majority of popular impressions transmitted by tradition, altogether beside the truth. With the winter's snows we should contrast the flower-covered plains of summer, the luxuriant corn-fields and purple vineyards of autumn in southern Siberia. Mines there are, and very rich ones too, but there are also noble cities, splendid residences, and society as polished as any in Europe. Of late years the traditional horrors of exile over the Urals have greatly altered for the better, though, doubtless, the worst class of criminals are not treated with any great leniency.

5. No traveller can have journeyed along the post route leading from Nijni Novgorod, over the Urals, and across Siberia, without meeting long strings of exiles, some of whom have been on the road for six, eight, or ten months, and sometimes, as in the case of those destined for the Amoor valley, Saghalien and Kamtchatka, even two years.*

6. The worst criminals are chained, but, except in the vicinity of the towns, the “unfortunates," as with kindly tolerance the exiles are called by the country people, are treated with great leniency. The women and children— especially when they are the wives and families of the convicts permitted to accompany them-are usually conveyed in waggons, or, farther north, in reindeer or dogsledges, while political prisoners of rank, when once they are clear of the large cities, may be seen consorting with officers of the guard, and even sharing their meals in the block-houses along the route.

7. At each station on the road there are barracks for the accommodation of the prisoners. These barracks are usually outside the villages, and are surrounded by high stockades, made of the pointed trunks of trees, over which it is impossible to climb. As an extra precaution the exiles are always well guarded by mounted cossacks. The daily march is not toilsome, and varies according to the nature of the road, or the accommodation for man and beast. It is usually about fourteen or fifteen miles.

*It should be added that in 1879, the exiles for the maritime parts of eastern Siberia were acspatched by sea.

Nevertheless, on the long journeys many die by the way; indeed, it has been said by Russians themselves well acquainted with the system, that not more than four-fifths of those sent to the far north or eastern Siberia ever reach their destination.

8. As soon as they arrive in Siberia the convicts are divided into three classes. First, those condemned for the foulest crimes known to the Russian law, such as would in England be awarded death,* or penal servitude for life or for a long term of years. These culprits are doomed to work in the mines, and usually have a hard lot. The second class are those condemned for minor offences. Of these the worst offenders are despatched to the shores of the Arctic Sea or the Eastern provinces, while the lighter culprits are permitted to settle down in Western Siberia, immediately to the east of the Urals. This class of convicts are usually condemned only for short periods, and are designed for colonists at the expiration of their term of forced labour. The third and highest class of exiles, those who are condemned for mild crimes, are considered to have expiated their offences immediately they arrive in the country, and are at once established as proper colonists, sometimes in villages already existing, at other times in new ones laid out for them. The place of banishment for Russian offenders has now been transferred to the far distant island of Saghalien, off the mouth of the Amoor.

9. In 1711 the peninsula of Kamtchatka was added to the Russian territory; and in 1860 the whole of the Amoor valley was taken from the Chinese and has since remained part of the Czar's dominions.

*Capital punishment, except for the crime of high treason, has been abolished in Russia.

LESSON

X I.

THE CHINESE EMPIRE.- -CHINA PROPER.- -I.

1. The Chinese Empire embraces an area considerably larger than that of Europe, with a population* more numerous in the proportion of three to two. Split up into countries as large as the United Kingdom, it would make thirty-eight; and a population of upwards of eleven millions could be apportioned to each. It possesses many climates and varied features-high, arid, and rainless deserts; fertile and well-watered plains; high mountains, and broad rivers.

2. Its boundaries are for the most part well marked out by great natural features. From Siberia, on the north, it is separated by the Amoor River and the Sayan and Altai Mountains. On the west the Alpine heights of Thian Shan and Bolor Tagh form the natural limit, whilst the snow-clad Himalaya range separates it from the hot plains of India on the south. Its eastern shores are washed by the seas connected with the North Pacific Ocean--the China Sea, the Eastern Sea, the Yellow Sea, and the Sea of Japan.

3. Within these wide exterior limits the Empire includes several countries, some of which are strongly contrasted with one another in natural features and in the character of their population. The wide alluvial well-watered plains of the east are occupied by China proper, Manchuria, and the Corea-countries teeming with an agricultural and manufacturing population. The western portion of the Empire, a region of bordering mountains, bare steppes, and dry, sandy deserts, includes Mongolia, Eastern Turkestan, and Tibet-countries thinly peopled, for the most part, with nomadic pastoral tribes.

4. China proper occupies about one-third of the Empire, and covers an area of about one and a half

*According to the most recent estimation the area of the Chinese empire is 4,560.000 square miles, and its population 434,680,000.

millions of square miles, with a dense population, according to some authorities, of upwards of 400 millions. It constitutes a series of vast river basins-those of the Hoang-ho, Yang-tse-Kiang, and Canton River, being the chief-sloping eastward to the sea. The western boundary is the margin of the high plateau of Tibet-the Yungling Mountains. From this range, which runs north and south, two great lateral ranges run eastward towards the coast. These are the Nan-ling, between the Canton and Yang-tse; and the Pe-ling, between the Yang-tse and the Hoang-ho. Between these lateral ranges, and to the north and south of them, are the fertile valleys and wide alluvial plains, highly tilled and supporting-unless we except the valley of the Ganges-the densest agricultural population in the world.

5. "The frontier on the northern side, next Mongolia, is marked out by the Great Wall of China, the most remarkable artificial bulwark in the world, which extends westward continuously almost into the heart of the continent for a distance of 1,500 miles, over mountain and valley, and across rivers and ravines. It is a rampart of earth ten to thirty feet high, broad enough at the top to admit of several horsemen passing abreast on it, and was formerly cased on the sides and top with bricks and stones, and was flanked by numerous projections or towers, gates being left at intervals for the passage of travellers and the collection of customs. Now it has fallen in many places, and its gates are negligently guarded, and northward of Pekin the growing Chinese population has spread and settled in the country to a considerable distance beyond the barrier.” One hundred and fifty miles east of Pekin the wall is replaced by a palisade of stakes, which is continued in a north-east direction for over five hundred miles to the Sougari River, -a tributary of the Amoor.

6. Of the physical features of China the most noticeable is The Great Plain. This delta plain extends on both sides of the Lower Hoang-ho, from Pekin to Nankin, and includes a portion of the plain of Yang-tse. It varies in breadth from 150 to 500 miles, and ex