Vol. XXXIX, No. 5 WASHINGTON 



May, 1921 



THE 



NATflONAL 

 APlflG 

 AGAZI 



COPYRIGHT.1 921, BY NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY. WASHINGTON. D. C. 



WESTERN SIBERIA AND THE ALTAI 

 MOUNTAINS 



With Some Speculations on the Future of Siberia 



By Viscount James Bryce 



Author of "Impressions of Palestine," "The Nation's Capital," and "Two Possible Solutions for the 

 Eastern Problem," in the National Geographic Magazine 



SINCE JULY, 1914, no American, 

 Englishman, or Frenchman, except 

 those officers who were sent out on 

 military missions, has had a chance of 

 traveling along the great Transcontinental 

 Railway which connects western Europe 

 with China and Japan ; so before I come 

 to speak of the Altai Mountains, it is 

 worth while to say something of this 

 wonderful highway of commerce, along 

 which I passed in 191 3, on my return to 

 England from Japan. 



From Calais, on that arm of the At- 

 lantic which we call the English Channel, 

 to Vladivostok, on that arm of the Pa- 

 cific we call the Sea of Japan, it is more 

 than 7,000 miles, while from New York 

 to San Francisco it is only about 3,000 

 miles. 



An interesting comparison may be 

 made between these two transcontinental 

 roads, on opposite sides of the world, 

 linking the Atlantic with the Pacific. 



Each when it leaves the Atlantic coast 

 runs for more than 1,500 miles through 

 civilized and thickly peopled regions, 

 mostly agricultural, though studded with 

 cities. Each when it approaches the cen- 

 ter of the continent climbs a mountain 

 range and passes over vast tracts of wild 

 and thinly inhabited country, sometimes 

 through deserts, sometimes through for- 

 ests. Each crosses great rivers ; each 

 coasts along the shore of a large and 

 beautiful inland sea. Each emerges 



finally from the solitudes of its middle 

 course into a rich and prosperous land 

 and finds its end at a famous harbor — the 

 American Transcontinental at San Fran- 

 cisco, the Asiatic Transcontinental at the 

 equally spacious and well sheltered, if 

 less beautiful, port of Vladivostok. 



Along both roads there is a great 

 variety of scenery, much of it striking, 

 but the Asiatic line has an interest that 

 is all its own in the variety of the peoples 

 also through which it passes. One lan- 

 guage only rules from the Hudson to the 

 Golden Gate, whereas between Calais and 

 Vladivostok many tongues are spoken 

 and many races of men — Hollanders and 

 Germans, Poles and Lithuanians and 

 Russians, Bashkirs and Buriats, Man- 

 chus and Chinese — have their homes. 



EROM CAEAIS TO MOSCOW 



The best way to enjoy the Asiatic 

 Transcontinental journey is to begin at 

 the west end and travel east, whereas the 

 American Transcontinental should be 

 taken from the east toward the west, and 

 for the same reason, viz., that it is more 

 interesting to start from civilization and 

 pass by degrees into wilder regions, more 

 solitary and more picturesque, which keep 

 curiosity constantly alive, than it is to 

 reverse the process. 



So, although it was my own fortune to 

 have to travel from the east to the west, 

 I will venture to conduct the reader the 



