jures up in those desolate spots. The silent mystery of an expanse of forested hills begets the craving to see what lies beyond, and calls one as if to find the spirits that are hidden there. The same mental atmosphere is begotten also among those Siberian Christians whose lot has been cast among similar conditions. The isolation of his life has produced in the character of the Siberian fur trader an indifference and apathy to national ideals and national religion. He tends to lose his Russian patriotic sentiments and to become indifferent to the orthodox faith. The nearest church is perhaps a hundred miles distant across the mountains and forest. Perhaps he does not visit it for several years, and when he dies he is buried without a service in a little grassy glade beyond the enclosure within which he has always lived, and nothing but a paling erected round the mound will be left for future generations. Children are born and not christened, and marriages are solemnized by consent of parents only. Isolation has not only bred apathy towards the national religion, but also an inclination towards the superstitions natural to the country. A Siberian in this isolated spot applies the names of the Christian saints, that he has heard by name, to those localities which he knows well. A spot where two rivers unite it called the place of St Peter and St Paul, or a place in the valley where gold is known to exist is called the place of St George Pobedonostseff (the victorious), or a grassy tract where cattle can graze may be called Bogdanof ("granted by God"). And so nature is woven into their religion, as it must be with all those who are brought in contact with it for long. In the words of the Russian writer, Tyan Shansky,
