CHAPTER IX 



LEAVING BYSK 



A post-master's pass — Importance of the instrument — Skubensky — 

 Bulanka — ^^Haruzofsky — Petrovsk — The River Belle — Intense 

 cold — Ovchinikovskaya — We shoot a "jouravl" — Jelensky — 

 Crossing the Obi under difficulties — Barnaoul — We visit the 

 chief dairy instructor — Beleraska — Povolicha — Ozjorka — 

 Talmanskalyar — Game and wild-fowl shooting — Anisimofsky 

 — Beating the speed records — Bersk — The Obi again — The 

 Wigans Expedition — Alternative routes from Novo-Nicolaevsk 

 to Bysk — The great thaw begins in earnest — Siberian waterways 

 and spring — Conditions of labour — Exploring Novo-Nicolaevsk 

 — A church interior — The priest and the people — The longest 

 promenade in the world — A farewell supper and concert — 

 Taking train for Europe again— Bribery of officials — The 

 Siberian railway in peace and war. 



In order to take advantage of the heavy fall of snow, 

 we decided to leave Bysk the next day, April 23rd. 

 My interpreter was successful in obtaining a pass 

 from the postmaster, which read as follows : — 



" From the Chief of the Bysk Post and Telegraph 

 Station. April, 1903, No. 739. To postmasters and 

 secretaries of all post stations between Bysk and 

 Novo-Nicolaevsk. In accordance with the command 

 of superior officialism I order to let pass without 

 any delay (not less than three horses on each stage) 

 and to show every assistance to the undermentioned 

 British subject, Mr. Samuel Turner.— (Signed) Chief 

 of the Post Office, M. A. Baschenka." 



