A Trip Through Siberia 



39 



than in European Russia, and 

 indeed in some other Euro- 

 pean countries in whose behalf 

 our sympathies have not been 

 evoked. ■ 



I had believed it to be a 

 frozen wilderness and a desert 

 waste. The portion through 

 which I traveled was - a laud 

 like Minnesota, the Dakotas, 

 and the foothills of the Rockies, 

 where wheat and rye and vege- 

 tables matured ; where straw- 

 berries, currants, and rasp- 

 berries abound ; where sheep, 

 horses, and cattle graze unshel- 

 tered throughout the year, and 

 where a greater extent of virgin 

 forest of splendid birch and 

 pine is found than the whole 

 area of the United States. I 

 was told, and I believe it is 

 true, that straight through 

 from the Kingan Mountains to 

 the Urals for about 400 miles 

 north of the Trans-Siberian Road like 

 conditions prevailed, and north of this 

 tillable land was 400 miles more of un- 

 broken forest before the frozen tundra 

 or Arctic waste was reached. 



I expected to find in every town a 

 convict prison full of exiles and crim- 

 inals. With the exception of two con- 

 ■ vict barges floating down the Amur on 

 their way to Sakhalin, I saw no trace 

 of the system, but I did see in every 

 town and village, no matter how small 

 or humble, the dome of a Russian 

 church, and in the larger cities Catho- 

 lic and Lutheran churches as well. 



I had been told that Russian officials 

 were peculiarly susceptible to tips and 

 fees, and of course expected to be fit 

 plunder for hotel- keepers, porters, and 

 all others with whom a traveler comes 

 in contact ; but after a somewhat exten- 

 sive experience in most of what we call 

 the civilized countries of the world, I 

 want to record as my opinion that no- 

 where have I had so courteous treat- 

 ment, so generous assistance, and so 



A Steamer Landing on the Amur 



hearty welcome as in Siberia, both from 

 the officials and civilians as well. I do 

 not think that this was exceptional in 

 my case, but that any American traveler 

 •with proper credentials and without a 

 mission to reconstruct the government 

 and reform all of its abuses at once 

 would have the same experience. 



I was cautioned to be an American : 

 and nothing else in Russia, and while I ; 

 did not need the. advice, I followed it • 

 and found in doing so that as a nation 1 

 and as individuals. we had the confidence, j 

 respect, and regard of all. 



But the greatest surprise to me was 

 the country itself, so wholly unlike what 

 I had expected, and since I have returned 

 to my home and read the descriptions of , 

 it, written before the railroad was built, , 

 I have wondered whether I could have 

 been mistaken in my judgment of it. 



NOTES ON THE GENERAL GEOG- 

 RAPHY OF SIBERIA 



It was my practice daily to jot down 

 notes of the physical geography and 



