Krasnoyarsk derives its name from the red hills in its vicinity, and the color of the soil where it stands.  It is on the left bank of the Yenesei, and has about ten thousand inhabitants.  It was nearly night when we climbed the sloping road in the hillside, and reached the level of the plateau.  The ladies insisted that we should occupy their house during our stay, and utterly forbade our going to the hotel.  While walking up the hill the captain hailed a washerwoman, and asked for the residence of Madame Rodstvenny.  Her reply was so voluminous, and so rapidly given that my friend was utterly bewildered, and comprehended nothing.  To his astonishment I told him that I understood the direction.

“C’est impossible,” he declared.

“By no means,” I replied.  “The madame lives in a stone house to the left of the gastinni dvor.  The washerwoman said so.”

Following my advice we found the house.  As we entered the courtyard, the captain begged to know by what possibility I understood in his own language what he could not.

I explained that while the woman spoke so glibly I caught the words “doma, kamen, na leva, gastinni dvor.”  I understood only the essential part of her instruction, and was not confused by the rest.

I was somewhat reluctant to convert a private house into a hotel as I expected to remain four or five days.  But Siberian hospitality does not stop at trifles, and my objections were promptly overruled.  After toilet and dinner, Paul and I were parboiled in the bath house of the establishment.  An able-bodied moujik scrubbed me so thoroughly as to suggest the possibility of removing the cuticle.

In the morning I went to the bank to change some large bills into one-rouble notes for use on the road.  Horses must be paid for at every station, and it is therefore desirable to carry the smallest notes with abundance of silver and copper to make change.  The bank was much like institutions of its class elsewhere, and transacted my business promptly.  The banks in Siberia are branches of the Imperial Bank at St. Petersburg.  They receive deposits, and negotiate exchanges and remittances just like private banks, but do not undertake risky business.  The officers are servants of the government, and receive their instructions from the parent bank.

My finances arranged, I went to the telegraph office to send a message to a friend.  My despatch was written in Russian, and I paid for message and response.  A receipt was given me stating the day, hour, and minute of filing the despatch, its destination, address, length, and amount paid.  When I received the response I found a statement of the exact time it was filed for transmission, and also of its reception at Krasnoyarsk.  This is the ordinary routine of the Russian telegraph system.  I commend it to the notice of interested persons in America.