obliging and hospitable race, and hardly ever go beyond the village which borders on their own. They have become excellent agriculturists, and the women employ themselves in weaving a strong sort of carpeting, which they make into counterpanes, bed-blankets and carpets. Their dwellings are clean and neat; they have neither chairs nor stools, and live principally upon horse flesh." As Cochrane was now nearing the Siberian boundary, we pause to give some description of that vast and comparatively unknown land, in which he so extensively traveled,

Siberia is the general name for the vast region owned by Russia, occupying all the northern parts of Asia, and extending from the Ural mountains on the west, to the Pacific on the east; and bounded, on the north, by the frozen ocean. The original Siberia was a small khanate, founded by the Tartars, on the banks of the Irtish and the Obi, and was so named, from " Siber," its capital. The khanate was invaded and conquered by Don Cossacks, in the sixteenth century. As the Russian conquests and discoveries gradually extended eastward, the designation, Siberia, eventually became attached to an immense district of country.

Siberia is mostly a vast plain; the cold, in the northern part, is keener and more constant than in Lapland. The winter lasts for nine or ten months. The summer heats are short, but sudden and powerful, and the growth of vegetables almost perceptible. The climate, except the excessive cold, is, on the whole, favorable to man.

Siberia is noted for its mineral wealth; gold, silver, platina, copper, and iron, being of late years, produced in enormous quantities. The grand mining districts are on its eastern border, in the Oural mountains; the principal gold mines, are those of Beresov. Through its enormous mineral wealth, Siberia may eventually become one of the most powerful and wealthy nations in the world.

The Russians are, of course, the dominant people; but they, with the Cossacks and other colonists from Europe, inhabit chiefly the towns and military stations. Some of them are the posterity of the soldiers, who conquered the country, others are exiles, and their descendants-still others are adventurers, peasant deserters, and broken merchants, who have wandered thither to endeavor to mend their ruined fortunes. Siberia holds out great inducements to enterprise, and she is gradually improving in civilization.

The country, although comprising fully one-eighth of the area of the known world, is so thinly settled, as to possess a population of less than four millions, or about one person to a single square mile. The Russians form but a small part of its inhabitants. Numerous Tartar colonists occupy the southern part of the government of Tobolsk, and immense hordes of savage tribes, under different names, inhabit the full extent of the country. Almost every nation of Asia, has representatives in Siberia; and in its several towns are found, Armenians, Chinese, Jews, etc., while the Tongooses, Finns, Samoides, Yakûts, Tschutschi, Koriaks, Bashkirs, etc., form the principal tribes. The customs and religion of these different people, partake of almost every shade and creed in the known world, and they are, as a whole, a singular commixture of civilization and barbarism. Beside the agricultural

labors which are carried on in places suitable for the production of grain, with the hunting and fishing, and rearing of horses and cattle, that form the chief occupation of the native tribes, the industry of the Russian settlers is chiefly directed to the working of the mines, and the manufacturing of iron and copper, and utensils of these metals, leather, shagreen, carpets, arms, glass, etc. Many of the manufacturers have sent their serfs into Western Europe, to study various branches of the arts, and these returning, have established schools in the towns, for the benefit of their brethren.

The trade of Siberia with foreign nations, is very extensive and profitable. Tobolsk is the center of the greatest amount of commerce. The produce of the mines, fisheries, and hunting expeditions, are here met with, and exchanged for European and Chinese goods, and manufactured articles. Annual fairs are held at various points, and some of the traders come in caravans from a distance of thousands of miles.

Siberia is divided into seven great governments, Tobolsk being the most western, and Kamtschatka the most eastern. A governor-general, is the chief executive officer. The town of Tobolsk, situated on the Irtish, was formerly the capital of all Siberia. Excepting two churches and the governor's house, it is built of wood. Many institutions, similar to those of St. Petersburg, have been introduced; literature, science, and polite amusement, have made considerable progress among the people. Irkutsk, on the left bank of the Anjara, is the chief town in eastern Siberia, and the most elegant in the country; its principal inhabitants are merchants, and the civil and military officers of the government. Yakutsk, on the Lena, is the great seat of the fur trade, and of commerce with the native tribes. Siberia is well watered by numerous great rivers, which unitedly, form many thousand miles of internal navigation.

Our traveler, in a few days' journey beyond Kazan, reached the famous Ural mountains, the dividing line of the two continents. He says, "I gently ascended a considerable elevation into the bosom of the Ural mountains, where not a vestige of cultivation exists beside young firs and birch: the air was exceedingly cold on the summit. At noon I stopped at the last European residence, where I dined. The good people had determined that I should not leave this quarter of the globe with any trace of dissatisfaction, as young children continually presented me with wild strawberries and cream, which it is the custom, at this season, for these poor people to offer to the traveler. I received the present, standing with one foot in Asia and the other in Europe, surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains, covered, however, with nothing but brushwood.

"Early the ensuing morning I reached Ekatherinebourg, having in safety passed the mighty barrier which separates Europe from Asia. The ascent and descent are so nearly imperceptible, that were it not for the precipitousbanks everywhere to be seen, the traveler would hardly suppose he had erossed a range of hills. As far as this frontier town of Siberia, I had traveled through one continued forest of pine trees, and for twenty miles nothing met the eye but fir-wood. On reaching the Asiatic side of the Ural chain, I could not help remarking that the inhabitants of all the villages were much

EXILES FOR SIBERIA, GUARDED BY COSSACKS.

T. J. STAFFORD, PR.

"Chained in couples and with heavy weights fastened to their limbs, they marched painfully and slowly along. We watched the mi serable band upon its dreary journey, until the rattling of their irons no longer grated upon the heart."-Page 74.

more civil, more hospitable, and more cleanly dressed; and in no one instance would they accept money for the food I had occasion to procure. I never entered a cottage but shishee — a cabbage soup-with meat, bread, and milk were immediately placed before me unasked; nor could any entreaty of mine induce them to receive a higher reward than a pipe of tobacco or a glass of vodka (whisky). In short, to prevent uselessly troubling the inhabitants, I was obliged to consign my nearly exhausted purse to the care of my knapsack, renouncing the unhackneyed and unsocial custom of paying for •food."

Ekatherinebourg is the key to Siberia, and a large, well-built city. In its vicinity are numerous magnificent iron and copper founderies, and the river Iset, upon which it stands, is here dammed up so as to form a sort of lake for the washing of the sand, which produces gold. Six thousand serfs, or slaves, were then employed in washing the sand; but the results were so meager that the government cleared annually, over the cost of their support, only the average value of about four dollars on the labor of each individual.

After quitting Ekatherinebourg, the next point of note reached was Tobolsk. This town, once the capital of all Siberia, then contained 20,000 people, composed of Russians, Tartars, and Bucharians. A considerable trade is carried on with China from this, the great mart of all central and western Siberia. Tobolsk is a place of exile for political offenders only. The greater part of these are officers, who, says our traveler, “have the privilege of appearing in public without the loss of either rank, fortune, or even character," and as these are generally persons of mind, the society of Tobolsk is good, and to a considerable degree civilized.

Those exiled for criminal offenses are generally condemned to labor in the mines of Nertchinsk, in eastern Siberia, on the borders of China, which our traveler, at a later period, visited. This place reminded him forcibly of those pathetic descriptions of the mines of Siberia drawn by writers of romance, for there all these descriptions seemed verified, and his feelings were harrowed at the cruelties of those in charge of the unfortunate criminals. The haggard, worn-down, and half-starved appearance of these poor, wretched victims, he says, it is impossible to conceive of. If any of them happened to escape from the miseries by which they were surrounded, they were hunted and shot down like wild beasts by the half-savage people of the neighboring districts. vu F

From the reign of Peter the Great to the present time, exile to Siberia, for political offenses, has been of constant recurrence, and most of the romance of Russian history is connected with the frozen steppes of that country. A regular system of convict colonization was commenced in 1754, during the reign of Elizabeth, who was too tender-hearted to sign the death-warrant of even the most atrocious criminal, though she tolerated and countenanced the most barbarous cruelties. The knout, in addition to hard labor for life in the mines, is now the general substitute in Russia for capital punishment. In cases where the criminals are banished for life, the sentence is often rendered more rigorous by condemnation to civil death, in which cases alone, the families of the convicts are not allowed to follow them into exile, and they are neither permitted to write nor to receive letters.