Steamers and fishing boats are busy on its briny waters. Let us cross to the other side. We are still in the Russian country.
The country is called Russian Turkestan. It is a good grazing land and produces cotton and silk. Early and late we hear the bleating of sheep, the grunting of camels, and the lowing of thousands of cattle.
Most of the people—Tartars, as they are called—are wandering herdsmen. They are dirty and ignorant; and there is nothing to keep us long in Turkestan.
A caravan of 2,000 camels is going from Bokhara into Siberia. Let us go with them.
These camels are of the kind called Bactrian, which has two humps on its back. They can endure cold.
2. Siberia is one of the coldest countries on the globe. In climate and products it resembles the Dominion of Canada.
In the southern part grain is raised, in the central part are vast forests, but in the far north scarcely anything grows.
Fur-bearing animals—such as sables, ermines, wolves, foxes, and bears—abound in the forests, and as in Canada, so here, a great many persons are hunters and trappers.
But the mines of Siberia are its great source of wealth. Gold and silver, lead, copper, and iron are found in abundance, as well as graphite (black lead), from which lead pencils of the finest kind are made.
A great railroad has been built across Siberia, and many people are settling there.
A village where exiles were once kept prisoners.
Many of the inhabitants are exiles or their descendants. The exiles are persons who have been banished from their homes in Russia by the emperor, and are not allowed to return. Many of them are obliged to work in the mines as a punishment.
Near the shores of the Arctic ocean there is a small number of people who are like the Eskimos of Alaska and Greenland.
The Great Wall of China.
3. China.—After seeing so much ice and snow, it will be pleasant to visit the "Flowery Land," as the people of China call their country. To reach it wo will mount our camels and cross the desert of Gobi. It is a dreary region, and we pass through it just as fast as we can.
We are nearing the borders of China, and in the distance we see the Great Wall. This is more than 1,000 miles long, and partly surrounds China. In some places it is thirty feet high, and so broad that six men on horseback can ride abreast on the top of it. This wall was built more than 2,000 years ago, to keep the fierce Tartars of the north out of the Chinese country.
A Chinese temple.
We are now among the great Mongolian race, of which the Chinese are the largest family.
