Page:The Boy Travellers in the Russian Empire.djvu/381

Rh little snow falls in the winter, and sometimes for the entire year wheels must be used. Krasnoyarsk is in the valley of the Yenisei River, and they told me that very little snow falls within twenty miles of the town, and in some winters none at all. I must leave the scientific men to explain it.

"I heard a story at Krasnoyarsk of an Englishman who was travelling alone through Siberia a few winters before the time of my visit, Finding no snow there on his arrival, he decided to wait until it fell, and the roads would be good enough for him to proceed. He waited days and days, but no snow. The days grew into weeks, and the weeks into months, but still no snow. He remained sullenly at the hotel or wandered about the streets; the hotel-keeper did not enlighten him, as he was a good customer, and the stranger did not seek counsel of any one else. He might have been there to this day had he not met in the hotel a fellow-countryman who was travelling eastward. The latter explained the climatic conditions of the place to his long-detained compatriot, and then the latter made arrangements for proceeding on his journey.

"Before I forget it," continued Mr. Hegeman, "let me say that the Russians have-several songs in which the delights of sleighing are described. Here is one of them, which may possibly need the explanation that the duga is the yoke over the shaft-horse's neck, and Valdai is the place where the most famous bells of Russia are cast. You already know that a troika is a team of three horses harnessed abreast—

"I will tell you of a sleigh-ride in which there is less poetry than in the song I have quoted.

"An English gentleman was stopping with some Siberian friends, and one day it was proposed to take a ride in a sledge. The Englishman had