402 
'FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. 22, igo2. 
President Roosevelt has been bear hunting in Mis- 
sissippi. Grover Cleveland has been duck hunting in 
South Carolina. King Edward and Emperor William 
have been pheasant driving togetlier at Sandringham. 
King Leopold and Grand Duke Alexis have beeen shoot- 
ing on the preserves of James Gordon Bennett at Ver- 
sailles. President Roosevelt insisted upon seclusion. 
Only duly accredited representatives of the several press 
associations' Tsi:€t& permitted to accompany his party; other 
reporters, contumeliously scorned as "insurgents," were 
stood off from the bear brakes hy armed giiards. King 
Ed-Wiar^ aAd Emperor William, on the contrary, did their 
shooting in the presence of crowds of spectators, who ap- 
peared to have been deeply impressed by the manual-dex- 
terity and deadly marksmanship of the Emperor. The tak- 
ing along of newspaper reporters in the Roosevelt party, 
marks a change which is rapidly progressing in this coun- 
try. Ten years ago when President Harrison went duck 
shooting on the Ragged Island Club grounds, he was un- 
attended by reporters; to-day, when a President goes 
hunting, the press representatives go with him ; ten years 
from now excursions will be rim to the camp. 
— » — 
Two Years' Outing Across Siberia. 
The writer was engaged most of the year 1896, all of 
'97 and part oi 'q8 on a detail of inspection of the then 
building trans-Cibiria railroad, followed up by a pro- 
longed tour of the chief connecting and feeding Russian 
railway network. The work was commenced on the 
Pacific side, in extreme eastern Cibiria. and ranged from 
the 43d to the 60th parallels (average, 55 degrees). The 
total time on detail was 676 days. 
Omitting all technical data, it can readily be con- 
ceived that a few articles on the oviting features of the 
trans-Asiatic inspection, in a land which is yet a terra 
incognita to the mass of Americans, will naturally present 
some interesting material. 
While a complete diary of the journey was daily kept, 
and is still on hand. I doubt if its tnass of items would 
"digest" A-ery well with readers; so its proposed repro- 
duction was abandoned for the happier idea of confining 
the articles to a selection of the "plinns" here and there. 
This I have done, without regard to order of sequence, 
as the more interesting phases occurred to me. 
Cibiria as a Groond for American Sports. 
The completion of the thru-trans-A-siatic railroad calls 
attention to Cibiria as a possible field for American 
sportsmen; that is, those men whose walking stick is 
their gun, and wdiose Bible is a well-filled pocketbook 
(backed by an unfailing bank account). 
Why, yes, by all means give Cibiria a trial. You will 
have such a "rnf-tuf" time of it; remembrances of nights 
when you most needed repose, being rendered almost de- 
lirious' by the onslaughts of treble-sized, stinking bed- 
bugs in the stancias (resting or posting stations) and 
otels (inns); the lively experience of being able to buy 
everything you don't want and nothing (or very little) 
that you do Avant: pettifogging restrictions as to pass- 
ports, and delays which you will not readily understand; 
having to doff your hat when going into every govern- 
ment building — from post-office to grog shop ("pub."), 
since even now the official monopoly has taken hold of 
the privilege of making the Russian drunk! 
As to sport, why you must take your chances. You 
will find the Govei'nment officials and exiles have for 
years been keeping their hand in, and as there are no laws 
yet as to closed seasons, the game are given no chance, 
and are far, far from the haunts of "the madding crowd." 
Cibiria being such a country of vast distances, and the 
impenetrable forests being dangerous to get lost in, bet- 
ter, for the sake of "society" (save the mark!), see if you 
can go with some of the parties of trappers. You can 
learn their whereabouts in the markets in the big towns, 
since they come and go with their skins and kvt. But 
Cibiria is in places so desolate, you appreciate anybody's 
•society — even to see a few human faces such as those of 
criminal convicts. However, they are as "harmless as 
butter." 
And wdien your Cibirian trip is over, you will appre- 
ciate your America and its creature comforts as never 
■you did before in your existence. Ability to better ap- 
preciate the "goods ye have," will be your lasting recom- 
pense. 
A Vermoat Sporting Goods Dealer in Ctbirfa. 
To my surprise, I came across at Bladiboctok, on the 
Pacific, an old firearms importer named Smith, who came 
from tlx^ Green Mountain State, and had been some 
thirty years in Cibiria. He can tell of a few adventures 
in the land— and manufacture a good many more. He 
stocks leading arms, knivQS, hatchets and campmg-out 
parties' equipments; has no regular price, btit gets what- 
ever he can on the maximum scale. I bought nothing 
of him. having laid in everything for the overland trio to 
Europe before reaching Bladiboctok. That town is, or 
was, a free port, the only free port I was in in my life — 
and that was the only good thing about it. A more 
abominable, dirty, hig village I was never in during half 
a lifetime of travel. It is known as "the hell of the 
frigics," in contradistinction to Kalikata (Bengal), which 
is "known as "itlie hell of the tropics." 
Cibiria'as a Market for American Sporting Goods. 
It goes without saying that American sporting goods 
are appreciated by Russians, the Cibiriaks, and foreign- 
ers in Cibiria. This is speedily proved by the number of 
imitation Smith & Wessons you will see from end to end 
-of the land. They are made in and imported from Ger- 
many, and the stamping alone of the firm's name on the 
barrel, with number and dates of patents, are so bung- 
lingly done— rendering the lettering indistinct— that you 
can see at once the forgery. Take the genuine Spring- 
field article, and the lettering and punctuation is a model 
of good die-sinking. 
Then, as to the rifles. The forgers seemed to have 
preferred, for this line, British goods. Thus, you will find 
cheap Belgian made guns stamped "Greener," sold at 
prices which "defy competition" (naturally). Those 
enterprising continental jews find Cibiria a happy dump- 
ing ground for their "genuine American" and "British" 
forgeries. 
But, as to seeking a market in Cibiria for American 
sporting goods, the process is very simple. Send along 
your usual catalogues and prices to the chief Cibirian 
hardware importers. These are the concerns which 
handle such goods. Their names and addresses can be 
obtained in any of the foreign trade directories. I have 
in mind a few score of them, and will one of these days, 
with the publisher's approval, send copies of Forest 
AND Stream to the chief ones making sporting goods 
an object rather than an item of trade. I mention this 
to enlighten those advertisers who may a few months 
hence perhaps be mystified somewhat by receiving in- 
quiries from such a far country as Cibiria. 
How the Cibiriak Shoots. 
The average native is provided with a half-century 
old flint-lock (some of the antiquities I saw in actual tise 
must have been some eighty years old), and a govern- 
ment-rejected or army out-of-date rifle, often crudely 
pet of gold ; while in other instances, the fields of violets, 
seen from afar, give the delusion of a deep blue lake. 
Life on the Great Steps. 
The word is spelled in the Slaf language thus, cten, 
but is pronounced step. The usual "steppe" is a French 
dog's tail addition of the useless "pe." The Gauls ruin 
their own language by attempting to Frenchify the na- 
tional Avords of other nations. Cten in Russia means a 
heath or common. The nom-de-guerre of a brainy 
Russian writer, Stepniak, means a dweller of the heath 
(just as Cibiriak means a dweller in Cibiria). We can 
best translate stepniak into our own "comm-oner." 
The Cibirian ctenc, or steps, are A^aster than our 
American plains. The biggest in western Cibiria is a 
couple of thousand verstas across — say, 1,300 miles. 
Even a report on the practicability of preparing a to- 
pographic survey thereof, occupied me three months — 
that being the time spent in crossing and making an 
amply i^ersonal acquaintance with the region. 
It is often interesting, with salt lake views, gently un- 
dulating surfaces, and ofttimes much stunted forest 
growths. The trees have never reached any appreciable 
height, due to the lack of hill obstructions to protect 
them from the glacial blasts of the arctic zone. In mid- 
winter snow-white hares abound on this step — so white, 
it is difficult to distinguish them on the eternal six 
months of snow. 
The survey worked across the step solely during the 
A SECTION OF THE LONG HIGHWAY. 
hand-transformed to suit their own pastoral needs. Here 
and there you Avill see a stolen rifle or two, but always 
used with discretion, to prevent any official inquiry as to 
"where did you get that?" 
Powder and shot are as valuable as cash to the natiA^e, 
and he must not waste any on vain discharges. So he 
carries along a collapsible tripod, and poses the gun 
thereon when taking aim. The steady aim thus secured 
makes them good shots, and some of their "bags" would 
put to shame the efforts of some of our American dol- 
laraires, young and old, who, with all their quick-fire lead- 
pumping repeaters and luxurious facilities, make a less 
showing in comparison than the poor Cibirski niujik 
with his flint-lock. 
Sport oa the Amur. , 
My first trip across the Amur was on Monday, June 
13, from the ill-conditioned, murky town of Kabapofck. 
There is only a long-distance passenger steamship ser- 
vice on this great waterway, with stopping stations sixty 
to one hundred miles apart. If you want to go across 
the river, or a short distance of fifteen or twenty miles, 
you must hire a native excuse for a boat. This is a 
crudely made flat-bottomed rig, which they dignify by 
the name of "chalup" (from French, chaloupe). 
A party of a dozen peasants were returning to their 
village up and across the river, and arrangement was 
made for me to go with them. So soon after noon, we 
pushed oil, and I made up my mind the crazy thing of a 
boat stood a chance of going to pieces when we got into 
the middle of the surging Amur. But no; it held to- 
gether "out of pure cussedness," and that evening I spent 
the first night north of the Amur. 
On the morrow, regular work began from this point 
inspecting what had been done on the railroad. (AH 
this constructing work has since been abandoned in 
favor of the shorter trans-Manchurian line, and to-day 
you only see the decaying vestiges of what had cost some 
twenty millions of rybli (pronounced rubli) to build — 
track, wood bridges, etc.) 
Great is the solitude of this region. A buck that will 
start up almost in your paces, turn and deliberately face 
you before plunging into the forest undergrowth, marks 
this as a region for the future sportsman spoiling for 
enjoving a hard time. . ■ 
This is the country of the tundra (ball field marshes), 
interspersed with forest areas. It is a paradise in lovely 
flowers — lilies of the valley, iris, rhododendron, wild 
roses, violets, and scores of others. From a distance, so 
thick are the golden iris, they give the vision of a car- 
winter months — ^January-March. The w^eather was fine 
nearly the whole of the time — day after day, week after 
week, glorious sunny weather; cloudless, intensely blue 
skies; an extreme dry cold (varying from 15 to 35 de- 
grees below centigrade — maximum recorded : 52 degrees : 
equal 58 below Fahrenheit). The parhelion, on the 
colder days, is seen in all its prismatic-colored splendor, 
suft'using the heavens, appearing for a couple of hours 
any time between 10 A. M. and 3 P. M. Of course it 
cannot be seen if clouds obstruct the view. 
I had some of the roughest knockouts in my life dur- 
ing that wintry inspection of the great cten and its rail- 
road construction, yet the souvenir remains of happy 
memory. You forget about the nippy cold, the mos- 
quito-like frost bites, the anxiety of going astray in the 
trackless low-grown forests, when the fear of having 
lost all sense of direction is sufficient to give you a cold 
sweat, despite the rigorous weather. It is well we can 
overlook the unpleasantries of past efforts. 
In summer this great expanse of step is almost Avith- 
ere'd up under the hot blasts of the short Cibiria summer; 
mosquitoes (called komari) are there in trillions, and the 
evaporating salt marshes decompose the air with rotten 
odors. Some of those salt lakes have Avarm springs 
within them, and even in midwinter did I see them un- 
frozen, and at a distance of a couple of miles was the air 
polluted with the stench of sulphuretted hydrogen. So 
the fumes in the warm summer can be imagined! 
"W^hat it is Like to be Lost in the Great Cibirian Forest. 
Only one such experience had I, but that was suffi- 
cient! It Avas a few weeks before Christmas, '97, in the 
heart of central Cibiria. The snows for weeks had 
been deep on the gi-ound, and on this morning, Stm- 
day, 17th (29) November, there was no sun, but a .slight 
flakestorm, which promised to "improve worse." I had 
quitted the house on the raUroad of the engineer Tep- 
Obakimof— (he comes from the Kabkaz) — and had to 
reach another engineer's house that evening. No trains 
were running on this yet incomplete section, and I 
had to see some bridges here and there en route; and 
was told of a "short cut" through the forest to the first 
bridge, some eight miles off. It would save "a couple 
of miles" — as I was going; through the forest on foot. 
That (nearly) fatal "short ciiti" — ^^"Save a'" couple of 
miles!"— What a sarcasm! 
I had plunged at good speed into the forest, taking 
care to follow instructions to keep to the sleigh route— 
or what evidences of one could be discerned in the fall- 
