^6 



MB. H. J. ELWES ON THE 



"vvhich was presented to Kew, I am able, with the permission of 

 the Director of the Ivoyal Gardens, and the kind assistance of 

 Mr, J. Gr. Baker, to exhibit specimens of a few of the most 

 interesting. 



The language is a dilBculty not easily ovtrcome by Euglish 

 travellers. Tor tbough Kussian is of course spoken all over the 

 Russian Dominions, yet the inhabitants of the frontier districts 

 Mre Tartars, Mongols, and Kirghiz ; and when all conimuuieations 

 have to be made through two uneducated interpreters in languages 

 which they do not understand perfectly themselves, it is not easy 

 to get accurate or full information on any subject. 



There is no difficulty in getting leave from the Eussian 

 authorities, with proper introductions, to visit any part of 

 Western Siberia, and in fact I was seldom asked for a passport 

 the whole time I was in the Altai. The Chinese in Mongolia 

 are also very civil and friendly to travellers provided with pass- 

 ports ; and the only difficulty which prevented us from extending 

 our journey far into the Chinese dumiuions was the lack of time, 

 and the unwillingness of the liussian subjects to run the risk 

 of having their horses stolen by the Kirghiz, who ara subject 

 only to Chinese authority. 



We left Moscow on the ]8th of May, 1898, and, travelling by 

 rail without stopping, reached the crossing of the Obb river in 

 six days and nights. The whole of our route between the Ural 

 Mountains and the Obb lay through an immense flat plain, parts 

 of which are marshy and more or less clothed with birch woods, 

 and wherever the soil is dry enough a considerable amount of 

 cultivation is seen. Large quantities of wheat were stored at 

 the railway-stations for export, but I belie\e the price is now 

 insufficient to enable Siberian wheat to be profitably exported to 

 England, 



Spring had hardly set in when we reached the Obb river, 

 though it had been quite hot at xMoscow ; and almost the only 

 flowers which I noticed in the Steppe were a blue-and-yellow 

 anemone (Anemone patens), closely allied to if not identical with 

 A. Pulsatilla, and the brilliant yellow flowers of Adonis vernalis. 

 On reaching the Obb river, we had to wait two or three days for 

 a steamer to take us up to Barnaoul, w^hich is the chief, indeed 

 I may say the only, town in the whole of the Altai Government. 

 Erom there we drove in two d^ys across the Steppe to Biisk, 

 which, although a place of 18,000 inhabitants, is really a large 



