LOOKING WESTWARD.
For the next two weeks matters went on smoothly at our encampment. Days
spent in labour, and evenings relieved by reading or the occasional
visit from some neighbouring miner. How the world was getting on we
had not the slightest idea, for, since leaving Moscow, we had received
no word from those at home. We were now eagerly looking forward to
the time when we should receive the first batch of correspondence.
Arrangements had been made to forward our post from Minusinsk by
horseback, and when, on the eventful morning, the news was brought
up to our hut that the postboy was seen approaching, the excitement
amongst us all was great. We almost fell upon the bundles of letters
and newspapers which the faithful messenger had brought, sent work
to the winds for the rest of that day, neglected our meals, and did
nothing but devour the intelligence which cold print conveyed.
Signs were not wanting that it would not be very long before the break
up of the winter would come about. The sun was daily getting warmer,
and here and there the ice and snow were melting. The postboy told
us that the River Armeul was thawing rapidly, and that if it was our
intention to get back to Minusinsk on the winter road it would be
necessary to speedily bring our operations to a close. There was,
indeed, but little to detain us. Our expedition had been practically
completed, and we needed now only the visit of the mining inspector to
relieve us of the responsibility of our present position by handing
over to him the enormous number of books and papers with which it had
been necessary to burden ourselves in order to undertake our project.
Gaskell and I were to return straight to England, but Scawell and
Asprey had other fish to fry, as they were to go further eastward into
the provinces of Northern Manchuria. As the time approached for our
departure our eagerness to be off became chronic. Visions of other
lands and other peoples, of more cheerful surroundings, were ever
before us--anything, now, to get out of this dreary waste of snow which
for more than three months had enveloped us.
Our camp was the scene of some mild excitement when one day the
Government inspector, attended by several servants and a whole
string of horses, arrived. It was a great to-do, for he was an
important-looking personage, very much epauletted and be-buttoned
and extremely officious. His first duty was the inspection of our
gold-book, and, as bad luck would have it, a couple of trivial mistakes
had crept in, and within half an hour of the inspector’s arrival we
had to pay out fifty roubles as fines. It was a scene, too, later on in
the day, when we called up our men for their pay and gave them their
discharge. Criminals of the worst class though they were, we had got
to like our little staff, and I think they in return reciprocated the
feeling. Several of the men had made tremendous inroads on their wages
in the matter of purchases of vodki and clothing, and one cheerful
individual, after his sheet had been reckoned up, owed us a bit,
although he humorously remarked that our chances of getting it were
rather remote.
This was our last night in camp. On the morrow we were to depart on
our westward journey, and to signalize the event our men got up an
impromptu concert, which lasted well into the small hours, meanwhile
that they drank themselves into a maudlin state.
Morning broke--just the same sort of morning as we had experienced
during the whole time we had been in Siberia--cloudless, brilliant,
white. Our little caravan was already ranged up outside the hut. The
mining inspector was there to see us off. Asprey and Scawell had risen
betimes, and had loaded us with messages to friends at home. It was a
break indeed to part with those two good fellows who had been our boon
companions for so many weeks in this cheerless land. The Siberians,
I think, wondered why it was that we did not fall on each other’s
necks and kiss each other rapturously, as is the custom there. “You
English have cold blood,” said Schultz, “that you can part with your
comrades like this!” For a hurried shake of the hand, “Good-bye, old
boy, and good luck,” was all. We ambled out of the camp, and then down
the narrow pathway through the property. At the bend of the river we
surmounted a small hill and looked back. Asprey and Scawell were on the
roof of the hut, waving their scarves at us. The sound of a pistol-shot
reached our ears. It was the parting salute, and we fired our revolvers
in reply. Then we passed the brow and went down the great dip towards
the Armeul, and we saw no more of our camp in the mountains, or of our
comrades.
It took us five days to reach Karatuski, for it was now late in March,
and the ice on the Armeul was breaking up right and left, rendering
our passage one of extreme danger and difficulty. How welcome that
little village seemed after the roughing-it we had experienced in the
mountains! A man’s appreciation of comfort depends considerably on
where he has come from, and though Karatuski might be voted one of the
most miserable spots on the face of the earth by he just fresh from
Europe, it was a veritable city of plenty to us now.
From Karatuski to Minusinsk, and from Minusinsk to Atchinsk, with
galloping horses night and day; for every morning saw the snow getting
less and the great Yenesei cracking on all sides. Once, in the night,
while travelling up the river, the ice broke under us, and we lost one
of our horses. Only the fact that we were on the side, and not in the
centre, of the river saved us from complete destruction. How welcome
was the sound of the locomotive’s whistle at the station of Atchinsk!
and again when, as the cars rolled slowly in, what a link they seemed
with the civilization of the West!
Day succeeded night and night succeeded day with us ever journeying
westward. Familiar now were the names of the stations--Tigre,
Kreveschokovo, Kainsk, Omsk, Kurgan, Chelabinsk. Only drifts of
snow now in the mountain passes; buds to be seen on wayside trees;
everything betokening the rapid approach of the Asiatic summer. Late
one evening Gaskell awakened me from the nap into which I had fallen.
The train was slowly grinding through a defile in the Ural Mountains.
He looked at his watch. “In three minutes,” said he, “we shall be in
Europe.” The minutes slowly ticked off, and then, rounding a bend, the
sluggish train passed slowly the stone monument which separates Europe
from Asia.
There is nothing more of moment to tell in connection with our journey
to the Syansk Mountains. With the exception, probably, of the Captain
Wiggins’ expedition, we constituted, I think, the first English party
to enter Siberia in order to inquire into the commercial resources
of that vast country. The general impressions created by our visit I
have endeavoured to set down as clearly as possible, and at a time
when considerable attention is being directed towards Asiatic Russia
it is possible they may be of some value. Travellers to Siberia
hitherto have mainly consisted of those who have travelled through the
country with the express desire of writing a book, and have confined
themselves principally to the standard questions of the day; in which
prisons, exiles, wolves, and bears form no inconsiderable part. The
lasting impression which Siberia has upon me is that, while it is
undoubtedly a land of promise, yet some few years must elapse before
Europe can be brought into direct commercial contact with it. Anxious
as the Government is to promote trade in Siberia, the distance and the
primitiveness of the country will do much to delay matters; while, so
far as Englishmen are concerned, the autocratic laws of the great White
Czar can never be palatable. That there exists in Siberia a big field
for the investment of foreign capital goes without saying, but whether
Englishmen will grasp the opportunity is another matter. Ten years may
see Siberia a far different country to what it is at the present time,
and in this connection nothing will have tended more to remove the
mystery and gloom of that great country than that magnificent State
enterprise--the Trans-Siberian Railroad.
INDEX
Armeul, The river, 182, 191
Atchinsk, The town of, 107
Baraba steppe, The, 20
Chelabinsk, 1-13
Chulim river, The, 104
Colonization, Russia’s scheme, 21
Criminal workmen, 170
Czar, The late, and the Siberian railway, 23
Emigrants’ fares to Russia, 26
Emigrants’ train, 27
English language in Russia, 15
Exiles, Condition of, 113
Frozen river, The, 72
Gobi desert, The, 228
Gold averages, 94
Gold-miners, Amusements of, 174, 222
Gold-miners, Siberian, 174
Gold-mining, Account of, 195
Gold-receiving depôts, 94
Grants of land to emigrants, 26
Irtish river, The, 19
Kansk, 69
Kara sea route, 114
Karatuski, Village of, 166
Khirghiz Cossacks, The, 55
Khirghiz horsemanship, 59
Khirghiz Kibitkas, or tents, 58
Krasnoiarsk, Population of, 112
Krasnoiarsk, The city of, 101, 110
Krasnoiarsk, The valley of, 108
Kurgan, 21
Machinery for gold-mining, 199
Merchandise, Siberian, 116
Millionaires of Tomsk, The, 87
Mining concessions, 97, 172
Mining laws, 98
Minusinsk, 133, 162
Moujiks, Siberian, 145
Nomadic tribes, 21
Ob, The station of, 74
Obi bridge, 69
Obi river, The, 69
Obi valley, The, 68
Omsk, 31
River sledging, 70
Russian Church, The, 32
Russian corruption, 102
Russian curiosity, 14
Russian incivility, 16
Russian railway travelling, Economy of, 128
Russian trade with Siberia, 51
Russian vigilance, 165
Sable hunting, 235
Siberian cabmen, The, 40
Siberian food, 82
Siberian forest, A, 75
Siberian hospitality, 88
Siberian hotels, 43
Siberian posting stations, 45
Siberian railway station, Description of, 5
Siberian trains, Slowness of, 62
Siberikoff, M., 86
Sledging, 129, 139
Sledging, Dangers of, 153, 182
Sledging, Discomforts of, 186, 192
Snowshoeing, 215
Syansk mountains, 100, 181
Syots, The, 234
Tartar Steppe, The, 19
Tea-trade of Siberia, The, 116
Tigre, The station of, 74
Tom, The river, 86
Tomsk and the railroad, 52
Tomsk mining laboratory, The, 92
Tomsk, The city of, 76
Tomsk university, 87
Trans-Siberian Railway, Description of, 101, 120
Trans-Siberian Railway, Importance of, 126, 128
Transport, 202
Ural mountains, 1
Vladivostock, 24
Wiggins’ expedition, 113
Yenesei, The valley of, 108
Yenesei river, The, 138
THE END.
LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET
AND CHARING CROSS.
Transcriber's Notes:
Italics are shown thus: _sloping_.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.
Perceived typographical errors have been changed.