Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 2.djvu/372

356 Alexandrófski central prison and Krasnoyársk; but when we reached the latter place he went to bed, with his clothes on, and slept sixteen hours without waking.

The route that we intended to follow on our return journey to St. Petersburg differed a little from that which we had pursued in coming into Siberia, and included two important towns that we had not yet visited, namely, Minusínsk and Tobólsk. The former we expected to reach by making a detour of about four hundred miles to the southward from Krasnoyársk, and the latter by taking a more northerly route between Omsk and Tiumén than the one over which we had passed on our way eastward. Our equipment for the long and difficult journey that lay before us consisted of a strongly built pavóska, or seatless traveling-sleigh, with low runners, wide outriggers, and a sort of carriage-top which could be closed with a leather curtain in stormy weather; a very heavy sheepskin bag six feet wide and nine feet long in which we could both lie side by side at full length; eight or ten pillows and cushions of various sizes to fill up chinks in the mass of baggage and to break the force of the jolting on rough roads; three overcoats apiece of soft shaggy sheepskin, so graded in size and weight that we could adapt ourselves to any temperature from the freezing-point to eighty degrees below; very long and heavy felt boots known in Siberia as válinki; fur caps, mittens, and a small quantity of provisions consisting chiefly of tea, sugar, bread, condensed milk, boiled ham, frozen soup in cakes, and a couple of roasted grouse. Our heavy baggage had been packed as carefully as possible in the bottom of the pavóska, so as to make a comparatively smooth and level foundation; the interstices had been stuffed with pillows and cushions; the somewhat lumpy surface had then been covered to a depth of twelve or fourteen inches with straw; and, finally, over all had been spread our spare overcoats, blankets, and the big sheepskin bag, with a quantity of pillows at the back.