caused the government not only to order the distribution of a great number of heads of cattle among the agriculturists of Siberia, but also to abolish the duties, which had until then impeded the importation; and in this manner cattle-breeding was encouraged in several districts in which it had not previously existed. In 1601 the salt springs of the country were first made available for the production of salt, and in a short time yielded not only a sufficient supply of this valuable article for home consumption, but also large quantities for exportation to Russia.

Thus already, in the commencement of the seventeenth century, Russian enterprise had wrought a great change in many of the inhospitable wilds of Siberia. The country produced the necessaries of life; the warm and fertile regions were able to supply the wants of the less-favoured districts; and by the reciprocal interchange of produce, a lively internal trade was created, and went on increasing. The external commerce being still limited to peltry, fossil ivory, castoreun, argaric, and some few more articles, was not, however, very extensive. In 1632 the first iron ore was discovered near the river Niza, and the forges which were soon afterwards erected in this locality proved a great benefit, for thenceforward it was no longer necessary to bring from Russia the iron required for the consumption of the colonists; but the most important mines of Siberia were not discovered until the end of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century, and the mining operations were carried on with very little success until Peter the Great, with that energy which characterised all his proceedings, gave an immense impetus to this branch of industry. The explorations in the mountains of the Ural and the Altai were continued during the whole of the eighteenth century; but in consequence of the management and working of the mines being intrusted to unskilful hands, they gradually declined, until in 1706 the Scottish general, Gascoigne, who was invited by the Russian government to undertake the direction of them, re-established order and prosperity. Among other measures of Peter the Great which have been differently judged by his admirers and his detractors -the former attributing them to a wise and far-sighted policy, the latter to a cruel and vindictive spirit-was one which, whatever the motive, gave a very great impetus to industry in Siberia. This was the transplanting thither of a considerable number of the Swedish prisoners who, during his wars with Charles XII., had fallen into his hands. These unfortunate men, being left to their own resources, were obliged to exert themselves in every way to gain a livelihood; and as they were generally greatly superior to the populations among which they were thrown, their talents and acquirements soon opened up new fields of industry. According to the accounts of a contemporary writer* there were in the year 1714 no less than 9000 Swedish officers and non-commissioned officers in Siberia, who earned their bread by their labour; but as mere manual labour was very badly paid, those among the exiles who possessed mechanical or other practical knowledge endeavoured to turn it to account. The amelioration in their position which they thus obtained acted as a spur upon the others, and thus superior handicrafts, arts, manufactures, and schools, were established in the deserts of Siberia. Among the eight hundred Swedish exiles who

* Weber. Das Veränderte Russland.

were ordered to inhabit the town of Tobolsk, there were gold and silver smiths, turners, joiners, shoemakers, tailors, and card manufacturers, who all recommenced their former trades; while some founded manufactories of gold and silver tissues, and others endeavoured to gain a living as schoolmasters and musicians, and also by trade. The articles produced by the Swedes were in many cases of exquisite workmanship, and were soon distributed for sale and sought even throughout European Russia; and thus Siberia, which a few years previously received even the first necessaries of life from Russia, then already exported articles of luxury to that country. Being on one side bounded by unnavigable seas, on another by insurmountable mountain barriers, Siberia is, by its geographical position, in a great measure excluded from commercial intercourse with other nations except through the medium of the Russian territories; and by becoming a colonial dependency of Russia, she has obtained not only large markets for her raw produce, but also the many advantages which flow from the extensive transit-trade of Russia with China. In return, the trade and industry of Siberia, though subjected to the same restrictions as those of Russia, are not shackled by any of those extraordinary measures which sometimes impede the development of the resources of the colony for the supposed benefit of the mother country; and the inhabitants in every respect enjoy the same social and political rights as those of Russia Proper, with the additional blessing of being exempt from serfdom, the curse of the latter country. Indeed the whole of Northern Asia is the theatre of a bustling and happy commercial and industrial activity, of which those who never think of Siberia except as the great and dismal prison-house of Russia have very little conception.

The Siberian trade is chiefly in the hands of natives of Russian extraction, but is also carried on by Tatars and Bokharians, established in the larger cities on the Russian frontiers and in Siberia. The greater number of these merchants travel themselves with their goods through the country, visiting in succession all the great fairs, and generally exchanging goods for goods-disposing in one place of what they have obtained in another; and thus turning their capital perhaps ten times during an absence sometimes of several years spent in dangerous and difficult voyages. In many cases, however, the merchants of the various towns and provinces meet in some one of the great commercial marts of the country, there exchange their goods for others which they can dispose of at home, and then return thither direct.

The governments of Perm and Orenburg, both intersected by the Ural Mountains, which form the natural boundary between Europe and Asia, are as it were the fore-courts to Siberia Proper, their geographical position and natural features offering immense advantages for the transit-trade between Europe and Asia. The chief seat of the inland transit-trade is Irbit, in which place an annual fair is held in spring, which is visited by an immense concourse of Russian and Tatar merchants from all quarters of the empire. From the more northern parts of Siberia they bring peltry; from the smelting-works in the immediate vicinity, copper and iron; from Moscow, Archangel, and other places, European goods, principally cotton, woollen, and linen tissues, and coffee, sugar, wine, and spices; from Orenburg and Astrakhan they bring the produce of Bokhara, Persia, and India;

and from Kiakhta, the produce of China. To enable our readers to form an idea of the extent of business carried on at this fair, it will suffice to state that the value of the goods brought to Irbit in 1840 was calculated at 42,813,001 paper rubles. * It is indeed second in importance only to the fair of Nijni Novgorod, whither the merchants of Siberia also repair, bringing with them immense quantities of peltry and of the divers articles of trade obtained at Kiakhta, and where they likewise furnish themselves with many of the articles of European produce in demand in their country, and which they transport into the interior on sledges.

Besides Irbit, every town in Siberia has its yearly or half-yearly fair, between which the merchants are almost constantly in motion. In Tobolsk, the former capital of Western Siberia, they gather at different periods of the year, their arrival and departure being regulated by the nature of their goods, and the ultimate point of their destination. In spring arrive the merchants from Russia who have visited the fair of Irbit, and await in Tobolsk the breaking up of the ice, in order to continue, partly by river navigation, their journey to the more distant parts of the country. The merchants coming from the interior, and particularly those from Irkutsk, the capital of Eastern Siberia, and from the Chinese frontier, arrive, on the contrary, towards the close of summer; while the merchant-caravans from Bokhara and the land of the Kalmuks make their entry at the beginning of winter. In Berezov, Jeniseisk, and Yakutsk, the busy scene of the fair is diversified by the presence of Surjanes, Ostjacks, Woguls, Yakuts, Samoyedes, and other nomade or half-savage people, who repair to these cities to exchange the produce of the chase for flour, brandy, tobacco, tea, and other necessaries of life. In Jeniseisk, situated in the centre of the country, the merchants from the four quarters of Siberia meet, and frequently make an exchange of their goods, each party being thus enabled to return direct homewards. But in most cases these intrepid men carry their goods from one extremity of this immense continent to another, braving in the pursuit of their vocation difficulties, dangers, and fatigues, of which persons living in more favoured climes can have but a slight conception. In Siberia, indeed, distances are measured by a very different standard from what we are accustomed to in Europe, even in the lands of railway and steam. The merchants travelling between Kiakhta and Irbit traverse twice a year a distance of 3800 wersts; and a village situated at a distance of 500 or 600 wersts of a town is spoken of as being in the vicinity of the latter. In Yakutsk the traders arrive in summer, and either spend the winter in the town, or disperse among the villages of the neighbouring nomade hordes. Hence the produce of Europe and China are distributed to the most eastern parts of Siberia. It is not, however, usual for the merchants to enter into direct transactions with the nomade hunting populations, almost the whole of the lucrative trade in furs being carried on by means of the Siberian Cossacks, who are intrusted with the levying of the government tribute, and who are better able to encounter the innumerable difficulties connected with this traffic, as they are acquainted with the language and habits of the divers races and tribes, and inured to the hardships and fatigues of journeys, during which they are sometimes

* Reden Das Thaiserreich Russland, &c.

obliged to traverse hundreds of wersts on foot, dragging after them small sledges, laden with their provisions and with their stock in trade. There are, however, instances of Russian merchants who have not feared to encounter the perils of such journeys, and who have penetrated as far as Anadurskoi Ostrog, the utmost north-eastern dwelling-place of the nomade tribes.

In South-Eastern Siberia, the great centre of commercial activity is Irkutsk-in point of situation, number of inhabitants, and every social advantage, the first city of the country. Though Kiakhta, on the Chinese frontier, the place authorised by the Chinese government for the commerce between China and Russia, is the real seat of this trade, the fact of Irkutsk being the chief entrepôt for the goods exchanged there gives rise to a great amount of business, in addition to which the principal transactions of Kiakhta are effected by the merchants of Irkutsk. The nonresident merchants having business at Kiakhta generally arrive in Irkutsk in autumn by water, and await there the fall of the snow, which is to facilitate their further journey. Others arrive in the middle of winter by way of Tomsk and Krasnojarsk.

The modes of transport for men and goods in Siberia vary according to the different localities. The large rivers which intersect the country, and most of which are partially navigable in summer, would, it might be supposed, be eagerly resorted to as a most desirable means of communication on so vast a continent. But the natural capabilities of the country in this respect are but little cultivated; and the river navigation is at present in so primitive a state, that land-carriage is in general preferred, in spite of the immense distances to be traversed. In these cases the means of conveyance are either carriages or sledges, drawn in some localities by horses, in others by reindeer, and in others again by dogs. In some parts of the country camels are used as beasts of burden, and oxen for draught, while in others the goods are transported on the shoulders of men. It is the snow which in winter covers the country in its length and breadth that renders the land-communication, generally speaking, so excellent. But the snow is not everywhere present in equal quantities, and spread over the plains in that smooth and uniform manner which is necessary to enable the sledges to glide over the surface with that ease and swiftness which so peculiarly facilitate the transport of heavy goods. In some localities, where the natural features of the country give rise to powerful and constant currents of air, the snow is swept completely away from the open plains, and driven together in immense masses in the surrounding ravines, and up the rocky declivities enclosing the broad valleys. In these cases, if the road follows the course of a river, the sledges pass along on its ice-bound waters, and no inconvenience is experienced; but otherwise they have to be dragged along the frozen earth, to the great discomfiture of men and horses. In other places it is the accumulation of snow, particularly in the early winter, before it has been frozen into so compact a mass as to offer a smooth and hard surface, which presents the chief difficulty. Some notion of the difficulties of travelling and transporting goods in Siberia may be formed from Mr Cottrell's description of the manner in which this impediment is got over on the route from Irkutsk to Kiakhta, along which the caravans are obliged to pass at those periods of

the year when the ice of the Baikal Sea is not yet sufficiently strong to bear the heavily-laden sledges, though passengers may pass in safety across its bosom :

'From the beginning of November—that is, for two months-they (the caravans) are obliged to make this détour, and the expense is much more considerable, although by no means proportionate to the labour of the conductors. The snow in the mountains begins to fall in August, and by November it is generally six feet deep. The mode of clearing it away, it not being yet sufficiently frozen to make a solid surface to pass over, is troublesome enough. They first dig out a passage of a certain number of wersts, and turn their horses into it, and then make them gallop up and down, backwards and forwards, to consolidate and harden the snow, and then fasten large branches of fir to an empty sledge, of which they make a sort of harrow, and with this they clear away the snow from the sides. Having performed this preliminary operation, they harness a long string of horses to the machine, which from constantly passing and repassing, by degrees make a good road, wide enough for their sledges to go easily through. These, loaded with merchandise, follow in a line, one after the other, to the end of the road, which has thus been rendered passable. They then begin afresh with another such passage, and so on till the whole is got over. Each traineau at this season carries at most fifteen poods. The first of them does not accomplish more than ten wersts a day; those that follow, when the road is consolidated as much as in ordinary travelling, about forty

wersts.

"The passage across the Baikal, which is preferred when practicable, has on the other side its peculiar difficulties, but which are surmounted with the same intrepidity and perseverance. The passage in sledges on the ice is agreeable and rapid, the point where it is crossed is not quite sixty wersts, which is sometimes performed in two hours and a half, and the view of the surrounding mountains is imposing and majestic. There are occasionally fissures in the ice, and particularly in the spring, when the season approaches for its dissolution, which must be formidable to an unhabituated traveller; but as the horses and their drivers are thoroughly practised in getting over them, there is no real danger. When the cracks are small, the horses jump over them without stopping; when they are large, planks are laid across, so as to form a bridge, which is made and unmade in an instant-the planks being carried for the purpose, and dragged behind the sledge. If the fissures are too large even for this, a bridge is made of large blocks of ice, which they cut off on the side of the opening, and the driver, with a sort of leaping pole, jumps over the chasm. He then fastens on other similar blocks from the opposite side. The bridge is clearly none of the most secure; but the horses are unharnessed, and passed over first, and then the carriage is pulled over as rapidly as possible by ropes. Sometimes it occurs that a horse, going at full speed, is all of a sudden enfoncé in the ice, which, instead of cracking, has become soft and porous; the driver in that case jumps on his back with great quickness, crawls over him, disengages him in an instant from the sledge, and as he is blown, pulls him out by main force before he has time to struggle and sink deeper in the icy bog. In order to blow him more effectually, he throws a slip-knot round his neck, and draws it as tight as possible, so as to deprive