iery enough to be luminous in the dark. Shortly after leaving Tomsk,
however, we passed the vanguard of these tea caravans and saw them no
more.

The road in western Siberia was hard and smooth, and the horses were
so good that we made very rapid progress with comparatively little
discomfort. We stopped only twice a day for meals, and every night
found us 175 or 200 miles nearer our destination than we had been the
night before. We succeeded in getting across the Urals before the end
of the year, and on the 7th of January, after twenty-five days of
almost incessant night-and-day travel, we drew up before a hotel in
the city of Nizhni Novgorod, which, at that time, was the eastern
terminus of the Russian railway system. We sold our sleigh, fur bag,
pillows, tea-equipment, and the provisions we had left, for what
they would bring--a beggarly sum; took a train the same day for St.
Petersburg; and reached the Russian capital on the 9th of January,
eleven weeks from the Okhotsk Sea by way of Yakutsk, Irkutsk, Tomsk,
Tiumen, Ekaterineburg, and Nizhni Novgorod. In the eleven weeks we
had changed dogs, reindeer, or horses more than two hundred and sixty
times and had made a distance of five thousand seven hundred and
fourteen miles, nearly all of it in a single sleigh.

[Illustration: Wooden Cup]

INDEX

A

Abaza, Major S., appointed superintendent of Siberian division;
forms plan of operations;
starts northward from Petropavlovsk;
scares up a bear;
falls ill at Lesnoi;
leaves Gizhiga for Okhotsk;
orders from;
returns to Gizhiga;
makes trip to Anadyrsk;
sails for Okhotsk;
visits Yakutsk;
comes to Yamsk;
returns to Yakutsk;
starts for St. Petersburg;
letter from.
Agaricus muscarius, Korak intoxicant.
Air-hole, driving into
Aklan, river
Aldan, river
Amur, river
Anadyr, river;
work on.
Anadyr River party;
finding of;
experience of;
orders concerning.
Anadyrsk, village;
arrival at;
priest's house in;
history and description of;
climate of;
ball at;
character of inhabitants;
famine at.
Anadyrsk sickness
Animals, of Kamchatka
Anossof, Russian commissioner
Arnold, member of Anadyr River party
Astronomical lectures
Atlantic cable, failure of first;
final success of.
Aurora borealis;
remarkable display of.
Aurora of the sea
Avacha, bay
Avacha, river
Avacha, village
Avacha, volcano

B