each cart and firmly bound with
cords. There is one driver to every four or five carts, and this
driver has a dormitory on one of his loads. This is a rude frame two
and a half by six feet, with sides about seven inches high. With a
sheepskin coat and coverlid a man contrives to sleep in this box while
his team moves slowly along the road or is feeding at a halting place.

All the freight between Kiachta and Lake Baikal is carried on carts in
summer and on one-horse sleds in winter. From Kiachta westward tea is
almost the only article of transport, the quantity sometimes amounting
to a million chests per annum. The tea chests are covered with raw
hide, which protects them, from rain and snow and from the many thumps
of their journey. The teams belong to peasants, who carry freight for
a stipulated sum per pood. The charges are lower in winter than in
summer, as the sledge is of easier draft than the cart.

The caravans travel sixteen hours of every twenty-four, and rarely
proceed faster than a walk. The drivers are frequently asleep and
allow the horses to take their own pace. The caravans are expected to
give up the whole road on the approach of a post carriage, and when
the drivers are awake they generally obey the regulation. Very often
it happened that the foremost horses turned aside of their own accord
as we approached. They heard the bells that denoted our character,
and were aware of our yemshick's right to strike them if they
neglected their duty. The sleeping drivers and delinquent horses
frequently received touches of the lash. There was little trouble by
day, but at night the caravan horses were less mindful of our comfort.
Especially if the road was bad and narrow the post vehicles, contrary
to regulation, were obliged to give way.

[Illustration: EQUAL RIGHTS.]

It was three or four hours before daylight when we reached Selenginsk,
and the yemshick removed his horses preparatory to returning to his
station. I believe Selenginsk is older than Verkne Udinsk, and very
much the senior of Irkutsk. The ancient town is on the site of the
original settlement, but frequent inundations caused its abandonment
for the other bank of the river, five versts away. New Selenginsk,
which has a great deal of antiquity in its appearance, is a small town
with a few good houses, a well built church, and commodious barracks.

During the troubles between China and Russia concerning the early
occupation of the Amoor and encro