PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 



PREFACE 



TO THE 



ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 



Of that great expanse of territory reaching all the way from 

 the Ural mountains to the Pacific Ocean and from the Frozen seas 

 to the borders of the Celestial Empire there is perhaps little more 

 than the name, S i b e r i a, authentically known to the general public. 

 Yet Avith its wide-stretching plains, its magnilicent water systems and 

 its unknown wealth of noble metals and other valuable mineral de- 

 posits buried in its bosom, there is for such a land a future too 

 great to be overlooked at the present day. 



With the steel rails of the Great Siberian Railway piercing 

 their steady way through the vast country to the Far East, thus 

 completing the great arc of the circle that in direct lines, winding 

 about the 50th parallel of north latitude, will steam around the 

 world, the resources of this great unknown become of immediate 

 importance to our own Paciiic slopes, and through them to the 

 whole people of the United States. It was therefore with great 

 satisfaction that I welcomed this the 5th \-olume of the series on 

 The Industries of Russia, designed for the World's Columbian 

 Exposition, and accepted the invitation oi the Imperial Minister 



