34 AFTER WILD SHEEP IN THE ALTAI 



intending to travel straight through to Ongudai, 



where we expected to find our companions and the 

 baggage safely arrived. 



The weather was cold and rainy during the whole 

 time we remained at Barnaoul. On the whole the 

 climate is very severe, being" extremely continental, 

 and winter is long and dreary. No fruit grows in 

 the district, not even apples. In the meantime we 

 visited the town under General Boldyreff's super- 

 vision. We found an interesting museum, with 

 specimens of stuffed animals of the district : Wild 

 Sheep, Ibex, Maral, and, to my great astonishment, 

 a Tiger, which I was told had been shot many years 

 before in the neighbourhood of Barnaoul. This 

 appeared to me very unlikely, though not impossible. 

 In the museum we saw a fine geological and mineral- 

 ogical collection, and a well -supplied library, chiefly 

 containing works on the Altai, by Tchichatcheff, the 

 Russian traveller, Bunge and Ledebour, the well- 

 known botanists, with splendid plates of the different 

 plants of the district. I was also struck by the active 

 interest which the authorities at Barnaoul take in the 

 welfare and education of the common people, an 

 interest which seemed to me to be much above the 

 average in comparison with that of European Russia. 

 For instance, there is a special hall, with a garden 



