476 FROM TOMSK TO PERM 



handsomest Siberian city that I had seen, being in some 

 parts very picturesque. 



We left Ekaterinburo- the following^ morning^ at ten 

 o'clock, and crossed the European frontier, soon entering 

 the range of hills and valleys called the Ural Mountains. 

 The roads were not so bad as we had expected to find 

 them, and we made the fourth station by nine o'clock, 

 putting up there for the night. We had been warned at 

 starting that many robberies had lately occurred on this 

 route, and we were recommended not to travel after dark, 

 and to wear our revolvers by day as conspicuously as 

 possible. The story ran that some convicts, after mur- 

 dering the soldiers who had escorted them to Siberia, 

 had made their escape, and were now in the Ural forests, 

 living by plundering the caravans that passed through. 

 In many places the roads over which we travelled were 

 mended with white quartz, and we met many telegas 

 laden with granite, probably destined to be used for the 

 same purpose. The scenery all around was very fine, 

 alternate hill and forest, but we saw nothing that could 

 possibly be called a mountain. The next morning we 

 were up by four o'clock, and accomplished five stations 

 during the day, over roads that did not deserve to be 

 much grumbled at. We passed the Vassilyova Iron- 

 works, and took with us a sample of the iron ore, which 

 is so magnetic that a needle clings to it with considerable 

 force. 



Our way still lay through hills and valleys covered 

 with forest, and from some of the ridges we had fine and 

 extended views. The next day we travelled from 5 a.m. 

 to 8 P.M. The last thirty versts before reaching Kongur 

 were very heavy work, the roads almost reaching the 

 point when it is impossible for roads to become worse ; 

 they were a thick mixture of gravel and mud, with deep 



