in danger of following the example of drunkenness?  Russian officers frequently spoke of the condition of the church in Eastern Siberia, and declared with emphasis that it needed reformation.  “Our priests,” said one, “have carried our religion wherever our armies have carried conquest, and their efforts to advance Christianity deserve all praise.  But abuses exist and have grown up, and the whole system needs to be arranged anew.”

We had much freight on board, consisting chiefly of muskets for the province of the Trans-Baikal.  There were many passengers that lived literally on deck.  They were aft of the engines and above our cabin.  On deck we had the forward part of the boat as on the Ingodah.  The deck passengers were soldiers, and Cossacks in their long grey coats, and peasants of all ages in garments of sheepskin.  There were women with infants, and women without infants, the former being the more numerous.  They were on deck day and night, unless when opportunity offered to go on shore.  They did their cooking at the galley or at a stove near the stern of the boat.  They never made any noise or disturbance, beyond the usual confusion where many persons are confined in a small space.

There were three horses tied just over my cabin with only a single plank between their heels and my head.  Nearly every night their horse polkas and galops disturbed my sleep.  Sometimes early in the morning, when the frost was biting, they would have kicking matches of twenty or thirty minutes, conducted with the greatest vigor.  The temporary stable was close to the cabin skylight, so that we had the odors of a barn-yard without extra charge.  This would have been objectionable under other circumstances, but the cabin was so dirty that one could not be fastidious about trifles.

The captain had a neat cabin of his own on the upper deck, and did not trouble himself much about the quarters of his passengers, as the regulations do not require him to look after their welfare.  He was a careful commander and prompt in discharging his duties.  By law steamboat captains cannot carry their wives on board.  This officer had a little arrangement by which he was able to keep the word of promise to the ear and break it to the hope.

We were short of fuel at starting, and barely escaped trouble in consequence.  The first pile visible contained only a cord or two; we took this and several posts that had been fixed in the ground to mark the locality.  When this supply was burned we cut up our landing planks and all the spare bits of wood we could find.  A court of inquiry was held over the horse-troughs, but they were considered too much water-soaked for our purpose.  As a last resort I had a pound of candles and a flask of brandy, but we happily reached a wood-station without using my light baggage.