PREFACE
THE journey through Western and Central Siberia and the adjacent parts of Mongolia, of which some account is given in the following pages, was undertaken in response to the invitation of my friends, Messrs Douglas Carruthers and J. H. Miller, who were engaged in the scientific exploration of those regions. They were mainly interested in the physical characteristics of the Siberian-Mongolian borderland, and the geographical results of their investigations were communicated to the Royal Geographical Society by Mr Carruthers in March 1912. My own interests, on the other hand, had long been mainly associated with social and economic questions, and my special studies had been not a little stimulated by a visit to Canada some years before. The prospect was therefore particularly pleasing, and the opportunity offered of joining such an expedition to a little-known and rapidly changing country was not to be missed.
I was not disappointed in my expectations. For the greater part of a year I was living in the midst of a new society passing through a fascinating phase of development. Siberia is now where Canada was a generation ago. Just as the English settler in Canada has become a Canadian, so the Russian settler in Siberia has become a Siberian. Siberia is beginning to discover her needs, is gradually forming a public opinion of her own, and is shaping her own vii
