39 
bread and cheese, and perhaps a bit of bacon on Sundays. The 
rails, when first laid, were light—42 lbs. instead of 72 lbs. per ft. 
The Canadian Pacific line was 3,500 miles in length, and 
occupied ten years to complete ; 4,500 miles of the Siberian line 
were laid in eight years, so that it constitutes a record in Rail- 
way building. The trains followed as the line was completed, 
and two to three miles a day were laid in sections. 
The stations, for a long distance, were like Swiss chalets, at the 
back of which were barracks for the temporary accommodation 
of emigrants. We have an idea that the Russian Steppes 
are barren places, but, on the contrary, some of them are most 
fertile districts, and owing to the movement of emigration, there 
is an enormous output in the agricultural produce in Western 
Siberia. Siberian butter has for some little time been coming 
into England, and is likely to be a formidable rival to the Danish 
butter, which commands our market. English butter could be 
the best in the world, but we have a special delight in buying 
our food from other people. 250,000 emigrants a year are going 
to Siberia, and the movement is largely on the involuntary plan. 
Criminals are no longer sent to Siberia, but only the politicals— 
and it is the politicals who helped to make Siberia what she is. 
Irkutsk is called the Paris of Siberia, but it is not safe to be out 
in that city after nine o’clock at night: many people have 
revolvers, and are frequently firing them. It is the richest city 
in Siberia, and murders are almost of daily occurrence. We 
have an idea that Russian Government is tyrannical. They make 
you mind your own business, which is not a bad thing. Nine- 
tenths of the people are uneducated peasants, of a serf-like type. 
They are not more than children, and the Russian Government 
governs on the principle that the nursery must not rule the 
house, and as the people cannot take care of themselves, the 
Government proposes to take care of them. They are, therefore, 
not allowed to emigrate at their own sweet will, but to follow 
the pioneers, who select suitable sites for them and their families ; 
they are provided with sufficient meal to keep them through the 
first winter, and are assisted to obtain agricultural imple- 
ments and seed ; every chance is given to them if they will only 
work, and the result is, that in Western Siberia, there are 
thousands of successful farmers who were only miserable serfs 
and peasants in over-crowded Russia. 
On the great Siberian Railway you will not find a single 
British-built locomotive, though the English are indisputably the 
builders of the best locomotives that can be found in any part of 
the world. The reason being partly the high cost, but chiefly, 
perhaps, because our commercial methods are on wrong lines, 
