Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 2.djvu/148

132 severity. The mercury in our thermometer indicated zero (Fahr.); our fur coats and the bodies of our horses were white with frost; and the broad, rapid current of the Shílka was so choked with masses of heavy ice as to be

almost, if not quite, impassable. A large open skiff was making a perilous attempt to cross from Strétinsk to our side of the river, and a dozen or more peasants, who stood shivering around a small camp-fire on the beach, were waiting for it, with the hope that it would come safely to land and that the ferrymen might be persuaded to make a