hardly ever use money. They grow "rich in many flocks and
herds," and if they sold would immediately buy again. Some of them,
however, are very well off, and I was told that one, who lived simply
with his wife in a _uerta_ on the steppes, had sent his only son to
complete his education in Paris, and get a medical degree at its
University. For this he would have to sell off some of the increase of
his flock, and send the proceeds to his son.

Let me now explain how I came to be amongst these tent-dwelling folk at
all. During my first visit to Petrograd I was asked one evening by a
member of the Russia Company if I could appoint a chaplain to go out to
Siberia once a year or so, and visit the scattered little groups of our
own countrymen who are there, but, at that time, had never seen a
clergyman nor had a service since coming into the country.

"There are unbaptized," he said, "and unconfirmed, and even those who
need to be married with the service of their Church, who through no
fault of their own, but through circumstances, have had to go without
it. There are people who have been in Siberia all their lives, and some
who have been there forty and fifty years, and never once had any
ministration of their Church. Can nothing be done?"

This, of course, was a strong and direct appeal, and, after considering
for a short time, it seemed impossible to appoint a chaplain for work of
which one knew nothing, and so I proposed to go myself, which I found
later was what it was hoped and expected that I should do. Accordingly
in 1912 and again in 1913 I carried out this intention, and found that
it practically took the form of a Mining Camp Mission; for, though I
visited one or two other British communities, yet the most interesting
part of both years' experiences was in going to the mines situated,
except in one case, in the very heart of the steppes. Each, though
employing thousands of Kirghiz and Russians, is managed by a British
staff of between twenty and thirty, and is the property of a British
company with its board of directors meeting in its offices in London.

I will describe two of these journeys, for without knowing something of
the steppes and of those who live there, and indeed taking in something
of their spirit, it is impossible to feel that one really knows Russia.

Four days and nights from Moscow brings one to Petropavlosk (Peter and
Paul's town), and it is from there, in a southerly direction at first,
and