UST-ZYLMA 



CHAPTER IV. 



SLEDGING TO UST-ZYLMA. 



Bad Roads— Postal Service in Winter and Summer— Changeable Weather 

 —Scenery— Pinega and Kuloi Rivers— Snow Plains— The Forests — Birds 

 — Samoyedes — Mezen— A Polish Exile— Snow-Buntings— Jackdaws— We 

 leave Mezen — Scenery — The Mezen River — The Pizhma — Bad State of 

 the Roads— Piottuch's Accident— The Via Diabolica— Bolshanivagorskia 

 —Break up of the Road— Polish Prejudices— The Villages— Curiosity of 

 the Peasants— Greek Crosses— Love of Ornament— Employment and 

 Amusements— Samoyedes— Siberian Jays— Umskia— First View of the 

 Petchora — Arrival at Ust-Zylma. 



The journey from Archangel to Ust-Zylma on the 

 Petchora is between 700 and 800 English miles. 

 There are about forty stations, the distances between 

 them being somewhat greater than those on our previous 

 journey. Had we left Archangel a fortnight earlier, 

 before the sun was powerful enough to soften the surface 



