32 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. iv. 



cord. Piottuch started in high glee again, assuring us that 

 his sledge was " leaucoup plus Ion " than ours. The effect of 

 the alteration was, however, to raise the level of his out- 

 riggers a few inches, which made all the difference between 

 safety and danger. He was soon fast asleep as usual, for he 

 had not yet quite slept off his Mezen champagne, when his 

 sledge gave a greater lurch than it was wont to do and cap- 

 sized, waking him with a shower of portmanteaus about his 

 ears ; and he was dragged out of the deep snow by the 

 yemschik amidst roars of laughter on our part. 



As before, we found the roads in the open plain always 

 good. These plains were a dead flat, with a tree or two 

 here and there. The rut worn by the horses' feet was not 

 deep, and the path was almost level with the side. We 

 glided along smoothly and luxuriously. The roads in the 

 forest were bad beyond all conception. The banks were 

 high, and were always in the way of the outriggers, which 

 " scrunched " against them with a most irritating sound. Both 

 laterally and vertically they were as winding as a snake. 

 Sometimes our sledge would be on the top of a steep hill, 

 our first horse in the valley, and our third horse on the top 

 of the next hill. The motion was like that of a boat in a 

 chopping sea, and the sledge banged about from pillar to 

 post to such an extent that we scarcely felt the want of 

 exercise. The Kussian forest road is not a via mala, it is a 

 via didboUea. 



At Bolshanivagorskia upon entering the station-house we 

 found the room occupied by a party, and the samovar in full 

 operation. Fancying that some of the party looked English, I 



