anages to exist even round the pole of cold. The
Polar bear, the Arctic fox, the glutton, the lemming, the snow-hare, and
the reindeer are the animals in the cold north. In the central parts of
the country are to be found red deer, roedeer, wild swine, beaver, wolf,
and lynx. Far away to the east, on the great Amur River, which is the
boundary between the Amur province and Manchuria, as well as in the
coast province of Ussuri, on the coast of the Sea of Japan, occur tigers
and panthers. The most valuable animals, the furs of which constitute
one of the resources of Siberia, are the sable, the ermine, and the grey
squirrel. The south-eastern parts of this great country are a
transitional region to the steppes of central Asia, and there are to be
found antelopes, gazelles, and wild asses.

At length, on January 5, we are up in the Ural Mountains, and the line
winds among hills and valleys. Near the station of Zlatoust stands a
granite column to mark the boundary between Asia and Europe.

THE VOLGA AND MOSCOW

From the boundary between Europe and Asia the train takes us onwards
past Ufa to Samara. The hills of the Urals become lower and the country
flattens out again. Snow lies everywhere in a continuous sheet, and
peasants are seen on the roads with sledges laden with hay, fuel, or
provisions. At Batraki we pass over the Volga by a bridge nearly a mile
long. The Volga is the largest river in Europe; it is 2300 miles long,
and has its source in the Valdai hills (between St. Petersburg and
Moscow) at a height of only 750 feet above sea-level. It flows,
therefore, through most of Russia in Europe, traversing twenty
governments. The right bank is high and steep, the left flat; and at its
mouth in the Caspian Sea it forms a very extensive delta. The Volga is
navigable almost throughout its length, and has also forty navigable
tributaries. The river is frozen over for about five months in the year,
and when the ice breaks up in spring with thundering cracks it often
causes great damage along the banks. Crowds of vessels, boats, and rafts
pass up and down the sluggish stream, as well as passenger steamers
built after the pattern of the American river boats. By the Volga and
its canals one can travel by steamer from the Baltic to the Caspian Sea,
and from the Caspian Sea by the Volga into the Dwina and out to the
White Sea. The Volga is not only an important highway for goods and
passengers, but also an inexhaustible fish pre