WATER AND OVERLAND COMMUNICATION. 229 



a service of tug and cable boats for carrying goods, passengers and mails .by at least 

 two steamers. Sibiryakov's endeavours to institute cable steamers on the Angara may be 

 called unsuccessful; in the middle of 1888 he started a caravan of two steamers and 3 barges 

 with a load of 30,000 pouds of grain up the Angara, By August 15th the caravan had only 

 travelled 400 versts and on account of the shallow water had to stop at 500 versts from its 

 destination, the mouth of the Ilim, and turn back after having sustained considerable damage. 

 Regular steamboat service on the Angara between Irkutsk and Yeniseisk is therefore a thing 

 of the future, but as the Great Siberian Railway will intersect both the Yenisei and the Angara, 

 these two rivers will serve to feed it and deliver goods both from above and below. Funher 

 on, at Verkhneoudinsk, the line will intersect the large river Selenga which rises in China 

 and is within a distance of 1,000 versts from the Chinese Yellow river. Here steamers are 

 plying and the railway can not only be supplied with freights coming from lake Baikal by 

 water, but even with goods from the borders of China. 



The third large Siberian river, the Lena, occupies a more independent position and 

 is neither connected with the Amour basin, nor with that of the Yenisei. The basin of the 

 Lena does not directly come in contact with the Great Siberian Railway but will in all pro- 

 bability have a considerable influence indirectly in delivering goods from the Yakutsk region. 

 There is at present steam navigation on the Lena, but it is more or less of a casual nature- 

 Vessels from Europe have repeatedly visited the estuary of this river but the trade was of 

 less importance than that done at the mouth of the Yenisei. The Government, being anxious 

 to encourage intercourse between Europe and the Siberian shores of the Arctic Ocean, has 

 several times granted by an Imperial decree a free import of goods through the mouths 

 of the Obi, Yenisei and Lena to various individuals, including foreigners. The final term of 

 this privilegs expires next year, in 1894. 



The Kiakhta Steamboat Company, founded in 1881 by the local merchants, keeps a 

 regular steamboat service on lake Baikal in accordance with the Government regulations of 

 May 1, 1890, referring to mail-passenger and steam tug service on lake Baikal. These regula- 

 tions require that the company should employ the two steamboats it possesses for the following 

 work: 1. three journeys a week from the Listvenich settlement to Mysovsk pier, a distance 

 of 80 versts across the lake from west to east and back; 2. five journeys to and fro 

 per season from the Listvenich settlement to the Tourkinsk mineral water springs, the mouth 

 of the Bargouzin, Krougoulin, Sosnovka and the mouth of the Upper Angara, a distance of 

 700 versts. These latter journeys were fixed in accordance with the local requirements and 

 subject to the approval of the Governor-General of Irkutsk; the service is in general carried 

 on according to a time-table edited by the company, upon agreement with the local authori- 

 ties, and confirmed by the chief of the district. For keeping up the above mentioned service 

 the company receives the following Government subsidies: 1. for the journeys between List- 

 venich and Mysovsk, 296 roubles for every double journey there and back; 2. for every cruise 

 from Listvenich to the mouth of the Upper Angara, 2,170 roubles; counting 78 of the 

 first and 5 of the second journeys per season, the total subsidy amounts to 33,938 roubles, 

 and should not exceed this sum. The concession has been granted to the company for a term 

 of 12 years commencing from 1890. 



