CHAPTER IX. 



PARTING GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN THE DISTRICT. 



Remote as once Siberia seemed, and was with the time 

 required to journey thither viewed as the measurement, it 

 is no longer to the traveller by steam a land that is afar off. 



' We quitted Kazan,' writes Dr Lansdell, 'on Monday 

 morning in one of Lubinoff's steamers, and, after proceed- 

 ing two or three hours dowa the Volga, left that river to 

 finish its career of 2,200 miles, whilst we turned into one 

 of its affluents, the Kama, which is no mean river in itself, 

 having a course of 1,400 miles. The junction of the two 

 streams presents a fine expanse of water, but the banks 

 are too flat to be pretty. Steamboat travelling in Russia 

 is not expensive, the first-class fare from Nijni Novgorod 

 to Perm, a four days' journey, being only 86s. 



' Those who have hitherto written of journeys to Siberia 

 have told of a dismal drive from Perm to Ekaterineburg ; 

 but this misfortune did not fall to our lot, since in the 

 autumn of 1878 a railway was opened over the mountains, 

 and the journey is now accomplished in about four-and- 

 twenty hours. The distance is 312 miles, and between 

 the two termini are about 30 stations,* 



* of the three divisions, the Northern or barren Ural, as the Russians call it, begin- 

 ning at the source of the Pechora, is the most elevated and the least known. The 

 Southern Ural begins about midway between Perm and Orenburg, and descends to the 

 banks of the Ural river. It is a pastoral country, and about 100 miles in width. The 

 range is here less than 3000 feet in height. The Central Ural may be considered as a 

 wide undulation, heginning on the west on the hanks of the Kama. Perm, situated on 

 the right bank of the river, is 378 feet above the sea level, and on the post road to 

 Ekaterineburg the highest point is 1,638 feet, which, if my reckoning is correct, is 40 

 feet less than the highest station on the railway. I set my aneroid at Form, and found 

 that at the fourth station, Seleenka, a distance of 172 miles, we had mounted 470 feet ; 

 the next 22 miles brought us down again to 120 feet, after which for 60 miles we con- 

 tinued to ascend to Bisir, which registered 1,300 feet above Perm, and was the highest 

 station on the road. Level ground succeeded for about 30 miles to the border station, 

 after which in 50 mileg we descended 750 feet to Shaitanka, 10 mites beyond which we 

 had remounted 200 feet ; and on this level we kept to Iset, the last station but one. 

 The road then descended about 150 feet to Ekaterineburg, which is said to be 858 feet 

 above the sea level. 



