we, or rather I, had too much.
Worst of all, I had a wooden trunk that I proposed throwing away at
Nicolayevsk, but had been told I could carry to Irkutsk without
trouble. It could not ride inside, or if it did we could not. We
placed the small articles in the interior of the vehicle, and tied the
trunk and Borasdine's _chemadan_ on the projecting poles behind. The
_chemadan_ is in universal use among Siberian travelers, and admirably
adapted to the road. It is made of soft leather, fastens with a lacing
of deer-skin thongs, and can be lashed nearly water tight. It will
hold a great deal,--I never saw one completely filled,--and
accommodates itself to the shape of its aggregate contents. It can be
of any size up to three or four feet long, and its dimensions are
proportioned to each other about like those of an ordinary
pocket-book. A great advantage is the absence of sharp corners and the
facility of packing closely.

We acted contrary to the custom of the country in tying our baggage
behind. There are gentlemen of the road in Siberia as there are 'road
agents' in California. The Siberian highwaymen rarely disturb the
person of a traveler, but their chief amusement is to cut away outside
packages. As a precaution we mounted our Cossack on the trunk, but
before we went a mile he fell from his perch in spite of his utmost
efforts to cling to the vehicle. After that event he rode by the
driver's side.

On seeing Lovett at Stratensk my first question related to the
condition of the road. "Horrid," said he. "The worst time to travel.
There has been much rain and cold weather. You will find mud either
soft or frozen most of the way to Chetah."

Before we started the driver brought an additional horse, and after a
preliminary kick or two we took the road. For a few miles we went up
and down hills along the edge of the river, where the route has been
cut at much labor and expense. This was not especially bad, the worst
places being at the hollows between the hills where the mud was
half-congealed. When we left the river we found the mud that Lovett
prophesied. Quality and quantity were alike disagreeable. All roads
have length more or less; ours had length, breadth, depth, and
thickness. The bottom was not regular like that of the Atlantic, but
broken into inequalities that gave an uneasy motion to the telyaga.

To travel in Siberia one must have a _padaroshnia_, or road pass, from
the government authorities, stating t