20 CRASNOT LAIS. 



literally no scenery to describe? The road is a 

 beaten track by the telegraph posts, with, every 

 sixteen or twenty versts, a white house with a straw 

 yard and some sheds at the back, and a black and 

 white post with a bell roofed in on the top of 

 it in the front. This is the post station. The 

 country surrounding it is apparently waste, and, 

 except for a few flocks of sheep, an old hooded 

 crow or two, and maybe a bustard, quite un- 

 tenanted by living things. Always the snow 

 beneath and the jingling bells in front, and this 

 with no incident to rouse one, naturally ends in sleep. 

 Towards evening we came in sight of a larger 

 group of buildings than any we had hitherto seen, 

 and this we found was Tumeruk, our resting-place 

 for the night. As far as we could see it was a 

 larger town than Taman, with the inevitable green- 

 domed church, a good spacious bazaar, barracks I 

 think, and a neat little club-house. We were told 

 that Tumeruk derived its wealth from the stur- 

 geon fishery carried on to a very great extent in its 

 neighbourhood. We were also told there were two 

 good hotels in the place, and set off in high spirits 

 to search for them, a comfortable bed to follow a 

 good supper of sturgeon and caviare being things as 

 welcome as they were unexpected. We searched 

 diligently and found the first hotel, a moujik's 

 drinking den or ' cabak.' There was a table with 

 a man under it, and many more nearly ready to 



