TRANSIT ARRANGEMENTS 203 



reached. Three of the trains go to Riga and 

 Windau, the destination of the fourth being 

 St. Petersburg, Novi Port, and Reval. Each of 

 them travels at gr ancle Vitesse speed, and takes 

 precedence of all ordinary goods trains. Re- 

 frigerator waggons, painted white, are provided 

 for the traffic (about 1,000 are now available), 

 and theoretically there should be a supply of ice 

 at every important station, either for use in the 

 waggons or for keeping the local supply of 

 butter fresh until the train arrives ; but in prac- 

 tice, as may well happen in Russia, the railway 

 arrangements are distinctly defective. At one 

 station, for instance, there will be no ice, and 

 at another there will be ice in waiting, but no 

 one to put it into the waggons. From Omsk 

 (the headquarters of the industry) to the port of 

 Riga the time taken was, up to recently, fourteen 

 days, but the transit has since been expedited. 

 From Riga the butter comes weekly either to 

 London, to Hull, or to Leith. From Windau 

 supplies reach London or Newcastle rid Copen- 

 hagen, and still other weekly consignments ar- 

 rive in London from Reval. The cost of the 

 land transit from Omsk to Riga is about 7s. 4>d. 

 per cwt. From Kurgan to Riga it would be 5d, 

 per cwt. less ; from Petropavlosk 3d. per cwt. 

 less ; from Kainsk 3d. per cwt. less ; from Ob 



