Main characteristics--The Emperor's kind hospitality--Prince Chilkoff, Minister of Communications--Last days at St. Petersburg--The metropolis of incoherence--Typical Russian departure--On the way to Moscow--The agricultural districts--A short visit to Pienza--Conversations on board the Trans-Siberian express--Political and economical appreciations--Crossing the Volga--In the land of the Baskirs --The Ural range--Western Siberia--The colonization of the uninhabited regions--Growing townships--Central Siberia-- Unlimited pastures and endless forests--The Altai range-- Irkutsk--The Siberian Paris--Arrival--Luggage difficulties --Civility and kindness--The luxuries of the Hotel du Metropole--Plush and gold, but no air and no water--A gloomy evening and a bright morning--The life and the lights of the city--Lake Baikal--The islands of dwarfs and fairies-- The large fairy coat--Myssowa a new mining centre--Petrovsk, the town of inferno--Trans-Baikalia--Buriats and their pilgrimages to Tibet--The Amur region--On the frontier of Manchuria 16 III MANCHURIA UNDER RUSSIAN RULE The Manchurian frontier--Russian soldiers and officials-- Public safety--Trains provided with military escort--The Eastern Chinese Railway Company--The system of construction --On the borders of the desert of Gobi--The travel by goods trains--My special car my home--The railway stations: what they looked like--Geographical beauty and ethnological features --Tsi-tsi-kar, the capital of Northern Manchuria--Customs and habits--Primitive modes of living--Kharbin (Harbin), the junction of the eastern Asiatic railway lines--The news of the bridge by Liaoyang carried away by floods--The centre of mobilization--Harbin's part in case of war--Pleasant surprises --At last a new start--Central Manchuria--The mineral wealth of this region--Kirin, a picturesque city--Fine scenery-- A dull dawn--Station and station-master--The hunt for a vehicle--A typical Chinese cart--The horrors of a night's journey--Manchurian highroads--Exchanging the cart with a mule--A beautiful bridge--_How-di_ and _Poo-how_--The fantastic aspect of the scenery--The comforts of little Li-Hu --In a marauders' inn--Lugubrious den and its keepers--In midst of Chunchuses--The bargain with Li-Hu for his charge-- Chinese diplomacy and Western art save my purse--Farewell from my companions--A fine daybreak, and the sun throws a veil of obligation over the misery of the night 63 IV THE CAPITAL OF MANCHURIA