486 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



X 



Photograph from Horace Brodzky 



THE FERRY AT IRKUTSK, ON THE RIVER ANGARA, CHIEE OUTLET OE LAKE BAIKAL 



In winter traffic is carried over the ice; in summer there is a pontoon-bridge (see illus- 

 tration on opposite page). When the ice is breaking up and before the pontoon-bridge is 

 swung into position, this ferry-boat is used. 



A day and a night from Barnaul 

 brought us late in the evening to Biisk, a 

 place of some importance, to which all 

 the butter coming from the vast pastures 

 which lie all round is brought, and to 

 which timber from the vast mountain 

 forests beyond is floated down the river 

 Biya, which, joined a few miles lower 

 down by the river Katun, issuing from 

 the Altai, forms the Obi. It lies at the 

 edge of the steppe, here rising nearly two 

 hundred feet above the stream, and is a 

 brisk, tli riving place, with a good many 

 people of the middle class, traders and 

 government officials. 



Through one of the latter (whose tardy 

 action I ought, perhaps, had I better 

 known the "manner of the god of the 

 land," to have accelerated in the proper 



Russian fashion) I managed to engage a 

 tarantass, the only kind of vehicle for 

 travel that is suited by its structure for 

 the country it has to traverse. It seats 

 four persons (two behind and one beside 

 the driver), has four low wheels, and 

 short poles supporting the low frame, 

 which play, however inadequately, the 

 part of springs in reducing the jolts and 

 shocks of the rough cart tracks, full of 

 stones and holes, which are here called 

 roads. Beside the two horses, a third, 

 running outside, is usually harnessed. 



Our party included an interpreter and 

 a police sergeant, told off to accompany 

 us, not for protection, since the region is 

 perfectly safe, but rather to insure our 

 getting horses at the post stations on the 

 way into Mongolia. We set off on Au- 



