394 THE SIBERIAN PLAGUE. 



and hikes. The soil in some places was flat and level as 

 the sea, in others it was covered with vegetation 

 It was impregnated with salt, and many of the lakes 

 contained salt water. The road was bridged in lung 

 courses over the marshy ground ; but as these courses 

 were out of repair, the travelling was tedious. 



The party reached Kainsk on the 29th. Here they 

 learned, for the first time, that the Siberian Plague was 

 raging in the neighbouring villages. The physician 

 who gave them this intelligence could afford them but 

 little information regarding the nature of the disease, 

 except that it broke out among the cattle, and soon ex- 

 tended to men. It attacked men in the uncovered parts 

 of the body, in the face, neck, or arms, commencing 

 with an indurated swelling, which turned to black and 

 burning suppurations, that ended in fever and death. 

 The origin of the disease was ascribed to the stings oi 

 insects. 



As it was impossible to reach the Altai region by any 

 other route, at least within the time they had allowed 

 themselves, the travellers resolved to continue their jour- 

 ney, taking all possible precautions to avoid contact with 

 the peasants among whom the plague prevailed. They 

 even refrained from sleeping at the halting places. They 

 found traces of the malady in all the villages. The day 

 before their arrival six persons died at Karganskaja, 

 where five hundred horses had already perished. It was 

 with considerable difficulty that they procured the means 

 of continuing their route. Every village had a hospital 

 of its own, and smoky fires of dry turf and dung were 

 kept continually burning, in order to jjurify the air. As 

 the travellers drew near the Obi and left the steppe 



