YERMAK 457 



a river which it may be hoped will some day be turned 

 into a canal to the Ob. Three expeditions have success- 

 fully made the passage. The river rises from a marsh, 

 across which boats may be pushed to the source of a 

 tributary of the Kett, which flows into the Ob. 



At noon on the 12th of August we passed the village 

 of Yermak, once the San Francisco of Siberia. The 

 gold mines lie some two hundred versts up the mountains 

 that rise behind Yermak towards the watershed of the 

 Yenesei and Lena. Yermak used to be five versts in 

 length; it was once the centre for the head offices of the 

 gold mines, and the emporium of Siberian gold. At that 

 time large houses were built in it, handsomely furnished 

 billiard-tables erected in them, French cooks were brought 

 over to prepare for the inhabitants the delicacies of a 

 European table, and champagne flowed like water. 

 Thousands of horses filled the stables of the city, its 

 granaries overflowed with corn, and everything that 

 money could buy was to be found in its stores. At the 

 time of my visit all this had disappeared. Each gold 

 mine has its offices on the spot, and the miners are 

 provisioned by contract. On the whole one cannot 

 regret the change. Such centres of luxury and riot do 

 much to deteriorate a nation; and the more their 

 dimensions can be contracted and the site removed 

 from the haunts of peasant life, so much the better for 

 the morality and ultimate prosperity of the country. 



I find recorded in my journal of that day the first 

 sight of barn-swallows since shooting the solitary example 

 of the species at the Kureika. Cranes passed us going 

 northwards. Eagles and kites, and now and then a 

 small hawk, were the principal birds we met as we 

 steamed along. 



