Siberia and the exile system . itedby very few Russians. For nearly two hundred versts, after leaving Semipala-tinsk, we rode up the right bank of the Irtish, through agreat rolling steppe of dry, yellowish grass. Here and there,where this steppe was irrigated by small streams runninginto the Irtish, it supported a luxuriant vegetation, the littletransverse valleys being filled with wild roses, hollyhocks,goldenrod, wild currant and gooseberry bushes, and splen-did spikes, five feet in height, of dark-blue aconite ; but inmost places the gi^eat plain was sun-scorched and bare. TheCossack villa
Siberia and the exile system . itedby very few Russians. For nearly two hundred versts, after leaving Semipala-tinsk, we rode up the right bank of the Irtish, through agreat rolling steppe of dry, yellowish grass. Here and there,where this steppe was irrigated by small streams runninginto the Irtish, it supported a luxuriant vegetation, the littletransverse valleys being filled with wild roses, hollyhocks,goldenrod, wild currant and gooseberry bushes, and splen-did spikes, five feet in height, of dark-blue aconite ; but inmost places the gi^eat plain was sun-scorched and bare. TheCossack villages through which we passed did not differmaterially from those between Semipalatinsk and Omsk,except tliat their log houses were newer and in better repair,and thcii- inhabitants seemed to be wealthier and more BRIDLE PATHS OF THE ALTAI 189 prosperous. The Russian love of crude color became againapparent in the dresses of the women and girls; and on ?^-^?- y^ . •<? ^?^^C-—^^ Moscow \6 er,.,s/:U. MAP OF ROnXE FROM SEMIPALAtINSK TO THE ALTAi. Sunday, when all of the Cossacks were in holiday attire, thestreets of these villages were bright with the red, blue, andyellow costumes of the young men and women, who sat in 190 SIBEKIA rows upon benches in the shade of the houses, talking,tlirting, and eating melon seeds, or, after the sun had goneilownrdaneed in the streets to the music of fiddles andtriaiiu-nlar uuitars.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectsiberiarussiadescrip
