. All the Russias: travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. onday,nine days and 3,371 miles from Moscow, after passing a zone ofrolling country with Flighland scenery, we come in sight of alarge town encircled by a great river, its churches and publicbuildings visible from far away. This is Irkutsk, the end, for thepresent, of the Great Siberian Railway, the boundary of EasternSiberia, the junction of Europe, so to speak, for trade by landwith Peking, and not much more than a hundred miles from thefrontier of China. CHAPTER IX SIBER
. All the Russias: travels and studies in contemporary European Russia, Finland, Siberia, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. onday,nine days and 3,371 miles from Moscow, after passing a zone ofrolling country with Flighland scenery, we come in sight of alarge town encircled by a great river, its churches and publicbuildings visible from far away. This is Irkutsk, the end, for thepresent, of the Great Siberian Railway, the boundary of EasternSiberia, the junction of Europe, so to speak, for trade by landwith Peking, and not much more than a hundred miles from thefrontier of China. CHAPTER IX SIBERIAN CIVILISATION THE chief towns of Siberia are naturally still those that hadgrown up and flourished before the railway was constructed—Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, and Irkutsk. Others will ofcourse soon be created, and in several cases they will supersede the old ones. After athousand versts of the Si-berian plain the first im-portant station, Omsk, isa genuine surprise. Atdusk you pass over thegreat river with a well-litpassenger steamer plyingupon it—pass over it bya handsome girder a promising net-. The Tower of the Fire-watch, Irkutsk. work of sidings begins, and, after the manner of Siberian trains, you steal very slowly into the electric-lit station of Omsk. A neat and pretty brick building greets you, the silent, impassive figures of peasants in sheepskins grouped about its doors. You pass into the usual hall which is waiting-room and restaurant combined; well-set tables with tall palms— imitation palms of course—standing in them, and tall crystal candelabra veiled in red muslin. At one side is the tea-counter, its brass samovar purring softly; at another a display of hot dishes to tempt the hungry, with a chef of smiling face and much-starched The proffered142 linen waving his knife above the baked meats
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecttolstoy, bookyear1902
