136 SLEDGE-DRIVE TO ST. PETERSBURG. 



was often and in the most varied forms practised by 

 the post-masters. The post-master declared with the. 

 greatest assurance that it was of no use to travel 

 further, as at the stations before St. Petersburg all the 

 horses had been appropriated for a great imperial bear 

 hunt. Apparently touched by the loud lamentations 

 of my Russian companion he finally offered to give us a 

 pair of particularly powerful horses, which would bring 



us the same evening to St. Petersburg. The bargain was 

 struck, and the crafty Russian imagined that he had 

 by the fiction of the bear hunt secured the whole fare 

 to St. Petersburg. Our subsequent adventures however 

 foiled his scheme. 



Our driver was a young fellow without fur and 

 warm foot -rug. That he often stopped seemed to us 

 intelligible, as he evidently needed a warm drink to 

 avoid being frozen. At last however he never returned 

 at all. I had to struggle out of the kibitka which, 

 owing to my double furs, that yet did not prevent a 

 rather severe numbness, was attended with difficulty. 

 I then found our "Iswoshtchik" in a hut hard by, 

 brandy glass in hand, which the rather suspicious- 

 looking Jewish proprietor of the hut kept eagerly 

 filling. When I drove the man back to the sledge 

 with the necessary sensible admonitions. I observed 

 unmistakable signs of a deeper understanding between 

 him and the tavern-keeper who accompanied us. It 

 came to me therefore by no means as a surprise 

 when, soon after resuming the journey, my travelling 

 companion suddenly uttered a loud cry. and called to 



