270 SIBERIA 



of hard snow, and the road was very good, although 

 rough in places. A sunrise is always a beautiful 

 spectacle, but that at the commencement of this stage 

 was enhanced by the beauty of the trees on the banks 

 of the River Belle, which were covered with hoar 

 frost. The most beautiful of sights, however, could 

 not have helped us to forget the intense cold, which 

 troubled my interpreter to such an extent that I had 

 to improvise some protection for him out of one of 

 my old Alpine caps, by cutting holes in it for the eyes 

 and mouth and pulling it down to the neck. 



Telegraph poles skirted the roadside for some 

 distance, and, where they left the road, small im- 

 poverished trees had been planted to serve as guides 

 to the traveller across this pathless part of the 

 steppes, which is much subject to snow drifts. The 

 bl&ck-and-white striped verst posts, eight feet in 

 height, also acted as guides, and every one of them 

 was welcome as a sign of so much progress made. 

 We counted every verst in our anxiety to get to the 

 next station. On passing the twentieth verst post 

 we came in sight of a very handsome church, a 

 certain indication of a village being near, and sure 

 enough, a little beyond it, in a shallow valley, lay the 

 village, which we went through, noticing, as we did 

 so, the partiality the pigeons and other birds very 

 properly displayed for the warm roofs of the houses. 



Just beyond the village was another forest covered 

 with hoar frost, a hoar frost which had by this time 

 covered ourselves and the horses. In 2 J hours iwe 

 completed the journey, the temperature having fallen 

 still further to 45 degrees below freezing-point, so 

 that we were fully able to appreciate the warm^ post 

 station at Petrovsk. While the roads remained in 

 good condition, however, we were obliged to make 

 the best use of our time, so our stay here was very 

 brief. 



