ADVENTUEES IN EASTERN SIBERIA 323

has a bank, two or three schools, a hospital with twenty beds, a library, a museum, a public garden with a fountain, and fifty or sixty shops, and its trade in f urs and manufactured goods from European Russia amounts to about $1,000,000 per annum. The most striking feature of the town to a new-comer is the almost palatial residence of the wealthy mining proprietor Butin, which would compare favorably not only with any house in Siberia, but with most houses in the capital of the Empire. The Butin brothers were in financial difficulties at the time of our visit to Nerchinsk, and all of their property was in the hands of a receiver; but we had a note of introduction to the latter from the younger member of the firm, and upon presentation of it we were allowed to inspect the deserted but still beautiful mansion. Going into it from Klementovich's hotel was like going into Aladdin's palace from an East-Siberian etape; and as I en- tered the splendid ball-room, and caught the full-length re- flection of my figure in the largest mirror in the world, 1 I felt like rubbing my eyes to make sure that I was awake, One does not expect to find in the wilds of Eastern Siberia, nearly 5000 miles from St. Petersburg, a superb private residence with hardwood marquetry floors, silken curtains, hangings of delicate tapestry, stained-glass windows, splen- did chandeliers, soft Oriental rugs, white-and-gold furniture upholstered with satin, old Flemish paintings, marble statues, family portraits from the skilful brush of Makof ski, and an extensive conservatory filled with palms, lemon-trees, and rare orchids from the tropics. Such luxury would excite no remark in a wealthy and populous European city; but in the snowy wilderness of the Trans-Baikal, 3000 miles from the boundary-line of Europe, it comes to the unprepared l This huge pier-glass was bought by Amur and Shilka to Nerchinsk in a Mr. Butin at the Paris Exposition in barge made expressly for the piirpose. 1878, and was then said to be the larg- It is now in the ball-room of Mr. Butin's est mirror in existence. It was taken house, and does not look at all out of half around the world by sea to the place or out of harmony with its sur- East-Siberian port of Nikolaievsk, and roundings.

was thence transported up the rivers