigned by the priest and deacon, and then to be
+sent to the bishop’s registry, which, in Siberia, may be 1,000 miles
+away--and all this with an expenditure of stamps, and red tape, and
+filling up of blank forms that is simply appalling.[6] Again, every
+priest has to keep a clerical journal of his official acts as to what
+he and his fellows do daily. This is for the bishop’s assistant; and,
+should the journal be suddenly found not written up to date, the
+priest is liable to be punished. “How would you be punished?” said
+I to a protopope. “With a good talking to, perhaps, for the first
+offence, and for the second a fine, or, it may be, have the delinquency
+inscribed on my character paper”; in other words, to carry a blot on
+his escutcheon perhaps for life!
+
+Verily, ecclesiastical discipline, whether in great things or small, is
+not a dead letter in Russia. Perhaps it is not altogether uncalled for.
+By it priests are forbidden to find their amusements at the theatre, or
+in cards, buffoonery, or dancing; and mention is made of another evil
+greater than these, in which we shall recognize an old foe, too well
+known in England. It is drink![7]
+
+It is not matter for surprise, then, that the status of the Russian
+clergy is low, as it was in England when Christianity had existed
+no longer here than it now has in Russia--say in the fourteenth
+century, when Chaucer wrote his “Canterbury Tales.” We have no room
+for boasting; nor are these remarks made with any idea of drawing
+unfavourable comparisons, but only to give a true picture of a
+large class of the Russian ecclesiastics. I called upon some few of
+the priests in Siberia, who, like the peasants, seemed decidedly
+superior to, and better off than, those in Russia. On arriving at a
+post-station, I not unfrequently sent for or called upon the priest,
+gave him tracts to circulate in his parish, and offered to sell him, at
+a reduced rate, portions of Scripture for distribution, which offer was
+almost always accepted.
+
+Let me now pass to the monastic clergy, who alone fill all the higher
+offices in the Russian Church. Among the monastic clergy are many
+scholars. The present Metropolitan (Macarius) of Moscow, formerly a
+professor at the Academy, may be selected as a bright example. He has
+written extensively, and, from the very outset of his literary career,
+is said to have resolved to devote all the money derived from his works
+to the progress of knowledge. He has founded scholarships and-prizes
+at Kieff, Petersburg, and Vilna, and as long ago as 1867 he possessed
+a capital of £12,000, the interest of which is distributed yearly in
+premiums for the best compositions in the Russian language. It was
+this amiable dignitary, as related in my first chapter, whom I had the
+honour of visiting when passing through Petersburg. Other things might
+be said to the praise of many of the Russian clergy--notably their
+simple manner of living. In none of their houses that I entered in
+Siberia was there the least approach to luxury, and the library of one
+of the best priests I met was all too scanty for the literary work he
+had in hand. I remember, too, that I entered the sleeping-room of the
+archimandrite (who is also the Metropolitan of Moscow) at the “Skit,”
+near the Troitza monastery, and found a chamber that would be thought
+not too well furnished for a guest in an average English rectory.
+Further, in Russia, both orders of clergy fast at least 226 days in the
+year; and the monastic clergy, which includes all the bishops, never
+eat flesh at all. I met with a practical illustration of the strictness
+with which the clergy abstain from forbidden food. At a post station
+where we stopped, and where the priest had come to us, we invited him
+to drink tea, and I cut for him a slice of white bread and buttered it.
+This he declined, as it was a fast-day, and butter was forbidden. I
+then offered him a slice of bread; but another difficulty arose, for,
+having to lay in a large stock of white bread at the previous town, we
+had requested the baker to put in a little butter to keep it moist. The
+good man’s conscience therefore, he felt, would be denied even by this,
+and so I was obliged to call for black bread wherewith to entertain our
+fasting guest.[8]
+
+Something must be said of the Russian monasteries for women and men.
+They are of three sorts: Lavra, of which there are only three, namely,
+at Kieff, Petersburg, and Troitza, near Moscow; next are those called
+“Cœnobia”; and, lastly, others called “Stauropegia.” Their general
+characteristics are Egyptian rather than Roman.[9]
+
+[Illustration: A RUSSIAN NUN.]
+
+One of the monks of the Yuryef Monastery, near Novgorod, gave me the
+following outline of their daily life: They rise at half-past two (one
+o’clock on festivals), go to church till six, and from six till nine
+they sleep. Then they go to church again for an hour and a half, and
+afterwards breakfast. This over, they are free to sleep or do as they
+please till five in the afternoon, when evening service brings them
+together for an hour and a half, after which they sup and go to bed.
+They have but two meals a day, never eat flesh, and, when observing the
+fasts, eat vegetables only.
+
+To sum up, then, all that need here be said of the Russian Church--very
+different thoughts arise according as one looks at the every-day
+religion of the people, or their formularies and theology. The former
+may cause pain and grief, the latter excite sympathy and hope; and it
+will be my object in the remainder of this chapter to expand these
+thoughts in a fair and honest way, without sparing blame or withholding
+praise.
+
+Most persons, who have had the opportunity of observing, allow that the
+Russians are a religious people. One sees this not only in the large
+numbers both of men and women who attend the churches, but also in the
+tens of thousands who yearly go on pilgrimage to sacred places. The
+monks of Troitza sometimes have in summer, on a feast day, a thousand
+guests. Some, of course, are idle wanderers, going from place to place
+to get food; but many walk hundreds--nay, thousands--of miles to
+redeem a vow or offer a prayer for something specially desired. Much
+of this, no doubt, is eminently unspiritual and superstitious. Much
+of their worship is perilously like, if not altogether, idolatry; yet
+it should be remembered that the average Russian knows no better; and
+what can be expected of the peasant, if the highest authorities of the
+land, on arriving at a city, make it their first object to pay their
+devotions, if not, as at Ephesus, before “the image which fell down
+from Jupiter,” yet before a picture to which is attributed miraculous
+powers? We can at least admire, however, the intention in these things;
+and if the Russian peasant can only be kept sober, he displays a number
+of virtues, some of which are not found so abundantly in other and
+more advanced countries. They are a kind, a generous, and a hospitable
+people, by no means unmindful of philanthropic effort, and at least, we
+may add, intensely ecclesiastical.
+
+Again, there is much to admire in the formularies of their Church,
+although Dean Stanley brings against it, and justly, three weighty
+charges--extravagant ritual, excessive dogmatism, and a fatal
+division between religion and morality. When, however, the Russian
+Church is compared with the Roman, and spoken of as like it, certain
+considerations should be borne in mind which make the comparison result
+in favour of the former. Russia did not receive the religion of Jesus
+Christ in its purity. The merest tyro in Church history knows that when
+the stream of Christianity had flowed down to the tenth century, it was
+no longer pure as at its source. But follow the stream as it branches
+east and west, and observe which of the two remains the purer.[10]
+And if this be said to be _negative_, and much of it belonging to the
+past, then other considerations may be adduced which seem to bring the
+Greek Church nearer to the English than many suppose, and notably so
+in two vital points, namely, the attitude of the Russian Church to the
+Holy Scriptures,[11] and her doctrine respecting salvation through
+Christ alone.[12] She does not forbid or hide the Scriptures from the
+people, even if she neglects them, nor has she stereotyped her errors
+by the claim to infallibility. There is room, therefore, to hope for a
+change for the better, which in my humble opinion should be attempted
+from within, by a wider circulation and more general study of the
+Scriptures; next, by a vastly increased amount of good and Scriptural
+preaching; and, once more, by a powerful attack on the prevailing sin
+of intemperance. Would the priests only endeavour to instil into their
+people, respecting drink, half the abstemiousness and self-denial that
+they teach them to observe concerning forbidden food, they would render
+Russia such a service as I have no words to express.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] In an Episcopal Church, for instance, there were not to be more
+than one protopope, two treasurers, five priests, four deacons, two
+readers, and two sacristans, besides thirty-three choristers. In
+parishes of large extent there were to be two priests, two deacons, two
+choristers, and two sacristans, reckoning one priest for every hundred
+houses.
+
+[2] On the Amur I heard of merchants and, in exceptional cases, even
+yemstchiks, being ordained; also of students, for lack of a sufficiency
+of priests, being ordered deacons at the age of 20 (instead of 22), and
+sometimes made priests seven days after.
+
+[3] There are, or were, several curious customs and regulations among
+the Russian clergy with respect to matrimony. A man cannot join the
+ranks of the white clergy unless he be “the husband of one wife.”
+Formerly he was obliged, or expected, to marry a priest’s daughter;
+and as a priest’s daughter sometimes received her father’s living for
+her dowry, a young priest not infrequently found himself, in this
+way, settled for life; though, if the father-in-law were old and
+merely retired, then the son-in-law was expected to keep him. In these
+arrangements the bishop played a part, for knowing, on one hand, the
+young men coming forward for ordination, and being kept informed, on
+the other, regarding the marriageable daughters of his clergy, he could
+frequently make suggestions for the benefit of all parties concerned.
+There prevailed, too, in former times in Russia, a pernicious custom,
+that every clergyman’s son was obliged to follow the profession of
+his father. This is no longer compulsory: and the sons of the clergy,
+finding themselves free, choose other callings to such an extent that
+there is now a lack of candidates for the priesthood. Candidates,
+however, are still drawn for the most part from the homes of the
+clergy, and from the lower class of merchants. Quite recently, I am
+informed, a few of the Russian nobility have taken Holy Orders.
+
+[4] Dr. Neale, in his learned work on the Eastern Church, says, “The
+Russian clergy never possessed tithes. Their income arises from
+Easter offerings, fees, and glebe, the minimum of the glebe being
+181½ acres, to be divided between four clergy.” I have heard that the
+usual remuneration for a country priest in Russia is from £22 to £25 a
+year, and his share of the glebe. To these must be added, I suppose,
+his fees. The town priests receive no regular stipend from Government,
+but in Petersburg and Moscow the income from some of the parishes
+amounts to £600, or more, to be apportioned amongst several clergy. At
+a cathedral I attended, I was informed that the protopope, from all
+sources, received about £500 a year and a house; two priests from £220
+to £250 each; the deacon about £180; and the psalmist or dïechok from
+£90 to £150; the whole available sum for all the parish clergy in this
+cathedral being from £1,500 to £1,800 a year. At another cathedral,
+in the provinces, I was told that the bishop received £110 from the
+Government, and £75 from the monastery, with monks as servants free.
+A correspondent further informs me that metropolitans and archbishops
+receive “large sums for the maintenance of their house, church,
+singers, serving monks, and other comforts, of which they can take or
+leave as much as they like”; the “large sums” quoted, with these not
+insignificant expenses, being from £625 to £1,250 a year; and this for
+men who rank ecclesiastically with English primates!
+
+[5] The Russian priests labour under great social disadvantages. They
+are less instructed than what are called the “educated classes” of
+their countrymen, and so do not mingle with them on a social equality;
+and in many of the towns of the interior, intellectual affairs are on
+so low a level that the priest’s most intelligent companion is the
+schoolmaster, lately arrived perhaps from the capital with a smattering
+of neology. In one parish of which I know, the old priest said that the
+new schoolmaster had been telling him, among other like things, that it
+was not God who made the world, etc., etc., till the priest hardly knew
+what was right or otherwise. He could not think what a lay person could
+possibly find to preach about from a verse out of the Bible. This same
+priest, when recommended pastorally to visit his flock, said, “I never
+appear among my people except to ask for corn, milk, and eggs, and thus
+they hate the sight of me.” He had not even a Bible, and said he never
+possessed one.
+
+[6] One of these blank forms, given me by a protopope, relates to each
+of the clergy in a particular church. Here are the headings of some of
+the columns:--
+
+1. Name; place of birth; from what rank in society; where educated,
+and in what subjects; when promoted to last appointment, by whom, and
+to what office; whether holding any additional appointment; when and
+how rewarded for service; whether having a family, and, if so, of what
+number.
+
+2. What he knows; of what capacity in reading and explaining the
+catechism, Scriptures, etc.; whether he be a singer; and how many times
+in the year he has composed his own sermons.
+
+3. His children; their place of education; character; what they are
+learning; and their behaviour at home.
+
+4. His family relations.
+
+5. Whether he has ever been accused before the court, and how punished;
+or whether the trial is still pending.
+
+[7] The excellent Russian book on the duty of parish priests, speaking
+of drunkenness fifty years ago, says, “Yet though drunkenness is
+a sin so grievous and deadly, there are very many in our time who
+scarcely pass a day without indulging their sottish passion for drink.
+Wherefore ... the councils forbid ... all clerks ... so much as to
+enter a tavern, under pain of deprivation and excommunication.” This
+is a painful and humiliating subject, though the more respectable
+amongst the Russians regard the matter in various lights. Some, of
+course, condemn such priests unmercifully. One man told me he had not
+communicated for several years; “for,” said he, “how can I in the
+morning receive the sacrament from the hands of my country priest
+when I know that before night he will probably be inebriated?” To
+which some, in effect, reply that he should look at the _light_ and
+not only at the _lantern_; as a religious general said to me, “If my
+priest supplies me properly with the ordinances of the Church, I am
+not concerned with his private life--that lies between God and his
+own soul.” Others, again, make allowance for their great temptations.
+On five festivals in the year, at least, such as Christmas, New Year,
+Easter, etc., the priest is supposed to go the round of his parish and
+say a prayer in every house; and on these festive occasions refreshment
+stands on the sideboard, and _vodka_, or spirits, is offered as
+drink--the evil results of which, among clergy and laity, on one of the
+festivals, I myself could not but observe.
+
+[8] There are four great fasts in the year, during which are eaten
+only bread, vegetables, and fish: 1. Lent; 2. St. Peter’s fast, from
+Whit-Monday to the 29th June; 3. Fast of the Virgin Mary, from August
+1st to 15th; and 4. St. Philip’s fast, from November 15th to December
+26th. Wednesday and Friday also are fast-days.
+
+[9] The Lavra of Egypt are supposed to have been collections of tents
+in the deserts, where each provided for himself, but joined the rest in
+common devotions. Cœnobia were institutions where all lived associated.
+The discipline is the same in all three, but the Stauropegia are under
+the direct jurisdiction, not of the bishops, but of the Synod. Dr.
+Neale gives the numbers of Russian monasteries for men at 435, and for
+women, 113. My almanack mentions a gross total of 472. Greek monks
+need not be ecclesiastics, and are all of the order of St. Basil. The
+head of a large monastery is called an archimandrite (or abbot); of a
+smaller monastery, a hegumen (or prior), whilst the lady superior of
+a monastery for women is called a hegumena. There are monk priests,
+and also monk deacons, and in the churches attached to the nunneries a
+large part of the service is performed by the nuns. Among the Russian
+monks, according to Dr. King, are three degrees: novices, who should
+serve three years; the proficients, who wear the lesser habit; and
+the perfect, who wear the greater or angelic habit, which last are
+said to be uncommon in Russia. Men are not admitted to be monks till
+30 years of age, and nuns do not receive the tonsure till 60, or at
+least 50. Younger women may enter as probationers; but they take no
+vow, and are at liberty to leave and be married. Probationers, whether
+men or women, wear a black velvet hat without a brim, and the men a
+black cassock. Proficients have a black veil attached to the hat (with
+metropolitans this is white), and monastics of the third degree always
+wear the veil or hood down, and never suffer their faces to be seen.
+In the time of Peter the Great the monasteries had become homes for
+the idle, and he issued many salutary rules concerning them. Monastics
+were to confess and receive the communion four times a year, though
+they were not compelled to confess to their own superior. They were to
+avoid idleness; were not allowed (with the exception of the superior,
+the aged, and infirm) to keep servants; were not to receive or pay
+visits without permission; and in all monasteries the monks were to
+be strictly kept to the study of the Bible, the most learned were to
+explain it, and such only were to be promoted to offices and dignities.
+
+[10] When clerical celibacy, for instance, was imposed in the West, it
+was not followed in the East, nor was the cup denied to the Russian
+laity when it was withheld from the Roman. The Russian Church never
+fabricated a purgatory, and then sold indulgences to get people out
+of it. The Eastern Church has never added uncatholic articles to the
+Nicene Creed, as in that of Pope Pius the Fourth, and issued the whole
+as binding upon all who would be saved. Again, the errors of the East
+have at least the stamp of antiquity. They have not added to the
+Christian faith novel articles, such as the Immaculate Conception of
+the Virgin, or still less claimed a supremacy and infallibility which
+in the early Christian councils would need only to have been mentioned
+to have been scouted; but in a very real sense it maybe said that
+Russia has kept the faith as she received it.
+
+[11] It may surprise some, as I confess it at first surprised me, to
+learn the place the Russian Church gives to the Bible in her “Treatise
+on the Duty of Parish Priests,”--a book by two Russian bishops,
+which has been adopted by the whole Sclavonian Church, and which all
+candidates for orders are required to have read, and to show their
+acquaintance with before being ordained. The book begins by saying that
+“to teach the people is the priest’s very first duty,” and then (VII.)
+that the priest is to teach the faith and the law; that (IX.) “all the
+articles of faith are contained in the Word of God--that is, in the
+books of the Old and New Testament”; and that (XI.) “none other books
+are to be held by us as Divine Scriptures, or called the Word of God,
+than the two volumes of the Old and New Testaments.” Again (XIII.),
+that “the writings of the Holy Fathers are of great use.... But neither
+the writings of the Holy Fathers, nor the traditions of the Church, are
+to be confounded or equalled with the Word of God and His commandments;
+for the Word of God is one thing, but the writings of the Holy Fathers
+and traditions ecclesiastical are another.” And further (XXXII.), “So
+great being this work of teaching, etc. ... we cannot fail to see how
+needful it is for the priest to abound both in word and in wisdom, in
+order to the well-fulfilling of this his vast duty; and the only way
+hereto is that he be skilled and nourished up from a child in Holy
+Scripture.”
+
+[12] The “Treatise on the Duty of Parish Priests” reads (XXIX.): “Since
+the sole beginner and perfecter of our holy faith and of everlasting
+salvation is our Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. xii. 2), and there is none
+other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, but
+only His (Acts iv. 12), ... it is plain that in each of the above
+kinds of teaching, the priest ought to instil the knowledge of Christ
+Jesus, inculcate His doctrine, dwell on His exceeding compassion, and
+possess the soul with this truth, that Christ _alone is made unto us
+of God wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption_ (1 Cor.
+i. 30).... In every case, I say, according to circumstances, he can
+implant, and is in duty bound to implant, the knowledge of Christ
+Jesus; and so all instruction, and every particular instruction, should
+be grounded on Christ; for all that can be either written or said in
+reference to the faith, and to everlasting happiness, if it be not
+grounded on faith in Christ, is unfruitful, and can never save.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+_FROM TOMSK TO KRASNOIARSK._
+
+ Book-distribution in Western Siberia.--Departure from
+     Tomsk.--Postbells.--How to sit in posting.--Sleeping.--Boundary
+     of Western Siberia.--Wild and domesticated
+     animals.--Birds.--Scenery.--Roadside villages.--Peasants’
+     houses.--Hammering up “the Prodigal Son.”--Siberian
+     towns.--Houses of upper classes.--Misadventures.--A hospitable
+     merchant.--Frontier of Eastern Siberia.
+
+
+I have said that, on returning to Tomsk, we found the remainder of our
+books arrived. The reader may like to know how we had prospered in
+relation to their distribution through Western Siberia. Our singular
+mission greatly puzzled the Russians. I have since heard how it reached
+the ears of the worthy Archbishop of Tobolsk that a strange Englishman
+had been through the district, leaving thousands of books to be given
+away. Like a watchful shepherd, his first anxiety was to see that they
+contained no heresy. Having examined the books, however, and perused
+a set of the tracts, he found them exceedingly good, and would by no
+means put anything in the way of their distribution; but, said his
+Eminence, “Those English are a queer lot, and there must surely be
+some ulterior motive behind it.” To the same effect were many of the
+officials’ cogitations as they oozed out and reached me from time
+to time. We met with no opposition, however, or even questioning of
+what we were doing. The fact that the revolutionists have sometimes
+distributed seditious leaflets inside pamphlets approved by the censor
+makes the police on the alert in European Russia; but I have usually
+found even there, so long as all was clear and above-board, that the
+authorities were willing to forward my endeavours; and I so far availed
+myself of this willingness in Siberia as to distribute more through the
+authorities than formerly, and less in proportion with our own hands.
+Still, we gave an immense number personally, and many also we sold,
+on the principle that a man values most what he pays for. At each of
+the towns and villages on the Obi we made up parcels and sent them
+with a note to the parish priest, asking him to distribute the books
+gratuitously. As the periodical--_The Russian Workman_--could be had
+post-free for a rouble a year, many said they should get it. One man
+intimated that he should write for 50 copies forthwith, and another
+that he should get the same number of subscribers in his neighbourhood,
+on the Lower Obi, where he had built a little church, and had had his
+son instructed to read to the people. Our greatest success, however, in
+Western Siberia, and one that would have repaid us for all our trouble,
+has since proved to be the plans laid at Tiumen, through which town,
+as observed before, some 18,000 exiles pass yearly. From data given me
+in the prison, we had calculated that there would be about 2,000 pass
+during the summer who could read, and for these I left 1,980 Russian
+Scripture portions, 36 Polish, German, French, Tatar, and Mongolian
+Scriptures, 546 copies of the _Rooski Rabotchi_, and 2,520 tracts. The
+exiles going east are sent away in the barge weekly, and, before the
+party starts, a religious service is held by a priest at Tiumen. I have
+since heard that after this service, throughout the summer, our books
+were distributed; so that I trust they are now to be found not only
+among the convicts in prisons, but also with those who have been sent
+to live free, but in comparative solitude, in the furthest corners of
+the country.
+
+Some have shaken their heads and said that the men would sell the
+books, and make cigarettes of the tracts. This, however, I doubt; but,
+even if it be so, it may simply mean, in the case of the Scriptures,
+that a book has passed from the hands of one who did not care for it to
+those of one who does. But the Russians have great respect, amounting
+almost to superstition, for what they call “holy books”; and such books
+are a great deal too scarce to allow of their being generally uncared
+for. Moreover, in Siberia, books of this character and tracts are
+_new_. In European Russia, many, on receiving the books, said they had
+no idea there were such publications in existence; and we had cases in
+Asia of soldiers giving their last kopeck to get a copy of the Gospels,
+the Psalms, or the New Testament.
+
+Before leaving Tomsk we gave the Governor books for the public
+institutions of his government, and left with him boxes to be forwarded
+to the residence of the Governor-General Kaznakoff, at Omsk. I had
+been made acquainted with this latter officer, both officially and
+privately, in Petersburg, and had been invited to call upon him on my
+return through Omsk, to be introduced to his family. The general had
+told me also to telegraph to him in case I got into prison, or in the
+event of any other small casualty, and I looked forward with pleasure
+to my visit; but with my subsequent change of plans, I wrote asking
+that the books I had sent might be distributed in the provinces of
+Akmolinsk and Semipolatinsk, and thus finished arrangements for the
+supply of the public institutions in all the four provinces of Western
+Siberia: our total distribution thus far being 4,000 Scriptures and
+9,000 pamphlets and tracts.
+
+We now prepared to drive into Eastern Siberia, and on Thursday evening,
+June 19th, galloped out of Tomsk in two troikas, containing ourselves
+and baggage--the latter reduced, but still a heavy load. Outside the
+town the tongues of our horses’ bells were unloosed, and we jingled
+merrily along. The said bells are placed beneath the _douga_, over the
+centre horse, and are intended to give notice to the public generally,
+and all whom it may concern, that _post_-horses are coming, and,
+accordingly, that it is their bounden duty to get out of the way.
+If they fail to do this, which is sometimes the case, especially at
+night, when the drivers of slow-going vehicles are nodding on their
+seats, then “the rule of the road” is that the post-boy may give
+them a cut with his whip--a visitation inflicted sometimes upon men,
+and sometimes, with caravans, upon the leading horse, which, in his
+driver’s absence or sleep, is supposed to know the side of the road he
+ought to take.
+
+We were now becoming accustomed to our jolting mode of travel, and I
+had already discovered a secret in connection therewith worth handing
+down to posterity. It concerns the position of the body and legs in the
+tarantass. If you place your heels against the front of the vehicle,
+or against a bag or box, your feet become excessively tired; and if you
+lie at full length, flat, you may soon imagine yourself in a ship’s
+berth, rolling from side to side. Now, my golden secret is this: First
+secure to yourself (in a hole if possible) a soft, springy base upon
+which to sit, and then place on that a ribbed circular air-cushion.
+Secondly, put your down-pillow behind at an angle of 60 degrees, and,
+if you like, an air-pillow, without ribs, in the nape of your neck.
+But the next arrangement is the most important. Draw up your legs
+till the knees come on a level with your chin; then put beneath the
+knee-pits a soft parcel or bag, sufficiently high to leave the feet
+dangling above the ground; and the result will be that you will travel
+with comparative comfort by night and by day continuously for 1,000
+miles. Being thus fixed before and behind, and kept laterally straight
+by the side of the vehicle and your companion, the only direction in
+which you can be shot is upwards and heavenwards, to come down, alas!
+on the old spot; and this must be accepted as your minimum amount
+of local disturbance. The reader may think it utterly impossible to
+sleep under such circumstances--and at first it is so. But Nature will
+assert her claims. A Siberian priest told us that, when he travelled
+from Europe, he could not at first sleep at all in the tarantass; but
+that, when at last he did so, he lost no less than three hats whilst
+wrapped in slumber. As for myself, I soon learnt to doze; and in my
+journal of June 21st I find the entry, “Managed to sleep quite soundly
+in the tarantass till 8 o’clock this morning.” It was not always,
+however, one could sleep the whole night through; and I recollect on
+one occasion awaking from a beautiful dream of pleasant society in an
+English drawing-room to find myself, to my disgust, outside a Siberian
+post-house. On another occasion I had been sleeping soundly, and, on
+looking out early in the morning, found that the driver had followed
+my example; and the horses, not feeling the lash, had followed suit,
+and so we had come to a standstill, and all were slumbering together. I
+gave the man, however (to confess it for once), a dig in the back; his
+whip fell on the horses, and they galloped in style to the end of the
+stage.
+
+On the third day after leaving Tomsk, we approached the boundary that
+divides Western from Eastern Siberia; but up to this point we had not
+met with a large number of wild animals. No wolves came alongside the
+tarantass as they did last year in the Caucasus, nor did we so much
+as catch sight of a bear, as on my journey from Archangel.[1] As to
+domesticated animals, large herds of cows were seen, and milk was
+abundant. Strange to say, however, the people make little or no cheese;
+and the peasants do not usually butter their bread. Their fresh butter,
+when they make it, is without salt, and is generally used for cooking.
+The pigs of the country are a long-legged breed, and are frequently
+seen running about the village streets. They furnish the long bristles
+from their mane which are used for making brooms.
+
+We saw no lack of birds of prey in Western Siberia, for hawks of
+various kinds are seen sailing gracefully over every town. We met with
+the largest number of sportsmen’s birds between Tiumen and Tobolsk,
+chiefly water-birds, with wild ducks and geese in abundance. I tasted
+at Ekaterineburg the _gluchar_, or cock of the wood, the same as our
+capercailzie. It was a well-tasted bird, from whose breast ten persons
+were helped, and it may be bought in the winter at Ekaterineburg for
+8_d._ In the Altai regions is found a magnificent eagle called the
+bearcoot, of which specimens are shown in the Barnaul Museum. It is
+strong enough to kill a deer with ease; and it not unfrequently happens
+that, when wolves have killed and begun to eat their prey, a pair
+of bearcoots will attack and kill or drive them away, and eat their
+intended meal. The Kirghese tame these birds for the purpose of hunting.
+
+As we pursued our way towards Eastern Siberia, there was a slight
+improvement in the landscape. For a long distance, after leaving Tomsk,
+the country was flat; but in the direction of Krasnoiarsk was seen
+a range of hills to the south, dotted with pine-trees, the country
+looking English-like and fertile, well wooded, and here and there under
+cultivation. Hitherto the herbage had been singularly luxuriant; but,
+from the station next before Atchinsk, pasture became less plentiful,
+and thus, in a measure, explained why henceforth our hire of horses was
+to cost us double. The number of towns and villages along the road for
+the first 400 miles of the way--that is, from Tomsk to Krasnoiarsk--was
+more numerous than might be expected, though, the further east we went,
+the further apart they were. The post-houses were rarely more than
+from ten to fifteen miles distant from one another, and we frequently
+drove through two or three intervening villages. To describe one
+village is to describe them all--the chief difference being that whilst
+each consists of a single street, with detached houses on either side
+of the way, some villages are larger than others. One we passed through
+was said to be nearly three miles long. The said street is usually
+wide, but never by any chance paved, though now and then a few boards
+are laid down for a footway. Nor is the street usually beautified with
+anything worthy the name of a garden. Now and then a few trees are
+planted in front of a house, but with such a high, clumsy palisade to
+keep off the cattle, that the attempted cultivation of beauty becomes
+rather a disfigurement than otherwise. The priest’s house is often one
+of the best in the place. So, again, the post-house usually stands out
+prominently; and if there happen to be any Government official in the
+village, an extra coat of paint, or some little ornamentation about
+the exterior, may point out the house inhabited by superiors; but
+ordinarily the houses of the peasants or farmers are very much alike.
+The foundation may perchance be of stone, but all else is of wood.
+For the walls, trees are cut and barked, slightly flattened by being
+cut away on two opposite sides, and then laid one above the other,
+the ends being dovetailed together at the corners. The interstices
+between the logs are calked with moss, and the roof is generally of
+overlapping boards. So long as the foundation holds good, the houses
+look tolerably neat; but when this begins to give, or the logs to rot,
+they become strained and warped in so many directions as to present
+a very dilapidated appearance. When the houses are intended for the
+accommodation of human beings only, they generally have no second
+storey; but in the case of farm-houses, where cattle are sheltered, we
+frequently found them having an upper storey approached by an outside
+staircase. There were usually also out-houses adjoining, and under the
+same roof; so that one had but to leave the dwelling-room upstairs,
+cross a passage, and open a door, to find oneself looking down upon
+beasts and cattle, and other denizens of a farm-yard, which share the
+same roof, though not, like the Irish pig, the same apartments as their
+owners. The interior of the house is as simple as the outside. In the
+centre is a brick stove. The walls are whitewashed or papered, and
+adorned with pictures according to the means and taste of the owners.
+Portraits of the Imperial family figure largely, so do battle scenes,
+pictures of the saints, and family photographs. As already observed,
+I took with me a large number of illustrated prints of “The Prodigal
+Son,” round which was written the parable in Russ. Having provided
+myself with a hammer and tacks, I was wont to go into the guest-room at
+the post-houses, and there nail up the picture, to the great admiration
+usually of the post-master. I have heard from a gentleman, who has
+recently crossed Siberia, that these pictures still adorn the walls
+of the post-houses, and that the books given with them are carefully
+preserved. My action, however, was not always understood at first,
+especially by those who could not read. One woman, who saw only an
+early stage of my operations, ran off to her husband as frightened as
+if I had been nailing up an Imperial ukase. They usually proceeded at
+once to read the parable; some said they should have it framed; and one
+post-master, a Jew, said in German, as he finished reading, that it was
+“a right good story.”
+
+What has been said of Siberian houses thus far refers more especially
+to the houses of the peasantry and their villages. The traveller,
+however, from Tomsk passes certain small towns which have cross
+streets, wooden footways, perchance a small hospital, and the residence
+of an ispravnik, or a few well-to-do merchants. On entering the
+dwelling of one of these classes, one finds large rooms, papered walls,
+and painted floors, with perhaps a square of carpet near the sofa and
+table. Things look plain but comfortable within; and the out-houses,
+such as kitchen and bath-house, are at a convenient distance in the
+yard. The liability of the kitchen to catch fire partly accounts for
+its being detached; and these out-houses serve as a residence for the
+servants.
+
+Houses occupied by persons highest in position, such as governors of
+provinces, and high military officers, are also of wood, and often
+without a second storey; but the rooms are more spacious and _en
+suite_, enlivened with flowers and creepers, and the tables enriched by
+articles of _virtu_ from Europe. It is interesting to an Englishman to
+see how many things from London find their way to these remote regions.
+Thus, when sitting at a desk, one finds oneself among Cumberland leads
+and Perry’s coloured pencils, and a dozen other trifles, reminders of
+home.
+
+Our journey from Tomsk to Krasnoiarsk was not entirely devoid of
+incident, our misadventures being connected for the most part with
+a limping wheel. Our first misadventure happened in returning from
+Barnaul, when, in the middle of the night, in the midst of a field,
+one of our shafts broke. But this might have happened anywhere; and
+fortunately there happened to be a man resting by the roadside to feed
+his horses, who lent us his pole to go to the next station. Early in
+the morning, however, it was discovered that our Siberian Jehu had been
+driving so furiously that, like Phaëton, his classical ancestor, he had
+set the wheels on fire. Matters were made worse for want of a smith at
+hand; and when we found a smith, he had no coal. We applied, therefore,
+a liberal allowance of grease, and limped on to Tomsk, where the whole
+concern was supposed to be put in order and cleaned, with the addition
+of new shafts and mended wheels, at a cost of nearly £2. We had not
+travelled four-and-twenty hours before the wheel was again on fire,
+and we paid several shillings for the repair of the axletree; a little
+further on, 24_s._ more; and then, on the evening of the third day, we
+arrived at a village where lived a smith. Now this man was well known
+in the district as an extortioner. He came to us clad in a pea-green
+dressing-gown, and smoked a cigarette as he leisurely walked round the
+tarantass, just as a man surveys a horse. He informed us that he would
+put us right for £5, which we flatly refused to give. “But you will
+certainly break down if you proceed,” urged the extortioner. “Then,”
+said I, “if we do, we will not come to _you_ for assistance.” Said some
+of the people, “You had better go on to the next station at Bogotol,
+where there lives a merchant named So-and-so; and if you ask him he
+will recommend you to an honest wheelwright.” With our spokes roped
+together, therefore, and wetted, we waddled on, and arrived at Bogotol
+between three and four in the morning.
+
+“Is the merchant So-and-so at home?” was the first question we asked
+at the post-house. “Yes,” said they; “but he is asleep, and will get
+up for nobody.” “Indeed,” said I to my interpreter, “will you go to
+him and say as politely as you can that an Englishman travelling to
+Irkutsk has met with an accident, and will be greatly obliged if he can
+recommend him an honest wheelwright?” And off went Mr. Interpreter,
+with a glum countenance, evidently not liking his job. He knocked at
+the merchant’s door, expecting to get roundly abused for his intrusion.
+But the merchant, on ascertaining what was the matter, asked the
+stranger in, and shouted to his servants, Peter, Timothy, and John, to
+bestir themselves. One he sent for the wheelwright, another to heat the
+samovar, and a third to prepare some food; and then, said he, “I cannot
+think of letting you go till the wheelwright comes, and all is going
+well”; after which he plied his visitor with talk, telling him what a
+famous place was Siberia; that any one might come in his neighbourhood,
+and, without payment, till as much land or cut as much grass as he
+liked, no man forbidding him; though labour, he added, was scarce, and
+imported goods dear. Thus, after tea and talk, and the arrival of the
+workman, the merchant returned to his slumbers. But I thought this
+one of the finest examples of hospitality and kindness to strangers I
+had ever met with, and I wondered much whether a broken-down Russian
+traveller, knocking up an Englishman at four in the morning, and
+asking to be recommended to an honest wheelwright, would have received
+a kindlier reception. The honest wheelwright mended us up for a few
+shillings, and, after calling to thank the merchant, we started, and
+about noon reached Krasnorechinska. Here we called upon the priest, who
+had 3,000 parishioners, of whom he said 200 could read, for whom we
+gave him some pamphlets, and sold him four New Testaments. He possessed
+a large Russian Bible, which cost upwards of six shillings, and was, he
+said, the cheapest to be had.
+
+By night we reached Atchinsk, the first station in Eastern Siberia,
+and although the roads were perceptibly better immediately we crossed
+the border, our poor wheel was out of trim again, and threatened to
+detain us far into the morrow. And now came sundry physicians to
+administer advice, chiefly, however, in their own favour. One wished
+to sell us a new wheel for £1, another to make an exchange of our two
+front wheels for £2, and so on; in answer to which I declared that
+I would go straight to the Ispravnik and show my grand letter from
+Petersburg. “But,” urged Mr. Interpreter, “the Ispravnik has nothing
+to do with mending wheels!” “True,” I replied; but--“Let us go!” And
+so we did, and were kindly received. “If your axletrees are of iron,”
+said the Ispravnik, “I doubt whether there are any persons in the place
+capable of mending them; but, even if there are, they will most likely
+be drunk, as to-day is a _fête_; and you must therefore wait till
+to-morrow.” I pleaded, however that he should do his best, and things
+turned out better than he prophesied. A wheelwright was found, who for
+half-a-crown enabled us to proceed, and early next morning we reached
+Krasnoiarsk.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Mr. Atkinson gives the following list of mammalia as inhabiting
+Siberia:--The reindeer, stag, roebuck, elk; the argali, or wild sheep,
+and wild boar; the jackal, wolf, tiger, and bear; the Corsac and Arctic
+foxes; the lynx, glutton, and polecat; the beaver, otter, badger,
+hedgehog, ermine, Arctic hare; sable; flying, striped, and common
+squirrels; the Siberian and common marmots; the water and common rats;
+the mouse, bat, and mole.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+_THE YENESEI._
+
+ Sources of the river.--Discoveries of Wiggins and
+     Nordenskiöld.--The Yenesei at Krasnoiarsk.--Current,
+     width, depth.--Breaking up of ice.--The Yeneseisk
+     province.--Geography.--Meteorology.--Forests.--Timber.--Fish of
+     Yenesei.--Birds.--Russian population.--Navigation.--Corn and
+     cattle.--Towns.--A Scoptsi village.--Salubrity of climate.--The
+     aborigines.--Ethnology.--Tunguses.--Fur-bearing animals.--Methods
+     of hunting.--Minerals.
+
+
+The most remarkable of the natural features of the Yeneseisk province
+is its wonderful river, the Yenesei,[1] much of our knowledge of which,
+below Krasnoiarsk, we owe to the discoveries of Wiggins and Seebohm,
+Nordenskiöld and Théel, all of whose information has come to us within
+the past seven years.[2]
+
+As I stood on the banks of the Yenesei at Krasnoiarsk, it appeared to
+me the most majestic stream I had ever beheld; and, when looking at
+the rush of its waters, I was thankful that we had attempted nothing
+so rash as to descend by a raft on its bosom; for, however pleasant a
+method of travelling from Minusinsk this might be in summer, it would
+be nothing short of madness to attempt it during the spring floods.
+Some idea of the swiftness of the current may be gathered from the
+report of M. Théel, who says that, including stoppages and without
+rowing, they were carried in their boat from Krasnoiarsk to Yeneseisk,
+a distance of 300 miles, in 2½ days; that is to say, they floated down
+the stream at just about the same speed as we attained with three
+horses at our best travelling, namely, 130 miles in a day and night.
+Allowing for stoppages, they floated at the rate of seven miles an
+hour. Dr. Peacock, who lives at Krasnoiarsk, informed me that the river
+in quiet places has a current of five miles an hour; in swifter places
+of 10 miles, and in some very rapid parts of 17 miles an hour; but
+this last may perchance refer to the two rapids, through one of which
+M. Théel’s party had to shoot at Padporoschensk, about 170 miles below
+Krasnoiarsk, and the other, of which Mr. Seebohm speaks as remaining
+unfrozen all the winter through.[3]
+
+I imagine that the grandest thing to be witnessed on the Lower Yenesei
+is the breaking-up of the ice, which Mr. Seebohm has described as
+he saw it in 1877. Proceeding down the river on the ice with Captain
+Wiggins, they reached the ship _Thames_ in her winter quarters near the
+confluence of the Kureika with the Yenesei, and were quietly waiting
+for the opening of the navigation, when on the 1st of June commenced
+what Mr. Seebohm calls the “battle of the Yenesei.” The pressure
+underneath caused a large field of ice to break away, which, by
+collision with an angular point of the bank, resulted in the piling up
+of a little range of ice mountains 50 or 60 feet high, and picturesque
+in the extreme. Huge blocks of ice, six feet thick and 20 feet long,
+were seen standing perpendicularly, whilst others were crushed up in
+fragments like broken pottery. Some were white, and some clear as
+glass, and blue as an Italian sky. Then the river began to rise, and
+in the course of the night the whole crust of the Yenesei, as far as
+could be seen, broke up with a tremendous crash, and a dense mass of
+ice-floes and pack-ice rushed irresistibly up the Kureika, driving the
+poor ship like a toy before it, and leaving it in the evening, amidst
+huge hummocks of ice, almost high and dry. The velocity of these masses
+of pack-ice on the Yenesei was reckoned on some days to be not less
+than 20 miles an hour. This sort of thing continued for a fortnight,
+and during two days it was calculated that 50,000 acres of ice passed
+the ship up the constantly changing Kureika, which alternately rose
+and fell. Many square miles of ice were marched up for some hours,
+and then marched back again. Sometimes the pack-ice and floes were
+jammed so tightly together that it looked as if one might scramble
+across the river without much difficulty. At other times there was
+a good deal of open water, and the icebergs “calved” as they went
+along, with much commotion and splashing, that could be heard a mile
+off. Underlayers of icebergs grounded, and after the velocity of the
+enormous mass had caused it to pass on, the “calves,” or pieces left
+behind, rose to the surface like whales coming up to breathe. Some of
+them must have done so from a good depth, for they rose out of the
+water with a considerable splash, and rocked about for some time before
+settling down to their floating level. At last took place the final
+march past of the beaten winter forces in this great 14 days’ “battle,”
+and for seven days more came slowly down the stragglers of the great
+Arctic army--worn and weather-beaten little icebergs, dirty ice-floes
+looking like mudbanks, and broken pack-ice in the last stage of
+destruction--after which the river was found to have risen to a height
+of 70 feet.
+
+To proceed, however, from the river to the basin through which it
+flows. The Yenesei gives its name to Yeneseisk, that central Siberian
+province which is bounded on the west by the governments of Tobolsk and
+Tomsk, and on the east by those of Yakutsk and Irkutsk. It is the only
+province that stretches across the country from the Altai range to the
+Arctic Ocean, a distance from north to south of nearly 2,000 miles;
+or, to put it in another way, it extends from the latitude of London
+to that of the most northerly point of Asia, within 14 degrees of the
+North Pole.[4]
+
+The province is divided into six uyezds, with six principal towns,
+viz., Krasnoiarsk, Minusinsk, Yeneseisk, Kansk, Atchinsk, and
+Turukhansk. The differences of temperature between its various parts
+are, of course, very great. The southern portions about Minusinsk we
+heard spoken of as the Italy of Siberia; and at Krasnoiarsk, towards
+the end of June, we found the temperature like that of an English
+summer. Further north, at Yeneseisk, the greatest heat of the year 1877
+(registered in June) was 92·5, whilst the greatest cold sunk to 59·2
+below zero. This cold was exceeded in December of the same year at
+Turukhansk, where the thermometer sank to 63·0 below zero.
+
+The province is covered with magnificent forests up to the Arctic
+Circle, but the trees rapidly diminish in size further north, and
+disappear soon after lat. 69°. These forests are principally of pine.
+In the neighbourhood of Krasnoiarsk the pine and the larch attain to
+colossal dimensions. The pine frequently rises to 200 feet in height,
+but is never more than six feet in diameter at the base. The larch,
+which has the furthest northern range, sometimes attains to the same
+height, but its diameter is but four feet on the surface of the
+ground.[5]
+
+The forests abound with animal life, as do the rivers with fish. Fish
+forms the principal food of the natives, and in summer almost every
+one is a fisherman, using nets and lines, or spearing by torchlight.
+In the Yenesei are found pike, ruff, perch, and tench, all which are
+little esteemed, and serve as food for the dogs. The more valued are
+the sturgeon, salmon, and various species of the genus _Coregonus_. The
+common sturgeon is caught along the whole Yenesei, and sometimes weighs
+more than 200 lbs. The sterlet usually weighs only three or four lbs.,
+but occasionally reaches 18. The salmon is most numerous in the upper
+course of the river at Minusinsk, where it is caught in great numbers.
+
+The birds of the Yeneseisk province have received much attention from
+Mr. Seebohm. He brought home, in 1877, about 500 eggs, and more than
+1,000 skins, but he thinks that he would have had a still larger bag
+had he made Yeneseisk his head-quarters instead of the Kureika. He
+speaks of a perfect Babel of birds when the ice was breaking up at the
+beginning of June. Gulls, geese, and swans were flying about in all
+directions, also flocks of redpoles and shore-larks, bramblings and
+wagtails; and in the course of the summer were seen the sea-eagle, the
+rough-legged buzzard, the sparrow-hawk, and various kinds of owls. In
+addition to our species of cuckoo, the Himalayan cuckoo made its way to
+these regions, though it had a different note to that of our English
+bird--a guttural and hollow-sounding _hoo_, which could be heard at a
+great distance. Ravens and carrion-crows were plentiful, and jackdaws,
+magpies, and starlings were seen at Yeneseisk, though the jackdaw and
+starling did not go much further north, which remark applies also to
+the bullfinch. The nut-cracker was found as far north as the Kureika,
+where it showed a desire to be sociable, and often perched on the
+rigging of the _Thames_. Besides these, Mr. Seebohm, among many other
+birds, mentions the thrush, the black, hazel, and willow grouse, the
+capercailzie, bittern, crane, lapwing, and golden plover. Towards
+the end of summer is to be seen, he says, a curious sight on the
+tundras--flocks of geese in full moult and unable to fly.
+
+The Russian population of the province is settled for the more part
+in towns and villages by the side of the river, and along the great
+high road crossing it. The natives wander over the remainder. Russian
+villages are seen from 10 to 15 miles apart on the rivers’ banks, at
+which travellers proceeding north may find oarsmen in summer and horses
+in winter,--horses, that is, as far as Turukhansk, beyond which first
+dogs and then reindeer are employed.
+
+Most of the corn that is raised in the province grows about Minusinsk,
+where it may be bought at a fabulously low price, and whence it is
+brought down the river in barges and flat-bottomed boats.[6] Rye
+is not cultivated further north than Antsiferova, 40 miles below
+Yeneseisk, and oats not beyond Zotina, on the 60th parallel. Potatoes
+are cultivated up to Turukhansk, but they are small. Agriculture, in
+fact, practically ceases a little beyond Yeneseisk. The Russians alone
+give any attention to it, as the natives are too busy fishing during
+their short summers to till the land. Cattle are raised to some small
+extent in the valley of the Yenesei, though the people do not appear
+to understand how to make the most of them. Cows are found as far as
+Dudinsk; but though in some of the villages they may have 40 or 50, it
+is almost impossible to get a glass of milk, the calves being allowed
+to take it all. An Anglo-Russian lady informs me that, were these cows
+treated like English ones, even for a few days, they would lose their
+milk; therefore a Russian cow is only partially milked, the rest being
+left for her calf. A scientific gentleman told my friend that it is the
+peculiarity of all cows only lately redeemed from a wild state to lose
+their milk when deprived of their calves. The making of butter is only
+half known on the Yenesei, and of cheese not at all. Sheep are found as
+far as Vorogova, and goats up to Yeneseisk.
+
+Of the towns and villages on the Yenesei, Yeneseisk is the oldest,
+having been founded in 1618; and the most curious is that of
+Silovanoff, near Turukhansk. It is inhabited by exiled _Scoptsi_, a
+fanatical sect whose principal doctrine is based on Matt. xix. 12, who
+mutilate themselves, and endeavour to persuade others to follow their
+example. When these people are caught so acting, they are banished.[7]
+
+[Illustration: OSTJAK WOMEN OF THE YENESEISK PROVINCE.]
+
+It has already been intimated that the aborigines wander over the
+uninhabited parts of the province. In the south, about Minusinsk, are
+Tatars, most of whom have embraced the Christianity of the Russian
+Church. In the north, to the west of the river, are the Samoyedes and
+Ostjaks. West of the river, at the extreme north, are the Yuraks, and
+below them the Tunguses, which latter wander over a far larger area
+than any other tribe in Siberia.[8] Those in the Yeneseisk province
+give themselves to the care of reindeer and to the chase. M. Théel
+speaks of them as the most intelligent of the natives on the Yenesei,
+and says that their rich women, probably wives of chiefs, often wear
+furs of beaver, sable, and black fox to the value of many hundreds of
+pounds sterling. He mentions also, as some proof of their intellectual
+taste, that there was presented to him a hexagonal spindle of ivory,
+upon which the days, the weeks, and the months were indicated by
+different signs. He speaks also of a game they had resembling chess, of
+which all the pieces were of ivory.
+
+[Illustration: YURAK HUNTSMAN.]
+
+Among the principal animals, objects of their chase, are the sable,
+the common fox, the white fox, the elk, the reindeer, the wolf, the
+bear, the ermine, and the squirrel. At the beginning of October, and
+sometimes also of January, they start on snow-shoes. Alone, or in
+company, the hunter goes into the virgin forest, some hundreds of
+versts from any habitation, and is followed by a little sledge drawn by
+dogs. If he finds the track of a sable, he follows, and, on lighting
+upon the animal, he has not much difficulty in killing it. But the
+sable often takes refuge in a hole, and then there is nothing to be
+done but to await his pleasure in coming out; and as this may be by
+night as well as by day, his retreat is covered with fine threads
+attached to bells, which give the alarm. The hunter may thus have to
+wait two or three days; but, if he happen to kill the much-coveted
+animal, his trouble is well rewarded; for a good sable skin fetches
+from 50_s._ to £10. In skinning, the coat ought not to be stretched;
+but, on the contrary, contracted as much as possible, in order to
+render the hairs more bushy, which enhances the value. Hence the skins
+one meets with in commerce are all short and wide.
+
+The common fox is taken with snares and traps. The black fox is very
+rare in these parts, and its skin is valued up to £100. The white fox
+is taken on the tundra by means of traps placed on the top of little
+hills. This animal generally retires south towards the middle of
+September; and as it is known that the fox, rather than jump over an
+obstacle, however low, goes round it, the hunters, profiting by this
+knowledge, set up barriers of branches, leaving openings where they
+plant their snares, and catch their prey. The hunting of the elk is
+carried on by men on snow-shoes; and such numbers of this animal are
+killed that in some years one may buy at Yeneseisk as many as 10,000
+skins. Reindeer are taken in numbers equally large, sometimes in traps,
+and sometimes by driving whole herds into an enclosure, from which they
+cannot get out.[9]
+
+One of their modes of capturing the bear in the Yeneseisk province
+is by fixing a wooden platform to the trunk of a tree, and at such
+a height from the ground that the bear is forced to stand on his
+hind-legs at full length to reach the middle. On this platform are
+numerous barbed iron spikes, and at the higher part a joint of meat.
+The bear arrives, stands up, and puts forward one paw to seize the
+bait; but, bringing it down on the spikes, finds it fixed. The furious
+animal puts down the second to release the first, which also is
+caught, and he thus becomes an easy prey to the huntsman.
+
+Thus the natives spend their days--fishing in summer and hunting in
+winter. They have no towns, no villages, no houses, but live in tents
+of skins or of bark, according to the season; and they have little
+idea of civilized life, or the mineral wealth with which their country
+abounds. Iron ore is found in the valley of the Yenesei, and from
+the province, in 1877, 2,700 tons were cast; also from the mine of
+graphite, on the Kureika, Captain Wiggins ballasted one of his vessels.
+The greatest mineral product of the province, however, is gold, of
+which I shall speak in the following chapter.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Its most distant sources rise under another name in Mongolia, on
+the eastern side of the Khangai mountains, whence the Selenga and the
+Orkhon, flowing together into Lake Baikal, emerge as the Angara, which
+flows into the Yenesei proper near the town of Yeneseisk. The stream
+that is _called_ the Yenesei, however, rises in the Tannu range of
+the Altai mountains, whence it bursts through the Sayansk chain in
+cataracts and rapids, and enters Siberia south of Minusinsk; and then,
+flowing on beyond Krasnoiarsk, it is joined by the Angara, the Lower
+and Upper Tunguska, and the Kureika, all flowing in on the right bank.
+The Russians give its length as 3,472 miles, thus making the Yenesei
+the fourth longest river in the world, being exceeded only by the Nile,
+the Amazon, and the Mississippi.
+
+[2] _See_ Appendix D.
+
+[3] The gigantic proportions of the Yenesei will be further realized
+from its width, which at Krasnoiarsk, 1,700 miles from the sea, is more
+than 1,000 yards, and at Yeneseisk it measures rather more than a mile.
+From thence it widens gradually, so that at the Kureika it enlarges to
+about three miles; and between Tolstonosovsk and Goltchikha it expands
+like a lake with a breadth of more than 40 miles. The delta and lagoon
+formed by its waters are about 400 miles in length. The depth of the
+river varies, of course, according to the season, but opposite Dudinsk
+M. Théel’s sounding-line indicated a depth of 12 fathoms. The river has
+a fall of 4,000 feet, and the banks generally are steep and lofty, from
+60 to 100 feet above the water. Thus it would seem that comparatively
+little land is covered by the summer floods, which is just the reverse
+in the case of the Obi. M. Théel observes, however, that it frequently
+happens, when one bank is high, the other is low, from which it follows
+that the vegetation on either side assumes a somewhat different
+character; for where the bank is low, and consequently exposed to
+inundations, one sees abundance of willows, whilst the higher bank is
+very often covered with fir, pine, and larch.
+
+[4] The province has an area of nearly a million square miles--that
+is to say, is somewhat larger than the aggregate surface covered
+by Austria, France, Russia, Spain, and all the British possessions
+in Europe. The southern part only is mountainous, all above the
+60th parallel being flat and swampy. It has some half-dozen large
+and thousands of smaller lakes in the _tundras_ of the north,
+and the province is well watered by the Yenesei and its larger
+affluents,--namely, the Angara, the Podkamennaia (or stony) Tunguska,
+the Nijnaia (or lower) Tunguska, and the Kureika. In 1873 the
+population was thus classified: hereditary nobles, 800; personally
+noble, 1,600; ecclesiastical persons of all sorts, 4,000; townspeople,
+20,000; rural population, 232,000; military, 15,000; foreigners, 42;
+and others, probably aborigines, 122,000. The total population in 1880
+was 372,000, or about three-fourths of the population of Liverpool.
+
+[5] The larch is called in Russ _listvenitsa_ (from _list_, a leaf,
+and _venets_, a crown), in allusion to the arrangement of its acicular
+leaves. Its wood looks well for the walls and ceilings of the peasants’
+rooms. The larch is highly valued also for its power of resisting the
+effects of moisture, besides which, when used as fuel, it is found to
+produce a high degree of heat (in which respect the birch comes next),
+though it does not produce a brilliant light. For the tile-kilns it is
+preferable to all other wood, but it is not used for charcoal, nor does
+it serve well for burning in the house, on account of the pungent and
+stupefying qualities of its smoke; nor in the furnaces used for the
+manufacture of rolled iron plates, for it soils the metal.
+
+The elegant spruce fir, with its branches almost down to the root
+and trailing on the ground, is more abundant, and extends nearly as
+far north. The Siberians look upon this tree as very important for
+commercial purposes. The wood is white, light, and very elastic. It is
+the favourite tree for masts, and is considered the best substitute
+for ash for oars, and it makes the best “knees” for shipbuilding.
+Snow-shoes also are generally made of this wood. The quality is good
+down into the roots. It is, however, subject to very hard knots, which
+are said to blunt the edge of any axe not made of Siberian steel. The
+Siberian spruce is less abundant, and differs from the common spruce
+in having a smooth bark of an ash-grey colour. The leaves are also of
+a much darker and bluer green. The wood is soft and liable to crack
+and decay, and is consequently of little commercial value; but, being
+easy to split, it is largely used for roofing and for fuel. The cost
+of firewood in Siberia per _sajen_, or seven-feet cube, is 3_s._,
+as compared with 12_s._ in Petersburg, and from 20_s._ to 30_s._ at
+Moscow. At Krasnoiarsk a log of building timber, 80 feet long, costs
+from 20_d._ to 3_s._, whilst bricks cost from 16_s._ to 20_s._ per
+1,000. The Scotch fir, with the upper trunk and branches almost of a
+cinnamon yellow, is in many places very abundant.
+
+The Siberian is proudest, however, of his cedar--a tree very similar in
+appearance to the Scotch fir, but more regular in its growth--clothed
+with branches nearer to the ground, and with an almost uniform grey
+trunk. For furniture and indoor wood it is considered to be the best
+timber in the country, and is said never to rot or shrink, warp or
+crack. It is soft and easy to work, but has a fine grain, and is almost
+free from knots. The Ostjaks use it for building their large boats.
+They take a trunk two or three feet in diameter, split it, and of each
+half make a wide, thin board. Having no proper saws, they are obliged
+to cut the wood away with an axe, and thus the greater part of the tree
+is wasted. The Russian peasant is still more prodigal with his timber,
+for when I was going through the forest east of the Yenesei, a felled
+cedar-tree was pointed out, and the remark made that it was quite usual
+that a man who wanted nuts should cut down a fine tree for the sole
+purpose of replenishing his bag with the nut-filled cones.
+
+The birch is common up to the 70th parallel, and still further north,
+on the tundra, in suitable localities, the creeping birch and two or
+three sorts of willow may be met with. The alder is abundant, and the
+juniper. The poplar is found as far north as Turukhansk. The Ostjaks
+hollow their canoes from the trunks of this tree.
+
+[6] In 1876 the number of steamers on the Yenesei was four, all
+of which had paddle-wheels, and were used for tugging barges. The
+steamers took no cargo on board, and some of the barges were arranged
+like floating shops. These last leave Yeneseisk at the end of May,
+and return from the lower part of the river at the end of September,
+during which period the two largest steamers, with engines of 60 or
+70-horse power, make two voyages, the smaller only one. Some of the
+barges are of 250 tons burthen. Besides these steamers, there were two
+sailing-boats of 50 tons burthen each, and a number of others from 6 to
+20 tons. It should also be added that there are large pentagonal boats
+or barges, constructed with huge timbers in the corn-growing districts
+on the upper part of the river, whence they are towed down each by 15
+or 20 men, and then, arrived at their destination, are broken up for
+building or firewood. Such was the fleet of the Yenesei at the time of
+the visit of M. Théel.
+
+[7] Mr. Seebohm tells me that, as regards material comforts, this
+village is far in advance of the ordinary Russian villages. He found
+the land well cultivated and railed off, the cattle kept out by gates,
+and there was a hospital for the sick. The houses were ventilated,
+the joining work was good, and there were books. All intoxicants were
+forbidden, and likewise tobacco and tea and coffee. Morally, in fact,
+it was a model village and without crime. The inhabitants, however,
+of whom there were more men than women, had a remarkable appearance.
+They were all sallow; the men were beardless, with squeaky voices; and
+no inhabitant was less than forty years of age. A “baby’s music” had
+never been heard among them. They keep all the festivals of the Russian
+Church, but have no priest. They say that every man is a priest, and
+that he can perform priestly acts only for himself. They provided
+Mr. Seebohm, as a guest, with both tea and butter, but the Scoptsi
+themselves eat no animal food but fish, use no butter and drink no
+milk. At least this was so originally; but here breaks forth a fact
+that should be respectfully dedicated to all who suppose it within the
+bounds of possibility to bring every one, or to keep every one, to the
+same way of thinking. These people number less than a score, have no
+one in the village not of their own persuasion, and yet they have split
+into two sects, the difference being that one drinks milk and the other
+does not. Originally some 700 or 800 were sent from the government
+of Perm; but many on the Yenesei were dying, and they petitioned to
+be removed elsewhere, and are now to be found with other Scoptsi in
+large numbers in the province of Yakutsk. As to the relative salubrity
+of these and other Siberian provinces, the only clue that I have is
+that whereas in 1879 the death-rate in the government of Perm, whence
+these people came, was 5·07 per cent., it was 4·13 in the province of
+Tobolsk, 3·89 in that of Irkutsk, and 3·51 in the province of Yeneseisk.
+
+[8] Dr. Latham observes that, if we take the principal populations
+that are common to the Russian and Chinese Empires, we find them
+to be the Turkish, Mongolian, and Tungusian races; the Turk on the
+west, the Mongol in the middle, and the Tunguse on the east. The
+Tunguse race begins, he says, north of Peking, and stretches through
+Manchuria across the district of the Amur, and north-east and west
+to the sea of Okhotsk and to the Yenesei. Of the Tunguse family the
+Manchu is the most civilized, whilst in Siberia we have them in their
+extreme character of rude nomads, unlettered, and still pagan, or but
+imperfectly Christianized. The Tungusian approaches the Mongolian, the
+Ostjak, or the Eskimo, according as his residence lies north or south;
+within the limit of the growth of trees or beyond it, on the champaign,
+the steppe, or the tundra. On the tundra the horse ceases to be his
+domestic animal, and the reindeer or the dog replaces it. Hence we hear
+of three divisions of the Tunguse family called by different names,
+according as they possess horses, reindeer, or dogs.
+
+[9] The horns of these animals are very fine. I was presented with a
+pair in Archangel, measuring nearly four feet from the skull to the
+extremities, which are a yard apart. The brow antlers are 13 inches
+long, and the bes-antlers, or those next above, 16 and 18 inches
+respectively, whilst the total measurement of antlers and branches is
+upwards of 14 feet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+_A VISIT TO A GOLD-MINE._
+
+ Gold in Siberia.--Where found.--Gold-hunting.--A
+     prospecting party.--Thawing the ground.--Subterranean
+     passages.--Hardships.--Mining calculations.--Building of
+     barracks.--Preparations for our visit.--Costumes.--Road through
+     the “forest primeval.”--Luxuriant vegetation.--Crossing
+     mountains.--Arrival at mine.--Labour of miners.--Gold-washing
+     machine.--Government inspection.--Wages.--Hours of
+     labour.--Miners’ food.--Pay-day.--Drink and its follies.--Miners’
+     fortunes.--Mines of Eastern Siberia.--Return to Krasnoiarsk.
+
+
+Not many Englishmen, probably, would think of going to Siberia to
+seek for _El-dorado_, the fabled land of gems and gold. Many tons of
+precious metals, however, are found there yearly; and there are firms,
+consisting of only two or three partners, that net an annual income
+of more than half-a-million sterling. The Russian empire furnishes
+an eighth part of the gold found yearly throughout the world, and
+three-fourths of this quantity come from Siberia. It was at the
+beginning of the century that gold-washing was commenced in the Urals,
+and a period of great prosperity followed from 1825 to about 1850.
+Since that time, the number of mines has increased, but the profits
+are less, because, whilst the value of gold has diminished, the price
+of labour has risen. The sources and affluents of the great Siberian
+rivers are rich in gold. The districts on the west of Lake Baikal that
+are most worked are those of Yeneseisk, Irkutsk, Kansk, Nijni-Udinsk,
+and the sources of the Lena, which last are the richest.[1]
+
+Accordingly, when we arrived at Krasnoiarsk, the large town of the
+Yeneseisk gold-mining district, and made acquaintance with some of the
+gold-seekers’ families, it appeared a good opportunity to visit one
+of the mines, since they were called “near.” It was rather alarming,
+however, to discover what were the Siberians’ notions of the word
+_near_, for in that huge country 100 miles or more go for nothing--in
+fact, are a mere trifle, and not too long to be travelled for the sake
+of a ball or a festive gathering. The gold-seekers’ daughters even
+sometimes go out to their fathers’ mines within this distance, and,
+when they do so, stride their horses in top-boots and knickerbockers
+to save their dresses being torn in the primeval forest, or, as it
+is called, the _taiga_. When, therefore, I found that a pair of high
+boots would be necessary, and that it would involve a long journey on
+horseback, I rather hesitated. We had, however, been introduced to the
+Director of the Krasnoiarsk Hospital, Dr. Peacock; and when it appeared
+that not only he, but Mrs. Peacock also, would join the party, my
+courage rose, and I determined to go.
+
+But, before we start, let me try to give the reader some idea as to
+the localities in which the gold is found, and how it is discovered.
+In the mountainous districts of the forest countless brooks unite into
+rivulets, which, in accordance with the character of the landscape,
+have a strong fall, becoming very rapid in the spring, and still more
+so in the summer, after the melting of the snow. The waters uproot
+trees, undermine rocks, and sweep along earth, gold, and other metals
+with resistless fury, till the lowlands are reached, where the stream,
+having no longer the same force, allows the heavy gold to sink to
+the bottom, to be covered, perhaps, next season with more gold, or,
+perhaps, by earth and rubbish. It will be easy to understand, then, how
+a layer of sand containing gold may be thus formed, and subsequently
+covered over with beds of earth and stone.
+
+The professional _tayoshnik_, or gold-hunter, has to discover these
+auriferous layers; but this he cannot do alone.[2] There must be a
+prospecting party made up, which may consist, say, of an overseer, a
+leader, 8 workmen, 10 horses, 18 saddle-bags, provisions, and tools,
+the whole of which may be estimated to cost £500, which amount has to
+be risked, for the party may go out into the taiga and find nothing, or
+what may prove worse than nothing.[3]
+
+The tayoshnik knows, however, that the Siberian gold deposits are
+almost always to be met with on the banks of streams, or in their
+beds. Again, gold is often hidden in crevices of the earth that have
+evidently once served as channels for running water. Moreover, he knows
+that those rivers that wash up gold are always such as have their
+sources in ravines, the rocks of which are very much weather-beaten.
+Gold is rarely found at precipitous spots, and is most abundant where
+the water ages ago had a calmer current, and consequently no longer
+possessed the necessary strength to carry the heavy metal along.[4]
+
+The hunter must, however, dig some depth beneath the surface, the
+thickness of the beds of earth covering the gold varying from 2 to 20
+feet, though it increases sometimes to 150 feet. At some spots three or
+four gold deposits, or _plasts_, as they are called, lie one over the
+other, separated by thick strata of earth and rocks, in which case the
+lowest of the plasts is generally the richest.[5]
+
+With knowledge of this kind, therefore, the gold-hunter proceeds till
+he arrives at a valley along which he judges some ancient river ages
+ago may have rolled down its golden sands. He then seeks in the bed
+of the rivulet for pyrites, iron, slate-clay, or quartz with a thick
+coat of crystals; and at length he forms a judgment as to whether or
+not he is likely by digging to find a gold deposit. If his verdict be
+favourable, then all hands are set to work to cut down trees and build
+a rude log hut, in which the party may have to live for months. The
+next business is to dig a number of holes or trenches at a distance
+from each other, to get down to the auriferous layers--that is, if
+there are any; for if there be none, their labour of course is lost,
+and they have to try elsewhere. But if there be auriferous layers, it
+is no easy matter to get to them, for gold-hunting is usually followed
+in the winter, often with the thermometer many degrees below zero, and
+when the ground is so hard as not to be pierced even by a pickaxe; they
+have, therefore, to make huge bonfires, whereby the earth is softened,
+so as to allow trenches of considerable depth to be dug. This manœuvre
+has to be repeated until the longed-for gold is found, or unyielding
+stone presents an impenetrable obstacle.[6]
+
+These trenches or holes are made under the superintendence of the
+overseer. Samples of the earth are constantly tried, and so guidance
+is obtained as to the direction in which other work should be begun,
+and some idea formed as to the depth and breadth of the beds of gold.
+Often, however, the metal lies so far beneath the surface that it would
+scarcely be possible to dig out all the trenches begun. In such cases
+the wider ones are sunk into wells or shafts, and subterranean passages
+are made.[7]
+
+Thus the work of testing a locality may take some little time;
+meanwhile the workmen and overseer live in their wretched hut, which
+often is not well roofed, and heated only by a portable stove. The wind
+whistles through the cracks of the moss-calked walls, an insupportable
+heat reigns in the vicinity of the stove, while, on the opposite walls,
+icicles gleam like brilliants, and melting snow falls from above. The
+air is rendered poisonous by the exhalations of the inmates and the
+vapour ascending from damp clothing hung near the fire to dry. In fact,
+as the workmen say, the atmosphere is thick enough “to hang up an axe
+in.” However, in the wilderness, even such a shelter is a longed-for
+refuge when a fierce snowstorm is raging and the thermometer has sunk
+to far below zero.
+
+But the climate is not the only hardship the gold-hunter has to
+encounter. His provisions consist of black rusks, dried meat, tea, and
+a little brandy; and often he does not possess as much as could be
+wished even of this meagre fare, for he is obliged to carry with it all
+requisite tools and weapons on his beasts of burden, and communication
+with civilized centres or depôts is usually difficult, and in spring
+sometimes impossible. My interpreter told me he had an uncle, who was
+a _tayoshnik_, who made an income of about £1,000 a year, but had
+sometimes, for want of better food, to eat bear’s flesh.
+
+But supposing the overseer to have discovered a promising spot, and to
+have tested the earth from several holes, he can then strike an average
+as to the amount of gold that may be got from every hundred poods--that
+is, every 32 cwt., or say every ton and a half--of sand. If the amount
+be five _zolotniks_,--say, ¾ oz., this is thought rich; if less than ⅛
+oz. it is very poor; sometimes, however, ½ lb. of gold even is found to
+100 poods of sand. The overseer has next to calculate whether it will
+pay to work the mine.[8]
+
+If, when all things are calculated, the land promises to pay, he
+sticks up two posts, one on each end of the area he has chosen,
+despatches a courier to his employer, and the place is registered at
+once by the commissary of police or other competent authority from
+the local Direction of Mines. The area is then thoroughly surveyed by
+a Government surveyor, who makes a map of the spot, and, when all is
+secured to the finder, the proprietor can at once borrow money on the
+security of his mine, paying at the rate of from 20 to 30 per cent.,
+according as money is scarce or plentiful. Many capitalists, content
+with this interest, employ all their money in this way.[9]
+
+The next thing is to build the necessary houses and barracks for the
+future manager of the mine and his workmen, the number of which may
+vary from 10 to 2,000. Provisions and fuel provided, then the digging
+begins about the middle of February, and the washing about the 1st of
+May, the operations being over on the 10th of September, or, if the
+weather be unusually fine, on the 1st of November. When a mine has been
+registered, it _must_ be worked to some extent, or it is forfeited to
+the Crown. The owner, however, may sell it if he pleases, but it must
+not remain idle.
+
+It was to a mine that had been opened the same year that we were to
+start from Krasnoiarsk. It was called the Archangel Gabriel mine, and
+was situated on the river Slisneva, at a spot nearly 30 miles from the
+Yenesei. Our worthy doctor arrayed himself for the occasion in the
+costume of a Tyrolese hunter, with a double gun over his shoulders, a
+revolver and bowie-knife in his belt, and a huntsman’s horn; for he
+hoped, he said, that we might chance to meet with a bear--a hope that
+I cannot say was shared by all the party. I know at least of one who
+hoped we should _not_ meet with a bear. However, it was by no means
+unlikely, and I accordingly armed Mr. Interpreter with our revolver.
+Madame Peacock wore a black velvet hat, a magenta chemisette, a brown
+tweed tunic, black knickerbockers, and top boots; and thus, with a
+few provisions, we started in the afternoon to cross the Yenesei to
+the village of Basaïka. The water was more than 20 feet higher than
+it had risen for 30 years, the ferry had been washed away, and the
+force of the stream carried down our boat a good mile ere we reached
+the opposite bank; and then, after wading through a great deal of
+mud and water, in doing which we learned to appreciate high boots,
+we reached the village, and took refreshment before mounting our
+steeds. We then advanced in single file from the village through the
+cultivated bottom-land, and afterwards through much grass, that was
+very like penetrating a forest of herbs, to which our horses took
+kindly, for they had scarcely to stoop their heads to nibble their
+fodder. Although the summer was young, there were to be seen the acacia
+in blossom, currants, and raspberries; and among flowers, the bitter
+vetch, the spiræa, anemones, Flora’s bell, high pæonies, aconite, or
+wolf’s bane, and large dragon-mouths; also abundance of ferns, among
+them one strongly resembling the _Osmunda regalis_, and the magnificent
+_Struthiopteris germanica_, which attains to gigantic growth in
+Siberia; and even the trunks of the trees and the granite rocks were
+covered with a rich variety of lichens and verdant mosses.
+
+Thus far, therefore, everything was going well. The evening was
+delightful, and all were in excellent spirits. Soon, however, our guide
+turned into the forest, and we had before us the first of two mountains
+over whose backs we were to climb, thinking to reach our destination
+by nightfall. At this point we began to get some idea of what is meant
+by “the forest primeval,” for sometimes the way was all but impassable
+by reason of masses of shattered-down dry wood; now our horses stepped
+over fallen trees, and now waded knee-deep up the beds of rivulets;
+in some places we met with snow-white skeletons of dead trees with
+branching arms; in others the way, indicated by notches on the trees,
+had been cut with an axe.
+
+As we mounted higher and higher, we had before us a fine, bold, rocky
+mountain, lit up with the sinking sun. My companions called to me to
+look back, and we had a splendid view of the noble Yenesei at sunset,
+of its verdant bottom-lands on either side, its impetuous stream, and
+magnificent forests.
+
+We then prepared for our first descent. But it became dusk, and the
+overshadowing trees made our difficulty the greater. My horse, however,
+seemed to know so well what he was about, that I was minded to keep
+my seat and hope for the best. But when all my companions, including
+Madame and the guide, had dismounted, and advised me to do the same if
+I valued my neck, I followed suit till the valley was reached. We then
+remounted for a short distance, by which time it was quite dark, and
+for a short space some of the party were lost to the others. All came
+right, however, towards midnight, when we saw afar off the glimmering
+of a candle. This we hailed with a lusty blast of the doctor’s horn,
+thinking to awake the inhabitants. Our coming had not been expected,
+but letters from the owners of the mine secured us attention, and such
+hospitality as the place afforded. “Let us have the samovar,” said the
+doctor; “and bring a good large one, please, for we shall empty it.”
+
+And he was true to his word; for although they brought a twenty-glass
+samovar, it went out empty. Russians, however, be it remembered, think
+nothing of drinking from eight to a dozen glasses of tea, and we were
+in need of refreshment!
+
+Then came the question of sleep. They had but one room to offer us.
+Madame, therefore, lay on what might be called by courtesy a sofa. The
+bedstead was politely given to me, and the doctor and interpreter lay
+on the floor. Thus we managed to rest till about five in the morning,
+when we were called. Our toilets had to be speedily arranged, and our
+faces washed with a handful or two of water outside the door, for there
+was no sort of washing apparatus to be seen. After some tea and rusks,
+we started to witness the working of the gold-mine.
+
+I had seen the Swedish iron-mines of Dannemora, and had gone down a
+copper-mine in the Urals; but the gold-mine was something new. There
+was no underground work going on, and no digging of holes and sending
+up the earth to be washed; but the whole surface had been laid bare.
+Hence the work resembled that of English navvies making a cutting.
+There were a number of small carts drawn by Siberian horses, and men
+with pickaxes and shovels filling them. When full, the carts were drawn
+up an incline to a platform, and emptied into one end of a large iron
+cylinder, resembling a coffee-roaster, with holes all round it. This
+was made to rotate by water-power, and the large stones and pebbles
+were, by the formation and turning of the cylinder, tumbled out at
+the end. Here they were duly watched, so that no nuggets should be
+overlooked. At the same time several streams of water were poured into
+the cylinder, and the earth and small pebbles, passing through the
+holes, fell into a long wooden apron, inclined at an angle of 35°, with
+moveable boxes or “pockets.”
+
+In order that we might see how the gold was washed, the manager caused
+some of these pockets to be emptied on to an inclined plane of clean
+wood, raised at either side, and over which ran equably and slowly a
+stream of clear water. One of the pockets (called _dundofka_) was then
+emptied on the higher part of the plane, and the water soon washed away
+the mud, the man who performed the washing having a wooden scraper,
+like that of a scavenger, with which he pushed back the descending
+grains of gold. This was repeated till six poods, or say 200 lbs., of
+washed earth had been placed on the board. After the mud and sand had
+been allowed to roll away, a brush was used instead of the scraper, and
+there remained behind perhaps a small teaspoonful of gold-dust, or as
+much as was roughly valued at from 40_s._ to 50_s._ The gold was then
+placed in a miniature frying-pan, and held over a small fire to dry,
+after which it was put into what resembled a “poor-box.” This was done
+in the presence of a Government official, of whom there is always one
+at every mine, and who is usually a Cossack officer.[10]
+
+The gold thus gained is eventually poured into bags of coarse linen,
+which, after having been stamped with the brand of the mine, are sewn
+in leather sacks[11] and taken to Irkutsk or Barnaul, where it is
+assayed; and afterwards there is deducted the tax of from 5 to 10 per
+cent., according to the quantity. Gold assignats are given in exchange,
+payable in six months, or they may be cashed at the Government bank at
+a discount of 7 per cent. per annum. Thus all the gold found in the
+country is claimed by the Government, and it is unlawful for any person
+to have gold-dust in his possession unknown to the authorities.
+
+After we had seen the manner of washing the gold we walked into
+the barracks, the hospital, stables, and the houses for the 200 or
+300 workmen. I have spoken of the hardships that are endured by a
+prospecting party. Yet, despite all their privations and dangers, there
+is never a lack of persons who volunteer their services to wealthy
+projectors, for they receive large wages. The overseer who discovers
+the mine generally stipulates that he shall receive from 1 to 5 per
+cent. on the yield; and the percentage given to some of the others on
+a lucky find is very liberal. The ordinary labourers, too, such as
+we saw, are well paid. Among them, of course, is a great variety of
+races and people. There meet at the mines the nobleman and the Siberian
+peasant; the former officer of the army and the pardoned convict; the
+Pole, the German, the Tatar, and numberless others, who work in common,
+now freezing in the icy blasts of winter, and now scorching in the heat
+of the summer sun. They work intensely hard (sometimes from 3 a.m. to
+7 p.m.), and observe no Sundays or saints’ days, excepting that of the
+patron saint of the mine. But in most cases they have wholesome food,
+warm quarters, and attention in sickness.
+
+Some of them, however, run away. It happens occasionally that a man
+may have secreted gold, with which he gets off as early as possible;
+and some, not reckoning aright the difficulties of travelling so far
+alone, have been found starved, the useless gold clutched in the grasp
+of lifeless fingers. We found some attention paid to what might be
+called the fanaticism of the Mohammedan workmen; the Tatars being
+placed alone, and convenience being afforded them to cook their food
+in their own way. A separate barrack, too, was assigned to married
+men with their wives. Over an outdoor fire hung a large caldron, big
+enough to boil a donkey--the largest I had ever seen. This, I presumed,
+was for cooking the meat; and in the bake-house we saw abundance
+of rye bread, of which some of the men eat 7 lbs. in a day. Their
+beverages are tea and quass. It is forbidden by law to sell spirituous
+liquors at the mines. Only the managers have the right to keep them in
+their possession, though this sensible regulation is often evaded by
+contrabandists.
+
+When the 10th of September arrives, and the workmen receive their pay,
+they break forth into the wildest excesses. Before leaving the mine,
+each labourer gets a ticket, setting forth what he is to receive, which
+may vary from £20 to £50. This ticket he has to present some miles
+away at his employer’s office, and there, awaiting him outside, are
+merchants and dealers, who manage soon to empty his pockets. He too
+frequently begins by drinking; and then the man who has toiled harder
+than a slave for months is often at a loss to know upon what objects
+and follies to lavish his money.
+
+Captain Wiggins says that he never witnessed among the Siberian miners,
+such scenes of depravity and disorder as may be witnessed among the
+Australian and Californian miners, or even, at times, in the low
+streets of English seaport towns. Another Englishman, however, has told
+me a different story, to the effect that one miner, for instance, will
+take a common woman and clothe her in satin and velvet, and then, a
+week after, when money is gone, will tear the clothes from her back to
+raise capital for drink. Another, of a vain turn of mind, buys bottles
+of champagne, and sticks them up in a row to throw stones at; a third
+will buy a piece of printed cotton, or other material, lay it down in
+the dirty road, and, to indulge his aristocratic tread, will walk on
+it; whilst a fourth, despising to be drawn by horses, will yoke to his
+_telega_ his fellow-fools who have spent their money, and so be drawn
+by human beings. The end of this, of course, is that their money is
+speedily gone; and now comes the opportunity of the masters for the
+following year, since they know that they shall want the men again,
+and labour is scarce. Employers, therefore, advance them money, and
+the poor sots start off to walk, perhaps, 500 miles to their homes or
+friends, where, having arrived, they must needs return in a few months
+to begin the labours of another season.
+
+The managers of mines, some of whom make £1,000 a year, congregate in
+the winter in the towns, where much drinking and card-playing goes on.
+If capitalists are fortunate, they can make and keep large fortunes.
+Two gold-seekers in Krasnoiarsk are reputed to have found, in about 10
+years, 1,000 poods of gold, of the value, say, of £2,000,000 sterling.
+We dined at the house of one of these men.[12]
+
+But to return to the Archangel Gabriel mine. After we had looked at
+the buildings, and seen what else there was of interest, we returned
+to a breakfast of beefsteaks, left some books for the workmen, and
+then, mounting our steeds, returned towards Krasnoiarsk; and, seeing
+that four persons similarly attired might not meet again for awhile,
+I proposed that, on reaching the town, we should be photographed in a
+group. This was done; and so ended one of the pleasantest _détours_ of
+our journey.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] East of Lake Baikal are many mines on various rivers, such as
+the Nertcha, the Ingoda, and the Onon. Another famous river is the
+Olekma; whilst the Amur produces so much of the precious metal that
+the yield of some of its valleys is fabulous. I heard, near Albazin,
+concerning the Upper Amur Gold-mining Company, that for the past ten
+years they had washed 150 poods of gold annually, which, reckoned at
+£2,000 a pood--its price during the year of my visit--gives a product
+of £3,000,000. Also on the Vitim, during the summer of 1878, from 300
+to 400 poods, I was told, had been extracted, which represent from
+£600,000 to £800,000 sterling.
+
+[2] Any one, indeed, may go into the uninhabited _taiga_ to seek for
+gold (as the hunter may penetrate the same dismal region in search
+of game), provided, that is, he have a certificate from the mining
+officers, which he may get by giving proofs of good citizenship from
+the local authorities among whom he resides. He is then at liberty,
+when he has found gold, to hire the land from the Government for the
+purposes of mining.
+
+[3] A party of this kind will go where, perhaps, the foot of man has
+never trodden. Fortunate is the _tayoshnik_ if he have by his side a
+faithful native who can direct; otherwise he throws himself into a
+labyrinth of small valleys and hills, intersected in all directions by
+rushing mountain streams. He has no path to guide him save the course
+of the rivers, often no compass save the sun, and in this manner he
+travels--mounted, perhaps, on a small Siberian pony, or, in the far
+north, on the back of a reindeer. In situations where it is impossible
+for him to make use of small sledges drawn by reindeer on the frozen
+rivers, he has to run on snow-shoes, everywhere encountering hardship
+and dangers, with certain death in store for him should he lose his way.
+
+[4] Large rivers hardly ever carry gold with them, and when in
+exceptional cases they do, the treasure cannot be recovered, since to
+turn the water from its channel would be too great an expense. The
+shape of the gold grains gives some idea of its previous history and
+travels. Are the particles flat and thin? Then they have been dragged
+over sand and rocks. Are they round like grains? Then they have been in
+some whirlpool, participants in a mad circling dance. Or, once more,
+are they fine dust particles, with here and there a larger piece, or
+with various minerals attached--particularly quartz, their original
+home? Then in this last shape the gold has probably had a comfortable
+and quiet journey.
+
+[5] The _plasts_ vary from 3 inches to 15 feet, and their composition
+varies considerably. Blue clay, coarse sand, quartz, clay-slate,
+limestone, granite, and syenite occur frequently, as well as iron in
+the most various combinations; and, more rarely, ferruginous red clay.
+This last is very tough, and in the rainy season causes the workmen no
+little difficulty. In return, however, it contains a good deal of gold.
+In the district of the Olekma the gold deposit rests on a bed of firm
+rock.
+
+[6] In many localities it is in the cold season only that the trenches
+can be dug with advantage. In summer they would be quickly flooded.
+Even in the winter the water must be fought against, and there are some
+places where the earth is dug out from under frozen rivers.
+
+[7] These are the beginning of the so-called gold-_mines_. The
+subterranean work, which is carried on principally during the winter
+months, does not differ much from the ordinary work of the miner.
+Poisonous vapours do not usually occur, but, when cutting through
+clay-slate, the presence of sulphate of cobalt has sometimes an
+injurious effect. The passages are nine feet wide and high, and two
+labourers generally work from two to three tons of sand per day. The
+sand thus accumulated during the winter is thrown up into heaps and
+washed in the summer.
+
+[8] He must reckon the quantity of earth and rubbish to be removed
+before he gets to the gold sand, also the number of labourers necessary
+to be brought to the place, and food to keep them; and, further, he
+must consider what will be the summer level of the stream on which his
+claim lies, because without the proper supply of water the machinery
+cannot be set in motion, and to put up an artificial water conduit
+would be too expensive.
+
+[9] An area consists of a piece of land about 3½ miles long, the
+breadth being determined by the distance between the two mountains in
+which the gold-seam lies. This is generally from 500 to 1,000 feet. No
+one can occupy more than three consecutive miles; but a wife, a friend,
+or partner, having a certificate, may take the adjoining three miles,
+and then the three miles below may be taken, and so on to any extent.
+
+[10] It is his duty to supervise the washing of the gold, which is
+placed in a coffer, locked by the proprietor, and sealed by the
+Government agent, the quantity of gold washed at each operation being
+entered in a register. If they find a quarter of an ounce of gold to a
+ton and a half of sand, then 200 men can wash from four to five pounds
+of gold a day. I heard, however, of a mine to the south of Yeneseisk,
+where they usually found from 15 to 20 lbs., and sometimes even up to
+36 lbs. a day. Gold thus found is not always pure, but is frequently
+mixed with magnetic iron, which is drawn off by a magnet. Nor is the
+metal all of the same colour. In some places it is found very dark, and
+often still covered by a crust of oxide of iron; in other places it is
+of a very light colour, and contains silver.
+
+[11] Each bag contains about 50 lbs. of gold. Two of these, further
+protected by a covering of thick felt, constitute the load for one
+horse. To the two bags are fastened a long cord and a piece of dry
+wood, so that, in the event of the horses’ burdens being washed away
+while crossing a swollen river, the floating wood would indicate the
+whereabouts of the sunken treasure. In the middle of June, or at the
+end of the season, the departure of loads of gold from the mine is
+accompanied with pistol-firing and the booming of cannon, and cheers
+and blessings bid the caravan _bon voyage_.
+
+[12] There are, or were, some rich gold-mine proprietors at Kiakhta.
+One firm there, consisting of three partners, washed in one year enough
+gold to give a net profit of £600,000; they expected the year after to
+make £1,000,000; and the Government surveyor calculated that at that
+rate the mine would last 50 years. Thus many fortunes are realized in
+Siberia; but hardly a month passes without chronicling some one’s ruin,
+which may often be attributed to the fast life and gaming propensities
+of the miners. Hence, although between the years 1833 and 1870 about
+30,000 poods of gold were sent out of Eastern Siberia alone, to the
+value of £50,000,000, the finding of which gave employment in some
+years to upwards of 30,000 workmen, yet it will be seen from the
+foregoing that this great wealth has not proved an unmixed blessing,
+for the discovery of a gold-mine never brings to it a population
+permanently thriving and industrious.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+_FROM KRASNOIARSK TO ALEXANDREFFSKY._
+
+ Situation of Krasnoiarsk.--Our hotel.--Dr. Peacock.--Visit to
+     prison, hospital, and madhouse.--Cathedral.--Drive in “Rotten
+     Row.”--Shoeing horses.--Bible affairs at Krasnoiarsk.--Consignment
+     to Governor for provinces of Yeneseisk and Yakutsk.--Departure
+     from Krasnoiarsk.--Change of scenery.--Kansk _Okrug_.--Our
+     arrival anticipated.--Visit to Ispravnik.--Statistics of
+     crime.--The Protopope of Kansk.--Parochial information.--Demand
+     for Scriptures.--A travelling companion.--Further posting
+     help.--Butterflies and mosquitoes.--Nijni Udinsk.--Telma
+     factory.--A _détour_.--Alexandreffsky.
+
+
+Siberia, immense as it is, has only 17 towns with a population of more
+than 5,000 inhabitants, and of these large towns Krasnoiarsk, with a
+population of 13,000, is a fair specimen. It derives its name from
+the Russian words _krasnoi_, red, and _yar_, a cliff, in allusion to
+the red-coloured marl of the banks on which the town is situated;
+its houses being built on the tongue of land at the confluence of
+the Yenesei and the Kacha. On the south the plain stretches away for
+nine versts, and on the south-west a range of blue hills is descried,
+which betray their rocky character by sharp and picturesque outlines.
+The opposite bank, too, of the Yenesei has, amidst forest scenery,
+some fine rocks, one of which, of curious formation, called the
+Tokmak, rises to the dignity of a mount. The Siberians, therefore, are
+justified, to a considerable degree, in claiming for Krasnoiarsk that
+it is picturesquely situated. It was certainly the prettiest spot we
+had thus far seen; and since we made there some pleasant acquaintances,
+and received much kindness from the people, it naturally lingers in the
+memory as one of the bright spots of our journey.[1]
+
+Having arrived early on the morning of the 24th June, we drove to what
+is called an hotel, kept by one “Shlyaktin,” where we engaged the best
+room in the house for two shillings a day, with two bedsteads, for
+which, as usual in Russia, we provided our own pillows and linen. Other
+things were proportionately cheap: turkeys 3_s._ a pair; a whole calf,
+nine months old, from 3_s._ to 4_s._; geese from 1_s._ 8_d._ to 2_s._
+6_d._ a couple; but pheasants, brought hundreds of miles from Tashkend,
+cost 6_s._ a brace.
+
+We had not entered many minutes before several beggars came to the
+window to solicit alms, which seemed to be their method of honouring
+all newcomers; and if they received anything they crossed themselves,
+and no doubt blessed us.[2]
+
+Krasnoiarsk boasts of a Lutheran chapel, though it is without a
+resident pastor. We made it our business to go there first, thinking
+to find a catechist, Mr. Adamson, for whom we had a letter. He was
+away, however, and was represented by an old German woman. Whether she
+recognized in us kindred spirits, I know not, but she cried as she
+shook our hands and bade us God-speed.
+
+We then accompanied Dr. Peacock, who took us first to see the
+prison,[3] and afterwards the large hospital, through which pass
+annually about 2,500 patients. A part of it serves as a madhouse, in
+which were 48 inmates, 42 of whom were exiles, 28 being pronounced
+incurable. From inquiries I made, I did not gather that medical opinion
+went so far as to say that banishment drove people mad; but it seemed
+that many so afflicted were exiled as prisoners who ought rather to
+have been in lunatic asylums as idiots; such, for instance, was the
+case of one man who had been sent to Siberia for setting houses on
+fire, and who, on arriving, repeated his offence, saying that he did it
+“for fun.”[4]
+
+The hospital building had been originally erected as a private
+residence by a rich gold-seeker.[5] How far, in its altered condition,
+the house suits the purpose of a hospital, I could not judge; for in
+Russia they have a habit, in summer, of turning the patients out under
+temporary sheds and tents whilst the buildings are being repaired for
+the winter; and this was the state of affairs at Krasnoiarsk during
+our inspection. But I am afraid the building is not all that could be
+desired. At Tomsk we had seen a summer tent-hospital for 20 men with
+typhus fever.
+
+Krasnoiarsk has a cathedral, presided over by the Bishop of Yeneseisk,
+and four or five churches, one of which was built at a cost of £70,000
+by a rich gold-seeker, by name, I think, Kusnitzoff, which, be it known
+to English readers, means “Smith.” We made the acquaintance of two of
+his daughters during our voyage on the Obi. They had been spending the
+winter in Petersburg, and were then travelling a distance of 3,000
+miles to spend the summer in Siberia. This was their usual practice.
+One of these ladies had travelled to England, had even crossed the
+Atlantic to America, and we were glad to renew our acquaintance at
+Krasnoiarsk. Theirs was one of the best of the private houses, on
+entering which a broad flight of steps led to the upper storey, where
+was a drawing-room, or rather a ball-room, containing two grand
+pianos, the walls being hung with European oil-paintings, and where,
+among other curiosities, we were shown three nuggets of gold, each of
+which must have weighed several pounds, but serving no purpose but to
+be looked at, save that a natural indentation in one had been used on
+certain grand occasions as a cigar-boat. In front of the house was an
+enclosure, full of shrubs, dahlias, and flowers; but it was manifest
+that horticultural operations were carried on with difficulty. The
+Siberians do more with flowers in their rooms, thus adding much to
+their beauty.
+
+We dined at this house, and afterwards were taken for a drive. The
+plain running south of the town is the “Rotten Row” of Krasnoiarsk;
+and here we saw a fair Amazon, of good position, and the mother,
+by-the-bye, of three children, with hair cut short behind, sitting
+astride her horse, in knickerbockers and high boots. It was the only
+instance we saw of this, however; and further east, on the Amur, I met
+with a lady in a riding-habit that would have been becoming enough even
+in Hyde Park.
+
+We drove some distance up the bank of the Yenesei, intending to visit a
+monastery a few miles distant, but were stopped by the unusual height
+of the floods, and returned to pass through the two handsome squares
+in the middle of the town, and the smaller streets which cross the
+principal roads at right angles. We passed a public garden, also given
+by Mr. Kusnitzoff to the town. We walked there in the evening, leaving
+the carriages at the gates, as did several fashionables, and found
+inside a place for refreshments, rooms for cards, and a promenade. As
+we strolled about among the trees and shrubs I asked how long they
+had been there, and found they were self-planted, and that the garden
+was an adaptation from nature. Close at hand were blacksmiths’ forges,
+where they were shoeing horses in a curious manner.[6]
+
+Before leaving our lady friends, their hospitality took a very
+practical turn, as Siberian hospitality generally does, for they gave
+us some excellent fresh butter and a jar of marmalade. Both these were
+of great value, and I was particularly thankful to get the latter.
+In order to prevent the possibility of being reduced to black bread
+between Krasnoiarsk and Irkutsk, we ordered to be baked a pile, three
+feet high, of large, flat, white loaves, with a little butter added to
+prevent their getting dry; and these lasted us for 600 miles.
+
+I was anxious to open at Krasnoiarsk a depôt or an agency for the sale
+of the Scriptures, and, with that intent, presented an introduction
+at the shop of one of the principal tradesmen. We found a large store
+full of all manner of wares, among which, however, it was difficult to
+see anything small that was particularly Siberian, though I bought a
+string of beads, worn round the neck by Russian peasant girls, called
+a _gaitan_. Unfortunately the merchant was away, and I could not hear
+of another house of business suitable for what I wanted. Dr. Peacock,
+however, seemed to feel so strongly the importance of making the most
+of an opportunity to get the Scriptures circulated in the neighbourhood
+that he purchased 250 copies, intending to dispense them far and near.
+I gave him also a supply of reading matter for his hospital patients.[7]
+
+Having thus spent four agreeable days at the capital of the Yeneseisk
+province, we left on the evening of the 27th June, with a journey
+before us of 600 miles to Irkutsk.[8] We met with an early adventure on
+reaching the opposite bank of the river; for we had omitted to get a
+special note from the post-master, without which the post-boys, waiting
+with their horses, would not take us on. Mr. Interpreter, therefore, at
+a cost of 8_s._, and not without danger, had to spend half the night in
+recrossing the river and returning, whilst I “camped out” alone in the
+tarantass on the river’s bank. I was so stiff and tired, however, with
+the previous night’s journey to the gold-mine, that I slept soundly
+till, at early dawn, horses were procured, and we jogged onwards.
+
+We had now entered a land of valleys and hills instead of a country of
+marshes or plains, and the scenery improved vastly. Not so, however,
+the roadside fare; for milk was less abundant, and consequently we
+could not so easily get curds or such diet, nor even milk to drink. But
+we were so anxious to get forward that we became somewhat impatient
+of the long time spent in heating the _samovar_ and preparing for a
+meal. The consequence was that if, on arriving at a station, horses
+were to be had at once, we did as best we could about food, eating in
+the tarantass as we went along, and sometimes not having more than one
+“square meal” a day.
+
+For a time we travelled well. We continued to go up and down hills,
+some of which we estimated at about 500 feet in height; and though
+there was usually a sufficiency of horses, yet for the first two stages
+they failed us. We paid a little more than post fares, and hired
+private steeds instead. The peasants sometimes took advantage of the
+occasion, when post-horses failed, to ask double fares; but as this
+exorbitant demand amounted to only about 2_d._ a mile for each horse,
+it seemed better to do this for a stage than to be detained, perhaps
+for several hours, and then to get tired animals.
+
+Having left Krasnoiarsk late on Friday night, we reached Kansk
+in good time on Sunday morning, where we spent the rest of the
+day, considerably fatigued with the combined effect of the recent
+horse-riding, tarantass driving, and insufficient rest and food. Kansk
+is the chief town of an _okrug_, or district, and the residence of
+an intelligent _Ispravnik_; and, as it possessed a small prison and
+hospital, we washed, dressed in our “Sunday best,” and called upon this
+dignitary to present our letters. He told us, to our surprise, that he
+had received a telegram the day before from the acting Governor-General
+of Irkutsk, directing him to help us forward as much as possible;
+and consequently he had sent east and west to all the stations in his
+district--a distance of nearly 200 miles--telling them to let us have
+horses quickly. We were rather at a loss to account for such unexpected
+kindness, and the more so as the Ispravnik thought the instructions had
+originally been sent from Petersburg. It served, however, to remind
+us that we were not lost sight of at head-quarters. The Ispravnik
+accompanied us to the prison, in which were 146 prisoners in 29
+rooms, which had a Sunday look about them. Things were brushed up and
+“settled,” as a housekeeper would say, and we distributed papers to
+the prisoners to read. We also gave the Ispravnik some copies of the
+New Testament and other reading material for the prison, for the town
+hospital, and for the schools of the neighbourhood; after which he
+invited us to his house to drink tea.
+
+His wife was a German, which accounted for certain foreign tastes
+visible about the room, and for some of the pictures. We learned that
+the Ispravnik holds a similar position in his district or _okrug_, or
+circle, that a Governor does in his province,--the pay of an Ispravnik
+being from £100 to £150 per annum; that of a Governor from £600 to
+£1,000 per annum; and of a Governor-General about £3,000, the latter
+two having also furnished houses. The _okrug_ of Kansk was 200 miles
+in diameter, and had a population of 40,000, with upwards of 900 miles
+of roads. These were kept in order by 9,000 men, each of whom was
+responsible for 90 fathoms of way; and it is only fair to say that we
+found the roads of Yeneseisk the best in Siberia. Nearly all the crime
+in the district, we were told, is traceable to drink; and that which
+ended in murder commonly arose from love affairs.[9]
+
+Prisoners of all sorts were allowed to hold correspondence with their
+friends; but the prison chief, or the Ispravnik, might object to any
+part of what was written, and send it back to the writer, though even
+then the latter might appeal to the Governor-General. Letters usually
+came, we found, by every post, so that the prisoners evidently availed
+themselves to a considerable extent of their privilege.
+
+After leaving the Ispravnik, we called on the Protopope, or head
+priest of the place. His house had a superior look about it, and so
+had the Protopope himself. He gave us a hearty reception, and we asked
+a few questions concerning his parish. It appeared that he had 2,000
+parishioners, living in Kansk and four surrounding villages. He thought
+about 100 could read, and for these he very readily accepted papers
+and tracts. He had an elementary boys’ school, which was supported
+by the community, the scholars paying nothing. I asked about his
+congregations, and found that from 300 to 400 usually came to church
+on Sundays, but that on festivals the number rose to 1,000 or 1,500,
+and of these about 300 or 400 in the course of the year received the
+Communion.[10]
+
+This chief pastor of the place told us he had often bestowed books on
+the prisoners, but that the books had disappeared. He gave us some idea
+of the desire there is for the Scriptures in remote parts of Siberia,
+by saying that on one occasion he bought 200 New Testaments and took
+them to Minusinsk, where he sold them in a single day at a rouble
+each.[11]
+
+In further illustration of the demand for Scriptures in this part of
+the country, I may mention that, on the way from Tomsk, I made it a
+practice to go into the post-stations; and whilst my companion was
+arranging about the horses, I took some pamphlets and Scriptures,
+and, having nailed up an illustration of the “Prodigal Son,” I next
+distributed some tracts, saying, as I did so, “_darom_,” which means
+“gratis”; and then, showing a New Testament, I said “_dvatzat-piat
+kopeck_,” which means 25 kopecks; or I showed a copy of the Gospels,
+and said “_dve-natzat kopeck_,” or 12 kopecks. Usually this offer was
+jumped at; sometimes three or four were bought by one person; and it
+not unfrequently happened that the first purchaser would run off to
+tell others of his good fortune, and bid them lose no time in following
+his example. This was usually done whilst the horses were being
+changed; but if we stopped for a meal, and it was noised abroad in the
+village that tracts were being given away, we were taken by storm, and
+sometimes could hardly eat in peace for the numbers who came to ask for
+our gifts.
+
+We had barely reached the post-station, after seeing the priest, before
+he came driving close on our heels for his return visit. He wore the
+violet velvet hat of a protopope, was dressed in a black silk cassock,
+with a gold chain and crucifix about his neck, and with a loose white
+overcoat to protect him from the dust of the road. He cordially wished
+us success in our work, and asked us to call again on our homeward
+journey. We then went to the evening service in his church, after
+which the Ispravnik and his wife came to return our call, bringing with
+them their son, a boy of 13 years of age, who was to go to a military
+school at Irkutsk. The father said that he did not like to send him
+with just any one, but that he should be thankful to be allowed to
+place the boy under my care, offering at the same time to pay the cost
+of one horse to Irkutsk, which amounted to 25 roubles.
+
+It is a common thing in Siberian travel, when one person does not
+wish to occupy the whole of his vehicle, to share the expense with
+a fellow-passenger. I therefore consented, and stowed the boy away
+among the tracts and books in the second tarantass, where he seemed
+happy enough. His joining us was rather a help, for his father gave
+us an open letter to all the post-masters of his district, requesting
+them, if there were not a sufficiency of post-horses, to hire some
+immediately from the peasants. He also added a _blanco_ letter,
+which enabled us, in case of need, to take those reserved at the
+post-stations for the use of the Ispravnik or his police. This is
+called, I believe, “_Zemski_” post, applying only to Siberia, and
+the horses of which, when not wanted, are sometimes lent to private
+travellers.
+
+The combined result of these letters was that we got on famously,
+and occasionally made 200 versts in the 24 hours. This for summer
+travelling is good--so good, in fact, that we hardly wished to do
+better, as it had now become very hot, and the dust of the way rendered
+the journey very fatiguing.
+
+We were still passing through an undulating country, with delightful
+weather; on either side of the way grass, and in it grew a large yellow
+flower, similar in form to our common white garden lily. On passing
+the frontier from the Yeneseisk to the Irkutsk governments, it soon
+became apparent that our new roads were not so good as those we had
+left behind. We crossed many rivers, on the banks of one of which we
+drove through an extraordinary swarm of white butterflies. The shrubs
+in the neighbourhood were evidently eaten bare by their _larvæ_, the
+_imagines_, or perfect insects, being assembled in troops on the
+ground. We were now drawing near a district famous for a small kind of
+mosquito, the bite of which is very virulent, and is so dreaded by the
+people that the men working at the roadside protect themselves about
+the head with horsehair veils. Another place in Siberia famous for
+these insects is the Barabinsky steppe, where horses persecuted by them
+sometimes break loose, and do so to certain death. We, however, were
+not incommoded by them.
+
+On the 1st of July the weather was hotter than we had hitherto
+experienced it, and very oppressive, though at night it became chilly.
+The greatest heat registered in the province of Irkutsk in 1877 was
+during the month of August, when it rose to 90·3, the greatest cold
+registered being in January, and descending to 40·2 below zero.
+
+On the second day after leaving Kansk we were somewhat hindered by a
+superabundance of fellow-travellers, with whom it was very pleasant to
+chat over a cup of tea in the post-house, though matters were not quite
+so smooth when it was discovered that less than the required number
+of horses were forthcoming, and the question arose as to who should
+be first served. At one station we had to stay five hours, yet it is
+only fair to add that, thanks to our excellent recommendations, this
+was the longest delay of the kind that fell to our lot. Travellers are
+sometimes obliged to wait a whole day.
+
+On the evening of the same day, at dusk, we reached Nijni Udinsk, and,
+as there was a small prison in the place, I was anxious to give a few
+books to the Ispravnik, and pass on without stopping; the latter,
+however, was away, so we went to his assistant. After knocking pretty
+lustily at his door, a servant appeared, who informed us that his
+master was asleep; and to awaken a man out of sleep is in Russia no
+venial sin. An Anglo-Russian friend informs me that she has frequently
+been told, on asking for a servant, that he was asleep, and could not
+be waked, because _a sleeping man’s soul is before his God_! We told
+this servant, however, that we had a letter from Petersburg; and before
+we left the town a messenger came to the post-house, giving me the
+particulars I desired, and took back a sufficiency of books for the 98
+prisoners under detention.
+
+We then started off about midnight, and on the afternoon of the
+following day reached a station called Telma, which in previous years
+has been famous as possessing a factory in which cloth, paper, glass,
+and soap were made, besides which they produced rough linen woven from
+Yeneseisk hemp, and dark unbleached cloth, spun from the wool of the
+Buriat sheep. The peasants generally make a rough cloth of this last
+material. Manufactures do not flourish in Siberia, as the raw material
+is grown at enormous distances from the establishments, and, when
+manufactured, must often be taken enormous distances to be sold; so
+it is found cheaper to buy the goods imported from other countries.
+A suit of tweed clothes costs, I heard, £6 at Krasnoiarsk, and on the
+Amur I met with a gentleman ordering his clothes from Petersburg, and
+having them sent by post to Blagovestchensk, a distance of 5,000 miles.
+The factory at Telma is still standing, and is not absolutely idle, but
+I gathered that it is not in a flourishing condition.[12]
+
+We were now only about 50 versts from Irkutsk, which, under ordinary
+circumstances, we ought to have reached late the same night. Another
+project had, however, entered into my mind. About 70 versts north
+of Irkutsk is the largest prison in Eastern Siberia, called the
+Alexandreffsky Central Prison, the normal way of visiting which would
+have been for us to proceed to Irkutsk, present our letters, and so
+drive out and return, making a journey of 90 miles. Hearing at Telma
+that we could reach the place from thence in two hours by going across
+country, spend two hours inspecting the prison, and another two hours
+in returning to Telma, I calculated we should get back to the main
+road about midnight, and so reach Irkutsk on Saturday afternoon, and
+be ready for a quiet Sunday. The first difficulty in the way was that
+the law permitted no post-horses to be employed off the high-roads;
+but, thanks to the obliging post-master at Telma, this obstacle was
+overcome by his providing others, and I determined accordingly to try
+and save time by taking the prison on my way. How much was involved in
+that decision I little thought at the moment, but it proved afterwards
+highly important.
+
+The first object of interest we passed was a large salt-factory, which,
+like that at Telma, had in years gone by been worked by convicts
+under the management of the State. This kind of labour is no longer
+enforced there, and free workmen are employed instead. These were the
+only salt-works we heard of in Siberia, but we were told of some about
+40 miles from Orenburg, in the Urals. Leaving the factory behind, we
+struck off through the woods, and were enjoying the drive thoroughly
+when it occurred to our _yemstchik_ that he had taken the wrong
+direction. Accordingly, he went a long way back, but had to retrace his
+steps. This caused considerable delay, as did the crossing of the river
+Angara. At length, through a forest of pine, we reached the summit of
+a hill, and were able to take in at a glance the surroundings of the
+large prison, which we reached at dusk. On the road we met some Polish
+ladies, wives of officials, to whom I explained in French our object in
+coming. The Director, however, was gone to Irkutsk, and his deputy said
+it was too late that night, but that we might inspect the prison as
+early as we chose in the morning. I therefore named the hour of seven,
+and went to the post-house to sleep.
+
+The keepers of the post-house in this out-of-the-way place appeared
+somewhat perturbed at the arrival of visitors who wished to spend the
+night under their roof. However, in this matter Siberian post-masters
+have no choice, for they are bound to find accommodation for
+travellers, and may not charge them for it; their profits are the small
+sums paid for the use of the _samovar_, and for such refreshments as
+may be provided. Our quarters were better and more comfortable than
+usual, as also was our supper, and we lay down for a quiet night. Early
+in the morning the officer in charge of the prison came to say that
+when he had made us the promise on the previous evening he had intended
+to telegraph to Irkutsk for permission, but that there was a fire in
+Irkutsk, and telegraphic communication was stopped. He must therefore
+ask us to wait until the return of the chief, who was expected hourly.
+Accordingly, on his arrival we were conducted to the house of the
+Director; and though he had been travelling all night he received us at
+once, accorded us a hearty reception, and introduced us to his wife and
+friends. He was a Pole--by name Pavolo Schwekofsky--and his house was
+elegantly furnished, all his servants, however, being convicts. There
+was an appearance of comfort, not to say of luxury, about the place;
+and he had in a side room a turning-lathe and English tools. To this
+we called attention. “Ah, yes,” said he, “we could not do without the
+English.” And then, after drinking a glass of tea, we started to see
+the prison.
+
+[Illustration: THE ALEXANDREFFSKY CENTRAL PRISON NEAR IRKUTSK.]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Owing to the formation of the hills about the town, Krasnoiarsk is
+more than ordinarily favoured with abundance of wind, which in winter
+blows the snow off the ground and stops sledging. One night during our
+stay it rained, and the streets were in a condition next morning such
+as I have never seen before or since. To speak of “puddles” would be
+a mockery, and “ponds” is barely the word to use; whilst to cross the
+street was to run imminent risk of losing one’s boots. Fortunately,
+however, there were droshkies at hand, and in these we waded through
+water nearly up to the horses’ knees.
+
+[2] We saw beggars here and at Tomsk, but I do not recollect that they
+were numerous or particularly importunate. The Russians are, however,
+in this sense, very charitable. It is customary not only to give a
+few kopecks to such as these, but also to the old men posted at the
+entrances of the villages, who have charge of the gates placed across
+the roads to keep cattle from straying in or out.
+
+[3] It was one of the _perisylnie_ character, having 46 wards, and a
+hospital with sixteen rooms. There were 26 murderers in the place, and
+the number of persons committing this crime yearly in the district
+seemed to me, from the round numbers they gave, to be very high. The
+sentences of murderers, they said, varied from five or six to 20 years’
+hard labour, after which time they were free as exiles. The general
+arrangements of the prison appeared to be fairly good. I thought it
+clean and well ordered; and we were struck, in the bake-house, with the
+enormous size of their loaves of bread, some of them weighing from 40
+to 50 lbs.
+
+[4] In the Tomsk hospital we had seen two persons mad from the effects
+of alcoholic drink; and I was sorry to hear it asserted afterwards,
+by a Russian medical man, that the proportion of those in Siberia who
+went mad from _delirium tremens_ was greater than in England; and he
+further remarked of his countrymen, that though for a long time they
+indulge in no intoxicating liquor, yet when they once drink they do so
+furiously. A friend of mine had more than one man-servant who acted in
+this manner. They did _not_ drink for months, and then all of a sudden
+did so without ceasing, and would be mad drunk for a week or ten days.
+At last, exhausted, they slept for a day or two, and woke up abashed,
+promising to do so no more; but, alas! it was only till the next time.
+
+[5] It is the same, I suspect, as that mentioned by Mr. Hill in his
+“Travels in Siberia,” 30 years ago, the dimensions of which he gives as
+131 feet long by 98 broad and 52 high. It is of two storeys, and in Mr.
+Hill’s time was furnished after the most elegant mode of Petersburg.
+The articles brought from that capital alone cost its owner from £6,000
+to £7,000.
+
+[6] Outside the smithy stood four stout posts, fixed in the ground at
+the four corners, as it were, of an oblong figure, which posts were
+connected at the top by cross-pieces. Into the midst of these the
+horse was led. Girths were then put under him by which he could be all
+but lifted off the ground, suspended to the cross-beams. To prevent
+his kicking unadvisedly, two of his legs were bound with rope to the
+nearest of the posts; and thus rendered helpless, and standing on
+tiptoe with his remaining legs he was shod. They said that Siberian
+horses are too wild to allow of their being treated in English fashion,
+and it may be so, but the animals seemed to be equally averse to the
+other plan.
+
+[7] The Governor was away, but the Vice-Governor informed us that there
+were six prisons in the province, for which we left him upwards of 200
+New Testaments and Scripture portions, and about the same number of
+tracts, papers, and broad-sheets. We subsequently saw the Governor at
+Irkutsk, and I have since heard from him that these Scriptures, etc.,
+have been distributed as I wished, as also a further quantity I left
+with him to be forwarded to the prisons and hospitals of the immense
+province of Yakutsk.
+
+[8] Since this chapter was written, Krasnoiarsk has been almost
+entirely destroyed by fire.
+
+[9] The statistics of crime in the _okrug_, in the year 1878, revealed
+that, of 182 criminals, not one was less than 17 years of age; 26
+men and 5 women were between 17 and 21; but the greatest number of
+criminals--63 men and 20 women.--were of ages ranging from 21 to 33;
+after which the numbers of men became fewer as they grew older, but
+there was not a similar decrease in the number of older women. Below
+the ages of 45 and 70 there were more women criminals than men. It
+appeared, too, that there were 129 married criminals as against 53
+unmarried. Again, 112 were of the Russian Church, 19 of other Christian
+denominations, 34 were Jews, and 17 of other non-Christian religions.
+Further, 157 were criminals for the first offence, 22 for the same
+offence once repeated, and 3 for the same offence twice repeated. This
+last fact compares favourably with our English criminal statistics,
+which show many who go in and out of prison a hundred times. I have
+spoken elsewhere of the long-period prisoners having sometimes to wait
+in durance for their trial. This may often be avoided by furnishing
+bail. In 1878 there were in Kansk 415 on bail as against 96 under
+detention. Of these, 88 were found innocent, 93 were dismissed as
+“not proven,” and 147 sent elsewhere for trial; whilst of those found
+guilty, 7 only were condemned to the mines, 26 to hard labour in
+prison, and the remaining 149 to a “house of detention.”
+
+[10] A lady on the Obi told me that all were bound to confess and
+receive the Communion once a year. If any special reason required it,
+they might receive oftener, always confessing, however, beforehand,
+in a standing posture at the side of the priest, and then kneeling at
+the absolution. The priest said that 200 times in the year, at Kansk,
+children were participants in the sacred rite; and in connection with
+this remark he made a curious statement, to the effect that, there
+being few doctors in the district, it was common for mothers, when
+their babies were ill, to bring them to receive the Sacrament, under
+the impression that it did them physical as well as spiritual good. He
+said, too, that mothers thought it their duty to bring their children
+frequently to Communion till they were seven years of age, after which
+period they came with them once a year for confession, communion, and
+instruction.
+
+[11] This compared favourably with the sales at the Bible Society’s
+depôt at Tomsk, which is the only one in Siberia, though I had hoped
+to be able to establish others at Tobolsk, Omsk, Krasnoiarsk, and
+especially Irkutsk. The depôt at Tomsk had been opened about three
+years, the annual sales having amounted to about 300 Bibles, 200
+New Testaments, and 500 copies of the four Gospels in Sclavonic and
+Russian. They had also sold a few Hebrew Bibles and the Psalms, the
+latter chiefly in Sclavonic. The Protopope said he would gladly become
+a depositary for the Bible Society; and would purchase at once 50
+copies from me of the New Testament, but Kansk had not been mentioned
+as one of the places at which a depôt was desired. Moreover, I had
+been instructed, in opening a depôt, to require the depositary to sign
+an agreement to abide by certain terms, after which I might take an
+order to the value of £30. But I did not gather that our friend wished
+altogether to turn merchant; and therefore I thought it better to let
+him have the 50 copies out of hand, rather than to put him into more
+complicated mercantile transactions with Petersburg.
+
+[12] Manufacturing industry, properly speaking, has no real importance
+in Siberia, except in distilling from grain and potatoes the alcohol
+which is sold in numberless taverns. Reckoning factories and
+distilleries together, there were, in 1876, according to Réclus, 1,100
+factories and 4,000 workmen, which produced manufactures to the value
+of £800,000.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+_THE ALEXANDREFFSKY CENTRAL PRISON._
+
+ Prison wards.--Punishment cells.--Communication with
+     friends.--Nationalities of prisoners.--Their
+     work.--Food.--Distribution of books.--Our
+     reception.--Lunch.--Departure.--Runaway horses.--An
+     accident.--Left alone.--Return to post-house.
+
+
+We found the prison a huge building, which had been originally erected
+for a brandy distillery. Hence it was, and sometimes still is, called
+the Alexandreffsky _zavod_, or factory. It contained 57 rooms, in each
+of which, according to size, were placed from 25 to 100 prisoners. We
+went into several of the ordinary wards, and found them lofty, but
+overcrowded. Also, in some of the oblong rooms, the inclined platforms
+for sleeping occupied so much space that only a narrow passage was left
+for walking about between them. When we entered such wards, therefore,
+the order was given that the men should mount the opposite edges of the
+platforms, and thus we passed to the end of the room and back. Further
+on we came to some small cells, over the doors of which was written
+the word “Secret”; and here I thought we might perhaps see something
+horrible. But the thing that struck me as worst about them was their
+smallness; for I should judge they could not have measured more than
+8 ft. by 6 ft., though they were probably more than 12 ft. high.
+These were “punishment” cells; but were far more endurable than cells
+known by that name in some of our English gaols, where the prisoner
+is sometimes below the level of the ground, and in a state of total
+darkness, with all sound shut out save the rumbling of carriage-wheels
+in the street. In the Alexandreffsky cells there was abundance of
+light; there was a Russian _petchka_, or stove, just outside the door,
+and it was not difficult to imagine that some prisoners might prefer
+solitude under such circumstances to the society of the motley crew
+packed into the larger wards.
+
+There is a room in the building in which prisoners are allowed to see
+their friends, who may come on every _maznik_, or fête day, Sundays
+included, to converse for five minutes, and then make way for others.
+If a prisoner has friends, they may bring him food any day between
+11 and 12 o’clock. So, too, a prisoner may write to friends when he
+pleases, and receive from them money up to a rouble a week.
+
+The total number of prisoners in (and I suppose about) this place
+was stated as 1,589; and as they were gathered from all parts of the
+Russian empire, the walking through the wards was nothing short of an
+ethnographical study.
+
+Besides the ordinary Slavs of Russia in Europe, there were Finns,
+Poles, Tatars of Kasan, Tatars of the Crimea, and Tatars of the
+Caucasus and Steppes. There were Bashkirs from the province of
+Orenburg, where they are breeders of cattle; and the pastoral Kirghese,
+who roam over the steppes north of Persia. Tatars were known by their
+shaved heads and skullcaps, and Buriats by their unmistakable Mongolian
+features. I counted half-a-dozen different nationalities in a single
+room.
+
+One of the worst features in this huge prison I judged to be lack of
+work; for, as we went from room to room, we found convicts twirling
+their thumbs, and literally begging for employment. All of them,
+however, were under “hard-labour” sentences, some to the mines for
+twelve years, some to factory-work for eight and ten years, and others
+to _zavod_ work for two and six years.
+
+We were taken, at length, to see such of them as were occupied. We
+entered a good-sized room, in which there might have been 50 men
+making papers for cigarettes, of which they turned out 100,000 a week.
+Prisoners were glad to do this, as they earn a little money thereby.
+A man could manipulate 5,000 unfinished cases in a day; and three
+men working together very hard could earn 30 kopecks a day, but 20
+kopecks was a fairer average. For a man, however, to earn 2½_d._ a
+day necessitated his sitting at work so closely as to make his chest
+ache. I am not clear whether the machinery and materials for making
+these cigarette-papers belonged to the prisoners, or to a merchant in
+Irkutsk who bought the papers. We visited a room or two filled with
+shoemakers, and gold-seekers’ top-boots were shown us of their work.
+These were for sale at 14 shillings the pair. Outside the prison a
+small company of men were seen returning from making bricks, which are
+manufactured for the Government, and not for ordinary sale. Each man
+makes on an average about 100 a day. Fifty men, they told us, turn out
+5,000, between 6 and 11 in the morning and 2 and 6.30 in the afternoon,
+for which they get about 10_s._ There seemed, however, to be barely a
+tenth of the prisoners employed, at which we expressed astonishment.
+The authorities explained it by saying that they had no work to give
+them. This comparatively idle life of Siberian prisoners recalled what
+had been told me in Russia, that the Government now keep in European
+prisons many whom, but for the scarcity of suitable employment, they
+would send to Siberia; and I ought, perhaps, to add that a number of
+the convicts at Alexandreffsky were there, and had been there a long
+time, awaiting the decision of various committees who were considering
+how the Government could best dispose of them, so many of the Siberian
+mines having passed out of Imperial hands.
+
+Whether our visit was too early in the day, or whether the prisoners
+were kept in their rooms for our inspection, I know not; but we saw
+none of them lounging in the yards, as in other places. The time
+allowed them for exercise is an hour a day. The number we saw wearing
+chains was comparatively small. If the convicts behave well, they
+are not usually kept in fetters, I heard, more than 18 months; and I
+certainly observed that, the further east I went, the fewer were the
+men in irons. We were next conducted to the kitchen, where was to be
+seen, in course of preparation for dinner, the uncooked meat, of which
+each man was said to have ½ lb. a day, including bone, and a daily
+allowance of 2¾ lbs. of bread. Near the prison is a garden, where some
+of the prisoners can work, and where they grow cucumbers, water-melons,
+and potatoes. A few acres of arable land, cultivated by convicts, were
+pointed out to us; and there was a hospital at a short distance, clean
+and airy, having 8 rooms, in which we found 73 patients, many of whom
+were suffering from _scorbutus_.
+
+We now entered the office of the prison, and saw the books, in one
+of which were entered four categories of punishment, namely, that of
+mines, hard labour, factory employment, and no work, of which four
+the last seemed by far the most prevalent, and I think the worst; for
+not only had the poor fellows nothing to do, but they had nothing to
+read. To remedy this was, of course, the chief object of our visit;
+and the director readily entered into my plans concerning the books.
+The men had been asking for something to read, he said, only a day or
+two previously. We were glad, therefore, to leave with him 160 New
+Testaments and other portions of Scripture in half-a-dozen languages,
+and about 500 tracts and periodicals, so that there might be at least a
+New Testament placed in every room.
+
+We were now anxious to depart, but this was not so easy; for by
+this time the officials had begun to realize that we had not come
+as spies or intruders, but that we had really a benevolent object
+in view, though they asked sundry questions before they could grasp
+our motives. What could be our object in coming such a long distance
+to visit Siberian prisons, and why should I take notes of what we
+saw? I said something about the luxury of doing good to the poor and
+unfortunate; and pointed out that, if I did not make notes of what
+was said, I should forget. “Besides which,” I added, “perchance I may
+some day write about what I have seen.” “Oh! then you are travelling
+for literary purposes, that you may bring out a book?” “No,” said I;
+“but for all that I may perhaps write of my travels”; after which
+there were given me several good-sized and well-executed photographs
+of the prison and its surroundings, with the remark, “Who knows? the
+English do such extraordinary things, we may, perhaps, see some day an
+engraving from these photographs in the English papers.” But, whatever
+the motive which had brought us, they said it was very rare for them to
+receive such a visit, and they were highly gratified at our coming.
+
+The director begged us to favour his wife by staying to dinner;
+and when for want of time I declined, all sorts of reasonable and
+unreasonable inducements were urged why I should do so. I remained
+firm, and we were then invited at least to partake of light refreshment
+at the house of the secretary of the prison. We there found ourselves
+in the midst of a family of Poles, with some good-looking daughters.
+The eldest was dressed in _Mala-Russiá_, or “Little Russian” costume,
+consisting of a morning dress of washing material, trimmed with
+embroidery of variegated colours, and with Russian lace. I admired
+this, and inquired where such embroidery could be purchased. The mother
+gave me a small piece as a specimen, and also presented me with a
+portrait of her daughter photographed in the same costume.
+
+The photograph was taken by Malmberg of Irkutsk, and I mention it
+because it has won the unqualified admiration of two eminent London
+photographers, who pronounce that, both technically and artistically,
+no better could be seen in any part of the world. It is particularly
+choice, and, as an operator would say, “well built up.” The light is
+good, and the background well arranged; and as a piece of artistic
+workmanship it speaks well for the progress of art in Siberia that a
+photograph from Irkutsk should bear comparison with the best the world
+can produce.
+
+After this quasi-lunch, and the exchange of sundry little souvenirs,
+we departed, hoping to regain the high road at Telma in about a couple
+of hours. We had reached the top of the hill, and begun the descent
+through the pine-forest; and the horses were going with a run, when one
+of the reins broke, and the right-wheeler began suddenly to run too
+wide from the centre horse. Before the yemstchik could stop his team,
+we came to a pine-tree at the side of the road, which the outer horse
+allowed to come between him and his fellow. We were going at a furious
+pace, and the wonder is that the whole concern, including ourselves,
+was not dashed to pieces. As it was, in rushing by I thought I saw
+the horse’s head strike the tree, with a force that I expected must
+have killed it. We ran some distance before the remaining horses could
+be stopped, and then the yemstchik went back to find, as we feared,
+another horse dead in our service. To our surprise, however, the
+creature had run away. The force with which the tarantass was going had
+broken the remaining rein, had snapped the traces, and so allowed us to
+escape, by a few inches at most, a terrible accident.
+
+We had first to search for the missing horse, now out of sight; for
+which purpose the yemstchik mounted one of our remaining steeds, and,
+subsequently, my interpreter the other, I being left alone. Presently a
+rough-looking man appeared coming along the road, with an extraordinary
+wallet slung at his side. He was curiously ornamented with a profusion
+of brass buttons and decorations, some of which would have served for
+the dress of a Tunguse _shaman_. He turned out to be a horse-doctor,
+and not a robber, though he naïvely said that when he saw us at first
+he thought _we_ were highwaymen, until the sight of the tarantass
+reassured him.
+
+At length, after having been left about five hours, the yemstchik and
+my companion came back, but without the truant horse; so we determined
+to proceed with the two that remained. We accused our yemstchik of
+having been drinking, but he denied it. As he went on, however, he grew
+inconsolable at his loss of the horse, and fairly bellowed, saying that
+he feared he should be turned out of his place and be sent to prison.
+He came round gradually, too, to confess that, of the shilling I had
+given him for fodder, he had spent twopence in drink; and then to the
+interpreter, who sat on the box to drive, or see that we met with no
+accident, he expressed the hope that the _barin_, or gentleman, would
+“forgive him for being a _little_ drunk.”
+
+And so it came to pass that by nightfall we got back to Telma, and
+found our friendly post-master about to send in search of us, as he
+was alarmed at our absence of 30 instead of 6 hours. After a good meal
+we left at midnight for Irkutsk, which under ordinary circumstances
+we ought to have reached early on the following morning. At one of
+the stations, however, there were no horses, and we had to wait four
+hours, which afterwards proved a mercy, though at the time I am afraid
+I chafed at the delay; so that we did not come in view of the city till
+10 a.m.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+_A CITY ON FIRE._
+
+ Approach to Irkutsk.--The city entered.--Remains of a fire.--A
+     second fire.--Our flight.--Crossing of the Angara.--A
+     refuge.--Inhabitants fleeing.--Salvage.--Firemen’s
+     efforts.--Spread of the catastrophe.--Return to lodging.--A
+     chapel saved.--Spectacle of fire at night.--Reflections.
+
+
+What a vivid recollection I have of the lovely morning of that 7th of
+July! The sun was bright and warm, but the air was not yet hot. The
+road lay near the cold and swiftly-flowing Angara, and the plains over
+which we passed were stocked with cattle. Before us lay Irkutsk. This
+city, or perhaps Kiakhta, I had thought originally to make the eastward
+limit of our travels. Many friends had prophesied that we should never
+get there. Some said that I was undertaking more than I could carry
+out, and others that I should not be permitted by the Russians to go so
+far. A subtle feeling of satisfaction, therefore, stole over us as we
+posted along, and saw how soon these prophecies were to be falsified.
+The town, built on a tongue of land, formed by the confluence of two
+rivers, with its dozen churches, domes, and spires pointing to heaven,
+looked extremely pretty; and on the hills around, handsome villas,
+nestling among the trees, added not a little to the picturesqueness of
+the scene. The prospect before us, therefore, the retrospect of what
+we had done, the pleasant morning, and the repose to which we were
+looking forward, all combined to raise our spirits, and cause us to
+hasten onward. Alas! we little knew how speedily the face of things
+would change.
+
+At the ferry was collected a large number of common vehicles, before
+which, however, our post-horses took precedence. We speedily crossed,
+and drove through a triumphal arch, erected at the time of the
+annexation of the Amur, and situated at the entrance of the town. We
+did not proceed far before we saw where fire had destroyed two blocks
+of buildings, the embers of which were still smoking. But it was only
+similar to what we had seen at Perm and Tagil, so that we were not
+greatly surprised. Worse was to come. We drove to Decocq’s hotel,
+and took apartments, paid and dismissed the yemstchiks, moved our
+belongings from the larger of the tarantasses, and arranged them in
+our rooms--or, rather, we were doing so, when the alarm was given that
+another fire had broken out. I clambered to the roof of the stables,
+and there, plainly enough, were flames mounting upwards, not a dozen
+houses off, and in the same street, though on the other side of the way.
+
+The waiter said he thought the fire would not come towards the hotel,
+as the wind blew from the opposite direction; but I was disinclined to
+wait and see, and so we bundled our things back into the tarantass, and
+told the yemstchiks, who fortunately had not left the yard, to put to
+their horses, and in a few minutes we were out in the street, witnesses
+of a sight that is not easy to describe. Men were running from all
+directions, not with the idle curiosity of a London crowd at a fire,
+but with the blanched faces and fear-stricken countenances of those who
+knew that the devastation might reach to them. They looked terribly in
+earnest; women screamed and children cried, and it was hard for me in
+the street to get an answer to any ordinary question.
+
+Meanwhile the yemstchiks asked, Where should they go? I tried to
+discover where some of the persons to whom I had introductions lived,
+but people were too excited to tell me; and at last my companion
+suggested that we should go out of the town across the river. We soon
+put nearly a mile between us and the flames, and reached the bank of
+the Angara, where was a swinging ferry. The ferry was all but loaded,
+and would not take more than one of our two tarantasses. I therefore
+went with the first, leaving the interpreter to follow. On landing,
+the yemstchik drove along a bridge, at the end of which he motioned to
+me as to whether he should turn to the left or the right. To me it was
+just the same, but I pointed to the left; and that turning proved to be
+of not a little importance. I could say nothing to the yemstchik, and
+had therefore to wait till the ferry returned, and then crossed again,
+which occupied the greater part of an hour.
+
+Meanwhile the increased smoke in the distance showed that the fire was
+spreading, and the inhabitants of the small suburb called Glasgova, to
+which I had come, were looking on in front of their houses. Among the
+people I noticed a well-dressed person, whom I addressed, asking if
+she spoke English or French. She at once inquired who I was and what
+I wanted. I replied that I was an English clergyman travelling, that
+I had just arrived in Irkutsk, had run away from the fire, and was
+seeking a lodging. She answered that there were no lodgings to be had
+in any of the few houses on that side of the river; “but,” said she,
+“pray come into my little house, where you are welcome to remain at
+least during the day.” I was only too glad to do so; and, seeing that
+there was a small yard adjoining, I asked permission to put therein our
+two vehicles, in which we might sleep until some better place could be
+found. And thus we were a second time landed at Irkutsk, poorly enough,
+perhaps the reader may think, but in a far better condition, as will
+presently be seen, than before nightfall were many thousands of the
+inhabitants.
+
+We soon found that our hostess was of good family, and an exile, though
+not a political, but a criminal one. On arriving at Irkutsk, the
+Governor-General had shown her kindness in allowing her to remain in
+the city, where she partly supported herself by giving lessons, and was
+living for the summer in this quasi country-house with a young man whom
+she called her brother, her little girl she had brought from Russia,
+and a small servant whom she spoke of as “ma petite femme de chambre.”
+There was one tolerably spacious dwelling-room in the house, and in
+this were sundry tokens of refinement brought from a better home. On
+the wall hung a photograph of herself, as a bride leaning on the arm of
+her husband in officer’s uniform, whilst several other photographs and
+ornaments spoke also of a better past.
+
+The occasion, however, was not suited to long conversation, for the
+conflagration in the town was increasing. Whilst dining, we bethought
+ourselves whether we could be of some service, and the outcome of
+our deliberations was that I offered to accompany Madame to her
+friends residing in the town, to see if we could be of use, whilst my
+interpreter stayed with the tarantasses and the little girl to guard
+the premises.
+
+Madame and I, therefore, set out, accompanied by her maid. At the ferry
+we met a crowd of persons fleeing from the city, and carrying with
+them what was most valuable or most dear--an old woman tottering under
+a heavy load of valuable furs piled on her head; a poor half-blind
+nun, hugging an ikon, evidently the most precious of her possessions;
+a delicate young lady in tears, with her kitten in her arms; and boys
+tugging along that first requisite of a Russian home, the brazen
+_samovar_. Terror was written on all countenances. We pushed on to the
+principal street, and tried to hire a droshky, but it was in vain to
+call--they were engaged in removing valuables from burning houses, as
+were the best vehicles and carriages the town possessed. Even costly
+sleighs, laden with such things as could be saved from the flames, were
+dragged over the stones and grit in the streets.
+
+Before long we came to the wide street in which were situated the best
+shops and warehouses, and where the fire was raging on either side
+and spreading. Those who were wise were bringing out their furniture,
+their account-books, and their treasures as fast as possible, and
+depositing them in the road and on vehicles, to be carried away. A
+curious medley these articles presented. Here were costly pier-glasses,
+glass chandeliers, and pictures such as one would hardly have expected
+to see in Siberia at all; whilst a little further on, perchance, were
+goods from a grocer’s or provision merchant’s shop, and all sorts of
+delicacies--such as sweets and tins of preserved fruit, to which they
+who would helped themselves; and working-men were seen tearing open the
+tins to taste, for the first time in their lives, slices of West India
+pine-apples or luscious peaches and apricots. Other prominent articles
+of salvage were huge family bottles of rye-brandy, some of which people
+hugged in their arms, as if for their life, whilst other bottles were
+standing about, or being drunk by those who carried them. The effects
+of this last proceeding soon became apparent in the grotesque and
+foolish antics of men in the incipient stage of drunkenness.
+
+It was curious to watch the conduct of some of the tradesmen, who
+seemed to hope against hope, and kept their shops locked, as if to
+shut out thieves, and in the hope that the fire would not reach their
+premises. I noticed one man, a grocer, whose doors were barred till
+the flames had come within two houses of his own; and then, throwing
+open the entrance, he called in the crowd to carry out his wares. They
+entered, and brought out loaves of sugar and similar goods, until one
+man carried out a glass-case full of _bon-bons_, at which there was a
+general onset in the street, every one filling his pockets amid roars
+of laughter. With this laughter, however, was mingled the crying of
+women, who wrung their hands as they emptied their houses, and saw the
+destroying flames only too surely approaching their homes.
+
+In the street were all sorts of people--soldiers, officers, Cossacks,
+civilians, tradesmen, gentlemen, women and children, rich and poor,
+young and old--but not gathered in dense crowds; some were making
+themselves useful to their neighbours, and a few were looking idly
+on. At every door was placed a jug of clean water for those to drink
+who were thirsty, and it would have been well if nothing stronger
+had been taken. The fire brigade arrangements seemed to me in great
+confusion. There were some English engines in the town,--one of them,
+of a brilliant red, bore the well-known name of “Merryweather and
+Sons,”--but the Siberians had not practised their engines in the time
+of prosperity, and the consequence was that the pipes had become
+dry and useless, and would not serve them in the day of adversity.
+The arrangements, too, for bringing water were of the clumsiest
+description. A river was flowing on either side of the city, but the
+firemen had no means of conducting the water by hose, but carried it in
+large barrels on wheels.
+
+Now and then one saw a hand-machine in use, about the size of a garden
+engine, or a jet such as London tradesmen use to clean their pavements
+and their windows. Moreover, no one took command. I noticed in one
+case, as the flames approached the corner of a street, it evidently
+occurred to some that, if the house at the opposite corner could be
+pulled down, the fire might stop there for want of anything further to
+burn. They therefore got to the top of the house, and, with crowbars,
+unloosed the beams and threw them below; but, before they had gone
+on long, they changed their minds, and seemed oblivious of the fact
+that the fire would burn the beams equally well on the ground as when
+standing in a pile.
+
+It must be confessed, however, that the fire had everything in its
+favour. Nearly all the houses were of wood--so completely so, that,
+after the calamity, there was often nothing to mark the spot where
+a house had stood save the brickwork of the stove in the centre.
+There was a fresh breeze blowing too, and though the houses were in
+many cases detached, yet it frequently happened that the intervening
+spaces were stacked with piles of firewood, which helped to spread the
+conflagration.
+
+A wooden house burning is of course a spectacle much grander than that
+of flames coming through the windows of a brick structure, and the
+heat much more intense. At Irkutsk it was sufficient to set fire to a
+building on the opposite side of the street, without the contact of
+sparks. In one case--that of a handsome shop--I noticed that the first
+things that caught were the outside sunblinds, which were so scorched
+that they at last ignited, and then set fire to the window-frames, and
+so to the whole building.
+
+It soon became apparent that Madame could not reach her friends, who
+lived on the other side of the city, and therefore we made our way
+back towards the ferry, calling here and there and offering help. One
+friend asked us to take away her little daughter, which we did, and
+her husband’s revolver, which I carried, and a bottle of brandy--put
+into the arms of the _femme-de-chambre_. Thus laden, we walked towards
+the river, whilst on all hands men and women were pressing into their
+service every available worker for the removal of their goods. A
+religious procession likewise was formed by priests and people with
+banners, headed by an ikon, in the hope that the fire would be stayed.
+Had such taken place, the ikon would no doubt have acquired the
+reputation of having the power, in common with many others, of working
+miracles. As it was, there was a small chapel or oratory in the centre
+of the town that escaped the flames, though the houses on either side
+were burned. I heard this spoken of as something very wonderful, if not
+miraculous, and I am under the impression that it was so telegraphed
+to Petersburg; but, on looking at the place after the fire, the
+preservation of the little sanctuary seemed easily accounted for, by
+the fact not only that it was itself built of brick, and left no part
+exposed that could well take fire, but that the houses on either side
+happened also to be of brick, so that they did not, in burning, give
+off the same heat they would have done had they been of wood. One
+rejoiced, of course, that the building was saved; but I could not help
+suspecting that, half a century hence, the chapel will be pointed out
+as having been preserved by a miracle from the great fire of 1879.
+
+It was evening before we reached our temporary lodging, and as the day
+closed the workers grew tired. Many were drunk, and others gave up
+in despair. The impression seemed to gain ground that nothing could
+be done, but that the devouring element must be left to burn itself
+out. Hope therefore fled, and the flames continued to spread till the
+darkness showed a line of fire and smoke that was estimated at not
+less than a mile and a half in length. It seemed as if nothing would
+escape. Now one large building caught, and then another, the churches
+not excepted. To add to the vividness of the scene, an alarm of church
+bells would suddenly clang out, to intimate that help was needed in
+the vicinity. Perhaps shortly afterwards the flames would be seen
+playing up the steeple, and fancifully peeping out of the apertures and
+windows; then reaching the top, and presenting the strange spectacle
+of a tower on fire, with the flames visible only at the top, middle,
+and bottom. At last the whole would fall with a crash, and the sky be
+lit up with sparks and a lurid glare such as cannot be forgotten.
+
+Meanwhile the inhabitants continued to flee by thousands--the swinging
+ferry near us crossed and recrossed incessantly, bringing each time its
+sorrowful load, either bearing away their valuables, or going back to
+fetch others. Many of the people brought such of their goods as they
+could save to the banks and islands of the two rivers, and there took
+up their abode for the night in a condition compared with which ours
+was comfortable.
+
+Towards midnight the town presented a marvellous spectacle. I have
+already spoken of the enormous length of the line of fire when looked
+at laterally; but, as the darkness deepened, I walked down to a point
+on the bank from which could be seen the apex of the triangle, in the
+form of which the town was built, and where appeared a mass of flames
+estimated as covering an area of not less than half a square mile.
+
+We were supposed to _sleep_ that night in the tarantass, but I rose
+continually to watch the progress of the fire, which towards morning
+abated, but only because it had burnt all that came in its way. About
+eleven o’clock the last houses standing on the opposite bank caught
+fire, and thus, in about four-and-twenty hours, three-fourths of the
+town were consumed.[1]
+
+[Illustration: THE BURNING OF IRKUTSK.
+
+(_As seen from the Glasgova Suburbs, 7th July, 1879._)]
+
+As for myself, I had watched the fire with mingled feelings, for we
+had narrowly escaped. And then came the recollection of the previous
+delays which had contributed to our preservation--the delay in going
+to the Alexandreffsky prison, the runaway horse in the wood, and our
+subsequent impatient waiting on the road. All these played an important
+part in saving us, for, had we arrived ten minutes earlier, our
+affairs might have gone very differently. Had we reached the town on
+the previous day, we should, in all probability, have been at church
+when the fire broke out; and then it is very doubtful whether we could
+have saved our effects, such was the difficulty of getting assistance.
+Moreover, the hotel was burnt within a very short time of our leaving
+it, so that, when looking back upon the chain of mercies by which we
+had been saved, I could not feel otherwise than deeply thankful.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The numbers of the buildings destroyed were, of stone more than
+100, and of wood about 3,500, including 6 churches, 2 synagogues, and
+2 Lutheran and Roman chapels, besides 5 bazaars, the custom-house,
+and the meat market. The destruction of property was estimated at
+£3,000,000 sterling; and since the town contained about 33,800
+inhabitants, upwards of 20,000 of them probably must have been rendered
+houseless and homeless. From calculations made three months afterwards,
+it appeared that 8,000 of the inhabitants were in good circumstances;
+2,000 were in the military, and 1,000 in Government employ; 6,000 were
+in reduced circumstances, to whom bread and corn were sold at a very
+low price. There were 2,500 government _employés_ similarly straitened
+by the catastrophe, leaving about 14,000 to earn their bread as best
+they could.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+_IRKUTSK._
+
+ Province of Irkutsk.--The capital.--Its markets.--Telegraph
+     officers.--Visit to the Governor.--Ruins of the city.--Attempt
+     to establish a Bible depôt.--Supposed incendiarism.--Benevolent
+     arrangements of authorities.--Wife-beating.--Servility of
+     Russian peasants.--Visit to a rich merchant.--Ecclesiastical
+     affairs.--Visit to the acting Governor-General.--The prisons.--A
+     prisoner’s view of them.--Prison committee.--Distribution of
+     books.--Visit to inspector of schools.--Change of route.
+
+
+The city of Irkutsk is the capital of a government of the same name,[1]
+and was founded in 1680. Its population in 1879 was 33,000. About
+4,000 gold-miners spend their winter and their money in the city,
+often mentioned as a cheerful place of rest for travellers coming from
+China, or proceeding eastward. It is 1,360 feet above the sea, and has
+a climate which even in winter is well spoken of, though, in the late
+autumn, and previous to the freezing of the Angara, the fogs from the
+river bring rheumatism and diseases of the throat and lungs. Little
+wind blows, storms are less frequent than at Petersburg or Moscow, and
+the snows are not superabundant. Whether in winter or summer, the
+panorama of Irkutsk and its surroundings is one of beauty. Of its 20
+churches, several were planned and constructed by two Swedish engineer
+officers captured at Pultava, and sent into exile by the great Peter.
+
+The markets of Irkutsk are well supplied. Fish and game are plentiful.
+Beef is abundant and good, and costs about 2_d._ a pound. Pork, veal,
+and mutton are also cheap, especially in winter, when everything that
+can be frozen succumbs to the frost. Frozen chickens, partridges, and
+other game are often thrown together in heaps like bricks or fire-wood.
+Butchers’ meat defies the knife, and some of the salesmen place their
+animals in fantastic positions before freezing them. Frozen fish are
+piled in stacks, and milk is offered for sale in cakes or bricks. A
+stick or string is generally congealed into a corner of the mass to
+facilitate carrying, so that a wayfarer can swing a quart of milk at
+his side, or wrap it in his handkerchief at discretion. Whilst the
+products of the country are thus cheap, it should be observed that
+everything brought from beyond the Urals is expensive on account of the
+long land carriage. Champagne, for example, costs 12_s._ or 14_s._ a
+bottle, and porter and ale 7_s._ 6_d._; the lowest price of sugar is
+8_d._ a pound, while sometimes it costs 1_s._; and as much as 2_s._
+6_d._ may occasionally be given for a lemon.
+
+Much of this, however, I had to learn by report or reading; for, at
+the time of our visit, the Sunday’s fire had upset everything, and it
+became a serious question on Monday morning as to what we should do.
+Many of the telegraph clerks in Siberia are Danes, and speak several
+languages. We found that we had one of them, Mr. Larsen, for a near
+neighbour; for the telegraph office had been burnt, and he had come
+to our side of the river to take shelter in the next house, where,
+having no electric battery, he had tapped the Verchne Udinsk wire,
+and was trying in this way, though without success, to communicate
+intelligence. He had had nothing to eat for 24 hours, and possessed
+only the clothes in which he stood; so it was quite a charity to take
+him a glass of tea to his temporary office in the open air, after
+which he dined with us. Mr. Larsen, to whom we had an introduction,
+had been a telegraphist in London, and spoke English fluently, so that
+we were able to discuss our prospects to advantage. It was of prime
+importance for us that we should see the Governor of the province and
+the Governor-General of Eastern Siberia as quickly as possible, for
+it was not hard to perceive that what provisions had escaped the fire
+would be sold at famine prices; lawlessness, it was rumoured, might get
+the upper hand; and it seemed better that we should leave the place
+without much delay. Our adviser feared, however, and reasonably so,
+that we should be able to get no attention from the higher officials
+in the present state of excitement, seeing the embers of the city were
+still smoking, and the authorities would naturally have more important
+business than ours to attend to. Mr. Larsen, however, kindly offered
+to accompany me over the river to see if anything could be done.
+Accordingly we crossed, and, walking along the broad road by the side
+of the Angara, the ashes of the fire scorched our faces.
+
+We now saw something of the condition of the people who had fled
+to the bank of the river on the previous day, with such effects as
+they could save. Here were gentlefolks “camped out” under chests of
+drawers, tables, and boxes, arranged in the best manner possible in
+the open air--sheets being used for walls, and curtains for coverings.
+Ikons from churches were lying about; likewise tables, heaped with
+philosophical instruments from the high school; and carts filled with
+movables. The instruments from the telegraph station were standing by a
+post, to which paper streamers were fastened to intimate that this was
+the temporary telegraph office. The people’s demeanour, however, was in
+strange contrast with their pitiable condition; for many, having saved
+their samovars, were drinking afternoon tea, and on all sides were
+joking and laughing at their comical situation.
+
+We found many of his friends among those beside the river, and each
+began good-humouredly to ask what the other lost in the fire, and
+what had been saved. Nobody seemed inclined to be at all dull over
+the matter, and the same thing was apparent with the Deputy-Governor
+Ismailoff, upon whom we called. “What have you lost?” said the General
+to my companion. He lightly threw open his coat, and intimated that
+_that_ was all he had saved. At this the General laughed heartily, and
+said that he was not so well off, for that the very shirt on his back
+was a borrowed one! Yet the Governor had lost in the fire a brand-new
+house, upon which he had spent many thousands of roubles.
+
+Contrary to our expectation, it was arranged for us to see the acting
+Governor-General next morning, and meanwhile we had time to look at
+the ruins of the city. People had taken refuge with their effects in
+the large squares, as well as on the banks and islands of the river.
+Many had fled into the neighbouring villages. The suburbs had escaped
+the fire, as well as many of the houses standing in spacious grounds.
+A few of the churches also were untouched. The large hospital was
+safe, likewise the usine for smelting gold, and the Governor-General’s
+house, but many of the public buildings had perished; amongst these the
+museum, in which I expected to find a good ethnographical collection.
+I should judge about three-fourths of the city were destroyed, and
+that the best part of the town; and so complete was the wreck that the
+_isvostchiks_ with their droshkies hardly knew their way about the
+blackened streets.
+
+We met a few of the higher class of exiles living free in Irkutsk,
+and, on asking them what they would do, received for reply, “We do not
+know. We have been earning something by teaching, but now our patrons
+will leave us. All sorts of provisions will be frightfully dear, and
+yet we dare not leave. So what is to be done?” The same doubts as to
+the future pressed heavily upon those tradesmen whose shops were not
+burnt.[2]
+
+Of course there were various rumours afloat during the excitement of
+the previous day--one, that the devastation was caused by a wilful act.
+Similar rumours were afloat at Perm and Tagil, and at Irkutsk more than
+twenty arrests were reported. But, upon asking the Governor, it proved
+to be nonsense; for only two men had been arrested, and it was very
+doubtful whether even they were guilty. The only origin I heard given
+was that a hay-loft ignited, from which the flames spread.[3]
+
+In Siberian towns the police are represented by the _gendarmerie_; and
+in other places are police-masters with their employés. There are,
+strictly speaking, no policemen, but Cossacks are usually employed in
+their stead; and at the end of their short service are allowed to go
+home. They are, however, anything but efficient constables, and I was
+told that at Irkutsk the authorities do not employ them. To protect
+whatever might be of value among the ruins, and to keep order after the
+fire, troops were marched into the city by day, and patrolled the place
+at night.
+
+Great credit was due to the officials for the prompt manner in
+which they attempted the relief of distress. The fire was scarcely
+extinguished before a committee was formed, and some of the merchants
+laid down handsome sums. Proclamations were posted about the place,
+saying that officers could be furnished with dinners at the rate of
+30 kopecks a plate, that bread might be bought for 2 kopecks--that
+is, a halfpenny--a pound; and that for the first week the poor might
+have bread for nothing; further, that all persons burnt out might, on
+application, receive the sum of 30 kopecks. No serious outbreak of
+disorder occurred during our stay, though a good deal of drunkenness
+was visible. With two inebriates we were brought palpably into contact.
+In the yard we occupied was a small kitchen-house, where lived a woman
+cook, her husband, and some children. The husband had been to the fire,
+had been drinking, and came home accompanied by a drunken associate.
+The companion, referring to the cook, said, “As for that woman, she
+ought to be hanged”; whereupon her husband fell to beating mercilessly
+both her and her boy of about ten years old; and the child came to us
+crying, as if he were half killed. Whereupon we rushed to the rescue,
+and one of the party, seizing the drunken man, took him from his wife,
+and gave him a thrashing.[4]
+
+When I got further east, I heard of a third and similar instance of
+wife-beating, related to me by a merchant in whose house I stayed. His
+servants were convicts, simply because he could get no others; but he
+said he was not usually curious to ask for what crimes they had been
+sent to Siberia. It happened, however, that he had a woman-cook who
+was particularly well-behaved, and an excellent servant; and he asked
+her one day why she had been exiled. She said it was for poisoning her
+husband; upon which my friend opened his eyes, and said,--
+
+“Oh, then, perhaps you will murder me?”
+
+“Oh, no, master; I should not murder _you_.”
+
+“Yes, but if you would murder your husband, why not, some day, _me_?”
+
+“Oh, no, master; you would not do as he did, for he beat me every day
+for two years.”
+
+Thus it was not altogether a meaningless form at a Russian wedding,
+that anciently the bridegroom took to church a whip, and in one part of
+the ceremony lightly applied it to the bride’s back, in token that she
+was to be in subjection.
+
+It should be remembered, however, that the brutal conduct just
+described belongs to a type well known in a certain part of England;
+the difference between the two being that the Russian bully beats his
+wife with a whip, while the English one kicks her to death. The Russian
+wives take very kindly to a moderate amount of such treatment, and
+those of the lower class do not murmur or complain, but consider the
+“master” has a right to chastise them; and when things do not go so
+far as this, they expect, when they do not please their husbands, to
+be slapped and corrected accordingly. In fact, the Russian wife among
+the lower classes does not take what we think her proper position in
+a house. The husband usually goes to market once a week, and buys all
+he wants, business of such importance not being entrusted to the wife,
+who therefore knows nothing even of the cost of her household articles.
+Among the higher classes, also, the master usually sends his chief
+servant to market, and pays for all that is consumed in the house.
+
+There came out of this quarrel between man and wife another
+characteristic of the Russian peasantry, which perhaps is a remnant
+of serfdom, and betrays their want of manliness in the presence of
+their superiors. My merchant friend, just referred to, had a convict
+in the house whilst I was there, whom once before he had dismissed for
+drunkenness. The man came back entreating that he might be reinstated,
+but his master said, “No, I have warned you continually, and done
+everything I could to keep you sober, but in vain.” “Yes, sir,” said
+the man; “but then, sir, you should have given me a good thrashing.”
+So with the fighting husband at Irkutsk: after receiving his stripes
+he went away, but soon after came back, thanking the gentleman for
+his thrashing, and promising to behave better in future. In the days
+of serfdom, it was no uncommon thing for a gentleman to box the ears
+of his droshky driver; but this cannot now be done with impunity. My
+mercantile friend told me he was one day driving in Petersburg with
+a Russian gentleman, when the latter struck the isvostchik for doing
+something that displeased him; whereupon the man turned round and said,
+“No more of that, sir; those days are gone by, and if you strike me
+again I shall return it,”--a threat quite unbearable to a _blagorodni_,
+or “noble”; and he was about to go on as of old, when my friend said,
+“Look! you had better not; for if you are summoned, and I am called as
+a witness, I shall be bound to say that you began it”; whereupon he
+desisted.
+
+We took an early opportunity after the fire to deliver up to General
+Khamenoff, its owner, the second tarantass we had borrowed at Tomsk,
+and in which my companion and I had driven and slept for a thousand
+miles. Our benefactor was in reality a rich merchant, and had given,
+if I mistake not, very handsome sums of money for educational purposes
+in Irkutsk. This patriotic action had gained him the distinction of
+“General.” His buildings had been saved, and we thus had an opportunity
+of seeing the house of one well-to-do merchant at Irkutsk.
+
+The General was getting old, and appeared in a long dressing-gown,
+coming out of his beautiful garden, and seating us in a little
+secretarial chamber, which had about it sundry marks of foreign
+influence and taste. Before joining us, however, he bade adieu to
+a previous visitor, and called his footman to open the door. There
+was something inexpressibly droll about his manner of doing so, for
+he simply gave a prolonged grunt--ugh!!--and as the footman did not
+come at grunt number one, it was repeated, and the servant in passing
+received from his master a cuff at the back of the head, doing so with
+a grin and a duck of the noddle, as a schoolboy receives a blow from
+his mother’s palm, knowing that he shall not be hurt. The old gentleman
+then heard from us how we had escaped from the hotel, and how we were
+making a sleeping chamber of his tarantass, which he said we might
+continue to do until we left the town.
+
+I was anxious to learn something of the state of ecclesiastical affairs
+in the province, and to inquire what the Russian Church was doing in
+her missions to the Buriats. The chief ecclesiastic of the province is
+one Benjamin, Archbishop of Irkutsk and Nertchinsk, under whom is a
+suffragan bishop, Meleti of Selenginsk. The Diocese has 347 churches
+and chapels, 5 monasteries, and one nunnery. One of the monasteries
+is near Lake Baikal, and here lives, if I mistake not, the Bishop of
+Selenginsk, who could have given information about the Buriats, but
+the monastery lay too far out of our way to allow of our visiting
+it. Nor were we successful with the Archbishop; for on going to the
+monastery, his official residence, which had narrowly escaped the fire,
+we found him gone to his country residence in the suburbs. “When will
+he return?” we asked. “God knows,” said our priest informant; thereby
+using an expression which I observed to be very common among all
+classes of Russians.[5]
+
+On the Tuesday morning after the fire we were to be presented, as I
+have said, to the acting Governor-General of Eastern Siberia. The
+supreme Governor-General was Baron Friedrichs, to whom I had two
+private letters of introduction, besides my official documents; also
+we had made the acquaintance of his son when travelling on the Obi.
+The Baron, who was in ill-health, was at some mineral springs on
+the Mongolian frontier, and his place was filled at the time of our
+visit by M. Lochwitzky, the Governor of Yeneseisk, to whom we were
+presented by General Ismailoff. We met at the Governor-General’s house,
+the finest in the city, having been originally built and furnished,
+regardless of expense, by an enormously rich tea merchant. We
+found M. Lochwitzky the first of the Siberian Governors (except the
+Governor-General in the West) who could converse in French. He entered
+readily into my plans for the distribution of books, thanked me for
+those I had left at Krasnoiarsk for his province, and promised to do
+for me what was a great boon, namely, to send some books to the town
+of Yakutsk, to be distributed throughout that largest province of the
+country. We were introduced to a Colonel Solovief, whose brother was in
+London, as Secretary to the Grand Duchess of Edinburgh; and after an
+assurance from the Governor-General that he would do all he could to
+further our wishes, we started to see the prisons, under the conduct of
+the Procureur of the town.
+
+We drove through the ruins of the fire, and then crossed, by a wooden
+bridge 300 yards long, the Uska-Kofka, by which one side of Irkutsk
+is bounded. This stream divides the town from the prison and the
+workshops, where a certain number of convicts are employed.[6] Speaking
+generally, the prison seemed to me to resemble others I had seen in
+Siberia, and to call for no special remark. Perhaps, however, I ought
+to add that before I left the town I had the opportunity of hearing
+about the establishment from a prisoner’s point of view. Thus I heard
+that, at six o’clock on the morning of our visit, the prisoners were
+told to have all in order because some Englishmen were expected, and
+that certain objectionable things were hidden away. I thought, however,
+that it did not speak much for my informant’s candour when, on pressing
+him to say what the objectionable things were, he did not tell me.
+Again, my informant tried to make it appear that the officers stole
+the prisoners’ food by giving them short quantity, though he said the
+_quality_ of the food was good enough. The Procureur said the prisoners
+did not eat all the food allowed them; and from the quantity of pieces
+of bread which we so often saw lying about in Russian prisons, I should
+be disposed to think this true. This seems to be so common, that we
+were told at Tiumen the prisoners may _sell_ what they do not eat; but
+at Irkutsk my informant said that they did not receive more than half
+their allowance, and that a quarter of a pound only of meat was given
+for 10 men--a quantity so ridiculously small, that one could not but
+think that here exaggeration must have overshot the mark. Moreover, my
+informant told me that what he said was not from personal experience,
+because he was not one of the peasant prisoners whose circumstances he
+professed to relate.[7]
+
+I was told in the town that to take books to the Irkutsk prison was a
+work of supererogation; and I confess to a feeling of disappointment
+when, on asking to see the library, I was taken to a cupboard full of
+New Testaments and tracts, precisely the same as some of those I was
+distributing, but all kept so fresh and in such order that evidently no
+one had used them. The committee was reported to have spent as much as
+£30 on books for the prison, but the officials had evidently not made
+the books accessible to those for whom they were intended. Their excuse
+was that the prisoners did not ask for them; but no doubt the officials
+were afraid of their being torn, and that trouble would ensue, and so
+had kept them locked up. It reminded me of what my Finnish friend had
+written, that when she went to the prison, the officials said, “The
+books must be arranged in order, in case the inspector should come”;
+and thus the books were practically kept from the inmates. When the
+Governor asked me what I thought of the prison, I did not fail to
+point out the inconsistency of withholding the books; but of this he
+was ignorant, and he promised to look into the matter. I endeavoured
+also to make clear, in speech and by writing, that wherever my books
+or tracts went throughout the province, they were to be placed within
+reach at all times of the prisoners, and not to be put away in any of
+the libraries.
+
+Thus we inspected the two prisons, and also saw a school built by the
+committee for prisoners’ children; in it were 42 scholars. We visited
+likewise a gentleman named Sokoloff, who was the deputy-inspector of
+schools for Eastern Siberia. There is also an inspector of schools for
+Western Siberia, who lives at Omsk. I was surprised to hear of the many
+schools and scholars in the sparsely-populated and, for scholastic
+purposes, exceedingly difficult country of Eastern Siberia.[8] Our
+object in calling upon the inspector was to ask him to distribute
+throughout the schools copies of my tracts and periodicals, and to that
+end I began by showing my credentials. But upon hearing my object, he
+said that was quite sufficient; and he needed to see no papers, but
+would willingly help. He bought, moreover, on his own account, 200 New
+Testaments for 40 roubles, to give as prizes to the young schoolmasters
+on leaving the institution, by which means the books would be scattered
+widely.[9]
+
+We now considered our next step. My original idea, when leaving
+England, as already intimated, was to proceed to Irkutsk; and then,
+after running on to Kiakhta for the gratification of seeing a Chinese
+town, to return to Europe, and come home by the Caucasus and the
+Mediterranean. I had been warned before quitting London that I should
+see nothing of the severities of Siberian exile-life if I did not
+penetrate the region beyond Lake Baikal; and, travelling on the Obi,
+this statement was confirmed by a Russian officer in the prison
+service. I feared, however, I could not do this in a single summer, and
+that, if I went so far east, I should be unable to return before winter
+set in. It never occurred to me that there was any available way of
+reaching the Pacific from Irkutsk other than by crossing the Mongolian
+desert to China, and this I was not disposed to do.
+
+But when I learned that there was a service of steamers on the Amur,
+this opened the way for other possibilities; and on June 21st, as
+we rolled away from Tomsk, there dawned upon my mind a thought, the
+conception of which seemed at once to promise the birth of great
+things. What, said I to myself, if I could go right across Asia and
+leave so many copies of Scripture as would suffice for putting at
+least a New Testament or a copy of the Gospels in every room of every
+prison, and in every ward of every hospital, throughout the whole of
+Siberia! As I look back upon it now as an accomplished fact, the matter
+seems ordinary enough; but when the thought came into my mind it looked
+like a consummation far beyond anything I had hoped to accomplish,
+and a result which, if it might be compassed, would be a cause of
+thankfulness for the rest of my life.
+
+Accordingly I quietly nursed the idea till we reached Irkutsk, thus far
+having given a sufficiency of books answerable to the plan for all the
+provinces behind me; and there yet remained three before me. Several
+boxes of books were unopened, but these could not be sent forward,
+because, in the first place, there was no carrier, or, if there were,
+the fire had confounded all order; and even if some one could be
+persuaded to take the books, it was very doubtful if they would reach
+the hands of the prisoners unless I went with them in person and showed
+my credentials.
+
+I determined, therefore, to journey onward and do my best to carry out
+the scheme which had taken possession of my mind. But to do this it was
+necessary to have supplementary documents, for I had asked the Minister
+of the Interior for letters only as far as Kiakhta. M. Lochwitzky,
+however, most kindly helped in the matter, and gave me the letters I
+needed for my extended plans. We were then free to go forward again
+(which the reader may do at once, if he prefers, by missing the next
+two chapters); but something must first be said of the routes by which
+former travellers have proceeded eastwards.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Compared with some of the enormous provinces of Siberia, that of
+Irkutsk is comparatively small, with an area of 300,000 square miles
+only; that is, about the size of Sweden and Norway. The surface is
+mountainous, and through it flow two rivers of importance, namely, the
+Angara, issuing from Lake Baikal, and the Lena, which rises not far
+from the capital. The province is divided into five uyezds, and has a
+population of 380,000, of whom only 10 per cent. are dwellers in towns.
+Marriages 4,600, and 25,000 births are recorded in the province yearly.
+
+[2] I was specially anxious to open a depôt for the Bible Society in
+Irkutsk, and to that end called upon a bookseller and printer named
+Sinitzun, of Harlampi Street, and invited him to become a depositary.
+He replied that he had the will to do so, but that he must first
+consult his partners; for it was doubted whether the city would be
+rebuilt, and whether persons having lost their premises would not,
+instead of re-erecting them, go and live elsewhere. I have heard, since
+my return, however, that the town is rising from its ashes even on a
+grander scale than it formerly possessed.
+
+[3] The Russians have reason, however, for constant suspicion, for they
+have a revengeful way of “letting loose the red cock” upon a man, which
+means setting his house on fire; and this is only too common among the
+peasants of Siberia, as, in fact, generally in all Russia. Thus, of 758
+fires which took place in Siberia in 1876, no less than 99, or more
+than one-eighth, were due to incendiaries, to say nothing of nearly
+500 more of which the causes could not be traced. Further particulars
+relating to these 758 fires are, that 185 were registered as due to
+“carelessness,” and 10 to lightning, whilst the estimated loss of the
+whole 758 was reckoned at £82,162. With such a number of fires it is
+not difficult to understand the dread of destruction in which Siberians
+live, nor their practice of having a large chest in the house, in which
+they habitually keep their valuables, to be removed, if necessary, at a
+moment’s notice.
+
+[4] This assault by the husband was, as far as I know, quite unprovoked
+on the part of his better half, and it serves as an illustration of
+the way in which a certain class of the Russians treat their wives.
+It also serves to confirm what is written of Akoulka’s husband in
+Dostoyeffsky’s “Buried Alive,” where two prisoners are talking in the
+night, and one relates: “I had got, somehow or other, in the way of
+beating her. Some days I would keep at it from morning till night. I
+did not know what to do with myself when I was not beating her. She
+used to sit crying, and I could not help feeling sorry for her, and so
+I beat her.” Subsequently he murdered her. After which relation, the
+other prisoner acquiesces, and says that “wives _must_ be beaten to be
+of any service.”
+
+[5] The chief ecclesiastical shrine of Irkutsk is a large church a
+little way out of the city. In it are the remains, gorgeously entombed,
+of St. Innokente, said to be preserved as fresh as when he died.
+This man is regarded as the apostle of Siberia. He was originally a
+missionary, who, in 1721, was sent to China; but the Chinese Government
+refusing him admission to their country, he settled six years
+afterwards at Irkutsk.
+
+[6] There were 270 men in the prison, one room holding 21 murderers,
+another 28 thieves, a third 20 forgers, a fourth 28 who had been
+exchanging their names and punishments, and a fifth 39 who were
+“without passports,” and so on. In one room they were making
+match-boxes, for which they received for themselves a tenth of their
+earnings. Other prisoners were making furniture, of which the materials
+were supplied by the prison officers, and for which, of course, they
+recouped themselves.
+
+[7] The citizen prisoners, he said, were allowed in money 17½ kopecks a
+day, which they could spend as they pleased, and with which they could
+buy a pound of meat (10 kopecks), and 2½ lbs. of bread (7½ kopecks).
+They have, however, in Irkutsk, a liberal prison committee, who help
+in the matter of food--the cabbage in the soup, for instance, being
+provided by them; and my informant, though grumbling about almost
+everything else, allowed that the dinners given to the sick, which cost
+20 kopecks, and all the arrangements about the prison hospital, were
+exceedingly good. There were even books provided for the patients,
+but this was through the kindness of the doctor. My non-official
+informant also alleged that the prison officials took from the pay
+of the workmen, giving them far less than the value of their labour,
+and so unrighteously enriched themselves. His tone, however, was so
+exceedingly bitter, that had he not allowed that there was _one_
+good thing in connection with the prison, I should have discredited
+all he said, especially as he dealt so much in generals, and avoided
+particulars. As it was, I thought perhaps he might have spoken the
+truth in some respects. I heard subsequently, from another exile, that
+the Director of the prison received only £40 a year for salary, whilst
+from another I heard £120 or £150; and if either of these figures
+are true, it is not difficult to see that a dishonest official may
+be strongly tempted to take advantage (as the Russians say) “of his
+opportunities.” These “opportunities,” however, are not confined to
+matters of food. I heard of a prison director at Nijni Udinsk who had
+orders to send 30 prisoners to Nikolaefsk, which for certain reasons
+is a favourite place with the convicts; whereupon this director made
+his choice to fall upon those whose wives could pay him 25 roubles,
+or 50 shillings. This looks a large amount for a prisoner to pay, but
+my informant had in possession 50 roubles to be transferred for this
+purpose.
+
+[8] Mr. Sokoloff had under his inspection, in 1878, 13 classical
+schools, 1 commercial, 1 industrial, 11 inferior, and 211 elementary
+schools, attended by 6,000 boys and 1,500 girls. These figures,
+moreover, were exclusive of the Amur district, and parts about the
+Sea of Okhotsk. There were also under his inspection two training
+institutions, one of them being the house at which we called--a new
+building for the training, at one time, of 80 village schoolmasters.
+Its furniture and fittings were admirable. It had an excellent museum,
+and a room for tutorial practice; and I was particularly struck with
+the number of models and apparatus for the teaching of natural science.
+
+[9] Besides these sent to the inspector, we confided to M. Lochwitzky
+for the government of Yakutsk, and for Eastern Siberia generally, about
+170 New Testaments and portions of Scripture, and upwards of 3,000
+tracts and periodicals; and with General Ismailoff, for the province
+of Irkutsk, about the same number of Scriptures, but rather less of
+other papers. We also left with General Ismailoff 500 Finnish tracts
+and books for the German pastor, Ratcke; these last I have since
+heard from the pastor were specially acceptable, inasmuch as when he
+returned to Irkutsk he found all his books burnt. I have heard, too,
+since my return, from M. Lochwitzky, that those in his hands have been
+distributed according to my directions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+_THE LENA._
+
+ History of Russian invasion.--Former travellers to Okhotsk.--Cochrane,
+     Erman, and Hill.--Down the Lena to Yakutsk.--Prevalence
+     of goitre.--The Upper Lena and its tributaries.--The
+     Lower Lena.--Discoveries of mammoths.--New Siberian
+     islands.--Nordenskiöld’s passage.
+
+
+When, at the beginning of the 17th century, the Cossack conquerors
+of Siberia had crossed the Yenesei, and had pushed on as far as
+Lake Baikal, they were met by the numerous and warlike tribe of
+the Buriats, who opposed the invaders with considerable force. Not
+waiting, therefore, for their entire subjection (which took 30 years
+to accomplish), the Cossacks turned northwards to the basin of the
+Lena, and descended the river more than half-way to the Arctic Sea,
+where, coming in 1632 to the principal town of the Yakutes, they built
+a fort and founded the city of Yakutsk. After this they crossed the
+Aldan mountains, and, seven years later, reached the Sea of Okhotsk.
+For two centuries this was the route followed by those who would cross
+Siberia from the Urals to the Pacific, or _vice versâ_. In the present
+day there are two other roads. All must go by the route we travelled
+from Tomsk to Irkutsk, but from thence the Pacific can be reached
+either by crossing the Mongolian desert to Peking, or by traversing the
+Buriat steppe, and so descending the Amur. The second of these routes
+is now the best, but not briefly to mention the old route would be to
+omit much interesting information concerning the Lena, with its native
+population and fossilized remains, as well as to miss the opportunity
+of hearing a little of some of the most daring and adventurous journeys
+of previous travellers.[1]
+
+The most remarkable of these was an Englishman named John Dundas
+Cochrane, a captain in the Royal Navy, who, in 1820, proposed to the
+Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that they should give their
+sanction and countenance to his undertaking alone a journey into
+the interior of Africa, with a view to ascertaining the course and
+determination of the river Niger. This they declined, whereupon he
+procured two years’ leave of absence, and resolved to attempt “a
+walking tour” round the globe, as nearly as could be done by land,
+crossing from Northern Asia to America at Behring’s Straits, his
+leading object being to trace the shores of the Polar Sea along
+America by land, as Captain Parry was at the time attempting it
+by sea. Accordingly he left London with his knapsack, crossed the
+Channel to Dieppe, and then set out. This gentleman was endowed with
+an unbounded reliance upon his own individual exertions, and his
+knowledge of man when unfettered by the frailties and misconduct of
+others. One man, he said, might go anywhere he chose, fearlessly and
+alone, and as safely trust himself in the hands of savages as among
+his own friends. His favourite dictum was that an individual might
+travel throughout the Russian empire, except in the _civilized_ parts
+between the capitals, so long as his conduct was becoming, without
+necessaries failing him. He put his principle rather severely to the
+test, and it must be allowed that he did so with very general success,
+for he states that in travelling from Moscow to Irkutsk (4,000 miles
+by his route) he spent less than a guinea. From Irkutsk he descended
+the Lena to Yakutsk, from whence, accompanied by a single Cossack, he
+penetrated in a north-easterly direction almost to the shores of the
+Ice Sea at Nijni Kolimsk, where, having altered his plans, he turned
+back by a most difficult route to Okhotsk. From this place he sailed
+to Kamchatka, and married a native, whom he brought by sea back to
+Okhotsk, and then in winter crossed the Aldan mountains to Yakutsk,
+whence the happy pair proceeded to Irkutsk, and at length reached
+England, where Mrs. Cochrane, as I learn from the daughter of one who
+knew her, was carefully educated, and passed as a lady in good society.
+For enterprise and bravery this captain, I take it, easily bears off
+the palm from all Siberian travellers.[2]
+
+The writer who has added most, perhaps, to our scientific knowledge of
+the valley of the Lena is M. Adolph Erman, who crossed Siberia in 1828,
+in conjunction, though not in company, with Professor Hansteen, the
+first professor at the Magnetic Observatory at Christiania, in Norway,
+and famous for his researches in terrestrial magnetism. They both
+travelled for the purpose of making magnetic and other observations;
+but, on arriving at Irkutsk, Professor Hansteen returned to Europe,
+whilst Erman continued down the Lena to Yakutsk, crossed to the Sea of
+Okhotsk, and so continued round the world.[3]
+
+Later on, one more Englishman has reached the Pacific by way of the
+Lena, namely, Mr. S. S. Hill, who did so in 1848, and it is not
+unlikely that he may, for some time, be the last of the intrepid
+travellers who have accomplished this feat, since the Amur is now
+open to the Russians, and presents a far easier way of crossing the
+continent.
+
+To follow the older route, the first portion had to be traversed by
+post vehicles from Irkutsk, a distance of 160 miles in a north-easterly
+direction. The road crosses the water-parting of the Lena basin at or
+near the station Khogotskaya, which is about 90 geographical miles from
+Irkutsk. The traveller journeys through a hilly country, where there
+is abundant pasture, and where the land is to some extent cultivated,
+to the village of Kachugskoe, situated on the banks of the Lena. Here
+various sorts of merchandise are embarked in large flat-bottomed boats,
+which are floated down the river. These goods are exchanged with the
+natives for furs, the boats at the end of the journey being broken
+up in districts where timber is scarce, and the furs brought back in
+smaller craft.[4]
+
+The descent of the Upper Lena to Yakutsk by water was undertaken by
+Mr. Hill in spring, and by Captain Cochrane in autumn, but Mr. Erman
+accomplished it on the ice in winter, by a 20 days’ sledge journey
+of nearly 1,900 miles. As he passed along he observed, first in the
+village of Petrovsk, several of the women largely affected with
+goitre, and learned with surprise that this malady, which in Europe
+characterises the valleys of the Alps, is frequent on the Lena. As
+he proceeded he found goitre in men also, and asking an exile at
+Turutsk, who appeared the only healthy person in the place, how he
+had protected himself from goitre, was told that adults arriving
+from Europe were never attacked by the disease, but that the goitre
+was born with the children of the district, and grew up with them.
+Medical men in Switzerland say that goitre proceeds from deposits in
+chemical combination, washed down by mountain streams that supply the
+inhabitants of the neighbourhood with drinking water, and that it
+attacks children on account of their mucous membranes being very tender
+and easily distended. Mr. Erman inquired carefully, as he went on,
+respecting the prevalency of goitre, and having made barometrical and
+other observations along the way, he came at length to the conclusion
+that the disease was traceable, in part, to the formation and altitude
+of various places along the valley of the river, where the air, being
+confined, is, in summer, heated to an extraordinary degree, and loaded
+with moisture.
+
+With regard to the stream of the Upper Lena, its head waters have their
+sources spread out for 200 geographical miles along the counter slopes
+of the hills that form the western bank of Lake Baikal, and the main
+stream rises within seven miles of the lake.
+
+At Kachugskoe, about 60 geographical miles from the Baikal, and not
+less than 75 geographical miles in a straight line from its source,
+the Lena measures about the width of the Thames in London. The water,
+deep and clear, has in spring a very rapid current, though Captain
+Cochrane speaks of the rate lower down, in autumn, as only 1½ or 2
+knots per hour. The next station after Kachugskoe is Vercholensk, a
+town of 1,000 inhabitants, the first of that size on the north-east
+of Irkutsk, and is the chief town of the uyezd. After flowing 500
+miles further through a hilly country, with high banks always on one
+and sometimes on both sides, on which are 35 post-stations and more
+villages, the river passes Kirensk, which again is the chief town of
+an uyezd, and has a population of 800.[5] Here cultivation practically
+ceases, except for vegetables. At this point, too, the river receives
+on its right the Kirenga, which has run nearly as long a course as
+the Lena. The stream thus enlarged now flows on for 300 miles more to
+Vitimsk, where it is joined by its second great tributary, the Vitim,
+from the mountains east of Lake Baikal. Another stretch of 460 miles,
+through a country still hilly, but with villages less frequent, brings
+the traveller to Olekminsk, the capital of another uyezd, a town of 500
+inhabitants; there the Lena receives from the south the Olekma, which
+rises near the Amur river. It then continues for 400 miles through a
+sparsely-populated district, till it reaches Yakutsk, where it is 4
+miles wide in summer, and 2½ in winter, the river being usually frozen
+about the 1st October, and not free from ice till about May 25th.
+
+Hitherto the course of the river has been to the north-east, but at
+Yakutsk the stream makes a bend and runs due north, receiving on its
+right, 100 miles below Yakutsk, one of its largest tributaries, the
+Aldan, which rises in the Stanovoi range bordering on the Sea of
+Okhotsk. Yakutsk is only 270 feet above the sea, and the current of the
+river henceforth is sluggish. About 50 miles further the Lena receives
+its largest tributary from the left, the Vilui, and then proceeds
+majestically through a flat country with an enormous body of water to
+the Arctic Ocean, into which it enters among a delta of islands formed
+of the _débris_ brought down by the river.
+
+In the region of the Lower Lena, and to the westward, have been found
+the remains of a huge rhinoceros, and an elephant larger than that now
+existing--the _elephas primigenius_, popularly called the mammoth. It
+is so named from the Russian _mamont_, or Tatar _mamma_ (the earth),
+because the Yakutes believed that this animal worked its way in the
+earth like a mole; and a Chinese story represents the _mamentova_ as
+a rat of the size of an elephant which always burrowed underground,
+and died on coming in contact with the outer air. The tusks of the
+mammoth are remarkable for exhibiting a double curve, first inwards,
+then outwards, and then inwards again; and Professor Ramsay gives
+it me as the opinion of several able naturalists that the so-called
+mammoth is of the same species as the Indian elephant, only much
+altered by the change of climatic conditions. The Samoyedes say that
+the mammoth still exists wandering upon the shores of the Frozen
+Ocean, and subsisting on dead bodies thrown up by the surf. As for the
+rhinoceros, they say it was a gigantic bird, and that the horns which
+the ivory-merchants purchase were its talons. Their legends tell of
+fearful combats between their ancestors and this enormous winged animal.
+
+A trade in mammoth ivory has been carried on for hundreds of years
+between the tribes of Northern Asia and the Chinese; but it was a long
+time before European naturalists took a marked interest in the evidence
+of an extinct order of animals which these remains undeniably recorded.
+The Siberian mammoth agrees exactly with the specimens unearthed in
+various parts of England, especially at Ilford in the valley of the
+Thames, near London, and on the coast of Norfolk; but whereas on
+European soil there remain but fragments of the skeleton, there have
+been found in Siberia bones of the rhinoceros and mammoth covered with
+pieces of flesh and skin. These discoveries date back more than a
+century.[6]
+
+In 1865 the captain of a Yenesei steamer learnt that some natives had
+discovered the preserved remains of a mammoth in latitude 67°, about
+100 versts west of the river. Intelligence was sent to Petersburg,
+and Dr. Schmidt was commissioned to go and examine into the matter.
+Accordingly he proceeded down the Yenesei to Turukhansk, and thence to
+the landing-place nearest the mammoth deposit, hoping to obtain the
+animal’s stomach, and, from the character of the leaves within, infer
+the creature’s _habitat_, since it is known that the beast lived upon
+vegetable food, but of what exact character no one has yet determined.
+Unfortunately the stomach was wanting.
+
+In examining, under the microscope, fragments of vegetable food picked
+out of the grooves of the molar teeth of the Siberian rhinoceros at
+Irkutsk, naturalists have recognised fibres of the pitch-pine, larch,
+birch, and willow, resembling those of trees of the same kind which
+still grow in Southern Siberia. This seems to confirm the opinion,
+expressed long ago, that the rhinoceros and other large pachyderms
+found in the alluvial soil of the north used to inhabit Middle
+Siberia, south of the extreme northern regions where their skeletons
+are now found; but Mr. Knox, who travelled for some distance with
+Schmidt on his return journey, says that the doctor estimated that the
+beast had been frozen many thousands of years, and that his natural
+dwelling-place was in the north, at a period when perhaps the Arctic
+regions were warmer than they now are. Covered with long hair, the
+animal could certainly resist an Arctic climate; but how on the tundras
+of the north could the animal have found the foliage of trees necessary
+for its subsistence? Must we conclude that formerly the country was
+wooded, or that the mammoth did not live where its skeletons are now
+found, but further south, whence its carcase has been carried northward
+by rivers, and frozen into the soil? These are questions debated among
+geologists, and still awaiting solution.
+
+The fact, however, remains, that mammoth ivory is still an important
+branch of native commerce, and all travellers bear witness to the
+quantities of fossil bones found throughout the frozen regions of
+Siberia.[7]
+
+Each year, in early summer, fishermen’s barques direct their course
+to the New Siberian group, to the “_isles of bones_”; and, during
+winter, caravans drawn by dogs take the same route, and return charged
+with tusks of the mammoth, each weighing from 150 lbs. to 200 lbs. The
+fossil ivory thus obtained is imported into China and Europe, and is
+used for the same purposes as the ordinary ivory of the elephant and
+hippopotamus.
+
+We cannot leave the Lower Lena and the neighbouring shores of the
+Arctic Ocean without alluding to the wonderful sight those shores
+witnessed in 1878, for the first time in the history of the world. It
+was no less a sight than that of two steam vessels that had ploughed
+their way from Europe round Cape Cheliuskin. One of them was the
+_Vega_, in which was Professor Nordenskiöld, whose intention had been
+to anchor off the mouth of the Lena, but a favourable wind and an open
+sea offered so splendid an opportunity of continuing his voyage that he
+did not neglect it. He sailed away, therefore, on the 28th of August,
+direct for Fadievskoi, one of the New Siberian islands, where he
+intended to remain some days, and to examine scientifically the remains
+of mammoths, rhinoceroses, horses, aurochs, bisons, sheep, etc., with
+which these islands are said to be covered. The _Vega_ made excellent
+progress, but though, on the 30th, Liakov Island was reached, the
+professor was unable to land, owing to the rotten ice which surrounded
+it, and the danger to which the vessel would have been exposed in case
+of a storm in such shallow water.
+
+After the _Vega_, with Nordenskiöld on board, had left its sister
+ship the _Lena_, the latter vessel, under the command of Captain
+Johannesen, started to ascend the river of its own name. A pilot
+had been engaged to descend the river and await the arrival of the
+_Lena_, but as neither he nor his signals were visible, the captain,
+after considerable difficulty, from the shallowness of the water, made
+his way through the delta, and on the 7th September reached the main
+stream, where the navigation was less difficult. Yakutsk was reached on
+the 21st September, dispatches were sent on to Irkutsk, and from thence
+it was telegraphed to Europe that the rounding of Cape Cheliuskin and
+the navigation of the Lena by a steamer from the Atlantic had been
+accomplished.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] I allude to the accounts of Strahlenberg, De Lesseps, Billings,
+Ledyard, Dobell, Gordon, Cochrane, Erman, Cotterill, and Hill.
+
+Strahlenberg was a Swedish officer, who, at the beginning of the 18th
+century, was banished for 13 years to Siberia. He collected a vast
+amount of information concerning the country generally, and compiled
+polyglot tables of aboriginal languages, and amongst them that of the
+Yakutes inhabiting the valley of the Lena, of whose Pagan condition he
+gives many illustrations.
+
+M. de Lesseps was French Consul and interpreter to Count de la Perouse,
+the well-known circumnavigator. De Lesseps entered the country at
+Kamchatka in 1788, and wrote an account of his travels across Siberia
+and Europe to Paris.
+
+Captain Billings was an Englishman, who, after sailing with the
+celebrated Captain Cook, was employed by the Empress Katharine II. to
+make discoveries on the north-east coast of Siberia, and among the
+islands in the Eastern Ocean stretching to the American coast. For this
+purpose he proceeded to North-Eastern Siberia in 1785, sailed down the
+river Kolima, explored a portion of the country eastward, and then
+returned by way of Yakutsk.
+
+Another of Captain Cook’s officers, John Ledyard, had the most romantic
+enthusiasm for adventure, perhaps, of any man of his time. He conceived
+the project of travelling across Europe, Asia, and America as far as
+possible on foot, and to this end he set out from London with about
+£50 only in his pocket. He reached Yakutsk, where he met with Captain
+Billings, and with him was hoping to proceed to America, when, by order
+of the Russian Court, Ledyard was arrested on suspicion of being a
+French spy, and was taken off to Moscow.
+
+Another journey across Northern Asia was made after the time of
+Billings by Peter Dobell, a counsellor of the Court of His Imperial
+Majesty the Emperor of Russia. Dobell landed in Kamchatka in 1812, and
+from thence proceeded overland to Europe.
+
+[2] Another journey from Okhotsk up the Lena to Irkutsk and Kiakhta,
+and then across Siberia to Europe, was made about 1820 by a merchant
+named Peter Gordon; but his notes are very short, and appear only in
+his “Fragment of a Tour through Persia.”
+
+[3] Professor Erman received the Patron’s gold medal of the Royal
+Geographical Society of London in 1844, for his scientific researches
+in physical geography, meteorology, and magnetism around the globe
+in 1828-30. His researches in Northern Asia were of especial value,
+particularly in Eastern Siberia and Kamchatka.
+
+[4] It was in one of these flat-bottomed boats that Mr. Hill descended
+the stream, in company with a Russian merchant, accomplishing the
+journey to Yakutsk in 21 days, with no worse mishaps by water than
+occasionally being driven on sand or mud banks, or into a forest of
+trees, all but submerged by the height of the spring floods.
+
+Captain Cochrane chose a more independent course. Being furnished with
+a Cossack, he drove from Irkutsk to the Lena, and, having procured
+an open canoe and two men, paddled down the stream. Proceeding day
+and night, they usually made from 100 to 120 miles a day, finding
+hospitable villages at intervals of from 15 to 18 miles, as far
+as Kirensk, and so arrived on the eighth day at Vitimsk. It was
+now late in the autumn, and the ice began to come down the river,
+which sometimes compelled the natives to strip, and, up to their
+waists in water, to track the boat, and this with the thermometer
+below freezing-point. At length the captain, in consequence of the
+difficulties of boating, was requested at one of the villages to
+proceed on horseback, which he did, and, being unable at the next
+station to get either horses or boat, he had to shoulder his knapsack
+and walk; and so, by means of walking, riding, and paddling, he reached
+Olekminsk. From thence to Yakutsk is about 400 miles, which, excepting
+the two last stages, the captain completed in a canoe, arriving on the
+6th October. The weather was cold, snow was falling, and on approaching
+Yakutsk the canoe was caught in the ice, so that he was compelled to
+make the remainder of his journey on foot.
+
+[5] The difference of latitude, as pointed out by Mr. Trelawney
+Saunders, between Verko (or upper) Lensk (54° 8′) and Kirensk (57° 47′)
+is only 3° 39′, or 219 geographical miles. The latter place is but
+little east of north from the former, so that the 500 miles must be
+mainly due to the windings of the stream.
+
+[6] In December, 1771, a party of Yakutes hunting on the Vilui,
+near its junction with the Lower Lena, discovered an unknown animal
+half-buried in the sand, but still retaining its flesh, covered with a
+thick skin. The carcase was too much decomposed to allow of more than
+the head and two feet being forwarded to Irkutsk; but they were seen by
+the great traveller and naturalist, Peter Simon Pallas, who pronounced
+the animal a rhinoceros, not particularly large of its kind, which
+might perchance have been born in Central Asia.
+
+In the year 1799 a bank of frozen earth near the mouth of the Lena
+broke away, and revealed to a Tunguse, named Schumachoff, the body of
+a mammoth. Hair, skin, flesh and all had been preserved by the frost;
+and seven years later Mr. Adams, of the Petersburg Academy, hearing of
+the discovery at Yakutsk, visited the spot. He found, however, that
+the greater part of the flesh had been eaten by wild animals and the
+dogs of the natives, though the eyes and brains remained. The entire
+carcase measured 9 ft. 4 in. high, and 16 ft. 4 in. from the point of
+the nose to the end of the tail, without including the tusks, which
+were 9 ft. 6 in. in length if measured along the curves. The two tusks
+weighed 360 lbs., and the head and tusks together 414 lbs. The skin was
+of such extraordinary weight that ten persons found great difficulty in
+carrying it. About 40 lbs. of hair, too, were collected, though much
+more of this was trodden into the sand by the feet of bears which had
+eaten the flesh. This skeleton is now in the Museum of the Academy at
+Petersburg.
+
+Again, in 1843, M. Middendorf found a mammoth on the Taz, between the
+Obi and the Yenesei, with some of the flesh in so perfect a condition
+that it was found possible to remove the ball of the eye, which is
+preserved in the Museum at Moscow.
+
+[7] It has been suggested that the abundant supplies of ivory which
+were at the command of the ancient Greek sculptors came by way of
+the Black Sea from the Siberian deposits. So far back as the time of
+Captain Billings, Martin Sauer, his secretary, tells us of one of the
+Arctic islands near the Siberian mainland, that “it is a mixture of
+sand and ice, so that when the thaw sets in and its banks begin to
+fall, many mammoth bones are found, and that all the isle is formed
+of the bones, of this extraordinary animal.” This account is to some
+extent corroborated by Figuier, who tells us that New Siberia and the
+Isle of Liakov are for the most part only an agglomeration of sand,
+ice, and elephants’ teeth; and at every tempest the sea casts ashore
+new quantities of mammoths’ tusks. Réclus speaks of an annual find of
+15 tons of mammoth ivory, representing about 200 mammoths; and, about
+1840, Middendorf estimated the number of mammoths discovered up to that
+time at 20,000.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+_YAKUTSK._
+
+ The province of Yakutsk.--Rivers.--Minerals.--The town of
+     Yakutsk.--Its temperature.--Inhabitants.--The
+     Yukaghirs.--The Yakutes.--Their dwellings.--Food.--Dress.--
+     Products.--Occupations.--Industries.--Language.--Religion.--Route
+     from Yakutsk to Okhotsk.--Reindeer riding.--Summer
+     journey.--Treatment of horses.
+
+
+The province of Yakutsk is the largest in Siberia, and covers an area
+of no less than a million and a half of square miles, and is therefore
+nearly as large as the whole of Europe, omitting Russia.[1] The total
+population of this enormous province is 235,000,--that is to say,
+it has about one-seventh part of an inhabitant to each square mile.
+The yearly number of marriages is 5,000, and the births 12,000. The
+Russian town population in 1876 numbered about 2,000, and the country
+population 5,000; of which there were hereditary nobles, 100; personal
+nobles, 450; ecclesiastical persons, 600; military, 1,700; and the
+rest, upwards of 220,000, were natives--that is to say, Tunguses,
+Yukaghirs, and Yakutes. The natives are divided into communities, under
+_golovahs_, or mayors, of their own race, who are, however, subject to
+the Russian authorities. The province is divided into five uyezds.
+
+The chief mineral product is gold, which has frequently to be procured
+from frozen ground. The valleys of the Vitim and Olekma especially are
+rich in this mineral. In the valley of the Vitim, about 200 versts
+from its mouth, are quarries of mica, from which the whole of Siberia
+was formerly supplied with a substitute for window-glass. Mr. Erman
+procured plates of brown mica from one to two feet square. As, however,
+I saw glass used everywhere, I presume that the demand for mica must
+have diminished greatly.
+
+In the forests of the Vitim and Olekma are caught the smallest sables,
+with the finest, blackest, and hence most valuable furs. The squirrels
+of the district are hunted only in winter, when they are sometimes
+black and sometimes bright grey, their fur in summer being red, the
+hair loose, and skin valueless. The black realize the highest price,
+and are frequently met with south of the river, while north of the Lena
+none but grey are captured. The hunters think that this difference
+depends upon the nature of the forest.[2]
+
+The town of Yakutsk, which the natives proudly call “the city of
+the Yakutes,” presents a curious medley of dwellings; for there are
+seen not only the Government buildings, and the wooden houses of
+the Russians, but also the less pretentious winter dwellings of the
+Yakutes, and even their summer yourts. Oxen here take the place of
+horses. Women and girls ride them astride; their sledges also are often
+drawn by them, the driver being mounted on one of the animals. The
+cathedral is built of stone, and dedicated to St. Nicolas; and there
+are in the town some half-dozen churches, in which certain parts of the
+service, if not the whole, are performed in the Yakute language. The
+chief ecclesiastic is Dionysius, Bishop of Yakutsk and Viluisk, who has
+in his hyperborean diocese 49 churches and chapels, and one monastery
+containing 13 monks.
+
+Yakutsk has the credit of being the coldest place upon the face of the
+earth. The mean temperature of the air is 18·5 Fahrenheit. A degree
+of cold takes place there every year between the 17th December and
+18th February, exceeding 58° below zero. During Mr. Erman’s stay the
+cold reached even 71·5 below zero. Mercury, therefore, is frozen at
+Yakutsk for one-sixth of the year. An exceedingly warm summer follows
+this cold winter, and continues from about the 12th May to the 17th
+September. The ground is then thawed three feet deep, and though the
+crops rest on perpetually frozen strata, yet they produce fifteen-fold
+on an average, and in particular places forty-fold.[3]
+
+Yakutsk has a population of 4,800, some of whom are political exiles,
+Scoptsi, etc., who live both here and in the villages along the
+river. It would require no great stretch of the imagination, however,
+to call all the Russian inhabitants exiles, for they are upwards of
+5,000 miles from Petersburg.[4] As we travelled on the Obi we had for
+fellow-passengers an official with four children and a woman, bound
+for Yakutsk; and when, outside Tomsk, we saw the party stowed into one
+tarantass, we pitied them in prospect of the remainder of their 3,000
+miles’ journey.
+
+The Russian population of the province is confined almost exclusively
+to the banks of the Upper Lena, Yakutsk, and its neighbourhood. The
+Tunguses are found at the extreme east and west of the province, and
+have been already spoken of in a previous chapter.
+
+Of another race, the Yukaghirs, it may suffice to say that they were
+computed, in 1876, at only 1,600 in number, and that very little is
+known of them. They roam over a tract on the shores of the Northern
+Ocean lying between the Yana and the Kolima. They were once powerful,
+and on the rivers Yana and Indigirka tumuli and ancient burial-places
+are pointed out, containing corpses armed with bows, arrows, and
+spears. With these, too, lies buried the magic drum, well known in
+Lapland. At one time there were more hearths of the Yukaghirs on the
+banks of the Kolima than stars in the sky--so their legend says. These
+people maintain themselves during the whole year on the reindeer they
+kill in spring and autumn. At such seasons the mosquitoes drive the
+tormented animals to take refuge in the rivers, and not until winter is
+coming do they return to the woods, the stags leading the way, followed
+by the hinds and their young. Posted under cover, the Yukaghirs
+discover the place where the herd will make the passage of a stream,
+and conceal their canoes under the banks till the animals take the
+water. Then they push out, and, having cut the helpless deer off from
+either shore, proceed to slaughter them, whilst swimming, with long
+spears, which they use with marvellous skill.
+
+The Yukaghirs are great smokers; their tobacco--the coarse species of
+the Ukraine--they mix with chips to make it go further; and in smoking
+not a whiff is allowed to escape into the air, but all is inhaled and
+swallowed, producing an effect somewhat similar to a mild dose of
+opium. Tobacco is considered their first and greatest luxury. Women
+and children all smoke, the latter learning to do so as soon as they
+are able to toddle. Any funds remaining after the supply of tobacco
+has been laid in are devoted to the purchase of brandy. A Yukaghir, it
+is said, never intoxicates himself alone, but calls upon his family to
+share the drink, even children in arms being supplied with a portion.
+
+In the centre of the Yakutsk province, occupying the valley of the
+Lena, roam the Yakutes, some of whom I met as far off as Nikolaefsk.
+They are of middle height, and of a light copper colour, with black
+hair, which the men cut close. The sharp lines of their faces express
+indolent and amiable gentleness rather than vigour and passion. They
+reminded me of North American Indians; and I agree with Erman, who says
+that their appearance is that of a people who have grown wild rather
+than of a thoroughly and originally rude race. Those I saw, however,
+having been long settled among the Russians, had perhaps become
+somewhat more polished than their wandering brethren. As a race they
+are good-tempered, orderly, hospitable, and capable of enduring great
+privation with patience; but in independence of character they contrast
+unfavourably with their Tunguse neighbours. Lay a finger in anger on
+one of the Tunguses, and nothing will induce him to forget the insult;
+whereas with the Yakutes, the more they are thrashed the better they
+work.[5]
+
+The winter dwellings of the people have doors of raw hides, and log or
+wicker walls calked with cow-dung, and flanked with banks of earth to
+the height of the windows. The latter are made of sheets of ice, kept
+in their place from the outside by a slanting pole, the lower end of
+which is fixed in the ground. They are rendered air-tight by pouring
+on water, which quickly freezes round the edges; and the fact that it
+takes a long time to melt these blocks of ice thus fixed is highly
+suggestive of what the temperature must be, both without and within.
+The flat roof is covered with earth, and over the door, facing the
+east, the boards project, making a covered place in front, like the
+natives’ houses in the Caucasus. Under the same roof are the winter
+shelters for the cows and for the people, the former being the larger.
+The fireplace consists of a wicker frame plastered over with clay,
+room being left for a man to pass between the fireplace and the wall.
+The hearth is made of beaten earth, and on it there is at all times a
+blazing fire, and logs of larch-wood throw up showers of sparks to the
+roof. Young calves, like children, are often brought into the house to
+the fire, whilst their mothers cast a contented look through the open
+door at the back of the fireplace. Behind the fireplace, too, are the
+sleeping-places of the people, which in the poorer dwellings consist
+only of a continuation of the straw laid in the cow-house.
+
+In the winter they have but about five hours of daylight, which
+penetrates as best it can through the icy windows; and in the evening
+all the party sit round the fire on low stools, men and women smoking.
+The summer yourts of these people are formed of poles about 20 feet
+long, which are united at the top into a roomy cone, covered with
+pieces of bright yellow and perfectly flexible birch bark, which are
+not merely joined together, but are also handsomely worked along the
+seams with horsehair thread.
+
+The houses are not overstocked with furniture, and the chief cooking
+utensil is a large iron pot. At the time of the invasion of the
+Russians, this article was deemed such a treasure that the price asked
+for a pot was as many sable-skins as would fill it. They use also
+in winter a bowl-shaped frame of wicker-work, plastered with frozen
+cow-dung, in which they pound their porridge. With regard to their
+food, the Yakutes, if they have their choice, love to eat horse-flesh;
+and their adage says that to eat much meat, and grow fat upon it, is
+the highest destiny of man. They are the greatest gluttons. So far back
+as the days of Strahlenberg, it was said that four Yakutes would eat
+a horse. They rarely kill their oxen for food; and at a wedding, the
+favourite dish served up by the bride to her future lord is a boiled
+horse’s head, with horse-flesh sausages. When, however, horse-flesh
+or beef is wanting, they are not at all nice as to what they consume,
+for they eat the animals they take for fur, and woe to the unfortunate
+horse that becomes seriously injured in travel! It is killed and eaten
+then and there, the men taking off their girdles to give fair play to
+their stomachs, which swell after the fashion of a boa-constrictor.
+Thus earnestly do they aspire to their notion of the highest destiny
+of man! Milk is in general request among them, whether from cows or
+mares; and when they are in the neighbourhood of the Russians, and can
+get flour, they do so; but far away in the forests they make a sort of
+porridge or bread, not exactly of sawdust, but of the under bark of the
+spruce, fir, and larch, which they cut in small pieces, or pound in a
+mortar, mixing it with milk, or with dried fish, or boiling it with
+glutinous tops of the young sprouts. In spring, when the sap is rising,
+they gather their bark harvest. They make also fermented beverages
+of milk; and in the height of summer, when the mares foal, an orgie
+is held, at which the men drain enormous bowls of this intoxicating
+liquor; whilst the women, denied the privilege of intoxication, solace
+themselves by getting as near to it as they can by smoking tobacco.
+The distillation of sour milk is also practised, producing a coarse
+spirit known as _arigui_. They devour likewise enormous quantities of
+melted butter. This also can be prepared in such a way as to cause
+intoxication when taken in sufficient quantities.
+
+The dress of the Yakutes resembles in its main features that of
+the other natives of Siberia, save, perhaps, that they are fonder
+of ornaments. Both sexes riding a good deal on oxen and horses,
+a perpendicular slit is made up the back from the bottom of the
+_sanayakh_, or upper garment, in order to render the wearer comfortable
+in the saddle, and some of the women add behind them a cushion or
+pad, to save them from the rough motion of the animals. During the
+milder part of the year a robe, made of very pliable leather, stained
+yellow, is worn, which indoors is frequently laid aside, and males and
+females sit by the fire, leaving the upper part of the body naked. I
+bought a pair of women’s Yakute boots of this leather. They fit
+tight to the leg, and have at the top a flap of black velvet with red
+cloth trimming, which can be turned down and exposed for show in fair
+weather, or turned up, bringing the boots to the thighs. On each boot
+are two broad leather thongs, five or six feet long, to wind round the
+leg. Waterproof boots are here made, called by the Russians _torbasis_.
+These are cut from horse-hide, steeped in sour milk, then smoked, and
+finally rubbed well with fat and fine soot. They last exceedingly well,
+and are an inestimable comfort to the wearer, enabling him to tramp
+through snow, water, and mud without inconvenience.
+
+[Illustration: TUNGUSE GIRLS IN WINTER COSTUME.]
+
+The Yakute women are clever in making up fur garments. When visiting a
+Yakute family, I was looking about for a souvenir, and could at first
+see nothing to buy. In the room hung a curious cradle, very nearly
+resembling a coal-scuttle, which, when travelling, they suspend at
+the side of a reindeer; but this was too large for me to bring away.
+At length the materfamilias drew out a box in which she kept her
+treasures. Among these were some large pieces of fur, each consisting
+of an immense number of the small pieces of white skin that are found
+under the squirrel’s neck. No piece was so large as the palm of the
+hand, and she had sewn them together with great industry. These I
+bought, much to the disgust of her daughter, for whom they were to have
+made a dandy garment. I purchased also of the old lady what I prized
+more, namely, an “_itti_,” or large cap, coming down with flaps at the
+ears. The crown is made of the skins of sables’ feet, and it has a
+border all round of the fur of sables’ tails. The sight of this, since
+my return, has often excited the admiration of my lady friends.
+
+The Yakutes who inhabit the inclement region adjacent to the Frozen
+Ocean have neither horses nor oxen, but breed large numbers of dogs,
+which draw them to and fro on their fishing excursions. Even those
+living on the 62nd parallel keep cattle under far greater difficulties
+than usual, for they have to make long journeys to collect hay, and do
+not always find enough. The cold prevents their breeding sheep, goats,
+or poultry. Nevertheless, cattle and hunting are their chief means of
+subsistence, for they do not in general cultivate the land, though in
+the gardens at Yakutsk are grown potatoes, cabbages, radishes, and
+turnips; gherkins, too, are reared in hot-beds.
+
+Some products of Yakutsk industry are purchased by the Russians,
+particularly floor-cloths of white and coloured felts, which are cut
+in strips and sewed together like mosaic. From the earliest times they
+have been able to procure and work for themselves metals.[6]
+
+The language of the Yakutes, which is largely spoken by the Russians
+who live among them, is one of the principal means by which we are
+led to assume their Turkish origin, for Latham says their speech is
+intelligible at Constantinople, and their traditions (for literature
+they have none) bespeak a southern origin.
+
+Here are some Yakute words compared with Turkish:--
+
+  English.      Yakute.        Turk.
+
+  Yes        _Sittee_       Evet
+  No         _Socht_        Yokh
+  Well       _Outchigey_    Peky, Aee
+  Bad        _Thoosahane_   Fené
+  Bread      _Astobitt_     Ek-mek
+  Water      _On_           Soo
+  Beef       _Augauss_      Seyir
+  Horse      _Att_          Att
+  Road       _Coll_         Yol
+  Man        _Kissi_        Kissi, Adami
+  Woman      _Jaiktorr_     Aorat
+  Tree       _Marss_
+  Rain       _Samirr_       Yaghmoor
+  One        _Bare_         Bir
+  Two        _Akee_         Eekee
+  Three      _Oose_         Ootch
+  Four       _Terte_        Dort
+  Five       _Baiss_        Besh
+  Six        _Alta_         Altee
+  Seven      _Sett_         Yedee
+  Eight      _Agaouss_      Antuz
+  Nine       _Togouss_      Tokuz
+  Ten        _Owni_         On
+  Eleven     _Onordoubis_   On-bir
+  Twelve     _Okorduchi_    On-eekee
+  Twenty     _Surbia_       Igirme
+
+Strahlenberg calls these people Pagans, but the latest writers call
+them Christians; and the method of their conversion was, it is said,
+extraordinary, for the Russian priests not making much headway against
+their superstitions, an ukase was one day issued setting forth that
+the good and loyal nation of the Yakutes were thought worthy to enter,
+and were consequently admitted into, the Russian Church, to become a
+part of the Tsar’s Christian family, and entitled to all the privileges
+of the rest of his children. Such was the tenor of this strange
+proclamation, and success attended the measure. The new Christians
+showed perfect sincerity in the adoption of their novel faith, and
+the Russian priests have established their sway over the Yakute race,
+though amongst the outlying portion a lingering belief in Shamanism
+still survives, of which travellers from Yakutsk to Okhotsk have been
+made aware by their Yakute guides leaving them awhile in foggy weather,
+and stealing off into the forest to perform certain mysterious rites.
+
+The distance from Yakutsk to Okhotsk is 800 miles and the journey,
+whether undertaken in summer or winter, is one of the severest. The map
+gives one the idea that it might almost be accomplished by ascending
+the river Aldan and one of its affluents to the Stanovoi mountains. The
+usual plan, however, is to leave Yakutsk on horseback, with all the
+luggage on pack-saddles. Some estimate may be formed of the traffic
+once passing on this route from the fact that there were formerly
+employed in it from 20,000 to 30,000 horses. The postal service is
+still continued between Irkutsk and the Sea of Okhotsk; but there is no
+telegraph; hence the fact of Professor Nordenskiöld having been frozen
+in the ice on the north-east coast of Siberia was brought a long way by
+courier before it could be made known by telegram to Europe.
+
+One of the difficulties of the winter journey is the insufficient
+sleeping accommodation on the route. The houses, when they exist, are
+very bad, and when they fail, travellers sleep in a tent, or else
+upon furs and wraps in the open air. They usually lie, however, by
+a roaring fire, and so roast on one side whilst they freeze on the
+other--changing their position when need requires.
+
+After proceeding for some distance the traveller has to exchange
+his horse for a novel kind of steed--a reindeer, on which the mere
+gaining of one’s seat, to say nothing of keeping it, is by no means
+so easy as might be supposed.[7] Having gained his reindeer seat,
+the English traveller may keep it--if he can. He will most likely
+fall off half-a-dozen times in the first quarter of an hour, until he
+discovers that he must poise himself in such a manner that his body
+may continually, and with ease, lend itself to a swinging motion.[8]
+There is a second lesson to be learned by the uninitiated, which is
+usually imparted in a very impressive manner; for should the cavalier
+attempt to hold with the knees, and the cushion consequently slip back,
+the moment the weight is felt on the animal’s back, he bends under his
+haunches and lets the rider slip to the ground, and that perhaps in
+ice, snow, or a pool of water.
+
+As the traveller approaches Okhotsk he has again to change his mode of
+conveyance, to be drawn this time by dogs. All three methods of travel
+have their delights on this lonely journey, the tedium of which is
+sometimes relieved by an extemporary hunting scene.[9]
+
+The difficulties of the summer journey are somewhat different in
+character. A large part of the way lies over swampy ground, on which
+the causeways are not kept in repair, and where the horses flounder in
+mud and water, into which they occasionally pitch the rider. It is no
+uncommon thing for horses to die under the fatigues of the way. The
+Yakutes, moreover, have a cruel fashion of giving their horses little
+food whilst journeying. A similar custom obtains farther east, among
+the Gilyaks, where I found that, though they gave a dog two pieces
+of fish daily when at home, yet, when travelling, they gave him only
+one, because the dogs immediately after eating are always lazy and
+feeble.[10]
+
+These, then, are some of the difficulties of the old route, from
+Irkutsk to the Pacific, which happily it did not fall to my lot to be
+obliged to encounter; but I crossed the Baikal instead, and, after
+making a _détour_ to the Chinese frontier, continued across the Buriat
+steppe to the Amur.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the west by
+the Yeneseisk, and on the east by the Sea-coast provinces; whilst on
+its south lie the three provinces of Irkutsk, Trans-Baikal, and the
+Amur. The northern and western portions of the province are flat, but
+towards the south and south-east are the Yablonoi and Stanovoi mountain
+ranges, continuations, in a north-easterly direction, of the mighty
+Altai chain. The great river of the province is the Lena, whose waters
+are drained from an area of 800,000 square miles. From the slopes on
+the western side of Baikal its upper portion runs in a north-easterly
+direction as far as Yakutsk, after which the Lower Lena runs due north
+to the Arctic Ocean. The total length of the river is about 2,500
+miles, with a fall of 3,000 feet. East of the Lower Lena are the
+rivers Yana, Indigirka, and Kolima, all of which are navigable and
+of considerable size, though small by comparison with their gigantic
+sister.
+
+[2] There are, says M. Réclus, nearly 50 species of fur animals, and
+millions of specimens killed during the hunting season. The annual
+export of furs from Siberia, not including those taken from sea
+animals, represents a gross value of nearly half a million sterling.
+The fur which regulates the price of all others is that of the sable,
+which is worth at least from 16_s._ to £1, and sometimes commands, even
+in Siberia, as much as £6 a skin. Only the back of the animal is used
+for the best garments, one of which may contain 80 skins, and rise
+to the value of nearly £500. The fur of the black fox is still more
+appreciated, and a single skin sometimes fetches £30. Squirrel skins by
+themselves constitute about a third of the Siberian revenue from furs;
+ten, twelve, and even fifteen millions of these animals being killed
+during their migrations in a single year. China receives a considerable
+number of these skins at Kiakhta, but more find their way to Europe.
+The furs brought to the fair of Irbit in the Urals in 1876 were as
+follows:--
+
+  Grey squirrels              5,000,000 skins
+  Ermines                       215,000   ”
+  Hares                         300,000   ”
+  Foxes                          82,000   ”
+  Martens of various kinds      750,000   ”
+  Sables                         12,000   ”
+  Others                        200,000   ”
+
+[3] It is well known that in the northern parts of Siberia the ground
+is always frost-bound, but to what depth is not so easily determined.
+During the stay, however, of Mr. Erman at Yakutsk it happened that a
+resident was digging a well, down which the man of science went, and
+pronounced that he found the soil frozen to a depth of 50 feet below
+the surface. So accustomed, however, do the natives become to the
+cold, that with the thermometer at unheard-of degrees below freezing
+point, the Yakute women, with bare arms, stand in the open-air markets,
+chattering and joking as pleasantly as if in genial spring. Inside
+their houses, in the heated part of the rooms, they get the temperature
+up to 65° or 75°; but one day, when the thermometer stood at 9°, Mr.
+Erman found the children of both sexes running about quite naked, not
+only in the house, but even in the open air. In fact, the great cold is
+not thought a grievance in Siberia, for a man clothed in furs may sleep
+at night in an open sledge when the mercury freezes in the thermometer;
+and, wrapped up in his pelisse, he can lie without inconvenience on the
+snow under a thin tent when the temperature of the air is 30° below
+zero.
+
+[4] I was told by a legal authority that some of the political exiles
+are sent to the province of Yakutsk, but, after the figures just
+quoted, it would seem that their number cannot be very large; of
+hereditary nobles in the province there were said to be, in 1876, only
+100, and of personal nobles only 450. If, then, there be deducted from
+these the Governor and his staff, military officers, and tchinovniks of
+all grades, there would not be left a large margin for the class from
+which political exiles are thought to come, supposing, that is, that
+they are included in this return.
+
+[5] Strahlenberg divides them into 10 tribes, and Syboreen’s Almanack
+for 1876 gives their number at 210,000. They belong to the great Turk
+family, and hence their Siberian locality is remarkable, because the
+Turks have ever been the people to displace others, whereas the Yakutes
+have been themselves displaced, and driven into this inhospitable
+climate, it is supposed, by the stronger Buriats.
+
+[6] The iron ore of the Vilui was smelted by the Yakutes long before
+the advent of the Russians, and the other tribes got from them iron
+axes, awls, and tools for stripping and dressing hides. The Yakutes
+also make copper ornaments for clothes and harness, and the metal
+plates which they sew on their girdles. Even now, although they use
+European guns, they still make for themselves the great knife, or
+dagger, which is worn at the waist. The Yakutsk steel is more flexible
+than the Russian, and yet blades made of it will cut copper or pewter
+as easily as European blades.
+
+[7] To get on the animal’s _back_, as one would mount a donkey, would
+probably cripple the deer for life. The saddle is therefore placed on
+its shoulder close to the neck, and to mount, the rider, holding the
+bridle, stands at the right side of the animal, with his face turned
+forwards. He then raises his left foot to the saddle, which he never
+touches with his hands, and springing with the right leg, and aided
+also by a pole, which he holds in his right hand, he gains his seat.
+The native girls and women are as expert in this jumping as the men,
+and rarely want assistance in mounting.
+
+[8] The practised reindeer riders acquire the habit of striking
+gently with the heel, alternately right and left, at every step, just
+behind the animal’s shoulders. This is done, not for the purpose of
+stimulating the deer, but because the motion described is the surest
+means of maintaining equilibrium. The staff, too, with which the rider
+mounts is carried in his hand, and is used for maintaining an equipoise
+in riding; but any attempt of the rider, in the first critical moment,
+to support himself by resting the staff on the ground, is sure to end
+in his being unseated.
+
+[9] Mr. Erman describes the killing, during his journey, of a wild
+sheep, and the joy of the Yakutes at the prospect of getting fresh
+meat for supper. One of them cried out characteristically, “I will
+stay awake the whole night, and eat till we set out.” Whilst the
+carcase was being prepared, every one cut for himself some thin wooden
+skewers, on which he spitted a row of little bits of meat. These were
+only appetizers, to be followed by large pieces boiled in the pot. The
+hunter, however, who had killed the sheep claimed as his perquisite the
+animal’s head; the brains, as a special delicacy, he sucked out raw,
+and cut out the eyes to be dressed for his own exclusive benefit.
+
+[10] It does not appear that the Yakutes are otherwise cruel to their
+horses, for Erman relates that, on going up to a horse that had carried
+him many miles, to pat his neck by way of saying adieu, the Yakutes
+came up and embraced the other horses, putting their arms round their
+necks and hugging them like children. Mr. Hill, too, discovered in a
+very practical way the regard of the Yakutes for their horses, when,
+food having run short, and after a dinner of only cranberries and nuts,
+he proposed that one of the animals should be killed and eaten, the
+Yakutes replied that they never killed one of their horses until they
+had passed five whole days together without any sort of food. It would
+be a shame, they said, that while they had tea and a morsel of sugar,
+and the prospect before them of getting other food, one of the poor
+creatures should be slain. Mr. Hill, therefore, and his merchant friend
+had to take their guns and hunt for game, with a keenness which they
+had never known before.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+_ACROSS LAKE BAIKAL TO TROITZKOSAVSK._
+
+ Leaving Irkutsk.--The Angara.--Approach to the Baikal.--Its shores and
+     fish.--Steaming across.--Seizing post-horses.--Arrival at Verchne
+     Udinsk.--Smuggling at the prison.--Arrival at Selenginsk.--English
+     mission to Buriats.--English graves.--Old scholars.--Story of the
+     mission.--Journey to Troitzkosavsk.
+
+
+We left Irkutsk on Thursday, July 10th, after a stay that could hardly
+be called enjoyable, though amid the confusion we met with much more
+consideration than could have been expected. For the first night we
+slept, as already stated, in our tarantass, and I took my morning bath
+in the pantry. What a treat, too, was that bath, deliciously cold from
+the Angara, to a man who had not taken his clothes off for more than
+a week! During our stay we made the acquaintance of several officers,
+of whom there is no lack at Irkutsk, as there are usually in barracks
+about 2,000 troops. It was very difficult to procure provisions. On
+sending out on the morning of our departure, all the white bread
+that could be found was one penny loaf, and that somewhat stale. It
+seemed, therefore, that I should have to come down to rye bread; but
+some pancakes were made for me, the difficulty was thus surmounted,
+and by two o’clock we had fairly begun our 300 miles to Kiakhta. Our
+baggage and remaining books were still too heavy to be taken on the
+same vehicle, and we therefore stowed away ourselves and our personal
+effects in the tarantass, and the boxes followed in a post-conveyance,
+out of which they were changed at every station. We wished to make only
+40 miles before night, to Lake Baikal, and then wait till morning at
+Listvenitznaya for the steamer.
+
+We had not proceeded far before we drove along the banks of the Angara,
+which is, in some respects, the most remarkable river in Siberia.
+There are scores of streams and rivulets running into Lake Baikal, of
+which the more important are the Upper Angara, the Barguzin, and the
+Selenga; but the Angara is the only one that runs out, and it does so
+with such impetuosity that the rapid by which the water leaves the
+lake never freezes even with the temperature of the air at 24° below
+zero; and though the ice is six feet thick on the lake, yet, all the
+winter through, ducks float on the bosom of the rapid. I have heard it
+suggested that there may be hot-springs just there; but whether this
+is so or not, the waters of the lake and the Angara are particularly
+cold.[1]
+
+Shortly after leaving Irkutsk the road enters a wooded part of the
+Angara valley, and as the road winds along it, many points are passed
+presenting magnificent views. In some parts enormous sandstone cliffs
+arise out of the water, crowned with dark pines and cedars; in others
+the thick forest descends to the river’s brink, and the broad sheet
+of water is seen rushing madly onwards. Afterwards the valley becomes
+more rugged, with deep ravines running up into the mountains. Beyond
+this the road has been cut along the edge of a cliff at a considerable
+height above the river, and, about five miles before reaching the
+Baikal, a scene is presented that may well cause the traveller to stop.
+The valley becomes wider, and the mountains rise abruptly to a much
+greater elevation. The Angara is here more than a mile in width, and
+this great body of water is seen rolling down a steep incline, forming
+a rapid nearly four miles in length. At the head of this, and in the
+centre of the stream, a great mass of rock rises, called the _Shaman
+Kamen_, or “Priest,” or “spirit’s stone,” held sacred by the followers
+of Shamanism, and not to be passed by them without an act of devotion.
+When Shamanism prevailed in this neighbourhood, human sacrifices were
+made at the sacred rock, the victim with his hands tied being tossed
+into the torrent below. Beyond is the broad expanse of the Baikal,
+extending about 50 miles, to where its waves wash the foot of Amar
+Daban, whose summit, even in June, is usually covered with snow. The
+mighty torrent throwing up its jets of spray, the rugged rocks with
+their fringes of pendent birch overtopped by lofty pines, and the
+colouring on the mountains, produce a picture of extraordinary beauty
+and grandeur. A few miles further, and the Baikal is seen spreading out
+like a sea, and its waves are heard beating on the rocky shore.
+
+The storms on the lake are very severe. They say, at Irkutsk, it is
+only upon the Baikal in the autumn that a man learns to pray from his
+heart. The most dangerous wind is the north-west. It is called the
+mountain wind, whilst that from the south-west is called the “_deep_
+sea-breeze.” Formerly, in crossing, it was no uncommon occurrence
+for a boat or barge to be detained three weeks on a voyage of 40
+miles, without being able to land on either shore. This induced an
+enterprising merchant to have a hull built on the lake, and engines,
+boiler, and machinery brought 4,000 miles overland from Petersburg;
+and when the new vessel steamed across in a gale, both Siberians and
+Mongols looked on with not a little astonishment.[2]
+
+The fish of the Baikal are abundant, and are caught in variety, such as
+the _omullé_, somewhat like the herring; the _suig_, which resembles
+but is smaller than the sturgeon; the _askina_, the pike, the carp, the
+_lavaret_, and a white fish called the _tymain_. Travellers also tell
+of a remarkable fish called the _golomain_, which is only seen when
+thrown on shore during a violent tempest, and is of so oily a nature
+that it melts in the sun, or on the approach of heat, leaving only its
+skeleton and skin. It is a remarkable fact also that the seal of the
+ocean is found in the lake. About 2,000 are killed yearly.
+
+The natives call the lake _Svyatoe More_, the “Holy Sea,” and aver
+that no one was ever lost in its waters; for when a person is drowned
+therein, the waves invariably throw his body on shore. It must be a
+pleasant sensation to cross this lake in winter. The ice is as clear,
+transparent, and as smooth as glass, so that travellers describe
+the difficulty of realizing that they are not gliding on water. The
+journey across is made in a remarkably short time. Mr. Erman travelled
+thus 7 German miles (or 27 English) in 2¼ hours, which for horse
+travelling must be allowed to be extraordinary. Formerly there was a
+winter station on the ice, half-way across, for changing horses; but
+as the ice on one occasion gave way, and allowed the whole concern to
+disappear, they now cross the lake at a single stage. There is a road
+round the south end of the lake, but in summer the crossing by steamer
+is usually preferred.
+
+We reached the station about six or eight hours after leaving Irkutsk,
+and, passing the night at a rough hotel, next morning got our tarantass
+on board, among half-a-dozen others, and steamed across. The steamer
+was called the _General Korsakoff_. It made a loud grunting, and out of
+its tall chimney emitted a cloud of sparks like the tail of a comet.
+I went below to see the engines, and found them of the most primitive
+kind--a huge boiler simply laid in a wooden hull. I offered for sale on
+board some of my books, and gave others away. This soon got me friends,
+and the engineer honoured me by playing a tune on his concertina. I
+went also into the captain’s cabin, and he was glad to buy some New
+Testaments. It was so chilly, however, on deck that I put on my ulster,
+and stowed myself away in the tarantass; after doing which, on the 11th
+of July, it was not difficult to believe what I had heard, that pigeons
+flying across the lake in winter sometimes drop dead from cold.
+
+As we drew near to the shore, we had the enjoyment of a mild piece of
+something like revenge. I have already observed that the traveller who
+has a crown podorojna takes precedence; but if two travellers come
+to a station, _both_ having crown podorojnas, he who arrives first
+takes the horses. Moreover, “the rule of the road” is that one set of
+post-horses must not outstrip one that has started before; which rule,
+however, an extra tip to the yemstchik will sometimes evade. Now, as
+we came towards Irkutsk, we had been outstripped by a military officer
+travelling with his wife, who took the fresh horses we should have had;
+so that, when we arrived, it was feared we should be without. Whereupon
+the officer’s wife, addressing me in French, asked half-triumphantly,
+and half in a mischievous joke, whether I did not find myself “without
+horses”? She happened, however, to be wrong. We obtained horses, and,
+at night, overtook our friends, broken down, with their tarantass
+undergoing repairs at another station. We therefore got ahead, till, on
+the Baikal, they overtook us again. We saw at a glance that there would
+be a rush for horses, and, therefore, immediately the boat touched, I
+sprang ashore, presented to the post-master my podorojna, and secured
+my team; whereas the officer, not knowing that I had more than an
+ordinary civilian’s paper, or relying, perhaps, upon the power of his
+crown podorojna, was not so quick, and failed to get his steeds; and as
+we rolled away we heard him storming at the post-master for allowing us
+to have them before he had been served.
+
+We drove for some distance on an elevated plateau beside the eastern
+shore of the lake, from which we got many good views of its waters,
+and where we observed at the roadside red Turk’s-head lilies, similar
+to but smaller than those seen in English gardens, and yellow lilies.
+There were likewise in the neighbourhood abundance of strawberries,
+raspberries, and whortleberries. Among the trees were cedars up to 120
+feet in height; also the balsam poplar, which here attains a growth
+sufficiently large to allow the natives of the coast to make their
+canoes of a single log; likewise the cherry-tree and the Siberian
+apple. A black and white jackdaw, as my companion called it, made its
+appearance; and the birds of prey appeared more numerous, as they well
+might be in the vicinity of a larger animal population; for in these
+Baikal forests are found martens, squirrels, foxes, wolves, the lynx,
+the elk, the wild boar, and the bear--the last feeding on berries in
+summer, and on cedar-nuts raked up from beneath the snow in winter.
+
+Having taken the lead on the road from the Baikal, we were anxious to
+keep it, though things looked threatening on arriving at the first
+station, where the post-master said there were no horses. We brought
+our crown podorojna to bear, and then the letter of the Minister at
+Petersburg, but to no purpose. There were no post-horses, he said,
+though there was a man standing near who would lend us private horses
+at double fares. To this we should have had to agree, but we pulled
+out lastly our _blanco_ letter, and this gained the day; for the
+post-master, on seeing that, said to the would-be extortioner, “You
+must let them have the horses”; and so on we trotted through a country
+more hilly than anything we had passed, till at six o’clock we arrived
+at Verchne Udinsk. This place might very well be called “the Amur and
+China Junction,” for to turn to the left brings the traveller to the
+Pacific, and to turn to the right leads to Peking.
+
+It was now Saturday afternoon, and we were anxious to get on, if
+possible, a few stations further, to Selenginsk, which was the scene
+of the labours of some English missionaries, and there to spend the
+Sunday to inquire about their work. The old difficulty of horses,
+however, cropped up, for they could let us have none on the instant,
+and every one was on tiptoe expecting the passing through of the
+Governor-General, Baron Friedrichs. I have already mentioned that his
+Excellency was at some mineral springs on the Mongolian frontier, and,
+having heard of the fire at Irkutsk, he was now returning. Everything,
+therefore, had to be in readiness. The post-house was swept and
+garnished, and we were requested not to go into the large guest-room,
+where the tables and chairs were arranged for his Excellency’s visit.
+Horses, however, were promised quickly as a favour, and meanwhile we
+strolled into the town.
+
+Verchne--that is, Upper--Udinsk is the capital of an uyezd, and has a
+population of 3,500. It is a clean little town, and, upon entering the
+market square, it was easy to see that we were approaching the borders
+of the Celestial Empire--for here was John Chinaman, with open shop,
+standing behind the counter selling tea. We found also, to our great
+satisfaction, a baker’s shop, where was not only white bread, but all
+manner of bake-meats, of which we proceeded to make havoc then and
+there. The white bread was 75 per cent. dearer than at Tobolsk, but I
+was only too thankful to get a store at any price, my pancakes being
+all but gone. For lemonade they asked 6_s._ a bottle, or 6_d._ a glass.
+It was like watered lemon syrup. Fresh butter cost a rouble a pound,
+and was obtained with difficulty.
+
+There is a prison in Verchne Udinsk, which we passed at the side
+of the road, and the prisoners were looking from the windows. Here
+had recently occurred an incident illustrative of Goryantchikoff’s
+statement, in his “Buried Alive,” that some of his fellow-prisoners
+were spirit-dealers, and frequently smuggled liquor into the prison
+in the entrails of cows or oxen. For this purpose the entrails were
+washed and filled with water, to keep them damp and ready to receive
+the liquor. When filled, they were wound by the smuggler round his body
+and thighs, and so brought into the prison. On the afternoon of our
+arrival, a drunken woman had been detected thus carrying in _vodka_. We
+did not visit the building, but left with the Ispravnik half-a-dozen
+New Testaments, and the same number or Gospels for Tatars, and of
+Scripture portions in Mongolian. The present was not unappreciated,
+for the Ispravnik, learning that I was going to the far east, gave me
+an introduction to his son-in-law at Blagovestchensk, which afterwards
+proved useful.
+
+At last we started, and trotted on through the night to Selenginsk,
+and spent there the remainder of the following day. We called on the
+Ispravnik, who, with his wife, received us politely; and the latter,
+finding that we had good books to dispose of, wished to purchase some,
+which I allowed her to do to the value of three roubles. We also asked
+the Ispravnik’s acceptance of some portions of Scripture in Mongolian
+for distribution among the surrounding Buriats. Then conversation
+followed about the English mission, of which Selenginsk was for 13
+years the head-quarters, but ceased to be so about 40 years ago.
+
+The Ispravnik had nothing to say of the missionaries but what was good
+and kind,--a repetition of what I had heard elsewhere. A house, he told
+us, was still standing on the spot where the missionaries lived, and
+he furnished us with the names of persons who could give us further
+information. We went, therefore, direct to the site of the mission
+station, where we found some out-buildings, very much like those of an
+English farmyard, and strongly suggestive of home. There was also a
+nice house, which had been built near the spot on which formerly stood
+the one inhabited by the Englishmen. The garden remained, and in it we
+were taken to a walled enclosure--a little graveyard--in which were
+five graves: those of Mrs. Yule, Mrs. Stallybrass, and three children.
+The place had been recently renovated, at the expense of a missionary
+in China, and we were pleased to see the resting-place of our
+compatriots looking so neat and orderly. The garden commanded a pretty
+view of the valley of the Selenga, and there was pointed out across
+the river the site on which the town stood in the early part of the
+century, till, being destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt on the opposite
+side. The lady who occupied the house told us that now and then a
+traveller turns aside to see the spot, and that the ignorant people say
+that the English people come out of their graves at night--a report she
+is at no pains to contradict, on the plea that, as the house is in a
+lonely position, the idea may conduce to protect her from thieves.
+
+After having been shown what there was of interest about the place,
+we called on an old man--a Russian--named Ivlampi Melnikoff, who,
+in his boyhood, had attended the mission school. When he heard that
+one of the missionaries, Mr. Stallybrass, was still living, and that
+I had seen him just before leaving England, he seemed much pleased,
+and spoke with affection of his teachers. He had not opened a book
+for 40 years, and so had forgotten how to read, but he remembered,
+and inquired particularly for, some of the missionaries’ sons, and
+sent to them his respects. The old man had lost sight of his Buriat
+schoolfellows, and thought that not one of them became a Christian,
+though he afterwards remembered that one was baptized into the Russian
+Church. Besides this old Russian we saw the nephew of one who had been
+a pupil in the school, and heard of an old man living some 35 versts
+distant, still a Buriat, who, as a boy, had been a scholar. We had the
+same testimony from both witnesses, that has been repeated by several
+travellers, that the missionaries did not baptize a single convert.
+None of them, however, said what I did not know until I returned to
+England, and spoke to Mr. Stallybrass upon the subject, namely, that
+the missionaries were under agreement with the Russian Government _not_
+to baptize any converts.[3]
+
+We continued our journey from Selenginsk for twelve hours more, through
+a country which gave me my first experience of a Russian steppe, a
+tract of undulating land with a sandy soil, covered with a little grass
+and a reedy-looking herb, but suffering from a lack of humidity, as the
+tundra suffers from lack of warmth. Trees were visible only here and
+there, but water was abundant, sometimes in large lakes; so that the
+hilly roads, the expanse of water, and the treeless waste, reminded me
+sometimes of the scenery of our Wiltshire downs, and, in one or two
+places, of the English lakes. As we approached our destination the road
+became more and more sandy, and very heavy for the horses; but at last,
+on Monday, the 14th July, we reached Kiakhta.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] As we approached Telma my thermometer at noon in the shade stood
+at 85°, and when crossing a stream called the Ija, the temperature of
+the water was 70°; but coming on the same day to the Angara, nearly 100
+miles from Baikal, the temperature of the river was only 50°; and when
+crossing the Baikal itself, the atmosphere registered 45° and the water
+only 40°. The Angara is the last river in Siberia to close, which it
+does about New Year’s Day (sometimes not till the middle of January);
+and the first to open, namely, about the 11th April. The lake is 1,200
+feet above the sea level, and the current of the river is remarkably
+swift, as the traveller will infer should he overtake a barge being
+towed against the stream by perhaps 20 horses. Though the distance is
+only 40 miles from Irkutsk, a barge takes three days to be dragged up
+to the rapid, and then for the rapid itself it requires another day,
+even with double the number of horses. This refers, however, to a large
+_soudno_, or vessel, with a bluff bow and broad stern, which might
+almost as well sail sideways as speed ahead, and usually carries 600
+chests and 25,000 bricks of tea.
+
+[2] The basin of the lake is about 400 miles in length and 35 miles in
+width, covering an area of 14,000 square miles. It has a circumference
+of nearly 1,200 miles. This, therefore, is the _largest fresh-water
+lake_ in the Old World; and, next to the Caspian and the Aral, is the
+largest inland sheet of water in Asia. Several travellers have crossed
+the lake _en route_ from or to Irkutsk, but Mr. Atkinson did more. He
+spent several days exploring its coasts, and, turning to the east from
+Listvenitznaya, he found the shore became exceedingly abrupt for 20
+miles, with many striking scenes, in which waterfalls played a part.
+The north shore is the most lofty. In some parts the precipices rise
+900 feet, and, a little beyond the Arga, to 1,200 feet. Basaltic cliffs
+also appear rising from deep water to an elevation of 700 feet. A
+little more than a boat’s length from shore, soundings have been taken
+to the depth of 900 feet. Greater depths than this, however, have been
+reached. The captain of the steamer informed Mr. Atkinson that on one
+occasion he had run out 2,100 feet of line without finding bottom;
+and in 1872 soundings were taken at the south-west end, showing 3,600
+feet: hence the common saying that the Baikal has no bottom. The shore
+exhibits, besides the basalt just named, other unquestionable evidences
+of volcanic action, and in some of the ravines are great masses of
+lava. Hot mineral springs likewise exist in several parts of the
+surrounding mountain-chain.
+
+[3] The story of the mission seemed to be this:--At the beginning of
+the present century there were four parties of foreign Protestant
+missionaries working in the Russian dominions, namely, (1) the
+Presbyterians, in the south of European Russia; (2) the Moravians, on
+the Volga; (3) some Swiss missionaries from Basle, who took the place
+of the Presbyterians, and worked upon their ground; and (4) the London
+Missionary Society, which was allowed to send men to the Buriats in
+Siberia. Among the last company were Messrs. Stallybrass, Swan, and
+Yule, who saw at once that the first thing to be done was to translate
+the Scriptures. Mr. Stallybrass left England in 1817, and lived in
+Irkutsk for a year and a half to learn the Mongolian language. In due
+time the translation was commenced, from the original Hebrew and Greek,
+and with such success did the work go on that they actually printed
+the Old Testament in their Siberian wilderness at Verchne Udinsk,
+to which place the missionaries removed from Selenginsk, and where
+they remained till they were sent home in 1840. The New Testament was
+printed in London. Their work was, therefore, of a preparatory and
+fundamental, rather than an aggressive, character. Nevertheless, they
+had a school, numbering, sometimes, from 15 to 20 scholars; but there
+was found a special difficulty in inducing children to attend, for not
+only were their parents utterly ignorant of the value of education,
+but they wanted the children to help them tend their flocks, grazing,
+not on settled pasturage, but as they wandered over the vast extent
+of the Trans-Baikal and the Mongolian steppes. Hence the children
+were at school to-day and gone to-morrow; and even when parents could
+be induced to leave their children with the missionaries during
+their own absence with their flocks, these children had to be kept
+and fed as boarders, and even then the parents begrudged the loss of
+their services. The object, however, of the Englishmen began to be
+appreciated, and tokens of success appeared. Then came the difficulty
+which all along had loomed in the distance. The Russian Synod, in
+its jealousy for its own Church, had expressly stipulated that the
+missionaries should receive no converts by baptism, and this had been
+agreed to, and, of course, kept. But when certain of the Buriats showed
+signs of having received the truth, in the love of it, the missionaries
+found themselves in a dilemma. The Russians wished the converts to be
+handed over for baptism to their Church, and, on these terms, were
+willing that the English should stay and work as hard as they pleased;
+but this did not satisfy the men, nor the committee of the London
+Missionary Society, and neither party was disposed to give way. About
+this time, however, great political changes had taken place. Alexander
+I., who favoured Christian missions, had died, and was succeeded by
+the iron Nicolas, who does not seem to have been particularly opposed
+to missions; but the Synod was jealous of foreign interference, and
+an occasion was found for dismissing all foreign missionaries from
+the Russian dominions, under the pretext that the Synod wished to do
+all its own mission work for its own heathen. The Imperial ukase to
+this effect was issued in 1840, and thus a mission was stopped whose
+foundations were laid by the English, and which produced a translation
+of the whole Bible printed in Buriat Mongolian. It had taught some few
+scholars of great promise, one of whom, at least, named Shagder, it was
+known (and probably many more did so unknown), was afterwards baptized
+into the Russian Church. How far the Russian missionaries among this
+people owe any portion of their success to the foundation thus laid I
+cannot say. Of the Russian mission I shall speak hereafter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+_THE SIBERIAN FRONTIER AT KIAKHTA._
+
+ Hospitable reception.--History of Kiakhta.--Treaties between
+     Russians and Chinese.--Early trading.--Decline of commerce.--The
+     tea trade.--Troitzkosavsk church.--Miraculous ikons.--Kiakhta
+     church.--Russian churches in general.--Bells.--Valuable
+     ikons.--Climate of Kiakhta.--Drive to Ust-Keran.
+
+
+I have said in the previous chapter that we reached Kiakhta. It would
+have been more accurate to have said Troitzkosavsk, which is within
+sight of and may be called a suburb of Kiakhta, situated on the
+Siberian frontier. Here we were lodged, for by the terms of a treaty
+between Chinese and Russians, no officer or stranger may sleep in
+Kiakhta proper. On arriving, we learned, to our dismay, that there
+was no hotel or guest-house in either town. We therefore went to the
+office of the Ispravnik, and in his absence showed our documents,
+which served so far to establish our respectability, that we were told
+we might have accommodation at the police-station. For this offer of
+course we were grateful, but, before accepting it, we thought we would
+present some of our letters of introduction. One was addressed to Mr.
+Tokmakoff, a first-class merchant in the place; but he was away in
+Mongolia, and his wife and family were living at their summer house
+“in the country.” We had another letter, given me by Mr. Larsen, the
+telegraphist at Irkutsk, to Mr. Koecher, the principal of the _real_
+or commercial school, who lived in one of the best houses of the town,
+and who, upon our presenting the letter, immediately pressed us to take
+up our abode with him. We were only too thankful to do so, and, after a
+fortnight’s inconveniences in sleeping, to find ourselves in quarters
+with proper and comfortable beds. Our host was living bachelor fashion,
+and was expecting to leave shortly for Petersburg; his wife had already
+preceded him. He spared no pains to make us comfortable, and, being
+thus settled, we had time to look about the place, which, on leaving
+England, had been the utmost bound to which my travelling imagination
+had carried me. The Mohammedans say, “See Mecca and expire”; the
+Italians, “See Naples and die”; and in somewhat of the same spirit I
+had fixed upon Kiakhta as the _ultima thule_ of my Siberian wanderings:
+not that there is much that is remarkable in the physical aspect of the
+place, but from Kiakhta one walks out of Siberia into China and sees
+the blue hills of Mongolia. The town, moreover, has a history, and was
+the scene of a treaty between the two largest empires in the world.
+
+So far back as the 17th century, trade was carried on, though not
+protected by Government, between the Siberians and their southern
+neighbours the Chinese.[1]
+
+But in 1692 a treaty was made at Nertchinsk, opening the way to regular
+and permanent commerce between the two countries, though subject to
+certain vexatious forms and restrictions. Subsequently Peter the Great,
+seeing the advantage of this treaty, desired that the privilege of
+trading with China, then confined to individuals, should be extended
+to caravans; and, the Emperor approving, the right of trading thus was
+appropriated as a monopoly by the Russian Crown.
+
+So things went on till 1722, when, the Russians offending their
+celestial neighbours, the Chinese Emperor expelled all Muscovites from
+his dominions, and brought trading affairs to a standstill. Six years
+later the treaty of Kiakhta was concluded, which stipulated that a
+caravan of not more than 200 persons should visit Peking every three
+years, and that the subjects of each nation, though not allowed to
+cross the frontier with their wares, might dispose of them to each
+other at two places on the border--Kiakhta, and Tsurukhaitu on the
+Argun, about 60 miles from Nertchinsk. This led to the foundation of
+the town of Kiakhta; and as there were certain conditions in the treaty
+limiting the number of persons, and imposing various restrictions upon
+those who should live there, another town was built a mile off, and
+called Troitzkosavsk, in which these restrictions were evaded.[2]
+
+The traveller of to-day does not see Kiakhta as it was in palmy times,
+though a considerable trade is still carried on between China and
+Eastern Siberia, and large consignments are sent to Nijni Novgorod and
+Moscow. The tradition is still kept up that the sea passage injures
+the flavour of the herb, and that caravan tea is the best, which
+commands, accordingly, prices up to ten shillings per pound. I have
+heard quite recently of “yellow” tea, which even at Kiakhta costs this
+sum, and which, brought overland, would probably command in Petersburg
+16_s._ or 18_s._ per pound. One hears also in Russia of “blossom” tea,
+which consists of only the dried flowers of the tea plant, and of
+other choice growths, the best of which are not brought to England at
+all. There is one kind of yellow tea, I am told, costing as much as
+five guineas a pound. The Emperor of China is supposed to enjoy its
+monopoly. A friend of mine, who received a few pounds as a present,
+tells me she did not think it distinguishable from that sold at 5_s._ a
+pound. Blossom tea is well known throughout Russia, and is mixed in the
+proportion of two-ounces to one pound of ordinary tea.[3]
+
+In addition to ordinary and superior sorts, the Russians import,
+chiefly for consumption by the military and native populations, immense
+quantities of tea pressed into the form of tablets, or bricks, each
+of which weighs about 2 lbs. These bricks are made of tea-dust mixed
+with a common coarse sort made of twigs, stalks, and tea refuse, the
+whole being first submitted for a minute to the action of steam and
+then pressed into a mould. Some say that bullocks’ or other blood is
+also mixed with brick tea, but I have not heard this corroborated. The
+tea-dust used for brick tea costs in China about 5_d._ per pound, the
+manufacture about 1½_d._ more, and the article bears a handsome profit.
+In 1878 the Russian manufacturers in China were said to have realized
+a profit of 75 per cent. This they cannot do, however, all the year
+round, for the making of the bricks goes on only from the middle of
+June to the end of September, during which season they work at it night
+and day.
+
+Apart, however, from the trade which passes over the Siberian frontier,
+there is much in Kiakhta and Troitzkosavsk to interest the western
+traveller. Among other novelties are to be seen Mongolian cavalry
+dashing about the streets, the soldiers being known mainly by a piece
+of ribbon streaming from their hats. The united population of the two
+places amounts to nearly 5,000, who are supplied with provisions by
+both Russians and Chinese. There may be seen coming from their farms
+and gardens numbers of peasant wagons, as well as clumsy Mongolian
+carts, the latter on wheels without spokes, formed of large wooden
+discs, which oxen cause to wabble along. Common vegetables are to be
+had in abundance. A large square in the centre of Troitzkosavsk is used
+for a corn and hay market, and is provided in Russian fashion with a
+huge pair of scales sanctioned by the authorities. Here the vendors of
+agricultural and garden produce assemble, and generally manage to get
+rid of their stock and garden produce early in the day. Young chickens
+cost 4_d._ each, lemons in winter 1_s._ a-piece, and occasionally even
+double that price, and Cognac brandy 9_s._ per bottle. Troitzkosavsk
+is also supplied with excellent fish, but we found it difficult to get
+good fruit. Besides the market square at Troitzkosavsk, there are two
+public gardens at Kiakhta, and also a cemetery.
+
+We went to the small prison, and found it a poor affair. The
+police-master told us he had received a letter concerning our intended
+visit long before, and had been expecting us. Where the information
+came from he did not say; but it served to remind us again that, though
+more than 4,000 miles from the capital, we were not lost sight of.
+This was the last place at which I heard of our coming having been
+announced beforehand, though a general at Petersburg had told me that
+I might usually expect this; for how, said he, are the Governors to
+whom your letter is addressed to know that your document is not forged
+unless they are advised that a letter has been given you? and then, to
+illustrate his remark, he said that, on one occasion, a man, dressed
+like a gendarme, presented himself at Irkutsk with a forged letter and
+got a prisoner released.
+
+I may add to the foregoing that Kiakhta was the last, and almost the
+only, place other than Petersburg where symptoms of a disaffected or
+revolutionary spirit came under my notice; and this in the solitary
+instance, that when an educated man in the town was shown in an English
+newspaper a portrait of Vera Sassulitch, the would-be murderess of
+Trepoff, I heard that he admired and praised her. As for Nihilism, I
+heard, in crossing Russia, so little about it that I am ashamed to say
+I left the country with very vague ideas as to what it is. I am not
+sure that I know much about it now, but an Englishman who has spent
+a large portion of his life in Russia and Siberia tells me there are
+various kinds of Nihilists. The mildest type, if they can be called
+such, simply want free speech and a free press, as do, I am told, all
+the “Slavophils”; the next wish for a ministry responsible to the
+people; but both these classes (which are supposed to be numerous)
+think the time not yet come, and that they must wait for further
+enlightenment of the people. With this opinion my friend agreed,
+feeling sure that at present the educated Russian and the moujik would
+quarrel, he said, if one were dependent on the other. The third class
+are the “black” Nihilists, who want the dethronement of the reigning
+dynasty and a republic, and who are willing to adopt any means, even
+the most criminal, to gain their end.
+
+Of all this and its like I heard next to nothing after leaving
+Petersburg; there, however, great excitement prevailed. I arrived
+only a few days after one of the attempts on the late Emperor’s life,
+and a friend called to tell me they were at their wits’ end to know
+what to do. Turning back his coat collar, he showed me sewn thereon
+the certified badge of his calling, so placed that it might be ready
+to show the police, if required, at a moment’s notice. The English,
+he said, were strongly suspected, and he doubted whether he should be
+safe in affording me his usual protection and kindly services. He had
+told one of his Russian friends that I had arrived in the country for
+the purpose of distributing books and tracts, but the Russian did not
+believe that I could be come for such a charitable object, but thought
+I must be sent by the English Government. The rumours afloat respecting
+the English were both numerous and ridiculous. The authorities had not
+then succeeded in finding the press from which were issued the Nihilist
+placards and papers, and, as the ambassadors’ residences are privileged
+places, supposed to be closed against the police, it was affirmed that
+the secret press must be there. My friend told me he heard it said
+that “proclamations” against the Russian Government could be bought
+at the English Embassy for a rouble each. Another rumour said that
+the Russians were persuaded that the centre of the revolution was in
+the English Embassy, and that they had even thought of setting fire
+thereto, with the hope of securing, in the confusion, the revolutionary
+papers. I smiled on hearing this, and concluded that it could be
+only the most ignorant of the people who believed such puerilities,
+but on repeating it as a joke to a Russian fellow-traveller from
+Moscow, he said he quite believed that the forbidden press was in the
+Ambassador’s house, and that the revolutionists obtained their money
+from the English Government. I heard, too, in Petersburg that it was
+thought by the lower orders that the Nihilists obtained a large portion
+of their funds from the “International” in England.
+
+All this smoke and rumour, however, we left behind on quitting Moscow,
+and though we may perchance have been watched, I was never conscious
+of it. I mention this because as some were surprised at my going to
+Russia when in such a disturbed condition, so others may be curious
+to know how this disturbance affected me as a traveller; and though I
+am far from supposing that my very limited and isolated experience is
+worth much, or perhaps anything, in showing the political condition of
+Russia and Siberia at the time of my visit, yet I wish to convey the
+impression that Russian atrocities and inflamed horrors, as posted on
+placards and shouted by London newsboys, shrink into very much smaller
+dimensions when the scene of action is reached. Such at least has been
+my invariable experience, and to this I shall further allude hereafter.
+
+They have also at Troitzkosavsk a church in which “a miracle” seemed
+about to be recognised during our sojourn; for, on the first night of
+our stay, after I had gone to bed, a woman came to the party of friends
+with whom I had left Mr. Interpreter, and told them that she could see
+a strange halo of light in the church, but whether caused by celestial
+radiance or angels’ wings she did not say. The party turned out,
+therefore, my interpreter included, and made for the church, into which
+they could not gain admittance, and which was apparently empty, though
+they managed at last, by looking through a crevice or window, to descry
+a lamp burning before a glass ikon, which happened to slant at such an
+angle as dimly to reflect through the darkness the rays of light to the
+spot where they had been seen by the woman. This took away the sense
+of the miraculous, not altogether to the satisfaction of some of the
+party, who seemed to think “there was something in it.”[4]
+
+The great ecclesiastical wonder of Kiakhta is its cathedral, said to
+be the finest in Eastern Siberia, and to have cost 1,400,000 roubles,
+equal at the time of building to at least £150,000. It was built at the
+expense of the Kiakhta merchants, and possesses some excellent bells.[5]
+
+[Illustration: THE GREAT BELL OF MOSCOW AND IVAN VELIKI TOWER.]
+
+In bells, the Russian Church is the richest in the world--so far, at
+least, as regards their size. The largest we have in England--that of
+Christ Church, Oxford, weighing 7 tons--is but a baby compared with
+many in Russia. The largest in Petersburg weighs 23 tons; “Great John,”
+in the older capital, weighs 96 tons; whilst the old “Tsar Kolokol,” or
+the King of Bells, in Moscow, weighed originally nearly 200 tons, or
+432,000 lbs. Reckoning their value at 18 silver roubles per pood, we
+get a price for our Oxford bell of £1,100; and for that of the largest
+one of Moscow of £32,000. This monster bell is 26 ft. high, and 67 ft.
+round!
+
+It was neither its bells, however, nor its architecture that made
+Kiakhta cathedral “a fine church,” but rather its costly fittings. It
+has two altars, both of silver; a candlestick with numerous rubies and
+emeralds, and a large chandelier studded with precious stones. More
+striking still, perhaps, was the profusion of objects made of solid
+silver, such as the “royal doors,” which are said to weigh 2,000 lbs.;
+and, above all, the _ikonostasis_ of gold and glass, or crystal--the
+value of the last, no doubt, being considerably enhanced by the cost
+of carriage to so remote a spot. There were also several paintings,
+executed at great expense in Europe.
+
+We mounted the tower, and from thence had a view of the surrounding
+country and of the three towns of Troitzkosavsk, Kiakhta, and the
+Chinese Maimatchin. On a slight elevation, about a mile to the north,
+at the head of an open sand-valley between two ranges of moderately
+high hills, lay Troitzkosavsk, with its 4,600 inhabitants, its
+school, houses, shops, Government buildings, and a number of persons
+and officials who could not strictly be called merchants. There is
+also a large building which formerly was the Custom House, where the
+duties on tea were collected.[6] Below us was Kiakhta, with about 400
+inhabitants, the abode of Russian mercantile aristocrats and their
+belongings, making a population, according to Hoppe’s Almanack, of
+about 5,000. The town lies snugly in a hollow, between hills of sand
+and fir-trees, well sheltered from northerly winds, and opening out
+southwards towards Mongolia. A small rivulet, called the Bura, runs
+through the hollow, and, turning westward to the sandy plain, makes its
+way at last into the Selenga. The country round looks sandy and dry,
+which is in keeping with the meteorological conditions of the place.
+Southerly winds prevail, and there is a deficiency of moisture in the
+atmosphere; hence they have only a slight fall during the year either
+of rain or of snow. So much is this the case that wheeled vehicles
+are used all through the winter, and goods and travellers at that
+season are thus driven some miles out of Troitzkosavsk to the spot
+where snow begins, and sledges are usable. Kiakhta is about 2,500 feet
+above the sea level. The greatest cold in 1877 was in February, when
+the thermometer stood at 42° below zero; whilst the greatest heat that
+year, namely 100°·5, was in August.
+
+On the first morning after our arrival, our host sent us in his
+carriage for a drive of 20 miles to Ust-Keran, the summer residence of
+Mr. Tokmakoff, where also we expected to find a fellow-countryman, who,
+we heard, was Professor of English in the gymnase at Troitzkosavsk.
+It was a fine day, and our horses dashed along over a wide extent
+of country, somewhat suggestive of Salisbury plain. We saw very
+few people, but, happening to meet a vehicle, we pulled up, and my
+interpreter, having descended, went to the carriage to know if we
+were taking the right road. He called to me that we were right for
+Madame Tokmakoff’s, upon which I shouted, “Ask him if the Englishman
+is there!” whereupon someone in the carriage replied, “I am the
+Englishman.” It was pleasant to hear this spoken in my native
+tongue, and I hastened to make the acquaintance of Mr. Frank M----,
+who was spending his vacation as tutor, and teaching English, in
+the very family to which we were going. He therefore turned back,
+and accompanied us to Madame Tokmakoff’s, by whom we were heartily
+welcomed, and where we were reminded of home by the sight of
+cricket-bats, stumps, and sundry other English things.
+
+The great event of the afternoon was driving some miles further to a
+Buriat lamasery, or monastery, inhabited by priests, for whom I had
+taken some Scriptures; but none of them spoke Russian, and as we could
+not well make them understand, I left the books with our friend to give
+when an interpreter could explain, and this little commission he kindly
+performed. I shall have occasion to speak of this lamasery hereafter.
+On our way we had to cross a river, the vehicle being put on a raft,
+and the horses swam through the stream--not considered extraordinary in
+these parts, for the same evening we saw a dozen horses returning from
+their work, and when they came to the river, they plunged in of their
+own accord, and swam across.
+
+One of the men on the bank was very much puzzled to make me out,
+especially as I asked questions, and made notes of the replies. He
+seemed to think there might be “something up,” but said that “I
+wore no official clothes, and so he could not tell what sort of a
+‘_tchinovnik_’ I was.” His suspicions, however, abated, and his vanity
+seemed tickled, when he was told that I had come from a very far
+country, that I was anxious to know about their manners and customs,
+and made notes of what I heard and saw to tell my countrymen on my
+return. After inspecting the monastery, we drove back to Kiakhta the
+same evening, having spent a particularly agreeable day.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] In 1655 a Russian embassy was sent to Peking, with a view to the
+arrangement of a commercial treaty. The route then lay from Tobolsk up
+the Irtish to its source, over the Altai mountains, through the vast
+domain of the Kalmuks, and across the Mongolian steppes. The Russian
+envoy, however, refused to lie down and submit to Chinese etiquette
+in approaching the Emperor, and was sent away, partly, perhaps, for
+his want of obsequiousness, and more, perhaps, because the Chinese did
+not see the need of a treaty, the boundaries of the two empires being
+then not so perfectly in contact as now. A second embassy, sent in
+1675, proved also a failure; but after this there happened a series
+of events which caused the Chinese to realize that the Russians were
+nearer neighbours than they had been accustomed to regard them. This
+was brought about by the advances of the Siberians in the region of the
+Amur, where they had taken up their abode among the Daurians and other
+tribes, whom they so far encroached upon as to cause the Daurians to
+appeal for aid to the Chinese. This aid was given, and thus the Chinese
+and the Russians came first to blows in 1684.
+
+[2] Kiakhta became the centre of Russo-Chinese commerce, which was
+greatly increased after 1762, when Catherine II. abolished the Crown
+monopoly of the fur trade, together with the exclusive privilege of
+sending caravans to Peking. These concessions increased the traffic
+enormously, and the influence of the business transacted on the
+frontier extended from Kiakhta all across Siberia and Russia, and
+even to the middle of Germany. Thus, from 1728 to 1860, the Kiakhta
+merchants enjoyed almost a monopoly of Chinese trade, and made fortunes
+estimated by millions of roubles. The treaty of 1860, however, opened
+Chinese ports to Russian ships, and thus dealt a severe blow to the
+Kiakhta trade; for up to that time only a single cargo of tea was
+carried annually into Russia by water. Before 1860, the importation of
+tea at Kiakhta was about one million chests annually, without taking
+any account of brick tea, and, previous to 1850, all trade done at
+Kiakhta was in barter, tea being exchanged for Russian furs and other
+goods, because the Russian Government prohibited the export of gold and
+silver money.
+
+[3] When crossing the Pacific I fell in with a tea merchant homeward
+bound from China, and from him I gathered that three-fourths of
+the Russian trade is done in medium and common teas, such as are
+sold in London in bond from 1_s._ 2_d._ down to 8_d._ per English
+pound, exclusive of the home duty. The remaining fourth of their
+trade includes some of the very best teas grown in the Ning Chow
+districts--teas which the Russians will have at any price, and for
+which, in a bad year, they may have to pay as much as 3_s._ a pound
+in China, though in ordinary years they cost from 2_s._ upwards. The
+flowery Pekoe, or blossom tea, costs also about 3_s._ in China.
+
+[4] In Russia one continually meets with these sacred pictures, said
+to work miracles: and sometimes _relics_, though the latter not so
+often as in Roman countries. In two places I have been curious enough
+to inquire for the evidence that might be given to substantiate the
+so-called miracles. Of course, in many cases, the wonderful things
+said to have been performed are enveloped in the mist of antiquity,
+but one explanation offered at Novgorod, in the Yuryef monastery,
+was to the effect that the very man who had shown us the bells, many
+years ago, saw two women arrive at the place, who were screaming and
+possessed of the devil, but that on coming to the grave of Father
+Fochi (the great saint of the place) they were made whole. The second
+explanation offered me, at the Spasski monastery in Yaroslaf, was of
+a similar character. A certain ikon, before which I was standing, was
+alleged to have been placed in the church in 1828. A girl, 17 years
+of age, was seized by demoniacal possession, and dreamed that she saw
+a certain picture. On waking, she was said to have searched through
+the town for the picture, which, on looking through the church window,
+she recognized in the ikon before us, and from that day she was made
+whole! Such are some of the stories upon which rest the alleged power
+of ikons to work miracles. But, as I have said before, the Russians are
+by no means “sceptical.” Consequently, if a church or a monastery only
+possesses a well-known miracle working ikon, the fortune of the place
+is made. Persons come from far and near to pray before it, bringing,
+of course, a present, and not unfrequently adding a thank-offering if
+the prayer be heard. A poor man, having a diseased leg or a sick cow,
+purchases a little silver model of his leg or his cow, and hangs it
+upon the ikon (I have seen several such), or, if the offerer be rich,
+he brings gems to adorn the wonder-working picture. These pictures,
+on special occasions, are taken to the houses of the faithful, being
+carried through the streets in procession, the people doffing their
+caps; and I have seen the more devout, in the hope of receiving a
+blessing, run between the bearers and under the picture carried upon
+their shoulders. At Kasan we saw the coffin of Bishop Gregory, from
+which chips are cut by sufferers to place on their wounds to be healed.
+The monk who accompanied us, and who was, intellectually, superior to
+some I have met, said that it was a well-known fact, and believed by
+all, that the relics of saints placed upon diseased parts of the body,
+and used with faith, are good for healing. The bishop, he said, died
+200 years ago, but the wood of the alleged coffin did not appear to
+me to have reached the age of 200 weeks, and the whole concern looked
+modern.
+
+[5] This reminds me that, though allusions have often been made to
+churches, I have not yet described what a Russian church is like.
+It should be premised, then, that the ideas of an Englishman and a
+Russian differ widely as to what a grand church should be. Given an
+English committee, money in hand, and they say, “Go to; let us build a
+church to the praise and glory of--the architect;” whereas a Russian
+merchant, his pocket full of roubles, seeks him out a lapidary, to whom
+he takes emeralds, rubies, diamonds, and pearls; a smith, to whom he
+consigns poods of silver; and a cunning workman, who can emblazon and
+embroider priestly robes and ecclesiastical garments. The consequence
+is that the English ecclesiologist, standing before “a fine church” in
+Russia, finds almost nothing upon which to expend his vocabulary of
+architectural terms. He sees merely wood, stone, or brick and plaster
+buildings, not too evenly finished, and whitewashed over in such a
+fashion that, but for their proportions, they would not be thought too
+good for an English homestead.
+
+The Russian churches are so far alike that they are all modelled on
+the Byzantine style of architecture--a Byzantine church having been
+described as a “gabled Greek cross, with central dome inscribed in a
+square.” On the exterior, besides the central, there is sometimes a
+western dome, often there is one at each angle of the square, and,
+occasionally, one at each end of the cross. Accordingly, instead
+of spires, the eye of a traveller in Russia becomes accustomed to
+cross-crowned domes, which, as they are brightly painted and sometimes
+covered even with gold, and furnished with bells, affect both eye and
+ear not unpleasingly.
+
+On entering a Russian church from the west, the internal arrangement is
+seen to be fourfold: first, the narthex, or porch, which was anciently
+for catechumens and penitents; next the nave, or body of the church;
+then a narrow platform, raised by steps, answering to the choir;
+and, beyond that, the sanctuary. The sanctuary is divided into three
+chambers: the central one being called “the altar,” in which stands the
+holy table, and behind it the bishop’s throne; the southern chamber
+forming the sacristy, where are kept the vestments and treasures;
+whilst that on the north is for preparing the sacramental elements.
+The sanctuary is parted off from the choir by a high panelled screen,
+called the _ikonostasis_, pierced by three doors, the centre opening
+being called the “royal gates,” on the north side of which hangs a
+gilded sacred picture of the Virgin, and on the south side a picture of
+our Saviour, and the patron saint of the church. The remaining parts
+of the screen are covered with other pictures, upon the frames and
+coverings of which, apart from their artistic value, an almost fabulous
+amount is sometimes lavished. The precious stones on the picture of
+Our Lady of Kasan, for instance, in Petersburg, are valued at £15,000;
+whilst, at Moscow, one emerald on the picture of the Holy Virgin of
+Vladimir is valued at £10,000--the value of the whole of those on this
+latter ikon being estimated at £45,000.
+
+[6] All duties are now arranged at Irkutsk, and the annual quantity of
+_leaf_-tea (exclusive of brick-tea) that passes through is upwards of
+5,000 tons.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+_THE MONGOLIAN FRONTIER AT MAIMATCHIN._
+
+ Outlook into Mongolia.--Town of Maimatchin without women.--Visit to
+     a Chinese merchant.--Refreshments.--Attendants.--Purchases.--Tea
+     bricks for coin.--The town.--Buddhist temple.--Chinese
+     malefactors.--Their punishments.--Chinese
+     dinner.--Food.--Intoxicating drinks.--Route to
+     Peking.--Travellers.--Modes of conveyance.--Manners of the
+     desert.--Postal service.
+
+
+As we stood on the top of Kiakhta church, we could see, as already
+observed, the three towns of Troitzkosavsk, Kiakhta, and Maimatchin.
+The former two were like other Siberian towns, but southwards there lay
+before us something decidedly new. Just over the border was a veritable
+Chinese town; then came a broad plain, covered with sand and herbage,
+with the horizon bounded by the hills of Mongolia, beyond which the
+imagination was left to picture its capital, Urga, and, further south,
+the great wall of China. Before continuing our journey eastwards,
+therefore, I shall describe our visit to Maimatchin, and offer a few
+observations upon the route over the Mongolian frontier to Peking.
+
+Mai-ma-tchin signifies, in Chinese, “buy and sell,” and so is applied
+to this border town as a “a place of trade.” It has a population, we
+were told, of 3,000, and differs in one respect, at all events, from
+all the cities upon the face of the earth, in that the inhabitants are
+all of the male sex. Not a woman is to be found in the town, a baby’s
+music is never heard there, and the streets are void of girls and boys.
+Not that the men, however, are all bachelors, for some of them have
+wives and families in China proper. Nor are they all woman-haters or
+henpecked husbands. We did indeed hear of one man, a British subject,
+who so far agreed with Solomon as to the undesirability of living with
+a brawling woman, even though it were in a wide house, that he had
+fled from his island home, and retired to a house-top in the wilds of
+Siberia, where he is living in prosperity, and whither his spouse has
+not pursued him. But the fact is, that among the curious arrangements
+of the Chinese at the time of their early treaties with the Russians,
+and in order that their celestial subjects might not become rooted
+to the soil, but consider themselves as sojourners only, they have
+forbidden that women should live in Maimatchin. Hence a paterfamilias
+of Maimatchin, if he wishes to visit his wife and children, must
+undertake a month’s journey across the desert on the back of a camel,
+and return by the same means; so that a few such journeys may well give
+wings to his desire speedily to make his fortune and return home.
+
+We took the opportunity of paying an afternoon visit to Maimatchin
+on the first day of our arrival at Kiakhta, Mr. Koecher kindly
+accompanying us. After passing out of the wooden gate of Kiakhta we
+found ourselves on a piece of neutral ground, about 500 yards wide,
+between the two empires. On the south side is a palisade pierced
+for the principal gate, shielded from view by a high wooden screen
+some eight or ten paces from the wall. Behind this screen we entered
+Maimatchin, and found ourselves in a new world. The town is built
+inside a strong wooden enclosure, about 400 yards square, with four or
+five mud-paved streets. They are regular, however, tolerably clean,
+and, for China, wide,--wide enough perhaps to allow of a London omnibus
+being driven through them. The houses are of one storey, built of
+unburnt bricks of mud and wood, and are thus solid and tidy, and are
+surrounded by courtyards. At the entrances are screens that shut out
+the river from the street, which are painted with diabolical-looking
+figures, to frighten away evil spirits. This represents, however, the
+houses of the well-to-do merchants. Towards the southern part of the
+town are the mean, windowless houses of the poor, which have little of
+the neatness and propriety of the above.
+
+We were taken first to visit one of the Chinese merchants named
+Van-Tchan-Taï; and on entering his courtyard we found it surrounded
+by a number of doors, some entering the warehouses, the kitchen,
+out-houses, etc., and one leading to the shop and dwelling-place
+of the merchant. The door consisted of a suspended transparent
+screen, admitting the air, and yet keeping out flies and insects.
+The window-frames were ornamented and covered with paper. None
+looked into the street, but all into the courtyard. Inside the house
+were two compartments, an outer and an inner. In the outer chamber
+we were seated on a raised platform, or divan, which serves for a
+sleeping-place for the clerks and assistants by night, and for a
+dining-place by day, when the bedding and cushions are neatly rolled up
+and ornamentally arranged. This platform is heated by a flue beneath,
+and on the edge in front is kept, always burning, a small charcoal
+fire, which serves for lighting pipes and heating grog. Round the wall
+hung illuminated texts, from the writings of Confucius, and various
+pictures, one of which we were told was a representation of the god of
+happiness. And a very stout personage he looked! But this is strictly
+in keeping with Chinese notions, for they delight to load their deities
+with collops of fat, prosperity and abundance of flesh in their eyes
+having great affinity. A number of little birds were in the room, not
+in cages, but on perches resembling those on which parrots are kept in
+England.
+
+The merchant invited us to drink tea, and told us that the Chinese
+use this beverage without sugar or milk three times a day; namely, at
+rising, at noon, and at seven in the evening. They have substantial
+meals at nine in the morning and four in the afternoon. When they
+discovered I was English, they were curious to know all about us,
+making various inquiries, trying to imitate our words and sounds, even
+to laughing, and examining carefully such things as were shown them,
+as watches, pencils, and knives. We were no less curious to pry into
+their affairs, and learn of them all we could. The merchant employed 23
+“clerks,” 18 in Maimatchin, and the remainder at a branch establishment
+in some other part of the world. We did not make out, however, whether
+this number included shop assistants, warehousemen, servants, cooks,
+etc., or whether it consisted only of actual writers. They seemed all
+dressed alike, from the master downwards; that is, in a suit of blue
+nankeen, and black skull caps. Suspended on the wall, and covered
+with paper to keep them from dust, were two or three white straw
+hats, of depressed conical shape, with a horsehair tassel on the top,
+seemingly reserved for summer use or gala days. One of the attendants
+had a black dress edged with white, and on inquiry he was found to be
+the coachman in half mourning. Chinese full mourning must not be of
+silk, is all white, and worn 100 days after the death of a relative,
+during which time the head is not shaved. Black and white is afterwards
+worn for three years, one of its features being a small white ball on
+the top of the cap. As the servants stood about waiting on us, their
+discipline appeared to be very much of the patriarchal character; none
+seemed greater or less than another, except it were the chief clerk,
+who received, we found, about £30 a year; whilst the “boys” received
+from £5 and upwards, their food being in all cases provided. This
+chief clerk cultivated a straggling moustache, which is the privilege
+of all Chinese men after they arrive at 30 years of age. He had also
+very long nails, protruding, perhaps, half an inch, which evidently
+were considered beautiful. It is the custom of Chinese gentlemen and
+ladies to have long nails, that other persons may be aware of their
+rank in society, for with such impediments they could not labour. This
+senior also seemed fond of his pipe, which held just so much tobacco as
+enabled him to take five good strong whiffs only, and he then blew out
+of the pipe, with a peculiar noise, the remainder of the tobacco and
+ashes.
+
+Whilst sipping our tea we proceeded to make purchases. The principal
+articles of Chinese export into Russia are teas, cottons, nankeens,
+silks, good satins, rhubarb, and many articles of curiosity and
+ingenuity. The exports from Siberia are generally furs. As we sat in
+the merchant’s shop, it was a matter for conjecture as to where the
+merchandise was kept, for it was not visible. A number of articles,
+however, were brought forth from mysterious cupboards and drawers, and
+we heard that the Chinese allow as little of their property as possible
+to be seen by the authorities, lest they should be more highly taxed.
+So far, therefore, as appearances go in a Chinese shop, the American
+dealer’s window-notice would be eminently appropriate: “If you don’t
+see what you want, ask for it.” We did this, and found it successful.
+My first purchase was a piece of silk called Chin-chun-cha, supposed to
+be of sufficient measure for two suits of clothes. This silk is undyed,
+and washes and wears so well that it is a favourite material throughout
+Siberia for gentlemen’s summer suits, and sometimes for ladies’ dresses.
+
+The Chinese are fond of having a couple of balls in the hand, at idle
+times, to roll and rub one over the other with the fingers, and so
+play with; for the same reason, probably, that the Turks like to have
+beads in the hand. Several of these balls were offered to me. One
+pair was of Chinese jade, which, on being rubbed together, emitted
+flashes of electric light. Gilt buttons, too, were shown as a rarity,
+but their marks betrayed that they came from Birmingham. We bought
+some embroidered purses of native workmanship, and cups and saucers.
+The saucers are of a lozenge-shape, and of metal, with an indentation
+fitted to receive the bottom of the cup, which has no handle. Hence, in
+drinking the tea, it was not necessary to finger the cup, but merely
+to hold the saucer and drink from the cup resting therein. Some of the
+drinking vessels were of wood, but lacquered and covered with a varnish
+which made them quite capable of holding boiling water. Our most
+comical purchase, perhaps, was a pair of furred ear-pockets, connected
+by a piece of elastic, for use in frosty weather.
+
+After taking refreshment, we looked about the house and yard, into
+the kitchen, which was clean enough, and into the warehouse, with its
+piles of chests of tea, and were amused to see them take a hollow
+iron auger, something like a large cheese taster, and drive this into
+the corner of a tea-chest to bring thereout a sample handful of the
+fragrant herb. I contented myself, however, with buying a brick of tea,
+as a greater curiosity. It measures about nine inches by six, and is
+three-quarters of an inch thick, and might better be called, as it once
+was in Germany, “tile” tea. This article was formerly used for coin in
+certain parts of Siberia, and is so still in Mongolia. The owner of a
+circus, since my visit, made his way through Kiakhta to Urga. The stud
+and its riders greatly delighted the Mongolians, who are excellent
+horsemen, and, as the proprietor accepted the “current coin of the
+realm,” his cashier’s office presented the unusual appearance of being
+filled to overflowing with bricks of tea! We had cause, therefore,
+for congratulation, that we had not to carry a quantity of this very
+inconvenient form of cash.
+
+After leaving the house we wandered through the streets, examining the
+wares exposed for sale, like those we had seen on the Chinese stalls
+in the market-place of Troitzkosavsk, and the looking round at which,
+in both places, gave us much amusement. We found all sorts of Chinese
+knick-knacks; and the poorest attempts at cutlery, in the shape of
+knives, scissors, and razors, that ever I saw. The razors bore a
+strong resemblance to miniature hatchets, and, on steaming across the
+Pacific, I observed that their use was not confined to men, for the
+Chinese women think so much of having the hair cut away smoothly from
+the back of the neck, that one female on board was seen thus acting the
+barber on behalf of her sister. Beads and hats were likewise exposed
+for sale, brushes and combs, pieces of flint and steel, and Buddhist
+rosaries; which last, evidently, were considered finely perfumed, but
+we thought the smell abominable. A piece of Chinese vanity we saw
+consisted of circular felt pads, highly dyed with rouge, with which the
+people rub, and so redden, their faces. Several of these curiosities we
+bought, bargaining for the price by signs, to the mutual amusement of
+buyers and salesmen.
+
+We were taken to the Buddhist temple, the precincts of which appeared
+to comprise the houses of the governor (or, as he is called, the
+_zurgutchay_), and the chief priest; also a theatre, and something like
+a prison. In the court of the temple were placed two or three cannon,
+which are fired daily when the governor is going to sleep. The theatre,
+we found, was open only on fête days, and, if the report of travellers
+be true, the plays are sometimes grossly obscene. This, however, is
+only in keeping with the pictures seen in the houses, and sold openly
+in the streets, which are too licentious to bear description.
+
+We saw in the court of the temple two malefactors, who had iron rings
+round their necks, attached to which were chains, about five feet long,
+with enormous links, and of great weight, weighing, I should judge, in
+all, upwards of 50 lbs. They had chains, too, upon their hands and
+legs, and, being exceedingly dirty and ill clad, they looked somewhat
+ferocious. One of them had his chain coiled about his shoulders for
+more convenient carriage, and when he saw that I was curious he allowed
+it to drop towards the ground, showing me the full length of his
+punishment. I bought the man’s rosary for a souvenir. We saw, also,
+in Maimatchin, another kind of Chinese punishment, in the shape of a
+wooden collar, made of 6-inch plank, about 2½ feet square, and put
+about a man’s neck. It was said to be more than 100 lbs. in weight,
+and the unfortunate wearer was prevented by its size from putting his
+hand to his mouth. He used therefore, in feeding himself, a long wooden
+spoon, but he looked anything but comfortable. His accusation was
+written on the collar, setting forth his name and family, and he was to
+wear his collar night and day for a month, and that for _fighting_! but
+I am not clear whether it was for an ordinary pugilistic encounter, or
+for attempted violence to a superior.
+
+As we walked about the streets it was plain that, though we were
+distinctly in the Chinese empire and not in Russia, yet that the people
+of the two border towns were on the most friendly footing. Chinese
+merchants visit the Russians freely, drink tea, smoke cigarettes,
+and chatter,--not “pigeon English,” but “pigeon Russian.” To this
+good feeling I presume it was that we were indebted for an invitation
+to dine, two days after, with the merchant upon whom we called. We
+were particularly anxious to do this; for to eat a Chinese dinner at
+Maimatchin had been one of the curious treats I had promised myself
+when thinking of pushing on so far as Kiakhta. At the same time, Mr.
+Michie’s declaring that a Chinese dinner, to which Kiakhta merchants
+take their friends, was “a feast most Europeans would rather undergo
+the incipient stages of starvation than come within the smell of it,”
+had rather terrified me as to the horrors one might be expected to
+eat. I determined, however, to place bread on one side of my plate
+and water on the other, and then martyrise myself for the sake of
+gaining experience, to say nothing of showing myself a person of good
+breeding in Chinese eyes, by tasting _everything_; and I hoped that, if
+anything particularly nasty came into my mouth, it might be neutralized
+or speedily swallowed by the aid of a piece of bread or a draught of
+water. Things were not so bad, however, as I had feared, and we were
+none of us made ill. Calling on our way to dinner at Mr. Tokmakoff’s,
+I begged a small loaf of half-white bread; and, thus prepared, we
+presented ourselves at the house of Van Tchan Taï.
+
+There were five in the party, which included Mr. Koecher, our Russian
+host; Mr. M----, our fellow-countryman; Mr. Interpreter; myself, and
+a Russian friend. We were shown first into the inner compartment,
+and seated on the divan, whilst they brought us tea, dried fruits,
+and confections, such as candied ginger, dried walnuts and Mandarin
+oranges, salted almonds, and sugared ditto, melon seeds, etc., etc. We
+then adjourned to the outer chamber, where the dinner was spread on a
+table. But what a table! It was just about three feet square, and on
+this were placed, as a commencement, no less than 10 dishes, besides
+our own plates. These dishes, or saucers, of meats were replaced to
+the number of 30. Further east I met a man who told me that when he
+dined at Maimatchin they gave him 64 dishes! At this tiny table we
+were seated, and each was provided with a small saucer, three inches
+in diameter, half filled with dark-looking vinegar, into which we
+were supposed to dip everything before carrying it to the mouth. Of
+this I soon got tired, and began to eat things _au naturel_, that
+is as far as possible; but most of the courses were so disguised by
+confectionery and culinary art that we had to ask of almost every
+plate, What is this? Happily the plates were so exceedingly small
+that to taste of each did not seriously strain one’s eating powers;
+and by tasting first, and then asking what it was, all prejudice was
+taken away till it was too late to have any. But we discovered that
+among the dishes we had eaten were beans, garlic, a kind of sea-weed
+cooked like seakale, and a green kind also; likewise radishes cut in
+slices, swallows’ eggs boiled, and rissoles of meat; various sorts
+of marine vegetables, and, I think, birds’ nests. Towards the end of
+the feast appeared a _samovar_, but not like the Russian article of
+that name,--the difference resembling that between an “outside” and an
+“inside” Dublin car, of which an Irishman said that, with an outside
+car the wheels were inside, whereas with an inside car the wheels were
+outside. So with the Chinese samovar, the boiling part was exposed
+to view, and contained the soup, in which were small pieces of meat,
+vermicelli, and rice puddings, the size of tennis balls, for the eating
+of which they brought us chop-sticks--I suppose, that we might try our
+hands, for at the earlier part of the meal they had given us knives and
+forks. Chop-sticks are a pair of cylindrical rods, rather longer, and
+not quite so thick as lead pencils, which are both held between the
+thumb and fingers of the right hand, and are used as tongs to take the
+food and carry it to the mouth--an operation by no means easy to the
+unpractised. Our host did not sit at table, or eat with us, but stood
+looking on, and giving orders to his boys or “clerks.” Each guest was
+provided with a tiny cup about an inch or a little more in diameter,
+and perhaps half an inch deep. Into this, at an early stage of the
+proceedings, was poured, from a diminutive kettle, hot _mai-ga-lo_,
+or Chinese brandy, tasting, it was said, somewhat like whisky. It is
+exceedingly strong, though not so potent as another kind of which we
+heard, called _khanshin_, and which not only makes a man intoxicated
+on the day he drinks it, but if he takes a glass of water only on the
+morrow, the intoxicating effect is repeated. When they came to pour
+me out brandy I declined, the propriety of which our host recognised
+at once; for when my friends told him I was a “lama,” or priest, he
+said that “_their_ lamas were not allowed to drink brandy.” It was
+comforting, therefore, to find that we had at least one good thing in
+common.
+
+Whilst we were in the house of Van Tchan Taï there came in a Mongolian
+lama, to whom I was introduced as an _English_ lama. The Mongolian
+lamas do not confine themselves to spiritual functions; for this man
+was a contractor for the carriage of goods across the desert to and
+from China, which leads me to say something of this curious journey.
+The Kiakhta-Peking route was not that followed by the earliest
+embassies sent overland from Siberia, nor by Marco Polo in his
+marvellous travels in Tartary. In fact, it is remarkable how very
+little has been known, until lately, concerning this part of Central
+Asia, and how little is known still.[1]
+
+After the building of Kiakhta and Maimatchin, the route across the
+desert was of course extensively used by the caravans, though I am not
+aware that it was followed by any Englishman or celebrated traveller
+till within the past quarter of a century.[2]
+
+There are six Englishmen, four of whom I have met, who, as well as
+some ladies, have travelled this Mongolian route within the past 18
+years.[3] The traveller, however, who has given us the most solid
+and scientific information about the part of Mongolia of which we are
+speaking is the Russian Colonel Prejevalsky, who spent three years,
+beginning in 1870, by travelling first from Kiakhta to Peking, then
+turning northward to Manchuria, and afterwards following in the tracks
+of Huc not quite to Lhassa, but as far as the Blue River, or the
+Yang-tse-kiang; and then, turning back, did the most daring thing of
+all, crossing the desert of Gobi from Ala-shan to Urga and Kiakhta.
+This journey had never before been attempted by a European, and was
+accomplished in the height of summer, when sometimes the party could
+obtain neither pasture nor water.
+
+The distance between Kiakhta and Peking is a thousand miles, and
+Europeans who wish to make the journey have the choice of two modes
+of conveyance, either by post-horses or by caravan camels engaged
+by special bargain with their owners. So, at least, says Colonel
+Prejevalsky, though Mr. Milne tells a different tale, for he had
+intended to cross Mongolia in company with a Russian officer by
+courier horses; but he found that, according to the agreement between
+the Russian and Chinese Governments, it was allowable only for such
+couriers as were Russian subjects to take the horse road, and therefore
+he was obliged to go the ordinary caravan route by camels. He made an
+agreement with some Mongol carriers, that they were to take him from
+Kiakhta to Kalgan, near the great wall of China, in 30 days, for which
+he was to pay them £15. For every day less than thirty he was to pay
+ten shillings extra; for every day beyond that time they were to pay
+him ten shillings. There was also a clause that a tent, fire, and water
+should be supplied. The ordinary procedure of the caravan in winter is
+to be on the move till about seven or eight in the evening, and then
+stop for tea, and travel on till midnight or two in the morning. A
+halt is then made for sleep, and all start again by eight or ten. They
+eat in winter only once a day, and, according to Mr. Milne’s account,
+a winter journey across the desert is anything but comfortable. Mr.
+Michie, however, and Captain Shepherd, who travelled in milder weather,
+give a very different account, and speak in pleasant terms of a nomad
+life. It is so utterly different from any European experience of motion
+and living that, though it has several drawbacks--and a month is rather
+too long to be wholly agreeable--yet those who have passed through
+such a phase of travel look back upon it as a pleasant change from the
+humdrum life of a homeward voyage in a P. and O. steamer.
+
+The pace at which the caravan proceeds is provokingly slow, and the
+jolting of the rude, clumsy camel-cart makes walking, for a great part
+of the day, preferable to driving; but there is game to be shot, and
+the solitude of the desert is now and then relieved by arrivals at
+Mongolian _yourts_, or tents, where, conversation being the only form
+of newspaper they know, there is a general wagging of tongues, and a
+shower of questions to be asked. The Mongol’s one notion of wealth is
+the number of a man’s flocks and herds; and thus, if the Englishman is
+asked what he is worth, he has to translate his riches into thousands
+of sheep, horses, and bulls, and then explain his possessions. Again,
+the monotony of the way may be relieved occasionally by meeting with
+the Russian post.[4]
+
+The manners and customs of the Mongolians are, in many cases,
+exceedingly interesting, as taking one back to the habits of a nomadic
+and pastoral people. But it is not necessary to detail them here, as we
+shall have before us, in a subsequent chapter, the Buriats, who are a
+branch of the Mongolian race; and in treating of the one we shall be in
+many respects treating also of the other.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] We owe some of our early geographical information about Eastern
+Mongolia to the rupture between the Russians and Chinese on the Amur.
+The Chinese took several prisoners, and transported them to Peking,
+subsequently allowing Russian priests to be sent to minister to their
+spiritual necessities. When, in course of time, the prisoners might
+have returned, they had learned so to like their quarters, that
+they chose to remain; whereupon “the spiritual mission” was kept
+up by sending new priests at intervals of ten years, and thus the
+Russians learned something of the unknown country through which these
+functionaries travelled.
+
+[2] Daniel De Foe made his celebrated “Robinson Crusoe” to re-visit
+his island, and afterwards land in China, where he met with a Jesuit
+missionary who took him to Peking. Then, crossing the desert, he came
+to the Argun and Nertchinsk, and so proceeded to Tobolsk and crossed
+the Urals to Archangel. This, of course, is fiction; but it may be
+that De Foe, who was never abroad in his life, and who published his
+“Robinson Crusoe” in 1719, had heard of a route used in his day across
+the Mongolian desert. When we come to the interesting writings of the
+Roman missionary Huc, we have, of course, a good deal of information
+about Mongolia; but his route lay in the south along the great wall of
+China towards the Himalayas, and not at all in the north.
+
+[3] One is Mr. Howell, formerly a British resident in China, who
+crossed from Shanghai to Kiakhta; another is Mr. Wylie, who was
+connected with the British and Foreign Bible Society, and who crossed
+from Kiakhta to Peking; but neither of these gentlemen has favoured the
+public, as far as I am aware, with information as to his wanderings. In
+1863 Mr. Michie undertook “the Siberian overland route from Peking to
+St. Petersburg,” and wrote an account of his Mongolian travels, which
+was the first English book that had appeared on that part of Asia. Mr.
+Michie has been followed by three other English writers. In 1869, by
+Mr. William Athenry Whyte, F.R.G.S., who wrote, “A Land Journey from
+Asia to Europe, being an account of a camel and sledge journey from
+Canton to St. Petersburg, through the plains of Mongolia and Siberia;”
+in 1875-6, by Mr. John Milne, F.G.S., who crossed Europe and Siberia to
+Kiakhta, Peking, and Shanghai, and read a paper concerning his journey
+before the Asiatic Society of Japan; and, in 1877, by Captain W.
+Shepherd, R.E., who returned “homeward through Mongolia and Siberia,”
+and wrote a short account in the Royal Engineers’ Journal. I heard
+some of these travellers spoken of by the residents in Siberia, and
+the Russians seemed mightily surprised that Captain Shepherd should
+have taken such a journey alone, and unable to speak a word of their
+language. I suppose Messrs. Howell and Wylie did the same, but I have
+heard of Captain Shepherd’s exploit as far away as the Crimea, and so
+lately as last autumn.
+
+[4] Postal communication was established by treaty between the Russians
+and Chinese in 1858 and 1860. The Russian Government organized, at
+its own expense, a regular transmission of both light and heavy mails
+between Kiakhta, Peking, and Tien-tsin. The Mongols contract to carry
+the post as far as Kalgan, the Chinese the rest of the way. The Russians
+have opened post-offices at four places, Urga, Kalgan, Peking, and
+Tien-tsin. The light mails leave Kiakhta and Tien-tsin three times a
+month, the heavy mails only once a month. The heavy mails are carried
+on camels, escorted by two Cossacks from Kiakhta; while the light mails
+are accompanied only by Mongols, and are carried on horses. The light
+mails are taken from Kiakhta to Peking in two weeks, whilst the heavy
+mails take from 20 to 24 days; and the cost of all this to the Russian
+Government is about £2,400 a year, the receipts at the four offices
+amounting to about £430.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+_FROM KIAKHTA TO CHITA._
+
+ Farewell ceremonies.--Writing home of changed plans.--Caravans.--An
+     iron foundry.--Buriat yemstchiks.--Methods of
+     driving.--Salutations.--Insignificant post-stations.--Visit to
+     a missionary to the Buriats.--Russian missions in Japan.--A
+     remarkable meeting.--The Yablonoi mountains.--Chita.--Visit to the
+     Governor and prison.
+
+
+We had determined, after dining at Maimatchin, to continue our journey
+eastwards. Mr. Koecher, however, would not let us go without giving
+us a supplementary dinner; for the Chinese spread is looked upon as a
+matter of curiosity rather than of genuine gastronomy, and we did not
+expect to get another respectable meal for many hundreds of miles.
+After this supplementary dinner, therefore, we prepared to start. The
+hospitality and kindness of the Siberians to departing friends is
+unbounded; and, among other customs, they have one method of doing
+honour to a guest at a feast which is considered a mark of great
+respect. It is called the _podkeedovate_, and is done by seizing the
+unfortunate victim and laying him flat on the extended and clasped
+hands of two rows of guests, who toss him up and catch him. When Mr.
+Collins, their first American visitor, was at Kiakhta, they tossed him
+up in this manner to the ceiling, which he touched, palpably. In our
+own case, happily, we were spared this honour, and were dismissed with
+the repeated shakings of the hand of which the Russians are so fond;
+provided, however, it be not over the threshold. Twice I found myself
+transgressing in this respect--once to an American, who had become
+half Russianized, and once to a Russian lady. Both of them smiled, and
+asked me to come right in before shaking hands. What superstition they
+have upon the subject I know not. Another Russian custom with departing
+friends is to drive alongside for a few miles, perhaps to the first
+post-station, and then take a last farewell. This our host did when we
+left Kiakhta on the evening of Wednesday, the 16th July, and we were
+then fairly started for a drive of 600 miles. We passed along the road
+by which we came as far as Verchne Udinsk, or, as I have called it,
+“the Amur and China junction.” Here we took the opportunity to post
+letters to England, to say that to return from hence would be to leave
+my work half done, and that we were going on to the Amur, from which
+Mr. Interpreter was to turn back, whilst I was to continue to the
+Pacific, and so reach home by completing the circle of the globe; and
+as I thought to finish the journey in person sooner than a letter would
+cross Asia and Europe, and I did not know what holes and corners I
+might get into, or how be detained, my friends were exhorted not to be
+alarmed if they heard nothing of me for many days. And the exhortation
+was needed, for I subsequently got into two places from which I could
+not stir, nor well communicate my whereabouts, so that, notwithstanding
+my warning, serious and anxious doubts were entertained for my safety.
+
+Whilst travelling eastwards we had frequently met caravans of carts
+carrying tea. These caravans sometimes reach to upwards of 100 horses;
+and, as they go at walking pace, and when they come to a river are
+taken over by ferry, it is not matter for surprise that merchandise
+should be three months in coming from Irkutsk to Moscow. In winter the
+rivers, of course, present no difficulty, and hence this season is on
+some accounts preferred for transport. The number of drivers required
+for a large convoy is not numerous, and they lighten their work by
+hanging a bundle of hay on the hinder part of every cart, so that a
+horse, if hungry, takes good care to keep up with his leader. As we
+proceeded, from Verchne Udinsk we met trains of two-wheeled carts with
+manufactured iron.[1] There was one driver to every four or five carts,
+and this driver had a dormitory on one of his loads, consisting of a
+rude frame, two-and-a-half by six feet, with a covering of birch-bark,
+and under this, clad in a sheepskin coat, a man contrives to sleep for
+many an hour of the night and day. They usually travel about 16 hours
+(though not at a stretch) out of the 24, and in the summer graze their
+horses at the side of the road.
+
+We had now left the great highway between China and Europe, and of this
+we were sternly reminded by the amount of shaking to which we were
+forced to submit. Also we were introduced to a new set of yemstchiks;
+for most of our drivers now were Buriats, who tie up their horse’s
+mane like a horn between his ears, and who, like the Russians, have a
+wonderful knack of sending their horses along without harassing them,
+the driving being done by the voice and by threatening with the hand.
+Whip-cracking is unheard in Siberia, and the long, slender, snapping
+whips of Western Europe are unknown. The Siberian uses a short stock
+with a lash of hemp, leather, or other flexible substance, but having
+no snapper at its end. The Russian drivers talk a great deal to their
+horses, and the speech they use depends much upon the character and
+performance of the animals. Do they travel well? Then the driver calls
+them his “brothers,” his “doves,” his “beauties,” his “jewels.” On the
+contrary, an obstinate or lazy horse is called a variety of names the
+reverse of endearing. He may be called a _sabaka_, or dog, and his
+maternity disrespectfully ascribed to the race canine. Sometimes the
+driver rattles off his words as if the creatures understood all the
+praise he is giving them, after which, on proper occasion, he storms
+at and scolds them as the veriest hags and jades he ever drove. But
+I do not remember that this fashion of talking to the horses was so
+observable among the Buriats, though they drove exceedingly well.
+
+These people have a curious method of salutation, as have several of
+the peoples with whom we were brought in contact. The Chinese, for
+instance, fold the hands together, and raise them up and down several
+times. The Mongols hold up their thumb to salute, and to clench a
+bargain one places his hand on the sleeve of the other. The Buriats do
+much the same, whilst the Russians shake hands for everything, and if
+they are friends they also kiss.
+
+As we drove along we saw abundance of black and white jackdaws; small
+birds, like a cross between a canary and a linnet; and, on the distant
+hills, flocks of sheep. Further south, I have been told, herds of
+camels are reared, for the sake of their wool, which in these parts
+grows to a considerable length. The post-stations we passed were
+far apart and poor, and the villages few. In these last live many
+Buriats, some Russians, and a few Jews. In one village we saw some very
+good-looking Jewish women, whom I saluted with a word or two of Hebrew.
+This, and the showing of our podorojna that we were English, attracted
+attention to us as strangers. Not long before, some Chinese ambassadors
+had passed the same way; and one yemstchik, hearing that we were
+foreigners, thought we too must be ambassadors, and inquired whether he
+should go and put on his best suit, from which, however, we excused him.
+
+On the evening of the second day after leaving Verchne Udinsk, we
+reached Koordinska, where lives a Russian priest who is a missionary
+to the Buriats, and upon whom I wished to call, though, as it was
+getting towards midnight, I feared we might find the good man in
+bed. But it was “now or never,” and I therefore persisted in going
+to the house, notwithstanding the Buriat yemstchik’s remonstrances,
+which I afterwards thought, may have proceeded from the fear that he
+should be bewitched, or in some way influenced by the missionary,
+for I could not get him to stop his horses within many yards of the
+house. The missionary did not appear at first particularly amiable on
+being visited at such an unusual hour; but, when he found that we had
+good books to give him, he began to change his demeanour, and readily
+imparted to us information respecting the progress of the mission,
+telling us that during the previous year 300 Buriats had been baptized
+east of the Baikal, and more than 1,000 on the west. He showed us,
+however, that he had already a sufficiency of the Buriat Scriptures--of
+the same edition, in fact, as those we were distributing--and he did
+not care to accept more, which rather led me to surmise, what was
+afterwards confirmed, that the amount of knowledge required by the
+Russian priests of their converts before baptism is very slender. I
+do not know either how far they press upon the Buriats the study of
+the Scriptures, or whether the Buriats are averse to the book. The
+old man at Selenginsk, Ivlampi Melnikoff, told us that many copies of
+the Scriptures were left in the hands of his father when the English
+missionaries took their departure, and that the Buriats would not
+receive them. They were therefore handed over to a Russian priest; but
+he was speaking of things as they were forty years ago.
+
+When our missionary friend found that we were really interested in
+his work, he pressed us, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, to
+drink tea; but this we declined, as we could not keep the post-horses
+standing. He was very eager to tell us, before we went, that the
+Russians were carrying on a successful mission to the Japanese (the
+liturgy being sung in Russian style in the vernacular), under the
+directorship of the Archimandrite Nicolai; and the missionary,
+dwelling in the Buriat wilderness, was considerably perturbed because
+someone in Japan had been writing a book, attempting to show that
+Confucius was greater than Jesus Christ; and as I said that I expected
+to pass through Japan, he begged that I would get a copy of the life of
+Confucius, and consult with the Archimandrite how the heretical book
+might be extinguished. This was the first I heard of the Archimandrite,
+but, on reaching Nikolaefsk, I found him exceedingly well spoken of by
+a Lieutenant Yakimoff, who gave me a letter to him to deliver on my
+arrival in Japan.[2] Accordingly I hoped to see the said Archimandrite
+Nicolai, but, before I reached Yokohama, he had returned home to be
+consecrated bishop. I therefore thought no more of the matter till
+last autumn, when my hopes were singularly and unexpectedly fulfilled,
+whilst staying at Kieff on my way to the Caucasus. My companion and I
+were trying to find someone in the Pechersky monastery who could speak
+English or French. At last appeared with the monks a tall man in a
+cassock, dressed like the others, save that his cassock was brown. He
+said he could speak English, and, after having taken us round to see
+the sights, he inquired of me where I was labouring in England, or, as
+he put it, “where I was in service.” I told him, and then asked where
+_he_ was “in service.” “Oh,” said he, “very far off.” “Well,” I said,
+“where?” “In Japan,” he replied. “Then,” said I, “you must be the
+Father Nicolai, to whom I had a letter last year from Siberia, and who
+has lately been consecrated bishop.” And so it turned out, and thus we
+had casually fallen in each other’s way, thousands of miles from the
+place of our expected meeting. I dined with him, and we then parted,
+he to continue his return journey to Japan, whilst I pushed forward to
+Mount Ararat.
+
+All this, however, was in the unknown future when we were talking to
+the Russian missionary at Koordinska, who regretted that our visit
+was so short, and whom we left to continue our journey all night to
+Chita. In doing so we traversed hilly roads, and on the following day
+had some extended views as we approached the _Yablonoi_, or Apple-tree
+Mountains. This range runs in a north-easterly direction, right through
+the Za-Baikal province; and when, after gradually rising from Verchne
+Udinsk, which is 1,500 feet, we reached the summit of the range, 4,000
+feet above the sea, we were then about 20 miles from Chita. Before us
+a well-defined range of mountains bounded the horizon to the east,
+while to the north and south the valley stretched away for miles. We
+had a fine morning for the descent, and bounding along over a rolling
+prairie, where herds of cattle were grazing, had a beautiful view
+as we approached the town. Moreover, we were at last on the eastern
+side of the great Altai chain, and consequently the rivers before us
+differed from all that we had yet seen in Siberia. All the others had
+been flowing northwards to be emptied into the Arctic Ocean, whereas in
+the river Chita, from the left, joining the Ingoda from the right, the
+current was flowing eastward, through a delightful valley, to find its
+way, 2,000 miles off, into the Pacific. We had before us now, in fact,
+one of the valleys of the head waters of the Amur, of which valley
+Baron Rosen says that it is remarkable for its flora, and is called the
+“garden of Siberia.”
+
+Chita stands on the left bank of the Ingoda on a height, bounded on two
+sides by lofty mountains. To the north lies Lake Onon, on whose shores
+Genghis Khan, as he marched westwards, held his court of justice, and
+in whose waters he drowned the condemned. Below this point the Ingoda
+is navigable for boats and rafts. During the early years of the Amur
+occupation, much material was floated down from Chita. The town was
+founded in 1851, when it had a population of 2,600; now it has 3,000.
+Many of the houses are large and well fitted, and all are of wood.
+We found shops, at which, however, we had to pay 1_s._ a pound for
+loaf-sugar, and white bread cost just three times what we had paid for
+it at Tobolsk.
+
+The Governor’s house was the best in the place, and there we presented
+our letters. His Excellency, M. Pedashenko, gave us a kind reception.
+I had met on the road, at a post-station, the father of Madame
+Pedashenko, and he had given me an introduction to his daughter; but
+Madame was unwell. The Governor, however, spared no pains to do for us
+all he could. On learning that I wished to visit the penal colony and
+gold-mines of Kara, he telegraphed that arrangements might be made for
+my being conveyed thither; and after this we proceeded to inspect the
+prison in the town. Outside the building was a black cart, which might
+be placed in a similar category with our old-fashioned English stocks.
+Formerly prisoners were taken in this cart to the market-place, and
+there exposed as outlaws and felons--their accusation being carried on
+the breast, and a notification attached that they had “lost all their
+rights.” This punishment was said to be abolished now, but I heard of
+its having been used at Blagovestchensk as lately as the previous year.
+
+The prison at Chita contained 169 prisoners, and cannot, I suppose,
+be that in which the 30 Decembrists were confined in 1826; for Baron
+Rosen speaks of Chita in his day as a little village of 300 people. At
+the time of our visit, they were expecting a new place of confinement
+to be built--not a day before it was wanted; for the Chita prison was
+apparently the oldest, and I thought it the poorest and dirtiest, we
+had seen. The prisoners, too, were shabbily clad, and dirty. One of
+them was reading a religious book lent him, I think he said, by the
+priest; but there was no prison library. Indeed, it was very rare to
+find one, though at Ekaterineburg we were told that a prisoner who
+wished to read might have a prayer-book. Several of the Chita prisoners
+were from Russia, and condemned to hard labour. There was a carpenters’
+shop, in which some were forced to work, and others did so for their
+own pleasure. Speaking generally, those in the building appeared to be
+enjoying an easy time; for the doors of the wards were open to allow
+their going in and out of the yard as they chose, and many were lying
+about sleeping in the sun. We were told that they found it difficult
+to sleep at night by reason of vermin, and so were sleeping instead by
+day. This illustrates a remark of Goryantchikoff in “Buried Alive,” to
+the effect that his prison was never free from fleas even in winter,
+and that in summer they increased. In the prison kitchen we saw them
+cutting up rhubarb leaves to put in the soup (fresh cabbage not being
+ready at the time of our visit), which reminds me of another remark of
+Goryantchikoff, who writes as if it were a normal thing with him to
+have black-beetles swimming in his soup. His remark about fleas I can
+readily believe; but by “black-beetles” I presume he refers to little
+brown insects, about half an inch long, called “_Tarakans_,” which
+swarm in the houses of the Siberian peasants. Happily, however, they
+are non-belligerent, and I was told by an Englishman that the people
+are not averse to them. Why they should daily walk into the copper
+to be boiled in Mr. Goryantchikoff’s soup, I know not; but one thing
+about prison soup I do know, that, in the irregular, uncomfortable (I
+was going to say half-starved) condition in which I have sometimes
+travelled in certain parts of Russia, I have more than once tasted
+prison soup, of which, but for appearance sake, I would fain have
+eaten, not a mere spoonful to give my opinion thereon, but a plateful
+to satisfy my appetite. I should not have chosen that, however,
+seasoned with rhubarb leaves.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] It is not unlikely that the iron here alluded to had come from
+Petrovsky Zavod, which is about 100 miles south-east of Verchne
+Udinsk. These ironworks were established during the reign of Peter
+the Great, and at one time were worked by convicts; but, so far as
+they are in activity now, free labour, I believe, is employed. This
+Zavod was formerly of importance to the locality. The engines for the
+first steamers that Russia placed on the Amur were made here. Guns,
+also, have been cast and bored by Russian workmen. There is plenty of
+coal, too, in the neighbourhood, but it is not much used, as wood is
+plentiful. I heard very little of the operations carried on at present,
+but it seems that in the whole Trans-Baikal province there were
+produced, in 1877, of cast iron 482 tons and of wrought iron 280 tons.
+Thirty years ago, Petrovski wrought 18 tons of bar iron annually.
+
+[2] On my voyage I gathered from a Russian captain that there were
+in Japan 7 priests, 95 catechists, and 2,000 members, all of whom,
+not excepting even the priests, were converts to the orthodox Russian
+Church. In 1876, £1,174 were spent on this mission, which is the only
+Pagan mission, as far as I know, that the Russians have in foreign
+parts; and they think their Japanese work a great success, for in the
+_Oriental Church Magazine_ for March 1880, the Russian editor says: “In
+1879 the (Russian) Church in Japan numbered a total of 6,000 members,
+an increase of 2,000 having taken place during one year”; and he adds,
+“Though the other Christian Churches control over 320 missionaries,
+and have in their possession enormous pecuniary means, still our
+(Russian) missionaries have succeeded in gaining full and exclusive
+control over the northern part of the island of Nipouna, and compete
+most successfully with their Roman Catholic and Protestant brethren
+in the central part of the island.” “This brilliant success is mainly
+attributable to the chief of our Japanese mission, Father Nicolai.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+_THE BURIATS._
+
+ Country of the Buriats.--Their physiognomy
+     and costume.--Habitations.--Mongol
+     yourts.--Hospitality.--Fuel.--Possessions in cattle.--Character
+     of Buriats.--Their religions.--Buddhist Buriats.--The soul
+     of Buddha.--The lamas.--Their celibacy, classification,
+     employments, disabilities.--Buddhist doctrines.--A prayer
+     cylinder.--Christian Buriats.--English missions.--Reports of
+     English travellers.--Results of Russian missions.--Distribution of
+     Buriat Scriptures.
+
+
+Soon after leaving Verchne Udinsk, we entered upon the vast steppe
+which occupies a large portion of the Trans-Baikal. Here we found
+ourselves in the heart of the Buriats’ country. We first met with
+these people a few miles on the western side of Irkutsk, and their
+physiognomy at once told us they belonged to a different race from any
+we had seen. They have very large skulls, square faces, low and flat
+foreheads; the cheek-bones are high and wide apart, the nose flat, eyes
+elongated, the skin swarthy and yellowish, and the hair jet black. With
+the men the hair is allowed to grow upon the crown of the head, and is
+plaited into a queue that hangs down their backs. What remains is cut
+close, but not shaved, as with the Tatars. The head-dress of the women
+is exceedingly rich, and consists of silver, coral, polished beads of
+Ural malachite, and mother-of-pearl. They wear their hair in two thick
+braids, which fall from the temples below the shoulders, and the
+unmarried girls interweave their braids with strings of coral. Several
+women had many silver ornaments hanging on their breasts, and in some
+cases a straight rod at the back of the head stuck out horizontally for
+several inches on either side, and to this the hair was tied. I was
+desirous to purchase one of these head-dresses for a curiosity, but
+they were not to be had at shops. The stones and metal are purchased,
+and made up by household skill. I was, however, somewhat taken aback
+on finding that their value frequently amounted to twenty or thirty
+pounds sterling. At a post-station we asked a Buriat what he would
+take for his hat. To our surprise, he asked the modest price of fifteen
+roubles merely for the silver knob at the top. The Buriats are said to
+wear no linen, but a wealthy bride’s dowry sometimes consists of 40
+cases of the richest furs.
+
+[Illustration: MISS BOU-TA-TYO, A BURIAT YOUNG LADY.]
+
+As for their habitations, the Buriats are such inveterate dwellers in
+tents that though they are supposed now to be civilized where they
+come in contact with the Russians, yet they make a tent of the house
+by piercing a hole in the middle of the roof, and have the fire in
+the centre of the floor. When visiting Madame Tokmakoff, she had a
+Buriat man-servant, for whom a Russian house was provided, but in which
+he could not be happy until he had thus readjusted his dwelling. We
+entered a Buriat house at Cheelantoui, although only the woman was at
+home. There was within a rude wooden bench, on which we were invited
+to sit, and on it was lying a pair of coral ornaments for the head.
+These the woman, on our noticing them, immediately put on, and she then
+invited us to drink tea. To have declined would have been considered
+highly unpolite. Even among the Russians, a general pleasantly told
+me that he took a refusal to eat food in his house like a slap in
+the face. Moreover, we were anxious to stand well in the good graces
+of our Buriat hostess, for we wished to be admitted to the Buddhist
+temple, and she was the only person in the place through whom we could
+communicate in Russian with the lamas. But to see the tea served,
+and have to drink it, was no small trial. Over the fire hung a large
+open iron pot, full of a bubbling liquid covered with scum. In this
+was a ladle, which our fair hostess filled and refilled, and emptied
+back into the pot. Then, scraping the scum away, she took a ladleful
+of the decoction, poured it into cups, and gave us to drink. We were
+told it was tea flavoured with salt. I only hope it was nothing worse,
+but it will hardly be thought matter for surprise if, after tasting
+it, I had an accident, upset the beverage, and declined a second cup.
+We had a good look, however, at the furniture of the dwelling, the
+most interesting item of which was a family altar, something like a
+small sideboard with drawers. On it were round bronze cups of liquor,
+and other offerings. There were also about the room some objects of
+ornamented metal, betokening clever workmanship.
+
+This represents the Buriat in his civilized condition. One gets a
+better idea of his native habits and antecedents by going away from
+the haunts of the Russians, or even into the “land of grass,” as
+their Mongolian brothers call their desert. There they live in tents,
+which, like those of other Siberian aborigines, are constructed with
+poles meeting at the top, but covered with felt instead of deerskins.
+The hospitality of all Mongol tribes is unvarying. Every stranger is
+welcome, and has the best his host can give; and the more he consumes,
+the better will all be pleased. The staple dish of the Mongol yourt
+is boiled mutton, but it is unaccompanied with capers, or any other
+kind of sauce or seasoning. A sheep “goes to pot” immediately on being
+killed, and when the meat is cooked, it is lifted out of the hot water
+and handed, all dripping and steaming, to the guests. Each man takes
+a large lump on his lap, or any convenient support, and then cuts
+off little pieces, which he tosses into his mouth. The best piece is
+reserved for the guest of honour, and, as a mark of special attention,
+is frequently put into his mouth by the greasy fingers of his host.
+After the meat is devoured, the broth is drunk, and this concludes the
+meal. Knives and cups are the only aids to eating, and as each man
+carries his own “outfit,” the dinner-cloth and service does not take
+long to arrange. The entire work consists in seating the party around
+a pot of cooked meat. The Buriats are famous at drinking brick tea,
+infusing with it rye meal, mutton fat, and salt obtained from the lakes
+of the steppe. I suspect it was this we had to taste at Cheelantoui.
+So important an article of food is this tea to the Buriats, that
+they sometimes lay by stores of it as money. In dry situations, this
+substance will remain a long time undeteriorated; and consequently on
+the steppe an accumulation of it is often thought a better investment
+than herds and flocks.
+
+In the northern parts, the Buriats procure wood for fuel; but in the
+southern parts, and with the Mongols in the desert, this article is
+scarce, and they use instead sun-dried camels’ dung, which they call
+_argols_, from a Tatar word which signifies the droppings of animals
+when dried and prepared for fuel.[1]
+
+The Buriat implements for striking fire used to be preferred to
+European, and commanded a high price among the Russians. They are
+made of plates of the best tempered steel, from four to six inches
+long, stitched to a bag for holding the tinder, the bag being of red
+leather, and tastefully ornamented with silver and steel spangles. The
+English and Swedish matches have now driven them out of the Russian
+market.
+
+The ordinary occupation of the Buriats is that of tending cattle,
+the number of their herds reminding one of the flocks of the Hebrew
+patriarchs. Mr. Stallybrass told me that, when he was living at
+Selenginsk, he knew rich Buriats to possess as many as 6,000 or 7,000
+sheep, 2,000 head of horned cattle, and 200 horses; and Captain
+Cochrane mentions the case of the mother of a Buriat chief who
+possessed 40,000 sheep, 10,000 horses, and 3,000 horned cattle, besides
+a large property in furs. In a sparsely-populated country, therefore, a
+man’s children are very useful in looking after his cattle; and since
+it is necessary to be constantly removing to fresh pastures, it will
+be understood that this state of things presented to the missionaries
+a double educational difficulty, namely, unwillingness on the part
+of the parents to lose their children’s services, and their constant
+change of residence. The same difficulty besets those still who would
+carry on missionary and educational work among other wandering tribes
+of Siberia. The Buriats, in 1876, numbered 260,000--the largest of the
+native populations of Eastern Siberia. As yemstchiks we thought them
+livelier than the Russians, and there was a manly independence in
+their bearing, which easily accounted for the difficulty the Russians
+had at first in subjugating them. Moreover, they would seem not to be
+deficient in intellectual power, for the English missionaries taught
+some of them Latin, and had prepared an elementary work on geometry and
+trigonometry in the Buriat language. Baron Rosen also mentions that
+they play chess, having learnt it from the Chinese, and he says that
+the best player among his comrades, who were Russian officers, having
+on one occasion challenged a Buriat to a game, was beaten. The speech
+of the Buriats is a dialect of Mongol, rough and unsophisticated,
+with Manchu, Chinese, and Turkish corruptions. It is distinguished by
+its abundance of guttural and nasal sounds. Instead of true Mongolian
+letters they employ the Manchu alphabet, which is written in vertical
+columns from the top to the bottom of the page, the lines running from
+left to right. The only versions of the Scriptures in the Mongolian
+language are those of the Calmuck and Buriat dialects.
+
+The religion of the Buriats is of three kinds: Shamanism, Buddhism, and
+Christianity. Shamanism, more or less like that of the other tribes of
+Siberia, would appear to have been their old religion; and it still
+lingers most, I presume, in the northern parts of their country, which
+are farthest from Buddhist influence. Buddhism, however, holds sway
+over by far the greater portion of the people, and was originally
+imported from Thibet.[2]
+
+[Illustration: BURIAT LAMAS AND MONGOLIAN INTERPRETER.]
+
+The lamas, or priests, are treated with great reverence, and every
+Buddhist Buriat desires that one of his family should follow the
+priestly calling. Hence it comes to pass that the lamas compose a
+sixth--some say a fifth--of the population. When in full dress they
+are clothed in scarlet, and shave their heads all over, and their
+large ears standing off from the skull give them a curious appearance.
+They are supposed to observe the strictest celibacy; hence Mr. Michie
+observes that it is a tender point with a lama to be asked how his wife
+and family are; but Mr. Erman points out that their celibacy has the
+most prejudicial consequences. The use of spirits is forbidden to them,
+lest excess “should disorder the brain of the student of the divine
+oracles, and corrupt the heart by the bad passions it might engender.”
+The use of tobacco also is denied them, and that for one of the best
+of reasons against smoking, because “it is conducive to indolence, and
+tends to waste leisure hours which ought to be devoted to pursuits
+affording instruction as well as amusement.”[3]
+
+Besides their religious employments the lamas engage in various
+branches of ordinary industry, especially in the manufacture of
+their own wearing apparel and their ecclesiastical furniture. A lama
+labours under one inconvenience, in that he is not allowed to kill
+anything, through fear that what he slaughters may contain the soul
+of a relative, or possibly that of the divine Buddha. Even when he
+is annoyed, says Mr. Knox, by fleas or similar creeping things, with
+which their bodies are often thickly populated, he must bear his
+infliction until patience is thoroughly exhausted. He may then call
+in an unsanctified friend, and place himself and his garments under
+thorough examination. So again, in connection with this difficulty
+about killing, Captain Shepherd relates an instance in which the lamas
+did their best to keep the law and yet evade it at the same time. The
+captain, in crossing the desert, had bought a sheep, and was somewhat
+in difficulty as to how the animal should be slaughtered. There were
+four in the party. The late owner was a lama, and could not take life;
+so was the guide; the captain was unwilling to turn butcher, and his
+Chinese servant did not know how. The captain would have shot the
+animal, but the owner protested. One of the lamas, therefore, took the
+sheep aside, threw it down, tied its legs, explained to the Chinaman
+the trick, and lent his own knife for the deed to be done, after which
+he turned and walked quickly to a distance. When the sheep was once
+killed, the lamas soon cut it up, had it cooked, and, of course, helped
+to eat it.
+
+The Buddhist books teach the people that they will attain the highest
+wisdom if they honour the lama; that the sun itself rises _only_ that
+honour may be rendered to the lamas; and that persons obtain pardon for
+the most enormous sins by showing them respect. Any offence against
+a lama annihilates the merit acquired by a thousand generations.
+Whosoever shows any contempt for these personages is said to be
+punished by accident, sickness, and all kinds of misfortunes, and
+so forth. One of their Siberian monasteries, or lamaseries, with a
+temple, is at Turgutu, midway between Verchne Udinsk and Chita; and I
+think I heard of schools there. I have said that we visited a lamasery
+at Cheelantoui. It was a small one, consisting of about half-a-dozen
+houses, one of which was the temple, where, if I mistake not, they
+worship daily at sunset, but into which, unfortunately, we could not
+enter, as the chief was absent. There were younger lamas present, some
+of them mere boys; but they either could not or would not understand
+us, and seemed afraid to grant favours. We saw, however, the praying
+machine. It consisted of an upright cylinder, from two to three feet
+high, and perhaps two feet in diameter. It was fixed on a pivot, and
+could be turned by a rope, to be pulled by the devotee, who secured
+by each revolution some thousands of invocations to Buddha. Sometimes
+these machines are turned by mechanical power, like a wind or water
+mill. This, of course, is easier, and as the quantity of prayer is more
+important than the quality, the latter method saves much trouble, and
+is popular.[4]
+
+The Buriats, who are Buddhists, have temples, ritual, an order of
+priests, and a considerable literature. With a religion so developed,
+it will not be difficult to account for its overcoming the older
+Shamanistic creed, nor will it be hard to understand what was told us
+by the Ispravnik of Selenginsk,--that of the two religions among the
+Buriats, with whom the Russian missionaries come in contact, they find
+the conversion of the Shaman Buriats tolerably easy, but the Buddhists
+are greatly opposed to Christianity.
+
+We now come to that part of the Buriat people who are Christian.
+Perhaps it was an inquiry into the false religion of Buddha, under
+which so many millions of the human race are deluded, or perchance
+only a timid belief in the power of their own creed, that led our
+early travellers in Siberia, with one exception, to look coldly and
+unbelievingly on the efforts of the English mission to the Buriats; in
+connection with which the thought arises for how little the heathen
+world would have to thank the Christianity of England, if there
+were not some who take a more believing view than the travellers
+who go abroad, looking in a superficial way at what is being done,
+or sometimes not looking at all, and then coming home to pronounce
+missions a failure or an imposture. Captain Cochrane, for instance,
+speaking of the missionaries at Selenginsk, goes so far as to say, “For
+my own part, so small are my hopes of their success, that I do not
+expect any one Buriat will be really and truly converted.”[5]
+
+I have shown, however, that the English missionaries laid a solid
+foundation, taught several scholars, and translated the Scriptures,
+which translation the Russian missionaries have in their hands to-day;
+and whatever may have been the success or failures of the English, it
+certainly cannot be said of the Russian missionaries that they have no
+converts, for, such as they are, they count them by thousands.
+
+The Ispravnik at Selenginsk told me there were about 40 men engaged in
+nine districts in the Russian mission to the Buriats, though I am not
+aware whether some of them are not also parish priests. We called upon
+a priest at Verchne Udinsk to ask about the matter, and sold him some
+New Testaments and Gospels. He informed us that there were 15 mission
+stations among them, and that on the eastern side of Lake Baikal there
+were baptized annually about 300 Buriats, and on the western side more
+than 1,000. This was confirmed by the missionary upon whom we called
+further on, and it agrees tolerably with the general almanack of 1878,
+in which it is stated that in the Irkutsk diocese there were baptized,
+in the previous year, 1,505 of both sexes, including four Buriat lamas;
+though the number of converts given for the Trans-Baikal diocese for
+that year amounted to only 52, there being one lama to every 20 persons.
+
+We had brought with us a number of copies of the Buriat Scriptures.
+Some of these we left at Irkutsk, some with the Ispravniks of
+Selenginsk and Troitzkosavsk, and some for the lamasery of Cheelantoui.
+Others we left at Chita with a view to spreading them over the
+district, as well as placing them in the prisons. I asked the Ispravnik
+at Selenginsk what he thought the lamas would do with the books. He
+said he thought they would first read them and then destroy them; but
+Mr. Stallybrass, on my return, was of opinion that they were likely
+to be deterred from destroying them by a feeling that they were
+holy books. In any case we gave the copies we had brought, and thus
+endeavoured to do what little we could for this interesting people,
+who, I doubt not, will gradually be absorbed into the Russian Church.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The collecting, pounding, moulding, and drying of dung is, further
+south, an important branch of commerce. Argols are of four classes.
+In the first rank are the argols of goats and sheep, which make so
+fierce a fire that a bar of iron placed therein is soon brought to a
+white heat. The argols of camels constitute the second class; they burn
+easily, and throw out a fine flame, but the heat they give is less
+intense than that given by the preceding. The third class comprises
+the argols of the bovine species; these, when thoroughly dry, burn
+readily, and produce no smoke. Lastly come the argols of horses and
+other animals, which, not having undergone the process of rumination,
+present nothing but a mass of straw more or less triturated. They are
+soon consumed, but are useful for lighting a fire. This fuel is called
+_kiseek_ in Russia, and in the southern governments was the only kind
+available for the poorer inhabitants, wood being very scarce and dear.
+The discovery of coal, and the establishment of manufactories, has
+wrought a complete change in the means of heating in Ekaterinoslaf.
+Kiseek was made from the dung of cattle and sheep, laboriously trodden
+under foot by women, and then sun-dried.
+
+[2] At Lhassa, the capital of Thibet, dwells the _Dalai Lama_, who is
+the head of the Buddhist religion; and though his followers acknowledge
+him to be mortal, they believe his soul to be an immediate emanation
+from the essence of their supreme deity, Buddha. In places where this
+worship prevails are found religious communities gathered round the
+temples dedicated to the rites of their faith, and monasteries, or,
+as they are called, _lamaseries_, containing the various orders of
+priests. It was one of these we visited at Cheelantoui. When the great
+lama dies, it is held that his spirit immediately enters the body of
+another human being, who thus becomes successor to all the rights and
+privileges held by his predecessor, and some little difficulty often
+occurs in discovering who may be the favoured individual; but as the
+priests are the chief actors in the scene, their search is generally
+successful. Commonly the spirit is recognized as having animated some
+new-born infant, who is at once taken to the religious establishment
+and educated by the lamas in the mysteries of their faith.
+
+[3] The lamas are divided into four classes. Those of the first are
+occupied with the study of doctrine, and with the tenets and mysteries
+of their faith; those of the second with the regulation of certain
+religious rites and ceremonies; those of the third busy themselves in
+the study and direction of their worship; the fourth class study and
+practise medicine, in which it would appear that some of them attain
+eminence, for when we arrived at Kiakhta we found Mr. Tokmakoff, on
+account of his health, was gone to Urga, the Mongolian capital, to be
+near a native doctor.
+
+[4] Inside the cylinder is placed the oft-used prayer of the Buddhist,
+“_Om mani padme houm_,” of which a Russian near the monastery said the
+meaning was _Gospodi pomilui_,--_i.e._, “Lord, have mercy upon us!”
+Its real meaning, however, does not appear to be very clear. Klaproth
+understood it to mean, “_O the gem in the lotus. Amen!_” and Huc
+paraphrases it into, “_O that I may obtain perfection, and be absorbed
+in Buddha. Amen._” The lamas assert that the doctrine contained in
+the marvellous words is immense, and that the whole life of man is
+insufficient to measure its depth and extent. At Lhassa the formula
+is heard from every mouth--is everywhere visible in the streets, in
+the interior of the houses, and on every flag and streamer floating
+over the buildings, printed in Tatar and Thibetan characters. Certain
+rich and zealous Buddhists even entertain, at their own expense,
+companies of lamas for the propagation of the _mani_; and these strange
+missionaries, chisel and hammer in hand, traverse field, mountain,
+and desert to engrave the sacred formula on the stones and rocks they
+encounter in their path. There was a stone with inscriptions, in the
+temple yard at Cheelantoui; and I found other stones, bearing the
+_mani_, on the supposed site of a temple at Tyr, on the Lower Amur.
+
+[5] He does, indeed, afterwards allow that what is impossible with man
+is possible with God; but goes on to insinuate that the missionaries
+knew of the uselessness of their work, but that they had “too
+comfortable a berth to be given up,” and then he thinks, forsooth,
+that justice is not done to the people of England in so squandering
+money, etc., etc. Mr. Atkinson contented himself with a passing
+compliment to the character of the missionaries, and said that they
+were unable to make converts among the Buriats; whilst Mr. Hill, who
+visited Selenginsk, records that, “notwithstanding all their labours,
+not a single Buriat had been converted by them”; and then he quotes
+the testimony of a lady living on the spot, who said, “The missions
+only failed because the undertaking was beyond the power of man to
+accomplish unaided by more than his own genius. The missionaries
+had all the zeal and perseverance of the Apostles, but they wanted
+their power of working miracles, or the aid of some such startling
+circumstances as the history of religious revolutions has often
+presented to us, and without which all efforts at all times to convert
+the Buriats will be equally fruitless.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+_SIBERIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS._
+
+ The Za-Baikal a natural prison.--“Decembrists” of
+     1825.--Misapprehensions respecting political prisoners.--The
+     story of Elizabeth.--Vindictive foreign writers.--Palpable
+     misstatements.--Misleading information.--Dostoyeffsky’s “Buried
+     Alive.”--Rosen’s “Russian Conspirators.”--Present condition
+     of political prisoners.--Testimony of Poles.--Treatment
+     of an attempted regicide.--The number of “politicals”
+     exaggerated.--Calculations concerning them.--Their mode of
+     transport.--Paucity of statistics accounted for.
+
+
+The Trans-Baikal province, east of the “Holy Sea,” was, until within
+the past 30 years, a _cul-de-sac_, to which the gravest of political
+offenders were commonly deported. It lay outside the two great routes
+of Siberian travel. The traveller to the Pacific, by way of the Lena,
+left the province on his right; the merchant going to Kiakhta passed it
+on his left. There was, indeed, a road running through the province,
+but it might be said to lead to nowhere. It was, moreover, a country
+from which a prisoner found it difficult to escape. If he went to the
+north he came to enormous forests, in which, though he might find
+berries in summer, he could not live in winter. Southwards he was
+hemmed in by the Mongolian desert. The road eastwards brought him to
+a river, down which, if he could float 2,000 miles and escape the
+jealous Chinese, he might reach the Pacific; or, again, if he turned
+to the west, and rounded or crossed the Baikal lake, he was likely to
+be caught in the neighbourhood of Irkutsk; and lastly, in whatever
+direction he went, there was a price on his head that could be claimed
+by any Buriat who chose to make him his prisoner, and bring him to the
+authorities either dead or alive.
+
+There was also another reason, which, in the eyes of the Government,
+made the Za-Baikal a suitable place in which to confine the worst
+offenders; for the province is rich in silver and gold, and gems
+are found in its mountains. It provided a place, therefore, where
+they could segregate disturbing elements of society, exact enforced
+labour from their convicts, and to some extent mitigate the cost of
+keeping them by the value of the minerals obtained. Consequently “the
+silver-mines of Nertchinsk” has long been an expression, at the mention
+of which the ears of Russians tingle; and so it was with the prisons of
+Chita and Petrovski,--connected in their minds with political exiles,
+and especially with certain of them called “Decembrists,” who in
+December 1825 tried to raise revolt among the soldiers of Nicolas, and
+deprive him of his throne.
+
+The mines of Nertchinsk and Kara will be treated of in subsequent
+chapters. I purpose to speak in this, not of political exiles with
+their families and descendants generally, but of the condition of
+_political prisoners_, past and present, and of certain buildings in
+which some of them have been confined. That there exists a great deal
+of exaggeration and misapprehension in England, on the Continent, and
+in America respecting the number, misery, and degradation of Russian
+political prisoners I am persuaded; nor is this hard to account for
+if regard be had to the character of the books which profess to give
+information upon the subject.
+
+Let us begin, for instance, with the touching story of “Elizabeth; or,
+the Exiles of Siberia,” by Madame de Cottin, to whose work many English
+persons are indebted for nearly all they know of Siberia. The book so
+far resembles the truth that, in 1799, a young girl of 18, the only
+daughter of a Russian exiled officer, Proscovie Lopouloff, formed the
+project of asking forgiveness for her parents, for which purpose she
+left Ischim, near Tobolsk, with a few roubles in her pocket, walked
+in 18 months 2,000 miles to the capital, was presented, and obtained
+her petition, the real account of which is told by Xavier de Maistre
+in “La Jeune Sibérienne.” But Madame de Cottin imported a love-match
+into the story, and produced one of the most popular books of her day,
+depicting, however, a narrative for which she had to rely largely upon
+her imagination for many details. She paints a picture of Siberian
+exile life very different from anything I ever heard, saw, or read of
+in the country itself. Her mistakes, however, were the mistakes such as
+any foreign author might easily commit in laying the scene of a story
+in a country then almost unknown.
+
+Less excuse can be made for later writers (some of them escaped or
+released convicts), who, trading upon the credulity and ignorance
+of the public, have retailed and garnished accounts of horrible
+severities, which they neither profess to have witnessed, nor
+attempt to support by adequate testimony. In one of these books, by
+Alexander Hertzen, published in 1855, the author naïvely says in the
+preface that, having written in London a work, entitled “Prison and
+Exile,” which met with success, he decided to write another volume.
+He accordingly did so, and had the audacity to call it “My Exile in
+Siberia”; whereas, on reading the book, we find that he was not exiled
+to Siberia at all, but simply banished for awhile to Perm, which is
+in Russia in Europe! Again we have, in De Lagny’s “Knout and the
+Russians,” published in 1854, a tirade against Russia all through, in
+which words bad enough can hardly be found to vilify its army, navy,
+nobility, and clergy; whilst in the following year was published
+“Recollections of Russia by a German Nobleman,” in which he states
+that, for prisoners, water was drawn up green from the filthiest canal
+in Petersburg; and, as if that were too little, he adds that, after
+being knouted, the prisoners had to drink their own blood!
+
+The books quoted thus far are mostly foreign productions, which have
+been translated into English; but within the past three years has
+been published in London a book called “The Russians of To-day,” by
+the author of “The Member for Paris,” and dedicated to the Duke of
+Sutherland, which gives the following account of a Russian prison (page
+86):--
+
+“A Russian gaol is not built on any wasteful plan of keeping prisoners
+warm and comfortable. A black, mouldy house, situate in one of the
+slums of the town, it is guarded by a dozen corp-headed soldiers, and
+has a painted escutcheon with the Imperial double-headed eagle over the
+gate. There is a whipping-post in the front yard. Thieves, murderers,
+boys, lunatics, women, are all huddled together in a room of foul
+stenches, warmed by a stove, and the only food served out to them is
+a pound of black bread in the morning, and a mess of rancid soup at
+mid-day. The sexes are separated at night.”
+
+Now as there will appear to be a great difference between this account
+and what has been stated in my chapters on Siberian prisons, I think it
+only right to say that I have visited Russian houses of detention from
+the White Sea in the north to the Black Sea and the Persian frontier
+in the south, and from Warsaw in the west to the Pacific in the east,
+but have never yet seen a Russian prison such as fairly answers to
+the description given above. My experience would place prisons in the
+suburbs rather than the “slums” of towns; and as for their atmosphere,
+I may safely say that the air I breathed in the worst Russian prison
+was incomparably better than that I had temporarily to endure in
+some of the peasants’ houses, or which may be inhaled in many of the
+post-houses. The “one pound of black bread” should be multiplied by
+two and a half or three, and in some cases _four_; and as for “the
+whipping-post,” I have seen such a thing in English and in American
+prisons, but not in Russia. The “_kobyla_,” or “mare,” used in flogging
+with the “_plète_” in _Siberia_, will be described further on; and I
+do not deny that in Russia there may be _some_ instrument to which
+those to be birched are fastened, but I have never seen one, though I
+have usually made a point of asking concerning the mode of corporal
+punishment.
+
+Again, the same author says (page 217):--
+
+“The convicts are forwarded to Siberia in convoys, which start at the
+commencement of spring, just after the snows have melted and left the
+ground dry. They perform the _whole_ journey on foot, escorted by
+_mounted_ Cossacks, who are armed with pistols, _lances_, and long
+_whips_; and behind them jolt a long string of springless tumbrils,
+to carry those who fall lame or ill on the way. The start is _always_
+made in the night, and care is taken that the convoys shall only pass
+through the towns on their road _after dark_. Each man is dressed in a
+grey kaftan, having a _brass numbered plate_ fastened to the _breast_,
+_knee_ boots, and a _sheepskin_ bonnet. He carries a _rug_ strapped to
+his back, a mess-tin, and a wooden spoon at his girdle. The women have
+black cloaks with hoods, and march in gangs by _themselves_, with an
+escort of soldiers like the men, and two or three female _warders_, who
+travel in carts.
+
+“In leaving large cities like Petersburg, _all_ the prisoners are
+chained with their hands _behind their backs_; but their fetters are
+removed outside the city, except in the case of men who have been
+marked as dangerous. These have to wear leg-chains of 4 lbs. weight all
+the way; and some of the more desperate ones are yoked by threes to
+a _beam of wood_, which rests on their shoulders, and is fastened to
+their necks by iron collars.”
+
+The author then goes on to say that “Nihilist conspirators, patriotic
+Poles, and young student girls, are all mixed up, and tramp together
+with the criminals.”
+
+The words I have italicised (of which there are 23 in 26 lines)
+involve, in many cases, palpable misstatements. In others they are
+blunders, or are, at all events, open to serious question. As in the
+case of Madame de Cottin (only with less innocence), a very free rein
+has been here given to the imagination. The avoiding of towns by day,
+the brass plate on the breast (instead of a piece of yellow _cloth_
+on the _back_), the accompanying female warders, and the chaining of
+men’s hands behind their backs, are _blunders_ utterly inexcusable;
+and as for the mounted Cossacks with whips, and the “beams of wood”
+on some of the exiles’ necks--_if_ the Cossacks were _mounted_, they
+would naturally have whips as part of their accoutrements, as they do
+even when riding behind the carriage of the Emperor, but the “beam
+of wood” is a pure invention. I never saw, heard, or read of such an
+instrument. Upon these last two points, however, to correct my own
+opinion if wrong, I spoke to an Englishman living in a town through
+which pass all the Siberian exiles. He has lived there many years, and
+has seen exiles from Perm to Kiakhta, and under all conditions. He
+tells me, however, that he _never_ saw this wooden collar, and never
+saw soldiers with whips to conduct exiles; and he added, further, that
+he had never witnessed them using exiles improperly or unfairly. Thus
+it will be seen that some of the information offered to the public
+respecting Russian exiles is open to more than suspicion of grave
+misrepresentation.
+
+But there is yet a third class of books which, in detailing past
+horrors, leads public opinion astray, not so much by saying what is
+absolutely untrue, as by omitting to point out that since the horrors
+they relate were enacted, the law has been altered, and that they
+are now a thing of the past. Englishmen would think themselves very
+unfairly dealt with if a foreigner, having seen an old pair of stocks
+in an English village, appealed to this as proof that persons are
+still exposed therein; or if he hunted up stories of Tyburn, with
+accounts of gibbeted felons hung, drawn, and quartered, or pilloried
+criminals with slit noses and cropped ears, and then represented this
+as the existing state of things, or left his readers so to infer. This
+would be very similar to the treatment Russia receives at the hands of
+prejudiced and careless writers now-a-days, as will be seen more fully
+hereafter when we speak of the mines.
+
+To keep, however, for the present, to books about prisons, and to
+mention one more which has appeared in English dress during the
+present year--namely, Dostoyeffsky’s “Buried Alive; or, Ten Years’
+Penal Servitude in Siberia,” to which I naturally turned with interest
+as it was written by a Russian. I was struck at the outset with the
+significant fact that the reader is not properly informed as to places
+and dates. The introduction sets forth that a certain Alexander
+Petrovitch Goryantchikoff died, after whose death there was found
+among his papers a bundle of manuscripts, which the editor, Feodor
+Dostoyeffsky, thought would interest the public. But scarcely a word is
+dropped to inform the reader when the events referred to took place,
+and he is left to form the very natural conclusion that he is reading
+of things as they now exist. My suspicions being aroused, I put on my
+best critical spectacles to discover, if possible, _where_ the events
+happened, and _when_. The writer mentions having been in Tobolsk,
+and says that his prison was near the banks of the Irtish. Now there
+was, and perhaps is, a prison on the banks of the Irtish at Tara, the
+same from which Rufin Pietrowski made his escape; and at first I was
+disposed to think this was the place of Goryantchikoff’s captivity,
+but two subsequent allusions gave me additional light: one, that in
+the prison was a Jew who went out in the town to a _synagogue_; and
+another, that on some prisoners running away the _Governor-General_
+was told of it. Now, assuming that the Governor-General was living in
+the town, then the only prison situate on the banks of the Irtish, in
+a town with a synagogue and the residence of a Governor-General, would
+be Omsk, and here accordingly I adjudged my man as to his _place_.
+Then as for the _date_. The writer speaks of prisoners’ chains made of
+“four iron rods, the size of the finger, connected by three rings and
+worn under the trousers.” I saw none like these. All we saw had small
+_links_, and hence I assumed that the chains described must have been
+of an old-fashioned pattern of former days, and I have since learnt
+that chains such as the man describes were seen on a prisoner going
+to the Caucasus in 1842. Next he speaks a good deal of flogging, and
+mentions the running of a prisoner down “the green lane,” that is,
+between two rows of soldiers, each of whom gave the culprit a stroke
+with a stick. But this method of punishment has long been abolished in
+Russia; and, finally, the writer, when speaking of his conversation
+with a fellow-prisoner, happens to use this sentence: “I explained to
+him Napoleon’s position, adding that he might, perhaps, some day become
+Emperor of the French.” Taking, therefore, these three _data_, that
+Napoleon became Emperor in 1851, that the flogging of the description
+mentioned was abolished not later than 1860, and the old pattern of the
+chains, I came to the conclusion that the story must represent events
+at least 30 years old; and I have since heard that it was about as
+long ago the book appeared in Russia. Now, of course, the translation
+might not have sold so well had readers been informed that it treats of
+a state of things more than a quarter of a century old; yet, no doubt,
+so candid a statement would have prevented many from forming false
+opinions respecting the present state of Siberian prisons.[1]
+
+But Goryantchikoff’s, it should be remembered, is a picture of a
+convict prison for _criminals_, and not for _political_ prisoners, who
+are treated as a class by themselves,--so much so that they are sent
+to Siberia, not usually walking, under the charge of Cossacks, but
+driving furiously under guard of gendarmes; and if they need to lodge
+at an ordinary prison, they are kept in special rooms, and so jealously
+watched that frequently I was not allowed to approach the inspection
+hole so much as to look at them. It may be that when they reach their
+destination they have, in some cases, to work outdoors in company with
+criminals. I think I met one case of this at Kara, but even he, in the
+prison, was kept apart.
+
+Probably the best, and, as far as I know, the only book in English
+which gives the description by an eye-witness of life in a _political_
+prison is “Russian Conspirators in Siberia,” by Baron R(osen). He
+relates his taking part in the attempt to incite the soldiers to revolt
+on the accession of Nicolas in 1825, and how he was condemned with
+120 comrades, large numbers of whom were counts, barons, princes, and
+some of the very flower of the Russian nobility. About 30 were at once
+transported to Chita. There they remained until a new prison was built
+expressly to contain them all at Petrovski, near Verchne Udinsk, at
+which place are the ironworks already alluded to. In these two places
+of confinement the Baron spent six years. I do not remember that he
+ever speaks of one of his comrades being thrashed. The Russian law,
+even in those days, held exempt from corporal punishments every noble,
+not only during his trial, but after his condemnation. The wearing of
+chains was included among corporal punishments, and it was forbidden to
+put them on nobles going into exile; but the law appears to have been
+set aside in the case of some of the Decembrists. The Baron describes
+their labour as that of digging and grinding corn in hand-mills. One
+of their first occupations was to dig the foundations for their new
+prison. “Every day,” the Baron writes, “except Sundays and holy days,
+the non-commissioned officer on guard entered early in the morning with
+the call of ‘Gentlemen, to work!’ In general we set out with songs
+on our lips and energy in our hearts; no constraint was used towards
+us.” He gives likewise a vivid picture of their amusements and their
+studies. Playing-cards they might have had through the warders, but
+they wisely passed their word to each other not to allow card-playing,
+in order to prevent any cause of unpleasantness or dissension. Chess
+was their sole amusement between the time of work and sleep, and they
+formed among themselves a company of singers, which cheered many a sad
+hour. Some of them endeavoured, by study, further to improve their
+minds. One learnt not only Latin and Greek, but also eight modern
+languages; and it says much for the high education of the prisoners
+that this proficient found an instructor in each of the languages
+among his comrades, one of whom was still living, not many years ago,
+at Petrovsky Zavod, and lent my informant several books from what was
+the Decembrist library. They had, too, a room in which they practised
+the piano, the flute, the flageolet, the violin, and guitar. The most
+touching part of the book, however, recounts the arrival of some of
+the prisoners’ wives. Every effort short of absolute denial had been
+employed to prevent these noble ladies from expatriating themselves.
+Their heroic determination wrung tears from the eyes of the officials
+who had in vain dissuaded them. These ladies were compelled to resign
+their titles, and were warned that they would not be permitted to
+return. Several of them, notwithstanding, gave up all to be allowed to
+join their husbands, and in so doing covered their names with undying
+lustre in the annals of Russian history. They were allowed to live with
+or near their husbands, and several had children, two of whom--a lady
+and a gentleman--I have met in Europe. The Baron’s book nowhere stoops
+to invective or misrepresentation; on the contrary, he acknowledges
+“there was reason enough for our having been treated thus”; but at
+the same time he tells a sad story, which is all the more touching
+because told so calmly, of what he and his comrades suffered. He was
+at length allowed to return to his home in Esthonia, in 1839, after 14
+years’ imprisonment and exile. About 500 non-commissioned officers and
+soldiers, I am told, were sent to Omsk and different places, where they
+were by far less well treated than their superior officers under whom
+they had rebelled.[2]
+
+I have thus spoken of the political or State prison at Petrovski,
+which, as far as I know, is the only building there has ever been
+in Siberia that could with propriety be called a State prison for
+political offenders. It was burnt down many years ago, and has not
+been rebuilt. Of the prison at Chita, and the accommodation for
+political prisoners at Kara, mention will be made hereafter. Meanwhile
+it should be borne in mind we have been speaking of events which
+happened about half a century ago.
+
+We now pass from the condition of political prisoners as they _were_
+to treat of political prisoners as they _are_. I shall speak of those
+with whom I was brought in contact and with whom I conversed, and will
+put the worst case first. It is that of a Pole, who was concerned
+in the insurrection of 1863, at which time he was a student for the
+Roman priesthood, and, under cover of his clerical garb, had busied
+himself in procuring arms and provisions for the Polish rebels. On
+the suppression of the insurrection he fled from the country, but was
+foolish enough to return, six years afterwards, by permission, he
+said, of the Emperor; and within three days was taken, and, without
+trial, sent to a prison at Oriel for a year. After this he was sent to
+Irkutsk, and there learned that he was condemned for eight years to the
+mines, at which he arrived in 1871, having been a year on the route
+from Tiumen. He had 20 Polish companion exiles, some of whom were in
+irons, though his clerical character saved him from this degradation.
+The Polish party travelled by themselves as far as Tobolsk, beyond
+which they were sometimes compelled to walk and lodge with criminal
+prisoners, who robbed my informant of 300 roubles, which his mother
+had sewn at the back of his coat collar. He complained that some of
+the prison officers were great despots; in illustration of which he
+stated how, whilst they were at Nijni Udinsk, some of the prisoners
+having escaped at night, the governor of the jail procured rods from
+the neighbouring woods and birched the rest of them, I suppose on the
+ground of aiding and abetting the escape of the others. The 21 Poles,
+however, were not in the ward from which the escape was made, and this
+they urged, but apparently to no purpose, for the governor seemed to
+have been enraged beyond bounds, and in some cases to have used, not
+only rods, but the plète and clubs. My informant declared that of the
+300 Russians and 21 Poles thus treated, 17 subsequently died, though he
+could not give me any satisfactory evidence as to how, after leaving
+the place, he got this information; but the affair must have been
+serious (though abnormal), for, on arriving at Irkutsk they presented
+a petition to the governor, an inquiry was instituted (especially as
+regards the Poles), and the violent prison official was telegraphed
+for, and himself incarcerated, though how punished my informant did not
+know. He also complained that one of his companions was badly treated
+on the road, being lame, and yet made to hurry along.
+
+When, however, the Polish cleric arrived at the mines, he did not
+appear to have once worked in them, as the chief made him his cook,
+exchanged his prison allowance for five roubles a month, and fed and
+lodged him thus for six years, after which the remaining two years
+were remitted on the score of good conduct. He was afterwards located
+in a small village in the Za-Baikal, but had obtained permission to
+live elsewhere, and when I met him he was respectably dressed, and
+apparently earning a good livelihood. Thus my informant’s _gravamina_,
+as regarded himself, were not so heavy as it might have been feared.
+He said, indeed, that four or five letters reached him at the mines,
+informing him that money was enclosed, which he never received.
+
+He had more to say of the way in which some of his fellow-prisoners
+were treated, to which I shall allude when speaking hereafter of the
+mines.[3]
+
+I did, it is true, meet another Pole who complained, though I do not
+know whether he was a political or a criminal offender, but I have
+already referred to him and the information he gave me respecting the
+prison at Irkutsk. There was a third Pole, also a student, banished
+after the insurrection of 1863, whom we met in the streets of Atchinsk,
+who looked very gloomy, and spoke in a very dispirited and dissatisfied
+manner; but he was free, having his wife and children with him, and he
+named no one particular cause of complaint. Still, I have mentioned
+these cases fully, though they seem somewhat opposed to the opinion
+I have stated, that there exists a great deal of misapprehension
+respecting the number, misery, and degradation of Russian political
+prisoners.
+
+The severest case of punishment of a political prisoner I met with
+was that of, I think, a Nihilist, at Kara, who had daily to go to
+work in the gold-mines; but, on returning, he had a room to himself,
+some of his own furniture, fittings, and books, one of which was on
+political economy. His wife lived in the neighbourhood, and could see
+him lawfully, and bring him food at frequent intervals; and it was
+not difficult for her to see him unlawfully, for just in front of his
+window passed the public road, where she could stand and talk to him
+with ease.
+
+I met in Siberia one political prisoner whose case was more surprising,
+perhaps, than any I have mentioned. It was that of a man who had been
+concerned in one of the attempts upon the life of the late Emperor. He
+was sentenced to the mines, and no doubt popular imagination pictured
+him chained, and tormented to within an inch of his life; whereas I
+found him confined indeed, but only to the neighbourhood, and dressed,
+if I remember rightly, in a tweed suit, looking highly presentable,
+and engaged in a way that I purposely avoid naming, but which did not
+necessitate the soiling of his fingers. Again, I had two opportunities
+of speaking to upper-class prisoners in French, which the authorities
+accompanying me did not understand; therefore these men had no reason
+to fear speaking out plainly. One was a political prisoner; concerning
+the other I am not sure; but I asked them both whether they had any
+cause of complaint in the prison regimen. The first said the only
+thing he thought unjust was that he was not allowed to smoke, which
+one of my exile informants deems incredible, since at Nertchinsk,
+when, for insubordination, they were deprived of meat, milk, and tea,
+for weeks, they were still allowed to smoke, as a supposed preventive
+against scurvy. The man, moreover, in the neighbouring cell--a fat
+man--a defaulting post-master, a drunkard and a gambler, who would have
+made an admirable Falstaff, was smoking, and I should not wonder if
+by this time the grievance is mended. The second man, a doctor, said
+that he had been taken about from place to place, and did not know his
+destination, though he thought it would be Irkutsk, but that he had
+nothing to complain of.
+
+Supposing, then, that these instances throw any light upon the misery
+and alleged degradation of political prisoners, I have yet to offer
+some remarks upon their supposed numbers--that is, the average number
+banished annually at the time of my visit--for I do not profess here
+to deal with those sent into exile after the Polish insurrection of
+1863, with their families and descendants, nor of Nihilists deported
+since the assassination of the late Emperor. Mr. Whyte, in his “Land
+Journey from Asia to Europe,” says: “It is calculated that in Eastern
+Siberia alone there are at least from 30,000 to 40,000 _Polish
+political_ exiles, but they are kept in different portions for fear
+of disturbances, a great many having to work in the mines.” Now let
+us suppose for the moment that these figures are something like the
+truth, then let us add to this calculation for Eastern Siberia, whither
+are banished the gravest offenders, at least twice as many for Western
+Siberia, whither are sent those losing particular rights only; and this
+will give, say, 120,000 Polish political exiles in the whole country.
+Let us further suppose that they represent the surviving total of 30
+years’ deportations, not including, of course, their families and
+descendants. Then this gives a yearly influx to Siberia of 4,000 Polish
+_political_ exiles! Now from statistics given me in Warsaw last autumn,
+taken from the report sent to the Emperor, it appeared that the total
+number of Polish _criminal_ prisoners sent to Siberia in the year I
+passed through (1879) was 898; and last year, up to September, the
+number, as I had it straight from the prison books, was 270. Supposing,
+then, the politicals to number one-tenth of the criminals (which I
+judge far too great a proportion), it would give less than one-fortieth
+of the numbers quoted by Mr. Whyte respecting Polish political exiles.
+
+I base my opinion, however, mainly upon other calculations, such
+as these: the prisoners must sometimes be lodged, permanently or
+temporarily, as they go to their destinations. But it has been already
+stated that there is now no building in Siberia answering to a State
+prison, and further that political prisoners, when confined, are kept
+not only apart from criminals, but as far as possible from one another.
+I fail to see, then, where all these multitudes are to be properly
+lodged, as at Tiumen, for instance, whilst they wait for the arrival of
+the steamer, or at other prisons where they may have to stop, but in
+none of which we found more than a very few separate chambers--always
+less, I think, than 20. Again, another difficulty is presented by the
+possibilities of separate conveyance for so large a number. It is not
+very long since that 78 political exiles passed through Tiumen, a town
+where, in summer, from 500 to 700 criminals pass through weekly; but
+these 78 politicals excited such a commotion that there was a general
+“turn out” to look at them; and the manager of the steamboat was at his
+wits’ end to know how properly to convey them; for political prisoners
+are not now sent, I am informed, in the common prisoners’ barges.
+To give each man a cabin was impossible; to put two in a cabin was
+unlawful; and so they compromised the matter by putting husbands and
+wives together. But, if a batch of 78 made all this commotion, what
+would the annual passing through of 4,000 _politicals_ do?
+
+Again, Kara, I was told, was a special place for political offenders,
+and I saw and heard of more there than in any other prison. They had,
+at the time of my visit, 2,458 prisoners of all sorts, all of whose
+crimes were given me duly tabulated, with the exception of 73, which
+came under the heading “_various_.” Now, supposing all these 73 were
+political offenders (and I have not the least reason for thinking
+they were, but) even then the proportion of politicals would be only
+one-thirtieth of the criminals.
+
+Once more: a recent correspondent of the _Gaulois_ for 30th September,
+1881, describing the last occasion on which he saw the exiled
+Tchernichewsky at Kadaya, near Nertchinsk, just after the news had been
+received of the assassination of President Lincoln, says, “At this time
+the number of (Russian?) political prisoners was not great; they might
+easily be counted.... I believe there were not 20 of them; if mistaken,
+I may certainly affirm there were not 50.” This scrap of information
+has come to hand very opportunely, for I have reason to believe that
+it may be relied on, and Nertchinsk was the only other district for
+political prisoners concerning which, until a few days ago, I did not
+feel satisfactorily informed.
+
+Lastly, the summer of 1879 was supposed to be a very heavy one for the
+transport of Nihilists and revolutionary offenders. It was just after
+one of the attempts on the late Emperor’s life, and Petersburg was put
+under a military governor. The _Daily Telegraph_, on the 2nd June,
+informed its readers, as I have said before, that “a large number of
+convicts were about to be despatched to Saghalien from Odessa, the
+service which provides for the ordinary transportation of criminals to
+Siberia being already overtaxed.” We were therefore traversing Siberia
+at a time and under circumstances particularly favourable for knowing
+the real condition of things; and as we went along the only route by
+which these exiles could possibly travel to Eastern Siberia, it might
+have been expected that we should see or hear something of them. The
+numbers, however, with whom we were brought in contact on the outward
+journey could easily have been counted on our fingers; and if it should
+seem that, having started early in the season, we had travelled in
+advance of them, then my interpreter, who returned from the Amur, had
+the opportunity of meeting them, or hearing of them, as he went back.
+As a matter of fact, however, he met, between the Amur and the Urals,
+three special convoys only. The first contained one prisoner, who said
+he was going to Kara; the next consisted of seven vehicles, each of
+which contained a soldier on the box, and a gendarme at the side of the
+prisoner; and the third convoy consisted of 21 vehicles, each filled in
+like manner. Thus, excepting the 78, or the possible 73 just mentioned,
+the total number we met or _definitely_ heard of all across Asia, both
+in going and returning, did not amount, I should think, to 50.
+
+I write, then, under correction, and shall be glad to be set right if I
+am wrong; but I must now leave it to my readers to judge whether or not
+the considerations brought forward are such as to justify my opinion
+respecting the number, degradation, and misery of political prisoners.
+I have few statistics on the point, from the fact that political
+offenders are treated as belonging to a special department, and are
+unconnected with the ordinary sources from which I obtained my figures.
+This I did not know until I had left European Russia, and hence my
+inability to give other than general reasons. My impression, therefore,
+is that the greater number of the political exiles either go to prison
+only for a short time, or not at all, and are then placed in villages
+and towns. They are then expected to get their living. (I have recently
+heard that, at the time of the burning of Krasnoiarsk, there were 40
+living free in the town.)
+
+This they do in a variety of ways. Some are teachers of languages,
+some are tradesmen, and some are photographers. We met, for instance,
+two exile photographers at Tobolsk. As strangers we had, of course, no
+means of identifying exiles from other people, though we were sometimes
+brought into contact with them, from the fact that many of the Poles
+speak French. Moreover, as the question of prison and exiles was, so
+to say, my speciality, I was always glad, when opportunity presented
+itself, to converse with them directly rather than get my information
+translated. A stranger, however, who believes every exile who calls
+himself a “political,” may easily be misled. To be a “political”
+prisoner in Siberia is to be more or less of a gentleman, and many try
+thus to pass themselves off. Mr. Ashton Dilke, M.P., who travelled some
+years ago in Southern Siberia, and spoke Russian, has told me that,
+on asking gangs of convicts if they had any politicals or “gentlemen”
+prisoners among them, they usually said “No”; and that, in the case
+of one man who imposed upon him and tried to palm himself off as a
+“political,” the Governor showed Mr. Dilke the man’s papers, which
+described him as a criminal, a thief, etc.
+
+In Irkutsk I met an exile who told me he was a captain, and had been
+banished for a duel, which no doubt he thought a respectable crime;
+but, upon my repeating it to others who knew the man, they said he was
+a forger. Looking, however, at the political prisoners I saw in the
+separate rooms of the various prisons, at those with whom I came into
+personal contact, those pointed out to me, and those of whom mention
+was made as living in the towns through which we passed, I think that,
+if I had been commissioned to give a sovereign to each, 50 coins would
+have sufficed for the purpose. It is not pretended, of course, that a
+lover of statistics can or ought to attempt to build anything definite
+upon this statement; but, until proof is brought to the contrary, it
+may perhaps tend to modify what I deem the exaggerated and extravagant
+notions as to the number of Siberian _political_ prisoners, and to show
+at least that they are not as “plentiful as blackberries.”[4]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Let me not fail to add, however, that the whole tone of
+Dostoyeffsky’s book is far above that of the vindictive class of
+writers, some of whom have been alluded to. It gives an inner view
+of prison life, such as no inspector, or philanthropist, or person
+visiting prisons as I did, could furnish. Some of this writer’s
+statements, indeed, would hardly tally with my own experience, as,
+for instance, that they had the bath _seldom_, whereas I found it the
+rule once a fortnight, and at Tiumen and Tomsk once a week; above
+all, the statement that prisoners were thrashed if found sleeping on
+their backs, or the left side instead of the right; also what he says
+of thrashing generally, to which I shall allude hereafter. But I have
+to thank Alexander Goryantchikoff for his lifelike pictures, many
+of which illustrate scraps of information I received concerning the
+Siberian prison world--such, for instance, as the various occupations
+carried on in secret among the convicts, one being a pawnbroker,
+another a _vodka_ seller, others smugglers of spirits into the
+prison, the card-playing at night, the exchanging of their names and
+punishments, and the horrible language and fighting and quarrelling
+of the prisoners. In these things I make no doubt that “Buried Alive”
+gives a fairly accurate picture of things as they were, and in some
+cases still are, perhaps, among such prisoners as those with whom the
+lot of Goryantchikoff (himself a murderer) was cast. Further light also
+is thrown upon the interior of prison life in Siberia by the papers
+of M. Andreoli in _La Revue Moderne_ for 1868, in which he speaks of
+the tricks and vices of both prisoners and officials, and of the evil
+effects of the gang system. A great deal of this is inevitable where a
+number of the most desperate felons are herded together.
+
+[2] I have been favoured with a few particulars from an unpublished
+manuscript, written by a Decembrist prisoner for the use of his wife
+and children. He describes his cell at the fortress in Petersburg
+as small, dirty, and dark; and speaks of a poor and scanty diet,
+adding, “C’était l’Empereur, qui, sur le rapport du comité d’enquête
+prescrivait, le régime diétique ainsi que la dure aggravation d’une
+détention penible.” He had to leave Petersburg, and many of his
+comrades with him, in the middle of the night, in chains (though a
+noble), and was not allowed to bid his mother good-bye, though she was
+in the next room to him at the post-station. They left in a _telega_,
+travelling _viâ_ Jaroslav, Kostroma, Viatka, Ekaterineburg, Omsk, etc.,
+and reached Irkutsk in 24 days. At Chita they were kindly treated by
+the governor of the prison and attendants, and later on, when allowed
+to colonize at Irkutsk and Tobolsk, suffered no hardships, excepting
+petty restrictions and vexations.
+
+[3] Perhaps I ought to add that this information was given me in
+French, which the Pole had not conversed in for a long time, and did
+not speak readily. It was given, too, with a good deal of bitter
+feeling, whilst I made notes of what was told me. As he looked on at my
+writing, and knew pretty well who I was, and what I was travelling for,
+I felt he might be exaggerating, and I therefore asked him pointedly
+whether all he had told me was true. He replied in the affirmative,
+and I therefore hand on the account to my readers, though, as will be
+seen later on, it was a much severer testimony than I received from
+political prisoners in general.
+
+[4] Since this chapter has been in type my impressions have been
+strikingly confirmed by an official, high in the prison administration,
+who in reply to my written inquiries as to the number of political
+prisoners sent to Siberia during the last few years, replies that
+the deportation of political offenders came under the _prison_
+administration only in 1880, but that for the present year, 1881, the
+total number of political offenders of _all_ kinds, sent to Siberia, is
+72; which number, moreover, includes nearly 40 condemned to the mines
+during the years 1875-6-9-80, but who have been detained meanwhile in
+the central prisons of the Kharkof district. The year, therefore (up
+to November), of the Emperor’s assassination has sent about 30 persons
+into exile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+_FROM CHITA TO NERTCHINSK._
+
+ The Trans-Baikal province.--Books deposited with Governor.--Specimen
+     letter of consignment.--Prisons and hospitals.--Governor’s
+     distribution of books.--Satisfactory results.--Journey from
+     Chita.--Buriat _Obos_.--Russian emigrants.--Salutations.--Approach
+     to Nertchinsk.--Its mineral treasures.
+
+
+The Trans-Baikal province is bounded on the south and east by Chinese
+territory, on the west by Lake Baikal, and on the north by the province
+of Yakutsk. It measures 830 miles from east to west, and 460 miles from
+north to south; its entire area covering about 240,000 square miles. It
+is thus not quite so large as Austria.[1]
+
+Before leaving the capital, Chita, we deposited with the Governor
+enough books for his prisons and hospitals; and since this region
+was so important, from my point of view, in regard to its penal
+establishments, and our efforts, moreover, here met with such good
+success, I shall give the substance of a letter which I wrote to the
+Governor (in French), and which is a fair specimen of similar letters
+written to the other Governors throughout Siberia:--
+
+  “TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR OF ----.
+
+    “SIR,--
+
+  “I have the honour to beg your acceptance of -- boxes of books
+  containing -- large New Testaments, -- small New Testaments,
+  -- Gospels, -- Psalms, -- New Testaments in French, German,
+  Polish, Tatar, and Buriat, -- copies of the _Rooski Rabotchi_, --
+  wall-pictures, and -- tracts. Will your Excellency do me the favour
+  to accept them for the prisons, hospitals, poor-houses, and schools
+  of the government of ----? I shall be thankful if the copies of the
+  _Rooski Rabotchi_ (Russian Workman) and the tracts may be given
+  to the children in schools to be taken to their homes, and thus
+  distributed as much as possible among the people. As for the books,
+  I wish that they should remain in the rooms (not in the libraries)
+  of the prisons, hospitals, etc. If the chief of each room may be
+  made responsible for the books as for the other property of the
+  prisons, etc., I shall be glad; but in any case I wish that the books
+  may be had without asking for them from the library. I hope with
+  your assistance in the government of ---- to place a New Testament
+  or a copy of the Gospels in _every_ room of _every_ prison and
+  hospital throughout Siberia; and I shall be very thankful if I may
+  hear from you, at my English address, how the distribution has been
+  made, because I shall probably send an account of my tour to the
+  authorities at St. Petersburg.
+
+                       “I have the honour to be, etc., etc., etc.”
+
+The Governor of the Trans-Baikal province, M. Pedachenko, spoke of
+his four large hospitals and 10 smaller, or occasional hospitals. He
+told us also that he had in his government four permanent prisons,
+besides those at the mines, namely, at Nertchinsk, Troitzkosavsk,
+Verchne Udinsk, and Chita, the last three of which we saw. The number
+of prisoners was given us as about 150 each at Chita and Nertchinsk.[2]
+M. Pedachenko was good enough to promise that a small shelf should be
+put up in each room (under the _ikon_ I suggested), on which the books
+might rest when not in use; and this promise he carried out.[3]
+
+I have dwelt particularly on what we were able to distribute in the
+Za-Baikal for two reasons; first, because the letter of the Governor,
+together with our own observations, give an insight into the number
+of prisons existing in this province, which of all others was that
+reserved for the worst of exiles; and, secondly, because of the
+satisfaction it afforded me, when looking back upon the work as a
+whole, to feel that the Scriptures and other reading material had been
+deposited in these out-of-the-way places, especially those of Kara,
+Nertchinsk, and Algatche. Had nothing more been effected than this, and
+what I subsequently learned was done at Tiumen, these two results would
+have well repaid me for the journey.
+
+Late on the afternoon of Monday, July 21st, the day of our arrival, we
+left Chita and proceeded towards Nertchinsk, a distance of 180 miles,
+where we intended to make our next stoppage. The road ran within sight
+of the river, and as the route was hilly we had pretty views. Some of
+the hills I measured as 400 feet above the level of the river, and my
+barometer, at the highest point, stood at 2,350 feet above the sea. The
+hills were rounded and well wooded, whilst the lower land resembled
+English downs. We saw some of the flora of which Baron Rosen speaks so
+admiringly, and among them a flower we had not noticed before, like
+blue larkspur. On both sides of the Yablonoi range are grown wheat,
+rye, oats, hemp, flax, potatoes, cabbage, turnips, lettuce, radishes,
+onions, spinach, and horseradish. In the valleys was abundance of
+grass, but few cattle to graze it. We saw also buckwheat and barley
+growing, but neither the fields under cultivation, nor the Russian
+inhabitants, were numerous, nor did we come in contact, after passing
+Chita, with many Buriats, though we inspected one of their sacred spots
+on a hill not far from that town. It consisted of a few rough stones
+piled together, with some dried branches of trees, on which were hung
+small flags and strips of calico, having inscribed on them verses in
+the Thibetan or Mongolian language. We had passed several of these
+south of the Baikal, and the Russian drivers had usually told us that
+they were Buriats’ graves. Sometimes there were sweetmeats lying about,
+and copper money, which the Russian yemstchiks did not scruple to
+collect and pocket. Sometimes, too, we found horse-shoes strewn around,
+and almost invariably a quantity of tufts of horse-hair tied to the
+bushes, the appearance of the whole reminding one of the so-called holy
+wells to which the Romanists of Ireland make pilgrimage. The yemstchiks
+said that the flags painted with demons were to frighten devils away,
+and that the coins and sweets were given as offerings to their God; but
+that if a Buriat had nothing to give, he cut off a piece of his horse’s
+tail and tied it to the bush.
+
+I noticed that these spots were usually on elevated ground, like the
+“high places” denounced by the Hebrew prophets, and after reading the
+travels of Huc, Erman, and Hill, I make no doubt that they were not
+Buriats’ graves at all, but the _obos_ which are erected throughout
+Tartary, and at which the people worship the spirits of the mountains,
+a superstition of the Shamanist Buriats, which extends, at least
+partially, to other aboriginal tribes in Siberia.[4]
+
+As we passed along the road, we sometimes overtook companies of
+emigrants from Russia, or from other parts of Siberia, who were
+wandering further east. We heard, at Barnaul, that peasants are
+encouraged thus to migrate. Also, we sometimes drove by labourers in
+the fields, which gave an opportunity to the passing yemstchik to
+salute them in Russian fashion: “_Bogh pomotch_,” “May God be your
+help,” to which the reply is, “_Spasibo_,” “Thank you,” or “Save you!”
+a very similar custom to that I have observed in the west of Ireland,
+where the car-driver accosts his brother Pat, digging potatoes, with
+a “Bal o’ ye airth,” “God bless the work,” or, more probably, it will
+be, “God and Mary bless the work,” to which Pat replies, “And you too.”
+They both remind one of the salutation of the Hebrew, Boaz, “The Lord
+be with you!” to which his reapers replied, “The Lord bless thee!”
+
+I confess to having been sometimes tired of travelling so many days
+without being able to read; I managed to get through only two or three
+small works, for, notwithstanding my air-cushions and a paper-knife
+placed below the line I was looking at, the shaking of the tarantass
+rendered study almost impossible. After leaving Chita on Monday, we
+travelled all day and all night on Tuesday, and on Wednesday found
+ourselves approaching Nertchinsk, a town surrounded by a hilly district
+noted for its minerals. The mining region extends over a large area,
+and for a long period of years provided employment to vast numbers of
+convicts, as also for many Polish exiles after the insurrection of
+1863. The mines were worked under the supervision and direction of an
+able chief, with a numerous staff of officers; and many distinguished
+mineralogists here commenced their career. Up to the year 1847, silver
+and lead formed the principal products.[5] Tin and zinc also, and the
+aqua marina are found in the neighbourhood of Nertchinsk, and 130
+miles to the south is the mountain of Odon Tchelon, celebrated for
+its gems, including the topaz and emerald, which latter Mr. Erman
+speaks of as green, yellow, and blue. To these minerals must be added
+gold, which is found in large quantities in the bed of the Nertcha and
+its tributaries, besides iron, antimony, and arsenic. In Petersburg,
+I heard the gold-mines of Nertchinsk spoken of as “large and well
+worked”; but other reports went to show that the Government mines
+brought in little to the Crown; and we heard that most of them about
+Nertchinsk have been sold, so that mining affairs at the time of our
+visit were in a transition state.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The surface is mountainous; one range, the Yablonoi, running from
+north to south, is the watershed of numerous rivers. The streams from
+the western slopes drain into Lake Baikal; the largest one towards
+the north, the Vitim, finds its way to the Lena, whilst the remainder
+run into the Argun, which flows at the south of the province and
+into the Ingoda and Onon, which form the Shilka. The population of
+the government is 430,000, of which the town inhabitants number only
+4 per cent. In 1867 the population was 380,000, of whom there were
+400 hereditary nobles, 1,000 personally noble, 1,700 ecclesiastical
+persons, 11,000 townspeople, 109,000 rural inhabitants, 4,000 military,
+9 foreigners, and 164,000 natives. The present population is quoted as
+10,000 less than that given by the Almanack for 1875, which diminution
+probably arises from emigration to the region of the Amur, and from
+the Government sending fewer exiles here than formerly. There were
+throughout the government, in the year 1875, about 3,000 marriages,
+16,000 births, and 12,000 deaths. The province is divided into seven
+uyezds; and among its principal towns, besides the capital, are
+Verchne Udinsk, Selenginsk, and Troitzkosavsk, on or near the Selenga,
+Barguzin, near the Baikal, and Nertchinsk, to all of which we went with
+the exception of Barguzin. Barguzin is the chief town of the district,
+but is not otherwise remarkable.
+
+[2] We had deposited with the Ispravniks of Verchne Udinsk and
+Troitzkosavsk Russian New Testaments, Tatar Gospels, and Buriat
+Scriptures for the prisons and for the Troitzkosavsk poor-house, which
+last, as far as I remember, was the only one of this kind we heard of
+during our tour, unless it were at Perm, and, perhaps, Barnaul. In
+addition to these the Governor at Chita accepted 25 wall-pictures of
+the Prodigal Son, 12 Tatar Gospels, 14 large Russian New Testaments, 50
+small ones, 60 Russian Gospels, 20 Psalms, 3 New Testaments in Polish,
+French, and German, 38 Buriat portions, 75 copies of the _Russian
+Workman_, and 200 tracts.
+
+[3] At a further stage of my journey I had the opportunity of sending
+additional books to M. Pedachenko, and on the following February 4th I
+received in England the following letter:--
+
+                                         TCHITA, _le 12 Decembre, 1879._
+
+  MONSIEUR,--Je me fais un plaisir de vous faire savoir, que j’ai reçu
+  votre lettre du 9 Juillet de même que les livres et les brochures
+  religieuses, qui ont été tous distribués.
+
+  A _Kara_: Dans les prisons, les hôpitaux, et l’établissement de
+  charité, d’ Alexandre:--
+
+    13 Papiers pour les murailles,
+    43 Petits Evangiles,
+     7 Grands Evangiles,
+     8 Psaumes,
+     3 Nouveaux Testaments Polonais, Français, Allemands,
+    29 Brochures _Rouski Rabotchi_,
+    60 Différentes brochures,
+    22 Anciens Testaments Mongols.
+
+  A _Algatche_: Dans les prisons et les hôpitaux:--
+
+     3 Papiers pours les murailles,
+     2 Psaumes,
+     2 Grands Evangiles,
+     9 _Rouski Rabotchi_,
+    13 Petits Evangiles,
+    15 Brochures religieuses.
+
+  A _Nertchinsk_: Dans l’hôpital et la prison:--
+
+     2 Papiers pours les murailles,
+     2 Psaumes,
+     1 Grand Evangile,
+     9 _Rouski Rabotchi_,
+    13 Petits Evangiles,
+     9 Brochures religieuses,
+     4 Anciens Testaments Mongols.
+
+  A _Tchita_: Dans la prison:--
+
+     2 Papiers pour les murailles,
+    13 Psaumes,
+     1 Grand Evangile,
+    10 _Rouski Rabotchi_,
+    14 Petits Evangiles,
+    10 Brochures religieuses,
+     4 Anciens Testaments Mongols.
+
+  Pour les _Forçats de Nertchinsk_:--
+
+     3 Papiers pour les murailles,
+     2 Grands Evangiles,
+    15 _Rouski Rabotchi_,
+    13 Petits Evangiles,
+     9 Brochures religieuses,
+     2 Psaumes,
+     4 Anciens Testaments Mongols.
+
+  A l’hôpital de _Strétinsk_:--
+
+    2 Papiers pour les murailles,
+    1 Ancien Testament Tatare,
+    3 Brochures religieuses.
+
+  D’après votre désir, Monsieur, les livres distribués dans les prisons
+  et les hôpitaux sont placés sur des tablettes, afin qu’on puisse s’en
+  servir en tout temps. Les serviteurs sont chargés de les tenir en
+  ordre.
+
+  Recevez, Monsieur, mes plus sincères remerciements pour votre
+  précieuse offrande,
+
+            J’ai l’honneur d’être,
+                        Votre très humble serviteur,
+                            (Signed)         JEAN PEDACHENKO.
+
+
+[4] The natives believe that their shamans have more power than
+other people with the spirits infesting the mountains. Accordingly,
+sacrifices are offered to these spirits, and are carried off secretly
+by the shamans. Horse-hair seems to hold a conspicuous place in
+connection with their superstitions. Mr. Erman speaks of the practice
+of the Yakutes in tying knots of it on trees; and Mr. Hill states
+that the Yakutes informed him that the rites of their ancient worship
+consisted for the most part in sacrifices to invisible spirits, and
+that portions of the horses’ tails were attached to trees to notify
+to the spirits who might chance to pass by that such rites had been
+performed, and that thereabouts they would find the offered sacrifice.
+From the oldest times the Buriats have been accustomed about midsummer,
+when the cattle are in good condition, to celebrate festivals for the
+good spirits, the rites being followed by wrestling matches, and other
+popular amusements; and the crafty Buddhist lamas have recognised and
+sanctioned these ancient usages, in order that the Buriats may regard
+the new religion only as an extension or completion of the old.
+
+[5] Of the former 4 tons, and of the latter 570 tons, were produced
+annually. The discovery of lead was of great importance, as it had been
+previously necessary to bring it all the way from England to Barnaul
+for the smelting of the ores of the Altai, in which region little or
+no lead is found. The lead of Nertchinsk, however, did not find its
+way so far as the Russian arsenals, because, by reason of carriage, it
+would have cost six times the price of English lead delivered either in
+Petersburg or Moscow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+_THE SILVER AND (SO-CALLED) QUICKSILVER MINES OF NERTCHINSK._
+
+ The supposed quicksilver-mines.--Inadequate evidence of their
+     existence.--Unsupported statements of writers.--Not known to
+     Anglo-Siberians.--Silver-mines perhaps intended.--Deleterious
+     fumes a myth.--Questionable allegations regarding
+     silver-mines.--Misstatements exposed.--Testimonies of Collins
+     and other eye-witnesses.--Accounts of ex-prisoners and Lutheran
+     pastor.--Nertchinsk Zavod and work in the mines.--Condition
+     of affairs in 1866.--Present state of things.--The Nemesis of
+     exaggeration.
+
+
+When crossing the Pacific I heard it remarked by an American clergyman
+that Mrs. Beecher Stowe, in her exaggerated account, as he thought it,
+of American slavery, showed great shrewdness in assigning to her story
+a locality that was very remote and unknown to most of her readers.
+A similar observation might be made in regard to not a few of the
+writers on Siberian exiles and their labours in the mines. How the idea
+first came into my mind I know not, but when in 1874 an Englishman,
+born in Russia, told me in Petersburg that the worst of Russian
+criminals were put down in quicksilver-mines in Siberia, where they
+were speedily killed by unhealthy fumes, it seemed to me like an item
+of news I had heard before. Since my return from Siberia the question
+has been frequently put to me, Did you go to the quicksilver-mines,
+where the exiles are so cruelly treated? Baron Rosen also wrote,
+“Eight persons of the above-mentioned eleven criminal categories were
+dispatched at once to the quicksilver-mines of Nertchinsk; ... they
+worked for long years underground in the mines, like the other forced
+labourers.” Again, the _Newcastle Daily Chronicle_ for 21st November,
+1878, quoting, apparently, Captain Wiggins, says: “Desperate criminals
+only are sent to labour in the quicksilver-mines, and for these there
+is a specially severe discipline provided, and ‘horrors,’ without
+doubt, exist.” And I have somewhere read, if I mistake not, that in the
+vicinity of Nertchinsk was a quicksilver-mine, which for a time was
+worked, but that the loss of life entailed upon the convict labourers
+was so great as to cause it to be given up.
+
+Now it is somewhat remarkable that I have been unable to learn that
+there is a quicksilver-mine in Siberia at all, or to get satisfactory
+proof that one ever existed. This may perhaps surprise my readers, but
+I proceed to explain myself thus:--The “English Cyclopædia,” under
+the article “Mercury,” mentions various places where this mineral is
+found, but says nothing of Siberia. Yet surely, if mines exist there,
+affording employment for numerous labourers, we ought to hear something
+of their output. Again, in “Ure’s Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures,
+and Mines,” a standard book on mining (p. 120), we find a good deal
+concerning the mines of Siberia, of those in the Urals, the Altai,
+and Daouria (which last comprise those about Nertchinsk), but nothing
+is said of quicksilver-mines in any one of these regions.[1] Again,
+Mr. Atkinson, who spent several years in Asiatic Russia, went to the
+district of Nertchinsk, and had friends among the mining engineers,
+says: “Tin and zinc ores are found, but neither have as yet been much
+worked, and I am not aware of the existence of quicksilver, though it
+is said to be found in these regions.” Mr. Eden, in his valuable little
+compilation on Siberia, speaking of its mineralogy, says, “Quicksilver
+also is reported to exist in some of the north-eastern provinces”; but
+he gives no authority for the report, says nothing of its being worked,
+nor mentions the existence of it at Nertchinsk. I may further add that
+recently I have seen the Englishman whom I met at Kiakhta, and who
+since has twice passed through Nertchinsk. He asked particularly of an
+officer connected with the mines for one of quicksilver, and was told
+that, though there was said to be quicksilver in the neighbourhood, it
+was not worked.
+
+To these testimonies I must add my own, that neither in the town of
+Nertchinsk, through which we passed, nor in the neighbourhood, nor
+indeed throughout Siberia, did we anywhere hear of a quicksilver-mine.
+The only testimony I have ever received in the opposite direction
+is that of a released political exile, who has told me that he once
+heard from some of his fellow-prisoners at Petrovsky Zavod, many miles
+distant, that there was a small quicksilver-mine at Nertchinsk, but
+so poor an affair that it was not worked. Subsequently my informant
+was deported to four places in succession round about Nertchinsk, but
+he neither saw nor heard anything more of the said quicksilver-mine.
+Accordingly, on meeting, since my return, with an English acquaintance
+who has spent a large part of his life in Siberia, and who knows it
+well, I said to him, “You have heard, have you not, that there are
+quicksilver-mines in Siberia?” to which he replied in the affirmative,
+but he did not know where they existed; and when I asked him whether,
+if I took upon myself to say that there was no such thing as a
+quicksilver-mine in Siberia, he could contradict me, he thought
+awhile, and then was obliged to confess he could not. The Englishman
+from Kiakhta said the same; and my most recent informant, a released
+political exile, who spent some years in the mines about Nertchinsk,
+assures me to the same effect. In the face, therefore, of the prevalent
+notion to the contrary, and notwithstanding what little evidence I have
+been able to collect in their favour, I must express my grave doubts
+as to whether mercury has ever been worked, in any sense worthy of the
+term, by Russian convicts; and I shall further venture on the assertion
+that there does not exist a quicksilver-mine in Siberia at all.
+
+But perhaps _silver_-mines were intended instead of “quicksilver,” in
+which case it should be observed that, if the quicksilver-mines have no
+existence, then the slow process of killing convicts by their fumes is
+a delusion. That working in quicksilver-mines is destructive to health
+is perfectly well known; but working in silver-mines is quite another
+matter. When at Barnaul, we heard nothing of any difficulty arising
+under this head in the working of the Altai silver-mines. When in the
+Rocky Mountains, I heard from a Russian lady, who had been down the
+silver-mine near Virginia city, that the heat was very great, but she
+said nothing as to the air being otherwise objectionable. Mr. Collins,
+also, describing his descent of one of the Nertchinsk mines, the
+silver-mine of Zarentunskie, says: “We now passed along another drift,
+and found nothing unpleasant in this underground passage.” Moreover,
+the two released exiles, to whose information I have already alluded,
+have told me that they never perceived any objectionable fumes,--that,
+in fact, there were none.
+
+But, apart from the supposed deadly fumes, there has been a great deal
+said and written respecting the Siberian mines in general, and those of
+Nertchinsk in particular, which my experience and reading lead me to
+question, not to say to contradict. The number of Englishmen who have
+visited the great mine of Nertchinsk is represented, I believe, solely
+by Captain Cochrane,[2] and great changes have taken place since his
+day. In 1848, the Emperor Nicolas decided, with a view to carrying out
+his plans in the regions of the Amur, that the whole of the people in
+the Trans-Baikal should become Cossacks. Hitherto a large body of the
+population had been employed in mining operations, and Mr. Atkinson
+speaks of this sudden change as having closed the silver-mines of
+Nertchinsk; but I suppose he means relatively, for the mines have been
+worked for many years since by convicts, and, if we are to believe
+all that is written on the subject, they are full of horrors to the
+present day. But I shall venture to examine a few of these writings
+which say so, and compare them with the statements of travellers and
+eye-witnesses. I shall offer, too, my own experience, and then leave
+the reader to judge respecting the truth of the whole.
+
+The author of “The Russians of To-day” says (p. 216): “The miners are
+supposed to be the worst offenders, and their punishment is tantamount
+to death by slow torture; for it is certain to kill them in ten years,
+and ruins their health long before that time. If the convict have
+money or influential friends, he had better use the time between his
+sentence and transportation in _buying a warrant_ which consigns him to
+the lighter kinds of labour above ground, otherwise he will inevitably
+be sent under earth, and _never again see the sky_ until he is hauled
+up to die in an infirmary.” This was published in 1878, and I have
+italicised the doubtful or erroneous words.
+
+Again, the _Contemporary Review_ for September 1879, in an article
+on “Conspiracies in Russia,” says (p. 143): “Of the treatment of
+political exiles in Siberia, as it has been carried on _for a long
+time past_, I have before me a thrilling description from the pen of
+Mr. Robert Lemke, a German writer, who has visited the various penal
+establishments of Russia with an official legitimation. He had been
+to Tobolsk, after which he had to make a _long, dreary journey_ in a
+wretched car, until a _high mountain_ rose before him. In its torn and
+craggy flank the mountain showed a colossal opening similar to the
+mouth of a burnt-out crater. Fetid vapours, which almost took away his
+breath, ascended from it.”
+
+Mr. Lemke then walks down with a guide, and--
+
+“Entering a room of considerable extent, but which was scarcely a man’s
+height, and which was dimly lit by an oil lamp, the visitor asked,
+‘Where are we?’ ‘In the sleeping-room of the condemned! Formerly it
+was a gallery of the mine; now it serves as a shelter.’ The visitor
+shuddered. This subterranean sepulchre, lit by neither sun nor moon,
+was called a sleeping-room. Alcove-like cells were hewn into the rock;
+here, on a couch of damp, half-rotten straw, covered with a sackcloth,
+the unfortunate sufferers were to repose from the day’s work. Over each
+cell a _cramp iron_ was fixed, wherewith to lock up the prisoners like
+ferocious dogs. No door, no window anywhere.
+
+“Conducted through another passage, where a few lanterns were placed,
+and whose end was also barred by an iron gate, Mr. Lemke came to
+a large vault, partly lit. _This was the mine._ A deafening noise
+of pickaxes and hammers. Then he saw some _hundreds_ of wretched
+figures, with shaggy beards, sickly faces, reddened eyelids, _clad in
+tatters_,--some of them _barefoot_, others in sandals, fettered with
+heavy foot-chains. No song, no whistling; now and then they _shyly_
+looked at the visitor and his companion.”
+
+Mr. Lemke leaves the mine and speaks to one of the officers about the
+convicts’ rest. “Rest!” said the officer, “convicts must always labour.
+There is no rest for them; they are condemned to perpetual forced
+labour, and he who once enters the mine _never leaves it_!” And so
+on.[3]
+
+These remarkable extracts may be appropriately followed by reference to
+an article in the _Echo_ for May 5th, 1881. It numbered 100 lines, and
+on reading it I had the curiosity to mark every line that appeared to
+me to contain a misstatement or a blunder. No less than 20 were marked;
+that is to say, one line in every five. The article is headed. “On the
+Road to Siberia.” The author begins by starting his pedestrian exiles
+on the _march_ at the Sparrow Hills at Moscow, and in crossing Russia
+he gives them all sorts of difficulties by road to overcome; whereas I
+have shown, in an earlier chapter, that for years past the prisoners
+are taken by steam across Russia, and that the exile reaches the first
+prison in Siberia without walking at all. Then the author places his
+pedestrian exiles under the charge of _mounted, long-speared_ guards,
+feeds them with bread and _oil_ (which latter I never yet heard of in
+a Russian prison), and, what is more amusing, feeds the Cossack horses
+with the _meal_ (whatever that may be) eaten by their masters. Then
+having got his exiles over the Ural, he says:--
+
+“Beyond the Ural, however, with its simple industries and markets, the
+region becomes more barbarous; it is less relieved by the softening
+aspects of social life; the exile population, clad in sheepskins,
+thickens at every step; the cold grows so intense” [this, by-the-bye,
+in the “open season,” _i.e._ the summer], “that occasionally the
+Cossacks on guard are frozen, lance in hand; and the silver-mines are
+now _not far distant_,--_immense caverns_, illuminated by torches of
+pine, peopled by men with leaden-hued faces, caused by exhalations from
+the copper ore, in which the silver is found imbedded; inhabited too
+by _women_ and _children_, who share in the unhealthful labour, and
+contribute their quota to the terrible totals of mortality, _living,
+dying_, and being buried often _far below the light of day_.”
+
+Now, when I read this, my first thought was to take Mr. _Punch’s_
+advice, and “write to the _Times_,” but I repressed my feelings till I
+could gather these extracts, italicise the questionable words, and then
+calmly place before the reader such remarks upon the matter as I have
+to offer. Let me, then, observe, in the first place, that neither of
+these three authors professes to write from personal experience. Had
+the writer in the _Echo_ been to Siberia in the “open season,” he would
+not have frozen his mounted guard, lance in hand, but would have made
+him trudge on foot at the side of his convoy, sweating beneath the load
+of rifle and bayonet; and neither of the three writers, had they been
+to Siberia, would have been so vague with regard to its geography. The
+author of the “Russians of To-day” (p. 216) informs his readers that
+“Siberia is a territory covering about _six_ times the area of England
+and Scotland!” Had he written _sixty_ times he would have been not far
+from the mark; but--perhaps six was a printer’s error!
+
+Again, the _Contemporary_ writer says that Mr. Lemke “had been to
+Tobolsk, after which he had to make a long dreary journey until a high
+mountain was before him;” which sentence, though not expressly saying
+so, leaves one to infer that the mountain was at least in the vicinity,
+whereas the country about Tobolsk is flat, and there is no mountain
+answering to the writer’s description, where convicts are employed,
+within 2,000 miles. So, again, the writer for the _Echo_, almost
+immediately after getting his exiles over the Urals, informs us that
+“the silver-mines are now not far distant,” which is hardly an exact
+way of speaking of 3,000 miles.
+
+But I shall now proceed to give such personal information as I am able
+about Nertchinsk, prefacing what I have to say with words from Mr.
+Collins’s chapters describing his visit to the mines of the district.
+This, I think, should go far to satisfy an ordinary reader as to the
+quality of the miners’ food, clothing, and sleeping accommodation.
+“This [gold] mine was a convict establishment, like all the mines east
+of Lake Baikal. The men were well clad, and in visiting the hospital,
+prison, and quarters, I found the arrangements for their health and
+sleeping clean and comfortable. Cooks were preparing dinner for the
+prisoners. I tasted of the soup, bread, and _kacha_, or grits, made
+from buckwheat and milk, and found them good and well prepared. There
+were a number on the sick list, mostly those who had recently arrived,
+but they were in a warm, clean room, with clean beds and clothing, and
+with a separate kitchen, where proper diet was prepared for them.”
+
+This was published in 1860. Before leaving Asia I had an opportunity of
+asking an American, who had visited the Nertchinsk mines, as to what he
+saw, but he told of no such barbarities as those quoted above. Again,
+I asked an Englishman living in Siberia about women working _in_ the
+silver-mines, but he had never heard of such a thing, nor have I; and
+my second exile informant denies it; so that I trust the women and the
+children with “leaden-hued faces,” inhabiting the mines and “sharing in
+the unhealthful labour,” exist only in the imagination of the writer
+for the _Echo_. Had the article said that there were women and children
+_at_ the mines, it would have been less difficult to believe, because I
+found them at the gold-mines--the women employed in scrubbing, washing,
+or hard female labour, and their children taken care of, clothed and
+fed in a school; but this will be alluded to hereafter. Again, I met
+a naval officer, who had seen the coal-mines at Dui, in Sakhalin, and
+who spoke of the prison abuses there in no measured terms. He had
+visited the mines at Nertchinsk five years before we met, and had
+descended into one of them; but though he said the men looked sickly,
+and sometimes had to “go on all fours” to get the mineral (which, I
+suppose, all miners occasionally have to do), yet he had no barbarities
+of which to speak, and did not confirm any of the notions with which
+I entered the country, as to the prisoners being kept underground
+by night and by day. He said they worked twelve hours a day, six on
+and six off. I questioned, too, the chief of the gold-mines at Kara
+concerning the silver-mines at Nertchinsk, which are not far off. He
+denied that the prisoners were kept underground, and _thought_ they
+worked in three sections of eight hours each.
+
+I have three testimonies besides, not from prison officials,
+travellers, or amateur philanthropists, but from men, two of whom
+themselves worked in the mines of Nertchinsk; whilst the third, a
+Lutheran pastor, told me of what he had heard direct from prisoners at
+the mines, where it was his business periodically to visit. He said
+that old convicts at Nertchinsk and Kara had told him of Rozguildieff,
+a director, 20 years before, who gave them only 4 lbs. of bread a day,
+and who used to go about with four Cossacks behind him, armed with the
+knout, to thrash those who did not do the prescribed quantity of work.
+He afterwards became blind. I have heard from another quarter that this
+man used sometimes to condemn his prisoners, not to so many stripes,
+but so many “lbs.” of the birch--to 10 or 15 lbs., for instance--which
+meant that the man should be flogged until a certain weight of rods
+had been used up. But a military officer was sent to inspect the
+mines, and Rozguildieff was removed; since which time the pastor said
+that all seemed going on well, and that he had heard no complaints of
+abuse. I have also heard of this Rozguildieff and his cruelty from
+a third person, who was at Petrovsky Zavod in 1866, with about 500
+prisoners, many of them Polish insurgents. Another testimony respecting
+the mines is from a Pole whom I met, engaged as a clerk at one of the
+post-houses. He had been sent to Nertchinsk as a political prisoner,
+condemned to hard labour, but he said he was not compelled to work.
+Perhaps he had the good fortune to be taken as a servant, or employed
+as a clerk; this he did not explain, but he said that the officers
+were not cruel, and that of the prison treatment he had no complaint
+to make. He had, he said, 3 lbs. of bread, and ½ lb. of meat a day. He
+might write a letter every three months; and so well satisfied did he
+seem with his present lot, that he said if the Emperor were to allow
+his return to Poland he would certainly go; but if he were offered
+permission to return only to Russia, he would prefer to stay where he
+was. One reason for this, it has been suggested, might be that police
+supervision is more irksome in Russia than in Siberia.
+
+The last testimony I would offer is perhaps the most satisfactory of
+all, because it came to me direct in English from one who, implicated
+in the Polish insurrection of 1863, was sent as a political exile to
+Nertchinsk, with several like offenders from the Russian and Polish
+aristocracy, he himself being a man who had received a university
+education. The accounts he gave me relate to the condition of things
+in 1866 and 1867. The principal centre of the mining district, he
+said, was called Nertchinsky Zavod, or Bolshoi Zavod, “the great
+works,” at which, however, the _mines_ were abandoned before 1865,
+and the prison was afterwards used for a hospital. Round about were
+various mines, works, hospitals, and prisons, such as Kadaya, Akatuya,
+Klitchka, Alexandreffsky, Algatche (the last a smelting place), and
+some others. At Stretinsk and Sivakoff, on the Shilka, were ship-yards,
+where prisoners were employed. There would seem to be labour going on
+still at Nertchinsk and at Algatche, since, from the Governor’s letter
+to me, it appears that some of my books have been sent to these two
+places, and to the hospital at Stretinsk; but the greater part of the
+mines just mentioned have now passed out of Government into private
+hands. I am speaking, however, of things as they were in the time of
+my informant, who laboured at Kadaya, Akatuya, Alexandreffsky, and
+Nertchinsky Zavod. Kadaya was only two or three versts from the Chinese
+frontier,[4] Alexandreffsky was about six versts from the frontier,
+and 35 from head-quarters. At most of the places there were prisons
+built: at Alexandreffsky, of stone; at Kadaya, of wood; and at Akatuya,
+partly of wood and partly of stone. At Nertchinsky Zavod the prison
+was very old, and was empty. The commandant, General Chitoff, living
+there, he preferred to house the convicts at a convenient distance.
+At Alexandreffsky there were not less than 700 prisoners in three
+buildings. Of these, 30 or 40 were Russian political offenders; the
+remainder were Polish insurgents of 1863. At Akatuya there were 110
+prisoners, 60 of whom were Polish priests, together with 22 other
+prisoners sent to join them for extra punishment.
+
+Akatuya, by reason of its isolation and loneliness, was regarded as
+the worst place of all, there being no village around it. There was
+reported to have been a Tatar in this prison, before 1866, chained
+to the wall, but this was an exceptional case, and such things, it
+was said, were not done to the political prisoners, some of whom
+had friends who could bring influence to bear in their favour. My
+informant, being counted “noble,” was exempted from wearing chains
+during the journey, but on his arrival he had irons, he said, of 7
+lbs. (Russian) on the feet, and the same weight on the hands. If so,
+these handcuffs must have been heavier than any I have seen in Russia
+or Siberia. There were sometimes cases in which criminal prisoners
+burst into fits of ferocity, and were guilty of such insubordination
+as to call for special punishment. At Sivakoff, for instance, he had
+known men suspended for a time by the armpits, but none were chained
+to barrows or tools, as has been sometimes done. In the case of my
+informant himself, who insulted the Governor-General Korsakoff, and
+also joined others in a league to refuse to work on Sundays (the cruel
+and unjust regulation to this effect was enforced on these exiles in
+1866), he, with many more, and for a considerable time, was put first
+on half rations, then deprived of meat, then of milk, and then was not
+permitted to lounge in the yard, but had to go straight from work to
+his ward. The priests had joined in this resistance to Sunday labour,
+and there were also Protestants and a Jew among the league. Some of
+the priests, however, were the first to give in, and all at length
+followed, so that they had afterwards only four holidays in the course
+of the year, though this was exclusive of bath-day, which recurred once
+a fortnight, and was a holiday as at Kara.
+
+I asked as to the formation of the mines, and found that some of
+them had shafts and galleries; one shaft in particular, by reason of
+its construction, being dangerous to descend. In some cases it seems
+that the granite was dug from the side of a hill, and the work of the
+prisoners consisted largely of boring holes for blasting, which were
+charged with powder by Cossacks or labourers, and, in the absence of
+the prisoners, were fired. From an engineering point of view, the
+mines, as far as I could understand, were worked badly enough; and
+this agreed with what I had heard elsewhere. The mineral was brought
+to the surface in baskets, but they had no steam or horse-power. There
+were veins of silver, but often the galleries did not follow them, and
+the mines seemed to subserve the purpose of providing hard labour for
+malefactors, rather than that of bringing gain to the Emperor. Whilst
+my informant was talking to me, he had in his hand some pins, and,
+holding up one of them, he said, “I did not see a piece of silver as
+big as that all the time I was at Akatuya.”
+
+I inquired carefully respecting the hours of labour, and heard that
+in 1866 it was 13 hours a day, which agrees with the hours I found
+at Kara in the gold-mines. At noon they came out of the mines to
+dinner--unless, that is, a man had arranged his hours otherwise; for
+it seemed that so long as they did not worry the Cossacks or prevent
+their lounging about and smoking, the prisoners might do their allotted
+number of hours when they pleased. There was, moreover, no definite
+amount of mineral required of every man daily, and hence he might work
+hard or not, pretty much as he liked.
+
+This, then, appears to have been the condition of things at Nertchinsk
+15 years ago;[5] and from what I heard in Siberia, matters since seem
+to have improved rather than otherwise, though it must not be supposed
+that the lot of the convicts is an easy one. I am far from attempting
+to make it appear so. No doubt the corporal punishment inflicted in
+many cases is very severe. I shall have more to say of this hereafter.
+The period of an exile’s life spent at the mines, before being set
+free to colonize, cannot but be hard. Whatever laxity of discipline
+may prevail, as compared with the prisons of other countries, the
+herding together of the worst of characters, the deprivation of social,
+intellectual, and religious privileges, to speak of nothing else,
+must to many make life in the mines, from the nature of things, a
+burden. But this is very different from killing exiles by inches in
+quicksilver fumes, or keeping men, women, and children underground by
+night and by day, with insufficient clothing, food, and sleep. Such
+gross misstatements must in time be refuted, and the revulsion caused
+by their exposure often makes people too easily believe less severity
+than really exists. The treatment of prisoners necessarily depends
+greatly upon those who are set over them, and the study of human nature
+about us renders it quite needless to go to Siberia to discover that
+among prison officials there are both bad and good. That there have
+been instances of cruelty in the mines I do not doubt, but I believe
+far less have occurred than some writers would have us believe; and I
+trust that what has here been written may tend to throw some light upon
+a matter of which many are desirous to know the truth.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Speaking, however (p. 56), of “Mercury or Quicksilver,” the author
+says: “Argental Mercury, or native silver amalgam, has been found
+at ... Kolyvan, in Siberia.” But Kolyvan is thousands of miles from
+Nertchinsk, and on the Obi, where there are no quicksilver-mines.
+Further (on page 66 of “Ure’s Dictionary”), the imports of quicksilver
+are given as coming from Spain, the United States, Chili, Australia,
+Hanse towns, Hanover, Austria, Italy, Mexico, and other parts, but
+nothing is said of any from Siberia.
+
+[2] Perhaps this is not to be wondered at, if the inaccessibility of
+the place be considered. It is 5,250 miles east of Petersburg, 700
+miles nearly due north of Peking, about 480 north of the Chinese wall,
+and 1,000 miles west of the Pacific. Captain Cochrane went there half
+a century ago, at which time there were 1,600 convicts in the mines,
+and he speaks sternly of their treatment, their miserable huts, and
+of their haggard, worn-down, wretched, half-starved appearance. But
+he stayed at the place only a day, and his book does not say that he
+entered the mines at all.
+
+[3] On my reading this description to one who knows from painful
+experience what the mines were like, he laughed outright at its
+absurdity.
+
+[4] This is the place to which the Russian poet Mikhaïloff was banished
+for writing his proclamation or manifesto, _Molodom pokoleniou_, “To
+the rising generation,” as was also his literary friend Tchernichewsky,
+who is called the intellectual chief and founder of Nihilism.
+Mikhaïloff died and was buried at Kadaya; Tchernichewsky, who it seems
+is feeble and delicate in constitution, was not compelled to work, nor
+did he carry chains; and after spending a certain time at Kadaya, he
+was removed to Viluisk, in the province of Yakutsk.
+
+[5] I have quite unexpectedly had the opportunity of submitting this
+chapter, in manuscript, to a second released exile, who was at the
+Nertchinsk mines at the time alluded to, and who, after expressing his
+great surprise at the accuracy of my account, confirmed it almost to
+the letter, adding, however, that he thought I underrated the number
+of political exiles; but he referred to the numbers deported in 1863
+and during the present year, rather than to the average number for the
+intervening years.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+_FROM NERTCHINSK TO STRETINSK._
+
+ Nertchinsk.--Its climate and history.--Scene of a Russo-Chinese
+     treaty.--Appearance of the town.--Visits to authorities.--Dinner
+     with a rich merchant.--Siberian table customs.--Poverty
+     of travelling fare.--Fine arts in Siberia.--Painting and
+     photography.--Journey from Nertchinsk.
+
+
+Before passing from Nertchinsk, a few words should be said respecting
+its history, and as at Nertchinsky Zavod, 2,230 feet above the sea,
+there is a meteorological observatory--its climate, also. Mr. Atkinson
+writes: “The climate is not so horrible as many have supposed, nor is
+the earth a perpetual mass of ice at a few feet below the surface,
+as I have seen it stated. The summers are not so long as in Europe,
+but they are very hot, and the country produces a magnificent flora.
+Both agriculture and horticulture are carried on successfully,
+and vegetables of almost every kind can be grown here. Tobacco is
+extensively cultivated, for which the people find a sale among the
+Buriats and Tunguses.”
+
+Again, Baron Rosen, speaking of Chita, which is on the same parallel
+and within 200 miles of Nertchinsk, says: “The high situation of Chita
+considerably increases the cold in winter, but it is healthy, with a
+fresh bracing climate. The sky is almost always clear, excepting in
+August, when the thunder is incessant for days together, and then
+follows a shower, beginning with enormously large single drops, which
+in a few hours floods all the roads; for the water falls rapidly down
+the slopes, digging deep trenches as it runs. The great electricity
+of the air is remarkable: the slightest movement of cloth or wool
+produces sparks or crackling. The rapidity of the vegetation is most
+extraordinary; for both corn and vegetables ripen within the five weeks
+in which the frosts cease, _i.e._, from the middle of June to the end
+of July. One of my comrades first introduced the growing of cucumbers
+in the open air, and melons in hot-beds.” And the Baron afterwards
+adds: “When I was chosen senior of the prison, I salted down in brandy
+casks 60,000 cucumbers out of our garden.” Whether the Baron is
+accurate in speaking of five weeks only during which there is no frost,
+seems doubtful. I observe in the meteorological report from Nertchinsky
+Zavod, that in 1877 the lowest temperature was, in June, 36°·8; in
+July, 47°·8; and in August, 41°. If, therefore, frost occurred in these
+months, it must have been ground-frost caused by radiation; which
+would not affect the crops. The lowest temperature of the year, which
+occurred in January, was 45°·5 below zero; the highest temperature,
+95°·3, occurring in August.
+
+It should be observed that the Trans-Baikal province has a climate
+almost peculiar to itself. From the north, the Polar Sea, immense
+tracts of swamp, lakes, and rivers supply the atmosphere with moisture,
+a great deal of which is precipitated, in passing southwards, over a
+region more than 1,000 miles in breadth; and as the clouds approach the
+Altai, in process of elevating themselves to pass the mountains, they
+part with their last drops, which fall along the northern, southern,
+and eastern sides of the range. But this happens, of course, only when
+the prevailing winds are from the north. Upon the south there are few
+lakes or rivers; while the land in general is dry, and remote from
+the sea. The winter clouds from the Indian Ocean in the south, and
+the Caspian on the west, discharging themselves upon the mountains of
+Thibet and Bucharia, rarely pass the desert of Gobi. Accordingly, the
+winds blowing so regularly from this direction bring no water; and
+thus, rain clouds coming for the most part from the Pacific only, it
+comes to pass that the fall of rain and snow about Chita and Nertchinsk
+is exceedingly small, and the winter passenger, for lack of snow upon
+which to drive, has frequently in this region to mount his sledge on
+wheels.[1] As summer travellers, however, we had no difficulties of
+this kind, and the absence of rain we regarded as a blessing. The
+weather was delightful, and I was looking forward, after passing a few
+more stations, to bid farewell to tarantass and horses, and by steamer
+to descend the Amur.
+
+The town of Nertchinsk is one of the oldest in Eastern Siberia, having
+been founded in 1658. After about 10 years it began to rise into a
+place of importance, and 20 years later was the birthplace of a famous
+treaty between the Russians and the Chinese.[2]
+
+The question in dispute was the boundary of the two empires; the
+Russians first proposing, and the Chinese refusing, that the Amur
+should be the boundary; after which the Chinese proposed, and the
+Russians refused, that Albazin, Nertchinsk, and Selenginsk should
+be surrendered. After several conferences neither party showed a
+disposition to yield, and both prepared for battle; but this was
+averted, and a treaty was at length drawn up fixing the boundary
+between the empires, but by no means in accordance with Russian wishes,
+for they were completely shut out from the Amur.
+
+After this, Nertchinsk remained for a long time the most easterly of
+the large towns in the Trans-Baikal region. The discovery of metals in
+the surrounding mountains increased its importance, and the continued
+arrival there of exiles, and the stories connected with them, caused
+the place to be only too well known--at least by name--throughout the
+empire.
+
+The town is charmingly situated, 1,845 feet above the sea. The
+surrounding country is picturesque, and the soil rich. Hill, valley,
+river, mountain, all combine to make it an interesting spot, apart
+from its legendary and historic associations. Mr. Knox entered the
+town from the east, and speaks of the view as especially pleasing,
+because it was the first Russian town where he saw evidences of age
+and wealth. The domes of its churches glistened in the sunlight that
+had broken through the fog and warmed the tints of the whole picture!
+It struck me, however, very differently. The natural beauties of the
+place, of course, one could not but admire, but I had left behind the
+handsome cities of European Russia, and had passed through many cleanly
+and newly-built towns in Siberia, in comparison with which Nertchinsk
+struck me as being black with age and decay. There was a woebegone look
+about the place, and the streets seemed deplorably neglected. Many of
+the houses were falling to pieces, and gave the town a most untidy
+appearance.
+
+We reached Nertchinsk on Wednesday morning, July 23rd, and made it our
+first business to seek the Ispravnik, from whom I wished to get general
+information respecting prisons and mines, and permission, perhaps, to
+visit some of them within reasonable distance, though I hardly hoped
+to see the great mines, as I knew they were more than 100 miles away
+from the town, and if I attempted to reach them I should either miss
+the penal colony of Kara, or lose the steamer which was shortly to
+leave Stretinsk. We had thought it just possible, moreover, that the
+Ispravnik might provide some one who could speak English, French, or
+German, to accompany me to Stretinsk, and thus leave my interpreter
+free to return.
+
+Nertchinsk formerly stood at the junction of the Nertcha, which flows
+from the north, and the Shilka. The repeated damage to the houses from
+floods caused its removal, though even on its present site the lower
+part of the town has been more than once under water. It was to this
+lower part we drove in search of the authorities, but the Ispravnik was
+away “in the country,” and his representative was asleep.
+
+We went next to present a letter of introduction to Mr. Bootyn, of whom
+we had heard at the Alexandreffsky Central Prison, and subsequently
+at Irkutsk. On approaching his house, it proved to be not only the
+most remarkable in the town, but, I might add, the grandest we had
+seen in Siberia. The houses of Nertchinsk have already been alluded
+to as old, black, and rotten; but Mr. Bootyn is a merchant, miner,
+and millionaire, who has been to England and round the world, and
+he was building himself a house, in the construction of which were
+manifest sundry foreign ideas. It was a huge erection, part of which
+was executed in Byzantine and castellated styles; and the establishment
+comprised dwelling-houses, gardens, conservatories, and shops--all
+in one. The Mr. Bootyn to whom our letter was addressed was from
+home, but we were received by his brother, and invited to dine in the
+verandah conservatory.
+
+This gave us an insight into the social habits of another class of
+Russians, and I was now beginning to know pretty well what to expect
+when invited by a Siberian to dinner. Their hospitality is unbounded,
+though, of course, its manifestation differs according to the means
+of the host. Our first dinner in Siberia was at a merchant’s house,
+where brother-merchants in travelling put up, and hence it was called
+a hotel. We were asked if we would have our dinner in our own room,
+or _en famille_. I was rash enough to choose the latter, and we
+found ourselves seated at the table with mine host and a queer lot
+of male guests (there were no females), who appeared to be clerks
+or fellow-lodgers. We were first requested to help ourselves from a
+tureen, in the centre of the table, to _stchee_, or soup, on the top
+of which the fat floated like oil; and for the next course we had
+bones of veal, followed by game and sour berries. Our fellow-guests
+ate ravenously, tearing the bones to pieces with their teeth. Nothing
+was placed on the table to drink, but towards the close of the meal
+a glass of milk, as is common in Western Siberia, was given to each.
+The foregoing represents, I should think, the dinner of the well-to-do
+Siberian tradesman. There is nothing like display, and things are
+sometimes served in a rough fashion. If any one wishes to be brushed
+clean of over-fastidiousness in the arrangements of the table, I can
+conscientiously recommend a tour across Siberia. In one house where
+I was entertained--and entertained most kindly--the fish was brought
+in in the frying-pan, and thus placed in the middle of the table,
+which, if it did not minister to the delights of the eye, gave us food
+admirably hot. On one occasion we dined with a teacher of languages in
+a classical school, and he gave us stchee, roast meat with sour wild
+cherries, then preserved maroshka berries and pudding. We dined in a
+similar fashion with a medical doctor, but fared more sumptuously in
+the house of a gold-seeker, where salt-spoons reminded us of England.
+
+At Nertchinsk we had fallen on pleasant places. The number of plants
+and flowers (I had almost said shrubs) on the table went far to hide
+the guests from one another, but there was abundance of excellent
+food. Had we been bibbers of wine, there was no lack of the choicest
+vintages; but, upon our declining alcohol, we were offered some
+excellent cherry syrup, which, in so remote a region, was a great
+luxury. Further east, I was invited to dinner by the acting governor
+of a town, where the first course was provided, they said, for my
+special benefit. It was a salmon pie. Fish pie is a grand dish with
+peasants, and their betters too, throughout Russia. If well prepared
+it is excellent. The crust is not made with butter, but with yeast, as
+it is commonly eaten in Lent, when butter is forbidden. I dined most
+sumptuously, however, in Siberia, at Vladivostock, with the officers
+of a Russian man-of-war, at the house of the Governor. Here everything
+was served with the elegance and refinement of an English mansion; and
+the customs observed were much the same, except that the hostess (in
+the absence of her husband, the Governor) gave a toast standing, and
+left her seat to come round and do the honours by touching glasses
+with several of her guests. Thus I saw something of the table customs
+of nearly all classes. Grace was sung before meals in the house of
+a devoutly orthodox general in Petersburg, and now and then I saw a
+peasant, before or after a meal, turn to the ikon and cross himself;
+but grace before meat did not appear to obtain as a custom in Siberia.
+I partook, too, of all sorts of Siberian food, from sumptuous dinners
+down to what was often very humble fare indeed. I think the _best_
+dinner we got at a post-station consisted of chicken soup, then the
+newly-killed chicken that made it, and pancakes. This, perhaps, was
+due in part to our not usually caring to wait until a meal could be
+cooked, and we could not always eat what the post-people had prepared
+for themselves, even when it was ready. Our provision basket, however,
+supplied us with a few relishes to bread and butter, and thus we made
+shift from town to town. I never travelled with anything like such
+bodily fatigue as during the drive across Siberia; and never, that I
+can remember, ate so little animal food during a corresponding period
+of time; but I have no hesitation in saying that my health was better
+after the journey than before it.
+
+Before we left Mr. Bootyn’s, we were shown some of the best rooms in
+the house, elegantly furnished. In one of them was a fair collection of
+European paintings, some of which I recognized as Swiss scenes. I do
+not remember seeing any other paintings in Siberia worth naming, nor do
+I remember being shown any statuary. Both would, of course, be carried
+safely with difficulty over such immense distances and such uneven
+roads.
+
+The Siberians are, however, by no means behind in photography. When
+preparing for my tour, I had serious thoughts of taking with me a
+camera and dry plates, thinking thereby to secure some novel pictures,
+to the surprise, perhaps, of the people. It proved well that I
+attempted nothing of the kind, for much trouble was thereby saved to
+me, and instead of my astonishing the natives, I found that the natives
+astonished me. I visited parts of Siberia of which no English author
+has written, but discovered that photography had everywhere preceded
+me; and though there were many villages in which we could not procure
+white bread, there were few towns in which the same could be said of
+photographs.[3]
+
+In Siberia, some of the photographers are Polish exiles; some are
+Germans; one I met was a Frenchman, and another a Finn. Their
+landscapes are not particularly good, and their productions are
+dear. Landscapes of the size of views which may be purchased in Rome
+for sixpence cost in Siberia at least six shillings; and when, at
+Krasnoiarsk, our party went to be photographed, we paid for cabinet
+groups at the rate of sixteen shillings the half-dozen copies. It
+should be remembered, however, that the demand is limited.
+
+After taking leave of Mr. Bootyn, we prepared for a journey of 150
+miles, which was to bring us to Stretinsk. The upper town of Nertchinsk
+is built at the end of a long sweeping prairie, exposed to all the
+winds that blow up through the valley, or down from the cold summits
+of the Yablonoi Mountains. We came towards night to a solitary house
+in the midst of the steppe, the poorest station we had seen. The outer
+roof was off, and the building divided into two compartments--one for
+travellers and the other for horses--the one being not much better
+than the other; whilst on the opposite side of the road was the only
+building in sight--a roofless shed. The only food to be obtained was
+black bread, salt, and water, and in this place it looked at first as
+if we should be compelled to stay; for they had not six--that is, two
+“pairs” of--horses; they had four; and I suggested that the difficulty
+should be overcome by putting two horses to each vehicle. But this they
+said was illegal, because their four horses would make only one “pair,”
+and these they were willing to attach to our tarantass, if we would
+pile on the rest of our boxes before and behind. By what mathematical
+process they explained this reasoning about pairs I have never yet
+fathomed, but we were only too thankful to get on at any price, and
+early next morning we drove into Stretinsk.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The following table gives for 1875 the number of days of rain and
+snow, the mean temperature of winter, spring, summer, autumn, and the
+whole year, and the difference between the mean temperatures of summer
+and winter, for London and four Siberian towns:--
+
+            | WINTER.   | SPRING.  | SUMMER.  | AUTUMN.  |  YEAR.   |Diff.
+            |Days  Temp.|Days Temp.|Days Temp.|Days Temp.|Days Temp.|betw.
+  Nikolaefsk| 28   1·27 | 36  25·70| 28  59·05| 39  32·23|131  29·56|57·78
+  Barnaul   | 22   6·60 | 26  42·93| 30  61·83| 30  29·10|108  35·11|55·23
+  Irkutsk   | 10  -1·27 | 17   2·14| 25  61·54| 11  30·65| 63  23·27|62·81
+  Nertchinsk|  5  -1·40 | 17   2·81| 26  60·70| 12  24·90| 60  21·75|62·10
+  London    | 47  40·0  | 34  53·70| 42  60·40| 44  43·50|167  49·40|20·40
+
+The precipitation (rain and snow) in inches stands as follows at
+Barnaul, Nertchinsk, and London:--
+
+             | Inches. | Inches. | Inches. | Inches. | Inches.
+  Barnaul    |  0·92   |  1·77   |  6·39   |  2·93   |  12·01
+  Nertchinsk |  0·75   |  0·60   |  8·77   |  7·42   |  17·54
+  London     |  4·76   |  5·13   |  9·94   |  8·21   |  28·04
+
+
+[2] Mr. Ravenstein gives an interesting account of this. The two
+nations were represented by the envoy extraordinary Fedor Alexevitch
+Golovin, and the celestial ambassadors So-fan-lan-ya and Kiw-Kijew,
+with two Jesuit fathers as interpreters. The Russian envoy was
+accompanied by a regiment of Regular Militia (Strelzi) 1,500 strong,
+and two regiments raised in Siberia; but the Chinese ambassadors were
+accompanied by a force of 9,000 or 10,000 persons, consisting of
+soldiers, mandarins, servants, and camp followers. They had from 3,000
+to 4,000 camels, and at least 15,000 horses; and as they came to the
+river’s bank opposite Nertchinsk, before the arrival of the Russian
+envoy, the Governor of the town not unnaturally felt uneasy at the
+presence of so large a company.
+
+At length, however, Golovin arrived, and a large tent was pitched,
+midway between the fortress and the river, one-half appropriated to the
+Russians, the other to the Chinese. The Russian portion was covered
+with a handsome Turkey carpet. Golovin and the Governor of Nertchinsk
+occupied arm-chairs, placed behind a table, which was spread with a
+Persian silk embroidered in gold. The Chinese portion was devoid of
+all ornament. The chiefs of the embassy, seven in number, sat upon
+pillows placed upon a low bench. The remainder of the mandarins and
+Russian officers were ranged along both sides of the tent. The Chinese
+had crossed the river with 40 mandarins and 760 soldiers, 500 of whom
+remained on the bank of the river, and 260 advanced half-way to the
+tent. In a similar manner, 500 Russians were placed close to the fort,
+and 40 officers and 260 soldiers followed the envoy.
+
+[3] It is interesting to know that in certain departments of
+photography, Russia stands well to the front. In theoretical,
+scientific, and landscape photography, I am informed England takes
+place in the foremost rank; but in portrait photography, Russia is
+before us. Among first-class photographic artists in Petersburg, the
+names might be mentioned of Levitzky, Bergamasco, and Dinier; and in
+Moscow that of Eichenwald; but the most remarkable photographer in all
+Russia, probably, is one Karelin, at Nijni Novgorod. A small view of
+Kasan, which I purchased in the city of that name, and which is printed
+by the phototype process, seemed to indicate that this branch of the
+art had extended more widely, and made further progress eastward, than
+might have been expected at the time of my visit. There are to be
+had in Petersburg and Moscow some magnificent photographic panoramas
+of the two capitals; and in descending the Urals, on the Asiatic
+side, I procured what can rarely be had elsewhere--a photograph of a
+surface iron-mine; whilst further east was added one of a gold-mine. A
+photographic view of Ekaterineburg, given me there, shows how thin and
+light is the air in Russia, for purposes of photography, as compared
+with ours in England.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+_FROM STRETINSK TO UST-KARA._
+
+ Arrival at Stretinsk.--Recorded distances from Petersburg.--Taking
+     in a passenger.--Travelling allowance to officers.--Parting with
+     interpreter.--Farewell to tarantass.--Starting to Kara.--The
+     world before me.--Previous writers on the Amur.--Gliding down
+     the Shilka.--Talking by signs.--My Cossack attendant.--Taking an
+     oar.--How Russians sleep.--Arrival at Ust-Kara.
+
+
+On reaching Stretinsk, we were on the same meridian as Nanking. We
+had been reminded of our increasing distance from Petersburg by the
+verst-posts which kept us company all the way. At every station, too,
+there is a post setting forth how many versts distant are Petersburg,
+Moscow, and the government towns on either side. The verst-posts recur
+at every two-thirds of an English mile. At the top they are shaped
+square, being so turned that the approaching traveller sees at a glance
+how many versts it is to the station which he has left, or to which
+he is journeying. When we entered Siberia at Tiumen, the distance
+was 2,543 versts from Petersburg; at Tomsk it increased to 4,052; at
+Krasnoiarsk to 4,606; and at Irkutsk to 5,611; whilst on arrival at
+Stretinsk it was almost 7,000 versts, or 4,600 miles.
+
+It has already been stated that, after leaving Nertchinsk, the number
+of our horses was reduced. On reaching the last station but one, we
+had to take in a passenger. We overtook an officer, his wife and
+family, whose acquaintance we had made in the Obi steamer, and whom we
+subsequently met several times on our journey eastward. His wife spoke
+French, and their three or four children were exceedingly well-behaved.
+We could not help pitying this party of six, all of whom were stowed
+away in a single tarantass, not much, if any, bigger than ours,
+which was not excessively large for two. One of the children, if I
+mistake not, was a baby, and if to the discomforts I have described as
+accompanying us two be added the crowding of all these children and an
+untold quantity of baggage into a single vehicle, then one may picture
+some of the difficulties with which Russian officers and their families
+travel in Siberia.
+
+This party having arrived before us had secured one “pair” of horses,
+and the question arose as to whether the remaining pair should be
+given to us or to a telegraph officer, who had also arrived before us,
+but who was proceeding in our direction. He proposed that we should
+have the horses and take him carriage free, which, rather than wait,
+we were glad to do, and he thereby was able to pocket his travelling
+allowance.[1]
+
+On arriving at Stretinsk we found it a good-sized town, with hospital,
+sundry factories, barracks, and other buildings, befitting the chief
+port of the Upper Amur. We were reminded, however, of its distance
+from civilized centres almost before our horses stopped, for a youth
+rushed up to inquire whether our tarantass was for sale. They make no
+axletrees of iron in these parts, and hence, when a traveller arrives
+who has a tarantass thus furnished, he has a good chance, after having
+had the use of it all across the country, to sell it at Stretinsk for
+as much or more than it cost in Europe. White bread was at famine
+prices here, costing 6_d._ a lb.--five times as much as we paid at
+Tobolsk--because the American flour deposited at Nikolaefsk ascends
+the river a distance of nearly 2,000 miles, and the Russian flour,
+from Irkutsk, travels 900 miles by land. So between the two, delicate
+persons “brought up on white bread,” as the Russians say, fare badly.
+
+We called first at the telegraph office, and presented a letter of
+introduction to Mr. Koch, who was ready at once to help, and from
+whom I learned that my coming had been announced to the Commandant,
+Colonel Merkasin, a worthy officer, of whom I heard a good account
+from a released political exile, who said that prisoners received much
+kindness at his hands, and that, if the colonel used their labour,
+he paid them fairly for their work. We were favoured with his ready
+attention, and, on going to his house, found that the Governor of
+Chita, according to his promise, had requested him to make arrangements
+whereby I might visit the mines of Kara. They were 80 miles distant,
+and could be approached in summer by land only by a bridle-path. The
+other method was to row down the Shilka in an open boat.
+
+But I was first to part with my interpreter, who was to return from
+this place, a day or two afterwards, in our poor old tarantass.[2]
+Before parting, there were sundry arrangements to make, and various
+things to send back with him, instead of my taking them round the
+remainder of the globe; but some of these I never saw again, for at
+one of the stations Mr. Interpreter’s portmanteau was stolen, with my
+property in it. The only place at Stretinsk in which we could put up
+was a small building, dignified with the name of an hotel, consisting
+of a central chamber with a billiard table, and a room on either
+side--one set apart for women and the other for men. The sleeping
+accommodation in the latter was a wooden seat running round the
+room--a very common arrangement still in many parts of Russia. They
+provided us food, however, and the place sufficed for unpacking and
+arranging our effects, of which I intended to take the light baggage
+with me, and leave my trunk, “hold-all,” and boxes of books to follow
+by the steamer.
+
+I was anxious to get forward as quickly as possible, for it was already
+Thursday morning, the 24th of July, and on Sunday evening the steamer
+was due to pick me up at Ust-Kara, and take me to the Amur. The colonel
+spared no pains to make things go smoothly. He had provided a boat
+used by the police, which I was to keep all the way, and not change at
+every station. He had also provided a Cossack who was to be my guard,
+servant, and attendant, and whom I asked the colonel positively to
+order not to leave me till he had delivered me safe into the hands of
+Colonel Kononovitch, the Commandant at Kara. The colonel smiled at my
+request, and undertook to see that my luggage was properly put on board
+the steamer, as also did Mr. Koch; and then, bidding farewell to the
+officer and to Mr. Interpreter, I embarked at three o’clock to float
+down the waters of the Shilka.
+
+And now the world was before me, and that in a sense in which it had
+never been before. I was not only a stranger in a strange land, but
+penetrating a region where no English author had preceded me;[3] but
+I was far from disliking my new position. The weather was delightful,
+save that I rather feared sunstroke, and would fain have had a
+cabbage-leaf to put in my hat. The colonel had recommended some other
+antidote, but it was rendered unnecessary by the rising of clouds, from
+which there fell a few drops of rain. The Cossack had provided two
+oarsmen, so that I had nothing to do but to lean back in the boat, and
+enjoy the delightful way in which we glided down the stream. It was
+so pleasant, too, to miss the dust of the road and the jolting of the
+tarantass!
+
+I could ask no questions, from the simple fact that none of my crew
+spoke anything but Russ, of which I had hardly learned a dozen words.
+I purposely did not spend time in mastering even the elements of the
+language, thinking that I should have an interpreter with me all the
+way, and not supposing that I should have any further use for my
+smatter after leaving the country. Moreover, the Russian alphabet of
+36 letters is different from others used in Europe, and is certainly
+not inviting. I had very commonly found, among the upper classes of
+Russians, that I could get on by some means in French, German, or
+English. The post-masters, who happened to be Jews, spoke German; and
+when this triglot mode of communication failed, I took to signs and
+dumb show--not always, however, with entire success.
+
+At Tomsk, for instance, while Mr. Interpreter was “blowing up”
+the officials for allowing us to be sent on the wrong road, I was
+peacefully engaged in ordering the samovar and preparing for tea at
+the post-house. I wanted some eggs, for which, even if I had learned
+it, I had quite forgotten the Russian word, “_yaitsi_.” The Russian
+who wanted an egg in England cleverly clucked like a hen, and was
+instantly understood; but this did not occur to me. I therefore walked
+into the back room, and, to the woman’s astonishment, peeped into the
+cupboards and drawers, and examined the shelves; but to no purpose.
+I then bethought me of my artistic acquirements, and, taking out a
+pencil, drew on the wall an oval the size of an egg, and bade the
+woman look at _that_; but she was too dense to catch my meaning. At
+this juncture her husband entered, and I appealed to his masculine
+intelligence by pointing to the oval on the wall; but he could not
+“see” it. A happy thought then struck me, and I remembered that I had
+in my provision-basket an egg-cup. I took him accordingly into the
+guest-room, and showed it in triumph. But the man mistook it for a
+brandy-glass, and said to his wife, “Oh! it is _vodka_ he wants.” I had
+therefore to return to the charge, and took him into the yard, thinking
+to see a hen walking about; but they were gone to roost. So I pointed
+to a pigeon instead, but he perceived no connection between that
+and a hen’s egg; nor, on second thoughts, did I. At last I saw in a
+corner some broken egg-shells, and, picking them up, showed them, and
+effected my object. Further east, I lost a pocket-book containing some
+of my most important documents, and was compelled to go through a very
+serious conversation all in dumb show; but this I must not anticipate.
+
+On the Shilka I experienced no inconvenience through not knowing
+Russ; for, on arriving at the first station, the Cossack went off for
+fresh oarsmen, and I aired my dozen words in ordering the _samovar_,
+which important word, together with _tarelka_, a plate; _chai_, tea;
+_voda_, water; _stakan_, a glass; _sakhar_, sugar; _khleb_, bread; and
+_maslo_, butter, I had thoroughly mastered. It was no part of my duty,
+I suppose, to feed my Cossack; for I observed he had brought with him
+black bread, but of course I offered him tea and other fare, to which
+he took very kindly, even to preserved meat, though he fought shy of
+anchovy paste, which probably he had never seen before.
+
+Tea over, we left our first station, 17 miles from Stretinsk, for
+station number two, 14 miles distant. But on this stage one of our
+oarsmen was old and feeble, and I had insisted (by signs and motions)
+that an extra hand should be hired, and that the Cossack should be
+allowed to rest, which he did by curling himself up in the prow of the
+boat and going to sleep. In this state of things darkness came on, and
+eight o’clock, nine o’clock, and ten o’clock passed, and still we made
+only slow progress. At last, in spite of the remonstrances of the men,
+I took an oar myself, pulled away lustily till I had a warm jacket, and
+at eleven o’clock we arrived at the post-house of Uktich.
+
+On entering the room a practical illustration was afforded us of the
+Oriental custom, “Take up thy bed and walk.” The people of the house,
+not expecting travellers, had occupied the guest-chamber,--one on the
+bedstead, another on the floor, and so on; but, upon my entering, they
+snatched up the rugs or cloths upon which they were lying, and decamped
+with alacrity. In crossing Siberia we rarely saw a genuine bed in the
+houses of the peasantry, and the people do not usually, I believe,
+undress before going to sleep.[4]
+
+Soon after five the next morning, I roused the Cossack, who had taken
+up his quarters on the floor of the guest-room, and by six we started
+for Botti and Shilkinsk, the third and fourth stations from Stretinsk;
+and, after sundry stoppages, at seven in the evening we finished our
+day’s pull of 44 miles, and reached Ust-Kara, where Colonel Kononovitch
+was awaiting my arrival.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The Russian Government, when sending officers overland from
+Petersburg to the Amur province, say, for instance, to Nikolaefsk,
+grants them money according to their rank, and the number of horses
+they are supposed to drive. Thus, a lieutenant is allowed 2 horses,
+a captain of the third rank 3, captain of the second rank 4, captain
+of first rank 5, rear-admiral 6, vice-admiral 7, full admiral 8; and
+the sum for horses in each case is doubled; in addition to which, for
+outfit, single officers receive on the outgoing journey half a year’s
+pay, and married officers a year’s; but when they are returning,
+three-fourths of a year’s pay is allowed to married and single alike.
+The distance from Petersburg to Nikolaefsk is 9,848 versts, and the
+cost of a horse for this distance, at the time of my visit, was 277
+roubles--say £28. An officer, therefore, going to this privileged part,
+or returning on furlough, might multiply £28 by the number of horses
+to which his rank entitled him, double the product, and add 6, 9, or
+12 months’ pay, and so realize a heavy purse. Out of this he might
+save considerably by hiring less horses than his dignity was supposed
+to require, by sharing expenses with another traveller, or, lastly, in
+the case of one already in the Amur province, and entitled to leave
+on furlough, by giving up his holiday and pocketing the travelling
+expenses, which last, I found, was not unfrequently done at Nikolaefsk,
+by officers who had got into debt, and looked forward to furlough money
+as the means of getting them out of their difficulties.
+
+[2] He left it at Tiumen, where it still may be, for aught I know
+to the contrary; in danger, perhaps, of being immortalized, like
+another old “equipage,” of which the following story is told. The
+Russians apply the term “equipage” to any vehicle, whether on wheels
+or runners, and whether drawn by horses, dogs, deer, or camels. The
+same word “equipage” is used in Russian, as in French, to denote a
+ship’s crew. Accordingly, a few years after the disappearance of Sir
+John Franklin, the English Admiralty requested the Russian Government
+to make inquiries for the lost navigator along the coasts and islands
+of the Arctic Ocean. An order to that effect was sent to the Siberian
+authorities, and they in turn commanded all subordinates to inquire and
+report; whereupon a petty officer, somewhere in Western Siberia, was
+puzzled at the order to inquire concerning the English Captain, John
+Franklin, and his equipage. In due time, however, he reported, “I have
+made the proper inquiries. I can learn nothing about Captain Franklin,
+but in one of my villages there is an old sleigh that no one claims,
+which may be his equipage.”
+
+[3] The names of several have been mentioned who crossed Siberia
+turning northwards to the Sea of Okhotsk, or southwards to China; some,
+too, as Captain Cochrane and Mr. Atkinson, reached Nertchinsk and the
+surrounding neighbourhood; but none went on to the Amur. Mr. Atkinson
+wrote a book of “Travels in the Region of the Upper and Lower Amur,”
+but he did not see the goodly land; he only described it, getting his
+information, probably, from the Russian officers who took part in the
+annexation of the country; and some of his illustrations, if I mistake
+not, from the Russian book of Maack, which has proved a storehouse also
+for subsequent writers.
+
+Two American authors, however, had passed this way--Mr. Collins,
+who, in 1858, from Chita, floated down the Shilka, continuing the
+whole length of the Amur to Nikolaefsk; and Mr. Knox, who, bent on
+journalistic enterprise, made his way up the Amur from Nikolaefsk to
+Stretinsk. Unfortunately, I had neither of their works with me, nor had
+I the more scholarly volume of Mr. Ravenstein, whose production, though
+not that of an eye-witness, is far the best English work on the Amur,
+being largely compiled from the information given by those Russians who
+were the first scientific explorers of the country.
+
+[4] Their favourite place for spending the night is on the top of the
+stove, which is sometimes raised at one end by brickwork to form a rest
+for the head. Before mounting this, they may perhaps take off their
+boots and an upper garment; but an Anglo-Russian lady has told me that,
+when living at Kertch, though she made it a condition, before a woman
+entered her service, that she should undress before going to bed, yet
+servants frequently transgressed; and that, as far as the men were
+concerned, they never took off their clothes but for the bath or to
+change them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+_THE PENAL COLONY OF KARA._
+
+ Evil reputation of Kara.--Testimony from Siberians and exiles.--My
+     own experience.--The Commandant.--Our evening drive.--Hospitable
+     reception.--Statistics respecting prisoners, their crimes,
+     sentences, and settlement as “exiles.”--The Amurski
+     prison.--Cossack barracks.--The upper prison.--Convicts’
+     food.--Prisoners’ private laws.--Middle Kara prison.--Mohammedan
+     forçats.--Sunday labour.--Convict clothing.--Guard-house.--A
+     genuine political prisoner.--The church.--Lack of
+     preaching.--House of the Commandant.
+
+
+In the penal colony of Kara I found more than 2,000 convicts, and a few
+political prisoners, together with some of their wives and families,
+a military staff, and some peasants. The penal institutions of this
+place are not so old as those of Nertchinsk; but, like them, they
+inherit a bad reputation. Mr. Atkinson appears to have been the first
+author to bring the place under the notice of English readers, doing
+so in no favourable terms, though he does not profess to speak as
+an eye-witness. Before I left England I was told that, if I did not
+intend to go east of the Baikal, I should see nothing but what might
+be witnessed in the prisons of London, and that I should get no idea
+of the real horrors of Siberian exile. This was said by a man who had
+worked in the mines of Nertchinsk, and he urged me by all means to see
+Kara.
+
+Again, when we reached Siberia, and were travelling on the Obi, my
+interpreter conversed with an officer in the prison service, whom he
+told that I had come to Siberia for the purpose of seeing its prisons.
+The officer expressed his doubts (as numbers of my English friends
+had done before) as to whether I should succeed in getting at the
+real state of the convicts in the mines and prisons; and he further
+mentioned three places where they had to work specially hard, namely,
+Alexandreffsky and Nertchinsk (about which I have spoken), and the
+third was Kara.
+
+We met further east a gentleman who told me that his brother-in-law,
+a colonel, had given him sad accounts of the dreadful state of some
+of the prisons in Eastern Siberia. I was introduced to the said
+colonel, but a lengthy inquiry was productive of little more, on his
+part, than general statements, and I obtained only five lines for my
+note-book, the gist of them being that, when I asked for the very worst
+places--those in which I should find most horrors--one of the four
+places mentioned was Kara.
+
+It is curious to notice that, of the four persons who spoke against
+Kara, not one of them (so far as I know) ever went there; and, with
+regard to Nertchinsk also, it is observable that the language of
+ear-witnesses respecting its mines is far stronger than the language of
+eye-witnesses, or even of those who suffered as prisoners. But I need
+dwell no longer upon what others have said, and may proceed to write of
+what I saw at Kara, where I was, if I mistake not, the first English
+visitor.
+
+It was towards evening when our boat reached Ust-Kara. Pacing the
+river’s bank was Colonel Kononovitch, the Commandant of the colony. I
+had been delayed on the way, and he had been for some hours awaiting
+me, but a few words of explanation sufficed to make matters clear. My
+tongue, after an enforced silence of nearly 30 hours, was now released.
+We talked in French, and I soon discovered that I was addressing
+an officer of more than average intelligence. He took me into the
+police-master’s house for some light refreshment, and to leave my heavy
+baggage, and then suggested that we should start on a drive of eight
+miles, so as to reach our destination before dark.
+
+Our way lay over a stony road, through a wild valley, which, in the
+shades of evening, had a weird and out-of-the-world appearance.
+The ridges of the hills were irregular, and partially covered with
+conifers, while lower were deciduous shrubs and trees, though not of
+considerable dimensions. Among the rank and tall herbage were some
+late flowers, and an orange tiger-lily, about two feet high, that was
+strange to me. After we had driven a few miles, we came to a _détour_
+in the route, where the colonel proposed that we should clamber up a
+bank, and walk down to the road on the other side. From this elevation
+the landscape appeared wilder than ever, and the place looked like
+a natural prison, from which escape was impossible. There was not
+a habitation to be seen, and the consciousness that we were in the
+neighbourhood of so many “unfortunates,” as they are called, gave me
+similar feelings to those with which I looked down on the forest-bound
+prison at Alexandreffsky.
+
+As we drove along, and darkness crept on, there passed us labouring
+men returning from work, who saluted us. “Who,” said I, “are they?”
+“They are convicts,” said the colonel. “Convicts!” said I; “how,
+then, are they loose?” “Oh,” said he, “a large proportion of the
+condemned--perhaps half--live out of the prisons in their houses _en
+famille_.[1] But they ought not to be out after dark.” I then began
+to inquire respecting the crimes of the prisoners, and was informed
+that there were in the place about 800 murderers, 400 robbers, and 700
+vagrants or “_brodiagi_”; and having been told what proportion of these
+were loose, I was not surprised to hear the colonel say that he usually
+avoided, if possible, being out at night. I approved his caution. Being
+very tired, moreover, and seeing that it was now dark, and that neither
+of us was armed, I was heartily glad to reach Middle Kara, the end of
+our drive.
+
+Where I was to be quartered I did not know. There was no hotel in the
+place, or even a post-house, and I doubt if they could have offered me
+lodgings, as at Troitskosavsk, in the police-station. The commandant,
+however, had arranged everything for me, and I found that I was to
+occupy his own study. There he had prepared a neat, clean little bed;
+and as I looked around at the European comforts on the table, in the
+shape of writing materials and ornaments, it seemed like an arrival in
+the library of an English gentleman rather than the private bureau of
+the director of a penal colony.
+
+I wanted to get a thorough rest against the morrow, for we had a stiff
+programme before us. Moreover, the last bed I had occupied was nearly
+600 miles away; and, with the exception of two nights, I had not taken
+off my clothes to sleep for exactly a month. But the colonel insisted
+first on giving me food, of which my prominent recollection is that
+it was tastefully served, and consisted of delicacies that had been
+out of reach for many a day, with tinned fruits, including pears that
+had made their way from America up the Amur. When at last I undressed,
+and stretched my limbs between a pair of sheets, I felt on excellent
+terms with my surroundings in general, and the colonel in particular.
+He was a fine-looking man, with intellectual tastes and an intelligent
+forehead, and neither smoked, drank, nor played cards,--a trio of
+virtues by no means always found in a Siberian official. The room was
+clean and sweet; quietness reigned around; and, uninterrupted by the
+rumbling of the tarantass or the noise of a post-house, I was left to
+sleep in peace.
+
+I had been asked overnight whether next morning I should like a bath.
+Of course I jumped at the offer, having been able to get such a luxury
+but twice in Siberia. Accordingly, on waking, the colonel brought me
+a Turkish dressing-gown and bade me follow him. I thought, perhaps,
+he would lead the way to a bath-room, instead of which he opened the
+front door and marched me down the middle of his garden to a summer
+bathing-shed. Here I splashed about, then returned to my toilet and to
+breakfast.
+
+Of course I asked all sorts of questions about the convicts, or, as
+they are called, “forçats,” or _katorjniki_--prisoners condemned to
+forced labour. Their number at Kara for four preceding years had been
+as follows:--
+
+   1875    1876    1877    1878    1879[2]
+  2,600   2,722   2,635   2,543   2,458.
+
+Their classification according to crime is important, as throwing some
+light on the number of political prisoners, for whom, I was told, Kara
+is a special place of deportation, and I have heard that it has become
+more so since my visit. The only class where they could be included
+was under the heading “various,” of whom there were 73; and this would
+suffice to include the politicals, respecting whose number I asked, and
+was told that it was 13 Russians and 28 Poles. I did not hear of any of
+the sects of dissenters in prison at Kara.[3]
+
+As regards the sentences of the convicts, they were all, I believe,
+condemned to hard labour, either of the fabric or the mines--one year
+of work in the mines counting for a year and a half in the fabric.
+There were a few, chiefly “vagabonds,” sentenced to Kara for life;
+but for such grave offenders even as parricides, fratricides, etc.,
+20 years was the extreme limit of their terms. The convicts are able
+to shorten their time, to some extent, by good conduct, and are set
+free to live as colonists, or, as they are then technically called,
+“exiles,” or “_poselenetsi_.”[4]
+
+Not all of the forçats at Kara, as already observed, were in prison,
+nor were those in close confinement placed all in one building, but
+in six, distributed over a distance about 15 miles long. Thus we left
+one behind at Ust-Kara, another about midway between the river and
+Middle Kara. At Middle Kara were one or two prison buildings, and in
+the opposite direction from the river were two more, the High Prison
+and the Amurski Prison, which last was eight miles distant from the
+commandant’s house. To this last the colonel proposed to drive first,
+and then work back, taking the others in order; and this, after
+breakfast, we proceeded to do.
+
+It was a beautiful morning when we started, and the bright sun and
+the clear air gave a very different aspect to the valley from that of
+the preceding night. The dark hues of the conifers stood out well in
+contrast with foliage of lighter green, a stream was visible here and
+there, and immense forests bounded the horizon. We drove a pair of
+splendid horses that would have attracted attention in Rotten Row; and
+as we dashed along the road I perceived at its side wild currants and
+strawberries, raspberries, and wild peas, the apple, and the vine. The
+colonel pointed out a gold-mine as we proceeded, but I do not remember
+seeing any one there at work.
+
+When we reached the Amurski prison, it proved to be a log building,
+of good pitch, and of a single storey. Most of the prisoners were
+out at work, but a few were engaged in whitewashing the rooms, which
+the colonel said was done at least four times a year. The wards were
+large sleeping-rooms, occupied for the greater part of the year only
+by night. There were no bedsteads, but a wide shelf, like that of a
+guard-room, ran round three of the walls; and on this they placed their
+large bags, for the making of which sacking was supplied to them, to
+serve the double purpose of clothes-bag and bed.
+
+Near the prison were the summer barracks of a company of 150 Cossacks,
+a fourth of whom were replaced yearly. The barracks consisted of large
+canvas booths, with rows of beds arranged in the fashion of the summer
+hospitals. A school is provided in winter for the Cossacks, of whom
+rather more than a half read.
+
+We next drove back to the _Verchne_ (or upper) prison, a building much
+older than the one we had left, having in the rooms an upper sleeping
+shelf resembling a loft, on which the prisoners sleeping would have
+the full benefit of the breathed air of their comrades below. The
+commandant saw this, and pointed out that it was an old and doomed
+building, and that in the new erections they were avoiding a repetition
+of the evil. In this prison were two solitary punishment cells, one of
+them being occupied on the morning of our visit for the first time in
+the colonel’s experience.
+
+Some prisoners, it seemed, might receive money, and some not. There was
+in this prison a Jew to whom 150 roubles a year were sent by friends.
+His family were living outside. They might bring him food, and were
+allowed to pay him at least a weekly visit.
+
+We went into the kitchen, and I looked attentively at the scale of
+diet hung on the wall as in prisons in England.[5] The weight of the
+highest allowance in Siberia, as observed before, is far in excess
+(nearly double) of the highest English convicts’ allowance, though
+for non-working prisoners in Siberia an abatement must be made for
+fast-days. The annual cost of provisions for each prisoner at Kara is
+65 roubles 72¾ kopecks, or say £6 10_s._ The soup appeared somewhat
+roughly served in small wooden tubs or bowls, but I presume that the
+place is too distant to allow of crockeryware being easily procured.
+Every prisoner provided his own spoon. Knives, as in most prisons, were
+forbidden.
+
+We saw, lounging about this building, two or three men who seemed
+to have very little to do. They were called “_starostas_,” that
+is, seniors or elders. Each ward of men in prison, and each gang
+of exiles on the march, chooses a starosta, who is their ruler and
+representative, the middle-man between them and the authorities. He
+receives the charities given them on the road, and pays and bribes the
+petty officers for little favours. He is, in fact, banker, purveyor,
+and general factotum to the body by whom he is elected. The authorities
+recognise this arrangement, exempt the starostas from labour, and
+through them deal with the prisoners rather than give their small
+orders direct. On behalf of the prisoners it is the starosta’s duty to
+befriend them, and see that they have the proper amount of food, and
+whatever else may be their due; whilst, on behalf of the authorities,
+should anything go wrong with the prisoners, the starosta is held
+responsible.[6] The office, however, at Kara, notwithstanding its
+privileges and exemptions, is by no means coveted; and the men, rather
+than be unoccupied, though it be to rule, prefer to work and to serve.
+
+In the prison at Middle Kara was a considerable number of Tatars. Why
+they were unoccupied I know not, unless it happened to be a bath-day,
+which is a holiday, and recurs twice a month; or, again, it may have
+been one of the Mohammedan festivals, some of the greater of which they
+are allowed to observe, though not the Friday in every week. Nor are
+the Jewish prisoners allowed to rest on their Sabbath, nor Christians
+on the Sunday. It might possibly be argued, in justification of this,
+that Sunday is not usually observed at any of the Siberian gold-mines;
+but, however that may be, I thought this robbing the hard-labour
+prisoners of their day of rest the most cruel and unjust thing in their
+lot. A greater than a Russian Tsar gave to man the Sabbath, and to take
+it away from him is, to my mind, nothing less than a sin and a shame.[7]
+
+Near the prison at Middle Kara was a storehouse, to which we mounted
+by a flight of outside steps. It contained a quantity of material for
+prisoners’ clothing--coarse linen for shirts and summer trousers, felt
+for coats, and leather for shoes and gloves; also a number of made-up
+garments. A pair of summer shoes or slippers was valued at 3_s._, and
+a coat of felt at 12_s._ A pair of gloves, such as the prisoners use
+in the mines, was given me as a keepsake. I have added them to my
+prison curiosities, collected in various parts of the world, comprising
+fetters, whip, handcuffs, specimens of prison labour, and a variety of
+other lugubrious objects.
+
+There was likewise a guard-house at Middle Kara. In it I observed,
+as I had done at Tobolsk, that the furniture and arrangements for
+the soldiers were not at all better than for the prisoners. From
+information respecting soldiers’ food received later, I make no
+doubt the rations of the Cossack guards are less ample than those
+provided for the labouring convicts; and I am persuaded that under
+some circumstances, dear liberty excepted, the Cossacks are more to be
+pitied than their prisoners. Thus, when a gang of exiles comes at night
+to an étape, they can lie down and rest, whereas the Cossacks have to
+mount guard.
+
+In this building, opening out of the central room guarded by soldiers,
+were a few (perhaps half-a-dozen) separate cells, through the doors of
+which no one could pass without being seen by the Cossacks. These cells
+were evidently inner prisons, in which were kept those whose escape was
+especially to be prevented. I entered two of them. The first was not
+quite so wide, but about the length and rather higher than the cell
+of an English prison, measuring perhaps five feet wide by eight long
+and ten high, and occupied by a Tatar gentleman, with his rosary of a
+hundred beads in hand, with nothing to do.
+
+[Illustration: TATAR GENTLEMAN EXILE IN WINTER DRESS.]
+
+On entering the second cell, occupied by a political prisoner,
+just then at work in the mines, I had at last lighted upon the
+dwelling-place of one of a class about whom such harrowing stories
+have been told--a genuine political prisoner of high calibre, and a
+Jew to wit, undergoing the full sentence of punishment in the mines
+of Siberia. This meant, in his case, that he had to labour in summer
+very much like a navvy, from six in the morning till seven in the
+evening, with certain hours for rest and meals; but in the winter he
+frequently had nothing to do. His wife was living near, and might see
+him twice a week. But his cell was that which struck me most. Compared
+to the criminal wards in the other prisons, this was a little parlour.
+It was clean, and in a manner garnished--not, indeed, in the fashion
+of a cell at San Francisco, where I found a “boss” painter condemned
+for life, and who had decorated his cell from floor to ceiling, as if
+intending to remain there for the rest of his days (this would have
+been out of keeping with Russian ideas); but the Kara prisoner had
+certain articles of furniture and eating requisites, the placing and
+arrangement of which indicated familiarity with the habits of decent
+society, and showed the prisoner to be above the common herd. One of
+his books I found was a treatise on political economy, which may be
+noted in connection with the remark of Goryantchikoff in his “Buried
+Alive,” who asserts that in his prison no book was allowed but the New
+Testament. The room certainly was not large, but there was abundance
+of light, the outlook from the long window being not on a prison wall
+surrounded by chevaux-de-frise, but commanding a view of the Kara
+valley such as a Londoner might envy; whilst just outside was the
+public road, along which could be seen everything that passed. I speak
+only truth when I say that, if I had the misfortune to be condemned to
+prison for life, and had my choice between Millbank in London or this
+political’s cell at Kara, I would certainly choose the latter.
+
+Between the guard-house and the residence of the colonel was a
+collection of buildings and store-houses, called “Middle” Kara. Among
+these was the church, the priest of which was the only chaplain I
+could hear of for the prisoners. He practised photography in addition
+to his ecclesiastical calling, and although he probably needed every
+rouble he gained thereby--and I certainly ought not to revile him,
+since by his means the colonel was able to present me with some
+views of the colony--yet it would have rejoiced me to hear that he
+was doing something worthy of his position for the spiritual good of
+the convicts. The pastoral superintendence, frequent services, and
+preaching to prisoners, as carried on in English prisons, is unheard of
+at Kara, and I gathered that the convicts attended church only twice a
+year.[8]
+
+[Illustration: RUSSIAN VILLAGE CHURCH.]
+
+I may here mention that the religious scruples of Siberian exiles are
+to some extent respected. Thus, for the Jewish prisoners to be obliged
+to eat food prepared by Gentiles would be an abomination. In the prison
+at Tiumen we were informed that 42 Jews, who had been confined there
+during the previous winter, had been placed together in a ward, with a
+separate cooking-place, in which they prepared their food canonically.
+So, too, a similar arrangement had been observed with 71 Mohammedans;
+and I have just remarked that there were many of this religion
+together, in the prison at Middle Kara, who were allowed, within
+certain limitations, the exercise of their religious observances. I
+have already said that we met a Protestant pastor who made periodical
+visits to the prisons and mines; and on the Amur I travelled with
+a Roman Catholic priest, from Nikolaefsk, who was returning from a
+lengthened tour along the river, which doubtless included visits to his
+co-religionists in confinement.
+
+After seeing Middle Kara our morning’s inspection was over. We had
+driven 15 miles, and as there were prisons in the opposite direction,
+extending over the same length of country, it will be seen that for
+the colonel to pay a visit to all his Kara prisons involved a drive,
+in all, of 30 miles, which I understood he accomplished at least once
+a week; and he had also, I believe, another penal institution to
+inspect, called Alexandreffsky Zavod, at a still greater distance. His
+salary was £330 per annum, and an unpretentious house, his perquisites,
+perhaps, making up his income to £400. In his yard was a good
+bath-house and offices, and an enclosure with a couple of wild deer,
+caught and kept for his children.
+
+At dinner I was introduced to Madame Kononovitch, who was considerably
+younger than her husband. They had married at Irkutsk, which to a
+Siberian is Paris. It was not greatly to be wondered at, therefore,
+if she found Kara somewhat dull. The society of the place was very
+limited. There were the families of the officers and the wives of a few
+gentle or noble prisoners, but these latter of course could be received
+into the colonel’s house only with a certain amount of reserve. The
+servants were, I suppose, all of them exiles, but the dinner was well
+served. I remember nothing of the food, save that the colonel had made
+a successful effort to get me a plate of wild strawberries. The season
+(July 26th) was now late, and they were the last I ate in Siberia.
+Madame spoke French well, and, as their children were growing up, she
+and her husband were interested in their education, and made many
+inquiries concerning our methods of teaching in England. The colonel
+then requested me to send him some English books; and soon after dinner
+we started for the hospital, the orphanage, and one of the mines.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] This is permitted after the expiration of two, four, six, or eight
+years (or nearly one-third of the punishment), to those who by good
+behaviour attain to a certain class. They still live on the spot and
+must work, and after a second period of this half-liberty, they are
+sent to a better place as exiles. Whilst in the former class they may
+be re-imprisoned for bad conduct, but not, I find, after they are set
+free to colonize (except for fresh crimes), as I have stated in my
+chapter on the exiles, vol. i., p. 35.
+
+[2] The colonel had not quite all the statistics to hand for 1879.
+Their number, therefore, at the time of my visit, was given me as
+2,144, classified, according to their crimes, as follows:--
+
+                                     Men.    Women.   Total.
+  Murderers                           668     125      793
+  Robbers with violence               404       5      409
+  Incendiaries                         29       9       38
+  For rape                             22               22
+  Forgers                              45       1       46
+  Offenders against discipline, and
+    defaulters in public service       86               86
+  Vagabonds                           665      12      677
+  Various                              71       2       73
+                                    -----   -----    -----
+                                    1,990     154    2,144
+
+[3] The only place where I met any of these in confinement was in
+the prison hospital at Tomsk, in which were three _Subbotniki_,--one
+of them a priest, and the others descendants of priests,--who were
+suffering from scorbutic disease, and who were in prison, I _think_
+I understood, for trying to propagate their creed; though, as this
+would seem to be contrary to what I understood were now the laws
+respecting dissenters, it may be that I did not understand the whole
+case. Subbotniki are so called because they believe that we ought to
+keep _Subbota_, or Saturday, as the day of rest. They are said also to
+consider circumcision a binding ordinance, because it was to Abraham,
+the father of the faithful, that the Lord gave it, and Moses wrote, “in
+your generations _for ever_.” In some other respects, perhaps, such as
+purifications, they may further Judaize.
+
+[4] The number of forçats who, after finishing their terms, were, by
+special order of the Government, distributed, as exiled colonists among
+the inhabitants of the provinces of Eastern Siberia, for the seven
+years preceding my visit, was as follows:--
+
+  1872  1873  1874  1875  1876  1877  1878
+   176   193   134   167   290   472   672
+
+--the last year thus showing a release of a third of the whole number I
+found under detention.
+
+[5] It appeared that, when a man was working in the mines, he received
+daily 4 lbs. (Russian) of bread, 1 lb. of meat, ¼ lb. of buckwheat,
+and a small piece of brick-tea (_kirpichny chai_; _kirpich_ meaning a
+brick), amounting to a quarter of a brick per month. In winter they are
+given cabbage and potatoes. When a man was not working, he received 3
+lbs. of bread, ½ lb. of meat, and 1/12 lb. of buckwheat. No _kvas_ was
+provided at Kara except in the hospital. These allowances are given to
+the prisoners at Kara in kind, and not, as at Irkutsk, their value in
+money, which would not be so suitable, as I saw no shops at Kara, nor
+did I hear of any local committee to-eke out the prisoners’ money.
+
+[6] Thus the prisoners make laws for themselves and invest their
+seniors with a good deal of power. In this matter there is “honour
+among thieves.” I was told, for instance, that east of Tomsk the
+sentinels ask an oath of the prisoners that they will not attempt to
+escape, and then give them certain liberties. My informant said that
+he had sometimes met gangs of prisoners alone, their sentinels having
+stayed behind to drink at a public-house. When a general promise
+has been thus given, should one dare to run away, he is pursued by
+the others, and when caught is thrashed, or loaded, according to M.
+Andreoli, with a sack of earth tied on his back. I have even heard of a
+gang of exiles sentencing one of their number to death for the breach
+of some law of their own making, the sentence being carried out of
+course unknown to the authorities--such cases, I presume, being very
+rare.
+
+[7] The only days at Kara on which men are supposed not to work are
+three days at Christmas, New Year’s Day, three days before Lent, three
+days at Easter, and certain imperial birthdays, making in all 15 days
+in the year, and the first and fifteenth day of each month for the
+bath. There are other days when, as a matter of fact, for various
+reasons, they do not work; but I am speaking of the rule.
+
+[8] This may be noticed in connection with a statement of the
+author of “The Russians of To-day” (p. 231), who says: “Once a
+week a pope--himself an exile--goes down into the mines to bear
+the consolations of religion, under the form of a sermon enjoining
+patience.” I suspect that the poor fellows would be only too thankful
+to have the opportunity once a week of listening to a sermon upon
+patience or any other subject! Moreover, the number of sermons given by
+our author to his prisoners is exceedingly liberal (52 in the course of
+the year), seeing that in an ordinary church in Petersburg or Moscow
+the number does not usually exceed half-a-dozen. I have seen it stated
+that properly there should be 12, but, in Siberia, on my asking the
+grandson of a metropolitan how often his father preached, he told me
+“five or six times a year,” and after many inquiries I never heard of
+but one priest in the empire, though, of course, there may be others,
+who preached, or rather read, a sermon every week.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+_THE CONVICT MINES OF KARA._
+
+ Gold-mines not underground.--Hours of labour.--Visit to a
+     mine.--Punishments.--Branding abolished.--Miners marching
+     off.--Statistics respecting runaways.--Women criminals at
+     mines.--A new building for expected politicals.--Superannuated
+     forçats.--The hospitals.--“Birching” and its effects.--Kara in
+     1859.--Improvements effected by Colonel Kononovitch.--A children’s
+     home.--Return to the gold-mine.--Comparison of Siberian and
+     English convicts.--Distribution of books.
+
+
+As I had visited the mine of the Archangel Gabriel near Krasnoiarsk, I
+was in some measure prepared what to expect in the gold-mines of Kara.
+It was not easy, however, to get rid of a preconceived notion attaching
+to Siberian mines, that the convicts _must_ be working underground, for
+I had entered the country with ideas such as those expressed by the
+author of “The Russians of To-day.”[1]
+
+But now that I have been to the convict gold-mines, I have, happily, no
+such horrors to relate. All the gold-mining is done aboveground. The
+season begins on the 15th February, and ends on the 15th November,
+and they work 13 hours a day, excepting certain hours for refreshment
+and rest. I suppose, however, both the length of the season and of
+their daily labour must be to some extent modified by the rigour of the
+frost and the duration of the light. During the three winter months the
+ground is frozen, and they are mostly unemployed.
+
+The visiting of the mine at Kara was far from pleasant. It was like
+walking into a large gravel-pit, from 20 to 30 feet deep. In this
+pit 198 men were at work, some removing the roots, stones, and
+surface-earth, and others carting off the gold-bearing sand to the
+washing machine. The miners were surrounded with a cordon of armed
+sentries, as at Portland prison. A large number of the convicts
+had irons on their legs; this, however, was something special to a
+particular prison, and was inflicted for two months as a punishment for
+aiding and abetting the escape of four comrades.[2]
+
+A certain measure of earth was allotted to the men as each day’s
+labour. A released Pole, who had been at Kara, though he did not work
+in the mines, told me it was a 7-feet cube to three men. This he
+allowed to be less than the quantity worked by free labourers. He said
+these latter had the help of horses and were better fed, but there were
+70 horses in the mine I visited at Kara, and the reader may judge, from
+what has been said, whether or not the miners’ food was sufficient. So
+far, therefore, the Siberian convicts at Kara did not appear to be
+worked harder than--I should think not so hard as--our own at Portland.
+
+I asked what was done to them if they did not fulfil their tasks, and
+was told that they were punished first by privation, and, if that
+did not suffice, by corporal chastisement with rods. Kara, I heard
+subsequently, is one of three places in Siberia where the _troichatka_
+or “plète” is in use. The colonel described it as a whip with three
+ends, of which, for serious offences, any number up to 20 stripes might
+be given; but, he said, he rarely used it, cases of insubordination
+being usually met by seclusion, irons, less food, or delay of removal
+to a higher class, which last might mean, in some cases, the virtual
+prolongation of a sentence for a couple of years.
+
+The branding of prisoners is no longer practised. There were two or
+three veterans at Kara, one of whom, at my request, was brought to
+me, and whose cheeks and forehead were marked with the letters K A T,
+an abbreviation of _Katorjnik_, a convict. This man had been marked
+in 1863, and the letters presented a tattooed appearance, though the
+operation of tattooing must be the more severe, since it is slowly done
+by hand, whereas, in the case of the prisoners, the brand was done by
+a kind of cupping instrument, or stamp, furnished with small points,
+which, on being tapped, pierced the skin. A liquid was then rubbed on,
+and so the convict was tattooed for life. I just missed seeing one of
+these instruments at Nikolaefsk, where it had been recently sold as a
+curiosity.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when we reached the mine at Kara; and
+by the time we had looked round, and gone among the miners, the hour
+arrived for leaving off work; the drum sounded, and the convicts
+formed in line, some of them shouldering tools, and what looked like
+stretchers for carrying loads of earth between two bearers. Their heavy
+tools were put in carts to be drawn by horses, and all marched under
+guard to their prison, five miles off. This walk, therefore, to and fro
+must in this instance be added to their day’s labour; but I noticed
+that, when the convicts walked out of the mine, the free labourers
+continued working, and did so for some hours afterwards.
+
+Before the miners started, their numbers were called, for prisoners
+sometimes attempt to remain in the mine all night for the purpose, it
+may be, of washing earth secretly to secure a little gold, or, more
+frequently, with a view to escape. If it be spring-time, a runaway may
+succeed, during the summer, in getting a long way off, and, as winter
+comes on, give himself up, be imprisoned as a vagrant or vagabond,
+and, the following spring, be fortunate enough, perchance, to make
+his escape again, and so get towards Europe. Sometimes they manage to
+obtain forged passports, and travel as free men. At other times the
+escaped gather in bands, and roam about the country. It is, in fact,
+by no means uncommon to meet escaped prisoners on the roads, but they
+are not spoken of as malicious. They are not like banditti. They will
+sometimes steal a chest of tea from the hindmost vehicle of a caravan,
+or, indeed, run off with horse, cart, and all; but they do not usually
+attack travellers. The runaways beg food of the peasantry, who, of
+course, by law, ought not to aid them; so they compromise matters
+by placing food on their window-sills at night, ostensibly with the
+charitable purpose of helping passers-by in distress. They thus avoid
+conflict with the authorities, and do not anger the convicts, who might
+otherwise do them mischief, especially by setting the house on fire.
+
+The half-liberty given to convicts after a period of good behaviour
+presents a loophole for escape, of which many hundreds avail
+themselves.[3] These escaped convicts are known as “_Brodiagi_,” or
+“roaming gentry.” They wander about, guided through the forests by
+marks left by the natives and preceding runaways. There are some
+places, it is said, where they can live without fear. M. Réclus goes so
+far as to say that sometimes the authorities, in times of difficulty,
+or when ordinary labourers fail, call in the help of “vagabonds,” with
+the tacit understanding that they will not ask for their passports,
+whereupon hundreds emerge from the surrounding forests and present
+themselves for employment. I am not able to confirm this from my own
+experience as regards the authorities, but I met with a private firm
+who had in their employ several men without their “papers.”
+
+When marched out of the Kara mine, those in the higher category are
+free to go to their families. I saw, too, near the Cossack barracks, a
+dwelling in course of erection for those who were living half-free, but
+in which they were to sleep at night. Those in the lower category are
+taken to their respective prisons, and may sleep, if they choose, in
+summer from nine o’clock till five, and in winter from seven till seven.
+
+I looked in at a prison, near the colonel’s house, just before the men
+were going to rest. I do not remember that there were any lights, and
+the place was gloomy enough; but I suspect that it must be more so
+during the long nights of winter. At Tiumen I observed but one small
+candlestick in a room for 65 prisoners,--light enough to make the
+darkness visible. In this respect my testimony is of limited value, as
+my visits were paid by day, but I can readily believe Goryantchikoff’s
+dismal description of the foul air and gloom of a Siberian prison by
+night. Whether the majority of prisoners, however, would wish for a
+constant and plentiful supply of oxygen I am not sure. They certainly
+do not provide for it in their own houses, any more than do some of the
+poorer classes in England.
+
+I have said nothing yet of the female prisoners at the mines of Kara.
+Russian women look upon prison life from very different points of view.
+I met a lady in Petersburg who visited the female wards in the prisons,
+and she told me that on one occasion a woman, on being brought back to
+her cell for the fourth or fifth time, found the arrangement of its
+furniture altered, whereupon she asked that her bed might be put “in
+the place where she always slept”; whilst another, a worthy old soul,
+on entering her cell, turned to the ikon and thanked God that her old
+age was so well provided for! This, of course, is very different from
+the picture of Siberian female prison life represented in “The Russians
+of To-day” (p. 230):--
+
+“Women are employed in the mines as sifters, and get no better
+treatment than the men. Polish ladies by the dozen have been sent
+down to rot and die, while the St. Petersburg journals were declaring
+that they were living as free colonists; and, more recently, ladies
+connected with Nihilist conspiracies have been consigned to the mines
+in pursuance of a sentence of hard labour.” I neither heard nor saw
+anything of women labouring _in_ the mines, and one of my released
+exile informants, from Nertchinsk, says that it is not true that women
+work _in_ the mines in getting the mineral. At Kara there were 154
+female prisoners to more than 2,000 men; and since the latter have
+a clean shirt every week, it would seem likely that the women may
+be employed in laundries and work-rooms, only that I am under the
+impression the prisoners wash their own linen. Five out of every six
+of the women convicts at Kara, dismal to relate, were murderesses,
+and walking between 58 of them in their prison at Ust-Kara was not
+pleasant. Some had babies, and most of the mothers had murdered their
+husbands. Husband-murder seemed to me painfully frequent in Russia, for
+which, in the fifteenth century, they had a barbarous punishment: the
+murderess was buried alive up to the neck, and left to the hungry dogs!
+
+Near this women’s department was a new cellular building of
+wood, recently erected. I notice this particularly because of its
+bearing upon the number of political exiles that are supposed to be
+_imprisoned_ in Siberia. The spring of 1879, it will be remembered,
+was a time of great excitement in Russia. An attempt was made upon the
+life of the Tsar, the great cities of the empire were placed under
+military command, and the journals talked of troops of prisoners being
+sent off to Siberia. And this was true, only they were not troops of
+_political_ prisoners. A telegram, however, was sent from Petersburg
+to the telegraph office at Kara, enjoining the commandant to prepare
+places for a certain number of prisoners about to be dispatched. But
+the number prepared for was not very great after all, for, as far as I
+remember, it did not exceed 20 or 30 at most; so that if the convoys of
+29 prisoners, whom my interpreter met in returning, were all destined
+for Kara, as he heard they were, then this small prison would be
+filled, and it might, in a sense, be called “a State prison.” When,
+therefore, in a previous chapter, I ventured to say there was, with one
+exception, no prison in Siberia that could be called a political or
+State prison, this was the exception in my mind.[4]
+
+Of course I entered this little prison and looked at the cells. They
+were ranged on either side of a roomy oblong space, in which were two
+stoves. The chief fault I had to find with the cells was that they were
+very small, and lighted, I think, only from the lobby within, the area
+of each cell being certainly smaller than that of the cells in Coldbath
+Fields, though I am not sure that they were smaller than those at
+Portland, nor do I remember how they compared with ours for height. If,
+therefore, the prisoners were to work by day, as do ours at Portland,
+perhaps the cells at Kara were not too small. For my own part, I would
+rather inhabit one of them in solitude by night than be turned in among
+the motley crew of the larger prisons.
+
+There were convicts at Ust-Kara, however, in a plight more pitiable
+than those confined in the political cells, or who had to work in
+the mines. I allude to the occupants of two or three wards in an old
+weather-beaten, smoke-dried, low-pitched building, in which were
+confined a number of old men, perhaps from 30 to 50 in number, who were
+not ill in such sense as to be patients in the hospital, but who were
+condemned to prison for life, or who, though too old to work, had not
+served their time.
+
+I do not remember any sight in Siberia that so touched me as this. To
+see scores of able-bodied men pent up in wards with nothing to do was
+bad, to hear the clanking of their chains was worse, though many of
+them were burly fellows who could carry them well. More touching still
+were the convoys of exiles with faithful and innocent women following
+their husbands; but to see these old men thus waiting for death was
+a most melancholy picture. The doctor inspects the convicts once a
+month, and determines upon those who are past work, who, in the absence
+of any specific disease, are then brought into these wards for the
+remainder of their lives. To release them, the colonel pointed out,
+would be no charity, because, being too old to work, and being out
+of the near range of poor-houses or similar institutions, they would
+simply starve. And thus they were left in confinement for a Higher
+Power to set them free. They lounged in the prison and in the yard, and
+some sat near a fire, though it was a sunny day in July. One old man
+was pointed out who had attained to fourscore years, and another had
+reached the age of ninety, and so on. The difficult breathing of one,
+however, the wheezing lungs of a second, and the hacking cough of a
+third, proclaimed in prophetic tones that their time was short; and one
+wished them a softer pillow for a dying head than a convict’s shelf in
+a prison ward. Their building was one of the oldest in the place, and
+was doomed to be pulled down within a month.
+
+There were two hospitals at Kara; one near the house of the commandant,
+at Middle Kara, containing, at the time of my visit, 43 patients; and
+the other at Ust-Kara, with 93 patients.[5] By the time the exiles
+have reached Kara they have trudged nearly 1,000 miles, and have been
+lodged, after leaving Moscow, in about 200 étapes and prisons. Many, of
+course, die on the route, but I have no official statistics upon this
+point. A released exile told me that, as far as he remembered, it was
+in his day about 16 per cent. With the survivors the fatigue of the
+march, together with deficiencies or irregularities of nourishment, and
+the bad atmosphere in some of the prisons, often induces scorbutus or
+scurvy. The colonel said that with bathing twice a day, and with good
+food, they are soon cured; and, though many arrive sick in April, they
+are commonly well before autumn. In winter they have fewer patients
+generally, and commonly no cases of scorbutus at all.
+
+We visited the hospital at Middle Kara on the Saturday afternoon. It
+was a fine building, with large, lofty, and airy rooms, which were
+clean, and decked with boughs of birch and coniferous trees, placed
+in the corners, not merely for ornament, but with the idea that the
+odour given off by them is salubrious. I saw the same thing on a large
+scale in the prison hospital at Tomsk; and upon my asking in one of the
+prisons at Ust-Kara why a large branch of cypress was placed there,
+they said it was for the sake of the smell.
+
+In the Siberian hospitals, at the head of every bed, was hung a board,
+with the occupant’s name written in Russian, and the name of the
+disease, written in Roman letters, in Latin; and as this was the only
+part of the writing I could read, I used generally to run my eye over
+the diseases in the wards. A remark made thereon caused the doctors
+sometimes to ask if I had studied medicine, which unfortunately I had
+not. Hence I was nonplussed at the word “costegcetis,” written over a
+man’s bed, and of which I asked an explanation; whereupon I was told
+that the man, who had been a ringleader in aiding the recent escape of
+the runaways, had been birched with 100 stripes of the rod, and that
+he was consequently in hospital for recovery. Whether the effects of
+a birching are very serious I do not clearly make out, but I met at
+least two cases in which the recipients of the rod made fun of it. One
+was that of a servant in a house where I stayed. She was a convict, and
+therefore liable, in case of misconduct, to be sent by her mistress to
+the police to be birched, as in bygone days had been more than once
+done with her; but she did not fear the switches, saying they would not
+_kill_ her: “they did indeed make one a little sore, but that was of no
+consequence!”
+
+I saw only one suffering in this way at Kara; and the colonel told me,
+as already stated, that though he rarely used the whip, yet that he
+did not choose to be trifled with. It was manifest that he could not
+maintain discipline among 2,000 convicts if he did, yet I met with
+no prison official in Siberia who seemed so judiciously to line with
+velvet the glove of steel as did Colonel Kononovitch. The whole place
+bore about it marks of the superintendence of a man who conscientiously
+acted from a high sense of duty.
+
+I have already mentioned what an unenviable reputation Kara had in
+former days. An old sea captain, with whom I stayed, told me he paid a
+visit to Kara in 1859, when there were 2,000 men branded, and chained
+to their barrows by night and by day. The overseer of the gold-mines,
+a German, told him that he had shot four men who had killed others
+when at work; and I have heard, since my return, that some of the
+predecessors of Colonel Kononovitch were so cruel that the mention
+of their names made convicts tremble. It is not, then, greatly to be
+wondered at that this evil reputation has descended to later days.
+
+But Colonel Kononovitch had effected great improvements. It has
+already been pointed out that many of the Siberian prisons were old
+and dilapidated, but that reforms were expected yearly to take place;
+and, there being no money forthcoming, things were allowed to go on
+as best they could. It was under this condition of affairs that the
+colonel was appointed to Kara, with its crazy buildings, some of which
+had been pulled down only a few days before my arrival. I saw one or
+two that were yet standing. Of course he applied for funds to meet the
+expenses of new buildings so urgently needed, but received only the
+stock answer with a polite bow that there were insufficient funds, and
+that they could not expend money on prisons whilst waiting for reforms;
+whereupon the average Siberian official might have allowed things to
+drift, but not so the colonel! The reforms he knew had been talked of
+for 15 years, and he commenced a number of “economies,” by which, if
+money were not forthcoming from one quarter, it might be obtained from
+another.[6]
+
+In this way he might quietly have pocketed £1,200 a year, and if in
+Russian fashion he had handed round hush money, all might probably
+have been smooth enough. But so did not the colonel, and he pointed
+out some of the improvements he had been able to effect by these
+economies.[7]
+
+The subordinate officials at Kara are very scantily paid, the chief of
+each prison receiving £70 a year, and his inferior officer £24. When
+at Tomsk, we heard of prison officials still lower, under each of whom
+were placed 30 prisoners, but who received only £6 a year and their
+food and accommodation, which were similar to those of the prisoners.
+It is not, therefore, greatly to be wondered at if these petty officers
+are not above misappropriating some of the prisoners’ food, or taking
+bribes. Colonel Kononovitch encouraged these men to engage in trade,
+or to keep horses, in which case he employed them in carrying or other
+ways, so long as they did not rob the prisoners.
+
+But other substantial good was effected; for during the previous two
+years and a half the colonel, chiefly, I understood, by his economies,
+had erected no less than 18 buildings, for which the governor of the
+province complimented him highly.[8]
+
+The colonel, moreover, did not spend his savings wholly on prisoners,
+or restrict his efforts to what might be strictly called his duty. He
+exceeded that, and allowed his justice to enlarge into benevolence.
+After seeing the hospital he took me to a children’s home which he had
+built for boys whose fathers were in prison.[9]
+
+The building was simple, but prettily situated within an enclosure,
+where was the best kitchen-garden I had seen in Siberia. In a
+green-house and a hot-house were growing melons, and I know not what.
+These the colonel said he sold for the good of the concern, and the
+money obtained for vegetables helped to pay the expenses of the
+school. The schoolmaster was an exile, and had been, I suspect, of
+good position from what I heard about him after I had left the place.
+The children were assembled for me to see, and I was tempted to act
+the schoolmaster and put to them some questions, but it was under
+difficulties of a polyglot character; and by the time my ideas had
+filtered twice through Russian, French, and English, the children’s
+answers were not very clear. Everything looked clean and orderly,
+and, what was better, there were about the place tokens of care and
+sympathy. Behind the house was a natural shrubbery, enclosed from the
+forest. In this a pavilion was erected, in which, from time to time,
+the commandant brought his wife and family to drink tea with the
+children, when the boys who had sisters in the colony might meet them,
+and where the humanizing influence of kindness was allowed to flow
+forth.
+
+By the time we had seen the school the day was far spent, and I was
+desirous to return to the mine to witness the final washing of the
+sand. During the day there had been worked (I presume by convicts
+and freemen together) 30 sajens, or, as they put it, 30,000 poods of
+sand. The produce of the first half of the day had been taken out of
+the machine; and after the convicts had left the mine, a few workmen
+remained washing the sand, in which at length the gold was found
+together with black dust of iron.[10]
+
+The number of men who had stayed for the last of the washing was less
+than a dozen, and there was a certain gravity manifested by the little
+group as they took their places round the wooden apron on which was
+pushed up and down the few handfuls of mineral that remained of 240
+tons that had passed through the cylinder. Darkness came on, so that
+they had to light torches of pine. There stood the colonel, looking
+on with dignity. The Cossack, too, was there, with loaded rifle, to
+protect the gold. The wooden scraper pushed away at the sand, and
+then the brush, and there was left only the gold and iron, less than
+half a pint. This was put in the miniature frying-pan, dried over an
+extempore fire, and then placed in a tin can. It was given into my hand
+that I might feel its weight, which I judged to be about a pound, and,
+if so, worth £40. The can was then given to the Cossack, who mounted
+his horse, and, accompanied by an escort, took it off to the treasury.
+
+And thus ended the day. That the men who worked in the mines had no
+easy task was plain, but it was equally plain that their labour,
+as compared with that of an English navvy or convict, was nothing
+extraordinary. The tread-wheel is unknown to them. Foreigners speak
+with horror of Siberian punishments, to which, as a set-off, I may
+mention that a Russian lady asked me, with a shudder, whether it could
+possibly be true that in England we placed prisoners on a wheel, on
+which, if they did not continue to step, it broke their legs! Comparing
+Siberian convicts with English,[11] the Siberian has the advantage in
+more food (which perhaps the climate may require), more intercourse
+with his fellows, and far more permissions to receive visits from
+his family. The Kara convict, when in the higher category, receives
+besides 15 per cent. of what he earns for the Government; and even in
+the lower category he is credited with the money, though its payment
+is deferred till he mounts higher. Political prisoners also may write
+to their friends; and though by strict right, I believe, criminals in
+Siberia cannot do so, yet this rule is not carried out, or is as often
+honoured in the breach as in the observance.
+
+The following day was Sunday, and happened to be the colonel’s
+name’s-day. This kept him at home for the morning to receive visitors.
+A telegram came to felicitate him from Madame’s father, from
+Ekaterineburg, a distance of 3,000 miles, taking 30 hours in transit.
+As the visitors did not speak French, I was not introduced, and had a
+comparatively quiet time to arrange and digest the information I had
+received. Later, I unfolded to the colonel my plan of distributing the
+Scriptures throughout Siberia. With this work he sympathized heartily,
+and promised to do what I wished. He subsequently received a lion’s
+share of the books, etc., I left with the governor of the province.
+I gave him some for the children’s home, and afterwards sent him a
+considerable number for his soldiers. All these reached Kara safely,
+and I have since had the great satisfaction of hearing that they were
+properly distributed throughout the colony. According to my latest
+news, the colonel is said to have left Kara; and if this be so, I can
+only hope that he has been replaced by as good a man.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] He says (p. 229): “They never see the light of day, but work and
+sleep all the year round in the depths of the earth, extracting silver
+or quicksilver under the eyes of taskmasters, who have orders not to
+spare them. Iron gates guarded by sentries close the lodes, or streets,
+at the bottom of the shafts, and the miners are railed off from one
+another in gangs of twenty. They sleep within recesses hewn out of the
+rock--very kennels--into which they must creep on all fours.”
+
+[2] According to the law of 1857 (Article 569), it appears that irons
+are worn during the time a prisoner is in the lowest category (or
+during probation time), after which they are continued as follows: for
+one condemned for life, 8 years: from 15 to 20 years, 4 years: from 12
+to 15 years, 2 years: from 6 to 8 years, 18 months; and from 4 to 6
+years, 12 months.
+
+[3] The number of “forçats” who, living free, ran away from Kara and
+escaped the control of the authorities for 15 years preceding my visit,
+is as follows: 1864, 327; 1865, 448; 1866, 369; 1867, 402; 1868, 354;
+1869, 266; 1870, 483; 1871, 326; 1872, 368; 1873, 585; 1874, 321; 1875,
+242; 1876, 175; 1877, 256; 1878, 194.
+
+Thus it will be seen that in 1869 there ran away a smaller number
+than in any preceding year, namely, 266, whereas in the following
+year, 1870, there ran away 483. This great difference was accounted
+for by the fact that up to 1869 the prisoners were under the
+“administration of the mines,” and when they were passed over to the
+new administration of the Minister of the Interior, this at first gave
+much dissatisfaction. Again, in 1873, the number of escapes rose to the
+highest, namely, 585, during which year it appeared the quantity of
+provisions was lessened; whilst, on the other hand, in 1875, the number
+of escapes being so low, less than in any preceding year, namely,
+175, was accounted for by there having been in that year a building
+committee, which gave wages to certain of the convicts for their work.
+Up to 1st July of the year of my visit, 155 had escaped.
+
+[4] After leaving Kara I heard that the number of political prisoners
+to be transported there was considerably augmented; but I have it
+on good authority that even then the number expected did not exceed
+60. The most recent information I have received, since the Emperor’s
+assassination, goes on to say that as Nertchinsk was made the special
+place of deportation for the Poles after 1863, so Kara has been made
+the special place for Nihilists; but I have no official information to
+that effect.
+
+[5] This gave a sick-list of 136 to a population of upwards of 2,000
+exiles and 1,000 Cossacks; besides, I suppose, the surrounding
+peasants. The number of convicts who died in the Kara hospitals from
+1872 was as follows:--
+
+  1872  1873  1874  1875  1876  1877  1878
+  108   287   152    55   118   117    90,
+
+and the number for 1879, up to the 1st July, was 65.
+
+At Tiumen the number on the sick-list was 19 out of 1,113 prisoners
+on the day of our visit. The number of sick prisoners, out of 20,711
+passing through Tiumen in 1878, was 1,562, of whom 1,246 were cured,
+280 died, and 44 remained in hospital.
+
+[6] Thus the Government allowed him 4_s._ 6_d._ per sajen for 8,000
+sajens of wood for fuel, which, instead of buying, he procured by
+sending his unemployed miners into the forest to cut, giving them, to
+their great satisfaction, a small payment, and effecting a saving of
+1_s._ per sajen. A year’s economy, therefore, in wood brought him £400.
+He found, too, by being his own timber-merchant, he could procure a
+log from 20 ft. to 30 ft. long for 7½_d._, for which dealers would
+have made him pay 2_s._ Then, again, the Government allowed him 7½_d._
+per pood for 7,000 poods of hay, instead of buying which he sent his
+prisoners into the neighbouring valleys to cut three times the normal
+quantity. Part of this was for feeding the horses he had already, and
+the rest for feeding others he added in order that he might be his own
+carrier, and so save the contract for carriage.
+
+[7] He paid each of the convicts, as perquisites, 4_d._ per sajen
+for the wood they cut, increased their allowance, and if, at the end
+of a job, all had gone well, he gave them each 1½_d._ a day extra.
+This helped the poor fellows to get sundry little extras, especially
+tobacco, which was encouraged; for the colonel, though he did not smoke
+himself, yet had imbibed the notion that it was good for the health of
+the prisoners.
+
+[8] I understood at the time that these buildings had been erected
+entirely out of savings; but I have since been told that, from 1877 to
+1879 there was granted, for the erection of prisons in Nertchinsk, the
+sum of £17,500, a part of which was destined for Kara.
+
+[9] The house had cost £200; and he informed me that for another £100
+he could put up a house for girls, of whom there were 20 about the
+place, whose fathers were prisoners. About £4 10_s._ per year was
+allowed by Government for each child, and to educate, clothe, and care
+for them as the colonel was doing costs about £5 a year extra for each;
+and this money he raised, I understood, among his friends.
+
+[10] The Government determines how much gold is to be washed in the
+season. In 1878 it was 25 poods, or 900 lbs. They told me that the
+average they were finding for the season of 1879 was ¾ of a zolotnik
+of gold to every 100 poods of sand, and that none of the mines about
+Kara yield more than one zolotnik to the 100 poods; also that the
+strata of gold sand are never more than seven feet, but usually less
+in thickness. I have already stated in an earlier chapter, only
+in different figures, that whilst 5 zolotniks to the 100 poods is
+considered good, 1 zolotnik to the same quantity is poor. Hence it is
+apparent that no private company would work the mines of Kara, and the
+Government do so only to provide penal employment at a reduced cost
+to the State. There are at Kara certain mines spoken of as belonging
+to the Emperor’s private purse. When the convicts work in these,
+the Minister of the Interior is paid for their labour according to
+the amount of work they do. This I understood to be an economical
+arrangement in favour of the Emperor.
+
+[11] Unfortunately my Siberian statistics are not sufficiently complete
+to allow a comparison between the _numbers_ of English and Russian
+convicts. “O. K.” points out that since 1860, out of a population of
+84,000,000, Russia has had on an average 20,000 criminals a year;
+whilst England and Wales, out of little more than a quarter of that
+population, has annually 12,000 criminal convictions. I am afraid that
+it is not satisfactory to _compare_ these figures, because the 20,000
+Russian criminals does not include, I presume, those left in prisons
+west of the Urals, but only those sent to Siberia; and, again, 12,000
+does not nearly cover the total number of criminals in England and
+Wales. In the borough and county jails of England and Wales there was,
+in 1878, a daily average of 19,818 prisoners, besides 10,208 in convict
+prisons. I think, however, I am right in estimating that there is not a
+daily average of 10,000 convicts in the _prisons_ of Siberia.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+_THE SHILKA._
+
+ Departure from Kara.--Parting hospitality.--Ust-Kara
+     police-master.--Head waters of the Shilka.--Collins’s descent
+     of Ingoda.--The Onon.--Formation of Shilka.--Scenery below
+     Stretinsk.--Shilkinsk.--Hospitality of police-master.--Non-arrival
+     of steamer.--Efforts at conversation.--Steaming down
+     the river.--Shilka scenery.--Tributaries from north and
+     south.--Arrival at confluence of Shilka and Argun.
+
+
+My steamer was due at Ust-Kara on Sunday evening. It was arranged,
+therefore, that my host should drive me to the river and see me off;
+or, if the steamer did not come, then leave me to wait its arrival in
+the house of the police-master. The colonel was pleased to say that he
+regretted my departure. He seldom received visits of the kind I had
+paid, which naturally had been more pleasant, he said, than inspection
+visits of officials. He alluded, however, to a visit to Kara of the
+Grand Duke Alexei-Alexeivitch as having done much good, and he was
+desirous of gathering all the information he could respecting our
+treatment of criminals in England.
+
+The colonel’s farewell did not end in words, for, like a true Russian,
+he made ample provision for his parting guest. Some Tunguses had
+passed a few days previously, of whom he had bought a box, of native
+manufacture, both curious and useful, and this he proceeded to fill
+for me with the good things of Kara. These included roast chickens
+and a piece of boiled ham. Preserves, too, my host had discovered that
+I liked, and I must therefore take some pots of jam recently made.
+Did I like cheese? Well--at home, half a pound would suffice me for
+a twelvemonth; but in Siberia, where good butter was scarce, and a
+cheese cost ten shillings, I had learned to regard it as a delicacy.
+The colonel therefore insisted on my taking the greater part of a Dutch
+bowler, and he regretted that he could not offer me the only piece he
+had of what looked like Cheddar, because he was expecting a visit from
+his Excellency the Governor of the province, and wanted a delicacy
+to set before him. The extreme kindness with which this was done was
+almost embarrassing. In England it would appear strange, but in the
+district of the Amur these were presents not to be despised, for some
+of them I could have otherwise obtained neither for love nor money.
+
+At last we set out duly laden, intending to call on our way at the
+prisons I had not yet seen. Packing, however, had taken rather long;
+and when we came to the first prison, where the officer was standing
+ready to receive us, I was afraid we should not have time, and that our
+staying might involve the missing of the steamer. I therefore begged
+that we might push on, which we did, to Ust-Kara. Here I looked over
+various buildings, which have been already referred to, as the summer
+hospital, with 93 patients, the women’s wards, and the wards for the
+old and superannuated men, also the new cellular prison for politicals,
+and a prison in which they manufacture various requisites for the use
+of the convicts. In this last, five men wished to sing to us a piece of
+Church music, which they did, and thus ended my visits to five of the
+six prisons of Kara. Evening was now drawing on, and as the boat had
+not come, I was consigned to the care of the police-master, and bade
+adieu to Colonel Kononovitch with feelings of regret.
+
+From Ust-Kara the steamer was to bear me to the Amur. This will be a
+convenient place, therefore, from which to say something further about
+the head waters of that river, namely, of the Ingoda and Onon, which
+form the Shilka; and the Argun, which, with the Shilka, forms the Amur.
+
+The Argun, Onon, and Ingoda all rise in the Kentai (or Khangai) and
+Yablonoi mountains. From the summit of this latter range the traveller
+approaching Chita from the west first sees the Ingoda at the foot of
+the range. From Chita to Stretinsk the journey can be made by water,
+and Mr. Collins, the first American traveller in this region, in 1858,
+so accomplished it.[1] On the fourth day he passed the river Onon,
+coming in from the south. This stream rises in the same district, but
+somewhat further south than the Ingoda, and in its upper course its
+banks are wooded. It is navigable all the summer.
+
+By the union of the Ingoda with the Onon is formed the Shilka, and at
+the junction the two rivers have each run a course of some 400 miles.
+The stream now increases in breadth and slightly in depth, so that,
+when not frozen, the river can be navigated at all seasons in small
+boats, though with some risk from the numerous sandbanks and rapids.
+About 40 miles below the Onon, the Nertcha enters from the north, and
+here stands the old city of Nertchinsk, not far from which the floating
+traveller passes the monastery of Nertchinsky, and subsequently arrives
+at Stretinsk.
+
+It was from this spot I commenced the descent of the Shilka with my
+Cossack attendant. As we glided along, hour after hour, the shifting
+scenes reminded one of some grand spectacle in a fairy tale, for bend
+after bend, and point after point, opened to view landscapes and vistas
+of surpassing beauty. Now and then we had to beware of rapids, and
+in one place of a sunken rock called the “Devil’s Elbow.” The depth
+sufficed for our boat, but we met a steamer coming up stream, whose
+captain had a hard task to find and keep the channel.
+
+Between Stretinsk and Shilkinsk the left bank is fairly populated,
+most of the necessaries of life are easily attainable, and fish and
+game are abundant. Granite predominates on both banks of the river as
+far as the third station, Botti, beyond which limestone prevails. The
+cliffs become lofty, some of them about 1,000 feet, and their summits
+are riven into numerous picturesque turrets, while beneath are openings
+leading into caverns. A few miles further the valley of the Shilka
+opens out, and the rocks recede for a considerable distance till they
+reach the valley of Tchalbu-tchenskoi, down the centre of which flows
+the river Tchal-bu-tche.
+
+On the space formed by the receding rocks stands Shilkinskoi Zavod, a
+town stretching two miles along the river on a plateau 30 feet high.
+This was the seat of an old convict silver-mining establishment, the
+working of which has ceased long since.[2] The river here has a breadth
+of 600 yards, with a current of four knots, and in the spring a depth
+of seven feet on the shallows, but in the summer and autumn the depth
+is much less.
+
+On the second day we came in sight of a large house on the left bank,
+where I landed, thinking perhaps to find some one to speak to. At the
+various stations I had given tracts, and, in a small way, found a ready
+sale for New Testaments. I offered the same at this large house, which
+proved to be that of a doctor, but he was not at home. His wife was
+in the house, but we had no language in common, and therefore my sale
+had to be conducted here, as at the post-houses, by dumb motions, one
+question about the hour being put and answered, I remember, by drawing
+a clock and marking the hands. Ten miles further was Ust-Kara, whence
+I digressed into a description of the headwaters of the Amur.
+
+After bidding adieu to Colonel Kononovitch, on Sunday evening the 27th
+July, I was waiting in the house of the police-master for the arrival
+of the steamer. This worthy official was several degrees lower in
+position and intelligence than my late host, but he had a good house,
+and spared no pains to make me comfortable. He was living bachelor
+fashion, his wife and daughters having gone on a tour to Irkutsk. This
+he regretted, and so did I, for I was given to understand that they
+spoke French; and it was not particularly lively to be in a house in
+which you could speak a word to no one, especially with a host who
+would insist upon talking, whether you understood or not. One hour
+passed by, and two, and three, and the expected whistle was not heard,
+till, night having fairly set in, my host made me understand that the
+steamer had run aground.
+
+It seemed best, therefore, to go to bed, hoping for its appearance in
+the morning. A bed was made for me on the floor of the best room in the
+house, but no washing apparatus provided. The maid was to be called in
+the morning to do the part of a Levite, and pour water on my hands.
+I was not, however, to retire supperless, and whilst food was being
+prepared the police-master begged me to try his piano. Accordingly,
+I strummed three tunes, which represent my stock-in-trade in this
+department, and my host nodded satisfaction. At supper he rattled away,
+and it was in vain that I shook my head and replied, “_Ne govoriu po
+Russki_” (I do not speak Russ). He returned to the charge afresh, until
+I was glad to retire.
+
+Morning came, but not the steamer, and after breakfast I was writing,
+when it occurred to me that if the steamer were aground, it might
+be days or even weeks before it arrived, and at last I thought it
+desirable to inquire for particulars. A military officer came in, but
+I could extract from him no language I knew. Presently, however, the
+police-master brought a piece of paper that gave me hope. It was a
+polyglot letter to this effect: “Respected Sir, I should be glad to
+be allowed to teach your children French, which language I know. Your
+obedient servant, So-and-So.” And this was written in Russian, French,
+German, and English, and, as a finale, was added, “Sic transit gloria
+mundi.” I saw at once there was a genius in the place,--perhaps a
+released exile, or the wife of one, and I requested my host by signs to
+bring us together at once. But I think the said genius must have been
+away, for the police-master was holding a discussion with the officer
+as if there were some difficulty in the matter, when, as they were
+talking, the steamer’s whistle was heard.
+
+The effect was magical. I rushed to make ready. The carriage was
+before the door in a very few minutes, and the police-master, who was
+expecting his family by the boat, was speedily with me, my baggage on
+the vehicle, and we dashed off to the station. Here I was introduced to
+the wife and family, and also to a lady who I fancy was the authoress
+of the polyglot paper,[3] after which I embarked.
+
+The weather was beautiful, and we steamed down the lovely Shilka
+150 miles to its junction with the Argun. The first station beyond
+Ust-Kara was Ust-Chorney. Here the Chorney, or Black river, falls into
+the Shilka by two channels. This river is so rapid, and sometimes
+so violent, as to dash the passing boat or raft a wreck against the
+opposite rock-bound shore. Further on the scenery changes on the south
+side. Perpendicular cliffs of limestone appear with groups of birch
+and larch on their tops, and in the small ravines. Over these rounded
+summits appear, and a long chain of hills stretches southwards towards
+the Argun.
+
+The next station is Gorbitza, near the mouth of the Gorbitza river.
+Until 1854 this was the boundary of the Russian and Chinese empires. At
+Bogdoi, not far distant, is a mineral spring where annually a fair was
+held, at which a few Russian merchants and Cossacks used to assemble to
+meet the Manchu who came to barter. The Manchu ascended the Amur from
+Aigun in large boats, bringing printed cotton goods, silk, tobacco,
+and Chinese brandy, which they exchanged for glassware, soap, and
+deer-horns.
+
+Below Gorbitza the river enters a region where the cliffs rise
+considerably higher than in the limestone. Here granite is heaved up
+in huge masses, which time, frost, and sun have riven and shattered
+into curious forms. Ravines are also rent far into the mountains, and
+down them clear streams descend. A little further on the shores become
+wooded, pine-trees grow along the banks, and on the upper slopes are
+black and white birches, with occasional clumps of larch, while the
+dwarf elm grows from the clefts in the rocks.
+
+Mineral springs are frequently met with on the banks of the Shilka. To
+some the natives resort. Further down are several islands, upon one of
+which, named “Sable” island, are pine, larch, and birch. At the river
+Bankova, having its source in the mining district near the Argun, and
+falling into the Shilka from the south, there is another place where
+a fair was held by the Cossacks of the Argun and the Tunguses of the
+Yablonoi, the latter bringing skins, deer-horns, and a few sable and
+fox skins. These they bartered with the Cossacks for flour, _vodka_,
+powder, and lead. Further on, and not far from the confluence of the
+Shilka and Argun, the Son-ghe-noi enters the Shilka to the south, and
+at a short distance is a lake from which the natives and Cossacks
+obtain their supplies of salt. A few miles below Son-ghe-noi are two
+islands in the Shilka, and a little beyond these the sandstone rocks
+rise abruptly in picturesque forms from the water. The rocks recede to
+the southward, and a small delta has formed extending to the mouth of
+the Argun. Near it is the village of Ust-Strelka,[4] or Arrow mouth,
+situated at the junction of the two rivers which form the Amur, and
+here I arrived on Wednesday evening, the 30th of July.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The Russians at that time were engaged in the annexation of the
+Amur territory, and the Governor, General Korsakoff, willingly lent
+him aid. He embarked at Atalan, about eight miles below Chita, in a
+flat-bottomed barge. Here the river is 200 yards wide, and the shores
+are well timbered and mountainous. The river proved easy to navigate,
+and Mr. Collins, his provisions, and 18 persons proceeded down the
+stream at the rate of nearly five miles an hour. The country on the
+third day became more open, with extensive high-rolling prairies, and
+the banks of the stream afforded much beautiful scenery. On the 21st
+May the forests were still leafless, though flowers were making their
+appearance, and the willows were budding. The rocks of the river are in
+many parts covered with mosses and a beautiful fern, and in sheltered
+spots appears in summer the rhubarb plant.
+
+[2] At Shilkinsk were built several of the barges for the first great
+expedition on the Amur in 1854, and here the expedition was fitted
+out with military stores and other necessaries. The Government had,
+too, in the place a glass factory and a very large tan-yard, but I
+have a suspicion that these factories were much more important in the
+days when Messrs. Atkinson, Collins, and Ravenstein wrote, than a
+quarter of a century later, at the time of my visit. Up to this point
+at least I could hear of no factories in Siberia, other than those I
+have mentioned. At Ekaterineburg there was a paper-mill, belonging to
+Mr. Yates, at whose house I dined; and there were the soap and candle
+works, near which I stayed, and where, through difficulty of getting a
+sufficiency of fuel, they were burning wood and rubbish, and with the
+gas produced therefrom, through a two-feet tube, were heating some of
+the boilers.
+
+[3] “Une sage femme,” she called herself, who had been acting in her
+capacity as midwife, and had returned by the boat. Women alone, I
+understand, act in this capacity in Russia,--a doctor being called in
+only in case of difficulty.
+
+[4] Here the Shilka ends its course of 700 miles, and is joined by the
+Argun, after a course of 1,000 miles. The Argun proper rises among the
+Nertchinsk ore mountains, at an elevation of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet,
+and very near to the source of the Onon, the two streams running down
+the northern and southern slopes respectively of the mountain-range.
+The upper part of the Argun, however, rises as the Kerulen to the
+south-east of Kiakhta, in the Kentai (or Khangai) mountains. For 550
+miles the Kerulen traverses one of the most inhospitable tracts of the
+Gobi. It then runs through the Dalai Nor or Lake, and flows into the
+Argun proper, by which name the lower course of the river is known;
+and then, after flowing 420 miles further, it joins the Shilka at
+Ust-Strelka.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+_THE HISTORY OF THE AMUR._
+
+ Divisible into three periods.--Period of Cossack
+     plunder.--Poyarkof.--Khabarof.--Stepanof.--Discovery and
+     occupation of Shilka.--Chernigovsky.--Period of conflict with
+     Chinese.--Russo-Chinese treaty of 1686.--Russian mission at
+     Peking.--Affairs on the Amur during Russian exclusion.--Third
+     historic period from 1847.--Preparatory operations on Lower
+     Amur.--Muravieff’s descent of the river, 1854.--Influence of the
+     Crimean war.--Colonization of Lower Amur.--Further colonization,
+     1857.--Chinese protests.--Influence of Anglo-Chinese war.--The Sea
+     Coast erected into a Russian province.--Renewed difficulties with
+     China.--Treaty of 1860.--Review of Russian occupation.
+
+
+The history of the Amur, or so much of it as need here be mentioned
+in connection with the Russians, may be divided into three periods.
+We have first the period of Cossack pillage and plunder of the native
+tribes, beginning in 1636, and extending over a period of 50 years to
+1682. This was followed in 1683 by a period of warfare with China,
+lasting for half-a-dozen years, and succeeded by uninterrupted Chinese
+possession for (roughly) 150 years, to 1848; after which comes the
+period of Russian annexation, beginning in 1848, completed in 1860, and
+continuing to the present day.[1]
+
+I have already stated that, within about 20 years after the founding
+of Yeneseisk, the Russians pushed on their conquests to the Sea of
+Okhotsk, on the shores of which, in 1639, they built a winter station
+for the collection of tribute. It was here first they heard from the
+Tunguses of tribes to the south, dwelling along the Zeya and Shilka.[2]
+
+These reports attracted attention in Yakutsk, and an expedition of 132
+men, most of them _promyshlenie_, was placed under Poyarkof, who left
+Yakutsk in 1643, ascended the river Aldan, and built winter quarters
+for 40 of his men, and stores, in the mountains. Pushing on himself
+with 92 men, he crossed the Stanovoi range, and, after suffering great
+hardships, reached the head waters of the Zeya, where he met the first
+reindeer Tunguses. Further on he came to a Daurian village, in which he
+was kindly received, but his extortionate conduct provoked the natives
+to hostility; and one of his officers, having attacked a village and
+been repulsed, Poyarkof, with the loss of many Cossacks through hunger,
+retired down the Zeya, descended the Amur to its mouth, and, crossing
+the Sea of Okhotsk, reached Yakutsk in 1646.
+
+The next prominent traveller was Khabarof, from 1647 to 1652. A
+shorter route to the river had been heard of by way of the Olekma; and
+Khabarof, at the head of a band of adventurers, took this route to
+the Upper Amur. The natives, having heard of the conduct of Poyarkof,
+fled before the Russians; and Khabarof marched on, slaughtering his
+opponents, or putting them to flight. Strengthened by reinforcements,
+he descended the river to the Lower Amur, wintered at Achansk (which
+no longer exists), and was vainly attacked by the natives and the
+Manchu. In the following spring he turned back, and ascended the
+river to the Zeya, where some of his men mutinied. He sent messengers
+to Yakutsk asking for 6,000 men, and, there being no such force in
+Siberia, the _voivod_ dispatched the messengers to Moscow, where the
+conquest of the Amur had been for some time under consideration.
+Khabarof returned in 1652, and thus ended the first nine years of
+Russian adventure on the Amur, during which some of the leaders had
+shown great perseverance; but the natives had been badly treated,
+exposed to all sorts of extortion, and their tilled lands reduced to
+deserts.
+
+We come now to Stepanof (1652-1661). Reports of the excesses committed
+by the adventurers already mentioned had reached Moscow, and it was
+determined to send a force of 3,000 men to occupy the newly-explored
+territories. The command was given to Stepanof, and he was accompanied
+by hundreds of adventurers, who were attracted by the reported riches
+of the country. Stepanof was not able to carry out his instructions
+to found settlements, and spent his time in roving along the Amur and
+up the Sungari. At Kamarskoi he was besieged, in the spring of 1655
+by a large Manchu force; but with a garrison of 500 men he put 10,000
+foes to flight. Subsequently he was joined by Feodor Puschkin and
+50 Cossacks, by whom he sent the tribute he had extorted to Moscow.
+Puschkin’s party lost their way, and 41 of them perished. Stepanof
+continued his predatory expeditions till 1658, when, at the mouth of
+the Zeya, 180 of his men deserted, and he was met by a Manchu force,
+and himself and nearly all his band slain or made prisoners. This for
+a time practically cleared the Amur of the Russians, and what few
+remained evacuated the district in 1661.
+
+All the expeditions above mentioned reached the Amur from the
+north-west, striking the river some miles below the confluence of the
+Shilka, at what is now Ust-Strelka. We proceed to say a few words
+respecting the discovery and occupation of that tributary, 1652-58.
+Cossacks from Yeneseisk had pushed their explorations beyond the
+Baikal, and, in consequence of their reports, Pashkof the Voivod, in
+1652, sent out a party to cross the lake, under command of Beketof,
+who, two years later, built a fort on the Nertcha; but the expedition
+came to nothing. Other adventurers went out in 1654 and 1655. At length
+Pashkof was entrusted with a force of 566 men to found a town on the
+Shilka, whence the surrounding territories might be subjugated. He left
+Yeneseisk in 1656, and on his way founded Nertchinsk. Whilst so doing,
+he sent a number of his men down the Amur to look for Stepanof, but
+they were met by his deserters, and robbed of their provisions, after
+which, in 1662, Pashkof returned to Yeneseisk, his mission unattained.
+
+What Government troops had failed to effect, however, was soon after
+accomplished by a runaway exile--Nikitao Chernigovsky--who, at the head
+of a lawless band, murdered the Voivod of Ilimsk, and in 1665 fled to
+the banks of the Amur, where he built a fort on the site of Albaza’s
+village, opposite the river Albazikha. He was joined by others as
+lawless as himself; villages were founded near the fort, and Albazin
+became a place of importance. A petition was forwarded to Moscow,
+representing what had been done as done for the Tsar, and praying for
+Chernigovsky’s pardon, in consideration of his recent services. It
+was granted; and Chernigovsky made tributary many of the surrounding
+tribes near Albazin. The Chinese complained of Russian encroachments,
+and conciliatory embassies proceeded to Peking, in 1670 and 1675. The
+people of Albazin, however, determined to do as they pleased, and, in
+spite of orders to the contrary, they navigated the Lower Amur, and
+founded settlements, so that at the close of 1682 the Russians had
+established themselves at Albazin, on the Zeya, and on the Amgun.
+
+This finishes the first period in the history of the Amur--that of
+Cossack pillage and plunder.
+
+The oppression of the Russians naturally caused the tribes on the Amur
+to apply for help to their neighbours and nominal masters, the Chinese,
+who made large preparations to expel the intruders. They destroyed the
+Russian settlements on the Zeya and Amgun, took some of the garrisons
+prisoners, and advanced upon Albazin in June 1685. After a blockade
+of 18 days the garrison surrendered, and were allowed to retire to
+Nertchinsk. The Chinese then destroyed the fort, and withdrew down
+the river to Aigun; but the Russians followed in the wake of their
+conquerors and rebuilt their town. The Chinese, therefore, returned
+in July of the following year, again surrounded the fort, where the
+Russians held out bravely till November, in which month the siege was
+raised, in consequence of orders from the Chinese Government, to whom
+the Russians had sent ambassadors desiring conditions of peace.
+
+The ever-recurring complications with the Chinese made the Russian
+Government desirous to come to some arrangement regarding the frontier
+of the two empires. Venyukoff accordingly was sent on a mission to
+Peking to arrange preliminaries, and he brought back with him a letter
+in Chinese, Manchu, and Mongol, translated into Latin, which supplies a
+good idea of Chinese views on the Amur question.[3]
+
+If this letter be anything like a true statement of the case, which
+there seems to be no just cause to doubt, then the moderation and
+forbearance of the Chinese stands out in striking contrast to the
+conduct of the Russians. I have described (Chapter XXXV.) how the
+conference was conducted, and how it ended in a treaty, by which
+Albazin and the whole of the Amur were confirmed to the Chinese.[4]
+
+This settlement practically closed the district to Europeans for about
+160 years--that is, till 1848. A few encroaching hunters were from
+time to time caught and punished. Some convicts also escaped from the
+mines of Nertchinsk to Chinese territory, and others went down the
+whole length of the Amur, one of them getting away from Nikolaefsk to
+America; but very little is known of the Amur basin during these years,
+though Russia kept up the supply of priests who crossed the desert to
+sustain the Russian mission at Peking.
+
+After the treaty of Nertchinsk, the town of Aigun was removed to the
+right or southern bank of the river, and in keeping with the jealous
+policy of exclusion peculiar to the celestials, the Chinese were
+forbidden to emigrate northward to the thinly-populated Manchuria, and
+the Manchu were forbidden to pass northward of the town of San-sin on
+the Sungari, whilst the privilege of trading on the Amur was restricted
+to ten merchants, who obtained for that purpose a licence at Peking.
+Besides these particulars of the Amur during the period of the Russian
+exclusion, we learn something from the letters of Roman Catholic
+missionaries in Manchuria, one of whom, M. De La Brunière, descended
+the Amur to the country of the Gilyaks, where he was killed. But I
+shall speak of this when I come to the people and place of his murder.
+This finishes our second period--that of war with China. It remains to
+treat of the recent history of the Amur, and of the annexation of all
+its left and part of its right bank by Russia. This will bring before
+us the events occurring between 1847 and 1861.
+
+The recent history of the Amur may be said to date from the time that
+Count Nicolas Muravieff became Governor of Eastern Siberia in 1847.
+The Russians had long seen the desirability of acquiring the right
+of navigating the Amur, if only for the purpose of sending down it
+provisions for their settlements in Kamchatka, the land carriage of
+which annually required 14,000 to 15,000 pack-horses. With a view
+to this, they had sent Golovkin to Peking at the beginning of the
+present century to treat for the free navigation of the river, or, at
+all events, to gain permission to send a few ships once a year with
+provisions. But the Chinese were unwilling to make any concession
+whatever.
+
+Muravieff became Governor of Eastern Siberia in 1848, and one of his
+first acts was to send an officer with four Cossacks down the Amur, who
+were never heard of again. Admiral Nevilskoi, in the same year, left
+Cronstadt for the Pacific to explore the mouth of the Amur; and, in
+1851, founded Nikolaefsk and Mariinsk as trading ports. Two years later
+were founded Alexandrovsk, in Castries Bay; and other posts in the
+island of Sakhalin at Aniva Bay and Dui.
+
+The next year, 1854-5, was important in the history of the Amur, as
+that in which the first Russian military expedition descended the river
+from the Trans-Baikal provinces. Russia had at the time three frigates
+in or near the Sea of Okhotsk, and, owing to the breaking out of the
+Crimean War and the presence of an English fleet in the Pacific, it
+was feared that these might be left in want of supplies, and that
+the Russian settlements on the Pacific, which at that time depended
+on shipments from home, might be seriously straitened. The Black Sea
+and the Baltic were blockaded, and the only feasible plan was to send
+provisions from Siberia down the Amur. The nearest Chinese authorities
+at Kiakhta and Urga professed themselves unable to give permission; but
+as no time was to be lost, Muravieff’s necessity knew no law, and he
+started down the river.
+
+He had a steamer, 50 barges, and numerous rafts, 1,000 men, and guns.
+Several men of science, to whom we owe much of the solid information
+given us by Mr. Ravenstein, accompanied him. His journey down the river
+to Mariinsk was uneventful, and he returned by way of Ayan to Irkutsk.
+
+The continuation of hostilities between Russia and the English and
+French allies naturally made the Russians prepare for an attack on
+their eastern settlements,[5] and considerable activity was displayed
+by them on the Amur in 1855-6. Three more expeditions left Shilkinsk
+in the course of the year, and conveyed down the river 3,000 soldiers
+and 500 colonists, with cattle, horses, provisions, agricultural
+implements, and military stores.[6] Accordingly, the places founded on
+the river grew fast. Villages were built by the colonists at Irkutskoi,
+Bogorodskoi, and Mikhailovsk. Great progress also was visible at
+Nikolaefsk, which from a village of 10 houses grew to one of 150.
+
+The operations of the allied fleets in the Pacific in 1855 were on a
+larger scale than in the preceding year; but the results were equally
+insignificant, and the peace of 1856 left the Russians free to carry
+on their plans of annexation. General Muravieff now went to Petersburg
+to advocate the granting of large means for colonizing the river, and
+during his absence the direction of affairs was left in the hands of
+General Korsakoff.[7]
+
+But the year 1857-8 will ever be one of the most memorable in the
+history of the river. Muravieff had succeeded at Petersburg in securing
+large grants of men and money. Troops descended and formed numerous
+stations along the left bank, and colonists and provisions were
+conveyed to the possessions of the Russo-American Company. A Captain
+Furruhelm conducted down the river 100 emigrants and 1,000 tons of
+provisions, and with him travelled Mr. Collins, already referred to,
+as “commercial agent of the United States for the Amur river.” Count
+Putiatin, also bound on a mission to Japan and China, availed himself
+of the newly-opened way. Putiatin received orders to induce the
+Chinese to come to some definite arrangement regarding the frontier
+of the Amur, but he was not successful. This result was felt on the
+river; for the mandarins now again protested against the occupation
+of the territory, and in some instances molested the Russian traders.
+Accordingly, Muravieff hastened to Petersburg for fresh reinforcements,
+and more troops were sent east; whilst the territory in dispute,
+together with Kamchatka and the coast of the Okhotsk Sea, was erected
+into a separate province, called “the Maritime province of Eastern
+Siberia.” A squadron of seven screw steamers was dispatched from
+Cronstadt in the summer, and two European-built steamers, the _Lena_
+and the _Amur_, ascended the river with merchandise and troops.
+
+When Muravieff got back to the Amur, in 1858, the Chinese were in a
+very different humour, for they were then at war with the English and
+French, and Russia found no difficulty in concluding an amicable treaty
+at Aigun on 28th of May. China ceded to Russia the left bank of the
+Amur down to the Ussuri, and both banks below that river, and opened
+the Sungari and Ussuri to Russian merchants and travellers.
+
+On the 21st May, Muravieff laid the foundation of Blagovestchensk,
+at the mouth of the Zeya; he then descended the Amur, and founded
+Khabarofka, at the mouth of the Ussuri, and subsequently selected the
+site of Sophiisk; after which, in August, he was created “Count of
+the Amur.” On the last day of the year this territory received a new
+organization, and was divided into the “Maritime province of Eastern
+Siberia,” and the “Amur province,” the latter denoting a district along
+the river, above the mouth of the Ussuri.[8]
+
+We now come to 1859-60, during which time several measures were taken
+to favour colonization. Political exiles were to have passports granted
+them for three years, to enable them to proceed to the east; and if
+deserving, their term was to be extended permanently. The sailors
+stationed at the Lower Amur were allowed to retire after 15 years’
+service, received a plot of ground, and might send for their families
+to come to them at the Government expense. The colonists, too, were
+to be maintained by Government for two years, after which time they
+were to provide for themselves. Government also renounced its monopoly
+of the mineral treasures of Siberia; and in future any one, except
+convicts, was to be allowed to search for precious stones or metals.
+This attracted many emigrants, and on the arrival from Western Siberia
+of 10,000 of them at Irkutsk, Cossack stations were founded along the
+banks of the Ussuri and the Sungacha, with a view to the settlement of
+the frontier.
+
+Difficulties, however, with China again arose. The Chinese had repelled
+the advance of the allied French and English forces in 1859, and, being
+elated for the moment with the power of their arms, imagined that it
+was no longer necessary to conciliate the Russians, and told them that
+China had never ceded the Amur, that they had no right there, and
+must immediately quit. Things, therefore, looked gloomy towards the
+south;[9] but the relative positions of China and Russia were suddenly
+transposed by the successes of the English and French, who thoroughly
+humbled China; and Russia, availing herself of the opportunity, was
+able to conclude, on the 14th of November, 1860, a most advantageous
+treaty, much more comprehensive than any ever concluded by China with
+a foreign power, which gave Russia a right to the country north of
+the Amur and east of the Ussuri, together with the entire coast of
+Manchuria, down to the frontiers of Corea.
+
+I have thus traced the history of the Amur from the time that the
+Russians first heard of the river, in 1639, down to 1860, when they
+obtained possession of it.[10] It remains for me now to give the
+reader, as best I can, an idea of the condition of things as I found
+them at the time of my visit.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] I am specially indebted to Mr. Ravenstein’s excellent work, “The
+Russians on the Amur,” for the substance of the following pages.
+
+[2] This report, so far as the Shilka is concerned, was confirmed in
+the same year by what a party of Cossacks heard, who had been sent from
+Yeneseisk to the Vitim, about a prince of the Daurians named Lavkai,
+who inhabited a stronghold at the mouth of the Urka rivulet, and whose
+people kept cattle and tilled the soil.
+
+[3] It was dated 20th November, 1686, and ran in part thus: “The
+officers to whom I have entrusted the supervision of the sable hunt,
+have frequently complained of the injury which the people of Siberia
+do to our hunters on the Amur. My subjects have never provoked yours,
+nor done them any injury; yet the people at Albazin, armed with cannon,
+guns, and other firearms, have frequently attacked my people, who had
+no firearms, and were peaceably hunting.
+
+“They also roved about the Lower Amur, and troubled and injured the
+small town of Genquen and other places. As soon as I heard of this I
+ordered my officers to take up arms, and act as occasion might require.
+They accordingly made prisoners some of the Russians who were roving
+about the Lower Amur; no one was put to death, but all were provided
+with food.
+
+“When our people arrived before Albazin, and called upon it to
+surrender, Alexei and others, without deigning a reply, treated us in
+a hostile manner, and fired off muskets and cannon. We therefore took
+possession of Albazin by force; but even then we did not put any one to
+death. We liberated our prisoners, but more than 40 Russians, of their
+own free choice, preferred remaining amongst my people. The others were
+exhorted earnestly to return to their own side of the frontier, where
+they might hunt at pleasure. My officers, however, had scarcely left,
+when 460 Russians returned, rebuilt Albazin, killed our hunters, and
+laid waste their fields; thus compelling my officers to have recourse
+to arms again.
+
+“Albazin consequently was beleagured a second time; but orders were
+nevertheless given to spare the prisoners and restore them to their
+own country. Since then, Venyukoff and others have arrived at Peking
+to announce the approach of an ambassador, and to propose a friendly
+conference to settle the boundary question, and induce the Chinese
+to raise the siege of Albazin. On this a courier was sent at once to
+Albazin to put a stop to further hostilities.”
+
+[4] The treaty began as follows:--“In order to suppress the insolence
+of certain scoundrels, who cross the frontier to hunt, plunder, and
+kill, and who give rise to much trouble and disturbance, to determine
+clearly and distinctly the boundaries between the empires of China and
+Russia, and lastly to re-establish peace and good understanding for
+the future, the following articles are by mutual consent agreed upon.”
+After defining the boundaries, the treaty went on to provide that
+hunters of either empire should under no pretence cross the frontier.
+Also that neither party should receive fugitives or deserters; and the
+third article states, “Everything which has occurred hitherto is to be
+buried in eternal oblivion.”
+
+[5] Their strength on the Amur at the time was very inconsiderable,
+and the allies, having mustered their forces on the American coast,
+came down upon a comparatively feeble folk in Siberia. Petropavlovsk in
+Kamchatka was attacked, but the Russians managed to hold their own till
+orders arrived from Petersburg to abandon the place, which they did
+on 17th April, 1855, taking with them the inhabitants, with whom they
+safely reached Castries Bay.
+
+[6] The Chinese were either unwilling or unable to oppose the passage.
+Up to this time no attempt had been made to found any settlement on
+the Upper or Middle Amur, and the presence of the allied fleets in the
+Pacific ostensibly justified the assembling of a force on the Lower
+Amur. The Chinese did send to Nikolaefsk certain mandarins to treat;
+but these not being of sufficient rank, Muravieff refused to receive
+them.
+
+[7] In the course of the 12 months 697 barges and rafts descended the
+river, conveying 1,500 head of cattle, and the provisions required
+by the forces on the Lower Amur. Cossack stations were built on the
+Upper and Middle Amur, and another settlement made on the lower part
+of the river. Postal communication by horses was established between
+Nikolaefsk and Mariinsk, which until then had been carried on by dog
+sledges. The Russian colonists agreed to supply the necessary horses
+during winter at the rate of £22 a “pair,” and during the summer they
+were to supply the steamers on the river with the requisite fuel.
+
+[8] Admiral Kazakevich remained military governor of the Maritime
+province, and resided at Nikolaefsk; and General Busse was appointed
+military governor of the Amur, with a salary of £1000 a year, and
+a residence at Blagovestchensk. Shortly after the ukase of the
+31st December, the Cossack forces on the Amur received a separate
+organization. Up to the end of 1858, 20,000 persons of both sexes had
+been settled along the river, and these were to furnish two regiments
+of cavalry and two battalions of infantry, as well as two battalions
+of Ussuri infantry from the Maritime province. Commercial enterprise
+was promised a fresh impulse by the foundation of the Amur Company, the
+object of which was the development of trade on the river. It started
+with a capital of £150,000, and was privileged to open establishments
+on the Amur and Shilka, but proved unsuccessful, and after a few years
+was dissolved.
+
+[9] The newly-acquired territory, moreover, was not fulfilling the
+anticipations of those who thought to find at once the country
+turned into the granary of Siberia, and supplying with its produce
+and manufactures the navies of the world. The Amur was a source of
+continual expenditure, and the Cossacks were not proving the best of
+colonists. To remedy this, German colonists had been sent for. My
+old host, with whom I stayed at Vladivostock, Captain De Vries, was
+to bring 40 German families from California, who were to be settled
+at the mouth of the Bureya; but, as he told me, he found the thing
+impracticable.
+
+[10] At that date they had brought to the region about 40,000
+colonists, most of them from the Trans-Baikal and Irkutsk governments,
+who walked with their cattle to the Shilka, and then proceeded on huge
+rafts, like floating farm-yards. The cattle were turned on shore to
+feed at night, and marched back in the morning to travel by day. By
+these means the banks of the river became populated, though scantily,
+this region covering an area of 361,000 square miles, or twice as large
+as that of Spain. The Russians, by 1861, had established military posts
+along the whole course of the Amur, on the Ussuri, and at various
+harbours on the sea-coast, the whole military force, up to 1859, being
+about 15,000 men. Simultaneously while strengthening her forces on the
+Amur, Russia reinforced her navy in the Pacific; and in 1860 she had
+there 19 steamers, mounting 380 guns, and manned by between 4,000 and
+5,000 sailors and marines. There were also, in 1861, 12 steamers on the
+river, nine of which belonged to the Government.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+_THE UPPER AMUR._
+
+ Formation of the Amur.--Chinese boundary.--Our steamer.--Captain and
+     passengers.--Natives of Upper Amur.--Orochons.--Manyargs.--Their
+     hunting year.--Our journey.--Run aground.--Table
+     provisions.--Scenery.--Albazin.--Cliff of Tsagayan.
+
+
+We glided into the Amur about sunset on the 30th July, when, happening
+to come on deck, I found the passengers gazing over the stern of the
+vessel. Before us were the two rivers of which the Amur is formed.
+To the right was the defile of the Shilka, to the left the Argun;
+and between the streams the mountains narrowed, and came to a point
+a mile above the meeting of the waters. On the tongue of land below
+was the Russian village and Cossack post of Ust-Strelka. The soft
+light of evening threw a charm over the well-wooded landscape. We
+had, moreover, reached at last a point out of range of the ubiquitous
+English traveller, and to which even comparatively few Russians make
+their way from Europe. The Shilka we had travelled, and it was given to
+us to peep a little way up the Argun, and remember that in its valley
+the great Genghis Khan fought some of his early battles, and from hence
+started to subdue China, and begin that wonderful career of Mongol
+conquest that extended to Central Europe.
+
+Looking to the north-east and down stream, the view was exceedingly
+pretty. On the right, heavily-wooded mountains abut upon the river
+for two miles, while on the left is a strip of bottom-land backed by
+gentle slopes. To the front we see the river sparkling in the sun, and
+rejoicing in its new and beautiful birth.
+
+We were now fairly launched upon a river which, including its numerous
+tributaries, is said to drain a territory of 766,000 square miles--an
+area as large, that is, as any three countries of Europe except
+Russia. The length of the stream from this point to the sea is 1,780
+miles, with a fall of 2,000 feet; but if the Argun be regarded as
+the main stream, then the total length of the Amur is 3,066 miles,
+with a fall of 6,000 feet. It will be best, I think, to treat of so
+huge a river in sections, seeing it passes through such varieties of
+climate and population. The first section, extending from Ust-Strelka
+to Blagovestchensk, at the mouth of the Zeya, we will call the Upper
+Amur; from Blagovestchensk to Khabarofka, at the mouth of the Ussuri,
+the Middle Amur; and from Khabarofka to the Pacific at Nikolaefsk, the
+Lower Amur. The Russians have made a fine atlas, in 46 sheets, of the
+river below the confluence of the Shilka and Argun.
+
+Up to the point we had now reached, Russian territory lay on both
+sides. Henceforth to Khabarofka we were to have Chinese soil on the
+right. The boundary then descends along the bank of the Ussuri, and
+continues in a tolerably straight line southwards through Lake Khanka
+to the Bay of Peter the Great, in the Sea of Japan. My intention was,
+therefore, roughly speaking, to keep along this boundary, and embark
+for Yokohama.
+
+But I have said nothing as yet of the steamer in which the first part
+of my journey was to be accomplished, namely, from Kara to Khabarofka,
+a distance of 1,270 miles. It was a paddle-boat called the _Zeya_.
+As I walked on board at Ust-Kara, Captain Paskevitch met me, told me
+in French that my cabin was not quite ready, and asked me to occupy
+meanwhile his room on deck. He had heard of my mission from Colonel
+Merkasin, at Stretinsk, and had most kindly set apart for me, on a full
+steamer, a first-class cabin intended for two persons. This he reserved
+so tenaciously as to refuse a first-class place to a passenger rather
+than cause inconvenience by giving me a companion, though I was asked
+to pay only a single fare.
+
+As compared with the steamer on which I traversed the Obi, the _Zeya_
+was small, and it was not new. There were first and second-class cabins
+fore and aft, but third-class passengers lived on deck. All three
+grades were well represented. Among the first-class passengers was M.
+Kokcharoff, a Government officer connected with the gold-mines, whom
+we had met at Nertchinsk at dinner, and who was the father of one of
+the young officers we saw at Irkutsk. There were also an officer and
+his wife whom we had seen on the road at Verchne Udinsk. Among the
+second-class passengers were several naval and military officers,
+proceeding to their stations on the Pacific, and with them the lady and
+gentleman of whom we got the start with the horses from the Baikal.
+Several of the ladies spoke French, and a naval captain, Baron de
+Fitingoff, spoke a little English also. Thus I needed not to be silent,
+and soon found myself at home.
+
+It speedily became manifest that our captain was a man of
+determination, and that he had a rough-and-ready way of enforcing
+his orders. The cook, an oily-looking man, had smuggled _vodka_ on
+board, and made himself so far drunk as to spoil the passengers’
+dinner; whereupon the captain seized him and tied him to the capstan.
+He had not been there long, however, before the capstan was required
+for some one else. The ship had got into difficulties, the number of
+the crew being insufficient for the occasion; and the captain ordered
+a man-of-war’s-man, travelling as a third-class passenger, to lend a
+hand. He did not choose to do so, whereupon the captain collared him,
+and, having released the cook, bound him to the capstan. Our chief, I
+found, was only a young man--less than 25--and had served for a time in
+the Imperial navy. He had fallen in love, and wished to marry before
+the age allowed in the service. Just then the Amur Company made him
+a good offer to take charge of one of their vessels, and he had thus
+left the Government service, and accepted a stipend which enabled him
+to forsake a bachelor’s life. He thought, however, that in giving up
+the navy he had made a mistake, and sent his papers by some of our
+passengers to be presented to the Governor at Vladivostock, asking to
+return.
+
+As we proceeded we found the population on the Chinese bank was
+exceedingly small, and but few houses appeared on the Russian side.
+The natives of the Upper and Middle Amur belong, all of them, to
+the Tungusian stock, though they differ somewhat among themselves,
+according to the manner of life they pursue, and their nearness or
+otherwise to Chinese influence. Thus, on the Upper Amur, on the Russian
+territory, are the Orochons, or reindeer Tunguses; whilst further
+east, north of the Middle Amur, are their brethren the Manyargs,
+or horse Tunguses. On the southern bank of the Upper Amur are the
+Daurians, who to some extent cultivate the soil; whilst further east,
+and to the south of the Middle Amur, is the region of the Manchu, the
+most civilized of all the Tunguse tribes. This division is somewhat
+arbitrary, and does not notice subdivisions of some of the tribes;
+but it may suffice for the present to indicate their territories, and
+we can enter into further particulars as we approach their respective
+localities.
+
+The Orochons numbered, in 1856, 206 individuals of both sexes, roving
+over an area of 28,000 square miles--a country, that is, as large
+as Bavaria or the island of Sardinia. They originally lived in the
+province of Yakutsk, whence they emigrated to the banks of the Amur in
+1825, and occupied a part of the territory of the Manyargs, whom they
+compelled to withdraw farther down the river.[1]
+
+The Manyargs occupy the north bank of the Middle Amur below the
+Orochons, but in summer they ascend the river for the purpose of
+fishing. As the needs of the reindeer drive the Orochons to the moss
+tracts of the mountains, so the needs of the horses send the Manyargs
+to the grassy valleys of the Zeya, and to the prairie region eastwards
+to the Bureya mountains.
+
+Apart, however, from their differences as to habitation, and the
+domestic animals they use (the Orochons keeping deer and the Manyargs
+horses), we may speak of the Orochons and Manyargs together. In
+appearance they are rather small, and of a spare build. Their arms and
+legs are thin, the face flat, but the nose, in many instances, is large
+and pointed. The cheeks are broad, the mouth large, the eyes small
+and sleepy-looking. The hair is black and smooth, the beard short,
+and the eyebrows very thin. Old men allow the beard and moustache to
+grow, but carefully pull out the whiskers. They cut the hair short on
+the forehead and temples, and plait it behind into a tail, ornamented
+with ribbons and leather straps. This fashion was no doubt copied from
+the Manchu, but since they have come under Russian influence it has
+gradually waned. In the case of the women the hair is parted down the
+middle, the plaits are worn round the head, and fastened with ribbons
+above the forehead. During summer the women wear a conical hat made of
+cotton, somewhat like an extinguisher. Unmarried girls are recognized
+by their head-band, embroidered with beads.
+
+The Orochons and Manyargs lead a wandering life. In spring and summer
+they live on the banks of the river to fish; in autumn they retire to
+the interior to hunt. In these migrations the deer or the horses carry
+the scanty property of their owners. The horses are small but strong,
+of great endurance, and find food in winter by scraping away the snow
+with their feet.
+
+[Illustration: REINDEER TUNGUSES WITH BIRCH-BARK TENT.]
+
+Wild animals in the region of the Upper and Middle Amur are
+numerous. The Orochons disperse in small parties to hunt them,
+returning from time to time to their yourts.[2] They hunt squirrels,
+sables, reindeer, elks, foxes, and sometimes bears. Squirrels they
+find in great numbers. A good sportsman may kill 1,000 in a season,
+and 500 is an average bag.[3] In December they take their furs to the
+localities fixed upon for paying the _yassak_, or tax, where also they
+barter with merchants assembled for that purpose. Each male between the
+ages of 15 and 50 pays annually two silver roubles, or their equivalent
+in furs. No other taxes are levied upon them, and this brings in to
+the Government an enormous quantity of skins.
+
+My journey on the Upper Amur, or, more accurately, from Ust-Kara to
+Blagovestchensk, occupied eight days. The distance was 700 miles, and
+the first-class fare three guineas. Under ordinary circumstances,
+however, the time ought not to have been so long, but there was less
+water in the river, the captain said, than he had ever known before. It
+was by reason of this that the boat had run aground at Shilkinsk on the
+Sunday I was to have started, and on Monday evening a sister-boat, the
+_Ingoda_, having done the same, and knocked three holes in her hull,
+the _Zeya_ had stayed alongside to render assistance. This caused the
+loss to us of the whole of Tuesday. Both boats belonged to the same
+company, and it was an act of policy, as well as kindness, that the
+damaged boat should not be left in so lonely a region, whilst a further
+reason for submitting to the delay, and keeping the boats together, was
+that our own vessel might run aground and so need assistance from the
+_Ingoda_.
+
+I was curious to hear from the captain what was the thickness of iron
+on the _Zeya_, and what distance we should have to sink, supposing we
+went to the bottom. The iron, I learned, was three-sixteenths of an
+inch thick, which was somewhat alarming, but it was a comfort to know
+that the water in some parts of the river was not much more than 30
+inches deep. Our steamer drew only two feet and a half, consequently
+we were often gliding along within a few inches of the ground. One of
+the crew was placed in the bow of the boat, holding a measuring rod,
+with the feet marked in black and white, and secured to a string. This
+in shallow places he constantly threw, as if harpooning fish, and
+then noticing the depth when it struck the bottom, he called out in a
+sing-song fashion, “_Chetiri-s’polovenoi! chetiri! tri-s’polovenoi!
+tri!_”--four-and-a-half! four! three-and-a-half! three! and so on; the
+speed of the vessel being slackened when the small numbers were called.
+
+After reaching the Amur on Wednesday, we travelled safely for that
+evening and on Thursday, but on Friday morning, coming to a turn in
+the channel, the boat ran aground on a bank, with her whole length
+turned sideways to the current--going at the rate of about four miles
+an hour. The shallowness of the stream now became apparent, for when
+the men jumped overboard the water rose hardly up to their waists.[4]
+Every effort was made to float the craft with anchors and levers,
+and digging away the beach, until, as evening came on and brought
+no success, we hoped the _Ingoda_ would overtake us and return the
+compliment of rendering assistance, especially as we had once put back
+to look after her welfare. The _Ingoda_ did come, but was not powerful
+enough to get us off, and we had therefore to lie aground till Saturday
+morning. The greater part of the passengers were then shifted from the
+_Zeya_ to the _Ingoda_, and there they were compelled to remain from
+breakfast-time till evening, and that, too, with very little food, for
+the _Ingoda_ was not carrying passengers, and so was not provisioned.
+Whilst this shifting was going on, I was in my cabin writing, and so
+had not to change. Meanwhile the sailors had hard work, for they were
+in the water nearly all day. About two o’clock, however, the _Zeya_ was
+once more afloat, after which it took three or four hours to get up
+the anchors, and then, for the rest of our journey, we had no lack of
+water. The boat did not usually travel at night.
+
+These delays had put a considerable strain on the resources of our
+cook, whose arrangements were not of a high order. I had rather
+anticipated this; and, having become so accustomed to see Russians
+travelling with their own provisions, had prepared accordingly.
+Some loaves of white bread had been brought for me by the ship from
+Stretinsk, and fresh butter; besides which, Colonel Kononovitch, as
+already stated, had loaded me with good things, and I had not parted
+with my provision basket and its cooking apparatus.[5]
+
+They had different arrangements on the Amur from those we had on the
+Obi. The steward undertook to provide every one with four meals a
+day. The first was tea and bread on getting up. Next, about 11 a.m.,
+came “_déjeuner à la fourchette_,” consisting of two courses. At five
+o’clock came bread and tea again, and dinner, of three or four courses,
+followed at seven. The provisions were decidedly inferior to those
+of the Obi, but acquaintance with certain Russian dishes was thereby
+forced upon me, which I might otherwise not have known. One of them was
+“_gretchnevaya kasha_,” or buckwheat gruel, with melted butter like oil
+poured over it. I imagined it might be given us as a last resource,
+all other provisions having failed; but the passengers seemed to think
+it good though humble fare, and said it was what they provide largely
+for the soldiers. It is a daily dish, I am told, among peasants and
+servants in Russia. Further on we bought and slaughtered an ox. And as
+we approached Blagovestchensk, our table improved to clear soup, with
+minced patties, meat from the joint, and stewed fruit.
+
+The service, too, was inferior to that on the Obi, for on the Amur the
+steward was represented by a couple of boys, not too tidily dressed,
+and with rough heads, who knew more of play than of waiting. It should
+be added, however, that the price charged for the four meals a day
+was not exorbitant, namely, three shillings; and after having the
+samovar frequently into my own cabin, and other extras, though to a
+considerable extent providing myself, my steward’s bill for the eight
+days came only to 17 shillings.
+
+We were highly favoured in the weather, which, with the exception of
+one day, was fine, and added much to the enjoyment of the journey.
+Between Stretinsk and Blagovestchensk were 42 stations. Many of them
+were named after the Russian officers who took part in the annexation
+of the country, such as Orloff, Beketoff, Korsakoff, etc.
+
+At Ust-Strelka the river is 1,100 yards wide, and sometimes 10 feet
+deep. At Albazin, 160 miles lower, it contracts to 500 yards, but
+increases to 20 feet in depth. After leaving the Shilka, the scenery
+of the Amur at first deteriorated. Soon, however, the river stretched
+across the valley, and the banks rose in precipitous cliffs, or steep
+rocky slopes. Many brooks entered the stream on both banks. When rain
+falls on the mountains, the river rises sometimes 12 feet and more in
+the course of a few days, the greatest rise being 24 feet. Our captain
+of the _Zeya_ was hoping that the Thursday’s rain would thus aid him in
+getting out of the shallows. Five streams join the Amur on the Russian
+side, between Ust-Strelka and Albazin, of which the Amazar is the
+first and most considerable. At their mouths are small alluvial plains
+overgrown with grass, sometimes 18 inches high, though on higher spots
+in this district the herbage is not luxuriant.
+
+Below the Amazar the banks were alternately rocky bluffs and wooded
+bottoms, the river sweeping along in great picturesque bends. At
+Sverbeef the river increases in breadth. The mountains are not so high,
+and sandbanks are frequent. These appear at low water as islands. The
+forests are thin, and there is little underwood. On the mountains
+larch and firs prevail. In the valleys the white birch predominates,
+with bird-cherry and aspen. The trees, however, are small; and among
+them, further on, are apple-trees with tiny fruit, willows, and the
+hoar-leaved alder.[6]
+
+On the rocky mountain slopes are the service-tree, alder, aspen,
+poplar, and hawthorn, together with the Daurian rhododendron. On loose
+soil Indian wormwood frequently covers a whole mountain slope.
+
+As we approached Albazin the mountains retired, and below them were
+extensive prairies, affording excellent pasturage. Opposite the town,
+on the Chinese bank, the Albazikha, or Emuri, falls into the Amur
+behind a large island, with an area of several thousand acres. Oaks and
+black birch now begin to take the place of the larch, and at the foot
+of the mountains are seen elms, ashes, hazels, willows, the Daurian
+buckthorn, wild roses, and bird-cherries--the last sometimes reaching
+to a height of 50 feet.
+
+Albazin is the most important of the towns we passed between
+Ust-Strelka and Blagovestchensk. It is finely situated on a plateau
+50 feet high, and extends some distance backwards to the mountains.
+We arrived there early on Friday morning, August 1st. Albazin was
+important to the early adventurers, by reason of the fine sables taken
+in its vicinity.[7]
+
+The Albazin sable is said to be the best on the Amur, that of the
+Bureya Mountains next, and, thirdly, that of Blagovestchensk; but none
+of them are so good as those obtained further north.
+
+I was much struck, below the town, with the brilliant red of the
+sandstone cliffs. On the right bank the mountains approach again close
+to the river; but on the left the plain continues for 70 miles, ending
+in a rock or promontory, called _Malaya Nadejda_, or Little Hope.
+This lofty mass of rock projects into the river in the shape of a
+semicircular tower. After passing the station Tolbuzin, 240 miles from
+Ust-Strelka, the river takes a more southerly direction, and lower down
+has numerous islands. These are covered with poplar, ash, and willow;
+and among the flowers are seen the rhododendron, the lily of the
+valley, pink, primrose, violet, white poppy, forget-me-not, and white
+pæony; also garlic, chickweed, asparagus, cinquefoil, and thyme.
+
+A few miles lower is a remarkably steep sandstone cliff, of yellowish
+grey colour, bounding one of the reaches of the river for a distance of
+three miles. It is called Tsagayan, and is 302 miles from Ust-Strelka.
+It is about 250 feet high, and has in it two seams of coal, of which
+there is said to be plenty on the Amur, though it has not been worked,
+I believe, owing to the abundance of wood. The natives look upon
+Tsagayan as the abode of evil spirits. At its foot are found agates,
+carnelians, and chalcedonies.
+
+Beyond the Tsagayan the valleys descending to the river are wider, the
+steep mountains recede, and the meadows are richer in grass. Small
+groves of poplars, elms, ashes, and wild apples alternate with bushes
+of red-berried elder, sand willows, self-heal, and wild briar. At the
+station Kazakevich, however, the mountains approach the river, and a
+dark granite rock, 300 feet high, overhangs the water. Eight miles
+south is the rock Korsakoff, a promontory of semicircular shape; and
+40 miles more bring the traveller to the mouth of the Komar, which is
+the second considerable stream flowing into the Amur from the right
+bank after leaving Albazin, the other being the Panza. The course of
+the Amur here becomes very tortuous, and, about 50 miles below, the
+Komar almost describes a circle, leaving but a neck of land half a mile
+in width. The Komar is the greatest affluent of the Upper Amur from
+the Chinese side. It is a little short of 600 miles in length, more
+than one-half of which is navigable. The upper part of the valley is
+populated by Daurians.
+
+Travelling thus amidst beautiful scenery, we reached Blagovestchensk on
+the eighth day, being now 560 miles from Ust-Strelka, and the width of
+the river having considerably increased. Here, however, we may leave
+the water for awhile, for the steamer stayed a whole day, and thus gave
+me the opportunity of spending some hours ashore.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] There are two tribes of them, one called Ninagai, which, in 1856,
+mustered 68 males and 66 females; 27 of the males paid annually 5_s._
+5_d._ of tribute each, or instead thereof 12 squirrel skins, to the
+Russian officer commanding the post at Gorbitza. The other tribe, the
+Shologon, numbered 72, including 40 females, of whom 17 had to pay
+to the commandant of Ust-Strelka a tribute of 6_s._ 4_d._ each. They
+owned 82 reindeer. There is also a tribe along the sea coast, called
+Orochons, or Orochi, amongst whom it is customary for women to suckle
+their children till they are three or four years old. The men are
+recognized by their wide-brimmed hats. I saw one of them in prison at
+Nikolaefsk, and was struck with his manly bearing. This agrees with
+what Mr. Ravenstein says of the Orochons of the Upper Amur, that they
+are not so submissive as the Manyargs, whose spirits have been broken
+by the oppression of the Mandarins.
+
+[2] These yourts, or tents, are easily built and quickly removed. About
+20 poles are stuck into the ground, to form a circle from 10 to 14 feet
+in diameter, and are tied about 10 feet above the centre. The frame is
+covered with birch bark, and overlaid with skins of reindeer and moose.
+An opening is left in front to serve as a door, and a hole in the top
+for the chimney. During winter the door is closed by furs or skins. In
+case of temporary removal, the skins and bark are taken away, and the
+poles are left standing.
+
+[3] Mr. Ravenstein gives, from Russian sources, an interesting account
+of the manner in which these natives spend their hunting year. In
+March they go on snow-shoes over snow, into which, at that season,
+cloven-footed animals sink, and shoot elks, roe, and musk deer, wild
+deer and goats; the tent being fixed in valleys and defiles, where the
+snow lies deepest. In April the ice on the rivers begins to move, and
+the huntsman, now turned fisher, hastens to the small rivulets to net
+his fish. Those not required for immediate use are dried against the
+next month, which is one of the least plentiful in the year. In May
+they shoot deer and other game, which they have decoyed to certain
+spots by burning down the high grass in the valleys, so that the young
+sprouts may attract the deer and goats. June supplies the hunter with
+antlers of the roe. These they sell at a high price to the Chinese for
+medicinal purposes. The Chinese merchants come north in this month,
+bringing tea, tobacco, salt, powder, lead, grain, butter, and so forth,
+so that a successful huntsman is then able to provide himself with
+necessaries for half the year. In July the natives spend a large part
+of the month catching fish, taken with nets or speared with harpoons.
+They are able also to spear the elk, which likes a water-plant growing
+in the lakes. He comes down at night, wades into the water, and, whilst
+engaged in tearing at the plant with his teeth, is killed by the
+huntsman. In August they catch birds, speared at night in the retired
+creeks and bays of the river and lakes. Their flesh, except that of the
+swan, is eaten, and the down is exchanged for ear and finger rings,
+bracelets, beads, and the like. Thus they spend the summer months,
+afterwards retiring again to the mountains for game. In the beginning
+of September they prepare for winter pursuits. The leaves are falling,
+and it is the season when the roebuck and the doe are courting. The
+natives avail themselves of this, and, by cleverly imitating the call
+of the doe on a wooden horn, entice the buck near enough to shoot him.
+Generally speaking, this is the plentiful season of the year, so far as
+flesh is concerned; but, should the hunters not be fortunate, they live
+upon service-berries and bilberries, which they mix with reindeer milk.
+They also eat the nuts of the Manchu cedar and of the dwarf-like Cembra
+pine. The latter part of September and beginning of October are again
+employed in fishing, for the fish then ascend the river to spawn. About
+the middle of October begins the hunting of fur-bearing animals, the
+most profitable of all game; and this goes on till the end of the year.
+
+[4] For steamers to run aground in the Volga is so common a thing
+that the captains take a number of third-class passengers free, on
+the understanding that, if the ship gets on a bank, they shall jump
+overboard and endeavour to get her off. Bold captains there, moreover,
+have a plan, when coming to a shallow place, of putting on steam, in
+the hope that the impetus and extra commotion made in the water by
+the paddles may tide them over the difficulty. The banks of the Volga
+being of mud, such experiments are not very dangerous, but our boat had
+grounded upon stones.
+
+[5] After having taken with me my cuisine several times, I am
+disposed briefly to advise any who may care to be counselled, by
+saying “don’t.” It certainly does not pay in Russia, for hot water
+may almost everywhere be had, and the people well understand the
+speedy preparation of the samovar. A lunch basket, however, is a great
+comfort, and I should not think of taking a long journey without one.
+The cuisine may occasionally be needed; but in going round the globe I
+used it only once, and when travelling last year over the Caucasus to
+Armenia not at all.
+
+[6] The white birch is the most important. In spring the natives peel
+off the bark in strips from two to four yards in length. The coarse
+outside of the bark, and the ligneous layers on the inside, are scraped
+off. It is then rolled up, and softened by steam, which makes it
+pliable. Several of these are sewn together, and supply the native with
+a waterproof blanket or mat, forming a wind screen in winter, and a
+covering for the hut in summer. The bark thus prepared is used also for
+wrapping merchandise, making small canoes, baskets, platters, cups, and
+household utensils.
+
+[7] Albazin, as already stated, is noted in Siberian annals for the
+sieges it stood, and one of the Russian stories connected therewith is,
+that when the garrison was greatly distressed for food, Chernigoffsky
+sent a pie, weighing 40 or 50 lbs., to the Chinese commander, to
+convince him that the fort was well provisioned. This present was so
+well appreciated, that the Chinaman sent for more, but in vain. History
+does not say whether the pie was of beef, mutton, pork, or puppies!
+The remains of walls, moats, ditches, and mounds, showing the site and
+extent of the town, may still be traced; and, by digging, the curious
+may still find there bricks, shreds of pottery, arms, etc. In Maack’s
+celebrated work on the Amur, his plan represents Albazin as a square of
+240 feet, and the Chinese camp as a parallelogram of 670 feet long and
+140 wide. The Amur measures here 580 yards wide.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+_BLAGOVESTCHENSK._
+
+ Russian orthodox missions.--Particulars of Orthodox Missionary
+     Society.--Visit to telegraph station.--Seminary for training
+     priests.--Salaries of Russian clergy.--Blagovestchensk
+     prison.--Leafy barracks.--View of the town.--Molokan inhabitants.
+
+
+“Blagovestchensk,”--I hope that the tongue of the reader curls round
+the syllables of this word more easily than did mine on the first
+occasion I attempted to pronounce it. The _g_ should be guttural,
+and the first _e_ like the French _é_. The meaning of the name is
+“Annunciation,” or, as some put it, “glad tidings.” I know not whether
+this has anything to do with the fact that Blagovestchensk is the
+head-quarters of Oriental Siberian missionary effort, about which it
+will here be a rest to say a few words by way of change from the waters
+of the river.
+
+As Russia ranges under her standards many nations, so she is brought
+into contact with many religions; with Lutheranism in the Baltic
+provinces and Finland, Buddhism in Mongolia, Mohammedanism along her
+southern frontier, Paganism in the Caucasus and Armenia, and, we may
+add, Shamanism and other ’_isms_ among the aboriginal inhabitants of
+both her European and Asiatic territories. The Russians have long made
+persistent efforts to win back their own dissenters, whether from the
+various bodies of Raskolniks, or the Uniats, which latter were seduced
+from them by the Church of Rome.[1] Besides this reclaiming work of
+her own people, foreign missionaries were, in the time of Alexander
+I., allowed to work among the heathen within the empire, and I have
+already noticed the London mission to the Buriats. The Synod, however,
+put a stop to this foreign work; and that their jealousy in this matter
+continues, I learnt from a Lutheran pastor, who, when he was taking up
+his residence near some of the native tribes, was bidden “not to busy
+himself as a missionary.”
+
+Compared with the Western Churches, whether Roman or Reformed, the
+Eastern Church has never been remarkable for missionary zeal, and I
+was therefore not a little surprised and pleased in Siberia to stumble
+unexpectedly upon the latest report (for 1876) of the “Orthodox
+Missionary Society,” published at Moscow the year before my visit. The
+book is of respectable size, extends to 100 pages, and the statistics
+are displayed with considerable fulness. At present it is with the
+Russians only the day of small things; but it should be borne in mind
+that 1876 was only the seventh year of the Society’s existence.
+
+Some particulars of this young Society will be interesting, the more
+so as I am able to supplement what I learned in Siberia by extracts
+from the report for 1879, quoted in the _Journal de St. Petersbourg_,
+September 7th, 1881. The Society has a central council, and branches in
+29 dioceses, with 7,560 members, which means, I suppose, subscribers.
+Its capital in 1879 amounted to 660,000 roubles, of which 121,000 were
+spent during the year.[2] Among the remittances sent to the central
+council from associations is £77 from “the army and navy.” Again,
+there appears what I imagine to be a special fund for “propagating the
+orthodox faith among the heathen.” This is apart from their efforts
+among Mohammedans and Romanists; but the Russian Church has missions to
+the adherents of all religions within her empire, except Protestants.
+
+As for the spending of the money, it appears that the council and 27
+associations distributed, among 19 missions, funds to the amount of
+£11,580. The 21 mission stations are, with one exception, within the
+bounds of the empire. The other mission, to which I have alluded in
+a previous chapter, is in Japan. I heard at Kasan that they have a
+missionary also in Jerusalem, New York, and San Francisco; but these, I
+presume, are chaplains. Their chief European pagan missions are in the
+governments of Astrakhan, Riazan, Perm, and Kasan, in which last are
+several semi-heathen tribes.[3]
+
+It is in Asiatic Russia, however, that most of the Society’s money is
+expended, and the conversion of 5,000 Pagans is reported to have taken
+place in 1879. They have opened a school among the Samoyedes. They
+have also missions in Kamchatka (including probably, the Sea-coast
+province), upon which, in 1876, they expended £300, and from whence
+the following year, according to the Almanack, they obtained 606
+converts. The provinces, however, in which most money is spent are
+those of Tomsk, Irkutsk, and the Trans-Baikal. In the latter two are
+the Buriats, amongst whom the Russians have 30 mission stations and
+68 missionaries.[4] The province of Tomsk includes the region of the
+western chain of the Altai mountains, where schools and missions have
+been established for the Kirghese of the Steppes. In the Altai mission,
+during the first half of the year 1877, they enrolled 195 converts.
+Further east they have missionaries, some of whom I met, among the
+Goldi and Gilyaks; but I shall speak of them when we come to their
+districts. At Blagovestchensk lives the Bishop of the diocese, who had
+been described to me as “a good missionary.”
+
+We stopped at Blagovestchensk on Tuesday, August 5th, and I made my
+way to the telegraph station, where, as in other towns, thanks to
+good introductions, I received much kindness from the officials. When
+travelling to Barnaul, I chanced to light on a telegraph officer,
+Mr. Friis, whose name was on my list, and he told me of a brother
+officer in Tomsk who spoke English. At Irkutsk Mr. Larsen gave
+considerable linguistic help; so did Mr. Koch at Stretinsk; and now,
+at Blagovestchensk, I found a Mr. Niellsen, who had worked in London,
+and spoke English; and Mr. Peko, who spoke French and English too. Mr.
+Peko, I found, was the director of this station of first rank.[5] When
+dining with the manager, Mr. Peko, and Mr. Niellsen, in the garden, I
+was interested to hear, among other scraps of professional information,
+that English is the best of languages for telegraphy, for that in it
+they can express more in few words than in any other. The Russians,
+they said, prefer to use English rather than their own language for
+telegrams. My nationality was further flattered in the town by a
+doctor’s wife telling me that to speak English was now in Siberia
+and Russia more fashionable than to speak French. Said she, “_On peut
+oublier maintenant le Français pour apprendre l’Anglais._”
+
+Blagovestchensk has a seminary for the training of priests, similar to
+those established in Russia by Peter the Great. He found his clergy
+exceedingly ignorant, and established these institutions for their
+sons, enjoining the bishops to support them with a twentieth part of
+the income from the monasteries. In these establishments, and others
+which have been added, are educated the rank and file of the Russian
+clergy.[6]
+
+I did not once meet in Russia with a priest who could speak French,
+German, or English. Perhaps they throw their strength into patristic
+and ecclesiastical learning, since the parochial clergy are usually
+said to be not well instructed in secular studies. An instance was
+given me by an Englishman, who travelled in Siberia with a Russian
+archbishop, who one day asked the Englishman which had the greater
+population, London or San Francisco. Whereupon my wicked friend said,
+“Well, you see, London has a population of two hundred thousand,
+and San Francisco four millions.” “Ah!” said the archbishop with
+satisfaction, “I thought so; I thought San Francisco was the larger!”
+
+Those students who wish to attain to the higher degrees of learning, on
+leaving the seminary, proceed to one of the ecclesiastical academies
+which correspond to our universities, and where they can take the
+degrees of student, candidate, master, and doctor of theology. There
+is no theological faculty in the Russian universities, but it is now
+required that all who are to be consecrated bishops shall have passed
+through the academy.
+
+To return, however, to the seminary: the students enter at the age
+of eight, and remain normally till twenty-two, when they receive a
+diploma, which is accepted by the bishop, and the candidate without
+further examination is ordained.
+
+The case of one of these students presented a curious instance of the
+working of the inconsistent requirement of the Russian Church, that the
+parochial clergy at the time of their ordination _must_ be married. “Do
+you see that boy running about on the deck?” said a fellow-passenger
+to me, pointing to one of the seminary students. “He is nineteen years
+old, and is returning to the seminary for the last time. In the course
+of a few months his mother is to find him a wife, and next year he will
+return to be married, and then immediately ordained!”[7] This would be
+before the canonical age for ordination, but was owing to the lack of
+clergy in the Primorsk, in which there are about 50 congregations with
+churches or chapels. Between Nikolaefsk and Vladivostock, a distance of
+1,300 miles, are only 14 priests and 2 deacons; and so pressing was the
+need of clergy a few years since that tradesmen, letter carriers, and
+even yemstchiks in some few instances were ordained.
+
+Mr. Peko accompanied me at Blagovestchensk to call upon Mr. Petroff,
+the deputy-governor, from whom I learned that there was only one
+prison in the province, having 26 rooms. We visited it, but the only
+notes I have are “dirty and overcrowded,” and “punishment cells all
+full,” some having two men in a place not too large for one. What
+made the prison so full I know not, nor am I able to say whether they
+were local offenders from the province or exiles temporarily there on
+their way eastwards. There were none lounging about in the yard, so I
+suppose they had all been gathered for our inspection. The punishment
+cells being occupied was not, as far as I know, because the men had
+misbehaved, but because they were compelled to use all available space.
+Moreover, since the prison authorities seem to look upon solitary
+confinement as so great a punishment, it may be that two were put in
+some of the cells for the sake of company. I remember that when I spoke
+to the president of the Tomsk prison approving the separate as opposed
+to the gang system, he thought it was decidedly bad to put a _moujik_,
+or simple peasant, in a cell alone; for “having nothing to think
+about,” he said, “he might go mad!” This good man informed me, too, in
+connection with my self-imposed mission, that the prisoners did not
+want so much religion, but liked also books of history, travels, etc.
+This I knew, but since three wagonloads did not more than suffice for
+the little I attempted, and my means were limited both as to carriage
+and in other ways, I was only too thankful to take so many books as
+we did, and leave it to other philanthropists to complete the work. I
+left 50 New Testaments and 12 wall pictures at Blagovestchensk with
+Mr. Petroff for the prison, for the 20 rooms of his two hospitals and
+a school in the course of erection, with four rooms for prisoners’
+children.
+
+Near the hospital were summer Cossack barracks, put together in the
+most primitive fashion. The ordinary barracks needing repair, they
+had cut branches of trees and leafy underwood, tied them in fagots,
+and stood them up so as to form walls and roof, which gave tolerable
+shelter for hot weather, but served as poor protection from wind and
+rain. They were intended, however, to last only for a few weeks.
+
+[Illustration: A STAROVERS OR OLD BELIEVERS’ COUNTRY CHURCH.]
+
+From these summer barracks there was a fine view of the river and
+town. The houses are situated on a plain 15 feet or 20 feet above
+the water. The Government establishments and merchants’ stores are
+large and well built, each having plenty of space around it. Some
+of them have gardens, and stretching along the bank from the wharf
+to the roomy telegraph office is a green sward planted with trees
+for a park. Blagovestchensk has a population of only 3,400, but its
+long river front and its cross streets give it the appearance of an
+important town. Some of the shops were excellent, and well supplied
+with merchandise. The town was founded in 1858, and the Amur Company
+kept there one of its principal stores. On the winding up of its
+affairs, this store was bought by the company’s clerk. Mr. Knox says,
+in 1866, that the Russian officers complained of the combinations among
+the merchants to maintain prices at an exorbitant scale. I heard,
+too, that this is still done. If, for instance, in the middle of the
+winter a merchant discovers that his brother tradesmen have sold all
+their sugar or any other article, and that his stock is all the town
+possesses, then, knowing that no more can arrive till the ice goes and
+the navigation opens, he can demand higher prices for goods of which he
+has a monopoly. Candles were quoted to me as costing usually 11_d._ or
+1_s._ per lb., but as rising sometimes to 2_s._ 6_d._ Cheese costs from
+2_s._ to 2_s._ 6_d._ per lb., but I suppose that these articles must
+be of European or American manufacture. Chickens at Blagovestchensk
+vary from 6_d._ to 2_s._ each, veal from 4_d._ to 5_d._, and beef from
+2½_d._ to 4_d._ per lb. Milk costs 2_d._ per pint in summer, and 4_d._
+in winter; live geese, bought from the Manchu, cost from 2_s._ 6_d._ to
+4_s._; but in winter, from the Molokans, 5_s._ In connection with these
+prices should be quoted the cost of land, which may be purchased from
+the Government for 2_s._ an acre.
+
+I was told that the town is full of dissenters. I did not hear of any
+Starovers or Old Believers, nor observe on any church the _three_
+transverse beams of their form of the cross; but there were many
+Molokans,--colonists, I suppose, or descendants of exiles. Their
+presence, doubtless, accounts for a good deal of the prosperity of the
+town, for they are “honest, sober, and industrious.”
+
+The _Molokans_ are so called because they drink milk on the usual
+fasting days. Their origin is involved in obscurity, and by some is
+dated back to the middle of the last century. Early in the present
+century many were living in the south of Russia. An English gentleman,
+residing at Berdiansk in 1848, visited their villages, and from his
+wife I learn that Salamatin, the Molokan chief, and his family were
+pious, but very simple, uneducated people. My friend used sometimes
+to invite them to her table. She tells me that their enlightenment
+came, to all appearance, simply from reading the Bible. They found
+there the worship of images forbidden, and accordingly declined to
+bow down before them, on which account some were persecuted, even
+to bodily pain, but to no purpose; they would not give way. Blunt’s
+“Dictionary of Sects” says that a Baron Haxthausen, in 1843, visited
+a colony of 3,000 Molokans in the Crimea, and found that they denied
+the necessity of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With Blunt’s statement
+partly agrees what my friend told me, namely, that some important
+official came to visit the Molokans in her neighbourhood (not, however,
+in the Crimea, but in the government of Ekaterinoslav, which was then
+their habitation, their villages being situated on the banks of the
+Moloshna), and found so little objectionable among them, and so much
+that was good, that the official gave them an excellent character,
+and they were afterwards left unmolested. Also their alleged disuse
+of baptism and the Lord’s Supper seems to agree with what I heard of
+them from a fellow-traveller, who lodged in the house of a Molokan; for
+he told me that on Sundays they hold meetings, read the Scriptures,
+pray, sing, expound the Bible, and ask questions, but he thought
+they did not baptize nor receive the Lord’s Supper. But I remember my
+lady friend telling me that when the Molokans separated from, or were
+turned out of, the Russian Church, they had no priests nor any person
+of education to guide them, nor have they priests now, but only elders;
+hence, if they are without sacraments, I am not clear whether it is
+from choice or necessity.[8] My fellow-passenger spoke in high terms
+of the Molokans of Blagovestchensk. He said he never saw any of them
+intoxicated, or even enter a tavern; that he rarely or never saw them
+out of temper, or heard them use bad language; and that they spent
+their spare time in reading the Scriptures.
+
+But this does not save them from annoyance. Their manner of living at
+Blagovestchensk has enabled many of the Molokans to become rich, so
+that they can hire servants. An old Russian law, however, forbids a
+Molokan to employ an orthodox Russian. The Russians, notwithstanding,
+like to serve the Molokans, because they are good masters, and pay
+well. Hence the law has become practically obsolete; but the summer
+before my visit, the police-master (a man of anything but exemplary
+moral character), having a grudge against a principal Molokan, and,
+Haman-like, thinking scorn to lay hands on one only, began doing his
+best to annoy the whole of them in the town. How the matter ended I did
+not hear.
+
+I saw, before I left Siberia, an official confirmation of the good
+opinion I was led to form of the Molokans. The governor of a province
+wrote officially to Petersburg thus: “We have 105 Molokans, most of
+them living in the South Ussuri district. They are living quietly,
+and are very laborious, and amenable to authority. They are civil in
+their bearing towards the members of the orthodox Church, and are not
+fanatical.” Looking, therefore, at this triple testimony, and comparing
+the lives of the Molokans with the lives of the orthodox, I felt that
+to bring the orthodox into contact with the Molokans would be likely
+to improve the orthodox rather than otherwise, and that the Tsar would
+have more good subjects than he now has if he had more Molokans.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The number of dissenters is duly tabulated in the official reports
+sent to the Emperor. Thus, in one of them I was permitted to see was
+written, “No case has occurred during the year of dissenters being
+reclaimed, but we have in the province, as last year, 140 of both sexes
+of Bezpopoftschins, and 105 Molokans.”
+
+[2] The amount collected in boxes at church doors in 1876 was
+30,100 roubles 37½ kopecks, and from other sources 111,598 roubles
+28¼ kopecks, making a total of 141,698 roubles 65¾ kopecks--say
+£17,712 (reckoning the rouble _in this chapter_ at half-a-crown, its
+approximate value at the date of the report), besides £1,537 paid to
+the council by local committees. A comparison is drawn between 1876 and
+the previous six years, and shows an advance over 1875 of 890 members
+and £500. The Society has six associations in Siberia, of which Irkutsk
+has the largest number of members--490, and raises the largest amount
+of money--£3,470. There is also a list of “special donations” in 1876,
+which were invested; one donation of 40 roubles, or £5; two of 50
+roubles; one of 60; six of 100; one of 200; and one, the largest, of
+300 roubles, or £37.
+
+[3] The results obtained by the Society in 1879 in the region of the
+Volga, inhabited chiefly by Mohammedans, are much less than in Asia,
+the opposition being so great that for the present the missionaries
+can only prepare the way. To this end, schools might become a powerful
+auxiliary. Some tribes, such as the Tcheremisses and the Votyaks, for
+example, show an inclination for instruction; but the want of funds
+prevents the extension of the Russian school system to the Mohammedan
+villages. The same is seen with the Kalmuks of Astrakhan, who would
+welcome schools, and gladly abandon their nomad and heathen congeners
+to settle upon lands assigned to them. At Noire-Cherinsk, 12 families
+began the construction of houses, but for lack of money failed to
+complete them, and asked the Government for an advance of £3 for each
+family. At Oulane-Ergansk, certain families have come to settle, and
+already are giving themselves to agriculture.
+
+[4] One of their triumphs in 1879 was the conversion of the learned
+lama, Taptchine-Nagbou-Mangolaiew, who was first impressed by the
+Russian Church services he attended from the preceding year at Chita
+and Verchne Udinsk, where, after the manner of the missionaries, the
+service and singing is, I believe, in the vernacular. This man was
+baptized in the waters of the Baikal, from which he takes his present
+name of Vladimir Baikalsky. He understands seven languages--Manchu,
+Chinese, Mongolian, Thibetan, Sanscrit, Latin, and Russ, and has
+accepted the post of Professor of Mongolian in one of the missionary
+colleges.
+
+[5] The Government authorized, so far back as 1861, the construction
+of a telegraphic line from Nikolaefsk, up the Amur, to Khabarofka,
+which was to continue thence to the southernmost point of the Russian
+territories on the Sea of Japan. The telegraph line from Kasan to Omsk
+was to be opened in the same year; from Omsk to Irkutsk in 1862, and
+thence undertaken in 1863 to Kiakhta and Khabarofka, the Amur Company
+agreeing to do the work and the Minister of Marine to provide the
+funds, the Government guaranteeing 5 per cent. on the outlay. The rates
+for telegrams in Russia and Siberia are:--
+
+  Within a radius of 66 miles, 1 shilling for 20 words.
+    ”        ”      660   ”    2 shillings    ”    ”
+    ”        ”    1,000   ”    4     ”        ”    ”
+  Beyond     ”      ”     ”    6     ”        ”    ”
+
+
+[6] Upon my return journey on the Amur, I met on the boat some of the
+students going back to Blagovestchensk after their holidays, and from
+them and their teacher I got the following information respecting their
+place of education. Priests’ sons are provided with education, food,
+and clothing free; other scholars pay for food and clothing. They are
+at the seminary ten months and a half during the year, and have the
+remaining six weeks for holidays. They have six classes, and stay two
+years in each, with four lectures daily, and read from eight till two.
+At the seminary at Blagovestchensk, in 1878, there were 50 students
+and nine professors, namely, of Latin, mathematics, Greek (no Hebrew),
+theology, philosophy, the Bible, Russ, Manchu, physics, music, etc.
+The students, I was told, on leaving, usually know a little Latin and
+Greek, and may learn modern languages; but this last, in Russia, is not
+compulsory.
+
+[7] I have called this requirement of the Russian Church inconsistent
+because they interpret St. Paul’s words, that a deacon should be the
+husband of one wife, so literally as not to ordain a bachelor as
+parish clergyman; and yet, though St. Paul gives the same injunction
+concerning a bishop, they will not consecrate a priest to the
+episcopate so long as he is married.
+
+[8] The Molokans of Ekaterinoslav were not indifferent to the
+sacraments, for Salamatin, their then chief, was wont to baptize by
+immersion; and as for the Lord’s Supper, they celebrated it sitting
+round a table, each communicant receiving a piece of bread broken from
+one loaf, and the cup was afterwards passed round to each member.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+_THE MIDDLE AMUR._
+
+ Departure from Blagovestchensk.--The Zeya.--Climate.--Employment
+     of time.--Russian tea-drinking.--The Bureya river and
+     mountains.--Delightful scenery.--Ekaterino-Nicolsk.--Distribution
+     of books and Scriptures.--Recognized by a passenger.--Prairie
+     scenery.--Shooting a dog.--The Sungari.--Chinese
+     exclusiveness.--Course of the river.--The Amur province.--An
+     excise officer.--Remarks on alcohol.--Teetotalism in Russia.
+
+
+We left Blagovestchensk on the morning of the 6th of August, and soon
+found the river widened. A short distance below the town is the mouth
+of the Zeya, the largest affluent of the Amur we had yet seen.[1]
+
+It was along the Zeya that the first Russians reached the Amur in
+1643. Since the Russian occupation, 5,000 peasants have been settled
+along the river, which is said to be navigable for steam three or four
+hundred miles from its mouth. It is, I believe, owing to the immense
+volume of water at times discharged by this river that Blagovestchensk
+is liable to serious inundations. At the time of my visit the town
+stood from 20 to 30 feet above the river, but in the course of a few
+weeks, news reached the Lower Amur that Blagovestchensk was so deeply
+flooded that the water had risen to the telegraph wires, and that
+there were several feet of water in the houses of the town. I heard,
+subsequently, of a flood higher by five feet that took place in 1872.
+
+Beyond Blagovestchensk we experienced a decided rise in the
+thermometer. This town is on about the same parallel as London, and has
+a summer temperature not very different; but its winter climate is much
+more severe.[2] So far as my own experience is concerned, I was highly
+favoured in the weather, for the only day on which any rain worth
+noticing fell was the last of July, on the Shilka. At the commencement
+of the voyage, at night, I put my maximum and minimum thermometers
+out of the cabin window; but, having broken the latter on the 2nd of
+August, I am unable to say more than that the nights became very much
+warmer. On August 6th I noted that the heat was very great, and was
+doubly thankful in the morning for a cold bath. My cabin was about the
+size of an old-fashioned oblong church pew, with seats on the longer
+sides. These were too narrow to sleep upon, so I inflated my air bed
+and placed it on the floor; then in the morning it was necessary merely
+to remove the bed and unfold my bath previous to calling for water.
+I nowhere found in Russia or Siberia the use of “the tub” as English
+people now use it; and when on one occasion in Moscow I asked the
+landlord whether in the morning I could have a _cold_ bath, he said he
+had never been asked for such a thing in his life!
+
+Time on board hung by no means heavily upon my hands; for, having
+received several papers of statistics and official information written
+in Russ, I was glad to get them translated by some of the ladies who
+spoke French. I thus had opportunities of receiving explanations upon
+points not quite clear, and of correcting wrong impressions. With
+this writing-up books I alternated letter-writing, both private and
+official, though it seemed to be not much use writing to England,
+since I expected to get there by crossing the Pacific in less time
+than a letter could do so by crossing Siberia. The captain, however,
+expected to meet a steamer that would take mails to Stretinsk, and
+I therefore wrote a number of “open letters,” as the Russians call
+them, if only that my friends might receive a penny post-card from the
+land of my temporary exile. Among them, I remember, was one to Miss
+Frances Ridley Havergal, to whom I had written the previous year during
+my Archangel tour. I little thought at the time I was writing she
+had passed away, and that when crossing America I should read of her
+death.[3]
+
+Thus, what with translating and writing, reading some small manuals
+I had brought on botany and geology, and gathering information on
+Russian affairs, the days passed happily enough. My fellow-voyagers
+were pleasant, and, after being thrown together for nearly a
+fortnight, we became quite sociable. The afternoon samovar was a great
+rallying-point, for Russians dearly love their tea--and not a little
+of it either. When two Moscow merchants have concluded a satisfactory
+bargain, they retire to a _traktir_, or tea-shop, where they call for a
+samovar, drink so many potations and make themselves so hot, that they
+call for a towel to wipe off the perspiration, and then--“begin again.”
+Our cook replenished his pantry at Blagovestchensk, and so did I, for
+I bought up all the white bread I could find, and Mr. Peko kindly gave
+his parting guest both butter and cheese. On the first day we travelled
+340 miles, to Ekaterino-Nicolsk. When we started, the river was 1,200
+yards in width, with soundings of 15 feet. At Aigun, 14 miles lower,
+it had increased to 1,866 yards wide, and to 30 feet deep. The scenery
+during the early part of the day displayed an extensive plain, with no
+visible limit on the left hand, and bounded on the right by low ranges
+of hills. The soil of this prairie is clayey, with an upper stratum of
+rich black mould, which is covered with luxuriant grasses, attaining
+often the height of a man. Among them may be seen Manchurian panic
+grass, and succulent, broad-bladed kinds of which I do not know the
+names; also grape and pea vines, and many varieties of flowers, among
+which the lily of the valley is so abundant as to fill the air with its
+fragrance. Small shrubs of cinnamon-rose are hidden everywhere by the
+grass, and, with vetches and other climbing plants, render travelling
+over these prairies, as Mr. Collins testifies, extremely difficult.
+
+[Illustration: RUSSIAN PEASANT, WITH SAMOVAR.]
+
+Below Aigun, the country on the north continues flat, and is covered
+with a rich black soil, in places fourteen inches thick. About 30
+miles below Aigun, the river divides into many channels, and the
+right bank in several places is scooped out and steep. On the left
+are extensive shallows and sandbanks--some barren, others covered
+with grasses and willows. Of this last there are nine species on the
+river. The natives use the bark for making ropes. At Skobeltsina,
+160 miles below Blagovestchensk, the Bureya comes in from the north,
+after a course of 703 miles. This river flows through a level prairie
+country, diversified by clumps of oaks and maples. At its mouth it has
+a breadth of half a mile. Beyond this stream the south bank rises,
+and toward the latter part of the day we found ourselves not far from
+the Bureya mountains, where the hills approached close to the river.
+Coal seams from three to four inches thick, resembling cannel coal,
+have been discovered in this district. The lower portions of the hills
+were wooded with small oaks, and on more elevated parts were denser
+forests of young oak and black birch. In shady ravines are found groves
+of white birch and aspen, and in open situations, and on the islands,
+various kinds of willows, limes, bird-cherry trees, small Tatar apples,
+elms, the Manchu ash, the Mongol oak, and a few cork trees of small
+size. Hazels also grow here, and at the skirt of the forest may be
+found the vine climbing the trees to the height of 15 feet. The most
+characteristic shrub of these forests is the Manchurian virgin’s bower,
+the numerous white blossoms of which contribute not a little to its
+beauty.
+
+We were favoured with a delightful evening for our journey through the
+Bureya mountains, the scenery of which reminded me forcibly of some
+parts of the Danube.[4]
+
+The Bureya, or Little Khingan, mountains cross the valley of the Amur
+at nearly right angles. They are of mica schist, clay slate, and
+granite. Porphyry has been found in one locality, and there are said
+to exist indications of gold. As we journeyed down the stream in the
+evening light, the tortuous course of the river added much to the
+beauty of the scene. Almost every minute the picture changed, hill,
+forest, and cliff giving variety to the prospect as we wound our way
+through the defile. Here and there were tiny cascades breaking over
+the steep rocks to the edge of the river, and occasionally a little
+meadow nestled in a ravine. At times one seemed completely enclosed in
+a lake, from which there was no escape visible save by climbing the
+hills, and it was impossible to discover any trace of an opening half a
+mile ahead. And thus we travelled on, till at dusk we arrived for the
+night at Ekaterino-Nicolsk, a settlement of 300 houses, standing on
+a plateau 40 feet above the river. Here I found a church, which was
+approached through an avenue of trees in a public garden. I afterwards
+learned that specimens of all the trees in the region were planted
+there; but when I entered it, the light was too far gone to allow of my
+seeing more than that we had come to beauties of vegetation superior to
+anything I had yet beheld in Siberia.
+
+The arrival of a steamer at Ekaterino-Nicolsk is not an event that
+takes place daily throughout the year, and the whistle draws a large
+proportion of the population to the river’s bank--some to sell garden
+produce, some to meet friends, and some to look on. These little
+crowds afforded me excellent opportunities for distributing my tracts,
+and selling or giving away the Scriptures. A large proportion of the
+Russian colonists get their living by supplying fuel for the steamers.
+In 1866 the Government used wood to the value of £6,000, and private
+firms £1,200; and as we had frequently to stop at these wood stations,
+I was able to go on shore, and leave my printed messengers in the most
+out-of-the-way places, where they were always thankfully received, and
+often gladly purchased.[5]
+
+This attracted the attention of the passengers, who wished also to
+purchase. One day, on the Shilka, I sold more than 30 copies, some
+of them to very poor-looking persons. A merchant on board wished to
+invest largely, but I was unwilling to sell wholesale, preferring
+rather to scatter my stock over as wide an area as possible. I
+found, moreover, that travelling merchants in Siberia ask a shilling
+for the books I was selling at sixpence; and though, considering
+the difficulties of carriage from Petersburg, this was not perhaps
+exorbitant, yet I wished rather to bring my wares directly within
+reach of as many purchasers as possible, and even to _give_ them, if
+necessary, in lonely and far-off places. We reached some out-of-the-way
+spots on the Obi by sending parcels of books to the priests, with a
+letter, but this I was unable to do on the Upper and Middle Amur.
+
+The curiosity of my fellow-passengers was of course aroused by what
+appeared to them my strange proceedings, and they hit upon various
+conjectures as to who and what I might be. It has not unfrequently
+been my experience to find, after curiosity has subsided, that my
+distributing religious literature has secured for me many attentions
+and acts of kindness from those who, before reading the tracts,
+were disposed to be prejudiced and perhaps opposed. I found this
+particularly the case in Siberia, though I was hardly prepared to
+learn that the intelligence of what I had done three years before
+in Finland had reached the Amur. On the second day, however, between
+Blagovestchensk and Khabarofka, a passenger, who had come on board
+the previous day, espied my name on my luggage, and, coming on deck,
+he asked if I had travelled round the Gulf of Bothnia. On receiving
+a reply in the affirmative, he said he had read of my tour, which
+had been translated by my Finnish friend for a paper called the
+_Helsingfors Dagblad_. He thus remembered what I had done, and was
+abundantly willing to be of service if he could. His name was M. Emil
+Kruskopf, an inspector in the telegraph service, and he performed
+several kindnesses for me unasked. He had been flattered as a Finn by
+the way I had spoken of the Scandinavian steamers, and thus I found
+that a kind word was bearing its fruit after many days, and far from
+the place where it was spoken.
+
+Among the crowd who came to look on at Nicolsk was the priest, to whom
+I gave some pamphlets and some copies of the _Russian Workman_. Next
+morning we departed, hoping by nightfall to reach Khabarofka. After
+proceeding a short distance the mountains receded on the left, and, a
+little lower, on the right also. Then appeared two islands, the one on
+the right being about half a mile long and a few yards high, covered
+with birches and elms, in the shade of which grasses grow to the height
+of six feet. The second island is a steep rock. The depth of the river
+continued to be 70 feet.[6]
+
+The country in this part is the most desolate along the whole course of
+the Amur; though, with us, the monotony of the afternoon was enlivened
+by a cry that a bear was swimming across the river. And, surely enough,
+there was the head of _some_ animal above the water, not very far from
+the steamer, though I confess it did not appear to me to be that of a
+bear. Some of the passengers went below for their revolvers and rifles,
+and began to fire, much to the excitement of every one on board. The
+captain stopped the ship, and as the animal came nearer, the shot
+entered the water so close to his nose that he raised himself to see
+what was the matter. At last a bullet struck him in the head, and the
+discolored water proclaimed a fatal shot. A boat was lowered, and some
+of the crew put off, but only to find that all the excitement had been
+bestowed upon an unfortunate dog!
+
+We passed the mouth of the Sungari, on the southern bank of the Amur,
+992 miles below Ust-Strelka.[7] The Sungari, with its affluents, drains
+the larger portion of Manchuria. Very little is known about it, though
+its valley is said to be tolerably well peopled and fertile.[8]
+
+We had now reached the most southerly bend of the Amur, and had entered
+a somewhat different climate from that of the Bureya range, for these
+mountains are cooler than either of the prairies above or below them.[9]
+
+Below the Sungari the level prairie continues along the left bank of
+the Amur. On the right bank a range of hills accompanies the river for
+a distance of 20 miles, and at the villages of Dyrki, Etu, and Kinneli
+are bold cliffs. The hills are covered with an open forest. Underneath
+them a luxuriant herbage shoots up to the height of five feet, and
+in July are seen the numerous red flowers of the Lespedeza, the blue
+blossoms of vetches, large white umbels of the Biotia, and catkins of
+the Sanguisorba. On the shores of the islands in the river are heaped
+up the bleached trunks of fallen trees and driftwood.
+
+As we drew towards the end of our voyage, we were approaching likewise
+the confines of the Amur province, which is at once the smallest and
+least populous of the provinces of Siberia.[10] There are 31 stations
+between Blagovestchensk and Khabarofka, the distance is 560 miles, and
+I paid for first-class fare £2 10_s._ The largest of the stations and
+the most important is Michael Semenovsk, about 17 miles below the mouth
+of the Sungari, so named in honour of a Governor-General of Eastern
+Siberia. It is a military post, and rejoices in the possession of two
+iron guns pointing over the river in the direction of China, though
+they are said to be utterly useless for purposes of war, and can only
+be employed for firing salutes.
+
+At this place we put off some of our passengers, and among them the
+wife of the artillery officer whom we had first seen as far back as
+Kansk, and with whom we had been brought in contact on the Baikal, and
+again on the Shilka. It looked as if our acquaintance was now to cease,
+but it was not so; for when I reached Vladivostock this lady appeared
+again, at a distance of more than 3,000 miles from where we first met.
+I had made another acquaintance also since leaving Blagovestchensk,
+one Baron Stackelberg. This gentleman had been sent to the Amur to
+put the screw on in the matter of excise. At the annexation of the
+country, the Government was so anxious to people it that they promised
+emigrants immunity from taxes for 20 years, and this time was nearly
+up. The Baron had, therefore, to put things in order, and had been
+doing so since 1875, when he crossed Siberia by land and happened to
+fall in and travel with Mr. Milne, to whose journey across Europe and
+Asia I have alluded in a previous chapter. The Baron spoke pleasingly
+of his journey with his English friend, as he called him, and he was
+evidently disposed to give a second Englishman a welcome. He spoke
+French fluently, and gave me some interesting statistics about alcohol,
+which is the principal source of the Government revenue both in Russia
+and Siberia.[11] I hesitate, from my own experience, to endorse the
+opinion sometimes expressed, that the Russians, as a people, are more
+intemperate than the English. Among them, it is true, the vice seems
+to pass for less sin and for less shame than with us; but England has
+the unenviable notoriety of arresting in one year 203,989 persons
+for crimes in which drunkenness is entered as part of the charges! I
+can present no statistics on the number of drunkards in Russia. One
+does see a great many, certainly, on a festival. I was lamenting this
+to a Russian lady, when she acknowledged its truth, but reminded me
+that with them the evil is confined chiefly to men; and without doubt,
+whatever comparison may be instituted between the two countries with
+regard to drunkenness among the male sex, they have no town in Russia
+which has more drunken women than men--that apprehends in a single
+year 6,276 females to 5,537 males, or 32 drunkards a day! For this,
+alas! we must look to England--to Liverpool. Still, drunkenness is a
+most fruitful cause of crime in Russia, as witnessed by what I saw and
+heard in the prisons at Tiumen, Tobolsk, and Barnaul; and it may very
+well be questioned whether the evil habits among Russians of gambling,
+drunkenness, and idleness are not in part to be traced to the very
+large number of holy days in their calendar, on many of which they
+abstain from work more completely than on Sundays. They fast rigorously
+and long, and then, at the close, break out in excess.
+
+Teetotalism has not yet made much way among the Russian people or
+clergy. I chanced, indeed, to be dining in Petersburg in company with
+a gentleman, who said that the priest of his country parish was an
+abstainer, whom he sometimes invited to dinner; and when he would give
+him a little red wine for his stomach’s sake, the priest declined,
+saying that if he did not abstain altogether he might soon become a
+drunkard, because invited so often to drink by his parishioners.
+This case, however, was sufficiently uncommon to cause a lady present
+to observe that she had never heard of an abstaining priest before.
+Accordingly, it is with great satisfaction I have observed from the
+newspapers that the matter has been under the consideration of the
+present Emperor, and that his Majesty has called in certain experts to
+advise on the subject. God send them help against this national curse,
+the demon of intemperance!
+
+My meeting with Baron Stackelberg had an important bearing on my
+wanderings; for I had intended, on arriving at Khabarofka, to leave the
+Amur, and proceed direct up the Ussuri to Vladivostock. But so it was
+not to be, and in less than 24 hours I found myself going 1,250 miles
+out of my way, and in the opposite direction. But before leaving the
+Chinese border I must say something of the southern bank of the Amur,
+concerning which and its inhabitants I have hitherto been almost silent.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] This river rises in the Yablonoi range, and pursues a course of
+700 miles to the south-east, receiving several affluents from the east
+before it flows into the main stream. At its mouth it is nearly a mile
+wide, and in some places 35 feet deep. Its swift, turbid, yellowish
+waters are no mean addition to the black waters of the Sak-hah-lin, as
+the natives call the Amur. For some distance below the junction the two
+colors are distinctly visible; but finally the black dragon swallows up
+his yellow neighbour, and flows on majestically towards the ocean.
+
+[2] The greatest heat, in July 1877, at Blagovestchensk was 89°·2,
+and at Greenwich 88°·2; but the greatest cold, in December, at
+Blagovestchensk was 32° below zero, as compared with 28°·7, the
+greatest cold at Greenwich. Speaking generally of the weather at
+Blagovestchensk, Mr. Ravenstein remarks that in the winter of 1859-60
+it was fine until the middle of October. On the 4th November snow fell,
+and soon after the river was frozen. During December and January it was
+fine though cold, the temperature falling occasionally to 45° below
+zero, and at one time to 49°, and never rising more than 9°·5 above
+it. Violent storms occurred during November, and again in February. On
+the 2nd of April was the first thaw. Between the 6th and 9th of May
+the river became free of ice, and the last snow fell on the 12th, but
+without remaining on the ground. The greatest heat during the summer
+was 99°. The district of the Middle Amur enjoys a more favourable
+climate than the Upper Amur, though only so far as the summer months
+are concerned. These are free from hoar-frost, which, on the upper
+part of the river, is often destructive to the harvest. The winter is
+quite as long, and the Amur at Blagovestchensk is frozen over from the
+beginning of November to the commencement of May; and the Zeya some
+three weeks longer. The quantity of snow, however, is not too great
+to allow of the Manyargs keeping their horses throughout the winter
+pasturing in the open air.
+
+[3] I wrote also to General Kaznakoff, the Governor-General of Western
+Siberia, at Omsk, requesting that the Scriptures, which I had arranged
+for the interpreter to take to Tiumen to be forwarded thence, might be
+distributed through the provinces of Akmolinsk and Semipolatinsk; so
+that, with what I hoped to do in the Sea-coast province, I began to
+look upon my plans for the supply of the Siberian prisons as all but
+completed. The boxes containing these books did not reach Tiumen till
+the autumn; they were some time on the road to Omsk; but when I last
+heard of them, they had reached their destination, and were about to be
+distributed.
+
+[4] At the entrance of the defile, 783 miles below Ust-Strelka, and on
+the north bank, is situated the station Pashkof. On the opposite bank
+rises the bold promontory of Sverbeef, projecting far into the river.
+From a breadth of two miles the Amur suddenly decreases to 700 yards,
+the depth in many places reaching to 70 feet, and thus it flows for 100
+miles to Ekaterino-Nicolsk. The current sweeps along at the rate of
+three miles, and in some places attains as much as 5½ miles an hour.
+
+[5] Another opportunity had occurred on the Upper Amur, on our meeting
+a steamer lugging an immense two-decked barge laden with seamen, who
+had finished their term of service in the Pacific, and were returning
+homewards with their wives and children. Their barge had the appearance
+of a huge Mississippi steamer loaded with passengers above and below,
+and as we approached they hailed us. Our captain was not then out of
+shallow water, and as he knew the commander of the approaching steamer
+he deemed it advisable to drop alongside and ask about the condition
+of the river, exchange a few kindly words, and perhaps drink with his
+brother navigator a glass of tea, or something stronger. I, too, went
+on board, and sold 20 New Testaments in as many minutes, distributing
+also several papers and books. I wished to make the captain a present
+of some New Testaments for the use of the crews of his two boats, but
+he preferred to buy them, and gave me 3½ roubles for 14 copies, to
+which I added some placards, etc. The captains, too, of the _Zeya_ and
+the _Ingoda_ bought some for their crews in preference to my giving
+them. I had, however, already nailed up some of my pictures in both
+cabins of the two boats, and placed in each a copy of the New Testament
+for the use of the passengers, as was done also for the boats by which
+we travelled on the Obi and the Kama.
+
+[6] From this part to the mouth of the Sungari the prairie extends as
+far as the eye can reach, and the banks of the river are in many places
+swampy. The stream increases in breadth, and has numerous islands
+covered with willows and other trees. The islands do not interfere with
+the navigation, as they are ranged along the two banks of the river,
+and leave an open channel between.
+
+[7] The color of the Sungari is lighter than the Amur, and Mr. Collins,
+who tasted the water, pronounces it insipid and warm, as coming from
+a southern source. The force of the current is about two knots, that
+of the Amur here being four knots. The Sungari is a mile and one-third
+in breadth at the mouth. It rises on the eastern slopes of the great
+Khingan, or Shan-alin, or White Mountains, and, being joined by many
+tributaries, runs in a southerly direction, till, meeting another
+affluent from the mountains which border on the Corea, it turns to the
+north-east, and, after a course of 1,000 miles, falls into the Amur.
+
+[8] The first large town up the river is San-sin, which Mr. Maximowicz
+the naturalist, in 1859, endeavoured to reach, but he was compelled to
+return on account of his hostile reception by the jealous and exclusive
+Chinese villagers. I met at Khabarofka a Russian merchant, who had
+proceeded up the river some distance to purchase corn; an attempt,
+however, in which he only partially succeeded,--and that little, I
+understood, through the mediation of a Roman Catholic missionary. By
+the Chinese treaty with Russia the Sungari is declared to be open for
+the purposes of commerce. It thus presents an unoccupied field for some
+enterprising pioneer who will thus push his way into Manchuria.
+
+[9] In the Bureya district in August thick fogs rest on the river in
+the morning, and the nights are cold. The amount of snow throughout the
+winter is about 4½ feet or more. The climate, however, on the Amur,
+which is most favourable, is that found between the mouths of the
+Sungari and Ussuri, though even here the river is ice-bound during five
+or six months. At Khabarofka it freezes about the end of November and
+opens in the beginning of May. Snow covers the ground to the depth of
+a foot or a foot and a half, and even 2½ feet in exceptional winters.
+Below the mouth of the Sungari the Amur divides into several streams,
+and many islands have been formed in its bed. The river, too, changes
+its course, and runs to the north-east, which seems to be a direct
+continuation of the Sungari. In fact, this river has been claimed by
+some as the parent river. The Russians, however, could well afford to
+allow the Chinese to establish this relationship, for then the Tsar
+would be entitled to the greater part of Manchuria, the treaty giving
+Russia all the land “north of the Amur,” to which John Chinaman would
+probably object.
+
+[10] It has an area of 173,000 square miles, and is about the size of
+Spain, its population amounting to only 22,000 persons. In this last
+respect it contrasts favourably with the neighbouring province of
+Yakutsk, which is eight times as large, but has only about 1,200 more
+inhabitants. The one town of the province is Blagovestchensk, where the
+Governor resides. The other habitations form mere villages situated on
+the banks of the river.
+
+[11] “Alcohol” is spirit obtained from corn and potatoes, and has 95
+degrees of strength; “vodka” is the same spirit weakened by water to
+40 degrees, and filtered. A bottle of alcohol costs at Vladivostock
+2_s._ 6_d._; a bottle of vodka 1_s._ 3_d._ The Baron was an Esthonian
+by birth, and he pointed out the remarkable fact that, whilst Esthonia
+relatively produced more brandy than did other Russian provinces, yet
+it had the smallest number of shops for its sale. Whether any moral
+could be drawn from this tale I know not; but I subsequently find on
+the same opening of my journal two noteworthy entries respecting the
+Amur. One is that the excise taxes for the Sea-coast province amounted
+in 1878 to rather more than 20 times the amount realized by all the
+remaining taxes put together; and the other is the official return
+to the Emperor, that “the chief causes of crime in the province are
+gambling and drunkenness.” Comment is needless, and I do not here stay
+to make any, except to observe how humiliating it is that any country
+which calls itself Christian, be it Russia or England, should derive
+its largest revenue from that which most demoralizes its subjects.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+_THE MANCHURIAN FRONTIER._
+
+ Manchuria and its aboriginal inhabitants.--Their history.--The
+     Daurians.--The Manchu.--Visit to Sakhalin-Ula-Hotun.--Manchu
+     dress.--Music.--Conveyances.--Articles of commerce.--Treatment
+     of dead.--Boats.--Methods of fishing.--Archery.--Town of
+     Aigun.--Buildings.--Temples.--Difficulties of access.
+
+
+I have said very little on what we saw in descending the Amur of the
+Daurians and Manchu, because I thought it better to reserve a separate
+chapter for these extra-Siberian people. Manchuria is bounded on the
+north by the Amur, on the east by the Ussuri, on the west by Dauria and
+Mongolia, and on the south by Corea and the Yellow Sea. It is, in fact,
+the country north of Peking, from which city the territory is governed,
+and with which its history is closely connected.[1]
+
+A few words should be said, perhaps, first of the Daurians, whose
+territory we passed whilst on the Upper Amur. Of old they were settled
+along both banks of the river, and doubtless may here and there be
+found still on the northern bank; but for the sake of clearness I have
+preferred to treat of them on the southern bank in their proximity to
+the Manchu, from whom they can scarcely be distinguished in appearance,
+and with whom they have more in common than with the natives of the
+north. The Daurians and Manchu, Mr. Howorth says, are of the same
+stock in every way. The division is a political one only. The Daurians
+probably represent the section who paid tribute to the Chinese Court,
+and the Manchu those who were free. Mr. Wahl says that “Daours” is a
+name given to the Tunguses of the Amur by the Buriats. The Daurians
+are taller and stronger than the Orochons, the countenance is oval
+and more intellectual, and the cheeks are less broad. The nose is
+rather prominent, and the eyebrows straight. The skin is tawny, the
+hair brown. The lower classes do not shave the head, and their hair
+resembles an ill-constructed haystack, around which they twist their
+pigtail. The higher classes shave the head in front and over the
+temples, but wear a tail.
+
+The Daurians carry on agriculture successfully, and cultivate
+vegetables and tobacco. They live in houses made of earth, thatched
+with reeds or thin bamboos, and have the walls whitewashed inside. The
+houses are not divided into compartments, and the fireplace is outside,
+near the door, the smoke from it passing through a pipe into the house.
+Two iron kettles always form part of the household utensils, one of
+them for heating water for tea, the other for cooking the food. The
+windows are large and square, of paper soaked in oil. They are hinged
+at the top, and are propped open for ventilation. The religion of the
+Daurians is Shamanism. We saw their canoes from time to time when
+stopping at wood stations on the Upper Amur, but recognized few of the
+people themselves.
+
+We saw many Manchu from the Zeya to the Khingan mountains. The southern
+shores of the Amur are inhabited by Manchu and Chinese, the latter
+being either exiles or their descendants.[2] On the south bank of
+the Amur, opposite Blagovestchensk, is a small Manchu town, called
+_Sakhalin-Ula-Hotun_ (City of the Black River). The Manchu and Chinese
+formerly called the river above the Sungari “Sakhalin-Ula.” The Goldi
+called the Amur “Mongo,” and the Gilyaks “Mamoo.” The name Amur was
+given by the Russians, and is considered a corruption of the Gilyak
+word. I paid a visit to Sakhalin-Ula on the evening our steamer stayed
+in the vicinity. It is said to have less than 2,000 inhabitants.
+I was accompanied by Mr. Niellsen, from the telegraph office at
+Blagovestchensk, who was slightly known to one of the Manchu merchants.
+The town stretches a mile along the bank, but extends only a few paces
+back from the river. It consists of a single street, and is anything
+but picturesque; for the fences, made of log-frames and covered with
+board, shut out the view of the gardens, in which are grown millet,
+maize, radishes, onions, leeks, garlic, Spanish pepper, and cabbages.
+The walls of the houses are of log plastered with mud, and the windows
+usually of paper, but occasionally of glass.
+
+The roofs of the buildings are covered with thatch of wheaten straw,
+and the town is embowered in elms, birches, maples, poplars, and wild
+apple-trees. This contrasts favourably with the Russian town, where
+there are few trees except those in the park. Timber, for use of both
+Russians and Manchu, is cut in the forests 60 miles up the river, and
+rafted down. They keep plenty of fowls and pigs, and a few horned
+cattle used for ploughing. Sakhalin-Ula abounds in gardens, which
+supply the market of Blagovestchensk. Once a month, during the full
+moon, the Manchu cross the river and open a fair, which lasts seven
+days. They sell the Russians wheaten and buckwheat flour, barley,
+beans, oats, eggs, walnuts, vegetables, Ussuri apples, fowls, pigs,
+cows, and horses. Thus the Russians usually lay in a month’s supply;
+but should they require anything out of fair-time, the Manchu are not
+only ready to supply it, but do so at lower prices than the sums asked
+by the Russian merchants.
+
+As we walked along the street we met a solitary woman, who ran quickly
+out of the way, as if afraid of us; and having made a long _détour_
+from the road, regained it, and continued her journey behind us. The
+Manchu women dress like the Chinese, in a blue cotton gown, with short
+loose sleeves, above which the well-to-do wear a cape or mantle of
+silk, reaching to the waist. The hair is brushed up, fastened on the
+top of the head in a bunch, and is secured by a comb ornamented with
+beads and hair-needles, and decked with gay ribbons, with real or
+artificial flowers. The earrings, finger-rings, and bracelets exhibit
+much taste. The women are in the habit of carrying their youngest
+children about with them, tied on the back. The girls, on being
+released from swaddling-clothes, are dressed like their mothers; but
+the boys, up to six or seven years of age, wear only a pair of loose
+pantaloons.
+
+The costume of the men is a long blue coat of cotton, loose linen
+trousers fastened at the knee or made into leggings, and Chinese boots
+of skin. They wear also a kind of vest and a belt, to which is attached
+a case containing a knife, Chinese chopsticks, tinder, a small copper
+pipe, and tobacco. Both sexes are fond of smoking, and, as in China,
+constantly carry a fan.
+
+As we passed one of the houses, we saw a Manchu, sitting out in the
+cool of the evening, enjoying his music, which he produced by scraping
+a stringed instrument of the violin order, though it is no compliment
+to the fiddle to mention the two together. At Khabarofka I saw other
+musical instruments, coming nearer to the shape of the banjo. One, with
+three strings, had a long handle of rosewood, and a drum about six
+inches in diameter. The drum was covered on either side with serpents’
+skin, but if its sound was no more pleasing than that of the instrument
+at Sakhalin-Ula, I fear it would generally be thought trying to English
+ears.
+
+By dint of inquiry, we found the merchant to whom my companion was
+known, and, on entering his yard, saw some Mongolian sheep, with their
+enormous tails. It was not difficult to understand particularly fat
+Thibetan sheep needing a little carriage upon which to support this
+appendage. One could wish them better conveyances, however, than the
+Manchu carts, which are of a very clumsy description. They have two
+wheels fixed to the axletree, all turning together. They are drawn by
+oxen, and move slowly, creaking along. The Manchu have besides a rough
+kind of travelling carriage for persons of distinction, a two-wheeled
+affair, not long enough to allow one to lie at full length, nor with
+covering high enough to permit one to sit upright. It has no springs,
+the frame resting on the axle. The sides are curtained with cloth,
+having little windows or peep-holes. A few cushions and hard pillows
+inside serve to diminish the effect of jolting. The shafts are like
+those of a common dray, with a sort of shelf to support the driver
+sitting sideways about ten inches behind the horse. The wheel tires
+are of surprising breadth and thickness, and cogged as if made for use
+in a machine. In fact, a “machine” is exactly the word for the whole
+concern; and on coming out of the said machine after a long journey,
+and its accompanying jolting over execrable roads, it may well be
+doubted whether one would not feel bruised “all over alike.”
+
+Our merchant friend gave us a hearty welcome, and bade us be seated in
+his house, which closely resembled the house of the merchant with whom
+we dined at Maimatchin. Usually, when a guest enters a Manchu dwelling,
+one of the women fills and lights a pipe, and having taken a few puffs
+herself, and wiped the mouthpiece with her hand or apron, presents it.
+The people in the house we visited were perfectly ready to show us
+anything and everything we desired to see. One of them was writing,
+with Indian ink and pen of split reed, or pencil of squirrel’s hair,
+when, upon observing that I watched him closely, he wrote my name in
+Chinese on a piece of paper, and gave it me as a souvenir, whilst I did
+the same in English, and so returned the compliment. They presented me
+also a bundle of joss-sticks for making a perfume, and which they burn
+before their idols.
+
+Adjoining the room in which we sat was the shop, where they arrayed
+me in silk dressing-gowns of splendid quality. Among the articles
+the Manchu sell to the Russians are silk stuffs, peltry, artificial
+flowers, felt shoes, matting, etc.; but I saw nothing that so tempted
+me as the silk dressing-gowns. I forbore to purchase one only because
+my companion told me that I should get them better and find a larger
+selection in Japan. We contented ourselves, therefore, with admiring
+them, to the amusement, apparently, of the Manchu, for they repeatedly
+imitated not only our speaking but our words and exclamations of
+surprise, and even our manner of laughing.
+
+I heard in this town of a strange method of treatment of the dead, for
+Mr. Niellsen told me they were kept in the house for several days; they
+are then half buried in a funereal hut in the garden or field. The
+corpse is daily visited by the relatives, who bring all sorts of food
+and drink. The food is put to the mouth of the deceased with a spoon,
+and the drink is placed in small cups outside the hut. A few weeks pass
+in this manner, and then the decomposed corpse is buried deeper.
+
+Steaming away from Sakhalin-Ula, we passed several kinds of Manchu
+boats, which present a lively appearance on the river. The junks for
+heavy merchandise are about 60 feet long, from 12 to 14 feet wide,
+with high bows and sterns, and a large mast, 40 feet high, amidships.
+Most of them are built on the Sungari, and have a small hut-like
+construction at the stern. They draw from three to four feet of water,
+and are manned by a crew of ten,--eight for pushing at the poles, one
+to steer, and a pilot on the bows to sound and announce the depth of
+water. Smaller than the junks are the merchants’ boats, with an awning
+over the state-room, in which the merchant lives, whilst his crew and
+cargo are stowed in the forepart of the craft. A good deal of valuable
+merchandise is sometimes carried on board. I remember going to one of
+them at a stopping-place where the owner showed me a gold watch, said
+to be of English make, about which, however, when asked for an opinion,
+I was bound to express my doubts. I thought perhaps the man of business
+might be disposed to purchase my revolver, for which I had had no use,
+and found it somewhat in the way. I offered it, therefore, to him for
+what it cost me. He was accustomed only to the prices of the common
+Russian revolvers, whereas mine was of good English make. The figure,
+therefore, alarmed him, though, perhaps, after an hour’s patience, we
+might have come to terms; but the whistle sounded, and I had abruptly
+to close our negotiations and make for the steamer.
+
+A Manchu fishing-boat is made of the trunk of a hollowed-out tree, cut
+in two pieces, fastened with wooden pegs, and secured from leaking with
+pitch. The small ones are propelled by one man, with a double-bladed
+paddle. They also make flat-bottomed boats of planks. Most of them
+carry flags or streamers, and some have dragons’ heads on their bows.
+
+The traveller sometimes sees a novel method of fishing by the Manchu,
+who sit perched on a tripod of tent-poles, ten feet high, placed at the
+edge of the river. Here the fisherman waits, like a heron, watching
+for fish, which he catches with pole, net, or spear, according to
+circumstances. One would suppose the seat must be very uncomfortable,
+but these tripods, tied at the top, are seen on many sandbars and
+shoals, showing it to be one of the recognized methods of fishing. I
+saw also, below Sakhalin, another curious fishing machine, something
+like a hand-cart, with two small wheels and long handles. A frame over
+the axle sustained a long pole, from which was suspended a net about
+the size of a shrimp net. The machine could thus be wheeled into the
+water, and the snare lowered, after which the net was lifted again
+with its catch. During winter, when the river is covered with ice, the
+Daurians practise a third method of fishing, known to the Cossacks as
+_chekacheni_, or “malleting.” Where the ice is transparent, the fish
+may be seen almost immovable near the surface of the water beneath
+it. A few blows on the ice with a mallet stun the fish, a hole is then
+made, and they are taken out with the hand or a small net.
+
+The Manchu are excellent archers. At the military stations trials of
+skill take place periodically in the presence of the Mandarins and
+others.[3] “To know how to shoot an arrow,” writes a Manchu author,
+“is the first and most important knowledge for a Tatar to acquire.”
+I presume, however, this was written before the introduction of the
+clumsy Manchu matchlock.
+
+Fourteen miles below the Zeya, and a few hours after leaving
+Blagovestchensk, our steamer arrived at Aigun, the chief town of the
+Manchu on the Amur, and once possessing considerable strength. It was
+formerly the capital of the Chinese province of the Amur, but the seat
+of government was transferred, some five-and-thirty years ago, to
+Tsi-tsi-har. It has now a population estimated at 15,000. The town is
+built on a bank some 8 or 10 feet above high-water mark. The tableland
+behind the town extends to mountains in a serrated chain, which show
+themselves as a background to the picture upon the southern horizon.
+
+The Government buildings and several temples are surrounded by a
+double row of palisades, in the form of a square; and outside this
+are several hundred mud houses. The town has a gloomy appearance. The
+houses are nearly all of but one storey, and stand in square yards
+surrounded by fences of stakes or wickerwork. The only relief to the
+eye is produced by the gaily-painted temples, which are surrounded with
+trees, apparently sacred groves, the more noticeable as growing timber
+is scarce in this region. The temples are square buildings erected
+with rather more care than private houses. The walls are made of thin
+poles set up side by side, with the interstices filled with clay, and
+smoothened. The sloping roof is thatched with straw. As you enter you
+find yourself in an ante-room, separated from the inner compartment by
+a curtain running along the width of the temple, and suspended from
+slender pillars. The curtain being drawn aside, there is seen a table
+against the wall, upon or over which is a picture of a deity; and on
+the table lie dried stems and leaves of Artemisia, and some Chinese
+coins. There is also a semi-globular vessel of metal, with three holes
+on each side, which is struck by the worshipper, after he has made his
+obeisance, to attract the notice of the god.[4]
+
+I observed at Aigun, as at Maimatchin, the proximity of the temple
+and the theatre, and noticed poles standing in front of the
+Government houses and temples. But I am not clear whether they are
+merely flag-poles or whether they are for a purpose mentioned by Mr.
+Ravenstein, who alludes to poles fixed on the screens facing the doors
+of private houses, the upper parts of which poles are ornamented by the
+Manchu with the skulls of beasts of prey, small flags, and horsehair,
+and during prayer are hoisted whilst the worshippers lie prostrate.
+
+Very few foreigners have succeeded in gaining admittance to Aigun. Mr.
+Collins, with Captain Fulyhelm, made a resolute but fruitless endeavour
+to do so.[5]
+
+This exclusiveness, however, appears to have abated in after years; for
+in 1866 Mr. Knox had no difficulty in visiting the town, even when the
+Governor happened to be absent. He speaks of the streets as having some
+dry spots, but that otherwise, by reason of the mud, he should describe
+the measurement of the “broadway” of Aigun as about two miles long,
+50 feet wide, and “two feet deep.” The shops in one of the principal
+streets have open fronts. Here the merchandise is exposed, and the
+merchant, attired in silks, gravely smokes his pipe till a purchaser
+enters. Dragons and other figures, cut in paper, are fixed to poles
+surmounting the shops, and paper lanterns hang across the street. The
+town has a guard-house and military quarters, and there was pointed out
+to me, from the deck of the steamer, the fortress and gateway leading
+to the Government quarter. Over the gateway was a small room, like the
+drawbridge room in a castle of the middle ages. Twenty men could be
+lodged there to shoot arrows or throw hot water on an invading foe.
+
+I was not fortunate in getting into the city--not, however, through
+any difficulty with the authorities (as Baron Stackelberg offered to
+telegraph to the Chinese Governor to give permission for me to enter),
+but, owing to delays, our boat was so behind time that the captain
+could not be induced to lose a couple of hours for the purpose. We
+stopped, therefore, only a few minutes to take in passengers. Crowds
+of Manchu and Chinese came to the bank, some of the women having very
+remarkable head-gear. Men with a cloth about the waist were washing
+their plump little Manchu horses in the river; and we saw a number
+of junks drawn up on the banks. These represent some of the Chinese
+naval force on the Amur,--but only _some_, I suppose--because, when
+the Russians obtained the river, the Chinese transferred their navy to
+the Sungari. Towards this river we proceeded, after leaving Aigun, and
+arrived, as I have said, on the following day at Khabarofka, which may
+now be called the military capital of the Sea-coast province.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The Chinese applied to the eastern Mongols the name of _Dun-Khu_,
+whence the name _Tunguses_. And wild they must have been in early
+times, if the account be true that during the winter they lived in
+subterraneous dwellings, and smeared their bodies with pigs’ fat to
+protect themselves from cold. The first amelioration in their condition
+is said to have been due to the conquests of the Coreans, who, in
+their wars with China, made use of these northern neighbours. When,
+however, the Coreans fell under the sway of the Chinese, in 677 A.D.,
+the Tungusians, who were subsequently known as the Manchu, retired
+northwards to the Shan-alin mountains. With the help of many Coreans,
+they founded the empire of the Bokhai, and the country became one of
+the most flourishing kingdoms on the eastern sea. The heirs of the
+power of the Bokhai were the Jurjis, who founded the empire of Kin,
+and were known as Kin, or Golden Tatars. They dominated over Northern
+China in the 12th century, and were the ancestors of the Manchu. It is
+not necessary to follow the vicissitudes of this kingdom through the
+centuries that followed; but in 1618 the power of the Manchu was so
+well established, that their king made war with China, and repeatedly
+defeated the emperor. Some years later, a revolution broke out in
+China, in the midst of which, in 1643, the emperor committed suicide;
+whereupon the imperial party called in the aid of the Manchu, who
+drove the rebels out of Peking. The Chinese general was then left to
+pursue them further south, whilst the Manchu chief, finding the throne
+vacant, took it for himself and kept it, and the Manchu dynasty reigns
+in China to this day. These events were followed by very remarkable
+consequences to the Manchu country and people; for though by conquest
+they had gained a neighbouring throne, yet the Chinese managed so to
+fuse their conquerors with themselves, and to get possession of their
+country, that the Manchu, during the two centuries they have reigned
+in China, may be said to have been working out their own annihilation.
+Their manners, language, their very country has become Chinese, and
+some maintain that the Manchu proper are now extinct.
+
+[2] This part of the Amur was erected into a penal colony by the
+Chinese Government soon after the evacuation of Albazin by the
+Russians in 1680. Above and below Aigun are 25 or 30 clusters of
+Manchu dwellings, some of the villages having from 10 to 50 or even
+100 houses. In other cases the houses stand solitary, like the Cossack
+picket-posts I afterwards passed on the Ussuri; and I presume they
+serve the Chinese for the same purpose in watching the frontier. A
+noticeable feature about these pickets is that, if there be only
+a single habitation, there is in the corner of the garden a small
+building like a sentry-box, which is a temple containing an idol or
+picture, and where worship is offered.
+
+[3] Three straw men of life-size are placed in a straight line, at
+distances of 20 or 30 paces the one from the other. The mounted archer
+is on a line with them about 15 feet from the first figure, his bow
+bent, and his shaft upon the string. The signal being given, he puts
+his horse to a gallop, and discharges his arrow at the first figure;
+without checking his horse’s speed, he then takes a second arrow from
+his quiver, places it to the bow, and discharges it at the second
+figure, and so with the third; and all this while the horse is going at
+full speed. From the first figure to the second the archer has barely
+time for drawing his arrow, fixing, and discharging it; so that when
+he shoots he has generally to turn somewhat on his saddle, and as to
+the third shot he discharges it altogether in the old Parthian fashion.
+Yet for a competitor to be deemed a good archer, says M. Huc, it is
+essential that he should fire an arrow into every one of the three
+figures.
+
+[4] Mr. Knox was shown one of the temples of Aigun, which he describes
+as a building 15 feet by 30 feet, with a red curtain at the door,
+and a thick carpet of matting over a brick pavement. The altar being
+veiled, the covering was lifted to allow him to see the inscription.
+Several pictures adorned the walls, and there were lanterns painted in
+gaudy colors. Outside also were paintings over the door, representing
+Chinese landscapes. The windows were of lattice work, the roof had a
+dragon’s head at each end of the ridge, and a Mosaic pavement extended
+round the interior of the building. On the exterior of the Buddhist
+temple we visited near Kiakhta, I observed a symbol in the form of two
+deer standing on either side of a tree, but I did not notice it again
+elsewhere.
+
+[5] Their landing caused a great sensation, and the people gathered
+in crowds. The Governor received them in a pavilion, and was dressed
+in richly-figured silk robes, with the cap surmounted by a crystal
+ball and peacocks’ feather. Refreshments were offered, and among them
+small cups of samchoo or rice wine, and all they said was taken down by
+scribes; but they were not permitted to visit the city. Previously to
+this, Admiral Putiatin, of the Russian navy, defied the authorities,
+and entered the city, as it were, sword in hand; for, permission having
+been denied him on the pretence that he would not be safe against the
+insults of the people, the admiral took with him four armed men, and
+went through the streets. It was on a similar pretence that Mr. Collins
+was diverted from his purpose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+_THE PRIMORSK OR SEA-COAST PROVINCE._
+
+ Fuller treatment of this province.--Boundaries and
+     dimensions.--Mountains, bays, and rivers.--Climate.--Fauna and
+     flora.--Aboriginal and Russian population.--Government.--Food
+     products.--Imports.--Taxes.--Civil government.--Health of the
+     people.
+
+
+A story is told of a certain preacher who, on mounting his afternoon
+pulpit, discovered he had brought again the manuscript from which
+he preached in the morning, whereupon, rising to the occasion, he
+announced his intention to redeliver the morning’s discourse; and,
+said he, “_I have a particular reason for doing so._” History does not
+relate what followed; but I would advertise the reader that I purpose
+to treat more fully of the Primorsk than of the other provinces of
+Siberia, and “I have a particular reason for doing so”; the “particular
+reason” in my case being that I know, personally, a great deal more
+of this province than of the rest. Through other regions I passed as
+rapidly as possible, never continuing long in one place; but on the
+sea-coast I lived, moved, and had my habitation for several weeks. I
+was stationary simply because I could not get forward, and used my
+leisure to read up Siberia and arrange notes. Moreover, I had the great
+advantage of staying with persons who spoke English, who had lived in
+Asiatic Russia for many years, who knew the country well, and could
+therefore inform me upon Russian affairs. Nor was this all, for I
+was brought in frequent contact with military and naval officers who
+spoke French and English, and during my stay at Vladivostock was almost
+a daily guest at the Governor’s house, and so was enabled to gather
+information respecting the condition of the province from official
+sources.
+
+The Littoral, or Sea-coast province, which the Russians call “The
+Primorsk,” is a strip of seaboard, beginning on the frontier of Corea,
+and continuing northwards along the coast of Manchuria, round the Sea
+of Okhotsk and Kamchatka, and terminating at the Chaunskaia Bay in
+the Arctic Ocean, about 700 miles west of Behring’s Straits.[1] The
+general aspect of the country is mountainous throughout. Along the
+Manchurian coast, at a distance of from 25 to 80 miles of the sea, runs
+the Sikhota-Alin range, a continuation of the Shangan-Alin mountains.
+The western slope is the birthplace of many streams, which run into the
+Lower Amur and Ussuri. The eastern slopes drain into the channel of
+Tartary, those rivers entering the sea having a short course, and being
+navigable only near the mouth. These mountains attain an elevation of
+from 4,000 to 6,000 feet. West of the Okhotsk Sea runs the Stanovoi
+range, which is a continuation of the tableland lying to the north of
+the Amur, and is estimated, according to Mr. Ravenstein, as having
+an elevation of from 1,000 to 2,000 feet, the highest peaks reaching
+perhaps to 5,000 or 6,000 feet. Besides these ranges, there are in the
+peninsula of Kamchatka nearly 40 mountains, evidently volcanic, though
+not more than a dozen volcanoes now throw out scoria.
+
+On the sea-coast are several bays suitable for harbours, which might
+become of commercial importance if the district were sufficiently
+colonized, and good means of communication opened over the mountains
+and forests of the Littoral.[2]
+
+The principal rivers of the province are the Ussuri, the Lower Amur,
+with its largest tributary the Amgun, and in the far north the Anadir,
+which runs into Behring’s Sea. The Primorsk has one or two lakes on the
+Arctic Circle, also Lake Kizi, which almost connects the Lower Amur
+with the Gulf of Tartary at Castries Bay, and Lake Khanka, the largest
+of them all, out of which flows the Sungacha, an important affluent of
+the Ussuri. What marshes there are in the province are found on the
+left bank of the Amur.
+
+The variations of climate must of course be very considerable over
+a tract of country which in the north lies within the Arctic Circle
+to the 70th parallel, whilst its most southerly point is nearer the
+equator than the Pole, being situated in latitude 43°, as far south,
+that is, as the Pyrenees. Of the 14 meteorological observatories
+in Siberia, two are situated in the Primorsk, at Nikolaefsk and
+Vladivostock. For meteorological information from further north we
+are indebted to travellers, especially to Baron Nordenskiöld.[3] The
+climate of Nikolaefsk cannot be recommended to those in search of a
+mild one.[4] During the eight months of winter keen winds prevail,
+bringing snowstorms of such violence and density that I heard of a
+man losing himself in crossing the street from the club to his own
+house. The snow lies frequently from four to five feet deep. I stayed
+at Nikolaefsk from the 13th to the 30th August, during which time the
+summer was unusually cold. On several days it rained, and, when taking
+an evening stroll, I did not feel an Ulster coat too warm.[5]
+
+Descending ten degrees further south to Vladivostock, we find the
+summer extending to six and a half months, but with an annual
+temperature about ten degrees lower than at Marseilles, which is on the
+same parallel.[6]
+
+Thus it will be seen that even in the most southerly portion of the
+Primorsk the winter climate is severe. The Bay of Peter the Great, it
+is true, is not frozen at a certain distance from the shore at any
+period of the year; yet ice is formed upon its creeks and inlets at
+the beginning of December, and for more than a hundred days ships are
+locked in the port of Vladivostock. On the other hand, the summer heat
+on the Manchurian coast is very great, and rises in the port of Olga to
+more than 96°.
+
+The climate of the Lower Primorsk is more than commonly dependent on
+two influences: that of the prevailing winds, and of the temperature
+of the neighbouring seas. The warm Kuro Scivo, or Japan current, soon
+after it passes the Loo Choo islands, divides, and a small part enters
+the Sea of Japan, and, skirting its eastern shore, passes out through
+La Perouse Strait to reunite itself with the main stream that has kept
+to the eastward of the Japan archipelago. Under the name of “the North
+Pacific drift,” this Japan current afterwards passes a little south
+of the Kurile and Aleutian Isles, and then turns southward along the
+western coast of North America. From the north-east corner of the Sea
+of Okhotsk two cold currents start and run--the one along the coast of
+the mainland of Siberia, the other down the west side of Kamchatka.
+Sakhalin is thus on both shores washed by these cold waters, which
+continue their course southward along the western shore of the Sea of
+Japan, round the Corea, past the entrance of the Yellow-Sea, until,
+near the island of Formosa, they mingle with the monsoon drifts of the
+China Sea. The effect of this body of cold water along the Siberian
+coast is obvious, and we find the winter climate far more severe
+than in corresponding latitudes on the western side of the Pacific
+or in the Niphon, and the southern islands of Japan. The prevailing
+winds in winter are from the north and east, and, passing as they
+do over this same cold sea-water, they get chilled, and add to the
+rigour of the season. In summer the winds are generally from the west
+and south-west, and in July the south-west monsoon even extends to
+the Sea of Okhotsk; and the temperature is abnormally above that of
+corresponding latitudes. If, however, the climate of the Lower Primorsk
+and of Eastern Siberia is remarkable for its extremes of cold and heat,
+drought and humidity, it has at least the advantage of regularity in
+its yearly progress, and has none of the abrupt changes of temperature
+met with in Western Siberia. The dry cold of winter, the humid heat of
+summer, are maintained without sudden changes.[7]
+
+To the phenomena of the particular climate of the sea-coast correspond
+naturally the distinctive features of its fauna and flora. The forests
+one passes through in the basin of the Amur are not, like the _taigas_,
+sloping towards the Frozen Ocean, composed uniformly of the same
+species of conifers; but the kinds of trees are very diverse, though
+their distribution is little varied. With the fir, pitch pine, cedar,
+and larch are mixed not only the Russian birch, but also the oak,
+elm, hornbeam, ash, maple, lime, and poplar, some of which grow to
+the height of 100 feet, with trunks more than a yard in diameter.
+The bark of the larch is almost as valuable to the tanner as that of
+oak, and also produces the substance called Venice turpentine, which
+flows abundantly when the lower parts of the trunks of old trees are
+wounded. A kind of marrow also exudes from its leaves in the shape
+of white flakes, which are ultimately converted into small lumps.
+In the southern parts of the Ussuri country, and on the slopes of
+the Sikhota Alin, deciduous trees outnumber the conifers. The forest
+pines are often draped with wild vines, whose grapes ripen, though
+the cultivation of the vine has not yet been successful. On the Upper
+Ussuri the Chinese have plantations of ginseng. In the woods grow
+hazels, peach trees, and wild pears; and what orchards there yet are
+about the villages show that the Ussuri district might become, for the
+product of fruits, one of the richest countries in the world.
+
+But the glory of the Lower Primorsk is the wealth of herbaceous plants
+which grow on the alluvial soils on the banks and the islands of its
+rivers. Umbelliferous plants, mugwort, roses, cereals of various kinds,
+form a mass of vegetation to the height of 8 or 9 feet, penetrable only
+axe in hand, or along the track of some wild animal. The wild boar, the
+stag, the roebuck hide themselves in these tall herbs better even than
+in the forest. The tiger as well as the panther inhabit the bushy
+herbage of the Ussuri, and there meet also the bear and the sable. Thus
+the representatives of the south mingle with those from the north in
+this rich fauna, belonging at once to Siberia and to China.
+
+[Illustration: THE SIBERIAN LARCH.]
+
+As regards the inhabitants of the Sea-coast province, in the south are
+Chinese, Manzas, Tazas, and Coreans, who are constantly travelling,
+and so cannot well be counted; but, calculating from the registers
+of births and deaths, their number is estimated at 62,000. North of
+these, on the Ussuri, are the Goldi, and, on the Lower Amur, another
+race called Gilyaks, of whom I shall hereafter speak particularly.
+Proceeding round the Sea of Okhotsk, we come to the territories of the
+Lamuti, Tunguses, and Yakutes; and then reaching the north-east corner
+of Siberia, we have three other peoples--the Kamchatdales to the south
+of the peninsula, with the Koriaks above them, and furthest north the
+Chukchees. Besides these might be mentioned a few Orochi about the
+mouth of the Amur, and the Aïnos of Sakhalin and the Kurile islands.
+Owing to the wandering habits of these tribes, no census can be
+obtained, but from the church books their number, including both sexes,
+is estimated at 44,000.[8]
+
+The province is divided into seven uyezds, and the principal towns,
+beginning from the south, are Vladivostock, Khabarofka, Sophiisk,
+Nikolaefsk, Ayan, Okhotsk, and Petropavlovsk. The Littoral was erected
+into a province in 1857, and placed under a Governor who was at once
+Admiral of the Fleet, Commander of the military forces, and Head of
+Civil Affairs; and this was the condition of things in 1879--Admiral
+Erdmann being Governor, and residing at Vladivostock. The military
+command, however, has since been separated, and given to General
+Tichmeneff, who resides, I am told, at Khabarofka.
+
+Proceeding now to the natural products of the Primorsk, and the sources
+of sustenance to its population, we find that agriculture holds a very
+different place in the upper, middle, and lower parts of the country.
+The Upper Primorsk extends from Behring’s Straits down to Nikolaefsk,
+and produces no corn. The inhabitants live by hunting, the fur trade,
+or on grain supplied by the Government.
+
+The Middle Primorsk extends from Nikolaefsk to Khabarofka, which means
+virtually the basin of the Lower Amur. Only the Russian subjects till
+the ground, the total cereal produce for the year 1878 being 327 tons,
+together with 811 tons of potatoes. The cost of meat in this district
+is from 5_d._ to 9_d._ per English pound, according to the season.
+The Lower or Southern Primorsk is populated by Ussuri Cossacks, and
+by voluntary and involuntary settlers. This is the most productive
+part of the province, the yield for 1878 being more than 1,000 tons of
+corn and 800 tons of potatoes. Meat costs from 4_d._ to 6_d._ per lb.
+Three qualities of wheaten flour are used throughout the Primorsk--the
+first and second of which are imported from America. About 15,000
+fifty-pound bags (say 330 tons) are sold yearly in Nikolaefsk, the best
+costing from 4_d._ to 6_d._ per lb., the second from 3_d._ to 3½_d._,
+and the third quality, grown at home, from 1½_d._ to 2½_d._ per lb.
+The price of rye-flour at Nikolaefsk and Sophiisk varies from 1½_d._
+to 2_d._ per lb. On the Ussuri it costs rather less, and north of
+Nikolaefsk 2_d._ per lb. is asked.
+
+[Illustration: A DVORNIK, OR RUSSIAN HOUSE-PORTER.]
+
+Throughout the province the price of fish is from 9_s._ to 24_s._ per
+cwt.; butter (not fresh) costs from 10_d._ to 1_s._ 1½_d._ per lb.;
+black tea from 2_s._ to 4_s._ the Russian pound, and brick tea from
+10_d._ to 1_s._ 2_d._ The price of sugar varies from 6_d._ to 8_d._
+per lb. Labour throughout the Littoral is scarce. The cost for a man
+and horse in summer is 6_s._ per day, but in winter 30_s._ a month and
+hay for the horse. At Nikolaefsk a man earns 3_s._ as a day’s wage;
+a _dvornik_, or night-watchman, gets as much as £3 10_s._ a month
+without board, and a man-servant £2 10_s._ a month and his food. At
+Vladivostock, convict women for domestic servants are paid from 16_s._
+to 30_s._ a month board wages; mechanics earn from 3_s._ to 4_s._ a
+day, and common labourers 2_s._ This last is a decided advance on the
+18_s._ or 20_s._ a month paid to the wharf-porters at Nijni Novgorod,
+who live, however, on 8_s._ a month, eating little but bread and
+_stchee_, the latter being made of good beef, with an allowance of one
+pound of meat for each person. A half-drunken man at Nijni told me
+boastfully that in good times he could earn nearly 2_s._ a day; but
+just then he could get no regular work, and so he said he had taken to
+drink!
+
+In addition to the home produce of the Primorsk, the Government also
+imports largely in anticipation of bad seasons and famine, and for the
+military.[9] They have, too, in this province a fund for loan to the
+aborigines to the annual amount of nearly £3,000, and rather more than
+this sum as a reserve fund for famine purposes.
+
+I gathered from an official report in manuscript, which I was
+courteously permitted to see, some account of the taxes of the
+province. Personal taxes are paid in the north in money or in furs. In
+money, in 1878, was paid £28, and in furs the value of nearly £800.
+The whole of the settlers in the Amur district were to be free from
+personal taxes, land taxes, and recruiting up to 1881. Hence the land
+taxes of the province amounted to only £90.[10]
+
+The report above quoted also treated of the health of the people, from
+which I noticed that vaccination throughout the province had not been
+wholly successful, partly for want of good vaccine, and partly from the
+lack of persons qualified to perform the operation. This latter was not
+greatly to be wondered at, seeing that the yearly remuneration attached
+to the appointment of district vaccinator was only two guineas, while
+the work involved much and difficult travelling. In the _towns_ from
+which reports had come, it appeared that of 375 persons vaccinated,
+only seven cases had failed.
+
+The total number of (I presume _civil_) patients through the province
+in 1878 was 319 (215 males and 104 females), of whom 247 recovered,
+40 died, 32 were still under treatment; the average time spent in the
+hospital by each completed case being 31⅓ days.[11]
+
+The Siberians generally are said to be remarkably strong and robust,
+for which the reason has been suggested that all the weakly babies are
+killed by the climate. What truth there may be in this I know not, but
+in a table given me by the priest of Vladivostock, showing at what ages
+had occurred the 102 deaths in his parish, for 1878, it was seen that
+58, or more than one-half, died under five years of age; and of these,
+37 attained to less than the age of 12 months. Further, 24 died between
+the ages of 25 and 40, and only four exceeded the age of 50.
+
+The report went on to speak of the civil affairs of the province, its
+public institutions and communications, the morality of the people and
+their religious dissensions, the prisons[12] and statistics concerning
+fire[13] and floods; but I need enlarge no further upon the Primorsk
+as a whole. It has been already pointed out that the country can be
+best described in three sections,--the Upper or Northern portion, the
+Lower or Southern portion, and the Middle Primorsk, corresponding
+roughly to the basin of the Lower Amur, to the description of which
+last I shall now proceed.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] From this point its inland border runs along the crests of
+the Stanovoi range to the 55th degree of latitude, then continues
+southwards to the Little Khingan mountains, thence in a line to the
+Ussuri and Sungacha, through Lake Khanka, and so to Corea. The length
+of the province from north to south exceeds 2,300 miles. Its widest
+part, taken at right angles from the shore, does not exceed 400 miles,
+whilst at its narrowest, on the Sea of Okhotsk, the western border in
+some places is not more than 30 miles inland. The area of the province
+is 733,000 square miles, or about six times as large as the British
+possessions in Europe.
+
+[2] Thus there are, beginning in the south, Vladivostock and
+Paseat, and continuing up the Manchurian coast past Olga, Vladimir,
+and Barracouta Bays, we have De Castries Bay, 135 miles south of
+Nikolaefsk. De Castries was discovered and surveyed by La Perouse in
+1787. It affords good and safe anchorage, and is a kind of ocean port
+to Nikolaefsk. Other ports further north are Ayan and Okhotsk, and
+Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka, Olga, Vladivostock, and Paseat are called
+“open ports,” but all of them in winter are ice-bound, unless it be
+Paseat, which is not much frozen, nor for long.
+
+[3] Where the Vega was frozen in, west of Behring’s Straits, the
+temperature sank before the 28th November to 14°·8 below zero, and
+the newly-formed ice was already two feet thick. On Christmas Day the
+temperature fell to 31°, and in January to 50°·8, both below zero;
+whilst the average temperatures for October, November, December,
+and January were 22°·6 and 2°·1 above, and 9° and 13°·2 below zero
+respectively.
+
+[4] At Nikolaefsk, in August 1877, the temperature reached no higher
+than 82°·8, and sank to 45°·5, the mean temperature of the month being
+61°·9. The greatest heat of the year was 88°·2, and occurred in July,
+and the greatest cold registered was in February, when the thermometer
+fell to 26°·9 below zero. The mean temperature for the year was only
+30·2.
+
+[5] On the night of August 19th, the thermometer registered 45°·5, and
+during the preceding day had not risen above 50°. At Greenwich, on the
+same date, the thermometer registered 49°·7 in the night, and 70° on
+the preceding day.
+
+[6] The maximum temperature at Vladivostock, in August 1877, was 89°·1
+(the highest of the year); and the minimum was 57°, the mean for the
+month being 68°·7. In January the degrees of cold registered were 10°·8
+below zero, and the mean temperature for the year was 41°·5.
+
+[7] In the least rainy month, for instance, February, the
+precipitation, whether of snow or rain, represents at Nertchinsk Zavod
+only one fifty-eighth part of the rainfall of the wet season. So again
+at Vladivostock the difference between the snowfall of winter and the
+rainfall of summer is still greater, the snow representing a quantity
+about 840 times less than the rain. In 1858, Venyukoff experienced
+on the Ussuri 45 consecutive wet days, and the annual rains drench
+the harvests of the Cossacks of the Ussuri, who have not yet learned
+to imitate the Chinese in accommodating their agriculture to the
+alternations of the seasons.
+
+[8] These statistics are taken from the Government books, and they
+refer to the native population. The Almanack for 1880 gives to the
+province 76 populated places, and the number of the Russian inhabitants
+was handed to me at Nikolaefsk, from Government sources, as 20,000,
+made up of 10,000 naval and military, 1,200 Government officials,
+1,800 townspeople, and 7,000 peasants. In the whole province in
+1878 the number of (Russian) marriages was 223, excluding those of
+soldiers and convicts. The number of births was 1,322, of which 96 were
+illegitimate; and the number of deaths 545 males and 447 females, in
+all 992, giving a net increase of 330 to the Russian population.
+
+[9] In 1878, salt, rice, and millet were imported to the value of
+£25,000. To the southern part of the province salt comes from China.
+The northern part is supplied by a Government contract with a merchant
+who has a monopoly up to 1887 for rye, salt, gunpowder, and lead. For
+the supply of the soldiers, the Government imported also overland 636
+tons of rye; of oatmeal, 285 tons; and by sea 1,400 tons of rye, and
+280 tons of oatmeal. The average cost of flour to the Government is at
+Sakhalin 4_s._ 3_d._ and at Vladivostock 3_s._ 9_d._ the pood.
+
+[10] For municipal taxes, police, roads, etc., were paid at Nikolaefsk,
+£1,582; Vladivostock, £1,500; Sophiisk, £140; Petropavlovsk, £70;
+Okhotsk, £15; and Ghijiga, £11; that is, about £3,320 together. The
+excise taxes, however, were far higher--namely, for imported liquors,
+£9,500; home-made beer, etc., £37; home-made liquors, £569; licences,
+£1,569; fines, £52; duty for _growing_ tobacco, 6_s._, and for selling
+it, £269; and tobacco fines, £20. This shows an excise income from the
+province of £12,000, being a decrease on foreign liquors, compared with
+the previous year, of £4,600, and an increase on home-made liquors of
+£439; but an increase for licences of £150, and £15 for fines.
+
+[11] The most frequent maladies were inflammation of the lungs, bowels,
+and womb, and heart disease. Under the head of epidemics it seemed that
+during the year typhoid fever broke out at Nikolaefsk and carried off
+21 men. A like visitation, lasting for 18 days, in the Khanka district
+caused about the same number of deaths. At Sophiisk and Udskoi 248
+men were struck down, of whom, however, 244 recovered. The deaths by
+accident and suicide in the province amounted to 21, ten more than in
+the preceding year.
+
+[12] Criminals and their crimes in the Sea-coast Province for five
+years, 1874-1878.
+
+                                    1874. 1875. 1876. 1877. 1878.  Total.
+                                                                  Male. Fm.  Totl.
+
+  Sacrilege or ecclesiastical
+  offences                                  1     2                 3          3
+
+  Offences against the Government
+  and insubordination to
+  authorities                         4     2     6     1    13    24    2    26
+
+  Breaking prison bounds, running
+  away, and liberating others         9     8    38    43    13   109    2   111
+
+  Offences against excise laws       12     3     1     2     2    20         20
+
+  Offences against mercantile
+  laws                                      4     4     5          11    2    13
+
+  Vagrancy, harbouring vagabonds,
+  and offences against passport
+  laws                               13    10    80    22    38   157    6   163
+
+  Murder                              3     8    14     7    12    37    7    44
+
+  Wounding and other kinds of
+  violence                            2     2    15     3    11    30    3    33
+
+  Personal insult and assault        10     2     5     8    12    35    2    37
+
+  Robbery                             8     6    62    28    28   127    5   132
+
+  Rascality                           3     3    11     6    16    36    3    39
+
+  Embezzlement and fraud                    1     1     4     1     7          7
+
+  Forgery, or counterfeiting notes                            8     7    1     8
+
+  Bigamy                                                      5     3    2     5
+
+  Offences against marriage laws                              2     1    1     2
+
+  Arson                                                       1     1          1
+                                   ----  ----  ----  ----  ----  ---- ----  ----
+  Totals                             64    50   239   129   162   608   36   644
+
+[13] The three fire-engine establishments, maintained at a cost of £534
+per annum, are situated at Petropavlovsk, Nikolaefsk, and Vladivostock,
+their plant consisting of three steam and three manual engines, 26
+horses, and 13 water-carts.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+_THE LOWER AMUR._
+
+ My plans altered.--A serious alternative.--Khabarofka.--Fur
+     trade.--Post-office and bank.--A Siberian garden.--Started for
+     Nikolaefsk.--The Lower Amur.--Its affluents.--Fish.--A Russian
+     advocate.--Goldi Christians.--Sophiisk.--A procureur.--Lake
+     Kizi.--Mariinsk.--Snow mountains.--Mikhailofsky.--Hot-springs
+     of Mukhal.--Beautiful scenery.--Tyr monuments.--The “white
+     village.”--Mouth of the Amur.
+
+
+Approaching Khabarofka on the evening of August 8th, I thought that my
+journeys on the Amur were ended. I had refused advice that I should
+go on to Nikolaefsk, my great object being to reach Vladivostock as
+quickly as possible, there embark for Japan, and thence proceed to
+America. As to how this could be accomplished no definite information
+was forthcoming. Something was said at Blagovestchensk about a
+steamer called the _Dragon_, and her periodical trips between China,
+Japan, Vladivostock, Sakhalin, and Nikolaefsk. Merchant ships also
+were reported to leave the Siberian ports from time to time, as also
+men-of-war, returning southwards after spending the summer months out
+of the heat of the tropics. My friends, therefore, at the telegraph
+station promised to inquire what ships were to leave Vladivostock,
+and I was to learn the reply on arriving at Khabarofka. A new factor,
+however, was added to my calculations by Baron Stackelberg, my
+fellow-passenger, who understood that his friend, Professor Milne,
+was staying at Vladivostock. The Baron had telegraphed thither to his
+agent to inquire of the professor if he were “_plein de voyage_,” and
+if so, whether he would proceed by sea to meet him at Nikolaefsk for a
+pleasure tour, and then accompany him to Kamchatka. The Baron expected
+to find a telegram at Khabarofka, and then, said he, “If Mr. Milne come
+by the _Dragon_ to Nikolaefsk, it will be better for you to go there
+with me, and take the boat on its return to Sakhalin, Vladivostock,
+and Japan, or you may otherwise have to wait at Vladivostock until the
+_Dragon_ returns.”
+
+Such were our thoughts as we approached Khabarofka, where, on arriving,
+I found, to my dismay, that the Ussuri boat had grown tired of waiting
+for us, and had gone, and that another would not start for three
+days.[1] No message awaited me at Khabarofka, and from the Baron’s
+telegram it seemed that Mr. Milne was not at Vladivostock, but that the
+_Dragon_ had just left, or was about to leave, for Nikolaefsk, to which
+port, however, there was no steamer proceeding from Khabarofka for
+several days. I was, therefore, in a dilemma. If I went south, I might
+have to wait a month for the _Dragon_; and if I stayed for the river
+steamer to Nikolaefsk, I might lose the _Dragon_, and thus go 1,250
+miles out of my way. I fell asleep that night not knowing what to do,
+hoping that with morning light the way might be clearer. On waking, I
+learned that the Baron had been to the agents and taken them to task
+because the steamer going north to Nikolaefsk had also not waited the
+arrival of our boat as announced. So successfully had he stormed,
+according to his own account, that the agent had ordered the _Zeya_,
+instead of going back, to go forward to Nikolaefsk.
+
+At no previous point in my journey had I felt it so hard to decide
+what to do for the best. On leaving England, my tour had been planned
+to last three months, a period I had already exceeded, while more
+than half the globe remained to be traversed. I had, moreover, left
+in the hands of others editorial duties that called for my return,
+and now there seemed the possibility of prolonged delay. I looked up
+most earnestly for wisdom, and determined to be guided by the Baron’s
+advice. Gloomy rumours had reached me of the sad condition of the
+Sakhalin prisoners, and I asked the Baron whether he thought it at
+all likely that if I went to the island, and afterwards sent a report
+to the authorities, it might tend to better the prisoners’ condition.
+He first asked me gravely, though somewhat to my amusement, whether
+what I was doing was likely to bring the governments of our respective
+countries into collision, and then, on being assured that I was acting
+simply as a private individual, he told me that at Vladivostock I
+should get no information or statistics respecting Sakhalin, since
+the books were kept at Nikolaefsk, to which place, therefore, he
+recommended me to go. Accordingly, fortified with the hope of being
+useful, I decided to do this; but it was not without many misgivings,
+though out of that decision sprang results for which afterwards I was
+deeply grateful. I did not find the _Dragon_, and had ultimately to
+retrace my steps to Khabarofka; but my going to Nikolaefsk led to the
+better distribution of more than 12,000 tracts and several Scriptures,
+and afforded me glimpses of heathen life for which I shall ever be
+thankful.
+
+The boat was not to start till noon, and this gave me leisure to see
+something of our stopping-place. Khabarofka stands on a promontory, at
+the junction of the Amur with the Ussuri, and overlooks both streams
+from the top of the bluff, in which, in this direction, the Khoekhtsi
+hills, running at right angles from the coast, terminate. The position
+is well chosen for a military post, and the town is not without
+importance commercially. There are several stores, and the merchants
+trade with the aborigines of the north in furs to the value of £30,000
+a year. Whilst calling on a merchant with whom I had travelled, there
+entered a Chinaman with what looked like a number of dried rabbit-skins
+hung on his arm. They proved to be sable-skins, almost as they come
+from the animals’ backs, turned inside out. In this condition the
+natives barter them to the Chinese, who, in turn, sell them to the
+merchants, some of whom are agents for large firms in Petersburg and
+Moscow. On this occasion the Chinaman asked seven silver roubles,
+or a guinea, for each skin, which showed that they were not of high
+quality.[2]
+
+Besides the stores in Khabarofka there is an establishment where
+they employ 50 men and build steamers, etc., to the value of £10,000
+yearly. One of the principal agents of the Steamboat Company lives in
+the place, drawing a salary of £500 a year, which is thought there a
+handsome income; but he told me he could not remain, since there was
+no school near for the education of his children. On entering the
+post-office, there were to be seen in a large chest, bags, not to say
+sacks, full of silver roubles, the guardianship of which seemed fully
+to justify the presence of an armed Cossack, one of whose cloth is
+always found keeping watch in the post-office and over the mail-bags in
+transit. The post-office, in fact, is a quasi bank, for on arriving at
+Nikolaefsk I found that my host kept his banking account 6,000 miles
+distant, at Petersburg. He paid in his money at the local post-office,
+and then telegraphed to the capital, upon which his bankers gave him
+credit for the deposit. There are State banks in Siberia, at Tomsk,
+Krasnoiarsk, and Irkutsk; but, from the narrow escape I had at Tomsk of
+being delayed in getting my cash, I was thankful for having exchanged
+my money in Petersburg for a number of hundred-rouble notes, which I
+carried in a pocket-girdle.[3]
+
+At Khabarofka I visited the garden of one of the merchants, said to
+be the best in the place. It was 10 years old, full of apple and pear
+trees, but they were wild ones, transplanted eight years before. None
+of the apples were so large as a good English crab, and the “Bergamot”
+pears were as small. The latter tasted something like the quince, and
+were useless except to preserve for eating with roast meat. Among
+other trees were the walnut, the acacia, the bird-cherry, a thorn with
+a berry larger than is commonly seen in England, called _résan_; the
+_boyarka_ or service tree, with bunches of berries like grapes (called
+_calina_), and the beech. Among the shrubs, plants, and flowers were
+maize, wild white lilac, raspberries, currants, and strawberries,
+dahlias, verbenas, wild pæonies, stocks, carnations, and pinks; and
+among climbers the wild pea, and the Siberian vinegar plant. These,
+with other flowers, of which I did not know the names, made a fair show
+for Khabarofka, where the cold winds begin in the middle of September,
+and snow covers the ground from November to March. In the neighbourhood
+were abundance of trees common to a temperate region, such as the oak,
+maple, alder, larch, pine, poplar, willow, and lime. Some prettily
+overhung the river’s bank, which was enlivened with boats drawn up by
+Manchu and Chinese, some of whom were selling excellent French beans,
+whilst others were engaged in making and mending shoes.
+
+Having thus made the most of my time at Khabarofka, I once more boarded
+the _Zeya_, on Saturday noon, for a voyage of 626 miles to Nikolaefsk,
+in the course of which we were to pass, though not necessarily to stop
+at, 52 stations. Some were native villages, the names of which had been
+adopted by the Russians; others were Russian settlements with Sclavonic
+names; whilst other stations bore double titles, both Russian and
+native.
+
+The basin of the Lower Amur is bounded on the west by the Bureya
+mountains, between which and the river lies a flat and partially
+swampy country; whilst on the east its limit is the coast range
+already referred to as the Sikhota Alin. The course of the river is
+north-east. Its principal tributaries flowing in on the left or western
+bank are the Kur, Girin, and Amgun; on the right bank, the Dondon and
+the Khungar. The largest of these on the left bank is the Amgun; the
+largest on the right is the Dondon, which is 500 yards wide at its
+mouth. At Khabarofka, the Amur has a width of 900 yards; and as we
+steamed away, the right bank stood out in contrast to the left, which
+was flat; but after proceeding 20 miles, the character of the scenery
+changed. Both banks became flat, islands were numerous, and the stream
+widened to five miles. This kind of scenery continued for the rest of
+the day, and our evening progress was highly enjoyable, varied now and
+then by the appearance of the summer yourts of the natives, or the
+lonely post-stations, deserted in summer, where horses are kept in
+winter, when the river is frozen and transformed into a road. At the
+confluence of the Dondon, the river has soundings up to 37 feet, and
+the channel measures three miles in breadth. This is the widest part
+of the river without intervening islands, though 17 miles lower, where
+the left bank is marshy and dotted with lakes, the entire width extends
+to 12 miles.[4]
+
+At Viatskoy, 50 miles from Khabarofka, I stayed on my return journey,
+and was offered a sturgeon a yard long, which a man had caught, and
+was keeping in the river tied by a string beneath the gills. Of the
+fish caught on the Lower Amur, the Russians think very highly of
+the sterlet, and the sturgeon is costly. For this small specimen at
+Viatskoy was asked 2_s._ 6_d._, but in Moscow they said it would fetch
+£1. They sometimes catch sturgeon weighing from 200 to 300 lbs., and
+the dried bones and cleansed gelatinous entrails of this fish form a
+prominent article of commerce between the natives and the Manchu. The
+bones cost in Manchuria, for culinary purposes, nearly 4_s._ per lb.,
+and the gelatine in Moscow 7_s._ per lb.
+
+In latitude 50° N., the Amur receives on the left bank, from Lake
+Bolan, an affluent 900 yards wide and 30 feet deep. Hills now rise on
+both banks, and at Perm (or Milku) the depth of the river increases
+to between 50 and 60 feet. At Tambofsk, 280 miles from Khabarofka,
+the banks become mountainous on either side, the river contracts to
+an average width of a mile and a third, and soundings often reach to
+90 feet; and thus the river continues, for a distance of 60 miles,
+to Zherebtsofsk. From Zherebtsofsk to Sophiisk, the scenery changes
+again, the river enlarges, runs between numerous islands and several
+sandbanks, and at Sophiisk its depth is nearly 50 feet.
+
+Our company on board was small in number, which was to be expected,
+seeing that the boat was a “special.” In the first-class there were
+only three persons besides the Baron and myself, namely, M. Kruskopf,
+the telegraph inspector, an advocate, and with him a young man dressed
+like a Russian shopkeeper. The last two I had observed among the
+second-class passengers from Kara. We were now brought into closer
+contact. The advocate spoke French, and I gathered from him that the
+young man was his client, whose father had recently died, leaving him
+£20,000. They were come from Central Russia to realize the money, for
+which the advocate, since he would be occupied at least all the summer,
+was to have the modest fee of £3,000.[5]
+
+On the morning after leaving Khabarofka, M. Kruskopf left the boat to
+visit the station at Troitzkoy, but he did not forget me; for, unasked,
+he telegraphed to Nikolaefsk to his friends, told them I was coming,
+and requested them to look after my welfare. The day was Sunday, and
+I enjoyed a quiet morning in my cabin; and in the afternoon we had
+steamed 170 miles--to Malmejskoy. Here we saw on the bank some Goldi,
+who called to my mind pictures I had seen of North American Indians.
+Some of them had a cross suspended from the neck, which in their
+case had a meaning; for those who wore it thus were baptized, and so
+distinguished from the pagan Goldi. I gave a few tracts among these
+people, and in return received, in one of the villages, a curious
+salutation. Offering an illuminated text to a little girl, her mother
+directed her to express her thanks by crossing her hands with the palms
+uppermost, and then go down on all-fours at my feet with her head to
+the ground.
+
+At Tambofsk, or Girin, 280 miles further, was a village where, on the
+return journey in the beginning of September, I bought melons and ripe
+black currants, the latter good, but with less taste than those grown
+in England. Other berries, tart but juicy, were offered for sale.
+Here, too, were lying on the bank some drunken gold-miners, whom the
+captain refused to take on board in that condition, leaving them till
+he should call again three weeks later, by which time possibly they
+might be sober and wiser. I met gold capitalists both at Nikolaefsk and
+at Vladivostock; but from the report sent to the Emperor concerning the
+Primorsk, it appeared that in 1878 only 600 lbs. of gold were washed
+throughout the province, the small quantity being set down to the lack
+of workmen. At Tambofsk we passed out of the district inhabited by the
+Goldi, and entered that of a distinct though somewhat similar tribe,
+called the Gilyaks, of both of whom I shall speak hereafter.
+
+The next place of note to which we came, 412 miles from Khabarofka, was
+Sofiisk, from which there is a road 33 miles long by the shore of Kizi
+Lake to the coast at De Castries Bay. Light draught steamboats can go
+within 12 miles or less of De Castries; and as the navigation of the
+mouth of the Amur is difficult, it was at one time proposed to make a
+canal, or a railway, to connect the lake with the sea. Surveys were
+made by Mr. Romanoff, but the plan is not likely to be carried out.
+The steamer passed Sofiisk on my first journey, but in returning we
+stayed for a couple of hours; and as there was a prison in the place,
+I presented my letters, and requested to be allowed to see it. Also
+I gave to the Commandant of the 5th East Siberian battalion, Colonel
+Ussofovitch, who was stationed there, a box of books and tracts,
+with a letter in French, asking that they might be distributed among
+his soldiers. The colonel did not know French, and a young officer,
+who called himself the “procureur” of the battalion, was called in
+to interpret. What this gentleman’s precise office was, I could not
+exactly make out, but it seemed to be something between that of a judge
+and a military head police-master. He took me to see the building,
+where, to my surprise, were 150 prisoners, many of whom, however, were
+on their way to Sakhalin. The wooden planking of the footways in the
+town was miserably out of order, and I hinted to the procureur that
+since they had insufficient work for the prisoners, it would be well to
+employ them in repairing the pavements. This idea seemed never to have
+struck him, and he replied at once that he would consider the matter.
+The procureur spoke French fluently, though with a Russian accent,
+and he knew something also of the dead languages, Hebrew among them.
+He said that he had studied this language in prospect of becoming a
+priest; but that, when he could not see his way to £200 a year in the
+church, he had entered the army, which, he said, “paid” better. In this
+case, it seemed to me, the Russian Church, by reason of its miserable
+emoluments, had lost to her clergy a youth of greater intellectual
+culture than the majority of her priests. The population of Sofiisk
+was given me as 700 military and 300 civilians, amongst whom I found
+a ready sale for the Scriptures. At the telegraph office complaints
+reached me, as at Khabarofka, that they had no means of educating their
+children, there being no local school.
+
+The Amur at Sofiisk is nearly two miles wide; seven miles lower it
+expands to upwards of four miles. Thirteen miles beyond, the banks
+are low, flat, and marshy; but the land is good, and is cultivated
+by Russian settlers. Here, too, is the town of Mariinsk, the oldest
+Russian settlement, next to Nikolaefsk, on the Lower Amur, and situated
+on the right bank of the river, at the entrance to the Kizi Lake.[6]
+
+[Illustration: A RUSSIAN PRIEST IN WINTER DRESS.]
+
+Mariinsk was founded by the Russian-American company in the same
+year with Nikolaefsk, and was a trading post until the military
+occupation of the river. Difficulties of navigation diminished its
+military importance, and the post was transferred to Sofiisk, founded
+in 1858. On an island opposite Mariinsk is the trace of a fort,
+built by Stepanof, the Cossack adventurer, who descended the Amur in
+1654. During the winter he remained here he collected nearly 5,000
+sable-skins as tribute. On our return journey we took in at this place,
+as passengers, a priest, his wife, and son; the lady being the daughter
+of the late Metropolitan Innokente of Moscow, the wonderful priest who,
+travelling 8,000 miles, crossed Siberia with his translations of a
+portion of the New Testament into the language of the Kuriles, and then
+took them back in print. This lady seems to have inherited something
+of her father’s enterprise, for I have heard recently from a friend
+that he met her travelling in Western Siberia.
+
+Mr. Collins mentions that from Mariinsk is seen, to the south-west,
+a very high mountain, with much snow upon it; and Mr. Ravenstein
+observes that a few miles below Tambofsk, or Girin, may be seen the
+craggy summits of mountain ranges, at greater or less distance from
+the river, covered, in places, as late as June with snow. It was
+after June when I passed down the stream, but I saw mountains to the
+left with what looked like snow-drifts, or corries filled with snow.
+My fellow-passengers, however, and especially the Baron, stoutly
+maintained that I was mistaken, and that what we saw was either chalk
+or an effect of light. The formation of the rocks on some of the
+mountain crests was very remarkable, and they were arrayed in such
+straight lines, here and there, that they looked like the building of
+Titans rather than Nature’s handiwork.
+
+Passing Mariinsk we reached Mikhailofsky, a distance of 526 miles from
+Khabarofka, on Monday afternoon,--that is to say, in about 48 hours,
+which was more rapid travelling than the captain had accomplished on
+the Shilka and Upper Amur. A merchant afterwards whispered to me,
+however, that it was reckless navigation. The captain had not made the
+passage before; so, placing a man in the bows with the measuring-rod,
+and rising above all questions as to where the channel lay, he just
+shot ahead, suspecting no ill where no ill seemed. Fortunately we ran
+on neither rocks nor shoals, but I was exhorted to be thankful that
+we had not come to grief. Had we been allowed to proceed at this rate
+we should have reached Nikolaefsk in another 24 hours, but a telegram
+awaited the captain at Mikhailofsky to say that another boat of the
+company was coming up from Nikolaefsk, for which he was to wait, then
+exchange cargoes and passengers, and return. This involved a delay of
+30 hours, which gave me an opportunity of visiting a settlers’ village,
+the priest of which informed me that he had in his parish 400 persons,
+of whom only 15 could read. The forest in the neighbourhood has been
+cleared, and rye, barley, and oats are successfully cultivated. So,
+too, are vegetables on the river’s bank, for the market at Nikolaefsk.
+Cucumbers were just coming in, and the people were eating them like
+apples. When the Baron and I made a morning call at one of the houses,
+they simply brought forth cucumbers and salt wherewith to regale us.
+I saw, too, in this village a curious specimen of Russian economy.
+Not able to purchase whole panes of window-glass, the peasants had
+used fragments of any form they could get, and fixed them with pieces
+of birch bark, cut to the shape. Mikhailofsky, however, was not a
+flourishing village, and it must be added that the colonies of the
+Lower Amur are generally the least prosperous in the country.
+
+Late on Tuesday evening the promised steamship _Onon_ arrived, and
+I left the _Zeya_, in which I had spent the previous 16 days, and
+travelled 1,900 miles. Next morning we arrived at a Gilyak village,
+called Mukhal, near to some hot springs which are said to be beneficial
+in cases of rheumatism, syphilis, diarrhœa, and goitre. The Polish
+exile, in whose charge they are, is allowed their monopoly, and the
+Government gives him a grant of £50 a year. About mid-day we passed
+another Gilyak village called Tyr. The Amur here contracts to 900
+yards, and from a bold cliff, 100 feet high on the right bank, a fine
+view is obtained up stream. The river’s banks spread to a width of
+five miles, and well-wooded islands lie between. To the south are
+dark forests and mountain ridges, and at the back of the cliff is a
+tableland several miles broad. On the opposite bank enters the river
+Amgun, which rises in the Bureya mountains, and, after a course of not
+less than 700 miles, flows into the Amur through a delta covered with
+forest.
+
+The cliff at Tyr is interesting to the archæologist by reason of
+its Tatar monuments with inscriptions, the history of which appears
+somewhat doubtful.[7]
+
+I went ashore to examine these monuments, of which Mr. Ravenstein
+mentions four--one with a granite base, and the upper portion of grey,
+fine-grained marble, and another of porphyry resting on an octagonal
+pedestal. Unfortunately, I could stay only a very short time, as the
+steamer did not wait. I found two monuments near the edge of the cliff,
+with characters cut thereon. A third is about 400 yards to the east,
+on a more elevated point, and on a bare rock foundation. The principal
+one, which I examined most, resembles a thick upright tombstone, about
+five feet high. The Archimandrite Avvakum says everything proves
+that the spot where the monument is standing was once the site of
+a temple devoted to the worship of Buddha, and in Chinese language
+was called “_Youn-nen-se_”--that is, the “Temple of Eternal Repose.”
+The two inscriptions on either side--one in Chinese and the other in
+Mongolian--were written, he thinks, by some illiterate Mongol lama, not
+thoroughly acquainted with Chinese grammar. On the left-hand side are
+the Sanscrit words, “_Om-mani-badme-houm_” in Thibetan letters; and
+beneath, in Chinese, “_Dai Yuan shouch hi-li-gun-bu_”--that is, “The
+great Yuan spreads the hands of force everywhere.” In a second line on
+the same side the words, “_Om-mani-badme-houm_” are written in Chinese
+and Nigurian. The inscriptions on the right side contain the same in
+Chinese, Thibetan, and Nigurian. “And then,” says the Archimandrite,
+“there is nothing more”; about which statement, however, with all
+deference, I venture to express my doubts; for although I do not read
+Chinese, and could only examine the monuments for a very few moments,
+yet I came to the conclusion that whether the interpretation first
+given be correct or not, it is inadequate, and far from exhaustive.
+I saw clearly on the stone some large Chinese characters, perhaps two
+inches high, and some of the Chinese passengers were able partially to
+decipher them; but the general appearance of the stone reminded me of a
+palimpsest manuscript which had been, in the first place, covered with
+small characters, about half an inch square or less, over which the
+larger characters had been written. Beside the monumental stone, which
+was mounted on a pedestal, there were lying near five flat stones, cut
+across the centres from side to side with transverse grooves, about an
+inch wide and deep. Mr. Collins says they are supposed to have been
+altars of sacrifice, once elevated and within the temple, and that
+the grooves served to conduct the blood of the victim into the proper
+vessel. Whether this be so or not I cannot say, but they looked to me
+much more like the capitals or bases of pillars, with the grooves for
+keeping them in place.[8] It is much to be wished that the spot should
+be visited, and the monuments examined by a competent scholar.
+
+Towards evening we passed another Gilyak habitation called the
+“white village,” and afterwards found the banks of the Amur becoming
+abrupt, the islands low and to a great extent exposed to inundation.
+We had long been passing out of the region of foliferous trees, and
+in approaching Nikolaefsk they were almost entirely supplanted by
+conifers, fir-trees prevailing, birches and some few other leafy trees
+occurring only in favoured localities. The Amur at Nikolaefsk reaches
+in some places to a depth of 15 feet, is a mile and three-quarters
+wide, with a current of from four to five knots. The river enters
+the sea at a distance of 26 miles from the town, the Liman, or gulf,
+measuring more than nine miles at its widest.[9]
+
+Thus, on Tuesday evening, the 13th of August, I arrived at Nikolaefsk,
+having completed the passage of the Lower Amur. I have said almost
+nothing, however, of its curious heathen inhabitants, whose
+acquaintance I am so glad to have made, and to whose description I
+shall now proceed.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] This was bad enough, but not all. There was no inn, post-house,
+or hotel in the place; the only lodging that offered was a room
+constructed on a floating barge, without beds or bedsteads, and in
+which might sleep, on the seats or the floor, Russians, Chinese,
+Manchu, or anyone else that chose. Here, however, my Finnish friend,
+M. Kruskopf, came to my aid, and volunteered to get me a bed at the
+telegraph station, an offer I should thankfully have accepted, but the
+captain of the _Zeya_ consented to my sleeping on board till morning,
+when he expected to go back.
+
+[2] On returning to Khabarofka I found one of my fellow-passengers had
+bought eight skins, for which he had paid 50_s._ each, and for one for
+his wife’s hat £4. I heard subsequently that the best sable-skins are
+from the neighbourhood of the Okhotsk sea, and are worth £4 each. My
+informant, an old sea captain, said that in 1857 he bought 2,000 in
+Kamchatka at 30_s._, and that they commanded in New York from £5 to £6
+each. Among them were 22 skins for a lady’s set of trimmings, which,
+when made up, cost her £200. The skins of the younger sables, he said,
+were blacker than those of the older, which are apt to be more or less
+grey. The former sell better in Berlin, and the latter are highly
+esteemed in Paris.
+
+[3] Besides these hundred-rouble notes I took, to pay for horses, £30
+in one-rouble notes, the same amount in three and five-rouble notes,
+small silver coin to the value of 100 roubles, and a bag of copper
+kopecks, for at the post-houses they are not bound to give change,
+and the clerks gladly pocket the difference when smaller money is not
+forthcoming. In the peopled parts of the Sea-coast government there
+is a postal delivery once a week, at Okhotsk once a month, and at one
+happy place in the far north, I was told, the postman arrives but once
+a year! They have a “parcel post” in Siberia, by which packets must not
+exceed £500 in value, nor weigh more than 1 cwt. The rates are, for 200
+miles, ¾_d._ per Russian pound, and ¼_d._ per pound extra for every 60
+miles up to 1,600, Beyond that distance it costs ¼_d._ per pound for
+every 160 miles.
+
+[4] Mr. Ravenstein, in his admirable and generally accurate work (page
+187), gives the Amur below the Dondon a breadth in one bed of six
+miles, and further on a width of 15 miles, including the islands; but
+I have been unable to confirm these figures from either the chart of
+the captain of the steamer, or from a well-executed Russian survey of
+the Amur river at the India Office, which was politely shown me by Mr.
+Trelawney Saunders.
+
+[5] After this I thought the profession of an advocate profitable,
+and readily believed him when he told me that he possessed in Russia
+on the Volga nearly 8,000 acres of land, which cost about £1 an acre.
+It was the best land, he said, in all Russia; 600 acres he used for
+growing wheat, and the rest for rye, selling his corn to the merchants
+of Samara. He told me that in forensic matters things are reversed as
+between Russia and England, that whereas in England a barrister looks
+forward to being a judge, in Russia a judge (who is paid only £300 to
+£400 a year) looks forward to being an advocate, which he can become
+only after spending five years in court.
+
+[6] This lake seems to be an overflow from the river, which here
+divides into several channels, and looks as if one day in the remote
+past it would fain have ended its wanderings, and turned off eastwards
+through the sea-coast range into Castries Bay. The distance from the
+head of the Kizi Lake to Castries Bay is only 8½ miles. The lake
+occupies an area of 93 square miles, being 25 miles long and 12 broad.
+Of the two islets in the lake, one is a rock about 50 feet in diameter.
+The crevices are full of fox-holes, and the Gilyaks regard it as
+sacred, assembling there from time to time for their Shaman rites.
+
+[7] Réclus quotes Von Middendorf to the effect that on the map of
+Remezov, which appeared in the seventeenth century, a town is marked
+on this spot as the limits of the conquests of the Tsar Alexander of
+Macedon, who hid his arms and left there a bell. Such was the tradition
+of the Cossacks. Again, Ravenstein quotes Witsen to the effect that
+Russian warriors, 30 or 40 years ago, found a bell weighing 660 lbs.
+at a place which seems to have been dug round, and near which stood
+several stones bearing Chinese inscriptions; and he adds that a
+manuscript of 1678, in the library of the Siberian department, mentions
+the same facts. My fellow-passengers spoke of the monuments as dating
+back to the time of Ghengis Khan, and erected to mark the limit of his
+conquests. Once more, Mr. Ravenstein asserts that one of the emperors
+of the Yuen dynasty (which flourished in China from 1234 to 1368,
+A.D.) went by sea to the mouth of the Amur, in commemoration of which
+he built at Tyr the monastery of “Eternal Repose.” To come to our own
+times, Mr. Collins relates that the inscriptions on the monuments were
+translated by the Archimandrite Avvakum, who for several years was
+connected with the Russian Mission at Peking, and who descended the
+Amur about 1857 as interpreter to Count Putiatin’s embassy, then on its
+way to China. Mr. Collins obtained from an officer a translation from
+the Russian into English of the Archimandrite’s interpretation.
+
+[8] Mr. Collins speaks of excavations, or pits, within and without
+the remains of a wall, and mentions also his finding the monuments
+decorated with wreathed garlands of finely-worked splint, or the
+stripping of a tree, bound together at intervals with willow twigs.
+The bases of the monuments also were dressed with shavings of wood,
+worked to represent flowers, thickly planted around in the earth.
+These he conjectured to have been, as they probably were, offerings of
+the natives, who still use the place, I understood, for Shamanistic
+practices.
+
+[9] A mile below the town there are sandbanks, and a bar which prevents
+the entrance of ships drawing more than 13 feet of water. In fact, from
+the Continent to the Island of Sakhalin are sandbanks, among which
+wind the navigable channels, which are liable to change during heavy
+tempests, so that the pilots are obliged to trace them, sounding-rod in
+hand. I heard, too, that for strategic purposes some of these channels
+at the mouth of the river could be filled up, or diverted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI
+
+_THE GILYAKS._
+
+ The Gilyaks perfect heathens.--Their habitat, number, and
+     form.--Diseases, generation, and character.--Habitations.--Living
+     on fish.--Winter and summer clothing.--Methods of fishing.--Dirty
+     habits.--Domestic animals.--Boats.--Marriage customs.--Price
+     of a wife.--Foreign relations.--Fair at Pul.--Manchu
+     merchants.--Conversation with Gilyaks.--Gilyak and Goldi
+     languages.--Education.--Superstitions.--Idols and charms.--Method
+     of bear catching and killing.--Alleged worship of the
+     bear.--Shaman rites.--Gilyak treatment of the dead.--Romanist
+     mission to the Gilyaks.--Martyrdom of the missionary.
+
+
+The Gilyaks were the most thorough heathens I saw in Siberia.[1] I
+visited two of their villages--Mukhul and Tyr--saw some of them at
+Nikolaefsk almost daily, and met a former starosta of the “white”
+village. I conversed also with an American and an Englishman who had
+known them for many years; with a French trader among them; with a
+telegraph engineer whose business took him through the Gilyak country
+and into their houses; and, further, with three Russian priests, who
+as missionaries labour among them and the Goldi. From all of these I
+gathered more or less information, which has since been supplemented
+by reading; yet it must be owned that, as to all save what meets the
+eye, we are still very little informed in regard to this people; whilst
+of their religion (if they have any) next to nothing is known. Few
+Russians learn the Gilyak language, and few Gilyaks learn Russ.
+
+The Gilyak country extends from Tambofsk (or Girin), about 350 miles
+south of Nikolaefsk, to the sea-shore near the mouth of the Amur,
+as well as over the northern half of the island of Sakhalin. The
+subdivisions of the people on the island are, on the west coast the
+Smerenkur, and on the east the Tro. To state accurately their numbers
+is not easy. When I asked a former starosta of the white village what
+was its population, he replied, “We have 60 men and more women, but the
+children are not counted.” Mr. Collins passed on the Amur 39 Gilyak
+villages, the population of which he estimated at 1,680.
+
+In stature these aborigines are diminutive, usually below rather than
+above five feet; their eyes are elongated; the color of the skin tawny,
+like that of the Chinese; the hair black, and not luxuriant.[2] The
+Gilyaks tie up the hair in a thick tail, but do not, like the Manchu
+and Goldi, shave or cut it; hence they were called by the Chinese “long
+hairs.”
+
+They do not cause malformations of body by pressure, mutilation, or
+incision. Their diseases, in common with the Goldi, are rheumatism,
+ophthalmia (produced by hunting in the snow), and syphilis, the last
+having been originally introduced by Manchu merchants. In hereditary
+cases it is no doubt aggravated by their filthy manner of living. The
+Gilyaks resort for cure to the hot springs at Mukhul; but the Goldi,
+having no such springs, frequently die of the disease. Insanity is
+rare among them. Their women have few children; six is thought a very
+large family. They strap their babies in wooden cradles very much like
+a butcher’s tray, and suspend them from the roof, as I saw at Mukhul,
+where the poor little creature was unable to move hand or foot. I
+gathered from a Russian missionary that the Goldi are thought to be
+slightly on the increase; but the Gilyaks, from the time the Russians
+first knew them, have been dying out.[3]
+
+The winter habitations of the Gilyaks and Goldi are erected in clusters
+of from two or three to perhaps a dozen. In the 39 villages mentioned
+by Collins he counted 140 houses. The first Gilyak dwelling I entered
+was at Mukhul. It was about 40 feet square, built of small posts or
+stakes, and plastered with mud. The roof was supported by heavier
+posts at the corners, with cross-pieces on which the rafters rested,
+and upright timbers supported the covering of larch bark, kept in its
+place and from warping in the sun by stones and heavy poles. Among the
+cross-beams and joists were nets, skins, dog-sledges, light canoes,
+hunting implements, fish-baskets of birch or willow twigs, dried fish,
+herbs, and, in fact, the wealth and working tools of the half-dozen
+families to whom the house was evidently a comfortable home during a
+long and severe winter. Around three sides of the interior was a raised
+divan for a seat and dining and sleeping place, with a flue running
+underneath, and a fireplace at either end. At the vacant side of the
+interior were cooking utensils, pots, kettles, knives, and wooden pans;
+and there were hung to dry various skins and fish, entrails, etc. The
+house had only this one room, and in the centre was a raised platform,
+under which in winter are tied the dogs, and sometimes the family bear.
+The windows were of fish-skin, or thin paper, over a lattice. Besides
+this kind of dwelling-house for winter, I entered at Tyr a thatched log
+building, supported and raised on posts several feet above the ground,
+and out of the reach of floods, dogs, and vermin. The verandah was
+approached by climbing a notched log. The floor consisted of poles,
+between which daylight was visible; and in the centre was a box full of
+earth for the fireplace. The building was used probably in winter for
+a storehouse; but I found it inhabited as a summer residence. The most
+prominent objects, both indoors and out, were large racks and poles,
+on which fish were hung to dry; and the combined odour of fish and
+fish-oil made it little short of an act of heroism to stay long in a
+Gilyak’s house.
+
+These people do not cultivate the land, but subsist almost entirely on
+fish. Occasionally they eat the animals taken in the chase, and their
+dogs, when they die; while pork and other flesh, with a little millet,
+are reserved for festivals.[4]
+
+The favourite winter dress of both Gilyaks and Goldi is made of
+dogs’ skins, or of fox or wolf, as being the next warmest. In summer
+they wear fish-skin, hence the Chinese called them “Yupitatze,” or
+“fish-skin strangers,” though the well-to-do among the Goldi get from
+the merchants cotton goods, and sometimes even silk. The fish-skin
+is prepared from two kinds of salmon. They strip it off with great
+dexterity, and, by beating with a mallet, remove the scales, and so
+render it supple. Clothes thus made are waterproof. I saw a travelling
+bag, and even the sail of a boat, made of this material. I had hoped,
+when leaving Kara, to have found at Ignashina the dress of a Tunguse
+shaman, but I was disappointed. I succeeded, however, in purchasing at
+Tyr a fish-skin coat. It is handsomely embroidered, and colored on the
+back.[5] The Gilyak hats are made of fur for the winter with lappets;
+and the Goldi, by sewing together squirrels’ tails, make a round fur
+like a “boa,” about five inches in diameter, which, being joined at
+the ends, serves either for the neck or to encircle the head like a
+coronet. Their summer hat, of depressed conical shape, is made of
+birch-tree bark, ornamented on the top by strips of colored wood sewn
+in patterns. It has inside a wooden ridge, and is kept in place by a
+string under the chin.
+
+[Illustration: SALMON-SKIN COAT AND BIRCH-BARK HAT.]
+
+The occupations of the Gilyaks and Goldi are fishing and hunting. They
+use _gill_-nets and seines in some localities, and _scoop_-nets in
+others. I more than once saw a fence of poles built at right angles
+to the shore, extending 20 or 30 yards into the Amur. This fence is
+fish-proof, except in a few places where holes are purposely left
+for the salmon, which the natives lie in wait to catch with spears
+or hand-nets. When the fish are running well, a canoe can soon be
+filled.[6] Ropes and nets they make from hemp and from the common
+stinging-nettle, the stalks of which are treated like flax. This
+latter material is preferred, and makes cordage equal to that of
+civilized manufacture, though sometimes not quite so smooth. I obtained
+a specimen of very fine sewing-thread of native manufacture, and
+exceedingly strong; but colored threads for embroidery are purchased
+from the Russians or the Manchu.
+
+The habits of the Gilyaks are dirty beyond description. They are said
+never to wash. A telegraphic engineer told me that he one day gave a
+Gilyak a piece of soap, which he put in his mouth, and, after chewing
+it to a lather, pronounced “very good.” Both Gilyaks and Goldi have
+a liking, reverence, or fear for animals. They formerly domesticated
+ermines for catching rats, the high price of cats confining their
+possession to the wealthy. On the Lower Amur they find, besides
+those mentioned elsewhere, the elk, roebuck, reindeer, and fox; the
+racoon-dog, wild boar, and lynx; the polecat, hedgehog, ermine, sable,
+and striped squirrel.[7] They are fond also of seeing swallows build
+in their houses, and to induce them to do so they fasten small boards
+under the roof, by which these birds have access to the house. The
+Goldi keep the horned owl (for catching rats), the jay, the hawk, and
+the kite--the last for no particular use, unless it be for the sake
+of their feathers for arrows.[8] The eagle is sometimes seen fastened
+near their houses, and so are the dogs, which, in winter, are their
+principal means of locomotion. I saw a large number of them at Mukhul.
+A team may consist of any odd number from 7 to 17, a good leader being
+worth 50_s._ and an ordinary dog from 8_s._ to 10_s._ The sledge is
+made of thin boards five or six feet long, and 18 inches wide, convex
+below, but straight on the upper edge. A team of nine dogs draws a man
+and 200 pounds of luggage an entire day, each dog receiving a piece
+of fish a foot long, and about two inches square, the same in size as
+suffices for his master. The mode of summer communication is by boats
+made of pitch-fir or cedar. Besides these the Goldi make canoes of
+birch-bark. The native sits in the centre, and propels himself with a
+double-bladed paddle. The canoes are flat-bottomed, and very easily
+upset. When a native sitting in one of them spears a fish, he moves
+only his arm, and keeps his body motionless. The larger boats are
+usually rowed by women, the lords of creation sitting in the stern to
+steer and smoke their long-stemmed, amber-tipped, Chinese pipes. There
+is one marked difference, however, between the rowing of the Gilyaks
+and Goldi, for whereas the latter, taking two oars, pull them together,
+the former pull them alternately--a seemingly clumsy way, but in
+practice efficient.
+
+Women occupy a low position among the Gilyaks and Goldi, who are
+polygamists. Mr. Ravenstein quotes a statement of Rinso, a Japanese
+traveller, that among the Smerenkur Gilyaks polyandry prevails.
+Betrothal dates from childhood. The father chooses the bride for his
+infant son, a rich Gold paying from £5 to £20 for a girl five years
+old. At Mukhul the price of a wife was given me as from £10 to £50,
+often paid in silk stuffs and other materials, whilst a telegraph
+engineer named as the selling price for a Gilyak bride, from eight to
+ten dogs, a sledge, and two cases of brandy, though, if she have “a
+good nose,” she fetches rather more. The bride elect is brought into
+the house of her future father-in-law, and when the girl is 12 or 13,
+and the boy 18, they are married.[9] Should a Gold who has many wives
+desire to be baptized the Russian missionaries compel him to elect one,
+and be canonically married to the object of his choice; the rest being
+sold, or, by a happy arrangement, returned to their respective fathers
+at half price. Notwithstanding such matrimonial drawbacks, I heard that
+among these interesting people there are no unmarried ladies.
+
+The amusements of the Gilyaks are of the nature of gymnastics, such as
+throwing heavy irons and fencing. They begin early to shoot with bow
+and arrow, and are good archers. Their foreign relationships are of a
+very limited character.[10]
+
+There was formerly at Pul an annual fair, which lasted for 10 days, and
+was like that of Nijni Novgorod in miniature.[11] The navigation of the
+Amur by the Russians has caused this fair to be discontinued, but the
+Manchu merchants still descend the river, though not in such numbers
+as formerly, when one voyage sufficed to realize enough for the wants
+of a year. I was informed that they fleece the natives sadly, giving
+the Gilyaks, for instance, a pint of millet or half a pint of brandy
+for a sable-skin; and when the natives are made drunk, then, of course,
+skins are bartered for very much less. The Russian barges, fitted like
+floating stores, and towed on the river, must have interfered greatly
+with the Manchu traders, whose sway, it is to be hoped, is nearly
+at an end. The Gilyaks now come to the Russian towns, especially to
+Nikolaefsk, and not only sell their fish, but begin to purchase Russian
+articles; whereas, for a long time, they gave the preference to goods
+of Chinese make.
+
+I met a family of Gilyaks in a shop at Nikolaefsk, with whom I
+endeavoured to exchange ideas, through one who spoke a little Russian,
+and I thought they seemed a people the lowest in intellect of any I had
+met. The company consisted of a father, mother, two daughters, and a
+deaf and dumb boy. The man did not know his daughters’ age, nor even
+his own, saying that they kept no account. When asked whether he would
+sell me his daughter to wife, he replied at first that they did not
+sell their girls to Russians, not approving the alliance. When pressed
+further, however, he said that she was already sold (she was about 10
+years old, and was smoking a pipe), and he added, “I sold her dearly!”
+It was difficult, however, in Russ to convey to their minds any but
+the simplest ideas. Neither Gilyaks nor Goldi have any written signs.
+The missionary living at Khabarofka has translated into Goldi parts of
+the Scriptures and the Greek liturgy, using, if I mistake not, Russian
+characters. The Goldi language, he told me, was much like the Manchu,
+and that, speaking the former, he could make himself understood in
+the latter. Both, Mr. Howorth says, are Tunguse languages. M. de la
+Brunière writes that Goldi stands to Manchu much as Provençal does to
+French or Italian.[12]
+
+The Russians have made some attempts to educate the Gilyaks. When Mr.
+Knox visited Mikhailofsky, he found a merchant farmer who was acting
+as superintendent of a school opened at the cost of the Government for
+the education of Gilyak boys. The copy-books exhibited fair specimens
+of penmanship, and on the desks were Æsop’s fables translated into
+Russ. Close at hand was a forge, where the boys learned to work, and
+a carpenter’s shop, with tools and turning lathe. The school at that
+time was in operation ten months a year, and the teacher belonged to
+one of the inferior ranks of the Russian clergy. I called on the priest
+at Mikhailofsky and inquired about the Gilyaks, but heard nothing of
+the existence of the school, and I am under the impression that it is
+discontinued. The Russians have two mission schools, however, on the
+Lower Amur, attended by 30 children--one at Troitzka for the Goldi,
+and another for the Gilyaks at Bolan, near Malmuish. I heard of one
+Gilyak boy who had made sufficient progress to qualify him to become a
+psalmist, or _dïechok_, in the Russian Church.
+
+Like other heathen tribes, the Gilyaks have many superstitions. They do
+not allow fire to be carried in or out of a house, not even in a pipe,
+fearing such an act may bring ill luck in hunting or fishing. The same
+superstition is found in many parts of Russia. They appear, too, to be
+fatalists; for an Englishman at Nikolaefsk told me that if one falls
+into the water, the others will not help him out, on the plea that they
+would thus be opposing a higher power, who wills that he should perish.
+A Russian officer and his family were drowned some time since near the
+town, within easy reach of the boats of the Gilyaks, who could have
+saved them, but they did not attempt to do so.[13]
+
+The Gilyaks believe in wooden idols or charms as antidotes to disease.
+I had practical illustration of this at Tyr, where I wished to buy some
+of the little amulets belonging to the head of a household; but he was
+at first unwilling to sell them, saying that he had found the wearing
+of them very efficacious in sickness. The offer of a silver piece,
+however, changed his mind;[14] and he afterwards sold me not only
+his own, but those of his baby, one of them like a doll in a sitting
+posture; and after I had left the house, he sent after me a fish rudely
+cut in wood, and meant for a sturgeon, with a little god seated on his
+back. This had been used, apparently, not long before, on a fishing
+expedition, for there was gelatine and fresh blood in the mouth of the
+fish and the god. Sometimes poles shaped like idols are placed before
+the houses. Another kind is carried as companion to the native on his
+journeys, whilst some are placed upon the summits of the mountains.
+
+[Illustration: GILYAK IDOLS OR CHARMS]
+
+Other idols are in the form of the tiger, bear, etc., which animals
+are closely connected with their superstition, if not their religion.
+The tiger is said to be feared much more among the Gilyaks than the
+Goldi, and its appearance portends evil. If the remains are found of a
+man killed by a tiger, they are buried on the spot without ceremony.
+On the other hand, if a cow is found killed by a bear, it is eaten
+with great glee and rejoicing. It is said that neither Gilyaks nor
+Goldi attempt to kill the tiger. Neither do they hunt the wolf, to
+which they attribute an evil influence. With the bear, however, things
+are very different. There is in each Gilyak village a bear cage. I
+saw them at both Mukhul and Tyr. They speak of the captive as _Mafa_,
+that is, “Chief Elder,” and to distinguish him from the tiger, who is
+_Mafa sakhle_, that is, “Black Chief.” In hunting the bear they exhibit
+great intrepidity. In order not to excite his posthumous revenge, they
+do not surprise him, but have a fair stand-up fight. When it is not
+desired to secure the animal alive, the natives use a spear, such as I
+saw at Krasnoiarsk, the head of which is covered with spikes. It lies
+upon the ground, having cord attached to the centre, and held by a
+man, the spear-point being towards the bear. As Bruin advances to the
+man, the spear-head is raised from the ground, and the beast throws
+himself upon it, but finds the chevaux-de-frize a disagreeable object
+to embrace. He is then set upon by the huntsmen and killed. It is much
+more interesting sport to catch a bear alive. A party of ten men or
+more enter the forest provided with straps, muzzle, and a collar with
+chain attached. Having discovered the whereabouts of the bear, he is
+surrounded, and one of them, jumping upon his back in the twinkling
+of an eye, seizes hold of his ears. Another quickly fastens a running
+knot round the neck of the beast, and almost suffocates him. He is then
+muzzled, the collar passed round his neck, and he is led in triumph to
+the village to be put in the cage, and fattened on fish.[15] Bruin is
+not imprisoned, however, to be treated like the sacred bulls of Egypt.
+On festivals he is brought out, his paws tied, an iron chain put in his
+mouth, and he is bound between two fixed poles, an involuntary witness
+of the natives frolicking around him. On very grand occasions he takes
+a more direct share in the festival by being killed with superstitious
+ceremonies.[16] The people then go home, their chiefs staying to cut up
+the bear, the flesh of which is distributed to every house, and eaten
+with great zest, as food calculated to inspire and bring courage and
+luck. The head and paws, however, are treated with great reverence.[17]
+These ursine ceremonies have, no doubt, given rise to the statement
+that the Gilyaks worship the bear. Mr. Collins goes so far as to
+say that they consider the bear an incarnated evil spirit; and the
+missionary at Mikhailofsky, in answer to my question, was not sure,
+but he thought it quite likely that they worshipped the animal. It is
+only proper to say, however, that when I met at Nikolaefsk the former
+elder of the White village, and asked him whether it was true that they
+worshipped the bear, he denied it, and said that they killed it as we
+should do any other animal for a feast; and that each village was bound
+in turn to provide a bear, on which occasion other villages assembled
+and joined in the banquet. I then inquired what was the religion of
+the Gilyaks. He said they had none, but upon being asked to whom they
+prayed, he looked up to the skies. He acknowledged that they practised
+Shamanism, but added that that was a mystery.
+
+[Illustration: GILYAK FISH-GOD OR IDOL.]
+
+Thus far I have frequently used the word Shamanism, but have deferred
+explaining it till I treated of the Gilyaks, some of whose Shamanistic
+practices were described to me by an eye-witness--the telegraph
+engineer, to whom I have before alluded. The Gilyaks and the Siberian
+natives generally believe in the existence of good and bad spirits; but
+as the former perform only good, it is not thought necessary to pay
+them any attention.[18]
+
+The shamans, or priests, who may be male or female, are regarded as
+powerful mediators between the people and the evil spirits. The shaman,
+in fact, combines the double functions of doctor and priest. When
+a man falls sick, he is supposed to be attacked by an evil spirit,
+and the shaman is called to practise exorcism. There is a distinct
+spirit for every disease, who must be propitiated in a particular
+manner. The performance was thus described to me. The shaman puts
+on a huge bearskin cloak, which jingles with bells, pieces of iron,
+brass, or anything which will help, when shaken, to make a noise; the
+whole sometimes weighing as much as 100 lbs. He begins by singing
+in a monotonous murmur, and drinks brandy. Both patient and doctor
+are usually decorated with strips of wood or shavings, hanging round
+the waist and head. By the side of the patient are placed idols and
+brandy. The shaman sits on one side and the audience on the other. He
+approaches, drinks more brandy, begins to sing and jingle his bells,
+and gives brandy to the spectators. On the table are placed idols,
+fish, a squirrel’s skin, millet and brandy, and a dog is tied under
+the table. The eatables are offered to the idols, and then distributed
+to be consumed by all present. Meanwhile the shaman contorts his
+body, and dances like one possessed, and howls to such an extent that
+Chinese merchants, who have come out of curiosity, have been known to
+flee in very terror. He also beats a tambourine, and sometimes falls
+prostrate, as if holding communion with the spirits; and this kind of
+thing sometimes goes on for three days and nights, as long, probably,
+as provisions and spirits hold out, after which the patient is left to
+believe that he will get well; and the shaman receives his fee, which
+may be a reindeer, a dog, fish, brandy, or whatever the patient can
+afford. The shamans possess great power over their deluded subjects,
+though they are said to be somewhat held in check by the belief that,
+should they abuse their authority over evil spirits, to the detriment
+of a fellow human being, they will hereafter be long and severely
+punished. Their punishment is supposed to await them in a nether hell,
+dark and damp, filled with gnawing reptiles. A good shaman, however,
+who has performed wonderful cures receives, after death, a magnificent
+tomb to his memory.
+
+The treatment of the dead among the Gilyaks would seem to vary. Réclus
+and Collins say that some tribes burn the dead on funereal pyres, and
+build a low frame over the ashes, and that others hang the coffins
+on trees, or place them on a scaffolding near the houses. The French
+trader at Nikolaefsk told me that in winter they wrap up the dead and
+put them in the forked branches of trees, out of the reach of animals,
+till the ground is thawed, and then, he supposed, the corpse was
+buried. The soul of the Gilyak is supposed to pass at death into his
+favourite dog, which is accordingly fed with choice food; and when the
+spirit has been prayed by the shamans out of the dog, the animal is
+sacrificed upon his master’s grave. The soul is then represented as
+passing underground, lighted and guided there by its own sun and moon,
+and continuing to lead there, in its spiritual abode, the same manner
+of life and pursuits as in the flesh.
+
+The Russians have missionaries among the Gilyaks, but the Greek Church
+cannot claim the honour of bringing Christianity first among them.
+This belongs to a Roman missionary, M. de la Brunière, who perished
+in his endeavour.[19] On April 5th, 1846, he addressed a letter to
+the directors of the Seminary for Foreign Missions, telling them of
+his plans, and how strongly a Chinese friend tried to dissuade him,
+“representing to me the troops of tigers and bears which filled these
+deserts; and, whilst relating these things, he sometimes uttered such
+vehement cries that my two guides grew pale with horror. Being already
+a little accustomed to the figures of Chinese eloquence, I thanked him
+for his solicitude, assuring him that the flesh of Europeans had such
+a particular flavour that the tigers of Manchuria would not attempt to
+fasten their teeth in it.”[20]
+
+Then follows a touching portion, in which he writes:-- “About the 13th
+or 15th of May, I will buy, if it please God, a small bark, in which I
+may descend the Amur to the sea to visit the ‘long hairs.’ I shall go
+alone, because no one dare conduct me. I am well aware how difficult
+it will be to avoid the barges of the mandarins who descend the river
+from San-sin; but if it is the will of God that I arrive where I design
+going, His arm can smooth every obstacle, and guide me there in safety;
+and if it please Him that I return, He knows well how to bring me back.”
+
+He went, and at the White village was murdered.[21] I passed the spot a
+few hours before reaching Nikolaefsk, and the bay was pointed out where
+the missionary was put to death. My fellow-passengers said that De la
+Brunière reached the place with a baptized Mongol, whom he sent back on
+the day of his arrival, after which he proceeded to show the Gilyaks
+his watch, crucifix, spoons, etc.; and that two days after his arrival,
+they killed him on a small island where he had taken up his abode.
+One of my fellow-passengers was the Russian Lieutenant Yakimoff, who
+in 1857, with the Governor of the province, visited the village, and
+found the Gilyaks who had committed the murder. They had still in their
+possession the watch, crucifix, and spoons, which the Russians bought.
+During my stay at Nikolaefsk I met, as I have said, a former starosta
+of the White village, who told me that he had heard from his father the
+story of the missionary. Thus perished the first man who attempted to
+carry Christianity to the Gilyaks. What the Russians are doing among
+them I shall refer to when speaking hereafter of their missions to the
+neighbouring Goldi.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Their name is variously spelt Gee-laks, Giliaks, Ghiliaks, and
+Gilyaks. Living near and resembling in many points the Goldi, the two
+tribes, for ethnographical purposes, are sometimes classed together as
+branches of the Tunguse family. But M. Réclus is right when, speaking
+of the “Giliaks” or “Kilé,” he calls them “frères de ceux qui vivent
+dans l’île de Sakhalin et parents de ces mystérieux Aïnos qui sont
+l’objet de tant de discussion entre les ethnologistes”; and Mr. Howorth
+says that the Ghiliaks, called “Fish-skin Tata” by the Chinese, are no
+doubt sophisticated Aïnos, while the Goldi are Tunguses.
+
+[2] As Réclus observes, they have not the open and clear physiognomy of
+the majority of the Tunguses, and their little eyes sparkle with a dull
+brilliance; they have squat noses, thick lips, prominent cheekbones,
+and, he adds, “thick beards”; which last I can hardly confirm, but
+would rather say, with Mr. Ravenstein, that the beard is stronger with
+them than with the Tunguses, which is not saying much.
+
+[3] Dwelling further from the Manchu than the Amur Tunguses, they are
+wilder; and Réclus observes that they have a greater idea of liberty,
+acknowledge no master, and are governed only by custom, which regulates
+their festivals, and determines their hunting and fishing affairs,
+their marriages and burials. They are certainly courageous in the way
+they catch and kill the bear, though oddly enough they never willingly
+get into water, and do not swim.
+
+[4] They are beginning now to use tea, salt, sugar, and bread; but all
+of these seem to have been unknown to them before the advent of the
+Russians. I heard it mentioned, as a good trait in their character,
+that if a Gilyak receives a piece of bread, after eating a portion he
+takes home the remainder as a treat for his family. During my stay at
+Mikhailofsky the natives came to barter wild fruit for bread. They
+are said to have no stated hours for meals, and knives and forks are
+of course unknown to them. Noticing one day some Manchu and Goldi
+at a meal, I observed they had boiled millet in basins, which they
+raised to the lips, and then whipped the millet into their mouths with
+chop-sticks.
+
+[5] The men and women dress very much alike. A number of small metal
+pendants about the size of a sixpence round the bottom of the blouse
+distinguishes the gentler sex. I purchased, too, at Mukhul some pieces
+of embroidery on fish-skin, the workmanship of which is thought good
+in England; whilst at Tyr was given me a kind of fish-skin open work
+or lace. The blouse of the men is fastened in front, and confined
+round the waist by a belt, to which is suspended a number of articles
+of daily use. They consist of a large knife, a Chinese pipe, an
+iron instrument for cleaning it, steel for striking a light, a bone
+for smoothing fish-skins and loosening knots, a bag of fish-skin
+for tinder, and a tobacco pouch, a specimen of which last, somewhat
+tastefully made of sturgeon’s skin, was given me at Nikolaefsk by the
+chief civil authority.
+
+[6] In places I saw square pens of wicker-work fixed, to enclose the
+fish after they pass the holes in the fence. For catching sturgeon
+they use a circular net, of 5-feet diameter, and shaped like a shallow
+bag. One part of the mouth is fitted with corks, and the opposite
+with weights of lead or iron. Two canoes in mid-stream hold this net
+vertically between them across the current. The sturgeon descending the
+river enter the trap, and the fishermen divide the “net proceeds.”
+
+[7] “Cats,” says Mr. Knox, “have a half-religious character, and are
+treated with great respect. Since the advent of the Russians, the
+supply is very good. Before they came, the Manchu merchants used to
+bring only male cats, and those mutilated. The price was sometimes a
+hundred roubles for a single mouser, and by curtailing the supply, the
+Manchu kept up the market.”
+
+[8] The birds known to them belong generally to the species found in
+the same latitudes of Europe and America, but there are some birds
+of passage that are natives of Southern Asia, Japan, the Philippine
+Islands, and even South Africa and Australia. Seven-tenths of the birds
+of the Amur are found in Europe, two-tenths in Siberia, and one-tenth
+in regions further south. Some birds belong more properly to America,
+such as the Canadian woodcock and the water-ouzel, and there are
+several birds common to the east and west coasts of the Pacific. The
+number of stationary birds is not great. Maack enumerates 39 species
+that dwell here the entire year. The birds of passage generally arrive
+in April or May, and leave in September or October. It is a curious
+fact that they come later to Nikolaefsk than to the town of Yakutsk,
+nine degrees further north. This is due to difference of climate.
+
+[9] Weddings, however, are expensive, for all the relatives expect
+to be invited, and they sometimes drink several gallons of Chinese
+_khanshin_. The drinking of this, I am told, causes not only
+intoxication, but among these people violence akin to madness. It
+is sold by weight, and costs tenpence per Russian pound, but its
+importation is strictly forbidden by Russian law.
+
+[10] Before the Russian occupation the Manchu came down the river to
+collect tribute and dispose of their merchandise. These Mandarins are
+charged with abuse of power, and with having made extortionate demands
+upon the natives, who hailed the Russians as their liberators. On
+the other hand, the Mandarin was supposed to make a small present of
+tobacco or silk to every one paying him tribute; and among the Gilyaks
+this present appeared to be reckoned of greater value than the tribute
+demanded. The Gilyaks, however, living so far off from the Manchu, do
+not seem to have been much oppressed by them, nor indeed to have been
+very frequently visited. Sakhalin was visited still less often, but I
+heard among the Goldi that they decidedly preferred the Russian to the
+Manchu rule.
+
+[11] Manchu and Chinese merchants met Japanese from Sakhalin, Tunguses
+from the Okhotsk coast, and from the head waters of the Zeya and Amgun.
+Besides these were the Orochi, or Orochons, from the mountains east
+of the Lower Amur, and Manguns; to say nothing of smaller tribes,
+speaking nearly a dozen languages, and conducting business in a
+_patois_ of all the dialects. The goods imported were coarsely printed
+calicoes, Chinese silk materials, rice and millet, also bracelets,
+earrings, tobacco and brandy, cloth, powder, lead, and knives. These
+were exchanged for furs, isinglass, and the dried backbones of the
+sturgeon--the last being highly prized in Chinese cookery.
+
+[12] I found that the priest was compiling a Goldi lexicon and grammar,
+and that, for his linguistic labours, he has received a medal from the
+Imperial Geographical Society. I am indebted to him for some of the
+words in the following short vocabulary, which will give an idea of
+the Manyarg, Manchu, Orochon, and Goldi tongues (which are Tunguse)
+compared with the Gilyak and Aïno dialects, which seem to belong to
+another family.
+
+ _English._  _Manyarg._  _Manchu._ _Orochon._ _Goldi._ _Gilyak._ _Aïno._
+
+  One         omun        emu       omu        omu      niun      chine
+  Two         zur         juo       dhjou      dhjour   morsh     tu
+  Three       ilan        ilan      ulla       ellan    chiorch   che
+  Four        digin       duin      dii        duyin    murch     yne
+  Five                    sunja     tungha     tongha   torch     ashne
+  Dog                               inda       inda     kan       sheta
+  Sable                             nossa      seppha
+  Fox                               solaki     solli
+
+
+[13] These aborigines do not bear a favourable character. Schrenk
+says that the Gilyaks of the mainland are avaricious and covetous in
+their commercial transactions, but that among those of Sakhalin this
+propensity seeks satisfaction in theft and robbery. I shall presently
+relate a case in which they murdered a missionary apparently for the
+sake of getting the little merchandise he possessed.
+
+[14] Sometimes they wear amulets fashioned like the part afflicted. A
+lame or injured person carries a small leg of wood, an arm, a hand,
+reminding one of the wax and silver arms, legs, hands, and hearts seen
+in churches on Roman images, and on the pictures of Russian saints. The
+missionary at Tyr gave me, in exchange for tracts, a charm to which is
+attached a stone, and also two rough wooden fish gods--one with a tail,
+the other without. The Gilyaks use these images or idols also in their
+Shaman worship.
+
+[15] When secured as a cub, he is frequently kept for three or four
+years. The natives are often seriously wounded in these encounters,
+but to this they do not object, since such wounds are thought to be
+marks of prowess, and to be killed by a bear is deemed a very happy
+death. Most of the writers on the Gilyaks mention this extraordinary
+procedure; and I heard it confirmed at Mikhailofsky by the missionary.
+
+[16] The day falls in January of each year, and an Englishman at
+Nikolaefsk, who had been an eye-witness of the spectacle, described it
+to me thus: “The bear is led from his cage, dragged along and beaten
+with sticks, and presented at every house in the village; thus he gets
+exasperated to a high degree. He is then led to the river to a hole in
+the ice, where they try to make him drink water, and from a platter to
+eat food, though only a spoonful, both of which in his excited state he
+refuses, and which is precisely what they desire. He is then dragged
+back with shouts to the place of sacrifice, where, having been fastened
+to a post and allowed to repose awhile, he is shot through the heart
+with an arrow.”
+
+[17] Among the Gilyaks the head is kept by the patriarch of the
+village, and prayers are said to be offered to it for the space of a
+week. I was told at Nikolaefsk that the Gilyaks often bring bears’
+skins to sell; but by no chance do they bring, or can they be induced
+to bring, a hide with the head or paws attached. The ears, jaw-bones,
+skull, and paws are sometimes hung upon trees to ward off evil spirits.
+Occasionally the skull is split, and suspended in their houses; and Mr.
+Knox observed in a Goldi house that part of one wall was covered with
+bear skulls and bones, horse-hair, wooden idols, and pieces of colored
+cloth.
+
+[18] Mr. Collins does indeed say that the true God is adored without
+the shamans in autumn, and then by the whole community in mass, but I
+am unable to confirm this from anything I have read or heard. It would
+seem rather that all their efforts are directed to induce the evil
+spirits not to act; for these evil spirits are supposed to have power
+over hunting, fishing, household affairs, and the health and well-being
+of animals and men. Accordingly I inferred that Shamanism, so far as it
+can be called a religion, is one of fear, and not of love; that it is
+something for times of sorrow, such as death, sickness, and calamity,
+and not for occasions of joy or thanksgiving, as a birth or a wedding.
+
+[19] Mr. Ravenstein states that the efforts of the Roman Catholic
+missionaries in Manchuria may be said to date from 1838; and in May
+1845 M. de la Brunière left Kai Cheu with the intention of seeking
+the conversion of the “long-haired” people--that is, the Gilyaks of
+the Amur. This was before the Russian occupation of the river, and
+at a time when thus to wander, without permission, was contrary to
+Chinese law and full of danger, to say nothing of the difficulties of
+locomotion.
+
+[20] M. de la Brunière then describes his fatigues, his only food being
+millet boiled in water. “You must cut and drag trees, light fires
+(necessary against the cold and tigers), prepare your victuals in
+wind and rain, and all this in the midst of a swarm of mosquitoes and
+gad-flies, who do not suspend their attacks till about 10 or 12 in the
+evening. Water and wood were abundant at first, ... but 30 leagues from
+the Ussuri, the springs became so scarce that we were compelled to do
+like the birds of heaven, and eat the millet raw.”
+
+[21] Four years after, M. Venault was sent to the Lower Amur partly, if
+possible, to clear up the fate of De la Brunière. On arriving at what
+is now called the White village, he found no difficulty in ascertaining
+how matters had gone. M. de la Brunière, it seemed, was preparing his
+meal in a small bay, when ten men, attracted by the prospect of booty
+from the strange priest, went towards him, armed with bows and pikes.
+Having hit him with several arrows, seven of them struck him with their
+pikes, and the last stroke fractured his skull and proved mortal. This
+act consummated, the assassins divided the spoil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+_NIKOLAEFSK._
+
+ My arrival.--Visit to prisons and hospitals.--Health
+     statistics.--Siberian hospitals in general.--A Sunday service
+     arranged.--Visits to inhabitants.--Russian customs, superstitions,
+     and amusements.--Dancing.--Nikolaefsk town, arsenal, and
+     commerce.--Mr. Emery.--Russian bribery.--Cost of provisions and
+     labour.
+
+
+Nikolaefsk, founded in 1853, rapidly grew into importance, but
+gradually waned after the removal of the “port”; and as our steamer
+approached on a cloudy evening, I seemed to have arrived at a very
+dismal and out-of-the-way part of the world. My spirits, however,
+had risen appreciably during the day. The perplexity in which I left
+Khabarofka, and my uncertainty as to how to reach San Francisco, have
+been alluded to; but on boarding the _Onon_ I met Mr. Enoch Emery, an
+American merchant of Nikolaefsk. After almost disusing my native tongue
+for three weeks, I was able to speak again in English, and I now learnt
+that for £90 a first-class ticket might be taken from Yokohama in Japan
+to Euston Square in London, including food whilst traversing the two
+oceans, an allowance of 250 lbs. of luggage, and railway tickets for
+America and England. It was not so clear, however, how Japan was to be
+reached. The _Dragon_ was not expected at Nikolaefsk, I heard, nor was
+there any regular means of getting away other than by retracing my
+steps to the Ussuri and Vladivostock. A Russian gunboat had been lying
+at the mouth of the Amur, the previous day, with provisions for Dui in
+Sakhalin, by which it was suggested that I might get a passage to the
+island, and perhaps be trans-shipped to Japan or China on some chance
+vessel calling for coal. But when we reached Nikolaefsk this gunboat
+had started a few hours before; and thus I landed--with regard to my
+future movements--as full of uncertainty as ever.
+
+I had fallen, nevertheless, into good hands; for, in talking to Mr.
+Emery, it transpired that we had common friends in Petersburg, one
+of whom had spoken to me of the Amur, and would gladly have given me
+introductions, had I not persisted in saying that I did not intend to
+go so far. Mr. Emery invited me to be his guest--an invitation doubly
+welcome in a place where was no better hotel than a beershop, and
+because with him I should have the advantage of conversing in English.
+
+Baron Stackelberg was lodged near me, and in the morning we went to
+the chief civil authority, M. Andreyeff, to whom I was introduced as a
+person desirous of information about the prisons of Sakhalin, and of a
+passage, if possible, to the island. To my surprise M. Andreyeff also
+was acquainted with some of my friends in Petersburg, and he at once
+promised the information; but it was uncertain, he said, when a ship
+would leave again with provisions.
+
+The police-master was sent for to take me to see the prisons of
+the town. The police-station was the first building we entered; it
+contained a few rooms for temporary accommodation. In one of them
+were flogging instruments I had heard of at Kara and elsewhere, and
+had vainly inquired for more than once. I have no reason to suppose,
+however, they were hidden from me in other places, a lawyer having told
+me that the troichatka, or plète, was used only at Kara, Nikolaefsk,
+and Dui. What they were like shall be told hereafter. I will only say
+for the present they were the most terrible things of the kind I had
+ever seen. There was a guard-room in the station where Cossacks were
+sitting on the floor, eating with wooden spoons from a common saucepan,
+and other rooms occupied by clerks and officials. I was then taken
+to the town prison, containing 68 prisoners in half-a-dozen rooms.
+Some of the men had just come from the bath, the advantages of which
+were patent. But I do not recollect seeing accommodation in any of
+the Siberian prisons for washing the hands and face except at Tomsk,
+where was a sort of caldron mounted on a tripod, and from which,
+through four tiny pipes, water was forced, in Russian fashion, to
+trickle on the hands. I fancy, however, that not only with prisoners,
+but among the lower classes generally, minor ablutions between the
+weekly or fortnightly steaming of the bath are regarded more or less as
+supererogatory.
+
+In the western suburb of the town was the _étape_, a prison in which
+150 persons could be lodged on their way to Sakhalin. Detached, but not
+far distant, was the kitchen, in which were convicts of good behaviour,
+allowed the run of the town by day, though compelled to sleep in the
+building at night. They could thus earn money if they chose.[1] Both
+prisons in the town were reported to the Emperor as “old, and built
+of bad material, wanting proper sanitary arrangements, and inconvenient
+for their purpose.”
+
+[Illustration: THE ÉTAPE PRISON, NIKOLAEFSK.]
+
+A similar description would have been not far wrong of the Nikolaefsk
+hospitals, of which there were three--two military and one civil. In
+the civil hospital, partly supported by voluntary contributions, they
+were sadly cramped for room--so much so that, in one chamber, alongside
+of other patients was a boy suffering from small-pox. The chief doctor
+had, on his own account, opened an extra room for the blind and the
+infirm.[2] In the hospital of the 6th East Siberian battalion were 24
+beds only, whereas by law there should have been 48. Happily only five
+beds were occupied at the time of my visit, and the list of diseases
+treated in the hospital during the preceding 18 months appeared to show
+that the medical staff were doing their work successfully. The chief
+physician was a German, as are many of the doctors in Russia, and he
+took great pains to acquaint me with all I wished to know.[3] I found
+some large hospitals for the navy at Vladivostock, with 108 patients
+at the time of my visit; but the hospital that pleased me most in the
+province, not to say in all Siberia, was that at Khabarofka, built on
+the newest principles, and leaving nothing to be desired.[4]
+
+They have in the Sea-coast province no madhouses, properly so called;
+but lunatics are treated in a ward of the Nikolaefsk hospital. Of
+eight cases during 1878, four recovered, two remained, and two died.
+Besides these hospitals I have named, there is in the province one
+each at Petropavlovsk, Ghijiga, and Okhotsk. Looking at the Siberian
+hospitals with an unprofessional eye, I may say that they struck me as
+fairly good. I have twice met Englishmen in Russian hospitals,--one at
+Archangel, and the other in the Urals,--and they both said they had
+every attention. The hospitals of the country are supported by the
+Government, by the army, navy, and civil departments respectively. None
+are supported entirely by voluntary contributions. Government servants,
+being poor, pay nothing. Civilians pay, and one of the good features of
+the Russian hospitals is that persons of the middle classes may enter,
+and by a small extra payment receive medical attendance and superior
+accommodation.[5] The Siberian towns seemed fairly well supplied with
+medical men; but it was rather appalling on the Ussuri to hear from a
+telegraph official that he had no medical man within 200 miles to the
+south, and 300 to the north.[6]
+
+My coming to Nikolaefsk did not long remain unknown, for it was
+suggested that on the Sunday I should conduct a service, there being
+no resident Protestant minister, though they had a Roman chapel in
+the town. The pro-Governor, Mr. Andreyeff, readily gave his sanction,
+offered his house for a place of meeting, and sent round by the police
+a notice requesting all to sign who purposed to attend. More than 30
+signed, and before Sunday several called on me. I was invited to a
+dinner on my first Friday in Nikolaefsk. It happened to be the birthday
+of Mr. Schenk, the worthy manager of the principal store. The shop was
+closed, and his friends called in the morning to felicitate him, and
+to drink and eat nick-nacks from a sideboard. In the evening a capital
+dinner was served with asparagus and preserved fruits, which it was
+hard to realize we were eating in one of the most dreary parts of
+Siberia, where they have seven months’ winter, and where the navigation
+does not open till the end of May. Several at table spoke English,
+and near me sat a merchant who had lived in the Sandwich Islands and
+in Kamchatka. Mr. Emery the same week had a party to lunch; and Mr.
+Andreyeff gave a dinner in his garden to some of my fellow-passengers,
+myself, and the military commandant. The dinner began with “schnapps,”
+and among the dishes was a salmon pie, with rice on the top, the dinner
+ending with cream and wild raspberries, of which last there were
+bushels growing outside the town.
+
+I made the acquaintance also of some of the naval officers, such
+as the captain of the _Ermak_, to whom I gave books for his men,
+and Lieutenant Wechman, the captain of the port. The latter was a
+Protestant, who invited me on the second Sunday to hold the service
+in his house, which I did, and sent books for the barracks of the men
+under his command. These social occasions gave me opportunities to
+see something of Russians at home, their customs, superstitions, and
+amusements. Tea was usually offered whenever a call was made; and as
+lemons were not to be had so far away in summer, a spoonful of jam
+was often put in the glass instead. They have a custom in Russia of
+addressing friends, or those to whom they wish to be polite, by their
+Christian name plus their patronymic, or Christian name of their
+father, which in the case of Mr. Emery sounded odd to me to hear a lady
+ask, “Enoch, son of Simeon, may I give you a glass of tea?”[7]
+
+Among the superstitions of the Russians may be mentioned the not liking
+to begin a journey on a Monday. The Governor-General of Western
+Siberia told me he usually chose that day expressly, in order to avoid
+the crowd of fellow-passengers. Nor do they like to take edge-tools
+from another person’s hand, nor to pass the salt, or, if it be done,
+the person who receives must smile blandly to break the spell. Again,
+when a man is starting upon some special business, he thinks it very
+unlucky if the first person he meets in the street should be a priest;
+and if the eyes of one dying are not closed by a friend, it is imagined
+that there will soon be another death in the family.
+
+The Russians struck me as a people exceedingly ill-provided with manly
+amusements. They have nothing to correspond to our cricket, boating,
+or football. Their young men seem incapable of rising to any greater
+exertion of mind or body than that demanded for billiards, cards,
+drinking, and smoking. I saw some soldiers, however, playing with a
+large, heavy steel pin, like a tenpenny nail with a heavy head.[8] An
+outdoor game played by girls is called “_skaka_” (to jump), something
+like the English game of see-saw, only that the two parties do not
+sit but stand on the plank, which is only some four feet long, and is
+jumped upon with sufficient force that when one person reaches the
+ground the other springs into the air, and so on alternately. Swings,
+too, are in great demand at fairs and such gatherings. I was treated
+to one on the Sukhona, suspended from a cross-beam not less, I should
+judge, than 40 feet high.
+
+Dancing is one of the most popular of indoor amusements, and I had
+a good opportunity of witnessing the peasants’ performance of it at
+Mikhailofsky; for on the evening of our enforced stay a _soirée_ was
+extemporized. The dancers were the young men and girls of the village,
+dressed in their heavy boots and cotton gowns, but washed and brushed
+up for the occasion. The manner in which the girls sat in a row at
+the commencement, and the men hung together in an outer room, struck
+me very much like a piece of human nature which is seen all the world
+over. The music consisted of a fiddle, accordion, and tiny bells;
+and in the first dance, two youths having nodded condescendingly to
+partners, the four stood up and figured before us, one feature of the
+dance being that the men from time to time stamped heavily with their
+feet.[9] At an early stage of the proceedings cigarettes were handed
+round, and men, girls, and old women all began to smoke--a sure sign
+that they were not Starovers, or Old Believers, for they turn out their
+sons if they smoke, and call them “pogani,” or “nasty,”--the practice
+having been introduced into some parts of Siberia, I was told, within
+the last quarter of a century.[10] After dance No. 3, which was by four
+girls only, two plates were handed round--one of sweets, the other of
+cedar nuts. The latter, from the monotonous gaps they so often fill
+at parties, are called by a word which means “Siberian conversation.”
+Other refreshments followed in the shape of black bread and cucumbers,
+the whole affair looking very formal and solemn; but I am not sure
+whether this was normal, or whether the peasants were overawed by the
+strange company. I heard that at Nikolaefsk, in winter, they have
+frequent balls at the club, but in the summer the evenings are given to
+the promenade.
+
+[Illustration: RUSSIAN PEASANT GIRL.]
+
+At this time of day I usually took my constitutional, and searched
+about into every hole and corner of the town. Its population stands in
+the Almanack at 5,350, which probably was right some years ago, but it
+was estimated to me as having decreased to 3,500. The houses extend a
+mile and a half along the left bank of the river on a wooded plateau
+about fifty feet high. The landing-place is available only for small
+craft. Larger vessels lie in the middle of the river, and there is
+a wooden pier from which stairs lead to the plateau. The visitor is
+then opposite the church, built of wood, having one large cupola and
+four small ones. Behind the church stands what was the “Admiralty,”
+but is now the police-station, having a flagstaff with semaphore
+for signalling vessels in the harbour. To the west of the church is
+the officers’ club, and a few minutes’ walk to the east is situated
+the admiral’s house, the palace of the town, having around it a few
+flowers struggling for existence. In 1866 Mr. Knox found at Nikolaefsk
+machine-shops, foundries, and dockyard, into which last I wandered
+one evening, and thought of the time when nations are to learn war no
+more; for whereas there had been 800 men employed in the place a dozen
+years before, I found it covered with weeds, the workshops closed, and
+rusty iron lying about in all directions. Here and there were heaps of
+bombshells and cannon-balls, with a few grape-shot. Except the sentinel
+at the entrance, I met not a soul in the place, from which the glory
+had plainly departed. So it was, in fact, with the town generally.
+The boarded pavements are fast rotting, and allow the unwary
+foot-passenger to step through into the drains. There is sufficient
+grass in the streets for cows to graze, and pigs are occasionally seen
+there looking about for food. The Governor’s house is falling into
+decay, and its grand rooms are looking and smelling dusty, musty, and
+old. Again, the buildings erected for the higher Government officials
+are inhabited by smaller and feebler folk, and some of the shops are
+closed.
+
+Nikolaefsk, nevertheless, from its position at the mouth of a river
+which is navigable so far into Asia, will probably continue its present
+commercial standing.[11]
+
+There was a medical officer at Nikolaefsk, whose duty it was to examine
+the articles sold for food, and who during my stay lodged a complaint
+against a merchant for selling damaged flour, although he sold it as
+such, and at a reduced price. I heard Russia and Siberia spoken of
+as a country where capital can be placed out to great advantage. One
+merchant said he could easily get 6 per cent. for his money in Russia,
+on security which he deemed satisfactory. I have quoted in an earlier
+chapter the 30 or 40 per cent. given for capital at the gold-mines, and
+one man I met told me that in Western Siberia he made as much as 100
+per cent. on a considerable portion of his capital.
+
+My host, Mr. Emery, had come to the Amur as a boy, and began at the
+bottom of the ladder; but at the age of 20 he was able to count his
+gains by thousands. He was but 27 when we met, but was looking forward
+in a year or two to retire.[12]
+
+One of the drawbacks to honest trading in Russia is the bribery which
+officials expect when purchasing Government supplies. An instance of
+bribery practised on the rivers was described to me thus: A shipping
+agent, for example, carries 5,000 poods of freight, for which the
+sender pays him at a certain rate for Government duty. At the
+custom-house the agent makes out his bill as having only one-tenth the
+real freight, and gives ten roubles each to the officers, who make out
+a false bill to correspond with his own. It is then signed by the head
+official, who receives no bribe on the spot, but occasionally drives
+to the agent’s office, says that he is short of money, and asks for
+the loan of 300 roubles or more. The agent “lends” them, not dreaming,
+however, to see them again. At the end of the year the agent finds
+himself several thousands of roubles in pocket, the higher official
+drives his carriage on a surprisingly small stipend, and the lower
+officials, having been put into their office by the higher, do not even
+ask for their salary, and yet manage to live in houses of their own
+procuring.[13]
+
+Again, gambling and drunkenness are two principal snares besetting
+foreign traders in Siberia, whose time in winter hangs heavily, and
+where, in seaport towns, officers and large consumers expect to be
+frequently _fêted_ and invited to drink. Immorality is the third snare,
+which leads many astray who are removed from the restraints of home,
+and who otherwise hold their heads above gambling and insobriety.
+
+The trade customs of Nikolaefsk were, in some respects, superior to
+those in the interior,--due, no doubt, to the influence of the Germans
+and Americans. In the bazaars of Petersburg one has to bargain for
+everything. A shopman asked me, for instance, 10_s._ for a box, for
+which he afterwards “touted” to me, and took 7_s._ At Nikolaefsk
+business is done at fixed prices, and I was glad to find that, though
+compelled to close their stores for many hours on the greater Russian
+festivals, the foreign merchants, for the most part, did not open at
+all on Sunday.
+
+The weather during my stay on the Lower Amur was chilly and
+disagreeable, and the season for garden produce was about a fortnight
+late. On August 19th we ate new potatoes. They cost 2½_d._ per lb.,
+but eight days later they cost but 1_d._ per lb. Cucumbers were ready
+on the 10th of August, and on the 27th they were selling for 3_s._
+per hundred. Eggs cost 5_s._ per hundred, fresh butter 2_s._ 3_d._ per
+pound, and beef from 7_d._ to 8½_d._ On August 27th we had our first
+spring cabbage made into little pies and eaten with soup. The price of
+these cabbages, to a “friend,” was 5_d._ each, but they were expected
+shortly to fall to 16_s._ or 20_s._ per hundred. I do not remember
+tasting mutton, but was informed that a good sheep weighs about half a
+cwt., and costs alive, at Nikolaefsk, from 22_s._ to 30_s._
+
+In Western Siberia, about Tomsk, a sheep can be bought for 2_s._ I
+am told that Russians in general abhor mutton, and my informant’s
+housekeeper wonders the English can eat it, for _she_ would as
+willingly eat cat, dog, or rat as such “garbage.” Game and fish were
+surprisingly plentiful. I bought in the streets at Nikolaefsk a
+capercailzie (called _glukhar_, or deaf bird) for 10_d._, which was
+thought by no means cheap; and a blackcock was offered for a similar
+price. The cost of salmon, however, was most surprising. Up to the 20th
+August, salmon trout, weighing from 10 to 12 lbs., cost as much as
+5_d._ each, but they were then said to be _dear_. On the 15th August
+a large salmon, the first fish of the season, and weighing perhaps 15
+lbs., was offered to me for 7½_d._, but this was considered quite “a
+fancy price.” From the 1st September to the 17th, during which period
+the large fish are caught, weighing from 15 lbs. to 25 lbs., they may
+be bought for 10_s._ per hundred, or 1_d._ each![14]
+
+I was fortunate in finding at Nikolaefsk some English books, and among
+them the travels of Collins, Knox, and Ravenstein, on the Amur. The
+reading of these occupied much of my time, and I sometimes wandered
+down to the river-side--especially in the morning--to the pier, to
+watch the Gilyaks sell their fish.[15] Moored alongside the pier were
+some lighters of English build, which were failures for the particular
+purpose for which they had been constructed, though they made admirable
+landing-places. There were also several barges converted into floating
+shops, one of which was the property of a Frenchman, who had been a
+tutor in England. He dealt largely with the Gilyaks, and offered me a
+live eagle, obtained from them, for 6_s._; a fish-skin coat for 8_s._,
+and a tiger’s skin for £3 10_s._ For bear-skins he asked from 10_s._
+upwards, whereas in Krasnoiarsk they sell from 10_s._ down to 3_s._
+each.
+
+Thus passed by my enforced stay at Nikolaefsk, and, after trying in
+vain to get a passage to Japan, I determined to retrace my steps by the
+post-boat, which I started to do on Saturday, 30th of August. Before
+proceeding southwards, however, I must give some account, in the next
+two chapters, of what I have been able to learn concerning Kamchatka
+and the island of Sakhalin.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] So rare is it for them to see a visitor to the prison in these
+parts, that some of the men supposed I was sent by some foreign
+Government to inquire into their condition; and I heard that they
+subsequently came to seek me with a written paper, but I was not in the
+house when they called. My position having been explained to them, they
+declined to leave the paper, and so I heard no more of the matter.
+
+[2] They received from Government only £15 per annum for a clerk,
+paper, and ink, and so were unable, they said, to get books for the
+patients. I was glad therefore to send, and they were thankful to
+accept, 50 copies of the New Testament--two for every room, and the
+remainder to be given to departing convalescents who could read.
+
+[3] In 1878 there entered the hospital 347 cases, suffering from 39
+diseases, of which the principal were: bronchitis, 46; syphilis, 42;
+fevers, 39; pleuritis, 26; internal cold, 18; rheumatism, 14; and so
+on in diminishing numbers. During the six months immediately preceding
+my visit they had received but 83 patients, whilst for the entire year
+and a half 13 patients only had died. Besides these they had treated a
+large number of slight ailments of out-patients, and given advice to
+promiscuous applicants to the number of nearly 3,000.
+
+[4] It was fitted for 100 male and five female patients, with superior
+rooms for officers, and a separate apartment for syphilitic diseases,
+in which last was a mad Russian soldier, who in early life had been
+a travelling acrobat, and who inveighed to me in French against the
+doctor, who, he said, kept him there in confinement. Hereditary
+syphilis was reported to the Emperor to be the most dangerous disease
+in the province, for an inquiry into which a commission of four
+persons, with the whole medical staff, had been appointed. In a
+hospital in Ekaterineburg I found half the patients, at Vladivostock
+one-third, and in Krasnoiarsk one-fifth, suffering from syphilis, and
+in Kamchatka they have a barrack for the treatment of this disease only.
+
+[5] Thus at Perm, whilst a poor patient was received into the hospital
+at the rate of ten days for 5_s._, better accommodation could be
+secured for 1_s._ 4_d._ a day. At Vladivostock civilians paid 1_s._
+9_d._ a day, the price being fixed on a three years’ average.
+
+[6] This probably is worse towards Kamchatka; for in 1878 there were
+four medical posts vacant--that of chemist at Nikolaefsk, and doctor
+at Sofiisk, Ghijiga, and Okhotsk respectively--not a matter for much
+wonder, seeing that the salary at the best was but £40 a year!
+
+[7] This is a Semitic custom which has been retained by the Russians.
+Even the Emperor and all members of the Imperial family are so
+addressed--one reason given for the preference of the Christian to the
+family name being, that to be a Christian is a greater honour than to
+be an earthly noble.
+
+[8] They raised it above the shoulders, holding the head of the nail
+in the palm, and threw it down, making the point pass through a ring,
+about an inch and a half in diameter, lying on the ground. The person
+throwing it sometimes buried it to the head in the soil, whence another
+had to unearth it, or it was driven through a piece of wood, from which
+it was another’s business to extricate it. The feat appeared very easy,
+but in the few attempts I made I did not succeed in sticking the pin in
+the ground.
+
+[9] Perhaps it was akin to the Mazourka, which had its birthplace
+in Poland, for I remember witnessing a similar performance in the
+salt-mines of Cracow. The second dance was a national one, by a single
+pair, and something like a Scottish hornpipe, the man occasionally
+sinking down almost to the ground. Then the pair waved handkerchiefs
+to each other. I was told that this dance is made to represent the
+various stages of courtship, and that a good dancer does not go through
+the same figure twice. Another dance was by four couples, in which the
+ship’s machinist figured prominently in his heavy boots. One man also
+crawled on all fours, and twice passed through the extended legs of
+another, and so they continued till the cotton shirts of the men showed
+they were getting wet, and the company were growing tired.
+
+[10] The Starovers object to smoking upon the literal meaning of the
+text, “That which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.”
+According to Dr. Pinkerton, an ukase was issued in 1634 condemning
+those who took snuff, or sold or even possessed tobacco, to be knouted,
+to have their nostrils torn open, or ears cut off, and to be sent into
+exile.
+
+[11] There came to it, in 1878, 12 merchant vessels, bringing
+manufactured goods to the value of £52,781; alcohol, £4,705; and
+wines, beer, and porter, £1,604. I was told by one of the merchants
+that Hamburg is the cheapest market for goods for a new country, there
+being more imitations made there than elsewhere, which perhaps accounts
+for the complaint made to the Russian Government that the imported
+manufactures are of the lowest quality. The same merchant told me,
+however, that when he imported good articles, the Russians merely
+admired them; but that when he imported cheap ones, they _bought_ them.
+
+[12] He had, indeed, already retired in a fashion; for the winter
+season at Nikolaefsk had become to him so insupportably dull, that
+for the last few years he had posted off in autumn to Petersburg and
+other European markets, and then, chartering a schooner of 350 tons
+with merchandise, he had either accompanied it round the remainder of
+the globe, or crossed the Atlantic to America to see his parents, and
+then sailed over the Pacific by the following spring. In this way he
+had several times made the circuit of the world, going west or east,
+as business or inclination decided. He allowed 18 days in winter for a
+sledge journey of 3,300 miles, from Moscow to Irkutsk.
+
+[13] These and similar practices are not confined to merchants, but go
+down even to the isvostchiks, who come to Petersburg from the country
+and hire themselves to their masters by the month, having to bring in
+5_s._ a day. At the end of their term the master is said to do his best
+to swindle the cabmen, whilst they, taking their food and scanty wages,
+do their best to make a picking from their fares. Sometimes, however,
+the biter is bitten; for driving in the capital one day my isvostchik
+pointed to a large building, and said that he had just brought there
+a well-dressed woman, who had asked him to drive at the side of the
+pavement, because the road was better there, she said; and then, when
+opposite the door, she had sprung off the low vehicle, and run in
+without paying.
+
+[14] About 500 tons of them are salted yearly at Nikolaefsk, for winter
+use, the Government having, annually, two contracts for 16 tons, and
+others besides. For the most part, however, the fish of the province
+is consumed where it is caught, and it is only quite recently that
+exportation in small quantities has commenced.
+
+[15] The plentiful season commenced on August 25th, and salmon were
+sold for five roubles per hundred. These were commonly used for
+salting, but I found that they sold pieces of dried salmon and other
+fish a foot long, at the rate of 1_s._ per hundred, as winter food for
+dogs. Among the less valued fish of the Amur are the dolphin, trout,
+and others, known by the name of _sazan_, _karass_, and a white fish
+called _suig_--the last being esteemed in Petersburg a delicacy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVIII.
+
+_KAMCHATKA._
+
+ The Upper Primorsk.--History of north-eastern maritime
+     discovery.--Travellers in the Upper Primorsk.--The Sea of
+     Okhotsk and fisheries.--Bush’s journey.--Okhotsk and its
+     natives.--Kamchatka.--Its volcanoes, earthquakes, springs.--Garden
+     produce and animals.--Kamchatdales.--Their number and
+     character.--The Koriaks.--Their warlike spirit.--Houses of
+     settled and wandering Koriaks.--Food.--Herds of deer.--Marriage
+     customs.--Putting sick and aged to death.--The Chukchees.--Their
+     habitat.--Diminution of fur animals.--Vegetation.--Intoxicating
+     plants.--Nordenskiöld on the Chukchee coast.--Onkelon antiquities.
+
+
+North-eastern Siberia, or the Upper Primorsk, is to be the subject
+of this chapter, for which I have chosen the title of Kamchatka as
+best recalling the locality. Unlike the Amur, of which we have been
+treating, this portion of the Sea-coast province cannot be spoken of
+as new; for its discovery dates back more than a century. Of late
+years, all eyes have been turned in this direction by the maritime
+achievements of Professor Nordenskiöld, who, having completed his
+wonderful travel by water, was being fêted at Yokohama, whilst I was
+lying weather-bound off the coast.[1]
+
+During my stay at Nikolaefsk, I was further north than the capital
+of Kamchatka, and Petropavlovsk was distant only a few days’ sail.
+Intervening, however, was the Sea of Okhotsk, the mention of which so
+often recurs in connection with the north-eastern parts of Siberia.[2]
+Formerly it was much frequented by whales. The captain of the _Tunguse_
+told me at Nikolaefsk that, as a young man, he used to go to the
+Okhotsk Sea in a whaler; but so many of these animals had been killed,
+he said, that during one season they caught only three of them, which
+he thought poor. At Vladivostock, however, I met with Mr. Lindholm,
+who has a steamer and a sailing-ship engaged in the whale trade, and
+from him I gathered that at the present high price of whalebone, it
+answers well if, during a season, a boat takes two large whales.[3]
+The whales feed on the molluscs of the Okhotsk Sea, some of which
+Erman mentions as being eaten by the Chinese.[4] Whether the molluscs
+are less abundant than of yore, or whether so many whales have been
+killed that few remain, the diminution of the trade was impressed on my
+mind by meeting in the Primorsk several Finlanders who had left their
+fatherland in the expectation of speedily making their fortunes by
+whaling in the Okhotsk Sea; but their project proved a bubble.[5]
+
+The only man, I believe, other than an aboriginal, who has travelled
+round the Okhotsk Sea, starting from Nikolaefsk, by land, is Mr.
+Bush, the author of “Reindeer, Dogs, and Snow-shoes,” all three of
+which he certainly had ample opportunity of becoming acquainted with.
+Nothing, perhaps, in his journey would appear more remarkable to those
+unacquainted with the records of Arctic travel than his sleeping,
+night after night, in the open air of a Siberian winter, between a
+couple of ordinary blankets, lined with deerskin, between which, on
+awaking, he sometimes found himself buried, as were his dogs, beneath
+recently-fallen snow. Proceeding round the coast, the first village we
+approach after leaving the Amur is Udskoi, with 150 inhabitants. It is
+situated on the river Ud, and was one of the earliest Cossack stations.
+Further north is Port Ayan, to which, in 1844, the American Company
+transferred their station for trading in fish and furs.
+
+On the Okhota, further north, is the town of Okhotsk, which has given
+its name to the adjoining sea. Its population was never large, though
+it had a certain amount of activity before 1807, when the burdens of
+many thousands of horses passed through to the Russian settlements on
+the Pacific. It is a sorry-looking place of 200 inhabitants, though
+many a traveller has been glad to reach it after a severe journey from
+Yakutsk. The only animals kept at Okhotsk, says Mr. Knox, are cows
+and dogs. In summer the dogs are shrewd enough to go into the water
+and catch their own salmon, wading into the stream and standing, like
+storks, till the fish appear. The natives living on this western coast
+are the Lamuti, a seafaring Tunguse tribe, said to be uncorrupted
+from their primitive simplicity, either by the tricks of the Russian
+merchants or those of the aboriginal Yakutes. From Okhotsk to
+Nikolaefsk is a voyage of 400 miles, but there is no road by land:
+hence the remarkable nature of Bush’s journey.
+
+The traveller who, from Okhotsk, wishes to visit Kamchatka may reach
+Petropavlovsk by sea through the Kuriles, or continue round the coast
+by road. The latter course takes him through Yamsk to Ghijiga, at the
+north of the bay, a distance of 1,100 miles. He then descends along
+the western coast of Kamchatka to Tigil, 760 miles further, at which
+point he strikes inland to a valley lying below active volcanoes, and
+so reaches Petropavlovsk, on the shore of the North Pacific, a land
+journey from Okhotsk of 2,540 miles, accomplished by deer, horses, and
+dogs.
+
+Kamchatka is so called after the name of its principal river. The
+peninsula is 800 miles long, and from 30 to 120 miles wide; its total
+area being about 80,000 square miles, or five times the size of
+Switzerland. The southern extremity, called Cape Lopatka, is a low,
+narrow tongue of land, which, as it proceeds northwards, widens and
+rises into rocky and barren hills, with small valleys timbered with
+willow and stunted birch. Two degrees north the range divides, one
+portion running nearly due north and the other taking a north-easterly
+direction. In the fork formed by these two chains lies the valley of
+the river Kamchatka. The western chain rarely rises above 3,000 feet,
+but the eastern chain has many high volcanoes, among them Kluchevsky,
+which is somewhat higher than Mont Blanc, and not far from the sea.[6]
+
+Earthquakes are more frequent, perhaps, in Kamchatka than in any other
+country. The number of shocks felt at Petropavlovsk averages eight
+annually.[7]
+
+The climate of Kamchatka is much milder than in the eastern parts of
+the mainland. The frost sets in about the middle of October, but up to
+December the temperature rarely falls 10° below the freezing point of
+Fahrenheit, though in severe winters the thermometer sometimes sinks to
+25° below zero. Snow-storms with wind, called _poorgas_, are prevalent
+in February and March. They sometimes take up whole masses of snow, and
+form drifts several feet deep in a few minutes, burying, it may be,
+travellers, dogs, and sledges, who remain thus till the storm is over.
+Dogs begin to howl at the approach of a poorga, and try to burrow in
+the snow if the wind is cold or violent.
+
+About 50 miles west of Petropavlovsk is a remarkable warm spring, into
+which when you enter, says Mr. Collins, the sensation is as if the skin
+would be removed, whilst the stones and mud on the bottom fairly burn
+the feet, added to which the steam and gas, ascending from this natural
+caldron, fairly take away the breath. In a short time, however, bathers
+become red like lobsters, and find the temperature enjoyable. The water
+is very buoyant. It is used by the natives for all sorts of diseases.
+
+The valley watered by the Kamchatka is composed of fine mould, and
+has abundant natural productions--fir, birch, larch, poplar, willow,
+cedar, and juniper, and that of larger size than in the same latitude
+elsewhere in Asia. Raspberries, strawberries, whortleberries, currants,
+and cranberries abound; and flowers are seen in spring in almost
+tropical luxuriance. There is much grass in the lower lands, and
+Mr. Hill records an extraordinary phenomenon in a place he visited
+respecting the growth and preservation of potatoes.[8] There grows,
+likewise, a plant in the country called by the natives _krapeva_, from
+which they make a coarse but very durable cloth. It resembles our
+stinging-nettle, but is of larger growth and stronger fibre.
+
+Among the animals of Kamchatka there is none with which the traveller
+becomes more familiar than the dog, which is found wild on the hills.
+The color is usually buff or silver-grey, and in nature and disposition
+he resembles the mastiff and the wolf, sleeping, like the latter, more
+by day than by night. He is intelligent as regards his work, but not
+affectionate, as may be said of the steppe dogs, and has to be ruled
+by the rod. It is not usually safe to leave these dogs loose, for they
+kill fowls, deer, smaller dogs, and sometimes even children.[9] As
+on the Amur, they are usually fed on fish, particularly the salmon,
+besides which there are caught in Kamchatka, or off its coasts, the
+cod, herring, smelt, as also whales, walruses, and seals. The country
+abounds with geese, ducks, and a variety of wild fowl.
+
+The southern part of the peninsula is inhabited by the Kamchatdales,
+which is the name the Russians give them; but they are called
+_Konchalo_ by their neighbours the Koriaks. They have large round
+faces, prominent cheek-bones, small sunken eyes, flattened noses,
+black hair, and tawny complexions. Their language, very guttural, is
+largely inflexional, or composed of invariable root forms modified by
+prefixes. The poverty of the language may be inferred from their having
+but one word for the sun and moon (_khiht_), but still more from the
+circumstance that it has scarcely any names for fish or birds, which
+are merely distinguished by the moon in which they are most plentiful.
+The language is spoken in the south among the Kuriles, and in the
+extreme north about Penjinsk. Otherwise it is fast dying out, as is
+also the race. In certain parts the people are almost Russified. When
+Captain Cochrane travelled in Siberia, he surprised his friends by
+taking home a Kamchatdale wife, but this did not surprise me after
+meeting at Nikolaefsk, at dinner, a Kamchatdale lady who had married a
+Russian officer. I saw, too, at Khabarofka, and on the steamer, another
+Kamchatdale, of less presentable appearance--a cleric, wearing his
+hair in a queue, perhaps for convenience in travel. He was taken, as a
+boy of 10 years old, to Irkutsk to be educated; afterwards sent to be
+minister in a church in Russian America, and subsequently became priest
+of Okhotsk. He is now near Blagovestchensk, and when I saw him was
+sick. He looked a poor miserable creature, and was pointed out to me by
+Baron Stackelberg, of whom he had openly asked an alms, as “_ce pauvre
+diable_.” He appeared much pleased with some books I gave him, but was
+altogether about the poorest specimen of a priest I saw in Russia.
+
+The number of the Kamchatdales, strictly so called, is estimated at
+3,000. Their capital is Petropavlovsk, the only town on the eastern
+coast of the peninsula.[10] The little town points with pride to its
+two monuments, erected, one to Behring and the other to La Perouse, and
+its old fortifications, now covered with grass and flowers, serve to
+recall the defeat of the English and French allies, who attacked this
+village during the Crimean War.
+
+The Kamchatdales are a people of much amiability and honesty. Their
+houses are always open to the stranger, whom they never weary of
+waiting upon, and from whom they soon forget an injury.[11] They have
+given up, to a large extent, their Shamanism, though they still take
+care, when hunting an animal, not to pronounce its name, lest they
+should be visited by ill luck. The Kamchatdales have not the heroic
+character of their neighbours the Koriaks. Their plaintive songs do not
+celebrate battles, but love, sledge travels, fishing, and hunting. In
+their dances they mimic admirably the movements of animals, bounding
+like the deer, running like the fox, and even entering the water to
+swim like the seal.
+
+The northern half of the peninsula, and the mainland up to the 65th
+parallel, are inhabited by the Koriaks, their district extending
+laterally from the 130th meridian to Behring’s Sea, and north of this
+region to the Frozen Ocean live the Chukchees.[12]
+
+The Anadir is the one river of this region worth mentioning; but
+flowing as it does on the polar circle, and near the limit where
+trees cease to grow, it traverses only solitudes without towns. The
+Russian garrison was obliged to abandon the small fort of Anadirsk,
+constructed on its banks for a fur depôt, at the beginning of the
+eighteenth century, and the Chukchees set it on fire. It is now
+replaced by four little villages, with a united population of about
+200, consisting of aborigines and Cossacks living a half-savage life,
+though speaking Russ. The Anadir, like the rest of the rivers in the
+Chukchee and Kamchatdale countries, is so full of fish at the breeding
+season that the water seems alive with them. When the shoals of salmon
+mount the river, the water rises like a bank, and the fish are so
+pressed together that they can be taken by hand. The water ceases to be
+drinkable, and its smell and taste become intolerable, by reason of the
+millions of its inhabitants in a state of decomposition.
+
+The Koriaks seem to be related to the Chukchees, and speak a dialect
+approaching theirs. They are divided into settled and wandering
+Koriaks, the former occupying themselves in fishing, the latter as
+reindeer keepers and hunters. Their southern limit in Kamchatka is
+the village of Tigil, whither they go once a year to exchange their
+commodities. Travellers do not speak well of the settled Koriaks.
+Deprived of their herds of reindeer, they have no resource but fishing
+and traffic with foreign sailors and Russian dealers. The first are
+said to have taught them drinking and debauchery, and the second lying
+and stealing. They are eaten up with misery and vice, and are the most
+degraded of the Siberian tribes. Only the women tattoo their faces,
+thinking thereby to arrest the ravages of time. Their winter yourts
+may be classed among the most extraordinary of human habitations.
+They are built somewhat like a huge wooden hour-glass, 20 feet high,
+in the shape of the letter X, and are entered by climbing a pole on
+the outside, and then sliding down another through the “waist” of the
+hour-glass, which waist serves for door, window, and chimney. Holes
+are cut in the logs for climbing, but they are too small for the
+heavily-clad fur boots of a novice, who has, therefore, amid sparks
+and smoke, to hug the pole, slide down, and as best he can avoid
+the fire at the bottom. The interior presents a strange appearance,
+lighted only from above. The beams, rafters, and logs are smoked to
+a glossy blackness. A wooden platform, raised about a foot from the
+earth, extends out from the walls on three sides, to a width of six
+feet, leaving an open spot 8 or 10 feet in diameter in the centre
+for the fire, and a huge copper kettle of melting snow, in which is
+usually simmering fish, reindeer meat, dried salmon, or seals’ blubber
+with rancid oil; these make up the Koriaks’ bill of fare. When any
+one enters the yourt, the inmates are apprised of the fact by a total
+eclipse of the chimney hole. Among the wandering Koriaks an entrance
+to the tent is effected by creeping on the ground through a hole into
+a large open circle, which forms the interior. A fire burns upon the
+ground in the centre, and round the inner circumference of the yourt
+are constructed apartments called _pologs_, which are separated one
+from another by skin curtains, and combine the advantages of privacy
+with warmth and fugginess! These pologs are about four feet high and
+eight feet square. They are warmed and lighted by a burning fragment of
+moss floating in a wooden bowl of seal oil, which vitiates the air and
+creates an intolerable stench.
+
+Mr. Kennan gives a humorous description of his first supper among the
+wandering Koriaks, and their substitute for bread, called _manyalla_,
+of which the original elements are clotted blood, tallow, and
+half-digested moss taken from the stomach of the reindeer, where it
+is supposed to have undergone some change fitting it for second-hand
+consumption. These curious ingredients are boiled with a few handfuls
+of dried grass, and the dark mass is then moulded into small loaves and
+frozen for future use. As a mark of special attention, the host bites
+off a choice morsel from a large cube of venison in his greasy hand,
+and then, taking it from his mouth, offers it to his guest.
+
+The wandering Koriaks necessarily move their habitation frequently;
+for a herd of 4,000 or 5,000 deer (Mr. Bush mentions one Koriak as
+possessing 15,000 of them) paw up the snow, and in a very few days eat
+all the moss within a mile of the encampment. This independent kind of
+life has given to the Koriaks the impatience of restraint, independence
+of civilization, and perfect self-reliance, which distinguish them
+from the Kamchatdales and other settled inhabitants of Siberia. They
+are most hospitable, and the best of husbands and fathers. Mr. Kennan,
+during his sojourn of 2½ years among them, never saw a Koriak strike
+any of his belongings. They treat their animals with kindness, and will
+on no account sell a deer alive. A slain deer may be had for a pound
+of tobacco. Among the Koriaks the animal costs 10_s._, at Okhotsk from
+20_s._ to 30_s._, and on the Amur £5.
+
+Like the Kamchatdales, the Chukchees are obliged to earn their
+wives by working a year or more in the service of the prospective
+father-in-law, and even then the lover may be refused. In any case,
+at the wedding ceremony he has to pursue the object of his devotion
+through the pologs of a tent, the bridesmaids doing all they can
+to facilitate the passage of the bride, and, by keeping down the
+curtains and whipping him with switches, to hinder the progress of the
+bridegroom. The lover usually overtakes the maiden, however, in the
+last polog but one, and there they remain together for seven days and
+seven nights.
+
+The treatment of the sick and aged in these regions is remarkable,
+for they put them to death to avoid protracted suffering. I heard the
+same alleged of the Gilyaks, but it was afterwards contradicted. The
+Koriaks look upon this as the natural end of their existence; and when
+they think the time come, they choose in what manner the last office
+of affection shall be rendered. Some ask to be stoned, and some to be
+killed by the hatchet or knife. All the young Koriaks learn the art of
+giving the fatal _coup de grace_ as painlessly as possible.
+
+Sometimes the younger request the old to wait a bit; but in any case
+immediately after death the corpse is burnt, to allow the spirit to
+escape into the air. Formerly, infanticide was common among them, and
+of twins one was always sacrificed. None of the Siberian tribes have
+shown such bravery in resisting the Russians as have the Koriaks and
+Chukchees, and some of these still retain their independence.
+
+The Chukchee coast extends from Chaunskaia Bay, round Behring’s
+peninsula, to the Anadir river. The fauna of this part of Siberia is
+richer than in the west. Probably some of the American animals have
+crossed the ice of Behring’s Straits, and are mingled with those of
+Asia. The Alpine hare, the bear, the marmot, the weasel, the otter,
+are common, and wild deer roam in herds of thousands. Snakes, frogs,
+and toads are not found in North-Eastern Siberia nor in Kamchatka. In
+the latter country, however, are lizards, which are regarded as of
+evil omen, and when found are cut up in pieces, that they may tell
+no one who killed them. The country teems with lemmings, which from
+time to time migrate in myriads, crossing in a straight line rivers,
+lakes, even arms of the sea, though decimated on the way by shoals of
+hungry fish. Travellers are sometimes stayed for hours, waiting the
+marching-past of these huge armies.[13]
+
+Many fur-bearing animals in Kamchatka and the Chukchee country have
+greatly diminished in number since the advent of the Russian hunters,
+as is the case in the neighbouring seas, where some of the species have
+altogether disappeared.[14]
+
+The aspect on the two sides of Behring’s Straits is very different.
+America is wooded, whilst the Chukchee country has no vegetation but
+lichens and mosses, and from a distance looks completely bare. Among
+the flora, however, of North-Eastern Siberia is a peculiar mushroom
+spotted like a leopard, and surmounted with a small hood--the fly
+agaric, which here has the top scarlet, flecked with white points.
+In other parts of Russia it is poisonous. Among the Koriaks it is
+intoxicating, and a mushroom of this kind sells for three or four
+reindeer. So powerful is the fungus that the native who eats it
+remains drunk for several days, and by a process too disgusting to be
+described, half-a-dozen individuals may be successively intoxicated
+by the effects of a single mushroom, each in a less degree than his
+predecessor. The natives dig for roots and tubers, which serve for food
+or making intoxicating drinks. They eat also the green bark of the
+birch mixed with caviar.
+
+In certain valleys, especially in those of Kamchatka, the grass exceeds
+the height of a man, and the Russian settlers make hay three times a
+year. The culture of cereals is of little profit; oats thrive best.
+Hemp has been grown, but not in sufficient quantities to replace the
+nettle as a textile thread. In fact, gardening has succeeded better
+than agriculture, and now the natives cultivate in hundreds of gardens
+cabbages, potatoes, beetroot, turnips, carrots, and other vegetables
+introduced by the Russians in the last century. All these, however,
+added to their other kinds of food, barely give sustenance enough to
+the Kamchatdales and their dogs, without which it would be almost
+impossible for them to leave their huts at certain times of the year.
+During the four months of summer they must lay up dry fish to provide
+for eight months of winter, and the normal amount of winter food for
+a pack of half-a-dozen Kamchatdale dogs is 100,000 herrings. Besides
+this the owner’s family must be nourished, and hence, if a bad season
+comes, and the fishing or hunting fails, death is certain; for to the
+greater part of the natives who have no deer, winter and want are
+synonymous terms.
+
+It was on the Chukchee coast that the vessel of Professor
+Nordenskiöld--the _Vega_--was frozen in. The ship had continued her
+eastward course to the 28th September, and had arrived to within a few
+miles of the open water of Behring’s Straits. New ice had, however,
+begun to form, and the ship had passed into a narrow and shallow
+channel, where the crew made fast for the night, hoping to disentangle
+themselves in the morning without difficulty, especially as whalers
+had sometimes remained in these parts till the middle of October.
+They were disappointed, however. For at least a month the wind blew
+from the north, and by the 25th of November the new ice was two feet
+thick, so that there was no hope of getting free till the following
+summer. The _Vega’s_ winter harbour was at the northernmost part of
+Behring’s Straits, a mile from land, and only about two miles from
+the point where the straits open into the Pacific, for the passage of
+which a single hour’s steam at full speed would have sufficed. This
+was disappointing to the professor’s party, but they built a magnetic
+observatory, made what discoveries they could in the interest of
+science, and formed acquaintance with the Chukchees. They describe
+the natives’ tents as kept at so great a heat that the children were
+usually naked. The women wore only a girdle, and the children sometimes
+ran from one tent to another without shoes or clothing in a temperature
+below freezing point.
+
+Some of the party made excavations in the neighbourhood of
+dwelling-places of a race that was driven by the Chukchees hundreds of
+years ago to islands in the Polar Sea. The people were called Onkelon.
+Their houses were in groups, and built, or at least partly so, of
+whale-bones and driftwood, covered with earth, and connected by long
+passages with the open air and with one another. The kitchen middens
+contained bones of whale, walrus, seal, reindeer, etc., together with
+stone and bone implements, fastened by leather thongs to wooden handles.
+
+The language of the Chukchees and Koriaks has not been reduced to
+writing, nor do these people attempt to express ideas by signs or
+pictures. The Russians, however, have attempted something towards
+Christianizing them, and the first missionary arrived so far back as
+1704, though baptism did not become general among them till 1800.
+Some of the Chukchees, notwithstanding their savage and independent
+spirit (which has become somewhat softened in the few who have received
+baptism), are just and honest; and though implacable to an enemy, are
+staunch and true to a friend. They are only nominal subjects of Russia,
+and it will apparently take long before the Russian Government can hope
+to Christianize and civilize them.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Among early sources of information concerning voyages to the
+north-eastern seas, we have the “History of Kamchatka and the Kurile
+Islands,” translated from the Russian by Dr. Grieve in 1764. In 1802
+Martin Sauer wrote an account of a geographical and astronomical
+expedition to the north parts of Russia, the mouth of the Kolima, to
+East Cape, and islands in the Eastern Ocean, performed by Commodore
+Joseph Billings from 1785 to 1794; and within 20 years afterwards
+Captain Burney published a chronological history of north-eastern
+voyages of discovery, and of the early eastern navigation of the
+Russians; but these brought us no further than 1819. The admirable
+“Géographie Universelle” of M. Réclus (by far the best geographical
+work on Siberia I have met with) gives a map showing the routes not
+only of the principal travellers by land, but also furnishes an
+excellent account of Siberian maritime discoveries down to the present
+day.
+
+To confine ourselves more particularly to Kamchatka, we have the
+travels in 1787-8 of M. de Lesseps, Consul of France, and interpreter
+to the Count de la Perouse, who landed in the peninsula, and thence
+made his way by land round the northern coast of the Okhotsk Sea,
+and crossed Asia and Europe to Paris. A quarter of a century later,
+Peter Dobell followed the same route, and was deserted by his Tunguse
+guides in the vicinity of Okhotsk, which town, however, he at length
+reached, and crossed Siberia to Europe. Accounts of remarkable travels
+in this part of the country have been written by two Americans--Messrs.
+Bush and Kennan--who went, in 1865, to make preliminary surveys for
+a proposed route for telegraph wires intended to traverse Behring’s
+Straits from America, continue across the peninsula, and round the
+Sea of Okhotsk to Nikolaefsk, and thence to the Chinese frontier. The
+enterprise was ultimately abandoned, but not till the country had
+been surveyed from the straits to the mouth of the Amur, in doing
+which these authors passed through portions of country untravelled by
+foreigners before.
+
+For a short account of the early exploration of Siberia by sea and
+land, _see_ Appendix E.
+
+[2] It is a great gulf shut in from the North Pacific Ocean by the
+promontory of Kamchatka, and a chain of islands reaching down to Japan
+It measures from 1,200 to 1,400 miles from north to south, and from 700
+to 800 miles from east to west, the greatest depth being 700 yards.
+
+[3] It was curious to hear that whales are now more shy than formerly,
+and that the whalers dare not row their boats, but must sail them to
+the monsters, who are then sometimes frightened away even by the baling
+out of water. I learned, too, that in the Sea-coast province they have
+great difficulty in procuring a sufficiency of suitable sailors for the
+trade; for although ordinary seamen will do for a part of the crew,
+there ought to be about eight of the officers and men who are experts.
+
+[4] I saw a considerable number of dried _trepangs_, or sea-snails, at
+Vladivostock, worth in China 30 dollars the pickle of 133 lbs., say
+1_s._ a lb. The Chinese employ them in the preparation of a nutritious
+soup in common with sharks’ fins, edible birds’ nests, and an esculent
+seaweed, or cabbage, of which last 3,000 tons are taken yearly from the
+bays of the Sea-coast province.
+
+[5] They sailed round Cape Horn to Siberia, but met with foul weather,
+which delayed them for a whole season, and initiated their failure. Not
+having the means to return to Finland, they were getting their living
+as best they could. The commander of the _Onon_, Captain Stjerncreutz,
+was one of them. I discovered that he was a cousin of Miss Heijkel,
+my fellow-passenger in Finland in 1876, who, to help me in procuring
+a horse, introduced me to the family I have mentioned at Wasa. This
+was the third Finlander I chanced to meet in Siberia with whom I could
+claim a sort of acquaintance.
+
+[6] Many ranges of terraces and secondary summits surround the mountain
+as with an enormous pedestal, so that its base has a circumference
+of not less than 200 miles. The fissured summit constantly smokes,
+and twice or thrice a year throws out cinders. Ashes and dust have
+sometimes been carried to a distance of 180 miles, and covered the
+ground many inches deep, preventing the Kamchatdales from sledging. An
+eruption in 1737 ejected much lava, and this, dissolving the glaciers,
+poured into the neighbouring valleys a deluge of waters. In 1854
+another stream of fire descended from Mount Kluchevsky. From the crater
+of the Avasha, immediately behind Petropavlovsk, have been thrown at
+the same time stones, lava, and water. The following are some of the
+active volcanoes: Korakovsky, 11,200 feet; Chevelutch, 10,529; Jupanof,
+8,478; Avatcha, 8,344; and the Great Tolbach, 7,618; whilst, of the
+extinct volcanoes, Uchkin is the highest, with an elevation of 10,977
+feet.
+
+[7] Mr. Hill describes one lasting no less than eight minutes. During
+the whole of this time rumbling and loud noises were heard beneath the
+ground, and the earth trembled violently. Some of those who experienced
+it said they thought at one moment that the earth was sinking beneath
+them, and the sea about to rush in upon the land, and the next that
+they were rising upon the crust of the crater of a volcano in terrible
+eruption beneath the ground.
+
+[8] Admiral Ricord, a former governor of Kamchatka, imported potatoes
+for seed, and they were planted, but not taken up the following autumn.
+The next year, being found abundant and good, they were allowed to
+remain, where, dying and propagating continually, they yielded more
+than were locally required. Mr. Hill accounts for the phenomenon by the
+fact that neither damp nor frost could reach the potatoes; for though
+in winter the snow covers the surface of the frozen ground, yet so
+great in this vicinity is the internal volcanic heat that the earth is
+quite dry, and never frozen below a few inches from the surface.
+
+[9] They love sledging, and upon a journey of four or five days will
+work from 14 to 16 hours out of the 24 without tasting food, the idea
+of their masters being that, when travelling, the less food the dogs
+receive, short of starvation, the better. The travelling sledge weighs
+about 25 lbs. (a freight sledge is heavier), and a good team will
+travel from 40 to 60 miles a day. When running, they must be paired
+with dogs known to each other from puppies; and, should they happen
+to cross the scent of a deer, so fond are they of its flesh that they
+sometimes become utterly unmanageable, upset the sledge (or _nartee_,
+as it is called), and leave the driver, it may be, to perish in the
+snow.
+
+[10] It is situated on the right shore of the splendid Bay of Avatcha,
+which may claim with Rio Janeiro and San Francisco to be one of the
+finest harbours in the world. It is perfectly protected from the winds,
+and, transplanted to a more favourable position, it might be one of
+the greatest of markets; but since the fishery of the whale in the
+surrounding seas has lost its importance, Petropavlovsk has sunk from a
+place of 1,000 inhabitants to one of 500. Mr. Dobell, who lived in the
+peninsula five years, says that he found there many dykes and mounds,
+from the existence of which he argues that the country was once thickly
+populated.
+
+[11] Their hospitality is carried even to excess. They visit one
+another, for instance, during a month or six weeks, until the generous
+host, finding his stock exhausted, gives the hint by serving up a
+dish called “_tolkootha_,” a hodge-podge, composed of meat, fish, and
+vegetables; upon which the guests depart the following day.
+
+[12] The Russian calendar gives the following numbers to these peoples:
+Kamchatdales, 4,360; Koriaks, 5,250; and Chukchees, 12,000. Mr.
+Kennan, however, doubts this, and thinks that they do not exceed 5,000
+altogether.
+
+[13] The industrious little creatures store up their grain and roots
+underground, covering them, _it is said_, before their migration,
+with poisonous plants, to hinder other animals from eating them. The
+Kamchatdales, in times of necessity, help themselves to these stores,
+but do not fail to replace what they take by _caviar_, or remains of
+fish, that they may not alarm such benevolent purveyors.
+
+[14] Whalers have now to go much further north for their prey; the
+sea-otter, with its precious skin, and the sea-lion are rarely seen on
+the strand and rocks of Behring’s isle, and the sea-cow is completely
+exterminated. The sea-bear, as Réclus calls it, but which I suspect
+is that we know as the seal, was threatened also with extermination,
+until the Americans purchased the monopoly of taking them on Russian
+territory.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIX.
+
+_THE ISLAND OF SAKHALIN._
+
+ Geographical description.--Meteorology.--Flora and
+     fauna.--Population.--Cultivation.--Mineral
+     products.--Coal-mine at Dui and penal settlement.--Prison
+     statistics.--Flogging.--Desperate criminals.--Complaints of
+     prison food.--Prison labour.--Difficulties of escape.--Prison
+     executive and alleged abuses.--General opinion on Siberian
+     prisons.--Comparison of Siberian and English convicts.
+
+
+Sakhalin (or Saghalien), an island nearly as large as Portugal, was
+not generally known to be an island until a century ago.[1] A gloomy
+interest now attaches to it, because of late years the Russians have
+been deporting thither a large proportion of their criminal convicts,
+so that it promises to be the Siberian prison of the future.
+
+As Sakhalin extends over eight degrees of latitude, the climate varies
+considerably; but at the best, in Aniva Bay, it cannot be called other
+than severe, for while the latitude is the same as that of Lombardy,
+the average temperature is that of Archangel. Besides this low
+temperature, the climate is one of great humidity. At Kusunai, in the
+south of the island, 250 days in the year are foggy or rainy, and the
+east coast is worse.
+
+The vegetation of the island resembles that of the neighbouring Manchu
+mainland, with the addition of some of the species common to the
+Japanese archipelago, and among them a sort of bamboo, which, attaining
+to the height of a man, covers whole mountains. Certain American
+species also mingle with the Asiatic flora, so that out of 700 kinds of
+phanerogamous plants, not more than 20 belong specially to Sakhalin.
+The plants on the lowest grounds resemble those of the opposite
+continent. The mountain slopes to the height of 500 yards are clothed
+with conifers, and higher are birches and willows, above which are the
+thick dark branches of creeping shrubs. The animals found on the island
+resemble those of the continent, and the tiger at times crosses the ice
+on the Mamia Strait to the northern portions; though no specimen has
+been seen in the south, nor did the Aïnos at the advent of the Russians
+know that animal even by name.
+
+The population of the island is reckoned at 15,000. To the north are
+about 2,000 Gilyaks. In the centre are the Oroks, or Orochi--Tunguses
+of the same stock as the Manguns and Orochons of the Lower Amur; and
+in the south are the Aïnos. These last are thought to have been the
+aboriginal population, not only of Sakhalin and of the Kuriles, but
+of the Japanese islands also. They have been driven to their present
+locality by the Gilyaks and Oroks from the north, and by the Japanese
+from the south, and the slavery to which the Japanese fishermen have
+reduced them has contributed alike to their diminution and their moral
+degradation.[2]
+
+Judging from a photograph I chanced to procure of an Aïno, they have
+large and wide cheeks, a narrow forehead, and eyes not so elongated
+as with the Chinese races, and their appearance is more European. The
+Aïno’s ample beard and moustache are worthy of a Russian. The Japanese,
+representing, with the Russians, the “upper classes” in Sakhalin, have
+established fishing-stations along the southern coast of the island,
+managed by a population who live there for the season without their
+families. On the south-eastern shore live 700 Chinese, engaged in
+gathering trepangs and sea-cabbage. Réclus mentions a trade in this
+last from the Bay of Paseat, in the south of the province, of £400 in
+1864, £13,500 in 1865, £40,000 in 1866. The natives subsist on fish,
+and eat no bread. I was told at Khabarofka that the Aïnos contrive to
+make an intoxicating drink called _sakhe_--probably that described
+by Miss Bird as obtained from the root of a tree--which, to attain
+their highest notion of happiness, they drink to beastly intoxication.
+As for the Russians in Sakhalin, nearly all are in the military or
+prison service, and are supplied with provisions by the Government, the
+resources of the island being utterly inadequate. I heard that a large
+proportion of the convicts are employed in farming on a considerable
+scale, but the cultivation of cereals and vegetables, and the raising
+of cattle, have not yet, I think, made much progress. Whether they
+can ever thrive in more than a certain number of sheltered valleys is
+doubtful.
+
+[Illustration: THE MILITARY POST AND PENAL COLONY AT PORT DUI IN
+SAKHALIN.]
+
+The Russian military posts are all by the sea. Dui is the principal,
+situated about the middle of the western coast. On the shores of Aniva
+Bay are the Korsakoff barracks, with a garrison of 500 soldiers.
+Muravieff, near this, is a military post, and its port is perhaps the
+best, or rather the least bad, in the island; for along a coast of
+1,200 miles Sakhalin has not a single harbour where vessels can anchor
+in real safety.
+
+The island was held for a time jointly by Russia and Japan, and the
+latter was not altogether disposed to give up her portion; but the
+importation of convicts soon brought the Japanese to terms, and the
+Russians are now sole masters. I am not aware that it has any metals,
+though I heard of a surface iron-mine on the opposite coast near to
+Nikolaefsk, belonging to Mr. Boutyn of Nertchinsk, which it was said
+might be worked for scores of years without exhaustion, the mine being
+similar in character to that which I saw in the Urals. The one mineral
+production of Sakhalin is coal, of which 70,000 tons were raised in
+1878. I heard the coal spoken of as good, but small. Recently it has
+been described as “dusty nut-coal, suitable for smithy work, but not
+for steaming.” Coal at Sakhalin costs more than in Japan or Australia.
+The mines are let out by the Government to a company, which from the
+first has seen small prosperity.[3]
+
+The mention of the mines, and of those who work them, leads me to
+speak of the prisons, about which I have official statistics. I
+obtained information from several military and naval officers; also
+from a soldier, a prison officer, and a civilian, all of whom had
+been to Sakhalin, and most of whom spoke as eye-witnesses. At Dui, it
+would seem, there are four large prisons. I heard of them, from one
+who had lived in the island, as insufficiently heated in winter, and
+over-crowded. Another report, sent secretly by a prisoner to my exile
+informant, corroborated the alleged want of space. They said, however,
+that additional buildings were in course of erection.[4]
+
+The number of prisoners in the island in 1879 was about 2,600; half
+were reported to be in prison, the remainder comparatively free. The
+Sakhalin convicts are for the most part murderers, vagabonds, and
+runaways, there being no “politicals” among them.[5]
+
+Dui is one of the three places where the authorities may use, in
+addition to the birch, the troichatka or plète, which I have described
+(vol. i., p. 92). I have no trustworthy information as to the frequency
+with which flogging is inflicted. At Tiumen the prison director said
+that, of 80,000 exiles who had passed through his hands in four
+years, he had flogged only one. This, perhaps, is an extreme in one
+direction. An exile, purporting to give information he had received
+from a prisoner at Dui, and also translating into French what was
+supposed to be addressed to me by a Russian soldier from Sakhalin,
+said that Tuesday and Saturday were flogging days at Dui, and that
+they flogged from 40 to 50 a week. This, I afterwards learned, was
+very much exaggerated; and I had strong suspicions at the time that
+my interpreter was making up a story for my note-book, which he saw
+me writing. It is, in fact, difficult to know what is the truth, as
+so much exaggeration has been used concerning the flogging of Russian
+prisoners.[6]
+
+I saw at Nikolaefsk the wooden _kobyla_, or “mare,” on which the
+culprit is laid; it is preferable, I should think, to the birching
+“horse” in the Middlesex prison, Coldbath Fields, though, of course,
+there can be no comparison between the birch and the plète. The latter
+is a truly fearful instrument, but it is right to remember that the
+Russians use it for the more part on such as we should hang outright.
+Corporal punishment cannot be inflicted in Russia on a free man for a
+first offence. Only the worst offenders are sent so far east as the
+localities where the plète exists; and according to the law (Article
+808) this punishment is reserved for those who, condemned to hard
+labour, have committed further crime in Siberia, where it would seem
+there are not wanting some desperate characters.
+
+When we passed through Ekaterineburg, for instance, a horrible incident
+had occurred only four days previously. A man had entered brandy-shops,
+ordered drink, and then presented a revolver to the salesmen if they
+dared to require payment, and had treated isvostchiks in a similar
+manner. He was summoned before the court, but through some technicality
+got off, and subsequently told one of his prosecutors that he would
+kill the lot of them; whereupon a number of isvostchiks set upon him,
+and wounded him with 30 stabs. Some four or five were awaiting trial
+at the time of my visit. Again, a murder took place during my stay at
+Nikolaefsk, at a small drinking-shop in the town, kept by a man and
+his wife. Two soldiers were in the habit of going there, and at night
+one said, “Let us go and kill those two and get what brandy we want.”
+Accordingly, very early in the morning, they went, knocked at the door,
+and, on the man opening it, one of the soldiers stabbed him. The other,
+after some difficulty, killed the wife, and all but cut off her head. A
+serving woman narrowly escaped stabbing, but rushed out of the window
+and told the police. The soldiers were called out, and the two men
+identified, whereupon they both confessed their crime, and were taken
+to the guard-house to await legal proceedings, which would consign
+them, not to death, but to hard labour, it was supposed, in Sakhalin,
+for 15 or 20 years.
+
+I think the worst thing I heard of Dui was about the prisoners’ food.
+From two or three independent sources I was told that they did not
+get enough. For some weeks one year they were reduced to a pound and
+a half of bread a day, in consequence of an insufficient quantity of
+flour having been sent to the island,--or, rather, by reason of the
+ice breaking up that season so late that a fresh supply could not
+be forwarded. Again, a naval officer told me that he had seen the
+convicts, when bringing coal to his vessel, pick up and eat the scraps
+which the seamen had thrown away. I should not think much of this,
+however, for when I was on board a Russian man-of-war I saw fragments
+of seamen’s biscuit tossed overboard such as any hungry man might well
+be thankful for, and which, being of superior flour, a convict would
+naturally relish in preference to his ordinary rye bread.
+
+The soldier who came from Sakhalin told me that the prison fare
+consisted, on four days a week, of 3 lbs. (Russian) of bread and ¼ lb.
+of meat, and on three days, of 3 lbs. of bread and 1 lb. of fish, which
+is the quantity of bread allowed to the soldiers there, and exceeds the
+weight of bread given to English prisoners. It should be added that
+one of my informants said the prisoners gambled. Cards, with brandy
+at an exorbitant price, they manage to smuggle into the prison, and
+then play for their food. Goryantchikoff draws a vivid picture of this
+practice carried on at night. When all are supposed to be asleep, a
+piece of carpet is spread, a candle lighted, and a sentinel posted.
+The card-playing then begins, and often does not cease till morning;
+and the prisoners, having no money, stake their food and clothes.
+It is not matter for surprise, therefore, if some of the prisoners
+find themselves with insufficient or very bad clothing, the frequent
+cause of which should be borne in mind in connection with the reckless
+statements sometimes published respecting the clothing of Russian
+prisoners.
+
+Making due allowance for exaggeration, however, I am disposed to think
+that there is real cause for complaint regarding the food at Dui, as
+to quality, if not quantity.[7] There are certain local circumstances
+which would render it likely that the prisoners’ food in the Sea-coast
+province, and especially Sakhalin, would not be so satisfactory as in
+Western Siberia. The cost of provisions is very much higher in the
+east, and the Government does not appear to allow proportionately
+increased payment.[8]
+
+Testimony went in the opposite direction as regards the prisoners’
+labour, and all seemed of opinion that they were not overworked. The
+agricultural convicts, from the great length and severity of the
+winter, are idle the greater part of the year. The Polish exile said,
+indeed, that the work was harder than at Kara, and that if the allotted
+amount of work were unfinished, the miners were flogged; but when the
+yearly output amounts to only 70,000 tons, it speaks for itself that
+the getting of this quantity and loading the ships therewith is a mere
+trifle for 1,000 or 1,500 men; and as in the other penal colonies of
+Siberia, convicts suffer more, I judge, from inactivity than from
+overwork. The miners spend 11 hours a day in the mine, from eight to
+noon and one till eight; and then return to their barracks or houses,
+not working, a German told me, so hard as English miners. One officer,
+who had been much in Dui, said that the daily task of a prisoner was
+not more than he himself could do in a couple of hours of really hard
+work, and that the men are idle and spin out the work.
+
+Another, in answer to my question, replied that there was no difference
+perceptible in the general health of the convict miners and farmers;
+and the traveller I have quoted from the _North China Herald_ goes so
+far as to say, “The conclusion we arrived at was, that contentment
+prevailed throughout, even the convicts giving no evidence of
+discontent.”
+
+To escape from the prisons of Dui has been comparatively easy, but
+it is almost impossible to get far away, owing to the scarcity of
+provisions and the nature of the country; and the difficulty will no
+doubt be increased when the cable is laid[9] from De Castries Bay
+to Dui. From this spot the runaway must first walk 200 miles along
+the coast, and this through a country where he can get no provisions.
+He dare not show himself to the natives, since there is a price on
+his head, and they receive 6_s._ for taking him to the police, dead
+or alive; and even if he should succeed in crossing the six miles of
+ice to the continent, he is often compelled to give himself up to get
+food. Thus, out of 100 who were reported to have run away the winter
+before my journey, 32 were caught by the Gilyaks, and one case of
+cannibalism was said to have taken place among the starving fugitives.
+A terrible instance of the difficulty of procuring food in the Amur
+region occurred in 1856, when a battalion of soldiers was dispatched
+in September from Nikolaefsk up the river to Shilkinsk Zavod. They
+were overtaken by winter, and were compelled to draw lots as to who
+should be eaten. The survivors walked on the ice and arrived in safety.
+Mr. Emery told me he had more than once seen hungry runaways give
+themselves up to the authorities. Runaways when caught are flogged; but
+this does not prevent others from making the attempt to escape. During
+my stay at Nikolaefsk a rumour spread that a third of the prisoners
+landed by the _Nijni Novgorod_ had escaped, having in their possession
+30 revolvers; and as the small Cossack station on the island opposite
+the mouth of the Amur had only 15 men, it was feared they would be in
+a plight. Within a day or two the reported numbers sank to one-half,
+and I have since learned that 40 was the number--some newly arrived and
+others older convicts, and that 27 were caught.
+
+With regard to the prison executive, there is a resident priest
+in Sakhalin; and since my visit a schoolmistress has been sent for
+the convicts’ children, who are kept in prison. I sent a supply of
+Scriptures and tracts for the prisoners and soldiers at Dui and Aniva
+Bay. In the _Nijni Novgorod_, too, there came out a priest and an
+assistant bringing with them a number of ecclesiastical books. The
+assistant and books had been sent, I believe, by the Consistorium,
+from which the priest at Vladivostock, at the time of my visit,
+was expecting £40 worth of ecclesiastical literature. To every 100
+prisoners in Dui there are one superior and two under officers, all
+of whom are miserably paid. The usual charges of peculation and using
+for their own advantage the prisoners’ work are brought against them;
+but with what amount of truth I cannot say. The most shameful abuse I
+heard of concerning Sakhalin was that formerly the female prisoners
+were allowed clandestinely to go on board the ships whilst coaling,
+and were expected, on their return, to share with the warders their
+licentious gains. This came from a prison official, but I cannot answer
+for its truth; though when I asked a Russian doctor if it was at all
+likely to be true, he thought it not improbable, and said that he had
+no doubt female prisoners could, by payment to under officers, get
+release for an occasional promenade. To what depths of rascality some
+of the prison authorities may descend, I know not; but one officer, of
+whom I thought highly, told me that he had been sometimes appointed to
+inspect Siberian prisons, and in one of them, which he named, he found
+the director had committed such frauds that, could he have hanged him,
+he would have done so. As it was, he reported him to his chief, and
+the man was removed. On the sea coast they say the heaven is high and
+the Tsar is far off; and a bribe goes a long way in diverting the hand
+of justice. For instance, one merchant declared that released convicts
+had sometimes stolen his goods, but that he could not get them punished
+because the offenders bribed the police. At Nikolaefsk they testified
+that one convict, a murderer, who ought to have been fast in prison,
+was allowed, for handsome payment, the run of the streets; though,
+like John Bunyan in Bedford Gaol, he was obliged to be in prison when
+inspectors came. This may be sufficiently shocking to English readers,
+but not less so, perhaps, the following from nearer home. When visiting
+one of the largest and best-managed prisons of England, and pointing to
+the warders in broadcloth, I said to the gentleman conducting me, “Do
+you think these men can be reached by a bribe?” To which he replied, “I
+have not the smallest doubt of it; they bring in tobacco and eatables
+to the cells, and we are powerless to prevent it. A prisoner, for
+instance, informs his warder as to the whereabouts of his friends, and
+perhaps asks him to call. On doing so the warder can inquire, ‘What
+would you like me to do for your friend who is under my charge? and
+what will you give me for doing it?’” A simple-minded woman, in her
+innocence, came one day to the chaplain of a prison I know, complaining
+that it “cost her so much to get little comforts to her incarcerated
+husband”; and then came out the story of the warder’s exactions, which
+at last had exhausted her means and patience!
+
+The reader will have observed that, in speaking of Sakhalin, I have
+only given the testimony of others, as I did not go to the island. I
+entered one prison only after leaving Nikolaefsk--that of Vladivostock,
+and I may here, therefore, sum up my personal experience of Siberian
+prisons.
+
+I have met with a deep and almost universal conviction that the prisons
+of Siberia, compared with those of other countries, are intolerably
+bad. This I cannot endorse. A proper comparison would be between the
+Russian sent to Siberia and the English convict as formerly transported
+to Botany Bay; but, comparing the convicts of the two nations as they
+now are, and taking the three primary needs of life--clothing, food,
+and shelter--the Russian convict proves to be fed more abundantly, if
+not better, than the English convict; and the clothing of the two,
+having regard to the dress of their respective countries, is very
+similar. The floors of Siberian cells are not of polished oak, as in
+Paris, nor are the walls of stone slabs, as in York. Siberian prisons
+have not fittings of burnished brass, with everything neat and trim,
+as at Petersburg; but then, neither have the houses of the Siberian
+people. The average peasant, taken from his _izba_ to prison, need
+experience no greater shock than does the average English criminal when
+confined in jail. A convict’s labour in Siberia is certainly lighter
+than in England; he has more privileges; friends may see him oftener,
+and bring him food;[10] and he passes his time, not in the seclusion of
+a cell, nor under imposed silence, but among his fellows, with whom he
+may lounge, talk, and smoke.
+
+I am now looking at things from a prisoner’s point of view, and
+referring more especially to his animal requirements. When we look at
+his intellectual, moral, and religious nature, then it must be allowed
+my former comparison, as between Russian and English prisons, no
+longer holds good. The English convict, if unlettered, is compelled to
+attend school; the Siberian is left in ignorance. In the case of the
+English prisoner, some attempt, at all events, is made at his moral
+reformation. When he enters the prison, and on subsequent occasions,
+it is the chaplain’s duty to see him privately; and having learned,
+if possible, his moral condition, to point out the cause of his fall,
+and to show him the way to rise; and these efforts are attended with
+more success than is known to the general public. Once more, the
+English prisoner has opportunity of daily religious worship--in some
+establishments twice a day, religious instruction twice a week or
+oftener, and this sometimes ends in the happy result that going to
+prison proves the turning-point of a life.
+
+But I can hardly conceive this happening to a Siberian prisoner.
+Chaplains, in our sense of the word, are unknown; and even if the
+criminal be softened at the thought of leaving home or friends, or
+otherwise, he is turned loose among a herd of sinners more wicked
+perhaps than himself, with the imminent probability that he will
+speedily become as abandoned as they. If condemned to hard labour, he
+is robbed of the Sunday and attendance at church; there is none to
+point him to higher and better things, and hence he too often becomes
+a wreck both for this world and the next. Once more, there are in
+England voluntary agencies meeting the prisoner on his release with
+an endeavour to minister to his temporal and spiritual good, so that,
+if he desire to lead a reformed life, he is helped to do so; and
+there are hundreds of former inhabitants of our prisons who to-day
+are respectable members of society. But in regard to the spiritual
+good of the Siberian prisoner, the Russian system is sadly deficient.
+The exile, it is true, is settled in a village, in possession of land
+where, if he chooses to work, he may satisfy his wants, and, as regards
+material things, begin life anew; but he is known as a convict, and
+too often does not care to retrieve his character. A doctor, holding a
+high position in Siberia, told me that he thought the convicts, when
+released, did not as a rule become reformed. They find difficulty,
+he said, in persuading peasants to give them their daughters in
+marriage; and if they marry released female convicts, these have
+almost always been women of bad character, who bear no children. Hence
+the men, having no home, often work during the week only to supply
+immediate wants, and to save enough for a drink on Sunday. Such was his
+testimony, from which it would appear that Siberia furnishes another
+illustration of the truth that reformation, to be worthy of the name,
+except on a religious basis, is impossible.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] This is to some extent indicated by its name, “_Sahalin ula hota_,”
+that is, “Rocks at the mouth of the Black River,” in keeping with which
+idea, on Cook’s map of 1784. Sakhalin is but a small islet near the
+Gulf of the Amur. Other maps, published later, represent Sakhalin as a
+peninsula. It was left to the Russian Admiral Nevilskoy, 30 years ago,
+to lay down with accuracy the shores of the island and the Strait of
+Mamia Rinso, by which it is separated from the continent. Sakhalin is
+about 600 miles long, with an estimated area of 32,000 square miles,
+and traversed length-wise by a mountain chain with craggy summits.
+The coast is for the most part rocky and steep, but opposite the mouth
+of the Amur it consists of sandy downs. Similar downs are found, too,
+on the eastern side of the island. None of the mountains reach the
+line of perpetual snow, but several lift their bare grey summits above
+the limit of vegetation. The island has two large indentations--one
+on the eastern coast, called the Bay of Patience, and another at the
+south, called Aniva Bay; also two rivers, each about the length of the
+Thames, and some smaller streams flowing through arable valleys. It has
+likewise three lakes, the largest of which is 50 miles long.
+
+[2] I am not aware that any efforts have been made for the educational
+or spiritual improvement of the Aïnos of Sakhalin. Veniaminoff reduced
+to writing the language of the neighbouring Kuriles, published a
+grammar, and translated the Gospel of St. Matthew, which was printed at
+Moscow in 1840. When at Hakodate I was informed that the missionaries
+contemplated work among the Aïnos in Yesso, the northern island of
+Japan, and I found this, on my return, to be desired by the late Henry
+Wright, Honorary Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, but I am
+not aware that any efforts have yet been put forth for the Aïnos of
+Sakhalin.
+
+[3] It has the right to employ 400 convicts, for which they pay to the
+Government, says Mr. Réclus, from 9_d._ to 1_s._ 6_d._ per man per day;
+but I heard that it was at a certain rate per pood of coal obtained.
+The company are supposed to supply the Government ships with 5,000 tons
+yearly, if required, at 18_s._ a ton; but in 1878 less than 700 tons
+were so disposed of.
+
+[4] A traveller writing in the _North China Herald_ of August 5th last,
+describing what he saw of the convicts in Sakhalin, says: “They lived
+in barracks which from the outside appeared to be large, airy, and
+commodious. One evening we went to one of them, in which about 1,000
+convicts were ranged in the courtyard. We passed round the building
+and saw that, for ventilation and comfort, arrangements of the most
+complete kind had been made.” But I think he speaks of Korsakovsk,
+south of Dui, where there were in 1881, as I learn from official
+sources, 450 male and female convicts with their families.
+
+[5] The following list gives, for the five years preceding my visit,
+the number of persons condemned to hard labour and sent from European
+Russia by road to the Sea-coast government and Sakhalin, and who, on
+their arrival, were distributed to Nikolaefsk, Dui coal-mines, Dui
+farm, and in small numbers to Aniva Bay. It shows the number remaining
+over annually from the previous year, the number of additions, of
+departures by death, finished terms, or removal elsewhere, and the
+number remaining:--
+
+        |   From    |          |             |
+        | last year.| Arrivals.| Departures. | Remaining.
+  1874  |     962   |     759  |    1,011    |     710
+  1875  |     710   |   1,919  |    1,503    |   1,126
+  1876  |   1,126   |   2,412  |    2,039    |   1,499
+  1877  |   1,499   |   1,494  |    1,429    |   1,564
+  1878  |   1,564   |   1,116  |      988    |   1,692
+
+Taking a rough average, I find a proportion of 18 women convicts to
+100 men. Further details respecting these convicts for 1878 will give
+some idea as to their crimes. There were sent to Nikolaefsk 476 men and
+62 women. Of the men, 98 were removed to Dui, and 378 remained on the
+continent--300 on the Upper Amur, and 70 in the Primorsk province.
+
+These 378 men were convicted of the following crimes:--
+
+  Murder                             155
+  Vagrancy and assuming false names   55
+  Running away                        52
+  Highway robbery                     39
+  Theft                               17
+  Robbery with violence                9
+  Arson                                4
+  Insubordination to authorities      13
+  Counterfeiting money                 3
+  Seduction                            3
+  Incest                               3
+  Removing railway irons               1
+  Crimes not mentioned                24
+
+The crimes of the 62 women were as follows:--
+
+  Murdering husbands                  28
+  Murdering illegitimate children      6
+  Murdering other persons             17
+  Arson                                7
+  Theft                                1
+  Highway Robbery                      1
+  Counterfeiting money                 1
+  Vagrancy                             1
+
+[6] Goryantchikoff, in “Buried Alive,” says a good deal about flogging,
+but some of his writing refers to the condition of things 50 years ago,
+and some of it is, to say the least, questionable; as, for instance, he
+_had heard_ a story of an executioner giving 50 strokes or so more than
+was decreed, because the culprit was stubborn and did not ask pity.
+When I witnessed a birching at Nikolaefsk, a Cossack stood by, counting
+aloud every stroke; and when the plète is administered, a medical
+officer and others are obliged to be present. It is very unlikely,
+therefore, that a lictor would dare to give 50 extra strokes, even if
+he wished to do so. But, further, Goryantchikoff says, “400 or 500
+strokes of a birch rod are almost sure to kill a man, and 1,000 strokes
+will kill the strongest man; but the same number of strokes with a cane
+will hardly injure a man of moderate constitution.” And yet I have
+quoted the case of a soldier at Nikolaefsk birched with 1,100 strokes,
+who, a fortnight afterwards, saucily declared that he would receive
+them again for a bottle of brandy!
+
+[7] A civil officer, whom I know, was told of complaints about the
+food, to which he replied, “What can I do? They now get the supply of
+fish by contract, and allow so small a sum that I know it cannot be
+good. I can only bring the matter before my superiors, and, if they
+do nothing, I am powerless. I cannot pay it out of my own pocket!”
+Again, a naval officer told me that, in taking across provisions to the
+island, the smell of the fish on board was almost insupportable. The
+fish, he said, were bad, and the salt meat bad, though the bread was
+good.
+
+[8] Thus I met with a gentleman who was elected director of the local
+committee for the prison at Nikolaefsk, to whom, for many years,
+the Government allowed only 13 kopecks per day to provide food for
+each prisoner. The committee petitioned for 25 kopecks a day, and it
+received 17, at which rate he believed it now stands. At that time 17
+kopecks represented about 6_d._ a day, now they represent only 4½_d._
+But three pounds of rye bread at Nikolaefsk cost 15 kopecks, and thus
+there was less than 1_d._ left for other kinds of food. The result, in
+the case of my informant, was that he often put his hand in his own
+pocket to the extent of £20 or £30 a year; but it is not likely that
+many can be found thus to act, especially in such a place as Sakhalin,
+where there is no colony, and the free inhabitants are very few. There
+is no philanthropic committee there at all, so that the management
+of the exiles is left solely to the administrative authorities. My
+informant said that the corn sent to Dui was good, but that the meat
+and fish were always bad, and that, in fact, the convicts scarcely ever
+got meat at all.
+
+[9] Alluded to in the _North China Herald_ of August 5th, 1881.
+
+[10] The best conduct of an English convict would not entitle him to a
+visit from friends oftener than once in three months, and they may not
+bring him anything.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER L.
+
+_THE USSURI AND SUNGACHA._
+
+ From Nikolaefsk to Khabarofka.--Proposal to move the port.--Military
+     forces in the province.--Departure for Kamen Ruiboloff.--The
+     Ussuri.--Visit to a parish priest.--The native Goldi.--Missions
+     of the Russian Church.--Pay of missionaries.--Head waters
+     of Ussuri.--The Sungacha.--Cossacks.--Visit to a Cossack
+     stanitza.--Chinese houses.--Lake Khanka.--Arrival at Kamen
+     Ruiboloff.
+
+
+On Saturday night, August 30th, I left Nikolaefsk for Khabarofka,
+pleased with the prospect of travelling 700 miles where no English or
+American author had gone before. By Sunday morning we reached Tyr, and
+Mariinsk and Sophiisk were passed on Monday.[1]
+
+As we approached Khabarofka, on Thursday evening, summer appeared to
+have returned. The small steamer bound for the Ussuri did not start for
+24 hours after our arrival, and so I had another day in Khabarofka,
+which just then was in a state of excitement. General Tichmeneff was
+there, with a commission sent to the Sea-coast government, to consider
+whether or not it was desirable to move the port from Vladivostock.
+In early years Ayan, and next Petropavlovsk, was the Russian port
+in the Pacific; then it was removed to Nijni Kamchatka, afterwards
+to Nikolaefsk, and from thence, in 1865, to Vladivostock. From a
+strategic point of view the situation of Vladivostock was considered
+unsatisfactory, and when it looked possible, in 1878, that England
+and Russia might go to war, the apprehensions of the authorities were
+aroused, and some of the foreign merchants of the port, preferring not
+to run the chance of a siege, decamped to Japan. The question then
+was whether the Government should spend some £300,000 or £400,000 in
+the defence of Vladivostock, to make it a military as well as a naval
+stronghold, or move to another harbour that could be more easily
+fortified. This was the talk of the province during my stay, and steam,
+telegraph, and postal services seemed busy in doing the behests of the
+commission. I caught sight of the general as he and his staff embarked
+on the _Onon_ for Nikolaefsk; and I have since heard that he has been
+appointed military governor of the province, to live at Khabarofka,
+whilst Vladivostock continues as the head-quarters of the fleet, and
+Admiral Erdmann has been recalled to Russia, and is now Governor of the
+Port of Reval.
+
+I made it my business to call upon Major Evfanoff, the commandant,
+as I wished to place Scriptures in the barracks, and to give other
+reading material for distribution among soldiers and Cossacks. At
+Nikolaefsk I had entrusted upwards of 1,200 books and tracts to Colonel
+Ossipoff, which he distributed during my stay; also at Sophiisk I left
+a parcel of 500 with Colonel Ussufovitch.[2] The major expressed his
+willingness to carry out my wishes at Khabarofka, though he did not
+see how the books could be allowed to lie safely in the barrack-rooms
+for every one’s use. I was therefore obliged to ask him to carry out
+my intentions in the way that was most feasible, and he subsequently
+told me that the soldiers were highly pleased, and thankful for the
+distribution.
+
+Besides the books left for the barracks and hospital, I did a stroke
+of business with the merchant Plusnin, selling him a bundle of 250
+tracts, hoping thereby to get them distributed; and had not my stock
+failed, I would gladly have sold to him, or sent to Blagovestchensk,
+some copies of the Scriptures for the Molokans, who, I heard, are the
+largest purchasers, as I suppose they are the greatest readers, of the
+Scriptures on the Amur. Thus, having done what I could for Khabarofka,
+I prepared to leave it on Friday night, September 5th.
+
+The steamboat agents and officials were exceedingly kind to me,
+apparently out of regard to what I was doing. A man said at Nikolaefsk
+that the chief director had been staying with him, and had he known
+that I was coming on such an errand, he should certainly have asked
+for me a free passage. As it was, the clerk would not hear of taking
+anything for the carriage of “the holy books,” and a first-class
+cabin was given for my sole use at a second-class fare, and this was
+repeated on the Ussuri.[3] The great General Tichmeneff had been the
+last occupant of my cabin, and it was draped with Brussels carpet,
+apparently new, the stately proportions of the room being 6 feet long
+by 4 broad and 7 high, which I feared his Excellency, who was bigger
+than I in more senses than one, must have found exceedingly small.
+
+The Ussuri, after the Sungari, is the most considerable of the rivers
+which join the Amur from the south. It flows from the south-west to the
+north-east in the valley that separates the two parallel ridges of the
+Shan-alin and the Sikhota-Alin mountains. At Khabarofka it measures
+nearly two miles wide, having at its mouth three islands and two
+sandbanks, with an ordinary depth of 10 feet, though after the summer
+rains it rises to 19 feet. Ascending 25 miles, the width diminishes to
+a mile and a half, the depth never exceeding 20 feet. The Ussuri was
+chosen in 1860 for a frontier, so that we now had Russian territory on
+the left, and Chinese territory on the right. The Chinese bank is for
+the most part flat, but the horizon is bounded by low mountain peaks.
+The Russian bank is mountainous and richly wooded, being formed of
+the western slopes of the coast range, which give birth to a number
+of streams, the Chirka, Bikin, Por, and others, which flow in on the
+eastern bank of the Ussuri. The largest of the streams flowing in on
+the western bank are the Nor, Muren, and Sungacha. At the confluence
+of the Chirka the river is a mile and a quarter wide. For 30 miles
+further the mountains retire, and the bottom land thus left is richly,
+though not thickly, wooded with aspens, willows, oaks, and elms.
+Opposite the mouth of the Por, which flows in on the Russian bank, were
+a few Chinese houses called Sunchui. We had passed a similar group on
+the first day’s travel, and subsequently came to three others, one
+of which, opposite Graphskaya, was called Vikul Uima. The right bank
+was almost uninhabited. Within 70 miles from Khabarofka we passed,
+on the Russian bank, six stations, and among them Kazakevich (where
+was a military post, at which I gave some books to Colonel Glen);
+Dyachenkova, a village of seven houses; and Trëkh-svyateeteley, or the
+“station of three saints.” Another euphonious name was given further on
+to a collection of houses called Vidnaya, or “the beautiful,” where the
+Ussuri divides into three channels.
+
+On Sunday morning we arrived at Kozloffskaya, or the Goat station,
+having a telegraph office and a church. Service was over, and I called
+on the priest, John Voskresenskie (which means resurrection), a man
+who, if not--
+
+    “To all the country dear,
+    Was passing rich on _sixty_ pounds a year!”
+
+His parish extended along the river’s bank, 30 miles to the north and
+50 to the south, and he ministered to 10 villages. To the most distant
+he goes eight times a year, to the others once a month.[4]
+
+Most of the houses at Kozloffskaya had gardens, in some of which maize
+was growing. There was also a private chapel, erected by one of the
+tradesmen. At the next station, Vasilyeva, the Bekin flows in on the
+Russian bank, and the mountains here reach their highest.
+
+On Sunday evening we passed a deserted village of 10 log houses,
+called Pashkova, from which the inhabitants had migrated in a body
+further south. On the Chinese bank the hills, well wooded to the top,
+approached the river. In the course of Sunday night we were delayed
+nine hours by fog, and during the next day stopped for a chat with a
+steam launch, used, if I mistake not, for the telegraph service. This
+was the only craft, excepting the canoes of the natives, that we met.
+Seven stations more were passed, and on Monday evening we arrived at
+Krasnoiarskaia, having completed half our voyage.
+
+The principal natives of the Ussuri are the Goldi. In addition to what
+I read and saw of these people, I acquired a great deal of information
+from Alexander Protodiakonoff, the priest of Khabarofka, who has been
+a missionary hereabouts for 23 years. At Malmuish a missionary, who
+had 3,000 Goldi in his district, came on board the _Onon_, from whom I
+gathered that he had been a priest only a year, during which time he
+had baptized 50 persons. This man called one of the Goldi passengers to
+explain to me the use of my Gilyak idols.
+
+The Goldi are of the Tunguse family, and belong to the Mongolian race.
+Their number was estimated by Collins at 2,560, but a missionary gave
+it me as about 6,000. Their habitat extends along the Amur to the
+country of the Gilyaks on the north, and on the south to the Upper
+Ussuri, whilst laterally it extends from the mouth of the Sungari to
+the sea coast. The mortality among them, as among the Gilyaks, is
+great, but they are, nevertheless, thought to be on the increase. Their
+physiognomy is distinctly Mongolian. They imitate some of the customs
+of the neighbouring Manchu, amongst others that of shaving off the
+hair, with the exception of a tail, which they wear on the top of the
+head. They do not, as a rule, cultivate the ground, even for garden
+produce; and such vegetable food as they use, millet or rice, they
+get in exchange for furs. We did, however, pass two or three Goldi
+huts where millet was under cultivation, and where the natives looked
+unusually dirty. Their houses and clothing I have already spoken of as
+resembling those of the Gilyaks.
+
+Their communications with the outside world are extremely limited. The
+only foreigners they know are Russians and Chinese. When, therefore,
+the natives asked who I was, it was exceedingly difficult to make
+them understand, as they had never seen an Englishman before.[5] The
+Goldi, long used to dealing with the Manchu, still use their money,
+weights, and measures, also their musical instruments. I was told they
+do not sing. Each village has its chief or elder, as formerly, under
+Manchu rule, but they are gradually becoming Russianized. Twenty years
+ago they used to have drunken fights, village with village, but this
+practice is now abandoned, and their treatment of the dead is growing
+more decent; not that they used, like their Mongolian congeners, the
+interior of their dogs for burying-places, the corpse being cut up
+and eaten, but they had in each village a house for the dead, which,
+in summer, stank so horribly as fairly to drive the people away. In
+these buildings the clothes and arms were placed with the corpse, and
+children and friends entered from time to time to mourn. A missionary
+told me he had seen one of these houses within the past 10 years, but
+that now the Goldi bury their dead, as do the Russians.
+
+[Illustration: GOLDI IN WINTER DRESS.]
+
+I spent part of my last evening at Khabarofka at the house of Peter
+Alexander, protodiakonoff, or arch deacon, of that town and two
+neighbouring villages, with a population of 260. He told me that the
+missionary district he superintended, in addition to his parish,
+extended from Orlofsk to Ekaterin-Nicolsk on the Amur, and from Busse
+on the Ussuri to Khabarofka, a river line of about 700 miles. At
+the time of my visit the priest and his brother were engaged on a
+translation of the Gospels, and as he did not appear to know how to
+get it printed, I recommended him to apply to the British and Foreign
+Bible Society, whose obliging and energetic agent in Petersburg,
+Mr. Nicolson, had desired me to be on the look-out for new Siberian
+translations. The Russian liturgy had been already translated into
+Goldi. The priest gave me a photograph of a group of Goldi Christians,
+wearing ear and nose rings, and embroidered garments of fish-skin. I
+set great store by the picture, for it is a rarity. The natives have
+not yet become vain of their faces, and do not like to be photographed.
+This group had been taken for the priest who baptized them. In the
+background is the village starosta, and in front the patriarch of the
+group, whilst a large number of the other figures are women. I know
+not whether many of them were the patriarch’s wives, of whom, before
+baptism, he intended to have a sale. If so, he must have been rich,
+for one of the Goldi, of whom I inquired the price of wives, said that
+if paid in money they cost from £50 to £70; and if in goods, then from
+four to seven pieces of “stuff,” but he did not say whether it was to
+be silk, linen, or blue nankeen.
+
+Peter Alexander, the archdeacon, in 23 years up to October 1878, had
+baptized 2,000 natives; 403 were Orochons (he computed them at 3,000 in
+his district), and 1,501 were Goldi.[6]
+
+I had heard it stated that the Russian missionaries _pay_ the heathen
+to be baptized. One of the missionaries told me that he believed there
+were priests who gave rewards to their converts, though he had not done
+so, and he thought it possible that a few natives presented themselves
+more than once to different priests for baptism, hoping to gain
+thereby. Another allegation, that of a nobleman, was that the converts
+were “bribed.” But this kind of statement is so frequently made by
+those who look coldly on mission work that I did not regard it as
+proven. My informant said that he had seen at Irkutsk that they gave to
+the Buriats shirts, crosses, and a few roubles; and that often the same
+Buriats came again for baptism the following year. Also an Ispravnik,
+interested in the Buriat missions, told me they sometimes gave converts
+five roubles or so when poor and privately persecuted. Accordingly, I
+inquired concerning this of the archdeacon, and he explained by telling
+me that the last 400 he had baptized had received nothing, but that
+previously each candidate had been supplied, at the expense of the
+Missionary Society at Blagovestchensk, with a new shirt, a cross to
+hang on the neck, and an ikon. The reason for this would be evident
+to any one who knows Siberia. There would be no towns near, where the
+Gilyaks, for instance, could buy crosses or ikons, and without the
+possession of these I suppose it is doubtful whether a Russian could be
+persuaded that he was a Christian at all. Again, the new shirt might
+represent the chrisom, or baptismal robe; and even if not, the people’s
+ordinary garments (of fish-skin and dog-skin) are so filthy that it
+would be only becoming that for once in their lives, at their baptism,
+they should look decently clean. The Protodiakonoff told me that on his
+journeys he used to take two or three hundred shirts and crosses, stay
+in a village for two or three days, and then sometimes baptize as many
+as 40 at once, especially when he could bring over a rich man, for then
+the poorer ones followed.
+
+I came, therefore, to the conclusion that the charge of bribery on
+the part of the missionaries was not well founded; but, on the other
+hand, it was equally plain, upon their own showing, that the Russian
+missionaries differ widely from the English as to what constitutes
+proper qualification for baptism.[7] I asked the priest at Khabarofka
+concerning the pay of missionaries, to which he replied that he to
+whom I had spoken from Malmuish received £25 per annum, and he himself
+received £30 as a missionary, and 241 roubles 62 kopecks, or about
+£24, from another source--say £55 in all. Others had represented to
+me that he received £250 a year; so perhaps this was exclusive of his
+offerings, which I heard might vary from 6_d._ to £1 for baptisms,
+and from 6_s._ to £5 for a wedding. Also it is usual to call in the
+priest after a death to say a “panychid,” or office, the name of which
+suggests a prayer all night long, but which lasts an hour, and for
+which it is usual to give from 6_d._ up to £1. Offertories, too, are
+collected each Sunday for the priest, orphans, church, etc., according
+to the object, for which each of several plates is carried. I gathered
+that the support given by the natives to their pastors and the church
+consists of the purchase of candles to the extent of a few pence and
+an occasional sable-skin. The house and library of the Protodiakonoff
+did not look as if its owner had an income of £250 a year; but his home
+was neat and clean, though simply furnished, and his wife and daughters
+were becomingly dressed. I was glad to hear an excellent report of
+this missionary, who was said to be a good man and learned. It was his
+custom actually to preach or read a sermon every Sunday, and he had a
+crowded church in consequence. I suppose he did not profess that his
+sermons were all original; for when, on board the _Onon_, he caught
+sight of a tract I had given to the steward’s boy, he immediately
+seized it, and wrote thereon “for a sermon.”
+
+I thought this missionary the most hard-working priest I met in
+Siberia, and I was very glad to have obtained from him what I
+consider such trustworthy information concerning the Goldi. The
+last representatives of this race I saw at the little village of
+Krasnoiarskaia, 260 miles from Khabarofka, where a man and woman were
+standing on the banks. The man had a Manchu matchlock with no butt, but
+having a handle something like that of a pistol. It had a flint and
+hammer, pulled by a very clumsy trigger. Of the woman I bought her ear-
+or nose-ring.
+
+On the fourth day, Tuesday, we arrived early in the morning at Busse,
+where was another telegraph station. Up to this point we had passed
+on the river 10 tributaries on the right bank, and 17 on the left.
+About an hour before noon, we changed our course from the Ussuri to the
+Sungacha; but, before leaving the Ussuri, I would observe that its head
+waters are formed by the confluence of the Daibecha and the Ulache,
+together with several smaller streams. One of them, the Sandugu, rises
+only about 50 miles from the coast at Olga Bay, and on the banks of
+the Daibecha gold has been found. I learn, too, from the _North China
+Herald_, that a few miles from Vladivostock (in what direction is not
+stated) coal-mines on a large scale are being opened up by Mr. S.
+Morris, whom I met, if I mistake not, and that they promise to yield
+well. The Ussuri is navigable several miles higher than Busse, and
+could a railway be constructed (to which the country offers, I am told,
+no special obstacle) from Vladivostock to the most southern navigable
+point of the Ussuri, a means of communication would be made for the
+carriage of merchandise and passengers, which would be of the utmost
+importance to the Ussuri valley, the only military and commercial route
+leading from the Amur to the southern parts of Russian Manchuria.[8]
+
+On the morning of Tuesday, the 9th of September, we entered the
+Sungacha. It enters at right angles on the western bank of the Ussuri.
+The Sungacha, flowing out of Lake Khanka, is the largest of the
+Ussuri tributaries, and the most tortuous river on which I have been.
+A straight line from its source to its mouth measures but 60 miles,
+whereas along its channel it measures nearly 180 miles, and I do not
+think we traversed a single half mile without a bend. Great skill,
+therefore, was required in steering both steamer and barge. So sharp
+were some of the curves that, when the former had turned the bend,
+the two crafts appeared to be proceeding in opposite directions. The
+steamer at such times slackened speed, but even then, on the first day,
+the barge twice ran into the muddy bank, and temporarily stuck fast.
+The Sungacha is from 20 to 60 feet deep, from 100 to 110 feet wide,
+with a current of two knots. In some parts it is barely 100 feet wide,
+and in two places only from 8 to 12 feet deep.
+
+Black and turbid as was the water of the Ussuri, it was limpid compared
+with that of the Sungacha, which was unusable for cooking. A supply
+of Ussuri water was therefore taken on board, and this implies a good
+deal, since the Siberians are not too nice in this respect, and are
+accustomed to the use of river and surface water only. I saw turtles in
+the Sungacha, and learned that this river, as well as Lake Khanka and
+the Ussuri, abounds with all kinds of fish, especially carp, sterlet,
+and salmon.[9]
+
+There joined us at Busse a telegraph officer named Adamson, who spoke
+German, and with whom I was able to employ my smattering of that tongue
+to good effect. Hitherto I had not exchanged many ideas with my four
+fellow first-class passengers, one of whom was a veterinary surgeon,
+and two others Russian and Polish officers. The horse-doctor and the
+Pole seemed to have no mental resources whatever; and regarding them
+as types of Siberian “society,” it was not difficult to understand
+the dismal complaint of a physician I met, that he had no congenial
+companions, there being nothing cared for in the town above the level
+of wine or cards. These two passengers played incessantly, and,
+excepting at meals and during sleep, I doubt if cards were out of their
+hands for a couple of hours during the passage. One night the Pole,
+even after he had gone to bed, got up to play another game. The captain
+was very obliging, and gave me a chart he had made of the Ussuri,
+which is valuable, there being only two original writers, as far as I
+know, on any considerable portion of this river--namely, Venyukoff and
+Prejevalsky.[10]
+
+On the day we entered the Sungacha, we came to one station
+only--Markova, which was the last collection of houses that could be
+dignified with the name of a village. All the stations beyond were
+Cossack pickets, and consisted of one or perhaps two houses, at which
+horses are kept for the postal service in winter. There were six of
+these pickets beyond Markova, making a total of 36 stations between
+Khabarofka and Kamen Ruiboloff. Among them are four villages only with
+a church--namely, Kazakevich, Ilyinska, Kozloffski, and Venyukova, with
+a resident priest to each of the first three. Among the stations were
+likewise 21 Cossack stanitzas or settlements, containing from one to a
+hundred houses each. Also, between Kamen Ruiboloff and Vladivostock are
+ten stanitzas and three churches. Markova was a Cossack stanitza, and
+as we stayed there for an hour or two, I enlisted the services of Mr.
+Adamson, and peeped at Cossack life.
+
+Cossacks of old were warlike people, who lived a free-and-easy life
+on the border, frequently ravaging their neighbours’ herds, whom the
+Russians reduced to subjection, but left them many privileges. When
+the Amur came into the hands of the Tsar, it became necessary that the
+Russian frontier should be guarded, and, if possible, settled. General
+Muravieff therefore took many of the children of convicts, called them
+Cossacks, and placed them, together with voluntary emigrants from the
+Trans-Baikal province, in stations, about 10 miles apart, along the
+Amur and the Ussuri. Land was allotted to them, and they were supplied
+with cows, horses, farming-stock, and provisions for a year, after
+which time they were expected to take care of themselves.[11] The
+mounted Cossacks are employed to keep the boundaries, and many of the
+foot Cossacks act as police. When not engaged in service they are free
+to farm, rear cattle, hunt, or, in fact, turn their hands to what they
+please, though they are liable to be called up in time of war, almost
+to the depopulation of a whole neighbourhood.[12] This accounted for
+the deserted village of Pashkova, and I learned that the service is not
+unpopular; for when the Government wanted 800 men wherewith to found a
+colony on the shores of Lake Khanka, there was no lack of volunteers--a
+circumstance sufficiently explained by the fact that in such cases they
+get new farming stock and provisions.[13]
+
+On the Ussuri the Cossacks are expected to keep off the Chinese
+smugglers, and even traders, who are not allowed to settle on the
+Russian bank except under proper restrictions. Cossack habitations,
+therefore, represent the utmost bounds of Russian life.
+
+Markova consisted of rather more than a dozen houses, of which only
+seven were inhabited. I entered some of them, and was struck with their
+cleanly and orderly arrangement, as compared with the houses of the
+Russian peasantry. In the first the floor was strewn with hay, the
+walls were whitewashed, and on one of them was displayed a quantity
+of table ware, consisting of seven forks, four spoons, and a ladle.
+On a plate-shelf stood a teapot, slop-basin, two dishes, and four
+plates, a mug, cup, and two glasses. Near the door hung two bundles
+of squirrel-skins, and a sheepskin coat, whilst in the corner was a
+well-known feature in every Cossack’s house,--a handmill for grinding
+corn, worked by the Cossack’s wife. A larger mill in the village was
+turned by horse-power, but with the slender result of grinding only
+3 cwt. of meal a day. I saw, too, rope made of lime-tree bark, good
+for use in the water, and large fish-hooks on which the fish of the
+Sungacha hook themselves whilst playing with the float. In another
+house was a Cossack’s hunting gun, with a two-legged rest and a flint
+lock, which is said still to be preferred to more modern kinds. In a
+third house I bought some hazel-nuts. I had been unable to procure any
+fruit since leaving Khabarofka, nor could I succeed at Krasnoiarskaya
+in getting cucumbers.
+
+After leaving Markova the banks of the Sungacha continued flat, and
+were all but uninhabited. Our ceaseless windings on the river continued
+till Wednesday evening, when we arrived at Lon Mayo, on the edge of
+Lake Khanka, where, on the Chinese bank, were two small houses. They
+were inhabited, apparently, by men only, and those very dirty. Within
+the house I entered there was an inner compartment, where, among other
+objects, I observed a heavy stone for grinding corn, a well-made wicker
+shovel, and a huge brandy bottle, or cask, made of a sort of coarse
+_papier-maché_. The building was thatched, and at a distance of two
+or three yards stood the chimney, constructed of the hollowed trunk
+of a tree, and plastered with mud at the bottom. In the yard was a
+cart, with clumsy Chinese wheels, and troughs for cattle, hollowed,
+like canoes, from the trunks of trees. Bricks, made of mud and rushes,
+were drying in the sun, and men were busy pulling hemp into threads.
+In the garden was a small heathen temple, the size of a sentry-box,
+into which they did not object to my looking. Two poles stood in front,
+and inside, a table, with a picture over it, a pan and vase, with
+joss-sticks and some fish-hooks. Not far distant I noticed a field of
+“buddha” or millet growing, and attempted to approach it by crossing a
+boggy plot, but was compelled by mosquitoes to beat a speedy retreat.
+The Ussuri and Sungacha are famous for these insects, as was suggested
+by the mosquito blinds of the steamer; but a slight breeze and the
+comparative lateness of the season delivered us.
+
+The Khanka Lake might be called a “Mediterranean,” for such is the
+meaning of the Chinese word “Khan-Kaï,” which the Russians have changed
+into Khanka, spelt also Khinka, Hinka, and Kenka.[14] Its superficial
+extent is more than 1,200 square miles, but, notwithstanding its size
+and high-sounding name, it is little more than a huge inundation, for
+its depth is in no part more than seven feet. In early summer one
+can sometimes walk into the lake, half a mile from the bank, without
+finding more than 10 inches of water. Hence I had been warned that the
+steamer might possibly not be able to cross, in which case it would
+be necessary to proceed 40 miles through Chinese territory, round the
+north of the lake, by a road on which there is but one post-station,
+and so to re-enter Russian territory at a point on the north-west
+shore; for the frontier does not skirt the lake, but crosses it from
+Lon Mayo, at an angle of 45 degrees. My host at Nikolaefsk on one
+occasion was obliged to accomplish this journey on the back of a cow.
+This, however, I was spared, for the thunderstorms of June and July,
+with the south-east winds, had brought their usual supply of rain, and
+caused the lake to enlarge, so that it assumed the proportions of an
+inland sea. At ordinary times the Khanka is divided into two parts,
+the “great lake” and the “little lake,” which latter is also called
+“the Dobuka.” From the captain’s chart I calculated it to be 20 miles
+long by three wide. The two lakes are separated by a sandy strand,
+of regular proportions, bending towards the north in such a manner
+as to continue with exactness the curves of the banks from the east
+and west. This strand, developing its arc with geometrical precision,
+is only like many others found on the shores of the ocean; but few
+similar cases occur on the banks of a lake of such comparatively small
+extent. Such strands, for the most part, are formed when the locality
+is sheltered from the winds, which do not come regularly from the same
+quarter.[15]
+
+I suppose that the water is sometimes rough, for the good-natured
+captain kindly inquired whether I should be afraid if the boat rocked
+about. I had not at that time traversed two oceans, but was able to
+assure him, nevertheless, that I hoped for the best. The windows were
+as solemnly closed and battened as if we were about to cross the
+Atlantic; and towards night we steamed into the lake, to find it as
+calm as a mill-pond. After steering south-east for about 50 miles we
+arrived, at dawn, at Kamen Ruiboloff, or the Fisherman’s Stone, thus
+finishing a voyage from Khabarofka of 466 miles, or 510 if we had gone
+to the stations on the shores of the lake.
+
+We had made a quicker passage than was expected; perhaps partly to
+be accounted for by an “attraction” which no doubt influenced the
+captain. He spoke a little French, and communicated to me that on the
+day after our arrival he was to be married to the niece of the merchant
+Plusnin, of Khabarofka. They have certain domestic and semi-religious
+preliminaries to a Russian wedding, as I have stated, which I was
+anxious to see, for we have nothing corresponding to them in England;
+but unfortunately I missed the opportunity at Kamen Ruiboloff, for
+although I rose soon after daylight, the captain had fled, and I
+hastened to proceed, remembering well that the foremost traveller at
+the post-house gets the untired horses.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] At all of these places I distributed tracts or sold my books,
+some of the latter at a shilling each; but the people purchased them
+so readily that I had not a sufficient supply. In this work I had a
+willing helper in Captain Stjerncreutz, who in his university days
+had learned a little English from a lady at Helsingfors. At our
+stopping-places he usually became the medium through whom I gave a
+bundle of books to the local priest, to be distributed to the Russians.
+Some of these priests worked also as missionaries to the Gilyaks. I met
+one at Tyr, and another, Peter Logimof, at Mikhailofsk. The last told
+me he had baptized 200 aborigines in seven years.
+
+[2] I learned that in the Primorsk were 6 battalions of infantry,
+namely, at Nikolaefsk, Sophiisk, Khabarofka, Sakhalin, Kamen-Ruiboloff,
+and Vladivostock; and 8 batteries of horse-artillery, namely, at
+Nikolaefsk, Khabarofka, Sakhalin, Nicolsk, and Paseat. From the
+“Russian Officers’ Handbook,” published at Petersburg by the Ministry
+of War, it appeared that the number of soldiers in East Siberia,
+in 1878, was 17,610, with 130 guns; namely, 10,640 infantry, 1,300
+artillery, 270 sappers and miners, and 5,400 irregular cavalry. More
+particularly they read as follows:--
+
+Infantry.--Blagovestchensk, 400; Irkutsk, 900; Chita, 300; Stretinsk,
+240; Yakutsk, 700; Kara, 470; Kiakhta, 470; Nertchinsk, 470; Sakhalin,
+1,100; Olga Bay, 180; Paseat, 340; Vladivostock, 1,000; Kamen
+Ruiboloff, 1,000; Sophiisk, 1,000; Khabarofka, 800; Nikolaefsk, 800; De
+Castries Bay, 400; Barracouta Bay, 70.
+
+Heavy artillery.--Chita, 250; Khabarofka, 250; Nikolaefsk, 800.
+
+Field artillery.--16 batteries, of which 8 were in the Primorsk, of 8
+guns, having 12 horses to each gun, and 2 mountain batteries.
+
+Sappers and miners.--30 torpedo men and 240 engineers.
+
+Irregular cavalry.--9 Cossack regiments of 600 each.
+
+In war time the Cossacks of the Amur and Ussuri send 6 mounted
+regiments, of 560 each; 9 foot regiments, of 920 each; and 2 batteries
+of horse artillery. Of these, 500 are in constant service.
+
+On the frontier service were 2 regiments, each of 400 mounted Cossacks;
+and 15 companies, of 133 each, of foot.
+
+For the service of the Étape prisons of Eastern Siberia were employed,
+from the Yakutsk regiment, 400, and the Kamchatka regiment, 200. It
+is from these last two, I suppose, are supplied the Cossack posts I
+heard of from Behring’s Strait round the Sea of Okhotsk, serving as
+police, and distributed thus: Anadir, 13; Petropavlovsk, 59; Tigil, 17;
+Ghijiga, 42; Yamsk, 7; Okhotsk, 32; Ayan, 12; Udskoi, 10.
+
+The following is the constitution of an infantry _regiment_, which is
+divided into 3 or sometimes 4 battalions, of 1,000 men each, in war
+time or on the frontier. Superior officers: 1 commander, 1 adjutant,
+1 treasurer, and 1 commissariat. To each battalion 1 commandant, 1
+adjutant, 1 treasurer. Each battalion has 4 companies, No. 1 being
+called “skirmishers,” and consisting of a fixed number of 240 men,
+1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sub-lieutenants and non-commissioned
+officers, 1 field assistant, and 1 under officer to every 5 men.
+Companies 2, 3, and 4 have not a fixed number of men, and there is an
+under officer to every 10 men only.
+
+In the book quoted above appeared the military officers’ pay; but they
+get several additional allowances, everything being provided for them
+except food. The pay of officers is:--
+
+  Generals         from £152 to £254 per annum.
+  Colonels           ”    58  ”  103  ”    ”
+  Captains           ”    54  ”   66  ”    ”
+  Staff Captains     ”    50  ”   68  ”    ”
+  Lieutenants        ”    40  ”   60  ”    ”
+  Sub-Lieutenants    ”    37  ”   54  ”    ”
+  Cornets            ”    34  ”   51  ”    ”
+
+[3] The _Onon_, from Nikolaefsk, was smaller than the _Zeya_, in which
+I travelled from Kara, but cleaner and better managed. She was about
+20 years old, had Belgian engines of 30 horse-power, and carried 5
+machinists and 8 sailors. My fare and steward’s bill to Khabarofka cost
+3 guineas. The _Sungacha_, about to ascend the Ussuri to Lake Khanka,
+was a still smaller boat, 90 feet long, and drawing 3 feet of water.
+Her engines were of 40 horse-power, and 15 years old. Towing a barge
+with third-class passengers and cattle, she could make 5 or 6 miles an
+hour against the stream, and 8 with it; but without the barge she could
+go 10 miles against the stream, and 16 with it. I hoped accordingly to
+accomplish the 500 miles to Kamen Ruiboloff in 5 days, for which I paid
+as fare 35_s._
+
+[4] Help came to me once more from the telegraph station--this time
+in the person of the wife of the manager, and through her I gave the
+priest some tracts, but he declined to purchase New Testaments, even
+at a reduced price; at which I was not surprised when he subsequently
+told me that he occasionally preached to the people for five minutes
+on Sunday, but that they complained of the sermons as “too long.” What
+he would not buy, however, the third-class passengers on the barge
+speedily did, and I then gave some copies to the captain for the use of
+the passengers of the _Sungacha_, as I had done to Captain Stjerncreutz
+for the _Onon_.
+
+[5] Perhaps it was as well that I had no malformation or physical
+peculiarity about me, for Prejevalsky relates his meeting a Mongolian
+who had seen but one Englishman in his life, who lived at Kiakhta, and
+who had, unfortunately, lost one of his legs, whereupon the man of the
+desert had come to the conclusion that all the English had wooden legs!
+
+[6] Since the previous October he had baptized an additional 50 Goldi,
+and he thought that what Gilyaks there were in his district were all
+baptized. Formerly, he said, natives when willing were baptized, though
+they understood nothing of what was being done, but in his own case he
+required them to know certain prayers. After baptism they were expected
+to attend church when there was one near, and to come to communion
+once a year. I learned that some of the native Christians, as might
+be expected, relapse into heathenism, especially in time of sickness,
+when, having perhaps no doctor near, they send for the shaman. It did
+not appear, however, that the profession of Christianity exposed them
+to persecution.
+
+[7] Their work seemed very nearly a repetition of the wholesale
+baptism at Kieff by command of Vladimir, or of the baptisms by Roman
+missionaries of whole villages at a time. The first missionary whom
+I questioned thought it enough if, before baptism, the candidates
+could say the short prayers of the Russian Church; the second appeared
+content with less than this. Further south, however, I met a parish
+priest who was not a missionary proper, but who in ten years had
+baptized ten persons; and in his case he said he had usually kept his
+candidates under instruction for a year or more.
+
+[8] The entire length of the Ussuri, between 43½° and 48½° N. Lat., is
+497 miles. The upper part of the river has a rapid current, and it is
+swift below the confluence of the Sungacha to the Muren; but for its
+remaining 300 miles it has a current of two miles an hour only, which
+is slow compared with the three miles of the Amur, and the four miles
+of the Shilka. The stream, frequently divided by islands, presents no
+peculiar difficulties to navigation. Its scenery has a quiet English
+park-like beauty that never wearies, though it cannot boast the
+grandeur of the Amur, which combines the beauties of the Rhine and the
+Danube, and is, taken all in all, the finest river I have travelled.
+
+[9] It is said that during the floods, when the Ussuri becomes a series
+of lakes connected by shallows, the traveller can with his hands, in
+spawning time, lift off salmon by the dozen from the banks, and in
+certain confined places may even hear the rippling of the water caused
+by their fins. The turtles in the Sungacha are eaten by the natives,
+but not by the Russians. They lay their eggs on the margins of the
+stream, and one of our crew amused himself by shooting the animals as
+they basked in the sun.
+
+[10] I learned that the three steamers by which I had travelled on the
+Amur and Ussuri belonged to the same Company, the managing director of
+which receives £1,200 a year. The captain of the _Sungacha_ received
+£21 per month, the second captain £10, the steersman £4, the other
+sailors £3, and the machinists from £4 to £5 per month each; but during
+a large part of the year, when the river is frozen, they have little or
+nothing to do.
+
+[11] It not infrequently happened, however, that they came at the end
+of the year begging for further assistance, which was given, and the
+result has been in many cases to make them idle. Captain De Vries told
+me that he had seen grass and weeds growing six inches high in their
+corn, which, owing to bad cultivation, stood only six inches higher.
+Cossacks enjoy to a certain degree the privilege of self-government.
+They elect, for instance, their own officers, who, after a service of
+35 years, receive rank as if in the regular army. On the other hand,
+they have to supply a certain number of fighting men, of whom 10 per
+cent. must be engaged in active service continually each for two years,
+and all are drilled for one month in every year.
+
+[12] When settled in a locality they cannot leave it at will, though,
+if they can raise themselves to the position of merchants, they acquire
+greater liberty. Sometimes a whole village is moved to a new colony,
+and the inhabitants find themselves in a strange district, but with
+their old comrades and neighbours.
+
+[13] A Cossack’s pay ranges from 10_s._ 6_d._ to 13_s._ a year, which
+is less than that of infantry soldiers, whose monthly pay I learned
+at Vladivostock was for recruits, 1_s._ 6_d._; soldiers, 4_s._; under
+officers, 10_s._ 9_d._; and field assistants, 30_s._; whilst cooks,
+tailors, bootmakers, and barbers each receive about 1_d._ a month from
+every soldier in the company. Every soldier also subscribes 6_d._ a
+year for religious purposes. Whether Cossacks, when called up, have the
+same food as soldiers of the line I know not, but the latter in time
+of peace have as follows:--Per day 3 lbs (Russian) of rye bread, ¾ lb.
+meat, vegetables 1½ lb. in summer and 1 lb. in winter; also, per month,
+37 lbs. oatmeal, 4 lbs. peas, 2 lbs. butter, ⅓ lb. sugar, ⅙ lb. each of
+brick tea and salt, and ½ pint of vinegar. These, too, are the rations
+of Russian sailors on shore. The clothing for soldiers I learned was
+as follows:--Yearly, 2 caps, 2 pairs of cloth trousers, and 2 of
+linen, 2 linen shirts for gymnastics, and 3 for ordinary use, 3 pairs
+linen drawers, 2 pairs high boots, 1 pair shoes, and 2 pairs of cloth
+gloves. Every other year, a thick cloth coat, long overcoat, hood, and
+skull-cap. A belt is expected to last 3 and a set of buttons 5 years.
+What proportion of this clothing is supplied to Cossacks I do not know.
+It may very well be that they receive less, seeing that they give to
+the Government less time and less labour than the ordinary soldiers.
+
+[14] It measures, according to Réclus, 62 miles long, 46 in the widest
+and 31 in the narrowest part; but the Russian captain gave me its
+measurement as 67 miles long by 21 miles at the narrowest and 26 at the
+widest parts.
+
+[15] The Khanka is completely exposed to the winds on the south, which
+blow during a great part of the year, rushing in through an open gap
+in the Sikhota-Alin chain. Thus there is found on the surface of its
+water a regular swell, which is carried from the south to the north,
+and which delineates with nicety the circular outline of the shore.
+This is the theory of M. Réclus, and he usually writes very carefully
+and correctly; but I ought perhaps to add that in the chart given me
+by the captain this regularity of outline of the north shore is not so
+observable as in the map of M. Réclus.
+
+For five months of the year ice covers the lake to the thickness of a
+yard. The north-east and north-west shores are level and wooded. The
+south-west shore is also wooded, but not so the shores in the south and
+south-east. Swampy tracts exist at the mouths of the eight rivulets
+which enter the lake; the Toor-balenkhe flowing in from the north-west,
+and the largest, the Lifu, from the south. About ten villages and
+post-stations are dispersed along the shores, and roads lead away to
+the Manchu towns Ninguta, Hun-chun, and Furden.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LI.
+
+_LAKE KHANKA TO THE COAST._
+
+ Difficulties in prospect.--Appearance of the
+     country.--Vegetation.--Garden produce.--Medicinal
+     plants.--Ginseng.--Country almost uninhabited.--A serious
+     loss.--Remarkable landscape.--Distribution of animals in
+     Siberia.--Little-Russian settlers.--Peasant affairs and
+     taxes.--Travelling by night.--Arrival at Rasdolnoi.--Clerical
+     functions in request.--War in the post-house.--Summary of tract
+     distribution.--Russia as a field for Christian effort.--The
+     Suifun.--Cheap travelling.--Baptizing children.--Arrival at
+     Vladivostock.
+
+
+From Kamen Ruiboloff I had before me a drive of nearly 100 miles to
+Rasdolnoi, on the river Suifun, and this comparatively short journey I
+feared might present greater difficulties than any I had encountered
+since leaving my interpreter. In towns, or on the steamer, some
+one could be found with whom to exchange ideas in one of the three
+principal languages of Europe; but now I was to go alone through a
+district where even Russians are comparatively strangers, and where,
+if my half-dozen words of Sclavonic failed, I expected to be quite
+at a loss in communicating with the Manchu. Besides this I had heard
+uncomfortable accounts of the Manzas, Coreans, and other congeners
+of the Chinese, many of whose culprits had been expatriated to these
+regions as to a Botany Bay, and were giving the authorities trouble,
+not from political causes, but by forming themselves into banditti and
+plundering Russians and Chinese alike. At Khabarofka Major Evfanoff
+informed me that quite recently a number of these robbers had committed
+depredations on the Russians, and that Cossacks were gone in search of
+them. I also heard further on that they had entered an officer’s house,
+murdered his wife, hung her up by the heels, and carried away her
+child. Again, tigers were said to infest the district.[1]
+
+I was so delighted, however, with the thought of reaching the coast,
+and with the hope of getting from thence to Japan, that I hastened to
+depart notwithstanding. A letter of introduction had been given me from
+Nikolaefsk to Colonel Vinikoff, stationed at Kamen Ruiboloff, and the
+prospect held out that he would perhaps show me the wonderful manœuvres
+of his cavalry Cossacks; but, hearing that he was away, I contented
+myself with sending to him by the captain of the steamer a letter, and
+a box of books for his men, and by 8 o’clock I was ready to start. The
+weather was charming, like that of a sunny English September--a morning
+without clouds.
+
+The district through which I was to travel, south of Lake Khanka, is
+about 100 miles from north to south, and the Chinese frontier is a few
+miles west of the post-road. Extensive plains constitute a prominent
+feature of the country, which is sufficiently hilly, however, to
+render the landscape pleasing. The soil, loamy and black, is covered
+with rich vegetation. These Manchurian plains are like enormous
+limitless meadows and heaths, from which the herbage has never been
+cut, and where pasture is ready for cattle by thousands. The country
+was fairly but not thickly wooded until I crossed the hills, south
+of which flows the Suifun. Water in some places was scarce, and I
+had to wait at one station at least an hour whilst a man fetched a
+supply. The climate resembles that of the Ussuri. On the 5th and 6th
+of September, at Khabarofka, I found it decidedly hot. The mean annual
+temperature is 48°, which allows of the cultivation of the cereals of
+Northern Europe, and of some of the hardier fruit-trees. Wild grapes
+I saw in abundance, but none cultivated. On the coast the Governor
+had recently planted some fruit-trees, and Madame one day, during my
+visit, brought to table her fruit harvest, which consisted of less
+than a dozen apples. Vegetables, however, thrive well. My host told me
+that near Vladivostock, on his island, he had raised potatoes twice
+from the same ground, between the middle of April and October.[2] He
+had grown cart-loads of tomatoes, but, being unable to sell them to
+his satisfaction, salted them for his cows. Carrots and parsnips grow
+wild, and in the market at Vladivostock I observed, in addition to
+what have been mentioned, pumpkins, celery, turnips, beetroot, the egg
+plant, and Chinese onions and radishes. The missionary Huc mentions
+three treasures of Manchuria. One is the sable, another a grass called
+_oula_, the peculiar property of which is that, when put into the
+boots, it communicates to the feet a soothing warmth even in the depth
+of winter.[3] The third treasure is “Ginseng.” The Chinese call it
+_Orhota_, that is, “the first of all plants.” They consider it the most
+costly produce of the earth, diamonds excepted, and ascribe to it the
+most wonderful healing properties. It is said to be a specific in all
+kinds of bodily ailments, to cure consumption when half the lungs are
+gone, and to restore to dotards the fire of youth. Huc says the Chinese
+physicians think it too heating for the European temperament, already
+in their opinion too hot.[4]
+
+Other medicinal plants of the district are the yellow rhododendron
+and marsh wild-rosemary, of which the natives use an infusion against
+stomach-ache; also the root of the _tokose_ herb is used for diarrhœa,
+produced by feeding on fish. The burnt heads of burdock are laid
+on ulcers as in Peking, wounds are covered with agaric, the root of
+“Solomon’s seal” is applied for pains in the throat, and that of the
+hand-shaped bulb of an orchid for ulcers. The Goldi, however, as I have
+said, often attempt another method of cure, by making a wooden model
+of the part afflicted, which they carry about; but authorities do not
+record the comparative values of the two modes of treatment. It is said
+that the enlightened portion of the native community despise vegetable
+medicine, and more frequently resort to the services of the shaman and
+his brandy-drinking performances, which no doubt are popular with all
+parties concerned.
+
+[Illustration: CHINESE MERCHANTS IN THE PRIMORSK IN WINTER COSTUME.]
+
+On leaving Kamen Ruiboloff the country was almost uninhabited. On the
+first stage I met one vehicle and three men, but passed not a single
+house. On the second stage two men only were seen.[5] On arriving
+at the fourth station--Dubininskaya--I discovered that I had lost a
+large pocket-book, or paper wallet, in which were my most valuable
+documents, including the letter from the Minister of the Interior, my
+podorojna, and other official papers. This alarmed me, for without
+the podorojna I could not claim post-horses to go either backwards or
+forwards; and the situation was the more serious because none of the
+post-people could speak anything but Russian. I made them understand
+by signs that I had lost my letter-case, and that I must go back with
+the yemstchik to see if I had left it at the previous station. Giving
+my heavy luggage in charge to the post-mistress at Dubininskaya, I
+mounted the returning vehicle. It was now nine o’clock, and quite dark,
+and I journeyed in anything but a pleasant mood. I remembered, too,
+with appreciation, the luxury I had had further west, in Mr. Cattley’s
+tarantass, for here I had nothing but a wretched post-tumbril, without
+springs, seat, or hood. One of the horses went lame, which retarded
+progress, and I lay on my bear-skin, with only a shawl to cover me,
+for six hours of the night, gazing up into the heavens. The moon arose
+in her beauty, and the number of stars visible might have delighted
+the eye of an astronomer, but I could think of nothing but my loss. At
+three o’clock in the morning we reached the station, where they knew
+nothing of the pocket-book, and where the guest-room was occupied by a
+Chinese packman and his assistant, with whom I did not at first relish
+passing the remainder of the night. One, however, got off the bedstead
+and offered it me, and the other wished to give me tea, which, to say
+the least, was civil. So I spread my bearskin on the wooden couch, and
+the candle was extinguished. In less than two minutes I had kicked
+out the tester-board of the rickety bedstead, and it came down with a
+clatter, causing my room-fellows to start. “_Ladna! ladna!_” said I,
+thinking this was the Russian for “all right”; and then we recomposed
+ourselves. On awaking, and after further search, I ascertained that
+my difficulties were increased, for I now discovered, to my dismay,
+that beside the important papers alluded to in the wallet, there were
+also two volumes of manuscript notes, taken in coming across Siberia.
+I was now in an agony; and if crying would have availed I could well
+have done it, so distressed was I at the thought of losing information
+that had cost so much. It occurred to me that I might have left the
+wallet at the station still further back, and, seeing a Cossack saddle
+in the post-house, I pointed at it, intimating that the yemstchik
+should mount, and ride courier to inquire for the lost treasure. But
+he did not welcome the task, though he intimated I might have the
+saddle if I chose to go myself. Thinking to quicken the post-master
+into further exertion I offered a reward of five roubles if the book
+could be found. Meanwhile the two Chinamen evinced great kindness and
+sympathy with me in my loss, and the more so when they discovered I
+was an Englishman. At breakfast they offered me rice and onions, and I
+returned the compliment by inviting them to partake of bread and jam.
+They were travelling to Kamen Ruiboloff, and offered me a place for two
+stages in their vehicle. I resolved at first to go back, but afterwards
+determined to send a note by the Chinamen to Colonel Vinikoff, asking
+him to make inquiries for the wallet, and then continue my way, and to
+look very narrowly on the road for what I had lost. The yemstchik was
+not a good specimen of his profession, being fonder, if I mistake not,
+of drink than of work, and my slender knowledge of Russian led me to
+suspect that he was congratulating himself on the extra money he was
+exacting from me, which, in my suppliant condition, I was ready enough
+to pay if only the books could be found. At last we started, and I was
+scanning the road with the eyes of a lynx when about a mile from the
+station we met a post-vehicle, in which was a lady traveller whom I
+had seen the previous evening at Dubininskaya. We pulled up, and she
+placed her hands at distances apart, showing the length and breadth of
+something that had been found, and spoke to the yemstchik, from which
+I was able to make out that my troubles were over. I clapped my hands,
+and pushed forward with a light heart to the station, and there was my
+wallet, well hauled over, but with nothing missing. The yemstchik had
+told a peasant of my loss, and of the promised reward, and he had found
+the article lying in the road. I then remembered that, in the cool of
+the evening, I had put on my ulster, standing up in the conveyance,
+without stopping the horses, and so had jerked the wallet out of my
+pocket. Never did I pay ten shillings with greater pleasure than to the
+finder, after which I set forward, truly grateful, and prepared with
+reanimated spirits to enjoy the prospect before me.
+
+Leaving Dubininskaya, the post-road lay over a range of low hills, the
+top commanding a view such as I had never before seen. The distant
+horizon was bounded by pointed hills, and between were enormous plains
+of tall, brown, luxuriant pasture, waving like fields of corn--a land
+of plenty, at all events, if not flowing with milk and honey. No cities
+were visible, nor a human being, nor a habitation. There were just one
+or two spots where the grass had been cut and piled in heaps, but the
+abundance that remained seemed to mock such puny efforts. The hills
+were wooded with oak, and the plains with aspens, elms, lime trees,
+ashes, black and white birches, maples, and walnuts.[6] In young
+forests of this district are vines, roses, and a great many lilies. In
+the grass land there is much wormwood and pulse, the marsh ranunculus,
+and field-pink-clover. This last I saw in such abundance as to remind
+one of an English clover-field. There were also wild sun-flowers, and,
+growing at the roadside, wild millet, and what looked like bastard
+wheat or darnel.
+
+Nor is this richness confined to the vegetable kingdom. To the 20,000
+sable-skins sold annually at Khabarofka, Southern Manchuria contributes
+its quota; but I heard more of its abundance of deer, the flesh of
+which sells in Vladivostock in winter from 1½_d._ to 2_d._ per lb.[7]
+Wild turkeys are found in the district. Ducks and water-fowl we caused
+to fly up without number on the Ussuri, and pheasants, like those in
+England, rose before me as I drove to the south. At the station I was
+now approaching, woodcocks cost from 10_d._ to 1_s._ each, riabchiks
+or black grouse 5_d._ each, and pheasants 6_d._ each. So plentiful
+were pheasants in 1875, that they could be bought for 7½_d._ a brace,
+and at Paseat for 2½_d._ each.[8] This was in strong contrast to what
+the telegraph inspector told me of the prices of butchers’ meat at
+Vladivostock. He had been asked nearly £3 for the half of a calf, and
+beef, he said, cost 5_d._ per lb.
+
+I now and then saw large herds of cows grazing, and learned that in
+1878 there were imported to the Ussuri districts 80 horses, 600 sheep
+and pigs, and 1,000 head of cattle.
+
+On arriving at the next station, Nicolsk, there was a good-sized
+village, with a church, barracks of the 3rd Ussuri battalion, and, what
+was better to me, a telegraph station. It was now Friday afternoon, and
+I was anxious, if possible, to reach Vladivostock on the following day,
+so as to be ready for Sunday. I had heard that they had been building
+there a Lutheran church, and it was suggested to me at Nikolaefsk that
+I might open it, as there was no resident pastor. I knew also that
+steamers served on the Suifun only for the mail service, and that
+when travellers required a passage, a telegram had to be sent to the
+Governor. I had heard that he was absent; but as his wife spoke English
+I telegraphed from Nicolsk, and said that if I could reach Vladivostock
+in time I should be happy to conduct a Sunday service. In the telegraph
+office I met Captain Alexander Jdanoff, to whom I gave some reading
+material for his soldiers, and then went to the post-house.
+
+I noticed in several of the houses at Nicolsk that the chimneys were
+built of lattice work like English hurdles, plastered with mud. These
+erections told a tale to those who could read it, the builders being
+emigrants from Little Russia. So long as serfdom continued, the Russian
+peasantry were rooted to the soil, and often in great poverty;[9] but
+when the serfs were liberated they came in some cases to the Government
+in numbers, and said, “We are poor; please send us to colonize in
+Siberia, or make us Cossacks.” And the Government, desiring to populate
+the Ussuri, had sent them hither, freed from taxes, and with the usual
+privileges granted to colonists.[10]
+
+The telegraphist at Nicolsk strongly advised me to push on to the
+Suifun without delay, so as that night to reach the steamer, which
+was to leave Rasdolnoi early on the morrow. I therefore started after
+tea for a drive of 14 miles, the first stage being to Baranofskaya,
+or the “sheep” station. On arriving I thought more of wolves than of
+sheep, and of tigers than either. The post-house was in the middle of a
+wood, and near it were burning large fires to keep away the mosquitoes
+and, as I supposed, beasts of prey. It was now night, and I certainly
+should have preferred proceeding by day; but I remembered the advice
+just received, and told the men to put to the horses. A sailor youth,
+travelling to Vladivostock, apparently on foot, and speaking a few
+words of English, made himself officious on my behalf, and then wanted
+to be allowed to mount my vehicle. It was too dark for me to see
+what he was like, but I consented, thinking that if we did have any
+encounter with wild animals or robbers, it might be an assistance to
+have some one who understood if only a word or two of my mother tongue.
+I sincerely hoped that we should not meet a supperless tiger, though I
+think I should have been really uneasy had I known what I learned on
+the morrow--that several of these animals had been killed during the
+summer at the very village to which I was going.[11]
+
+It was nearly midnight when we reached Rasdolnoi. On the way my
+fellow-traveller showed that he had been drinking, and his stock of
+English words proved to be very small and by no means choice. I went
+to the telegraph office and ascertained that the steamer, lying a few
+miles off in the river, would leave at seven next morning; accordingly,
+I took up my quarters at the post-house, and at midnight was writing
+up my diary when, the news having spread that a clergyman had come, a
+Finnish shopkeeper, named Rosenstrom, presented himself and asked if I
+would baptize his little girl. The request came at an awkward moment,
+for I had ordered the horses for five. At half-past three, however,
+I sallied forth, arrayed in my cassock, with the Finn to conduct me,
+lantern in hand. His house was not far, though approached by a rough
+road; and, passing through the shop, I found a room nicely arranged
+and brilliantly lighted, with some half-dozen persons present--the
+telegraph officer and his wife or sister (who had communicated my
+arrival), and a Finnish friend, besides the father and mother of the
+child. After the service and breakfast, dawn appeared, and by five I
+was ready to depart. Much to my chagrin, however, the smoke from the
+funnel, among the distant trees, showed the vessel to be moving, and
+I was left behind. I telegraphed to Vladivostock to this effect, and
+received a reply that the steamer would return and bring me on Monday
+morning.
+
+I had abundance of time, therefore, to inspect the little station of
+Rasdolnoi.[12] Had I not felt impatient at losing the boat, I might
+have enjoyed the view from the post-house, for it was exceedingly
+pleasing. The country was well wooded, and the curves of the Suifun
+added much to the beauty of the picture. It was in this post-house, and
+only here, that I had a desperate battle with thousands of cockroaches
+or _tarakans_. By day they hid themselves, but at night they came out
+on to the table, the couch, and everywhere, great grandfathers and
+grandmothers with their offspring to the third and fourth generation.
+To wage general warfare against them was hopeless; therefore I set my
+wits to work to keep the table free. I recalled a visit paid to Messrs.
+Huntley and Palmer’s Biscuit Manufactory at Reading, where, on the
+floor, were thousands of little insects running about. Let no lover
+of Huntley and Palmer’s biscuits, however, be dismayed, for none of
+these creepers are allowed to mount the tables, the legs being made to
+stand each in a little pan of water; and as the emmets will not take
+to swimming, they have to be content with the crumbs on the floor.
+This plan I adopted with modifications. My friends had strongly urged
+me to take from Petersburg a box of Persian powder, supposed to be an
+abomination to B flats and F sharps. I had not used it once, but now I
+surrounded each leg of the table with an embankment of the said powder,
+and great was my delight to see the enemy advance, evidently thinking
+to scale the ramparts and mount as usual, but, instead, suddenly stop,
+hold a council of war, wave feelers, and then beat a retreat!
+
+I was enjoying my tea on Saturday afternoon from a clean table when
+two officers, a wife, and child arrived from Vladivostock. Then was
+cleared up the mystery of the boat having left so early; a telegram had
+been sent that it should depart at five to meet these travellers, one
+of whom was merely accompanying his friends for a few miles in Russian
+fashion, and was to return next day. They spoke French and a little
+English, and, having started in a hurry, they asked if I could sell
+them some quinine, which I thought I might venture to do, seeing that
+I had not once opened my store. Arnica had been needed for the sprain
+of the interpreter’s foot, but as for myself I am not sure that I had
+taken so much as a pill since leaving London, so that the counsel of my
+medical adviser had proved to be sound; for when I proposed to take a
+lot of medicines, he strongly urged me not to carry too much, “lest,”
+he said, “you should be tempted to excess.”
+
+Though Rasdolnoi was so small a place, yet, when it became known that I
+had good books in possession, several came from I know not where to buy
+them. I now had time to reckon up my “takings,” and found that sales
+amounted in all to about £18--not a large sum truly, but a good deal to
+make up in kopecks, of which 100 equal only 2_s._ My receipts covered,
+I suppose, about a fourth of the cost of the transport of books and
+tracts, and as these had been given me, with grants toward their
+carriage, by the Bible and Tract Societies of London and Petersburg, I
+subsequently divided among them the proceeds. From Nikolaefsk I sent
+to the Governor of the Primorsk 1,000 New Testaments, 10,000 tracts,
+and 200 copies of the “Life of Christ,” requesting that they might be
+distributed from Vladivostock to Kamchatka, to the prisons, hospitals,
+soldiers, Cossacks, schools, and the seamen of the Siberian fleet; and
+it has gratified me to hear, during the present year, that this was
+thoroughly and carefully done. Thus I distributed in all by proxy--that
+is through the authorities--about 44,000 publications, and personally
+about 12,000, the exact total being 55,812 of all kinds.[13]
+
+On my return to England I wrote to the Director of the Central
+Administration of Prisons, saying what I had done, and enclosing a list
+of the persons to whom and for whom the books had been given. I also
+stated my “strong conviction that a wider and better knowledge of the
+Holy Scriptures would do much both to lessen crime and also to reform
+the criminal. Hence I wished that a copy of the New Testament might
+always remain within reach of every prisoner and hospital patient in
+Siberia, and I cherished the hope that some who might perhaps take
+up the book to while away time might read to profit and subsequent
+reformation.” To this end I asked the administration to do anything
+they could to forward the successful completion of my work; and this
+letter I enclosed to the Minister of the Interior, when writing to
+thank his Excellency for the great kindness and attention his letter
+had secured for me.[14]
+
+My “work” was now almost done, and I looked forward with hope, for
+I regard the Russian people as presenting a promising field for the
+diffusion of a more spiritual religion than they now possess. Many, it
+is true, do not cease to speak of Russian bribery and untruthfulness,
+gambling and dishonesty. But, however that may be, there seemed to
+me to be a general willingness in Russia to learn better things.
+The sceptics we met were few and far between. In Western Siberia a
+Polish veterinary surgeon--a Romanist--argued as if he would like to
+upset Christianity, but he ended by giving money for a New Testament,
+and acknowledged that he envied the experience of his antagonist.
+In Eastern Siberia I met a Protestant gentleman who said that most
+educated people in Siberia were materialists; but I had afterwards
+reason to suspect he was measuring by his own bushel, for so material
+was his creed that, though holding a high position in the Government,
+with a large salary, he was not above suspicion of asking a bribe. I
+ought, however, to add that a Russian critic, by no means unfriendly,
+lamented to me that, owing to the want of teaching power in the
+priests, men of the educated classes in Russia are, as a rule,
+perfectly _indifferent_ to religion, and therefore tolerant to all
+and every creed, though jealous of the orthodox Church as a national
+institution.
+
+A good type of a religious gentleman--a devotee perhaps some would
+say--was an officer I met, who goes to mass every morning at five; or,
+again, a lady of high rank, who, whilst continuing strictly “orthodox,”
+learns to look at the errors of her Church in their least objectionable
+form, and to separate the good from the bad. Another educated man, an
+advocate, was typical, I should judge, of many in his rank of life.
+All are required to attend church on certain occasions, and beyond
+this he acknowledged that he did so very little; but it was because he
+got no teaching there. He went, he said, on the festivals, from six
+to twelve times a year, and oftener whilst his children were young;
+but he was ready to go every Sunday if something could be learned
+thereby. As for the uneducated Russians, the distances they will go,
+amounting to literally thousands of miles, for religious purposes,
+manifests at least something intensely earnest about religious affairs.
+Never--certainly, in any other country--have I met with such eagerness
+to get Scriptures and good books. This extends to both clergy and
+laity. When, on one occasion, my friend who edited the _Russian
+Workman_ thought of giving it up, some of the priests sent their
+subscriptions again, and implored that it might be continued; and some
+of those interested in the religious societies at work in the empire
+have told me that, in spite of the obstacles put in their way, they
+have far more opportunities of usefulness than they can use. I agree,
+therefore, with those who look upon Russia as a promising field for
+Christian effort.
+
+On Sunday afternoon the officer returned to Rasdolnoi, and I began
+immediately to question him. There was no ship sailing to Japan, he
+said, for a fortnight; and then, by way of preface to information
+respecting Vladivostock, he asked my standing, and whether I was rich
+or poor. Having classed myself with those who have neither poverty
+nor riches, he said that, as for himself, he was a man of means, and
+that he took the journeys to the Caucasus and Egypt (of which he had
+told me) because he had money in pocket, and so on--tall talk which
+sank down wonderfully when I searched him out at Vladivostock.[15]
+He appeared well posted, however, in his professional studies, and
+willing to give me information; so, as we were to start very early in
+the morning, we boarded the steamer towards sunset. The Suifun is 120
+yards wide. It varies in summer from 30 inches to 7 feet in depth,
+and in winter rises 20 feet. Our vessel was named _Suifun_, after the
+stream, and drew 2 feet of water, and could steam 8 or 10 miles an
+hour. Vladivostock was only 50 miles distant, but the boat was not
+suited for the sea, and therefore, on reaching the mouth of the river
+at Richnoi, 30 miles distant, we were to be transhipped to a sea-going
+steamer, the _Amur_, and so landed at Vladivostock. The _Suifun_ was
+not a passenger vessel in the ordinary sense of the word, but belonged
+to the Government. It was used for bringing the mails from Khabarofka,
+and if there happened to be passengers accompanying them, they
+travelled the 50 miles free. They were, moreover, so obliging, that, if
+travellers arrived and telegraphed to the post as I had done, the two
+ships were put in motion; and as if that were not enough, an allowance
+was made to the officers to feed hungry passengers free of expense, so
+that, on the whole, this was the cheapest 50 miles I travelled.
+
+I did not know of these arrangements at first, and heard that there
+were no provisions to be had on board, and no sleeping accommodation.
+My fellow-passenger slept in the open air, on deck, and I thought
+I should be compelled to do the same; but the captain gave me an
+excellent cabin, with plenty of room, which the officer, however,
+would not share. I had not been long on board when my clerical
+services were asked for a second time. We were to pass a saw-mill
+where lived a Protestant family, and the captain, knowing that the
+children were unbaptized, thought my coming very opportune, and asked
+whether, if he stopped the steamer, I would go ashore and officiate.
+As we approached Richnoi we came in sight of the mill, built, as I
+afterwards ascertained, by Captain de Vries, and subsequently sold to
+the Government. There are three such mills near Vladivostock, employing
+39 workmen, chiefly Chinese, who earn £4,500 a year. The manager was
+a Swede, named Lovelius, his wife, if I mistake not, being one of the
+whaling community who had come from Finland. The father spoke a little
+English, calling me “parson”; and after I had christened his three
+children he placed a fee in my hand. When I demurred to take it, he
+said he wished to stand indebted to no man, and added that I had saved
+him a “lot of trouble,” for otherwise he must have brought all the
+children into Vladivostock, when there chanced to arrive a minister or
+chaplain.[16]
+
+The saw-mill was prettily situated, and the manager received good
+remuneration, but he was not much in love with his position; for one
+thing, the mosquitoes troubled him, as on the previous evening they
+did me.[17] Fear of the Manza robbers, however, troubled the manager
+more, and he pointed to a house across the river where they had lately
+murdered an old man of seventy.
+
+On reaching the mouth of the Suifun we met the _Amur_, and the two
+vessels exchanged passengers, whereupon I discovered, to my surprise,
+that some of our new officers were those I had travelled with on the
+Shilka. I had breakfasted that morning, not very comfortably, in the
+open air, and was, therefore, ready for dinner in the officers’ cabin,
+after which it was I learned that I had eaten at the expense of the
+Emperor; and then, steaming down the Amur Gulf, and rounding the
+promontory into the Golden Horn, we dropped anchor before Vladivostock.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] The merchant Plusnin had on one occasion been attacked in his
+sledge by one of these animals; and Mr. Emery told me that, when
+a tiger had been seen on the road, he had sometimes found it very
+difficult to make the post-boys set out on a journey.
+
+[2] When he left America he brought eight of a choice sort in his
+portmanteau, and in three years had as many as he needed, and so fine
+that they weighed 1 lb. each. The Chinese have since planted them, but
+cultivate them so badly that their size has greatly diminished. On the
+same land the captain sowed maize, and from one grain grew a stalk with
+three heads and 900 grains. This he thought exceptional, but considered
+500 grains for one an average return. He sowed in drills, and cleaned
+the land with a cultivator drawn by an ox. This plan in the Western
+States of America, he said, yielded six bushels an acre more than
+ordinarily.
+
+[3] This reminds me of what Mr. Emery said at Nikolaefsk, that if I
+put hay into the soles of the Yakute boots I purchased, I should never
+suffer from cold feet.
+
+[4] Ginseng is found chiefly in the valleys of the Upper Ussuri, where
+it is cultivated in beds, planted in rows. The earth must be a rich
+black mould, and loose; and when the plant has attained the height of 4
+or 5 inches, it is supported by a stick. The beds are carefully weeded
+and watered, and protected from the sun by tents or sheds of wood. Wild
+ginseng is said to be the best. From May to September, hundreds go out
+to seek the plant; and when I asked for the Goldi natives at some of
+the stations on the Ussuri, I learnt that many of them were gone to
+seek for ginseng. The prices named by the French missionaries for this
+root were almost fabulous, a single root being valued in Manchuria at
+from £250 to £300. The plantations belong to Chinese merchants living
+at a distance, and Venyukoff found the guards strictly forbidden to
+sell it. He was able, however, by stealth to procure 12 roots for £4,
+and his native interpreter subsequently procured 20 for 30_s._ I was
+told on the river that ginseng sells for £30 per Russian lb., but that
+in a bad year the Chinese count it as valuable as gold, and give up to
+£40 per lb. If, therefore, these prices be paid to those who find it,
+no doubt it is very expensive when sold in China, where no chemist’s
+shop is without it. The root is straight, spindle-shaped, knotty, and
+up to half an inch in diameter, and 8 inches in length. The leaves are
+cut off, and the root is boiled in water, apparently to remove some
+injurious quality; and when it has undergone fitting preparation its
+colour is a transparent white, with sometimes a slight red or orange
+tinge; its appearance then is that of a stalactite. It is carefully
+dried, wrapped in unsized paper, and sent to market. On the Ussuri it
+is used, boiled, for cold, fever, headache or stomach-ache.
+
+[5] The first three stations--Mo, Vstrechni, and Utosni--were single
+post-houses, with no other habitation in sight. The accommodation was
+of the poorest; the couch at Vstrechni consisting of three boards, and
+the table-cloth of linen tick. I gave the children some nuts, but not
+one said “thank you,” and none could read.
+
+[6] Mr. Ravenstein speaks of the walnut of the Ussuri as seldom bearing
+fruit, and he suggests that the whole growing power may be absorbed by
+the trunk and leaves; but I saw walnuts on the trees at Khabarofka,
+and, when speaking of them to Baron Stackelberg, heard nothing of their
+failure in fruit.
+
+[7] The Chinese employ men in the interior to slaughter these animals,
+simply for the sake of their antlers. These soft horns are exported
+yearly to China in large quantities. Captain de Vries told me that on
+one occasion he carried on his little schooner a load of them to the
+value of £2,000, one extra good pair being worth £60. Erman states that
+the jelly made of these horns is much esteemed by Chinese gourmands,
+whilst Ravenstein quotes their medicinal use by the Chinese as a remedy
+in female diseases. A Russian doctor, to whom I spoke upon the subject,
+however, knew only of their general sedative properties, the jelly
+being used, he thought, as a comforting medicine in weakness.
+
+[8] How long this abundance of game will last is an interesting
+problem, for it is a well-known fact, says M. Réclus, that the
+distribution of animals over Siberia has been markedly affected by the
+advent of Russian hunters. The region of the reindeer, for instance,
+ought to impinge upon that of the camel; and the reindeer used to be
+found on the mountains of Southern Siberia, but it now runs wild only
+in the low forests and tundras of the north. The argali, or wild sheep,
+is no longer found in the plains and mountains of Siberia, as it was in
+the last century, but has fled southwards into Mongolia. The antelopes
+and wild horses, driven from the steppes of the Gobi by cold and lack
+of pasture, descend in troops in autumn towards the plains of Siberia,
+followed by tigers and wolves, and hunted by men; and the slaughter
+lasts till the spring allows their return to the solitudes of Mongolia.
+Neither animals nor birds need a map to show them the frontier of the
+two countries. It has been remarked that the same birds which permit
+a stranger to approach them without fear in Mongolia, flee in terror
+at the least noise on Siberian soil. Especially is this the case with
+water-fowl, for the Mongols never allow birds to be shot upon the
+sacred element, believing that, if the blood of a bird mixes with the
+water, the flocks that drink it will speedily die.
+
+[9] A lady in Petersburg told me that the peasantry near her country
+house live for a large part of the year almost without bread, weave in
+winter by the dim flame of a piece of lighted wood, and often go to bed
+supperless. With a sufficiency of rye bread all the year round they
+think themselves rich.
+
+[10] I heard on the Kama in European Russia, from a Belgian, that
+whereas he, as a foreigner, was free from taxation, having to pay only
+1_s._ 3_d._ a year for his passport, some of the peasants have to
+pay as much as 28_s._ Servants of the Crown, including priests, pay
+no taxes, though their children begin to do so at the age of 21. In
+Western Siberia no man (except convicts deprived of all their rights)
+is free from direct taxation, the manner of collecting the tax being
+similar to that followed in Russia. A census is taken every 20 years
+or oftener, and a number of villages are classed together into a _mir_
+(a world), from which a certain tax has to be raised. The _mir_ settle
+among themselves in a kind of local parliament the proportion each
+family shall pay, and then, whether the members of a family increase or
+diminish, this fixed proportion goes on till the next census is taken.
+This causes great inequalities. Thus a father with a large family will
+be made liable for a large sum, which, so long as he has children at
+home to work, he can pay; but should his sons be drawn for soldiers,
+or be cut off by death, he is in a different position; though, on the
+other hand, a man with a family of small children at the time of taking
+the census is lightly taxed, whereas, when his children grow up and
+work, he could well afford to pay more. In European Russia the census
+is taken every seven or nine years, and the tax to be paid by each
+family is revised oftener.
+
+Each village receives land according to the number of its inhabitants,
+but so that each “soul,” or able-bodied male or head of a family, gets
+about 15 acres, a space which, properly cultivated, should suffice
+for his support; but if not, land in the Primorsk government costs
+only 2_s._ an acre; in fact, at Nikolaefsk, the government _gave_
+land under certain restrictions for building, and up to 1875 charged
+no property-tax, nor even for licences during the first ten years of
+Russian occupation. When this land has been allotted to a man in Russia
+with its accompanying tax, he cannot get quit of the bargain so far as
+the tax is concerned. Should he find the land unprofitable he may give
+up its cultivation, but he must continue to pay the tax, and hence it
+often happens that a man leaves his commune and goes to a neighbouring
+town for employment, but still pays taxes for the land in some remote
+village he has left.
+
+[11] In the early days of the Russian occupation tigers used to come
+into the town of Vladivostock, and my host had a horse eaten by them.
+His young boy once came home saying that he had seen “such a pretty
+calf,” but that he could not hold in his pony, such haste did it make
+to get away. Sixty-five tigers were said to have been killed in the
+district the year before my arrival, and Captain de Vries told me that
+on the road by which I travelled he was proceeding, early one morning,
+with a farmer and his dog, when the royal beast appeared on the road a
+few yards before them, at which they shouted, and the animal retired
+into the forest. They went forward, the dog preceding them, whereupon
+the tiger sprang out and seized the dog and bore it away. The farmer
+began to mourn his loss, but the captain said, “Why, you donkey! if
+the tiger had not taken the dog for his breakfast he might have taken
+_you_!” I heard these things, however, _after_ my journey; and the only
+tangible reminders of tigers I saw were some of their skins, offered at
+Khabarofka and Vladivostock from £2, for that of a cub, to £5 for those
+of full size. Prejevalsky speaks of the tiger of the district as being
+equal to the royal tiger of Bengal, but, judging from the skins I saw,
+it is not so handsomely marked.
+
+[12] It being the furthest navigable point on the Suifun from
+Vladivostock, the Russians in the early days of their occupation had
+posted soldiers here and built barracks. They subsequently removed the
+military to Nicolsk, and with them had migrated all the inhabitants
+except Mr. Rosenstrom and the people at the telegraph-office and
+post-house. There were plenty of log-houses still standing, to one
+of which my attention was directed, and I was told that my informant
+had purchased it for 10_s._--the cheapest house I had ever seen. Mr.
+Rosenstrom and his friend, I discovered, were of the party of Finns
+who had come to these parts to catch whales, so that he knew Captain
+Stjerncreutz with whom I had travelled. I was puzzled to know how a
+living could be made from a tiny shop near which there were but two
+inhabited houses visible, but I found that a small trade was done with
+travellers passing to and from Vladivostock, by hawking, and with
+workmen building a shed at the river side.
+
+[13] The governors of Tobolsk, Tomsk, Akmolinsk, and Semipolatinsk,
+of Yeneseisk, Irkutsk, and Yakutsk, were requested to apportion
+the Scriptures to prisons, hospitals, poor-houses, and similar
+institutions, and to disperse the tracts in schools, as widely
+as possible. The governors of the Za-Baikal, Amur, and Sea-coast
+provinces, in addition to this, were asked also to distribute extra
+supplies to the army, navy, and Cossacks.
+
+[14] I would take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to the
+Religious Tract Society of London and its colleagues in Russia for the
+gracious way in which the Committee has always accepted my offers of
+service, and for the kind manner in which I have been trusted to act
+in concert with their local agents as seemed best on the occasion. Not
+a little of my success (if it may be so called), especially in Russia,
+has been traceable to this; and my holiday distribution of more than
+100,000 of their publications, I hope, I shall always remember with
+gratitude and pleasure. An extensive work is done in Russia by the
+Religious Tract Society. About 1,000,000 tracts were sold from 1875 to
+1878 which is an indirect testimony that we hold more truth in common
+with the Russian Church than many are aware of. In Russia, as is well
+known, every book, every pamphlet, every leaflet, before it can be
+published and circulated, must receive the approval of the censor; and
+if the doctrine of what is printed, whether political or religious, be
+objectionable, its publication is forbidden. Further, it is pretty well
+known what kind of doctrine, and what kind only, the Committee of the
+Religious Tract Society approves. Hence, if these two things be put
+together, and it be remembered that tens of thousands of tracts are
+circulated in the empire which the Committee approves, and to which the
+Synod does not object, then surely it is pretty clear that the Russians
+and ourselves have in religious matters a great deal of common ground.
+
+[15] My travels in Russia have led me to the conclusion that in the
+interior of that country it is not always wise to be too modest about
+divulging one’s income. An English officer in plain clothes, passing
+lonely through Kiakhta, was asked by a merchant, who had shown him some
+attention, what was his income; whereupon the officer told him that
+of a captain of Royal Engineers in full pay on foreign service, which
+greatly astonished the Siberiak. He said he would mention it to the
+chief man of the town, who, he felt sure, would call upon him. And so
+he did, and the captain received a marked increase of attention. Again,
+before starting last year for the Caucasus, I was told of the potency
+there of wearing arms and insignia of office, and of the difference it
+makes at the post-stations in getting horses, whether the traveller
+wears a plain hat, or one adorned with gold, or bearing the tchinovnik
+cockade. Accordingly, I so far profited by this information as to put
+on certain splendid array which I possess as I approached the stations,
+and (I will not say _therefore_) I obtained my horses.
+
+This is further illustrated by the treatment received by an able
+correspondent of the _Times_, who has recently been in the Caucasus. On
+arriving at a station, he was informed that he could not have horses
+because they were detained for an English general, whose arrival was
+expected every minute. Somewhat chafed, the correspondent took to
+his legs, being anxious to secure a certain view before nightfall;
+and it was not till he reached the next station, tired and enraged,
+that his vexation was turned into mirth by discovering that the
+horses had all the while been intended for himself. The préfet had
+politely telegraphed to the post-masters to have horses ready for “a
+distinguished” Englishman; and as the one idea of distinction in the
+mind of a Russian peasant is the rank of a general, the post-master was
+expecting an officer in uniform, and the correspondent in plain clothes
+not coming up to this, he refused him the horses.
+
+[16] I did not grasp the full meaning of this till some days after,
+and then I learned that every child in Russia must have a certificate
+of baptism, wanting which sundry civil difficulties may arise. It was
+well, therefore, that I chanced to give certificates on these two
+occasions, of which I sent notice, 6,000 miles off, to Moscow, to be
+copied into the register of “the nearest parish church.” The Russian
+certificate of baptism gives the sponsors’ names, and is signed over
+a 15_d._ stamp by the officiating priest and deacon. The certificate
+is then sent to the bishop’s registry for another stamp of like value,
+in addition to which, to expedite the matter, it is customary to add a
+rouble or two for the bishop’s clerk.
+
+[17] I had been recommended sundry remedies against these insects,
+and small vermin generally,--such as the burning of incense, a
+mosquito mixture of _pyretum roseum_, and another, the essential oil
+of cloves. I was prevailed upon to take some of the last-named, and
+offered the bottle to the officer travelling with me to try the first
+experiment. It made his hands and face tingle, but not in vain; and
+I followed suit, to find that the little nuisances approached one’s
+skin, evidently with malicious intent, and then changed their minds and
+sailed away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LII.
+
+_VLADIVOSTOCK._
+
+ Situation of town.--Lodged with Captain de Vries.--Chinese
+     labourers.--Chinese convicts.--Coreans.--Inhabitants of
+     Vladivostock.--Presented at the Governor’s house.--Admiral
+     Erdmann’s improvements.--Visit to barracks.--Boys’ high
+     school.--Education in Russia, its cost and method.--Vladivostock
+     Girls’ Institute; and Free School.--Statistics of
+     crime.--Telegraph companies.--Sunday services.--Protestantism
+     in Siberia.--Village of exiles.--General remarks on
+     exiles.--Preparations for departure.
+
+
+Vladivostock derives its lordly name from its supposed “command of the
+east.” The town overlooks an inlet, sheltered by islands, at the end
+of a promontory jutting out from the middle of the bay of Peter the
+Great. Behind the harbour rises a lofty hill, crowned by a watch-tower,
+to which I climbed during my stay, and was rewarded by a remarkably
+fine view. Northwards stretched the well-wooded Muravieff promontory.
+East and west lay the gulfs of the Amur and the Ussuri, down the former
+of which I had steamed from the Suifun; whilst to the south were
+mountainous islands with rocky headlands, separated from the mainland
+by the eastern “Bosphorus.” Descending from this elevated spot, and
+looking from the verandah of the Governor’s house, a less extensive
+view is obtained, but a very pretty one, comprising the entrance to the
+harbour called the “Bay of the Golden Horn,” with its two headlands
+forming the west and southern shores. The depth of water within the
+harbour is from 30 to 60 feet, and, at the entrance, about double these
+soundings. The “Bosphorus” is from 60 to 120 feet in depth, and after
+passing Kazakevich Island, this increases to 200 feet and upwards.
+
+As I steamed into the harbour on Monday afternoon, the 15th September,
+it was well filled with the ships of many nations, including Chinese
+junks with their clumsy sails. A German gunboat had just replaced an
+English line-of-battle ship, and an Italian man-of-war arrived during
+my stay. There were Russian ships from the Siberian and Pacific fleets,
+merchant vessels (of which 50 a year visit the port), and a number of
+boats, many of which ply between Vladivostock, Olga, and Paseat bays. I
+found, however, no regular service to Japan, but was told that I could
+probably leave in a Russian man-of-war within a fortnight.
+
+I sought a lodging with Captain de Vries, a Heligolander by birth,
+who, when in command of a passenger ship plying between England and
+New York, had become an American subject, and had again changed his
+nationality to Russian on settling in Siberia at the time of the
+annexation of the Amur. He had travelled over Siberia, and had a
+minute knowledge of the Amur and Russian Manchuria; so that from him I
+acquired a great deal of information, whilst his kind-hearted English
+wife spared no pains to make me comfortable. In fact, I found the 15
+days of my stay at Vladivostock the pleasantest of my tour; for not
+only had I time to rest and write and acquire information, but I was
+almost daily received as a guest at the houses of the Governor, or of
+some of the many inhabitants who spoke English.
+
+The population of Vladivostock in the Almanack is stated to be 8,431,
+but was estimated to me on the spot at 5,000. The births for 1878 were
+given by the priest as 184, marriages 13, and deaths 102, of which last
+66 were males. The population, however, must fluctuate greatly, for
+during the previous year 8,000 troops had been quartered in and about
+the town; and I saw the earth batteries they had thrown up to receive
+the English, in case the treaty of Berlin had been settled the wrong
+way. Happily it went the right way; and when H.M.S. _Iron Duke_, on a
+northern cruise, steamed into Vladivostock, instead of being injured
+by torpedoes or fired upon, the officers were invited to dine at the
+admiral’s house. I judged the party must have been a pleasant one,
+for the commander of the Siberian fleet told me he had been immensely
+pleased with the English admiral, and the Governor’s wife and family
+had nothing to say of the officers but what was gracious and kind.
+
+A large number of the inhabitants of Vladivostock are Manzas, Coreans,
+and Chinese, whose presence is looked upon in different lights. My
+host, for instance, thought their numbers a hindrance to Russian
+progress, because they outbid the Russians, work cheaper, and undersell
+them. In fact, this was one of the subjects upon which the captain used
+to wax warm. Accustomed to the high prices of American markets, he was
+sorely offended at the insignificant profits proposed to him by the
+Chinese, and, after speaking of their miserable offers for his goods
+or services, he used to wind up his orations by telling me, in not
+quite classical English, “There ain’t no footur for this country.” The
+Governor’s wife and other Russians thought differently, for, apart from
+the larger exports and imports,[1] they had the Chinese to thank for
+the vegetable market and the performance of a great deal of local work
+at a cheap rate, which otherwise would possibly not have been done at
+all.[2]
+
+Emigrants from the Corea take refuge on Russian soil, in spite of
+the Corean death penalty attached. In 1868 there were 1,400 of these
+fugitives; but in the following year, when floods in the Corea drove
+additional multitudes to seek refuge on neighbouring soil, their
+further immigration was forbidden by the Russians, and some of the
+fugitives were sent back, and, on their return, decapitated.[3]
+
+Sad accounts of the Manzas were heard at Vladivostock. My host
+employed, he said, an old man whom he one day missed, and found that
+he had been murdered, to be robbed of £10. The Manzas are pirates
+also. In their transactions with the Russians the Chinese demand to be
+paid in silver money, and this they take home by sea. Hence I saw more
+silver roubles in the Sea-coast province than I had observed in any
+other part of the empire. I saw too, at Khabarofka, a considerable sum
+of silver money in Mexican dollars. The Manza robbers, accordingly,
+watch for the boats, murder the crews, and secure the booty.
+
+The Coreans were described as very industrious. They dress in white,
+and tie up their hair in the shape of a horn. Their summer hats
+resemble those of the Gilyaks, except that they are hexagonal instead
+of circular. I went into some of their houses, the walls of which were
+of mud, plastered on a framework of straw. The floor was of beaten
+earth, with a mud fireplace in the centre, and a divan round the walls.
+In the best houses, the wife had a separate apartment. Fire burns in
+the centre by day, and the flues, under the divan, are heated morning
+and evening. The people live on millet and rice, and use a spoon of
+bronze, with a nearly circular flat bowl. Taking one from a man who
+was eating, I presented the spoon in one hand and a silver coin in the
+other, intimating that I wished to buy; and when he had taken the coin
+the master of the house came up, and, receiving from me the spoon and
+from the man the coin, he graciously returned them both, implying that
+he _gave_ me what I desired.
+
+The Russian inhabitants of Vladivostock consist almost entirely of
+officers and persons connected with the army and navy, and there are
+several foreign inhabitants besides,--some of them Germans, Finns, and
+Americans. England was represented by an engineer, who went there, I
+believe, as a mechanic, and whose son-in-law, at the time of my visit,
+was mayor of the town.[4]
+
+In 1878 there were in Vladivostock 80 merchants of the first guild, who
+pay in Russia a tax of £50 per annum; 185 of the second guild, who pay
+£6 per annum; 228 temporary merchants, and 99 street-hawkers; also 215
+first-class and 209 second-class clerks.[5]
+
+The junks of the Chinese, their little houses of wood, their sheds
+and implements, give to Vladivostock a different aspect from that of
+ordinary Siberian towns. The Russian houses are chiefly of wood, and
+among the public buildings are both barracks and winter quarters for
+the seamen of the fleet. To these must be added the Admiralty, an
+officers’ club, two high-class schools for boys and girls, a library,
+two free schools, a Russian and a Lutheran church, two telegraph
+stations, a dockyard, and the Governor’s house.
+
+At this last I was presented, on the day after my arrival, by Captain
+Naumoff, the captain of the port. The Governor was away on a tour of
+inspection, but I was introduced to Madame Erdmann, who spoke excellent
+English, and had all the manners and charm of an English lady. She
+was a German-Russian from the Baltic provinces, and both she and her
+husband were Protestants--and zealous ones, too, for they had come
+out to Vladivostock with the intention of effecting some good in the
+place, and were evidently doing it. My host, Captain de Vries, bore
+testimony to the material improvements which had been made by the
+Governor; for, said he, until the admiral came, “we had no road for the
+buggy.” His Excellency made also a pretty pleasure-garden at his own
+cost, for which, now that it is finished, the Government allows a grant
+for maintenance. Admiral Erdmann, who combined the three offices of
+Admiral of the Fleet, Chief of the Military, and Civil Governor of the
+province, drew a stipend of about £2,000 a year, kept an establishment
+of 15 servants, and seemed to take pleasure in entertaining in
+vice-regal style the officers of men-of-war of all nations visiting the
+port.
+
+But Admiral and Madame Erdmann have left other monuments than these
+to testify to their endeavours to promote the welfare of the town.
+When they arrived there was no system of poor relief, whereupon her
+Excellency called together the ladies of the place, and organized
+a society which has been an immense benefit. She proposed, in the
+first place, to build a free school, which was done. The institute or
+boarding-school for girls also was enlarged, and Madame had been the
+prime mover in another effort to build a Lutheran church and manse. The
+means by which funds were raised for these charitable objects were, in
+part, concerts and fancy fairs. One that took place during the first
+week I was there was described to me as resembling those in England,
+and I heard that by two such fêtes within a fortnight they cleared the
+sum of £500.
+
+I was invited to dine at the admiral’s house soon after my arrival,
+and met there the officers of the Russian clipper _Djiguitt_, in which
+I afterwards left Siberia. A band performed during the evening, and
+fairly surprised me by its excellence; for I had met with nothing to
+equal it in Russia, and had heard little music of any kind in crossing
+Siberia. This dinner-party brought me into contact with several
+naval people, and I subsequently met a Commander Terentieff, who was
+exceedingly kind in translating for me. He accompanied me one morning
+to the temporary barracks of the first battalion, whose chief is the
+Grand Duke Alexei. Its standard was presented by Peter the Great, and
+the Commandant informed me with pride that it was this battalion that
+escorted the Russian Ambassador across the Mongolian desert to Peking
+in the seventeenth century. The barracks were shown me as something
+noteworthy, in that they were built of mud-bricks not burnt, after
+the fashion of the new ones at Tashkend. All inside was orderly, but
+the bedsteads were somewhat close together. Some of the extras in
+furniture, such as here and there a bright counterpane or quilt, had
+been purchased by the economies of the regiment. I tasted their soup,
+and found it excellent. The men varied in age from 22 to 26. Barracks
+of ordinary bricks for 200 men were in course of construction. Usually
+the Russian soldiers are their own builders, but in this instance
+accommodation, including a room for gymnastics convertible into a
+chapel, was being erected by Chinese labourers at a cost of £6,000.
+
+From the barracks we went to the lock-up, where were 20 military and
+21 civil prisoners, the latter being for the most part Manza brigands.
+At our entrance they went down on all-fours, and continued in that
+posture whilst one was deputed to ask how their trial was going on; and
+another, thinking, I suppose, to expedite matters, said that he wished
+to be baptized. They were a sorry-looking lot; but I must give them
+credit for keeping their chamber cleaner than the Russian prisoners
+did. The hide upon which each of them slept was neatly rolled up, and
+all was arranged in order.
+
+The commander took me to visit the boys’ pro-gymnasium or high-class
+school for 45 scholars, established four years previously. It was
+modelled on precisely the same plan as all the schools of its class
+throughout Russia. Hence two boys in the same grade of school, though
+one may be at Moscow and the other at Vladivostock, go through the
+same studies, and keep the same hours to each subject. The scholars
+dress in a blue and white uniform, and a boy, after passing through
+the preparatory class, goes on through the various grades up to the
+sixth, or, for a higher education, to the seventh and eighth classes.
+He may then go to the university, or to the Lyceum, to study philology
+and jurisprudence; or, again, to one of the academies, with a view to
+special studies, such as medicine, mineralogy, divinity, etc.
+
+The cost of education in Russia, as compared with England, is low.[6]
+The Russian curriculum looks very formidable on paper, and I have
+heard from an English tutor in Russia that the boys are obliged to
+work exceedingly hard to pass their examinations. He thought they
+were worked harder than English boys, and acquired more theoretical
+knowledge, though the education is of a less practical character than
+in England.[7] Corporal punishment is forbidden, and is replaced by
+impositions; and when these are inflicted the scholar receives a note
+stating his fault, which he must take home and bring back signed by
+his parents. Should a boy fail to pass his examination in each of his
+classes, he is usually turned out of the gymnasium, which is a serious
+loss to him, because a boy gains military exemptions according to the
+class he is in on leaving school.[8]
+
+Besides the boys’ school at Vladivostock I visited the girls’
+institute for the daughters of naval officers, and witnessed the
+opening religious ceremony of blessing the house after the long
+vacation. Each child as she came up to kiss the Gospels was sprinkled
+with holy water, as were also the visitors; after which the priest and
+his assistant went over the building, sprinkling in all directions. The
+inspector subsequently declared what children were to be advanced to
+higher classes. The subjects taught were in keeping with those of the
+boys’ gymnasium, from which the institute differed in that the children
+were lodged, clothed, and boarded; 12 free, the rest on payment of £20
+per annum. The Government gives a grant of £1,000 per annum towards
+this school, and the remainder is made up by the children’s fees and
+voluntary contributions. The cleanliness and good arrangement of this
+building were striking, not to say luxurious. A great deal, no doubt,
+was due to the fact that the Governor’s wife visited one of the schools
+every day. The senior class had two girls of 15 and 16 years of age. To
+my questions in geography they gave good answers, and in the Gospels
+fair. They had not read the Epistles, but were expecting so to do that
+year. One girl was from a peasant home, the other the daughter of a
+foreign merchant, but they appeared throughout to stand on a level
+with the officers’ daughters. They had a custom of posting up on a
+red board for a year the name of the best girl in the school. At the
+time of my visit the same maiden had held this “blue ribbon” for five
+years consecutively. Whether it was for excellence of intellect or
+conduct I know not, but I amused them by offering a prize, such as I
+had seen given in the schools of the Irish Church Missions, called the
+“best beloved” prize. The girls were ranged in a line, and each came
+and whispered in the ear of the teacher the name of the schoolfellow
+she loved best, and the girl who gained the highest number of votes
+received the prize. The idea was new to them, and they said the
+whispering was like going to confession.
+
+There was yet another school the Governor’s wife took me to see--the
+little free school--built by the society she had founded, and of which
+it is not too much to say that it was the neatest and best-built house
+in the town. It was furnished in a manner that would be thought too
+good for a ragged school in England, and it struck me, as did the
+institute, that it was somewhat over-provided with teachers.[9]
+
+There were 30 children on the books, of whom one class came in the
+morning, and the other in the afternoon. The religious instruction
+consisted in learning the 10 principal prayers of the Russian Church
+from a small primer, the contents of which would be as much or, I was
+told, rather more religious knowledge than the average Russian peasant
+would know. The children received at Christmas presents of clothing,
+and a marked increase of attendants takes place as the time for the
+gifts draws near--a phenomenon not confined to Siberian schools!
+
+Madame Erdmann told me of an industrial school in the town for boys,
+where they are paid 6_d._ a day for their work. It must not, however,
+be inferred from these remarks about the educational condition of
+Vladivostock that things so prevail throughout the province. On the
+contrary, there are only 15 elementary schools throughout the Primorsk,
+attended by 215 boys and 66 girls; and the low condition of education
+was alleged to the Emperor as one of the principal causes of crime in
+the district.[10]
+
+The foreign communications of Vladivostock are in summer tolerably
+numerous. Ships from various nations come northwards to avoid the heat
+of the tropics, or to get coal at Dui, and put in at Vladivostock
+for provisions, the prices of which, in the meat and vegetable
+markets, immediately rise on the arrival of a large ship. Again, the
+inhabitants of this town in the far east have the advantage of two
+telegraph stations, by one of which they can send a message to London
+through Siberia, and by the other _viâ_ China and India. The latter
+wires are those of the Great Northern Telegraph Company, opened in
+1871, and passing through Hakodate and Nagasaki, thence to Shanghai and
+Amoy, and so on to India and Suez. The latter wire goes by the route I
+followed as far as Khabarofka, there meeting wires from Nikolaefsk, and
+then continues across Siberia by the route I travelled. The number of
+messages sent in 1878 from Russia to China was 595, and to Japan 515,
+or 1,100 in all.
+
+Of the two Siberian wires, one, I found, is reserved for international
+correspondence. Of 20,000 messages passing from the south through
+Vladivostock, no less than 15,000 were in English. Of the remaining
+5,000, those in the French and German languages absorbed the larger
+proportion.[11]
+
+The director of the Great Northern Company was Mr. Russell, at whose
+house I dined, and whose wife played the harmonium at the Sunday
+service. I have already mentioned the heartiness with which Russians
+and foreigners alike assisted these services in the Primorsk. At
+Nikolaefsk, not only did the authorities send round notice of what was
+to take place, but they seemed to vie with one another in offering
+assistance. The military commandant offered the use of a room at the
+club; the captain of the port, being a Protestant, seemed almost
+aggrieved that his house from the first had not been chosen, and the
+chief civil authority lent the best room in the Governor’s residence,
+and attended the service with other dignitaries in full uniform. There
+were present on the first Sunday 33 persons, Greeks, Romans, and
+Protestants, representing Russia, Poland, England, America, Finland,
+Germany, and Sweden. Some came, doubtless, out of curiosity to see the
+first English service on the Amur, but many were able to understand;
+and on the second Sunday, which was wet, there were 20 persons present,
+all men but one. At Vladivostock the service was held in the new
+Lutheran church. The congregation numbered 27 persons, representing
+quite as many nationalities as at Nikolaefsk, and some Swiss besides.
+So few were familiar with the offices of the English Church that I was
+compelled to make the service of an irregular character; but it was
+pleasant, after the sermons, to have one and another grasping one’s
+hand, and expressing their thanks for what they had heard. Some of them
+had not had such an opportunity for a long time. I was greatly struck
+with one thing that reached me in connection with these services. Some
+of the Russians had never attended a Protestant service before, and
+more than one remarked upon its solemnity. This I thought remarkable as
+coming from persons who from childhood had been accustomed to an ornate
+and very elaborate ritual, and none other. They were plainly struck
+by the quietness that prevailed and by the appeal to the intellect as
+manifest in the sermon, in contrast to their service of worship only,
+with persons moving hither and thither; and a well-educated officer,
+commenting upon the solemnity of the service, said that he had never
+before been impressed by a sermon in his life.
+
+The offertory at Vladivostock was given to the building fund, for the
+church was not quite finished. A resident pastor was expected to arrive
+in the course of a few months, which would make four Lutheran ministers
+in Siberia, instead of the former three living in or near Omsk, Tomsk,
+and Irkutsk, their general superintendent, Pastor Jürgenssen, living at
+Moscow. The number of Protestant churches in Siberia is five, and of
+Protestants about 7,000. At Ekaterineburg are living some 300 German
+Protestants, but nine persons, we heard, was considered a large Sunday
+congregation. In the vicinity of Tobolsk some of the Lettish peasants
+were said to have joined the Russian Church, and some to have fallen
+away from religion altogether. The account, however, of 1,800 Finns
+living at Ruschkova was better. They had petitioned for, and were
+awaiting, a pastor.
+
+At Vladivostock I took my farewell of Siberian exile life at an
+experimental penal colony called “First River” village. Accompanied
+by the German captain of the _Cyclop_, Captains Boris and Charles de
+Livron, and a lady, we proceeded thither on horseback, by a pretty
+ride through a partially-cleared forest, till, from the top of a hill,
+we saw a brewery, brick-fields, and, not far distant, nestling among
+the trees, the exiles’ village. It consisted of about 20 log houses,
+occupied by 15 convicts and five others who had served their time,
+and who might have removed elsewhere, but they so far liked their
+quarters that they chose to remain. Two naval men lived in the village
+for the purpose, ostensibly, of keeping order, and a few Chinese had
+been attracted to settle in the place. Four of the convicts were under
+sentence of 15 years’ hard labour, one for 20 years, and one for life.
+They were condemned to Sakhalin, but, seeing that their wives had
+accompanied them, and that there was not enough work in the coal-mines,
+the kind-hearted Governor had obtained permission to place them in the
+little colony as an experiment. The men had built their own houses, and
+took it in turns to go into Vladivostock, from eight to twelve, to do
+night work. They might earn what they could by day, and the wives were
+able to add to the store by laundry work. One wife had by this means
+possessed herself of two cows.
+
+Besides this, they might take as much land as they chose to cultivate.
+They were growing potatoes, pumpkins, cucumbers, and cabbages, but the
+soil was said to be unsuitable for corn. Pigs and poultry were running
+about; and though, according to their own account, one of them with
+seven children found it difficult to make a living, yet the others did
+so easily.
+
+One of the convicts, thinking I was a Government official, informed
+me that he had not yet received his new clothes, whereupon I learned
+that, when they begin to colonize, they receive monthly 72 lbs. of
+flour and 5_d._ a day. Every year they received a _shuba_, or sheepskin
+coat, underlinen, two pairs of winter boots, three pairs of summer
+shoes, and, once in three years, a long coat. In one of the best of
+the houses we found a clean, orderly room, with a good samovar, and
+plenty of pictures and photographs. The owner possessed two cows and
+a horse; so we were told, at least, by a fellow-convict, who took us
+into his garden and seated us beneath a bower of wild vines. Milk and
+wild grapes were afterwards brought for our refreshment. This man had
+been in the Imperial Guard, and had finished his military service,
+when, having invited some friends to his house, he killed one of
+them in a drunken quarrel. I tried to get at the relative positions
+of some of these convicts before the committal of their crimes and
+after, and found in one case that in Russia the man was a drunkard and
+poor, whereas in this village he could live well, and could not get
+intoxicated so easily, by reason of his distance from Vladivostock.
+There were but one man and one woman in the village who could read, and
+one had friends who corresponded with him from Russia. The children
+were educated at the industrial school at Vladivostock. Thus my last
+specimen of Siberian exile life was the most favourable of all.
+
+I had now followed the exiles from Moscow all across Siberia, and, with
+the exception of the mines at Nertchinsk and Dui, had seen them under
+the varying circumstances in which they live. Looking at the matter
+calmly and dispassionately, I am bound to say that “exile to Siberia”
+no longer calls up to my mind the horrors it did formerly. I am quite
+prepared to believe that instances have occurred of bad management,
+oppression, and cruelty. I have already quoted some cases; but that the
+normal condition of things has been exaggerated I am persuaded. Taken
+at the worst, “condemned to the mines” is not so bad as it seems, and
+in the case of peasant exiles, willing to work, I cannot but think
+that many of them have a better chance of doing well in several parts
+of Siberia than at home in some parts of Russia. English people are
+accustomed to think of exiles like the parents of “Elizabeth,” banished
+to a region in the far north where scarcely anything grows; but a
+little consideration would show this to be, in the great number of
+cases, extremely unlikely, for the Government would then have to keep
+them, whereas in the south they can keep themselves. On the sea coast,
+women convicts get excellent places as servants. One hardship connected
+with their lot is that, until they have served their time or gained
+their good conduct class, they cannot marry; and even then the husband,
+if a free man, must undertake not to quit Siberia and so leave his wife
+behind. This law is rigidly enforced. I heard of one case of a woman
+who had behaved particularly well, and whose husband wished to return
+to Russia, for which even the Governor of a province petitioned, but
+the request was refused.
+
+A lady told me at Vladivostock that some of her convict servants had
+recently said to her, “We have such a good time of it here in Siberia,
+that, had we known it, we would certainly have committed a crime before
+to get here; and now we mean to write to our relations and tell them
+to do something to get sent here too,”--a speech that will probably
+strike the reader as the foolish saying of a servant girl, but the
+truth of which, _in this particular case_, I do not doubt. The servant
+had the good fortune to be taken into the service of Madame Boris de
+Livron, who had spent many years in America, and of whose home I can
+speak, because I dined therein; and one had only to contrast with it
+some wretched _izba_ in European Russia, from which, perhaps, the woman
+came, and her laborious work in the fields, to render it exceedingly
+likely that she spoke, after all, only the sober truth. That this was
+an exceptional case may very well be, and so also the exile village was
+in a manner exceptional, for the exiles are usually planted, on their
+release, among colonists, rather than put into villages by themselves;
+but I have quoted these instances as the least repulsive forms of exile
+life that came under my notice, and to show that, once set free from
+prison, the prosperity of the banished is pretty much in their own
+hands.
+
+Before leaving Vladivostock I called upon the priest, who gave me
+information about the church, and I likewise made the acquaintance of
+several of the merchants, among them Mr. Lindholm, who had whaling
+vessels in the Sea of Okhotsk. With him I exchanged my paper money, at
+the rate of two roubles four kopecks per Mexican dollar, taking with me
+a draft on his partners, Messrs. Walsh, Hall, and Co. of Yokohama. Thus
+prepared I awaited the return of the Governor, and on Monday afternoon,
+September 29th, the admiral’s flag appeared in the harbour; the naval
+captains and military officers assembled to present their reports, and
+I got my luggage on board the _Djiguitt_. Madame Erdmann insisted on
+my coming, however, the same evening to be introduced to the admiral,
+which I thought very kind, immediately after his prolonged absence, and
+the weariness of his journey. A warm reception was accorded me by the
+Governor, a lively interest manifested in my plans, and I left _terra
+firma_ to sleep in the ship.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Réclus gives these statistics concerning Russian trade with China:--
+
+ Average of 1827-31, £120,000 exports, £20,000 imports, £140,000 total;
+                _i.e._, 1 per cent. of total Russian trade.
+
+     ”      1842-46, £650,000 exports, £650,000 imports, £1,300,000 total;
+                _i.e._, 8 per cent. of total Russian trade.
+
+     ”      1864-68, £580,000 exports, £450,000 imports, £1,030,000 total;
+                _i.e._, 2·5 per cent. of total Russian trade.
+
+  The year 1876, £250,000 exports, £1,410,000 imports, £1,660,000 total;
+                _i.e._, 2 per cent. of total Russian trade.
+
+[2] The number of Chinese and their congeners in the Russian littoral
+was estimated, in 1873, at from 3,000 to 7,000; and this would be
+multiplied a hundredfold if free emigration were permitted. In 1861,
+after the cession of the Sea Coast to the Russians, the Chinese
+Government forbade its subjects any longer to colonize in the country
+with their wives. The rich, therefore, returned home, leaving the poor;
+and these were joined by Manchu brigands and vagabonds, generically
+called Manzas, or Freemen--so named in reproach by the Chinese as
+outlaws, though the Manzas call themselves _Pao-toui-tzi_, that is,
+“walkers” or “couriers.”
+
+[3] In 1873 there were about 3,500 Coreans in the Primorsk, of whom,
+says Réclus, more than half permitted themselves to be baptized--the
+correctness of which latter statement I am disposed to doubt. I heard
+nothing of any such number of Corean Christians, and the priest at
+Vladivostock told me that in ten years he had baptized only about 10
+pagans. He was not a missionary, it is true, nor did I hear of one so
+far south.
+
+[4] In Russian towns having not less than 5,000 inhabitants there
+are 30 supervisors, three more being added for each 1,500 of the
+population; and it is over these the mayor presides. Other civic
+arrangements, applying to towns, are an _uchastok_, consisting of from
+10 to 20 houses; a _quartal_, or square, or block; a chast, consisting
+of from five to ten quartals; and a _government_ town of three chasts
+and upwards. The police-master is at the head of affairs; under him is
+a _chastny pristaf_ for each chast, under whom are chiefs of quartals,
+with uchastok officers under them.
+
+[5] Manufactured goods were brought to the town to the value of
+£100,000, of which £40,000 worth were transported into the interior,
+and the increase of trade was reported to be 20 per cent. on that of
+the previous year; but I am not aware to what departments of trade
+this increase is to be apportioned, or whether it was due to the
+abnormally large garrison. Réclus gives the commerce of Vladivostock in
+1879:--Imports, £218,495; and exports, £10,452.
+
+[6] For instruction and books the first three classes pay 18_s._ a
+year, the three higher classes £3 2_s._ a year. In certain places
+only they can board and lodge, in which case they pay £24, or, with
+clothing, £32 per annum. The average total cost of a boy’s education,
+exclusive of food and clothing, up to the age of 21, in high-class
+schools in Russia, is £240, and for special schools for army, navy,
+etc., £300.
+
+[7] The subjects of Russian study are as follows: Prayers learnt
+_memoriter_; explanation of most important chapters in Old and New
+Testaments; Old and New Testament history; principles and doctrines
+of the Orthodox Church; catechism; Divine revelation, sacred legends,
+and holy writings; ancient and modern books; faith, hope, charity:
+Greek and Russian Church histories; Sclavonic and Russian language
+and literature: Latin, Greek; arithmetic, algebra, geometry, plane
+trigonometry, and physical geography: natural sciences, electricity,
+galvanism, light, heat, motion, meteorology, chemistry: natural
+history, geology, botany, zoology: history, ancient, modern, Oriental,
+Greek, and Roman: geography: German, and one other modern language at
+choice, except that in certain seaport towns (as at Vladivostock) it
+_must_ be English. This course applies to boys’ gymnasia throughout
+Russia, and all the principal subjects are compulsory. Others may be
+studied out of the gymnasium, such as music, languages, technology,
+practical chemistry, etc.
+
+[8] Thus, whilst 7 years’ service is exacted from a recruit who is
+uneducated, and 3 years from one who has passed through an elementary
+school, a boy who goes from the 5th class of a gymnasium serves as a
+soldier only 2 years; from the 6th class only 1 year; and from the 7th
+class, or the university, only 6 months, after which he can be examined
+for an officer’s commission, or may retire into the first reserve
+during 10 years, and then into the second reserve up to 40 years of
+age, after which he is altogether free from military service.
+
+[9] I learnt something of Russian teachers’ salaries. At the institute
+the directress received £150 per annum; two teachers £100 each; an
+assistant £60; linen custodian £25; housekeeper £30. They had 42
+scholars; and in the building they employed 8 male and female servants,
+at a salary of £1 per month each. Beside this home staff there were 15
+outside teachers, amongst whom the priest received £70 a year. At the
+boys’ gymnasium the teacher of English received £7 10_s._ per month,
+and the teacher of German £25; or, to put it in another way, teachers
+of languages and of the four higher classes received 10_s._ a lesson,
+and those of the lower three classes 6_s._ The teachers elect from
+their own number an inspector, who receives an additional £60 per annum
+and a house rent free. Further, the Government appoints a director, at
+a salary of £250 per annum. All teachers in Siberia appointed by the
+Government receive an increase of 25 per cent. of their salary every
+five years; and after ten years’ service have an annual pension of half
+their salary.
+
+[10] Thus the official report dealing with the morality of the people
+called attention to the fact that many are convicts and soldiers sent
+to the district for punishment, to the unusually large importation
+of alcohol and Chinese brandy, to the high price of necessaries, the
+insufficient number of free marriageable women, and, lastly, to the
+low condition of education. The chief causes of crime were given as
+gambling and drunkenness; and the crimes committed in 1878 were:
+insubordination to authorities 13, breaking prison bounds 4, vagrancy
+31, murder 5, personal violence 11, libel and assault 12, theft 27, and
+highway robbery 11.
+
+[11] A comparison of the salaries of the clerks shows the English
+company to pay a higher rate. The English company has 25 European
+clerks, independently of Japanese, Chinese, and Portuguese
+subordinates. The European clerks begin at a salary of £320 a year, and
+go on to £420, after which they ascend to higher offices and shorter
+hours as superintendents, etc., and rise to £800 a year or more. In the
+Russian service a clerk begins at £2 12_s._ a month if speaking only
+Russian, and receives £2 10_s._ a month extra for each new language
+acquired. A first-class clerk has about £120 a year, with a house and
+perquisites; and even a superintendent receives only £280, with the
+like additions, part of which consist of rye meal or flour. I heard
+one man say he bought up this meal of his fellow-clerks to give to his
+horse and chickens. They also receive travelling-money periodically. I
+was favourably impressed with the bearing of the telegraph officials
+throughout Siberia. In some cases they live a most secluded life. At
+Busse, for instance, I met one who had been shut off from the world
+in that tiny place on the Ussuri for nearly ten years, hoping to
+realize a pension of £36 a year. The English company gives a pension,
+three-tenths of salary after 10, one-half after 20, and seven-tenths
+after 30 years’ service.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER LIII.
+
+_RUSSIANS AFLOAT._
+
+ Reflections on leaving Siberia.--Departure.--The Russian
+     navy.--The _Djiguitt_.--Seamen’s food, clothing,
+     work.--Relation between officers and men.--Received as
+     captain’s guest.--Progress.--Hospital arrangements.--Arrival
+     at Hakodate.--Divine service.--Religious professions of
+     seamen.--Inspection of ship.--A “strong gale.”--Russian sentiments
+     towards Englishmen.--Cause of dislike.--Misrepresentations by
+     English press.--Russian writings.--Transhipped to American
+     steamer.--Arrivals at San Francisco and London.
+
+    “_The sailor sighs as sinks his native shore_
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    _And climbs the mast to feast his eyes once more._”
+
+
+Siberia was not my native land, and I did not climb for a last fond
+look; yet I confess to drawing half a sigh as I was borne away from
+Vladivostock. At all events I was not unmoved, and various thoughts
+presented themselves--some, I hope, of thankfulness that I had been
+permitted to cross the Old World without scratch or bruise.[1]
+
+But my happiest reflections were connected with what has been called my
+work. I entered the country very much in the dark as to what could be
+done, and what I did was little enough to boast of; yet, to me, it was
+a source of gratitude that I had been permitted to place within reach
+of at least every prisoner and hospital patient in Siberia a portion of
+the Word of God. A few opportunities also for the exercise of clerical
+functions had presented themselves, such as the services at Nikolaefsk
+and Vladivostock, as also some others of a private character, which
+linger pleasingly in the memory. Since my return, news has come from
+Archangel that the books I left in 1878 have caused inquiry and demand
+for the Scriptures. Again, more than one who has followed me in
+Northern Asia has told of the manner in which the books left at the
+post-houses are treasured, and, last winter, two gentlemen, travelling
+over a large portion of Western Siberia, found the tracts I had left
+in great demand. One of them writes that they have been a boon and a
+pleasure at many a peasant’s fireside. If, then, the result were no
+more than this, it would be something to have ministered gratification
+to tens of thousands of readers. But I had higher aims; for I believed
+that in those Scriptures and tracts there were germs of new life and
+thought and hope. I remembered what reading the Scriptures had done for
+men in other lands,--for Luther in his cell, and Bunyan in prison; and
+having sown the seed, I was content to leave it with Him in Whose name
+I went forth. Then I sailed away with the thought that I had done what
+little I could. Those who labour in similar fields will understand and
+sympathize with my feelings, and some perhaps will breathe a prayer
+that in the great day of account the harvest may be plenteous.
+
+As the _Djiguitt_ steamed out of the harbour we fired a salute of
+seven guns, and, gliding past the admiral’s house, saw his Excellency
+and Madame Erdmann waving their handkerchiefs from the verandah. Our
+captain, Charles de Livron, is the admiral’s son-in-law, so that there
+were hearty farewells passing. Madame Erdmann had kindly expressed to
+me a wish that our acquaintance thus begun might be continued, and, on
+leaving, I felt that I was parting from pleasant friends, not only in
+the Governor’s house, but in the town and country too. As I had applied
+to Captain de Vries for lodgings, I asked, of course, for my bill; but
+Mrs. de Vries would not hear of one, and the old captain said, “Well,
+write me a letter, and tell me how you get home, and then come again as
+soon as you can.”
+
+We had hardly lost sight of land before I began to inquire about the
+Siberian fleet, which I understood to consist of 12 ships, divided
+into four classes, some being of iron and some of wood; 1 is for the
+China station, and there are besides 5 transports, 2 cruisers, and 4
+gunboats, the last with 3 guns each; the whole being manned by 208
+officers and 2,240 seamen. Of these about 380 are employed on shore for
+mechanical and building purposes, and a far larger number live ashore
+in winter. Their pay is much higher (nearly double, I heard) than that
+of sailors in the Baltic fleet.[2]
+
+And now a word about the _Djiguitt_ (pronounced “Jee-geet,” and
+meaning “a horseman”), on board which I was favoured with a passage
+from Vladivostock to Japan. The clipper had been built four years
+previously, at a cost of £62,500, and measured 218 feet long, was
+of 1,300 tons burden, and fitted with engines of 250 nominal, but
+1,200 registered, horse-power. She carried 200 men, with three large
+guns in the middle of the deck, and four small ones at the sides. The
+captain said he relied less upon his guns than upon his torpedoes,
+the apparatus connected with which fired 30 for defensive and 5 for
+offensive purposes. By means of wires the torpedoes--a kind supposed
+to be in possession only of the Russian navy--could be moved about
+under the water, and caused to explode automatically or at will. I
+am incapable of judging how far this information was correct, but I
+observed subsequently, from one of the English newspapers describing
+the _Djiguitt_, and some of her sister ships, that they were said to be
+well fitted to damage merchant shipping; and there is no doubt that,
+had England and Russia declared war in 1878, this clipper would have
+done her best to cripple the English commercial navy in the Pacific.
+
+The _Djiguitt_ had three masts, could spread 15,000 square feet of
+canvas, and, under sail and steam, was supposed to make 13 knots an
+hour. We were not fortunate enough, however, to get up to anything near
+this speed, nine knots on the first day being, if I mistake not, our
+best travelling. Often it was not more than six knots, and one day we
+made only 103 miles. Everything on board was scrupulously clean. The
+same thing struck me at Vladivostock, when steering the boat of the
+chief of the staff, in which I was rowed to the end of the harbour.
+The boat was manned by six men with 18-feet oars. According to Russian
+regulations, the men row up to 42 strokes a minute, and I noticed that
+when their arms were outstretched the men simultaneously bobbed their
+heads, but whether for obtaining more pulling power, or for appearance’
+sake, I did not make out.
+
+The sailors in the Imperial navy are now shorter than formerly. The
+Russian plan was to give from recruits, taken from all parts of the
+country, the tallest men to the navy, the next to the artillery, and
+the next to the infantry; but now they have made an alteration, and the
+navy takes the shortest.[3]
+
+The food of the seamen on shore I have already alluded to. At sea, each
+man gets 1 lb. of beef per day and plenty of biscuit. As I saw them
+eating their meals, sitting at tables, or on deck in circles round a
+common soup-bowl, they appeared to have enough and to spare, for a
+good deal of broken victuals was at times thrown overboard; and if,
+moreover, they do not eat all their allowance (which is usually the
+case), they may economise and purchase extras for holidays. Rum was
+served out at least once a day (for the notion that this benefits the
+men is not yet exploded in Russia), but a man might forego this if he
+pleased, and receive a trifling pittance instead.[4]
+
+It was difficult sometimes on so small a ship to find work for 200
+men; consequently, a large number of them were employed in labour
+of a time-killing character, polishing the fittings of the ship and
+guns, making them in some parts as bright as silver plate. Others were
+weaving stays, or binding fine wire on telegraph lines for use with the
+torpedoes. Once or twice I saw them at gun drill. The smaller guns were
+breech-loaders, firing 15-lb. shot, worked by five men each; and the
+larger were 90-lb. muzzle-loaders, each worked by 19 men.
+
+There seemed to me to exist an excellent feeling between officers and
+men. The captain, on leaving Cronstadt, hinted to his crew that, as he
+was proceeding to Siberia, he might leave some of them there if they
+misbehaved. He gave them, however, an excellent character, and said
+that, on arriving in Japan, he told an officer to let him know the
+number of men whose conduct since leaving port had been immaculate, and
+out of 180 men more than 100 were found without a bad mark. These, by
+way of encouragement, he treated to a special performance in a circus.
+On another occasion the captain paid some Chinese jugglers to come
+on board and give the men an exhibition, whilst, in the tropics, the
+officers had given the men lectures on scientific subjects, illustrated
+by a magic lantern.
+
+On boarding the _Djiguitt_ I had as usual “fallen on my feet.” There
+was a small berth in the vessel set apart for a chance passenger; but
+the captain honoured me with a place at his table in his own cabin,
+where things were more than comfortable. My host spoke excellent
+English, to say nothing of several other languages; and so well
+educated in this respect were the officers that, although the captain
+usually invited two of them to dine with us daily, there was seldom or
+never an occasion when they could not converse with me in English or
+French. Among the officers were some of the Russian nobility, one a
+prince, another a baron, and so on; and after sailing with them for 12
+days, I came to the conclusion that they were gentlemen and officers
+of whom any navy might be proud. The doctor played the violoncello, a
+second officer accompanied on the piano, and others sang part songs. A
+young baron in Siberia had told me that the officers of the army were
+badly educated, and worse “elevé”; but this certainly was not the case
+with the officers of the _Djiguitt_.
+
+On Sunday the captain and I were invited to lunch in the officers’
+cabin, where I was reminded of the smallness of the world by the
+discovery that the first lieutenant sitting next me had been to the
+Greenwich Observatory, and as he had gained scholastic distinction in
+Russia, and had the privilege of spending two years in foreign study,
+he thought of coming again to Greenwich to the Naval College.
+
+We left Vladivostock on Tuesday, the 30th of September, for Yokohama,
+and made fair progress till, next morning, a slight derangement of the
+machinery caused us to lift the screw and depend on sails. This piece
+of brass machinery, weighing nearly five tons, was heaved up by two
+lines of seamen on either side of the deck, which operation interested
+me, as did also some of the manœuvres for setting the sails, of which
+11 were one day hoisted on the foremast, thereby spreading to the wind
+about 5,000 square feet of canvas. I accompanied the captain once or
+twice on his rounds of inspection, and was surprised at the stock of
+carpenters’ tools and stores on board. In the kitchen, divided into two
+compartments for officers and men, was a Chinese cook, who received
+excellent wages (the Chinese cook at Madame Erdmann’s at Vladivostock
+received £60 a year); and to him I paid the ordinary passenger’s tariff
+for food of 4_s._ a day. In the fore part of the clipper were two small
+compartments almost dark, used, when needed, for a prison.[5] There was
+a lazarette on board, and I found that the doctor was obliged to keep
+a daily report, showing the number of patients in the ship, the number
+of cases standing over, new cases, cured, sent to hospital, remaining,
+and dead.[6]
+
+We sighted Japan on Friday, October 3rd, and early on Saturday morning
+reached Hakodate, where the ship stayed to get coal. I went on shore,
+not dreaming that I should know a creature, but soon found a missionary
+with whom, as a student, I had played football and cricket; and then,
+walking along the streets, a second surprise awaited me on meeting a
+youth whom I had known as a boy in Sussex. We stayed only a few hours,
+but I had time to visit the prison with Mr. Dening, the missionary; and
+then, getting on board, we steamed away on Saturday afternoon.
+
+On Sunday morning, at half-past nine, a white sail with a red cross
+was run up to the mast-head, the bugle and drum sounded, and the crew
+assembled on deck for Divine service. Two men, uncovered, reverently
+brought an ikon, which was fastened by an officer to the captain’s
+bridge. It was a new ikon (about two feet square) of silver gilt,
+lately presented by the captain and officers of the ship at a cost of
+£20. It had been purchased in Petersburg, been sent to Vladivostock _by
+post_, and was used on this particular Sunday for the first time.[7]
+
+When all was ready the officers and choir were ranged in front and the
+men behind, and the Commander (in place of Captain de Livron, who is
+a Lutheran) read prayers and a psalm, the men responding and singing.
+The service was of short duration, but highly impressive, and very
+reverential. So, too, was their daily evening prayer, just before going
+to their hammocks at dusk, when the men, drawn up in double lines
+facing each other, at a signal doffed their caps, and chanted the
+Lord’s Prayer.[8]
+
+After Divine service the captain proceeded officially to inspect the
+ship, which he did in a very thorough manner, looking into every hole
+and corner for the least speck of dust or disorder. Here a cloth had
+been left in a recess, and there a piece of biscuit remained on a
+shelf. Both were ordered to be removed, and the attention of an officer
+was drawn to the broken hook and eye which attached the hen-house to
+the bulwarks. The captain even complained because, putting his hand on
+the polished brass of a gun, he found it somewhat dusty.
+
+This, however, was fine-weather inspection, and we were to have a
+taste of something different. On Tuesday and Wednesday all had been
+bright. About two o’clock on Thursday morning a sudden squall struck
+the ship from right ahead, and caused a commotion, but did no harm,
+and for the remainder of the day the wind blew coldly from the north.
+On Friday and Saturday the temperature rose, and on Wednesday, 8th
+October, we passed through a warm stream with a temperature of 77°,
+whilst the thermometer on deck indicated only 70°. I had frequently
+asked how soon we should arrive at Yokohama, and the captain had
+prudently declined to say; but on Sunday afternoon he volunteered the
+remark that he was able to assure me that we should be at Yokohama in
+four days. Luckless boast! for the words had not been long spoken when
+there came on a tempest such as I had never experienced. Towards sunset
+the wind whistled and blew “a strong gale,” that would be marked 9 in
+the Beaufort notation (the remaining three degrees being 10, “a whole
+gale”; 11, “a storm”; 12, “a hurricane”). The topmasts were lowered,
+the sails furled, and the heavy guns, lest they should break away, were
+fastened by two extra lashings. Then followed great running about on
+deck, and climbing the rigging, at which I was looking on amused rather
+than otherwise. The captain, perceiving this, said, “Ah! we shall soon
+have the water rough!” And so it came to pass; there was a pendulum
+on the deckhouse to indicate the careen of the ship, the scale being
+marked up to 35°, and when I say that the ship heeled over to 32°, the
+reader will be prepared for the statement that in the captain’s cabin,
+where I was writing, the heavy table and myself behind it quitted
+our respective bases, in a very undignified manner, in favour of the
+opposite side of the cabin. The carpenter was called, and the table
+screwed down, after which, by tucking my knees tightly between it and a
+chair, I managed to hold my own. I know not whether the jolting of the
+tarantass across Siberia had rendered my nerves sea-proof, but, to my
+agreeable surprise, I found myself able to write during three severe
+storms on the Pacific and Atlantic. On Monday there ran “a high sea,”
+which the captain marked “7” (“8” standing for “very high,” and “9”
+for “tremendous,” beyond which my figures to indicate the disturbance
+of the water do not go). After the storm came a calm wind with rough
+waves. We dropped the screw, used steam, and to some extent steadied
+the ship; but, with all our efforts, made little progress, and burnt
+a great deal of coal, so that we had not sufficient to steam the
+remainder of the voyage. The captain said he had never known, in so
+short a space of time, so many changes of wind, barometer, and weather.
+
+I had learned that the steamer left Yokohama for San Francisco on
+Saturday, the 11th of October, and as the mail-packet makes the passage
+from Hakodate to Yokohama in 64 hours, my hope was that I might land in
+the early part of the week, take a peep at the capital, and then embark
+for California; but the storm and the calm upset our calculations
+completely, and I had nothing to do but to submit, and make the best of
+my ebbing opportunities of gaining Russian information, and of getting
+my statistics translated.
+
+Being brought into such close proximity with Russian gentlemen for
+several days, we naturally became somewhat intimate; restraint wore
+off, and I learned more fully than I had done before the feelings of
+educated Russians towards England. When passing through Petersburg
+a general had said to me, “_J’adore les Anglais, mais je hais leurs
+conseils_,” which, in 1879, was natural enough. Also the _Djiguitt_
+had left Europe during the Russo-Turkish war, and I discovered that
+her officers had brought away with them unpleasant feelings towards my
+nation. One of them observed, though not unkindly, that the English had
+interfered most rudely with Russian affairs, for which, he thought,
+the English Government was deeply hated by the Russian people, though
+Englishmen, he said, were not so. He was ready to discuss, very keenly,
+the probability of war between our two nations; and did not attempt
+to hide the disappointment of the Russians at being foiled of their
+purpose to enter Constantinople. He thought that, if war did break out,
+it would, on the Russian side, be intensely popular.
+
+I set myself to discover, if possible, the cause of the alleged
+dislike, whereupon I found that, among other reasons, he was extremely
+sore about the frequent misrepresentation of Russia in English
+newspapers. He complained that there were certain journals always
+ready to exaggerate Russian defects; and, to be honest, I could
+not help allowing there was a measure of truth in what he said.
+Misrepresentation, however, may arise from two different sources--from
+ignorance or from malevolence. When passing through the northern
+capital, I myself saw, in some of the best English newspapers,
+statements to the effect that Petersburg was then in such a state that
+it was penal for anyone to stir out after nine without a certificate;
+that no evening party might be given without leave from the police;
+that no student might burn the midnight oil; and that a curfew law
+forbade a light to be seen in a dwelling after ten: all of which I read
+with amazement, for I myself was out as I pleased till past midnight,
+and burned a light in packing nearly all the night through. When I
+returned to London I said so to the editor of one of the papers, and
+found that his statements had been due to wrong information.
+
+But complaint was made not merely of mistakes arising from ignorance or
+wrong information. It was urged that false statements were frequently
+put forth, and not properly and honorably rectified, when it afterwards
+became manifest that they were wrong.[9] I had not up to that time
+realized to what an extent this was true; but, after reading various
+books and papers for the present work, I cannot but acknowledge that
+some of the writers upon Russian affairs do, to put it in the mildest
+form, make the most extraordinary statements. Some of these, as I have
+said, arise from ignorance, and are pardonable; but others, it is to
+be feared, arise from something far worse, which I prefer not to have
+to name. What, for instance, will the reader think of the following
+extract from an article in the _Sheffield Daily Telegraph_ of December
+6th last, which has come to my hand just before going to press?--“The
+Russian Government does a regular and an important business with
+Sheffield. Our Russophiles will be charmed. The Government of ‘the
+Divine figure from the North’ takes from Sheffield five tons per week
+of horseflesh. The horses killed for Holy Russia are those which,
+through decay or disease, are worthless. The dogs’ meat thus obtained
+is bought as food for human beings in Siberia, and, having to travel so
+far, it is often in a putrid condition when it arrives there, and in
+all its horrible putrescence it is so served out.”
+
+This is remarkable information. The cheapest cost of carriage known
+to me from Petersburg to the Siberian _frontier_ is £5 a ton, taking
+12 months in transit (no wonder that the meat is putrid!); and if to
+this sum be added the cost of the horseflesh and its conveyance from
+Sheffield, and salt (for the _Telegraph_ is kind enough to say, on
+Dec. 3rd, that the meat is salted, although it becomes putrid!), then
+how strange it will seem that the Russian Government should come to
+Sheffield to buy meat, when live stock, as I have already stated, can
+be purchased in Western Siberia at less than ½_d._ per pound! This,
+with a vengeance, is “carrying coal to Newcastle”! But the article
+goes on to speak of the prisoners working “in quicksilver-mines, where
+the mercury produces an artificial leprosy that rots blood, bones,
+and skin”; and then the writer pathetically adds that this “is the
+unspeakable fate of thousands of Russians in whom education and a
+disposition and temperament naturally brave have aroused thoughts too
+deep for tears, and a devoted courage worthy of the Christian martyrs.”
+These “martyrs,” moreover, are fed with “flesh swept up from English
+knackers’ yards”--that is to say, with horseflesh carried overland
+8,000 miles!--I suppose to Nertchinsk, for the writer wisely abstains
+from naming the locality of his mines. O wonderful information from
+the _Sheffield Daily Telegraph_! Would that I could be informed where
+there exists in Siberia a quicksilver-mine at all, that I might hasten
+thither if only to clear up this mystery about--Sheffield horseflesh!
+
+To return, however, to serious writing. Is it surprising if Russians
+feel annoyed at calumnies so gross? and ought one who knows them to
+be so to abstain from giving such statements the lie? Few Englishmen,
+one trusts, will be proud to read misstatements like these, and the
+exposure of them, it is to be hoped, may lead the unimpassioned to
+reflect on such injustice, and to call it by its proper name. For my
+own part (humiliating as it is to acknowledge), I have learned to
+expect from certain quarters exaggerations and misstatements respecting
+Russian affairs. If any complain to me of the character of Russian
+diplomacy I reply that I do not defend it. I say nothing of Russians
+as politicians, and so long as human nature remains as it is there
+will probably not be wanting writers to fan national jealousies and
+misgivings to a flame; but no right-minded persons will ever look upon
+misstatements like those I have quoted, other than with shame and
+disgust. Such misrepresentations carry also their own Nemesis, for the
+uninformed, led astray thereby, when they see themselves duped often
+espouse the opposite cause. Such unfairness has taught me at least
+to sympathize with Russians who are thus misrepresented; and perhaps
+I ought to confess that this feeling had something to do with my
+resolving to write this book.
+
+It does one an immensity of good sometimes to have to listen calmly
+to an opponent, and I was thankful for the plain speaking I heard on
+the _Djiguitt_. I am indebted for other similar thoughts to various
+writings by Russians, among them to Madame Novikoff’s “Russia and
+England--a Protest and an Appeal” (by “O. K.”); all the more forcibly
+put because so politely written. I have said in my preface that of
+politics I know next to nothing, and it is not in this connection that
+I agree or disagree with what that accomplished lady has published;
+but I perceive that “O. K.” has found in England what I have found in
+Russia--a number of warm and generous friends, between whom one would
+desire that only the best of feelings should exist. If Russia were
+but better known, a similar feeling would grow, I feel sure, between
+Englishmen and Russians generally, and both would be gainers thereby.
+There are many who wish to know the truth respecting Siberia, and to
+form an unbiassed opinion, and if what I have written should tend in
+any degree to this end, I shall be thankful indeed.
+
+On Saturday morning, October 11th, the _Djiguitt_ was creeping along,
+without coal and almost without wind, when a five-masted steamer
+was seen on the horizon, coming away from Yokohama. “That,” said
+the captain, “is your steamer. Shall I ask them if they will take a
+passenger?” I quickly decided in the affirmative, packed my luggage,
+and embarked in a gig. The commander of the _City of Peking_ did not
+stay to read the signals, but, seeing a boat put off from a man-of-war,
+concluded that it could be nothing short of an officer with important
+dispatches, and came to a standstill, to discover, however, that it was
+only to pick up a man “escaped from Siberia.” San Francisco was reached
+in sixteen days. From thence I visited the Yo-Semite Valley, Salt Lake
+City, Chicago, and Niagara; and then, pushing on to New York, crossed
+the Atlantic to Liverpool, and on November 25th re-entered London,
+having compassed the world in nearly a straight line of 25,500 miles.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] For the Author’s itinerary round the globe, _see_ Appendix F.
+
+[2] The pay of sailors in the Siberian fleet, afloat and on shore,
+per month, is as follows:--Deck sailors, 4_s._; rigging sailors,
+4_s._ 4_d._; steersmen and gunners, 4_s._ 9_d._; cooks, firemen,
+carpenters, divers, and assistant clerks, 9_s._; quartermaster,
+machinists, and head firemen, 15_s._; boatswain’s mate and foreman of
+machine room, 18_s._; boatswain and clerks, 54_s._ Some have extras
+as perquisites, thus:--Hospital servants, per month, 9_d._; chief
+gunners, 1_s._; and torpedo men, 9_s._ The pay of officers, per month,
+is as follows:--Midshipmen from £7 10_s._ to £14 14_s._; lieutenants,
+£7 10_s._ to £17 10_s._; commander, £13 to £80; captain of second
+rank (frigate), £15 10_s._ to £100; and captain of first rank (ship),
+£17 4_s._ to £100. Seamen have all found for them. Officers provide
+themselves with everything except cabin and furniture, the captain
+having one man from the ship’s company for a servant, the higher
+officers having one servant for two cabins, and the midshipmen one
+servant for four cabins. The mess on the _Djiguitt_ cost each officer
+about £6 a month, including holiday wines, and entertainment to guests
+in port. The officers gave an entertainment before leaving Vladivostock.
+
+[3] The method of Russian conscription is as follows:--The empire is
+divided into districts, each of which has annually to send a number of
+men according to the requirements of the Government. Lots are drawn
+from the men of 21 years of age, and those thus taken are examined as
+to size of chest, eyes, ears, teeth, pulling force and general health;
+and the faulty ones rejected. If sound, they have to serve seven,
+three, two, one, or half a year, according to their education; after
+which they pass into the first reserve. Those who escape the lot fall
+at once into the first reserve. They may then marry; and, if following
+certain callings, are free from further conscription, and in any case
+are liable to be drawn again only in time of war or emergency. At 28
+these escaped ones fall into the second reserve, which is called up
+only in case of home invasion. There are besides for those upon whom
+the lot falls several exemptions, by reason of which they are either
+free or their service may be postponed.
+
+[4] The clothing served out to the men was similar in character to
+that of the soldiers already referred to, with the following yearly
+additions: a flannel shirt and two blue flannel jerseys, two pairs
+white shoes, two pairs white trousers, and three white shirts with
+collars, also five yards of towelling and two white cap-covers for
+hot climates. There is allowed them also 1_s._ for ribbons, 4_s._ for
+bed-linen, 1_s._ for spoon and knife, and the quartermaster 4_s._ for
+whistles. The machinists and firemen have each a further addition of
+two pairs of shoes and a black canvas coat.
+
+With regard to work, Russian sailors usually lift half-a-ton a day. In
+harbour they work eight hours, and on shore 12 hours, with two hours
+for rest. On the _Djiguitt_ the men rose soon after five, breakfasted,
+stowed away hammocks, washed the decks and got all clean before 8
+o’clock. They then worked till 11, at which hour they dined and
+rested till 2; then worked again till 5.30, supped, and at 7 retired;
+but this programme varies, of course, according to time, place, and
+circumstances. The watches for the men were divided into two of six
+hours each by day, and three of four hours each by night; but the
+officers took in rotation five watches of four hours each.
+
+[5] I met at Vladivostock the officer who had to do with the legal
+affairs of the Siberian fleet, acting as judge (aided by three or four
+others), but whose sentences had to be approved by the admiral.
+
+[6] The form to be filled up for a patient was something to this
+effect:--Name of patient, To what duty assigned, Number of his ship at
+Cronstadt, Age, How long in service, From what province, How often in
+hospital before, How often ill on board before, Name of disease, When
+taken ill, When cured or died, How many days ill; and beneath this was
+a form for showing diagnosis of the disease, heat of body, internal and
+external treatment, and food. A monthly report also had to be forwarded
+by the medical officer to Petersburg.
+
+[7] Each ship has, I believe, its particular ikon, as I found at Kara
+was the case with each company of Cossacks, who carry the picture in a
+special carriage. Some of the ikons that have accompanied Tsars to the
+battlefield are treasured very highly in Russia. Private individuals,
+when travelling, frequently carry with them ikons, before which in
+their lodging they light lamps, as I saw in the case of a merchant at
+Tomsk.
+
+[8] The religious professions of the seamen (excluding officers) in the
+Russian fleet I gathered from the Naval Almanack for April, 1879, to be
+as follows:--
+
+                              BALTIC.          BLACK.
+                        | Afloat.|Ashore.|Afloat.|Ashore.|
+  Orthodox Russian Ch.  | 16,669 |  289  | 4,729 |   31  |
+  Gregorians            |        |       |     1 |       |
+  Protestants           |    759 |   16  |     8 |    7  |
+  Roman Catholics       |     51 |    8  |    13 |       |
+  Jews                  |        |       |       |       |
+  Mohammedans           |     47 |       |     5 |       |
+  Sects {Molokans       |        |       |       |       |
+        {Pomorski       |        |       |       |       |
+  Pagans                |        |       |       |       |
+                        | ------ | ----  | ----- | ----  |
+                        | 17,526 |  313  | 4,756 |   38  |
+                         \-------v------/ \------v------/
+                               17,839          4,794
+
+                         CASPIAN. ARAL.    SIBERIAN.      TOTAL.
+                        |Afloat.|Afloat.|Afloat.|Ashore.|
+  Orthodox Russian Ch.  | 1,281 |  291  | 2,028 |   308 |  25,626
+  Gregorians            |     3 |       |       |       |       4
+  Protestants           |       |    8  |     7 |     3 |     808
+  Roman Catholics       |     1 |    9  |     3 |       |      85
+  Jews                  |       |       |     2 |       |       2
+  Mohammedans           |    43 |   19  |     4 |     1 |     119
+  Sects {Molokans       |     3 |       |       |       |       3
+        {Pomorski       |     3 |       |       |       |       3
+  Pagans                |       |    3  |       |       |       3
+                        | ----- | ----  | ----- | ----- | -------
+                        | 1,334 |  330  | 2,044 |   312 |  26,653
+                         \--v--/ \--v--/ \------v------/ \---v---/
+                          1,334    330        2,356        26,653
+
+[9] As a flagrant instance, they complained of the falseness of the
+_Daily Telegraph_, respecting the carriage of convicts by the _Nijni
+Novgorod_, to which I have alluded in my first volume (page 45). I
+learn from the same paper of November 16th, 1881, that the Russians
+have been further annoyed by some untrue statements published by the
+_Daily Telegraph_ on June 28th of this year, concerning “judicial
+and administrative abuses in Russia.” These misrepresentations were
+copied by other papers, from which Mr. Tallack, compiling his report
+for the Howard Association, and falling into the pit, reproduced
+the matter thus: “Yet even an Imperial commissioner has recently
+reported atrocious cruelties to prisoners in Central Russia, including
+the torture of women with red-hot tongs; the killing of numbers by
+imprisoning them in dark dungeons; other prisoners reduced to almost
+naked skeleton figures in hideous caverns; inhuman floggings, 125
+lashes being inflicted even for addressing warders in the old peasant
+style of ‘thou’ instead of ‘you’; and other brutalities.” When I read
+these charges I felt sure they were untrue, but as I had not visited
+the prisons of Orenburg, where the atrocities were alleged to have
+occurred, all I could say was that I had seen prisons nearly all over
+Russia, and had witnessed nothing answering to such abominations. I
+ventured, however, to write to the editor of the _Daily Telegraph_
+for information respecting the Russian paper, the _Sjeverny Viestnik_
+(suppressed, I have since learnt, at least three years ago), from which
+the statements were said to have come, and I received a polite reply
+that the writer of the article was travelling in Russia. I then wrote
+to Mr. Tallack, who inquired concerning the matter of Mr. Kokovtzeff,
+one of three inspectors-general of prisons, who denied the truth of
+what had appeared. Accordingly Mr. Tallack (whose zeal in the cause of
+prison reform is well known), finding that he had been deceived, wrote
+to the _Daily Telegraph_ to say so; but I was sorry to see that, though
+this paper had given a whole column in bold type to the misstatements,
+which had been multiplied therefrom by hundreds of thousands, yet all
+the space they could spare for contradiction was 15 lines in very small
+type!
+
+
+                              GRATIAS DEO.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX A.
+
+THE HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
+
+(_From page 162._)
+
+
+The history of the Russian Church may be treated under the four periods
+of its foundation, consolidation, transition, and reformation. Its
+foundation period extends from the end of the tenth century to the
+beginning of the fourteenth. In the year 957 a Russian princess,
+named Olga, visited Constantinople, was baptized, and returned with
+the Christian name of Helena. About thirty years afterwards there
+came to her grandson, Vladimir, envoys from the different religious
+communities of the known world,--from the Mussulmans, the Pope, the
+Jews, the Greeks,--inviting him to adopt their respective creeds. To
+these he replied by sending elders and nobles to examine their various
+religions; and shortly afterwards, in 988, he was baptized and joined
+the Greek Church. Vladimir then gave orders for a wholesale baptism of
+his docile subjects at Kieff. A church was built there, and the work of
+conversion advanced rapidly. The Holy Scriptures had been translated
+into Sclavonic a century before for the nations on the Danube; so that
+the Greek priests, on going to Russia, had this powerful lever ready to
+hand in the language of the people.
+
+The period of the _consolidation_ of the Russian Church dates
+from the beginning of the fourteenth century to the middle of the
+seventeenth, during which time the local centre of ecclesiastical
+history was transferred from Kieff to Moscow, and three great powers
+came prominently forward--the Tsars, the Metropolitans, and the
+Monks. The Tsar, in his ecclesiastical position, represented the
+laity of the Church, and received the unbounded veneration of the
+people; and the Metropolitans, second only to the Tsar, almost without
+exception supported the authority of the Sovereign. In the middle of
+the fifteenth century the Metropolitans became independent of the See
+of Constantinople; and in 1589, Job, the Metropolitan of Moscow, was
+elevated to the dignity of a patriarch. Again, the hermits and monks
+acquired an immense influence. In 1338 was founded the famous Troitza
+monastery--a seminary, cathedral, church, and fortress all in one--the
+monks and clergy of which have more than once taken an active part in
+the deliverance of their country from the Tatars and Poles.
+
+The _transition_ period of the Russian Church extends from the middle
+of the seventeenth to the beginning of the eighteenth centuries,
+during which time lived Nikon, the famous Patriarch of Moscow. He has
+been called a Russian Chrysostom, a Russian Luther, a Russian Wolsey.
+Ivan the Terrible, in his own savage way, had done something towards
+rectifying the abuses of the Church. The Patriarch did more; he took
+in hand the Russian hierarchy, whom he found idle and drunken. He
+set them a good example, on one hand, by founding hospitals, feeding
+the hungry, visiting prisons, and, above all, after the silence of
+many centuries, by preaching; but, on the other hand, he administered
+clerical discipline with uncommon severity. He was perpetually sending
+his officers round the city, with orders that, if they found priest
+or monk in a state of intoxication, they were to imprison, strip, and
+scourge him; and numbers of dissolute clergy he banished to Siberia.
+His name, however, is chiefly remembered by reason of his innovations,
+or perhaps resuscitation of forgotten details in ritual. Finding that
+copyists’ errors had crept into the service books, which were in
+manuscript, he sent deputations to Mount Athos, and throughout the
+Eastern Churches, for correct copies, put the printing press to work to
+circulate new rubrics, and set on foot a work of revision, which met
+with frantic opposition on the part of the ignorant among the people,
+and was ultimately made the occasion of the secession of a large part
+of what are now known as the Russian _raskolniks_, or dissenters.
+
+The fourth period, which has been called--though, alas! in only a
+very limited sense--the _reformation_ of the Russian Church, extends
+from the time of Peter the Great to our own day. The patriarchate had
+attained to a position of great power, and the great Peter was not
+the man to brook such a rival as Nikon had been to his father Alexis;
+accordingly, on the death of the Patriarch Adrian, in 1700, his chair
+was allowed to remain vacant for twenty years, at the end of which
+time Peter abolished the patriarchate and appointed a synod. He also
+carried out many reforms and improvements, which he had the good sense
+to see were sorely needed. He established schools for the children of
+the clergy, abolished anchorites, reformed the monasteries, and issued
+regulations enjoining bishops to read the Scriptures carefully, and not
+to be absent from their dioceses without permission of the synod. Many
+of his changes, however, excited great dissatisfaction. The measures of
+Nikon had sadly perturbed the orthodox Russians; those of Peter drove
+them to desperation and to further schism. Among the charges brought
+against the Tsar were such as these: that he had introduced into the
+churches pictures by Western artists; and this was said to be a mortal
+sin. Besides this, at the opening of the eighteenth century, Peter
+changed the calendar, gave his people the 1st of January for their
+New Year’s Day, and began to reckon the year from the birth of Christ
+instead of from the creation of the world. This, among other like
+things, was regarded as the very sign of Antichrist, inasmuch as he was
+“to change times and laws”; and Peter the Great is still designated
+Antichrist by a large proportion of the Russian dissenters. Since the
+time of the great reformer the Russian Church has gone on very much as
+he left it, the few minor reforms introduced by the Emperors Alexander
+the First and Second being in the right direction.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX B.
+
+THE DOCTRINES OF THE RUSSIAN, ROMAN, AND ENGLISH CHURCHES.
+
+(_From page 163._)
+
+
+The doctrines of the Russian Church are not set forth in any one
+public document like the “Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion,” but must
+be sought in its creeds, councils, Church services, and catechisms.
+Generally speaking, it may be said that the Bible and tradition form
+the Russian rule of faith, and excommunication is the penalty of
+heterodoxy. The Nicene Creed we know the Russians receive, with the
+exception of the clause relating to the procession of the Holy Ghost
+from the Son; and the Athanasian Creed finds a place in their Church
+books, though it is not read in the public services. There are likewise
+certain works by eminent Russian divines which have been promulgated or
+received with more or less authority by councils or the general consent
+of the Eastern Church. Such are the treatise of St. John Damascene
+on the Orthodox Faith; the Answers of the Patriarch Jeremiah to the
+Lutherans, 1574-1581; Peter Mogila’s Orthodox Confession of Faith of
+the Catholic and Apostolic Church of the East, 1643-1662; the Eighteen
+Articles of the Synod of Bethlehem, 1672; and the Orthodox Doctrine
+of Platon, 1762. We get a better insight, however, into the doctrines
+of the Russian Church, as they are taught in the present day, from
+Mr. Blackmore’s translation of the Russian Primer, the Catechisms,
+and the Treatise on the Duty of Parish Priests--a perusal of which
+last seems to me to bring the Russian Church nearer to the English,
+and further from the Roman, than is generally supposed. Some idea of
+the divergences of the three Churches will be obtained by briefly
+enumerating their differences, thus:--
+
+1. The principal differences between the Russian and English Church are
+upon--
+
+   (1) The number of the Œcumenical Councils.
+   (2) The number of the sacraments.
+   (3) Confirmation by priests.
+   (4) Marriage of clergy after ordination.
+   (5) Consecration of married priests to the episcopate.
+   (6) Transubstantiation.
+   (7) Invocation of saints.
+   (8) Reverence to sacred pictures and relics.
+   (9) Prayer for the faithful departed.
+  (10) The procession of the Holy Ghost.
+
+2. The differences between the Russian and English Churches on one
+side, and the Roman on the other, are upon--
+
+   (1) Papal supremacy.
+   (2) Purgatory.
+   (3) Communion in one kind.
+   (4) Celibacy of priests and deacons.
+   (5) Indulgences.
+   (6) Works of supererogation.
+   (7) Judicial absolution.
+   (8) The doctrine of intention in priestly acts.
+   (9) The Apocrypha.
+  (10) Service in an unknown tongue.
+  (11) Withdrawal of the Scriptures from the laity.
+  (12) Use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist.
+  (13) The immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary.
+  (14) Papal infallibility.
+
+3. Once more, the differences between the English Church and the
+Russian and Roman combined are upon--
+
+   (1) The number of the sacraments.
+   (2) Married bishops.
+   (3) Invocation of saints.
+   (4) Reverence of pictures and relics.
+   (5) Prayer for the faithful departed.
+   (6) Compulsory confession.
+
+These are some of the principal differences between the three branches
+of the Catholic Church, besides which there are others connected with
+usage and ritual.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX C.
+
+THE SCHISMS OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.
+
+(_From page 163._)
+
+
+It cannot be denied that there is a very considerable amount of
+toleration of foreign religions in the Russian Empire. The Tsar does
+not emulate the Roman Pontiff, who, as long as he could prevent it,
+which was up to about 12 years ago, would not allow a Protestant
+place of worship to be built within the walls of his capital. On the
+contrary, at the fair of Nijni Novgorod, the Mohammedan mosque and the
+Armenian church stand side by side with the orthodox cathedral, and
+I am not sure that I did not see in the Chinese quarter a Buddhist
+temple. Notwithstanding all this, however, the religious toleration of
+the Tsar is of a somewhat one-sided character. A man is usually left
+in peace to practise the religion in which he was born, so long as he
+does not try to proselytize. Again, should an English Churchman, or any
+one else living in Russia, be convinced that the Greek Church is more
+scriptural and catholic than his own, the Greek Church will receive him
+into her communion. But not _vice versâ_. On the contrary, should a
+Russian Churchman living in Russia be convinced that the English Church
+is more scriptural and catholic than his own, and should he attempt to
+carry out his convictions, he would thereby render himself liable, I
+believe, to expatriation, confiscation of property, and other pains and
+penalties too dreadful to mention; and to receive the convert into the
+English Church would be more than the Chaplain at Petersburg or Moscow
+dare do. Again, in mixed marriages--that is, when either father _or_
+mother is “orthodox”--the children _must_ be orthodox, and follow the
+religion of the State. Russians abroad sometimes change their religious
+profession, in which case they remain Russian subjects, but are not
+permitted to return to their country unless they recant.
+
+The matter therefore stands thus, that whilst the Russian Church is
+ready to receive from all, she gives to none--that is, if she can
+help it. Consequently, what she will not give, there are some who
+choose to take. The rich, who are possessed of broad acres, be they
+ever so convinced that some of the doctrines of the Greek Church are
+unscriptural and uncatholic, naturally think twice before they render
+their estates liable to confiscation. But there are others, who have
+less to lose, for whom confiscation has no such terrors; or, if it has,
+dare to face them, and bid the law do its worst.
+
+Persecution, however, such as we have known in England, has never
+been a characteristic of the Church of Russia. I do not mean that
+her repressive measures have never taken a form which can with
+difficulty be distinguished from persecution. But she has never had
+an Inquisition; neither Petersburg nor Moscow has a Smithfield; and
+the plains of Russia have never heard such cries as once resounded
+through the valleys of Piedmont. On the whole, I am disposed to think
+that, in religious matters at all events, the hug of the bear is not so
+bad as might be expected from his growl; and that the powers that be,
+when they see a religious point cannot be carried, meet the difficulty
+half-way.
+
+I left Siberia in a Russian man-of-war, and heard a story that will
+illustrate this. Formerly the law obtained in the Russian navy that
+all the seamen should have shaven chins. Now, at the Council of Moscow
+in the seventeenth century, to shave the beard was pronounced “a sin
+which even the blood of martyrs could not expiate”; and some of the
+Russian dissenters still believe that to cut the hair or the beard is
+altogether unscriptural and unorthodox. Accordingly, one fine day two
+recruits appeared in the navy with flowing beards. They were ordered
+to cut them off, but they obstinately refused. Their insubordination
+was reported to higher quarters, and an order was returned that the
+men must shave or be shaved. The men still refused, and in consequence
+were shaved, to the saving of their consciences, but the loss of their
+beards. But nature gave them new ones, and the difficulty came up
+again, the men once more refusing to obey orders. Their obstinacy was
+again reported, this time to very high authorities--to one of the Grand
+Dukes, if not to the Emperor himself--when it occurred to one of them,
+in his wisdom, to ask _why_ these men should be made to shave; and, no
+satisfactory answer being forthcoming, another question followed--why
+should _any_ of the men be made to shave? and shortly there went forth
+a regulation that, throughout the whole of the navy, men should be left
+to do as they liked with their beards. So in many things respecting
+religion: when the Government of the present day cannot carry a point,
+they not unfrequently give it up, or cease what looks like active
+persecution.
+
+The Russians have, however, certain fanatical sects to deal with,
+whose tenets are so outrageous that no enlightened Government could
+do otherwise than try to repress them. Some of their ideas are
+sufficiently ludicrous. “Cursed be the man,” said one of these people
+to an acquaintance of mine--“Cursed be the man who presumes to pray to
+God in a pair of trousers!” from which, I suppose, we are to infer that
+in public worship these individuals think it right to divest themselves
+of their nether garments. I am not aware, however, that persons such as
+these are persecuted. Among the fanatical sects also are the Scoptsi,
+some of whom are banished to a village on the Yenesei. There are
+certain sectarians also who have no settled home, but wander about as
+strangers and pilgrims. We met some of them in the Siberian wilds.
+The great mass, however, of the Raskolniks, or Russian dissenters,
+estimated at eight millions in number, are very different from those I
+have mentioned.
+
+When, in the seventeenth century, the Patriarch Nikon began to have
+the Church books revised and corrected, he met with fierce opposition.
+He was charged with interpolating instead of correcting the books, and
+nothing would persuade many of the ignorant people to the contrary.
+Many thus became unsettled and broke away--not, they would say,
+because they were leaving the Church, but because the Church, with
+its new-fangled notions, was leaving them. Then when, in addition to
+Nikon’s changes, Peter the Great introduced others, things were looked
+upon as becoming worse than ever. There was, accordingly, a large
+section of the most ultra-Conservative Russians, both of priests and
+people, who clung to old books, old pictures, and old ways, under the
+impression that thus only could they worship God according to the
+customs of their forefathers; and it is from these secessionists that
+the great mass of the _Staroveri_, or Old Believers, are descended. We
+heard, at Tiumen, that some are very strict in their habits of living;
+that, for instance, they will not drink tea or wine, and will not drink
+out of the same vessel with one who is not of their sect. The Staroveri
+are split into two principal parties. They had a bishop with them at
+the time of their secession, and he ordained many priests; but as these
+priests died they asked, How shall we fill their places? They had no
+second bishop to ordain more. Some decided that they would do without
+priests, and these are called _Bezpopoftschins_, or priestless. The
+others for a time got priests from the Established Church as best they
+could, but eventually came to a compromise with the Government, and,
+by certain concessions made to them, saved their scruples and obtained
+their priests. These are called _Popoftschins_. The differences,
+however, between both parties on the one side, and the Established
+Church on the other, were not questions of doctrine, but such points
+as these: the Starovers gave the benediction holding up two fingers,
+the established clergy holding up three, which latter practice was
+regarded by the Old Believers as a mortal sin. The Starovers’ form of
+the cross had three transverse beams, instead of the Russian two or the
+Latin one. Again, to say the name of Jesus in two syllables instead of
+three (as in Greek) was condemned by the Starovers, as was also the
+repetition of the hallelujah in the service thrice instead of twice. It
+became also an alarming innovation to read or write, for ecclesiastical
+purposes, a word in modern Russ. I had a reminder of this in 1878 on
+the Dwina, where Old Believers exist, for I sometimes found my tracts
+objected to because not printed in Sclavonic.
+
+But there are many among the Raskolniks of Russia who dissent from
+the Established Church on points less diminutive than those of the
+Starovers; as the _Dukhobortsi_, or “wrestlers with the Spirit,” who
+spiritualize to a high degree both doctrines and sacraments. Also they
+reject pictures, do not cross themselves, nor observe the appointed
+fasts. In their meetings they pray for one another, sing psalms, and
+explain the Word of God. They call themselves “Christians,” and their
+great dogma is to worship God in spirit and in truth. They have no
+magistrates, but govern their own society; they practise brotherly
+love, have all things common, and are remarkable for the orderly and
+cleanly manner in which they live. An officer whom I met last year in
+the Caucasus spoke to me in the highest terms of their blameless lives.
+
+There are many other sects of the Russian Church, many followers of
+which are found in Siberia, either because banished or born there, or
+having migrated by their own choice for the sake of greater liberty.
+Not the least interesting among them are the _Molokans_, some of whom I
+found on the Amur, and others more recently in the Trans-Caucasus.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX D.
+
+THE DISCOVERIES OF WIGGINS AND NORDENSKIÖLD.
+
+(_From page 196._)
+
+
+From various papers in the Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion
+of Marine Enterprise and Trade in Russia, together with information
+gathered by Mr. Oswald Cattley, it seems that Mr. M. K. Sidoroff of
+Petersburg was the agitator, and, in a certain sense, the originator,
+in modern times, of sea-trading adventure in the north of the Russian
+empire. He was largely interested in gold-mining in the Yenesei, and
+his efforts to open up marine communication with the north date from
+1841. In 1860, thanks to his enterprise, the first foreign vessel
+entered the Bay of Petchora. At the Universal Exhibition of 1862, in
+London, Mr. Sidoroff exhibited, and obtained two medals for, products
+from the Turukhansk district--graphite, skins, coal, salt, mammoth
+tusks, etc.--all of which he presented to the South Kensington Museum.
+In 1867 he began agitating the possibility of communicating with Europe
+by sea _viâ_ the Yenesei and Obi rivers and the Arctic Ocean. In 1868
+he communicated with the Norwegian whalers, and at his initiative
+Captains Foyne, Carlsen, and others ventured into the Kara Sea, but
+none reached to the mouth of either of the two great rivers. This
+success was to be reaped by Captain Wiggins, of Sunderland, who fitted
+out, at his own expense, a small steamer, the _Diana_, in which he
+reached the mouth of the Obi in 1874. He was resolved upon repeating
+the voyage in 1875, and to that end invited capitalists to assist him
+in organizing a trade between Siberia and England. These overtures were
+not successful to any considerable extent, though two gentlemen came
+forward with subscriptions in Sunderland, and the captain added more
+from his own means; but the whole amounted to less than was needed
+for efficient operations. Determined, however, not to be baffled,
+Wiggins purchased a small cutter, the _Whim_, that might have been
+put in a good-sized drawing-room (it was only 45 feet long, and of
+27 tons register!), and in _that_ he sailed direct for the Kara Sea.
+The weather was adverse, and he was compelled to return in the autumn
+of 1875. Another explorer, however, had followed suit, for Professor
+Nordenskiöld, seeing what Wiggins had done in 1874, took the same track
+in 1875, and reached the mouth of the Yenesei. Thence he sent back his
+walrus sloop to Hammerfest, ascended the river, and returned overland
+to Petersburg.
+
+Captain Wiggins was now asked to meet his brother explorer,
+Nordenskiöld, at Petersburg, where they both addressed crowded
+audiences; after which the Russian merchants offered subscriptions
+towards the equipment of another expedition, under the command of
+Captain Wiggins, who was to return at once to England and secure a
+steamer suitable to the work. But jealousy of a “foreign element”
+subsequently seized some of the Russian merchants, and they desired
+that a Russian naval officer should head the expedition--in other
+words, that Captain Wiggins should be pilot, which he declined. Many
+of the Russian subscriptions were in consequence withheld, but not
+that of Mr. Sibiriakoff, who placed his money in the hands of the
+editor of the _Times_. This money, with the assistance furnished by Mr.
+Gardiner, of Goring, enabled Wiggins to attempt a third voyage, and
+he now purchased the screw-steamer _Thames_--doing so, however, under
+protest, for she was not the vessel he ought to have had. In this, in
+1876, he started for the mouth of the Obi, and reached it; but, owing
+to the unsuitability of his ship, he could not ascend the river. He
+lay, therefore, in the Baidaratsky Gulf of the Kara Sea, employing
+himself usefully in making nautical surveys, dredging, etc. He then
+directed his course to the Yenesei, entered the river, and reached
+the village of Dudinsk, about 400 miles from the ocean. Here he was
+informed that the nearest port or river of safety was the Kureika. I
+have since been told, by one in Siberia, that this was a mistake, the
+river not being a suitable place for winter quarters. But the captain
+proceeded without chart, without pilot; time was of importance; and he
+had not got his steamer into the Kureika more than two or three days
+before the ice formed, and she was locked up for eight months. This had
+been anticipated; and the captain now returned overland, post-haste to
+London, which he reached in January 1877.
+
+Meanwhile Professor Nordenskiöld had also been following up his
+discoveries, in proceeding again to the Yenesei, in 1876, with an
+object mostly, but not entirely, scientific. It was arranged that his
+expedition, consisting of Swedish geologists, botanists, zoologists,
+and men of science, should be divided into two parties; one going with
+the Professor, in the steamship _Ymar_, through the Kara Sea, was to
+enter the mouth of the river and ascend to Mesenkin; whilst the other
+party, under the direction of M. Théel, was to proceed overland to
+Krasnoiarsk, and then descend the river to meet their comrades. The
+Professor ascended to Mesenkin, but M. Théel could not get so far. The
+two parties therefore failed to effect a meeting; but they added much
+valuable information to what had been hitherto known of the natural
+history of the Yenesei, and which was printed in two reports--the one
+from Professor Nordenskiöld, and the other from M. Théel, addressed to
+Messrs. Oscar Dickson, of Gothenburg, and Alexander Sibiriakoff, at
+whose joint expense the expedition had been sent.
+
+In the spring of 1877 Wiggins went overland from England through
+Siberia, and down the Yenesei to the _Thames_, intending to steam back
+to Europe. But the vessel was damaged by the breaking-up of the ice,
+and became a wreck; and Wiggins was once more compelled to return by
+land. He had been accompanied on the outward journey by Mr. Henry
+Seebohm, who proceeded to the Yenesei to study its ornithology, and who
+has since published some of the results of his researches, as well as
+a book called “Siberia in Europe,” on the ornithology of North-eastern
+Russia and part of Siberia. Besides these travellers and their
+journeys, there have been several voyages undertaken, with a view to
+bring Siberia into maritime contact with Europe. The _Newcastle Daily
+Chronicle_ for November 28th, 1878, records several voyages as having
+been made up to that time, with more or less success; and thus from the
+years 1875 to 1878 we learnt more than had ever been previously known
+of these two ancient rivers, the Obi and the Yenesei--to which latter,
+another vessel has made its way during the present year.
+
+That Western Siberia is capable of being made to play an important
+part in the supply of European markets seems certain. The country
+possesses immense stores of minerals, from gold down to excellent
+coal, and agricultural produce both of fibre and cereals, the latter
+including wheat, to be purchased at from 12 to 15 shillings per
+quarter, first hand, which in England commands from 45 to 50 shillings.
+A thousand miles of land between the Tobol and the Obi is capable of
+producing an almost unlimited supply of wheat, oats, barley, rye, hay,
+linseed, flax, and hemp; and to these might be added for export, to
+be purchased very cheaply, hides, tallow, wool, and other products.
+Already, on the rivers of the Obi system alone, there are no less
+than 46 passenger and tug steamers plying annually, and ranging from
+30 up to 120 horse-power. If, then, two central warehouses could be
+established, at, say, Tiumen and Tomsk, it would be easy from thence
+to purchase and carry produce to the mouth of the Obi. The difficult
+part of the navigation lies between the mouth of the Obi and the Kara
+or the Waigatz Straits, west of the Kara Sea; and what is required is
+a powerful steamer, adapted for working among ice if needed, to ply
+between the Obi Gulf and a depôt, say, on Waigatz Island, or even at
+the North Cape, whence ordinary vessels could bring the produce away.
+The ice steamer might then, in her last voyage for the season, return
+with foreign merchandise, to be sold at the establishments in the
+interior, and, in February, at the annual fair of Irbit where merchants
+congregate from all parts of Siberia. Mr. Seebohm goes so far as to
+say that, could the talked-of canal be formed from the Obi Gulf across
+the Yamal peninsula, it might prove almost as important as that across
+the Isthmus of Suez. Captain Wiggins thinks the canal impracticable,
+but is sanguine as to the possibilities of trade on the Obi; and it
+has been computed by Mr. Oswald Cattley that with a strong steamer, a
+tug, six barges, and a couple of lighters, there might be exported from
+Siberia, in a single navigation season, 6,000 tons of wheat; but, of
+course, this would involve the outlay of considerable capital, and the
+location of responsible agents in the country.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX E.
+
+THE EARLY EXPLORATION OF SIBERIA BY SEA AND LAND.
+
+
+The north-east passage to China was attempted as far back as the
+16th century, after the discovery of America had given such zest to
+geographical exploration. Willoughby, Chancellor, and Burroughs started
+on a route indicated to them by Sebastian Cabot, but with the result
+that Willoughby perished in 1554; Chancellor landed in the White Sea
+and laid the foundation of Anglo-Russian commerce; and Burroughs was
+stopped before entering the Kara Sea. Thinking that China might,
+perhaps, be reached by way of the Obi gulf, thence up the river, and by
+a fabulous lake of Kitaï (or China) marked upon the map of Herberstein,
+the English renewed their efforts. In 1580 two English ships, commanded
+by Pet and Jackman, sailed towards the Russian Polar Seas, their
+navigators being counselled by Hakluyt and Mercator, the foremost
+geographers of their day; but both were baffled by the ice of the Kara
+Sea. The Dutch were not more fortunate, and in the three voyages, in
+which the illustrious Barentz took part, 1594-1597, no progress was
+effected beyond the Seas of Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. In 1608, the
+Dutch Hendrick Hudson, sailing in the English service, endeavoured but
+in vain to pass the limits where his predecessors had been stopped, and
+after his name should be mentioned those of Wood and Flawes, bringing
+us to 1676. There was subsequently a lull in the efforts made by the
+navigators of Western Europe for two centuries, and then we have the
+voyage in the _Tegetthoff_, under Payer and Weyprecht. The fishermen
+and Russian merchants from the White Sea, however, knew perfectly the
+route to the gulfs of the Obi and Yenesei. Of this there is proof in
+the map of Boris Godunof in the year 1600, although it is true that
+to travel by this route was forbidden sixteen years later under pain
+of death, lest the Russians should pilot foreigners to the coasts of
+Siberia.
+
+Cut off thus by a frozen sea, the sailing of which was considered by
+the navigators and geographers of Western Europe an impossibility,
+the exploration of the North Siberian littoral could go on only from
+Siberia itself, which was done by means of river craft. In 1648,
+the Cossack Dejnev, leaving the mouth of the Kolima in command of a
+little fleet of seven boats, had succeeded in rounding the extreme
+northern point of Asia, and in clearing, long before Behring was
+born, the strait which bears the name of that navigator. Stadoukhin
+also traversed the seas of Eastern Siberia, looking for islands
+covered with fossil ivory, of which the natives had told him. In 1735
+Prontchichtchev and Lasinius descended the Lena to examine its delta
+and coast along to the east and west. The former proceeded round Cape
+Cheliuskin (so named after his pilot), but did not reach the Yenesei
+Gulf, and the expedition brought back their leader’s corpse. Again, an
+expedition set out in 1739 under Laptev, and, after being shipwrecked,
+crossed overland the most northern cape of the Old World, and explored
+the Taimur peninsula. The littoral between the estuaries of the Obi and
+Yenesei was discovered two years previously by Ovtzin and Minin.
+
+Navigation towards the Siberian Sea had already commenced, however, by
+way of the Pacific. In 1728 Behring, a Dane in the Russian service,
+crossed Siberia by land, and, embarking on the Pacific, penetrated the
+famous straits which bear his name, and it was through him that the
+geographers of Western Europe learned the existence of this passage,
+already known for eighty years to the Siberian Cossacks; but the
+archives of Yakutsk had so closely kept the secret that the great Peter
+himself did not know it when he charged Behring to go and explore the
+coasts of Eastern Siberia.
+
+The explorations of Cook, in 1778, confirmed the points laid down by
+Behring, and added much to our knowledge of these north-eastern waters.
+After the voyage of Cook, only the seas about Sakhalin, Yesso, and the
+Kuriles remained to be explored. La Perouse laid down the first tracing
+of the islands and the shores of the continent, and he recognized the
+insular character of Sakhalin and the existence of a passage uniting
+the seas of Japan and Okhotsk.
+
+Thus all the coast lines of Siberia were mapped out as to their
+principal features, and there matters remained until, at the instance
+of Mr. Sidoroff, in 1868, some Norwegian whalers ventured to the Kara
+Sea, which, however, was not successfully navigated, I believe, by an
+_ocean_ craft till 1874, when Captain Wiggins accomplished it by steam.
+He reached the gulf of the Obi, and would willingly have steamed on to
+“the land of Kitaï,” but he was unsupported by such enterprise as sent
+out Willoughby, Chancellor, and Burroughs, and the rose was honorably
+snatched from the Englishman’s hand by Nordenskiöld, the Swedo-Finn,
+whose voyage may, in a manner, be said to have closed the maritime
+discovery of Siberia.
+
+The scientific exploration of this vast country by land can hardly
+be said to have commenced till the 18th century, with Messerschmidt.
+Some years later, Gmelin, Müller, and Delisle de la Croyère, during
+an absence of nine years, from 1733 to 1742, recorded valuable
+observations on the physical geography of the country. In those days,
+however, the Russian Government regarded with considerable jealousy
+the publication of documents relative to the resources of the empire.
+Pallas travelled over Siberia to the Baikal and beyond, with several
+scientists, and brought back much valuable information, especially
+concerning geology and natural history. Scientific travels in Siberia
+were then suspended till after the political events of 1815. In
+1828 the Norwegian Hansteen, accompanied by Erman, went on those
+travels which proved of such importance to the study of terrestrial
+magnetism, whilst Erman’s astronomical determinations were of great
+use in correcting the maps which hitherto had been only approximately
+correct. Humboldt went to Siberia when Hansteen and Erman were there;
+and though his visit, by reason of its shortness, was not very fruitful
+in observations, it proved important in the history of science, because
+he brought back documents which proved valuable for his work on Central
+Asia. The explorations of Middendorf in Northern and Eastern Siberia
+had considerable importance, and in 1854 Schwartz, Schmidt, Glehn,
+Usoltzoff, and their companions made a remarkable expedition, which
+explored the immense region stretching from the Za-Baikal to the Lena,
+including the northern affluents of the Amur.
+
+These are some of the prominent names connected with the scientific
+exploration of Siberia in general. Several specialists also have pushed
+their way to various parts of the country--Castrén the philologist
+to the Samoyede country, 1842-3; Maack, Venyukoff, and Radde, to the
+Amur and Ussuri, 1854-9; Müller and Czekanovski to the country of the
+Chukchees, 1869-70, and to the Yenesei in 1873-4. Two years later
+Seebohm, the ornithologist, descended the Yenesei, as also did the
+Swedish expedition under Professor Théil; and in the same year Finsch,
+Brehm, and Zeil explored the basin of the Irtish and Obi. For the names
+of other travellers in Northern Asia the reader is referred to the
+Bibliography of Siberia, and list of works consulted, in the following
+appendix.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+P.S.--This appendix was written before the publication of “The Voyage
+of the _Vega_ round Asia and Europe, with an Historical Review of
+Previous Voyages along the North Coast of the Old World. By A. E.
+Nordenskiöld,” whose book will doubtless be regarded as a standard
+work, and to it, accordingly, the reader is referred for fuller
+information on the maritime coast of Siberia.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX F.
+
+THE AUTHOR’S ITINERARY ROUND THE WORLD.
+
+
+The following shows the dates of the Author’s arrivals and departures,
+with distances in miles travelled by rail, water, and road, together
+with the number of post-horses employed:--
+
+    DATES.    |          PLACES.        | RAIL. | WATER. | ROAD. | HORSES.
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  April 30    | London to Petersburg    | 1,683 |     23 |       |
+  to May 3    |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  May 12      | Petersburg to Moscow    |   402 |        |       |
+  to May 13   |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  May 16      | Nijni Novgorod to Kasan |       |    266 |       |
+  to May 17   |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  May 19      | Kasan to Perm           |       |    686 |       |
+  to May 22   |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  May 22      | Perm to                 |   312 |        |       |
+  to May 24   | Ekaterineburg           |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  May 27      | Ekaterineburg to Tiumen |       |        |   204 |    74
+  to May 29   |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  May 30      | Tiumen to Tobolsk       |       |        |   172 |    65
+  to June 1   |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  June 3      | Tobolsk to Tomsk        |       |  1,601 |       |
+  to June 10  |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  June 12     | Tomsk to Barnaul        |       |        |   238 |    51
+  to June 15  |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  June 16     | Barnaul to Tomsk        |       |        |   238 |    51
+  to June 18  |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  June 19     | Tomsk to Krasnoiarsk    |       |        |   369 |   165
+  to June 24  |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  June 26     | Krasnoiarsk to          |       |        |    24 |
+  to June 27  | Gold-mine and back      |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  June 27     | Krasnoiarsk to Irkutsk  |       |        |   671 |   267
+  to July 6   |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  July 4      | Telma to Alexandreffsky |       |        |    32 |
+  to July 5   | and back                |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  July 10     | Irkutsk to Kiakhta      |       |        |   312 |    80
+  to July 14  |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  July 15     | Kiakhta to Cheelantoui  |       |        |    54 |
+              | and back                |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  July 16     | Kiakhta to              |       |        |   148 |    35
+  to July 18  | Verchne-Udinsk          |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  July 18     | Verchne-Udinsk to Chita |       |        |   294 |   112
+  to July 21  |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  July 21     | Chita to Stretinsk      |       |        |   242 |    78
+  to July 24  |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  July 24     | Stretinsk to Khabarofka |       |  1,345 |       |
+  to Aug. 8   |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  July 25     | Kara                    |       |        |    46 |
+  to July 28  |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Aug. 9      | Khabarofka to           |       |    628 |       |
+  to Aug. 13  | Nikolaefsk              |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Aug. 31     | Nikolaefsk to           |       |    628 |       |
+  to Sept. 4  | Khabarofka              |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Sept.  6    | Khabarofka to           |       |    510 |       |
+  to Sept. 11 | Kamen-Ruiboloff         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Sept. 11    | Kamen-Ruiboloff to      |       |        |    88 |    27
+  to Sept. 12 | Rasdolnoi               |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Sept. 15    | Rasdolnoi to            |       |     66 |       |
+              | Vladivostock            |       |        |       |
+              |                         | ----- |  ----- | ----- | -----
+              |                         | 2,670 |  5,753 | 3,132 | 1,005
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |   SEA  |       |
+              |                         |       |  MILES.|       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Sept. 30    | Vladivostock to         |       |    553 |       |
+  to Oct. 4   | Hakodate                |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Oct. 4      | Hakodate to Yokohama    |       |    645 |       |
+  to Oct. 11  |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Oct. 11     | Yokohama to             |       |  5,261 |       |
+  to Oct. 27  | San Francisco           |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Oct. 29     | San Francisco to Ogden  |   883 |        |       |
+  to Nov. 5   |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Oct. 29     | Lathrop to Yo-Semite    |   182 |        |   170 |
+  to Nov. 3   | Valley and back         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Nov. 5      | Ogden to Salt Lake City |    74 |        |       |
+  to Nov. 6   | and back                |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Nov. 6      | Ogden to Omaha          | 1,032 |        |       |
+  to Nov. 8   |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Nov. 8      | Omaha to Chicago        |   502 |        |       |
+  to Nov. 9   |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Nov. 10     | Chicago to New York     |   961 |        |       |
+  to Nov. 13  |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Nov. 15     | New York to Liverpool   |       |  3,482 |       |
+  to Nov. 25  |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         |       |        |       |
+  Nov. 25     | Liverpool to Blackheath |   207 |        |     3 |
+  to Nov. 25  |                         |       |        |       |
+              |                         | ----- | ------ | ----- | -----
+              |                         | 6,511 | 15,694 | 3,305 | 1,005
+                                          \________  __________/
+                                                   \/
+                                                 25,510
+
+From the foregoing it will appear that the total distance travelled was
+25,510 miles, of which 3,305 miles were accomplished by the hire of
+1,005 post-horses. The whole time occupied was 210 days, of these, 50
+days were stationary; thus leaving 160 days, during which was covered
+an average of 159 miles per day.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX G.
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SIBERIA,
+
+AND LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED OR REFERRED TO IN THE FOREGOING VOLUMES.
+
+
+ _Adams, A. L._, Travels of a Naturalist in Japan and Manchuria, 1870.
+
+ _Agar, Mrs._, Adventures of a Serf’s Wife. _London_, 1866.
+
+ Amur and Adjacent Districts. “Royal Geographical Society’s Journal,”
+     vol. xxviii. _London_, 1858.
+
+ Amur River Explorations. _Washington_, 1859.
+
+ _Andreoli, M. Emile._ De Pologne en Sibérie: Journal de Captivité,
+     1863-1867. “Revue Moderne,” August and September, 1868.
+
+ _Atkinson, T. W._, Oriental and Western Siberia. _London_, 1858.
+
+ _Atkinson, T. W._, Travels in the Regions of the Upper and Lower
+     Amoor. _London_, Hurst, 1861.
+
+ _Author of_ “Member for Paris,” The Russians of To-day. _London_,
+     Smith and Elder, 1878.
+
+ _Banished Lady, A_, Revelations of Siberia. 1853.
+
+ _Barry, H._, Ivan at Home; or, Pictures of Russian Life. _London_,
+     1872.
+
+ _Bax, B. W._, The Eastern Seas. _London_, Murray, 1875.
+
+ Bible of Every Land; a History of the Sacred Scriptures in every
+     Language and Dialect. _London_, Bagster, 1851.
+
+ _Blackmore, W. R._, Doctrines of the Russian Church, being the Primer,
+     or Spelling Book, the Shorter and Longer Catechisms, and a
+     Treatise on the Duty of Parish Priests. _Aberdeen_, 1845.
+
+ _Blackmore, W. R._, Mouravieff’s Doctrines of the Russian Church.
+     _Oxford_, Parker, 1842.
+
+ _Burney, James_, Chronological History of North-Eastern Voyages of
+     Discovery, and of the Early Eastern Navigations of the Russians.
+     _London_, 1819.
+
+ _Bush, R. J._, Reindeer, Dogs, and Snow-Shoes; Siberian Travel in
+     1865-7. _London_, Low, 1871.
+
+ Calendar (Russian) for 1880. _Petersburg_, Hoppe, 1880.
+
+ _Chappé d’Auteroche_, Journey into Siberia, made by order of the King
+     of France in 1761. Translated. _London_, 1770.
+
+ _Chester, H. M._, Russia, Past and Present, adapted from the German of
+     Lankenau and Oelnitz. _London_, Society for Promoting Christian
+     Knowledge, 1881.
+
+ _Cochrane, J. D._, Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia
+     and Siberian Tartary from the Frontiers of China to the Frozen Sea
+     and Kamchatka. _London_, 1825.
+
+ _Collins, P. M._, Siberia to Japan. _New York_, 1860.
+
+ _Collins, P. M._, A Voyage Down the Amoor. _London_, 1860.
+
+ _Cottin, Madame de_, Elizabeth; or, the Exiles of Siberia. Translated.
+     _London_, 1808.
+
+ _Cottrill, Herbert_, Recollections of Siberia in the Year 1840-1.
+     _London_, Parker, 1842.
+
+ _Covel, John, D.D._, Some Account of the Greek Church compared with
+     Goar’s Notes on the Greek Ritual. _Cambridge_, 1722.
+
+ _De Foe, Daniel_, Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. _London_,
+     Cadell, 1820.
+
+ _De Lagny, G._, The Knout and the Russians. _London_, Bogue, 1854.
+
+ _Dobell, P._, Travels in Kamtchatka and Siberia. _London_, Bentley,
+     1830.
+
+ Documents of the United States Senate about Alaska. _Washington_, 1876.
+
+ _Dostoyeffsky, F._, (A. P. Goryantchikoff) Buried Alive; or, Ten
+     Years’ Penal Servitude in Siberia. Translated from the Russian.
+     _London_, Longmans, 1881.
+
+ _Eden, C. H._, Frozen Asia. _London_, Society for Promoting Christian
+     Knowledge, 1879.
+
+ Education, Plan of, in the Boys’ Gymnasia (in Russ). _Petersburg_,
+     1872.
+
+ _Erman, Adolph_, Travels in Siberia. _London_, Longmans, 1848.
+
+ _Finsch, O._, Reise nach West Sibirien, im Jahre 1876. _Berlin_, 1879.
+
+ _Fowkes, F._, The Greek and Latin Churches. _London_, Whittaker, 1854.
+
+ _Gayarin, Father_, Russian Clergy. Translated from the French by
+     Charles du G. Makepeace. _London_, Burns, 1872.
+
+ _Gordon, Peter_, Fragment of a Tour through Persia in 1820, containing
+     Voyages to and from Ochotsk in Siberia. _London_, 1833.
+
+ _Goryantchikoff, A. P._, Buried Alive; or, Ten Years’ Penal Servitude
+     in Siberia. Edited by Dostoyeffsky. Translated. _London_,
+     Longmans, 1881.
+
+ _Grant, C. M._, Gold Mines of Eastern Siberia. From the “Mining
+     Magazine.”
+
+ Greek and Eastern Churches. _London_, Religious Tract Society.
+
+ Greek Church, Articles on:--
+     “Bibliotheca Sacra,” vol. xv.
+     “British and Foreign Review,” vol. ix.
+     “Christian Examiner” (American), vol. lix.
+     “Church Quarterly Review” (American). _New York_, 1859.
+
+ Greek Church: A Sketch. _London_, Darling, 1850.
+
+ _Grieve, James_, History of Kamchatka and the Kurilski Islands.
+     Translated from Russian, 1764.
+
+ _Hansteen_, Travels in Siberia. _London_, “Leisure Hour,” 1879.
+
+ _Hardy, Mrs._, Up North; or, Lost and Found in Russia. _London_,
+     Nimmo, 1878.
+
+ _Hertzen, A._, My Exile in Siberia. _London_, Hurst, 1855.
+
+ _Hill, S. S._, Travels in Siberia. _London_, Longmans, 1854.
+
+ _Hovgaard, A._, Nordenskiöld’s Voyage around Asia and Europe:
+     a popular account of the North-East Passage of the _Vega_.
+     Translated by H. L. Brækstad. _London_, Sampson Low and Co., 1882.
+
+ _Huc, Abbé_, Life and Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China.
+     Translated by W. Hazlitt. _London_, 1867.
+
+ _K. O._ (Madame Novikoff), Russia and England from 1876-80: a Protest
+     and an Appeal. _London_, Longmans, 1880.
+
+ _Kennan, G._, Tent Life in Siberia. _London_, Low, 1870.
+
+ _King, John G._, Rites and Ceremonies of the Greek Church in Russia.
+     _London_, 1772.
+
+ _Knox, T. W._, Overland Through Asia. _Hartford_, Connecticut, 1871.
+
+ _Kotzebue, Augustus Von_, The Most Remarkable Year in the Life of,
+     containing an account of his Exile into Siberia. Translated.
+     _London_, 1802.
+
+ _Latham, R. G._, Native Races of Russian Empire. _London_, Baillière,
+     1854.
+
+ _Leslie, Alexander_, Arctic Voyages of A. E. Nordenskiöld. _London_,
+     Macmillan, 1879.
+
+ _Lesseps, M. de_, Travels in Kamchatka during the years 1787 and 1788,
+     2 vols. Translated. _London_, 1790.
+
+ _Littledale, R. F._, Holy Eastern Church, a Popular Outline of its
+     History. _London_, Hayes, 1872.
+
+ _Littledale, R. F._, Offices from the Service Books of the Holy
+     Eastern Church, with translations. 1863.
+
+ _Lover of Truth, A_, The Antidote; or, The Inquiry into the Merits of
+     a Book entitled “A Journey into Siberia made in 1761,” by the Abbé
+     Chappé. Translated. _London_, 1772.
+
+ _Maack, R._, Travels on Amur (in Russ.). _Petersburg_, 1859.
+
+ _Maistre, X. de_, Jeune Sibérienne, and Index. _London_, Dulau, 1878.
+
+ _Masson, E._, Apology for the Greek Church. _London_, Hatchards, 1844.
+
+ _Mayhew, H._, Criminal Prisons of London, and Scenes of Prison Life.
+     _London_, Griffin, 1862.
+
+ _Michie_, Siberian Overland Route from Peking to Petersburg. _London_,
+     Murray, 1864.
+
+ _Middendorff, A. T. Von_, Siberie Reise. _Petersburg_, 1860.
+
+ _Milne, J._, Journey Across Asia. “Transactions of Asiatic Society of
+     Japan,” vol. vii. _London_, Trübner, 1879.
+
+ _Mouravieff_, Harmony of Anglican and Eastern Doctrine. 1846.
+
+ _Muller, G. F._, Conquest of Siberia. 1842.
+
+ _Neale, J. M._, History of the Holy Eastern Church. _London_, Masters,
+     1850.
+
+ _Nordenskiöld, A. E._, Arctic Voyages of. By Alexander Leslie.
+     _London_, Macmillan, 1879.
+
+ _Nordenskiöld, A. E._, The Voyage of the _Vega_ round Asia and Europe,
+     with an Historical Review of previous voyages along the North
+     Coast of the Old World. Translated by Alexander Leslie. _London_,
+     Macmillan, 1881.
+
+ “Oriental Church Magazine,” Quarterly. _New York_, from 1878.
+
+ _Overbeck, J. J._, A Plain View of the Claims of the Orthodox Catholic
+     Church as opposed to all other Christian Denominations. _London_,
+     Trübner, 1881.
+
+ _Palmer, Adam H._, Memoirs, Geographical and Political, The Amur,
+     etc., 30th Congress, 1st Session, etc.
+
+ _Palmer_, Patriarch and Tsar. _London_, Trübner, 1871.
+
+ _Pietrowski, R._, My Escape from Siberia. _London_, Routledge.
+
+ _Pietrowski, R._, Story of a Siberian Exile. _London_, Longmans, 1863.
+
+ _Pinkerton, R._, Russia; or, Miscellaneous Observations on the Past
+     and Present State of that Country, etc. _London_, Seeleys, 1833.
+
+ _Pinkerton, R._, Present State of the Greek Church in Russia; or, a
+     Summary of Christian Divinity. _Edinburgh_, 1816.
+
+ _Platon_, Present State of the Greek Church. Translated by Pinkerton.
+     _Edinburgh_, 1815.
+
+ Post-Book of Russian Empire. _Petersburg_, 1875.
+
+ _Prejevalsky, N._, Mongolia, etc. Translated from Russian, by E. D.
+     Morgan. _London_, Low, 1876.
+
+ _Prinsep, H. T._, Thibet, Tartary, and Mongolia. _London_, 1852.
+
+ _Rae, Edward_, Land of the North Wind; or, Travels among Laplanders
+     and Samoyedes. _London_, Murray, 1875.
+
+ _Ravenstein, E. G._, The Russians on the Amur. _London_, Trübner, 1861.
+
+ _Réclus, E._, Nouvelle Géographie Universelle VI. L’Asie Russe.
+     _Paris_, Hachette et Cie, 1881.
+
+ _Reisen in Russ Asien II._ _Leipzig_, Otto Spamer, 1866.
+
+ Report, Meteorological, “Annalen des Physikalischen
+     centralobservatoriums” (in Russ and German). _Petersburg_, H.
+     Wild, 1878.
+
+ Report of the Orthodox Missionary Society for 1876 (in Russ).
+     _Moscow_, 1878.
+
+ Report of Directors of Convict Prisons for 1877. _London_, Eyre and
+     Spottiswoode, 1878.
+
+ Revelations of Russia, 2 vols. _London_, H. Colburn, 1844.
+
+ _Romanoff, H. C._, Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. _London_, 1871.
+
+ _Romanoff, H. C._, Rites and Customs of the Græco-Russian Church.
+     _London_, Rivington, 1868.
+
+ _R[osen], Baron_, Russian Conspirators in Siberia. Translated from the
+     German. _London_, Smith and Elder, 1872.
+
+ Russia, Recollections of. By _A German Nobleman_, during 33 years’
+     residence. 1855.
+
+ Russian Church, History of. “Christian Remembrancer,” vol. x.
+
+ Russians of To-day. By the Author of “The Member for Paris.” _London_,
+     Smith and Elder, 1878.
+
+ _Sauer, M._, Account of a Geographical and Astronomical Expedition to
+     the North Parts of Russia, the mouth of the Kolyma to East Cape,
+     and Islands in the Eastern Ocean, performed by Joseph Billings,
+     1785-94. _London_, 1802.
+
+ _Seebohm, Henry_, Contributions to the Ornithology of Siberia. The
+     “Ibis,” April, 1878.
+
+ _Seebohm, Henry_, A Visit to the Valley of the Yenesei. _London_,
+     Clowes, 1879.
+
+ _Shaw, Robert_, Visits to Chinese Tartary. _London_, Murray, 1871.
+
+ _Shepherd, Captain W._, Homeward through Mongolia and Siberia. “Royal
+     Engineers’ Journal,” 1880.
+
+ Siberia, Article on. “Contemporary Review,” September, 1879.
+
+ Siberia, Article on. “Revue de deux Mondes,” September, 1879.
+
+ Siberia, Revelations of. By _A Banished Lady_. 1853.
+
+ _Smith, Thomas_, Doctrines of the Greek Church, 1680.
+
+ _Spalding, Captain_, Venyukoff’s “Saghalien.” “Royal Geographical
+     Society’s Journal,” vol. xlii. _London_, 1872.
+
+ _Stanley, A. P._, History of the Eastern Church. _London_, Murray, 2nd
+     ed., 1862.
+
+ _Strahlenberg, P. G._, Description of North and East of Europe.
+     _London_, 1738.
+
+ _Théel, M._, Rapport de, sur les Expéditions Suédoises de 1876 au
+     Yéneséi. _Upsal_, Edquist, 1877.
+
+ _Ure, A._, Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines. _London_,
+     Longmans, 1863.
+
+ _Venyukoff_, Saghalien. Translated by Captain Spalding. “Royal
+     Geographical Society’s Journal,” vol. xlii.
+
+ _Waddington, G._, Present Condition and Prospects of the Greek or
+     Oriental Church. _London_, Murray, 1854.
+
+ _Wahl, O. W._, Land of the Czar. _London_, Chapman and Hall, 1875.
+
+ _Wallace, D. Mackenzie_, Russia. _London_, Cassells, 1877.
+
+ _Whyte, W. H._, Land Journey from Asia to Europe. _London_, Low, 1871.
+
+ _Wiggins, J._, The Austro-German Polar Expedition. Translated.
+     _Bishopwearmouth_, Wm. Carr, 1875.
+
+ _Williamson, A._, North China, Manchuria, Corea. _London_, 1870.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX.
+
+
+  Åbo, Prison of, 63
+
+  Aboriginal population of Siberia, 52
+
+  Aborigines’ love of drink, 102
+
+  ---- of Manchuria, 547
+
+  ---- of the Yenesei, 205
+
+  Accident on tarantass journey, 251
+
+  Account of a Russian prison, 380
+
+  Across Europe, 9
+    Lake Baikal, 309
+
+  Adamson, Mr., the catechist, 229
+
+  Advocate, Profession of an, 582
+
+  Afloat with Russians, 732
+
+  Aged prisoners at Kara, 470
+
+  Agriculture of the Daurians, 549
+
+  Aigun, Difficulty of entering, 558
+
+  ---- Government buildings at, 557
+
+  ---- Population of, 556
+
+  ---- Temple at, 558
+
+  ---- Theatre at, 558
+
+  ---- Town of, 495, 556
+
+  Aïno, Appearance of an, 650
+
+  ---- language, 650
+
+  ---- mission, 650
+
+  ---- Translation into, 650
+
+  Akatuya, Prisoners in irons at, 421
+
+  Akmolinsk, Distribution of tracts in province of, 186
+
+  ---- Dr. Finsch in, 159
+
+  Albazikha River, 515
+
+  Albazin, Country surrounding, 515
+
+  ---- Sieges of, 515
+
+  ---- Trees in vicinity of, 515
+
+  Alcohol and _vodka_, 544
+
+  Alcoholic liquors at Irkutsk, Price of, 265
+
+  Alexander, Peter, Protodiakonoff of Khabarofka, 673
+
+  ---- Baptisms of Goldi by, 674
+
+  ---- House of, 677
+
+  ---- Translation of Gospels by, 673
+
+  ---- Visit to, 673
+
+  Alexandreffsky, Inquiries concerning Author at, 249
+
+  ---- Journey to, 243
+
+  ---- Photography at, 250
+
+  ---- Prison, 70, 245
+    Amusements, 83
+    Book for description of prisoners, 76
+    Books for, 249
+    Brickmaking, 247
+    Cigarette-paper making, 247
+    Convicts, Number of, 70
+    Director of, 244
+    Ethnography of, 246
+    Food, 79
+    Formerly a factory, 245
+    Gardening, 248
+    Hospital, 248
+    _Petchka_, 246
+    Prisoners in irons, 248
+    ---- Number of, 246
+    ---- seeing friends, 246
+    _Scorbutus_ among prisoners, 249
+    Secret cell in, 245
+    Shoemaking in, 247
+    Work, 82, 446
+    ---- Lack of, 247
+
+  Altai mountains, boundary of Russia in Asia, 19
+
+  ---- Discovery of metals in, 153
+
+  ---- Extent of, 148
+
+  ---- Minerals in, 104
+
+  ---- silver-mines, 411
+
+  Altars of sacrifice, 591
+
+  American animals, 644
+
+  Amur, Arrival on the, 503
+
+  ---- Atkinson, Mr., on the, 440
+
+  ---- Chernigovsky’s expedition, 492
+
+  ---- Collins on the, 499
+
+  ---- Colonists, 502
+
+  Amur, Cucumbers on the, 588
+
+  ---- Difficulties with China, 501
+
+  ---- History of the, 489
+
+  ---- _Ingoda_ steamer on the, 510
+
+  ---- Khabarof’s expedition, 490
+
+  ---- Length of the, 504
+
+  ---- Lower:
+    Animals, 599
+    Boundary of, 580
+    Cats, Price of, 600
+    Cliff at Tyr, 589
+    Depth of, 580
+    Fish, 581
+    Flowers, 579
+    Fruit, 583
+    Gilyak habitation, 591
+    Hotsprings, 588
+    Ravenstein on the, 581
+    Religious services on the, 725
+    Scenery, 580
+    Settlers’ village, 588
+    Temperature of, 579
+    Trees of, 579
+    Weather, 627
+    Width of, 580-85
+
+  ---- Middle:
+    Climate of, 532
+    Manyargs on, 507
+    Province, Area of, 543
+    Scenery of, 535
+    Scripture distribution, 538
+
+  ---- Military Governor of the, 500
+
+  ---- Muravieff, the Governor, 496
+
+  ---- Pashkof’s expedition, 492
+
+  ---- Population of province, 543
+
+  ---- Poyarkof’s expedition, 490
+
+  ---- Route through Siberia, 52
+
+  ---- Russian conquests on the, 489
+
+  ---- Source of the, 19
+
+  ---- Stepanof’s expedition, 491
+
+  ---- Territory of the, 504
+    Tribes’ appeal to China for help against Russia, 493
+
+  ---- Upper:
+    Cliffs on the, 516
+    Flora of, 516
+    Peoples on Chinese bank, 506
+
+  ---- Ust-Strelka, The river at, 514
+
+  ---- Venyukoff’s mission, 494
+
+  ---- _Zeya_ steamer aground, 511
+
+  Amusements of the Chinese, 342
+
+  ---- Dancing, 622
+
+  ---- Gilyak, 602
+
+  ---- Prison, 83
+
+  Amusements, Russian, 621
+
+  ---- Swings, 621
+
+  Anadir River, 639
+
+  ---- Fish in the, 640
+
+  Anadirsk, Fort of, 640
+
+  Andreoli, M., Exile of, 43
+
+  ---- on flogging, 93
+
+  ---- on the _knout_, 91
+
+  Andreyeff, M., Introduction to, 615
+
+  Anecdote concerning an “equipage,” 439
+
+  Angara River, Rapids of the, 311
+
+  ---- Temperature of the, 310
+
+  Anglo-Chinese War, Influence of the, 501
+
+  Animals, American, 644
+
+  ---- Asiatic, 644
+
+  ---- Distribution over Siberia, 697
+
+  ---- of chase in Yeneseisk, 207
+
+  ---- of Sakhalin, 649
+
+  ---- on Lower Amur, 599
+
+  ---- Wild, 188
+
+  Aniva Bay, Scriptures for, 660
+
+  Annexation, Russian, of Siberia, 109
+
+  Antiquities, Bulgarian, 13
+
+  Appeal, Court of, 73
+
+  Apple-tree mountains, View of, 360
+
+  Archangel, Distribution of Scriptures at, 733
+
+  ---- tour of Author, 4
+
+  “Archangel Gabriel” mine, 218
+
+  Archbishop of Irkutsk, Interview sought with, 274
+
+  ---- of Tobolsk on tract distribution, 183
+
+  Archery in Manchuria, 556
+
+  Area of Russia in Asia, 18
+
+  ---- of Tobolsk, 97
+
+  ---- of Trans-Baikal province, 400
+
+  _Argols_ as fuel, 368
+
+  Army officers, Pay of, 668
+
+  Arrests for drunkenness, Number of, 545
+
+  Arrival at Kamen-Ruiboloff, 686
+
+  ---- at Petersburg, 9
+
+  Arrows and bows of Ostjaks, 126
+
+  Art in Siberia, 433
+
+  Asia and Europe, Frontier of, 18
+
+  ---- Ethnography of Russia in, 19, 52
+
+  Asiatic animals, 644
+
+  ---- boundary-line, 49
+
+  ---- Russia, Population of, 20
+
+  Assaying gold at the mine, 223
+
+  Assizes, Court of, 73
+
+  Asylum at Krasnoiarsk, 229
+
+  ---- for prisoners’ children, 77
+
+  Atchinsk, Ispravnik of, 195
+
+  Atkinson, Mr., on the Amur, 440
+
+  ---- on Buriat missions, 375
+
+  ---- on Kirghese, 159
+
+  ---- on Nertchinsk climate, 425
+
+  Atmosphere of prisons, 381
+
+  Author, Dilemma of, at Khabarofka, 574
+
+  ---- Distance travelled by, 770
+
+  ---- Farewell of exile life by, 726-8
+
+  ---- Impressions of, concerning exile life, 726-8
+
+  ---- Inquiries concerning, at Alexandreffsky, 249
+
+  ---- Itinerary of, round the world, 770
+
+  ---- Object of journey of, 1
+
+  ---- Opinion of, on prisons, 662
+
+  ---- Religious services of, 701, 709, 725
+
+  ---- Work of, in Western Siberia, 733
+
+  ---- Works consulted by, 772
+
+  Awaking a Russian at Nijni Udinsk, 241
+
+
+  Baikal, Lake, 19
+
+  ---- Area of, 312
+
+  ---- Basin of, 312
+
+  ---- Destination for political prisoners, 37
+
+  ---- Fish of, 312
+
+  ---- Flora of neighbourhood, 315
+
+  ---- Storms on, 312
+
+  Bail found by prisoners, 74
+
+  Bank at Khabarofka, 578
+
+  ---- Siberian State, 578
+
+  Bankova River, Fair held by Cossacks, 488
+
+  Baptism, Author’s administration of, 701, 709
+
+  ---- Certificate of, 709
+
+  ---- in the Russian Church, 167
+
+  ---- of Goldi, 674
+
+  ---- Service of, 167
+
+  Barge transport of exiles, 29, 120
+
+  Barnaul, Cemetery at, 152
+
+  ---- Flora in district of, 149
+
+  ---- Hospital at, 153
+
+  ---- Journey to, 148
+
+  ---- Land at, Cost of, 158
+
+  ---- Museum at, 157
+
+  ---- Poor-house at, 153
+
+  ---- Population of, 152
+
+  ---- Provisions at, Cost of, 158
+
+  ---- Silver-smelting at, 156
+
+  ---- Tatars at, 62
+
+  ---- _Usine_ at, 153-6
+
+  Barracks at Blagovestchensk, 526
+
+  ---- at gold-mines, 223
+
+  ---- at Kara, 452
+
+  ---- at Nikolaefsk, 620
+
+  ---- at Vladivostock, 718
+
+  Bath-room in Petersburg Model Prison, 66
+
+  Battle with cockroaches at Rasdolnoi, 702
+
+  Bays in the Primorsk, 562
+
+  Bazaar at Tomsk, 128
+
+  Bears, Mode of capturing, 209
+
+  ---- venerated by Gilyaks, 606, 608
+
+  Beds in Siberia, 444
+
+  Beef at Irkutsk, Cheapness of, 265
+
+  Beggars at Krasnoiarsk, 228
+
+  ---- at Tomsk, 228
+
+  _Beljetchenko_ steamer, 117
+
+  ---- Card-playing on the, 119
+
+  Bell exiled, 113
+
+  Bells of Russian churches, 332
+
+  Benediction of water, 169
+
+  Betrothal of Gilyaks, 601
+
+  Beverages of gold-miners, 224
+
+  _Bezpopoftschins_, Sects of, 759
+
+  Bible distribution on the Shilka, 539
+
+  ---- possessed by priest at Krasnorechinska, 195
+
+  ---- Russian Church and the, 181
+
+  ---- Society:
+    Finnish grant of, 3
+    Irkutsk, Contemplated depôt at, 268
+    Kansk, 238
+    Roumanian grant, 3
+    Russian Scriptures printed for the, 8
+    Tomsk, Depôt at, 237
+
+  Bibliography of Siberia, 772
+
+  Bigotry of the Russian Church, 756
+
+  Biisk, Prison at, 133
+
+  Billings, Joseph, on Kamchatka, 631
+
+  Birching of prisoners, 89
+
+  ---- Effects of, 473
+
+  Birch-trees on the Upper Amur, 515
+
+  Birds known to the Goldi, 600
+
+  ---- of prey in Western Siberia, 189
+
+  ---- of the Yeneseisk province, 202
+
+  ---- on Mongolian frontier, 357
+
+  ---- on the Yenesei, Seebohm on, 763
+
+  Bishop, Consecration of a, 167
+
+  “Black” Nihilists, 34
+
+  Blagovestchensk, Cossack barracks at, 526
+
+  ---- Flood at, 532
+
+  ---- Foundation of, 500
+
+  ---- Government establishments at, 526
+
+  ---- Meaning of, 518
+
+  ---- Merchants’ stores at, 526
+
+  ---- Meteorology of, 532
+
+  ---- Missionary effort at, 518-19
+
+  ---- Prison at, 525
+
+  ---- Provisions at, Cost of, 527
+
+  ---- Seminary for priests, 523
+
+  ---- Students’ education at, 523
+
+  ---- Temperature of, 532
+
+  Board at post-houses, 141
+
+  Boats of the Goldi, 600
+
+  ---- of the Manchu, 554-5
+
+  ---- on the Lena, 285
+
+  Bogotol, Hospitality at, 194
+
+  Bolan, Mission school at, 604
+
+  Books at Irkutsk hospital, 276
+
+  ---- Church, Revision of, 758
+
+  ---- English, on Siberia, at Nikolaefsk, 629
+
+  ---- for prison, 113
+
+  ---- for prisoners at Irkutsk, 277
+
+  ---- for the Trans-Baikal, 400
+    Letters concerning them, 401, 402
+
+  ---- left with Gen. Ismailoff, 279
+
+  ---- left with M. Lochwitzky, 279
+
+  ---- for Alexandreffsky prison, 249
+
+  ---- on Siberian prisoners, 379
+
+  ---- Stock of, at Irkutsk, 280
+
+  Boot-making in prison, 247
+
+  Bothnian tour of Author, 540
+
+  Boundaries of Siberia, 49
+
+  ---- of the Yeneseisk province, 199
+
+  Boundary of Russia and China, 323
+
+  Bows and arrows of the Ostjaks, 126
+
+  Boys’ Industrial School at Vladivostock, 723
+
+  Branding prisoners abolished, 464
+
+  Bread, A substitute for, 642
+
+  ---- Black, 141
+
+  Bribery by prisoners, 39
+
+  Bribery in trading transactions, 626
+
+  ---- of guards by exiles, 39
+
+  ---- of prison officials, 277
+
+  Brickmaking at Alexandreffsky, 247
+
+  _British Workman_ in Russ, 7
+
+  Brunière, De la, missionary to Gilyaks, 612
+
+  Buddhist praying machine, 373
+
+  ---- temple at Maimatchin, 344
+
+  Building a Siberian prison, 70
+
+  Buildings at Nikolaefsk, 625
+
+  Bulgarian Antiquities, Museum of, 13
+
+  Bureya district, Climate of, 542
+
+  ---- mountains, Coal in the, 536
+
+  ---- Scenery of, 537
+
+  Burial service of the Russian Church, 152
+
+  Buriats as drivers, 356-69
+
+  ---- attitude towards exiles, 40
+
+  ---- Conversion of, 374
+
+  ---- feast of boiled mutton, 367
+
+  ---- Fuel of, 368
+
+  ---- habitations, 366
+
+  ---- lamasery, or monastery, 335
+
+  ---- method of salutation, 356
+
+  ---- Missions to the, 357
+    Atkinson, Mr., on, 375
+    Cochrane, J. D., on, 375
+    Hill, Mr. S. S., on, 375
+
+  ---- _Obos_ of the, 405
+
+  ---- Occupation of the, 369
+
+  ---- opposition to invasion, 281
+
+  ---- Physiognomy of, 364
+
+  ---- Population of, 369
+
+  ---- Possessions of the, 369
+
+  ---- Religion of the, 370
+
+  ---- Respect of, for Lamas, 371
+
+  ---- treatment of escaped convicts, 40
+
+  ---- Women’s head-dresses, 365
+
+  “Buried Alive,” by Goryantchikoff, on flogging, 654
+
+  ---- on political prisoners, 384
+
+  Burney, Capt., on Kamchatka, 631
+
+  Burning of Irkutsk, 253
+
+  Bush, Mr., on Kamchatka, 633
+
+  Busse, General, Military Governor of the Amur, 500
+
+  Butter, Siberian, 188
+
+  ---- Cost of, 317
+
+  Butterflies on the Alexandreffsky route, 240
+
+
+  Camels, Caravan route by, 351
+
+  ---- on Mongolian frontier, 357
+
+  Candidates for holy orders, Lack of, 171
+
+  Candle worship, 164
+
+  Caravan transport in Siberia, 354
+
+  Card-playing at Sakhalin, 656
+
+  ---- by prisoners, 388
+
+  ---- on the _Beljetchenko_, 119
+
+  ---- on the Ussuri, 680
+
+  Carriage, Siberian, Cost of, 105, 746
+
+  Carts of the Manchu, 552
+
+  Catechist at Krasnoiarsk, 229
+
+  Cathedral at Kiakhta, 332
+
+  ---- at Krasnoiarsk, 230
+
+  ---- singing, 165
+
+  Cats, Price of, on Lower Amur, 600
+
+  Cattle in the Primorsk, 697
+
+  ---- of the Manchu, 550
+
+  ---- of the Yeneseisk province, 204
+
+  Cattley, Oswald, Loan of tarantass by, 27
+
+  ---- on Obi trade, 27, 108, 761
+
+  Cavalry, Mongolian, in Kiakhta, 326
+
+  Cells at Blagovestchensk, 525
+
+  ---- Dark, in Model Prison at Petersburg, 66
+
+  ---- in Kara prison, 469
+
+  ---- Solitary, 88
+
+  Cemeteries, Russian, 152
+
+  Cemetery at Barnaul, 152
+
+  Certificate of baptism, 709
+
+  Chains worn by prisoners, 154
+
+  Changing horses, 140
+
+  Chapel in Model Prison at Petersburg, 67
+
+  ---- Lutheran, at Krasnoiarsk, 228
+
+  Chaplain for prisoners at Kara, 458
+
+  Chaplains of prisons, 663
+
+  Character of Koriaks, 640
+
+  Cheese-making, 188
+
+  Cheliuskin, Cape, Discovery of, 767
+
+  ---- rounded by Nordenskiöld, 292
+
+  Chernigovsky’s expedition on the Amur, 492
+
+  Children of prisoners’ asylum, 77
+
+  China, Boundary of, 323
+
+  ---- Difficulties with, on Amur question, 501
+
+  ---- Ethnography of empire, 206
+
+  ---- High road to, 52
+
+  ---- North-east passage to, attempted, 766
+
+  ---- Population of, 206
+
+  ---- Travellers on Mongolian route, 349
+
+  ---- Treaties with Russia, 323
+
+  Chinese amusement, 342
+
+  ---- appealed to by Amur tribes, 493.
+
+  ---- chopsticks, 347
+
+  ---- clerks at Maimatchin, 340
+
+  ---- demand for silver money, 715
+
+  ---- dinner at Maimatchin, 345
+
+  ---- exports into Russia, 341
+
+  ---- in the Primorsk, Number of, 714
+
+  ---- junks and houses at Vladivostock, 716
+
+  ---- merchant at Maimatchin, 339
+
+  ---- method of salutation, 356
+
+  ---- _samovar_, 347
+
+  ---- use of tea, 340
+
+  Chita, 70
+
+  ---- Cucumbers at, 426
+
+  ---- Flora in neighbourhood of, 404
+
+  ---- _Plète_ at, 94
+
+  ---- Population of, 361
+
+  ---- Prison at, 362
+    The “Black-cart” at, 362
+
+  ---- Situation of, 361
+    Baron R[osen] on, 425
+
+  Christian Goldi, Photograph of, 674
+
+  Christmas presents to scholars at Vladivostock, 723
+
+  Chukchee coast, Fauna of, 643
+    _Vega_ frozen in on the, 646
+
+  ---- country, Flora of, 644
+
+  ---- language, 647
+
+  Chukchees, Marriage customs of the, 643
+
+  ---- Number of the, 639
+
+  Church affairs in province of Irkutsk, 273
+
+  ---- at Kozloffskaya, 670
+
+  ---- at Nikolaefsk, 624
+
+  ---- Baptism, 167
+    Certificate of, 709
+
+  ---- Bells, 332
+
+  ---- Bigotry, 756
+
+  ---- Bishop, Consecration of a, 167
+
+  ---- books, Revision of, 758
+
+  ---- Candles, 164
+
+  ---- Cathedrals, 165
+
+  ---- Clergy, 163
+
+  ---- committees, 163
+
+  ---- Confession, contrition, and communion, 169, 237
+
+  ---- “Consistory,” 164
+
+  ---- Consolidation of the, 751
+
+  ---- Dioceses, 163
+
+  ---- “Directory,” 163
+
+  ---- discipline, 175
+
+  ---- Doctrines of Russian, Roman, and English, 754
+
+  ---- Eastern, Greek, and Russian, Distinction between, 162
+
+  ---- Fanatical sects, 758
+
+  ---- Fasting, 177
+
+  ---- Foundation of, 751
+
+  ---- History of the, 751
+
+  ---- Holy oil, 169
+
+  ---- Images, Worship of, 164
+
+  ---- Journal of priest, 174
+
+  ---- knowledge, Sources of, 161
+
+  ---- Liturgy, 166
+
+  ---- Lutheran, at Vladivostock, 717
+
+  ---- Metropolitans, 176
+
+  ---- Missionary collections, 520
+
+  ---- Monasteries, 163-77
+    Clergy of, 176
+
+  ---- music, 165
+
+  ---- Nunneries, 179
+
+  ---- Obligation of clergy to be married, 524
+
+  ---- Orders, 166
+
+  ---- Ordinations, 166
+
+  ---- Parish priest: Position, pay, and tithes of, 172-3
+
+  ---- Parishioners, 163
+
+  ---- Penance, Sacrament of, 169
+
+  ---- Picture worship, 164
+
+  ---- Priests, Social disadvantages of, 173
+
+  ---- processions, 174
+
+  ---- Protestants in Siberia, Number of, 726
+
+  ---- Reformation period, 753
+
+  ---- Registers, 174
+
+  ---- Relation of Greek to English, 181
+
+  ---- Ritual, 166
+
+  ---- Rural deaneries, 163
+
+  ---- schisms, 756
+
+  ---- Seminary for priests at Blagovestchensk, 523
+
+  ---- Sermons, 460, 671
+    Number of, yearly, in Petersburg, 460
+
+  ---- Services:
+    Burial, 152
+    Commemoration of the Virgin, 165
+    Marriage, 168
+
+  ---- Transition period, 752
+
+  ---- Unction, Sacrament of, 169
+
+  ---- Vestments, 163-4
+
+  Churches at Irkutsk, 265
+
+  Churching of women, 167
+
+  Cigarette-making at Alexandreffsky, 247
+
+  City on fire, 253
+
+  Civic arrangements in Russian towns, 716
+
+  Classification of exiles, 29, 33
+
+  ---- of prisoners, 72, 450
+
+  Clergy of Siberian Church, 163
+
+  ---- Fasting of, 177
+
+  ---- Monastic, 176
+
+  Clerical vestments, 164
+
+  Cliffs on the Upper Amur, 516
+
+  ---- on the Shilka River, 483
+
+  Climate of the Middle Amur, 532
+
+  ---- of Bureya district, 542
+
+  ---- of Kamchatka, 635
+
+  ---- of Kansk, 240
+
+  ---- of Lake Khanka district, 690
+
+  ---- of Nertchinsk, 426
+    Atkinson, Mr., on, 425
+
+  ---- of Nikolaefsk, 563
+
+  ---- of the Lower Primorsk, 564
+
+  ---- of Tomsk, 127-46
+
+  Clothing, 50
+
+  ---- of Cossacks, 683
+
+  ---- of prisoners, 80, 455
+
+  ---- of seamen, 737
+
+  Club, Officers’, at Nikolaefsk, 624
+
+  Coal at Dui, 81
+
+  ---- at Sakhalin, 651
+
+  ---- at Vladivostock, 678
+
+  ---- in Bureya mountains, 536
+
+  Coat of fish-skin, 597
+
+  Cochrane, Capt., on Buriat missions, 375
+
+  ---- Travels of, 282-5
+
+  ---- Visit of, to Nertchinsk, 412
+
+  Cockroaches at Rasdolnoi, Battle with, 702
+
+  Coldest town--Yakutsk, 296
+
+  Collections at church doors for missions, 520
+
+  Collins, Mr., Descent of, in a silver-mine, 412
+
+  ---- on the Amur, 499
+
+  ---- Visit of, to Nertchinsk, 417
+
+  ---- Voyage of, down the Shilka, 441
+
+  Colonies of Finns in Siberia, 131
+
+  Colonists, Exile, in Eastern Siberia, Number of, 451
+
+  ---- “Little” Russians as, 32
+
+  ---- on the Amur, 502
+
+  ---- Penal, at Vladivostock, 726
+
+  ---- Privileges granted to, 698
+
+  Colonization of the Lower Amur, 500
+
+  Commandant of Kara Prison: Government allowance to, 474
+
+  ---- Hospitality of, 480
+
+  ---- Namesday of, 479
+
+  ---- Salary of, 461
+
+  Commemorations of the Virgin, 165
+
+  Commerce of Tiumen, 27
+
+  ---- of Vladivostock, 716
+
+  ---- Russo-Chinese:
+    Kiakhta as a centre of, 324
+
+  ---- The Obi as an outlet for, 51
+
+  Commercial school at Tiumen, 28
+
+  Committees in connection with prisons, 77
+
+  Communication by Siberian roads, 51
+
+  Confession and Communion, 237
+
+  ---- Priestly, 169, 237
+
+  Confinement, Solitary, 88
+
+  Conquests of Russia on the Amur, 489
+
+  ---- of Yermak, 57
+
+  Conscription, Russian, Method of, 736
+
+  Consecration of a Bishop, 167
+
+  Consolidation of the Russian Church, 751
+
+  _Contemporary Review_ on political exiles, 413
+
+  Contraband articles in Model Prison of Petersburg, 67
+
+  Conversion of a learned lama, 521
+
+  ---- of Buriats, 374
+
+  ---- of the Yakutes, Tzar’s ukase for the, 305
+
+  Convict clothing and chains, 155
+    exiles as servants, 730
+
+  Convicts at Alexandreffsky, Number of, 70
+
+  ---- at Kara, Freedom of, 448
+    Number of, 445
+
+  ---- in the mines, 462
+
+  ---- labour compared with English, 662
+
+  ---- opinions of Tobolsk prison, 115
+
+  Convicts, Runaway, hunted down by Buriats, 40
+
+  Cooking not usually needed, 512
+
+  ---- “Rob Roy” cuisine, 145
+
+  Copper-mine, Descent of a, 21
+
+  ---- at Nijni Tagilsk, 138
+
+  ---- Malachite in, 21
+
+  Corean fugitives, 714
+
+  ---- houses, 715
+
+  Corporal punishment, 423
+
+  Correspondence with exiles, 38
+
+  Cossacks, Barracks for, at Blagovestchensk, 526
+
+  ---- Buriats’ opposition to, 281
+
+  ---- Clothing of, 683
+
+  ---- combing goats, 26
+
+  ---- fair on Shilka, 488
+
+  ---- Food of, 682-3
+
+  ---- Houses of, 683
+
+  ---- in Lower Primorsk, 568
+
+  ---- on the Ussuri, 681
+
+  ---- Pay of, 682
+
+  ---- Summer barracks at Kara, 452
+
+  Cost of carriage in Siberia, 105, 746
+
+  ---- of salmon at Nikolaefsk, 628
+
+  ---- of Siberian butler, 317
+
+  Costume of a Tunguse _Shaman_, 158
+
+  ---- of the Kirghese, 158
+
+  ---- of the Manchu, 551
+
+  ---- The _Mala-Russiá_, 250
+
+  Cottin, Madame de, “Story of Elizabeth,” 379-83
+
+  Country of the Daurians, 548
+
+  ---- of the Samoyedes, 98
+
+  ---- round Albazin, 515
+
+  Courier travelling, 134
+
+  Courts of law, Russian and Siberian, 73
+
+  Cows near Tomsk, 188
+
+  Creed, Religious, of exiles, 29
+
+  Crime attributed to drunkenness, 29
+
+  ---- in district of Kansk, 235-6
+
+  Crimean war, Influence of the, 497
+
+  Crimes of exiles, 34
+
+  ---- of prisoners at Kara, 448
+
+  Criminals at Nikolaefsk, Birching of, 89
+
+  ---- Desperate, 655
+
+  ---- Statistics of, 72
+
+  ---- Zavod work for, 82
+
+  Cucumbers at Chita, 426
+
+  ---- on the Amur, 588
+
+  Curiosity of fellow-passengers concerning Scripture distribution, 539
+
+  Custom at leave-taking, 353
+
+  ---- of addressing friends, 406, 620
+
+  Customs of Goldi, 672
+
+  ---- Trade, 627
+
+
+  _Daily Telegraph_ on number of political prisoners, 396
+
+  Dancing at Mikhailofsky, 622
+
+  Daurians, Agriculture of the, 549
+
+  ---- Country of the, 548
+
+  ---- Howorth, Mr., on the, 548
+
+  ---- Religion of the, 549
+
+  Dead, Gilyaks’ treatment of the, 611
+
+  ---- Manchurian treatment of, 554
+
+  Deaneries, Rural, of the Russian Church, 163
+
+  Decembrists, Sympathy of Russians for, 32, 378
+
+  Decocq’s hotel at Irkutsk, 254
+
+  Deer in Southern Manchuria, 696
+
+  ---- of the Koriaks, 642
+
+  De la Brunière, Missionary to Gilyaks, 612
+
+  De Lagny on Siberian political prisoners, 380
+
+  ---- on the _knout_, 380
+
+  De Lesseps on Kamchatka, 631
+
+  ---- travels in Siberia, 282
+
+  Demidoff hospital at Tagil, 24
+
+  ---- mines at Nijni Tagilsk, 21
+
+  ---- works at ditto, 21
+
+  Demidoffs, Riches of the, 23
+
+  Deportation of exiles, Localities, 37
+
+  ---- Modern plan of, 42
+
+  ---- of political prisoners to the Trans-Baikal, 377
+
+  ---- of vagrants to Sakhalin, 37
+
+  Depôt for sale of Scriptures at Krasnoiarsk, 232
+
+  Description of a Siberian village, 190
+
+  ---- of the _plète_, 90, 92
+
+  Deserted village at Pashkova, 671
+
+  Desperate criminals, 655
+
+  Destination of exiles, Walking to, 44
+
+  Destruction of property by fire at Irkutsk, 263
+
+  De Vries, Capt., of Vladivostock, 712
+
+  Dialect of Koriaks, 640
+
+  Diet of prisoners at Kara, 453
+
+  Dinner among Chinese at Maimatchin, 345
+
+  ---- at a Siberian hotel, 431
+
+  ---- at Nikolaefsk, 619
+
+  Diocese of Irkutsk, Number of churches, 274
+
+  Dioceses of Siberian Church, 163
+
+  Director of Alexandreffsky prison, 244
+
+  ---- Pay of, at Irkutsk prison, 277
+
+  Directories of Siberian Church, 163
+
+  Discipline, Ecclesiastical, 175
+
+  Discoveries of Nordenskiöld and Wiggins, 761
+
+  Discovery of the Shilka River, 492
+
+  Dissent, Exiled for, 34
+
+  ---- _Scoptsi_ village of, 205
+
+  Dissenters, Efforts to reclaim, 518
+
+  ---- Number of, 519-27
+
+  Distance travelled by Author, 770
+
+  Distress at Irkutsk after fire, 269
+
+  Distribution of exiles, 43
+
+  ---- of Scriptures and tracts, 3, 7, 8, 11, 121-9, 183-6, 401, 538,
+        665-6, 703-33
+
+  _Djiguitt_, Divine Service on board the, 740
+
+  ---- in a squall, 742
+
+  ---- Inspection of the, 741
+
+  ---- Officers of the, 738
+
+  ---- Prison on board the, 739
+
+  ---- Speed of the, 735
+
+  Dobell, Peter, Travels of, 283
+
+  Doctors in Siberian towns, 619
+
+  Doctrine of the _Scoptsi_, 205
+
+  Doctrines of the Russian, Roman, and English Churches, 754
+
+  Dogs of Kamchatka, 636
+
+  ---- used by Gilyaks and Goldi, 600
+
+  ---- Yakute, Breeding of, 304
+
+  Dostoyeffsky’s “Buried Alive” and political prisoners, 384
+
+  _Douga_, Description of the, 137
+
+  Dress of Gilyaks in winter, 597
+
+  ---- of penal colonists at Vladivostock, 728
+
+  ---- of the Samoyedes, 99
+
+  ---- of the Yakutes, 302
+
+  ---- The _Mala-Russia_, 250
+
+  Drink, Aborigines’ love of, 102
+
+  ---- and its follies, 225
+
+  ---- Madness through, 229
+
+  ---- Murder under influence of, 155
+
+  Drivers, Buriats as, 356
+
+  Drunkards exiled by Russian villagers, 34
+
+  Drunkenness: Alcohol and _vodka_, 544
+
+  ---- Arrests for, Number of, 545
+
+  ---- as a cause of crime, 29
+
+  ---- at social leave-taking, 118
+
+  ---- Comparison of Russian with English, 544
+
+  ---- Effect on trade, 627-30
+
+  ---- of gold-miners, 225
+
+  ---- of _yemstchik_, 252
+
+  ---- on board the _Zeya_, 506
+
+  Dubininskaya, Arrival at, 692
+
+  Dui coal-mines, 81
+
+  ---- _Plète_ in prison at, 653
+
+  ---- Prison food at, 656
+    Officers at, 660
+
+  ---- Prisons at, 652
+
+  ---- Scriptures for, 660
+
+  _Dukhobortsi_, Sect of, 760
+
+  Dutch explorers, 766
+
+  Duty of Priests, Treatise on the, 181-2
+
+  Dwellings of the Manchu, 549
+
+  ---- Yakutes’, 500
+
+
+  Eagles tamed by Kirghese, 189
+
+  Earthquakes in Kamchatka, 635
+
+  Eastern and Western Siberia, 51, 188
+
+  ---- Greek, and Russian Church, Distinction between, 162
+
+  Ecclesiastical discipline, 175
+
+  _Echo_ on exiles’ march, 415
+
+  Eden, C. H., on quicksilver, 410
+
+  Education in Russia, Cost of, 719
+    Subjects of study, 720
+
+  ---- in Western Siberia, 150
+
+  ---- of exiles, 32
+
+  ---- clerical, at Blagovestchensk, 523
+
+  Ekaterineburg, Englishmen at, 25
+
+  ---- Prisoners, Money allowance to, 78
+
+  ---- Railway to, 17
+
+  ---- Town of, 25
+
+  ---- Transport of exiles to, 43
+
+  Ekaterino-Nicolsk, Distribution of Scriptures at, 538
+
+  ---- Garden at, 537
+
+  “Elizabeth, Story of,” by Madame de Cottin, 379-83
+
+  Elk, Hunting of the, 209
+
+  Emeralds of the Odon Tchelon mountain, 407
+
+  Emery, Mr. Enoch, 614
+
+  Employment of prisoners in ship-yards, 420
+
+  Engineering firm at Tiumen, 27
+
+  Engines, Fire, 573
+
+  English and Russian drunkenness compared, 544
+
+  ---- books at Nikolaefsk, 629
+
+  ---- graves at Selenginsk, 319
+
+  ---- mission to Buriats, Story of the, 318
+
+  ---- newspaper accounts of exiles’ passage, 45
+
+  ---- suspected at Petersburg, 329
+
+  Englishmen at Ekaterineburg, 25
+
+  “Equipage,” Description of an, 439
+
+  Erdmann, Admiral, Governor of Vladivostock, 717
+
+  ---- Madame, Introduction to, 717
+
+  Erman on the valley of the Lena, 284
+
+  Escape of prisoners at Kara, 465
+
+  Étape prisons, 44, 69, 616
+
+  ---- Number of soldiers employed for, 667
+
+  Ethnography in Kasan government, 14
+
+  ---- of Alexandreffsky prisoners, 246
+
+  ---- of Russia in Asia, 19, 52
+
+  ---- of Russian and Chinese empires, 206
+
+  ---- of Tobolsk province, 98
+
+  Europe and Asia, Frontier of, 18
+
+  ---- Weather in crossing, 24
+
+  Exchange of money, 731
+
+  Exchanging names and punishments, 75
+
+  Excitement at Petersburg, 328
+
+  Exile convict servants, 730
+
+  ---- life, Author’s farewell and impressions of, 726-8
+
+  Exiles accompanied by wives, 36
+
+  ---- as colonists, 451
+
+  ---- bribing guards, 39
+
+  ---- Buriats’ attitude towards, 40
+
+  ---- Classification of, 29, 33
+
+  ---- Correspondence, 38
+
+  ---- Crimes of, 33
+
+  ---- Deportation, Localities of, 37
+    Modern plan of, 42
+
+  ---- destination, Walking to, 44
+
+  ---- Distribution of, 43
+
+  ---- Education of, 32
+
+  ---- Étape prisons for, 44
+
+  ---- for dissent, 34
+
+  ---- Fund for, at Moscow, 43
+
+  ---- Gilyaks’ attitude towards, 40
+
+  ---- in Kansk, 32
+
+  ---- Lemke on treatment of, 413
+
+  ---- March of, _Echo_ on, 415
+
+  ---- Marriage rites of, 35
+
+  ---- Number of, 32, 39
+
+  ---- on the march, 48
+
+  ---- Passage of, English newspapers on, 45
+
+  ---- passing through Tiumen, 395
+
+  ---- _Perisylnie_ prisons for, 44
+
+  ---- Political:
+    _Contemporary Review_ on, 413
+    Whyte, Mr., on number of, 394
+
+  ---- Presents to, 42
+
+  ---- Proportion condemned to hard labour, 37
+
+  ---- _Raskolnik_, 32
+
+  ---- receiving the _plète_, 35
+
+  ---- Réclus, M., on the first, 31
+
+  ---- Release, A, 38
+
+  ---- Religious creed of, 29
+
+  ---- Religious scruples respected, 460
+
+  ---- Returned, Number of, 729
+
+  ---- route, _viâ_ Suez Canal, 44
+
+  ---- Runaways, Capture of, 40
+
+  ---- Sentences of, 35
+
+  ---- Social ties of, 41
+
+  ---- Transport by barge and rail, 29, 42, 43
+
+  Expedition of Chernigovsky on the Amur, 492
+
+  ---- of Khabarof, 490
+
+  ---- of Pashkof, 492
+
+  ---- of Poyarkof, 490
+
+  ---- of Stepanof, 491
+
+  Explorations, Early, by sea and land, 766
+
+  ---- of Nordenskiöld, 51, 107, 292
+
+  ---- Scientific, in Siberia, 768
+
+  Export of furs from Siberia, 295
+
+  Exports at Vladivostock, 714
+
+  ---- Chinese, into Russia, 341
+
+  ---- from Siberia, 341
+
+  ---- Probable future of, 105
+
+  Extravagance of gold-miners, 225
+
+
+  “Fabric” work, 82
+
+  Fair at Nijni Novgorod, 12
+
+  ---- on the River Bankova, 488
+
+  Fanatical sects, 758
+
+  Fasting of clergy, 177
+
+  Fasting of prisoners, 79
+
+  Fauna of Chukchee coast, 643
+
+  ---- of Sakhalin, 649
+
+  ---- of the Primorsk, 565
+
+  Feast of mutton by Buriats, 367
+
+  Female prisoners at Kara, 467-8
+
+  Ferry, A Siberian, 139
+
+  Fertility of Tobolsk, 104
+
+  Finland: Grant of Bible Society, 3
+
+  ---- Prisons in, 63
+
+  Finnish colonies, Transport of prisoners to, 131
+
+  ---- pamphlets, Gift of, 53
+
+  Finns at Ruschkova, 5
+
+  Finsch, Dr., in Akmolinsk, 159
+    in Semipolatinsk, 159
+
+  Fire at Irkutsk, 253
+
+  ---- at Perm, 16
+
+  ---- engines, 573
+
+  Fires due to incendiarism, 269
+
+  Fish eaten by Gilyaks, 596
+
+  ---- Gilyak mode of catching, 598
+
+  ---- in Lake Khanka, 679
+
+  ---- in Primorsk, Price of, 569
+
+  ---- in River Sungacha, 679
+
+  ---- in River Ussuri, 679
+
+  ---- in the Anadir, 640
+
+  ---- Manchurian method of catching, 555
+
+  ---- of Lake Baikal, 312
+
+  ---- of the Yenesei, 201
+
+  ---- on the Lower Amur, 581
+
+  ---- pie a Siberian luxury, 432
+
+  ---- skin coat, 597
+
+  ---- trade at Nikolaefsk, 628
+
+  Fisheries of the Obi and Taz, 123
+
+  Fishing in Manchuria, Method of, 555
+
+  ---- boat of the Manchu, 555
+
+  Fleas and vermin in prisons, 363
+
+  Fleet, Siberian:
+    Officers, Pay of, 734
+    Sailors, Clothing of, 736
+    ---- Food of, 736
+    ---- Pay of, 734
+    ---- Religious professions of, 741
+
+  Flight of inhabitants from Irkutsk fire, 257
+
+  Flogging prisoners, Andreoli on, 93
+
+  ---- Goryantchikoff on, 654
+
+  Flood at Blagovestchensk, 532
+
+  Flooding of the Yenesei, 198, 219
+
+  Flora at Kansk, 239
+
+  ---- between Tomsk and Barnaul, 149
+
+  ---- in Kamchatka, 636
+
+  ---- in neighbourhood of Chita, 404
+
+  ---- in private houses, 231
+
+  ---- of Chukchee country, 644
+
+  ---- of Lake Baikal vicinity, 315
+
+  ---- of North-east Siberia, 645
+
+  ---- of Sakhalin, 649
+
+  ---- of the Primorsk, 565
+
+  ---- of the Upper Amur, 517
+
+  ---- of the Yenesei, 219
+
+  Flour sold at Nikolaefsk, 569
+
+  Flowers at Khabarofka, 579
+
+  Food of Cossacks, 682-3
+
+  ---- of Gilyaks, 596
+
+  ---- of miners, 419
+
+  ---- of natives at Sakhalin, 650
+
+  ---- of prisoners, 78, 276, 453, 656
+    Cost of, 80
+    Difficulty in procuring, 659
+    Horseflesh reported as, 746
+
+  ---- of sailors in Siberian fleet, 736
+
+  Forçats, Classification of, 449
+
+  ---- Escape of, 466
+
+  ---- Meaning of, 449
+
+  Forests near Krasnoiarsk, 220
+
+  ---- of Yeneseisk, 200
+
+  Formation of the Shilka River, 482
+
+  Fort of Anadirsk, 640
+
+  Fortress of Sibir, 110
+
+  Fortunes of gold-miners, 226
+
+  Foundation of Krasnoiarsk, 112
+
+  ---- of Mariinsk, 585
+
+  ---- of Nikolaefsk, 615
+
+  ---- of Russian Church, 751
+
+  ---- of town of Yakutsk, 112, 281
+
+  Foxes, Hunting of, 209
+
+  Franklin, Sir John, and his “equipage,” 439
+
+  Free colonists, Privileges of, 698
+
+  ---- school at Vladivostock, 722
+
+  Freedom of convicts at Kara, 448
+
+  Frontier of Europe and Asia, 18
+
+  Frozen butchers’ meat, 265
+
+  Fruit at Vladivostock, 690
+
+  ---- in Kamchatka, 636
+
+  ---- on Lower Amur, 583
+
+  ---- Siberian, 149
+
+  Fuel, _Argols_ used as, 368
+
+  Fugitives, Corean, 714
+
+  Furniture of Siberian prisons, 71
+
+  ---- of Yakutes’ houses, 301
+
+  Furs from Siberia, Export of, 295
+
+
+  Gambling, Effects on trade, 627
+
+  ---- of Russians, 119
+
+  Game, Abundance of, 696
+
+  Garden at Ekaterino-Nicolsk, 537
+
+  ---- at Vladivostock, 717
+
+  Gardening by prisoners, 248
+
+  _Gaulois_ on number of political prisoners, 396
+
+  Gems in neighbourhood of Nertchinsk, 407
+
+  ---- in Trans-Baikal province, 378
+
+  _General Korsakoff_, On board the, 314
+
+  “Géographie Universelle” of M. Réclus, 631
+
+  Geological Museum at Barnaul, 157
+
+  Gilyaks, Amusements of the, 602
+
+  ---- attitude towards exiles, 40
+
+  ---- Bears, Veneration for, 606, 608
+
+  ---- Betrothal of, 601
+
+  ---- Children of, 595
+
+  ---- Country, Extent of, 594
+
+  ---- Dead, Treatment of the, 611
+
+  ---- Dogs used by, 600
+
+  ---- dress in winter, 597
+
+  ---- Etymology, 593
+
+  ---- Family of, 603
+
+  ---- Fish eaten by, 596
+
+  ---- Fishing, 598
+
+  ---- Food of, 596
+
+  ---- Foreign relationships, 602
+
+  ---- habitations on Amur, 591
+
+  ---- Habits of, 599
+
+  ---- Hotsprings at village of, 588
+
+  ---- Idols of, 606
+
+  ---- Mission schools for, 604
+
+  ---- Missionaries to the, 612-66
+
+  ---- Occupation of, 598
+
+  ---- Polygamy among, 601
+
+  ---- Population, 594
+
+  ---- Religion of, 609
+
+  ---- Shamanism, 609
+
+  ---- Stature of, 594
+
+  ---- Superstitions of, 605
+
+  ---- Tigers, Fear of, 606
+
+  ---- Villages of the, 593
+
+  ---- Winter habitations of, 595
+
+  ---- Women, Estimation of, 601
+
+  Ginseng of Manchuria, 691
+
+  ---- on Upper Ussuri, Plantations of, 566
+
+  Girls’ Institute at Vladivostock, 721
+
+  Glaisher, Mr., Introductions from, 10
+
+  ---- Meteorological instruments, 147
+
+  Gluttony of the Yakutes, 301, 307
+
+  Goats of the Kirghese, 26
+
+  Goitre, Siberians afflicted with, 285
+
+  Gold deposits, 213
+
+  ---- digging, 214
+
+  ---- found in the Trans-Baikal province, 378, 428
+
+  ---- in the Primorsk, 583
+
+  ---- in the Za-Baikal, 462
+
+  ---- in Yakutsk, 295
+
+  ---- mine, The “Archangel Gabriel,” 218
+
+  ---- miners at Irkutsk, 264
+    Drunkenness of, 225
+    Extravagance of, 225
+
+  ---- mines, 223
+    Beverages for workmen, 224
+    Subterranean work of, 216
+    Wages at, 223
+    (_See also_ “Mines”)
+
+  ---- mining, Season for, 462
+
+  ---- Prospecting party, A, 213
+
+  ---- Russian, 211
+
+  ---- seekers, 212-13
+
+  ---- washing, 477, 583
+
+  Goldi, Appearance of, 583
+
+  ---- Baptisms of, 674
+
+  ---- Birds known to, 600
+
+  ---- boats, 600
+
+  ---- Customs of, 672
+
+  ---- Dogs, Use of, 600
+
+  ---- language, 604
+
+  ---- lexicon, 604
+
+  ---- Missionary to, 671
+
+  ---- Number of, 672
+
+  ---- Photograph of, 674
+
+  ---- Physiognomy of, 672
+
+  ---- Polygamy among, 601
+
+  ---- weddings, 601, 674
+
+  ---- wives, Price of, 601, 674
+
+  ---- women, Estimation of, 601
+
+  Gordon, Peter, Travels of, 284
+
+  Goryantchikoff on flogging of prisoners, 654
+
+  Gospels translated by Archdeacon of Khabarofka, 673
+
+  _Gostinnoi Dvor_, or Bazaar, at Tomsk, 128
+
+  Government allowance to Commandant of Kara, 474
+
+  Government buildings at Aigun, 557
+
+  ---- establishments at Blagovestchensk, 526
+
+  ---- grant to Vladivostock Girls’ Institute, 721
+
+  “Governments” in Siberia, 50
+
+  Governor of a province, 51
+
+  ---- of Tobolsk, 113
+
+  Governors-General, 51
+
+  ---- Houses of, 192
+
+  Granite rocks on the Shilka, 487
+
+  Graves of English missionaries at Selenginsk, 319
+
+  Greek Church, Penance in, 169
+    Relation of, to English Church, 181
+
+  ---- Russian, and Eastern Church, Distinction between, 162
+
+  Guards bribed by exiles, 39
+
+
+  Habitations of Buriats, 366
+
+  ---- of Gilyaks, 591-5
+
+  ---- of Koriaks, 641
+
+  Habits of Gilyaks, 599
+
+  Hakodate to Yokohama, 743
+
+  Harbour of Vladivostock, 712
+
+  Hard-labour prisons at Tobolsk, 70, 82
+
+  ---- of exiles, Proportion condemned to, 37
+
+  Hardships of gold-miners, 216
+
+  ---- of _isvostchiks_, 627
+
+  Harness of Siberian horses, 137
+
+  ---- The _douga_, 137
+
+  Head-dress of Buriat women, 365
+
+  ---- of Tatar women, 58
+
+  Hearthrugs for tarantass travelling, 136
+
+  Heathen rites at Kasan, 13
+
+  Hellman, Miss Alba, 5
+
+  ---- Gift of pamphlets by, 53
+
+  _Helsingfors Dagblad_, Author’s Bothnian tour in the, 540
+
+  Herbaceous plants in the Lower Primorsk, 566
+
+  Hertzen, Alex., on political prisoners, 380
+
+  High school at Vladivostock, 719
+
+  Hill, Mr., on Buriat missions, 375
+
+  ---- on the Lena, 284
+
+  ---- Travels of, 230
+
+  History of the Amur, 489
+
+  ---- of the Russian Church, 751
+
+  Holy Oil in Church service, 169
+
+  Holy Orders in the Russian Church, 166
+    Scarcity of candidates, 171
+
+  ---- Unction, Office of the, 169-70
+
+  Honesty of the Ostjaks, 102
+
+  ---- of the Samoyedes, 102
+
+  Horns of the reindeer, 209
+
+  Horse-eating by the Yakutes, 301
+
+  ---- flesh reported as food for prisoners, 746
+
+  Horses, Changing of, 140
+
+  ---- Harness of, 137
+
+  ---- Orochons’, 508
+
+  ---- Shoeing of, 232
+
+  ---- Siberian, 123
+
+  ---- Yakutes’ treatment of, 308
+
+  Hospital at Alexandreffsky, 249
+
+  ---- at Barnaul, 153
+
+  ---- at gold-mine, 223
+
+  ---- at Irkutsk, Books for, 276
+
+  ---- at Kara, 471
+
+  ---- at Tagil, 24
+
+  ---- at Tomsk, 229
+
+  Hospitality at Bogotol, 194
+
+  ---- at Krasnoiarsk, 232
+
+  ---- in Siberia, 353, 431
+
+  ---- of Commandant at Kara, 480
+
+  ---- of Kamchatdales, 639
+
+  Hospitals at Nikolaefsk, 617
+
+  ---- at Vladivostock, 617
+
+  ---- Impressions of, 618
+
+  Hotel at Irkutsk, 254
+
+  ---- at Krasnoiarsk, 228
+
+  ---- Siberian, Method of dining, 431
+
+  Hot-springs at Gilyak village, 588
+
+  Hours of labour at a gold-mine, 224
+
+  Houses at Kozloffskaya, 671
+
+  ---- at Krasnoiarsk, 230
+
+  ---- at Maimatchin, 339
+
+  ---- Flora in, 231
+
+  ---- of Buriats, 366
+
+  ---- of Chinese, 716
+
+  ---- of Coreans, 715
+
+  ---- of Cossacks, 683
+
+  ---- of Gilyaks, 595
+
+  ---- of Governors-General, 192
+
+  ---- of Kamchatdales, 639
+
+  ---- of Manchu, 550
+
+  ---- of Siberians, 190
+
+  ---- of Yakutes, 301
+
+  Howard Association Report, Mistake of Mr. Tallack in, 745
+
+  Howorth, Mr. on Daurians, 548
+
+  ---- on the Manchu, 548
+
+  ---- on the Samoyedes, 98
+
+  Hunting by the Orochons, 509
+
+  ---- Eagles trained for, 189
+
+  ---- Methods of, 207
+
+  ---- of foxes, 209
+
+  ---- the elk, 209
+
+
+  Idols, Gilyak, 606
+
+  ---- of the Yurak-Samoyedes, 103
+
+  ---- Tchuvash and Tcheremisi, 14
+
+  Ignatoff, Mr., at Tiumen, 29
+
+  ---- Influence of, 118-60
+
+  Ikons, Worship of, 331
+
+  Image-worship, 164
+
+  Immorality, Effects on trade, 627
+
+  Importation of tea into Russia, 325
+
+  Imports at Vladivostock, 714
+
+  ---- of the Primorsk, 570
+
+  Impressions of exile life, 726-8
+
+  Incendiarism in Siberia, 269
+
+  Income of a _tayoshnik_, 217
+
+  Indictment of a prisoner, 75
+
+  Industrial school for boys at Vladivostock, 723
+
+  Influence of the Anglo-Chinese war, 501
+
+  ---- of the Crimean war, 497
+
+  Ingoda, Collins’s descent, 482
+
+  ---- Gold-mines on the, 212
+
+  _Ingoda_ steamer on the Amur, 510
+
+  Inhabitants of the Primorsk, 567
+
+  ---- of Vladivostock, 713
+
+  Inmates of Irkutsk prison, 275
+
+  Innokente, St., Shrine of, 274
+
+  Inquisitiveness about Author, 249
+
+  Inspection of the _Djiguitt_, 741
+
+  Inspector of schools of Eastern Siberia, 11
+
+  Institute for girls, 721
+
+  Institution for prisoners’ children at Tomsk, 130
+
+  Institutions for training schoolmasters, 278
+
+  Instruments, Meteorological, 147
+
+  Insubordination of prisoners, 393
+
+  Interpreter a necessity, 4
+
+  ---- Joined by, 13
+
+  ---- Parting with, 439
+
+  Introductions, Numbers of, 11
+
+  Invasion of Cossacks opposed by Buriats, 281
+
+  Irkutsk, Alcoholic liquors at, 265
+
+  ---- Archbishop of, Interview sought, 274
+
+  ---- Bible Society at, 268
+
+  ---- Books at, Stock of, 280
+
+  ---- Churches, 265
+
+  ---- Decocq’s hotel at, 254
+
+  ---- Deputy-Governor of, 267
+
+  ---- Diocese, Churches of, 274
+
+  ---- Distress, Relief of, 269
+
+  ---- on fire, 253
+    Firemen’s arrangements, 259
+    Flight of inhabitants, 257
+    Museum burnt, 268
+    Origin, Supposed, 269
+    Procession at, 260
+    Property destroyed, 263
+    Provisions, Procuring, after the fire, 309
+    Ruins of the city, 267
+    Salvage, Articles of, 258
+    Spectacle of burning city, 260-62
+
+  ---- Founding of city, 264
+
+  ---- Gold-miners, Resort for, 264
+
+  ---- hospital, 268
+
+  ---- Larsen, Mr., Introduction to, 265
+
+  ---- Limit (Proposed) of travel, 253
+
+  ---- Markets at, 265
+
+  ---- prison:
+    Director, Pay of, 277
+    Food for hospital and, 276
+    Inmates of, 275
+    Library of, 77
+
+  ---- prisoners:
+    Books for, 276-7
+    Money allowed to, 276
+
+  ---- Provisions at, 265
+
+  ---- Roads of, 139
+
+  ---- School at, 278
+
+  ---- Shrine of St. Innokente, 274
+
+  ---- _Usine_ at, 268
+
+  ---- Winter at, 264
+
+  Iron in the valley of the Tom, 104
+
+  ---- ore in Yenesei valley, 210
+
+  ---- Smelting of, by Yakutes, 304
+
+  ---- Tons cast in 1879, 156
+
+  ---- works at Petrovsky Zavod, 355
+
+  Irons on prisoners, 85, 248, 421-63
+
+  _Irtish_, barge for prisoners, 120
+
+  ---- Tract distribution on the, 121
+
+  Island of Sakhalin, 648
+
+  Ismailoff, Gen., Deputy-Governor of Irkutsk, 267
+
+  Ismailoff, Gen., Books left with, 279
+
+  _Ispravniks_, 29, 51, 195, 234
+
+  ---- Pay of, 235
+
+  _Isvostchiks_, Hardships of, 627
+
+  Itinerary round the world, 770
+
+
+  Jail at Tomsk, 128
+
+  Japan, Russian Missions in, 358
+
+  Jews at Kara, 455
+
+  ---- at Tiumen, 460
+
+  Journal, A priest’s, 174
+
+  Journey by rail from Petersburg to Moscow, 25
+
+  ---- of an exile from Petersburg to Tobolsk, 42
+
+  ---- of Author, Extent of, 770
+    Object of, 1
+
+  ---- of 2,670 miles by rail, 24
+
+  ---- to Alexandreffsky, 243
+
+  ---- to Barnaul, 148
+
+  Journeys of previous travellers, 282
+
+  Juchova, Price of provisions at, 120
+
+  Judges of the Peace, 73
+
+  Junks of the Chinese, 716
+
+  Jury, Trial by, 73
+
+
+  Kachugskoe, Width of Lena at, 287
+
+  Kama River, 16
+
+  ---- Steamers on the, 29
+
+  Kamchatdales, Appearance of, 637
+
+  ---- Hospitality of, 639
+
+  ---- Houses of, 639
+
+  ---- Number of, 638
+
+  Kamchatka, Anadir River, 639
+
+  ---- Area of, 634
+
+  ---- Billings, Joseph, on, 631
+
+  ---- Burney, Capt., on, 631
+
+  ---- Bush, Mr., on, 633
+
+  ---- Capital of, 638
+
+  ---- Climate of, 635
+
+  ---- De Lesseps on, 631
+
+  ---- Dogs of, 636
+
+  ---- Earthquakes in, 635
+
+  ---- Flora of, 636
+
+  ---- Fruit in, 636
+
+  ---- Language of, 637
+
+  ---- Locality of, 630
+
+  ---- Sledging in, 637
+
+  ---- Vegetables of, 645
+
+  ---- Volcanoes in, 635
+
+  ---- Wildfowl of, 637
+
+  Kamen Ruiboloff, Arrival at, 686
+
+  Kansk, Bible Society and, 238
+
+  ---- Climate of, 240
+
+  ---- Crime in district of, 235-6
+
+  ---- Exiles in, 32
+
+  ---- Flora of, 239
+
+  ---- Ispravnik of, 234
+
+  ---- Priests at, 236
+
+  ---- Prison at, 235
+
+  ---- School at, 237
+
+  Kara, Barracks for Cossacks in summer, 452
+
+  ---- Commandant, Government allowance to, 474
+    Hospitality of, 480
+    Namesday of, 479
+    Salary of, 461
+
+  ---- Gold-washing at, 477
+
+  ---- Hospitals at, 471
+
+  ---- Murderers sent to, 37
+
+  ---- Police-master at, 485
+
+  ---- prison:
+    Cells in, 469
+    Diet, Scale of, 453
+    Photography by priest, 458
+    Plète at, 464
+
+  ---- Prisoners at:
+    Aged, 470
+    Branding abolished, 464
+    Chaplain for, 458
+    Classification of, 450
+    Clothing of, 455
+    Crimes of, 448
+    Female, 467-8
+    Forçats classification, 449
+    ---- Escape of, 466
+    Freedom of, 448
+    Irons on, 85, 463
+    Jewish, 455
+    Labour of, 463-4
+    Money from friends for, 83
+    Number of, 445
+    Politicals, 396
+    Provisions for, Cost of, 80
+    Scurvy among, 472
+    Sentences of, 450
+    _Starostas_ among, 454
+    Work of, 446
+
+  ---- Reputation of, unenviable, 473
+
+  ---- Sea, Wiggins on the, 51, 768
+
+  ---- Storehouse at, 455
+
+  Kasan, Founding of city, 57
+
+  ---- government, Ethnography, 14
+    Tatars in the, 15
+
+  ---- Heathen rites at, 13
+
+  ---- Seminary at, 14
+
+  Kazakevich, Admiral, 500
+
+  Kaznakoff, Governor-General, 185
+
+  Khabarof’s expedition on the Amur 490
+
+  Khabarofka, Author’s dilemma, 574
+
+  ---- Bank at, 578
+
+  ---- Flowers at, 579
+
+  ---- Military post at, 577
+
+  ---- Musical instruments at, 552
+
+  ---- Plusnin, merchant, 668
+
+  ---- Post-office at, 578
+
+  ---- Priest, Visit to, 673-7
+
+  ---- Sable-skins at, Sale of, 577
+
+  ---- Scriptures for, 667
+
+  ---- Silver money at, 715
+
+  ---- Temperature of, 579
+
+  ---- Tichmeneff, General, and the port, 666
+
+  ---- Tigers at, 689
+
+  ---- Town, Situation of, 577
+
+  ---- Trees at, 579
+
+  Khamenoff, General, and his footman, 273
+
+  Khanka Lake, Area of, 685
+
+  ---- Depth of, 685
+
+  ---- District of, 689
+    Climate of, 690
+    Medicinal plants of, 691
+
+  ---- Fish of, 679
+
+  ---- Winds on, 686
+
+  Kiakhta cathedral, 332
+
+  ---- Commerce of, 324
+
+  ---- Mongolian cavalry in, 326
+
+  ---- Prison at, 327
+
+  Kirghese, Atkinson on the, 159
+
+  ---- Costumes of the, 158
+
+  ---- Eagles used by the, 189
+
+  ---- goats, 26
+
+  ---- _Koumis_, a beverage of the, 159
+
+  Kizi Lake, Area of, 585
+
+  _Knout_ abolished, 85, 91
+
+  ---- “A German Nobleman” on the, 380
+
+  ---- Andreoli, M., on the, 91
+
+  ---- De Lagny on the, 380
+
+  Knox, Mr., on the Shilka, 441
+
+  “K., O.” on number of exiles in 1876, 39
+
+  ---- on “Russia and England,” 748
+
+  Koecher, Mr., at Troitzkosavsk, 323
+
+  Koriaks, Bread of, 642
+
+  ---- Character of, 640
+
+  ---- Deer of the, 642
+
+  ---- Dialect of the, 640
+
+  ---- Habitations of the, 641
+
+  ---- Language of the, 647
+
+  ---- Number of the, 639
+
+  ---- Sick and Aged, Treatment of, 643
+
+  ---- Wandering, 642
+
+  _Koumis_, Love of Kirghese for, 159
+
+  Kozloffskaya, Church at, 670
+
+  ---- Houses at, 671
+
+  ---- Priest at, 670
+
+  Krasnoiarsk, Asylum at, 229
+
+  ---- Beggars at, 228
+
+  ---- Catechist at, 229
+
+  ---- Cathedral at, 230
+
+  ---- Forest near, 220
+
+  ---- Founding of, 112
+
+  ---- Gold-mining district of, 212
+
+  ---- Hospitality at, 232
+
+  ---- Hotel at, 228
+
+  ---- Houses at, 230
+
+  ---- Lutheran chapel at, 228
+
+  ---- Peacock, Dr., of, 212
+
+  ---- _Perisylnie_ prison at, 229
+
+  ---- Province of, Scriptures for, 233
+
+  ---- “Rotten Row” of, 231
+
+  ---- Scriptures at, Depôt for sale of, 232
+
+  ---- Town of, 227
+
+  Krasnorechinska, Bible of priest at, 195
+
+  Kruskopf, M. Emile, 540
+
+  Kureika River, _Thames_ laid up in the, 103
+
+  _Kvas_ at Tomsk, 224
+
+
+  Labour, Hours of, in mines, 423
+
+  ---- of convicts compared with English, 662
+
+  ---- of prisoners, 80, 114, 463-4, 658
+
+  Lagny, De, on prisoners, 380
+
+  Lakes of Sakhalin, 649
+
+  ---- of the Yeneseisk province, 200
+
+  Lama, Conversion of a, 521
+
+  Lamas, 348
+
+  ---- forbidden to take life, 372
+
+  ---- respected by Buriats, 371
+
+  Lamasery for Buriats, 335-71
+
+  Land at Barnaul, Cost of, 158
+
+  Landscape scenery of Siberia, 189
+
+  Language of Aïnos, 650
+
+  ---- of Chukchees, 647
+
+  ---- of Goldi, 604
+
+  ---- of Kamchatka, 637
+
+  ---- of Koriaks, 647
+
+  ---- of Manchu, 604
+
+  ---- of Manyargs, 604
+
+  ---- of Orochons, 604
+
+  ---- of Russians, 441
+
+  ---- of Yakutes, 305
+
+  Larsen, Mr., Introduction to, 265
+
+  Latham on the Turkish race, 206
+
+  ---- on population of Russia and China, 206
+
+  ---- on “Races of Russian Empire,” 57
+
+  Lavra monastery, 177-8
+
+  Law, Courts of, Russian and Siberian, 73
+
+  Lead, Scarcity of, 156
+
+  Leave-taking in Siberia, 353
+
+  Ledyard, John, Travels of, 283
+
+  Lemke on treatment of political exiles, 413
+
+  Lemmings, 644
+
+  Lena River, 19
+
+  ---- as an outlet, 51
+
+  ---- at Kachugskoe, Width of, 287
+
+  ---- Boats on the, 285
+
+  ---- Course of the, 286
+
+  ---- Gold-mines, 211
+
+  ---- Mammoth on the, 288
+
+  ---- Merchandise on the, 285
+
+  ---- Rhinoceros on the, 289
+
+  ---- Travellers on the, 282
+
+  ---- Tributaries of the, 288
+
+  _Lena_ rounding Cape Cheliuskin, 292
+
+  Length of the Ussuri, 679
+
+  Lesseps, De, on Kamchatka, 631
+
+  ---- Travels in Siberia, 282
+
+  Letters concerning Scripture distribution, 401-2
+
+  ---- posted at Verchne-Udinsk, 354
+
+  Lexicon, Goldi, 604
+
+  Library at Irkutsk prison, 77
+
+  Lichatcheff’s Museum of Bulgarian Antiquities, 13
+
+  “Little” Russians as colonists, 32
+
+  Littoral, Russian, Number of Chinese in, 714
+
+  Liturgy of Russian Church, 166
+
+  Location of prisons, 69
+
+  Lochwitzky, M., Books to, 270
+
+  ---- Interview with, 275
+
+  Lodging at post-houses, 141
+
+  Loss of pocket-book, 692
+
+  Love of Russians for tea, 534
+
+  Lutheran chapel at Krasnoiarsk, 228
+
+  ---- church at Vladivostock, 717
+
+
+  Machine for praying to Buddha, 373
+
+  Madhouses exceptional in Primorsk, 618
+
+  Madness from drink at Tomsk, 229
+
+  Maimatchin, Buddhist temple, 344
+
+  ---- Chinese dinner at, 345
+    Merchant at, 339
+
+  ---- Clerks at, 340
+
+  ---- Houses at, 339
+
+  ---- Plays at, Licentious, 344
+
+  ---- Population of, 337
+
+  ---- Streets of, 339
+
+  _Mala-Russia_ costume, 250
+
+  Malachite in copper-mine, 21
+
+  Maladies of the Primorsk, 571
+
+  Mammalia inhabiting Siberia, 188
+
+  Mammoth remains, 288
+
+  Manchu boats, 554-5
+
+  ---- carts, 552
+
+  ---- Cattle of the, 550
+
+  ---- Dwellings of the, 549-50
+
+  ---- guests, Reception of, 553
+
+  ---- Howorth, Mr., on the, 548
+
+  ---- language, 604
+
+  ---- people, 207
+
+  ---- shop, 553
+
+  ---- temples, 549
+
+  Manchuria, Boundary of, 547
+
+  ---- Costume of the men, 551
+
+  ---- Ginseng of, 691
+
+  ---- Southern, Deer in, 696
+
+  ---- Town of, 550
+
+  Manchurian archers, 556
+
+  ---- dead, Treatment of the, 554
+
+  ---- fishing, Method of, 555
+
+  ---- sable-skins, 696
+
+  Manufactories at Telma, 242
+
+  ---- in Siberia, 241
+
+  Manyargs, Language of the, 604
+
+  ---- on Middle Amur, 507
+
+  Manzas, Robberies by, 715
+
+  Mariinsk, Foundation of, 585
+
+  ---- Scripture distribution at, 665
+
+  Market at Troitzkosavsk, 327
+
+  Markets at Irkutsk, 265
+
+  Markova, Scenery at, 684
+
+  Marriage compulsory on clergy, 524
+
+  ---- customs of Chukchees, 643
+    of the Ostjaks, 126
+
+  ---- rites of exiles, 35
+
+  Marriage services, 168
+
+  Martyrdom of a missionary, 612
+
+  Materialism in Siberia, 705
+
+  Mayor of Tiumen, 27
+
+  Mayors of Siberian towns, 716
+
+  Meals on board a steamer, 513
+
+  Meat at Irkutsk, Cheapness of, 265
+
+  ---- in the Middle Primorsk, Cost of, 568
+
+  Medicine, Author’s stock of, 703
+
+  ---- Plants for, 691
+
+  Medvedsky, School at, 150
+
+  Merchandise on the Lena, 285
+
+  Merchant, Chinese, 339
+
+  ---- Russian, Specimen of a, 118
+
+  Merchants’ stores at Blagovestchensk, 526
+
+  Metals in the Za-Baikal, 378
+
+  ----- Precious, 153, 211
+
+  Meteorological instruments, 147
+
+  ---- observatory at Nertchinsk, 425
+
+  Meteorology of Blagovestchensk, 532
+
+  Metropolitan of Moscow, 10
+
+  Mexican dollars at Khabarofka, 715
+
+  Mica and gold at Yakutsk, 295
+
+  Middle Primorsk, Area of, 568
+
+  Mikhailofsky, Dancing at, 622
+
+  Miles travelled by Author, 24, 770
+
+  Military exemptions, 720
+
+  ---- hospitals at Nikolaefsk, 617
+
+  ---- post at Khabarofka, 577
+
+  Mills at Vladivostock, 709
+
+  Mine, Copper, Descent of a, 21, 138
+
+  ---- Magnetic iron, 22
+
+  Mineral springs on the Shilka, 488
+
+  Minerals in Altai mountains, 104
+
+  ---- of the Yeneseisk province, 240
+
+  Miners, Gold:
+    Beverages of, 224
+    Drunkenness of, 225
+    Extravagance of, 225
+    Food of, 419
+    Wages of, 223
+
+  ---- Testimonies from, 418
+
+  ---- Wiggins, Captain, on, 225
+
+  Mines at Kara:
+    Female prisoners at, 467-8
+    Gold-washing at, 477
+    Work, Leaving off, 464
+
+  ---- at Nertchinsk, 30
+    Inaccessibility of, 412
+
+  ---- at Nijni Tagilsk, 20
+
+  ---- Coal, at Vladivostock, 678
+
+  ---- Gold, 211
+    “Archangel Gabriel,” The, 218
+    Assaying, 223
+    Barracks at, 223
+    Districts of, 211-12
+    Hospital at, 223
+    Ingoda River, 212
+    Krasnoiarsk district, 212
+    Manager of, 226
+    Mohammedans at, 224
+    Nertcha River, 212
+    Olekma River, 212
+    Onon River, 212
+    Proprietors of, 226
+    Registration of, 217
+    Stables at, 223
+    Washing the gold, 222
+    Work, Hours of, 224
+    Working the metal, 221
+
+  ---- in Altai district, 156
+
+  ---- Manganese iron ore, 22
+
+  ---- Private, 81
+
+  ---- Punishment in the, 456
+
+  ---- “Quicksilver,” 411
+    Nertchinsk, Baron R[osen] on, 409
+    ---- _Newcastle Daily Chronicle_ on, 409
+    ---- None heard of at, 409
+    _Sheffield Daily Telegraph_ on, 747
+
+  ---- Silver:
+    Altai region, 411
+    Collins’s descent of, 412
+    Food at, 419
+    Formation of, 422
+    Labour, Hours of, 423
+    Rozguildieff, Cruelty of, 419
+    Women _not_ working in, 417
+
+  ---- Unhealthy fumes reported, 408
+
+  ---- Work in, 82
+
+  Mining district, Principal centre of, 420
+
+  ---- Gold, Season for, 462
+
+  Minister of the Interior, 9
+
+  “Miracle” at Troitzkosavsk, 330
+
+  Miraculous ikons, 331
+
+  Misadventures of tarantass travelling, 193
+
+  Misrepresentations of newspapers, 744-5
+
+  ---- of various writers, 379-83, 413, 416-68, 744
+
+  Mission at Blagovestchensk, 518-19
+
+  ---- converts, Charge of bribery, 676
+
+  ---- Conversion of a lama, 521
+
+  ---- English at Selenginsk, Story of the, 318-20
+
+  ---- Offertories, 677
+
+  ---- school at Bolan, 604
+    at Troitzka, 604
+
+  ---- schools for Gilyaks, 604
+
+  ---- to Aïnos, 650
+
+  ---- to Burials, 357
+    Atkinson, Mr., on, 375
+    Hill, Mr., on, 375
+
+  ---- to Gilyaks, 612-65
+
+  ---- to Goldi, 671-4
+
+  ---- to Japanese, 358
+
+  Missionaries, Pay of, 676
+
+  Missionary collections at church doors, 520
+
+  ---- Martyrdom of a, 612
+
+  Missions: Results of Orthodox Missionary Society’s work, 520
+
+  Model Prison at Petersburg, 64
+
+  Mohammedan mosques in Tatar villages, 59
+
+  ---- workmen at gold-mines, 224
+
+  Molokans, 386
+
+  ---- Doctrines of the, 528
+
+  ---- Manner of living, 529
+
+  Monasteries, 163
+
+  ---- Clergy of, 176
+
+  ---- Three kinds of, 177
+
+  Monastery for Buriat priests, 335
+
+  Monastic life at Yuryef, 178
+
+  Money allowance to prisoners at Irkutsk, 276
+
+  ---- exchanged, 731
+
+  ---- Prisoners’, 78
+
+  ---- received by prisoners from friends, 83
+
+  ---- Silver, Chinese demand, 715
+
+  ---- taken by Author, 578
+
+  ---- Tea used as an equivalent for, 343
+
+  Mongolian camels, Caravan route by, 351
+
+  ---- cavalry in Kiakhta, 326
+
+  ---- frontier, Birds on, 357
+    Herds of camels on, 357
+
+  ---- race, Dr. Latham on the, 206
+
+  ---- route, Travellers on the, 349
+
+  ---- salutation, Method of, 356
+
+  ---- sheep, 552
+
+  Morality at Vladivostock, 723
+
+  Moscow fund for exiles, 43
+
+  ---- Metropolitans of, 10, 586
+
+  ---- Stay at, 12
+
+  Mosques, Mohammedan, in Tatar villages, 59
+
+  Mosquitoes on Sungacha, 684, 710
+
+  Mountain of Odon Tchelon, 407
+
+  ---- Volcanic, 562
+
+  Mountains, Altai range of, 19
+
+  ---- of Sakhalin, 649
+
+  ---- Sikhota-Alin, 561, 669
+
+  ---- Ural, 17
+
+  Muravieff, Count, Governor of Eastern Siberia, 496
+
+  Murder at Nikolaefsk, 655
+
+  ---- Trial for, 74
+
+  ---- under influence of drink, 155
+
+  Murderers sent to Kara, 37
+
+  Museum at Irkutsk destroyed, 268
+
+  ---- of Bulgarian Antiquities, 13
+
+  ---- of Geology at Barnaul, 157
+
+  Music, Church, 165
+
+  Musical instruments at Khabarofka, 552
+
+  Mutton, Russian dislike of, 628
+
+  ---- the staple feast of Buriats, 367
+
+
+  Narim, Population of, 123
+
+  Native belief in Shamanism, 405
+
+  Natives of Sakhalin, Food of, 650
+
+  Naval hospitals at Vladivostock, 617
+
+  Navigation, Early, of Siberia, 767
+
+  ---- of Kara Sea by Wiggins, 768
+
+  Needs of the Russian Church, 182
+
+  Nertcha, Gold-mines on the, 212
+
+  Nertchinsk, Climate of, 425
+    Atkinson, Mr., on, 425
+
+  ---- Cochrane’s visit to, 412
+
+  ---- Gems in neighbourhood, 407
+
+  ---- Meteorological observatory at, 425
+
+  ---- Mines, Mr. Collins’s visit to, 412-17
+    Inaccessibility of, 412
+
+  ---- Mining region of, 30
+
+  ---- Prison at, 70
+
+  ---- Prisoners’ work at, 446
+
+  ---- “Quicksilver”-mines:
+    Baron R[osen] on, 409
+    None heard of at, 409
+
+  ---- Silver-mines at, 411
+
+  ---- Situation of, 430
+
+  ---- Temperature of, 426
+
+  ---- Tobacco cultivation at, 425
+
+  ---- Treaties at, 324, 428
+
+  ---- Vegetation at, 426
+
+  _Newcastle Daily Chronicle_ on “Quicksilver”-mines, 409
+
+  Newspapers, English:
+    Account of exiles’ passage in, 45
+    Misrepresentations of, 744
+
+  Nihilists, “Black,” 34
+
+  ---- Opinions concerning, 328
+
+  ---- Transport, Mode of, 46
+
+  Nijni Novgorod, Fair at, 12
+    Steamboat to Perm, 16
+    Transport of exiles to, 43
+
+  ---- Tagilsk, Copper-mine at, 138
+    Mines and works at, 20
+
+  ---- Udinsk, Awaking a Russian at, 241
+    Prison at, 241
+
+  Nikolaefsk, Amusements at, 621
+
+  ---- Andreyeff, M., of, 615
+
+  ---- Author’s religious services at, 725
+
+  ---- Barracks at, 620
+
+  ---- Birching criminals at, 89
+
+  ---- Buildings at, 625
+
+  ---- Church at, 624
+
+  ---- Climate of, 563
+
+  ---- Dinner at, 619
+
+  ---- Emery, Mr. Enoch, of, 614
+
+  ---- English books at, 629
+
+  ---- Étape prison at, 616
+
+  ---- Fish-trade of, 628
+
+  ---- Flour sold at, 569
+
+  ---- Foundation of, 615
+
+  ---- Hospital at, 617
+    Government grant to, 617
+    Scriptures for, 617-66
+
+  ---- Murder at, 655
+
+  ---- Officers’ club at, 624
+
+  ---- _Plète_ used at, 616
+
+  ---- Police-station at, 624
+
+  ---- Population of, 624
+
+  ---- Prison, 615
+
+  ---- Prisoners’ food at, 79
+    Preference for, 277
+
+  ---- Rise of, 498
+
+  ---- Salmon at, Cost of, 628
+
+  ---- Scripture distribution at, 666
+
+  ---- Service at, 619
+
+  ---- Town, Aspect of, 624
+
+  ---- Trade of, 625
+
+  ---- Wages at, 590
+
+  Nikon, Patriarch, Revision of Church books by, 758
+
+  Ninagai tribe of Orochons, 507
+
+  Nordenskiöld, Discoveries of, 761
+
+  ---- Explorations of, 51, 107, 292
+
+  _North China Herald_ on Sakhalin prisoners, 652-8
+
+  North-east passage to China attempted, 766
+
+  Novgorod, Transport of exiles to, 43
+
+  Nunneries of the Siberian Church, 163-79
+
+
+  Obdorsk, School at, 103, 150
+
+  Obi as an outlet for commerce, 51
+
+  ---- Cattley, O., on trade, 108, 761
+
+  ---- Commercial value of the, 103
+
+  ---- district, Tundras of the, 105
+
+  ---- Fisheries of the, 123
+
+  ---- gulf, Capt. Wiggins in the, 106
+
+  ---- Length of the, 19
+
+  ---- Ostjaks on the, 124
+
+  ---- Steamers on the, 29
+
+  ---- Temperature of the, 50
+
+  ---- Tract distribution on the, 184
+
+  Object of Author’s travel, 1
+
+  _Oblasts_ of Siberia, 50
+
+  _Obos_ of the Buriats, 405
+
+  Observance of the Sabbath by prisoners, 422-55
+
+  Observatory at Nertchinsk, 425
+
+  Occupation of Buriats, 369
+
+  ---- of Gilyaks, 598
+
+  Odon Tchelon, Mountain of, 407
+
+  Offences by prisoners, 84
+
+  Offertories for Missions, 677
+
+  Office of the Holy Unction, 169-70
+
+  Officers’ club at Nikolaefsk, 624
+
+  ---- in the army, Pay of, 668
+
+  ---- of the _Djiguitt_, 738
+
+  ---- of Dui prison, 660
+
+  ---- of Siberian fleet, Pay of, 734
+
+  Oil, Holy, in Church service, 169
+
+  Okhotsk, Sea of, Whales in the, 631
+
+  Olekma gold-mines, 212
+
+  ---- Sables of, 295
+
+  Omsk, Prison at, 70
+
+  ---- School at, 150
+
+  Onkelon people, The, 647
+
+  Onon River, 482
+
+  ---- Gold-mines on the, 212
+
+  _Onon_ steamboat, On board the, 669
+
+  Orders in Russian Church, 166
+
+  ---- Lack of candidates for, 171
+
+  Ordinations in Russian Church, 166
+
+  Orenburg shawls, 26
+
+  ---- Souvenirs from villages, 26
+
+  Orochons as hunters, 509
+
+  ---- Horses of, 508
+
+  ---- in Sakhalin, 649
+
+  ---- Language of the, 604
+
+  ---- Population of tribes, 507
+
+  ---- Tents of, 509
+
+  ---- Women’s hair, 508
+
+  Orthodox Missionary Society’s work, 520
+
+  Ostjaks and Tunguses, Resemblance between, 207
+
+  ---- as fishermen, 123
+
+  ---- Bows and arrows of the, 126
+
+  ---- Honesty of, 102
+
+  ---- Marriage customs of the, 126
+
+  ---- on the Obi, 124
+
+  ---- Wiggins, Capt., and the, 103
+
+  ---- _Yourts_ of the, 124
+
+  _Ostrog_ prison, An, 69
+
+  Outdoor amusements of the Russians, 621
+
+
+  Pamphlets for distribution, 53
+
+  “Paris, Member for,” Author of, on Prisons, 380
+
+  ---- on the mines, 413-62
+
+  ---- on women miners, 468
+
+  Parishioners of the Russian Church, 163
+
+  Pashkof on the Amur, Expedition of, 492
+
+  Pashkova, Deserted village at, 671
+
+  Pay-day at a gold-mine, 225
+
+  ---- of Cossacks, 682
+
+  Peace, Judges of the, 73
+
+  Peacock, Dr., on the current of the Yenesei, 197
+
+  ---- visiting the gold-mine, 212
+
+  Peasantry, Russian--how they live, 698
+
+  Peasants on the River Zeya, 531
+
+  Penal colony at Kara, 70
+
+  ---- at Vladivostock, 726
+
+  Penance in the Greek Church, 169
+
+  _Pericladnoi_ travelling, 135
+
+  _Perisylnie_ prison at Krasnoiarsk, 229
+
+  ---- prisons, 44, 69
+
+  Perm, Fire at, 16
+
+  ---- to Ekaterineburg by rail, 17
+
+  ---- Transport of exiles to, 43
+
+  _Petchka_ at Alexandreffsky, 246
+
+  Petersburg, Arrival at, 9
+
+  ---- English suspected at, 329
+
+  ---- Excitement at, 328
+
+  ---- Prisoners, Places of worship for, 65
+
+  ---- Prisons of, 2
+
+  ---- Sermons in, Number, 460
+
+  ---- to Moscow by rail, 25
+
+  Petropavlovsk, 638
+
+  Petrovski, State prison at, 387
+
+  Photograph of Goldi Christians, 674
+
+  Photography at Alexandreffsky, 250
+
+  ---- by Kara priest, 458
+
+  ---- Russian, 434
+
+  Physiognomy of Buriats, 364
+
+  ---- of Goldi, 672
+
+  Picture-worship, 164, 331
+
+  Pigs, Siberian, 188
+
+  Plantations of ginseng, 566
+
+  Plants, Herbaceous, in Lower Primorsk, 566
+
+  ---- Medicinal, of Lake Khanka district, 691
+
+  Plays, at Maimatchin, 344
+
+  Pleasure-garden, Vladivostock, 717
+
+  Plète at Chita, 94
+
+  ---- at Dui, 653
+
+  ---- at Kara, 464
+
+  ---- at Nikolaefsk, 616
+
+  ---- Description of the, 90
+
+  ---- Exiles receiving the, 35
+
+  ---- used at three places only, 94
+
+  Plusnin, M., Business with, 668
+
+  Pocket-book, Loss of, 692
+
+  _Podkeedovate_, a Siberian custom, 353
+
+  _Podorojna_, A Crown, 143, 314
+
+  ---- permit for posting, 134
+
+  Police-master at Kara, 485
+
+  ---- of Siberian towns, 269
+
+  ---- station at Nikolaefsk, 615-24
+
+  Political divisions in Siberia, 50
+
+  ---- exiles:
+    _Contemporary Review_, 413
+    Lemke on treatment of, 413
+    Whyte on number of, 394
+
+  ---- prisoners and Dostoyeffsky’s “Buried Alive,” 384
+    Author of “Member for Paris” on, 380
+
+  Polygamy among Gilyaks, 601
+
+  ---- among Goldi, 601
+
+  Poor of Vladivostock, 717
+
+  ---- house at Barnaul, 153
+
+  _Popoftschins_, Sect of, 759
+
+  Population of Aigun, 556
+
+  ---- of Amur province, 543
+
+  ---- of Upper Amur on Chinese bank, 506
+
+  ---- of Barnaul, 152
+
+  ---- of Buriats, 369
+
+  ---- of China, 206
+
+  ---- of Chita, 361
+
+  ---- of Gilyak country, 594
+
+  ---- of Maimatchin, 337
+
+  ---- of Narim, 123
+
+  ---- of Nikolaefsk, 624
+
+  ---- of Orochons, 507
+
+  ---- of Russia, 206
+
+  ---- of Russia in Asia, 20
+
+  ---- of Sakhalin, 649
+
+  ---- of Siberia, Russian and aboriginal, 52
+
+  ---- of Sophiisk, 585
+
+  ---- of Surgut, 123
+
+  ---- of the _Za-Baikal_ province, 400
+
+  ---- of Tiumen, 27
+
+  ---- of Tomsk, 127
+
+  ---- of Verchne-Udinsk, 317
+
+  ---- of Vladivostock, 712
+
+  ---- of Yakutsk, 294
+
+  ---- of Yeneseisk, 203
+
+  Possessions of Buriats, 369
+
+  Post, Russian and Chinese, 352
+
+  ---- office at Khabarofka, 578
+
+  Postal communication, 52, 578
+
+  ---- letter, A, 143
+
+  Posting--An “equipage,” 439
+
+  ---- “Book for complaints,” 55
+
+  ---- Distances between verst-posts, 436
+
+  ---- in Siberia, 134
+
+  ---- Official, 437
+
+  ---- Post-houses, lodging at, 141
+    Tariff of, 141
+
+  ---- Travelling, Manner of, 135
+
+  ---- Wrong road, The, 144
+
+  Potatoes at Vladivostock, 690
+
+  Poyarkof’s expedition on the Amur, 490
+
+  Prayers, A Tatar at, 61
+
+  Praying-machine, Buddhist, 373
+
+  Preaching, Lack of, 459
+
+  Precious stones in neighbourhood of Nertchinsk, 407
+
+  Presents to exiles, 42
+
+  Price of meals on a steamer, 513
+
+  ---- of tea in Russia, 325
+
+  Priest at Khabarofka, Visit to, 673-7
+
+  ---- at Kozloffskaya, 670
+
+  ---- at Krasnorechinska, Bible of, 195
+
+  ---- at Vladivostock, 730
+
+  ---- Journal of a, 174
+
+  Priests at Kansk, 236
+
+  ---- Seminary for training, 523
+
+  ---- Social disadvantages of, 173
+
+  ---- Stipend of, 172
+
+  ---- Treatise on the Duty of, 181-2
+
+  Primorsk, or Sea-coast province, 561
+
+  ---- Bays in the, 562
+
+  ---- Cattle in the, 697
+
+  ---- Divisions of province, 567
+
+  ---- Fauna of the, 565
+
+  ---- Fish in the, Price of, 569
+
+  ---- Flora of the, 565
+
+  ---- Gold-washing in the, 583
+
+  ---- Health of inhabitants, 571
+
+  ---- Imports of, 570
+
+  ---- Inhabitants of the, 567
+
+  ---- Lower:
+    Climate of, 564
+    Herbaceous plants in, 566
+    Populated by Ussuri Cossacks, 568
+
+  ---- Madhouses exceptional in, 618
+
+  ---- Maladies of the, 571
+
+  ---- Middle:
+    Area of, 568
+    Meat, Cost of, 568
+
+  ---- Rivers in the, 562
+
+  ---- Schools, Number of, 723
+
+  ---- Scriptures distributed in, 703
+
+  ---- Soldiers in the, 667
+
+  ---- Taxes in the, 571
+
+  ---- Trees in the, 566
+
+  ---- Tribes in the, Number of, 567
+
+  ---- Vaccination in the, 571
+
+  ---- Volcanic mountains in the, 562
+
+  Prison affairs at Tomsk, 128
+
+  ---- Ameliorating influence in, 77
+
+  ---- at Åbo, 63
+
+  ---- at Alexandreffsky, 70, 245
+    Amusements at, 83
+    Books for, 249
+    Director of, 244
+    Hospital at, 248
+
+  ---- at Biisk, 133
+
+  ---- at Blagovestchensk, 525
+
+  ---- at Chita, 70
+    The “Black-cart” at, 362
+
+  ---- at Dui, Officers of, 660
+
+  ---- at Irkutsk:
+    Director’s pay, 277
+    Inmates of, 275
+    Library, 77
+
+  ---- at Kansk, 235
+
+  ---- at Kara, 70
+
+  ---- at Kiakhta, 327
+
+  ---- at Krasnoiarsk, 229
+
+  ---- at Nijni Udinsk, 241
+
+  ---- at Nikolaefsk, 615-16
+
+  ---- at Omsk, 70
+
+  ---- at Petrovski, 389
+
+  ---- at Sakhalin, 70
+
+  ---- at Schlüsselburg, 68
+
+  ---- at Troitzkosavsk, 327
+
+  ---- at Verchne-Udinsk, 317
+
+  ---- at Wiborg, 63
+
+  ---- Books in, 113
+
+  ---- chaplains, 663
+
+  ---- on board the _Djiguitt_, 739
+
+  ---- ethnography, 246
+
+  ---- food compared with English prison diet, 79
+
+  ---- furniture, 71
+
+  ---- gardening, 248
+
+  ---- labour compared with English, 662
+
+  ---- officials, Bribery of, 277
+
+  ---- _Ostrog_, An, 69
+
+  ---- Petersburg Model, 64
+    Bath-room in, 66
+    Chapel in, 67
+    Contraband articles in, 67
+    Dark cells in, 66
+
+  ---- Russian, Account of a, 380
+
+  ---- school at Tomsk, 128
+
+  ---- Smuggling spirits into, 67, 317
+
+  ---- _Starostas_, 454
+
+  ---- statistics, 69
+
+  ---- storehouse at Kara, 455
+
+  ---- Tragedy in, 154
+
+  ---- _Travaux forcés_, 113
+
+  ---- work:
+    Cigarette-paper making, 247
+    Lack of, 247
+
+  Prisoners, Aged, 470
+
+  ---- Asylum for children of, 77
+
+  ---- Authors on, 379-88-94
+
+  ---- Bail, 74
+
+  ---- Barge, the _Irtish_, 120
+
+  ---- Birching of, 89, 473
+
+  ---- Books for, 276-7
+
+  ---- Branding of, 464
+
+  ---- Bribery by, 39
+
+  ---- buying Scriptures, 121
+
+  ---- Card-playing among, 388, 656
+
+  ---- cells, 469, 525
+
+  ---- chains, 154
+
+  ---- changing destinations and names, 75
+
+  ---- Chaplain for, 458
+
+  ---- children, School for, 278
+
+  ---- Classification of, 72, 450
+
+  ---- Clothing of, 80, 455, 728
+
+  ---- complaint, Causes of, 393
+
+  ---- Courts, Judges, and modes of trial, 73
+
+  ---- Crimes of, 448
+
+  ---- descriptions taken, 76
+
+  ---- Escape of, 465
+
+  ---- Fasting of, 79
+
+  ---- Female, 467-8
+
+  ---- Flogging of, 654
+    Goryantchikoff on, 654
+
+  ---- Food, 77-9, 82, 276, 453, 656
+    Cost of, 80
+    Difficulty in procuring, 659
+    Horseflesh reported as, 746
+
+  ---- _Forçats_, 449-66
+
+  ---- in irons, 85, 248, 421-63
+
+  ---- in Yakutsk government, 37
+
+  ---- Insubordination of, 393
+
+  ---- Labour of, 80, 114, 463-4, 658
+
+  ---- Money allowance to, 276
+    Received from friends, 83
+
+  ---- Number at Alexandreffsky, 246
+    At Kara, 445
+    At Sakhalin, 652-3
+
+  ---- offences, 84
+
+  ---- Polish, 122, 390
+
+  ---- Political, 396
+    Baron R[osen] on, 387
+    _Daily Telegraph_ on number of, 396
+    De Lagny on, 380
+    Deported to Trans-Baikal province, 377
+    Destination of, 37
+    _Gaulois_ on number of, 396
+    Lemke on, 413
+    Living to be earned, 398
+    Lodging of, 395
+    Number of, 394
+    ---- in 1879, 396
+    Position of, 398
+    Present condition of, 390
+    Tiumen, Passing through, 395
+
+  ---- preference for Nikolaefsk, 277
+
+  ---- Punishment of, 84, 129, 421-3
+
+  ---- Reformation doubtful, 664
+
+  ---- Religious professions of, 72
+
+  ---- Russian, Condition of, 64
+    English and, Comparison between numbers of, 478
+
+  ---- Sabbath, Observance of, 455
+
+  ---- Scurvy among, 472
+
+  ---- seeing friends, 246
+
+  ---- Sentences of, 450
+
+  ---- shipyard at Sivakoff, 420
+    At Stretinsk, 420
+
+  ---- _Starostas_ among, 454
+
+  ---- Statistics concerning, 72
+
+  ---- Sundays, Refusal to work, 422
+
+  ---- ticket of indictment, 75
+
+  ---- to Finnish colonies, 131
+
+  ---- Treatment of, 728
+
+  ---- Wives of, 388
+
+  ---- work, 82, 446
+
+  ---- Worship, Places of, 65
+
+  ---- writing to friends, 84, 236
+
+  Prisons, Atmosphere of, 381
+
+  ---- Author’s interest in, 1
+    Opinion on, 662
+
+  ---- at Dui, 652
+
+  ---- at Nertchinsk, 7
+
+  ---- at Tobolsk, 70, 82
+
+  ---- at Uleaborg, 41
+
+  ---- Books for _Za-Baikal_, 400
+
+  ---- Building of, 70
+
+  ---- Étape, 44, 69, 667
+    Soldiers employed for, 667
+
+  ---- Fleas and vermin in, 363
+
+  ---- Furniture of, 71
+
+  ---- Kinds of, 68
+
+  ---- Local committees in connection with, 77
+
+  ---- Location of, 69
+
+  ---- _Perisylnie_, 44, 69
+
+  ---- Petersburg, Visitation of, 2
+
+  ---- Russian and Finnish, 63
+
+  Private mines, 81
+
+  Privileges to free colonists, 698
+
+  Procession at fire of Irkutsk, 260
+
+  Processions, Church, 174
+
+  “Prodigal Son” for distribution, 7
+
+  ---- Hammering up the, 190, 238
+
+  Profession of an advocate, 582
+
+  Proprietors of gold-mines, 226
+
+  Protestant churches in Siberia, 726
+
+  Protestants in Siberia, 726
+
+  Protodiakonoff of Khabarofka, 673
+
+  Province, Governor of a, 51
+
+  Provisions aboard steamboats, 512
+
+  ---- at Barnaul, Cost of, 158
+
+  ---- at Blagovestchensk, Cost, 527
+
+  ---- at Irkutsk, 265
+
+  ---- at Juchova, Price of, 120
+
+  ---- at Kara, Cost of, 80
+
+  ---- at Surgut, Price of, 120
+
+  ---- at Tobolsk, Cost of, 105
+
+  Punishment in the mines, 456
+
+  ---- of prisoners, 84, 421
+
+
+  Quass (or _kvas_) at Tomsk, 224
+
+  ---- for miners, 224
+
+  “Quicksilver”-mines, 409
+
+  ---- Baron R[osen] on, 409
+
+  ---- Eden, Mr., on, 410
+
+  ---- _Newcastle Daily Chronicle_ on, 409
+
+  ---- _Sheffield Daily Telegraph_, 747
+
+  ---- Supposed deadly fumes, 412
+
+
+  “Races of Russian Empire,” by Dr. Latham, 57
+
+  Railway, A new line of, 17
+
+  ---- journey of 2,670 miles, 24
+
+  ---- Petersburg to Moscow by, 25
+
+  ---- transport of exiles, 42
+
+  Railways in Russia, 25
+
+  Rain in the Primorsk, 565
+
+  Rapids of Angara River, 311
+
+  Rasdolnoi, Cockroaches at, 702
+
+  _Raskolnik_ exiles, 32
+
+  Rates for telegrams in Siberia, 522
+
+  Ravenstein on the Amur, 581
+
+  Réclus, M., “Géographie Universelle” of, 631
+
+  ---- on the first exiles, 31
+
+  ---- on the Yurak-Samoyedes, 103
+
+  Reformation of Russian Church, 753
+
+  Registers, Church, 174
+
+  Registration of gold-mines, 217
+
+  “Reign of Terror” described in _Daily Telegraph_, 45
+
+  Reindeer, Horns of, 209
+
+  ---- riding, 306
+
+  ---- taken in chase, 209
+
+  ---- Yakutes’ use, in travelling, 306
+
+  Release of exile, 38
+
+  Religion of Buriats, 370
+
+  ---- of Daurians, 549
+
+  ---- of Gilyaks, 609
+
+  ---- of prisoners, 72
+
+  ---- of sailors, 741
+
+  Religious scruples of exiles respected, 460
+
+  ---- services of Author at Vladivostock, 725
+
+  ---- Tract Society in Russia, 705
+
+  Revision of Church books by the Patriarch Nikon, 758
+
+  Rhinoceros on the Lena, 289
+
+  Riches of the Demidoffs, 23
+
+  Riding in the _taiga_, 212
+
+  Ritual of Russian Church, 166
+
+  Rivers of Sakhalin, 649
+
+  ---- in the Primorsk, 562
+
+  Roads of Irkutsk, 139
+
+  ---- of Siberia, 51-2
+
+  ---- in Yeneseisk, 139
+
+  Rob Roy cuisine, 145
+
+  Robberies by the Manzas, 715
+
+  Rooms in Siberian houses, 192
+
+  _Rooski Rabotchi_ for distribution, 7
+
+  ---- Subscribers to, 184
+
+  Rosaries, Russian and Roman, 61
+
+  R[osen], Baron, on “quicksilver”-mines, 409
+
+  ---- on political prisoners, 387
+
+  ---- on situation of Chita, 425
+
+  “Rotten Row” of Krasnoiarsk, 231
+
+  Roumanian grant of Bible Soc., 3
+
+  Route of exiles _viâ_ Suez Canal, 44
+
+  ---- _viâ_ the Shilka, 52
+
+  Routes across Siberia, 281
+
+  Rozguildieff, Cruelty of, 419
+
+  Ruins of Irkutsk after the fire, 267
+
+  Runaway exiles, Capture of, 40
+
+  ---- prisoners at Kara, 465
+
+  Ruschkova, Finns at, 5
+
+  Russ, _British Workman_ in, 7
+
+  Russia and China, Boundary, 487
+    Difficulties between, 501
+    Ethnography of, 206
+    Treaties between, 323
+
+  ---- Appeal by Amur tribes for Chinese help against, 493
+
+  ---- Asiatic boundary line, 49
+
+  ---- Author’s previous tours in, 2
+
+  ---- Chinese exports into, 341
+
+  ---- Church bells of, 332
+
+  ---- Early Chinese frontier, 323, 487
+
+  ---- Education in, Cost of, 719
+    Subjects of study, 720
+
+  ---- Ethnography of, 206
+
+  ---- in Asia:
+    Area of, 18
+    Ethnography of, 19, 52
+    Population of, 20
+
+  ---- Population of, 206
+
+  ---- Railways in, 25
+
+  ---- Tea in, Price of, 325
+
+  Russian annexation of Siberia, 109
+
+  ---- cemeteries, 152
+
+  ---- Church:
+    Bible, The, and, 181
+    Burial services, 152
+    Foundation of the, 751
+    Reformation of the, 753
+    Rural deaneries of the, 163
+    Schisms of the, 756
+    Transition of the, 752
+
+  ---- conquests on the Amur, 489
+
+  ---- conscription, Method of, 736
+
+  ---- courts of law, 73
+
+  ---- custom of addressing friends, 406, 620
+
+  ---- dislike of mutton, 628
+
+  ---- drunkenness compared with English, 544
+
+  ---- gold, 211
+
+  ---- Greek, and English Church, Distinctions between, 162
+
+  ---- Judges, 73
+
+  ---- Littoral, Number of Chinese in, 714
+
+  ---- peasantry--How they live, 698
+
+  ---- photography, 434
+
+  ---- politicians, 748
+
+  ---- prison, Account of a, 380
+
+  ---- prisoners, Condition of, 64
+
+  ---- salutation, Mode of, 406
+
+  ---- Scriptures printed for Bible Society, 8
+
+  ---- sea-trading adventure, 761
+
+  ---- trade, Effects of gambling, 627
+
+  Russians afloat, 733
+
+  ---- Amusements of, 621
+
+  ---- at home, 620
+
+  ---- Gambling of, 119
+
+  ---- “Little,” as colonists, 32
+
+  ---- Superstitions of the, 620
+
+  ---- Sympathy of, for Decembrists, 32, 378
+
+  Russo-Chinese commerce, Kiakhta as a centre of, 324
+
+
+  Sabbath, Prisoners’ observance of, 422-55
+
+  Sables of Olekma, 295
+
+  ---- of Vitim, 295
+
+  ---- skins of Manchuria, 696
+    Khabarofka, Sale at, 578, 696
+
+  Sacrament of Penance, 169
+
+  ---- of Unction, 169
+
+  Sacred pictures as objects of worship, 331
+
+  Sailors of Siberian fleet:
+    Clothing of, 736
+    Food of, 736
+    Pay of, 734
+    Religion of, 741
+
+  Sakhalin: Aïnos, 650
+
+  ---- Card-playing at, 656
+
+  ---- Coal at, 651
+
+  ---- Fauna of, 649
+
+  ---- Flora of, 649
+
+  ---- Food of natives, 650
+
+  ---- Island of, 648
+
+  ---- Lakes of, 649
+
+  ---- Mountains of, 649
+
+  ---- Orochons in, 649
+
+  ---- Population of, 649
+
+  ---- Prisoners at, Labour of, 658
+    _North China Herald_ on, 652-8
+    Number of, 652-3
+
+  ---- Rivers of, 649
+
+  ---- Trade in trepangs, 650
+
+  ---- Ula-Hotun, Town of, 550
+
+  ---- Vagrants’ deportation to, 37
+
+  Salaries of telegraph clerks, 724
+
+  Salary of Commandant of Kara prison, 461
+
+  Salmon at Nikolaefsk, Cost of, 628
+
+  Salt-works at Telma, 243
+
+  Salutation by Buriats, 356
+
+  ---- Chinese method of, 356
+
+  ---- Russian mode of, 406
+
+  Salvage from Irkutsk fire, 258
+
+  _Samovar_ required and _not_ required, 145, 221
+
+  Samoyedes, Country of, 98
+
+  ---- Dress of the, 99
+
+  ---- Honesty of the, 102
+
+  ---- Howorth, Mr., on the, 98
+
+  ---- Idols of the, 103
+
+  ---- Seebohm on the, 98
+
+  ---- Yurak, Réclus on the, 103
+
+  Scenery of Bureya mountains, 537
+
+  ---- of the Lower Amur, 580
+
+  ---- of the Middle Amur, 535
+
+  ---- of the Shilka River, 483
+
+  ---- of the Sungacha River, 684
+
+  Schisms of Russian Church, 756
+
+  Schlüsselburg prison, 68
+
+  School at Kansk, 237
+
+  ---- at Medvedsky, 150
+
+  ---- at Obdorsk, 103, 150
+
+  ---- at Omsk, 150
+
+  ---- at Tiumen, 150
+
+  ---- at Tobolsk, 150
+
+  ---- at Tomsk, 130
+
+  ---- for Gilyaks, 604
+
+  ---- for prisoners’ children at Irkutsk, 278
+
+  Schools at Vladivostock, 719-21-23
+
+  ---- in the Primorsk, Number, 723
+
+  ---- Inspection of, 11, 278
+
+  ---- Teachers’ salaries, 722
+
+  ---- Training institutions for masters, 278
+
+  Scientific explorations in Siberia, 768
+
+  _Scoptsi_ as a fanatical sect, 758
+
+  ---- Doctrine of the, 205
+
+  ---- village of dissent, 205
+
+  _Scorbutus_ in Alexandreffsky hospital, 249
+
+  Scripture depôt at Krasnoiarsk, 232
+
+  ---- distribution at Archangel, 733
+    at Mariinsk, 665
+    at Nikolaefsk, 666
+    at Sophiisk, 665
+    at Tiumen, 184
+    at Tomsk, 185
+    at Tyr, 665
+    by Author, 3, 703
+    Curiosity of fellow-passengers, 539
+    in Akmolinsk, 186
+    in Semipolatinsk, 186
+    in the Primorsk, 703
+    Letters concerning, 401, 403
+    on Upper Amur, 538
+    Total up to Tomsk, 186
+
+  Scriptures on steamboat, 668
+
+  ---- for Aniva Bay, 660
+
+  ---- for distribution on Siberian tour, 7
+
+  ---- for Dui, 660
+
+  ---- for Khabarofka, 667
+
+  ---- for Krasnoiarsk province, 233
+
+  ---- for Nikolaefsk hospital, 617
+
+  ---- for Verchne-Udinsk, 318
+
+  ---- in Russ, printed for Society, 8
+
+  ---- purchased by prisoners, 121
+
+  ---- Reception of, in Siberia, 185
+
+  ---- taken for distribution, 11
+
+  ---- Turkish, read by Tatars, 61
+
+  ---- Wish of Bible Soc. for new translations, 673
+
+  Scurvy among prisoners, 472
+
+  Sea-borne exiles, 45
+
+  ---- coast province (_see_ Primorsk)
+
+  ---- communication with Europe, 107
+
+  ---- of Okhotsk, 631
+    Whales in the, 631
+
+  ---- trading adventures of the Russians, 761
+
+  Seamen, Clothing of, 737
+
+  Season for gold-mining, 462
+
+  Sect of _Dukhobortsi_, 760
+
+  Sects of _Bezpopoftschins_, 759
+
+  Seebohm on ornithology of Yenesei, 763
+
+  ---- on the birds of the Yeneseisk province, 202
+
+  ---- on the Samoyedes, 98
+
+  ---- on the Yenesei, 198
+
+  ---- with Capt. Wiggins, 763
+
+  Selenginsk, English mission at, 318
+
+  Seminary at Kasan, 14
+
+  Semipolatinsk, Distribution of tracts at, 186
+
+  ---- Finsch, Dr., in, 159
+
+  Senate a Court of Appeal, 73
+
+  Sentences of exiles, 35
+
+  ---- of prisoners at Kara, 450
+
+  Serfdom, A remnant of, 272
+
+  Serfs, Former condition of, 23
+
+  ---- Riches of the Demidoffs, 23
+
+  Sermons, 460, 671
+
+  ---- in Petersburg, yearly, 460
+
+  Servants, Exiles as, 730
+
+  ---- wages at Vladivostock, 570
+
+  Service, Church, 165-6
+
+  ---- at Nikolaefsk, 619
+
+  ---- on board the _Djiguitt_, 740
+
+  Services, Author’s religious, 701, 709-25
+
+  ---- of the Russian Church for Buriats, 152
+
+  Settlement of peasants on the Zeya, 531
+
+  Shaman Buriats, Conversion of, 374
+
+  ---- Costume of a, 158
+
+  Shamanism, Belief in, 405
+
+  ---- of the Daurians, 549
+
+  ---- of the Gilyaks, 609
+
+  ---- “Priest’s Stone,” The, 311
+
+  ---- Victims of, 311
+
+  Shan-Alin mountains, 669
+
+  Shawls, Orenburg, 26
+
+  Sheep, Mongolian, 552
+
+  ---- of the Yeneseisk province, 204
+
+  ---- Russian dislike of mutton, 628
+
+  _Sheffield Daily Telegraph_, Extraordinary statement of, 746
+
+  ---- on “quicksilver”-mines, 747
+
+  Shilka--Boundary of Russia and China, 487
+
+  ---- Cliffs on the, 483
+
+  ---- Collins’s voyage down the, 441
+
+  ---- Fair on the, 488
+
+  ---- Formation of the river, 482
+
+  ---- Granite rocks on the, 487
+
+  ---- Knox, Mr., on the, 441
+
+  ---- Mineral springs, 488
+
+  ---- Scenery on the, 483
+
+  ---- Shipyards on the, 420
+
+  ---- Siberian route _viâ_ the, 52
+
+  ---- Territory, Discovery of, 492
+    Occupation of, 492
+
+  Shipyard at Sivakoff, 420
+
+  ---- employment for prisoners, 420
+
+  Shoeing horses, Method of, 232
+
+  Shologon tribe of the Orochons, 507
+
+  Shop of a Manchu tradesman, 553
+
+  Shrine of Innokente at Irkutsk, 274
+
+  Siberia--Amur route, 52
+
+  ---- Animals, Wild, 697
+
+  ---- Bed a novelty, 444
+
+  ---- Bibliography of, 772
+
+  ---- Books on, 629
+
+  ---- Boundaries of, 49
+
+  ---- Caravan transport in, 354
+
+  ---- Carriage, Cost of, 105, 746
+
+  ---- Cossack conquerors of, 281
+
+  ---- Eastern: Number of exile colonists, 451
+
+  ---- Explorations of, 766
+
+  ---- Exports from, 105, 341
+
+  ---- Finnish colonies in, 131
+
+  ---- Fish pie a luxury, 432
+
+  ---- Furs exported from, 295
+
+  ---- “Governments” in, 50
+
+  ---- Journeys of previous travellers, 282
+
+  ---- Landscape scenery of, 189
+
+  ---- Manufactories of, 241
+
+  ---- Materialism in, 705
+
+  ---- Navigation, Early, 767
+
+  ---- Nordenskiöld, Discoveries, 761
+
+  ---- North-east, Flora of, 645
+
+  ---- Political divisions of, 50
+
+  ---- Population of, 52
+
+  ---- Prison-life in, Misrepresentations of, 379-83, 413-16, 468, 744
+
+  ---- Prisoners in, Trial of, 73
+
+  ---- Protestants in, Number of, 726
+
+  ---- “Quicksilver”-mines of, 409
+
+  ---- Roads of, 52
+
+  ---- Routes across, 281
+
+  ---- Russian annexation of, 109
+
+  ---- Scientific explorations in, 768
+
+  ---- Sea communication with Europe, 107
+
+  ---- Steamboat passengers in, 118
+
+  ---- Temperature of, 50
+
+  ---- Towns of, 192
+
+  ---- Western and Eastern, 51, 188
+
+  ---- Wiggins, Discoveries of, 761
+
+  Siberian butter, 188
+
+  ---- cathedrals, 165
+
+  ---- cheese-making, 188
+
+  ---- Church:
+    Knowledge, Sources of, 161
+    Nunneries of, 163-79
+
+  ---- churches, 163, 332
+
+  ---- courts of law, 73
+
+  ---- ferry, 139
+
+  ---- fleet, 734
+
+  ---- fruit, 149
+
+  ---- horses, 123
+
+  ---- hospitality, 194, 353, 431
+
+  ---- hospitals, Impressions of, 618
+
+  ---- hotel-dining, 431
+
+  ---- houses, 190-2
+
+  ---- leave-taking: the _podkeedovate_, 353
+
+  ---- posting, 134
+
+  ---- prison, Building of, 70
+
+  ---- prisoners, Books on, 379
+
+  ---- rooms, 192
+
+  ---- sailors, 741
+
+  ---- State bank, 578
+
+  ---- tour, Scriptures for distribution on, 7
+
+  ---- village, Description of a, 190
+
+  Sibir, Fortress of, 110
+
+  Sick, Visitation of the, 169
+
+  ---- and aged among the Koriaks: Treatment of the, 643
+
+  Sidoroff, M.K., and Russian sea-trading adventure, 761
+
+  Sieges of Albazin, 515
+
+  Sikhota-Alin range of mountains, 561, 669
+
+  Silovanoff, _Scoptsi_ village at, 205
+
+  Silver found in the Za-Baikal, 378
+
+  ---- mine, Collins’s descent, 412
+
+  ---- mines at Nertchinsk, 411
+    Cruelty of Rozguildieff, 419
+    Food at, 419
+    Formation of, 422
+    Labour, Hours of, 423
+    of Altai region, 411
+    Women not working in, 417
+
+  ---- money at Khabarofka, 715
+    Chinese demand for, 715
+
+  ---- smelting at Barnaul, 156
+
+  Singing in cathedrals, 165
+
+  Situation of Khabarofka town, 577
+
+  ---- of Tiumen, 27
+
+  ---- of Vladivostock, 711
+
+  Sivakoff, Punishment at, 421
+
+  ---- Shipyard at, 420
+
+  _Skaka_, an outdoor game, 621
+
+  Sledging in Kamchatka, 637
+
+  Sleeping in a tarantass, 187
+
+  Smelting of iron by Yakutes, 304
+
+  Smuggling spirits into prison, 67, 317
+
+  Sokoloff, Mr., Inspector of schools, 278
+
+  Soldiers, Educated, exempt from military service, 720
+
+  ---- in East Siberia, Number of, 667
+
+  ---- in the Primorsk, Number of, 667
+
+  ---- Officers, Pay of, 668
+
+  Sophiisk, Amur at, Width of, 585
+
+  ---- Population of, 585
+
+  ---- Scripture distribution at, 665
+
+  “Souls” in Russia, 23
+
+  Souvenirs from Orenburg, 26
+
+  ---- from Yakutsk, 303
+
+  Spectacle of Irkutsk fire, 260
+
+  Speed of the _Djiguitt_, 735
+
+  Stables at gold-mine, 223
+
+  Stallybrass, Mr., and the Selenginsk mission, 320
+
+  _Starosta_ of a prison, 454
+
+  ---- of a village, 51
+
+  _Staroveri_, Sect of the, 759
+
+  State prison at Petrovski, 387
+
+  Statistics of criminals, 72
+
+  ---- of prisoners in Siberia, 69
+
+  ---- of Russo-Chinese trade, 714
+
+  _Stauropegia_ monastery, 177-8
+
+  Steamer aground on the Amur, 511
+
+  Steamers, Arrival of, uncertain, 117
+
+  ---- Carriage of Scriptures, 668
+
+  ---- Departure of, uncertain, 117
+
+  ---- Exiles conveyed by, 42
+    Conveyance _viâ_ Suez, 14
+
+  ---- Journeys on board, 16, 118-19, 314, 505-11, 669, 708-43
+
+  ---- Meals on board, 513
+
+  ---- on the Kama, 29
+
+  ---- on the Obi, 29
+
+  ---- on the Yenesei, 203
+
+  ---- Passengers on board, 118
+
+  ---- Provisions on board, 512
+
+  Stepanof’s expedition on the Amur, 491
+
+  Stipend of priests, 172
+
+  Stones, Precious, in neighbourhood of Nertchinsk, 407
+
+  Storehouse at Middle Kara, 455
+
+  Storms on Lake Baikal, 312
+
+  “Story of Elizabeth,” by Madame de Cottin, 379-83
+
+  ---- of English mission at Selenginsk, 320
+
+  Strahlenberg on the Yakutes, 305
+
+  ---- Travels of, in Siberia, 282
+
+  Streets and houses of Maimatchin, 339
+
+  Stretinsk, Shipyard at, 420
+
+  ---- Town of, 438
+
+  Students’ education at Blagovestchensk, 523
+
+  _Subbotniki_, Sect of, 451
+
+  Subscribers to the _Rooski Rabotchi_, 184
+
+  Suez Canal route for exiles, 44
+
+  Suifun River, Width of the, 708
+
+  _Suifun_ steamer, Travelling on board the, 708
+
+  Sundays, Refusal of prisoners to work on, 422
+
+  Sungacha River, Fish of the, 679
+
+  ---- Mosquitoes on the, 684
+
+  ---- Scenery at Markova, 684
+
+  _Sungacha_, On board the, 669
+
+  Sungari River, Mouth of the, 541
+
+  Superstitions of Gilyaks, 605
+
+  ---- of the Russians, 620
+
+  Surgut, Population of, 123
+
+  Surgut, Provisions at, Price of, 120
+
+  Swan, Mr., and the Selenginsk mission, 320
+
+
+  Tagil, Hospital at, 24
+
+  ---- Temperature at, 24
+
+  _Taiga_, Gold-seeking in the, 213
+
+  ---- Riding in the, 212
+
+  Talking by signs, 442
+
+  Tallack, Mr., Mistake of, in Howard Association Report, 745
+
+  Tarantass, Cost of, 136-40
+
+  ---- Description of the vehicle, 135
+
+  ---- Loan of, by Mr. O. Cattley, 27
+
+  ---- travelling in spring, 55
+    Clothing for, 50
+    Hearthrugs for, 136
+    Manner of progress, 138
+    Mishaps, 193, 251
+    Sleeping, 187
+
+  Tariff at post-houses, 141
+
+  Tatars, Ancestors of the, 57
+
+  ---- Appearance of, 58
+
+  ---- as coachmen or servants, 58
+
+  ---- at Barnaul, 62
+
+  ---- at prayers, 61
+
+  ---- Head-dress of women, 58
+
+  ---- Houses of, 59
+
+  ---- in the Kasan government, 15
+
+  ---- Mohammedan mosques, 59
+
+  ---- Monuments of the, 589
+
+  ---- of the Yeneseisk province, 205
+
+  ---- Turkish Scriptures read by, 61
+
+  ---- Worship of the, 14, 59
+
+  Taxes in the Primorsk, 571
+
+  _Tayoshnik_, Income of a, 217
+
+  ---- Work of a, 213
+
+  Taz River fishery, 123
+
+  Tcheremisi idols, 14
+
+  Tchuvashi idols, 14
+
+  Tea, a traveller’s requisite, 142
+
+  ---- Buriat invitation to drink, 366
+
+  ---- caravans in Siberia, 354
+
+  ---- Chinese use of, 340
+
+  ---- consumed at mines, 224
+
+  ---- Importation of, into Russia, 325
+
+  ---- in Russia, Price of, 325
+
+  ---- Love of Russians for, 534
+
+  ---- used as coin, 343
+
+  Teetotalism in Russia, 545
+
+  Telegraph clerks, Pay of, 724
+
+  _Telegraph, Daily_, and the “Reign of Terror” in Russia, 45
+
+  ---- Misrepresentations of the, 745
+
+  ---- on number of political prisoners, 397
+
+  ---- _Sheffield Daily_, Misrepresentations of, 746
+
+  Telegraphic communication at Vladivostock, 724
+    Rates for telegrams, 522
+
+  Telma, Salt manufactory at, 243
+
+  Temperature, Difference between London and four Siberian towns, 427
+
+  ---- of Blagovestchensk, 532
+
+  ---- of Khabarofka, 579
+
+  ---- of Nertchinsk, 426
+
+  ---- of the Obi, 50
+
+  ---- of Siberia, 50
+
+  ---- of Tagil, 24
+
+  ---- on the Vega, 563
+
+  ---- of Vladivostock, 50, 563
+
+  ---- of Yakutsk, 296
+
+  ---- of the Yeneseisk province, 200
+
+  Temple at Aigun, 558
+
+  ---- Buddhist, at Maimatchin, 344
+
+  Temples of the Manchu, 549
+
+  Tents of the Orochons, 509
+
+  _Thames_ in the Kureika, 103, 198
+
+  Theatre at Aigun, 558
+
+  Théel, M., on the Tunguses, 207
+
+  ---- on the Yenesei, 197
+
+  ---- on the Yuraki, 207
+
+  Tichmeneff, General, 666
+
+  Tigers at Khabarofka, 689
+
+  ---- Gilyaks’ fear of, 606
+
+  ---- in Vladivostock, 700
+
+  “Tips” to _yemstchiks_, 140
+
+  Tiumen, Commerce of, 27
+
+  ---- Exiles passing through, 395
+
+  ---- Ignatoff, M., at, 29
+
+  ---- Ispravnik of, 29
+
+  ---- Mayor of, 27
+
+  ---- Population of, 27
+
+  ---- Prisoners’ food at, 78
+    Irons at, 85
+    Jewish, 460
+
+  ---- Schools at, 28, 150
+
+  ---- Situation of, 27
+
+  ---- Tract distribution, Plan for, 184
+
+  ---- Wardropper’s firm at, 27
+
+  Tobacco grown at Nertchinsk, 425
+
+  Tobolsk, Area of, 97
+
+  ---- as a capital, 109
+
+  ---- Ethnography of province, 98
+
+  ---- Exiles’ journey to, 42
+
+  ---- Fertility of, 104
+
+  ---- Governor of, 113
+
+  ---- Hard-labour prisons at, 70, 82
+
+  ---- Lakes of, 97
+
+  ---- prison, Convicts’ opinions of, 115
+
+  ---- Prisoners’ labour at, 114
+
+  ---- Provisions at, Cost of, 105
+
+  ---- School at, 150
+
+  ---- Surface of, 97
+
+  ---- Tract distribution at, 183
+    Archbishop’s opinion of, 183
+
+  Tom, Iron in the valley of the, 104
+
+  Tomsk, Bazaar at, 128
+
+  ---- Beggars at, 228
+
+  ---- Bible Society’s depôt at, 237
+
+  ---- Climate of, 127-46
+
+  ---- Cows near, 188
+
+  ---- Departure from, 186
+
+  ---- Flora in vicinity of, 149
+
+  ---- hospital, 229
+
+  ---- Jail at, 128
+
+  ---- Madness through drink at, 229
+
+  ---- Population of, 127
+
+  ---- Prison school at, 128
+
+  ---- Prisoners at, 78
+
+  ---- Province of, 127
+
+  ---- Punishment of prisoners at, 129
+
+  ---- _Quass_ at, 224
+
+  ---- School at, 130
+
+  ---- Scripture distribution at, 185-6
+
+  ---- Towns of, 128
+
+  ---- Tract distribution at, 129
+
+  ---- Vegetation south of, 146
+
+  Topaz and emeralds of the Odon Tchelon mountain, 407
+
+  Town of Aigun, 495, 558
+
+  ---- of Ekaterineburg, 25
+
+  ---- of Krasnoiarsk, 227
+
+  ---- of Nikolaefsk, 624
+
+  ---- of Verchne-Udinsk, 317
+
+  ---- without women, 338
+
+  Towns, Manchurian, 550
+
+  ---- Siberian, 192
+    Civic arrangements, 716
+    Doctors in, 619
+
+  Tracts:
+    Distribution at Tiumen, 184
+    ---- at Tomsk, 129
+    ---- Archbishop of Tobolsk on, 183
+    ---- Author’s work in Western Siberia, 733
+    ---- for Akmolinsk, 186
+    ---- for Semipolatinsk, 186
+    ---- on the _Irtish_, 121
+    ---- Total up to Tomsk, 186
+
+  ---- Gift of, by Miss Hellmann, 53
+
+  ---- People’s reception of, 185
+
+  ---- Religious Tract Society’s work in Russia, 705
+
+  ---- taken for distribution, 8
+
+  ---- Total number distributed by Author, 704
+
+  Trade at Nikolaefsk, 626
+
+  ---- Bribery in, 626
+
+  ---- customs, 627
+
+  ---- Drunkenness, Effect of, on, 627
+
+  ---- Gambling, Effect of, on, 627
+
+  ---- Immorality, Effect of, on, 627
+
+  ---- in trepangs, 650
+
+  ---- on the Obi, Oswald Cattley on, 27, 108, 761
+
+  ---- Russian and Chinese, 714
+
+  Tragedy in prison, 154
+
+  Training institutions for schoolmasters, 278
+
+  Trans-Baikal province, Area of, 400
+    Destination of political offenders, 377
+    Gems found in the, 378, 428
+    Gold found in the, 378, 428
+    Population of the, 400
+    Silver found in the, 378, 428
+
+  ---- prisons, Books for, 400
+
+  Transition period of Russian Church, 752
+
+  Translations into Aïno, 650
+
+  Transport of Exiles by barges, 29
+    By rail, 42
+    To Ekaterineburg, 43
+    To Nijni Novgorod, 43
+    To Perm, 43
+
+  ---- of Nihilists, Mode of, 46
+
+  ---- of prisoners to Finnish colonies, 131
+
+  _Travaux forcés_ in prison, 113
+
+  Travellers on the Lena, 282
+
+  ---- on the Mongolian route, 349
+
+  Travelling, Courier, 134
+
+  ---- in winter, Difficulties of, 306
+
+  ---- Manner of, 135
+
+  Travels in Siberia, De Lesseps’, 282
+
+  ---- of John Ledyard, 283
+
+  Treaties at Nertchinsk, 324, 428
+
+  ---- between Russia and China, 323
+
+  Treatise on the Duty of Priests, 181-2
+
+  Treatment of penal colonists, 728
+
+  Trees at Khabarofka, 579
+
+  ---- in Kamchatka, 636
+
+  ---- in the Primorsk, 566
+
+  ---- in the Yenesei valley, 105
+
+  ---- in vicinity of Albazin, 515
+
+  ---- on the Lower Amur, 579
+
+  ---- on the Upper Amur, 515
+
+  Trepangs, Trade in, 650
+
+  Trial by jury, 73
+
+  Tribes in the Primorsk, 567
+
+  Tributaries of the Lena, 288
+
+  _Troichatka_, Description of, 90, 92
+
+  Troitzka, Mission school at, 604
+
+  Troitzkosavsk, A “miracle” at, 330
+
+  ---- Koecher, Mr., at, 323
+
+  ---- Market at, 327
+
+  ---- Prison at, 327
+
+  Tundras of the Obi district, 105
+
+  ---- of the Yeneseisk province, 200
+
+  Tunguses--A _Shaman’s_ costume, 158
+
+  ---- fair on the Shilka, 488
+
+  ---- Latham, Dr., on the, 206
+
+  ---- of the Yeneseisk province, 206
+
+  ---- Yuraki, M. Théel, on the, 207
+
+  Tura River, 27
+
+  Turkish race, Dr. Latham on, 206
+
+  ---- Scriptures read by Tatars, 61
+
+  Types of Russian religious gentlemen, 706
+
+  Tyr, Cliff at, 589
+
+  ---- Scripture distribution at, 665
+
+  Tzar’s ukase for conversion of Yakutes, 305
+
+
+  Uleaborg, A female prisoner at, 41
+
+  Unction, Holy, Office of the, 169-70
+
+  Ural mountains, 17
+
+  ---- Gold-washing in the, 211
+
+  Usine at Barnaul, 153-6
+
+  ---- at Irkutsk, 268
+
+  Ussuri, Card-playing on the, 680
+
+  ---- Cossacks in Primorsk, 568
+    Warlike nature of, 681
+
+  ---- Course of the, 669
+
+  ---- Fish in the, 679
+
+  ---- Length of the, 679
+
+  ---- Upper, Ginseng plantations of the, 566
+
+  Ust-Strelka, The Amur at, 514
+
+
+  Vaccination in the Primorsk, 571
+
+  Vagrants, Deportation of, 37
+
+  _Vega_ frozen in, 646
+
+  ---- rounding Cape Cheliuskin, 292
+
+  ---- Temperature on the, 563
+
+  Vegetables of Kamchatka, 645
+
+  Vegetation at Nertchinsk, 426
+
+  ---- at Sakhalin, 649
+
+  ---- at Vladivostock, 690
+
+  ---- south of Tomsk, 146
+
+  Venyukoff’s mission to Peking, 494
+
+  Verchne-Udinsk, Population of, 317
+
+  ---- Posting letters at, 354
+
+  ---- Prison at, 317
+    Scriptures for, 318
+
+  ---- Town of, 317
+
+  Vermin in Siberian prisons, 363
+
+  Verst-posts, Distances between, 436
+
+  Vestments of clergy, 163
+
+  ---- Splendour of, 164
+
+  Victims of Shamanism, 311
+
+  Village church procession, 174
+
+  ---- deserted at Pashkova, 671
+
+  ---- education, 150
+
+  ---- of the Gilyaks, 593
+
+  ---- of the _Scoptsi_, 205
+
+  ---- settlers on the Amur, 588
+
+  ---- Siberian, Description of a, 190
+
+  ---- _Starosta_, or chief man, 51
+
+  Virgin, Commemorations of the, 165
+
+  Visit to a Chinese merchant, 339
+
+  ---- to a gold-mine, 211
+
+  ---- to a Kara mine, 463
+
+  Visitation of the sick, 169
+
+  Visits to prisoners, 246
+
+  Vitim, Sables of, 295
+
+  Vladivostock, Author’s religious services at, 725
+
+  ---- barracks, 718
+
+  ---- Boys’ Industrial School, 723
+
+  ---- Chinese houses at, 716
+    Junks at, 716
+
+  ---- Coal-mines at, 678
+
+  ---- Commerce of, 716
+
+  ---- De Vries, Capt., Lodging with, 712
+
+  ---- Exports at, 714
+
+  ---- Foreign communications, 723
+
+  ---- Fruit-trees at, 690
+
+  ---- Girls’ Institute, 721
+    “Best-beloved” prize, 722
+
+  ---- Harbour of, 712
+
+  ---- High-class school at, 719
+
+  ---- Imports at, 714
+
+  ---- Inhabitants of, 713
+
+  ---- lock-up, 719
+
+  ---- Lutheran church at, 717
+
+  ---- Mills at, 709
+
+  ---- Morality at, 723
+
+  ---- Naval hospitals at, 617
+
+  ---- Penal colony at, 726
+    Dress of prisoners, 728
+    Treatment of convicts, 728
+
+  ---- Pleasure garden at, 717
+
+  ---- Poor relief at, 717
+
+  ---- Population of, 712
+
+  ---- Port of, 666
+
+  ---- Potatoes at, 690
+
+  ---- Priest of, 730
+
+  ---- Rain at, 565
+
+  ---- Russian inhabitants of, 715
+
+  ---- Situation of, 711
+
+  ---- Telegraphs in, 724
+
+  ---- Temperature at, 50, 563
+
+  ---- Tigers in, 700
+
+  ---- Wages of convict women servants at, 570
+
+  _Vodka_ and alcohol, 544
+
+  Voguls, 98
+
+  Volcanoes, 562, 635
+
+  Volga, Voyage on the, 16
+
+  Voyage down the Shilka by Collins, 441
+
+  ---- of Knox on the Shilka, 441
+
+
+  Wages at Nikolaefsk, 590
+
+  ---- of convict servants, 570
+
+  ---- of gold-miners, 223
+
+  Walking of exiles to destination, 44
+
+  War, Anglo-Chinese, Influence of, 501
+
+  ---- Crimean, Influence of, 497
+
+  Wardropper’s engineering firm at Tiumen, 27
+
+  Water, Benediction of, 169
+
+  Weather in crossing Europe, 24
+
+  ---- on Lower Amur, 627
+
+  Weddings among the Goldi, 601-74
+
+  Western and Eastern Siberia, 51, 188
+
+  ---- Siberia, Author’s work in, 733
+
+  Whales in the Sea of Okhotsk, 631
+
+  Wheelwright, An extortionate, 193
+
+  Whyte on number of political exiles, 394
+
+  Wiborg prison, 63
+
+  Wife-beating, 270
+
+  ---- Goldi’s price of a, 601-74
+
+  Wiggins, Capt., accompanied by Seebohm, 763
+
+  ---- dealing with Ostjaks, 103
+
+  ---- Discoveries of, 761
+
+  ---- in the Obi gulf, 106
+
+  ---- Navigation of the Kara Sea, 51, 768
+
+  ---- on Siberian miners, 225
+
+  ---- The _Thames_ in winter quarters, 198
+
+  Wild-fowl of Kamchatka, 637
+
+  Winter climate at Irkutsk, 264
+
+  ---- dress of Gilyaks, 597
+
+  ---- habitations of Gilyaks, 595
+
+  Wives accompanying exiled husbands, 36
+
+  ---- of prisoners, 388
+
+  Women, Churching of, 167
+
+  ---- criminals at mines, 467
+
+  ---- Gilyaks’ estimation of, 601
+
+  ---- in silver-mines a myth, 417
+
+  ---- Town without, 338
+
+  Work at Alexandreffsky prison, 446
+
+  ---- “Fabric,” 82
+
+  ---- in mines, 82
+
+  ---- of a _tayoshnik_, 213
+
+  ---- of prisoners, 446
+
+  ---- Prison, Lack of, 247
+
+  Working hours at a gold-mine, 224
+
+  Works at Nijni Tagilsk, 20, 21
+
+  ---- consulted or referred to, 772
+
+  ---- Iron, at Petrovsky Zavod, 355
+
+  World, Itinerary round the, 770
+
+  Worship: Altars of sacrifice, 59
+
+  ---- Candles used at, 164
+
+  ---- Gilyak idols, 606
+
+  ---- “High places,” 405
+
+  ---- of images, 164
+
+  ---- of pictures, 164, 331
+
+  ---- of prisoners in Petersburg, 65
+
+  ---- of Tcheremisi, 14
+
+  ---- of the Tatars, 14, 59
+
+  Writing to prisoners’ friends, 84, 236
+
+
+  Yablonoi mountains, View of, 360
+
+  Yakute dogs, Breeding of, 304
+
+  Yakutes: Tsar’s ukase for their conversion, 305
+
+  ---- Description of the, 299
+
+  ---- Dress of the, 302
+
+  ---- Dwellings of the, 300
+
+  ---- Furniture of houses, 301
+
+  ---- Gluttony of, 301, 307
+
+  ---- Horseflesh eating, 301
+
+  ---- Horses, Treatment of, 308
+
+  ---- Iron-smelting by, 304
+
+  ---- Language of the, 305
+
+  ---- Reindeer, Use of, 306
+
+  ---- Strahlenberg on, 282-99, 305
+
+  Yakutsk, Foundation of, 112, 281
+
+  ---- Gold and mica found at, 295
+
+  ---- government, Prisoners in, 37
+
+  ---- Population of, 294
+
+  ---- Souvenirs from, 303
+
+  ---- Temperature at, 296
+
+  ---- Travelling, Difficulty of, 306
+
+  _Yemstchiks_, 138
+
+  ---- Buriats as, 369
+
+  ---- Drunkenness of, 252
+
+  ---- “Tips” to, 140
+
+  Yenesei, Current and proportions of, 197
+
+  ---- Fish of, 201
+
+  ---- Floods, 198, 219
+
+  ---- Flora of, 219
+
+  ---- Length of, 19
+
+  ---- Outlet to Europe and Japan, 51
+
+  ---- Peacock’s description of, 197
+
+  ---- Seebohm on the, 198
+    On ornithology of, 763
+
+  ---- Settlement of Tunguses on the, 206
+    Yuraki, on the, 206
+
+  ---- Sources of the, 196
+
+  ---- Steamers on the, 203
+
+  ---- Théel’s description, 197
+
+  ---- valley, Iron ore in the, 210
+    Trees in the, 105
+
+  Yeneseisk, Animals of, 209
+
+  ---- Birds of, 202
+
+  ---- Boundaries of, 199
+
+  ---- Cattle of, 204
+
+  ---- Forests of, 200
+
+  ---- Founding of, 112
+
+  ---- Lakes of, 200
+
+  ---- Population of, 203
+
+  ---- Roads in, 139
+
+  ---- Tatars of the province, 205
+
+  ---- Temperature of, 200
+
+  ---- Town of, 205
+
+  ---- Tundras of, 200
+
+  ---- Tunguses, 206
+
+  Yermak, Conquests of, 57
+
+  _Yourts_ of the Ostjaks, 124
+
+  Yukaghirs, 298
+
+  Yule, Mr., and the Selenginsk mission, 320
+
+  Yurak-Samoyede idols, 103
+
+  Réclus, M., on the, 103
+
+  Yuraki settlement on the Yenesei, 206
+
+  ---- Théel, M., on the, 207
+
+  ---- Tunguses, M. Théel on the, 207
+
+  Yuryef monastery, Life in the, 178
+
+
+  Za-Baikal, Gold found in the, 462
+
+  ---- Metals in the, 378
+
+  ---- Silver found in the, 378
+
+  Zavod work for criminals, 82
+
+  Zemski post, 239
+
+  Zeya, Course of the, 531
+
+  ---- Mouth of the, 531
+
+  ---- Peasants on the, 531
+
+  _Zeya_, Drunkenness on board the, 506
+
+  ---- Travelling on board the, 505, 511
+
+
+Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury.
+
+
+
+
+NOTICES OF THE PRESS.
+
+
+=The Times.= (_One column._)
+
+“The reader who will follow this long Odyssey, with all its episodes
+of considerable hardships, and not without dangers, will find in Mr.
+Lansdell’s volumes all that can interest him about Siberia--a country
+which was once looked upon merely as a place of durance and banishment,
+with weeping and gnashing of teeth, but which begins now to be better
+known as a land in many parts of prodigious fertility and transcendent
+beauty.... Mr. Lansdell appears to have been delighted with almost
+everything he saw.... He lays claim to the character of an impartial
+writer, and if his mind was in any way biased it can only have been by
+those warm chivalrous sympathies which prompted him to an enterprise
+of charity and humanity, and by a sense of gratitude for the great
+kindness and hospitality with which he seems to have been welcomed at
+every stage of his progress.”
+
+
+=The Athenæum.= (_Five columns._)
+
+“With the exception of Mr. Mackenzie Wallace’s ‘Russia,’ the best book
+on a Russian subject which has appeared of late years is Mr. Lansdell’s
+‘Through Siberia.’ It is a genuine record of a remarkable expedition,
+written by a traveller who has evidently eyes with which to see
+clearly, and a mind free from prejudice or bias, whether political or
+theological.... Mr. Lansdell may be congratulated on having rendered a
+great service to the convict population of Russia.... But the service
+which he has rendered to English readers is of a more signal nature....
+Mr. Lansdell’s book will now enable every one to judge for himself.”
+
+
+=The Illustrated London News.=
+
+“We can promise the readers of Mr. Lansdell’s book a great deal of
+entertainment, combined with instruction, in the survey of such an
+immense field of topography, natural history, and ethnology, and in the
+plentiful anecdotes of wayside experience and casual observation....
+His statements are characterised by an imposing air of precision, and
+are fortified by official statistics, which claim due attention from
+those candidly disposed to investigate the subject.”
+
+
+=Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society.=
+
+“Mr. Lansdell’s work contains much incidental detail likely to be
+of practical utility to other travellers, apart from its special
+philanthropic and economical aspects, and the convenience of its
+collected descriptive matter. The observations on the various races met
+with, especially in the extreme eastern part of the journey, are of
+considerable interest, as are the accounts of the actual conditions of
+the country at the present time.”
+
+
+=Church Missionary Intelligencer.= (_Four pages._)
+
+“Mr. Lansdell has spared no pains or labour to make his book as
+complete as possible. It is altogether different from even the
+higher class of books of travel. It teems with information of every
+possible kind; ... the footnotes are quite a remarkable feature for
+the minuteness of statistical detail with which every subject touched
+upon--geographical and ethnographical, economic and commercial,
+ecclesiastical and literary, imperial and municipal--is illustrated.”
+
+
+=The Record.= (_One column._)
+
+“The interest of ‘Through Siberia’ is varied, and the revelations of
+the book will attract various minds. The Christian will find herein
+much which will move his pity for souls; the ecclesiastic will note
+with attention many striking passages which will assist his studies
+in comparative religion, and supply links between different ages
+and differing Churches; the philanthropist will engage himself with
+existing human wrongs, and seek for suggestions as to methods for
+redressing and removing them; the statesman may find light, lurid,
+indeed, and terrible, cast on pressing questions of State policy and
+relation of classes; while the man of science will not search these
+pages in vain for facts in ethnology, geography, geology, climatology,
+sociology, and philology, which will enrich his stores and supply
+missing links in his world of study.”
+
+
+=The Field.=
+
+“The utmost commendation must be given to the reverend author, not
+only for his personal work, but for the good taste that has impelled
+him to describe his religious labours in language understanded of the
+laity.... His observations on the varied aspect of the country, its
+products and capabilities, the actual condition of cities and villages,
+society, means of travel and accommodation, and the many tribes and
+races met with, will be perused by the general reader with the greatest
+interest; whilst a good index enables the student of ethnology,
+mineralogy, and other physical sciences, etc., to discover the many
+special notes scattered throughout the book.”
+
+
+=The Globe.= (_One column._)
+
+“In addition to a large amount of valuable information respecting
+convict life in Siberia, the author gives many interesting details
+of the semi-barbarous countries through which he travelled.... The
+illustrations and maps will be found very serviceable in elucidating
+the text, and the work as a whole deserves no slight measure of praise.”
+
+
+=The Rock.= (_One column._)
+
+“The volumes are got up with great care, and remarkably well
+illustrated. The books will amply repay perusal; and to all who desire
+to obtain an insight into Russian manners and customs we confidently
+recommend them.”
+
+
+=The Academy.= (_Four columns._)
+
+“His book is full of interesting, valuable, and amusing information....
+Mr. Lansdell is never tedious; and we are of opinion that ‘Through
+Siberia’ is much more entertaining, and certainly more readable, than
+many novels.”
+
+
+=The United Service Gazette.= (_Three columns._)
+
+“There is plenty of real novelty in Siberia without troubling the
+novelist any more. Certainly no more entertaining book of the kind,
+combined with usefulness, has been issued from the press for a long
+time.... Everywhere there is something new to tell us, and we wonder
+why in the world it is that Siberia has been left out in the cold so
+long.”
+
+
+=Paper and Print.= (_One column._)
+
+“‘Through Siberia’ is a book which every Englishman ought to read....
+Mr. Lansdell’s book will create a lasting sensation, and will also
+provide food for reflection for all who take an interest in the affairs
+of their fellow-creatures.”
+
+
+=The St. James’s Gazette.= (_One column._)
+
+“Mr. Lansdell has made a point of avoiding politics; nor does it form
+part of his plan to inquire why the exiles, imprisoned or confined to
+particular districts in Siberia, were sent there. He deals only with
+their actual condition; and this he certainly shows to be much better
+than is generally supposed.”
+
+
+=The Pall Mall Gazette.= (_Two columns._)
+
+“In some ways Mr. Lansdell has a better right to speak about Siberia
+than any previous western traveller. He went right through the country,
+from Tiumen on the Ural boundary, to Nikolaefsk on the Pacific
+coast.... His views upon the Russian penal system are undoubtedly
+founded upon honest personal conviction.... Apart even from its main
+subject, it teems with useful information about the country and the
+people, some tribes of which Mr. Lansdell has perhaps been the first so
+fully to describe.”
+
+
+=The Fireside.= (_Three pages._)
+
+“As a work of rare interest, we commend to our readers Mr. Lansdell’s
+charming traveller’s story, a book of which three-fourths of the
+first edition were sold before it had fairly reached the publishers’
+counter.... That he has succeeded in gathering a mass of reliable
+information is evident; for a Russian Inspector of Prisons writes
+respecting the proof-sheets of the work: ‘What you say is so perfectly
+correct, that your book may be taken as a standard even by Russian
+authorities.’”
+
+
+=Fraser’s Magazine.= (_Thirteen pages._)
+
+“It is no more than the simple truth which Mr. Lansdell speaks when
+he claims that he is in a unique position among all those who have
+written on the subject. He has gone where he pleased in Siberia.... His
+testimony, therefore, is simply the best that exists.... Of course it
+is difficult to hope that his testimony will be accepted by everyone;
+there are too many who, as a popular proverb says, ‘love truth, but
+invite the lie to dinner.’ But I have faith that the majority of
+Englishmen will perceive the untrustworthiness of Nihilistic and Polish
+sources. If I am wrong, it would only prove that public opinion, even
+in England, has lost its value.”
+
+                                         O. K. (a _Russian_ writer.)
+
+
+=Harper’s Monthly Magazine.= (_One column._)
+
+“Since the time of Howard, no one has given us so full and fair an
+account of Russian prisons as is now presented to us by Mr. Lansdell,
+and like Howard, he finds the Russians far less cruel jailers than they
+are generally credited or discredited with being.”
+
+
+=The Baptist.= (_Two columns._)
+
+“The effect of Mr. Lansdell’s laborious investigations from one end of
+the country to the other cannot but be salutary, and cannot, we are
+disposed to think, fail to promote a good understanding between Russia
+and other countries.... It is strange, but none the less true, that no
+government in the world has been so ludicrously misrepresented as the
+Russian, and a man who undertakes to set matters in a true light before
+the eyes of the world deserves the gratitude of all parties. This Mr.
+Lansdell has done, and his book will rank as a leading book of the
+season.”
+
+
+=The Saturday Review.= (_Three columns._)
+
+“Mr. Lansdell is an acute and eager traveller, as well as an ardent
+philanthropist.... His journey ... was one of great interest, great
+adventure, and great endurance. The numerous and clever illustrations
+with which the volumes are adorned add very much to their value. We
+take leave of our author in the hope that, on the one hand, neither
+his philanthropy nor his love of travelling is exhausted; and that, on
+the other hand, his first venture in the world of letters may be so
+favourable as to tempt him to a second venture, though perhaps on a
+somewhat smaller scale.”
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s Notes
+
+
+ • Italics represented by surrounding _underscores_.
+
+ • Small caps converted to ALL CAPS.
+
+ • Obvious typographic errors silently corrected.
+
+ • Variations in hyphenation and spelling kept as in the original.
+
+ • Corrected the spelling of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld throughout.
+
+ • Footnotes renumbered consecutively within each chapter and moved to
+   the end of their respective chapters.
+
+ • Images relocated close to related content. Page references from
+   original captions removed.
+
+ • The table in Appendix F has been reformatted to fit a vertical
+   rather than a horizontal format.
+
+ • At the end of the Bibliography is “_To the foregoing should be added
+   the following work, on the eve of publication_” and an entry for
+   Hovgaard. This entry has been moved to its alphabetical location in
+   the Bibliography and the note removed.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77742 ***
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+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77742 ***</div>
+<figure class="figcenter illowp46" id="cover" style="max-width: 129.9375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Book cover">
+</figure>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+<figure class="figcenter illowp95" id="frontispiece" style="max-width: 93.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/frontispiece.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      GOLD-MINE AND WASHING-HOUSE AT KARA.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_i">[i]</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<h1>THROUGH SIBERIA</h1>
+
+<p class="center t1"><span class="smcap">By</span> HENRY LANSDELL, D.D., F.R.G.S.</p>
+<p class="center t2 blackletter">With Illustrations and Maps</p>
+<p class="center t3"><i>FIFTH EDITION</i></p>
+<p class="center t4 blackletter">London</p>
+<p class='center t5'>SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, AND RIVINGTON</p>
+<p class='center t6'>188, FLEET STREET</p>
+<hr class='r5'>
+<p class="center t7">1883</p>
+<p class="center t8">[<i>All Rights Reserved.</i>]</p>
+
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+<div class='ebook-pagetop-spacing mt8'>&nbsp;</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_ii"></a><a id="Page_iii"></a>[iii]</span></p>
+<p class="center e1">
+<span class='blackletter e2'>I inscribe these pages</span><br><br>
+TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE<br>
+<span class='e3'>HUGH McCALMONT, EARL CAIRNS, P.C., LL.D.,</span><br>
+CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF DUBLIN, AND LATE<br>
+LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND, IN GRATEFUL<br>
+APPRECIATION OF OFFICIAL KINDNESS<br>
+MORE THAN ONCE ACCORDED ME<br>
+IN FURTHERING MY VISITS<br>
+TO THE PRISONS OF<br>
+EUROPE
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">[iv]</span></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE_TO_THIRD_EDITION">
+    PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Being about to leave England on a projected
+tour through Russian Central Asia, and the
+second edition of “Through Siberia” having become
+nearly exhausted, I find myself called upon to make
+preparation for a third and cheaper issue. It is only
+necessary to say that the subject-matter of the third
+and second editions is alike, the third edition, however,
+being bound in one volume, and printed on
+thinner paper, with somewhat fewer illustrations.</p>
+
+<p class="right pr1">
+  H. L.
+</p>
+
+<p class='pl'><span class="smcap">Blackheath</span>,</p>
+<p class='pd'><i>21st June, 1882</i>.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[v]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE_TO_SECOND_EDITION">
+    PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>Being unexpectedly but agreeably obliged to
+prepare a second edition before the day for
+the public appearance of the first, I can do little more
+than express my gratitude for the favour with which
+my book has been received, and repeat what has
+already been printed. The kind and too favourable
+reviews that have thus far come under my notice
+seem to call for little remark but of thanks. One
+journal, however—the <cite>St. James’s Gazette</cite>—has stated,
+on the authority of a Russian informant, that ‘official
+orders were sent before me to the prisons to make
+things wear a favourable aspect for my visit.’ I
+venture therefore here to repeat what I wrote to the
+Editor (but which he did not think fit to publish), that
+if his Russian informant, or any other, thinks that I
+have been duped or misinformed, I am perfectly ready
+to be questioned, and shall be happy to discuss the
+question in the public press, provided only that my
+opponent give facts, dates, names, and places, and
+do not hide behind general statements and impersonalities.
+My own conviction is that in the overwhelming
+majority of cases, at all events, I saw Siberian
+prison affairs in their normal condition.</p>
+
+<p>With the exception, then, of a corrected note which
+appeared on page 37, vol. i., a slight re-arrangement
+of the bibliography and appendices, a few verbal
+alterations, and a <em>new and improved index</em>, this second
+edition is the same as the first.</p>
+
+<p class="right pr1">
+  H. L.
+</p>
+
+<p class='pl'><span class="smcap">The Grove, Blackheath</span>,</p>
+<p class='pd'><i>20th February, 1882</i>.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[vi]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFACE_TO_FIRST_EDITION">
+    PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>This book is a traveller’s story, enriched from
+the writings of others. In San Francisco an
+American Bishop said to me, “I hope, sir, you will give
+us your experience, for Siberia is a country of which
+we know so little.” Accordingly, on my return, two
+courses presented themselves—either to confine myself
+to an account of my personal adventures, or to
+supplement them from published information, and describe
+the country as a whole. I chose the latter
+course, and the result is in the reader’s hands. At
+the end of the work will be found a list of books
+consulted, to the authors of many of which I must
+acknowledge myself indebted for much scientific and
+technical information.</p>
+
+<p>My speciality in Siberia was the visitation of its
+prisons and penal institutions, considered, however,
+not so much from an economic or administrative as
+from a philanthropic and religious point of view. Much
+has been written concerning them that is very unsatisfactory,
+and some things that are absolutely false. One
+author published “My Exile in Siberia” who never
+went there. “Escapes” and so-called “Revelations”
+of Siberia have been written by others who were
+banished only a few days’ journey beyond the Urals;
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[vii]</span>
+whereas it is only east of the Baikal that the severest
+forms of exile life begin. None, so far as I know,
+who have escaped or been released from the mines,
+have written the tale of what they endured, and very
+few authors have been in a position even to describe
+what the penal mines are like.</p>
+
+<p>It has been comparatively easy, therefore, in England
+for writers to exaggerate on this subject almost as they
+pleased, because scarcely any one could contradict them.
+Comparatively few travellers cross Northern Asia to
+the Amur. I doubt if any <em>English</em> author has preceded
+me. Probably also I was the first foreigner ever
+allowed to go through the Siberian prisons and mines.
+Perhaps none before have asked permission. That I
+obtained such an authorization astonished my friends,
+though the open manner in which the letter was
+granted seemed to show that the authorities had
+nothing to hide. A master-key was put into my
+hand that opened every door. I went where I would,
+and almost when I would; and on no single occasion
+was admission refused, though often applied for at a
+moment’s notice. Statistics also were freely given me;
+but this was “not so writ in the bond.” An afterthought,
+in Siberia, emboldened me to ask for them
+in various places, and they were usually furnished then
+and there. All these are displayed before the reader.
+I have exaggerated nothing,—kept nothing back.</p>
+
+<p>I speak thus in case I should be thought to have
+written with a bias; but I had no reason to be other
+than impartial. Of politics I know next to nothing,
+and so was not prejudiced in this direction. Nor
+had I anything to gain by withholding, or to fear
+from telling, the whole of the truth. I did not travel
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[viii]</span>
+as the agent or representative of any religious body.
+Two societies, indeed, at my request, made me grants
+of books, and a generous friend provided the cost of
+travel; but the expedition was a private one, and
+implicated none but myself. I could not, of course,
+see matters as a prisoner would; but I wish to state
+that, having visited prisons in nearly every country
+of Europe, I have given here an unprejudiced statement
+of what I saw and heard in the prisons and
+mines of Siberia</p>
+
+<p>That a foreigner, flying across Europe and Asia, as I
+did, is exceedingly likely to receive false impressions
+and form erroneous conclusions, is obvious to every
+one, and I claim no exemption; for though I have
+journeyed in Russia, from Archangel to Mount Ararat,
+yet my experience is that of a traveller only, and not of
+a resident. I do not even speak Russ, but have been
+dependent on interpreters, or information received in
+French. I trust, therefore, that no one may be misled
+by taking my testimony for more than it is worth. I
+have tried to be accurate, and that is all I can say.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps I may add, however, that my proof-sheets
+have been revised by Russian friends among others,
+and that most of the chapters concerning exile life have
+been submitted not only to a Russian Inspector of
+Prisons, but also to released political exiles who have
+worked in the mines. The latter endorse what I have
+said, and (with reference to the chapters on “Exiles,”
+“Political Prisoners,” and the “Mines of Nertchinsk”)
+the Inspector has done me the compliment to write,
+“What you say is so perfectly correct that your book
+may be taken as a standard, even by Russian authorities.”
+I have good hope, therefore, that in this
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[ix]</span>
+feature of my work, at all events, I have avoided
+misrepresentation.</p>
+
+<p>On scientific subjects I cannot speak with authority;
+but I have been allowed to submit the proof-sheets to
+various friends, who have kindly read them with an eye
+to their particular studies. My thanks, accordingly, are
+due to Sir Andrew Ramsay, LL.D., F.R.S., Director-General
+of the Geological Survey of the United
+Kingdom; to Mr. James Glaisher, F.R.S., formerly
+of the meteorological department of the Greenwich
+Observatory; and to Mr. Trelawney Saunders, Geographer
+to the India Office. Mr. Henry Seebohm,
+F.L.S., F.Z.S., has read such paragraphs as relate to
+zoology and ornithology; and Mr. Henry Howorth,
+F.S.A., author of “The History of the Mongols,” has
+afforded suggestions from his extensive reading in
+Siberian ethnology. I am also indebted for information
+concerning many Sclavonic words, manners,
+and customs to Mrs. Cattley, formerly of Petersburg,
+and a great traveller in Russia; and to the Rev. C.
+Slegg Ward, M.A., Vicar of Wootton St. Lawrence,
+for literary help. It is difficult to restrain my pen from
+mentioning others—the scores of friends who gave me
+introductions, the scores of others who received and
+honoured them—but if I once begin in this direction,
+where shall I end? I can only say that, for hospitality
+to strangers, Siberia carries the palm before every
+country in which I have travelled, and that from the
+day I crossed the Russian frontier till I reached the
+Pacific I met with nothing but kindness.</p>
+
+<p class="right pr1">
+  H. L.
+</p>
+
+<p class='pl'>
+  <span class="smcap">The Grove, Blackheath</span>,</p>
+<p class='pd'><i>20th December, 1881</i>.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_x">[x]</span></p>
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak ls2" id="CONTENTS">
+    CONTENTS.
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<table class='toc'>
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_I'>CHAPTER I.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>INTRODUCTORY.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><th class='tdc'></th><th class='tdr'><span class='allsmcap'>Page</span></th></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p class='first'>Object of the journey.—Interest in prisons.—Visitation of
+prisons in 1874.—Distribution of religious literature in
+Russia.—Tour round Bothnian Gulf, 1876.—To Russo-Turkish
+war, 1877.—To Archangel, 1878.—Origin of Siberian
+journey.—Alba Hellman and her correspondence.—The way
+opened.—Projected efforts of usefulness.—Books to be
+distributed.—Final resolve</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_II'>CHAPTER II.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>ACROSS EUROPE.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Departure for Petersburg.—Official receptions.—Minister of the
+Interior.—Metropolitan of Moscow.—Introductions.—Books forwarded.—Departure
+for Moscow.—Nijni Novgorod.—Site of the
+fair.—Joined by interpreter.—Kasan.—Bulgarian antiquities.—Neighbouring
+heathen.—Idolatrous objects and practices.—Departure
+from Kasan.—The Volga and the Kama.—Arrival at
+Perm</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_9'>9</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_III'>CHAPTER III.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE URALS TO TIUMEN.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>A new railway.—The Ural range.—Outlook into Russia in Asia.—Nijni
+Tagil.—The Demidoff mines and hospital.—May weather.—Russian
+railways.—Arrival at Ekaterineburg.—An orphanage.—Precious
+stones.—Orenburg shawls.—Tarantass and luggage.—Departure
+for Tiumen.—The exiles.—Visits to the authorities</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_17'>17</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_IV'>CHAPTER IV.</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[xi]</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE EXILES.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Reasons for and history of deportation to Siberia.—Number of exiles.—Their
+education.—Crimes.—Sentences.—Loss of rights.—Privileges.—Proportion
+of hard-labour convicts.—Where located.—Release.—Escapes.—Causes
+and methods of flight.—Transport.—A
+convoy of exiles.—Moscow charity.—Conveyance to Perm
+and Tiumen.—Their distribution.—Order of march.—Sea-borne
+exiles.—Mistakes of English newspapers.—Conveyance of
+political exiles</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_V'>CHAPTER V.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>FROM TIUMEN TO TOBOLSK.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>General remarks on Siberia.—Limits.—Area.—Temperature.—Divisions.—Roads.—Ethnography.—Language.—Posting
+to Tobolsk.—Floods.—Spring
+roads.—Villages of Tatars.—Their history.—Characteristics.—Costume.—Occupation.—Worship.—Language</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_49'>49</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_VI'>CHAPTER VI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>SIBERIAN PRISONS.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Old Finnish prisons.—Model Petersburg prison.—Officers.—Contraband
+importations.—Russian prisons of six kinds.—Siberian
+prisons of three kinds: their number, location, structure,
+furniture.—Prisoners: their classification.—Kansk statistics.—Method
+of trial.—Remands.—Exchanging names and punishments</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_63'>63</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_VII'>CHAPTER VII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>SIBERIAN PRISONS (continued).</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Charitable committees.—Prison food.—Clothing.—Work.—Hard
+labour.—Exercise.—Amusements.—Privileges.—Intercourse
+with friends.—Punishments.—Capital punishment.—Corporal
+punishment.—Irons.—Prison discipline.—Flogging.—Exceptional
+severities</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_77'>77</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_VIII'>CHAPTER VIII.</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xii">[xii]</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE OBI.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Dimensions of river.—Its tributaries.—Province of Tobolsk.—Geographical
+features.—Population.—Voguls.—Samoyedes.—Intemperance.—Commercial
+prospects of Obi.—Siberian produce.—Corn land.—Timber.—Cost
+of provisions.—Carriage.—Discoveries
+of Wiggins.—Followed by Nordenskiöld.—Ship-building
+at Tiumen.—Navigation of Kara Sea.—Books on basin of Obi</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_96'>96</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_IX'>CHAPTER IX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>TOBOLSK.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Early history of Siberia.—Yermak.—Conquest of the Tatars.—Tobolsk
+the first capital.—The exiled bell.—Our visit to the
+Governor.—Hard-labour prisons.—Interior arrangements.—“<i lang="fr">Travaux
+forcés.</i>”—Testimony of prisoners.—Books presented</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_109'>109</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_X'>CHAPTER X.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>FROM TOBOLSK TO TOMSK.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>The steamer <i>Beljetchenko</i>.—Fellow-passengers.—Card-playing.—Cost
+of provisions.—Inspection of convicts’ barge.—An exile fellow-passenger.—Obi
+navigation.—The Ostjaks.—Their fisheries.—Feats
+of archery.—Marriage customs</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_117'>117</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XI'>CHAPTER XI.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>TOMSK.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>The province of Tomsk.—The city of Tomsk.—Visit to the Governor.—The
+prison.—Institution for prisoners’ children.—A Lutheran
+minister.—Finnish colonies in Siberia.—Their pastoral care.—Dissuaded
+from visiting Minusinsk.—Distribution of Finnish
+books.—<i lang="fr">Détour</i> to Barnaul</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_127'>127</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XII'>CHAPTER XII.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>SIBERIAN POSTING.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Travelling by post-horses.—The courier, crown, and ordinary <i lang="ru">podorojna</i>.—The
+tarantass.—Packing.—Harness.—Horses.—Roads.—Pains
+and penalties.—Crossing rivers.—Cost.—Speed.—Post-houses.—Meat
+and drink</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_134'>134</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XIII'>CHAPTER XIII.</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>FROM TOMSK SOUTHWARDS.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Application for horses.—Effect of Petersburg letter.—A false start.—A
+horse killed.—Attempted cooking.—Siberian weather.—Meteorology.—Scenery.—Trees,
+plants, and flowers.—An elementary
+school.—Education in Western Siberia</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_143'>143</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XIV'>CHAPTER XIV.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>BARNAUL.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Situation of town.—Cemetery.—Burial of the dead.—The Emperor’s
+usine.—Visit to Mr. Clark.—Visits to hospital and prison.—A
+recently-enacted tragedy.—Crime of the district.—Smelting of
+silver and gold.—Price of land and provisions.—Return to
+Tomsk</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_152'>152</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XV'>CHAPTER XV.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE SIBERIAN CHURCH.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>The Russian Church.—Geographical area.—History, doctrines,
+schisms.—Ecclesiastical divisions of Siberia.—Church committees.—Russian
+Church services.—Picture worship.—Vestments.—Liturgy.—Ordination.—Baptism.—Marriage.—Minor
+services</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_161'>161</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XVI'>CHAPTER XVI.</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE SIBERIAN CHURCH (continued).</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Parochial clergy.—Their emoluments.—Duties.—Official registers.—Discipline.—Morality.—Status.—Our
+clerical visits.—Monastic
+clergy.—The Metropolitan Macarius.—Fasting.—General view
+of Russian Church.—Compared with Roman.—Teaching respecting
+Holy Scripture and salvation by faith.—Needs of Russian
+Church</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_171'>171</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XVII'>CHAPTER XVII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>FROM TOMSK TO KRASNOIARSK.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Book-distribution in Western Siberia.—Departure from Tomsk.—Postbells.—How
+to sit in posting.—Sleeping.—Boundary of
+Western Siberia.—Wild and domesticated animals.—Birds.—Scenery.—Roadside
+villages.—Peasants’ houses.—Hammering
+up “the Prodigal Son.”—Siberian towns.—Houses of upper
+classes.—Misadventures.—A hospitable merchant.—Frontier of
+Eastern Siberia</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_183'>183</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XVIII'>CHAPTER XVIII.</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xiv">[xiv]</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE YENESEI.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Sources of the river.—Discoveries of Wiggins and Nordenskiöld.—The
+Yenesei at Krasnoiarsk.—Current, width, depth.—Breaking
+up of ice.—The Yeneseisk province.—Geography.—Meteorology.—Forests.—Timber.—Fish
+of Yenesei.—Birds.—Russian population.—Navigation.—Corn
+and cattle.—Towns.—A Scoptsi
+village.—Salubrity of climate.—The aborigines.—Ethnology.—Tunguses.—Fur-bearing
+animals.—Methods of hunting.—Minerals</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_196'>196</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XIX'>CHAPTER XIX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>A VISIT TO A GOLD-MINE.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Gold in Siberia.—Where found.—Gold-hunting.—A prospecting party.—Thawing
+the ground.—Subterranean passages.—Hardships.—Mining
+calculations.—Building of barracks.—Preparations for
+our visit.—Costumes.—Road through “the forest primeval.”—Luxuriant
+vegetation.—Crossing mountains.—Arrival at mine.—Labour
+of miners.—Gold-washing machine.—Government inspection.—Wages.—Hours
+of labour.—Miners’ food.—Pay-day.—Drink
+and its follies.—Miners’ fortunes.—Mines of Eastern
+Siberia.—Return to Krasnoiarsk</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_211'>211</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XX'>CHAPTER XX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>FROM KRASNOIARSK TO ALEXANDREFFSKY.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Situation of Krasnoiarsk.—Our hotel.—Dr. Peacock.—Visit to prison,
+hospital, and madhouse.—Cathedral.—Drive in “Rotten Row.”—Shoeing
+horses.—Bible affairs at Krasnoiarsk.—Consignment
+to Governor for provinces of Yeneseisk and Yakutsk.—Departure
+from Krasnoiarsk.—Change of scenery.—Kansk <i lang="ru">Okrug</i>.—Our
+arrival anticipated.—Visit to Ispravnik.—Statistics of crime.—The
+Protopope of Kansk.—Parochial information.—Demand for
+Scriptures.—A travelling companion.—Further posting help.—Butterflies
+and mosquitoes.—Nijni Udinsk.—Telma factory.—A
+<i lang="fr">détour</i>.—Alexandreffsky</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_227'>227</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXI'>CHAPTER XXI.</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xv">[xv]</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE ALEXANDREFFSKY CENTRAL PRISON.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Prison wards.—Punishment cells.—Communication with friends.—Nationalities
+of prisoners.—Their work.—Food.—Distribution of
+books.—Our reception.—Lunch.—Departure.—Runaway horses.—An
+accident.—Left alone.—Return to post-house</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_245'>245</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXII'>CHAPTER XXII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>A CITY ON FIRE.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Approach to Irkutsk.—The city entered.—Remains of a fire.—A
+second fire.—Our flight.—Crossing of the Angara.—A refuge.—Inhabitants
+fleeing.—Salvage.—Firemen’s efforts.—Spread of
+the catastrophe.—Return to lodging.—A chapel saved.—Spectacle
+of fire at night.—Reflections</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_253'>253</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXIII'>CHAPTER XXIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>IRKUTSK.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Province of Irkutsk.—The capital.—Its markets.—Telegraph officers.—Visit
+to the Governor.—Ruins of the city.—Attempt to establish
+a Bible depôt.—Supposed incendiarism.—Benevolent
+arrangements of authorities.—Wife-beating.—Servility of Russian
+peasants.—Visit to a rich merchant.—Ecclesiastical affairs.—Visit
+to the acting Governor-General.—The prisons.—A
+prisoner’s view of them.—Prison committee.—Distribution of
+books.—Visit to inspector of schools.—Change of route</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_264'>264</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXIV'>CHAPTER XXIV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE LENA.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>History of Russian invasion.—Former travellers to Okhotsk.—Cochrane,
+Erman, and Hill.—Down the Lena to Yakutsk.—Prevalence
+of goitre.—The Upper Lena and its tributaries.—The Lower
+Lena.—Discoveries of mammoths.—New Siberian islands.—Nordenskiöld’s
+passage</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_281'>281</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXV'>CHAPTER XXV.</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvi">[xvi]</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>YAKUTSK.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>The province of Yakutsk.—Rivers.—Minerals.—The town of Yakutsk.—Its
+temperature.—Inhabitants.—The Yukaghirs.—The
+Yakutes.—Their dwellings.—Food.—Dress.—Products.—Occupations.—Industries.—Language.—Religion.—Route
+from Yakutsk
+to Okhotsk.—Reindeer riding.—Summer journey.—Treatment
+of horses</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_294'>294</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXVI'>CHAPTER XXVI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>ACROSS LAKE BAIKAL TO TROITZKOSAVSK.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Leaving Irkutsk.—The Angara.—Approach to the Baikal: its shores
+and fish.—Steaming across.—Seizing post-horses.—Arrival at
+Verchne Udinsk.—Smuggling at the prison.—Arrival at Selenginsk.—English
+mission to Buriats.—English graves.—Old
+scholars.—Story of the mission.—Journey to Troitzkosavsk</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_309'>309</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXVII'>CHAPTER XXVII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE SIBERIAN FRONTIER AT KIAKHTA.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Hospitable reception.—History of Kiakhta.—Treaties between Russians
+and Chinese.—Early trading.—Decline of commerce.—The
+tea trade.—Troitzkosavsk church.—Miraculous ikons.—Kiakhta
+church.—Russian churches in general.—Bells.—Valuable ikons.—Climate
+of Kiakhta.—Drive to Ust-Keran</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_322'>322</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXVIII'>CHAPTER XXVIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE MONGOLIAN FRONTIER AT MAIMATCHIN.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Outlook into Mongolia.—Town of Maimatchin: without women.—Visit
+to a Chinese merchant.—Refreshments.—Attendants.—Purchases.—Tea
+bricks for coin.—The town.—Buddhist temple.—Chinese
+malefactors.—Their punishments.—Chinese dinner.-Food.—Intoxicating
+drinks.—Route to Peking.—Travellers.-Modes
+of conveyance.—Manners of the desert.—Postal service</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_337'>337</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXIX'>CHAPTER XXIX.</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xvii">[xvii]</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>FROM KIAKHTA TO CHITA.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Farewell ceremonies.—Writing home of changed plans.—Caravans.—An
+iron foundry.—Buriat yemstchiks.—Methods of driving.—Salutations.—Insignificant
+post-stations.—Visit to a missionary
+to the Buriats.—Russian missions in Japan.—A remarkable
+meeting.—The Yablonoi mountains.—Chita.—Visit to the Governor
+and prison</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_353'>353</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXX'>CHAPTER XXX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE BURIATS.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Country of the Buriats.—Their physiognomy and costume.—Habitations.—Mongol
+yourts.—Hospitality.—Fuel.—Possessions in
+cattle.—Character of Buriats.—Their religions.—Buddhist Buriats.—The
+soul of Buddha.—The lamas.—Their celibacy,
+classification, employments, disabilities.—Buddhist doctrines.—A
+prayer cylinder.—Christian Buriats.—English missions.—Reports
+of English travellers.—Results of Russian missions.—Distribution
+of Buriat Scriptures</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_364'>364</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXI'>CHAPTER XXXI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>SIBERIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>The Za-Baikal, a natural prison.—“Decembrists” of 1825.—Misapprehensions
+respecting political prisoners.—The “Story of Elizabeth.”—Vindictive
+foreign writers.—Palpable misstatements.—Misleading
+information.—Dostoyeffsky’s “Buried Alive.”—Rosen’s
+“Russian Conspirators.”—Present condition of political
+prisoners.—Testimony of Poles.—Treatment of an attempted
+regicide.—The number of “politicals” exaggerated.—Calculations
+concerning them.—Their mode of transport.—Paucity of statistics
+accounted for</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_377'>377</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXII'>CHAPTER XXXII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>FROM CHITA TO NERTCHINSK.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>The Trans-Baikal province.—Books deposited with the Governor—Specimen
+letter of consignment.—Prisons and hospitals.—Governor’s
+distribution of books.—Satisfactory results.—Journey from
+Chita.—Buriat <i lang="ru">Obos</i>.—Russian emigrants.—Salutations.—Approach
+to Nertchinsk.—Its mineral treasures</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_400'>400</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXIII'>CHAPTER XXXIII.</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xviii">[xviii]</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE SILVER AND (SO-CALLED) QUICKSILVER MINES OF
+NERTCHINSK.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>The supposed quicksilver-mines.—Inadequate evidence of their existence.—Unsupported
+statements of writers.—Not known to Anglo-Siberians.—Silver-mines,
+perhaps, intended.—Deleterious fumes
+a myth.—Questionable allegations regarding silver-mines.—Sensational
+writers.—Misstatements exposed.—Testimony of
+Collins and other eye-witnesses.—Accounts of ex-prisoners and
+Lutheran pastor.—Nertchinsk Zavod and work in the mines.—Condition
+of affairs in 1866.—Present state of things.—The
+Nemesis of exaggeration</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_408'>408</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXIV'>CHAPTER XXXIV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>FROM NERTCHINSK TO STRETINSK.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Nertchinsk.—Its climate and history.—Scene of a Russo-Chinese
+treaty.—Appearance of the town.—Visit to the authorities.—Dinner
+with a rich merchant.—Siberian table customs.—Poverty
+of travelling fare.—Fine arts in Siberia.—Painting and photography.—Journey
+from Nertchinsk</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_425'>425</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXV'>CHAPTER XXXV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>FROM STRETINSK TO UST-KARA.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Arrival at Stretinsk.—Recorded distances from Petersburg.—Taking
+in a passenger.—Travelling allowance to officers.—Parting with
+interpreter.—Farewell to tarantass.—Starting to Kara.—The
+world before me.—Previous writers on the Amur.—Gliding down
+the Shilka.—Talking by dumb signs.—My Cossack attendant.—Taking
+an oar.—How Russians sleep.—Arrival at Ust-Kara</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_436'>436</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXVI'>CHAPTER XXXVI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE PENAL COLONY OF KARA.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Evil reputation of Kara.—Testimony from Siberians and exiles.—My
+own experience.—The Commandant.—Our evening drive.—Hospitable
+reception.—Statistics respecting prisoners: their crimes,
+sentences, and settlement as “exiles.”—The Amurski prison.—Cossack
+barracks.—The upper prison.—Convicts’ food.—Prisoners’
+private laws.—Middle Kara prison.—Mohammedan forçats.—Sunday
+labour.—Convict clothing.—Guard-house.—A
+genuine political prisoner.—The church.—Lack of preaching.—House
+of the Commandant</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_445'>445</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXVII'>CHAPTER XXXVII.</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xix">[xix]</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE CONVICT MINES OF KARA.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Gold-mines not underground.—Hours of labour.—Visit to a mine.—Punishments.—Branding
+abolished.—Miners marching off.—Statistics
+respecting runaways.—Women criminals at mines.—A
+new building for expected politicals.—Superannuated forçats.—The
+hospitals.—“Birching” and its effects.—Kara in 1859.—Improvements
+effected by Colonel Kononovitch.—A children’s
+home.—Return to the gold-mine.—Comparison of Siberian and
+English convicts.—Distribution of books</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_462'>462</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXVIII'>CHAPTER XXXVIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE SHILKA.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Departure from Kara.—Parting hospitality.—Ust-Kara police-master.—The
+head waters of the Shilka.—Collins’s descent of Ingoda.—The
+Onon.—Formation of Shilka.—Scenery below Stretinsk.—Shilkinsk.—Hospitality
+of police-master.—Non-arrival of
+steamer.—Efforts at conversation.—Steaming down the river.—Shilka
+scenery.—Tributaries from north and south.—Arrival at
+confluence of Shilka and Argun</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_480'>480</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XXXIX'>CHAPTER XXXIX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE HISTORY OF THE AMUR.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Divisible into three periods.—Period of Cossack plunder.—Poyarkof.—Khabarof.—Stepanof.—Discovery
+and occupation of Shilka.—Chernigovsky.—Period of
+conflict with Chinese.—Russo-Chinese
+treaty of 1686.—Russian mission at Peking.—Affairs
+on the Amur during Russian exclusion.—Third historic period
+from 1847.—Preparatory operations on Lower Amur.—Muravieff’s
+descent of the river, 1854.—Influence of the Crimean war.—Colonization
+of Lower Amur.—Further colonization, 1857.—Chinese
+protests.—Influence of Anglo-Chinese war.—The Sea
+Coast erected into a Russian province.—Renewed difficulties
+with China.—Treaty of 1860.—Review of Russian occupation</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_489'>489</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XL'>CHAPTER XL.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE UPPER AMUR.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Formation of the Amur.—Chinese boundary.—Our steamer.—Captain
+and passengers.—Natives of Upper Amur.—Orochons.—Manyargs.—Their
+hunting year.—Our journey.—Run aground.—Table
+provisions.—Notes on cooking.—Scenery.—Albazin.—Cliff
+of Tsagayan</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_503'>503</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLI'>CHAPTER XLI.</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xx">[xx]</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>BLAGOVESTCHENSK.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Blagovestchensk and Russian missions.—Particulars of orthodox
+missionary society.—Visit to telegraph station.—Seminary for
+training priests.—Salaries of Russian clergy.—Blagovestchensk
+prison.—Leafy barracks.—View of the town.—Molokan inhabitants</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_518'>518</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLII'>CHAPTER XLII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE MIDDLE AMUR.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Departure from Blagovestchensk.—The Zeya.—Climate.—A bath
+under difficulties.—Occupation of time.—Russian tea-drinking.—The
+Bureya river and mountains.—Delightful scenery.—Ekaterino-Nicolsk.—Distribution
+of books and Scriptures.—Reception
+and recognition of passengers.—Prairie scenery.—Shooting
+a dog.—The Sungari.—Chinese exclusiveness.—Course of the
+river.—The Amur province.—An excise officer.—Remarks on
+alcohol.—Teetotalism in Russia</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_531'>531</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLIII'>CHAPTER XLIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE MANCHURIAN FRONTIER.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Manchuria and its aboriginal inhabitants.—Their history.—The
+Daurians.—The Manchu.—Visit to Sakhalin-Ula-Hotun.—Manchu
+dress.—Music.—Conveyances.—Articles of commerce.—Treatment
+of dead.—Boats.—Methods of fishing.—Archery.—Town
+of Aigun.—Buildings.—Temples.—Difficulties of access</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_547'>547</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLIV'>CHAPTER XLIV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE PRIMORSK OR SEA-COAST PROVINCE.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Fuller treatment of this province.—Boundaries and dimensions.—Mountains,
+bays, and rivers.—Climate.—Fauna and flora.—Aboriginal
+and Russian population.—Government.—Food products.—Imports.—Taxes.—Civil
+government.—Health of the
+people</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_560'>560</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLV'>CHAPTER XLV.</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxi">[xxi]</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE LOWER AMUR.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>My plans altered.—A serious alternative.—Khabarofka.—Fur trade.—Post-office
+and bank.—A Siberian garden.—Started for Nikolaefsk.—The
+Lower Amur.—Its affluents.—Fish.—A Russian
+advocate.—Goldi Christians.—Sophiisk.—A procureur.—Lake
+Kizi.—Mariinsk.—Snow mountains.—Mikhailofsky.—Hot-springs
+of Mukhal.—Beautiful scenery.—Tyr monuments.—The
+“white village.”—Mouth of the Amur</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_574'>574</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLVI'>CHAPTER XLVI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE GILYAKS.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>The Gilyaks perfect heathens.—Their habitat, number, and form.—Diseases,
+generation, and character.—Habitations.—Living on
+fish.—Winter and summer clothing.—Methods of fishing.—Dirty
+habits.—Domestic animals.—Boats.—Marriage customs.—Price
+of a wife.—Foreign relations.—Fair at Pul.—Manchu merchants.—Conversation
+with Gilyaks.—Gilyak and Goldi languages.—Education.—Superstitions.—Idols
+and charms.—Method of bear
+catching and killing.—Alleged worship of the bear.—Shaman
+rites.—Gilyak treatment of the dead.—Romanist mission to the
+Gilyaks.—Martyrdom of the missionary</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_593'>593</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLVII'>CHAPTER XLVII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>NIKOLAEFSK.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>My arrival.—Visit to prisons and hospitals.—Health statistics.—Siberian
+hospitals in general.—A Sunday service arranged.—Visits
+to inhabitants.—Russian customs, superstitions, and
+amusements.—Dancing.—Nikolaefsk town, arsenal, and commerce.—Mr.
+Emery.—Russian bribery.—Cost of provisions and
+labour.—Plans for return</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_614'>614</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLVIII'>CHAPTER XLVIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>KAMCHATKA.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>The Upper Primorsk.—History of north-eastern maritime discovery.—Russian
+navigation of Siberian ocean.—Explorations in the
+North Pacific.—Wiggins and Nordenskiöld.—Exploration of
+Siberia by land.—Travellers in Upper Primorsk.—The Sea of
+Okhotsk and fisheries.—Bush’s journey.—Okhotsk and its
+natives.—Kamchatka.—Its volcanoes, earthquakes, springs.—Garden
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxii">[xxii]</span>
+produce and animals.—Kamchatdales.—Their number
+and character.—The Koriaks.—Their warlike spirit.—Houses
+of settled and wandering Koriaks.—Food.—Herds of deer.—Marriage
+customs.—Putting sick and aged to death.—The Chukchees.—Their
+habitat.—Diminution of fur animals.—Vegetation.—Intoxicating
+plants.—Kennan’s tales of the Chukchees.—Nordenskiöld
+stranded on Chukchee coast.—Onkelon antiquities</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_630'>630</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_XLIX'>CHAPTER XLIX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE ISLAND OF SAKHALIN.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Geographical description.—Meteorology.—Flora and fauna.—Population.—Cultivation.—Mineral
+products.—Coal-mine at Dui and
+penal settlement.—Prison statistics.—Flogging.—Desperate
+criminals.—Complaints of prison food.—Prison labour.—Difficulties
+of escape.—Prison executive and alleged abuses.—General
+opinion on Siberian prisons.—Comparison of Siberian and English
+convicts</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_648'>648</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_L'>CHAPTER L.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>THE USSURI AND SUNGACHA.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Ussuri little known.—From Nikolaefsk to Khabarofka.—Proposal to
+move the port.—Military forces in the province.—Departure
+for Kamen Ruiboloff.—The Ussuri.—Visit to a parish priest.—The
+native Goldi.—Missions of the Russian Church.—Pay of missionaries.—Head
+waters of Ussuri.—The Sungacha.—Cossacks.—Visit
+to a Cossack stanitza.—Chinese houses.—Lake Khanka.—Arrival
+at Kamen Ruiboloff.—Anticipated wedding</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_665'>665</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_LI'>CHAPTER LI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>LAKE KHANKA TO THE COAST.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Difficulties in prospect.—Appearance of the country.—Vegetation.—Garden
+produce.—Medicinal plants.—Ginseng.—Country
+almost uninhabited.—A serious loss and its recovery.—Remarkable
+landscape.—Distribution of animals in Siberia.—Little-Russian
+settlers.—Peasant affairs and taxes.—Travelling by
+night.—Arrival at Rasdolnoi.—Clerical functions in request.—War
+in the post-house.—Summary of tract distribution.—Russia
+as a field for Christian effort.—The Suifun.—Cheap travelling.—Baptizing
+children.—Arrival at Vladivostock</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_688'>688</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_LII'>CHAPTER LII.</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiii">[xxiii]</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>VLADIVOSTOCK.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Situation of town.—Lodged with Captain de Vries.—Chinese
+labourers.—Chinese convicts.—Coreans.—Inhabitants of Vladivostock.—Presented
+at the Governor’s house.—Admiral Erdmann’s
+improvements.—Visit to barracks.—Boys’ high school.—Education
+in Russia, its cost and method.—Vladivostock Girls’
+Institute; and Free School.—Statistics of crime.—Telegraph
+companies.—Sunday services.—Protestantism in Siberia.—Village
+of exiles.—General remarks on exiles.—Preparations for departure</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_711'>711</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td class='tdc ch' colspan='2'><a href='#CHAPTER_LIII'>CHAPTER LIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class='tdc' colspan='2'><i>RUSSIANS AFLOAT.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td>
+<p>Reflections on leaving Siberia.—Departure.—The Russian navy.—The
+<i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i>.—Seamen’s food, clothing, work.—Relation between
+officers and men.—Received as captain’s guest.—Progress.—Hospital
+arrangements.—Arrival at Hakodate.—Divine service.—Religious
+professions of seamen.—Inspection of ship.—A
+“strong gale.”—Russian sentiments towards Englishmen.—Cause
+of dislike.—Misrepresentations by English press.—Russian
+writings.—Transhipped to American steamer.—Arrivals at San
+Francisco and London</p></td>
+<td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_732'>732</a></td></tr>
+
+
+<tr><td class='tdc apx' colspan='2'>APPENDICES.</td></tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'><a href='#APPENDIX_A'>A.&emsp;The History of the Russian Church</a></td>
+ <td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_751'>751</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'><a href='#APPENDIX_B'>B.&emsp;The Doctrines of the Russian, Roman, and English Churches</a></td>
+ <td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_754'>754</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'><a href='#APPENDIX_C'>C.&emsp;The Schisms of the Russian Church</a></td>
+ <td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_756'>756</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'><a href='#APPENDIX_D'>D.&emsp;The Discoveries of Wiggins and Nordenskiöld</a></td>
+ <td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_761'>761</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'><a href='#APPENDIX_E'>E.&emsp;The Early Exploration of Siberia by sea and land</a></td>
+ <td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_766'>766</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'><a href='#APPENDIX_F'>F.&emsp;The Author’s Itinerary round the World</a></td>
+ <td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_770'>770</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'><a href='#APPENDIX_G'>G.&emsp;Bibliography of Siberia, and List of Works consulted</a></td>
+ <td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_772'>772</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'><a href='#INDEX'><span class="smcap">Index</span></a></td>
+ <td class='tdr'><a href='#Page_779'>779</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxiv">[xxiv]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="OBSERVANDA">
+    OBSERVANDA.
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p>In proper names the letters should be pronounced as follows:—<i>A</i>
+as in f<i>a</i>ther; <i>e</i> as in th<i>e</i>re; <i>i</i> as in rav<i>i</i>ne; <i>o</i> as in g<i>o</i>; <i>u</i> as in
+l<i>u</i>nar; and the diphthongs <i>ai</i> and <i>ei</i> as in h<i>i</i>de. The consonants
+are pronounced as in English, save that <i>kh</i> is guttural, as in the
+Scotch lo<i>ch</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The dates are given according to the English reckoning, being in
+advance of the Russian by twelve days.</p>
+
+<p>All temperatures are expressed according to the scale of Fahrenheit.</p>
+
+<p>The ordinary paper rouble is reckoned at two shillings, its value
+at the time of the Author’s visit; but before the Russo-Turkish war
+its value was half-a-crown and upwards.</p>
+
+<p>English weights and measures are to be understood unless otherwise
+stated.</p>
+
+<table class='obsv'>
+<tr>
+ <td>The</td><td>Russian</td><td class='tdl'>Arshin</td><td>&emsp;equals&emsp;</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>28 inches</td><td>English</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td></td><td class='tdc'>”</td><td class='tdl'>Sajen</td><td class='tdc'>”</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>7 feet</td><td class='tdc'>”</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td></td><td class='tdc'>”</td><td class='tdl'>Verst</td><td class='tdc'>”</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>⅔ mile</td><td class='tdc'>”</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td></td><td class='tdc'>”</td><td class='tdl'>Pound</td><td class='tdc'>”</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>14.43 ounces</td><td class='tdc'>”</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td></td><td class='tdc'>”</td><td class='tdl'>Pud (or Pood)</td><td class='tdc'>”</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>36 lbs.</td><td class='tdc'>”</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td></td><td class='tdc'>”</td><td class='tdl'>Rouble (or 100 Kopecks)</td><td class='tdc'>”</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>2 shillings</td><td class='tdc'>”</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td></td><td class='tdc'>”</td><td class='tdl'><em>Silver</em> rouble</td><td class='tdc'>”</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>3 &emsp;&ensp;”</td><td class='tdc'>”</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xxv">[xxv]</span></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="a0250_map-thumb" style="max-width: 93.75em;">
+  <a href='images/a0250_map.jpg'><img class="w100" src="images/a0250_map-thumb.jpg" alt=""></a>
+  <figcaption>
+      MAP OF SIBERIA, <span class="allsmcap">SHEWING THE AUTHORS ROUTE—3000 MILES BY LAND AND 5000 BY WATER</span>.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_xxvi"></a><a id="Page_1"></a>[1]</span></p>
+
+<p class='center half-title'>THROUGH SIBERIA.</p>
+
+<hr class='r5'>
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">
+    CHAPTER I.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>INTRODUCTORY.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Object of the journey.—Interest in prisons.—Visitation of prisons in
+1874.—Distribution of religious literature in Russia.—Tour round
+Bothnian Gulf, 1876.—To Russo-Turkish war, 1877.—To Archangel,
+1878.—Origin of Siberian journey.—Alba Hellman and her correspondence.—The
+way opened.—Projected efforts of usefulness.—Books
+to be distributed.—Final resolve.</p>
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> object that took me through Siberia was of a
+philanthropic and religious character; and before
+proceeding to a general description of the country, I
+should like to acquaint the reader with the circumstances
+that led me there. My interest in prisons
+dates from a visit to Newgate jail in 1867, followed
+by others to prisons at Winchester, Portland, Millbank,
+Dover, York, Exeter, Geneva, Guernsey, and Edinburgh:
+but this interest amounted to little more than
+curiosity. Two years later it took a practical turn. My
+summer holidays up to that time had been spent on the
+principle, “Play when you play, and work when you
+work,”—a proverb that is doubtless true, but which
+I had not found entirely satisfactory. I was minded,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span>
+therefore, to test another saying, that “the way to be
+happy is to be useful,” and in 1874 was casting about
+as to how the principle could be applied to a tour of
+five weeks through seven countries, not one of whose
+tongues I could speak, when the visitation of continental
+prisons suggested itself, and the distribution
+therein and elsewhere of suitable literature. The Committee
+of the Religious Tract Society generously placed
+a supply at my disposal, and in company with the Rev.
+J. P. Hobson, then curate of Greenwich, I started for
+Russia <i lang="fr">viâ</i> Denmark, Sweden, and Finland, intending
+to return through Poland, Austria, and Prussia. We
+saw the prisons of Copenhagen and Stockholm, but
+they were well supplied with books, and needed not
+our help; whereas, in the old castles used as prisons
+at Åbo and Wiborg, our papers were thankfully accepted,
+and in Russia quite a surprise awaited us.
+Without reason, I had feared that perhaps the orthodox
+Russians would decline to receive books from Protestants,
+as do the Romans. We found, however, that
+they would accept such books as had been approved
+by the censor, and accordingly we sent 2,000 pamphlets
+into the prisons of Petersburg, reserving a third
+thousand for giving away on the railway to Moscow,
+not knowing at that time that for such open distribution
+a permission is needed. I can never forget
+the surprise of the people and their desire to get the
+books. The peasants came and kissed our hands; the
+railway guards directed to us the attention of the
+station-masters, who came to receive our gifts. Priests
+took the books, and approved them; and many who
+offered money in return were puzzled to see it declined.
+Our stock was soon exhausted, and I determined some
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span>
+day to make a tour in Russia to distribute on a larger
+scale.</p>
+
+<p>In 1876 my holiday weeks were spent in a journey
+across Norway and Sweden and round the Gulf of
+Bothnia. Twelve thousand tracts were distributed, and
+visits made to prisons and hospitals, those of Finland
+being found inadequately supplied with both Scriptures
+and other books. On my return I brought this before
+the Committee of the Bible Society, and asked for a
+copy of the Scriptures for every room in every prison,
+and for each bed in every hospital, in all Finland. This
+they kindly granted, so far as to offer to bear half the
+expense with the Finnish Bible Society; and the plan,
+after some delay, was carried out. Scriptures were also
+to be provided, at my request, for the Finnish institutions
+for the deaf and dumb, and for the saloons of
+the steamers plying on the Scandinavian coasts.</p>
+
+<p>In 1877 Roumania and the seat of the Russo-Turkish
+war was chosen for my holiday resort, with a view to
+being useful in the Russian hospitals. But I was too
+early, and my vacation too short; so that after visiting,
+on the outward trip, some of the prisons of Austria
+and Hungary, I returned, doing the like through
+Servia, Sclavonia, the Tyrol, Basle, and Paris. The
+mass of the prisoners were Roman Catholics, for
+whom I do not remember a single case in which the
+Scriptures were provided. Some of the authorities,
+however, said they would accept them if sent, and I
+therefore asked the Bible Society again for a liberal grant
+for the prisoners, the sick, and others of the countries
+through which I had passed. They were willing to make
+the grant, but the local agents reported many difficulties,
+and the result fell short of my expectations.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span></p>
+
+<p>In 1878, therefore, I resolved upon a change of
+tactics, to take my ammunition with me, and carry out
+my cherished scheme for Russia. Considerable difficulties,
+however, lay in the way. An Englishman,
+unable to speak the language, going into the interior
+of Russia to distribute books and pamphlets, in the
+year of the Berlin Congress, towards the close of
+the war, would certainly not have been safe. No
+amount of official papers and permissions would have
+kept him out of the clutches of ignorant officials. It
+seemed necessary, therefore, to take an interpreter;
+and as the transport of heavy luggage in Russia is
+slow, and my books would accompany me as personal
+baggage, it was clear that the cost would be a great
+increase to holiday expenses. A generous friend, however,
+at this juncture, as also subsequently, came to my
+aid; and in the month of June I trotted out of Petersburg
+with about two waggonloads of books, a companion,
+an interpreter, and a sufficiency of official
+letters. We went by rail through Moscow and Jaroslav
+to Vologda, and thence by steamer on the Suchona
+and Dwina to Archangel. We distributed everywhere,—to
+priests and people, in prisons, hospitals, and
+monasteries, and created such a stir in some of the
+small towns that people besieged our rooms by day,
+and even by night. Our travel was necessarily so
+quick that we could not always inform the police
+beforehand of what we were doing, and more than
+once they came (as was their duty) to arrest us; but
+our encounters always ended amicably, and we reached
+home after a happy six weeks’ tour, extending over
+5,500 miles, in the course of which we distributed
+25,000 Scriptures and tracts. These experiences in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span>
+some measure prepared me for my longer journey in
+1879, the origin of which was somewhat remarkable.</p>
+
+<p>When travelling round the Gulf of Bothnia in 1876,
+my steamer unexpectedly stayed for a day at a town
+on the coast of Finland. I was anxious to visit the
+hospital, and was inquiring about a horse, when a
+passenger said she had friends in the town, who, she
+thought, could render assistance. I went with her;
+and that simple incident may be said to have originated
+my subsequent tour through the prisons of
+Siberia; for it was followed by correspondence with a
+lady member of the family to whom I was introduced,
+Miss Alba Hellman, who began by modestly asking
+me, chiefly because I was an Englishman and the
+only one she knew, whether I could not do something
+for the welfare of the Siberian exiles. I confess
+that at first I thought this the most extraordinary
+request ever put to me, and it seemed too great an
+undertaking even to be thought of. Already immersed
+in work, regular and self-imposed, I had no time or
+means for such an undertaking; and if the money
+were forthcoming, who would go? Another question,
+too, arose: Would the Russian Government allow anything
+to be done?</p>
+
+<p>The case of my Finnish correspondent, however,
+was a touching one. When in health she had been
+wont, like Elizabeth Fry, but on a smaller scale, to
+spend part of her time in visiting prisoners. Now,
+acute heart disease forbade such visits, and even compelled
+her to sleep in a sitting posture, so that for
+2,068 nights, or nearly seven years, she never went to
+bed. My coming to Finland, visiting prisons, had
+awakened memories of her former work, and she set
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span>
+herself, after my departure, to write me a letter in
+English. She had had only a few lessons in this
+language when a girl; but, possessing a Swedish and
+English New Testament in parallel columns, and a
+dictionary, she set herself, with an industry and patience
+almost incredible, to find clauses and expressions that
+conveyed her meaning in Swedish, and then to copy
+their English equivalents, her letter ending, for example,
+“Here are many faults, but I pray you have me
+excused.” The force of her language, however, was
+unmistakable, thus: “You (English) have sent missionarys
+round the all world, to China, Persia, Palestina,
+Africa, the Islands of Sandwich, to many places
+of the Continent of Europe; but to the great, great
+Siberia, where so much is to do, you not have sent
+missionarys. Have you not a Morrison, a Moffatt,
+for Siberia? Pastor Lansdell, go you yourself to
+Siberia!”</p>
+
+<p>What, then, could I say to this? To have spoken
+the real language of my thoughts would have been
+cruel. So I thought to shelve the question by returning
+an oracular answer, that “the letter contained much
+that was interesting, and that I would think the matter
+over.” My correspondent, however, was not to be
+discouraged, and wrote another letter, giving further
+information concerning Siberia, and drawing a gloomy
+picture of the religious condition of the natives and
+exiles. Others followed, and at last I began to think
+that, after all, the project was not quite so unfeasible
+as it first appeared to be. My generous friend, who
+had read the letters and was interested, both urged me
+on and again offered help; and when it was determined
+that I should leave a clerical appointment I had held
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span>
+for ten easy and happy years, I resolved, in the absence
+of another suitable post presenting itself, at once to
+“rough it” for a summer in the wilds of Asiatic Russia.</p>
+
+<p>But what could I do towards the object my friend
+had at heart? Ignorance of the Russian language
+and of the Siberian dialects would prevent my speaking
+to the people. I might, however, visit prisons, hospitals,
+and mines, and at least provide them with the
+Scriptures in various languages, and with books, as in
+previous holidays. When travelling in the Russian
+interior in 1878, persons were met with who had
+never seen a complete New Testament, and I reasoned
+that a general distribution of such books in Siberia,
+whether by sale or gift, would be doubly useful, besides
+which I meant to be on the look-out for such other
+opportunities of usefulness as might present themselves
+and be allowed me.</p>
+
+<p>But what were the books you were to give away?
+and how is it that you were allowed to distribute them?
+are questions that have often been asked with surprise.
+An answer to the first will prepare the way for the
+second. The Scriptures included the four Gospels, the
+Book of Psalms, and the New Testament. These
+were for the most part in Russian; but there were a
+few copies in Polish, French, German, and Tatar, with
+certain portions of the Old Testament for the Buriats
+in Mongolian, and for the Jews in Hebrew. Besides
+these Scriptures there were copies of the <cite>Rooski
+Rabotchi</cite>, an adapted reprint in Russian of the <cite>British
+Workman</cite>, full of pictures, and well suited to the
+masses; also a large well-executed engraving, with
+the story written around, of the parable of the Prodigal
+Son, together with broad-sheets suitable for hospital
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span>
+walls, and thousands of Russian tracts. The Scriptures
+were printed for the Bible Society by the Holy Synod,
+and the tracts had passed the censor’s hands. All was
+therefore in order, and before going to Archangel I
+had received a permanent legitimation to distribute,
+duly endorsed by the police.</p>
+
+<p>So far, therefore, things in England looked promising
+for Siberia, but the way thither was by no means clear.
+In April, 1879, the plague was said to be raging in
+Russia, and towards the end of that month came one
+of the attempts on the late Emperor’s life. This led
+to Petersburg being placed in a state of siege, and few
+of my friends felicitated me on my intention to go
+thither. Some thought I should not obtain the required
+permissions for Siberia, and advised accordingly. But
+having always before succeeded through the courtesy
+of the Russians in getting what I asked, I resolved to
+be deaf as an adder to everything short of a denial at
+the capital from the lips of the authorities, and, being
+thus resolved, I set out on my journey.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">
+    CHAPTER II.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>ACROSS EUROPE.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Departure for Petersburg.—Official receptions.—Minister of the Interior.—Metropolitan
+of Moscow.—Introductions.—Books forwarded.—Departure
+for Moscow.—Nijni Novgorod.—Site of the fair.—Joined by
+interpreter.—Kasan.—Bulgarian antiquities.—Neighbouring heathen.—Idolatrous
+objects and practices.—Departure from Kasan.—The
+Volga and the Kama.—Arrival at Perm.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>On</span> Wednesday morning, 30th April, 1879, I left
+London, and reached Petersburg on the following
+Saturday evening, to find at my hotel a pleasant
+welcome in the shape of an invitation to breakfast with
+Lord Dufferin on the Monday morning. This was due
+to letters with which I had been favoured from high
+quarters in England, and one result of which, thanks
+to the kindness of the British Ambassador, was an
+introductory letter to M. Makoff, the Minister of the
+Interior, which I presented to his Excellency on
+Tuesday. Whilst waiting in the ante-room with other
+suitors, there was time for cogitation as to what the
+answer might be. My Petersburg friends gave me
+small hope of success; on the contrary, one of them,
+high in authority, who had helped me before, had gone
+so far as to say, “Why, it is not likely that, with so
+many political prisoners therein, they will allow him to
+go through the prisons of Siberia now.” I drew encouragement,
+however, from the fact that a ministerial
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span>
+letter had been given me the previous year, which I
+thought would be registered in the archives, and, trusting
+there was on it nothing against me, I hoped that
+this would be in my favour. At length, when I was
+ushered into the Minister’s presence, he scarcely looked
+at the Ambassador’s letter, but referred to my having
+had the document the previous year, and said at once
+that there was no objection to my having another; upon
+which, flushed with success, I bowed and retired.</p>
+
+<p>This emboldened me to go to another dignitary, and,
+having a friend to interpret, I went straight from the
+Minister to the new Metropolitan of Moscow, to present
+a letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury, addressed
+“To the Metropolitans of the Church of Russia, or
+others whom it may concern.” His Eminence appeared
+in a brown silk moiré-antique robe, glittering with
+jewelled decorations, and wearing as is usual the
+white crape hat of a metropolitan, with a diamond cross
+in front. He stood on little ceremony, and, almost
+before I had made my bow, he shook my hand, gave
+me a fraternal kiss on either cheek, and motioned me
+to a seat beside him. He then entered with zest into
+my scheme for distributing the Scriptures, said that the
+Russians had not the means to perform all they would,
+and commended the English for what they were doing.
+He asked a few questions relative to Church matters in
+England, regretted that we had no language in common
+in which we could converse, and then cordially wished
+me God speed.</p>
+
+<p>I had thus made an excellent beginning. The next
+thing to be done was to get additional introductions,
+and this I tried to do so as to find my way amongst
+various classes of people. A letter from Mr. Glaisher, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span>
+aeronaut, and formerly of the Greenwich Observatory,
+opened the way for me to scientific people, more
+especially those taking meteorological observations in
+European and Asiatic Russia; an introduction from a
+German pastor brought me into contact with the educational
+world through Mr. Maack, the late General-Inspector
+of Schools for Eastern Siberia; a third and
+a fourth introduction procured letters to the Finns
+and the German pastors throughout Siberia; and a
+fifth to the telegraph officers, most of whom speak
+English, French, or German. Messrs. Egerton Hubbard
+took me under their wing, and kindly arranged
+to forward money and letters; and I had various mercantile
+introductions, together with several of a social
+character, to persons of different standing, from the
+Governors-General of Siberia downwards. All told,
+my introductions, as far as Kiakhta, numbered 133.
+It is, however, a traveller’s axiom that, “Of good
+introductions, store is no sore,” and many of mine
+proved to be worth their weight in gold.</p>
+
+<p>My Petersburg friends were delighted at the Minister’s
+reply, and, as the sun was shining, they determined
+to make their hay. They urged me to take still more
+books—5,000 additional pamphlets of one kind, especially
+suited for schools; and this notwithstanding that
+upwards of 25,000 of a miscellaneous character had
+already been forwarded by slow transit to the Urals.
+My willingness, however, was limited only by my
+capabilities of carriage, and, accordingly, as many more
+books were taken as, together with my personal baggage
+and those gone before, would fill three Russian post
+waggons; and this I thought would be about as many as,
+under the circumstances, it was possible for me to take.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span></p>
+
+<p>After a busy stay of nine days in the Russian capital,
+I left for Moscow on the afternoon of Monday, the
+12th of May, and arrived the following morning. The
+only business that detained me there was to inquire of
+some ladies, who devote themselves to work among the
+prisoners, how many and what books they were distributing
+among the exiles, so that I might not do their
+work over again. I found, however, that their labours
+were directed more especially to the temporal good of
+the prisoners—looking after their wives, placing out
+their children, finding them clothes, and such like useful
+works, rather than seeking directly their spiritual good,
+though this had to some extent been attempted by
+lending and occasionally giving them books to read
+in the prison. Accordingly, I left Moscow by rail on
+Wednesday evening, to arrive after thirteen hours at
+Nijni Novgorod, on the Volga.</p>
+
+<p>May is not a good time to see this famous place.
+The river overflows its banks in spring to a depth of
+several feet, and covers the site of the wonderful fair,
+in anticipation of which the lower storeys of the warehouses
+and buildings are cleared; and to cleanse them
+before July is one of the first things to be done by the
+owners, who with their goods arrive yearly from all
+parts of the world. I was rowed in a boat through the
+streets (which are called after the names of the merchandise
+sold therein) to see the Chinese quarter, with
+pagoda-like buildings; the Persian quarter, the two
+cathedrals, the theatre, the Governor’s house, etc., all
+of which are used only during the fair, and were now
+empty. The nearest approach to a fair that I saw
+was a gathering near the entrance to the Kremlin,
+where were men standing with their stock-in-trade in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span>
+their hands or slung over their shoulders—one with
+a pair of boots, another with a shirt, and a third with
+a pair of trousers or other garments, and for which
+each was ready to bargain and chaffer. Hitherto I
+had travelled alone. I now stayed at Nijni Novgorod
+to be joined by a young man who was to be my
+companion and interpreter, and then, leaving by
+steamer on Friday at mid-day, we reached Kasan
+early on Saturday morning, there to spend Sunday,
+the 18th of May.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp49" id="p0121_ill" style="max-width: 62.375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p0121_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      THE NICHOLAS GATE, MOSCOW.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>The covered heads and veiled faces of the women,
+together with the tawny porters carrying their huge
+burdens, speedily reminded us that we had reached
+an ancient Tatar city. The only tourists’ lion we
+visited was Mr. Lichatcheff’s collection of Bulgarian
+antiquities. He very kindly and politely showed us
+through the rooms of his house, which were crammed
+with curiosities. Among them were rude implements
+of the stone age, ancient oriental lamps, and ancient
+crosses, one of which, dating from the eleventh or
+twelfth century, was without the foot-piece now found
+on the Russian cross, which foot-piece, our informant
+considered, was not used on Russian crosses in the
+earliest times. There were also some stone Byzantine
+crosses. The Bulgarian antiquities had been found
+on the banks of the Volga, showing the location of
+that people before their migration further south.</p>
+
+<p>Another point of interest in Kasan must not be
+passed over. I had supposed that heathen rites and
+practices were now in Europe a thing of the past.
+We heard, however, of five nationalities scattered
+through Russia, but found more, especially in the
+Kasan government, who, though nominally Christian,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span>
+still resort to idolatrous superstitions. They are called
+Tcheremisi, Mordvar, Vodeki, Tchuvashi, and Tatars;
+and the Russian Government is adopting means for
+their enlightenment by taking peasant boys from among
+them, and training them for schoolmasters and priests.
+A seminary devoted to this purpose, situated near the
+Tatar quarter of the town, was shown to us by the
+principal, Professor Ilminski.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_1" href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>In or near the Bishop’s house in the Kremlin we
+were introduced to Mr. Zoloneetski, who trains young
+men to be mission priests to the nationalities whence
+they have been brought. In 1878 he had twenty-one
+students, some of them from the seminary just mentioned.
+He gives them lectures on aboriginal languages,
+customs, and superstitions, and shows them how to
+bring the natives to Christianity. This he does in
+part by exposing various idolatrous objects, of which he
+has a curious collection. Among them was a Tchuvash
+idol, consisting of a block of wood, to which pieces of
+cloth were brought as offerings. This had been used
+less than ten years before. Another piece of superstition
+came from the Tcheremisi,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_2" href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> and was less than
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span>
+twelve months old. There was also to be seen a
+rudely-cut box containing coins. Some of them were
+ancient, but were supposed to have been offered recently
+by Tatars, nominally Christian. It would seem that a
+Tatar sometimes makes a vow to the spirit of the forest
+to dedicate a horse, cow, or some other animal; but
+not having a victim, or not having it to spare at the
+time, he leaves money as a pledge of good faith, and
+then, when able to fulfil his vow, reclaims his coin.</p>
+
+<p>Some of these objects had been obtained through
+friends and some by fraud, but there was a curious story
+connected with the boxes. A missionary priest (a friend
+of our informant), knowing of their existence, went to
+a family in his parish, and asked if he might take away
+their idolatrous things. They answered at first in the
+negative; but, after he had left the house, a woman
+came out to draw water, and told him she thought it
+would be much better if he would <em>steal</em> the things, for
+then they would have less money to bring and fewer
+prayers to say. The priest, therefore, returned at night,
+when the family pretended to be soundly asleep (so that
+the spirit might not be offended with what took place
+whilst they were unconscious), mounted the loft, took the
+things, and subsequently gave them to our informant.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span></p>
+
+<p>We quitted Kasan on Monday morning in one of
+Lubimoff’s steamers, and, after proceeding two or three
+hours down the Volga, left that river to finish its career
+of 2,200 miles, whilst we turned into one of its
+affluents, the Kama, which is no mean river in itself,
+having a course of 1,400 miles. The junction of the two
+streams presents a fine expanse of water, but the banks
+are too flat to be pretty. Steamboat travelling in
+Russia is not expensive, the first-class fare from Nijni
+Novgorod to Perm, a four days’ journey, being only 36<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p>After a voyage of three days and a half from Kasan
+we reached Perm, where the people were in great excitement
+consequent on the burning of two “quartals,”
+or large blocks of buildings. The roofs and houses
+of the town were described as being covered, during
+the previous night, with women, watching lest sparks
+should fall on their property, whilst their husbands
+helped to extinguish the fire; and so great was the
+fear of a general conflagration, that some sent their
+wives and families into the neighbouring villages.
+Others we saw encamped by the bank of the river,
+whilst on a grass plot near a church were others tired
+out and fast asleep beside the chattels they had rescued.
+Not long before, Orenburg and Irbit had been burnt,
+and were supposed by some to have been wilfully set
+on fire, and so excited were the inhabitants of Perm,
+and so ready to snap up persons at all suspected, that
+we were cautioned, as being strangers, to walk in the
+middle of the road. We then visited the hospital,
+saw the Governor, and left some books for the Perm
+institutions; but I was reserving my strength for
+Siberia, and the same evening the train was to carry
+us to the top of the Urals.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_1" href="#FNanchor_1_1" class="label">[1]</a> The Government provides support for 150 scholars, half of whom are
+Russians, and the remaining half are from the five nationalities already
+mentioned. They have no difficulty in procuring the requisite number of
+scholars. Such as can say their small Russian catechism intelligently
+are received, and kept for three years as pupil-teachers, at the expiration
+of which time they serve the Government for six years by way of
+return for their education, and receive salaries of from twelve to thirty
+pounds a year. A New Testament, we found (but not the Bible), is provided
+for each youth in the higher classes.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_2" href="#FNanchor_2_2" class="label">[2]</a> Their worship was thus described: The priest takes in one hand a
+piece of burning wood, and in the other a branch (such as we saw, and on
+which the leaves were still green, though dry), and then walks in a circle,
+the area of which is thus, for the time being, consecrated for worship.
+Then he fastens round a tree a withe, and sticks therein a branch with
+the bark peeled something like a whip, which is supposed to represent a
+fir-tree; on this is hung a piece of lead, previously melted, poured into
+cold water, and molten so as to form roughly the figure of a head, which
+is called an <i lang="ru">eeta</i>. Towards this they afterwards say their prayers. The
+priest kills the victim, which may be a horse, a cow, a chicken, a duck,
+etc., and sprinkles the blood on the tree and the withe. (The blood was
+yet visible on the one we saw.) Then they proceed to peel or chip pieces
+of wood, making them fly off in the direction of the tree; and according
+as the chips fall, with the bark or the white side upwards, so they divine
+an answer to their prayer. The branch we saw was brought away by a
+friend of our informant just after the offering.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">
+    CHAPTER III
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE URALS TO TIUMEN.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>A new railway.—The Ural range.—Outlook into Russia in Asia.—Nijni
+Tagil.—The Demidoff mines and hospital.—May weather.—Russian
+railways.—Arrival at Ekaterineburg.—An orphanage.—Precious
+stones.—Orenburg shawls.—Tarantass and luggage.—Departure for
+Tiumen.—The exiles.—Visits to the authorities.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>Those</span> who have hitherto written of journeys to
+Siberia have told of a dismal drive from Perm
+to Ekaterineburg; but this misfortune did not fall to
+our lot, since in the autumn of 1878 a railway was
+opened over the mountains, and the journey is now
+accomplished in about four-and-twenty hours. The
+distance is 312 miles, and between the two termini are
+about 30 stations.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_3" href="#Footnote_1_3" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>From the prominence given in maps of Europe to
+the Ural chain, one is apt from childhood to expect in
+these mountains something grand. The entire length
+of the range, including its continuation in Novaia
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span>
+Zemlia, is about 1,700 miles. Its highest peak, however,
+does not attain to more than 6,000 feet, and
+many parts of the range are not more than 2,000 feet
+above the sea level. No part of it is permanently
+covered with snow. Travellers by the old route describe,
+in passing it, a never-failing object of interest
+on the frontier in the shape of a stone, on one side of
+which is written “Europe” and on the other “Asia,”
+across which, of course, an English boy would stride,
+and announce that he had stood in two quarters of the
+globe at once. Travellers by the new route miss this
+opportunity; but they have its equivalent in three
+border stations, one of which is called “<i>Europa</i>,” the
+next “<i>Ural</i>,” and the third “<i>Asia</i>,” through which
+those who have journeyed can say what no other
+travellers can, that they have passed by rail from one
+quarter of the globe into another.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the ease with which one reaches the summit
+of the Urals is somewhat disappointing, but no such
+thoughts are suggested by an outlook into the immense
+country that now lies before the traveller. There
+stretches far before him a region known as Russia in
+Asia, the dimensions of which are very hard for the
+mind to realize. It measures 4,000 miles from east
+to west, about 2,000 from north to south, and covers
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span>
+nearly five and three-quarter millions of square miles.
+It is larger by two millions of square miles than the
+whole of Europe; about twice as big as Australia,
+and nearly one hundred times as large as England.</p>
+
+<p>The general aspect of the surface may be easily
+described. The Altai range of mountains, with its
+offshoots to the east, forms the general features of the
+southern boundary, and from these heights the land
+gradually slopes towards the northern <i lang="ru">tundras</i> or
+bogs, which extend to the frozen ocean. The country
+is intersected by three of the largest rivers in the
+world, the Obi, the Yenesei, and the Lena, not one of
+which is much less than 3,000 miles long, and all
+of them, through great part of the year, flow under
+masses of ice to the Arctic Ocean. A fourth river,
+the Amur, rising in the Yablonoi mountains, which
+may be regarded as a part of the eastern slopes of the
+Altai chain, runs a course also of more than 2,000
+miles, but takes an easterly direction, forming part
+of the southern boundary of the country, and empties
+itself into the Gulf of Tartary.</p>
+
+<p>The country largely consists of immense steppes,
+marshes, and pools. Lakes, properly so called, are not
+numerous, but the greatest of them, the “Baikal,” is
+in some respects the most remarkable in the world.
+No less remarkable is the great variety of the inhabitants.
+They are sometimes classified into five typical
+races: <em>Sclavonic</em> (including Russians and Poles); <em>Finnish</em>
+(including Finns, Voguls, Ostjaks, Samoyedes, Yuraki);
+<em>Turkish</em> (including Tatars, Kirghese, Kalmuks, Yakutes);
+<em>Mongolian</em> (including Manchu, Buriats, and Tunguses—the
+last of various denominations); and <em>Chinese</em>, with
+whom may be classed, though not very accurately, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span>
+Gilyaks and Aïnos. In fact, an ethnographical map of
+Asiatic Russia I bought at Petersburg shows therein
+no less than 30 peoples or nations.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_4" href="#Footnote_2_4" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>Many of them, it is true, are but feebly represented,
+for the entire population does not number more inhabitants
+than are to be found in seven of the counties of
+England, and they have not enough men and women
+in Russian Asia to put one of each in every square
+mile, whereas every square mile of the seven English
+counties alluded to has on an average 573 inhabitants.
+It is difficult to give exact statistics, because, from the
+wandering life led by many of the aborigines, it is impossible
+to ascertain their number, and so authorities differ;
+but the total population, including Russians, is estimated
+at about 8,000,000. Our attention, however, is to be
+chiefly confined to Siberia, and it should not be forgotten
+that Siberia is not co-extensive with the whole
+of Asiatic Russia, and does not begin, properly speaking,
+till Ekaterineburg is passed. We have been merely
+taking a look, from the government of Perm, out of
+European into Asiatic Russia; this government, as
+also that of Orenburg, lying partly in Europe and
+partly in Asia.</p>
+
+<p>Before descending to the foot of the Urals, we arrive
+at Nijni Tagilsk. At this place we halted for a day to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span>
+look over the famous Demidoff mines and works. There
+had been a fire in the town, as at Perm, on the night
+preceding our arrival; and in seven hours 78 houses had
+been burnt. Pieces of smoking wood were still flying
+about. The common people, as before, attributed the
+fire to incendiaries, such as escaped prisoners, who
+hoped to profit by the turmoil, and find an occasion
+for plunder; but more thoughtful people traced it to
+accidental causes. Demidoff’s workmen had been
+called out at night to assist as firemen, and were in
+consequence resting. We could not, therefore, see
+everything in motion, but enough was visible to make
+it clear that they were carrying on enormous metallurgical
+operations. One of the remarkable things to be
+noticed was a surface mine of magnetic iron ore, blasted
+and dug out in terraces, carted down by horses and
+taken to the furnace, where the ore proves so rich
+that it yields 68 per cent. of iron. We also descended
+a copper-mine, the mineral from which yields
+5 per cent. of metal. We were dressed for the
+occasion in top-boots, leather hats, and appropriate
+blouses and trousers, each carrying a lamp, and thus
+by ladders we descended one shaft of 600 feet and
+came up another, the water meanwhile trickling upon
+us freely. At the bottom of the mine they were
+erecting an English machine for pumping 80
+cubic feet of water per minute to the surface.
+In the engine-room two men at a time spend
+eight hours daily, for which they each receive in
+money about fifteen pence. We promised ourselves,
+as a great feature in the descent of the copper-mine,
+the seeing of malachite in its natural state, and we
+were not disappointed. The captain took us through
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span>
+long galleries of timber beams, and then to the spots
+where the miners had been working. Here, by the
+light of our lamps, the pieces of green mineral could
+be clearly seen, and we had the pleasure of digging
+them out with a pick, and bringing them away as
+specimens. The price of malachite at the mine is six
+shillings a Russian pound, if in moderate-sized pieces;
+twenty shillings when the lumps are large, but only
+two shillings if they are small.</p>
+
+<p>Besides these copper and magnetic iron mines, they
+have others of manganese iron ore, which contains
+64 per cent. of binoxide of manganese, the peroxide
+being sold at the rate of about eighteen shillings
+per hundredweight. Specimens of these and other
+minerals of great interest to the geologist are exhibited
+in a museum not far from the works.</p>
+
+<p>Among the remarkable things to be seen at these
+hives of industry were—a machine for drawing water
+by a cord from a copper-mine two miles off, a steam-hammer
+of seven tons weight, an iron furnace of
+10,000 cubic feet dimensions, said to be the largest
+high furnace for <em>wood</em> in the world, and a machine for
+splitting their fuel wood, of which they burn annually
+100,000 <i lang="ru">sajens</i>—that is to say, a 325 feet cube, or,
+roughly speaking, a pile of logs twice as big as St.
+Paul’s Cathedral.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_5" href="#Footnote_3_5" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>They make steel for Sheffield, and can do castings
+up to more than 30 tons in weight. Their iron is
+excelled in quality, I believe, only by that of Dannemora.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span>
+They have 11 <i lang="ru">zavods</i>, or “works,” of which
+eight are connected with iron. But perhaps a better
+idea can be formed of their vastness by the mention
+of the number of persons employed, which amounts
+to 30,000. I heard also 40,000, and both numbers
+were from heads of departments; but probably the
+latter estimate includes carters, labourers, and perhaps
+even women. The Demidoffs pay annually, by way
+of rates and taxes—to the Commune, £5,000; the
+Church, £1,500; schools, £2,500; poor and aged,
+£3,000; together with other sums, amounting in
+all to about £20,000 a year. Wages, as compared
+with those in England, appeared low. Common
+workmen receive from 7½<i>d.</i> to 1<i>s.</i> a day, puddlers
+3<i>s.</i>, and those in the welding furnace 4<i>s.</i>, whilst
+good rollers receive from 3<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> to 6<i>s.</i> It should
+be observed, however, that they all have houses rent
+free, with the piece of land they formerly occupied
+as serfs.</p>
+
+<p>Before the emancipation, the riches of the Demidoffs
+were counted in the phrase then usual in Russia as
+amounting to 56,000 souls.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_6" href="#Footnote_4_6" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> A small church, built on
+the crest of a neighbouring hill, was pointed out as
+having been built by the serfs in memory of their freedom;
+and I was glad to hear from the director, Mr.
+Wohlstadt (by whom we were courteously entertained),
+that since the emancipation the men work better and
+better, knowing, I presume, when serfs, that idleness
+would be repaid with something not much worse than
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span>
+a beating; whereas now they know they may be discharged.</p>
+
+<p>We slept at the club; and in the morning, before
+leaving, visited the Demidoff hospital, upon which,
+and upon institutions of a similar kind, the proprietors
+spend nearly £4,000 a year. The dimensions of the
+rooms were such as to allow of three cubic <i lang="ru">sajens</i>, or
+1,200 cubic feet, of air for each of the patients, of
+whom there were 120 at the time of our visit. Many
+fractured and amputated limbs were seen dressed
+with gypsum, alcohol, and camphor; but the most
+extraordinary thing was a machine in the director’s
+private room, in which he placed frozen human
+brains, and for scientific purposes cut them in very
+thin slices to photograph. The photographs are to
+be purchased in Paris.</p>
+
+<p>On leaving Tagil we found the temperature much
+colder,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_7" href="#Footnote_5_7" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> and our journey to Ekaterineburg was somewhat
+comfortless, from the fact that, anticipating no
+more cold weather, the officials had not brought in the
+train the apparatus for heating by steam. At Ekaterineburg
+I finished railway journeys, amounting to 2,670
+miles; and as I was now to bid farewell to the horse
+of iron and travel by horses of flesh, it is only right to
+say that of the iron horses which took me across Europe
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span>
+the Russian on the whole was, I think, the best.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_8" href="#Footnote_6_8" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Our
+arrival at Ekaterineburg on Saturday evening was
+expected, and quarters were provided for me through
+the kindness of Messrs. Egerton Hubbard. Ekaterineburg
+is a handsome town of 30,000 inhabitants,
+and has many fine churches and other buildings. On
+Sunday I visited the hospital, and also an orphanage
+for 100 children, which has been built and is supported
+by local voluntary effort. This kind of institution is
+not yet very common among the Russians. It was
+regarded as a novelty, and was the only one of its
+precise kind that we saw in Asia.</p>
+
+<p>Formerly there were several Englishmen living at
+Ekaterineburg, but a few only are now left, and so
+little practice do they have in the tongue of their fathers
+that some of them are rapidly forgetting it. Instances
+of this were met with further east, and another case in
+which English parents were allowing their children to
+grow up speaking only Russian, the result of which
+would be that the son who had been sent for his education
+to England would forget Russian, and, on coming
+back to Siberia, would not be able to speak to his sister
+who had not learnt English.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span></p>
+
+<p>Ekaterineburg is a famous place for the cutting of
+precious stones, in which Siberia is rich. Near the
+river Argun are found the jacinth, the Siberian emerald,
+the onyx, and beautiful jaspers, of which there are at
+least a hundred varieties. Near Lake Baikal are found
+red garnets and lapis lazuli, and the Altai mountains
+furnish the opal. Several of these are also found
+near Ekaterineburg, together with the beryl, the
+topaz, the chrysolite, the aqua marine, the tourmaline,
+rhodonite, nephrite, ophite, selenite, and the recently-discovered
+Alexandrite, which exhibits two colors—crimson
+and green—the one by day and the other
+by night. The stone derives its name from the
+Emperor Alexander, whose colours it shows. These
+stones are cut in the Government workshops and in
+private houses, and may be purchased at moderate
+prices.</p>
+
+<p>South of Ekaterineburg, towards Orenburg, are
+villages where may be purchased uncommon souvenirs in
+the shape of gentlemen’s scarves and gloves, together
+with <i lang="ru">kozy pookh</i>, or, as they are more commonly
+called, Orenburg shawls. They are made from the
+wool of the goats of the Kirghese, who allow the
+Cossacks to comb their flocks at the rate of from eight-pence
+to a shilling per head. Twice a year the goats
+are washed and combed, first with a coarse and then
+with a fine comb. To make a good shawl employs a
+woman six months, and then, if it be a large one, it
+sells at first hand for about fifty shillings; but very
+much higher prices are asked in Petersburg.</p>
+
+<p>We stayed three days at Ekaterineburg to lay in
+provisions and gather our forces for proceeding by
+horses. The greater part of my heavy luggage had
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span>
+been dispatched by slow train to Ekaterineburg fully a
+month before me, but it did not reach its destination
+till the day after my arrival. The agent said it
+might have been waiting on the road for the chance of
+other goods to make up a load. A tarantass had been
+very kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. Oswald
+Cattley, whose name, some time since, was before the
+public in connection with the opening up of a new trade
+on the Obi; and in this we packed ourselves and some
+of our personal baggage, placing the rest with several
+boxes in a second conveyance, and leaving still a third
+load of boxes to be forwarded as luggage. In this
+fashion, after receiving all sorts of kindness and hospitality
+from our English friends, we started on Tuesday
+evening, May 27th, for Tiumen, a distance of 204 miles,
+which was accomplished in 43 continuous hours.</p>
+
+<p>Tiumen is situated on the Tura, and has a population
+of from 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. Commercially
+speaking, it is the most important town in Western
+Siberia, and through it pass the water carriage of the
+Obi, as well as the caravans coming from China and
+the East. Here we found an English engineering
+firm, conducted by Messrs. Wardropper, who were
+particularly kind to us. To Tiumen all the exiles are
+brought from Europe, and from thence are distributed
+over Siberia. I needed not, therefore, the eye of a
+general to see that, for my purpose of distributing books
+over the land, this was the key to a very important
+position. It was desirable, therefore, that I should see
+some of the magnates of the town who were members
+of the prison committee, and, if possible, secure their
+sympathy and co-operation.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly I was taken to visit the Mayor, who
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span>
+was building a large commercial school for the benefit
+of the town, at a cost of more than £20,000, which,
+when finished, was to be handed over to the Government.
+He is a merchant who has made his way to the
+front, and now entertains the Governor-General when
+he passes through, though otherwise he lives quietly.
+His house, when we called, was in preparation for one
+of those viceregal receptions, and, knowing that his
+worship was rich, I busied myself, during the Russian
+conversation, in scanning what I supposed might be
+considered appropriate study furniture for a wealthy
+Siberian. The Mayor, I had heard, was fond of good
+horses, which accounted for the winner-of-the-Derby-like
+engravings hanging on the wall, the whole of
+which might have been purchased, I judged, in London
+for twenty shillings. The room, as is the custom of
+the country, was not carpeted, and the furniture consisted
+of a bare, polished, wooden bench, bored with
+holes, in patterns after the fashion of American street
+cars. The chairs were of wood, similarly ornamented.
+The table had about it some fretwork, and on it various
+writing materials, and accompaniments more or less
+artistic. I mentally appraised the whole as being worth
+about £20, and admired the simplicity of a man who
+could be content with a study thus furnished, whilst
+he was giving away a thousand times its value. My
+cogitations served to recall what had struck me in
+Norway and Sweden, when observing how much
+simpler, as regards furniture, people are content to
+live in these northern countries than in England,
+though I did not discern that they were less happy
+than we are. After leaving the house, I broached
+the subject approvingly to my friend who was with me,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span>
+upon which I found that I had undervalued the furniture,
+and that it was of American manufacture, and the
+first of the kind imported into the town.</p>
+
+<p>I was taken also to call upon a prominent member
+of the prison committee, Mr. Ignatoff, of the firm of
+Kourbatoff and Ignatoff. They have steamers on the
+Kama and Obi, and hold the Government contract
+for the transport in barges of exiles. He was much
+interested in my scheme of visiting prisons, and was
+so pleased with my account of the Howard Association
+in London, of which I said I was a member, and which
+had for its object the prevention of crime and promoting
+the best methods for the treatment and reformation
+of prisoners, that he spoke of asking to be
+allowed at once to join the Association.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_9" href="#Footnote_7_9" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> He kindly
+undertook to do all he could to further the distribution
+of the books I engaged to send to him; and I was
+glad to have called, not only for the information
+obtained, but for the interest excited, though I was
+hardly prepared for the very practical and generous
+form which this interest took, which will be hereafter
+alluded to.</p>
+
+<p>We called afterwards on the Ispravnik, or chief
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span>
+man of the district, and presented my letter, with the
+view of visiting the prisons. I heard that in his
+district there were 24 schools, and, having made
+arrangements for providing them with tracts, I went
+to see the prison. From statistics given me for the
+previous year, it appeared that a total of 20,711
+prisoners passed through the hands of the authorities
+in 1878.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_10" href="#Footnote_8_10" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> This opens up the whole subject of prisons
+and exiles, which is to form a leading feature of these
+pages, and therefore I think it will be better to devote
+separate chapters to both, in which general ideas can
+be given. This will save repetition, and it will then
+be easy to illustrate general principles by particular
+incidents as we meet them from time to time in
+travelling and visiting prisons from the Urals to the
+Pacific.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_3" href="#FNanchor_1_3" class="label">[1]</a> Of the three divisions, the Northern or barren Ural, as the Russians
+call it, beginning at the source of the Pechora, is the most elevated and
+the least known. The Southern Ural begins about midway between Perm
+and Orenburg, and descends to the banks of the Ural river. It is a pastoral
+country, and about 100 miles in width. The range is here less than
+3,000 feet in height. The central Ural may be considered as a wide undulation,
+beginning on the west on the banks of the Kama. Perm, situated
+on the right bank of the river, is 378 feet above the sea level, and on the
+post road to Ekaterineburg the highest point is 1,638 feet, which, if my
+reckoning is correct, is 40 feet less than the highest station on the railway.
+I set my aneroid at Perm, and found that at the fourth station, Seleenka,
+a distance of 172 miles, we had mounted 470 feet; the next 22 miles
+brought us down again to 120 feet, after which for 60 miles we continued
+to ascend to Bisir, which registered 1,300 feet above Perm, and was the
+highest station on the road. Level ground succeeded for about 30 miles
+to the border station, after which in 50 miles we descended 750 feet to
+Shaitanka, 10 miles beyond which we had remounted 200 feet; and on
+this level we kept to Iset, the last station but one. The road then
+descended about 150 feet to Ekaterineburg, which is said to be 858 feet
+above the sea level.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_4" href="#FNanchor_2_4" class="label">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p class='no-indent'>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">1. Slavs.</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">2. Zeryani.</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">3. Voguls.</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">4. Votyaks.</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">5. Tatars.</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">6. Kirghese of little horde.</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">7. Kirghese of middle horde.</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">8. Kirghese of great horde.</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">9. Buruti Kirghese.</span><br>
+  10. Karakalpaks.<br>
+  11. Sarti.<br>
+  12. Uzbeki.<br>
+  13. Turks.<br>
+  14. Altai Kalmuks.<br>
+  15. Teleuti.<br>
+  16. Ostjaks.<br>
+  17. Samoyedes.<br>
+  18. Yuraki.<br>
+  19. Yakutes.<br>
+  20. Tunguse.<br>
+  21. Goldi.<br>
+  22. Gilyaks.<br>
+  23. Yukagirs.<br>
+  24. Chukchees.<br>
+  25. Koriaks.<br>
+  26. Kamchatdales.<br>
+  27. Aïnos.<br>
+  28. Buriats.<br>
+  29. Manchu.<br>
+  30. Chinese.
+</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_5" href="#FNanchor_3_5" class="label">[3]</a> What extent of land must be cleared to furnish such a quantity of
+fuel I know not, but the railways of Central Russia are said to consume
+yearly the timber off 90,000 acres of forest—an area, that is, about the size
+of Rutlandshire.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_6" href="#FNanchor_4_6" class="label">[4]</a> That is, men, or at least <em>males</em>; for I am told that male children
+are called “souls,” but female children never. An English lady of my
+acquaintance informs me that she was told scores of times in Russia that
+she was not a <i lang="ru">doash</i>, or soul, but only a woman; and when her son was
+born she was congratulated on being the mother of a soul!</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_7" href="#FNanchor_5_7" class="label">[5]</a> Concerning the weather in crossing Europe, I may say that, from the
+Russian frontier to the capital, on the 2nd and 3rd of May, a fire was provided
+in the railway carriage, and on approaching Petersburg there was
+just a little snow left here and there in drifts. On the 4th the last of the
+ice was floating down the Neva. In less than a week it became positively
+hot in the middle of the day, and the trees opened their foliage rapidly.
+At Nijni Novgorod, on the 15th, the foliage was all but full. On the banks
+of the Kama the trees were covered with leaves, which the captain of the
+steamer said had come out within the previous five days; and on the 20th,
+when stopping for wood, some of the passengers found strawberry blossoms
+and violets. Fine weather then continued up to the 23rd.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_8" href="#FNanchor_6_8" class="label">[6]</a> The new first-class carriages running between Petersburg and Moscow
+have <i lang="fr">fauteuils</i>, which form couches at night; and one I saw was so fixed
+on springs as to furnish almost the softness of a feather-bed. They have
+also writing tables, and are more luxurious than anything I have seen
+elsewhere in Europe, or even America. The lavatory arrangements “on
+board” in all three classes are exceedingly good. There only lacks the
+receptacle for iced water provided in Norway, and, perhaps, the dining
+cars run in America, to make Russian railway accommodation perfect.
+The guards, it is true, are somewhat pompous as compared with the
+English, and the speed of the trains is slower; but, on the other hand,
+the refreshments are very much better, and the prices more reasonable.
+There is time allowed, moreover, to eat them, though I am thinking
+more especially of the line between the capital and Moscow, which is
+naturally one of the best.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_9" href="#FNanchor_7_9" class="label">[7]</a> He had made private notes concerning the exiles, of which it appeared
+that, during the last ten years, from 9,500 to 10,500 yearly had passed
+through his hands. Of these there were adults about 9,000; under 15,
+1,500; and under 2 years of age, 150. About 3,000, he thought, could
+read. The professors of various religious beliefs prevailed, he said in
+decreasing numbers, in the following order: (1) Orthodox Russian, (2)
+Mohammedan, (3) Jewish, (4) Roman Catholic, (5) Protestant. Drunkenness,
+he believed, was directly or indirectly the cause of the crimes of
+half of the whole number sent to Siberia, and these were found to be the
+worst prisoners and the most troublesome. He looked forward, therefore,
+with pleasure to the expected and now long-waited-for prison reforms,
+one of which, it was said, would be the sending no more exiles to the
+western part of Siberia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_10" href="#FNanchor_8_10" class="label">[8]</a> One-fourth of these (4,995) were women, and 215 were <em>local</em> offenders,
+of whom 10 were women and 3 were minors. In the course of the year
+were located in the Town Prison 157 men and 5 women; in the Police
+Prison 4 men, and in the Central Prison for exiles 15,111 men and 4,985
+women.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">
+    CHAPTER IV.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE EXILES.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Reasons for and history of deportation to Siberia.—Number of exiles.—Their
+education.—Crimes.—Sentences.—Loss of rights.—Privileges.—Proportion
+of hard-labour convicts.—Where located.—Release.—Escapes.—Causes
+and methods of flight.—Transport.—A convoy
+of exiles.—Moscow charity.—Conveyance to Perm and Tiumen.—Their
+distribution.—Order of march.—Sea-borne exiles.—Mistakes
+of English newspapers.—Conveyance of political exiles.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>In</span> dealing with criminals, the Russian Government
+has to act as best it can for the good of the
+community in general. If, in particular cases, it seems
+likely that the criminal may be reformed, he is sent to
+one of the prisons or houses of correction at home;
+but if, on the other hand, the crime of the malefactor
+demands a severe punishment, and, after repeated correction,
+he seems to be incorrigible, then he is banished
+to Siberia, the people being thus rid of a corrupting
+member of society, whilst another unit is sent to assist
+in developing the resources of a large territory of the
+Russian empire, which has great need of population.
+This, I presume, is the theory, or part of it, of the
+deportation of prisoners to distant parts of the empire.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_11" href="#Footnote_1_11" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span>
+The number of ordinary exiles sent to Siberia for
+several years past has been from 17,000 to 20,000 per
+annum; but this includes wives and children who choose
+to accompany the prisoners. Of these nearly 8,000, on
+their arrival in Siberia, are set free to get their own
+living; about 3,000 of them being sent to Eastern and
+5,000 to Western Siberia. The exiles come from all
+parts of Russia in Europe, and include about 300 a
+year from Finland. In 1879 there were 898 sent from
+Poland. Some idea may be formed of the education
+of the exiles from the fact that on the day
+we visited Tiumen prison there were, out of 470
+prisoners, 42 who could read and write well, 32 who
+could do so a little, and 12 who could sign their names.
+At Tiumen, however, we heard from one who had to
+do with a great many exiles, and who had several
+statistics about them, that one-third of those with whom
+he had been brought into contact could read. Again,
+in the district of Kansk, in Eastern Siberia, in 1877,
+of 226 criminals, only two were marked as “well-educated,”
+whilst in 1878, of 182 prisoners, none stood
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span>
+high enough, intellectually, to be thus designated.
+The figures from Kansk are not quite to the point in
+speaking of European Russia, but they help, with
+others, to give an approximate idea, not only of the
+education, but also of the social rank of the Siberian
+criminals. Again, for statistical purposes, the Russians
+are sometimes marked off into five classes, thus:
+nobles, merchants, ecclesiastics, citizens, and peasants;
+and in prison the higher grades receive better allowance,
+and are not mixed with the peasant prisoners,
+but have rooms apart. In going through the principal
+prisons of Siberia, however, we found the number of
+rooms thus occupied decidedly small; so that this
+observation, taken with the educational state of the
+prisoners, would seem to confirm what I was told by
+one prison official, that probably not more than 3 or
+4 per cent. of the exiles are from the upper classes.</p>
+
+<p>As to the crimes of the exiles, they are not all
+political, nor even chiefly so. A large proportion—4,000
+out of 18,000, or say 20 per cent.—of them are
+charged with no one particular offence, except that
+they have rendered themselves obnoxious to the community
+among which they lived. If a man in Russia
+be incorrigibly bad, and will not pay his taxes nor
+support his wife and family, but leaves these things
+to be done by his neighbours, his commune—which
+may consist of one or more villages—meet in their
+<i lang="ru">mir</i>, or village parliament, vote the man a nuisance, and
+adjudge that he be sent, at their expense, to Siberia.
+This judgment is submitted to higher authorities,
+and, unless just cause be shown to the contrary, is
+confirmed. The man is then taken to Siberia, not to
+be imprisoned, but to get his living as a colonist.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span>
+Those sent thus by the villages, I was told, are chiefly
+drunkards. We saw a whole wardful of them at
+Tiumen, dressed in private clothes, and not in prison
+garb; and a second ward, of a similar mixed multitude,
+consisting of men, women, and children. The perpetrators
+of political crimes, as those of the “black Nihilists,”
+are, when caught, usually accommodated with
+free lodgings in Siberia; and so with revolutionary
+offenders, who make insurrection in Poland, Circassia,
+or elsewhere. Of offenders such as these I must speak
+hereafter. Formerly religious dissenters were largely
+deported, but this has not been done since the proclamation
+of what may, in a fashion, be called religious
+liberty, unless in the case of one or two—more especially
+one sect—whose practices no enlightened Government
+could tolerate, and which are so extraordinary
+that, if they obtained universal acceptance, there would
+be no further increase of population, and the human race
+would become extinct. The fact is that the great mass of
+exiles are nothing more nor less than ordinary criminals,
+such as may be found in any of the prisons of Europe.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_12" href="#Footnote_2_12" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span></p>
+
+<p>The sentences of the exiles vary widely according
+as they are condemned to one or the other of two
+classes, namely: those who lose all their rights, and
+those who lose only partial or political rights, which
+deprivations may be thus explained:—</p>
+
+<p>Those who lose all their rights are not in an
+enviable position. These are some of the things they
+lose:—If a man have a title or official rank, he is
+degraded. An exile’s marriage rights are broken, so
+that his wife is free to marry another. Neither his
+word nor his bond is of any value. He cannot sign a
+legal document or serve any office, either municipal or
+imperial. He can hold no property, nor do anything
+legal in his own name. In prison he must wear convict’s
+clothes, and have his head half shaved; and, in
+the case of a woman, she cannot marry after her release
+from prison till by good conduct she has placed herself
+in a certain category; and, whether man or woman, they
+may, for new crimes, if the authorities see fit, after
+they have served their time in prison, and are living as
+colonists, be sent back again. They may be thrashed
+with rods and with the “<em>plète</em>,” and, even should they
+be murdered, probably little trouble would be taken to
+find the murderer. In fact, as the words imply, they
+lose all their rights, though I believe they can appeal to
+the law in case of being grossly wronged.</p>
+
+<p>I have said that an exile’s marriage rights are
+broken, and I was told that it is the same with convicts
+in America. Were it not so, it might be very
+hard upon a young wife whose husband, for instance,
+had committed murder, and who, for her husband’s
+crime and banishment, should be compelled to remain
+single for the rest of her life. A Russian wife with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span>
+her children, however, may accompany the husband if
+she chooses; in which case they go with the exile and
+receive from the Government prison food and accommodation.
+If, on the other hand, a husband wishes to
+accompany a convict wife, he travels at his own cost.
+To the honour of the Russian women be it said that
+the proportion of men accompanied by their wives and
+families is one in every six. The proportion of women
+accompanied by their husbands is, I am told, not
+exactly known, though it is very much less.</p>
+
+<p>Those who suffer the loss of particular rights lose
+certain of their privileges (but not family or property
+rights), and are settled in Siberia, to get their living
+in any way they are able. They may, however, in
+some cases, have first to serve for a period in prison; or,
+again, they may be allowed to live in their own houses
+and give a portion of their time to Government work.</p>
+
+<p>Commonly, they are condemned first to serve a
+certain time in confinement, with or without labour.
+If they behave well they are, after a while, and in
+some cases, allowed to live outside the prison with
+their families, if they have any, but still to do their
+allotted work, until the period arrives for them to
+be liberated and located like colonists. Some of the
+women who are condemned to the far east have the
+good fortune to be taken as domestic servants by
+officers, and even favoured civilians, who, in a new
+country where ordinary servants are not to be had, are
+allowed for this purpose to take the prisoners, subject
+to inspection, of course. Lastly, some exiles, though
+comparatively few, I believe, are condemned to prison,
+or to prison and labour, for life.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_13" href="#Footnote_3_13" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span></p>
+
+<p>The localities to which the exiles are sent vary
+according to their crimes. Speaking generally, those
+deprived of partial rights are sent to Western, and
+those deprived of all their rights to Eastern, Siberia.
+On this point I have no official statistics, but a legal
+officer gave me these particulars concerning the location
+of convicts. Murderers are sent to Kara. My
+finding 800 there would seem to confirm this, only
+that their presence was manifest in so many of the
+other prisons also. Political prisoners go to Kara, to
+the Trans-Baikal district, and (as I heard from other
+sources) to the Yakutsk government; also to this latter
+province are sent those who commit fresh crimes in
+Siberia. Vagrants or vagabonds are dispatched to the
+far east, to the government of the Sea Coast and
+Sakhalin. On the other hand, Western Siberia would
+seem to be reserved for minor offenders, and those deprived
+of certain particular rights only. It should be
+observed, however, that exiles, wherever they may be,
+are under police inspection, are furnished with papers
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span>
+which they have to show at intervals, and which tie
+them to a certain place, whence they can move to a
+distance only by permission. When at large, and in
+some cases when in prison, the exiles may correspond
+with their friends through the post; but the
+letters must of course be read by the authorities. The
+hardest part of the lot of those who lose all their
+rights seems to be that they cannot look forward to
+the hope of returning. Not that a release is <em>never</em>
+granted even to these; for I am told that political
+offenders are sometimes seen hurried out of, as fast
+as they are hurried into, exile. The late Emperor,
+too, when he came to the throne, began his reign
+by an act of clemency on a larger scale, and allowed
+certain exiles whom his father had banished to
+return. Again, I have heard of a Polish exile in
+good circumstances who was fortunate enough to win
+the love of an English young lady connected (by name
+at all events) with one of the ducal families of Great
+Britain, through which it is said the ear was gained of
+a member first of the English royal family, then of
+the imperial family of Russia, and finally of the
+Emperor himself.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_14" href="#Footnote_4_14" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> I have met with another case of a
+released exile who was liberated under curious circumstances.
+He gave me his story thus:—When
+Alexander II. visited Paris in the time of Napoleon III.,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span>
+the Tsar asked the Emperor if there were anything he
+could do for him. Upon which the Emperor replied:
+“You have a Frenchman who, in young and silly days,
+joined the Polish insurrection. He was made prisoner,
+and is now in Siberia. Will you do me the favour to
+release him?” The request was granted, a messenger
+despatched, the happy prisoner in forty-five days and
+nights drove back from the mines to Moscow, not
+with a couple of horses merely, but troika fashion,
+between a couple of gendarmes, and received his
+pardon. But such cases, of course, are rare.</p>
+
+<p>It is well known that many of the exiles escape—some
+from the prisons, and others from the districts
+where they are living free. A Russian authoress,
+“O. K.,” in “Russia and England from 1876 to
+1880,” says that in January 1876, out of 51,122
+exiles supposed to be in Tobolsk, only 34,293 could
+be found, which figures an Englishman living in the
+Tobolsk government (speaking offhand) told me he
+should doubt, though he thought “O. K.’s” statement
+<em>might</em> be right regarding the government of
+Tomsk, in which the same authoress states that 5,000
+were missing out of 30,000. For my own figures I am
+indebted to a prison official very high in position, who
+told me that nearly 700 get away yearly, and in 1876
+as many as 952 escaped the control of the police.
+Thus the mere feat of running away does not seem
+to be difficult; but this does not imply that it is equally
+easy to get away from the country. A few roubles
+slipped into the hands of a Cossack or petty officer
+have a wonderful effect in blinding his eyes. Again,
+an escape is sometimes made from the gold-mines
+thus:—The convicts work in gangs, and one lies in a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span>
+ditch for the others to cover him with branches and
+rubbish. The numbers are called on leaving off work,
+and one is missing. Search proves fruitless, and, after
+all have left the mine, the man rises from his temporary
+grave and makes for the woods. The great difficulty
+is not to get away, but to keep away. The country
+is so vast that they cannot travel far before the
+approach of winter, and then, if they have escaped
+in company, they have the choice of returning to
+prison food or eating one another. They have,
+moreover, another difficulty with the natives. In the
+Trans-Baikal district, the Buriats are said to hunt
+down escaped convicts, and shoot them like vermin;
+which is probably explained by what was told me of
+the Gilyaks on the Lower Amur, that they receive
+three roubles a-head for every escaped convict they
+bring to the police, whether dead or alive. The natives
+argue thus: “If you shoot a squirrel, you get only his
+skin; whereas, if you shoot a <i lang="ru">varnak</i>” (which is the
+nickname they give to convicts), “you get his skin and
+his clothing too.” Thus it is very difficult for them
+to get out of the country.</p>
+
+<p>There are several reasons, however, which conduce
+to their running away. A long-term prisoner, for
+instance, condemned to twenty years’ labour, makes
+his escape from a penal colony, wanders about the
+country during the summer months, and, on the approach
+of winter, commits a crime and is caught. He
+is asked for his name, to which he replies that it is <i lang="ru">Ivan
+Nepomnoostchi</i>—that is, “John Know-nothing.” He
+is asked where he comes from. He replies that he
+entirely forgets. What has been his occupation? His
+memory fails him. He is asked for his papers. He
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span>
+says that he has none, or perhaps trumps up a story
+that he has lost them—and so on. Accordingly he is
+tried, and is sentenced, say to five years’ hard labour,
+for which he inwardly thanks the Court, and goes off,
+it may be, to a new prison, having effected a saving of
+the sorrows of eighteen years. Should he not play his
+game aright, however, and should he be detected, then
+his past service goes for nothing; he is most likely
+flogged, and sent back to a harder berth than he had
+before. Some run away under the influence of drink,
+and discover their mistake too late. Again, other
+reasons which may be supposed to conduce to flight
+are—the fear of punishment for new faults committed,
+the desire to get back to social and family ties in
+Europe, or, in the case of those twice imprisoned, to
+ties which they have formed whilst settled in Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>I am disposed to think that the severance of family
+and social ties is with many the really hard pinch of
+Siberian exile. One lady, who had a convict for her
+nurse, told me that she gave her her own clothes, paid
+her £1 a month, provided her a home in the best house
+in the province, to say nothing of sundry perquisites,
+and yet she sometimes found her, when alone, in tears;
+and, on asking what was the matter, the answer was—“Oh,
+if I only knew something of my friends in Russia!”
+She had not learnt to write, her friends were in the
+same position, and the difficulty of procuring an
+amanuensis, together with uncertainty as to address,
+made communication almost impossible; and so she
+said she could not tell whether her friends were dead
+or alive, or what might be their fate. I recollect, too,
+in a prison at Uleaborg, in Finland, finding a woman
+who had escaped from exile, of whom I asked how she
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span>
+liked Siberia; to which she replied that as regards
+the country she had nothing to complain of; but, she
+pathetically added, “I did <em>so</em> want to see my mother!”
+And to do this she had taken flight, during three years
+had traversed more than 2,000 miles, had reached her
+old home, and was then retaken!</p>
+
+<p>But nothing has yet been said of the transport of
+the exiles. Of old they had to walk all the way, and
+the journey and stoppages occupied a long time. The
+woman at Uleaborg said she was eight months going
+from Petersburg to Tobolsk. In this matter, however,
+as in many others, the lot of the banished was much
+mitigated during the reign of the late Emperor, especially
+after 1867. The introduction of railways and
+river steamboats greatly facilitated this. Accordingly,
+those in Russia who are condemned to Siberia are now
+first gathered to a central prison in Moscow, where
+they may be seen entering the city in droves. A very
+affecting sight was the first of these droves I saw in
+1874. The van consisted of soldiers with fixed bayonets.
+Behind them marched the worst of the men prisoners,
+with chains on their ankles, the clanking of which as
+they moved was most unmusical. Then followed men
+without fetters, but chained by the hand to what looked
+like a long iron rod; and next after them the women
+convicts; and then the most touching part of the
+whole—women, not convicts, but wives who had
+elected to be banished with their husbands. Then
+there were wagons containing children, the old and
+infirm, baggage, etc., the rear being brought up by
+armed soldiers. As the prisoners moved along the
+street, passengers stepped from the pavement to give
+them presents. To this the guards who walked at the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span>
+side made no objection, and in this way, in some of the
+towns, the prisoners gather, or used to gather, a considerable
+sum of money; for the woman at Uleaborg
+said that the money given to her drove of 156 prisoners,
+during their three days’ stay in Moscow, amounted to
+about 30<i>s.</i> each.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_15" href="#Footnote_5_15" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> More recently, however, a Pole,
+who began his walking in 1871, farther east, at Perm,
+told me his receipts from the wayside charity of the
+people were insignificant.</p>
+
+<p>Being gathered then at Moscow, the prisoners are
+sent off in droves of about 700 each by rail to Nijni
+Novgorod. This commences in spring, as soon as
+the river navigation opens, and two or three parties
+go off each week. They began, the year of my visit,
+on May 8th. On reaching Nijni Novgorod they are
+placed in a large barge built for the purpose, which
+carries from 600 to 800, and is tugged by steamer
+to Perm.</p>
+
+<p>Hence they are taken twice a week by rail to
+Ekaterineburg; 350 on Wednesday, and 500 on
+Saturday. Their walking, however, does not yet
+begin; for the 200 miles remaining to Tiumen is got
+over by conveyances, each of which, drawn by three
+horses, carries about six prisoners; and thus they arrive
+at the first prison in Siberia proper.</p>
+
+<p>Now begins their distribution. Those who are condemned
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span>
+to Western Siberia are assigned to particular
+towns or villages, whither they are sent by water, if
+possible, or, if not, on foot. Those, however, who are
+condemned to Eastern Siberia are placed in another
+barge, and taken on the Tura, Tobol, Irtish, Obi, and
+the Tom, to Tomsk, whence their walking eastward
+begins. When not hindered by accidental causes, they
+usually rest one day and walk two, marching sometimes
+twenty miles or more a day. Temporary prisons
+called <i lang="fr">étapes</i> are erected along the road to receive
+them for the night, and in the towns are larger buildings
+called <i lang="ru">perisylnie</i> prisons, in which they may rest,
+if necessary, a longer time, and where there are hospitals,
+medical attendants, etc. Thus they go on day
+after day, week after week, month after month, to
+their destined place or prison, to Irkutsk, to Yakutsk,
+to Chita, or, if perchance they are destined to Sakhalin,
+they continue to Stretinsk on the Shilka, thence by
+steam on the river Amur to Nikolaefsk, and so by
+ship to the island. Two years since, however, the
+Russian Government adopted a new and better plan
+with prisoners intended for Sakhalin, and, instead of
+sending them across Asia, shipped them from Odessa,
+<i lang="fr">viâ</i> the Suez Canal, to the Pacific direct. A large
+merchant steamer, the <i>Nijni Novgorod</i>, was employed
+for the purpose, sailing under the Government flag,
+which made the passage in about two months, the
+prisoners arriving in excellent health, and without one
+death on the passage.</p>
+
+<p>I mention this fact the more readily as I heard it in
+the Admiral’s house at Vladivostock, where the ship
+arrived a week or two before I did, and where it was
+said that one of the Japanese newspapers had copied
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span>
+from an English paper to the effect that half the prisoners
+had died on the passage, and that the rest were
+in a terribly sick condition. As an Englishman I was
+called to account for this, and I found that the minds
+of some of my Russian friends were very sore with the
+editors of English newspapers, by reason of alleged
+misrepresentations received at their hands. They
+complained, moreover, that whereas some of the newspapers
+were ready enough to publish against the
+Russians all they knew that was bad, they were slow
+to acknowledge the good, and were not always ready
+to recall what had been said, even when proved to
+have been false. Not having the facts before me, I
+could only put in a plea regarding the desire of English
+journals to be first in the field with news, and the
+consequent rapid manner in which editorial work has
+to be done. Knowing something of an editor’s difficulties,
+I felt justified in expressing the hope that
+there had been no intentional departure from fairness,
+uprightness, and integrity. I am not sure, however,
+that I should have been ready with an answer had I
+known how the case really stood.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_16" href="#Footnote_6_16" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span></p>
+
+<p>I have thus described the transport of ordinary exiles
+to Siberia. There is another category of prisoners—arch-heretics
+in political or revolutionary affairs, Nihilists,
+etc., of whom the authorities wish to take special care,
+who are not sent with the common herd, but are individually
+placed between two gendarmes, and sent off
+to travel alone direct to their destination. I am of
+opinion that the popular notion as to their numbers is
+exaggerated, and that they are much fewer than is
+commonly supposed. I shall offer my reasons for
+thinking thus later on. These persons, while travelling,
+are never allowed, under any pretence, to be out of
+sight of their keepers, who are charged to allow no
+one to speak to them. This, however, is not always
+carried out to the letter; for a friend of mine, coming
+one day to a swollen river in Siberia, near Omsk,
+where a gendarme was also waiting with a young
+lady prisoner of seventeen, was allowed to speak to
+her, and she told him that since she left Petersburg,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span>
+a distance of 1,700 miles, she had not once had a
+gendarme out of her presence. When there are
+several prisoners of this character travelling in a
+manner together, they are kept separate, and are not
+allowed to speak to each other. But even this cannot
+always be enforced; for not long before my arrival at
+Tiumen a batch of about ten such persons had passed.
+On arriving at Ekaterineburg, a separate carriage was
+taken for each; but when they came at Tiumen to the
+riverside, standing and waiting for the steamer, they
+were able to snatch a few moments for conversing
+together. I know of another instance, in which a
+young woman had been suspected of a political offence,
+and been warned by the authorities to desist; but, not
+profiting by the warning, she was arrested, sent off
+with a gendarme, and on her way met a gentleman
+whom she asked to convey a letter to her friends.
+This of course was against the gendarme’s orders, but,
+on being assured that the letter should be only of a
+private nature, and three roubles being put into his
+hand, he allowed it to be written and taken. This
+was in European Russia. Further east they become
+still more lax.</p>
+
+<p>There is yet a third case, in which exiles are permitted
+to journey by themselves like ordinary travellers.
+We met a lady who was forced to quit Petersburg at
+twenty-four hours’ notice; but owing to her position, or
+through interest, she was allowed to travel alone; and
+in this manner, by reason of illness on the way, during
+which her money was stolen, she was a twelvemonth
+reaching her location in Eastern Siberia. This, however,
+was the only case we met with of an exile travelling
+privately, and I presume similar cases are very
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span>
+exceptional. Whilst the exiles are on the march, and,
+in certain cases, whilst they are living like colonists,
+they receive clothing and an allowance for food, either
+in money or in kind; but this subject will be best
+treated under the description of prisons, to which subsequent
+chapters will be devoted.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_11" href="#FNanchor_1_11" class="label">[1]</a> According to M. Réclus, the first decree of banishment fell upon the
+insurrectionists of Uglitch, in 1591; in the days of the Tsar Boris Godunof,
+and for a century afterwards Siberia received scarcely any exiles but State
+prisoners. At the end of the seventeenth century, however, some of the
+vanquished Little Russians of the Ukraine were deported thither; and
+they were followed by the religious dissenters—the first accompanied by
+their families. The Streltzi were banished by Peter the Great to garrisons
+in the most distant parts of the empire; and after the reign of Peter,
+the intrigues of the palace were the cause of exile to some of the Court
+celebrities, such as Menchikoff, Dolgoruki, Biron, Munich, Tolstoï, and
+others, some of whom, however, were brought back when their friends
+came into favour. In 1758 began the deportation of Poles to Siberia, but
+their banishment in large numbers dates from the reign of Catherine II.,
+with the confederates of Bar, and then with the companions of Kosciuzko.
+Nine hundred Poles, having served under Napoleon, were exiled to Siberia,
+and large numbers of the insurrectionists of 1830 followed. The exiles
+whose names awaken perhaps the most sympathy among the Russians
+were the Decembrists of 1826, who endeavoured to deprive the Emperor
+Nicholas of his throne; but of these, and political prisoners generally, I
+shall treat hereafter in a separate chapter.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_12" href="#FNanchor_2_12" class="label">[2]</a> There are upwards of thirty crimes for the commission of one or more
+of which a man may be sent to Siberia. In fact, I have been told that all
+the crimes of the country are reduced to these thirty-three heads, viz.:
+insubordination to authorities; stealing or losing official documents;
+escape, or abetting the escape, of prisoners; embezzlement of Government
+property; forgery while in Government employ; blasphemy; heresy and
+dissent; sacrilege; sheltering runaways; forging coin or paper money;
+without passport, or passport with term not renewed; vagrancy; bad
+conduct and petty crimes; murder, and suspicion thereof; attempted
+suicide; wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm; rape and
+seduction; insult; attacking with intent to wound; holding property
+falsely; practices of the “Scoptsi”; arson; robbery and burglary; thieving
+and roguery; horse-stealing; dishonesty and false actions; debt; dishonouring
+the name of the Emperor; assuming false names or titles;
+bestiality; usury and extortion; eluding military service; smuggling
+and illicit distilling.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_13" href="#FNanchor_3_13" class="label">[3]</a> Some idea may be formed of the proportion of the banished who
+are condemned to hard labour by observing that, of 17,867 exiles passing
+eastwards through Tiumen prison in 1878 (the year before my visit),
+2,252, or one-seventh, were transported for hard labour, and the remainder
+for “residence for life, or for certain terms in East and West Siberia.”
+I was told likewise by Mr. Ignatoff, at Tiumen, that about 2,500 hard-labour
+convicts passed yearly through his hands, and that they spent the first part
+of their time at Tobolsk. It may be further noticed from my statistics,
+that during the same year which saw the above number of exiles going
+eastwards, there passed through the same prison 2,629 persons returning
+westwards “to their respective homes in Russia;” which expression I do
+not understand, since I am informed from an official source that the
+number of persons returning after temporary exile is very small. The
+law permits those only to go back who are banished by the communes
+(and then not without their permission), and those who are deprived of
+<em>particular</em> rights. Four hundred and sixty-two of those condemned to
+“hard labour,” and 3,488 of those going into “residence,” are marked as
+<em>minors</em>,—that is to say, children of exiles, and <em>offenders</em> under twenty-one
+years of age; of which last, I am told, the annual total sent to Siberia
+does not exceed 300.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_14" href="#FNanchor_4_14" class="label">[4]</a> I have heard parts of this story in various places—in Hampshire, in
+Devon, in Siberia, and on the coast of the Pacific—of the heroic conduct
+of a Scotch Professor, who gallantly escorted this young lady to her
+lover in Siberia, sat by her side for 3,000 miles, watched over her, saw
+her married, and then, returning, gave no rest to friends or officials till
+he had obtained the Pole’s release. The incidents would doubtless suffice
+for a three-volumed novel, which, however, I will not begin, as I know
+only one of the parties concerned, and him only by correspondence, and
+I have not had the recital from his own lips.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_15" href="#FNanchor_5_15" class="label">[5]</a> M. Andreoli, in the story of his exile, remarks that the Moscow merchants
+had established a considerable fund for dividing among prisoners
+going to Siberia, and that when a party arrived, the director of the fund
+was at once informed. He then divided equally among them the means at
+his disposal, which was never less than 14<i>s.</i> or 16<i>s.</i>, and sometimes as much
+as 30<i>s.</i> or 32<i>s.</i> to each person. Men, women, and children shared alike, so
+that a man with a family got substantial help; but this fund, I am told,
+no longer exists. Both M. Andreoli and Baron Rosen speak of the kindness
+of the Siberian peasants to exiles on their journey.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_16" href="#FNanchor_6_16" class="label">[6]</a> On reaching England I was referred to what had appeared in the
+<cite>Daily Telegraph</cite>, first, on June 2nd, under the heading, “Reign of Terror
+in Russia,” where it was stated that “a large number of convicts are about
+to be despatched to Sakhalin from Odessa, the service which provides
+for the ordinary transportation of criminals to Siberia being already overtaxed.”
+Again, on July 28th, under the same heading appeared half a
+column of large print, speaking of “the appalling evidence of Russian
+barbarity” which their “own correspondent” had obtained. The correspondent
+informant visited the ship, and observed to the officer in command
+that the prisoners so badly provided for would never survive the
+passage, to which the Russian officer was said to have replied, “Well, so
+much the better for all parties if they do not,” and so on. On the next
+day, under the heading “Russian Barbarities,” it appeared that Mr.
+Joseph Cowen asked in Parliament whether the Secretary of State for
+Foreign Affairs had received information that 700 persons, mostly men
+and women of education, had been packed in the hold of a small ship—(the
+<cite>Daily Telegraph</cite> had described it the same day as a man-of-war
+of 4,000 tons)—that 250 had died on board, and 150 were landed in a
+dying state, etc. Most of this appeared in large print, and attention was
+called thereto. But by August 5th a change had come over the scene,
+and all or nearly all the foregoing was found to be untrue; and then,
+in their <em>smallest</em> print, simply headed “Reuter’s Telegram,” the <cite>Daily
+Telegraph</cite> informed its readers in six lines that “the <cite>Novoe Vremya</cite> of
+August 4th states that the steamer <i>Nijni Novgorod</i> arrived at Nagasaki
+on Friday last, and that the convicts were well in health.” Now here
+would appear to have been ample room for, if not an apology, yet an
+expression of regret that the Russians had been so very much misrepresented;
+but, if such appeared, it has escaped me. On August 9th, the
+Russian journals are alluded to as joining in a chorus of indignation
+against Messrs. Cowen and Mundella for their motion in Parliament, but
+nothing is recalled of what had been said. I know not how the foregoing
+extracts may strike the reader, but the perusal of them did not cause me
+to plume myself on the score of English fairness and our supposed love
+of justice.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">
+    CHAPTER V.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>FROM TIUMEN TO TOBOLSK.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>General remarks on Siberia.—Limits.—Area.—Temperature.—Divisions.—Roads.—Ethnography.—Language.—Posting
+to Tobolsk.—Floods.—Spring roads.—Villages of Tatars.—Their history.—Characteristics.—Costumes.—Occupation.—Worship.—Language.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>Between</span> Ekaterineburg and Tiumen, as already
+intimated, the traveller passes into Siberia,—concerning
+which country it may be well here to make
+some general observations, with a view to the better
+understanding of future chapters. The western boundary
+of this immense region runs from the Arctic Ocean
+along the chain of the Northern Urals to a point in
+about the same latitude as Lake Onega; then, leaving
+the mountains a little to the left, it comes down in a
+tolerably straight line to a point midway between the
+Sea of Aral and Lake Balkash; thence it turns eastward
+to and along the northern shore of the lake, and,
+going further east, joins the Altai Mountains. All
+Russia lying to the west and south of this line is
+either in Europe or in Asia; all lying to the east of
+it is Siberia, the length and breadth of which are
+the same as of Russia in Asia; whilst its area, as
+given in recent Russian statistics, is 4,750,000 square
+miles, or more than three thousand millions of acres
+(3,185,510,900), of which nearly one-fifth is arable.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span>
+The river Yenesei (roughly speaking) divides the
+country into east and west, the surface of the western
+portion being almost entirely flat, whilst the eastern
+portion, especially towards the Pacific, is mountainous.
+Siberia extends over nearly 40 degrees of latitude,
+and in climate ranges from arctic to semi-tropical. In
+passing through the country from west to east, from
+the end of May to the beginning of October, between
+the 50th and 57th parallels, we found the temperature
+much the same as during the same period in England.
+When steaming on the Obi, at the beginning of June,
+on the 62nd parallel, my minimum thermometer fell
+during the night as low as 35° Fahrenheit, but rose
+by 9 o’clock to 75°. English winter clothing, therefore,
+by day was not too warm. Again, at Vladivostock,
+lying on the 43rd parallel, the heat towards the
+end of September was not too great for clothing suited
+to an English summer. All through the journey, however,
+when sleeping in the tarantass, it was sufficiently
+cold in the early morning, whatever might be the heat
+of the day, to make an ulster coat acceptable.</p>
+
+<p>The political divisions of the country are two vice-royalties,
+called respectively Western and Eastern
+Siberia. Each of these is divided into “governments”
+and “oblasts.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_17" href="#Footnote_1_17" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span></p>
+
+<p>The means of communication in Siberia are more
+ample than a foreigner might suppose. There are,
+indeed, no railways; but when the line, now in course
+of construction, from Ekaterineburg to Tiumen is
+finished, the English traveller will be able to go by
+steam from Charing Cross to Tomsk, a distance of
+5,000 miles, and further east than Ceylon. As it is
+now, when Tiumen is reached, river communication
+becomes possible with each of the four capitals of
+Western Siberia. Again, the Amur presents a water
+passage inland from the Pacific, by which Nikolaefsk,
+Blagovestchensk, and almost Chita, may be reached; and
+now that Captain Wiggins has led the way through the
+Kara Gates, and Professor Nordenskiöld has followed
+on to Behring’s Strait, Russia may congratulate herself
+on having for the commerce of Siberia three additional
+outlets—the Obi, the Yenesei, and the Lena—to both
+Europe and Japan.</p>
+
+<p>Again, there is the communication by roads, which
+is the more important on account of the many months
+the rivers are frozen over. There are two post roads
+by which Siberia is entered from the west; one through
+Orenburg, which is little used, and the other through
+Ekaterineburg to Tiumen. There is also a third road,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span>
+not much used, which crosses the Urals further north,
+and connects <i lang="ru">Veliki Ustiug</i>, on the Northern Dwina,
+with Irbit. The high road to China leaves Tiumen
+in an easterly direction to Omsk, where the routes from
+Orenburg, Semipolatinsk, and Central Asia converge.
+The main road goes east to Tomsk, where it is joined
+by roads on the north from Narim, and on the south
+from Barnaul; it then continues eastward to Krasnoiarsk,
+where it is joined by roads, on the north from
+Yeneseisk, and on the south from Minusinsk. After
+this it takes a south-easterly direction to Irkutsk,
+whence there go two ways—one to the north-east,
+to Yakutsk, and so on to Kamchatka; the other, and
+principal one, to the south-east and round the base of
+Lake Baikal to Verchne Udinsk. Here it divides into
+two, that to the right leading to Kiakhta and China;
+that to the left running east, through Chita to Stretinsk.
+Thence the traveller proceeds on the Shilka and Amur—by
+boat in summer, and on the ice in winter—past
+Blagovestchensk to Khabarofka, whence, to the left, he
+continues on the Amur to Nikolaefsk, or he turns to
+the right up the Ussuri and the Sungacha to Vladivostock.
+Along all these roads there is postal and,
+except towards Yakutsk, telegraphic communication
+also.</p>
+
+<p>An ethnographical map of Siberia, coloured according
+to the area which is occupied by its various nationalities,
+reveals the fact that only a very small portion of the
+country is inhabited by Russians.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_18" href="#Footnote_2_18" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> In fact, a narrow
+strip of country suffices to show their <em>habitat</em>, if drawn
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span>
+on either side of the great land and water highways,
+and somewhat widened in the mining districts of the
+Yeneseisk and Tomsk governments; and as the aborigines
+do not generally follow agriculture, it will be
+inferred that those parts of the land which are under
+cultivation lie within this narrow strip. The same
+observation will also indicate that, whilst the language
+of the towns and the highways is Russian, a knowledge
+of other tongues is needed for extensive intercourse
+with the natives.</p>
+
+<p>Having made these general remarks concerning
+Siberia, we proceed on our journey from Tiumen to
+Tobolsk, <i lang="fr">en route</i> for Tomsk, which is best reached in
+summer by river, steaming for 1,800 miles, the post
+road from Tiumen to Tomsk passing through Omsk,
+or by a somewhat nearer way, leaving Omsk to the
+south, and then crossing the Barabinsky steppe.</p>
+
+<p>We arrived at Tiumen on Thursday, the 29th May,
+bringing with us two loads of luggage, and leaving the
+rest to follow by “goods’” transport. There was steam
+communication between Tiumen and Tobolsk twice a
+week, the passage occupying a day and a half; but the
+steamer that went on to Tomsk was to leave on the
+following Monday, by which time the remaining luggage
+could not arrive. It became, therefore, a question
+whether we should wait for it or go before, in the hope
+that, whilst we were making <i lang="fr">détours</i>, our books might
+overtake us. My Finnish friend, Miss Alba Hellman,
+had sent me some pamphlets for distribution amongst
+a colony of Finns and others from the Baltic provinces,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span>
+numbering about 1,800, and located at Ruschkova, not
+far from the city of Omsk. We at first thought, therefore,
+to make this <i lang="fr">détour</i>, and then, instead of returning
+to Tiumen, to go “across country” to Tobolsk, and
+thus see the prisons, and wait for the next steamer but
+one, in which we hoped all our luggage might be forwarded;
+but this plan our friends at Tiumen condemned.
+The question then remained, How could we see Tobolsk?
+The steamer in passing would stay but for an hour or
+two, and another boat would not follow for a week.
+The only alternative was to drive. But terrible
+accounts were given of the roads, which had not yet
+dried after the breaking up of the frost. Not to see
+Tobolsk, however, was out of the question, and we
+therefore determined to make the attempt by road,
+hoping to reach the city on Saturday, see the prisons
+on Monday, and take steamer the following day.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, on Friday night, late, we left Tiumen
+in two tarantasses, with three horses to each. At the
+first station the post-master gave us warning that the
+roads were very bad, and that only one or two travellers
+had passed that way since the waters had subsided.
+On coming to the first river, it was found to be unapproachable
+at the usual place of embarkation. A ferry-boat
+had, therefore, to be brought to us, some six miles
+out of the way, and so we were kept waiting five hours.
+Whilst thus delayed, report said that the post-master
+kept hardly half the men required by his contract for
+working the ferry, and, further, that the men were
+sometimes extortionate. When, therefore we had rowed
+six miles down the stream to the landing-place, and
+the post-master could give no satisfactory reason why
+we had been thus kept, we thought it right, for the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span>
+benefit of future travellers, to enter in his “book for
+complaints,” bearing the Government seal, our regrets
+that his neglect had detained us five hours.</p>
+
+<p>About eleven o’clock the same night another episode
+occurred, which illustrates the pleasures of spring travelling
+in Siberia. The post-master gave us, what we
+never had before or after,—two outriders to convey us
+over a bad place on the road. Towards midnight we
+slept, when, being awakened by repeated shouting,
+I peeped out and saw that we were plunging among
+willows and mire. The outriders were holding up
+the tarantass to keep it from toppling over. Then
+came more shouting, with desperate jerking and pulling
+of the horses, which were up to their knees in bog, till
+solid ground was gained, and all stopped for breath.
+The next thing was to get the luggage tarantass
+through. We heard in the distance a crash, and lo!
+one of the shafts was broken. A horseman went back
+to the village for a new one, but in vain, and the old
+one was repaired. Whilst waiting we had time to
+look around. It was not yet morning, but the rays
+of the sun, which in northern countries are seen above
+the horizon all the night through at this time of the
+year, shed sufficient light on our darkness to give a
+weird appearance to all that was visible.</p>
+
+<p>Silence was broken only by the incessant croaking
+of frogs, and by the men, who were relating to each
+other how they had got through. One had slipped
+into water up to his waist. The temperature was
+anything but warm; but, poor fellows! they seemed
+to regard things as in their normal condition, and
+uttered repeated thanks when they were dismissed
+with a gratuity of a few extra kopecks. Further on
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span>
+we had to wade through water above the axletrees,
+and during the last stage to cross five streams, the
+last of which was the Irtish. Tobolsk at length was
+reached, but not until Sunday night, and after a journey
+of forty-eight hours instead of twenty, as we expected.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp73" id="p0560_ill" style="max-width: 69.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p0560_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      TATARS OF KASAN.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>By posting from Tiumen to Tobolsk, we purchased
+experience of early summer roads; and, in so doing,
+saw things which I should be sorry to have missed.
+Among these were several villages peopled exclusively
+by Siberian Tatars. These people differ in one important
+respect from most of the other nations living
+with the Russians in Siberia, in that they have a
+history and can look back to great princes who have
+made a name for themselves in the annals of the world.
+They are remnants of those who, in the thirteenth and
+fourteenth centuries, in the days of Genghis Khan and
+his descendants, overran Northern Asia, and wrested
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span>
+the land from its aboriginal inhabitants. They pushed
+their conquests to the Volga, and Serai, on that river,
+became the capital where their great Khans (known as
+the Khans of the Golden Horde) lived and reigned,
+and whence they long proved formidable antagonists
+to the Russians. At length came their disruption.
+Kasan was founded in the fifteenth century, and was
+the capital of a small khanate. A second khanate was
+that of Astrakhan, a third that of Krim, a fourth that
+of Tiumen—all fragments of the main horde which
+had collapsed in the fifteenth century. Towards the
+close of the sixteenth century, the Russians took from
+the Tatars Kasan and all else west of the Urals, and
+those on the east of the mountains, in the region of
+the Irtish, were afterwards subjugated by Yermak
+and his followers. Tatar villages may still be found
+between Kasan and Tobolsk, beyond which these people
+inhabit a district stretching south to the Kirghese
+hordes, and south-east as far as the Altai Mountains,
+and so joining the territory west of Irkutsk peopled by
+the Buriats.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_19" href="#Footnote_3_19" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The Tatars live among and are subject
+to their Russian conquerors; but the two races do not
+blend—one race being Christian, the other Mohammedan.
+The traveller is reminded of this by noticing
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span>
+that the Tatars, when on a journey, carry with them
+their wooden basins, for they will not drink from a
+vessel used by Russians; and so, in some parts, Russians
+will not drink from Tatar cups, though this exclusiveness
+wears away where Russians are many and Tatars are
+few. The Tatars have a good physique: dark eyes,
+swarthy skin, black hair, and high cheek-bones. Their
+strength of body is such as to make them excellent
+workmen, as may be seen by the enormous burdens
+they carry in loading vessels at Nijni Novgorod and
+Kasan. They are much liked in the capitals as coachmen,
+for they understand horses well. I heard good
+accounts of them likewise as servants in the hotel at
+Petersburg. They are not drunken, and are therefore
+valuable as waiters. Their women are supposed to wear
+veils, and do so in the cities. In the villages they content
+themselves with shawls, which are drawn nearly over
+the face when a stranger approaches. Men and boys,
+whether in the house or abroad, wear a small skull-cap,
+sometimes richly embroidered; and on high days some
+are seen with white turbans. These and their long
+cassock-like coats give the men a decidedly oriental
+appearance. Both men and women wear top-boots,
+and generally goloshes over them, so that, on entering
+the house or the mosque, they have only to slip off
+the goloshes to secure clean shoes.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_20" href="#Footnote_4_20" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span></p>
+
+<p>In the Tatar villages the green domes and pinnacles
+of the Russian church, surmounted with the cross, were
+of course wanting; and in their places were found
+Mohammedan mosques, with minarets surmounted
+with the crescent. These latter reminded one of the
+shingled steeples of English village churches. Our
+first sight of Tatar worship was on the Volga, on
+board the steamer at sunset. Three Tatars approached
+the paddle-box, on a clean part of which they spread a
+small carpet. Leaving their goloshes on the deck,
+they knelt on the carpet, bowed their heads to the
+ground, and, rubbing their hands as if washing,
+chanted their prayers. They then appeared to pray
+silently in deepest reverence with closed eyes, and as if
+in total oblivion that a crowd was looking on. We
+were told that the pious pray thus at least three times
+a day, wherever they may be. At Kasan we had an
+opportunity of seeing their congregational worship in a
+Tatar mosque. Permission was given us to enter, if at
+the bottom of the stairs we would take off our goloshes,
+or, having none, our boots. The Mohammedan reason
+for this practice seemed to be that they did not wish to
+bring into the place anything soiled or unclean.</p>
+
+<p>The building inside had a square room, with the
+barest of bare white walls, without attempt at ornament
+of any sort or kind. The only piece of furniture
+even was a high wooden rostrum approached by stairs,
+from which exhortations are delivered on Fridays.
+There were no chairs or benches, or any resemblance
+to an altar or table. Those who assembled early sat
+on the ground with their legs beneath them, apparently
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>
+for private prayer, reading, and meditation; but upon
+some one beginning to murmur in a low strain, all
+jumped up, ran to the front, and arranged themselves
+in ranks. They commenced their prayers by placing
+the thumb into or on the lower part of the ears, with
+the palms of the hands outwards. Then they stood,
+bowed, knelt, and then lowered the head to the
+ground. This is done a certain number of times,
+according to the hour of the day, twice at early
+morning, and increasing till five or more at the last
+of the five daily services. At the conclusion of prayer
+they passed their hands over their faces. All these
+external acts of devotion were done by each rank with
+the utmost precision, and the histrionic effect, as some
+would call it, was excellent; only that to one in the
+rear of four or five ranks of men, of each of whom
+nothing could be seen but the soles of their feet and
+the seats of their trousers, the spectacle was somewhat
+grotesque. In the less demonstrative parts of the
+service, however, there was not an eye that wandered,
+with the single exception of a man who bestowed a
+glance on us strangers; nor a man who did not behave
+in a manner becoming the occupation in which he was
+engaged. Some few who came in late did not join
+those whose service had begun, but commenced a
+separate one for themselves.</p>
+
+<p>The floor was covered with clean matting, on which
+lay here and there a common rosary made of date-stones,
+ninety-nine in number, and divided by beads
+into three sections.</p>
+
+<p>The Tatars objected to give us a translation in
+Russian of the prayers they said thereon. We heard
+elsewhere that they have ninety-nine names of God;
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span>
+and a Tatar prisoner—apparently a gentleman—told
+me that they had a separate prayer for each bead.
+The uneducated, however, do not know these many
+names of the Deity. On the following day we had the
+opportunity of asking a monk concerning the Russian
+rosary, which differs from both the Mohammedan and
+the Roman.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_21" href="#Footnote_5_21" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Tatars can read the Scriptures in Turkish, and
+are apparently not indisposed to do so, provided it does
+not attract attention. A colporteur at Moscow told me
+that he sold fifty-seven copies to Tatars in the villages
+between Kasan and Perm, though they became angry in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span>
+the larger towns if he attempted openly to sell them in
+the Tatar quarter. I took with me a few Turkish
+gospels, and among the prisoners at Barnaul found
+three Tatars, one of whom could read. As we repassed
+the door of their room, all three were seen sitting
+with their legs beneath them, the two illiterate ones
+listening to their scholarly friend with eager attention.
+We met several of this race in prison and elsewhere, as
+we proceeded onwards, but I do not remember passing
+through whole villages of Tatars after we left the
+district of Tobolsk. Hence we were the more glad
+not to have missed these.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_17" href="#FNanchor_1_17" class="label">[1]</a> I am not clearly informed as to the exact difference between a government
+and an oblast, but I am under the impression that an oblast (which
+means a “province”) is a territory often newly acquired and under martial
+law, whereas, in a “government,” things have settled down, and the civil and
+military organizations are under separate control. The word “oblasts” is
+sometimes translated “territories”; their relation to “governments” being
+similar to the relation between “Territories” and “States” in America.
+The oblasts in Siberia are Akmolinsk and Semipolatinsk in the west, and
+Yakutsk and the Sea Coast in the east; but, to avoid confusion, we will
+speak of them all as governments or provinces. Each province has its
+capital, which ranks as a “government” town, and each <i lang="ru">uyezd</i> has likewise
+its principal town. Each province is subdivided into districts, called
+<i lang="ru">uyezds</i>; <i lang="ru">uyezds</i> into <i lang="ru">vollosts</i>; and <i lang="ru">vollosts</i> into villages, called <i lang="ru">selo</i>, if with
+a church, or <i lang="ru">derevnia</i> if without. In the villages the chief man is called
+a <i lang="ru">starosta</i>; in the vollosts a <i lang="ru">zasidatil</i>. Over each uyezd commonly presides
+an ispravnik; over each province a governor; and over each vice-royalty
+a governor-general. Western Siberia is divided into four provinces,
+namely: Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Semipolatinsk, each of which has a capital,
+bearing the name of the province; and Akmolinsk, which has Omsk for
+its capital. Eastern Siberia is divided into six provinces: Irkutsk and
+Yakutsk, with capitals of the same names; and Yeneseisk, Trans-Baikal,
+Amur, and Sea Coast (or Maritime), with capitals named Krasnoiarsk,
+Chita, Blagovestchensk, and Nikolaefsk.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_18" href="#FNanchor_2_18" class="label">[2]</a> The total population, Russian and aboriginal, according to the <cite>Journal
+de St. Petersbourg</cite>, August 7th, 1881, quoting the most recent statistics,
+numbers 1,388,000 souls; but I am not sure whether “souls” may not mean
+<em>males</em> only, as it sometimes does in Russia. They are divided among
+the provinces as follows: Tobolsk, 463,000; Tomsk, 324,000; Irkutsk,
+165,000; Yeneseisk, 164,000; Trans-Baikal, 141,000; Amur, 3,000; Sea
+Coast, 13,000; and Yakutsk, 112,000. This says nothing of Akmolinsk
+and Semipolatinsk.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_19" href="#FNanchor_3_19" class="label">[3]</a> Mr. Wahl, in his “Land of the Czar,” which contains much valuable
+ethnographical information, gives the number of the Siberian Tatars of
+the governments of Tobolsk and Tomsk at 40,000. Dr. Latham also, in
+his “Native Races of the Russian Empire,” traces their affinities with
+many peoples both in Europe and Asia, all of whom he classifies under
+the general name of Turks, and points out that the area covered by the
+Turkish stock is perhaps larger than that of any other race in the world.
+The general name of Turks includes the Tatars of Kasan, of Siberia,
+the Caucasus, and several other places; also the Kirghese, Yakutes, and
+many smaller tribes, some of which will hereafter be referred to under
+the respective provinces which they inhabit. The Turkish stock are, as
+to their religion, Christians, Pagans, and Mohammedans: Christians
+where they have been won over by the Russians to the Greek Church;
+Pagans where they have not been reached even by Mohammedanism,
+but have remained in the darkness of aboriginal Shamanism, as is still
+the case with a few of the Yakute Turks; and Mohammedans, which is
+the case for the most part with those of the country through which we
+passed.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_20" href="#FNanchor_4_20" class="label">[4]</a> The natural home of the Turk or the Tatar is the steppe, where
+they dwell in tents, and are herdsmen, horsemen, and in some cases
+camel-drivers. Those we passed gain their livelihood by agriculture, by
+the breeding of cattle, and by the transport of goods. Their houses were
+neat and cleanly, and compared favourably with those of the Russians.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_21" href="#FNanchor_5_21" class="label">[5]</a> The mention of all three invites a short study in “comparative
+religions,” which may be briefly made as follows:—The complete Roman
+rosary consists of 150 beads on a string, divided into 15 decades, between
+each of which is a large or distinctive bead. Where the two ends join
+there are 5 other beads attached, and at the loose end a crucifix. It is
+used thus:—On the crucifix is repeated the Creed; on the first bead the
+Lord’s Prayer; on each of the next three the “Hail, Mary!” and on the
+fifth bead the Lord’s Prayer. This is by way of introduction. Then on
+each of the first 10 beads are said these words: “Hail, Mary, full of grace,
+the Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is
+the fruit of thy womb,—Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us
+sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.” When this has been
+said ten times, the “Pater Noster” is said on the dividing bead, and this
+is continued till 150 prayers have been offered to the Virgin, and 15 to
+“our Father,” and then the odd beads are used in inverse order for a
+conclusion, as before for an introduction.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian rosary looks smaller, but has also certain beads larger, or
+at least distinguishable from the others. It is not worn or used by ordinary
+members of the Russian Church, but only by monks and nuns. I was told
+by a nun at Moscow that they say on each bead, “May Jesus Christ have
+mercy on sinners!” but a monk at Kasan said (what is not irreconcilable
+with the former) that on each ordinary bead they say, “Lord God of heaven
+and Jesus Christ, have mercy upon us”; and on the large and distinctive
+bead they say a prayer either to Jesus Christ or the Virgin, the latter
+beginning something to this effect: “Thou mighty Mary, hear our prayers,
+and take away from thine unworthy servants all sin,” etc. Lastly, we were
+told that the Mohammedan continues to say on his rosary, “There is but
+one God, and Mohammed is His prophet”; and that if they do not know
+the ninety-nine names of God they merely count the beads.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">
+    CHAPTER VI.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>SIBERIAN PRISONS.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Old Finnish prisons.—Model Petersburg prison.—Officers.—Contraband
+importations.—Russian prisons of six kinds.—Siberian prisons of
+three kinds: their number, location, structure, furniture.—Prisoners:
+their classification.—Kansk statistics.—Method of trial.—Remands.—Exchanging
+names and punishments.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> prisons of Russia occupy a position midway
+between the dungeons of the Middle Ages and
+the modern cellular abodes for criminals of the nineteenth
+century. A few of them, however, approach
+very near these extremes on either side. With regard to
+Finland, it is hardly fair to hold the Russian Government
+responsible for the condition of its prison affairs,
+because, although the Emperor is Grand Duke of that
+country, he allows these liege subjects to make their own
+laws. Nevertheless, I can never forget the vividness
+with which my boyhood’s reading came back to me or
+Robin Hood and the dungeons of Nottingham Castle,
+when I first visited the old prisons of Åbo and Wiborg.
+The descent by steps with candles to prisoners in the
+lower rooms, the dim light entering by windows in
+walls ten feet thick, the clanking of chains, the like to
+which I have seen in no other country except perhaps
+Mongolia—these things spoke more eloquently than a
+visit to the former prison of Sir Walter Raleigh, or
+even the unused Ratisbon chamber for the torture of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span>
+Protestant heretics; and that because these northern
+prisons were inhabited by living men. The majority
+of the Finnish prisons, however, and certainly all the
+new ones, are better than the two I have mentioned;
+though, unless a change has taken place since 1876,
+the Finns still have and use sets of irons nearly ten
+times the weight of any others I have seen in Europe.
+To pass to the other extreme. One sees in Petersburg
+a brand-new prison, which may be supposed to
+represent the very beau ideal of what a house of
+detention ought to be.</p>
+
+<p>It is only right to say, however, before going further,
+that the condition of prisons and criminals in Russia
+is in a transitional state. The authorities have seen
+the necessity for reforms for at least 20 years, and
+great pains have been taken that these reforms should
+be made judiciously and effectively. Deputies have
+been sent to visit the prisons of other countries and
+report thereon; a commission has been appointed to
+receive the reports, to consider and debate, and so
+thoroughly to “shed upon the question the light of
+science.” All this has been done, and the reforms
+are yearly expected to take place, pecuniary reasons
+alone delaying the change for the better. Meanwhile
+a model prison has been built in the capital, and those
+who wish to see what Russia <em>can</em> do should visit this
+house of detention for persons awaiting their trial. It
+is built in the shape of a right angle, having two long
+corridors four storeys high. There are 285 separate
+cells for men, 32 for women, others for confinement
+in common, as well as places for associated and solitary
+exercise. Into cell No. 227 the late Emperor once
+entered, of which they keep up the remembrance by
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span>
+allowing no one to be confined therein. No expense
+appears to have been spared in building the prison.
+The floors are of asphalte, and the door of each cell is
+of solid oak. Within are iron bedsteads, made to fold
+and hook up neatly against the wall. The tables and
+seats are of sheet iron, with hinges; and, both within
+the cells and without, every article and fitting of brass
+is rubbed to a high degree of polish. The officers
+move about noiselessly in felt shoes, so that they can
+unexpectedly and at any moment observe a prisoner
+through the wire-covered inspection-holes. In the
+infirmary are 10 cells for those who are to be kept
+apart, and 32 beds for those who live in common.
+There is likewise a room in which 40 men may mingle
+by day, and a general sleeping apartment with 36 bedsteads,
+across each of which wire is stretched, making
+for the prisoner a hard but clean, and, I should imagine,
+not uncomfortable bed. There is also a room for bookbinding,
+where a few can work.</p>
+
+<p>The building contains three places of worship, for
+Russians, Roman Catholics, and Protestants respectively,
+the Russian having a very handsome <i lang="ru">ikonostasis</i>
+and chandelier; and I was pleased to find that, if a man
+can read, he has always a New Testament in his cell, and
+further that, by asking, he can obtain from the library
+other books in addition. This is as it should be.</p>
+
+<p>In the female division we found for warders
+superior-looking young women dressed in uniform, the
+insignia of office on their collars being a pair of crossed
+keys. Some of the women prisoners, as with the
+men, are placed together in common, and in some
+cases they have their choice of solitary or social life.
+This is true in a sense other than that which first
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span>
+appears; for one lady prisoner, a criminal condemned
+to Siberia, was about to take to herself a husband
+before proceeding thither, and the happy event was to
+be celebrated in the prison on the morning after my
+visit. Peeping through the food aperture of one of the
+doors was the face of a pretty young woman, a political
+prisoner, in whose possession had been found suspicious
+books. There was a women’s reception-room, having
+a bath warmed by gas; but as it was found to cost
+about five shillings to heat, it is not surprising that this
+particular bath is seldom used.</p>
+
+<p>Dark cells were shown to us, in which a prisoner
+may not be put for more than six successive days.
+The place where prisoners were allowed to converse
+with their friends was dark, which is not usual; and I
+observed in it no place for an officer to sit between the
+parties whilst they were speaking.</p>
+
+<p>The attempts of the authorities to keep the prisoners
+from intercourse with one another, and with the outer
+world, do not yet appear to be perfectly successful.</p>
+
+<table class='grid'>
+ <tr>
+  <td class='tdc'><span class='allsmcap'>A</span></td>
+  <td class='tdc'><span class='allsmcap'>B</span></td>
+  <td class='tdc'><span class='allsmcap'>C</span></td>
+  <td class='tdc'><span class='allsmcap'>D</span></td>
+  <td class='tdc'><span class='allsmcap'>E</span></td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr>
+ <tr><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr>
+ <tr><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr>
+ <tr><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The Polish prisoners in Warsaw, according to M.
+Andreoli, had a plan by which they could pass news in
+a couple of hours to all the prisoners in the fortress.
+A square was divided into 25 spaces for the 25 letters
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span>
+of the Polish alphabet. One knock was understood
+to mean <span class="allsmcap">A</span>, two knocks <span class="allsmcap">B</span>, and so on; or, again, these
+signals might be changed by one knock, signifying <span class="allsmcap">V</span>,
+and so forth; this dumb speech being kept up by tapping
+on the walls. This, however, is only one method.</p>
+
+<p>In the chapel of the model prison at Petersburg
+are 24 boxes for prisoners whom they wish to keep
+from holding communication with each other, even by a
+look. But the partitions which separate them are only
+of wood, and I observed that those I entered had been
+furtively bored with small holes, through which conversation
+could be held. Again, the prisoners are
+allowed to receive food from their friends outside, and,
+although it is first examined by the officials, the friends
+manage sometimes to introduce for the prisoners some
+strange culinary concoctions. There were brought to
+a man, for instance, one day 230 roubles in a basin of
+buttermilk. Again, another man was frequently found
+the worse for drink in his cell. Milk was regularly
+brought to him, and duly tasted by the authorities;
+but still the man got drunk. At last they discovered
+that the jug in which the milk was brought had a false
+bottom with an aperture in the handle, and so the
+mystery was solved. What will not topers do to
+procure drink? On arriving at Werchne Udinsk, we
+heard that a drunken woman had just been detected
+in trying to smuggle spirits into the prison in a pig’s
+entrails!</p>
+
+<p>I saw quite a collection of contraband articles at
+Petersburg, which had been found in the possession of
+prisoners. Among them were knives (one ingeniously
+made from a steel pen), playing cards, and dominoes—all
+of them of original and unique, if not of artistic,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span>
+character; also a file, for which a prisoner had given
+a warder 50 shillings. The man, too, had made busy
+use of his purchase. He set his mind upon breaking
+loose, and thought to file through a bar of iron an inch
+or more thick that confined him. But he could do his
+work only during the time that the warders were at
+dinner and at supper, and then not too loudly, giving
+200 strokes of the file at dinner and 100 at supper
+time. He went on thus for three months, and then
+managed to break the iron. But he was detected, and
+condemned to Siberia, whither he had already been
+sent before, and whence he had managed to escape.
+There he has probably by this time found less costly
+and well-built prisons from which to break loose.</p>
+
+<p>Before speaking, however, of the prisons of Siberia, it
+may be well to observe that in European Russia there
+are at least six various kinds of prisons. There is, first,
+the fortress—such as that at Schlüsselburg, in which
+it is generally supposed are confined grave offenders,
+especially the political and revolutionary. I have not
+visited one of these. Next there are military prisons,
+in which severity of discipline is said to be similar to
+that of the fortress. Then there are hard-labour prisons,
+in which long-term convicts work out their sentences.
+There are also houses of correction, where short-term
+prisoners do the same; likewise houses of detention,
+in which persons are kept awaiting their trial. I heard
+also of “houses of industry,” which, unless I am mistaken,
+are somewhat like our reformatories; and, lastly,
+there are buildings in which prisoners on their march
+to distant places stay temporarily—some only for a few
+days, others for weeks. These nice distinctions, however,
+can be drawn only in large towns in European
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span>
+Russia. In Siberia, especially in small towns, the same
+building serves for all classes of prisoners, the best
+arrangement practicable being made for special cases.
+Speaking generally, and from my own observation
+rather than from accurate information upon the subject,
+there appeared to me to be in Siberia three classes of
+buildings which the English would call by the general
+name of prisons. There is, first, the <i lang="fr">étape</i>, in which
+exiles on the march rest for a night or two; next, the
+<i lang="ru">perisylnie</i> prison, in which, for various reasons, exiles
+may have to wait—it may be during the winter, or until
+the ice be broken up on the rivers; and, thirdly, the
+<i lang="ru">ostrog</i>, which means a stronghold, and is a prison in
+general, where a man may be simply confined, work at
+a trade, or eat and sleep after working outside in the
+fields or mines. I have no statistics of the total
+number of prisons of all sorts in Siberia, but suppose
+it cannot be less than 300, which may be roughly
+computed thus: Nikolaefsk is more than 9,000 versts
+from Tiumen, and, supposing that convicts walk 30
+versts a day, they would require 300 resting-places
+for that route alone. Some parts of the way, it is
+true, are traversed in summer by river communication;
+but no notice has been taken in my estimate of off-lying
+routes north and south, as, for instance, to
+Yakutsk, Barnaul, etc. The expenses, therefore, of
+building and keeping in repair this vast number of
+prisons must be very considerable.</p>
+
+<p>As to the location of the prisons. The <i lang="fr">étapes</i> are
+found all along the road from Tiumen to the Amur.
+There will also be found a prison or lock-up in most of
+the principal towns. But of the larger buildings there
+is one at Tiumen for the reception of all the ordinary
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span>
+exiles as they come from Russia, and from which, as
+already stated, they are distributed over Siberia. At
+Tobolsk are three hard-labour prisons, with about
+1,000 convicts, in which prisoners often spend part
+of their terms before going further east. The next
+building of similar dimensions is called the Alexandreffsky
+central prison, about 50 miles from Irkutsk,
+where are some 1,500 hard-labour convicts. Continuing
+east, there were formerly some large hard-labour
+prisons at Chita and Nertchinsk, tidings from which,
+in years gone by, have caused many an ear to tingle;
+but since the Russians have gained the Amur, and
+many of the mines have passed from Government into
+private hands, the great bulk of the convicts have been
+sent further east. At Kara, on the Shilka, for instance,
+is a large penal colony, where there are upwards of
+2,000 convicts living in and about six prisons, the men
+being supposed to work in the gold-mines. After
+Kara, the next large colony is on the island of Sakhalin,
+which represents the utmost bound of Russian penal
+life. I have said nothing of the prisons in the provinces
+of Akmolinsk and Semipolatinsk, as I did not
+go there. There is or was a large prison at Omsk,
+through which exiles used formerly to pass; but, now
+their route has been changed, it serves only for local
+purposes. They have no prisons in these provinces, I
+believe, of considerable dimensions.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the larger prisons in Siberia, especially
+those of stone, were not originally built for their present
+purpose. There are certain features, however,
+about the others which are more or less common
+to all. The Siberian prison, like the houses of the
+Siberian people, is usually built of logs calked with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span>
+moss to keep out the cold. Near the principal building,
+but generally detached, are the kitchen, the bath-house,
+exercise-yard, stores for provisions, out-houses,
+etc., and enclosing the whole is a high palisade of
+wooden poles pointed at the top. From the fact that
+almost all the new prisons of Europe are built upon
+the cellular plan, the detained being kept solitary, it
+appears to have been recognised as a principle that
+the old method of herding prisoners together is a bad
+one. The same principle would seem to have been
+adopted also by Russia, in that the plan of the new
+house of detention in the capital is in the main cellular.
+In Siberia, however, the old plan continues, and usually
+the prisons inside are divided into large rooms or
+wards, in each of which the principal feature is an
+inclined wooden plane, resembling that of a guard-room
+bed, upon which the prisoners sit and lounge by day,
+and sleep by night. If the room be square, this divan
+or platform is placed against three of the walls, or, if it
+be oblong, there may be a passage up the centre, from
+which the sleeping places ascend to the walls on either
+side; or, lastly, if the room be very large, there are
+two platforms meeting like a low gable in the centre
+of the room, and two others against the walls. Thus
+space is economised, and as many as 40 or 50 men
+(once I found 100) are packed in a room. There
+are usually a few separate cells for political or special
+offenders, and one or two for punishment.</p>
+
+<p>Connected with the large prisons are usually a hospital,
+one or more chapels, sometimes a school-room,
+and a few workshops.</p>
+
+<p>The large rooms or wards have little or no furniture.
+Each is provided with an <i lang="ru">ikon</i>, or sacred picture, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span>
+sometimes with a shelf on which the inmates may put
+their spoons, combs, and other table and toilet requisites
+with which they provide themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Concerning the prisoners, it has been already intimated
+that those belonging to the upper classes are
+kept apart. There is a further classification in some
+of the large prisons according to the crimes committed:
+a room for murderers; a second for forgers and utterers
+of base money; a third for thieves, and generally two
+or three for “vagabonds”—that is, not merely for
+vagrants in the English sense of the word, but generally
+for persons who have run away from supervision,
+who have no papers, and can give no good account of
+themselves.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_22" href="#Footnote_1_22" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>The number of persons in Siberian prisons awaiting
+their trial, or the confirmation of their sentences, is
+very considerable. This leads me to speak of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span>
+courts, the judges, and their mode of trial. Since
+November 20th, 1860, law reforms were begun in
+Petersburg, Moscow, and Odessa, with their respective
+districts; and the new method of trial resembles that
+of England, with a mixture of certain French elements
+and some local introductions from Russia. Under the
+new <i lang="fr">régime</i> in European Russia there are three courts,
+namely: those of the Judge of the Peace; the Assizes;
+and the Senate. A Judge of the Peace tries civil cases
+involving interests up to £50, and criminal cases involving
+a year’s punishment or less. Appeal from his
+decision may be made to a periodical meeting of Judges
+of the Peace for the district. At the court of Assizes,
+which consists of from three to nine persons with a
+president, trial is made by jury. The names of persons
+liable to serve are put into an urn, from which 36
+are drawn by lot. From these the procureur, who is
+the public prosecutor, may, without assigning any
+reason, strike off eight, and likewise the prisoner’s
+advocate a greater number, bringing them down to 14.
+Then, if this jury decide that the prisoner be guilty, the
+opinion is asked of both procureur and advocate as
+to what punishment, according to the code, in their
+opinion should be inflicted; after which the president
+gives the decision of the court. The Senate is simply
+a court of appeal—does not re-try cases, but merely
+judges whether or not in the lower court the law has
+been rightly administered.</p>
+
+<p>Trial by jury is not yet introduced into Siberia,
+but offenders are judged by a tribunal consisting of
+odd numbers, of not more than seven nor less than
+three. The tribunal is a standing institution, the
+members of which are paid according to their grade—from
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span>
+about £70 to £100 a year. A procureur (who is
+an officer of the Government) prosecutes; and a barrister,
+retained by the prisoner, defends. Witnesses
+are called on both sides, and the tribunal decides by a
+majority of votes whether the prisoner be guilty or not.
+In case of even numbers being present, or of equal
+voting, the president has a vote and a half; but should
+the president be absent, and there be an even number
+for and against the prisoner, then the defendant in this
+and all similar cases has the benefit of the doubt.
+Should a verdict of guilty be returned, the tribunal
+decides the punishment according to the regulation of
+the code. In capital or important cases, however, in
+Siberia, such as murder, the judgment of the tribunal
+must be confirmed by the Governor-General; and
+hence, when the vastness of the country is considered,
+it will be seen why prisoners sometimes wait so long uncondemned.
+Suppose, for instance, a man commits a
+murder in a place which happens to be at a distance
+from the town where a tribunal sits. Some one goes
+to the authorities, deposes that a murder has been
+committed, gives evidence in writing, and the culprit
+is arrested. If the culprit can find bail he may remain
+free till wanted (in Russia it is enough for this purpose
+to deposit, as a guarantee of returning, a certain sum of
+money); but if unable to find bail he must go to prison
+till he can be sent, suppose, to Nikolaefsk. If it be
+winter, it would be too costly—the Amur being frozen—to
+send him by horses; he must therefore wait till
+the following June for the opening of the navigation.
+Then, having proceeded to Nikolaefsk, he is tried,
+perhaps within a week, found guilty, and his punishment
+determined, after which it is necessary that the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span>
+papers concerning his case be sent to the Governor-General
+at Irkutsk, a distance, there and back, of 5,000
+miles; and so the prisoner must wait till his sentence
+is confirmed. Meanwhile he is supplied with a paper,
+which is, I presume, his ticket of indictment.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_23" href="#Footnote_2_23" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>Whether, when the case is fully ended, the prisoner
+keeps this or a similar paper, I am not quite sure. I am
+under the impression that he does, at all events whilst
+he is on the road to his destination; and, further, that
+these papers serve as capital on which the prisoners
+exercise their ingenuity for their mutual convenience.
+I mean in this fashion: Ivan Nepomnoostchi has a
+ticket condemning him to five years’ labour in the coal-mines
+of Sakhalin, whilst the ticket of Augustus
+Poniatowski condemns him for a similar time to the
+gold-mines of Kara. For reasons best known to
+themselves, the one prefers country life and a cottage
+or prison near a wood, whilst the other inclines to a
+residence at the sea-side. So they change their tickets,
+their names, and, as far as they can, their beings, and
+sometimes manage in this way to effect what they wish.
+I have even heard of prisoners inducing those who
+are free to exchange places with them, the bargain
+being effected of course by money, and carried out
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span>
+whilst a gang of several hundreds is marching on to a
+steamer, for instance, where heads are counted, but
+where they cannot recognize faces. Goryantchikoff
+represents the “changing of names” as taking place
+in the presence of prisoner witnesses, and when several
+of the party are more or less intoxicated, the price
+given being sometimes as much as 30 or 40 roubles.
+All are bound to secrecy by esoteric law, and as the
+man receiving the money generally spends it quickly
+in drink and so cannot restore it, he not infrequently
+finds, when too late, that he has sold his liberty, or
+exchanged a lighter to receive a heavier punishment for
+a few glasses of brandy. This is dangerous work,
+however, for at some of the jails they take down a
+full description of the prisoners, though they do not
+usually photograph them, as in England. At Alexandreffsky,
+for instance, they have a large book, the
+pages of which are filled with columns headed as
+follows:—Name, age, crime, and punishment; from
+whence; appearance; term of punishment; arrival;
+single or married; religion; date of sentence; from
+what prison in Russia; remarks, etc.</p>
+
+<p>I am not sure that I have given all the process by
+which they manage the transfer of tickets, but what is
+written may perhaps render intelligible the crime
+charged upon a roomful of prisoners at Irkutsk, who,
+we were told, had been “changing their names.”</p>
+
+<p>The present state of things, however, as regards
+prisons and exiles, must, as already stated, be regarded
+as temporary, since the reforms of 1860 have
+been now extended as far as the Urals, and it is only
+a question of money when they shall be spread to
+Siberia also.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_22" href="#FNanchor_1_22" class="label">[1]</a> Some statistics with which we were favoured from Kansk for the
+previous year, 1878, give interesting facts, showing the ages of criminals
+when they committed their crimes, their education, condition as to
+marriage, religion, place of birth, and also their repetition of crimes. It
+should be borne in mind, however, that the figures refer only to a small
+district of Eastern Siberia, an <i lang="ru">okrug</i> or circle, 200 miles in diameter,
+and with a population of 40,000. They are therefore primarily of local
+value, though in their general aspects they are highly suggestive. The
+number of criminals was 121 male and 61 female: in all, 182. Of
+these there were 31 from 17 to 21 years of age; 83 from 21 to 33; 45
+from 38 to 45; and 33 from 45 to 70. The figures, too, show curiously
+enough that up to the age of 33 the proportion of male criminals is largely
+in excess of the females, but that after that age this order is reversed, and
+the proportion of female prisoners preponderates over that of the males.
+Of the entire number, 182, not one is marked “well educated,” only 46
+could read and write, and 136 could do neither; 129 out of 182 were
+married, leaving 53 widows, bachelors, and spinsters. With respect to
+religious profession, they were classified thus: 112 were orthodox Russians,
+and 19 of other Christian denominations; 34 were Jews, and 17 of other
+non-Christian religions: 180 were born in the province; 22 had offended
+twice, and 3 had done so thrice.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_23" href="#FNanchor_2_23" class="label">[2]</a> The following is a translation of such a paper, which is divided into
+six columns, with a printed heading to each, and filled up as follows:—</p>
+
+<ol>
+<li>Surname, patronym, Christian name, and occupation of prisoner.
+(<i>Gregory, son of Nicholas M——, a peasant.</i>)</li>
+
+<li>Age. (39.)</li>
+
+<li>Crime. (<i>Wrong passport.</i>)</li>
+
+<li>When and by whose order imprisoned. (<i>On 9 April. Tomsk district
+police.</i>)</li>
+
+<li>When the case was tried and how it stands. (<i>Terminated on 4 May,
+1879. Now under revision.</i>)</li>
+
+<li>Remarks. (<i>He begs it may be quickly ended.</i>)</li>
+</ol>
+
+</div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">
+    CHAPTER VII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>SIBERIAN PRISONS (continued).</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Charitable committees.—Prison food.—Clothing.—Work.—Hard labour.—Exercise.—Amusements.—Privileges.—Intercourse
+with friends.—Punishments.—Capital punishment.—Corporal
+punishment.—Irons.—Prison discipline.—Flogging.—Exceptional severities.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> Russians introduce or allow the introduction
+into their prisons of an ameliorating influence,
+in the form of local committees, for furthering the
+temporal welfare of the prisoners. “You see,” said
+to me the president of one of these committees, “we
+have two elements in the government of our prisoners.
+The police strive for the letter of the law, whilst we
+strive for kindness to the prisoner.” Thus justice and
+mercy go hand in hand; and when they happen to fall
+out, I fancy that in Siberia, after their easy-going
+fashion, mercy not unfrequently wins the day. Whether
+all prisons have local committees I do not know; but
+we came in contact with the operations of several.
+The members take upon themselves to superintend,
+clothe, and educate the children of prisoners; and in
+more than one place we found admirable asylums built
+for this purpose. They also lend a helping hand to
+prisoners’ wives, and at Irkutsk we found they had
+supplied the prison with a library. Their exertions,
+however, do not stop here; for they look after and in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span>
+some cases improve and augment the prisoners’ food.
+The Government allows for each prisoner so much
+money a day. At Ekaterineburg, for instance, to the
+common exiles 10 kopecks; to the upper classes 15
+kopecks. At Irkutsk we met an upper-class prisoner who
+had 17½ kopecks, which he received in money. The
+prisoners who remain at Ekaterineburg are allowed 6
+kopecks a day. Instead, however, of each spending
+his 6 kopecks, the whole is taken and dispensed by
+the committee in the purchase for the general caldron
+of meat, vegetables, etc.; and they somehow manage
+out of threehalfpence a head to give to each prisoner
+two dishes of food. Whether the committee appeal to
+the public for funds I know not. At Tomsk we heard
+that each director of the prison committee gave his
+ten roubles annually, whilst from the neighbouring
+villages were brought presents of flour and other kinds
+of food. Again, it is common to see, outside prison
+gates, boxes in which may be placed offerings for the
+welfare of the prisoners; and such is the liberality of
+the people in this direction, especially on festivals, that
+in Petersburg those detained get more Easter eggs
+than they can eat. All this speaks of kindness on the
+part of the public towards prisoners, in which particular
+I know no nation that equals the Russian. Further
+allusion will be made to this hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>Apart, however, from these philanthropic efforts, the
+reader will perhaps get a better idea of Siberian prison
+diet from details which came under our own observation.
+At Tiumen each man was said to receive daily 2½ lbs.
+(Russian) of bread, ½ lb. of meat on ordinary days, and
+¾ lb. on holidays, with salt, pepper, etc., also a daily
+allowance of quass for drink. The fare in Tobolsk prison
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span>
+was the same, a bucketful of quass or small-beer being
+provided for every ten men. At Nikolaefsk I heard of
+corned beef and <i lang="ru">kash</i>, or corn, substituted for vegetables.
+At the Alexandreffsky prison they had ½ lb. of meat,
+including the bone, and 2½ lbs. of bread. At Kara,
+however, where the men work in the mines, the allowance
+is still more liberal. Each receives daily 4 lbs.
+of bread, 1 lb. of meat, ¼ lb. of buckwheat, with tea,
+but no quass.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_24" href="#Footnote_1_24" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> At Kara, when not working, they
+receive 3 lbs. of bread, ½ lb. of meat, and 1/12th of a lb.
+of buckwheat. We found in some of the prisons that,
+if they do not eat all their food, the prisoners may sell
+the remainder; or again, the surplus bread may be used
+for making quass, which, when given, always comes, I
+believe, from these “economies.” The diet, however,
+is considerably affected by the rigour with which fast-days
+are observed in the prisons. Every Wednesday
+and Friday are fast-days, and there are four great
+annual fasts, with an aggregate of at least a hundred
+days, so that there are probably quite half the days in
+the year when the prisoners get fast diet, which excludes
+flesh food. I understood, however, that this does not
+apply to those at hard labour; while other prisoners,
+during some of the long fasts, receive fish and fish-soup—the
+latter <i lang="la">ad libitum</i>. So at least it is at
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span>
+Tobolsk. If a man happens to be in a position to buy
+tea or such luxuries, he may do so, and his friends may,
+if they please, bring him food daily. Thus a man
+ought not to starve in a Siberian prison.</p>
+
+<p>Nor is he left without clothing. Prisoners awaiting
+their trial, also exiles losing partial rights, may, if they
+choose, wear their own clothes, or, if they have none
+suitable, they are supplied by the Government. Those
+who lose all their rights, however, must wear convicts’
+clothing. This consists, in summer, of a linen shirt and
+pair of trousers, and a peasant’s coat of camel’s hair,
+a specimen of which last I bought for five shillings.
+Those condemned to hard labour have two yellow
+diamond-shaped patches sewn on the back; those
+without labour have one piece only. Other marks of
+a similar character indicate the province from which
+they come. At Kara a coat of felt is given yearly.
+A shirt must last six months, and is washed once a
+week; whilst in summer a pair of rough leather shoes
+or slippers is served out every 22 days. Those working
+in the mines are provided also with leather gloves.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_25" href="#Footnote_2_25" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>Concerning their labour, I seriously avow my belief
+that in many cases the hardest part of a Siberian prisoner’s
+lot is not the work imposed upon him, but the
+<em>absence</em> of it. This appeared to prevail among the
+prisoners up to Kara.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span></p>
+
+<p>I met at different places two Poles, who came to
+the east condemned to hard labour, but who got off
+exceedingly lightly. What one said amounted to this:
+that if he liked to work he worked, but if not he let it
+alone. The authorities told me, in one instance, that
+they cannot now find enough work for the exiles.
+Many of the mines have passed from Government into
+private hands, and some even of those remaining are
+more or less exhausted. Hence a part of the Russian
+criminals, who of old would probably have been exiled,
+are now detained in large prisons in European Russia,
+such as at Pskof, Wilna, Kharkhof, Orenburg, Simbirsk,
+Perm, etc.; but the plan has only lessened, not removed,
+the difficulty of finding useful yet laborious occupation
+for the condemned. When, therefore, it is remembered
+that a large number of the criminals cannot read, and
+that for those who can there has hitherto been, to say
+the least, but a poor supply of books, the tedium can
+be easily imagined of imprisonment without work in
+Siberia. Accordingly, it was little matter for surprise
+that we heard at Alexandreffsky of prisoners begging
+for work. In some of the prisons opportunities are
+afforded for the detained to work, which gives them
+employment, and also enables them to earn a little
+money with which to buy comforts. Some, however,
+are condemned to labour, which labour may be done
+for the Government direct, or it may be let out
+by the Government to private persons or companies,
+as at Kara, where some of the convicts work in
+private mines belonging to the Emperor, and at Dui
+in Sakhalin, where the coal-mines are worked by a
+commercial company.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the work of convicts, when they are put to it,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span>
+is mainly of three degrees of severity,—that of the
+fabric, the zavod, and the mines, which I understand
+to mean as follows. Fabric work is that of a manufactory,
+or the labour of ordinary mechanics, such as
+carpenters, blacksmiths, joiners, shoemakers, tailors,
+etc. The best Russian prison I have seen of this kind
+was at Petersburg, on the Wiborg side of the Neva,
+which had almost the busy hum of a factory, where
+everything seemed well arranged and kept going; but
+in the prisons of Tobolsk, which I understood to be of
+this character, there seemed an insufficient number of
+workshops in proportion to the number of criminals.
+The word <i lang="ru">zavod</i> is synonymous with our “works”
+for the founding and casting of metals; and for this,
+I presume, is sometimes substituted heavy outdoor or
+indoor work, such as making bricks, mending roads,
+or manufacturing salt. But of this class of work we
+saw next to none, save a handful of men at Alexandreffsky,
+returning from making bricks. Once more,
+the mines are of at least three sorts—gold, silver, and
+coal. The work of the gold-mines resembles the labour
+of English navvies in making a cutting, whilst that of
+silver and coal, being underground, is more difficult.
+From reports I heard, however, of these latter two, it
+did not appear that the convicts were by any means
+overworked; but further details upon this matter will be
+furnished hereafter. Those condemned to the hardest
+labour need, of course, no special time for exercise. The
+prisoners without labour are allowed at Alexandreffsky
+an hour a day for this purpose, which appeared to me
+too little. More generally, however, we found they had
+a happy-go-lucky way, especially in the smaller prisons,
+of opening the doors in the morning, and letting the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span>
+prisoners, if they did not misbehave themselves, go in
+and out of the yard as they liked—to sleep, talk, or
+bask in the sun, and in some cases to smoke.</p>
+
+<p>I am not aware that the authorities permit the
+prisoners any amusements, though it has been already
+intimated that they find them for themselves—sometimes
+in the shape of cards, with which, if report be
+true, having nothing else to play for, they gamble
+away their food.</p>
+
+<p>But we have not yet exhausted the prisoners’ privileges.
+Here are some more of them, though probably
+they are not the same in all the prisons. According to
+a convict’s behaviour he is placed in a certain category;
+and the longer he remains therein, and the better he
+behaves, the more ameliorations he gets. For instance,
+if a man condemned to fifteen years’ hard labour conducts
+himself well, he serves only thirteen years and
+two months, and, towards the end of the time, gains
+certain other privileges. If condemned to wear irons
+four years, he may, in a similar manner, lessen the
+time by one-third; if in the higher category, he receives
+15 per cent. of what he earns by working for the
+Government, and in his spare time he may work on
+his own account; if in the lower category, he earns
+money, but it is withheld until he advances higher. At
+Alexandreffsky prisoners may receive money from their
+friends, up to a rouble a week, but not more. At Kara
+some prisoners are not allowed thus to receive money,
+but I heard of others there who receive as much as
+£15 a year, and who also receive visits once or twice
+a week from, not mere acquaintances—which is not
+allowed—but their families, who may also daily, if they
+please, bring them food.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span></p>
+
+<p>I was told at one large prison that, strictly speaking,
+it was not permitted to prisoners (except political ones)
+to write to their friends, which seemed to confirm what
+I had heard and what I have written elsewhere. But
+unofficial persons denied this, saying that prisoners are
+free to write, and this also we heard at some of the
+prisons. The two statements may perhaps be reconciled
+thus: that it is one of those cases (and there are
+many such in Siberian prisons) in which the letter of
+the law is supposed to be more honoured in the breach
+than in the observance.</p>
+
+<p>Once more, if men are well behaved, they get, before
+the expiration of a long sentence, into a position comparatively
+comfortable. They are allowed to live outside
+the prison with their wives and families; they
+may have their house and garden, still working a
+certain number of hours per day, and obliged to be
+in their homes by night; but otherwise they are free
+to do what they list, and are much in the same position
+as that of an ordinary labourer.</p>
+
+<p>I have yet to speak of punishments, which are of two
+kinds—those decreed by the civil courts and courts
+martial, and those subsequently incurred in Siberia.
+Concerning the former two, it is not quite accurate to
+say that in Russia there is no capital punishment, since
+there are at least three offences for which death is the
+penalty, namely: (1) offences against the persons of
+the Imperial family, and certain laws concerning them;
+(2) military crimes, or, what is equivalent, crimes committed
+when a place is in a state of siege; (3) breaking
+quarantine laws, such as permitting a vessel with infectious
+diseases to come into a Russian port. But
+in these cases culprits are turned over to a military
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span>
+tribunal, which alone can sentence to death; in accordance
+with which I was told of a case happening in
+1877 in Sakhalin, wherein some convicts, with much
+brutality, killed a whole family, and were sentenced to
+be shot; but this is rare, and since the convicts had
+already lost all rights, it would perhaps be considered
+hardly an exception to the rule that murder in Russia
+is not followed by capital punishment.</p>
+
+<p>Nor, again, does the Russian law inflict upon any
+<em>free</em> man corporal punishment. The knout has been
+abolished for some years. They do, however, put their
+prisoners in irons, which for the legs weigh from about
+five to nine pounds English; and if a man rebels, he
+may get them as heavy as fourteen pounds. I was
+told, however, that the new chains weigh only five
+pounds. Those for the wrists weigh two pounds.</p>
+
+<p>As to the period for wearing them, accounts differed.
+At Alexandreffsky, up to eighteen months usually; at
+Kara, four years; whilst, at Tobolsk, it was said that
+prisoners might be in chains from two months to eight
+years. The manner of carrying the fetters is as follows.
+Over the leg is worn a coarse woollen stocking, and
+over that a piece of thick linen cloth; then come the
+trousers, over which is bound on the shins a pad of
+leather. A stranger might wonder at first how the
+trousers could be taken off; and to satisfy our curiosity,
+a prisoner in Tiumen showed us how it was done,
+which gave me the opportunity to observe, when his
+leg was bare, that it had no marks from wearing the
+irons. On each leg a ring is not locked, but <em>riveted</em>.
+To these rings is attached a chain of about three feet
+in length, which, for convenience in walking, is usually
+suspended in the middle by a string from the waist.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span>
+This may seem severe enough for English ideas of the
+present day, but I saw heavier on the legs of two
+murderers in America. Russian chains, however, are
+playthings compared with some to be seen in Finland,
+and which I have put on. In bringing the prisoners
+in Finland from the country districts to the towns,
+they make use of the farmers’ carts; and it sometimes
+happens that the cart is waylaid by accomplices, and
+the prisoner delivered. To prevent this, therefore,
+they in some cases put on an extraordinary suit of
+irons, which outdo those I saw even in China. First,
+there is a collar for the neck and a girdle for the body,
+which two are connected by means of chains, the hands
+likewise being fastened to the girdle. On each ankle
+is put an iron stirrup or socket, which projects over
+the front of the feet far enough to receive through its
+holes a heavy iron bar, weighing thirty-six pounds,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span>
+the whole weight of which is made to rest on the
+prisoner’s insteps and to connect the feet. Then from
+the middle of the bar comes another chain, fastening
+it to the girdle. The whole is of iron, and weighs
+about 108 lbs. It should be added that these are
+seldom used in Finland, and then only for desperate
+characters; but in Russia no such chains exist. The
+heaviest of the Russian irons are about the weight,
+I imagine, of those formerly in use in England, if one
+may judge from the pair called “Jack Sheppard’s
+irons,” which are kept as a curiosity in Newgate.
+Moreover, if report be true, there is a good deal of
+<em>hocus-pocus</em> connected with Siberian fetters. To an
+ordinary observer the fetters look riveted on in such
+a manner that without a smith it would appear impossible
+to get them off. The largeness of the rings,
+however, to allow of their fitting over the stocking, the
+bandage of linen, the trousers, and then the leather
+gaiter, will make it probable that, on the removal of
+these bandages, it may be possible in some cases to
+slip out the naked foot. However that may be, I
+heard from another source, not to be doubted, that a
+certain governor of a province, on visiting one of his
+prisons, was moved with compassion, and ordered that
+the chains should be struck off the prisoners; upon
+which they wriggled and kicked them off with such
+alacrity as to leave no doubt on his mind that they
+had been donned as uniform in which to receive his
+Excellency’s visit. A released prisoner has told me
+that so dexterous do they become in pressing the
+thumb into the palm of the hand, that they used to
+slip off their handcuffs and sleep without them. M.
+Andreoli also mentions in his account that, whilst on
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span>
+the march, the payment of four roubles to the soldiers
+in charge got them free of the chain to which they
+were attached, on the understanding, however, that
+the guard should not be got into trouble by any one
+running away, and that the iron should be properly
+affixed when approaching the town or their resting-place
+for the night. He also mentions that, in a
+drove of 147 prisoners, there were 21—that is, a
+seventh—wearing chains. Throughout Siberia I saw
+only one man wearing handcuffs; but, in Western
+Siberia, chains were seen on the legs of many—how
+many I cannot say, but less, I should think, than a
+seventh; and this proportion markedly decreased as we
+proceeded further east.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp54" id="p0860_ill" style="max-width: 49.125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p0860_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      A FINNISH MURDERER IN TRAVELLING IRONS.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>The courts sometimes order a man—generally
+one who has run away repeatedly—to be chained, on
+reaching his destination, to a barrow or implement,
+which thus always accompanies him wherever he may
+go. A doctor informed me that he had seen a prisoner’s
+ticket with such a doom thereon within the previous
+twelve months; and I heard that at Sakhalin one or
+two ferocious characters were thus confined; but I saw
+none. There were none, I found on inquiry, among
+the two thousand at Kara; and such treatment was
+said to be exceedingly rare.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to punishments inflicted for insubordination
+to prison authorities, or for subsequent crimes
+of convicts, the mildest form is incarceration in a
+solitary cell. A man is next deprived, in part, of food
+and minor comforts, as in England. Then, if not
+already in irons, he may have them put on; or, if this
+do not suffice, he may be “birched,” after the fashion
+in which our fathers corrected us. I witnessed this
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span>
+performance at Nikolaefsk. Having heard on a
+Saturday—which is there the day for flogging—that
+a man was to receive 60 stripes with the rod,
+I thought it right, since the visitation of prisons
+was my speciality, to go and see it, and thus shirk
+no occasion of witnessing with my eyes what I
+learned through my ears. The man was a released
+convict, of horrible countenance, who had served his
+time in confinement, and was subsequently taken as a
+joiner into a merchant’s establishment, and he had
+rewarded his employer by robbing him. Accordingly,
+in the police station, he was brought from his room to
+the presence of the police-master. Behind the culprit
+stood a Cossack, and at his side a clerk, who read over
+his sentence. The prisoner then signed the paper, to
+signify that he had heard it read, and was marched
+back to another room and placed on the floor, with his
+back laid bare, one Cossack holding his head and
+another his feet. Two soldiers then inflicted the stripes
+successively, whilst a third counted aloud the number
+administered. The man wriggled and roared, and the
+skin became very red, but I saw no blood, and the
+operation was soon over.</p>
+
+<p>I came away, I confess, considerably perturbed; but
+the Nikolaefsk folks said that was <em>nothing</em>, and further
+informed me that, for the commission of other than very
+serious offences, they frequently deal in this summary
+manner with released convicts, both male and female.
+The switches composing the rod, according to M.
+Andreoli, must, by law, be sufficiently small to allow
+of three being passed together into the muzzle of a
+musket. Those I saw reminded me of a dame’s birch,
+save that they were longer, and the switches somewhat
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span>
+stouter than those formerly seen in schools—indeed, <i lang="fr">facsimiles</i>
+of those used in the prison of Cold Bath Fields
+in London. A marvellous feature of the case is that
+some of the men (ay, and women too) not only receive
+the rod, but laugh and are impudent after it. One of
+my hosts in another town told me that some years
+ago, soon after the Amur came into the hands of the
+Russians, he was robbed by a soldier of some clothes,
+upon which the police-master sentenced the thief to
+receive 500 stripes with the birch rod; but the governor
+hearing of it increased the number to 1,100. My host
+was asked if he were willing to see the stripes inflicted;
+and, going at five in the morning, he saw 500 administered.
+As the man lay on the grass, and as each
+rod was worn out, it was replaced by a new one from
+a heap lying by. The prosecutor begged that the rest
+might be remitted, and came away. The whole number,
+however, were administered, and the man was kept
+in the hospital for a fortnight, at the end of which time
+he came to his prosecutor to ask for a glass of grog,
+and said that for a bottleful of spirits he would not
+mind having another 1,100 if it might again be followed
+by a fine time in the hospital!</p>
+
+<p>I heard of others laughing at the birch. But there
+is yet one thing they fear, and that is a whip called the
+“<i lang="ru">troichatka</i>,” or “<i lang="fr">plète</i>.” I forewarn the reader that
+the treatment of this subject may harrow his feelings;
+yet, if a writer is to present a true picture of what has
+come under his observation, he must delineate not only
+the lights of his picture but the shadows also. The
+author of “Tom Brown’s School Days,” when about
+to describe a fight at Rugby, recommends any of his
+readers who feel particularly sensitive to skip the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span>
+chapter; and I venture to give similar advice with
+regard to the next few paragraphs.</p>
+
+<p>The knout, as already said, has been abolished for
+some years, notwithstanding the persistent introduction
+of this instrument into the pages of some of the vindictive
+class of writers on Russian affairs. I found it
+had been discontinued sufficiently long to make it
+difficult for me to get an explanation of what it used
+to be like. M. Pietrowski, in his “Story of a Siberian
+Exile,” De Lagny, and one or two other writers of his
+class, do their very best to invest the knout with every
+horror, and to make it appear that a long strip of flesh
+was torn off the culprit’s back at every stroke. A
+more trustworthy account is that of M. Andreoli, which
+I am the more disposed to believe, because it agrees
+pretty accurately with the description of the instrument
+given me by an old man who had seen it used
+at Chita. The Russian post-drivers still use for their
+horses what they call a “knout,” which is a short
+whip like a heavy English hunting-whip, only that the
+lash consists of three or four pieces of twisted hide
+linked together continuously by metal rings. It makes
+a formidable instrument even for driving a horse. But
+on comparing this with our two descriptions, I make
+no doubt that the genuine knout for criminals was a
+somewhat similar whip to that now employed sometimes
+for horses. M. Andreoli gives it a handle from
+one to two inches in diameter, and 9 inches in length.
+At the top of the handle is a ring, then a lash of raw
+hide 18 inches long, with a ring at the end; then a
+second lash and ring; and thirdly came the part
+which is the “knout” proper, namely, a flat lash of
+hard leather, 21 inches long, bent to a curve and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span>
+ending with a hook something like the beak of a bird—the
+entire length of handle and lash being 2½ <i lang="ru">arshines</i>,
+or nearly 6 feet. The instrument used to be wielded
+by a convict, who received his liberty or certain privileges
+for doing this work. I heard from a lawyer that
+the public flagellator in Moscow was so skilful in the
+manipulation of his weapon, that he could with it snip
+a cigarette off a window without breaking the glass,
+or at a single blow break an inch board, and, therefore,
+the spine of a man’s back. He was said to have
+found his profession so lucrative that, when his daughter
+married, he gave her a dowry of 60,000 roubles, at
+that time equal to, say, £9,000. He made his money
+from those he flogged. The law demanded that the
+person to be beaten should receive a certain number
+of stripes, but did not exact that the recipient should
+suffer; and thus, when well paid, this hero let the
+knout fall lightly—so, at least, the story goes.</p>
+
+<p>The “<i lang="ru">troichatka</i>,” or “<i lang="fr">plète</i>,” is a whip of twisted
+hide, fastened to a handle 10 inches long and an inch
+thick. The lash, about the same thickness at the top
+as the handle, tapers for 12 inches, and then divides
+in three smaller lashes, 25 inches long, and about the
+size of the little finger, the whole measuring 4 feet in
+length, and weighing nearly 15 ounces. M. Pietrowski
+represents the plète as consisting of “three thongs
+weighted at the ends with balls of lead.” The balls
+of lead, however, if I mistake not, are a piece of
+invention to harrow the feelings. At all events, none
+of those I saw (and I saw a boxful) had anything
+attached to the lashes, nor did they need it, for the
+instrument is quite severe enough in itself. From
+20 to 50 lashes is the number usually given, though
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span>
+they may go up to 100. The criminal is bound to
+a thick board, wide at the top and narrowed towards
+the bottom, called a <i lang="ru">kobyla</i>, or “mare,” which, by
+means of an iron leg, is made to incline at an angle
+of about 30 degrees. At the upper end of the board
+are three places hollowed out to receive in the centre
+the face and head, and on either side the hands, all
+which are bound down with leather thongs. A little
+lower and at either side are two iron loops, which confine
+the arms, whilst the feet are secured at the bottom.
+At an execution (for such as described to me by eye-witnesses
+it almost amounts to) a medical man and
+some of the authorities must be present. The convict
+executioner takes three or more plètes, and, having
+stretched them to render them supple, takes up his
+position about 10 yards distant, walks quickly to secure
+a momentum, and brings down the lash with full
+force on the lower part of the culprit’s back. This
+he repeats two or three times, letting the lash fall in
+the same place. Then he walks from the other side,
+so as to bring it down in a different direction, and,
+after a few strokes, changes his whip and walks from a
+third point, the strokes thus falling upon the man
+something in the shape of a star or an asterisk.
+M. Andreoli intimates that the flagellator is often
+bribed by the culprit or his friends, in which case
+he brings down the first blow with terrible severity,
+making the poor creature writhe and scream horribly,
+but then diminishes the force of his blows as he
+proceeds; whereas, if he be not bribed, he begins
+gently and gradually increases in severity, which is far
+worse. He has, however, to be wary, for if he does
+not strike hard enough he is threatened with twenty-five
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span>
+stripes for himself, which were given the summer
+before my visit to an executioner in Nikolaefsk. Most
+descriptions of this punishment represent the culprit’s
+back as raw, and running with blood—and it is better
+for the man when this is the case. A skilful flagellator
+draws little or no blood, and more pain is caused when
+the skin simply rises in wales; but, when this is the
+case, mortification sometimes sets in, and the prisoner
+speedily dies. One thus thrashed in the morning had
+died at night during the week preceding that in which
+I received my information.</p>
+
+<p>Before passing from this dreadful subject I wish to
+make quite clear what was told me: that no man for
+the first offence can, by Russian law, be condemned to
+corporal punishment. Also I was given to understand,
+by a legal authority, that the plète exists only at three
+places in Siberia—Kara, Nikolaefsk, and Sakhalin,
+(though I was informed by a released exile that he saw
+it, 15 years ago, at Chita, and nearly everywhere,) so
+that only the very worst criminals ever see it at all.
+If they were moderate offenders they would not be so
+far east, and those who get it have usually gone through
+deportation, prison, and irons, and yet remain incorrigible.
+Also it should be remembered that in these
+localities the inhabitants are few, and are surrounded
+by hundreds of convicts or ex-convicts; that a very
+large proportion of the women-servants, and men-servants
+too, are of the same class, some of them not
+having even finished their terms; and that, in addition
+to these ex-prisoners, who are supposed to be corrected
+and better behaved, a considerable number of the worst
+characters are constantly escaping. More than 100
+escaped from Sakhalin, I was told, the winter before
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span>
+my visit. When free, they make for Nikolaefsk to
+escape starvation, caring little what they do. In 1877
+three convicts, to get the paltry sum of £12, brutally
+killed a woman and put her down a well. Hence the
+inhabitants say that, were they not defended by some
+very strong deterrents, they would not be safe a
+moment, since, if a man commit half-a-dozen murders,
+he knows he is not to be hanged.</p>
+
+<p>I have thus forced myself to mention all the kinds
+of punishment, painful as some of them are, that came
+under my observation or to my knowledge in Siberia;
+and I have done so in part because I desired to leave
+no room for uneasy suspicions that aught had been
+kept back from the reader. Moreover, I should not
+think it right to contradict the many false statements
+which have appeared from time to time concerning the
+punishment of Siberian exiles without giving a picture
+of things as I really found them.</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, my conviction is that, if a Russian
+exile behaves himself decently well, he may in Siberia
+be more comfortable than in many, and as comfortable
+as in most, of the prisons of the world. There are yet
+other points to be mentioned in connection with Siberian
+prisons, but these can be best treated of as we
+visit, in succession, the various towns in which they
+are situated.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_24" href="#FNanchor_1_24" class="label">[1]</a> If this highest scale of Siberian diet be compared with the highest
+scale in the prisons of England and Wales, as printed in the Reports of
+the Commissioners, Inspectors, and others for 1878, it will be found that
+the English prisoner gets per week of bread 10 lbs. against the Russian
+25; the Englishman has 8 oz. of cooked meat and 14 pints of soup against
+the Russian’s 6 lbs. of meat; whilst the Russian has besides 1½ lb. of buckwheat
+and tea against the Englishman’s 5 lbs. of potatoes, 1½ lb. of suet
+pudding, 14 pints of porridge and cocoa. In fact, the Englishman has
+per week 17½ lbs. of solid food, 3 pints of soup, 14 pints of porridge and
+cocoa, whilst the Russian has 33 lbs. of solid food, and tea.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_25" href="#FNanchor_2_25" class="label">[2]</a> The annual cost of provisions for each prisoner at Kara is 65 roubles
+and 72¾ kopecks—say £6 10<i>s.</i>, and for men’s clothing 39 roubles 8⅜
+kopecks, or £4. Women’s clothing is rather less expensive, so that the
+annual cost for food and clothing of men is £10 10<i>s.</i>, and of women £10.
+In the new prison at Petersburg my notes give 25 kopecks a day as the
+cost for each prisoner, 15 kopecks being spent for food. This represents
+for the year 91 roubles 25 kopecks (rather more than £9), and 54 roubles
+75 kopecks (£5 10<i>s.</i>) respectively, and excludes, I presume, the item of
+clothing, since this prison at the capital is for those awaiting trial, and
+who consequently wear their own clothes.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">
+    CHAPTER VIII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE OBI.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Dimensions of river.—Its tributaries.—Province of Tobolsk.—Geographical
+features.—Population.—Voguls.—Samoyedes.—Intemperance.—Commercial
+prospects of Obi.—Siberian produce.—Corn land.—Timber.—Cost
+of provisions.—Carriage.—Discoveries of Wiggins.—Followed
+by Nordenskiöld.—Ship-building at Tiumen.—Navigation
+of Kara Sea.—Books on basin of Obi.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> Obi is one of the largest rivers of the Old
+Continent, and seems destined to play an important
+part in opening up to commerce the immense
+wealth of Western Siberia. Something, therefore,
+should be said of this enormous stream, and the
+province of Tobolsk through which it flows. The basin
+of the river contains more than a million and a quarter
+of square miles; an area nearly 2,000 miles in length,
+and, at the widest part, 1,200 in breadth.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_26" href="#Footnote_1_26" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> This vast
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span>
+area is covered with a network of streams, navigable
+from the Arctic Ocean to the best parts of Western
+Siberia, the importance of which can hardly be overestimated,
+when it is borne in mind that the success of
+recent enterprise has demonstrated the possibility of
+carrying produce by water to Europe.</p>
+
+<p>But let us now speak of the province, inhabitants, and
+aborigines of Tobolsk, which, though not the largest,
+is at once the oldest and by far the most populous of
+the governments of Siberia. It extends from the frozen
+ocean down to the 55th parallel, a distance of 1,200
+miles from north to south, and of 700 miles in its widest
+part from east to west, its total area covering 800,000
+square miles—a country, that is to say, seven times as
+large as Great Britain and Ireland. The surface, save
+where the western border approaches the Urals, is flat—so
+flat, indeed, that Tobolsk, which is 550 miles from
+the sea, is only 378 feet above its level. It has no
+large lakes, but there are several small ones, from
+which salt is obtained.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_27" href="#Footnote_2_27" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span></p>
+
+<p>Ethnographically considered, the province is not so
+varied as some others, the people being for the most
+part Russians, Tatars, Voguls, Ostjaks, or Samoyedes;
+the Tatars belonging to the Turkish, and the Voguls
+and Ostjaks to the Finnish stock. Some writers
+classify the Samoyedes as Finns, but Mr. Howorth
+considers they should be treated as a race apart.
+Mr. Rae, in his “Land of the North Wind,” and Mr.
+Seebohm, in his “Siberia in Europe,” have recently
+given interesting information concerning the Samoyedes.</p>
+
+<p>The Voguls inhabit a district which coincides pretty
+closely with the ridge of the Northern Urals, and were
+estimated in 1876 at 5,000 in number. Their country
+makes them hillmen and foresters, for they lie within
+the northern limit of the fir and birch, in the country of
+the wolf, the bear, the sable, the glutton, the marten,
+the beaver, and the elk. They usually dress like the
+Russians, and live by hunting, for they have no plains
+for the breeding of cattle, and no climate for agriculture.
+They are said to use no salt. Their villages are scattered
+and small, consisting of from four to eight cabins.
+Obdorsk is their trading town. To this town, on the
+Arctic circle at the mouth of the Obi, come also the
+Samoyedes and Ostjaks, of which latter I shall speak
+as I saw them further east.</p>
+
+<p>The Samoyedes inhabit a larger tract of country,
+stretching along the shore of the frozen ocean from
+the north-east corner of Europe, all across the Tobolsk
+government to the Yenesei, descending to the region
+of the Ostjaks, and on some parts of the southern border
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span>
+to Tomsk. With the Samoyedes I felt already in a
+measure acquainted, partly by correspondence from my
+friend in Finland, and partly by a near approach to
+them in 1878, when I travelled to Archangel. Their
+numbers were estimated, in 1876, at 5,700. Their
+riches consist of herds of reindeer, which they pasture
+on the mosses of the vast bogs or <i lang="ru">tundras</i>, from which
+the animals in winter scrape the snow with their feet,
+and thus find their sustenance. To the Samoyede the
+reindeer is everything; when alive, the animal draws
+his sledge, and, when dead, its flesh is eaten and the
+skin used for tent and clothing.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp52" id="p1000_ill" style="max-width: 73.5625em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p1000_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      MY SAMOYEDE DRESS.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>At Archangel I bought a <i lang="ru">sovik</i> or tunic, a cap, and a
+wonderful pair of Samoyede boots; and as the Samoyede
+manner of dressing resembles in its main features that
+of other northern aborigines in Siberia, I may as well
+describe it particularly. In winter, then, to be in the
+(Samoyede) fashion, one should dress as follows:—First
+a pair of short trousers made of softened reindeer skin,
+fitting tight, and reaching down to the knee. Then
+stockings of <i lang="ru">peshki</i>, the skin of young fawns, with the hair
+inwards. Next come the boots, called <i lang="ru">poumé leepte</i>,
+which means boot-stockings, reaching almost to the
+thigh, the sole being made of old and hard reindeer hide,
+the hair pointing forward to diminish the possibility of
+slipping on the ice or snow. Common boots have the
+hair only on the outside. Mine are a gay “lady’s” pair,
+lined inside with the softest fur, and made of white
+reindeer skin without, sewn with stripes of darker skin,
+and ornamented in front with pieces of coloured cloth.
+The clothing of the lower limbs being completed, one
+must work one’s way from the bottom to the top of
+the tunic, or <i lang="ru">sovik</i>, which has an opening to put the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span>
+head through, and is furnished with sleeves. Mine
+has a high straight collar, but in some brought by Mr.
+Seebohm from the Yenesei this collar rises behind above
+the top of the head. The costume is completed by a
+cap of reindeer skin, with strings on either side ornamented
+with pieces of cloth. The hair of the <i lang="ru">sovik</i> is
+worn outside in fine weather, and inside when it rains;
+but when prolonged exposure to cold is apprehended,
+a second garment, called a “<i lang="ru">gus</i>,” is worn, with the
+hair outside, and a close-fitting hood, leaving exposed
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span>
+only a small portion of the face. The Ostjaks are
+said to have at the end of the sleeve a glove or
+mitten, made of the hardest hide of the reindeer, and
+suitable for heavy work, and also a slit under the wrist
+to allow of the fingers being put through for finer
+work. A girdle is worn round the loins, over which
+the <i lang="ru">sovik</i> laps a little, and thus forms a pocket for small
+articles.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp68" id="p1010_ill" style="max-width: 61.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p1010_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      SAMOYEDES OF ARCHANGEL.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>I have been told, by one well acquainted with the
+Samoyedes, that it is often very difficult to trade
+with them before giving a glass of <i lang="ru">vodka</i>, and that,
+when once given, they are irrepressible in clamouring
+for more. Men may sometimes be seen who have
+brought in their wares to barter for winter necessaries,
+and who will exchange the whole for spirits,
+and reduce themselves to beggary. This has caused
+the Russian Government to forbid the sale of spirits
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span>
+in these northern regions, but the traders smuggle
+them in.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_28" href="#Footnote_3_28" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>I must not forget to add that some pleasing accounts
+of the honesty of the Samoyedes and Ostjaks were
+related to us. The merchants of Tobolsk, for instance,
+when they go north in the summer to purchase fish,
+take with them flour and salt, place them in their
+summer stations, and, on their return, leave unprotected
+what remains for the following year. Should a
+Samoyede pass by and require it, he does not scruple
+to take what he wants, but he leaves in its place an
+I.O.U., in the form of a duplicate stick, duly notched,
+to signify that he is a debtor; and then, in the fishing
+season, he comes to his creditor, compares the duplicate
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span>
+stick he has kept with the one he left behind, and
+discharges his obligation. Captain Wiggins also records
+that when, in the winter months of 1876–77, his ship the
+<i>Thames</i> was laid up in the Kureika, it was surrounded
+by hundreds of Ostjaks and other natives, but that
+nothing was stolen.</p>
+
+<p>The difficulties of educating and Christianizing these
+wandering tribes are very great.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_29" href="#Footnote_4_29" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> I heard, however,
+that in European Russia a priest is sent yearly to a
+town in the far north of the Archangel province, to
+baptize the children and marry such among the Samoyedes
+of that region as are professedly Christian.
+Réclus, however, speaks of the Yurak-Samoyedes as
+still practising their bloody rites, and thrusting pieces
+of raw flesh into the mouths of their idols. In 1877
+the Russians opened a school at Obdorsk for the
+natives. We may hope, therefore, that for them better
+days are coming, both by reason of what the Russians
+are doing, and also, possibly and indirectly, by the
+efforts which certain Englishmen are making to invade
+the lands of these aborigines for the purposes of trade.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp39" id="p1040_ill" style="max-width: 57.875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p1040_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      A YURAK-SAMOYEDE.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>That the commercial value of the basin of the Obi
+and a large part of Western Siberia is not yet realized
+by European capitalists is the opinion of most of
+those that I have met who have been there. A limited
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span>
+demand exists for English merchandise, and the possibility
+of an almost unlimited supply of products
+needed by England. The Altai mountains, for instance,
+are rich in silver, copper, and iron, which last is also
+abundant in the valley of the Tom. But these are
+as nothing compared with grain, for the production
+of which the country is admirably fitted. From the
+southern border of the Tobolsk province, for 600 miles
+northward, lies a district of fertile black earth; and so
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span>
+exclusively is it of this character in the valleys of
+many of the rivers, which overflow like the Nile, and
+leave a rich deposit, that the geologist finds it difficult
+to pick up even a few specimen pebbles. It is like a
+vast tract of garden land, well suited for the production
+of wheat, oats, linseed, barley, and other cereals.
+Farther north are prairies for cattle, and a wooded
+region, inhabited by various fur-bearing animals, where
+the pine, fir, and birch abound. These remarks apply
+to the valley of the Obi no less than to that of the
+Yenesei, where Mr. Seebohm found he could purchase
+a larch, 60 feet long, 3 feet diameter at the base, and 18
+inches at the apex, for a sovereign, and that a hundred
+such could be had to order in a week. In the city of
+Tobolsk the cost of provisions, we were told, had
+advanced to five times what it was 30 years ago; but
+even so, the present price of meat was quoted at 2<i>d.</i>,
+and rye flour at a halfpenny, per pound.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_30" href="#Footnote_5_30" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Again,
+north of the wooded region come the <i lang="ru">tundras</i>, over
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span>
+which roam the reindeer, wild and tame; and about
+100 miles up the Kureika, which flows into the Yenesei,
+there is a valuable mine of graphite lying on the surface;
+besides which the rivers are so full of fish that the
+fishermen try not to catch too many, because of the
+frequent breaking of their nets.</p>
+
+<p>These riches have long been known to the Siberians,
+to whom they were practically useless for export,
+by reason of expensive land carriage over the Urals;
+and the only other way of transit to Europe was through
+the Kara Sea, which was supposed to be ice-blocked
+perpetually. So far back as the sixteenth century, the
+English and the Dutch tried hard to penetrate the
+Siberian ocean, but were always stopped at Novaia
+Zemlia; so that for two centuries no fresh effort was
+made. Of late years, however, Captain Wiggins, of
+Sunderland, who, from his youth, appears to have been
+a bold and adventurous seaman, happened to read in
+Wrangell’s “Polar Sea” that, three centuries ago, the
+Russians were wont to coast from Archangel, for purposes
+of trade, to Mangasee, on the Taz, near the gulf of
+the Obi; and it occurred to him that, if they could do it
+in their wretched “kotchkies,” or boats of planking,
+fastened to a frame with thongs of leather, and calked
+with moss, he ought much more easily to be able to
+do so with the aid of steam. With his characteristic
+love of adventure, therefore, and at his own expense,
+he determined to make the attempt; and on June 3rd,
+1874, he left Dundee in the <i>Diana</i>, a small steamer of
+only 104 tons. In little more than three weeks the
+Kara Sea was entered, and found free of ice; and the
+<i>Diana</i> entered the gulf of Obi on the 5th of August—the
+first sea-going vessel that had ever done so.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span>
+Circumstances did not permit of his ascending the
+river; he returned, therefore, paid off his crew, and
+employed the winter in making known the feasibility
+of the route. He found great difficulty, however, in
+persuading the mercantile world, and applied in vain
+to the Royal Geographical Society for help to follow
+up his discoveries. Whereupon there came forward
+another explorer to snatch the rose from the captain’s
+hand; for Professor Nordenskiöld, seeing what Wiggins
+had done,—amply supported by his Government, by
+private enterprise, and without cost to himself (as it
+should be)—followed next year through the Kara Sea,
+passed the Obi gulf, and entered the Yenesei, from
+whence, having sent back his ship, he returned overland
+to Petersburg. The feasibility of the sea-route
+was now manifest; and, as I passed through Tiumen,
+Messrs. Wardropper were building, at a distance of
+700 miles from the ocean, two sea-going ships, for
+Messrs. Trapeznikoff and Co., of Moscow, to be floated
+down the Obi and round the North Cape to England.</p>
+
+<p>It is the opinion of both navigators that “a regular
+sea communication between Siberia and Northern
+Europe, during a short season of the year, ought not
+to be attended with greater risks and dangers than
+seamen encounter on many other waters now visited
+by thousands of vessels.” These are the sober words
+of Professor Nordenskiöld; and to the same effect are
+the words spoken publicly by Captain Wiggins, in
+whom we have a brave and honest seaman, and concerning
+whose work England need only be ashamed that
+he received so little support. He has shown, however,
+by a voyage made in 1878, that steamers of any size,
+but of shallow draught, can go some 400 miles up the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span>
+Obi. On the 2nd of August he left Liverpool in
+the <i>Warkworth</i>, an ordinary steamer of 340 tons
+net register, chartered through Mr. Wm. Byford, of
+London, shipbroker, for sole account of Mr. Oswald
+Cattley, first guild merchant of Petersburg, with a
+miscellaneous cargo, and arrived in 15 days. He
+was met by lighters from the Barnaul district, with
+wheat, flax, etc., to load the steamer, and then convey
+inland the cargo from Liverpool. No mishap occurred
+on the outward voyage; but, in consequence of the
+Obi falling so rapidly, the steamer touched the ground
+on coming down the river. He arrived safely, however,
+in London on the 3rd of October; thus occupying
+two months on the passage out and home. Subsequent
+trading voyages have been attempted, some of which
+failed; but the causes of failure were such as may in
+future be overcome, the <i>Neptune</i> of Hamburg having
+made successful voyages in 1878 and 1880. It appears,
+then, that the trade only awaits further development,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_31" href="#Footnote_6_31" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
+and if, with specially strengthened steamers, the carriage
+of produce can thus be arranged between England
+and Siberia, both countries will doubtless be gainers
+thereby.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_32" href="#Footnote_7_32" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_26" href="#FNanchor_1_26" class="label">[1]</a> The principal branch of the Obi is the Irtish, which, rising in
+Mongolia, passes through Lake Zaizang, about 1,720 feet above the sea
+level. It then passes Ustkammenogorsk, in the Altai region, where it
+becomes navigable, and, flowing on to Omsk, is subsequently joined by
+the Ishim and the Tobol, which last is made up of the Isset, Tura, and
+Tavda, the last three descending from the watershed of the Urals. The
+Obi proper rises in Siberia, and runs with a rapid course through the
+northern ridges of the Altai mountains, amid scenery resembling in
+beauty and grandeur that of the Lake of Lucerne. It is joined north of
+Tomsk by the Tom and the Tchulim, and then it flows on in a westerly
+course, swelled by many minor streams, to its junction with the Irtish, on
+the 60th parallel. Before reaching the Tom the current becomes gentle,
+and allows of easy navigation, especially in spring, when water is abundant;
+but, in approaching the Irtish, shoals become numerous. The Obi then
+takes a northerly course, and frequently divides as it traverses an alluvial
+and low plain from 40 to 50 miles wide, the greater part of which, after
+winter, is inundated. This enormous river, having now a course of 2,700
+miles, falls into the Obi Gulf, which is 400 miles long, and from 70 to 80
+miles wide. For a large part of the year the water flows under ice, which
+at Tiumen is from 3 to 4 feet, and on the gulf is 7 feet, thick.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_27" href="#FNanchor_2_27" class="label">[2]</a> There are nine uyezds in the province, and among its prominent
+towns are Turinsk and Tiumen, on the Tura; Kurgan and Yalutorofsk
+on the Tobol; Ishim, on the river of that name; and Tara, on the Irtish;
+together with Surgut, Berezov, and Obdorsk, on the Lower Obi; whilst
+the capital town of the government is Tobolsk. Hoppe’s Almanack for
+1880 gives the population at 1,102,302, but the Almanack for 1878 gives a
+smaller number, which represents an earlier census, and is mentioned
+here only for the purpose of giving the reader some idea of the social
+position of the inhabitants, who in 1870 were classified thus: hereditary
+nobles, 404; personally noble, 3,025; ecclesiastical persons (which includes
+not only all grades of clergy, but also their families), 3,045; a town
+population of 30,000, and a rural population of 436,000. To this must be
+added a military force of 50,000, 25 foreigners, and an aboriginal and
+mixed population of 142,000; the exact total of which then amounted to
+666,800.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_28" href="#FNanchor_3_28" class="label">[3]</a> We heard from other sources that for brandy these aborigines will
+sell everything short of their souls, and even these would appear sometimes
+to tremble in the balance, if the following story be true:—A Russian
+priest, it seemed, intent upon adding sheep to his fold, even though by
+very questionable means, sometimes gave drink to the Samoyedes and
+Ostjaks, and, when they were in a muddled condition, baptized them, put
+round their necks the cross, and thus brought them into the fold of the
+orthodox Russian Church. On coming to their senses they sometimes
+objected to what had been done, but, like the recruit who took the Queen’s
+shilling, they were caught, and the only way to escape was to bribe the
+priest to erase their names from his register, and let them go. This
+was told us by a man who had lived in the Samoyede country. The
+story presented such a <em>bathos</em> of proselytizing zeal, that I asked particularly
+if it were really true, and was answered in the affirmative. In the
+time of the Emperor Nicholas, zealous missionary priests received honours
+and decorations in proportion to the number of Pagans and Jews they
+baptized; but this, I believe, is not the case now. I heard, further east,
+of other questionable means taken by a priest to obtain proselytes from
+the aborigines of the Amur. This, however, was done by one who, during
+my stay in the town, publicly disgraced his cloth by intemperance.
+These enormities, therefore, must be laid to the account, not of the Russian
+Church, but to that of certain of its corrupt officials. They are mentioned
+here on the principle that not only the truth but the whole truth should
+be told; and, further, because I would fain not have to allude to the
+subject when I come hereafter to record better things, as I shall have to
+do, of the missionary efforts of the Russian Church in Siberia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_29" href="#FNanchor_4_29" class="label">[4]</a> In 1824 a commencement was made to translate into Samoyede the
+Gospel of St. Matthew, but it did not go on after 1826. The same gospel
+was translated some years ago into the language of the Ostjaks by the
+<i lang="ru">protohierea</i>, or chief priest, at Obdorsk, and was forwarded to the Russian
+Bible Society, but not published; and, up to the present time, neither
+that nor any other part of the New Testament exists, as far as I know
+for the Samoyedes, Ostjaks, or Voguls.—Dr. Latham mentions 11 dialects
+in the Samoyede language, and refers to the work of Professor Castrén,
+who, about 30 years ago, studied closely the languages of the Finnish
+and Samoyede nations, and to whose labours we owe dictionaries of some
+of these tongues,—published after his death by Schiefner.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_30" href="#FNanchor_5_30" class="label">[5]</a> The surprisingly small cost of provisions on the Obi will be referred
+to hereafter; but some idea may be formed, for the purposes of trade, of
+the cheapness of provisions, from the fact that a merchant told me that in
+1877 he bought up meat at Tobolsk for less than ½<i>d.</i> per English pound,
+and that, more recently, he sold for the Petersburg market ten thousand
+brace of black grouse, capercailzie, and hazel grouse at 9<i>d.</i> a pair all
+round. The cost for transporting from Tiumen to Petersburg is as
+follows: heavy goods, going by land where necessary, and floated on the
+rivers where possible, take 12 months in transit, and cost about 5<i>s.</i> a
+cwt.; if, however, goods are sent by road to Nijni Novgorod, and thence
+forwarded by rail, they take 2½ months in transit, and cost up to 12<i>s.</i> a
+cwt.; or, again, if goods are sent “express”—that is, put into large sledges,
+carrying each from a ton to a ton and a half, placed under charge of a
+man, and drawn by three horses, to Nijni Novgorod, and thence by rail—the
+transport costs 18<i>s.</i> a cwt. Notwithstanding this heavy cost of
+carriage, however, the merchants at Tiumen can bring their fish from the
+mouth of the Obi, forward it to Petersburg, sell the sturgeon at 24<i>s.</i>, and the
+<i lang="ru">sterlet</i>, <i lang="ru">nelma</i>, and <i lang="ru">moksun</i> at 30<i>s.</i> the cwt., and then secure a handsome
+profit for everybody concerned.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_31" href="#FNanchor_6_31" class="label">[6]</a> For further remarks on the commercial prospects of Western Siberia,
+see <a href="#APPENDIX_D">Appendix D.</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_32" href="#FNanchor_7_32" class="label">[7]</a> There are two books written by scientific explorers of the basin of
+the Obi, which it may be useful to mention for the sake of any who wish
+to study this part of Siberia. One is that of Adolph Erman, who, for the
+purpose of making magnetical observations, travelled in 1828 to Tobolsk,
+and then descended the river as far as Obdorsk; the second is the German
+work of Dr. Otto Finsch, who, from Tiumen, ascended the Irtish, in
+1876, towards the Altai mountains, and then, turning north to Barnaul
+and Tomsk, followed the Obi to its mouth. Another class of books,
+written for the most part by returned exiles, throws more or less light
+upon Western Siberia, such as “The Exile of Kotzebue,” published in
+1802, and “Revelations of Siberia,” by a banished lady, who spent a short
+time on the Lower Obi at Beresov.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">
+    CHAPTER IX.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>TOBOLSK.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Early history of Siberia.—Yermak.—Conquest of the Tatars.—Tobolsk
+the first capital.—The exiled bell.—Our visit to the Governor.—Hard-labour
+prisons.—Interior arrangements.—“<i lang="fr">Travaux forcés.</i>”—Testimony
+of prisoners.—Books presented.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>Tobolsk</span>, for a long period, was the capital of the
+whole of Siberia. This will be a suitable place,
+therefore, in which to treat briefly the history of the
+Russian subjugation of the country at large. It can
+hardly be said that Siberia was familiar to the Russians
+before the middle of the sixteenth century; for, although
+at an earlier period an expedition had penetrated as far
+as the Lower Obi, yet its effects were not permanent.
+Later, Ivan Vassilievitch II. sent a number of troops
+over the Urals, laid some of the Tatar tribes under
+tribute, and in 1558 assumed the title of “Lord of
+Siberia.” Kutchum Khan, however, a lineal descendant
+of Genghis Khan, punished these tribes for their
+defection, and regained their fealty, and so ended again
+for a while the result of the Russian expedition. A
+third invasion, however, was made in a way quite
+unexpected. Ivan Vassilievitch II. had extended his
+conquests to the Caspian Sea, and opened commercial
+relations with Persia; but the merchants and caravans
+were frequently pillaged by hordes of banditti, called
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span>
+Don Cossacks, whom the Tsar attacked, killing some
+and taking prisoner or scattering others. Among the
+dispersed were 6,000 freebooters, under the command of
+a chief named Yermak Timofeeff, who made their way
+to the banks of the Kama, to a settlement at Orel,
+belonging to one of the Stroganoffs, where they were
+entertained during a dreary winter, and where Yermak
+heard of an inviting field of adventure, lying on the
+other side of the Urals. Thither he determined to try
+his fortunes, and after an unsuccessful attempt in the
+summer of 1578, started again with 5,000 men in June
+of the next year. It was eighteen months before he
+reached the small town of Tchingi, on the banks of the
+Tura; by which time his followers had dwindled down,
+by skirmishes, privation, and fatigue, to 1,500 men. But
+they were all braves. Before them was Kutchum Khan,
+prince of the country, already in position, and, with
+numerous troops, resolved to defend himself to the
+last. When at length the two armies stood face to
+face, that of Yermak was further reduced to 500 men,
+nine-tenths of those who left Orel having perished. A
+desperate fight ensued, the Tatars were routed, and
+Yermak pushed on to Sibir, the residence of the Tatar
+princes. It was a small fortress on the banks of the
+Irtish, the ruins of which are still standing, and of
+which I have seen a photograph, if I mistake not,
+among Mr. Seebohm’s collection.</p>
+
+<p>Yermak was now suddenly transformed to a prince,
+but he had the good sense to see the precariousness
+of his grandeur, and it became plain that he must seek
+for assistance. He sent, therefore, fifty of his Cossacks
+to the Tsar of Muscovy, their chief being adroitly
+ordered to represent to the Court the progress which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span>
+the Russian troops, under the command of Yermak,
+had made in Siberia, where an extensive empire had
+been conquered in the name of the Tsar. The Tsar
+took very kindly to this, pardoned Yermak, and sent
+him money and assistance. Reinforced by 500 Russians,
+Yermak multiplied his expeditions, extended his
+conquests, and was enabled to subdue various insurrections
+fomented by the conquered Kutchum Khan. In
+one of these expeditions he laid siege to the small
+fortress of Kullara, which still belonged to his foe, and
+by whom it was so bravely defended that Yermak had
+to retreat. Kutchum Khan stealthily followed the
+Russians, and, finding them negligently posted on a
+small island in the Irtish, he forded the river, attacked
+them by night, and came upon them so suddenly as
+with comparative ease to cut them to pieces. Yermak
+perished, but not, it is said, by the sword of the enemy.
+Having cut his way to the water’s edge, he tried to
+jump into a boat, but, stepping short, he fell into the
+water, and the weight of his armour carried him to the
+bottom. Thus perished Yermak Timofeeff, and when
+the news reached Sibir, the remainder of his followers
+retired from the fortress, and left the country.</p>
+
+<p>The Court of Moscow, however, sent a body of 300
+men, who before long made a fresh incursion, and
+reached Tchingi almost without opposition. There
+they built the fort of Tiumen, and re-established the
+Russian sovereignty. Being soon afterwards reinforced,
+they extended their operations, and built the
+fortresses of Tobolsk, Sungur, and Tara, and soon
+gained for the Tsar all the territory west of the
+Obi. The stream of conquest then flowed eastward
+apace. Tomsk was founded in 1604, and became the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span>
+Russian head-quarters, whence the Cossacks organized
+new expeditions. Yeneseisk was founded in 1619,
+and, eight years afterwards, Krasnoiarsk. Passing the
+Yenesei, they advanced to the shores of Lake Baikal,
+and in 1620 attacked and partly conquered the populous
+nation of the Buriats. Then, turning northwards
+to the basin of the Lena, they founded Yakutsk in
+1632, and made subject, though not without considerable
+difficulty, the powerful nation of the Yakutes; after
+which they crossed the Aldan mountains, and in 1639
+reached the Sea of Okhotsk. Thus in the span of a
+single lifetime—70 years—was added to the Russian
+crown a territory as large as the whole of Europe,
+whose ancient capital, as I have said, was Tobolsk.</p>
+
+<p>The citadel and upper town stand on a hill, with a
+precipitous front, at the foot of which lies the lower
+town. The two are now connected by a winding
+carriage-road, but formerly the only entrance to the
+citadel was by a very steep incline through the fortress
+gates. From the top of the hill an extensive view is
+obtained of the Irtish, flowing close by the town to its
+junction with the Tobol. The town below is built with
+regularity, and contains many churches and monasteries.
+The houses are chiefly of wood, and the streets
+are paved with the same material. But the glory of
+Tobolsk has long been waning, and, when this is the
+case with a Siberian town, wooden roadways degenerate
+into a delusion and a snare. They rot and remain
+unrepaired, and one is in danger at night of tumbling
+into holes. The population of the town consists mainly
+of Russians, Tatars, and Germans, and in it are manufactured
+leather, tallow, soap, tiles, boats, and firearms.</p>
+
+<p>In the upper part of the town are some handsome
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span>
+churches, and a cathedral, near which is the famous bell
+from Uglitch, that was exiled by Boris Gudonoff because
+it gave signal to the insurrectionists. On their being
+quelled, the unfortunate bell was deposed, had two of
+its ears broken off, was publicly flogged, and sent to
+Siberia and forbidden for ever to ring again. But the
+ban has since been removed, and it now is hung, not in
+a belfry, but alone, and assists in calling the people to
+church.</p>
+
+<p>Not far from the fortress are the pleasure-gardens,
+and also the three hard-labour prisons, which we
+wished particularly to see. My letter was therefore
+presented to M. Lisagorsky, the Governor, who immediately
+sent for the police-master; and we proceeded
+at once to visit our first hard-labour prisons in Siberia.
+For many years Tobolsk was a principal place of
+punishment, and even now prisoners condemned to the
+east frequently spend here the first portion of their
+time. On the road we had heard it spoken of as a
+place of considerable severity, in which were kept
+those condemned to “travaux forcés.” On entering,
+therefore, I braced my nerves for such horrors as
+might present themselves. The authorities seemed
+determined that the prisoners should not harm us (or
+them?); for, as we moved from ward to ward and
+section to section, there followed us four soldiers with
+fixed bayonets. The buildings were large and of
+brick, with double windows to keep out the cold; and
+I noticed that, in addition to a pillow and covering,
+mattresses stuffed with old clothes were also provided
+for the prisoners. These, I presume, were furnished
+by the local committee. They had a few books, and
+as one man only in ten could read, it was usual during
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span>
+the evenings for these to read aloud to their less
+instructed fellows. I saw a copy of the “Lives of
+the Saints” in one room, but no Bibles. The guard-room
+for the military was furnished much the same
+as the prisoners’ rooms. There were likewise other
+wards of various sizes: one for murderers, having five
+occupants (most of whom, we were told, had committed
+their crimes in fits of drunkenness); another for eight
+men without passports; and other rooms for thieves.
+One was occupied by a man who had run away, and
+another by a man who, for selling things belonging to
+an altar, had been found guilty of sacrilege.</p>
+
+<p>In the first prison were nine single cells, in one of
+which was a Polish doctor, a political offender, who
+had surrounded himself with such small comforts as
+Polish books, eau-de-Cologne, and cigarettes, which
+last <em>he</em> (by way of privilege) was allowed to smoke.
+One or two cells were set apart for punishment.</p>
+
+<p>After marching through room after room, corridor
+after corridor, now across yards with prisoners lolling
+about, and now through sleeping apartments, where
+some were not even up, though breakfast-time had
+long gone by, I began to wonder where the <em>work</em> was
+going on, and asked to be shown the labours of those
+condemned to “travaux forcés”; upon which we were
+taken first into a room for wheelwrights, and next into
+a blacksmith’s shop. Then we were introduced to a
+company of tailors, and another of shoemakers, and
+last of all we saw a room fitted for joiners or cabinet-makers’
+work. The amount of labour going on appeared
+to be exceedingly small, and the number of
+men employed (or apparently that could be employed)
+to be only a sprinkling of the 732 inmates in prisons
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span>
+Nos. 1 and 3, and 264 in prison No. 2. I believe some
+reason was given why more were not at work, though
+whether it was a holiday or bathing-day, or what, I
+forget; but I came to the conclusion that they had
+not appliances enough to find occupation for 1,000 prisoners,
+and that one need not have come to Siberia to
+see the severity of a hard-labour prison, since the same
+might just as easily have been witnessed in Europe.
+Had I entered with any of the curiosity that takes
+people to the chamber of horrors at Madame Tussaud’s,
+such curiosity would certainly have remained ungratified.
+The prisons of Tobolsk reminded me most of
+those I had seen in Vienna and Cracow, in which,
+however, in some respects, a comparison would result
+in favour of Siberia; for at Cracow the convicts had
+not only to work at the bench by day, but, if my
+memory does not fail me, to sleep on it at night. At
+Tobolsk a set portion of labour is imposed daily; but
+when this is done, the prisoner is at liberty to work for
+himself. Various specimens of their handicraft were
+shown to us.</p>
+
+<p>Prison No. 2 contained criminals who were sentenced
+to terms ranging from one year to the whole
+of life, and who, when liberated, were to be sent east
+to live like colonists. I do not know to whom the
+credit of superiority is due, whether to the governor of
+the province, the governor of the prison, or the local
+committee; but I was struck with the fact when I subsequently
+asked two prisoners who had been deported
+across Siberia, as to which prison west of Irkutsk
+they thought, from their point of view, the best, they
+both mentioned that of Tobolsk. We left with the
+governor of this province nearly 500 Scripture portions,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span>
+such as copies of the Gospels, Psalms, and the New
+Testament in Russian, Polish, German, French, and
+Tatar, together with 400 copies of the illustrated
+<cite>Russian Workman</cite>, and 1,000 tracts, his Excellency
+kindly undertaking to distribute the papers and tracts
+in the schools, and in the best way he could through
+the province generally, and to place the books for
+permanent use, not in the libraries, but within reach of
+each person in every room of every prison, hospital,
+poor-house, or similar institution under his administration.
+Having made these arrangements, committed
+them to paper in the form of a letter, and delivered it
+to the governor on the Monday evening, we awaited
+the arrival of the steamer to take us to Tomsk.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">
+    CHAPTER X.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>FROM TOBOLSK TO TOMSK.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>The steamer <i>Beljetchenko</i>.—Fellow-passengers.—Card-playing.—Cost of
+provisions.—Inspection of convicts’ barge.—An exile fellow-passenger.—Obi
+navigation.—The Ostjaks.—Their fisheries.—Feats of archery.—Marriage
+customs.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> Siberians are rich in time. Days to them are
+of little consequence; hours of no moment.
+With them “Time is <em>not</em> money.” “What difference,”
+said a coachman at Ekaterineburg to a friend of mine
+for whom he had lost his train, “what difference one
+way or other could an hour make, or for that matter
+<em>two</em> hours either?” Moreover, the arrival and departure
+of steamers are not announced by a.m. and p.m.,
+but the date simply is given; and of course you are
+expected to be in readiness to start at any moment of
+the twenty-four hours. We deemed it unsafe, therefore,
+to sleep at the hotel on Monday night, the 2nd of
+June, lest we should be left behind; so, getting our
+tarantass and luggage on the pier, I crept inside the
+vehicle, and there spent the early part of the night,
+till, at dawn, the steamer arrived. For a Siberian
+steamer, the <i>Beljetchenko</i>, belonging to Messrs. Kourbatoff
+and Ignatoff, was good, and her dimensions,
+compared with others upon which I subsequently
+travelled, were large. She was a paddle-boat, with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span>
+fore-cabins and saloons for first-class passengers, and
+after-cabins for those of the second class, whilst the
+deck was allotted to a considerable number of third-class
+passengers and discharged soldiers who were
+“homeward bound.” All told, the passengers, I should
+imagine, could not have counted less than from 100 to
+150. Among those of the first class were some pleasant
+people, such as officers of the army, navy, and gendarmerie,
+and a few school girls going home for summer
+holidays from Petersburg, a distance of 3,000 miles.
+There were specimens also of the ubiquitous Russian
+merchant, travelling on business. Our first impressions
+of these travellers were unfavourable. Some of the
+gentlemen were taking leave, if I mistake not, at
+Tobolsk, of friends, and this event is usually accompanied
+in Siberia with the drinking of a great deal
+of wine; so that, when one of the naval officers came
+to take his place in the sleeping saloon, he was in
+a condition “unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.”
+We were spared further inconvenience of this kind
+by the captain, who had received injunctions from
+one of the proprietors, Mr. Ignatoff, to look after
+“Mr. Missionary,” as the captain insisted upon calling
+me, and on which I did not undeceive him. For the
+payment of three second-class fares he gave us for
+sleeping the second-class ladies’ cabin—intended for
+five persons—in which we were comfortable enough
+at night, whilst we sat where we pleased by day.
+The captain was also instructed to charge £2 instead
+of £4 for the carriage of our tarantass, and also to
+deal leniently with our heavy excess of baggage and
+books. As our voyage lasted several days, it was not
+a matter for surprise that time hung heavily upon the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span>
+hands of some of the passengers, but I was hardly prepared
+for the amount of card-playing with which much
+of it was killed. In no country that I have visited
+have I seen a tenth part of the card-playing that I
+witnessed in Siberia. The Russian Government exercises
+a monopoly in the manufacture of playing-cards,
+the profits being applied to the support of the Foundling
+Hospital at Moscow, and 110 tons of cards are annually
+carried on the Petersburg-Moscow railway. I am told
+that the amount of card-playing in European Russia
+also is very considerable; that there are clubs in
+Petersburg where the gambling is frightful. As for
+our fellow-passengers, there was a clique who played
+by day and quarrelled by night, and sometimes did not
+leave off their games till seven in the morning. By
+the time the journey was five days old, £20 had been
+lost by a young officer, who told me that in the small
+towns of the interior, in which soldiers are quartered,
+where there is little congenial society and nothing to
+do, card-playing is the daily constant resource of the
+officers. The habit, moreover, is not confined to men,
+but is indulged in, though apparently in a less degree,
+by women also. On board the steamer the game was
+not accompanied by excessive drinking, and, happily,
+several of the passengers—especially the ladies—spoke
+French, and a few could read English, so that in their
+society we passed an agreeable time.</p>
+
+<p>The fares for travelling and the charges for provisions
+were low. The three second-class tickets for
+the whole journey of 8 days cost only £4, and for
+a dinner of 4 or 5 courses—soup, fish, meat, game,
+and pastry,—only 2<i>s.</i> were charged. I remembered
+this tariff with a sigh in California, where the price was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span>
+double for a meal not half so good, with wretched
+attendance into the bargain. It must be confessed,
+however, that provisions on the river’s bank were
+extremely cheap—so cheap that one almost hesitates
+to put it on paper. At Surgut I was offered a pair of
+ducks for 2½<i>d.</i>; 10 brace of <i lang="ru">riabchiks</i>, a sort of grouse
+about the size of a partridge, cost 1<i>s.</i>; a couple of fish
+called <i lang="ru">yass</i>, weighing, I supposed, 1½ lb. each, were
+offered for 1½<i>d.</i>; and 10 large fish, as a lot, for ¼<i>d.</i>
+each. At Juchova I was offered for 5<i>d.</i> a couple of
+pike, weighing probably 20 lbs., and a live duck for
+1¼<i>d.</i>; whilst at the villages in the district we passed,
+which are not easily accessible, a young calf, I was
+told, could be bought for 6<i>d.</i></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p1201_ill" style="max-width: 93.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p1201_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      THE “IRTISH,” A CONVICT BARGE ON THE OBI.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>As we ploughed along, there was tugged at our stern
+a barge laden with convicts, to which Dr. Johnson’s
+definition of a ship as “a prison afloat” would with
+accuracy apply. The barge was a large floating hull,
+called the <i>Irtish</i>, 245 feet long, and 30 feet beam,
+11 feet high from the keel to the deck, with a 4-feet
+water-line. It was made expressly for the transport
+of convicts, of whom it was intended to carry 800, with
+22 officers. Below it was fitted with platforms for
+sleeping, like those described in the jails, whilst at
+either end of the craft were deck-houses eight feet high,
+containing a small hospital, an apothecary’s shop, and
+apartments for the officers and soldiers in charge.
+The space between the deck-houses was roofed over,
+and the sides closed by bars and wires, painfully
+suggestive of a menagerie, or reminding one of the
+cage-cells in the old jail at Edinburgh. The vessel
+had neither masts nor engines, and bore a pretty close
+resemblance to a child’s Noah’s ark. At one of our
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span>
+stoppages I was trying to make a sketch of this unique
+craft, when the officer came and invited me to inspect it.
+We therefore went on board, with hands and pockets
+full of reading matter for distribution; and if the bars
+were suggestive of a menagerie, so, I must add, was
+the mode in which the occupants received our literary
+food. Not that they were rude, but so delighted were
+they with the pictures, and so eager to get the papers
+that contained them, that we found it hard work to
+hold our own. We had afterwards an opportunity of
+testing the value in money of this apparent eagerness
+for reading material. In former years I had always
+<em>given</em> both Scriptures and tracts. This year it was
+urged, and I think rightly, that it is better, when
+possible, to sell them. To offer them, however, for
+money to convicts seemed almost a mockery. Nevertheless
+we tried it, and requested the officer to let us
+know how many prisoners would like to give 2½<i>d.</i> for
+a copy of the New Testament, or the Book of Psalms.
+To my surprise he came at a subsequent stopping-place,
+bringing the money for 44 copies, and said that
+one man was in such haste to get his book that he
+had been to him three times to ask for it. As we
+proceeded on our course, and, looking back, saw the
+broad keel of the barge ploughing its way after us, one
+could not help feeling for its strange freight, and the
+many heavy hearts that were being tugged along further
+and further from the dear place called “home.” But
+such thoughts received little enlargement at the halting-places,
+when the barge was drawn up to the bank;
+for the hilarity thereon of men, women, and children
+was much more noisy than that of the free people on
+the steamer. One might have thought that the convicts
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span>
+were having a good time of it; and it had been
+observed to us at Tiumen, as a noteworthy remark,
+that although, of the 800 prisoners on board, probably
+250 would be murderers, nevertheless 20 soldiers
+would suffice to control them. They had a considerable
+amount of freedom on the barge, though they
+could not go, of course, indiscriminately to whatever
+part of the vessel they pleased.</p>
+
+<p>At one of the halting-places we dropped a Polish
+exile, a doctor. He was the same man we had seen
+with his little comforts in the prison at Tobolsk. He
+was not on the barge, but travelled, as such prisoners
+usually do, on the steamer, as a second-class passenger,
+in a cabin near ours, with a gendarme who kept him,
+and who, we had opportunities of observing, never
+allowed him to go for a moment out of his sight. We
+had ingratiated ourselves into the gendarme’s favour
+by giving him books, as we had given also to the
+soldiers, passengers, and all on board, and we wished
+to chat with the prisoner; but his guard was faithful
+to his duty, and would not suffer him to be spoken to.
+When it was time for the prisoner to go on shore, he
+walked erect out of his cabin, dressed in private clothes,
+wearing shaded spectacles, and smoking a cigar. But
+he was landed at a miserable place on the 62nd
+parallel, where, at the beginning of June, the leaves
+were not out, and it had not ceased occasionally to
+snow; at a village where an educated man could, I
+presume, find little agreeable society or congenial occupation.
+His hair was already grey, and as he sat
+upon his little stock of clothes, with the gendarme
+standing near, and watching our ship as it glided away,
+we felt we had left him in a sorry place in which to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span>
+spend his declining years. We heard that he had a
+second time incurred punishment, by trying to escape
+from Nertchinsk. But it was a melancholy illustration
+of the meaning of Siberian exile.</p>
+
+<p>The distance from Tobolsk to Tomsk by water is
+1,600 miles, which we accomplished in 8 days. We
+overtook more than one freight steamer, but saw few
+other vessels, and no timber rafts. The banks were
+low and flat, and houses of rare occurrence. On the
+second day from Tobolsk we stopped at Samarova,
+where the Irtish runs into the Obi; and on the third
+day we stopped at Surgut, a place of 1,200 inhabitants.
+Three days later we touched at Narim, which has a
+population of 2,000.</p>
+
+<p>We did not land sufficiently near to any of these
+towns to allow of a visit, and the steamer picked up
+and set down few passengers. Herds of half-wild
+horses were seen from time to time on the prairies.
+They were not shod, were unfamiliar with the taste
+of oats, and had in the summer to find their own living.
+In the winter they are used for the transport of dried
+and frozen fish. The natives have an ingenious way
+of catching fish through holes in the ice, especially
+in the case of the sturgeon, which in winter congregate
+in muddy hollows in the bed of the river, lying motionless
+in clusters for the sake of warmth. The Ostjak
+cuts a hole above them, sets a spring rod, and then
+forms a number of balls of clay, which he makes
+red hot and throws into the river below his bait.
+The heat rouses the sturgeon, which rise, swim up
+stream, and are caught. There are large fisheries in
+the gulfs of the Obi and the Taz, where the Russians
+pay rent for the sandbanks to the Samoyedes, and,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span>
+having caught the fish in summer, they put them
+in ponds till the approach of winter. They are
+then taken out and frozen, and in this condition
+sent as <em>fresh</em> fish a journey of 2,000 miles to
+Petersburg.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_33" href="#Footnote_1_33" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> A large quantity of dried fish is also
+forwarded from the Obi to the great fair of Nijni
+Novgorod. Furs and hides likewise are sent there
+from the northern part of the province, together with
+rye, barley, oats, and buckwheat from the south.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp51" id="p1242_ill" style="max-width: 64.9375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p1242_ill.jpg" alt="">
+</figure>
+
+<p>Nothing, however, that we saw on the banks was
+more interesting perhaps than the aborigines, especially
+the Ostjaks, some of whom appeared paddling in their
+tiny canoes, and stealthily gliding among the bushes
+as the steamer approached. The Ostjaks inhabit a
+tract of country on either side of the Irtish and Obi,
+extending as far north as Obdorsk, on the south to
+Tobolsk, and nearly as far east as Narim. There is
+also a territory over which they roam on the left bank of
+the Yenesei below Turukhansk, though Mr. Howorth
+thinks that these are miscalled Ostjaks, being really
+Samoyedes. Their numbers are estimated at 24,000.
+They have no towns or villages, though they sometimes
+settle among the Russians. We saw on the
+banks the frames of some of their <i lang="ru">yourts</i>, or tents,
+though the people were just then driven by the floods
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span>
+to higher ground. In the neighbourhood of the Obi
+they possess no reindeer; their wealth consists of
+boats, fishing-tackle, clothes, and utensils; and a
+nomad Ostjak who possesses goods to the value of
+£10 is deemed a rich man. In this district they have
+ceased to wear their native costume; and are become
+more or less Russianized; but the Ostjaks of the
+Yenesei still dress in the costume of their forefathers.
+These people are short of stature, with dark hair
+and eyes, and flat faces; in complexion and general
+appearance those we saw were not much unlike some
+of the Siberians. They live principally by fishing
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span>
+and the chase, and are very skilful in the use of the
+bow. In shooting squirrels, for instance, they use
+a blunt arrow, and take care to hit the animal on
+the head, so as not to damage the fur.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_34" href="#Footnote_2_34" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp57" id="p1250_ill" style="max-width: 72.4375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p1250_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      OSTJAKS ON THE OBI, IN SUMMER YOURT.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>I had heard of these aboriginals, before leaving
+England, from Miss Alba Hellman in Finland, who
+thus writes of some of their marriage customs in expressive
+English: “The Ostjaks are carrying on the
+most shameless commerce with their daughters. A
+girl is a valuable thing while she is yet in her parents’
+home. She then gets all possible care and protection.
+But is it therefore that she may be a good daughter,
+wife, or mother? By no means for that cause: an
+Ostjak father has the same object in his daughter’s
+feeding as he has in feeding his animals. Well fed,
+she will not long stay at home without the father
+getting good payment for her. The price of an ordinary
+wife was at the river Irtish (on the Obi the price
+is higher), first, from £20 to £30 in money; next,
+a horse, a cow, and an ox; then from 7 to 10 pieces of
+clothing; and lastly, a pood of meal, a few hops, and
+a measure of brandy for the wedding feast. And when
+a man cannot afford to pay all these things, he often
+steals the girl. So says Professor Castrén.”</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_33" href="#FNanchor_1_33" class="label">[1]</a> The fish of the Obi are generally pike, perch, bleak, and a kind of
+red mullet, and are of less importance than the migratory fish from the
+sea. These are chiefly the sturgeon, the <i lang="ru">nelma</i>, and <i lang="ru">muksum</i>, several
+kinds of salmon, and the herring. In the first weeks of June, when the
+ice breaks up, they commence their ascent of the river, avoiding the rapid
+parts, the quick swimmers soon getting ahead of the rest: 30 miles
+below Obdorsk they form shoals, and have all passed in a week, by which
+time, 150 miles higher, the quickest salmon arrive. The nelma comes
+two days later, but the sturgeon not till five days afterwards. Erman
+reckons this annual migration of fish to be at the lowest computation
+26,000,000.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_34" href="#FNanchor_2_34" class="label">[2]</a> Their bows are 6 feet long, with a diameter of an inch and a quarter
+in the middle, and are made of a slip of birch joined by fish-glue to a
+piece of hard pine-wood. The arrows are 4 feet long, the head consisting
+of either a ball for shooting small fur animals, or an iron spear-like head
+for killing larger game. The bows are exceedingly powerful, and the
+archers wear on the left forearm a strong bent plate of horn to deaden
+the blow of the string. We heard of feats of archery accomplished by
+them which far outdo the traditional deed of William Tell. Our captain
+told a lady on board that on one occasion he saw an Ostjak mark an
+arrow in the middle with a piece of charcoal and discharge it in the air,
+whilst a second man, before it reached the ground, shot at the descending
+shaft and struck it on the mark.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">
+    CHAPTER XI.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>TOMSK.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>The province of Tomsk.—The city of Tomsk.—Visit to the Governor.—The
+prison.—Institution for prisoners’ children.—A Lutheran
+minister.—Finnish colonies in Siberia.—Their pastoral care.—Dissuaded
+from visiting Minusinsk.—Distribution of Finnish books.—<i lang="fr">Détour</i>
+to Barnaul.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> province of Tomsk is, in some respects, the
+most favoured in Siberia. It is not so huge
+and unwieldy as some of the others, and does not, like
+its two neighbours of Tobolsk and Yeneseisk, extend
+to the Frozen Sea; but, beginning on the 62nd parallel
+for its northernmost boundary, it continues southward
+as far as the borders of Mongolia, from which it is
+separated by the Altai mountains. The climate is
+good, and the land is valuable for agricultural purposes,
+while the mountainous districts are exceedingly
+rich in minerals.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_35" href="#Footnote_1_35" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>The city of Tomsk is situated on the river Tom,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span>
+whence it derives its name, and has a population of
+30,000. Its streets are wide but steep, and in the
+centre of the town is a good specimen of that prominent
+feature in so many Russian towns—a <i lang="ru">Gostinnoi Dvor</i>
+(bazaar or market). It is an aggregation of shops and
+open spaces, to which the stranger is constantly sent
+for anything he may require. If a countrywoman has
+butter or milk to sell, she takes up her position there;
+so do hucksters with small wares. Larger establishments
+are to be found elsewhere, but the <i lang="ru">Gostinnoi
+Dvor</i> of a Russian town contains a concentration of
+goods that supplies all wants. Many of the houses at
+Tomsk are of brick; it boasts of several hotels, two
+banks, and two photographers. In a distant part of
+the town is an imposing building, the law courts, etc.,
+also a large church or cathedral, which is still unfinished.</p>
+
+<p>We called upon M. Sooproonenko, the Governor,
+who was very obliging, and sent us at once to see the
+two prisons, in one of which criminals are kept, whilst
+in the other they only stay whilst passing through to
+their destinations. The condition of prison affairs in
+Tomsk showed that there was an active local committee.
+The jail in which criminals are permanently confined
+is a heavy brick building, with low, vaulted corridors,
+in which prisoners may be kept for terms varying
+from one month to four years. The authorities complained
+that in winter it is damp. This was one of the few
+prisons where there was a school, which such prisoners
+as chose might attend; but out of 640, when we
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span>
+were there, only 30 did so. Among those confined
+was an old man who had been condemned to hard
+labour further east, but on his way his penalty had been
+mitigated, and he allowed to stay at Tomsk. There
+was some little show of work going on in the shoemakers’,
+carpenters’, and blacksmiths’ shops; but the
+great mass of the prisoners was herded in rooms where
+they had nothing to do. When invited by the Governor
+to point out any defects I had noticed, I mentioned,
+first, that I thought all should work. He replied that
+they have no laws to compel them (I presume he spoke
+of a certain <em>class</em> of prisoners), and that the severest
+punishment they are allowed to inflict is three days’
+solitude with bread and water. We saw so many
+prisons in Siberia in which the majority of the prisoners
+had nothing to do, that the sight became wearisome;
+and when the authorities told us that they could not
+find them work, I was vain enough inwardly to say,
+“It strikes me that <em>I</em> could.” But on reaching San
+Francisco, I altered my mind when inspecting a prison
+managed on modern principles, where they can manufacture
+in a day more than a thousand doors, to say
+nothing of hundreds of other articles of wood, leather,
+iron, and I know not what; and yet, even there, they
+had men condemned to hard labour twirling their
+thumbs for want of a job. The difficulty of employing
+a large number of Siberian convicts is vastly enhanced
+by the difficulty and the expense of the carriage of raw
+materials, and the comparatively small demand for
+manufactured articles.</p>
+
+<p>Our distribution of books was highly appreciated at
+Tomsk, and one prisoner gave me in return a paper-knife
+he had made, for which he would accept no money.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span>
+In the underground storehouse we saw quass in huge
+vats worthy of an abbot’s cellar, and large receptacles
+for sour cabbage, of which the Russians make soup.
+The cabbage is salted in September and pressed, and
+in ten days is ready for use. The store contained also
+a large number of tongues, which cost on the spot from
+2<i>d.</i> to 6<i>d.</i> each. In one of the wards, the men who
+formed the church choir asked permission to sing us a
+hymn, which they did very creditably.</p>
+
+<p>The most pleasing part of our visit, however, was
+that made to an adjoining building within the prison
+grounds—an institution for the children of prisoners
+and of the poor, which had been built by the local
+committee. The matron apologized that they were not
+in holiday trim, but the place was as neat and clean as
+could be. We called in the afternoon. The girls had
+an English sewing-machine, and were busy at work,
+whilst some were embroidering elaborate initials in the
+corners of handkerchiefs, to the orders of ladies in the
+town. Some of the boys were learning shoemaking,
+whilst others were taught to be of use in waiting on
+the doctors in the prisoners’ hospital. Such progress
+do some of them make that one boy had recently left
+the school to go to help a doctor at the gold-mines, for
+which he was to receive his board and lodging, and
+£30 a year. There are certain funds in connection
+with the institution, by means of which the girls, on
+leaving to go out to service, receive various gifts up
+to about £50; and with this, one of the committee
+told us, they not unfrequently take away an education
+which makes them better informed than their Siberian
+mistresses.</p>
+
+<p>Before we had been many hours in Tomsk we discovered
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span>
+an English lady, with whom and her husband
+we dined, and who told us that a certain Finnish pastor—Roshier,
+who had been named to me in my Finnish
+correspondence—was staying in the town. We therefore
+sought him out to ask advice concerning the
+whereabouts and the mode of approach to some of
+the Finnish colonies which I was anxious to visit.</p>
+
+<p>The reader will perhaps wonder how there come to
+be Finnish colonies in Siberia at all. Often when a
+Finnish prisoner is condemned to a certain term of
+imprisonment in his own country, he petitions the
+Grand Duke, who is the Emperor of Russia, to send
+him instead to Siberia as a colonist, and the request is
+usually granted. I recollect meeting a young man at
+Wiborg, in the castle prison, in 1874, who told me that,
+rather than serve for three years as a convict in the
+town of his birth, he had asked to be allowed to go to
+Siberia. The Finns do not usually speak Russian.
+Consequently, on arriving in Siberia, they are quasi-foreigners,
+and, accordingly, are not scattered hither and
+thither, but put together in villages with Lithuanian,
+Esthonian, Lettish, and other convicts from the Baltic
+provinces. Of this nature are the colonies I wished
+to visit near Omsk, called Ruschkova and Jelanka,
+each with 400 inhabitants, and near to which are four
+villages, bearing the home-names of Riga, Reval,
+Narva, and Helsingfors. Another colony of a similar
+kind is Werchne Sujetuk, about 50 miles south of
+Minusinsk.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_36" href="#Footnote_2_36" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Pastor Roshier had been settled there
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span>
+for 15 years, and was returning home. The Finnish
+Government were looking out for one to fill his place,
+to whom they offered a stipend of £150 per annum;
+but when I heard from Mr. Roshier that he had not
+conversed with an educated fellow-countryman for 10
+years, that he could speak no Russian, and that his
+dwelling had been in the midst of convicts only, I was
+not surprised to hear that the Finnish Government had
+a difficulty in finding a successor.</p>
+
+<p>For my own part, it had been my intention certainly
+to turn aside to Werchne Sujetuk, thinking to go across
+country to Minusinsk, return by raft on the Yenesei, or
+by road, to Krasnoiarsk, and there await the arrival of
+the remainder of our luggage—plans which a better
+knowledge of the country afterwards taught me were
+visionary indeed. When we did subsequently arrive
+at Krasnoiarsk, we found persons who, on account of
+the floods, had been waiting a fortnight to go to
+Minusinsk.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_37" href="#Footnote_3_37" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The remainder, however, of our baggage
+was not yet come from Tiumen, and could not arrive
+for a week; so we agreed meanwhile to make a <i lang="fr">détour</i>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span>
+to Barnaul. There we should find a prison, and another
+in the same direction, at Biisk, to which we could send;
+priests and people would be benefited by the way; and
+we hoped to see the Emperor’s <i lang="ru">usine</i> for the smelting
+of gold and silver. This looked more inviting, even
+though it involved a journey of 700 miles, than loitering
+at Tomsk for a week. We were now to begin tarantass
+travelling in earnest, which I think had better be once
+for all described, partly for the benefit of the uninitiated,
+who may possibly become Siberian travellers, and partly
+that the reader may not be wearied hereafter by a too
+frequent recurrence to the same topic.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_35" href="#FNanchor_1_35" class="label">[1]</a> It is the most populous province of Siberia after that of Tobolsk, and
+contains 838,000 inhabitants. Another reference to Hoppe’s Almanack
+shows the vast preponderance of its rural population over that of other
+provinces, and shows also a large population of the upper classes, many
+of whom, doubtless, are descendants of noble exiles. In 1875 the number
+of hereditary nobles in the province was 2,400; ecclesiastical persons,
+4,000; town population, 4,400; and rural population, 725,000; whilst the
+military forces numbered 30,000; foreigners, 48; and the mixed races
+(chiefly Tatars, Teleuti, and Altai Kalmuks) numbered 130,000, the
+population being spread over an area of half a million square miles—a
+territory bigger than any two countries in Europe except Russia. The
+government is divided into six uyezds. It has seven prisons and four
+large hospitals. The principal towns are Barnaul, Kainsk, Biisk, Kuznetsk,
+Mariinsk, Narim, and Tomsk, which last is the capital and residence
+of the Governor.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_36" href="#FNanchor_2_36" class="label">[2]</a> Since 1850, it appeared, 541 persons have been sent there, of whom 142
+are dead; 20 for fresh crimes were transported further east, and 80 have
+disappeared—probably run away to live by pilfering and plunder. Some
+of the last-named possibly have been killed by the Russians and buried;
+for when the peasants catch men of this kind doing them mischief, so far
+off are the courts, and so difficult is the bringing of witnesses, that they
+take the law into their own hands, and put the malefactors to death. In
+all, there should be now 547 persons living at Werchne Sujetuk, including
+358 Finns. But about 300 live away at the gold-mines, and so it comes
+to pass that not more than 10 or 12 families reside there regularly.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_37" href="#FNanchor_3_37" class="label">[3]</a> Apart from and in addition to these difficulties, however, there were
+other considerations that dissuaded me from going—such as the small
+number of Finns I should find, my ignorance of their language, their not
+being in particular need of books, and the offer of the pastor to enclose
+mine in a parcel he was sending to the catechist he had left in charge.
+All this caused me to listen to what proved good advice, and instead of
+going, I determined to send about a third of my books by the pastor.
+When further east, I elected to go home through America, consequently
+another third of my books was sent to the Lutheran pastor at Omsk.
+Some were left also for the Lutheran pastor at Irkutsk; and I gave the
+remainder to various prisons and persons for the Finns in the east.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span></p>
+
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p1340_ill" style="max-width: 68.25em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p1340_ill.jpg" alt="">
+</figure>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">
+    CHAPTER XII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>SIBERIAN POSTING.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Travelling by post-horses.—The courier, crown, and ordinary <i lang="ru">podorojna</i>.—The
+tarantass.—Packing.—Harness.—Horses.—Roads.—Pains and
+penalties.—Crossing rivers.—Cost.—Speed.—Post-houses.—Meat and
+drink.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>When</span> you purpose to travel “post” in Russia,
+your first business is to get a <i lang="ru">podorojna</i>, or
+permit, of which there are three kinds. The first is
+a “courier’s” podorojna, which is used by passengers
+travelling in hot haste upon important—generally
+Government—business. Each post-master reserves
+three horses in case a courier should arrive, in which
+event only a certain number of minutes is allowed for
+changing the horses, and away goes the courier at
+breathless speed. Not long before my visit an exile,
+condemned to the east, had reached the city of Tomsk,
+a distance of nearly 3,000 miles from the capital, when,
+for some reason, his presence was required by the
+authorities in Petersburg. They telegraphed, therefore,
+that he was to be brought back <i lang="ru">couriersky</i>; whereupon
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span>
+he was placed between two gendarmes, and then
+over the stones they rattled the bones of that unfortunate
+man, till in 11 days they brought him to his destination.
+This sort of podorojna is reserved for special
+messengers and persons of importance; but, after hearing
+the foregoing story, I came to the conclusion that
+it is not every one who would appreciate the privilege
+of travelling couriersky.</p>
+
+<p>Number 2 is a “crown” podorojna, recognised by
+post-boys who cannot read by its having two seals.
+This is not paid for, and is usually given to officers
+and persons on Government service, and sometimes
+to favoured private individuals. The bearer crosses
+bridges and ferries free, and need not pay for greasing
+his wheels; but its great advantage is that, when there
+is a lack of horses, the owner of a crown podorojna has
+a preferential claim. Podorojna number 3 is that used
+by ordinary travellers, for which at the outset you have
+to pay, by way of tax, a trifling amount per verst,
+according to the distance you intend to travel.</p>
+
+<p>And now, having secured your podorojna, your next
+concern is for a vehicle. If you simply take that to
+which your podorojna entitles you, it will be a roofless,
+seatless, springless, semi-cylindrical tumbril, mounted
+on poles which connect two wooden axletrees, and
+out of this at every station you will have to shift yourself
+and your baggage. This is called travelling <i lang="ru">pericladnoi</i>.
+From such a fate, gentle reader, may you be
+delivered! No, better buy a conveyance of your own.
+The vehicle I have alluded to is called by the general
+name of <i lang="ru">tarantass</i>. The one you will purchase, though
+in many respects similar, and by some called also a
+tarantass, will be dignified by the post-boys with the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span>
+appellation of an “equipage.” Like the other, it will
+be mounted on poles for springs, but the axles and
+body of the carriage will be of iron, and it will have a
+seat for the driver, and a hood, with a curtain and apron,
+under which you may sit by day and wherein you
+can sleep by night. The equipage may cost you from
+£20 to £30, and, if given to mercantile transactions,
+you may consider on the way how much you will gain
+or lose (for that is possible) by the sale of your vehicle
+at the end of the journey. A third way is to get a
+vehicle from one who—having come to Tomsk, for
+instance, to proceed to Russia—wishes his carriage taken
+back to Irkutsk. It was our good fortune to borrow
+the two we used, one being kindly lent by Mr. Oswald
+Cattley.</p>
+
+<p>The packing of the vehicle requires nothing short of
+a Siberian education. Avoid boxes as you would the
+plague! The edges and corners will cruelly bruise
+your back and legs. Choose rather flat portmanteaus
+and soft bags, and spread them on a layer of hay at
+the bottom of the tarantass. Then put over them a
+thin mattress, and next a hearth-rug. When we entered
+Tiumen, women besieged us with these hearth-rugs, as
+I thought them. Not knowing what they were for, I
+could not conceive what they meant by such conduct.
+Had my companion been a lady, I should have deemed
+that they thought us on a bridal trip, and about to set
+up housekeeping. But I was innocent of all such
+devices, and chased the women away. When it was
+discovered what the carpets were for, I regretted not
+having bought one. Next, put at the back of the carriage
+two or more pillows of the softest down, for which
+please send on your order in advance, because these
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span>
+must be bought as opportunity offers. If a housewife
+has finished the manufacture of a down pillow she wishes
+to sell, she will bring it into Ekaterineburg to market;
+but, if you want such a thing on a given day, you may
+search the town and not get one.</p>
+
+<p>You may now get in, cover your legs with a rug, and
+watch them harness the horses. Siberian post-horses
+are sorry objects to look at, but splendid creatures to
+go. A curry-comb probably never touches their coats;
+but, under the combined influence of coaxing, scolding,
+screaming, and whip, they attain a pace which in
+England would be adjudged as nothing short of
+“furious driving.” They are smaller than English
+horses, but much hardier, and are driven two, three,
+four, or even five or more, abreast. The Russian
+harness is a complicated affair, the most noticeable
+feature being the <i lang="ru">douga</i>, or arched bow, over the horse’s
+neck. To the foreigner this looks a needless incumbrance,
+but the Russian declares that it holds the whole
+concern together. The rods are fastened to the ends
+of the bow, and the horse’s collar in turn to the shafts,
+so that the collar remains a fixture, against which the
+horse is obliged to push. The shafts are supported by
+a saddle and pad on the back, and do not touch the
+horse’s body. The centre horse only is in rods; those
+on either side, how many soever they be, are called a
+“pair,” and are merely attached by ropes. If you have
+been wise, you have bought at the <i lang="ru">Gostinnoi Dvor</i> about
+20 yards of inch-rope to go all round the back of the
+vehicle, and to which are attached the two outer horses.
+The post-men are supposed to supply such a rope, but
+theirs are often thin and rotten. It is well, too, to take
+several fathoms of half-inch rope. One of the wheels
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span>
+may become rickety, and threaten to fall to pieces, in
+which case the rope will be needed to interlace the
+spokes. A third supply should be laid in of still smaller
+cord, in case of spraining a pole or the rods. Do not
+forget to purchase besides a hatchet. All these we
+took, and more than all were wanted.</p>
+
+<p>When the driver, or <i lang="ru">yemstchik</i>, has taken his seat, the
+horses will not stay a minute. Indeed, in some districts,
+the horses’ heads are held while the driver
+mounts, and, when freed, they start with a bound.
+And now begin your pains and penalties!</p>
+
+<p>When, at Nijni Tagilsk, we descended by ladders
+600 feet into a copper-mine, and came up in the same
+manner, we were warned that on the following day we
+should be terribly stiff; but I aver that the consequences
+were as nothing compared with those of the
+first day’s travelling by tarantass. The roughness of
+the roads and the lack of springs combine to cause a
+shaking up, the very remembrance of which is painful.
+Let the reader imagine himself about to descend a hill
+at the foot of which is a stream, crossed by a corduroy
+bridge of poles. The ordinary tarantass has no brake,
+the two outer horses are in loose harness, and the one
+in rods has no breeching. The whole weight of the
+machine, therefore, is thrown on his collar, and the
+first half of the hill is descended as slowly as may be.
+But the speed soon increases, first because the rod-horse
+cannot help it, and next because an impetus is
+desired to carry you up the opposite hill. All three
+horses, therefore, begin to pull, and, long before the
+bridge is reached, you are going at a flying pace, and
+everybody has to “hold on.” The bridge is approached,
+and now comes the excruciating moment. Most likely—almost
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span>
+to a certainty—the rain has washed away the
+earth a good six inches below the first timber of the
+bridge, against which bump! go your fore-wheels,
+and thump! go your hind ones; whilst fare and driver
+are alike shot up high into the air. I have a lively
+recollection of these ascents, some of which were so
+high that, when travelling from Archangel to Lake
+Onega, we had the hood removed, lest our skulls should
+strike the top. Happily, all roads are not so perilously
+rough, and, briefly to summarize my experience of
+them, I should say that those of Tobolsk and Tomsk
+are muddy, causing the yemstchiks, when possible,
+to avoid them—to go into lanes and by-ways, over
+hillocks and fallen timber, and down into holes and
+ditches, all of which give variety to the route. The
+Yeneseisk roads deserve nothing but praise; they are
+well kept, and would be reckoned good in England.
+The Irkutsk ways deteriorate, and those beyond Baikal
+are worse than all; for the Buriat yemstchiks drive
+you furiously over hillocks, rocks, and stones.</p>
+
+<p>Nor are roads the only things to be traversed;
+there are numerous streams and rivers—some with
+bridges, but more without. Through some of these
+your horses simply walk; on others there is a well-kept
+ferry, upon which you and your carriage are
+drawn or rowed. On one occasion our vehicle was
+put on the ferry, and the horses made to swim the
+stream. It sometimes happens, however, especially
+in early spring, that the ice or floods have carried away
+or damaged the ferry, and a flat-bottomed boat is
+temporarily substituted. In this manner we crossed
+the Tom. The tarantass was lifted by degrees into
+the boat, one wheel at a time. The boat was only
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span>
+just wide enough to take the vehicle, and we were
+advised to let down the hood, lest the wind should
+blow us over. This was about the only time I felt
+nervous, and I confess being thankful when we safely
+reached the opposite shore.</p>
+
+<p>The cost of these pleasures of travel is not so great
+in Siberia as might be supposed. In the western
+division, where pasture is abundant, the hire of each
+horse is only about a halfpenny per mile. In Eastern
+Siberia the fare is exactly double. Horses are changed
+about every ten or fifteen miles, and each new driver
+looks for a gratuity, euphemistically called “money
+for <em>tea</em>.” On the amount of the “tip” depends your
+speed. Ten kopecks are often given, but we found
+fifteen put the boys in better humour, and we made
+from 100 to 130 miles a day. Two hundred versts
+in a day and night, for summer travelling, is considered
+good, and we sometimes did it; but given a Russian
+merchant, bound for a fair, where his early arrival will
+give him command of the market, and then a “tip” of,
+say, a rouble a stage will in winter get him over 300
+versts, or 200 miles a day. It is common to hear
+Siberians boast of quick journeys made thus, but they
+are usually attained only at cruel cost to the horses.
+The reader may judge what speed can be made from
+a story told us at Tiumen of a Governor-General of
+Eastern Siberia, whom the late Emperor, some 12
+winters ago, required on an emergency at Petersburg,
+a distance from Irkutsk of 3,700 miles. The General
+was put in a bear’s skin, wrapped up like a bundle,
+placed in a sledge, and in 11 days was brought to the
+capital. Several horses dropped dead on the way, an
+ear was cut from each as a voucher, and the journey
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span>
+continued. When governors of provinces travel, they
+are supplied with the best horses in the villages, and
+sometimes have them changed at the half stage, so as
+to spare the animals whilst securing extra speed.</p>
+
+<p>Having said this much about the vehicles, horses,
+and roads, the reader may wonder how it fares with
+the traveller in the matters of lodging and board, which
+brings me to the subject of post-houses. These, like
+the post-horses, are the property of the Government,
+and are of very varied quality, from the best—which
+have all the appearance and the comfort of a roomy,
+well-established English farm-house or country inn—to
+the worst, which are little better than hovels.
+Certain features, however, are common to them all.
+On one side of the door, as you enter, will be found
+the room in which the post-folks and their children
+live, and on the other will be one or more rooms
+reserved for travelling guests. The guests’ room will
+never contain less than the following articles: a table,
+a chair, a candlestick, a bed, or rather a bench—padded,
+if in a good house, but of bare boards in the
+humbler ones—an <i lang="ru">ikon</i> or sacred picture, a looking-glass,
+and sundry framed notices. One of these notices
+is a tariff of meat and drink—not that you are to
+suppose for a moment that any amount of money
+would purchase the luxuries named thereon, but the
+Government makes every post-master take out a victualler’s
+licence, and named thereupon are the prices
+which he would charge for the delicacies <span class="allsmcap">IF HE HAD
+THEM</span>! No—bed and board are the rub of Siberian
+travel. You may safely rely upon getting at any
+station a supply of boiling water, and probably some
+black bread; but beyond this all is uncertainty. In
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span>
+Western Siberia milk and eggs are plentiful and cheap—the
+latter a farthing each; and everywhere, if you
+arrive at dinner-time, there is a chance of getting some
+meat, which you may or may not be able to eat. The
+fact is, you must take your own provisions, and for this
+winter is better than summer, because then you have
+simply to freeze your meat and chop off a piece with
+your hatchet when required. It is easy, moreover, to
+start with a stock of frozen meat pies, one of which,
+thrown in hot water, is eatable in a few minutes; and
+so with lumps of frozen cream. Tea and sugar are
+carried, of course, by every traveller in Russia; and
+to these were added a small quantity of tinned meat,
+fresh butter, anchovy paste, and marmalade—the last
+two as qualifiers in case we were reduced to black
+bread. These things, with a stock of white bread
+taken from the larger towns, formed a base, for which
+we were thankful. If anything better fell in the way,
+it was so much to the good; if white bread and butter
+failed, then we hoped for improved circumstances.
+These remarks apply, of course, to the hundreds of
+miles of country between the towns. In the towns
+we fared comparatively well. Such are some of the
+features of tarantass travel for which we prepared ourselves
+at Tomsk. What occurred will be related in
+its proper place.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII">
+    CHAPTER XIII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>FROM TOMSK SOUTHWARDS.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Application for horses.—Effect of Petersburg letter.—A false start.—A
+horse killed.—Attempted cooking.—Siberian weather.—Meteorology.—Scenery.—Trees,
+plants, and flowers.—An elementary school.—Education
+in Western Siberia.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>Though</span> our journey to Barnaul took place
+quite early in our posting career, it was by no
+means devoid of incident. On Thursday, June 12th,
+we sent for a “troika” of horses at noon, and were
+coolly told by the postal authorities that we could have
+them towards midnight. Now the chief of their
+department at Petersburg had favoured me with a
+special letter, addressed to the post-masters on our route,
+enjoining them to help me, and requesting that I
+might be delayed as little as possible. We had been
+favoured likewise with a crown podorojna. This latter
+had been presented, but to no purpose; and it seemed
+a clear case for bringing our heavy artillery into action.
+We presented, therefore, the postal letter, and the effect
+was magical. Before the official had half read it, he
+sprang to his feet, eyed me respectfully, bustled off to
+his chief, and, speedily returning, promised the horses
+in an hour. They appeared punctually, and we started
+“troika” fashion—that is, three horses driven abreast.
+Unfortunately, however, the <i lang="ru">starosta</i>, or man in charge
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span>
+of the postal yard, could not read our podorojna, and
+he took it for granted that we wished to go towards
+Krasnoiarsk, and told the yemstchik to drive us
+thither. Nor was it till we had run some dozen miles
+or more that it was discovered we were not on the
+road to Barnaul. We had, of course, to retrace our
+steps to Tomsk, and then we heard that it was not the
+first time this starosta had sent off travellers in the
+wrong direction. The mistake in our case had caused
+the extra expenditure of eighteen pennyworth of horse-flesh,
+and I thought it right to visit the loss of this
+sum on the starosta for the benefit of future travellers
+as well as our own. I therefore declined to pay
+for the privilege of having been taken out of our way,
+and left the starosta to settle with the post-master.</p>
+
+<p>Making a fresh start, we found ourselves by nightfall
+near the river Tom. The ordinary road was under
+water, and the banks of the stream were so flooded
+that we were obliged to take a cross-country road
+leading some 25 miles out of the way; and as it went
+over hill and dale, and almost “hedges and ditches,”
+we were advised to stay till morning. But we pushed
+on, crossed the river at daybreak, and at the third
+station, in the direction of the Barabinsky steppe,
+turned southwards, and travelled well till Saturday
+evening, when, on stopping awhile to rest the horses,
+one of them dropped and died upon the spot. We
+were pulling the creature off the road—one having
+hold of a leg, another of her tail, and so on—when the
+remaining horses, as if indignant at such conduct,
+rushed over the bank, and tore away with the tarantass
+into the forest. Some of us pursued, and fortunately
+caught and brought them back without further harm.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span>
+The loss of a horse is more serious in Eastern than in
+Western Siberia, where people have herds of horses
+worthy of patriarchs. One lady told me that her
+husband possessed from 4,000 to 5,000 horses, and
+about as many cows. Pasturage is abundant, and
+horse-flesh is cheap. Our horse was reckoned a good
+one, and valued at £4 10<i>s.</i> The post-master could
+claim nothing from us for its loss, and thanked us
+warmly for 10<i>s.</i> towards repairing his damage. As
+we went along we saw large herds of mares with their
+foals, turned loose for the summer in company with a
+single horse to guard them. Should danger approach,
+in the form of a wild beast for instance, the stallion
+drives all the mares within a circle with their heels
+outwards, and the foals in the centre, whilst he stamps
+the ground with rage and dares the wolf to come
+within reach of their hoofs.</p>
+
+<p>When we reached the last river we had to cross,
+which at ordinary times was probably not half a mile
+wide, we found it so flooded that the ferry-boat had a
+journey of more than five miles. This took a long
+while, and, when returning, we thought to save time by
+eating a meal on the water. In my luncheon-basket
+is a “Rob Roy” cuisine, with a view to the using of
+which, before leaving England, I took an evening’s
+cooking lesson. I was now anxious to demonstrate
+to the Russians that it was possible to make a cup of
+tea without the aid of a <i lang="ru">samovar</i>. We therefore commenced
+operations, there being on board not only our
+own three horses, but half-a-dozen others with their
+drivers and tarantasses. The great advantage of this
+cuisine is that, whereas a puff of wind may extinguish an
+ordinary spirit-lamp, the “Rob Roy,” by setting fire
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span>
+to the steam of the spirit, burns so furiously that a
+hurricane will not blow it out. It makes, however,
+a considerable roar; and when matters reached this
+stage, not only were all the natives surprised, but
+the horses began so to kick and to plunge that we
+feared an upset. One of the drivers said his horse
+was 30 years old, and had never heard such a
+noise in his life! So, for the general safety of all
+on board, I packed up my kitchen and had to forego
+the tea.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto our Siberian tour had been highly enjoyable.
+South of Tomsk the weather was charming,
+and the new spring vegetation lovely. A question
+that has been repeatedly put to me since my return
+to England is, “Did you not find it very cold in
+Siberia?” It may be well, therefore, that this question
+should here be answered. Snow fell on the night
+we entered the country, and the ground next morning,
+May 29th, was white; but the snow disappeared after
+an hour or two, and we saw no more for some days.
+By the 5th of June we reached on the Obi a latitude
+100 miles north of Petersburg, where the buds
+had not yet opened, nor had the winter floods subsided.
+I heard subsequently that the opening of spring
+had come that year unusually early in Petersburg, and
+exceptionally late in Siberia, where the ice usually
+breaks up at Tobolsk at the end of April. On the
+6th of June we had snow, and the trees on the banks
+had little verdure till we reached Tomsk on the 9th,
+after which fine weather set in, and was followed by
+almost uninterrupted sunshine till the beginning of
+autumn. The summer climate, therefore, of those
+parts of Siberia through which I passed I consider
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span>
+simply delightful—neither oppressively hot by day nor
+unpleasantly cold by night.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving England, my neighbour, Mr. Glaisher
+the meteorologist, had urged me to take a few instruments
+for the purpose of making observations, and
+had kindly lent me for the journey a valuable unmounted
+thermometer. I took, besides, an aneroid
+barometer, a compass, an anemometer, maximum
+and minimum thermometers, and two others. With
+these instruments I felt very much like a boy leaving
+home on a summer morning with excellent fishing
+tackle, and bent on taking nothing less than trout.
+When returning, I felt that I had brought back
+minnows. On my first night out, at Cologne, my
+apparatus was duly exposed from the hotel window,
+and on reaching Petersburg I climbed daily to the top
+of the hotel to measure the velocity of the wind. At
+the copper-mine at Nijni Tagilsk I was resolved on
+being very learned, and took my instruments to test
+the temperature of springs and the velocity of air
+currents. But, alas! I broke my thermometer, and,
+having reached the bottom of the mine, had forgotten,
+when undressing, to take my watch. On the Obi I
+was able to take a few observations, but it was impossible
+to continue this during posting journeys; and
+further on I broke my minimum thermometer, after
+which I abandoned hope of attaining meteorological
+distinction.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_38" href="#Footnote_1_38" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span></p>
+
+<p>The journey to Barnaul revealed to us beauties of
+scenery and vegetation for which we were hardly prepared
+after the flat and leafless districts through which
+we had been passing. The landscape now became
+undulating, and the traveller who passes further south
+to Biisk, and beyond, approaches the regions of the
+Altai chain, which are spoken of as well worth seeing.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_39" href="#Footnote_2_39" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span>
+The grass between Tomsk and Barnaul was remarkable,
+and the further south we went the more luxuriant it
+became. Much of the flora was familiar, but we were
+now introduced to a good many trees, shrubs, plants,
+and flowers, found more or less in the country west of
+Irkutsk, that were new to us. The most prominent of
+the trees was the white-barked birch, justly called the
+“lady of the forest.” We saw also the cedar-nut tree,
+the pitch pine, the larch, the flowering acacia, spruce
+fir, and alder, the white-pine, willow, lime, Siberian
+poplar, laburnum, and white-flowering cheriomkha—the
+last a beautiful object when in blossom, and yielding for
+fruit a small bird cherry. Among the shrubs appeared
+the white hawthorn, and an abundance of wild red
+currants, which, like bird cherries, are eaten by the
+people—the latter being made into bread and cakes,
+and, in common with other fruits, put into brandy to
+make <i lang="ru">naliphka</i>. These fruits are very sour as compared
+with the English kinds. Strawberry and raspberry
+plants abounded, though we did not get our first
+plate of wild strawberries till 11th July. In autumn,
+numerous berries are plentiful, such as cranberries
+(called <i lang="ru">klukva</i>), bilberries, cowberries, bearberries,
+stoneberries, the mountain ash berry, and the Arctic
+bramble. All these are found, too, in European
+Russia, north of Petersburg, the last having a blossom
+like a single rose, a strawberry leaf, and a fruit resembling
+the English blackberry. In summer, strawberries
+and raspberries are the best fruits within reach
+of the Siberian traveller until he reaches the southern
+region of the Amur. Among the spring flowers we
+missed (or perhaps overlooked) the pale primrose;
+but violets are found, also sweet-williams, daisies,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span>
+foxgloves, rich camomile flowers, the wild rose, crocus,
+lily of the valley, and many others. The fields were
+actually blue with forget-me-nots. We noticed also on
+this journey what was to me a new plant, bearing an
+orange flower something like a buttercup, but very
+much larger, and of which there were many. Also
+east of Tomsk we saw a large red lily, made much of
+in English gardens, but which here was growing wild;
+also, in great abundance, a red flower very much like
+the peony.</p>
+
+<p>On the road to Barnaul, at a place called Medvedsky,
+is an elementary school, to which, in returning, we paid
+a visit, and so were brought into contact with village
+education.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_40" href="#Footnote_3_40" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> There were in attendance 32 boys and
+girls, of ages varying from 6 to 16, most of whom came
+from distant places (some 30 miles off), and lodged in
+the village. Only 8 were from the immediate neighbourhood.
+Adults sometimes attend the school, in
+which the education is free, the school being supported
+by the commune or <i lang="ru">mir</i>. The scholars attend daily
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span>
+from 8 o’clock till 2, after which hour some of them
+learn bookbinding. Sundays and saints’ days are
+holidays, but the children are required to be every
+Sunday at church. There was a priest in the room
+giving instruction. I asked the children some Scripture
+questions, but was poorly answered. Many of
+the children, however, jumped at the opportunity of
+purchasing a New Testament for 1¼<i>d.</i>, and we left
+a supply for them. The master wished the boys to
+be examined in arithmetic, whereupon, among other
+questions, I asked them, “What two numbers multiplied
+together make 7?” They knitted their brows as if
+making a great effort—and even the master’s countenance
+seemed to betray that he thought the question
+too difficult. All laughed heartily, however, when, on
+giving it up, I told them that the factors were 7 and 1.
+The master lived in an adjoining part of the house;
+and in this far-off place I observed on the wall of the
+schoolmaster’s room, as I had seen on that of one of
+the prison officials at Tiumen, an English engraving of
+the portrait of Professor Darwin. The schoolmaster
+said I was the first Englishman he had seen, gladly
+purchased some of our books, and thanked us for our
+visit.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_38" href="#FNanchor_1_38" class="label">[1]</a> My scientific attempts brought me in contact with some pleasant
+people; notably Captain Rykatcheff, of the Observatory in Petersburg,
+and with others at Moscow, Ekaterineburg, Tomsk, etc.; at all of which
+places they have observatories, that near Petersburg being, I was told, in
+some respects better than ours at Greenwich. The Russians take considerable
+pains in collecting data from 103 stations throughout the
+Empire, of which 14 are in Siberia, namely: at Omsk, Akmolinsk,
+Semipolatinsk, Tomsk, Barnaul, Kuznetsk, Yeneseisk, Turukhansk, Irkutsk,
+Kiakhta, Nertchinsk mines, Blagovestchensk, Nikolaefsk, and Vladivostock.
+The Russians have an observatory also in China, at Peking; and
+I think I heard of some new ones established on the Obi. They register
+thrice daily—at seven, one, and nine—the readings of the barometer, the
+dry and wet bulb thermometers giving the temperature and humidity of
+the atmosphere, the direction of the wind, and the amount of clouds, rain,
+snow, etc.; and these statistics are collected and published at Petersburg
+with a fulness which exceeds, I am told, anything that we do in poor England.
+I was presented with the Report for 1877 (the last then published)—a great
+volume of 600 pages. It will be from this source that I shall from time
+to time air before the reader my meteorological learning. Tomsk was the
+first of the Siberian stations at which we arrived, where the maximum
+temperature of the year rose, at one o’clock on the 6th August, to 106°.9,
+and the minimum temperature, 83°.2 below zero, occurred on Christmas
+Day. At Barnaul, some 200 miles south, it was a little hotter and a little
+colder, the maximum being 107°.8, and the minimum 84°.8 below zero.
+On the Sunday we spent there, June 15th, the temperature was the hottest
+we had experienced up to that time in Siberia; and we heard it is so
+cold in winter that small birds sometimes drop dead in the streets.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_39" href="#FNanchor_2_39" class="label">[2]</a> The entire Altai system extends in a serpentine line, and under various
+names, from the Irtish to Behring Strait. The breadth of the chain
+varies from 400 to 1,000 miles. Its entire length is about 4,500 miles, but
+it is only to the portion west of Lake Baikal that the term Altai is applied.
+This part consists of a succession of terraces with swelling outline,
+descending in steps from the high tableland, and terminating in promontories
+on the Siberian plains. On these terraces (some of them at great
+height) are numerous lakes. The ordinary tablelands are given as not
+more than 6,000 feet high, and as seldom covered with perpetual snow,
+though it is otherwise with the Korgan tableland, which reaches 9,900
+feet; and the two pillars of Katunya, which are said to attain to nearly
+13,000 feet above the sea level. At the western extremity of the chain
+are metalliferous veins, in which several important workings have been
+established since 1872.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_40" href="#FNanchor_3_40" class="label">[3]</a> In the uyezd or district of Tiumen, which is one out of 9 in the
+province of Tobolsk, there are 24 schools; at Tobolsk we heard of 12
+schools more. In the villages about Barnaul there are few schools, but
+there are some in the district of the mines and the works. In Tomsk are
+a few upper-class schools, as also at Tobolsk; and we met at Tomsk a
+school inspector. Further, from the <i lang="ru">Golos</i> of 25th June, 1879 (old style),
+it appeared that the Russian Government had lately opened a classical
+school, or <i lang="ru">gymnase</i>, at Omsk; a <i lang="ru">real</i>, or commercial school, at Tomsk;
+and <i lang="ru">pro-gymnases</i>, or preparatory classical schools for girls, at Tomsk
+and Barnaul. It was further stated that in 1878 there were in Western
+Siberia 22 upper-class schools, with an attendance of 3,200 scholars; and
+that other such schools were asked for at Semipolatinsk, Petropavlovsk,
+Kainsk, and Barnaul. In Western Siberia, in 1878, 546 schools of a
+lower class existed, numbering 15,000 scholars, of whom, however, the
+remarkable preponderance of 13,000 boys over 2,000 girls is startling.
+The Russians have had schools for some time for Kirghese boys, and
+they have two also for Kirghese girls; whilst, as observed before, they
+opened in 1879 a school at Obdorsk for the Ostjaks and Samoyedes.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV">
+    CHAPTER XIV.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>BARNAUL.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Situation of town.—Cemetery.—Burial of the dead.—The Emperor’s usine.—Visit
+to Mr. Clark.—Visits to hospital and prison.—A recently-enacted
+tragedy.—Crime of the district.—Smelting of silver and gold.—Price
+of land and provisions.—Return to Tomsk.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>We</span> reached Barnaul very early on Sunday morning,
+having traversed, after leaving the flooded
+river Obi, a miniature <em>Sahara</em>, or desert of sand.
+Barnaul, like Tobolsk and Tomsk, lies at the foot of
+a hill. It has 13,000 inhabitants. On the top of the
+hill is a cemetery, which was the first we had met
+with; but it did not convey a favourable impression of
+Siberian burying-places. Indeed, I have not been
+greatly struck by Russian cemeteries, whether in
+Europe or in Asia, though on the graves of their
+emperors the Russians place monuments of considerable
+taste, which deserve to be placed in the same
+category with memorials of the departed such as those
+of Frederick William III. and his Queen at Charlottenburg,
+or the tomb of Napoleon in the Hotel des
+Invalides. But it is otherwise, as I have said, with
+average Russian tombs.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_41" href="#Footnote_1_41" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span></p>
+
+<p>From the cemetery at Barnaul are seen its half-dozen
+churches and a large building known as the
+Emperor’s <i lang="ru">usine</i>, or gold and silver smelting works.
+Most of the business of the town is connected with
+mining; and many surveyors and engineers live in
+the adjacent mountains in summer, and in Barnaul in
+winter. The discovery of the precious metals in the
+Altai regions was made by one of the Demidoffs, who
+is said to have been sent there by Peter the Great.
+His monument in brass stands in the public square at
+Barnaul. We had an introduction to the manager of
+the usine, Mr. Clark, who is the son of an Englishman,
+and who reads but does not speak his father’s language.
+We found in his spacious house a good collection of
+English books, together with copies of the <cite>Nineteenth
+Century</cite>, the <cite>Graphic</cite>, <cite>All the Year Round</cite>, and the
+weekly edition of the <cite>Times</cite>. On the Sunday afternoon
+our host took us to visit the poor-house and the
+hospital. In this latter were 14 rooms, which had the
+advantage of being very lofty and airy, though they
+struck me as not particularly tidy.</p>
+
+<p>In the 9 rooms of the prison were 120 criminals,
+one of whom, a day or two previously, had within the
+prison walls enacted a tragedy, the circumstances of
+which would furnish material for a sensational novel.
+The rooms of the prison are ranged on either side of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span>
+a wide corridor, and in one of them was a number of
+women, one of whom had murdered her husband and
+was condemned to Eastern Siberia, to which she was
+on her way, though for some reason detained at Barnaul.
+In one of the male wards was a young man, formerly
+under-manager of a shop in the town, who had been
+suspected of stealing, and was imprisoned for three
+months. He had served out this time within a week;
+but during his stay in the prison he made the acquaintance
+of, and became more or less attached to, the
+murderess, holding conversation with her from the
+corridor during the time allowed for exercise. Another
+male prisoner was by these two taken into council, and
+the three determined to attempt an escape, by means
+of wooden keys which the men were to make. The
+plot, however, was discovered, and the woman, finding
+that she must proceed to her destination and leave her
+lover, tried to kill herself. But she was prevented.
+She therefore adopted another plan of ridding herself
+of life. In the door of the women’s chamber was an
+inspection-hole, unusually large. This she cut a little
+larger, thrust her head through into the corridor where
+the man was walking, and begged him, if he loved her,
+to take her life; upon which he took a knife, cut her
+throat, and so effectually killed her. We saw the stains
+of the blood still on the door, for the deed had been
+done only a day or two before our visit. Close at
+hand was the prisoner, placed in a separate and rather
+dark cell, and chained hand and foot—the only man I
+saw so chained in Siberia. As he walked out of his
+cell, I walked in, and found on the floor a quantity of
+cigarettes and a book of songs. Upon my pointing to
+the cigarettes, the officer said that the prisoners managed
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span>
+to smuggle them in; and then came out the old story,
+that this prisoner had managed also to smuggle in drink,
+under the influence of which he had committed this
+horrid murder. On asking what punishment he would
+be likely to receive, we were told that he would probably
+be condemned to hard labour for about 16 years;
+and we were further informed that in the small district
+of Barnaul, consisting of less than half the population
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span>
+of Liverpool, there are usually about 10 murders a
+year. As we went from room to room, the police-master
+introduced me to the prisoners as an Englishman travelling
+through Siberia who had brought them books,
+which usually elicited an expression of thanks. We
+left them a New Testament and papers for each room,
+doing the like also for the hospital and poor-house, and
+sending a supply for the prison at Biisk.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp47" id="p1550_ill" style="max-width: 59.3125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p1550_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      CONVICT SUMMER CLOTHING AND CHAINS.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>On Monday we went with Mr. Clark to see the
+Emperor’s usine, to which is brought mineral from
+Smirnagorsk, 200 miles distant, as well as from other
+parts of the Altai mountains, where are mines, the ore
+from which contains for the more part copper and silver.
+They find there but very little lead. Nor is the quantity
+of iron worked at all large—chiefly, I believe, for
+lack of capital and energy. In 1879 only 507 tons of
+iron were cast, and 238 tons wrought in the government
+of Tomsk. Many thousand <i lang="ru">poods</i> of copper are
+obtained annually in the district, but not smelted at
+Barnaul. These mines are called the private mines of
+the Emperor, and the revenues belong to the Crown.
+In them are employed from 1,500 to 2,000 men (not,
+in this case, convicts), and the ore from the Altai
+regions is brought to be smelted to four different works
+for silver, and one for copper.</p>
+
+<p>The smelting of silver is carried on at Barnaul all
+the year round. They burn charcoal, which costs
+10<i>s.</i> a ton. The ore as brought from the mine is
+called <em>mineral</em>, and 4,000 tons of mineral yield 2 tons
+of silver—that is, 2,000 parts of ore yield one part of
+pure metal.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_42" href="#Footnote_2_42" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span></p>
+
+<p>We went from the usine to the museum, which
+could not fail to be interesting to a mining engineer or
+a geologist. There was a large and well-assorted collection
+of minerals; models of the principal Altai silver-mines,
+showing the shafts, adits, and galleries, with
+their machinery; models of gold-washing machines, of
+quartz mills, and of furnaces and works in various parts
+of Siberia. Among the natural curiosities of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span>
+museum were the stock of a tree, with branches that
+represented pretty accurately a man in a sitting posture;
+and a piece of wood, which, when split, had been found
+to contain a cross inside. In the ethnological department
+were some good costumes of the Kirghese and of
+a Tunguse <i lang="ru">shaman</i>, or priest and priestess. They had
+also in another room an eagle’s nest, and several
+specimens of the Altai eagle; but in the zoological
+department the most remarkable specimen was the
+stuffed skin of a tiger killed in the southern part of the
+district, where this animal is usually unknown.</p>
+
+<p>The price of land and provisions at Barnaul was such
+as might make many a man sigh to live there. The
+price for the hire of cleared black soil was 3½<i>d.</i> an
+English acre. We saw them scratching the surface of it
+(for their instrument was so shallow that it was a mockery
+to call it ploughing), and yet such farming yields there
+an abundant crop. They take just a little of their
+stable manure for cucumber beds, but burn the rest to
+get rid of it, never thinking of putting it on the land;
+but when they have used a field for a few years, and it
+is becoming exhausted, they take fresh ground. The
+cost of provisions in this fertile district is on a level
+with the prices quoted on the Obi. Black rye flour
+costs half-a-farthing per English pound; undressed
+wheat flour, such as we use for brown bread, costs 2<i>s.</i>
+per cwt.; whilst white wheaten flour costs up to 16<i>s.</i>
+for a sack of 180 pounds. The price of meat is similar.
+In the summer, when it will not keep and is dear,
+beef costs 1¼<i>d.</i> per lb.; but in winter, when it can be
+kept in a frozen condition, it sells for less than ½<i>d.</i> per
+English pound. Veal is more expensive, and costs 1½<i>d.</i>;
+whilst aristocratic persons, who live on grouse, have to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span>
+pay as much as from 2<i>d.</i> to 2½<i>d.</i> per brace. In this
+part of Siberia it is rare to find a peasant without a
+stock of horses and cows, and a man with a family to
+help him can make an excellent living. When I wrote,
+in April 1880, some letters to the <cite>Times</cite> on Siberian
+prisons, one gentleman said he thought there would be
+a <em>rush</em> thither, because I made things look so comfortable.
+In case, therefore, the quotation of these
+prices should tempt any of my readers to emigrate, I
+think it right to point out that in this district carriage
+is dear and labour is scarce, a workman earning 1<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i>
+a day, or, if provided with food, 6<i>s.</i> a month.</p>
+
+<p>We should have liked well to have stayed longer in
+this part of the country, and to have made our way
+among the hordes south and west, in the provinces
+of Akmolinsk and Semipolatinsk, which contain a population
+of 10,000 and 9,000 respectively.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_43" href="#Footnote_3_43" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Our time,
+however, did not permit of our so doing; and therefore,
+after a very pleasant stay at Barnaul, and a final lunch
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span>
+with Mr. Clark, we bade our host adieu, and on Wednesday,
+June 18th, we re-entered Tomsk, where we
+found our luggage arrived, and for the carriage of
+which, by steamer, Mr. Ignatoff—to his liberality be
+it said—would make no charge. When I added this
+concession to the reduced rate we had paid on the Obi
+for our tarantass, our berths, and excess luggage—to
+say nothing of the personal attention shown on board
+to “Mr. Missionary,”—and all this without my having
+breathed a word as to charges, I thought it very handsome,
+and I gladly record this good deed spontaneously
+emanating from beneath the double-breasted coat of a
+Russian merchant.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_41" href="#FNanchor_1_41" class="label">[1]</a> In the Russian Church there are five offices for the burial of the
+dead, namely, two for the laity, and one each for monks, priests, and
+children. The priest is sent for immediately after death, and performs a
+service. The rich usually have relays of priests to continue praying so
+long as the corpse remains in the house. Burials always take place in
+the morning. The corpse is taken into the church with the face uncovered,
+looking eastward, and before removal is kissed by the priest and
+relatives. At the grave the priest casts earth upon it. Further (though
+this is not ecclesiastically prescribed), the Russians have services for the
+dead at the grave, or at the church, on the third, the ninth, and the fortieth
+day, also on the anniversaries of the departed one’s death and birthday,
+the last two being continued for some persons for many years. They do
+not, however, believe in purgatory.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_42" href="#FNanchor_2_42" class="label">[2]</a> The processes of smelting are three. The mineral is first powdered,
+and a handful taken to the assaying house. Here we saw a man making
+small crucibles of clay, at the rate of 1,000 a day. In two cups, one
+having bone in its composition, is put an ascertained quantity of the
+mineral: both are placed in the furnace, and the result shows what proportion
+of pure metal the mineral will yield. The powdered mineral is
+then taken to furnace No. 1, which is like an iron furnace, and from 20
+to 30 feet high. Into this the mineral is put with charcoal, and, after
+remaining there about 12 hours, there comes out of the furnace a black
+compound of lead and silver called <i lang="ru">ruststein</i>. The ruststein is then placed
+in furnace No. 2 with lead, and, after remaining there for a short time
+(three tons, for instance, for an hour), the silver is extracted by the lead,
+and the compound which comes out is called <i lang="ru">werchblei</i>. This is put into
+furnace No. 3, where 16 tons would remain three days, with the result
+that the lead oxydizes into <i lang="ru">glot</i>, and is run off, whilst the silver remains
+and sinks to the bottom of the furnace. It is then taken out in round
+cakes from 12 to 15 inches in diameter, and sent to Petersburg. The
+cakes we saw had a dull hue, very much resembling lumps of newly
+molten lead, and were valued at £3 6<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i> per pound.</p>
+
+<p>A simpler process is the smelting of gold, carried on in a room about
+20 feet square, having a tall furnace in the centre, in which are fires not
+much larger than those in a laundry copper. The gold is brought to the
+usine in dust and small nuggets, tied up in leather bags, and begins to
+arrive from the mines at the end of June. The smelting goes on to the
+end of October. Some of the leathern bags were shown to us, duly sealed,
+and with particulars written thereon. One, about the size of a hen’s egg,
+was worth £36; and another, the size of a blackbird’s egg, was marked
+£5. When opened, the gold, just as it comes from the washings, with
+borax as a flux, is put into an earthenware pot, and then placed in the
+fire, after which it fuses, and is poured out into an iron mould in the
+shape of a flat bar. A bar we saw weighed 15 pounds.</p>
+
+<p>In the season they sometimes have in the strong-room 250 poods—say
+from four to five tons—of gold, which the previous summer had been
+worth £2,000 a pood, making a total value of £500,000 for gold alone.
+At the end of the season the silver and gold are sent to the capital, under
+charge of a military escort.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_43" href="#FNanchor_3_43" class="label">[3]</a> Dr. Finsch, who travelled with an exploring party up the Irtish in
+1876, has put on record much information of a scientific character about
+this part of Siberia. Mr. Atkinson, an English artist, with his wife, also
+spent seven years in Central Asia and the Kirghese steppes. He gives fuller
+information than I have met elsewhere of the Kirghese, who number
+nearly 1,500,000 souls. They live either in tents or in caverns resembling
+rabbit burrows, both of which are filthy beyond measure. The appearance
+of the Kirghese, judging by those I saw in the prisons, is anything but
+prepossessing—the nose sinks into the face, and the cheeks are large and
+bloated. They eat chiefly mutton and horse-flesh, and drink tea and
+mare’s milk. The last, when fermented, is called <i lang="ru">koumis</i>, and is kept in
+the tent in a large leathern sack, said to be never washed out. The
+Kirghese are splendid horsemen; and their usual occupation is tending
+sheep, goats, horses, and camels, of which they possess immense herds.
+Indeed, I was told that, in the <i lang="ru">aoul</i> or encampment of a rich Kirghese
+chief, one can see in the present day the principal objects that were
+witnessed 4,000 years ago, when the patriarch Abraham was a dweller
+in tents, and pastured cattle.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV">
+    CHAPTER XV.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE SIBERIAN CHURCH.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>The Russian Church.—Geographical area.—History, doctrines, schisms.—Ecclesiastical
+divisions of Siberia.—Church committees.—Russian
+Church services.—Picture-worship.—Vestments.—Liturgy.—Ordination.—Baptism.—Marriage.—Minor
+services.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>It</span> will be expected, of course, in a journey from
+the Urals to the Pacific, that something should
+be said of the Siberian Church, to treat of which is to
+treat of the Russian Church in Siberia. Wherever the
+Russians carry their arms, there, like the Romans,
+they carry their creed; and consequently all along the
+great Siberian highways, where the Russians dwell,
+they have their ecclesiastical system as in Europe. I
+shall therefore speak generally of things concerning
+the Greek Church, whether in Russia or Siberia, and
+illustrate them by what I have seen.</p>
+
+<p>Our knowledge of the Russian Church comes to us
+chiefly from two sources: from the pens of ecclesiastical
+authors, and from the writings of modern travellers.
+From the latter, it is not too much to say that
+the Russians and their religion often receive a scant
+measure of justice, not to add misrepresentation; for
+when the British tourist looks upon the gorgeous and
+elaborate ritual of an Eastern Church, sees the picture-worship
+of the people, their kissing of relics, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span>
+invocation of saints, he is reminded of like things in
+the Churches of Italy and Spain, and he not unfrequently
+condemns both East and West as superstitious
+and corrupt alike. Such a charge, however, is far too
+sweeping, and betrays a lack of knowledge of many
+points which, if more generally known, would certainly
+bring English Churchmen nearer, at least in sympathy,
+with members of the Church in Russia. On the other
+hand, the writings of ecclesiastical authors are usually
+so technical as to fail in bringing before us what the
+traveller sees as the everyday religious life of a people.
+It is desirable to avoid these two extremes, and to distinguish
+between the recognized standards of a Church’s
+teaching, and the correspondence therewith, or otherwise,
+of the daily lives of its members.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_44" href="#Footnote_1_44" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>I do not propose to enter here upon the history,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_45" href="#Footnote_2_45" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span>
+doctrines,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_46" href="#Footnote_3_46" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>
+    or schisms&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_47" href="#Footnote_4_47" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> of the Russian Church, but
+proceed to observe that, for ecclesiastical purposes,
+Siberia is divided into six dioceses, presided over by
+7 bishops. It contains 1,515 churches and 1,509
+clergy; 14 monasteries containing 147 monks, and 4
+nunneries containing 62 nuns. Russian dioceses are
+subdivided into rural deaneries, each consisting of a
+circle of from ten to thirty parishes, some of which, in
+Siberia, must be very extensive, though not necessarily
+populous. A priest near Tobolsk, however, told me
+that he had 5,000 parishioners; another at Kansk,
+near Irkutsk, had 2,000, widely scattered; whilst on
+the Siberian coast of the Pacific, Nikolaefsk and
+Vladivostock, towns of 3,000 and 5,000 inhabitants
+respectively, form only one parish each. Every <i lang="ru">selo</i>
+or town of a certain grade has a church; and in some
+of the <i lang="ru">derevni</i>, or villages, churches and small chapels,
+or oratories, are built, in which latter, services, other
+than the liturgy or holy communion, may be performed.
+The churches and vestments are furnished
+and kept in repair by parochial committees, of not less
+than five persons, elected annually, who, on retiring from
+office, are called “church elders.” They visit every
+house in the parish, and determine what proportion of
+the expenses should be paid by each householder.
+There would seem to be no difficulty in raising the
+necessary funds; and I must add that I was agreeably
+surprised in Siberia to see how well and how clean the
+churches were kept, even in the remotest and most
+out-of-the-way places.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_48" href="#Footnote_5_48" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span></p>
+
+<p>We had several opportunities, in passing through
+Siberia, of attending the Church services. Picture-worship
+is an almost universal attendant of Russian
+devotion—more so, if possible, than in Roman countries;
+and the Russian Church has found it necessary
+to issue many warnings against the perils of
+idolatry.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_49" href="#Footnote_6_49" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>Another prominent feature of “orthodox” worship
+is the plentiful use of lighted candles bought at the
+church entrance. In one church in Petersburg, and
+that not the largest, I was told that money is taken
+yearly for candles up to 10,000 roubles—say £1,000.</p>
+
+<p>The vestments of the priests and bishops are gorgeous
+in the extreme. A metropolitan’s “<i lang="ru">sakkos</i>” is
+shown at Moscow, which is said to weigh 50 pounds,
+by reason of the pearls and gems with which it is
+embellished. At the Troitza monastery are fifteen
+dresses for the Archimandrite, one of which, for the
+mere making, cost the Empress Elizabeth £600, the
+robe itself being valued at £11,000. This monastery
+is said to possess amongst its treasures two bushels of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span>
+pearls, and, from what I have twice seen there, I am
+inclined to add an estimated <i lang="ru">pint</i> of diamonds, to say
+nothing of emeralds, rubies, and sapphires innumerable!</p>
+
+<p>The Church services are of a monastic character,
+long and tedious, read in Sclavonic, “which is to the
+modern Russian,” it is said, “about what the language
+of Chaucer is to us”; so that, what with its ancient
+form and the rapidity with which the ecclesiastical
+language is read, it is practically unintelligible to many
+of the people. From time to time in the services commemorations
+are made of the Virgin and saints; and
+prayers are offered to them, blessings are asked of
+God through their intercessions, and the response,
+<i lang="ru">Gospodi Pomilui</i>, “Lord, have mercy!” is uttered
+thirty, forty, fifty times or more, almost at a breath.</p>
+
+<p>No instrumental music is allowed in the Russian
+Church; but the singing in large cathedrals, such as
+St. Isaac’s at Petersburg (where they have 30 choristers
+dressed in blue and gold tunics), is exceedingly grand.
+I do not remember to have heard elsewhere such
+extraordinary harmony. The basses descended to
+depths almost abyssmal, and the trebles soared to and
+were sustained at a height perfectly marvellous, whilst
+other voices were so profusely blended that I can
+compare the effect of the whole to nothing better than
+to an exquisite colored window. The hymn called
+“The Cherubim,” with music by Bortnyanski, I heard
+sung at Petersburg and Kasan; and at the latter place
+was not surprised to see tears falling from the eyes of
+a peasant woman near me, for my own were uncommonly
+moist. I made bold to approach and look over
+the music of one of the choristers, thereby alarming the
+Monk director, who, mistaking my interest, said afterwards
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span>
+he thought I had perchance come from the
+Imperial choir to take away some of his best voices.</p>
+
+<p>The ritual and services of the Russian Church are
+contained in twenty volumes folio. The greatest part
+of the service varies every day in the year except in
+the Liturgy, where the greater part is fixed.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_50" href="#Footnote_7_50" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>As we passed through Kasan we happened to see
+the ordination of a priest and a deacon, which was
+interesting. Holy orders are regarded by the Russian
+Church as a sacrament or mystery, but are not
+indelible. If, for instance, a widower priest wishes to
+marry again, he can do so by resigning his priest’s
+orders and taking some inferior place among the minor
+orders, or by giving up his ecclesiastical profession
+altogether. They have five orders, namely, bishop,
+priest, deacon, sub-deacon, and reader; and the episcopal
+dignitaries consist of metropolitans, archbishops,
+and bishops, some of which latter are suffragans.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_51" href="#Footnote_8_51" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span></p>
+
+<p>The services connected with baptism in the Russian
+Church were formerly very numerous, though now they
+are frequently more or less combined;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_52" href="#Footnote_9_52" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> one principal
+difference in <em>practice</em> between the Greek and English
+Churches being that the former <em>always</em> baptizes by
+immersion. The child is usually named after one of
+the saints in the Russian calendar, the yearly recurrence
+of whose festival constitutes the person’s “name’s-day.”
+This is observed in Russia more than the “birth-day,”
+which practice has the advantage that if the Christian
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span>
+name of a friend is familiar, one always knows when to
+congratulate him.</p>
+
+<p>Marriage is counted one of the sacraments or mysteries
+of the Greek Church, but virginity is taught to
+be better than wedlock. Priests are commanded, under
+pain of degradation, not to join in wedlock persons
+of unsuitable ages, nor those ignorant of the essential
+articles of the faith, and in no case without due notice
+given. The Russian Church fixes the age of majority
+for the bridegroom at twenty-one, or, by permission of
+parents, as early as eighteen, and sixteen for the bride;
+it frowns on second and third marriages, and forbids
+fourth marriages altogether.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_53" href="#Footnote_10_53" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span></p>
+
+<p>There are yet other services, such as the so-called
+sacrament of penance, which closely resembles, but
+differs in two important respects from, that of the
+Church of Rome.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11_54" href="#Footnote_11_54" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p>And, again, the Russian sacrament of unction differs
+in more than one respect from the Roman.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_12_55" href="#Footnote_12_55" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>For the benediction of water there are two offices:
+the lesser, which is used whenever consecrated water
+is required, and the greater, which is performed at the
+Epiphany, in memory of the baptism of Christ, and is
+carried out with great ceremony. Another office in
+the Russian Church is that of “Orthodox Sunday,”
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span>
+which is in form somewhat similar to the English
+“Commination Service,” and in which anathemas are
+pronounced against those who impugn various articles
+of the Russian faith. Yet another service is “the
+Office of the Holy Unction,” that is, for preparing
+the chrism,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_13_56" href="#Footnote_13_56" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> and there are other occasional and curious
+services, such as for the consecration of a church; for
+an icon or picture; washing the feet on Thursday in
+Holy Week; prayers on laying the first stone of a
+house; for seed time; longer offices to be used in
+drought, earthquake, plague, incursion of barbarians,
+for children when they commence their education, and
+many more; but I think that on this head I have said
+enough.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_44" href="#FNanchor_1_44" class="label">[1]</a> In connection with this subject, we constantly meet with the terms
+“Eastern Church,” “Greek Church,” and “Russian Church.” Let us
+distinguish between them. If on a map of Europe a line be drawn from
+the White Sea southwards to Petersburg, thence along the western border
+of Russia to Cracow, then along the eastern and southern frontier of
+Austria to the Adriatic, this line will roughly divide Christendom between
+the Churches of the East and of the West. Eastern Christendom is
+sometimes divided into three main groups of Churches, the <em>first</em> group
+being the Chaldean, the Armenian, the Syrian, the Egyptian, and the
+Georgian Churches. The second is the <em>Greek</em> Church, whose members,
+speaking the Greek language, are found as far south as the desert of
+Mount Sinai, through all the coasts and islands in the Levant and the
+Archipelago, and whose centre is Constantinople. This is the only
+living representative of the once powerful Church of Constantine,
+called the “Orthodox Imperial Church.” The <em>third</em> group of Eastern
+Churches consists partly of the Sclavonic peoples, found in the provinces
+of the Lower Danube, Bulgaria, Servia, Wallachia, and Moldavia; and
+partly, and much more largely, of the Sclavonic people of Russia.
+The Russian Church, therefore, is an offshoot of the Greek Church of
+Constantinople, once the centre of Eastern Christianity, which Greek
+Church, by reason of its former Imperial grandeur, sometimes gives its
+name to the other Oriental communions.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_45" href="#FNanchor_2_45" class="label">[2]</a> <i>See</i> <a href='#APPENDIX_A'>Appendix A.</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_46" href="#FNanchor_3_46" class="label">[3]</a> <i>See</i> <a href='#APPENDIX_B'>Appendix B.</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_47" href="#FNanchor_4_47" class="label">[4]</a> <i>See</i> <a href='#APPENDIX_C'>Appendix C.</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_48" href="#FNanchor_5_48" class="label">[5]</a> Besides this parish church committee, there was formerly, and may
+be now in some instances, in large towns, a “directory,” consisting of
+about four members. In each diocese there is a “consistory,” of from
+five to seven members, presided over by the bishop, the whole being
+under the synod. Appeals, therefore, lie from the directories (where they
+exist) to the consistory, from the consistory to the bishop, and from the
+bishop to the synod. The synod, which has equal civil rank with the
+senate, and the ecclesiastical rank of a patriarch, consists of bishops and
+priests, whose nomination, appointment, and length of membership
+depend on the will of the Sovereign. There sits also with them a
+lay procurator, who is the crown representative, and who has a <i lang="la">veto</i>
+which can be reversed only by appeal to the Emperor.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_49" href="#FNanchor_6_49" class="label">[6]</a> The “orthodox” Church draws a nice distinction between the unlawfulness
+of using in church an image proper, and the lawfulness of using
+the same image if carved on a flat surface; but the ordinary observer,
+who beholds people in an Eastern Church bowing down before graven
+images and likenesses of things that are in heaven and in earth, must find
+it exceedingly difficult to determine where reverence ends and idolatry
+begins.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_50" href="#FNanchor_7_50" class="label">[7]</a> This Liturgy (which in the Greek Church always means the office
+for the Holy Communion, and is the ordinary morning service) is divided
+into three parts, namely, “the offering,” during which the bread and
+wine are offered by the people, and prepared by the priest; “the liturgy
+of the catechumens,” during which the Epistle and Gospel are read;
+and “the liturgy of the faithful,” during which the elements are administered.
+The priest and deacon receive the bread and wine separately, as
+with us; the laity receive bread and wine mixed together from a spoon,
+and standing; whilst to infants wine only is administered, for fear of
+ejection. The priest receives daily, the devout quarterly or oftener, and
+every one by <em>law</em> yearly.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_51" href="#FNanchor_8_51" class="label">[8]</a> Each of the five orders has a separate ordination. At the ordination
+of a <em>reader</em>, he is clothed with a vestment called a <i lang="ru">sticharion</i>; and the
+bishop among other things says to him, “Son, ... it is your duty daily
+to study the Holy Scriptures, and to endeavour to make such proficiency
+therein that those who hear you may receive edification.” A <em>sub-deacon</em>,
+on ordination, wears an <i lang="ru">orarion</i>, like an English stole, girded crosswise
+over his shoulders. The bishop puts a towel also on the left shoulder of
+the newly ordained, and delivers him a basin and ewer, in which the
+bishop washes his hands. A <em>deacon</em>, when ordained, kisses the four
+corners of the holy table, the bishop’s hands and shoulder, and the part
+of his garment called the <i lang="ru">epigonation</i>. He kneels on his right knee, lays
+his hands crosswise on the holy table, and puts his forehead between his
+hands. The bishop’s <i lang="ru">omophorion</i>, or pall, is placed on his head, the stole
+on his left shoulder, and he is presented with sleeves or cuffs, and a fan
+with which to fan the sacramental elements. When ordained <em>priest</em>, the
+stole is exchanged for a similar vestment, called an <i lang="ru">epitrachelion</i>, and
+there are also added a <i lang="ru">phelonion</i> and a girdle.</p>
+
+<p>The consecration, however, of a <em>bishop</em> is much more elaborate. He is
+called upon to confess the Nicene Creed. He anathematizes sundry
+heretics in particular, and all of them in general; confesses the Virgin
+Mary to be properly and truly the mother of God; and prays that she
+may be his helper, his preserver, and protectress all the days of his life.
+He promises to preserve his flock from the errors of the Latin Church;
+declares that he has not paid money for the dignity about to be conferred
+upon him; promises not to go into other dioceses without permission,
+nor to ordain more than one priest and one deacon at the same service;
+further, that he will yearly, or at least biennially, visit and inspect his
+flock; and among other things take care that the homage due to God be
+not transferred to holy images. He puts on his sakkos and other episcopal
+garments; and there is delivered to him the <i lang="ru">panagion</i>, or jewel, for the
+neck; <i lang="ru">mantyas</i>, or ordinary cloak; the cowl, mitre, rosary, and pastoral
+staff; after which he walks to his house attended by two of the superior
+clergy.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_52" href="#FNanchor_9_52" class="label">[9]</a> 1, On the day of delivery the priest goes to the house, and prays for
+mother and child; 2, on the eighth day the child should be taken to
+church to receive its name; and 3, on the fortieth day it should be taken
+by the mother to be received into the Church, according to the service
+for the reception of catechumens. In the course of this service the priest
+breathes in the catechumen’s face, pronounces three exorcisms, calls upon
+the catechumen or his sponsor to blow and spit upon Satan, which he
+essays to do, not metaphorically, but visibly; after which follows, 4, the
+administration of baptism, when the candidate is first anointed with oil,
+then completely immersed three times, then clothed by the priest with a
+white garment, and a cross is suspended on the neck. Immediately after
+the baptism follows, 5, confirmation, or anointing of the baptized with
+chrism on the forehead, eyes, nostrils, mouth, ears, breast, hands, and
+feet, with the words repeated each time, “The seal of the gift of the
+Holy Ghost.” Prayers are offered, an Epistle and Gospel read, and the
+benediction pronounced. Eight days after, the candidate is brought again
+to the church for, 6, the ablution of the chrism. The priest looses the
+candidate’s clothes and girdle, and with a sponge washes the parts that
+have been anointed; after which follows the last part of the service,
+namely, 7, the tonsure, in which the priest cuts the hair of the newly
+baptized in the form of a cross, in the name of the Father, and of the
+Son, and of the Holy Ghost.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_53" href="#FNanchor_10_53" class="label">[10]</a> The marriage service consists of two distinct offices, which are performed
+at the same time. The first is called the “Betrothal,” when
+rings are given and exchanged; the second is the “Coronation,” in
+which the bride and bridegroom are crowned, and are thrice given wine
+to drink from a common cup, and thrice led round a lectern on which lie
+the Gospels. Weddings in Russia are usually celebrated in the evening,
+and among the friends are persons corresponding to a godfather and
+godmother, before whom, previous to coming to church, the happy pair
+kneel in the house, and ask a blessing. The godfather holds in his
+hand an ikon, usually of Christ, with which he makes the sign of the
+cross over the head of the bridegroom, and then gives it him to be
+his peculiar treasure. In old-fashioned places the godmother gives
+the bride a loaf of bread, symbolical of worldly prosperity, making
+the sign of the cross. The godmother also presents the bride with an
+ikon, usually of the Virgin Mary; and these two ikons are carried to the
+church, figure in the wedding ceremony, and are afterwards taken to
+the new home, to be sacredly preserved for life, and afterwards bequeathed
+to their children.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_54" href="#FNanchor_11_54" class="label">[11]</a> Both Churches require contrition, and also confession. Confession
+in both Churches begins at the age of seven years, and is a <em>secret</em>,
+<em>periodical</em>, <em>compulsory</em> acknowledgment of mortal sins to a <em>priest</em>; but it
+is made less <em>complete</em> in Russia than in Rome—has less of an inquisitorial
+character; and hence Dean Stanley says, “The scandals, the
+influence, the terrors of the confessional are alike unknown in the East.”
+The other important difference between the two Churches is, that subsequent
+exercises of piety, commonly called “penance,” when enjoined
+upon the penitent in the Russian Church, are not performed as <em>satisfaction</em>
+offered to God. This, it will be seen, closes the gate against a
+great deal of Roman teaching concerning the meritorious value of good
+works.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12_55" href="#FNanchor_12_55" class="label">[12]</a> In the East the oil is not previously consecrated by the bishop, but
+at the time, by seven priests; and, further, whereas extreme unction is
+not administered by the Romans until the sick person is beyond hope of
+recovery, the Russians call for the elders of the Church, pray over him,
+even though the sickness be but slight, and anoint him with oil, in the
+hope that he may be healed both spiritually and bodily. The service is
+performed by seven priests (or at the least three), who place a table in
+the church or house, on which is set a dish with wheat, a vessel for the
+oil, and seven twigs with cotton tied around, one for each of the priests,
+who first anoint the sick and subsequently spread the Gospels, with their
+hands laid thereon, over his head.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13_56" href="#FNanchor_13_56" class="label">[13]</a> This ointment, made of 23 ingredients, can be consecrated only by a
+bishop, and in Passion Week. It boils three days, with a depth of five
+fingers of wine below the oil, and priests and deacons by turns read the
+Gospel day and night, without ceasing, from Monday till Thursday.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI">
+    CHAPTER XVI.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE SIBERIAN CHURCH (continued).</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Parochial clergy.—Their emoluments.—Duties.—Official
+registers.—Discipline.—Morality.—Status.—Our
+clerical visits.—Monastic clergy.—The
+Metropolitan Macarius.—Fasting.—General view of Russian
+Church.—Compared with Roman.—Teaching respecting Holy
+Scripture and salvation by faith.—Needs of Russian Church.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> Russian clergy are of two orders—the parochial
+and the monastic; or, as they are sometimes
+called, the white and the black—the secular and
+the regular clergy. Such was the plethora of them in
+the time of Peter the Great that they had to restrict
+the number of ordinations and of those who should
+serve.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_57" href="#Footnote_1_57" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>
+    Now, however, there is no superabundance.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_58" href="#Footnote_2_58" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+Speaking generally, every parish church is under the
+control of <i lang="ru">prikhod</i> or corporation, consisting of the
+priest, deacon, and two <i lang="ru">dïechoks</i>, or bell-ringer and
+reader, and also a widow-woman to prepare the sacramental
+bread.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span></p>
+
+<p>The parish priest may rise to be a protopope or head
+priest of an Episcopal Church, or one who holds a
+position in which there are other priests under him;
+but so long as his wife is living he can go no higher.
+Should he become a widower, and take the monk’s
+habit, he is then eligible to be made a bishop.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_59" href="#Footnote_3_59" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>The pay of the town clergy in Russia is better than
+of those in the country, where it is very little. The
+salaries of the Siberian clergy, to judge from the district
+of the Amur, vary from £125 to £180 a year.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_60" href="#Footnote_4_60" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Hence
+those who have families are miserably poor. It is not
+uncommon to hear them spoken of as exacting, avaricious,
+and grasping (such charges are easily made, all
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span>
+the world over); but due allowance is not always made
+for the dire needs of poverty; and they sometimes are
+obliged almost, if not quite, to beg their bread.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_61" href="#Footnote_5_61" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>It must not be supposed, however, that, because the
+pay of the priests is so small, their duties are light.
+Of their three daily services, the first often begins
+between four and five in the morning (fancy that with
+a thermometer below zero!), vespers at sunset, and the
+liturgy before mid-day. To these must be added
+occasional services in district churches or chapels, as
+well as in houses; at every birth, every death in the
+parish; when a building is begun, after it has been
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span>
+repaired, and when it is supposed to be haunted; together
+with the blessing of school-houses and children
+before they begin work after the holidays; to say
+nothing of processions through the streets with miraculous
+pictures in times of harvest, pestilence, and danger.
+In Siberia we saw one of these processions, with a
+picture, lanterns, and flags, leaving a village church at
+four o’clock in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>But this is not all. There are the church registers
+to be kept—all the more important because in Russia
+no one can stir hand or foot without a character paper,
+which sets forth, with the minutest details, the particulars
+of his birth, baptism, marriage, etc. These
+papers have to be signed and countersigned by the
+priest and deacon, and then to be sent to the bishop’s
+registry, which, in Siberia, may be 1,000 miles away—and
+all this with an expenditure of stamps, and red
+tape, and filling up of blank forms that is simply
+appalling.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_62" href="#Footnote_6_62" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Again, every priest has to keep a clerical
+journal of his official acts as to what he and his fellows
+do daily. This is for the bishop’s assistant; and, should
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span>
+the journal be suddenly found not written up to date,
+the priest is liable to be punished. “How would you
+be punished?” said I to a protopope. “With a good
+talking to, perhaps, for the first offence, and for the
+second a fine, or, it may be, have the delinquency inscribed
+on my character paper”; in other words, to
+carry a blot on his escutcheon perhaps for life!</p>
+
+<p>Verily, ecclesiastical discipline, whether in great things
+or small, is not a dead letter in Russia. Perhaps it is
+not altogether uncalled for. By it priests are forbidden
+to find their amusements at the theatre, or in cards,
+buffoonery, or dancing; and mention is made of
+another evil greater than these, in which we shall
+recognize an old foe, too well known in England.
+It is drink!&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_63" href="#Footnote_7_63" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>It is not matter for surprise, then, that the status of
+the Russian clergy is low, as it was in England when
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span>
+Christianity had existed no longer here than it now has
+in Russia—say in the fourteenth century, when Chaucer
+wrote his “Canterbury Tales.” We have no room for
+boasting; nor are these remarks made with any idea
+of drawing unfavourable comparisons, but only to give
+a true picture of a large class of the Russian ecclesiastics.
+I called upon some few of the priests in
+Siberia, who, like the peasants, seemed decidedly
+superior to, and better off than, those in Russia. On
+arriving at a post-station, I not unfrequently sent for
+or called upon the priest, gave him tracts to circulate
+in his parish, and offered to sell him, at a reduced rate,
+portions of Scripture for distribution, which offer was
+almost always accepted.</p>
+
+<p>Let me now pass to the monastic clergy, who alone
+fill all the higher offices in the Russian Church.
+Among the monastic clergy are many scholars. The
+present Metropolitan (Macarius) of Moscow, formerly a
+professor at the Academy, may be selected as a bright
+example. He has written extensively, and, from the
+very outset of his literary career, is said to have resolved
+to devote all the money derived from his works to the
+progress of knowledge. He has founded scholarships
+and-prizes at Kieff, Petersburg, and Vilna, and as long
+ago as 1867 he possessed a capital of £12,000, the interest
+of which is distributed yearly in premiums for the
+best compositions in the Russian language. It was this
+amiable dignitary, as related in my first chapter, whom
+I had the honour of visiting when passing through
+Petersburg. Other things might be said to the praise
+of many of the Russian clergy—notably their simple
+manner of living. In none of their houses that I
+entered in Siberia was there the least approach to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span>
+luxury, and the library of one of the best priests I met
+was all too scanty for the literary work he had in hand.
+I remember, too, that I entered the sleeping-room of
+the archimandrite (who is also the Metropolitan of
+Moscow) at the “Skit,” near the Troitza monastery,
+and found a chamber that would be thought not too
+well furnished for a guest in an average English
+rectory. Further, in Russia, both orders of clergy fast
+at least 226 days in the year; and the monastic clergy,
+which includes all the bishops, never eat flesh at all.
+I met with a practical illustration of the strictness with
+which the clergy abstain from forbidden food. At a
+post station where we stopped, and where the priest
+had come to us, we invited him to drink tea, and I cut
+for him a slice of white bread and buttered it. This
+he declined, as it was a fast-day, and butter was forbidden.
+I then offered him a slice of bread; but
+another difficulty arose, for, having to lay in a large
+stock of white bread at the previous town, we had
+requested the baker to put in a little butter to keep it
+moist. The good man’s conscience therefore, he felt,
+would be denied even by this, and so I was obliged to
+call for black bread wherewith to entertain our fasting
+guest.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_64" href="#Footnote_8_64" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>Something must be said of the Russian monasteries
+for women and men. They are of three sorts: Lavra,
+of which there are only three, namely, at Kieff, Petersburg,
+and Troitza, near Moscow; next are those called
+“Cœnobia”; and, lastly, others called “Stauropegia.”
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span>
+Their general characteristics are Egyptian rather than
+Roman.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_65" href="#Footnote_9_65" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp39" id="p1780_ill" style="max-width: 52.1875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p1780_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      A RUSSIAN NUN.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>One of the monks of the Yuryef Monastery, near
+Novgorod, gave me the following outline of their
+daily life: They rise at half-past two (one o’clock on
+festivals), go to church till six, and from six till
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span>
+nine they sleep. Then they go to church again for
+an hour and a half, and afterwards breakfast. This
+over, they are free to sleep or do as they please till
+five in the afternoon, when evening service brings
+them together for an hour and a half, after which
+they sup and go to bed. They have but two meals
+a day, never eat flesh, and, when observing the fasts,
+eat vegetables only.</p>
+
+<p>To sum up, then, all that need here be said of the
+Russian Church—very different thoughts arise according
+as one looks at the every-day religion of the people, or
+their formularies and theology. The former may cause
+pain and grief, the latter excite sympathy and hope;
+and it will be my object in the remainder of this
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span>
+chapter to expand these thoughts in a fair and honest
+way, without sparing blame or withholding praise.</p>
+
+<p>Most persons, who have had the opportunity of
+observing, allow that the Russians are a religious
+people. One sees this not only in the large numbers
+both of men and women who attend the churches, but
+also in the tens of thousands who yearly go on pilgrimage
+to sacred places. The monks of Troitza
+sometimes have in summer, on a feast day, a thousand
+guests. Some, of course, are idle wanderers, going
+from place to place to get food; but many walk hundreds—nay,
+thousands—of miles to redeem a vow or
+offer a prayer for something specially desired. Much
+of this, no doubt, is eminently unspiritual and superstitious.
+Much of their worship is perilously like, if
+not altogether, idolatry; yet it should be remembered
+that the average Russian knows no better; and what
+can be expected of the peasant, if the highest authorities
+of the land, on arriving at a city, make it their
+first object to pay their devotions, if not, as at Ephesus,
+before “the image which fell down from Jupiter,” yet
+before a picture to which is attributed miraculous
+powers? We can at least admire, however, the intention
+in these things; and if the Russian peasant can
+only be kept sober, he displays a number of virtues,
+some of which are not found so abundantly in other
+and more advanced countries. They are a kind, a
+generous, and a hospitable people, by no means unmindful
+of philanthropic effort, and at least, we may
+add, intensely ecclesiastical.</p>
+
+<p>Again, there is much to admire in the formularies of
+their Church, although Dean Stanley brings against it,
+and justly, three weighty charges—extravagant ritual,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span>
+excessive dogmatism, and a fatal division between
+religion and morality. When, however, the Russian
+Church is compared with the Roman, and spoken of
+as like it, certain considerations should be borne in
+mind which make the comparison result in favour of
+the former. Russia did not receive the religion of
+Jesus Christ in its purity. The merest tyro in Church
+history knows that when the stream of Christianity
+had flowed down to the tenth century, it was no longer
+pure as at its source. But follow the stream as it
+branches east and west, and observe which of the two
+remains the purer.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_66" href="#Footnote_10_66" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> And if this be said to be <em>negative</em>,
+and much of it belonging to the past, then other considerations
+may be adduced which seem to bring the
+Greek Church nearer to the English than many suppose,
+and notably so in two vital points, namely, the
+attitude of the Russian Church to the Holy Scriptures,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11_67" href="#Footnote_11_67" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span>
+and her doctrine respecting salvation through Christ
+alone.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_12_68" href="#Footnote_12_68" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> She does not forbid or hide the Scriptures
+from the people, even if she neglects them, nor has
+she stereotyped her errors by the claim to infallibility.
+There is room, therefore, to hope for a change for the
+better, which in my humble opinion should be attempted
+from within, by a wider circulation and more general
+study of the Scriptures; next, by a vastly increased
+amount of good and Scriptural preaching; and, once
+more, by a powerful attack on the prevailing sin of
+intemperance. Would the priests only endeavour to
+instil into their people, respecting drink, half the
+abstemiousness and self-denial that they teach them to
+observe concerning forbidden food, they would render
+Russia such a service as I have no words to express.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_57" href="#FNanchor_1_57" class="label">[1]</a> In an Episcopal Church, for instance, there were not to be more than
+one protopope, two treasurers, five priests, four deacons, two readers, and
+two sacristans, besides thirty-three choristers. In parishes of large extent
+there were to be two priests, two deacons, two choristers, and two sacristans,
+reckoning one priest for every hundred houses.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_58" href="#FNanchor_2_58" class="label">[2]</a> On the Amur I heard of merchants and, in exceptional cases, even
+yemstchiks, being ordained; also of students, for lack of a sufficiency of
+priests, being ordered deacons at the age of 20 (instead of 22), and sometimes
+made priests seven days after.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_59" href="#FNanchor_3_59" class="label">[3]</a> There are, or were, several curious customs and regulations among
+the Russian clergy with respect to matrimony. A man cannot join the
+ranks of the white clergy unless he be “the husband of one wife.” Formerly
+he was obliged, or expected, to marry a priest’s daughter; and as a priest’s
+daughter sometimes received her father’s living for her dowry, a young
+priest not infrequently found himself, in this way, settled for life; though,
+if the father-in-law were old and merely retired, then the son-in-law was
+expected to keep him. In these arrangements the bishop played a part,
+for knowing, on one hand, the young men coming forward for ordination,
+and being kept informed, on the other, regarding the marriageable daughters
+of his clergy, he could frequently make suggestions for the benefit of all
+parties concerned. There prevailed, too, in former times in Russia, a
+pernicious custom, that every clergyman’s son was obliged to follow the
+profession of his father. This is no longer compulsory: and the sons of
+the clergy, finding themselves free, choose other callings to such an extent
+that there is now a lack of candidates for the priesthood. Candidates,
+however, are still drawn for the most part from the homes of the clergy,
+and from the lower class of merchants. Quite recently, I am informed,
+a few of the Russian nobility have taken Holy Orders.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_60" href="#FNanchor_4_60" class="label">[4]</a> Dr. Neale, in his learned work on the Eastern Church, says, “The
+Russian clergy never possessed tithes. Their income arises from Easter
+offerings, fees, and glebe, the minimum of the glebe being 181½ acres, to
+be divided between four clergy.” I have heard that the usual remuneration
+for a country priest in Russia is from £22 to £25 a year, and his
+share of the glebe. To these must be added, I suppose, his fees. The
+town priests receive no regular stipend from Government, but in Petersburg
+and Moscow the income from some of the parishes amounts to £600,
+or more, to be apportioned amongst several clergy. At a cathedral I
+attended, I was informed that the protopope, from all sources, received
+about £500 a year and a house; two priests from £220 to £250 each;
+the deacon about £180; and the psalmist or dïechok from £90 to £150;
+the whole available sum for all the parish clergy in this cathedral being
+from £1,500 to £1,800 a year. At another cathedral, in the provinces, I
+was told that the bishop received £110 from the Government, and £75
+from the monastery, with monks as servants free. A correspondent
+further informs me that metropolitans and archbishops receive “large
+sums for the maintenance of their house, church, singers, serving monks,
+and other comforts, of which they can take or leave as much as they
+like”; the “large sums” quoted, with these not insignificant expenses,
+being from £625 to £1,250 a year; and this for men who rank ecclesiastically
+with English primates!</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_61" href="#FNanchor_5_61" class="label">[5]</a> The Russian priests labour under great social disadvantages. They
+are less instructed than what are called the “educated classes” of their
+countrymen, and so do not mingle with them on a social equality; and in
+many of the towns of the interior, intellectual affairs are on so low a level
+that the priest’s most intelligent companion is the schoolmaster, lately
+arrived perhaps from the capital with a smattering of neology. In one
+parish of which I know, the old priest said that the new schoolmaster
+had been telling him, among other like things, that it was not God who
+made the world, etc., etc., till the priest hardly knew what was right or
+otherwise. He could not think what a lay person could possibly find to
+preach about from a verse out of the Bible. This same priest, when
+recommended pastorally to visit his flock, said, “I never appear among
+my people except to ask for corn, milk, and eggs, and thus they hate the
+sight of me.” He had not even a Bible, and said he never possessed one.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_62" href="#FNanchor_6_62" class="label">[6]</a> One of these blank forms, given me by a protopope, relates to each
+of the clergy in a particular church. Here are the headings of some of
+the columns:—</p>
+
+<ol>
+<li>Name; place of birth; from what rank in society; where educated,
+and in what subjects; when promoted to last appointment, by whom, and
+to what office; whether holding any additional appointment; when and
+how rewarded for service; whether having a family, and, if so, of what
+number.</li>
+
+<li>What he knows; of what capacity in reading and explaining the
+catechism, Scriptures, etc.; whether he be a singer; and how many times
+in the year he has composed his own sermons.</li>
+
+<li>His children; their place of education; character; what they are
+learning; and their behaviour at home.</li>
+
+<li>His family relations.</li>
+
+<li>Whether he has ever been accused before the court, and how punished;
+or whether the trial is still pending.</li></ol></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_63" href="#FNanchor_7_63" class="label">[7]</a> The excellent Russian book on the duty of parish priests, speaking of
+drunkenness fifty years ago, says, “Yet though drunkenness is a sin so
+grievous and deadly, there are very many in our time who scarcely pass
+a day without indulging their sottish passion for drink. Wherefore ...
+the councils forbid ... all clerks ... so much as to enter a tavern, under
+pain of deprivation and excommunication.” This is a painful and humiliating
+subject, though the more respectable amongst the Russians regard
+the matter in various lights. Some, of course, condemn such priests
+unmercifully. One man told me he had not communicated for several
+years; “for,” said he, “how can I in the morning receive the sacrament
+from the hands of my country priest when I know that before night he
+will probably be inebriated?” To which some, in effect, reply that he
+should look at the <em>light</em> and not only at the <em>lantern</em>; as a religious general
+said to me, “If my priest supplies me properly with the ordinances of the
+Church, I am not concerned with his private life—that lies between God
+and his own soul.” Others, again, make allowance for their great temptations.
+On five festivals in the year, at least, such as Christmas, New
+Year, Easter, etc., the priest is supposed to go the round of his parish and
+say a prayer in every house; and on these festive occasions refreshment
+stands on the sideboard, and <i lang="ru">vodka</i>, or spirits, is offered as drink—the
+evil results of which, among clergy and laity, on one of the festivals, I
+myself could not but observe.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_64" href="#FNanchor_8_64" class="label">[8]</a> There are four great fasts in the year, during which are eaten only
+bread, vegetables, and fish: 1. Lent; 2. St. Peter’s fast, from Whit-Monday
+to the 29th June; 3. Fast of the Virgin Mary, from August 1st
+to 15th; and 4. St. Philip’s fast, from November 15th to December 26th.
+Wednesday and Friday also are fast-days.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_65" href="#FNanchor_9_65" class="label">[9]</a> The Lavra of Egypt are supposed to have been collections of tents
+in the deserts, where each provided for himself, but joined the rest in
+common devotions. Cœnobia were institutions where all lived associated.
+The discipline is the same in all three, but the Stauropegia are under the
+direct jurisdiction, not of the bishops, but of the Synod. Dr. Neale gives
+the numbers of Russian monasteries for men at 435, and for women, 113.
+My almanack mentions a gross total of 472. Greek monks need not be
+ecclesiastics, and are all of the order of St. Basil. The head of a large
+monastery is called an archimandrite (or abbot); of a smaller monastery,
+a hegumen (or prior), whilst the lady superior of a monastery for women
+is called a hegumena. There are monk priests, and also monk deacons,
+and in the churches attached to the nunneries a large part of the service
+is performed by the nuns. Among the Russian monks, according to Dr.
+King, are three degrees: novices, who should serve three years; the
+proficients, who wear the lesser habit; and the perfect, who wear the
+greater or angelic habit, which last are said to be uncommon in Russia.
+Men are not admitted to be monks till 30 years of age, and nuns do not
+receive the tonsure till 60, or at least 50. Younger women may enter as
+probationers; but they take no vow, and are at liberty to leave and be
+married. Probationers, whether men or women, wear a black velvet hat
+without a brim, and the men a black cassock. Proficients have a black
+veil attached to the hat (with metropolitans this is white), and monastics
+of the third degree always wear the veil or hood down, and never suffer
+their faces to be seen. In the time of Peter the Great the monasteries
+had become homes for the idle, and he issued many salutary rules concerning
+them. Monastics were to confess and receive the communion
+four times a year, though they were not compelled to confess to their own
+superior. They were to avoid idleness; were not allowed (with the
+exception of the superior, the aged, and infirm) to keep servants; were
+not to receive or pay visits without permission; and in all monasteries
+the monks were to be strictly kept to the study of the Bible, the most
+learned were to explain it, and such only were to be promoted to offices
+and dignities.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_66" href="#FNanchor_10_66" class="label">[10]</a> When clerical celibacy, for instance, was imposed in the West, it was
+not followed in the East, nor was the cup denied to the Russian laity when
+it was withheld from the Roman. The Russian Church never fabricated
+a purgatory, and then sold indulgences to get people out of it. The Eastern
+Church has never added uncatholic articles to the Nicene Creed, as in
+that of Pope Pius the Fourth, and issued the whole as binding upon all
+who would be saved. Again, the errors of the East have at least the stamp
+of antiquity. They have not added to the Christian faith novel articles,
+such as the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, or still less claimed a
+supremacy and infallibility which in the early Christian councils would need
+only to have been mentioned to have been scouted; but in a very real sense
+it maybe said that Russia has kept the faith as she received it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_67" href="#FNanchor_11_67" class="label">[11]</a> It may surprise some, as I confess it at first surprised me, to learn the
+place the Russian Church gives to the Bible in her “Treatise on the Duty
+of Parish Priests,”—a book by two Russian bishops, which has been adopted
+by the whole Sclavonian Church, and which all candidates for orders are
+required to have read, and to show their acquaintance with before being
+ordained. The book begins by saying that “to teach the people is the
+priest’s very first duty,” and then (<span class="allsmcap">VII.</span>) that the priest is to teach the faith
+and the law; that (<span class="allsmcap">IX.</span>) “all the articles of faith are contained in the Word
+of God—that is, in the books of the Old and New Testament”; and that
+(<span class="allsmcap">XI.</span>) “none other books are to be held by us as Divine Scriptures, or called
+the Word of God, than the two volumes of the Old and New Testaments.”
+Again (<span class="allsmcap">XIII.</span>), that “the writings of the Holy Fathers are of great use....
+But neither the writings of the Holy Fathers, nor the traditions of the
+Church, are to be confounded or equalled with the Word of God and His
+commandments; for the Word of God is one thing, but the writings of the
+Holy Fathers and traditions ecclesiastical are another.” And further
+(<span class="allsmcap">XXXII.</span>), “So great being this work of teaching, etc. ... we cannot fail to
+see how needful it is for the priest to abound both in word and in wisdom,
+in order to the well-fulfilling of this his vast duty; and the only way hereto
+is that he be skilled and nourished up from a child in Holy Scripture.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12_68" href="#FNanchor_12_68" class="label">[12]</a> The “Treatise on the Duty of Parish Priests” reads (<span class="allsmcap">XXIX.</span>): “Since
+the sole beginner and perfecter of our holy faith and of everlasting
+salvation is our Lord Jesus Christ (Heb. xii. 2), and there is none other
+name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, but only
+His (Acts iv. 12), ... it is plain that in each of the above kinds of teaching,
+the priest ought to instil the knowledge of Christ Jesus, inculcate His
+doctrine, dwell on His exceeding compassion, and possess the soul with
+this truth, that Christ <em>alone is made unto us of God wisdom, righteousness,
+sanctification, and redemption</em> (1 Cor. i. 30).... In every case, I
+say, according to circumstances, he can implant, and is in duty bound to
+implant, the knowledge of Christ Jesus; and so all instruction, and every
+particular instruction, should be grounded on Christ; for all that can be
+either written or said in reference to the faith, and to everlasting happiness,
+if it be not grounded on faith in Christ, is unfruitful, and can never save.”</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII">
+    CHAPTER XVII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>FROM TOMSK TO KRASNOIARSK.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Book-distribution in Western Siberia.—Departure from Tomsk.—Postbells.—How
+to sit in posting.—Sleeping.—Boundary of Western
+Siberia.—Wild and domesticated animals.—Birds.—Scenery.—Roadside
+villages.—Peasants’ houses.—Hammering up “the Prodigal
+Son.”—Siberian towns.—Houses of upper classes.—Misadventures.—A
+hospitable merchant.—Frontier of Eastern Siberia.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>I have</span> said that, on returning to Tomsk, we found
+the remainder of our books arrived. The reader
+may like to know how we had prospered in relation to
+their distribution through Western Siberia. Our singular
+mission greatly puzzled the Russians. I have
+since heard how it reached the ears of the worthy
+Archbishop of Tobolsk that a strange Englishman had
+been through the district, leaving thousands of books
+to be given away. Like a watchful shepherd, his first
+anxiety was to see that they contained no heresy.
+Having examined the books, however, and perused
+a set of the tracts, he found them exceedingly good,
+and would by no means put anything in the way of
+their distribution; but, said his Eminence, “Those
+English are a queer lot, and there must surely be some
+ulterior motive behind it.” To the same effect were
+many of the officials’ cogitations as they oozed out and
+reached me from time to time. We met with no
+opposition, however, or even questioning of what we
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span>
+were doing. The fact that the revolutionists have
+sometimes distributed seditious leaflets inside pamphlets
+approved by the censor makes the police on
+the alert in European Russia; but I have usually
+found even there, so long as all was clear and above-board,
+that the authorities were willing to forward
+my endeavours; and I so far availed myself of this
+willingness in Siberia as to distribute more through
+the authorities than formerly, and less in proportion
+with our own hands. Still, we gave an immense
+number personally, and many also we sold, on the
+principle that a man values most what he pays for.
+At each of the towns and villages on the Obi we
+made up parcels and sent them with a note to the
+parish priest, asking him to distribute the books
+gratuitously. As the periodical—<cite>The Russian Workman</cite>—could
+be had post-free for a rouble a year, many
+said they should get it. One man intimated that he
+should write for 50 copies forthwith, and another that
+he should get the same number of subscribers in his
+neighbourhood, on the Lower Obi, where he had built
+a little church, and had had his son instructed to read
+to the people. Our greatest success, however, in
+Western Siberia, and one that would have repaid us
+for all our trouble, has since proved to be the plans
+laid at Tiumen, through which town, as observed
+before, some 18,000 exiles pass yearly. From data
+given me in the prison, we had calculated that there
+would be about 2,000 pass during the summer who
+could read, and for these I left 1,980 Russian Scripture
+portions, 36 Polish, German, French, Tatar, and Mongolian
+Scriptures, 546 copies of the <cite>Rooski Rabotchi</cite>,
+and 2,520 tracts. The exiles going east are sent
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span>
+away in the barge weekly, and, before the party starts,
+a religious service is held by a priest at Tiumen. I
+have since heard that after this service, throughout
+the summer, our books were distributed; so that I
+trust they are now to be found not only among the
+convicts in prisons, but also with those who have been
+sent to live free, but in comparative solitude, in the
+furthest corners of the country.</p>
+
+<p>Some have shaken their heads and said that the
+men would sell the books, and make cigarettes of the
+tracts. This, however, I doubt; but, even if it be so,
+it may simply mean, in the case of the Scriptures, that
+a book has passed from the hands of one who did not
+care for it to those of one who does. But the Russians
+have great respect, amounting almost to superstition,
+for what they call “holy books”; and such
+books are a great deal too scarce to allow of their
+being generally uncared for. Moreover, in Siberia,
+books of this character and tracts are <em>new</em>. In
+European Russia, many, on receiving the books, said
+they had no idea there were such publications in existence;
+and we had cases in Asia of soldiers giving
+their last kopeck to get a copy of the Gospels, the
+Psalms, or the New Testament.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving Tomsk we gave the Governor books
+for the public institutions of his government, and left
+with him boxes to be forwarded to the residence of
+the Governor-General Kaznakoff, at Omsk. I had
+been made acquainted with this latter officer, both
+officially and privately, in Petersburg, and had been
+invited to call upon him on my return through Omsk,
+to be introduced to his family. The general had told
+me also to telegraph to him in case I got into prison,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span>
+or in the event of any other small casualty, and I
+looked forward with pleasure to my visit; but with
+my subsequent change of plans, I wrote asking that
+the books I had sent might be distributed in the provinces
+of Akmolinsk and Semipolatinsk, and thus
+finished arrangements for the supply of the public
+institutions in all the four provinces of Western
+Siberia: our total distribution thus far being 4,000
+Scriptures and 9,000 pamphlets and tracts.</p>
+
+<p>We now prepared to drive into Eastern Siberia,
+and on Thursday evening, June 19th, galloped out
+of Tomsk in two troikas, containing ourselves and
+baggage—the latter reduced, but still a heavy load.
+Outside the town the tongues of our horses’ bells were
+unloosed, and we jingled merrily along. The said
+bells are placed beneath the <i lang="ru">douga</i>, over the centre
+horse, and are intended to give notice to the public
+generally, and all whom it may concern, that <em>post</em>-horses
+are coming, and, accordingly, that it is their
+bounden duty to get out of the way. If they fail to
+do this, which is sometimes the case, especially at
+night, when the drivers of slow-going vehicles are
+nodding on their seats, then “the rule of the road”
+is that the post-boy may give them a cut with his
+whip—a visitation inflicted sometimes upon men, and
+sometimes, with caravans, upon the leading horse,
+which, in his driver’s absence or sleep, is supposed to
+know the side of the road he ought to take.</p>
+
+<p>We were now becoming accustomed to our jolting
+mode of travel, and I had already discovered a secret
+in connection therewith worth handing down to posterity.
+It concerns the position of the body and legs
+in the tarantass. If you place your heels against the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span>
+front of the vehicle, or against a bag or box, your feet
+become excessively tired; and if you lie at full length,
+flat, you may soon imagine yourself in a ship’s berth,
+rolling from side to side. Now, my golden secret is
+this: First secure to yourself (in a hole if possible) a
+soft, springy base upon which to sit, and then place on
+that a ribbed circular air-cushion. Secondly, put your
+down-pillow behind at an angle of 60 degrees, and, if
+you like, an air-pillow, without ribs, in the nape of your
+neck. But the next arrangement is the most important.
+Draw up your legs till the knees come on a
+level with your chin; then put beneath the knee-pits a
+soft parcel or bag, sufficiently high to leave the feet
+dangling above the ground; and the result will be that
+you will travel with comparative comfort by night and
+by day continuously for 1,000 miles. Being thus fixed
+before and behind, and kept laterally straight by the
+side of the vehicle and your companion, the only
+direction in which you can be shot is upwards and
+heavenwards, to come down, alas! on the old spot;
+and this must be accepted as your minimum amount of
+local disturbance. The reader may think it utterly
+impossible to sleep under such circumstances—and at
+first it is so. But Nature will assert her claims. A
+Siberian priest told us that, when he travelled from
+Europe, he could not at first sleep at all in the tarantass;
+but that, when at last he did so, he lost no less
+than three hats whilst wrapped in slumber. As for
+myself, I soon learnt to doze; and in my journal of
+June 21st I find the entry, “Managed to sleep quite
+soundly in the tarantass till 8 o’clock this morning.”
+It was not always, however, one could sleep the whole
+night through; and I recollect on one occasion awaking
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span>
+from a beautiful dream of pleasant society in an English
+drawing-room to find myself, to my disgust, outside
+a Siberian post-house. On another occasion I had
+been sleeping soundly, and, on looking out early in the
+morning, found that the driver had followed my
+example; and the horses, not feeling the lash, had
+followed suit, and so we had come to a standstill, and
+all were slumbering together. I gave the man, however
+(to confess it for once), a dig in the back; his
+whip fell on the horses, and they galloped in style to
+the end of the stage.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day after leaving Tomsk, we approached
+the boundary that divides Western from
+Eastern Siberia; but up to this point we had not met
+with a large number of wild animals. No wolves came
+alongside the tarantass as they did last year in the
+Caucasus, nor did we so much as catch sight of a
+bear, as on my journey from Archangel.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_69" href="#Footnote_1_69" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> As to
+domesticated animals, large herds of cows were seen,
+and milk was abundant. Strange to say, however,
+the people make little or no cheese; and the peasants
+do not usually butter their bread. Their fresh butter,
+when they make it, is without salt, and is generally
+used for cooking. The pigs of the country are a long-legged
+breed, and are frequently seen running about
+the village streets. They furnish the long bristles
+from their mane which are used for making brooms.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span></p>
+
+<p>We saw no lack of birds of prey in Western
+Siberia, for hawks of various kinds are seen sailing
+gracefully over every town. We met with the largest
+number of sportsmen’s birds between Tiumen and
+Tobolsk, chiefly water-birds, with wild ducks and
+geese in abundance. I tasted at Ekaterineburg the
+<i lang="ru">gluchar</i>, or cock of the wood, the same as our capercailzie.
+It was a well-tasted bird, from whose breast
+ten persons were helped, and it may be bought in
+the winter at Ekaterineburg for 8<i>d.</i> In the Altai
+regions is found a magnificent eagle called the bearcoot,
+of which specimens are shown in the Barnaul
+Museum. It is strong enough to kill a deer with
+ease; and it not unfrequently happens that, when
+wolves have killed and begun to eat their prey, a
+pair of bearcoots will attack and kill or drive them
+away, and eat their intended meal. The Kirghese
+tame these birds for the purpose of hunting.</p>
+
+<p>As we pursued our way towards Eastern Siberia,
+there was a slight improvement in the landscape. For
+a long distance, after leaving Tomsk, the country was
+flat; but in the direction of Krasnoiarsk was seen a
+range of hills to the south, dotted with pine-trees, the
+country looking English-like and fertile, well wooded,
+and here and there under cultivation. Hitherto the
+herbage had been singularly luxuriant; but, from the
+station next before Atchinsk, pasture became less plentiful,
+and thus, in a measure, explained why henceforth
+our hire of horses was to cost us double. The number
+of towns and villages along the road for the first 400
+miles of the way—that is, from Tomsk to Krasnoiarsk—was
+more numerous than might be expected, though,
+the further east we went, the further apart they were.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span>
+The post-houses were rarely more than from ten to
+fifteen miles distant from one another, and we frequently
+drove through two or three intervening villages. To
+describe one village is to describe them all—the chief
+difference being that whilst each consists of a single
+street, with detached houses on either side of the way,
+some villages are larger than others. One we passed
+through was said to be nearly three miles long. The
+said street is usually wide, but never by any chance
+paved, though now and then a few boards are laid
+down for a footway. Nor is the street usually beautified
+with anything worthy the name of a garden.
+Now and then a few trees are planted in front of a
+house, but with such a high, clumsy palisade to keep
+off the cattle, that the attempted cultivation of beauty
+becomes rather a disfigurement than otherwise. The
+priest’s house is often one of the best in the place.
+So, again, the post-house usually stands out prominently;
+and if there happen to be any Government
+official in the village, an extra coat of paint, or some
+little ornamentation about the exterior, may point out
+the house inhabited by superiors; but ordinarily the
+houses of the peasants or farmers are very much alike.
+The foundation may perchance be of stone, but all
+else is of wood. For the walls, trees are cut and
+barked, slightly flattened by being cut away on two
+opposite sides, and then laid one above the other, the
+ends being dovetailed together at the corners. The
+interstices between the logs are calked with moss, and
+the roof is generally of overlapping boards. So long
+as the foundation holds good, the houses look tolerably
+neat; but when this begins to give, or the logs to
+rot, they become strained and warped in so many
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span>
+directions as to present a very dilapidated appearance.
+When the houses are intended for the accommodation
+of human beings only, they generally have no second
+storey; but in the case of farm-houses, where cattle
+are sheltered, we frequently found them having an
+upper storey approached by an outside staircase. There
+were usually also out-houses adjoining, and under the
+same roof; so that one had but to leave the dwelling-room
+upstairs, cross a passage, and open a door, to
+find oneself looking down upon beasts and cattle, and
+other denizens of a farm-yard, which share the same
+roof, though not, like the Irish pig, the same apartments
+as their owners. The interior of the house is
+as simple as the outside. In the centre is a brick
+stove. The walls are whitewashed or papered, and
+adorned with pictures according to the means and taste
+of the owners. Portraits of the Imperial family figure
+largely, so do battle scenes, pictures of the saints, and
+family photographs. As already observed, I took
+with me a large number of illustrated prints of “The
+Prodigal Son,” round which was written the parable
+in Russ. Having provided myself with a hammer
+and tacks, I was wont to go into the guest-room at the
+post-houses, and there nail up the picture, to the
+great admiration usually of the post-master. I have
+heard from a gentleman, who has recently crossed
+Siberia, that these pictures still adorn the walls of the
+post-houses, and that the books given with them are
+carefully preserved. My action, however, was not
+always understood at first, especially by those who
+could not read. One woman, who saw only an early
+stage of my operations, ran off to her husband as
+frightened as if I had been nailing up an Imperial
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span>
+ukase. They usually proceeded at once to read the
+parable; some said they should have it framed; and
+one post-master, a Jew, said in German, as he finished
+reading, that it was “a right good story.”</p>
+
+<p>What has been said of Siberian houses thus far
+refers more especially to the houses of the peasantry
+and their villages. The traveller, however, from
+Tomsk passes certain small towns which have cross
+streets, wooden footways, perchance a small hospital,
+and the residence of an ispravnik, or a few well-to-do
+merchants. On entering the dwelling of one of these
+classes, one finds large rooms, papered walls, and
+painted floors, with perhaps a square of carpet near
+the sofa and table. Things look plain but comfortable
+within; and the out-houses, such as kitchen and bath-house,
+are at a convenient distance in the yard. The
+liability of the kitchen to catch fire partly accounts for
+its being detached; and these out-houses serve as a
+residence for the servants.</p>
+
+<p>Houses occupied by persons highest in position,
+such as governors of provinces, and high military
+officers, are also of wood, and often without a second
+storey; but the rooms are more spacious and <i lang="fr">en suite</i>,
+enlivened with flowers and creepers, and the tables
+enriched by articles of <i lang="fr">virtu</i> from Europe. It is
+interesting to an Englishman to see how many things
+from London find their way to these remote regions.
+Thus, when sitting at a desk, one finds oneself among
+Cumberland leads and Perry’s coloured pencils, and a
+dozen other trifles, reminders of home.</p>
+
+<p>Our journey from Tomsk to Krasnoiarsk was not
+entirely devoid of incident, our misadventures being
+connected for the most part with a limping wheel.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span>
+Our first misadventure happened in returning from
+Barnaul, when, in the middle of the night, in the
+midst of a field, one of our shafts broke. But this
+might have happened anywhere; and fortunately there
+happened to be a man resting by the roadside to feed
+his horses, who lent us his pole to go to the next
+station. Early in the morning, however, it was discovered
+that our Siberian Jehu had been driving so
+furiously that, like Phaëton, his classical ancestor, he
+had set the wheels on fire. Matters were made worse
+for want of a smith at hand; and when we found
+a smith, he had no coal. We applied, therefore, a
+liberal allowance of grease, and limped on to Tomsk,
+where the whole concern was supposed to be put in
+order and cleaned, with the addition of new shafts and
+mended wheels, at a cost of nearly £2. We had
+not travelled four-and-twenty hours before the wheel
+was again on fire, and we paid several shillings for
+the repair of the axletree; a little further on, 24<i>s.</i>
+more; and then, on the evening of the third day, we
+arrived at a village where lived a smith. Now this
+man was well known in the district as an extortioner.
+He came to us clad in a pea-green dressing-gown, and
+smoked a cigarette as he leisurely walked round the
+tarantass, just as a man surveys a horse. He informed
+us that he would put us right for £5, which we flatly
+refused to give. “But you will certainly break down
+if you proceed,” urged the extortioner. “Then,” said
+I, “if we do, we will not come to <em>you</em> for assistance.”
+Said some of the people, “You had better go on to
+the next station at Bogotol, where there lives a merchant
+named So-and-so; and if you ask him he will
+recommend you to an honest wheelwright.” With our
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span>
+spokes roped together, therefore, and wetted, we
+waddled on, and arrived at Bogotol between three
+and four in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>“Is the merchant So-and-so at home?” was the first
+question we asked at the post-house. “Yes,” said they;
+“but he is asleep, and will get up for nobody.” “Indeed,”
+said I to my interpreter, “will you go to him and say
+as politely as you can that an Englishman travelling to
+Irkutsk has met with an accident, and will be greatly
+obliged if he can recommend him an honest wheelwright?”
+And off went Mr. Interpreter, with a glum
+countenance, evidently not liking his job. He knocked
+at the merchant’s door, expecting to get roundly abused
+for his intrusion. But the merchant, on ascertaining
+what was the matter, asked the stranger in, and shouted
+to his servants, Peter, Timothy, and John, to bestir
+themselves. One he sent for the wheelwright, another
+to heat the samovar, and a third to prepare some food;
+and then, said he, “I cannot think of letting you go
+till the wheelwright comes, and all is going well”; after
+which he plied his visitor with talk, telling him what a
+famous place was Siberia; that any one might come in
+his neighbourhood, and, without payment, till as much
+land or cut as much grass as he liked, no man forbidding
+him; though labour, he added, was scarce,
+and imported goods dear. Thus, after tea and talk,
+and the arrival of the workman, the merchant returned
+to his slumbers. But I thought this one of the
+finest examples of hospitality and kindness to strangers
+I had ever met with, and I wondered much whether a
+broken-down Russian traveller, knocking up an Englishman
+at four in the morning, and asking to be recommended
+to an honest wheelwright, would have received
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span>
+a kindlier reception. The honest wheelwright mended
+us up for a few shillings, and, after calling to thank the
+merchant, we started, and about noon reached Krasnorechinska.
+Here we called upon the priest, who had
+3,000 parishioners, of whom he said 200 could read,
+for whom we gave him some pamphlets, and sold him
+four New Testaments. He possessed a large Russian
+Bible, which cost upwards of six shillings, and was, he
+said, the cheapest to be had.</p>
+
+<p>By night we reached Atchinsk, the first station in
+Eastern Siberia, and although the roads were perceptibly
+better immediately we crossed the border, our
+poor wheel was out of trim again, and threatened to
+detain us far into the morrow. And now came sundry
+physicians to administer advice, chiefly, however, in
+their own favour. One wished to sell us a new wheel
+for £1, another to make an exchange of our two front
+wheels for £2, and so on; in answer to which I declared
+that I would go straight to the Ispravnik and show my
+grand letter from Petersburg. “But,” urged Mr. Interpreter,
+“the Ispravnik has nothing to do with mending
+wheels!” “True,” I replied; but—“Let us go!”
+And so we did, and were kindly received. “If your
+axletrees are of iron,” said the Ispravnik, “I doubt
+whether there are any persons in the place capable of
+mending them; but, even if there are, they will most
+likely be drunk, as to-day is a <i lang="fr">fête</i>; and you must
+therefore wait till to-morrow.” I pleaded, however
+that he should do his best, and things turned out better
+than he prophesied. A wheelwright was found, who
+for half-a-crown enabled us to proceed, and early next
+morning we reached Krasnoiarsk.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_69" href="#FNanchor_1_69" class="label">[1]</a> Mr. Atkinson gives the following list of mammalia as inhabiting
+Siberia:—The reindeer, stag, roebuck, elk; the argali, or wild sheep, and
+wild boar; the jackal, wolf, tiger, and bear; the Corsac and Arctic foxes;
+the lynx, glutton, and polecat; the beaver, otter, badger, hedgehog,
+ermine, Arctic hare; sable; flying, striped, and common squirrels; the
+Siberian and common marmots; the water and common rats; the mouse,
+bat, and mole.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVIII">
+    CHAPTER XVIII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE YENESEI.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Sources of the river.—Discoveries of Wiggins and Nordenskiöld.—The
+Yenesei at Krasnoiarsk.—Current, width, depth.—Breaking up of
+ice.—The Yeneseisk province.—Geography.—Meteorology.—Forests.—Timber.—Fish
+of Yenesei.—Birds.—Russian population.—Navigation.—Corn
+and cattle.—Towns.—A Scoptsi village.—Salubrity of
+climate.—The aborigines.—Ethnology.—Tunguses.—Fur-bearing
+animals.—Methods of hunting.—Minerals.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> most remarkable of the natural features of
+the Yeneseisk province is its wonderful river,
+the Yenesei,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_70" href="#Footnote_1_70" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> much of our knowledge of which, below
+Krasnoiarsk, we owe to the discoveries of Wiggins and
+Seebohm, Nordenskiöld and Théel, all of whose information
+has come to us within the past seven years.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_71" href="#Footnote_2_71" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>As I stood on the banks of the Yenesei at Krasnoiarsk,
+it appeared to me the most majestic stream I
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span>
+had ever beheld; and, when looking at the rush of its
+waters, I was thankful that we had attempted nothing
+so rash as to descend by a raft on its bosom; for, however
+pleasant a method of travelling from Minusinsk
+this might be in summer, it would be nothing short of
+madness to attempt it during the spring floods. Some
+idea of the swiftness of the current may be gathered
+from the report of M. Théel, who says that, including
+stoppages and without rowing, they were carried in
+their boat from Krasnoiarsk to Yeneseisk, a distance
+of 300 miles, in 2½ days; that is to say, they floated
+down the stream at just about the same speed as we
+attained with three horses at our best travelling, namely,
+130 miles in a day and night. Allowing for stoppages,
+they floated at the rate of seven miles an hour. Dr.
+Peacock, who lives at Krasnoiarsk, informed me that
+the river in quiet places has a current of five miles an
+hour; in swifter places of 10 miles, and in some very
+rapid parts of 17 miles an hour; but this last may perchance
+refer to the two rapids, through one of which
+M. Théel’s party had to shoot at Padporoschensk,
+about 170 miles below Krasnoiarsk, and the other, of
+which Mr. Seebohm speaks as remaining unfrozen all
+the winter through.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_72" href="#Footnote_3_72" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>I imagine that the grandest thing to be witnessed
+on the Lower Yenesei is the breaking-up of the ice,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span>
+which Mr. Seebohm has described as he saw it in
+1877. Proceeding down the river on the ice with
+Captain Wiggins, they reached the ship <i>Thames</i> in her
+winter quarters near the confluence of the Kureika
+with the Yenesei, and were quietly waiting for the
+opening of the navigation, when on the 1st of June
+commenced what Mr. Seebohm calls the “battle of
+the Yenesei.” The pressure underneath caused a large
+field of ice to break away, which, by collision with an
+angular point of the bank, resulted in the piling up of
+a little range of ice mountains 50 or 60 feet high, and
+picturesque in the extreme. Huge blocks of ice, six
+feet thick and 20 feet long, were seen standing perpendicularly,
+whilst others were crushed up in fragments
+like broken pottery. Some were white, and some clear
+as glass, and blue as an Italian sky. Then the river
+began to rise, and in the course of the night the whole
+crust of the Yenesei, as far as could be seen, broke up
+with a tremendous crash, and a dense mass of ice-floes
+and pack-ice rushed irresistibly up the Kureika, driving
+the poor ship like a toy before it, and leaving it in the
+evening, amidst huge hummocks of ice, almost high
+and dry. The velocity of these masses of pack-ice on
+the Yenesei was reckoned on some days to be not less
+than 20 miles an hour. This sort of thing continued
+for a fortnight, and during two days it was calculated
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span>
+that 50,000 acres of ice passed the ship up the constantly
+changing Kureika, which alternately rose and
+fell. Many square miles of ice were marched up for
+some hours, and then marched back again. Sometimes
+the pack-ice and floes were jammed so tightly together
+that it looked as if one might scramble across the river
+without much difficulty. At other times there was a
+good deal of open water, and the icebergs “calved” as
+they went along, with much commotion and splashing,
+that could be heard a mile off. Underlayers of icebergs
+grounded, and after the velocity of the enormous mass
+had caused it to pass on, the “calves,” or pieces left
+behind, rose to the surface like whales coming up to
+breathe. Some of them must have done so from a
+good depth, for they rose out of the water with a considerable
+splash, and rocked about for some time before
+settling down to their floating level. At last took
+place the final march past of the beaten winter forces
+in this great 14 days’ “battle,” and for seven days
+more came slowly down the stragglers of the great
+Arctic army—worn and weather-beaten little icebergs,
+dirty ice-floes looking like mudbanks, and broken pack-ice
+in the last stage of destruction—after which the river
+was found to have risen to a height of 70 feet.</p>
+
+<p>To proceed, however, from the river to the basin
+through which it flows. The Yenesei gives its name
+to Yeneseisk, that central Siberian province which is
+bounded on the west by the governments of Tobolsk and
+Tomsk, and on the east by those of Yakutsk and Irkutsk.
+It is the only province that stretches across the country
+from the Altai range to the Arctic Ocean, a distance
+from north to south of nearly 2,000 miles; or, to put
+it in another way, it extends from the latitude of London
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span>
+to that of the most northerly point of Asia, within 14
+degrees of the North Pole.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_73" href="#Footnote_4_73" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>The province is divided into six uyezds, with six
+principal towns, viz., Krasnoiarsk, Minusinsk, Yeneseisk,
+Kansk, Atchinsk, and Turukhansk. The differences
+of temperature between its various parts
+are, of course, very great. The southern portions
+about Minusinsk we heard spoken of as the Italy
+of Siberia; and at Krasnoiarsk, towards the end of
+June, we found the temperature like that of an English
+summer. Further north, at Yeneseisk, the greatest
+heat of the year 1877 (registered in June) was 92·5,
+whilst the greatest cold sunk to 59·2 below zero. This
+cold was exceeded in December of the same year at
+Turukhansk, where the thermometer sank to 63·0
+below zero.</p>
+
+<p>The province is covered with magnificent forests up
+to the Arctic Circle, but the trees rapidly diminish in
+size further north, and disappear soon after lat. 69°.
+These forests are principally of pine. In the neighbourhood
+of Krasnoiarsk the pine and the larch attain
+to colossal dimensions. The pine frequently rises to
+200 feet in height, but is never more than six feet in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span>
+diameter at the base. The larch, which has the furthest
+northern range, sometimes attains to the same height,
+but its diameter is but four feet on the surface of the
+ground.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_74" href="#Footnote_5_74" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>The forests abound with animal life, as do the rivers
+with fish. Fish forms the principal food of the natives,
+and in summer almost every one is a fisherman, using
+nets and lines, or spearing by torchlight. In the
+Yenesei are found pike, ruff, perch, and tench, all
+which are little esteemed, and serve as food for the
+dogs. The more valued are the sturgeon, salmon,
+and various species of the genus <i lang="la">Coregonus</i>. The
+common sturgeon is caught along the whole Yenesei,
+and sometimes weighs more than 200 lbs. The sterlet
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span>
+usually weighs only three or four lbs., but occasionally
+reaches 18. The salmon is most numerous in the upper
+course of the river at Minusinsk, where it is caught in
+great numbers.</p>
+
+<p>The birds of the Yeneseisk province have received
+much attention from Mr. Seebohm. He brought home,
+in 1877, about 500 eggs, and more than 1,000 skins, but
+he thinks that he would have had a still larger bag had
+he made Yeneseisk his head-quarters instead of the
+Kureika. He speaks of a perfect Babel of birds when
+the ice was breaking up at the beginning of June.
+Gulls, geese, and swans were flying about in all directions,
+also flocks of redpoles and shore-larks, bramblings
+and wagtails; and in the course of the summer
+were seen the sea-eagle, the rough-legged buzzard, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span>
+sparrow-hawk, and various kinds of owls. In addition
+to our species of cuckoo, the Himalayan cuckoo made
+its way to these regions, though it had a different note
+to that of our English bird—a guttural and hollow-sounding
+<em>hoo</em>, which could be heard at a great distance.
+Ravens and carrion-crows were plentiful, and jackdaws,
+magpies, and starlings were seen at Yeneseisk, though
+the jackdaw and starling did not go much further
+north, which remark applies also to the bullfinch. The
+nut-cracker was found as far north as the Kureika,
+where it showed a desire to be sociable, and often
+perched on the rigging of the <i>Thames</i>. Besides these,
+Mr. Seebohm, among many other birds, mentions the
+thrush, the black, hazel, and willow grouse, the capercailzie,
+bittern, crane, lapwing, and golden plover. Towards
+the end of summer is to be seen, he says, a
+curious sight on the tundras—flocks of geese in full
+moult and unable to fly.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian population of the province is settled
+for the more part in towns and villages by the side of
+the river, and along the great high road crossing it.
+The natives wander over the remainder. Russian villages
+are seen from 10 to 15 miles apart on the rivers’
+banks, at which travellers proceeding north may find
+oarsmen in summer and horses in winter,—horses, that
+is, as far as Turukhansk, beyond which first dogs and
+then reindeer are employed.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the corn that is raised in the province grows
+about Minusinsk, where it may be bought at a fabulously
+low price, and whence it is brought down the river in
+barges and flat-bottomed boats.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_75" href="#Footnote_6_75" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Rye is not cultivated
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span>
+further north than Antsiferova, 40 miles below Yeneseisk,
+and oats not beyond Zotina, on the 60th parallel.
+Potatoes are cultivated up to Turukhansk, but they are
+small. Agriculture, in fact, practically ceases a little
+beyond Yeneseisk. The Russians alone give any
+attention to it, as the natives are too busy fishing during
+their short summers to till the land. Cattle are raised
+to some small extent in the valley of the Yenesei,
+though the people do not appear to understand how to
+make the most of them. Cows are found as far as
+Dudinsk; but though in some of the villages they may
+have 40 or 50, it is almost impossible to get a glass of
+milk, the calves being allowed to take it all. An Anglo-Russian
+lady informs me that, were these cows treated
+like English ones, even for a few days, they would
+lose their milk; therefore a Russian cow is only partially
+milked, the rest being left for her calf. A scientific
+gentleman told my friend that it is the peculiarity of all
+cows only lately redeemed from a wild state to lose their
+milk when deprived of their calves. The making of
+butter is only half known on the Yenesei, and of cheese
+not at all. Sheep are found as far as Vorogova, and
+goats up to Yeneseisk.</p>
+
+<p>Of the towns and villages on the Yenesei, Yeneseisk
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span>
+is the oldest, having been founded in 1618; and the
+most curious is that of Silovanoff, near Turukhansk.
+It is inhabited by exiled <i lang="ru">Scoptsi</i>, a fanatical sect whose
+principal doctrine is based on Matt. xix. 12, who mutilate
+themselves, and endeavour to persuade others to
+follow their example. When these people are caught
+so acting, they are banished.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_76" href="#Footnote_7_76" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp48" id="p2060_ill" style="max-width: 60.9375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p2060_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      OSTJAK WOMEN OF THE YENESEISK PROVINCE.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>It has already been intimated that the aborigines
+wander over the uninhabited parts of the province.
+In the south, about Minusinsk, are Tatars, most of
+whom have embraced the Christianity of the Russian
+Church. In the north, to the west of the river, are the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span>
+Samoyedes and Ostjaks. West of the river, at the
+extreme north, are the Yuraks, and below them the
+Tunguses, which latter wander over a far larger area
+than any other tribe in Siberia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_77" href="#Footnote_8_77" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Those in the Yeneseisk
+province give themselves to the care of reindeer
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span>
+and to the chase. M. Théel speaks of them as the
+most intelligent of the natives on the Yenesei, and says
+that their rich women, probably wives of chiefs, often
+wear furs of beaver, sable, and black fox to the value
+of many hundreds of pounds sterling. He mentions
+also, as some proof of their intellectual taste, that there
+was presented to him a hexagonal spindle of ivory,
+upon which the days, the weeks, and the months were
+indicated by different signs. He speaks also of a game
+they had resembling chess, of which all the pieces were
+of ivory.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp45" id="p2080_ill" style="max-width: 67.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p2080_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      YURAK HUNTSMAN.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Among the principal animals, objects of their chase,
+are the sable, the common fox, the white fox, the elk,
+the reindeer, the wolf, the bear, the ermine, and the
+squirrel. At the beginning of October, and sometimes
+also of January, they start on snow-shoes. Alone, or
+in company, the hunter goes into the virgin forest,
+some hundreds of versts from any habitation, and is
+followed by a little sledge drawn by dogs. If he
+finds the track of a sable, he follows, and, on lighting
+upon the animal, he has not much difficulty in killing
+it. But the sable often takes refuge in a hole, and
+then there is nothing to be done but to await his
+pleasure in coming out; and as this may be by night as
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span>
+well as by day, his retreat is covered with fine threads
+attached to bells, which give the alarm. The hunter
+may thus have to wait two or three days; but, if he
+happen to kill the much-coveted animal, his trouble is
+well rewarded; for a good sable skin fetches from
+50<i>s.</i> to £10. In skinning, the coat ought not to be
+stretched; but, on the contrary, contracted as much as
+possible, in order to render the hairs more bushy,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span>
+which enhances the value. Hence the skins one
+meets with in commerce are all short and wide.</p>
+
+<p>The common fox is taken with snares and traps.
+The black fox is very rare in these parts, and its skin
+is valued up to £100. The white fox is taken on the
+tundra by means of traps placed on the top of little
+hills. This animal generally retires south towards
+the middle of September; and as it is known that
+the fox, rather than jump over an obstacle, however
+low, goes round it, the hunters, profiting by this
+knowledge, set up barriers of branches, leaving openings
+where they plant their snares, and catch their
+prey. The hunting of the elk is carried on by men
+on snow-shoes; and such numbers of this animal are
+killed that in some years one may buy at Yeneseisk as
+many as 10,000 skins. Reindeer are taken in numbers
+equally large, sometimes in traps, and sometimes by
+driving whole herds into an enclosure, from which they
+cannot get out.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_78" href="#Footnote_9_78" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>One of their modes of capturing the bear in the
+Yeneseisk province is by fixing a wooden platform to
+the trunk of a tree, and at such a height from the
+ground that the bear is forced to stand on his hind-legs
+at full length to reach the middle. On this platform
+are numerous barbed iron spikes, and at the
+higher part a joint of meat. The bear arrives, stands
+up, and puts forward one paw to seize the bait; but,
+bringing it down on the spikes, finds it fixed. The
+furious animal puts down the second to release the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span>
+first, which also is caught, and he thus becomes an
+easy prey to the huntsman.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the natives spend their days—fishing in summer
+and hunting in winter. They have no towns, no villages,
+no houses, but live in tents of skins or of bark,
+according to the season; and they have little idea of
+civilized life, or the mineral wealth with which their
+country abounds. Iron ore is found in the valley of
+the Yenesei, and from the province, in 1877, 2,700
+tons were cast; also from the mine of graphite, on the
+Kureika, Captain Wiggins ballasted one of his vessels.
+The greatest mineral product of the province, however,
+is gold, of which I shall speak in the following
+chapter.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_70" href="#FNanchor_1_70" class="label">[1]</a> Its most distant sources rise under another name in Mongolia, on
+the eastern side of the Khangai mountains, whence the Selenga and
+the Orkhon, flowing together into Lake Baikal, emerge as the Angara,
+which flows into the Yenesei proper near the town of Yeneseisk. The
+stream that is <em>called</em> the Yenesei, however, rises in the Tannu range of
+the Altai mountains, whence it bursts through the Sayansk chain in
+cataracts and rapids, and enters Siberia south of Minusinsk; and then,
+flowing on beyond Krasnoiarsk, it is joined by the Angara, the Lower
+and Upper Tunguska, and the Kureika, all flowing in on the right bank.
+The Russians give its length as 3,472 miles, thus making the Yenesei the
+fourth longest river in the world, being exceeded only by the Nile, the
+Amazon, and the Mississippi.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_71" href="#FNanchor_2_71" class="label">[2]</a> <i>See</i> <a href='#APPENDIX_D'>Appendix D.</a></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_72" href="#FNanchor_3_72" class="label">[3]</a> The gigantic proportions of the Yenesei will be further realized from
+its width, which at Krasnoiarsk, 1,700 miles from the sea, is more than
+1,000 yards, and at Yeneseisk it measures rather more than a mile. From
+thence it widens gradually, so that at the Kureika it enlarges to about
+three miles; and between Tolstonosovsk and Goltchikha it expands like a
+lake with a breadth of more than 40 miles. The delta and lagoon formed
+by its waters are about 400 miles in length. The depth of the river varies,
+of course, according to the season, but opposite Dudinsk M. Théel’s
+sounding-line indicated a depth of 12 fathoms. The river has a fall of
+4,000 feet, and the banks generally are steep and lofty, from 60 to 100 feet
+above the water. Thus it would seem that comparatively little land is
+covered by the summer floods, which is just the reverse in the case of the
+Obi. M. Théel observes, however, that it frequently happens, when one
+bank is high, the other is low, from which it follows that the vegetation on
+either side assumes a somewhat different character; for where the bank
+is low, and consequently exposed to inundations, one sees abundance of
+willows, whilst the higher bank is very often covered with fir, pine, and
+larch.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_73" href="#FNanchor_4_73" class="label">[4]</a> The province has an area of nearly a million square miles—that is to
+say, is somewhat larger than the aggregate surface covered by Austria,
+France, Russia, Spain, and all the British possessions in Europe. The
+southern part only is mountainous, all above the 60th parallel being flat and
+swampy. It has some half-dozen large and thousands of smaller lakes in
+the <i lang="ru">tundras</i> of the north, and the province is well watered by the Yenesei
+and its larger affluents,—namely, the Angara, the Podkamennaia (or
+stony) Tunguska, the Nijnaia (or lower) Tunguska, and the Kureika.
+In 1873 the population was thus classified: hereditary nobles, 800;
+personally noble, 1,600; ecclesiastical persons of all sorts, 4,000; townspeople,
+20,000; rural population, 232,000; military, 15,000; foreigners,
+42; and others, probably aborigines, 122,000. The total population in
+1880 was 372,000, or about three-fourths of the population of Liverpool.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_74" href="#FNanchor_5_74" class="label">[5]</a> The larch is called in Russ <i lang="ru">listvenitsa</i> (from <i lang="ru">list</i>, a leaf, and <i lang="ru">venets</i>,
+a crown), in allusion to the arrangement of its acicular leaves. Its wood
+looks well for the walls and ceilings of the peasants’ rooms. The larch
+is highly valued also for its power of resisting the effects of moisture,
+besides which, when used as fuel, it is found to produce a high degree of
+heat (in which respect the birch comes next), though it does not produce
+a brilliant light. For the tile-kilns it is preferable to all other wood, but
+it is not used for charcoal, nor does it serve well for burning in the house,
+on account of the pungent and stupefying qualities of its smoke; nor in
+the furnaces used for the manufacture of rolled iron plates, for it soils the
+metal.</p>
+
+<p>The elegant spruce fir, with its branches almost down to the root and
+trailing on the ground, is more abundant, and extends nearly as far north.
+The Siberians look upon this tree as very important for commercial purposes.
+The wood is white, light, and very elastic. It is the favourite
+tree for masts, and is considered the best substitute for ash for oars,
+and it makes the best “knees” for shipbuilding. Snow-shoes also are
+generally made of this wood. The quality is good down into the roots.
+It is, however, subject to very hard knots, which are said to blunt the edge
+of any axe not made of Siberian steel. The Siberian spruce is less abundant,
+and differs from the common spruce in having a smooth bark of an
+ash-grey colour. The leaves are also of a much darker and bluer green.
+The wood is soft and liable to crack and decay, and is consequently of little
+commercial value; but, being easy to split, it is largely used for roofing and
+for fuel. The cost of firewood in Siberia per <i lang="ru">sajen</i>, or seven-feet cube, is
+3<i>s.</i>, as compared with 12<i>s.</i> in Petersburg, and from 20<i>s.</i> to 30<i>s.</i> at Moscow.
+At Krasnoiarsk a log of building timber, 80 feet long, costs from 20<i>d.</i> to
+3<i>s.</i>, whilst bricks cost from 16<i>s.</i> to 20<i>s.</i> per 1,000. The Scotch fir, with the
+upper trunk and branches almost of a cinnamon yellow, is in many places
+very abundant.</p>
+
+<p>The Siberian is proudest, however, of his cedar—a tree very similar in
+appearance to the Scotch fir, but more regular in its growth—clothed with
+branches nearer to the ground, and with an almost uniform grey trunk.
+For furniture and indoor wood it is considered to be the best timber in the
+country, and is said never to rot or shrink, warp or crack. It is soft and
+easy to work, but has a fine grain, and is almost free from knots. The
+Ostjaks use it for building their large boats. They take a trunk two or
+three feet in diameter, split it, and of each half make a wide, thin board.
+Having no proper saws, they are obliged to cut the wood away with an
+axe, and thus the greater part of the tree is wasted. The Russian peasant
+is still more prodigal with his timber, for when I was going through the
+forest east of the Yenesei, a felled cedar-tree was pointed out, and the
+remark made that it was quite usual that a man who wanted nuts should
+cut down a fine tree for the sole purpose of replenishing his bag with the
+nut-filled cones.</p>
+
+<p>The birch is common up to the 70th parallel, and still further north, on
+the tundra, in suitable localities, the creeping birch and two or three sorts
+of willow may be met with. The alder is abundant, and the juniper. The
+poplar is found as far north as Turukhansk. The Ostjaks hollow their
+canoes from the trunks of this tree.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_75" href="#FNanchor_6_75" class="label">[6]</a> In 1876 the number of steamers on the Yenesei was four, all of which
+had paddle-wheels, and were used for tugging barges. The steamers took
+no cargo on board, and some of the barges were arranged like floating
+shops. These last leave Yeneseisk at the end of May, and return from
+the lower part of the river at the end of September, during which period
+the two largest steamers, with engines of 60 or 70-horse power, make two
+voyages, the smaller only one. Some of the barges are of 250 tons burthen.
+Besides these steamers, there were two sailing-boats of 50 tons burthen
+each, and a number of others from 6 to 20 tons. It should also be added
+that there are large pentagonal boats or barges, constructed with huge
+timbers in the corn-growing districts on the upper part of the river, whence
+they are towed down each by 15 or 20 men, and then, arrived at their
+destination, are broken up for building or firewood. Such was the fleet of
+the Yenesei at the time of the visit of M. Théel.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_76" href="#FNanchor_7_76" class="label">[7]</a> Mr. Seebohm tells me that, as regards material comforts, this village is
+far in advance of the ordinary Russian villages. He found the land well
+cultivated and railed off, the cattle kept out by gates, and there was a
+hospital for the sick. The houses were ventilated, the joining work was
+good, and there were books. All intoxicants were forbidden, and likewise
+tobacco and tea and coffee. Morally, in fact, it was a model village and
+without crime. The inhabitants, however, of whom there were more men
+than women, had a remarkable appearance. They were all sallow; the
+men were beardless, with squeaky voices; and no inhabitant was less than
+forty years of age. A “baby’s music” had never been heard among
+them. They keep all the festivals of the Russian Church, but have no
+priest. They say that every man is a priest, and that he can perform
+priestly acts only for himself. They provided Mr. Seebohm, as a guest,
+with both tea and butter, but the Scoptsi themselves eat no animal food
+but fish, use no butter and drink no milk. At least this was so originally;
+but here breaks forth a fact that should be respectfully dedicated
+to all who suppose it within the bounds of possibility to bring every one,
+or to keep every one, to the same way of thinking. These people number
+less than a score, have no one in the village not of their own persuasion,
+and yet they have split into two sects, the difference being that one
+drinks milk and the other does not. Originally some 700 or 800 were
+sent from the government of Perm; but many on the Yenesei were
+dying, and they petitioned to be removed elsewhere, and are now to be
+found with other Scoptsi in large numbers in the province of Yakutsk.
+As to the relative salubrity of these and other Siberian provinces, the only
+clue that I have is that whereas in 1879 the death-rate in the government
+of Perm, whence these people came, was 5·07 per cent., it was 4·13 in the
+province of Tobolsk, 3·89 in that of Irkutsk, and 3·51 in the province of
+Yeneseisk.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_77" href="#FNanchor_8_77" class="label">[8]</a> Dr. Latham observes that, if we take the principal populations that
+are common to the Russian and Chinese Empires, we find them to be the
+Turkish, Mongolian, and Tungusian races; the Turk on the west, the
+Mongol in the middle, and the Tunguse on the east. The Tunguse race
+begins, he says, north of Peking, and stretches through Manchuria across
+the district of the Amur, and north-east and west to the sea of Okhotsk
+and to the Yenesei. Of the Tunguse family the Manchu is the most
+civilized, whilst in Siberia we have them in their extreme character of
+rude nomads, unlettered, and still pagan, or but imperfectly Christianized.
+The Tungusian approaches the Mongolian, the Ostjak, or the Eskimo,
+according as his residence lies north or south; within the limit of the
+growth of trees or beyond it, on the champaign, the steppe, or the
+tundra. On the tundra the horse ceases to be his domestic animal, and
+the reindeer or the dog replaces it. Hence we hear of three divisions of
+the Tunguse family called by different names, according as they possess
+horses, reindeer, or dogs.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_78" href="#FNanchor_9_78" class="label">[9]</a> The horns of these animals are very fine. I was presented with a
+pair in Archangel, measuring nearly four feet from the skull to the extremities,
+which are a yard apart. The brow antlers are 13 inches long, and
+the bes-antlers, or those next above, 16 and 18 inches respectively, whilst
+the total measurement of antlers and branches is upwards of 14 feet.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIX">
+    CHAPTER XIX.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>A VISIT TO A GOLD-MINE.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Gold in Siberia.—Where found.—Gold-hunting.—A prospecting party.—Thawing
+the ground.—Subterranean passages.—Hardships.—Mining
+calculations.—Building of barracks.—Preparations for our visit.—Costumes.—Road
+through the “forest primeval.”—Luxuriant vegetation.—Crossing
+mountains.—Arrival at mine.—Labour of miners.—Gold-washing
+machine.—Government inspection.—Wages.—Hours
+of labour.—Miners’ food.—Pay-day.—Drink and its follies.—Miners’
+fortunes.—Mines of Eastern Siberia.—Return to Krasnoiarsk.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>Not</span> many Englishmen, probably, would think of
+going to Siberia to seek for <i lang="es">El-dorado</i>, the
+fabled land of gems and gold. Many tons of precious
+metals, however, are found there yearly; and there are
+firms, consisting of only two or three partners, that net
+an annual income of more than half-a-million sterling.
+The Russian empire furnishes an eighth part of the
+gold found yearly throughout the world, and three-fourths
+of this quantity come from Siberia. It was at
+the beginning of the century that gold-washing was
+commenced in the Urals, and a period of great prosperity
+followed from 1825 to about 1850. Since that
+time, the number of mines has increased, but the
+profits are less, because, whilst the value of gold has
+diminished, the price of labour has risen. The sources
+and affluents of the great Siberian rivers are rich in
+gold. The districts on the west of Lake Baikal that
+are most worked are those of Yeneseisk, Irkutsk,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span>
+Kansk, Nijni-Udinsk, and the sources of the Lena,
+which last are the richest.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_79" href="#Footnote_1_79" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, when we arrived at Krasnoiarsk, the
+large town of the Yeneseisk gold-mining district, and
+made acquaintance with some of the gold-seekers’
+families, it appeared a good opportunity to visit one of
+the mines, since they were called “near.” It was rather
+alarming, however, to discover what were the Siberians’
+notions of the word <em>near</em>, for in that huge country 100
+miles or more go for nothing—in fact, are a mere trifle,
+and not too long to be travelled for the sake of a ball or
+a festive gathering. The gold-seekers’ daughters even
+sometimes go out to their fathers’ mines within this
+distance, and, when they do so, stride their horses in
+top-boots and knickerbockers to save their dresses
+being torn in the primeval forest, or, as it is called,
+the <i lang="ru">taiga</i>. When, therefore, I found that a pair of
+high boots would be necessary, and that it would involve
+a long journey on horseback, I rather hesitated.
+We had, however, been introduced to the Director of
+the Krasnoiarsk Hospital, Dr. Peacock; and when it
+appeared that not only he, but Mrs. Peacock also,
+would join the party, my courage rose, and I determined
+to go.</p>
+
+<p>But, before we start, let me try to give the reader
+some idea as to the localities in which the gold is
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span>
+found, and how it is discovered. In the mountainous
+districts of the forest countless brooks unite into rivulets,
+which, in accordance with the character of the landscape,
+have a strong fall, becoming very rapid in the
+spring, and still more so in the summer, after the melting
+of the snow. The waters uproot trees, undermine
+rocks, and sweep along earth, gold, and other metals
+with resistless fury, till the lowlands are reached, where
+the stream, having no longer the same force, allows the
+heavy gold to sink to the bottom, to be covered, perhaps,
+next season with more gold, or, perhaps, by
+earth and rubbish. It will be easy to understand,
+then, how a layer of sand containing gold may be
+thus formed, and subsequently covered over with beds
+of earth and stone.</p>
+
+<p>The professional <i lang="ru">tayoshnik</i>, or gold-hunter, has to
+discover these auriferous layers; but this he cannot do
+alone.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_80" href="#Footnote_2_80" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> There must be a prospecting party made up,
+which may consist, say, of an overseer, a leader, 8 workmen,
+10 horses, 18 saddle-bags, provisions, and tools,
+the whole of which may be estimated to cost £500,
+which amount has to be risked, for the party may go
+out into the taiga and find nothing, or what may prove
+worse than nothing.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_81" href="#Footnote_3_81" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span></p>
+
+<p>The tayoshnik knows, however, that the Siberian
+gold deposits are almost always to be met with on the
+banks of streams, or in their beds. Again, gold is
+often hidden in crevices of the earth that have evidently
+once served as channels for running water. Moreover,
+he knows that those rivers that wash up gold are always
+such as have their sources in ravines, the rocks of
+which are very much weather-beaten. Gold is rarely
+found at precipitous spots, and is most abundant where
+the water ages ago had a calmer current, and consequently
+no longer possessed the necessary strength to
+carry the heavy metal along.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_82" href="#Footnote_4_82" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>The hunter must, however, dig some depth beneath
+the surface, the thickness of the beds of earth covering
+the gold varying from 2 to 20 feet, though it increases
+sometimes to 150 feet. At some spots three or four
+gold deposits, or <i lang="ru">plasts</i>, as they are called, lie one over
+the other, separated by thick strata of earth and rocks,
+in which case the lowest of the plasts is generally the
+richest.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_83" href="#Footnote_5_83" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span></p>
+
+<p>With knowledge of this kind, therefore, the gold-hunter
+proceeds till he arrives at a valley along which
+he judges some ancient river ages ago may have rolled
+down its golden sands. He then seeks in the bed of
+the rivulet for pyrites, iron, slate-clay, or quartz with
+a thick coat of crystals; and at length he forms a
+judgment as to whether or not he is likely by digging
+to find a gold deposit. If his verdict be favourable,
+then all hands are set to work to cut down trees and
+build a rude log hut, in which the party may have to
+live for months. The next business is to dig a number
+of holes or trenches at a distance from each other, to
+get down to the auriferous layers—that is, if there are
+any; for if there be none, their labour of course is lost,
+and they have to try elsewhere. But if there be auriferous
+layers, it is no easy matter to get to them, for
+gold-hunting is usually followed in the winter, often with
+the thermometer many degrees below zero, and when
+the ground is so hard as not to be pierced even by a
+pickaxe; they have, therefore, to make huge bonfires,
+whereby the earth is softened, so as to allow trenches
+of considerable depth to be dug. This manœuvre has
+to be repeated until the longed-for gold is found, or
+unyielding stone presents an impenetrable obstacle.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_84" href="#Footnote_6_84" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>These trenches or holes are made under the superintendence
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span>
+of the overseer. Samples of the earth are
+constantly tried, and so guidance is obtained as to the
+direction in which other work should be begun, and
+some idea formed as to the depth and breadth of the
+beds of gold. Often, however, the metal lies so far
+beneath the surface that it would scarcely be possible
+to dig out all the trenches begun. In such cases the
+wider ones are sunk into wells or shafts, and subterranean
+passages are made.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_85" href="#Footnote_7_85" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>Thus the work of testing a locality may take some
+little time; meanwhile the workmen and overseer live
+in their wretched hut, which often is not well roofed,
+and heated only by a portable stove. The wind whistles
+through the cracks of the moss-calked walls, an insupportable
+heat reigns in the vicinity of the stove, while,
+on the opposite walls, icicles gleam like brilliants, and
+melting snow falls from above. The air is rendered
+poisonous by the exhalations of the inmates and the
+vapour ascending from damp clothing hung near the
+fire to dry. In fact, as the workmen say, the atmosphere
+is thick enough “to hang up an axe in.”
+However, in the wilderness, even such a shelter is a
+longed-for refuge when a fierce snowstorm is raging
+and the thermometer has sunk to far below zero.</p>
+
+<p>But the climate is not the only hardship the gold-hunter
+has to encounter. His provisions consist of
+black rusks, dried meat, tea, and a little brandy; and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span>
+often he does not possess as much as could be wished
+even of this meagre fare, for he is obliged to carry with
+it all requisite tools and weapons on his beasts of
+burden, and communication with civilized centres
+or depôts is usually difficult, and in spring sometimes
+impossible. My interpreter told me he had an uncle,
+who was a <i lang="ru">tayoshnik</i>, who made an income of about
+£1,000 a year, but had sometimes, for want of better
+food, to eat bear’s flesh.</p>
+
+<p>But supposing the overseer to have discovered a
+promising spot, and to have tested the earth from
+several holes, he can then strike an average as to the
+amount of gold that may be got from every hundred
+poods—that is, every 32 cwt., or say every ton and
+a half—of sand. If the amount be five <i lang="ru">zolotniks</i>,—say,
+¾ oz., this is thought rich; if less than ⅛ oz. it is
+very poor; sometimes, however, ½ lb. of gold even is
+found to 100 poods of sand. The overseer has next
+to calculate whether it will pay to work the mine.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_86" href="#Footnote_8_86" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>If, when all things are calculated, the land promises
+to pay, he sticks up two posts, one on each end of
+the area he has chosen, despatches a courier to his
+employer, and the place is registered at once by the
+commissary of police or other competent authority
+from the local Direction of Mines. The area is then
+thoroughly surveyed by a Government surveyor, who
+makes a map of the spot, and, when all is secured to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span>
+the finder, the proprietor can at once borrow money
+on the security of his mine, paying at the rate of from
+20 to 30 per cent., according as money is scarce or
+plentiful. Many capitalists, content with this interest,
+employ all their money in this way.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_87" href="#Footnote_9_87" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>The next thing is to build the necessary houses and
+barracks for the future manager of the mine and his
+workmen, the number of which may vary from 10 to
+2,000. Provisions and fuel provided, then the digging
+begins about the middle of February, and the washing
+about the 1st of May, the operations being over on the
+10th of September, or, if the weather be unusually fine,
+on the 1st of November. When a mine has been registered,
+it <em>must</em> be worked to some extent, or it is forfeited
+to the Crown. The owner, however, may sell it
+if he pleases, but it must not remain idle.</p>
+
+<p>It was to a mine that had been opened the same
+year that we were to start from Krasnoiarsk. It was
+called the Archangel Gabriel mine, and was situated
+on the river Slisneva, at a spot nearly 30 miles from
+the Yenesei. Our worthy doctor arrayed himself for
+the occasion in the costume of a Tyrolese hunter, with
+a double gun over his shoulders, a revolver and bowie-knife
+in his belt, and a huntsman’s horn; for he hoped,
+he said, that we might chance to meet with a bear—a
+hope that I cannot say was shared by all the party. I
+know at least of one who hoped we should <em>not</em> meet
+with a bear. However, it was by no means unlikely,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span>
+and I accordingly armed Mr. Interpreter with our
+revolver. Madame Peacock wore a black velvet hat,
+a magenta chemisette, a brown tweed tunic, black
+knickerbockers, and top boots; and thus, with a few
+provisions, we started in the afternoon to cross the
+Yenesei to the village of Basaïka. The water was
+more than 20 feet higher than it had risen for 30 years,
+the ferry had been washed away, and the force of the
+stream carried down our boat a good mile ere we
+reached the opposite bank; and then, after wading
+through a great deal of mud and water, in doing
+which we learned to appreciate high boots, we reached
+the village, and took refreshment before mounting
+our steeds. We then advanced in single file from
+the village through the cultivated bottom-land, and
+afterwards through much grass, that was very like
+penetrating a forest of herbs, to which our horses
+took kindly, for they had scarcely to stoop their heads
+to nibble their fodder. Although the summer was
+young, there were to be seen the acacia in blossom,
+currants, and raspberries; and among flowers, the
+bitter vetch, the spiræa, anemones, Flora’s bell, high
+pæonies, aconite, or wolf’s bane, and large dragon-mouths;
+also abundance of ferns, among them one
+strongly resembling the <i lang="la">Osmunda regalis</i>, and the
+magnificent <i lang="la">Struthiopteris germanica</i>, which attains
+to gigantic growth in Siberia; and even the trunks
+of the trees and the granite rocks were covered with
+a rich variety of lichens and verdant mosses.</p>
+
+<p>Thus far, therefore, everything was going well. The
+evening was delightful, and all were in excellent spirits.
+Soon, however, our guide turned into the forest, and
+we had before us the first of two mountains over whose
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span>
+backs we were to climb, thinking to reach our destination
+by nightfall. At this point we began to get some
+idea of what is meant by “the forest primeval,” for
+sometimes the way was all but impassable by reason
+of masses of shattered-down dry wood; now our
+horses stepped over fallen trees, and now waded knee-deep
+up the beds of rivulets; in some places we met
+with snow-white skeletons of dead trees with branching
+arms; in others the way, indicated by notches on the
+trees, had been cut with an axe.</p>
+
+<p>As we mounted higher and higher, we had before us
+a fine, bold, rocky mountain, lit up with the sinking
+sun. My companions called to me to look back, and
+we had a splendid view of the noble Yenesei at sunset,
+of its verdant bottom-lands on either side, its impetuous
+stream, and magnificent forests.</p>
+
+<p>We then prepared for our first descent. But it became
+dusk, and the overshadowing trees made our
+difficulty the greater. My horse, however, seemed to
+know so well what he was about, that I was minded to
+keep my seat and hope for the best. But when all my
+companions, including Madame and the guide, had
+dismounted, and advised me to do the same if I valued
+my neck, I followed suit till the valley was reached.
+We then remounted for a short distance, by which
+time it was quite dark, and for a short space some of
+the party were lost to the others. All came right,
+however, towards midnight, when we saw afar off the
+glimmering of a candle. This we hailed with a lusty
+blast of the doctor’s horn, thinking to awake the inhabitants.
+Our coming had not been expected, but
+letters from the owners of the mine secured us attention,
+and such hospitality as the place afforded. “Let
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span>
+us have the samovar,” said the doctor; “and bring a
+good large one, please, for we shall empty it.”</p>
+
+<p>And he was true to his word; for although they
+brought a twenty-glass samovar, it went out empty.
+Russians, however, be it remembered, think nothing
+of drinking from eight to a dozen glasses of tea, and
+we were in need of refreshment!</p>
+
+<p>Then came the question of sleep. They had but
+one room to offer us. Madame, therefore, lay on what
+might be called by courtesy a sofa. The bedstead was
+politely given to me, and the doctor and interpreter
+lay on the floor. Thus we managed to rest till about
+five in the morning, when we were called. Our toilets
+had to be speedily arranged, and our faces washed with
+a handful or two of water outside the door, for there
+was no sort of washing apparatus to be seen. After
+some tea and rusks, we started to witness the working
+of the gold-mine.</p>
+
+<p>I had seen the Swedish iron-mines of Dannemora,
+and had gone down a copper-mine in the Urals; but the
+gold-mine was something new. There was no underground
+work going on, and no digging of holes and
+sending up the earth to be washed; but the whole
+surface had been laid bare. Hence the work resembled
+that of English navvies making a cutting. There were
+a number of small carts drawn by Siberian horses, and
+men with pickaxes and shovels filling them. When
+full, the carts were drawn up an incline to a platform,
+and emptied into one end of a large iron cylinder,
+resembling a coffee-roaster, with holes all round it.
+This was made to rotate by water-power, and the
+large stones and pebbles were, by the formation and
+turning of the cylinder, tumbled out at the end. Here
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">[222]</span>
+they were duly watched, so that no nuggets should be
+overlooked. At the same time several streams of water
+were poured into the cylinder, and the earth and small
+pebbles, passing through the holes, fell into a long
+wooden apron, inclined at an angle of 35°, with moveable
+boxes or “pockets.”</p>
+
+<p>In order that we might see how the gold was washed,
+the manager caused some of these pockets to be emptied
+on to an inclined plane of clean wood, raised at either
+side, and over which ran equably and slowly a stream
+of clear water. One of the pockets (called <i lang="ru">dundofka</i>)
+was then emptied on the higher part of the plane, and
+the water soon washed away the mud, the man who
+performed the washing having a wooden scraper, like
+that of a scavenger, with which he pushed back the
+descending grains of gold. This was repeated till
+six poods, or say 200 lbs., of washed earth had been
+placed on the board. After the mud and sand had
+been allowed to roll away, a brush was used instead of
+the scraper, and there remained behind perhaps a small
+teaspoonful of gold-dust, or as much as was roughly
+valued at from 40<i>s.</i> to 50<i>s.</i> The gold was then placed
+in a miniature frying-pan, and held over a small fire to
+dry, after which it was put into what resembled a
+“poor-box.” This was done in the presence of a
+Government official, of whom there is always one at
+every mine, and who is usually a Cossack officer.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_88" href="#Footnote_10_88" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">[223]</span></p>
+
+<p>The gold thus gained is eventually poured into bags
+of coarse linen, which, after having been stamped with
+the brand of the mine, are sewn in leather sacks&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11_89" href="#Footnote_11_89" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> and
+taken to Irkutsk or Barnaul, where it is assayed; and
+afterwards there is deducted the tax of from 5 to 10
+per cent., according to the quantity. Gold assignats
+are given in exchange, payable in six months, or they
+may be cashed at the Government bank at a discount
+of 7 per cent. per annum. Thus all the gold found in
+the country is claimed by the Government, and it is
+unlawful for any person to have gold-dust in his
+possession unknown to the authorities.</p>
+
+<p>After we had seen the manner of washing the gold
+we walked into the barracks, the hospital, stables, and
+the houses for the 200 or 300 workmen. I have
+spoken of the hardships that are endured by a prospecting
+party. Yet, despite all their privations and
+dangers, there is never a lack of persons who volunteer
+their services to wealthy projectors, for they receive
+large wages. The overseer who discovers the mine
+generally stipulates that he shall receive from 1 to 5 per
+cent. on the yield; and the percentage given to some
+of the others on a lucky find is very liberal. The
+ordinary labourers, too, such as we saw, are well paid.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">[224]</span>
+Among them, of course, is a great variety of races and
+people. There meet at the mines the nobleman and
+the Siberian peasant; the former officer of the army
+and the pardoned convict; the Pole, the German, the
+Tatar, and numberless others, who work in common, now
+freezing in the icy blasts of winter, and now scorching
+in the heat of the summer sun. They work intensely
+hard (sometimes from 3 a.m. to 7 p.m.), and observe no
+Sundays or saints’ days, excepting that of the patron
+saint of the mine. But in most cases they have wholesome
+food, warm quarters, and attention in sickness.</p>
+
+<p>Some of them, however, run away. It happens
+occasionally that a man may have secreted gold, with
+which he gets off as early as possible; and some, not
+reckoning aright the difficulties of travelling so far
+alone, have been found starved, the useless gold clutched
+in the grasp of lifeless fingers. We found some attention
+paid to what might be called the fanaticism of the
+Mohammedan workmen; the Tatars being placed
+alone, and convenience being afforded them to cook
+their food in their own way. A separate barrack, too,
+was assigned to married men with their wives. Over
+an outdoor fire hung a large caldron, big enough to
+boil a donkey—the largest I had ever seen. This, I
+presumed, was for cooking the meat; and in the bake-house
+we saw abundance of rye bread, of which some
+of the men eat 7 lbs. in a day. Their beverages are tea
+and quass. It is forbidden by law to sell spirituous
+liquors at the mines. Only the managers have the right
+to keep them in their possession, though this sensible
+regulation is often evaded by contrabandists.</p>
+
+<p>When the 10th of September arrives, and the workmen
+receive their pay, they break forth into the wildest
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">[225]</span>
+excesses. Before leaving the mine, each labourer gets
+a ticket, setting forth what he is to receive, which may
+vary from £20 to £50. This ticket he has to present
+some miles away at his employer’s office, and there,
+awaiting him outside, are merchants and dealers, who
+manage soon to empty his pockets. He too frequently
+begins by drinking; and then the man who has toiled
+harder than a slave for months is often at a loss to know
+upon what objects and follies to lavish his money.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Wiggins says that he never witnessed among
+the Siberian miners, such scenes of depravity and disorder
+as may be witnessed among the Australian and
+Californian miners, or even, at times, in the low streets
+of English seaport towns. Another Englishman, however,
+has told me a different story, to the effect that
+one miner, for instance, will take a common woman
+and clothe her in satin and velvet, and then, a week
+after, when money is gone, will tear the clothes from
+her back to raise capital for drink. Another, of a vain
+turn of mind, buys bottles of champagne, and sticks
+them up in a row to throw stones at; a third will buy
+a piece of printed cotton, or other material, lay it
+down in the dirty road, and, to indulge his aristocratic
+tread, will walk on it; whilst a fourth, despising to be
+drawn by horses, will yoke to his <i lang="ru">telega</i> his fellow-fools
+who have spent their money, and so be drawn by
+human beings. The end of this, of course, is that
+their money is speedily gone; and now comes the
+opportunity of the masters for the following year, since
+they know that they shall want the men again, and
+labour is scarce. Employers, therefore, advance them
+money, and the poor sots start off to walk, perhaps,
+500 miles to their homes or friends, where, having
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">[226]</span>
+arrived, they must needs return in a few months to
+begin the labours of another season.</p>
+
+<p>The managers of mines, some of whom make £1,000
+a year, congregate in the winter in the towns, where
+much drinking and card-playing goes on. If capitalists
+are fortunate, they can make and keep large fortunes.
+Two gold-seekers in Krasnoiarsk are reputed to have
+found, in about 10 years, 1,000 poods of gold, of the
+value, say, of £2,000,000 sterling. We dined at the
+house of one of these men.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_12_90" href="#Footnote_12_90" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>But to return to the Archangel Gabriel mine. After
+we had looked at the buildings, and seen what else
+there was of interest, we returned to a breakfast of
+beefsteaks, left some books for the workmen, and then,
+mounting our steeds, returned towards Krasnoiarsk;
+and, seeing that four persons similarly attired might
+not meet again for awhile, I proposed that, on reaching
+the town, we should be photographed in a group. This
+was done; and so ended one of the pleasantest <i lang="fr">détours</i>
+of our journey.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_79" href="#FNanchor_1_79" class="label">[1]</a> East of Lake Baikal are many mines on various rivers, such as the
+Nertcha, the Ingoda, and the Onon. Another famous river is the Olekma;
+whilst the Amur produces so much of the precious metal that the yield of
+some of its valleys is fabulous. I heard, near Albazin, concerning the
+Upper Amur Gold-mining Company, that for the past ten years they had
+washed 150 poods of gold annually, which, reckoned at £2,000 a pood—its
+price during the year of my visit—gives a product of £3,000,000. Also on
+the Vitim, during the summer of 1878, from 300 to 400 poods, I was told,
+had been extracted, which represent from £600,000 to £800,000 sterling.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_80" href="#FNanchor_2_80" class="label">[2]</a> Any one, indeed, may go into the uninhabited <i lang="ru">taiga</i> to seek for
+gold (as the hunter may penetrate the same dismal region in search of
+game), provided, that is, he have a certificate from the mining officers,
+which he may get by giving proofs of good citizenship from the local
+authorities among whom he resides. He is then at liberty, when he has
+found gold, to hire the land from the Government for the purposes of
+mining.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_81" href="#FNanchor_3_81" class="label">[3]</a> A party of this kind will go where, perhaps, the foot of man
+has never trodden. Fortunate is the <i lang="ru">tayoshnik</i> if he have by his side
+a faithful native who can direct; otherwise he throws himself into a
+labyrinth of small valleys and hills, intersected in all directions by
+rushing mountain streams. He has no path to guide him save the course
+of the rivers, often no compass save the sun, and in this manner he travels—mounted,
+perhaps, on a small Siberian pony, or, in the far north, on
+the back of a reindeer. In situations where it is impossible for him to
+make use of small sledges drawn by reindeer on the frozen rivers, he has
+to run on snow-shoes, everywhere encountering hardship and dangers,
+with certain death in store for him should he lose his way.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_82" href="#FNanchor_4_82" class="label">[4]</a> Large rivers hardly ever carry gold with them, and when in exceptional
+cases they do, the treasure cannot be recovered, since to turn the
+water from its channel would be too great an expense. The shape of the
+gold grains gives some idea of its previous history and travels. Are
+the particles flat and thin? Then they have been dragged over sand and
+rocks. Are they round like grains? Then they have been in some whirlpool,
+participants in a mad circling dance. Or, once more, are they fine
+dust particles, with here and there a larger piece, or with various minerals
+attached—particularly quartz, their original home? Then in this last
+shape the gold has probably had a comfortable and quiet journey.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_83" href="#FNanchor_5_83" class="label">[5]</a> The <i lang="ru">plasts</i> vary from 3 inches to 15 feet, and their composition varies
+considerably. Blue clay, coarse sand, quartz, clay-slate, limestone, granite,
+and syenite occur frequently, as well as iron in the most various combinations;
+and, more rarely, ferruginous red clay. This last is very tough,
+and in the rainy season causes the workmen no little difficulty. In return,
+however, it contains a good deal of gold. In the district of the Olekma
+the gold deposit rests on a bed of firm rock.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_84" href="#FNanchor_6_84" class="label">[6]</a> In many localities it is in the cold season only that the trenches can
+be dug with advantage. In summer they would be quickly flooded.
+Even in the winter the water must be fought against, and there are some
+places where the earth is dug out from under frozen rivers.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_85" href="#FNanchor_7_85" class="label">[7]</a> These are the beginning of the so-called gold-<em>mines</em>. The subterranean
+work, which is carried on principally during the winter months, does not
+differ much from the ordinary work of the miner. Poisonous vapours do
+not usually occur, but, when cutting through clay-slate, the presence of
+sulphate of cobalt has sometimes an injurious effect. The passages are
+nine feet wide and high, and two labourers generally work from two to
+three tons of sand per day. The sand thus accumulated during the winter
+is thrown up into heaps and washed in the summer.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_86" href="#FNanchor_8_86" class="label">[8]</a> He must reckon the quantity of earth and rubbish to be removed
+before he gets to the gold sand, also the number of labourers necessary
+to be brought to the place, and food to keep them; and, further, he
+must consider what will be the summer level of the stream on which his
+claim lies, because without the proper supply of water the machinery
+cannot be set in motion, and to put up an artificial water conduit would
+be too expensive.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_87" href="#FNanchor_9_87" class="label">[9]</a> An area consists of a piece of land about 3½ miles long, the breadth
+being determined by the distance between the two mountains in which
+the gold-seam lies. This is generally from 500 to 1,000 feet. No one
+can occupy more than three consecutive miles; but a wife, a friend, or
+partner, having a certificate, may take the adjoining three miles, and then
+the three miles below may be taken, and so on to any extent.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_88" href="#FNanchor_10_88" class="label">[10]</a> It is his duty to supervise the washing of the gold, which is placed in
+a coffer, locked by the proprietor, and sealed by the Government agent,
+the quantity of gold washed at each operation being entered in a register.
+If they find a quarter of an ounce of gold to a ton and a half of sand, then
+200 men can wash from four to five pounds of gold a day. I heard, however,
+of a mine to the south of Yeneseisk, where they usually found from
+15 to 20 lbs., and sometimes even up to 36 lbs. a day. Gold thus found
+is not always pure, but is frequently mixed with magnetic iron, which is
+drawn off by a magnet. Nor is the metal all of the same colour. In some
+places it is found very dark, and often still covered by a crust of oxide of
+iron; in other places it is of a very light colour, and contains silver.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_89" href="#FNanchor_11_89" class="label">[11]</a> Each bag contains about 50 lbs. of gold. Two of these, further protected
+by a covering of thick felt, constitute the load for one horse. To
+the two bags are fastened a long cord and a piece of dry wood, so that, in
+the event of the horses’ burdens being washed away while crossing a
+swollen river, the floating wood would indicate the whereabouts of the
+sunken treasure. In the middle of June, or at the end of the season, the
+departure of loads of gold from the mine is accompanied with pistol-firing
+and the booming of cannon, and cheers and blessings bid the caravan <i lang="fr">bon
+voyage</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12_90" href="#FNanchor_12_90" class="label">[12]</a> There are, or were, some rich gold-mine proprietors at Kiakhta. One
+firm there, consisting of three partners, washed in one year enough gold
+to give a net profit of £600,000; they expected the year after to make
+£1,000,000; and the Government surveyor calculated that at that rate the
+mine would last 50 years. Thus many fortunes are realized in Siberia;
+but hardly a month passes without chronicling some one’s ruin, which
+may often be attributed to the fast life and gaming propensities of the
+miners. Hence, although between the years 1833 and 1870 about 30,000
+poods of gold were sent out of Eastern Siberia alone, to the value of
+£50,000,000, the finding of which gave employment in some years to
+upwards of 30,000 workmen, yet it will be seen from the foregoing that
+this great wealth has not proved an unmixed blessing, for the discovery
+of a gold-mine never brings to it a population permanently thriving and
+industrious.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">[227]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XX">
+    CHAPTER XX.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>FROM KRASNOIARSK TO ALEXANDREFFSKY.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Situation of Krasnoiarsk.—Our hotel.—Dr. Peacock.—Visit to prison,
+hospital, and madhouse.—Cathedral.—Drive in “Rotten Row.”—Shoeing
+horses.—Bible affairs at Krasnoiarsk.—Consignment to
+Governor for provinces of Yeneseisk and Yakutsk.—Departure from
+Krasnoiarsk.—Change of scenery.—Kansk <i lang="ru">Okrug</i>.—Our arrival
+anticipated.—Visit to Ispravnik.—Statistics of crime.—The Protopope
+of Kansk.—Parochial information.—Demand for Scriptures.—A
+travelling companion.—Further posting help.—Butterflies and
+mosquitoes.—Nijni Udinsk.—Telma factory.—A <i lang="fr">détour</i>.—Alexandreffsky.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>Siberia</span>, immense as it is, has only 17 towns with
+a population of more than 5,000 inhabitants, and
+of these large towns Krasnoiarsk, with a population of
+13,000, is a fair specimen. It derives its name from
+the Russian words <i lang="ru">krasnoi</i>, red, and <i lang="ru">yar</i>, a cliff, in
+allusion to the red-coloured marl of the banks on
+which the town is situated; its houses being built on
+the tongue of land at the confluence of the Yenesei
+and the Kacha. On the south the plain stretches
+away for nine versts, and on the south-west a range
+of blue hills is descried, which betray their rocky character
+by sharp and picturesque outlines. The opposite
+bank, too, of the Yenesei has, amidst forest
+scenery, some fine rocks, one of which, of curious
+formation, called the Tokmak, rises to the dignity of
+a mount. The Siberians, therefore, are justified, to a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">[228]</span>
+considerable degree, in claiming for Krasnoiarsk that
+it is picturesquely situated. It was certainly the prettiest
+spot we had thus far seen; and since we made there
+some pleasant acquaintances, and received much kindness
+from the people, it naturally lingers in the memory
+as one of the bright spots of our journey.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_91" href="#Footnote_1_91" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Having arrived early on the morning of the 24th
+June, we drove to what is called an hotel, kept by
+one “Shlyaktin,” where we engaged the best room
+in the house for two shillings a day, with two bedsteads,
+for which, as usual in Russia, we provided our
+own pillows and linen. Other things were proportionately
+cheap: turkeys 3<i>s.</i> a pair; a whole calf, nine
+months old, from 3<i>s.</i> to 4<i>s.</i>; geese from 1<i>s.</i> 8<i>d.</i> to 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>
+a couple; but pheasants, brought hundreds of miles
+from Tashkend, cost 6<i>s.</i> a brace.</p>
+
+<p>We had not entered many minutes before several
+beggars came to the window to solicit alms, which
+seemed to be their method of honouring all newcomers;
+and if they received anything they crossed
+themselves, and no doubt blessed us.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_92" href="#Footnote_2_92" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>Krasnoiarsk boasts of a Lutheran chapel, though it
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">[229]</span>
+is without a resident pastor. We made it our business
+to go there first, thinking to find a catechist, Mr.
+Adamson, for whom we had a letter. He was away,
+however, and was represented by an old German
+woman. Whether she recognized in us kindred spirits,
+I know not, but she cried as she shook our hands and
+bade us God-speed.</p>
+
+<p>We then accompanied Dr. Peacock, who took us
+first to see the prison,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_93" href="#Footnote_3_93" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> and afterwards the large
+hospital, through which pass annually about 2,500
+patients. A part of it serves as a madhouse, in which
+were 48 inmates, 42 of whom were exiles, 28 being
+pronounced incurable. From inquiries I made, I did
+not gather that medical opinion went so far as to say
+that banishment drove people mad; but it seemed
+that many so afflicted were exiled as prisoners who
+ought rather to have been in lunatic asylums as idiots;
+such, for instance, was the case of one man who had
+been sent to Siberia for setting houses on fire, and
+who, on arriving, repeated his offence, saying that he
+did it “for fun.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_94" href="#Footnote_4_94" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">[230]</span></p>
+
+<p>The hospital building had been originally erected as
+a private residence by a rich gold-seeker.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_95" href="#Footnote_5_95" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> How far,
+in its altered condition, the house suits the purpose
+of a hospital, I could not judge; for in Russia they have
+a habit, in summer, of turning the patients out under
+temporary sheds and tents whilst the buildings are being
+repaired for the winter; and this was the state of affairs
+at Krasnoiarsk during our inspection. But I am afraid
+the building is not all that could be desired. At Tomsk
+we had seen a summer tent-hospital for 20 men with
+typhus fever.</p>
+
+<p>Krasnoiarsk has a cathedral, presided over by the
+Bishop of Yeneseisk, and four or five churches, one
+of which was built at a cost of £70,000 by a rich
+gold-seeker, by name, I think, Kusnitzoff, which, be
+it known to English readers, means “Smith.” We
+made the acquaintance of two of his daughters during
+our voyage on the Obi. They had been spending the
+winter in Petersburg, and were then travelling a
+distance of 3,000 miles to spend the summer in Siberia.
+This was their usual practice. One of these ladies
+had travelled to England, had even crossed the Atlantic
+to America, and we were glad to renew our acquaintance
+at Krasnoiarsk. Theirs was one of the best of
+the private houses, on entering which a broad flight
+of steps led to the upper storey, where was a drawing-room,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">[231]</span>
+or rather a ball-room, containing two grand
+pianos, the walls being hung with European oil-paintings,
+and where, among other curiosities, we were
+shown three nuggets of gold, each of which must have
+weighed several pounds, but serving no purpose but to
+be looked at, save that a natural indentation in one
+had been used on certain grand occasions as a cigar-boat.
+In front of the house was an enclosure, full of
+shrubs, dahlias, and flowers; but it was manifest that
+horticultural operations were carried on with difficulty.
+The Siberians do more with flowers in their rooms, thus
+adding much to their beauty.</p>
+
+<p>We dined at this house, and afterwards were taken
+for a drive. The plain running south of the town is
+the “Rotten Row” of Krasnoiarsk; and here we saw
+a fair Amazon, of good position, and the mother, by-the-bye,
+of three children, with hair cut short behind,
+sitting astride her horse, in knickerbockers and high
+boots. It was the only instance we saw of this, however;
+and further east, on the Amur, I met with a
+lady in a riding-habit that would have been becoming
+enough even in Hyde Park.</p>
+
+<p>We drove some distance up the bank of the Yenesei,
+intending to visit a monastery a few miles distant, but
+were stopped by the unusual height of the floods,
+and returned to pass through the two handsome
+squares in the middle of the town, and the smaller
+streets which cross the principal roads at right angles.
+We passed a public garden, also given by Mr. Kusnitzoff
+to the town. We walked there in the evening,
+leaving the carriages at the gates, as did several fashionables,
+and found inside a place for refreshments, rooms
+for cards, and a promenade. As we strolled about
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">[232]</span>
+among the trees and shrubs I asked how long they
+had been there, and found they were self-planted, and
+that the garden was an adaptation from nature. Close
+at hand were blacksmiths’ forges, where they were
+shoeing horses in a curious manner.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_96" href="#Footnote_6_96" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>Before leaving our lady friends, their hospitality took
+a very practical turn, as Siberian hospitality generally
+does, for they gave us some excellent fresh butter and
+a jar of marmalade. Both these were of great value,
+and I was particularly thankful to get the latter. In
+order to prevent the possibility of being reduced to black
+bread between Krasnoiarsk and Irkutsk, we ordered to
+be baked a pile, three feet high, of large, flat, white
+loaves, with a little butter added to prevent their getting
+dry; and these lasted us for 600 miles.</p>
+
+<p>I was anxious to open at Krasnoiarsk a depôt or
+an agency for the sale of the Scriptures, and, with that
+intent, presented an introduction at the shop of one
+of the principal tradesmen. We found a large store
+full of all manner of wares, among which, however,
+it was difficult to see anything small that was particularly
+Siberian, though I bought a string of beads, worn
+round the neck by Russian peasant girls, called a
+<i lang="ru">gaitan</i>. Unfortunately the merchant was away, and
+I could not hear of another house of business suitable
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">[233]</span>
+for what I wanted. Dr. Peacock, however, seemed to
+feel so strongly the importance of making the most of
+an opportunity to get the Scriptures circulated in the
+neighbourhood that he purchased 250 copies, intending
+to dispense them far and near. I gave him also a
+supply of reading matter for his hospital patients.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_97" href="#Footnote_7_97" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>Having thus spent four agreeable days at the capital
+of the Yeneseisk province, we left on the evening of
+the 27th June, with a journey before us of 600 miles to
+Irkutsk.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_98" href="#Footnote_8_98" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> We met with an early adventure on reaching
+the opposite bank of the river; for we had omitted
+to get a special note from the post-master, without
+which the post-boys, waiting with their horses, would
+not take us on. Mr. Interpreter, therefore, at a cost
+of 8<i>s.</i>, and not without danger, had to spend half the
+night in recrossing the river and returning, whilst I
+“camped out” alone in the tarantass on the river’s
+bank. I was so stiff and tired, however, with the
+previous night’s journey to the gold-mine, that I slept
+soundly till, at early dawn, horses were procured, and
+we jogged onwards.</p>
+
+<p>We had now entered a land of valleys and hills
+instead of a country of marshes or plains, and the
+scenery improved vastly. Not so, however, the roadside
+fare; for milk was less abundant, and consequently
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">[234]</span>
+we could not so easily get curds or such diet, nor
+even milk to drink. But we were so anxious to get
+forward that we became somewhat impatient of the
+long time spent in heating the <i lang="ru">samovar</i> and preparing
+for a meal. The consequence was that if, on arriving
+at a station, horses were to be had at once, we did as
+best we could about food, eating in the tarantass as we
+went along, and sometimes not having more than one
+“square meal” a day.</p>
+
+<p>For a time we travelled well. We continued to go
+up and down hills, some of which we estimated at
+about 500 feet in height; and though there was usually
+a sufficiency of horses, yet for the first two stages they
+failed us. We paid a little more than post fares, and
+hired private steeds instead. The peasants sometimes
+took advantage of the occasion, when post-horses failed,
+to ask double fares; but as this exorbitant demand
+amounted to only about 2<i>d.</i> a mile for each horse,
+it seemed better to do this for a stage than to be
+detained, perhaps for several hours, and then to get
+tired animals.</p>
+
+<p>Having left Krasnoiarsk late on Friday night, we
+reached Kansk in good time on Sunday morning,
+where we spent the rest of the day, considerably
+fatigued with the combined effect of the recent horse-riding,
+tarantass driving, and insufficient rest and food.
+Kansk is the chief town of an <i lang="ru">okrug</i>, or district, and
+the residence of an intelligent <i lang="ru">Ispravnik</i>; and, as it
+possessed a small prison and hospital, we washed,
+dressed in our “Sunday best,” and called upon this
+dignitary to present our letters. He told us, to our
+surprise, that he had received a telegram the day
+before from the acting Governor-General of Irkutsk,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">[235]</span>
+directing him to help us forward as much as possible;
+and consequently he had sent east and west to all the
+stations in his district—a distance of nearly 200 miles—telling
+them to let us have horses quickly. We
+were rather at a loss to account for such unexpected
+kindness, and the more so as the Ispravnik thought
+the instructions had originally been sent from Petersburg.
+It served, however, to remind us that we were
+not lost sight of at head-quarters. The Ispravnik
+accompanied us to the prison, in which were 146
+prisoners in 29 rooms, which had a Sunday look about
+them. Things were brushed up and “settled,” as a
+housekeeper would say, and we distributed papers to
+the prisoners to read. We also gave the Ispravnik
+some copies of the New Testament and other reading
+material for the prison, for the town hospital, and for
+the schools of the neighbourhood; after which he
+invited us to his house to drink tea.</p>
+
+<p>His wife was a German, which accounted for certain
+foreign tastes visible about the room, and for some of
+the pictures. We learned that the Ispravnik holds
+a similar position in his district or <i lang="ru">okrug</i>, or circle,
+that a Governor does in his province,—the pay of an
+Ispravnik being from £100 to £150 per annum; that
+of a Governor from £600 to £1,000 per annum; and
+of a Governor-General about £3,000, the latter two
+having also furnished houses. The <i lang="ru">okrug</i> of Kansk
+was 200 miles in diameter, and had a population of
+40,000, with upwards of 900 miles of roads. These
+were kept in order by 9,000 men, each of whom was
+responsible for 90 fathoms of way; and it is only fair
+to say that we found the roads of Yeneseisk the best
+in Siberia. Nearly all the crime in the district, we
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">[236]</span>
+were told, is traceable to drink; and that which ended
+in murder commonly arose from love affairs.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_99" href="#Footnote_9_99" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>Prisoners of all sorts were allowed to hold correspondence
+with their friends; but the prison chief, or
+the Ispravnik, might object to any part of what was
+written, and send it back to the writer, though even
+then the latter might appeal to the Governor-General.
+Letters usually came, we found, by every post, so that
+the prisoners evidently availed themselves to a considerable
+extent of their privilege.</p>
+
+<p>After leaving the Ispravnik, we called on the Protopope,
+or head priest of the place. His house had a
+superior look about it, and so had the Protopope himself.
+He gave us a hearty reception, and we asked a
+few questions concerning his parish. It appeared that
+he had 2,000 parishioners, living in Kansk and four
+surrounding villages. He thought about 100 could
+read, and for these he very readily accepted papers
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">[237]</span>
+and tracts. He had an elementary boys’ school, which
+was supported by the community, the scholars paying
+nothing. I asked about his congregations, and found
+that from 300 to 400 usually came to church on Sundays,
+but that on festivals the number rose to 1,000 or 1,500,
+and of these about 300 or 400 in the course of the year
+received the Communion.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_100" href="#Footnote_10_100" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p>This chief pastor of the place told us he had often
+bestowed books on the prisoners, but that the books
+had disappeared. He gave us some idea of the desire
+there is for the Scriptures in remote parts of Siberia,
+by saying that on one occasion he bought 200 New
+Testaments and took them to Minusinsk, where he sold
+them in a single day at a rouble each.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11_101" href="#Footnote_11_101" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p>In further illustration of the demand for Scriptures
+in this part of the country, I may mention that, on the
+way from Tomsk, I made it a practice to go into the
+post-stations; and whilst my companion was arranging
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">[238]</span>
+about the horses, I took some pamphlets and Scriptures,
+and, having nailed up an illustration of the “Prodigal
+Son,” I next distributed some tracts, saying, as I did so,
+“<i lang="ru">darom</i>,” which means “gratis”; and then, showing a
+New Testament, I said “<i lang="ru">dvatzat-piat kopeck</i>,” which
+means 25 kopecks; or I showed a copy of the Gospels,
+and said “<i lang="ru">dve-natzat kopeck</i>,” or 12 kopecks. Usually
+this offer was jumped at; sometimes three or four were
+bought by one person; and it not unfrequently happened
+that the first purchaser would run off to tell others of
+his good fortune, and bid them lose no time in following
+his example. This was usually done whilst the horses
+were being changed; but if we stopped for a meal, and
+it was noised abroad in the village that tracts were
+being given away, we were taken by storm, and sometimes
+could hardly eat in peace for the numbers who
+came to ask for our gifts.</p>
+
+<p>We had barely reached the post-station, after seeing
+the priest, before he came driving close on our heels
+for his return visit. He wore the violet velvet hat of
+a protopope, was dressed in a black silk cassock, with a
+gold chain and crucifix about his neck, and with a loose
+white overcoat to protect him from the dust of the
+road. He cordially wished us success in our work,
+and asked us to call again on our homeward journey.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">[239]</span>
+We then went to the evening service in his church,
+after which the Ispravnik and his wife came to return
+our call, bringing with them their son, a boy of 13
+years of age, who was to go to a military school at
+Irkutsk. The father said that he did not like to send
+him with just any one, but that he should be thankful
+to be allowed to place the boy under my care, offering
+at the same time to pay the cost of one horse to Irkutsk,
+which amounted to 25 roubles.</p>
+
+<p>It is a common thing in Siberian travel, when one
+person does not wish to occupy the whole of his vehicle,
+to share the expense with a fellow-passenger. I therefore
+consented, and stowed the boy away among the
+tracts and books in the second tarantass, where he
+seemed happy enough. His joining us was rather a
+help, for his father gave us an open letter to all the post-masters
+of his district, requesting them, if there were
+not a sufficiency of post-horses, to hire some immediately
+from the peasants. He also added a <i lang="ru">blanco</i> letter, which
+enabled us, in case of need, to take those reserved at the
+post-stations for the use of the Ispravnik or his police.
+This is called, I believe, “<i lang="ru">Zemski</i>” post, applying only
+to Siberia, and the horses of which, when not wanted,
+are sometimes lent to private travellers.</p>
+
+<p>The combined result of these letters was that we
+got on famously, and occasionally made 200 versts in
+the 24 hours. This for summer travelling is good—so
+good, in fact, that we hardly wished to do better, as it
+had now become very hot, and the dust of the way
+rendered the journey very fatiguing.</p>
+
+<p>We were still passing through an undulating country,
+with delightful weather; on either side of the way
+grass, and in it grew a large yellow flower, similar in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">[240]</span>
+form to our common white garden lily. On passing
+the frontier from the Yeneseisk to the Irkutsk governments,
+it soon became apparent that our new roads
+were not so good as those we had left behind. We
+crossed many rivers, on the banks of one of which we
+drove through an extraordinary swarm of white butterflies.
+The shrubs in the neighbourhood were evidently
+eaten bare by their <em>larvæ</em>, the <em>imagines</em>, or perfect
+insects, being assembled in troops on the ground. We
+were now drawing near a district famous for a small
+kind of mosquito, the bite of which is very virulent,
+and is so dreaded by the people that the men working
+at the roadside protect themselves about the head with
+horsehair veils. Another place in Siberia famous for
+these insects is the Barabinsky steppe, where horses
+persecuted by them sometimes break loose, and do so
+to certain death. We, however, were not incommoded
+by them.</p>
+
+<p>On the 1st of July the weather was hotter than we
+had hitherto experienced it, and very oppressive, though
+at night it became chilly. The greatest heat registered
+in the province of Irkutsk in 1877 was during the
+month of August, when it rose to 90·3, the greatest
+cold registered being in January, and descending to
+40·2 below zero.</p>
+
+<p>On the second day after leaving Kansk we were
+somewhat hindered by a superabundance of fellow-travellers,
+with whom it was very pleasant to chat over
+a cup of tea in the post-house, though matters were
+not quite so smooth when it was discovered that less
+than the required number of horses were forthcoming,
+and the question arose as to who should be first served.
+At one station we had to stay five hours, yet it is
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">[241]</span>
+only fair to add that, thanks to our excellent recommendations,
+this was the longest delay of the kind that
+fell to our lot. Travellers are sometimes obliged to
+wait a whole day.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the same day, at dusk, we reached
+Nijni Udinsk, and, as there was a small prison in the
+place, I was anxious to give a few books to the
+Ispravnik, and pass on without stopping; the latter,
+however, was away, so we went to his assistant.
+After knocking pretty lustily at his door, a servant
+appeared, who informed us that his master was asleep;
+and to awaken a man out of sleep is in Russia no venial
+sin. An Anglo-Russian friend informs me that she
+has frequently been told, on asking for a servant, that
+he was asleep, and could not be waked, because <em>a
+sleeping man’s soul is before his God</em>! We told this
+servant, however, that we had a letter from Petersburg;
+and before we left the town a messenger came to the
+post-house, giving me the particulars I desired, and
+took back a sufficiency of books for the 98 prisoners
+under detention.</p>
+
+<p>We then started off about midnight, and on the afternoon
+of the following day reached a station called
+Telma, which in previous years has been famous as
+possessing a factory in which cloth, paper, glass, and
+soap were made, besides which they produced rough
+linen woven from Yeneseisk hemp, and dark unbleached
+cloth, spun from the wool of the Buriat sheep. The
+peasants generally make a rough cloth of this last
+material. Manufactures do not flourish in Siberia, as
+the raw material is grown at enormous distances from
+the establishments, and, when manufactured, must often
+be taken enormous distances to be sold; so it is found
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">[242]</span>
+cheaper to buy the goods imported from other countries.
+A suit of tweed clothes costs, I heard, £6 at Krasnoiarsk,
+and on the Amur I met with a gentleman
+ordering his clothes from Petersburg, and having them
+sent by post to Blagovestchensk, a distance of 5,000
+miles. The factory at Telma is still standing, and is
+not absolutely idle, but I gathered that it is not in a
+flourishing condition.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_12_102" href="#Footnote_12_102" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>We were now only about 50 versts from Irkutsk,
+which, under ordinary circumstances, we ought to have
+reached late the same night. Another project had,
+however, entered into my mind. About 70 versts
+north of Irkutsk is the largest prison in Eastern
+Siberia, called the Alexandreffsky Central Prison, the
+normal way of visiting which would have been for us
+to proceed to Irkutsk, present our letters, and so drive
+out and return, making a journey of 90 miles. Hearing
+at Telma that we could reach the place from
+thence in two hours by going across country, spend
+two hours inspecting the prison, and another two hours
+in returning to Telma, I calculated we should get back
+to the main road about midnight, and so reach Irkutsk
+on Saturday afternoon, and be ready for a quiet
+Sunday. The first difficulty in the way was that the
+law permitted no post-horses to be employed off the
+high-roads; but, thanks to the obliging post-master at
+Telma, this obstacle was overcome by his providing
+others, and I determined accordingly to try and save
+time by taking the prison on my way. How much
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">[243]</span>
+was involved in that decision I little thought at the
+moment, but it proved afterwards highly important.</p>
+
+<p>The first object of interest we passed was a large
+salt-factory, which, like that at Telma, had in years
+gone by been worked by convicts under the management
+of the State. This kind of labour is no longer
+enforced there, and free workmen are employed instead.
+These were the only salt-works we heard of in Siberia,
+but we were told of some about 40 miles from Orenburg,
+in the Urals. Leaving the factory behind, we
+struck off through the woods, and were enjoying the
+drive thoroughly when it occurred to our <i lang="ru">yemstchik</i>
+that he had taken the wrong direction. Accordingly,
+he went a long way back, but had to retrace his steps.
+This caused considerable delay, as did the crossing of
+the river Angara. At length, through a forest of pine,
+we reached the summit of a hill, and were able to take
+in at a glance the surroundings of the large prison,
+which we reached at dusk. On the road we met some
+Polish ladies, wives of officials, to whom I explained
+in French our object in coming. The Director, however,
+was gone to Irkutsk, and his deputy said it
+was too late that night, but that we might inspect
+the prison as early as we chose in the morning. I
+therefore named the hour of seven, and went to the
+post-house to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>The keepers of the post-house in this out-of-the-way
+place appeared somewhat perturbed at the arrival
+of visitors who wished to spend the night under their
+roof. However, in this matter Siberian post-masters
+have no choice, for they are bound to find accommodation
+for travellers, and may not charge them for it;
+their profits are the small sums paid for the use of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">[244]</span><i lang="ru">samovar</i>, and for such refreshments as may be provided.
+Our quarters were better and more comfortable
+than usual, as also was our supper, and we lay
+down for a quiet night. Early in the morning the
+officer in charge of the prison came to say that when
+he had made us the promise on the previous evening
+he had intended to telegraph to Irkutsk for permission,
+but that there was a fire in Irkutsk, and telegraphic
+communication was stopped. He must therefore ask
+us to wait until the return of the chief, who was
+expected hourly. Accordingly, on his arrival we were
+conducted to the house of the Director; and though
+he had been travelling all night he received us at once,
+accorded us a hearty reception, and introduced us to
+his wife and friends. He was a Pole—by name Pavolo
+Schwekofsky—and his house was elegantly furnished,
+all his servants, however, being convicts. There was
+an appearance of comfort, not to say of luxury, about
+the place; and he had in a side room a turning-lathe
+and English tools. To this we called attention. “Ah,
+yes,” said he, “we could not do without the English.”
+And then, after drinking a glass of tea, we started to
+see the prison.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p2442_ill" style="max-width: 93.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p2442_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      THE ALEXANDREFFSKY CENTRAL PRISON NEAR IRKUTSK.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_91" href="#FNanchor_1_91" class="label">[1]</a> Owing to the formation of the hills about the town, Krasnoiarsk is more
+than ordinarily favoured with abundance of wind, which in winter blows the
+snow off the ground and stops sledging. One night during our stay it
+rained, and the streets were in a condition next morning such as I have
+never seen before or since. To speak of “puddles” would be a mockery,
+and “ponds” is barely the word to use; whilst to cross the street was to
+run imminent risk of losing one’s boots. Fortunately, however, there
+were droshkies at hand, and in these we waded through water nearly up
+to the horses’ knees.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_92" href="#FNanchor_2_92" class="label">[2]</a> We saw beggars here and at Tomsk, but I do not recollect that they
+were numerous or particularly importunate. The Russians are, however,
+in this sense, very charitable. It is customary not only to give a few
+kopecks to such as these, but also to the old men posted at the entrances
+of the villages, who have charge of the gates placed across the roads to
+keep cattle from straying in or out.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_93" href="#FNanchor_3_93" class="label">[3]</a> It was one of the <i lang="ru">perisylnie</i> character, having 46 wards, and a hospital
+with sixteen rooms. There were 26 murderers in the place, and the
+number of persons committing this crime yearly in the district seemed to
+me, from the round numbers they gave, to be very high. The sentences
+of murderers, they said, varied from five or six to 20 years’ hard labour,
+after which time they were free as exiles. The general arrangements of
+the prison appeared to be fairly good. I thought it clean and well ordered;
+and we were struck, in the bake-house, with the enormous size of their
+loaves of bread, some of them weighing from 40 to 50 lbs.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_94" href="#FNanchor_4_94" class="label">[4]</a> In the Tomsk hospital we had seen two persons mad from the effects
+of alcoholic drink; and I was sorry to hear it asserted afterwards, by a
+Russian medical man, that the proportion of those in Siberia who went
+mad from <i lang="la">delirium tremens</i> was greater than in England; and he
+further remarked of his countrymen, that though for a long time they
+indulge in no intoxicating liquor, yet when they once drink they do so
+furiously. A friend of mine had more than one man-servant who acted
+in this manner. They did <em>not</em> drink for months, and then all of a sudden
+did so without ceasing, and would be mad drunk for a week or ten days.
+At last, exhausted, they slept for a day or two, and woke up abashed,
+promising to do so no more; but, alas! it was only till the next time.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_95" href="#FNanchor_5_95" class="label">[5]</a> It is the same, I suspect, as that mentioned by Mr. Hill in his “Travels
+in Siberia,” 30 years ago, the dimensions of which he gives as 131 feet
+long by 98 broad and 52 high. It is of two storeys, and in Mr. Hill’s time
+was furnished after the most elegant mode of Petersburg. The articles
+brought from that capital alone cost its owner from £6,000 to £7,000.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_96" href="#FNanchor_6_96" class="label">[6]</a> Outside the smithy stood four stout posts, fixed in the ground at the
+four corners, as it were, of an oblong figure, which posts were connected
+at the top by cross-pieces. Into the midst of these the horse was led.
+Girths were then put under him by which he could be all but lifted off the
+ground, suspended to the cross-beams. To prevent his kicking unadvisedly,
+two of his legs were bound with rope to the nearest of the posts;
+and thus rendered helpless, and standing on tiptoe with his remaining legs
+he was shod. They said that Siberian horses are too wild to allow of their
+being treated in English fashion, and it may be so, but the animals seemed
+to be equally averse to the other plan.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_97" href="#FNanchor_7_97" class="label">[7]</a> The Governor was away, but the Vice-Governor informed us that
+there were six prisons in the province, for which we left him upwards of
+200 New Testaments and Scripture portions, and about the same number
+of tracts, papers, and broad-sheets. We subsequently saw the Governor
+at Irkutsk, and I have since heard from him that these Scriptures, etc.,
+have been distributed as I wished, as also a further quantity I left with
+him to be forwarded to the prisons and hospitals of the immense province
+of Yakutsk.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_98" href="#FNanchor_8_98" class="label">[8]</a> Since this chapter was written, Krasnoiarsk has been almost entirely
+destroyed by fire.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_99" href="#FNanchor_9_99" class="label">[9]</a> The statistics of crime in the <i lang="ru">okrug</i>, in the year 1878, revealed that, of
+182 criminals, not one was less than 17 years of age; 26 men and 5 women
+were between 17 and 21; but the greatest number of criminals—63 men
+and 20 women.—were of ages ranging from 21 to 33; after which the numbers
+of men became fewer as they grew older, but there was not a similar decrease
+in the number of older women. Below the ages of 45 and 70 there
+were more women criminals than men. It appeared, too, that there were
+129 married criminals as against 53 unmarried. Again, 112 were of the
+Russian Church, 19 of other Christian denominations, 34 were Jews, and
+17 of other non-Christian religions. Further, 157 were criminals for the
+first offence, 22 for the same offence once repeated, and 3 for the same
+offence twice repeated. This last fact compares favourably with our
+English criminal statistics, which show many who go in and out of prison
+a hundred times. I have spoken elsewhere of the long-period prisoners
+having sometimes to wait in durance for their trial. This may often be
+avoided by furnishing bail. In 1878 there were in Kansk 415 on bail as
+against 96 under detention. Of these, 88 were found innocent, 93 were
+dismissed as “not proven,” and 147 sent elsewhere for trial; whilst of
+those found guilty, 7 only were condemned to the mines, 26 to hard labour
+in prison, and the remaining 149 to a “house of detention.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_100" href="#FNanchor_10_100" class="label">[10]</a> A lady on the Obi told me that all were bound to confess and receive
+the Communion once a year. If any special reason required it, they might
+receive oftener, always confessing, however, beforehand, in a standing
+posture at the side of the priest, and then kneeling at the absolution.
+The priest said that 200 times in the year, at Kansk, children were participants
+in the sacred rite; and in connection with this remark he made
+a curious statement, to the effect that, there being few doctors in the
+district, it was common for mothers, when their babies were ill, to bring
+them to receive the Sacrament, under the impression that it did them
+physical as well as spiritual good. He said, too, that mothers thought
+it their duty to bring their children frequently to Communion till they
+were seven years of age, after which period they came with them once a
+year for confession, communion, and instruction.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_101" href="#FNanchor_11_101" class="label">[11]</a> This compared favourably with the sales at the Bible Society’s depôt
+at Tomsk, which is the only one in Siberia, though I had hoped to be able
+to establish others at Tobolsk, Omsk, Krasnoiarsk, and especially Irkutsk.
+The depôt at Tomsk had been opened about three years, the annual sales
+having amounted to about 300 Bibles, 200 New Testaments, and 500 copies
+of the four Gospels in Sclavonic and Russian. They had also sold a few
+Hebrew Bibles and the Psalms, the latter chiefly in Sclavonic. The
+Protopope said he would gladly become a depositary for the Bible Society;
+and would purchase at once 50 copies from me of the New Testament,
+but Kansk had not been mentioned as one of the places at which a depôt
+was desired. Moreover, I had been instructed, in opening a depôt, to
+require the depositary to sign an agreement to abide by certain terms,
+after which I might take an order to the value of £30. But I did not
+gather that our friend wished altogether to turn merchant; and therefore
+I thought it better to let him have the 50 copies out of hand, rather
+than to put him into more complicated mercantile transactions with
+Petersburg.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12_102" href="#FNanchor_12_102" class="label">[12]</a> Manufacturing industry, properly speaking, has no real importance
+in Siberia, except in distilling from grain and potatoes the alcohol which
+is sold in numberless taverns. Reckoning factories and distilleries together,
+there were, in 1876, according to Réclus, 1,100 factories and 4,000 workmen,
+which produced manufactures to the value of £800,000.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">[245]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXI">
+    CHAPTER XXI.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE ALEXANDREFFSKY CENTRAL PRISON.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Prison wards.—Punishment cells.—Communication with friends.—Nationalities
+of prisoners.—Their work.—Food.—Distribution of
+books.—Our reception.—Lunch.—Departure.—Runaway horses.—An
+accident.—Left alone.—Return to post-house.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>We</span> found the prison a huge building, which had
+been originally erected for a brandy distillery.
+Hence it was, and sometimes still is, called the
+Alexandreffsky <i lang="ru">zavod</i>, or factory. It contained 57
+rooms, in each of which, according to size, were
+placed from 25 to 100 prisoners. We went into
+several of the ordinary wards, and found them lofty,
+but overcrowded. Also, in some of the oblong
+rooms, the inclined platforms for sleeping occupied so
+much space that only a narrow passage was left for
+walking about between them. When we entered such
+wards, therefore, the order was given that the men
+should mount the opposite edges of the platforms, and
+thus we passed to the end of the room and back.
+Further on we came to some small cells, over the
+doors of which was written the word “Secret”; and
+here I thought we might perhaps see something horrible.
+But the thing that struck me as worst about
+them was their smallness; for I should judge they
+could not have measured more than 8 ft. by 6 ft.,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">[246]</span>
+though they were probably more than 12 ft. high.
+These were “punishment” cells; but were far more
+endurable than cells known by that name in some
+of our English gaols, where the prisoner is sometimes
+below the level of the ground, and in a state of total
+darkness, with all sound shut out save the rumbling of
+carriage-wheels in the street. In the Alexandreffsky
+cells there was abundance of light; there was a Russian
+<i lang="ru">petchka</i>, or stove, just outside the door, and it was not
+difficult to imagine that some prisoners might prefer
+solitude under such circumstances to the society of the
+motley crew packed into the larger wards.</p>
+
+<p>There is a room in the building in which prisoners
+are allowed to see their friends, who may come on
+every <i lang="ru">maznik</i>, or fête day, Sundays included, to converse
+for five minutes, and then make way for others.
+If a prisoner has friends, they may bring him food any
+day between 11 and 12 o’clock. So, too, a prisoner
+may write to friends when he pleases, and receive from
+them money up to a rouble a week.</p>
+
+<p>The total number of prisoners in (and I suppose
+about) this place was stated as 1,589; and as they
+were gathered from all parts of the Russian empire,
+the walking through the wards was nothing short of
+an ethnographical study.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the ordinary Slavs of Russia in Europe,
+there were Finns, Poles, Tatars of Kasan, Tatars of
+the Crimea, and Tatars of the Caucasus and Steppes.
+There were Bashkirs from the province of Orenburg,
+where they are breeders of cattle; and the pastoral
+Kirghese, who roam over the steppes north of Persia.
+Tatars were known by their shaved heads and skullcaps,
+and Buriats by their unmistakable Mongolian
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247">[247]</span>
+features. I counted half-a-dozen different nationalities
+in a single room.</p>
+
+<p>One of the worst features in this huge prison I judged
+to be lack of work; for, as we went from room to
+room, we found convicts twirling their thumbs, and
+literally begging for employment. All of them, however,
+were under “hard-labour” sentences, some to
+the mines for twelve years, some to factory-work for
+eight and ten years, and others to <i lang="ru">zavod</i> work for two
+and six years.</p>
+
+<p>We were taken, at length, to see such of them as
+were occupied. We entered a good-sized room, in
+which there might have been 50 men making papers
+for cigarettes, of which they turned out 100,000 a
+week. Prisoners were glad to do this, as they earn a
+little money thereby. A man could manipulate 5,000
+unfinished cases in a day; and three men working
+together very hard could earn 30 kopecks a day, but
+20 kopecks was a fairer average. For a man, however,
+to earn 2½<i>d.</i> a day necessitated his sitting at
+work so closely as to make his chest ache. I am not
+clear whether the machinery and materials for making
+these cigarette-papers belonged to the prisoners, or to
+a merchant in Irkutsk who bought the papers. We
+visited a room or two filled with shoemakers, and
+gold-seekers’ top-boots were shown us of their work.
+These were for sale at 14 shillings the pair. Outside
+the prison a small company of men were seen returning
+from making bricks, which are manufactured for the
+Government, and not for ordinary sale. Each man
+makes on an average about 100 a day. Fifty men,
+they told us, turn out 5,000, between 6 and 11 in the
+morning and 2 and 6.30 in the afternoon, for which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248">[248]</span>
+they get about 10<i>s.</i> There seemed, however, to be
+barely a tenth of the prisoners employed, at which we
+expressed astonishment. The authorities explained it
+by saying that they had no work to give them. This
+comparatively idle life of Siberian prisoners recalled
+what had been told me in Russia, that the Government
+now keep in European prisons many whom, but for
+the scarcity of suitable employment, they would send
+to Siberia; and I ought, perhaps, to add that a number
+of the convicts at Alexandreffsky were there, and had
+been there a long time, awaiting the decision of various
+committees who were considering how the Government
+could best dispose of them, so many of the Siberian
+mines having passed out of Imperial hands.</p>
+
+<p>Whether our visit was too early in the day, or
+whether the prisoners were kept in their rooms for our
+inspection, I know not; but we saw none of them
+lounging in the yards, as in other places. The time
+allowed them for exercise is an hour a day. The
+number we saw wearing chains was comparatively
+small. If the convicts behave well, they are not usually
+kept in fetters, I heard, more than 18 months; and I
+certainly observed that, the further east I went, the
+fewer were the men in irons. We were next conducted
+to the kitchen, where was to be seen, in course of preparation
+for dinner, the uncooked meat, of which each
+man was said to have ½ lb. a day, including bone, and
+a daily allowance of 2¾ lbs. of bread. Near the prison
+is a garden, where some of the prisoners can work,
+and where they grow cucumbers, water-melons, and
+potatoes. A few acres of arable land, cultivated by
+convicts, were pointed out to us; and there was a
+hospital at a short distance, clean and airy, having
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249">[249]</span>
+8 rooms, in which we found 73 patients, many of whom
+were suffering from <i lang="la">scorbutus</i>.</p>
+
+<p>We now entered the office of the prison, and saw
+the books, in one of which were entered four categories
+of punishment, namely, that of mines, hard
+labour, factory employment, and no work, of which
+four the last seemed by far the most prevalent, and I
+think the worst; for not only had the poor fellows
+nothing to do, but they had nothing to read. To
+remedy this was, of course, the chief object of our
+visit; and the director readily entered into my plans
+concerning the books. The men had been asking for
+something to read, he said, only a day or two previously.
+We were glad, therefore, to leave with him
+160 New Testaments and other portions of Scripture
+in half-a-dozen languages, and about 500 tracts and
+periodicals, so that there might be at least a New
+Testament placed in every room.</p>
+
+<p>We were now anxious to depart, but this was not so
+easy; for by this time the officials had begun to realize
+that we had not come as spies or intruders, but that
+we had really a benevolent object in view, though they
+asked sundry questions before they could grasp our
+motives. What could be our object in coming such a
+long distance to visit Siberian prisons, and why should
+I take notes of what we saw? I said something about
+the luxury of doing good to the poor and unfortunate;
+and pointed out that, if I did not make notes of what
+was said, I should forget. “Besides which,” I added,
+“perchance I may some day write about what I have
+seen.” “Oh! then you are travelling for literary purposes,
+that you may bring out a book?” “No,” said
+I; “but for all that I may perhaps write of my
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250">[250]</span>
+travels”; after which there were given me several
+good-sized and well-executed photographs of the prison
+and its surroundings, with the remark, “Who knows?
+the English do such extraordinary things, we may,
+perhaps, see some day an engraving from these photographs
+in the English papers.” But, whatever the
+motive which had brought us, they said it was very
+rare for them to receive such a visit, and they were
+highly gratified at our coming.</p>
+
+<p>The director begged us to favour his wife by staying
+to dinner; and when for want of time I declined, all
+sorts of reasonable and unreasonable inducements were
+urged why I should do so. I remained firm, and we
+were then invited at least to partake of light refreshment
+at the house of the secretary of the prison. We
+there found ourselves in the midst of a family of Poles,
+with some good-looking daughters. The eldest was
+dressed in <i lang="ru">Mala-Russiá</i>, or “Little Russian” costume,
+consisting of a morning dress of washing material,
+trimmed with embroidery of variegated colours, and
+with Russian lace. I admired this, and inquired where
+such embroidery could be purchased. The mother
+gave me a small piece as a specimen, and also presented
+me with a portrait of her daughter photographed
+in the same costume.</p>
+
+<p>The photograph was taken by Malmberg of Irkutsk,
+and I mention it because it has won the unqualified
+admiration of two eminent London photographers,
+who pronounce that, both technically and artistically,
+no better could be seen in any part of the world. It
+is particularly choice, and, as an operator would say,
+“well built up.” The light is good, and the background
+well arranged; and as a piece of artistic
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251">[251]</span>
+workmanship it speaks well for the progress of art in
+Siberia that a photograph from Irkutsk should bear
+comparison with the best the world can produce.</p>
+
+<p>After this quasi-lunch, and the exchange of sundry
+little souvenirs, we departed, hoping to regain the
+high road at Telma in about a couple of hours. We
+had reached the top of the hill, and begun the descent
+through the pine-forest; and the horses were going
+with a run, when one of the reins broke, and the right-wheeler
+began suddenly to run too wide from the
+centre horse. Before the yemstchik could stop his
+team, we came to a pine-tree at the side of the road,
+which the outer horse allowed to come between him
+and his fellow. We were going at a furious pace, and
+the wonder is that the whole concern, including ourselves,
+was not dashed to pieces. As it was, in rushing
+by I thought I saw the horse’s head strike the tree,
+with a force that I expected must have killed it. We
+ran some distance before the remaining horses could
+be stopped, and then the yemstchik went back to find,
+as we feared, another horse dead in our service. To
+our surprise, however, the creature had run away.
+The force with which the tarantass was going had
+broken the remaining rein, had snapped the traces,
+and so allowed us to escape, by a few inches at most,
+a terrible accident.</p>
+
+<p>We had first to search for the missing horse, now
+out of sight; for which purpose the yemstchik mounted
+one of our remaining steeds, and, subsequently, my
+interpreter the other, I being left alone. Presently
+a rough-looking man appeared coming along the road,
+with an extraordinary wallet slung at his side. He
+was curiously ornamented with a profusion of brass
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_252">[252]</span>
+buttons and decorations, some of which would have
+served for the dress of a Tunguse <i lang="ru">shaman</i>. He turned
+out to be a horse-doctor, and not a robber, though he
+naïvely said that when he saw us at first he thought
+<em>we</em> were highwaymen, until the sight of the tarantass
+reassured him.</p>
+
+<p>At length, after having been left about five hours,
+the yemstchik and my companion came back, but
+without the truant horse; so we determined to proceed
+with the two that remained. We accused our
+yemstchik of having been drinking, but he denied it.
+As he went on, however, he grew inconsolable at his
+loss of the horse, and fairly bellowed, saying that he
+feared he should be turned out of his place and be sent
+to prison. He came round gradually, too, to confess
+that, of the shilling I had given him for fodder, he had
+spent twopence in drink; and then to the interpreter,
+who sat on the box to drive, or see that we met with
+no accident, he expressed the hope that the <i lang="ru">barin</i>, or
+gentleman, would “forgive him for being a <em>little</em>
+drunk.”</p>
+
+<p>And so it came to pass that by nightfall we got
+back to Telma, and found our friendly post-master
+about to send in search of us, as he was alarmed at
+our absence of 30 instead of 6 hours. After a good
+meal we left at midnight for Irkutsk, which under
+ordinary circumstances we ought to have reached early
+on the following morning. At one of the stations,
+however, there were no horses, and we had to wait
+four hours, which afterwards proved a mercy, though
+at the time I am afraid I chafed at the delay; so that
+we did not come in view of the city till 10 a.m.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_253">[253]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXII">
+    CHAPTER XXII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>A CITY ON FIRE.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Approach to Irkutsk.—The city entered.—Remains of a fire.—A second
+fire.—Our flight.—Crossing of the Angara.—A refuge.—Inhabitants
+fleeing.—Salvage.—Firemen’s efforts.—Spread of the catastrophe.—Return
+to lodging.—A chapel saved.—Spectacle of fire at night.—Reflections.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>What</span> a vivid recollection I have of the lovely
+morning of that 7th of July! The sun was
+bright and warm, but the air was not yet hot. The
+road lay near the cold and swiftly-flowing Angara, and
+the plains over which we passed were stocked with
+cattle. Before us lay Irkutsk. This city, or perhaps
+Kiakhta, I had thought originally to make the eastward
+limit of our travels. Many friends had prophesied
+that we should never get there. Some said
+that I was undertaking more than I could carry out,
+and others that I should not be permitted by the
+Russians to go so far. A subtle feeling of satisfaction,
+therefore, stole over us as we posted along, and saw
+how soon these prophecies were to be falsified. The
+town, built on a tongue of land, formed by the confluence
+of two rivers, with its dozen churches, domes,
+and spires pointing to heaven, looked extremely pretty;
+and on the hills around, handsome villas, nestling among
+the trees, added not a little to the picturesqueness of
+the scene. The prospect before us, therefore, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254">[254]</span>
+retrospect of what we had done, the pleasant morning,
+and the repose to which we were looking forward, all
+combined to raise our spirits, and cause us to hasten
+onward. Alas! we little knew how speedily the face of
+things would change.</p>
+
+<p>At the ferry was collected a large number of
+common vehicles, before which, however, our post-horses
+took precedence. We speedily crossed, and
+drove through a triumphal arch, erected at the time
+of the annexation of the Amur, and situated at the
+entrance of the town. We did not proceed far before
+we saw where fire had destroyed two blocks of buildings,
+the embers of which were still smoking. But it
+was only similar to what we had seen at Perm and
+Tagil, so that we were not greatly surprised. Worse
+was to come. We drove to Decocq’s hotel, and took
+apartments, paid and dismissed the yemstchiks, moved
+our belongings from the larger of the tarantasses, and
+arranged them in our rooms—or, rather, we were doing
+so, when the alarm was given that another fire had
+broken out. I clambered to the roof of the stables,
+and there, plainly enough, were flames mounting
+upwards, not a dozen houses off, and in the same
+street, though on the other side of the way.</p>
+
+<p>The waiter said he thought the fire would not come
+towards the hotel, as the wind blew from the opposite
+direction; but I was disinclined to wait and see, and
+so we bundled our things back into the tarantass, and
+told the yemstchiks, who fortunately had not left the
+yard, to put to their horses, and in a few minutes we
+were out in the street, witnesses of a sight that is not
+easy to describe. Men were running from all directions,
+not with the idle curiosity of a London crowd
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255">[255]</span>
+at a fire, but with the blanched faces and fear-stricken
+countenances of those who knew that the devastation
+might reach to them. They looked terribly in earnest;
+women screamed and children cried, and it was hard
+for me in the street to get an answer to any ordinary
+question.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the yemstchiks asked, Where should
+they go? I tried to discover where some of the
+persons to whom I had introductions lived, but people
+were too excited to tell me; and at last my companion
+suggested that we should go out of the town across
+the river. We soon put nearly a mile between us and
+the flames, and reached the bank of the Angara, where
+was a swinging ferry. The ferry was all but loaded,
+and would not take more than one of our two tarantasses.
+I therefore went with the first, leaving the
+interpreter to follow. On landing, the yemstchik
+drove along a bridge, at the end of which he motioned
+to me as to whether he should turn to the left or the
+right. To me it was just the same, but I pointed to
+the left; and that turning proved to be of not a little
+importance. I could say nothing to the yemstchik,
+and had therefore to wait till the ferry returned, and
+then crossed again, which occupied the greater part of
+an hour.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the increased smoke in the distance
+showed that the fire was spreading, and the inhabitants
+of the small suburb called Glasgova, to which I had
+come, were looking on in front of their houses.
+Among the people I noticed a well-dressed person,
+whom I addressed, asking if she spoke English or
+French. She at once inquired who I was and what
+I wanted. I replied that I was an English clergyman
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_256">[256]</span>
+travelling, that I had just arrived in Irkutsk, had run
+away from the fire, and was seeking a lodging. She
+answered that there were no lodgings to be had in any
+of the few houses on that side of the river; “but,”
+said she, “pray come into my little house, where you
+are welcome to remain at least during the day.” I
+was only too glad to do so; and, seeing that there was
+a small yard adjoining, I asked permission to put
+therein our two vehicles, in which we might sleep
+until some better place could be found. And thus we
+were a second time landed at Irkutsk, poorly enough,
+perhaps the reader may think, but in a far better condition,
+as will presently be seen, than before nightfall
+were many thousands of the inhabitants.</p>
+
+<p>We soon found that our hostess was of good family,
+and an exile, though not a political, but a criminal one.
+On arriving at Irkutsk, the Governor-General had
+shown her kindness in allowing her to remain in the
+city, where she partly supported herself by giving
+lessons, and was living for the summer in this quasi
+country-house with a young man whom she called her
+brother, her little girl she had brought from Russia,
+and a small servant whom she spoke of as “ma petite
+femme de chambre.” There was one tolerably spacious
+dwelling-room in the house, and in this were sundry
+tokens of refinement brought from a better home.
+On the wall hung a photograph of herself, as a bride
+leaning on the arm of her husband in officer’s uniform,
+whilst several other photographs and ornaments spoke
+also of a better past.</p>
+
+<p>The occasion, however, was not suited to long
+conversation, for the conflagration in the town was
+increasing. Whilst dining, we bethought ourselves
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257">[257]</span>
+whether we could be of some service, and the outcome
+of our deliberations was that I offered to accompany
+Madame to her friends residing in the town, to see if
+we could be of use, whilst my interpreter stayed with
+the tarantasses and the little girl to guard the premises.</p>
+
+<p>Madame and I, therefore, set out, accompanied by
+her maid. At the ferry we met a crowd of persons
+fleeing from the city, and carrying with them what was
+most valuable or most dear—an old woman tottering
+under a heavy load of valuable furs piled on her head;
+a poor half-blind nun, hugging an ikon, evidently the
+most precious of her possessions; a delicate young
+lady in tears, with her kitten in her arms; and boys
+tugging along that first requisite of a Russian home,
+the brazen <i lang="ru">samovar</i>. Terror was written on all countenances.
+We pushed on to the principal street, and
+tried to hire a droshky, but it was in vain to call—they
+were engaged in removing valuables from burning
+houses, as were the best vehicles and carriages the
+town possessed. Even costly sleighs, laden with such
+things as could be saved from the flames, were dragged
+over the stones and grit in the streets.</p>
+
+<p>Before long we came to the wide street in which
+were situated the best shops and warehouses, and
+where the fire was raging on either side and spreading.
+Those who were wise were bringing out their furniture,
+their account-books, and their treasures as fast
+as possible, and depositing them in the road and on
+vehicles, to be carried away. A curious medley these
+articles presented. Here were costly pier-glasses,
+glass chandeliers, and pictures such as one would
+hardly have expected to see in Siberia at all; whilst
+a little further on, perchance, were goods from a grocer’s
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_258">[258]</span>
+or provision merchant’s shop, and all sorts of delicacies—such
+as sweets and tins of preserved fruit, to which
+they who would helped themselves; and working-men
+were seen tearing open the tins to taste, for the first
+time in their lives, slices of West India pine-apples
+or luscious peaches and apricots. Other prominent
+articles of salvage were huge family bottles of rye-brandy,
+some of which people hugged in their arms,
+as if for their life, whilst other bottles were standing
+about, or being drunk by those who carried them. The
+effects of this last proceeding soon became apparent in
+the grotesque and foolish antics of men in the incipient
+stage of drunkenness.</p>
+
+<p>It was curious to watch the conduct of some of
+the tradesmen, who seemed to hope against hope,
+and kept their shops locked, as if to shut out thieves,
+and in the hope that the fire would not reach
+their premises. I noticed one man, a grocer, whose
+doors were barred till the flames had come within
+two houses of his own; and then, throwing open the
+entrance, he called in the crowd to carry out his
+wares. They entered, and brought out loaves of sugar
+and similar goods, until one man carried out a glass-case
+full of <i lang="fr">bon-bons</i>, at which there was a general onset
+in the street, every one filling his pockets amid roars
+of laughter. With this laughter, however, was mingled
+the crying of women, who wrung their hands as they
+emptied their houses, and saw the destroying flames
+only too surely approaching their homes.</p>
+
+<p>In the street were all sorts of people—soldiers,
+officers, Cossacks, civilians, tradesmen, gentlemen,
+women and children, rich and poor, young and old—but
+not gathered in dense crowds; some were making
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259">[259]</span>
+themselves useful to their neighbours, and a few were
+looking idly on. At every door was placed a jug of
+clean water for those to drink who were thirsty, and
+it would have been well if nothing stronger had been
+taken. The fire brigade arrangements seemed to me
+in great confusion. There were some English engines
+in the town,—one of them, of a brilliant red, bore the
+well-known name of “Merryweather and Sons,”—but
+the Siberians had not practised their engines in the
+time of prosperity, and the consequence was that the
+pipes had become dry and useless, and would not serve
+them in the day of adversity. The arrangements, too,
+for bringing water were of the clumsiest description.
+A river was flowing on either side of the city, but the
+firemen had no means of conducting the water by hose,
+but carried it in large barrels on wheels.</p>
+
+<p>Now and then one saw a hand-machine in use, about
+the size of a garden engine, or a jet such as London
+tradesmen use to clean their pavements and their
+windows. Moreover, no one took command. I
+noticed in one case, as the flames approached the
+corner of a street, it evidently occurred to some that,
+if the house at the opposite corner could be pulled
+down, the fire might stop there for want of anything
+further to burn. They therefore got to the top of
+the house, and, with crowbars, unloosed the beams
+and threw them below; but, before they had gone on
+long, they changed their minds, and seemed oblivious
+of the fact that the fire would burn the beams equally
+well on the ground as when standing in a pile.</p>
+
+<p>It must be confessed, however, that the fire had
+everything in its favour. Nearly all the houses were
+of wood—so completely so, that, after the calamity,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260">[260]</span>
+there was often nothing to mark the spot where a
+house had stood save the brickwork of the stove in the
+centre. There was a fresh breeze blowing too, and
+though the houses were in many cases detached, yet
+it frequently happened that the intervening spaces
+were stacked with piles of firewood, which helped to
+spread the conflagration.</p>
+
+<p>A wooden house burning is of course a spectacle
+much grander than that of flames coming through the
+windows of a brick structure, and the heat much more
+intense. At Irkutsk it was sufficient to set fire to a
+building on the opposite side of the street, without the
+contact of sparks. In one case—that of a handsome
+shop—I noticed that the first things that caught were
+the outside sunblinds, which were so scorched that they
+at last ignited, and then set fire to the window-frames,
+and so to the whole building.</p>
+
+<p>It soon became apparent that Madame could not
+reach her friends, who lived on the other side of the
+city, and therefore we made our way back towards
+the ferry, calling here and there and offering help.
+One friend asked us to take away her little daughter,
+which we did, and her husband’s revolver, which I
+carried, and a bottle of brandy—put into the arms
+of the <i lang="fr">femme-de-chambre</i>. Thus laden, we walked
+towards the river, whilst on all hands men and
+women were pressing into their service every available
+worker for the removal of their goods. A religious
+procession likewise was formed by priests and people
+with banners, headed by an ikon, in the hope that the
+fire would be stayed. Had such taken place, the ikon
+would no doubt have acquired the reputation of having
+the power, in common with many others, of working
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261">[261]</span>
+miracles. As it was, there was a small chapel or
+oratory in the centre of the town that escaped the
+flames, though the houses on either side were burned.
+I heard this spoken of as something very wonderful,
+if not miraculous, and I am under the impression that
+it was so telegraphed to Petersburg; but, on looking
+at the place after the fire, the preservation of the little
+sanctuary seemed easily accounted for, by the fact not
+only that it was itself built of brick, and left no part
+exposed that could well take fire, but that the houses
+on either side happened also to be of brick, so that
+they did not, in burning, give off the same heat they
+would have done had they been of wood. One rejoiced,
+of course, that the building was saved; but I could not
+help suspecting that, half a century hence, the chapel
+will be pointed out as having been preserved by a
+miracle from the great fire of 1879.</p>
+
+<p>It was evening before we reached our temporary
+lodging, and as the day closed the workers grew tired.
+Many were drunk, and others gave up in despair.
+The impression seemed to gain ground that nothing
+could be done, but that the devouring element must
+be left to burn itself out. Hope therefore fled, and
+the flames continued to spread till the darkness showed
+a line of fire and smoke that was estimated at not less
+than a mile and a half in length. It seemed as if nothing
+would escape. Now one large building caught, and
+then another, the churches not excepted. To add to
+the vividness of the scene, an alarm of church bells
+would suddenly clang out, to intimate that help was
+needed in the vicinity. Perhaps shortly afterwards
+the flames would be seen playing up the steeple, and
+fancifully peeping out of the apertures and windows;
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262">[262]</span>
+then reaching the top, and presenting the strange
+spectacle of a tower on fire, with the flames visible
+only at the top, middle, and bottom. At last the whole
+would fall with a crash, and the sky be lit up with
+sparks and a lurid glare such as cannot be forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the inhabitants continued to flee by
+thousands—the swinging ferry near us crossed and
+recrossed incessantly, bringing each time its sorrowful
+load, either bearing away their valuables, or going
+back to fetch others. Many of the people brought
+such of their goods as they could save to the banks
+and islands of the two rivers, and there took up their
+abode for the night in a condition compared with which
+ours was comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>Towards midnight the town presented a marvellous
+spectacle. I have already spoken of the enormous
+length of the line of fire when looked at laterally; but,
+as the darkness deepened, I walked down to a point
+on the bank from which could be seen the apex of the
+triangle, in the form of which the town was built, and
+where appeared a mass of flames estimated as covering
+an area of not less than half a square mile.</p>
+
+<p>We were supposed to <em>sleep</em> that night in the tarantass,
+but I rose continually to watch the progress of the fire,
+which towards morning abated, but only because it had
+burnt all that came in its way. About eleven o’clock
+the last houses standing on the opposite bank caught
+fire, and thus, in about four-and-twenty hours, three-fourths
+of the town were consumed.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_103" href="#Footnote_1_103" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p2621_ill" style="max-width: 93.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p2621_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      THE BURNING OF IRKUTSK.
+
+    (<i>As seen from the Glasgova Suburbs, 7th July, 1879.</i>)
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>As for myself, I had watched the fire with mingled
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_263">[263]</span>
+feelings, for we had narrowly escaped. And then came
+the recollection of the previous delays which had contributed
+to our preservation—the delay in going to
+the Alexandreffsky prison, the runaway horse in the
+wood, and our subsequent impatient waiting on the
+road. All these played an important part in saving
+us, for, had we arrived ten minutes earlier, our affairs
+might have gone very differently. Had we reached
+the town on the previous day, we should, in all probability,
+have been at church when the fire broke out;
+and then it is very doubtful whether we could have
+saved our effects, such was the difficulty of getting
+assistance. Moreover, the hotel was burnt within a
+very short time of our leaving it, so that, when looking
+back upon the chain of mercies by which we had been
+saved, I could not feel otherwise than deeply thankful.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_103" href="#FNanchor_1_103" class="label">[1]</a> The numbers of the buildings destroyed were, of stone more than
+100, and of wood about 3,500, including 6 churches, 2 synagogues, and
+2 Lutheran and Roman chapels, besides 5 bazaars, the custom-house,
+and the meat market. The destruction of property was estimated at
+£3,000,000 sterling; and since the town contained about 33,800 inhabitants,
+upwards of 20,000 of them probably must have been rendered houseless
+and homeless. From calculations made three months afterwards, it
+appeared that 8,000 of the inhabitants were in good circumstances; 2,000
+were in the military, and 1,000 in Government employ; 6,000 were in
+reduced circumstances, to whom bread and corn were sold at a very low
+price. There were 2,500 government <em>employés</em> similarly straitened by
+the catastrophe, leaving about 14,000 to earn their bread as best they
+could.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_264">[264]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIII">
+    CHAPTER XXIII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>IRKUTSK.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Province of Irkutsk.—The capital.—Its markets.—Telegraph officers.—Visit
+to the Governor.—Ruins of the city.—Attempt to establish a
+Bible depôt.—Supposed incendiarism.—Benevolent arrangements of
+authorities.—Wife-beating.—Servility of Russian peasants.—Visit to
+a rich merchant.—Ecclesiastical affairs.—Visit to the acting Governor-General.—The
+prisons.—A prisoner’s view of them.—Prison committee.—Distribution
+of books.—Visit to inspector of schools.—Change
+of route.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> city of Irkutsk is the capital of a government
+of the same name,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_104" href="#Footnote_1_104" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> and was founded in 1680.
+Its population in 1879 was 33,000. About 4,000 gold-miners
+spend their winter and their money in the city,
+often mentioned as a cheerful place of rest for travellers
+coming from China, or proceeding eastward. It is
+1,360 feet above the sea, and has a climate which even
+in winter is well spoken of, though, in the late autumn,
+and previous to the freezing of the Angara, the fogs
+from the river bring rheumatism and diseases of the
+throat and lungs. Little wind blows, storms are less
+frequent than at Petersburg or Moscow, and the snows
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265">[265]</span>
+are not superabundant. Whether in winter or summer,
+the panorama of Irkutsk and its surroundings is one of
+beauty. Of its 20 churches, several were planned and
+constructed by two Swedish engineer officers captured
+at Pultava, and sent into exile by the great Peter.</p>
+
+<p>The markets of Irkutsk are well supplied. Fish and
+game are plentiful. Beef is abundant and good, and
+costs about 2<i>d.</i> a pound. Pork, veal, and mutton are
+also cheap, especially in winter, when everything that
+can be frozen succumbs to the frost. Frozen chickens,
+partridges, and other game are often thrown together in
+heaps like bricks or fire-wood. Butchers’ meat defies the
+knife, and some of the salesmen place their animals in
+fantastic positions before freezing them. Frozen fish are
+piled in stacks, and milk is offered for sale in cakes or
+bricks. A stick or string is generally congealed into
+a corner of the mass to facilitate carrying, so that a
+wayfarer can swing a quart of milk at his side, or
+wrap it in his handkerchief at discretion. Whilst
+the products of the country are thus cheap, it should
+be observed that everything brought from beyond the
+Urals is expensive on account of the long land carriage.
+Champagne, for example, costs 12<i>s.</i> or 14<i>s.</i> a bottle, and
+porter and ale 7<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; the lowest price of sugar is 8<i>d.</i>
+a pound, while sometimes it costs 1<i>s.</i>; and as much as
+2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> may occasionally be given for a lemon.</p>
+
+<p>Much of this, however, I had to learn by report or
+reading; for, at the time of our visit, the Sunday’s fire
+had upset everything, and it became a serious question
+on Monday morning as to what we should do. Many
+of the telegraph clerks in Siberia are Danes, and speak
+several languages. We found that we had one of
+them, Mr. Larsen, for a near neighbour; for the telegraph
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266">[266]</span>
+office had been burnt, and he had come to our
+side of the river to take shelter in the next house,
+where, having no electric battery, he had tapped the
+Verchne Udinsk wire, and was trying in this way,
+though without success, to communicate intelligence.
+He had had nothing to eat for 24 hours, and possessed
+only the clothes in which he stood; so it was quite a
+charity to take him a glass of tea to his temporary office
+in the open air, after which he dined with us. Mr.
+Larsen, to whom we had an introduction, had been a
+telegraphist in London, and spoke English fluently, so
+that we were able to discuss our prospects to advantage.
+It was of prime importance for us that we should see
+the Governor of the province and the Governor-General
+of Eastern Siberia as quickly as possible, for it was not
+hard to perceive that what provisions had escaped the
+fire would be sold at famine prices; lawlessness, it was
+rumoured, might get the upper hand; and it seemed
+better that we should leave the place without much
+delay. Our adviser feared, however, and reasonably
+so, that we should be able to get no attention from the
+higher officials in the present state of excitement, seeing
+the embers of the city were still smoking, and the
+authorities would naturally have more important business
+than ours to attend to. Mr. Larsen, however,
+kindly offered to accompany me over the river to see
+if anything could be done. Accordingly we crossed,
+and, walking along the broad road by the side of the
+Angara, the ashes of the fire scorched our faces.</p>
+
+<p>We now saw something of the condition of the people
+who had fled to the bank of the river on the previous
+day, with such effects as they could save. Here were
+gentlefolks “camped out” under chests of drawers,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267">[267]</span>
+tables, and boxes, arranged in the best manner possible
+in the open air—sheets being used for walls,
+and curtains for coverings. Ikons from churches
+were lying about; likewise tables, heaped with philosophical
+instruments from the high school; and carts
+filled with movables. The instruments from the telegraph
+station were standing by a post, to which paper
+streamers were fastened to intimate that this was the
+temporary telegraph office. The people’s demeanour,
+however, was in strange contrast with their pitiable
+condition; for many, having saved their samovars,
+were drinking afternoon tea, and on all sides were
+joking and laughing at their comical situation.</p>
+
+<p>We found many of his friends among those beside
+the river, and each began good-humouredly to ask
+what the other lost in the fire, and what had been
+saved. Nobody seemed inclined to be at all dull over
+the matter, and the same thing was apparent with the
+Deputy-Governor Ismailoff, upon whom we called.
+“What have you lost?” said the General to my companion.
+He lightly threw open his coat, and intimated
+that <em>that</em> was all he had saved. At this the General
+laughed heartily, and said that he was not so well off,
+for that the very shirt on his back was a borrowed one!
+Yet the Governor had lost in the fire a brand-new
+house, upon which he had spent many thousands of
+roubles.</p>
+
+<p>Contrary to our expectation, it was arranged for us
+to see the acting Governor-General next morning, and
+meanwhile we had time to look at the ruins of the city.
+People had taken refuge with their effects in the large
+squares, as well as on the banks and islands of the
+river. Many had fled into the neighbouring villages.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268">[268]</span>
+The suburbs had escaped the fire, as well as many of
+the houses standing in spacious grounds. A few of
+the churches also were untouched. The large hospital
+was safe, likewise the usine for smelting gold, and the
+Governor-General’s house, but many of the public
+buildings had perished; amongst these the museum,
+in which I expected to find a good ethnographical
+collection. I should judge about three-fourths of the
+city were destroyed, and that the best part of the town;
+and so complete was the wreck that the <i lang="ru">isvostchiks</i>
+with their droshkies hardly knew their way about the
+blackened streets.</p>
+
+<p>We met a few of the higher class of exiles living
+free in Irkutsk, and, on asking them what they would
+do, received for reply, “We do not know. We have
+been earning something by teaching, but now our
+patrons will leave us. All sorts of provisions will be
+frightfully dear, and yet we dare not leave. So what
+is to be done?” The same doubts as to the future
+pressed heavily upon those tradesmen whose shops
+were not burnt.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_105" href="#Footnote_2_105" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>Of course there were various rumours afloat during
+the excitement of the previous day—one, that the devastation
+was caused by a wilful act. Similar rumours
+were afloat at Perm and Tagil, and at Irkutsk more
+than twenty arrests were reported. But, upon asking
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269">[269]</span>
+the Governor, it proved to be nonsense; for only two
+men had been arrested, and it was very doubtful whether
+even they were guilty. The only origin I heard given
+was that a hay-loft ignited, from which the flames
+spread.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_106" href="#Footnote_3_106" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>In Siberian towns the police are represented by the
+<i lang="fr">gendarmerie</i>; and in other places are police-masters
+with their employés. There are, strictly speaking, no
+policemen, but Cossacks are usually employed in their
+stead; and at the end of their short service are allowed
+to go home. They are, however, anything but efficient
+constables, and I was told that at Irkutsk the authorities
+do not employ them. To protect whatever might be
+of value among the ruins, and to keep order after the
+fire, troops were marched into the city by day, and
+patrolled the place at night.</p>
+
+<p>Great credit was due to the officials for the prompt
+manner in which they attempted the relief of distress.
+The fire was scarcely extinguished before a committee
+was formed, and some of the merchants laid down
+handsome sums. Proclamations were posted about
+the place, saying that officers could be furnished with
+dinners at the rate of 30 kopecks a plate, that bread
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270">[270]</span>
+might be bought for 2 kopecks—that is, a halfpenny—a
+pound; and that for the first week the poor might have
+bread for nothing; further, that all persons burnt out
+might, on application, receive the sum of 30 kopecks.
+No serious outbreak of disorder occurred during our
+stay, though a good deal of drunkenness was visible.
+With two inebriates we were brought palpably into
+contact. In the yard we occupied was a small kitchen-house,
+where lived a woman cook, her husband, and
+some children. The husband had been to the fire, had
+been drinking, and came home accompanied by a
+drunken associate. The companion, referring to the
+cook, said, “As for that woman, she ought to be
+hanged”; whereupon her husband fell to beating mercilessly
+both her and her boy of about ten years old;
+and the child came to us crying, as if he were half
+killed. Whereupon we rushed to the rescue, and one
+of the party, seizing the drunken man, took him from
+his wife, and gave him a thrashing.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_107" href="#Footnote_4_107" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>When I got further east, I heard of a third and
+similar instance of wife-beating, related to me by a
+merchant in whose house I stayed. His servants were
+convicts, simply because he could get no others; but
+he said he was not usually curious to ask for what
+crimes they had been sent to Siberia. It happened,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271">[271]</span>
+however, that he had a woman-cook who was particularly
+well-behaved, and an excellent servant; and he
+asked her one day why she had been exiled. She
+said it was for poisoning her husband; upon which
+my friend opened his eyes, and said,—</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, then, perhaps you will murder me?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, no, master; I should not murder <em>you</em>.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, but if you would murder your husband, why
+not, some day, <em>me</em>?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, no, master; you would not do as he did, for he
+beat me every day for two years.”</p>
+
+<p>Thus it was not altogether a meaningless form at a
+Russian wedding, that anciently the bridegroom took
+to church a whip, and in one part of the ceremony
+lightly applied it to the bride’s back, in token that she
+was to be in subjection.</p>
+
+<p>It should be remembered, however, that the brutal
+conduct just described belongs to a type well known
+in a certain part of England; the difference between
+the two being that the Russian bully beats his wife
+with a whip, while the English one kicks her to death.
+The Russian wives take very kindly to a moderate
+amount of such treatment, and those of the lower class
+do not murmur or complain, but consider the “master”
+has a right to chastise them; and when things do not
+go so far as this, they expect, when they do not please
+their husbands, to be slapped and corrected accordingly.
+In fact, the Russian wife among the lower classes does
+not take what we think her proper position in a house.
+The husband usually goes to market once a week, and
+buys all he wants, business of such importance not
+being entrusted to the wife, who therefore knows
+nothing even of the cost of her household articles.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_272">[272]</span>
+Among the higher classes, also, the master usually
+sends his chief servant to market, and pays for all that
+is consumed in the house.</p>
+
+<p>There came out of this quarrel between man and
+wife another characteristic of the Russian peasantry,
+which perhaps is a remnant of serfdom, and betrays
+their want of manliness in the presence of their
+superiors. My merchant friend, just referred to, had
+a convict in the house whilst I was there, whom
+once before he had dismissed for drunkenness. The
+man came back entreating that he might be reinstated,
+but his master said, “No, I have warned you continually,
+and done everything I could to keep you
+sober, but in vain.” “Yes, sir,” said the man; “but
+then, sir, you should have given me a good thrashing.”
+So with the fighting husband at Irkutsk: after receiving
+his stripes he went away, but soon after came back,
+thanking the gentleman for his thrashing, and promising
+to behave better in future. In the days of
+serfdom, it was no uncommon thing for a gentleman
+to box the ears of his droshky driver; but this cannot
+now be done with impunity. My mercantile friend
+told me he was one day driving in Petersburg with a
+Russian gentleman, when the latter struck the isvostchik
+for doing something that displeased him; whereupon
+the man turned round and said, “No more
+of that, sir; those days are gone by, and if you strike
+me again I shall return it,”—a threat quite unbearable
+to a <i lang="ru">blagorodni</i>, or “noble”; and he was
+about to go on as of old, when my friend said, “Look!
+you had better not; for if you are summoned, and I
+am called as a witness, I shall be bound to say that you
+began it”; whereupon he desisted.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_273">[273]</span></p>
+
+<p>We took an early opportunity after the fire to deliver
+up to General Khamenoff, its owner, the second tarantass
+we had borrowed at Tomsk, and in which my
+companion and I had driven and slept for a thousand
+miles. Our benefactor was in reality a rich merchant,
+and had given, if I mistake not, very handsome sums
+of money for educational purposes in Irkutsk. This
+patriotic action had gained him the distinction of
+“General.” His buildings had been saved, and we
+thus had an opportunity of seeing the house of one
+well-to-do merchant at Irkutsk.</p>
+
+<p>The General was getting old, and appeared in a long
+dressing-gown, coming out of his beautiful garden, and
+seating us in a little secretarial chamber, which had
+about it sundry marks of foreign influence and taste.
+Before joining us, however, he bade adieu to a previous
+visitor, and called his footman to open the door.
+There was something inexpressibly droll about his
+manner of doing so, for he simply gave a prolonged
+grunt—ugh!!—and as the footman did not come at grunt
+number one, it was repeated, and the servant in passing
+received from his master a cuff at the back of the head,
+doing so with a grin and a duck of the noddle, as a
+schoolboy receives a blow from his mother’s palm,
+knowing that he shall not be hurt. The old gentleman
+then heard from us how we had escaped from the hotel,
+and how we were making a sleeping chamber of his
+tarantass, which he said we might continue to do until
+we left the town.</p>
+
+<p>I was anxious to learn something of the state of
+ecclesiastical affairs in the province, and to inquire what
+the Russian Church was doing in her missions to the
+Buriats. The chief ecclesiastic of the province is one
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274">[274]</span>
+Benjamin, Archbishop of Irkutsk and Nertchinsk, under
+whom is a suffragan bishop, Meleti of Selenginsk. The
+Diocese has 347 churches and chapels, 5 monasteries,
+and one nunnery. One of the monasteries is near
+Lake Baikal, and here lives, if I mistake not, the
+Bishop of Selenginsk, who could have given information
+about the Buriats, but the monastery lay too far out of
+our way to allow of our visiting it. Nor were we
+successful with the Archbishop; for on going to the
+monastery, his official residence, which had narrowly
+escaped the fire, we found him gone to his country
+residence in the suburbs. “When will he return?”
+we asked. “God knows,” said our priest informant;
+thereby using an expression which I observed to be
+very common among all classes of Russians.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_108" href="#Footnote_5_108" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the Tuesday morning after the fire we were to
+be presented, as I have said, to the acting Governor-General
+of Eastern Siberia. The supreme Governor-General
+was Baron Friedrichs, to whom I had two
+private letters of introduction, besides my official documents;
+also we had made the acquaintance of his son
+when travelling on the Obi. The Baron, who was in
+ill-health, was at some mineral springs on the Mongolian
+frontier, and his place was filled at the time of our visit
+by M. Lochwitzky, the Governor of Yeneseisk, to
+whom we were presented by General Ismailoff. We
+met at the Governor-General’s house, the finest in the
+city, having been originally built and furnished, regardless
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275">[275]</span>
+of expense, by an enormously rich tea merchant.
+We found M. Lochwitzky the first of the Siberian
+Governors (except the Governor-General in the West)
+who could converse in French. He entered readily
+into my plans for the distribution of books, thanked
+me for those I had left at Krasnoiarsk for his province,
+and promised to do for me what was a great boon,
+namely, to send some books to the town of Yakutsk,
+to be distributed throughout that largest province of
+the country. We were introduced to a Colonel Solovief,
+whose brother was in London, as Secretary to the
+Grand Duchess of Edinburgh; and after an assurance
+from the Governor-General that he would do all he
+could to further our wishes, we started to see the prisons,
+under the conduct of the Procureur of the town.</p>
+
+<p>We drove through the ruins of the fire, and then
+crossed, by a wooden bridge 300 yards long, the
+Uska-Kofka, by which one side of Irkutsk is bounded.
+This stream divides the town from the prison and the
+workshops, where a certain number of convicts are
+employed.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_109" href="#Footnote_6_109" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Speaking generally, the prison seemed
+to me to resemble others I had seen in Siberia, and to
+call for no special remark. Perhaps, however, I ought
+to add that before I left the town I had the opportunity
+of hearing about the establishment from a prisoner’s
+point of view. Thus I heard that, at six o’clock on
+the morning of our visit, the prisoners were told to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276">[276]</span>
+have all in order because some Englishmen were expected,
+and that certain objectionable things were
+hidden away. I thought, however, that it did not
+speak much for my informant’s candour when, on
+pressing him to say what the objectionable things
+were, he did not tell me. Again, my informant tried
+to make it appear that the officers stole the prisoners’
+food by giving them short quantity, though he said the
+<em>quality</em> of the food was good enough. The Procureur
+said the prisoners did not eat all the food allowed
+them; and from the quantity of pieces of bread which
+we so often saw lying about in Russian prisons, I
+should be disposed to think this true. This seems
+to be so common, that we were told at Tiumen the
+prisoners may <em>sell</em> what they do not eat; but at Irkutsk
+my informant said that they did not receive more than
+half their allowance, and that a quarter of a pound only
+of meat was given for 10 men—a quantity so ridiculously
+small, that one could not but think that here exaggeration
+must have overshot the mark. Moreover, my
+informant told me that what he said was not from
+personal experience, because he was not one of the
+peasant prisoners whose circumstances he professed
+to relate.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_110" href="#Footnote_7_110" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_277">[277]</span></p>
+
+<p>I was told in the town that to take books to the
+Irkutsk prison was a work of supererogation; and I
+confess to a feeling of disappointment when, on asking
+to see the library, I was taken to a cupboard full of
+New Testaments and tracts, precisely the same as
+some of those I was distributing, but all kept so fresh
+and in such order that evidently no one had used
+them. The committee was reported to have spent
+as much as £30 on books for the prison, but the
+officials had evidently not made the books accessible
+to those for whom they were intended. Their excuse
+was that the prisoners did not ask for them; but no
+doubt the officials were afraid of their being torn, and
+that trouble would ensue, and so had kept them locked
+up. It reminded me of what my Finnish friend had
+written, that when she went to the prison, the officials
+said, “The books must be arranged in order, in case
+the inspector should come”; and thus the books were
+practically kept from the inmates. When the Governor
+asked me what I thought of the prison, I did not fail
+to point out the inconsistency of withholding the books;
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278">[278]</span>
+but of this he was ignorant, and he promised to look
+into the matter. I endeavoured also to make clear, in
+speech and by writing, that wherever my books or
+tracts went throughout the province, they were to be
+placed within reach at all times of the prisoners, and
+not to be put away in any of the libraries.</p>
+
+<p>Thus we inspected the two prisons, and also saw a
+school built by the committee for prisoners’ children;
+in it were 42 scholars. We visited likewise a gentleman
+named Sokoloff, who was the deputy-inspector of
+schools for Eastern Siberia. There is also an inspector
+of schools for Western Siberia, who lives at Omsk.
+I was surprised to hear of the many schools and
+scholars in the sparsely-populated and, for scholastic
+purposes, exceedingly difficult country of Eastern
+Siberia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_111" href="#Footnote_8_111" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Our object in calling upon the inspector
+was to ask him to distribute throughout the schools
+copies of my tracts and periodicals, and to that end I
+began by showing my credentials. But upon hearing
+my object, he said that was quite sufficient; and he
+needed to see no papers, but would willingly help.
+He bought, moreover, on his own account, 200 New
+Testaments for 40 roubles, to give as prizes to the
+young schoolmasters on leaving the institution, by
+which means the books would be scattered widely.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_112" href="#Footnote_9_112" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_279">[279]</span></p>
+
+<p>We now considered our next step. My original
+idea, when leaving England, as already intimated, was
+to proceed to Irkutsk; and then, after running on to
+Kiakhta for the gratification of seeing a Chinese town,
+to return to Europe, and come home by the Caucasus
+and the Mediterranean. I had been warned before
+quitting London that I should see nothing of the
+severities of Siberian exile-life if I did not penetrate
+the region beyond Lake Baikal; and, travelling on the
+Obi, this statement was confirmed by a Russian officer
+in the prison service. I feared, however, I could not
+do this in a single summer, and that, if I went so far
+east, I should be unable to return before winter set in.
+It never occurred to me that there was any available
+way of reaching the Pacific from Irkutsk other than
+by crossing the Mongolian desert to China, and this I
+was not disposed to do.</p>
+
+<p>But when I learned that there was a service of
+steamers on the Amur, this opened the way for other
+possibilities; and on June 21st, as we rolled away from
+Tomsk, there dawned upon my mind a thought, the
+conception of which seemed at once to promise the
+birth of great things. What, said I to myself, if I
+could go right across Asia and leave so many copies of
+Scripture as would suffice for putting at least a New
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280">[280]</span>
+Testament or a copy of the Gospels in every room of
+every prison, and in every ward of every hospital,
+throughout the whole of Siberia! As I look back
+upon it now as an accomplished fact, the matter seems
+ordinary enough; but when the thought came into my
+mind it looked like a consummation far beyond anything
+I had hoped to accomplish, and a result which, if
+it might be compassed, would be a cause of thankfulness
+for the rest of my life.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly I quietly nursed the idea till we reached
+Irkutsk, thus far having given a sufficiency of books
+answerable to the plan for all the provinces behind
+me; and there yet remained three before me. Several
+boxes of books were unopened, but these could not be
+sent forward, because, in the first place, there was no
+carrier, or, if there were, the fire had confounded all
+order; and even if some one could be persuaded to
+take the books, it was very doubtful if they would
+reach the hands of the prisoners unless I went with
+them in person and showed my credentials.</p>
+
+<p>I determined, therefore, to journey onward and do my
+best to carry out the scheme which had taken possession
+of my mind. But to do this it was necessary to have
+supplementary documents, for I had asked the Minister
+of the Interior for letters only as far as Kiakhta. M.
+Lochwitzky, however, most kindly helped in the matter,
+and gave me the letters I needed for my extended
+plans. We were then free to go forward again (which
+the reader may do at once, if he prefers, by missing
+the next two chapters); but something must first be
+said of the routes by which former travellers have
+proceeded eastwards.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_104" href="#FNanchor_1_104" class="label">[1]</a> Compared with some of the enormous provinces of Siberia, that of
+Irkutsk is comparatively small, with an area of 300,000 square miles only;
+that is, about the size of Sweden and Norway. The surface is mountainous,
+and through it flow two rivers of importance, namely, the Angara,
+issuing from Lake Baikal, and the Lena, which rises not far from the
+capital. The province is divided into five uyezds, and has a population
+of 380,000, of whom only 10 per cent. are dwellers in towns. Marriages
+4,600, and 25,000 births are recorded in the province yearly.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_105" href="#FNanchor_2_105" class="label">[2]</a> I was specially anxious to open a depôt for the Bible Society in
+Irkutsk, and to that end called upon a bookseller and printer named
+Sinitzun, of Harlampi Street, and invited him to become a depositary.
+He replied that he had the will to do so, but that he must first consult his
+partners; for it was doubted whether the city would be rebuilt, and
+whether persons having lost their premises would not, instead of re-erecting
+them, go and live elsewhere. I have heard, since my return, however,
+that the town is rising from its ashes even on a grander scale than it
+formerly possessed.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_106" href="#FNanchor_3_106" class="label">[3]</a> The Russians have reason, however, for constant suspicion, for they
+have a revengeful way of “letting loose the red cock” upon a man, which
+means setting his house on fire; and this is only too common among the
+peasants of Siberia, as, in fact, generally in all Russia. Thus, of 758 fires
+which took place in Siberia in 1876, no less than 99, or more than one-eighth,
+were due to incendiaries, to say nothing of nearly 500 more of
+which the causes could not be traced. Further particulars relating to
+these 758 fires are, that 185 were registered as due to “carelessness,” and
+10 to lightning, whilst the estimated loss of the whole 758 was reckoned
+at £82,162. With such a number of fires it is not difficult to understand
+the dread of destruction in which Siberians live, nor their practice of
+having a large chest in the house, in which they habitually keep their
+valuables, to be removed, if necessary, at a moment’s notice.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_107" href="#FNanchor_4_107" class="label">[4]</a> This assault by the husband was, as far as I know, quite unprovoked
+on the part of his better half, and it serves as an illustration of the way
+in which a certain class of the Russians treat their wives. It also serves
+to confirm what is written of Akoulka’s husband in Dostoyeffsky’s “Buried
+Alive,” where two prisoners are talking in the night, and one relates: “I
+had got, somehow or other, in the way of beating her. Some days I would
+keep at it from morning till night. I did not know what to do with
+myself when I was not beating her. She used to sit crying, and I could
+not help feeling sorry for her, and so I beat her.” Subsequently he murdered
+her. After which relation, the other prisoner acquiesces, and says
+that “wives <em>must</em> be beaten to be of any service.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_108" href="#FNanchor_5_108" class="label">[5]</a> The chief ecclesiastical shrine of Irkutsk is a large church a little
+way out of the city. In it are the remains, gorgeously entombed, of St.
+Innokente, said to be preserved as fresh as when he died. This man is
+regarded as the apostle of Siberia. He was originally a missionary, who,
+in 1721, was sent to China; but the Chinese Government refusing him
+admission to their country, he settled six years afterwards at Irkutsk.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_109" href="#FNanchor_6_109" class="label">[6]</a> There were 270 men in the prison, one room holding 21 murderers,
+another 28 thieves, a third 20 forgers, a fourth 28 who had been exchanging
+their names and punishments, and a fifth 39 who were “without passports,”
+and so on. In one room they were making match-boxes, for which
+they received for themselves a tenth of their earnings. Other prisoners
+were making furniture, of which the materials were supplied by the prison
+officers, and for which, of course, they recouped themselves.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_110" href="#FNanchor_7_110" class="label">[7]</a> The citizen prisoners, he said, were allowed in money 17½ kopecks a
+day, which they could spend as they pleased, and with which they could
+buy a pound of meat (10 kopecks), and 2½ lbs. of bread (7½ kopecks).
+They have, however, in Irkutsk, a liberal prison committee, who help in
+the matter of food—the cabbage in the soup, for instance, being provided
+by them; and my informant, though grumbling about almost everything
+else, allowed that the dinners given to the sick, which cost 20 kopecks,
+and all the arrangements about the prison hospital, were exceedingly good.
+There were even books provided for the patients, but this was through the
+kindness of the doctor. My non-official informant also alleged that the
+prison officials took from the pay of the workmen, giving them far less
+than the value of their labour, and so unrighteously enriched themselves.
+His tone, however, was so exceedingly bitter, that had he not allowed that
+there was <em>one</em> good thing in connection with the prison, I should have
+discredited all he said, especially as he dealt so much in generals, and
+avoided particulars. As it was, I thought perhaps he might have spoken
+the truth in some respects. I heard subsequently, from another exile, that
+the Director of the prison received only £40 a year for salary, whilst
+from another I heard £120 or £150; and if either of these figures are true,
+it is not difficult to see that a dishonest official may be strongly tempted
+to take advantage (as the Russians say) “of his opportunities.” These
+“opportunities,” however, are not confined to matters of food. I heard of
+a prison director at Nijni Udinsk who had orders to send 30 prisoners to
+Nikolaefsk, which for certain reasons is a favourite place with the convicts;
+whereupon this director made his choice to fall upon those whose wives
+could pay him 25 roubles, or 50 shillings. This looks a large amount for
+a prisoner to pay, but my informant had in possession 50 roubles to be
+transferred for this purpose.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_111" href="#FNanchor_8_111" class="label">[8]</a> Mr. Sokoloff had under his inspection, in 1878, 13 classical schools,
+1 commercial, 1 industrial, 11 inferior, and 211 elementary schools,
+attended by 6,000 boys and 1,500 girls. These figures, moreover, were
+exclusive of the Amur district, and parts about the Sea of Okhotsk.
+There were also under his inspection two training institutions, one of them
+being the house at which we called—a new building for the training, at
+one time, of 80 village schoolmasters. Its furniture and fittings were
+admirable. It had an excellent museum, and a room for tutorial practice;
+and I was particularly struck with the number of models and apparatus
+for the teaching of natural science.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_112" href="#FNanchor_9_112" class="label">[9]</a> Besides these sent to the inspector, we confided to M. Lochwitzky
+for the government of Yakutsk, and for Eastern Siberia generally, about
+170 New Testaments and portions of Scripture, and upwards of 3,000
+tracts and periodicals; and with General Ismailoff, for the province of
+Irkutsk, about the same number of Scriptures, but rather less of other
+papers. We also left with General Ismailoff 500 Finnish tracts and
+books for the German pastor, Ratcke; these last I have since heard
+from the pastor were specially acceptable, inasmuch as when he returned
+to Irkutsk he found all his books burnt. I have heard, too, since my
+return, from M. Lochwitzky, that those in his hands have been distributed
+according to my directions.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_281">[281]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIV">
+    CHAPTER XXIV.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE LENA.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>History of Russian invasion.—Former travellers to Okhotsk.—Cochrane,
+Erman, and Hill.—Down the Lena to Yakutsk.—Prevalence of
+goitre.—The Upper Lena and its tributaries.—The Lower Lena.—Discoveries
+of mammoths.—New Siberian islands.—Nordenskiöld’s
+passage.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>When</span>, at the beginning of the 17th century,
+the Cossack conquerors of Siberia had crossed
+the Yenesei, and had pushed on as far as Lake Baikal,
+they were met by the numerous and warlike tribe of
+the Buriats, who opposed the invaders with considerable
+force. Not waiting, therefore, for their entire subjection
+(which took 30 years to accomplish), the Cossacks
+turned northwards to the basin of the Lena, and
+descended the river more than half-way to the Arctic
+Sea, where, coming in 1632 to the principal town of
+the Yakutes, they built a fort and founded the city of
+Yakutsk. After this they crossed the Aldan mountains,
+and, seven years later, reached the Sea of Okhotsk.
+For two centuries this was the route followed by those
+who would cross Siberia from the Urals to the Pacific,
+or <i lang="la">vice versâ</i>. In the present day there are two other
+roads. All must go by the route we travelled from
+Tomsk to Irkutsk, but from thence the Pacific can
+be reached either by crossing the Mongolian desert
+to Peking, or by traversing the Buriat steppe, and so
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282">[282]</span>
+descending the Amur. The second of these routes is
+now the best, but not briefly to mention the old route
+would be to omit much interesting information concerning
+the Lena, with its native population and fossilized
+remains, as well as to miss the opportunity of
+hearing a little of some of the most daring and adventurous
+journeys of previous travellers.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_113" href="#Footnote_1_113" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>The most remarkable of these was an Englishman
+named John Dundas Cochrane, a captain in the
+Royal Navy, who, in 1820, proposed to the Lords
+Commissioners of the Admiralty that they should
+give their sanction and countenance to his undertaking
+alone a journey into the interior of Africa,
+with a view to ascertaining the course and determination
+of the river Niger. This they declined, whereupon
+he procured two years’ leave of absence, and
+resolved to attempt “a walking tour” round the
+globe, as nearly as could be done by land, crossing
+from Northern Asia to America at Behring’s Straits,
+his leading object being to trace the shores of the
+Polar Sea along America by land, as Captain Parry
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283">[283]</span>
+was at the time attempting it by sea. Accordingly he
+left London with his knapsack, crossed the Channel to
+Dieppe, and then set out. This gentleman was endowed
+with an unbounded reliance upon his own individual
+exertions, and his knowledge of man when unfettered
+by the frailties and misconduct of others. One man, he
+said, might go anywhere he chose, fearlessly and alone,
+and as safely trust himself in the hands of savages as
+among his own friends. His favourite dictum was that
+an individual might travel throughout the Russian
+empire, except in the <em>civilized</em> parts between the
+capitals, so long as his conduct was becoming, without
+necessaries failing him. He put his principle rather
+severely to the test, and it must be allowed that he did
+so with very general success, for he states that in travelling
+from Moscow to Irkutsk (4,000 miles by his
+route) he spent less than a guinea. From Irkutsk he
+descended the Lena to Yakutsk, from whence, accompanied
+by a single Cossack, he penetrated in a north-easterly
+direction almost to the shores of the Ice Sea
+at Nijni Kolimsk, where, having altered his plans, he
+turned back by a most difficult route to Okhotsk.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284">[284]</span>
+From this place he sailed to Kamchatka, and married
+a native, whom he brought by sea back to Okhotsk, and
+then in winter crossed the Aldan mountains to Yakutsk,
+whence the happy pair proceeded to Irkutsk, and at
+length reached England, where Mrs. Cochrane, as I
+learn from the daughter of one who knew her, was
+carefully educated, and passed as a lady in good society.
+For enterprise and bravery this captain, I take it, easily
+bears off the palm from all Siberian travellers.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_114" href="#Footnote_2_114" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>The writer who has added most, perhaps, to our
+scientific knowledge of the valley of the Lena is M.
+Adolph Erman, who crossed Siberia in 1828, in conjunction,
+though not in company, with Professor
+Hansteen, the first professor at the Magnetic Observatory
+at Christiania, in Norway, and famous for his
+researches in terrestrial magnetism. They both travelled
+for the purpose of making magnetic and other
+observations; but, on arriving at Irkutsk, Professor
+Hansteen returned to Europe, whilst Erman continued
+down the Lena to Yakutsk, crossed to the Sea of
+Okhotsk, and so continued round the world.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_115" href="#Footnote_3_115" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>Later on, one more Englishman has reached the
+Pacific by way of the Lena, namely, Mr. S. S. Hill,
+who did so in 1848, and it is not unlikely that he may,
+for some time, be the last of the intrepid travellers
+who have accomplished this feat, since the Amur is
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285">[285]</span>
+now open to the Russians, and presents a far easier
+way of crossing the continent.</p>
+
+<p>To follow the older route, the first portion had to be
+traversed by post vehicles from Irkutsk, a distance of
+160 miles in a north-easterly direction. The road
+crosses the water-parting of the Lena basin at or near
+the station Khogotskaya, which is about 90 geographical
+miles from Irkutsk. The traveller journeys through
+a hilly country, where there is abundant pasture, and
+where the land is to some extent cultivated, to the
+village of Kachugskoe, situated on the banks of the
+Lena. Here various sorts of merchandise are embarked
+in large flat-bottomed boats, which are floated down
+the river. These goods are exchanged with the natives
+for furs, the boats at the end of the journey being
+broken up in districts where timber is scarce, and the
+furs brought back in smaller craft.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_116" href="#Footnote_4_116" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>The descent of the Upper Lena to Yakutsk by
+water was undertaken by Mr. Hill in spring, and by
+Captain Cochrane in autumn, but Mr. Erman accomplished
+it on the ice in winter, by a 20 days’ sledge
+journey of nearly 1,900 miles. As he passed along he
+observed, first in the village of Petrovsk, several of
+the women largely affected with goitre, and learned
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286">[286]</span>
+with surprise that this malady, which in Europe characterises
+the valleys of the Alps, is frequent on the
+Lena. As he proceeded he found goitre in men also,
+and asking an exile at Turutsk, who appeared the only
+healthy person in the place, how he had protected
+himself from goitre, was told that adults arriving from
+Europe were never attacked by the disease, but that
+the goitre was born with the children of the district,
+and grew up with them. Medical men in Switzerland
+say that goitre proceeds from deposits in chemical combination,
+washed down by mountain streams that supply
+the inhabitants of the neighbourhood with drinking
+water, and that it attacks children on account of their
+mucous membranes being very tender and easily distended.
+Mr. Erman inquired carefully, as he went on,
+respecting the prevalency of goitre, and having made
+barometrical and other observations along the way, he
+came at length to the conclusion that the disease was
+traceable, in part, to the formation and altitude of
+various places along the valley of the river, where the
+air, being confined, is, in summer, heated to an extraordinary
+degree, and loaded with moisture.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the stream of the Upper Lena, its
+head waters have their sources spread out for 200
+geographical miles along the counter slopes of the hills
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287">[287]</span>
+that form the western bank of Lake Baikal, and the
+main stream rises within seven miles of the lake.</p>
+
+<p>At Kachugskoe, about 60 geographical miles from
+the Baikal, and not less than 75 geographical miles in
+a straight line from its source, the Lena measures about
+the width of the Thames in London. The water, deep
+and clear, has in spring a very rapid current, though
+Captain Cochrane speaks of the rate lower down, in
+autumn, as only 1½ or 2 knots per hour. The next
+station after Kachugskoe is Vercholensk, a town of
+1,000 inhabitants, the first of that size on the north-east
+of Irkutsk, and is the chief town of the uyezd. After
+flowing 500 miles further through a hilly country, with
+high banks always on one and sometimes on both sides,
+on which are 35 post-stations and more villages, the
+river passes Kirensk, which again is the chief town of
+an uyezd, and has a population of 800.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_117" href="#Footnote_5_117" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Here cultivation
+practically ceases, except for vegetables. At
+this point, too, the river receives on its right the
+Kirenga, which has run nearly as long a course as the
+Lena. The stream thus enlarged now flows on for 300
+miles more to Vitimsk, where it is joined by its second
+great tributary, the Vitim, from the mountains east of
+Lake Baikal. Another stretch of 460 miles, through a
+country still hilly, but with villages less frequent, brings
+the traveller to Olekminsk, the capital of another uyezd,
+a town of 500 inhabitants; there the Lena receives from
+the south the Olekma, which rises near the Amur river.
+It then continues for 400 miles through a sparsely-populated
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288">[288]</span>
+district, till it reaches Yakutsk, where it is
+4 miles wide in summer, and 2½ in winter, the river
+being usually frozen about the 1st October, and not
+free from ice till about May 25th.</p>
+
+<p>Hitherto the course of the river has been to the
+north-east, but at Yakutsk the stream makes a bend
+and runs due north, receiving on its right, 100 miles
+below Yakutsk, one of its largest tributaries, the Aldan,
+which rises in the Stanovoi range bordering on the
+Sea of Okhotsk. Yakutsk is only 270 feet above
+the sea, and the current of the river henceforth is
+sluggish. About 50 miles further the Lena receives
+its largest tributary from the left, the Vilui, and then
+proceeds majestically through a flat country with an
+enormous body of water to the Arctic Ocean, into
+which it enters among a delta of islands formed of
+the <i lang="fr">débris</i> brought down by the river.</p>
+
+<p>In the region of the Lower Lena, and to the westward,
+have been found the remains of a huge rhinoceros,
+and an elephant larger than that now existing—the
+<i lang="la">elephas primigenius</i>, popularly called the mammoth.
+It is so named from the Russian <i lang="ru">mamont</i>, or Tatar
+<i lang="ru">mamma</i> (the earth), because the Yakutes believed that
+this animal worked its way in the earth like a mole;
+and a Chinese story represents the <i lang="ru">mamentova</i> as a
+rat of the size of an elephant which always burrowed
+underground, and died on coming in contact with the
+outer air. The tusks of the mammoth are remarkable
+for exhibiting a double curve, first inwards, then outwards,
+and then inwards again; and Professor Ramsay
+gives it me as the opinion of several able naturalists
+that the so-called mammoth is of the same species as
+the Indian elephant, only much altered by the change
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289">[289]</span>
+of climatic conditions. The Samoyedes say that the
+mammoth still exists wandering upon the shores of the
+Frozen Ocean, and subsisting on dead bodies thrown
+up by the surf. As for the rhinoceros, they say it
+was a gigantic bird, and that the horns which the ivory-merchants
+purchase were its talons. Their legends tell
+of fearful combats between their ancestors and this
+enormous winged animal.</p>
+
+<p>A trade in mammoth ivory has been carried on for
+hundreds of years between the tribes of Northern Asia
+and the Chinese; but it was a long time before European
+naturalists took a marked interest in the evidence
+of an extinct order of animals which these remains
+undeniably recorded. The Siberian mammoth agrees
+exactly with the specimens unearthed in various parts
+of England, especially at Ilford in the valley of the
+Thames, near London, and on the coast of Norfolk;
+but whereas on European soil there remain but fragments
+of the skeleton, there have been found in Siberia
+bones of the rhinoceros and mammoth covered with
+pieces of flesh and skin. These discoveries date back
+more than a century.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_118" href="#Footnote_6_118" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_290">[290]</span></p>
+
+<p>In 1865 the captain of a Yenesei steamer learnt
+that some natives had discovered the preserved remains
+of a mammoth in latitude 67°, about 100 versts west of
+the river. Intelligence was sent to Petersburg, and
+Dr. Schmidt was commissioned to go and examine
+into the matter. Accordingly he proceeded down the
+Yenesei to Turukhansk, and thence to the landing-place
+nearest the mammoth deposit, hoping to obtain
+the animal’s stomach, and, from the character of the
+leaves within, infer the creature’s <em>habitat</em>, since it is
+known that the beast lived upon vegetable food, but
+of what exact character no one has yet determined.
+Unfortunately the stomach was wanting.</p>
+
+<p>In examining, under the microscope, fragments of
+vegetable food picked out of the grooves of the molar
+teeth of the Siberian rhinoceros at Irkutsk, naturalists
+have recognised fibres of the pitch-pine, larch, birch,
+and willow, resembling those of trees of the same
+kind which still grow in Southern Siberia. This
+seems to confirm the opinion, expressed long ago, that
+the rhinoceros and other large pachyderms found in
+the alluvial soil of the north used to inhabit Middle
+Siberia, south of the extreme northern regions where
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291">[291]</span>
+their skeletons are now found; but Mr. Knox, who
+travelled for some distance with Schmidt on his return
+journey, says that the doctor estimated that the beast
+had been frozen many thousands of years, and that his
+natural dwelling-place was in the north, at a period
+when perhaps the Arctic regions were warmer than
+they now are. Covered with long hair, the animal
+could certainly resist an Arctic climate; but how on
+the tundras of the north could the animal have found
+the foliage of trees necessary for its subsistence?
+Must we conclude that formerly the country was
+wooded, or that the mammoth did not live where its
+skeletons are now found, but further south, whence its
+carcase has been carried northward by rivers, and
+frozen into the soil? These are questions debated
+among geologists, and still awaiting solution.</p>
+
+<p>The fact, however, remains, that mammoth ivory
+is still an important branch of native commerce,
+and all travellers bear witness to the quantities of
+fossil bones found throughout the frozen regions of
+Siberia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_119" href="#Footnote_7_119" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>Each year, in early summer, fishermen’s barques
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292">[292]</span>
+direct their course to the New Siberian group, to the
+“<em>isles of bones</em>”; and, during winter, caravans drawn
+by dogs take the same route, and return charged with
+tusks of the mammoth, each weighing from 150 lbs.
+to 200 lbs. The fossil ivory thus obtained is imported
+into China and Europe, and is used for the same
+purposes as the ordinary ivory of the elephant and
+hippopotamus.</p>
+
+<p>We cannot leave the Lower Lena and the neighbouring
+shores of the Arctic Ocean without alluding
+to the wonderful sight those shores witnessed in 1878,
+for the first time in the history of the world. It was
+no less a sight than that of two steam vessels that
+had ploughed their way from Europe round Cape
+Cheliuskin. One of them was the <i lang="ru">Vega</i>, in which
+was Professor Nordenskiöld, whose intention had been
+to anchor off the mouth of the Lena, but a favourable
+wind and an open sea offered so splendid an opportunity
+of continuing his voyage that he did not neglect
+it. He sailed away, therefore, on the 28th of August,
+direct for Fadievskoi, one of the New Siberian islands,
+where he intended to remain some days, and to examine
+scientifically the remains of mammoths, rhinoceroses,
+horses, aurochs, bisons, sheep, etc., with which these
+islands are said to be covered. The <i lang="ru">Vega</i> made excellent
+progress, but though, on the 30th, Liakov Island
+was reached, the professor was unable to land, owing
+to the rotten ice which surrounded it, and the danger
+to which the vessel would have been exposed in case
+of a storm in such shallow water.</p>
+
+<p>After the <i lang="ru">Vega</i>, with Nordenskiöld on board, had
+left its sister ship the <i>Lena</i>, the latter vessel, under
+the command of Captain Johannesen, started to ascend
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293">[293]</span>
+the river of its own name. A pilot had been engaged
+to descend the river and await the arrival of the <i>Lena</i>,
+but as neither he nor his signals were visible, the
+captain, after considerable difficulty, from the shallowness
+of the water, made his way through the delta, and
+on the 7th September reached the main stream, where
+the navigation was less difficult. Yakutsk was reached
+on the 21st September, dispatches were sent on to
+Irkutsk, and from thence it was telegraphed to Europe
+that the rounding of Cape Cheliuskin and the navigation
+of the Lena by a steamer from the Atlantic
+had been accomplished.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_113" href="#FNanchor_1_113" class="label">[1]</a> I allude to the accounts of Strahlenberg, De Lesseps, Billings,
+Ledyard, Dobell, Gordon, Cochrane, Erman, Cotterill, and Hill.</p>
+
+<p>Strahlenberg was a Swedish officer, who, at the beginning of the 18th
+century, was banished for 13 years to Siberia. He collected a vast amount
+of information concerning the country generally, and compiled polyglot
+tables of aboriginal languages, and amongst them that of the Yakutes
+inhabiting the valley of the Lena, of whose Pagan condition he gives
+many illustrations.</p>
+
+<p>M. de Lesseps was French Consul and interpreter to Count de la Perouse,
+the well-known circumnavigator. De Lesseps entered the country at
+Kamchatka in 1788, and wrote an account of his travels across Siberia
+and Europe to Paris.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Billings was an Englishman, who, after sailing with the celebrated
+Captain Cook, was employed by the Empress Katharine II. to
+make discoveries on the north-east coast of Siberia, and among the islands
+in the Eastern Ocean stretching to the American coast. For this purpose
+he proceeded to North-Eastern Siberia in 1785, sailed down the river
+Kolima, explored a portion of the country eastward, and then returned
+by way of Yakutsk.</p>
+
+<p>Another of Captain Cook’s officers, John Ledyard, had the most romantic
+enthusiasm for adventure, perhaps, of any man of his time. He conceived
+the project of travelling across Europe, Asia, and America as far as
+possible on foot, and to this end he set out from London with about £50
+only in his pocket. He reached Yakutsk, where he met with Captain
+Billings, and with him was hoping to proceed to America, when, by order
+of the Russian Court, Ledyard was arrested on suspicion of being a French
+spy, and was taken off to Moscow.</p>
+
+<p>Another journey across Northern Asia was made after the time of
+Billings by Peter Dobell, a counsellor of the Court of His Imperial
+Majesty the Emperor of Russia. Dobell landed in Kamchatka in 1812,
+and from thence proceeded overland to Europe.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_114" href="#FNanchor_2_114" class="label">[2]</a> Another journey from Okhotsk up the Lena to Irkutsk and Kiakhta,
+and then across Siberia to Europe, was made about 1820 by a merchant
+named Peter Gordon; but his notes are very short, and appear only in
+his “Fragment of a Tour through Persia.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_115" href="#FNanchor_3_115" class="label">[3]</a> Professor Erman received the Patron’s gold medal of the Royal
+Geographical Society of London in 1844, for his scientific researches in
+physical geography, meteorology, and magnetism around the globe in
+1828–30. His researches in Northern Asia were of especial value, particularly
+in Eastern Siberia and Kamchatka.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_116" href="#FNanchor_4_116" class="label">[4]</a> It was in one of these flat-bottomed boats that Mr. Hill descended
+the stream, in company with a Russian merchant, accomplishing the
+journey to Yakutsk in 21 days, with no worse mishaps by water than
+occasionally being driven on sand or mud banks, or into a forest of trees,
+all but submerged by the height of the spring floods.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Cochrane chose a more independent course. Being furnished
+with a Cossack, he drove from Irkutsk to the Lena, and, having procured
+an open canoe and two men, paddled down the stream. Proceeding day
+and night, they usually made from 100 to 120 miles a day, finding hospitable
+villages at intervals of from 15 to 18 miles, as far as Kirensk, and
+so arrived on the eighth day at Vitimsk. It was now late in the autumn,
+and the ice began to come down the river, which sometimes compelled
+the natives to strip, and, up to their waists in water, to track the boat, and
+this with the thermometer below freezing-point. At length the captain,
+in consequence of the difficulties of boating, was requested at one of the
+villages to proceed on horseback, which he did, and, being unable at the
+next station to get either horses or boat, he had to shoulder his knapsack
+and walk; and so, by means of walking, riding, and paddling, he reached
+Olekminsk. From thence to Yakutsk is about 400 miles, which, excepting
+the two last stages, the captain completed in a canoe, arriving on
+the 6th October. The weather was cold, snow was falling, and on
+approaching Yakutsk the canoe was caught in the ice, so that he was
+compelled to make the remainder of his journey on foot.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_117" href="#FNanchor_5_117" class="label">[5]</a> The difference of latitude, as pointed out by Mr. Trelawney Saunders,
+between Verko (or upper) Lensk (54° 8′) and Kirensk (57° 47′) is only
+3° 39′, or 219 geographical miles. The latter place is but little east of
+north from the former, so that the 500 miles must be mainly due to the
+windings of the stream.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_118" href="#FNanchor_6_118" class="label">[6]</a> In December, 1771, a party of Yakutes hunting on the Vilui, near
+its junction with the Lower Lena, discovered an unknown animal half-buried
+in the sand, but still retaining its flesh, covered with a thick skin.
+The carcase was too much decomposed to allow of more than the head
+and two feet being forwarded to Irkutsk; but they were seen by the
+great traveller and naturalist, Peter Simon Pallas, who pronounced the
+animal a rhinoceros, not particularly large of its kind, which might
+perchance have been born in Central Asia.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1799 a bank of frozen earth near the mouth of the Lena
+broke away, and revealed to a Tunguse, named Schumachoff, the body
+of a mammoth. Hair, skin, flesh and all had been preserved by the
+frost; and seven years later Mr. Adams, of the Petersburg Academy,
+hearing of the discovery at Yakutsk, visited the spot. He found, however,
+that the greater part of the flesh had been eaten by wild animals
+and the dogs of the natives, though the eyes and brains remained. The
+entire carcase measured 9 ft. 4 in. high, and 16 ft. 4 in. from the point
+of the nose to the end of the tail, without including the tusks, which
+were 9 ft. 6 in. in length if measured along the curves. The two tusks
+weighed 360 lbs., and the head and tusks together 414 lbs. The skin
+was of such extraordinary weight that ten persons found great difficulty
+in carrying it. About 40 lbs. of hair, too, were collected, though much
+more of this was trodden into the sand by the feet of bears which had
+eaten the flesh. This skeleton is now in the Museum of the Academy
+at Petersburg.</p>
+
+<p>Again, in 1843, M. Middendorf found a mammoth on the Taz, between
+the Obi and the Yenesei, with some of the flesh in so perfect a condition
+that it was found possible to remove the ball of the eye, which is preserved
+in the Museum at Moscow.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_119" href="#FNanchor_7_119" class="label">[7]</a> It has been suggested that the abundant supplies of ivory which were
+at the command of the ancient Greek sculptors came by way of the Black
+Sea from the Siberian deposits. So far back as the time of Captain
+Billings, Martin Sauer, his secretary, tells us of one of the Arctic islands
+near the Siberian mainland, that “it is a mixture of sand and ice, so that
+when the thaw sets in and its banks begin to fall, many mammoth bones
+are found, and that all the isle is formed of the bones, of this extraordinary
+animal.” This account is to some extent corroborated by Figuier, who
+tells us that New Siberia and the Isle of Liakov are for the most part
+only an agglomeration of sand, ice, and elephants’ teeth; and at every
+tempest the sea casts ashore new quantities of mammoths’ tusks. Réclus
+speaks of an annual find of 15 tons of mammoth ivory, representing
+about 200 mammoths; and, about 1840, Middendorf estimated the number
+of mammoths discovered up to that time at 20,000.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_294">[294]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXV">
+    CHAPTER XXV.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>YAKUTSK.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>The province of Yakutsk.—Rivers.—Minerals.—The town of Yakutsk.—Its
+temperature.—Inhabitants.—The Yukaghirs.—The Yakutes.—Their
+dwellings.—Food.—Dress.—Products.—Occupations.—Industries.—Language.—Religion.—Route
+from Yakutsk to Okhotsk.—Reindeer
+riding.—Summer journey.—Treatment of horses.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> province of Yakutsk is the largest in Siberia,
+and covers an area of no less than a million and
+a half of square miles, and is therefore nearly as large
+as the whole of Europe, omitting Russia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_120" href="#Footnote_1_120" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The total
+population of this enormous province is 235,000,—that
+is to say, it has about one-seventh part of an inhabitant
+to each square mile. The yearly number of marriages
+is 5,000, and the births 12,000. The Russian town
+population in 1876 numbered about 2,000, and the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_295">[295]</span>
+country population 5,000; of which there were hereditary
+nobles, 100; personal nobles, 450; ecclesiastical
+persons, 600; military, 1,700; and the rest, upwards of
+220,000, were natives—that is to say, Tunguses, Yukaghirs,
+and Yakutes. The natives are divided into
+communities, under <i lang="ru">golovahs</i>, or mayors, of their own
+race, who are, however, subject to the Russian authorities.
+The province is divided into five uyezds.</p>
+
+<p>The chief mineral product is gold, which has frequently
+to be procured from frozen ground. The
+valleys of the Vitim and Olekma especially are rich in
+this mineral. In the valley of the Vitim, about 200
+versts from its mouth, are quarries of mica, from which
+the whole of Siberia was formerly supplied with a substitute
+for window-glass. Mr. Erman procured plates
+of brown mica from one to two feet square. As, however,
+I saw glass used everywhere, I presume that the
+demand for mica must have diminished greatly.</p>
+
+<p>In the forests of the Vitim and Olekma are caught
+the smallest sables, with the finest, blackest, and hence
+most valuable furs. The squirrels of the district are
+hunted only in winter, when they are sometimes black
+and sometimes bright grey, their fur in summer being
+red, the hair loose, and skin valueless. The black realize
+the highest price, and are frequently met with south
+of the river, while north of the Lena none but grey are
+captured. The hunters think that this difference depends
+upon the nature of the forest.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_121" href="#Footnote_2_121" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_296">[296]</span></p>
+
+<p>The town of Yakutsk, which the natives proudly
+call “the city of the Yakutes,” presents a curious medley
+of dwellings; for there are seen not only the Government
+buildings, and the wooden houses of the Russians,
+but also the less pretentious winter dwellings of the
+Yakutes, and even their summer yourts. Oxen here
+take the place of horses. Women and girls ride them
+astride; their sledges also are often drawn by them,
+the driver being mounted on one of the animals. The
+cathedral is built of stone, and dedicated to St. Nicolas;
+and there are in the town some half-dozen churches,
+in which certain parts of the service, if not the whole,
+are performed in the Yakute language. The chief
+ecclesiastic is Dionysius, Bishop of Yakutsk and Viluisk,
+who has in his hyperborean diocese 49 churches and
+chapels, and one monastery containing 13 monks.</p>
+
+<p>Yakutsk has the credit of being the coldest place
+upon the face of the earth. The mean temperature of
+the air is 18·5 Fahrenheit. A degree of cold takes
+place there every year between the 17th December
+and 18th February, exceeding 58° below zero. During
+Mr. Erman’s stay the cold reached even 71·5 below
+zero. Mercury, therefore, is frozen at Yakutsk for
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_297">[297]</span>
+one-sixth of the year. An exceedingly warm summer
+follows this cold winter, and continues from about the
+12th May to the 17th September. The ground is then
+thawed three feet deep, and though the crops rest on
+perpetually frozen strata, yet they produce fifteen-fold
+on an average, and in particular places forty-fold.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_122" href="#Footnote_3_122" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>Yakutsk has a population of 4,800, some of whom
+are political exiles, Scoptsi, etc., who live both here and
+in the villages along the river. It would require no
+great stretch of the imagination, however, to call all the
+Russian inhabitants exiles, for they are upwards of 5,000
+miles from Petersburg.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_123" href="#Footnote_4_123" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> As we travelled on the Obi
+we had for fellow-passengers an official with four children
+and a woman, bound for Yakutsk; and when, outside
+Tomsk, we saw the party stowed into one tarantass, we
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_298">[298]</span>
+pitied them in prospect of the remainder of their 3,000
+miles’ journey.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian population of the province is confined
+almost exclusively to the banks of the Upper Lena,
+Yakutsk, and its neighbourhood. The Tunguses are
+found at the extreme east and west of the province,
+and have been already spoken of in a previous chapter.</p>
+
+<p>Of another race, the Yukaghirs, it may suffice to
+say that they were computed, in 1876, at only 1,600
+in number, and that very little is known of them. They
+roam over a tract on the shores of the Northern Ocean
+lying between the Yana and the Kolima. They were
+once powerful, and on the rivers Yana and Indigirka
+tumuli and ancient burial-places are pointed out, containing
+corpses armed with bows, arrows, and spears.
+With these, too, lies buried the magic drum, well known
+in Lapland. At one time there were more hearths of
+the Yukaghirs on the banks of the Kolima than stars in
+the sky—so their legend says. These people maintain
+themselves during the whole year on the reindeer they
+kill in spring and autumn. At such seasons the mosquitoes
+drive the tormented animals to take refuge in
+the rivers, and not until winter is coming do they return
+to the woods, the stags leading the way, followed by the
+hinds and their young. Posted under cover, the Yukaghirs
+discover the place where the herd will make the
+passage of a stream, and conceal their canoes under the
+banks till the animals take the water. Then they push
+out, and, having cut the helpless deer off from either
+shore, proceed to slaughter them, whilst swimming, with
+long spears, which they use with marvellous skill.</p>
+
+<p>The Yukaghirs are great smokers; their tobacco—the
+coarse species of the Ukraine—they mix with chips
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_299">[299]</span>
+to make it go further; and in smoking not a whiff is
+allowed to escape into the air, but all is inhaled and
+swallowed, producing an effect somewhat similar to
+a mild dose of opium. Tobacco is considered their
+first and greatest luxury. Women and children all
+smoke, the latter learning to do so as soon as they are
+able to toddle. Any funds remaining after the supply of
+tobacco has been laid in are devoted to the purchase of
+brandy. A Yukaghir, it is said, never intoxicates himself
+alone, but calls upon his family to share the drink,
+even children in arms being supplied with a portion.</p>
+
+<p>In the centre of the Yakutsk province, occupying the
+valley of the Lena, roam the Yakutes, some of whom I
+met as far off as Nikolaefsk. They are of middle
+height, and of a light copper colour, with black hair,
+which the men cut close. The sharp lines of their
+faces express indolent and amiable gentleness rather
+than vigour and passion. They reminded me of North
+American Indians; and I agree with Erman, who says
+that their appearance is that of a people who have
+grown wild rather than of a thoroughly and originally
+rude race. Those I saw, however, having been long
+settled among the Russians, had perhaps become somewhat
+more polished than their wandering brethren.
+As a race they are good-tempered, orderly, hospitable,
+and capable of enduring great privation with patience;
+but in independence of character they contrast unfavourably
+with their Tunguse neighbours. Lay a finger in
+anger on one of the Tunguses, and nothing will induce
+him to forget the insult; whereas with the Yakutes, the
+more they are thrashed the better they work.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_124" href="#Footnote_5_124" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_300">[300]</span></p>
+
+<p>The winter dwellings of the people have doors of
+raw hides, and log or wicker walls calked with cow-dung,
+and flanked with banks of earth to the height of
+the windows. The latter are made of sheets of ice,
+kept in their place from the outside by a slanting pole,
+the lower end of which is fixed in the ground. They
+are rendered air-tight by pouring on water, which
+quickly freezes round the edges; and the fact that it
+takes a long time to melt these blocks of ice thus fixed
+is highly suggestive of what the temperature must be,
+both without and within. The flat roof is covered with
+earth, and over the door, facing the east, the boards
+project, making a covered place in front, like the
+natives’ houses in the Caucasus. Under the same roof
+are the winter shelters for the cows and for the people,
+the former being the larger. The fireplace consists of
+a wicker frame plastered over with clay, room being
+left for a man to pass between the fireplace and the
+wall. The hearth is made of beaten earth, and on it
+there is at all times a blazing fire, and logs of larch-wood
+throw up showers of sparks to the roof. Young
+calves, like children, are often brought into the house
+to the fire, whilst their mothers cast a contented look
+through the open door at the back of the fireplace.
+Behind the fireplace, too, are the sleeping-places of the
+people, which in the poorer dwellings consist only of a
+continuation of the straw laid in the cow-house.</p>
+
+<p>In the winter they have but about five hours of daylight,
+which penetrates as best it can through the icy
+windows; and in the evening all the party sit round
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_301">[301]</span>
+the fire on low stools, men and women smoking. The
+summer yourts of these people are formed of poles
+about 20 feet long, which are united at the top into a
+roomy cone, covered with pieces of bright yellow and
+perfectly flexible birch bark, which are not merely
+joined together, but are also handsomely worked along
+the seams with horsehair thread.</p>
+
+<p>The houses are not overstocked with furniture, and
+the chief cooking utensil is a large iron pot. At the
+time of the invasion of the Russians, this article was
+deemed such a treasure that the price asked for a pot
+was as many sable-skins as would fill it. They use also
+in winter a bowl-shaped frame of wicker-work, plastered
+with frozen cow-dung, in which they pound their porridge.
+With regard to their food, the Yakutes, if they
+have their choice, love to eat horse-flesh; and their
+adage says that to eat much meat, and grow fat upon
+it, is the highest destiny of man. They are the greatest
+gluttons. So far back as the days of Strahlenberg, it
+was said that four Yakutes would eat a horse. They
+rarely kill their oxen for food; and at a wedding, the
+favourite dish served up by the bride to her future
+lord is a boiled horse’s head, with horse-flesh sausages.
+When, however, horse-flesh or beef is wanting, they
+are not at all nice as to what they consume, for they
+eat the animals they take for fur, and woe to the unfortunate
+horse that becomes seriously injured in travel!
+It is killed and eaten then and there, the men taking
+off their girdles to give fair play to their stomachs,
+which swell after the fashion of a boa-constrictor. Thus
+earnestly do they aspire to their notion of the highest
+destiny of man! Milk is in general request among
+them, whether from cows or mares; and when they are
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_302">[302]</span>
+in the neighbourhood of the Russians, and can get flour,
+they do so; but far away in the forests they make a
+sort of porridge or bread, not exactly of sawdust, but
+of the under bark of the spruce, fir, and larch, which
+they cut in small pieces, or pound in a mortar, mixing
+it with milk, or with dried fish, or boiling it with
+glutinous tops of the young sprouts. In spring, when
+the sap is rising, they gather their bark harvest. They
+make also fermented beverages of milk; and in the
+height of summer, when the mares foal, an orgie is
+held, at which the men drain enormous bowls of this
+intoxicating liquor; whilst the women, denied the privilege
+of intoxication, solace themselves by getting as near
+to it as they can by smoking tobacco. The distillation
+of sour milk is also practised, producing a coarse spirit
+known as <i lang="ru">arigui</i>. They devour likewise enormous
+quantities of melted butter. This also can be prepared
+in such a way as to cause intoxication when taken in
+sufficient quantities.</p>
+
+<p>The dress of the Yakutes resembles in its main
+features that of the other natives of Siberia, save,
+perhaps, that they are fonder of ornaments. Both
+sexes riding a good deal on oxen and horses, a perpendicular
+slit is made up the back from the bottom of the
+<i lang="ru">sanayakh</i>, or upper garment, in order to render the
+wearer comfortable in the saddle, and some of the
+women add behind them a cushion or pad, to save
+them from the rough motion of the animals. During
+the milder part of the year a robe, made of very pliable
+leather, stained yellow, is worn, which indoors is
+frequently laid aside, and males and females sit by the
+fire, leaving the upper part of the body naked. I
+bought a pair of women’s Yakute boots of this leather.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_303">[303]</span>
+They fit tight to the leg, and have at the top a flap of
+black velvet with red cloth trimming, which can be
+turned down and exposed for show in fair weather, or
+turned up, bringing the boots to the thighs. On each
+boot are two broad leather thongs, five or six feet long,
+to wind round the leg. Waterproof boots are here
+made, called by the Russians <i lang="ru">torbasis</i>. These are cut
+from horse-hide, steeped in sour milk, then smoked,
+and finally rubbed well with fat and fine soot. They
+last exceedingly well, and are an inestimable comfort
+to the wearer, enabling him to tramp through snow,
+water, and mud without inconvenience.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp49" id="p3022_ill" style="max-width: 61.6875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p3022_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      TUNGUSE GIRLS IN WINTER COSTUME.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>The Yakute women are clever in making up fur
+garments. When visiting a Yakute family, I was looking
+about for a souvenir, and could at first see nothing
+to buy. In the room hung a curious cradle, very
+nearly resembling a coal-scuttle, which, when travelling,
+they suspend at the side of a reindeer; but this was too
+large for me to bring away. At length the materfamilias
+drew out a box in which she kept her treasures.
+Among these were some large pieces of fur, each consisting
+of an immense number of the small pieces of
+white skin that are found under the squirrel’s neck.
+No piece was so large as the palm of the hand, and
+she had sewn them together with great industry.
+These I bought, much to the disgust of her daughter,
+for whom they were to have made a dandy garment.
+I purchased also of the old lady what I prized more,
+namely, an “<i lang="ru">itti</i>,” or large cap, coming down with flaps
+at the ears. The crown is made of the skins of sables’
+feet, and it has a border all round of the fur of sables’
+tails. The sight of this, since my return, has often
+excited the admiration of my lady friends.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_304">[304]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Yakutes who inhabit the inclement region
+adjacent to the Frozen Ocean have neither horses nor
+oxen, but breed large numbers of dogs, which draw
+them to and fro on their fishing excursions. Even
+those living on the 62nd parallel keep cattle under
+far greater difficulties than usual, for they have
+to make long journeys to collect hay, and do not
+always find enough. The cold prevents their breeding
+sheep, goats, or poultry. Nevertheless, cattle
+and hunting are their chief means of subsistence, for
+they do not in general cultivate the land, though in
+the gardens at Yakutsk are grown potatoes, cabbages,
+radishes, and turnips; gherkins, too, are reared in
+hot-beds.</p>
+
+<p>Some products of Yakutsk industry are purchased
+by the Russians, particularly floor-cloths of white and
+coloured felts, which are cut in strips and sewed
+together like mosaic. From the earliest times they
+have been able to procure and work for themselves
+metals.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_125" href="#Footnote_6_125" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>The language of the Yakutes, which is largely spoken
+by the Russians who live among them, is one of the
+principal means by which we are led to assume their
+Turkish origin, for Latham says their speech is intelligible
+at Constantinople, and their traditions (for
+literature they have none) bespeak a southern origin.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_305">[305]</span></p>
+
+<p>Here are some Yakute words compared with
+Turkish:—</p>
+
+<table class="autotable yakute">
+<tr>
+<th class="tdl">English.</th>
+<th class="tdl">Yakute.</th>
+<th class="tdl">Turk.<br></th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Yes</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Sittee</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Evet<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">No</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Socht</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Yokh<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Well</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Outchigey</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Peky, Aee<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Bad</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Thoosahane</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Fené<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Bread</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Astobitt</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Ek-mek<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Water</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">On</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Soo<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Beef</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Augauss</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Seyir<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Horse</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Att</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Att<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Road</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Coll</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Yol<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Man</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Kissi</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Kissi, Adami<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Woman</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Jaiktorr</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Aorat<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Tree</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Marss</i><br></td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Rain</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Samirr</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Yaghmoor<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">One</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Bare</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Bir<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Two</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Akee</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Eekee<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Three</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Oose</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Ootch<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Four</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Terte</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Dort<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Five</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Baiss</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Besh<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Six</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Alta</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Altee<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Seven</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Sett</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Yedee<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Eight</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Agaouss</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Antuz<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Nine</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Togouss</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Tokuz<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Ten</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Owni</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">On<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Eleven</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Onordoubis</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">On-bir<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Twelve</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Okorduchi</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">On-eekee<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Twenty</td>
+<td class="tdl"><i lang="sah">Surbia</i></td>
+<td class="tdl">Igirme</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Strahlenberg calls these people Pagans, but the
+latest writers call them Christians; and the method of
+their conversion was, it is said, extraordinary, for the
+Russian priests not making much headway against
+their superstitions, an ukase was one day issued setting
+forth that the good and loyal nation of the Yakutes
+were thought worthy to enter, and were consequently
+admitted into, the Russian Church, to become a part
+of the Tsar’s Christian family, and entitled to all the
+privileges of the rest of his children. Such was the
+tenor of this strange proclamation, and success attended
+the measure. The new Christians showed perfect
+sincerity in the adoption of their novel faith, and the
+Russian priests have established their sway over the
+Yakute race, though amongst the outlying portion a
+lingering belief in Shamanism still survives, of which
+travellers from Yakutsk to Okhotsk have been made
+aware by their Yakute guides leaving them awhile in
+foggy weather, and stealing off into the forest to perform
+certain mysterious rites.</p>
+
+<p>The distance from Yakutsk to Okhotsk is 800 miles
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_306">[306]</span>
+and the journey, whether undertaken in summer or
+winter, is one of the severest. The map gives one
+the idea that it might almost be accomplished by
+ascending the river Aldan and one of its affluents to
+the Stanovoi mountains. The usual plan, however,
+is to leave Yakutsk on horseback, with all the luggage
+on pack-saddles. Some estimate may be formed of
+the traffic once passing on this route from the fact
+that there were formerly employed in it from 20,000
+to 30,000 horses. The postal service is still continued
+between Irkutsk and the Sea of Okhotsk; but there
+is no telegraph; hence the fact of Professor Nordenskiöld
+having been frozen in the ice on the north-east
+coast of Siberia was brought a long way by courier
+before it could be made known by telegram to Europe.</p>
+
+<p>One of the difficulties of the winter journey is the
+insufficient sleeping accommodation on the route. The
+houses, when they exist, are very bad, and when they
+fail, travellers sleep in a tent, or else upon furs and
+wraps in the open air. They usually lie, however, by
+a roaring fire, and so roast on one side whilst they
+freeze on the other—changing their position when
+need requires.</p>
+
+<p>After proceeding for some distance the traveller has
+to exchange his horse for a novel kind of steed—a
+reindeer, on which the mere gaining of one’s seat, to
+say nothing of keeping it, is by no means so easy as
+might be supposed.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_126" href="#Footnote_7_126" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Having gained his reindeer
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_307">[307]</span>
+seat, the English traveller may keep it—if he can. He
+will most likely fall off half-a-dozen times in the first
+quarter of an hour, until he discovers that he must
+poise himself in such a manner that his body may
+continually, and with ease, lend itself to a swinging
+motion.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_127" href="#Footnote_8_127" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> There is a second lesson to be learned by
+the uninitiated, which is usually imparted in a very
+impressive manner; for should the cavalier attempt
+to hold with the knees, and the cushion consequently
+slip back, the moment the weight is felt on the animal’s
+back, he bends under his haunches and lets the rider
+slip to the ground, and that perhaps in ice, snow, or a
+pool of water.</p>
+
+<p>As the traveller approaches Okhotsk he has again
+to change his mode of conveyance, to be drawn this
+time by dogs. All three methods of travel have their
+delights on this lonely journey, the tedium of which
+is sometimes relieved by an extemporary hunting
+scene.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_128" href="#Footnote_9_128" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_308">[308]</span></p>
+
+<p>The difficulties of the summer journey are somewhat
+different in character. A large part of the way lies
+over swampy ground, on which the causeways are not
+kept in repair, and where the horses flounder in mud
+and water, into which they occasionally pitch the rider.
+It is no uncommon thing for horses to die under the
+fatigues of the way. The Yakutes, moreover, have a
+cruel fashion of giving their horses little food whilst
+journeying. A similar custom obtains farther east,
+among the Gilyaks, where I found that, though they
+gave a dog two pieces of fish daily when at home,
+yet, when travelling, they gave him only one, because
+the dogs immediately after eating are always lazy and
+feeble.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_129" href="#Footnote_10_129" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p>These, then, are some of the difficulties of the old
+route, from Irkutsk to the Pacific, which happily it did
+not fall to my lot to be obliged to encounter; but I
+crossed the Baikal instead, and, after making a <i lang="fr">détour</i>
+to the Chinese frontier, continued across the Buriat
+steppe to the Amur.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_120" href="#FNanchor_1_120" class="label">[1]</a> It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the west by the
+Yeneseisk, and on the east by the Sea-coast provinces; whilst on its south
+lie the three provinces of Irkutsk, Trans-Baikal, and the Amur. The
+northern and western portions of the province are flat, but towards the
+south and south-east are the Yablonoi and Stanovoi mountain ranges,
+continuations, in a north-easterly direction, of the mighty Altai chain.
+The great river of the province is the Lena, whose waters are drained
+from an area of 800,000 square miles. From the slopes on the western
+side of Baikal its upper portion runs in a north-easterly direction as far as
+Yakutsk, after which the Lower Lena runs due north to the Arctic Ocean.
+The total length of the river is about 2,500 miles, with a fall of 3,000
+feet. East of the Lower Lena are the rivers Yana, Indigirka, and Kolima,
+all of which are navigable and of considerable size, though small by
+comparison with their gigantic sister.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_121" href="#FNanchor_2_121" class="label">[2]</a> There are, says M. Réclus, nearly 50 species of fur animals, and
+millions of specimens killed during the hunting season. The annual
+export of furs from Siberia, not including those taken from sea animals,
+represents a gross value of nearly half a million sterling. The fur which
+regulates the price of all others is that of the sable, which is worth at least
+from 16<i>s.</i> to £1, and sometimes commands, even in Siberia, as much as
+£6 a skin. Only the back of the animal is used for the best garments, one
+of which may contain 80 skins, and rise to the value of nearly £500. The
+fur of the black fox is still more appreciated, and a single skin sometimes
+fetches £30. Squirrel skins by themselves constitute about a third of the
+Siberian revenue from furs; ten, twelve, and even fifteen millions of these
+animals being killed during their migrations in a single year. China
+receives a considerable number of these skins at Kiakhta, but more find
+their way to Europe. The furs brought to the fair of Irbit in the Urals
+in 1876 were as follows:—</p>
+
+
+<table class="autotable animals">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Grey squirrels</td>
+<td class="tdr">5,000,000</td>
+<td class="tdc">skins</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Ermines</td>
+<td class="tdr">215,000</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Hares</td>
+<td class="tdr">300,000</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Foxes</td>
+<td class="tdr">82,000</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Martens of various kinds</td>
+<td class="tdr">750,000</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Sables</td>
+<td class="tdr">12,000</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Others</td>
+<td class="tdr">200,000</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_122" href="#FNanchor_3_122" class="label">[3]</a> It is well known that in the northern parts of Siberia the ground is
+always frost-bound, but to what depth is not so easily determined. During
+the stay, however, of Mr. Erman at Yakutsk it happened that a resident was
+digging a well, down which the man of science went, and pronounced
+that he found the soil frozen to a depth of 50 feet below the surface. So
+accustomed, however, do the natives become to the cold, that with the
+thermometer at unheard-of degrees below freezing point, the Yakute women,
+with bare arms, stand in the open-air markets, chattering and joking as
+pleasantly as if in genial spring. Inside their houses, in the heated part
+of the rooms, they get the temperature up to 65° or 75°; but one day,
+when the thermometer stood at 9°, Mr. Erman found the children of both
+sexes running about quite naked, not only in the house, but even in the
+open air. In fact, the great cold is not thought a grievance in Siberia,
+for a man clothed in furs may sleep at night in an open sledge when the
+mercury freezes in the thermometer; and, wrapped up in his pelisse, he
+can lie without inconvenience on the snow under a thin tent when the
+temperature of the air is 30° below zero.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_123" href="#FNanchor_4_123" class="label">[4]</a> I was told by a legal authority that some of the political exiles are
+sent to the province of Yakutsk, but, after the figures just quoted, it would
+seem that their number cannot be very large; of hereditary nobles in the
+province there were said to be, in 1876, only 100, and of personal nobles
+only 450. If, then, there be deducted from these the Governor and his
+staff, military officers, and tchinovniks of all grades, there would not be
+left a large margin for the class from which political exiles are thought to
+come, supposing, that is, that they are included in this return.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_124" href="#FNanchor_5_124" class="label">[5]</a> Strahlenberg divides them into 10 tribes, and Syboreen’s Almanack
+for 1876 gives their number at 210,000. They belong to the great Turk
+family, and hence their Siberian locality is remarkable, because the Turks
+have ever been the people to displace others, whereas the Yakutes have
+been themselves displaced, and driven into this inhospitable climate, it is
+supposed, by the stronger Buriats.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_125" href="#FNanchor_6_125" class="label">[6]</a> The iron ore of the Vilui was smelted by the Yakutes long before the
+advent of the Russians, and the other tribes got from them iron axes,
+awls, and tools for stripping and dressing hides. The Yakutes also make
+copper ornaments for clothes and harness, and the metal plates which
+they sew on their girdles. Even now, although they use European guns,
+they still make for themselves the great knife, or dagger, which is worn
+at the waist. The Yakutsk steel is more flexible than the Russian, and
+yet blades made of it will cut copper or pewter as easily as European
+blades.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_126" href="#FNanchor_7_126" class="label">[7]</a> To get on the animal’s <em>back</em>, as one would mount a donkey, would
+probably cripple the deer for life. The saddle is therefore placed on its
+shoulder close to the neck, and to mount, the rider, holding the bridle,
+stands at the right side of the animal, with his face turned forwards. He
+then raises his left foot to the saddle, which he never touches with his
+hands, and springing with the right leg, and aided also by a pole, which
+he holds in his right hand, he gains his seat. The native girls and
+women are as expert in this jumping as the men, and rarely want assistance
+in mounting.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_127" href="#FNanchor_8_127" class="label">[8]</a> The practised reindeer riders acquire the habit of striking gently
+with the heel, alternately right and left, at every step, just behind the
+animal’s shoulders. This is done, not for the purpose of stimulating the
+deer, but because the motion described is the surest means of maintaining
+equilibrium. The staff, too, with which the rider mounts is carried
+in his hand, and is used for maintaining an equipoise in riding; but any
+attempt of the rider, in the first critical moment, to support himself by
+resting the staff on the ground, is sure to end in his being unseated.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_128" href="#FNanchor_9_128" class="label">[9]</a> Mr. Erman describes the killing, during his journey, of a wild sheep,
+and the joy of the Yakutes at the prospect of getting fresh meat for supper.
+One of them cried out characteristically, “I will stay awake the whole
+night, and eat till we set out.” Whilst the carcase was being prepared,
+every one cut for himself some thin wooden skewers, on which he spitted
+a row of little bits of meat. These were only appetizers, to be followed
+by large pieces boiled in the pot. The hunter, however, who had killed
+the sheep claimed as his perquisite the animal’s head; the brains, as a
+special delicacy, he sucked out raw, and cut out the eyes to be dressed
+for his own exclusive benefit.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_129" href="#FNanchor_10_129" class="label">[10]</a> It does not appear that the Yakutes are otherwise cruel to their
+horses, for Erman relates that, on going up to a horse that had
+carried him many miles, to pat his neck by way of saying adieu, the
+Yakutes came up and embraced the other horses, putting their arms
+round their necks and hugging them like children. Mr. Hill, too, discovered
+in a very practical way the regard of the Yakutes for their
+horses, when, food having run short, and after a dinner of only cranberries
+and nuts, he proposed that one of the animals should be killed and eaten,
+the Yakutes replied that they never killed one of their horses until they had
+passed five whole days together without any sort of food. It would be a
+shame, they said, that while they had tea and a morsel of sugar, and the
+prospect before them of getting other food, one of the poor creatures
+should be slain. Mr. Hill, therefore, and his merchant friend had to take
+their guns and hunt for game, with a keenness which they had never
+known before.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_309">[309]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVI">
+    CHAPTER XXVI.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>ACROSS LAKE BAIKAL TO TROITZKOSAVSK.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Leaving Irkutsk.—The Angara.—Approach to the Baikal.—Its shores
+and fish.—Steaming across.—Seizing post-horses.—Arrival at
+Verchne Udinsk.—Smuggling at the prison.—Arrival at Selenginsk.—English
+mission to Buriats.—English graves.—Old scholars.—Story
+of the mission.—Journey to Troitzkosavsk.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>We</span> left Irkutsk on Thursday, July 10th, after a
+stay that could hardly be called enjoyable,
+though amid the confusion we met with much more
+consideration than could have been expected. For
+the first night we slept, as already stated, in our
+tarantass, and I took my morning bath in the pantry.
+What a treat, too, was that bath, deliciously cold from
+the Angara, to a man who had not taken his clothes
+off for more than a week! During our stay we made
+the acquaintance of several officers, of whom there is
+no lack at Irkutsk, as there are usually in barracks
+about 2,000 troops. It was very difficult to procure
+provisions. On sending out on the morning of our
+departure, all the white bread that could be found was
+one penny loaf, and that somewhat stale. It seemed,
+therefore, that I should have to come down to rye
+bread; but some pancakes were made for me, the
+difficulty was thus surmounted, and by two o’clock
+we had fairly begun our 300 miles to Kiakhta. Our
+baggage and remaining books were still too heavy to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_310">[310]</span>
+be taken on the same vehicle, and we therefore
+stowed away ourselves and our personal effects in the
+tarantass, and the boxes followed in a post-conveyance,
+out of which they were changed at every station. We
+wished to make only 40 miles before night, to Lake
+Baikal, and then wait till morning at Listvenitznaya
+for the steamer.</p>
+
+<p>We had not proceeded far before we drove along
+the banks of the Angara, which is, in some respects,
+the most remarkable river in Siberia. There
+are scores of streams and rivulets running into Lake
+Baikal, of which the more important are the Upper
+Angara, the Barguzin, and the Selenga; but the
+Angara is the only one that runs out, and it does
+so with such impetuosity that the rapid by which the
+water leaves the lake never freezes even with the
+temperature of the air at 24° below zero; and though
+the ice is six feet thick on the lake, yet, all the winter
+through, ducks float on the bosom of the rapid. I
+have heard it suggested that there may be hot-springs
+just there; but whether this is so or not, the waters of
+the lake and the Angara are particularly cold.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_130" href="#Footnote_1_130" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Shortly after leaving Irkutsk the road enters a
+wooded part of the Angara valley, and as the road
+winds along it, many points are passed presenting
+magnificent views. In some parts enormous sandstone
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_311">[311]</span>
+cliffs arise out of the water, crowned with dark
+pines and cedars; in others the thick forest descends
+to the river’s brink, and the broad sheet of water is
+seen rushing madly onwards. Afterwards the valley
+becomes more rugged, with deep ravines running up
+into the mountains. Beyond this the road has been
+cut along the edge of a cliff at a considerable height
+above the river, and, about five miles before reaching
+the Baikal, a scene is presented that may well cause
+the traveller to stop. The valley becomes wider, and
+the mountains rise abruptly to a much greater elevation.
+The Angara is here more than a mile in width,
+and this great body of water is seen rolling down a
+steep incline, forming a rapid nearly four miles in
+length. At the head of this, and in the centre of the
+stream, a great mass of rock rises, called the <i lang="ru">Shaman
+Kamen</i>, or “Priest,” or “spirit’s stone,” held sacred
+by the followers of Shamanism, and not to be passed
+by them without an act of devotion. When Shamanism
+prevailed in this neighbourhood, human sacrifices
+were made at the sacred rock, the victim with his hands
+tied being tossed into the torrent below. Beyond is
+the broad expanse of the Baikal, extending about 50
+miles, to where its waves wash the foot of Amar
+Daban, whose summit, even in June, is usually covered
+with snow. The mighty torrent throwing up its jets
+of spray, the rugged rocks with their fringes of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_312">[312]</span>
+pendent birch overtopped by lofty pines, and the
+colouring on the mountains, produce a picture of extraordinary
+beauty and grandeur. A few miles further,
+and the Baikal is seen spreading out like a sea, and
+its waves are heard beating on the rocky shore.</p>
+
+<p>The storms on the lake are very severe. They say,
+at Irkutsk, it is only upon the Baikal in the autumn
+that a man learns to pray from his heart. The most
+dangerous wind is the north-west. It is called the
+mountain wind, whilst that from the south-west is
+called the “<em>deep</em> sea-breeze.” Formerly, in crossing,
+it was no uncommon occurrence for a boat or barge to
+be detained three weeks on a voyage of 40 miles,
+without being able to land on either shore. This
+induced an enterprising merchant to have a hull built
+on the lake, and engines, boiler, and machinery
+brought 4,000 miles overland from Petersburg; and
+when the new vessel steamed across in a gale, both
+Siberians and Mongols looked on with not a little
+astonishment.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_131" href="#Footnote_2_131" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>The fish of the Baikal are abundant, and are caught
+in variety, such as the <i lang="ru">omullé</i>, somewhat like the
+herring; the <i lang="ru">suig</i>, which resembles but is smaller than
+the sturgeon; the <i lang="ru">askina</i>, the pike, the carp, the
+<i lang="ru">lavaret</i>, and a white fish called the <i lang="ru">tymain</i>. Travellers
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_313">[313]</span>
+also tell of a remarkable fish called the <i lang="ru">golomain</i>,
+which is only seen when thrown on shore during a
+violent tempest, and is of so oily a nature that it melts
+in the sun, or on the approach of heat, leaving only
+its skeleton and skin. It is a remarkable fact also
+that the seal of the ocean is found in the lake. About
+2,000 are killed yearly.</p>
+
+<p>The natives call the lake <i lang="ru">Svyatoe More</i>, the “Holy
+Sea,” and aver that no one was ever lost in its
+waters; for when a person is drowned therein, the
+waves invariably throw his body on shore. It must
+be a pleasant sensation to cross this lake in winter.
+The ice is as clear, transparent, and as smooth
+as glass, so that travellers describe the difficulty of
+realizing that they are not gliding on water. The
+journey across is made in a remarkably short time.
+Mr. Erman travelled thus 7 German miles (or 27
+English) in 2¼ hours, which for horse travelling must
+be allowed to be extraordinary. Formerly there was a
+winter station on the ice, half-way across, for changing
+horses; but as the ice on one occasion gave way, and
+allowed the whole concern to disappear, they now
+cross the lake at a single stage. There is a road
+round the south end of the lake, but in summer the
+crossing by steamer is usually preferred.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_314">[314]</span></p>
+
+<p>We reached the station about six or eight hours
+after leaving Irkutsk, and, passing the night at a
+rough hotel, next morning got our tarantass on board,
+among half-a-dozen others, and steamed across. The
+steamer was called the <i>General Korsakoff</i>. It made a
+loud grunting, and out of its tall chimney emitted a
+cloud of sparks like the tail of a comet. I went
+below to see the engines, and found them of the most
+primitive kind—a huge boiler simply laid in a wooden
+hull. I offered for sale on board some of my books,
+and gave others away. This soon got me friends, and
+the engineer honoured me by playing a tune on his
+concertina. I went also into the captain’s cabin, and
+he was glad to buy some New Testaments. It was
+so chilly, however, on deck that I put on my ulster,
+and stowed myself away in the tarantass; after doing
+which, on the 11th of July, it was not difficult to
+believe what I had heard, that pigeons flying across
+the lake in winter sometimes drop dead from cold.</p>
+
+<p>As we drew near to the shore, we had the enjoyment
+of a mild piece of something like revenge. I
+have already observed that the traveller who has a
+crown podorojna takes precedence; but if two travellers
+come to a station, <em>both</em> having crown podorojnas,
+he who arrives first takes the horses. Moreover, “the
+rule of the road” is that one set of post-horses must
+not outstrip one that has started before; which rule,
+however, an extra tip to the yemstchik will sometimes
+evade. Now, as we came towards Irkutsk, we had
+been outstripped by a military officer travelling with
+his wife, who took the fresh horses we should have
+had; so that, when we arrived, it was feared we should
+be without. Whereupon the officer’s wife, addressing
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_315">[315]</span>
+me in French, asked half-triumphantly, and half in a
+mischievous joke, whether I did not find myself
+“without horses”? She happened, however, to be
+wrong. We obtained horses, and, at night, overtook
+our friends, broken down, with their tarantass undergoing
+repairs at another station. We therefore got
+ahead, till, on the Baikal, they overtook us again.
+We saw at a glance that there would be a rush for
+horses, and, therefore, immediately the boat touched,
+I sprang ashore, presented to the post-master my
+podorojna, and secured my team; whereas the officer,
+not knowing that I had more than an ordinary civilian’s
+paper, or relying, perhaps, upon the power of his
+crown podorojna, was not so quick, and failed to get
+his steeds; and as we rolled away we heard him
+storming at the post-master for allowing us to have
+them before he had been served.</p>
+
+<p>We drove for some distance on an elevated plateau
+beside the eastern shore of the lake, from which we got
+many good views of its waters, and where we observed
+at the roadside red Turk’s-head lilies, similar to but
+smaller than those seen in English gardens, and yellow
+lilies. There were likewise in the neighbourhood
+abundance of strawberries, raspberries, and whortleberries.
+Among the trees were cedars up to 120 feet
+in height; also the balsam poplar, which here attains a
+growth sufficiently large to allow the natives of the coast
+to make their canoes of a single log; likewise the cherry-tree
+and the Siberian apple. A black and white jackdaw,
+as my companion called it, made its appearance;
+and the birds of prey appeared more numerous, as they
+well might be in the vicinity of a larger animal population;
+for in these Baikal forests are found martens,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_316">[316]</span>
+squirrels, foxes, wolves, the lynx, the elk, the wild
+boar, and the bear—the last feeding on berries in
+summer, and on cedar-nuts raked up from beneath the
+snow in winter.</p>
+
+<p>Having taken the lead on the road from the Baikal,
+we were anxious to keep it, though things looked
+threatening on arriving at the first station, where the
+post-master said there were no horses. We brought
+our crown podorojna to bear, and then the letter of
+the Minister at Petersburg, but to no purpose. There
+were no post-horses, he said, though there was a man
+standing near who would lend us private horses at
+double fares. To this we should have had to agree,
+but we pulled out lastly our <i lang="ru">blanco</i> letter, and this
+gained the day; for the post-master, on seeing that, said
+to the would-be extortioner, “You must let them have
+the horses”; and so on we trotted through a country
+more hilly than anything we had passed, till at six
+o’clock we arrived at Verchne Udinsk. This place
+might very well be called “the Amur and China Junction,”
+for to turn to the left brings the traveller to the
+Pacific, and to turn to the right leads to Peking.</p>
+
+<p>It was now Saturday afternoon, and we were anxious
+to get on, if possible, a few stations further, to Selenginsk,
+which was the scene of the labours of some English
+missionaries, and there to spend the Sunday to inquire
+about their work. The old difficulty of horses, however,
+cropped up, for they could let us have none on
+the instant, and every one was on tiptoe expecting
+the passing through of the Governor-General, Baron
+Friedrichs. I have already mentioned that his Excellency
+was at some mineral springs on the Mongolian
+frontier, and, having heard of the fire at Irkutsk, he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_317">[317]</span>
+was now returning. Everything, therefore, had to be
+in readiness. The post-house was swept and garnished,
+and we were requested not to go into the large guest-room,
+where the tables and chairs were arranged for
+his Excellency’s visit. Horses, however, were promised
+quickly as a favour, and meanwhile we strolled
+into the town.</p>
+
+<p>Verchne—that is, Upper—Udinsk is the capital of
+an uyezd, and has a population of 3,500. It is a clean
+little town, and, upon entering the market square, it
+was easy to see that we were approaching the borders
+of the Celestial Empire—for here was John Chinaman,
+with open shop, standing behind the counter selling
+tea. We found also, to our great satisfaction, a baker’s
+shop, where was not only white bread, but all manner
+of bake-meats, of which we proceeded to make havoc
+then and there. The white bread was 75 per cent.
+dearer than at Tobolsk, but I was only too thankful to
+get a store at any price, my pancakes being all but
+gone. For lemonade they asked 6<i>s.</i> a bottle, or 6<i>d.</i> a
+glass. It was like watered lemon syrup. Fresh butter
+cost a rouble a pound, and was obtained with difficulty.</p>
+
+<p>There is a prison in Verchne Udinsk, which we
+passed at the side of the road, and the prisoners were
+looking from the windows. Here had recently occurred
+an incident illustrative of Goryantchikoff’s statement,
+in his “Buried Alive,” that some of his fellow-prisoners
+were spirit-dealers, and frequently smuggled liquor into
+the prison in the entrails of cows or oxen. For this
+purpose the entrails were washed and filled with water,
+to keep them damp and ready to receive the liquor.
+When filled, they were wound by the smuggler round
+his body and thighs, and so brought into the prison.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_318">[318]</span>
+On the afternoon of our arrival, a drunken woman had
+been detected thus carrying in <i lang="ru">vodka</i>. We did not
+visit the building, but left with the Ispravnik half-a-dozen
+New Testaments, and the same number or
+Gospels for Tatars, and of Scripture portions in
+Mongolian. The present was not unappreciated, for
+the Ispravnik, learning that I was going to the far east,
+gave me an introduction to his son-in-law at Blagovestchensk,
+which afterwards proved useful.</p>
+
+<p>At last we started, and trotted on through the night
+to Selenginsk, and spent there the remainder of the
+following day. We called on the Ispravnik, who, with
+his wife, received us politely; and the latter, finding
+that we had good books to dispose of, wished to purchase
+some, which I allowed her to do to the value of
+three roubles. We also asked the Ispravnik’s acceptance
+of some portions of Scripture in Mongolian for
+distribution among the surrounding Buriats. Then
+conversation followed about the English mission, of
+which Selenginsk was for 13 years the head-quarters,
+but ceased to be so about 40 years ago.</p>
+
+<p>The Ispravnik had nothing to say of the missionaries
+but what was good and kind,—a repetition of what I
+had heard elsewhere. A house, he told us, was still
+standing on the spot where the missionaries lived,
+and he furnished us with the names of persons who
+could give us further information. We went, therefore,
+direct to the site of the mission station, where we
+found some out-buildings, very much like those of an
+English farmyard, and strongly suggestive of home.
+There was also a nice house, which had been built
+near the spot on which formerly stood the one inhabited
+by the Englishmen. The garden remained, and in it
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_319">[319]</span>
+we were taken to a walled enclosure—a little graveyard—in
+which were five graves: those of Mrs. Yule,
+Mrs. Stallybrass, and three children. The place had
+been recently renovated, at the expense of a missionary
+in China, and we were pleased to see the resting-place
+of our compatriots looking so neat and orderly. The
+garden commanded a pretty view of the valley of the
+Selenga, and there was pointed out across the river
+the site on which the town stood in the early part of
+the century, till, being destroyed by fire, it was rebuilt
+on the opposite side. The lady who occupied the
+house told us that now and then a traveller turns aside
+to see the spot, and that the ignorant people say that
+the English people come out of their graves at night—a
+report she is at no pains to contradict, on the plea
+that, as the house is in a lonely position, the idea may
+conduce to protect her from thieves.</p>
+
+<p>After having been shown what there was of interest
+about the place, we called on an old man—a Russian—named
+Ivlampi Melnikoff, who, in his boyhood, had
+attended the mission school. When he heard that one
+of the missionaries, Mr. Stallybrass, was still living,
+and that I had seen him just before leaving England,
+he seemed much pleased, and spoke with affection of
+his teachers. He had not opened a book for 40 years,
+and so had forgotten how to read, but he remembered,
+and inquired particularly for, some of the missionaries’
+sons, and sent to them his respects. The old man
+had lost sight of his Buriat schoolfellows, and thought
+that not one of them became a Christian, though he
+afterwards remembered that one was baptized into
+the Russian Church. Besides this old Russian we
+saw the nephew of one who had been a pupil in the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_320">[320]</span>
+school, and heard of an old man living some 35 versts
+distant, still a Buriat, who, as a boy, had been a
+scholar. We had the same testimony from both witnesses,
+that has been repeated by several travellers,
+that the missionaries did not baptize a single convert.
+None of them, however, said what I did not know
+until I returned to England, and spoke to Mr. Stallybrass
+upon the subject, namely, that the missionaries
+were under agreement with the Russian Government
+<em>not</em> to baptize any converts.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_132" href="#Footnote_3_132" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>We continued our journey from Selenginsk for twelve
+hours more, through a country which gave me my first
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_321">[321]</span>
+experience of a Russian steppe, a tract of undulating
+land with a sandy soil, covered with a little grass and
+a reedy-looking herb, but suffering from a lack of
+humidity, as the tundra suffers from lack of warmth.
+Trees were visible only here and there, but water was
+abundant, sometimes in large lakes; so that the hilly
+roads, the expanse of water, and the treeless waste,
+reminded me sometimes of the scenery of our Wiltshire
+downs, and, in one or two places, of the English lakes.
+As we approached our destination the road became
+more and more sandy, and very heavy for the horses;
+but at last, on Monday, the 14th July, we reached
+Kiakhta.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_130" href="#FNanchor_1_130" class="label">[1]</a> As we approached Telma my thermometer at noon in the shade stood
+at 85°, and when crossing a stream called the Ija, the temperature of the
+water was 70°; but coming on the same day to the Angara, nearly 100
+miles from Baikal, the temperature of the river was only 50°; and when
+crossing the Baikal itself, the atmosphere registered 45° and the water
+only 40°. The Angara is the last river in Siberia to close, which it does
+about New Year’s Day (sometimes not till the middle of January); and
+the first to open, namely, about the 11th April. The lake is 1,200 feet
+above the sea level, and the current of the river is remarkably swift, as
+the traveller will infer should he overtake a barge being towed against
+the stream by perhaps 20 horses. Though the distance is only 40
+miles from Irkutsk, a barge takes three days to be dragged up to the
+rapid, and then for the rapid itself it requires another day, even with
+double the number of horses. This refers, however, to a large <i lang="ru">soudno</i>,
+or vessel, with a bluff bow and broad stern, which might almost as well
+sail sideways as speed ahead, and usually carries 600 chests and 25,000
+bricks of tea.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_131" href="#FNanchor_2_131" class="label">[2]</a> The basin of the lake is about 400 miles in length and 35 miles in
+width, covering an area of 14,000 square miles. It has a circumference
+of nearly 1,200 miles. This, therefore, is the <em>largest fresh-water lake</em> in
+the Old World; and, next to the Caspian and the Aral, is the largest
+inland sheet of water in Asia. Several travellers have crossed the lake
+<i lang="fr">en route</i> from or to Irkutsk, but Mr. Atkinson did more. He spent
+several days exploring its coasts, and, turning to the east from Listvenitznaya,
+he found the shore became exceedingly abrupt for 20 miles, with
+many striking scenes, in which waterfalls played a part. The north shore
+is the most lofty. In some parts the precipices rise 900 feet, and, a little
+beyond the Arga, to 1,200 feet. Basaltic cliffs also appear rising from
+deep water to an elevation of 700 feet. A little more than a boat’s length
+from shore, soundings have been taken to the depth of 900 feet. Greater
+depths than this, however, have been reached. The captain of the
+steamer informed Mr. Atkinson that on one occasion he had run out
+2,100 feet of line without finding bottom; and in 1872 soundings were
+taken at the south-west end, showing 3,600 feet: hence the common
+saying that the Baikal has no bottom. The shore exhibits, besides the
+basalt just named, other unquestionable evidences of volcanic action,
+and in some of the ravines are great masses of lava. Hot mineral
+springs likewise exist in several parts of the surrounding mountain-chain.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_132" href="#FNanchor_3_132" class="label">[3]</a> The story of the mission seemed to be this:—At the beginning of the
+present century there were four parties of foreign Protestant missionaries
+working in the Russian dominions, namely, (1) the Presbyterians, in the
+south of European Russia; (2) the Moravians, on the Volga; (3) some
+Swiss missionaries from Basle, who took the place of the Presbyterians,
+and worked upon their ground; and (4) the London Missionary Society,
+which was allowed to send men to the Buriats in Siberia. Among the
+last company were Messrs. Stallybrass, Swan, and Yule, who saw at
+once that the first thing to be done was to translate the Scriptures. Mr.
+Stallybrass left England in 1817, and lived in Irkutsk for a year and a
+half to learn the Mongolian language. In due time the translation was
+commenced, from the original Hebrew and Greek, and with such success
+did the work go on that they actually printed the Old Testament in their
+Siberian wilderness at Verchne Udinsk, to which place the missionaries
+removed from Selenginsk, and where they remained till they were sent
+home in 1840. The New Testament was printed in London. Their work
+was, therefore, of a preparatory and fundamental, rather than an aggressive,
+character. Nevertheless, they had a school, numbering, sometimes,
+from 15 to 20 scholars; but there was found a special difficulty in inducing
+children to attend, for not only were their parents utterly ignorant of the
+value of education, but they wanted the children to help them tend their
+flocks, grazing, not on settled pasturage, but as they wandered over the
+vast extent of the Trans-Baikal and the Mongolian steppes. Hence the
+children were at school to-day and gone to-morrow; and even when
+parents could be induced to leave their children with the missionaries
+during their own absence with their flocks, these children had to be kept
+and fed as boarders, and even then the parents begrudged the loss of
+their services. The object, however, of the Englishmen began to be
+appreciated, and tokens of success appeared. Then came the difficulty
+which all along had loomed in the distance. The Russian Synod, in its
+jealousy for its own Church, had expressly stipulated that the missionaries
+should receive no converts by baptism, and this had been agreed to, and,
+of course, kept. But when certain of the Buriats showed signs of having
+received the truth, in the love of it, the missionaries found themselves in
+a dilemma. The Russians wished the converts to be handed over for
+baptism to their Church, and, on these terms, were willing that the
+English should stay and work as hard as they pleased; but this did not
+satisfy the men, nor the committee of the London Missionary Society, and
+neither party was disposed to give way. About this time, however, great
+political changes had taken place. Alexander I., who favoured Christian
+missions, had died, and was succeeded by the iron Nicolas, who does not
+seem to have been particularly opposed to missions; but the Synod was
+jealous of foreign interference, and an occasion was found for dismissing
+all foreign missionaries from the Russian dominions, under the pretext
+that the Synod wished to do all its own mission work for its own heathen.
+The Imperial ukase to this effect was issued in 1840, and thus a mission
+was stopped whose foundations were laid by the English, and which produced
+a translation of the whole Bible printed in Buriat Mongolian. It
+had taught some few scholars of great promise, one of whom, at least,
+named Shagder, it was known (and probably many more did so unknown),
+was afterwards baptized into the Russian Church. How far the Russian
+missionaries among this people owe any portion of their success to the
+foundation thus laid I cannot say. Of the Russian mission I shall speak
+hereafter.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_322">[322]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVII">
+    CHAPTER XXVII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE SIBERIAN FRONTIER AT KIAKHTA.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Hospitable reception.—History of Kiakhta.—Treaties between Russians
+and Chinese.—Early trading.—Decline of commerce.—The tea
+trade.—Troitzkosavsk church.—Miraculous ikons.—Kiakhta church.—Russian
+churches in general.—Bells.—Valuable ikons.—Climate of
+Kiakhta.—Drive to Ust-Keran.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>I have</span> said in the previous chapter that we reached
+Kiakhta. It would have been more accurate to
+have said Troitzkosavsk, which is within sight of and
+may be called a suburb of Kiakhta, situated on the
+Siberian frontier. Here we were lodged, for by the
+terms of a treaty between Chinese and Russians, no
+officer or stranger may sleep in Kiakhta proper. On
+arriving, we learned, to our dismay, that there was no
+hotel or guest-house in either town. We therefore went
+to the office of the Ispravnik, and in his absence showed
+our documents, which served so far to establish our
+respectability, that we were told we might have accommodation
+at the police-station. For this offer of course
+we were grateful, but, before accepting it, we thought
+we would present some of our letters of introduction.
+One was addressed to Mr. Tokmakoff, a first-class
+merchant in the place; but he was away in Mongolia,
+and his wife and family were living at their summer
+house “in the country.” We had another letter, given
+me by Mr. Larsen, the telegraphist at Irkutsk, to Mr.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_323">[323]</span>
+Koecher, the principal of the <i lang="ru">real</i> or commercial
+school, who lived in one of the best houses of the town,
+and who, upon our presenting the letter, immediately
+pressed us to take up our abode with him. We were
+only too thankful to do so, and, after a fortnight’s
+inconveniences in sleeping, to find ourselves in quarters
+with proper and comfortable beds. Our host was living
+bachelor fashion, and was expecting to leave shortly
+for Petersburg; his wife had already preceded him.
+He spared no pains to make us comfortable, and, being
+thus settled, we had time to look about the place,
+which, on leaving England, had been the utmost bound
+to which my travelling imagination had carried me.
+The Mohammedans say, “See Mecca and expire”;
+the Italians, “See Naples and die”; and in somewhat
+of the same spirit I had fixed upon Kiakhta as the
+<i lang="la">ultima thule</i> of my Siberian wanderings: not that there
+is much that is remarkable in the physical aspect of the
+place, but from Kiakhta one walks out of Siberia into
+China and sees the blue hills of Mongolia. The town,
+moreover, has a history, and was the scene of a treaty
+between the two largest empires in the world.</p>
+
+<p>So far back as the 17th century, trade was carried
+on, though not protected by Government, between the
+Siberians and their southern neighbours the Chinese.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_133" href="#Footnote_1_133" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_324">[324]</span></p>
+
+<p>But in 1692 a treaty was made at Nertchinsk, opening
+the way to regular and permanent commerce
+between the two countries, though subject to certain
+vexatious forms and restrictions. Subsequently Peter
+the Great, seeing the advantage of this treaty, desired
+that the privilege of trading with China, then confined
+to individuals, should be extended to caravans; and,
+the Emperor approving, the right of trading thus was
+appropriated as a monopoly by the Russian Crown.</p>
+
+<p>So things went on till 1722, when, the Russians offending
+their celestial neighbours, the Chinese Emperor expelled
+all Muscovites from his dominions, and brought
+trading affairs to a standstill. Six years later the
+treaty of Kiakhta was concluded, which stipulated that
+a caravan of not more than 200 persons should visit
+Peking every three years, and that the subjects of
+each nation, though not allowed to cross the frontier
+with their wares, might dispose of them to each other
+at two places on the border—Kiakhta, and Tsurukhaitu
+on the Argun, about 60 miles from Nertchinsk.
+This led to the foundation of the town of Kiakhta;
+and as there were certain conditions in the treaty
+limiting the number of persons, and imposing various
+restrictions upon those who should live there, another
+town was built a mile off, and called Troitzkosavsk, in
+which these restrictions were evaded.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_134" href="#Footnote_2_134" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_325">[325]</span></p>
+
+<p>The traveller of to-day does not see Kiakhta as it
+was in palmy times, though a considerable trade is
+still carried on between China and Eastern Siberia,
+and large consignments are sent to Nijni Novgorod
+and Moscow. The tradition is still kept up that the
+sea passage injures the flavour of the herb, and that
+caravan tea is the best, which commands, accordingly,
+prices up to ten shillings per pound. I have heard
+quite recently of “yellow” tea, which even at Kiakhta
+costs this sum, and which, brought overland, would
+probably command in Petersburg 16<i>s.</i> or 18<i>s.</i> per
+pound. One hears also in Russia of “blossom” tea,
+which consists of only the dried flowers of the tea
+plant, and of other choice growths, the best of which
+are not brought to England at all. There is one kind
+of yellow tea, I am told, costing as much as five
+guineas a pound. The Emperor of China is supposed
+to enjoy its monopoly. A friend of mine, who
+received a few pounds as a present, tells me she did
+not think it distinguishable from that sold at 5<i>s.</i> a
+pound. Blossom tea is well known throughout Russia,
+and is mixed in the proportion of two-ounces to one
+pound of ordinary tea.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_135" href="#Footnote_3_135" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_326">[326]</span></p>
+
+<p>In addition to ordinary and superior sorts, the
+Russians import, chiefly for consumption by the
+military and native populations, immense quantities
+of tea pressed into the form of tablets, or bricks, each
+of which weighs about 2 lbs. These bricks are made
+of tea-dust mixed with a common coarse sort made
+of twigs, stalks, and tea refuse, the whole being first
+submitted for a minute to the action of steam and then
+pressed into a mould. Some say that bullocks’ or
+other blood is also mixed with brick tea, but I have
+not heard this corroborated. The tea-dust used for
+brick tea costs in China about 5<i>d.</i> per pound, the
+manufacture about 1½<i>d.</i> more, and the article bears
+a handsome profit. In 1878 the Russian manufacturers
+in China were said to have realized a profit
+of 75 per cent. This they cannot do, however, all
+the year round, for the making of the bricks goes on
+only from the middle of June to the end of September,
+during which season they work at it night and day.</p>
+
+<p>Apart, however, from the trade which passes over the
+Siberian frontier, there is much in Kiakhta and Troitzkosavsk
+to interest the western traveller. Among other
+novelties are to be seen Mongolian cavalry dashing
+about the streets, the soldiers being known mainly by
+a piece of ribbon streaming from their hats. The
+united population of the two places amounts to nearly
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_327">[327]</span>
+5,000, who are supplied with provisions by both
+Russians and Chinese. There may be seen coming
+from their farms and gardens numbers of peasant
+wagons, as well as clumsy Mongolian carts, the latter
+on wheels without spokes, formed of large wooden
+discs, which oxen cause to wabble along. Common
+vegetables are to be had in abundance. A large
+square in the centre of Troitzkosavsk is used for a
+corn and hay market, and is provided in Russian
+fashion with a huge pair of scales sanctioned by the
+authorities. Here the vendors of agricultural and
+garden produce assemble, and generally manage to
+get rid of their stock and garden produce early in
+the day. Young chickens cost 4<i>d.</i> each, lemons in
+winter 1<i>s.</i> a-piece, and occasionally even double that
+price, and Cognac brandy 9<i>s.</i> per bottle. Troitzkosavsk
+is also supplied with excellent fish, but we found it
+difficult to get good fruit. Besides the market square
+at Troitzkosavsk, there are two public gardens at
+Kiakhta, and also a cemetery.</p>
+
+<p>We went to the small prison, and found it a poor
+affair. The police-master told us he had received a
+letter concerning our intended visit long before, and
+had been expecting us. Where the information came
+from he did not say; but it served to remind us again
+that, though more than 4,000 miles from the capital,
+we were not lost sight of. This was the last place
+at which I heard of our coming having been announced
+beforehand, though a general at Petersburg had told
+me that I might usually expect this; for how, said
+he, are the Governors to whom your letter is addressed
+to know that your document is not forged
+unless they are advised that a letter has been given
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_328">[328]</span>
+you? and then, to illustrate his remark, he said that,
+on one occasion, a man, dressed like a gendarme,
+presented himself at Irkutsk with a forged letter and
+got a prisoner released.</p>
+
+<p>I may add to the foregoing that Kiakhta was the
+last, and almost the only, place other than Petersburg
+where symptoms of a disaffected or revolutionary spirit
+came under my notice; and this in the solitary instance,
+that when an educated man in the town was shown in
+an English newspaper a portrait of Vera Sassulitch,
+the would-be murderess of Trepoff, I heard that he
+admired and praised her. As for Nihilism, I heard, in
+crossing Russia, so little about it that I am ashamed
+to say I left the country with very vague ideas as to
+what it is. I am not sure that I know much about it
+now, but an Englishman who has spent a large portion
+of his life in Russia and Siberia tells me there are
+various kinds of Nihilists. The mildest type, if they can
+be called such, simply want free speech and a free
+press, as do, I am told, all the “Slavophils”; the next
+wish for a ministry responsible to the people; but both
+these classes (which are supposed to be numerous)
+think the time not yet come, and that they must wait
+for further enlightenment of the people. With this
+opinion my friend agreed, feeling sure that at present
+the educated Russian and the moujik would quarrel, he
+said, if one were dependent on the other. The third
+class are the “black” Nihilists, who want the dethronement
+of the reigning dynasty and a republic, and who
+are willing to adopt any means, even the most criminal,
+to gain their end.</p>
+
+<p>Of all this and its like I heard next to nothing after
+leaving Petersburg; there, however, great excitement
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_329">[329]</span>
+prevailed. I arrived only a few days after one of the
+attempts on the late Emperor’s life, and a friend called
+to tell me they were at their wits’ end to know what
+to do. Turning back his coat collar, he showed me
+sewn thereon the certified badge of his calling, so
+placed that it might be ready to show the police, if
+required, at a moment’s notice. The English, he said,
+were strongly suspected, and he doubted whether he
+should be safe in affording me his usual protection and
+kindly services. He had told one of his Russian
+friends that I had arrived in the country for the
+purpose of distributing books and tracts, but the
+Russian did not believe that I could be come for
+such a charitable object, but thought I must be sent
+by the English Government. The rumours afloat
+respecting the English were both numerous and ridiculous.
+The authorities had not then succeeded in
+finding the press from which were issued the Nihilist
+placards and papers, and, as the ambassadors’ residences
+are privileged places, supposed to be closed against
+the police, it was affirmed that the secret press must
+be there. My friend told me he heard it said that
+“proclamations” against the Russian Government could
+be bought at the English Embassy for a rouble each.
+Another rumour said that the Russians were persuaded
+that the centre of the revolution was in the English
+Embassy, and that they had even thought of setting
+fire thereto, with the hope of securing, in the confusion,
+the revolutionary papers. I smiled on hearing
+this, and concluded that it could be only the most
+ignorant of the people who believed such puerilities,
+but on repeating it as a joke to a Russian fellow-traveller
+from Moscow, he said he quite believed that
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_330">[330]</span>
+the forbidden press was in the Ambassador’s house,
+and that the revolutionists obtained their money from
+the English Government. I heard, too, in Petersburg
+that it was thought by the lower orders that the
+Nihilists obtained a large portion of their funds from
+the “International” in England.</p>
+
+<p>All this smoke and rumour, however, we left behind
+on quitting Moscow, and though we may perchance
+have been watched, I was never conscious of it. I
+mention this because as some were surprised at my
+going to Russia when in such a disturbed condition,
+so others may be curious to know how this disturbance
+affected me as a traveller; and though I am far from
+supposing that my very limited and isolated experience
+is worth much, or perhaps anything, in showing the
+political condition of Russia and Siberia at the time
+of my visit, yet I wish to convey the impression that
+Russian atrocities and inflamed horrors, as posted on
+placards and shouted by London newsboys, shrink
+into very much smaller dimensions when the scene of
+action is reached. Such at least has been my invariable
+experience, and to this I shall further allude
+hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>They have also at Troitzkosavsk a church in which
+“a miracle” seemed about to be recognised during
+our sojourn; for, on the first night of our stay, after
+I had gone to bed, a woman came to the party of
+friends with whom I had left Mr. Interpreter, and
+told them that she could see a strange halo of light
+in the church, but whether caused by celestial radiance
+or angels’ wings she did not say. The party turned
+out, therefore, my interpreter included, and made for
+the church, into which they could not gain admittance,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_331">[331]</span>
+and which was apparently empty, though they managed
+at last, by looking through a crevice or window, to
+descry a lamp burning before a glass ikon, which happened
+to slant at such an angle as dimly to reflect
+through the darkness the rays of light to the spot
+where they had been seen by the woman. This took
+away the sense of the miraculous, not altogether to the
+satisfaction of some of the party, who seemed to think
+“there was something in it.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_136" href="#Footnote_4_136" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_332">[332]</span></p>
+
+<p>The great ecclesiastical wonder of Kiakhta is its
+cathedral, said to be the finest in Eastern Siberia,
+and to have cost 1,400,000 roubles, equal at the time
+of building to at least £150,000. It was built at
+the expense of the Kiakhta merchants, and possesses
+some excellent bells.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_137" href="#Footnote_5_137" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp53" id="p3322_ill" style="max-width: 66.25em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p3322_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      THE GREAT BELL OF MOSCOW AND IVAN VELIKI TOWER.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>In bells, the Russian Church is the richest in the
+world—so far, at least, as regards their size. The
+largest we have in England—that of Christ Church,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_333">[333]</span>
+Oxford, weighing 7 tons—is but a baby compared
+with many in Russia. The largest in Petersburg
+weighs 23 tons; “Great John,” in the older capital,
+weighs 96 tons; whilst the old “Tsar Kolokol,” or
+the King of Bells, in Moscow, weighed originally
+nearly 200 tons, or 432,000 lbs. Reckoning their
+value at 18 silver roubles per pood, we get a price for
+our Oxford bell of £1,100; and for that of the largest
+one of Moscow of £32,000. This monster bell is
+26 ft. high, and 67 ft. round!</p>
+
+<p>It was neither its bells, however, nor its architecture
+that made Kiakhta cathedral “a fine church,” but
+rather its costly fittings. It has two altars, both of
+silver; a candlestick with numerous rubies and emeralds,
+and a large chandelier studded with precious stones.
+More striking still, perhaps, was the profusion of
+objects made of solid silver, such as the “royal doors,”
+which are said to weigh 2,000 lbs.; and, above all, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_334">[334]</span><i lang="ru">ikonostasis</i> of gold and glass, or crystal—the value of
+the last, no doubt, being considerably enhanced by the
+cost of carriage to so remote a spot. There were also
+several paintings, executed at great expense in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>We mounted the tower, and from thence had a view
+of the surrounding country and of the three towns of
+Troitzkosavsk, Kiakhta, and the Chinese Maimatchin.
+On a slight elevation, about a mile to the north, at the
+head of an open sand-valley between two ranges of
+moderately high hills, lay Troitzkosavsk, with its 4,600
+inhabitants, its school, houses, shops, Government
+buildings, and a number of persons and officials who
+could not strictly be called merchants. There is also
+a large building which formerly was the Custom
+House, where the duties on tea were collected.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_138" href="#Footnote_6_138" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
+Below us was Kiakhta, with about 400 inhabitants,
+the abode of Russian mercantile aristocrats and their
+belongings, making a population, according to Hoppe’s
+Almanack, of about 5,000. The town lies snugly in
+a hollow, between hills of sand and fir-trees, well
+sheltered from northerly winds, and opening out southwards
+towards Mongolia. A small rivulet, called the
+Bura, runs through the hollow, and, turning westward
+to the sandy plain, makes its way at last into the
+Selenga. The country round looks sandy and dry,
+which is in keeping with the meteorological conditions
+of the place. Southerly winds prevail, and there is a
+deficiency of moisture in the atmosphere; hence they
+have only a slight fall during the year either of rain or
+of snow. So much is this the case that wheeled
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_335">[335]</span>
+vehicles are used all through the winter, and goods
+and travellers at that season are thus driven some
+miles out of Troitzkosavsk to the spot where snow
+begins, and sledges are usable. Kiakhta is about
+2,500 feet above the sea level. The greatest cold in
+1877 was in February, when the thermometer stood at
+42° below zero; whilst the greatest heat that year,
+namely 100°·5, was in August.</p>
+
+<p>On the first morning after our arrival, our host sent
+us in his carriage for a drive of 20 miles to Ust-Keran,
+the summer residence of Mr. Tokmakoff, where also we
+expected to find a fellow-countryman, who, we heard,
+was Professor of English in the gymnase at Troitzkosavsk.
+It was a fine day, and our horses dashed
+along over a wide extent of country, somewhat suggestive
+of Salisbury plain. We saw very few people, but,
+happening to meet a vehicle, we pulled up, and my
+interpreter, having descended, went to the carriage to
+know if we were taking the right road. He called to
+me that we were right for Madame Tokmakoff’s, upon
+which I shouted, “Ask him if the Englishman is there!”
+whereupon someone in the carriage replied, “I am the
+Englishman.” It was pleasant to hear this spoken in
+my native tongue, and I hastened to make the acquaintance
+of Mr. Frank M——, who was spending his
+vacation as tutor, and teaching English, in the very
+family to which we were going. He therefore turned
+back, and accompanied us to Madame Tokmakoff’s,
+by whom we were heartily welcomed, and where we
+were reminded of home by the sight of cricket-bats,
+stumps, and sundry other English things.</p>
+
+<p>The great event of the afternoon was driving some
+miles further to a Buriat lamasery, or monastery,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_336">[336]</span>
+inhabited by priests, for whom I had taken some
+Scriptures; but none of them spoke Russian, and as
+we could not well make them understand, I left the
+books with our friend to give when an interpreter
+could explain, and this little commission he kindly performed.
+I shall have occasion to speak of this lamasery
+hereafter. On our way we had to cross a river, the
+vehicle being put on a raft, and the horses swam
+through the stream—not considered extraordinary in
+these parts, for the same evening we saw a dozen
+horses returning from their work, and when they came
+to the river, they plunged in of their own accord, and
+swam across.</p>
+
+<p>One of the men on the bank was very much puzzled
+to make me out, especially as I asked questions, and
+made notes of the replies. He seemed to think there
+might be “something up,” but said that “I wore no
+official clothes, and so he could not tell what sort of a
+‘<i lang="ru">tchinovnik</i>’ I was.” His suspicions, however, abated,
+and his vanity seemed tickled, when he was told that
+I had come from a very far country, that I was anxious
+to know about their manners and customs, and made
+notes of what I heard and saw to tell my countrymen
+on my return. After inspecting the monastery, we
+drove back to Kiakhta the same evening, having spent
+a particularly agreeable day.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_133" href="#FNanchor_1_133" class="label">[1]</a> In 1655 a Russian embassy was sent to Peking, with a view to the
+arrangement of a commercial treaty. The route then lay from Tobolsk
+up the Irtish to its source, over the Altai mountains, through the vast
+domain of the Kalmuks, and across the Mongolian steppes. The Russian
+envoy, however, refused to lie down and submit to Chinese etiquette in
+approaching the Emperor, and was sent away, partly, perhaps, for his want
+of obsequiousness, and more, perhaps, because the Chinese did not see the
+need of a treaty, the boundaries of the two empires being then not so
+perfectly in contact as now. A second embassy, sent in 1675, proved
+also a failure; but after this there happened a series of events which
+caused the Chinese to realize that the Russians were nearer neighbours
+than they had been accustomed to regard them. This was brought about
+by the advances of the Siberians in the region of the Amur, where they
+had taken up their abode among the Daurians and other tribes, whom
+they so far encroached upon as to cause the Daurians to appeal for aid
+to the Chinese. This aid was given, and thus the Chinese and the
+Russians came first to blows in 1684.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_134" href="#FNanchor_2_134" class="label">[2]</a> Kiakhta became the centre of Russo-Chinese commerce, which was
+greatly increased after 1762, when Catherine II. abolished the Crown
+monopoly of the fur trade, together with the exclusive privilege of sending
+caravans to Peking. These concessions increased the traffic enormously,
+and the influence of the business transacted on the frontier extended from
+Kiakhta all across Siberia and Russia, and even to the middle of Germany.
+Thus, from 1728 to 1860, the Kiakhta merchants enjoyed almost a monopoly
+of Chinese trade, and made fortunes estimated by millions of roubles.
+The treaty of 1860, however, opened Chinese ports to Russian ships, and
+thus dealt a severe blow to the Kiakhta trade; for up to that time only a
+single cargo of tea was carried annually into Russia by water. Before
+1860, the importation of tea at Kiakhta was about one million chests
+annually, without taking any account of brick tea, and, previous to 1850,
+all trade done at Kiakhta was in barter, tea being exchanged for Russian
+furs and other goods, because the Russian Government prohibited the
+export of gold and silver money.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_135" href="#FNanchor_3_135" class="label">[3]</a> When crossing the Pacific I fell in with a tea merchant homeward
+bound from China, and from him I gathered that three-fourths of the
+Russian trade is done in medium and common teas, such as are sold in
+London in bond from 1<i>s.</i> 2<i>d.</i> down to 8<i>d.</i> per English pound, exclusive
+of the home duty. The remaining fourth of their trade includes some
+of the very best teas grown in the Ning Chow districts—teas which the
+Russians will have at any price, and for which, in a bad year, they may
+have to pay as much as 3<i>s.</i> a pound in China, though in ordinary years
+they cost from 2<i>s.</i> upwards. The flowery Pekoe, or blossom tea, costs
+also about 3<i>s.</i> in China.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_136" href="#FNanchor_4_136" class="label">[4]</a> In Russia one continually meets with these sacred pictures, said
+to work miracles: and sometimes <em>relics</em>, though the latter not so often as
+in Roman countries. In two places I have been curious enough to inquire
+for the evidence that might be given to substantiate the so-called miracles.
+Of course, in many cases, the wonderful things said to have been performed
+are enveloped in the mist of antiquity, but one explanation offered
+at Novgorod, in the Yuryef monastery, was to the effect that the very man
+who had shown us the bells, many years ago, saw two women arrive at
+the place, who were screaming and possessed of the devil, but that on
+coming to the grave of Father Fochi (the great saint of the place) they
+were made whole. The second explanation offered me, at the Spasski
+monastery in Yaroslaf, was of a similar character. A certain ikon, before
+which I was standing, was alleged to have been placed in the church in
+1828. A girl, 17 years of age, was seized by demoniacal possession, and
+dreamed that she saw a certain picture. On waking, she was said to
+have searched through the town for the picture, which, on looking
+through the church window, she recognized in the ikon before us, and
+from that day she was made whole! Such are some of the stories upon
+which rest the alleged power of ikons to work miracles. But, as I have
+said before, the Russians are by no means “sceptical.” Consequently,
+if a church or a monastery only possesses a well-known miracle working
+ikon, the fortune of the place is made. Persons come from far and near
+to pray before it, bringing, of course, a present, and not unfrequently
+adding a thank-offering if the prayer be heard. A poor man, having a
+diseased leg or a sick cow, purchases a little silver model of his leg or his
+cow, and hangs it upon the ikon (I have seen several such), or, if the
+offerer be rich, he brings gems to adorn the wonder-working picture.
+These pictures, on special occasions, are taken to the houses of the
+faithful, being carried through the streets in procession, the people doffing
+their caps; and I have seen the more devout, in the hope of receiving a
+blessing, run between the bearers and under the picture carried upon
+their shoulders. At Kasan we saw the coffin of Bishop Gregory, from
+which chips are cut by sufferers to place on their wounds to be healed.
+The monk who accompanied us, and who was, intellectually, superior to
+some I have met, said that it was a well-known fact, and believed by all,
+that the relics of saints placed upon diseased parts of the body, and used
+with faith, are good for healing. The bishop, he said, died 200 years ago,
+but the wood of the alleged coffin did not appear to me to have reached
+the age of 200 weeks, and the whole concern looked modern.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_137" href="#FNanchor_5_137" class="label">[5]</a> This reminds me that, though allusions have often been made to
+churches, I have not yet described what a Russian church is like. It
+should be premised, then, that the ideas of an Englishman and a Russian
+differ widely as to what a grand church should be. Given an English
+committee, money in hand, and they say, “Go to; let us build a church
+to the praise and glory of—the architect;” whereas a Russian merchant,
+his pocket full of roubles, seeks him out a lapidary, to whom he takes
+emeralds, rubies, diamonds, and pearls; a smith, to whom he consigns
+poods of silver; and a cunning workman, who can emblazon and
+embroider priestly robes and ecclesiastical garments. The consequence
+is that the English ecclesiologist, standing before “a fine church” in
+Russia, finds almost nothing upon which to expend his vocabulary of
+architectural terms. He sees merely wood, stone, or brick and plaster
+buildings, not too evenly finished, and whitewashed over in such a fashion
+that, but for their proportions, they would not be thought too good for
+an English homestead.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian churches are so far alike that they are all modelled on
+the Byzantine style of architecture—a Byzantine church having been
+described as a “gabled Greek cross, with central dome inscribed in a
+square.” On the exterior, besides the central, there is sometimes a
+western dome, often there is one at each angle of the square, and,
+occasionally, one at each end of the cross. Accordingly, instead of
+spires, the eye of a traveller in Russia becomes accustomed to cross-crowned
+domes, which, as they are brightly painted and sometimes
+covered even with gold, and furnished with bells, affect both eye and ear
+not unpleasingly.</p>
+
+<p>On entering a Russian church from the west, the internal arrangement
+is seen to be fourfold: first, the narthex, or porch, which was anciently
+for catechumens and penitents; next the nave, or body of the church;
+then a narrow platform, raised by steps, answering to the choir; and,
+beyond that, the sanctuary. The sanctuary is divided into three
+chambers: the central one being called “the altar,” in which stands
+the holy table, and behind it the bishop’s throne; the southern chamber
+forming the sacristy, where are kept the vestments and treasures; whilst
+that on the north is for preparing the sacramental elements. The sanctuary
+is parted off from the choir by a high panelled screen, called the
+<i lang="ru">ikonostasis</i>, pierced by three doors, the centre opening being called the
+“royal gates,” on the north side of which hangs a gilded sacred picture
+of the Virgin, and on the south side a picture of our Saviour, and the
+patron saint of the church. The remaining parts of the screen are
+covered with other pictures, upon the frames and coverings of which,
+apart from their artistic value, an almost fabulous amount is sometimes
+lavished. The precious stones on the picture of Our Lady of Kasan, for
+instance, in Petersburg, are valued at £15,000; whilst, at Moscow, one
+emerald on the picture of the Holy Virgin of Vladimir is valued at
+£10,000—the value of the whole of those on this latter ikon being
+estimated at £45,000.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_138" href="#FNanchor_6_138" class="label">[6]</a> All duties are now arranged at Irkutsk, and the annual quantity of
+<em>leaf</em>-tea (exclusive of brick-tea) that passes through is upwards of 5,000
+tons.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_337">[337]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII">
+    CHAPTER XXVIII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE MONGOLIAN FRONTIER AT MAIMATCHIN.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Outlook into Mongolia.—Town of Maimatchin without women.—Visit
+to a Chinese merchant.—Refreshments.—Attendants.—Purchases.—Tea bricks
+for coin.—The town.—Buddhist temple.—Chinese malefactors.—Their
+punishments.—Chinese dinner.—Food.—Intoxicating
+drinks.—Route to Peking.—Travellers.—Modes of conveyance.—Manners
+of the desert.—Postal service.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap extra'><span class='allcap'>As</span> we stood on the top of Kiakhta church, we could
+see, as already observed, the three towns of
+Troitzkosavsk, Kiakhta, and Maimatchin. The former
+two were like other Siberian towns, but southwards
+there lay before us something decidedly new. Just
+over the border was a veritable Chinese town; then
+came a broad plain, covered with sand and herbage,
+with the horizon bounded by the hills of Mongolia,
+beyond which the imagination was left to picture its
+capital, Urga, and, further south, the great wall of
+China. Before continuing our journey eastwards,
+therefore, I shall describe our visit to Maimatchin,
+and offer a few observations upon the route over the
+Mongolian frontier to Peking.</p>
+
+<p>Mai-ma-tchin signifies, in Chinese, “buy and sell,”
+and so is applied to this border town as a “a place of
+trade.” It has a population, we were told, of 3,000,
+and differs in one respect, at all events, from all the
+cities upon the face of the earth, in that the inhabitants
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_338">[338]</span>
+are all of the male sex. Not a woman is to be found
+in the town, a baby’s music is never heard there, and
+the streets are void of girls and boys. Not that the
+men, however, are all bachelors, for some of them have
+wives and families in China proper. Nor are they all
+woman-haters or henpecked husbands. We did indeed
+hear of one man, a British subject, who so far agreed
+with Solomon as to the undesirability of living with a
+brawling woman, even though it were in a wide house,
+that he had fled from his island home, and retired to a
+house-top in the wilds of Siberia, where he is living in
+prosperity, and whither his spouse has not pursued
+him. But the fact is, that among the curious arrangements
+of the Chinese at the time of their early treaties
+with the Russians, and in order that their celestial
+subjects might not become rooted to the soil, but consider
+themselves as sojourners only, they have forbidden
+that women should live in Maimatchin. Hence a paterfamilias
+of Maimatchin, if he wishes to visit his wife
+and children, must undertake a month’s journey across
+the desert on the back of a camel, and return by the
+same means; so that a few such journeys may well give
+wings to his desire speedily to make his fortune and
+return home.</p>
+
+<p>We took the opportunity of paying an afternoon
+visit to Maimatchin on the first day of our arrival at
+Kiakhta, Mr. Koecher kindly accompanying us. After
+passing out of the wooden gate of Kiakhta we found
+ourselves on a piece of neutral ground, about 500 yards
+wide, between the two empires. On the south side is
+a palisade pierced for the principal gate, shielded from
+view by a high wooden screen some eight or ten paces
+from the wall. Behind this screen we entered Maimatchin,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_339">[339]</span>
+and found ourselves in a new world. The
+town is built inside a strong wooden enclosure, about
+400 yards square, with four or five mud-paved streets.
+They are regular, however, tolerably clean, and, for
+China, wide,—wide enough perhaps to allow of a
+London omnibus being driven through them. The
+houses are of one storey, built of unburnt bricks of mud
+and wood, and are thus solid and tidy, and are surrounded
+by courtyards. At the entrances are screens
+that shut out the river from the street, which are painted
+with diabolical-looking figures, to frighten away evil
+spirits. This represents, however, the houses of the
+well-to-do merchants. Towards the southern part of
+the town are the mean, windowless houses of the
+poor, which have little of the neatness and propriety
+of the above.</p>
+
+<p>We were taken first to visit one of the Chinese
+merchants named Van-Tchan-Taï; and on entering his
+courtyard we found it surrounded by a number of
+doors, some entering the warehouses, the kitchen,
+out-houses, etc., and one leading to the shop and dwelling-place
+of the merchant. The door consisted of a
+suspended transparent screen, admitting the air, and
+yet keeping out flies and insects. The window-frames
+were ornamented and covered with paper. None
+looked into the street, but all into the courtyard.
+Inside the house were two compartments, an outer and
+an inner. In the outer chamber we were seated on a
+raised platform, or divan, which serves for a sleeping-place
+for the clerks and assistants by night, and for a
+dining-place by day, when the bedding and cushions
+are neatly rolled up and ornamentally arranged. This
+platform is heated by a flue beneath, and on the edge
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_340">[340]</span>
+in front is kept, always burning, a small charcoal fire,
+which serves for lighting pipes and heating grog.
+Round the wall hung illuminated texts, from the
+writings of Confucius, and various pictures, one of
+which we were told was a representation of the god
+of happiness. And a very stout personage he looked!
+But this is strictly in keeping with Chinese notions,
+for they delight to load their deities with collops of fat,
+prosperity and abundance of flesh in their eyes having
+great affinity. A number of little birds were in the
+room, not in cages, but on perches resembling those
+on which parrots are kept in England.</p>
+
+<p>The merchant invited us to drink tea, and told us
+that the Chinese use this beverage without sugar or
+milk three times a day; namely, at rising, at noon,
+and at seven in the evening. They have substantial
+meals at nine in the morning and four in the afternoon.
+When they discovered I was English, they were curious
+to know all about us, making various inquiries, trying
+to imitate our words and sounds, even to laughing,
+and examining carefully such things as were shown
+them, as watches, pencils, and knives. We were no
+less curious to pry into their affairs, and learn of them
+all we could. The merchant employed 23 “clerks,”
+18 in Maimatchin, and the remainder at a branch
+establishment in some other part of the world. We
+did not make out, however, whether this number included
+shop assistants, warehousemen, servants, cooks,
+etc., or whether it consisted only of actual writers.
+They seemed all dressed alike, from the master downwards;
+that is, in a suit of blue nankeen, and black
+skull caps. Suspended on the wall, and covered with
+paper to keep them from dust, were two or three white
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_341">[341]</span>
+straw hats, of depressed conical shape, with a horsehair
+tassel on the top, seemingly reserved for summer use
+or gala days. One of the attendants had a black
+dress edged with white, and on inquiry he was found
+to be the coachman in half mourning. Chinese full
+mourning must not be of silk, is all white, and worn
+100 days after the death of a relative, during which
+time the head is not shaved. Black and white is afterwards
+worn for three years, one of its features being
+a small white ball on the top of the cap. As the
+servants stood about waiting on us, their discipline
+appeared to be very much of the patriarchal character;
+none seemed greater or less than another, except it
+were the chief clerk, who received, we found, about
+£30 a year; whilst the “boys” received from £5 and
+upwards, their food being in all cases provided. This
+chief clerk cultivated a straggling moustache, which is
+the privilege of all Chinese men after they arrive at
+30 years of age. He had also very long nails, protruding,
+perhaps, half an inch, which evidently were
+considered beautiful. It is the custom of Chinese
+gentlemen and ladies to have long nails, that other
+persons may be aware of their rank in society, for with
+such impediments they could not labour. This senior
+also seemed fond of his pipe, which held just so much
+tobacco as enabled him to take five good strong whiffs
+only, and he then blew out of the pipe, with a peculiar
+noise, the remainder of the tobacco and ashes.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst sipping our tea we proceeded to make purchases.
+The principal articles of Chinese export into
+Russia are teas, cottons, nankeens, silks, good satins,
+rhubarb, and many articles of curiosity and ingenuity.
+The exports from Siberia are generally furs. As we
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_342">[342]</span>
+sat in the merchant’s shop, it was a matter for conjecture
+as to where the merchandise was kept, for it was not
+visible. A number of articles, however, were brought
+forth from mysterious cupboards and drawers, and we
+heard that the Chinese allow as little of their property
+as possible to be seen by the authorities, lest they
+should be more highly taxed. So far, therefore, as
+appearances go in a Chinese shop, the American
+dealer’s window-notice would be eminently appropriate:
+“If you don’t see what you want, ask for it.” We did
+this, and found it successful. My first purchase was
+a piece of silk called Chin-chun-cha, supposed to be of
+sufficient measure for two suits of clothes. This silk
+is undyed, and washes and wears so well that it is a
+favourite material throughout Siberia for gentlemen’s
+summer suits, and sometimes for ladies’ dresses.</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese are fond of having a couple of balls in
+the hand, at idle times, to roll and rub one over the
+other with the fingers, and so play with; for the same
+reason, probably, that the Turks like to have beads in
+the hand. Several of these balls were offered to me.
+One pair was of Chinese jade, which, on being rubbed
+together, emitted flashes of electric light. Gilt buttons,
+too, were shown as a rarity, but their marks betrayed
+that they came from Birmingham. We bought some
+embroidered purses of native workmanship, and cups
+and saucers. The saucers are of a lozenge-shape, and
+of metal, with an indentation fitted to receive the bottom
+of the cup, which has no handle. Hence, in drinking
+the tea, it was not necessary to finger the cup, but
+merely to hold the saucer and drink from the cup resting
+therein. Some of the drinking vessels were of
+wood, but lacquered and covered with a varnish which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_343">[343]</span>
+made them quite capable of holding boiling water.
+Our most comical purchase, perhaps, was a pair of
+furred ear-pockets, connected by a piece of elastic, for
+use in frosty weather.</p>
+
+<p>After taking refreshment, we looked about the house
+and yard, into the kitchen, which was clean enough,
+and into the warehouse, with its piles of chests of tea,
+and were amused to see them take a hollow iron auger,
+something like a large cheese taster, and drive this into
+the corner of a tea-chest to bring thereout a sample
+handful of the fragrant herb. I contented myself, however,
+with buying a brick of tea, as a greater curiosity.
+It measures about nine inches by six, and is three-quarters
+of an inch thick, and might better be called,
+as it once was in Germany, “tile” tea. This article
+was formerly used for coin in certain parts of Siberia,
+and is so still in Mongolia. The owner of a circus,
+since my visit, made his way through Kiakhta to Urga.
+The stud and its riders greatly delighted the Mongolians,
+who are excellent horsemen, and, as the proprietor
+accepted the “current coin of the realm,” his
+cashier’s office presented the unusual appearance of
+being filled to overflowing with bricks of tea! We
+had cause, therefore, for congratulation, that we had
+not to carry a quantity of this very inconvenient form
+of cash.</p>
+
+<p>After leaving the house we wandered through the
+streets, examining the wares exposed for sale, like those
+we had seen on the Chinese stalls in the market-place
+of Troitzkosavsk, and the looking round at which, in
+both places, gave us much amusement. We found all
+sorts of Chinese knick-knacks; and the poorest attempts
+at cutlery, in the shape of knives, scissors, and razors,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_344">[344]</span>
+that ever I saw. The razors bore a strong resemblance
+to miniature hatchets, and, on steaming across the
+Pacific, I observed that their use was not confined to
+men, for the Chinese women think so much of having
+the hair cut away smoothly from the back of the neck,
+that one female on board was seen thus acting the
+barber on behalf of her sister. Beads and hats were
+likewise exposed for sale, brushes and combs, pieces
+of flint and steel, and Buddhist rosaries; which last,
+evidently, were considered finely perfumed, but we
+thought the smell abominable. A piece of Chinese
+vanity we saw consisted of circular felt pads, highly
+dyed with rouge, with which the people rub, and so
+redden, their faces. Several of these curiosities we
+bought, bargaining for the price by signs, to the
+mutual amusement of buyers and salesmen.</p>
+
+<p>We were taken to the Buddhist temple, the precincts
+of which appeared to comprise the houses of the
+governor (or, as he is called, the <i lang="ru">zurgutchay</i>), and the
+chief priest; also a theatre, and something like a prison.
+In the court of the temple were placed two or three
+cannon, which are fired daily when the governor is
+going to sleep. The theatre, we found, was open only
+on fête days, and, if the report of travellers be true, the
+plays are sometimes grossly obscene. This, however,
+is only in keeping with the pictures seen in the houses,
+and sold openly in the streets, which are too licentious
+to bear description.</p>
+
+<p>We saw in the court of the temple two malefactors,
+who had iron rings round their necks, attached to
+which were chains, about five feet long, with enormous
+links, and of great weight, weighing, I should judge, in
+all, upwards of 50 lbs. They had chains, too, upon
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_345">[345]</span>
+their hands and legs, and, being exceedingly dirty and
+ill clad, they looked somewhat ferocious. One of them
+had his chain coiled about his shoulders for more convenient
+carriage, and when he saw that I was curious
+he allowed it to drop towards the ground, showing me
+the full length of his punishment. I bought the man’s
+rosary for a souvenir. We saw, also, in Maimatchin,
+another kind of Chinese punishment, in the shape of a
+wooden collar, made of 6-inch plank, about 2½ feet
+square, and put about a man’s neck. It was said to be
+more than 100 lbs. in weight, and the unfortunate
+wearer was prevented by its size from putting his hand
+to his mouth. He used therefore, in feeding himself,
+a long wooden spoon, but he looked anything but
+comfortable. His accusation was written on the collar,
+setting forth his name and family, and he was to wear
+his collar night and day for a month, and that for
+<em>fighting</em>! but I am not clear whether it was for an
+ordinary pugilistic encounter, or for attempted violence
+to a superior.</p>
+
+<p>As we walked about the streets it was plain that,
+though we were distinctly in the Chinese empire and
+not in Russia, yet that the people of the two border
+towns were on the most friendly footing. Chinese
+merchants visit the Russians freely, drink tea, smoke
+cigarettes, and chatter,—not “pigeon English,” but
+“pigeon Russian.” To this good feeling I presume
+it was that we were indebted for an invitation to dine,
+two days after, with the merchant upon whom we
+called. We were particularly anxious to do this; for
+to eat a Chinese dinner at Maimatchin had been one
+of the curious treats I had promised myself when
+thinking of pushing on so far as Kiakhta. At the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_346">[346]</span>
+same time, Mr. Michie’s declaring that a Chinese
+dinner, to which Kiakhta merchants take their friends,
+was “a feast most Europeans would rather undergo
+the incipient stages of starvation than come within the
+smell of it,” had rather terrified me as to the horrors
+one might be expected to eat. I determined, however,
+to place bread on one side of my plate and water on
+the other, and then martyrise myself for the sake of
+gaining experience, to say nothing of showing myself
+a person of good breeding in Chinese eyes, by tasting
+<em>everything</em>; and I hoped that, if anything particularly
+nasty came into my mouth, it might be neutralized or
+speedily swallowed by the aid of a piece of bread or
+a draught of water. Things were not so bad, however,
+as I had feared, and we were none of us made
+ill. Calling on our way to dinner at Mr. Tokmakoff’s,
+I begged a small loaf of half-white bread; and, thus
+prepared, we presented ourselves at the house of Van
+Tchan Taï.</p>
+
+<p>There were five in the party, which included Mr.
+Koecher, our Russian host; Mr. M——, our fellow-countryman;
+Mr. Interpreter; myself, and a Russian
+friend. We were shown first into the inner compartment,
+and seated on the divan, whilst they brought us
+tea, dried fruits, and confections, such as candied
+ginger, dried walnuts and Mandarin oranges, salted
+almonds, and sugared ditto, melon seeds, etc., etc. We
+then adjourned to the outer chamber, where the dinner
+was spread on a table. But what a table! It was
+just about three feet square, and on this were placed,
+as a commencement, no less than 10 dishes, besides our
+own plates. These dishes, or saucers, of meats were
+replaced to the number of 30. Further east I met a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_347">[347]</span>
+man who told me that when he dined at Maimatchin
+they gave him 64 dishes! At this tiny table we were
+seated, and each was provided with a small saucer,
+three inches in diameter, half filled with dark-looking
+vinegar, into which we were supposed to dip everything
+before carrying it to the mouth. Of this I soon
+got tired, and began to eat things <i lang="fr">au naturel</i>, that is as
+far as possible; but most of the courses were so disguised
+by confectionery and culinary art that we had to
+ask of almost every plate, What is this? Happily the
+plates were so exceedingly small that to taste of each
+did not seriously strain one’s eating powers; and by
+tasting first, and then asking what it was, all prejudice
+was taken away till it was too late to have any. But
+we discovered that among the dishes we had eaten
+were beans, garlic, a kind of sea-weed cooked like
+seakale, and a green kind also; likewise radishes cut
+in slices, swallows’ eggs boiled, and rissoles of meat;
+various sorts of marine vegetables, and, I think, birds’
+nests. Towards the end of the feast appeared a
+<i lang="ru">samovar</i>, but not like the Russian article of that
+name,—the difference resembling that between an
+“outside” and an “inside” Dublin car, of which an
+Irishman said that, with an outside car the wheels
+were inside, whereas with an inside car the wheels
+were outside. So with the Chinese samovar, the
+boiling part was exposed to view, and contained the
+soup, in which were small pieces of meat, vermicelli,
+and rice puddings, the size of tennis balls, for the
+eating of which they brought us chop-sticks—I suppose,
+that we might try our hands, for at the earlier
+part of the meal they had given us knives and forks.
+Chop-sticks are a pair of cylindrical rods, rather
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_348">[348]</span>
+longer, and not quite so thick as lead pencils, which
+are both held between the thumb and fingers of the
+right hand, and are used as tongs to take the food and
+carry it to the mouth—an operation by no means easy
+to the unpractised. Our host did not sit at table, or eat
+with us, but stood looking on, and giving orders to
+his boys or “clerks.” Each guest was provided with
+a tiny cup about an inch or a little more in diameter,
+and perhaps half an inch deep. Into this, at an early
+stage of the proceedings, was poured, from a diminutive
+kettle, hot <i lang="zh">mai-ga-lo</i>, or Chinese brandy, tasting,
+it was said, somewhat like whisky. It is exceedingly
+strong, though not so potent as another kind
+of which we heard, called <i lang="ru">khanshin</i>, and which not
+only makes a man intoxicated on the day he drinks
+it, but if he takes a glass of water only on the morrow,
+the intoxicating effect is repeated. When they came
+to pour me out brandy I declined, the propriety of
+which our host recognised at once; for when my
+friends told him I was a “lama,” or priest, he said
+that “<em>their</em> lamas were not allowed to drink brandy.”
+It was comforting, therefore, to find that we had at
+least one good thing in common.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst we were in the house of Van Tchan Taï
+there came in a Mongolian lama, to whom I was introduced
+as an <em>English</em> lama. The Mongolian lamas do
+not confine themselves to spiritual functions; for this
+man was a contractor for the carriage of goods across
+the desert to and from China, which leads me to say
+something of this curious journey. The Kiakhta-Peking
+route was not that followed by the earliest
+embassies sent overland from Siberia, nor by Marco
+Polo in his marvellous travels in Tartary. In fact, it
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_349">[349]</span>
+is remarkable how very little has been known, until
+lately, concerning this part of Central Asia, and how
+little is known still.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_139" href="#Footnote_1_139" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>After the building of Kiakhta and Maimatchin, the
+route across the desert was of course extensively used
+by the caravans, though I am not aware that it was
+followed by any Englishman or celebrated traveller
+till within the past quarter of a century.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_140" href="#Footnote_2_140" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>There are six Englishmen, four of whom I have
+met, who, as well as some ladies, have travelled this
+Mongolian route within the past 18 years.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_141" href="#Footnote_3_141" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_350">[350]</span>
+traveller, however, who has given us the most solid
+and scientific information about the part of Mongolia
+of which we are speaking is the Russian Colonel Prejevalsky,
+who spent three years, beginning in 1870, by
+travelling first from Kiakhta to Peking, then turning
+northward to Manchuria, and afterwards following in
+the tracks of Huc not quite to Lhassa, but as far as
+the Blue River, or the Yang-tse-kiang; and then, turning
+back, did the most daring thing of all, crossing the desert
+of Gobi from Ala-shan to Urga and Kiakhta. This
+journey had never before been attempted by a European,
+and was accomplished in the height of summer, when
+sometimes the party could obtain neither pasture nor
+water.</p>
+
+<p>The distance between Kiakhta and Peking is a
+thousand miles, and Europeans who wish to make the
+journey have the choice of two modes of conveyance,
+either by post-horses or by caravan camels engaged
+by special bargain with their owners. So, at least,
+says Colonel Prejevalsky, though Mr. Milne tells a
+different tale, for he had intended to cross Mongolia
+in company with a Russian officer by courier horses;
+but he found that, according to the agreement between
+the Russian and Chinese Governments, it was allowable
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_351">[351]</span>
+only for such couriers as were Russian subjects
+to take the horse road, and therefore he was obliged
+to go the ordinary caravan route by camels. He made
+an agreement with some Mongol carriers, that they
+were to take him from Kiakhta to Kalgan, near the
+great wall of China, in 30 days, for which he was to
+pay them £15. For every day less than thirty he was
+to pay ten shillings extra; for every day beyond that
+time they were to pay him ten shillings. There was
+also a clause that a tent, fire, and water should be
+supplied. The ordinary procedure of the caravan in
+winter is to be on the move till about seven or eight
+in the evening, and then stop for tea, and travel on
+till midnight or two in the morning. A halt is then
+made for sleep, and all start again by eight or ten.
+They eat in winter only once a day, and, according to
+Mr. Milne’s account, a winter journey across the
+desert is anything but comfortable. Mr. Michie,
+however, and Captain Shepherd, who travelled in
+milder weather, give a very different account, and
+speak in pleasant terms of a nomad life. It is so
+utterly different from any European experience of
+motion and living that, though it has several drawbacks—and
+a month is rather too long to be wholly
+agreeable—yet those who have passed through such
+a phase of travel look back upon it as a pleasant change
+from the humdrum life of a homeward voyage in a
+P. and O. steamer.</p>
+
+<p>The pace at which the caravan proceeds is provokingly
+slow, and the jolting of the rude, clumsy
+camel-cart makes walking, for a great part of the day,
+preferable to driving; but there is game to be shot,
+and the solitude of the desert is now and then relieved
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_352">[352]</span>
+by arrivals at Mongolian <i lang="mn">yourts</i>, or tents, where,
+conversation being the only form of newspaper they
+know, there is a general wagging of tongues, and a
+shower of questions to be asked. The Mongol’s one
+notion of wealth is the number of a man’s flocks and
+herds; and thus, if the Englishman is asked what he
+is worth, he has to translate his riches into thousands
+of sheep, horses, and bulls, and then explain his possessions.
+Again, the monotony of the way may be
+relieved occasionally by meeting with the Russian post.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_142" href="#Footnote_4_142" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>The manners and customs of the Mongolians are, in
+many cases, exceedingly interesting, as taking one back
+to the habits of a nomadic and pastoral people. But
+it is not necessary to detail them here, as we shall have
+before us, in a subsequent chapter, the Buriats, who are
+a branch of the Mongolian race; and in treating of the
+one we shall be in many respects treating also of the
+other.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_139" href="#FNanchor_1_139" class="label">[1]</a> We owe some of our early geographical information about Eastern
+Mongolia to the rupture between the Russians and Chinese on the Amur.
+The Chinese took several prisoners, and transported them to Peking,
+subsequently allowing Russian priests to be sent to minister to their
+spiritual necessities. When, in course of time, the prisoners might have
+returned, they had learned so to like their quarters, that they chose to
+remain; whereupon “the spiritual mission” was kept up by sending new
+priests at intervals of ten years, and thus the Russians learned something
+of the unknown country through which these functionaries travelled.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_140" href="#FNanchor_2_140" class="label">[2]</a> Daniel De Foe made his celebrated “Robinson Crusoe” to re-visit
+his island, and afterwards land in China, where he met with a Jesuit
+missionary who took him to Peking. Then, crossing the desert, he
+came to the Argun and Nertchinsk, and so proceeded to Tobolsk and
+crossed the Urals to Archangel. This, of course, is fiction; but it may
+be that De Foe, who was never abroad in his life, and who published his
+“Robinson Crusoe” in 1719, had heard of a route used in his day across
+the Mongolian desert. When we come to the interesting writings of the
+Roman missionary Huc, we have, of course, a good deal of information
+about Mongolia; but his route lay in the south along the great wall of
+China towards the Himalayas, and not at all in the north.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_141" href="#FNanchor_3_141" class="label">[3]</a> One is Mr. Howell, formerly a British resident in China, who crossed
+from Shanghai to Kiakhta; another is Mr. Wylie, who was connected
+with the British and Foreign Bible Society, and who crossed from Kiakhta
+to Peking; but neither of these gentlemen has favoured the public, as
+far as I am aware, with information as to his wanderings. In 1863
+Mr. Michie undertook “the Siberian overland route from Peking to St.
+Petersburg,” and wrote an account of his Mongolian travels, which was
+the first English book that had appeared on that part of Asia. Mr.
+Michie has been followed by three other English writers. In 1869, by
+Mr. William Athenry Whyte, F.R.G.S., who wrote, “A Land Journey from
+Asia to Europe, being an account of a camel and sledge journey from
+Canton to St. Petersburg, through the plains of Mongolia and Siberia;”
+in 1875–6, by Mr. John Milne, F.G.S., who crossed Europe and Siberia
+to Kiakhta, Peking, and Shanghai, and read a paper concerning his journey
+before the Asiatic Society of Japan; and, in 1877, by Captain W. Shepherd,
+R.E., who returned “homeward through Mongolia and Siberia,”
+and wrote a short account in the Royal Engineers’ Journal. I heard some
+of these travellers spoken of by the residents in Siberia, and the Russians
+seemed mightily surprised that Captain Shepherd should have taken such
+a journey alone, and unable to speak a word of their language. I suppose
+Messrs. Howell and Wylie did the same, but I have heard of Captain
+Shepherd’s exploit as far away as the Crimea, and so lately as last autumn.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_142" href="#FNanchor_4_142" class="label">[4]</a> Postal communication was established by treaty between the Russians
+and Chinese in 1858 and 1860. The Russian Government organized, at
+its own expense, a regular transmission of both light and heavy mails
+between Kiakhta, Peking, and Tien-tsin. The Mongols contract to carry
+the post as far as Kalgan, the Chinese the rest of the way. The Russians
+have opened post-offices at four places, Urga, Kalgan, Peking, and Tien-tsin.
+The light mails leave Kiakhta and Tien-tsin three times a month,
+the heavy mails only once a month. The heavy mails are carried on
+camels, escorted by two Cossacks from Kiakhta; while the light mails
+are accompanied only by Mongols, and are carried on horses. The light
+mails are taken from Kiakhta to Peking in two weeks, whilst the heavy
+mails take from 20 to 24 days; and the cost of all this to the Russian
+Government is about £2,400 a year, the receipts at the four offices amounting
+to about £430.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_353">[353]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXIX">
+    CHAPTER XXIX.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>FROM KIAKHTA TO CHITA.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Farewell ceremonies.—Writing home of changed plans.—Caravans.—An
+iron foundry.—Buriat yemstchiks.—Methods of driving.—Salutations.—Insignificant
+post-stations.—Visit to a missionary to the Buriats.—Russian
+missions in Japan.—A remarkable meeting.—The Yablonoi
+mountains.—Chita.—Visit to the Governor and prison.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>We</span> had determined, after dining at Maimatchin,
+to continue our journey eastwards. Mr.
+Koecher, however, would not let us go without giving
+us a supplementary dinner; for the Chinese spread is
+looked upon as a matter of curiosity rather than of
+genuine gastronomy, and we did not expect to get
+another respectable meal for many hundreds of miles.
+After this supplementary dinner, therefore, we prepared
+to start. The hospitality and kindness of the Siberians
+to departing friends is unbounded; and, among other
+customs, they have one method of doing honour to a
+guest at a feast which is considered a mark of great
+respect. It is called the <i lang="ru">podkeedovate</i>, and is done by
+seizing the unfortunate victim and laying him flat on
+the extended and clasped hands of two rows of guests,
+who toss him up and catch him. When Mr. Collins,
+their first American visitor, was at Kiakhta, they tossed
+him up in this manner to the ceiling, which he touched,
+palpably. In our own case, happily, we were spared
+this honour, and were dismissed with the repeated
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_354">[354]</span>
+shakings of the hand of which the Russians are so
+fond; provided, however, it be not over the threshold.
+Twice I found myself transgressing in this respect—once
+to an American, who had become half Russianized,
+and once to a Russian lady. Both of them smiled, and
+asked me to come right in before shaking hands. What
+superstition they have upon the subject I know not.
+Another Russian custom with departing friends is to
+drive alongside for a few miles, perhaps to the first
+post-station, and then take a last farewell. This our
+host did when we left Kiakhta on the evening of
+Wednesday, the 16th July, and we were then fairly
+started for a drive of 600 miles. We passed along the
+road by which we came as far as Verchne Udinsk, or,
+as I have called it, “the Amur and China junction.”
+Here we took the opportunity to post letters to
+England, to say that to return from hence would be to
+leave my work half done, and that we were going on
+to the Amur, from which Mr. Interpreter was to turn
+back, whilst I was to continue to the Pacific, and so
+reach home by completing the circle of the globe; and
+as I thought to finish the journey in person sooner than
+a letter would cross Asia and Europe, and I did not
+know what holes and corners I might get into, or how
+be detained, my friends were exhorted not to be alarmed
+if they heard nothing of me for many days. And the
+exhortation was needed, for I subsequently got into
+two places from which I could not stir, nor well communicate
+my whereabouts, so that, notwithstanding my
+warning, serious and anxious doubts were entertained
+for my safety.</p>
+
+<p>Whilst travelling eastwards we had frequently met
+caravans of carts carrying tea. These caravans sometimes
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_355">[355]</span>
+reach to upwards of 100 horses; and, as they go
+at walking pace, and when they come to a river are
+taken over by ferry, it is not matter for surprise that
+merchandise should be three months in coming from
+Irkutsk to Moscow. In winter the rivers, of course,
+present no difficulty, and hence this season is on
+some accounts preferred for transport. The number
+of drivers required for a large convoy is not numerous,
+and they lighten their work by hanging a
+bundle of hay on the hinder part of every cart, so that
+a horse, if hungry, takes good care to keep up with his
+leader. As we proceeded, from Verchne Udinsk we met
+trains of two-wheeled carts with manufactured iron.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_143" href="#Footnote_1_143" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>
+There was one driver to every four or five carts, and
+this driver had a dormitory on one of his loads, consisting
+of a rude frame, two-and-a-half by six feet, with
+a covering of birch-bark, and under this, clad in a
+sheepskin coat, a man contrives to sleep for many an
+hour of the night and day. They usually travel about
+16 hours (though not at a stretch) out of the 24, and
+in the summer graze their horses at the side of the road.</p>
+
+<p>We had now left the great highway between China
+and Europe, and of this we were sternly reminded by
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_356">[356]</span>
+the amount of shaking to which we were forced to
+submit. Also we were introduced to a new set of
+yemstchiks; for most of our drivers now were Buriats,
+who tie up their horse’s mane like a horn between
+his ears, and who, like the Russians, have a wonderful
+knack of sending their horses along without harassing
+them, the driving being done by the voice and by
+threatening with the hand. Whip-cracking is unheard
+in Siberia, and the long, slender, snapping whips of
+Western Europe are unknown. The Siberian uses a
+short stock with a lash of hemp, leather, or other
+flexible substance, but having no snapper at its end.
+The Russian drivers talk a great deal to their horses,
+and the speech they use depends much upon the
+character and performance of the animals. Do they
+travel well? Then the driver calls them his “brothers,”
+his “doves,” his “beauties,” his “jewels.” On the
+contrary, an obstinate or lazy horse is called a variety
+of names the reverse of endearing. He may be called
+a <i lang="ru">sabaka</i>, or dog, and his maternity disrespectfully
+ascribed to the race canine. Sometimes the driver
+rattles off his words as if the creatures understood
+all the praise he is giving them, after which, on
+proper occasion, he storms at and scolds them as the
+veriest hags and jades he ever drove. But I do not
+remember that this fashion of talking to the horses
+was so observable among the Buriats, though they
+drove exceedingly well.</p>
+
+<p>These people have a curious method of salutation,
+as have several of the peoples with whom we were
+brought in contact. The Chinese, for instance, fold
+the hands together, and raise them up and down
+several times. The Mongols hold up their thumb
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_357">[357]</span>
+to salute, and to clench a bargain one places his hand
+on the sleeve of the other. The Buriats do much
+the same, whilst the Russians shake hands for everything,
+and if they are friends they also kiss.</p>
+
+<p>As we drove along we saw abundance of black and
+white jackdaws; small birds, like a cross between a
+canary and a linnet; and, on the distant hills, flocks
+of sheep. Further south, I have been told, herds of
+camels are reared, for the sake of their wool, which in
+these parts grows to a considerable length. The post-stations
+we passed were far apart and poor, and the
+villages few. In these last live many Buriats, some
+Russians, and a few Jews. In one village we saw
+some very good-looking Jewish women, whom I saluted
+with a word or two of Hebrew. This, and the showing
+of our podorojna that we were English, attracted
+attention to us as strangers. Not long before, some
+Chinese ambassadors had passed the same way; and
+one yemstchik, hearing that we were foreigners, thought
+we too must be ambassadors, and inquired whether
+he should go and put on his best suit, from which,
+however, we excused him.</p>
+
+<p>On the evening of the second day after leaving
+Verchne Udinsk, we reached Koordinska, where lives
+a Russian priest who is a missionary to the Buriats,
+and upon whom I wished to call, though, as it was
+getting towards midnight, I feared we might find the
+good man in bed. But it was “now or never,” and
+I therefore persisted in going to the house, notwithstanding
+the Buriat yemstchik’s remonstrances, which
+I afterwards thought, may have proceeded from the
+fear that he should be bewitched, or in some way
+influenced by the missionary, for I could not get him
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_358">[358]</span>
+to stop his horses within many yards of the house.
+The missionary did not appear at first particularly
+amiable on being visited at such an unusual hour; but,
+when he found that we had good books to give him,
+he began to change his demeanour, and readily imparted
+to us information respecting the progress of
+the mission, telling us that during the previous year
+300 Buriats had been baptized east of the Baikal, and
+more than 1,000 on the west. He showed us, however,
+that he had already a sufficiency of the Buriat Scriptures—of
+the same edition, in fact, as those we were
+distributing—and he did not care to accept more, which
+rather led me to surmise, what was afterwards confirmed,
+that the amount of knowledge required by the
+Russian priests of their converts before baptism is
+very slender. I do not know either how far they
+press upon the Buriats the study of the Scriptures, or
+whether the Buriats are averse to the book. The
+old man at Selenginsk, Ivlampi Melnikoff, told us
+that many copies of the Scriptures were left in the
+hands of his father when the English missionaries took
+their departure, and that the Buriats would not receive
+them. They were therefore handed over to a Russian
+priest; but he was speaking of things as they were
+forty years ago.</p>
+
+<p>When our missionary friend found that we were
+really interested in his work, he pressed us, notwithstanding
+the lateness of the hour, to drink tea; but
+this we declined, as we could not keep the post-horses
+standing. He was very eager to tell us, before we
+went, that the Russians were carrying on a successful
+mission to the Japanese (the liturgy being sung in
+Russian style in the vernacular), under the directorship
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_359">[359]</span>
+of the Archimandrite Nicolai; and the missionary,
+dwelling in the Buriat wilderness, was considerably perturbed
+because someone in Japan had been writing a
+book, attempting to show that Confucius was greater
+than Jesus Christ; and as I said that I expected to pass
+through Japan, he begged that I would get a copy of
+the life of Confucius, and consult with the Archimandrite
+how the heretical book might be extinguished.
+This was the first I heard of the Archimandrite, but,
+on reaching Nikolaefsk, I found him exceedingly well
+spoken of by a Lieutenant Yakimoff, who gave me a
+letter to him to deliver on my arrival in Japan.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_144" href="#Footnote_2_144" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+Accordingly I hoped to see the said Archimandrite
+Nicolai, but, before I reached Yokohama, he had
+returned home to be consecrated bishop. I therefore
+thought no more of the matter till last autumn, when
+my hopes were singularly and unexpectedly fulfilled,
+whilst staying at Kieff on my way to the Caucasus.
+My companion and I were trying to find
+someone in the Pechersky monastery who could
+speak English or French. At last appeared with the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_360">[360]</span>
+monks a tall man in a cassock, dressed like the others,
+save that his cassock was brown. He said he could
+speak English, and, after having taken us round to
+see the sights, he inquired of me where I was
+labouring in England, or, as he put it, “where I was
+in service.” I told him, and then asked where <em>he</em>
+was “in service.” “Oh,” said he, “very far off.”
+“Well,” I said, “where?” “In Japan,” he replied.
+“Then,” said I, “you must be the Father Nicolai, to
+whom I had a letter last year from Siberia, and who
+has lately been consecrated bishop.” And so it turned
+out, and thus we had casually fallen in each other’s
+way, thousands of miles from the place of our expected
+meeting. I dined with him, and we then parted, he to
+continue his return journey to Japan, whilst I pushed
+forward to Mount Ararat.</p>
+
+<p>All this, however, was in the unknown future when
+we were talking to the Russian missionary at Koordinska,
+who regretted that our visit was so short, and
+whom we left to continue our journey all night to
+Chita. In doing so we traversed hilly roads, and on
+the following day had some extended views as we
+approached the <i lang="ru">Yablonoi</i>, or Apple-tree Mountains.
+This range runs in a north-easterly direction, right
+through the Za-Baikal province; and when, after
+gradually rising from Verchne Udinsk, which is 1,500
+feet, we reached the summit of the range, 4,000 feet
+above the sea, we were then about 20 miles from
+Chita. Before us a well-defined range of mountains
+bounded the horizon to the east, while to the
+north and south the valley stretched away for miles.
+We had a fine morning for the descent, and bounding
+along over a rolling prairie, where herds of cattle were
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_361">[361]</span>
+grazing, had a beautiful view as we approached the
+town. Moreover, we were at last on the eastern side
+of the great Altai chain, and consequently the rivers
+before us differed from all that we had yet seen in
+Siberia. All the others had been flowing northwards
+to be emptied into the Arctic Ocean, whereas in the
+river Chita, from the left, joining the Ingoda from the
+right, the current was flowing eastward, through a
+delightful valley, to find its way, 2,000 miles off, into
+the Pacific. We had before us now, in fact, one of
+the valleys of the head waters of the Amur, of which
+valley Baron Rosen says that it is remarkable for its
+flora, and is called the “garden of Siberia.”</p>
+
+<p>Chita stands on the left bank of the Ingoda on a
+height, bounded on two sides by lofty mountains. To
+the north lies Lake Onon, on whose shores Genghis
+Khan, as he marched westwards, held his court of
+justice, and in whose waters he drowned the condemned.
+Below this point the Ingoda is navigable
+for boats and rafts. During the early years of the
+Amur occupation, much material was floated down
+from Chita. The town was founded in 1851, when it
+had a population of 2,600; now it has 3,000. Many
+of the houses are large and well fitted, and all are of
+wood. We found shops, at which, however, we had
+to pay 1<i>s.</i> a pound for loaf-sugar, and white bread cost
+just three times what we had paid for it at Tobolsk.</p>
+
+<p>The Governor’s house was the best in the place,
+and there we presented our letters. His Excellency,
+M. Pedashenko, gave us a kind reception. I had met
+on the road, at a post-station, the father of Madame
+Pedashenko, and he had given me an introduction to
+his daughter; but Madame was unwell. The Governor,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_362">[362]</span>
+however, spared no pains to do for us all he could.
+On learning that I wished to visit the penal colony
+and gold-mines of Kara, he telegraphed that arrangements
+might be made for my being conveyed thither;
+and after this we proceeded to inspect the prison in
+the town. Outside the building was a black cart,
+which might be placed in a similar category with our
+old-fashioned English stocks. Formerly prisoners
+were taken in this cart to the market-place, and there
+exposed as outlaws and felons—their accusation being
+carried on the breast, and a notification attached
+that they had “lost all their rights.” This punishment
+was said to be abolished now, but I heard of its
+having been used at Blagovestchensk as lately as the
+previous year.</p>
+
+<p>The prison at Chita contained 169 prisoners, and
+cannot, I suppose, be that in which the 30 Decembrists
+were confined in 1826; for Baron Rosen speaks
+of Chita in his day as a little village of 300 people.
+At the time of our visit, they were expecting a new
+place of confinement to be built—not a day before it
+was wanted; for the Chita prison was apparently the
+oldest, and I thought it the poorest and dirtiest, we had
+seen. The prisoners, too, were shabbily clad, and
+dirty. One of them was reading a religious book lent
+him, I think he said, by the priest; but there was no
+prison library. Indeed, it was very rare to find one,
+though at Ekaterineburg we were told that a prisoner
+who wished to read might have a prayer-book. Several
+of the Chita prisoners were from Russia, and condemned
+to hard labour. There was a carpenters’ shop,
+in which some were forced to work, and others did so
+for their own pleasure. Speaking generally, those in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_363">[363]</span>
+the building appeared to be enjoying an easy time;
+for the doors of the wards were open to allow their
+going in and out of the yard as they chose, and many
+were lying about sleeping in the sun. We were told
+that they found it difficult to sleep at night by reason
+of vermin, and so were sleeping instead by day. This
+illustrates a remark of Goryantchikoff in “Buried
+Alive,” to the effect that his prison was never free
+from fleas even in winter, and that in summer they
+increased. In the prison kitchen we saw them cutting
+up rhubarb leaves to put in the soup (fresh cabbage
+not being ready at the time of our visit), which
+reminds me of another remark of Goryantchikoff, who
+writes as if it were a normal thing with him to have
+black-beetles swimming in his soup. His remark
+about fleas I can readily believe; but by “black-beetles”
+I presume he refers to little brown insects,
+about half an inch long, called “<i lang="ru">Tarakans</i>,” which
+swarm in the houses of the Siberian peasants. Happily,
+however, they are non-belligerent, and I was told
+by an Englishman that the people are not averse to
+them. Why they should daily walk into the copper
+to be boiled in Mr. Goryantchikoff’s soup, I know
+not; but one thing about prison soup I do know, that,
+in the irregular, uncomfortable (I was going to say
+half-starved) condition in which I have sometimes
+travelled in certain parts of Russia, I have more
+than once tasted prison soup, of which, but for appearance
+sake, I would fain have eaten, not a mere
+spoonful to give my opinion thereon, but a plateful
+to satisfy my appetite. I should not have chosen
+that, however, seasoned with rhubarb leaves.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_143" href="#FNanchor_1_143" class="label">[1]</a> It is not unlikely that the iron here alluded to had come from Petrovsky
+Zavod, which is about 100 miles south-east of Verchne Udinsk.
+These ironworks were established during the reign of Peter the Great,
+and at one time were worked by convicts; but, so far as they are in activity
+now, free labour, I believe, is employed. This Zavod was formerly of
+importance to the locality. The engines for the first steamers that Russia
+placed on the Amur were made here. Guns, also, have been cast and
+bored by Russian workmen. There is plenty of coal, too, in the neighbourhood,
+but it is not much used, as wood is plentiful. I heard very
+little of the operations carried on at present, but it seems that in the
+whole Trans-Baikal province there were produced, in 1877, of cast iron
+482 tons and of wrought iron 280 tons. Thirty years ago, Petrovski
+wrought 18 tons of bar iron annually.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_144" href="#FNanchor_2_144" class="label">[2]</a> On my voyage I gathered from a Russian captain that there were in
+Japan 7 priests, 95 catechists, and 2,000 members, all of whom, not
+excepting even the priests, were converts to the orthodox Russian Church.
+In 1876, £1,174 were spent on this mission, which is the only Pagan
+mission, as far as I know, that the Russians have in foreign parts; and
+they think their Japanese work a great success, for in the <cite>Oriental
+Church Magazine</cite> for March 1880, the Russian editor says: “In 1879
+the (Russian) Church in Japan numbered a total of 6,000 members, an
+increase of 2,000 having taken place during one year”; and he adds,
+“Though the other Christian Churches control over 320 missionaries, and
+have in their possession enormous pecuniary means, still our (Russian)
+missionaries have succeeded in gaining full and exclusive control over
+the northern part of the island of Nipouna, and compete most successfully
+with their Roman Catholic and Protestant brethren in the central part of
+the island.” “This brilliant success is mainly attributable to the chief of
+our Japanese mission, Father Nicolai.”</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_364">[364]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXX">
+    CHAPTER XXX.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE BURIATS.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Country of the Buriats.—Their physiognomy and costume.—Habitations.—Mongol
+yourts.—Hospitality.—Fuel.—Possessions in cattle.—Character
+of Buriats.—Their religions.—Buddhist Buriats.—The
+soul of Buddha.—The lamas.—Their celibacy, classification, employments,
+disabilities.—Buddhist doctrines.—A prayer cylinder.—Christian
+Buriats.—English missions.—Reports of English travellers.—Results
+of Russian missions.—Distribution of Buriat Scriptures.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>Soon</span> after leaving Verchne Udinsk, we entered
+upon the vast steppe which occupies a large
+portion of the Trans-Baikal. Here we found ourselves
+in the heart of the Buriats’ country. We first met
+with these people a few miles on the western side of
+Irkutsk, and their physiognomy at once told us they
+belonged to a different race from any we had seen.
+They have very large skulls, square faces, low and flat
+foreheads; the cheek-bones are high and wide apart,
+the nose flat, eyes elongated, the skin swarthy and
+yellowish, and the hair jet black. With the men
+the hair is allowed to grow upon the crown of the
+head, and is plaited into a queue that hangs down
+their backs. What remains is cut close, but not shaved,
+as with the Tatars. The head-dress of the women is
+exceedingly rich, and consists of silver, coral, polished
+beads of Ural malachite, and mother-of-pearl. They
+wear their hair in two thick braids, which fall from the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_365">[365]</span>
+temples below the shoulders, and the unmarried girls
+interweave their braids with strings of coral. Several
+women had many silver ornaments hanging on their
+breasts, and in some cases a straight rod at the back of
+the head stuck out horizontally for several inches on
+either side, and to this the hair was tied. I was desirous
+to purchase one of these head-dresses for a curiosity,
+but they were not to be had at shops. The stones and
+metal are purchased, and made up by household skill.
+I was, however, somewhat taken aback on finding that
+their value frequently amounted to twenty or thirty
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_366">[366]</span>
+pounds sterling. At a post-station we asked a Buriat
+what he would take for his hat. To our surprise, he
+asked the modest price of fifteen roubles merely for
+the silver knob at the top. The Buriats are said to
+wear no linen, but a wealthy bride’s dowry sometimes
+consists of 40 cases of the richest furs.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp44" id="p3650_ill" style="max-width: 56.8125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p3650_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      MISS BOU-TA-TYO, A BURIAT YOUNG LADY.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>As for their habitations, the Buriats are such inveterate
+dwellers in tents that though they are supposed
+now to be civilized where they come in contact with the
+Russians, yet they make a tent of the house by piercing
+a hole in the middle of the roof, and have the fire in
+the centre of the floor. When visiting Madame Tokmakoff,
+she had a Buriat man-servant, for whom a
+Russian house was provided, but in which he could not
+be happy until he had thus readjusted his dwelling.
+We entered a Buriat house at Cheelantoui, although
+only the woman was at home. There was within
+a rude wooden bench, on which we were invited to
+sit, and on it was lying a pair of coral ornaments
+for the head. These the woman, on our noticing
+them, immediately put on, and she then invited
+us to drink tea. To have declined would have been
+considered highly unpolite. Even among the Russians,
+a general pleasantly told me that he took a refusal to
+eat food in his house like a slap in the face. Moreover,
+we were anxious to stand well in the good graces of our
+Buriat hostess, for we wished to be admitted to the
+Buddhist temple, and she was the only person in the
+place through whom we could communicate in Russian
+with the lamas. But to see the tea served, and have
+to drink it, was no small trial. Over the fire hung a
+large open iron pot, full of a bubbling liquid covered
+with scum. In this was a ladle, which our fair hostess
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_367">[367]</span>
+filled and refilled, and emptied back into the pot.
+Then, scraping the scum away, she took a ladleful of
+the decoction, poured it into cups, and gave us to
+drink. We were told it was tea flavoured with salt.
+I only hope it was nothing worse, but it will hardly be
+thought matter for surprise if, after tasting it, I had an
+accident, upset the beverage, and declined a second cup.
+We had a good look, however, at the furniture of the
+dwelling, the most interesting item of which was a family
+altar, something like a small sideboard with drawers.
+On it were round bronze cups of liquor, and other offerings.
+There were also about the room some objects of
+ornamented metal, betokening clever workmanship.</p>
+
+<p>This represents the Buriat in his civilized condition.
+One gets a better idea of his native habits
+and antecedents by going away from the haunts of the
+Russians, or even into the “land of grass,” as their
+Mongolian brothers call their desert. There they live
+in tents, which, like those of other Siberian aborigines,
+are constructed with poles meeting at the top, but covered
+with felt instead of deerskins. The hospitality of all
+Mongol tribes is unvarying. Every stranger is welcome,
+and has the best his host can give; and the more he consumes,
+the better will all be pleased. The staple dish of
+the Mongol yourt is boiled mutton, but it is unaccompanied
+with capers, or any other kind of sauce or
+seasoning. A sheep “goes to pot” immediately on
+being killed, and when the meat is cooked, it is lifted
+out of the hot water and handed, all dripping and
+steaming, to the guests. Each man takes a large lump
+on his lap, or any convenient support, and then cuts off
+little pieces, which he tosses into his mouth. The best
+piece is reserved for the guest of honour, and, as a mark
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_368">[368]</span>
+of special attention, is frequently put into his mouth by
+the greasy fingers of his host. After the meat is devoured,
+the broth is drunk, and this concludes the meal.
+Knives and cups are the only aids to eating, and as
+each man carries his own “outfit,” the dinner-cloth and
+service does not take long to arrange. The entire
+work consists in seating the party around a pot of
+cooked meat. The Buriats are famous at drinking
+brick tea, infusing with it rye meal, mutton fat, and
+salt obtained from the lakes of the steppe. I suspect it
+was this we had to taste at Cheelantoui. So important
+an article of food is this tea to the Buriats, that they sometimes
+lay by stores of it as money. In dry situations,
+this substance will remain a long time undeteriorated;
+and consequently on the steppe an accumulation of it is
+often thought a better investment than herds and flocks.</p>
+
+<p>In the northern parts, the Buriats procure wood for
+fuel; but in the southern parts, and with the Mongols
+in the desert, this article is scarce, and they use instead
+sun-dried camels’ dung, which they call <i lang="ru">argols</i>, from a
+Tatar word which signifies the droppings of animals
+when dried and prepared for fuel.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_145" href="#Footnote_1_145" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Buriat implements for striking fire used to be
+preferred to European, and commanded a high price
+among the Russians. They are made of plates of the
+best tempered steel, from four to six inches long,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_369">[369]</span>
+stitched to a bag for holding the tinder, the bag being
+of red leather, and tastefully ornamented with silver
+and steel spangles. The English and Swedish matches
+have now driven them out of the Russian market.</p>
+
+<p>The ordinary occupation of the Buriats is that of
+tending cattle, the number of their herds reminding
+one of the flocks of the Hebrew patriarchs. Mr.
+Stallybrass told me that, when he was living at Selenginsk,
+he knew rich Buriats to possess as many as
+6,000 or 7,000 sheep, 2,000 head of horned cattle, and
+200 horses; and Captain Cochrane mentions the case
+of the mother of a Buriat chief who possessed 40,000
+sheep, 10,000 horses, and 3,000 horned cattle, besides
+a large property in furs. In a sparsely-populated
+country, therefore, a man’s children are very useful in
+looking after his cattle; and since it is necessary to
+be constantly removing to fresh pastures, it will be
+understood that this state of things presented to the
+missionaries a double educational difficulty, namely,
+unwillingness on the part of the parents to lose their
+children’s services, and their constant change of residence.
+The same difficulty besets those still who would
+carry on missionary and educational work among other
+wandering tribes of Siberia. The Buriats, in 1876,
+numbered 260,000—the largest of the native populations
+of Eastern Siberia. As yemstchiks we thought
+them livelier than the Russians, and there was a manly
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_370">[370]</span>
+independence in their bearing, which easily accounted
+for the difficulty the Russians had at first in subjugating
+them. Moreover, they would seem not to be deficient
+in intellectual power, for the English missionaries
+taught some of them Latin, and had prepared an elementary
+work on geometry and trigonometry in the
+Buriat language. Baron Rosen also mentions that they
+play chess, having learnt it from the Chinese, and he
+says that the best player among his comrades, who
+were Russian officers, having on one occasion challenged
+a Buriat to a game, was beaten. The speech
+of the Buriats is a dialect of Mongol, rough and unsophisticated,
+with Manchu, Chinese, and Turkish
+corruptions. It is distinguished by its abundance of
+guttural and nasal sounds. Instead of true Mongolian
+letters they employ the Manchu alphabet, which is
+written in vertical columns from the top to the bottom
+of the page, the lines running from left to right. The
+only versions of the Scriptures in the Mongolian language
+are those of the Calmuck and Buriat dialects.</p>
+
+<p>The religion of the Buriats is of three kinds: Shamanism,
+Buddhism, and Christianity. Shamanism,
+more or less like that of the other tribes of Siberia,
+would appear to have been their old religion; and it still
+lingers most, I presume, in the northern parts of their
+country, which are farthest from Buddhist influence.
+Buddhism, however, holds sway over by far the
+greater portion of the people, and was originally
+imported from Thibet.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_146" href="#Footnote_2_146" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p3702_ill" style="max-width: 93.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p3702_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      BURIAT LAMAS AND MONGOLIAN INTERPRETER.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_371">[371]</span></p>
+
+<p>The lamas, or priests, are treated with great reverence,
+and every Buddhist Buriat desires that one of his family
+should follow the priestly calling. Hence it comes to
+pass that the lamas compose a sixth—some say a fifth—of
+the population. When in full dress they are clothed
+in scarlet, and shave their heads all over, and their
+large ears standing off from the skull give them a
+curious appearance. They are supposed to observe
+the strictest celibacy; hence Mr. Michie observes that
+it is a tender point with a lama to be asked how his
+wife and family are; but Mr. Erman points out that
+their celibacy has the most prejudicial consequences.
+The use of spirits is forbidden to them, lest excess
+“should disorder the brain of the student of the divine
+oracles, and corrupt the heart by the bad passions it
+might engender.” The use of tobacco also is denied
+them, and that for one of the best of reasons against
+smoking, because “it is conducive to indolence, and
+tends to waste leisure hours which ought to be devoted
+to pursuits affording instruction as well as amusement.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_147" href="#Footnote_3_147" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>Besides their religious employments the lamas
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_372">[372]</span>
+engage in various branches of ordinary industry, especially
+in the manufacture of their own wearing apparel
+and their ecclesiastical furniture. A lama labours
+under one inconvenience, in that he is not allowed to
+kill anything, through fear that what he slaughters
+may contain the soul of a relative, or possibly that of
+the divine Buddha. Even when he is annoyed, says
+Mr. Knox, by fleas or similar creeping things, with
+which their bodies are often thickly populated, he
+must bear his infliction until patience is thoroughly
+exhausted. He may then call in an unsanctified friend,
+and place himself and his garments under thorough
+examination. So again, in connection with this difficulty
+about killing, Captain Shepherd relates an instance
+in which the lamas did their best to keep the
+law and yet evade it at the same time. The captain,
+in crossing the desert, had bought a sheep, and was
+somewhat in difficulty as to how the animal should
+be slaughtered. There were four in the party. The
+late owner was a lama, and could not take life; so
+was the guide; the captain was unwilling to turn
+butcher, and his Chinese servant did not know how.
+The captain would have shot the animal, but the
+owner protested. One of the lamas, therefore, took
+the sheep aside, threw it down, tied its legs, explained
+to the Chinaman the trick, and lent his own knife for
+the deed to be done, after which he turned and walked
+quickly to a distance. When the sheep was once
+killed, the lamas soon cut it up, had it cooked, and,
+of course, helped to eat it.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_373">[373]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Buddhist books teach the people that they
+will attain the highest wisdom if they honour the lama;
+that the sun itself rises <em>only</em> that honour may be
+rendered to the lamas; and that persons obtain pardon
+for the most enormous sins by showing them respect.
+Any offence against a lama annihilates the merit
+acquired by a thousand generations. Whosoever shows
+any contempt for these personages is said to be
+punished by accident, sickness, and all kinds of misfortunes,
+and so forth. One of their Siberian monasteries,
+or lamaseries, with a temple, is at Turgutu,
+midway between Verchne Udinsk and Chita; and I
+think I heard of schools there. I have said that we
+visited a lamasery at Cheelantoui. It was a small one,
+consisting of about half-a-dozen houses, one of which
+was the temple, where, if I mistake not, they worship
+daily at sunset, but into which, unfortunately, we could
+not enter, as the chief was absent. There were younger
+lamas present, some of them mere boys; but they
+either could not or would not understand us, and
+seemed afraid to grant favours. We saw, however,
+the praying machine. It consisted of an upright
+cylinder, from two to three feet high, and perhaps
+two feet in diameter. It was fixed on a pivot, and
+could be turned by a rope, to be pulled by the devotee,
+who secured by each revolution some thousands of
+invocations to Buddha. Sometimes these machines
+are turned by mechanical power, like a wind or water
+mill. This, of course, is easier, and as the quantity of
+prayer is more important than the quality, the latter
+method saves much trouble, and is popular.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_148" href="#Footnote_4_148" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_374">[374]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Buriats, who are Buddhists, have temples,
+ritual, an order of priests, and a considerable literature.
+With a religion so developed, it will not be difficult
+to account for its overcoming the older Shamanistic
+creed, nor will it be hard to understand what was told
+us by the Ispravnik of Selenginsk,—that of the two
+religions among the Buriats, with whom the Russian
+missionaries come in contact, they find the conversion
+of the Shaman Buriats tolerably easy, but the Buddhists
+are greatly opposed to Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>We now come to that part of the Buriat people who
+are Christian. Perhaps it was an inquiry into the
+false religion of Buddha, under which so many millions
+of the human race are deluded, or perchance only a
+timid belief in the power of their own creed, that led
+our early travellers in Siberia, with one exception,
+to look coldly and unbelievingly on the efforts of
+the English mission to the Buriats; in connection
+with which the thought arises for how little the
+heathen world would have to thank the Christianity
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_375">[375]</span>
+of England, if there were not some who take a
+more believing view than the travellers who go
+abroad, looking in a superficial way at what is being
+done, or sometimes not looking at all, and then coming
+home to pronounce missions a failure or an imposture.
+Captain Cochrane, for instance, speaking of the missionaries
+at Selenginsk, goes so far as to say, “For
+my own part, so small are my hopes of their success,
+that I do not expect any one Buriat will be really and
+truly converted.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_149" href="#Footnote_5_149" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>I have shown, however, that the English missionaries
+laid a solid foundation, taught several scholars,
+and translated the Scriptures, which translation the
+Russian missionaries have in their hands to-day; and
+whatever may have been the success or failures of the
+English, it certainly cannot be said of the Russian
+missionaries that they have no converts, for, such as
+they are, they count them by thousands.</p>
+
+<p>The Ispravnik at Selenginsk told me there were
+about 40 men engaged in nine districts in the Russian
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_376">[376]</span>
+mission to the Buriats, though I am not aware whether
+some of them are not also parish priests. We called
+upon a priest at Verchne Udinsk to ask about the
+matter, and sold him some New Testaments and
+Gospels. He informed us that there were 15 mission
+stations among them, and that on the eastern side of
+Lake Baikal there were baptized annually about 300
+Buriats, and on the western side more than 1,000.
+This was confirmed by the missionary upon whom we
+called further on, and it agrees tolerably with the
+general almanack of 1878, in which it is stated that
+in the Irkutsk diocese there were baptized, in the
+previous year, 1,505 of both sexes, including four
+Buriat lamas; though the number of converts given
+for the Trans-Baikal diocese for that year amounted
+to only 52, there being one lama to every 20 persons.</p>
+
+<p>We had brought with us a number of copies of the
+Buriat Scriptures. Some of these we left at Irkutsk,
+some with the Ispravniks of Selenginsk and Troitzkosavsk,
+and some for the lamasery of Cheelantoui.
+Others we left at Chita with a view to spreading them
+over the district, as well as placing them in the prisons.
+I asked the Ispravnik at Selenginsk what he thought
+the lamas would do with the books. He said he
+thought they would first read them and then destroy
+them; but Mr. Stallybrass, on my return, was of
+opinion that they were likely to be deterred from
+destroying them by a feeling that they were holy
+books. In any case we gave the copies we had
+brought, and thus endeavoured to do what little we
+could for this interesting people, who, I doubt not,
+will gradually be absorbed into the Russian Church.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_145" href="#FNanchor_1_145" class="label">[1]</a> The collecting, pounding, moulding, and drying of dung is, further
+south, an important branch of commerce. Argols are of four classes. In
+the first rank are the argols of goats and sheep, which make so fierce a fire
+that a bar of iron placed therein is soon brought to a white heat. The
+argols of camels constitute the second class; they burn easily, and throw
+out a fine flame, but the heat they give is less intense than that given by
+the preceding. The third class comprises the argols of the bovine
+species; these, when thoroughly dry, burn readily, and produce no smoke.
+Lastly come the argols of horses and other animals, which, not having
+undergone the process of rumination, present nothing but a mass of straw
+more or less triturated. They are soon consumed, but are useful for
+lighting a fire. This fuel is called <i lang="ru">kiseek</i> in Russia, and in the southern
+governments was the only kind available for the poorer inhabitants, wood
+being very scarce and dear. The discovery of coal, and the establishment
+of manufactories, has wrought a complete change in the means of heating
+in Ekaterinoslaf. Kiseek was made from the dung of cattle and sheep,
+laboriously trodden under foot by women, and then sun-dried.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_146" href="#FNanchor_2_146" class="label">[2]</a> At Lhassa, the capital of Thibet, dwells the <i lang="bo">Dalai Lama</i>, who is the
+head of the Buddhist religion; and though his followers acknowledge him
+to be mortal, they believe his soul to be an immediate emanation from the
+essence of their supreme deity, Buddha. In places where this worship
+prevails are found religious communities gathered round the temples
+dedicated to the rites of their faith, and monasteries, or, as they are
+called, <i>lamaseries</i>, containing the various orders of priests. It was one
+of these we visited at Cheelantoui. When the great lama dies, it is held
+that his spirit immediately enters the body of another human being, who
+thus becomes successor to all the rights and privileges held by his predecessor,
+and some little difficulty often occurs in discovering who may be
+the favoured individual; but as the priests are the chief actors in the
+scene, their search is generally successful. Commonly the spirit is recognized
+as having animated some new-born infant, who is at once taken
+to the religious establishment and educated by the lamas in the mysteries
+of their faith.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_147" href="#FNanchor_3_147" class="label">[3]</a> The lamas are divided into four classes. Those of the first are
+occupied with the study of doctrine, and with the tenets and mysteries
+of their faith; those of the second with the regulation of certain religious
+rites and ceremonies; those of the third busy themselves in the study and
+direction of their worship; the fourth class study and practise medicine,
+in which it would appear that some of them attain eminence, for when
+we arrived at Kiakhta we found Mr. Tokmakoff, on account of his health,
+was gone to Urga, the Mongolian capital, to be near a native doctor.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_148" href="#FNanchor_4_148" class="label">[4]</a> Inside the cylinder is placed the oft-used prayer of the Buddhist,
+“<i>Om mani padme houm</i>,” of which a Russian near the monastery said
+the meaning was <i>Gospodi pomilui</i>,—<i lang="la">i.e.</i>, “Lord, have mercy upon us!”
+Its real meaning, however, does not appear to be very clear. Klaproth
+understood it to mean, “<i>O the gem in the lotus. Amen!</i>” and Huc paraphrases
+it into, “<i>O that I may obtain perfection, and be absorbed in
+Buddha. Amen.</i>” The lamas assert that the doctrine contained in the
+marvellous words is immense, and that the whole life of man is insufficient
+to measure its depth and extent. At Lhassa the formula is heard from
+every mouth—is everywhere visible in the streets, in the interior of the
+houses, and on every flag and streamer floating over the buildings, printed
+in Tatar and Thibetan characters. Certain rich and zealous Buddhists
+even entertain, at their own expense, companies of lamas for the propagation
+of the <i>mani</i>; and these strange missionaries, chisel and hammer
+in hand, traverse field, mountain, and desert to engrave the sacred formula
+on the stones and rocks they encounter in their path. There was a stone
+with inscriptions, in the temple yard at Cheelantoui; and I found other
+stones, bearing the <i>mani</i>, on the supposed site of a temple at Tyr, on the
+Lower Amur.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_149" href="#FNanchor_5_149" class="label">[5]</a> He does, indeed, afterwards allow that what is impossible with man
+is possible with God; but goes on to insinuate that the missionaries
+knew of the uselessness of their work, but that they had “too comfortable
+a berth to be given up,” and then he thinks, forsooth, that justice is
+not done to the people of England in so squandering money, etc., etc.
+Mr. Atkinson contented himself with a passing compliment to the
+character of the missionaries, and said that they were unable to make
+converts among the Buriats; whilst Mr. Hill, who visited Selenginsk,
+records that, “notwithstanding all their labours, not a single Buriat had
+been converted by them”; and then he quotes the testimony of a lady living
+on the spot, who said, “The missions only failed because the undertaking
+was beyond the power of man to accomplish unaided by more
+than his own genius. The missionaries had all the zeal and perseverance
+of the Apostles, but they wanted their power of working miracles, or the
+aid of some such startling circumstances as the history of religious
+revolutions has often presented to us, and without which all efforts at all
+times to convert the Buriats will be equally fruitless.”</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_377">[377]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXI">
+    CHAPTER XXXI.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>SIBERIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>The Za-Baikal a natural prison.—“Decembrists” of 1825.—Misapprehensions
+respecting political prisoners.—The story of Elizabeth.—Vindictive
+foreign writers.—Palpable misstatements.—Misleading
+information.—Dostoyeffsky’s “Buried Alive.”—Rosen’s “Russian
+Conspirators.”—Present condition of political prisoners.—Testimony
+of Poles.—Treatment of an attempted regicide.—The number of
+“politicals” exaggerated.—Calculations concerning them.—Their
+mode of transport.—Paucity of statistics accounted for.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> Trans-Baikal province, east of the “Holy
+Sea,” was, until within the past 30 years, a
+<i lang="fr">cul-de-sac</i>, to which the gravest of political offenders
+were commonly deported. It lay outside the two
+great routes of Siberian travel. The traveller to the
+Pacific, by way of the Lena, left the province on his
+right; the merchant going to Kiakhta passed it on his
+left. There was, indeed, a road running through the
+province, but it might be said to lead to nowhere.
+It was, moreover, a country from which a prisoner
+found it difficult to escape. If he went to the north
+he came to enormous forests, in which, though he
+might find berries in summer, he could not live in
+winter. Southwards he was hemmed in by the Mongolian
+desert. The road eastwards brought him to a
+river, down which, if he could float 2,000 miles and
+escape the jealous Chinese, he might reach the Pacific;
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_378">[378]</span>
+or, again, if he turned to the west, and rounded or
+crossed the Baikal lake, he was likely to be caught in
+the neighbourhood of Irkutsk; and lastly, in whatever
+direction he went, there was a price on his head that
+could be claimed by any Buriat who chose to make
+him his prisoner, and bring him to the authorities
+either dead or alive.</p>
+
+<p>There was also another reason, which, in the eyes
+of the Government, made the Za-Baikal a suitable
+place in which to confine the worst offenders; for the
+province is rich in silver and gold, and gems are found
+in its mountains. It provided a place, therefore, where
+they could segregate disturbing elements of society,
+exact enforced labour from their convicts, and to
+some extent mitigate the cost of keeping them by the
+value of the minerals obtained. Consequently “the
+silver-mines of Nertchinsk” has long been an expression,
+at the mention of which the ears of Russians
+tingle; and so it was with the prisons of Chita and
+Petrovski,—connected in their minds with political
+exiles, and especially with certain of them called
+“Decembrists,” who in December 1825 tried to raise
+revolt among the soldiers of Nicolas, and deprive him
+of his throne.</p>
+
+<p>The mines of Nertchinsk and Kara will be treated
+of in subsequent chapters. I purpose to speak in
+this, not of political exiles with their families and
+descendants generally, but of the condition of <em>political
+prisoners</em>, past and present, and of certain buildings in
+which some of them have been confined. That there
+exists a great deal of exaggeration and misapprehension
+in England, on the Continent, and in America
+respecting the number, misery, and degradation of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_379">[379]</span>
+Russian political prisoners I am persuaded; nor is this
+hard to account for if regard be had to the character
+of the books which profess to give information upon
+the subject.</p>
+
+<p>Let us begin, for instance, with the touching story
+of “Elizabeth; or, the Exiles of Siberia,” by Madame
+de Cottin, to whose work many English persons are
+indebted for nearly all they know of Siberia. The
+book so far resembles the truth that, in 1799, a young
+girl of 18, the only daughter of a Russian exiled
+officer, Proscovie Lopouloff, formed the project of
+asking forgiveness for her parents, for which purpose
+she left Ischim, near Tobolsk, with a few roubles in
+her pocket, walked in 18 months 2,000 miles to the
+capital, was presented, and obtained her petition, the
+real account of which is told by Xavier de Maistre
+in “La Jeune Sibérienne.” But Madame de Cottin
+imported a love-match into the story, and produced
+one of the most popular books of her day, depicting,
+however, a narrative for which she had to rely largely
+upon her imagination for many details. She paints
+a picture of Siberian exile life very different from
+anything I ever heard, saw, or read of in the country
+itself. Her mistakes, however, were the mistakes
+such as any foreign author might easily commit in
+laying the scene of a story in a country then almost
+unknown.</p>
+
+<p>Less excuse can be made for later writers (some of
+them escaped or released convicts), who, trading upon
+the credulity and ignorance of the public, have retailed
+and garnished accounts of horrible severities, which
+they neither profess to have witnessed, nor attempt
+to support by adequate testimony. In one of these
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_380">[380]</span>
+books, by Alexander Hertzen, published in 1855, the
+author naïvely says in the preface that, having written
+in London a work, entitled “Prison and Exile,” which
+met with success, he decided to write another volume.
+He accordingly did so, and had the audacity to call
+it “My Exile in Siberia”; whereas, on reading the
+book, we find that he was not exiled to Siberia at all,
+but simply banished for awhile to Perm, which is in
+Russia in Europe! Again we have, in De Lagny’s
+“Knout and the Russians,” published in 1854, a
+tirade against Russia all through, in which words bad
+enough can hardly be found to vilify its army, navy,
+nobility, and clergy; whilst in the following year was
+published “Recollections of Russia by a German
+Nobleman,” in which he states that, for prisoners, water
+was drawn up green from the filthiest canal in Petersburg;
+and, as if that were too little, he adds that,
+after being knouted, the prisoners had to drink their
+own blood!</p>
+
+<p>The books quoted thus far are mostly foreign
+productions, which have been translated into English;
+but within the past three years has been published
+in London a book called “The Russians of
+To-day,” by the author of “The Member for Paris,”
+and dedicated to the Duke of Sutherland, which
+gives the following account of a Russian prison
+(page 86):—</p>
+
+<blockquote><p>“A Russian gaol is not built on any wasteful plan
+of keeping prisoners warm and comfortable. A black,
+mouldy house, situate in one of the slums of the town,
+it is guarded by a dozen corp-headed soldiers, and has
+a painted escutcheon with the Imperial double-headed
+eagle over the gate. There is a whipping-post in the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_381">[381]</span>
+front yard. Thieves, murderers, boys, lunatics, women,
+are all huddled together in a room of foul stenches,
+warmed by a stove, and the only food served out to
+them is a pound of black bread in the morning, and
+a mess of rancid soup at mid-day. The sexes are
+separated at night.”</p></blockquote>
+
+<p>Now as there will appear to be a great difference
+between this account and what has been stated in my
+chapters on Siberian prisons, I think it only right to
+say that I have visited Russian houses of detention
+from the White Sea in the north to the Black Sea and
+the Persian frontier in the south, and from Warsaw in
+the west to the Pacific in the east, but have never yet
+seen a Russian prison such as fairly answers to the
+description given above. My experience would place
+prisons in the suburbs rather than the “slums” of
+towns; and as for their atmosphere, I may safely say
+that the air I breathed in the worst Russian prison
+was incomparably better than that I had temporarily
+to endure in some of the peasants’ houses, or which
+may be inhaled in many of the post-houses. The
+“one pound of black bread” should be multiplied by
+two and a half or three, and in some cases <em>four</em>; and
+as for “the whipping-post,” I have seen such a thing
+in English and in American prisons, but not in Russia.
+The “<i lang="ru">kobyla</i>,” or “mare,” used in flogging with the
+“<i lang="fr">plète</i>” in <i>Siberia</i>, will be described further on; and I
+do not deny that in Russia there may be <em>some</em> instrument
+to which those to be birched are fastened, but I
+have never seen one, though I have usually made a
+point of asking concerning the mode of corporal punishment.</p>
+
+<p>Again, the same author says (page 217):—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_382">[382]</span></p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p>“The convicts are forwarded to Siberia in convoys,
+which start at the commencement of spring, just after
+the snows have melted and left the ground dry. They
+perform the <em>whole</em> journey on foot, escorted by <em>mounted</em>
+Cossacks, who are armed with pistols, <em>lances</em>, and long
+<em>whips</em>; and behind them jolt a long string of springless
+tumbrils, to carry those who fall lame or ill on the way.
+The start is <em>always</em> made in the night, and care is taken
+that the convoys shall only pass through the towns on
+their road <em>after dark</em>. Each man is dressed in a grey
+kaftan, having a <em>brass numbered plate</em> fastened to the
+<em>breast</em>, <em>knee</em> boots, and a <em>sheepskin</em> bonnet. He carries
+a <em>rug</em> strapped to his back, a mess-tin, and a wooden
+spoon at his girdle. The women have black cloaks
+with hoods, and march in gangs by <em>themselves</em>, with an
+escort of soldiers like the men, and two or three female
+<em>warders</em>, who travel in carts.</p>
+
+<p>“In leaving large cities like Petersburg, <em>all</em> the
+prisoners are chained with their hands <em>behind their
+backs</em>; but their fetters are removed outside the city,
+except in the case of men who have been marked as
+dangerous. These have to wear leg-chains of 4 lbs.
+weight all the way; and some of the more desperate
+ones are yoked by threes to a <em>beam of wood</em>, which
+rests on their shoulders, and is fastened to their necks
+by iron collars.”</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The author then goes on to say that “Nihilist conspirators,
+patriotic Poles, and young student girls, are
+all mixed up, and tramp together with the criminals.”</p>
+
+<p>The words I have italicised (of which there are 23
+in 26 lines) involve, in many cases, palpable misstatements.
+In others they are blunders, or are, at all
+events, open to serious question. As in the case of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_383">[383]</span>
+Madame de Cottin (only with less innocence), a very
+free rein has been here given to the imagination. The
+avoiding of towns by day, the brass plate on the breast
+(instead of a piece of yellow <em>cloth</em> on the <em>back</em>), the
+accompanying female warders, and the chaining of
+men’s hands behind their backs, are <em>blunders</em> utterly
+inexcusable; and as for the mounted Cossacks with
+whips, and the “beams of wood” on some of the exiles’
+necks—<em>if</em> the Cossacks were <em>mounted</em>, they would
+naturally have whips as part of their accoutrements, as
+they do even when riding behind the carriage of the
+Emperor, but the “beam of wood” is a pure invention.
+I never saw, heard, or read of such an instrument.
+Upon these last two points, however, to correct my
+own opinion if wrong, I spoke to an Englishman living
+in a town through which pass all the Siberian exiles.
+He has lived there many years, and has seen exiles
+from Perm to Kiakhta, and under all conditions. He
+tells me, however, that he <em>never</em> saw this wooden collar,
+and never saw soldiers with whips to conduct exiles;
+and he added, further, that he had never witnessed
+them using exiles improperly or unfairly. Thus it will
+be seen that some of the information offered to the
+public respecting Russian exiles is open to more than
+suspicion of grave misrepresentation.</p>
+
+<p>But there is yet a third class of books which, in
+detailing past horrors, leads public opinion astray, not
+so much by saying what is absolutely untrue, as by
+omitting to point out that since the horrors they relate
+were enacted, the law has been altered, and that they
+are now a thing of the past. Englishmen would think
+themselves very unfairly dealt with if a foreigner, having
+seen an old pair of stocks in an English village, appealed
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_384">[384]</span>
+to this as proof that persons are still exposed therein;
+or if he hunted up stories of Tyburn, with accounts of
+gibbeted felons hung, drawn, and quartered, or pilloried
+criminals with slit noses and cropped ears, and then
+represented this as the existing state of things, or left
+his readers so to infer. This would be very similar to
+the treatment Russia receives at the hands of prejudiced
+and careless writers now-a-days, as will be seen more
+fully hereafter when we speak of the mines.</p>
+
+<p>To keep, however, for the present, to books about
+prisons, and to mention one more which has appeared
+in English dress during the present year—namely,
+Dostoyeffsky’s “Buried Alive; or, Ten Years’ Penal
+Servitude in Siberia,” to which I naturally turned with
+interest as it was written by a Russian. I was struck
+at the outset with the significant fact that the reader
+is not properly informed as to places and dates. The
+introduction sets forth that a certain Alexander Petrovitch
+Goryantchikoff died, after whose death there
+was found among his papers a bundle of manuscripts,
+which the editor, Feodor Dostoyeffsky, thought would
+interest the public. But scarcely a word is dropped to
+inform the reader when the events referred to took
+place, and he is left to form the very natural conclusion
+that he is reading of things as they now exist. My
+suspicions being aroused, I put on my best critical
+spectacles to discover, if possible, <em>where</em> the events
+happened, and <em>when</em>. The writer mentions having
+been in Tobolsk, and says that his prison was near
+the banks of the Irtish. Now there was, and perhaps
+is, a prison on the banks of the Irtish at Tara, the
+same from which Rufin Pietrowski made his escape;
+and at first I was disposed to think this was the place
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_385">[385]</span>
+of Goryantchikoff’s captivity, but two subsequent
+allusions gave me additional light: one, that in the
+prison was a Jew who went out in the town to a
+<em>synagogue</em>; and another, that on some prisoners running
+away the <em>Governor-General</em> was told of it. Now,
+assuming that the Governor-General was living in the
+town, then the only prison situate on the banks of the
+Irtish, in a town with a synagogue and the residence
+of a Governor-General, would be Omsk, and here
+accordingly I adjudged my man as to his <em>place</em>. Then
+as for the <em>date</em>. The writer speaks of prisoners’
+chains made of “four iron rods, the size of the finger,
+connected by three rings and worn under the trousers.”
+I saw none like these. All we saw had small <em>links</em>,
+and hence I assumed that the chains described must
+have been of an old-fashioned pattern of former days,
+and I have since learnt that chains such as the man
+describes were seen on a prisoner going to the Caucasus
+in 1842. Next he speaks a good deal of
+flogging, and mentions the running of a prisoner
+down “the green lane,” that is, between two rows of
+soldiers, each of whom gave the culprit a stroke with
+a stick. But this method of punishment has long been
+abolished in Russia; and, finally, the writer, when
+speaking of his conversation with a fellow-prisoner,
+happens to use this sentence: “I explained to him
+Napoleon’s position, adding that he might, perhaps,
+some day become Emperor of the French.” Taking,
+therefore, these three <em>data</em>, that Napoleon became
+Emperor in 1851, that the flogging of the description
+mentioned was abolished not later than 1860,
+and the old pattern of the chains, I came to the
+conclusion that the story must represent events at
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_386">[386]</span>
+least 30 years old; and I have since heard that it
+was about as long ago the book appeared in Russia.
+Now, of course, the translation might not have sold
+so well had readers been informed that it treats of a
+state of things more than a quarter of a century old;
+yet, no doubt, so candid a statement would have prevented
+many from forming false opinions respecting
+the present state of Siberian prisons.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_150" href="#Footnote_1_150" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>But Goryantchikoff’s, it should be remembered, is a
+picture of a convict prison for <em>criminals</em>, and not for
+<em>political</em> prisoners, who are treated as a class by themselves,—so
+much so that they are sent to Siberia, not
+usually walking, under the charge of Cossacks, but
+driving furiously under guard of gendarmes; and if
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_387">[387]</span>
+they need to lodge at an ordinary prison, they are
+kept in special rooms, and so jealously watched that
+frequently I was not allowed to approach the inspection
+hole so much as to look at them. It may be that
+when they reach their destination they have, in some
+cases, to work outdoors in company with criminals.
+I think I met one case of this at Kara, but even he,
+in the prison, was kept apart.</p>
+
+<p>Probably the best, and, as far as I know, the only
+book in English which gives the description by an
+eye-witness of life in a <em>political</em> prison is “Russian
+Conspirators in Siberia,” by Baron R(osen). He
+relates his taking part in the attempt to incite the
+soldiers to revolt on the accession of Nicolas in 1825,
+and how he was condemned with 120 comrades, large
+numbers of whom were counts, barons, princes, and
+some of the very flower of the Russian nobility. About
+30 were at once transported to Chita. There they
+remained until a new prison was built expressly to
+contain them all at Petrovski, near Verchne Udinsk,
+at which place are the ironworks already alluded to.
+In these two places of confinement the Baron spent six
+years. I do not remember that he ever speaks of
+one of his comrades being thrashed. The Russian law,
+even in those days, held exempt from corporal punishments
+every noble, not only during his trial, but after
+his condemnation. The wearing of chains was included
+among corporal punishments, and it was forbidden to
+put them on nobles going into exile; but the law
+appears to have been set aside in the case of some of
+the Decembrists. The Baron describes their labour
+as that of digging and grinding corn in hand-mills.
+One of their first occupations was to dig the foundations
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_388">[388]</span>
+for their new prison. “Every day,” the Baron
+writes, “except Sundays and holy days, the non-commissioned
+officer on guard entered early in the
+morning with the call of ‘Gentlemen, to work!’ In
+general we set out with songs on our lips and energy
+in our hearts; no constraint was used towards us.”
+He gives likewise a vivid picture of their amusements
+and their studies. Playing-cards they might have
+had through the warders, but they wisely passed their
+word to each other not to allow card-playing, in order
+to prevent any cause of unpleasantness or dissension.
+Chess was their sole amusement between the time of
+work and sleep, and they formed among themselves
+a company of singers, which cheered many a sad hour.
+Some of them endeavoured, by study, further to
+improve their minds. One learnt not only Latin and
+Greek, but also eight modern languages; and it says
+much for the high education of the prisoners that this
+proficient found an instructor in each of the languages
+among his comrades, one of whom was still living, not
+many years ago, at Petrovsky Zavod, and lent my informant
+several books from what was the Decembrist
+library. They had, too, a room in which they practised
+the piano, the flute, the flageolet, the violin, and guitar.
+The most touching part of the book, however, recounts
+the arrival of some of the prisoners’ wives. Every
+effort short of absolute denial had been employed to
+prevent these noble ladies from expatriating themselves.
+Their heroic determination wrung tears from
+the eyes of the officials who had in vain dissuaded
+them. These ladies were compelled to resign their
+titles, and were warned that they would not be permitted
+to return. Several of them, notwithstanding,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_389">[389]</span>
+gave up all to be allowed to join their husbands, and
+in so doing covered their names with undying lustre
+in the annals of Russian history. They were allowed
+to live with or near their husbands, and several had
+children, two of whom—a lady and a gentleman—I
+have met in Europe. The Baron’s book nowhere
+stoops to invective or misrepresentation; on the contrary,
+he acknowledges “there was reason enough for
+our having been treated thus”; but at the same time
+he tells a sad story, which is all the more touching
+because told so calmly, of what he and his comrades
+suffered. He was at length allowed to return to his
+home in Esthonia, in 1839, after 14 years’ imprisonment
+and exile. About 500 non-commissioned officers and
+soldiers, I am told, were sent to Omsk and different
+places, where they were by far less well treated than
+their superior officers under whom they had rebelled.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_151" href="#Footnote_2_151" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>I have thus spoken of the political or State prison
+at Petrovski, which, as far as I know, is the only
+building there has ever been in Siberia that could
+with propriety be called a State prison for political
+offenders. It was burnt down many years ago, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_390">[390]</span>
+has not been rebuilt. Of the prison at Chita, and
+the accommodation for political prisoners at Kara,
+mention will be made hereafter. Meanwhile it should
+be borne in mind we have been speaking of events
+which happened about half a century ago.</p>
+
+<p>We now pass from the condition of political prisoners
+as they <em>were</em> to treat of political prisoners as
+they <em>are</em>. I shall speak of those with whom I was
+brought in contact and with whom I conversed, and
+will put the worst case first. It is that of a Pole, who
+was concerned in the insurrection of 1863, at which
+time he was a student for the Roman priesthood, and,
+under cover of his clerical garb, had busied himself in
+procuring arms and provisions for the Polish rebels.
+On the suppression of the insurrection he fled from the
+country, but was foolish enough to return, six years
+afterwards, by permission, he said, of the Emperor;
+and within three days was taken, and, without trial,
+sent to a prison at Oriel for a year. After this
+he was sent to Irkutsk, and there learned that
+he was condemned for eight years to the mines, at
+which he arrived in 1871, having been a year on the
+route from Tiumen. He had 20 Polish companion
+exiles, some of whom were in irons, though his clerical
+character saved him from this degradation. The
+Polish party travelled by themselves as far as Tobolsk,
+beyond which they were sometimes compelled to walk
+and lodge with criminal prisoners, who robbed my
+informant of 300 roubles, which his mother had sewn
+at the back of his coat collar. He complained that
+some of the prison officers were great despots; in illustration
+of which he stated how, whilst they were at
+Nijni Udinsk, some of the prisoners having escaped at
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_391">[391]</span>
+night, the governor of the jail procured rods from the
+neighbouring woods and birched the rest of them, I
+suppose on the ground of aiding and abetting the
+escape of the others. The 21 Poles, however, were
+not in the ward from which the escape was made, and
+this they urged, but apparently to no purpose, for the
+governor seemed to have been enraged beyond bounds,
+and in some cases to have used, not only rods, but
+the plète and clubs. My informant declared that of
+the 300 Russians and 21 Poles thus treated, 17 subsequently
+died, though he could not give me any
+satisfactory evidence as to how, after leaving the place,
+he got this information; but the affair must have been
+serious (though abnormal), for, on arriving at Irkutsk
+they presented a petition to the governor, an inquiry
+was instituted (especially as regards the Poles), and
+the violent prison official was telegraphed for, and
+himself incarcerated, though how punished my informant
+did not know. He also complained that one of
+his companions was badly treated on the road, being
+lame, and yet made to hurry along.</p>
+
+<p>When, however, the Polish cleric arrived at the
+mines, he did not appear to have once worked in them,
+as the chief made him his cook, exchanged his prison
+allowance for five roubles a month, and fed and lodged
+him thus for six years, after which the remaining two
+years were remitted on the score of good conduct. He
+was afterwards located in a small village in the Za-Baikal,
+but had obtained permission to live elsewhere,
+and when I met him he was respectably dressed, and
+apparently earning a good livelihood. Thus my informant’s
+<i lang="ru">gravamina</i>, as regarded himself, were not so
+heavy as it might have been feared. He said, indeed,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_392">[392]</span>
+that four or five letters reached him at the mines,
+informing him that money was enclosed, which he
+never received.</p>
+
+<p>He had more to say of the way in which some of his
+fellow-prisoners were treated, to which I shall allude
+when speaking hereafter of the mines.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_152" href="#Footnote_3_152" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>I did, it is true, meet another Pole who complained,
+though I do not know whether he was a political or a
+criminal offender, but I have already referred to him
+and the information he gave me respecting the prison
+at Irkutsk. There was a third Pole, also a student,
+banished after the insurrection of 1863, whom we met
+in the streets of Atchinsk, who looked very gloomy,
+and spoke in a very dispirited and dissatisfied manner;
+but he was free, having his wife and children with him,
+and he named no one particular cause of complaint.
+Still, I have mentioned these cases fully, though they
+seem somewhat opposed to the opinion I have stated,
+that there exists a great deal of misapprehension
+respecting the number, misery, and degradation of
+Russian political prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>The severest case of punishment of a political prisoner
+I met with was that of, I think, a Nihilist, at Kara,
+who had daily to go to work in the gold-mines; but, on
+returning, he had a room to himself, some of his own
+furniture, fittings, and books, one of which was on
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_393">[393]</span>
+political economy. His wife lived in the neighbourhood,
+and could see him lawfully, and bring him food
+at frequent intervals; and it was not difficult for her to
+see him unlawfully, for just in front of his window
+passed the public road, where she could stand and
+talk to him with ease.</p>
+
+<p>I met in Siberia one political prisoner whose case
+was more surprising, perhaps, than any I have mentioned.
+It was that of a man who had been concerned
+in one of the attempts upon the life of the late Emperor.
+He was sentenced to the mines, and no doubt popular
+imagination pictured him chained, and tormented to
+within an inch of his life; whereas I found him confined
+indeed, but only to the neighbourhood, and
+dressed, if I remember rightly, in a tweed suit, looking
+highly presentable, and engaged in a way that I purposely
+avoid naming, but which did not necessitate
+the soiling of his fingers. Again, I had two opportunities
+of speaking to upper-class prisoners in French,
+which the authorities accompanying me did not understand;
+therefore these men had no reason to fear
+speaking out plainly. One was a political prisoner;
+concerning the other I am not sure; but I asked them
+both whether they had any cause of complaint in the
+prison regimen. The first said the only thing he
+thought unjust was that he was not allowed to smoke,
+which one of my exile informants deems incredible, since
+at Nertchinsk, when, for insubordination, they were
+deprived of meat, milk, and tea, for weeks, they were
+still allowed to smoke, as a supposed preventive against
+scurvy. The man, moreover, in the neighbouring cell—a
+fat man—a defaulting post-master, a drunkard and
+a gambler, who would have made an admirable Falstaff,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_394">[394]</span>
+was smoking, and I should not wonder if by this time
+the grievance is mended. The second man, a doctor,
+said that he had been taken about from place to
+place, and did not know his destination, though he
+thought it would be Irkutsk, but that he had nothing
+to complain of.</p>
+
+<p>Supposing, then, that these instances throw any light
+upon the misery and alleged degradation of political
+prisoners, I have yet to offer some remarks upon
+their supposed numbers—that is, the average number
+banished annually at the time of my visit—for I do not
+profess here to deal with those sent into exile after
+the Polish insurrection of 1863, with their families
+and descendants, nor of Nihilists deported since the
+assassination of the late Emperor. Mr. Whyte, in his
+“Land Journey from Asia to Europe,” says: “It is
+calculated that in Eastern Siberia alone there are at
+least from 30,000 to 40,000 <em>Polish political</em> exiles, but
+they are kept in different portions for fear of disturbances,
+a great many having to work in the mines.”
+Now let us suppose for the moment that these figures
+are something like the truth, then let us add to this
+calculation for Eastern Siberia, whither are banished the
+gravest offenders, at least twice as many for Western
+Siberia, whither are sent those losing particular rights
+only; and this will give, say, 120,000 Polish political
+exiles in the whole country. Let us further suppose
+that they represent the surviving total of 30 years’
+deportations, not including, of course, their families
+and descendants. Then this gives a yearly influx to
+Siberia of 4,000 Polish <em>political</em> exiles! Now from
+statistics given me in Warsaw last autumn, taken from
+the report sent to the Emperor, it appeared that the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_395">[395]</span>
+total number of Polish <em>criminal</em> prisoners sent to Siberia
+in the year I passed through (1879) was 898; and last
+year, up to September, the number, as I had it straight
+from the prison books, was 270. Supposing, then, the
+politicals to number one-tenth of the criminals (which
+I judge far too great a proportion), it would give less
+than one-fortieth of the numbers quoted by Mr. Whyte
+respecting Polish political exiles.</p>
+
+<p>I base my opinion, however, mainly upon other
+calculations, such as these: the prisoners must sometimes
+be lodged, permanently or temporarily, as they
+go to their destinations. But it has been already stated
+that there is now no building in Siberia answering to
+a State prison, and further that political prisoners, when
+confined, are kept not only apart from criminals, but
+as far as possible from one another. I fail to see,
+then, where all these multitudes are to be properly
+lodged, as at Tiumen, for instance, whilst they wait for
+the arrival of the steamer, or at other prisons where
+they may have to stop, but in none of which we found
+more than a very few separate chambers—always less,
+I think, than 20. Again, another difficulty is presented
+by the possibilities of separate conveyance for so large
+a number. It is not very long since that 78 political
+exiles passed through Tiumen, a town where, in summer,
+from 500 to 700 criminals pass through weekly; but
+these 78 politicals excited such a commotion that there
+was a general “turn out” to look at them; and the
+manager of the steamboat was at his wits’ end to know
+how properly to convey them; for political prisoners
+are not now sent, I am informed, in the common
+prisoners’ barges. To give each man a cabin was
+impossible; to put two in a cabin was unlawful; and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_396">[396]</span>
+so they compromised the matter by putting husbands
+and wives together. But, if a batch of 78 made all this
+commotion, what would the annual passing through of
+4,000 <em>politicals</em> do?</p>
+
+<p>Again, Kara, I was told, was a special place for
+political offenders, and I saw and heard of more there
+than in any other prison. They had, at the time of
+my visit, 2,458 prisoners of all sorts, all of whose
+crimes were given me duly tabulated, with the exception
+of 73, which came under the heading “<em>various</em>.”
+Now, supposing all these 73 were political offenders
+(and I have not the least reason for thinking they were,
+but) even then the proportion of politicals would be
+only one-thirtieth of the criminals.</p>
+
+<p>Once more: a recent correspondent of the <i lang="ru">Gaulois</i>
+for 30th September, 1881, describing the last occasion
+on which he saw the exiled Tchernichewsky at Kadaya,
+near Nertchinsk, just after the news had been received
+of the assassination of President Lincoln, says, “At
+this time the number of (Russian?) political prisoners
+was not great; they might easily be counted.... I
+believe there were not 20 of them; if mistaken, I may
+certainly affirm there were not 50.” This scrap of
+information has come to hand very opportunely, for I
+have reason to believe that it may be relied on, and
+Nertchinsk was the only other district for political
+prisoners concerning which, until a few days ago, I
+did not feel satisfactorily informed.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, the summer of 1879 was supposed to be a
+very heavy one for the transport of Nihilists and revolutionary
+offenders. It was just after one of the
+attempts on the late Emperor’s life, and Petersburg was
+put under a military governor. The <cite>Daily Telegraph</cite>,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_397">[397]</span>
+on the 2nd June, informed its readers, as I have said
+before, that “a large number of convicts were about
+to be despatched to Saghalien from Odessa, the service
+which provides for the ordinary transportation of
+criminals to Siberia being already overtaxed.” We
+were therefore traversing Siberia at a time and under
+circumstances particularly favourable for knowing the
+real condition of things; and as we went along the
+only route by which these exiles could possibly travel
+to Eastern Siberia, it might have been expected that
+we should see or hear something of them. The numbers,
+however, with whom we were brought in contact
+on the outward journey could easily have been counted
+on our fingers; and if it should seem that, having
+started early in the season, we had travelled in advance
+of them, then my interpreter, who returned
+from the Amur, had the opportunity of meeting them,
+or hearing of them, as he went back. As a matter
+of fact, however, he met, between the Amur and the
+Urals, three special convoys only. The first contained
+one prisoner, who said he was going to Kara; the
+next consisted of seven vehicles, each of which contained
+a soldier on the box, and a gendarme at the
+side of the prisoner; and the third convoy consisted
+of 21 vehicles, each filled in like manner. Thus, excepting
+the 78, or the possible 73 just mentioned, the
+total number we met or <em>definitely</em> heard of all across
+Asia, both in going and returning, did not amount, I
+should think, to 50.</p>
+
+<p>I write, then, under correction, and shall be glad to
+be set right if I am wrong; but I must now leave it
+to my readers to judge whether or not the considerations
+brought forward are such as to justify my opinion
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_398">[398]</span>
+respecting the number, degradation, and misery of
+political prisoners. I have few statistics on the point,
+from the fact that political offenders are treated as
+belonging to a special department, and are unconnected
+with the ordinary sources from which I obtained
+my figures. This I did not know until I had left
+European Russia, and hence my inability to give other
+than general reasons. My impression, therefore, is
+that the greater number of the political exiles either
+go to prison only for a short time, or not at all, and
+are then placed in villages and towns. They are
+then expected to get their living. (I have recently
+heard that, at the time of the burning of Krasnoiarsk,
+there were 40 living free in the town.)</p>
+
+<p>This they do in a variety of ways. Some are
+teachers of languages, some are tradesmen, and some
+are photographers. We met, for instance, two exile
+photographers at Tobolsk. As strangers we had, of
+course, no means of identifying exiles from other
+people, though we were sometimes brought into contact
+with them, from the fact that many of the Poles
+speak French. Moreover, as the question of prison
+and exiles was, so to say, my speciality, I was always
+glad, when opportunity presented itself, to converse
+with them directly rather than get my information
+translated. A stranger, however, who believes every
+exile who calls himself a “political,” may easily be
+misled. To be a “political” prisoner in Siberia is to
+be more or less of a gentleman, and many try thus
+to pass themselves off. Mr. Ashton Dilke, M.P., who
+travelled some years ago in Southern Siberia, and
+spoke Russian, has told me that, on asking gangs of
+convicts if they had any politicals or “gentlemen”
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_399">[399]</span>
+prisoners among them, they usually said “No”; and
+that, in the case of one man who imposed upon him
+and tried to palm himself off as a “political,” the
+Governor showed Mr. Dilke the man’s papers, which
+described him as a criminal, a thief, etc.</p>
+
+<p>In Irkutsk I met an exile who told me he was a
+captain, and had been banished for a duel, which no
+doubt he thought a respectable crime; but, upon my
+repeating it to others who knew the man, they said
+he was a forger. Looking, however, at the political
+prisoners I saw in the separate rooms of the various
+prisons, at those with whom I came into personal
+contact, those pointed out to me, and those of whom
+mention was made as living in the towns through
+which we passed, I think that, if I had been commissioned
+to give a sovereign to each, 50 coins
+would have sufficed for the purpose. It is not pretended,
+of course, that a lover of statistics can or
+ought to attempt to build anything definite upon this
+statement; but, until proof is brought to the contrary,
+it may perhaps tend to modify what I deem the exaggerated
+and extravagant notions as to the number of
+Siberian <em>political</em> prisoners, and to show at least that
+they are not as “plentiful as blackberries.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_153" href="#Footnote_4_153" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_150" href="#FNanchor_1_150" class="label">[1]</a> Let me not fail to add, however, that the whole tone of Dostoyeffsky’s
+book is far above that of the vindictive class of writers, some
+of whom have been alluded to. It gives an inner view of prison life,
+such as no inspector, or philanthropist, or person visiting prisons as I
+did, could furnish. Some of this writer’s statements, indeed, would
+hardly tally with my own experience, as, for instance, that they had the
+bath <em>seldom</em>, whereas I found it the rule once a fortnight, and at Tiumen
+and Tomsk once a week; above all, the statement that prisoners were
+thrashed if found sleeping on their backs, or the left side instead of the
+right; also what he says of thrashing generally, to which I shall allude
+hereafter. But I have to thank Alexander Goryantchikoff for his lifelike
+pictures, many of which illustrate scraps of information I received
+concerning the Siberian prison world—such, for instance, as the various
+occupations carried on in secret among the convicts, one being a pawnbroker,
+another a <i lang="ru">vodka</i> seller, others smugglers of spirits into the
+prison, the card-playing at night, the exchanging of their names and
+punishments, and the horrible language and fighting and quarrelling of
+the prisoners. In these things I make no doubt that “Buried Alive”
+gives a fairly accurate picture of things as they were, and in some cases
+still are, perhaps, among such prisoners as those with whom the lot of
+Goryantchikoff (himself a murderer) was cast. Further light also is
+thrown upon the interior of prison life in Siberia by the papers of
+M. Andreoli in <cite>La Revue Moderne</cite> for 1868, in which he speaks of the
+tricks and vices of both prisoners and officials, and of the evil effects
+of the gang system. A great deal of this is inevitable where a number
+of the most desperate felons are herded together.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_151" href="#FNanchor_2_151" class="label">[2]</a> I have been favoured with a few particulars from an unpublished
+manuscript, written by a Decembrist prisoner for the use of his wife and
+children. He describes his cell at the fortress in Petersburg as small,
+dirty, and dark; and speaks of a poor and scanty diet, adding, “C’était
+l’Empereur, qui, sur le rapport du comité d’enquête prescrivait, le régime
+diétique ainsi que la dure aggravation d’une détention penible.” He had
+to leave Petersburg, and many of his comrades with him, in the middle
+of the night, in chains (though a noble), and was not allowed to bid his
+mother good-bye, though she was in the next room to him at the post-station.
+They left in a <i lang="ru">telega</i>, travelling <i lang="fr">viâ</i> Jaroslav, Kostroma, Viatka,
+Ekaterineburg, Omsk, etc., and reached Irkutsk in 24 days. At Chita
+they were kindly treated by the governor of the prison and attendants,
+and later on, when allowed to colonize at Irkutsk and Tobolsk, suffered
+no hardships, excepting petty restrictions and vexations.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_152" href="#FNanchor_3_152" class="label">[3]</a> Perhaps I ought to add that this information was given me in French,
+which the Pole had not conversed in for a long time, and did not speak
+readily. It was given, too, with a good deal of bitter feeling, whilst I made
+notes of what was told me. As he looked on at my writing, and knew
+pretty well who I was, and what I was travelling for, I felt he might be
+exaggerating, and I therefore asked him pointedly whether all he had told
+me was true. He replied in the affirmative, and I therefore hand on the
+account to my readers, though, as will be seen later on, it was a much
+severer testimony than I received from political prisoners in general.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_153" href="#FNanchor_4_153" class="label">[4]</a> Since this chapter has been in type my impressions have been
+strikingly confirmed by an official, high in the prison administration, who
+in reply to my written inquiries as to the number of political prisoners
+sent to Siberia during the last few years, replies that the deportation of
+political offenders came under the <em>prison</em> administration only in 1880,
+but that for the present year, 1881, the total number of political offenders
+of <em>all</em> kinds, sent to Siberia, is 72; which number, moreover, includes
+nearly 40 condemned to the mines during the years 1875–6–9–80, but who
+have been detained meanwhile in the central prisons of the Kharkof district.
+The year, therefore (up to November), of the Emperor’s assassination
+has sent about 30 persons into exile.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_400">[400]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXII">
+    CHAPTER XXXII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>FROM CHITA TO NERTCHINSK.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>The Trans-Baikal province.—Books deposited with Governor.—Specimen
+letter of consignment.—Prisons and hospitals.—Governor’s distribution
+of books.—Satisfactory results.—Journey from Chita.—Buriat
+<i lang="ru">Obos</i>.—Russian emigrants.—Salutations.—Approach to Nertchinsk.—Its
+mineral treasures.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> Trans-Baikal province is bounded on the
+south and east by Chinese territory, on the
+west by Lake Baikal, and on the north by the province
+of Yakutsk. It measures 830 miles from east to west,
+and 460 miles from north to south; its entire area
+covering about 240,000 square miles. It is thus not
+quite so large as Austria.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_154" href="#Footnote_1_154" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Before leaving the capital, Chita, we deposited with
+the Governor enough books for his prisons and hospitals;
+and since this region was so important, from
+my point of view, in regard to its penal establishments,
+and our efforts, moreover, here met with such good
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_401">[401]</span>
+success, I shall give the substance of a letter which I
+wrote to the Governor (in French), and which is a
+fair specimen of similar letters written to the other
+Governors throughout Siberia:—</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class='no-indent'>“<span class="smcap">To His Excellency the Governor of</span> ——.</p>
+<p>“<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—
+</p>
+
+<p class='double-indent'>“I have the honour to beg your acceptance of
+— boxes of books containing — large New Testaments, — small
+New Testaments, — Gospels, —
+Psalms, — New Testaments in French, German,
+Polish, Tatar, and Buriat, — copies of the <i lang="ru">Rooski
+Rabotchi</i>, — wall-pictures, and — tracts. Will your
+Excellency do me the favour to accept them for the
+prisons, hospitals, poor-houses, and schools of the
+government of ——?  I shall be thankful if the
+copies of the <cite>Rooski Rabotchi</cite> (Russian Workman) and
+the tracts may be given to the children in schools to
+be taken to their homes, and thus distributed as much
+as possible among the people. As for the books, I
+wish that they should remain in the rooms (not in the
+libraries) of the prisons, hospitals, etc. If the chief
+of each room may be made responsible for the books
+as for the other property of the prisons, etc., I shall
+be glad; but in any case I wish that the books may be
+had without asking for them from the library. I hope
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_402">[402]</span>
+with your assistance in the government of —— to
+place a New Testament or a copy of the Gospels in
+<em>every</em> room of <em>every</em> prison and hospital throughout
+Siberia; and I shall be very thankful if I may hear
+from you, at my English address, how the distribution
+has been made, because I shall probably send an account
+of my tour to the authorities at St. Petersburg.</p>
+
+<p class="right pr1">
+  “I have the honour to be, etc., etc., etc.”
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The Governor of the Trans-Baikal province, M.
+Pedachenko, spoke of his four large hospitals and 10
+smaller, or occasional hospitals. He told us also that
+he had in his government four permanent prisons,
+besides those at the mines, namely, at Nertchinsk,
+Troitzkosavsk, Verchne Udinsk, and Chita, the last
+three of which we saw. The number of prisoners was
+given us as about 150 each at Chita and Nertchinsk.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_155" href="#Footnote_2_155" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>
+M. Pedachenko was good enough to promise that
+a small shelf should be put up in each room (under
+the <i lang="ru">ikon</i> I suggested), on which the books might rest
+when not in use; and this promise he carried out.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_156" href="#Footnote_3_156" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>I have dwelt particularly on what we were able to
+distribute in the Za-Baikal for two reasons; first, because
+the letter of the Governor, together with our own
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_403">[403]</span>
+observations, give an insight into the number of prisons
+existing in this province, which of all others was that
+reserved for the worst of exiles; and, secondly, because
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_404">[404]</span>
+of the satisfaction it afforded me, when looking back
+upon the work as a whole, to feel that the Scriptures and
+other reading material had been deposited in these out-of-the-way
+places, especially those of Kara, Nertchinsk,
+and Algatche. Had nothing more been effected than
+this, and what I subsequently learned was done at
+Tiumen, these two results would have well repaid me
+for the journey.</p>
+
+<p>Late on the afternoon of Monday, July 21st, the day
+of our arrival, we left Chita and proceeded towards
+Nertchinsk, a distance of 180 miles, where we intended
+to make our next stoppage. The road ran within
+sight of the river, and as the route was hilly we had
+pretty views. Some of the hills I measured as 400
+feet above the level of the river, and my barometer, at
+the highest point, stood at 2,350 feet above the sea.
+The hills were rounded and well wooded, whilst the
+lower land resembled English downs. We saw some
+of the flora of which Baron Rosen speaks so admiringly,
+and among them a flower we had not noticed before,
+like blue larkspur. On both sides of the Yablonoi
+range are grown wheat, rye, oats, hemp, flax, potatoes,
+cabbage, turnips, lettuce, radishes, onions, spinach, and
+horseradish. In the valleys was abundance of grass,
+but few cattle to graze it. We saw also buckwheat
+and barley growing, but neither the fields under cultivation,
+nor the Russian inhabitants, were numerous,
+nor did we come in contact, after passing Chita, with
+many Buriats, though we inspected one of their sacred
+spots on a hill not far from that town. It consisted of
+a few rough stones piled together, with some dried
+branches of trees, on which were hung small flags and
+strips of calico, having inscribed on them verses in the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_405">[405]</span>
+Thibetan or Mongolian language. We had passed
+several of these south of the Baikal, and the Russian
+drivers had usually told us that they were Buriats’
+graves. Sometimes there were sweetmeats lying about,
+and copper money, which the Russian yemstchiks did
+not scruple to collect and pocket. Sometimes, too, we
+found horse-shoes strewn around, and almost invariably
+a quantity of tufts of horse-hair tied to the bushes, the
+appearance of the whole reminding one of the so-called
+holy wells to which the Romanists of Ireland make pilgrimage.
+The yemstchiks said that the flags painted
+with demons were to frighten devils away, and that the
+coins and sweets were given as offerings to their God;
+but that if a Buriat had nothing to give, he cut off a
+piece of his horse’s tail and tied it to the bush.</p>
+
+<p>I noticed that these spots were usually on elevated
+ground, like the “high places” denounced by the
+Hebrew prophets, and after reading the travels of
+Huc, Erman, and Hill, I make no doubt that they
+were not Buriats’ graves at all, but the <i lang="ru">obos</i> which are
+erected throughout Tartary, and at which the people
+worship the spirits of the mountains, a superstition of
+the Shamanist Buriats, which extends, at least partially,
+to other aboriginal tribes in Siberia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_157" href="#Footnote_4_157" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>As we passed along the road, we sometimes overtook
+companies of emigrants from Russia, or from other
+parts of Siberia, who were wandering further east. We
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_406">[406]</span>
+heard, at Barnaul, that peasants are encouraged thus
+to migrate. Also, we sometimes drove by labourers
+in the fields, which gave an opportunity to the passing
+yemstchik to salute them in Russian fashion: “<i lang="ru">Bogh
+pomotch</i>,” “May God be your help,” to which the
+reply is, “<i lang="ru">Spasibo</i>,” “Thank you,” or “Save you!” a
+very similar custom to that I have observed in the
+west of Ireland, where the car-driver accosts his brother
+Pat, digging potatoes, with a “Bal o’ ye airth,” “God
+bless the work,” or, more probably, it will be, “God
+and Mary bless the work,” to which Pat replies, “And
+you too.” They both remind one of the salutation of
+the Hebrew, Boaz, “The Lord be with you!” to which
+his reapers replied, “The Lord bless thee!”</p>
+
+<p>I confess to having been sometimes tired of travelling
+so many days without being able to read; I managed
+to get through only two or three small works, for, notwithstanding
+my air-cushions and a paper-knife placed
+below the line I was looking at, the shaking of the
+tarantass rendered study almost impossible. After
+leaving Chita on Monday, we travelled all day and all
+night on Tuesday, and on Wednesday found ourselves
+approaching Nertchinsk, a town surrounded by a hilly
+district noted for its minerals. The mining region
+extends over a large area, and for a long period of
+years provided employment to vast numbers of convicts,
+as also for many Polish exiles after the insurrection of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_407">[407]</span>
+1863. The mines were worked under the supervision
+and direction of an able chief, with a numerous staff
+of officers; and many distinguished mineralogists here
+commenced their career. Up to the year 1847, silver
+and lead formed the principal products.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_158" href="#Footnote_5_158" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Tin and zinc
+also, and the aqua marina are found in the neighbourhood
+of Nertchinsk, and 130 miles to the south is the
+mountain of Odon Tchelon, celebrated for its gems,
+including the topaz and emerald, which latter Mr.
+Erman speaks of as green, yellow, and blue. To these
+minerals must be added gold, which is found in large
+quantities in the bed of the Nertcha and its tributaries,
+besides iron, antimony, and arsenic. In Petersburg, I
+heard the gold-mines of Nertchinsk spoken of as “large
+and well worked”; but other reports went to show that
+the Government mines brought in little to the Crown;
+and we heard that most of them about Nertchinsk have
+been sold, so that mining affairs at the time of our visit
+were in a transition state.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_154" href="#FNanchor_1_154" class="label">[1]</a> The surface is mountainous; one range, the Yablonoi, running from
+north to south, is the watershed of numerous rivers. The streams from
+the western slopes drain into Lake Baikal; the largest one towards the
+north, the Vitim, finds its way to the Lena, whilst the remainder run into
+the Argun, which flows at the south of the province and into the Ingoda
+and Onon, which form the Shilka. The population of the government
+is 430,000, of which the town inhabitants number only 4 per cent. In
+1867 the population was 380,000, of whom there were 400 hereditary
+nobles, 1,000 personally noble, 1,700 ecclesiastical persons, 11,000 townspeople,
+109,000 rural inhabitants, 4,000 military, 9 foreigners, and 164,000
+natives. The present population is quoted as 10,000 less than that given
+by the Almanack for 1875, which diminution probably arises from
+emigration to the region of the Amur, and from the Government sending
+fewer exiles here than formerly. There were throughout the government,
+in the year 1875, about 3,000 marriages, 16,000 births, and 12,000
+deaths. The province is divided into seven uyezds; and among its
+principal towns, besides the capital, are Verchne Udinsk, Selenginsk,
+and Troitzkosavsk, on or near the Selenga, Barguzin, near the Baikal,
+and Nertchinsk, to all of which we went with the exception of Barguzin.
+Barguzin is the chief town of the district, but is not otherwise remarkable.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_155" href="#FNanchor_2_155" class="label">[2]</a> We had deposited with the Ispravniks of Verchne Udinsk and Troitzkosavsk
+Russian New Testaments, Tatar Gospels, and Buriat Scriptures
+for the prisons and for the Troitzkosavsk poor-house, which last, as far as
+I remember, was the only one of this kind we heard of during our tour,
+unless it were at Perm, and, perhaps, Barnaul. In addition to these the
+Governor at Chita accepted 25 wall-pictures of the Prodigal Son, 12 Tatar
+Gospels, 14 large Russian New Testaments, 50 small ones, 60 Russian
+Gospels, 20 Psalms, 3 New Testaments in Polish, French, and German,
+38 Buriat portions, 75 copies of the <cite>Russian Workman</cite>, and 200 tracts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_156" href="#FNanchor_3_156" class="label">[3]</a> At a further stage of my journey I had the opportunity of sending
+additional books to M. Pedachenko, and on the following February 4th
+I received in England the following letter:—</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="right pr2">
+  <span class="smcap">Tchita</span>, <i lang="fr">le 12 Decembre, 1879.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Monsieur</span>,—Je me fais un plaisir de vous faire savoir, que j’ai reçu
+votre lettre du 9 Juillet de même que les livres et les brochures religieuses,
+qui ont été tous distribués.</p>
+
+<p>A <i>Kara</i>: Dans les prisons, les hôpitaux, et l’établissement de charité,
+d’ Alexandre:—</p>
+
+<p class='no-indent mth ml4'>
+  13 Papiers pour les murailles,<br>
+  43 Petits Evangiles,<br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">7 Grands Evangiles,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">8 Psaumes,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">3 Nouveaux Testaments Polonais, Français, Allemands,</span><br>
+  29 Brochures <i>Rouski Rabotchi</i>,<br>
+  60 Différentes brochures,<br>
+  22 Anciens Testaments Mongols.
+</p>
+
+<p class='mth'>A <i>Algatche</i>: Dans les prisons et les hôpitaux:—</p>
+
+<p class='no-indent mth ml4'>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">3 Papiers pours les murailles,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">2 Psaumes,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">2 Grands Evangiles,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">9 <i>Rouski Rabotchi</i>,</span><br>
+  13 Petits Evangiles,<br>
+  15 Brochures religieuses.
+</p>
+
+<p class='mth'>A <i>Nertchinsk</i>: Dans l’hôpital et la prison:—</p>
+
+<p class='no-indent mth ml4'>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">2 Papiers pours les murailles,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">2 Psaumes,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">1 Grand Evangile,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">9 <i>Rouski Rabotchi</i>,</span><br>
+  13 Petits Evangiles,<br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">9 Brochures religieuses,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">4 Anciens Testaments Mongols.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class='mth'>A <i>Tchita</i>: Dans la prison:—</p>
+
+<p class='no-indent mth ml4'>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">2 Papiers pour les murailles,</span><br>
+  13 Psaumes,<br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">1 Grand Evangile,</span><br>
+  10 <i>Rouski Rabotchi</i>,<br>
+  14 Petits Evangiles,<br>
+  10 Brochures religieuses,<br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">4 Anciens Testaments Mongols.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class='mth'>Pour les <i>Forçats de Nertchinsk</i>:—</p>
+
+<p class='no-indent mth ml4'>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">3 Papiers pour les murailles,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">2 Grands Evangiles,</span><br>
+  15 <i>Rouski Rabotchi</i>,<br>
+  13 Petits Evangiles,<br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">9 Brochures religieuses,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">2 Psaumes,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">4 Anciens Testaments Mongols.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class='mth'>A l’hôpital de <i>Strétinsk</i>:—</p>
+
+<p class='no-indent mth ml4'>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">2 Papiers pour les murailles,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">1 Ancien Testament Tatare,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">3 Brochures religieuses.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class='mth'>D’après votre désir, Monsieur, les livres distribués dans les prisons et
+les hôpitaux sont placés sur des tablettes, afin qu’on puisse s’en servir en
+tout temps. Les serviteurs sont chargés de les tenir en ordre.</p>
+
+<p>Recevez, Monsieur, mes plus sincères remerciements pour votre précieuse
+offrande,</p>
+
+<p class='no-indent ml8'>
+  J’ai l’honneur d’être,<br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 6.0em;">Votre très humble serviteur,</span><br>
+  <span style="margin-left: 8.0em;">(Signed) &emsp; &emsp; <span class="smcap">Jean Pedachenko</span>.</span>
+</p>
+</blockquote>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_157" href="#FNanchor_4_157" class="label">[4]</a> The natives believe that their shamans have more power than other
+people with the spirits infesting the mountains. Accordingly, sacrifices
+are offered to these spirits, and are carried off secretly by the shamans.
+Horse-hair seems to hold a conspicuous place in connection with their
+superstitions. Mr. Erman speaks of the practice of the Yakutes in tying
+knots of it on trees; and Mr. Hill states that the Yakutes informed him
+that the rites of their ancient worship consisted for the most part in
+sacrifices to invisible spirits, and that portions of the horses’ tails were
+attached to trees to notify to the spirits who might chance to pass by that
+such rites had been performed, and that thereabouts they would find the
+offered sacrifice. From the oldest times the Buriats have been accustomed
+about midsummer, when the cattle are in good condition, to celebrate
+festivals for the good spirits, the rites being followed by wrestling matches,
+and other popular amusements; and the crafty Buddhist lamas have
+recognised and sanctioned these ancient usages, in order that the Buriats
+may regard the new religion only as an extension or completion of the old.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_158" href="#FNanchor_5_158" class="label">[5]</a> Of the former 4 tons, and of the latter 570 tons, were produced
+annually. The discovery of lead was of great importance, as it had been
+previously necessary to bring it all the way from England to Barnaul for
+the smelting of the ores of the Altai, in which region little or no lead is
+found. The lead of Nertchinsk, however, did not find its way so far as
+the Russian arsenals, because, by reason of carriage, it would have cost
+six times the price of English lead delivered either in Petersburg or
+Moscow.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_408">[408]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII">
+    CHAPTER XXXIII.
+    <br>
+    <i>THE SILVER AND (SO-CALLED) QUICKSILVER MINES
+    OF NERTCHINSK.</i>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>The supposed quicksilver-mines.—Inadequate evidence of their existence.—Unsupported
+statements of writers.—Not known to Anglo-Siberians.—Silver-mines
+perhaps intended.—Deleterious fumes a myth.—Questionable
+allegations regarding silver-mines.—Misstatements
+exposed.—Testimonies of Collins and other eye-witnesses.—Accounts
+of ex-prisoners and Lutheran pastor.—Nertchinsk Zavod and work in
+the mines.—Condition of affairs in 1866.—Present state of things.—The
+Nemesis of exaggeration.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>When</span> crossing the Pacific I heard it remarked
+by an American clergyman that Mrs. Beecher
+Stowe, in her exaggerated account, as he thought it, of
+American slavery, showed great shrewdness in assigning
+to her story a locality that was very remote and
+unknown to most of her readers. A similar observation
+might be made in regard to not a few of the
+writers on Siberian exiles and their labours in the
+mines. How the idea first came into my mind I know
+not, but when in 1874 an Englishman, born in Russia,
+told me in Petersburg that the worst of Russian criminals
+were put down in quicksilver-mines in Siberia,
+where they were speedily killed by unhealthy fumes, it
+seemed to me like an item of news I had heard before.
+Since my return from Siberia the question has been
+frequently put to me, Did you go to the quicksilver-mines,
+where the exiles are so cruelly treated? Baron
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_409">[409]</span>
+Rosen also wrote, “Eight persons of the above-mentioned
+eleven criminal categories were dispatched at
+once to the quicksilver-mines of Nertchinsk; ...
+they worked for long years underground in the mines,
+like the other forced labourers.” Again, the <cite>Newcastle
+Daily Chronicle</cite> for 21st November, 1878, quoting,
+apparently, Captain Wiggins, says: “Desperate criminals
+only are sent to labour in the quicksilver-mines,
+and for these there is a specially severe discipline provided,
+and ‘horrors,’ without doubt, exist.” And I have
+somewhere read, if I mistake not, that in the vicinity of
+Nertchinsk was a quicksilver-mine, which for a time
+was worked, but that the loss of life entailed upon the
+convict labourers was so great as to cause it to be
+given up.</p>
+
+<p>Now it is somewhat remarkable that I have been
+unable to learn that there is a quicksilver-mine in
+Siberia at all, or to get satisfactory proof that one ever
+existed. This may perhaps surprise my readers, but I
+proceed to explain myself thus:—The “English Cyclopædia,”
+under the article “Mercury,” mentions various
+places where this mineral is found, but says nothing
+of Siberia. Yet surely, if mines exist there, affording
+employment for numerous labourers, we ought to hear
+something of their output. Again, in “Ure’s Dictionary
+of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines,” a standard
+book on mining (p. 120), we find a good deal concerning
+the mines of Siberia, of those in the Urals, the
+Altai, and Daouria (which last comprise those about
+Nertchinsk), but nothing is said of quicksilver-mines
+in any one of these regions.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_159" href="#Footnote_1_159" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Again, Mr. Atkinson,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_410">[410]</span>
+who spent several years in Asiatic Russia, went to the
+district of Nertchinsk, and had friends among the
+mining engineers, says: “Tin and zinc ores are found,
+but neither have as yet been much worked, and I am
+not aware of the existence of quicksilver, though it is
+said to be found in these regions.” Mr. Eden, in his
+valuable little compilation on Siberia, speaking of its
+mineralogy, says, “Quicksilver also is reported to exist
+in some of the north-eastern provinces”; but he gives
+no authority for the report, says nothing of its being
+worked, nor mentions the existence of it at Nertchinsk.
+I may further add that recently I have seen
+the Englishman whom I met at Kiakhta, and who since
+has twice passed through Nertchinsk. He asked
+particularly of an officer connected with the mines for
+one of quicksilver, and was told that, though there was
+said to be quicksilver in the neighbourhood, it was not
+worked.</p>
+
+<p>To these testimonies I must add my own, that
+neither in the town of Nertchinsk, through which we
+passed, nor in the neighbourhood, nor indeed throughout
+Siberia, did we anywhere hear of a quicksilver-mine.
+The only testimony I have ever received in
+the opposite direction is that of a released political
+exile, who has told me that he once heard from some
+of his fellow-prisoners at Petrovsky Zavod, many miles
+distant, that there was a small quicksilver-mine at
+Nertchinsk, but so poor an affair that it was not
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_411">[411]</span>
+worked. Subsequently my informant was deported
+to four places in succession round about Nertchinsk,
+but he neither saw nor heard anything more of the
+said quicksilver-mine. Accordingly, on meeting, since
+my return, with an English acquaintance who has spent
+a large part of his life in Siberia, and who knows it well,
+I said to him, “You have heard, have you not, that
+there are quicksilver-mines in Siberia?” to which he
+replied in the affirmative, but he did not know where
+they existed; and when I asked him whether, if I
+took upon myself to say that there was no such thing
+as a quicksilver-mine in Siberia, he could contradict me,
+he thought awhile, and then was obliged to confess he
+could not. The Englishman from Kiakhta said the
+same; and my most recent informant, a released political
+exile, who spent some years in the mines about Nertchinsk,
+assures me to the same effect. In the face,
+therefore, of the prevalent notion to the contrary, and
+notwithstanding what little evidence I have been able
+to collect in their favour, I must express my grave
+doubts as to whether mercury has ever been worked,
+in any sense worthy of the term, by Russian convicts;
+and I shall further venture on the assertion that there
+does not exist a quicksilver-mine in Siberia at all.</p>
+
+<p>But perhaps <em>silver</em>-mines were intended instead of
+“quicksilver,” in which case it should be observed that,
+if the quicksilver-mines have no existence, then the
+slow process of killing convicts by their fumes is a
+delusion. That working in quicksilver-mines is destructive
+to health is perfectly well known; but working
+in silver-mines is quite another matter. When at
+Barnaul, we heard nothing of any difficulty arising under
+this head in the working of the Altai silver-mines.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_412">[412]</span>
+When in the Rocky Mountains, I heard from a Russian
+lady, who had been down the silver-mine near Virginia
+city, that the heat was very great, but she said nothing
+as to the air being otherwise objectionable. Mr.
+Collins, also, describing his descent of one of the
+Nertchinsk mines, the silver-mine of Zarentunskie,
+says: “We now passed along another drift, and found
+nothing unpleasant in this underground passage.”
+Moreover, the two released exiles, to whose information
+I have already alluded, have told me that they never
+perceived any objectionable fumes,—that, in fact, there
+were none.</p>
+
+<p>But, apart from the supposed deadly fumes, there
+has been a great deal said and written respecting the
+Siberian mines in general, and those of Nertchinsk in
+particular, which my experience and reading lead me
+to question, not to say to contradict. The number of
+Englishmen who have visited the great mine of Nertchinsk
+is represented, I believe, solely by Captain
+Cochrane,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_160" href="#Footnote_2_160" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> and great changes have taken place since
+his day. In 1848, the Emperor Nicolas decided, with
+a view to carrying out his plans in the regions of the
+Amur, that the whole of the people in the Trans-Baikal
+should become Cossacks. Hitherto a large body of
+the population had been employed in mining operations,
+and Mr. Atkinson speaks of this sudden change as
+having closed the silver-mines of Nertchinsk; but I
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_413">[413]</span>
+suppose he means relatively, for the mines have been
+worked for many years since by convicts, and, if we
+are to believe all that is written on the subject, they
+are full of horrors to the present day. But I shall
+venture to examine a few of these writings which say
+so, and compare them with the statements of travellers
+and eye-witnesses. I shall offer, too, my own experience,
+and then leave the reader to judge respecting
+the truth of the whole.</p>
+
+<p>The author of “The Russians of To-day” says
+(p. 216): “The miners are supposed to be the worst
+offenders, and their punishment is tantamount to death
+by slow torture; for it is certain to kill them in ten
+years, and ruins their health long before that time.
+If the convict have money or influential friends, he
+had better use the time between his sentence and
+transportation in <em>buying a warrant</em> which consigns him
+to the lighter kinds of labour above ground, otherwise
+he will inevitably be sent under earth, and <em>never again
+see the sky</em> until he is hauled up to die in an infirmary.”
+This was published in 1878, and I have italicised the
+doubtful or erroneous words.</p>
+
+<p>Again, the <cite>Contemporary Review</cite> for September 1879,
+in an article on “Conspiracies in Russia,” says (p. 143):
+“Of the treatment of political exiles in Siberia, as it
+has been carried on <em>for a long time past</em>, I have before
+me a thrilling description from the pen of Mr. Robert
+Lemke, a German writer, who has visited the various
+penal establishments of Russia with an official legitimation.
+He had been to Tobolsk, after which he had
+to make a <em>long, dreary journey</em> in a wretched car, until
+a <em>high mountain</em> rose before him. In its torn and
+craggy flank the mountain showed a colossal opening
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_414">[414]</span>
+similar to the mouth of a burnt-out crater. Fetid vapours,
+which almost took away his breath, ascended from it.”</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lemke then walks down with a guide, and—</p>
+
+<p>“Entering a room of considerable extent, but which
+was scarcely a man’s height, and which was dimly lit
+by an oil lamp, the visitor asked, ‘Where are we?’
+‘In the sleeping-room of the condemned! Formerly it
+was a gallery of the mine; now it serves as a shelter.’
+The visitor shuddered. This subterranean sepulchre,
+lit by neither sun nor moon, was called a sleeping-room.
+Alcove-like cells were hewn into the rock;
+here, on a couch of damp, half-rotten straw, covered
+with a sackcloth, the unfortunate sufferers were to
+repose from the day’s work. Over each cell a <em>cramp
+iron</em> was fixed, wherewith to lock up the prisoners like
+ferocious dogs. No door, no window anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>“Conducted through another passage, where a few
+lanterns were placed, and whose end was also barred
+by an iron gate, Mr. Lemke came to a large vault,
+partly lit. <em>This was the mine.</em> A deafening noise of
+pickaxes and hammers. Then he saw some <em>hundreds</em>
+of wretched figures, with shaggy beards, sickly faces,
+reddened eyelids, <em>clad in tatters</em>,—some of them <em>barefoot</em>,
+others in sandals, fettered with heavy foot-chains.
+No song, no whistling; now and then they <em>shyly</em>
+looked at the visitor and his companion.”</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Lemke leaves the mine and speaks to one of
+the officers about the convicts’ rest. “Rest!” said
+the officer, “convicts must always labour. There is
+no rest for them; they are condemned to perpetual
+forced labour, and he who once enters the mine <em>never
+leaves it</em>!” And so on.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_161" href="#Footnote_3_161" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_415">[415]</span></p>
+
+<p>These remarkable extracts may be appropriately
+followed by reference to an article in the <cite>Echo</cite> for
+May 5th, 1881. It numbered 100 lines, and on
+reading it I had the curiosity to mark every line that
+appeared to me to contain a misstatement or a blunder.
+No less than 20 were marked; that is to say, one line
+in every five. The article is headed. “On the Road
+to Siberia.” The author begins by starting his pedestrian
+exiles on the <em>march</em> at the Sparrow Hills at
+Moscow, and in crossing Russia he gives them all
+sorts of difficulties by road to overcome; whereas I
+have shown, in an earlier chapter, that for years past
+the prisoners are taken by steam across Russia, and
+that the exile reaches the first prison in Siberia without
+walking at all. Then the author places his pedestrian
+exiles under the charge of <em>mounted, long-speared</em>
+guards, feeds them with bread and <em>oil</em> (which latter I
+never yet heard of in a Russian prison), and, what is
+more amusing, feeds the Cossack horses with the <em>meal</em>
+(whatever that may be) eaten by their masters. Then
+having got his exiles over the Ural, he says:—</p>
+
+<p>“Beyond the Ural, however, with its simple industries
+and markets, the region becomes more barbarous;
+it is less relieved by the softening aspects of social life;
+the exile population, clad in sheepskins, thickens at
+every step; the cold grows so intense” [this, by-the-bye,
+in the “open season,” <i lang="la">i.e.</i> the summer], “that
+occasionally the Cossacks on guard are frozen, lance
+in hand; and the silver-mines are now <em>not far distant</em>,—<em>immense
+caverns</em>, illuminated by torches of pine,
+peopled by men with leaden-hued faces, caused by
+exhalations from the copper ore, in which the silver is
+found imbedded; inhabited too by <em>women</em> and <em>children</em>,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_416">[416]</span>
+who share in the unhealthful labour, and contribute
+their quota to the terrible totals of mortality,
+<em>living, dying</em>, and being buried often <em>far below the light
+of day</em>.”</p>
+
+<p>Now, when I read this, my first thought was to take
+Mr. <em>Punch’s</em> advice, and “write to the <cite>Times</cite>,” but I
+repressed my feelings till I could gather these extracts,
+italicise the questionable words, and then calmly place
+before the reader such remarks upon the matter as I
+have to offer. Let me, then, observe, in the first place,
+that neither of these three authors professes to write
+from personal experience. Had the writer in the <cite>Echo</cite>
+been to Siberia in the “open season,” he would not
+have frozen his mounted guard, lance in hand, but
+would have made him trudge on foot at the side of
+his convoy, sweating beneath the load of rifle and
+bayonet; and neither of the three writers, had they
+been to Siberia, would have been so vague with regard
+to its geography. The author of the “Russians of To-day”
+(p. 216) informs his readers that “Siberia is a
+territory covering about <em>six</em> times the area of England
+and Scotland!” Had he written <em>sixty</em> times he would
+have been not far from the mark; but—perhaps six
+was a printer’s error!</p>
+
+<p>Again, the <cite>Contemporary</cite> writer says that Mr. Lemke
+“had been to Tobolsk, after which he had to make
+a long dreary journey until a high mountain was before
+him;” which sentence, though not expressly saying so,
+leaves one to infer that the mountain was at least in
+the vicinity, whereas the country about Tobolsk is flat,
+and there is no mountain answering to the writer’s
+description, where convicts are employed, within 2,000
+miles. So, again, the writer for the <cite>Echo</cite>, almost
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_417">[417]</span>
+immediately after getting his exiles over the Urals,
+informs us that “the silver-mines are now not far
+distant,” which is hardly an exact way of speaking of
+3,000 miles.</p>
+
+<p>But I shall now proceed to give such personal information
+as I am able about Nertchinsk, prefacing what
+I have to say with words from Mr. Collins’s chapters
+describing his visit to the mines of the district. This,
+I think, should go far to satisfy an ordinary reader
+as to the quality of the miners’ food, clothing, and
+sleeping accommodation. “This [gold] mine was a
+convict establishment, like all the mines east of Lake
+Baikal. The men were well clad, and in visiting the
+hospital, prison, and quarters, I found the arrangements
+for their health and sleeping clean and comfortable.
+Cooks were preparing dinner for the prisoners.
+I tasted of the soup, bread, and <i lang="ru">kacha</i>, or grits, made
+from buckwheat and milk, and found them good and
+well prepared. There were a number on the sick list,
+mostly those who had recently arrived, but they were
+in a warm, clean room, with clean beds and clothing,
+and with a separate kitchen, where proper diet was
+prepared for them.”</p>
+
+<p>This was published in 1860. Before leaving Asia
+I had an opportunity of asking an American, who had
+visited the Nertchinsk mines, as to what he saw, but
+he told of no such barbarities as those quoted above.
+Again, I asked an Englishman living in Siberia about
+women working <em>in</em> the silver-mines, but he had never
+heard of such a thing, nor have I; and my second
+exile informant denies it; so that I trust the women
+and the children with “leaden-hued faces,” inhabiting
+the mines and “sharing in the unhealthful labour,”
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_418">[418]</span>
+exist only in the imagination of the writer for the <cite>Echo</cite>.
+Had the article said that there were women and children
+<em>at</em> the mines, it would have been less difficult to believe,
+because I found them at the gold-mines—the women
+employed in scrubbing, washing, or hard female labour,
+and their children taken care of, clothed and fed in a
+school; but this will be alluded to hereafter. Again, I
+met a naval officer, who had seen the coal-mines at
+Dui, in Sakhalin, and who spoke of the prison abuses
+there in no measured terms. He had visited the mines
+at Nertchinsk five years before we met, and had descended
+into one of them; but though he said the men
+looked sickly, and sometimes had to “go on all fours”
+to get the mineral (which, I suppose, all miners occasionally
+have to do), yet he had no barbarities of which
+to speak, and did not confirm any of the notions with
+which I entered the country, as to the prisoners being
+kept underground by night and by day. He said they
+worked twelve hours a day, six on and six off. I
+questioned, too, the chief of the gold-mines at Kara
+concerning the silver-mines at Nertchinsk, which are
+not far off. He denied that the prisoners were kept
+underground, and <em>thought</em> they worked in three sections
+of eight hours each.</p>
+
+<p>I have three testimonies besides, not from prison
+officials, travellers, or amateur philanthropists, but from
+men, two of whom themselves worked in the mines of
+Nertchinsk; whilst the third, a Lutheran pastor, told
+me of what he had heard direct from prisoners at the
+mines, where it was his business periodically to visit.
+He said that old convicts at Nertchinsk and Kara had
+told him of Rozguildieff, a director, 20 years before,
+who gave them only 4 lbs. of bread a day, and who
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_419">[419]</span>
+used to go about with four Cossacks behind him,
+armed with the knout, to thrash those who did not
+do the prescribed quantity of work. He afterwards
+became blind. I have heard from another quarter
+that this man used sometimes to condemn his prisoners,
+not to so many stripes, but so many “lbs.”
+of the birch—to 10 or 15 lbs., for instance—which
+meant that the man should be flogged until a certain
+weight of rods had been used up. But a military officer
+was sent to inspect the mines, and Rozguildieff was
+removed; since which time the pastor said that all
+seemed going on well, and that he had heard no complaints
+of abuse. I have also heard of this Rozguildieff
+and his cruelty from a third person, who was at Petrovsky
+Zavod in 1866, with about 500 prisoners, many of
+them Polish insurgents. Another testimony respecting
+the mines is from a Pole whom I met, engaged as a clerk
+at one of the post-houses. He had been sent to Nertchinsk
+as a political prisoner, condemned to hard labour,
+but he said he was not compelled to work. Perhaps
+he had the good fortune to be taken as a servant, or
+employed as a clerk; this he did not explain, but he
+said that the officers were not cruel, and that of the
+prison treatment he had no complaint to make. He
+had, he said, 3 lbs. of bread, and ½ lb. of meat a day.
+He might write a letter every three months; and so
+well satisfied did he seem with his present lot, that he
+said if the Emperor were to allow his return to Poland
+he would certainly go; but if he were offered permission
+to return only to Russia, he would prefer to stay where
+he was. One reason for this, it has been suggested,
+might be that police supervision is more irksome in
+Russia than in Siberia.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_420">[420]</span></p>
+
+<p>The last testimony I would offer is perhaps the most
+satisfactory of all, because it came to me direct in
+English from one who, implicated in the Polish
+insurrection of 1863, was sent as a political exile to
+Nertchinsk, with several like offenders from the Russian
+and Polish aristocracy, he himself being a man who
+had received a university education. The accounts he
+gave me relate to the condition of things in 1866 and
+1867. The principal centre of the mining district, he
+said, was called Nertchinsky Zavod, or Bolshoi Zavod,
+“the great works,” at which, however, the <em>mines</em> were
+abandoned before 1865, and the prison was afterwards
+used for a hospital. Round about were various mines,
+works, hospitals, and prisons, such as Kadaya, Akatuya,
+Klitchka, Alexandreffsky, Algatche (the last a smelting
+place), and some others. At Stretinsk and Sivakoff,
+on the Shilka, were ship-yards, where prisoners were
+employed. There would seem to be labour going on
+still at Nertchinsk and at Algatche, since, from the
+Governor’s letter to me, it appears that some of my
+books have been sent to these two places, and to the
+hospital at Stretinsk; but the greater part of the mines
+just mentioned have now passed out of Government
+into private hands. I am speaking, however, of things
+as they were in the time of my informant, who laboured
+at Kadaya, Akatuya, Alexandreffsky, and Nertchinsky
+Zavod. Kadaya was only two or three versts from
+the Chinese frontier,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_162" href="#Footnote_4_162" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Alexandreffsky was about six
+versts from the frontier, and 35 from head-quarters.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_421">[421]</span>
+At most of the places there were prisons built: at
+Alexandreffsky, of stone; at Kadaya, of wood; and at
+Akatuya, partly of wood and partly of stone. At
+Nertchinsky Zavod the prison was very old, and was
+empty. The commandant, General Chitoff, living there,
+he preferred to house the convicts at a convenient distance.
+At Alexandreffsky there were not less than 700
+prisoners in three buildings. Of these, 30 or 40 were
+Russian political offenders; the remainder were Polish
+insurgents of 1863. At Akatuya there were 110 prisoners,
+60 of whom were Polish priests, together with 22
+other prisoners sent to join them for extra punishment.</p>
+
+<p>Akatuya, by reason of its isolation and loneliness,
+was regarded as the worst place of all, there being no
+village around it. There was reported to have been
+a Tatar in this prison, before 1866, chained to the wall,
+but this was an exceptional case, and such things, it
+was said, were not done to the political prisoners, some
+of whom had friends who could bring influence to bear
+in their favour. My informant, being counted “noble,”
+was exempted from wearing chains during the journey,
+but on his arrival he had irons, he said, of 7 lbs.
+(Russian) on the feet, and the same weight on the
+hands. If so, these handcuffs must have been heavier
+than any I have seen in Russia or Siberia. There were
+sometimes cases in which criminal prisoners burst into
+fits of ferocity, and were guilty of such insubordination
+as to call for special punishment. At Sivakoff, for instance,
+he had known men suspended for a time by
+the armpits, but none were chained to barrows or
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_422">[422]</span>
+tools, as has been sometimes done. In the case of my
+informant himself, who insulted the Governor-General
+Korsakoff, and also joined others in a league to refuse
+to work on Sundays (the cruel and unjust regulation
+to this effect was enforced on these exiles in 1866), he,
+with many more, and for a considerable time, was put
+first on half rations, then deprived of meat, then of milk,
+and then was not permitted to lounge in the yard, but
+had to go straight from work to his ward. The priests
+had joined in this resistance to Sunday labour, and
+there were also Protestants and a Jew among the
+league. Some of the priests, however, were the first
+to give in, and all at length followed, so that they
+had afterwards only four holidays in the course of
+the year, though this was exclusive of bath-day, which
+recurred once a fortnight, and was a holiday as at
+Kara.</p>
+
+<p>I asked as to the formation of the mines, and found
+that some of them had shafts and galleries; one shaft
+in particular, by reason of its construction, being dangerous
+to descend. In some cases it seems that the
+granite was dug from the side of a hill, and the work
+of the prisoners consisted largely of boring holes for
+blasting, which were charged with powder by Cossacks
+or labourers, and, in the absence of the prisoners, were
+fired. From an engineering point of view, the mines,
+as far as I could understand, were worked badly enough;
+and this agreed with what I had heard elsewhere.
+The mineral was brought to the surface in baskets,
+but they had no steam or horse-power. There were
+veins of silver, but often the galleries did not follow
+them, and the mines seemed to subserve the purpose
+of providing hard labour for malefactors, rather than
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_423">[423]</span>
+that of bringing gain to the Emperor. Whilst my
+informant was talking to me, he had in his hand some
+pins, and, holding up one of them, he said, “I did not
+see a piece of silver as big as that all the time I was
+at Akatuya.”</p>
+
+<p>I inquired carefully respecting the hours of labour,
+and heard that in 1866 it was 13 hours a day, which
+agrees with the hours I found at Kara in the gold-mines.
+At noon they came out of the mines to dinner—unless,
+that is, a man had arranged his hours otherwise;
+for it seemed that so long as they did not worry
+the Cossacks or prevent their lounging about and
+smoking, the prisoners might do their allotted number
+of hours when they pleased. There was, moreover, no
+definite amount of mineral required of every man daily,
+and hence he might work hard or not, pretty much as
+he liked.</p>
+
+<p>This, then, appears to have been the condition of
+things at Nertchinsk 15 years ago;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_163" href="#Footnote_5_163" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> and from what
+I heard in Siberia, matters since seem to have improved
+rather than otherwise, though it must not be supposed
+that the lot of the convicts is an easy one. I am far
+from attempting to make it appear so. No doubt the
+corporal punishment inflicted in many cases is very
+severe. I shall have more to say of this hereafter.
+The period of an exile’s life spent at the mines, before
+being set free to colonize, cannot but be hard. Whatever
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_424">[424]</span>
+laxity of discipline may prevail, as compared with
+the prisons of other countries, the herding together
+of the worst of characters, the deprivation of social,
+intellectual, and religious privileges, to speak of nothing
+else, must to many make life in the mines, from the
+nature of things, a burden. But this is very different
+from killing exiles by inches in quicksilver fumes, or
+keeping men, women, and children underground by
+night and by day, with insufficient clothing, food, and
+sleep. Such gross misstatements must in time be
+refuted, and the revulsion caused by their exposure
+often makes people too easily believe less severity than
+really exists. The treatment of prisoners necessarily
+depends greatly upon those who are set over them,
+and the study of human nature about us renders it
+quite needless to go to Siberia to discover that among
+prison officials there are both bad and good. That
+there have been instances of cruelty in the mines I
+do not doubt, but I believe far less have occurred than
+some writers would have us believe; and I trust that
+what has here been written may tend to throw some
+light upon a matter of which many are desirous to
+know the truth.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_159" href="#FNanchor_1_159" class="label">[1]</a> Speaking, however (p. 56), of “Mercury or Quicksilver,” the author
+says: “Argental Mercury, or native silver amalgam, has been found at
+... Kolyvan, in Siberia.” But Kolyvan is thousands of miles from
+Nertchinsk, and on the Obi, where there are no quicksilver-mines.
+Further (on page 66 of “Ure’s Dictionary”), the imports of quicksilver
+are given as coming from Spain, the United States, Chili, Australia,
+Hanse towns, Hanover, Austria, Italy, Mexico, and other parts, but
+nothing is said of any from Siberia.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_160" href="#FNanchor_2_160" class="label">[2]</a> Perhaps this is not to be wondered at, if the inaccessibility of the
+place be considered. It is 5,250 miles east of Petersburg, 700 miles nearly
+due north of Peking, about 480 north of the Chinese wall, and 1,000 miles
+west of the Pacific. Captain Cochrane went there half a century ago, at
+which time there were 1,600 convicts in the mines, and he speaks sternly
+of their treatment, their miserable huts, and of their haggard, worn-down,
+wretched, half-starved appearance. But he stayed at the place only a
+day, and his book does not say that he entered the mines at all.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_161" href="#FNanchor_3_161" class="label">[3]</a> On my reading this description to one who knows from painful experience
+what the mines were like, he laughed outright at its absurdity.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_162" href="#FNanchor_4_162" class="label">[4]</a> This is the place to which the Russian poet Mikhaïloff was banished
+for writing his proclamation or manifesto, <i lang="ru">Molodom pokoleniou</i>, “To the
+rising generation,” as was also his literary friend Tchernichewsky, who is
+called the intellectual chief and founder of Nihilism. Mikhaïloff died
+and was buried at Kadaya; Tchernichewsky, who it seems is feeble and
+delicate in constitution, was not compelled to work, nor did he carry
+chains; and after spending a certain time at Kadaya, he was removed
+to Viluisk, in the province of Yakutsk.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_163" href="#FNanchor_5_163" class="label">[5]</a> I have quite unexpectedly had the opportunity of submitting this
+chapter, in manuscript, to a second released exile, who was at the Nertchinsk
+mines at the time alluded to, and who, after expressing his great
+surprise at the accuracy of my account, confirmed it almost to the letter,
+adding, however, that he thought I underrated the number of political
+exiles; but he referred to the numbers deported in 1863 and during the
+present year, rather than to the average number for the intervening years.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_425">[425]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV">
+    CHAPTER XXXIV.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>FROM NERTCHINSK TO STRETINSK.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Nertchinsk.—Its climate and history.—Scene of a Russo-Chinese treaty.—Appearance
+of the town.—Visits to authorities.—Dinner with a
+rich merchant.—Siberian table customs.—Poverty of travelling fare.—Fine
+arts in Siberia.—Painting and photography.—Journey from
+Nertchinsk.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>Before</span> passing from Nertchinsk, a few words
+should be said respecting its history, and as at
+Nertchinsky Zavod, 2,230 feet above the sea, there is
+a meteorological observatory—its climate, also. Mr.
+Atkinson writes: “The climate is not so horrible as
+many have supposed, nor is the earth a perpetual mass
+of ice at a few feet below the surface, as I have seen
+it stated. The summers are not so long as in Europe,
+but they are very hot, and the country produces a
+magnificent flora. Both agriculture and horticulture
+are carried on successfully, and vegetables of almost
+every kind can be grown here. Tobacco is extensively
+cultivated, for which the people find a sale
+among the Buriats and Tunguses.”</p>
+
+<p>Again, Baron Rosen, speaking of Chita, which is
+on the same parallel and within 200 miles of Nertchinsk,
+says: “The high situation of Chita considerably
+increases the cold in winter, but it is healthy, with a
+fresh bracing climate. The sky is almost always clear,
+excepting in August, when the thunder is incessant for
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_426">[426]</span>
+days together, and then follows a shower, beginning
+with enormously large single drops, which in a few
+hours floods all the roads; for the water falls rapidly
+down the slopes, digging deep trenches as it runs.
+The great electricity of the air is remarkable: the
+slightest movement of cloth or wool produces sparks
+or crackling. The rapidity of the vegetation is most
+extraordinary; for both corn and vegetables ripen
+within the five weeks in which the frosts cease, <i lang="la">i.e.</i>,
+from the middle of June to the end of July. One of
+my comrades first introduced the growing of cucumbers
+in the open air, and melons in hot-beds.” And the
+Baron afterwards adds: “When I was chosen senior
+of the prison, I salted down in brandy casks 60,000
+cucumbers out of our garden.” Whether the Baron
+is accurate in speaking of five weeks only during
+which there is no frost, seems doubtful. I observe
+in the meteorological report from Nertchinsky Zavod,
+that in 1877 the lowest temperature was, in June,
+36°·8; in July, 47°·8; and in August, 41°. If, therefore,
+frost occurred in these months, it must have been
+ground-frost caused by radiation; which would not
+affect the crops. The lowest temperature of the year,
+which occurred in January, was 45°·5 below zero; the
+highest temperature, 95°·3, occurring in August.</p>
+
+<p>It should be observed that the Trans-Baikal province
+has a climate almost peculiar to itself. From
+the north, the Polar Sea, immense tracts of swamp,
+lakes, and rivers supply the atmosphere with moisture,
+a great deal of which is precipitated, in passing southwards,
+over a region more than 1,000 miles in breadth;
+and as the clouds approach the Altai, in process of
+elevating themselves to pass the mountains, they part
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_427">[427]</span>
+with their last drops, which fall along the northern,
+southern, and eastern sides of the range. But this
+happens, of course, only when the prevailing winds
+are from the north. Upon the south there are few
+lakes or rivers; while the land in general is dry, and
+remote from the sea. The winter clouds from the
+Indian Ocean in the south, and the Caspian on the
+west, discharging themselves upon the mountains of
+Thibet and Bucharia, rarely pass the desert of Gobi.
+Accordingly, the winds blowing so regularly from this
+direction bring no water; and thus, rain clouds coming
+for the most part from the Pacific only, it comes to pass
+that the fall of rain and snow about Chita and Nertchinsk
+is exceedingly small, and the winter passenger,
+for lack of snow upon which to drive, has frequently in
+this region to mount his sledge on wheels.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_164" href="#Footnote_1_164" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> As
+summer travellers, however, we had no difficulties of
+this kind, and the absence of rain we regarded as a
+blessing. The weather was delightful, and I was
+looking forward, after passing a few more stations, to
+bid farewell to tarantass and horses, and by steamer
+to descend the Amur.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_428">[428]</span></p>
+
+<p>The town of Nertchinsk is one of the oldest in
+Eastern Siberia, having been founded in 1658. After
+about 10 years it began to rise into a place of importance,
+and 20 years later was the birthplace of a famous
+treaty between the Russians and the Chinese.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_165" href="#Footnote_2_165" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>The question in dispute was the boundary of the two
+empires; the Russians first proposing, and the Chinese
+refusing, that the Amur should be the boundary; after
+which the Chinese proposed, and the Russians refused,
+that Albazin, Nertchinsk, and Selenginsk should be
+surrendered. After several conferences neither party
+showed a disposition to yield, and both prepared for
+battle; but this was averted, and a treaty was at length
+drawn up fixing the boundary between the empires,
+but by no means in accordance with Russian wishes,
+for they were completely shut out from the Amur.</p>
+
+<p>After this, Nertchinsk remained for a long time the
+most easterly of the large towns in the Trans-Baikal
+region. The discovery of metals in the surrounding
+mountains increased its importance, and the continued
+arrival there of exiles, and the stories connected with
+them, caused the place to be only too well known—at
+least by name—throughout the empire.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_429">[429]</span></p>
+
+<p>The town is charmingly situated, 1,845 feet above
+the sea. The surrounding country is picturesque, and
+the soil rich. Hill, valley, river, mountain, all combine
+to make it an interesting spot, apart from its legendary
+and historic associations. Mr. Knox entered the town
+from the east, and speaks of the view as especially
+pleasing, because it was the first Russian town where
+he saw evidences of age and wealth. The domes of
+its churches glistened in the sunlight that had broken
+through the fog and warmed the tints of the whole
+picture! It struck me, however, very differently. The
+natural beauties of the place, of course, one could not
+but admire, but I had left behind the handsome cities
+of European Russia, and had passed through many
+cleanly and newly-built towns in Siberia, in comparison
+with which Nertchinsk struck me as being black with
+age and decay. There was a woebegone look about
+the place, and the streets seemed deplorably neglected.
+Many of the houses were falling to pieces, and gave
+the town a most untidy appearance.</p>
+
+<p>We reached Nertchinsk on Wednesday morning,
+July 23rd, and made it our first business to seek the
+Ispravnik, from whom I wished to get general information
+respecting prisons and mines, and permission,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_430">[430]</span>
+perhaps, to visit some of them within reasonable distance,
+though I hardly hoped to see the great mines,
+as I knew they were more than 100 miles away from the
+town, and if I attempted to reach them I should either
+miss the penal colony of Kara, or lose the steamer
+which was shortly to leave Stretinsk. We had thought
+it just possible, moreover, that the Ispravnik might
+provide some one who could speak English, French,
+or German, to accompany me to Stretinsk, and thus
+leave my interpreter free to return.</p>
+
+<p>Nertchinsk formerly stood at the junction of the
+Nertcha, which flows from the north, and the Shilka.
+The repeated damage to the houses from floods caused
+its removal, though even on its present site the lower
+part of the town has been more than once under water.
+It was to this lower part we drove in search of the
+authorities, but the Ispravnik was away “in the
+country,” and his representative was asleep.</p>
+
+<p>We went next to present a letter of introduction to
+Mr. Bootyn, of whom we had heard at the Alexandreffsky
+Central Prison, and subsequently at Irkutsk. On
+approaching his house, it proved to be not only the
+most remarkable in the town, but, I might add, the
+grandest we had seen in Siberia. The houses of
+Nertchinsk have already been alluded to as old, black,
+and rotten; but Mr. Bootyn is a merchant, miner, and
+millionaire, who has been to England and round the
+world, and he was building himself a house, in the
+construction of which were manifest sundry foreign
+ideas. It was a huge erection, part of which was executed
+in Byzantine and castellated styles; and the
+establishment comprised dwelling-houses, gardens, conservatories,
+and shops—all in one. The Mr. Bootyn
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_431">[431]</span>
+to whom our letter was addressed was from home, but
+we were received by his brother, and invited to dine in
+the verandah conservatory.</p>
+
+<p>This gave us an insight into the social habits of
+another class of Russians, and I was now beginning to
+know pretty well what to expect when invited by a
+Siberian to dinner. Their hospitality is unbounded,
+though, of course, its manifestation differs according
+to the means of the host. Our first dinner in Siberia
+was at a merchant’s house, where brother-merchants
+in travelling put up, and hence it was called a hotel.
+We were asked if we would have our dinner in our
+own room, or <i lang="fr">en famille</i>. I was rash enough to choose
+the latter, and we found ourselves seated at the table
+with mine host and a queer lot of male guests (there
+were no females), who appeared to be clerks or fellow-lodgers.
+We were first requested to help ourselves
+from a tureen, in the centre of the table, to <i lang="ru">stchee</i>, or
+soup, on the top of which the fat floated like oil; and
+for the next course we had bones of veal, followed by
+game and sour berries. Our fellow-guests ate ravenously,
+tearing the bones to pieces with their teeth.
+Nothing was placed on the table to drink, but towards
+the close of the meal a glass of milk, as is common in
+Western Siberia, was given to each. The foregoing
+represents, I should think, the dinner of the well-to-do
+Siberian tradesman. There is nothing like display,
+and things are sometimes served in a rough fashion.
+If any one wishes to be brushed clean of over-fastidiousness
+in the arrangements of the table, I can conscientiously
+recommend a tour across Siberia. In one
+house where I was entertained—and entertained most
+kindly—the fish was brought in in the frying-pan, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_432">[432]</span>
+thus placed in the middle of the table, which, if it did
+not minister to the delights of the eye, gave us food
+admirably hot. On one occasion we dined with a
+teacher of languages in a classical school, and he gave
+us stchee, roast meat with sour wild cherries, then
+preserved maroshka berries and pudding. We dined
+in a similar fashion with a medical doctor, but fared
+more sumptuously in the house of a gold-seeker, where
+salt-spoons reminded us of England.</p>
+
+<p>At Nertchinsk we had fallen on pleasant places.
+The number of plants and flowers (I had almost said
+shrubs) on the table went far to hide the guests from
+one another, but there was abundance of excellent
+food. Had we been bibbers of wine, there was no
+lack of the choicest vintages; but, upon our declining
+alcohol, we were offered some excellent cherry syrup,
+which, in so remote a region, was a great luxury.
+Further east, I was invited to dinner by the acting
+governor of a town, where the first course was provided,
+they said, for my special benefit. It was a
+salmon pie. Fish pie is a grand dish with peasants,
+and their betters too, throughout Russia. If well
+prepared it is excellent. The crust is not made with
+butter, but with yeast, as it is commonly eaten in Lent,
+when butter is forbidden. I dined most sumptuously,
+however, in Siberia, at Vladivostock, with the officers
+of a Russian man-of-war, at the house of the Governor.
+Here everything was served with the elegance and
+refinement of an English mansion; and the customs
+observed were much the same, except that the hostess
+(in the absence of her husband, the Governor) gave
+a toast standing, and left her seat to come round and
+do the honours by touching glasses with several of her
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_433">[433]</span>
+guests. Thus I saw something of the table customs
+of nearly all classes. Grace was sung before meals
+in the house of a devoutly orthodox general in Petersburg,
+and now and then I saw a peasant, before or
+after a meal, turn to the ikon and cross himself; but
+grace before meat did not appear to obtain as a custom
+in Siberia. I partook, too, of all sorts of Siberian
+food, from sumptuous dinners down to what was often
+very humble fare indeed. I think the <em>best</em> dinner we
+got at a post-station consisted of chicken soup, then
+the newly-killed chicken that made it, and pancakes.
+This, perhaps, was due in part to our not usually
+caring to wait until a meal could be cooked, and we
+could not always eat what the post-people had prepared
+for themselves, even when it was ready. Our
+provision basket, however, supplied us with a few
+relishes to bread and butter, and thus we made shift
+from town to town. I never travelled with anything
+like such bodily fatigue as during the drive across
+Siberia; and never, that I can remember, ate so little
+animal food during a corresponding period of time;
+but I have no hesitation in saying that my health
+was better after the journey than before it.</p>
+
+<p>Before we left Mr. Bootyn’s, we were shown some
+of the best rooms in the house, elegantly furnished. In
+one of them was a fair collection of European paintings,
+some of which I recognized as Swiss scenes. I do not
+remember seeing any other paintings in Siberia worth
+naming, nor do I remember being shown any statuary.
+Both would, of course, be carried safely with difficulty
+over such immense distances and such uneven roads.</p>
+
+<p>The Siberians are, however, by no means behind in
+photography. When preparing for my tour, I had
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_434">[434]</span>
+serious thoughts of taking with me a camera and dry
+plates, thinking thereby to secure some novel pictures,
+to the surprise, perhaps, of the people. It proved well
+that I attempted nothing of the kind, for much trouble
+was thereby saved to me, and instead of my astonishing
+the natives, I found that the natives astonished me. I
+visited parts of Siberia of which no English author has
+written, but discovered that photography had everywhere
+preceded me; and though there were many
+villages in which we could not procure white bread,
+there were few towns in which the same could be said
+of photographs.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_166" href="#Footnote_3_166" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>In Siberia, some of the photographers are Polish
+exiles; some are Germans; one I met was a Frenchman,
+and another a Finn. Their landscapes are not
+particularly good, and their productions are dear.
+Landscapes of the size of views which may be purchased
+in Rome for sixpence cost in Siberia at least
+six shillings; and when, at Krasnoiarsk, our party
+went to be photographed, we paid for cabinet groups
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_435">[435]</span>
+at the rate of sixteen shillings the half-dozen copies.
+It should be remembered, however, that the demand
+is limited.</p>
+
+<p>After taking leave of Mr. Bootyn, we prepared for
+a journey of 150 miles, which was to bring us to
+Stretinsk. The upper town of Nertchinsk is built at
+the end of a long sweeping prairie, exposed to all the
+winds that blow up through the valley, or down from
+the cold summits of the Yablonoi Mountains. We
+came towards night to a solitary house in the midst
+of the steppe, the poorest station we had seen.
+The outer roof was off, and the building divided into
+two compartments—one for travellers and the other
+for horses—the one being not much better than the
+other; whilst on the opposite side of the road was the
+only building in sight—a roofless shed. The only
+food to be obtained was black bread, salt, and water,
+and in this place it looked at first as if we should be
+compelled to stay; for they had not six—that is, two
+“pairs” of—horses; they had four; and I suggested
+that the difficulty should be overcome by putting two
+horses to each vehicle. But this they said was illegal,
+because their four horses would make only one “pair,”
+and these they were willing to attach to our tarantass,
+if we would pile on the rest of our boxes before and
+behind. By what mathematical process they explained
+this reasoning about pairs I have never yet fathomed,
+but we were only too thankful to get on at any price,
+and early next morning we drove into Stretinsk.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_164" href="#FNanchor_1_164" class="label">[1]</a> The following table gives for 1875 the number of days of rain and
+snow, the mean temperature of winter, spring, summer, autumn, and the
+whole year, and the difference between the mean temperatures of summer
+and winter, for London and four Siberian towns:—</p>
+
+<table class='temps' style="overflow-x:auto;">
+<tr>
+  <th></th>
+  <th class='tdc bl' colspan='2'>WINTER.</th>
+  <th class='tdc bl' colspan='2'>SPRING.</th>
+  <th class='tdc bl' colspan='2'>SUMMER.</th>
+  <th class='tdc bl' colspan='2'>AUTUMN.</th>
+  <th class='tdc bl' colspan='2'>YEAR.</th>
+  <th class='tdc bl'>Diff.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <th></th>
+  <th class='tdc bl'>Days</th><th class='tdc'>Temp.</th>
+  <th class='tdc bl'>Days</th><th class='tdc'>Temp.</th>
+  <th class='tdc bl'>Days</th><th class='tdc'>Temp.</th>
+  <th class='tdc bl'>Days</th><th class='tdc'>Temp.</th>
+  <th class='tdc bl'>Days</th><th class='tdc'>Temp.</th>
+  <th class='tdc bl'>betw.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class='tdl'>Nikolaefsk</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>28</td><td class='tdr'>1·27</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>36</td><td class='tdr'>25·70</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>28</td><td class='tdr'>59·05</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>39</td><td class='tdr'>32·23</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>131</td><td class='tdr'>29·56</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>57·78</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class='tdl'>Barnaul</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>22</td><td class='tdr'>6·60</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>26</td><td class='tdr'>42·93</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>30</td><td class='tdr'>61·83</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>30</td><td class='tdr'>29·10</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>108</td><td class='tdr'>35·11</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>55·23</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class='tdl'>Irkutsk</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>10</td><td class='tdr'>-1·27</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>17</td><td class='tdr'>2·14</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>25</td><td class='tdr'>61·54</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>11</td><td class='tdr'>30·65</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>&ensp;63</td><td class='tdr'>23·27</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>62·81</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class='tdl'>Nertchinsk</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>&ensp;5</td><td class='tdr'>-1·40</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>17</td><td class='tdr'>2·81</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>26</td><td class='tdr'>60·70</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>12</td><td class='tdr'>24·90</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>&ensp;60</td><td class='tdr'>21·75</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>62·10</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class='tdl'>London</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>47</td><td class='tdr'>40·0&ensp;</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>34</td><td class='tdr'>53·70</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>42</td><td class='tdr'>60·40</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>44</td><td class='tdr'>43·50</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>167</td><td class='tdr'>49·40</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>20·40</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The precipitation (rain and snow) in inches stands as follows at Barnaul,
+Nertchinsk, and London:—</p>
+
+<table class='rain'>
+<tr>
+  <td></td>
+  <th class='tdc bl'>Inches</th>
+  <th class='tdc bl'>Inches</th>
+  <th class='tdc bl'>Inches</th>
+  <th class='tdc bl'>Inches</th>
+  <th class='tdc bl'>Inches</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class='tdl'>Barnaul</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>0·92</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>1·77</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>6·39</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>2·93</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>12·01</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class='tdl'>Nertchinsk</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>0·75</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>0·60</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>8·77</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>7·42</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>17·54</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td class='tdl'>London</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>4·76</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>5·13</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>9·94</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>8·21</td>
+  <td class='tdc bl'>28·04</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_165" href="#FNanchor_2_165" class="label">[2]</a> Mr. Ravenstein gives an interesting account of this. The two
+nations were represented by the envoy extraordinary Fedor Alexevitch
+Golovin, and the celestial ambassadors So-fan-lan-ya and Kiw-Kijew,
+with two Jesuit fathers as interpreters. The Russian envoy was accompanied
+by a regiment of Regular Militia (Strelzi) 1,500 strong, and two
+regiments raised in Siberia; but the Chinese ambassadors were accompanied
+by a force of 9,000 or 10,000 persons, consisting of soldiers,
+mandarins, servants, and camp followers. They had from 3,000 to 4,000
+camels, and at least 15,000 horses; and as they came to the river’s bank
+opposite Nertchinsk, before the arrival of the Russian envoy, the
+Governor of the town not unnaturally felt uneasy at the presence of so
+large a company.</p>
+
+<p>At length, however, Golovin arrived, and a large tent was pitched, midway
+between the fortress and the river, one-half appropriated to the
+Russians, the other to the Chinese. The Russian portion was covered
+with a handsome Turkey carpet. Golovin and the Governor of Nertchinsk
+occupied arm-chairs, placed behind a table, which was spread with a
+Persian silk embroidered in gold. The Chinese portion was devoid of
+all ornament. The chiefs of the embassy, seven in number, sat upon
+pillows placed upon a low bench. The remainder of the mandarins and
+Russian officers were ranged along both sides of the tent. The Chinese
+had crossed the river with 40 mandarins and 760 soldiers, 500 of whom
+remained on the bank of the river, and 260 advanced half-way to the tent.
+In a similar manner, 500 Russians were placed close to the fort, and 40
+officers and 260 soldiers followed the envoy.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_166" href="#FNanchor_3_166" class="label">[3]</a> It is interesting to know that in certain departments of photography,
+Russia stands well to the front. In theoretical, scientific, and landscape
+photography, I am informed England takes place in the foremost rank;
+but in portrait photography, Russia is before us. Among first-class photographic
+artists in Petersburg, the names might be mentioned of Levitzky,
+Bergamasco, and Dinier; and in Moscow that of Eichenwald; but the
+most remarkable photographer in all Russia, probably, is one Karelin, at
+Nijni Novgorod. A small view of Kasan, which I purchased in the city
+of that name, and which is printed by the phototype process, seemed to
+indicate that this branch of the art had extended more widely, and made
+further progress eastward, than might have been expected at the time of
+my visit. There are to be had in Petersburg and Moscow some magnificent
+photographic panoramas of the two capitals; and in descending the
+Urals, on the Asiatic side, I procured what can rarely be had elsewhere—a
+photograph of a surface iron-mine; whilst further east was added one
+of a gold-mine. A photographic view of Ekaterineburg, given me there,
+shows how thin and light is the air in Russia, for purposes of photography,
+as compared with ours in England.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_436">[436]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXV">
+    CHAPTER XXXV.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>FROM STRETINSK TO UST-KARA.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Arrival at Stretinsk.—Recorded distances from Petersburg.—Taking in
+a passenger.—Travelling allowance to officers.—Parting with interpreter.—Farewell
+to tarantass.—Starting to Kara.—The world before
+me.—Previous writers on the Amur.—Gliding down the Shilka.—Talking
+by signs.—My Cossack attendant.—Taking an oar.—How
+Russians sleep.—Arrival at Ust-Kara.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>On</span> reaching Stretinsk, we were on the same
+meridian as Nanking. We had been reminded
+of our increasing distance from Petersburg by the verst-posts
+which kept us company all the way. At every
+station, too, there is a post setting forth how many
+versts distant are Petersburg, Moscow, and the government
+towns on either side. The verst-posts recur at
+every two-thirds of an English mile. At the top they
+are shaped square, being so turned that the approaching
+traveller sees at a glance how many versts it is to the
+station which he has left, or to which he is journeying.
+When we entered Siberia at Tiumen, the distance was
+2,543 versts from Petersburg; at Tomsk it increased
+to 4,052; at Krasnoiarsk to 4,606; and at Irkutsk to
+5,611; whilst on arrival at Stretinsk it was almost 7,000
+versts, or 4,600 miles.</p>
+
+<p>It has already been stated that, after leaving Nertchinsk,
+the number of our horses was reduced. On
+reaching the last station but one, we had to take in a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_437">[437]</span>
+passenger. We overtook an officer, his wife and family,
+whose acquaintance we had made in the Obi steamer,
+and whom we subsequently met several times on our
+journey eastward. His wife spoke French, and their
+three or four children were exceedingly well-behaved.
+We could not help pitying this party of six, all of
+whom were stowed away in a single tarantass, not
+much, if any, bigger than ours, which was not excessively
+large for two. One of the children, if I mistake
+not, was a baby, and if to the discomforts I have
+described as accompanying us two be added the
+crowding of all these children and an untold quantity
+of baggage into a single vehicle, then one may
+picture some of the difficulties with which Russian
+officers and their families travel in Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>This party having arrived before us had secured one
+“pair” of horses, and the question arose as to whether
+the remaining pair should be given to us or to a telegraph
+officer, who had also arrived before us, but who
+was proceeding in our direction. He proposed that
+we should have the horses and take him carriage free,
+which, rather than wait, we were glad to do, and he
+thereby was able to pocket his travelling allowance.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_167" href="#Footnote_1_167" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_438">[438]</span></p>
+
+<p>On arriving at Stretinsk we found it a good-sized
+town, with hospital, sundry factories, barracks, and
+other buildings, befitting the chief port of the Upper
+Amur. We were reminded, however, of its distance
+from civilized centres almost before our horses stopped,
+for a youth rushed up to inquire whether our tarantass
+was for sale. They make no axletrees of iron in these
+parts, and hence, when a traveller arrives who has a
+tarantass thus furnished, he has a good chance, after
+having had the use of it all across the country, to sell it
+at Stretinsk for as much or more than it cost in Europe.
+White bread was at famine prices here, costing 6<i>d.</i> a lb.—five
+times as much as we paid at Tobolsk—because
+the American flour deposited at Nikolaefsk ascends the
+river a distance of nearly 2,000 miles, and the Russian
+flour, from Irkutsk, travels 900 miles by land. So
+between the two, delicate persons “brought up on
+white bread,” as the Russians say, fare badly.</p>
+
+<p>We called first at the telegraph office, and presented
+a letter of introduction to Mr. Koch, who was ready at
+once to help, and from whom I learned that my coming
+had been announced to the Commandant, Colonel
+Merkasin, a worthy officer, of whom I heard a good
+account from a released political exile, who said that
+prisoners received much kindness at his hands, and
+that, if the colonel used their labour, he paid them fairly
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_439">[439]</span>
+for their work. We were favoured with his ready
+attention, and, on going to his house, found that the
+Governor of Chita, according to his promise, had requested
+him to make arrangements whereby I might
+visit the mines of Kara. They were 80 miles distant,
+and could be approached in summer by land only by a
+bridle-path. The other method was to row down the
+Shilka in an open boat.</p>
+
+<p>But I was first to part with my interpreter, who was
+to return from this place, a day or two afterwards, in
+our poor old tarantass.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_168" href="#Footnote_2_168" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Before parting, there were
+sundry arrangements to make, and various things to
+send back with him, instead of my taking them round
+the remainder of the globe; but some of these I never
+saw again, for at one of the stations Mr. Interpreter’s
+portmanteau was stolen, with my property in it. The
+only place at Stretinsk in which we could put up was
+a small building, dignified with the name of an hotel,
+consisting of a central chamber with a billiard table,
+and a room on either side—one set apart for women
+and the other for men. The sleeping accommodation
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_440">[440]</span>
+in the latter was a wooden seat running round the
+room—a very common arrangement still in many parts
+of Russia. They provided us food, however, and the
+place sufficed for unpacking and arranging our effects,
+of which I intended to take the light baggage with me,
+and leave my trunk, “hold-all,” and boxes of books to
+follow by the steamer.</p>
+
+<p>I was anxious to get forward as quickly as possible,
+for it was already Thursday morning, the 24th of July,
+and on Sunday evening the steamer was due to pick
+me up at Ust-Kara, and take me to the Amur. The
+colonel spared no pains to make things go smoothly.
+He had provided a boat used by the police, which I
+was to keep all the way, and not change at every
+station. He had also provided a Cossack who was to
+be my guard, servant, and attendant, and whom I
+asked the colonel positively to order not to leave me
+till he had delivered me safe into the hands of Colonel
+Kononovitch, the Commandant at Kara. The colonel
+smiled at my request, and undertook to see that my
+luggage was properly put on board the steamer, as also
+did Mr. Koch; and then, bidding farewell to the officer
+and to Mr. Interpreter, I embarked at three o’clock to
+float down the waters of the Shilka.</p>
+
+<p>And now the world was before me, and that in a
+sense in which it had never been before. I was not
+only a stranger in a strange land, but penetrating a
+region where no English author had preceded me;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_169" href="#Footnote_3_169" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_441">[441]</span>
+but I was far from disliking my new position. The
+weather was delightful, save that I rather feared sunstroke,
+and would fain have had a cabbage-leaf to put
+in my hat. The colonel had recommended some other
+antidote, but it was rendered unnecessary by the rising
+of clouds, from which there fell a few drops of rain.
+The Cossack had provided two oarsmen, so that I had
+nothing to do but to lean back in the boat, and enjoy
+the delightful way in which we glided down the stream.
+It was so pleasant, too, to miss the dust of the road and
+the jolting of the tarantass!</p>
+
+<p>I could ask no questions, from the simple fact that
+none of my crew spoke anything but Russ, of which I
+had hardly learned a dozen words. I purposely did
+not spend time in mastering even the elements of the
+language, thinking that I should have an interpreter
+with me all the way, and not supposing that I should
+have any further use for my smatter after leaving the
+country. Moreover, the Russian alphabet of 36 letters
+is different from others used in Europe, and is certainly
+not inviting. I had very commonly found, among the
+upper classes of Russians, that I could get on by some
+means in French, German, or English. The post-masters,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_442">[442]</span>
+who happened to be Jews, spoke German;
+and when this triglot mode of communication failed,
+I took to signs and dumb show—not always, however,
+with entire success.</p>
+
+<p>At Tomsk, for instance, while Mr. Interpreter was
+“blowing up” the officials for allowing us to be sent on
+the wrong road, I was peacefully engaged in ordering
+the samovar and preparing for tea at the post-house.
+I wanted some eggs, for which, even if I had learned
+it, I had quite forgotten the Russian word, “<i lang="ru">yaitsi</i>.”
+The Russian who wanted an egg in England cleverly
+clucked like a hen, and was instantly understood; but
+this did not occur to me. I therefore walked into the
+back room, and, to the woman’s astonishment, peeped
+into the cupboards and drawers, and examined the
+shelves; but to no purpose. I then bethought me of
+my artistic acquirements, and, taking out a pencil, drew
+on the wall an oval the size of an egg, and bade the
+woman look at <em>that</em>; but she was too dense to catch
+my meaning. At this juncture her husband entered,
+and I appealed to his masculine intelligence by pointing
+to the oval on the wall; but he could not “see” it. A
+happy thought then struck me, and I remembered that I
+had in my provision-basket an egg-cup. I took him accordingly
+into the guest-room, and showed it in triumph.
+But the man mistook it for a brandy-glass, and said to
+his wife, “Oh! it is <i lang="ru">vodka</i> he wants.” I had therefore
+to return to the charge, and took him into the yard,
+thinking to see a hen walking about; but they were
+gone to roost. So I pointed to a pigeon instead, but
+he perceived no connection between that and a hen’s
+egg; nor, on second thoughts, did I. At last I saw in
+a corner some broken egg-shells, and, picking them up,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_443">[443]</span>
+showed them, and effected my object. Further east,
+I lost a pocket-book containing some of my most important
+documents, and was compelled to go through a
+very serious conversation all in dumb show; but this I
+must not anticipate.</p>
+
+<p>On the Shilka I experienced no inconvenience
+through not knowing Russ; for, on arriving at the
+first station, the Cossack went off for fresh oarsmen,
+and I aired my dozen words in ordering the <i lang="ru">samovar</i>,
+which important word, together with <i lang="ru">tarelka</i>, a plate;
+<i lang="ru">chai</i>, tea; <i lang="ru">voda</i>, water; <i lang="ru">stakan</i>, a glass; <i lang="ru">sakhar</i>, sugar;
+<i lang="ru">khleb</i>, bread; and <i lang="ru">maslo</i>, butter, I had thoroughly
+mastered. It was no part of my duty, I suppose, to
+feed my Cossack; for I observed he had brought with
+him black bread, but of course I offered him tea and
+other fare, to which he took very kindly, even to preserved
+meat, though he fought shy of anchovy paste,
+which probably he had never seen before.</p>
+
+<p>Tea over, we left our first station, 17 miles from
+Stretinsk, for station number two, 14 miles distant.
+But on this stage one of our oarsmen was old and
+feeble, and I had insisted (by signs and motions) that
+an extra hand should be hired, and that the Cossack
+should be allowed to rest, which he did by curling
+himself up in the prow of the boat and going to sleep.
+In this state of things darkness came on, and eight
+o’clock, nine o’clock, and ten o’clock passed, and still
+we made only slow progress. At last, in spite of the
+remonstrances of the men, I took an oar myself, pulled
+away lustily till I had a warm jacket, and at eleven
+o’clock we arrived at the post-house of Uktich.</p>
+
+<p>On entering the room a practical illustration was
+afforded us of the Oriental custom, “Take up thy
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_444">[444]</span>
+bed and walk.” The people of the house, not expecting
+travellers, had occupied the guest-chamber,—one
+on the bedstead, another on the floor, and so on; but,
+upon my entering, they snatched up the rugs or cloths
+upon which they were lying, and decamped with
+alacrity. In crossing Siberia we rarely saw a genuine
+bed in the houses of the peasantry, and the people do
+not usually, I believe, undress before going to sleep.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_170" href="#Footnote_4_170" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>Soon after five the next morning, I roused the
+Cossack, who had taken up his quarters on the floor of
+the guest-room, and by six we started for Botti and
+Shilkinsk, the third and fourth stations from Stretinsk;
+and, after sundry stoppages, at seven in the evening
+we finished our day’s pull of 44 miles, and reached
+Ust-Kara, where Colonel Kononovitch was awaiting
+my arrival.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_167" href="#FNanchor_1_167" class="label">[1]</a> The Russian Government, when sending officers overland from Petersburg
+to the Amur province, say, for instance, to Nikolaefsk, grants them
+money according to their rank, and the number of horses they are supposed
+to drive. Thus, a lieutenant is allowed 2 horses, a captain of the third
+rank 3, captain of the second rank 4, captain of first rank 5, rear-admiral
+6, vice-admiral 7, full admiral 8; and the sum for horses in each case is
+doubled; in addition to which, for outfit, single officers receive on the
+outgoing journey half a year’s pay, and married officers a year’s; but
+when they are returning, three-fourths of a year’s pay is allowed to
+married and single alike. The distance from Petersburg to Nikolaefsk
+is 9,848 versts, and the cost of a horse for this distance, at the time of
+my visit, was 277 roubles—say £28. An officer, therefore, going to this
+privileged part, or returning on furlough, might multiply £28 by the
+number of horses to which his rank entitled him, double the product, and
+add 6, 9, or 12 months’ pay, and so realize a heavy purse. Out of this he
+might save considerably by hiring less horses than his dignity was supposed
+to require, by sharing expenses with another traveller, or, lastly, in
+the case of one already in the Amur province, and entitled to leave on
+furlough, by giving up his holiday and pocketing the travelling expenses,
+which last, I found, was not unfrequently done at Nikolaefsk, by officers
+who had got into debt, and looked forward to furlough money as the
+means of getting them out of their difficulties.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_168" href="#FNanchor_2_168" class="label">[2]</a> He left it at Tiumen, where it still may be, for aught I know to the
+contrary; in danger, perhaps, of being immortalized, like another old
+“equipage,” of which the following story is told. The Russians apply
+the term “equipage” to any vehicle, whether on wheels or runners, and
+whether drawn by horses, dogs, deer, or camels. The same word
+“equipage” is used in Russian, as in French, to denote a ship’s crew.
+Accordingly, a few years after the disappearance of Sir John Franklin, the
+English Admiralty requested the Russian Government to make inquiries
+for the lost navigator along the coasts and islands of the Arctic Ocean.
+An order to that effect was sent to the Siberian authorities, and they in
+turn commanded all subordinates to inquire and report; whereupon a
+petty officer, somewhere in Western Siberia, was puzzled at the order to
+inquire concerning the English Captain, John Franklin, and his equipage.
+In due time, however, he reported, “I have made the proper inquiries.
+I can learn nothing about Captain Franklin, but in one of my villages
+there is an old sleigh that no one claims, which may be his equipage.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_169" href="#FNanchor_3_169" class="label">[3]</a> The names of several have been mentioned who crossed Siberia turning
+northwards to the Sea of Okhotsk, or southwards to China; some, too,
+as Captain Cochrane and Mr. Atkinson, reached Nertchinsk and the surrounding
+neighbourhood; but none went on to the Amur. Mr. Atkinson
+wrote a book of “Travels in the Region of the Upper and Lower Amur,”
+but he did not see the goodly land; he only described it, getting his information,
+probably, from the Russian officers who took part in the annexation
+of the country; and some of his illustrations, if I mistake not, from
+the Russian book of Maack, which has proved a storehouse also for subsequent
+writers.</p>
+
+<p>Two American authors, however, had passed this way—Mr. Collins,
+who, in 1858, from Chita, floated down the Shilka, continuing the whole
+length of the Amur to Nikolaefsk; and Mr. Knox, who, bent on journalistic
+enterprise, made his way up the Amur from Nikolaefsk to Stretinsk.
+Unfortunately, I had neither of their works with me, nor had I the more
+scholarly volume of Mr. Ravenstein, whose production, though not that of
+an eye-witness, is far the best English work on the Amur, being largely
+compiled from the information given by those Russians who were the first
+scientific explorers of the country.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_170" href="#FNanchor_4_170" class="label">[4]</a> Their favourite place for spending the night is on the top of the
+stove, which is sometimes raised at one end by brickwork to form a rest
+for the head. Before mounting this, they may perhaps take off their
+boots and an upper garment; but an Anglo-Russian lady has told me that,
+when living at Kertch, though she made it a condition, before a woman
+entered her service, that she should undress before going to bed, yet
+servants frequently transgressed; and that, as far as the men were concerned,
+they never took off their clothes but for the bath or to change
+them.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_445">[445]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI">
+    CHAPTER XXXVI.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE PENAL COLONY OF KARA.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Evil reputation of Kara.—Testimony from Siberians and exiles.—My own
+experience.—The Commandant.—Our evening drive.—Hospitable
+reception.—Statistics respecting prisoners, their crimes, sentences,
+and settlement as “exiles.”—The Amurski prison.—Cossack barracks.—The
+upper prison.—Convicts’ food.—Prisoners’ private laws.—Middle
+Kara prison.—Mohammedan forçats.—Sunday labour.—Convict
+clothing.—Guard-house.—A genuine political prisoner.—The
+church.—Lack of preaching.—House of the Commandant.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>In</span> the penal colony of Kara I found more than
+2,000 convicts, and a few political prisoners,
+together with some of their wives and families,
+a military staff, and some peasants. The penal
+institutions of this place are not so old as those of
+Nertchinsk; but, like them, they inherit a bad reputation.
+Mr. Atkinson appears to have been the
+first author to bring the place under the notice of
+English readers, doing so in no favourable terms,
+though he does not profess to speak as an eye-witness.
+Before I left England I was told that, if I did not
+intend to go east of the Baikal, I should see nothing
+but what might be witnessed in the prisons of London,
+and that I should get no idea of the real horrors of
+Siberian exile. This was said by a man who had
+worked in the mines of Nertchinsk, and he urged me
+by all means to see Kara.</p>
+
+<p>Again, when we reached Siberia, and were travelling
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_446">[446]</span>
+on the Obi, my interpreter conversed with an officer
+in the prison service, whom he told that I had come
+to Siberia for the purpose of seeing its prisons.
+The officer expressed his doubts (as numbers of my
+English friends had done before) as to whether I
+should succeed in getting at the real state of the
+convicts in the mines and prisons; and he further
+mentioned three places where they had to work
+specially hard, namely, Alexandreffsky and Nertchinsk
+(about which I have spoken), and the third was Kara.</p>
+
+<p>We met further east a gentleman who told me
+that his brother-in-law, a colonel, had given him sad
+accounts of the dreadful state of some of the prisons
+in Eastern Siberia. I was introduced to the said
+colonel, but a lengthy inquiry was productive of little
+more, on his part, than general statements, and I
+obtained only five lines for my note-book, the gist of
+them being that, when I asked for the very worst
+places—those in which I should find most horrors—one
+of the four places mentioned was Kara.</p>
+
+<p>It is curious to notice that, of the four persons who
+spoke against Kara, not one of them (so far as I know)
+ever went there; and, with regard to Nertchinsk also,
+it is observable that the language of ear-witnesses
+respecting its mines is far stronger than the language
+of eye-witnesses, or even of those who suffered as prisoners.
+But I need dwell no longer upon what others
+have said, and may proceed to write of what I saw at
+Kara, where I was, if I mistake not, the first English
+visitor.</p>
+
+<p>It was towards evening when our boat reached Ust-Kara.
+Pacing the river’s bank was Colonel Kononovitch,
+the Commandant of the colony. I had been
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_447">[447]</span>
+delayed on the way, and he had been for some hours
+awaiting me, but a few words of explanation sufficed
+to make matters clear. My tongue, after an enforced
+silence of nearly 30 hours, was now released. We
+talked in French, and I soon discovered that I was
+addressing an officer of more than average intelligence.
+He took me into the police-master’s house
+for some light refreshment, and to leave my heavy
+baggage, and then suggested that we should start
+on a drive of eight miles, so as to reach our destination
+before dark.</p>
+
+<p>Our way lay over a stony road, through a wild valley,
+which, in the shades of evening, had a weird and out-of-the-world
+appearance. The ridges of the hills were
+irregular, and partially covered with conifers, while
+lower were deciduous shrubs and trees, though not of
+considerable dimensions. Among the rank and tall
+herbage were some late flowers, and an orange tiger-lily,
+about two feet high, that was strange to me.
+After we had driven a few miles, we came to a <i lang="fr">détour</i>
+in the route, where the colonel proposed that we
+should clamber up a bank, and walk down to the road
+on the other side. From this elevation the landscape
+appeared wilder than ever, and the place looked like
+a natural prison, from which escape was impossible.
+There was not a habitation to be seen, and the consciousness
+that we were in the neighbourhood of so
+many “unfortunates,” as they are called, gave me
+similar feelings to those with which I looked down on
+the forest-bound prison at Alexandreffsky.</p>
+
+<p>As we drove along, and darkness crept on, there
+passed us labouring men returning from work, who
+saluted us. “Who,” said I, “are they?” “They are
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_448">[448]</span>
+convicts,” said the colonel. “Convicts!” said I; “how,
+then, are they loose?” “Oh,” said he, “a large proportion
+of the condemned—perhaps half—live out of
+the prisons in their houses <i lang="fr">en famille</i>.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_171" href="#Footnote_1_171" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> But they ought
+not to be out after dark.” I then began to inquire
+respecting the crimes of the prisoners, and was informed
+that there were in the place about 800 murderers, 400
+robbers, and 700 vagrants or “<i lang="ru">brodiagi</i>”; and having
+been told what proportion of these were loose, I was
+not surprised to hear the colonel say that he usually
+avoided, if possible, being out at night. I approved
+his caution. Being very tired, moreover, and seeing
+that it was now dark, and that neither of us was armed,
+I was heartily glad to reach Middle Kara, the end of
+our drive.</p>
+
+<p>Where I was to be quartered I did not know. There
+was no hotel in the place, or even a post-house, and I
+doubt if they could have offered me lodgings, as at
+Troitskosavsk, in the police-station. The commandant,
+however, had arranged everything for me, and I found
+that I was to occupy his own study. There he had
+prepared a neat, clean little bed; and as I looked
+around at the European comforts on the table, in the
+shape of writing materials and ornaments, it seemed
+like an arrival in the library of an English gentleman
+rather than the private bureau of the director of a
+penal colony.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_449">[449]</span></p>
+
+<p>I wanted to get a thorough rest against the morrow,
+for we had a stiff programme before us. Moreover,
+the last bed I had occupied was nearly 600 miles away;
+and, with the exception of two nights, I had not taken
+off my clothes to sleep for exactly a month. But the
+colonel insisted first on giving me food, of which my
+prominent recollection is that it was tastefully served,
+and consisted of delicacies that had been out of reach
+for many a day, with tinned fruits, including pears that
+had made their way from America up the Amur. When
+at last I undressed, and stretched my limbs between
+a pair of sheets, I felt on excellent terms with my surroundings
+in general, and the colonel in particular.
+He was a fine-looking man, with intellectual tastes
+and an intelligent forehead, and neither smoked, drank,
+nor played cards,—a trio of virtues by no means always
+found in a Siberian official. The room was clean and
+sweet; quietness reigned around; and, uninterrupted
+by the rumbling of the tarantass or the noise of a post-house,
+I was left to sleep in peace.</p>
+
+<p>I had been asked overnight whether next morning
+I should like a bath. Of course I jumped at the
+offer, having been able to get such a luxury but twice
+in Siberia. Accordingly, on waking, the colonel
+brought me a Turkish dressing-gown and bade me
+follow him. I thought, perhaps, he would lead the
+way to a bath-room, instead of which he opened the
+front door and marched me down the middle of his
+garden to a summer bathing-shed. Here I splashed
+about, then returned to my toilet and to breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>Of course I asked all sorts of questions about the
+convicts, or, as they are called, “forçats,” or <i lang="ru">katorjniki</i>—prisoners
+condemned to forced labour. Their
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_450">[450]</span>
+number at Kara for four preceding years had been
+as follows:—</p>
+
+<table class="autotable kara">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc">1875</td>
+<td class="tdc">1876</td>
+<td class="tdc">1877</td>
+<td class="tdc">1878</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;1879&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_172" href="#Footnote_2_172" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc">2,600</td>
+<td class="tdc">2,722</td>
+<td class="tdc">2,635</td>
+<td class="tdc">2,543</td>
+<td class="tdc">2,458.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Their classification according to crime is important,
+as throwing some light on the number of political
+prisoners, for whom, I was told, Kara is a special
+place of deportation, and I have heard that it has
+become more so since my visit. The only class where
+they could be included was under the heading “various,”
+of whom there were 73; and this would suffice to include
+the politicals, respecting whose number I asked,
+and was told that it was 13 Russians and 28 Poles. I
+did not hear of any of the sects of dissenters in prison
+at Kara.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_173" href="#Footnote_3_173" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>As regards the sentences of the convicts, they were
+all, I believe, condemned to hard labour, either of the
+fabric or the mines—one year of work in the mines
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_451">[451]</span>
+counting for a year and a half in the fabric. There
+were a few, chiefly “vagabonds,” sentenced to Kara
+for life; but for such grave offenders even as parricides,
+fratricides, etc., 20 years was the extreme limit
+of their terms. The convicts are able to shorten their
+time, to some extent, by good conduct, and are set
+free to live as colonists, or, as they are then technically
+called, “exiles,” or “<i lang="ru">poselenetsi</i>.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_174" href="#Footnote_4_174" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>Not all of the forçats at Kara, as already observed,
+were in prison, nor were those in close confinement
+placed all in one building, but in six, distributed over
+a distance about 15 miles long. Thus we left one
+behind at Ust-Kara, another about midway between
+the river and Middle Kara. At Middle Kara were
+one or two prison buildings, and in the opposite direction
+from the river were two more, the High Prison
+and the Amurski Prison, which last was eight miles
+distant from the commandant’s house. To this last
+the colonel proposed to drive first, and then work back,
+taking the others in order; and this, after breakfast,
+we proceeded to do.</p>
+
+<p>It was a beautiful morning when we started, and the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_452">[452]</span>
+bright sun and the clear air gave a very different
+aspect to the valley from that of the preceding night.
+The dark hues of the conifers stood out well in
+contrast with foliage of lighter green, a stream was
+visible here and there, and immense forests bounded
+the horizon. We drove a pair of splendid horses that
+would have attracted attention in Rotten Row; and as
+we dashed along the road I perceived at its side wild
+currants and strawberries, raspberries, and wild peas,
+the apple, and the vine. The colonel pointed out a
+gold-mine as we proceeded, but I do not remember
+seeing any one there at work.</p>
+
+<p>When we reached the Amurski prison, it proved to
+be a log building, of good pitch, and of a single storey.
+Most of the prisoners were out at work, but a few
+were engaged in whitewashing the rooms, which the
+colonel said was done at least four times a year. The
+wards were large sleeping-rooms, occupied for the
+greater part of the year only by night. There were
+no bedsteads, but a wide shelf, like that of a guard-room,
+ran round three of the walls; and on this they
+placed their large bags, for the making of which
+sacking was supplied to them, to serve the double
+purpose of clothes-bag and bed.</p>
+
+<p>Near the prison were the summer barracks of a
+company of 150 Cossacks, a fourth of whom were
+replaced yearly. The barracks consisted of large
+canvas booths, with rows of beds arranged in the
+fashion of the summer hospitals. A school is provided
+in winter for the Cossacks, of whom rather
+more than a half read.</p>
+
+<p>We next drove back to the <i lang="ru">Verchne</i> (or upper)
+prison, a building much older than the one we had
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_453">[453]</span>
+left, having in the rooms an upper sleeping shelf
+resembling a loft, on which the prisoners sleeping
+would have the full benefit of the breathed air of their
+comrades below. The commandant saw this, and
+pointed out that it was an old and doomed building,
+and that in the new erections they were avoiding a
+repetition of the evil. In this prison were two solitary
+punishment cells, one of them being occupied on the
+morning of our visit for the first time in the colonel’s
+experience.</p>
+
+<p>Some prisoners, it seemed, might receive money,
+and some not. There was in this prison a Jew to
+whom 150 roubles a year were sent by friends. His
+family were living outside. They might bring him
+food, and were allowed to pay him at least a weekly
+visit.</p>
+
+<p>We went into the kitchen, and I looked attentively
+at the scale of diet hung on the wall as in prisons in
+England.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_175" href="#Footnote_5_175" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The weight of the highest allowance in
+Siberia, as observed before, is far in excess (nearly
+double) of the highest English convicts’ allowance,
+though for non-working prisoners in Siberia an abatement
+must be made for fast-days. The annual cost of
+provisions for each prisoner at Kara is 65 roubles
+72¾ kopecks, or say £6 10<i>s.</i> The soup appeared
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_454">[454]</span>
+somewhat roughly served in small wooden tubs or
+bowls, but I presume that the place is too distant
+to allow of crockeryware being easily procured. Every
+prisoner provided his own spoon. Knives, as in most
+prisons, were forbidden.</p>
+
+<p>We saw, lounging about this building, two or three
+men who seemed to have very little to do. They
+were called “<i lang="ru">starostas</i>,” that is, seniors or elders.
+Each ward of men in prison, and each gang of exiles
+on the march, chooses a starosta, who is their ruler and
+representative, the middle-man between them and the
+authorities. He receives the charities given them on
+the road, and pays and bribes the petty officers for
+little favours. He is, in fact, banker, purveyor, and
+general factotum to the body by whom he is elected.
+The authorities recognise this arrangement, exempt
+the starostas from labour, and through them deal with
+the prisoners rather than give their small orders direct.
+On behalf of the prisoners it is the starosta’s duty to
+befriend them, and see that they have the proper
+amount of food, and whatever else may be their due;
+whilst, on behalf of the authorities, should anything
+go wrong with the prisoners, the starosta is held
+responsible.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_176" href="#Footnote_6_176" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> The office, however, at Kara, notwithstanding
+its privileges and exemptions, is by no means
+coveted; and the men, rather than be unoccupied,
+though it be to rule, prefer to work and to serve.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_455">[455]</span></p>
+
+<p>In the prison at Middle Kara was a considerable
+number of Tatars. Why they were unoccupied I know
+not, unless it happened to be a bath-day, which is a
+holiday, and recurs twice a month; or, again, it may
+have been one of the Mohammedan festivals, some of
+the greater of which they are allowed to observe, though
+not the Friday in every week. Nor are the Jewish
+prisoners allowed to rest on their Sabbath, nor Christians
+on the Sunday. It might possibly be argued, in justification
+of this, that Sunday is not usually observed at
+any of the Siberian gold-mines; but, however that may
+be, I thought this robbing the hard-labour prisoners of
+their day of rest the most cruel and unjust thing in
+their lot. A greater than a Russian Tsar gave to man
+the Sabbath, and to take it away from him is, to my
+mind, nothing less than a sin and a shame.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_177" href="#Footnote_7_177" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>Near the prison at Middle Kara was a storehouse,
+to which we mounted by a flight of outside steps. It
+contained a quantity of material for prisoners’ clothing—coarse
+linen for shirts and summer trousers, felt for
+coats, and leather for shoes and gloves; also a number
+of made-up garments. A pair of summer shoes or
+slippers was valued at 3<i>s.</i>, and a coat of felt at 12<i>s.</i> A
+pair of gloves, such as the prisoners use in the mines,
+was given me as a keepsake. I have added them to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_456">[456]</span>
+my prison curiosities, collected in various parts of the
+world, comprising fetters, whip, handcuffs, specimens of
+prison labour, and a variety of other lugubrious objects.</p>
+
+<p>There was likewise a guard-house at Middle Kara.
+In it I observed, as I had done at Tobolsk, that the
+furniture and arrangements for the soldiers were not at
+all better than for the prisoners. From information
+respecting soldiers’ food received later, I make no
+doubt the rations of the Cossack guards are less
+ample than those provided for the labouring convicts;
+and I am persuaded that under some circumstances,
+dear liberty excepted, the Cossacks are more to be
+pitied than their prisoners. Thus, when a gang of
+exiles comes at night to an étape, they can lie down
+and rest, whereas the Cossacks have to mount guard.</p>
+
+<p>In this building, opening out of the central room
+guarded by soldiers, were a few (perhaps half-a-dozen)
+separate cells, through the doors of which no one could
+pass without being seen by the Cossacks. These cells
+were evidently inner prisons, in which were kept those
+whose escape was especially to be prevented. I entered
+two of them. The first was not quite so wide, but
+about the length and rather higher than the cell of an
+English prison, measuring perhaps five feet wide by
+eight long and ten high, and occupied by a Tatar
+gentleman, with his rosary of a hundred beads in hand,
+with nothing to do.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp61" id="p4570_ill" style="max-width: 68.5625em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p4570_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      TATAR GENTLEMAN EXILE IN WINTER DRESS.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>On entering the second cell, occupied by a political
+prisoner, just then at work in the mines, I had at last
+lighted upon the dwelling-place of one of a class about
+whom such harrowing stories have been told—a genuine
+political prisoner of high calibre, and a Jew to wit, undergoing
+the full sentence of punishment in the mines of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_457">[457]</span>
+Siberia. This meant, in his case, that he had to labour
+in summer very much like a navvy, from six in the
+morning till seven in the evening, with certain hours
+for rest and meals; but in the winter he frequently had
+nothing to do. His wife was living near, and might
+see him twice a week. But his cell was that which
+struck me most. Compared to the criminal wards in
+the other prisons, this was a little parlour. It was
+clean, and in a manner garnished—not, indeed, in the
+fashion of a cell at San Francisco, where I found a
+“boss” painter condemned for life, and who had
+decorated his cell from floor to ceiling, as if intending
+to remain there for the rest of his days (this would
+have been out of keeping with Russian ideas); but
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_458">[458]</span>
+the Kara prisoner had certain articles of furniture and
+eating requisites, the placing and arrangement of which
+indicated familiarity with the habits of decent society,
+and showed the prisoner to be above the common herd.
+One of his books I found was a treatise on political
+economy, which may be noted in connection with the
+remark of Goryantchikoff in his “Buried Alive,” who
+asserts that in his prison no book was allowed but the
+New Testament. The room certainly was not large,
+but there was abundance of light, the outlook from the
+long window being not on a prison wall surrounded by
+chevaux-de-frise, but commanding a view of the Kara
+valley such as a Londoner might envy; whilst just outside
+was the public road, along which could be seen
+everything that passed. I speak only truth when I
+say that, if I had the misfortune to be condemned to
+prison for life, and had my choice between Millbank in
+London or this political’s cell at Kara, I would certainly
+choose the latter.</p>
+
+<p>Between the guard-house and the residence of the
+colonel was a collection of buildings and store-houses,
+called “Middle” Kara. Among these was the church,
+the priest of which was the only chaplain I could hear
+of for the prisoners. He practised photography in
+addition to his ecclesiastical calling, and although he
+probably needed every rouble he gained thereby—and
+I certainly ought not to revile him, since by his means
+the colonel was able to present me with some views of
+the colony—yet it would have rejoiced me to hear that
+he was doing something worthy of his position for the
+spiritual good of the convicts. The pastoral superintendence,
+frequent services, and preaching to prisoners,
+as carried on in English prisons, is unheard of at Kara,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_459">[459]</span>
+and I gathered that the convicts attended church only
+twice a year.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_178" href="#Footnote_8_178" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp43" id="p4590_ill" style="max-width: 54.4375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p4590_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      RUSSIAN VILLAGE CHURCH.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_460">[460]</span></p>
+
+<p>I may here mention that the religious scruples of
+Siberian exiles are to some extent respected. Thus, for
+the Jewish prisoners to be obliged to eat food prepared
+by Gentiles would be an abomination. In the prison at
+Tiumen we were informed that 42 Jews, who had been
+confined there during the previous winter, had been
+placed together in a ward, with a separate cooking-place,
+in which they prepared their food canonically.
+So, too, a similar arrangement had been observed with
+71 Mohammedans; and I have just remarked that there
+were many of this religion together, in the prison at
+Middle Kara, who were allowed, within certain limitations,
+the exercise of their religious observances. I
+have already said that we met a Protestant pastor who
+made periodical visits to the prisons and mines; and
+on the Amur I travelled with a Roman Catholic priest,
+from Nikolaefsk, who was returning from a lengthened
+tour along the river, which doubtless included visits to
+his co-religionists in confinement.</p>
+
+<p>After seeing Middle Kara our morning’s inspection
+was over. We had driven 15 miles, and as there were
+prisons in the opposite direction, extending over the
+same length of country, it will be seen that for the
+colonel to pay a visit to all his Kara prisons involved
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_461">[461]</span>
+a drive, in all, of 30 miles, which I understood he
+accomplished at least once a week; and he had also, I
+believe, another penal institution to inspect, called
+Alexandreffsky Zavod, at a still greater distance. His
+salary was £330 per annum, and an unpretentious
+house, his perquisites, perhaps, making up his income
+to £400. In his yard was a good bath-house and
+offices, and an enclosure with a couple of wild deer,
+caught and kept for his children.</p>
+
+<p>At dinner I was introduced to Madame Kononovitch,
+who was considerably younger than her husband.
+They had married at Irkutsk, which to a Siberian is
+Paris. It was not greatly to be wondered at, therefore,
+if she found Kara somewhat dull. The society of the
+place was very limited. There were the families of
+the officers and the wives of a few gentle or noble
+prisoners, but these latter of course could be received
+into the colonel’s house only with a certain amount of
+reserve. The servants were, I suppose, all of them
+exiles, but the dinner was well served. I remember
+nothing of the food, save that the colonel had made a
+successful effort to get me a plate of wild strawberries.
+The season (July 26th) was now late, and they were
+the last I ate in Siberia. Madame spoke French well,
+and, as their children were growing up, she and her
+husband were interested in their education, and made
+many inquiries concerning our methods of teaching in
+England. The colonel then requested me to send
+him some English books; and soon after dinner we
+started for the hospital, the orphanage, and one of the
+mines.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_171" href="#FNanchor_1_171" class="label">[1]</a> This is permitted after the expiration of two, four, six, or eight years
+(or nearly one-third of the punishment), to those who by good behaviour
+attain to a certain class. They still live on the spot and must work, and
+after a second period of this half-liberty, they are sent to a better place
+as exiles. Whilst in the former class they may be re-imprisoned for bad
+conduct, but not, I find, after they are set free to colonize (except for fresh
+crimes), as I have stated in my chapter on the exiles, vol. i., p. 35.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_172" href="#FNanchor_2_172" class="label">[2]</a> The colonel had not quite all the statistics to hand for 1879. Their
+number, therefore, at the time of my visit, was given me as 2,144, classified,
+according to their crimes, as follows:—</p>
+
+<table class="prison-stats">
+<tr>
+<th class="tdl"></th>
+<th class="tdr">Men.&ensp;</th>
+<th>&nbsp;</th>
+<th class="tdr">Women.</th>
+<th>&nbsp;</th>
+<th class="tdr">Total.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Murderers</td>
+<td class="tdr">668&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr">125&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr">793&ensp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Robbers with violence</td>
+<td class="tdr">404&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr">5&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr">409&ensp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Incendiaries</td>
+<td class="tdr">29&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr">9&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr">38&ensp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">For rape</td>
+<td class="tdr">22&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr"></td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr">22&ensp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Forgers</td>
+<td class="tdr">45&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr">1&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr">46&ensp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Offenders against discipline, and defaulters in public service</td>
+<td class="tdr">86&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc"></td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr">86&ensp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Vagabonds</td>
+<td class="tdr">665&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr">12&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr">677&ensp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Various</td>
+<td class="tdr bb">71&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr bb">2&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr bb">73&ensp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr"></td>
+<td class="tdr">1,990&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr">154&ensp;</td>
+<td class='tdc'>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">2,144&ensp;</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_173" href="#FNanchor_3_173" class="label">[3]</a> The only place where I met any of these in confinement was in the
+prison hospital at Tomsk, in which were three <i lang="ru">Subbotniki</i>,—one of them
+a priest, and the others descendants of priests,—who were suffering from
+scorbutic disease, and who were in prison, I <em>think</em> I understood, for trying
+to propagate their creed; though, as this would seem to be contrary to
+what I understood were now the laws respecting dissenters, it may be
+that I did not understand the whole case. Subbotniki are so called
+because they believe that we ought to keep <i lang="ru">Subbota</i>, or Saturday, as the
+day of rest. They are said also to consider circumcision a binding ordinance,
+because it was to Abraham, the father of the faithful, that the Lord
+gave it, and Moses wrote, “in your generations <em>for ever</em>.” In some other
+respects, perhaps, such as purifications, they may further Judaize.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_174" href="#FNanchor_4_174" class="label">[4]</a> The number of forçats who, after finishing their terms, were, by
+special order of the Government, distributed, as exiled colonists among
+the inhabitants of the provinces of Eastern Siberia, for the seven years
+preceding my visit, was as follows:—</p>
+
+
+<table class="autotable forcats">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc">1872</td>
+<td class="tdc">1873</td>
+<td class="tdc">1874</td>
+<td class="tdc">1875</td>
+<td class="tdc">1876</td>
+<td class="tdc">1877</td>
+<td class="tdc">1878</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc">176</td>
+<td class="tdc">193</td>
+<td class="tdc">134</td>
+<td class="tdc">167</td>
+<td class="tdc">290</td>
+<td class="tdc">472</td>
+<td class="tdc">672</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class='no-indent'>—the last year thus showing a release of a third of the whole number
+I found under detention.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_175" href="#FNanchor_5_175" class="label">[5]</a> It appeared that, when a man was working in the mines, he received
+daily 4 lbs. (Russian) of bread, 1 lb. of meat, ¼ lb. of buckwheat, and a
+small piece of brick-tea (<i lang="ru">kirpichny chai</i>; <i lang="ru">kirpich</i> meaning a brick), amounting
+to a quarter of a brick per month. In winter they are given cabbage
+and potatoes. When a man was not working, he received 3 lbs. of bread,
+½ lb. of meat, and 1/12 lb. of buckwheat. No <i lang="ru">kvas</i> was provided at Kara
+except in the hospital. These allowances are given to the prisoners at
+Kara in kind, and not, as at Irkutsk, their value in money, which would
+not be so suitable, as I saw no shops at Kara, nor did I hear of any
+local committee to-eke out the prisoners’ money.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_176" href="#FNanchor_6_176" class="label">[6]</a> Thus the prisoners make laws for themselves and invest their seniors
+with a good deal of power. In this matter there is “honour among
+thieves.” I was told, for instance, that east of Tomsk the sentinels ask
+an oath of the prisoners that they will not attempt to escape, and then
+give them certain liberties. My informant said that he had sometimes
+met gangs of prisoners alone, their sentinels having stayed behind to
+drink at a public-house. When a general promise has been thus given,
+should one dare to run away, he is pursued by the others, and when
+caught is thrashed, or loaded, according to M. Andreoli, with a sack of
+earth tied on his back. I have even heard of a gang of exiles sentencing
+one of their number to death for the breach of some law of their
+own making, the sentence being carried out of course unknown to the
+authorities—such cases, I presume, being very rare.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_177" href="#FNanchor_7_177" class="label">[7]</a> The only days at Kara on which men are supposed not to work are
+three days at Christmas, New Year’s Day, three days before Lent, three
+days at Easter, and certain imperial birthdays, making in all 15 days in
+the year, and the first and fifteenth day of each month for the bath.
+There are other days when, as a matter of fact, for various reasons, they
+do not work; but I am speaking of the rule.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_178" href="#FNanchor_8_178" class="label">[8]</a> This may be noticed in connection with a statement of the author of
+“The Russians of To-day” (p. 231), who says: “Once a week a pope—himself
+an exile—goes down into the mines to bear the consolations of
+religion, under the form of a sermon enjoining patience.” I suspect
+that the poor fellows would be only too thankful to have the opportunity
+once a week of listening to a sermon upon patience or any other
+subject! Moreover, the number of sermons given by our author to his
+prisoners is exceedingly liberal (52 in the course of the year), seeing that
+in an ordinary church in Petersburg or Moscow the number does not
+usually exceed half-a-dozen. I have seen it stated that properly there
+should be 12, but, in Siberia, on my asking the grandson of a metropolitan
+how often his father preached, he told me “five or six times a year,” and
+after many inquiries I never heard of but one priest in the empire,
+though, of course, there may be others, who preached, or rather read, a
+sermon every week.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_462">[462]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII">
+    CHAPTER XXXVII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE CONVICT MINES OF KARA.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Gold-mines not underground.—Hours of labour.—Visit to a mine.—Punishments.—Branding
+abolished.—Miners marching off.—Statistics
+respecting runaways.—Women criminals at mines.—A new
+building for expected politicals.—Superannuated forçats.—The hospitals.—“Birching”
+and its effects.—Kara in 1859.—Improvements
+effected by Colonel Kononovitch.—A children’s home.—Return to
+the gold-mine.—Comparison of Siberian and English convicts.—Distribution
+of books.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap extra'><span class='allcap'>As</span> I had visited the mine of the Archangel Gabriel
+near Krasnoiarsk, I was in some measure prepared
+what to expect in the gold-mines of Kara. It
+was not easy, however, to get rid of a preconceived
+notion attaching to Siberian mines, that the convicts
+<em>must</em> be working underground, for I had entered the
+country with ideas such as those expressed by the
+author of “The Russians of To-day.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_179" href="#Footnote_1_179" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>But now that I have been to the convict gold-mines,
+I have, happily, no such horrors to relate. All the
+gold-mining is done aboveground. The season begins
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_463">[463]</span>
+on the 15th February, and ends on the 15th November,
+and they work 13 hours a day, excepting certain hours
+for refreshment and rest. I suppose, however, both the
+length of the season and of their daily labour must
+be to some extent modified by the rigour of the frost
+and the duration of the light. During the three winter
+months the ground is frozen, and they are mostly
+unemployed.</p>
+
+<p>The visiting of the mine at Kara was far from
+pleasant. It was like walking into a large gravel-pit,
+from 20 to 30 feet deep. In this pit 198 men were at
+work, some removing the roots, stones, and surface-earth,
+and others carting off the gold-bearing sand to
+the washing machine. The miners were surrounded
+with a cordon of armed sentries, as at Portland prison.
+A large number of the convicts had irons on their legs;
+this, however, was something special to a particular
+prison, and was inflicted for two months as a punishment
+for aiding and abetting the escape of four comrades.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_180" href="#Footnote_2_180" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>A certain measure of earth was allotted to the men
+as each day’s labour. A released Pole, who had been
+at Kara, though he did not work in the mines, told me
+it was a 7-feet cube to three men. This he allowed
+to be less than the quantity worked by free labourers.
+He said these latter had the help of horses and were
+better fed, but there were 70 horses in the mine I
+visited at Kara, and the reader may judge, from what
+has been said, whether or not the miners’ food was
+sufficient. So far, therefore, the Siberian convicts
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_464">[464]</span>
+at Kara did not appear to be worked harder than—I
+should think not so hard as—our own at Portland.</p>
+
+<p>I asked what was done to them if they did not fulfil
+their tasks, and was told that they were punished first
+by privation, and, if that did not suffice, by corporal
+chastisement with rods. Kara, I heard subsequently,
+is one of three places in Siberia where the <i lang="ru">troichatka</i>
+or “plète” is in use. The colonel described it as a
+whip with three ends, of which, for serious offences,
+any number up to 20 stripes might be given; but, he
+said, he rarely used it, cases of insubordination being
+usually met by seclusion, irons, less food, or delay of
+removal to a higher class, which last might mean,
+in some cases, the virtual prolongation of a sentence
+for a couple of years.</p>
+
+<p>The branding of prisoners is no longer practised.
+There were two or three veterans at Kara, one of
+whom, at my request, was brought to me, and whose
+cheeks and forehead were marked with the letters <span class="allsmcap">K A T</span>,
+an abbreviation of <i lang="ru">Katorjnik</i>, a convict. This man
+had been marked in 1863, and the letters presented
+a tattooed appearance, though the operation of tattooing
+must be the more severe, since it is slowly done by hand,
+whereas, in the case of the prisoners, the brand was
+done by a kind of cupping instrument, or stamp, furnished
+with small points, which, on being tapped,
+pierced the skin. A liquid was then rubbed on, and
+so the convict was tattooed for life. I just missed
+seeing one of these instruments at Nikolaefsk, where
+it had been recently sold as a curiosity.</p>
+
+<p>It was late in the afternoon when we reached the
+mine at Kara; and by the time we had looked round,
+and gone among the miners, the hour arrived for
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_465">[465]</span>
+leaving off work; the drum sounded, and the convicts
+formed in line, some of them shouldering tools, and
+what looked like stretchers for carrying loads of earth
+between two bearers. Their heavy tools were put in
+carts to be drawn by horses, and all marched under
+guard to their prison, five miles off. This walk, therefore,
+to and fro must in this instance be added to their
+day’s labour; but I noticed that, when the convicts
+walked out of the mine, the free labourers continued
+working, and did so for some hours afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>Before the miners started, their numbers were
+called, for prisoners sometimes attempt to remain in
+the mine all night for the purpose, it may be, of
+washing earth secretly to secure a little gold, or, more
+frequently, with a view to escape. If it be spring-time,
+a runaway may succeed, during the summer, in
+getting a long way off, and, as winter comes on, give
+himself up, be imprisoned as a vagrant or vagabond,
+and, the following spring, be fortunate enough, perchance,
+to make his escape again, and so get towards
+Europe. Sometimes they manage to obtain forged
+passports, and travel as free men. At other times
+the escaped gather in bands, and roam about the
+country. It is, in fact, by no means uncommon to
+meet escaped prisoners on the roads, but they are not
+spoken of as malicious. They are not like banditti.
+They will sometimes steal a chest of tea from the
+hindmost vehicle of a caravan, or, indeed, run off with
+horse, cart, and all; but they do not usually attack
+travellers. The runaways beg food of the peasantry,
+who, of course, by law, ought not to aid them; so they
+compromise matters by placing food on their window-sills
+at night, ostensibly with the charitable purpose of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_466">[466]</span>
+helping passers-by in distress. They thus avoid conflict
+with the authorities, and do not anger the convicts,
+who might otherwise do them mischief, especially by
+setting the house on fire.</p>
+
+<p>The half-liberty given to convicts after a period
+of good behaviour presents a loophole for escape,
+of which many hundreds avail themselves.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_181" href="#Footnote_3_181" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> These
+escaped convicts are known as “<i lang="ru">Brodiagi</i>,” or “roaming
+gentry.” They wander about, guided through
+the forests by marks left by the natives and preceding
+runaways. There are some places, it is said, where
+they can live without fear. M. Réclus goes so far as
+to say that sometimes the authorities, in times of difficulty,
+or when ordinary labourers fail, call in the help
+of “vagabonds,” with the tacit understanding that they
+will not ask for their passports, whereupon hundreds
+emerge from the surrounding forests and present themselves
+for employment. I am not able to confirm
+this from my own experience as regards the authorities,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_467">[467]</span>
+but I met with a private firm who had in their employ
+several men without their “papers.”</p>
+
+<p>When marched out of the Kara mine, those in the
+higher category are free to go to their families. I
+saw, too, near the Cossack barracks, a dwelling in
+course of erection for those who were living half-free,
+but in which they were to sleep at night. Those in
+the lower category are taken to their respective prisons,
+and may sleep, if they choose, in summer from nine
+o’clock till five, and in winter from seven till seven.</p>
+
+<p>I looked in at a prison, near the colonel’s house,
+just before the men were going to rest. I do not
+remember that there were any lights, and the place
+was gloomy enough; but I suspect that it must be
+more so during the long nights of winter. At Tiumen
+I observed but one small candlestick in a room for 65
+prisoners,—light enough to make the darkness visible.
+In this respect my testimony is of limited value, as
+my visits were paid by day, but I can readily believe
+Goryantchikoff’s dismal description of the foul air and
+gloom of a Siberian prison by night. Whether the
+majority of prisoners, however, would wish for a
+constant and plentiful supply of oxygen I am not
+sure. They certainly do not provide for it in their
+own houses, any more than do some of the poorer
+classes in England.</p>
+
+<p>I have said nothing yet of the female prisoners at
+the mines of Kara. Russian women look upon prison
+life from very different points of view. I met a lady
+in Petersburg who visited the female wards in the
+prisons, and she told me that on one occasion a woman,
+on being brought back to her cell for the fourth or
+fifth time, found the arrangement of its furniture
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_468">[468]</span>
+altered, whereupon she asked that her bed might be
+put “in the place where she always slept”; whilst
+another, a worthy old soul, on entering her cell, turned
+to the ikon and thanked God that her old age was
+so well provided for! This, of course, is very different
+from the picture of Siberian female prison life represented
+in “The Russians of To-day” (p. 230):—</p>
+
+<p>“Women are employed in the mines as sifters, and
+get no better treatment than the men. Polish ladies
+by the dozen have been sent down to rot and die, while
+the St. Petersburg journals were declaring that they
+were living as free colonists; and, more recently,
+ladies connected with Nihilist conspiracies have been
+consigned to the mines in pursuance of a sentence of
+hard labour.” I neither heard nor saw anything of
+women labouring <em>in</em> the mines, and one of my released
+exile informants, from Nertchinsk, says that it is not
+true that women work <em>in</em> the mines in getting the
+mineral. At Kara there were 154 female prisoners to
+more than 2,000 men; and since the latter have a
+clean shirt every week, it would seem likely that the
+women may be employed in laundries and work-rooms,
+only that I am under the impression the prisoners
+wash their own linen. Five out of every six of the
+women convicts at Kara, dismal to relate, were murderesses,
+and walking between 58 of them in their
+prison at Ust-Kara was not pleasant. Some had
+babies, and most of the mothers had murdered their
+husbands. Husband-murder seemed to me painfully
+frequent in Russia, for which, in the fifteenth century,
+they had a barbarous punishment: the murderess was
+buried alive up to the neck, and left to the hungry dogs!</p>
+
+<p>Near this women’s department was a new cellular
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_469">[469]</span>
+building of wood, recently erected. I notice this particularly
+because of its bearing upon the number of
+political exiles that are supposed to be <em>imprisoned</em> in
+Siberia. The spring of 1879, it will be remembered,
+was a time of great excitement in Russia. An attempt
+was made upon the life of the Tsar, the great cities of
+the empire were placed under military command, and
+the journals talked of troops of prisoners being sent
+off to Siberia. And this was true, only they were not
+troops of <em>political</em> prisoners. A telegram, however,
+was sent from Petersburg to the telegraph office at
+Kara, enjoining the commandant to prepare places for
+a certain number of prisoners about to be dispatched.
+But the number prepared for was not very great after
+all, for, as far as I remember, it did not exceed 20 or
+30 at most; so that if the convoys of 29 prisoners,
+whom my interpreter met in returning, were all destined
+for Kara, as he heard they were, then this small prison
+would be filled, and it might, in a sense, be called “a
+State prison.” When, therefore, in a previous chapter,
+I ventured to say there was, with one exception, no
+prison in Siberia that could be called a political or State
+prison, this was the exception in my mind.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_182" href="#Footnote_4_182" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>Of course I entered this little prison and looked at
+the cells. They were ranged on either side of a roomy
+oblong space, in which were two stoves. The chief
+fault I had to find with the cells was that they were
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_470">[470]</span>
+very small, and lighted, I think, only from the lobby
+within, the area of each cell being certainly smaller
+than that of the cells in Coldbath Fields, though I am
+not sure that they were smaller than those at Portland,
+nor do I remember how they compared with ours for
+height. If, therefore, the prisoners were to work by
+day, as do ours at Portland, perhaps the cells at Kara
+were not too small. For my own part, I would rather
+inhabit one of them in solitude by night than be turned
+in among the motley crew of the larger prisons.</p>
+
+<p>There were convicts at Ust-Kara, however, in a
+plight more pitiable than those confined in the political
+cells, or who had to work in the mines. I allude to
+the occupants of two or three wards in an old weather-beaten,
+smoke-dried, low-pitched building, in which
+were confined a number of old men, perhaps from 30 to
+50 in number, who were not ill in such sense as to be
+patients in the hospital, but who were condemned to
+prison for life, or who, though too old to work, had not
+served their time.</p>
+
+<p>I do not remember any sight in Siberia that so
+touched me as this. To see scores of able-bodied
+men pent up in wards with nothing to do was bad, to
+hear the clanking of their chains was worse, though
+many of them were burly fellows who could carry them
+well. More touching still were the convoys of exiles
+with faithful and innocent women following their husbands;
+but to see these old men thus waiting for death
+was a most melancholy picture. The doctor inspects
+the convicts once a month, and determines upon those
+who are past work, who, in the absence of any specific
+disease, are then brought into these wards for the
+remainder of their lives. To release them, the colonel
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_471">[471]</span>
+pointed out, would be no charity, because, being too
+old to work, and being out of the near range of poor-houses
+or similar institutions, they would simply starve.
+And thus they were left in confinement for a Higher
+Power to set them free. They lounged in the prison
+and in the yard, and some sat near a fire, though it
+was a sunny day in July. One old man was pointed
+out who had attained to fourscore years, and another
+had reached the age of ninety, and so on. The difficult
+breathing of one, however, the wheezing lungs of a
+second, and the hacking cough of a third, proclaimed
+in prophetic tones that their time was short; and one
+wished them a softer pillow for a dying head than a
+convict’s shelf in a prison ward. Their building was
+one of the oldest in the place, and was doomed to be
+pulled down within a month.</p>
+
+<p>There were two hospitals at Kara; one near the
+house of the commandant, at Middle Kara, containing,
+at the time of my visit, 43 patients; and the other at
+Ust-Kara, with 93 patients.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_183" href="#Footnote_5_183" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> By the time the exiles
+have reached Kara they have trudged nearly 1,000
+miles, and have been lodged, after leaving Moscow, in
+about 200 étapes and prisons. Many, of course, die
+on the route, but I have no official statistics upon this
+point. A released exile told me that, as far as he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_472">[472]</span>
+remembered, it was in his day about 16 per cent.
+With the survivors the fatigue of the march, together
+with deficiencies or irregularities of nourishment, and
+the bad atmosphere in some of the prisons, often
+induces scorbutus or scurvy. The colonel said that
+with bathing twice a day, and with good food, they
+are soon cured; and, though many arrive sick in April,
+they are commonly well before autumn. In winter
+they have fewer patients generally, and commonly no
+cases of scorbutus at all.</p>
+
+<p>We visited the hospital at Middle Kara on the
+Saturday afternoon. It was a fine building, with large,
+lofty, and airy rooms, which were clean, and decked
+with boughs of birch and coniferous trees, placed in the
+corners, not merely for ornament, but with the idea
+that the odour given off by them is salubrious. I saw
+the same thing on a large scale in the prison hospital
+at Tomsk; and upon my asking in one of the prisons
+at Ust-Kara why a large branch of cypress was placed
+there, they said it was for the sake of the smell.</p>
+
+<p>In the Siberian hospitals, at the head of every bed,
+was hung a board, with the occupant’s name written in
+Russian, and the name of the disease, written in Roman
+letters, in Latin; and as this was the only part of the
+writing I could read, I used generally to run my eye
+over the diseases in the wards. A remark made thereon
+caused the doctors sometimes to ask if I had studied
+medicine, which unfortunately I had not. Hence I
+was nonplussed at the word “costegcetis,” written over
+a man’s bed, and of which I asked an explanation;
+whereupon I was told that the man, who had been a
+ringleader in aiding the recent escape of the runaways,
+had been birched with 100 stripes of the rod, and that
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_473">[473]</span>
+he was consequently in hospital for recovery. Whether
+the effects of a birching are very serious I do not
+clearly make out, but I met at least two cases in which
+the recipients of the rod made fun of it. One was
+that of a servant in a house where I stayed. She was
+a convict, and therefore liable, in case of misconduct, to
+be sent by her mistress to the police to be birched, as
+in bygone days had been more than once done with
+her; but she did not fear the switches, saying they
+would not <em>kill</em> her: “they did indeed make one a little
+sore, but that was of no consequence!”</p>
+
+<p>I saw only one suffering in this way at Kara; and
+the colonel told me, as already stated, that though he
+rarely used the whip, yet that he did not choose to be
+trifled with. It was manifest that he could not maintain
+discipline among 2,000 convicts if he did, yet I met
+with no prison official in Siberia who seemed so judiciously
+to line with velvet the glove of steel as did
+Colonel Kononovitch. The whole place bore about
+it marks of the superintendence of a man who conscientiously
+acted from a high sense of duty.</p>
+
+<p>I have already mentioned what an unenviable
+reputation Kara had in former days. An old sea
+captain, with whom I stayed, told me he paid a visit to
+Kara in 1859, when there were 2,000 men branded,
+and chained to their barrows by night and by day.
+The overseer of the gold-mines, a German, told him
+that he had shot four men who had killed others when
+at work; and I have heard, since my return, that some
+of the predecessors of Colonel Kononovitch were so
+cruel that the mention of their names made convicts
+tremble. It is not, then, greatly to be wondered at
+that this evil reputation has descended to later days.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_474">[474]</span></p>
+
+<p>But Colonel Kononovitch had effected great improvements.
+It has already been pointed out that
+many of the Siberian prisons were old and dilapidated,
+but that reforms were expected yearly to take place;
+and, there being no money forthcoming, things were
+allowed to go on as best they could. It was under
+this condition of affairs that the colonel was appointed
+to Kara, with its crazy buildings, some of which had
+been pulled down only a few days before my arrival.
+I saw one or two that were yet standing. Of course
+he applied for funds to meet the expenses of new
+buildings so urgently needed, but received only the
+stock answer with a polite bow that there were insufficient
+funds, and that they could not expend money
+on prisons whilst waiting for reforms; whereupon the
+average Siberian official might have allowed things to
+drift, but not so the colonel! The reforms he knew
+had been talked of for 15 years, and he commenced a
+number of “economies,” by which, if money were not
+forthcoming from one quarter, it might be obtained
+from another.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_184" href="#Footnote_6_184" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>In this way he might quietly have pocketed £1,200
+a year, and if in Russian fashion he had handed round
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_475">[475]</span>
+hush money, all might probably have been smooth
+enough. But so did not the colonel, and he pointed
+out some of the improvements he had been able to
+effect by these economies.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_185" href="#Footnote_7_185" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>The subordinate officials at Kara are very scantily
+paid, the chief of each prison receiving £70 a year,
+and his inferior officer £24. When at Tomsk, we
+heard of prison officials still lower, under each of
+whom were placed 30 prisoners, but who received only
+£6 a year and their food and accommodation, which
+were similar to those of the prisoners. It is not,
+therefore, greatly to be wondered at if these petty
+officers are not above misappropriating some of the
+prisoners’ food, or taking bribes. Colonel Kononovitch
+encouraged these men to engage in trade, or to keep
+horses, in which case he employed them in carrying
+or other ways, so long as they did not rob the
+prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>But other substantial good was effected; for during
+the previous two years and a half the colonel, chiefly,
+I understood, by his economies, had erected no less than
+18 buildings, for which the governor of the province
+complimented him highly.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_186" href="#Footnote_8_186" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>The colonel, moreover, did not spend his savings
+wholly on prisoners, or restrict his efforts to what
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_476">[476]</span>
+might be strictly called his duty. He exceeded that,
+and allowed his justice to enlarge into benevolence.
+After seeing the hospital he took me to a children’s
+home which he had built for boys whose fathers were
+in prison.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_187" href="#Footnote_9_187" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>The building was simple, but prettily situated within
+an enclosure, where was the best kitchen-garden I had
+seen in Siberia. In a green-house and a hot-house
+were growing melons, and I know not what. These
+the colonel said he sold for the good of the concern,
+and the money obtained for vegetables helped to pay
+the expenses of the school. The schoolmaster was an
+exile, and had been, I suspect, of good position from
+what I heard about him after I had left the place.
+The children were assembled for me to see, and I was
+tempted to act the schoolmaster and put to them some
+questions, but it was under difficulties of a polyglot
+character; and by the time my ideas had filtered twice
+through Russian, French, and English, the children’s
+answers were not very clear. Everything looked clean
+and orderly, and, what was better, there were about the
+place tokens of care and sympathy. Behind the house
+was a natural shrubbery, enclosed from the forest. In
+this a pavilion was erected, in which, from time to time,
+the commandant brought his wife and family to drink tea
+with the children, when the boys who had sisters in the
+colony might meet them, and where the humanizing
+influence of kindness was allowed to flow forth.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_477">[477]</span></p>
+
+<p>By the time we had seen the school the day was far
+spent, and I was desirous to return to the mine to
+witness the final washing of the sand. During the day
+there had been worked (I presume by convicts and
+freemen together) 30 sajens, or, as they put it, 30,000
+poods of sand. The produce of the first half of the
+day had been taken out of the machine; and after the
+convicts had left the mine, a few workmen remained
+washing the sand, in which at length the gold was
+found together with black dust of iron.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_188" href="#Footnote_10_188" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p>The number of men who had stayed for the last of
+the washing was less than a dozen, and there was a
+certain gravity manifested by the little group as they
+took their places round the wooden apron on which
+was pushed up and down the few handfuls of mineral
+that remained of 240 tons that had passed through
+the cylinder. Darkness came on, so that they had to
+light torches of pine. There stood the colonel, looking
+on with dignity. The Cossack, too, was there, with
+loaded rifle, to protect the gold. The wooden scraper
+pushed away at the sand, and then the brush, and there
+was left only the gold and iron, less than half a pint.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_478">[478]</span>
+This was put in the miniature frying-pan, dried over
+an extempore fire, and then placed in a tin can. It
+was given into my hand that I might feel its weight,
+which I judged to be about a pound, and, if so, worth
+£40. The can was then given to the Cossack, who
+mounted his horse, and, accompanied by an escort, took
+it off to the treasury.</p>
+
+<p>And thus ended the day. That the men who worked
+in the mines had no easy task was plain, but it was
+equally plain that their labour, as compared with that
+of an English navvy or convict, was nothing extraordinary.
+The tread-wheel is unknown to them.
+Foreigners speak with horror of Siberian punishments,
+to which, as a set-off, I may mention that a Russian
+lady asked me, with a shudder, whether it could possibly
+be true that in England we placed prisoners on a wheel,
+on which, if they did not continue to step, it broke
+their legs! Comparing Siberian convicts with English,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11_189" href="#Footnote_11_189" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>
+the Siberian has the advantage in more food (which
+perhaps the climate may require), more intercourse
+with his fellows, and far more permissions to receive
+visits from his family. The Kara convict, when in the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_479">[479]</span>
+higher category, receives besides 15 per cent. of what
+he earns for the Government; and even in the lower
+category he is credited with the money, though its
+payment is deferred till he mounts higher. Political
+prisoners also may write to their friends; and though
+by strict right, I believe, criminals in Siberia cannot
+do so, yet this rule is not carried out, or is as often
+honoured in the breach as in the observance.</p>
+
+<p>The following day was Sunday, and happened to be
+the colonel’s name’s-day. This kept him at home for
+the morning to receive visitors. A telegram came to
+felicitate him from Madame’s father, from Ekaterineburg,
+a distance of 3,000 miles, taking 30 hours in
+transit. As the visitors did not speak French, I was
+not introduced, and had a comparatively quiet time to
+arrange and digest the information I had received.
+Later, I unfolded to the colonel my plan of distributing
+the Scriptures throughout Siberia. With this work he
+sympathized heartily, and promised to do what I wished.
+He subsequently received a lion’s share of the books,
+etc., I left with the governor of the province. I gave
+him some for the children’s home, and afterwards sent
+him a considerable number for his soldiers. All these
+reached Kara safely, and I have since had the great
+satisfaction of hearing that they were properly distributed
+throughout the colony. According to my latest
+news, the colonel is said to have left Kara; and if this
+be so, I can only hope that he has been replaced by as
+good a man.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_179" href="#FNanchor_1_179" class="label">[1]</a> He says (p. 229): “They never see the light of day, but work and sleep
+all the year round in the depths of the earth, extracting silver or quicksilver
+under the eyes of taskmasters, who have orders not to spare them. Iron
+gates guarded by sentries close the lodes, or streets, at the bottom of the
+shafts, and the miners are railed off from one another in gangs of twenty.
+They sleep within recesses hewn out of the rock—very kennels—into
+which they must creep on all fours.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_180" href="#FNanchor_2_180" class="label">[2]</a> According to the law of 1857 (Article 569), it appears that irons are
+worn during the time a prisoner is in the lowest category (or during probation
+time), after which they are continued as follows: for one condemned
+for life, 8 years: from 15 to 20 years, 4 years: from 12 to 15 years,
+2 years: from 6 to 8 years, 18 months; and from 4 to 6 years, 12 months.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_181" href="#FNanchor_3_181" class="label">[3]</a> The number of “forçats” who, living free, ran away from Kara and
+escaped the control of the authorities for 15 years preceding my visit, is
+as follows: 1864, 327; 1865, 448; 1866, 369; 1867, 402; 1868, 354;
+1869, 266; 1870, 483; 1871, 326; 1872, 368; 1873, 585; 1874, 321;
+1875, 242; 1876, 175; 1877, 256; 1878, 194.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it will be seen that in 1869 there ran away a smaller number than
+in any preceding year, namely, 266, whereas in the following year, 1870,
+there ran away 483. This great difference was accounted for by the fact
+that up to 1869 the prisoners were under the “administration of the mines,”
+and when they were passed over to the new administration of the Minister
+of the Interior, this at first gave much dissatisfaction. Again, in 1873,
+the number of escapes rose to the highest, namely, 585, during which
+year it appeared the quantity of provisions was lessened; whilst, on the
+other hand, in 1875, the number of escapes being so low, less than in
+any preceding year, namely, 175, was accounted for by there having been
+in that year a building committee, which gave wages to certain of the
+convicts for their work. Up to 1st July of the year of my visit, 155 had
+escaped.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_182" href="#FNanchor_4_182" class="label">[4]</a> After leaving Kara I heard that the number of political prisoners to
+be transported there was considerably augmented; but I have it on good
+authority that even then the number expected did not exceed 60. The
+most recent information I have received, since the Emperor’s assassination,
+goes on to say that as Nertchinsk was made the special place of deportation
+for the Poles after 1863, so Kara has been made the special place for
+Nihilists; but I have no official information to that effect.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_183" href="#FNanchor_5_183" class="label">[5]</a> This gave a sick-list of 136 to a population of upwards of 2,000 exiles
+and 1,000 Cossacks; besides, I suppose, the surrounding peasants. The
+number of convicts who died in the Kara hospitals from 1872 was as
+follows:—</p>
+
+<table class="autotable forcats">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc">1872</td>
+<td class="tdc">1873</td>
+<td class="tdc">1874</td>
+<td class="tdc">1875</td>
+<td class="tdc">1876</td>
+<td class="tdc">1877</td>
+<td class="tdc">1878</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc">108</td>
+<td class="tdc">287</td>
+<td class="tdc">152</td>
+<td class="tdc">55</td>
+<td class="tdc">118</td>
+<td class="tdc">117</td>
+<td class="tdc">&thinsp;90,</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class='no-indent'>and the number for 1879, up to the 1st July, was 65.</p>
+
+<p>At Tiumen the number on the sick-list was 19 out of 1,113 prisoners on
+the day of our visit. The number of sick prisoners, out of 20,711 passing
+through Tiumen in 1878, was 1,562, of whom 1,246 were cured, 280 died,
+and 44 remained in hospital.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_184" href="#FNanchor_6_184" class="label">[6]</a> Thus the Government allowed him 4<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> per sajen for 8,000 sajens
+of wood for fuel, which, instead of buying, he procured by sending his
+unemployed miners into the forest to cut, giving them, to their great
+satisfaction, a small payment, and effecting a saving of 1<i>s.</i> per sajen. A
+year’s economy, therefore, in wood brought him £400. He found, too,
+by being his own timber-merchant, he could procure a log from 20 ft. to
+30 ft. long for 7½<i>d.</i>, for which dealers would have made him pay 2<i>s.</i>
+Then, again, the Government allowed him 7½<i>d.</i> per pood for 7,000 poods
+of hay, instead of buying which he sent his prisoners into the neighbouring
+valleys to cut three times the normal quantity. Part of this was for
+feeding the horses he had already, and the rest for feeding others he
+added in order that he might be his own carrier, and so save the contract
+for carriage.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_185" href="#FNanchor_7_185" class="label">[7]</a> He paid each of the convicts, as perquisites, 4<i>d.</i> per sajen for the
+wood they cut, increased their allowance, and if, at the end of a job, all
+had gone well, he gave them each 1½<i>d.</i> a day extra. This helped the
+poor fellows to get sundry little extras, especially tobacco, which was
+encouraged; for the colonel, though he did not smoke himself, yet had
+imbibed the notion that it was good for the health of the prisoners.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_186" href="#FNanchor_8_186" class="label">[8]</a> I understood at the time that these buildings had been erected entirely
+out of savings; but I have since been told that, from 1877 to 1879
+there was granted, for the erection of prisons in Nertchinsk, the sum of
+£17,500, a part of which was destined for Kara.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_187" href="#FNanchor_9_187" class="label">[9]</a> The house had cost £200; and he informed me that for another
+£100 he could put up a house for girls, of whom there were 20 about the
+place, whose fathers were prisoners. About £4 10<i>s.</i> per year was allowed
+by Government for each child, and to educate, clothe, and care for them
+as the colonel was doing costs about £5 a year extra for each; and this
+money he raised, I understood, among his friends.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_188" href="#FNanchor_10_188" class="label">[10]</a> The Government determines how much gold is to be washed in the
+season. In 1878 it was 25 poods, or 900 lbs. They told me that the
+average they were finding for the season of 1879 was ¾ of a zolotnik of
+gold to every 100 poods of sand, and that none of the mines about Kara
+yield more than one zolotnik to the 100 poods; also that the strata of gold
+sand are never more than seven feet, but usually less in thickness. I
+have already stated in an earlier chapter, only in different figures, that
+whilst 5 zolotniks to the 100 poods is considered good, 1 zolotnik to
+the same quantity is poor. Hence it is apparent that no private company
+would work the mines of Kara, and the Government do so only to provide
+penal employment at a reduced cost to the State. There are at
+Kara certain mines spoken of as belonging to the Emperor’s private purse.
+When the convicts work in these, the Minister of the Interior is paid for
+their labour according to the amount of work they do. This I understood
+to be an economical arrangement in favour of the Emperor.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_189" href="#FNanchor_11_189" class="label">[11]</a> Unfortunately my Siberian statistics are not sufficiently complete to
+allow a comparison between the <em>numbers</em> of English and Russian convicts.
+“O. K.” points out that since 1860, out of a population of 84,000,000,
+Russia has had on an average 20,000 criminals a year; whilst England
+and Wales, out of little more than a quarter of that population, has annually
+12,000 criminal convictions. I am afraid that it is not satisfactory to
+<em>compare</em> these figures, because the 20,000 Russian criminals does not
+include, I presume, those left in prisons west of the Urals, but only those
+sent to Siberia; and, again, 12,000 does not nearly cover the total number
+of criminals in England and Wales. In the borough and county jails of
+England and Wales there was, in 1878, a daily average of 19,818 prisoners,
+besides 10,208 in convict prisons. I think, however, I am right in estimating
+that there is not a daily average of 10,000 convicts in the <em>prisons</em>
+of Siberia.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_480">[480]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII">
+    CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE SHILKA.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Departure from Kara.—Parting hospitality.—Ust-Kara police-master.—Head
+waters of the Shilka.—Collins’s descent of Ingoda.—The Onon.—Formation
+of Shilka.—Scenery below Stretinsk.—Shilkinsk.—Hospitality
+of police-master.—Non-arrival of steamer.—Efforts at
+conversation.—Steaming down the river.—Shilka scenery.—Tributaries
+from north and south.—Arrival at confluence of Shilka and
+Argun.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>My</span> steamer was due at Ust-Kara on Sunday
+evening. It was arranged, therefore, that my
+host should drive me to the river and see me off; or,
+if the steamer did not come, then leave me to wait its
+arrival in the house of the police-master. The colonel
+was pleased to say that he regretted my departure.
+He seldom received visits of the kind I had paid,
+which naturally had been more pleasant, he said, than
+inspection visits of officials. He alluded, however, to
+a visit to Kara of the Grand Duke Alexei-Alexeivitch
+as having done much good, and he was desirous
+of gathering all the information he could respecting
+our treatment of criminals in England.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel’s farewell did not end in words, for,
+like a true Russian, he made ample provision for his
+parting guest. Some Tunguses had passed a few days
+previously, of whom he had bought a box, of native
+manufacture, both curious and useful, and this he proceeded
+to fill for me with the good things of Kara.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_481">[481]</span>
+These included roast chickens and a piece of boiled
+ham. Preserves, too, my host had discovered that I
+liked, and I must therefore take some pots of jam
+recently made. Did I like cheese? Well—at home,
+half a pound would suffice me for a twelvemonth; but
+in Siberia, where good butter was scarce, and a cheese
+cost ten shillings, I had learned to regard it as a delicacy.
+The colonel therefore insisted on my taking
+the greater part of a Dutch bowler, and he regretted
+that he could not offer me the only piece he had of
+what looked like Cheddar, because he was expecting a
+visit from his Excellency the Governor of the province,
+and wanted a delicacy to set before him. The extreme
+kindness with which this was done was almost embarrassing.
+In England it would appear strange, but in
+the district of the Amur these were presents not to be
+despised, for some of them I could have otherwise
+obtained neither for love nor money.</p>
+
+<p>At last we set out duly laden, intending to call on
+our way at the prisons I had not yet seen. Packing,
+however, had taken rather long; and when we came
+to the first prison, where the officer was standing
+ready to receive us, I was afraid we should not have
+time, and that our staying might involve the missing
+of the steamer. I therefore begged that we might
+push on, which we did, to Ust-Kara. Here I looked
+over various buildings, which have been already referred
+to, as the summer hospital, with 93 patients, the
+women’s wards, and the wards for the old and superannuated
+men, also the new cellular prison for politicals,
+and a prison in which they manufacture various requisites
+for the use of the convicts. In this last, five men
+wished to sing to us a piece of Church music, which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_482">[482]</span>
+they did, and thus ended my visits to five of the six
+prisons of Kara. Evening was now drawing on, and
+as the boat had not come, I was consigned to the
+care of the police-master, and bade adieu to Colonel
+Kononovitch with feelings of regret.</p>
+
+<p>From Ust-Kara the steamer was to bear me to the
+Amur. This will be a convenient place, therefore,
+from which to say something further about the head
+waters of that river, namely, of the Ingoda and Onon,
+which form the Shilka; and the Argun, which, with
+the Shilka, forms the Amur.</p>
+
+<p>The Argun, Onon, and Ingoda all rise in the
+Kentai (or Khangai) and Yablonoi mountains. From
+the summit of this latter range the traveller approaching
+Chita from the west first sees the Ingoda at the foot
+of the range. From Chita to Stretinsk the journey can
+be made by water, and Mr. Collins, the first American
+traveller in this region, in 1858, so accomplished it.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_190" href="#Footnote_1_190" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>
+On the fourth day he passed the river Onon, coming
+in from the south. This stream rises in the same
+district, but somewhat further south than the Ingoda,
+and in its upper course its banks are wooded. It is
+navigable all the summer.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_483">[483]</span></p>
+
+<p>By the union of the Ingoda with the Onon is formed
+the Shilka, and at the junction the two rivers have
+each run a course of some 400 miles. The stream
+now increases in breadth and slightly in depth, so that,
+when not frozen, the river can be navigated at all
+seasons in small boats, though with some risk from
+the numerous sandbanks and rapids. About 40 miles
+below the Onon, the Nertcha enters from the north,
+and here stands the old city of Nertchinsk, not far
+from which the floating traveller passes the monastery
+of Nertchinsky, and subsequently arrives at Stretinsk.</p>
+
+<p>It was from this spot I commenced the descent of
+the Shilka with my Cossack attendant. As we glided
+along, hour after hour, the shifting scenes reminded
+one of some grand spectacle in a fairy tale, for bend
+after bend, and point after point, opened to view landscapes
+and vistas of surpassing beauty. Now and
+then we had to beware of rapids, and in one place of
+a sunken rock called the “Devil’s Elbow.” The depth
+sufficed for our boat, but we met a steamer coming up
+stream, whose captain had a hard task to find and
+keep the channel.</p>
+
+<p>Between Stretinsk and Shilkinsk the left bank is
+fairly populated, most of the necessaries of life are
+easily attainable, and fish and game are abundant.
+Granite predominates on both banks of the river as far
+as the third station, Botti, beyond which limestone
+prevails. The cliffs become lofty, some of them about
+1,000 feet, and their summits are riven into numerous
+picturesque turrets, while beneath are openings leading
+into caverns. A few miles further the valley of the
+Shilka opens out, and the rocks recede for a considerable
+distance till they reach the valley of Tchalbu-tchenskoi,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_484">[484]</span>
+down the centre of which flows the river
+Tchal-bu-tche.</p>
+
+<p>On the space formed by the receding rocks stands
+Shilkinskoi Zavod, a town stretching two miles along
+the river on a plateau 30 feet high. This was the
+seat of an old convict silver-mining establishment, the
+working of which has ceased long since.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_191" href="#Footnote_2_191" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The river
+here has a breadth of 600 yards, with a current of four
+knots, and in the spring a depth of seven feet on the
+shallows, but in the summer and autumn the depth is
+much less.</p>
+
+<p>On the second day we came in sight of a large house
+on the left bank, where I landed, thinking perhaps to
+find some one to speak to. At the various stations I
+had given tracts, and, in a small way, found a ready
+sale for New Testaments. I offered the same at this
+large house, which proved to be that of a doctor, but
+he was not at home. His wife was in the house, but
+we had no language in common, and therefore my sale
+had to be conducted here, as at the post-houses, by
+dumb motions, one question about the hour being put
+and answered, I remember, by drawing a clock and
+marking the hands. Ten miles further was Ust-Kara,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_485">[485]</span>
+whence I digressed into a description of the headwaters
+of the Amur.</p>
+
+<p>After bidding adieu to Colonel Kononovitch, on
+Sunday evening the 27th July, I was waiting in the house
+of the police-master for the arrival of the steamer. This
+worthy official was several degrees lower in position
+and intelligence than my late host, but he had a good
+house, and spared no pains to make me comfortable.
+He was living bachelor fashion, his wife and daughters
+having gone on a tour to Irkutsk. This he regretted,
+and so did I, for I was given to understand that they
+spoke French; and it was not particularly lively to
+be in a house in which you could speak a word to
+no one, especially with a host who would insist upon
+talking, whether you understood or not. One hour
+passed by, and two, and three, and the expected whistle
+was not heard, till, night having fairly set in, my host
+made me understand that the steamer had run aground.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed best, therefore, to go to bed, hoping for
+its appearance in the morning. A bed was made for
+me on the floor of the best room in the house, but
+no washing apparatus provided. The maid was to
+be called in the morning to do the part of a Levite,
+and pour water on my hands. I was not, however,
+to retire supperless, and whilst food was being prepared
+the police-master begged me to try his piano. Accordingly,
+I strummed three tunes, which represent
+my stock-in-trade in this department, and my host
+nodded satisfaction. At supper he rattled away, and
+it was in vain that I shook my head and replied,
+“<i lang="ru">Ne govoriu po Russki</i>” (I do not speak Russ). He
+returned to the charge afresh, until I was glad to
+retire.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_486">[486]</span></p>
+
+<p>Morning came, but not the steamer, and after breakfast
+I was writing, when it occurred to me that if the
+steamer were aground, it might be days or even weeks
+before it arrived, and at last I thought it desirable to
+inquire for particulars. A military officer came in,
+but I could extract from him no language I knew.
+Presently, however, the police-master brought a piece
+of paper that gave me hope. It was a polyglot
+letter to this effect: “Respected Sir, I should be glad
+to be allowed to teach your children French, which
+language I know. Your obedient servant, So-and-So.”
+And this was written in Russian, French, German, and
+English, and, as a finale, was added, “Sic transit gloria
+mundi.” I saw at once there was a genius in the
+place,—perhaps a released exile, or the wife of one,
+and I requested my host by signs to bring us together
+at once. But I think the said genius must have been
+away, for the police-master was holding a discussion
+with the officer as if there were some difficulty in the
+matter, when, as they were talking, the steamer’s
+whistle was heard.</p>
+
+<p>The effect was magical. I rushed to make ready.
+The carriage was before the door in a very few
+minutes, and the police-master, who was expecting
+his family by the boat, was speedily with me, my
+baggage on the vehicle, and we dashed off to the
+station. Here I was introduced to the wife and family,
+and also to a lady who I fancy was the authoress of
+the polyglot paper,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_192" href="#Footnote_3_192" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> after which I embarked.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was beautiful, and we steamed down
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_487">[487]</span>
+the lovely Shilka 150 miles to its junction with the
+Argun. The first station beyond Ust-Kara was Ust-Chorney.
+Here the Chorney, or Black river, falls
+into the Shilka by two channels. This river is so
+rapid, and sometimes so violent, as to dash the passing
+boat or raft a wreck against the opposite rock-bound
+shore. Further on the scenery changes on the south
+side. Perpendicular cliffs of limestone appear with
+groups of birch and larch on their tops, and in the
+small ravines. Over these rounded summits appear,
+and a long chain of hills stretches southwards towards
+the Argun.</p>
+
+<p>The next station is Gorbitza, near the mouth of the
+Gorbitza river. Until 1854 this was the boundary of
+the Russian and Chinese empires. At Bogdoi, not far
+distant, is a mineral spring where annually a fair was
+held, at which a few Russian merchants and Cossacks
+used to assemble to meet the Manchu who came to
+barter. The Manchu ascended the Amur from Aigun
+in large boats, bringing printed cotton goods, silk,
+tobacco, and Chinese brandy, which they exchanged
+for glassware, soap, and deer-horns.</p>
+
+<p>Below Gorbitza the river enters a region where the
+cliffs rise considerably higher than in the limestone.
+Here granite is heaved up in huge masses, which
+time, frost, and sun have riven and shattered into
+curious forms. Ravines are also rent far into the
+mountains, and down them clear streams descend. A
+little further on the shores become wooded, pine-trees
+grow along the banks, and on the upper slopes are
+black and white birches, with occasional clumps of
+larch, while the dwarf elm grows from the clefts in
+the rocks.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_488">[488]</span></p>
+
+<p>Mineral springs are frequently met with on the
+banks of the Shilka. To some the natives resort.
+Further down are several islands, upon one of which,
+named “Sable” island, are pine, larch, and birch.
+At the river Bankova, having its source in the mining
+district near the Argun, and falling into the Shilka
+from the south, there is another place where a fair was
+held by the Cossacks of the Argun and the Tunguses
+of the Yablonoi, the latter bringing skins, deer-horns,
+and a few sable and fox skins. These they bartered
+with the Cossacks for flour, <i lang="ru">vodka</i>, powder, and lead.
+Further on, and not far from the confluence of the
+Shilka and Argun, the Son-ghe-noi enters the Shilka
+to the south, and at a short distance is a lake from
+which the natives and Cossacks obtain their supplies
+of salt. A few miles below Son-ghe-noi are two
+islands in the Shilka, and a little beyond these the
+sandstone rocks rise abruptly in picturesque forms
+from the water. The rocks recede to the southward,
+and a small delta has formed extending to the mouth
+of the Argun. Near it is the village of Ust-Strelka,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_193" href="#Footnote_4_193" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>
+or Arrow mouth, situated at the junction of the two
+rivers which form the Amur, and here I arrived on
+Wednesday evening, the 30th of July.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_190" href="#FNanchor_1_190" class="label">[1]</a> The Russians at that time were engaged in the annexation of the
+Amur territory, and the Governor, General Korsakoff, willingly lent him
+aid. He embarked at Atalan, about eight miles below Chita, in a flat-bottomed
+barge. Here the river is 200 yards wide, and the shores are
+well timbered and mountainous. The river proved easy to navigate, and
+Mr. Collins, his provisions, and 18 persons proceeded down the stream
+at the rate of nearly five miles an hour. The country on the third day
+became more open, with extensive high-rolling prairies, and the banks of
+the stream afforded much beautiful scenery. On the 21st May the forests
+were still leafless, though flowers were making their appearance, and the
+willows were budding. The rocks of the river are in many parts covered
+with mosses and a beautiful fern, and in sheltered spots appears in summer
+the rhubarb plant.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_191" href="#FNanchor_2_191" class="label">[2]</a> At Shilkinsk were built several of the barges for the first great expedition
+on the Amur in 1854, and here the expedition was fitted out with
+military stores and other necessaries. The Government had, too, in
+the place a glass factory and a very large tan-yard, but I have a suspicion
+that these factories were much more important in the days when Messrs.
+Atkinson, Collins, and Ravenstein wrote, than a quarter of a century later,
+at the time of my visit. Up to this point at least I could hear of no factories
+in Siberia, other than those I have mentioned. At Ekaterineburg
+there was a paper-mill, belonging to Mr. Yates, at whose house I dined;
+and there were the soap and candle works, near which I stayed, and
+where, through difficulty of getting a sufficiency of fuel, they were burning
+wood and rubbish, and with the gas produced therefrom, through a two-feet
+tube, were heating some of the boilers.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_192" href="#FNanchor_3_192" class="label">[3]</a> “Une sage femme,” she called herself, who had been acting in her
+capacity as midwife, and had returned by the boat. Women alone, I
+understand, act in this capacity in Russia,—a doctor being called in only
+in case of difficulty.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_193" href="#FNanchor_4_193" class="label">[4]</a> Here the Shilka ends its course of 700 miles, and is joined by the
+Argun, after a course of 1,000 miles. The Argun proper rises among the
+Nertchinsk ore mountains, at an elevation of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet,
+and very near to the source of the Onon, the two streams running down
+the northern and southern slopes respectively of the mountain-range. The
+upper part of the Argun, however, rises as the Kerulen to the south-east
+of Kiakhta, in the Kentai (or Khangai) mountains. For 550 miles the
+Kerulen traverses one of the most inhospitable tracts of the Gobi. It
+then runs through the Dalai Nor or Lake, and flows into the Argun
+proper, by which name the lower course of the river is known; and then,
+after flowing 420 miles further, it joins the Shilka at Ust-Strelka.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_489">[489]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XXXIX">
+    CHAPTER XXXIX.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE HISTORY OF THE AMUR.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Divisible into three periods.—Period of Cossack plunder.—Poyarkof.—Khabarof.—Stepanof.—Discovery
+and occupation of Shilka.—Chernigovsky.—Period
+of conflict with Chinese.—Russo-Chinese treaty of
+1686.—Russian mission at Peking.—Affairs on the Amur during
+Russian exclusion.—Third historic period from 1847.—Preparatory
+operations on Lower Amur.—Muravieff’s descent of the river, 1854.—Influence
+of the Crimean war.—Colonization of Lower Amur.—Further
+colonization, 1857.—Chinese protests.—Influence of Anglo-Chinese
+war.—The Sea Coast erected into a Russian province.—Renewed
+difficulties with China.—Treaty of 1860.—Review of Russian occupation.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> history of the Amur, or so much of it as need
+here be mentioned in connection with the Russians,
+may be divided into three periods. We have
+first the period of Cossack pillage and plunder of the
+native tribes, beginning in 1636, and extending over a
+period of 50 years to 1682. This was followed in 1683
+by a period of warfare with China, lasting for half-a-dozen
+years, and succeeded by uninterrupted Chinese
+possession for (roughly) 150 years, to 1848; after which
+comes the period of Russian annexation, beginning in
+1848, completed in 1860, and continuing to the present
+day.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_194" href="#Footnote_1_194" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>I have already stated that, within about 20 years after
+the founding of Yeneseisk, the Russians pushed on their
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_490">[490]</span>
+conquests to the Sea of Okhotsk, on the shores of which,
+in 1639, they built a winter station for the collection of
+tribute. It was here first they heard from the Tunguses
+of tribes to the south, dwelling along the Zeya and
+Shilka.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_195" href="#Footnote_2_195" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>These reports attracted attention in Yakutsk, and
+an expedition of 132 men, most of them <i lang="ru">promyshlenie</i>,
+was placed under Poyarkof, who left Yakutsk in 1643,
+ascended the river Aldan, and built winter quarters for
+40 of his men, and stores, in the mountains. Pushing
+on himself with 92 men, he crossed the Stanovoi range,
+and, after suffering great hardships, reached the head
+waters of the Zeya, where he met the first reindeer
+Tunguses. Further on he came to a Daurian village,
+in which he was kindly received, but his extortionate
+conduct provoked the natives to hostility; and one of
+his officers, having attacked a village and been repulsed,
+Poyarkof, with the loss of many Cossacks through
+hunger, retired down the Zeya, descended the Amur
+to its mouth, and, crossing the Sea of Okhotsk, reached
+Yakutsk in 1646.</p>
+
+<p>The next prominent traveller was Khabarof, from
+1647 to 1652. A shorter route to the river had been
+heard of by way of the Olekma; and Khabarof, at the
+head of a band of adventurers, took this route to the
+Upper Amur. The natives, having heard of the conduct
+of Poyarkof, fled before the Russians; and Khabarof
+marched on, slaughtering his opponents, or putting
+them to flight. Strengthened by reinforcements, he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_491">[491]</span>
+descended the river to the Lower Amur, wintered at
+Achansk (which no longer exists), and was vainly
+attacked by the natives and the Manchu. In the
+following spring he turned back, and ascended the
+river to the Zeya, where some of his men mutinied.
+He sent messengers to Yakutsk asking for 6,000 men,
+and, there being no such force in Siberia, the <i lang="ru">voivod</i>
+dispatched the messengers to Moscow, where the
+conquest of the Amur had been for some time under
+consideration. Khabarof returned in 1652, and thus
+ended the first nine years of Russian adventure on the
+Amur, during which some of the leaders had shown
+great perseverance; but the natives had been badly
+treated, exposed to all sorts of extortion, and their
+tilled lands reduced to deserts.</p>
+
+<p>We come now to Stepanof (1652–1661). Reports
+of the excesses committed by the adventurers already
+mentioned had reached Moscow, and it was determined
+to send a force of 3,000 men to occupy the newly-explored
+territories. The command was given to
+Stepanof, and he was accompanied by hundreds of
+adventurers, who were attracted by the reported riches
+of the country. Stepanof was not able to carry out his
+instructions to found settlements, and spent his time in
+roving along the Amur and up the Sungari. At
+Kamarskoi he was besieged, in the spring of 1655 by
+a large Manchu force; but with a garrison of 500 men
+he put 10,000 foes to flight. Subsequently he was
+joined by Feodor Puschkin and 50 Cossacks, by
+whom he sent the tribute he had extorted to Moscow.
+Puschkin’s party lost their way, and 41 of them perished.
+Stepanof continued his predatory expeditions till 1658,
+when, at the mouth of the Zeya, 180 of his men deserted,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_492">[492]</span>
+and he was met by a Manchu force, and himself and
+nearly all his band slain or made prisoners. This for
+a time practically cleared the Amur of the Russians,
+and what few remained evacuated the district in 1661.</p>
+
+<p>All the expeditions above mentioned reached the
+Amur from the north-west, striking the river some
+miles below the confluence of the Shilka, at what is
+now Ust-Strelka. We proceed to say a few words
+respecting the discovery and occupation of that tributary,
+1652–58. Cossacks from Yeneseisk had pushed
+their explorations beyond the Baikal, and, in consequence
+of their reports, Pashkof the Voivod, in 1652,
+sent out a party to cross the lake, under command
+of Beketof, who, two years later, built a fort on the
+Nertcha; but the expedition came to nothing. Other
+adventurers went out in 1654 and 1655. At length
+Pashkof was entrusted with a force of 566 men to
+found a town on the Shilka, whence the surrounding
+territories might be subjugated. He left Yeneseisk in
+1656, and on his way founded Nertchinsk. Whilst so
+doing, he sent a number of his men down the Amur to
+look for Stepanof, but they were met by his deserters,
+and robbed of their provisions, after which, in 1662,
+Pashkof returned to Yeneseisk, his mission unattained.</p>
+
+<p>What Government troops had failed to effect, however,
+was soon after accomplished by a runaway exile—Nikitao
+Chernigovsky—who, at the head of a lawless
+band, murdered the Voivod of Ilimsk, and in 1665
+fled to the banks of the Amur, where he built a fort on
+the site of Albaza’s village, opposite the river Albazikha.
+He was joined by others as lawless as himself; villages
+were founded near the fort, and Albazin became a
+place of importance. A petition was forwarded to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_493">[493]</span>
+Moscow, representing what had been done as done for
+the Tsar, and praying for Chernigovsky’s pardon, in
+consideration of his recent services. It was granted;
+and Chernigovsky made tributary many of the surrounding
+tribes near Albazin. The Chinese complained
+of Russian encroachments, and conciliatory
+embassies proceeded to Peking, in 1670 and 1675.
+The people of Albazin, however, determined to do as
+they pleased, and, in spite of orders to the contrary,
+they navigated the Lower Amur, and founded settlements,
+so that at the close of 1682 the Russians had
+established themselves at Albazin, on the Zeya, and
+on the Amgun.</p>
+
+<p>This finishes the first period in the history of the
+Amur—that of Cossack pillage and plunder.</p>
+
+<p>The oppression of the Russians naturally caused the
+tribes on the Amur to apply for help to their neighbours
+and nominal masters, the Chinese, who made
+large preparations to expel the intruders. They destroyed
+the Russian settlements on the Zeya and
+Amgun, took some of the garrisons prisoners, and
+advanced upon Albazin in June 1685. After a blockade
+of 18 days the garrison surrendered, and were
+allowed to retire to Nertchinsk. The Chinese then
+destroyed the fort, and withdrew down the river to
+Aigun; but the Russians followed in the wake of their
+conquerors and rebuilt their town. The Chinese, therefore,
+returned in July of the following year, again
+surrounded the fort, where the Russians held out
+bravely till November, in which month the siege was
+raised, in consequence of orders from the Chinese
+Government, to whom the Russians had sent ambassadors
+desiring conditions of peace.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_494">[494]</span></p>
+
+<p>The ever-recurring complications with the Chinese
+made the Russian Government desirous to come to
+some arrangement regarding the frontier of the two
+empires. Venyukoff accordingly was sent on a mission
+to Peking to arrange preliminaries, and he brought
+back with him a letter in Chinese, Manchu, and
+Mongol, translated into Latin, which supplies a good
+idea of Chinese views on the Amur question.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_196" href="#Footnote_3_196" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>If this letter be anything like a true statement of
+the case, which there seems to be no just cause to
+doubt, then the moderation and forbearance of the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_495">[495]</span>
+Chinese stands out in striking contrast to the conduct
+of the Russians. I have described (Chapter XXXV.)
+how the conference was conducted, and how it ended
+in a treaty, by which Albazin and the whole of the
+Amur were confirmed to the Chinese.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_197" href="#Footnote_4_197" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>This settlement practically closed the district to
+Europeans for about 160 years—that is, till 1848. A
+few encroaching hunters were from time to time caught
+and punished. Some convicts also escaped from the
+mines of Nertchinsk to Chinese territory, and others
+went down the whole length of the Amur, one of them
+getting away from Nikolaefsk to America; but very
+little is known of the Amur basin during these years,
+though Russia kept up the supply of priests who crossed
+the desert to sustain the Russian mission at Peking.</p>
+
+<p>After the treaty of Nertchinsk, the town of Aigun
+was removed to the right or southern bank of the
+river, and in keeping with the jealous policy of exclusion
+peculiar to the celestials, the Chinese were forbidden
+to emigrate northward to the thinly-populated Manchuria,
+and the Manchu were forbidden to pass northward
+of the town of San-sin on the Sungari, whilst the
+privilege of trading on the Amur was restricted to ten
+merchants, who obtained for that purpose a licence at
+Peking. Besides these particulars of the Amur during
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_496">[496]</span>
+the period of the Russian exclusion, we learn something
+from the letters of Roman Catholic missionaries in
+Manchuria, one of whom, M. De La Brunière, descended
+the Amur to the country of the Gilyaks, where he was
+killed. But I shall speak of this when I come to the
+people and place of his murder. This finishes our
+second period—that of war with China. It remains to
+treat of the recent history of the Amur, and of the
+annexation of all its left and part of its right bank by
+Russia. This will bring before us the events occurring
+between 1847 and 1861.</p>
+
+<p>The recent history of the Amur may be said to date
+from the time that Count Nicolas Muravieff became
+Governor of Eastern Siberia in 1847. The Russians
+had long seen the desirability of acquiring the right of
+navigating the Amur, if only for the purpose of sending
+down it provisions for their settlements in Kamchatka,
+the land carriage of which annually required 14,000 to
+15,000 pack-horses. With a view to this, they had
+sent Golovkin to Peking at the beginning of the present
+century to treat for the free navigation of the river,
+or, at all events, to gain permission to send a few ships
+once a year with provisions. But the Chinese were
+unwilling to make any concession whatever.</p>
+
+<p>Muravieff became Governor of Eastern Siberia in
+1848, and one of his first acts was to send an officer
+with four Cossacks down the Amur, who were never
+heard of again. Admiral Nevilskoi, in the same year,
+left Cronstadt for the Pacific to explore the mouth of
+the Amur; and, in 1851, founded Nikolaefsk and
+Mariinsk as trading ports. Two years later were
+founded Alexandrovsk, in Castries Bay; and other
+posts in the island of Sakhalin at Aniva Bay and Dui.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_497">[497]</span></p>
+
+<p>The next year, 1854–5, was important in the history
+of the Amur, as that in which the first Russian military
+expedition descended the river from the Trans-Baikal
+provinces. Russia had at the time three frigates in or
+near the Sea of Okhotsk, and, owing to the breaking
+out of the Crimean War and the presence of an English
+fleet in the Pacific, it was feared that these might be
+left in want of supplies, and that the Russian settlements
+on the Pacific, which at that time depended on
+shipments from home, might be seriously straitened.
+The Black Sea and the Baltic were blockaded, and
+the only feasible plan was to send provisions from
+Siberia down the Amur. The nearest Chinese authorities
+at Kiakhta and Urga professed themselves unable
+to give permission; but as no time was to be lost,
+Muravieff’s necessity knew no law, and he started down
+the river.</p>
+
+<p>He had a steamer, 50 barges, and numerous rafts,
+1,000 men, and guns. Several men of science, to
+whom we owe much of the solid information given
+us by Mr. Ravenstein, accompanied him. His journey
+down the river to Mariinsk was uneventful, and he
+returned by way of Ayan to Irkutsk.</p>
+
+<p>The continuation of hostilities between Russia and
+the English and French allies naturally made the
+Russians prepare for an attack on their eastern settlements,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_198" href="#Footnote_5_198" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>
+and considerable activity was displayed by
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_498">[498]</span>
+them on the Amur in 1855–6. Three more expeditions
+left Shilkinsk in the course of the year, and
+conveyed down the river 3,000 soldiers and 500
+colonists, with cattle, horses, provisions, agricultural
+implements, and military stores.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_199" href="#Footnote_6_199" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Accordingly, the
+places founded on the river grew fast. Villages were
+built by the colonists at Irkutskoi, Bogorodskoi, and
+Mikhailovsk. Great progress also was visible at
+Nikolaefsk, which from a village of 10 houses grew
+to one of 150.</p>
+
+<p>The operations of the allied fleets in the Pacific in
+1855 were on a larger scale than in the preceding
+year; but the results were equally insignificant, and
+the peace of 1856 left the Russians free to carry on
+their plans of annexation. General Muravieff now
+went to Petersburg to advocate the granting of large
+means for colonizing the river, and during his absence
+the direction of affairs was left in the hands of General
+Korsakoff.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_200" href="#Footnote_7_200" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>But the year 1857–8 will ever be one of the most
+memorable in the history of the river. Muravieff had
+succeeded at Petersburg in securing large grants of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_499">[499]</span>
+men and money. Troops descended and formed
+numerous stations along the left bank, and colonists
+and provisions were conveyed to the possessions of
+the Russo-American Company. A Captain Furruhelm
+conducted down the river 100 emigrants and 1,000
+tons of provisions, and with him travelled Mr. Collins,
+already referred to, as “commercial agent of the
+United States for the Amur river.” Count Putiatin,
+also bound on a mission to Japan and China, availed
+himself of the newly-opened way. Putiatin received
+orders to induce the Chinese to come to some definite
+arrangement regarding the frontier of the Amur, but
+he was not successful. This result was felt on the
+river; for the mandarins now again protested against
+the occupation of the territory, and in some instances
+molested the Russian traders. Accordingly, Muravieff
+hastened to Petersburg for fresh reinforcements, and
+more troops were sent east; whilst the territory in
+dispute, together with Kamchatka and the coast of
+the Okhotsk Sea, was erected into a separate province,
+called “the Maritime province of Eastern Siberia.”
+A squadron of seven screw steamers was dispatched
+from Cronstadt in the summer, and two European-built
+steamers, the <i>Lena</i> and the <i>Amur</i>, ascended the
+river with merchandise and troops.</p>
+
+<p>When Muravieff got back to the Amur, in 1858, the
+Chinese were in a very different humour, for they were
+then at war with the English and French, and Russia
+found no difficulty in concluding an amicable treaty
+at Aigun on 28th of May. China ceded to Russia the
+left bank of the Amur down to the Ussuri, and both
+banks below that river, and opened the Sungari and
+Ussuri to Russian merchants and travellers.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_500">[500]</span></p>
+
+<p>On the 21st May, Muravieff laid the foundation of
+Blagovestchensk, at the mouth of the Zeya; he then
+descended the Amur, and founded Khabarofka, at the
+mouth of the Ussuri, and subsequently selected the site
+of Sophiisk; after which, in August, he was created
+“Count of the Amur.” On the last day of the year
+this territory received a new organization, and was
+divided into the “Maritime province of Eastern
+Siberia,” and the “Amur province,” the latter denoting
+a district along the river, above the mouth of
+the Ussuri.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_201" href="#Footnote_8_201" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>We now come to 1859–60, during which time several
+measures were taken to favour colonization. Political
+exiles were to have passports granted them for three
+years, to enable them to proceed to the east; and if
+deserving, their term was to be extended permanently.
+The sailors stationed at the Lower Amur were allowed
+to retire after 15 years’ service, received a plot of ground,
+and might send for their families to come to them at
+the Government expense. The colonists, too, were to
+be maintained by Government for two years, after which
+time they were to provide for themselves. Government
+also renounced its monopoly of the mineral treasures
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_501">[501]</span>
+of Siberia; and in future any one, except convicts, was
+to be allowed to search for precious stones or metals.
+This attracted many emigrants, and on the arrival from
+Western Siberia of 10,000 of them at Irkutsk, Cossack
+stations were founded along the banks of the Ussuri
+and the Sungacha, with a view to the settlement of the
+frontier.</p>
+
+<p>Difficulties, however, with China again arose. The
+Chinese had repelled the advance of the allied French
+and English forces in 1859, and, being elated for the
+moment with the power of their arms, imagined that it
+was no longer necessary to conciliate the Russians, and
+told them that China had never ceded the Amur, that
+they had no right there, and must immediately quit.
+Things, therefore, looked gloomy towards the south;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_202" href="#Footnote_9_202" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>
+but the relative positions of China and Russia were
+suddenly transposed by the successes of the English
+and French, who thoroughly humbled China; and
+Russia, availing herself of the opportunity, was able
+to conclude, on the 14th of November, 1860, a most
+advantageous treaty, much more comprehensive than
+any ever concluded by China with a foreign power,
+which gave Russia a right to the country north of the
+Amur and east of the Ussuri, together with the entire
+coast of Manchuria, down to the frontiers of Corea.</p>
+
+<p>I have thus traced the history of the Amur from the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_502">[502]</span>
+time that the Russians first heard of the river, in 1639,
+down to 1860, when they obtained possession of it.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_203" href="#Footnote_10_203" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>
+It remains for me now to give the reader, as best I can,
+an idea of the condition of things as I found them at
+the time of my visit.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_194" href="#FNanchor_1_194" class="label">[1]</a> I am specially indebted to Mr. Ravenstein’s excellent work, “The
+Russians on the Amur,” for the substance of the following pages.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_195" href="#FNanchor_2_195" class="label">[2]</a> This report, so far as the Shilka is concerned, was confirmed in the
+same year by what a party of Cossacks heard, who had been sent from
+Yeneseisk to the Vitim, about a prince of the Daurians named Lavkai,
+who inhabited a stronghold at the mouth of the Urka rivulet, and whose
+people kept cattle and tilled the soil.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_196" href="#FNanchor_3_196" class="label">[3]</a> It was dated 20th November, 1686, and ran in part thus: “The
+officers to whom I have entrusted the supervision of the sable hunt, have
+frequently complained of the injury which the people of Siberia do to our
+hunters on the Amur. My subjects have never provoked yours, nor done
+them any injury; yet the people at Albazin, armed with cannon, guns,
+and other firearms, have frequently attacked my people, who had no
+firearms, and were peaceably hunting.</p>
+
+<p>“They also roved about the Lower Amur, and troubled and injured the
+small town of Genquen and other places. As soon as I heard of this I
+ordered my officers to take up arms, and act as occasion might require.
+They accordingly made prisoners some of the Russians who were roving
+about the Lower Amur; no one was put to death, but all were provided
+with food.</p>
+
+<p>“When our people arrived before Albazin, and called upon it to surrender,
+Alexei and others, without deigning a reply, treated us in a hostile
+manner, and fired off muskets and cannon. We therefore took possession
+of Albazin by force; but even then we did not put any one to death. We
+liberated our prisoners, but more than 40 Russians, of their own free
+choice, preferred remaining amongst my people. The others were exhorted
+earnestly to return to their own side of the frontier, where they might
+hunt at pleasure. My officers, however, had scarcely left, when 460
+Russians returned, rebuilt Albazin, killed our hunters, and laid waste
+their fields; thus compelling my officers to have recourse to arms again.</p>
+
+<p>“Albazin consequently was beleagured a second time; but orders were
+nevertheless given to spare the prisoners and restore them to their own
+country. Since then, Venyukoff and others have arrived at Peking to
+announce the approach of an ambassador, and to propose a friendly conference
+to settle the boundary question, and induce the Chinese to raise
+the siege of Albazin. On this a courier was sent at once to Albazin to
+put a stop to further hostilities.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_197" href="#FNanchor_4_197" class="label">[4]</a> The treaty began as follows:—“In order to suppress the insolence
+of certain scoundrels, who cross the frontier to hunt, plunder, and kill,
+and who give rise to much trouble and disturbance, to determine clearly
+and distinctly the boundaries between the empires of China and Russia,
+and lastly to re-establish peace and good understanding for the future,
+the following articles are by mutual consent agreed upon.” After defining
+the boundaries, the treaty went on to provide that hunters of either empire
+should under no pretence cross the frontier. Also that neither party should
+receive fugitives or deserters; and the third article states, “Everything
+which has occurred hitherto is to be buried in eternal oblivion.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_198" href="#FNanchor_5_198" class="label">[5]</a> Their strength on the Amur at the time was very inconsiderable, and
+the allies, having mustered their forces on the American coast, came
+down upon a comparatively feeble folk in Siberia. Petropavlovsk in
+Kamchatka was attacked, but the Russians managed to hold their own
+till orders arrived from Petersburg to abandon the place, which they
+did on 17th April, 1855, taking with them the inhabitants, with whom they
+safely reached Castries Bay.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_199" href="#FNanchor_6_199" class="label">[6]</a> The Chinese were either unwilling or unable to oppose the passage.
+Up to this time no attempt had been made to found any settlement on
+the Upper or Middle Amur, and the presence of the allied fleets in the
+Pacific ostensibly justified the assembling of a force on the Lower Amur.
+The Chinese did send to Nikolaefsk certain mandarins to treat; but these
+not being of sufficient rank, Muravieff refused to receive them.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_200" href="#FNanchor_7_200" class="label">[7]</a> In the course of the 12 months 697 barges and rafts descended
+the river, conveying 1,500 head of cattle, and the provisions required by
+the forces on the Lower Amur. Cossack stations were built on the
+Upper and Middle Amur, and another settlement made on the lower part
+of the river. Postal communication by horses was established between
+Nikolaefsk and Mariinsk, which until then had been carried on by dog
+sledges. The Russian colonists agreed to supply the necessary horses
+during winter at the rate of £22 a “pair,” and during the summer they
+were to supply the steamers on the river with the requisite fuel.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_201" href="#FNanchor_8_201" class="label">[8]</a> Admiral Kazakevich remained military governor of the Maritime
+province, and resided at Nikolaefsk; and General Busse was appointed
+military governor of the Amur, with a salary of £1000 a year, and a residence
+at Blagovestchensk. Shortly after the ukase of the 31st December,
+the Cossack forces on the Amur received a separate organization. Up to
+the end of 1858, 20,000 persons of both sexes had been settled along the
+river, and these were to furnish two regiments of cavalry and two battalions
+of infantry, as well as two battalions of Ussuri infantry from the
+Maritime province. Commercial enterprise was promised a fresh impulse
+by the foundation of the Amur Company, the object of which was the
+development of trade on the river. It started with a capital of £150,000,
+and was privileged to open establishments on the Amur and Shilka, but
+proved unsuccessful, and after a few years was dissolved.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_202" href="#FNanchor_9_202" class="label">[9]</a> The newly-acquired territory, moreover, was not fulfilling the anticipations
+of those who thought to find at once the country turned into the
+granary of Siberia, and supplying with its produce and manufactures the
+navies of the world. The Amur was a source of continual expenditure,
+and the Cossacks were not proving the best of colonists. To remedy this,
+German colonists had been sent for. My old host, with whom I stayed
+at Vladivostock, Captain De Vries, was to bring 40 German families from
+California, who were to be settled at the mouth of the Bureya; but, as he
+told me, he found the thing impracticable.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_203" href="#FNanchor_10_203" class="label">[10]</a> At that date they had brought to the region about 40,000 colonists,
+most of them from the Trans-Baikal and Irkutsk governments, who walked
+with their cattle to the Shilka, and then proceeded on huge rafts, like
+floating farm-yards. The cattle were turned on shore to feed at night, and
+marched back in the morning to travel by day. By these means the banks
+of the river became populated, though scantily, this region covering an
+area of 361,000 square miles, or twice as large as that of Spain. The
+Russians, by 1861, had established military posts along the whole course
+of the Amur, on the Ussuri, and at various harbours on the sea-coast, the
+whole military force, up to 1859, being about 15,000 men. Simultaneously
+while strengthening her forces on the Amur, Russia reinforced her navy
+in the Pacific; and in 1860 she had there 19 steamers, mounting 380 guns,
+and manned by between 4,000 and 5,000 sailors and marines. There were
+also, in 1861, 12 steamers on the river, nine of which belonged to the
+Government.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_503">[503]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XL">
+    CHAPTER XL.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE UPPER AMUR.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Formation of the Amur.—Chinese boundary.—Our steamer.—Captain
+and passengers.—Natives of Upper Amur.—Orochons.—Manyargs.—Their
+hunting year.—Our journey.—Run aground.—Table provisions.—Scenery.—Albazin.—Cliff
+of Tsagayan.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>We</span> glided into the Amur about sunset on the
+30th July, when, happening to come on deck,
+I found the passengers gazing over the stern of the
+vessel. Before us were the two rivers of which the
+Amur is formed. To the right was the defile of the
+Shilka, to the left the Argun; and between the streams
+the mountains narrowed, and came to a point a mile
+above the meeting of the waters. On the tongue of
+land below was the Russian village and Cossack post
+of Ust-Strelka. The soft light of evening threw a
+charm over the well-wooded landscape. We had,
+moreover, reached at last a point out of range of the
+ubiquitous English traveller, and to which even comparatively
+few Russians make their way from Europe.
+The Shilka we had travelled, and it was given to us
+to peep a little way up the Argun, and remember that
+in its valley the great Genghis Khan fought some
+of his early battles, and from hence started to subdue
+China, and begin that wonderful career of Mongol
+conquest that extended to Central Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Looking to the north-east and down stream, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_504">[504]</span>
+view was exceedingly pretty. On the right, heavily-wooded
+mountains abut upon the river for two miles,
+while on the left is a strip of bottom-land backed by
+gentle slopes. To the front we see the river sparkling
+in the sun, and rejoicing in its new and beautiful birth.</p>
+
+<p>We were now fairly launched upon a river which,
+including its numerous tributaries, is said to drain a
+territory of 766,000 square miles—an area as large,
+that is, as any three countries of Europe except Russia.
+The length of the stream from this point to the sea is
+1,780 miles, with a fall of 2,000 feet; but if the Argun
+be regarded as the main stream, then the total length
+of the Amur is 3,066 miles, with a fall of 6,000 feet.
+It will be best, I think, to treat of so huge a river in
+sections, seeing it passes through such varieties of
+climate and population. The first section, extending
+from Ust-Strelka to Blagovestchensk, at the mouth
+of the Zeya, we will call the Upper Amur; from
+Blagovestchensk to Khabarofka, at the mouth of the
+Ussuri, the Middle Amur; and from Khabarofka to
+the Pacific at Nikolaefsk, the Lower Amur. The
+Russians have made a fine atlas, in 46 sheets, of the
+river below the confluence of the Shilka and Argun.</p>
+
+<p>Up to the point we had now reached, Russian territory
+lay on both sides. Henceforth to Khabarofka
+we were to have Chinese soil on the right. The
+boundary then descends along the bank of the Ussuri,
+and continues in a tolerably straight line southwards
+through Lake Khanka to the Bay of Peter the Great,
+in the Sea of Japan. My intention was, therefore,
+roughly speaking, to keep along this boundary, and
+embark for Yokohama.</p>
+
+<p>But I have said nothing as yet of the steamer in
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_505">[505]</span>
+which the first part of my journey was to be accomplished,
+namely, from Kara to Khabarofka, a distance
+of 1,270 miles. It was a paddle-boat called the <i>Zeya</i>.
+As I walked on board at Ust-Kara, Captain Paskevitch
+met me, told me in French that my cabin was not
+quite ready, and asked me to occupy meanwhile his
+room on deck. He had heard of my mission from
+Colonel Merkasin, at Stretinsk, and had most kindly
+set apart for me, on a full steamer, a first-class cabin
+intended for two persons. This he reserved so tenaciously
+as to refuse a first-class place to a passenger
+rather than cause inconvenience by giving me a companion,
+though I was asked to pay only a single fare.</p>
+
+<p>As compared with the steamer on which I traversed
+the Obi, the <i>Zeya</i> was small, and it was not new.
+There were first and second-class cabins fore and aft,
+but third-class passengers lived on deck. All three
+grades were well represented. Among the first-class
+passengers was M. Kokcharoff, a Government officer
+connected with the gold-mines, whom we had met at
+Nertchinsk at dinner, and who was the father of one
+of the young officers we saw at Irkutsk. There were
+also an officer and his wife whom we had seen on the
+road at Verchne Udinsk. Among the second-class
+passengers were several naval and military officers,
+proceeding to their stations on the Pacific, and with
+them the lady and gentleman of whom we got the
+start with the horses from the Baikal. Several of the
+ladies spoke French, and a naval captain, Baron de
+Fitingoff, spoke a little English also. Thus I needed
+not to be silent, and soon found myself at home.</p>
+
+<p>It speedily became manifest that our captain was a
+man of determination, and that he had a rough-and-ready
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_506">[506]</span>
+way of enforcing his orders. The cook, an oily-looking
+man, had smuggled <i lang="ru">vodka</i> on board, and made
+himself so far drunk as to spoil the passengers’ dinner;
+whereupon the captain seized him and tied him to the
+capstan. He had not been there long, however, before
+the capstan was required for some one else. The ship
+had got into difficulties, the number of the crew being
+insufficient for the occasion; and the captain ordered
+a man-of-war’s-man, travelling as a third-class passenger,
+to lend a hand. He did not choose to do
+so, whereupon the captain collared him, and, having
+released the cook, bound him to the capstan. Our
+chief, I found, was only a young man—less than 25—and
+had served for a time in the Imperial navy. He
+had fallen in love, and wished to marry before the age
+allowed in the service. Just then the Amur Company
+made him a good offer to take charge of one of their
+vessels, and he had thus left the Government service,
+and accepted a stipend which enabled him to forsake
+a bachelor’s life. He thought, however, that in giving
+up the navy he had made a mistake, and sent his
+papers by some of our passengers to be presented to
+the Governor at Vladivostock, asking to return.</p>
+
+<p>As we proceeded we found the population on the
+Chinese bank was exceedingly small, and but few
+houses appeared on the Russian side. The natives of
+the Upper and Middle Amur belong, all of them, to
+the Tungusian stock, though they differ somewhat
+among themselves, according to the manner of life they
+pursue, and their nearness or otherwise to Chinese
+influence. Thus, on the Upper Amur, on the Russian
+territory, are the Orochons, or reindeer Tunguses;
+whilst further east, north of the Middle Amur, are their
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_507">[507]</span>
+brethren the Manyargs, or horse Tunguses. On the
+southern bank of the Upper Amur are the Daurians,
+who to some extent cultivate the soil; whilst further
+east, and to the south of the Middle Amur, is the region
+of the Manchu, the most civilized of all the Tunguse
+tribes. This division is somewhat arbitrary, and does
+not notice subdivisions of some of the tribes; but it
+may suffice for the present to indicate their territories,
+and we can enter into further particulars as we approach
+their respective localities.</p>
+
+<p>The Orochons numbered, in 1856, 206 individuals
+of both sexes, roving over an area of 28,000 square
+miles—a country, that is, as large as Bavaria or the
+island of Sardinia. They originally lived in the
+province of Yakutsk, whence they emigrated to the
+banks of the Amur in 1825, and occupied a part of
+the territory of the Manyargs, whom they compelled
+to withdraw farther down the river.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_204" href="#Footnote_1_204" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Manyargs occupy the north bank of the Middle
+Amur below the Orochons, but in summer they ascend
+the river for the purpose of fishing. As the needs of
+the reindeer drive the Orochons to the moss tracts of
+the mountains, so the needs of the horses send the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_508">[508]</span>
+Manyargs to the grassy valleys of the Zeya, and to
+the prairie region eastwards to the Bureya mountains.</p>
+
+<p>Apart, however, from their differences as to habitation,
+and the domestic animals they use (the Orochons
+keeping deer and the Manyargs horses), we may
+speak of the Orochons and Manyargs together. In
+appearance they are rather small, and of a spare build.
+Their arms and legs are thin, the face flat, but the
+nose, in many instances, is large and pointed. The
+cheeks are broad, the mouth large, the eyes small and
+sleepy-looking. The hair is black and smooth, the
+beard short, and the eyebrows very thin. Old men
+allow the beard and moustache to grow, but carefully
+pull out the whiskers. They cut the hair short on the
+forehead and temples, and plait it behind into a tail,
+ornamented with ribbons and leather straps. This
+fashion was no doubt copied from the Manchu, but
+since they have come under Russian influence it has
+gradually waned. In the case of the women the hair is
+parted down the middle, the plaits are worn round the
+head, and fastened with ribbons above the forehead.
+During summer the women wear a conical hat made
+of cotton, somewhat like an extinguisher. Unmarried
+girls are recognized by their head-band, embroidered
+with beads.</p>
+
+<p>The Orochons and Manyargs lead a wandering life.
+In spring and summer they live on the banks of the
+river to fish; in autumn they retire to the interior to
+hunt. In these migrations the deer or the horses carry
+the scanty property of their owners. The horses are
+small but strong, of great endurance, and find food in
+winter by scraping away the snow with their feet.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p5082_ill" style="max-width: 93.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p5082_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      REINDEER TUNGUSES WITH BIRCH-BARK TENT.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Wild animals in the region of the Upper and Middle
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_509">[509]</span>
+Amur are numerous. The Orochons disperse in small
+parties to hunt them, returning from time to time to
+their yourts.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_205" href="#Footnote_2_205" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> They hunt squirrels, sables, reindeer,
+elks, foxes, and sometimes bears. Squirrels they find
+in great numbers. A good sportsman may kill 1,000
+in a season, and 500 is an average bag.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_206" href="#Footnote_3_206" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> In December
+they take their furs to the localities fixed upon
+for paying the <i lang="ru">yassak</i>, or tax, where also they barter
+with merchants assembled for that purpose. Each
+male between the ages of 15 and 50 pays annually two
+silver roubles, or their equivalent in furs. No other
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_510">[510]</span>
+taxes are levied upon them, and this brings in to the
+Government an enormous quantity of skins.</p>
+
+<p>My journey on the Upper Amur, or, more accurately,
+from Ust-Kara to Blagovestchensk, occupied eight
+days. The distance was 700 miles, and the first-class
+fare three guineas. Under ordinary circumstances,
+however, the time ought not to have been so long, but
+there was less water in the river, the captain said, than
+he had ever known before. It was by reason of this
+that the boat had run aground at Shilkinsk on the
+Sunday I was to have started, and on Monday evening
+a sister-boat, the <i>Ingoda</i>, having done the same, and
+knocked three holes in her hull, the <i>Zeya</i> had stayed
+alongside to render assistance. This caused the loss
+to us of the whole of Tuesday. Both boats belonged
+to the same company, and it was an act of policy, as
+well as kindness, that the damaged boat should not be
+left in so lonely a region, whilst a further reason for
+submitting to the delay, and keeping the boats together,
+was that our own vessel might run aground and so
+need assistance from the <i>Ingoda</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I was curious to hear from the captain what was the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_511">[511]</span>
+thickness of iron on the <i>Zeya</i>, and what distance we
+should have to sink, supposing we went to the bottom.
+The iron, I learned, was three-sixteenths of an inch
+thick, which was somewhat alarming, but it was a
+comfort to know that the water in some parts of the
+river was not much more than 30 inches deep. Our
+steamer drew only two feet and a half, consequently
+we were often gliding along within a few inches of the
+ground. One of the crew was placed in the bow of
+the boat, holding a measuring rod, with the feet marked
+in black and white, and secured to a string. This in
+shallow places he constantly threw, as if harpooning
+fish, and then noticing the depth when it struck the
+bottom, he called out in a sing-song fashion, “<i lang="ru">Chetiri-s’polovenoi!
+chetiri! tri-s’polovenoi! tri!</i>”—four-and-a-half!
+four! three-and-a-half! three! and so on; the
+speed of the vessel being slackened when the small
+numbers were called.</p>
+
+<p>After reaching the Amur on Wednesday, we travelled
+safely for that evening and on Thursday, but on
+Friday morning, coming to a turn in the channel, the
+boat ran aground on a bank, with her whole length
+turned sideways to the current—going at the rate of
+about four miles an hour. The shallowness of the
+stream now became apparent, for when the men jumped
+overboard the water rose hardly up to their waists.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_207" href="#Footnote_4_207" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>
+Every effort was made to float the craft with anchors
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_512">[512]</span>
+and levers, and digging away the beach, until, as
+evening came on and brought no success, we hoped
+the <i>Ingoda</i> would overtake us and return the compliment
+of rendering assistance, especially as we had
+once put back to look after her welfare. The <i>Ingoda</i>
+did come, but was not powerful enough to get us off,
+and we had therefore to lie aground till Saturday
+morning. The greater part of the passengers were
+then shifted from the <i>Zeya</i> to the <i>Ingoda</i>, and there
+they were compelled to remain from breakfast-time till
+evening, and that, too, with very little food, for the
+<i>Ingoda</i> was not carrying passengers, and so was not
+provisioned. Whilst this shifting was going on, I was
+in my cabin writing, and so had not to change. Meanwhile
+the sailors had hard work, for they were in the
+water nearly all day. About two o’clock, however, the
+<i>Zeya</i> was once more afloat, after which it took three or
+four hours to get up the anchors, and then, for the rest
+of our journey, we had no lack of water. The boat
+did not usually travel at night.</p>
+
+<p>These delays had put a considerable strain on the
+resources of our cook, whose arrangements were not
+of a high order. I had rather anticipated this; and,
+having become so accustomed to see Russians travelling
+with their own provisions, had prepared accordingly.
+Some loaves of white bread had been brought
+for me by the ship from Stretinsk, and fresh butter;
+besides which, Colonel Kononovitch, as already stated,
+had loaded me with good things, and I had not parted
+with my provision basket and its cooking apparatus.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_208" href="#Footnote_5_208" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>They had different arrangements on the Amur from
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_513">[513]</span>
+those we had on the Obi. The steward undertook to
+provide every one with four meals a day. The first
+was tea and bread on getting up. Next, about 11 a.m.,
+came “<i lang="fr">déjeuner à la fourchette</i>,” consisting of two
+courses. At five o’clock came bread and tea again,
+and dinner, of three or four courses, followed at seven.
+The provisions were decidedly inferior to those of the
+Obi, but acquaintance with certain Russian dishes was
+thereby forced upon me, which I might otherwise not
+have known. One of them was “<i lang="ru">gretchnevaya kasha</i>,”
+or buckwheat gruel, with melted butter like oil poured
+over it. I imagined it might be given us as a last
+resource, all other provisions having failed; but the
+passengers seemed to think it good though humble
+fare, and said it was what they provide largely for the
+soldiers. It is a daily dish, I am told, among peasants
+and servants in Russia. Further on we bought and
+slaughtered an ox. And as we approached Blagovestchensk,
+our table improved to clear soup, with minced
+patties, meat from the joint, and stewed fruit.</p>
+
+<p>The service, too, was inferior to that on the Obi,
+for on the Amur the steward was represented by a
+couple of boys, not too tidily dressed, and with rough
+heads, who knew more of play than of waiting. It
+should be added, however, that the price charged for
+the four meals a day was not exorbitant, namely, three
+shillings; and after having the samovar frequently into
+my own cabin, and other extras, though to a considerable
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_514">[514]</span>
+extent providing myself, my steward’s bill for the
+eight days came only to 17 shillings.</p>
+
+<p>We were highly favoured in the weather, which,
+with the exception of one day, was fine, and added
+much to the enjoyment of the journey. Between
+Stretinsk and Blagovestchensk were 42 stations. Many
+of them were named after the Russian officers who
+took part in the annexation of the country, such as
+Orloff, Beketoff, Korsakoff, etc.</p>
+
+<p>At Ust-Strelka the river is 1,100 yards wide, and
+sometimes 10 feet deep. At Albazin, 160 miles lower,
+it contracts to 500 yards, but increases to 20 feet in
+depth. After leaving the Shilka, the scenery of the
+Amur at first deteriorated. Soon, however, the river
+stretched across the valley, and the banks rose in precipitous
+cliffs, or steep rocky slopes. Many brooks
+entered the stream on both banks. When rain falls
+on the mountains, the river rises sometimes 12 feet
+and more in the course of a few days, the greatest rise
+being 24 feet. Our captain of the <i>Zeya</i> was hoping
+that the Thursday’s rain would thus aid him in getting
+out of the shallows. Five streams join the Amur on
+the Russian side, between Ust-Strelka and Albazin, of
+which the Amazar is the first and most considerable.
+At their mouths are small alluvial plains overgrown
+with grass, sometimes 18 inches high, though on higher
+spots in this district the herbage is not luxuriant.</p>
+
+<p>Below the Amazar the banks were alternately rocky
+bluffs and wooded bottoms, the river sweeping along
+in great picturesque bends. At Sverbeef the river
+increases in breadth. The mountains are not so high,
+and sandbanks are frequent. These appear at low
+water as islands. The forests are thin, and there is
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_515">[515]</span>
+little underwood. On the mountains larch and firs
+prevail. In the valleys the white birch predominates,
+with bird-cherry and aspen. The trees, however, are
+small; and among them, further on, are apple-trees
+with tiny fruit, willows, and the hoar-leaved alder.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_209" href="#Footnote_6_209" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the rocky mountain slopes are the service-tree,
+alder, aspen, poplar, and hawthorn, together with the
+Daurian rhododendron. On loose soil Indian wormwood
+frequently covers a whole mountain slope.</p>
+
+<p>As we approached Albazin the mountains retired,
+and below them were extensive prairies, affording
+excellent pasturage. Opposite the town, on the Chinese
+bank, the Albazikha, or Emuri, falls into the Amur
+behind a large island, with an area of several thousand
+acres. Oaks and black birch now begin to take the
+place of the larch, and at the foot of the mountains are
+seen elms, ashes, hazels, willows, the Daurian buckthorn,
+wild roses, and bird-cherries—the last sometimes
+reaching to a height of 50 feet.</p>
+
+<p>Albazin is the most important of the towns we passed
+between Ust-Strelka and Blagovestchensk. It is finely
+situated on a plateau 50 feet high, and extends some
+distance backwards to the mountains. We arrived there
+early on Friday morning, August 1st. Albazin was important
+to the early adventurers, by reason of the fine
+sables taken in its vicinity.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_210" href="#Footnote_7_210" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_516">[516]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Albazin sable is said to be the best on the
+Amur, that of the Bureya Mountains next, and, thirdly,
+that of Blagovestchensk; but none of them are so good
+as those obtained further north.</p>
+
+<p>I was much struck, below the town, with the brilliant
+red of the sandstone cliffs. On the right bank the
+mountains approach again close to the river; but on the
+left the plain continues for 70 miles, ending in a rock
+or promontory, called <i lang="ru">Malaya Nadejda</i>, or Little Hope.
+This lofty mass of rock projects into the river in the
+shape of a semicircular tower. After passing the station
+Tolbuzin, 240 miles from Ust-Strelka, the river takes
+a more southerly direction, and lower down has numerous
+islands. These are covered with poplar, ash, and
+willow; and among the flowers are seen the rhododendron,
+the lily of the valley, pink, primrose, violet,
+white poppy, forget-me-not, and white pæony; also
+garlic, chickweed, asparagus, cinquefoil, and thyme.</p>
+
+<p>A few miles lower is a remarkably steep sandstone
+cliff, of yellowish grey colour, bounding one of the
+reaches of the river for a distance of three miles. It is
+called Tsagayan, and is 302 miles from Ust-Strelka. It
+is about 250 feet high, and has in it two seams of coal,
+of which there is said to be plenty on the Amur, though
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_517">[517]</span>
+it has not been worked, I believe, owing to the abundance
+of wood. The natives look upon Tsagayan as
+the abode of evil spirits. At its foot are found agates,
+carnelians, and chalcedonies.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond the Tsagayan the valleys descending to the
+river are wider, the steep mountains recede, and the
+meadows are richer in grass. Small groves of poplars,
+elms, ashes, and wild apples alternate with bushes of
+red-berried elder, sand willows, self-heal, and wild
+briar. At the station Kazakevich, however, the
+mountains approach the river, and a dark granite rock,
+300 feet high, overhangs the water. Eight miles
+south is the rock Korsakoff, a promontory of semicircular
+shape; and 40 miles more bring the traveller
+to the mouth of the Komar, which is the second considerable
+stream flowing into the Amur from the right
+bank after leaving Albazin, the other being the Panza.
+The course of the Amur here becomes very tortuous,
+and, about 50 miles below, the Komar almost describes
+a circle, leaving but a neck of land half a mile in width.
+The Komar is the greatest affluent of the Upper Amur
+from the Chinese side. It is a little short of 600 miles
+in length, more than one-half of which is navigable.
+The upper part of the valley is populated by Daurians.</p>
+
+<p>Travelling thus amidst beautiful scenery, we reached
+Blagovestchensk on the eighth day, being now 560
+miles from Ust-Strelka, and the width of the river
+having considerably increased. Here, however, we
+may leave the water for awhile, for the steamer stayed
+a whole day, and thus gave me the opportunity of
+spending some hours ashore.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_204" href="#FNanchor_1_204" class="label">[1]</a> There are two tribes of them, one called Ninagai, which, in 1856,
+mustered 68 males and 66 females; 27 of the males paid annually 5<i>s.</i> 5<i>d.</i>
+of tribute each, or instead thereof 12 squirrel skins, to the Russian officer
+commanding the post at Gorbitza. The other tribe, the Shologon, numbered
+72, including 40 females, of whom 17 had to pay to the commandant
+of Ust-Strelka a tribute of 6<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i> each. They owned 82 reindeer. There
+is also a tribe along the sea coast, called Orochons, or Orochi, amongst
+whom it is customary for women to suckle their children till they are
+three or four years old. The men are recognized by their wide-brimmed
+hats. I saw one of them in prison at Nikolaefsk, and was struck with his
+manly bearing. This agrees with what Mr. Ravenstein says of the Orochons
+of the Upper Amur, that they are not so submissive as the Manyargs,
+whose spirits have been broken by the oppression of the Mandarins.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_205" href="#FNanchor_2_205" class="label">[2]</a> These yourts, or tents, are easily built and quickly removed. About
+20 poles are stuck into the ground, to form a circle from 10 to 14 feet in
+diameter, and are tied about 10 feet above the centre. The frame is
+covered with birch bark, and overlaid with skins of reindeer and moose.
+An opening is left in front to serve as a door, and a hole in the top for
+the chimney. During winter the door is closed by furs or skins. In case
+of temporary removal, the skins and bark are taken away, and the poles
+are left standing.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_206" href="#FNanchor_3_206" class="label">[3]</a> Mr. Ravenstein gives, from Russian sources, an interesting account
+of the manner in which these natives spend their hunting year. In March
+they go on snow-shoes over snow, into which, at that season, cloven-footed
+animals sink, and shoot elks, roe, and musk deer, wild deer and
+goats; the tent being fixed in valleys and defiles, where the snow lies
+deepest. In April the ice on the rivers begins to move, and the huntsman,
+now turned fisher, hastens to the small rivulets to net his fish.
+Those not required for immediate use are dried against the next month,
+which is one of the least plentiful in the year. In May they shoot deer
+and other game, which they have decoyed to certain spots by burning
+down the high grass in the valleys, so that the young sprouts may attract
+the deer and goats. June supplies the hunter with antlers of the roe.
+These they sell at a high price to the Chinese for medicinal purposes.
+The Chinese merchants come north in this month, bringing tea, tobacco,
+salt, powder, lead, grain, butter, and so forth, so that a successful huntsman
+is then able to provide himself with necessaries for half the year. In
+July the natives spend a large part of the month catching fish, taken
+with nets or speared with harpoons. They are able also to spear the
+elk, which likes a water-plant growing in the lakes. He comes down at
+night, wades into the water, and, whilst engaged in tearing at the plant
+with his teeth, is killed by the huntsman. In August they catch birds,
+speared at night in the retired creeks and bays of the river and lakes.
+Their flesh, except that of the swan, is eaten, and the down is exchanged
+for ear and finger rings, bracelets, beads, and the like. Thus they spend
+the summer months, afterwards retiring again to the mountains for
+game. In the beginning of September they prepare for winter pursuits.
+The leaves are falling, and it is the season when the roebuck and the doe
+are courting. The natives avail themselves of this, and, by cleverly imitating
+the call of the doe on a wooden horn, entice the buck near enough
+to shoot him. Generally speaking, this is the plentiful season of the year,
+so far as flesh is concerned; but, should the hunters not be fortunate, they
+live upon service-berries and bilberries, which they mix with reindeer
+milk. They also eat the nuts of the Manchu cedar and of the dwarf-like
+Cembra pine. The latter part of September and beginning of October are
+again employed in fishing, for the fish then ascend the river to spawn.
+About the middle of October begins the hunting of fur-bearing animals,
+the most profitable of all game; and this goes on till the end of the year.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_207" href="#FNanchor_4_207" class="label">[4]</a> For steamers to run aground in the Volga is so common a thing that
+the captains take a number of third-class passengers free, on the understanding
+that, if the ship gets on a bank, they shall jump overboard and
+endeavour to get her off. Bold captains there, moreover, have a plan,
+when coming to a shallow place, of putting on steam, in the hope that the
+impetus and extra commotion made in the water by the paddles may tide
+them over the difficulty. The banks of the Volga being of mud, such experiments
+are not very dangerous, but our boat had grounded upon stones.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_208" href="#FNanchor_5_208" class="label">[5]</a> After having taken with me my cuisine several times, I am disposed
+briefly to advise any who may care to be counselled, by saying “don’t.”
+It certainly does not pay in Russia, for hot water may almost everywhere
+be had, and the people well understand the speedy preparation of the
+samovar. A lunch basket, however, is a great comfort, and I should not
+think of taking a long journey without one. The cuisine may occasionally
+be needed; but in going round the globe I used it only once, and when
+travelling last year over the Caucasus to Armenia not at all.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_209" href="#FNanchor_6_209" class="label">[6]</a> The white birch is the most important. In spring the natives peel off
+the bark in strips from two to four yards in length. The coarse outside
+of the bark, and the ligneous layers on the inside, are scraped off. It is
+then rolled up, and softened by steam, which makes it pliable. Several of
+these are sewn together, and supply the native with a waterproof blanket
+or mat, forming a wind screen in winter, and a covering for the hut in
+summer. The bark thus prepared is used also for wrapping merchandise,
+making small canoes, baskets, platters, cups, and household utensils.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_210" href="#FNanchor_7_210" class="label">[7]</a> Albazin, as already stated, is noted in Siberian annals for the sieges
+it stood, and one of the Russian stories connected therewith is, that when
+the garrison was greatly distressed for food, Chernigoffsky sent a pie,
+weighing 40 or 50 lbs., to the Chinese commander, to convince him that
+the fort was well provisioned. This present was so well appreciated, that
+the Chinaman sent for more, but in vain. History does not say whether
+the pie was of beef, mutton, pork, or puppies! The remains of walls,
+moats, ditches, and mounds, showing the site and extent of the town,
+may still be traced; and, by digging, the curious may still find there
+bricks, shreds of pottery, arms, etc. In Maack’s celebrated work on the
+Amur, his plan represents Albazin as a square of 240 feet, and the Chinese
+camp as a parallelogram of 670 feet long and 140 wide. The Amur
+measures here 580 yards wide.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_518">[518]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XLI">
+    CHAPTER XLI.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>BLAGOVESTCHENSK.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Russian orthodox missions.—Particulars of Orthodox Missionary Society.—Visit
+to telegraph station.—Seminary for training priests.—Salaries
+of Russian clergy.—Blagovestchensk prison.—Leafy barracks.—View
+of the town.—Molokan inhabitants.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>“Blagovestchensk,”—I</span> hope that the
+tongue of the reader curls round the syllables
+of this word more easily than did mine on the first
+occasion I attempted to pronounce it. The <i>g</i> should
+be guttural, and the first <i>e</i> like the French <i>é</i>. The
+meaning of the name is “Annunciation,” or, as some
+put it, “glad tidings.” I know not whether this has
+anything to do with the fact that Blagovestchensk is the
+head-quarters of Oriental Siberian missionary effort,
+about which it will here be a rest to say a few words
+by way of change from the waters of the river.</p>
+
+<p>As Russia ranges under her standards many nations,
+so she is brought into contact with many religions; with
+Lutheranism in the Baltic provinces and Finland, Buddhism
+in Mongolia, Mohammedanism along her southern
+frontier, Paganism in the Caucasus and Armenia, and,
+we may add, Shamanism and other ’<i>isms</i> among the
+aboriginal inhabitants of both her European and Asiatic
+territories. The Russians have long made persistent
+efforts to win back their own dissenters, whether from
+the various bodies of Raskolniks, or the Uniats, which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_519">[519]</span>
+latter were seduced from them by the Church of Rome.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_211" href="#Footnote_1_211" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>
+Besides this reclaiming work of her own people, foreign
+missionaries were, in the time of Alexander I., allowed
+to work among the heathen within the empire, and I
+have already noticed the London mission to the Buriats.
+The Synod, however, put a stop to this foreign work;
+and that their jealousy in this matter continues, I learnt
+from a Lutheran pastor, who, when he was taking up
+his residence near some of the native tribes, was bidden
+“not to busy himself as a missionary.”</p>
+
+<p>Compared with the Western Churches, whether
+Roman or Reformed, the Eastern Church has never
+been remarkable for missionary zeal, and I was therefore
+not a little surprised and pleased in Siberia to
+stumble unexpectedly upon the latest report (for 1876)
+of the “Orthodox Missionary Society,” published at
+Moscow the year before my visit. The book is
+of respectable size, extends to 100 pages, and the
+statistics are displayed with considerable fulness. At
+present it is with the Russians only the day of small
+things; but it should be borne in mind that 1876 was
+only the seventh year of the Society’s existence.</p>
+
+<p>Some particulars of this young Society will be interesting,
+the more so as I am able to supplement what
+I learned in Siberia by extracts from the report for
+1879, quoted in the <cite>Journal de St. Petersbourg</cite>, September
+7th, 1881. The Society has a central council,
+and branches in 29 dioceses, with 7,560 members, which
+means, I suppose, subscribers. Its capital in 1879
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_520">[520]</span>
+amounted to 660,000 roubles, of which 121,000 were
+spent during the year.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_212" href="#Footnote_2_212" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Among the remittances sent
+to the central council from associations is £77 from
+“the army and navy.” Again, there appears what I
+imagine to be a special fund for “propagating the
+orthodox faith among the heathen.” This is apart
+from their efforts among Mohammedans and Romanists;
+but the Russian Church has missions to the adherents
+of all religions within her empire, except Protestants.</p>
+
+<p>As for the spending of the money, it appears that the
+council and 27 associations distributed, among 19 missions,
+funds to the amount of £11,580. The 21 mission
+stations are, with one exception, within the bounds of
+the empire. The other mission, to which I have alluded
+in a previous chapter, is in Japan. I heard at Kasan
+that they have a missionary also in Jerusalem, New
+York, and San Francisco; but these, I presume, are
+chaplains. Their chief European pagan missions are
+in the governments of Astrakhan, Riazan, Perm, and
+Kasan, in which last are several semi-heathen tribes.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_213" href="#Footnote_3_213" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_521">[521]</span></p>
+
+<p>It is in Asiatic Russia, however, that most of the
+Society’s money is expended, and the conversion of
+5,000 Pagans is reported to have taken place in 1879.
+They have opened a school among the Samoyedes.
+They have also missions in Kamchatka (including
+probably, the Sea-coast province), upon which, in 1876,
+they expended £300, and from whence the following
+year, according to the Almanack, they obtained 606
+converts. The provinces, however, in which most
+money is spent are those of Tomsk, Irkutsk, and the
+Trans-Baikal. In the latter two are the Buriats,
+amongst whom the Russians have 30 mission stations
+and 68 missionaries.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_214" href="#Footnote_4_214" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> The province of Tomsk includes
+the region of the western chain of the Altai mountains,
+where schools and missions have been established for
+the Kirghese of the Steppes. In the Altai mission,
+during the first half of the year 1877, they enrolled 195
+converts. Further east they have missionaries, some
+of whom I met, among the Goldi and Gilyaks; but I
+shall speak of them when we come to their districts.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_522">[522]</span>
+At Blagovestchensk lives the Bishop of the diocese,
+who had been described to me as “a good missionary.”</p>
+
+<p>We stopped at Blagovestchensk on Tuesday, August
+5th, and I made my way to the telegraph station,
+where, as in other towns, thanks to good introductions,
+I received much kindness from the officials. When
+travelling to Barnaul, I chanced to light on a telegraph
+officer, Mr. Friis, whose name was on my list, and he
+told me of a brother officer in Tomsk who spoke
+English. At Irkutsk Mr. Larsen gave considerable
+linguistic help; so did Mr. Koch at Stretinsk; and
+now, at Blagovestchensk, I found a Mr. Niellsen, who
+had worked in London, and spoke English; and Mr.
+Peko, who spoke French and English too. Mr. Peko,
+I found, was the director of this station of first rank.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_215" href="#Footnote_5_215" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>
+When dining with the manager, Mr. Peko, and Mr.
+Niellsen, in the garden, I was interested to hear,
+among other scraps of professional information, that
+English is the best of languages for telegraphy, for
+that in it they can express more in few words than in
+any other. The Russians, they said, prefer to use
+English rather than their own language for telegrams.
+My nationality was further flattered in the town by a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_523">[523]</span>
+doctor’s wife telling me that to speak English was
+now in Siberia and Russia more fashionable than to
+speak French. Said she, “<i lang="fr">On peut oublier maintenant
+le Français pour apprendre l’Anglais.</i>”</p>
+
+<p>Blagovestchensk has a seminary for the training of
+priests, similar to those established in Russia by Peter
+the Great. He found his clergy exceedingly ignorant,
+and established these institutions for their sons, enjoining
+the bishops to support them with a twentieth part
+of the income from the monasteries. In these establishments,
+and others which have been added, are
+educated the rank and file of the Russian clergy.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_216" href="#Footnote_6_216" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>I did not once meet in Russia with a priest who
+could speak French, German, or English. Perhaps
+they throw their strength into patristic and ecclesiastical
+learning, since the parochial clergy are usually said to
+be not well instructed in secular studies. An instance
+was given me by an Englishman, who travelled in
+Siberia with a Russian archbishop, who one day asked
+the Englishman which had the greater population,
+London or San Francisco. Whereupon my wicked
+friend said, “Well, you see, London has a population
+of two hundred thousand, and San Francisco four
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_524">[524]</span>
+millions.” “Ah!” said the archbishop with satisfaction,
+“I thought so; I thought San Francisco was the
+larger!”</p>
+
+<p>Those students who wish to attain to the higher
+degrees of learning, on leaving the seminary, proceed
+to one of the ecclesiastical academies which correspond
+to our universities, and where they can take the
+degrees of student, candidate, master, and doctor of
+theology. There is no theological faculty in the
+Russian universities, but it is now required that all
+who are to be consecrated bishops shall have passed
+through the academy.</p>
+
+<p>To return, however, to the seminary: the students
+enter at the age of eight, and remain normally till
+twenty-two, when they receive a diploma, which is
+accepted by the bishop, and the candidate without
+further examination is ordained.</p>
+
+<p>The case of one of these students presented a
+curious instance of the working of the inconsistent
+requirement of the Russian Church, that the parochial
+clergy at the time of their ordination <em>must</em> be married.
+“Do you see that boy running about on the deck?”
+said a fellow-passenger to me, pointing to one of the
+seminary students. “He is nineteen years old, and is
+returning to the seminary for the last time. In the
+course of a few months his mother is to find him a
+wife, and next year he will return to be married, and
+then immediately ordained!”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_217" href="#Footnote_7_217" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> This would be before
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_525">[525]</span>
+the canonical age for ordination, but was owing to the
+lack of clergy in the Primorsk, in which there are
+about 50 congregations with churches or chapels.
+Between Nikolaefsk and Vladivostock, a distance of
+1,300 miles, are only 14 priests and 2 deacons; and so
+pressing was the need of clergy a few years since that
+tradesmen, letter carriers, and even yemstchiks in some
+few instances were ordained.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Peko accompanied me at Blagovestchensk to
+call upon Mr. Petroff, the deputy-governor, from whom
+I learned that there was only one prison in the province,
+having 26 rooms. We visited it, but the only
+notes I have are “dirty and overcrowded,” and
+“punishment cells all full,” some having two men in
+a place not too large for one. What made the prison
+so full I know not, nor am I able to say whether they
+were local offenders from the province or exiles temporarily
+there on their way eastwards. There were
+none lounging about in the yard, so I suppose they
+had all been gathered for our inspection. The punishment
+cells being occupied was not, as far as I know,
+because the men had misbehaved, but because they
+were compelled to use all available space. Moreover,
+since the prison authorities seem to look upon solitary
+confinement as so great a punishment, it may be that
+two were put in some of the cells for the sake of
+company. I remember that when I spoke to the
+president of the Tomsk prison approving the separate
+as opposed to the gang system, he thought it was
+decidedly bad to put a <i lang="ru">moujik</i>, or simple peasant, in a
+cell alone; for “having nothing to think about,” he
+said, “he might go mad!” This good man informed
+me, too, in connection with my self-imposed mission,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_526">[526]</span>
+that the prisoners did not want so much religion, but
+liked also books of history, travels, etc. This I knew,
+but since three wagonloads did not more than suffice
+for the little I attempted, and my means were limited
+both as to carriage and in other ways, I was only too
+thankful to take so many books as we did, and leave
+it to other philanthropists to complete the work. I
+left 50 New Testaments and 12 wall pictures at
+Blagovestchensk with Mr. Petroff for the prison, for
+the 20 rooms of his two hospitals and a school in the
+course of erection, with four rooms for prisoners’
+children.</p>
+
+<p>Near the hospital were summer Cossack barracks,
+put together in the most primitive fashion. The ordinary
+barracks needing repair, they had cut branches of
+trees and leafy underwood, tied them in fagots, and
+stood them up so as to form walls and roof, which
+gave tolerable shelter for hot weather, but served as
+poor protection from wind and rain. They were
+intended, however, to last only for a few weeks.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp38" id="p5262_ill" style="max-width: 47.5625em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p5262_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      A STAROVERS OR OLD BELIEVERS’ COUNTRY CHURCH.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>From these summer barracks there was a fine view
+of the river and town. The houses are situated on a
+plain 15 feet or 20 feet above the water. The Government
+establishments and merchants’ stores are large
+and well built, each having plenty of space around it.
+Some of them have gardens, and stretching along the
+bank from the wharf to the roomy telegraph office is a
+green sward planted with trees for a park. Blagovestchensk
+has a population of only 3,400, but its long
+river front and its cross streets give it the appearance
+of an important town. Some of the shops were
+excellent, and well supplied with merchandise. The
+town was founded in 1858, and the Amur Company
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_527">[527]</span>
+kept there one of its principal stores. On the winding
+up of its affairs, this store was bought by the
+company’s clerk. Mr. Knox says, in 1866, that the
+Russian officers complained of the combinations among
+the merchants to maintain prices at an exorbitant
+scale. I heard, too, that this is still done. If, for
+instance, in the middle of the winter a merchant discovers
+that his brother tradesmen have sold all their
+sugar or any other article, and that his stock is all the
+town possesses, then, knowing that no more can arrive
+till the ice goes and the navigation opens, he can
+demand higher prices for goods of which he has a
+monopoly. Candles were quoted to me as costing
+usually 11<i>d.</i> or 1<i>s.</i> per lb., but as rising sometimes to
+2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> Cheese costs from 2<i>s.</i> to 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> per lb., but I
+suppose that these articles must be of European or
+American manufacture. Chickens at Blagovestchensk
+vary from 6<i>d.</i> to 2<i>s.</i> each, veal from 4<i>d.</i> to 5<i>d.</i>, and
+beef from 2½<i>d.</i> to 4<i>d.</i> per lb. Milk costs 2<i>d.</i> per pint
+in summer, and 4<i>d.</i> in winter; live geese, bought
+from the Manchu, cost from 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> to 4<i>s.</i>; but in
+winter, from the Molokans, 5<i>s.</i> In connection with
+these prices should be quoted the cost of land, which
+may be purchased from the Government for 2<i>s.</i> an
+acre.</p>
+
+<p>I was told that the town is full of dissenters. I did
+not hear of any Starovers or Old Believers, nor observe
+on any church the <em>three</em> transverse beams of their form
+of the cross; but there were many Molokans,—colonists,
+I suppose, or descendants of exiles. Their
+presence, doubtless, accounts for a good deal of the
+prosperity of the town, for they are “honest, sober,
+and industrious.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_528">[528]</span></p>
+
+<p>The <i lang="ru">Molokans</i> are so called because they drink milk
+on the usual fasting days. Their origin is involved in
+obscurity, and by some is dated back to the middle of
+the last century. Early in the present century many
+were living in the south of Russia. An English gentleman,
+residing at Berdiansk in 1848, visited their villages,
+and from his wife I learn that Salamatin, the
+Molokan chief, and his family were pious, but very
+simple, uneducated people. My friend used sometimes
+to invite them to her table. She tells me that their
+enlightenment came, to all appearance, simply from
+reading the Bible. They found there the worship of
+images forbidden, and accordingly declined to bow down
+before them, on which account some were persecuted,
+even to bodily pain, but to no purpose; they would
+not give way. Blunt’s “Dictionary of Sects” says
+that a Baron Haxthausen, in 1843, visited a colony of
+3,000 Molokans in the Crimea, and found that they
+denied the necessity of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
+With Blunt’s statement partly agrees what my friend
+told me, namely, that some important official came to
+visit the Molokans in her neighbourhood (not, however,
+in the Crimea, but in the government of Ekaterinoslav,
+which was then their habitation, their villages
+being situated on the banks of the Moloshna), and
+found so little objectionable among them, and so much
+that was good, that the official gave them an excellent
+character, and they were afterwards left unmolested.
+Also their alleged disuse of baptism and the Lord’s
+Supper seems to agree with what I heard of them
+from a fellow-traveller, who lodged in the house of a
+Molokan; for he told me that on Sundays they hold
+meetings, read the Scriptures, pray, sing, expound the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_529">[529]</span>
+Bible, and ask questions, but he thought they did not
+baptize nor receive the Lord’s Supper. But I remember
+my lady friend telling me that when the Molokans
+separated from, or were turned out of, the Russian
+Church, they had no priests nor any person of education
+to guide them, nor have they priests now, but
+only elders; hence, if they are without sacraments, I
+am not clear whether it is from choice or necessity.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_218" href="#Footnote_8_218" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>
+My fellow-passenger spoke in high terms of the
+Molokans of Blagovestchensk. He said he never
+saw any of them intoxicated, or even enter a tavern;
+that he rarely or never saw them out of temper, or
+heard them use bad language; and that they spent
+their spare time in reading the Scriptures.</p>
+
+<p>But this does not save them from annoyance. Their
+manner of living at Blagovestchensk has enabled
+many of the Molokans to become rich, so that they can
+hire servants. An old Russian law, however, forbids
+a Molokan to employ an orthodox Russian. The
+Russians, notwithstanding, like to serve the Molokans,
+because they are good masters, and pay well. Hence
+the law has become practically obsolete; but the
+summer before my visit, the police-master (a man of
+anything but exemplary moral character), having a
+grudge against a principal Molokan, and, Haman-like,
+thinking scorn to lay hands on one only, began doing
+his best to annoy the whole of them in the town.
+How the matter ended I did not hear.</p>
+
+<p>I saw, before I left Siberia, an official confirmation
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_530">[530]</span>
+of the good opinion I was led to form of the Molokans.
+The governor of a province wrote officially to Petersburg
+thus: “We have 105 Molokans, most of them
+living in the South Ussuri district. They are living
+quietly, and are very laborious, and amenable to authority.
+They are civil in their bearing towards the
+members of the orthodox Church, and are not fanatical.”
+Looking, therefore, at this triple testimony,
+and comparing the lives of the Molokans with the
+lives of the orthodox, I felt that to bring the orthodox
+into contact with the Molokans would be likely to
+improve the orthodox rather than otherwise, and that
+the Tsar would have more good subjects than he now
+has if he had more Molokans.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_211" href="#FNanchor_1_211" class="label">[1]</a> The number of dissenters is duly tabulated in the official reports sent
+to the Emperor. Thus, in one of them I was permitted to see was written,
+“No case has occurred during the year of dissenters being reclaimed, but
+we have in the province, as last year, 140 of both sexes of Bezpopoftschins,
+and 105 Molokans.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_212" href="#FNanchor_2_212" class="label">[2]</a> The amount collected in boxes at church doors in 1876 was 30,100
+roubles 37½ kopecks, and from other sources 111,598 roubles 28¼ kopecks,
+making a total of 141,698 roubles 65¾ kopecks—say £17,712 (reckoning
+the rouble <em>in this chapter</em> at half-a-crown, its approximate value at the date
+of the report), besides £1,537 paid to the council by local committees. A
+comparison is drawn between 1876 and the previous six years, and shows
+an advance over 1875 of 890 members and £500. The Society has six
+associations in Siberia, of which Irkutsk has the largest number of members—490,
+and raises the largest amount of money—£3,470. There is
+also a list of “special donations” in 1876, which were invested; one
+donation of 40 roubles, or £5; two of 50 roubles; one of 60; six of 100;
+one of 200; and one, the largest, of 300 roubles, or £37.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_213" href="#FNanchor_3_213" class="label">[3]</a> The results obtained by the Society in 1879 in the region of the Volga,
+inhabited chiefly by Mohammedans, are much less than in Asia, the opposition
+being so great that for the present the missionaries can only prepare
+the way. To this end, schools might become a powerful auxiliary. Some
+tribes, such as the Tcheremisses and the Votyaks, for example, show an
+inclination for instruction; but the want of funds prevents the extension
+of the Russian school system to the Mohammedan villages. The same is
+seen with the Kalmuks of Astrakhan, who would welcome schools, and
+gladly abandon their nomad and heathen congeners to settle upon lands
+assigned to them. At Noire-Cherinsk, 12 families began the construction
+of houses, but for lack of money failed to complete them, and asked the
+Government for an advance of £3 for each family. At Oulane-Ergansk,
+certain families have come to settle, and already are giving themselves to
+agriculture.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_214" href="#FNanchor_4_214" class="label">[4]</a> One of their triumphs in 1879 was the conversion of the learned lama,
+Taptchine-Nagbou-Mangolaiew, who was first impressed by the Russian
+Church services he attended from the preceding year at Chita and Verchne
+Udinsk, where, after the manner of the missionaries, the service and
+singing is, I believe, in the vernacular. This man was baptized in the
+waters of the Baikal, from which he takes his present name of Vladimir
+Baikalsky. He understands seven languages—Manchu, Chinese, Mongolian,
+Thibetan, Sanscrit, Latin, and Russ, and has accepted the post
+of Professor of Mongolian in one of the missionary colleges.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_215" href="#FNanchor_5_215" class="label">[5]</a> The Government authorized, so far back as 1861, the construction of
+a telegraphic line from Nikolaefsk, up the Amur, to Khabarofka, which
+was to continue thence to the southernmost point of the Russian territories
+on the Sea of Japan. The telegraph line from Kasan to Omsk was
+to be opened in the same year; from Omsk to Irkutsk in 1862, and thence
+undertaken in 1863 to Kiakhta and Khabarofka, the Amur Company
+agreeing to do the work and the Minister of Marine to provide the funds,
+the Government guaranteeing 5 per cent. on the outlay. The rates for
+telegrams in Russia and Siberia are:—</p>
+
+<table class="autotable">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Within a</td>
+<td class="tdl">radius</td>
+<td class="tdr">of 66</td>
+<td class="tdl">miles,</td>
+<td class="tdl">1</td>
+<td class="tdc">shilling for</td>
+<td class="tdl">20</td>
+<td class="tdl">words.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+<td class="tdr">660</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+<td class="tdr">2</td>
+<td class="tdl">shillings</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+<td class="tdr">1,000</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+<td class="tdr">4</td>
+<td class="tdc">”&emsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Beyond</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+<td class="tdr">6</td>
+<td class="tdc">”&emsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+<td class="tdc">”</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_216" href="#FNanchor_6_216" class="label">[6]</a> Upon my return journey on the Amur, I met on the boat some of the
+students going back to Blagovestchensk after their holidays, and from
+them and their teacher I got the following information respecting their
+place of education. Priests’ sons are provided with education, food, and
+clothing free; other scholars pay for food and clothing. They are at the
+seminary ten months and a half during the year, and have the remaining
+six weeks for holidays. They have six classes, and stay two years in
+each, with four lectures daily, and read from eight till two. At the
+seminary at Blagovestchensk, in 1878, there were 50 students and nine
+professors, namely, of Latin, mathematics, Greek (no Hebrew), theology,
+philosophy, the Bible, Russ, Manchu, physics, music, etc. The students,
+I was told, on leaving, usually know a little Latin and Greek, and may
+learn modern languages; but this last, in Russia, is not compulsory.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_217" href="#FNanchor_7_217" class="label">[7]</a> I have called this requirement of the Russian Church inconsistent
+because they interpret St. Paul’s words, that a deacon should be the
+husband of one wife, so literally as not to ordain a bachelor as parish
+clergyman; and yet, though St. Paul gives the same injunction concerning
+a bishop, they will not consecrate a priest to the episcopate so long
+as he is married.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_218" href="#FNanchor_8_218" class="label">[8]</a> The Molokans of Ekaterinoslav were not indifferent to the sacraments,
+for Salamatin, their then chief, was wont to baptize by immersion;
+and as for the Lord’s Supper, they celebrated it sitting round a table, each
+communicant receiving a piece of bread broken from one loaf, and the cup
+was afterwards passed round to each member.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_531">[531]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XLII">
+    CHAPTER XLII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE MIDDLE AMUR.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Departure from Blagovestchensk.—The Zeya.—Climate.—Employment
+of time.—Russian tea-drinking.—The Bureya river and mountains.—Delightful
+scenery.—Ekaterino-Nicolsk.—Distribution of books and
+Scriptures.—Recognized by a passenger.—Prairie scenery.—Shooting
+a dog.—The Sungari.—Chinese exclusiveness.—Course of the river.—The
+Amur province.—An excise officer.—Remarks on alcohol.—Teetotalism
+in Russia.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>We</span> left Blagovestchensk on the morning of the
+6th of August, and soon found the river
+widened. A short distance below the town is the
+mouth of the Zeya, the largest affluent of the Amur
+we had yet seen.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_219" href="#Footnote_1_219" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>It was along the Zeya that the first Russians reached
+the Amur in 1643. Since the Russian occupation,
+5,000 peasants have been settled along the river, which
+is said to be navigable for steam three or four hundred
+miles from its mouth. It is, I believe, owing to the
+immense volume of water at times discharged by this
+river that Blagovestchensk is liable to serious inundations.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_532">[532]</span>
+At the time of my visit the town stood from
+20 to 30 feet above the river, but in the course of a
+few weeks, news reached the Lower Amur that Blagovestchensk
+was so deeply flooded that the water had
+risen to the telegraph wires, and that there were several
+feet of water in the houses of the town. I heard, subsequently,
+of a flood higher by five feet that took place
+in 1872.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond Blagovestchensk we experienced a decided
+rise in the thermometer. This town is on about the
+same parallel as London, and has a summer temperature
+not very different; but its winter climate is much more
+severe.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_220" href="#Footnote_2_220" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> So far as my own experience is concerned,
+I was highly favoured in the weather, for the only day
+on which any rain worth noticing fell was the last of
+July, on the Shilka. At the commencement of the
+voyage, at night, I put my maximum and minimum
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_533">[533]</span>
+thermometers out of the cabin window; but, having
+broken the latter on the 2nd of August, I am unable
+to say more than that the nights became very much
+warmer. On August 6th I noted that the heat was
+very great, and was doubly thankful in the morning
+for a cold bath. My cabin was about the size of an
+old-fashioned oblong church pew, with seats on the
+longer sides. These were too narrow to sleep upon,
+so I inflated my air bed and placed it on the floor;
+then in the morning it was necessary merely to remove
+the bed and unfold my bath previous to calling for
+water. I nowhere found in Russia or Siberia the use
+of “the tub” as English people now use it; and
+when on one occasion in Moscow I asked the landlord
+whether in the morning I could have a <em>cold</em> bath, he
+said he had never been asked for such a thing in his
+life!</p>
+
+<p>Time on board hung by no means heavily upon
+my hands; for, having received several papers of statistics
+and official information written in Russ, I was
+glad to get them translated by some of the ladies
+who spoke French. I thus had opportunities of receiving
+explanations upon points not quite clear, and of
+correcting wrong impressions. With this writing-up
+books I alternated letter-writing, both private and
+official, though it seemed to be not much use writing
+to England, since I expected to get there by crossing
+the Pacific in less time than a letter could do so by
+crossing Siberia. The captain, however, expected to
+meet a steamer that would take mails to Stretinsk,
+and I therefore wrote a number of “open letters,”
+as the Russians call them, if only that my friends
+might receive a penny post-card from the land of my
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_534">[534]</span>
+temporary exile. Among them, I remember, was one
+to Miss Frances Ridley Havergal, to whom I had
+written the previous year during my Archangel tour.
+I little thought at the time I was writing she had
+passed away, and that when crossing America I should
+read of her death.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_221" href="#Footnote_3_221" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>Thus, what with translating and writing, reading
+some small manuals I had brought on botany and
+geology, and gathering information on Russian affairs,
+the days passed happily enough. My fellow-voyagers
+were pleasant, and, after being thrown together for
+nearly a fortnight, we became quite sociable. The
+afternoon samovar was a great rallying-point, for
+Russians dearly love their tea—and not a little of it
+either. When two Moscow merchants have concluded
+a satisfactory bargain, they retire to a <i lang="ru">traktir</i>, or tea-shop,
+where they call for a samovar, drink so many
+potations and make themselves so hot, that they call
+for a towel to wipe off the perspiration, and then—“begin
+again.” Our cook replenished his pantry at
+Blagovestchensk, and so did I, for I bought up all
+the white bread I could find, and Mr. Peko kindly
+gave his parting guest both butter and cheese. On
+the first day we travelled 340 miles, to Ekaterino-Nicolsk.
+When we started, the river was 1,200 yards
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_535">[535]</span>
+in width, with soundings of 15 feet. At Aigun, 14
+miles lower, it had increased to 1,866 yards wide, and
+to 30 feet deep. The scenery during the early part of
+the day displayed an extensive plain, with no visible
+limit on the left hand, and bounded on the right by low
+ranges of hills. The soil of this prairie is clayey, with
+an upper stratum of rich black mould, which is covered
+with luxuriant grasses, attaining often the height of a
+man. Among them may be seen Manchurian panic
+grass, and succulent, broad-bladed kinds of which I do
+not know the names; also grape and pea vines, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_536">[536]</span>
+many varieties of flowers, among which the lily of the
+valley is so abundant as to fill the air with its fragrance.
+Small shrubs of cinnamon-rose are hidden everywhere
+by the grass, and, with vetches and other climbing
+plants, render travelling over these prairies, as Mr.
+Collins testifies, extremely difficult.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp50" id="p5350_ill" style="max-width: 66.875em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p5350_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      RUSSIAN PEASANT, WITH SAMOVAR.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Below Aigun, the country on the north continues
+flat, and is covered with a rich black soil, in places
+fourteen inches thick. About 30 miles below Aigun,
+the river divides into many channels, and the right
+bank in several places is scooped out and steep. On
+the left are extensive shallows and sandbanks—some
+barren, others covered with grasses and willows. Of
+this last there are nine species on the river. The
+natives use the bark for making ropes. At Skobeltsina,
+160 miles below Blagovestchensk, the Bureya
+comes in from the north, after a course of 703 miles.
+This river flows through a level prairie country, diversified
+by clumps of oaks and maples. At its mouth it has
+a breadth of half a mile. Beyond this stream the south
+bank rises, and toward the latter part of the day we
+found ourselves not far from the Bureya mountains,
+where the hills approached close to the river. Coal
+seams from three to four inches thick, resembling
+cannel coal, have been discovered in this district. The
+lower portions of the hills were wooded with small
+oaks, and on more elevated parts were denser forests
+of young oak and black birch. In shady ravines are
+found groves of white birch and aspen, and in open
+situations, and on the islands, various kinds of willows,
+limes, bird-cherry trees, small Tatar apples, elms, the
+Manchu ash, the Mongol oak, and a few cork trees of
+small size. Hazels also grow here, and at the skirt of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_537">[537]</span>
+the forest may be found the vine climbing the trees to
+the height of 15 feet. The most characteristic shrub of
+these forests is the Manchurian virgin’s bower, the
+numerous white blossoms of which contribute not a
+little to its beauty.</p>
+
+<p>We were favoured with a delightful evening for our
+journey through the Bureya mountains, the scenery of
+which reminded me forcibly of some parts of the
+Danube.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_222" href="#Footnote_4_222" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Bureya, or Little Khingan, mountains cross the
+valley of the Amur at nearly right angles. They are
+of mica schist, clay slate, and granite. Porphyry has
+been found in one locality, and there are said to exist
+indications of gold. As we journeyed down the stream
+in the evening light, the tortuous course of the river
+added much to the beauty of the scene. Almost every
+minute the picture changed, hill, forest, and cliff giving
+variety to the prospect as we wound our way through
+the defile. Here and there were tiny cascades breaking
+over the steep rocks to the edge of the river, and
+occasionally a little meadow nestled in a ravine. At
+times one seemed completely enclosed in a lake, from
+which there was no escape visible save by climbing the
+hills, and it was impossible to discover any trace of an
+opening half a mile ahead. And thus we travelled
+on, till at dusk we arrived for the night at Ekaterino-Nicolsk,
+a settlement of 300 houses, standing on a
+plateau 40 feet above the river. Here I found a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_538">[538]</span>
+church, which was approached through an avenue of
+trees in a public garden. I afterwards learned that
+specimens of all the trees in the region were planted
+there; but when I entered it, the light was too far
+gone to allow of my seeing more than that we had
+come to beauties of vegetation superior to anything I
+had yet beheld in Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>The arrival of a steamer at Ekaterino-Nicolsk is
+not an event that takes place daily throughout the
+year, and the whistle draws a large proportion of the
+population to the river’s bank—some to sell garden
+produce, some to meet friends, and some to look on.
+These little crowds afforded me excellent opportunities
+for distributing my tracts, and selling or giving away
+the Scriptures. A large proportion of the Russian
+colonists get their living by supplying fuel for the
+steamers. In 1866 the Government used wood to the
+value of £6,000, and private firms £1,200; and as we
+had frequently to stop at these wood stations, I was
+able to go on shore, and leave my printed messengers
+in the most out-of-the-way places, where they were
+always thankfully received, and often gladly purchased.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_223" href="#Footnote_5_223" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>This attracted the attention of the passengers, who
+wished also to purchase. One day, on the Shilka, I
+sold more than 30 copies, some of them to very poor-looking
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_539">[539]</span>
+persons. A merchant on board wished to
+invest largely, but I was unwilling to sell wholesale,
+preferring rather to scatter my stock over as wide an
+area as possible. I found, moreover, that travelling
+merchants in Siberia ask a shilling for the books I
+was selling at sixpence; and though, considering the
+difficulties of carriage from Petersburg, this was not
+perhaps exorbitant, yet I wished rather to bring my
+wares directly within reach of as many purchasers as
+possible, and even to <em>give</em> them, if necessary, in lonely
+and far-off places. We reached some out-of-the-way
+spots on the Obi by sending parcels of books to the
+priests, with a letter, but this I was unable to do on the
+Upper and Middle Amur.</p>
+
+<p>The curiosity of my fellow-passengers was of course
+aroused by what appeared to them my strange proceedings,
+and they hit upon various conjectures as to
+who and what I might be. It has not unfrequently
+been my experience to find, after curiosity has subsided,
+that my distributing religious literature has
+secured for me many attentions and acts of kindness
+from those who, before reading the tracts, were disposed
+to be prejudiced and perhaps opposed. I found
+this particularly the case in Siberia, though I was
+hardly prepared to learn that the intelligence of what
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_540">[540]</span>
+I had done three years before in Finland had reached
+the Amur. On the second day, however, between
+Blagovestchensk and Khabarofka, a passenger, who
+had come on board the previous day, espied my name
+on my luggage, and, coming on deck, he asked if I
+had travelled round the Gulf of Bothnia. On receiving
+a reply in the affirmative, he said he had read of my
+tour, which had been translated by my Finnish friend
+for a paper called the <cite>Helsingfors Dagblad</cite>. He thus
+remembered what I had done, and was abundantly
+willing to be of service if he could. His name was
+M. Emil Kruskopf, an inspector in the telegraph
+service, and he performed several kindnesses for me
+unasked. He had been flattered as a Finn by the
+way I had spoken of the Scandinavian steamers, and
+thus I found that a kind word was bearing its fruit
+after many days, and far from the place where it was
+spoken.</p>
+
+<p>Among the crowd who came to look on at Nicolsk
+was the priest, to whom I gave some pamphlets and
+some copies of the <cite>Russian Workman</cite>. Next morning
+we departed, hoping by nightfall to reach Khabarofka.
+After proceeding a short distance the mountains
+receded on the left, and, a little lower, on the right
+also. Then appeared two islands, the one on the right
+being about half a mile long and a few yards high,
+covered with birches and elms, in the shade of which
+grasses grow to the height of six feet. The second
+island is a steep rock. The depth of the river continued
+to be 70 feet.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_224" href="#Footnote_6_224" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_541">[541]</span></p>
+
+<p>The country in this part is the most desolate along
+the whole course of the Amur; though, with us, the
+monotony of the afternoon was enlivened by a cry that
+a bear was swimming across the river. And, surely
+enough, there was the head of <em>some</em> animal above the
+water, not very far from the steamer, though I confess
+it did not appear to me to be that of a bear. Some of
+the passengers went below for their revolvers and rifles,
+and began to fire, much to the excitement of every one
+on board. The captain stopped the ship, and as the
+animal came nearer, the shot entered the water so
+close to his nose that he raised himself to see what
+was the matter. At last a bullet struck him in the
+head, and the discolored water proclaimed a fatal
+shot. A boat was lowered, and some of the crew put
+off, but only to find that all the excitement had been
+bestowed upon an unfortunate dog!</p>
+
+<p>We passed the mouth of the Sungari, on the southern
+bank of the Amur, 992 miles below Ust-Strelka.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_225" href="#Footnote_7_225" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> The
+Sungari, with its affluents, drains the larger portion
+of Manchuria. Very little is known about it, though
+its valley is said to be tolerably well peopled and
+fertile.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_226" href="#Footnote_8_226" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_542">[542]</span></p>
+
+<p>We had now reached the most southerly bend of the
+Amur, and had entered a somewhat different climate
+from that of the Bureya range, for these mountains are
+cooler than either of the prairies above or below
+them.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_227" href="#Footnote_9_227" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>Below the Sungari the level prairie continues along
+the left bank of the Amur. On the right bank a
+range of hills accompanies the river for a distance of
+20 miles, and at the villages of Dyrki, Etu, and
+Kinneli are bold cliffs. The hills are covered with an
+open forest. Underneath them a luxuriant herbage
+shoots up to the height of five feet, and in July are
+seen the numerous red flowers of the Lespedeza, the
+blue blossoms of vetches, large white umbels of the
+Biotia, and catkins of the Sanguisorba. On the shores
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_543">[543]</span>
+of the islands in the river are heaped up the bleached
+trunks of fallen trees and driftwood.</p>
+
+<p>As we drew towards the end of our voyage, we
+were approaching likewise the confines of the Amur
+province, which is at once the smallest and least
+populous of the provinces of Siberia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_228" href="#Footnote_10_228" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> There are
+31 stations between Blagovestchensk and Khabarofka,
+the distance is 560 miles, and I paid for first-class fare
+£2 10<i>s.</i> The largest of the stations and the most
+important is Michael Semenovsk, about 17 miles below
+the mouth of the Sungari, so named in honour of a
+Governor-General of Eastern Siberia. It is a military
+post, and rejoices in the possession of two iron guns
+pointing over the river in the direction of China,
+though they are said to be utterly useless for purposes
+of war, and can only be employed for firing salutes.</p>
+
+<p>At this place we put off some of our passengers,
+and among them the wife of the artillery officer whom
+we had first seen as far back as Kansk, and with
+whom we had been brought in contact on the Baikal,
+and again on the Shilka. It looked as if our acquaintance
+was now to cease, but it was not so; for when I
+reached Vladivostock this lady appeared again, at a
+distance of more than 3,000 miles from where we first
+met. I had made another acquaintance also since
+leaving Blagovestchensk, one Baron Stackelberg. This
+gentleman had been sent to the Amur to put the screw
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_544">[544]</span>
+on in the matter of excise. At the annexation of the
+country, the Government was so anxious to people it
+that they promised emigrants immunity from taxes for
+20 years, and this time was nearly up. The Baron had,
+therefore, to put things in order, and had been doing
+so since 1875, when he crossed Siberia by land and
+happened to fall in and travel with Mr. Milne, to
+whose journey across Europe and Asia I have alluded
+in a previous chapter. The Baron spoke pleasingly
+of his journey with his English friend, as he called
+him, and he was evidently disposed to give a second
+Englishman a welcome. He spoke French fluently,
+and gave me some interesting statistics about alcohol,
+which is the principal source of the Government
+revenue both in Russia and Siberia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11_229" href="#Footnote_11_229" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> I hesitate,
+from my own experience, to endorse the opinion sometimes
+expressed, that the Russians, as a people, are
+more intemperate than the English. Among them, it
+is true, the vice seems to pass for less sin and for less
+shame than with us; but England has the unenviable
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_545">[545]</span>
+notoriety of arresting in one year 203,989 persons for
+crimes in which drunkenness is entered as part of the
+charges! I can present no statistics on the number
+of drunkards in Russia. One does see a great many,
+certainly, on a festival. I was lamenting this to a
+Russian lady, when she acknowledged its truth, but
+reminded me that with them the evil is confined
+chiefly to men; and without doubt, whatever comparison
+may be instituted between the two countries
+with regard to drunkenness among the male sex, they
+have no town in Russia which has more drunken
+women than men—that apprehends in a single year
+6,276 females to 5,537 males, or 32 drunkards a day!
+For this, alas! we must look to England—to Liverpool.
+Still, drunkenness is a most fruitful cause of
+crime in Russia, as witnessed by what I saw and heard
+in the prisons at Tiumen, Tobolsk, and Barnaul; and
+it may very well be questioned whether the evil habits
+among Russians of gambling, drunkenness, and idleness
+are not in part to be traced to the very large
+number of holy days in their calendar, on many of
+which they abstain from work more completely than on
+Sundays. They fast rigorously and long, and then, at
+the close, break out in excess.</p>
+
+<p>Teetotalism has not yet made much way among the
+Russian people or clergy. I chanced, indeed, to be
+dining in Petersburg in company with a gentleman,
+who said that the priest of his country parish was an
+abstainer, whom he sometimes invited to dinner; and
+when he would give him a little red wine for his
+stomach’s sake, the priest declined, saying that if he
+did not abstain altogether he might soon become a
+drunkard, because invited so often to drink by his
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_546">[546]</span>
+parishioners. This case, however, was sufficiently
+uncommon to cause a lady present to observe that
+she had never heard of an abstaining priest before.
+Accordingly, it is with great satisfaction I have observed
+from the newspapers that the matter has been
+under the consideration of the present Emperor, and
+that his Majesty has called in certain experts to advise
+on the subject. God send them help against this
+national curse, the demon of intemperance!</p>
+
+<p>My meeting with Baron Stackelberg had an important
+bearing on my wanderings; for I had intended,
+on arriving at Khabarofka, to leave the Amur, and
+proceed direct up the Ussuri to Vladivostock. But
+so it was not to be, and in less than 24 hours I found
+myself going 1,250 miles out of my way, and in the
+opposite direction. But before leaving the Chinese
+border I must say something of the southern bank of
+the Amur, concerning which and its inhabitants I have
+hitherto been almost silent.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_219" href="#FNanchor_1_219" class="label">[1]</a> This river rises in the Yablonoi range, and pursues a course of 700
+miles to the south-east, receiving several affluents from the east before
+it flows into the main stream. At its mouth it is nearly a mile wide,
+and in some places 35 feet deep. Its swift, turbid, yellowish waters are
+no mean addition to the black waters of the Sak-hah-lin, as the natives
+call the Amur. For some distance below the junction the two colors are
+distinctly visible; but finally the black dragon swallows up his yellow
+neighbour, and flows on majestically towards the ocean.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_220" href="#FNanchor_2_220" class="label">[2]</a> The greatest heat, in July 1877, at Blagovestchensk was 89°·2, and
+at Greenwich 88°·2; but the greatest cold, in December, at Blagovestchensk
+was 32° below zero, as compared with 28°·7, the greatest cold
+at Greenwich. Speaking generally of the weather at Blagovestchensk,
+Mr. Ravenstein remarks that in the winter of 1859–60 it was fine until
+the middle of October. On the 4th November snow fell, and soon
+after the river was frozen. During December and January it was
+fine though cold, the temperature falling occasionally to 45° below zero,
+and at one time to 49°, and never rising more than 9°·5 above it.
+Violent storms occurred during November, and again in February. On
+the 2nd of April was the first thaw. Between the 6th and 9th of
+May the river became free of ice, and the last snow fell on the 12th,
+but without remaining on the ground. The greatest heat during the
+summer was 99°. The district of the Middle Amur enjoys a more
+favourable climate than the Upper Amur, though only so far as the
+summer months are concerned. These are free from hoar-frost, which,
+on the upper part of the river, is often destructive to the harvest. The
+winter is quite as long, and the Amur at Blagovestchensk is frozen over
+from the beginning of November to the commencement of May; and
+the Zeya some three weeks longer. The quantity of snow, however, is
+not too great to allow of the Manyargs keeping their horses throughout
+the winter pasturing in the open air.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_221" href="#FNanchor_3_221" class="label">[3]</a> I wrote also to General Kaznakoff, the Governor-General of Western
+Siberia, at Omsk, requesting that the Scriptures, which I had arranged
+for the interpreter to take to Tiumen to be forwarded thence, might be
+distributed through the provinces of Akmolinsk and Semipolatinsk; so
+that, with what I hoped to do in the Sea-coast province, I began to look
+upon my plans for the supply of the Siberian prisons as all but completed.
+The boxes containing these books did not reach Tiumen till
+the autumn; they were some time on the road to Omsk; but when I last
+heard of them, they had reached their destination, and were about to be
+distributed.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_222" href="#FNanchor_4_222" class="label">[4]</a> At the entrance of the defile, 783 miles below Ust-Strelka, and on the
+north bank, is situated the station Pashkof. On the opposite bank rises
+the bold promontory of Sverbeef, projecting far into the river. From a
+breadth of two miles the Amur suddenly decreases to 700 yards, the
+depth in many places reaching to 70 feet, and thus it flows for 100 miles
+to Ekaterino-Nicolsk. The current sweeps along at the rate of three miles,
+and in some places attains as much as 5½ miles an hour.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_223" href="#FNanchor_5_223" class="label">[5]</a> Another opportunity had occurred on the Upper Amur, on our meeting
+a steamer lugging an immense two-decked barge laden with seamen,
+who had finished their term of service in the Pacific, and were returning
+homewards with their wives and children. Their barge had the appearance
+of a huge Mississippi steamer loaded with passengers above and below, and
+as we approached they hailed us. Our captain was not then out of
+shallow water, and as he knew the commander of the approaching steamer
+he deemed it advisable to drop alongside and ask about the condition of
+the river, exchange a few kindly words, and perhaps drink with his brother
+navigator a glass of tea, or something stronger. I, too, went on board,
+and sold 20 New Testaments in as many minutes, distributing also several
+papers and books. I wished to make the captain a present of some New
+Testaments for the use of the crews of his two boats, but he preferred to
+buy them, and gave me 3½ roubles for 14 copies, to which I added some
+placards, etc. The captains, too, of the <i>Zeya</i> and the <i>Ingoda</i> bought
+some for their crews in preference to my giving them. I had, however,
+already nailed up some of my pictures in both cabins of the two boats,
+and placed in each a copy of the New Testament for the use of the
+passengers, as was done also for the boats by which we travelled on the
+Obi and the Kama.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_224" href="#FNanchor_6_224" class="label">[6]</a> From this part to the mouth of the Sungari the prairie extends as
+far as the eye can reach, and the banks of the river are in many places
+swampy. The stream increases in breadth, and has numerous islands
+covered with willows and other trees. The islands do not interfere with
+the navigation, as they are ranged along the two banks of the river, and
+leave an open channel between.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_225" href="#FNanchor_7_225" class="label">[7]</a> The color of the Sungari is lighter than the Amur, and Mr. Collins,
+who tasted the water, pronounces it insipid and warm, as coming from a
+southern source. The force of the current is about two knots, that of the
+Amur here being four knots. The Sungari is a mile and one-third in
+breadth at the mouth. It rises on the eastern slopes of the great Khingan,
+or Shan-alin, or White Mountains, and, being joined by many tributaries,
+runs in a southerly direction, till, meeting another affluent from the mountains
+which border on the Corea, it turns to the north-east, and, after a
+course of 1,000 miles, falls into the Amur.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_226" href="#FNanchor_8_226" class="label">[8]</a> The first large town up the river is San-sin, which Mr. Maximowicz
+the naturalist, in 1859, endeavoured to reach, but he was compelled to return
+on account of his hostile reception by the jealous and exclusive Chinese
+villagers. I met at Khabarofka a Russian merchant, who had proceeded
+up the river some distance to purchase corn; an attempt, however, in
+which he only partially succeeded,—and that little, I understood, through
+the mediation of a Roman Catholic missionary. By the Chinese treaty
+with Russia the Sungari is declared to be open for the purposes of commerce.
+It thus presents an unoccupied field for some enterprising pioneer
+who will thus push his way into Manchuria.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_227" href="#FNanchor_9_227" class="label">[9]</a> In the Bureya district in August thick fogs rest on the river in the
+morning, and the nights are cold. The amount of snow throughout the
+winter is about 4½ feet or more. The climate, however, on the Amur,
+which is most favourable, is that found between the mouths of the Sungari
+and Ussuri, though even here the river is ice-bound during five or six
+months. At Khabarofka it freezes about the end of November and opens
+in the beginning of May. Snow covers the ground to the depth of a foot
+or a foot and a half, and even 2½ feet in exceptional winters. Below the
+mouth of the Sungari the Amur divides into several streams, and many
+islands have been formed in its bed. The river, too, changes its course,
+and runs to the north-east, which seems to be a direct continuation of the
+Sungari. In fact, this river has been claimed by some as the parent river.
+The Russians, however, could well afford to allow the Chinese to establish
+this relationship, for then the Tsar would be entitled to the greater part of
+Manchuria, the treaty giving Russia all the land “north of the Amur,”
+to which John Chinaman would probably object.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_228" href="#FNanchor_10_228" class="label">[10]</a> It has an area of 173,000 square miles, and is about the size of
+Spain, its population amounting to only 22,000 persons. In this last
+respect it contrasts favourably with the neighbouring province of Yakutsk,
+which is eight times as large, but has only about 1,200 more inhabitants.
+The one town of the province is Blagovestchensk, where the Governor
+resides. The other habitations form mere villages situated on the banks
+of the river.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_229" href="#FNanchor_11_229" class="label">[11]</a> “Alcohol” is spirit obtained from corn and potatoes, and has 95
+degrees of strength; “vodka” is the same spirit weakened by water to
+40 degrees, and filtered. A bottle of alcohol costs at Vladivostock
+2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; a bottle of vodka 1<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i> The Baron was an Esthonian by birth,
+and he pointed out the remarkable fact that, whilst Esthonia relatively
+produced more brandy than did other Russian provinces, yet it had the
+smallest number of shops for its sale. Whether any moral could be
+drawn from this tale I know not; but I subsequently find on the same
+opening of my journal two noteworthy entries respecting the Amur. One
+is that the excise taxes for the Sea-coast province amounted in 1878 to
+rather more than 20 times the amount realized by all the remaining taxes
+put together; and the other is the official return to the Emperor, that
+“the chief causes of crime in the province are gambling and drunkenness.”
+Comment is needless, and I do not here stay to make any, except to
+observe how humiliating it is that any country which calls itself Christian,
+be it Russia or England, should derive its largest revenue from that
+which most demoralizes its subjects.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_547">[547]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XLIII">
+    CHAPTER XLIII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE MANCHURIAN FRONTIER.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Manchuria and its aboriginal inhabitants.—Their history.—The Daurians.—The
+Manchu.—Visit to Sakhalin-Ula-Hotun.—Manchu dress.—Music.—Conveyances.—Articles
+of commerce.—Treatment of dead.—Boats.—Methods
+of fishing.—Archery.—Town of Aigun.—Buildings.—Temples.—Difficulties
+of access.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>I have</span> said very little on what we saw in descending
+the Amur of the Daurians and Manchu, because
+I thought it better to reserve a separate chapter for these
+extra-Siberian people. Manchuria is bounded on the
+north by the Amur, on the east by the Ussuri, on the
+west by Dauria and Mongolia, and on the south by
+Corea and the Yellow Sea. It is, in fact, the country
+north of Peking, from which city the territory is governed,
+and with which its history is closely connected.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_230" href="#Footnote_1_230" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_548">[548]</span></p>
+
+<p>A few words should be said, perhaps, first of the
+Daurians, whose territory we passed whilst on the
+Upper Amur. Of old they were settled along both
+banks of the river, and doubtless may here and there
+be found still on the northern bank; but for the sake
+of clearness I have preferred to treat of them on the
+southern bank in their proximity to the Manchu, from
+whom they can scarcely be distinguished in appearance,
+and with whom they have more in common than with
+the natives of the north. The Daurians and Manchu,
+Mr. Howorth says, are of the same stock in every
+way. The division is a political one only. The
+Daurians probably represent the section who paid
+tribute to the Chinese Court, and the Manchu those
+who were free. Mr. Wahl says that “Daours” is a
+name given to the Tunguses of the Amur by the
+Buriats. The Daurians are taller and stronger than
+the Orochons, the countenance is oval and more
+intellectual, and the cheeks are less broad. The nose
+is rather prominent, and the eyebrows straight. The
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_549">[549]</span>
+skin is tawny, the hair brown. The lower classes do
+not shave the head, and their hair resembles an ill-constructed
+haystack, around which they twist their
+pigtail. The higher classes shave the head in front
+and over the temples, but wear a tail.</p>
+
+<p>The Daurians carry on agriculture successfully, and
+cultivate vegetables and tobacco. They live in houses
+made of earth, thatched with reeds or thin bamboos,
+and have the walls whitewashed inside. The houses
+are not divided into compartments, and the fireplace is
+outside, near the door, the smoke from it passing through
+a pipe into the house. Two iron kettles always form
+part of the household utensils, one of them for heating
+water for tea, the other for cooking the food. The
+windows are large and square, of paper soaked in oil.
+They are hinged at the top, and are propped open for
+ventilation. The religion of the Daurians is Shamanism.
+We saw their canoes from time to time when stopping
+at wood stations on the Upper Amur, but recognized
+few of the people themselves.</p>
+
+<p>We saw many Manchu from the Zeya to the Khingan
+mountains. The southern shores of the Amur
+are inhabited by Manchu and Chinese, the latter being
+either exiles or their descendants.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_231" href="#Footnote_2_231" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> On the south
+bank of the Amur, opposite Blagovestchensk, is a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_550">[550]</span>
+small Manchu town, called <i lang="ru">Sakhalin-Ula-Hotun</i> (City
+of the Black River). The Manchu and Chinese formerly
+called the river above the Sungari “Sakhalin-Ula.”
+The Goldi called the Amur “Mongo,” and the
+Gilyaks “Mamoo.” The name Amur was given by
+the Russians, and is considered a corruption of the
+Gilyak word. I paid a visit to Sakhalin-Ula on the
+evening our steamer stayed in the vicinity. It is said
+to have less than 2,000 inhabitants. I was accompanied
+by Mr. Niellsen, from the telegraph office at Blagovestchensk,
+who was slightly known to one of the Manchu
+merchants. The town stretches a mile along the bank,
+but extends only a few paces back from the river. It
+consists of a single street, and is anything but picturesque;
+for the fences, made of log-frames and
+covered with board, shut out the view of the gardens,
+in which are grown millet, maize, radishes, onions,
+leeks, garlic, Spanish pepper, and cabbages. The walls
+of the houses are of log plastered with mud, and the
+windows usually of paper, but occasionally of glass.</p>
+
+<p>The roofs of the buildings are covered with thatch
+of wheaten straw, and the town is embowered in elms,
+birches, maples, poplars, and wild apple-trees. This
+contrasts favourably with the Russian town, where
+there are few trees except those in the park. Timber,
+for use of both Russians and Manchu, is cut in the
+forests 60 miles up the river, and rafted down. They
+keep plenty of fowls and pigs, and a few horned cattle
+used for ploughing. Sakhalin-Ula abounds in gardens,
+which supply the market of Blagovestchensk. Once
+a month, during the full moon, the Manchu cross the
+river and open a fair, which lasts seven days. They
+sell the Russians wheaten and buckwheat flour, barley,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_551">[551]</span>
+beans, oats, eggs, walnuts, vegetables, Ussuri apples,
+fowls, pigs, cows, and horses. Thus the Russians
+usually lay in a month’s supply; but should they
+require anything out of fair-time, the Manchu are not
+only ready to supply it, but do so at lower prices than
+the sums asked by the Russian merchants.</p>
+
+<p>As we walked along the street we met a solitary
+woman, who ran quickly out of the way, as if afraid of
+us; and having made a long <i lang="fr">détour</i> from the road,
+regained it, and continued her journey behind us.
+The Manchu women dress like the Chinese, in a blue
+cotton gown, with short loose sleeves, above which
+the well-to-do wear a cape or mantle of silk, reaching
+to the waist. The hair is brushed up, fastened on
+the top of the head in a bunch, and is secured by a
+comb ornamented with beads and hair-needles, and
+decked with gay ribbons, with real or artificial flowers.
+The earrings, finger-rings, and bracelets exhibit much
+taste. The women are in the habit of carrying their
+youngest children about with them, tied on the back.
+The girls, on being released from swaddling-clothes, are
+dressed like their mothers; but the boys, up to six or
+seven years of age, wear only a pair of loose pantaloons.</p>
+
+<p>The costume of the men is a long blue coat of cotton,
+loose linen trousers fastened at the knee or made into
+leggings, and Chinese boots of skin. They wear also
+a kind of vest and a belt, to which is attached a case
+containing a knife, Chinese chopsticks, tinder, a small
+copper pipe, and tobacco. Both sexes are fond of
+smoking, and, as in China, constantly carry a fan.</p>
+
+<p>As we passed one of the houses, we saw a Manchu,
+sitting out in the cool of the evening, enjoying his
+music, which he produced by scraping a stringed instrument
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_552">[552]</span>
+of the violin order, though it is no compliment to
+the fiddle to mention the two together. At Khabarofka
+I saw other musical instruments, coming nearer to the
+shape of the banjo. One, with three strings, had a
+long handle of rosewood, and a drum about six inches
+in diameter. The drum was covered on either side
+with serpents’ skin, but if its sound was no more pleasing
+than that of the instrument at Sakhalin-Ula, I fear
+it would generally be thought trying to English ears.</p>
+
+<p>By dint of inquiry, we found the merchant to whom
+my companion was known, and, on entering his yard,
+saw some Mongolian sheep, with their enormous tails.
+It was not difficult to understand particularly fat
+Thibetan sheep needing a little carriage upon which to
+support this appendage. One could wish them better
+conveyances, however, than the Manchu carts, which
+are of a very clumsy description. They have two
+wheels fixed to the axletree, all turning together. They
+are drawn by oxen, and move slowly, creaking along.
+The Manchu have besides a rough kind of travelling
+carriage for persons of distinction, a two-wheeled affair,
+not long enough to allow one to lie at full length, nor
+with covering high enough to permit one to sit upright.
+It has no springs, the frame resting on the axle. The
+sides are curtained with cloth, having little windows or
+peep-holes. A few cushions and hard pillows inside
+serve to diminish the effect of jolting. The shafts are
+like those of a common dray, with a sort of shelf to
+support the driver sitting sideways about ten inches
+behind the horse. The wheel tires are of surprising
+breadth and thickness, and cogged as if made for use in
+a machine. In fact, a “machine” is exactly the word
+for the whole concern; and on coming out of the said
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_553">[553]</span>
+machine after a long journey, and its accompanying
+jolting over execrable roads, it may well be doubted
+whether one would not feel bruised “all over alike.”</p>
+
+<p>Our merchant friend gave us a hearty welcome, and
+bade us be seated in his house, which closely resembled
+the house of the merchant with whom we dined at
+Maimatchin. Usually, when a guest enters a Manchu
+dwelling, one of the women fills and lights a pipe, and
+having taken a few puffs herself, and wiped the mouthpiece
+with her hand or apron, presents it. The people
+in the house we visited were perfectly ready to show
+us anything and everything we desired to see. One
+of them was writing, with Indian ink and pen of split
+reed, or pencil of squirrel’s hair, when, upon observing
+that I watched him closely, he wrote my name in
+Chinese on a piece of paper, and gave it me as a
+souvenir, whilst I did the same in English, and so
+returned the compliment. They presented me also a
+bundle of joss-sticks for making a perfume, and which
+they burn before their idols.</p>
+
+<p>Adjoining the room in which we sat was the shop,
+where they arrayed me in silk dressing-gowns of
+splendid quality. Among the articles the Manchu
+sell to the Russians are silk stuffs, peltry, artificial
+flowers, felt shoes, matting, etc.; but I saw nothing
+that so tempted me as the silk dressing-gowns. I
+forbore to purchase one only because my companion
+told me that I should get them better and find a larger
+selection in Japan. We contented ourselves, therefore,
+with admiring them, to the amusement, apparently, of
+the Manchu, for they repeatedly imitated not only our
+speaking but our words and exclamations of surprise,
+and even our manner of laughing.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_554">[554]</span></p>
+
+<p>I heard in this town of a strange method of treatment
+of the dead, for Mr. Niellsen told me they were
+kept in the house for several days; they are then half
+buried in a funereal hut in the garden or field. The
+corpse is daily visited by the relatives, who bring all
+sorts of food and drink. The food is put to the mouth
+of the deceased with a spoon, and the drink is placed in
+small cups outside the hut. A few weeks pass in this
+manner, and then the decomposed corpse is buried deeper.</p>
+
+<p>Steaming away from Sakhalin-Ula, we passed several
+kinds of Manchu boats, which present a lively appearance
+on the river. The junks for heavy merchandise
+are about 60 feet long, from 12 to 14 feet wide, with
+high bows and sterns, and a large mast, 40 feet high,
+amidships. Most of them are built on the Sungari,
+and have a small hut-like construction at the stern.
+They draw from three to four feet of water, and are
+manned by a crew of ten,—eight for pushing at the
+poles, one to steer, and a pilot on the bows to sound
+and announce the depth of water. Smaller than the
+junks are the merchants’ boats, with an awning over
+the state-room, in which the merchant lives, whilst
+his crew and cargo are stowed in the forepart of the
+craft. A good deal of valuable merchandise is sometimes
+carried on board. I remember going to one of
+them at a stopping-place where the owner showed me
+a gold watch, said to be of English make, about which,
+however, when asked for an opinion, I was bound to
+express my doubts. I thought perhaps the man of
+business might be disposed to purchase my revolver,
+for which I had had no use, and found it somewhat in
+the way. I offered it, therefore, to him for what it
+cost me. He was accustomed only to the prices of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_555">[555]</span>
+the common Russian revolvers, whereas mine was
+of good English make. The figure, therefore, alarmed
+him, though, perhaps, after an hour’s patience, we
+might have come to terms; but the whistle sounded,
+and I had abruptly to close our negotiations and make
+for the steamer.</p>
+
+<p>A Manchu fishing-boat is made of the trunk of a
+hollowed-out tree, cut in two pieces, fastened with
+wooden pegs, and secured from leaking with pitch.
+The small ones are propelled by one man, with a
+double-bladed paddle. They also make flat-bottomed
+boats of planks. Most of them carry flags or streamers,
+and some have dragons’ heads on their bows.</p>
+
+<p>The traveller sometimes sees a novel method of
+fishing by the Manchu, who sit perched on a tripod of
+tent-poles, ten feet high, placed at the edge of the
+river. Here the fisherman waits, like a heron, watching
+for fish, which he catches with pole, net, or spear,
+according to circumstances. One would suppose the
+seat must be very uncomfortable, but these tripods,
+tied at the top, are seen on many sandbars and shoals,
+showing it to be one of the recognized methods of
+fishing. I saw also, below Sakhalin, another curious
+fishing machine, something like a hand-cart, with two
+small wheels and long handles. A frame over the
+axle sustained a long pole, from which was suspended
+a net about the size of a shrimp net. The machine
+could thus be wheeled into the water, and the snare
+lowered, after which the net was lifted again with its
+catch. During winter, when the river is covered with
+ice, the Daurians practise a third method of fishing,
+known to the Cossacks as <i lang="ru">chekacheni</i>, or “malleting.”
+Where the ice is transparent, the fish may be seen
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_556">[556]</span>
+almost immovable near the surface of the water beneath
+it. A few blows on the ice with a mallet stun the fish,
+a hole is then made, and they are taken out with the
+hand or a small net.</p>
+
+<p>The Manchu are excellent archers. At the military
+stations trials of skill take place periodically in the
+presence of the Mandarins and others.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_232" href="#Footnote_3_232" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> “To know
+how to shoot an arrow,” writes a Manchu author, “is
+the first and most important knowledge for a Tatar to
+acquire.” I presume, however, this was written before
+the introduction of the clumsy Manchu matchlock.</p>
+
+<p>Fourteen miles below the Zeya, and a few hours
+after leaving Blagovestchensk, our steamer arrived at
+Aigun, the chief town of the Manchu on the Amur,
+and once possessing considerable strength. It was
+formerly the capital of the Chinese province of the
+Amur, but the seat of government was transferred,
+some five-and-thirty years ago, to Tsi-tsi-har. It has
+now a population estimated at 15,000. The town is
+built on a bank some 8 or 10 feet above high-water
+mark. The tableland behind the town extends to
+mountains in a serrated chain, which show themselves
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_557">[557]</span>
+as a background to the picture upon the southern
+horizon.</p>
+
+<p>The Government buildings and several temples are
+surrounded by a double row of palisades, in the form
+of a square; and outside this are several hundred
+mud houses. The town has a gloomy appearance.
+The houses are nearly all of but one storey, and stand
+in square yards surrounded by fences of stakes or
+wickerwork. The only relief to the eye is produced
+by the gaily-painted temples, which are surrounded
+with trees, apparently sacred groves, the more noticeable
+as growing timber is scarce in this region. The
+temples are square buildings erected with rather more
+care than private houses. The walls are made of thin
+poles set up side by side, with the interstices filled
+with clay, and smoothened. The sloping roof is
+thatched with straw. As you enter you find yourself
+in an ante-room, separated from the inner compartment
+by a curtain running along the width of the
+temple, and suspended from slender pillars. The
+curtain being drawn aside, there is seen a table against
+the wall, upon or over which is a picture of a deity;
+and on the table lie dried stems and leaves of
+Artemisia, and some Chinese coins. There is also a
+semi-globular vessel of metal, with three holes on
+each side, which is struck by the worshipper, after he has
+made his obeisance, to attract the notice of the god.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_233" href="#Footnote_4_233" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_558">[558]</span></p>
+
+<p>I observed at Aigun, as at Maimatchin, the proximity
+of the temple and the theatre, and noticed poles
+standing in front of the Government houses and
+temples. But I am not clear whether they are merely
+flag-poles or whether they are for a purpose mentioned
+by Mr. Ravenstein, who alludes to poles fixed on the
+screens facing the doors of private houses, the upper
+parts of which poles are ornamented by the Manchu
+with the skulls of beasts of prey, small flags, and
+horsehair, and during prayer are hoisted whilst the
+worshippers lie prostrate.</p>
+
+<p>Very few foreigners have succeeded in gaining admittance
+to Aigun. Mr. Collins, with Captain Fulyhelm,
+made a resolute but fruitless endeavour to do so.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_234" href="#Footnote_5_234" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>This exclusiveness, however, appears to have abated
+in after years; for in 1866 Mr. Knox had no difficulty
+in visiting the town, even when the Governor happened
+to be absent. He speaks of the streets as having some
+dry spots, but that otherwise, by reason of the mud, he
+should describe the measurement of the “broadway” of
+Aigun as about two miles long, 50 feet wide, and “two
+feet deep.” The shops in one of the principal streets
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_559">[559]</span>
+have open fronts. Here the merchandise is exposed,
+and the merchant, attired in silks, gravely smokes his
+pipe till a purchaser enters. Dragons and other figures,
+cut in paper, are fixed to poles surmounting the shops,
+and paper lanterns hang across the street. The town
+has a guard-house and military quarters, and there was
+pointed out to me, from the deck of the steamer,
+the fortress and gateway leading to the Government
+quarter. Over the gateway was a small room, like
+the drawbridge room in a castle of the middle ages.
+Twenty men could be lodged there to shoot arrows or
+throw hot water on an invading foe.</p>
+
+<p>I was not fortunate in getting into the city—not,
+however, through any difficulty with the authorities
+(as Baron Stackelberg offered to telegraph to the
+Chinese Governor to give permission for me to enter),
+but, owing to delays, our boat was so behind time that
+the captain could not be induced to lose a couple of
+hours for the purpose. We stopped, therefore, only a
+few minutes to take in passengers. Crowds of Manchu
+and Chinese came to the bank, some of the women
+having very remarkable head-gear. Men with a cloth
+about the waist were washing their plump little Manchu
+horses in the river; and we saw a number of junks
+drawn up on the banks. These represent some of the
+Chinese naval force on the Amur,—but only <em>some</em>, I
+suppose—because, when the Russians obtained the
+river, the Chinese transferred their navy to the Sungari.
+Towards this river we proceeded, after leaving
+Aigun, and arrived, as I have said, on the following
+day at Khabarofka, which may now be called the military
+capital of the Sea-coast province.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_230" href="#FNanchor_1_230" class="label">[1]</a> The Chinese applied to the eastern Mongols the name of <i>Dun-Khu</i>,
+whence the name <i>Tunguses</i>. And wild they must have been in early
+times, if the account be true that during the winter they lived in subterraneous
+dwellings, and smeared their bodies with pigs’ fat to protect
+themselves from cold. The first amelioration in their condition is said to
+have been due to the conquests of the Coreans, who, in their wars with
+China, made use of these northern neighbours. When, however, the
+Coreans fell under the sway of the Chinese, in 677 <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>, the Tungusians,
+who were subsequently known as the Manchu, retired northwards to the
+Shan-alin mountains. With the help of many Coreans, they founded the
+empire of the Bokhai, and the country became one of the most flourishing
+kingdoms on the eastern sea. The heirs of the power of the Bokhai were
+the Jurjis, who founded the empire of Kin, and were known as Kin, or
+Golden Tatars. They dominated over Northern China in the 12th
+century, and were the ancestors of the Manchu. It is not necessary to
+follow the vicissitudes of this kingdom through the centuries that followed;
+but in 1618 the power of the Manchu was so well established,
+that their king made war with China, and repeatedly defeated the emperor.
+Some years later, a revolution broke out in China, in the midst of which,
+in 1643, the emperor committed suicide; whereupon the imperial party
+called in the aid of the Manchu, who drove the rebels out of Peking.
+The Chinese general was then left to pursue them further south, whilst
+the Manchu chief, finding the throne vacant, took it for himself and kept
+it, and the Manchu dynasty reigns in China to this day. These events
+were followed by very remarkable consequences to the Manchu country
+and people; for though by conquest they had gained a neighbouring
+throne, yet the Chinese managed so to fuse their conquerors with themselves,
+and to get possession of their country, that the Manchu, during
+the two centuries they have reigned in China, may be said to have been
+working out their own annihilation. Their manners, language, their very
+country has become Chinese, and some maintain that the Manchu proper
+are now extinct.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_231" href="#FNanchor_2_231" class="label">[2]</a> This part of the Amur was erected into a penal colony by the Chinese
+Government soon after the evacuation of Albazin by the Russians in 1680.
+Above and below Aigun are 25 or 30 clusters of Manchu dwellings, some
+of the villages having from 10 to 50 or even 100 houses. In other cases
+the houses stand solitary, like the Cossack picket-posts I afterwards passed
+on the Ussuri; and I presume they serve the Chinese for the same purpose
+in watching the frontier. A noticeable feature about these pickets is that,
+if there be only a single habitation, there is in the corner of the garden a
+small building like a sentry-box, which is a temple containing an idol or
+picture, and where worship is offered.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_232" href="#FNanchor_3_232" class="label">[3]</a> Three straw men of life-size are placed in a straight line, at distances
+of 20 or 30 paces the one from the other. The mounted archer is on a
+line with them about 15 feet from the first figure, his bow bent, and his
+shaft upon the string. The signal being given, he puts his horse to a
+gallop, and discharges his arrow at the first figure; without checking his
+horse’s speed, he then takes a second arrow from his quiver, places it to
+the bow, and discharges it at the second figure, and so with the third;
+and all this while the horse is going at full speed. From the first figure
+to the second the archer has barely time for drawing his arrow, fixing,
+and discharging it; so that when he shoots he has generally to turn
+somewhat on his saddle, and as to the third shot he discharges it altogether
+in the old Parthian fashion. Yet for a competitor to be deemed a good
+archer, says M. Huc, it is essential that he should fire an arrow into every
+one of the three figures.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_233" href="#FNanchor_4_233" class="label">[4]</a> Mr. Knox was shown one of the temples of Aigun, which he
+describes as a building 15 feet by 30 feet, with a red curtain at the
+door, and a thick carpet of matting over a brick pavement. The altar
+being veiled, the covering was lifted to allow him to see the inscription.
+Several pictures adorned the walls, and there were lanterns painted in
+gaudy colors. Outside also were paintings over the door, representing
+Chinese landscapes. The windows were of lattice work, the roof had a
+dragon’s head at each end of the ridge, and a Mosaic pavement extended
+round the interior of the building. On the exterior of the Buddhist
+temple we visited near Kiakhta, I observed a symbol in the form of two
+deer standing on either side of a tree, but I did not notice it again
+elsewhere.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_234" href="#FNanchor_5_234" class="label">[5]</a> Their landing caused a great sensation, and the people gathered in
+crowds. The Governor received them in a pavilion, and was dressed in
+richly-figured silk robes, with the cap surmounted by a crystal ball and
+peacocks’ feather. Refreshments were offered, and among them small
+cups of samchoo or rice wine, and all they said was taken down by scribes;
+but they were not permitted to visit the city. Previously to this, Admiral
+Putiatin, of the Russian navy, defied the authorities, and entered the city,
+as it were, sword in hand; for, permission having been denied him on the
+pretence that he would not be safe against the insults of the people, the
+admiral took with him four armed men, and went through the streets.
+It was on a similar pretence that Mr. Collins was diverted from his purpose.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_560">[560]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XLIV">
+    CHAPTER XLIV.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE PRIMORSK OR SEA-COAST PROVINCE.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Fuller treatment of this province.—Boundaries and dimensions.—Mountains,
+bays, and rivers.—Climate.—Fauna and flora.—Aboriginal
+and Russian population.—Government.—Food products.—Imports.—Taxes.—Civil
+government.—Health of the people.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>A story</span> is told of a certain preacher who, on
+mounting his afternoon pulpit, discovered he
+had brought again the manuscript from which he
+preached in the morning, whereupon, rising to the
+occasion, he announced his intention to redeliver the
+morning’s discourse; and, said he, “<em>I have a particular
+reason for doing so.</em>” History does not relate what
+followed; but I would advertise the reader that I
+purpose to treat more fully of the Primorsk than of
+the other provinces of Siberia, and “I have a particular
+reason for doing so”; the “particular reason” in my
+case being that I know, personally, a great deal more
+of this province than of the rest. Through other
+regions I passed as rapidly as possible, never continuing
+long in one place; but on the sea-coast I lived, moved,
+and had my habitation for several weeks. I was
+stationary simply because I could not get forward, and
+used my leisure to read up Siberia and arrange notes.
+Moreover, I had the great advantage of staying with
+persons who spoke English, who had lived in Asiatic
+Russia for many years, who knew the country well,
+and could therefore inform me upon Russian affairs.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_561">[561]</span>
+Nor was this all, for I was brought in frequent contact
+with military and naval officers who spoke French and
+English, and during my stay at Vladivostock was almost
+a daily guest at the Governor’s house, and so was
+enabled to gather information respecting the condition
+of the province from official sources.</p>
+
+<p>The Littoral, or Sea-coast province, which the
+Russians call “The Primorsk,” is a strip of seaboard,
+beginning on the frontier of Corea, and continuing
+northwards along the coast of Manchuria, round the
+Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka, and terminating at
+the Chaunskaia Bay in the Arctic Ocean, about 700
+miles west of Behring’s Straits.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_235" href="#Footnote_1_235" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The general aspect
+of the country is mountainous throughout. Along the
+Manchurian coast, at a distance of from 25 to 80 miles
+of the sea, runs the Sikhota-Alin range, a continuation
+of the Shangan-Alin mountains. The western slope is
+the birthplace of many streams, which run into the
+Lower Amur and Ussuri. The eastern slopes drain
+into the channel of Tartary, those rivers entering the
+sea having a short course, and being navigable only
+near the mouth. These mountains attain an elevation
+of from 4,000 to 6,000 feet. West of the Okhotsk
+Sea runs the Stanovoi range, which is a continuation
+of the tableland lying to the north of the Amur,
+and is estimated, according to Mr. Ravenstein, as
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_562">[562]</span>
+having an elevation of from 1,000 to 2,000 feet,
+the highest peaks reaching perhaps to 5,000 or 6,000
+feet. Besides these ranges, there are in the peninsula
+of Kamchatka nearly 40 mountains, evidently
+volcanic, though not more than a dozen volcanoes now
+throw out scoria.</p>
+
+<p>On the sea-coast are several bays suitable for harbours,
+which might become of commercial importance
+if the district were sufficiently colonized, and good
+means of communication opened over the mountains
+and forests of the Littoral.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_236" href="#Footnote_2_236" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>The principal rivers of the province are the Ussuri,
+the Lower Amur, with its largest tributary the Amgun,
+and in the far north the Anadir, which runs into
+Behring’s Sea. The Primorsk has one or two lakes
+on the Arctic Circle, also Lake Kizi, which almost
+connects the Lower Amur with the Gulf of Tartary at
+Castries Bay, and Lake Khanka, the largest of them
+all, out of which flows the Sungacha, an important
+affluent of the Ussuri. What marshes there are in the
+province are found on the left bank of the Amur.</p>
+
+<p>The variations of climate must of course be very
+considerable over a tract of country which in the north
+lies within the Arctic Circle to the 70th parallel, whilst
+its most southerly point is nearer the equator than the
+Pole, being situated in latitude 43°, as far south, that
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_563">[563]</span>
+is, as the Pyrenees. Of the 14 meteorological observatories
+in Siberia, two are situated in the Primorsk,
+at Nikolaefsk and Vladivostock. For meteorological
+information from further north we are indebted to
+travellers, especially to Baron Nordenskiöld.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_237" href="#Footnote_3_237" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The
+climate of Nikolaefsk cannot be recommended to those
+in search of a mild one.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_238" href="#Footnote_4_238" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> During the eight months
+of winter keen winds prevail, bringing snowstorms of
+such violence and density that I heard of a man losing
+himself in crossing the street from the club to his own
+house. The snow lies frequently from four to five feet
+deep. I stayed at Nikolaefsk from the 13th to the 30th
+August, during which time the summer was unusually
+cold. On several days it rained, and, when taking an
+evening stroll, I did not feel an Ulster coat too warm.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_239" href="#Footnote_5_239" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>Descending ten degrees further south to Vladivostock,
+we find the summer extending to six and a half
+months, but with an annual temperature about ten
+degrees lower than at Marseilles, which is on the
+same parallel.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_240" href="#Footnote_6_240" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>Thus it will be seen that even in the most southerly
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_564">[564]</span>
+portion of the Primorsk the winter climate is severe.
+The Bay of Peter the Great, it is true, is not frozen
+at a certain distance from the shore at any period of
+the year; yet ice is formed upon its creeks and inlets
+at the beginning of December, and for more than a
+hundred days ships are locked in the port of Vladivostock.
+On the other hand, the summer heat on the
+Manchurian coast is very great, and rises in the port
+of Olga to more than 96°.</p>
+
+<p>The climate of the Lower Primorsk is more than
+commonly dependent on two influences: that of the
+prevailing winds, and of the temperature of the neighbouring
+seas. The warm Kuro Scivo, or Japan
+current, soon after it passes the Loo Choo islands,
+divides, and a small part enters the Sea of Japan, and,
+skirting its eastern shore, passes out through La
+Perouse Strait to reunite itself with the main stream
+that has kept to the eastward of the Japan archipelago.
+Under the name of “the North Pacific drift,” this
+Japan current afterwards passes a little south of the
+Kurile and Aleutian Isles, and then turns southward
+along the western coast of North America. From the
+north-east corner of the Sea of Okhotsk two cold
+currents start and run—the one along the coast of the
+mainland of Siberia, the other down the west side of
+Kamchatka. Sakhalin is thus on both shores washed
+by these cold waters, which continue their course
+southward along the western shore of the Sea of
+Japan, round the Corea, past the entrance of the Yellow-Sea,
+until, near the island of Formosa, they mingle
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_565">[565]</span>
+with the monsoon drifts of the China Sea. The effect
+of this body of cold water along the Siberian coast
+is obvious, and we find the winter climate far more
+severe than in corresponding latitudes on the western
+side of the Pacific or in the Niphon, and the southern
+islands of Japan. The prevailing winds in winter are
+from the north and east, and, passing as they do over
+this same cold sea-water, they get chilled, and add to
+the rigour of the season. In summer the winds are
+generally from the west and south-west, and in July
+the south-west monsoon even extends to the Sea of
+Okhotsk; and the temperature is abnormally above
+that of corresponding latitudes. If, however, the
+climate of the Lower Primorsk and of Eastern Siberia
+is remarkable for its extremes of cold and heat,
+drought and humidity, it has at least the advantage
+of regularity in its yearly progress, and has none of
+the abrupt changes of temperature met with in
+Western Siberia. The dry cold of winter, the humid
+heat of summer, are maintained without sudden
+changes.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_241" href="#Footnote_7_241" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>To the phenomena of the particular climate of the
+sea-coast correspond naturally the distinctive features
+of its fauna and flora. The forests one passes through
+in the basin of the Amur are not, like the <i lang="ru">taigas</i>,
+sloping towards the Frozen Ocean, composed uniformly
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_566">[566]</span>
+of the same species of conifers; but the kinds of
+trees are very diverse, though their distribution is
+little varied. With the fir, pitch pine, cedar, and
+larch are mixed not only the Russian birch, but also
+the oak, elm, hornbeam, ash, maple, lime, and poplar,
+some of which grow to the height of 100 feet, with
+trunks more than a yard in diameter. The bark of
+the larch is almost as valuable to the tanner as that of
+oak, and also produces the substance called Venice
+turpentine, which flows abundantly when the lower
+parts of the trunks of old trees are wounded. A kind
+of marrow also exudes from its leaves in the shape of
+white flakes, which are ultimately converted into small
+lumps. In the southern parts of the Ussuri country,
+and on the slopes of the Sikhota Alin, deciduous trees
+outnumber the conifers. The forest pines are often
+draped with wild vines, whose grapes ripen, though
+the cultivation of the vine has not yet been successful.
+On the Upper Ussuri the Chinese have plantations of
+ginseng. In the woods grow hazels, peach trees, and
+wild pears; and what orchards there yet are about the
+villages show that the Ussuri district might become,
+for the product of fruits, one of the richest countries
+in the world.</p>
+
+<p>But the glory of the Lower Primorsk is the wealth
+of herbaceous plants which grow on the alluvial soils
+on the banks and the islands of its rivers. Umbelliferous
+plants, mugwort, roses, cereals of various kinds,
+form a mass of vegetation to the height of 8 or
+9 feet, penetrable only axe in hand, or along the track
+of some wild animal. The wild boar, the stag, the
+roebuck hide themselves in these tall herbs better even
+than in the forest. The tiger as well as the panther
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_567">[567]</span>
+inhabit the bushy herbage of the Ussuri, and there
+meet also the bear and the sable. Thus the representatives
+of the south mingle with those from the north
+in this rich fauna, belonging at once to Siberia and to
+China.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp54" id="p5661_ill" style="max-width: 67.5em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p5661_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      THE SIBERIAN LARCH.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>As regards the inhabitants of the Sea-coast province,
+in the south are Chinese, Manzas, Tazas, and
+Coreans, who are constantly travelling, and so cannot
+well be counted; but, calculating from the registers of
+births and deaths, their number is estimated at 62,000.
+North of these, on the Ussuri, are the Goldi, and, on
+the Lower Amur, another race called Gilyaks, of whom
+I shall hereafter speak particularly. Proceeding round
+the Sea of Okhotsk, we come to the territories of the
+Lamuti, Tunguses, and Yakutes; and then reaching
+the north-east corner of Siberia, we have three other
+peoples—the Kamchatdales to the south of the peninsula,
+with the Koriaks above them, and furthest north
+the Chukchees. Besides these might be mentioned a
+few Orochi about the mouth of the Amur, and the
+Aïnos of Sakhalin and the Kurile islands. Owing to
+the wandering habits of these tribes, no census can be
+obtained, but from the church books their number,
+including both sexes, is estimated at 44,000.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_242" href="#Footnote_8_242" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>The province is divided into seven uyezds, and the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_568">[568]</span>
+principal towns, beginning from the south, are Vladivostock,
+Khabarofka, Sophiisk, Nikolaefsk, Ayan,
+Okhotsk, and Petropavlovsk. The Littoral was
+erected into a province in 1857, and placed under a
+Governor who was at once Admiral of the Fleet, Commander
+of the military forces, and Head of Civil
+Affairs; and this was the condition of things in 1879—Admiral
+Erdmann being Governor, and residing at
+Vladivostock. The military command, however, has
+since been separated, and given to General Tichmeneff,
+who resides, I am told, at Khabarofka.</p>
+
+<p>Proceeding now to the natural products of the
+Primorsk, and the sources of sustenance to its population,
+we find that agriculture holds a very different
+place in the upper, middle, and lower parts of the
+country. The Upper Primorsk extends from Behring’s
+Straits down to Nikolaefsk, and produces no corn.
+The inhabitants live by hunting, the fur trade, or on
+grain supplied by the Government.</p>
+
+<p>The Middle Primorsk extends from Nikolaefsk to
+Khabarofka, which means virtually the basin of the
+Lower Amur. Only the Russian subjects till the
+ground, the total cereal produce for the year 1878
+being 327 tons, together with 811 tons of potatoes.
+The cost of meat in this district is from 5<i>d.</i> to 9<i>d.</i> per
+English pound, according to the season. The Lower
+or Southern Primorsk is populated by Ussuri Cossacks,
+and by voluntary and involuntary settlers. This is the
+most productive part of the province, the yield for 1878
+being more than 1,000 tons of corn and 800 tons of
+potatoes. Meat costs from 4<i>d.</i> to 6<i>d.</i> per lb. Three
+qualities of wheaten flour are used throughout the
+Primorsk—the first and second of which are imported
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_569">[569]</span>
+from America. About 15,000 fifty-pound bags (say
+330 tons) are sold yearly in Nikolaefsk, the best
+costing from 4<i>d.</i> to 6<i>d.</i> per lb., the second from 3<i>d.</i> to
+3½<i>d.</i>, and the third quality, grown at home, from 1½<i>d.</i>
+to 2½<i>d.</i> per lb. The price of rye-flour at Nikolaefsk
+and Sophiisk varies from 1½<i>d.</i> to 2<i>d.</i> per lb. On the
+Ussuri it costs rather less, and north of Nikolaefsk 2<i>d.</i>
+per lb. is asked.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp58" id="p5690_ill" style="max-width: 75.625em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p5690_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      A DVORNIK, OR RUSSIAN HOUSE-PORTER.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Throughout the province the price of fish is from
+9<i>s.</i> to 24<i>s.</i> per cwt.; butter (not fresh) costs from 10<i>d.</i>
+to 1<i>s.</i> 1½<i>d.</i> per lb.; black tea from 2<i>s.</i> to 4<i>s.</i> the Russian
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_570">[570]</span>
+pound, and brick tea from 10<i>d.</i> to 1<i>s.</i> 2<i>d.</i> The price
+of sugar varies from 6<i>d.</i> to 8<i>d.</i> per lb. Labour throughout
+the Littoral is scarce. The cost for a man and
+horse in summer is 6<i>s.</i> per day, but in winter 30<i>s.</i>
+a month and hay for the horse. At Nikolaefsk a
+man earns 3<i>s.</i> as a day’s wage; a <i lang="ru">dvornik</i>, or night-watchman,
+gets as much as £3 10<i>s.</i> a month without
+board, and a man-servant £2 10<i>s.</i> a month and his food.
+At Vladivostock, convict women for domestic servants
+are paid from 16<i>s.</i> to 30<i>s.</i> a month board wages;
+mechanics earn from 3<i>s.</i> to 4<i>s.</i> a day, and common
+labourers 2<i>s.</i> This last is a decided advance on the
+18<i>s.</i> or 20<i>s.</i> a month paid to the wharf-porters at Nijni
+Novgorod, who live, however, on 8<i>s.</i> a month, eating
+little but bread and <i lang="ru">stchee</i>, the latter being made of good
+beef, with an allowance of one pound of meat for each
+person. A half-drunken man at Nijni told me boastfully
+that in good times he could earn nearly 2<i>s.</i> a day;
+but just then he could get no regular work, and so he
+said he had taken to drink!</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the home produce of the Primorsk,
+the Government also imports largely in anticipation of
+bad seasons and famine, and for the military.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_243" href="#Footnote_9_243" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> They
+have, too, in this province a fund for loan to the aborigines
+to the annual amount of nearly £3,000, and rather
+more than this sum as a reserve fund for famine purposes.</p>
+
+<p>I gathered from an official report in manuscript,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_571">[571]</span>
+which I was courteously permitted to see, some account
+of the taxes of the province. Personal taxes are paid
+in the north in money or in furs. In money, in 1878,
+was paid £28, and in furs the value of nearly £800.
+The whole of the settlers in the Amur district were to
+be free from personal taxes, land taxes, and recruiting
+up to 1881. Hence the land taxes of the province
+amounted to only £90.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_244" href="#Footnote_10_244" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p>The report above quoted also treated of the health
+of the people, from which I noticed that vaccination
+throughout the province had not been wholly successful,
+partly for want of good vaccine, and partly from the
+lack of persons qualified to perform the operation.
+This latter was not greatly to be wondered at, seeing
+that the yearly remuneration attached to the appointment
+of district vaccinator was only two guineas, while
+the work involved much and difficult travelling. In
+the <em>towns</em> from which reports had come, it appeared that
+of 375 persons vaccinated, only seven cases had failed.</p>
+
+<p>The total number of (I presume <em>civil</em>) patients
+through the province in 1878 was 319 (215 males
+and 104 females), of whom 247 recovered, 40 died,
+32 were still under treatment; the average time
+spent in the hospital by each completed case being
+31⅓ days.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11_245" href="#Footnote_11_245" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_572">[572]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Siberians generally are said to be remarkably
+strong and robust, for which the reason has been suggested
+that all the weakly babies are killed by the
+climate. What truth there may be in this I know not,
+but in a table given me by the priest of Vladivostock,
+showing at what ages had occurred the 102 deaths in
+his parish, for 1878, it was seen that 58, or more than
+one-half, died under five years of age; and of these, 37
+attained to less than the age of 12 months. Further,
+24 died between the ages of 25 and 40, and only four
+exceeded the age of 50.</p>
+
+<p>The report went on to speak of the civil affairs of
+the province, its public institutions and communications,
+the morality of the people and their religious
+dissensions, the prisons&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_12_246" href="#Footnote_12_246" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> and statistics concerning
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_573">[573]</span>
+fire&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_13_247" href="#Footnote_13_247" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> and floods; but I need enlarge no further
+upon the Primorsk as a whole. It has been already
+pointed out that the country can be best described in
+three sections,—the Upper or Northern portion, the
+Lower or Southern portion, and the Middle Primorsk,
+corresponding roughly to the basin of the Lower
+Amur, to the description of which last I shall now
+proceed.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_235" href="#FNanchor_1_235" class="label">[1]</a> From this point its inland border runs along the crests of the Stanovoi
+range to the 55th degree of latitude, then continues southwards to the
+Little Khingan mountains, thence in a line to the Ussuri and Sungacha,
+through Lake Khanka, and so to Corea. The length of the province
+from north to south exceeds 2,300 miles. Its widest part, taken at right
+angles from the shore, does not exceed 400 miles, whilst at its narrowest,
+on the Sea of Okhotsk, the western border in some places is not more
+than 30 miles inland. The area of the province is 733,000 square miles, or
+about six times as large as the British possessions in Europe.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_236" href="#FNanchor_2_236" class="label">[2]</a> Thus there are, beginning in the south, Vladivostock and Paseat,
+and continuing up the Manchurian coast past Olga, Vladimir, and Barracouta
+Bays, we have De Castries Bay, 135 miles south of Nikolaefsk. De
+Castries was discovered and surveyed by La Perouse in 1787. It affords
+good and safe anchorage, and is a kind of ocean port to Nikolaefsk. Other
+ports further north are Ayan and Okhotsk, and Petropavlovsk in Kamchatka,
+Olga, Vladivostock, and Paseat are called “open ports,” but all
+of them in winter are ice-bound, unless it be Paseat, which is not much
+frozen, nor for long.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_237" href="#FNanchor_3_237" class="label">[3]</a> Where the Vega was frozen in, west of Behring’s Straits, the temperature
+sank before the 28th November to 14°·8 below zero, and the
+newly-formed ice was already two feet thick. On Christmas Day the
+temperature fell to 31°, and in January to 50°·8, both below zero; whilst
+the average temperatures for October, November, December, and January
+were 22°·6 and 2°·1 above, and 9° and 13°·2 below zero respectively.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_238" href="#FNanchor_4_238" class="label">[4]</a> At Nikolaefsk, in August 1877, the temperature reached no higher
+than 82°·8, and sank to 45°·5, the mean temperature of the month being
+61°·9. The greatest heat of the year was 88°·2, and occurred in July, and
+the greatest cold registered was in February, when the thermometer fell
+to 26°·9 below zero. The mean temperature for the year was only 30·2.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_239" href="#FNanchor_5_239" class="label">[5]</a> On the night of August 19th, the thermometer registered 45°·5, and
+during the preceding day had not risen above 50°. At Greenwich, on the
+same date, the thermometer registered 49°·7 in the night, and 70° on the
+preceding day.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_240" href="#FNanchor_6_240" class="label">[6]</a> The maximum temperature at Vladivostock, in August 1877, was
+89°·1 (the highest of the year); and the minimum was 57°, the mean for
+the month being 68°·7. In January the degrees of cold registered were
+10°·8 below zero, and the mean temperature for the year was 41°·5.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_241" href="#FNanchor_7_241" class="label">[7]</a> In the least rainy month, for instance, February, the precipitation,
+whether of snow or rain, represents at Nertchinsk Zavod only one fifty-eighth
+part of the rainfall of the wet season. So again at Vladivostock
+the difference between the snowfall of winter and the rainfall of summer
+is still greater, the snow representing a quantity about 840 times less
+than the rain. In 1858, Venyukoff experienced on the Ussuri 45 consecutive
+wet days, and the annual rains drench the harvests of the
+Cossacks of the Ussuri, who have not yet learned to imitate the Chinese
+in accommodating their agriculture to the alternations of the seasons.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_242" href="#FNanchor_8_242" class="label">[8]</a> These statistics are taken from the Government books, and they
+refer to the native population. The Almanack for 1880 gives to the
+province 76 populated places, and the number of the Russian inhabitants
+was handed to me at Nikolaefsk, from Government sources, as 20,000,
+made up of 10,000 naval and military, 1,200 Government officials, 1,800
+townspeople, and 7,000 peasants. In the whole province in 1878 the
+number of (Russian) marriages was 223, excluding those of soldiers and
+convicts. The number of births was 1,322, of which 96 were illegitimate;
+and the number of deaths 545 males and 447 females, in all 992, giving a
+net increase of 330 to the Russian population.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_243" href="#FNanchor_9_243" class="label">[9]</a> In 1878, salt, rice, and millet were imported to the value of £25,000.
+To the southern part of the province salt comes from China. The northern
+part is supplied by a Government contract with a merchant who has a
+monopoly up to 1887 for rye, salt, gunpowder, and lead. For the supply
+of the soldiers, the Government imported also overland 636 tons of rye;
+of oatmeal, 285 tons; and by sea 1,400 tons of rye, and 280 tons of oatmeal.
+The average cost of flour to the Government is at Sakhalin 4<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i>
+and at Vladivostock 3<i>s.</i> 9<i>d.</i> the pood.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_244" href="#FNanchor_10_244" class="label">[10]</a> For municipal taxes, police, roads, etc., were paid at Nikolaefsk,
+£1,582; Vladivostock, £1,500; Sophiisk, £140; Petropavlovsk, £70;
+Okhotsk, £15; and Ghijiga, £11; that is, about £3,320 together. The
+excise taxes, however, were far higher—namely, for imported liquors,
+£9,500; home-made beer, etc., £37; home-made liquors, £569; licences,
+£1,569; fines, £52; duty for <em>growing</em> tobacco, 6<i>s.</i>, and for selling it,
+£269; and tobacco fines, £20. This shows an excise income from the
+province of £12,000, being a decrease on foreign liquors, compared with
+the previous year, of £4,600, and an increase on home-made liquors of
+£439; but an increase for licences of £150, and £15 for fines.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_245" href="#FNanchor_11_245" class="label">[11]</a> The most frequent maladies were inflammation of the lungs, bowels,
+and womb, and heart disease. Under the head of epidemics it seemed
+that during the year typhoid fever broke out at Nikolaefsk and carried off
+21 men. A like visitation, lasting for 18 days, in the Khanka district
+caused about the same number of deaths. At Sophiisk and Udskoi 248
+men were struck down, of whom, however, 244 recovered. The deaths
+by accident and suicide in the province amounted to 21, ten more than in
+the preceding year.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12_246" href="#FNanchor_12_246" class="label">[12]</a> Criminals and their crimes in the Sea-coast Province for five years,
+1874–1878.</p>
+
+
+<table class="autotable sea-coast">
+<tr>
+<th class="tdl"></th>
+<th class="tdc">1874.</th>
+<th class="tdc">1875.</th>
+<th class="tdc">1876.</th>
+<th class="tdc">1877.</th>
+<th class="tdc">1878.</th>
+<th class="tdc" colspan='2'>Total.</th>
+<th class="tdc"></th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<th class="tdl">&nbsp;</th>
+<th class="tdc">&nbsp;</th>
+<th class="tdc">&nbsp;</th>
+<th class="tdc">&nbsp;</th>
+<th class="tdc">&nbsp;</th>
+<th class="tdc">&nbsp;</th>
+<th class="tdc">Male.</th>
+<th class="tdc">Fm.</th>
+<th class="tdc">Totl.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Sacrilege or ecclesiastical offences</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;1</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;2</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;3</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;3</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Offences against the Government and insubordination to authorities</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;4</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;2</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;6</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;1</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;13</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;24</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;2</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;26</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Breaking prison bounds, running away, and liberating others</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;9</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;8</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;38</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;43</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;13</td>
+<td class="tdc">109</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;2</td>
+<td class="tdc">111</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Offences against excise laws</td>
+<td class="tdc">12</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;3</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;1</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;2</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;2</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;20</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;20</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Offences against mercantile laws</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;4</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;4</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;5</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;11</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;2</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;13</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Vagrancy, harbouring vagabonds, and offences against passport laws</td>
+<td class="tdc">13</td>
+<td class="tdc">10</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;80</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;22</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;38</td>
+<td class="tdc">157</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;6</td>
+<td class="tdc">163</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Murder</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;3</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;8</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;14</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;7</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;12</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;37</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;7</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;44</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Wounding and other kinds of violence</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;2</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;2</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;15</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;3</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;11</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;30</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;3</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;33</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Personal insult and assault</td>
+<td class="tdc">10</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;2</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;5</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;8</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;12</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;35</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;2</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;37</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Robbery</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;8</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;6</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;62</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;28</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;28</td>
+<td class="tdc">127</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;5</td>
+<td class="tdc">132</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Rascality</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;3</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;3</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;11</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;6</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;16</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;36</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;3</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;39</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Embezzlement and fraud</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;1</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;1</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;4</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;1</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;7</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;7</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Forgery, or counterfeiting notes</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;8</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;7</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;1</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;8</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Bigamy</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;5</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;3</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;2</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;5</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Offences against marriage laws</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;2</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;1</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;1</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&ensp;2</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Arson</td>
+<td class="tdc bb">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc bb">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc bb">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc bb">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc bb">&ensp;&ensp;1</td>
+<td class="tdc bb">&ensp;&ensp;1</td>
+<td class="tdc bb">&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdc bb">&ensp;&ensp;1<br></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdcx">Totals</td>
+<td class="tdc">64</td>
+<td class="tdc">50</td>
+<td class="tdc">239</td>
+<td class="tdc">129</td>
+<td class="tdc">162</td>
+<td class="tdc">608</td>
+<td class="tdc">36</td>
+<td class="tdc">644</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13_247" href="#FNanchor_13_247" class="label">[13]</a> The three fire-engine establishments, maintained at a cost of £534
+per annum, are situated at Petropavlovsk, Nikolaefsk, and Vladivostock,
+their plant consisting of three steam and three manual engines, 26
+horses, and 13 water-carts.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_574">[574]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XLV">
+    CHAPTER XLV.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE LOWER AMUR.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>My plans altered.—A serious alternative.—Khabarofka.—Fur trade.—Post-office
+and bank.—A Siberian garden.—Started for Nikolaefsk.—The
+Lower Amur.—Its affluents.—Fish.—A Russian advocate.—Goldi
+Christians.—Sophiisk.—A procureur.—Lake Kizi.—Mariinsk.—Snow
+mountains.—Mikhailofsky.—Hot-springs of Mukhal.—Beautiful
+scenery.—Tyr monuments.—The “white village.”—Mouth of
+the Amur.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>Approaching</span> Khabarofka on the evening of
+August 8th, I thought that my journeys on the
+Amur were ended. I had refused advice that I should
+go on to Nikolaefsk, my great object being to reach
+Vladivostock as quickly as possible, there embark for
+Japan, and thence proceed to America. As to how
+this could be accomplished no definite information was
+forthcoming. Something was said at Blagovestchensk
+about a steamer called the <i>Dragon</i>, and her periodical
+trips between China, Japan, Vladivostock, Sakhalin,
+and Nikolaefsk. Merchant ships also were reported
+to leave the Siberian ports from time to time, as also
+men-of-war, returning southwards after spending the
+summer months out of the heat of the tropics. My
+friends, therefore, at the telegraph station promised to
+inquire what ships were to leave Vladivostock, and I
+was to learn the reply on arriving at Khabarofka. A
+new factor, however, was added to my calculations by
+Baron Stackelberg, my fellow-passenger, who understood
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_575">[575]</span>
+that his friend, Professor Milne, was staying at
+Vladivostock. The Baron had telegraphed thither to
+his agent to inquire of the professor if he were “<i lang="fr">plein
+de voyage</i>,” and if so, whether he would proceed by sea
+to meet him at Nikolaefsk for a pleasure tour, and then
+accompany him to Kamchatka. The Baron expected
+to find a telegram at Khabarofka, and then, said he,
+“If Mr. Milne come by the <i>Dragon</i> to Nikolaefsk, it
+will be better for you to go there with me, and take
+the boat on its return to Sakhalin, Vladivostock, and
+Japan, or you may otherwise have to wait at Vladivostock
+until the <i>Dragon</i> returns.”</p>
+
+<p>Such were our thoughts as we approached Khabarofka,
+where, on arriving, I found, to my dismay, that
+the Ussuri boat had grown tired of waiting for us, and
+had gone, and that another would not start for three
+days.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_248" href="#Footnote_1_248" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> No message awaited me at Khabarofka, and
+from the Baron’s telegram it seemed that Mr. Milne
+was not at Vladivostock, but that the <i>Dragon</i> had just
+left, or was about to leave, for Nikolaefsk, to which
+port, however, there was no steamer proceeding from
+Khabarofka for several days. I was, therefore, in a
+dilemma. If I went south, I might have to wait a
+month for the <i>Dragon</i>; and if I stayed for the river
+steamer to Nikolaefsk, I might lose the <i>Dragon</i>, and
+thus go 1,250 miles out of my way. I fell asleep that
+night not knowing what to do, hoping that with morning
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_576">[576]</span>
+light the way might be clearer. On waking, I
+learned that the Baron had been to the agents and
+taken them to task because the steamer going north
+to Nikolaefsk had also not waited the arrival of our
+boat as announced. So successfully had he stormed,
+according to his own account, that the agent had
+ordered the <i>Zeya</i>, instead of going back, to go forward
+to Nikolaefsk.</p>
+
+<p>At no previous point in my journey had I felt it so
+hard to decide what to do for the best. On leaving
+England, my tour had been planned to last three
+months, a period I had already exceeded, while more
+than half the globe remained to be traversed. I had,
+moreover, left in the hands of others editorial duties
+that called for my return, and now there seemed the
+possibility of prolonged delay. I looked up most
+earnestly for wisdom, and determined to be guided by
+the Baron’s advice. Gloomy rumours had reached me
+of the sad condition of the Sakhalin prisoners, and I
+asked the Baron whether he thought it at all likely that
+if I went to the island, and afterwards sent a report to
+the authorities, it might tend to better the prisoners’
+condition. He first asked me gravely, though somewhat
+to my amusement, whether what I was doing
+was likely to bring the governments of our respective
+countries into collision, and then, on being assured that
+I was acting simply as a private individual, he told me
+that at Vladivostock I should get no information or
+statistics respecting Sakhalin, since the books were
+kept at Nikolaefsk, to which place, therefore, he
+recommended me to go. Accordingly, fortified with
+the hope of being useful, I decided to do this; but it
+was not without many misgivings, though out of that
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_577">[577]</span>
+decision sprang results for which afterwards I was
+deeply grateful. I did not find the <i>Dragon</i>, and had
+ultimately to retrace my steps to Khabarofka; but my
+going to Nikolaefsk led to the better distribution of
+more than 12,000 tracts and several Scriptures, and
+afforded me glimpses of heathen life for which I shall
+ever be thankful.</p>
+
+<p>The boat was not to start till noon, and this gave
+me leisure to see something of our stopping-place.
+Khabarofka stands on a promontory, at the junction of
+the Amur with the Ussuri, and overlooks both streams
+from the top of the bluff, in which, in this direction, the
+Khoekhtsi hills, running at right angles from the coast,
+terminate. The position is well chosen for a military
+post, and the town is not without importance commercially.
+There are several stores, and the merchants
+trade with the aborigines of the north in furs to the
+value of £30,000 a year. Whilst calling on a merchant
+with whom I had travelled, there entered a
+Chinaman with what looked like a number of dried
+rabbit-skins hung on his arm. They proved to be
+sable-skins, almost as they come from the animals’
+backs, turned inside out. In this condition the natives
+barter them to the Chinese, who, in turn, sell them to
+the merchants, some of whom are agents for large
+firms in Petersburg and Moscow. On this occasion
+the Chinaman asked seven silver roubles, or a guinea,
+for each skin, which showed that they were not of
+high quality.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_249" href="#Footnote_2_249" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_578">[578]</span></p>
+
+<p>Besides the stores in Khabarofka there is an establishment
+where they employ 50 men and build steamers,
+etc., to the value of £10,000 yearly. One of the principal
+agents of the Steamboat Company lives in the
+place, drawing a salary of £500 a year, which is
+thought there a handsome income; but he told me he
+could not remain, since there was no school near for
+the education of his children. On entering the post-office,
+there were to be seen in a large chest, bags, not
+to say sacks, full of silver roubles, the guardianship of
+which seemed fully to justify the presence of an armed
+Cossack, one of whose cloth is always found keeping
+watch in the post-office and over the mail-bags in transit.
+The post-office, in fact, is a quasi bank, for on arriving
+at Nikolaefsk I found that my host kept his banking
+account 6,000 miles distant, at Petersburg. He paid
+in his money at the local post-office, and then telegraphed
+to the capital, upon which his bankers gave
+him credit for the deposit. There are State banks in
+Siberia, at Tomsk, Krasnoiarsk, and Irkutsk; but,
+from the narrow escape I had at Tomsk of being
+delayed in getting my cash, I was thankful for having
+exchanged my money in Petersburg for a number of
+hundred-rouble notes, which I carried in a pocket-girdle.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_250" href="#Footnote_3_250" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_579">[579]</span></p>
+
+<p>At Khabarofka I visited the garden of one of the
+merchants, said to be the best in the place. It was 10
+years old, full of apple and pear trees, but they were
+wild ones, transplanted eight years before. None of
+the apples were so large as a good English crab, and
+the “Bergamot” pears were as small. The latter
+tasted something like the quince, and were useless
+except to preserve for eating with roast meat. Among
+other trees were the walnut, the acacia, the bird-cherry,
+a thorn with a berry larger than is commonly seen in
+England, called <i lang="fr">résan</i>; the <i lang="ru">boyarka</i> or service tree,
+with bunches of berries like grapes (called <i lang="ru">calina</i>), and
+the beech. Among the shrubs, plants, and flowers
+were maize, wild white lilac, raspberries, currants, and
+strawberries, dahlias, verbenas, wild pæonies, stocks,
+carnations, and pinks; and among climbers the wild
+pea, and the Siberian vinegar plant. These, with other
+flowers, of which I did not know the names, made a
+fair show for Khabarofka, where the cold winds begin
+in the middle of September, and snow covers the
+ground from November to March. In the neighbourhood
+were abundance of trees common to a temperate
+region, such as the oak, maple, alder, larch, pine,
+poplar, willow, and lime. Some prettily overhung the
+river’s bank, which was enlivened with boats drawn up
+by Manchu and Chinese, some of whom were selling
+excellent French beans, whilst others were engaged in
+making and mending shoes.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_580">[580]</span></p>
+
+<p>Having thus made the most of my time at Khabarofka,
+I once more boarded the <i>Zeya</i>, on Saturday noon, for a
+voyage of 626 miles to Nikolaefsk, in the course of
+which we were to pass, though not necessarily to stop
+at, 52 stations. Some were native villages, the names
+of which had been adopted by the Russians; others
+were Russian settlements with Sclavonic names; whilst
+other stations bore double titles, both Russian and
+native.</p>
+
+<p>The basin of the Lower Amur is bounded on the
+west by the Bureya mountains, between which and the
+river lies a flat and partially swampy country; whilst
+on the east its limit is the coast range already referred
+to as the Sikhota Alin. The course of the river is
+north-east. Its principal tributaries flowing in on the
+left or western bank are the Kur, Girin, and Amgun;
+on the right bank, the Dondon and the Khungar.
+The largest of these on the left bank is the Amgun;
+the largest on the right is the Dondon, which is 500
+yards wide at its mouth. At Khabarofka, the Amur
+has a width of 900 yards; and as we steamed away, the
+right bank stood out in contrast to the left, which was
+flat; but after proceeding 20 miles, the character of the
+scenery changed. Both banks became flat, islands were
+numerous, and the stream widened to five miles. This
+kind of scenery continued for the rest of the day, and
+our evening progress was highly enjoyable, varied now
+and then by the appearance of the summer yourts of the
+natives, or the lonely post-stations, deserted in summer,
+where horses are kept in winter, when the river is frozen
+and transformed into a road. At the confluence of the
+Dondon, the river has soundings up to 37 feet, and the
+channel measures three miles in breadth. This is the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_581">[581]</span>
+widest part of the river without intervening islands,
+though 17 miles lower, where the left bank is marshy
+and dotted with lakes, the entire width extends to 12
+miles.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_251" href="#Footnote_4_251" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>At Viatskoy, 50 miles from Khabarofka, I stayed on
+my return journey, and was offered a sturgeon a yard
+long, which a man had caught, and was keeping in the
+river tied by a string beneath the gills. Of the fish
+caught on the Lower Amur, the Russians think very
+highly of the sterlet, and the sturgeon is costly. For
+this small specimen at Viatskoy was asked 2<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>,
+but in Moscow they said it would fetch £1. They
+sometimes catch sturgeon weighing from 200 to 300 lbs.,
+and the dried bones and cleansed gelatinous entrails of
+this fish form a prominent article of commerce between
+the natives and the Manchu. The bones cost in Manchuria,
+for culinary purposes, nearly 4<i>s.</i> per lb., and the
+gelatine in Moscow 7<i>s.</i> per lb.</p>
+
+<p>In latitude 50° N., the Amur receives on the left
+bank, from Lake Bolan, an affluent 900 yards wide
+and 30 feet deep. Hills now rise on both banks, and
+at Perm (or Milku) the depth of the river increases to
+between 50 and 60 feet. At Tambofsk, 280 miles from
+Khabarofka, the banks become mountainous on either
+side, the river contracts to an average width of a mile
+and a third, and soundings often reach to 90 feet; and
+thus the river continues, for a distance of 60 miles, to
+Zherebtsofsk. From Zherebtsofsk to Sophiisk, the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_582">[582]</span>
+scenery changes again, the river enlarges, runs between
+numerous islands and several sandbanks, and at Sophiisk
+its depth is nearly 50 feet.</p>
+
+<p>Our company on board was small in number, which
+was to be expected, seeing that the boat was a
+“special.” In the first-class there were only three
+persons besides the Baron and myself, namely, M.
+Kruskopf, the telegraph inspector, an advocate, and
+with him a young man dressed like a Russian shopkeeper.
+The last two I had observed among the
+second-class passengers from Kara. We were now
+brought into closer contact. The advocate spoke
+French, and I gathered from him that the young man
+was his client, whose father had recently died, leaving
+him £20,000. They were come from Central Russia
+to realize the money, for which the advocate, since he
+would be occupied at least all the summer, was to have
+the modest fee of £3,000.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_252" href="#Footnote_5_252" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the morning after leaving Khabarofka, M.
+Kruskopf left the boat to visit the station at Troitzkoy,
+but he did not forget me; for, unasked, he telegraphed
+to Nikolaefsk to his friends, told them I was coming,
+and requested them to look after my welfare. The
+day was Sunday, and I enjoyed a quiet morning in my
+cabin; and in the afternoon we had steamed 170 miles—to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_583">[583]</span>
+Malmejskoy. Here we saw on the bank some
+Goldi, who called to my mind pictures I had seen of
+North American Indians. Some of them had a cross
+suspended from the neck, which in their case had a
+meaning; for those who wore it thus were baptized,
+and so distinguished from the pagan Goldi. I gave a
+few tracts among these people, and in return received,
+in one of the villages, a curious salutation. Offering
+an illuminated text to a little girl, her mother directed
+her to express her thanks by crossing her hands with
+the palms uppermost, and then go down on all-fours at
+my feet with her head to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>At Tambofsk, or Girin, 280 miles further, was a
+village where, on the return journey in the beginning
+of September, I bought melons and ripe black currants,
+the latter good, but with less taste than those
+grown in England. Other berries, tart but juicy, were
+offered for sale. Here, too, were lying on the bank
+some drunken gold-miners, whom the captain refused
+to take on board in that condition, leaving them till
+he should call again three weeks later, by which time
+possibly they might be sober and wiser. I met gold
+capitalists both at Nikolaefsk and at Vladivostock; but
+from the report sent to the Emperor concerning the
+Primorsk, it appeared that in 1878 only 600 lbs. of
+gold were washed throughout the province, the small
+quantity being set down to the lack of workmen.
+At Tambofsk we passed out of the district inhabited
+by the Goldi, and entered that of a distinct though
+somewhat similar tribe, called the Gilyaks, of both of
+whom I shall speak hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>The next place of note to which we came, 412 miles
+from Khabarofka, was Sofiisk, from which there is a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_584">[584]</span>
+road 33 miles long by the shore of Kizi Lake to the coast
+at De Castries Bay. Light draught steamboats can
+go within 12 miles or less of De Castries; and as the
+navigation of the mouth of the Amur is difficult, it was
+at one time proposed to make a canal, or a railway, to
+connect the lake with the sea. Surveys were made by
+Mr. Romanoff, but the plan is not likely to be carried
+out. The steamer passed Sofiisk on my first journey,
+but in returning we stayed for a couple of hours; and
+as there was a prison in the place, I presented my
+letters, and requested to be allowed to see it. Also I
+gave to the Commandant of the 5th East Siberian
+battalion, Colonel Ussofovitch, who was stationed
+there, a box of books and tracts, with a letter in French,
+asking that they might be distributed among his
+soldiers. The colonel did not know French, and a
+young officer, who called himself the “procureur” of
+the battalion, was called in to interpret. What this
+gentleman’s precise office was, I could not exactly
+make out, but it seemed to be something between that
+of a judge and a military head police-master. He took
+me to see the building, where, to my surprise, were
+150 prisoners, many of whom, however, were on their
+way to Sakhalin. The wooden planking of the footways
+in the town was miserably out of order, and I
+hinted to the procureur that since they had insufficient
+work for the prisoners, it would be well to employ them
+in repairing the pavements. This idea seemed never
+to have struck him, and he replied at once that he
+would consider the matter. The procureur spoke
+French fluently, though with a Russian accent, and he
+knew something also of the dead languages, Hebrew
+among them. He said that he had studied this language
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_585">[585]</span>
+in prospect of becoming a priest; but that, when he
+could not see his way to £200 a year in the church,
+he had entered the army, which, he said, “paid” better.
+In this case, it seemed to me, the Russian Church, by
+reason of its miserable emoluments, had lost to her
+clergy a youth of greater intellectual culture than the
+majority of her priests. The population of Sofiisk was
+given me as 700 military and 300 civilians, amongst
+whom I found a ready sale for the Scriptures. At
+the telegraph office complaints reached me, as at
+Khabarofka, that they had no means of educating their
+children, there being no local school.</p>
+
+<p>The Amur at Sofiisk is nearly two miles wide; seven
+miles lower it expands to upwards of four miles.
+Thirteen miles beyond, the banks are low, flat, and
+marshy; but the land is good, and is cultivated by
+Russian settlers. Here, too, is the town of Mariinsk,
+the oldest Russian settlement, next to Nikolaefsk, on
+the Lower Amur, and situated on the right bank of
+the river, at the entrance to the Kizi Lake.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_253" href="#Footnote_6_253" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp47" id="p5860_ill" style="max-width: 59.375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p5860_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      A RUSSIAN PRIEST IN WINTER DRESS.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Mariinsk was founded by the Russian-American
+company in the same year with Nikolaefsk, and was
+a trading post until the military occupation of the
+river. Difficulties of navigation diminished its military
+importance, and the post was transferred to Sofiisk,
+founded in 1858. On an island opposite Mariinsk is
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_586">[586]</span>
+the trace of a fort, built by Stepanof, the Cossack
+adventurer, who descended the Amur in 1654. During
+the winter he remained here he collected nearly 5,000
+sable-skins as tribute. On our return journey we took
+in at this place, as passengers, a priest, his wife, and
+son; the lady being the daughter of the late Metropolitan
+Innokente of Moscow, the wonderful priest
+who, travelling 8,000 miles, crossed Siberia with his
+translations of a portion of the New Testament into
+the language of the Kuriles, and then took them back
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_587">[587]</span>
+in print. This lady seems to have inherited something
+of her father’s enterprise, for I have heard
+recently from a friend that he met her travelling in
+Western Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Collins mentions that from Mariinsk is seen, to
+the south-west, a very high mountain, with much snow
+upon it; and Mr. Ravenstein observes that a few
+miles below Tambofsk, or Girin, may be seen the
+craggy summits of mountain ranges, at greater or less
+distance from the river, covered, in places, as late as
+June with snow. It was after June when I passed
+down the stream, but I saw mountains to the left with
+what looked like snow-drifts, or corries filled with
+snow. My fellow-passengers, however, and especially
+the Baron, stoutly maintained that I was mistaken,
+and that what we saw was either chalk or an effect of
+light. The formation of the rocks on some of the
+mountain crests was very remarkable, and they were
+arrayed in such straight lines, here and there, that
+they looked like the building of Titans rather than
+Nature’s handiwork.</p>
+
+<p>Passing Mariinsk we reached Mikhailofsky, a distance
+of 526 miles from Khabarofka, on Monday afternoon,—that
+is to say, in about 48 hours, which was
+more rapid travelling than the captain had accomplished
+on the Shilka and Upper Amur. A merchant
+afterwards whispered to me, however, that it was
+reckless navigation. The captain had not made the
+passage before; so, placing a man in the bows with
+the measuring-rod, and rising above all questions as
+to where the channel lay, he just shot ahead, suspecting
+no ill where no ill seemed. Fortunately we
+ran on neither rocks nor shoals, but I was exhorted
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_588">[588]</span>
+to be thankful that we had not come to grief. Had
+we been allowed to proceed at this rate we should
+have reached Nikolaefsk in another 24 hours, but a
+telegram awaited the captain at Mikhailofsky to say
+that another boat of the company was coming up from
+Nikolaefsk, for which he was to wait, then exchange
+cargoes and passengers, and return. This involved
+a delay of 30 hours, which gave me an opportunity of
+visiting a settlers’ village, the priest of which informed
+me that he had in his parish 400 persons, of whom
+only 15 could read. The forest in the neighbourhood
+has been cleared, and rye, barley, and oats are successfully
+cultivated. So, too, are vegetables on the
+river’s bank, for the market at Nikolaefsk. Cucumbers
+were just coming in, and the people were eating
+them like apples. When the Baron and I made a
+morning call at one of the houses, they simply brought
+forth cucumbers and salt wherewith to regale us. I
+saw, too, in this village a curious specimen of Russian
+economy. Not able to purchase whole panes of
+window-glass, the peasants had used fragments of any
+form they could get, and fixed them with pieces of
+birch bark, cut to the shape. Mikhailofsky, however,
+was not a flourishing village, and it must be
+added that the colonies of the Lower Amur are
+generally the least prosperous in the country.</p>
+
+<p>Late on Tuesday evening the promised steamship
+<i>Onon</i> arrived, and I left the <i>Zeya</i>, in which I had
+spent the previous 16 days, and travelled 1,900 miles.
+Next morning we arrived at a Gilyak village, called
+Mukhal, near to some hot springs which are said to
+be beneficial in cases of rheumatism, syphilis, diarrhœa,
+and goitre. The Polish exile, in whose charge they
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_589">[589]</span>
+are, is allowed their monopoly, and the Government
+gives him a grant of £50 a year. About mid-day we
+passed another Gilyak village called Tyr. The Amur
+here contracts to 900 yards, and from a bold cliff,
+100 feet high on the right bank, a fine view is obtained
+up stream. The river’s banks spread to a width of
+five miles, and well-wooded islands lie between. To
+the south are dark forests and mountain ridges, and
+at the back of the cliff is a tableland several miles
+broad. On the opposite bank enters the river Amgun,
+which rises in the Bureya mountains, and, after a course
+of not less than 700 miles, flows into the Amur through
+a delta covered with forest.</p>
+
+<p>The cliff at Tyr is interesting to the archæologist
+by reason of its Tatar monuments with inscriptions,
+the history of which appears somewhat doubtful.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_254" href="#Footnote_7_254" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>I went ashore to examine these monuments, of which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_590">[590]</span>
+Mr. Ravenstein mentions four—one with a granite base,
+and the upper portion of grey, fine-grained marble, and
+another of porphyry resting on an octagonal pedestal.
+Unfortunately, I could stay only a very short time, as
+the steamer did not wait. I found two monuments
+near the edge of the cliff, with characters cut thereon.
+A third is about 400 yards to the east, on a more
+elevated point, and on a bare rock foundation. The
+principal one, which I examined most, resembles a
+thick upright tombstone, about five feet high. The
+Archimandrite Avvakum says everything proves that
+the spot where the monument is standing was once
+the site of a temple devoted to the worship of Buddha,
+and in Chinese language was called “<i lang="zh">Youn-nen-se</i>”—that
+is, the “Temple of Eternal Repose.” The two
+inscriptions on either side—one in Chinese and the
+other in Mongolian—were written, he thinks, by some
+illiterate Mongol lama, not thoroughly acquainted with
+Chinese grammar. On the left-hand side are the
+Sanscrit words, “<i lang="sa">Om-mani-badme-houm</i>” in Thibetan
+letters; and beneath, in Chinese, “<i lang="zh">Dai Yuan shouch
+hi-li-gun-bu</i>”—that is, “The great Yuan spreads the
+hands of force everywhere.” In a second line on the
+same side the words, “<i lang="zh">Om-mani-badme-houm</i>” are
+written in Chinese and Nigurian. The inscriptions on
+the right side contain the same in Chinese, Thibetan,
+and Nigurian. “And then,” says the Archimandrite,
+“there is nothing more”; about which statement, however,
+with all deference, I venture to express my doubts;
+for although I do not read Chinese, and could only
+examine the monuments for a very few moments, yet
+I came to the conclusion that whether the interpretation
+first given be correct or not, it is inadequate, and far
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_591">[591]</span>
+from exhaustive. I saw clearly on the stone some
+large Chinese characters, perhaps two inches high, and
+some of the Chinese passengers were able partially to
+decipher them; but the general appearance of the
+stone reminded me of a palimpsest manuscript which
+had been, in the first place, covered with small characters,
+about half an inch square or less, over which
+the larger characters had been written. Beside the
+monumental stone, which was mounted on a pedestal,
+there were lying near five flat stones, cut across the
+centres from side to side with transverse grooves, about
+an inch wide and deep. Mr. Collins says they are
+supposed to have been altars of sacrifice, once elevated
+and within the temple, and that the grooves served to
+conduct the blood of the victim into the proper vessel.
+Whether this be so or not I cannot say, but they looked
+to me much more like the capitals or bases of pillars,
+with the grooves for keeping them in place.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_255" href="#Footnote_8_255" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> It is
+much to be wished that the spot should be visited, and
+the monuments examined by a competent scholar.</p>
+
+<p>Towards evening we passed another Gilyak habitation
+called the “white village,” and afterwards found
+the banks of the Amur becoming abrupt, the islands
+low and to a great extent exposed to inundation. We
+had long been passing out of the region of foliferous
+trees, and in approaching Nikolaefsk they were almost
+entirely supplanted by conifers, fir-trees prevailing,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_592">[592]</span>
+birches and some few other leafy trees occurring only
+in favoured localities. The Amur at Nikolaefsk reaches
+in some places to a depth of 15 feet, is a mile and three-quarters
+wide, with a current of from four to five knots.
+The river enters the sea at a distance of 26 miles from
+the town, the Liman, or gulf, measuring more than
+nine miles at its widest.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_256" href="#Footnote_9_256" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>Thus, on Tuesday evening, the 13th of August, I
+arrived at Nikolaefsk, having completed the passage
+of the Lower Amur. I have said almost nothing,
+however, of its curious heathen inhabitants, whose
+acquaintance I am so glad to have made, and to whose
+description I shall now proceed.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_248" href="#FNanchor_1_248" class="label">[1]</a> This was bad enough, but not all. There was no inn, post-house, or
+hotel in the place; the only lodging that offered was a room constructed
+on a floating barge, without beds or bedsteads, and in which might sleep,
+on the seats or the floor, Russians, Chinese, Manchu, or anyone else that
+chose. Here, however, my Finnish friend, M. Kruskopf, came to my
+aid, and volunteered to get me a bed at the telegraph station, an offer I
+should thankfully have accepted, but the captain of the <i>Zeya</i> consented
+to my sleeping on board till morning, when he expected to go back.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_249" href="#FNanchor_2_249" class="label">[2]</a> On returning to Khabarofka I found one of my fellow-passengers had
+bought eight skins, for which he had paid 50<i>s.</i> each, and for one for his
+wife’s hat £4. I heard subsequently that the best sable-skins are from
+the neighbourhood of the Okhotsk sea, and are worth £4 each. My
+informant, an old sea captain, said that in 1857 he bought 2,000 in
+Kamchatka at 30<i>s.</i>, and that they commanded in New York from £5 to
+£6 each. Among them were 22 skins for a lady’s set of trimmings, which,
+when made up, cost her £200. The skins of the younger sables, he said,
+were blacker than those of the older, which are apt to be more or less
+grey. The former sell better in Berlin, and the latter are highly esteemed
+in Paris.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_250" href="#FNanchor_3_250" class="label">[3]</a> Besides these hundred-rouble notes I took, to pay for horses, £30 in
+one-rouble notes, the same amount in three and five-rouble notes, small
+silver coin to the value of 100 roubles, and a bag of copper kopecks, for
+at the post-houses they are not bound to give change, and the clerks
+gladly pocket the difference when smaller money is not forthcoming. In
+the peopled parts of the Sea-coast government there is a postal delivery
+once a week, at Okhotsk once a month, and at one happy place in the far
+north, I was told, the postman arrives but once a year! They have a
+“parcel post” in Siberia, by which packets must not exceed £500 in
+value, nor weigh more than 1 cwt. The rates are, for 200 miles, ¾<i>d.</i>
+per Russian pound, and ¼<i>d.</i> per pound extra for every 60 miles up to
+1,600, Beyond that distance it costs ¼<i>d.</i> per pound for every 160 miles.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_251" href="#FNanchor_4_251" class="label">[4]</a> Mr. Ravenstein, in his admirable and generally accurate work (page
+187), gives the Amur below the Dondon a breadth in one bed of six miles,
+and further on a width of 15 miles, including the islands; but I have been
+unable to confirm these figures from either the chart of the captain of the
+steamer, or from a well-executed Russian survey of the Amur river at the
+India Office, which was politely shown me by Mr. Trelawney Saunders.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_252" href="#FNanchor_5_252" class="label">[5]</a> After this I thought the profession of an advocate profitable, and
+readily believed him when he told me that he possessed in Russia on the
+Volga nearly 8,000 acres of land, which cost about £1 an acre. It was
+the best land, he said, in all Russia; 600 acres he used for growing wheat,
+and the rest for rye, selling his corn to the merchants of Samara. He
+told me that in forensic matters things are reversed as between Russia
+and England, that whereas in England a barrister looks forward to being
+a judge, in Russia a judge (who is paid only £300 to £400 a year) looks
+forward to being an advocate, which he can become only after spending
+five years in court.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_253" href="#FNanchor_6_253" class="label">[6]</a> This lake seems to be an overflow from the river, which here divides
+into several channels, and looks as if one day in the remote past it would
+fain have ended its wanderings, and turned off eastwards through the
+sea-coast range into Castries Bay. The distance from the head of the
+Kizi Lake to Castries Bay is only 8½ miles. The lake occupies an area of
+93 square miles, being 25 miles long and 12 broad. Of the two islets in
+the lake, one is a rock about 50 feet in diameter. The crevices are full
+of fox-holes, and the Gilyaks regard it as sacred, assembling there from
+time to time for their Shaman rites.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_254" href="#FNanchor_7_254" class="label">[7]</a> Réclus quotes Von Middendorf to the effect that on the map of
+Remezov, which appeared in the seventeenth century, a town is marked
+on this spot as the limits of the conquests of the Tsar Alexander of
+Macedon, who hid his arms and left there a bell. Such was the tradition
+of the Cossacks. Again, Ravenstein quotes Witsen to the effect that
+Russian warriors, 30 or 40 years ago, found a bell weighing 660 lbs.
+at a place which seems to have been dug round, and near which stood
+several stones bearing Chinese inscriptions; and he adds that a manuscript
+of 1678, in the library of the Siberian department, mentions the
+same facts. My fellow-passengers spoke of the monuments as dating
+back to the time of Ghengis Khan, and erected to mark the limit of his
+conquests. Once more, Mr. Ravenstein asserts that one of the emperors
+of the Yuen dynasty (which flourished in China from 1234 to 1368, <span class="allsmcap">A.D.</span>)
+went by sea to the mouth of the Amur, in commemoration of which he
+built at Tyr the monastery of “Eternal Repose.” To come to our own
+times, Mr. Collins relates that the inscriptions on the monuments were
+translated by the Archimandrite Avvakum, who for several years was
+connected with the Russian Mission at Peking, and who descended the
+Amur about 1857 as interpreter to Count Putiatin’s embassy, then on its
+way to China. Mr. Collins obtained from an officer a translation from
+the Russian into English of the Archimandrite’s interpretation.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_255" href="#FNanchor_8_255" class="label">[8]</a> Mr. Collins speaks of excavations, or pits, within and without the
+remains of a wall, and mentions also his finding the monuments decorated
+with wreathed garlands of finely-worked splint, or the stripping of a tree,
+bound together at intervals with willow twigs. The bases of the monuments
+also were dressed with shavings of wood, worked to represent
+flowers, thickly planted around in the earth. These he conjectured to
+have been, as they probably were, offerings of the natives, who still use
+the place, I understood, for Shamanistic practices.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_256" href="#FNanchor_9_256" class="label">[9]</a> A mile below the town there are sandbanks, and a bar which prevents
+the entrance of ships drawing more than 13 feet of water. In fact, from
+the Continent to the Island of Sakhalin are sandbanks, among which wind
+the navigable channels, which are liable to change during heavy tempests,
+so that the pilots are obliged to trace them, sounding-rod in hand. I
+heard, too, that for strategic purposes some of these channels at the
+mouth of the river could be filled up, or diverted.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_593">[593]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XLVI">
+    CHAPTER XLVI
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE GILYAKS.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>The Gilyaks perfect heathens.—Their habitat, number, and form.—Diseases,
+generation, and character.—Habitations.—Living on
+fish.—Winter and summer clothing.—Methods of fishing.—Dirty
+habits.—Domestic animals.—Boats.—Marriage customs.—Price
+of a wife.—Foreign relations.—Fair at Pul.—Manchu merchants.—Conversation
+with Gilyaks.—Gilyak and Goldi languages.—Education.—Superstitions.—Idols
+and charms.—Method of bear
+catching and killing.—Alleged worship of the bear.—Shaman
+rites.—Gilyak treatment of the dead.—Romanist mission to the
+Gilyaks.—Martyrdom of the missionary.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> Gilyaks were the most thorough heathens I
+saw in Siberia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_257" href="#Footnote_1_257" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> I visited two of their villages—Mukhul
+and Tyr—saw some of them at Nikolaefsk
+almost daily, and met a former starosta of the “white”
+village. I conversed also with an American and an
+Englishman who had known them for many years;
+with a French trader among them; with a telegraph
+engineer whose business took him through the Gilyak
+country and into their houses; and, further, with three
+Russian priests, who as missionaries labour among
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_594">[594]</span>
+them and the Goldi. From all of these I gathered
+more or less information, which has since been supplemented
+by reading; yet it must be owned that, as to all
+save what meets the eye, we are still very little informed
+in regard to this people; whilst of their religion (if they
+have any) next to nothing is known. Few Russians
+learn the Gilyak language, and few Gilyaks learn
+Russ.</p>
+
+<p>The Gilyak country extends from Tambofsk (or
+Girin), about 350 miles south of Nikolaefsk, to the
+sea-shore near the mouth of the Amur, as well as over
+the northern half of the island of Sakhalin. The subdivisions
+of the people on the island are, on the west
+coast the Smerenkur, and on the east the Tro. To
+state accurately their numbers is not easy. When I
+asked a former starosta of the white village what was
+its population, he replied, “We have 60 men and more
+women, but the children are not counted.” Mr. Collins
+passed on the Amur 39 Gilyak villages, the population
+of which he estimated at 1,680.</p>
+
+<p>In stature these aborigines are diminutive, usually
+below rather than above five feet; their eyes are elongated;
+the color of the skin tawny, like that of the
+Chinese; the hair black, and not luxuriant.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_258" href="#Footnote_2_258" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The
+Gilyaks tie up the hair in a thick tail, but do not, like
+the Manchu and Goldi, shave or cut it; hence they
+were called by the Chinese “long hairs.”</p>
+
+<p>They do not cause malformations of body by pressure,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_595">[595]</span>
+mutilation, or incision. Their diseases, in common
+with the Goldi, are rheumatism, ophthalmia (produced
+by hunting in the snow), and syphilis, the last having
+been originally introduced by Manchu merchants. In
+hereditary cases it is no doubt aggravated by their filthy
+manner of living. The Gilyaks resort for cure to the
+hot springs at Mukhul; but the Goldi, having no such
+springs, frequently die of the disease. Insanity is rare
+among them. Their women have few children; six is
+thought a very large family. They strap their babies
+in wooden cradles very much like a butcher’s tray, and
+suspend them from the roof, as I saw at Mukhul, where
+the poor little creature was unable to move hand or
+foot. I gathered from a Russian missionary that the
+Goldi are thought to be slightly on the increase; but
+the Gilyaks, from the time the Russians first knew them,
+have been dying out.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_259" href="#Footnote_3_259" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>The winter habitations of the Gilyaks and Goldi
+are erected in clusters of from two or three to perhaps
+a dozen. In the 39 villages mentioned by Collins he
+counted 140 houses. The first Gilyak dwelling I
+entered was at Mukhul. It was about 40 feet square,
+built of small posts or stakes, and plastered with mud.
+The roof was supported by heavier posts at the
+corners, with cross-pieces on which the rafters rested,
+and upright timbers supported the covering of larch
+bark, kept in its place and from warping in the sun
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_596">[596]</span>
+by stones and heavy poles. Among the cross-beams
+and joists were nets, skins, dog-sledges, light canoes,
+hunting implements, fish-baskets of birch or willow
+twigs, dried fish, herbs, and, in fact, the wealth and
+working tools of the half-dozen families to whom the
+house was evidently a comfortable home during a long
+and severe winter. Around three sides of the interior
+was a raised divan for a seat and dining and sleeping
+place, with a flue running underneath, and a fireplace
+at either end. At the vacant side of the interior were
+cooking utensils, pots, kettles, knives, and wooden
+pans; and there were hung to dry various skins and
+fish, entrails, etc. The house had only this one room,
+and in the centre was a raised platform, under which
+in winter are tied the dogs, and sometimes the family
+bear. The windows were of fish-skin, or thin paper,
+over a lattice. Besides this kind of dwelling-house
+for winter, I entered at Tyr a thatched log building,
+supported and raised on posts several feet above the
+ground, and out of the reach of floods, dogs, and
+vermin. The verandah was approached by climbing
+a notched log. The floor consisted of poles, between
+which daylight was visible; and in the centre was a
+box full of earth for the fireplace. The building was
+used probably in winter for a storehouse; but I found
+it inhabited as a summer residence. The most prominent
+objects, both indoors and out, were large racks
+and poles, on which fish were hung to dry; and the
+combined odour of fish and fish-oil made it little short
+of an act of heroism to stay long in a Gilyak’s house.</p>
+
+<p>These people do not cultivate the land, but subsist
+almost entirely on fish. Occasionally they eat the
+animals taken in the chase, and their dogs, when they
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_597">[597]</span>
+die; while pork and other flesh, with a little millet, are
+reserved for festivals.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_260" href="#Footnote_4_260" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>The favourite winter dress of both Gilyaks and
+Goldi is made of dogs’ skins, or of fox or wolf, as
+being the next warmest. In summer they wear fish-skin,
+hence the Chinese called them “Yupitatze,” or
+“fish-skin strangers,” though the well-to-do among
+the Goldi get from the merchants cotton goods, and
+sometimes even silk. The fish-skin is prepared from
+two kinds of salmon. They strip it off with great
+dexterity, and, by beating with a mallet, remove the
+scales, and so render it supple. Clothes thus made
+are waterproof. I saw a travelling bag, and even the
+sail of a boat, made of this material. I had hoped,
+when leaving Kara, to have found at Ignashina the
+dress of a Tunguse shaman, but I was disappointed.
+I succeeded, however, in purchasing at Tyr a fish-skin
+coat. It is handsomely embroidered, and colored on
+the back.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_261" href="#Footnote_5_261" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The Gilyak hats are made of fur for the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_598">[598]</span>
+winter with lappets; and the Goldi, by sewing together
+squirrels’ tails, make a round fur like a “boa,” about
+five inches in diameter, which, being joined at the ends,
+serves either for the neck or to encircle the head like
+a coronet. Their summer hat, of depressed conical
+shape, is made of birch-tree bark, ornamented on the
+top by strips of colored wood sewn in patterns. It
+has inside a wooden ridge, and is kept in place by a
+string under the chin.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp59" id="p5980_ill" style="max-width: 59.8125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p5980_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      SALMON-SKIN COAT AND BIRCH-BARK HAT.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>The occupations of the Gilyaks and Goldi are fishing
+and hunting. They use <em>gill</em>-nets and seines in some
+localities, and <em>scoop</em>-nets in others. I more than once
+saw a fence of poles built at right angles to the shore,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_599">[599]</span>
+extending 20 or 30 yards into the Amur. This fence
+is fish-proof, except in a few places where holes are
+purposely left for the salmon, which the natives lie in
+wait to catch with spears or hand-nets. When the
+fish are running well, a canoe can soon be filled.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_262" href="#Footnote_6_262" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>
+Ropes and nets they make from hemp and from the
+common stinging-nettle, the stalks of which are treated
+like flax. This latter material is preferred, and makes
+cordage equal to that of civilized manufacture, though
+sometimes not quite so smooth. I obtained a specimen
+of very fine sewing-thread of native manufacture, and
+exceedingly strong; but colored threads for embroidery
+are purchased from the Russians or the Manchu.</p>
+
+<p>The habits of the Gilyaks are dirty beyond description.
+They are said never to wash. A telegraphic
+engineer told me that he one day gave a Gilyak a
+piece of soap, which he put in his mouth, and, after
+chewing it to a lather, pronounced “very good.” Both
+Gilyaks and Goldi have a liking, reverence, or fear for
+animals. They formerly domesticated ermines for
+catching rats, the high price of cats confining their
+possession to the wealthy. On the Lower Amur they
+find, besides those mentioned elsewhere, the elk, roebuck,
+reindeer, and fox; the racoon-dog, wild boar,
+and lynx; the polecat, hedgehog, ermine, sable, and
+striped squirrel.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_263" href="#Footnote_7_263" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> They are fond also of seeing swallows
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_600">[600]</span>
+build in their houses, and to induce them to do so they
+fasten small boards under the roof, by which these
+birds have access to the house. The Goldi keep the
+horned owl (for catching rats), the jay, the hawk, and
+the kite—the last for no particular use, unless it be for
+the sake of their feathers for arrows.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_264" href="#Footnote_8_264" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> The eagle is
+sometimes seen fastened near their houses, and so are
+the dogs, which, in winter, are their principal means
+of locomotion. I saw a large number of them at
+Mukhul. A team may consist of any odd number
+from 7 to 17, a good leader being worth 50<i>s.</i> and an
+ordinary dog from 8<i>s.</i> to 10<i>s.</i> The sledge is made of
+thin boards five or six feet long, and 18 inches wide,
+convex below, but straight on the upper edge. A
+team of nine dogs draws a man and 200 pounds of
+luggage an entire day, each dog receiving a piece of
+fish a foot long, and about two inches square, the same
+in size as suffices for his master. The mode of summer
+communication is by boats made of pitch-fir or cedar.
+Besides these the Goldi make canoes of birch-bark.
+The native sits in the centre, and propels himself with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_601">[601]</span>
+a double-bladed paddle. The canoes are flat-bottomed,
+and very easily upset. When a native sitting in one
+of them spears a fish, he moves only his arm, and keeps
+his body motionless. The larger boats are usually
+rowed by women, the lords of creation sitting in the
+stern to steer and smoke their long-stemmed, amber-tipped,
+Chinese pipes. There is one marked difference,
+however, between the rowing of the Gilyaks and Goldi,
+for whereas the latter, taking two oars, pull them
+together, the former pull them alternately—a seemingly
+clumsy way, but in practice efficient.</p>
+
+<p>Women occupy a low position among the Gilyaks
+and Goldi, who are polygamists. Mr. Ravenstein
+quotes a statement of Rinso, a Japanese traveller, that
+among the Smerenkur Gilyaks polyandry prevails.
+Betrothal dates from childhood. The father chooses
+the bride for his infant son, a rich Gold paying from
+£5 to £20 for a girl five years old. At Mukhul the
+price of a wife was given me as from £10 to £50,
+often paid in silk stuffs and other materials, whilst a
+telegraph engineer named as the selling price for a
+Gilyak bride, from eight to ten dogs, a sledge, and two
+cases of brandy, though, if she have “a good nose,”
+she fetches rather more. The bride elect is brought
+into the house of her future father-in-law, and when
+the girl is 12 or 13, and the boy 18, they are married.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_265" href="#Footnote_9_265" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>
+Should a Gold who has many wives desire to be baptized
+the Russian missionaries compel him to elect one, and be
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_602">[602]</span>
+canonically married to the object of his choice; the rest
+being sold, or, by a happy arrangement, returned to their
+respective fathers at half price. Notwithstanding such
+matrimonial drawbacks, I heard that among these interesting
+people there are no unmarried ladies.</p>
+
+<p>The amusements of the Gilyaks are of the nature of
+gymnastics, such as throwing heavy irons and fencing.
+They begin early to shoot with bow and arrow, and
+are good archers. Their foreign relationships are of
+a very limited character.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_266" href="#Footnote_10_266" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p>There was formerly at Pul an annual fair, which
+lasted for 10 days, and was like that of Nijni Novgorod
+in miniature.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11_267" href="#Footnote_11_267" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> The navigation of the Amur by
+the Russians has caused this fair to be discontinued,
+but the Manchu merchants still descend the river,
+though not in such numbers as formerly, when one
+voyage sufficed to realize enough for the wants of a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_603">[603]</span>
+year. I was informed that they fleece the natives
+sadly, giving the Gilyaks, for instance, a pint of millet
+or half a pint of brandy for a sable-skin; and when
+the natives are made drunk, then, of course, skins are
+bartered for very much less. The Russian barges,
+fitted like floating stores, and towed on the river, must
+have interfered greatly with the Manchu traders, whose
+sway, it is to be hoped, is nearly at an end. The
+Gilyaks now come to the Russian towns, especially to
+Nikolaefsk, and not only sell their fish, but begin to
+purchase Russian articles; whereas, for a long time,
+they gave the preference to goods of Chinese make.</p>
+
+<p>I met a family of Gilyaks in a shop at Nikolaefsk,
+with whom I endeavoured to exchange ideas, through
+one who spoke a little Russian, and I thought they
+seemed a people the lowest in intellect of any I had
+met. The company consisted of a father, mother, two
+daughters, and a deaf and dumb boy. The man did
+not know his daughters’ age, nor even his own, saying
+that they kept no account. When asked whether he
+would sell me his daughter to wife, he replied at first
+that they did not sell their girls to Russians, not
+approving the alliance. When pressed further, however,
+he said that she was already sold (she was about
+10 years old, and was smoking a pipe), and he added,
+“I sold her dearly!” It was difficult, however, in
+Russ to convey to their minds any but the simplest
+ideas. Neither Gilyaks nor Goldi have any written
+signs. The missionary living at Khabarofka has
+translated into Goldi parts of the Scriptures and the
+Greek liturgy, using, if I mistake not, Russian characters.
+The Goldi language, he told me, was much
+like the Manchu, and that, speaking the former, he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_604">[604]</span>
+could make himself understood in the latter. Both,
+Mr. Howorth says, are Tunguse languages. M. de la
+Brunière writes that Goldi stands to Manchu much as
+Provençal does to French or Italian.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_12_268" href="#Footnote_12_268" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Russians have made some attempts to educate
+the Gilyaks. When Mr. Knox visited Mikhailofsky,
+he found a merchant farmer who was acting as superintendent
+of a school opened at the cost of the Government
+for the education of Gilyak boys. The copy-books
+exhibited fair specimens of penmanship, and on the
+desks were Æsop’s fables translated into Russ. Close
+at hand was a forge, where the boys learned to work,
+and a carpenter’s shop, with tools and turning lathe.
+The school at that time was in operation ten months
+a year, and the teacher belonged to one of the inferior
+ranks of the Russian clergy. I called on the priest at
+Mikhailofsky and inquired about the Gilyaks, but heard
+nothing of the existence of the school, and I am under
+the impression that it is discontinued. The Russians
+have two mission schools, however, on the Lower
+Amur, attended by 30 children—one at Troitzka for
+the Goldi, and another for the Gilyaks at Bolan, near
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_605">[605]</span>
+Malmuish. I heard of one Gilyak boy who had made
+sufficient progress to qualify him to become a psalmist,
+or <i lang="ru">dïechok</i>, in the Russian Church.</p>
+
+<p>Like other heathen tribes, the Gilyaks have many
+superstitions. They do not allow fire to be carried in
+or out of a house, not even in a pipe, fearing such an
+act may bring ill luck in hunting or fishing. The same
+superstition is found in many parts of Russia. They
+appear, too, to be fatalists; for an Englishman at
+Nikolaefsk told me that if one falls into the water,
+the others will not help him out, on the plea that they
+would thus be opposing a higher power, who wills that
+he should perish. A Russian officer and his family were
+drowned some time since near the town, within easy
+reach of the boats of the Gilyaks, who could have saved
+them, but they did not attempt to do so.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_13_269" href="#Footnote_13_269" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Gilyaks believe in wooden idols or charms as
+antidotes to disease. I had practical illustration of this
+at Tyr, where I wished to buy some of the little amulets
+belonging to the head of a household; but he was at
+first unwilling to sell them, saying that he had found
+the wearing of them very efficacious in sickness. The
+offer of a silver piece, however, changed his mind;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_14_270" href="#Footnote_14_270" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_606">[606]</span>
+and he afterwards sold me not only his own, but those
+of his baby, one of them like a doll in a sitting posture;
+and after I had left the house, he sent after me a fish
+rudely cut in wood, and meant for a sturgeon, with a
+little god seated on his back. This had been used,
+apparently, not long before, on a fishing expedition, for
+there was gelatine and fresh blood in the mouth of the
+fish and the god. Sometimes poles shaped like idols
+are placed before the houses. Another kind is carried
+as companion to the native on his journeys, whilst some
+are placed upon the summits of the mountains.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp74" id="p6060_ill" style="max-width: 56.9375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p6060_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      GILYAK IDOLS OR CHARMS
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Other idols are in the form of the tiger, bear, etc.,
+which animals are closely connected with their superstition,
+if not their religion. The tiger is said to be
+feared much more among the Gilyaks than the Goldi,
+and its appearance portends evil. If the remains are
+found of a man killed by a tiger, they are buried
+on the spot without ceremony. On the other hand,
+if a cow is found killed by a bear, it is eaten with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_607">[607]</span>
+great glee and rejoicing. It is said that neither
+Gilyaks nor Goldi attempt to kill the tiger. Neither
+do they hunt the wolf, to which they attribute an evil
+influence. With the bear, however, things are very
+different. There is in each Gilyak village a bear cage.
+I saw them at both Mukhul and Tyr. They speak
+of the captive as <i lang="ru">Mafa</i>, that is, “Chief Elder,” and
+to distinguish him from the tiger, who is <i lang="ru">Mafa sakhle</i>,
+that is, “Black Chief.” In hunting the bear they
+exhibit great intrepidity. In order not to excite his
+posthumous revenge, they do not surprise him, but
+have a fair stand-up fight. When it is not desired to
+secure the animal alive, the natives use a spear, such
+as I saw at Krasnoiarsk, the head of which is covered
+with spikes. It lies upon the ground, having cord
+attached to the centre, and held by a man, the spear-point
+being towards the bear. As Bruin advances to
+the man, the spear-head is raised from the ground,
+and the beast throws himself upon it, but finds the
+chevaux-de-frize a disagreeable object to embrace.
+He is then set upon by the huntsmen and killed. It
+is much more interesting sport to catch a bear alive.
+A party of ten men or more enter the forest provided
+with straps, muzzle, and a collar with chain attached.
+Having discovered the whereabouts of the bear, he is
+surrounded, and one of them, jumping upon his back
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_608">[608]</span>
+in the twinkling of an eye, seizes hold of his ears.
+Another quickly fastens a running knot round the
+neck of the beast, and almost suffocates him. He
+is then muzzled, the collar passed round his neck, and
+he is led in triumph to the village to be put in the
+cage, and fattened on fish.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_15_271" href="#Footnote_15_271" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> Bruin is not imprisoned,
+however, to be treated like the sacred bulls of Egypt.
+On festivals he is brought out, his paws tied, an iron
+chain put in his mouth, and he is bound between two
+fixed poles, an involuntary witness of the natives
+frolicking around him. On very grand occasions he
+takes a more direct share in the festival by being killed
+with superstitious ceremonies.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_16_272" href="#Footnote_16_272" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> The people then go
+home, their chiefs staying to cut up the bear, the flesh
+of which is distributed to every house, and eaten with
+great zest, as food calculated to inspire and bring
+courage and luck. The head and paws, however, are
+treated with great reverence.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_17_273" href="#Footnote_17_273" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> These ursine ceremonies
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_609">[609]</span>
+have, no doubt, given rise to the statement
+that the Gilyaks worship the bear. Mr. Collins goes
+so far as to say that they consider the bear an incarnated
+evil spirit; and the missionary at Mikhailofsky,
+in answer to my question, was not sure, but he thought it
+quite likely that they worshipped the animal. It is only
+proper to say, however, that when I met at Nikolaefsk
+the former elder of the White village, and asked him
+whether it was true that they worshipped the bear, he
+denied it, and said that they killed it as we should do
+any other animal for a feast; and that each village
+was bound in turn to provide a bear, on which occasion
+other villages assembled and joined in the banquet.
+I then inquired what was the religion of the Gilyaks.
+He said they had none, but upon being asked to
+whom they prayed, he looked up to the skies. He
+acknowledged that they practised Shamanism, but
+added that that was a mystery.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p6070_ill" style="max-width: 67.5625em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p6070_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      GILYAK FISH-GOD OR IDOL.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>Thus far I have frequently used the word Shamanism,
+but have deferred explaining it till I treated of
+the Gilyaks, some of whose Shamanistic practices were
+described to me by an eye-witness—the telegraph
+engineer, to whom I have before alluded. The Gilyaks
+and the Siberian natives generally believe in the
+existence of good and bad spirits; but as the former
+perform only good, it is not thought necessary to pay
+them any attention.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_18_274" href="#Footnote_18_274" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_610">[610]</span></p>
+
+<p>The shamans, or priests, who may be male or female,
+are regarded as powerful mediators between the people
+and the evil spirits. The shaman, in fact, combines the
+double functions of doctor and priest. When a man
+falls sick, he is supposed to be attacked by an evil
+spirit, and the shaman is called to practise exorcism.
+There is a distinct spirit for every disease, who must
+be propitiated in a particular manner. The performance
+was thus described to me. The shaman puts on
+a huge bearskin cloak, which jingles with bells, pieces
+of iron, brass, or anything which will help, when
+shaken, to make a noise; the whole sometimes weighing
+as much as 100 lbs. He begins by singing
+in a monotonous murmur, and drinks brandy. Both
+patient and doctor are usually decorated with strips
+of wood or shavings, hanging round the waist and
+head. By the side of the patient are placed idols
+and brandy. The shaman sits on one side and the
+audience on the other. He approaches, drinks more
+brandy, begins to sing and jingle his bells, and gives
+brandy to the spectators. On the table are placed
+idols, fish, a squirrel’s skin, millet and brandy, and
+a dog is tied under the table. The eatables are
+offered to the idols, and then distributed to be consumed
+by all present. Meanwhile the shaman contorts
+his body, and dances like one possessed, and howls to
+such an extent that Chinese merchants, who have
+come out of curiosity, have been known to flee in very
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_611">[611]</span>
+terror. He also beats a tambourine, and sometimes
+falls prostrate, as if holding communion with the spirits;
+and this kind of thing sometimes goes on for three
+days and nights, as long, probably, as provisions and
+spirits hold out, after which the patient is left to
+believe that he will get well; and the shaman receives
+his fee, which may be a reindeer, a dog, fish, brandy,
+or whatever the patient can afford. The shamans
+possess great power over their deluded subjects, though
+they are said to be somewhat held in check by the
+belief that, should they abuse their authority over evil
+spirits, to the detriment of a fellow human being, they
+will hereafter be long and severely punished. Their
+punishment is supposed to await them in a nether
+hell, dark and damp, filled with gnawing reptiles. A good
+shaman, however, who has performed wonderful cures
+receives, after death, a magnificent tomb to his memory.</p>
+
+<p>The treatment of the dead among the Gilyaks would
+seem to vary. Réclus and Collins say that some tribes
+burn the dead on funereal pyres, and build a low frame
+over the ashes, and that others hang the coffins on
+trees, or place them on a scaffolding near the houses.
+The French trader at Nikolaefsk told me that in winter
+they wrap up the dead and put them in the forked
+branches of trees, out of the reach of animals, till the
+ground is thawed, and then, he supposed, the corpse
+was buried. The soul of the Gilyak is supposed to
+pass at death into his favourite dog, which is accordingly
+fed with choice food; and when the spirit has
+been prayed by the shamans out of the dog, the animal
+is sacrificed upon his master’s grave. The soul is then
+represented as passing underground, lighted and guided
+there by its own sun and moon, and continuing to lead
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_612">[612]</span>
+there, in its spiritual abode, the same manner of life
+and pursuits as in the flesh.</p>
+
+<p>The Russians have missionaries among the Gilyaks,
+but the Greek Church cannot claim the honour of
+bringing Christianity first among them. This belongs
+to a Roman missionary, M. de la Brunière, who
+perished in his endeavour.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_19_275" href="#Footnote_19_275" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> On April 5th, 1846, he
+addressed a letter to the directors of the Seminary for
+Foreign Missions, telling them of his plans, and how
+strongly a Chinese friend tried to dissuade him, “representing
+to me the troops of tigers and bears which filled
+these deserts; and, whilst relating these things, he sometimes
+uttered such vehement cries that my two guides
+grew pale with horror. Being already a little accustomed
+to the figures of Chinese eloquence, I thanked
+him for his solicitude, assuring him that the flesh of
+Europeans had such a particular flavour that the tigers of
+Manchuria would not attempt to fasten their teeth in it.”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_20_276" href="#Footnote_20_276" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p>
+
+<p>Then follows a touching portion, in which he writes:—
+“About the 13th or 15th of May, I will buy, if it please
+God, a small bark, in which I may descend the Amur to
+the sea to visit the ‘long hairs.’ I shall go alone, because
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_613">[613]</span>
+no one dare conduct me. I am well aware how difficult it
+will be to avoid the barges of the mandarins who descend
+the river from San-sin; but if it is the will of God that I
+arrive where I design going, His arm can smooth every
+obstacle, and guide me there in safety; and if it please
+Him that I return, He knows well how to bring me back.”</p>
+
+<p>He went, and at the White village was murdered.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_21_277" href="#Footnote_21_277" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>
+I passed the spot a few hours before reaching Nikolaefsk,
+and the bay was pointed out where the missionary was
+put to death. My fellow-passengers said that De la
+Brunière reached the place with a baptized Mongol,
+whom he sent back on the day of his arrival, after which
+he proceeded to show the Gilyaks his watch, crucifix,
+spoons, etc.; and that two days after his arrival, they
+killed him on a small island where he had taken up his
+abode. One of my fellow-passengers was the Russian
+Lieutenant Yakimoff, who in 1857, with the Governor of
+the province, visited the village, and found the Gilyaks
+who had committed the murder. They had still in their
+possession the watch, crucifix, and spoons, which the Russians
+bought. During my stay at Nikolaefsk I met, as I
+have said, a former starosta of the White village, who
+told me that he had heard from his father the story of the
+missionary. Thus perished the first man who attempted
+to carry Christianity to the Gilyaks. What the Russians
+are doing among them I shall refer to when speaking
+hereafter of their missions to the neighbouring Goldi.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_257" href="#FNanchor_1_257" class="label">[1]</a> Their name is variously spelt Gee-laks, Giliaks, Ghiliaks, and Gilyaks.
+Living near and resembling in many points the Goldi, the two tribes, for
+ethnographical purposes, are sometimes classed together as branches of
+the Tunguse family. But M. Réclus is right when, speaking of the
+“Giliaks” or “Kilé,” he calls them “frères de ceux qui vivent dans l’île
+de Sakhalin et parents de ces mystérieux Aïnos qui sont l’objet de tant
+de discussion entre les ethnologistes”; and Mr. Howorth says that the
+Ghiliaks, called “Fish-skin Tata” by the Chinese, are no doubt sophisticated
+Aïnos, while the Goldi are Tunguses.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_258" href="#FNanchor_2_258" class="label">[2]</a> As Réclus observes, they have not the open and clear physiognomy
+of the majority of the Tunguses, and their little eyes sparkle with a dull
+brilliance; they have squat noses, thick lips, prominent cheekbones, and,
+he adds, “thick beards”; which last I can hardly confirm, but would
+rather say, with Mr. Ravenstein, that the beard is stronger with them than
+with the Tunguses, which is not saying much.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_259" href="#FNanchor_3_259" class="label">[3]</a> Dwelling further from the Manchu than the Amur Tunguses, they are
+wilder; and Réclus observes that they have a greater idea of liberty,
+acknowledge no master, and are governed only by custom, which regulates
+their festivals, and determines their hunting and fishing affairs, their marriages
+and burials. They are certainly courageous in the way they catch
+and kill the bear, though oddly enough they never willingly get into water,
+and do not swim.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_260" href="#FNanchor_4_260" class="label">[4]</a> They are beginning now to use tea, salt, sugar, and bread; but all
+of these seem to have been unknown to them before the advent of the
+Russians. I heard it mentioned, as a good trait in their character, that
+if a Gilyak receives a piece of bread, after eating a portion he takes
+home the remainder as a treat for his family. During my stay at
+Mikhailofsky the natives came to barter wild fruit for bread. They are
+said to have no stated hours for meals, and knives and forks are of course
+unknown to them. Noticing one day some Manchu and Goldi at a
+meal, I observed they had boiled millet in basins, which they raised
+to the lips, and then whipped the millet into their mouths with chop-sticks.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_261" href="#FNanchor_5_261" class="label">[5]</a> The men and women dress very much alike. A number of small
+metal pendants about the size of a sixpence round the bottom of the
+blouse distinguishes the gentler sex. I purchased, too, at Mukhul some
+pieces of embroidery on fish-skin, the workmanship of which is thought
+good in England; whilst at Tyr was given me a kind of fish-skin open
+work or lace. The blouse of the men is fastened in front, and confined
+round the waist by a belt, to which is suspended a number of articles of
+daily use. They consist of a large knife, a Chinese pipe, an iron instrument
+for cleaning it, steel for striking a light, a bone for smoothing fish-skins
+and loosening knots, a bag of fish-skin for tinder, and a tobacco
+pouch, a specimen of which last, somewhat tastefully made of sturgeon’s
+skin, was given me at Nikolaefsk by the chief civil authority.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_262" href="#FNanchor_6_262" class="label">[6]</a> In places I saw square pens of wicker-work fixed, to enclose the fish
+after they pass the holes in the fence. For catching sturgeon they use
+a circular net, of 5-feet diameter, and shaped like a shallow bag. One
+part of the mouth is fitted with corks, and the opposite with weights of
+lead or iron. Two canoes in mid-stream hold this net vertically between
+them across the current. The sturgeon descending the river enter the
+trap, and the fishermen divide the “net proceeds.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_263" href="#FNanchor_7_263" class="label">[7]</a> “Cats,” says Mr. Knox, “have a half-religious character, and are
+treated with great respect. Since the advent of the Russians, the supply
+is very good. Before they came, the Manchu merchants used to bring
+only male cats, and those mutilated. The price was sometimes a hundred
+roubles for a single mouser, and by curtailing the supply, the Manchu
+kept up the market.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_264" href="#FNanchor_8_264" class="label">[8]</a> The birds known to them belong generally to the species found in
+the same latitudes of Europe and America, but there are some birds of
+passage that are natives of Southern Asia, Japan, the Philippine Islands,
+and even South Africa and Australia. Seven-tenths of the birds of the
+Amur are found in Europe, two-tenths in Siberia, and one-tenth in regions
+further south. Some birds belong more properly to America, such as the
+Canadian woodcock and the water-ouzel, and there are several birds
+common to the east and west coasts of the Pacific. The number of
+stationary birds is not great. Maack enumerates 39 species that dwell
+here the entire year. The birds of passage generally arrive in April or
+May, and leave in September or October. It is a curious fact that they
+come later to Nikolaefsk than to the town of Yakutsk, nine degrees further
+north. This is due to difference of climate.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_265" href="#FNanchor_9_265" class="label">[9]</a> Weddings, however, are expensive, for all the relatives expect to be
+invited, and they sometimes drink several gallons of Chinese <i lang="zh">khanshin</i>. The
+drinking of this, I am told, causes not only intoxication, but among these
+people violence akin to madness. It is sold by weight, and costs tenpence
+per Russian pound, but its importation is strictly forbidden by Russian
+law.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_266" href="#FNanchor_10_266" class="label">[10]</a> Before the Russian occupation the Manchu came down the river to
+collect tribute and dispose of their merchandise. These Mandarins are
+charged with abuse of power, and with having made extortionate demands
+upon the natives, who hailed the Russians as their liberators. On the other
+hand, the Mandarin was supposed to make a small present of tobacco or
+silk to every one paying him tribute; and among the Gilyaks this present
+appeared to be reckoned of greater value than the tribute demanded. The
+Gilyaks, however, living so far off from the Manchu, do not seem to have
+been much oppressed by them, nor indeed to have been very frequently
+visited. Sakhalin was visited still less often, but I heard among the Goldi
+that they decidedly preferred the Russian to the Manchu rule.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_267" href="#FNanchor_11_267" class="label">[11]</a> Manchu and Chinese merchants met Japanese from Sakhalin, Tunguses
+from the Okhotsk coast, and from the head waters of the Zeya and
+Amgun. Besides these were the Orochi, or Orochons, from the mountains
+east of the Lower Amur, and Manguns; to say nothing of smaller tribes,
+speaking nearly a dozen languages, and conducting business in a <i lang="fr">patois</i>
+of all the dialects. The goods imported were coarsely printed calicoes,
+Chinese silk materials, rice and millet, also bracelets, earrings, tobacco and
+brandy, cloth, powder, lead, and knives. These were exchanged for furs,
+isinglass, and the dried backbones of the sturgeon—the last being highly
+prized in Chinese cookery.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12_268" href="#FNanchor_12_268" class="label">[12]</a> I found that the priest was compiling a Goldi lexicon and grammar,
+and that, for his linguistic labours, he has received a medal from the
+Imperial Geographical Society. I am indebted to him for some of the
+words in the following short vocabulary, which will give an idea of the
+Manyarg, Manchu, Orochon, and Goldi tongues (which are Tunguse)
+compared with the Gilyak and Aïno dialects, which seem to belong to
+another family.</p>
+
+
+<table class="autotable goldi">
+<tr>
+<th class="tdl"><i>English.</i></th>
+<th class="tdl"><i>Manyarg.</i></th>
+<th class="tdl"><i>Manchu.</i></th>
+<th class="tdl"><i>Orochon.</i></th>
+<th class="tdl"><i>Goldi.</i></th>
+<th class="tdl"><i>Gilyak.</i></th>
+<th class="tdl"><i>Aïno.</i></th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">One</td>
+<td class="tdl">omun</td>
+<td class="tdl">emu</td>
+<td class="tdl">omu</td>
+<td class="tdl">omu</td>
+<td class="tdl">niun</td>
+<td class="tdl">chine</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Two</td>
+<td class="tdl">zur</td>
+<td class="tdl">juo</td>
+<td class="tdl">dhjou</td>
+<td class="tdl">dhjour</td>
+<td class="tdl">morsh</td>
+<td class="tdl">tu</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Three</td>
+<td class="tdl">ilan</td>
+<td class="tdl">ilan</td>
+<td class="tdl">ulla</td>
+<td class="tdl">ellan</td>
+<td class="tdl">chiorch</td>
+<td class="tdl">che</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Four</td>
+<td class="tdl">digin</td>
+<td class="tdl">duin</td>
+<td class="tdl">dii</td>
+<td class="tdl">duyin</td>
+<td class="tdl">murch</td>
+<td class="tdl">yne</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Five</td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdl">sunja</td>
+<td class="tdl">tungha</td>
+<td class="tdl">tongha</td>
+<td class="tdl">torch</td>
+<td class="tdl">ashne</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Dog</td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdl">inda</td>
+<td class="tdl">inda</td>
+<td class="tdl">kan</td>
+<td class="tdl">sheta</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Sable</td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdl">nossa</td>
+<td class="tdl">seppha</td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">Fox</td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdl">solaki</td>
+<td class="tdl">solli</td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+<td class="tdl"></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13_269" href="#FNanchor_13_269" class="label">[13]</a> These aborigines do not bear a favourable character. Schrenk says
+that the Gilyaks of the mainland are avaricious and covetous in their
+commercial transactions, but that among those of Sakhalin this propensity
+seeks satisfaction in theft and robbery. I shall presently relate a case
+in which they murdered a missionary apparently for the sake of getting
+the little merchandise he possessed.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_14_270" href="#FNanchor_14_270" class="label">[14]</a> Sometimes they wear amulets fashioned like the part afflicted. A
+lame or injured person carries a small leg of wood, an arm, a hand,
+reminding one of the wax and silver arms, legs, hands, and hearts seen
+in churches on Roman images, and on the pictures of Russian saints.
+The missionary at Tyr gave me, in exchange for tracts, a charm to which
+is attached a stone, and also two rough wooden fish gods—one with a
+tail, the other without. The Gilyaks use these images or idols also in
+their Shaman worship.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_15_271" href="#FNanchor_15_271" class="label">[15]</a> When secured as a cub, he is frequently kept for three or four years.
+The natives are often seriously wounded in these encounters, but to this
+they do not object, since such wounds are thought to be marks of prowess,
+and to be killed by a bear is deemed a very happy death. Most of the
+writers on the Gilyaks mention this extraordinary procedure; and I
+heard it confirmed at Mikhailofsky by the missionary.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_16_272" href="#FNanchor_16_272" class="label">[16]</a> The day falls in January of each year, and an Englishman at
+Nikolaefsk, who had been an eye-witness of the spectacle, described it to
+me thus: “The bear is led from his cage, dragged along and beaten
+with sticks, and presented at every house in the village; thus he gets
+exasperated to a high degree. He is then led to the river to a hole in
+the ice, where they try to make him drink water, and from a platter to
+eat food, though only a spoonful, both of which in his excited state he
+refuses, and which is precisely what they desire. He is then dragged
+back with shouts to the place of sacrifice, where, having been fastened
+to a post and allowed to repose awhile, he is shot through the heart with
+an arrow.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_17_273" href="#FNanchor_17_273" class="label">[17]</a> Among the Gilyaks the head is kept by the patriarch of the village,
+and prayers are said to be offered to it for the space of a week. I was told
+at Nikolaefsk that the Gilyaks often bring bears’ skins to sell; but by no
+chance do they bring, or can they be induced to bring, a hide with the
+head or paws attached. The ears, jaw-bones, skull, and paws are sometimes
+hung upon trees to ward off evil spirits. Occasionally the skull is
+split, and suspended in their houses; and Mr. Knox observed in a Goldi
+house that part of one wall was covered with bear skulls and bones,
+horse-hair, wooden idols, and pieces of colored cloth.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_18_274" href="#FNanchor_18_274" class="label">[18]</a> Mr. Collins does indeed say that the true God is adored without the
+shamans in autumn, and then by the whole community in mass, but I am
+unable to confirm this from anything I have read or heard. It would
+seem rather that all their efforts are directed to induce the evil spirits not
+to act; for these evil spirits are supposed to have power over hunting,
+fishing, household affairs, and the health and well-being of animals and
+men. Accordingly I inferred that Shamanism, so far as it can be called
+a religion, is one of fear, and not of love; that it is something for times of
+sorrow, such as death, sickness, and calamity, and not for occasions of
+joy or thanksgiving, as a birth or a wedding.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_19_275" href="#FNanchor_19_275" class="label">[19]</a> Mr. Ravenstein states that the efforts of the Roman Catholic missionaries
+in Manchuria may be said to date from 1838; and in May
+1845 M. de la Brunière left Kai Cheu with the intention of seeking the
+conversion of the “long-haired” people—that is, the Gilyaks of the Amur.
+This was before the Russian occupation of the river, and at a time when
+thus to wander, without permission, was contrary to Chinese law and full
+of danger, to say nothing of the difficulties of locomotion.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_20_276" href="#FNanchor_20_276" class="label">[20]</a> M. de la Brunière then describes his fatigues, his only food being
+millet boiled in water. “You must cut and drag trees, light fires (necessary
+against the cold and tigers), prepare your victuals in wind and rain,
+and all this in the midst of a swarm of mosquitoes and gad-flies, who do
+not suspend their attacks till about 10 or 12 in the evening. Water and
+wood were abundant at first, ... but 30 leagues from the Ussuri, the
+springs became so scarce that we were compelled to do like the birds of
+heaven, and eat the millet raw.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_21_277" href="#FNanchor_21_277" class="label">[21]</a> Four years after, M. Venault was sent to the Lower Amur partly, if
+possible, to clear up the fate of De la Brunière. On arriving at what is
+now called the White village, he found no difficulty in ascertaining how
+matters had gone. M. de la Brunière, it seemed, was preparing his meal
+in a small bay, when ten men, attracted by the prospect of booty from the
+strange priest, went towards him, armed with bows and pikes. Having
+hit him with several arrows, seven of them struck him with their pikes,
+and the last stroke fractured his skull and proved mortal. This act consummated,
+the assassins divided the spoil.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_614">[614]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XLVII">
+    CHAPTER XLVII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>NIKOLAEFSK.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>My arrival.—Visit to prisons and hospitals.—Health statistics.—Siberian
+hospitals in general.—A Sunday service arranged.—Visits to
+inhabitants.—Russian customs, superstitions, and amusements.—Dancing.—Nikolaefsk
+town, arsenal, and commerce.—Mr. Emery.—Russian
+bribery.—Cost of provisions and labour.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>Nikolaefsk</span>, founded in 1853, rapidly grew
+into importance, but gradually waned after
+the removal of the “port”; and as our steamer approached
+on a cloudy evening, I seemed to have
+arrived at a very dismal and out-of-the-way part of
+the world. My spirits, however, had risen appreciably
+during the day. The perplexity in which I left Khabarofka,
+and my uncertainty as to how to reach San
+Francisco, have been alluded to; but on boarding the
+<i>Onon</i> I met Mr. Enoch Emery, an American merchant
+of Nikolaefsk. After almost disusing my native tongue
+for three weeks, I was able to speak again in English,
+and I now learnt that for £90 a first-class ticket might
+be taken from Yokohama in Japan to Euston Square
+in London, including food whilst traversing the two
+oceans, an allowance of 250 lbs. of luggage, and railway
+tickets for America and England. It was not so clear,
+however, how Japan was to be reached. The <i>Dragon</i>
+was not expected at Nikolaefsk, I heard, nor was there
+any regular means of getting away other than by retracing
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_615">[615]</span>
+my steps to the Ussuri and Vladivostock. A
+Russian gunboat had been lying at the mouth of the
+Amur, the previous day, with provisions for Dui in
+Sakhalin, by which it was suggested that I might get
+a passage to the island, and perhaps be trans-shipped
+to Japan or China on some chance vessel calling for
+coal. But when we reached Nikolaefsk this gunboat
+had started a few hours before; and thus I landed—with
+regard to my future movements—as full of uncertainty
+as ever.</p>
+
+<p>I had fallen, nevertheless, into good hands; for, in
+talking to Mr. Emery, it transpired that we had
+common friends in Petersburg, one of whom had
+spoken to me of the Amur, and would gladly have
+given me introductions, had I not persisted in saying
+that I did not intend to go so far. Mr. Emery invited
+me to be his guest—an invitation doubly welcome in
+a place where was no better hotel than a beershop,
+and because with him I should have the advantage of
+conversing in English.</p>
+
+<p>Baron Stackelberg was lodged near me, and in the
+morning we went to the chief civil authority, M.
+Andreyeff, to whom I was introduced as a person
+desirous of information about the prisons of Sakhalin,
+and of a passage, if possible, to the island. To my
+surprise M. Andreyeff also was acquainted with some of
+my friends in Petersburg, and he at once promised the
+information; but it was uncertain, he said, when a ship
+would leave again with provisions.</p>
+
+<p>The police-master was sent for to take me to see
+the prisons of the town. The police-station was the
+first building we entered; it contained a few rooms for
+temporary accommodation. In one of them were
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_616">[616]</span>
+flogging instruments I had heard of at Kara and
+elsewhere, and had vainly inquired for more than once.
+I have no reason to suppose, however, they were
+hidden from me in other places, a lawyer having told
+me that the troichatka, or plète, was used only at Kara,
+Nikolaefsk, and Dui. What they were like shall be
+told hereafter. I will only say for the present they
+were the most terrible things of the kind I had ever
+seen. There was a guard-room in the station where
+Cossacks were sitting on the floor, eating with wooden
+spoons from a common saucepan, and other rooms
+occupied by clerks and officials. I was then taken to
+the town prison, containing 68 prisoners in half-a-dozen
+rooms. Some of the men had just come from the
+bath, the advantages of which were patent. But I
+do not recollect seeing accommodation in any of the
+Siberian prisons for washing the hands and face except
+at Tomsk, where was a sort of caldron mounted on a
+tripod, and from which, through four tiny pipes, water
+was forced, in Russian fashion, to trickle on the hands.
+I fancy, however, that not only with prisoners, but
+among the lower classes generally, minor ablutions
+between the weekly or fortnightly steaming of the
+bath are regarded more or less as supererogatory.</p>
+
+<p>In the western suburb of the town was the <i lang="fr">étape</i>,
+a prison in which 150 persons could be lodged on
+their way to Sakhalin. Detached, but not far distant,
+was the kitchen, in which were convicts of good
+behaviour, allowed the run of the town by day, though
+compelled to sleep in the building at night. They
+could thus earn money if they chose.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_278" href="#Footnote_1_278" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Both prisons
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_617">[617]</span>
+in the town were reported to the Emperor as “old, and
+built of bad material, wanting proper sanitary arrangements,
+and inconvenient for their purpose.”</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p6161_ill" style="max-width: 93.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p6161_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      THE ÉTAPE PRISON, NIKOLAEFSK.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>A similar description would have been not far wrong
+of the Nikolaefsk hospitals, of which there were three—two
+military and one civil. In the civil hospital,
+partly supported by voluntary contributions, they were
+sadly cramped for room—so much so that, in one
+chamber, alongside of other patients was a boy suffering
+from small-pox. The chief doctor had, on his own
+account, opened an extra room for the blind and the
+infirm.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_279" href="#Footnote_2_279" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> In the hospital of the 6th East Siberian
+battalion were 24 beds only, whereas by law there
+should have been 48. Happily only five beds were
+occupied at the time of my visit, and the list of diseases
+treated in the hospital during the preceding 18 months
+appeared to show that the medical staff were doing
+their work successfully. The chief physician was a
+German, as are many of the doctors in Russia, and he
+took great pains to acquaint me with all I wished to
+know.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_280" href="#Footnote_3_280" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> I found some large hospitals for the navy at
+Vladivostock, with 108 patients at the time of my
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_618">[618]</span>
+visit; but the hospital that pleased me most in the
+province, not to say in all Siberia, was that at Khabarofka,
+built on the newest principles, and leaving nothing
+to be desired.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_281" href="#Footnote_4_281" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>They have in the Sea-coast province no madhouses,
+properly so called; but lunatics are treated in a ward
+of the Nikolaefsk hospital. Of eight cases during
+1878, four recovered, two remained, and two died.
+Besides these hospitals I have named, there is in the
+province one each at Petropavlovsk, Ghijiga, and
+Okhotsk. Looking at the Siberian hospitals with an
+unprofessional eye, I may say that they struck me as
+fairly good. I have twice met Englishmen in Russian
+hospitals,—one at Archangel, and the other in the
+Urals,—and they both said they had every attention.
+The hospitals of the country are supported by the
+Government, by the army, navy, and civil departments
+respectively. None are supported entirely by voluntary
+contributions. Government servants, being poor, pay
+nothing. Civilians pay, and one of the good features
+of the Russian hospitals is that persons of the middle
+classes may enter, and by a small extra payment receive
+medical attendance and superior accommodation.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_282" href="#Footnote_5_282" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_619">[619]</span>
+The Siberian towns seemed fairly well supplied with
+medical men; but it was rather appalling on the
+Ussuri to hear from a telegraph official that he had
+no medical man within 200 miles to the south, and
+300 to the north.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_283" href="#Footnote_6_283" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>My coming to Nikolaefsk did not long remain
+unknown, for it was suggested that on the Sunday I
+should conduct a service, there being no resident
+Protestant minister, though they had a Roman chapel
+in the town. The pro-Governor, Mr. Andreyeff,
+readily gave his sanction, offered his house for a place
+of meeting, and sent round by the police a notice
+requesting all to sign who purposed to attend. More
+than 30 signed, and before Sunday several called on
+me. I was invited to a dinner on my first Friday in
+Nikolaefsk. It happened to be the birthday of Mr.
+Schenk, the worthy manager of the principal store.
+The shop was closed, and his friends called in the
+morning to felicitate him, and to drink and eat nick-nacks
+from a sideboard. In the evening a capital
+dinner was served with asparagus and preserved fruits,
+which it was hard to realize we were eating in one of
+the most dreary parts of Siberia, where they have
+seven months’ winter, and where the navigation does
+not open till the end of May. Several at table spoke
+English, and near me sat a merchant who had lived in
+the Sandwich Islands and in Kamchatka. Mr. Emery
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_620">[620]</span>
+the same week had a party to lunch; and Mr. Andreyeff
+gave a dinner in his garden to some of my fellow-passengers,
+myself, and the military commandant.
+The dinner began with “schnapps,” and among the
+dishes was a salmon pie, with rice on the top, the
+dinner ending with cream and wild raspberries, of
+which last there were bushels growing outside the
+town.</p>
+
+<p>I made the acquaintance also of some of the naval
+officers, such as the captain of the <i>Ermak</i>, to whom
+I gave books for his men, and Lieutenant Wechman,
+the captain of the port. The latter was a
+Protestant, who invited me on the second Sunday to
+hold the service in his house, which I did, and sent
+books for the barracks of the men under his command.
+These social occasions gave me opportunities to see
+something of Russians at home, their customs, superstitions,
+and amusements. Tea was usually offered
+whenever a call was made; and as lemons were not
+to be had so far away in summer, a spoonful of jam
+was often put in the glass instead. They have a
+custom in Russia of addressing friends, or those to
+whom they wish to be polite, by their Christian name
+plus their patronymic, or Christian name of their
+father, which in the case of Mr. Emery sounded odd
+to me to hear a lady ask, “Enoch, son of Simeon, may
+I give you a glass of tea?”&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_284" href="#Footnote_7_284" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>Among the superstitions of the Russians may be
+mentioned the not liking to begin a journey on a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_621">[621]</span>
+Monday. The Governor-General of Western Siberia
+told me he usually chose that day expressly, in order
+to avoid the crowd of fellow-passengers. Nor do they
+like to take edge-tools from another person’s hand, nor
+to pass the salt, or, if it be done, the person who receives
+must smile blandly to break the spell. Again, when
+a man is starting upon some special business, he thinks
+it very unlucky if the first person he meets in the street
+should be a priest; and if the eyes of one dying are not
+closed by a friend, it is imagined that there will soon
+be another death in the family.</p>
+
+<p>The Russians struck me as a people exceedingly ill-provided
+with manly amusements. They have nothing
+to correspond to our cricket, boating, or football. Their
+young men seem incapable of rising to any greater
+exertion of mind or body than that demanded for
+billiards, cards, drinking, and smoking. I saw some
+soldiers, however, playing with a large, heavy steel
+pin, like a tenpenny nail with a heavy head.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_285" href="#Footnote_8_285" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> An outdoor
+game played by girls is called “<i lang="ru">skaka</i>” (to jump),
+something like the English game of see-saw, only that
+the two parties do not sit but stand on the plank, which
+is only some four feet long, and is jumped upon with
+sufficient force that when one person reaches the
+ground the other springs into the air, and so on
+alternately. Swings, too, are in great demand at fairs
+and such gatherings. I was treated to one on the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_622">[622]</span>
+Sukhona, suspended from a cross-beam not less, I
+should judge, than 40 feet high.</p>
+
+<p>Dancing is one of the most popular of indoor amusements,
+and I had a good opportunity of witnessing the
+peasants’ performance of it at Mikhailofsky; for on
+the evening of our enforced stay a <i lang="fr">soirée</i> was extemporized.
+The dancers were the young men and
+girls of the village, dressed in their heavy boots and
+cotton gowns, but washed and brushed up for the
+occasion. The manner in which the girls sat in a row
+at the commencement, and the men hung together in
+an outer room, struck me very much like a piece of
+human nature which is seen all the world over. The
+music consisted of a fiddle, accordion, and tiny bells;
+and in the first dance, two youths having nodded condescendingly
+to partners, the four stood up and figured
+before us, one feature of the dance being that the men
+from time to time stamped heavily with their feet.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_286" href="#Footnote_9_286" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>
+At an early stage of the proceedings cigarettes were
+handed round, and men, girls, and old women all began
+to smoke—a sure sign that they were not Starovers, or
+Old Believers, for they turn out their sons if they smoke,
+and call them “pogani,” or “nasty,”—the practice
+having been introduced into some parts of Siberia, I
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_623">[623]</span>
+was told, within the last quarter of a century.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_287" href="#Footnote_10_287" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> After
+dance No. 3, which was by four girls only, two plates
+were handed round—one of sweets, the other of cedar
+nuts. The latter, from the monotonous gaps they so
+often fill at parties, are called by a word which means
+“Siberian conversation.” Other refreshments followed
+in the shape of black bread and cucumbers, the whole
+affair looking very formal and solemn; but I am not
+sure whether this was normal, or whether the peasants
+were overawed by the strange company. I heard that
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_624">[624]</span>
+at Nikolaefsk, in winter, they have frequent balls at
+the club, but in the summer the evenings are given to
+the promenade.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp36" id="p6230_ill" style="max-width: 41.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p6230_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      RUSSIAN PEASANT GIRL.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>At this time of day I usually took my constitutional,
+and searched about into every hole and corner of the
+town. Its population stands in the Almanack at 5,350,
+which probably was right some years ago, but it was
+estimated to me as having decreased to 3,500. The
+houses extend a mile and a half along the left bank of
+the river on a wooded plateau about fifty feet high.
+The landing-place is available only for small craft.
+Larger vessels lie in the middle of the river, and there
+is a wooden pier from which stairs lead to the plateau.
+The visitor is then opposite the church, built of wood,
+having one large cupola and four small ones. Behind
+the church stands what was the “Admiralty,” but is
+now the police-station, having a flagstaff with semaphore
+for signalling vessels in the harbour. To the
+west of the church is the officers’ club, and a few
+minutes’ walk to the east is situated the admiral’s
+house, the palace of the town, having around it a few
+flowers struggling for existence. In 1866 Mr. Knox
+found at Nikolaefsk machine-shops, foundries, and
+dockyard, into which last I wandered one evening,
+and thought of the time when nations are to learn war
+no more; for whereas there had been 800 men employed
+in the place a dozen years before, I found it covered
+with weeds, the workshops closed, and rusty iron lying
+about in all directions. Here and there were heaps of
+bombshells and cannon-balls, with a few grape-shot.
+Except the sentinel at the entrance, I met not a soul
+in the place, from which the glory had plainly departed.
+So it was, in fact, with the town generally. The boarded
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_625">[625]</span>
+pavements are fast rotting, and allow the unwary foot-passenger
+to step through into the drains. There is
+sufficient grass in the streets for cows to graze, and
+pigs are occasionally seen there looking about for food.
+The Governor’s house is falling into decay, and its
+grand rooms are looking and smelling dusty, musty,
+and old. Again, the buildings erected for the higher
+Government officials are inhabited by smaller and
+feebler folk, and some of the shops are closed.</p>
+
+<p>Nikolaefsk, nevertheless, from its position at the
+mouth of a river which is navigable so far into Asia,
+will probably continue its present commercial standing.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11_288" href="#Footnote_11_288" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p>There was a medical officer at Nikolaefsk, whose
+duty it was to examine the articles sold for food, and
+who during my stay lodged a complaint against a merchant
+for selling damaged flour, although he sold it as
+such, and at a reduced price. I heard Russia and
+Siberia spoken of as a country where capital can be
+placed out to great advantage. One merchant said he
+could easily get 6 per cent. for his money in Russia, on
+security which he deemed satisfactory. I have quoted
+in an earlier chapter the 30 or 40 per cent. given for
+capital at the gold-mines, and one man I met told me
+that in Western Siberia he made as much as 100 per
+cent. on a considerable portion of his capital.</p>
+
+<p>My host, Mr. Emery, had come to the Amur as a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_626">[626]</span>
+boy, and began at the bottom of the ladder; but at the
+age of 20 he was able to count his gains by thousands.
+He was but 27 when we met, but was looking forward
+in a year or two to retire.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_12_289" href="#Footnote_12_289" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>One of the drawbacks to honest trading in Russia is
+the bribery which officials expect when purchasing
+Government supplies. An instance of bribery practised
+on the rivers was described to me thus: A shipping agent,
+for example, carries 5,000 poods of freight, for which
+the sender pays him at a certain rate for Government
+duty. At the custom-house the agent makes out his
+bill as having only one-tenth the real freight, and gives
+ten roubles each to the officers, who make out a false
+bill to correspond with his own. It is then signed by
+the head official, who receives no bribe on the spot, but
+occasionally drives to the agent’s office, says that he is
+short of money, and asks for the loan of 300 roubles or
+more. The agent “lends” them, not dreaming, however,
+to see them again. At the end of the year the
+agent finds himself several thousands of roubles in
+pocket, the higher official drives his carriage on a surprisingly
+small stipend, and the lower officials, having
+been put into their office by the higher, do not even
+ask for their salary, and yet manage to live in houses
+of their own procuring.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_13_290" href="#Footnote_13_290" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_627">[627]</span></p>
+
+<p>Again, gambling and drunkenness are two principal
+snares besetting foreign traders in Siberia, whose time
+in winter hangs heavily, and where, in seaport towns,
+officers and large consumers expect to be frequently
+<i lang="fr">fêted</i> and invited to drink. Immorality is the third
+snare, which leads many astray who are removed from
+the restraints of home, and who otherwise hold their
+heads above gambling and insobriety.</p>
+
+<p>The trade customs of Nikolaefsk were, in some
+respects, superior to those in the interior,—due, no
+doubt, to the influence of the Germans and Americans.
+In the bazaars of Petersburg one has to bargain for
+everything. A shopman asked me, for instance, 10<i>s.</i>
+for a box, for which he afterwards “touted” to me, and
+took 7<i>s.</i> At Nikolaefsk business is done at fixed
+prices, and I was glad to find that, though compelled
+to close their stores for many hours on the greater
+Russian festivals, the foreign merchants, for the most
+part, did not open at all on Sunday.</p>
+
+<p>The weather during my stay on the Lower Amur
+was chilly and disagreeable, and the season for garden
+produce was about a fortnight late. On August 19th
+we ate new potatoes. They cost 2½<i>d.</i> per lb., but
+eight days later they cost but 1<i>d.</i> per lb. Cucumbers
+were ready on the 10th of August, and on the 27th
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_628">[628]</span>
+they were selling for 3<i>s.</i> per hundred. Eggs cost 5<i>s.</i>
+per hundred, fresh butter 2<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i> per pound, and beef
+from 7<i>d.</i> to 8½<i>d.</i> On August 27th we had our first
+spring cabbage made into little pies and eaten with
+soup. The price of these cabbages, to a “friend,”
+was 5<i>d.</i> each, but they were expected shortly to fall
+to 16<i>s.</i> or 20<i>s.</i> per hundred. I do not remember tasting
+mutton, but was informed that a good sheep weighs
+about half a cwt., and costs alive, at Nikolaefsk, from
+22<i>s.</i> to 30<i>s.</i></p>
+
+<p>In Western Siberia, about Tomsk, a sheep can
+be bought for 2<i>s.</i> I am told that Russians in general
+abhor mutton, and my informant’s housekeeper
+wonders the English can eat it, for <em>she</em> would as
+willingly eat cat, dog, or rat as such “garbage.”
+Game and fish were surprisingly plentiful. I bought
+in the streets at Nikolaefsk a capercailzie (called
+<i lang="ru">glukhar</i>, or deaf bird) for 10<i>d.</i>, which was thought
+by no means cheap; and a blackcock was offered
+for a similar price. The cost of salmon, however,
+was most surprising. Up to the 20th August,
+salmon trout, weighing from 10 to 12 lbs., cost as
+much as 5<i>d.</i> each, but they were then said to be
+<em>dear</em>. On the 15th August a large salmon, the first
+fish of the season, and weighing perhaps 15 lbs., was
+offered to me for 7½<i>d.</i>, but this was considered quite
+“a fancy price.” From the 1st September to the 17th,
+during which period the large fish are caught, weighing
+from 15 lbs. to 25 lbs., they may be bought for
+10<i>s.</i> per hundred, or 1<i>d.</i> each!&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_14_291" href="#Footnote_14_291" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_629">[629]</span></p>
+
+<p>I was fortunate in finding at Nikolaefsk some English
+books, and among them the travels of Collins, Knox,
+and Ravenstein, on the Amur. The reading of these
+occupied much of my time, and I sometimes wandered
+down to the river-side—especially in the morning—to
+the pier, to watch the Gilyaks sell their fish.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_15_292" href="#Footnote_15_292" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> Moored
+alongside the pier were some lighters of English build,
+which were failures for the particular purpose for which
+they had been constructed, though they made admirable
+landing-places. There were also several barges
+converted into floating shops, one of which was the
+property of a Frenchman, who had been a tutor in
+England. He dealt largely with the Gilyaks, and
+offered me a live eagle, obtained from them, for 6<i>s.</i>;
+a fish-skin coat for 8<i>s.</i>, and a tiger’s skin for £3 10<i>s.</i>
+For bear-skins he asked from 10<i>s.</i> upwards, whereas
+in Krasnoiarsk they sell from 10<i>s.</i> down to 3<i>s.</i> each.</p>
+
+<p>Thus passed by my enforced stay at Nikolaefsk, and,
+after trying in vain to get a passage to Japan, I determined
+to retrace my steps by the post-boat, which I
+started to do on Saturday, 30th of August. Before
+proceeding southwards, however, I must give some
+account, in the next two chapters, of what I have been
+able to learn concerning Kamchatka and the island of
+Sakhalin.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_278" href="#FNanchor_1_278" class="label">[1]</a> So rare is it for them to see a visitor to the prison in these parts, that
+some of the men supposed I was sent by some foreign Government to
+inquire into their condition; and I heard that they subsequently came to
+seek me with a written paper, but I was not in the house when they called.
+My position having been explained to them, they declined to leave the
+paper, and so I heard no more of the matter.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_279" href="#FNanchor_2_279" class="label">[2]</a> They received from Government only £15 per annum for a clerk,
+paper, and ink, and so were unable, they said, to get books for the patients.
+I was glad therefore to send, and they were thankful to accept, 50 copies
+of the New Testament—two for every room, and the remainder to be given
+to departing convalescents who could read.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_280" href="#FNanchor_3_280" class="label">[3]</a> In 1878 there entered the hospital 347 cases, suffering from 39
+diseases, of which the principal were: bronchitis, 46; syphilis, 42; fevers,
+39; pleuritis, 26; internal cold, 18; rheumatism, 14; and so on in
+diminishing numbers. During the six months immediately preceding my
+visit they had received but 83 patients, whilst for the entire year and a
+half 13 patients only had died. Besides these they had treated a large
+number of slight ailments of out-patients, and given advice to promiscuous
+applicants to the number of nearly 3,000.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_281" href="#FNanchor_4_281" class="label">[4]</a> It was fitted for 100 male and five female patients, with superior rooms
+for officers, and a separate apartment for syphilitic diseases, in which last
+was a mad Russian soldier, who in early life had been a travelling acrobat,
+and who inveighed to me in French against the doctor, who, he said, kept
+him there in confinement. Hereditary syphilis was reported to the
+Emperor to be the most dangerous disease in the province, for an inquiry
+into which a commission of four persons, with the whole medical staff,
+had been appointed. In a hospital in Ekaterineburg I found half the
+patients, at Vladivostock one-third, and in Krasnoiarsk one-fifth, suffering
+from syphilis, and in Kamchatka they have a barrack for the treatment
+of this disease only.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_282" href="#FNanchor_5_282" class="label">[5]</a> Thus at Perm, whilst a poor patient was received into the hospital at
+the rate of ten days for 5<i>s.</i>, better accommodation could be secured for
+1<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i> a day. At Vladivostock civilians paid 1<i>s.</i> 9<i>d.</i> a day, the price
+being fixed on a three years’ average.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_283" href="#FNanchor_6_283" class="label">[6]</a> This probably is worse towards Kamchatka; for in 1878 there were
+four medical posts vacant—that of chemist at Nikolaefsk, and doctor at
+Sofiisk, Ghijiga, and Okhotsk respectively—not a matter for much
+wonder, seeing that the salary at the best was but £40 a year!</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_284" href="#FNanchor_7_284" class="label">[7]</a> This is a Semitic custom which has been retained by the Russians.
+Even the Emperor and all members of the Imperial family are so
+addressed—one reason given for the preference of the Christian to the
+family name being, that to be a Christian is a greater honour than to be
+an earthly noble.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_285" href="#FNanchor_8_285" class="label">[8]</a> They raised it above the shoulders, holding the head of the nail in
+the palm, and threw it down, making the point pass through a ring, about
+an inch and a half in diameter, lying on the ground. The person throwing
+it sometimes buried it to the head in the soil, whence another had to
+unearth it, or it was driven through a piece of wood, from which it was
+another’s business to extricate it. The feat appeared very easy, but in the
+few attempts I made I did not succeed in sticking the pin in the ground.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_286" href="#FNanchor_9_286" class="label">[9]</a> Perhaps it was akin to the Mazourka, which had its birthplace in
+Poland, for I remember witnessing a similar performance in the salt-mines
+of Cracow. The second dance was a national one, by a single
+pair, and something like a Scottish hornpipe, the man occasionally sinking
+down almost to the ground. Then the pair waved handkerchiefs to
+each other. I was told that this dance is made to represent the various
+stages of courtship, and that a good dancer does not go through the
+same figure twice. Another dance was by four couples, in which the
+ship’s machinist figured prominently in his heavy boots. One man also
+crawled on all fours, and twice passed through the extended legs of
+another, and so they continued till the cotton shirts of the men showed
+they were getting wet, and the company were growing tired.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_287" href="#FNanchor_10_287" class="label">[10]</a> The Starovers object to smoking upon the literal meaning of the text,
+“That which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.” According
+to Dr. Pinkerton, an ukase was issued in 1634 condemning those who
+took snuff, or sold or even possessed tobacco, to be knouted, to have their
+nostrils torn open, or ears cut off, and to be sent into exile.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_288" href="#FNanchor_11_288" class="label">[11]</a> There came to it, in 1878, 12 merchant vessels, bringing manufactured
+goods to the value of £52,781; alcohol, £4,705; and wines, beer, and
+porter, £1,604. I was told by one of the merchants that Hamburg is the
+cheapest market for goods for a new country, there being more imitations
+made there than elsewhere, which perhaps accounts for the complaint
+made to the Russian Government that the imported manufactures are of
+the lowest quality. The same merchant told me, however, that when he
+imported good articles, the Russians merely admired them; but that when
+he imported cheap ones, they <em>bought</em> them.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12_289" href="#FNanchor_12_289" class="label">[12]</a> He had, indeed, already retired in a fashion; for the winter season
+at Nikolaefsk had become to him so insupportably dull, that for the last
+few years he had posted off in autumn to Petersburg and other European
+markets, and then, chartering a schooner of 350 tons with merchandise, he
+had either accompanied it round the remainder of the globe, or crossed
+the Atlantic to America to see his parents, and then sailed over the Pacific
+by the following spring. In this way he had several times made the circuit
+of the world, going west or east, as business or inclination decided. He
+allowed 18 days in winter for a sledge journey of 3,300 miles, from Moscow
+to Irkutsk.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13_290" href="#FNanchor_13_290" class="label">[13]</a> These and similar practices are not confined to merchants, but go
+down even to the isvostchiks, who come to Petersburg from the country
+and hire themselves to their masters by the month, having to bring in
+5<i>s.</i> a day. At the end of their term the master is said to do his
+best to swindle the cabmen, whilst they, taking their food and scanty
+wages, do their best to make a picking from their fares. Sometimes,
+however, the biter is bitten; for driving in the capital one day my isvostchik
+pointed to a large building, and said that he had just brought there
+a well-dressed woman, who had asked him to drive at the side of the
+pavement, because the road was better there, she said; and then, when
+opposite the door, she had sprung off the low vehicle, and run in without
+paying.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_14_291" href="#FNanchor_14_291" class="label">[14]</a> About 500 tons of them are salted yearly at Nikolaefsk, for winter use,
+the Government having, annually, two contracts for 16 tons, and others
+besides. For the most part, however, the fish of the province is consumed
+where it is caught, and it is only quite recently that exportation in small
+quantities has commenced.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_15_292" href="#FNanchor_15_292" class="label">[15]</a> The plentiful season commenced on August 25th, and salmon were
+sold for five roubles per hundred. These were commonly used for salting,
+but I found that they sold pieces of dried salmon and other fish a foot
+long, at the rate of 1<i>s.</i> per hundred, as winter food for dogs. Among the
+less valued fish of the Amur are the dolphin, trout, and others, known by
+the name of <i lang="ru">sazan</i>, <i lang="ru">karass</i>, and a white fish called <i lang="ru">suig</i>—the last being
+esteemed in Petersburg a delicacy.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_630">[630]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XLVIII">
+    CHAPTER XLVIII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>KAMCHATKA.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>The Upper Primorsk.—History of north-eastern maritime discovery.—Travellers
+in the Upper Primorsk.—The Sea of Okhotsk and
+fisheries.—Bush’s journey.—Okhotsk and its natives.—Kamchatka.—Its
+volcanoes, earthquakes, springs.—Garden produce and animals.—Kamchatdales.—Their
+number and character.—The Koriaks.—Their
+warlike spirit.—Houses of settled and wandering Koriaks.—Food.—Herds
+of deer.—Marriage customs.—Putting sick and aged to death.—The
+Chukchees.—Their habitat.—Diminution of fur animals.—Vegetation.—Intoxicating
+plants.—Nordenskiöld on the Chukchee
+coast.—Onkelon antiquities.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>North-eastern</span> Siberia, or the Upper Primorsk,
+is to be the subject of this chapter, for
+which I have chosen the title of Kamchatka as best
+recalling the locality. Unlike the Amur, of which we
+have been treating, this portion of the Sea-coast
+province cannot be spoken of as new; for its discovery
+dates back more than a century. Of late years, all
+eyes have been turned in this direction by the maritime
+achievements of Professor Nordenskiöld, who,
+having completed his wonderful travel by water, was
+being fêted at Yokohama, whilst I was lying weather-bound
+off the coast.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_293" href="#Footnote_1_293" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_631">[631]</span></p>
+
+<p>During my stay at Nikolaefsk, I was further north
+than the capital of Kamchatka, and Petropavlovsk
+was distant only a few days’ sail. Intervening, however,
+was the Sea of Okhotsk, the mention of which
+so often recurs in connection with the north-eastern
+parts of Siberia.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_294" href="#Footnote_2_294" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> Formerly it was much frequented
+by whales. The captain of the <i>Tunguse</i> told me at
+Nikolaefsk that, as a young man, he used to go to
+the Okhotsk Sea in a whaler; but so many of these
+animals had been killed, he said, that during one
+season they caught only three of them, which he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_632">[632]</span>
+thought poor. At Vladivostock, however, I met with
+Mr. Lindholm, who has a steamer and a sailing-ship
+engaged in the whale trade, and from him I gathered
+that at the present high price of whalebone, it answers
+well if, during a season, a boat takes two large whales.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_295" href="#Footnote_3_295" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>
+The whales feed on the molluscs of the Okhotsk Sea,
+some of which Erman mentions as being eaten by the
+Chinese.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_296" href="#Footnote_4_296" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Whether the molluscs are less abundant
+than of yore, or whether so many whales have been
+killed that few remain, the diminution of the trade
+was impressed on my mind by meeting in the Primorsk
+several Finlanders who had left their fatherland in
+the expectation of speedily making their fortunes by
+whaling in the Okhotsk Sea; but their project proved
+a bubble.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_297" href="#Footnote_5_297" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>The only man, I believe, other than an aboriginal,
+who has travelled round the Okhotsk Sea, starting
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_633">[633]</span>
+from Nikolaefsk, by land, is Mr. Bush, the author of
+“Reindeer, Dogs, and Snow-shoes,” all three of which
+he certainly had ample opportunity of becoming acquainted
+with. Nothing, perhaps, in his journey would
+appear more remarkable to those unacquainted with
+the records of Arctic travel than his sleeping, night
+after night, in the open air of a Siberian winter,
+between a couple of ordinary blankets, lined with deerskin,
+between which, on awaking, he sometimes found
+himself buried, as were his dogs, beneath recently-fallen
+snow. Proceeding round the coast, the first village
+we approach after leaving the Amur is Udskoi, with
+150 inhabitants. It is situated on the river Ud, and
+was one of the earliest Cossack stations. Further
+north is Port Ayan, to which, in 1844, the American
+Company transferred their station for trading in fish
+and furs.</p>
+
+<p>On the Okhota, further north, is the town of
+Okhotsk, which has given its name to the adjoining
+sea. Its population was never large, though it had
+a certain amount of activity before 1807, when the
+burdens of many thousands of horses passed through
+to the Russian settlements on the Pacific. It is a
+sorry-looking place of 200 inhabitants, though many
+a traveller has been glad to reach it after a severe
+journey from Yakutsk. The only animals kept at
+Okhotsk, says Mr. Knox, are cows and dogs. In
+summer the dogs are shrewd enough to go into the
+water and catch their own salmon, wading into the
+stream and standing, like storks, till the fish appear.
+The natives living on this western coast are the
+Lamuti, a seafaring Tunguse tribe, said to be uncorrupted
+from their primitive simplicity, either by the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_634">[634]</span>
+tricks of the Russian merchants or those of the aboriginal
+Yakutes. From Okhotsk to Nikolaefsk is a
+voyage of 400 miles, but there is no road by land:
+hence the remarkable nature of Bush’s journey.</p>
+
+<p>The traveller who, from Okhotsk, wishes to visit
+Kamchatka may reach Petropavlovsk by sea through
+the Kuriles, or continue round the coast by road.
+The latter course takes him through Yamsk to Ghijiga,
+at the north of the bay, a distance of 1,100 miles. He
+then descends along the western coast of Kamchatka
+to Tigil, 760 miles further, at which point he strikes
+inland to a valley lying below active volcanoes, and
+so reaches Petropavlovsk, on the shore of the North
+Pacific, a land journey from Okhotsk of 2,540 miles,
+accomplished by deer, horses, and dogs.</p>
+
+<p>Kamchatka is so called after the name of its principal
+river. The peninsula is 800 miles long, and from
+30 to 120 miles wide; its total area being about
+80,000 square miles, or five times the size of Switzerland.
+The southern extremity, called Cape Lopatka,
+is a low, narrow tongue of land, which, as it proceeds
+northwards, widens and rises into rocky and barren
+hills, with small valleys timbered with willow and
+stunted birch. Two degrees north the range divides,
+one portion running nearly due north and the other
+taking a north-easterly direction. In the fork formed
+by these two chains lies the valley of the river Kamchatka.
+The western chain rarely rises above 3,000
+feet, but the eastern chain has many high volcanoes,
+among them Kluchevsky, which is somewhat higher
+than Mont Blanc, and not far from the sea.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_298" href="#Footnote_6_298" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_635">[635]</span></p>
+
+<p>Earthquakes are more frequent, perhaps, in Kamchatka
+than in any other country. The number of
+shocks felt at Petropavlovsk averages eight annually.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_299" href="#Footnote_7_299" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>The climate of Kamchatka is much milder than in
+the eastern parts of the mainland. The frost sets in
+about the middle of October, but up to December
+the temperature rarely falls 10° below the freezing
+point of Fahrenheit, though in severe winters the
+thermometer sometimes sinks to 25° below zero.
+Snow-storms with wind, called <i lang="ru">poorgas</i>, are prevalent in
+February and March. They sometimes take up whole
+masses of snow, and form drifts several feet deep in a
+few minutes, burying, it may be, travellers, dogs, and
+sledges, who remain thus till the storm is over. Dogs
+begin to howl at the approach of a poorga, and try to
+burrow in the snow if the wind is cold or violent.</p>
+
+<p>About 50 miles west of Petropavlovsk is a remarkable
+warm spring, into which when you enter, says
+Mr. Collins, the sensation is as if the skin would be
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_636">[636]</span>
+removed, whilst the stones and mud on the bottom
+fairly burn the feet, added to which the steam and gas,
+ascending from this natural caldron, fairly take away
+the breath. In a short time, however, bathers become
+red like lobsters, and find the temperature enjoyable.
+The water is very buoyant. It is used by the natives
+for all sorts of diseases.</p>
+
+<p>The valley watered by the Kamchatka is composed
+of fine mould, and has abundant natural productions—fir,
+birch, larch, poplar, willow, cedar, and juniper, and
+that of larger size than in the same latitude elsewhere
+in Asia. Raspberries, strawberries, whortleberries,
+currants, and cranberries abound; and flowers are seen
+in spring in almost tropical luxuriance. There is much
+grass in the lower lands, and Mr. Hill records an
+extraordinary phenomenon in a place he visited respecting
+the growth and preservation of potatoes.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_300" href="#Footnote_8_300" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> There
+grows, likewise, a plant in the country called by the
+natives <i lang="ru">krapeva</i>, from which they make a coarse but
+very durable cloth. It resembles our stinging-nettle,
+but is of larger growth and stronger fibre.</p>
+
+<p>Among the animals of Kamchatka there is none
+with which the traveller becomes more familiar than
+the dog, which is found wild on the hills. The color
+is usually buff or silver-grey, and in nature and disposition
+he resembles the mastiff and the wolf,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_637">[637]</span>
+sleeping, like the latter, more by day than by night.
+He is intelligent as regards his work, but not affectionate,
+as may be said of the steppe dogs, and has to
+be ruled by the rod. It is not usually safe to leave
+these dogs loose, for they kill fowls, deer, smaller dogs,
+and sometimes even children.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_301" href="#Footnote_9_301" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> As on the Amur, they
+are usually fed on fish, particularly the salmon, besides
+which there are caught in Kamchatka, or off its coasts,
+the cod, herring, smelt, as also whales, walruses, and
+seals. The country abounds with geese, ducks, and a
+variety of wild fowl.</p>
+
+<p>The southern part of the peninsula is inhabited by
+the Kamchatdales, which is the name the Russians give
+them; but they are called <i lang="ru">Konchalo</i> by their neighbours
+the Koriaks. They have large round faces, prominent
+cheek-bones, small sunken eyes, flattened noses, black
+hair, and tawny complexions. Their language, very
+guttural, is largely inflexional, or composed of invariable
+root forms modified by prefixes. The poverty of the
+language may be inferred from their having but one
+word for the sun and moon (<i lang="ru">khiht</i>), but still more from
+the circumstance that it has scarcely any names for fish
+or birds, which are merely distinguished by the moon
+in which they are most plentiful. The language is
+spoken in the south among the Kuriles, and in the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_638">[638]</span>
+extreme north about Penjinsk. Otherwise it is fast
+dying out, as is also the race. In certain parts the
+people are almost Russified. When Captain Cochrane
+travelled in Siberia, he surprised his friends by taking
+home a Kamchatdale wife, but this did not surprise me
+after meeting at Nikolaefsk, at dinner, a Kamchatdale
+lady who had married a Russian officer. I saw, too,
+at Khabarofka, and on the steamer, another Kamchatdale,
+of less presentable appearance—a cleric, wearing
+his hair in a queue, perhaps for convenience in travel.
+He was taken, as a boy of 10 years old, to Irkutsk to
+be educated; afterwards sent to be minister in a church
+in Russian America, and subsequently became priest
+of Okhotsk. He is now near Blagovestchensk, and
+when I saw him was sick. He looked a poor miserable
+creature, and was pointed out to me by Baron Stackelberg,
+of whom he had openly asked an alms, as “<i lang="fr">ce
+pauvre diable</i>.” He appeared much pleased with some
+books I gave him, but was altogether about the poorest
+specimen of a priest I saw in Russia.</p>
+
+<p>The number of the Kamchatdales, strictly so called,
+is estimated at 3,000. Their capital is Petropavlovsk,
+the only town on the eastern coast of the peninsula.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_302" href="#Footnote_10_302" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>
+The little town points with pride to its two monuments,
+erected, one to Behring and the other to La Perouse,
+and its old fortifications, now covered with grass and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_639">[639]</span>
+flowers, serve to recall the defeat of the English and
+French allies, who attacked this village during the
+Crimean War.</p>
+
+<p>The Kamchatdales are a people of much amiability
+and honesty. Their houses are always open to the
+stranger, whom they never weary of waiting upon, and
+from whom they soon forget an injury.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11_303" href="#Footnote_11_303" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> They have
+given up, to a large extent, their Shamanism, though
+they still take care, when hunting an animal, not to
+pronounce its name, lest they should be visited by ill
+luck. The Kamchatdales have not the heroic character
+of their neighbours the Koriaks. Their plaintive songs
+do not celebrate battles, but love, sledge travels, fishing,
+and hunting. In their dances they mimic admirably
+the movements of animals, bounding like the deer,
+running like the fox, and even entering the water to
+swim like the seal.</p>
+
+<p>The northern half of the peninsula, and the mainland
+up to the 65th parallel, are inhabited by the Koriaks,
+their district extending laterally from the 130th meridian
+to Behring’s Sea, and north of this region to the
+Frozen Ocean live the Chukchees.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_12_304" href="#Footnote_12_304" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>The Anadir is the one river of this region worth
+mentioning; but flowing as it does on the polar circle,
+and near the limit where trees cease to grow, it traverses
+only solitudes without towns. The Russian
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_640">[640]</span>
+garrison was obliged to abandon the small fort of
+Anadirsk, constructed on its banks for a fur depôt,
+at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and the
+Chukchees set it on fire. It is now replaced by four
+little villages, with a united population of about 200,
+consisting of aborigines and Cossacks living a half-savage
+life, though speaking Russ. The Anadir, like
+the rest of the rivers in the Chukchee and Kamchatdale
+countries, is so full of fish at the breeding
+season that the water seems alive with them. When
+the shoals of salmon mount the river, the water rises
+like a bank, and the fish are so pressed together that
+they can be taken by hand. The water ceases to be
+drinkable, and its smell and taste become intolerable,
+by reason of the millions of its inhabitants in a state
+of decomposition.</p>
+
+<p>The Koriaks seem to be related to the Chukchees,
+and speak a dialect approaching theirs. They are
+divided into settled and wandering Koriaks, the
+former occupying themselves in fishing, the latter as
+reindeer keepers and hunters. Their southern limit in
+Kamchatka is the village of Tigil, whither they go
+once a year to exchange their commodities. Travellers
+do not speak well of the settled Koriaks. Deprived
+of their herds of reindeer, they have no
+resource but fishing and traffic with foreign sailors
+and Russian dealers. The first are said to have
+taught them drinking and debauchery, and the second
+lying and stealing. They are eaten up with misery
+and vice, and are the most degraded of the Siberian
+tribes. Only the women tattoo their faces, thinking
+thereby to arrest the ravages of time. Their winter
+yourts may be classed among the most extraordinary
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_641">[641]</span>
+of human habitations. They are built somewhat like
+a huge wooden hour-glass, 20 feet high, in the shape
+of the letter <span class='sans'>X</span>, and are entered by climbing a pole on
+the outside, and then sliding down another through
+the “waist” of the hour-glass, which waist serves for
+door, window, and chimney. Holes are cut in the
+logs for climbing, but they are too small for the
+heavily-clad fur boots of a novice, who has, therefore,
+amid sparks and smoke, to hug the pole, slide down,
+and as best he can avoid the fire at the bottom. The
+interior presents a strange appearance, lighted only
+from above. The beams, rafters, and logs are smoked
+to a glossy blackness. A wooden platform, raised
+about a foot from the earth, extends out from the walls
+on three sides, to a width of six feet, leaving an open
+spot 8 or 10 feet in diameter in the centre for the
+fire, and a huge copper kettle of melting snow, in
+which is usually simmering fish, reindeer meat, dried
+salmon, or seals’ blubber with rancid oil; these make
+up the Koriaks’ bill of fare. When any one enters
+the yourt, the inmates are apprised of the fact by
+a total eclipse of the chimney hole. Among the
+wandering Koriaks an entrance to the tent is effected
+by creeping on the ground through a hole into a large
+open circle, which forms the interior. A fire burns
+upon the ground in the centre, and round the inner
+circumference of the yourt are constructed apartments
+called <i lang="ru">pologs</i>, which are separated one from another
+by skin curtains, and combine the advantages of
+privacy with warmth and fugginess! These pologs
+are about four feet high and eight feet square. They
+are warmed and lighted by a burning fragment
+of moss floating in a wooden bowl of seal oil,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_642">[642]</span>
+which vitiates the air and creates an intolerable
+stench.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Kennan gives a humorous description of his
+first supper among the wandering Koriaks, and their
+substitute for bread, called <i lang="ru">manyalla</i>, of which the
+original elements are clotted blood, tallow, and half-digested
+moss taken from the stomach of the reindeer,
+where it is supposed to have undergone some change
+fitting it for second-hand consumption. These curious
+ingredients are boiled with a few handfuls of dried
+grass, and the dark mass is then moulded into small
+loaves and frozen for future use. As a mark of special
+attention, the host bites off a choice morsel from a
+large cube of venison in his greasy hand, and then,
+taking it from his mouth, offers it to his guest.</p>
+
+<p>The wandering Koriaks necessarily move their
+habitation frequently; for a herd of 4,000 or 5,000
+deer (Mr. Bush mentions one Koriak as possessing
+15,000 of them) paw up the snow, and in a very few
+days eat all the moss within a mile of the encampment.
+This independent kind of life has given to the Koriaks
+the impatience of restraint, independence of civilization,
+and perfect self-reliance, which distinguish them from
+the Kamchatdales and other settled inhabitants of
+Siberia. They are most hospitable, and the best of
+husbands and fathers. Mr. Kennan, during his sojourn
+of 2½ years among them, never saw a Koriak strike
+any of his belongings. They treat their animals with
+kindness, and will on no account sell a deer alive.
+A slain deer may be had for a pound of tobacco.
+Among the Koriaks the animal costs 10<i>s.</i>, at Okhotsk
+from 20<i>s.</i> to 30<i>s.</i>, and on the Amur £5.</p>
+
+<p>Like the Kamchatdales, the Chukchees are obliged
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_643">[643]</span>
+to earn their wives by working a year or more in the
+service of the prospective father-in-law, and even then
+the lover may be refused. In any case, at the wedding
+ceremony he has to pursue the object of his devotion
+through the pologs of a tent, the bridesmaids doing all
+they can to facilitate the passage of the bride, and, by
+keeping down the curtains and whipping him with
+switches, to hinder the progress of the bridegroom.
+The lover usually overtakes the maiden, however, in
+the last polog but one, and there they remain together
+for seven days and seven nights.</p>
+
+<p>The treatment of the sick and aged in these regions
+is remarkable, for they put them to death to avoid
+protracted suffering. I heard the same alleged of the
+Gilyaks, but it was afterwards contradicted. The
+Koriaks look upon this as the natural end of their
+existence; and when they think the time come, they
+choose in what manner the last office of affection shall
+be rendered. Some ask to be stoned, and some to be
+killed by the hatchet or knife. All the young Koriaks
+learn the art of giving the fatal <i lang="fr">coup de grace</i> as
+painlessly as possible.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes the younger request the old to wait a
+bit; but in any case immediately after death the
+corpse is burnt, to allow the spirit to escape into the
+air. Formerly, infanticide was common among them,
+and of twins one was always sacrificed. None of the
+Siberian tribes have shown such bravery in resisting
+the Russians as have the Koriaks and Chukchees, and
+some of these still retain their independence.</p>
+
+<p>The Chukchee coast extends from Chaunskaia Bay,
+round Behring’s peninsula, to the Anadir river. The
+fauna of this part of Siberia is richer than in the west.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_644">[644]</span>
+Probably some of the American animals have crossed
+the ice of Behring’s Straits, and are mingled with those
+of Asia. The Alpine hare, the bear, the marmot, the
+weasel, the otter, are common, and wild deer roam in
+herds of thousands. Snakes, frogs, and toads are not
+found in North-Eastern Siberia nor in Kamchatka. In
+the latter country, however, are lizards, which are
+regarded as of evil omen, and when found are cut
+up in pieces, that they may tell no one who killed
+them. The country teems with lemmings, which from
+time to time migrate in myriads, crossing in a straight
+line rivers, lakes, even arms of the sea, though decimated
+on the way by shoals of hungry fish. Travellers
+are sometimes stayed for hours, waiting the
+marching-past of these huge armies.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_13_305" href="#Footnote_13_305" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p>Many fur-bearing animals in Kamchatka and the
+Chukchee country have greatly diminished in number
+since the advent of the Russian hunters, as is the case
+in the neighbouring seas, where some of the species
+have altogether disappeared.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_14_306" href="#Footnote_14_306" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>The aspect on the two sides of Behring’s Straits is
+very different. America is wooded, whilst the Chukchee
+country has no vegetation but lichens and mosses, and
+from a distance looks completely bare. Among the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_645">[645]</span>
+flora, however, of North-Eastern Siberia is a peculiar
+mushroom spotted like a leopard, and surmounted with
+a small hood—the fly agaric, which here has the top
+scarlet, flecked with white points. In other parts of
+Russia it is poisonous. Among the Koriaks it is intoxicating,
+and a mushroom of this kind sells for three
+or four reindeer. So powerful is the fungus that the
+native who eats it remains drunk for several days, and
+by a process too disgusting to be described, half-a-dozen
+individuals may be successively intoxicated by
+the effects of a single mushroom, each in a less degree
+than his predecessor. The natives dig for roots and
+tubers, which serve for food or making intoxicating
+drinks. They eat also the green bark of the birch
+mixed with caviar.</p>
+
+<p>In certain valleys, especially in those of Kamchatka,
+the grass exceeds the height of a man, and the Russian
+settlers make hay three times a year. The culture of
+cereals is of little profit; oats thrive best. Hemp has
+been grown, but not in sufficient quantities to replace
+the nettle as a textile thread. In fact, gardening has
+succeeded better than agriculture, and now the natives
+cultivate in hundreds of gardens cabbages, potatoes,
+beetroot, turnips, carrots, and other vegetables introduced
+by the Russians in the last century. All these,
+however, added to their other kinds of food, barely
+give sustenance enough to the Kamchatdales and their
+dogs, without which it would be almost impossible for
+them to leave their huts at certain times of the year.
+During the four months of summer they must lay up
+dry fish to provide for eight months of winter, and
+the normal amount of winter food for a pack of half-a-dozen
+Kamchatdale dogs is 100,000 herrings. Besides
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_646">[646]</span>
+this the owner’s family must be nourished, and hence,
+if a bad season comes, and the fishing or hunting fails,
+death is certain; for to the greater part of the natives
+who have no deer, winter and want are synonymous
+terms.</p>
+
+<p>It was on the Chukchee coast that the vessel of
+Professor Nordenskiöld—the <i lang="ru">Vega</i>—was frozen in.
+The ship had continued her eastward course to the
+28th September, and had arrived to within a few miles
+of the open water of Behring’s Straits. New ice had,
+however, begun to form, and the ship had passed into
+a narrow and shallow channel, where the crew made
+fast for the night, hoping to disentangle themselves in
+the morning without difficulty, especially as whalers
+had sometimes remained in these parts till the middle
+of October. They were disappointed, however. For
+at least a month the wind blew from the north, and by
+the 25th of November the new ice was two feet thick,
+so that there was no hope of getting free till the following
+summer. The <i>Vega’s</i> winter harbour was at
+the northernmost part of Behring’s Straits, a mile
+from land, and only about two miles from the point
+where the straits open into the Pacific, for the passage
+of which a single hour’s steam at full speed would
+have sufficed. This was disappointing to the professor’s
+party, but they built a magnetic observatory,
+made what discoveries they could in the interest of
+science, and formed acquaintance with the Chukchees.
+They describe the natives’ tents as kept at so great
+a heat that the children were usually naked. The
+women wore only a girdle, and the children sometimes
+ran from one tent to another without shoes or clothing
+in a temperature below freezing point.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_647">[647]</span></p>
+
+<p>Some of the party made excavations in the neighbourhood
+of dwelling-places of a race that was driven
+by the Chukchees hundreds of years ago to islands
+in the Polar Sea. The people were called Onkelon.
+Their houses were in groups, and built, or at least
+partly so, of whale-bones and driftwood, covered with
+earth, and connected by long passages with the open
+air and with one another. The kitchen middens contained
+bones of whale, walrus, seal, reindeer, etc.,
+together with stone and bone implements, fastened by
+leather thongs to wooden handles.</p>
+
+<p>The language of the Chukchees and Koriaks has
+not been reduced to writing, nor do these people
+attempt to express ideas by signs or pictures. The
+Russians, however, have attempted something towards
+Christianizing them, and the first missionary arrived
+so far back as 1704, though baptism did not become
+general among them till 1800. Some of the Chukchees,
+notwithstanding their savage and independent
+spirit (which has become somewhat softened in the
+few who have received baptism), are just and honest;
+and though implacable to an enemy, are staunch and
+true to a friend. They are only nominal subjects of
+Russia, and it will apparently take long before the
+Russian Government can hope to Christianize and
+civilize them.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_293" href="#FNanchor_1_293" class="label">[1]</a> Among early sources of information concerning voyages to the
+north-eastern seas, we have the “History of Kamchatka and the Kurile
+Islands,” translated from the Russian by Dr. Grieve in 1764. In 1802
+Martin Sauer wrote an account of a geographical and astronomical
+expedition to the north parts of Russia, the mouth of the Kolima, to
+East Cape, and islands in the Eastern Ocean, performed by Commodore
+Joseph Billings from 1785 to 1794; and within 20 years afterwards
+Captain Burney published a chronological history of north-eastern
+voyages of discovery, and of the early eastern navigation of the Russians;
+but these brought us no further than 1819. The admirable “Géographie
+Universelle” of M. Réclus (by far the best geographical work on Siberia
+I have met with) gives a map showing the routes not only of the principal
+travellers by land, but also furnishes an excellent account of Siberian
+maritime discoveries down to the present day.</p>
+
+<p>To confine ourselves more particularly to Kamchatka, we have the
+travels in 1787–8 of M. de Lesseps, Consul of France, and interpreter to
+the Count de la Perouse, who landed in the peninsula, and thence made
+his way by land round the northern coast of the Okhotsk Sea, and crossed
+Asia and Europe to Paris. A quarter of a century later, Peter Dobell
+followed the same route, and was deserted by his Tunguse guides in the
+vicinity of Okhotsk, which town, however, he at length reached, and
+crossed Siberia to Europe. Accounts of remarkable travels in this
+part of the country have been written by two Americans—Messrs. Bush
+and Kennan—who went, in 1865, to make preliminary surveys for a proposed
+route for telegraph wires intended to traverse Behring’s Straits from
+America, continue across the peninsula, and round the Sea of Okhotsk
+to Nikolaefsk, and thence to the Chinese frontier. The enterprise was
+ultimately abandoned, but not till the country had been surveyed from the
+straits to the mouth of the Amur, in doing which these authors passed
+through portions of country untravelled by foreigners before.</p>
+
+<p>For a short account of the early exploration of Siberia by sea and
+land, <i>see</i> <a href='#APPENDIX_E'>Appendix E</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_294" href="#FNanchor_2_294" class="label">[2]</a> It is a great gulf shut in from the North Pacific Ocean by the promontory
+of Kamchatka, and a chain of islands reaching down to Japan
+It measures from 1,200 to 1,400 miles from north to south, and from 700
+to 800 miles from east to west, the greatest depth being 700 yards.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_295" href="#FNanchor_3_295" class="label">[3]</a> It was curious to hear that whales are now more shy than formerly,
+and that the whalers dare not row their boats, but must sail them to the
+monsters, who are then sometimes frightened away even by the baling out
+of water. I learned, too, that in the Sea-coast province they have great
+difficulty in procuring a sufficiency of suitable sailors for the trade; for
+although ordinary seamen will do for a part of the crew, there ought to
+be about eight of the officers and men who are experts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_296" href="#FNanchor_4_296" class="label">[4]</a> I saw a considerable number of dried <i>trepangs</i>, or sea-snails, at
+Vladivostock, worth in China 30 dollars the pickle of 133 lbs., say 1<i>s.</i> a lb.
+The Chinese employ them in the preparation of a nutritious soup in
+common with sharks’ fins, edible birds’ nests, and an esculent seaweed,
+or cabbage, of which last 3,000 tons are taken yearly from the bays of
+the Sea-coast province.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_297" href="#FNanchor_5_297" class="label">[5]</a> They sailed round Cape Horn to Siberia, but met with foul weather,
+which delayed them for a whole season, and initiated their failure. Not
+having the means to return to Finland, they were getting their living as best
+they could. The commander of the <i>Onon</i>, Captain Stjerncreutz, was one
+of them. I discovered that he was a cousin of Miss Heijkel, my fellow-passenger
+in Finland in 1876, who, to help me in procuring a horse,
+introduced me to the family I have mentioned at Wasa. This was the
+third Finlander I chanced to meet in Siberia with whom I could claim a
+sort of acquaintance.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_298" href="#FNanchor_6_298" class="label">[6]</a> Many ranges of terraces and secondary summits surround the mountain
+as with an enormous pedestal, so that its base has a circumference
+of not less than 200 miles. The fissured summit constantly smokes, and
+twice or thrice a year throws out cinders. Ashes and dust have sometimes
+been carried to a distance of 180 miles, and covered the ground
+many inches deep, preventing the Kamchatdales from sledging. An eruption
+in 1737 ejected much lava, and this, dissolving the glaciers, poured
+into the neighbouring valleys a deluge of waters. In 1854 another stream
+of fire descended from Mount Kluchevsky. From the crater of the
+Avasha, immediately behind Petropavlovsk, have been thrown at the same
+time stones, lava, and water. The following are some of the active volcanoes:
+Korakovsky, 11,200 feet; Chevelutch, 10,529; Jupanof, 8,478;
+Avatcha, 8,344; and the Great Tolbach, 7,618; whilst, of the extinct volcanoes,
+Uchkin is the highest, with an elevation of 10,977 feet.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_299" href="#FNanchor_7_299" class="label">[7]</a> Mr. Hill describes one lasting no less than eight minutes. During
+the whole of this time rumbling and loud noises were heard beneath the
+ground, and the earth trembled violently. Some of those who experienced
+it said they thought at one moment that the earth was sinking beneath
+them, and the sea about to rush in upon the land, and the next that
+they were rising upon the crust of the crater of a volcano in terrible
+eruption beneath the ground.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_300" href="#FNanchor_8_300" class="label">[8]</a> Admiral Ricord, a former governor of Kamchatka, imported potatoes
+for seed, and they were planted, but not taken up the following autumn.
+The next year, being found abundant and good, they were allowed to
+remain, where, dying and propagating continually, they yielded more
+than were locally required. Mr. Hill accounts for the phenomenon by the
+fact that neither damp nor frost could reach the potatoes; for though in
+winter the snow covers the surface of the frozen ground, yet so great in
+this vicinity is the internal volcanic heat that the earth is quite dry, and
+never frozen below a few inches from the surface.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_301" href="#FNanchor_9_301" class="label">[9]</a> They love sledging, and upon a journey of four or five days will work
+from 14 to 16 hours out of the 24 without tasting food, the idea of their
+masters being that, when travelling, the less food the dogs receive, short
+of starvation, the better. The travelling sledge weighs about 25 lbs. (a
+freight sledge is heavier), and a good team will travel from 40 to 60 miles
+a day. When running, they must be paired with dogs known to each
+other from puppies; and, should they happen to cross the scent of a deer,
+so fond are they of its flesh that they sometimes become utterly unmanageable,
+upset the sledge (or <i lang="ru">nartee</i>, as it is called), and leave the
+driver, it may be, to perish in the snow.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_302" href="#FNanchor_10_302" class="label">[10]</a> It is situated on the right shore of the splendid Bay of Avatcha, which
+may claim with Rio Janeiro and San Francisco to be one of the finest
+harbours in the world. It is perfectly protected from the winds, and,
+transplanted to a more favourable position, it might be one of the greatest
+of markets; but since the fishery of the whale in the surrounding seas has
+lost its importance, Petropavlovsk has sunk from a place of 1,000
+inhabitants to one of 500. Mr. Dobell, who lived in the peninsula five
+years, says that he found there many dykes and mounds, from the existence
+of which he argues that the country was once thickly populated.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_303" href="#FNanchor_11_303" class="label">[11]</a> Their hospitality is carried even to excess. They visit one another,
+for instance, during a month or six weeks, until the generous host, finding
+his stock exhausted, gives the hint by serving up a dish called “<i lang="ru">tolkootha</i>,”
+a hodge-podge, composed of meat, fish, and vegetables; upon which the
+guests depart the following day.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12_304" href="#FNanchor_12_304" class="label">[12]</a> The Russian calendar gives the following numbers to these peoples:
+Kamchatdales, 4,360; Koriaks, 5,250; and Chukchees, 12,000. Mr.
+Kennan, however, doubts this, and thinks that they do not exceed 5,000
+altogether.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13_305" href="#FNanchor_13_305" class="label">[13]</a> The industrious little creatures store up their grain and roots underground,
+covering them, <em>it is said</em>, before their migration, with poisonous
+plants, to hinder other animals from eating them. The Kamchatdales,
+in times of necessity, help themselves to these stores, but do not fail to
+replace what they take by <i lang="ru">caviar</i>, or remains of fish, that they may not
+alarm such benevolent purveyors.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_14_306" href="#FNanchor_14_306" class="label">[14]</a> Whalers have now to go much further north for their prey; the sea-otter,
+with its precious skin, and the sea-lion are rarely seen on the strand
+and rocks of Behring’s isle, and the sea-cow is completely exterminated.
+The sea-bear, as Réclus calls it, but which I suspect is that we know as
+the seal, was threatened also with extermination, until the Americans
+purchased the monopoly of taking them on Russian territory.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_648">[648]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XLIX">
+    CHAPTER XLIX.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE ISLAND OF SAKHALIN.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Geographical description.—Meteorology.—Flora and fauna.—Population.—Cultivation.—Mineral
+products.—Coal-mine at Dui and penal settlement.—Prison
+statistics.—Flogging.—Desperate criminals.—Complaints
+of prison food.—Prison labour.—Difficulties of escape.—Prison
+executive and alleged abuses.—General opinion on Siberian
+prisons.—Comparison of Siberian and English convicts.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>Sakhalin</span> (or Saghalien), an island nearly as
+large as Portugal, was not generally known to be
+an island until a century ago.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_307" href="#Footnote_1_307" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> A gloomy interest now
+attaches to it, because of late years the Russians have
+been deporting thither a large proportion of their
+criminal convicts, so that it promises to be the Siberian
+prison of the future.</p>
+
+<p>As Sakhalin extends over eight degrees of latitude,
+the climate varies considerably; but at the best, in
+Aniva Bay, it cannot be called other than severe, for
+while the latitude is the same as that of Lombardy,
+the average temperature is that of Archangel. Besides
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_649">[649]</span>
+this low temperature, the climate is one of great
+humidity. At Kusunai, in the south of the island, 250
+days in the year are foggy or rainy, and the east coast
+is worse.</p>
+
+<p>The vegetation of the island resembles that of the
+neighbouring Manchu mainland, with the addition of
+some of the species common to the Japanese archipelago,
+and among them a sort of bamboo, which, attaining to
+the height of a man, covers whole mountains. Certain
+American species also mingle with the Asiatic flora,
+so that out of 700 kinds of phanerogamous plants,
+not more than 20 belong specially to Sakhalin. The
+plants on the lowest grounds resemble those of the
+opposite continent. The mountain slopes to the height
+of 500 yards are clothed with conifers, and higher are
+birches and willows, above which are the thick dark
+branches of creeping shrubs. The animals found on
+the island resemble those of the continent, and the
+tiger at times crosses the ice on the Mamia Strait to
+the northern portions; though no specimen has been
+seen in the south, nor did the Aïnos at the advent of
+the Russians know that animal even by name.</p>
+
+<p>The population of the island is reckoned at 15,000.
+To the north are about 2,000 Gilyaks. In the centre
+are the Oroks, or Orochi—Tunguses of the same stock
+as the Manguns and Orochons of the Lower Amur;
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_650">[650]</span>
+and in the south are the Aïnos. These last are thought
+to have been the aboriginal population, not only of
+Sakhalin and of the Kuriles, but of the Japanese
+islands also. They have been driven to their present
+locality by the Gilyaks and Oroks from the north, and
+by the Japanese from the south, and the slavery to
+which the Japanese fishermen have reduced them has
+contributed alike to their diminution and their moral
+degradation.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_308" href="#Footnote_2_308" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>Judging from a photograph I chanced to procure of
+an Aïno, they have large and wide cheeks, a narrow
+forehead, and eyes not so elongated as with the Chinese
+races, and their appearance is more European. The
+Aïno’s ample beard and moustache are worthy of
+a Russian. The Japanese, representing, with the
+Russians, the “upper classes” in Sakhalin, have established
+fishing-stations along the southern coast of the
+island, managed by a population who live there for the
+season without their families. On the south-eastern
+shore live 700 Chinese, engaged in gathering trepangs
+and sea-cabbage. Réclus mentions a trade in this last
+from the Bay of Paseat, in the south of the province,
+of £400 in 1864, £13,500 in 1865, £40,000 in 1866.
+The natives subsist on fish, and eat no bread. I was
+told at Khabarofka that the Aïnos contrive to make
+an intoxicating drink called <i lang="ru">sakhe</i>—probably that described
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_651">[651]</span>
+by Miss Bird as obtained from the root of a
+tree—which, to attain their highest notion of happiness,
+they drink to beastly intoxication. As for the Russians
+in Sakhalin, nearly all are in the military or prison
+service, and are supplied with provisions by the
+Government, the resources of the island being utterly
+inadequate. I heard that a large proportion of the
+convicts are employed in farming on a considerable
+scale, but the cultivation of cereals and vegetables,
+and the raising of cattle, have not yet, I think, made
+much progress. Whether they can ever thrive in
+more than a certain number of sheltered valleys is
+doubtful.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp100" id="p6502_ill" style="max-width: 93.75em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p6502_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      THE MILITARY POST AND PENAL COLONY AT PORT DUI IN SAKHALIN.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>The Russian military posts are all by the sea. Dui
+is the principal, situated about the middle of the
+western coast. On the shores of Aniva Bay are the
+Korsakoff barracks, with a garrison of 500 soldiers.
+Muravieff, near this, is a military post, and its port is
+perhaps the best, or rather the least bad, in the island;
+for along a coast of 1,200 miles Sakhalin has not a
+single harbour where vessels can anchor in real safety.</p>
+
+<p>The island was held for a time jointly by Russia
+and Japan, and the latter was not altogether disposed
+to give up her portion; but the importation of convicts
+soon brought the Japanese to terms, and the Russians
+are now sole masters. I am not aware that it has
+any metals, though I heard of a surface iron-mine on
+the opposite coast near to Nikolaefsk, belonging to
+Mr. Boutyn of Nertchinsk, which it was said might
+be worked for scores of years without exhaustion, the
+mine being similar in character to that which I saw
+in the Urals. The one mineral production of Sakhalin
+is coal, of which 70,000 tons were raised in 1878. I
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_652">[652]</span>
+heard the coal spoken of as good, but small. Recently
+it has been described as “dusty nut-coal, suitable for
+smithy work, but not for steaming.” Coal at Sakhalin
+costs more than in Japan or Australia. The mines
+are let out by the Government to a company, which
+from the first has seen small prosperity.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_309" href="#Footnote_3_309" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>The mention of the mines, and of those who work
+them, leads me to speak of the prisons, about which
+I have official statistics. I obtained information from
+several military and naval officers; also from a soldier,
+a prison officer, and a civilian, all of whom had been
+to Sakhalin, and most of whom spoke as eye-witnesses.
+At Dui, it would seem, there are four large prisons.
+I heard of them, from one who had lived in the island,
+as insufficiently heated in winter, and over-crowded.
+Another report, sent secretly by a prisoner to my exile
+informant, corroborated the alleged want of space.
+They said, however, that additional buildings were in
+course of erection.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_310" href="#Footnote_4_310" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>The number of prisoners in the island in 1879 was
+about 2,600; half were reported to be in prison, the
+remainder comparatively free. The Sakhalin convicts
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_653">[653]</span>
+are for the most part murderers, vagabonds, and runaways,
+there being no “politicals” among them.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_311" href="#Footnote_5_311" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>Dui is one of the three places where the authorities
+may use, in addition to the birch, the troichatka or
+plète, which I have described (vol. i., p. 92). I have
+no trustworthy information as to the frequency with
+which flogging is inflicted. At Tiumen the prison
+director said that, of 80,000 exiles who had passed
+through his hands in four years, he had flogged only
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_654">[654]</span>
+one. This, perhaps, is an extreme in one direction. An
+exile, purporting to give information he had received
+from a prisoner at Dui, and also translating into French
+what was supposed to be addressed to me by a Russian
+soldier from Sakhalin, said that Tuesday and Saturday
+were flogging days at Dui, and that they flogged from
+40 to 50 a week. This, I afterwards learned, was very
+much exaggerated; and I had strong suspicions at the
+time that my interpreter was making up a story for my
+note-book, which he saw me writing. It is, in fact, difficult
+to know what is the truth, as so much exaggeration has
+been used concerning the flogging of Russian prisoners.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_312" href="#Footnote_6_312" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>I saw at Nikolaefsk the wooden <i lang="ru">kobyla</i>, or “mare,”
+on which the culprit is laid; it is preferable, I should
+think, to the birching “horse” in the Middlesex prison,
+Coldbath Fields, though, of course, there can be no
+comparison between the birch and the plète. The
+latter is a truly fearful instrument, but it is right to
+remember that the Russians use it for the more part
+on such as we should hang outright. Corporal punishment
+cannot be inflicted in Russia on a free man for a
+first offence. Only the worst offenders are sent so far
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_655">[655]</span>
+east as the localities where the plète exists; and according
+to the law (Article 808) this punishment is reserved for
+those who, condemned to hard labour, have committed
+further crime in Siberia, where it would seem there are
+not wanting some desperate characters.</p>
+
+<p>When we passed through Ekaterineburg, for instance,
+a horrible incident had occurred only four days previously.
+A man had entered brandy-shops, ordered
+drink, and then presented a revolver to the salesmen if
+they dared to require payment, and had treated isvostchiks
+in a similar manner. He was summoned before
+the court, but through some technicality got off, and
+subsequently told one of his prosecutors that he would
+kill the lot of them; whereupon a number of isvostchiks
+set upon him, and wounded him with 30 stabs.
+Some four or five were awaiting trial at the time of my
+visit. Again, a murder took place during my stay at
+Nikolaefsk, at a small drinking-shop in the town, kept
+by a man and his wife. Two soldiers were in the habit
+of going there, and at night one said, “Let us go and
+kill those two and get what brandy we want.” Accordingly,
+very early in the morning, they went, knocked
+at the door, and, on the man opening it, one of the
+soldiers stabbed him. The other, after some difficulty,
+killed the wife, and all but cut off her head. A serving
+woman narrowly escaped stabbing, but rushed out of
+the window and told the police. The soldiers were
+called out, and the two men identified, whereupon they
+both confessed their crime, and were taken to the
+guard-house to await legal proceedings, which would
+consign them, not to death, but to hard labour, it was
+supposed, in Sakhalin, for 15 or 20 years.</p>
+
+<p>I think the worst thing I heard of Dui was about
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_656">[656]</span>
+the prisoners’ food. From two or three independent
+sources I was told that they did not get enough. For
+some weeks one year they were reduced to a pound
+and a half of bread a day, in consequence of an insufficient
+quantity of flour having been sent to the island,—or,
+rather, by reason of the ice breaking up that
+season so late that a fresh supply could not be forwarded.
+Again, a naval officer told me that he had
+seen the convicts, when bringing coal to his vessel, pick
+up and eat the scraps which the seamen had thrown
+away. I should not think much of this, however, for
+when I was on board a Russian man-of-war I saw
+fragments of seamen’s biscuit tossed overboard such as
+any hungry man might well be thankful for, and which,
+being of superior flour, a convict would naturally relish
+in preference to his ordinary rye bread.</p>
+
+<p>The soldier who came from Sakhalin told me that
+the prison fare consisted, on four days a week, of 3 lbs.
+(Russian) of bread and ¼ lb. of meat, and on three days,
+of 3 lbs. of bread and 1 lb. of fish, which is the quantity
+of bread allowed to the soldiers there, and exceeds
+the weight of bread given to English prisoners. It
+should be added that one of my informants said
+the prisoners gambled. Cards, with brandy at an
+exorbitant price, they manage to smuggle into the
+prison, and then play for their food. Goryantchikoff
+draws a vivid picture of this practice carried on at
+night. When all are supposed to be asleep, a piece
+of carpet is spread, a candle lighted, and a sentinel
+posted. The card-playing then begins, and often does
+not cease till morning; and the prisoners, having no
+money, stake their food and clothes. It is not matter
+for surprise, therefore, if some of the prisoners find
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_657">[657]</span>
+themselves with insufficient or very bad clothing, the
+frequent cause of which should be borne in mind in
+connection with the reckless statements sometimes
+published respecting the clothing of Russian prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>Making due allowance for exaggeration, however, I
+am disposed to think that there is real cause for complaint
+regarding the food at Dui, as to quality, if
+not quantity.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_313" href="#Footnote_7_313" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> There are certain local circumstances
+which would render it likely that the prisoners’ food in
+the Sea-coast province, and especially Sakhalin, would
+not be so satisfactory as in Western Siberia. The cost
+of provisions is very much higher in the east, and the
+Government does not appear to allow proportionately
+increased payment.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_314" href="#Footnote_8_314" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>Testimony went in the opposite direction as regards
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_658">[658]</span>
+the prisoners’ labour, and all seemed of opinion that
+they were not overworked. The agricultural convicts,
+from the great length and severity of the winter, are
+idle the greater part of the year. The Polish exile
+said, indeed, that the work was harder than at Kara,
+and that if the allotted amount of work were unfinished,
+the miners were flogged; but when the yearly
+output amounts to only 70,000 tons, it speaks for
+itself that the getting of this quantity and loading the
+ships therewith is a mere trifle for 1,000 or 1,500 men;
+and as in the other penal colonies of Siberia, convicts
+suffer more, I judge, from inactivity than from overwork.
+The miners spend 11 hours a day in the mine,
+from eight to noon and one till eight; and then return
+to their barracks or houses, not working, a German
+told me, so hard as English miners. One officer, who
+had been much in Dui, said that the daily task of a
+prisoner was not more than he himself could do in a
+couple of hours of really hard work, and that the men
+are idle and spin out the work.</p>
+
+<p>Another, in answer to my question, replied that there
+was no difference perceptible in the general health of
+the convict miners and farmers; and the traveller I
+have quoted from the <cite>North China Herald</cite> goes so
+far as to say, “The conclusion we arrived at was, that
+contentment prevailed throughout, even the convicts
+giving no evidence of discontent.”</p>
+
+<p>To escape from the prisons of Dui has been comparatively
+easy, but it is almost impossible to get far
+away, owing to the scarcity of provisions and the
+nature of the country; and the difficulty will no doubt
+be increased when the cable is laid&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_315" href="#Footnote_9_315" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> from De Castries
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_659">[659]</span>
+Bay to Dui. From this spot the runaway must first
+walk 200 miles along the coast, and this through a
+country where he can get no provisions. He dare
+not show himself to the natives, since there is a price
+on his head, and they receive 6<i>s.</i> for taking him to the
+police, dead or alive; and even if he should succeed
+in crossing the six miles of ice to the continent, he is
+often compelled to give himself up to get food. Thus,
+out of 100 who were reported to have run away the
+winter before my journey, 32 were caught by the
+Gilyaks, and one case of cannibalism was said to have
+taken place among the starving fugitives. A terrible
+instance of the difficulty of procuring food in the
+Amur region occurred in 1856, when a battalion of
+soldiers was dispatched in September from Nikolaefsk
+up the river to Shilkinsk Zavod. They were overtaken
+by winter, and were compelled to draw lots as
+to who should be eaten. The survivors walked on
+the ice and arrived in safety. Mr. Emery told me he
+had more than once seen hungry runaways give themselves
+up to the authorities. Runaways when caught
+are flogged; but this does not prevent others from
+making the attempt to escape. During my stay at
+Nikolaefsk a rumour spread that a third of the prisoners
+landed by the <i>Nijni Novgorod</i> had escaped,
+having in their possession 30 revolvers; and as the
+small Cossack station on the island opposite the mouth
+of the Amur had only 15 men, it was feared they
+would be in a plight. Within a day or two the reported
+numbers sank to one-half, and I have since learned that
+40 was the number—some newly arrived and others
+older convicts, and that 27 were caught.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the prison executive, there is a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_660">[660]</span>
+resident priest in Sakhalin; and since my visit a
+schoolmistress has been sent for the convicts’ children,
+who are kept in prison. I sent a supply of Scriptures
+and tracts for the prisoners and soldiers at
+Dui and Aniva Bay. In the <i>Nijni Novgorod</i>, too,
+there came out a priest and an assistant bringing with
+them a number of ecclesiastical books. The assistant
+and books had been sent, I believe, by the Consistorium,
+from which the priest at Vladivostock, at the time of
+my visit, was expecting £40 worth of ecclesiastical
+literature. To every 100 prisoners in Dui there are
+one superior and two under officers, all of whom are
+miserably paid. The usual charges of peculation and
+using for their own advantage the prisoners’ work are
+brought against them; but with what amount of truth
+I cannot say. The most shameful abuse I heard of
+concerning Sakhalin was that formerly the female prisoners
+were allowed clandestinely to go on board the
+ships whilst coaling, and were expected, on their return,
+to share with the warders their licentious gains. This
+came from a prison official, but I cannot answer for its
+truth; though when I asked a Russian doctor if it
+was at all likely to be true, he thought it not improbable,
+and said that he had no doubt female prisoners
+could, by payment to under officers, get release for an
+occasional promenade. To what depths of rascality
+some of the prison authorities may descend, I know
+not; but one officer, of whom I thought highly, told
+me that he had been sometimes appointed to inspect
+Siberian prisons, and in one of them, which he named,
+he found the director had committed such frauds that,
+could he have hanged him, he would have done so.
+As it was, he reported him to his chief, and the man
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_661">[661]</span>
+was removed. On the sea coast they say the heaven
+is high and the Tsar is far off; and a bribe goes a long
+way in diverting the hand of justice. For instance,
+one merchant declared that released convicts had
+sometimes stolen his goods, but that he could not
+get them punished because the offenders bribed the
+police. At Nikolaefsk they testified that one convict,
+a murderer, who ought to have been fast in prison,
+was allowed, for handsome payment, the run of the
+streets; though, like John Bunyan in Bedford Gaol, he
+was obliged to be in prison when inspectors came.
+This may be sufficiently shocking to English readers, but
+not less so, perhaps, the following from nearer home.
+When visiting one of the largest and best-managed
+prisons of England, and pointing to the warders in
+broadcloth, I said to the gentleman conducting me,
+“Do you think these men can be reached by a
+bribe?” To which he replied, “I have not the
+smallest doubt of it; they bring in tobacco and eatables
+to the cells, and we are powerless to prevent it.
+A prisoner, for instance, informs his warder as to the
+whereabouts of his friends, and perhaps asks him to
+call. On doing so the warder can inquire, ‘What would
+you like me to do for your friend who is under my
+charge? and what will you give me for doing it?’” A
+simple-minded woman, in her innocence, came one day
+to the chaplain of a prison I know, complaining that it
+“cost her so much to get little comforts to her incarcerated
+husband”; and then came out the story of
+the warder’s exactions, which at last had exhausted
+her means and patience!</p>
+
+<p>The reader will have observed that, in speaking of
+Sakhalin, I have only given the testimony of others, as
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_662">[662]</span>
+I did not go to the island. I entered one prison only
+after leaving Nikolaefsk—that of Vladivostock, and I
+may here, therefore, sum up my personal experience of
+Siberian prisons.</p>
+
+<p>I have met with a deep and almost universal conviction
+that the prisons of Siberia, compared with those of
+other countries, are intolerably bad. This I cannot
+endorse. A proper comparison would be between the
+Russian sent to Siberia and the English convict as
+formerly transported to Botany Bay; but, comparing
+the convicts of the two nations as they now are, and
+taking the three primary needs of life—clothing, food,
+and shelter—the Russian convict proves to be fed more
+abundantly, if not better, than the English convict; and
+the clothing of the two, having regard to the dress of
+their respective countries, is very similar. The floors
+of Siberian cells are not of polished oak, as in Paris,
+nor are the walls of stone slabs, as in York. Siberian
+prisons have not fittings of burnished brass, with everything
+neat and trim, as at Petersburg; but then, neither
+have the houses of the Siberian people. The average
+peasant, taken from his <i lang="ru">izba</i> to prison, need experience
+no greater shock than does the average English criminal
+when confined in jail. A convict’s labour in Siberia is
+certainly lighter than in England; he has more privileges;
+friends may see him oftener, and bring him
+food;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_316" href="#Footnote_10_316" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> and he passes his time, not in the seclusion of
+a cell, nor under imposed silence, but among his
+fellows, with whom he may lounge, talk, and smoke.</p>
+
+<p>I am now looking at things from a prisoner’s point
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_663">[663]</span>
+of view, and referring more especially to his animal
+requirements. When we look at his intellectual, moral,
+and religious nature, then it must be allowed my former
+comparison, as between Russian and English prisons,
+no longer holds good. The English convict, if unlettered,
+is compelled to attend school; the Siberian is
+left in ignorance. In the case of the English prisoner,
+some attempt, at all events, is made at his moral reformation.
+When he enters the prison, and on subsequent
+occasions, it is the chaplain’s duty to see him privately;
+and having learned, if possible, his moral condition, to
+point out the cause of his fall, and to show him the way
+to rise; and these efforts are attended with more success
+than is known to the general public. Once more, the
+English prisoner has opportunity of daily religious
+worship—in some establishments twice a day, religious
+instruction twice a week or oftener, and this sometimes
+ends in the happy result that going to prison proves
+the turning-point of a life.</p>
+
+<p>But I can hardly conceive this happening to a Siberian
+prisoner. Chaplains, in our sense of the word, are unknown;
+and even if the criminal be softened at the
+thought of leaving home or friends, or otherwise, he is
+turned loose among a herd of sinners more wicked
+perhaps than himself, with the imminent probability
+that he will speedily become as abandoned as they.
+If condemned to hard labour, he is robbed of the Sunday
+and attendance at church; there is none to point him to
+higher and better things, and hence he too often becomes
+a wreck both for this world and the next. Once more,
+there are in England voluntary agencies meeting the
+prisoner on his release with an endeavour to minister
+to his temporal and spiritual good, so that, if he desire
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_664">[664]</span>
+to lead a reformed life, he is helped to do so; and there
+are hundreds of former inhabitants of our prisons who
+to-day are respectable members of society. But in
+regard to the spiritual good of the Siberian prisoner,
+the Russian system is sadly deficient. The exile, it is
+true, is settled in a village, in possession of land where,
+if he chooses to work, he may satisfy his wants, and, as
+regards material things, begin life anew; but he is known
+as a convict, and too often does not care to retrieve his
+character. A doctor, holding a high position in Siberia,
+told me that he thought the convicts, when released, did
+not as a rule become reformed. They find difficulty, he
+said, in persuading peasants to give them their daughters
+in marriage; and if they marry released female convicts,
+these have almost always been women of bad character,
+who bear no children. Hence the men, having no
+home, often work during the week only to supply
+immediate wants, and to save enough for a drink on
+Sunday. Such was his testimony, from which it would
+appear that Siberia furnishes another illustration of the
+truth that reformation, to be worthy of the name, except
+on a religious basis, is impossible.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_307" href="#FNanchor_1_307" class="label">[1]</a> This is to some extent indicated by its name, “<i>Sahalin ula hota</i>,”
+that is, “Rocks at the mouth of the Black River,” in keeping with which
+idea, on Cook’s map of 1784. Sakhalin is but a small islet near the Gulf of
+the Amur. Other maps, published later, represent Sakhalin as a peninsula.
+It was left to the Russian Admiral Nevilskoy, 30 years ago, to lay down
+with accuracy the shores of the island and the Strait of Mamia Rinso, by
+which it is separated from the continent. Sakhalin is about 600 miles
+long, with an estimated area of 32,000 square miles, and traversed length-wise
+by a mountain chain with craggy summits. The coast is for the
+most part rocky and steep, but opposite the mouth of the Amur it consists
+of sandy downs. Similar downs are found, too, on the eastern side of
+the island. None of the mountains reach the line of perpetual snow, but
+several lift their bare grey summits above the limit of vegetation. The
+island has two large indentations—one on the eastern coast, called the
+Bay of Patience, and another at the south, called Aniva Bay; also two
+rivers, each about the length of the Thames, and some smaller streams
+flowing through arable valleys. It has likewise three lakes, the largest of
+which is 50 miles long.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_308" href="#FNanchor_2_308" class="label">[2]</a> I am not aware that any efforts have been made for the educational
+or spiritual improvement of the Aïnos of Sakhalin. Veniaminoff reduced
+to writing the language of the neighbouring Kuriles, published a grammar,
+and translated the Gospel of St. Matthew, which was printed at Moscow
+in 1840. When at Hakodate I was informed that the missionaries contemplated
+work among the Aïnos in Yesso, the northern island of Japan,
+and I found this, on my return, to be desired by the late Henry Wright,
+Honorary Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, but I am not aware
+that any efforts have yet been put forth for the Aïnos of Sakhalin.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_309" href="#FNanchor_3_309" class="label">[3]</a> It has the right to employ 400 convicts, for which they pay to the
+Government, says Mr. Réclus, from 9<i>d.</i> to 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> per man per day; but
+I heard that it was at a certain rate per pood of coal obtained. The
+company are supposed to supply the Government ships with 5,000 tons
+yearly, if required, at 18<i>s.</i> a ton; but in 1878 less than 700 tons were so
+disposed of.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_310" href="#FNanchor_4_310" class="label">[4]</a> A traveller writing in the <cite>North China Herald</cite> of August 5th last,
+describing what he saw of the convicts in Sakhalin, says: “They lived in
+barracks which from the outside appeared to be large, airy, and commodious.
+One evening we went to one of them, in which about 1,000
+convicts were ranged in the courtyard. We passed round the building
+and saw that, for ventilation and comfort, arrangements of the most complete
+kind had been made.” But I think he speaks of Korsakovsk, south
+of Dui, where there were in 1881, as I learn from official sources, 450 male
+and female convicts with their families.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_311" href="#FNanchor_5_311" class="label">[5]</a> The following list gives, for the five years preceding my visit, the
+number of persons condemned to hard labour and sent from European
+Russia by road to the Sea-coast government and Sakhalin, and who,
+on their arrival, were distributed to Nikolaefsk, Dui coal-mines, Dui farm,
+and in small numbers to Aniva Bay. It shows the number remaining
+over annually from the previous year, the number of additions, of departures
+by death, finished terms, or removal elsewhere, and the number
+remaining:—</p>
+
+
+<table class="autotable dui">
+<tr>
+<th class="tdc"></th>
+<th class="tdc">From last year.</th>
+<th class="tdc">Arrivals.</th>
+<th class="tdc">Departures.</th>
+<th class="tdc">Remaining.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc">1874</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&thinsp;962</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&thinsp;759</td>
+<td class="tdc">1,011</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&thinsp;710</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc">1875</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&thinsp;710</td>
+<td class="tdc">1,919</td>
+<td class="tdc">1,503</td>
+<td class="tdc">1,126</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc">1876</td>
+<td class="tdc">1,126</td>
+<td class="tdc">2,412</td>
+<td class="tdc">2,039</td>
+<td class="tdc">1,499</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc">1877</td>
+<td class="tdc">1,499</td>
+<td class="tdc">1,494</td>
+<td class="tdc">1,429</td>
+<td class="tdc">1,564</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc">1878</td>
+<td class="tdc">1,564</td>
+<td class="tdc">1,116</td>
+<td class="tdc">&ensp;&thinsp;988</td>
+<td class="tdc">1,692</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>Taking a rough average, I find a proportion of 18 women convicts to
+100 men. Further details respecting these convicts for 1878 will give
+some idea as to their crimes. There were sent to Nikolaefsk 476 men
+and 62 women. Of the men, 98 were removed to Dui, and 378 remained
+on the continent—300 on the Upper Amur, and 70 in the Primorsk
+province.</p>
+
+<p>These 378 men were convicted of the following crimes:—</p>
+
+<table class="autotable crimes">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Murder
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+155
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Vagrancy and assuming false names
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+55
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Running away
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+52
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Highway robbery
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+39
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Theft
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+17
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Robbery with violence
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+9
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Arson
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+4
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Insubordination to authorities
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+13
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Counterfeiting money
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+3
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Seduction
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+3
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Incest
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+3
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Removing railway irons
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+1
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Crimes not mentioned
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+24
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>The crimes of the 62 women were as follows:—</p>
+
+<table class="autotable crimes">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Murdering husbands
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+28
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Murdering illegitimate children
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+6
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Murdering other persons
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+17
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Arson
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+7
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Theft
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+1
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Highway Robbery
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+1
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Counterfeiting money
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+1
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Vagrancy
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+1
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_312" href="#FNanchor_6_312" class="label">[6]</a> Goryantchikoff, in “Buried Alive,” says a good deal about flogging,
+but some of his writing refers to the condition of things 50 years ago, and
+some of it is, to say the least, questionable; as, for instance, he <em>had heard</em>
+a story of an executioner giving 50 strokes or so more than was decreed,
+because the culprit was stubborn and did not ask pity. When I witnessed
+a birching at Nikolaefsk, a Cossack stood by, counting aloud every stroke;
+and when the plète is administered, a medical officer and others are
+obliged to be present. It is very unlikely, therefore, that a lictor would
+dare to give 50 extra strokes, even if he wished to do so. But, further,
+Goryantchikoff says, “400 or 500 strokes of a birch rod are almost sure
+to kill a man, and 1,000 strokes will kill the strongest man; but the
+same number of strokes with a cane will hardly injure a man of moderate
+constitution.” And yet I have quoted the case of a soldier at Nikolaefsk
+birched with 1,100 strokes, who, a fortnight afterwards, saucily declared
+that he would receive them again for a bottle of brandy!</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_313" href="#FNanchor_7_313" class="label">[7]</a> A civil officer, whom I know, was told of complaints about the food,
+to which he replied, “What can I do? They now get the supply of fish
+by contract, and allow so small a sum that I know it cannot be good. I
+can only bring the matter before my superiors, and, if they do nothing, I
+am powerless. I cannot pay it out of my own pocket!” Again, a naval
+officer told me that, in taking across provisions to the island, the smell of
+the fish on board was almost insupportable. The fish, he said, were bad,
+and the salt meat bad, though the bread was good.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_314" href="#FNanchor_8_314" class="label">[8]</a> Thus I met with a gentleman who was elected director of the local
+committee for the prison at Nikolaefsk, to whom, for many years, the
+Government allowed only 13 kopecks per day to provide food for each prisoner.
+The committee petitioned for 25 kopecks a day, and it received 17,
+at which rate he believed it now stands. At that time 17 kopecks represented
+about 6<i>d.</i> a day, now they represent only 4½<i>d.</i> But three pounds of
+rye bread at Nikolaefsk cost 15 kopecks, and thus there was less than 1<i>d.</i>
+left for other kinds of food. The result, in the case of my informant, was
+that he often put his hand in his own pocket to the extent of £20 or £30
+a year; but it is not likely that many can be found thus to act, especially
+in such a place as Sakhalin, where there is no colony, and the free inhabitants
+are very few. There is no philanthropic committee there at all, so
+that the management of the exiles is left solely to the administrative
+authorities. My informant said that the corn sent to Dui was good, but
+that the meat and fish were always bad, and that, in fact, the convicts
+scarcely ever got meat at all.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_315" href="#FNanchor_9_315" class="label">[9]</a> Alluded to in the <cite>North China Herald</cite> of August 5th, 1881.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_316" href="#FNanchor_10_316" class="label">[10]</a> The best conduct of an English convict would not entitle him to a
+visit from friends oftener than once in three months, and they may not
+bring him anything.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_665">[665]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_L">
+    CHAPTER L.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>THE USSURI AND SUNGACHA.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>From Nikolaefsk to Khabarofka.—Proposal to move the port.—Military
+forces in the province.—Departure for Kamen Ruiboloff.—The Ussuri.—Visit
+to a parish priest.—The native Goldi.—Missions of the Russian
+Church.—Pay of missionaries.—Head waters of Ussuri.—The Sungacha.—Cossacks.—Visit
+to a Cossack stanitza.—Chinese houses.—Lake
+Khanka.—Arrival at Kamen Ruiboloff.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>On</span> Saturday night, August 30th, I left Nikolaefsk
+for Khabarofka, pleased with the prospect of
+travelling 700 miles where no English or American
+author had gone before. By Sunday morning we
+reached Tyr, and Mariinsk and Sophiisk were passed
+on Monday.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_317" href="#Footnote_1_317" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>As we approached Khabarofka, on Thursday evening,
+summer appeared to have returned. The small
+steamer bound for the Ussuri did not start for 24 hours
+after our arrival, and so I had another day in Khabarofka,
+which just then was in a state of excitement.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_666">[666]</span>
+General Tichmeneff was there, with a commission sent
+to the Sea-coast government, to consider whether or
+not it was desirable to move the port from Vladivostock.
+In early years Ayan, and next Petropavlovsk, was the
+Russian port in the Pacific; then it was removed to
+Nijni Kamchatka, afterwards to Nikolaefsk, and from
+thence, in 1865, to Vladivostock. From a strategic
+point of view the situation of Vladivostock was considered
+unsatisfactory, and when it looked possible, in
+1878, that England and Russia might go to war, the
+apprehensions of the authorities were aroused, and
+some of the foreign merchants of the port, preferring
+not to run the chance of a siege, decamped to Japan.
+The question then was whether the Government should
+spend some £300,000 or £400,000 in the defence of
+Vladivostock, to make it a military as well as a naval
+stronghold, or move to another harbour that could be
+more easily fortified. This was the talk of the province
+during my stay, and steam, telegraph, and postal
+services seemed busy in doing the behests of the commission.
+I caught sight of the general as he and his
+staff embarked on the <i>Onon</i> for Nikolaefsk; and I
+have since heard that he has been appointed military
+governor of the province, to live at Khabarofka, whilst
+Vladivostock continues as the head-quarters of the fleet,
+and Admiral Erdmann has been recalled to Russia,
+and is now Governor of the Port of Reval.</p>
+
+<p>I made it my business to call upon Major Evfanoff,
+the commandant, as I wished to place Scriptures in the
+barracks, and to give other reading material for distribution
+among soldiers and Cossacks. At Nikolaefsk I
+had entrusted upwards of 1,200 books and tracts to
+Colonel Ossipoff, which he distributed during my stay;
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_667">[667]</span>
+also at Sophiisk I left a parcel of 500 with Colonel
+Ussufovitch.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_318" href="#Footnote_2_318" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> The major expressed his willingness
+to carry out my wishes at Khabarofka, though he did
+not see how the books could be allowed to lie safely in
+the barrack-rooms for every one’s use. I was therefore
+obliged to ask him to carry out my intentions in
+the way that was most feasible, and he subsequently
+told me that the soldiers were highly pleased, and
+thankful for the distribution.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the books left for the barracks and hospital,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_668">[668]</span>
+I did a stroke of business with the merchant Plusnin,
+selling him a bundle of 250 tracts, hoping thereby to
+get them distributed; and had not my stock failed, I
+would gladly have sold to him, or sent to Blagovestchensk,
+some copies of the Scriptures for the Molokans,
+who, I heard, are the largest purchasers, as I suppose
+they are the greatest readers, of the Scriptures on
+the Amur. Thus, having done what I could for Khabarofka,
+I prepared to leave it on Friday night, September
+5th.</p>
+
+<p>The steamboat agents and officials were exceedingly
+kind to me, apparently out of regard to what I was
+doing. A man said at Nikolaefsk that the chief director
+had been staying with him, and had he known that I
+was coming on such an errand, he should certainly
+have asked for me a free passage. As it was, the
+clerk would not hear of taking anything for the carriage
+of “the holy books,” and a first-class cabin was given
+for my sole use at a second-class fare, and this was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_669">[669]</span>
+repeated on the Ussuri.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_319" href="#Footnote_3_319" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The great General Tichmeneff
+had been the last occupant of my cabin, and it
+was draped with Brussels carpet, apparently new, the
+stately proportions of the room being 6 feet long by
+4 broad and 7 high, which I feared his Excellency,
+who was bigger than I in more senses than one, must
+have found exceedingly small.</p>
+
+<p>The Ussuri, after the Sungari, is the most considerable
+of the rivers which join the Amur from the south.
+It flows from the south-west to the north-east in the
+valley that separates the two parallel ridges of the
+Shan-alin and the Sikhota-Alin mountains. At
+Khabarofka it measures nearly two miles wide, having
+at its mouth three islands and two sandbanks, with an
+ordinary depth of 10 feet, though after the summer
+rains it rises to 19 feet. Ascending 25 miles, the width
+diminishes to a mile and a half, the depth never exceeding
+20 feet. The Ussuri was chosen in 1860 for a
+frontier, so that we now had Russian territory on the
+left, and Chinese territory on the right. The Chinese
+bank is for the most part flat, but the horizon is
+bounded by low mountain peaks. The Russian bank
+is mountainous and richly wooded, being formed of
+the western slopes of the coast range, which give birth
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_670">[670]</span>
+to a number of streams, the Chirka, Bikin, Por, and
+others, which flow in on the eastern bank of the
+Ussuri. The largest of the streams flowing in on the
+western bank are the Nor, Muren, and Sungacha. At
+the confluence of the Chirka the river is a mile and a
+quarter wide. For 30 miles further the mountains
+retire, and the bottom land thus left is richly, though
+not thickly, wooded with aspens, willows, oaks, and
+elms. Opposite the mouth of the Por, which flows in
+on the Russian bank, were a few Chinese houses called
+Sunchui. We had passed a similar group on the first
+day’s travel, and subsequently came to three others,
+one of which, opposite Graphskaya, was called Vikul
+Uima. The right bank was almost uninhabited.
+Within 70 miles from Khabarofka we passed, on the
+Russian bank, six stations, and among them Kazakevich
+(where was a military post, at which I gave some
+books to Colonel Glen); Dyachenkova, a village of
+seven houses; and Trëkh-svyateeteley, or the “station
+of three saints.” Another euphonious name was given
+further on to a collection of houses called Vidnaya, or
+“the beautiful,” where the Ussuri divides into three
+channels.</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday morning we arrived at Kozloffskaya, or
+the Goat station, having a telegraph office and a church.
+Service was over, and I called on the priest, John
+Voskresenskie (which means resurrection), a man who,
+if not—</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“To all the country dear,</div>
+      <div class="verse indent0">Was passing rich on <em>sixty</em> pounds a year!”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+<p>His parish extended along the river’s bank, 30 miles
+to the north and 50 to the south, and he ministered to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_671">[671]</span>
+10 villages. To the most distant he goes eight times
+a year, to the others once a month.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_320" href="#Footnote_4_320" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>Most of the houses at Kozloffskaya had gardens, in
+some of which maize was growing. There was also a
+private chapel, erected by one of the tradesmen. At
+the next station, Vasilyeva, the Bekin flows in on the
+Russian bank, and the mountains here reach their
+highest.</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday evening we passed a deserted village
+of 10 log houses, called Pashkova, from which the inhabitants
+had migrated in a body further south. On
+the Chinese bank the hills, well wooded to the top,
+approached the river. In the course of Sunday night
+we were delayed nine hours by fog, and during the
+next day stopped for a chat with a steam launch, used,
+if I mistake not, for the telegraph service. This was
+the only craft, excepting the canoes of the natives, that
+we met. Seven stations more were passed, and on
+Monday evening we arrived at Krasnoiarskaia, having
+completed half our voyage.</p>
+
+<p>The principal natives of the Ussuri are the Goldi.
+In addition to what I read and saw of these people, I
+acquired a great deal of information from Alexander
+Protodiakonoff, the priest of Khabarofka, who has been
+a missionary hereabouts for 23 years. At Malmuish
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_672">[672]</span>
+a missionary, who had 3,000 Goldi in his district, came
+on board the <i>Onon</i>, from whom I gathered that he had
+been a priest only a year, during which time he had
+baptized 50 persons. This man called one of the Goldi
+passengers to explain to me the use of my Gilyak idols.</p>
+
+<p>The Goldi are of the Tunguse family, and belong to
+the Mongolian race. Their number was estimated by
+Collins at 2,560, but a missionary gave it me as about
+6,000. Their habitat extends along the Amur to the
+country of the Gilyaks on the north, and on the south
+to the Upper Ussuri, whilst laterally it extends from
+the mouth of the Sungari to the sea coast. The mortality
+among them, as among the Gilyaks, is great, but
+they are, nevertheless, thought to be on the increase.
+Their physiognomy is distinctly Mongolian. They imitate
+some of the customs of the neighbouring Manchu,
+amongst others that of shaving off the hair, with the
+exception of a tail, which they wear on the top of the
+head. They do not, as a rule, cultivate the ground,
+even for garden produce; and such vegetable food as
+they use, millet or rice, they get in exchange for furs.
+We did, however, pass two or three Goldi huts where
+millet was under cultivation, and where the natives
+looked unusually dirty. Their houses and clothing I have
+already spoken of as resembling those of the Gilyaks.</p>
+
+<p>Their communications with the outside world are
+extremely limited. The only foreigners they know are
+Russians and Chinese. When, therefore, the natives
+asked who I was, it was exceedingly difficult to make
+them understand, as they had never seen an Englishman
+before.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_321" href="#Footnote_5_321" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> The Goldi, long used to dealing with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_673">[673]</span>
+the Manchu, still use their money, weights, and measures,
+also their musical instruments. I was told they
+do not sing. Each village has its chief or elder, as
+formerly, under Manchu rule, but they are gradually
+becoming Russianized. Twenty years ago they used
+to have drunken fights, village with village, but this
+practice is now abandoned, and their treatment of the
+dead is growing more decent; not that they used, like
+their Mongolian congeners, the interior of their dogs
+for burying-places, the corpse being cut up and eaten,
+but they had in each village a house for the dead,
+which, in summer, stank so horribly as fairly to drive
+the people away. In these buildings the clothes and
+arms were placed with the corpse, and children and
+friends entered from time to time to mourn. A missionary
+told me he had seen one of these houses within
+the past 10 years, but that now the Goldi bury their
+dead, as do the Russians.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp55" id="p6721_ill" style="max-width: 68.8125em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p6721_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      GOLDI IN WINTER DRESS.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>I spent part of my last evening at Khabarofka at
+the house of Peter Alexander, protodiakonoff, or arch
+deacon, of that town and two neighbouring villages,
+with a population of 260. He told me that the missionary
+district he superintended, in addition to his
+parish, extended from Orlofsk to Ekaterin-Nicolsk on
+the Amur, and from Busse on the Ussuri to Khabarofka,
+a river line of about 700 miles. At the time
+of my visit the priest and his brother were engaged
+on a translation of the Gospels, and as he did not
+appear to know how to get it printed, I recommended
+him to apply to the British and Foreign Bible Society,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_674">[674]</span>
+whose obliging and energetic agent in Petersburg,
+Mr. Nicolson, had desired me to be on the look-out
+for new Siberian translations. The Russian liturgy
+had been already translated into Goldi. The priest
+gave me a photograph of a group of Goldi Christians,
+wearing ear and nose rings, and embroidered garments
+of fish-skin. I set great store by the picture, for it is
+a rarity. The natives have not yet become vain of
+their faces, and do not like to be photographed. This
+group had been taken for the priest who baptized
+them. In the background is the village starosta, and
+in front the patriarch of the group, whilst a large
+number of the other figures are women. I know not
+whether many of them were the patriarch’s wives, of
+whom, before baptism, he intended to have a sale.
+If so, he must have been rich, for one of the Goldi,
+of whom I inquired the price of wives, said that if
+paid in money they cost from £50 to £70; and if in
+goods, then from four to seven pieces of “stuff,” but
+he did not say whether it was to be silk, linen, or blue
+nankeen.</p>
+
+<p>Peter Alexander, the archdeacon, in 23 years up to
+October 1878, had baptized 2,000 natives; 403 were
+Orochons (he computed them at 3,000 in his district),
+and 1,501 were Goldi.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_322" href="#Footnote_6_322" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_675">[675]</span></p>
+
+<p>I had heard it stated that the Russian missionaries
+<em>pay</em> the heathen to be baptized. One of the missionaries
+told me that he believed there were priests who
+gave rewards to their converts, though he had not
+done so, and he thought it possible that a few natives
+presented themselves more than once to different
+priests for baptism, hoping to gain thereby. Another
+allegation, that of a nobleman, was that the converts
+were “bribed.” But this kind of statement is so
+frequently made by those who look coldly on mission
+work that I did not regard it as proven. My informant
+said that he had seen at Irkutsk that they
+gave to the Buriats shirts, crosses, and a few roubles;
+and that often the same Buriats came again for
+baptism the following year. Also an Ispravnik, interested
+in the Buriat missions, told me they sometimes
+gave converts five roubles or so when poor and
+privately persecuted. Accordingly, I inquired concerning
+this of the archdeacon, and he explained by
+telling me that the last 400 he had baptized had
+received nothing, but that previously each candidate
+had been supplied, at the expense of the Missionary
+Society at Blagovestchensk, with a new shirt, a cross
+to hang on the neck, and an ikon. The reason for
+this would be evident to any one who knows Siberia.
+There would be no towns near, where the Gilyaks,
+for instance, could buy crosses or ikons, and without
+the possession of these I suppose it is doubtful
+whether a Russian could be persuaded that he was a
+Christian at all. Again, the new shirt might represent
+the chrisom, or baptismal robe; and even if not, the
+people’s ordinary garments (of fish-skin and dog-skin)
+are so filthy that it would be only becoming that for
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_676">[676]</span>
+once in their lives, at their baptism, they should look
+decently clean. The Protodiakonoff told me that on
+his journeys he used to take two or three hundred
+shirts and crosses, stay in a village for two or three
+days, and then sometimes baptize as many as 40 at
+once, especially when he could bring over a rich man,
+for then the poorer ones followed.</p>
+
+<p>I came, therefore, to the conclusion that the charge
+of bribery on the part of the missionaries was not
+well founded; but, on the other hand, it was equally
+plain, upon their own showing, that the Russian missionaries
+differ widely from the English as to what
+constitutes proper qualification for baptism.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_323" href="#Footnote_7_323" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> I asked
+the priest at Khabarofka concerning the pay of missionaries,
+to which he replied that he to whom I had
+spoken from Malmuish received £25 per annum, and
+he himself received £30 as a missionary, and 241
+roubles 62 kopecks, or about £24, from another
+source—say £55 in all. Others had represented to
+me that he received £250 a year; so perhaps this
+was exclusive of his offerings, which I heard might
+vary from 6<i>d.</i> to £1 for baptisms, and from 6<i>s.</i> to £5
+for a wedding. Also it is usual to call in the priest
+after a death to say a “panychid,” or office, the
+name of which suggests a prayer all night long, but
+which lasts an hour, and for which it is usual to give
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_677">[677]</span>
+from 6<i>d.</i> up to £1. Offertories, too, are collected
+each Sunday for the priest, orphans, church, etc.,
+according to the object, for which each of several
+plates is carried. I gathered that the support given
+by the natives to their pastors and the church consists
+of the purchase of candles to the extent of a few
+pence and an occasional sable-skin. The house and
+library of the Protodiakonoff did not look as if its
+owner had an income of £250 a year; but his home
+was neat and clean, though simply furnished, and his
+wife and daughters were becomingly dressed. I was
+glad to hear an excellent report of this missionary,
+who was said to be a good man and learned. It was
+his custom actually to preach or read a sermon every
+Sunday, and he had a crowded church in consequence.
+I suppose he did not profess that his sermons were
+all original; for when, on board the <i>Onon</i>, he caught
+sight of a tract I had given to the steward’s boy, he
+immediately seized it, and wrote thereon “for a
+sermon.”</p>
+
+<p>I thought this missionary the most hard-working
+priest I met in Siberia, and I was very glad to have
+obtained from him what I consider such trustworthy
+information concerning the Goldi. The last representatives
+of this race I saw at the little village of
+Krasnoiarskaia, 260 miles from Khabarofka, where
+a man and woman were standing on the banks. The
+man had a Manchu matchlock with no butt, but
+having a handle something like that of a pistol. It
+had a flint and hammer, pulled by a very clumsy trigger.
+Of the woman I bought her ear- or nose-ring.</p>
+
+<p>On the fourth day, Tuesday, we arrived early in
+the morning at Busse, where was another telegraph
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_678">[678]</span>
+station. Up to this point we had passed on the river
+10 tributaries on the right bank, and 17 on the left.
+About an hour before noon, we changed our course
+from the Ussuri to the Sungacha; but, before leaving
+the Ussuri, I would observe that its head waters are
+formed by the confluence of the Daibecha and the
+Ulache, together with several smaller streams. One
+of them, the Sandugu, rises only about 50 miles from
+the coast at Olga Bay, and on the banks of the
+Daibecha gold has been found. I learn, too, from the
+<cite>North China Herald</cite>, that a few miles from Vladivostock
+(in what direction is not stated) coal-mines on a
+large scale are being opened up by Mr. S. Morris,
+whom I met, if I mistake not, and that they promise
+to yield well. The Ussuri is navigable several miles
+higher than Busse, and could a railway be constructed
+(to which the country offers, I am told, no special
+obstacle) from Vladivostock to the most southern navigable
+point of the Ussuri, a means of communication
+would be made for the carriage of merchandise and
+passengers, which would be of the utmost importance
+to the Ussuri valley, the only military and commercial
+route leading from the Amur to the southern parts of
+Russian Manchuria.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_324" href="#Footnote_8_324" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the morning of Tuesday, the 9th of September,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_679">[679]</span>
+we entered the Sungacha. It enters at right angles
+on the western bank of the Ussuri. The Sungacha,
+flowing out of Lake Khanka, is the largest of the
+Ussuri tributaries, and the most tortuous river on
+which I have been. A straight line from its source
+to its mouth measures but 60 miles, whereas along
+its channel it measures nearly 180 miles, and I do
+not think we traversed a single half mile without a
+bend. Great skill, therefore, was required in steering
+both steamer and barge. So sharp were some of the
+curves that, when the former had turned the bend, the
+two crafts appeared to be proceeding in opposite directions.
+The steamer at such times slackened speed, but
+even then, on the first day, the barge twice ran into the
+muddy bank, and temporarily stuck fast. The Sungacha
+is from 20 to 60 feet deep, from 100 to 110 feet wide,
+with a current of two knots. In some parts it is barely
+100 feet wide, and in two places only from 8 to 12 feet
+deep.</p>
+
+<p>Black and turbid as was the water of the Ussuri, it
+was limpid compared with that of the Sungacha, which
+was unusable for cooking. A supply of Ussuri water
+was therefore taken on board, and this implies a good
+deal, since the Siberians are not too nice in this respect,
+and are accustomed to the use of river and surface water
+only. I saw turtles in the Sungacha, and learned that
+this river, as well as Lake Khanka and the Ussuri,
+abounds with all kinds of fish, especially carp, sterlet,
+and salmon.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_325" href="#Footnote_9_325" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_680">[680]</span></p>
+
+<p>There joined us at Busse a telegraph officer named
+Adamson, who spoke German, and with whom I was
+able to employ my smattering of that tongue to good
+effect. Hitherto I had not exchanged many ideas with
+my four fellow first-class passengers, one of whom was a
+veterinary surgeon, and two others Russian and Polish
+officers. The horse-doctor and the Pole seemed to
+have no mental resources whatever; and regarding
+them as types of Siberian “society,” it was not difficult
+to understand the dismal complaint of a physician I
+met, that he had no congenial companions, there being
+nothing cared for in the town above the level of wine
+or cards. These two passengers played incessantly,
+and, excepting at meals and during sleep, I doubt if
+cards were out of their hands for a couple of hours
+during the passage. One night the Pole, even after
+he had gone to bed, got up to play another game.
+The captain was very obliging, and gave me a chart
+he had made of the Ussuri, which is valuable, there
+being only two original writers, as far as I know, on
+any considerable portion of this river—namely, Venyukoff
+and Prejevalsky.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_326" href="#Footnote_10_326" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the day we entered the Sungacha, we came to
+one station only—Markova, which was the last collection
+of houses that could be dignified with the name of a
+village. All the stations beyond were Cossack pickets,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_681">[681]</span>
+and consisted of one or perhaps two houses, at which
+horses are kept for the postal service in winter. There
+were six of these pickets beyond Markova, making a
+total of 36 stations between Khabarofka and Kamen
+Ruiboloff. Among them are four villages only with a
+church—namely, Kazakevich, Ilyinska, Kozloffski, and
+Venyukova, with a resident priest to each of the first
+three. Among the stations were likewise 21 Cossack
+stanitzas or settlements, containing from one to a
+hundred houses each. Also, between Kamen Ruiboloff
+and Vladivostock are ten stanitzas and three churches.
+Markova was a Cossack stanitza, and as we stayed
+there for an hour or two, I enlisted the services of Mr.
+Adamson, and peeped at Cossack life.</p>
+
+<p>Cossacks of old were warlike people, who lived a
+free-and-easy life on the border, frequently ravaging
+their neighbours’ herds, whom the Russians reduced
+to subjection, but left them many privileges. When
+the Amur came into the hands of the Tsar, it became
+necessary that the Russian frontier should be guarded,
+and, if possible, settled. General Muravieff therefore
+took many of the children of convicts, called them
+Cossacks, and placed them, together with voluntary
+emigrants from the Trans-Baikal province, in stations,
+about 10 miles apart, along the Amur and the Ussuri.
+Land was allotted to them, and they were supplied
+with cows, horses, farming-stock, and provisions for a
+year, after which time they were expected to take
+care of themselves.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11_327" href="#Footnote_11_327" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> The mounted Cossacks are employed
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_682">[682]</span>
+to keep the boundaries, and many of the foot
+Cossacks act as police. When not engaged in service
+they are free to farm, rear cattle, hunt, or, in fact,
+turn their hands to what they please, though they
+are liable to be called up in time of war, almost to
+the depopulation of a whole neighbourhood.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_12_328" href="#Footnote_12_328" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> This
+accounted for the deserted village of Pashkova, and
+I learned that the service is not unpopular; for when
+the Government wanted 800 men wherewith to found
+a colony on the shores of Lake Khanka, there was
+no lack of volunteers—a circumstance sufficiently explained
+by the fact that in such cases they get new
+farming stock and provisions.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_13_329" href="#Footnote_13_329" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p>On the Ussuri the Cossacks are expected to keep
+off the Chinese smugglers, and even traders, who are
+not allowed to settle on the Russian bank except under
+proper restrictions. Cossack habitations, therefore,
+represent the utmost bounds of Russian life.</p>
+
+<p>Markova consisted of rather more than a dozen
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_683">[683]</span>
+houses, of which only seven were inhabited. I entered
+some of them, and was struck with their cleanly and
+orderly arrangement, as compared with the houses of
+the Russian peasantry. In the first the floor was
+strewn with hay, the walls were whitewashed, and on
+one of them was displayed a quantity of table ware,
+consisting of seven forks, four spoons, and a ladle.
+On a plate-shelf stood a teapot, slop-basin, two dishes,
+and four plates, a mug, cup, and two glasses. Near
+the door hung two bundles of squirrel-skins, and a
+sheepskin coat, whilst in the corner was a well-known
+feature in every Cossack’s house,—a handmill for grinding
+corn, worked by the Cossack’s wife. A larger mill
+in the village was turned by horse-power, but with the
+slender result of grinding only 3 cwt. of meal a day.
+I saw, too, rope made of lime-tree bark, good for
+use in the water, and large fish-hooks on which the
+fish of the Sungacha hook themselves whilst playing
+with the float. In another house was a Cossack’s
+hunting gun, with a two-legged rest and a flint lock,
+which is said still to be preferred to more modern
+kinds. In a third house I bought some hazel-nuts. I
+had been unable to procure any fruit since leaving
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_684">[684]</span>
+Khabarofka, nor could I succeed at Krasnoiarskaya in
+getting cucumbers.</p>
+
+<p>After leaving Markova the banks of the Sungacha
+continued flat, and were all but uninhabited. Our
+ceaseless windings on the river continued till Wednesday
+evening, when we arrived at Lon Mayo, on the
+edge of Lake Khanka, where, on the Chinese bank,
+were two small houses. They were inhabited, apparently,
+by men only, and those very dirty. Within the
+house I entered there was an inner compartment,
+where, among other objects, I observed a heavy stone
+for grinding corn, a well-made wicker shovel, and a
+huge brandy bottle, or cask, made of a sort of coarse
+<i lang="fr">papier-maché</i>. The building was thatched, and at a
+distance of two or three yards stood the chimney,
+constructed of the hollowed trunk of a tree, and plastered
+with mud at the bottom. In the yard was a
+cart, with clumsy Chinese wheels, and troughs for
+cattle, hollowed, like canoes, from the trunks of trees.
+Bricks, made of mud and rushes, were drying in the
+sun, and men were busy pulling hemp into threads.
+In the garden was a small heathen temple, the size of
+a sentry-box, into which they did not object to my
+looking. Two poles stood in front, and inside, a table,
+with a picture over it, a pan and vase, with joss-sticks
+and some fish-hooks. Not far distant I noticed
+a field of “buddha” or millet growing, and attempted
+to approach it by crossing a boggy plot, but was compelled
+by mosquitoes to beat a speedy retreat. The
+Ussuri and Sungacha are famous for these insects, as
+was suggested by the mosquito blinds of the steamer;
+but a slight breeze and the comparative lateness of the
+season delivered us.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_685">[685]</span></p>
+
+<p>The Khanka Lake might be called a “Mediterranean,”
+for such is the meaning of the Chinese word
+“Khan-Kaï,” which the Russians have changed into
+Khanka, spelt also Khinka, Hinka, and Kenka.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_14_330" href="#Footnote_14_330" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> Its
+superficial extent is more than 1,200 square miles, but,
+notwithstanding its size and high-sounding name, it is
+little more than a huge inundation, for its depth is in
+no part more than seven feet. In early summer one
+can sometimes walk into the lake, half a mile from the
+bank, without finding more than 10 inches of water.
+Hence I had been warned that the steamer might
+possibly not be able to cross, in which case it would be
+necessary to proceed 40 miles through Chinese territory,
+round the north of the lake, by a road on which
+there is but one post-station, and so to re-enter Russian
+territory at a point on the north-west shore; for the
+frontier does not skirt the lake, but crosses it from Lon
+Mayo, at an angle of 45 degrees. My host at Nikolaefsk
+on one occasion was obliged to accomplish this
+journey on the back of a cow. This, however, I was
+spared, for the thunderstorms of June and July, with
+the south-east winds, had brought their usual supply
+of rain, and caused the lake to enlarge, so that it
+assumed the proportions of an inland sea. At ordinary
+times the Khanka is divided into two parts, the “great
+lake” and the “little lake,” which latter is also called
+“the Dobuka.” From the captain’s chart I calculated
+it to be 20 miles long by three wide. The two lakes
+are separated by a sandy strand, of regular proportions,
+bending towards the north in such a manner as to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_686">[686]</span>
+continue with exactness the curves of the banks from
+the east and west. This strand, developing its arc
+with geometrical precision, is only like many others
+found on the shores of the ocean; but few similar cases
+occur on the banks of a lake of such comparatively
+small extent. Such strands, for the most part,
+are formed when the locality is sheltered from the
+winds, which do not come regularly from the same
+quarter.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_15_331" href="#Footnote_15_331" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
+
+<p>I suppose that the water is sometimes rough, for the
+good-natured captain kindly inquired whether I should
+be afraid if the boat rocked about. I had not at that
+time traversed two oceans, but was able to assure him,
+nevertheless, that I hoped for the best. The windows
+were as solemnly closed and battened as if we were
+about to cross the Atlantic; and towards night we
+steamed into the lake, to find it as calm as a mill-pond.
+After steering south-east for about 50 miles we arrived,
+at dawn, at Kamen Ruiboloff, or the Fisherman’s Stone,
+thus finishing a voyage from Khabarofka of 466 miles,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_687">[687]</span>
+or 510 if we had gone to the stations on the shores of
+the lake.</p>
+
+<p>We had made a quicker passage than was expected;
+perhaps partly to be accounted for by an “attraction”
+which no doubt influenced the captain. He spoke a
+little French, and communicated to me that on the day
+after our arrival he was to be married to the niece of
+the merchant Plusnin, of Khabarofka. They have
+certain domestic and semi-religious preliminaries to a
+Russian wedding, as I have stated, which I was anxious
+to see, for we have nothing corresponding to them
+in England; but unfortunately I missed the opportunity
+at Kamen Ruiboloff, for although I rose soon
+after daylight, the captain had fled, and I hastened to
+proceed, remembering well that the foremost traveller
+at the post-house gets the untired horses.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_317" href="#FNanchor_1_317" class="label">[1]</a> At all of these places I distributed tracts or sold my books, some of
+the latter at a shilling each; but the people purchased them so readily
+that I had not a sufficient supply. In this work I had a willing helper in
+Captain Stjerncreutz, who in his university days had learned a little
+English from a lady at Helsingfors. At our stopping-places he usually
+became the medium through whom I gave a bundle of books to the local
+priest, to be distributed to the Russians. Some of these priests worked
+also as missionaries to the Gilyaks. I met one at Tyr, and another, Peter
+Logimof, at Mikhailofsk. The last told me he had baptized 200 aborigines
+in seven years.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_318" href="#FNanchor_2_318" class="label">[2]</a> I learned that in the Primorsk were 6 battalions of infantry, namely,
+at Nikolaefsk, Sophiisk, Khabarofka, Sakhalin, Kamen-Ruiboloff, and
+Vladivostock; and 8 batteries of horse-artillery, namely, at Nikolaefsk,
+Khabarofka, Sakhalin, Nicolsk, and Paseat. From the “Russian Officers’
+Handbook,” published at Petersburg by the Ministry of War, it appeared
+that the number of soldiers in East Siberia, in 1878, was 17,610, with 130
+guns; namely, 10,640 infantry, 1,300 artillery, 270 sappers and miners,
+and 5,400 irregular cavalry. More particularly they read as follows:—</p>
+
+<p>Infantry.—Blagovestchensk, 400; Irkutsk, 900; Chita, 300; Stretinsk,
+240; Yakutsk, 700; Kara, 470; Kiakhta, 470; Nertchinsk, 470; Sakhalin,
+1,100; Olga Bay, 180; Paseat, 340; Vladivostock, 1,000; Kamen
+Ruiboloff, 1,000; Sophiisk, 1,000; Khabarofka, 800; Nikolaefsk, 800;
+De Castries Bay, 400; Barracouta Bay, 70.</p>
+
+<p>Heavy artillery.—Chita, 250; Khabarofka, 250; Nikolaefsk, 800.</p>
+
+<p>Field artillery.—16 batteries, of which 8 were in the Primorsk, of 8
+guns, having 12 horses to each gun, and 2 mountain batteries.</p>
+
+<p>Sappers and miners.—30 torpedo men and 240 engineers.</p>
+
+<p>Irregular cavalry.—9 Cossack regiments of 600 each.</p>
+
+<p>In war time the Cossacks of the Amur and Ussuri send 6 mounted
+regiments, of 560 each; 9 foot regiments, of 920 each; and 2 batteries of
+horse artillery. Of these, 500 are in constant service.</p>
+
+<p>On the frontier service were 2 regiments, each of 400 mounted Cossacks;
+and 15 companies, of 133 each, of foot.</p>
+
+<p>For the service of the Étape prisons of Eastern Siberia were employed,
+from the Yakutsk regiment, 400, and the Kamchatka regiment, 200. It
+is from these last two, I suppose, are supplied the Cossack posts I
+heard of from Behring’s Strait round the Sea of Okhotsk, serving as
+police, and distributed thus: Anadir, 13; Petropavlovsk, 59; Tigil, 17;
+Ghijiga, 42; Yamsk, 7; Okhotsk, 32; Ayan, 12; Udskoi, 10.</p>
+
+<p>The following is the constitution of an infantry <em>regiment</em>, which is
+divided into 3 or sometimes 4 battalions, of 1,000 men each, in war time
+or on the frontier. Superior officers: 1 commander, 1 adjutant, 1 treasurer,
+and 1 commissariat. To each battalion 1 commandant, 1 adjutant, 1
+treasurer. Each battalion has 4 companies, No. 1 being called “skirmishers,”
+and consisting of a fixed number of 240 men, 1 captain, 2 lieutenants,
+2 sub-lieutenants and non-commissioned officers, 1 field assistant,
+and 1 under officer to every 5 men. Companies 2, 3, and 4 have not a
+fixed number of men, and there is an under officer to every 10 men only.</p>
+
+<p>In the book quoted above appeared the military officers’ pay; but they
+get several additional allowances, everything being provided for them
+except food. The pay of officers is:—</p>
+
+<table class='autotable pay'>
+ <tr>
+  <td class='tdl'>Generals</td>
+  <td class='tdc'>from</td>
+  <td class='tdr'>£152</td>
+  <td class='tdc'>to</td>
+  <td class='tdr'>£254</td>
+  <td class='tdc'>per</td>
+  <td class='tdc'>annum.</td>
+ </tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Colonels
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+58
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+103
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Captains
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+54
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+66
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Staff Captains
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+50
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+68
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Lieutenants
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+40
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+60
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Sub-Lieutenants
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+37
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+54
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Cornets
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+34
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdr">
+51
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">”
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_319" href="#FNanchor_3_319" class="label">[3]</a> The <i>Onon</i>, from Nikolaefsk, was smaller than the <i>Zeya</i>, in which I
+travelled from Kara, but cleaner and better managed. She was about
+20 years old, had Belgian engines of 30 horse-power, and carried 5
+machinists and 8 sailors. My fare and steward’s bill to Khabarofka cost
+3 guineas. The <i>Sungacha</i>, about to ascend the Ussuri to Lake Khanka,
+was a still smaller boat, 90 feet long, and drawing 3 feet of water. Her
+engines were of 40 horse-power, and 15 years old. Towing a barge with
+third-class passengers and cattle, she could make 5 or 6 miles an hour
+against the stream, and 8 with it; but without the barge she could go 10
+miles against the stream, and 16 with it. I hoped accordingly to accomplish
+the 500 miles to Kamen Ruiboloff in 5 days, for which I paid as
+fare 35<i>s.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_320" href="#FNanchor_4_320" class="label">[4]</a> Help came to me once more from the telegraph station—this time in
+the person of the wife of the manager, and through her I gave the priest
+some tracts, but he declined to purchase New Testaments, even at a
+reduced price; at which I was not surprised when he subsequently told
+me that he occasionally preached to the people for five minutes on
+Sunday, but that they complained of the sermons as “too long.” What
+he would not buy, however, the third-class passengers on the barge speedily
+did, and I then gave some copies to the captain for the use of the passengers
+of the <i>Sungacha</i>, as I had done to Captain Stjerncreutz for the
+<i>Onon</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_321" href="#FNanchor_5_321" class="label">[5]</a> Perhaps it was as well that I had no malformation or physical peculiarity
+about me, for Prejevalsky relates his meeting a Mongolian who had
+seen but one Englishman in his life, who lived at Kiakhta, and who had,
+unfortunately, lost one of his legs, whereupon the man of the desert had
+come to the conclusion that all the English had wooden legs!</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_322" href="#FNanchor_6_322" class="label">[6]</a> Since the previous October he had baptized an additional 50 Goldi,
+and he thought that what Gilyaks there were in his district were all
+baptized. Formerly, he said, natives when willing were baptized, though
+they understood nothing of what was being done, but in his own case he
+required them to know certain prayers. After baptism they were expected
+to attend church when there was one near, and to come to communion
+once a year. I learned that some of the native Christians, as might be
+expected, relapse into heathenism, especially in time of sickness, when,
+having perhaps no doctor near, they send for the shaman. It did not
+appear, however, that the profession of Christianity exposed them to
+persecution.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_323" href="#FNanchor_7_323" class="label">[7]</a> Their work seemed very nearly a repetition of the wholesale baptism
+at Kieff by command of Vladimir, or of the baptisms by Roman missionaries
+of whole villages at a time. The first missionary whom I
+questioned thought it enough if, before baptism, the candidates could
+say the short prayers of the Russian Church; the second appeared
+content with less than this. Further south, however, I met a parish
+priest who was not a missionary proper, but who in ten years had baptized
+ten persons; and in his case he said he had usually kept his
+candidates under instruction for a year or more.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_324" href="#FNanchor_8_324" class="label">[8]</a> The entire length of the Ussuri, between 43½° and 48½° N. Lat., is
+497 miles. The upper part of the river has a rapid current, and it is
+swift below the confluence of the Sungacha to the Muren; but for its
+remaining 300 miles it has a current of two miles an hour only, which is
+slow compared with the three miles of the Amur, and the four miles of the
+Shilka. The stream, frequently divided by islands, presents no peculiar
+difficulties to navigation. Its scenery has a quiet English park-like beauty
+that never wearies, though it cannot boast the grandeur of the Amur, which
+combines the beauties of the Rhine and the Danube, and is, taken all in
+all, the finest river I have travelled.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_325" href="#FNanchor_9_325" class="label">[9]</a> It is said that during the floods, when the Ussuri becomes a series
+of lakes connected by shallows, the traveller can with his hands, in
+spawning time, lift off salmon by the dozen from the banks, and in certain
+confined places may even hear the rippling of the water caused by their
+fins. The turtles in the Sungacha are eaten by the natives, but not by the
+Russians. They lay their eggs on the margins of the stream, and one of
+our crew amused himself by shooting the animals as they basked in the
+sun.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_326" href="#FNanchor_10_326" class="label">[10]</a> I learned that the three steamers by which I had travelled on the
+Amur and Ussuri belonged to the same Company, the managing director of
+which receives £1,200 a year. The captain of the <i>Sungacha</i> received £21
+per month, the second captain £10, the steersman £4, the other sailors £3,
+and the machinists from £4 to £5 per month each; but during a large
+part of the year, when the river is frozen, they have little or nothing to do.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_327" href="#FNanchor_11_327" class="label">[11]</a> It not infrequently happened, however, that they came at the end of
+the year begging for further assistance, which was given, and the result
+has been in many cases to make them idle. Captain De Vries told me
+that he had seen grass and weeds growing six inches high in their corn,
+which, owing to bad cultivation, stood only six inches higher. Cossacks
+enjoy to a certain degree the privilege of self-government. They elect,
+for instance, their own officers, who, after a service of 35 years, receive
+rank as if in the regular army. On the other hand, they have to supply
+a certain number of fighting men, of whom 10 per cent. must be engaged
+in active service continually each for two years, and all are drilled for
+one month in every year.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12_328" href="#FNanchor_12_328" class="label">[12]</a> When settled in a locality they cannot leave it at will, though, if they
+can raise themselves to the position of merchants, they acquire greater
+liberty. Sometimes a whole village is moved to a new colony, and the
+inhabitants find themselves in a strange district, but with their old comrades
+and neighbours.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13_329" href="#FNanchor_13_329" class="label">[13]</a> A Cossack’s pay ranges from 10<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i> to 13<i>s.</i> a year, which is less than
+that of infantry soldiers, whose monthly pay I learned at Vladivostock was
+for recruits, 1<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i>; soldiers, 4<i>s.</i>; under officers, 10<i>s.</i> 9<i>d.</i>; and field assistants,
+30<i>s.</i>; whilst cooks, tailors, bootmakers, and barbers each receive about 1<i>d.</i>
+a month from every soldier in the company. Every soldier also subscribes
+6<i>d.</i> a year for religious purposes. Whether Cossacks, when called up, have
+the same food as soldiers of the line I know not, but the latter in time of
+peace have as follows:—Per day 3 lbs (Russian) of rye bread, ¾ lb. meat,
+vegetables 1½ lb. in summer and 1 lb. in winter; also, per month, 37 lbs.
+oatmeal, 4 lbs. peas, 2 lbs. butter, ⅓ lb. sugar, ⅙ lb. each of brick tea and
+salt, and ½ pint of vinegar. These, too, are the rations of Russian sailors
+on shore. The clothing for soldiers I learned was as follows:—Yearly,
+2 caps, 2 pairs of cloth trousers, and 2 of linen, 2 linen shirts for gymnastics,
+and 3 for ordinary use, 3 pairs linen drawers, 2 pairs high boots,
+1 pair shoes, and 2 pairs of cloth gloves. Every other year, a thick cloth
+coat, long overcoat, hood, and skull-cap. A belt is expected to last 3
+and a set of buttons 5 years. What proportion of this clothing is supplied
+to Cossacks I do not know. It may very well be that they receive less,
+seeing that they give to the Government less time and less labour than
+the ordinary soldiers.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_14_330" href="#FNanchor_14_330" class="label">[14]</a> It measures, according to Réclus, 62 miles long, 46 in the widest and
+31 in the narrowest part; but the Russian captain gave me its measurement
+as 67 miles long by 21 miles at the narrowest and 26 at the widest
+parts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_15_331" href="#FNanchor_15_331" class="label">[15]</a> The Khanka is completely exposed to the winds on the south, which
+blow during a great part of the year, rushing in through an open gap in
+the Sikhota-Alin chain. Thus there is found on the surface of its water
+a regular swell, which is carried from the south to the north, and which
+delineates with nicety the circular outline of the shore. This is the theory
+of M. Réclus, and he usually writes very carefully and correctly; but I
+ought perhaps to add that in the chart given me by the captain this regularity
+of outline of the north shore is not so observable as in the map of
+M. Réclus.</p>
+
+<p>For five months of the year ice covers the lake to the thickness of a
+yard. The north-east and north-west shores are level and wooded. The
+south-west shore is also wooded, but not so the shores in the south and
+south-east. Swampy tracts exist at the mouths of the eight rivulets which
+enter the lake; the Toor-balenkhe flowing in from the north-west, and
+the largest, the Lifu, from the south. About ten villages and post-stations
+are dispersed along the shores, and roads lead away to the Manchu towns
+Ninguta, Hun-chun, and Furden.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_688">[688]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_LI">
+    CHAPTER LI.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>LAKE KHANKA TO THE COAST.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Difficulties in prospect.—Appearance of the country.—Vegetation.—Garden
+produce.—Medicinal plants.—Ginseng.—Country almost
+uninhabited.—A serious loss.—Remarkable landscape.—Distribution
+of animals in Siberia.—Little-Russian settlers.—Peasant affairs and
+taxes.—Travelling by night.—Arrival at Rasdolnoi.—Clerical functions
+in request.—War in the post-house.—Summary of tract distribution.—Russia
+as a field for Christian effort.—The Suifun.—Cheap
+travelling.—Baptizing children.—Arrival at Vladivostock.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>From</span> Kamen Ruiboloff I had before me a drive
+of nearly 100 miles to Rasdolnoi, on the river
+Suifun, and this comparatively short journey I feared
+might present greater difficulties than any I had
+encountered since leaving my interpreter. In towns,
+or on the steamer, some one could be found with
+whom to exchange ideas in one of the three principal
+languages of Europe; but now I was to go alone
+through a district where even Russians are comparatively
+strangers, and where, if my half-dozen words of
+Sclavonic failed, I expected to be quite at a loss in
+communicating with the Manchu. Besides this I had
+heard uncomfortable accounts of the Manzas, Coreans,
+and other congeners of the Chinese, many of whose
+culprits had been expatriated to these regions as to a
+Botany Bay, and were giving the authorities trouble,
+not from political causes, but by forming themselves
+into banditti and plundering Russians and Chinese
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_689">[689]</span>
+alike. At Khabarofka Major Evfanoff informed me
+that quite recently a number of these robbers had
+committed depredations on the Russians, and that
+Cossacks were gone in search of them. I also heard
+further on that they had entered an officer’s house,
+murdered his wife, hung her up by the heels, and
+carried away her child. Again, tigers were said to
+infest the district.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_332" href="#Footnote_1_332" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>I was so delighted, however, with the thought of
+reaching the coast, and with the hope of getting from
+thence to Japan, that I hastened to depart notwithstanding.
+A letter of introduction had been given
+me from Nikolaefsk to Colonel Vinikoff, stationed at
+Kamen Ruiboloff, and the prospect held out that he
+would perhaps show me the wonderful manœuvres of
+his cavalry Cossacks; but, hearing that he was away,
+I contented myself with sending to him by the captain
+of the steamer a letter, and a box of books for his
+men, and by 8 o’clock I was ready to start. The
+weather was charming, like that of a sunny English
+September—a morning without clouds.</p>
+
+<p>The district through which I was to travel, south of
+Lake Khanka, is about 100 miles from north to south,
+and the Chinese frontier is a few miles west of the
+post-road. Extensive plains constitute a prominent
+feature of the country, which is sufficiently hilly, however,
+to render the landscape pleasing. The soil,
+loamy and black, is covered with rich vegetation.
+These Manchurian plains are like enormous limitless
+meadows and heaths, from which the herbage has
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_690">[690]</span>
+never been cut, and where pasture is ready for cattle
+by thousands. The country was fairly but not thickly
+wooded until I crossed the hills, south of which flows
+the Suifun. Water in some places was scarce, and I
+had to wait at one station at least an hour whilst a
+man fetched a supply. The climate resembles that of
+the Ussuri. On the 5th and 6th of September, at
+Khabarofka, I found it decidedly hot. The mean
+annual temperature is 48°, which allows of the cultivation
+of the cereals of Northern Europe, and of some
+of the hardier fruit-trees. Wild grapes I saw in
+abundance, but none cultivated. On the coast the
+Governor had recently planted some fruit-trees, and
+Madame one day, during my visit, brought to table her
+fruit harvest, which consisted of less than a dozen
+apples. Vegetables, however, thrive well. My host
+told me that near Vladivostock, on his island, he
+had raised potatoes twice from the same ground,
+between the middle of April and October.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_333" href="#Footnote_2_333" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> He had
+grown cart-loads of tomatoes, but, being unable to sell
+them to his satisfaction, salted them for his cows.
+Carrots and parsnips grow wild, and in the market at
+Vladivostock I observed, in addition to what have
+been mentioned, pumpkins, celery, turnips, beetroot,
+the egg plant, and Chinese onions and radishes. The
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_691">[691]</span>
+missionary Huc mentions three treasures of Manchuria.
+One is the sable, another a grass called
+<i lang="ru">oula</i>, the peculiar property of which is that, when put
+into the boots, it communicates to the feet a soothing
+warmth even in the depth of winter.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_334" href="#Footnote_3_334" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> The third
+treasure is “Ginseng.” The Chinese call it <i lang="ru">Orhota</i>,
+that is, “the first of all plants.” They consider it the
+most costly produce of the earth, diamonds excepted,
+and ascribe to it the most wonderful healing properties.
+It is said to be a specific in all kinds of bodily
+ailments, to cure consumption when half the lungs
+are gone, and to restore to dotards the fire of youth.
+Huc says the Chinese physicians think it too heating
+for the European temperament, already in their
+opinion too hot.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_335" href="#Footnote_4_335" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>Other medicinal plants of the district are the yellow
+rhododendron and marsh wild-rosemary, of which the
+natives use an infusion against stomach-ache; also the
+root of the <i lang="ru">tokose</i> herb is used for diarrhœa, produced
+by feeding on fish. The burnt heads of burdock are
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_692">[692]</span>
+laid on ulcers as in Peking, wounds are covered with
+agaric, the root of “Solomon’s seal” is applied for
+pains in the throat, and that of the hand-shaped bulb
+of an orchid for ulcers. The Goldi, however, as I
+have said, often attempt another method of cure, by
+making a wooden model of the part afflicted, which
+they carry about; but authorities do not record the
+comparative values of the two modes of treatment. It
+is said that the enlightened portion of the native community
+despise vegetable medicine, and more frequently
+resort to the services of the shaman and his brandy-drinking
+performances, which no doubt are popular
+with all parties concerned.</p>
+
+<figure class="figcenter illowp57" id="p6922_ill" style="max-width: 71.9375em;">
+  <img class="w100" src="images/p6922_ill.jpg" alt="">
+  <figcaption>
+      CHINESE MERCHANTS IN THE PRIMORSK IN WINTER COSTUME.
+  </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>On leaving Kamen Ruiboloff the country was almost
+uninhabited. On the first stage I met one vehicle and
+three men, but passed not a single house. On the
+second stage two men only were seen.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_336" href="#Footnote_5_336" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> On arriving
+at the fourth station—Dubininskaya—I discovered that
+I had lost a large pocket-book, or paper wallet, in which
+were my most valuable documents, including the letter
+from the Minister of the Interior, my podorojna, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_693">[693]</span>
+other official papers. This alarmed me, for without the
+podorojna I could not claim post-horses to go either
+backwards or forwards; and the situation was the more
+serious because none of the post-people could speak
+anything but Russian. I made them understand by
+signs that I had lost my letter-case, and that I must go
+back with the yemstchik to see if I had left it at the
+previous station. Giving my heavy luggage in charge
+to the post-mistress at Dubininskaya, I mounted the
+returning vehicle. It was now nine o’clock, and quite
+dark, and I journeyed in anything but a pleasant mood.
+I remembered, too, with appreciation, the luxury I had
+had further west, in Mr. Cattley’s tarantass, for here
+I had nothing but a wretched post-tumbril, without
+springs, seat, or hood. One of the horses went lame,
+which retarded progress, and I lay on my bear-skin,
+with only a shawl to cover me, for six hours of the
+night, gazing up into the heavens. The moon arose
+in her beauty, and the number of stars visible might
+have delighted the eye of an astronomer, but I could
+think of nothing but my loss. At three o’clock in the
+morning we reached the station, where they knew
+nothing of the pocket-book, and where the guest-room
+was occupied by a Chinese packman and his assistant,
+with whom I did not at first relish passing the remainder
+of the night. One, however, got off the bedstead
+and offered it me, and the other wished to give
+me tea, which, to say the least, was civil. So I spread
+my bearskin on the wooden couch, and the candle was
+extinguished. In less than two minutes I had kicked
+out the tester-board of the rickety bedstead, and it
+came down with a clatter, causing my room-fellows to
+start. “<i lang="ru">Ladna! ladna!</i>” said I, thinking this was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_694">[694]</span>
+the Russian for “all right”; and then we recomposed
+ourselves. On awaking, and after further search, I
+ascertained that my difficulties were increased, for I
+now discovered, to my dismay, that beside the important
+papers alluded to in the wallet, there were also
+two volumes of manuscript notes, taken in coming
+across Siberia. I was now in an agony; and if crying
+would have availed I could well have done it, so distressed
+was I at the thought of losing information that
+had cost so much. It occurred to me that I might have
+left the wallet at the station still further back, and,
+seeing a Cossack saddle in the post-house, I pointed
+at it, intimating that the yemstchik should mount, and
+ride courier to inquire for the lost treasure. But he did
+not welcome the task, though he intimated I might
+have the saddle if I chose to go myself. Thinking to
+quicken the post-master into further exertion I offered
+a reward of five roubles if the book could be found.
+Meanwhile the two Chinamen evinced great kindness
+and sympathy with me in my loss, and the more so
+when they discovered I was an Englishman. At breakfast
+they offered me rice and onions, and I returned
+the compliment by inviting them to partake of bread
+and jam. They were travelling to Kamen Ruiboloff,
+and offered me a place for two stages in their vehicle.
+I resolved at first to go back, but afterwards determined
+to send a note by the Chinamen to Colonel Vinikoff,
+asking him to make inquiries for the wallet, and then
+continue my way, and to look very narrowly on the
+road for what I had lost. The yemstchik was not a
+good specimen of his profession, being fonder, if I
+mistake not, of drink than of work, and my slender
+knowledge of Russian led me to suspect that he was
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_695">[695]</span>
+congratulating himself on the extra money he was exacting
+from me, which, in my suppliant condition, I
+was ready enough to pay if only the books could be
+found. At last we started, and I was scanning the
+road with the eyes of a lynx when about a mile from
+the station we met a post-vehicle, in which was a lady
+traveller whom I had seen the previous evening at
+Dubininskaya. We pulled up, and she placed her
+hands at distances apart, showing the length and
+breadth of something that had been found, and spoke
+to the yemstchik, from which I was able to make out
+that my troubles were over. I clapped my hands, and
+pushed forward with a light heart to the station, and
+there was my wallet, well hauled over, but with nothing
+missing. The yemstchik had told a peasant of my loss,
+and of the promised reward, and he had found the
+article lying in the road. I then remembered that, in
+the cool of the evening, I had put on my ulster, standing
+up in the conveyance, without stopping the horses,
+and so had jerked the wallet out of my pocket. Never
+did I pay ten shillings with greater pleasure than to
+the finder, after which I set forward, truly grateful, and
+prepared with reanimated spirits to enjoy the prospect
+before me.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving Dubininskaya, the post-road lay over a range
+of low hills, the top commanding a view such as I had
+never before seen. The distant horizon was bounded
+by pointed hills, and between were enormous plains of
+tall, brown, luxuriant pasture, waving like fields of corn—a
+land of plenty, at all events, if not flowing with
+milk and honey. No cities were visible, nor a human
+being, nor a habitation. There were just one or two
+spots where the grass had been cut and piled in heaps,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_696">[696]</span>
+but the abundance that remained seemed to mock such
+puny efforts. The hills were wooded with oak, and the
+plains with aspens, elms, lime trees, ashes, black and
+white birches, maples, and walnuts.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_337" href="#Footnote_6_337" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> In young forests
+of this district are vines, roses, and a great many lilies.
+In the grass land there is much wormwood and pulse,
+the marsh ranunculus, and field-pink-clover. This last
+I saw in such abundance as to remind one of an English
+clover-field. There were also wild sun-flowers, and,
+growing at the roadside, wild millet, and what looked
+like bastard wheat or darnel.</p>
+
+<p>Nor is this richness confined to the vegetable kingdom.
+To the 20,000 sable-skins sold annually at
+Khabarofka, Southern Manchuria contributes its quota;
+but I heard more of its abundance of deer, the flesh of
+which sells in Vladivostock in winter from 1½<i>d.</i> to 2<i>d.</i>
+per lb.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_338" href="#Footnote_7_338" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Wild turkeys are found in the district. Ducks
+and water-fowl we caused to fly up without number on
+the Ussuri, and pheasants, like those in England, rose
+before me as I drove to the south. At the station I
+was now approaching, woodcocks cost from 10<i>d.</i> to 1<i>s.</i>
+each, riabchiks or black grouse 5<i>d.</i> each, and pheasants
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_697">[697]</span>
+6<i>d.</i> each. So plentiful were pheasants in 1875, that
+they could be bought for 7½<i>d.</i> a brace, and at Paseat
+for 2½<i>d.</i> each.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_339" href="#Footnote_8_339" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> This was in strong contrast to what the
+telegraph inspector told me of the prices of butchers’
+meat at Vladivostock. He had been asked nearly £3
+for the half of a calf, and beef, he said, cost 5<i>d.</i> per lb.</p>
+
+<p>I now and then saw large herds of cows grazing, and
+learned that in 1878 there were imported to the Ussuri
+districts 80 horses, 600 sheep and pigs, and 1,000 head
+of cattle.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving at the next station, Nicolsk, there was
+a good-sized village, with a church, barracks of the
+3rd Ussuri battalion, and, what was better to me, a
+telegraph station. It was now Friday afternoon, and
+I was anxious, if possible, to reach Vladivostock on
+the following day, so as to be ready for Sunday. I
+had heard that they had been building there a Lutheran
+church, and it was suggested to me at Nikolaefsk that
+I might open it, as there was no resident pastor. I
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_698">[698]</span>
+knew also that steamers served on the Suifun only for
+the mail service, and that when travellers required a
+passage, a telegram had to be sent to the Governor.
+I had heard that he was absent; but as his wife spoke
+English I telegraphed from Nicolsk, and said that if I
+could reach Vladivostock in time I should be happy to
+conduct a Sunday service. In the telegraph office I
+met Captain Alexander Jdanoff, to whom I gave some
+reading material for his soldiers, and then went to the
+post-house.</p>
+
+<p>I noticed in several of the houses at Nicolsk that
+the chimneys were built of lattice work like English
+hurdles, plastered with mud. These erections told a
+tale to those who could read it, the builders being
+emigrants from Little Russia. So long as serfdom
+continued, the Russian peasantry were rooted to the
+soil, and often in great poverty;&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_340" href="#Footnote_9_340" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> but when the serfs
+were liberated they came in some cases to the Government
+in numbers, and said, “We are poor; please send
+us to colonize in Siberia, or make us Cossacks.” And
+the Government, desiring to populate the Ussuri, had
+sent them hither, freed from taxes, and with the usual
+privileges granted to colonists.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_341" href="#Footnote_10_341" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_699">[699]</span></p>
+
+<p>The telegraphist at Nicolsk strongly advised me to
+push on to the Suifun without delay, so as that night to
+reach the steamer, which was to leave Rasdolnoi early
+on the morrow. I therefore started after tea for a
+drive of 14 miles, the first stage being to Baranofskaya,
+or the “sheep” station. On arriving I thought more
+of wolves than of sheep, and of tigers than either. The
+post-house was in the middle of a wood, and near it
+were burning large fires to keep away the mosquitoes
+and, as I supposed, beasts of prey. It was now night,
+and I certainly should have preferred proceeding by
+day; but I remembered the advice just received, and
+told the men to put to the horses. A sailor youth,
+travelling to Vladivostock, apparently on foot, and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_700">[700]</span>
+speaking a few words of English, made himself officious
+on my behalf, and then wanted to be allowed to mount
+my vehicle. It was too dark for me to see what he
+was like, but I consented, thinking that if we did have
+any encounter with wild animals or robbers, it might
+be an assistance to have some one who understood if
+only a word or two of my mother tongue. I sincerely
+hoped that we should not meet a supperless tiger,
+though I think I should have been really uneasy had
+I known what I learned on the morrow—that several
+of these animals had been killed during the summer at
+the very village to which I was going.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11_342" href="#Footnote_11_342" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p>It was nearly midnight when we reached Rasdolnoi.
+On the way my fellow-traveller showed that he had
+been drinking, and his stock of English words proved
+to be very small and by no means choice. I went
+to the telegraph office and ascertained that the
+steamer, lying a few miles off in the river, would
+leave at seven next morning; accordingly, I took up
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_701">[701]</span>
+my quarters at the post-house, and at midnight was
+writing up my diary when, the news having spread
+that a clergyman had come, a Finnish shopkeeper,
+named Rosenstrom, presented himself and asked if I
+would baptize his little girl. The request came at an
+awkward moment, for I had ordered the horses for
+five. At half-past three, however, I sallied forth,
+arrayed in my cassock, with the Finn to conduct me,
+lantern in hand. His house was not far, though
+approached by a rough road; and, passing through
+the shop, I found a room nicely arranged and brilliantly
+lighted, with some half-dozen persons present—the
+telegraph officer and his wife or sister (who had
+communicated my arrival), and a Finnish friend,
+besides the father and mother of the child. After the
+service and breakfast, dawn appeared, and by five I
+was ready to depart. Much to my chagrin, however,
+the smoke from the funnel, among the distant trees,
+showed the vessel to be moving, and I was left behind.
+I telegraphed to Vladivostock to this effect, and received
+a reply that the steamer would return and bring
+me on Monday morning.</p>
+
+<p>I had abundance of time, therefore, to inspect the
+little station of Rasdolnoi.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_12_343" href="#Footnote_12_343" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Had I not felt impatient
+at losing the boat, I might have enjoyed the view
+from the post-house, for it was exceedingly pleasing.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_702">[702]</span>
+The country was well wooded, and the curves of the
+Suifun added much to the beauty of the picture. It
+was in this post-house, and only here, that I had a
+desperate battle with thousands of cockroaches or
+<i lang="ru">tarakans</i>. By day they hid themselves, but at night
+they came out on to the table, the couch, and everywhere,
+great grandfathers and grandmothers with their
+offspring to the third and fourth generation. To wage
+general warfare against them was hopeless; therefore
+I set my wits to work to keep the table free. I recalled
+a visit paid to Messrs. Huntley and Palmer’s
+Biscuit Manufactory at Reading, where, on the floor,
+were thousands of little insects running about. Let
+no lover of Huntley and Palmer’s biscuits, however,
+be dismayed, for none of these creepers are allowed to
+mount the tables, the legs being made to stand each
+in a little pan of water; and as the emmets will not take
+to swimming, they have to be content with the crumbs
+on the floor. This plan I adopted with modifications.
+My friends had strongly urged me to take from Petersburg
+a box of Persian powder, supposed to be an
+abomination to B flats and F sharps. I had not used
+it once, but now I surrounded each leg of the table
+with an embankment of the said powder, and great
+was my delight to see the enemy advance, evidently
+thinking to scale the ramparts and mount as usual, but,
+instead, suddenly stop, hold a council of war, wave
+feelers, and then beat a retreat!</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_703">[703]</span></p>
+
+<p>I was enjoying my tea on Saturday afternoon from
+a clean table when two officers, a wife, and child
+arrived from Vladivostock. Then was cleared up the
+mystery of the boat having left so early; a telegram
+had been sent that it should depart at five to meet these
+travellers, one of whom was merely accompanying his
+friends for a few miles in Russian fashion, and was to
+return next day. They spoke French and a little
+English, and, having started in a hurry, they asked
+if I could sell them some quinine, which I thought I
+might venture to do, seeing that I had not once opened
+my store. Arnica had been needed for the sprain of
+the interpreter’s foot, but as for myself I am not sure
+that I had taken so much as a pill since leaving London,
+so that the counsel of my medical adviser had proved
+to be sound; for when I proposed to take a lot of
+medicines, he strongly urged me not to carry too much,
+“lest,” he said, “you should be tempted to excess.”</p>
+
+<p>Though Rasdolnoi was so small a place, yet, when
+it became known that I had good books in possession,
+several came from I know not where to buy them. I
+now had time to reckon up my “takings,” and found
+that sales amounted in all to about £18—not a large
+sum truly, but a good deal to make up in kopecks, of
+which 100 equal only 2<i>s.</i> My receipts covered, I suppose,
+about a fourth of the cost of the transport of books
+and tracts, and as these had been given me, with grants
+toward their carriage, by the Bible and Tract Societies
+of London and Petersburg, I subsequently divided
+among them the proceeds. From Nikolaefsk I sent
+to the Governor of the Primorsk 1,000 New Testaments,
+10,000 tracts, and 200 copies of the “Life of
+Christ,” requesting that they might be distributed from
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_704">[704]</span>
+Vladivostock to Kamchatka, to the prisons, hospitals,
+soldiers, Cossacks, schools, and the seamen of the
+Siberian fleet; and it has gratified me to hear, during
+the present year, that this was thoroughly and carefully
+done. Thus I distributed in all by proxy—that is
+through the authorities—about 44,000 publications, and
+personally about 12,000, the exact total being 55,812
+of all kinds.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_13_344" href="#Footnote_13_344" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p>On my return to England I wrote to the Director of
+the Central Administration of Prisons, saying what I
+had done, and enclosing a list of the persons to whom
+and for whom the books had been given. I also
+stated my “strong conviction that a wider and better
+knowledge of the Holy Scriptures would do much
+both to lessen crime and also to reform the criminal.
+Hence I wished that a copy of the New Testament
+might always remain within reach of every prisoner
+and hospital patient in Siberia, and I cherished the
+hope that some who might perhaps take up the book
+to while away time might read to profit and subsequent
+reformation.” To this end I asked the administration
+to do anything they could to forward the successful
+completion of my work; and this letter I enclosed to
+the Minister of the Interior, when writing to thank his
+Excellency for the great kindness and attention his
+letter had secured for me.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_14_345" href="#Footnote_14_345" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_705">[705]</span></p>
+
+<p>My “work” was now almost done, and I looked
+forward with hope, for I regard the Russian people as
+presenting a promising field for the diffusion of a more
+spiritual religion than they now possess. Many, it is
+true, do not cease to speak of Russian bribery and
+untruthfulness, gambling and dishonesty. But, however
+that may be, there seemed to me to be a general
+willingness in Russia to learn better things. The
+sceptics we met were few and far between. In Western
+Siberia a Polish veterinary surgeon—a Romanist—argued
+as if he would like to upset Christianity, but
+he ended by giving money for a New Testament, and
+acknowledged that he envied the experience of his
+antagonist. In Eastern Siberia I met a Protestant
+gentleman who said that most educated people in
+Siberia were materialists; but I had afterwards reason
+to suspect he was measuring by his own bushel, for
+so material was his creed that, though holding a high
+position in the Government, with a large salary, he
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_706">[706]</span>
+was not above suspicion of asking a bribe. I ought,
+however, to add that a Russian critic, by no means
+unfriendly, lamented to me that, owing to the want of
+teaching power in the priests, men of the educated
+classes in Russia are, as a rule, perfectly <em>indifferent</em> to
+religion, and therefore tolerant to all and every creed,
+though jealous of the orthodox Church as a national
+institution.</p>
+
+<p>A good type of a religious gentleman—a devotee
+perhaps some would say—was an officer I met, who
+goes to mass every morning at five; or, again, a lady
+of high rank, who, whilst continuing strictly “orthodox,”
+learns to look at the errors of her Church in their least
+objectionable form, and to separate the good from the
+bad. Another educated man, an advocate, was typical,
+I should judge, of many in his rank of life. All are
+required to attend church on certain occasions, and
+beyond this he acknowledged that he did so very little;
+but it was because he got no teaching there. He went,
+he said, on the festivals, from six to twelve times a year,
+and oftener whilst his children were young; but he
+was ready to go every Sunday if something could be
+learned thereby. As for the uneducated Russians, the
+distances they will go, amounting to literally thousands
+of miles, for religious purposes, manifests at least
+something intensely earnest about religious affairs.
+Never—certainly, in any other country—have I met
+with such eagerness to get Scriptures and good
+books. This extends to both clergy and laity. When,
+on one occasion, my friend who edited the <cite>Russian
+Workman</cite> thought of giving it up, some of the priests
+sent their subscriptions again, and implored that it
+might be continued; and some of those interested in the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_707">[707]</span>
+religious societies at work in the empire have told me
+that, in spite of the obstacles put in their way, they
+have far more opportunities of usefulness than they
+can use. I agree, therefore, with those who look upon
+Russia as a promising field for Christian effort.</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday afternoon the officer returned to Rasdolnoi,
+and I began immediately to question him.
+There was no ship sailing to Japan, he said, for a fortnight;
+and then, by way of preface to information
+respecting Vladivostock, he asked my standing, and
+whether I was rich or poor. Having classed myself
+with those who have neither poverty nor riches, he
+said that, as for himself, he was a man of means, and
+that he took the journeys to the Caucasus and Egypt
+(of which he had told me) because he had money in
+pocket, and so on—tall talk which sank down wonderfully
+when I searched him out at Vladivostock.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_15_346" href="#Footnote_15_346" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> He
+appeared well posted, however, in his professional
+studies, and willing to give me information; so, as we
+were to start very early in the morning, we boarded
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_708">[708]</span>
+the steamer towards sunset. The Suifun is 120 yards
+wide. It varies in summer from 30 inches to 7 feet
+in depth, and in winter rises 20 feet. Our vessel was
+named <i>Suifun</i>, after the stream, and drew 2 feet of
+water, and could steam 8 or 10 miles an hour.
+Vladivostock was only 50 miles distant, but the boat
+was not suited for the sea, and therefore, on reaching
+the mouth of the river at Richnoi, 30 miles distant, we
+were to be transhipped to a sea-going steamer, the
+<i>Amur</i>, and so landed at Vladivostock. The <i>Suifun</i>
+was not a passenger vessel in the ordinary sense of the
+word, but belonged to the Government. It was used
+for bringing the mails from Khabarofka, and if there
+happened to be passengers accompanying them, they
+travelled the 50 miles free. They were, moreover, so
+obliging, that, if travellers arrived and telegraphed to
+the post as I had done, the two ships were put in
+motion; and as if that were not enough, an allowance
+was made to the officers to feed hungry passengers free
+of expense, so that, on the whole, this was the cheapest
+50 miles I travelled.</p>
+
+<p>I did not know of these arrangements at first, and
+heard that there were no provisions to be had on
+board, and no sleeping accommodation. My fellow-passenger
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_709">[709]</span>
+slept in the open air, on deck, and I thought
+I should be compelled to do the same; but the captain
+gave me an excellent cabin, with plenty of room, which
+the officer, however, would not share. I had not been
+long on board when my clerical services were asked
+for a second time. We were to pass a saw-mill where
+lived a Protestant family, and the captain, knowing
+that the children were unbaptized, thought my coming
+very opportune, and asked whether, if he stopped
+the steamer, I would go ashore and officiate. As we
+approached Richnoi we came in sight of the mill, built,
+as I afterwards ascertained, by Captain de Vries, and
+subsequently sold to the Government. There are
+three such mills near Vladivostock, employing 39
+workmen, chiefly Chinese, who earn £4,500 a year.
+The manager was a Swede, named Lovelius, his wife,
+if I mistake not, being one of the whaling community
+who had come from Finland. The father spoke a little
+English, calling me “parson”; and after I had christened
+his three children he placed a fee in my hand.
+When I demurred to take it, he said he wished to
+stand indebted to no man, and added that I had saved
+him a “lot of trouble,” for otherwise he must have
+brought all the children into Vladivostock, when there
+chanced to arrive a minister or chaplain.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_16_347" href="#Footnote_16_347" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_710">[710]</span></p>
+
+<p>The saw-mill was prettily situated, and the manager
+received good remuneration, but he was not much in
+love with his position; for one thing, the mosquitoes
+troubled him, as on the previous evening they did
+me.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_17_348" href="#Footnote_17_348" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> Fear of the Manza robbers, however, troubled
+the manager more, and he pointed to a house across
+the river where they had lately murdered an old man
+of seventy.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching the mouth of the Suifun we met the
+<i>Amur</i>, and the two vessels exchanged passengers,
+whereupon I discovered, to my surprise, that some of
+our new officers were those I had travelled with on the
+Shilka. I had breakfasted that morning, not very
+comfortably, in the open air, and was, therefore, ready
+for dinner in the officers’ cabin, after which it was I
+learned that I had eaten at the expense of the Emperor;
+and then, steaming down the Amur Gulf, and rounding
+the promontory into the Golden Horn, we dropped
+anchor before Vladivostock.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_332" href="#FNanchor_1_332" class="label">[1]</a> The merchant Plusnin had on one occasion been attacked in his
+sledge by one of these animals; and Mr. Emery told me that, when a
+tiger had been seen on the road, he had sometimes found it very difficult
+to make the post-boys set out on a journey.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_333" href="#FNanchor_2_333" class="label">[2]</a> When he left America he brought eight of a choice sort in his portmanteau,
+and in three years had as many as he needed, and so fine that
+they weighed 1 lb. each. The Chinese have since planted them, but
+cultivate them so badly that their size has greatly diminished. On
+the same land the captain sowed maize, and from one grain grew a stalk
+with three heads and 900 grains. This he thought exceptional, but considered
+500 grains for one an average return. He sowed in drills, and
+cleaned the land with a cultivator drawn by an ox. This plan in the
+Western States of America, he said, yielded six bushels an acre more than
+ordinarily.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_334" href="#FNanchor_3_334" class="label">[3]</a> This reminds me of what Mr. Emery said at Nikolaefsk, that if I
+put hay into the soles of the Yakute boots I purchased, I should never
+suffer from cold feet.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_335" href="#FNanchor_4_335" class="label">[4]</a> Ginseng is found chiefly in the valleys of the Upper Ussuri, where
+it is cultivated in beds, planted in rows. The earth must be a rich black
+mould, and loose; and when the plant has attained the height of 4 or
+5 inches, it is supported by a stick. The beds are carefully weeded and
+watered, and protected from the sun by tents or sheds of wood. Wild
+ginseng is said to be the best. From May to September, hundreds go out
+to seek the plant; and when I asked for the Goldi natives at some of the
+stations on the Ussuri, I learnt that many of them were gone to seek for
+ginseng. The prices named by the French missionaries for this root
+were almost fabulous, a single root being valued in Manchuria at from
+£250 to £300. The plantations belong to Chinese merchants living at a
+distance, and Venyukoff found the guards strictly forbidden to sell it. He
+was able, however, by stealth to procure 12 roots for £4, and his native
+interpreter subsequently procured 20 for 30<i>s.</i> I was told on the river
+that ginseng sells for £30 per Russian lb., but that in a bad year the
+Chinese count it as valuable as gold, and give up to £40 per lb. If,
+therefore, these prices be paid to those who find it, no doubt it is very
+expensive when sold in China, where no chemist’s shop is without it.
+The root is straight, spindle-shaped, knotty, and up to half an inch in
+diameter, and 8 inches in length. The leaves are cut off, and the root
+is boiled in water, apparently to remove some injurious quality; and
+when it has undergone fitting preparation its colour is a transparent
+white, with sometimes a slight red or orange tinge; its appearance then
+is that of a stalactite. It is carefully dried, wrapped in unsized paper, and
+sent to market. On the Ussuri it is used, boiled, for cold, fever, headache
+or stomach-ache.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_336" href="#FNanchor_5_336" class="label">[5]</a> The first three stations—Mo, Vstrechni, and Utosni—were single
+post-houses, with no other habitation in sight. The accommodation was
+of the poorest; the couch at Vstrechni consisting of three boards, and
+the table-cloth of linen tick. I gave the children some nuts, but not one
+said “thank you,” and none could read.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_337" href="#FNanchor_6_337" class="label">[6]</a> Mr. Ravenstein speaks of the walnut of the Ussuri as seldom bearing
+fruit, and he suggests that the whole growing power may be absorbed by
+the trunk and leaves; but I saw walnuts on the trees at Khabarofka,
+and, when speaking of them to Baron Stackelberg, heard nothing of their
+failure in fruit.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_338" href="#FNanchor_7_338" class="label">[7]</a> The Chinese employ men in the interior to slaughter these animals,
+simply for the sake of their antlers. These soft horns are exported yearly
+to China in large quantities. Captain de Vries told me that on one occasion
+he carried on his little schooner a load of them to the value of £2,000,
+one extra good pair being worth £60. Erman states that the jelly made
+of these horns is much esteemed by Chinese gourmands, whilst Ravenstein
+quotes their medicinal use by the Chinese as a remedy in female diseases.
+A Russian doctor, to whom I spoke upon the subject, however, knew only
+of their general sedative properties, the jelly being used, he thought, as a
+comforting medicine in weakness.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_339" href="#FNanchor_8_339" class="label">[8]</a> How long this abundance of game will last is an interesting problem,
+for it is a well-known fact, says M. Réclus, that the distribution of animals
+over Siberia has been markedly affected by the advent of Russian hunters.
+The region of the reindeer, for instance, ought to impinge upon that of the
+camel; and the reindeer used to be found on the mountains of Southern
+Siberia, but it now runs wild only in the low forests and tundras of the
+north. The argali, or wild sheep, is no longer found in the plains and
+mountains of Siberia, as it was in the last century, but has fled southwards
+into Mongolia. The antelopes and wild horses, driven from the steppes of
+the Gobi by cold and lack of pasture, descend in troops in autumn towards
+the plains of Siberia, followed by tigers and wolves, and hunted by men;
+and the slaughter lasts till the spring allows their return to the solitudes
+of Mongolia. Neither animals nor birds need a map to show them the
+frontier of the two countries. It has been remarked that the same birds
+which permit a stranger to approach them without fear in Mongolia, flee
+in terror at the least noise on Siberian soil. Especially is this the case
+with water-fowl, for the Mongols never allow birds to be shot upon the
+sacred element, believing that, if the blood of a bird mixes with the water,
+the flocks that drink it will speedily die.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_340" href="#FNanchor_9_340" class="label">[9]</a> A lady in Petersburg told me that the peasantry near her country
+house live for a large part of the year almost without bread, weave in
+winter by the dim flame of a piece of lighted wood, and often go to bed
+supperless. With a sufficiency of rye bread all the year round they think
+themselves rich.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_341" href="#FNanchor_10_341" class="label">[10]</a> I heard on the Kama in European Russia, from a Belgian, that
+whereas he, as a foreigner, was free from taxation, having to pay only
+1<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i> a year for his passport, some of the peasants have to pay as much
+as 28<i>s.</i> Servants of the Crown, including priests, pay no taxes, though
+their children begin to do so at the age of 21. In Western Siberia no
+man (except convicts deprived of all their rights) is free from direct
+taxation, the manner of collecting the tax being similar to that followed
+in Russia. A census is taken every 20 years or oftener, and a number of
+villages are classed together into a <i lang="ru">mir</i> (a world), from which a certain
+tax has to be raised. The <i lang="ru">mir</i> settle among themselves in a kind of local
+parliament the proportion each family shall pay, and then, whether the
+members of a family increase or diminish, this fixed proportion goes on
+till the next census is taken. This causes great inequalities. Thus a
+father with a large family will be made liable for a large sum, which, so
+long as he has children at home to work, he can pay; but should his sons
+be drawn for soldiers, or be cut off by death, he is in a different position;
+though, on the other hand, a man with a family of small children at the
+time of taking the census is lightly taxed, whereas, when his children grow
+up and work, he could well afford to pay more. In European Russia the
+census is taken every seven or nine years, and the tax to be paid by each
+family is revised oftener.</p>
+
+<p>Each village receives land according to the number of its inhabitants,
+but so that each “soul,” or able-bodied male or head of a family, gets
+about 15 acres, a space which, properly cultivated, should suffice for his
+support; but if not, land in the Primorsk government costs only 2<i>s.</i> an
+acre; in fact, at Nikolaefsk, the government <em>gave</em> land under certain
+restrictions for building, and up to 1875 charged no property-tax, nor
+even for licences during the first ten years of Russian occupation. When
+this land has been allotted to a man in Russia with its accompanying tax,
+he cannot get quit of the bargain so far as the tax is concerned. Should
+he find the land unprofitable he may give up its cultivation, but he must
+continue to pay the tax, and hence it often happens that a man leaves his
+commune and goes to a neighbouring town for employment, but still pays
+taxes for the land in some remote village he has left.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_342" href="#FNanchor_11_342" class="label">[11]</a> In the early days of the Russian occupation tigers used to come into
+the town of Vladivostock, and my host had a horse eaten by them. His
+young boy once came home saying that he had seen “such a pretty calf,”
+but that he could not hold in his pony, such haste did it make to get
+away. Sixty-five tigers were said to have been killed in the district the
+year before my arrival, and Captain de Vries told me that on the road by
+which I travelled he was proceeding, early one morning, with a farmer
+and his dog, when the royal beast appeared on the road a few yards
+before them, at which they shouted, and the animal retired into the forest.
+They went forward, the dog preceding them, whereupon the tiger sprang
+out and seized the dog and bore it away. The farmer began to mourn
+his loss, but the captain said, “Why, you donkey! if the tiger had not
+taken the dog for his breakfast he might have taken <em>you</em>!” I heard these
+things, however, <em>after</em> my journey; and the only tangible reminders of
+tigers I saw were some of their skins, offered at Khabarofka and Vladivostock
+from £2, for that of a cub, to £5 for those of full size. Prejevalsky
+speaks of the tiger of the district as being equal to the royal tiger
+of Bengal, but, judging from the skins I saw, it is not so handsomely
+marked.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_12_343" href="#FNanchor_12_343" class="label">[12]</a> It being the furthest navigable point on the Suifun from Vladivostock,
+the Russians in the early days of their occupation had posted
+soldiers here and built barracks. They subsequently removed the
+military to Nicolsk, and with them had migrated all the inhabitants
+except Mr. Rosenstrom and the people at the telegraph-office and post-house.
+There were plenty of log-houses still standing, to one of which
+my attention was directed, and I was told that my informant had purchased
+it for 10<i>s.</i>—the cheapest house I had ever seen. Mr. Rosenstrom
+and his friend, I discovered, were of the party of Finns who had come
+to these parts to catch whales, so that he knew Captain Stjerncreutz with
+whom I had travelled. I was puzzled to know how a living could be
+made from a tiny shop near which there were but two inhabited houses
+visible, but I found that a small trade was done with travellers passing
+to and from Vladivostock, by hawking, and with workmen building a shed
+at the river side.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_13_344" href="#FNanchor_13_344" class="label">[13]</a> The governors of Tobolsk, Tomsk, Akmolinsk, and Semipolatinsk,
+of Yeneseisk, Irkutsk, and Yakutsk, were requested to apportion the
+Scriptures to prisons, hospitals, poor-houses, and similar institutions, and
+to disperse the tracts in schools, as widely as possible. The governors of
+the Za-Baikal, Amur, and Sea-coast provinces, in addition to this, were
+asked also to distribute extra supplies to the army, navy, and Cossacks.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_14_345" href="#FNanchor_14_345" class="label">[14]</a> I would take this opportunity of expressing my thanks to the Religious
+Tract Society of London and its colleagues in Russia for the gracious
+way in which the Committee has always accepted my offers of service,
+and for the kind manner in which I have been trusted to act in concert
+with their local agents as seemed best on the occasion. Not a little of
+my success (if it may be so called), especially in Russia, has been traceable
+to this; and my holiday distribution of more than 100,000 of their
+publications, I hope, I shall always remember with gratitude and pleasure.
+An extensive work is done in Russia by the Religious Tract Society.
+About 1,000,000 tracts were sold from 1875 to 1878 which is an indirect
+testimony that we hold more truth in common with the Russian Church
+than many are aware of. In Russia, as is well known, every book, every
+pamphlet, every leaflet, before it can be published and circulated, must
+receive the approval of the censor; and if the doctrine of what is printed,
+whether political or religious, be objectionable, its publication is forbidden.
+Further, it is pretty well known what kind of doctrine, and what
+kind only, the Committee of the Religious Tract Society approves. Hence,
+if these two things be put together, and it be remembered that tens of
+thousands of tracts are circulated in the empire which the Committee
+approves, and to which the Synod does not object, then surely it is pretty
+clear that the Russians and ourselves have in religious matters a great deal
+of common ground.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_15_346" href="#FNanchor_15_346" class="label">[15]</a> My travels in Russia have led me to the conclusion that in the interior
+of that country it is not always wise to be too modest about divulging
+one’s income. An English officer in plain clothes, passing lonely through
+Kiakhta, was asked by a merchant, who had shown him some attention,
+what was his income; whereupon the officer told him that of a captain of
+Royal Engineers in full pay on foreign service, which greatly astonished
+the Siberiak. He said he would mention it to the chief man of the town,
+who, he felt sure, would call upon him. And so he did, and the captain
+received a marked increase of attention. Again, before starting last year
+for the Caucasus, I was told of the potency there of wearing arms and
+insignia of office, and of the difference it makes at the post-stations in
+getting horses, whether the traveller wears a plain hat, or one adorned
+with gold, or bearing the tchinovnik cockade. Accordingly, I so far
+profited by this information as to put on certain splendid array which I
+possess as I approached the stations, and (I will not say <em>therefore</em>) I
+obtained my horses.</p>
+
+<p>This is further illustrated by the treatment received by an able correspondent
+of the <cite>Times</cite>, who has recently been in the Caucasus. On
+arriving at a station, he was informed that he could not have horses
+because they were detained for an English general, whose arrival was
+expected every minute. Somewhat chafed, the correspondent took to
+his legs, being anxious to secure a certain view before nightfall; and
+it was not till he reached the next station, tired and enraged, that his
+vexation was turned into mirth by discovering that the horses had all the
+while been intended for himself. The préfet had politely telegraphed to
+the post-masters to have horses ready for “a distinguished” Englishman;
+and as the one idea of distinction in the mind of a Russian peasant is the
+rank of a general, the post-master was expecting an officer in uniform, and
+the correspondent in plain clothes not coming up to this, he refused him
+the horses.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_16_347" href="#FNanchor_16_347" class="label">[16]</a> I did not grasp the full meaning of this till some days after, and then
+I learned that every child in Russia must have a certificate of baptism,
+wanting which sundry civil difficulties may arise. It was well, therefore,
+that I chanced to give certificates on these two occasions, of which I sent
+notice, 6,000 miles off, to Moscow, to be copied into the register of “the
+nearest parish church.” The Russian certificate of baptism gives the
+sponsors’ names, and is signed over a 15<i>d.</i> stamp by the officiating priest
+and deacon. The certificate is then sent to the bishop’s registry for
+another stamp of like value, in addition to which, to expedite the matter,
+it is customary to add a rouble or two for the bishop’s clerk.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_17_348" href="#FNanchor_17_348" class="label">[17]</a> I had been recommended sundry remedies against these insects, and
+small vermin generally,—such as the burning of incense, a mosquito
+mixture of <i lang="la">pyretum roseum</i>, and another, the essential oil of cloves. I
+was prevailed upon to take some of the last-named, and offered the bottle to
+the officer travelling with me to try the first experiment. It made his hands
+and face tingle, but not in vain; and I followed suit, to find that the
+little nuisances approached one’s skin, evidently with malicious intent,
+and then changed their minds and sailed away.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_711">[711]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_LII">
+    CHAPTER LII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>VLADIVOSTOCK.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Situation of town.—Lodged with Captain de Vries.—Chinese labourers.—Chinese
+convicts.—Coreans.—Inhabitants of Vladivostock.—Presented
+at the Governor’s house.—Admiral Erdmann’s improvements.—Visit
+to barracks.—Boys’ high school.—Education in Russia, its
+cost and method.—Vladivostock Girls’ Institute; and Free School.—Statistics
+of crime.—Telegraph companies.—Sunday services.—Protestantism
+in Siberia.—Village of exiles.—General remarks on exiles.—Preparations
+for departure.</p>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>Vladivostock</span> derives its lordly name from
+its supposed “command of the east.” The town
+overlooks an inlet, sheltered by islands, at the end of a
+promontory jutting out from the middle of the bay of
+Peter the Great. Behind the harbour rises a lofty hill,
+crowned by a watch-tower, to which I climbed during
+my stay, and was rewarded by a remarkably fine view.
+Northwards stretched the well-wooded Muravieff promontory.
+East and west lay the gulfs of the Amur
+and the Ussuri, down the former of which I had steamed
+from the Suifun; whilst to the south were mountainous
+islands with rocky headlands, separated from the mainland
+by the eastern “Bosphorus.” Descending from
+this elevated spot, and looking from the verandah of
+the Governor’s house, a less extensive view is obtained,
+but a very pretty one, comprising the entrance to the
+harbour called the “Bay of the Golden Horn,” with
+its two headlands forming the west and southern shores.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_712">[712]</span>
+The depth of water within the harbour is from 30 to
+60 feet, and, at the entrance, about double these soundings.
+The “Bosphorus” is from 60 to 120 feet in
+depth, and after passing Kazakevich Island, this increases
+to 200 feet and upwards.</p>
+
+<p>As I steamed into the harbour on Monday afternoon,
+the 15th September, it was well filled with the ships of
+many nations, including Chinese junks with their clumsy
+sails. A German gunboat had just replaced an English
+line-of-battle ship, and an Italian man-of-war arrived
+during my stay. There were Russian ships from the
+Siberian and Pacific fleets, merchant vessels (of which
+50 a year visit the port), and a number of boats, many
+of which ply between Vladivostock, Olga, and Paseat
+bays. I found, however, no regular service to Japan,
+but was told that I could probably leave in a Russian
+man-of-war within a fortnight.</p>
+
+<p>I sought a lodging with Captain de Vries, a Heligolander
+by birth, who, when in command of a passenger
+ship plying between England and New York, had become
+an American subject, and had again changed his
+nationality to Russian on settling in Siberia at the time
+of the annexation of the Amur. He had travelled over
+Siberia, and had a minute knowledge of the Amur and
+Russian Manchuria; so that from him I acquired a
+great deal of information, whilst his kind-hearted
+English wife spared no pains to make me comfortable.
+In fact, I found the 15 days of my stay at Vladivostock
+the pleasantest of my tour; for not only had I time to
+rest and write and acquire information, but I was almost
+daily received as a guest at the houses of the Governor,
+or of some of the many inhabitants who spoke English.</p>
+
+<p>The population of Vladivostock in the Almanack is
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_713">[713]</span>
+stated to be 8,431, but was estimated to me on the spot
+at 5,000. The births for 1878 were given by the priest
+as 184, marriages 13, and deaths 102, of which last 66
+were males. The population, however, must fluctuate
+greatly, for during the previous year 8,000 troops had
+been quartered in and about the town; and I saw the
+earth batteries they had thrown up to receive the
+English, in case the treaty of Berlin had been settled
+the wrong way. Happily it went the right way; and
+when H.M.S. <i>Iron Duke</i>, on a northern cruise, steamed
+into Vladivostock, instead of being injured by torpedoes
+or fired upon, the officers were invited to dine at the
+admiral’s house. I judged the party must have been a
+pleasant one, for the commander of the Siberian fleet told
+me he had been immensely pleased with the English
+admiral, and the Governor’s wife and family had
+nothing to say of the officers but what was gracious
+and kind.</p>
+
+<p>A large number of the inhabitants of Vladivostock
+are Manzas, Coreans, and Chinese, whose presence
+is looked upon in different lights. My host, for instance,
+thought their numbers a hindrance to Russian
+progress, because they outbid the Russians, work
+cheaper, and undersell them. In fact, this was one
+of the subjects upon which the captain used to wax
+warm. Accustomed to the high prices of American
+markets, he was sorely offended at the insignificant
+profits proposed to him by the Chinese, and, after
+speaking of their miserable offers for his goods or
+services, he used to wind up his orations by telling me,
+in not quite classical English, “There ain’t no footur
+for this country.” The Governor’s wife and other
+Russians thought differently, for, apart from the larger
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_714">[714]</span>
+exports and imports,&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_349" href="#Footnote_1_349" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> they had the Chinese to thank
+for the vegetable market and the performance of a
+great deal of local work at a cheap rate, which otherwise
+would possibly not have been done at all.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_350" href="#Footnote_2_350" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>Emigrants from the Corea take refuge on Russian
+soil, in spite of the Corean death penalty attached.
+In 1868 there were 1,400 of these fugitives; but in the
+following year, when floods in the Corea drove additional
+multitudes to seek refuge on neighbouring
+soil, their further immigration was forbidden by the
+Russians, and some of the fugitives were sent back,
+and, on their return, decapitated.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_351" href="#Footnote_3_351" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>Sad accounts of the Manzas were heard at Vladivostock.
+My host employed, he said, an old man
+whom he one day missed, and found that he had been
+murdered, to be robbed of £10. The Manzas are
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_715">[715]</span>
+pirates also. In their transactions with the Russians
+the Chinese demand to be paid in silver money, and
+this they take home by sea. Hence I saw more silver
+roubles in the Sea-coast province than I had observed
+in any other part of the empire. I saw too, at Khabarofka,
+a considerable sum of silver money in Mexican
+dollars. The Manza robbers, accordingly, watch for
+the boats, murder the crews, and secure the booty.</p>
+
+<p>The Coreans were described as very industrious.
+They dress in white, and tie up their hair in the shape
+of a horn. Their summer hats resemble those of the
+Gilyaks, except that they are hexagonal instead of
+circular. I went into some of their houses, the walls
+of which were of mud, plastered on a framework of
+straw. The floor was of beaten earth, with a mud
+fireplace in the centre, and a divan round the walls.
+In the best houses, the wife had a separate apartment.
+Fire burns in the centre by day, and the flues,
+under the divan, are heated morning and evening.
+The people live on millet and rice, and use a spoon
+of bronze, with a nearly circular flat bowl. Taking
+one from a man who was eating, I presented the spoon
+in one hand and a silver coin in the other, intimating
+that I wished to buy; and when he had taken the
+coin the master of the house came up, and, receiving
+from me the spoon and from the man the coin, he graciously
+returned them both, implying that he <em>gave</em> me
+what I desired.</p>
+
+<p>The Russian inhabitants of Vladivostock consist
+almost entirely of officers and persons connected with
+the army and navy, and there are several foreign inhabitants
+besides,—some of them Germans, Finns,
+and Americans. England was represented by an
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_716">[716]</span>
+engineer, who went there, I believe, as a mechanic,
+and whose son-in-law, at the time of my visit, was
+mayor of the town.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_352" href="#Footnote_4_352" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>In 1878 there were in Vladivostock 80 merchants of
+the first guild, who pay in Russia a tax of £50 per
+annum; 185 of the second guild, who pay £6 per
+annum; 228 temporary merchants, and 99 street-hawkers;
+also 215 first-class and 209 second-class
+clerks.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_353" href="#Footnote_5_353" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>The junks of the Chinese, their little houses of
+wood, their sheds and implements, give to Vladivostock
+a different aspect from that of ordinary Siberian
+towns. The Russian houses are chiefly of wood, and
+among the public buildings are both barracks and
+winter quarters for the seamen of the fleet. To these
+must be added the Admiralty, an officers’ club, two
+high-class schools for boys and girls, a library, two
+free schools, a Russian and a Lutheran church, two
+telegraph stations, a dockyard, and the Governor’s
+house.</p>
+
+<p>At this last I was presented, on the day after my
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_717">[717]</span>
+arrival, by Captain Naumoff, the captain of the port.
+The Governor was away on a tour of inspection, but
+I was introduced to Madame Erdmann, who spoke
+excellent English, and had all the manners and charm
+of an English lady. She was a German-Russian from
+the Baltic provinces, and both she and her husband
+were Protestants—and zealous ones, too, for they had
+come out to Vladivostock with the intention of effecting
+some good in the place, and were evidently doing
+it. My host, Captain de Vries, bore testimony to the
+material improvements which had been made by the
+Governor; for, said he, until the admiral came, “we
+had no road for the buggy.” His Excellency made
+also a pretty pleasure-garden at his own cost, for which,
+now that it is finished, the Government allows a grant
+for maintenance. Admiral Erdmann, who combined
+the three offices of Admiral of the Fleet, Chief of the
+Military, and Civil Governor of the province, drew a
+stipend of about £2,000 a year, kept an establishment
+of 15 servants, and seemed to take pleasure in entertaining
+in vice-regal style the officers of men-of-war
+of all nations visiting the port.</p>
+
+<p>But Admiral and Madame Erdmann have left other
+monuments than these to testify to their endeavours to
+promote the welfare of the town. When they arrived
+there was no system of poor relief, whereupon her
+Excellency called together the ladies of the place, and
+organized a society which has been an immense
+benefit. She proposed, in the first place, to build a
+free school, which was done. The institute or boarding-school
+for girls also was enlarged, and Madame
+had been the prime mover in another effort to build a
+Lutheran church and manse. The means by which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_718">[718]</span>
+funds were raised for these charitable objects were, in
+part, concerts and fancy fairs. One that took place
+during the first week I was there was described to
+me as resembling those in England, and I heard that
+by two such fêtes within a fortnight they cleared the
+sum of £500.</p>
+
+<p>I was invited to dine at the admiral’s house soon
+after my arrival, and met there the officers of the
+Russian clipper <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i>, in which I afterwards left
+Siberia. A band performed during the evening, and
+fairly surprised me by its excellence; for I had met
+with nothing to equal it in Russia, and had heard little
+music of any kind in crossing Siberia. This dinner-party
+brought me into contact with several naval
+people, and I subsequently met a Commander Terentieff,
+who was exceedingly kind in translating for me.
+He accompanied me one morning to the temporary
+barracks of the first battalion, whose chief is the
+Grand Duke Alexei. Its standard was presented by
+Peter the Great, and the Commandant informed me
+with pride that it was this battalion that escorted the
+Russian Ambassador across the Mongolian desert to
+Peking in the seventeenth century. The barracks
+were shown me as something noteworthy, in that they
+were built of mud-bricks not burnt, after the fashion
+of the new ones at Tashkend. All inside was orderly,
+but the bedsteads were somewhat close together. Some
+of the extras in furniture, such as here and there a bright
+counterpane or quilt, had been purchased by the economies
+of the regiment. I tasted their soup, and found
+it excellent. The men varied in age from 22 to 26.
+Barracks of ordinary bricks for 200 men were in
+course of construction. Usually the Russian soldiers
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_719">[719]</span>
+are their own builders, but in this instance accommodation,
+including a room for gymnastics convertible
+into a chapel, was being erected by Chinese labourers
+at a cost of £6,000.</p>
+
+<p>From the barracks we went to the lock-up, where
+were 20 military and 21 civil prisoners, the latter
+being for the most part Manza brigands. At our
+entrance they went down on all-fours, and continued
+in that posture whilst one was deputed to ask how
+their trial was going on; and another, thinking, I
+suppose, to expedite matters, said that he wished to
+be baptized. They were a sorry-looking lot; but I
+must give them credit for keeping their chamber
+cleaner than the Russian prisoners did. The hide
+upon which each of them slept was neatly rolled up,
+and all was arranged in order.</p>
+
+<p>The commander took me to visit the boys’ pro-gymnasium
+or high-class school for 45 scholars, established
+four years previously. It was modelled on
+precisely the same plan as all the schools of its class
+throughout Russia. Hence two boys in the same
+grade of school, though one may be at Moscow and
+the other at Vladivostock, go through the same studies,
+and keep the same hours to each subject. The scholars
+dress in a blue and white uniform, and a boy, after
+passing through the preparatory class, goes on through
+the various grades up to the sixth, or, for a higher
+education, to the seventh and eighth classes. He may
+then go to the university, or to the Lyceum, to study
+philology and jurisprudence; or, again, to one of the
+academies, with a view to special studies, such as
+medicine, mineralogy, divinity, etc.</p>
+
+<p>The cost of education in Russia, as compared with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_720">[720]</span>
+England, is low.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_354" href="#Footnote_6_354" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> The Russian curriculum looks very
+formidable on paper, and I have heard from an English
+tutor in Russia that the boys are obliged to work
+exceedingly hard to pass their examinations. He
+thought they were worked harder than English boys,
+and acquired more theoretical knowledge, though the
+education is of a less practical character than in
+England.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_355" href="#Footnote_7_355" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> Corporal punishment is forbidden, and is
+replaced by impositions; and when these are inflicted
+the scholar receives a note stating his fault, which he
+must take home and bring back signed by his parents.
+Should a boy fail to pass his examination in each
+of his classes, he is usually turned out of the gymnasium,
+which is a serious loss to him, because a
+boy gains military exemptions according to the class
+he is in on leaving school.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_356" href="#Footnote_8_356" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>Besides the boys’ school at Vladivostock I visited
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_721">[721]</span>
+the girls’ institute for the daughters of naval officers,
+and witnessed the opening religious ceremony of blessing
+the house after the long vacation. Each child as
+she came up to kiss the Gospels was sprinkled with
+holy water, as were also the visitors; after which the
+priest and his assistant went over the building, sprinkling
+in all directions. The inspector subsequently
+declared what children were to be advanced to higher
+classes. The subjects taught were in keeping with
+those of the boys’ gymnasium, from which the institute
+differed in that the children were lodged, clothed, and
+boarded; 12 free, the rest on payment of £20 per
+annum. The Government gives a grant of £1,000
+per annum towards this school, and the remainder is
+made up by the children’s fees and voluntary contributions.
+The cleanliness and good arrangement of
+this building were striking, not to say luxurious. A
+great deal, no doubt, was due to the fact that the
+Governor’s wife visited one of the schools every day.
+The senior class had two girls of 15 and 16 years of
+age. To my questions in geography they gave good
+answers, and in the Gospels fair. They had not read
+the Epistles, but were expecting so to do that year.
+One girl was from a peasant home, the other the
+daughter of a foreign merchant, but they appeared
+throughout to stand on a level with the officers’
+daughters. They had a custom of posting up on a red
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_722">[722]</span>
+board for a year the name of the best girl in the school.
+At the time of my visit the same maiden had held this
+“blue ribbon” for five years consecutively. Whether
+it was for excellence of intellect or conduct I know
+not, but I amused them by offering a prize, such as I
+had seen given in the schools of the Irish Church
+Missions, called the “best beloved” prize. The girls
+were ranged in a line, and each came and whispered in
+the ear of the teacher the name of the schoolfellow she
+loved best, and the girl who gained the highest number
+of votes received the prize. The idea was new to
+them, and they said the whispering was like going to
+confession.</p>
+
+<p>There was yet another school the Governor’s wife
+took me to see—the little free school—built by the
+society she had founded, and of which it is not too
+much to say that it was the neatest and best-built house
+in the town. It was furnished in a manner that would
+be thought too good for a ragged school in England,
+and it struck me, as did the institute, that it was somewhat
+over-provided with teachers.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_357" href="#Footnote_9_357" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>There were 30 children on the books, of whom
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_723">[723]</span>
+one class came in the morning, and the other in the
+afternoon. The religious instruction consisted in learning
+the 10 principal prayers of the Russian Church
+from a small primer, the contents of which would be as
+much or, I was told, rather more religious knowledge
+than the average Russian peasant would know. The
+children received at Christmas presents of clothing, and
+a marked increase of attendants takes place as the time
+for the gifts draws near—a phenomenon not confined
+to Siberian schools!</p>
+
+<p>Madame Erdmann told me of an industrial school in
+the town for boys, where they are paid 6<i>d.</i> a day for
+their work. It must not, however, be inferred from
+these remarks about the educational condition of Vladivostock
+that things so prevail throughout the province.
+On the contrary, there are only 15 elementary schools
+throughout the Primorsk, attended by 215 boys and 66
+girls; and the low condition of education was alleged
+to the Emperor as one of the principal causes of crime
+in the district.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_10_358" href="#Footnote_10_358" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p>The foreign communications of Vladivostock are in
+summer tolerably numerous. Ships from various nations
+come northwards to avoid the heat of the tropics, or to
+get coal at Dui, and put in at Vladivostock for provisions,
+the prices of which, in the meat and vegetable
+markets, immediately rise on the arrival of a large ship.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_724">[724]</span>
+Again, the inhabitants of this town in the far east have
+the advantage of two telegraph stations, by one of
+which they can send a message to London through
+Siberia, and by the other <i lang="fr">viâ</i> China and India. The
+latter wires are those of the Great Northern Telegraph
+Company, opened in 1871, and passing through Hakodate
+and Nagasaki, thence to Shanghai and Amoy, and so
+on to India and Suez. The latter wire goes by the
+route I followed as far as Khabarofka, there meeting
+wires from Nikolaefsk, and then continues across Siberia
+by the route I travelled. The number of messages sent
+in 1878 from Russia to China was 595, and to Japan
+515, or 1,100 in all.</p>
+
+<p>Of the two Siberian wires, one, I found, is reserved
+for international correspondence. Of 20,000 messages
+passing from the south through Vladivostock, no less
+than 15,000 were in English. Of the remaining 5,000,
+those in the French and German languages absorbed
+the larger proportion.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_11_359" href="#Footnote_11_359" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_725">[725]</span></p>
+
+<p>The director of the Great Northern Company was
+Mr. Russell, at whose house I dined, and whose wife
+played the harmonium at the Sunday service. I have
+already mentioned the heartiness with which Russians
+and foreigners alike assisted these services in the
+Primorsk. At Nikolaefsk, not only did the authorities
+send round notice of what was to take place, but they
+seemed to vie with one another in offering assistance.
+The military commandant offered the use of a room
+at the club; the captain of the port, being a Protestant,
+seemed almost aggrieved that his house from the first
+had not been chosen, and the chief civil authority
+lent the best room in the Governor’s residence, and
+attended the service with other dignitaries in full
+uniform. There were present on the first Sunday 33
+persons, Greeks, Romans, and Protestants, representing
+Russia, Poland, England, America, Finland,
+Germany, and Sweden. Some came, doubtless, out
+of curiosity to see the first English service on the
+Amur, but many were able to understand; and on the
+second Sunday, which was wet, there were 20 persons
+present, all men but one. At Vladivostock the service
+was held in the new Lutheran church. The congregation
+numbered 27 persons, representing quite as
+many nationalities as at Nikolaefsk, and some Swiss
+besides. So few were familiar with the offices of the
+English Church that I was compelled to make the
+service of an irregular character; but it was pleasant,
+after the sermons, to have one and another grasping
+one’s hand, and expressing their thanks for what they
+had heard. Some of them had not had such an
+opportunity for a long time. I was greatly struck
+with one thing that reached me in connection with
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_726">[726]</span>
+these services. Some of the Russians had never
+attended a Protestant service before, and more than
+one remarked upon its solemnity. This I thought
+remarkable as coming from persons who from childhood
+had been accustomed to an ornate and very
+elaborate ritual, and none other. They were plainly
+struck by the quietness that prevailed and by the
+appeal to the intellect as manifest in the sermon, in
+contrast to their service of worship only, with persons
+moving hither and thither; and a well-educated officer,
+commenting upon the solemnity of the service, said
+that he had never before been impressed by a sermon in
+his life.</p>
+
+<p>The offertory at Vladivostock was given to the
+building fund, for the church was not quite finished.
+A resident pastor was expected to arrive in the course
+of a few months, which would make four Lutheran
+ministers in Siberia, instead of the former three living
+in or near Omsk, Tomsk, and Irkutsk, their general
+superintendent, Pastor Jürgenssen, living at Moscow.
+The number of Protestant churches in Siberia is five,
+and of Protestants about 7,000. At Ekaterineburg are
+living some 300 German Protestants, but nine persons,
+we heard, was considered a large Sunday congregation.
+In the vicinity of Tobolsk some of the Lettish
+peasants were said to have joined the Russian Church,
+and some to have fallen away from religion altogether.
+The account, however, of 1,800 Finns living at Ruschkova
+was better. They had petitioned for, and
+were awaiting, a pastor.</p>
+
+<p>At Vladivostock I took my farewell of Siberian exile
+life at an experimental penal colony called “First
+River” village. Accompanied by the German captain
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_727">[727]</span>
+of the <i>Cyclop</i>, Captains Boris and Charles de Livron,
+and a lady, we proceeded thither on horseback, by a
+pretty ride through a partially-cleared forest, till, from
+the top of a hill, we saw a brewery, brick-fields, and, not
+far distant, nestling among the trees, the exiles’ village.
+It consisted of about 20 log houses, occupied by 15 convicts
+and five others who had served their time, and
+who might have removed elsewhere, but they so far
+liked their quarters that they chose to remain. Two
+naval men lived in the village for the purpose, ostensibly,
+of keeping order, and a few Chinese had been attracted
+to settle in the place. Four of the convicts were under
+sentence of 15 years’ hard labour, one for 20 years, and
+one for life. They were condemned to Sakhalin, but,
+seeing that their wives had accompanied them, and
+that there was not enough work in the coal-mines, the
+kind-hearted Governor had obtained permission to place
+them in the little colony as an experiment. The men
+had built their own houses, and took it in turns to go
+into Vladivostock, from eight to twelve, to do night
+work. They might earn what they could by day, and
+the wives were able to add to the store by laundry
+work. One wife had by this means possessed herself
+of two cows.</p>
+
+<p>Besides this, they might take as much land as they
+chose to cultivate. They were growing potatoes,
+pumpkins, cucumbers, and cabbages, but the soil was
+said to be unsuitable for corn. Pigs and poultry were
+running about; and though, according to their own
+account, one of them with seven children found it
+difficult to make a living, yet the others did so easily.</p>
+
+<p>One of the convicts, thinking I was a Government
+official, informed me that he had not yet received his
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_728">[728]</span>
+new clothes, whereupon I learned that, when they begin
+to colonize, they receive monthly 72 lbs. of flour and 5<i>d.</i>
+a day. Every year they received a <i lang="ru">shuba</i>, or sheepskin
+coat, underlinen, two pairs of winter boots, three pairs
+of summer shoes, and, once in three years, a long coat.
+In one of the best of the houses we found a clean,
+orderly room, with a good samovar, and plenty of
+pictures and photographs. The owner possessed two
+cows and a horse; so we were told, at least, by a
+fellow-convict, who took us into his garden and seated
+us beneath a bower of wild vines. Milk and wild
+grapes were afterwards brought for our refreshment.
+This man had been in the Imperial Guard, and had
+finished his military service, when, having invited some
+friends to his house, he killed one of them in a drunken
+quarrel. I tried to get at the relative positions of some
+of these convicts before the committal of their crimes
+and after, and found in one case that in Russia the man
+was a drunkard and poor, whereas in this village he
+could live well, and could not get intoxicated so easily,
+by reason of his distance from Vladivostock. There
+were but one man and one woman in the village who
+could read, and one had friends who corresponded with
+him from Russia. The children were educated at the
+industrial school at Vladivostock. Thus my last specimen
+of Siberian exile life was the most favourable
+of all.</p>
+
+<p>I had now followed the exiles from Moscow all
+across Siberia, and, with the exception of the mines
+at Nertchinsk and Dui, had seen them under the varying
+circumstances in which they live. Looking at the
+matter calmly and dispassionately, I am bound to say
+that “exile to Siberia” no longer calls up to my
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_729">[729]</span>
+mind the horrors it did formerly. I am quite prepared
+to believe that instances have occurred of bad
+management, oppression, and cruelty. I have already
+quoted some cases; but that the normal condition of
+things has been exaggerated I am persuaded. Taken
+at the worst, “condemned to the mines” is not so
+bad as it seems, and in the case of peasant exiles,
+willing to work, I cannot but think that many of them
+have a better chance of doing well in several parts of
+Siberia than at home in some parts of Russia. English
+people are accustomed to think of exiles like the parents
+of “Elizabeth,” banished to a region in the far north
+where scarcely anything grows; but a little consideration
+would show this to be, in the great number of
+cases, extremely unlikely, for the Government would
+then have to keep them, whereas in the south they
+can keep themselves. On the sea coast, women
+convicts get excellent places as servants. One hardship
+connected with their lot is that, until they have
+served their time or gained their good conduct class,
+they cannot marry; and even then the husband, if
+a free man, must undertake not to quit Siberia and
+so leave his wife behind. This law is rigidly enforced.
+I heard of one case of a woman who had behaved
+particularly well, and whose husband wished to return
+to Russia, for which even the Governor of a province
+petitioned, but the request was refused.</p>
+
+<p>A lady told me at Vladivostock that some of her
+convict servants had recently said to her, “We have
+such a good time of it here in Siberia, that, had we
+known it, we would certainly have committed a crime
+before to get here; and now we mean to write to
+our relations and tell them to do something to get
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_730">[730]</span>
+sent here too,”—a speech that will probably strike
+the reader as the foolish saying of a servant girl, but
+the truth of which, <em>in this particular case</em>, I do not
+doubt. The servant had the good fortune to be taken
+into the service of Madame Boris de Livron, who
+had spent many years in America, and of whose home
+I can speak, because I dined therein; and one had only
+to contrast with it some wretched <i lang="ru">izba</i> in European
+Russia, from which, perhaps, the woman came, and
+her laborious work in the fields, to render it exceedingly
+likely that she spoke, after all, only the sober
+truth. That this was an exceptional case may very
+well be, and so also the exile village was in a manner
+exceptional, for the exiles are usually planted, on their
+release, among colonists, rather than put into villages
+by themselves; but I have quoted these instances as
+the least repulsive forms of exile life that came under
+my notice, and to show that, once set free from prison,
+the prosperity of the banished is pretty much in their
+own hands.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving Vladivostock I called upon the priest,
+who gave me information about the church, and I
+likewise made the acquaintance of several of the
+merchants, among them Mr. Lindholm, who had
+whaling vessels in the Sea of Okhotsk. With him I
+exchanged my paper money, at the rate of two roubles
+four kopecks per Mexican dollar, taking with me a
+draft on his partners, Messrs. Walsh, Hall, and Co. of
+Yokohama. Thus prepared I awaited the return of the
+Governor, and on Monday afternoon, September 29th,
+the admiral’s flag appeared in the harbour; the naval
+captains and military officers assembled to present their
+reports, and I got my luggage on board the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i>.
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_731">[731]</span>
+Madame Erdmann insisted on my coming, however, the
+same evening to be introduced to the admiral, which I
+thought very kind, immediately after his prolonged
+absence, and the weariness of his journey. A warm
+reception was accorded me by the Governor, a lively
+interest manifested in my plans, and I left <i lang="la">terra firma</i>
+to sleep in the ship.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_349" href="#FNanchor_1_349" class="label">[1]</a> Réclus gives these statistics concerning Russian trade with China:—</p>
+
+<table class='autotable china'>
+ <tr>
+  <td class='tdc'>Average&nbsp;of</td>
+  <td class='tdr'>1827&ndash;31,</td>
+  <td class='tdl'>£120,000 exports, £20,000 imports, £140,000 total; <i lang="la">i.e.</i>, 1 per
+    cent. of total Russian trade.</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+ <td class='tdc'>”</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>1842&ndash;46,</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>£650,000 exports, £650,000 imports, £1,300,000 total; <i lang="la">i.e.</i>, 8 per
+   cent. of total Russian trade.</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class='tdc'>”</td>
+  <td class='tdr'>1864&ndash;68,</td>
+  <td class='tdl'>£580,000 exports, £450,000 imports, £1,030,000 total; <i lang="la">i.e.</i>, 2·5 per
+    cent. of total Russian trade.</td>
+ </tr>
+ <tr>
+  <td class='tdr' colspan='2'>The year 1876,</td>
+  <td class='tdl'>£250,000 exports, £1,410,000 imports, £1,660,000 total; <i lang="la">i.e.</i>, 2 per
+    cent. of total Russian trade.</td>
+ </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_350" href="#FNanchor_2_350" class="label">[2]</a> The number of Chinese and their congeners in the Russian littoral was
+estimated, in 1873, at from 3,000 to 7,000; and this would be multiplied a
+hundredfold if free emigration were permitted. In 1861, after the cession of
+the Sea Coast to the Russians, the Chinese Government forbade its subjects
+any longer to colonize in the country with their wives. The rich, therefore,
+returned home, leaving the poor; and these were joined by Manchu
+brigands and vagabonds, generically called Manzas, or Freemen—so named
+in reproach by the Chinese as outlaws, though the Manzas call themselves
+<i lang="zh">Pao-toui-tzi</i>, that is, “walkers” or “couriers.”</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_351" href="#FNanchor_3_351" class="label">[3]</a> In 1873 there were about 3,500 Coreans in the Primorsk, of whom,
+says Réclus, more than half permitted themselves to be baptized—the
+correctness of which latter statement I am disposed to doubt. I heard
+nothing of any such number of Corean Christians, and the priest at Vladivostock
+told me that in ten years he had baptized only about 10 pagans.
+He was not a missionary, it is true, nor did I hear of one so far south.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_352" href="#FNanchor_4_352" class="label">[4]</a> In Russian towns having not less than 5,000 inhabitants there are 30
+supervisors, three more being added for each 1,500 of the population;
+and it is over these the mayor presides. Other civic arrangements,
+applying to towns, are an <i lang="ru">uchastok</i>, consisting of from 10 to 20 houses;
+a <i lang="ru">quartal</i>, or square, or block; a chast, consisting of from five to ten
+quartals; and a <em>government</em> town of three chasts and upwards. The
+police-master is at the head of affairs; under him is a <i lang="ru">chastny pristaf</i> for
+each chast, under whom are chiefs of quartals, with uchastok officers under
+them.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_353" href="#FNanchor_5_353" class="label">[5]</a> Manufactured goods were brought to the town to the value of £100,000,
+of which £40,000 worth were transported into the interior, and the increase
+of trade was reported to be 20 per cent. on that of the previous year; but
+I am not aware to what departments of trade this increase is to be apportioned,
+or whether it was due to the abnormally large garrison. Réclus
+gives the commerce of Vladivostock in 1879:—Imports, £218,495; and
+exports, £10,452.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_354" href="#FNanchor_6_354" class="label">[6]</a> For instruction and books the first three classes pay 18<i>s.</i> a year, the
+three higher classes £3 2<i>s.</i> a year. In certain places only they can board
+and lodge, in which case they pay £24, or, with clothing, £32 per annum.
+The average total cost of a boy’s education, exclusive of food and clothing,
+up to the age of 21, in high-class schools in Russia, is £240, and for special
+schools for army, navy, etc., £300.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_355" href="#FNanchor_7_355" class="label">[7]</a> The subjects of Russian study are as follows: Prayers learnt <i>memoriter</i>;
+explanation of most important chapters in Old and New Testaments;
+Old and New Testament history; principles and doctrines of
+the Orthodox Church; catechism; Divine revelation, sacred legends,
+and holy writings; ancient and modern books; faith, hope, charity:
+Greek and Russian Church histories; Sclavonic and Russian language
+and literature: Latin, Greek; arithmetic, algebra, geometry, plane trigonometry,
+and physical geography: natural sciences, electricity, galvanism,
+light, heat, motion, meteorology, chemistry: natural history, geology,
+botany, zoology: history, ancient, modern, Oriental, Greek, and Roman:
+geography: German, and one other modern language at choice, except
+that in certain seaport towns (as at Vladivostock) it <em>must</em> be English.
+This course applies to boys’ gymnasia throughout Russia, and all the
+principal subjects are compulsory. Others may be studied out of the gymnasium,
+such as music, languages, technology, practical chemistry, etc.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_356" href="#FNanchor_8_356" class="label">[8]</a> Thus, whilst 7 years’ service is exacted from a recruit who is uneducated,
+and 3 years from one who has passed through an elementary school,
+a boy who goes from the 5th class of a gymnasium serves as a soldier
+only 2 years; from the 6th class only 1 year; and from the 7th class, or
+the university, only 6 months, after which he can be examined for an
+officer’s commission, or may retire into the first reserve during 10 years,
+and then into the second reserve up to 40 years of age, after which he is
+altogether free from military service.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_357" href="#FNanchor_9_357" class="label">[9]</a> I learnt something of Russian teachers’ salaries. At the institute the
+directress received £150 per annum; two teachers £100 each; an assistant
+£60; linen custodian £25; housekeeper £30. They had 42 scholars;
+and in the building they employed 8 male and female servants, at a salary
+of £1 per month each. Beside this home staff there were 15 outside
+teachers, amongst whom the priest received £70 a year. At the boys’
+gymnasium the teacher of English received £7 10<i>s.</i> per month, and the
+teacher of German £25; or, to put it in another way, teachers of languages
+and of the four higher classes received 10<i>s.</i> a lesson, and those of the lower
+three classes 6<i>s.</i> The teachers elect from their own number an inspector,
+who receives an additional £60 per annum and a house rent free. Further,
+the Government appoints a director, at a salary of £250 per annum. All
+teachers in Siberia appointed by the Government receive an increase of
+25 per cent. of their salary every five years; and after ten years’ service
+have an annual pension of half their salary.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_10_358" href="#FNanchor_10_358" class="label">[10]</a> Thus the official report dealing with the morality of the people called
+attention to the fact that many are convicts and soldiers sent to the district
+for punishment, to the unusually large importation of alcohol and Chinese
+brandy, to the high price of necessaries, the insufficient number of free
+marriageable women, and, lastly, to the low condition of education. The
+chief causes of crime were given as gambling and drunkenness; and the
+crimes committed in 1878 were: insubordination to authorities 13, breaking
+prison bounds 4, vagrancy 31, murder 5, personal violence 11, libel and
+assault 12, theft 27, and highway robbery 11.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_11_359" href="#FNanchor_11_359" class="label">[11]</a> A comparison of the salaries of the clerks shows the English company
+to pay a higher rate. The English company has 25 European clerks,
+independently of Japanese, Chinese, and Portuguese subordinates. The
+European clerks begin at a salary of £320 a year, and go on to £420, after
+which they ascend to higher offices and shorter hours as superintendents,
+etc., and rise to £800 a year or more. In the Russian service a clerk
+begins at £2 12<i>s.</i> a month if speaking only Russian, and receives £2 10<i>s.</i>
+a month extra for each new language acquired. A first-class clerk has
+about £120 a year, with a house and perquisites; and even a superintendent
+receives only £280, with the like additions, part of which consist of
+rye meal or flour. I heard one man say he bought up this meal of his
+fellow-clerks to give to his horse and chickens. They also receive travelling-money
+periodically. I was favourably impressed with the bearing of
+the telegraph officials throughout Siberia. In some cases they live a most
+secluded life. At Busse, for instance, I met one who had been shut off
+from the world in that tiny place on the Ussuri for nearly ten years, hoping
+to realize a pension of £36 a year. The English company gives a pension,
+three-tenths of salary after 10, one-half after 20, and seven-tenths after 30
+years’ service.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_732">[732]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_LIII">
+    CHAPTER LIII.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'><i>RUSSIANS AFLOAT.</i></span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<p class='summary'>Reflections on leaving Siberia.—Departure.—The Russian navy.—The
+<i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i>.—Seamen’s food, clothing, work.—Relation between officers
+and men.—Received as captain’s guest.—Progress.—Hospital arrangements.—Arrival
+at Hakodate.—Divine service.—Religious professions
+of seamen.—Inspection of ship.—A “strong gale.”—Russian sentiments
+towards Englishmen.—Cause of dislike.—Misrepresentations
+by English press.—Russian writings.—Transhipped to American
+steamer.—Arrivals at San Francisco and London.</p>
+
+<div class="poetry-container">
+  <div class="poetry">
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0">“<i>The sailor sighs as sinks his native shore</i></div>
+    </div>
+<hr class="tb-poetry">
+
+    <div class="stanza">
+      <div class="verse indent0"><i>And climbs the mast to feast his eyes once more.</i>”</div>
+    </div>
+  </div>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>Siberia</span> was not my native land, and I did not
+climb for a last fond look; yet I confess to drawing
+half a sigh as I was borne away from Vladivostock.
+At all events I was not unmoved, and various thoughts
+presented themselves—some, I hope, of thankfulness
+that I had been permitted to cross the Old World
+without scratch or bruise.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_1_360" href="#Footnote_1_360" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>But my happiest reflections were connected with
+what has been called my work. I entered the country
+very much in the dark as to what could be done, and
+what I did was little enough to boast of; yet, to me,
+it was a source of gratitude that I had been permitted
+to place within reach of at least every prisoner and
+hospital patient in Siberia a portion of the Word of
+God. A few opportunities also for the exercise of
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_733">[733]</span>
+clerical functions had presented themselves, such as
+the services at Nikolaefsk and Vladivostock, as also
+some others of a private character, which linger
+pleasingly in the memory. Since my return, news
+has come from Archangel that the books I left in
+1878 have caused inquiry and demand for the Scriptures.
+Again, more than one who has followed me in
+Northern Asia has told of the manner in which the
+books left at the post-houses are treasured, and, last
+winter, two gentlemen, travelling over a large portion
+of Western Siberia, found the tracts I had left in
+great demand. One of them writes that they have
+been a boon and a pleasure at many a peasant’s fireside.
+If, then, the result were no more than this, it
+would be something to have ministered gratification
+to tens of thousands of readers. But I had higher
+aims; for I believed that in those Scriptures and tracts
+there were germs of new life and thought and hope.
+I remembered what reading the Scriptures had done
+for men in other lands,—for Luther in his cell, and
+Bunyan in prison; and having sown the seed, I was
+content to leave it with Him in Whose name I went
+forth. Then I sailed away with the thought that I
+had done what little I could. Those who labour in
+similar fields will understand and sympathize with my
+feelings, and some perhaps will breathe a prayer that
+in the great day of account the harvest may be
+plenteous.</p>
+
+<p>As the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i> steamed out of the harbour we
+fired a salute of seven guns, and, gliding past the
+admiral’s house, saw his Excellency and Madame
+Erdmann waving their handkerchiefs from the verandah.
+Our captain, Charles de Livron, is the admiral’s son-in-law,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_734">[734]</span>
+so that there were hearty farewells passing.
+Madame Erdmann had kindly expressed to me a wish
+that our acquaintance thus begun might be continued,
+and, on leaving, I felt that I was parting from pleasant
+friends, not only in the Governor’s house, but in the
+town and country too. As I had applied to Captain
+de Vries for lodgings, I asked, of course, for my bill;
+but Mrs. de Vries would not hear of one, and the old
+captain said, “Well, write me a letter, and tell me how
+you get home, and then come again as soon as you
+can.”</p>
+
+<p>We had hardly lost sight of land before I began to
+inquire about the Siberian fleet, which I understood to
+consist of 12 ships, divided into four classes, some
+being of iron and some of wood; 1 is for the China
+station, and there are besides 5 transports, 2 cruisers,
+and 4 gunboats, the last with 3 guns each; the whole
+being manned by 208 officers and 2,240 seamen. Of
+these about 380 are employed on shore for mechanical
+and building purposes, and a far larger number live
+ashore in winter. Their pay is much higher (nearly
+double, I heard) than that of sailors in the Baltic fleet.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_2_361" href="#Footnote_2_361" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>And now a word about the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i> (pronounced
+“Jee-geet,” and meaning “a horseman”), on board
+which I was favoured with a passage from Vladivostock
+to Japan. The clipper had been built four years previously,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_735">[735]</span>
+at a cost of £62,500, and measured 218 feet
+long, was of 1,300 tons burden, and fitted with engines
+of 250 nominal, but 1,200 registered, horse-power. She
+carried 200 men, with three large guns in the middle
+of the deck, and four small ones at the sides. The
+captain said he relied less upon his guns than upon
+his torpedoes, the apparatus connected with which
+fired 30 for defensive and 5 for offensive purposes.
+By means of wires the torpedoes—a kind supposed to
+be in possession only of the Russian navy—could be
+moved about under the water, and caused to explode
+automatically or at will. I am incapable of judging
+how far this information was correct, but I observed
+subsequently, from one of the English newspapers
+describing the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i>, and some of her sister ships,
+that they were said to be well fitted to damage merchant
+shipping; and there is no doubt that, had England and
+Russia declared war in 1878, this clipper would have
+done her best to cripple the English commercial navy
+in the Pacific.</p>
+
+<p>The <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i> had three masts, could spread 15,000
+square feet of canvas, and, under sail and steam,
+was supposed to make 13 knots an hour. We were
+not fortunate enough, however, to get up to anything
+near this speed, nine knots on the first day being, if I
+mistake not, our best travelling. Often it was not
+more than six knots, and one day we made only 103
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_736">[736]</span>
+miles. Everything on board was scrupulously clean.
+The same thing struck me at Vladivostock, when
+steering the boat of the chief of the staff, in which I
+was rowed to the end of the harbour. The boat was
+manned by six men with 18-feet oars. According to
+Russian regulations, the men row up to 42 strokes a
+minute, and I noticed that when their arms were outstretched
+the men simultaneously bobbed their heads,
+but whether for obtaining more pulling power, or for
+appearance’ sake, I did not make out.</p>
+
+<p>The sailors in the Imperial navy are now shorter
+than formerly. The Russian plan was to give from
+recruits, taken from all parts of the country, the tallest
+men to the navy, the next to the artillery, and the
+next to the infantry; but now they have made an
+alteration, and the navy takes the shortest.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_3_362" href="#Footnote_3_362" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>The food of the seamen on shore I have already
+alluded to. At sea, each man gets 1 lb. of beef per
+day and plenty of biscuit. As I saw them eating their
+meals, sitting at tables, or on deck in circles round a
+common soup-bowl, they appeared to have enough and
+to spare, for a good deal of broken victuals was at
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_737">[737]</span>
+times thrown overboard; and if, moreover, they do
+not eat all their allowance (which is usually the case),
+they may economise and purchase extras for holidays.
+Rum was served out at least once a day (for the notion
+that this benefits the men is not yet exploded in
+Russia), but a man might forego this if he pleased, and
+receive a trifling pittance instead.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_4_363" href="#Footnote_4_363" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<p>It was difficult sometimes on so small a ship to find
+work for 200 men; consequently, a large number of
+them were employed in labour of a time-killing character,
+polishing the fittings of the ship and guns, making
+them in some parts as bright as silver plate. Others
+were weaving stays, or binding fine wire on telegraph
+lines for use with the torpedoes. Once or twice I saw
+them at gun drill. The smaller guns were breech-loaders,
+firing 15-lb. shot, worked by five men each;
+and the larger were 90-lb. muzzle-loaders, each worked
+by 19 men.</p>
+
+<p>There seemed to me to exist an excellent feeling
+between officers and men. The captain, on leaving
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_738">[738]</span>
+Cronstadt, hinted to his crew that, as he was proceeding
+to Siberia, he might leave some of them there if
+they misbehaved. He gave them, however, an excellent
+character, and said that, on arriving in Japan,
+he told an officer to let him know the number of
+men whose conduct since leaving port had been immaculate,
+and out of 180 men more than 100 were
+found without a bad mark. These, by way of encouragement,
+he treated to a special performance
+in a circus. On another occasion the captain paid
+some Chinese jugglers to come on board and give the
+men an exhibition, whilst, in the tropics, the officers
+had given the men lectures on scientific subjects,
+illustrated by a magic lantern.</p>
+
+<p>On boarding the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i> I had as usual “fallen on
+my feet.” There was a small berth in the vessel set
+apart for a chance passenger; but the captain honoured
+me with a place at his table in his own cabin, where
+things were more than comfortable. My host spoke
+excellent English, to say nothing of several other
+languages; and so well educated in this respect were
+the officers that, although the captain usually invited
+two of them to dine with us daily, there was seldom
+or never an occasion when they could not converse
+with me in English or French. Among the officers
+were some of the Russian nobility, one a prince,
+another a baron, and so on; and after sailing with
+them for 12 days, I came to the conclusion that they
+were gentlemen and officers of whom any navy might
+be proud. The doctor played the violoncello, a second
+officer accompanied on the piano, and others sang part
+songs. A young baron in Siberia had told me that the
+officers of the army were badly educated, and worse
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_739">[739]</span>“elevé”; but this certainly was not the case with the
+officers of the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i>.</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday the captain and I were invited to lunch
+in the officers’ cabin, where I was reminded of the
+smallness of the world by the discovery that the first
+lieutenant sitting next me had been to the Greenwich
+Observatory, and as he had gained scholastic distinction
+in Russia, and had the privilege of spending two
+years in foreign study, he thought of coming again to
+Greenwich to the Naval College.</p>
+
+<p>We left Vladivostock on Tuesday, the 30th of September,
+for Yokohama, and made fair progress till, next
+morning, a slight derangement of the machinery caused
+us to lift the screw and depend on sails. This piece of
+brass machinery, weighing nearly five tons, was heaved
+up by two lines of seamen on either side of the deck,
+which operation interested me, as did also some of the
+manœuvres for setting the sails, of which 11 were one
+day hoisted on the foremast, thereby spreading to the
+wind about 5,000 square feet of canvas. I accompanied
+the captain once or twice on his rounds of inspection,
+and was surprised at the stock of carpenters’ tools and
+stores on board. In the kitchen, divided into two
+compartments for officers and men, was a Chinese
+cook, who received excellent wages (the Chinese cook
+at Madame Erdmann’s at Vladivostock received £60
+a year); and to him I paid the ordinary passenger’s
+tariff for food of 4<i>s.</i> a day. In the fore part of the
+clipper were two small compartments almost dark,
+used, when needed, for a prison.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_5_364" href="#Footnote_5_364" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> There was a
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_740">[740]</span>
+lazarette on board, and I found that the doctor was
+obliged to keep a daily report, showing the number of
+patients in the ship, the number of cases standing over,
+new cases, cured, sent to hospital, remaining, and dead.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_6_365" href="#Footnote_6_365" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>We sighted Japan on Friday, October 3rd, and early
+on Saturday morning reached Hakodate, where the
+ship stayed to get coal. I went on shore, not dreaming
+that I should know a creature, but soon found a missionary
+with whom, as a student, I had played football
+and cricket; and then, walking along the streets, a
+second surprise awaited me on meeting a youth whom
+I had known as a boy in Sussex. We stayed only a
+few hours, but I had time to visit the prison with Mr.
+Dening, the missionary; and then, getting on board,
+we steamed away on Saturday afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday morning, at half-past nine, a white sail
+with a red cross was run up to the mast-head, the
+bugle and drum sounded, and the crew assembled
+on deck for Divine service. Two men, uncovered,
+reverently brought an ikon, which was fastened by an
+officer to the captain’s bridge. It was a new ikon
+(about two feet square) of silver gilt, lately presented
+by the captain and officers of the ship at a cost of £20.
+It had been purchased in Petersburg, been sent to
+Vladivostock <em>by post</em>, and was used on this particular
+Sunday for the first time.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_7_366" href="#Footnote_7_366" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_741">[741]</span></p>
+
+<p>When all was ready the officers and choir were
+ranged in front and the men behind, and the Commander
+(in place of Captain de Livron, who is a
+Lutheran) read prayers and a psalm, the men responding
+and singing. The service was of short
+duration, but highly impressive, and very reverential.
+So, too, was their daily evening prayer, just
+before going to their hammocks at dusk, when the
+men, drawn up in double lines facing each other, at
+a signal doffed their caps, and chanted the Lord’s
+Prayer.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_8_367" href="#Footnote_8_367" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p>
+
+<p>After Divine service the captain proceeded officially
+to inspect the ship, which he did in a very thorough
+manner, looking into every hole and corner for the
+least speck of dust or disorder. Here a cloth had
+been left in a recess, and there a piece of biscuit remained
+on a shelf. Both were ordered to be removed,
+and the attention of an officer was drawn to the broken
+hook and eye which attached the hen-house to the
+bulwarks. The captain even complained because,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_742">[742]</span>
+putting his hand on the polished brass of a gun, he
+found it somewhat dusty.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, was fine-weather inspection, and we
+were to have a taste of something different. On
+Tuesday and Wednesday all had been bright. About
+two o’clock on Thursday morning a sudden squall
+struck the ship from right ahead, and caused a commotion,
+but did no harm, and for the remainder of
+the day the wind blew coldly from the north. On
+Friday and Saturday the temperature rose, and on
+Wednesday, 8th October, we passed through a warm
+stream with a temperature of 77°, whilst the thermometer
+on deck indicated only 70°. I had frequently
+asked how soon we should arrive at Yokohama, and
+the captain had prudently declined to say; but on
+Sunday afternoon he volunteered the remark that he
+was able to assure me that we should be at Yokohama
+in four days. Luckless boast! for the words had not
+been long spoken when there came on a tempest such
+as I had never experienced. Towards sunset the wind
+whistled and blew “a strong gale,” that would be
+marked 9 in the Beaufort notation (the remaining three
+degrees being 10, “a whole gale”; 11, “a storm”;
+12, “a hurricane”). The topmasts were lowered, the
+sails furled, and the heavy guns, lest they should
+break away, were fastened by two extra lashings.
+Then followed great running about on deck, and
+climbing the rigging, at which I was looking on
+amused rather than otherwise. The captain, perceiving
+this, said, “Ah! we shall soon have the water rough!”
+And so it came to pass; there was a pendulum on the
+deckhouse to indicate the careen of the ship, the scale
+being marked up to 35°, and when I say that the ship
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_743">[743]</span>
+heeled over to 32°, the reader will be prepared for the
+statement that in the captain’s cabin, where I was
+writing, the heavy table and myself behind it quitted
+our respective bases, in a very undignified manner, in
+favour of the opposite side of the cabin. The carpenter
+was called, and the table screwed down, after
+which, by tucking my knees tightly between it and a
+chair, I managed to hold my own. I know not
+whether the jolting of the tarantass across Siberia had
+rendered my nerves sea-proof, but, to my agreeable
+surprise, I found myself able to write during three
+severe storms on the Pacific and Atlantic. On Monday
+there ran “a high sea,” which the captain marked
+“7” (“8” standing for “very high,” and “9” for
+“tremendous,” beyond which my figures to indicate the
+disturbance of the water do not go). After the storm
+came a calm wind with rough waves. We dropped
+the screw, used steam, and to some extent steadied
+the ship; but, with all our efforts, made little progress,
+and burnt a great deal of coal, so that we had not sufficient
+to steam the remainder of the voyage. The captain
+said he had never known, in so short a space of time,
+so many changes of wind, barometer, and weather.</p>
+
+<p>I had learned that the steamer left Yokohama for
+San Francisco on Saturday, the 11th of October, and
+as the mail-packet makes the passage from Hakodate
+to Yokohama in 64 hours, my hope was that I might
+land in the early part of the week, take a peep at the
+capital, and then embark for California; but the storm
+and the calm upset our calculations completely, and I
+had nothing to do but to submit, and make the best of
+my ebbing opportunities of gaining Russian information,
+and of getting my statistics translated.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_744">[744]</span></p>
+
+<p>Being brought into such close proximity with Russian
+gentlemen for several days, we naturally became somewhat
+intimate; restraint wore off, and I learned more
+fully than I had done before the feelings of educated
+Russians towards England. When passing through
+Petersburg a general had said to me, “<i lang="fr">J’adore les
+Anglais, mais je hais leurs conseils</i>,” which, in 1879,
+was natural enough. Also the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i> had left Europe
+during the Russo-Turkish war, and I discovered that
+her officers had brought away with them unpleasant
+feelings towards my nation. One of them observed,
+though not unkindly, that the English had interfered
+most rudely with Russian affairs, for which, he thought,
+the English Government was deeply hated by the
+Russian people, though Englishmen, he said, were not
+so. He was ready to discuss, very keenly, the probability
+of war between our two nations; and did not
+attempt to hide the disappointment of the Russians at
+being foiled of their purpose to enter Constantinople.
+He thought that, if war did break out, it would, on the
+Russian side, be intensely popular.</p>
+
+<p>I set myself to discover, if possible, the cause of the
+alleged dislike, whereupon I found that, among other
+reasons, he was extremely sore about the frequent misrepresentation
+of Russia in English newspapers. He
+complained that there were certain journals always
+ready to exaggerate Russian defects; and, to be honest,
+I could not help allowing there was a measure of truth
+in what he said. Misrepresentation, however, may
+arise from two different sources—from ignorance or
+from malevolence. When passing through the northern
+capital, I myself saw, in some of the best English
+newspapers, statements to the effect that Petersburg
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_745">[745]</span>
+was then in such a state that it was penal for anyone
+to stir out after nine without a certificate; that no
+evening party might be given without leave from the
+police; that no student might burn the midnight oil;
+and that a curfew law forbade a light to be seen in a
+dwelling after ten: all of which I read with amazement,
+for I myself was out as I pleased till past midnight,
+and burned a light in packing nearly all the
+night through. When I returned to London I said
+so to the editor of one of the papers, and found that
+his statements had been due to wrong information.</p>
+
+<p>But complaint was made not merely of mistakes
+arising from ignorance or wrong information. It
+was urged that false statements were frequently
+put forth, and not properly and honorably rectified,
+when it afterwards became manifest that they were
+wrong.&#x2060;<a id="FNanchor_9_368" href="#Footnote_9_368" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> I had not up to that time realized to
+what an extent this was true; but, after reading
+various books and papers for the present work, I
+cannot but acknowledge that some of the writers upon
+Russian affairs do, to put it in the mildest form, make
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_746">[746]</span>
+the most extraordinary statements. Some of these, as
+I have said, arise from ignorance, and are pardonable;
+but others, it is to be feared, arise from something
+far worse, which I prefer not to have to name. What,
+for instance, will the reader think of the following
+extract from an article in the <cite>Sheffield Daily Telegraph</cite>
+of December 6th last, which has come to my hand
+just before going to press?—“The Russian Government
+does a regular and an important business with Sheffield.
+Our Russophiles will be charmed. The Government
+of ‘the Divine figure from the North’ takes from
+Sheffield five tons per week of horseflesh. The horses
+killed for Holy Russia are those which, through decay
+or disease, are worthless. The dogs’ meat thus obtained
+is bought as food for human beings in Siberia,
+and, having to travel so far, it is often in a putrid condition
+when it arrives there, and in all its horrible
+putrescence it is so served out.”</p>
+
+<p>This is remarkable information. The cheapest cost
+of carriage known to me from Petersburg to the Siberian
+<em>frontier</em> is £5 a ton, taking 12 months in transit (no
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_747">[747]</span>
+wonder that the meat is putrid!); and if to this
+sum be added the cost of the horseflesh and its conveyance
+from Sheffield, and salt (for the <cite>Telegraph</cite>
+is kind enough to say, on Dec. 3rd, that the meat is
+salted, although it becomes putrid!), then how strange
+it will seem that the Russian Government should come
+to Sheffield to buy meat, when live stock, as I have
+already stated, can be purchased in Western Siberia at
+less than ½<i>d.</i> per pound! This, with a vengeance, is
+“carrying coal to Newcastle”! But the article goes on
+to speak of the prisoners working “in quicksilver-mines,
+where the mercury produces an artificial leprosy that
+rots blood, bones, and skin”; and then the writer
+pathetically adds that this “is the unspeakable fate of
+thousands of Russians in whom education and a disposition
+and temperament naturally brave have aroused
+thoughts too deep for tears, and a devoted courage
+worthy of the Christian martyrs.” These “martyrs,”
+moreover, are fed with “flesh swept up from English
+knackers’ yards”—that is to say, with horseflesh carried
+overland 8,000 miles!—I suppose to Nertchinsk, for
+the writer wisely abstains from naming the locality of
+his mines. O wonderful information from the <cite>Sheffield
+Daily Telegraph</cite>! Would that I could be informed
+where there exists in Siberia a quicksilver-mine at all,
+that I might hasten thither if only to clear up this
+mystery about—Sheffield horseflesh!</p>
+
+<p>To return, however, to serious writing. Is it surprising
+if Russians feel annoyed at calumnies so gross?
+and ought one who knows them to be so to abstain
+from giving such statements the lie? Few Englishmen,
+one trusts, will be proud to read misstatements
+like these, and the exposure of them, it is to be hoped,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_748">[748]</span>
+may lead the unimpassioned to reflect on such injustice,
+and to call it by its proper name. For my own part
+(humiliating as it is to acknowledge), I have learned
+to expect from certain quarters exaggerations and
+misstatements respecting Russian affairs. If any complain
+to me of the character of Russian diplomacy I
+reply that I do not defend it. I say nothing of
+Russians as politicians, and so long as human nature
+remains as it is there will probably not be wanting
+writers to fan national jealousies and misgivings to a
+flame; but no right-minded persons will ever look
+upon misstatements like those I have quoted, other
+than with shame and disgust. Such misrepresentations
+carry also their own Nemesis, for the uninformed, led
+astray thereby, when they see themselves duped often
+espouse the opposite cause. Such unfairness has
+taught me at least to sympathize with Russians who
+are thus misrepresented; and perhaps I ought to
+confess that this feeling had something to do with my
+resolving to write this book.</p>
+
+<p>It does one an immensity of good sometimes to have
+to listen calmly to an opponent, and I was thankful for
+the plain speaking I heard on the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i>. I am
+indebted for other similar thoughts to various writings
+by Russians, among them to Madame Novikoff’s
+“Russia and England—a Protest and an Appeal”
+(by “O. K.”); all the more forcibly put because so
+politely written. I have said in my preface that of
+politics I know next to nothing, and it is not in this
+connection that I agree or disagree with what that
+accomplished lady has published; but I perceive that
+“O. K.” has found in England what I have found in
+Russia—a number of warm and generous friends,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_749">[749]</span>
+between whom one would desire that only the best of
+feelings should exist. If Russia were but better known,
+a similar feeling would grow, I feel sure, between
+Englishmen and Russians generally, and both would
+be gainers thereby. There are many who wish to
+know the truth respecting Siberia, and to form an
+unbiassed opinion, and if what I have written should
+tend in any degree to this end, I shall be thankful
+indeed.</p>
+
+<p>On Saturday morning, October 11th, the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i>
+was creeping along, without coal and almost without
+wind, when a five-masted steamer was seen on the
+horizon, coming away from Yokohama. “That,” said
+the captain, “is your steamer. Shall I ask them if
+they will take a passenger?” I quickly decided in the
+affirmative, packed my luggage, and embarked in a gig.
+The commander of the <i>City of Peking</i> did not stay to
+read the signals, but, seeing a boat put off from a man-of-war,
+concluded that it could be nothing short of an
+officer with important dispatches, and came to a standstill,
+to discover, however, that it was only to pick up
+a man “escaped from Siberia.” San Francisco was
+reached in sixteen days. From thence I visited the
+Yo-Semite Valley, Salt Lake City, Chicago, and
+Niagara; and then, pushing on to New York, crossed
+the Atlantic to Liverpool, and on November 25th re-entered
+London, having compassed the world in nearly
+a straight line of 25,500 miles.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_360" href="#FNanchor_1_360" class="label">[1]</a> For the Author’s itinerary round the globe, <i>see</i> <a href='#APPENDIX_F'>Appendix F</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_361" href="#FNanchor_2_361" class="label">[2]</a> The pay of sailors in the Siberian fleet, afloat and on shore, per
+month, is as follows:—Deck sailors, 4<i>s.</i>; rigging sailors, 4<i>s.</i> 4<i>d.</i>; steersmen
+and gunners, 4<i>s.</i> 9<i>d.</i>; cooks, firemen, carpenters, divers, and assistant
+clerks, 9<i>s.</i>; quartermaster, machinists, and head firemen, 15<i>s.</i>; boatswain’s
+mate and foreman of machine room, 18<i>s.</i>; boatswain and clerks, 54<i>s.</i>
+Some have extras as perquisites, thus:—Hospital servants, per month,
+9<i>d.</i>; chief gunners, 1<i>s.</i>; and torpedo men, 9<i>s.</i> The pay of officers, per
+month, is as follows:—Midshipmen from £7 10<i>s.</i> to £14 14<i>s.</i>; lieutenants,
+£7 10<i>s.</i> to £17 10<i>s.</i>; commander, £13 to £80; captain of second rank
+(frigate), £15 10<i>s.</i> to £100; and captain of first rank (ship), £17 4<i>s.</i> to
+£100. Seamen have all found for them. Officers provide themselves
+with everything except cabin and furniture, the captain having one man
+from the ship’s company for a servant, the higher officers having one
+servant for two cabins, and the midshipmen one servant for four cabins.
+The mess on the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i> cost each officer about £6 a month, including
+holiday wines, and entertainment to guests in port. The officers gave an
+entertainment before leaving Vladivostock.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_362" href="#FNanchor_3_362" class="label">[3]</a> The method of Russian conscription is as follows:—The empire is
+divided into districts, each of which has annually to send a number of
+men according to the requirements of the Government. Lots are drawn
+from the men of 21 years of age, and those thus taken are examined as
+to size of chest, eyes, ears, teeth, pulling force and general health; and
+the faulty ones rejected. If sound, they have to serve seven, three, two,
+one, or half a year, according to their education; after which they pass
+into the first reserve. Those who escape the lot fall at once into the first
+reserve. They may then marry; and, if following certain callings, are
+free from further conscription, and in any case are liable to be drawn
+again only in time of war or emergency. At 28 these escaped ones fall
+into the second reserve, which is called up only in case of home invasion.
+There are besides for those upon whom the lot falls several exemptions,
+by reason of which they are either free or their service may be postponed.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_363" href="#FNanchor_4_363" class="label">[4]</a> The clothing served out to the men was similar in character to that
+of the soldiers already referred to, with the following yearly additions:
+a flannel shirt and two blue flannel jerseys, two pairs white shoes, two
+pairs white trousers, and three white shirts with collars, also five yards
+of towelling and two white cap-covers for hot climates. There is allowed
+them also 1<i>s.</i> for ribbons, 4<i>s.</i> for bed-linen, 1<i>s.</i> for spoon and knife, and the
+quartermaster 4<i>s.</i> for whistles. The machinists and firemen have each
+a further addition of two pairs of shoes and a black canvas coat.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to work, Russian sailors usually lift half-a-ton a day. In
+harbour they work eight hours, and on shore 12 hours, with two hours
+for rest. On the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i> the men rose soon after five, breakfasted,
+stowed away hammocks, washed the decks and got all clean before 8
+o’clock. They then worked till 11, at which hour they dined and rested
+till 2; then worked again till 5.30, supped, and at 7 retired; but this programme
+varies, of course, according to time, place, and circumstances.
+The watches for the men were divided into two of six hours each by day,
+and three of four hours each by night; but the officers took in rotation
+five watches of four hours each.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_364" href="#FNanchor_5_364" class="label">[5]</a> I met at Vladivostock the officer who had to do with the legal affairs
+of the Siberian fleet, acting as judge (aided by three or four others), but
+whose sentences had to be approved by the admiral.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_365" href="#FNanchor_6_365" class="label">[6]</a> The form to be filled up for a patient was something to this effect:—Name
+of patient, To what duty assigned, Number of his ship at Cronstadt,
+Age, How long in service, From what province, How often in
+hospital before, How often ill on board before, Name of disease, When
+taken ill, When cured or died, How many days ill; and beneath this was
+a form for showing diagnosis of the disease, heat of body, internal and
+external treatment, and food. A monthly report also had to be forwarded
+by the medical officer to Petersburg.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_7_366" href="#FNanchor_7_366" class="label">[7]</a> Each ship has, I believe, its particular ikon, as I found at Kara was
+the case with each company of Cossacks, who carry the picture in a special
+carriage. Some of the ikons that have accompanied Tsars to the battlefield
+are treasured very highly in Russia. Private individuals, when travelling,
+frequently carry with them ikons, before which in their lodging they
+light lamps, as I saw in the case of a merchant at Tomsk.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_367" href="#FNanchor_8_367" class="label">[8]</a> The religious professions of the seamen (excluding officers) in the
+Russian fleet I gathered from the Naval Almanack for April, 1879, to be
+as follows:—</p>
+
+<table class="autotable religion" style="overflow-x:auto;">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan='2'></td>
+<td class='tdc' colspan='2'><span class='allsmcap'>BALTIC.</span></td>
+<td class='tdc' colspan='2'><span class='allsmcap'>BLACK.</span></td>
+<td class='tdc'><span class='allsmcap'>CASPIAN.</span></td>
+<td class='tdc'><span class='allsmcap'>ARAL.</span></td>
+<td class='tdc' colspan='2'><span class='allsmcap'>SIBERIAN.</span></td>
+<td class='tdc'><span class='allsmcap'>TOTAL.</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan='2'></td>
+<td class="tdc">
+Afloat.
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+Ashore.
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+Afloat.
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+Ashore.
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+Afloat.
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+Afloat.
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+Afloat.
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+Ashore.
+</td>
+<td class="tdc"></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan='2'>
+Orthodox&nbsp;Russian&nbsp;Ch.&nbsp;
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+16,669
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+289
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+4,729
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+31
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+1,281
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+291
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+2,028
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+308
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+25,626
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan='2'>
+Gregorians
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;1
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;3
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;4
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan='2'>
+Protestants
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;759
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;16
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;8
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;7
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;8
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;7
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;3
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;808
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan='2'>
+Roman Catholics
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;51
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;8
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;13
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;1
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;9
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;3
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;85
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan='2'>
+Jews
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;2
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;2
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan='2'>
+Mohammedans
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;47
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;5
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;43
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;19
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;4
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;1
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;119
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" rowspan='2'>
+<table class='sects'>
+<tr>
+<td class='tdl'>Sects&nbsp;</td>
+<td class='tdl'><span class='big-brace'>⎧<br>⎨<br>⎩</span></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</td>
+<td class='tdl'>
+Molokans
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;3
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;3
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl">
+Pomorski
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;3
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;3
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan='2'>
+Pagans
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;3
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&ensp;&thinsp;3
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class='totals'>
+<td class="tdl" colspan='2'>
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+17,526
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+313
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+4,756
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+38
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+1,334
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+330
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+2,044
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+312
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+26,653
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr class='totals'>
+<td colspan='2'></td>
+<td class="tdc" colspan='2'>
+17,839
+</td>
+<td class="tdc" colspan='2'>
+4,794
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+1,334
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+330
+</td>
+<td class="tdc" colspan='2'>
+2,356
+</td>
+<td class="tdc">
+26,653
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_368" href="#FNanchor_9_368" class="label">[9]</a> As a flagrant instance, they complained of the falseness of the <cite>Daily
+Telegraph</cite>, respecting the carriage of convicts by the <i>Nijni Novgorod</i>,
+to which I have alluded in my first volume (page 45). I learn from
+the same paper of November 16th, 1881, that the Russians have been
+further annoyed by some untrue statements published by the <cite>Daily
+Telegraph</cite> on June 28th of this year, concerning “judicial and administrative
+abuses in Russia.” These misrepresentations were copied by other
+papers, from which Mr. Tallack, compiling his report for the Howard
+Association, and falling into the pit, reproduced the matter thus: “Yet
+even an Imperial commissioner has recently reported atrocious cruelties
+to prisoners in Central Russia, including the torture of women with red-hot
+tongs; the killing of numbers by imprisoning them in dark dungeons;
+other prisoners reduced to almost naked skeleton figures in hideous
+caverns; inhuman floggings, 125 lashes being inflicted even for addressing
+warders in the old peasant style of ‘thou’ instead of ‘you’; and
+other brutalities.” When I read these charges I felt sure they were
+untrue, but as I had not visited the prisons of Orenburg, where the
+atrocities were alleged to have occurred, all I could say was that I had
+seen prisons nearly all over Russia, and had witnessed nothing answering
+to such abominations. I ventured, however, to write to the editor of
+the <cite>Daily Telegraph</cite> for information respecting the Russian paper, the
+<cite>Sjeverny Viestnik</cite> (suppressed, I have since learnt, at least three years
+ago), from which the statements were said to have come, and I received a
+polite reply that the writer of the article was travelling in Russia. I then
+wrote to Mr. Tallack, who inquired concerning the matter of Mr. Kokovtzeff,
+one of three inspectors-general of prisons, who denied the truth of
+what had appeared. Accordingly Mr. Tallack (whose zeal in the cause
+of prison reform is well known), finding that he had been deceived, wrote
+to the <cite>Daily Telegraph</cite> to say so; but I was sorry to see that, though
+this paper had given a whole column in bold type to the misstatements,
+which had been multiplied therefrom by hundreds of thousands, yet all the
+space they could spare for contradiction was 15 lines in very small type!</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_750"></a><a id="Page_751"></a>[751]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class="center">
+<span class="smcap">Gratias Deo.</span>
+</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX_A">
+    APPENDIX A.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'>THE HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.</span>
+  </h2>
+
+<p class='center fs80'>(<i>From <a href='#Page_162'>page 162</a>.</i>)</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class='drop-cap'><span class='allcap'>The</span> history of the Russian Church may be treated under
+the four periods of its foundation, consolidation, transition,
+and reformation. Its foundation period extends from
+the end of the tenth century to the beginning of the fourteenth.
+In the year 957 a Russian princess, named Olga,
+visited Constantinople, was baptized, and returned with the
+Christian name of Helena. About thirty years afterwards
+there came to her grandson, Vladimir, envoys from the different
+religious communities of the known world,—from the
+Mussulmans, the Pope, the Jews, the Greeks,—inviting him
+to adopt their respective creeds. To these he replied by
+sending elders and nobles to examine their various religions;
+and shortly afterwards, in 988, he was baptized and joined
+the Greek Church. Vladimir then gave orders for a wholesale
+baptism of his docile subjects at Kieff. A church was
+built there, and the work of conversion advanced rapidly. The
+Holy Scriptures had been translated into Sclavonic a century
+before for the nations on the Danube; so that the Greek
+priests, on going to Russia, had this powerful lever ready to
+hand in the language of the people.</p>
+
+<p>The period of the <em>consolidation</em> of the Russian Church
+dates from the beginning of the fourteenth century to the
+middle of the seventeenth, during which time the local centre
+of ecclesiastical history was transferred from Kieff to Moscow,
+and three great powers came prominently forward—the
+Tsars, the Metropolitans, and the Monks. The Tsar, in his
+ecclesiastical position, represented the laity of the Church,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_752">[752]</span>
+and received the unbounded veneration of the people; and
+the Metropolitans, second only to the Tsar, almost without
+exception supported the authority of the Sovereign. In the
+middle of the fifteenth century the Metropolitans became
+independent of the See of Constantinople; and in 1589,
+Job, the Metropolitan of Moscow, was elevated to the dignity
+of a patriarch. Again, the hermits and monks acquired an
+immense influence. In 1338 was founded the famous
+Troitza monastery—a seminary, cathedral, church, and
+fortress all in one—the monks and clergy of which have
+more than once taken an active part in the deliverance of
+their country from the Tatars and Poles.</p>
+
+<p>The <em>transition</em> period of the Russian Church extends
+from the middle of the seventeenth to the beginning of the
+eighteenth centuries, during which time lived Nikon, the
+famous Patriarch of Moscow. He has been called a Russian
+Chrysostom, a Russian Luther, a Russian Wolsey. Ivan
+the Terrible, in his own savage way, had done something
+towards rectifying the abuses of the Church. The Patriarch
+did more; he took in hand the Russian hierarchy, whom he
+found idle and drunken. He set them a good example, on
+one hand, by founding hospitals, feeding the hungry, visiting
+prisons, and, above all, after the silence of many centuries,
+by preaching; but, on the other hand, he administered
+clerical discipline with uncommon severity. He was perpetually
+sending his officers round the city, with orders that,
+if they found priest or monk in a state of intoxication, they
+were to imprison, strip, and scourge him; and numbers of
+dissolute clergy he banished to Siberia. His name, however,
+is chiefly remembered by reason of his innovations, or perhaps
+resuscitation of forgotten details in ritual. Finding that
+copyists’ errors had crept into the service books, which were
+in manuscript, he sent deputations to Mount Athos, and
+throughout the Eastern Churches, for correct copies, put the
+printing press to work to circulate new rubrics, and set on
+foot a work of revision, which met with frantic opposition on
+the part of the ignorant among the people, and was ultimately
+made the occasion of the secession of a large part
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_753">[753]</span>
+of what are now known as the Russian <i lang="ru">raskolniks</i>, or
+dissenters.</p>
+
+<p>The fourth period, which has been called—though, alas!
+in only a very limited sense—the <em>reformation</em> of the Russian
+Church, extends from the time of Peter the Great to our
+own day. The patriarchate had attained to a position of
+great power, and the great Peter was not the man to brook
+such a rival as Nikon had been to his father Alexis; accordingly,
+on the death of the Patriarch Adrian, in 1700, his
+chair was allowed to remain vacant for twenty years, at the
+end of which time Peter abolished the patriarchate and
+appointed a synod. He also carried out many reforms and
+improvements, which he had the good sense to see were
+sorely needed. He established schools for the children of
+the clergy, abolished anchorites, reformed the monasteries,
+and issued regulations enjoining bishops to read the Scriptures
+carefully, and not to be absent from their dioceses
+without permission of the synod. Many of his changes,
+however, excited great dissatisfaction. The measures of
+Nikon had sadly perturbed the orthodox Russians; those of
+Peter drove them to desperation and to further schism.
+Among the charges brought against the Tsar were such as
+these: that he had introduced into the churches pictures by
+Western artists; and this was said to be a mortal sin.
+Besides this, at the opening of the eighteenth century, Peter
+changed the calendar, gave his people the 1st of January for
+their New Year’s Day, and began to reckon the year from
+the birth of Christ instead of from the creation of the world.
+This, among other like things, was regarded as the very sign
+of Antichrist, inasmuch as he was “to change times and
+laws”; and Peter the Great is still designated Antichrist by
+a large proportion of the Russian dissenters. Since the time
+of the great reformer the Russian Church has gone on very
+much as he left it, the few minor reforms introduced by the
+Emperors Alexander the First and Second being in the right
+direction.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_754">[754]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX_B">
+    APPENDIX B.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'>THE DOCTRINES OF THE RUSSIAN, ROMAN, AND
+    ENGLISH CHURCHES.</span>
+  </h2>
+
+<p class='center fs80'>(<i>From <a href='#Page_163'>page 163</a>.</i>)</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class='smcap'>The</span> doctrines of the Russian Church are not set forth in
+any one public document like the “Thirty-Nine Articles of
+Religion,” but must be sought in its creeds, councils, Church
+services, and catechisms. Generally speaking, it may be said
+that the Bible and tradition form the Russian rule of faith,
+and excommunication is the penalty of heterodoxy. The
+Nicene Creed we know the Russians receive, with the exception
+of the clause relating to the procession of the Holy
+Ghost from the Son; and the Athanasian Creed finds a
+place in their Church books, though it is not read in the
+public services. There are likewise certain works by eminent
+Russian divines which have been promulgated or received
+with more or less authority by councils or the general consent
+of the Eastern Church. Such are the treatise of St. John
+Damascene on the Orthodox Faith; the Answers of the
+Patriarch Jeremiah to the Lutherans, 1574–1581; Peter
+Mogila’s Orthodox Confession of Faith of the Catholic and
+Apostolic Church of the East, 1643–1662; the Eighteen
+Articles of the Synod of Bethlehem, 1672; and the Orthodox
+Doctrine of Platon, 1762. We get a better insight, however,
+into the doctrines of the Russian Church, as they are
+taught in the present day, from Mr. Blackmore’s translation
+of the Russian Primer, the Catechisms, and the Treatise on
+the Duty of Parish Priests—a perusal of which last seems to
+me to bring the Russian Church nearer to the English, and
+further from the Roman, than is generally supposed. Some
+idea of the divergences of the three Churches will be obtained
+by briefly enumerating their differences, thus:—</p>
+
+<p>1. The principal differences between the Russian and
+English Church are upon—</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_755">[755]</span></p>
+
+<table class="autotable appendix">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(1)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+The number of the Œcumenical Councils.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(2)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+The number of the sacraments.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(3)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Confirmation by priests.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(4)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Marriage of clergy after ordination.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(5)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Consecration of married priests to the episcopate.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(6)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Transubstantiation.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(7)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Invocation of saints.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(8)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Reverence to sacred pictures and relics.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(9)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Prayer for the faithful departed.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(10)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+The procession of the Holy Ghost.
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>2. The differences between the Russian and English
+Churches on one side, and the Roman on the other, are upon—</p>
+
+<table class="autotable appendix">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(1)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Papal supremacy.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(2)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Purgatory.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(3)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Communion in one kind.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(4)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Celibacy of priests and deacons.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(5)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Indulgences.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(6)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Works of supererogation.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(7)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Judicial absolution.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(8)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+The doctrine of intention in priestly acts.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(9)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+The Apocrypha.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(10)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Service in an unknown tongue.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(11)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Withdrawal of the Scriptures from the laity.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(12)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(13)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+The immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+(14)
+</td>
+<td class="tdl">
+Papal infallibility.
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>3. Once more, the differences between the English Church
+and the Russian and Roman combined are upon—</p>
+
+<table class="autotable appendix">
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">&ensp;(1)</td><td class='tdl'>The number of the sacraments.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+&ensp;(2)</td><td class='tdl'>Married bishops.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+&ensp;(3)</td><td class='tdl'>Invocation of saints.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+&ensp;(4)</td><td class='tdl'>Reverence of pictures and relics.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+&ensp;(5)</td><td class='tdl'>Prayer for the faithful departed.
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">
+&ensp;(6)</td><td class='tdl'>Compulsory confession.
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>These are some of the principal differences between the
+three branches of the Catholic Church, besides which there
+are others connected with usage and ritual.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_756">[756]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX_C">
+    APPENDIX C.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'>THE SCHISMS OF THE RUSSIAN CHURCH.</span>
+  </h2>
+
+<p class='center fs80'>(<i>From <a href='#Page_163'>page 163</a>.</i>)</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class='smcap'>It</span> cannot be denied that there is a very considerable amount
+of toleration of foreign religions in the Russian Empire.
+The Tsar does not emulate the Roman Pontiff, who, as long
+as he could prevent it, which was up to about 12 years
+ago, would not allow a Protestant place of worship to be
+built within the walls of his capital. On the contrary, at
+the fair of Nijni Novgorod, the Mohammedan mosque and
+the Armenian church stand side by side with the orthodox
+cathedral, and I am not sure that I did not see in the Chinese
+quarter a Buddhist temple. Notwithstanding all this, however,
+the religious toleration of the Tsar is of a somewhat
+one-sided character. A man is usually left in peace to
+practise the religion in which he was born, so long as he
+does not try to proselytize. Again, should an English
+Churchman, or any one else living in Russia, be convinced
+that the Greek Church is more scriptural and catholic than
+his own, the Greek Church will receive him into her communion.
+But not <i lang="la">vice versâ</i>. On the contrary, should a
+Russian Churchman living in Russia be convinced that the
+English Church is more scriptural and catholic than his
+own, and should he attempt to carry out his convictions, he
+would thereby render himself liable, I believe, to expatriation,
+confiscation of property, and other pains and penalties too
+dreadful to mention; and to receive the convert into the
+English Church would be more than the Chaplain at Petersburg
+or Moscow dare do. Again, in mixed marriages—that
+is, when either father <em>or</em> mother is “orthodox”—the children
+<em>must</em> be orthodox, and follow the religion of the State.
+Russians abroad sometimes change their religious profession,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_757">[757]</span>
+in which case they remain Russian subjects, but are not permitted
+to return to their country unless they recant.</p>
+
+<p>The matter therefore stands thus, that whilst the Russian
+Church is ready to receive from all, she gives to none—that
+is, if she can help it. Consequently, what she will not
+give, there are some who choose to take. The rich, who
+are possessed of broad acres, be they ever so convinced that
+some of the doctrines of the Greek Church are unscriptural
+and uncatholic, naturally think twice before they render their
+estates liable to confiscation. But there are others, who have
+less to lose, for whom confiscation has no such terrors; or,
+if it has, dare to face them, and bid the law do its worst.</p>
+
+<p>Persecution, however, such as we have known in England,
+has never been a characteristic of the Church of Russia. I
+do not mean that her repressive measures have never taken
+a form which can with difficulty be distinguished from persecution.
+But she has never had an Inquisition; neither
+Petersburg nor Moscow has a Smithfield; and the plains of
+Russia have never heard such cries as once resounded through
+the valleys of Piedmont. On the whole, I am disposed to
+think that, in religious matters at all events, the hug of the
+bear is not so bad as might be expected from his growl;
+and that the powers that be, when they see a religious point
+cannot be carried, meet the difficulty half-way.</p>
+
+<p>I left Siberia in a Russian man-of-war, and heard a story
+that will illustrate this. Formerly the law obtained in the
+Russian navy that all the seamen should have shaven chins.
+Now, at the Council of Moscow in the seventeenth century,
+to shave the beard was pronounced “a sin which even the
+blood of martyrs could not expiate”; and some of the Russian
+dissenters still believe that to cut the hair or the beard is
+altogether unscriptural and unorthodox. Accordingly, one
+fine day two recruits appeared in the navy with flowing
+beards. They were ordered to cut them off, but they obstinately
+refused. Their insubordination was reported to higher
+quarters, and an order was returned that the men must shave
+or be shaved. The men still refused, and in consequence
+were shaved, to the saving of their consciences, but the loss
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_758">[758]</span>
+of their beards. But nature gave them new ones, and the
+difficulty came up again, the men once more refusing to obey
+orders. Their obstinacy was again reported, this time to
+very high authorities—to one of the Grand Dukes, if not
+to the Emperor himself—when it occurred to one of them,
+in his wisdom, to ask <em>why</em> these men should be made to
+shave; and, no satisfactory answer being forthcoming,
+another question followed—why should <em>any</em> of the men
+be made to shave? and shortly there went forth a regulation
+that, throughout the whole of the navy, men should be
+left to do as they liked with their beards. So in many
+things respecting religion: when the Government of the
+present day cannot carry a point, they not unfrequently
+give it up, or cease what looks like active persecution.</p>
+
+<p>The Russians have, however, certain fanatical sects to deal
+with, whose tenets are so outrageous that no enlightened
+Government could do otherwise than try to repress them.
+Some of their ideas are sufficiently ludicrous. “Cursed be
+the man,” said one of these people to an acquaintance of
+mine—“Cursed be the man who presumes to pray to God
+in a pair of trousers!” from which, I suppose, we are to infer
+that in public worship these individuals think it right to divest
+themselves of their nether garments. I am not aware, however,
+that persons such as these are persecuted. Among the
+fanatical sects also are the Scoptsi, some of whom are banished
+to a village on the Yenesei. There are certain sectarians also
+who have no settled home, but wander about as strangers and
+pilgrims. We met some of them in the Siberian wilds. The
+great mass, however, of the Raskolniks, or Russian dissenters,
+estimated at eight millions in number, are very different from
+those I have mentioned.</p>
+
+<p>When, in the seventeenth century, the Patriarch Nikon
+began to have the Church books revised and corrected, he
+met with fierce opposition. He was charged with interpolating
+instead of correcting the books, and nothing would
+persuade many of the ignorant people to the contrary. Many
+thus became unsettled and broke away—not, they would say,
+because they were leaving the Church, but because the Church,
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_759">[759]</span>
+with its new-fangled notions, was leaving them. Then when,
+in addition to Nikon’s changes, Peter the Great introduced
+others, things were looked upon as becoming worse than
+ever. There was, accordingly, a large section of the most
+ultra-Conservative Russians, both of priests and people, who
+clung to old books, old pictures, and old ways, under the
+impression that thus only could they worship God according
+to the customs of their forefathers; and it is from these
+secessionists that the great mass of the <i lang="ru">Staroveri</i>, or Old
+Believers, are descended. We heard, at Tiumen, that
+some are very strict in their habits of living; that, for
+instance, they will not drink tea or wine, and will not
+drink out of the same vessel with one who is not of their
+sect. The Staroveri are split into two principal parties.
+They had a bishop with them at the time of their secession,
+and he ordained many priests; but as these priests died
+they asked, How shall we fill their places? They had no
+second bishop to ordain more. Some decided that they
+would do without priests, and these are called <i lang="ru">Bezpopoftschins</i>,
+or priestless. The others for a time got priests from the
+Established Church as best they could, but eventually came
+to a compromise with the Government, and, by certain concessions
+made to them, saved their scruples and obtained
+their priests. These are called <i lang="ru">Popoftschins</i>. The differences,
+however, between both parties on the one side, and the
+Established Church on the other, were not questions of doctrine,
+but such points as these: the Starovers gave the benediction
+holding up two fingers, the established clergy holding
+up three, which latter practice was regarded by the Old
+Believers as a mortal sin. The Starovers’ form of the cross
+had three transverse beams, instead of the Russian two or
+the Latin one. Again, to say the name of Jesus in two
+syllables instead of three (as in Greek) was condemned by
+the Starovers, as was also the repetition of the hallelujah in
+the service thrice instead of twice. It became also an alarming
+innovation to read or write, for ecclesiastical purposes, a
+word in modern Russ. I had a reminder of this in 1878
+on the Dwina, where Old Believers exist, for I sometimes
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_760">[760]</span>
+found my tracts objected to because not printed in Sclavonic.</p>
+
+<p>But there are many among the Raskolniks of Russia who
+dissent from the Established Church on points less diminutive
+than those of the Starovers; as the <i lang="ru">Dukhobortsi</i>, or “wrestlers
+with the Spirit,” who spiritualize to a high degree both doctrines
+and sacraments. Also they reject pictures, do not cross
+themselves, nor observe the appointed fasts. In their meetings
+they pray for one another, sing psalms, and explain the Word
+of God. They call themselves “Christians,” and their great
+dogma is to worship God in spirit and in truth. They have
+no magistrates, but govern their own society; they practise
+brotherly love, have all things common, and are remarkable
+for the orderly and cleanly manner in which they live. An
+officer whom I met last year in the Caucasus spoke to me in
+the highest terms of their blameless lives.</p>
+
+<p>There are many other sects of the Russian Church, many
+followers of which are found in Siberia, either because banished
+or born there, or having migrated by their own choice for the
+sake of greater liberty. Not the least interesting among
+them are the <i lang="ru">Molokans</i>, some of whom I found on the Amur,
+and others more recently in the Trans-Caucasus.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_761">[761]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX_D">
+    APPENDIX D.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'>THE DISCOVERIES OF WIGGINS AND NORDENSKIÖLD.</span>
+  </h2>
+
+<p class='center fs80 mt-1'>(<i>From <a href='#Page_196'>page 196</a>.</i>)
+  </p>
+</div>
+
+
+<p class='mt1'><span class='smcap'>From</span> various papers in the Proceedings of the Society for
+the Promotion of Marine Enterprise and Trade in Russia,
+together with information gathered by Mr. Oswald Cattley,
+it seems that Mr. M. K. Sidoroff of Petersburg was the
+agitator, and, in a certain sense, the originator, in modern
+times, of sea-trading adventure in the north of the Russian
+empire. He was largely interested in gold-mining in the
+Yenesei, and his efforts to open up marine communication
+with the north date from 1841. In 1860, thanks to
+his enterprise, the first foreign vessel entered the Bay of
+Petchora. At the Universal Exhibition of 1862, in London,
+Mr. Sidoroff exhibited, and obtained two medals for, products
+from the Turukhansk district—graphite, skins, coal,
+salt, mammoth tusks, etc.—all of which he presented to
+the South Kensington Museum. In 1867 he began agitating
+the possibility of communicating with Europe by sea <i lang="fr">viâ</i> the
+Yenesei and Obi rivers and the Arctic Ocean. In 1868
+he communicated with the Norwegian whalers, and at his
+initiative Captains Foyne, Carlsen, and others ventured into
+the Kara Sea, but none reached to the mouth of either
+of the two great rivers. This success was to be reaped
+by Captain Wiggins, of Sunderland, who fitted out, at his
+own expense, a small steamer, the <i>Diana</i>, in which he
+reached the mouth of the Obi in 1874. He was resolved
+upon repeating the voyage in 1875, and to that end invited
+capitalists to assist him in organizing a trade between Siberia
+and England. These overtures were not successful to any
+considerable extent, though two gentlemen came forward
+with subscriptions in Sunderland, and the captain added
+more from his own means; but the whole amounted to
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_762">[762]</span>
+less than was needed for efficient operations. Determined,
+however, not to be baffled, Wiggins purchased a small cutter,
+the <i>Whim</i>, that might have been put in a good-sized drawing-room
+(it was only 45 feet long, and of 27 tons register!), and
+in <em>that</em> he sailed direct for the Kara Sea. The weather was
+adverse, and he was compelled to return in the autumn of
+1875. Another explorer, however, had followed suit, for
+Professor Nordenskiöld, seeing what Wiggins had done in
+1874, took the same track in 1875, and reached the mouth
+of the Yenesei. Thence he sent back his walrus sloop to
+Hammerfest, ascended the river, and returned overland to
+Petersburg.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Wiggins was now asked to meet his brother
+explorer, Nordenskiöld, at Petersburg, where they both
+addressed crowded audiences; after which the Russian merchants
+offered subscriptions towards the equipment of another
+expedition, under the command of Captain Wiggins, who
+was to return at once to England and secure a steamer
+suitable to the work. But jealousy of a “foreign element”
+subsequently seized some of the Russian merchants, and they
+desired that a Russian naval officer should head the expedition—in
+other words, that Captain Wiggins should be
+pilot, which he declined. Many of the Russian subscriptions
+were in consequence withheld, but not that of Mr.
+Sibiriakoff, who placed his money in the hands of the
+editor of the <cite>Times</cite>. This money, with the assistance
+furnished by Mr. Gardiner, of Goring, enabled Wiggins to
+attempt a third voyage, and he now purchased the screw-steamer
+<i>Thames</i>—doing so, however, under protest, for she
+was not the vessel he ought to have had. In this, in 1876,
+he started for the mouth of the Obi, and reached it; but,
+owing to the unsuitability of his ship, he could not ascend
+the river. He lay, therefore, in the Baidaratsky Gulf of the
+Kara Sea, employing himself usefully in making nautical
+surveys, dredging, etc. He then directed his course to the
+Yenesei, entered the river, and reached the village of Dudinsk,
+about 400 miles from the ocean. Here he was
+informed that the nearest port or river of safety was the
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_763">[763]</span>
+Kureika. I have since been told, by one in Siberia, that this
+was a mistake, the river not being a suitable place for winter
+quarters. But the captain proceeded without chart, without
+pilot; time was of importance; and he had not got his
+steamer into the Kureika more than two or three days before
+the ice formed, and she was locked up for eight months.
+This had been anticipated; and the captain now returned
+overland, post-haste to London, which he reached in January
+1877.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile Professor Nordenskiöld had also been following
+up his discoveries, in proceeding again to the Yenesei, in
+1876, with an object mostly, but not entirely, scientific. It
+was arranged that his expedition, consisting of Swedish
+geologists, botanists, zoologists, and men of science, should be
+divided into two parties; one going with the Professor, in the
+steamship <i>Ymar</i>, through the Kara Sea, was to enter the mouth
+of the river and ascend to Mesenkin; whilst the other party,
+under the direction of M. Théel, was to proceed overland to
+Krasnoiarsk, and then descend the river to meet their comrades.
+The Professor ascended to Mesenkin, but M. Théel
+could not get so far. The two parties therefore failed to
+effect a meeting; but they added much valuable information
+to what had been hitherto known of the natural history of
+the Yenesei, and which was printed in two reports—the one
+from Professor Nordenskiöld, and the other from M. Théel,
+addressed to Messrs. Oscar Dickson, of Gothenburg, and
+Alexander Sibiriakoff, at whose joint expense the expedition
+had been sent.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1877 Wiggins went overland from
+England through Siberia, and down the Yenesei to the
+<i>Thames</i>, intending to steam back to Europe. But the vessel
+was damaged by the breaking-up of the ice, and became a
+wreck; and Wiggins was once more compelled to return by
+land. He had been accompanied on the outward journey
+by Mr. Henry Seebohm, who proceeded to the Yenesei to
+study its ornithology, and who has since published some of
+the results of his researches, as well as a book called “Siberia
+in Europe,” on the ornithology of North-eastern Russia and
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_764">[764]</span>
+part of Siberia. Besides these travellers and their journeys,
+there have been several voyages undertaken, with a view to
+bring Siberia into maritime contact with Europe. The
+<cite>Newcastle Daily Chronicle</cite> for November 28th, 1878, records
+several voyages as having been made up to that time, with
+more or less success; and thus from the years 1875 to
+1878 we learnt more than had ever been previously known
+of these two ancient rivers, the Obi and the Yenesei—to
+which latter, another vessel has made its way during the
+present year.</p>
+
+<p>That Western Siberia is capable of being made to play
+an important part in the supply of European markets seems
+certain. The country possesses immense stores of minerals,
+from gold down to excellent coal, and agricultural produce
+both of fibre and cereals, the latter including wheat, to be
+purchased at from 12 to 15 shillings per quarter, first hand,
+which in England commands from 45 to 50 shillings.
+A thousand miles of land between the Tobol and the Obi is
+capable of producing an almost unlimited supply of wheat,
+oats, barley, rye, hay, linseed, flax, and hemp; and to these
+might be added for export, to be purchased very cheaply,
+hides, tallow, wool, and other products. Already, on the
+rivers of the Obi system alone, there are no less than 46
+passenger and tug steamers plying annually, and ranging
+from 30 up to 120 horse-power. If, then, two central warehouses
+could be established, at, say, Tiumen and Tomsk, it
+would be easy from thence to purchase and carry produce
+to the mouth of the Obi. The difficult part of the navigation
+lies between the mouth of the Obi and the Kara or the
+Waigatz Straits, west of the Kara Sea; and what is required
+is a powerful steamer, adapted for working among ice if
+needed, to ply between the Obi Gulf and a depôt, say, on
+Waigatz Island, or even at the North Cape, whence ordinary
+vessels could bring the produce away. The ice steamer
+might then, in her last voyage for the season, return with
+foreign merchandise, to be sold at the establishments in the
+interior, and, in February, at the annual fair of Irbit where
+merchants congregate from all parts of Siberia. Mr. Seebohm
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_765">[765]</span>
+goes so far as to say that, could the talked-of canal be formed
+from the Obi Gulf across the Yamal peninsula, it might
+prove almost as important as that across the Isthmus of
+Suez. Captain Wiggins thinks the canal impracticable, but
+is sanguine as to the possibilities of trade on the Obi; and
+it has been computed by Mr. Oswald Cattley that with a
+strong steamer, a tug, six barges, and a couple of lighters,
+there might be exported from Siberia, in a single navigation
+season, 6,000 tons of wheat; but, of course, this would
+involve the outlay of considerable capital, and the location
+of responsible agents in the country.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_766">[766]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX_E">
+    APPENDIX E.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'>THE EARLY EXPLORATION OF SIBERIA BY SEA AND LAND.</span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class='smcap'>The</span> north-east passage to China was attempted as far back
+as the 16th century, after the discovery of America had
+given such zest to geographical exploration. Willoughby,
+Chancellor, and Burroughs started on a route indicated to
+them by Sebastian Cabot, but with the result that Willoughby
+perished in 1554; Chancellor landed in the White Sea and
+laid the foundation of Anglo-Russian commerce; and Burroughs
+was stopped before entering the Kara Sea. Thinking
+that China might, perhaps, be reached by way of the Obi
+gulf, thence up the river, and by a fabulous lake of Kitaï
+(or China) marked upon the map of Herberstein, the English
+renewed their efforts. In 1580 two English ships, commanded
+by Pet and Jackman, sailed towards the Russian
+Polar Seas, their navigators being counselled by Hakluyt and
+Mercator, the foremost geographers of their day; but both
+were baffled by the ice of the Kara Sea. The Dutch were
+not more fortunate, and in the three voyages, in which the
+illustrious Barentz took part, 1594–1597, no progress was
+effected beyond the Seas of Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla.
+In 1608, the Dutch Hendrick Hudson, sailing in the English
+service, endeavoured but in vain to pass the limits where
+his predecessors had been stopped, and after his name should
+be mentioned those of Wood and Flawes, bringing us to
+1676. There was subsequently a lull in the efforts made
+by the navigators of Western Europe for two centuries, and
+then we have the voyage in the <i>Tegetthoff</i>, under Payer and
+Weyprecht. The fishermen and Russian merchants from
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_767">[767]</span>
+the White Sea, however, knew perfectly the route to the
+gulfs of the Obi and Yenesei. Of this there is proof in the
+map of Boris Godunof in the year 1600, although it is true
+that to travel by this route was forbidden sixteen years later
+under pain of death, lest the Russians should pilot foreigners
+to the coasts of Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>Cut off thus by a frozen sea, the sailing of which was considered
+by the navigators and geographers of Western Europe
+an impossibility, the exploration of the North Siberian littoral
+could go on only from Siberia itself, which was done by means
+of river craft. In 1648, the Cossack Dejnev, leaving the mouth
+of the Kolima in command of a little fleet of seven boats,
+had succeeded in rounding the extreme northern point of
+Asia, and in clearing, long before Behring was born, the
+strait which bears the name of that navigator. Stadoukhin
+also traversed the seas of Eastern Siberia, looking for
+islands covered with fossil ivory, of which the natives had
+told him. In 1735 Prontchichtchev and Lasinius descended
+the Lena to examine its delta and coast along to the east
+and west. The former proceeded round Cape Cheliuskin
+(so named after his pilot), but did not reach the Yenesei
+Gulf, and the expedition brought back their leader’s corpse.
+Again, an expedition set out in 1739 under Laptev, and,
+after being shipwrecked, crossed overland the most northern
+cape of the Old World, and explored the Taimur peninsula.
+The littoral between the estuaries of the Obi and Yenesei
+was discovered two years previously by Ovtzin and Minin.</p>
+
+<p>Navigation towards the Siberian Sea had already commenced,
+however, by way of the Pacific. In 1728 Behring,
+a Dane in the Russian service, crossed Siberia by land, and,
+embarking on the Pacific, penetrated the famous straits
+which bear his name, and it was through him that the
+geographers of Western Europe learned the existence of this
+passage, already known for eighty years to the Siberian
+Cossacks; but the archives of Yakutsk had so closely kept
+the secret that the great Peter himself did not know it when
+he charged Behring to go and explore the coasts of Eastern
+Siberia.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_768">[768]</span></p>
+
+<p>The explorations of Cook, in 1778, confirmed the points
+laid down by Behring, and added much to our knowledge of
+these north-eastern waters. After the voyage of Cook, only
+the seas about Sakhalin, Yesso, and the Kuriles remained to
+be explored. La Perouse laid down the first tracing of the
+islands and the shores of the continent, and he recognized
+the insular character of Sakhalin and the existence of a
+passage uniting the seas of Japan and Okhotsk.</p>
+
+<p>Thus all the coast lines of Siberia were mapped out as to
+their principal features, and there matters remained until,
+at the instance of Mr. Sidoroff, in 1868, some Norwegian
+whalers ventured to the Kara Sea, which, however, was not
+successfully navigated, I believe, by an <em>ocean</em> craft till 1874,
+when Captain Wiggins accomplished it by steam. He reached
+the gulf of the Obi, and would willingly have steamed on to
+“the land of Kitaï,” but he was unsupported by such enterprise
+as sent out Willoughby, Chancellor, and Burroughs, and the
+rose was honorably snatched from the Englishman’s hand
+by Nordenskiöld, the Swedo-Finn, whose voyage may, in a
+manner, be said to have closed the maritime discovery of
+Siberia.</p>
+
+<p>The scientific exploration of this vast country by land
+can hardly be said to have commenced till the 18th century,
+with Messerschmidt. Some years later, Gmelin, Müller, and
+Delisle de la Croyère, during an absence of nine years, from
+1733 to 1742, recorded valuable observations on the physical
+geography of the country. In those days, however, the
+Russian Government regarded with considerable jealousy the
+publication of documents relative to the resources of the
+empire. Pallas travelled over Siberia to the Baikal and
+beyond, with several scientists, and brought back much
+valuable information, especially concerning geology and
+natural history. Scientific travels in Siberia were then
+suspended till after the political events of 1815. In 1828
+the Norwegian Hansteen, accompanied by Erman, went on
+those travels which proved of such importance to the study
+of terrestrial magnetism, whilst Erman’s astronomical determinations
+were of great use in correcting the maps which
+<span class="pagenum" id="Page_769">[769]</span>
+hitherto had been only approximately correct. Humboldt
+went to Siberia when Hansteen and Erman were there; and
+though his visit, by reason of its shortness, was not very
+fruitful in observations, it proved important in the history of
+science, because he brought back documents which proved
+valuable for his work on Central Asia. The explorations of
+Middendorf in Northern and Eastern Siberia had considerable
+importance, and in 1854 Schwartz, Schmidt, Glehn, Usoltzoff,
+and their companions made a remarkable expedition,
+which explored the immense region stretching from the
+Za-Baikal to the Lena, including the northern affluents of
+the Amur.</p>
+
+<p>These are some of the prominent names connected with
+the scientific exploration of Siberia in general. Several
+specialists also have pushed their way to various parts of
+the country—Castrén the philologist to the Samoyede
+country, 1842–3; Maack, Venyukoff, and Radde, to the
+Amur and Ussuri, 1854–9; Müller and Czekanovski to the
+country of the Chukchees, 1869–70, and to the Yenesei
+in 1873–4. Two years later Seebohm, the ornithologist,
+descended the Yenesei, as also did the Swedish expedition
+under Professor Théil; and in the same year Finsch, Brehm,
+and Zeil explored the basin of the Irtish and Obi. For the
+names of other travellers in Northern Asia the reader is
+referred to the Bibliography of Siberia, and list of works
+consulted, in the following appendix.</p>
+
+<hr class="tb">
+
+<p>P.S.—This appendix was written before the publication
+of “The Voyage of the <i lang="ru">Vega</i> round Asia and Europe, with
+an Historical Review of Previous Voyages along the North
+Coast of the Old World. By A. E. Nordenskiöld,” whose
+book will doubtless be regarded as a standard work, and to
+it, accordingly, the reader is referred for fuller information on
+the maritime coast of Siberia.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_770">[770]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX_F">
+    APPENDIX F.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'>THE AUTHOR’S ITINERARY ROUND THE WORLD.</span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<p><span class='smcap'>The</span> following shows the dates of the Author’s arrivals and departures, with distances in miles
+travelled by rail, water, and road, together with the number of post-horses employed:—</p>
+
+<table class='autotable itinerary'>
+ <tr>
+ <th class='tdc' colspan='3'>DATES.</th>
+ <th class='tdc'>PLACES.</th>
+ <th class='tdc'>RAIL.</th>
+ <th class='tdc'>WATER.</th>
+ <th class='tdc'>ROAD.</th>
+ <th class='tdc'>HORSES.</th>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>April 30</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>May 3</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>London to Petersburg</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>1,683</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>23</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>May 12</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>May 13</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Petersburg to Moscow</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>402</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>May 16</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>May 17</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Nijni Novgorod to Kasan</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>266</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>May 19</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>May 22</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Kasan to Perm</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>686</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>May 22</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>May 24</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Perm to Ekaterineburg</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>312</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>May 27</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>May 29</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Ekaterineburg to Tiumen</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>204</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>74</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>May 30</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>June 1</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Tiumen to Tobolsk</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>172</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>65</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>June 3</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>June 10</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Tobolsk to Tomsk</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>1,601</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>June 12</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>June 15</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Tomsk to Barnaul</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>238</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>51</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>June 16</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>June 18</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Barnaul to Tomsk</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>238</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>51</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>June 19</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>June 24</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Tomsk to Krasnoiarsk</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>369</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>165</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>June 26</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>June 27</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Krasnoiarsk to Gold-mine and back</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>24</td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>June 27</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>July 6</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Krasnoiarsk to Irkutsk</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>671</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>267</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>July 4</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>July 5</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Telma to Alexandreffsky and back</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>32</td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>July 10</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>July 14</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Irkutsk to Kiakhta</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>312</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>80</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl' colspan='3'>July 15</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Kiakhta to Cheelantoui and back</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>54</td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>July 16</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>July 18</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Kiakhta to Verchne-Udinsk</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>148</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>35</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>July 18</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>July 21</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Verchne-Udinsk to Chita</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>294</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>112</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>July 21</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>July 24</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Chita to Stretinsk</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>242</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>78</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'><span class="pagenum" id="Page_771">[771]</span>
+ July 24</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Aug. 8</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Stretinsk to Khabarofka</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>1,345</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>July 25</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>July 28</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Kara</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>46</td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Aug. 9</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Aug. 13</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Khabarofka to Nikolaefsk</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>628</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Aug. 31</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Sept. 4</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Nikolaefsk to Khabarofka</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>628</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Sept.  6</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Sept. 11</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Khabarofka to Kamen-Ruiboloff</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>510</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Sept. 11</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Sept. 12</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Kamen-Ruiboloff to Rasdolnoi</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>88</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>27</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl' colspan='3'>Sept. 15</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Rasdolnoi to Vladivostock</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>66</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr class='totals'>
+ <td colspan='3'></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>2,670</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>5,753</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>3,132</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>1,005</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td colspan='3'></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <th class='tdc'>SEA MILES.</th>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Sept. 30</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Oct. 4</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Vladivostock to Hakodate</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>553</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Oct. 4</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Oct. 11</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Hakodate to Yokohama</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>645</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Oct. 11</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Oct. 27</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Yokohama to San Francisco</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>5,261</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Oct. 29</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Nov. 5</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>San Francisco to Ogden</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>883</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Oct. 29</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Nov. 3</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Lathrop to Yo-Semite Valley and back</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>182</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>170</td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Nov. 5</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Nov. 6</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Ogden to Salt Lake City and back</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>74</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Nov. 6</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Nov. 8</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Ogden to Omaha</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>1,032</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Nov. 8</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Nov. 9</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Omaha to Chicago</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>502</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Nov. 10</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Nov. 13</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Chicago to New York</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>961</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Nov. 15</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Nov. 25</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>New York to Liverpool</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>3,482</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td class='tdl'>Nov. 25</td><td class='tdc'>to</td><td class='tdl no-border'>Nov. 25</td>
+ <td class='tdl'>Liverpool to Blackheath</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>207</td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>3</td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+<tr class='totals'>
+ <td colspan='3'></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdr'>6,511</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>15,694</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>3,305</td>
+ <td class='tdr'>1,005</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+ <td colspan='3'></td>
+ <td></td>
+ <td class='tdc grand-total' colspan='3'>25,510</td>
+ <td></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>From the foregoing it will appear that the total distance travelled was 25,510 miles, of which 3,305
+miles were accomplished by the hire of 1,005 post-horses. The whole time occupied was 210 days,
+of these, 50 days were stationary; thus leaving 160 days, during which was covered an average
+of 159 miles per day.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_772">[772]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="APPENDIX_G">
+    APPENDIX G.
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'>BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SIBERIA,</span>
+    <br>
+    <span class='chap-title'>AND LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED OR REFERRED TO
+    IN THE FOREGOING VOLUMES.</span>
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+<div class='bibliography'>
+<p><i>Adams, A. L.</i>, Travels of a Naturalist in Japan and
+Manchuria, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><i>Agar, Mrs.</i>, Adventures of a Serf’s Wife. <i>London</i>, 1866.</p>
+
+<p>Amur and Adjacent Districts. “Royal Geographical
+Society’s Journal,” vol. xxviii. <i>London</i>, 1858.</p>
+
+<p>Amur River Explorations. <i>Washington</i>, 1859.</p>
+
+<p><i>Andreoli, M. Emile.</i> De Pologne en Sibérie: Journal de
+Captivité, 1863–1867. “Revue Moderne,” August
+and September, 1868.</p>
+
+<p><i>Atkinson, T. W.</i>, Oriental and Western Siberia. <i>London</i>,
+1858.</p>
+
+<p><i>Atkinson, T. W.</i>, Travels in the Regions of the Upper and
+Lower Amoor. <i>London</i>, Hurst, 1861.</p>
+
+<p><i>Author of</i> “Member for Paris,” The Russians of To-day.
+<i>London</i>, Smith and Elder, 1878.</p>
+
+<p><i>Banished Lady, A</i>, Revelations of Siberia. 1853.</p>
+
+<p><i>Barry, H.</i>, Ivan at Home; or, Pictures of Russian Life.
+<i>London</i>, 1872.</p>
+
+<p><i>Bax, B. W.</i>, The Eastern Seas. <i>London</i>, Murray, 1875.</p>
+
+<p>Bible of Every Land; a History of the Sacred Scriptures
+in every Language and Dialect. <i>London</i>, Bagster,
+1851.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_773">[773]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Blackmore, W. R.</i>, Doctrines of the Russian Church, being
+the Primer, or Spelling Book, the Shorter and
+Longer Catechisms, and a Treatise on the Duty of
+Parish Priests. <i>Aberdeen</i>, 1845.</p>
+
+<p><i>Blackmore, W. R.</i>, Mouravieff’s Doctrines of the Russian
+Church. <i>Oxford</i>, Parker, 1842.</p>
+
+<p><i>Burney, James</i>, Chronological History of North-Eastern
+Voyages of Discovery, and of the Early Eastern
+Navigations of the Russians. <i>London</i>, 1819.</p>
+
+<p><i>Bush, R. J.</i>, Reindeer, Dogs, and Snow-Shoes; Siberian
+Travel in 1865–7. <i>London</i>, Low, 1871.</p>
+
+<p>Calendar (Russian) for 1880. <i>Petersburg</i>, Hoppe, 1880.</p>
+
+<p><i>Chappé d’Auteroche</i>, Journey into Siberia, made by order of the
+King of France in 1761. Translated. <i>London</i>, 1770.</p>
+
+<p><i>Chester, H. M.</i>, Russia, Past and Present, adapted from the
+German of Lankenau and Oelnitz. <i>London</i>, Society
+for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1881.</p>
+
+<p><i>Cochrane, J. D.</i>, Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through
+Russia and Siberian Tartary from the Frontiers of
+China to the Frozen Sea and Kamchatka. <i>London</i>,
+1825.</p>
+
+<p><i>Collins, P. M.</i>, Siberia to Japan. <i>New York</i>, 1860.</p>
+
+<p><i>Collins, P. M.</i>, A Voyage Down the Amoor. <i>London</i>, 1860.</p>
+
+<p><i>Cottin, Madame de</i>, Elizabeth; or, the Exiles of Siberia.
+Translated. <i>London</i>, 1808.</p>
+
+<p><i>Cottrill, Herbert</i>, Recollections of Siberia in the Year 1840–1.
+<i>London</i>, Parker, 1842.</p>
+
+<p><i>Covel, John, D.D.</i>, Some Account of the Greek Church compared
+with Goar’s Notes on the Greek Ritual.
+<i>Cambridge</i>, 1722.</p>
+
+<p><i>De Foe, Daniel</i>, Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
+<i>London</i>, Cadell, 1820.</p>
+
+<p><i>De Lagny, G.</i>, The Knout and the Russians. <i>London</i>,
+Bogue, 1854.</p>
+
+<p><i>Dobell, P.</i>, Travels in Kamtchatka and Siberia. <i>London</i>,
+Bentley, 1830.</p>
+
+<p>Documents of the United States Senate about Alaska.
+<i>Washington</i>, 1876.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_774">[774]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Dostoyeffsky, F.</i>, (A. P. Goryantchikoff) Buried Alive; or, Ten
+Years’ Penal Servitude in Siberia. Translated from
+the Russian. <i>London</i>, Longmans, 1881.</p>
+
+<p><i>Eden, C. H.</i>, Frozen Asia. <i>London</i>, Society for Promoting
+Christian Knowledge, 1879.</p>
+
+<p>Education, Plan of, in the Boys’ Gymnasia (in Russ).
+<i>Petersburg</i>, 1872.</p>
+
+<p><i>Erman, Adolph</i>, Travels in Siberia. <i>London</i>, Longmans,
+1848.</p>
+
+<p><i>Finsch, O.</i>, Reise nach West Sibirien, im Jahre 1876.
+<i>Berlin</i>, 1879.</p>
+
+<p><i>Fowkes, F.</i>, The Greek and Latin Churches. <i>London</i>,
+Whittaker, 1854.</p>
+
+<p><i>Gayarin, Father</i>, Russian Clergy. Translated from the
+French by Charles du G. Makepeace. <i>London</i>,
+Burns, 1872.</p>
+
+<p><i>Gordon, Peter</i>, Fragment of a Tour through Persia in 1820,
+containing Voyages to and from Ochotsk in Siberia.
+<i>London</i>, 1833.</p>
+
+<p><i>Goryantchikoff, A. P.</i>, Buried Alive; or, Ten Years’ Penal
+Servitude in Siberia. Edited by Dostoyeffsky.
+Translated. <i>London</i>, Longmans, 1881.</p>
+
+<p><i>Grant, C. M.</i>, Gold Mines of Eastern Siberia. From the
+“Mining Magazine.”</p>
+
+<p>Greek and Eastern Churches. <i>London</i>, Religious Tract
+Society.</p>
+
+<p>Greek Church, Articles on:—<br>
+  “Bibliotheca Sacra,” vol. xv.<br>
+  “British and Foreign Review,” vol. ix.<br>
+  “Christian Examiner” (American), vol. lix.<br>
+  “Church Quarterly Review” (American). <i>New York</i>, 1859.
+</p>
+
+<p>Greek Church: A Sketch. <i>London</i>, Darling, 1850.</p>
+
+<p><i>Grieve, James</i>, History of Kamchatka and the Kurilski
+Islands. Translated from Russian, 1764.</p>
+
+<p><i>Hansteen</i>, Travels in Siberia. <i>London</i>, “Leisure Hour,” 1879.</p>
+
+<p><i>Hardy, Mrs.</i>, Up North; or, Lost and Found in Russia.
+<i>London</i>, Nimmo, 1878.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_775">[775]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Hertzen, A.</i>, My Exile in Siberia. <i>London</i>, Hurst, 1855.</p>
+
+<p><i>Hill, S. S.</i>, Travels in Siberia. <i>London</i>, Longmans, 1854.</p>
+
+<p><i>Hovgaard, A.</i>, Nordenskiöld’s Voyage around Asia and
+Europe: a popular account of the North-East
+Passage of the <i lang="ru">Vega</i>. Translated by H. L.
+Brækstad. <i>London</i>, Sampson Low and Co., 1882.</p>
+
+<p><i>Huc, Abbé</i>, Life and Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China.
+Translated by W. Hazlitt. <i>London</i>, 1867.</p>
+
+<p><i>K. O.</i> (Madame Novikoff), Russia and England from 1876–80:
+a Protest and an Appeal. <i>London</i>, Longmans,
+1880.</p>
+
+<p><i>Kennan, G.</i>, Tent Life in Siberia. <i>London</i>, Low, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><i>King, John G.</i>, Rites and Ceremonies of the Greek Church
+in Russia. <i>London</i>, 1772.</p>
+
+<p><i>Knox, T. W.</i>, Overland Through Asia. <i>Hartford</i>, Connecticut,
+1871.</p>
+
+<p><i>Kotzebue, Augustus Von</i>, The Most Remarkable Year in the
+Life of, containing an account of his Exile into
+Siberia. Translated. <i>London</i>, 1802.</p>
+
+<p><i>Latham, R. G.</i>, Native Races of Russian Empire. <i>London</i>,
+Baillière, 1854.</p>
+
+<p><i>Leslie, Alexander</i>, Arctic Voyages of A. E. Nordenskiöld.
+<i>London</i>, Macmillan, 1879.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lesseps, M. de</i>, Travels in Kamchatka during the years 1787
+and 1788, 2 vols. Translated. <i>London</i>, 1790.</p>
+
+<p><i>Littledale, R. F.</i>, Holy Eastern Church, a Popular Outline of
+its History. <i>London</i>, Hayes, 1872.</p>
+
+<p><i>Littledale, R. F.</i>, Offices from the Service Books of the Holy
+Eastern Church, with translations. 1863.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lover of Truth, A</i>, The Antidote; or, The Inquiry into the
+Merits of a Book entitled “A Journey into Siberia
+made in 1761,” by the Abbé Chappé. Translated.
+<i>London</i>, 1772.</p>
+
+<p><i>Maack, R.</i>, Travels on Amur (in Russ.). <i>Petersburg</i>, 1859.</p>
+
+<p><i>Maistre, X. de</i>, Jeune Sibérienne, and Index. <i>London</i>,
+Dulau, 1878.</p>
+
+<p><i>Masson, E.</i>, Apology for the Greek Church. <i>London</i>,
+Hatchards, 1844.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mayhew, H.</i>, Criminal Prisons of London, and Scenes of
+Prison Life. <i>London</i>, Griffin, 1862.</p>
+
+<p><i>Michie</i>, Siberian Overland Route from Peking to Petersburg.
+<i>London</i>, Murray, 1864.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_776">[776]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Middendorff, A. T. Von</i>, Siberie Reise. <i>Petersburg</i>, 1860.</p>
+
+<p><i>Milne, J.</i>, Journey Across Asia. “Transactions of Asiatic
+Society of Japan,” vol. vii. <i>London</i>, Trübner, 1879.</p>
+
+<p><i>Mouravieff</i>, Harmony of Anglican and Eastern Doctrine.
+1846.</p>
+
+<p><i>Muller, G. F.</i>, Conquest of Siberia. 1842.</p>
+
+<p><i>Neale, J. M.</i>, History of the Holy Eastern Church. <i>London</i>,
+Masters, 1850.</p>
+
+<p><i>Nordenskiöld, A. E.</i>, Arctic Voyages of. By Alexander Leslie.
+<i>London</i>, Macmillan, 1879.</p>
+
+<p><i>Nordenskiöld, A. E.</i>, The Voyage of the <i lang="ru">Vega</i> round Asia
+and Europe, with an Historical Review of previous
+voyages along the North Coast of the Old World.
+Translated by Alexander Leslie. <i>London</i>, Macmillan,
+1881.</p>
+
+<p>“Oriental Church Magazine,” Quarterly. <i>New York</i>, from
+1878.</p>
+
+<p><i>Overbeck, J. J.</i>, A Plain View of the Claims of the Orthodox
+Catholic Church as opposed to all other Christian
+Denominations. <i>London</i>, Trübner, 1881.</p>
+
+<p><i>Palmer, Adam H.</i>, Memoirs, Geographical and Political,
+The Amur, etc., 30th Congress, 1st Session, etc.</p>
+
+<p><i>Palmer</i>, Patriarch and Tsar. <i>London</i>, Trübner, 1871.</p>
+
+<p><i>Pietrowski, R.</i>, My Escape from Siberia. <i>London</i>, Routledge.</p>
+
+<p><i>Pietrowski, R.</i>, Story of a Siberian Exile. <i>London</i>, Longmans,
+1863.</p>
+
+<p><i>Pinkerton, R.</i>, Russia; or, Miscellaneous Observations on the
+Past and Present State of that Country, etc. <i>London</i>,
+Seeleys, 1833.</p>
+
+<p><i>Pinkerton, R.</i>, Present State of the Greek Church in Russia;
+or, a Summary of Christian Divinity. <i>Edinburgh</i>,
+1816.</p>
+
+<p><i>Platon</i>, Present State of the Greek Church. Translated by
+Pinkerton. <i>Edinburgh</i>, 1815.</p>
+
+<p>Post-Book of Russian Empire. <i>Petersburg</i>, 1875.</p>
+
+<p><i>Prejevalsky, N.</i>, Mongolia, etc. Translated from Russian,
+by E. D. Morgan. <i>London</i>, Low, 1876.</p>
+
+<p><i>Prinsep, H. T.</i>, Thibet, Tartary, and Mongolia. <i>London</i>, 1852.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_777">[777]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Rae, Edward</i>, Land of the North Wind; or, Travels among
+Laplanders and Samoyedes. <i>London</i>, Murray, 1875.</p>
+
+<p><i>Ravenstein, E. G.</i>, The Russians on the Amur. <i>London</i>,
+Trübner, 1861.</p>
+
+<p><i>Réclus, E.</i>, Nouvelle Géographie Universelle VI. L’Asie
+Russe. <i>Paris</i>, Hachette et Cie, 1881.</p>
+
+<p><i>Reisen in Russ Asien II.</i> <i>Leipzig</i>, Otto Spamer, 1866.</p>
+
+<p>Report, Meteorological, “Annalen des Physikalischen centralobservatoriums”
+(in Russ and German). <i>Petersburg</i>,
+H. Wild, 1878.</p>
+
+<p>Report of the Orthodox Missionary Society for 1876
+(in Russ). <i>Moscow</i>, 1878.</p>
+
+<p>Report of Directors of Convict Prisons for 1877. <i>London</i>,
+Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1878.</p>
+
+<p>Revelations of Russia, 2 vols. <i>London</i>, H. Colburn, 1844.</p>
+
+<p><i>Romanoff, H. C.</i>, Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. <i>London</i>,
+1871.</p>
+
+<p><i>Romanoff, H. C.</i>, Rites and Customs of the Græco-Russian
+Church. <i>London</i>, Rivington, 1868.</p>
+
+<p><i>R[osen], Baron</i>, Russian Conspirators in Siberia. Translated
+from the German. <i>London</i>, Smith and Elder, 1872.</p>
+
+<p>Russia, Recollections of. By <i>A German Nobleman</i>, during
+33 years’ residence. 1855.</p>
+
+<p>Russian Church, History of. “Christian Remembrancer,”
+vol. x.</p>
+
+<p>Russians of To-day. By the Author of “The Member for
+Paris.” <i>London</i>, Smith and Elder, 1878.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sauer, M.</i>, Account of a Geographical and Astronomical
+Expedition to the North Parts of Russia, the mouth
+of the Kolyma to East Cape, and Islands in the
+Eastern Ocean, performed by Joseph Billings, 1785–94.
+<i>London</i>, 1802.</p>
+
+<p><i>Seebohm, Henry</i>, Contributions to the Ornithology of
+Siberia. The “Ibis,” April, 1878.</p>
+
+<p><i>Seebohm, Henry</i>, A Visit to the Valley of the Yenesei.
+<i>London</i>, Clowes, 1879.</p>
+
+<p><i>Shaw, Robert</i>, Visits to Chinese Tartary. <i>London</i>, Murray,
+1871.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_778">[778]</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Shepherd, Captain W.</i>, Homeward through Mongolia and
+Siberia. “Royal Engineers’ Journal,” 1880.</p>
+
+<p>Siberia, Article on. “Contemporary Review,” September,
+1879.</p>
+
+<p>Siberia, Article on. “Revue de deux Mondes,” September,
+1879.</p>
+
+<p>Siberia, Revelations of. By <i>A Banished Lady</i>. 1853.</p>
+
+<p><i>Smith, Thomas</i>, Doctrines of the Greek Church, 1680.</p>
+
+<p><i>Spalding, Captain</i>, Venyukoff’s “Saghalien.” “Royal Geographical
+Society’s Journal,” vol. xlii. <i>London</i>, 1872.</p>
+
+<p><i>Stanley, A. P.</i>, History of the Eastern Church. <i>London</i>,
+Murray, 2nd ed., 1862.</p>
+
+<p><i>Strahlenberg, P. G.</i>, Description of North and East of
+Europe. <i>London</i>, 1738.</p>
+
+<p><i>Théel, M.</i>, Rapport de, sur les Expéditions Suédoises de
+1876 au Yéneséi. <i>Upsal</i>, Edquist, 1877.</p>
+
+<p><i>Ure, A.</i>, Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines.
+<i>London</i>, Longmans, 1863.</p>
+
+<p><i>Venyukoff</i>, Saghalien. Translated by Captain Spalding.
+“Royal Geographical Society’s Journal,” vol. xlii.</p>
+
+<p><i>Waddington, G.</i>, Present Condition and Prospects of the
+Greek or Oriental Church. <i>London</i>, Murray, 1854.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wahl, O. W.</i>, Land of the Czar. <i>London</i>, Chapman and
+Hall, 1875.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wallace, D. Mackenzie</i>, Russia. <i>London</i>, Cassells, 1877.</p>
+
+<p><i>Whyte, W. H.</i>, Land Journey from Asia to Europe. <i>London</i>,
+Low, 1871.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wiggins, J.</i>, The Austro-German Polar Expedition. Translated.
+<i>Bishopwearmouth</i>, Wm. Carr, 1875.</p>
+
+<p><i>Williamson, A.</i>, North China, Manchuria, Corea. <i>London</i>,
+1870.</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_779">[779]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="INDEX">
+    INDEX.
+  </h2>
+</div>
+
+
+<ul class="index">
+  <li class="ifrst">Åbo, Prison of, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Aboriginal population of Siberia, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Aborigines’ love of drink, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Manchuria, <a href="#Page_547">547</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yenesei, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Accident on tarantass journey, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Account of a Russian prison, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Across Europe, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Lake Baikal, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Adamson, Mr., the catechist, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Advocate, Profession of an, <a href="#Page_582">582</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Afloat with Russians, <a href="#Page_732">732</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Aged prisoners at Kara, <a href="#Page_470">470</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Agriculture of the Daurians, <a href="#Page_549">549</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Aigun, Difficulty of entering, <a href="#Page_558">558</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Government buildings at, <a href="#Page_557">557</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_556">556</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Temple at, <a href="#Page_558">558</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Theatre at, <a href="#Page_558">558</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Town of, <a href="#Page_495">495</a>, <a href="#Page_556">556</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Aïno, Appearance of an, <a href="#Page_650">650</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— language, <a href="#Page_650">650</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— mission, <a href="#Page_650">650</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Translation into, <a href="#Page_650">650</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Akatuya, Prisoners in irons at, <a href="#Page_421">421</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Akmolinsk, Distribution of tracts in province of, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Dr. Finsch in, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Albazikha River, <a href="#Page_515">515</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Albazin, Country surrounding, <a href="#Page_515">515</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sieges of, <a href="#Page_515">515</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Trees in vicinity of, <a href="#Page_515">515</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Alcohol and <i lang="ru">vodka</i>, <a href="#Page_544">544</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Alcoholic liquors at Irkutsk, Price of, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Alexander, Peter, Protodiakonoff of Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_673">673</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Baptisms of Goldi by, <a href="#Page_674">674</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— House of, <a href="#Page_677">677</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Translation of Gospels by, <a href="#Page_673">673</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Visit to, <a href="#Page_673">673</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Alexandreffsky, Inquiries concerning Author at, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Journey to, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Photography at, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Amusements, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Book for description of prisoners, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Books for, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Brickmaking, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Cigarette-paper making, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Convicts, Number of, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Director of, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ethnography of, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Food, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Formerly a factory, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Gardening, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Hospital, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1"><i lang="ru">Petchka</i>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Prisoners in irons, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— Number of, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— seeing friends, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1"><i lang="ru">Scorbutus</i> among prisoners, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Secret cell in, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Shoemaking in, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Work, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— Lack of, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Altai mountains, boundary of Russia in Asia, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Discovery of metals in, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Extent of, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Minerals in, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— silver-mines, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Altars of sacrifice, <a href="#Page_591">591</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">American animals, <a href="#Page_644">644</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Amur, Arrival on the, <a href="#Page_503">503</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Atkinson, Mr., on the, <a href="#Page_440">440</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Chernigovsky’s expedition, <a href="#Page_492">492</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Collins on the, <a href="#Page_499">499</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Colonists, <a href="#Page_502">502</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_780">[780]</span>
+Amur, Cucumbers on the, <a href="#Page_588">588</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Difficulties with China, <a href="#Page_501">501</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— History of the, <a href="#Page_489">489</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Ingoda</i> steamer on the, <a href="#Page_510">510</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Khabarof’s expedition, <a href="#Page_490">490</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Length of the, <a href="#Page_504">504</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Lower:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Animals, <a href="#Page_599">599</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Boundary of, <a href="#Page_580">580</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Cats, Price of, <a href="#Page_600">600</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Cliff at Tyr, <a href="#Page_589">589</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Depth of, <a href="#Page_580">580</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Fish, <a href="#Page_581">581</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Flowers, <a href="#Page_579">579</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Fruit, <a href="#Page_583">583</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Gilyak habitation, <a href="#Page_591">591</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Hotsprings, <a href="#Page_588">588</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ravenstein on the, <a href="#Page_581">581</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Religious services on the, <a href="#Page_725">725</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Scenery, <a href="#Page_580">580</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Settlers’ village, <a href="#Page_588">588</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Temperature of, <a href="#Page_579">579</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Trees of, <a href="#Page_579">579</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Weather, <a href="#Page_627">627</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Width of, <a href="#Page_580">580–85</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Middle:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Climate of, <a href="#Page_532">532</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Manyargs on, <a href="#Page_507">507</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Province, Area of, <a href="#Page_543">543</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Scenery of, <a href="#Page_535">535</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Scripture distribution, <a href="#Page_538">538</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Military Governor of the, <a href="#Page_500">500</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Muravieff, the Governor, <a href="#Page_496">496</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Pashkof’s expedition, <a href="#Page_492">492</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of province, <a href="#Page_543">543</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Poyarkof’s expedition, <a href="#Page_490">490</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Route through Siberia, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russian conquests on the, <a href="#Page_489">489</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Source of the, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Stepanof’s expedition, <a href="#Page_491">491</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Territory of the, <a href="#Page_504">504</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Tribes’ appeal to China for help against Russia, <a href="#Page_493">493</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Upper:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Cliffs on the, <a href="#Page_516">516</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Flora of, <a href="#Page_516">516</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Peoples on Chinese bank, <a href="#Page_506">506</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ust-Strelka, The river at, <a href="#Page_514">514</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Venyukoff’s mission, <a href="#Page_494">494</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Zeya</i> steamer aground, <a href="#Page_511">511</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Amusements of the Chinese, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Dancing, <a href="#Page_622">622</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gilyak, <a href="#Page_602">602</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Amusements, Russian, <a href="#Page_621">621</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Swings, <a href="#Page_621">621</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Anadir River, <a href="#Page_639">639</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fish in the, <a href="#Page_640">640</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Anadirsk, Fort of, <a href="#Page_640">640</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Andreoli, M., Exile of, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on flogging, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the <i>knout</i>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Andreyeff, M., Introduction to, <a href="#Page_615">615</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Anecdote concerning an “equipage,” <a href="#Page_439">439</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Angara River, Rapids of the, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Temperature of the, <a href="#Page_310">310</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Anglo-Chinese War, Influence of the, <a href="#Page_501">501</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Animals, American, <a href="#Page_644">644</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Asiatic, <a href="#Page_644">644</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Distribution over Siberia, <a href="#Page_697">697</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of chase in Yeneseisk, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on Lower Amur, <a href="#Page_599">599</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Wild, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Aniva Bay, Scriptures for, <a href="#Page_660">660</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Annexation, Russian, of Siberia, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Antiquities, Bulgarian, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Appeal, Court of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Apple-tree mountains, View of, <a href="#Page_360">360</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Archangel, Distribution of Scriptures at, <a href="#Page_733">733</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— tour of Author, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Archangel Gabriel” mine, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Archbishop of Irkutsk, Interview sought with, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Tobolsk on tract distribution, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Archery in Manchuria, <a href="#Page_556">556</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Area of Russia in Asia, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Tobolsk, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Trans-Baikal province, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Argols</i> as fuel, <a href="#Page_368">368</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Army officers, Pay of, <a href="#Page_668">668</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Arrests for drunkenness, Number of, <a href="#Page_545">545</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Arrival at Kamen-Ruiboloff, <a href="#Page_686">686</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Petersburg, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Arrows and bows of Ostjaks, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Art in Siberia, <a href="#Page_433">433</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Asia and Europe, Frontier of, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ethnography of Russia in, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Asiatic animals, <a href="#Page_644">644</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— boundary-line, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russia, Population of, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Assaying gold at the mine, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_781">[781]</span>
+Assizes, Court of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Asylum at Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for prisoners’ children, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Atchinsk, Ispravnik of, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Atkinson, Mr., on the Amur, <a href="#Page_440">440</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on Buriat missions, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on Kirghese, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on Nertchinsk climate, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Atmosphere of prisons, <a href="#Page_381">381</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Author, Dilemma of, at Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_574">574</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Distance travelled by, <a href="#Page_770">770</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Farewell of exile life by, <a href="#Page_726">726–8</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Impressions of, concerning exile life, <a href="#Page_726">726–8</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Inquiries concerning, at Alexandreffsky, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Itinerary of, round the world, <a href="#Page_770">770</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Object of journey of, <a href="#Page_1">1</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Opinion of, on prisons, <a href="#Page_662">662</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Religious services of, <a href="#Page_701">701</a>, <a href="#Page_709">709</a>, <a href="#Page_725">725</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Work of, in Western Siberia, <a href="#Page_733">733</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Works consulted by, <a href="#Page_772">772</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Awaking a Russian at Nijni Udinsk, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Baikal, Lake, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Area of, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Basin of, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Destination for political prisoners, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fish of, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Flora of neighbourhood, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Storms on, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bail found by prisoners, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bank at Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_578">578</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Siberian State, <a href="#Page_578">578</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bankova River, Fair held by Cossacks, <a href="#Page_488">488</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Baptism, Author’s administration of, <a href="#Page_701">701</a>, <a href="#Page_709">709</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Certificate of, <a href="#Page_709">709</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the Russian Church, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Goldi, <a href="#Page_674">674</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Service of, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Barge transport of exiles, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Barnaul, Cemetery at, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Flora in district of, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Hospital at, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Journey to, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Land at, Cost of, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Museum at, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Poor-house at, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Provisions at, Cost of, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Silver-smelting at, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tatars at, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Usine</i> at, <a href="#Page_153">153–6</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Barracks at Blagovestchensk, <a href="#Page_526">526</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at gold-mines, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Kara, <a href="#Page_452">452</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_620">620</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_718">718</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bath-room in Petersburg Model Prison, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Battle with cockroaches at Rasdolnoi, <a href="#Page_702">702</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bays in the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_562">562</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bazaar at Tomsk, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bears, Mode of capturing, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— venerated by Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_606">606</a>, <a href="#Page_608">608</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Beds in Siberia, <a href="#Page_444">444</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Beef at Irkutsk, Cheapness of, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Beggars at Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Tomsk, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Beljetchenko</i> steamer, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Card-playing on the, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bell exiled, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bells of Russian churches, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Benediction of water, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Betrothal of Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_601">601</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Beverages of gold-miners, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i lang="ru">Bezpopoftschins</i>, Sects of, <a href="#Page_759">759</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bible distribution on the Shilka, <a href="#Page_539">539</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— possessed by priest at Krasnorechinska, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russian Church and the, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Society:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Finnish grant of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Irkutsk, Contemplated depôt at, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Kansk, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Roumanian grant, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Russian Scriptures printed for the, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Tomsk, Depôt at, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bibliography of Siberia, <a href="#Page_772">772</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bigotry of the Russian Church, <a href="#Page_756">756</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Biisk, Prison at, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Billings, Joseph, on Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_631">631</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Birching of prisoners, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Effects of, <a href="#Page_473">473</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Birch-trees on the Upper Amur, <a href="#Page_515">515</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Birds known to the Goldi, <a href="#Page_600">600</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prey in Western Siberia, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_782">[782]</span>—— of the Yeneseisk province, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on Mongolian frontier, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Yenesei, Seebohm on, <a href="#Page_763">763</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bishop, Consecration of a, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Black” Nihilists, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Blagovestchensk, Cossack barracks at, <a href="#Page_526">526</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Flood at, <a href="#Page_532">532</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Foundation of, <a href="#Page_500">500</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Government establishments at, <a href="#Page_526">526</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Meaning of, <a href="#Page_518">518</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Merchants’ stores at, <a href="#Page_526">526</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Meteorology of, <a href="#Page_532">532</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Missionary effort at, <a href="#Page_518">518–19</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison at, <a href="#Page_525">525</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Provisions at, Cost of, <a href="#Page_527">527</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Seminary for priests, <a href="#Page_523">523</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Students’ education at, <a href="#Page_523">523</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Temperature of, <a href="#Page_532">532</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Board at post-houses, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Boats of the Goldi, <a href="#Page_600">600</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Manchu, <a href="#Page_554">554–5</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Lena, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bogotol, Hospitality at, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bolan, Mission school at, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Books at Irkutsk hospital, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Church, Revision of, <a href="#Page_758">758</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— English, on Siberia, at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_629">629</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for prison, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for prisoners at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for the Trans-Baikal, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Letters concerning them, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— left with Gen. Ismailoff, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— left with M. Lochwitzky, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for Alexandreffsky prison, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on Siberian prisoners, <a href="#Page_379">379</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Stock of, at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Boot-making in prison, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bothnian tour of Author, <a href="#Page_540">540</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Boundaries of Siberia, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yeneseisk province, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Boundary of Russia and China, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bows and arrows of the Ostjaks, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Boys’ Industrial School at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_723">723</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Branding prisoners abolished, <a href="#Page_464">464</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bread, A substitute for, <a href="#Page_642">642</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Black, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bribery by prisoners, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bribery in trading transactions, <a href="#Page_626">626</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of guards by exiles, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prison officials, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Brickmaking at Alexandreffsky, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>British Workman</i> in Russ, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Brunière, De la, missionary to Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_612">612</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Buddhist praying machine, <a href="#Page_373">373</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— temple at Maimatchin, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Building a Siberian prison, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Buildings at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_625">625</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bulgarian Antiquities, Museum of, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bureya district, Climate of, <a href="#Page_542">542</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— mountains, Coal in the, <a href="#Page_536">536</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scenery of, <a href="#Page_537">537</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Burial service of the Russian Church, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Buriats as drivers, <a href="#Page_356">356–69</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— attitude towards exiles, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Conversion of, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— feast of boiled mutton, <a href="#Page_367">367</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fuel of, <a href="#Page_368">368</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— habitations, <a href="#Page_366">366</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— lamasery, or monastery, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— method of salutation, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Missions to the, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Atkinson, Mr., on, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Cochrane, J. D., on, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Hill, Mr. S. S., on, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i lang="ru">Obos</i> of the, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Occupation of the, <a href="#Page_369">369</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— opposition to invasion, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Physiognomy of, <a href="#Page_364">364</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_369">369</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Possessions of the, <a href="#Page_369">369</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Religion of the, <a href="#Page_370">370</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Respect of, for Lamas, <a href="#Page_371">371</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— treatment of escaped convicts, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Women’s head-dresses, <a href="#Page_365">365</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Buried Alive,” by Goryantchikoff, on flogging, <a href="#Page_654">654</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on political prisoners, <a href="#Page_384">384</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Burney, Capt., on Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_631">631</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Burning of Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Bush, Mr., on Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_633">633</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Busse, General, Military Governor of the Amur, <a href="#Page_500">500</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Butter, Siberian, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Cost of, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Butterflies on the Alexandreffsky route, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Camels, Caravan route by, <a href="#Page_351">351</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_783">[783]</span>—— on Mongolian frontier, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Candidates for holy orders, Lack of, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Candle worship, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Caravan transport in Siberia, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Card-playing at Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_656">656</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— by prisoners, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the <i>Beljetchenko</i>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Ussuri, <a href="#Page_680">680</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Carriage, Siberian, Cost of, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_746">746</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Carts of the Manchu, <a href="#Page_552">552</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Catechist at Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cathedral at Kiakhta, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— singing, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cats, Price of, on Lower Amur, <a href="#Page_600">600</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cattle in the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_697">697</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Manchu, <a href="#Page_550">550</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yeneseisk province, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cattley, Oswald, Loan of tarantass by, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on Obi trade, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_761">761</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cavalry, Mongolian, in Kiakhta, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cells at Blagovestchensk, <a href="#Page_525">525</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Dark, in Model Prison at Petersburg, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Kara prison, <a href="#Page_469">469</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Solitary, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cemeteries, Russian, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cemetery at Barnaul, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Certificate of baptism, <a href="#Page_709">709</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Chains worn by prisoners, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Changing horses, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Chapel in Model Prison at Petersburg, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Lutheran, at Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Chaplain for prisoners at Kara, <a href="#Page_458">458</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Chaplains of prisons, <a href="#Page_663">663</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Character of Koriaks, <a href="#Page_640">640</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cheese-making, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cheliuskin, Cape, Discovery of, <a href="#Page_767">767</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— rounded by Nordenskiöld, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Chernigovsky’s expedition on the Amur, <a href="#Page_492">492</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Children of prisoners’ asylum, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">China, Boundary of, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Difficulties with, on Amur question, <a href="#Page_501">501</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ethnography of empire, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— High road to, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— North-east passage to, attempted, <a href="#Page_766">766</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Travellers on Mongolian route, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Treaties with Russia, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Chinese amusement, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— appealed to by Amur tribes, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— chopsticks, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— clerks at Maimatchin, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— demand for silver money, <a href="#Page_715">715</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— dinner at Maimatchin, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— exports into Russia, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the Primorsk, Number of, <a href="#Page_714">714</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— junks and houses at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_716">716</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— merchant at Maimatchin, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— method of salutation, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i lang="ru">samovar</i>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— use of tea, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Chita, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Cucumbers at, <a href="#Page_426">426</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Flora in neighbourhood of, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Plète</i> at, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_361">361</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison at, <a href="#Page_362">362</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">The “Black-cart” at, <a href="#Page_362">362</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Situation of, <a href="#Page_361">361</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Baron R[osen] on, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Christian Goldi, Photograph of, <a href="#Page_674">674</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Christmas presents to scholars at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_723">723</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Chukchee coast, Fauna of, <a href="#Page_643">643</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1"><i lang="ru">Vega</i> frozen in on the, <a href="#Page_646">646</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— country, Flora of, <a href="#Page_644">644</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— language, <a href="#Page_647">647</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Chukchees, Marriage customs of the, <a href="#Page_643">643</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Number of the, <a href="#Page_639">639</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Church affairs in province of Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Kozloffskaya, <a href="#Page_670">670</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_624">624</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Baptism, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Certificate of, <a href="#Page_709">709</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bells, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bigotry, <a href="#Page_756">756</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bishop, Consecration of a, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— books, Revision of, <a href="#Page_758">758</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Candles, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Cathedrals, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Clergy, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— committees, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Confession, contrition, and communion, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_784">[784]</span>—— “Consistory,” <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Consolidation of the, <a href="#Page_751">751</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Dioceses, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “Directory,” <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— discipline, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Doctrines of Russian, Roman, and English, <a href="#Page_754">754</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Eastern, Greek, and Russian, Distinction between, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fanatical sects, <a href="#Page_758">758</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fasting, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Foundation of, <a href="#Page_751">751</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— History of the, <a href="#Page_751">751</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Holy oil, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Images, Worship of, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Journal of priest, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— knowledge, Sources of, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Liturgy, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Lutheran, at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_717">717</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Metropolitans, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Missionary collections, <a href="#Page_520">520</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Monasteries, <a href="#Page_163">163–77</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Clergy of, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— music, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Nunneries, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Obligation of clergy to be married, <a href="#Page_524">524</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Orders, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ordinations, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Parish priest: Position, pay, and tithes of, <a href="#Page_172">172–3</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Parishioners, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Penance, Sacrament of, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Picture worship, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Priests, Social disadvantages of, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— processions, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Protestants in Siberia, Number of, <a href="#Page_726">726</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Reformation period, <a href="#Page_753">753</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Registers, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Relation of Greek to English, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ritual, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Rural deaneries, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— schisms, <a href="#Page_756">756</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Seminary for priests at Blagovestchensk, <a href="#Page_523">523</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sermons, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>, <a href="#Page_671">671</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Number of, yearly, in Petersburg, <a href="#Page_460">460</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Services:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Burial, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Commemoration of the Virgin, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Marriage, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Transition period, <a href="#Page_752">752</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Unction, Sacrament of, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Vestments, <a href="#Page_163">163–4</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Churches at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Churching of women, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cigarette-making at Alexandreffsky, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">City on fire, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Civic arrangements in Russian towns, <a href="#Page_716">716</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Classification of exiles, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prisoners, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Clergy of Siberian Church, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fasting of, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Monastic, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Clerical vestments, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cliffs on the Upper Amur, <a href="#Page_516">516</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Shilka River, <a href="#Page_483">483</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Climate of the Middle Amur, <a href="#Page_532">532</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Bureya district, <a href="#Page_542">542</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_635">635</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Kansk, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Lake Khanka district, <a href="#Page_690">690</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_426">426</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Atkinson, Mr., on, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_563">563</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Lower Primorsk, <a href="#Page_564">564</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Tomsk, <a href="#Page_127">127–46</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Clothing, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Cossacks, <a href="#Page_683">683</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prisoners, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_455">455</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of seamen, <a href="#Page_737">737</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Club, Officers’, at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_624">624</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Coal at Dui, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_651">651</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_678">678</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Bureya mountains, <a href="#Page_536">536</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Coat of fish-skin, <a href="#Page_597">597</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cochrane, Capt., on Buriat missions, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Travels of, <a href="#Page_282">282–5</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Visit of, to Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cockroaches at Rasdolnoi, Battle with, <a href="#Page_702">702</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Coldest town—Yakutsk, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Collections at church doors for missions, <a href="#Page_520">520</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Collins, Mr., Descent of, in a silver-mine, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Amur, <a href="#Page_499">499</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_785">[785]</span>—— Visit of, to Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Voyage of, down the Shilka, <a href="#Page_441">441</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Colonies of Finns in Siberia, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Colonists, Exile, in Eastern Siberia, Number of, <a href="#Page_451">451</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “Little” Russians as, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Amur, <a href="#Page_502">502</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Penal, at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_726">726</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Privileges granted to, <a href="#Page_698">698</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Colonization of the Lower Amur, <a href="#Page_500">500</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Commandant of Kara Prison: Government allowance to, <a href="#Page_474">474</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Hospitality of, <a href="#Page_480">480</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Namesday of, <a href="#Page_479">479</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Salary of, <a href="#Page_461">461</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Commemorations of the Virgin, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Commerce of Tiumen, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_716">716</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russo-Chinese:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Kiakhta as a centre of, <a href="#Page_324">324</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— The Obi as an outlet for, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Commercial school at Tiumen, <a href="#Page_28">28</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Committees in connection with prisons, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Communication by Siberian roads, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Confession and Communion, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Priestly, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Confinement, Solitary, <a href="#Page_88">88</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Conquests of Russia on the Amur, <a href="#Page_489">489</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Yermak, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Conscription, Russian, Method of, <a href="#Page_736">736</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Consecration of a Bishop, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Consolidation of the Russian Church, <a href="#Page_751">751</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><cite>Contemporary Review</cite> on political exiles, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Contraband articles in Model Prison of Petersburg, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Conversion of a learned lama, <a href="#Page_521">521</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Buriats, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yakutes, Tzar’s ukase for the, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Convict clothing and chains, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">exiles as servants, <a href="#Page_730">730</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Convicts at Alexandreffsky, Number of, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Kara, Freedom of, <a href="#Page_448">448</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Number of, <a href="#Page_445">445</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the mines, <a href="#Page_462">462</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— labour compared with English, <a href="#Page_662">662</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— opinions of Tobolsk prison, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Convicts, Runaway, hunted down by Buriats, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cooking not usually needed, <a href="#Page_512">512</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “Rob Roy” cuisine, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Copper-mine, Descent of a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Nijni Tagilsk, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Malachite in, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Corean fugitives, <a href="#Page_714">714</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— houses, <a href="#Page_715">715</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Corporal punishment, <a href="#Page_423">423</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Correspondence with exiles, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cossacks, Barracks for, at Blagovestchensk, <a href="#Page_526">526</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Buriats’ opposition to, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Clothing of, <a href="#Page_683">683</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— combing goats, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— fair on Shilka, <a href="#Page_488">488</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Food of, <a href="#Page_682">682–3</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Houses of, <a href="#Page_683">683</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Lower Primorsk, <a href="#Page_568">568</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Ussuri, <a href="#Page_681">681</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Pay of, <a href="#Page_682">682</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Summer barracks at Kara, <a href="#Page_452">452</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cost of carriage in Siberia, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_746">746</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of salmon at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_628">628</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Siberian butler, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Costume of a Tunguse <i>Shaman</i>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Kirghese, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Manchu, <a href="#Page_551">551</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— The <i>Mala-Russiá</i>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cottin, Madame de, “Story of Elizabeth,” <a href="#Page_379">379–83</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Country of the Daurians, <a href="#Page_548">548</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Samoyedes, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— round Albazin, <a href="#Page_515">515</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Courier travelling, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Courts of law, Russian and Siberian, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cows near Tomsk, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Creed, Religious, of exiles, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Crime attributed to drunkenness, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in district of Kansk, <a href="#Page_235">235–6</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Crimean war, Influence of the, <a href="#Page_497">497</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Crimes of exiles, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prisoners at Kara, <a href="#Page_448">448</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Criminals at Nikolaefsk, Birching of, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Desperate, <a href="#Page_655">655</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Statistics of, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Zavod work for, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Cucumbers at Chita, <a href="#Page_426">426</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Amur, <a href="#Page_588">588</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Curiosity of fellow-passengers concerning Scripture distribution, <a href="#Page_539">539</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_786">[786]</span>
+Custom at leave-taking, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of addressing friends, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_620">620</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Customs of Goldi, <a href="#Page_672">672</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Trade, <a href="#Page_627">627</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst"><cite>Daily Telegraph</cite> on number of political prisoners, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dancing at Mikhailofsky, <a href="#Page_622">622</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Daurians, Agriculture of the, <a href="#Page_549">549</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Country of the, <a href="#Page_548">548</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Howorth, Mr., on the, <a href="#Page_548">548</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Religion of the, <a href="#Page_549">549</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dead, Gilyaks’ treatment of the, <a href="#Page_611">611</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Manchurian treatment of, <a href="#Page_554">554</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Deaneries, Rural, of the Russian Church, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Decembrists, Sympathy of Russians for, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Decocq’s hotel at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Deer in Southern Manchuria, <a href="#Page_696">696</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Koriaks, <a href="#Page_642">642</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">De la Brunière, Missionary to Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_612">612</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">De Lagny on Siberian political prisoners, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the <i>knout</i>, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">De Lesseps on Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_631">631</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— travels in Siberia, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Demidoff hospital at Tagil, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— mines at Nijni Tagilsk, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— works at ditto, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Demidoffs, Riches of the, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Deportation of exiles, Localities, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Modern plan of, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of political prisoners to the Trans-Baikal, <a href="#Page_377">377</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of vagrants to Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Depôt for sale of Scriptures at Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Description of a Siberian village, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the <i>plète</i>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Deserted village at Pashkova, <a href="#Page_671">671</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Desperate criminals, <a href="#Page_655">655</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Destination of exiles, Walking to, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Destruction of property by fire at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">De Vries, Capt., of Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_712">712</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dialect of Koriaks, <a href="#Page_640">640</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Diet of prisoners at Kara, <a href="#Page_453">453</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dinner among Chinese at Maimatchin, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at a Siberian hotel, <a href="#Page_431">431</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_619">619</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Diocese of Irkutsk, Number of churches, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dioceses of Siberian Church, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Director of Alexandreffsky prison, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Pay of, at Irkutsk prison, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Directories of Siberian Church, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Discipline, Ecclesiastical, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Discoveries of Nordenskiöld and Wiggins, <a href="#Page_761">761</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Discovery of the Shilka River, <a href="#Page_492">492</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dissent, Exiled for, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Scoptsi</i> village of, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dissenters, Efforts to reclaim, <a href="#Page_518">518</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Number of, <a href="#Page_519">519–27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Distance travelled by Author, <a href="#Page_770">770</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Distress at Irkutsk after fire, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Distribution of exiles, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Scriptures and tracts, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121–9</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_183">183–6</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_538">538</a>, <a href="#Page_665">665–6</a>, <a href="#Page_703">703–33</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i>, Divine Service on board the, <a href="#Page_740">740</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in a squall, <a href="#Page_742">742</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Inspection of the, <a href="#Page_741">741</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Officers of the, <a href="#Page_738">738</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison on board the, <a href="#Page_739">739</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Speed of the, <a href="#Page_735">735</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dobell, Peter, Travels of, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Doctors in Siberian towns, <a href="#Page_619">619</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Doctrine of the <i>Scoptsi</i>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Doctrines of the Russian, Roman, and English Churches, <a href="#Page_754">754</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dogs of Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_636">636</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— used by Gilyaks and Goldi, <a href="#Page_600">600</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Yakute, Breeding of, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dostoyeffsky’s “Buried Alive” and political prisoners, <a href="#Page_384">384</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Douga</i>, Description of the, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dress of Gilyaks in winter, <a href="#Page_597">597</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of penal colonists at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_728">728</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Samoyedes, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yakutes, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— The <i>Mala-Russia</i>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Drink, Aborigines’ love of, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— and its follies, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Madness through, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Murder under influence of, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Drivers, Buriats as, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Drunkards exiled by Russian villagers, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Drunkenness: Alcohol and <i lang="ru">vodka</i>, <a href="#Page_544">544</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_787">[787]</span>—— Arrests for, Number of, <a href="#Page_545">545</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— as a cause of crime, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at social leave-taking, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Comparison of Russian with English, <a href="#Page_544">544</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Effect on trade, <a href="#Page_627">627–30</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of gold-miners, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of <i lang="ru">yemstchik</i>, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on board the <i>Zeya</i>, <a href="#Page_506">506</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dubininskaya, Arrival at, <a href="#Page_692">692</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dui coal-mines, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Plète</i> in prison at, <a href="#Page_653">653</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison food at, <a href="#Page_656">656</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Officers at, <a href="#Page_660">660</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prisons at, <a href="#Page_652">652</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scriptures for, <a href="#Page_660">660</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i lang="ru">Dukhobortsi</i>, Sect of, <a href="#Page_760">760</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dutch explorers, <a href="#Page_766">766</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Duty of Priests, Treatise on the, <a href="#Page_181">181–2</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Dwellings of the Manchu, <a href="#Page_549">549</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Yakutes’, <a href="#Page_500">500</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Eagles tamed by Kirghese, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Earthquakes in Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_635">635</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Eastern and Western Siberia, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Greek, and Russian Church, Distinction between, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ecclesiastical discipline, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Echo</i> on exiles’ march, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Eden, C. H., on quicksilver, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Education in Russia, Cost of, <a href="#Page_719">719</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Subjects of study, <a href="#Page_720">720</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Western Siberia, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of exiles, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— clerical, at Blagovestchensk, <a href="#Page_523">523</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ekaterineburg, Englishmen at, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prisoners, Money allowance to, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Railway to, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Town of, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Transport of exiles to, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ekaterino-Nicolsk, Distribution of Scriptures at, <a href="#Page_538">538</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Garden at, <a href="#Page_537">537</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Elizabeth, Story of,” by Madame de Cottin, <a href="#Page_379">379–83</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Elk, Hunting of the, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Emeralds of the Odon Tchelon mountain, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Emery, Mr. Enoch, <a href="#Page_614">614</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Employment of prisoners in ship-yards, <a href="#Page_420">420</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Engineering firm at Tiumen, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Engines, Fire, <a href="#Page_573">573</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">English and Russian drunkenness compared, <a href="#Page_544">544</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— books at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_629">629</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— graves at Selenginsk, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— mission to Buriats, Story of the, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— newspaper accounts of exiles’ passage, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— suspected at Petersburg, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Englishmen at Ekaterineburg, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Equipage,” Description of an, <a href="#Page_439">439</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Erdmann, Admiral, Governor of Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_717">717</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Madame, Introduction to, <a href="#Page_717">717</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Erman on the valley of the Lena, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Escape of prisoners at Kara, <a href="#Page_465">465</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Étape prisons, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_616">616</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Number of soldiers employed for, <a href="#Page_667">667</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ethnography in Kasan government, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Alexandreffsky prisoners, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Russia in Asia, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Russian and Chinese empires, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Tobolsk province, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Europe and Asia, Frontier of, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Weather in crossing, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Exchange of money, <a href="#Page_731">731</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Exchanging names and punishments, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Excitement at Petersburg, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Exile convict servants, <a href="#Page_730">730</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— life, Author’s farewell and impressions of, <a href="#Page_726">726–8</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Exiles accompanied by wives, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— as colonists, <a href="#Page_451">451</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— bribing guards, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Buriats’ attitude towards, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Classification of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Correspondence, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Crimes of, <a href="#Page_33">33</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Deportation, Localities of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Modern plan of, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— destination, Walking to, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Distribution of, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Education of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Étape prisons for, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for dissent, <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fund for, at Moscow, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gilyaks’ attitude towards, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_788">[788]</span>—— in Kansk, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Lemke on treatment of, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— March of, <i>Echo</i> on, <a href="#Page_415">415</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Marriage rites of, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Number of, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the march, <a href="#Page_48">48</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Passage of, English newspapers on, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— passing through Tiumen, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Perisylnie</i> prisons for, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Political:</li>
+  <li class="isub1"><cite>Contemporary Review</cite> on, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Whyte, Mr., on number of, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Presents to, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Proportion condemned to hard labour, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Raskolnik</i>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— receiving the <i>plète</i>, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Réclus, M., on the first, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Release, A, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Religious creed of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Religious scruples respected, <a href="#Page_460">460</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Returned, Number of, <a href="#Page_729">729</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— route, <i lang="fr">viâ</i> Suez Canal, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Runaways, Capture of, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sentences of, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Social ties of, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Transport by barge and rail, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Expedition of Chernigovsky on the Amur, <a href="#Page_492">492</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Khabarof, <a href="#Page_490">490</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Pashkof, <a href="#Page_492">492</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Poyarkof, <a href="#Page_490">490</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Stepanof, <a href="#Page_491">491</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Explorations, Early, by sea and land, <a href="#Page_766">766</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Nordenskiöld, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scientific, in Siberia, <a href="#Page_768">768</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Export of furs from Siberia, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Exports at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_714">714</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Chinese, into Russia, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— from Siberia, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Probable future of, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Extravagance of gold-miners, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">“Fabric” work, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fair at Nijni Novgorod, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the River Bankova, <a href="#Page_488">488</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fanatical sects, <a href="#Page_758">758</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fasting of clergy, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fasting of prisoners, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fauna of Chukchee coast, <a href="#Page_643">643</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_565">565</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Feast of mutton by Buriats, <a href="#Page_367">367</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Female prisoners at Kara, <a href="#Page_467">467–8</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ferry, A Siberian, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fertility of Tobolsk, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Finland: Grant of Bible Society, <a href="#Page_3">3</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prisons in, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Finnish colonies, Transport of prisoners to, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— pamphlets, Gift of, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Finns at Ruschkova, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Finsch, Dr., in Akmolinsk, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">in Semipolatinsk, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fire at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Perm, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— engines, <a href="#Page_573">573</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fires due to incendiarism, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fish eaten by Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_596">596</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gilyak mode of catching, <a href="#Page_598">598</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Lake Khanka, <a href="#Page_679">679</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Primorsk, Price of, <a href="#Page_569">569</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in River Sungacha, <a href="#Page_679">679</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in River Ussuri, <a href="#Page_679">679</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the Anadir, <a href="#Page_640">640</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Manchurian method of catching, <a href="#Page_555">555</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Lake Baikal, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yenesei, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Lower Amur, <a href="#Page_581">581</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— pie a Siberian luxury, <a href="#Page_432">432</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— skin coat, <a href="#Page_597">597</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— trade at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_628">628</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fisheries of the Obi and Taz, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fishing in Manchuria, Method of, <a href="#Page_555">555</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— boat of the Manchu, <a href="#Page_555">555</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fleas and vermin in prisons, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fleet, Siberian:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Officers, Pay of, <a href="#Page_734">734</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Sailors, Clothing of, <a href="#Page_736">736</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— Food of, <a href="#Page_736">736</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— Pay of, <a href="#Page_734">734</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— Religious professions of, <a href="#Page_741">741</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Flight of inhabitants from Irkutsk fire, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Flogging prisoners, Andreoli on, <a href="#Page_93">93</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Goryantchikoff on, <a href="#Page_654">654</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Flood at Blagovestchensk, <a href="#Page_532">532</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Flooding of the Yenesei, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Flora at Kansk, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_789">[789]</span>—— between Tomsk and Barnaul, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_636">636</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in neighbourhood of Chita, <a href="#Page_404">404</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in private houses, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Chukchee country, <a href="#Page_644">644</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Lake Baikal vicinity, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of North-east Siberia, <a href="#Page_645">645</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_565">565</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Upper Amur, <a href="#Page_517">517</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yenesei, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Flour sold at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_569">569</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Flowers at Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_579">579</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Food of Cossacks, <a href="#Page_682">682–3</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_596">596</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of miners, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of natives at Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_650">650</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prisoners, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>, <a href="#Page_656">656</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Cost of, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Difficulty in procuring, <a href="#Page_659">659</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Horseflesh reported as, <a href="#Page_746">746</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of sailors in Siberian fleet, <a href="#Page_736">736</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Forçats, Classification of, <a href="#Page_449">449</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Escape of, <a href="#Page_466">466</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Meaning of, <a href="#Page_449">449</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Forests near Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Yeneseisk, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Formation of the Shilka River, <a href="#Page_482">482</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fort of Anadirsk, <a href="#Page_640">640</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fortress of Sibir, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fortunes of gold-miners, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Foundation of Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Mariinsk, <a href="#Page_585">585</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_615">615</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Russian Church, <a href="#Page_751">751</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of town of Yakutsk, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Foxes, Hunting of, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Franklin, Sir John, and his “equipage,” <a href="#Page_439">439</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Free colonists, Privileges of, <a href="#Page_698">698</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— school at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_722">722</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Freedom of convicts at Kara, <a href="#Page_448">448</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Frontier of Europe and Asia, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Frozen butchers’ meat, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fruit at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_690">690</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_636">636</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on Lower Amur, <a href="#Page_583">583</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Siberian, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fuel, <i>Argols</i> used as, <a href="#Page_368">368</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Fugitives, Corean, <a href="#Page_714">714</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Furniture of Siberian prisons, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Yakutes’ houses, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Furs from Siberia, Export of, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Gambling, Effects on trade, <a href="#Page_627">627</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Russians, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Game, Abundance of, <a href="#Page_696">696</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Garden at Ekaterino-Nicolsk, <a href="#Page_537">537</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_717">717</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Gardening by prisoners, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i lang="ru">Gaulois</i> on number of political prisoners, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Gems in neighbourhood of Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Trans-Baikal province, <a href="#Page_378">378</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>General Korsakoff</i>, On board the, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Géographie Universelle” of M. Réclus, <a href="#Page_631">631</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Geological Museum at Barnaul, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Gilyaks, Amusements of the, <a href="#Page_602">602</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— attitude towards exiles, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bears, Veneration for, <a href="#Page_606">606</a>, <a href="#Page_608">608</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Betrothal of, <a href="#Page_601">601</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Children of, <a href="#Page_595">595</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Country, Extent of, <a href="#Page_594">594</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Dead, Treatment of the, <a href="#Page_611">611</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Dogs used by, <a href="#Page_600">600</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— dress in winter, <a href="#Page_597">597</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Etymology, <a href="#Page_593">593</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Family of, <a href="#Page_603">603</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fish eaten by, <a href="#Page_596">596</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fishing, <a href="#Page_598">598</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Food of, <a href="#Page_596">596</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Foreign relationships, <a href="#Page_602">602</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— habitations on Amur, <a href="#Page_591">591</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Habits of, <a href="#Page_599">599</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Hotsprings at village of, <a href="#Page_588">588</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Idols of, <a href="#Page_606">606</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Mission schools for, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Missionaries to the, <a href="#Page_612">612–66</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Occupation of, <a href="#Page_598">598</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Polygamy among, <a href="#Page_601">601</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population, <a href="#Page_594">594</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Religion of, <a href="#Page_609">609</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Shamanism, <a href="#Page_609">609</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Stature of, <a href="#Page_594">594</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Superstitions of, <a href="#Page_605">605</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tigers, Fear of, <a href="#Page_606">606</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Villages of the, <a href="#Page_593">593</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Winter habitations of, <a href="#Page_595">595</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Women, Estimation of, <a href="#Page_601">601</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ginseng of Manchuria, <a href="#Page_691">691</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on Upper Ussuri, Plantations of, <a href="#Page_566">566</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Girls’ Institute at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_721">721</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_790">[790]</span>
+Glaisher, Mr., Introductions from, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Meteorological instruments, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Gluttony of the Yakutes, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Goats of the Kirghese, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Goitre, Siberians afflicted with, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Gold deposits, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— digging, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— found in the Trans-Baikal province, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_583">583</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the Za-Baikal, <a href="#Page_462">462</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Yakutsk, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— mine, The “Archangel Gabriel,” <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— miners at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Drunkenness of, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Extravagance of, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— mines, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Beverages for workmen, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Subterranean work of, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Wages at, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">(<i>See also</i> “<a href='#index-mines'>Mines</a>”)</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— mining, Season for, <a href="#Page_462">462</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prospecting party, A, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russian, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— seekers, <a href="#Page_212">212–13</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— washing, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>, <a href="#Page_583">583</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Goldi, Appearance of, <a href="#Page_583">583</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Baptisms of, <a href="#Page_674">674</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Birds known to, <a href="#Page_600">600</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— boats, <a href="#Page_600">600</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Customs of, <a href="#Page_672">672</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Dogs, Use of, <a href="#Page_600">600</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— language, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— lexicon, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Missionary to, <a href="#Page_671">671</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Number of, <a href="#Page_672">672</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Photograph of, <a href="#Page_674">674</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Physiognomy of, <a href="#Page_672">672</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Polygamy among, <a href="#Page_601">601</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— weddings, <a href="#Page_601">601</a>, <a href="#Page_674">674</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— wives, Price of, <a href="#Page_601">601</a>, <a href="#Page_674">674</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— women, Estimation of, <a href="#Page_601">601</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Gordon, Peter, Travels of, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Goryantchikoff on flogging of prisoners, <a href="#Page_654">654</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Gospels translated by Archdeacon of Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_673">673</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Gostinnoi Dvor</i>, or Bazaar, at Tomsk, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Government allowance to Commandant of Kara, <a href="#Page_474">474</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Government buildings at Aigun, <a href="#Page_557">557</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— establishments at Blagovestchensk, <a href="#Page_526">526</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— grant to Vladivostock Girls’ Institute, <a href="#Page_721">721</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Governments” in Siberia, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Governor of a province, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Tobolsk, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Governors-General, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Houses of, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Granite rocks on the Shilka, <a href="#Page_487">487</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Graves of English missionaries at Selenginsk, <a href="#Page_319">319</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Greek Church, Penance in, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Relation of, to English Church, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russian, and Eastern Church, Distinction between, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Guards bribed by exiles, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Habitations of Buriats, <a href="#Page_366">366</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_591">591–5</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Koriaks, <a href="#Page_641">641</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Habits of Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_599">599</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hakodate to Yokohama, <a href="#Page_743">743</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Harbour of Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_712">712</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hard-labour prisons at Tobolsk, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of exiles, Proportion condemned to, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hardships of gold-miners, <a href="#Page_216">216</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of <i lang="ru">isvostchiks</i>, <a href="#Page_627">627</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Harness of Siberian horses, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— The <i lang="ru">douga</i>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Head-dress of Buriat women, <a href="#Page_365">365</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Tatar women, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hearthrugs for tarantass travelling, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Heathen rites at Kasan, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hellman, Miss Alba, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gift of pamphlets by, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Helsingfors Dagblad</i>, Author’s Bothnian tour in the, <a href="#Page_540">540</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Herbaceous plants in the Lower Primorsk, <a href="#Page_566">566</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hertzen, Alex., on political prisoners, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">High school at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_719">719</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hill, Mr., on Buriat missions, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Lena, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Travels of, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">History of the Amur, <a href="#Page_489">489</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Russian Church, <a href="#Page_751">751</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Holy Oil in Church service, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_791">[791]</span>
+Holy Orders in the Russian Church, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Scarcity of candidates, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Unction, Office of the, <a href="#Page_169">169–70</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Honesty of the Ostjaks, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Samoyedes, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Horns of the reindeer, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Horse-eating by the Yakutes, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— flesh reported as food for prisoners, <a href="#Page_746">746</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Horses, Changing of, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Harness of, <a href="#Page_137">137</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Orochons’, <a href="#Page_508">508</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Shoeing of, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Siberian, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Yakutes’ treatment of, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hospital at Alexandreffsky, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Barnaul, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at gold-mine, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Irkutsk, Books for, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Kara, <a href="#Page_471">471</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Tagil, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Tomsk, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hospitality at Bogotol, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Siberia, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Commandant at Kara, <a href="#Page_480">480</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Kamchatdales, <a href="#Page_639">639</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hospitals at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_617">617</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_617">617</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Impressions of, <a href="#Page_618">618</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hotel at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Siberian, Method of dining, <a href="#Page_431">431</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hot-springs at Gilyak village, <a href="#Page_588">588</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hours of labour at a gold-mine, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Houses at Kozloffskaya, <a href="#Page_671">671</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Maimatchin, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Flora in, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Buriats, <a href="#Page_366">366</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Chinese, <a href="#Page_716">716</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Coreans, <a href="#Page_715">715</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Cossacks, <a href="#Page_683">683</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_595">595</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Governors-General, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Kamchatdales, <a href="#Page_639">639</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Manchu, <a href="#Page_550">550</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Siberians, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Yakutes, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Howard Association Report, Mistake of Mr. Tallack in, <a href="#Page_745">745</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Howorth, Mr. on Daurians, <a href="#Page_548">548</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Manchu, <a href="#Page_548">548</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Samoyedes, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Hunting by the Orochons, <a href="#Page_509">509</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Eagles trained for, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Methods of, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of foxes, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— the elk, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Idols, Gilyak, <a href="#Page_606">606</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yurak-Samoyedes, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tchuvash and Tcheremisi, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ignatoff, Mr., at Tiumen, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Influence of, <a href="#Page_118">118–60</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ikons, Worship of, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Image-worship, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Immorality, Effects on trade, <a href="#Page_627">627</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Importation of tea into Russia, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Imports at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_714">714</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_570">570</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Impressions of exile life, <a href="#Page_726">726–8</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Incendiarism in Siberia, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Income of a <i lang="ru">tayoshnik</i>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Indictment of a prisoner, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Industrial school for boys at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_723">723</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Influence of the Anglo-Chinese war, <a href="#Page_501">501</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Crimean war, <a href="#Page_497">497</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ingoda, Collins’s descent, <a href="#Page_482">482</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gold-mines on the, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Ingoda</i> steamer on the Amur, <a href="#Page_510">510</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Inhabitants of the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_567">567</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_713">713</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Inmates of Irkutsk prison, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Innokente, St., Shrine of, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Inquisitiveness about Author, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Inspection of the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i>, <a href="#Page_741">741</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Inspector of schools of Eastern Siberia, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Institute for girls, <a href="#Page_721">721</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Institution for prisoners’ children at Tomsk, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Institutions for training schoolmasters, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Instruments, Meteorological, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Insubordination of prisoners, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Interpreter a necessity, <a href="#Page_4">4</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Joined by, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Parting with, <a href="#Page_439">439</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Introductions, Numbers of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Invasion of Cossacks opposed by Buriats, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Irkutsk, Alcoholic liquors at, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_792">[792]</span>—— Archbishop of, Interview sought, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bible Society at, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Books at, Stock of, <a href="#Page_280">280</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Churches, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Decocq’s hotel at, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Deputy-Governor of, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Diocese, Churches of, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Distress, Relief of, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on fire, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Firemen’s arrangements, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Flight of inhabitants, <a href="#Page_257">257</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Museum burnt, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Origin, Supposed, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Procession at, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Property destroyed, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Provisions, Procuring, after the fire, <a href="#Page_309">309</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ruins of the city, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Salvage, Articles of, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Spectacle of burning city, <a href="#Page_260">260–62</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Founding of city, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gold-miners, Resort for, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— hospital, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Larsen, Mr., Introduction to, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Limit (Proposed) of travel, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Markets at, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— prison:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Director, Pay of, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Food for hospital and, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Inmates of, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Library of, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— prisoners:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Books for, <a href="#Page_276">276–7</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Money allowed to, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Provisions at, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Roads of, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— School at, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Shrine of St. Innokente, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Usine</i> at, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Winter at, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Iron in the valley of the Tom, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— ore in Yenesei valley, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Smelting of, by Yakutes, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tons cast in 1879, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— works at Petrovsky Zavod, <a href="#Page_355">355</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Irons on prisoners, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421–63</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Irtish</i>, barge for prisoners, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tract distribution on the, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Island of Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_648">648</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ismailoff, Gen., Deputy-Governor of Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ismailoff, Gen., Books left with, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Ispravniks</i>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Pay of, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Isvostchiks</i>, Hardships of, <a href="#Page_627">627</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Itinerary round the world, <a href="#Page_770">770</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Jail at Tomsk, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Japan, Russian Missions in, <a href="#Page_358">358</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Jews at Kara, <a href="#Page_455">455</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Tiumen, <a href="#Page_460">460</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Journal, A priest’s, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Journey by rail from Petersburg to Moscow, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of an exile from Petersburg to Tobolsk, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Author, Extent of, <a href="#Page_770">770</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Object of, <a href="#Page_1">1</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of 2,670 miles by rail, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— to Alexandreffsky, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— to Barnaul, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Journeys of previous travellers, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Juchova, Price of provisions at, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Judges of the Peace, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Junks of the Chinese, <a href="#Page_716">716</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Jury, Trial by, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Kachugskoe, Width of Lena at, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kama River, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Steamers on the, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kamchatdales, Appearance of, <a href="#Page_637">637</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Hospitality of, <a href="#Page_639">639</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Houses of, <a href="#Page_639">639</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Number of, <a href="#Page_638">638</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kamchatka, Anadir River, <a href="#Page_639">639</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Area of, <a href="#Page_634">634</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Billings, Joseph, on, <a href="#Page_631">631</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Burney, Capt., on, <a href="#Page_631">631</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bush, Mr., on, <a href="#Page_633">633</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Capital of, <a href="#Page_638">638</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Climate of, <a href="#Page_635">635</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— De Lesseps on, <a href="#Page_631">631</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Dogs of, <a href="#Page_636">636</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Earthquakes in, <a href="#Page_635">635</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Flora of, <a href="#Page_636">636</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fruit in, <a href="#Page_636">636</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Language of, <a href="#Page_637">637</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Locality of, <a href="#Page_630">630</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sledging in, <a href="#Page_637">637</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Vegetables of, <a href="#Page_645">645</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Volcanoes in, <a href="#Page_635">635</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Wildfowl of, <a href="#Page_637">637</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kamen Ruiboloff, Arrival at, <a href="#Page_686">686</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kansk, Bible Society and, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Climate of, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_793">[793]</span>—— Crime in district of, <a href="#Page_235">235–6</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Exiles in, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Flora of, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ispravnik of, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Priests at, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison at, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— School at, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kara, Barracks for Cossacks in summer, <a href="#Page_452">452</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Commandant, Government allowance to, <a href="#Page_474">474</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Hospitality of, <a href="#Page_480">480</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Namesday of, <a href="#Page_479">479</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Salary of, <a href="#Page_461">461</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gold-washing at, <a href="#Page_477">477</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Hospitals at, <a href="#Page_471">471</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Murderers sent to, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Police-master at, <a href="#Page_485">485</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— prison:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Cells in, <a href="#Page_469">469</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Diet, Scale of, <a href="#Page_453">453</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Photography by priest, <a href="#Page_458">458</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Plète at, <a href="#Page_464">464</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prisoners at:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Aged, <a href="#Page_470">470</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Branding abolished, <a href="#Page_464">464</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Chaplain for, <a href="#Page_458">458</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Classification of, <a href="#Page_450">450</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Clothing of, <a href="#Page_455">455</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Crimes of, <a href="#Page_448">448</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Female, <a href="#Page_467">467–8</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Forçats classification, <a href="#Page_449">449</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— Escape of, <a href="#Page_466">466</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Freedom of, <a href="#Page_448">448</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Irons on, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Jewish, <a href="#Page_455">455</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Labour of, <a href="#Page_463">463–4</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Money from friends for, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Number of, <a href="#Page_445">445</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Politicals, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Provisions for, Cost of, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Scurvy among, <a href="#Page_472">472</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Sentences of, <a href="#Page_450">450</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1"><i>Starostas</i> among, <a href="#Page_454">454</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Work of, <a href="#Page_446">446</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Reputation of, unenviable, <a href="#Page_473">473</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sea, Wiggins on the, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_768">768</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Storehouse at, <a href="#Page_455">455</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kasan, Founding of city, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— government, Ethnography, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Tatars in the, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Heathen rites at, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Seminary at, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kazakevich, Admiral, <a href="#Page_500">500</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kaznakoff, Governor-General, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Khabarof’s expedition on the Amur 490</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Khabarofka, Author’s dilemma, <a href="#Page_574">574</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bank at, <a href="#Page_578">578</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Flowers at, <a href="#Page_579">579</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Military post at, <a href="#Page_577">577</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Musical instruments at, <a href="#Page_552">552</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Plusnin, merchant, <a href="#Page_668">668</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Post-office at, <a href="#Page_578">578</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Priest, Visit to, <a href="#Page_673">673–7</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sable-skins at, Sale of, <a href="#Page_577">577</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scriptures for, <a href="#Page_667">667</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Silver money at, <a href="#Page_715">715</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Temperature of, <a href="#Page_579">579</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tichmeneff, General, and the port, <a href="#Page_666">666</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tigers at, <a href="#Page_689">689</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Town, Situation of, <a href="#Page_577">577</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Trees at, <a href="#Page_579">579</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Khamenoff, General, and his footman, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Khanka Lake, Area of, <a href="#Page_685">685</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Depth of, <a href="#Page_685">685</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— District of, <a href="#Page_689">689</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Climate of, <a href="#Page_690">690</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Medicinal plants of, <a href="#Page_691">691</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fish of, <a href="#Page_679">679</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Winds on, <a href="#Page_686">686</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kiakhta cathedral, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Commerce of, <a href="#Page_324">324</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Mongolian cavalry in, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison at, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kirghese, Atkinson on the, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Costumes of the, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Eagles used by the, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— goats, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Koumis</i>, a beverage of the, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kizi Lake, Area of, <a href="#Page_585">585</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Knout</i> abolished, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “A German Nobleman” on the, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Andreoli, M., on the, <a href="#Page_91">91</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— De Lagny on the, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Knox, Mr., on the Shilka, <a href="#Page_441">441</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“K., O.” on number of exiles in 1876, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on “Russia and England,” <a href="#Page_748">748</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Koecher, Mr., at Troitzkosavsk, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Koriaks, Bread of, <a href="#Page_642">642</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Character of, <a href="#Page_640">640</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Deer of the, <a href="#Page_642">642</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Dialect of the, <a href="#Page_640">640</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Habitations of the, <a href="#Page_641">641</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_794">[794]</span>—— Language of the, <a href="#Page_647">647</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Number of the, <a href="#Page_639">639</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sick and Aged, Treatment of, <a href="#Page_643">643</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Wandering, <a href="#Page_642">642</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Koumis</i>, Love of Kirghese for, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kozloffskaya, Church at, <a href="#Page_670">670</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Houses at, <a href="#Page_671">671</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Priest at, <a href="#Page_670">670</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Krasnoiarsk, Asylum at, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Beggars at, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Catechist at, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Cathedral at, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Forest near, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Founding of, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gold-mining district of, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Hospitality at, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Hotel at, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Houses at, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Lutheran chapel at, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Peacock, Dr., of, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Perisylnie</i> prison at, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Province of, Scriptures for, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “Rotten Row” of, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scriptures at, Depôt for sale of, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Town of, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Krasnorechinska, Bible of priest at, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kruskopf, M. Emile, <a href="#Page_540">540</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Kureika River, <i>Thames</i> laid up in the, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Kvas</i> at Tomsk, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Labour, Hours of, in mines, <a href="#Page_423">423</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of convicts compared with English, <a href="#Page_662">662</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prisoners, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463–4</a>, <a href="#Page_658">658</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lagny, De, on prisoners, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lakes of Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yeneseisk province, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lama, Conversion of a, <a href="#Page_521">521</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lamas, <a href="#Page_348">348</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— forbidden to take life, <a href="#Page_372">372</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— respected by Buriats, <a href="#Page_371">371</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lamasery for Buriats, <a href="#Page_335">335–71</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Land at Barnaul, Cost of, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Landscape scenery of Siberia, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Language of Aïnos, <a href="#Page_650">650</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Chukchees, <a href="#Page_647">647</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Goldi, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_637">637</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Koriaks, <a href="#Page_647">647</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Manchu, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Manyargs, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Orochons, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Russians, <a href="#Page_441">441</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Yakutes, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Larsen, Mr., Introduction to, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Latham on the Turkish race, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on population of Russia and China, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on “Races of Russian Empire,” <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lavra monastery, <a href="#Page_177">177–8</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Law, Courts of, Russian and Siberian, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lead, Scarcity of, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Leave-taking in Siberia, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ledyard, John, Travels of, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lemke on treatment of political exiles, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lemmings, <a href="#Page_644">644</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lena River, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— as an outlet, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Kachugskoe, Width of, <a href="#Page_287">287</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Boats on the, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Course of the, <a href="#Page_286">286</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gold-mines, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Mammoth on the, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Merchandise on the, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Rhinoceros on the, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Travellers on the, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tributaries of the, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Lena</i> rounding Cape Cheliuskin, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Length of the Ussuri, <a href="#Page_679">679</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lesseps, De, on Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_631">631</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Travels in Siberia, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Letters concerning Scripture distribution, <a href="#Page_401">401–2</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— posted at Verchne-Udinsk, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lexicon, Goldi, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Library at Irkutsk prison, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lichatcheff’s Museum of Bulgarian Antiquities, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Little” Russians as colonists, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Littoral, Russian, Number of Chinese in, <a href="#Page_714">714</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Liturgy of Russian Church, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Location of prisons, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lochwitzky, M., Books to, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Interview with, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Lodging at post-houses, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Loss of pocket-book, <a href="#Page_692">692</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Love of Russians for tea, <a href="#Page_534">534</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_795">[795]</span>
+Lutheran chapel at Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— church at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_717">717</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Machine for praying to Buddha, <a href="#Page_373">373</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Madhouses exceptional in Primorsk, <a href="#Page_618">618</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Madness from drink at Tomsk, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Maimatchin, Buddhist temple, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Chinese dinner at, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Merchant at, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Clerks at, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Houses at, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Plays at, Licentious, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_337">337</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Streets of, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Mala-Russia</i> costume, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Malachite in copper-mine, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Maladies of the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_571">571</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mammalia inhabiting Siberia, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mammoth remains, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Manchu boats, <a href="#Page_554">554–5</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— carts, <a href="#Page_552">552</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Cattle of the, <a href="#Page_550">550</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Dwellings of the, <a href="#Page_549">549–50</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— guests, Reception of, <a href="#Page_553">553</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Howorth, Mr., on the, <a href="#Page_548">548</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— language, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— people, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— shop, <a href="#Page_553">553</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— temples, <a href="#Page_549">549</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Manchuria, Boundary of, <a href="#Page_547">547</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Costume of the men, <a href="#Page_551">551</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ginseng of, <a href="#Page_691">691</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Southern, Deer in, <a href="#Page_696">696</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Town of, <a href="#Page_550">550</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Manchurian archers, <a href="#Page_556">556</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— dead, Treatment of the, <a href="#Page_554">554</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— fishing, Method of, <a href="#Page_555">555</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— sable-skins, <a href="#Page_696">696</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Manufactories at Telma, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Siberia, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Manyargs, Language of the, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on Middle Amur, <a href="#Page_507">507</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Manzas, Robberies by, <a href="#Page_715">715</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mariinsk, Foundation of, <a href="#Page_585">585</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scripture distribution at, <a href="#Page_665">665</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Market at Troitzkosavsk, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Markets at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Markova, Scenery at, <a href="#Page_684">684</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Marriage compulsory on clergy, <a href="#Page_524">524</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— customs of Chukchees, <a href="#Page_643">643</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">of the Ostjaks, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— rites of exiles, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Marriage services, <a href="#Page_168">168</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Martyrdom of a missionary, <a href="#Page_612">612</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Materialism in Siberia, <a href="#Page_705">705</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mayor of Tiumen, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mayors of Siberian towns, <a href="#Page_716">716</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Meals on board a steamer, <a href="#Page_513">513</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Meat at Irkutsk, Cheapness of, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the Middle Primorsk, Cost of, <a href="#Page_568">568</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Medicine, Author’s stock of, <a href="#Page_703">703</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Plants for, <a href="#Page_691">691</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Medvedsky, School at, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Merchandise on the Lena, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Merchant, Chinese, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russian, Specimen of a, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Merchants’ stores at Blagovestchensk, <a href="#Page_526">526</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Metals in the Za-Baikal, <a href="#Page_378">378</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">——- Precious, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Meteorological instruments, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— observatory at Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Meteorology of Blagovestchensk, <a href="#Page_532">532</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Metropolitan of Moscow, <a href="#Page_10">10</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mexican dollars at Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_715">715</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mica and gold at Yakutsk, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Middle Primorsk, Area of, <a href="#Page_568">568</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mikhailofsky, Dancing at, <a href="#Page_622">622</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Miles travelled by Author, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href="#Page_770">770</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Military exemptions, <a href="#Page_720">720</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— hospitals at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_617">617</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— post at Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_577">577</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mills at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_709">709</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mine, Copper, Descent of a, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Magnetic iron, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mineral springs on the Shilka, <a href="#Page_488">488</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Minerals in Altai mountains, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yeneseisk province, <a href="#Page_240">240</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Miners, Gold:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Beverages of, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Drunkenness of, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Extravagance of, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Food of, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Wages of, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Testimonies from, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Wiggins, Captain, on, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx" id='index-mines'>Mines at Kara:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Female prisoners at, <a href="#Page_467">467–8</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Gold-washing at, <a href="#Page_477">477</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Work, Leaving off, <a href="#Page_464">464</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Inaccessibility of, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Nijni Tagilsk, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Coal, at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_678">678</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_796">[796]</span>—— Gold, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">“Archangel Gabriel,” The, <a href="#Page_218">218</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Assaying, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Barracks at, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Districts of, <a href="#Page_211">211–12</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Hospital at, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ingoda River, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Krasnoiarsk district, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Manager of, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Mohammedans at, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Nertcha River, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Olekma River, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Onon River, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Proprietors of, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Registration of, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Stables at, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Washing the gold, <a href="#Page_222">222</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Work, Hours of, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Working the metal, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Altai district, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Manganese iron ore, <a href="#Page_22">22</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Private, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Punishment in the, <a href="#Page_456">456</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “Quicksilver,” <a href="#Page_411">411</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Nertchinsk, Baron R[osen] on, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— <i>Newcastle Daily Chronicle</i> on, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— None heard of at, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1"><i>Sheffield Daily Telegraph</i> on, <a href="#Page_747">747</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Silver:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Altai region, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Collins’s descent of, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Food at, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Formation of, <a href="#Page_422">422</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Labour, Hours of, <a href="#Page_423">423</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Rozguildieff, Cruelty of, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Women <i>not</i> working in, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Unhealthy fumes reported, <a href="#Page_408">408</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Work in, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mining district, Principal centre of, <a href="#Page_420">420</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gold, Season for, <a href="#Page_462">462</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Minister of the Interior, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Miracle” at Troitzkosavsk, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Miraculous ikons, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Misadventures of tarantass travelling, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Misrepresentations of newspapers, <a href="#Page_744">744–5</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of various writers, <a href="#Page_379">379–83</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416–68</a>, <a href="#Page_744">744</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mission at Blagovestchensk, <a href="#Page_518">518–19</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— converts, Charge of bribery, <a href="#Page_676">676</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Conversion of a lama, <a href="#Page_521">521</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— English at Selenginsk, Story of the, <a href="#Page_318">318–20</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Offertories, <a href="#Page_677">677</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— school at Bolan, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">at Troitzka, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— schools for Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— to Aïnos, <a href="#Page_650">650</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— to Burials, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Atkinson, Mr., on, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Hill, Mr., on, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— to Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_612">612–65</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— to Goldi, <a href="#Page_671">671–4</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— to Japanese, <a href="#Page_358">358</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Missionaries, Pay of, <a href="#Page_676">676</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Missionary collections at church doors, <a href="#Page_520">520</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Martyrdom of a, <a href="#Page_612">612</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Missions: Results of Orthodox Missionary Society’s work, <a href="#Page_520">520</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Model Prison at Petersburg, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mohammedan mosques in Tatar villages, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— workmen at gold-mines, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Molokans, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Doctrines of the, <a href="#Page_528">528</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Manner of living, <a href="#Page_529">529</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Monasteries, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Clergy of, <a href="#Page_176">176</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Three kinds of, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Monastery for Buriat priests, <a href="#Page_335">335</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Monastic life at Yuryef, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Money allowance to prisoners at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— exchanged, <a href="#Page_731">731</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prisoners’, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— received by prisoners from friends, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Silver, Chinese demand, <a href="#Page_715">715</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— taken by Author, <a href="#Page_578">578</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tea used as an equivalent for, <a href="#Page_343">343</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mongolian camels, Caravan route by, <a href="#Page_351">351</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— cavalry in Kiakhta, <a href="#Page_326">326</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— frontier, Birds on, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Herds of camels on, <a href="#Page_357">357</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— race, Dr. Latham on the, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— route, Travellers on the, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— salutation, Method of, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— sheep, <a href="#Page_552">552</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Morality at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_723">723</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_797">[797]</span>
+Moscow fund for exiles, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Metropolitans of, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_586">586</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Stay at, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mosques, Mohammedan, in Tatar villages, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mosquitoes on Sungacha, <a href="#Page_684">684</a>, <a href="#Page_710">710</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mountain of Odon Tchelon, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Volcanic, <a href="#Page_562">562</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mountains, Altai range of, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sikhota-Alin, <a href="#Page_561">561</a>, <a href="#Page_669">669</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ural, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Muravieff, Count, Governor of Eastern Siberia, <a href="#Page_496">496</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Murder at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_655">655</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Trial for, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— under influence of drink, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Murderers sent to Kara, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Museum at Irkutsk destroyed, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Bulgarian Antiquities, <a href="#Page_13">13</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Geology at Barnaul, <a href="#Page_157">157</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Music, Church, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Musical instruments at Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_552">552</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Mutton, Russian dislike of, <a href="#Page_628">628</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— the staple feast of Buriats, <a href="#Page_367">367</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Narim, Population of, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Native belief in Shamanism, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Natives of Sakhalin, Food of, <a href="#Page_650">650</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Naval hospitals at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_617">617</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Navigation, Early, of Siberia, <a href="#Page_767">767</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Kara Sea by Wiggins, <a href="#Page_768">768</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Needs of the Russian Church, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Nertcha, Gold-mines on the, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Nertchinsk, Climate of, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Atkinson, Mr., on, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Cochrane’s visit to, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gems in neighbourhood, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Meteorological observatory at, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Mines, Mr. Collins’s visit to, <a href="#Page_412">412–17</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Inaccessibility of, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Mining region of, <a href="#Page_30">30</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison at, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prisoners’ work at, <a href="#Page_446">446</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “Quicksilver”-mines:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Baron R[osen] on, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">None heard of at, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Silver-mines at, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Situation of, <a href="#Page_430">430</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Temperature of, <a href="#Page_426">426</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tobacco cultivation at, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Treaties at, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Vegetation at, <a href="#Page_426">426</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Newcastle Daily Chronicle</i> on “Quicksilver”-mines, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Newspapers, English:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Account of exiles’ passage in, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Misrepresentations of, <a href="#Page_744">744</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Nihilists, “Black,” <a href="#Page_34">34</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Opinions concerning, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Transport, Mode of, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Nijni Novgorod, Fair at, <a href="#Page_12">12</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Steamboat to Perm, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Transport of exiles to, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tagilsk, Copper-mine at, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Mines and works at, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Udinsk, Awaking a Russian at, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Prison at, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Nikolaefsk, Amusements at, <a href="#Page_621">621</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Andreyeff, M., of, <a href="#Page_615">615</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Author’s religious services at, <a href="#Page_725">725</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Barracks at, <a href="#Page_620">620</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Birching criminals at, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Buildings at, <a href="#Page_625">625</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Church at, <a href="#Page_624">624</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Climate of, <a href="#Page_563">563</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Dinner at, <a href="#Page_619">619</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Emery, Mr. Enoch, of, <a href="#Page_614">614</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— English books at, <a href="#Page_629">629</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Étape prison at, <a href="#Page_616">616</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fish-trade of, <a href="#Page_628">628</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Flour sold at, <a href="#Page_569">569</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Foundation of, <a href="#Page_615">615</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Hospital at, <a href="#Page_617">617</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Government grant to, <a href="#Page_617">617</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Scriptures for, <a href="#Page_617">617–66</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Murder at, <a href="#Page_655">655</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Officers’ club at, <a href="#Page_624">624</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Plète</i> used at, <a href="#Page_616">616</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Police-station at, <a href="#Page_624">624</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_624">624</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison, <a href="#Page_615">615</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prisoners’ food at, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Preference for, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Rise of, <a href="#Page_498">498</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Salmon at, Cost of, <a href="#Page_628">628</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scripture distribution at, <a href="#Page_666">666</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Service at, <a href="#Page_619">619</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Town, Aspect of, <a href="#Page_624">624</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Trade of, <a href="#Page_625">625</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_798">[798]</span>—— Wages at, <a href="#Page_590">590</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Nikon, Patriarch, Revision of Church books by, <a href="#Page_758">758</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ninagai tribe of Orochons, <a href="#Page_507">507</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Nordenskiöld, Discoveries of, <a href="#Page_761">761</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Explorations of, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>North China Herald</i> on Sakhalin prisoners, <a href="#Page_652">652–8</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">North-east passage to China attempted, <a href="#Page_766">766</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Novgorod, Transport of exiles to, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Nunneries of the Siberian Church, <a href="#Page_163">163–79</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Obdorsk, School at, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Obi as an outlet for commerce, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Cattley, O., on trade, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_761">761</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Commercial value of the, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— district, Tundras of the, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fisheries of the, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— gulf, Capt. Wiggins in the, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Length of the, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ostjaks on the, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Steamers on the, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Temperature of the, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tract distribution on the, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Object of Author’s travel, <a href="#Page_1">1</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Oblasts</i> of Siberia, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i lang="ru">Obos</i> of the Buriats, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Observance of the Sabbath by prisoners, <a href="#Page_422">422–55</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Observatory at Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Occupation of Buriats, <a href="#Page_369">369</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_598">598</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Odon Tchelon, Mountain of, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Offences by prisoners, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Offertories for Missions, <a href="#Page_677">677</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Office of the Holy Unction, <a href="#Page_169">169–70</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Officers’ club at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_624">624</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the army, Pay of, <a href="#Page_668">668</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i>, <a href="#Page_738">738</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Dui prison, <a href="#Page_660">660</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Siberian fleet, Pay of, <a href="#Page_734">734</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Oil, Holy, in Church service, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Okhotsk, Sea of, Whales in the, <a href="#Page_631">631</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Olekma gold-mines, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sables of, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Omsk, Prison at, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— School at, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Onkelon people, The, <a href="#Page_647">647</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Onon River, <a href="#Page_482">482</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gold-mines on the, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Onon</i> steamboat, On board the, <a href="#Page_669">669</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Orders in Russian Church, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Lack of candidates for, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ordinations in Russian Church, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Orenburg shawls, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Souvenirs from villages, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Orochons as hunters, <a href="#Page_509">509</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Horses of, <a href="#Page_508">508</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Language of the, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of tribes, <a href="#Page_507">507</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tents of, <a href="#Page_509">509</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Women’s hair, <a href="#Page_508">508</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Orthodox Missionary Society’s work, <a href="#Page_520">520</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ostjaks and Tunguses, Resemblance between, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— as fishermen, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bows and arrows of the, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Honesty of, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Marriage customs of the, <a href="#Page_126">126</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Obi, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Wiggins, Capt., and the, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Yourts</i> of the, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Ostrog</i> prison, An, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Outdoor amusements of the Russians, <a href="#Page_621">621</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Pamphlets for distribution, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Paris, Member for,” Author of, on Prisons, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the mines, <a href="#Page_413">413–62</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on women miners, <a href="#Page_468">468</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Parishioners of the Russian Church, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Pashkof on the Amur, Expedition of, <a href="#Page_492">492</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Pashkova, Deserted village at, <a href="#Page_671">671</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Pay-day at a gold-mine, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Cossacks, <a href="#Page_682">682</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Peace, Judges of the, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Peacock, Dr., on the current of the Yenesei, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— visiting the gold-mine, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Peasantry, Russian—how they live, <a href="#Page_698">698</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Peasants on the River Zeya, <a href="#Page_531">531</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Penal colony at Kara, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_726">726</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Penance in the Greek Church, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Pericladnoi</i> travelling, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Perisylnie</i> prison at Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— prisons, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Perm, Fire at, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_799">[799]</span>—— to Ekaterineburg by rail, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Transport of exiles to, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Petchka</i> at Alexandreffsky, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Petersburg, Arrival at, <a href="#Page_9">9</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— English suspected at, <a href="#Page_329">329</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Excitement at, <a href="#Page_328">328</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prisoners, Places of worship for, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prisons of, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sermons in, Number, <a href="#Page_460">460</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— to Moscow by rail, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Petropavlovsk, <a href="#Page_638">638</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Petrovski, State prison at, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Photograph of Goldi Christians, <a href="#Page_674">674</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Photography at Alexandreffsky, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— by Kara priest, <a href="#Page_458">458</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russian, <a href="#Page_434">434</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Physiognomy of Buriats, <a href="#Page_364">364</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Goldi, <a href="#Page_672">672</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Picture-worship, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Pigs, Siberian, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Plantations of ginseng, <a href="#Page_566">566</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Plants, Herbaceous, in Lower Primorsk, <a href="#Page_566">566</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Medicinal, of Lake Khanka district, <a href="#Page_691">691</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Plays, at Maimatchin, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Pleasure-garden, Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_717">717</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Plète at Chita, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Dui, <a href="#Page_653">653</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Kara, <a href="#Page_464">464</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_616">616</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Description of the, <a href="#Page_90">90</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Exiles receiving the, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— used at three places only, <a href="#Page_94">94</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Plusnin, M., Business with, <a href="#Page_668">668</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Pocket-book, Loss of, <a href="#Page_692">692</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Podkeedovate</i>, a Siberian custom, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Podorojna</i>, A Crown, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— permit for posting, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Police-master at Kara, <a href="#Page_485">485</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Siberian towns, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— station at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_615">615–24</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Political divisions in Siberia, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— exiles:</li>
+  <li class="isub1"><cite>Contemporary Review</cite>, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Lemke on treatment of, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Whyte on number of, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— prisoners and Dostoyeffsky’s “Buried Alive,” <a href="#Page_384">384</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Author of “Member for Paris” on, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Polygamy among Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_601">601</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— among Goldi, <a href="#Page_601">601</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Poor of Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_717">717</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— house at Barnaul, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i lang="ru">Popoftschins</i>, Sect of, <a href="#Page_759">759</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Population of Aigun, <a href="#Page_556">556</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Amur province, <a href="#Page_543">543</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Upper Amur on Chinese bank, <a href="#Page_506">506</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Barnaul, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Buriats, <a href="#Page_369">369</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of China, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Chita, <a href="#Page_361">361</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Gilyak country, <a href="#Page_594">594</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Maimatchin, <a href="#Page_337">337</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Narim, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_624">624</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Orochons, <a href="#Page_507">507</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Russia, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Russia in Asia, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Siberia, Russian and aboriginal, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Sophiisk, <a href="#Page_585">585</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Surgut, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the <i>Za-Baikal</i> province, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Tiumen, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Tomsk, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Verchne-Udinsk, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_712">712</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Yakutsk, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Yeneseisk, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Possessions of Buriats, <a href="#Page_369">369</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Post, Russian and Chinese, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— office at Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_578">578</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Postal communication, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_578">578</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— letter, A, <a href="#Page_143">143</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Posting—An “equipage,” <a href="#Page_439">439</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “Book for complaints,” <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Distances between verst-posts, <a href="#Page_436">436</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Siberia, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Official, <a href="#Page_437">437</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Post-houses, lodging at, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Tariff of, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Travelling, Manner of, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Wrong road, The, <a href="#Page_144">144</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Potatoes at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_690">690</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Poyarkof’s expedition on the Amur, <a href="#Page_490">490</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Prayers, A Tatar at, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Praying-machine, Buddhist, <a href="#Page_373">373</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Preaching, Lack of, <a href="#Page_459">459</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Precious stones in neighbourhood of Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Presents to exiles, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_800">[800]</span>
+Price of meals on a steamer, <a href="#Page_513">513</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of tea in Russia, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Priest at Khabarofka, Visit to, <a href="#Page_673">673–7</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Kozloffskaya, <a href="#Page_670">670</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Krasnorechinska, Bible of, <a href="#Page_195">195</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_730">730</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Journal of a, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Priests at Kansk, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Seminary for training, <a href="#Page_523">523</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Social disadvantages of, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Stipend of, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Treatise on the Duty of, <a href="#Page_181">181–2</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx" id='index-primorsk'>Primorsk, or Sea-coast province, <a href="#Page_561">561</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bays in the, <a href="#Page_562">562</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Cattle in the, <a href="#Page_697">697</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Divisions of province, <a href="#Page_567">567</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fauna of the, <a href="#Page_565">565</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fish in the, Price of, <a href="#Page_569">569</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Flora of the, <a href="#Page_565">565</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gold-washing in the, <a href="#Page_583">583</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Health of inhabitants, <a href="#Page_571">571</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Imports of, <a href="#Page_570">570</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Inhabitants of the, <a href="#Page_567">567</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Lower:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Climate of, <a href="#Page_564">564</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Herbaceous plants in, <a href="#Page_566">566</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Populated by Ussuri Cossacks, <a href="#Page_568">568</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Madhouses exceptional in, <a href="#Page_618">618</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Maladies of the, <a href="#Page_571">571</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Middle:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Area of, <a href="#Page_568">568</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Meat, Cost of, <a href="#Page_568">568</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Rivers in the, <a href="#Page_562">562</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Schools, Number of, <a href="#Page_723">723</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scriptures distributed in, <a href="#Page_703">703</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Soldiers in the, <a href="#Page_667">667</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Taxes in the, <a href="#Page_571">571</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Trees in the, <a href="#Page_566">566</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tribes in the, Number of, <a href="#Page_567">567</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Vaccination in the, <a href="#Page_571">571</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Volcanic mountains in the, <a href="#Page_562">562</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Prison affairs at Tomsk, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ameliorating influence in, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Åbo, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Alexandreffsky, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_245">245</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Amusements at, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Books for, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Director of, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Hospital at, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Biisk, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Blagovestchensk, <a href="#Page_525">525</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Chita, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">The “Black-cart” at, <a href="#Page_362">362</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Dui, Officers of, <a href="#Page_660">660</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Irkutsk:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Director’s pay, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Inmates of, <a href="#Page_275">275</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Library, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Kansk, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Kara, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Kiakhta, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Nijni Udinsk, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_615">615–16</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Omsk, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Petrovski, <a href="#Page_389">389</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Schlüsselburg, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Troitzkosavsk, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Verchne-Udinsk, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Wiborg, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Books in, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— chaplains, <a href="#Page_663">663</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on board the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i>, <a href="#Page_739">739</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— ethnography, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— food compared with English prison diet, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— furniture, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— gardening, <a href="#Page_248">248</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— labour compared with English, <a href="#Page_662">662</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— officials, Bribery of, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Ostrog</i>, An, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Petersburg Model, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Bath-room in, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Chapel in, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Contraband articles in, <a href="#Page_67">67</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Dark cells in, <a href="#Page_66">66</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russian, Account of a, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— school at Tomsk, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Smuggling spirits into, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Starostas</i>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— statistics, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— storehouse at Kara, <a href="#Page_455">455</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tragedy in, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Travaux forcés</i>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— work:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Cigarette-paper making, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Lack of, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Prisoners, Aged, <a href="#Page_470">470</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Asylum for children of, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Authors on, <a href="#Page_379">379–88</a>-94</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bail, <a href="#Page_74">74</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Barge, the <i>Irtish</i>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Birching of, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_473">473</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_801">[801]</span>—— Books for, <a href="#Page_276">276–7</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Branding of, <a href="#Page_464">464</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bribery by, <a href="#Page_39">39</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— buying Scriptures, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Card-playing among, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_656">656</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— cells, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>, <a href="#Page_525">525</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— chains, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— changing destinations and names, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Chaplain for, <a href="#Page_458">458</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— children, School for, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Classification of, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_450">450</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Clothing of, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>, <a href="#Page_728">728</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— complaint, Causes of, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Courts, Judges, and modes of trial, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Crimes of, <a href="#Page_448">448</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— descriptions taken, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Escape of, <a href="#Page_465">465</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fasting of, <a href="#Page_79">79</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Female, <a href="#Page_467">467–8</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Flogging of, <a href="#Page_654">654</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Goryantchikoff on, <a href="#Page_654">654</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Food, <a href="#Page_77">77–9</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>, <a href="#Page_656">656</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Cost of, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Difficulty in procuring, <a href="#Page_659">659</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Horseflesh reported as, <a href="#Page_746">746</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Forçats</i>, <a href="#Page_449">449–66</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in irons, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421–63</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Yakutsk government, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Insubordination of, <a href="#Page_393">393</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Labour of, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463–4</a>, <a href="#Page_658">658</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Money allowance to, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Received from friends, <a href="#Page_83">83</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Number at Alexandreffsky, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">At Kara, <a href="#Page_445">445</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">At Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_652">652–3</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— offences, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Polish, <a href="#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Political, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Baron R[osen] on, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1"><cite>Daily Telegraph</cite> on number of, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">De Lagny on, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Deported to Trans-Baikal province, <a href="#Page_377">377</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Destination of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1"><i lang="ru">Gaulois</i> on number of, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Lemke on, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Living to be earned, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Lodging of, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Number of, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— in 1879, <a href="#Page_396">396</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Position of, <a href="#Page_398">398</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Present condition of, <a href="#Page_390">390</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Tiumen, Passing through, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— preference for Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Punishment of, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421–3</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Reformation doubtful, <a href="#Page_664">664</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Religious professions of, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russian, Condition of, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">English and, Comparison between numbers of, <a href="#Page_478">478</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sabbath, Observance of, <a href="#Page_455">455</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scurvy among, <a href="#Page_472">472</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— seeing friends, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sentences of, <a href="#Page_450">450</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— shipyard at Sivakoff, <a href="#Page_420">420</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">At Stretinsk, <a href="#Page_420">420</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Starostas</i> among, <a href="#Page_454">454</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Statistics concerning, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sundays, Refusal to work, <a href="#Page_422">422</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— ticket of indictment, <a href="#Page_75">75</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— to Finnish colonies, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Treatment of, <a href="#Page_728">728</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Wives of, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— work, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Worship, Places of, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— writing to friends, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Prisons, Atmosphere of, <a href="#Page_381">381</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Author’s interest in, <a href="#Page_1">1</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Opinion on, <a href="#Page_662">662</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Dui, <a href="#Page_652">652</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Tobolsk, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Uleaborg, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Books for <i>Za-Baikal</i>, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Building of, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Étape, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_667">667</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Soldiers employed for, <a href="#Page_667">667</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fleas and vermin in, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Furniture of, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Kinds of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Local committees in connection with, <a href="#Page_77">77</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Location of, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Perisylnie</i>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Petersburg, Visitation of, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russian and Finnish, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Private mines, <a href="#Page_81">81</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Privileges to free colonists, <a href="#Page_698">698</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Procession at fire of Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Processions, Church, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Prodigal Son” for distribution, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Hammering up the, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Profession of an advocate, <a href="#Page_582">582</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Proprietors of gold-mines, <a href="#Page_226">226</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_802">[802]</span>
+Protestant churches in Siberia, <a href="#Page_726">726</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Protestants in Siberia, <a href="#Page_726">726</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Protodiakonoff of Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_673">673</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Province, Governor of a, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Provisions aboard steamboats, <a href="#Page_512">512</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Barnaul, Cost of, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Blagovestchensk, Cost, <a href="#Page_527">527</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_265">265</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Juchova, Price of, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Kara, Cost of, <a href="#Page_80">80</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Surgut, Price of, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Tobolsk, Cost of, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Punishment in the mines, <a href="#Page_456">456</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prisoners, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Quass (or <i lang="ru">kvas</i>) at Tomsk, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for miners, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Quicksilver”-mines, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Baron R[osen] on, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Eden, Mr., on, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Newcastle Daily Chronicle</i> on, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Sheffield Daily Telegraph</i>, <a href="#Page_747">747</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Supposed deadly fumes, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">“Races of Russian Empire,” by Dr. Latham, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Railway, A new line of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— journey of 2,670 miles, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Petersburg to Moscow by, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— transport of exiles, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Railways in Russia, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rain in the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_565">565</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rapids of Angara River, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rasdolnoi, Cockroaches at, <a href="#Page_702">702</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Raskolnik</i> exiles, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rates for telegrams in Siberia, <a href="#Page_522">522</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ravenstein on the Amur, <a href="#Page_581">581</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Réclus, M., “Géographie Universelle” of, <a href="#Page_631">631</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the first exiles, <a href="#Page_31">31</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Yurak-Samoyedes, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Reformation of Russian Church, <a href="#Page_753">753</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Registers, Church, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Registration of gold-mines, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Reign of Terror” described in <cite>Daily Telegraph</cite>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Reindeer, Horns of, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— riding, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— taken in chase, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Yakutes’ use, in travelling, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Release of exile, <a href="#Page_38">38</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Religion of Buriats, <a href="#Page_370">370</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Daurians, <a href="#Page_549">549</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_609">609</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prisoners, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of sailors, <a href="#Page_741">741</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Religious scruples of exiles respected, <a href="#Page_460">460</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— services of Author at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_725">725</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tract Society in Russia, <a href="#Page_705">705</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Revision of Church books by the Patriarch Nikon, <a href="#Page_758">758</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rhinoceros on the Lena, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Riches of the Demidoffs, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Riding in the <i lang="ru">taiga</i>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ritual of Russian Church, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rivers of Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_562">562</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Roads of Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Siberia, <a href="#Page_51">51–2</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Yeneseisk, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rob Roy cuisine, <a href="#Page_145">145</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Robberies by the Manzas, <a href="#Page_715">715</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rooms in Siberian houses, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><cite>Rooski Rabotchi</cite> for distribution, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Subscribers to, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rosaries, Russian and Roman, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">R[osen], Baron, on “quicksilver”-mines, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on political prisoners, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on situation of Chita, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Rotten Row” of Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Roumanian grant of Bible Soc., <a href="#Page_3">3</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Route of exiles <i lang="fr">viâ</i> Suez Canal, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i lang="fr">viâ</i> the Shilka, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Routes across Siberia, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Rozguildieff, Cruelty of, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ruins of Irkutsk after the fire, <a href="#Page_267">267</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Runaway exiles, Capture of, <a href="#Page_40">40</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— prisoners at Kara, <a href="#Page_465">465</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ruschkova, Finns at, <a href="#Page_5">5</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Russ, <i>British Workman</i> in, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Russia and China, Boundary, <a href="#Page_487">487</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Difficulties between, <a href="#Page_501">501</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ethnography of, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Treaties between, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Appeal by Amur tribes for Chinese help against, <a href="#Page_493">493</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Asiatic boundary line, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Author’s previous tours in, <a href="#Page_2">2</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Chinese exports into, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Church bells of, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Early Chinese frontier, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_487">487</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Education in, Cost of, <a href="#Page_719">719</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Subjects of study, <a href="#Page_720">720</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ethnography of, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_803">[803]</span>—— in Asia:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Area of, <a href="#Page_18">18</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Ethnography of, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Population of, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Railways in, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tea in, Price of, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Russian annexation of Siberia, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— cemeteries, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Church:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Bible, The, and, <a href="#Page_181">181</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Burial services, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Foundation of the, <a href="#Page_751">751</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Reformation of the, <a href="#Page_753">753</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Rural deaneries of the, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Schisms of the, <a href="#Page_756">756</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Transition of the, <a href="#Page_752">752</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— conquests on the Amur, <a href="#Page_489">489</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— conscription, Method of, <a href="#Page_736">736</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— courts of law, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— custom of addressing friends, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>, <a href="#Page_620">620</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— dislike of mutton, <a href="#Page_628">628</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— drunkenness compared with English, <a href="#Page_544">544</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— gold, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Greek, and English Church, Distinctions between, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Judges, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Littoral, Number of Chinese in, <a href="#Page_714">714</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— peasantry—How they live, <a href="#Page_698">698</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— photography, <a href="#Page_434">434</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— politicians, <a href="#Page_748">748</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— prison, Account of a, <a href="#Page_380">380</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— prisoners, Condition of, <a href="#Page_64">64</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— salutation, Mode of, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scriptures printed for Bible Society, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— sea-trading adventure, <a href="#Page_761">761</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— trade, Effects of gambling, <a href="#Page_627">627</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Russians afloat, <a href="#Page_733">733</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Amusements of, <a href="#Page_621">621</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at home, <a href="#Page_620">620</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gambling of, <a href="#Page_119">119</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “Little,” as colonists, <a href="#Page_32">32</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Superstitions of the, <a href="#Page_620">620</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sympathy of, for Decembrists, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Russo-Chinese commerce, Kiakhta as a centre of, <a href="#Page_324">324</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Sabbath, Prisoners’ observance of, <a href="#Page_422">422–55</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sables of Olekma, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Vitim, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— skins of Manchuria, <a href="#Page_696">696</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Khabarofka, Sale at, <a href="#Page_578">578</a>, <a href="#Page_696">696</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sacrament of Penance, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Unction, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sacred pictures as objects of worship, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sailors of Siberian fleet:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Clothing of, <a href="#Page_736">736</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Food of, <a href="#Page_736">736</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Pay of, <a href="#Page_734">734</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Religion of, <a href="#Page_741">741</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sakhalin: Aïnos, <a href="#Page_650">650</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Card-playing at, <a href="#Page_656">656</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Coal at, <a href="#Page_651">651</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fauna of, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Flora of, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Food of natives, <a href="#Page_650">650</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Island of, <a href="#Page_648">648</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Lakes of, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Mountains of, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Orochons in, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prisoners at, Labour of, <a href="#Page_658">658</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1"><i>North China Herald</i> on, <a href="#Page_652">652–8</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Number of, <a href="#Page_652">652–3</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Rivers of, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Trade in trepangs, <a href="#Page_650">650</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ula-Hotun, Town of, <a href="#Page_550">550</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Vagrants’ deportation to, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Salaries of telegraph clerks, <a href="#Page_724">724</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Salary of Commandant of Kara prison, <a href="#Page_461">461</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Salmon at Nikolaefsk, Cost of, <a href="#Page_628">628</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Salt-works at Telma, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Salutation by Buriats, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Chinese method of, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russian mode of, <a href="#Page_406">406</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Salvage from Irkutsk fire, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Samovar</i> required and <i>not</i> required, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Samoyedes, Country of, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Dress of the, <a href="#Page_99">99</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Honesty of the, <a href="#Page_102">102</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Howorth, Mr., on the, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Idols of the, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Seebohm on the, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Yurak, Réclus on the, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Scenery of Bureya mountains, <a href="#Page_537">537</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Lower Amur, <a href="#Page_580">580</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Middle Amur, <a href="#Page_535">535</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Shilka River, <a href="#Page_483">483</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_804">[804]</span>—— of the Sungacha River, <a href="#Page_684">684</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Schisms of Russian Church, <a href="#Page_756">756</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Schlüsselburg prison, <a href="#Page_68">68</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">School at Kansk, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Medvedsky, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Obdorsk, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Omsk, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Tiumen, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Tobolsk, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Tomsk, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for prisoners’ children at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Schools at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_719">719–21</a>-23</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the Primorsk, Number, <a href="#Page_723">723</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Inspection of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Teachers’ salaries, <a href="#Page_722">722</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Training institutions for masters, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Scientific explorations in Siberia, <a href="#Page_768">768</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Scoptsi</i> as a fanatical sect, <a href="#Page_758">758</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Doctrine of the, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— village of dissent, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Scorbutus</i> in Alexandreffsky hospital, <a href="#Page_249">249</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Scripture depôt at Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— distribution at Archangel, <a href="#Page_733">733</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">at Mariinsk, <a href="#Page_665">665</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_666">666</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">at Sophiisk, <a href="#Page_665">665</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">at Tiumen, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">at Tomsk, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">at Tyr, <a href="#Page_665">665</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">by Author, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_703">703</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Curiosity of fellow-passengers, <a href="#Page_539">539</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">in Akmolinsk, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">in Semipolatinsk, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">in the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_703">703</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Letters concerning, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">on Upper Amur, <a href="#Page_538">538</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Total up to Tomsk, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Scriptures on steamboat, <a href="#Page_668">668</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for Aniva Bay, <a href="#Page_660">660</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for distribution on Siberian tour, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for Dui, <a href="#Page_660">660</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_667">667</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for Krasnoiarsk province, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for Nikolaefsk hospital, <a href="#Page_617">617</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— for Verchne-Udinsk, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Russ, printed for Society, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— purchased by prisoners, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Reception of, in Siberia, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— taken for distribution, <a href="#Page_11">11</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Turkish, read by Tatars, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Wish of Bible Soc. for new translations, <a href="#Page_673">673</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Scurvy among prisoners, <a href="#Page_472">472</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sea-borne exiles, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— coast province (<i>see</i> <a href='#index-primorsk'>Primorsk</a>)</li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— communication with Europe, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Okhotsk, <a href="#Page_631">631</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Whales in the, <a href="#Page_631">631</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— trading adventures of the Russians, <a href="#Page_761">761</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Seamen, Clothing of, <a href="#Page_737">737</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Season for gold-mining, <a href="#Page_462">462</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sect of <i lang="ru">Dukhobortsi</i>, <a href="#Page_760">760</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sects of <i lang="ru">Bezpopoftschins</i>, <a href="#Page_759">759</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Seebohm on ornithology of Yenesei, <a href="#Page_763">763</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the birds of the Yeneseisk province, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Samoyedes, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Yenesei, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— with Capt. Wiggins, <a href="#Page_763">763</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Selenginsk, English mission at, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Seminary at Kasan, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Semipolatinsk, Distribution of tracts at, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Finsch, Dr., in, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Senate a Court of Appeal, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sentences of exiles, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prisoners at Kara, <a href="#Page_450">450</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Serfdom, A remnant of, <a href="#Page_272">272</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Serfs, Former condition of, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Riches of the Demidoffs, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sermons, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>, <a href="#Page_671">671</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Petersburg, yearly, <a href="#Page_460">460</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Servants, Exiles as, <a href="#Page_730">730</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— wages at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_570">570</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Service, Church, <a href="#Page_165">165–6</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_619">619</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on board the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i>, <a href="#Page_740">740</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Services, Author’s religious, <a href="#Page_701">701</a>, <a href="#Page_709">709–25</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Russian Church for Buriats, <a href="#Page_152">152</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Settlement of peasants on the Zeya, <a href="#Page_531">531</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Shaman Buriats, Conversion of, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Costume of a, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Shamanism, Belief in, <a href="#Page_405">405</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Daurians, <a href="#Page_549">549</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_805">[805]</span>—— of the Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_609">609</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “Priest’s Stone,” The, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Victims of, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Shan-Alin mountains, <a href="#Page_669">669</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Shawls, Orenburg, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sheep, Mongolian, <a href="#Page_552">552</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yeneseisk province, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russian dislike of mutton, <a href="#Page_628">628</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Sheffield Daily Telegraph</i>, Extraordinary statement of, <a href="#Page_746">746</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on “quicksilver”-mines, <a href="#Page_747">747</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Shilka—Boundary of Russia and China, <a href="#Page_487">487</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Cliffs on the, <a href="#Page_483">483</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Collins’s voyage down the, <a href="#Page_441">441</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fair on the, <a href="#Page_488">488</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Formation of the river, <a href="#Page_482">482</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Granite rocks on the, <a href="#Page_487">487</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Knox, Mr., on the, <a href="#Page_441">441</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Mineral springs, <a href="#Page_488">488</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scenery on the, <a href="#Page_483">483</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Shipyards on the, <a href="#Page_420">420</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Siberian route <i lang="fr">viâ</i> the, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Territory, Discovery of, <a href="#Page_492">492</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Occupation of, <a href="#Page_492">492</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Shipyard at Sivakoff, <a href="#Page_420">420</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— employment for prisoners, <a href="#Page_420">420</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Shoeing horses, Method of, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Shologon tribe of the Orochons, <a href="#Page_507">507</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Shop of a Manchu tradesman, <a href="#Page_553">553</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Shrine of Innokente at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Siberia—Amur route, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Animals, Wild, <a href="#Page_697">697</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bed a novelty, <a href="#Page_444">444</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bibliography of, <a href="#Page_772">772</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Books on, <a href="#Page_629">629</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Boundaries of, <a href="#Page_49">49</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Caravan transport in, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Carriage, Cost of, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_746">746</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Cossack conquerors of, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Eastern: Number of exile colonists, <a href="#Page_451">451</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Explorations of, <a href="#Page_766">766</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Exports from, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Finnish colonies in, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fish pie a luxury, <a href="#Page_432">432</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Furs exported from, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “Governments” in, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Journeys of previous travellers, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Landscape scenery of, <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Manufactories of, <a href="#Page_241">241</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Materialism in, <a href="#Page_705">705</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Navigation, Early, <a href="#Page_767">767</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Nordenskiöld, Discoveries, <a href="#Page_761">761</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— North-east, Flora of, <a href="#Page_645">645</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Political divisions of, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison-life in, Misrepresentations of, <a href="#Page_379">379–83</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413–16</a>, <a href='#Page_468'>468</a>, <a href="#Page_744">744</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prisoners in, Trial of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Protestants in, Number of, <a href="#Page_726">726</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “Quicksilver”-mines of, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Roads of, <a href="#Page_52">52</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Routes across, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russian annexation of, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scientific explorations in, <a href="#Page_768">768</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sea communication with Europe, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Steamboat passengers in, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Temperature of, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Towns of, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Western and Eastern, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Wiggins, Discoveries of, <a href="#Page_761">761</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Siberian butter, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— cathedrals, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— cheese-making, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Church:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Knowledge, Sources of, <a href="#Page_161">161</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Nunneries of, <a href="#Page_163">163–79</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— churches, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— courts of law, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— ferry, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— fleet, <a href="#Page_734">734</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— fruit, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— horses, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— hospitality, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_431">431</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— hospitals, Impressions of, <a href="#Page_618">618</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— hotel-dining, <a href="#Page_431">431</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— houses, <a href="#Page_190">190–2</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— leave-taking: the <i lang="ru">podkeedovate</i>, <a href="#Page_353">353</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— posting, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— prison, Building of, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— prisoners, Books on, <a href="#Page_379">379</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— rooms, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— sailors, <a href="#Page_741">741</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— State bank, <a href="#Page_578">578</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— tour, Scriptures for distribution on, <a href="#Page_7">7</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— village, Description of a, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sibir, Fortress of, <a href="#Page_110">110</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sick, Visitation of the, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— and aged among the Koriaks: Treatment of the, <a href="#Page_643">643</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_806">[806]</span>
+Sidoroff, M.K., and Russian sea-trading adventure, <a href="#Page_761">761</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sieges of Albazin, <a href="#Page_515">515</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sikhota-Alin range of mountains, <a href="#Page_561">561</a>, <a href="#Page_669">669</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Silovanoff, <i>Scoptsi</i> village at, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Silver found in the Za-Baikal, <a href="#Page_378">378</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— mine, Collins’s descent, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— mines at Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Cruelty of Rozguildieff, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Food at, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Formation of, <a href="#Page_422">422</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Labour, Hours of, <a href="#Page_423">423</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">of Altai region, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Women not working in, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— money at Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_715">715</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Chinese demand for, <a href="#Page_715">715</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— smelting at Barnaul, <a href="#Page_156">156</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Singing in cathedrals, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Situation of Khabarofka town, <a href="#Page_577">577</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Tiumen, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_711">711</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sivakoff, Punishment at, <a href="#Page_421">421</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Shipyard at, <a href="#Page_420">420</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Skaka</i>, an outdoor game, <a href="#Page_621">621</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sledging in Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_637">637</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sleeping in a tarantass, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Smelting of iron by Yakutes, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Smuggling spirits into prison, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sokoloff, Mr., Inspector of schools, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Soldiers, Educated, exempt from military service, <a href="#Page_720">720</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in East Siberia, Number of, <a href="#Page_667">667</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the Primorsk, Number of, <a href="#Page_667">667</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Officers, Pay of, <a href="#Page_668">668</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sophiisk, Amur at, Width of, <a href="#Page_585">585</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_585">585</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scripture distribution at, <a href="#Page_665">665</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Souls” in Russia, <a href="#Page_23">23</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Souvenirs from Orenburg, <a href="#Page_26">26</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— from Yakutsk, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Spectacle of Irkutsk fire, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Speed of the <i lang="ru">Djiguitt</i>, <a href="#Page_735">735</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Stables at gold-mine, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Stallybrass, Mr., and the Selenginsk mission, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Starosta</i> of a prison, <a href="#Page_454">454</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of a village, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i lang="ru">Staroveri</i>, Sect of the, <a href="#Page_759">759</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">State prison at Petrovski, <a href="#Page_387">387</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Statistics of criminals, <a href="#Page_72">72</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prisoners in Siberia, <a href="#Page_69">69</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Russo-Chinese trade, <a href="#Page_714">714</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Stauropegia</i> monastery, <a href="#Page_177">177–8</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Steamer aground on the Amur, <a href="#Page_511">511</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Steamers, Arrival of, uncertain, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Carriage of Scriptures, <a href="#Page_668">668</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Departure of, uncertain, <a href="#Page_117">117</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Exiles conveyed by, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Conveyance <i lang="fr">viâ</i> Suez, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Journeys on board, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118–19</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_505">505–11</a>, <a href="#Page_669">669</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_708">708–43</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Meals on board, <a href="#Page_513">513</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Kama, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Obi, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Yenesei, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Passengers on board, <a href="#Page_118">118</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Provisions on board, <a href="#Page_512">512</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Stepanof’s expedition on the Amur, <a href="#Page_491">491</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Stipend of priests, <a href="#Page_172">172</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Stones, Precious, in neighbourhood of Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Storehouse at Middle Kara, <a href="#Page_455">455</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Storms on Lake Baikal, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Story of Elizabeth,” by Madame de Cottin, <a href="#Page_379">379–83</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of English mission at Selenginsk, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Strahlenberg on the Yakutes, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Travels of, in Siberia, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Streets and houses of Maimatchin, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Stretinsk, Shipyard at, <a href="#Page_420">420</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Town of, <a href="#Page_438">438</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Students’ education at Blagovestchensk, <a href="#Page_523">523</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i lang="ru">Subbotniki</i>, Sect of, <a href="#Page_451">451</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Subscribers to the <cite>Rooski Rabotchi</cite>, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Suez Canal route for exiles, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Suifun River, Width of the, <a href="#Page_708">708</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Suifun</i> steamer, Travelling on board the, <a href="#Page_708">708</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sundays, Refusal of prisoners to work on, <a href="#Page_422">422</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sungacha River, Fish of the, <a href="#Page_679">679</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Mosquitoes on the, <a href="#Page_684">684</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scenery at Markova, <a href="#Page_684">684</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Sungacha</i>, On board the, <a href="#Page_669">669</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Sungari River, Mouth of the, <a href="#Page_541">541</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Superstitions of Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_605">605</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Russians, <a href="#Page_620">620</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Surgut, Population of, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_807">[807]</span>
+Surgut, Provisions at, Price of, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Swan, Mr., and the Selenginsk mission, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Tagil, Hospital at, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Temperature at, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Taiga</i>, Gold-seeking in the, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Riding in the, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Talking by signs, <a href="#Page_442">442</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tallack, Mr., Mistake of, in Howard Association Report, <a href="#Page_745">745</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tarantass, Cost of, <a href="#Page_136">136–40</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Description of the vehicle, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Loan of, by Mr. O. Cattley, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— travelling in spring, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Clothing for, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Hearthrugs for, <a href="#Page_136">136</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Manner of progress, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Mishaps, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Sleeping, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tariff at post-houses, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tatars, Ancestors of the, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Appearance of, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— as coachmen or servants, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Barnaul, <a href="#Page_62">62</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at prayers, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Head-dress of women, <a href="#Page_58">58</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Houses of, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the Kasan government, <a href="#Page_15">15</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Mohammedan mosques, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Monuments of the, <a href="#Page_589">589</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yeneseisk province, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Turkish Scriptures read by, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Worship of the, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Taxes in the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_571">571</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Tayoshnik</i>, Income of a, <a href="#Page_217">217</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Work of a, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Taz River fishery, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tcheremisi idols, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tchuvashi idols, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tea, a traveller’s requisite, <a href="#Page_142">142</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Buriat invitation to drink, <a href="#Page_366">366</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— caravans in Siberia, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Chinese use of, <a href="#Page_340">340</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— consumed at mines, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Importation of, into Russia, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Russia, Price of, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Love of Russians for, <a href="#Page_534">534</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— used as coin, <a href="#Page_343">343</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Teetotalism in Russia, <a href="#Page_545">545</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Telegraph clerks, Pay of, <a href="#Page_724">724</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Telegraph, Daily</i>, and the “Reign of Terror” in Russia, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Misrepresentations of the, <a href="#Page_745">745</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on number of political prisoners, <a href="#Page_397">397</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Sheffield Daily</i>, Misrepresentations of, <a href="#Page_746">746</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Telegraphic communication at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_724">724</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Rates for telegrams, <a href="#Page_522">522</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Telma, Salt manufactory at, <a href="#Page_243">243</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Temperature, Difference between London and four Siberian towns, <a href="#Page_427">427</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Blagovestchensk, <a href="#Page_532">532</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_579">579</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_426">426</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Obi, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Siberia, <a href="#Page_50">50</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Tagil, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Vega, <a href="#Page_563">563</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_563">563</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Yakutsk, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yeneseisk province, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Temple at Aigun, <a href="#Page_558">558</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Buddhist, at Maimatchin, <a href="#Page_344">344</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Temples of the Manchu, <a href="#Page_549">549</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tents of the Orochons, <a href="#Page_509">509</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Thames</i> in the Kureika, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Theatre at Aigun, <a href="#Page_558">558</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Théel, M., on the Tunguses, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Yenesei, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Yuraki, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tichmeneff, General, <a href="#Page_666">666</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tigers at Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_689">689</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gilyaks’ fear of, <a href="#Page_606">606</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_700">700</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">“Tips” to <i>yemstchiks</i>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tiumen, Commerce of, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Exiles passing through, <a href="#Page_395">395</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ignatoff, M., at, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ispravnik of, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Mayor of, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prisoners’ food at, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Irons at, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Jewish, <a href="#Page_460">460</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Schools at, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Situation of, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tract distribution, Plan for, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Wardropper’s firm at, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tobacco grown at Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_425">425</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tobolsk, Area of, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— as a capital, <a href="#Page_109">109</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Ethnography of province, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Exiles’ journey to, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fertility of, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_808">[808]</span>—— Governor of, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Hard-labour prisons at, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Lakes of, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— prison, Convicts’ opinions of, <a href="#Page_115">115</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prisoners’ labour at, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Provisions at, Cost of, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— School at, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Surface of, <a href="#Page_97">97</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tract distribution at, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Archbishop’s opinion of, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tom, Iron in the valley of the, <a href="#Page_104">104</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tomsk, Bazaar at, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Beggars at, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bible Society’s depôt at, <a href="#Page_237">237</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Climate of, <a href="#Page_127">127–46</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Cows near, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Departure from, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Flora in vicinity of, <a href="#Page_149">149</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— hospital, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Jail at, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Madness through drink at, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison school at, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prisoners at, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Province of, <a href="#Page_127">127</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Punishment of prisoners at, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Quass</i> at, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— School at, <a href="#Page_130">130</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scripture distribution at, <a href="#Page_185">185–6</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Towns of, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tract distribution at, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Vegetation south of, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Topaz and emeralds of the Odon Tchelon mountain, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Town of Aigun, <a href="#Page_495">495</a>, <a href="#Page_558">558</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Ekaterineburg, <a href="#Page_25">25</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Krasnoiarsk, <a href="#Page_227">227</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_624">624</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Verchne-Udinsk, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— without women, <a href="#Page_338">338</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Towns, Manchurian, <a href="#Page_550">550</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Siberian, <a href="#Page_192">192</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Civic arrangements, <a href="#Page_716">716</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Doctors in, <a href="#Page_619">619</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tracts:</li>
+  <li class="isub1">Distribution at Tiumen, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— at Tomsk, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— Archbishop of Tobolsk on, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— Author’s work in Western Siberia, <a href="#Page_733">733</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— for Akmolinsk, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— for Semipolatinsk, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— on the <i>Irtish</i>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">—— Total up to Tomsk, <a href="#Page_186">186</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gift of, by Miss Hellmann, <a href="#Page_53">53</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— People’s reception of, <a href="#Page_185">185</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Religious Tract Society’s work in Russia, <a href="#Page_705">705</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— taken for distribution, <a href="#Page_8">8</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Total number distributed by Author, <a href="#Page_704">704</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Trade at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_626">626</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Bribery in, <a href="#Page_626">626</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— customs, <a href="#Page_627">627</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Drunkenness, Effect of, on, <a href="#Page_627">627</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gambling, Effect of, on, <a href="#Page_627">627</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Immorality, Effect of, on, <a href="#Page_627">627</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in trepangs, <a href="#Page_650">650</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Obi, Oswald Cattley on, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_761">761</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russian and Chinese, <a href="#Page_714">714</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tragedy in prison, <a href="#Page_154">154</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Training institutions for schoolmasters, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Trans-Baikal province, Area of, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Destination of political offenders, <a href="#Page_377">377</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Gems found in the, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Gold found in the, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Population of the, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Silver found in the, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— prisons, Books for, <a href="#Page_400">400</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Transition period of Russian Church, <a href="#Page_752">752</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Translations into Aïno, <a href="#Page_650">650</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Transport of Exiles by barges, <a href="#Page_29">29</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">By rail, <a href="#Page_42">42</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">To Ekaterineburg, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">To Nijni Novgorod, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">To Perm, <a href="#Page_43">43</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Nihilists, Mode of, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prisoners to Finnish colonies, <a href="#Page_131">131</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Travaux forcés</i> in prison, <a href="#Page_113">113</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Travellers on the Lena, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Mongolian route, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Travelling, Courier, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in winter, Difficulties of, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Manner of, <a href="#Page_135">135</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Travels in Siberia, De Lesseps’, <a href="#Page_282">282</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of John Ledyard, <a href="#Page_283">283</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Treaties at Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— between Russia and China, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Treatise on the Duty of Priests, <a href="#Page_181">181–2</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Treatment of penal colonists, <a href="#Page_728">728</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_809">[809]</span>
+Trees at Khabarofka, <a href="#Page_579">579</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_636">636</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_566">566</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the Yenesei valley, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in vicinity of Albazin, <a href="#Page_515">515</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Lower Amur, <a href="#Page_579">579</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on the Upper Amur, <a href="#Page_515">515</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Trepangs, Trade in, <a href="#Page_650">650</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Trial by jury, <a href="#Page_73">73</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tribes in the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_567">567</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tributaries of the Lena, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Troichatka</i>, Description of, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Troitzka, Mission school at, <a href="#Page_604">604</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Troitzkosavsk, A “miracle” at, <a href="#Page_330">330</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Koecher, Mr., at, <a href="#Page_323">323</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Market at, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison at, <a href="#Page_327">327</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tundras of the Obi district, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yeneseisk province, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tunguses—A <i>Shaman’s</i> costume, <a href="#Page_158">158</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— fair on the Shilka, <a href="#Page_488">488</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Latham, Dr., on the, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Yeneseisk province, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Yuraki, M. Théel, on the, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tura River, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Turkish race, Dr. Latham on, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scriptures read by Tatars, <a href="#Page_61">61</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Types of Russian religious gentlemen, <a href="#Page_706">706</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tyr, Cliff at, <a href="#Page_589">589</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Scripture distribution at, <a href="#Page_665">665</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Tzar’s ukase for conversion of Yakutes, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Uleaborg, A female prisoner at, <a href="#Page_41">41</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Unction, Holy, Office of the, <a href="#Page_169">169–70</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ural mountains, <a href="#Page_17">17</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gold-washing in the, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Usine at Barnaul, <a href="#Page_153">153–6</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_268">268</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ussuri, Card-playing on the, <a href="#Page_680">680</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Cossacks in Primorsk, <a href="#Page_568">568</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Warlike nature of, <a href="#Page_681">681</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Course of the, <a href="#Page_669">669</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fish in the, <a href="#Page_679">679</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Length of the, <a href="#Page_679">679</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Upper, Ginseng plantations of the, <a href="#Page_566">566</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Ust-Strelka, The Amur at, <a href="#Page_514">514</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Vaccination in the Primorsk, <a href="#Page_571">571</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Vagrants, Deportation of, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i lang="ru">Vega</i> frozen in, <a href="#Page_646">646</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— rounding Cape Cheliuskin, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Temperature on the, <a href="#Page_563">563</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Vegetables of Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_645">645</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Vegetation at Nertchinsk, <a href="#Page_426">426</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Sakhalin, <a href="#Page_649">649</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— at Vladivostock, <a href="#Page_690">690</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— south of Tomsk, <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Venyukoff’s mission to Peking, <a href="#Page_494">494</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Verchne-Udinsk, Population of, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Posting letters at, <a href="#Page_354">354</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison at, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Scriptures for, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Town of, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Vermin in Siberian prisons, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Verst-posts, Distances between, <a href="#Page_436">436</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Vestments of clergy, <a href="#Page_163">163</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Splendour of, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Victims of Shamanism, <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Village church procession, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— deserted at Pashkova, <a href="#Page_671">671</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— education, <a href="#Page_150">150</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_593">593</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the <i>Scoptsi</i>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— settlers on the Amur, <a href="#Page_588">588</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Siberian, Description of a, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— <i>Starosta</i>, or chief man, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Virgin, Commemorations of the, <a href="#Page_165">165</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Visit to a Chinese merchant, <a href="#Page_339">339</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— to a gold-mine, <a href="#Page_211">211</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— to a Kara mine, <a href="#Page_463">463</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Visitation of the sick, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Visits to prisoners, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Vitim, Sables of, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Vladivostock, Author’s religious services at, <a href="#Page_725">725</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— barracks, <a href="#Page_718">718</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Boys’ Industrial School, <a href="#Page_723">723</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Chinese houses at, <a href="#Page_716">716</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Junks at, <a href="#Page_716">716</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Coal-mines at, <a href="#Page_678">678</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Commerce of, <a href="#Page_716">716</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— De Vries, Capt., Lodging with, <a href="#Page_712">712</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Exports at, <a href="#Page_714">714</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Foreign communications, <a href="#Page_723">723</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fruit-trees at, <a href="#Page_690">690</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Girls’ Institute, <a href="#Page_721">721</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">“Best-beloved” prize, <a href="#Page_722">722</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Harbour of, <a href="#Page_712">712</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— High-class school at, <a href="#Page_719">719</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Imports at, <a href="#Page_714">714</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Inhabitants of, <a href="#Page_713">713</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_810">[810]</span>—— lock-up, <a href="#Page_719">719</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Lutheran church at, <a href="#Page_717">717</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Mills at, <a href="#Page_709">709</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Morality at, <a href="#Page_723">723</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Naval hospitals at, <a href="#Page_617">617</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Penal colony at, <a href="#Page_726">726</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Dress of prisoners, <a href="#Page_728">728</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Treatment of convicts, <a href="#Page_728">728</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Pleasure garden at, <a href="#Page_717">717</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Poor relief at, <a href="#Page_717">717</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_712">712</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Port of, <a href="#Page_666">666</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Potatoes at, <a href="#Page_690">690</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Priest of, <a href="#Page_730">730</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Rain at, <a href="#Page_565">565</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Russian inhabitants of, <a href="#Page_715">715</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Situation of, <a href="#Page_711">711</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Telegraphs in, <a href="#Page_724">724</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Temperature at, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_563">563</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tigers in, <a href="#Page_700">700</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Wages of convict women servants at, <a href="#Page_570">570</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Vodka</i> and alcohol, <a href="#Page_544">544</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Voguls, <a href="#Page_98">98</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Volcanoes, <a href="#Page_562">562</a>, <a href="#Page_635">635</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Volga, Voyage on the, <a href="#Page_16">16</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Voyage down the Shilka by Collins, <a href="#Page_441">441</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Knox on the Shilka, <a href="#Page_441">441</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Wages at Nikolaefsk, <a href="#Page_590">590</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of convict servants, <a href="#Page_570">570</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of gold-miners, <a href="#Page_223">223</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Walking of exiles to destination, <a href="#Page_44">44</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">War, Anglo-Chinese, Influence of, <a href="#Page_501">501</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Crimean, Influence of, <a href="#Page_497">497</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Wardropper’s engineering firm at Tiumen, <a href="#Page_27">27</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Water, Benediction of, <a href="#Page_169">169</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Weather in crossing Europe, <a href="#Page_24">24</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on Lower Amur, <a href="#Page_627">627</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Weddings among the Goldi, <a href="#Page_601">601–74</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Western and Eastern Siberia, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Siberia, Author’s work in, <a href="#Page_733">733</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Whales in the Sea of Okhotsk, <a href="#Page_631">631</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Wheelwright, An extortionate, <a href="#Page_193">193</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Whyte on number of political exiles, <a href="#Page_394">394</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Wiborg prison, <a href="#Page_63">63</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Wife-beating, <a href="#Page_270">270</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Goldi’s price of a, <a href="#Page_601">601–74</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Wiggins, Capt., accompanied by Seebohm, <a href="#Page_763">763</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— dealing with Ostjaks, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Discoveries of, <a href="#Page_761">761</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in the Obi gulf, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Navigation of the Kara Sea, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_768">768</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— on Siberian miners, <a href="#Page_225">225</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— The <i>Thames</i> in winter quarters, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Wild-fowl of Kamchatka, <a href="#Page_637">637</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Winter climate at Irkutsk, <a href="#Page_264">264</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— dress of Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_597">597</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— habitations of Gilyaks, <a href="#Page_595">595</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Wives accompanying exiled husbands, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prisoners, <a href="#Page_388">388</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Women, Churching of, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— criminals at mines, <a href="#Page_467">467</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gilyaks’ estimation of, <a href="#Page_601">601</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in silver-mines a myth, <a href="#Page_417">417</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Town without, <a href="#Page_338">338</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Work at Alexandreffsky prison, <a href="#Page_446">446</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “Fabric,” <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— in mines, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of a <i lang="ru">tayoshnik</i>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prisoners, <a href="#Page_446">446</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Prison, Lack of, <a href="#Page_247">247</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Working hours at a gold-mine, <a href="#Page_224">224</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Works at Nijni Tagilsk, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— consulted or referred to, <a href="#Page_772">772</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Iron, at Petrovsky Zavod, <a href="#Page_355">355</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">World, Itinerary round the, <a href="#Page_770">770</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Worship: Altars of sacrifice, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Candles used at, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gilyak idols, <a href="#Page_606">606</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “High places,” <a href="#Page_405">405</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of images, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of pictures, <a href="#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of prisoners in Petersburg, <a href="#Page_65">65</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of Tcheremisi, <a href="#Page_14">14</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— of the Tatars, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Writing to prisoners’ friends, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Yablonoi mountains, View of, <a href="#Page_360">360</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yakute dogs, Breeding of, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yakutes: Tsar’s ukase for their conversion, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Description of the, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Dress of the, <a href="#Page_302">302</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Dwellings of the, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Furniture of houses, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gluttony of, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><span class="pagenum" id="Page_811">[811]</span>—— Horseflesh eating, <a href="#Page_301">301</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Horses, Treatment of, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Iron-smelting by, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Language of the, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Reindeer, Use of, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Strahlenberg on, <a href="#Page_282">282–99</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yakutsk, Foundation of, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Gold and mica found at, <a href="#Page_295">295</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— government, Prisoners in, <a href="#Page_37">37</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Souvenirs from, <a href="#Page_303">303</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Temperature at, <a href="#Page_296">296</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Travelling, Difficulty of, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Yemstchiks</i>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Buriats as, <a href="#Page_369">369</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Drunkenness of, <a href="#Page_252">252</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— “Tips” to, <a href="#Page_140">140</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yenesei, Current and proportions of, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Fish of, <a href="#Page_201">201</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Floods, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Flora of, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Length of, <a href="#Page_19">19</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Outlet to Europe and Japan, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Peacock’s description of, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Seebohm on the, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">On ornithology of, <a href="#Page_763">763</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Settlement of Tunguses on the, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Yuraki, on the, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Sources of the, <a href="#Page_196">196</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Steamers on the, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Théel’s description, <a href="#Page_197">197</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— valley, Iron ore in the, <a href="#Page_210">210</a></li>
+  <li class="isub1">Trees in the, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yeneseisk, Animals of, <a href="#Page_209">209</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Birds of, <a href="#Page_202">202</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Boundaries of, <a href="#Page_199">199</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Cattle of, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Forests of, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Founding of, <a href="#Page_112">112</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Lakes of, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Population of, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Roads in, <a href="#Page_139">139</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tatars of the province, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Temperature of, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Town of, <a href="#Page_205">205</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tundras of, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tunguses, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yermak, Conquests of, <a href="#Page_57">57</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Yourts</i> of the Ostjaks, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yukaghirs, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yule, Mr., and the Selenginsk mission, <a href="#Page_320">320</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yurak-Samoyede idols, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Réclus, M., on the, <a href="#Page_103">103</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yuraki settlement on the Yenesei, <a href="#Page_206">206</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Théel, M., on the, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Tunguses, M. Théel on the, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Yuryef monastery, Life in the, <a href="#Page_178">178</a></li>
+
+
+  <li class="ifrst">Za-Baikal, Gold found in the, <a href="#Page_462">462</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Metals in the, <a href="#Page_378">378</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Silver found in the, <a href="#Page_378">378</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Zavod work for criminals, <a href="#Page_82">82</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Zemski post, <a href="#Page_239">239</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">Zeya, Course of the, <a href="#Page_531">531</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Mouth of the, <a href="#Page_531">531</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Peasants on the, <a href="#Page_531">531</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx"><i>Zeya</i>, Drunkenness on board the, <a href="#Page_506">506</a></li>
+
+  <li class="indx">—— Travelling on board the, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>, <a href="#Page_511">511</a></li>
+</ul>
+
+
+<div class='printer'>
+<div class='poetry-container'>
+<p class='bt no-indent'>Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury.</p>
+</div></div>
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class='ads'>
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_812"></a><a id="Page_813"></a>[813]</span></p>
+
+
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="NOTICES_OF_THE_PRESS">
+    NOTICES OF THE PRESS.
+  </h2>
+</div>
+<hr class='r5'>
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>The Times.</b> (<i>One column.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“The reader who will follow this long Odyssey, with all its episodes of considerable
+hardships, and not without dangers, will find in Mr. Lansdell’s volumes all
+that can interest him about Siberia—a country which was once looked upon merely
+as a place of durance and banishment, with weeping and gnashing of teeth, but
+which begins now to be better known as a land in many parts of prodigious fertility
+and transcendent beauty.... Mr. Lansdell appears to have been delighted with
+almost everything he saw.... He lays claim to the character of an impartial
+writer, and if his mind was in any way biased it can only have been by those warm
+chivalrous sympathies which prompted him to an enterprise of charity and humanity,
+and by a sense of gratitude for the great kindness and hospitality with which he
+seems to have been welcomed at every stage of his progress.”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>The Athenæum.</b> (<i>Five columns.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“With the exception of Mr. Mackenzie Wallace’s ‘Russia,’ the best book on a
+Russian subject which has appeared of late years is Mr. Lansdell’s ‘Through
+Siberia.’ It is a genuine record of a remarkable expedition, written by a traveller
+who has evidently eyes with which to see clearly, and a mind free from prejudice
+or bias, whether political or theological.... Mr. Lansdell may be congratulated
+on having rendered a great service to the convict population of Russia....
+But the service which he has rendered to English readers is of a more
+signal nature.... Mr. Lansdell’s book will now enable every one to judge for
+himself.”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>The Illustrated London News.</b></p>
+
+<p>“We can promise the readers of Mr. Lansdell’s book a great deal of entertainment,
+combined with instruction, in the survey of such an immense field of topography,
+natural history, and ethnology, and in the plentiful anecdotes of wayside
+experience and casual observation.... His statements are characterised by
+an imposing air of precision, and are fortified by official statistics, which claim due
+attention from those candidly disposed to investigate the subject.”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society.</b></p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Lansdell’s work contains much incidental detail likely to be of practical
+utility to other travellers, apart from its special philanthropic and economical
+aspects, and the convenience of its collected descriptive matter. The observations
+on the various races met with, especially in the extreme eastern part of the journey,
+are of considerable interest, as are the accounts of the actual conditions of the
+country at the present time.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_814">[814]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>Church Missionary Intelligencer.</b> (<i>Four pages.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Lansdell has spared no pains or labour to make his book as complete as
+possible. It is altogether different from even the higher class of books of travel.
+It teems with information of every possible kind; ... the footnotes are quite a
+remarkable feature for the minuteness of statistical detail with which every subject
+touched upon—geographical and ethnographical, economic and commercial,
+ecclesiastical and literary, imperial and municipal—is illustrated.”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>The Record.</b> (<i>One column.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“The interest of ‘Through Siberia’ is varied, and the revelations of the book
+will attract various minds. The Christian will find herein much which will move
+his pity for souls; the ecclesiastic will note with attention many striking passages
+which will assist his studies in comparative religion, and supply links between
+different ages and differing Churches; the philanthropist will engage himself with
+existing human wrongs, and seek for suggestions as to methods for redressing and
+removing them; the statesman may find light, lurid, indeed, and terrible, cast on
+pressing questions of State policy and relation of classes; while the man of science
+will not search these pages in vain for facts in ethnology, geography, geology,
+climatology, sociology, and philology, which will enrich his stores and supply
+missing links in his world of study.”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>The Field.</b></p>
+
+<p>“The utmost commendation must be given to the reverend author, not only for
+his personal work, but for the good taste that has impelled him to describe his
+religious labours in language understanded of the laity.... His observations
+on the varied aspect of the country, its products and capabilities, the actual condition
+of cities and villages, society, means of travel and accommodation, and the
+many tribes and races met with, will be perused by the general reader with the
+greatest interest; whilst a good index enables the student of ethnology, mineralogy,
+and other physical sciences, etc., to discover the many special notes scattered
+throughout the book.”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>The Globe.</b> (<i>One column.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“In addition to a large amount of valuable information respecting convict life
+in Siberia, the author gives many interesting details of the semi-barbarous countries
+through which he travelled.... The illustrations and maps will be found very
+serviceable in elucidating the text, and the work as a whole deserves no slight
+measure of praise.”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>The Rock.</b> (<i>One column.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“The volumes are got up with great care, and remarkably well illustrated.
+The books will amply repay perusal; and to all who desire to obtain an insight
+into Russian manners and customs we confidently recommend them.”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>The Academy.</b> (<i>Four columns.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“His book is full of interesting, valuable, and amusing information....
+Mr. Lansdell is never tedious; and we are of opinion that ‘Through Siberia’ is
+much more entertaining, and certainly more readable, than many novels.”</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_815">[815]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>The United Service Gazette.</b> (<i>Three columns.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“There is plenty of real novelty in Siberia without troubling the novelist any
+more. Certainly no more entertaining book of the kind, combined with usefulness,
+has been issued from the press for a long time.... Everywhere there is something
+new to tell us, and we wonder why in the world it is that Siberia has been
+left out in the cold so long.”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>Paper and Print.</b> (<i>One column.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“‘Through Siberia’ is a book which every Englishman ought to read....
+Mr. Lansdell’s book will create a lasting sensation, and will also provide food for
+reflection for all who take an interest in the affairs of their fellow-creatures.”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>The St. James’s Gazette.</b> (<i>One column.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Lansdell has made a point of avoiding politics; nor does it form part of
+his plan to inquire why the exiles, imprisoned or confined to particular districts in
+Siberia, were sent there. He deals only with their actual condition; and this he
+certainly shows to be much better than is generally supposed.”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>The Pall Mall Gazette.</b> (<i>Two columns.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“In some ways Mr. Lansdell has a better right to speak about Siberia than any
+previous western traveller. He went right through the country, from Tiumen on
+the Ural boundary, to Nikolaefsk on the Pacific coast.... His views upon the
+Russian penal system are undoubtedly founded upon honest personal conviction....
+Apart even from its main subject, it teems with useful information about the
+country and the people, some tribes of which Mr. Lansdell has perhaps been the
+first so fully to describe.”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>The Fireside.</b> (<i>Three pages.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“As a work of rare interest, we commend to our readers Mr. Lansdell’s charming
+traveller’s story, a book of which three-fourths of the first edition were sold
+before it had fairly reached the publishers’ counter.... That he has succeeded
+in gathering a mass of reliable information is evident; for a Russian Inspector of
+Prisons writes respecting the proof-sheets of the work: ‘What you say is so
+perfectly correct, that your book may be taken as a standard even by Russian
+authorities.’”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>Fraser’s Magazine.</b> (<i>Thirteen pages.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“It is no more than the simple truth which Mr. Lansdell speaks when he claims
+that he is in a unique position among all those who have written on the subject.
+He has gone where he pleased in Siberia.... His testimony, therefore, is
+simply the best that exists.... Of course it is difficult to hope that his testimony
+will be accepted by everyone; there are too many who, as a popular proverb says,
+‘love truth, but invite the lie to dinner.’ But I have faith that the majority of
+Englishmen will perceive the untrustworthiness of Nihilistic and Polish sources.
+If I am wrong, it would only prove that public opinion, even in England, has lost
+its value.”</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+  O. K. (a <i>Russian</i> writer.)
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_816">[816]</span></p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>Harper’s Monthly Magazine.</b> (<i>One column.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“Since the time of Howard, no one has given us so full and fair an account of
+Russian prisons as is now presented to us by Mr. Lansdell, and like Howard, he
+finds the Russians far less cruel jailers than they are generally credited or discredited
+with being.”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>The Baptist.</b> (<i>Two columns.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“The effect of Mr. Lansdell’s laborious investigations from one end of the
+country to the other cannot but be salutary, and cannot, we are disposed to think,
+fail to promote a good understanding between Russia and other countries....
+It is strange, but none the less true, that no government in the world has been
+so ludicrously misrepresented as the Russian, and a man who undertakes to set
+matters in a true light before the eyes of the world deserves the gratitude of all
+parties. This Mr. Lansdell has done, and his book will rank as a leading book
+of the season.”</p>
+
+
+<p class='book-title'><b>The Saturday Review.</b> (<i>Three columns.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Lansdell is an acute and eager traveller, as well as an ardent philanthropist....
+His journey ... was one of great interest, great adventure, and great
+endurance. The numerous and clever illustrations with which the volumes are
+adorned add very much to their value. We take leave of our author in the hope
+that, on the one hand, neither his philanthropy nor his love of travelling is
+exhausted; and that, on the other hand, his first venture in the world of letters
+may be so favourable as to tempt him to a second venture, though perhaps on a
+somewhat smaller scale.”</p>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop">
+<div class="chapter transnote">
+  <h2 class="nobreak" id="Transcribers_Notes">
+    Transcriber’s Notes
+  </h2>
+
+<ul>
+  <li>Obvious typographic errors silently corrected.</li>
+  <li>Variations in hyphenation and spelling kept as in the original.</li>
+  <li>Corrected the spelling of Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld throughout.</li>
+  <li>Footnotes renumbered consecutively within each chapter and moved to the end of their respective chapters.</li>
+  <li>Images relocated close to related content. Page references from original captions removed.</li>
+  <li>Ditto marks in the table in <a href='#APPENDIX_F'>Appendix F</a>
+      have been replaced with their representative content.</li>
+  <li>At the end of the Bibliography is “<i>To the foregoing should be added the following work, on the eve of publication</i>”
+    and an entry for Hovgaard. This entry has been moved to its alphabetical location in the Bibliography and the note removed.</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77742 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
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+This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for eBook #77742
+(https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77742)