CHITA • 41 



minino- centre. Here I was told that the climate was 

 most severe, there being hardly a month in the year 

 without frost, and over three hundred days without 

 rain or snow. A little before Chita we struck the 

 valley of the Ingoda river after crossing the pass 

 over the Yablonovoi range (about 3,500 feet) into 

 the system of the Amur. Chita is quite a picturesque 

 little town at the foot of the hills. I heard that timers 

 were not unfrequent in the neighbourhood. Our train 

 advanced at quite a fair pace (fifty versts an hour), 

 and we soon passed the famous Nerchinsk district, 

 where convicts are deported and work in the Govern- 

 ment mines. During the night, our last one in the 

 car, we were awakened by an unusual stir and bustle 

 outside. It turned out that our roof was on fire, and 

 had it not been noticed at one of the stations, we 

 should have had ample time to be smothered by the 

 smoke, or burnt alive. 



On June 2, at one a.m., we at last sighted Stretensk, 

 the terminus of the line. Stretensk is a small village 

 situated on the right bank of the Shilka, one of the 

 most important confluents of the Amur. The ri\er at 

 this place is 150 yards broad with a rapid current. 

 Unfortunately it is badly fed by its tributaries and 

 becomes unusually shallow in summer, which renders 

 navigation almost impossible at that time of year, 



