b4 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



the supply has to reach the old capital by rail and 

 road. 



The Russian peasants of these great northern forest 

 regions ?re the most skillful axmen in the world, 

 beeping the pardon of the lumbermen of Maine and 

 Minnesota ; and the forest is their good foster-mother, 

 without whom they would have a sorry enough time 

 of it, dodging the tax-collector's knout. The land is 

 poor, and the amount allotted to them by the govern- 

 ment when they were emancipated is often insufficient 

 for their bare support, saying nothing of taxes. Since 

 there is no escaping the latter, great numbers of these 

 northern moujiks literally " take to the woods " for the 

 greater part of the year. 



All winter the ring of ax, and the buzzing music of 

 the sawmills resound through the forests ; and men and 

 teams transport fire-wood, railway ties, telegraph poles, 

 lumber, and blocks for paving city streets, to the rail- 

 ways and river banks. With the thawing of rivers 

 and canals in spring, a great movement begins in 

 building huge rafts of timber, and starting off big 

 barges of fire-wood. The barges are generally frail 

 affairs, that are broken up at the journey's end. 



Much of the forest is owned by the government, 

 even about St. Petersburg and Moscow. " Government 

 property " in Russia means something very different 

 from the American idea of the same. No such libertv 

 is permitted as with the unsettled domains of Uncle 

 Sam. Everything available on government land is 

 expected to yield a revenue, as on the property of 

 an individual. It " belongs to the Czar." Why 

 should the Czar permit liberties with his patch of forest 



