PRTCHORA 215 



charcoal pans, shoved underneath the seats, making the 

 atmosphere most disagreeable and suffocating. After 

 Berlin the heating was by hot-water pipes, which are 

 much better, but not good either. To-night we had a 

 temperature inside the carriage of + 15 Reaum., and 

 outside 4 Reaum. 



March 5. 



On Friday, the 5th of March, our journey still con- 

 tinued. We found at Warlubien more snow ; and a sledge 

 at the station. The snow had evidently lain a long time. 

 We crossed the Weichsel (Vistula) River, which was 

 frozen hard, with hummocky ice-heaps hurled in grand 

 and wild confusion by some former sudden break-up of 

 the frost, now again consolidated. 



Near Konigsberg the arm of the Baltic was one smooth 

 sheet of snow-covered ice, and people were out upon it, 

 fishing or skating, we could not tell which at the distance. 



At Wirballen thanks to our powerful letters to the 

 chief, M. de Pisanko, from the Russian Ambassador and 

 from Madame Dieckstahl we had no trouble with our 

 luggage, not one package being opened, and scarcely a 

 question asked. 



To Vilna we travelled with another of the staff at 

 Wirballen M. Alexr. Mikailoff and went first-class in 

 order to secure his company, but found the carriages not 

 so comfortable as the second-class, and awfully stuffy. 

 There was keen frost and much more snow now. 



March 6. 



At noon on Saturday, the 6th of March, the thermo- 

 meter was at 12 Reaum. in the shade. We arrived at 

 St. Petersbourg about 10 p.m., the train being more than 

 an hour late, owing to the tyre of a wheel breaking 

 between Berlin and the frontier. Seebohm's agent met 

 us here, and leaving our luggage to come in the 



