82 FORESTRY IN EASTERN RUSSIA. 



in the spring; and start off their caravans for the Nijni 

 fair. Allow me to describe it as well as I can. 



I They build on the banks of the water-course, below 

 the works, large rude flat-bottomed barges. These are 

 lowered into the narrow stream in winter, and laden with 

 iron. Now when all is ready in spring, and the lakes are 

 full, or filling, by the rapidly thawing snow, there is a 

 grand and usual ceremony prayers, incense, blessing with 

 holy water, and all the rest of it, 



' Vodky and pies for the lower orders, champagne and 

 zakaska for the upper ten, as all the work people and 

 employes, the owners, and many of their lady and 

 gentlemen friends assemble, some from long distances, to 

 see the sport and lend eclat to the occasion. At a signal 

 from some principal, the floodgates are lifted, when out 

 bounds the surging foaming billows ; and when the stream 

 is sufficiently swollen, the first barge is let go amidst a 

 deafening shout for a few minutes ; then all is hushed, and 

 immediately all heads are bobbing up and down, and 

 there is seen such a commotion, as hundreds of arms are 

 waving about like windmill vanes, while all are crossing 

 themselves during their short and silent prayers. Let us 

 hope they will bring the God-speed they invoke Why not? 

 the guiding and steering of those barges through all the 

 rapids, sharp bends, and sudden turns of the chasovai, 

 hundreds of them one after another, twenty or thirty 

 from a zavod, till they fall into Kama and are compara- 

 tively safe, 



I 1 thought of the tide which, embraced at the flood, 

 bears down to fortune ; and those huge unweildy boats 

 must catch the right moment, float down with the ebbing 

 stream, or, be left high and dry on the banks till next 

 season: a very expensive and inconvenient thing when 

 it happens. 



' I have often admired this simple, primitive, and effec- 

 tive way of conveying their merchandise from these 

 remote districts, for it only costs 16 kopecs a pood from 

 the Ural to the great Nijni fair, though they have to 



