beyond the
Irtych, to escape the depredations of the invaders.

Happily, post traveling was as yet uninterrupted; and telegraphic
communication could still be effected between places connected with the
wire. At each relay horses were to be had on the usual conditions. At
each telegraphic station the clerks transmitted messages delivered to
them, delaying for State dispatches alone.

Thus far, then, Michael's journey had been accomplished satisfactorily.
The courier of the Czar had in no way been impeded; and, if he could
only get on to Krasnoiarsk, which seemed the farthest point attained by
Feofar-Khan's Tartars, he knew that he could arrive at Irkutsk, before
them. The day after the two carriages had left Ekaterenburg they reached
the small town of Toulouguisk at seven o'clock in the morning, having
covered two hundred and twenty versts, no event worthy of mention having
occurred. The same evening, the 22d of July, they arrived at Tioumen.

Tioumen, whose population is usually ten thousand inhabitants,
then contained double that number. This, the first industrial town
established by the Russians in Siberia, in which may be seen a fine
metal-refining factory and a bell foundry, had never before presented
such an animated appearance. The correspondents immediately went off
after news. That brought by Siberian fugitives from the seat of war was
far from reassuring. They said, amongst other things, that Feofar-Khan's
army was rapidly approaching the valley of the Ichim, and they confirmed
the report that the Tartar chief was soon to be joined by Colonel
Ogareff, if he had not been so already. Hence the conclusion was
that operations would be pushed in Eastern Siberia with the greatest
activity. However, the loyal Cossacks of the government of Tobolsk were
advancing by forced marches towards Tomsk, in the hope of cutting off
the Tartar columns.

At midnight the town of Novo-Saimsk was reached; and the travelers now
left behind them the country broken by tree-covered hills, the last
remains of the Urals.

Here began the regular Siberian steppe which extends to the neighborhood
of Krasnoiarsk. It is a boundless plain, a vast grassy desert; earth
and sky here form a circle as distinct as that traced by a sweep of the
compasses. The steppe presents nothing to attract notice but the long
line of the telegraph posts, their wires vibrating in the breeze like
the strings of a harp. The road could be distinguished from the res