GLIMPSES OF LIFE IN THE DISTRICT. 157 



' I had heard a good deal about Irbit and of the Asiatics, 

 and the number of interesting things to be found there ; 

 but " Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall not 

 be disappointed." Evidently I had expected too much, for I 

 was much disappointed, if not disgusted. You do find there 

 a few Chinamen, Persians, Armenians, Bokharians, &c., but 

 they are few in number, are lost in the mass, and when en- 

 countered, they look as much out of their element as fish out 

 of water. The chief business is done by Tartar and Siberian, 

 merchants. The greatest trade done there is in tea brought 

 overland from Kiachta. Of packages of tea there are row 

 after row, and pile upon pile — I am afraid now to say how 

 many hundred thousand poods ; I think it was three — 

 pure China tea, for which you must pay double the price 

 in retail, and find it not so good, because mixed with the 

 Canton and Indian teas. I have heard of tea sold there at 

 300 roubles a pound, but I have never seen or tasted tea 

 of a higher price than 50 roubles. You find there also 

 cotton, wool, madder, &c., from Bokhara and the steppes, 

 but not in such quantities as you might expect. There is 

 a good trade done in furs, in skins, and in fish. Heaps 

 upon heaps of these delicious Siberian fish, seven and eight 

 feet long, and five poods in weight ; and shoubes at all prices 

 from 50 to 5000 roubles. But the principal articles are 

 prints and fancy goods, iron and cutlery, taken there to 

 meet the traders in the steppes, in Siberia, and the Ural. 

 Haberdashery and drapery alone were said to be sold to 

 the amount of 8,000,000 roubles. 



' How do you think they carry on this trade ? The 

 buyer must first pay off last year's bills, and settle old 

 accounts if he can ; then he gets a fresh stock of goods 

 on twelve, twenty-four, and sometimes thirty-six months' 

 bills, as the Russian manufacturers must sell all off on 

 such terms as they can. It won't do either to bring the 

 goods back or to let them remain there till the following- 

 year. The Government and other banks are there also 

 doing business on the same footing — viz., lading and 

 teaming, cashing and discounting, receiving with one hand, 



