Through Siberia

The Trans-Baikal province.—Books deposited with Governor.—Specimen letter of consignment.—Prisons and hospitals.—Governor’s distribution of books.—Satisfactory results.—Journey from Chita.—Buriat Obos.—Russian emigrants.—Salutations.—Approach to Nertchinsk.—Its mineral treasures.

The Trans-Baikal province is bounded on the south and east by Chinese territory, on the west by Lake Baikal, and on the north by the province of Yakutsk. It measures 830 miles from east to west, and 460 miles from north to south; its entire area covering about 240,000 square miles. It is thus not quite so large as Austria.⁠[1]

Before leaving the capital, Chita, we deposited with the Governor enough books for his prisons and hospitals; and since this region was so important, from my point of view, in regard to its penal establishments, and our efforts, moreover, here met with such good success, I shall give the substance of a letter which I wrote to the Governor (in French), and which is a fair specimen of similar letters written to the other Governors throughout Siberia:—

“To His Excellency the Governor of ——.

“Sir,—

“I have the honour to beg your acceptance of — boxes of books containing — large New Testaments, — small New Testaments, — Gospels, — Psalms, — New Testaments in French, German, Polish, Tatar, and Buriat, — copies of the Rooski Rabotchi, — wall-pictures, and — tracts. Will your Excellency do me the favour to accept them for the prisons, hospitals, poor-houses, and schools of the government of ——? I shall be thankful if the copies of the Rooski Rabotchi (Russian Workman) and the tracts may be given to the children in schools to be taken to their homes, and thus distributed as much as possible among the people. As for the books, I wish that they should remain in the rooms (not in the libraries) of the prisons, hospitals, etc. If the chief of each room may be made responsible for the books as for the other property of the prisons, etc., I shall be glad; but in any case I wish that the books may be had without asking for them from the library. I hope with your assistance in the government of —— to place a New Testament or a copy of the Gospels in every room of every prison and hospital throughout Siberia; and I shall be very thankful if I may hear from you, at my English address, how the distribution has been made, because I shall probably send an account of my tour to the authorities at St. Petersburg.

“I have the honour to be, etc., etc., etc.”

The Governor of the Trans-Baikal province, M. Pedachenko, spoke of his four large hospitals and 10 smaller, or occasional hospitals. He told us also that he had in his government four permanent prisons, besides those at the mines, namely, at Nertchinsk, Troitzkosavsk, Verchne Udinsk, and Chita, the last three of which we saw. The number of prisoners was given us as about 150 each at Chita and Nertchinsk.⁠[2] M. Pedachenko was good enough to promise that a small shelf should be put up in each room (under the ikon I suggested), on which the books might rest when not in use; and this promise he carried out.⁠[3]

I have dwelt particularly on what we were able to distribute in the Za-Baikal for two reasons; first, because the letter of the Governor, together with our own observations, give an insight into the number of prisons existing in this province, which of all others was that reserved for the worst of exiles; and, secondly, because of the satisfaction it afforded me, when looking back upon the work as a whole, to feel that the Scriptures and other reading material had been deposited in these out-of-the-way places, especially those of Kara, Nertchinsk, and Algatche. Had nothing more been effected than this, and what I subsequently learned was done at Tiumen, these two results would have well repaid me for the journey.

Late on the afternoon of Monday, July 21st, the day of our arrival, we left Chita and proceeded towards Nertchinsk, a distance of 180 miles, where we intended to make our next stoppage. The road ran within sight of the river, and as the route was hilly we had pretty views. Some of the hills I measured as 400 feet above the level of the river, and my barometer, at the highest point, stood at 2,350 feet above the sea. The hills were rounded and well wooded, whilst the lower land resembled English downs. We saw some of the flora of which Baron Rosen speaks so admiringly, and among them a flower we had not noticed before, like blue larkspur. On both sides of the Yablonoi range are grown wheat, rye, oats, hemp, flax, potatoes, cabbage, turnips, lettuce, radishes, onions, spinach, and horseradish. In the valleys was abundance of grass, but few cattle to graze it. We saw also buckwheat and barley growing, but neither the fields under cultivation, nor the Russian inhabitants, were numerous, nor did we come in contact, after passing Chita, with many Buriats, though we inspected one of their sacred spots on a hill not far from that town. It consisted of a few rough stones piled together, with some dried branches of trees, on which were hung small flags and strips of calico, having inscribed on them verses in the Thibetan or Mongolian language. We had passed several of these south of the Baikal, and the Russian drivers had usually told us that they were Buriats’ graves. Sometimes there were sweetmeats lying about, and copper money, which the Russian yemstchiks did not scruple to collect and pocket. Sometimes, too, we found horse-shoes strewn around, and almost invariably a quantity of tufts of horse-hair tied to the bushes, the appearance of the whole reminding one of the so-called holy wells to which the Romanists of Ireland make pilgrimage. The yemstchiks said that the flags painted with demons were to frighten devils away, and that the coins and sweets were given as offerings to their God; but that if a Buriat had nothing to give, he cut off a piece of his horse’s tail and tied it to the bush.

I noticed that these spots were usually on elevated ground, like the “high places” denounced by the Hebrew prophets, and after reading the travels of Huc, Erman, and Hill, I make no doubt that they were not Buriats’ graves at all, but the obos which are erected throughout Tartary, and at which the people worship the spirits of the mountains, a superstition of the Shamanist Buriats, which extends, at least partially, to other aboriginal tribes in Siberia.⁠[4]

As we passed along the road, we sometimes overtook companies of emigrants from Russia, or from other parts of Siberia, who were wandering further east. We heard, at Barnaul, that peasants are encouraged thus to migrate. Also, we sometimes drove by labourers in the fields, which gave an opportunity to the passing yemstchik to salute them in Russian fashion: “Bogh pomotch,” “May God be your help,” to which the reply is, “Spasibo,” “Thank you,” or “Save you!” a very similar custom to that I have observed in the west of Ireland, where the car-driver accosts his brother Pat, digging potatoes, with a “Bal o’ ye airth,” “God bless the work,” or, more probably, it will be, “God and Mary bless the work,” to which Pat replies, “And you too.” They both remind one of the salutation of the Hebrew, Boaz, “The Lord be with you!” to which his reapers replied, “The Lord bless thee!”

I confess to having been sometimes tired of travelling so many days without being able to read; I managed to get through only two or three small works, for, notwithstanding my air-cushions and a paper-knife placed below the line I was looking at, the shaking of the tarantass rendered study almost impossible. After leaving Chita on Monday, we travelled all day and all night on Tuesday, and on Wednesday found ourselves approaching Nertchinsk, a town surrounded by a hilly district noted for its minerals. The mining region extends over a large area, and for a long period of years provided employment to vast numbers of convicts, as also for many Polish exiles after the insurrection of 1863. The mines were worked under the supervision and direction of an able chief, with a numerous staff of officers; and many distinguished mineralogists here commenced their career. Up to the year 1847, silver and lead formed the principal products.⁠[5] Tin and zinc also, and the aqua marina are found in the neighbourhood of Nertchinsk, and 130 miles to the south is the mountain of Odon Tchelon, celebrated for its gems, including the topaz and emerald, which latter Mr. Erman speaks of as green, yellow, and blue. To these minerals must be added gold, which is found in large quantities in the bed of the Nertcha and its tributaries, besides iron, antimony, and arsenic. In Petersburg, I heard the gold-mines of Nertchinsk spoken of as “large and well worked”; but other reports went to show that the Government mines brought in little to the Crown; and we heard that most of them about Nertchinsk have been sold, so that mining affairs at the time of our visit were in a transition state.