On the day we arrived it had been raining in
torrents, but this did not prevent us in the evening
from taking a droshky to make some ealls, and driving
boldly through the streets with pools of water up to
the axles. A branch of the Imperial Geographical
Society was founded at Omsk in 187J, and I had
introductions to some of its members. One of the
first acquaintances we made was Mr. Balkashin, who
has been appointed the Imperial Russian Consul for
Chuguchak, and he was only awaiting an interview
with the Governor-General before proceeding thither.
This gentleman had lived at Yaroslaf, where he had
met two English writers on Russia— Mr. Mackenzie
Wallace and Mr. R. S. W. Ralston. He had also
seen the Hungarian traveller, Mr. Ujfalvy, who
describes him in his book as a savant. 1 his gentleman
gave us a warm reception, and sundry pieces of
antiquarian information ; but what impressed him most
oj} my recollection was his earnest advice relative to
my contemplated experiment in spreading the Scriptures
among the Kirghese. When he discovered that
I thought of attempting it, he became quite animated,
and said, “ D ieu v ou s préserve, Monsieur, ne fa ite s pas
cela. The Kirghese are such bigoted Muhammadans
that they start back at the very, sight of a cross, and
I strongly advise you to have nothing whatever to do
with them of a religious character. You will very
likely be injured, and get yourself into a row, and the
Russians to o ”'; and as if this store of advice were not
enough, his parting words on the following day were
to the same effect.
Another acquaintance we made, both agreeable and
useful, in Mr. James Kossagovsky, son of the Governor
of Odessa. He spoke English well, kindly placed
himself at our disposal, and accompanied us next
morning, with the police-master, to see the prison.
He took us likewise to inspect a small industrial
asylum founded more than 20 years before by a lady
of the town, named Duganmel, for 20 girls and 24
boys. The children were clothed alike, educated in
some of the schools in the town, and taught various
handicrafts, at a total annual cost of £6 10.?. for each
child, to defray which the institution had a capital of
,£3,000, the rest being made up by bazaars, concert's,
and voluntary offerings. Each child, I was told, was
already provided with a copy of the Gospels, but the
authorities were pleased to accept some of my books
also.
We called on the Commandant, but time did not
allow of my visiting the military prison, though I
arranged for sending thereto some books. An
introduction to Colonel Sokoloff brought me into the
tastefully furnished house of an officer who busied
himself in leisure hours with the study of chemistry
and meteorology. He had heard of my book on
Siberia, and gave me a valuable introduction to the
Russian consul at Kuldja. We were taken next to
the museum ; that reminded me only too forcibly of
many like it I have seen in Russia : of an undertaking
well begun but not carried through. The collection
of natural history .objects was not large, though there
was a fair number of beetles and butterflies. More
interesting perhaps to an antiquarian were some relics
of a past age in bronze and stone. When Mr.
Ujfalvy passed through Omsk in 1877, General
Kaznakoff gave him some stone gouges, and hatchets,
which were sent to the Saint-Germain Museum in
Paris. They were discovered at Samarova, where