118 FORESTRY IN LITHUANIA. 



' The Bishop of Samogatia has his residence here. It 

 was a great holiday when I was there St. John's day 

 and the peasantry were flocking towards it from all 

 quarters. The general aspect of the country from Kovni 

 to Rossiena is level, the soil sandy and clayey by turns. 



' Leaving Rossiena about midday, 1 took the road for 

 the district town of Shawel. At a village called Titifian 

 there was a fair similiar to what we had left at Rossiena. 

 In the evening we found the roads filled with country 

 people returning from it, among whom I was pained to 

 observe a great number intoxicated ; I even became 

 doubtful of my safety in travelling by night through 

 extensive and little frequented roads ; yet we continued 

 our course in the rain, along very bad roads, for about 

 fifteen miles, and then halted about midnight at a 

 Samogatian village, where I purposed resting a few hours, 

 but the heat and vermin in the hut was so annoying, even 

 though I merely stretched myself on a bare bench by the 

 side of the wall, that I could not sleep. 



' We arrived in the district town of Shawel about eight 

 the next morning. It consists of 280 dwellings, mostly 

 wooden huts of different dimensions, the rest of brick. I 

 found the Jews, who form the majority of the inhabi- 

 tants, extremely shy, and averse to conversation on 

 religious subjects. ...... 



1 On leaving Shawel I took the road to Telsh, another 

 district town of Samogatia, at which I arrived about one 

 in the morning. On approaching Telsh the level and 

 uninteresting aspect of the country undergoes a favour- 

 able change, becoming undulating, and in some parts 

 even hilly. 



' The mayor and others in Telsh assured me of a fact 

 which will scarcely be credited that the princes of the 

 family of Gedroitz are so numerous, and so poor, that 

 some of them gain their support by cutting firewood, and 

 carting it to the Vilna market for sale. Many of them 

 cultivate the ground for their livelihood. So low is the 

 princely dignity fallen in Lithuania ! And as to the state 



