470 
URIAH IIEEP IN EASTERN SIBERIA. 
possessed of immoderately-tliin long arms and legs. He 
had a huge head resting upon a cornstalk-like neck, a 
large and flahby-looking mouth, a most disagreeable 
countenance, and a manner at once obsequious and pre- 
suming. His complexion was horribly sallow, and his 
huge feet moved over the creaking floor without seeming 
to leave it at all. His general appearance indicated a 
long ride accomplished, as he advanced to Mr. Froigli- 
burg and spoke a few words in Russian. When he had 
ended he was presented to the party as Mr. , just 
arrived from St. Petersburg, 
“Just arrived from St. Petersburg!” exclaimed several 
voices in a breath. “Why, Mr. , how long have you 
been on the road?” 
“ Rather longer than usual,” was the smiling — such a 
smiling! — reply. “To-morrow will be nine months since 
I left, but my health has been bad, and I travelled by 
short stages. I have only ridden forty miles to-day, but 
that is much for me.” He, too, spoke Englisli quite well, 
and, as he took a seat, crossed his pipestem-like legs, and 
folded his long hands over his knee, I expected to hear 
him add, “But I’m very ’umble,” so much did ho remind 
me of an old acquaintance, — one Uriah Heep, of David 
Copperfield memory. 
“Don’t imagine that it’s such a very terrible journey, 
after all !” exclaimed “ old Frybark.” “ The Government 
Post does it in sixty days, and when the news of the war 
came it was only fifty-eight on the road. You can easily 
make the trip in eighty days at a cost of five hundred 
dollars: in fact, it is only a pleasant travel. You go from 
here to river on horseback, — a distance of some 
