The next province on the route is that of Tomsk, but the principal town, which has the same name, lies to the north of the Trans-Siberian Railway, and is only connected with it by a branch line from Taiga, the nearest point to it on the main line, which is eighty-two versts or, roughly speaking, 54 miles distant. The reason why Tomsk is not on the main line is that the city refused to bribe the surveyors and engineers who planned the route. This accounts for the fact that so many places, which might quite easily have been on the line, are more or less distant from the railway, according to their willingness to pay. It takes four hours by rail from Taiga to Tomsk. It must be most injurious to trade to have such difficulties as these, and such unnecessary ones. Tomsk boasts the only university in Siberia, but this is still incomplete, and has only about 500 students. Education has been discouraged in this as in every part of the Russian Empire, and although the money required for a university at Irkutsk was offered, the Government refused to grant permission for it to be established. The number of schools in 1901 was only 3909 for the whole of Siberia, and the scholars attending them 115,407, while the population was estimated at 5,727,090; these figures need no comment, and my authority for them is Prince Krapotkin. The only important town in the province on the railway line is Omsk, where we learnt (by telegram) the death of the King. The news came like a thunderclap, and cast a gloom over every English person on the train. What made it doubly trying was the impossibility for weeks to come of getting any further news. The town of Omsk is on the River Irtish. The number of rivers in the country adds greatly to the charm of the journey, and they have been the chief highways of the empire in the past; the bridges over them are remarkably fine. We began to rejoice in the sight of wild flowers once more, and children brought bunches of marigolds and anemones to the stations for sale, but generally they were tied up into tight little bunches without any leaves, and were quite wilted. The main occupation of some of the passengers seemed to be that of putting on fresh clothes, and showing them off at the stations where we had an opportunity at least half-a-dozen times every day of getting a brief constitutional. We learnt that passengers were allowed to visit the luggage van, as on board ship, and get out fresh supplies of dresses, but it did seem rather unnecessary, considering the amount of luggage taken in the carriages.