A VIA DIABOLICA 29 



advance of our sledge, and when we overtook him at the 

 station he came to us with a very long face to tell us of 

 the "tres mal chose." We soon set him upon his legs 

 again. We bought a peasant's sledge for a rouble and a 

 half, took off the sides, and removing the runners from 

 the broken sledge lashed the two together with a strong 

 cord. Piottuch started in high glee again, assuring us 

 that his sledge was "beaucoup plus bon" than ours. The 

 effect of the alteration however was, to raise the level of 

 his outriggers a few inches, which made all the difference 

 between safety and danger. He was soon fast asleep as 

 usual, for he had not yet quite slept off his Mezen cham- 

 pagne, when his sledge gave a greater lurch than it was 

 wont to do and capsized, waking him with a shower of 

 portmanteaus about his ears ; and he was dragged out of 

 the deep snow by the yemschik amidst roars of laughter 

 on our part. 



As before, we found the roads in the open plain 

 always good. These plains were a dead flat, with a tree 

 or two here and there. The rut worn by the horses' feet 

 was not deep, and the path was almost level with the 

 side. We glided along smoothly and luxuriously. The 

 roads in the forest were bad beyond all conception. The 

 banks were high, and were always in the way of the 

 outriggers, which "scrunched" against them with a most 

 irritating sound. Both laterally and vertically they were 

 as winding as a snake. Sometimes our sledge was on 

 the top of a steep hill, our first horse in the valley, and 

 our third horse on the top of the next hill. The motion 

 was like that of a boat in a chopping sea, and the sledge 

 banged about from pillar to post to such an extent that 

 we scarcely felt the want of exercise. The Russian 

 forest-road is not a via mala, it is a via diabolica. 



At Bolshanivagorskia, upon entering the station-house, 



