210 ACROSS THE STEPPES OF TURKESTAN. 



river, down which steamers ply twice a-week during 

 the summer, when the river is not frozen. In the 

 winter communication is maintained with the same 

 place by a post-road 479^ miles in length. Alabaster 

 is found near the town, and some years ago very rich 

 beds of manganese were discovered not far off in the 

 Arkalik Mountains, though this is but a small item of 

 the vast mineral wealth that abounds in these remote 

 dominions of the Tsar. 



North of Semipalatinsk I found the country much 

 more populous, — large villages of log-built houses at the 

 end of every stage and sometimes in between, trees 

 growing in many places, especially along the river- 

 banks, and the country altogether presenting a more 

 promising appearance. I had in fact reached one of the 

 most fertile tracts of Siberia, whose possibilities are 

 enormous ; but let me at once say that I was not very 

 greatly impressed with the settlers there. They struck 

 me as being rude, uneducated peasants, — even the 

 master of the post-horses could seldom read or write, 

 a clerk as a rule being attached to the post-station for 

 this purpose, — and hardly the stamp of men to found a 

 colony. They may be a degree more enlightened than 

 the Cossacks, who were the first settlers in these 

 territories ; but that is not saying a great deal, and I 

 do not think that there is much chance of the most 

 being made of this country of magnificent possibilities 

 by its present occupants. 



Three hundred and eleven miles beyond Semipalatinsk 

 and 1542 beyond Tashkent stands Barnaul, the capital 

 of one of the districts of the Tomsk Government ; but 

 some account of this and of the adjoining districts of 

 Biisk and Zeminogorsk, whose development is so in- 

 timately connected with the Siberian railway, will be 

 better reserved for another chapter. 



