built houses of brick and stone, and stores containing a great variety of beautiful goods. Along the streets dash sledges drawn by spirited horses.

In Siberia, as in other parts of Russia, horses are usually driven three abreast. Over the neck of the middle horse is a high wooden arch or bow. We can

see little use for this arch, but the Russian driver tells us it holds all the other parts of the harness together. It is certainly a picturesque addition, and gives a dashing appearance to these sledges.

For many years Irkutsk has been the center of the trade passing between China and Russia. The caravans that cross the dreary desert of Gobi bring here the tea, silk, rhubarb, and porcelain of China to be exchanged with Russian merchants for European goods, and especially for the finest Siberian furs.

No city in the world has a wider range of temperature than Irkutsk. There are many days in summer when 98° F. is registered, and in winter 50° to 65° below zero is not uncommon.

Leaving Irkutsk, the railway will cross the great forest region of Siberia.

These extensive forests of pine and cedar will then be open to the lumberman; and the timber, for which there is always a demand in the shipyards of Russia, will become a source of great profit to Siberia.

Other towns of importance on the line of the railway are Tomsk, where the Russian government has established a university; and Omsk, at present a busy, thriving place, and certain to become a prominent city.

To the north is Tobolsk, to be connected by a branch railroad with the Great Siberian Railway. Tobolsk was the old capital of Siberia. The old town is now going to decay, and its wooden roads are becoming unsafe.

One of the most notable sights in Tobolsk is a famous old bell which has had a strange history. A rebellion, or riot of some sort, occurred in the Russian town where the bell was hung, and by ringing it the rioters gave signals to their companions who were outside of the town. This occurred at a time when criminals were publicly flogged before they were sent into Siberian exile.

After the rebellion had been put down, the bell was placed on trial and condemned for having given aid to the rebels! It was then solemnly flogged in the public square, and afterward was sent to Siberia. It was also forbidden to ring again. But in later years it was pardoned, and its tone was soon heard calling the people of Tobolsk to church. It is now preserved as a relic in the public museum.

Such is the country through which the great railway is to pass. When once the rivers have been bridged and the mountains tunneled, the wealth of Siberia will be open to the world. Her magnificent forests, her rich petroleum wells, and her mines of coal, gold, and silver can then be turned to profit, and will, it is believed, attract settlers to make their homes in this distant land.

The rich agricultural region in southern Siberia, through which the road is to pass, will furnish wheat not alone for Russia but for the other great markets of Europe as well.

"Persia! time-honored land! who looks on thee,
A desert yet a Paradise will see ;

Vast chains of hills where not a shrub appears,
Wastes where no dews distil their diamond tears.
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Pomegranates hang their rich fruit in the sun;
Grapes turn to purple many a rock's tall brow,

And globes of gold adorn the citron's bough."

WE have now come to a land strewn with the ruins of palaces, royal tombs, and massive walls; showing where great cities once stood. On all sides are reminders of its former greatness, which serve only to make more conspicuous the present desolation and ruin of this time-honored land.

This is Persia a land of lofty mountains and farreaching deserts. The greater part of the country is a high plateau crossed by many chains of mountains. Between the mountains lie valleys of wonderful fertility. The land bordering upon the Caspian Sea is low and very fertile.

The waves and the winds together have formed great sand hills, or dunes, along the coast; and the rivers, rushing down from the mountains and meeting these barriers, have, in many places, spread out in great lagoons, whose banks are covered with a dense growth of trees and vines of every description.

From this narrow, marshy plain we come to the lower slopes of the Elburz Mountains and find here a region of surpassing beauty. These slopes are covered with forests of oak, walnut, cypress, and cedar. Vines of luxuriant growth clamber over the trees, and flowers of brilliant hue cover the ground beneath. In the fertile valleys, lying between these wooded slopes, are villages and towns. Here wild fruits grow in abundance; while oranges, lemons, peaches, quinces, and melons are easily cultivated.

Above the forest belt tower the bare, bleak mountain tops. Thus from the shore of the Caspian Sea to the summit of the Elburz Mountains is found every variety of climate, from the moist, steaming heat of the lowlands along the sea to the ice and snow of the mountain peaks.

Leaving this fertile section, we soon discover a great change in the appearance of the country spreading before us. In place of luxuriant vegetation we see only