Overland through Asia; Pictures of Siberian, Chinese, and Tartar | Page 5

thirty years--Where the Decembrists
live--The Polish question--Both sides of it--Banishments since
1863--The government policy--Difference between political and
criminal exiles--Colonists--Drafted into the army--Pension from
friends--Attempts to escape--Restrictions find social comforts--How
the prisoners travel--The object of deportation--Rules for exiling serfs


CHAPTER XXXVII.
Serfdom and exile--Peter I. and Alexander II.--Example of Siberia to
old Russia--Prisoners in the mines--A revolt--The trial of the
insurgents--Sentence and execution--A remarkable
escape--Piotrowski's narrative--Free after four years


CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Preparing to leave Irkutsk--Change from wheels to runners--Buying a
suit of fur--Negotiations for a sleigh--A great many
drinks--Peculiarities of Russian merchants--Similarities of Russians
and Chinese--Several kinds of sleighs--A Siberian saint--A farewell
dinner--Packing a sleigh--A companion with heavy baggage--Farewell
courtesies--Several parting drinks--Traveling through a frost
cloud--Effect of fog in a cold night--A monotonous snow scape--Meals
at the stations--A jolly party--An honest population--Diplomacy with
the drivers


CHAPTER XXXIX.
A Siberian beverage--The wine of the country--An unhappy pig--Tea
caravans for Moscow--Intelligence of a horse--Champagne
frappé--Meeting the post--How the mail is carried--A lively shaking
up--Board of survey on a dead horse--Sleeping rooms in peasant
houses--Kansk--A road with no snow--Putting our sleighs on
wheels--A deceived Englishman--Crossing the
Yenesei--Krasnoyarsk--Washing clothes in winter--A Siberian banking
house--The telegraph system--No dead-heads--Fish from the
Yenesei--A Siberian Neptune--Going on a wolf hunt--How a hunt is
managed--An exciting chase and a narrow escape


CHAPTER XL.
Beggars at Krasnoyarsk--A wealthy city--Gold mining on the
Yenesei--Its extent and the value of the mines--How the mining is
conducted--Explorations, surveys, and the preparation of the
ground--Wages and treatment of laborers--Machines for gold
washing--Regulations to prevent thefts--Mining in frozen

earth--Antiquity of the mines--The native population--An Eastern
legend--The adventures of "Swan's Wing"--Visit to lower
regions--Moral of the story


CHAPTER XLI.
A philosophic companion--Traveling with the remains of a
mammoth--Talking against time--Sleighs on wheels--The advantages
of "cheek"--A moonlight transfer--Keeping the feast days--Getting
drunk as a religious duty--A slight smash up--A cold night--An
abominable road--Hunting a mammoth--Journey to the Arctic
Circle--Natives on the coast--A mammoth's hide and hair--Ivory
hunting in the frozen North--A perilous adventure--Cast away in the
Arctic ocean--Fight with a polar bear--A dangerous situation--Frozen to
the ice--Reaching the shore


CHAPTER XLII.
A runaway horse--Discussion with a driver--A modest breakfast--A
convoy of exiles--Hotels for the exiles--Charity to the
unfortunate--Their rate of travel--An encounter at night--No whips in
the land of horses--Russian drivers and their horses--Niagara in
Siberia--Eggs by the dizaine--Caught in a storm--A beautiful
night--Arrival at Tomsk--An obliging landlord--A crammed
sleigh--Visiting the governor--Description of Tomsk--A steamboat line
to Tumen--Schools in Siberia

CHAPTER XLIII.
A frozen river--On the road to Barnaool--An unpleasant night--Posts at
the road side--Very high wind--A Russian bouran--A poor
hotel--Greeted with American music--The gold mines of the Altai
mountains--Survey of the mining-district--General management of the
business--The museum at Barnaool--The imperial zavod--Reducing the
ores--Government tax on mines--A strange coincidence


CHAPTER XLIV.
Society at Barnaool--A native coachman--An Asiatic eagle--The
Kirghese--The original Tartars--Russian diplomacy among the
natives--Advance of civilization--Railway building in Central
Asia--Product of the Kirghese country--Fairs in Siberia--Caravans from
Bokhara--An adventure among the natives--Capture of a native
prince--A love story and an elopement--A pursuit, fight, and tragic end
of the journey


CHAPTER XLV.
Interview with a Persian officer--A slow conversation--Seven years of
captivity--A scientific explorer--Relics of past ages--An Asiatic
dinner--Cossack dances--Tossed up as a mark of honor--Trotting horses
in Siberia--Washing a paper collar--On the Baraba steppe--A
long-ride--A walking ice statue--Traveling by private
teams--Excitement of a race--How to secure honesty in a public
solicitor--Prescription for rheumatism

CHAPTER XLVI.
A monotonous country--Advantages of winter travel--Fertility of the
steppe--Rules for the haying season--Breakfasting on nothing--A
Siberian apple--Delays in changing horses--Universal tea
drinking--Tartars on the steppe--Siberian villages--Mode of spinning in
Russia--An unsuccessful conspiracy--How a revolt was organized--A
conspirator flogged to death--The city of Tobolsk--The story of
Elizabeth--The conquest of Siberia--Yermak and his career


CHAPTER XLVII.
Another snow storm--Wolves in sight--Unwelcome visitors--Going on
a wolf chase--An unlucky pig--Hunting at night--A hungry
pack--Wolves in every direction--The pursuers and the pursued--A
dangerous turn in the road--A driver lost and devoured--A narrow
escape--Forest guards against bears and wolves--A courageous
horse--The story of David Crockett


CHAPTER XLVIII
Thermometer very low--Inconvenience of a long beard--Fur clothing in
abundance--Natural thermometers--Rubbing a freezing nose--A
beautiful night on the steppe--Siberian twilights--Thick coat for
horses--The city of Tumen--Magnificent distances--Manufacture of
carpets--A lucrative monopoly--Arrival at Ekaterineburg--Christmas
festivities --Manufactures at Ekaterineburg--- The Granilnoi
Fabric--Russian iron and where it comes from--The Demidoff

family--A large piece of malachite--An emperor as an honest miner


CHAPTER XLIX.
Among the stone workers--A bewildering collection--Visit to a private
"Fabric"--The mode of stone cutting--Crossing the
mountains--Boundary between Europe and Asia--Standing in two
continents at once--Entering Europe by the back door--In the valley of
the Kama--Touching appeal by a beggar--The great fair at Irbit--An
improved road--A city of thieves--Tanning in Russia--Evidence of
European civilization--Perm--Pleasures of sleigh riding--The road
fever--The Emperor Nicholas and a courier--A Russian sleighing