Siberia and the exile system . inclosure, or front yard, filled with young birches, silver-leafed aspens, and flowering shrubs, and through all of theseyards, down each side of every street runs a tinkling, gur-gling stream of clear, cold water from the melting snowson the mountains. The whole village, therefore, go whereyou will, is filled with the murmur of falling water; andhow pleasant that sound is, you must travel for a monthin the parched, dust-smothered, sun-scorched valley of theIrtish fully to understand. The little rushing streams seemto bring with them, as they tumble in rapids thr
Siberia and the exile system . inclosure, or front yard, filled with young birches, silver-leafed aspens, and flowering shrubs, and through all of theseyards, down each side of every street runs a tinkling, gur-gling stream of clear, cold water from the melting snowson the mountains. The whole village, therefore, go whereyou will, is filled with the murmur of falling water; andhow pleasant that sound is, you must travel for a monthin the parched, dust-smothered, sun-scorched valley of theIrtish fully to understand. The little rushing streams seemto bring with them, as they tumble in rapids through the iiu; SIBERIA settltMiieiit, the fre.^li, cool atmosphere of the high peakswhere they were boru two hours before; and although yourtheniioineter may say that the day is hot aud the air sul-try, its statements are so pei-sistently, so confidently, sohilariously controverted by the joyous voice of the streamunder your window, with its half-expressed suggestions ofsnow and i;-laciers and cooling spray, that your reason is. OUK HOUSE AT THE ALTAI STATION. silenced and your imagination accepts the story of thesnow-born brook. The morning after our arrival at the Altai Station dawnedclear, cool, and bright, and after a good breakfast served bythe wife of the Cossack in whose house we had foundshelter, we went out to survey the village. Mr. Frost, whowas equipped with sketching-block and i^encils, soon dis-covered a desirable point of view for a picture and, havinghired a burly Cossack to stand beside him in such aposition as to throw the shadow of his body across thepaper, and thus serve as a sun-umbrella, he went to I strolled through the village and out past thequaint log church in the direction of the village shops which,with the Government storehouses, were situated on the BRIDLE PATHS OF THE ALTAI 197 eastern side of the plateau. Three or four hundred yardsfrom the church, hi the middle of the flowery plain, a com-pany of Cossacks, dressed in dark-green un
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectsiberiarussiadescrip
