292 THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY. 



sufficient evidence of the belief of those concerned that 

 a release from the ties attaching to imperial Cabinet 

 property is at hand, and that it is on the verge of 

 becoming a town. It may interest the British con- 

 sumer to learn that at the present time this little set- 

 tlement is exporting something like 54,000,000 lb. of 

 butter a - year, part of which finds its way direct to 

 London, while a considerable portion of the remainder 

 passes through Denmark, where it is remade, finally 

 reachino: the London market as " best Danish butter." ^ 



Between this point and Lake Baikal, a distance 

 of 1173|- miles, lies the middle link of the Siberian 

 railway. Seated in an easy - chair in the comfort- 

 able saloon of the " International," which runs once 

 a-week from Moscow to Irkutsk, you gaze out on 

 an almost uninterrupted expanse of pine, fir, and 

 birch, in the midst of which the occasional small 

 clearings where settlers have built themselves houses 

 and tilled the land are dwarfed into insignificance. 

 The vast gloomy depths of a limitless virgin forest 

 confront you on every side, and the three days' 

 struggle which you enter upon to free yourself 

 from the monotony of unending forest is a futile 

 one, for from first to last fir, pine, and birch are 

 gloriously triumphant, forcing upon you a sense of 

 your own insignificance and of their unquestioned 

 dominion. 



As day fades into night after leaving the Ob, 

 the ' gloomy jungle opens for a space, and you 

 glide slowly into Taigar. A few years ago Taigar 

 was what its name still suggests — virgin forest. 



^ The dairy -farming industry, with special reference to the manufacture 

 of butter for export, has in a few years made rapid strides in Western 

 Siberia, which now exports annually to Baltic ports for shipment abroad 

 butter to the value of over £3,500,000. 



