tard our departure. Amongst other
privileges the passport ensured immediate relays of horses at the
post-stations. As there are no less than one hundred and twenty-two of
these (from fifteen to twenty-five miles apart) between Irkutsk and
Yakutsk, and as the ordinary traveller is invariably delayed by
extortionate postmasters, this clause was of the utmost importance. In
many other ways also the document was a priceless one, and without it we
could scarcely have reached the shores of America.

It may be that I have unduly underrated the attractions of Irkutsk to
the average public. If so, the reader must remember that every hour of
delay here was of importance and meant endless worry and vexation to the
leader of an expedition which had not an hour to lose. There is no doubt
that Irkutsk must in a few years become a teeming centre of commercial
activity. The social aspects of the place will then no doubt improve
under the higher civilisation introduced by a foreign element. The
resources of this province are limitless, for the soil has up till now,
minerally speaking, only been scratched by idle fingers. Further afield
we hear of important discoveries of valuable minerals in Manchuria,
while the output of gold in the Lena district has been trebled by modern
machinery within the past four years. Coal has also been recently
discovered within a short distance of Lake Baikal, and is already being
exported in large quantities to the Pacific ports. Irkutsk has, no
doubt, a great commercial future, but should I ever return there I
shall, personally speaking, be quite satisfied to find a decent hotel.
Such an establishment run on modern lines would certainly yield fabulous
returns. At present the only available restaurant is that of the grimy
and verminous Metropole, and even here the local millionaires cheerfully
pay prices for atrocious food and worse wines which would open the eyes
of a Ritz.

Perhaps the most pleasant memory which I retain of Irkutsk is a cheery
little supper which was given in our honour by a Mr. Koenigswerther and
his wife and brother on the eve of our departure. The travellers, who
had only arrived that day, were visiting the city on business connected
with the purchase of furs, and a chance word dropped in the purest
French by Madame at the dinner-table linked our parties inseparably for
the remainder of the evening; indeed, until the next day. Madame
Koenigswerther, an attractive little _Parisienne_,