42 SIBERIA IN EUROPE. CHAP. v. 



low, and consists of a suite of lumber rooms, where the cattle 

 are often housed in winter. The dwelling rooms are on the 

 second story, generally reached by a covered flight of stairs 

 outside the house, reaching from a porch below to a gallery, 

 which leads round the house. Upon this porch, staircase, 

 and gallery a good deal of skill in wood carving is often 

 expended. The winter is long, and the length of time during 

 which the cattle are stall-fed so great, and the amount of 

 land available for cultivation so small, that there is always a 

 large surplus of manure, which the peasants do not think 

 worth the cost of preservation. The cattle are fed princi- 

 pally upon hay, which is cut upon the low lands on the 

 other side of the Petchora. These lands are flooded every 

 spring, and any manure placed upon them would speedily be 

 washed off : nor is it needed, as the river itself is the great 

 fertiliser in these low-lying districts, exactly as the Nile is 

 in Egypt. Of course, to accumulate so much manure in 

 the streets, the traffic must be large. Long strings of sledges 

 were often to be seen drawing hay, pine logs for building, 

 and smaller timber for firewood. In the summer nearly 

 every peasant turns fisherman, and catches salmon and other 

 fish in the Petchora with a seine net. Neither farming nor 

 fishing seems to be very profitable. It is very easy to get 

 a living, but there is no market for surplus produce. Beef 

 fetches only \\d. per Ib. retail. Most articles that are worth 

 the cartage, such as furs, feathers, down, frozen meat, tar, &c., 

 go to Pinega fair, and some are even sent as far as Nishni 

 Novgorod ; but the cost of transit absorbs the profit. Now 

 and then you meet with a merchant who has accumulated a 



