ved regular pay for his work, and
this was of importance, as it was necessary to start upon such an
undertaking as he meditated with as large a store of money as possible.
He had, since his arrival, refused to join in any of the proposals for
obtaining luxuries from outside. The supply of food was ample, for in
addition to the bread and soup there was, three or four times a week, an
allowance of meat, and his daily earnings in the mines were sufficient
to pay for tobacco and tea. Even the ten roubles he had handed over to
Mikail remained untouched.

One reason why he was particularly glad at being promoted to the office
was that he had observed, upon the day when he first arrived, a large
map of Siberia hanging upon the wall; and although he had obtained from
Alexis and others a fair idea of the position of the towns and various
convict settlements, he knew nothing of the wild parts of the country
through which he would have to pass, and the inhabited portion formed
but a small part indeed of the whole. During the winter months he seized
every opportunity, when for a few minutes he happened to be alone in the
office, to study the map and to obtain as accurate an idea as possible
of the ranges of mountains. One day, when the colonel was out, and the
other two clerks were engaged in taking an inventory of stores, and he
knew, therefore, that he had little chance of being interrupted, he
pushed a table against the wall, and with a sheet of tracing paper took
the outline of the northern coast from the mouth of the Lena to Norway,
specially marking the entrances to all rivers however small. He also
took a tracing, giving the positions of the towns and rivers across the
nearest line between the head of Lake Baikal and the nearest point of
the Angara river, one of the great affluents of the Yenesei.

The winter passed slowly and uneventfully. The cold was severe, but he
did not feel it, the office being well warmed, and the heat in the
crowded prison far greater than was agreeable to him. At Christmas there
were three days of festivity. The people of Kara, and the peasants
round, all sent in gifts for the prisoners. Every one laid by a little
money to buy special food for the occasion, and vodka had been smuggled
in. The convicts of the different prisons were allowed to visit each
other freely, and although there was much drunkenness on Christmas Day
there were no serious quarrels. All were on their best behaviour, but
Godfre