eat natures will deal charity
and kindness when remembering oppression and cruelty.

I was not consulted when our telyaga was built, else it would have
been wider and longer. When our small parcels were arranged inside
there was plenty of room for one but hardly enough for two. Borasdine
and I were of equal height, and neither measured a hair's breadth less
than six feet. When packed for riding I came in questionable shape, my
body and limbs forming a geometric figure that Euclid never knew.
Notwithstanding my cramped position I managed to doze a little, and
contemplated an essay on a new mode of triangulation. We rattled our
bones over the stones and frozen earth, and dragged and dripped
through the mud to the first station. As we reached the establishment
our Cossack and driver shouted "_courier!_" in tones that soon brought
the smotretal and his attendants. They rubbed their half-open eyes and
bestirred themselves to bring horses. The word 'courier' invigorates
the attaches of a post route, as they well know that the bearer of a
courier's pass must not be delayed. Ten minutes are allowed for
changing a courier's horses, and the change is often made in six or
eight minutes. The length of a journey depends considerably upon the
time consumed at stations.

[Illustration: A SIBERIAN TARANTASS.]

Here we found a tarantass, neither new nor elegant, but strong and
capacious. We hired it to Nerchinsk, and our Cossack transferred the
baggage while four little rats of ponies were being harnessed. The
harness used on this road was a combination of leather and hemp in
about equal proportions. There were always traces of ropes more or
less twisted. It is judicious to carry a quantity of rope in one's
vehicle for use in case of accident. A Russian _yemshick_ (driver) is
quite skillful in repairing breakages if he can find enough rope for
his purpose.

The horses, like many other terrestrial things, were better than they
appeared, and notwithstanding the bad road they carried us at good
speed. I was told that the horses between Stratensk and Lake Baikal
were strangers to corn and oats, and not over familiar with hay. Those
at the post stations must be fed in the stable, but nearly all others
hunt their own food. In summer they can easily do this, but in winter
they subsist on the dry grass standing on the hills and prairies.
There is little snow in this region, but when it falls on the pastures
the horses scrape it away to rea