﻿512 Trof. Milne — Across Europe and Asia. 



ping every two or three hours at some post-station to obtain a 

 change of horses. I now noticed that the birch-trees were only- 

 growing upon the land which had been cleared on either side of the 

 road ; far behind them I could see the dark frontage of woods of fir. 

 The evergreen, on being cut down, had evidently given way, whilst 

 trees, like birch and aspen, had sprung up in its place, giving us 

 an example of that succession in growth which sometimes takes 

 place in the Vegetable Kingdom, and which Lyell and others have 

 represented as having taken place in pre-historic Denmark and 

 in other countries. Every night we now had frosts, and it was 

 necessary to wrap up warmly, whilst every morning the sun 

 streamed in at the open mouth of our tarantass to take off the chill 

 of night, and remind us that it was Eastward Ho that we were 

 travelling. 



On the morning of the 27th at. last I saw real hills. They were 

 large and smooth in outline. Separating us from them there was 

 a valley filled with mist, between the patches of which small 

 stretches of a shining river could now and then be seen. 



As we were entering a village called Bojotol, at about 9.30 a.m., 

 one of our carriages happening to break down, I had an opportunity 

 given to me to walk down to the river I had seen, which I learnt 

 was called the Ohulim. In a bend upon the side towards which the 

 water flowed, there were banks 20-30 feet in height. The upper 

 layer of these was of black earth, about 1^ feet in thickness, beneath 

 which came a yellowish clay, v/hich readily crumbled when it was 

 dry. In this latter, which formed the remainder of the bank, about 

 six feet from the top, I found a lower jaw of some small rodent like 

 a Squirrel. This was unfortunately so friable that it broke whilst it 

 was being transported. Two feet below this there was a band of 

 clayey concretions. Two feet still lower I found a number of frag- 

 mentary bones, only the articulating heads of which were preserved. 

 They were apparently those of an animal like an Ox. Beneath this 

 bone band there was a bed of bluish clay, from which a talus sloped 

 downwards to the water's edge, hiding all that was beneath. After 

 the difficulties of carriage mending had been overcome, we proceeded 

 on our journey. Some miles farther on the road I saw another 

 section in the banks of the same river, which I have just described. 

 It was, however, twice as thick, and was made up of beds which 

 were very sandy. In the afternoon we passed a square post 

 standing by the side of the road, which marked the division between 

 the governments of East and West Siberia, and the same evening 

 we entered the town of Artchinsk. Before night came on I had 

 time to see that there were a few low hills in the neighbourhood, 

 but these, I think, like those at Tobolsk, were made of alluvial 

 material. Next afternoon, just before we reached Krasnojarsk, 

 which I looked upon as the halfway house upon our tiresome car- 

 riage journey, we entered on a hilly country. It was very open, 

 which, with its want of trees, together with its smooth curving 

 contour-lines, gave to it an appearance not unlike our English 

 Downs. For a considerable time whilst we were rolling along the 



