ed during the day Strogoff
ascertained that the berlin still preceded them on the road to Irkutsk,
and that the traveler, as hurried as they were, never lost a minute in
pursuing his way across the steppe.

At four o'clock in the evening they reached Abatskaia, fifty miles
farther on, where the Ichim, one of the principal affluents of the
Irtych, had to be crossed. This passage was rather more difficult than
that of the Tobol. Indeed the current of the Ichim was very rapid just
at that place. During the Siberian winter, the rivers being all frozen
to a thickness of several feet, they are easily practicable, and the
traveler even crosses them without being aware of the fact, for their
beds have disappeared under the snowy sheet spread uniformly over the
steppe; but in summer the difficulties of crossing are sometimes great.

In fact, two hours were taken up in making the passage of the Ichim,
which much exasperated Michael, especially as the boatmen gave them
alarming news of the Tartar invasion. Some of Feofar-Khan's scouts had
already appeared on both banks of the lower Ichim, in the southern parts
of the government of Tobolsk. Omsk was threatened. They spoke of an
engagement which had taken place between the Siberian and Tartar troops
on the frontier of the great Kirghese horde--an engagement not to the
advantage of the Russians, who were weak in numbers. The troops had
retreated thence, and in consequence there had been a general emigration
of all the peasants of the province. The boatmen spoke of horrible
atrocities committed by the invaders--pillage, theft, incendiarism,
murder. Such was the system of Tartar warfare.

The people all fled before Feofar-Khan. Michael Strogoff's great fear
was lest, in the depopulation of the towns, he should be unable to
obtain the means of transport. He was therefore extremely anxious to
reach Omsk. Perhaps there they would get the start of the Tartar scouts,
who were coming down the valley of the Irtych, and would find the road
open to Irkutsk.

Just at the place where the tarantass crossed the river ended what is
called, in military language, the "Ichim chain"--a chain of towers, or
little wooden forts, extending from the southern frontier of Siberia
for a distance of nearly four hundred versts. Formerly these forts were
occupied by detachments of Cossacks, and they protected the country
against the Kirghese, as well as against the Tartars. But since the
Muscovite Government h