ON THE WAY HOME 293 



panied by fish, sour cream, cheese (Swiss Gruyfere), 

 lemon for the tea, sugar, biscuits, sweets, black 

 bread, which they ate with sour cream and buttermilk, 

 and a good supply of caviare, which has a great re- 

 putation, and last, but not by any means least so 

 far as they were concerned, " vodka." The third- 

 class carriages were badly lighted, with only one 

 candle to each compartment. My host and hostess 

 had another candle stuck in the neck of a vodka 

 bottle to help the light. They remarked that it 

 was necessary to take your own candle if you want 

 to read or write. In this carriage there were four 

 compartments with six berths to each of them, in- 

 cluding the sides of the corridor. In the next com- 

 partment were a man and his wife and two children, 

 who were going back to Moscow because Siberia had 

 not been kind to them ; and in the one next to them 

 were two young ladies, very poorly dressed, who were 

 going to seek their fortunes in Moscow, having grown 

 tired of Siberia. Most of the third-class passengers 

 had their food with them and only got hot water 

 from the large samovar or the hot-water house at the 

 stations. On the train were two Siberian cats which 

 were being taken to Moscow. They were finer than 

 any Persian cat I have ever seen. I learnt that the 

 climate of Russia does not agree with them, and they 

 nearly all die, while several have been brought to 

 England with the same result. They are beautiful 

 animals, with very long hair and of good size. They 

 fought all the time and made a terrific noise, which 

 disturbed all the passengers. It was annoying when 

 the passengers wanted to sleep, although sleeping on 

 bare boards on a long journey by post train is not 

 so comfortable as some people would like. There 

 were in all thirty-six passengers, whereas in the same 

 space in the second class there were only 20. 

 Including stoppages at eight stations we were 40 



