254 THROUGH RUSSIA ON A MUSTANG. 



They contain shipbuilding timber for the Black Sea, 

 telegraph poles, railway ties, logs, and firewood. Two 

 or three huts, in which the navigators live, are built 

 on each, and besides the navigators they sometimes 

 carry wood-choppers, who convert logs into firewood on 

 the voyage down. 



In reply to our tootings and the threatening gy- 

 rations of our irascible little captain's arms, the red- 

 shirted raftsmen lazily worked huge sweeps that are 

 attached to the fore and rear ends of the raft and 

 slowly and grudgingly gave us the channel. The 

 captain shook his fist at them as we steamed labori- 

 ously by, and removed his eternal cigarette-holder from 

 his mouth, as if to annihilate them with a volley of 

 invectives. Mindful of the lady passengers at his elbow, 

 however, he thought better of it, and blowing the rem- 

 nant of the last cigarette away with an impatient puff, 

 he lit a new one and sent his orders down the speak- 

 ing-tube to put on full speed. 



Our steamer was thoroughly Russian in its disposition 

 to make a tremendous fuss about nothing. In re- 

 sponse to the captain's orders for full speed its engines 

 throbbed and pulsated at a feverish ~ rate, and its 

 paddles set up such a prodigious splashing that one 

 might easily be deceived into thinking it was making 

 fifteen knots an hour, if our surroundings would only 

 assist in the delusion. 



Neither the Cossack urchin on the right bank (who 

 was amusing himself by keeping up with us) however, 

 nor the herd of horses swimming and wading across 

 the river ahead of us were to be humbugged by our 

 fussy outlay of noise and steam. The youngster easily 



