THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. "tf 



' There is plenty of refined society to be met with in all 

 Siberian towns, and the time of one's sojourn there always 

 glides away pleasantly, the regularity and evonness of the 

 climate being an addition to the enjoyment of life.' 



All my informants agree in giving what many would 

 deem fabulous accounts of the comforts and luxuries to 

 be enjoyed in Ekaterineburg. Did time and occasion 

 serve I might enlarge upon these till the most jovial 

 amongst us would be ready to say, I wish I were there ! 



Of the natural scenery Barry writes : ' The woods in the 

 summer are beautiful ; although the long days are hot, 

 the evenings are always cool aad rather damp ; and the 

 wild flowers grow everywhere in great luxuriance. Straw- 

 berries and raspberries, currants, cherries, and many other 

 kinds of wild edible berries are gathered from the woods 

 in great quantities, and sent off to supply the markets of 

 neighbouring towns, which receive all their fruits from 

 these wild growths.' 



Speaking of the resources of the country, he says: 

 ' There are gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, coal, and salt, 

 and dense forests still undisturbed. I have travelled over 

 miles of mineral wealth, for day after day, through inter- 

 minable woods. I have looked from the highest moun- 

 tains, and from horizon to horizon, and seen nothing but 

 thickly-timbered foiests covering the hills and valleys. 

 All this is yet to be utilised. There it stands, idle, a.s 

 abundant as man can want, and only waiting for the axe 

 of the immigrant, when the tide of colonisation shall set 

 towards Siberia, under the auspices of the liberal policy 

 recently inaugurated by the Russian Government. . . 



' The resources of Siberia are immense. Few people have 

 any idea of their importance. Her mineral wealth is almost 

 unexplored ; in the few places where it is worked it is so 

 most unsatisfactorily, and under the worst possible man- 

 agement. To judge of the importance of this part of the 

 wealth of Russia, consider only the Ural mountains, which 

 extend from north to so-ith a distance of 1,200 miles, and 



