6 AFTER WILD SHEEP IN THE ALTAI 



had secured as servant a first-rate man, Gabriel by 

 name, who had accompanied us the previous year 

 to the Caucasus, and with whom Littledale had been 

 thoroughly satisfied. He rendered himself very 

 useful in camp, and by no means the least of his 

 accomplishments was his art of skinning heads. In 

 order not to waste a whole day, as our boat was to 

 leave Nijni-Novgorod on the following afternoon, 

 we decided to quit Moscow at 4 p.m., reaching Nijni 

 earl\ next morning. Our baggage, amounting to 

 about a ton, was to be sent by the next steamer 

 and join us at Taguil, a place in the Ural Mountains 

 belong 110- to my family, where we intended to stop 

 two or three days for the purpose of giving the ladies 

 a rest before commencing the long and dreary journey 

 on the Siberian Railway, and for the purpose also of 

 getting our luggage into a more expeditional shape, 

 taking only what was immediately wanted, and 

 leaving the remainder to follow later. Moreover, 

 we had to engage the services of a cook. Accord- 

 ingly, early on May 15th we found ourselves at 

 Nijni in time to see the preparations that were beino' 

 made for the great annual fair. The banks of the 

 Volga were covered with goods of all kinds, which 

 find their way there from all parts of Asia, and the 

 traffic was just beginning, owing to the opening of 



