re members of the
Lutheran church, and famed for their industry and their care in
managing their flocks and fields. The governor praised them warmly,
and expressed the kindest hopes for their prosperity.

[Illustration: THE AMMUNITION WAGON.]

We left the road near the village and passed through a field in the
direction of the hunting ground. Two men were at work with a yoke of
oxen and a plough, whose beam rested on the axle of a pair of wheels.
The yoke was like the one in use everywhere along the Amoor, and was
made of two pieces of thick plank, one above and the other below the
animals' necks, with wooden pins to join them and bear the strain. The
plough was quite primitive and did not stir the soil like an American
or English plough. At the hunting ground we alighted and took our
stations. The governor stood under a small oak, and the ladies rested
on the grass near him. I went to the next post up the hollow, and the
other hunters completed the line. Dr. Snider went to aid me in taking

"a dear gazelle,
To glad me with its soft black eye."

He was armed with a cigar, while I had a double-barreled gun, loaded
at (not to) the muzzle.

The Cossacks went to rouse the game, but their first drive resulted in
nothing beyond a prodigious noise. When they started for the second
drive I followed the doctor in a temporary visit to the ladies. During
this absence from duty a large gazelle passed within ten steps of my
station. I ran toward my post, but was not as nimble as the frightened
deer.

"_Tirez_" commanded the governor.

"Fire," shouted the doctor.

And I obeyed the double injunction. The distance was great and the
animal not stationary. I fired, and the governor fired, but the only
effect was to quicken the speed of our game. I never knew a gazelle to
run faster. Three weeks later I saw a beast greatly resembling him
running on a meadow a thousand miles from Blagoveshchensk. Whether it
was the same or another I will not attempt to say.

A few minutes after this failure the horn of the hunter was heard on
the hill, and two gazelles passed the line, but no game was secured.
The governor proposed a change of base, and led us where the
mysterious wagon had halted. The 'ammunition' was revealed. There were
carpets and cloths on the grass, plates, knives and forks, edibles in
variety, wine, ale, and other liquids, and the samovar steaming
merrily at our side. I think we acquitted ourselves be