WESTERN SIBERIA AND THE ALTAI MOUNTAINS 



48' 



Photograph by Maynard Owen Williams 

 THE PONTOON-BRIDGE AT IRKUTSK BEING PUT INTO PLACE IN SPRING (SEE ALSO 



ILLUSTRATION ON OPPOSITE PAGE) 



The history of Irkutsk goes back to 1652, when winter quarters were established here by the 

 Russians for the collection of fur taxes from the Buriats (see illustration, page 494). 



gust 18, crossing the broad stream of the 

 Biya in a large ferry-boat. 



ELOORS OE POST STATIONS BETTER THAN 

 THEIR BEDS 



Each post station, which is bound to 

 provide horses for travelers presenting a 

 "Crown Podoroshna," has one or two 

 small rooms reserved for the use of 

 officials and called the Zemstvo Quartier ; 

 and passably furnished. There are usu- 

 ally two beds, but into these we never 

 ventured, preferring to sleep on the light 

 mattresses which, according to custom, 

 we carried with us and laid on the floor. 

 After a long day's jolting in the open 

 air one can sleep on the hardest floor. 



The people were always civil, and gave 

 us what food they had, black bread, 

 usually butter also, which was always 

 good, and sometimes eggs, but vegetables 

 were never, and meat scarcely ever ob- 

 tainable. We had brought a tin of bis- 

 cuits, with a little tea (needless, because 

 it is the beverage of the country) and 

 preserved meat and desiccated soup, the 



latter always to be recommended when- 

 ever hot water can be had. 



We started every morning as soon as 

 the horses could be got, and never reached 

 the night's halting place till after dark, 

 yet could seldom cover twenty-five miles 

 a day, for the tarantass cannot, along 

 such tracks, on an average, and allowing 

 for the changing of horses, accomplish 

 more than three or four miles an hour, 

 and we might just as well, and with more 

 pleasure, have journeyed on foot, but for 

 the frequent swamps and occasional 

 downpours of rain. Twenty-five miles 

 is an easy day's walking in exhilarating 

 mountain air, if one has no knapsack to 

 carry. 



A LAND OF MARVELOUS FLORAL BEAUTY 



The first day's journey was over the 

 rolling grassy steppe ; the second brought 

 us into soft valleys between the lower 

 hills, valleys filled with flowers of many 

 brilliant hues, such as one might find on 

 the lower slopes of the Alps in July, for 

 here the snow does not melt away till 



