CHAPTER XII
OUR LAST DAYS IN SIBERIA
MINUSÍNSK, where we made our last stop in Eastern Siberia, is a thriving little town of 5000 or 6000 inhabitants, situated in the fertile valley of the upper Yeniséi, 3200 miles from the capital of the Empire and 150 miles from the boundary-line of Mongolia. It corresponds very nearly with Liverpool in latitude and with Calcutta in longitude, and is distant from St. Petersburg, in traveling time, about twenty days. Owing to the fact that it lies far south of the main line of transcontinental communication it has not often been visited by foreign travelers, and at the time of our visit was little known even to the people of European Russia; but it had particular interest for us, partly because it contained the largest and most important museum of archeology and natural history in Siberia, and partly because it was the place of exile of a number of prominent Russian liberals and revolutionists.
We reached the little town about half-past five o'clock in the morning. The columns of smoke that were rising here and there from the chimneys of the log houses showed that some, at least, of the inhabitants were already astir; but as the close-fitting board shutters had not been taken down from the windows there were no lights visible, the wide streets were empty, and the whole town had the lonely, deserted appearance that most Siberian towns have when seen early in the morning by the faint light of a waning moon.
