the third year after settlement. In fact the Government encourages immigration to Siberia in much the same way as the Canadian Government invites immigrants to Western Canada. All over the country we saw new tracts being opened up. The resemblances were great, the contrasts no less significant, and things did not wear the same aspect as in Canada. Here we missed the backwoodsmen living in isolated log-houses, far from the beaten track. The Russian system of immigration is always typically Slavonic; a whole community, or a part of a community, migrates and forms a common colony, which settles down in the wilds and creates a little isolated society of its own.
Darkness now came on and still we crawled along trough the open "taiga." More and more tedious became the journey and still no signs of our destination—nor for that matter did we know where we were facing to rest that night. At last we stopped at ten o'clock by the shores of a frozen river, which turned out to be the Chulim. One of our men said that the next village was a couple of miles on the other side of the river. We could not cross the river in the dark, as the ice was not strong enough to bear the carts. It was necessary, therefore, to take the baggage over bit by bit on a small sledge next day, and meanwhile stop the night on that side. It was pitch dark and freezing hard and we had no food, so our prospects were not cheerful. Soon a barking dog told us that some human creature was about, and we then found a low wooden hut by the shore of the frozen river in a desolate spot. We went inside, thinking to find a resting-place for the night. In a room about twelve
