SLEDGE-DRIVE TO ST. PETERSBURG. 135 



The telega journey was agreeable and interesting 

 e noil o-h as far as Riga. But there regular winter 



O o O 



weather had set in, and the further journey could 

 only be made in sledges. The Russian "kibitkas' are 

 low and rather short sledges, which for longer journeys 

 are completely closed with matting. The inner space 

 is separated from the driver's box by a wall of mat- 

 ting, in which two small windows are fixed, which 

 admit light sparingly to the interior. A mat -flap at 

 each side of the sledge renders possible the rather 

 difficult getting out and in. 



As I travelled for the first time into Russia proper, 

 knowing no Russian, I had to look about in Riga for 

 a travelling companion. In a newspaper advertisement 

 such a person turned up, who possessed a kibitka and 

 spoke German and Russian perfectly. As appeared 

 when we were already on the road, this was an elderly 

 merchant's wife of Riga, who sought in this way to 

 cheapen her annual business trip to St. Petersburg. 

 She had packed the sledge so full of straw and bed- 

 ding that one could only lie down in it, and then had 

 the mat-covering close over one's face. It had become 

 bitterly cold, and the nearer we got to our goal the 

 stronger became the dry keen north-east wind, which 

 with 18 below zero Reaumur mocked at the warmest 

 wrapping. Then I learnt in Russian fashion to drink hot 

 tea in great quantities, as soon as a station was reached, 

 for only in that way could any warmth be obtained. 



When on the third morning we had reached the 

 Narva station we fell victims to a little stratagem, which 



