THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY. 



bridges across small streams by superior erections 

 of stone and the addition of sidings at all the 

 larger stations, the necessity of doubling the line 

 is under consideration. In this connection it may 

 be mentioned that, in view of the difficulties which 

 stand in the way of doubling the existing line, 

 serious consideration is likely to be given to a 

 scheme which has been suggested, for building an 

 entirely separate line at a considerable distance to 

 the north. In such a scheme would lie the sal- 

 vation of Tomsk. 



Beyond Taigar the line passes by several towns 

 of importance — Mariinsk, Achinsk, Krasnoyarsk, and 

 Kansk — while gradually passing from the level plains 

 of Western Siberia into the more mountainous lands 

 of the districts of Yeniseisk and Irkutsk. Here the 

 configuration of the country has been followed with 

 ridiculous faithfulness, the result being a succession 

 of curves, over which our pace, attaining at the 

 best a modest average of twenty miles an hour, 

 becomes a crawl. To the uninitiated, indeed, the 

 serpentine alignment appears wholly unnecessary, 

 recalling vivid impressions of the twists and turns 

 of another railway nearer home, which is said to 

 have lined the pockets of a certain baron of Hebraic 

 descent, while at the same time rendering him an 

 object of anathema on the shores of the Golden 

 Horn. 



Long before Irkutsk is reached the monotony of 

 the journey is brought home to one, for there is 

 little to divert one's attention on the way. Once 

 we passed another " International " on its way back 

 from Irkutsk, and greetings were exchanged before 

 we moved on, and sometimes we overtook trains 

 carrying convicts, easily recognisable by their closely 



