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masses of drifting ice. At this point we entered the central
section of the Trans-Siberian railway between Ob and Irkutsk,
which has a length of 1136 miles. The line now runs for
about 120 miles through an undulating forest-clad country,
the beautiful natural park-region forming the transition
between the thick virgin forest and the steppe, and then
the train plunges into the “taigà”, as the virgin forest of
Siberia is called.
In this park-like region, with its natural meadows mingled
with groves of cedar, pine, and birch, are seen, between
the sparse huts of the new settlers, the large enclosures of
the old colonists. These so-called “poskotina” (from skot
= cattle) and the “zatmki” or “occupations” will ere
long belong only to history. The Russian colonists have
always settled in groups, and not on single farms widely
separated from one another, as did the colonists of America
and Australia. The reasons for this are to be found both
in the gregarious instinct of the Slav and in the necessity
for common protection against the attacks of hostile natives
and bands of robbers. As long as there was a superfluity
of land the immigrants settled wherever they pleased,
enclosing a common pasture-ground, i.e. forming a
“poskotina”, which would sometimes comprise sixteen square
miles or more. Early in the spring, or in the fall when
the crops had been gathered in, the cattle would also be
pastured on the cultivated and sometimes specially enclosed
fields. The Russian communal ownership of the soil has
also been introduced into Siberia. At first this was limited
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