VILLAGE ON THE OB 



CHAPTER XLV. 



FROM TOMSK TO PERM. 



From Tomsk to Tiumen — An Old Acquaintance — Cost of Steamboat 

 Travelling — Cooking — Tobolsk — Contrast between Russian and Tatar 

 Villages — Threading the Labyrinth of the Tura — The Black Kite — 

 Cormorants — Asiatic White Crane — Notes of Sandpipers — Tiumen — 

 Russian Hotel Accommodation — Bad Roads — Ekaterinburg — Recrossing 

 the Ural — Iron-works — Kongur — New Railways — The Big Village. 



We left Tomsk on Thursday, the 30th of August. The 

 water in the river was so low that the steamer was not 

 able to come up to the town, so we were obliged to hire 

 a droshky to drive us three miles to the station on 

 Wednesday evening, when we got into a small tug 

 steamer which weighed anchor at three o'clock in the 

 morning. The Kosagoffsky was lying about forty-five 

 versts down the river, and we were comfortably quartered 

 on board of her in time for a late breakfast. She was a 

 smart iron vessel, built in Tiumen, and would not have 



