UP THE DON AND VOLGA. 267 



In the third-class section of the boat life was some- 

 what more interesting. Here the moujik in his red 

 shirt and unkempt hair was in his element with an 

 accordion and plenty of weak tea and melons. As on 

 the railway, melons formed a prominent feature of all 

 the landings, as well as of the traffic on the river. 

 They went past by boat-loads, and at the stations they 

 were built up in pyramids by the thousand, like can- 

 non-balls in a fortress. In season the common people 

 almost seem to live on bread and melons. 



The river life consisted of tugs towing monster rafts 

 and strings of huge barges. The bigness of the rafts 

 and the number of barges hooked on to one tiny tug 

 seemed to curiously illustrate the Russian disposition 

 to overreach and get the best of a bargain. You meet 

 undersized tugs struggling along with no less than six 

 barges, each one of which is several times larger than 

 itself, and though you may be mistaken, you cannot 

 help thinking that the owner of the barges has some- 

 how defrauded the owner of the tug. 



All steamers burn refuse petroleum, which is brought 

 from the Baku refineries on the Caspian and moored 

 in tank hulks at various points along the river. It is 

 stored in tanks over the fire-boxes, into which it is fed 

 by means of taps. As it leaves the taps, jets of steam 

 convert it into fine spray and scatter it over the fire- 

 box, where it is consumed by instantaneous combus- 

 tion. The interior of the fire-box presents to the eye 

 nothing but a mass of yellow flame. 



The scenery of the Volga is tame, but not devoid 

 of beauty ; and in places, to one coming from a jour- 

 ney over the monotonous steppes, seems really beau- 



