nd two or three English.

A military band occupied the gallery over the dining-room. When
General Ditmar proposed "the United States of America," my ears were
greeted with one of our national airs. It was well played, and when I
said so they told me its history. On hearing of my arrival the
governor summoned his chief musician and asked if he knew any American
music. The reply was in the negative. The governor then sent the
band-master to search his books. He soon returned, saying he had
found the notes of "Hail Columbia."

"Is that the only American tune you have?" asked the general.

"Yes, sir."

"Have your band learn to play it by dinner time."

The order was obeyed, and the American music accompanied the first
regular toast. It was repeated at the club-rooms and on two or three
other occasions during my stay in Chetah, and though learned so
hastily it was performed as well as by any ordinary band in our army.

The principal rooms in General Ditmar's house had a profusion of green
plants in pots and tubs of different sizes. One apartment in
particular seemed more like a greenhouse than a room where people
dwelt. Whether so much vegetation in the houses affects the health of
the people I am unable to say, but I could not ascertain that it did.
The custom of cultivating plants in the dwellings prevails through
Siberia, especially in the towns. I frequently found bushes like small
trees growing in tubs, and I have in mind several houses where the
plants formed a continuous line half around the walls of the principal
rooms. The devotion to floriculture among the Siberians has its chief
impulse in the long winters, when there is no out-door vegetation
visible beyond that of the coniferous trees. I can testify that a
dwelling-which one enters on a cold day in midwinter appears doubly
cheerful when the eye rests upon a luxuriance of verdure and flowers.
Winter seems defeated in his effort to establish universal sway.

The winters in this region are long and cold, though very little snow
falls. Around Chetah and in most of the Trans-Baikal province there is
not snow enough for good sleighing, and the winter roads generally
follow the frozen rivers. Horses, cattle, and sheep subsist on the
dead and dry grass from October to April, but they do not fare
sumptuously every day.

North and south of the head-waters of the Ingodah and Orion there are
mountain ranges, having a general direction east and west. Away to the
no