final stroke of victory, after which the doors are opened and winter life commences.

دو

But we linger too long over this portion of Mr. Erman's narrative. On the first of October he recommenced his journey, and towards evening passed several villages, where lighted splints of the pine-tree were visible to a considerable distance. Every trace of harvest had disappeared, and the naked branches of the birch bore too striking evidence of the approach of winter. Still, the meadows appeared brilliantly green, and it was not until after our travellers crossed the Irtuish on the 7th, that the first fall of snow commenced the "white season. This river is regarded by the Russian exiles almost in the same light as the grave; for having once passed its broad yellow flood, hopes die within them, and they are considered as consigned to political and civil death. Yet that which is big with the misery of some, enjoys a high degree of importance in the minds of others. The officer who is bold enough to volunteer his services beyond the Irtuish, the Stygian lake of Russia, is sure of a step in rank, and as three years form the period allotted for them to serve in those cheerless regions, numerous are the competitions for the promised advantage. At the market-place of Tobolsk travellers often provide themselves with the heavy fur garments necessary, in order to enable them to endure the severity of the winter. From the warm, though cheap hare-skin, to the light skin of the young bear, every species of fur is piled up to tempt the eye. But, in the present instance the Gostinoidor of Kasan had been the chosen market place, and Mr. Erman passed by the rare display offered to his gaze at Tobolsk, a town of some importance, inhabited by a moderate population, who carry on a large and lucrative traffic with many surrounding nations. It is not only through the legitimate processes of trade, however, that the merchants of Tobolsk acquire wealth; they often buy children from their parents, to sell beyond the frontiers, and where they cannot buy they kidnap.

"The conversation of a Kirgis belonging to our host, and who was a constant companion of our nocturnal trips in the sledge, contributed not a little to amuse us. He told us how, when a lad of sixteen-and boding no good-he was enticed by his father from the steppe to the Siberian frontiers, and was there handed over to some Russian merchants in discharge of a debt of 180 roubles. He tra

velled with his new master to Tomsk, and being dismissed from thence, he entered immediately into the service of his present owner. The only tidings he had since received from home were, that his unnatural father had met with the punishment due to perfidy, being killed by some Russians with whom he had quarrelled. Perhaps for the sake of the appearance of revenging himself on fate, the otherwise good-natured man related with rare glee, how he too had renounced the children whom he had reared at Tobolsk from his marriage, and had given them in servitude to other Russians."

Two practices prevail among the Kirgis, than which scarcely anything can be conceived more characteristic of a barbarian state of society. Having kidnapped a Russian, it is a difficult thing to secure themselves from the chance of his running away; the plan adopted is to knock the captive on the side of the head in such a manner as to deaden his intellect, and thus render him less capable of effecting his escape. Long and continual practice in this art, has rendered the Kirgis adepts at it. But the Russian, though the power to escape is thus, in a great measure, taken from him, still retains his national aptitude. He is by habit a pedestrian, and will not mount a horse unless compelled to do so. The Kirgis, on the contrary, are so constantly on horseback, that they may almost be described as living in the saddle. To overcome the prejudices of their bondsmen would be considered as too difficult a task by these barbarians. They therefore pursue the plan of cutting a deep flesh wound in the heel of the unfortunate captive, into which they rest a twist of horsehair. This operation causes indescribable agony to the sufferer, who is at first absolutely compelled to ride, and is ever after incapacitated from moving freely, save on horseback.

We cannot pause to accompany Mr. Erman through his interesting description of the various ceremonies and rites which vary the monotony of Siberian existence. In the course of his great experience, he enjoyed ample opportunity for observing all those varied and extraordinary features of society, everywhere apparent among the races who came under our traveller's eye. Beyond Tobolsk, it was necessary to make use of sledges instead of the European vehicle in which they had hitherto performed the journey. We now find Mr. Erman gliding with immense rapidity across a frozen arm of the Irtuish, along snowy roads, over ploughed fields, and again across extensive plains, until he arrived at the village of Kosheleva, a village situated on the banks of an inlet from the main stream:

"A row of wooden houses, erected between the eastern margin of this piece of water and the steep hills enclosing it, which are adorned with tall fir-trees, looking beautifully green in the midst of the snow. * * * Since morning, the temperature had risen, with a clouded sky; large flakes of snow were now falling, and the wind breaking among the hills, occasioned a violent whirling. Nevertheless, the people of the village, active and hearty, were busily employed in the open air. A number of men were cutting holes in the ice to let down their hooks. Others, men and women, were looking after the horses for our conveyance. They had vigorous figures and blooming faces, and we heard nothing from them but jokes and laughing exclamations."

The travellers now proceeded over alternate sheets of ice and snow, towards Demyansk. Beyond this place, the road lay through lofty hills, crowned with fir forests, and composed of a loose rich mould. It was night when the party traversed this portion of the country. The moon had risen, and flung her bright beams over the hill tops, across the beaten highway. Far to the left, appeared the high mountains, bright with snow, and glittering in the rays of the moon; while far in the distance could be observed tall dark forests nodding beneath a gentle wind. The sharp ringing of the horses' hoofs upon the hard snow, was the only sound that disturbed the all-pervading silence of the night. An extraordinary phenomenon appeared in the sky, in the shape of a white arch of immense extent, above which towered several other fragmentary arches, each surrounded by a bright halo.

On the 27th November, Mr. Erman and his companions arrived at an Ostyak settlement. Here they witnessed the primeval simplicity of an aboriginal tribe. Ten huts stood on the eastern side of a large river island. The roofs were heaped up with earth, and between each habitation grew a number of thick bushes, which must have caused the place to look extremely picturesque in summer. Each dwelling was divided by a number of partitions, each of which opened towards the centre, where a large bright fire continually kept the atmosphere warm.

"The thick woods of the neighbourhood abound in the better kinds of fur animals, so that every one gets without much trouble the two sable skins required from each family as yasak, or tribute to the Russians; and it is seldom found necessary to pay an equivalent in other skins. Our host showed us a fine sable skin got already this winter, which he kept in a strong box like a treasure, which he kept in a corner of the yurt. The value of this skin was diminished by a bright, almost yellow colour of the fur, which the people ascribed to the circumstance of the animal living in a wood where there was too much light There was much anxiety evinced respecting the hunting and trapping of this year; as a fire in the woods had driven the sables away from the Kevaskian yurts. Accidents of this kind are unfortunately not rare on the banks of the Obi; for of the superb pine forests, which constitute at once the ornaments and riches of the place, tracts of from thirty to forty miles have been often seen on fire in summer. It is not improbable that the mischief is often caused by the fires of wandering hunters, and that the hand of man first propagates the destructive element, which it is unable afterwards to check in its progress. Nothing stops the fire in such cases, but a good fall of rain; but in the meantime the desolation which it has produced is total and irremediable. In the burnt woods there spring up, in place of the majestic store pines, only birches and aspens."

From Kevashinsk our travellers proceeded to the picturesque Sosnovian yurts; thence along the ice-covered Obi, past several other Siberian communities, to the convent of Konsdinsk, built at the bottom of a steep bank on the verge of a broad naked plain. Still further on, they visited many Siberian villages, and some miles more brought them under the influence of a milder temperature, where they met with unfrozen springs and deliciously pure water. The route now lay through those mighty woods, among whose recesses the ermine is hunted and entrapped. The dog is the chief means employed to drive this animal, so valuable for its fur, into the trap laid for it in some chosen spot in the forest. The winter yurts of Taginsk were next reached. Here our travellers first yoked the reindeers to their sledges. Some delay was unavoidably occasioned by the circumstance, that these willing animals are not confined in any given place when not required for draught, but are allowed to stray at liberty to the most distant portions of the woods. Mr. Erman, therefore, while his companions sought the salutary rest afforded by couches of reindeer skin, which had been spread for them by the hospitable yurt-dwellers, occupied himself with observing the picturesque scene presented. Numerous black huts were sprinkled over a wide glade in the middle of the forest. A huge bright fire sparkled in the centre, and round it were clustered a group of men, who, naked to the waist, were endeavouring to thoroughly warm themselves before retiring to sleep. Presently a loud clattering noise was heard, and the reindeers were seen galloping towards the yurts from all points of the wood, now hidden by the trees, and now revealed as their graceful forms bounded over the snow. Their drivers followed, uttering a peculiar cry, and in a few moments the timid but docile creatures, were standing in a circle close to the huts, ready for the yoke.

At three o'clock in the morning they started, traversed eighty versts of snowy country, then shot along over the ice, close under the woody bank of the Obi, and, after a short stay at the yurts of Kachegatsk, proceeded rapidly in a northernly direction towards the Polar circle, now only eighty-four miles distant. The fertile qualities of the soil of this portion of the country, triumphed even over the severity of the season. Trees of magnificent foliage grew abundantly on the banks of the stream, while garden vegetables, green hedgerows, and roses, gave evidence of the luxuriant richness of the earth. Travelling further along the Obi, under a gentle fall of snow, the traveller arrived towards evening at the winter tents of Keegat, where they were forcibly reminded of their bivouac at Taginsk.

"In the middle of the tent was a blazing fire. All the men were sitting on skins, with the upper part of their bodies bare, and their backs against the hair of the tent covering. A little boy of four years old, had nothing on but drawers; and a little child lay in a canoe-shaped cradle of reindeer skin. Two women, of middle age, were also sitting on the ground, with all their usual clothing, and they were wrapped up even below the shoulders with the veiling head dress, which was here made of Russian woollen stuff. With great coyness they refused to show us their faces, and when I pulled up, playfully, the veil of one, she replaced it at once, and cried out lustily; yet the men, who were present, and witnessed what was going on, took so little notice of it, and seemed so indifferent, that it can hardly be said that jealousy of strangers has here given rise to the practice of veiling."

After the usual preparatory arrangements, melting snow to boil the fish, and spreading skins to rest on, Mr. Erman and his party sought their rest, and passed in the rude winter tents of Keegat, a night as comfortable as though