Tsar, to colonize and trade in these undeveloped parts along the Siberian frontier. The common ties of everyday life, which are always particularly strong in such places and in such circumstances as these, had brought Siberian frontiersmen and Kazan Tartar socially together. But the process of Russification was evidently natural and gradual, and on that account quite peaceful. Whatever may be the nature of the national movements going on in European Russia at the present time, they have not struck root here, for in contact with wild nature Russian and Tartar tend to sink their social differences under the influence of common economic ties.
Next day, in order to see something of the Chinese traders who, I heard, had recently settled along this Mongolian frontier zone, I visited one of their houses and trading posts, which was near to the Siberian trader's post. Although within a short distance of each other, the Russian and Chinese competitors rarely met. A social barrier seemed to divide them and to shut off intercourse completely. The Russian is generally prone to fraternize with all sorts and conditions of Asiatics, but between him and the Chinaman there is a gulf, the result of two distinct standards of civilization. The house I went to visit was that of a Chinese merchant, who had come originally from Uliassutai in Mongolia. It was made of mud bricks, with a flat roof and lattice windows and doors. The courtyard was surrounded by a palisade of brushwood, and several little mud shanties were dotted about in the yard, in the dark recesses of which the Chinaman stored his wares, cooked his food and carried on his daily transactions with the natives. A peculiar, indescribable smell pervaded
