CONTENTS 16 



PAOB 



StarebroUkave— A night adventure— A watery journey- 

 Smolensk — A snowstorm— Katunsk — An Easter procession 

 — Crossing the Katun River— The River Bye— Architecture 

 of Bysk— Russian holidays— Siberian eggs and their ex- 

 portation. 



CHAPTER IX 



Leaving Bysk 266 



A post-master's pass — Importance of the instrument — 

 Skubensky — Bulanka — Haruzofsky — Petrovsk — The River 

 Belle — Intense cold — Ovchinikovskaya — We shoot a 

 "jouravl" — Jelensky — Crossing the Obi under difficulties 

 — Barnaoul — We visit the chief dairy instructor — Beleraska 

 — Povolicha — Ozjorka — Talmanskalyar — Game and wild- 

 fowl shooting — Anisimof sky — Beating the speed records — 

 Bersk — The Obi again — The Wigans Expedition — Alterna- 

 tive routes from Novo-Nicolaevsk to Bysk — ^The great thaw 

 begins in earnest — Siberian waterways and spring — Con- 

 ditions of labour — Exploring Novo-Nicola6vsk — A church 

 interior — The priest and the people — The longest pro- 

 menade in the world — A farewell supper and concert — 

 Taking train for Europe again — Bribery of officials — The 

 Siberian railway in peace and war. 



CHAPTER X 



On the way Home from Novo-Nicolaevsk . . 290 



My train companions — Tea and conversation — A steppe 

 thunderstorm — Kainsk — Dining facilities — A menu — 

 Siberian cats — Kourgan — Boarding the Siberian Interna- 

 tional Wagon-lits Express — We meet General Kourapatkin 

 — His personality — My fellow-passengers — "A good old 

 English gentleman " — Missionaries — Naval officers — 

 Mountaineering — Big game in the Far East — Russian 

 officers — A pleasing incident — Unfair criticism — Zlatoust — 

 The Birmingham of Siberia — Emigrant trains — Bashkirs — 

 Ufa — Other aboriginal tribes — Samara — The Volga Bridge 

 — Tula — Moscow. 



