The banks of the river possess no beauty, and little
interest. When Yermak pushed his way into Siberia
at the close of the sixteenth century, he took a small
fortress on the banks of the Irtish called Sibir, the
ruins of which I was under the impression were still
to be seen ; * but in' answer to my inquiries it was said
to be unknown, as also the spot where Yermak fell
into the Irtish and was drowned. We passed very
few habitations, and not many cattle. On the second
day after leaving Tobolsk we arrived at Ust-Ishim, a
selo, or church village, with only 14 Russian houses,
but with a large number of Tatar habitations. It
derives what little importance it has from being the
centre of the corn trade for the surrounding district,
the grain being gathered there for the market at
Tobolsk. We stopped, of course, at wooding stations,
the steamer burning 6 cubic fathoms, or 1,296 cubic
feet, of logs per day, at a cost on the river's bank of
5\i per fathom. In Omsk the cubic fathom costs 74. ;
and in Petersburg 50.L
These delays for taking fuel were not altogether
unwelcome, because they allowed of our going on
shore to look at the villages and to see what the
peasantry had to offer in the way of raspberries and
other fruits, cucumbers and curdled milk, called prosto-
kvasha. We were able to exchange commodities in
offering them Scriptures and tracts, which usually
they took readily. A t a certain church village we-
called and sold books to the priest, who was glad to
purchase— though at Ust-Ishim, where I sent parcels of
* In Chap. ix., p. n o of “ Through Siberia.” London: Sampson Low
& Co., Fleet Street ¡— America : Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., Boston;—
German Translation, Hermann Costenoble, J en a ;— Swedish Translation,
Albert Bonnier, Stockholm ;— Danish Translation, O. H. Delbanco,
Copenhagen.
tracts to three ecclesiastics on the bank, one of them,
I suppose from fear or misunderstanding, declined to
accept them. We sold several publication^ also at a
cheap *rate to the officer on the soldiers’ barge, for
distribution among the men. On the I5th-i6th of
August, in the middle of the night, we reached Tara,
a town of 6,000 inhabitants, and 460 miles from
Tobolsk. I remembered the name of this place,
because I had read of its prison, from which the exile
Pietrovski escaped, made his way over the Urals to
Archangel, and thence to Western Europe. I myself
was awaked from my slumbers there, to learn that the
police-master of Tara had come on board and asked
for me. I dressed of course in haste, with the chance
possibly of being again arrested and taken back. But
all was right this time, the Governor at Tobolsk having
telegraphed to the police-master to present himself on
my arrival, and inquire if there was aught I required.
Everything, however, was going smoothly, if not
rapidly;, enough. My time was occupied in reading
books of the region whither we were going, and the
steward provided an excellent table. Thus our dinner
on the day after leaving Tobolsk consisted of, first,
clear soup made of sterlet— a fish at largest about
two feet long, and weighing 10 lbs., with pale pink
flesh like that of a Loch Leven trout, remarkably tender,
and almost tasteless I thought; but the flavour of
which is so highly esteemed in Petersburg, that the
soup there costs 3s. a plate. The second course^
boiled nelma, a bigger fish than the preceding, with
firm, white flesh, and, as I thought, very good. The
third course consisted of tetierka, and a good, dry-
tasting game the Russians call glukhar, or capercailzie.
The fourth course was of prostokvasha, made of sour