168 FOKESTRY IN EASTERN RUSSIA. 



there, as m other parts of the Empire, men from a 

 distance may come and get employment for a week, a month, 

 a year, free to come, free to go, excepting ia so far as 

 they may bind themselves by contract ; and ready enough 

 to avail themselves of this freedom, they acquire with- 

 out difficulty some knowledge of, and expertness in, the 

 little required of each to do — for tlie Russian peasant is 

 in many cases an imitative being — and with this know- 

 ledge and experience they may expect to get somewhat 

 higher wages from another employer. 



I have great admiration for the emancipators of the 

 serfs, and full sympathy with the emancipated. But from 

 what I know I think it not improbable that that measure, 

 one of justice to the serf, may have had not a little to do 

 with the present depression of the works here. 



Of the peasantry in Siberia, Barry says : ' The peasants 

 of Siberia are found to be more civilised and better edu- 

 cated than those of the other parts of Russia ;' and he 

 adds, ' this is doubtless due to the influence of the political 

 exiles who, from time to time, have been sent from the 

 centres of civilisation to live among them, and many of 

 whom, having no business to occupy them, spend their 

 time in the charitable occupation of teaching the children 

 of the peasantry in their neighbourhoods. 



' The peasantry of Siberia are cleaner and better dressed 

 — altogether a finer class of men — than the peasants of 

 other parts. They seem to talk and express their opinions 

 with more freedom from restraint, and also to be better 

 informed of what is passing in the world than their 

 countrymen further south. Altogether, they seem to have 

 been more liberally educated and trained, and the traveller 

 cannot fail to be struck with the improvement he must 

 notice in the general condition and appearance of the 

 people as he advances further north towards the Siberian 

 deserts. 



' The rise of the scale of civilisation in Siberia is indi- 

 cated, amongst other ways, by the improved condition of 



