CHAPTER XXIII. 



CENTRAL SIBERIA. 



The Government of Tomsk— The Altai mining district— Nature of the 

 country— An agricultural land- Three years' famine— The fallow-land 

 system— Absence of English-made goods— The reason— The Siberian 

 village— The Siberian peasant— The vodka curse— The Government 

 vodka monopoly— Vodka statistics— Barnaul— A general store— The 

 Altai highlands — Kosh-Agach — Eusso- Mongol trade — The city of 

 Tomsk— The mystery of Tomsk— Feodor Kuzmitch— The mysterious 

 death of Alexander I.—" Alexander's House" at Tomsk— The uni- 

 versity and technological institute— Population and position. 



Immediately north of the region of " steppe border- 

 land," known as Semipalatinsk, lies that portion of 

 Siberia embraced by the government of Tomsk. 

 Bounded on the west and north-west by the Akmo- 

 linsk territory and the Tobolsk government, and on the 

 east and north-east by Mongolia and the Yeniseisk 

 government, it comprises an area of upwards of 331,000 

 square miles, or, to give a better idea, is one and a half 

 times as large as France. Through the centre of this 

 province runs the middle link of the great Siberian 

 railway, and south of the line are situated four of 

 the seven unequal divisions into which, for purposes 

 of internal administration, it is divided, known as 

 the Barnaul, Biisk, Kuznetsk, and Zeminogorsk dis- 

 tricts, forming the property of his Imperial Majesty's 

 Cabinet under the name of the Altai mining dis- 

 trict. This property, already one of the richest in 



