208 ACROSS THE STEPPES OF TURKESTAN. 



which you emerge on to the level plains east of Lake 

 Balkash. Here a stretch of sandy desert is crossed, 

 where the various scrub and herb life which one learns 

 to look for in sandy soil take the place of grass ; but 

 after the zone of sand is passed the scene again pre- 

 sents the same grass-covered treeless expanse which has 

 accompanied you the whole way. The last town in 

 Turkestan is Sergiopol, and 17 miles farther on, and 1003 

 from Tashkent, the frontier of Siberia is reached. The 

 next 160 miles, as far as the town of Semipalatinsk, 

 are perhaps the most dreary of the whole journey, if, 

 indeed, it is possible to discriminate in such a country. 

 I often drove 20 miles at a stretch without seeing a 

 sign of life beyond an occasional vulture soaring high 

 overhead, or sitting brooding on a telegraph-pole, and I 

 was consequently not in the least surprised to learn 

 that the population of Semipalatinsk averages only 1*7 

 to the square verst. The intense monotony of journey- 

 ing across a country such as this can easily be con- 

 ceived. As hour after hour went by, the quaint 

 refrain of one of Whyte - Melville's songs thumped 

 and hammered through my brain, keeping exaggerated 

 time with the perpetual jolts and bumps of my crazy 

 carriage : — 



" Kext came the Moor-land, 



The Mooi'-land, the Moor-land — 

 Next came the Moor-land, 



It stretched for many a mile." 



Substitute Steppe-land for Moor-land, and you have an 

 exact presentation of the scene. 



The soil, as in other parts of the Siberian steppe 

 border-land, varies from fertile black earth to sands, 

 clay, gypsum, marl, and salt marshes, with a flora 

 characterised by dwarf bushes, often thorny and some- 

 times covered with grey foliage, dwarf almond, wild 



