Train on the steppes of Russia
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Dairying, now a most important industry of Siberia, was unknown before the advent of the great railway. To promote this industry, the government has already expended more than a million dollars. At all the principal places schools have been established in which the best methods of dairy-farming are taught. Fortunately, cattle diseases are practically unknown.

The fine quality of the grasses, together with the improved methods of manufacturing brought about by the creameries, causes Siberian butter to rank with the best products found in the European markets. The dairy products are shipped by rail to various parts of Europe, large quantities going to England and to Denmark, the home of dairying. Sometimes three hundred tons of butter per week are shipped to Copenhagen and one thousand tons to London. Upward of eighty million pounds are annually exported, and it is said that by a little exertion fifteen times the amount could be easily produced. The industry is still only in its infancy.

In the Tobol and Ishim plains of western Siberia are the fertile black-earth regions covering twenty-five million acres. As yet, they are sparsely settled, but they are capable of supporting half the population of Russia. Two-thirds of the inhabitants of Siberia are Russians, and in timbered regions probably one-half live in log houses, for these are capable of being made the most comfortable dwellings in the world.

Many exaggerated statements have appeared, both in England and America, concerning the exile system. This, happily, is now abolished, as also have been the cruelties practised by those in charge. That there have been great abuses no one denies, but the conditions of the prisons can be paralleled both in England and the United States. No more common criminals are sent to Siberia.

Transportation is now limited chiefly to escaped convicts and to political and religious criminals, most of whom are sent to the island of Sakhalin. Capital punishment, except in cases of attacks on the royal family and condemnation by courts-martial, was abolished many years ago.

Lake Baikal is one of the most remarkable lakes in the world. It is four hundred miles long and from twenty to sixty miles wide. The lake is very deep, and, although situated in the temperate zone, is the home of a species of arctic seal and tropical coral. This species of seal is found nowhere in Asian waters outside of the Arctic Ocean, except in this lake and the Caspian Sea. Immense quantities of salmon of different species abound in the lake, and give rise to important fishing industries.

In winter the lake is covered with ice seven feet thick. Crossing is made by huge ice-breaking ferryboats capable of carrying thirty cars and one thousand men, yet only during a part of the winter is the boat able to navigate, so persistent is the extreme cold. The railway now extends around the southern part of the lake, and crossing by ferryboats is not attempted when the ice is thick.

Asiatic Russia includes Transcaucasia, which was permanently annexed to the Russian Empire in 1801. This great Asiatic domain contains more than six million square miles, or about twice the size of the United States, including Alaska.