On leaving Chetah we crossed a frozen stream tributary to the Ingodah, and proceeded rapidly over an excellent road.  We met several carts, one-horse affairs on two wheels, laden with hay for the Chetah market.  One man generally controlled three or four carts, the horses proceeding in single file.  The country was more open than on the other side of Chetah, and the road had suffered little in the rains and succeeding cold.  For some distance we rode near two lines of telegraph; one was a temporary affair erected during the insurrection of 1866, while the other was the permanent line designed to connect America with Europe by way of Bering’s Straits.  The poles used for this telegraph are large and firmly set, and give the line an appearance of durability.

The Captain was fond of dogs and had an English pointer in his baggage.  During the day the animal ran near the carriage, and at night slept at his master’s feet.  He was well inclined toward me after we were introduced, and before the journey ended he became my personal friend.  He had an objectionable habit of entering the tarantass just before me and standing in the way until I was seated.  Sometimes when left alone in the carriage he would not permit the yemshicks to attach the horses.  On two or three occasions of this kind the Captain was obliged to suspend his tea-drinking and go to pacify his dog.  Once as a yemshick was mounting the box of the tarantass, ‘Boika’ jumped at his face and very nearly secured an attachment to a large and ruddy nose.  Spite of his eccentricities, he was a good dog and secured the admiration of those he did not attempt to bite.

We passed the Yablonoi mountains by a road far from difficult.  Had I not been informed of the fact I could have hardly suspected we were in a mountain range.  The Yablonoi chain forms the dividing ridge between the head streams of the Amoor and the rivers that flow to the Arctic Ocean.

On the south we left a little brook winding to reach the Ingodah, and two hours later crossed the Ouda, which joins the Selenga at Verkne Udinsk.  The two streams flow in opposite directions.  One threads its way to the eastward, where it assists in forming the Amoor; the other through the Selenga, Lake Baikal, and the Yenesei, is finally swallowed up among the icebergs and perpetual snows of the far north.

“One to long darkness and the frozen tide;
  One to the Peaceful Sea.”

CHAPTER XXV.

Beyond the mountains the cold increased, the country was slightly covered with snow, and the lakes were frozen over.  In the mountain region there is a forest of pines and birches, but farther along much of the country is flat and destitute of timber.  Where the road was good our tarantass rolled along very well, and the cold, though considerable, was not uncomfortable.  I found the chief inconvenience was, that the moisture in my breath congealed on my beard and the fur clothing near it.  Two or three times beard and fur were frozen together, and it was not always easy to separate them.