UST-ZYLMA. 



CHAPTER IV. 



Bad roads — Postal service in winter and summer — Changeable weather — Scenery 

 — Pinega and Kuloi rivers — Snow plains — The forests — Birds — Samoyedes— 

 Mezen — Polish exile — -Snow-Buntings — How caught — Jackdaws — We leave 

 Mezen — The weather — Scenery — The Mezen river — The Pizhma — The roads — 

 Piottuch's accident — The Via diabolica — Bolshanivagorskia — Break up of the 

 road — Polish prejudices — The villages — Curiosity of the peasants — Greek 

 crosses — Love of ornament — Employment and amusements — Samoyedes — Birds 

 — Umskia — First view of the Petchora — Arrival at Ust-Zylma. 



The journey from Archangel to Ust-Zylma on the Petchora 

 is between seven and eie;ht hundred Eni>lish miles. There 

 are about forty stations, the distance between each being 

 somewhat greater than that on our previous journey. Had 

 we left Archangel a fortnight earlier, before the sun was 



