EXPEDITION TO THE ALTAI 155 



iWe experienced some difficulty in securing the 

 services of a driver and sledge, and, when we suc- 

 ceeded, it was by agreeing to pay double fare to 

 the next stage at Barancha, a distance of 27 miles. 

 The moujik assured us that he could earn more by 

 bringing trees into the village from the forest, an 

 occupation in which large numbers of the peasantry 

 engage during the winter months. iWe had not pro- 

 ceeded very far from the village when we came to 

 a number of trees that had been cut down and 

 brought out of the forest quite recently, and farther 

 on we met numbers of sledges laden with tree trunks 

 coming out of the forest in all directions, the depth 

 and softness of the snow having prevented all a.ccess 

 to the forests until about a week previously. We 

 drove along at a very good pace. The horses were 

 fresh and spirited and the driver an exceptionally 

 good one. The call which the Russian driver emits 

 when encouraging his horses was louder from this 

 particular driver than I ever heard it, and the team 

 appeared to respond to it with something very much 

 like intelligence. We stopped occasionally on the 

 way to engage in a few minutes' shooting, the white 

 hare and the ryabchik falling to our guns^ 



Presently we emerged into more hilly country, 

 covered for the most part by what appeared to be 

 practically virgin forest. Some of the cedar trees 

 we passed were exceptionally fine specimens, the most 

 numerous, however, were aspen and birch, with a 

 sprinkling of a species of fir with a dark brown 

 bark. We rested for a brief spell at the summit of 

 the Shimelovskaya Pass, 3,500 feet above sea-level. 

 The distance from Altaiskoe to the base of the pass 

 is two miles, while the summit is two miles farther. 

 We halted near a verst post, which stood a few 

 yards off the road, and arranged a shooting match, 

 the verst post serving as target. My revolver shot 



