54 POT^ESTRY l^ EASTERN EUSSIA. 



their slopes are known to contain more or less gold along 

 the whole extent of them. Yet they are only worked in 

 a few places, and there not as they ought to be. Consider, 

 again, the large tract of copper-producing country, and 

 how few are the works scattered here and there upon it. 

 And so it is with iron and all other minerals — they are 

 aU comparatively neglected.' And he goes on to say : — 



' Whenever I travel about Siberia I always think, why 

 is it that our countrymen are sent all the way to the 

 antipodes in search of a colony ? I speak of those who set 

 out with a small capital. Here, nearer home, they can get 

 better land cheaper than in many of our colonies ; they 

 can live more cheaply, can hire labour cheaply, and enjoy 

 many advantages of civilisation which they would want in 

 the colonies. Not only does farming here, but all other 

 industrial enterprises likewise, offer a good occupation and 

 the promise of a fortune to a man who courageously and 

 judiciously inaugurates and carries them through. In 

 short, I can think of no other country in the world which 

 offers the same advantages to a young man with a small 

 capital as Siberia.' And he gives illustrations of successful 

 enterprise by self-made men, who were born serfs. 



My late friend Mr Wilkinson, of whom I have already 

 spoken, an intelligent engineer, who had travelled exten- 

 sively in Russia and Siberia, residing for a time in different 

 places whither he was called by his professional duties — in 

 compliance with a wish which I expressed for some idea 

 of the general aspect of this region, wrote to me : — ' I will 

 not weary you with dry details of the mineral and vege- 

 table productions which are to be found in the Ural region. 

 Suffice it to say that, in a circuit of some 3000 miles, you 

 find every variety of tree indigenous to the temperate 

 zone. 



' If you wish to see a country, you must travel through 

 it by horses on the cross roads, not by rail, nor on the 

 open beaten track ; and in passing over those gradually 

 sloping mountains of Kushvinsky, Neviansk, Polieffskoi, 



