40 
Tomsk (50,000 inhabitants) is the capital of Siberia, but it 
probably will not long remain so. The story of Tomsk is 
the story of vanity. When the Russian engineers, in the course 
of the construction of the railway, approached a town, they would 
go, cap in hand, to the mayor and corporation, and suggest, as 
they were coming with the railway, the application of ‘ palm 
oil,’ which was often forthcoming. But when they came towards 
Tomsk, the corporation thought they could not possibly be passed 
on one side, and would not part with a penny. The result was, that 
owing to the insuperable natural obstacles, which no engineering 
feat could get over, the main line of the railway runs forty miles 
south of Tomsk, which is left high and dry, and the people are 
leaving the town; for though there is a branch line, it does not 
reach within two miles and a half of the town. The line of 
railway goes East and South, and yet all the time into a colder 
country, which is highly metalliferous. There is a sort of coal, 
gold, silver and copper in large quantities, and many other 
metals. Without exaggeration, it might be said that there are a 
dozen Klondykes in North-Hast Siberia; she is the fourth gold- 
producing country in the world, though the surface has only just 
been tickled by most primitive methods. 
The railway terminates at Vladivostock ; the free commercial 
port being Dalny, near Port Arthur, the military port near to 
Pekin, which is the objective of Russia. When Russia stretches 
out her hand she never draws it back; she grasps, and the grasp 
never relaxes. The same process is going on in Persia and 
Afghanistan. 
In our journey across Siberia we do not find much to remind 
us of our own country. In the houses you find a great deal of 
everything that comes from Germany ; cloth from Germany, 
glass and china from Belgium and Austria; many of the table 
delicacies are French; cutlery, chiefly Russian. There are 
one or two things from England: pockethandkerchiefs made 
from cotton, called American cotton in order to get into Siberia : 
precious few of them and they last a very long time. Mean- 
while, every agricultural implement in Western Siberia is 
American ; practically all mining machinery in Kastern Siberia 
is American. The German.language may almost be said to be 
the commercial language of Russia, and it will carry you far in 
Siberia. The representatives of English firms are Germans, 
and not likely to do much for us while their own ‘ home, sweet 
home,” is in their minds. In the Siberian newspapers are 
found plenty of advertisements of German and American firms, 
but none of English firms. There is a well-known commercial 
calendar in Siberia on the desk of practically every merchant. 
Out of some 400 pages, 150 of them are German advertisements, 
