and amongst the herds of cattle, as is their wont, are
to be espied flocks of Sociable Plovers (Chettusia
Gregaria).
Post-horses failed us at Dolonsk, but by paying
extra we were able to hire private cattle, though by
reason of the sandiness of the road we were obliged to
take four horses for each conveyance; and when we
reached Semipolatinsk, our four days’ drive of 482
miles, including refreshments, the hire of 134 horses,
and gratuities to each of 44 drivers, had cost us less
than £6. We arrived at midnight, and speedily found
ourselves in comfortable quarters at Stepanof’s hotel.
C H A P T E R VI.
THE P R O V IN C E OF S EM IP O L A T IN S K : IT S N A T U R A L
F E A TU R E S .
Dimensions of province : its surface, river basins, mountains, and
passes.— The River Ir tish : its scenery, tributaries, banks, and
floods.— Zaisan lake and its Cossack fisheries.— Fauna of banks.
— Geology of neighbourhood and minerals,— Mineral springs.—
Forests of the province.— Wild and domesticated animalsg-Towns
of the province, and uyezds, with their populations.
TH E province of Semipolatinsk forms a rude
triangle, whose flattened apex touches the
government of Tobolsk on the north, the east and
west sides of which are bounded by the governments
of Tomsk and Akmolinsk, whilst its irregular arbitrary
base is contiguous to the Chinese frontier, the province
of Semirechia, and part of the Balkhash lake. Its
extreme length from north to south is about 650 miles,
its greatest width about 550 miles, with an area of
188,333 square miles, or about the size of Spain. T o
the north the country is a low flat steppe, without any
marked watersheds. Proceeding south, little hillocks
are met with, capped with blocks of red and orange
stone, and there appear in the distance the sharp blue
outlines of the Altai range, approaching which the soil
partakes of a more rocky nature, with blocks of quartz^