rd of
the far greater continent of Asia. To gain some definite idea of the
total extent of this vast empire it may suffice to say that it is
considerably more than double the size of Europe, and nearly as large as
the whole of North America. The tales already given will serve to show
how the European empire of Russia gradually spread outward from its
early home in the city and state of Novgorod until it covered half the
continent. How Russia made its way into Asia has been described in part
in the story of the conquest of Siberia. The remainder needs to be told.

[Illustration: DOWAGER CZARINA OF RUSSIA.]

It is now more than three hundred years since the Cossack robber Yermak
invaded Siberia, and more than two centuries since that vast section of
Northern Asia was added to the Russian empire. The great river Amur,
flowing far through Eastern Siberia to the Pacific, was discovered in
1643 by a party of Cossack hunters, who launched their boats on this
magnificent stream and sailed down it to the sea. It was Chinese soil
through which it ran, its waters flowing through the province of
Manchuria, the native land of the emperors of China.

But to this the Russian pioneers paid little heed. They invaded Chinese
soil, built forts on the Amur, and for forty years war went on. In the
end they were driven out, and China came to her own again.

Thus matters stood until the year 1854. Six years before, an officer
with four Cossacks had been sent down the river to spy out the land.
They never returned, and not a word could be had from China as to their
fate. In the year named the Russians explored the river in force. China
protested, but did not act, and the whole vast territory north of the
stream was proclaimed as Russian soil. Forts were built to make good the
claim, and China helplessly yielded to the gigantic steal. Since then
Russia has laid hands on an extensive slice of Chinese territory which
lies on the Pacific coast far to the south of the Amur, and has forcibly
taken possession of the Japanese island of Saghalien. Her avaricious
eyes are fixed on the kingdom of Corea, and the whole of Manchuria may
yet become Russian soil.

Siberia is by no means the inhospitable land of ice which the name
suggests to our minds. That designation applies well to its northern
half, but not to the Siberia of the south. Here are vast fertile plains,
prolific in grain, which need only the coming railroad facilities to
make this region