THE PINEGA AND KULOI 23". 



smart frost, and began to congratulate each other on the 

 chance of our progress being more rapid. But we soon* 

 found that we were out of the frying-pan into the fire. 

 The great traffic to and from the fair at Pinega had worn 1 

 a deep rut for the horses' feet in the track, and one runner 

 of our sledge would persist in running in it, which threw 

 the sledge so much out of the level that the outrigger or 

 projecting spar, which is necessary to prevent the sledge 

 from being upset every five minutes, was continually 

 ploughing into the snow which formed a bank on each 

 side of the road. As long as the snow was soft it was of 

 little consequence, but when the crust was hardened by 

 an hour or two of frost, the outrigger of the sledge went 

 " scrunch " into it with a sound almost like that of a man 

 turning wood in a lathe, and our progress was as much im- 

 peded by this unwelcome break as it had been by the giving 

 way of the snow under the horses' feet. On Thursday 

 afternoon the sun was again hot, but fortunately it froze again 

 at night. Friday was dull all day, with a slight thaw, and 

 we reached Mezen at 4 P.M. and found the roofs dripping. 

 The scenery on the route was much more varied than 

 we had expected to find it. Most of the way we sledged 

 through the forests, a wide space being cleared on each 

 side of the track ; but sometimes the trees came close up 

 to the road, which was hilly and winding, and we seemed 

 to be lost in a dense wood. Perhaps the most picturesque 

 scenery of the journey was that we saw in ascending the 

 Pinega River and descending the Kuloi, and we repeat- 

 edly enjoyed it for some versts at a time. The Pinega 

 River is very broad, with what looked like cliffs of oolite 

 on each side, surmounted by pine forests. The Kuloi 

 River is narrower, and there are no cliffs of any importance, 

 the trees coming down to the edge of the ice. When we 

 passed the Kuloi near its source, soon after leaving 



