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Show M ! M : F; THROUGH SIBERIA. . . ' I The following pleasant and instructive letter HjJ I from Col. Holmes will be read with interest in H I Sat Lake: H , I June 30, 1903. H iff Tllis is tlie flrst time in visiting Europe that H I I have come in by the "back door," for so it HLi t I seems via Siberia, and what an immense back Htll vard Jt is too. More like an immense pasture m l ! fleld, for the whole region of the trans-Baikell, as H lit" m ' 5 i weir as western Siberia, is suitable mainly for B I J grazing purposes. Manchuria, on the other hand, u j if j I for 500 or GOO miles from the Pacific is capable K II of a high state of cultivation, and given a reason- B! f I able measure of protection would become highly Hi I productive, but the real Siberia never. The wln- B' I ters are too long. The country is too flat. The Bi i, permanent frost line too near the surface. The B I whole country is of too recent formation. H "" t In a way n is beautiful, of course. The grass- B I i I es and owers tna carpet the whole country at !B f I this time of year, as level as a floor for hundreds of miles, the trees of stunted growth in clumps, I great reaches of prairie, the few stunted pines, i white birch and only west of the Urals do we j' find a species of oaks, and all are small size as l I the roots reach the frost in the ground and thus i their growth is checked. One acre of good irri- H I j I gable land there is as valuable in my estimation H I ' 1 as ten acres is here, and we need never fear great H 11 competition from grain growing in Siberia. H i Of the scenery there is nothing at all remark- H f E able, and only around Lake Bikal does it amount H to much, and while that great lake is 1551 feet H h I above sea level the snow covered mountains about B ; I are barely 6,000 feet high, and of no particular H ' striking character. The same Is true of the Kln- H I 1 gan range and the Urals. H ' I The trains are crowded with troops and peas- H f ants going to Siberia, and nothing looks like an evacuation of Manchuria so tar as we can see. Of course the sleeping car trains cannot be overcrowded over-crowded and from Iskootsk west one can buy extra ex-tra births to secure greater accommodations, but the whole system is faulty and lacks that uniform uni-form good management that such a system should have. So many people claim this to be the finest fin-est train in the world, with its state room cars, diner, bath rooms. Why it doesn't begin be-gin to compare with the Overland Limited Lim-ited or Burlington, to say nothing of the other fine trains in America, and the second sec-ond day out trom Erkootak he entire electric light system failed, and resort was had to candles can-dles for the rest of the trip. The electric bells in some cars never did work and train porters and assistants are, poor, leaving vae Girt to accumulate, accu-mulate, while two over-worked waiters in the dining car speaking no word but Russian, while of the 52 passengers barely one dozen spoke that language, and fully one-half of the whole number num-ber spoke English, and there are French, Germans, Ger-mans, Persians, etc. Provisions ran short; even the mineral waters and the simplest things, like fresh towels, linen for the beds, so when one hears ab. the elegance of this train we must make proper allowance, and do as we did, taice large supplies of provisions in tins a supply of towels, their own drinking water and one might oven bring an interpreter along as the language is certainly the hardest to get along with that one could imagine. I find that one can go first class from Moscow to Dalmy for less than $100, which is cheap traveling, and which sum includes food, although It actually cost us about four times that amount with extra tickets, bribes, etc., and even then we did not get all that was paid for all the way owing to their slaclc system of managing. People Peo-ple should know this and act accordingly. The best trains, but the most expensive, leaves Dalmy every Tuesday night, reaching Moscow thirteen days after and averaging about efghteen and a half miles an hour, most of the way stopping long at stations, which seems unnecessary, but it will be at least two years before this road will be in .perfect conditions and when the time may be shortened two or three days. Weather here is fine, about like what it is there, doubtless. Our next stop is St. Petersburg, Stockholm and the North Cape, returning via Germany Ger-many in the early fall. Hoping that you are well and happy and with kind, regards in which Mrs. H. joins, I remains Yours, E. F. HOLMES. |
