ST. PETERSBURG 27 



and its potentialities. My fellow-directors having 

 selected me for the journey, on the score that as 

 an Alpine climber the wolves would find me too 

 tough to devour and the Siberian cold too hardy to 

 freeze, the end of the winter of 1903 was fixed upon 

 for the trip. Like most Britishers, all I knew of 

 Siberia was that it had an intensely cold clim'ate, 

 the mere mention of the place being sufhcient to 

 make me feel chilly on the hottest day. I pictured 

 to m'yself, on the Siberian steppes, the traditiona.1 

 pack of wolves devouring the horses which the hotly- 

 pursued travellers had cut away from' the sledge, 

 and so vivid was the picture that, when purchasing 

 a revolver, I found m^yself pondering whether it 

 would be safe to buy one without a self-extraictor — 

 in case there should be more than six wolves in the 

 pack. 



One of my colleagues, who maintains that I suffer 

 from " mountain fever," having suggested that it was 

 rather a good thing that there were no mountains 

 to climb in Siberia, as I would not be tempted to 

 risk my jneck, a train of ideas was started in my 

 mind which resulted in a visit to the Royal 

 Geographical Society. I found that all the literature 

 the Society, possessed which dealt with the Altai 

 Mountains consisted of a few lines translated from' the 

 Russian Geographical Society's Journal, to the effect 

 that Professor Sapozhnikoff had climbed 13,300 feet 

 of the south side of the Belukha, and from that 

 elevation had determined the altitude of the mountain 

 to be 14,800 feet, which is the height of the 

 Matterhom, 



Belukha: is the highest known mountain in Siberia, 

 so, wishing to learn m'ore about it, I consulted a' 

 Russian map and found that it is situated about 

 300 actiles from Bysk, the most southerly town I was 

 to visit on business. I determined, therefore, instead 



