Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - II. The Steppes of Western Siberia
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and agreeable from their rarity. Never in my life have I
seen such snow-white birch-stems as here, so dazzling against
the clear green carpet of the steppes. This region is very
sparsely populated (only about five persons to the square
mile) by Kirgises and Russian emigrants. [1] From
Tschelàbinsk the railroad runs for 161 miles through the Orenburg
district, and then follows the border between Tobolsk and
the “Steppe-provinces.” Between the Irtish and the Ob
it crosses the so-called Baratinsky Steppe. The greater
part of these immense regions belongs either to the Crown
or to the Imperial family, and a considerable area of it
has been opened up for colonisation, but some land belongs
to the Kossacks.
Life on board the train, as I have said, was characterised
by general amiability, though it was sometimes of a little
too intimate a nature for the taste of a westerner. I had
hardly taken my seat before some one began inquiring:
“Where do you come from?” “Where are you going,
and what is your business?” “What is your tschin (title
or caste)?” When it became known that I was going to
search for Andrée, such questions as the following were
put to me: “How much money have you ?... Have you
the money by you or in the trunk? What have you in
that box, in that leather trunk?” etc. I conversed with
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