ACROSS RUSSIA TO ORENBURG 35 
tea while they are being put to, and hastens away as 
fast as he can drive. The staresta receives from one 
hundred and fifty (.2^15) to two hundred and eighty (^28) 
roubles a year in salary, and has under him iom yamshtchiks 
or drivers, nearly always Tatars or Kirghiz. Neither is 
their lot to be envied ; for they have to be ready to 
climb into their seat in all weathers and at all times, and 
drive their troika (team of three horses) over the same 
road which in rain or darkness, in scorching heat or wind, 
in cold and snow, they have traversed a thousand times 
before. They undoubtedly have a habit of dropping 
asleep as soon as they get well started ; but in so doing 
they only follow the example of their passengers, and it 
is easy to forgive them. Each yamshtchik receives from 
sixty (.^6) to sixty-five 10.?.) roubles a year, and a 
monthly allowance of fifty-four lbs. avoir, of bread and 
half a sheep. Provisions, and everything else that may 
be wanted at the station, are brought at intervals by a 
special messenger, whose chief occupation it is to travel 
up and down the whole long line of posting-stations. 
The whole of the posting-road between Orenburg and 
'Fashkend is private property. No gosiidarstvenny sbor, 
or “fee to the crown,” is paid at any of the stations 
between Orenburg and Orsk, for the station - masters 
own their own horses and vehicles. For a part of the 
road between Tokan and Terekli, which is owned by a 
merchant of Orenburg, Miakinoff by name, a fee to the 
crown of ten kopeks {2\di) per horse is demanded for each 
stage. Payment of the entire distance to Terekli is made 
in 'Fokan. From Terekli to Tashkend a merchant named 
Ivanoff, belonging to the latter place, is the owner of the 
post-road. Fie pays the station-masters and yamshtchiks, 
and provides horses and vehicles, receiving payment for 
the entire distance at either of the terminal stations. 
Everywhere I went people talked of the good old times, 
when this road was the only road leading to Russian 
Turkestan ; when numbers of travellers were continually 
going backwards and forwards ; and when every station 
had its nine or ten troikas (some thirty horses). General 
