410 
IT VOS FEAR-FCTX EXCELLENT. 
In this way a couple of hours rolled by, when we finally 
gained the mouth of the river, and were glad enough to 
land on the bank and track our boat up against the 
strong ebb-tide d la canal-boat; but even this was no 
amusement, for the bank was alternately of mud and 
round stones, which made the walking very bad, and we 
could see no signs of a village. Still, we knew that it 
must be on the river somewhere^ and so continued our 
pleasurc-lrip. Another hour passed in this mule-like 
occupation, and then we rounded a point and were grati- 
fied by seeing the cutters and a strange whale-boat 
moored to the bank a few hundred j^ards ahead, and the 
scattering houses of a very respectable-looking village 
looming up in their rear. We felt tired enough as we 
reached the nearest boat and secured the tomtit to her 
by the painter, and inwardly vowed never to enter upon 
another pleasure-party of discovery, though, like Hart- 
man and the rest, I expressed myself highly edified by 
the pull when the more fortunate passengers by the 
cutters asked us in regard to the “time we had had.” 
“Oh! it VOS fine time!” said Uartman, in answer 
to one of their questions. “It vos fear-/w? excellent; I 
hope I alw’ays go in ze Thomas Tit;” and the rest of us 
upheld him simply to avoid being joked. 
We found the people of Armen the same exactly as 
those at Ola, only they lived in the houses in which we 
found them all the year round, instead of retreating 
back into the country as the winter came on. There was 
also living with them an aged Russian soldier, whom the 
officer of the strange whale-boat told us had been there 
ever since he had first cruised in those waters, and whom 
