PART II. 

 RUSSIA EAST OF THE URAL MOUNTAINS. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE. 



IMMEDIATELY to the north of the Government of Ufa 

 is the Government of Perm, in which is included a large 

 portion of the Ural mountains, arid a considerable stretch 

 of country on their eastern slope, famous for its mines and 

 mineral productions, which the proximity of forests 

 has enabled enterprising men to exploit with great benefit 

 to themselves and to the empire. 



In the commencement of this volume we have in 

 imagination followed the course usually taken by travellers 

 from St. Petersburg to the Government of Ufa. Had we, 

 instead of leaving the Kama at the Bielaya river, con- 

 tinued the ascent of the former, our voyage would have 

 brought us to Perm, the capital of the Government. 



Barry, in his volume entitled Russia in 1870, writes : 

 1 From this place ' Nijni Novgorod, the seat of the famous 

 fair, where, in the preceding intinerary, our travellers, 

 leaving the railway, embarked on the Volga c a line of 

 steamers plies daily to Perm in Siberia, doing the distance 

 pleasantly in a week. The boats are not large, and their 

 accommodation must not be compared with that of the 

 floating palaces of the P. and 0. Company, but they are 

 kept very clean, and cannot be called bad quarters for 

 travellers. 



