Our telyaga was a rickety affair, not half so roomy as the sleigh, but as the ride was short the discomfort was of little consequence.  We had four ill conditioned steeds, but before we had gone twenty rods one of the brutes persistently faced about and attempted to come inside the vehicle, though he did not succeed.  After vain efforts to set him right, the yemshick turned him loose, and he bolted homeward contentedly.

We climbed and descended a long hill near the village, and then found a level country quite free from snow, and furnishing a fine road.  I was told that very little snow falls within twenty miles of Krasnoyarsk, and that it is generally necessary to use wheels there in the winter months.  The reason was not explained to me, but probably the general configuration of the country is much like that near Chetah.  Krasnoyarsk lies on the Yenesei which has a northerly course into the Arctic Ocean.  The mountains bounding the valley are not lofty, but sufficiently high to wring the moisture from the snow clouds.  Both above and below Krasnoyarsk, there is but little snow even in severe seasons.

Our animals were superbly atrocious, and made good speed only on descending grades.  We were four hours going thirty versts, and for three-fourths that distance our route was equal to the Bloomingdale Road.  Occasionally we saw farm houses with a dejected appearance as if the winter had come upon them unawares.  From the quantity of ground enclosed by fences I judged the land was fertile, and well cultivated.

Toward sunset we saw the domes of Krasnoyarsk rising beyond the frozen Yenesei.  We crossed the river on the ice, and passed near several women engaged in rinsing clothes.

A laundress does her washing at the house, but rinses her linen at the river.  In summer this may be well enough, but it seemed to me that the winter exercise of standing in a keen wind with the thermometer below zero, and rinsing clothes in a hole cut through the ice was anything but agreeable.  It was a cold day, and I was well wrapped in furs, but these women were in ordinary clothing, and some had bare legs.  They stood at the edges of circular holes in the ice, and after ‘swashing’ the linen a short time in the water, wrung it with their purple hands.  How they escaped frost bites I cannot imagine.

The Yenesei is a magnificent river, one of the largest in Siberia.  It is difficult to estimate with accuracy any distance upon ice, and I may be far from correct in considering the Yenesei a thousand yards wide at Krasnoyarsk.  The telegraph wires are supported on tall masts as at the crossing of the Missouri near Kansas City.  In summer there are two steamboats navigating the river from Yeneseisk to the Arctic Ocean.  Rapids and shoals below Krasnoyarsk prevent their ascending to the latter town.  The tributaries of the Yenesei are quite rich in gold deposits, and support a mining business of considerable extent.