milk and cream. Such a dinner ordered a la carte costs
from is. 6d. to 2s. ; and I heard that at Tara other
provisions were equally cheap.*
I need hardly say that among our fellow-passengers
were no tourists. Travellers for pleasure are rare
indeed in Siberia and Turkistan. We met with only
two in all Central Asia. But there were upper-form
“ gymnasts ” returning to school at Omsk, who on
Sunday evening hymned to me on deck some Russian
Church music, whilst I in turn sang them in Latin the
“ Agnus D e i ” in Mozart’s “ First Mass.” ' So, too,
there was a Russian merchant and his wife, who spoke
English, and who, it was easy to see, had travelled.
T hey were going home to their children at Tara,
having, since they left them, accomplished the circuit
of the world. The husband’s business establishments
were at Hankow and Foochow, to which places the
lady had twice crossed the Mongolian desert from her
father’s house in Kiakhta; but this time they had
preferred crossing the two oceans, America, and Europe,
instead of returning westwards through Siberia. We
became very good travelling friends, and as they left
us at Tara, they gave me a cordial invitation, should I
come near them in China, “ just to look in,” which
I expressed myself forward to do.
Thus we lost at this second station two pleasant
passengers, but we gained other tw o ; for there came
on board a lady and her daughter, who spoke excellent
* Thus geese in autumn cost 5d. a couple, and are frozen in great
numbers to be sent west to Russia, and east to Irkutsk. Riabchiks
(hazel grouse) and tetierka in summer cost ¡d. a brace, and milk i\d. a
pint; good fish, such as sterlet and nelma, cost from 1 \d. to 2%d.
per lb . ; whilst beef in autumn, when it is cheapest, costs from 1 s. ¡d.
to i i . 8d. the pood— or about \d. per lb. Mutton is not much eaten
about Tara, sheep being scarce.
French. They were accompanied by two gentlemen
who appeared to be “ in attendance,” which was
explained when I discovered that the lady was the
wife of the Governor of Akmolinsk, who for the time
being was acting for the Governor-General. The fact
that I had a letter for her husband was of course an
introduction, and when, after passing the third station,
Kartashevo, we arrived on the 17th at Omsk, I was
introduced on the landing-stage to the Governor, and
invited to dinner on the following day.