ry to take an extra blanket, and at noon of the 12th
the thermometer was at 45 deg., with a cloudy sky and a breeze from the
northeast. This change of twenty-six degrees was too much for comfort,
but of little consequence compared to my subsequent experience.
Instances have been known of a change of seventy degrees in twelve
hours from a sudden shifting of the wind. On the morning of the 13th
we had a light fall of snow, with the air at freezing point and the
water at 40 deg.[D]

[Footnote D: I here enter a protest against the Fahrenheit
thermometer, and think all who have used it to any extent will join me
in preferring the Centigrade or Reaumer scales. Centigrade has the
freezing point at zero and the boiling point at 100 deg. Reaumer freezes
at zero and boils at 80 deg. Fahrenheit very clumsily freezes at 32 deg.
and boils at 212 deg. The difference in the graduation of the scale is
of much less consequence than the awkwardness of beginning the reading at
32 deg. The Russians use Reaumer's method, and I always envied them their
convenience of saying 'there are so many degrees of cold,' or 'so many
of heat,' while I was forced to count from 32 deg. to use my national
scale.]

We passed a rock projecting far into the river, with precipitous sides
and a sharp summit visible for some distance along the Amoor. Below it
is a small harbor, where the Russian steamer Mala Nadeshda (Little
Hope) passed the winter of 1855. She was on her way to Stratensk,
carrying Admiral Puchachin on his return from a mission to Japan.
Caught by ice the Nadeshda wintered under shelter of this rock, while
the Admiral became a horse marine and mounted a saddle for a ride of
four hundred miles. Since that time the rock has borne the name of the
boat it protected.

In most of the villages there are schools for educating the boys of
the Cossacks and peasants. Some pupils are admitted free, while from
others a small fee is required. Occasionally I saw boys flocking to
the schools at sound of the master's bell, or coming out at recess or
dismissal. I had no opportunity to inspect one of these
establishments, but presume my description of the one at Mihalofski
will answer for all. The youths were as noisy as school-boys
everywhere, and when out of restraint indulged in the same hilarity as
if born on the banks of the Hudson or the Thames.

At noon on the 14th we stopped at Albazin to leave passengers and take
wood. It was Sunday, and the populati