by migrations during the past eight centuries as northern Asia and eastern Euro

ation until the thirteenth century. Then like a mighty flood they poured into eastern Europe, carrying everywhere in their pathway subjugation, devastation, and slaughter. During the earl

ting to death many of the inhabitants by the most fiendish methods of torture. Thousands were slaughtered merely to wreak vengeance for the strong resistance offered by the besieged before s

the ice of the Ural River. Ca

TO

burned alive or tortured. This oppressive yoke was borne for nearly three hundred years. Then Ivan III succeeded in breaking

a foothold in Europe, and during the next two centuries successive Turkish rulers made large additions to the empire until it embraced vast areas in Europe, Asia, and Africa. For a time, indeed, it threatened to absorb

of the empire, but at length they became so dictatorial and powerful that the sultan began to fear them more than he feared his foreign enemies. In 1825, when the army was reorganized on the European plan, the Janizaries broke out in open revolt. Then the reigning sultan unfurled the flag of the Prophet a

s; as a result a small, fur-bearing animal, the sable, le

and began trading with the natives. One day, having noticed some strangely dressed travellers and learning that they came from a country beyond the Ural Mountains, called Sibir, he des

officer named Yermak, who had been declared an outlaw by Ivan the Terrible, gathered together a force of less than one thousand men. The band was composed of adventurers, freebooters, and criminals, and the expediti

to the number of five hundred when he lined up his men before the large army of the powerful Kutchum Khan. Like Cortez and Pizarro, Yermak had unbounded confidence in his ability to cope with his enemies, wh

hordes to give way and the retreat became a stampede. Kutchum Khan's camp and all its treasures fell into the hands of the conquerors. Yermak

oy to Moscow to present them along with the conquered country to the czar. So greatly pleased was Ivan with the offerings that he forgave Yermak for his past ill deeds and made him governor and commander-in-chief o

he encamped with his force on a small island in the Irtish River. Relying on the terror which his name had inspired, and the stormy

nce on the part of the enemy, he stealthily crossed to the island with his force and fell upon the sleeping camp. All the Russians but two were killed, and these, escaping, reported the disas

eturned home. The czar, nevertheless, had no idea of permitting a land so promising to slip from his grasp. It was not long before

at the mouth of

TO

forts by which to hold their vantage ground. Tomsk was founded in 1604; by 1630 the tide of conquest had reache

which was built on the battle-field where he gained his first decisive victory ove

Quarrels ensued over the boundaries and, finding resistance hopeless, the Chinese ceded to Russia all the

ive in all of these conquests was the securing of valuable furs. The sable is even yet found along the streams in both open and forested sections from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific; but so relentless has been the pursuit

e Muscovite empire had acquired central and northern Siberia, there were loud complaints that the tribes on the south were making raids on them, robbing them of their property and carrying

imated that eighty thousand Russian subjects and two hundred thousand Persians were made captives an

r strong force of the Cossacks was sent against the pillaging tribes, who were made to release all slaves and abolish slavery. Little by little all Turkistan became

lived there dwelt farther north. The first colonists lived in the stone age and were contemporaneous with t

these layers of ice that they may be likened to the rocks found in lower latitudes. Several of these animals have been found imbedded in the ice in an almost perfect

e is soon able to remove it from its resting place with pick and shovel. Great quantiti

wn only a few inches. The climate is continental in character, being marked by fierce winds and great extremes both in temperature and moistur

n and extends several hundred miles south of it; second, the forest belt, several hundred miles wide, which extends acro

and in summer a vast swamp of lichens and arctic moss. Here nature is embalmed

appear, enlivening the monotonous scene for a few months; then, when the sharp September frosts announce the approach of winter,

o many animals whose remains have been protected from putrefaction for thousands of years. How interesting would it be could

e delta to escape the heat and mosquitoes farther south. To reach their destination they are obliged to swim across broad channels of water. The an

of innumerable mosquitoes, which in summer fly over the country in suc

nd sheltered on all sides by mountains, it is one of the most fertile spots in all Siberia. Here the disintegration of gold-bearing rocks has formed large minin

r the tundr

TO

tion many thousand relics relating to prehistoric man which exemplify his progress from the stone age through the bronze to the iron age. This fine collection of upward of sixty thousand differe

reds of square miles of perfectly straight pine trees of great height, where neither man nor beast could find the way out. Even experienced trappers dare not enter these forests without blazing trees along their pathway, so that they may be able to extricate them

rge number of Russians and Japanese were employed in marking the boundary, by cutting through the forest from east to west a strip one hundred miles long and twelve miles wide. The fir forests of the Japanese

cluding that of the Lena River and a strip along the Arctic Ocean to the west. So inured to cold are these people, that where the temperature ranges from

Tian Shan Mountains, which separate it from the desert of Gobi. Here, as in the

these nuts that in Tomsk alone thousands of tons are sold each year. They resemble pine nuts. A gum called larch-tree sulphur, chewed by both natives and settlers, is also obtained from these for

ia, yet in Siberia immense numbers of camels are used. It is not an uncommon sight

attered all the way from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific. The word Altai means gold. The world's supply of platinum virtually comes from the gold-

r kinds of business. This great achievement, begun in 1891, was practically completed in eleven years, at a cost of one hundred and seventy-fiv

nuous railway route from St. Petersburg to Port Arthur is five thousand six hundred and twenty miles, four thousand five hundred miles of which is in Siberia.

te, accordingly as one travels first, second, third, or fourth class. Riding first class one can secure sleeping accommoda

n order to settle and develop the country. The consumer in Russia becomes a producer in Siberia. The number of Russian e

and tools; and in addition loans him small amounts at a low rate of interest, to be repaid in five years, with a proviso that if there be ba

large rivers to meet the growing demands of commerce. Hundreds of steamers ply upon the rivers during the open season, b

he steppes

TO

industry, the government has already expended more than a million dollars. At all the principal places schools have been

products are shipped by rail to various parts of Europe, large quantities going to England and to Denmark, the home of dairying. Sometimes three hundred tons of butter per week are shipped to Copenhagen and one

parsely settled, but they are capable of supporting half the population of Russia. Two-thirds of the inhabitants of Siberia are Russians, a

ished, as also have been the cruelties practised by those in charge. That there have been great abuses no one denies, but the c

inals, most of whom are sent to the island of Sakhalin. Capital punishment, except in cases o

situated in the temperate zone, is the home of a species of arctic seal and tropical coral. This species of seal is found nowhere in Asian waters outside of the Arcti

ty cars and one thousand men, yet only during a part of the winter is the boat able to navigate, so persistent is the extreme cold

ssian Empire in 1801. This great Asiatic domain contains more than six million

emable swamps, frozen tundra, and impenetrable forests, the agricult