76 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



the occasion to which the scars bear reference, a 

 wounded bear came perilously near cheating the world 

 out of " War and Peace," " My Religion," and other of 

 the Count's productions that we could ill afford to be 

 without. He owed his life to the presence of mind of 

 his brother, who was hunting with him. Tolstoi had 

 shot at bruin twice, wounding him both times without 

 disabling him ; and in return the bear had knocked 

 him down in the snow and was standing over him, when 

 the brother rushed up and put a bullet in its brain. 



From bruin to Briton may, or may not be much of 

 a digression, depending, of course, on the nature of 

 the Briton in the case. For the sake of continuity, 

 moreover, even more startling associations than these 

 two may be permitted to the chronicler of a journey. 

 It is well, however, when abrupt transitions of this 

 nature occur, if one is able to disarm English suscep- 

 tibility by introducing, after treating of bears, a gentle- 

 man as unlike one of those animals as it is possible for 

 a human being to be. 



We spent the heat of the day at the hospitable 

 datscha of Mr. Hamson, a cotton mill-owner of Tzaritza. 

 Mr. Hamson is a fair specimen of a type-of English- 

 men one occasionally comes upon in Russia. He was 

 born in the country, of parents who had gone to 

 Russia and started cotton mills fifty years before. 

 Others went as managers in Russian mills, and in the 

 course of time became partners and proprietors. 



You see unmistakable English and Scotch faces 

 among officers of the army and navy, and in centers 

 of mining, manufacturing, and shipping industries. 

 These are the descendants of Englishmen who flocked 



