Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/303

Rh "In the museum at Barnaool, in the Altai Mountains, I saw the skins of two large tigers that were killed in a Siberian farm-yard not far from that place, where they had come to kill one of the farmer's oxen. Tiger-hunting is a regular sport with the Russian officers in that part of Manjouria belonging to Siberia, and over a considerable part of the region bordering upon China and Persia. But to return to the Amoor.

"I remained several days at Nicolayevsk, the capital of the Maritime Province of Siberia, and a place of considerable importance. From there I ascended the river on a Bussian steamboat, passing through the country

of several tribes of people. There were Goldees, Gilyaks, and Manyargs, and others whose names would be like Greek to you, and therefore I will not bother you to remember them. They live by hunting and fishing, and have permanent villages on the banks of the river, in places where the fishing is best. In the fishing season they always have large quantities of fish hung out to dry, and consequently you can generally smell a native village before you see it.

"The boat landed near a Gilyak village, and I went to see how the natives lived. They were not particularly civil; in fact they hardly