Category: Travel Writing
The short winter day was waning when the Chelabinsk train, seven days out of Moscow, sluggishly passed the big stone erected in a defile in the centre of the Ural mountain range, and which marked the geographical boundary of Europe and Asia. Since yesterday, when we had left t...
The short winter day was waning when the Chelabinsk train, seven days out of Moscow, sluggishly passed the big stone erected in a defile in the centre of the Ural mountain range...
2. CHAPTER II.I haven’t yet introduced you to my companions. Thomas Gaskell, citizen of the United States of America, short, fair, a little bit bald, with a record of having travelled through...
3. CHAPTER III.From Kurgan to Omsk the railroad track passes over a wilderness of snow--a dead level, absolutely devoid of interest. It was a relief even to see at long intervals a group of wo...
4. CHAPTER IV.The Grand Hotel Moscow, in the good city of Omsk, was grand in name only, and we had only to step inside its portals to realize to the fullest extent that at length we were in A...
5. CHAPTER V.But uninteresting as Omsk appeared as a town, it is unique in being the extreme northward point where migrate the wandering tribes of Khirghiz Cossacks. The term Cossack seems t...
6. CHAPTER VI.Three days after leaving Omsk, the train drew up at the rather important station of Kreveschokovo. It was important as a station, because here was the first check in our train j...
7. CHAPTER VII.Our arrival at Tomsk was signalized by the greatest cold which we had experienced so far. The Réaumur glass showed more than forty degrees of frost, and in this bitter atmospher...
8. CHAPTER VIII.Eastward from Tomsk the Trans-Siberian Railway passes through a country of mountainous aspect. The foothills between the Obi River and Tomsk itself develop into mountain ranges,...
9. CHAPTER IX.We had now arrived at the terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway--the terminus so far as the early spring of 1897 was concerned. The road, we understood, would be completed as f...
10. CHAPTER X.Night had already come on, but away behind us we could see the few pale lemon-coloured rays betokening the departure of the sun to other climes. Before us the river stretched, a...
11. CHAPTER XI.For two days and nights we travelled thus, and, as we progressed up the river towards the mountain ranges, the scenery around became extremely grand and wild, the banks occasion...
12. CHAPTER XII.At Minusinsk we were to leave the Yenesei, and continue our journey to the Syansk Mountains over the foothills, which now intervened between the Chinese border. Beyond one or tw...
13. CHAPTER XIII.For some distance our way led over a few short hills to the banks of the Armeul, our progress being characterized from the very start by frequent upsets. I can only describe the...
14. CHAPTER XIV.It is not my intention to go into very intricate details regarding gold-mining in Siberia, but would rather give a few personal observations of what is undoubtedly a very intere...
15. CHAPTER XV.Although somewhat rough and primitive, our quarters at the mine were by no means uncomfortable. There were in all four log houses, tolerably large, two of which were for the wor...
16. CHAPTER XVI.With the frontier of China so close, what was more natural than that the desire should spring up within me to penetrate, at any rate a little way, into that mysterious country?...
17. CHAPTER XVII.For the next two weeks matters went on smoothly at our encampment. Days spent in labour, and evenings relieved by reading or the occasional visit from some neighbouring miner. H...