The countries of the world : being a popular description of the various continents, islands, rivers, seas, and peoples of the globe
Brown, Robert, 1842-1895
'm'-m^'^^'^^^^' ■ ■ ^ '^^^■m^m^m^^m ^^rs^^'kr-\ ^ r.'' %' r ^^i^y.' ^-'■iffA^ '^"^ ^ '^Jft:, '.S5 .^* > A ■y^% /*<^-^'^: ,''/-^.if; • f A:^v,\ 1 -^^ WM- -/^'^'^^■ r 'a. . ■'^- r^ '-f - ■"^ L/i' hh\ r /. H- •^1 !yi^^ m -p*^^\\i^1) THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD. p < a o o tq THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD: A POPULAR DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIOUS CONTINENTS, ISLANDS, RIVERS, SEAS, AND PEOPLES OF THE GLOBE. Robert Brown, m.a. I'lI.U., I'.L.S., F K.G.S. Author oj " The Races of Mankind,'' etc. etc. * * * Cashell, Petter, Galpin & Co. LONDON, PARIS & NEW YORK. [Ai.i, KiGiirs Keskbvkii.] Annex 1-1 % Y.S" CONTENTS. Siberia Kamtchatka ... Amooklaxd Siberia Proper The Chinese Empire Physical Geography The Climate ... The Provinces The Nation ... The Eulers ... Trade ... HoxG Kong COREA ... Mantchvria Mongolia The Desert of Gobi Chinese Turkestan ... KfLDJA ... Tibet BURMAH : The Country anu the Government Products Government, Trade, and Industry Cities, etc. Climate and Diseases The Shan States British Burmah SlAM ... Cambodia An AM... Cochin-China India : — Andaman Islands The Nicobar Islands Ceylon ... The Maldives... The Cocos or Keeling Islands The Lacc.\dives Plains and Table-land The Ghauts and Backwaters The River System ... The Hill Country' ... The Climate ... Mineral "We.^lth Anim.\l and Plant Life Bengal ... The North- Western Provinces PAGE 1 2 6 10 23 26 30 31 43 47 .52 58 66 71 77 78 82 92 101 111 114 118 120 121 122 123 127 138 147 1.51 157 159 163 175 176 176 178 181 183 188 188 190 194 203 209 PAGE India {continued) : — The Punjab 214 The Central  254 North-Western India ... ... ... 255 Foreign Settlements in India ... ... ?55 Its Commerci.\l Condition... ... .. 258 Exports and Imports ... ... ... 259  Re- publics 283 The Pamir Steppe 286 " The Khanates " 288 The Turkoman  : — The Country and its Products  Tr.\de, Revenue, etc. 310 The Pearl Fisheries ... ... ... 314 The Government and the Popul.^tion ... 315 The TR.iDE 317 Towns 318 Progress ... .. ... .. ... 318 2024950 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Thu Marble Bridge of Seventeen Arches, leiiding to the Ishind in the Lake of Onane-Cheon- Chane, China ... ... ... ... Frontispiece Entrance to the Harbour of Potropavlovski Map of Siberia and Part of China ... A Tungoose Encampment ... View of Nikolaievsk, the Capital of A moorland ... A Siberian Dog Sledge View of Lake Baikal, Siberia Prisoners on the Road to Siberia ... View of Omsk, Siberia Ostiak Hunters of Siberia. Map of China and Some of the Adjoining Countries View in the Village of Polo-Hang, Province of Canton View in the Village of "SVong-Tong, Province of Canton ... View on the Poi-Ho River, at Ticn-Tsin, China ... A Mosqiie in Pekin ... A Pagoda, or Memorial Tower, in the Province of Quel- Chow, China ... ... To face page Sorting Tea in China View of the City of Amoy, in the Province of Fo-Kien View of Part of Swatow, in the Province of Q,uang-Tung A Farm in the Province of Quang-Tung ... Hata-Menc-ta-Kie Street, Pekin ... A Tradesman of Tien-Tsin, the Treaty Port of the Province of Pe- Chili Chinese Artillerymen Camels of the North of China Chinese and Tartar Ladies ... After Dinner: A Family Scene in China ... A Street in Hong Kong- View of the Rapids of the Chu-Kiang, Canton, or Pearl River A Chinese Cart Fire on an Asiatic Steppe To face imcjc A Street in Hong Kong A Corean Palanquin ... Mongol Kalkhas A Sandstorm in the Desert A Mongol Camel on the March Scene in the Desert of Gobi 4 5 8 9 12 13 1.7 20 21 24 28 29 32 33 33 36 37 40 44 48 49 .V2 .')3 o7 60 Gl 64 6o 6.1 69 72 73 76 SO Map of Central Asia, etc. A Mongol Camp on the Move A Street in Yarkand, Eastern Turkestan ... jNIerchants of Yarkand, Eastern Turkestan Gate of the Fort of Yaugy-Shahr, Five Miles from Kasghar, Eastern Turkestan ... A Kirghiz Bride Tungans and Kabnuks of Kuldja ... Scene in a Village in the Laos Country To face page A " Tartar " of Kuldja A Tarantchi Mosque at Kuldja Natives of the Valley of Spiti, Province of Ladiik View of the Salt Lake of Tsonioriri, Western Tibet View in Leh, the Capital of Ladak .. View in Pegu, British Burmah View on the River Irrawaddy, Burmah ... Idols on the Banks of the River Irrawaddy, Burmah ... View of Bassac, Laos A Village in the Interior of Laos ... A Buddhi-st Wat, or Temple, at Bangkok, Siam . .. A Hamlet and Bridge in Cambodia To face page General View of Bankok and the Menam River ... The Supreme King of Siam in his State Robes . .. The "Second King" of Siam in his State Robes A Siamese War Elephant ... View in Khong, Cambodia ... Barges on the Mekong River, Cambodia ... View on the Banks of the Mesap, Cambodia View of Panompin, the Capital of Cambodia Ruins on Mount Bakheng, Cambodia The ilain Street of Hue, Capital of the Kingdom of Anam ... Anamite Workmen Inlaying with Mother-of-Pearl Street View in Saigon A Bullock Carriage in Cochin- China On the Course (Maidan), Calcutta, with a View of Government House and the Ochterlony Monu- ment ... ... ... ... 7b face page Elephant Ploughing in Ceylon View of Point de Galle, Ceylon Map of Lower India and Ceylon ... PAGE 81 88 89 93 96 97 97 100 104 105 109 112 113 117 121 124 128 129 129 132 133 136 140 141 144 14.', 148 1.53 156 157 160 161 161 164 165 vm LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.  Ceylon ... .. ... ... 173 Singhalese of the Coast ... ... ... ... 173 View of Cape Comorin, the Southern Point of India 177 View in the Western Himalayas  in the Diamond Minos of Poonah ... ... 192 Gate of AUa-ud-Deen Koutah, near Delhi To face page 193 Tiger Hunting with Elephants iu India ... ... 193 The Great Banyan Tree {Ficiis Indira) in the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta ... ... ... 197 The Mausoleum of the Emperor Akhar, at Sikandra, a Suburb of Agra City 200 Hindoo Dancers, or Culhacks ... ... 201 View of the Port of Calcutta ... ... ... 205 The Mausoleum of Etmaddowluh, Agra ... ... 208 An Indigo Factory at Allahabad ... ... ... 209 The Hoosseinabad Imambara, Lucknow ... ... 212 Temple at Muchkounda,  225 A Katamaran in the Surf before Madi-as ... ... 228 A Pagoda at Tanjore 229 A Hindoo Pagoda at Malabar Hill, near Bombay 232 Parsee Cotton Merchants of Bombay ... ... 236 Entrance to the Cave-Temples of Kanhari, Isle of Salsette 237 The Principal Grotto of Kanhari, Isle of Salsette 241 Xautch, or Dancing Girls, at the Court of the Rana of Oodeypore 244 The Exterior of the Gemetei-y of ^laha Sati, at Ahar, near Oodeypore ... The Mausoleum of Rajah Buktawur, at I'lwur ... The Gopel Bhowan in the Palace of Digh View of the City of Baroda (from the River Bis- wamintri) Vif w in Srinagar, Kashmir ... Cemetery at Khiva ... ... ... To fare page Indian Cotton Operatives ... The Opium Poppy (Papaver somniferum) ... Sir Jung Bahadur Palace of the Rajah of Nepaul View of the Bolan Pass View of Khelat View of the City of Cabul ... The Tomb of the Emperor Baber at Cabul View of Yangi Hissar, at the Foot of the Pamir Chain A Kirghiz Sultan View of Lake Victoria, Pamir Steppe Bibi Khanym Place, Samarcand ... To face page Crossing the Sj-r-Darya Turkoman Women ... Court of the Palace of the Ex-Khan of Khokan . .. Native Police at the Gate of the Mosque of Shah Zindeh, Samarcand The Tomb of Saint Daniar-Palvan, near Samarcand Map of Central Asia, Persia, Arabia, and Turkey in Asia ... Scene on the Steppes of the Caspian The Maidan Shah, or Royal Square, Ispahan The Shah's Palace at Teheran The Old South Gate, Teheran The City Gate, Tabriz View of Shiraz Tower on the Site of the Ancient Raghes, Persia (believed to be the Tomb of a ^Mongol King) The Tomb of Bavnzid-Bastam at Charout-Bastaiii 248 249 252 253 256 257 260 261 264 265 268 269 272 277 281 284 285 289 289 292 293 296 297 300 301 304 305 308 312 313 316 317 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WOELD. CHAPTER I. SiBEEIA : KaMTCHATKA; AlIOOELAXD AXD SiBERIA PrOPER. >^^^^ROM America to Asia is geographically but a step. Behring Strait is^ indeed, ^^-^'^ at its narrowest point, only thirty-six miles wide. Here Prince of Wales Cape — on the snows of which Eugene Sue, in his most famous work, places his '^juif errant^' — faces East Cape on the Asiatic shore, and as the Strait is at '^ ' no place more than thirty fathoms in depth, it is more than probable that ''^ ■ in some of the changes which the volcanic region has undergone, this con- nection between the Arctic Ocean and the Pacific has been opened within comparatively recent geological jjeriods. The Diomede, and other islands in it, which now play to the tribes on either side the part of the Roman " termes " — a commercial neutral ground — may be the last fragments of this vanished isthmus. Haze and fog often overhang the sea hereabouts, but owing to the shoaliness of its waters icebergs are rare. The walrus is found on its northern shores, and in the southern parts, as well as on the Aleutian islands, there is carried on a great trade in killing the sea otter (Vol. I., p. 305) and the fur seals, which, in spite of the war of extermination which until recently was waged against them, are still numerous on these lonely volcanic-shaken isles. Some of them, particularly Behring^s Island, when first discovered, were in- habited by a species of sea-cow, the Hhjtina SteUeri, on which Behring and his com- panions fed, but the visits of hungry seamen soon exterminated it, and even a fragment of its skeleton is now rare in museums. The whole group seems at one time to have been inhabited by Eskimo, and, indeed, the Aleuts are only members of the same widespread family.^ The Eskimo, however, do not extend on the Asiatic shore further than Tuski Land ; and it may be noted that the point of contact between the essentially American Eskimo and Asia is just where the long winter's ice would allow them to cross in their dog-sledges. But the country we have now entered is a widely different one from the land we have * Dall : ' ' On the ricmains of rrehistoric ilan in Caves of the Catherina Archipelago and the Aleutian Islands." (" Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge," 1878.) 161 2 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD. left. Its novtlieni reg-ious are not so barren as the Arctic bonndaries of America, and its southern plains and forests are not so luxuriant. It is a lone land nearly one million square miles larg-er tnan Europe, but is not, contrary to the common belief, desolate throughout, being in the more southern parts extremely rich and fruitful. It is thinly peopled, either by wandering heathen tribes herding reindeer, or gaining a precarious livelihood by hunting, or by Russian settlers, the majority of whom passed the Oural mountains from no wish of their own. Siberia, in a word, is, as all the world knows, the Russian penal colony, and though there are on the high roads of travel busy, populous, and even fine cities — just as there were in Australia when that continent was our place of banishment — everything in Siberia is temj^ered by the prevailing convict element. The ^^unfortunates'' are everywhere^ but as these exiles have in many cases been the foremost men in Russian public life, the material for progress in the great traus-Oural territory is great. Stretching from Cape Chelyuskin or Severo, the most northern point of Asia — the Fromontorlum Tabiii of Pliny — it stretches south for nearly 2,000 miles, and from east to west for 3,600 miles. For political purposes the country is divided into the two great divisions of Western and Eastern Siberia, among Avhich are distributed the Governments of Tobolsk, which contains over a million of inhabitants, Tomsk, Yeniseisk, Yakutsk, Irkutsk, Transbaikalia, the Amoor Province, and the Littoral Province, . which includes Kamtchatka and the shores of Behring Strait. Kamtchatka and the Amoor are, however, naturally separable from the rest of Siberia. Accordingly, it will be more convenient for our purpose to say a few words about each of them before sketching in fuller detail the great plains lying to the west. Kamtchatka. This peninsula,* perhaps the dreariest part of the Russian empire, was not discovered by the Siberian conquerors until the close of the seventeenth century; but in 1G97 the work of subjection began, and by 1711 the docile inhabitants, who were only a few savages living imder petty chiefs, had submitted to their new masters, who, however, have never been able to gain much glory or revenue from the new territory. The tribute is paid in sable and other furs, and the coast affords few good harbours. The settlements of the " Littoral Province " are still in a very embryonic condition, and likely to continue so. Yet the first sight of Kamtchatka is, to the voyager in whose mind it is associated with " the wolf's long howl from Onalaska's shore," not unpleasing. He expects ice, glaciers, and the bare lichened rocks of the country in the same latitude on the other side of America. Instead, his eye lights upon hills, covered with trees and verdant thickets, upon valleys white with clover and diversified with little groves of silver-barked birch, and even on rocks gay witli wild roses and columbines, as he enters the harbour of Petropavlovski (p. 1), whose red-roofed and bark-thatched log-houses, and green-domed church, contrast pleasingly with the high hills, which '^ sweep in a great semicircle of foliage" round the quiet pond-like inlet of Avatcha Bay on which the village is placed. Petropavlovski, one of the most isolated of all the spots dedicated to the honour * The word "Kamtchatka" is derived from "Kontchatj," to terminate. SIBERIA: KAMTCHATKA. 3 o£ Peter and Paul, has iew " lions " for the sight-seeing- tourist. The two rude monuments to the memory of the famous navigators, Behring and La Perouse, are the visible signs of the better side of the Kamtchatkan village. The grass-grown fortifications, built during the Crimean War to repel the ill-advised and unsuccessful attack of the allied French and English squadrons, and the densely-peojjled graveyard not far off, present the history of Petropavlovski in its less pleasing forms. The roar of the allies' cannon was, perhaps, the first intimation that the inhabitants — native Cossacks and peasants — ever had of Turkey and the " Eastern Question.''^ But to this day it is customary, on the anniversary of the battle, for all the inhabitants to march in solemn procession "round the town and over the hill from which the storming party was thrown, chanting hymns of joy and praise for the victory/' The extreme length of the Peninsula of Kamtchatka is about 700 miles, and it is divided longitudinally by an almost continuous range of rugged mountains, containing many extinct volcanoes, in addition to five or six in a state of nearly continuous activity. To the north of this range is high level steppe or "dole,'"" a dreary desert, the chosen home of the wandering " reindeer Koriaks.'^ The central and southern parts of the peninsula are, according- to Mr. Kennan, broken up by the spurs and foot-hills of the great mountain range into deep sequestered valleys of the wildest and most picturesque character, and afford scenery which, for majestic and varied beauty, is not surpassed in all Northern Asia. The climate, excej)t in the north, is comparatively mild and equable, and the vegetation is luxuriant, beyond anything which our pre-conceived ideas of the country would ascribe to it. The population of the Littoral Province the Russian statists put down (in 1873) at 50,512, and of this number Mr. Kennan credits Kamtchatka with 5,000. Of these the Kamtchatkdals are the most numerous. They are settled in little log villages, chiefly near the mouth of the small rivers which rise in the central range and fall into the sea of Okhotsk and the Pacific, and are engaged in fishing, fur trapping, and the cultivation of rye, turnips, cabbages, and potatoes, which grow fairly well as far north as 58°. 4 THE COUNTEIES OF THE WORLD. " fortress/-' and Nijni-Kamtchatka, in the valley of the Kamtchatka river, is the only- other place of consequence. Altogether, in the Peninsula, which varies in breadth from 30 to 120 miles, there may be about 80,000 square miles. The volcanoes, only one of which (Kliuchev, 16,131 feet) is of great height, constitute the northern continuation of those traversing the Philippine and the Japanese Islands. On the east, where the mountains ajiproach close to the shore, the cliffs are high and precipitous, but li.NTKANCE TO THE HAUBOCK OF PETllOrAVLOVSKJ. as most of the inlets are blocked at their mouths with reefs, the harbours which naturally exist are for the present incapable of being utilised, and as the only river which cannot be employed as an inlet to the country debouches into a shallow bay exposed to the full force of the easterly winds, the opening up of Kamtchatka is still in the far future. Nor is there much to develop. The few vegetables grown — when they are not destroyed by untimely frosts, heavy rains, or armies of mice and rats — are not more than sufficient for local consumption, and the same may be said in regard to the cattle and horses which are reared in the valley of the river just noted. Accordingly, unless mines are discovered, the peninsula is likely for ever to remain in its present condition of solitary desolation, a 6 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WOELD. home for a few semi-savages of habits too disgusting to he recorded in all their minutiae, and for convicts harmless enough to be trusted so near the sea.* Amoorlaxd. The oToat rivers of Siberia flow into the Arctic Sea^ but that which drains the Amoor country debouches into the Pacific : hence its imjwrtance. The Amoor, Amour,, Amur, or Sakalin formed by the union of several streams, is in all about 1,000 miles in length. Naturally, therefore, the climate of the country through which it flows varies. In the ui)per part of its course the summers are short and the winters cold ; further south it passes throuo-h a region which enjoys almost tropical heat. Here oaks, limes, and elms flourish in great forests, instead of the stunted larch and firs on its upper waters. On the lower Amoor the climate is again that of typical Siberia. The river is frozen up half the year, and the general surroundings are also of the Island of Saghalinf, opposite which is its mouth (Vol. IV., p. 31G). Amoorland first became known to the Russians in. 1639, and soon after then Cossack irregulars began conflicts with the Chinese, who controlled and partially occupied the country. These skirmishes were not always on the side of the invaders, but in the end a treaty was concluded, the effect of which was to transfer a considerable portion of the region from the Chinese to the Russians. This was in 16S0, and up to 1817 there wore not many alterations of the state of matters thus brought about. But in 1847 the Russians began to make preparations for further conquests in the Amoor Valley, which preparations ended as they have usually done when the Asiatic pot and the Riissian pan came into collision; for in 18G0 the whole Amoor Valley, as we now know it, fell into the hands of the Czar, and has continued as part of his dominions. Though the advantages to be gained by the possession of this country have not been fulfilled to the extravagant extent it was at one time believed they would eventuate in, it cannot be denied that the Amoor drains a country for the most part very fine, and that eventually it may form a home for millions quite as attractive as most parts of Canada. Though the Amoor proper is only 1,600 miles long, its tributaries are many of them very large rivers, and altogether, taking its largest feeders as the continuation of the river, it is over 2,800 miles long, and 2,200 of these are navigable by steamer. Altogether, it drains an area of 700,000 square miles, comprising much fertile and well-wooded country. The " Amoor Province " proper embraces an area of 101,000 square miles, while part of the Littoral Province, under which is also included Kamtchatka, is embraced in this country. The total population of the former province was, in 187'3, 25,201 — the greater portion of them Tungoose barbarians (p. S) and con- * Kamtchatka never changes much. Accordingly, the chief literature on it, though old, is yet quite scasonaLlo. The works of Krashcninnikov have been translated into English, and those of Cochrane, Cottrell, Dohell, Habersham, Tronson, Collins, Kittlitz, Steller, and Erman, in addition to the more recent narratives of Kennan and Bush, almost exhaust the original sources of information on this part of Eastern Siberia, unless we accept the numerous oflRcial — political, gcograjihical, and scientific — reports present-ed to the St. Petersbiirg authorities from time to time ; but these arc, for the most part, in the Eussian language. t Also spelled " .Sakalin," and " Saghalien." The native name is said to be "Krafto," or " Taraki," under tho latter of which designations the Eussians are now beginning to describe it. SIBERIA: AMOORLAXD. 7 victs. There are numerous steamboats on the river^, and a considerable trade is carried on. But the channel is narrow and intricate, and even, according to Captain Bax, with a vessel drawing- only eight feet and a half of water, the greatest care is necessary to keep it from grounding. It, however, abounds with salmon and other fish, and may, under a better system, contribute more extensively than it does at present to the wealth of the world."^ ISIr. Ronald Bridgett, who, a few years ago, made a voyage up the river, describes the ice on it as breaking up in April, and moving away down stream with great uproar at the rate of about twenty miles a day. By the middle of October it again begins to freeze, and when sufficiently firm a sledge track follows the course of the stream, post stations being established at intervals of fifteen to thirty miles, and provided with the customary Government order, the traveller can ordinarily obtain post-horses, though on the lower part of the river he has to content himself with a Giliak sledge and a team of dogs. The winter post from Nikolaievsk to St. Petersburg across Siberia usually occupies fifty to fifty-five days, but there is a case on record in which a Government courier, travelling uninterruptedly, made the journey in thirty days. During the summer months steamers ascend from Nikolaievsk, in the Pacific, to Stretensk, on the Shilka tributary, in the Government of Transbaikalia, in about the same period, though the descent is made in half that time, the steamer anchoring dvn-ing the night. Nikolaievsk (p. 9), the capital of the Government, is, when first seen by the voyager entering from the Gulf of Tartary, a rather striking place. The houses are not numerous, but their green and red shingle roofs, contrasted with sombre forests, give a gay aspect to the town. The buildings are usually of one storey, and built of wood, with double windows to exclude the cold, which, during the seven months' winter, is intense. There is a public library and reading-room, and a club where balls and concerts of the amateur musical talent of the place are held; but the wide streets, bordered by a wooden plankway, are very deserted looking, and the garden, where the band performs in the summer evenings, is an enclosure where weeds and a few seats have taken the place of the forest which everywhere else dominates, except where it has been hewn to supply the place with fuel and timber. The church is — as in all Russian towns — a prominent object; but the dreary cemetery, among the rugged stump-dotted ground in the outskirts of the town, is among the most desolate of the cities of the dead. The river is at this spot about a mile in width, and on the opposite shore is bounded by lofty pine-clothed cliffs. Villages dot the river banks at intervals, and rolling wooded hills arise from the water's edges for the first few miles, though here and there the stream widens out and divides into a number of channels. The Russian peasants at these villages grow grain for their ovm maintenance, and feed a few bullocks on the meadow hay. They have firewood, fowls, milk, eggs, wild strawberries and raspberries, potatoes, cucumbers, &c., for sale, but appear far from prosperous, and not much more comfortable in their menage than their neighbours, the Giliaks and Goldi, who live by fishing and hunting. The * Collins: "Exploration of the Amoor River" (1858); Ravcnstein : "Russians on the Amoor" (18G1) ; Schrenck : " Reisen und Forschungen im Amurland " (1858-67) ; Atkinson : " Travels in the Region of the Amoor " (1868) ; lists of works in Chavanne, Karpf and Lc Monnier : " Die Litcratur iiber Polar-Rcgionen"' (1878) relating to the neighboming country. 8 THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD. mosquitoes, which darken tlie air, make life hy no means a summer dream, and the bush fires, which often envelop the country in smoke during- the warm weather, render any settlement in the back country precarious. After leaving- the river's mouth, everything in the form of a road ceases: the river is hereafter the only highway. Khabarofka, 014 miles from Xikolaievsk, where there is a garrison, is destined to become a place of some importance, for here the River Usuri, which flows from Mantchuria in the south, joins the Amoor. For some days after leaving this town the river banks are flat and uninteresting, and the current divided into a number of channels by several low islands. At Ekaterin- Nikolski, a Cossack village, the passage of the Hinghan mountains begin. The stream then becomes very rapid, and narrows to about a quarter of a mile in width. The scenery also changes entirely. Instead of flat, monotonous, wooded shores, hills 1,000 to A TUXGOOSE ENCAMPMENT. 1,000 feet in height rise precipitously from the water's edge, on either side. Birch, fir, and mountain oak cover them, while at intervals the steamer passes the outlets of valleys, which add to the beauty of the scene. For fifty miles this is the characteristic of the stream. Then there is a change after the Hinghan mountains are passed. The country opens out in swelling woodland interspersed with park-like patches of grass, so that the banks on either side look not unlike the English downs. Russian villages umltiply, and considerable quantities of grain are cultivated in the now more genial climate of the south. Mantchu villages appear on the Chinese shore, while a few gaily painted junks belonging to the navy begin to strike the eye at the spot where the river forms the boundary between the Russian and Chinese territory; and at fifteen miles above Aigun, at the junction of the River Dsaya with the Amoor, is Blagovestchensk, the residence of the Governor of Amoorland. It is, next to Nikolaievsk, the principal town on the river, and consists of two streets running parallel to the river banks, the houses rather SIBERIA: AMOORLAXD. 9 wide apart and built of log's. There is a public garden and esplanade, and here is quartered a considerable garrison. The country around is without a tree, but many cattle are grazed in the vicinity, and thoug'h the summer is short, the heat is sufficiently great to allow o£ melons ripening in the open air. Opposite the town is the village of Saghalin, where reside the Mantchu traders, the Russian authorities not allowing them to remain at night on the Russian side of the river. They bring for sale flour, cattle, tobacco, &c., in return for European goods, silver roubles, and Mexican dollars, which latter are sent south to Tsitsihar, and melted into what the English merchants in China call ''shoes" of silver, or "sycee.-" Along the Dsaya, which here joins the Amoor, are numerous settlements of VIEW OF NIKOLAIEVSK, THE CAPITAL OF AMOOKLAXD. Russians, who have left their country on account of persecutions for conscience sake.* They cultivate great crops of grain, which the Government readily purchases, in order to supply the less favoured colonies on the Amoor, which, on their first foundation, were forced to rely for their stores on sea-borne cargoes from the Baltic, or on what reached them from Transbaikalia. Low hills covered with fern, stunted oak, and birch beeches, are the characteristic of the banks for many miles. Above Blagovestchensk, and for 200 miles up, the chalk cliffs of the White Mountains are the most remarkable features in a very pleasing country. Immense flocks of wild fowl %-equent these parts of the river, * Among these are some of the strictest sectaries of the " Starovertsi," or Old Believers, who have also taken refuge in the wildest parts of Siberia. (:\Iorgan, in Prejevalsky's "From Kulja Across the Tian Shan to Lob-Xor " (1879), p. 202 ; nnd Wallace's '' Eussia," Vol. I., p. 14.) 162 10 THE COrXTKIES OF THE WORLD. and sturgeon are eaug-ht in such numbers as to render tlie preparation of caviare an important industry. Game is also abundant and boldly pursued : villagers will even attack the bear single- handed on foot. Among the fur animals are fine sables, trapped by the Aronchonee, a wild tribe who wandor about this part of the country. Albazin is a village of some importance. Gold is found in the vicinity, but the crowds who flocked thither in the summer of 1807 were disappointed in the hope of wealth. Higher up the stream narrows to the breadth o£ the Thames at London, but in places it is very shallow. For 120 miles it passes through the Little Hinghan Mountains, among lofty hills covered with dense pine forests, and high limestone cliffs here and there rising up from the water's edge. In general character, it reminded ]\Ir. Bridgett of the Danube between Passau and Linz, but instead of ruined castles on the heights, there are only a few solitary post-houses. Rafts floating- cattle down stream, and immigrants on their way to the lower river country, after a journey often of twelve to eighteen months from Southern Russia and the Caspian, are among the most familiar objects that break the monotony of an up-river voyage in this section of the Amoor. In the province of Transbaikalia, which is entered after passing the village of Gorbitza, the mountains recede from the river, and the country assumes a more settled aspect. The habitations are uo longer confined to the banks of the river, and the country, which is diversified with pine and white birch-patched hills, shows considerable cultivation. The frosts begin early, and in October the crops are often in the fields and even uncut. But the peasants consider this no hardship, as the first fall of snow enables them to carry the sheaves to the barn on sledges, and thus saves what they consider much labour. Steamers can proceed to Chetah, but Stretensk is considered the head of navigation, for here the overland carriage road to Russia commences. A few log-houses, barracks for soldiers, and a convict establishment, with the inevitable domed church, make up the town, and two miles further up stream is the port with dry docks, A\ orkshops, and all other needful appliances for repairing the steamers and barges navigating the river. The few European articles in use find their way to this isolated town, partly after a long water carriage up the river from the sea-board, and partly by the still moi'e costly land journey across Siberia. The result is that everything not the produce of the country is dear. At the date of Mr. Bridgett's visit, loaf sugar was selling at an equivalent of .'3s. per lb., English bottled porter at Is. It may be added, that the Cossack, having proved but an indifferent colonist, the Government is doing its best to introduce German emio-rants into the Amoor Yallev. Siberia Proper. The continent of Asia is usually described as consisting of certain plateaux and low- lands. The plateaux are the eastern one, comprising the table-land of Tibet and the Desert of Gobi, and the western plateau, or table-land of Iran, divided up into lesser areas by various mountain ranges. The six great lowland areas arc the Bucharian lowland, a wild sterile waste between the Caspian Sea and Lake Aral; the Syrian and Arabian lowland, the lowlands of Ilindostan, the Indo-Chinese lowlands, through which the Irawaddy SIBERIA ritOrEK: GENERAL ClIAliACTERISTICS. 11 flows, Cambodia and Siam, the Chinese lowlands, and finally Siberia, the lowland of the north, and the greatest of them all. Indeed, the country may be described as one immense plain, bounded on the south by mountains, but gradually getting- lower and lower as it approaches the north, until along the shore of the Frozen Ocean it is one dreaiy flat, little raised above the level of the sea. Even there, however, as noted in the recent voyage of Professor Xordenskjold, there is a difference. West of the Lena the forest keeps a considerable distance from the shore; but to the east of that promontory it approaches in the form of stunted pines almost to the water's edge. It is also evident that the country is, like most of the circumpolar region, rising, for lagoons, only separated by a few yards of land from the sea, are common all along that coast, and recent marine shells are found on the " tundras,'" or moss}^ barrens along the coast, while the Liokov or Siberian Islands, though almost unknown, are said to be scattered with the bones of oxen, horses, and other animals, at present unknown even in a fossil con- dition on the mainland, as well as with the remains of the mammoth, the fossil tusks of which still form an article of commerce. This mammoth was a wool-covered dwarf elephant, which there is every reason to believe lived in the northern part of Siberia, when the climate Avas very much the same as it is now, and whose form has in a more or less complete shape been preserved to this day in the ice or frozen soil. The region to the west of the Yenisei presents one monotonous level, unbroken by hills of any sort, covered in its north-western parts by forests, though for the greater extent this province is steppe or upland plain. Much of it consists of dry sand, salt marsh, and bogs; but the Barabinskarii Steppe, between the Rivers Irtish and Obi, has large birch groves, and is well suited for agriculture; while the soil of the Abakan Steppes, which lie along the River Abakan, a tributary of the Yenisei, is so rich that it requires no manure. But even where the soil is unsuited for crops its fine pastures afford abundance of food to the . countless herds of reindeer and cattle possessed by the natives. Eastern Siberia is more diversified, for in this part of the country the plains are intersected by offshoots of the Altai, Sagan, and Stanovoi range of mountains. Much of it is suited for agriculture, and the south is covered for the greater portion of its extent with magnificent forests. "S'ineyards are common. The fruit is excellent, and wine of a fair quality is made, though as yet it has not found a market out of the country. The northern part, extending to the Arctic Ocean, is for the most part a dreary moss-covered "tundra'" on which, however, can be pastured, at certain seasons of the year, herds of reindeer, though the swarms of mosquitoes which, during the warm weather, infest this and every other portion of Siberia, render life almost intolerable to man ; and the oestrus, or " hot," which attack the deer, combined with the disease which has broken out among them, is rapidly re- ducing the Samoyedes, Ostiaks, Voguls, and other tribes which depend on them, from affluence to poverty. Siberia was in early times under Tartar princes, but about 15^0 it was subdued by the emissaries of the Czar, and has ever since been looked upon, not so much as an integral part of the Russian empire as a convict settlement, or a region to which colonists could be attracted only by offering special inducements. It has an offensive smack of the hulks about it still, even though there are manv free settlers in the country, and, indeed, the 12 THE COUNTRIES OF THE TVOKLD. peasants in tlie region east of the Ural look upon Siberia as the perfect land of promise. Formerly a proprietor was empowered by law to despatch to Siberia any unruly serfs on his estate, and could transport them thither without a trial. ^ It is, moreover, shut off either from the markets of the south by the long land journey and the exclusivoness of China, and bv the equally extensive region which separates it from Europe; while the great rivers which flow throuo-h it, and afford water-ways in every direction, debouch into the Arctic A SIBERIAN DOG SLEDGE. Seas. Therefore, unless the water-way which the enterprise of Wiggins and Nordenskjold have opened up be found practicable, Siberia, until a railway links it to Russia proper, will remain a country much larger than Europe, and yet with only about three and a half million people — savage and civilised, bond and free — within its whole boundaries. Hence, with the exception of its mines, its trade is unimportant, and its manufactures few and languish- ing. Spirits and leather are, however, produced to a considerable extent. Soap-boiling, tallow-melting, and the making of stearine candles employ a good deal of capital; while cotton and wool are woven into coarse fabrics in some of the cities, which, like Irkutsk, * Wallace's *' Russia," Vol. I., p. 376. STBEEIA: MINES. 13 Tobolsk, Tjumen, Omsk (p. 20), and Tomsk have from 17,000 to 27,000 inhaLitants. The fisheries on the great rivers afford occupation for many of the native Siberians ,; and at the fairs which are periodically held business is done with the most remote parts of Europe and Asia. Kiakhta is the meeting- place for the Chinese and Siberian traders, and here is a school for teaching young merchants the Chinese language. The mines are, however, the great sources of wealth for Siberia at present. At one time all of them were Government VIEW ON LAKE BAIKAL, SIBEKIA. monopolies, and worked for Government alone, but of late most of them have been thrown open to private individuals, the Crown simply exacting a royalty, and claiming particular gems as its perquisites. The result is that the Government not only makes more than it did in former times when it worked the mines on public account, but by abandonmg its monopoly has stimulated those directly dependent on their working to greater energy than was evinced by public officials sure of their salaries, whether the soil was searched after the most antique or most approved method, or whether it yielded little or much. Large sums are often made by mere peasants in the gold mines of the Ourals, and particularly in the sands of the River Nertcha and its tributaries in Eastern Siberia; 14 THE COrNTRIES OF THE WORLD. indeed, some of the greatest Russian fortunes have been accumuhited from this source. Silver, lead, platinum, copper (especially the form known as malachite), iron, coal, tin, cinnabar (the ore of quicksilver), zinc, bismuth, arsenic, sulphur, alum, sal ammoniac, nitre, natron, and naphtha are also found in greater or less abundance in some parts of Siberia. Among precious stones the topaz, hyacinth, Siberian emerald, beryl, onyx, red and green jasper, chrysolite, red garnet, lapis lazuli, bakalite, and op?.ls exist in greater or less abundance in different parts of this region. In the Murinsk district emeralds of extraordinary brilliancy are often picked up, as well as other precious stones, in which this district is particularly rich. The aqua marina is in like manner one of the prizes of the Nertchinsk district, famous for its copi^er mines, tlie lapis lazuli of the Kultuk Valley, and zircon of the vicinity of Lake Ilmenskoi. Cinnabar is also abundant, particularly in the vicinity of Nertchinsk, where the ore is worked by the worst class of criminals, and if gold and quartz mines are ever developed in the country, as undoubtedly they will be in time, the quicksilver will prove of great value in their working. Most of the gems are cut and polished in the country. The Russian peasant is not an inventor, but he has a genius for imitating. He has only to be told to go and do so and so, and in time it will be done. He will in this manner become a blacksmith, a wood carver, a copyist of painters, an engineer, or a lapidary, provided that he is only given time enough. He will v.atch the next workman to him using Iiis saw, chisel, or file; then he will cautiously imitate him, doing a little at a time, and nothing rashly. Next day he will show more skill, until in a few weeks he becomes a sufficiently skilful workman to be entrusted with tasks requiring great judgment and even knowledge to execute. In the Graniloi Fabrik, in Ekaterinbui'g, for example, the visitor is astonished to find men not above the rank of peasant; and in all likelihood convicts under serveillance, executing the most beautiful engravings on beryl, amethysts, topaz, and emeralds, or carving on jasper and porphyry vases with a skill which coidd not be exceeded, if equalled, in the great centres of fine art workmen in Europe. Yet such intelh'gent labourers are — or were, at all e\ents, in Erraan^s day, fifty years ago — not paid more than 3s. 8d.. per month, with rations of a few pounds of black bread. Yet they are quite content with their lot, and toil on to make fortunes for the rich mine-owners, who live in great state in fine mansions. Even the master workmen or overseers are only paid some £11 or £1:2 per annum, but they, like the ordinary labourers, have their per- quisites, in the unrecognised pilferings which they can manage to effect among the treasures they handle. Indeed, if we are to credit the gossip of the Siberian towns, only a moiety of the gems discovered find their way into the hands of their legitimate owners ; and though Government officials are not allowed to own mines, it is reported that they are not the most stoical of those who find amethysts and topaz lying about unnoticed too great temptations for ordinary virtue. The buying and selling of precious stones form a business which all classes dabble in. The visitors to a Siberian town are, soon after their arrival, waited on either with stones cut and uncut, by the recognised or by the irreguhir ai^-ents of the numerous lapidaries or dealers. The very children dog the new arrivals at every step with rare bargains wra])])ed up in bits of rag, either on their own account or as the least suspected means of entrajiping the unwary traveller into purchasing at SIBERIA: TEADE, ETC. 15 what seems a low price stones worth next to nothing", or which may have been made hy the skilful artificer o£ artificial gems in Paris or Vienna, and exported to Siberia. The stones are also set in the gold and silver obfained from the vicinity, though usually with less taste than is displayed in the cutting of the gems. The iron mines of Siberia have been worked for almost two centuries, and at Neviansk the best iron is manufactured into articles of domestic utility, which find their way into every part of the country ; and among other uses is applied in the manufacture of the coarse but efficient rifles in use among the poorer classes of Siberians. At Tagilsk copper ore is worked and smelted ; and in the school of design, founded by one of the wealthy family of Demidofs, the iron made out of the magnetic ore in the vicinity is finely lacquered and damascened by the pupils. 