BYSK 267 



selves. He was armed with a long coil of rope with 

 which to face the dangers of the crossing, while 

 one of his friends carried a. long pole. These pre- 

 cautions were, probably, by no means superfluous, 

 as the current of the river is very swift, and the 

 depth in that particular spot pretty considerable. 

 A person missing his footing, while jumping from 

 one piece of ice to another, would run considerable 

 risk of being drowned, unless supplied with some- 

 thing of the kind. Notwithstanding these considera- 

 tions, however, I considered it my duty to chaff our 

 Russian friend about it. 



Once across the river we had a drive of about 

 six miles to the banks of the Bye, where the steamers 

 were being cleaned and burnished for the coming 

 summer season. 



The weather was beautiful, the air balmy and 

 spring-like. We hired six carriers and proceeded 

 to negotiate the broken ice of the river — by no means 

 a simple task. We were advised to be particularly 

 careful, as several people had fallen in the day 

 before. At this point the Bye is about one third 

 of a. mile across. For the last 30 yards we secured 

 the aid of a boat, from which we piled the luggage 

 on to the bank while my fellow-traveller went off to 

 find a drosky. He returned in about three-quarters of 

 an hour, having made a, mistake in the house. The 

 inmates of the house into which he had strayed were 

 celebrating Easter and insisted on his staying to 

 partake of some of the Easter cake and the " vodka." 

 Our drosky man demanded an exorbitant price, but 

 we paid it gladly, as we were anxious to return to 

 Bysk and comparative civilisation. The journey to 

 Katunda only occupied three days and two nights, 

 but the return journey had taken us five days and 

 four nights of very difficult travelling. Our average 

 daily journey commenced at about five a.m. and 

 finished at ten p.m., with very little rest in between. 



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