t wholly in ready-made log
houses. There stood a large assortment of cottages, in the brilliant
yellow of the barked logs, of all sizes and at all prices, from fifteen
to one hundred dollars, forming a small suburb of samples. The lumber is
floated down the Volga and her tributaries from the great forests of
Ufa, and made up in Samara. The peasant purchaser disjoints his house,
floats it to a point near his village, drags it piecemeal to its proper
site, sets it up, roofs it, builds an oven and a chimney of stones,
clay, and whitewash, plugs the interstices with rope or moss, smears
them with clay if he feels inclined, and his house is ready for
occupancy. Although such houses are cheap and warm, it would be a great
improvement if the people could afford to build with brick, so immense
is the annual loss by fire in the villages. Brick buildings are,
however, far beyond the means of most peasants, let them have the best
will in the world, and the ready-made cottages are a blessing, though
every peasant is capable of constructing one for himself on very brief
notice, if he has access to a forest. But forests are not so common
nowadays along the Volga, and, as the advertisements say, this novel
lumber-yard "meets a real want." When the Samarcand railway was opened,
a number of these cottages, in the one-room size, were placed on
platform cars, and to each guest invited to the ceremony was assigned
one of these unique drawing-room-car coupes.

About four miles from the town proper, on the steppe, lie two noted
kumys establishments; one of them being the first resort of that kind
ever set up, at a time when the only other choice for invalids who
wished to take the cure was to share the hardships, dirt, bad food, and
carelessly prepared kumys of the tented nomads of the steppes. The
grounds of the one which we had elected to patronize extended to the
very brink of the Volga. In accordance with the admonitions of the
specialist physicians to avoid many-storied, ill-ventilated buildings
with long corridors, the hotel consists of numerous wooden structures,
of moderate size, chiefly in Moorish style, and painted in light colors,
scattered about a great inclosure which comprises groves of pines and
deciduous trees,--"red forest" and "black forest," as Russians would
express it,--lawns, arbors, shady walks, flower-beds, and other things
pleasing to the eye, and conducive to comfort and very mild amusement.
One of the buildings eve