sometimes the fugitive exile. For, to prevent the escape of criminals sentenced to banishment in Siberia, the Russian Government allows the Ostiaks to shoot any unknown person, not belonging to their race, whom they may meet with on their territory. Although well aware of this danger, several exiles have attempted to escape to Archangel along the border of the Arctic sea; but they either died of hunger, or were devoured by wild beasts, or shot by the Ostiaks. There is but one instance known of an exile who, after spending a whole year on the journey, at length reached the abodes of civilized man, and he was pardoned in consideration of the dreadful sufferings he had undergone.

The Ostiaks are generally of a small stature, and most of them are dark-complexioned, with raven-black hair like the Samoïedes; some of them, however, have a fairer skin and light-colored hair. They have neither the oblique eyes nor the broad projecting cheek-bones of the Mongols and Tungus, but bear a greater resemblance to the Finnish, Samoïede, and Turkish cast of countenance. They are a good-natured, indolent, honest race; and though they are extremely dirty, yet their smoky huts are not more filthy than those of the Norwegian or Icelandic fisherman. As among the Samoïedes, the women are in a very degraded condition, the father always giving his daughter in marriage to the highest bidder. The price is very different, and rises or falls according to the circumstances of the parent; for while the rich man asks fifty reindeer for his child, the poor fisherman is glad to part with his daughter for a few squirrelskins and dried sturgeon.

Before taking leave of the Ostiaks, we will still tarry a moment at the small town of Obdorsk, which may be considered as the capital of their country, and entirely owes its existence to the trade carried on between them and the Russians. Formerly the merchants from Beresow and Tobolsk used merely to visit the spot, but the difficulties of the journey soon compelled them to establish permanent dwellings in that dreary region. A certain number of exiles serves to increase the scanty population, which consists of a strange medley of various nations, among whom Castrén found a Calmuck, a Kirghis, and a Polish cook,

who bitterly complained that he had but few opportunities of showing his skill in a town where people lived à la Ostiak. In fact, most of the Russian inhabitants of the place have in so far adopted the Ostiak mode of life, as to deem the cooking of their victuals superfluous. When Castrén, on his arrival at Obdorsk, paid a visit to a Tobolsk merchant, who had been for some time settled in the place, he found the whole family lying on the floor, regaling on raw fish, and the most civilized person he met with told him that he had tasted neither boiled nor roast flesh or fish for half a year. Yet fine shawls and dresses, and now no doubt the crinoline and the chignon, are found amidst all this barbarism. Edifices with the least pretensions to architectural beauty it would of course be vain to look for in Obdorsk. The houses of the better sort of Russian settlers are two-storied, or consisting of a ground-floor and garrets; but as they are built of wood, and are by no means wind-tight, the half-famished Ostiaks, who have settled in the town, are probably more comfortably housed in their low turf-huts than the prosperous Russian inhabitants of the place. The latter make it their chief occupation to cheat the Ostiaks in every possible way; some of them, however, add to this profitable, if not praiseworthy occupation, the keeping of reindeer herds, or even of cows and sheep.

The fair lasts from the beginning of winter to February, and during this time the Ostiaks who assemble at Obdorsk pitch their bark-tents about the town. With their arrival a new life begins to stir in the wretched place. Groups of the wild sons and daughters of the tundra, clothed in heavy skins, make their appearance, and stroll slowly through the streets, admiring the high wooden houses, which to them seem palaces. But nothing is to be seen of the animation and activity which usually characterize a fair. Concealing some costly fur under his wide skin mantle, the savage pays his cautious visit to the trader, and makes his bargain amidst copious libations of brandy. He is well aware that this underhand way of dealing is detrimental to his interests; that his timorous disposition shrinks from public sales, and frequently he is not even in the situation to profit by competition; for among the thousands that flock to the fair, there are but very few who do not owe to the traders of Obdorsk much more than they possess, or can ever hope to repay. Woe to the poor Ostiak whose creditor should find him dealing with some other trader!-for the seizure of all his movable property, of his tent and household utensils, would be the least punishment which the wretch turned adrift into the naked desert would have to expect. The fair is not opened before Government has received the furs which are due to it, or at least a guarantee for the amount from the merchants of the place. Then the magazines of the traders gradually fill with furs —with clothes of reindeer skin ready made, with feathers, reindeer flesh, frozen sturgeon, mammoth tusks, etc. For these goods the Ostiaks receive flour, baked bread, tobacco, pots, kettles, knives, needles, brass buttons and rings, glass pearls, and other trifling articles. An open trade in spirits is not allowed; but brandy may be sold as a medicine, and thus many an Ostiak takes advantage of the fair for undergoing a cure the reverse of that which is recommended by hydropathic doctors.

Towards the end of February, when the Ostiaks have retired into the woods -where they hunt or tend their reindeer herds until the opening of the fishingseason recalls them to the Obi-the trader prepares for his journey to Irbit, where he hopes to dispose of his furs at an enormous profit, and Obdorsk is once more left until the following winter to its death-like solitude.

CONQUEST OF SIBERIA BY THE RUSSIANS-THEIR VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY ALONG THE SHORES OF THE POLAR SEA.

Ivan the Terrible.-Strogonoff.-Yermak, the Robber and Conqueror.-His Expeditions to Siberia.Battle of Tobolsk.-Yermak's Death.-Progress of the Russians to Ochotsk.-Semen Deshnew.Condition of the Siberian Natives under the Russian Yoke.-Voyages of Discovery in the Reign of the Empress Anna.-Prontschischtschew.-Chariton and Demetrius Laptew.-An Arctic Heroine. -Schalaurow.--Discoveries in the Sea of Bering and in the Pacific Ocean.-The Lächow Islands.Fossil Ivory.-New Siberia.-The wooden Mountains.-The past Ages of Siberia.

N the beginning of the thirteenth century, the now huge Empire of Russia was confined to part of her present European possessions, and divided into several independent principalities, the scene of disunion and almost perpetual warfare. Thus when the country was invaded, in 1236, by the Tartars, under Baaty Khan, a grandson of the famous Gengis Khan, it fell an easy, prey to its conquerors. The miseries of a foreign yoke, aggravated by intestine discord, lasted about 250 years, until Ivan Wasiljewitsch I. (1462-1505) became the deliverer of his country, and laid the foundations of her future greatness. This able prince subdued, in 1470, the Great Novgorod, a city until then so powerful as to have maintained its independence, both against the Russian grand princes and the Tartar khans; and, ten years later, he not only threw off the yoke of the Khans of Khipsack, but destroyed their empire. The conquest of Constantinople by the Turks placed the spiritual diadem of the ancient Cæsars on his

head, and caused him, as chief of the Greek orthodox Church, to exchange his old title of Grand Prince for the more significant and imposing one of Czar.

His grandson, Ivan Wasiljewitsch II., a cruel but energetic monarch, conquered Kasan in 1552, and thus completely and permanently overthrew. the dominion of the Tartars. Two years later he subdued Astrakhan, and planted the Greek cross on the borders of the Caspian Sea, where until then only the Crescent had been seen.

In spite of the inhuman cruelty that disgraced his character, and earned for him the name of Terrible, Ivan sought, like his illustrious successor, Peter the Great, to introduce the arts and sciences of Western Europe into his barbarous realm, and to improve the Russian manufactures by encouraging German artists and mechanics to settle in the country. It was in his reign that Chancellor discovered the passage from England to the White Sea, and Ivan gladly seized the opportunity thus afforded. Soon after this the port of Archangel was built, and thus a new seat was opened to civilization at the northern extremity of Europe.

After the conquest of Kasan, several Russians settled in that province; among others, a merchant of the name of Strogonoff, who established some salt-works on the banks of the Kama, and opened a trade with the natives. Among these he noticed some strangers, and having heard that they came from a country ruled by a Tartar Khan, who resided in a capital called Sibir, he sent some of his people into their land. These agents returned with the finest sable skins, which they had purchased for a trifling sum; and Strogonoff, not so covetous. as to wish to keep all the advantage of his discovery to himself, immediately informed the Government of the new trade he had opened. He was rewarded with the gift of considerable estates at the confluence of the Kama and Tschinsova, and his descendants, the Counts Strogonoff, are, as is well known, reckoned among the richest of the Russian nobility.

Soon after Ivan sent some troops to Siberia, whose prince, Jediger, acknowledged his supremacy, and promised to pay him an annual tribute of a thousand sable skins. But this connection was not of long duration, for a few years after Jediger was defeated by another Tartar prince, named Kutchum Khan; and thus, after Russian influence had taken the first step to establish itself beyond the Ural, it once more became doubtful whether Northern Asia was to be Christian or Mohammedan. The question was soon after decided by a fugitive robber.

The conquests of Ivan on the Caspian Sea had called into life a considerable trade with Bokhara and Persia, which, however, was greatly disturbed by the depredations of the Don Cossacks, who made it their practice to plunder the caravans. But Ivan, not the man to be trifled with by a horde of freebooters, immediately sent out a body of troops against the Don Cossacks, who, not venturing to meet them, sought their safety in flight. At the head of the fugitives, whose number amounted to no less than 6000 men, was Yermak Timodajeff, a man who, like Cortez or Pizarro, was destined to lay a new empire at the feet of his master. But while the troops of the Czar were following his track, Yermak was not yet dreaming of future conquests; his only aim was to escape the executioner; and he considered himself extremely fortunate when, leaving his