ghts, and yet are under a firm, unquestioned,
and paternal rule--the rule of him who, while rightly called their
Emperor, yet is better known to themselves and loyally loved as their
"Little Father."

FOOTNOTES:

[10] Dr. E. J. Dillon.

[11] The Hon. Maurice Baring.

CHAPTER VIII

THE STEPPES

Amongst all the interesting experiences of an unusually varied and
adventurous life, since, in the very middle of my Oxford course I had,
for health's sake, to spend a couple of years ranching in the River
Plate, my long drives across the steppes stand out in bold and pleasing
relief.

They were necessitated by a Mining Camp Mission in Siberia, for the
steppes form a large part of the eastern portion of the Russian Empire,
and do not belong to Russia proper at all, lying beyond the Volga and
the Urals. It is in that part of Asiatic Russia that the development of
the empire's vast resources is taking place with special rapidity, and
our own countrymen are bearing a hand in it and playing no unworthy
part.

I believe the word "steppes" is given to that undulating but level
country in the provinces of Ufa and Orenburg, about two days' and two
nights' journey by train east of Moscow, inhabited by the Bashkirs,
the descendants of those Tartar hordes who nearly overwhelmed Russia at
one time, and possibly Europe itself, and were called for their
relentless cruelty "the Scourge of GOD."

[Illustration: _Consecration of Burial Ground in the Siberian Steppes._
(See page 178.)]

They are a fierce-looking race, even now, though peaceable enough, and
it seems strange to find them so near to Moscow still, and to see them
at their devotions when driving past their mosques on a Friday. They are
great agriculturists, and a delightful sight is presented by their vast
tracts of tender green wheat and oats shooting up as soon as the winter
is over, and even while, in out-of-the-way hollows, snow still remains.
The earth is black and very rich in character, and the seed, sown often
before the end of September, lies nearly seven months under the
protecting and fertilizing snow. As soon as this has gone and spring
comes, the young crops shoot up with amazing speed and strength. Late
frosts are terrible disasters, of course, under such circumstances.

But the _real_ steppes, which resemble the veldt of Africa, or the
pampas of South, and the prairie of North America, are those vast level
plains, partly agricultural, partly pastur