_THE URALS TO TIUMEN._
A new railway.--The Ural range.--Outlook into Russia in Asia.--Nijni
Tagil.--The Demidoff mines and hospital.--May weather.--Russian
railways.--Arrival at Ekaterineburg.--An orphanage.--Precious
stones.--Orenburg shawls.--Tarantass and luggage.--Departure for
Tiumen.--The exiles.--Visits to the authorities.
Those who have hitherto written of journeys to Siberia have told of
a dismal drive from Perm to Ekaterineburg; but this misfortune did
not fall to our lot, since in the autumn of 1878 a railway was opened
over the mountains, and the journey is now accomplished in about
four-and-twenty hours. The distance is 312 miles, and between the two
termini are about 30 stations.[1]
From the prominence given in maps of Europe to the Ural chain, one
is apt from childhood to expect in these mountains something grand.
The entire length of the range, including its continuation in Novaia
Zemlia, is about 1,700 miles. Its highest peak, however, does not
attain to more than 6,000 feet, and many parts of the range are not
more than 2,000 feet above the sea level. No part of it is permanently
covered with snow. Travellers by the old route describe, in passing
it, a never-failing object of interest on the frontier in the shape
of a stone, on one side of which is written “Europe” and on the other
“Asia,” across which, of course, an English boy would stride, and
announce that he had stood in two quarters of the globe at once.
Travellers by the new route miss this opportunity; but they have its
equivalent in three border stations, one of which is called “_Europa_,”
the next “_Ural_,” and the third “_Asia_,” through which those who have
journeyed can say what no other travellers can, that they have passed
by rail from one quarter of the globe into another.
Thus the ease with which one reaches the summit of the Urals is
somewhat disappointing, but no such thoughts are suggested by an
outlook into the immense country that now lies before the traveller.
There stretches far before him a region known as Russia in Asia, the
dimensions of which are very hard for the mind to realize. It measures
4,000 miles from east to west, about 2,000 from north to south, and
covers nearly five and three-quarter millions of square miles. It is
larger by two millions of square miles than the whole of Europe; about
twice as big as Australia, and nearly one hundred times as large as
England.
The general aspect of the surface may be easily described. The Altai
range of mountains, with its offshoots to the east, forms the general
features of the southern boundary, and from these heights the land
gradually slopes towards the northern _tundras_ or bogs, which extend
to the frozen ocean. The country is intersected by three of the largest
rivers in the world, the Obi, the Yenesei, and the Lena, not one of
which is much less than 3,000 miles long, and all of them, through
great part of the year, flow under masses of ice to the Arctic Ocean.
A fourth river, the Amur, rising in the Yablonoi mountains, which may
be regarded as a part of the eastern slopes of the Altai chain, runs a
course also of more than 2,000 miles, but takes an easterly direction,
forming part of the southern boundary of the country, and empties
itself into the Gulf of Tartary.
The country largely consists of immense steppes, marshes, and pools.
Lakes, properly so called, are not numerous, but the greatest of them,
the “Baikal,” is in some respects the most remarkable in the world.
No less remarkable is the great variety of the inhabitants. They are
sometimes classified into five typical races: _Sclavonic_ (including
Russians and Poles); _Finnish_ (including Finns, Voguls, Ostjaks,
Samoyedes, Yuraki); _Turkish_ (including Tatars, Kirghese, Kalmuks,
Yakutes); _Mongolian_ (including Manchu, Buriats, and Tunguses--the
last of various denominations); and _Chinese_, with whom may be
classed, though not very accurately, the Gilyaks and Aïnos. In fact,
an ethnographical map of Asiatic Russia I bought at Petersburg shows
therein no less than 30 peoples or nations.[2]
Many of them, it is true, are but feebly represented, for the entire
population does not number more inhabitants than are to be found in
seven of the counties of England, and they have not enough men and
women in Russian Asia to put one of each in every square mile, whereas
every square mile of the seven English counties alluded to has on an
average 573 inhabitants. It is difficult to give exact statistics,
because, from the wandering life led by many of the aborigines, it
is impossible to ascertain their number, and so authorities differ;
but the total population, including Russians, is estimated at
about 8,000,000. Our attention, however, is to be chiefly confined
to Siberia, and it should not be forgotten that Siberia is not
co-extensive with the whole of Asiatic Russia, and does not begin,
properly speaking, till Ekaterineburg is passed. We have been merely
taking a look, from the government of Perm, out of European into
Asiatic Russia; this government, as also that of Orenburg, lying partly
in Europe and partly in Asia.
Before descending to the foot of the Urals, we arrive at Nijni Tagilsk.
At this place we halted for a day to look over the famous Demidoff
mines and works. There had been a fire in the town, as at Perm, on the
night preceding our arrival; and in seven hours 78 houses had been
burnt. Pieces of smoking wood were still flying about. The common
people, as before, attributed the fire to incendiaries, such as escaped
prisoners, who hoped to profit by the turmoil, and find an occasion
for plunder; but more thoughtful people traced it to accidental
causes. Demidoff’s workmen had been called out at night to assist as
firemen, and were in consequence resting. We could not, therefore,
see everything in motion, but enough was visible to make it clear
that they were carrying on enormous metallurgical operations. One of
the remarkable things to be noticed was a surface mine of magnetic
iron ore, blasted and dug out in terraces, carted down by horses and
taken to the furnace, where the ore proves so rich that it yields 68
per cent. of iron. We also descended a copper-mine, the mineral from
which yields 5 per cent. of metal. We were dressed for the occasion
in top-boots, leather hats, and appropriate blouses and trousers,
each carrying a lamp, and thus by ladders we descended one shaft of
600 feet and came up another, the water meanwhile trickling upon us
freely. At the bottom of the mine they were erecting an English machine
for pumping 80 cubic feet of water per minute to the surface. In the
engine-room two men at a time spend eight hours daily, for which they
each receive in money about fifteen pence. We promised ourselves,
as a great feature in the descent of the copper-mine, the seeing of
malachite in its natural state, and we were not disappointed. The
captain took us through long galleries of timber beams, and then to
the spots where the miners had been working. Here, by the light of our
lamps, the pieces of green mineral could be clearly seen, and we had
the pleasure of digging them out with a pick, and bringing them away
as specimens. The price of malachite at the mine is six shillings a
Russian pound, if in moderate-sized pieces; twenty shillings when the
lumps are large, but only two shillings if they are small.
Besides these copper and magnetic iron mines, they have others of
manganese iron ore, which contains 64 per cent. of binoxide of
manganese, the peroxide being sold at the rate of about eighteen
shillings per hundredweight. Specimens of these and other minerals of
great interest to the geologist are exhibited in a museum not far from
the works.
Among the remarkable things to be seen at these hives of industry
were--a machine for drawing water by a cord from a copper-mine two
miles off, a steam-hammer of seven tons weight, an iron furnace of
10,000 cubic feet dimensions, said to be the largest high furnace for
_wood_ in the world, and a machine for splitting their fuel wood, of
which they burn annually 100,000 _sajens_--that is to say, a 325 feet
cube, or, roughly speaking, a pile of logs twice as big as St. Paul’s
Cathedral.[3]
They make steel for Sheffield, and can do castings up to more than 30
tons in weight. Their iron is excelled in quality, I believe, only
by that of Dannemora. They have 11 _zavods_, or “works,” of which
eight are connected with iron. But perhaps a better idea can be formed
of their vastness by the mention of the number of persons employed,
which amounts to 30,000. I heard also 40,000, and both numbers were
from heads of departments; but probably the latter estimate includes
carters, labourers, and perhaps even women. The Demidoffs pay annually,
by way of rates and taxes--to the Commune, £5,000; the Church, £1,500;
schools, £2,500; poor and aged, £3,000; together with other sums,
amounting in all to about £20,000 a year. Wages, as compared with those
in England, appeared low. Common workmen receive from 7½_d._ to 1_s._
a day, puddlers 3_s._, and those in the welding furnace 4_s._, whilst
good rollers receive from 3_s._ 6_d._ to 6_s._ It should be observed,
however, that they all have houses rent free, with the piece of land
they formerly occupied as serfs.
Before the emancipation, the riches of the Demidoffs were counted in
the phrase then usual in Russia as amounting to 56,000 souls.[4] A
small church, built on the crest of a neighbouring hill, was pointed
out as having been built by the serfs in memory of their freedom; and
I was glad to hear from the director, Mr. Wohlstadt (by whom we were
courteously entertained), that since the emancipation the men work
better and better, knowing, I presume, when serfs, that idleness would
be repaid with something not much worse than a beating; whereas now
they know they may be discharged.
We slept at the club; and in the morning, before leaving, visited the
Demidoff hospital, upon which, and upon institutions of a similar kind,
the proprietors spend nearly £4,000 a year. The dimensions of the rooms
were such as to allow of three cubic _sajens_, or 1,200 cubic feet, of
air for each of the patients, of whom there were 120 at the time of
our visit. Many fractured and amputated limbs were seen dressed with
gypsum, alcohol, and camphor; but the most extraordinary thing was a
machine in the director’s private room, in which he placed frozen human
brains, and for scientific purposes cut them in very thin slices to
photograph. The photographs are to be purchased in Paris.
On leaving Tagil we found the temperature much colder,[5] and our
journey to Ekaterineburg was somewhat comfortless, from the fact that,
anticipating no more cold weather, the officials had not brought in the
train the apparatus for heating by steam. At Ekaterineburg I finished
railway journeys, amounting to 2,670 miles; and as I was now to bid
farewell to the horse of iron and travel by horses of flesh, it is
only right to say that of the iron horses which took me across Europe
the Russian on the whole was, I think, the best.[6] Our arrival at
Ekaterineburg on Saturday evening was expected, and quarters were
provided for me through the kindness of Messrs. Egerton Hubbard.
Ekaterineburg is a handsome town of 30,000 inhabitants, and has many
fine churches and other buildings. On Sunday I visited the hospital,
and also an orphanage for 100 children, which has been built and is
supported by local voluntary effort. This kind of institution is not
yet very common among the Russians. It was regarded as a novelty, and
was the only one of its precise kind that we saw in Asia.
Formerly there were several Englishmen living at Ekaterineburg, but
a few only are now left, and so little practice do they have in the
tongue of their fathers that some of them are rapidly forgetting it.
Instances of this were met with further east, and another case in which
English parents were allowing their children to grow up speaking only
Russian, the result of which would be that the son who had been sent
for his education to England would forget Russian, and, on coming back
to Siberia, would not be able to speak to his sister who had not learnt
English.
Ekaterineburg is a famous place for the cutting of precious stones, in
which Siberia is rich. Near the river Argun are found the jacinth, the
Siberian emerald, the onyx, and beautiful jaspers, of which there are
at least a hundred varieties. Near Lake Baikal are found red garnets
and lapis lazuli, and the Altai mountains furnish the opal. Several
of these are also found near Ekaterineburg, together with the beryl,
the topaz, the chrysolite, the aqua marine, the tourmaline, rhodonite,
nephrite, ophite, selenite, and the recently-discovered Alexandrite,
which exhibits two colors--crimson and green--the one by day and the
other by night. The stone derives its name from the Emperor Alexander,
whose colours it shows. These stones are cut in the Government
workshops and in private houses, and may be purchased at moderate
prices.
South of Ekaterineburg, towards Orenburg, are villages where may be
purchased uncommon souvenirs in the shape of gentlemen’s scarves and
gloves, together with _kozy pookh_, or, as they are more commonly
called, Orenburg shawls. They are made from the wool of the goats of
the Kirghese, who allow the Cossacks to comb their flocks at the rate
of from eight-pence to a shilling per head. Twice a year the goats
are washed and combed, first with a coarse and then with a fine comb.
To make a good shawl employs a woman six months, and then, if it be a
large one, it sells at first hand for about fifty shillings; but very
much higher prices are asked in Petersburg.
We stayed three days at Ekaterineburg to lay in provisions and gather
our forces for proceeding by horses. The greater part of my heavy
luggage had been dispatched by slow train to Ekaterineburg fully a
month before me, but it did not reach its destination till the day
after my arrival. The agent said it might have been waiting on the
road for the chance of other goods to make up a load. A tarantass had
been very kindly placed at my disposal by Mr. Oswald Cattley, whose
name, some time since, was before the public in connection with the
opening up of a new trade on the Obi; and in this we packed ourselves
and some of our personal baggage, placing the rest with several boxes
in a second conveyance, and leaving still a third load of boxes to
be forwarded as luggage. In this fashion, after receiving all sorts
of kindness and hospitality from our English friends, we started on
Tuesday evening, May 27th, for Tiumen, a distance of 204 miles, which
was accomplished in 43 continuous hours.
Tiumen is situated on the Tura, and has a population of from 15,000 to
20,000 inhabitants. Commercially speaking, it is the most important
town in Western Siberia, and through it pass the water carriage of the
Obi, as well as the caravans coming from China and the East. Here we
found an English engineering firm, conducted by Messrs. Wardropper,
who were particularly kind to us. To Tiumen all the exiles are brought
from Europe, and from thence are distributed over Siberia. I needed
not, therefore, the eye of a general to see that, for my purpose of
distributing books over the land, this was the key to a very important
position. It was desirable, therefore, that I should see some of the
magnates of the town who were members of the prison committee, and, if
possible, secure their sympathy and co-operation.
Accordingly I was taken to visit the Mayor, who was building a large
commercial school for the benefit of the town, at a cost of more than
£20,000, which, when finished, was to be handed over to the Government.
He is a merchant who has made his way to the front, and now entertains
the Governor-General when he passes through, though otherwise he lives
quietly. His house, when we called, was in preparation for one of those
viceregal receptions, and, knowing that his worship was rich, I busied
myself, during the Russian conversation, in scanning what I supposed
might be considered appropriate study furniture for a wealthy Siberian.
The Mayor, I had heard, was fond of good horses, which accounted for
the winner-of-the-Derby-like engravings hanging on the wall, the whole
of which might have been purchased, I judged, in London for twenty
shillings. The room, as is the custom of the country, was not carpeted,
and the furniture consisted of a bare, polished, wooden bench, bored
with holes, in patterns after the fashion of American street cars. The
chairs were of wood, similarly ornamented. The table had about it some
fretwork, and on it various writing materials, and accompaniments more
or less artistic. I mentally appraised the whole as being worth about
£20, and admired the simplicity of a man who could be content with a
study thus furnished, whilst he was giving away a thousand times its
value. My cogitations served to recall what had struck me in Norway and
Sweden, when observing how much simpler, as regards furniture, people
are content to live in these northern countries than in England, though
I did not discern that they were less happy than we are. After leaving
the house, I broached the subject approvingly to my friend who was with
me, upon which I found that I had undervalued the furniture, and that
it was of American manufacture, and the first of the kind imported into
the town.
I was taken also to call upon a prominent member of the prison
committee, Mr. Ignatoff, of the firm of Kourbatoff and Ignatoff. They
have steamers on the Kama and Obi, and hold the Government contract
for the transport in barges of exiles. He was much interested in my
scheme of visiting prisons, and was so pleased with my account of the
Howard Association in London, of which I said I was a member, and which
had for its object the prevention of crime and promoting the best
methods for the treatment and reformation of prisoners, that he spoke
of asking to be allowed at once to join the Association.[7] He kindly
undertook to do all he could to further the distribution of the books I
engaged to send to him; and I was glad to have called, not only for the
information obtained, but for the interest excited, though I was hardly
prepared for the very practical and generous form which this interest
took, which will be hereafter alluded to.
We called afterwards on the Ispravnik, or chief man of the district,
and presented my letter, with the view of visiting the prisons. I
heard that in his district there were 24 schools, and, having made
arrangements for providing them with tracts, I went to see the prison.
From statistics given me for the previous year, it appeared that a
total of 20,711 prisoners passed through the hands of the authorities
in 1878.[8] This opens up the whole subject of prisons and exiles,
which is to form a leading feature of these pages, and therefore I
think it will be better to devote separate chapters to both, in which
general ideas can be given. This will save repetition, and it will then
be easy to illustrate general principles by particular incidents as we
meet them from time to time in travelling and visiting prisons from the
Urals to the Pacific.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Of the three divisions, the Northern or barren Ural, as the
Russians call it, beginning at the source of the Pechora, is the most
elevated and the least known. The Southern Ural begins about midway
between Perm and Orenburg, and descends to the banks of the Ural river.
It is a pastoral country, and about 100 miles in width. The range is
here less than 3,000 feet in height. The central Ural may be considered
as a wide undulation, beginning on the west on the banks of the Kama.
Perm, situated on the right bank of the river, is 378 feet above the
sea level, and on the post road to Ekaterineburg the highest point is
1,638 feet, which, if my reckoning is correct, is 40 feet less than the
highest station on the railway. I set my aneroid at Perm, and found
that at the fourth station, Seleenka, a distance of 172 miles, we
had mounted 470 feet; the next 22 miles brought us down again to 120
feet, after which for 60 miles we continued to ascend to Bisir, which
registered 1,300 feet above Perm, and was the highest station on the
road. Level ground succeeded for about 30 miles to the border station,
after which in 50 miles we descended 750 feet to Shaitanka, 10 miles
beyond which we had remounted 200 feet; and on this level we kept to
Iset, the last station but one. The road then descended about 150 feet
to Ekaterineburg, which is said to be 858 feet above the sea level.
[2] 1. Slavs.
2. Zeryani.
3. Voguls.
4. Votyaks.
5. Tatars.
6. Kirghese of little horde.
7. Kirghese of middle horde.
8. Kirghese of great horde.
9. Buruti Kirghese.
10. Karakalpaks.
11. Sarti.
12. Uzbeki.
13. Turks.
14. Altai Kalmuks.
15. Teleuti.
16. Ostjaks.
17. Samoyedes.
18. Yuraki.
19. Yakutes.
20. Tunguse.
21. Goldi.
22. Gilyaks.
23. Yukagirs.
24. Chukchees.
25. Koriaks.
26. Kamchatdales.
27. Aïnos.
28. Buriats.
29. Manchu.
30. Chinese.
[3] What extent of land must be cleared to furnish such a quantity of
fuel I know not, but the railways of Central Russia are said to consume
yearly the timber off 90,000 acres of forest--an area, that is, about
the size of Rutlandshire.
[4] That is, men, or at least _males_; for I am told that male children
are called “souls,” but female children never. An English lady of my
acquaintance informs me that she was told scores of times in Russia
that she was not a _doash_, or soul, but only a woman; and when her son
was born she was congratulated on being the mother of a soul!
[5] Concerning the weather in crossing Europe, I may say that, from
the Russian frontier to the capital, on the 2nd and 3rd of May, a fire
was provided in the railway carriage, and on approaching Petersburg
there was just a little snow left here and there in drifts. On the 4th
the last of the ice was floating down the Neva. In less than a week it
became positively hot in the middle of the day, and the trees opened
their foliage rapidly. At Nijni Novgorod, on the 15th, the foliage was
all but full. On the banks of the Kama the trees were covered with
leaves, which the captain of the steamer said had come out within the
previous five days; and on the 20th, when stopping for wood, some of
the passengers found strawberry blossoms and violets. Fine weather then
continued up to the 23rd.
[6] The new first-class carriages running between Petersburg and Moscow
have _fauteuils_, which form couches at night; and one I saw was so
fixed on springs as to furnish almost the softness of a feather-bed.
They have also writing tables, and are more luxurious than anything
I have seen elsewhere in Europe, or even America. The lavatory
arrangements “on board” in all three classes are exceedingly good.
There only lacks the receptacle for iced water provided in Norway,
and, perhaps, the dining cars run in America, to make Russian railway
accommodation perfect. The guards, it is true, are somewhat pompous
as compared with the English, and the speed of the trains is slower;
but, on the other hand, the refreshments are very much better, and the
prices more reasonable. There is time allowed, moreover, to eat them,
though I am thinking more especially of the line between the capital
and Moscow, which is naturally one of the best.
[7] He had made private notes concerning the exiles, of which it
appeared that, during the last ten years, from 9,500 to 10,500 yearly
had passed through his hands. Of these there were adults about
9,000; under 15, 1,500; and under 2 years of age, 150. About 3,000,
he thought, could read. The professors of various religious beliefs
prevailed, he said in decreasing numbers, in the following order: (1)
Orthodox Russian, (2) Mohammedan, (3) Jewish, (4) Roman Catholic, (5)
Protestant. Drunkenness, he believed, was directly or indirectly the
cause of the crimes of half of the whole number sent to Siberia, and
these were found to be the worst prisoners and the most troublesome.
He looked forward, therefore, with pleasure to the expected and now
long-waited-for prison reforms, one of which, it was said, would be the
sending no more exiles to the western part of Siberia.
[8] One-fourth of these (4,995) were women, and 215 were _local_
offenders, of whom 10 were women and 3 were minors. In the course of
the year were located in the Town Prison 157 men and 5 women; in the
Police Prison 4 men, and in the Central Prison for exiles 15,111 men
and 4,985 women.