EXPEDITION TO THE ALTAI 145 



and travelling increasingly difficult. The holes worn 

 by the sledges in the snow were from three to five 

 feet deep. In some places the snow was very deep, 

 while in others it had been blown away altogether, 

 and all along our route the track was so narrow that 

 there was never room for more than one horse upon 

 it at a time. The forests were not so thick as those 

 we had passed through on the way to Barnaoul. The 

 country east of the River Obi was hilly and covered 

 with forests, while that on the west was uniformly 

 flat and destitute of vegetation. The forests were 

 largely composed of birch and aspen trees, with a 

 sprinkling of pine and dark firs. The oak grows very 

 small. The distance between Barnaoul and Bysk is 

 150J versts, or ioo| miles, not 120 miles as I had 

 been led to believe from the writings of previous 

 travellers. Soon after leaving Barnaoul we had to 

 cross the River Obi. As the ice was breaking up 

 we made the crossing in a drosky. I was impressed 

 by the prosperous appearance of the villages and 

 the size of the houses of which they are composed. 

 Most of the peasants about here are the descendants 

 of early Russian colonists who migrated hither and 

 were granted large portions of land, upon which 

 they have prospered exceedingly ever since. Many 

 of them collected around our sledge when we stopped, 

 and plied us with questions. When we told them 

 we came from England they appeared mystified — 

 they had never heard of such a place. They appeared 

 to be a free, bold' peasantry, very superior to the 

 humble and rather timid native of European Russia, 

 We changed our entire turn-out six times before 

 reaching Bysk. During one half of the journey the 

 country was very hilly, while the track being too 

 narrow to allow two horses running abreast, the second 

 one of our team very often slipped up to the collar 

 into the soft snow at the side of the road. Once or 



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