Exrly in the morning of the 21st of September we left hospitable Kiakhta behind us and set forth on our journey through Siberia, There was bright sunshine, with a cold wind, and the bells of the tarantass jingled merrily. Of these vehicles we had two, each with three horses and each with one driver. That was all, Spare horses, saddle horses, guides, fanetionaries, and servants—all these pleasant items of our travel in Mongolis—were ended. We were on a post route, i country where labour is notfso'cheap as in China, a route established} on' mercantile principles and intended to cover its own cost. With us in the tarantasses—or perhaps it would bs better to say under and around us—were our personal baggage, our bedding, and one box of food stuffs, "The tarantass in use in Siberia is punt-shaped, four-wheeled vehicle, with a hooded cover, and with no seats, save a box-seat for the driver. You place your luggage on the floor of the tarantass, stow your bed, ding and your wraps as you think best, and sit on such a seat as inay result from the stowage. The horses are changed at stations that average about fifteen apart, and the rate paid for the hire averages out asa little more than a third of a rouble per mile for wadi taranituss—say ninepence per mile, Beyond that you tip the drivers, after the usual European fashion, and at exch station where accommodation ix nominally free you give some trifle known as samovar money. But at places where we fed and allowed the woman of the house to wash our few dishes we gave a little more.
The rave of progress in Siberia was very much slower than in Gobi. The distance from Kiakhta to Lake Baikal, where we were to got a steamer, is about 120 miles, anda Kiakhta merchant told us he had once made it in twenty hours of continuous travelling. But he was in haste, travelling ina light vehicle of his own, and a mounted messenger preceded him to order horses to be ready at each station. We had no such facilities, nor especial need for them, and our progress was at the rate of only about fifty miles n day, or two and" t ird days for the distance of 122 miles. Ao the second day we made sixty miles, but that involved starting at half-past sx in the morning, ud finishing after ten o'clockin the evening. Theactual rate, while on the road, averaged about five and a half miles an hour, and there were long delays at the stations, delays of about two hours each. These were inevitable. Fresh horses had to be brought in and had to be fed. The process of harnessing of itself occupied about half-an hour, and involved much fastening and splicing with rope and string. But we took it all calmly. If the hour suited for a meal we unpacked our box of foodstuffs and ate.. If otherwise, we produced a little packet of Chinese tea, accepted the aid of the ever present samovar, and drank and smoked and talked, or slept.
At night we encamped at the post station, pretty much as we had done in the Mongolian tents. That is, we spread our beds on the floor, covered ourselves with our rugs or overcoats and went to sleep. Of the two stations where we slept one was heated by the Russian stove and one was not; the unhexted one we preferred, for the one that was heated was excessively warm. The temperature wav 70, while outside it was about 40. During the day we rested in the tarantass, always in sunshine and keen crisp air. It was a pleasant journey, though devoid of the delights that we obtained from siding through the plains of Gobi, The coun? through which we passed was of hu and valley, well wooded and watered, but little cultivated, sparsely used even' for grazing and very little inhabited. Tha roads were in fair condition, but of traffic there was almost none. On the third day as we neared Lake Baikal, we passed for miles through lands where the woods had all been recently cut down; and we wondered at the reasons of this huge clearing. Of a sudden it was explained, for, turning corner, we came to the advanced section of the great Trans-Siberian railway. The woods had been cut down for railway sleepers. A little later we drove into what used to be the lakeside village of Masova—no longer a village, but a huge settlement of railway men. On the lakeside was a wharf, with steamers discharging railway material. Engine-houses, loading sheds, and passenger stations were in course of erection. Everything was a hive of industry, while in the village stores the useful' Chinaman competed for custom with the Russian Jew. Driving through the village to the it station, which was sla's rough lad of ina, we were told that a steamer was just about to leave, and we jumped into our carriages hoping to catch it, But, alas, just as we were about to drive away a man reported from the roof of the house that the steamer had sailed, and true enough we saw it sailing away; and we had to wait twenty-eight hours for the next sailing. However, at the inn they fed us plentifully if rough! and, in the absence of bedrooms, we camped on the floor of sitting-room that had bees given up to us.
Tt may be added here that at or near Lake Baikal we were especially unlucky. At Masova the wait, as I have said, was for twenty-eight hours. When we had crossed the Luke in about five hours (in place: of the estimated four), we had a chance at eleven o'clock at night to got horses at once for the forty mile distance that separated us from Irkutsk; hut we were advised by fellow-travailers to wait till morning when we would get, at daylight, a steamer that would take us by river to Irkutsk in three hours. But the steamer did not come in till two p.m., just as we had arranged for horse Then, acting on local advice, we pai off the horse transport, and started by steamer about five. But, as it happened, the steamer towed three great barges, and sailed very slowly. Then about nine at night a fog settled on the river and our steamer anchored till nine next morning. Finally, we reached Irkutsk at twelve tly seventy-two hours from the ived at the eastern shore of detention of seventy-two hours for eighty miles. Nor was that all. By reason of the fact that it was a public holiday, we could not get at Irkutsk, on the day we arrived, any money from the Russo-Chinese Bank, to which we were accredited. Therefore, as trains from Irkutsk leave only once in two days, we had to wait there for fifty-tivo hours, The misfortune of these delays was that the especial train de Iuze that starts westwards from Omsk runs only once a week, and that to make the connection you have to leave Irkutsk on a Monday, which was precisely what we failed todo. So, to put it briefly, the failure to get the steamer that sailed from Masova as we arrived meant, in the end, that we did not get the train de luxe.
These, however, are incidents of Siberian trayel_at which it is no use to complain. Lake Baikal breaks the overland route, and the steamers that ply on it do not run at any fixed hours. In time all that will end. On each side of the lake the Russian Government is constructing harbour works while half-a-dozen Newcastle-on-Tyne engineera are building, with Siberian labour,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.