256 THROUGH RUSSIA OX A MUSTANG. 



ready-equipped with horse and accoutrements to take 

 the field. They provide their own horses and saddles 

 and the Government supplies them with rifles. 



These ordinary-looking mortals, who squat in their 

 cockle-shell craft and spend their days and nights in 

 mending fishing-nets and baiting hooks, are the descend- 

 ants of the bold buccaneers who used to descend the 

 Don in big fleets of these same boats and pounce on 

 Turkish galleys in the Sea of Azov, and who, after the 

 Crimean War, boasted that they would in the same 

 waj' have captured the British fleets before Sevastopol, 

 had the Czar given them permission. 



At times the sinuosities of the way were aggravated 

 by a bewildering number of white and red pyramidal 

 buoys, and the necessity of obeying their directions to 

 prevent running aground. So tortuous was our course, 

 half the time, that the passengers of the upper deck, 

 under a scant awning, were kept in good exercise mov- 

 ing from one side to the other to keep in the shade. 



In spite of buoys, and all other precautions, however, 

 we found ourselves aground about once every two 

 hours, day and night. 



Among the third-class passengers were several sturdy 

 raftsmen, who received a free passage back to Kalatch 

 on condition that they lend a hand when the steamer 

 runs aground. They assisted her over shallow places 

 by means of a crude anchor and a cable. The " anchor" 

 consisted of a beam about thirty feet long, peaked at 

 one end, and with an iron cross-bar near the sharpened 

 end. Wading ahead a hundred yards or so with this 

 beam and the noosed end of the cable, they placed 

 the noose over the cross-bar and dipped the sharp end 



