tter at this
part of the hunt than at any other. The picnic did not differ much
from an American one, the most noticeable feature being the
substantial character of solids and liquids. Most of us sat on the
grass and stumps, the number of camp-stools not exceeding half a
dozen.

Finishing the lunch we took a new hunting spot and managed to kill a
gazelle and a large hare. A fourth drive brought no game, and we
returned to enjoy another lunch and drink a Russian beverage called
'jonca.' In its preparation a pound or two of loaf sugar in a single
lump is fixed on a wire frame above a copper pan. A bottle of cognac
is poured over the sugar and set on fire. The sugar melts, and when
the fire is almost extinguished a bottle of claret and one of
champagne are added. The compound is taken hot, and has a sweet and
very smooth taste. The Russians are fond of producing this beverage
when they have foreign guests, and if taken freely it has a weakening
tendency. The captain of the Variag told me he had placed several
British officers under his table by employing this article, and there
was a rumor that the Fox embassy to St. Petersburg was quite severely
laid out by means of 'jonca.'

The lunch finished we discharged our guns and returned to town at a
rapid pace. While descending the bank of a brook our horses turned
suddenly and nearly overset the carriage. The doctor and I jumped out
to lighten the lower side, and were just in season to keep the wheels
on the ground. Madame Pedeshenk followed into the arms of the strong
doctor, but the governor, true to the martial instinct, remained in
his place and gave instructions to the driver. We did not re-enter the
carriage until it was across the brook; the horses were exercised
rather violently during the remainder of the journey.

I think the gazelle we killed was identical with the antelope of our
western plains. He had a skin of the same color and a white tail, that
retreating flag-of-truce so familiar to our overland emigrants. His
feet, head, and body were shaped like the antelope's, and his eye had
that liquid tenderness so often observed in the agile rover near the
foot of the Rocky Mountains. Gazelles abound through the Amoor valley
to within a hundred miles of the sea-coast. Many are killed every
autumn and winter in the valley of the Zeya and along the middle
Amoor. The flesh is eaten and the skin used for winter coats and
similar articles.

The commerce of Blagoveshche