2 FORESTRY IN EASTERN RUSSIA. 



friend, who was an office-bearer in the British and Ameri- 

 can Congregational Church, to which I was then minister- 

 ing, while their pastor was taking a few months' relaxation 

 in England, invited me to accompany himself and his 

 family to the Government of Ufa, abutting on the Ural 

 Mountains, whither they were going to visit a near kins- 

 man ; and he held out as an inducement to me to avail 

 myself of this opportunity to visit the district, that our 

 journey should, if suitable arrangements could be made, be 

 extended to Orenburg, and some distance thence into 

 Siberia, and on our return to Orenburg I should be free 

 to proceed thence by railway direct to Scotland, or at 

 least to any port where I might choose to embark to cross 

 the sea which separates our island home from the Con- 

 tinent of Europe. At the same time another office-bearer 

 in the church refunded to me the whole of the outlay I 

 had made on my trips to Lake Samia and Lake Onega, 

 leaving me free to appropriate the money to meet any 

 additional expense which might be entailed by the long 

 overland journey from Orenburg to the coast. 



The hearty sympathy of those to whom I was minister- 

 ing, and their readiness to aid me in prosecuting my study 

 of forestry, as it is presented in Russia, was very pleasant 

 to me. But, after careful consideration, it appeared to me 

 advisable that I should return to Scotland as soon as the 

 term of my engagement had expired, and I very 

 reluctantly declined the preferred kindness of my friends, 



I was acquainted with the condition of forestry in the 

 region in question, and with the way thither, though I 

 had never been there ; and a third member of the congrega- 

 tion, now deceased,* who had spent many years in that 



* I have met, as have others, with people trying to live a holy godly life, Catholics 

 and Protestants alike, who had a great prejudice against science, a consequence in many 

 cases of the teaching through which they had passed. I have not found this to be the 

 case with members of this congregation ; and I consider it right to say so. I wear a 

 gold watch presented to me well nigh fifty years ago by some of the young men of the 

 congregation and their friends, with the inscription ' To the Rev. John C. Brown, as 

 a mark of esteem from those who have attended his Lectures on Chemistry. St. Peters- 

 burg, March 18th, 1840.' 



During my residence amongst them in the summer of 1878 one of these young men 

 a young man no longer, and one who then preferred in worship the liturgy of the 



