iver. The navigation of the Don
is much more difficult than that of the Volga. The river is extremely
shallow, and the sand-banks are continually shifting, so that many times
in the course of the day the steamer runs aground. Sometimes she is got
off by simply reversing the engines, but not unfrequently she sticks so
fast that the engines have to be assisted. This is effected in a curious
way. The captain always gives a number of stalwart Cossacks a free
passage on condition that they will give him the assistance he requires;
and as soon as the ship sticks fast he orders them to jump overboard
with a stout hawser and haul her off! The task is not a pleasant one,
especially as the poor fellows cannot afterwards change their clothes;
but the order is always obeyed with alacrity and without grumbling.
Cossacks, it would seem, have no personal acquaintance with colds and
rheumatism.

In the most approved manuals of geography the Don figures as one of the
principal European rivers, and its length and breadth give it a right to
be considered as such; but its depth in many parts is ludicrously out
of proportion to its length and breadth. I remember one day seeing
the captain of a large, flat-bottomed steamer slacken speed, to avoid
running down a man on horseback who was attempting to cross his bows in
the middle of the stream. Another day a not less characteristic incident
happened. A Cossack passenger wished to be set down at a place where
there was no pier, and on being informed that there was no means of
landing him, coolly jumped overboard and walked ashore. This simple
method of disembarking cannot, of course, be recommended to those who
have no local knowledge regarding the exact position of sand-banks and
deep pools.

Good serviceable fellows are those Cossacks who drag the steamer off
the sand-banks, and are often entertaining companions. Many of them can
relate from their own experience, in plain, unvarnished style,
stirring episodes of irregular warfare, and if they happen to be in
a communicative mood they may divulge a few secrets regarding their
simple, primitive commissariat system. Whether they are confidential
or not, the traveller who knows the language will spend his time
more profitably and pleasantly in chatting with them than in gazing
listlessly at the uninteresting country through which he is passing.

Unfortunately, these Don steamers carry a large number of free
passengers of another and more objec