SIBERIAN DOG SLEDGE 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



TURUKANSK AND THE WAY THITHER. 



Stations — Hospitality of the Peasants — Furs and their Prices — Dogs 

 Drawing Sledges — Birds — Visit to a Monastery — Graphite — Captain 

 Wiggins's Former Travelling Companion — An Honest Russian Official ! 

 — Installed as Guests in the House of the Zessedatel — Turukansk — We 

 Turn Shop-keepers— The Skoptsi — Scarcity of Birds — Old Gazenkampf 

 — Our Host's Tricks — The Blagachina — The Second Priest — The Priest's 

 Accomplishments — The Postmaster — The Secretary of the Zessedatel — 

 Schwanenberg's Troubles. 



The distance from Yeneseisk to Turukansk is 1084 

 versts, or 723 miles. The road is divided into forty-four 

 stages, which we accompHshed in nine days and ten 

 nights. The stations where we changed horses were 

 frequently in villages containing not more than half a 

 dozen houses. Those we visited were always scrupulously 

 clean, and everywhere we were most hospitably received. 

 The best the peasants had was placed before us — tea, 



