stition and is reflected in the lives of all that live therein.
The extraordinary isolation of his existence in this forest country bordering Siberia and Mongolia, produces in the Siberian frontiersman an independence of character which is unknown to the peasant colonies on the north of the frontier; and the farther one goes into these wild districts, the more self-reliant and individualistic does the Russian become. Instead of hanging together in little groups, each relying upon the other, every man is engaged in his own business in his own way, and is dependent upon his own initiative only. The character of these pioneers, moreover, is in many respects even more attractive than that of the peasants farther north. There is never any tendency among men to intrigue against a stranger who wants to deal with them, as the peasants in the communal colonies sometimes do. On the contrary, one is struck with their frank and straightforward nature. Those that I met reminded me more of the typical Norwegian and Swedish peasants or the Canadian backwoodsmen than any I had ever seen in Russia before. I had always thought that such types did not exist among the Russians until I saw them in the summer of 1910 in the country where the Siberian Yenisei Province borders North-West Mongolia. Here they form the most advanced guard of Slavonic civilization.
I found from inquiries that these men were originally peasants from the communal peasant villages in Siberia farther north, who began by making their visits every autumn to the native hunting tribes in search of furs. After a while they had found it easier to make their headquarters in
