Siberia and the exile system . land. Mr. Frost,whose home is in Massachusetts, said he could easily im-agine that he was up Berkshire way. The scenery, al-though never wild, is everywhere pleasing and picturesque;the meadows, even in August, are carpeted with flowers,and the greenness and freshness of the vegetation, to atraveler who comes from the desert-like steppes of the upperIrtish, are a source of surprise and gratification. Near thefirst station we passed the small lake of Kolivan, which iscelebrated in all that part of Siberia for the picturesquebeauty of its scenery, and Mr. Frost mad
Siberia and the exile system . land. Mr. Frost,whose home is in Massachusetts, said he could easily im-agine that he was up Berkshire way. The scenery, al-though never wild, is everywhere pleasing and picturesque;the meadows, even in August, are carpeted with flowers,and the greenness and freshness of the vegetation, to atraveler who comes from the desert-like steppes of the upperIrtish, are a source of surprise and gratification. Near thefirst station we passed the small lake of Kolivan, which iscelebrated in all that part of Siberia for the picturesquebeauty of its scenery, and Mr. Frost made a sketch of somefantastic rocks by the roadside. It is a favorite place ofresort in summer for the wealthy citizens of Barnaiil andTomsk. It had been our intention to spend a day or two 284 SIBEKIA in exploring this picturesque sheet of water, but we finallydecided that we could not spare the time. We crossed theriv(^r Ob on a curious par6)n, or ferry-boat, consisting of alarge platform snpported upon two open hulks and pro-. jjelled ]jy a paddle-wlit^ei at oiic c^iid, liit- cratik ul whichwas turned by two ragged-bearded old /iiiuMks. Most ofthe Siberian rivers are crossed by means of what are knownas pendulum ferries, in which the boat is anchored by along cable made fast in the middle of the stream, and is THE PROVINCE AND THE CITY OF TOMSK 285 swung from shore to shore pendulum-wise by the force ofthe current. The Ob ferry-boat, of which Mr. Frost madea sketch, was the first one we had seen propelled by apaddle-wheel. So far as I can remember, there was little on the routebetween Barnaul and Tomsk to attract a travelers atten-tion. I was terribly jaded and exhausted from lack ofsleep, and spent a large part of the time in a state whichwas little more than one of semi-consciousness. At four oclock on the afternoon of Thursday, August 20th,we rode at last into the city of Tomsk. We had made, withhorses, in the 51 days which had elapsed since our depar-ture from Tinmen, a jo
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectsiberiarussiadescrip
