“ There are in Irkutsk a theatre, a library, a museum, a meteorological station, and a branch of the Imperial Geographical Society. The manufactures are unimportant, and go mostly to satisfy domestic demands. The commerce is of great importance. Irkutsk being one of the chief centres of the Russian tea trade, as well as one of the principal stations on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Population, in 1897, 51,400, including 4500 exiles. Irkutsk was founded by Cossacks in 1653, created a town in 1686, and soon became the centre of the Russo-Chinese tea trade. ”