372 
travelled 45 versts (about 30 miles) in 3 hours with the same 
horses.* 
On the 27th June, they crossed the Ob in a paddle wheel ferry 
worked by horses on board going round a capstan. 
They arrived at Tomsk on the Tom, a tributary of the Ob, 
where were elegant houses and a stately building, the new 
University. There still remained 1,560 versts to Irkutsk. 
The roads and horses became worse and the posting dearer, 
but the landscape smiling and luxuriant. Many large cottages 
surrounded by cultivated fields. On the other side of 
Krasnoyarsk the country was still more fertile. 
-On the 18th July, they arrived at Irkutsk, having in 16} days 
and nights travelled 3,367 versts, and from St. Petersburg in 
24 days and nights. 
- The inhabitants about Irkutsk and the Bajkal Sea are mostly 
Buriats, who should be Christians, but still preserve many Heathen 
customs 
. He describes a ceremony on board a vessel of pouring spirits 
into a long glass, a few drops of which are thrown into the water, 
some on the rigging and boat, but the majority that remains down 
their throats, accompanied by long prayers. They make an 
intoxicating drink from cow and mare’s milk called “ Tarasum,” 
corresponding with the Tartar “Aira” and the Yakut “ Arigut.” 
This, although illegal, is generally practised, They also make 
“Kumiss” from mare’s milk, which is intoxicating if taken in 
large quantities. 
After staying 10 days in Irkutsk, they started on the 29th July 
in a lighter or barge equipped for the journey down the Angara, 
of which vessel he gives a long description. The weather was 
fine and the river most beautiful. 
* I travelled once 35} versts (about 24 miles) in 2 hours and 20 
minutes, and another time 283 versts (about 19 miles) in 1? hours, with 
the same horses —W, H. T. 
