me the scenery was similar to that which they had been passing over,
bare and desolate; but it presently assumed a different character;
fields of green wheat stretched away from the river side;
comfortable-looking little villages succeeded each other rapidly as the
steamer passed along, and save for the difference of architecture and
the peculiar green domes and pinnacles of the little churches he might
have been looking over a scene in England.

The river was about two hundred yards wide here, a smooth and placid
stream. The steamer did not proceed at any great pace, as it was towing
behind it one of the heavy convict barges, and although the passage is
ordinarily performed in a day and a half, it took them nearly a day
longer to accomplish, and it was not until late in the afternoon of the
third day that Tobolsk came in sight. Through his port-hole Godfrey
obtained a good view of the town, containing nearly 30,000 inhabitants,
with large government buildings, and a great many houses built of stone.
It is built in a very unhealthy position, the country round being
exceedingly low and marshy. After passing Tobolsk they entered the Obi,
one of the largest rivers in Asia. The next morning the steamer again
started for her sixteen-hundred-mile journey to Tomsk. The journey
occupied eight days, the convict barge having been left behind at
Tobolsk.

The time passed tediously to Godfrey, for the banks were low and flat,
villages were very rare, and the steamer only touched at three places.
Herds of horses were seen from time to time roaming untended over the
country. The only amusement was in watching the Ostjaks, the natives of
the banks of the Obi. These people have no towns or villages, but live
in rough tents made of skins. He saw many of them fishing from their
tiny canoes, but the steamer did not pass near enough to them to enable
him to get a view of them, as they generally paddled away towards the
shore as the steamer approached. He heard afterwards that they are
wonderfully skilful in the use of the bow, which they use principally
for killing squirrels and other small animals. These bows are six feet
long, the arrows four feet. The head is a small iron ball, so as to kill
without injuring the fur of small animals, and the feats recorded of the
English archers of old times are far exceeded by the Ostjaks. Even at
long distances they seldom fail to strike a squirrel on the head, and
Godfrey was informed by a man who h