Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 1.djvu/250

228 horsemen were ready to escort us to the Mongolian boundary post, to the beautiful alpine lake of Márka Kul, or to the wild, unexplored fastnesses of the Chinese Altái; and Captain Maiéfski, the hospitable commandant of the post, tempted us to prolong our stay, by promising to organize for us all sorts of delightful excursions and expeditions. The season of good weather and good roads, however,

was rapidly passing; and if we hoped to reach the mines of Kará before winter should set in, we had not a day to spare. It was already the first week in August, and a distance of 2500 miles lay between us and the head-waters of the Amúr.

Our next objective point was the city of Tomsk, distant from the Altái Station about 750 miles. In order to reach it we should be obliged to return over a part of the road that we had already traversed, and to descend the Írtish as far as the station of Píanoyarófskaya. At that point the road to Tomsk leaves the Semipalátinsk road, and runs northward through the great Altái mining district and the city of Barnaül. There were two colonies of political exiles on our route—one of them at the Cossack station of Ulbínsk, 160 miles from the Altái Station, and the other in the town of Ust Kámenogórsk. In each of these places, therefore, we purposed to make a short stay.

On the morning of Thursday, August 6th, we packed our baggage in the tárantás, ordered horses from the post station, took breakfast for the last time with Captain Maiéfski and his wife, whose kindness and warm-hearted