were washed down with
a bottle of Crimean wine. These culinary details may appear trifles to
the reader, but they had already become matters of moment to us. And the
sun shone so brightly that the claret glowed like a ruby in the glass as
we drank to the success of the expedition and our friends in far-away
France and England. And so susceptible is man to the influence of his
surroundings that for one fleeting hour New York seemed no distance away
to speak of!

After leaving Kirensk the horses were harnessed _gusem_ or tandem
fashion, for it is here necessary to leave the river and travel along
its shores where the roadway becomes a mere track three or four feet
wide through the forests. As our sleighs were unusually broad, this
caused some trouble, and once or twice trees had to be felled before we
could proceed. When Vitimsk was reached, on February 2, the drivers
there flatly refused to embark upon a stage until the breadth of our
sleighs had been reduced by at least one-third. Fortunately the weather
changed for the worse, and snowstorms and a stiff Northern gale would
have greatly impeded us, so that the lost time was not so precious as it
might have been. There is no inn at Vitimsk, but the post-house was
clean and comfortable, and the _ispravnik_, on reading the Governor's
letter, also placed his house and services at my disposal, but I only
availed myself of the latter to hasten the alteration to the sleighs.
The only wheelwright in Vitimsk being an incorrigible drunkard, this
operation would, under ordinary circumstances, have occupied at least a
week; under the watchful eye of the stern official it was finished in
forty-eight hours. Politically, I am a Radical, but I am bound to admit
that there are circumstances under which an autocratic form of
Government has its advantages.

Until Vitimsk was reached we had met but few travellers during our
journey down the Lena, certainly under a score in all, which was
fortunate, considering the limited accommodation _en route_. But at
Vitimsk I was destined to come across not only an Englishman but a
personal friend. The meeting, on both sides, was totally unexpected, and
as on the evening of our arrival I watched a sleigh drive up through the
blinding storm and a shapeless bundle of furs emerge from it and stagger
into the post-house, I little dreamt that the newcomer was one with whom
I had passed many a pleasant hour in the realms of civilisation. The
recognition w