78 SIBERIA 



Leather tanning and tallow refining are the prin- 

 cipal industries, the town being noted as the psost 

 important centre for the sale of hides and skins in 

 Siberia. The animals are brought from' China, 

 Turkestan, and Persia;, as well as from; other parts 

 of Siberia, as many as three to four hundred 

 thousand heads of cattle being brought to the town 

 and slaughtered annually. The various branches of 

 the industry give employment to some fifty different 

 establishHients, and the value of the products is esti- 

 tilated at about three millions per annum. Half a 

 million worth of skins, chiefly of the goat, are shipped 

 every year to Airierica, other skins being also sent 

 to England and Gertnalny. A trade in flesh Meat is 

 anticipated with Engknd and America, and it would 

 certainly pay ainy one who was disposed to exaiiiine 

 its possibilities. An average of 2 J cwts. of Cleat is 

 obtained froEfl each cow. 



The population of Petropavlovsk numbers labout 

 26,000. The town is quite Asiatic in character. 

 Caravaii routes extend in a: southerly direction into 

 the very, heart of Asia, chiefly along the identical 

 river basins which, as is shown by ancient tombs 

 and the ruins of towns dispersed along the roaid, 

 were the highways along which the Asiatic hordes 

 proceeded in their march to Europe in the days 

 when history, was young. Stone images, which the 

 Russians call *' ba;bas," and which are found in con- 

 siderable numbers in Central and New Asia;, testify 

 further to this line of ffiigra;tion. Beyond doubt, 

 besides its glorious corfQriercial possibilities, Siberia 

 possesses a rich field for ethnographical and 

 archaeological research. 



The earliest settlers froni Russia were cut off froM 

 all intercourse with their European kindred for three 

 whole centuries, during which time they intermarried 

 freely with the aborigines. The result has been the 



