Page:Morgan Philips Price - Siberia (1912).djvu/88

 56 anywhere, when a few minutes later you see a whole herd being driven in from pasture; or to be told that there is no one to take you on, when the whole village is full of idlers; or to be asked a price six times greater than the fixed post road tariff, because, while no one wants particularly to do the job, still everyone is ready to join hands for a little plunder. The village community thereby creates a monopoly into which it is very difficult to drive the wedge of competition, although occasionally one finds a single peasant ready to break the ring and get the whole job for himself at a reduced rate. The power of collective action and bargaining is one of the greatest assets of the Russian peasant.

From Borodina our track lay over the steppe, undulating in wide sweeps. The vegetation became dryer as we sank into the hollow through which the Yenisei River flowed. We passed over some little streams half frozen at the sides. We had to cut our way through the ice into the bed of the stream, in order to put the carts over. At length some groves of poplars ahead told us that the Yenisei was near, and we soon saw the great river, which was about a quarter of a mile across and full of drifting pack ice after the spring thaw. This was not encouraging, but an old Siberian assured us that we could get over with our luggage. After the usual delay the first batch was taken over and watched anxiously as the poplar "dug-out" was rowed up stream for about two hundred yards, hugging the banks and pushing its way through masses of half-melted ice, which made it quiver from stem to stem. When this was done the boat was rowed straight across the river, being carried down by the current