INTRODUCTION. 7 



degrees below zero, driving in an open sledge is a very 

 disagreeable operation, and noses may get frostbitten 

 without their owners perceiving the fact in time to take 

 preventive measures. Then why not take covered sledges 

 on such occasions ? For the simple reason that they are 

 not to be had ; and if they could be procured, it would be 

 well to avoid using them, for they are apt to produce 

 something very like sea-sickness. Besides this, when the 

 sledge gets overturned, it is pleasanter to be shot out on 

 to the clean, refreshing snow, than to be buried ignomi- 

 niously under a pile of miscellaneous baggage. 



1 The chief requisite for winter travelling in these icy 

 regions is a plentiful supply of warm furs. An English- 

 man is very apt to be imprudent in this respect, and to 

 trust too much to his natural power of resisting cold. 

 To a certain extent this confidence is justifiable, for an 

 Englishman often feels quite comfortable in an ordinary 

 great coat, when his Russian friends consider it necessary 

 to envelope themselves in furs of the warmest kind ; but 

 it may be carried too far, in which case severe punishment 

 is sure to follow, as I once learned by experience. I may 

 relate the incident as a warning to others. 



' One day in the winter of 1870-71 I started from 

 Novgorod, with the intention of visiting some friends at 

 a cavalry barracks situated about ten miles from the 

 town. As the sun was shining brightly, and the distance 

 to be traversed was short, I considered that a light fur 

 and a bashlyk a cloth hood which protects the ears 

 would be quite sufficient to keep out the cold, and 

 foolishly disregarded the warnings of a Russian friend 

 who happened to call as I was about to start. Our route 

 lay along the river due northward, right in the teeth of a 

 strong north wind. A wintry north wind is always and 

 everywhere a disagreeable enemy to face ; let the reader 

 try to imagine what it is when the Fahrenheit thermometer 

 is at 30 below zero or rather let him refrain from such an 

 attempt, for the sensation produced cannot be imagined 

 by those who have not experienced it. Of course I ought 



