84 THE RED FOREST AND 



along in the keen morning air ; the roads were 

 hard with frost, and as the heavy cart lurched 

 from rut to rut, and bounded from hole to hole, 

 we two resembled nothing so much as a pair of 

 erratic human shuttlecocks. As luck would have 

 it, both of us returned from our aerial flights in 

 time to go on with the cart, but at what an ex- 

 pense of finger-nails and other bruises none but 

 ourselves can tell. As for the 'plunger/ the 

 exercise acted on him like a rough sea passage, 

 and before long he was grievously ill, and I 

 frankly admit that in another hour I should have 

 been as bad. 



The road on leaving Ekaterinodar runs through 

 marshes, and has been raised and constructed by 

 Government engineers, who receive a regular 

 subsidy to keep it in repair. With the money 

 they apparently do what they like. The governor 

 has not heard of the state of the road, or having 

 heard does not interfere ; the result is that it is so 

 infamous that passengers prefer a mere track at 

 the side to the engineers' road, which is practically 

 unused. And this seems to me to be the universal 

 way of doing things out here. The Government 

 seems liberal enough, and anxious to promote the 

 people's welfare ; more than that, considerable 

 sums of money are expended to this end, but 

 owing to the vastness of the territory, difficulty of 

 transit, and want of trustworthiness in its agents, 



