A JOURNEY IN SIBERIA. 405 



A Russian Governor does not travel like an ordinary mortal, least of 

 all when he journeys through uninhabited territory. He is accom- 

 panied by the district-officers and their subordinates, by the elders 

 and clerks of the community, by the elite of the district which he 

 visits, by a troop of Cossacks and their officers including the captain, 

 by his own servants and those of his escort, &c. And when, as in 

 this case, the expedition is to a comparatively unknown country, 

 when it is necessary to consult with Kirghiz communities, the 

 cavalcade is enormously increased. For not only have yurts and 

 tents to be carried, as is usual on steppe journeys, but flocks of 

 sheep have to go on in front of the little army to feed the hundreds 

 on their way through the barren wilderness. Since leaving the 

 Zaizan lake we had been once more in China, and a journey of 

 several days had to be faced before we could hope to come across 

 human settlements, which are confined to the deeper valleys among 

 the mountains. 



At first we were accompanied by more than two hundred men, 

 mostly Kirghiz, who had been summoned to receive an imperial order 

 relating to the suspension of their pasture-rights in the crown-lands 

 of the Altai, and to come to an agreement as to consequent changes 

 in their wanderings. But even after the deliberations were ended, 

 our retinue still numbered over a hundred horses and sixty men. 

 In the early morning the yurts were raised from over our heads 

 and sent on in front with the baggage; then we followed in com- 

 panies, riding slowly until the ladies, the General's amiable wife 

 and daughter, overtook us. We breakfasted at some suitable spot, 

 waited till the last of the pack-horses had gone ahead, and then went 

 on, usually reaching our halting-place along with the daily dwind- 

 ling flock of sheep which always started first. Thus, every evening, 

 we had an opportunity of watching the pleasant picture of camp- 

 life take form before us. Lovely verdant valleys full of spring's 

 fragrance invited us; from the lofty precipitous mountains, stiU 

 snow-capped, we got glimpses of the distant highlands and of the 

 steppe-land, which we had traversed, stretching to the Zaur and the 

 Tarabagatai; and at last we caught sight of Markakul — the pearl 

 among the mountain lakes of the Altai — and entered the highlands 



