SLEDGING THROUGH THE SNOW. 



CHAPTER II. 



London to St. Petersburg — Mode of heating railway carriages — Frozen market 

 at St. Petersburg — Bohemian waxwings — Moscow to Vologda — M. Verakin — 

 Sledging from Vologda to Archangel — The Yemschik — Post-houses — The 

 Samovar — Angliski Russ — Modes of yoking horses — State of the roads — 

 Weather — Traffic — Scenery — Birds — Arrival at Archangel. 



We left London on the 3rd of March, 1875. A journey of 

 four days and three nights, including a comfortable night's 

 rest at Cologne and a few hours each at Hanover and Berlin, 

 landed us in St. Petersburg. In Belgium it was cold, but 

 there was no snow. In Germany we saw skaters on the ice, 

 and there were patches of snow in shady corners. As we 

 proceeded eastwards the snow and cold increased, and in 

 Russia the whole ground was from one to two feet deep in 



