262 FROM LONDON TO OMSK 



Time did not, however, admit of our making much 

 delay. We were anxious to cover as much ground as 

 possible whilst the frost lasted, and we bade a hasty 

 adieu to our friends. The same afternoon we took a 

 padarozhnaya for Tiumen, and made the 306 versts, or 

 204 miles, in twelve stages, which we accomplished in 

 thirty-nine hours. The country was gently undulating 

 and well wooded, with numerous villages. 



We spent a couple of days at Tiumen enjoying the 

 hospitality of Mr. Wardroper, a Scotch engineer ; with him 

 we visited M. Ignatieff, and lunched at his hou^e with some 

 of the merchants of this thriving place. The river was full 

 of steamers, all frozen up in their winterquarters, and every- 

 thincr told of commerce and wealth. The house of Ivan 

 Ivanovich Ignatieff was a handsome mansion elegantly fur- 

 nished in the German style, just such a house as a North 

 German family with an income of 600/. or 700/. a year 

 inhabit. We had a quiet but substantial luncheon — roast- 

 beef and claret, roast grouse and sherry, ice-cream and 

 champagne. One of the guests was a magnificent specimen 

 of a Russian, standing 6 ft. 8 in., and weighing, we were 

 told, twenty-two stone. 



From Tiumen to Omsk is 637 versts, which we accom- 

 plished in sixty-two hours, changing horses twenty-seven 

 times. It was quite holiday travelling; we had good horses 

 and excellent roads. The scene was entirely changed. We 

 were nowcrossing the great steppes of western Siberia. We 

 had left the Peakof Derbyshire behind us, and were travers- 

 ing an almost boundless Salisbury Plain. For nearly a 

 thousand miles hardly anything was to be seen but an 

 illimitable level expanse of pure white snow. Above us 

 was a canopy of brilliantly blue sky, and alongside of us 

 a line of telegraph poles crossed from one horizon to the 

 other. Occasionally we came upon a small plantation of 



