In order to continue the traffic without interruption whilst the steamers were laid up, a horse ferry had been organized, and the contractors had undertaken to convey across the lake on sledges at least 750 tons of goods daily. The railway across the lake was from the first fraught with danger owing to the enormous cracks always found in the lake-ice. The railway round the lake was being constructed with great speed, and would be ready for traffic early in 1905; but it has already been opened. I am still of the opinion that the Trans-Siberian State Express trains afford the most comfortable railway travelling in the world. The cars are as luxurious but not so sumptuous as the Pullman Palace cars of America. They are wider, and give more accommodation; and as the trains are run solid through from Moscow to Irkutsk, meals are provided at every hour of the day, and it is not necessary to breakfast before seven one morning and after nine the next, as sometimes happens on the American through trans-continental routes. The piano in the saloon is a welcome addition; the exercising apparatus is useful, and the bath a convenience. The observation car was not much frequented in winter, and the _raison d’être_ of the photographer’s dark room, with its dishes and trays, has departed, now that all photographing along the route is strictly prohibited. Siberia is little altered the last three years; but in Manchuria there have been notable changes. The border-town of Manchuria, five miles east of the frontier, has been created by the railway. It possesses not only some fine brick buildings but a great market, intended for dealings with the Mongols in the produce of the great plains. The whole district is marked out into lots, like a new town that is booming in the west of America, and in addition there is a detached native town already inhabited. The agricultural settlements of western Manchuria have developed rapidly, and appear to be thriving. They have also increased in number. It is interesting to note that Manchuria was exploited under the direction of General Grodekov, formerly administrator of Tashkand district, and the same method of founding Russian colonies was followed in Manchuria. Russian subjects obtain free grants of agricultural land, and, in some instances, of town lots. Elsewhere the Russian Government is obtaining high prices for building-sites in towns, and everywhere high rents to occupiers are the rule. In western Manchuria the tenure of land by the nomad tribes of Mongol graziers is of the slightest, and at present they seem to benefit by relinquishing the land in exchange for the better market the Russian settlements supply. In central Asia the landowners dispossessed of their domains by the Russian settlers made certain charges against the governor, and forwarded them to St. Petersburg. The charges were neither examined nor entertained; the villagers were punished and the governor promoted to a better post under the Crown.