8 LONDON TO ARCHANGEL 



conveyances to be seen at the stations. As far as Cologne 

 the railway carriages were heated by the ordinary hot- 

 water foot-warmer, and very comfortable they were, with 

 a temperature outside of about 40°. From Hanover to 

 Berlin the carriages were heated with charcoal fires under 

 the seats, and the sense of oppression from foul air was 

 so intolerable, that we were only too glad to shiver with 

 the windows open and the thermometer down to 20°. 

 From Berlin to the frontier the carriages were heated by 

 steam-pipes, with an arrangement for regulating the heat, 

 and although the thermometer outside continued the 

 same, we were able to keep a comfortable temperature 

 of 60° without any sense of suffocation. In Russia the 

 carriages were heated with wood fires, and we kept up 

 about the same temperature without any sense of dis- 

 comfort, although the thermometer had fallen to 5° 

 outside. At Wirballen our letters of introduction saved 

 us from an immensity of trouble and formality, thanks to 

 the courtesy of M. de Pisanko and the other officials. 



We spent four days at St. Petersburg, sight-seeing 

 and completing the preparations for our journey. The 

 morning after our arrival was the last day of the "butter 

 fair," and we were very much amused and interested, 

 especially with the ice-slide, which is one of its great 

 features. A most interesting sight to us was the frozen 

 market. Here, one stall was full of frozen pigs, there 

 another was laden almost mountain high with frozen sides 

 of oxen and deer. Part of the market was occupied by 

 rows of stalls on which the frozen fish lay piled up in 

 stacks. Another portion was devoted to birds and game, 

 heaps of capercailzie, black grouse, hazel grouse (the 

 rabchik of the Russians), willow grouse (the koropatki of 

 the Russians), and others, with stacks of white hares, and 

 baskets full of small birds. Amongst the latter we were 



