In the afternoon of the first day from Krasnoyarsk we reached Achinsk, a town of two or three thousand inhabitants, on the bank of the Chulim river.  We were told the road was so bad as to require four horses to each sleigh to the next station.  We consented to pay for a horse additional to the three demanded by our padaroshnia, and were carried along at very good speed.  Part of the way was upon the ice, which had formed during a wind, that left disagreeable ridges.  We picked out the best places, and had not our horses slipped occasionally, the icy road would not have been unpleasant.  On the bare ground which we traversed in occasional patches after leaving the river, the horses behaved admirably and made little discrimination between sand and snow.  Whenever they lagged the yemshick lashed them into activity.

I observed in Siberia that whip cracking is not fashionable.  The long, slender, snapping whips of Western Europe and America are unknown.  The Siberian uses a short stock with a lash of hemp, leather, or other flexible substance, but never dreams of a snapper at its end.  Its only use is for whipping purposes, and a practiced yemshick can do much with it in a short time.

The Russian drivers talk a great deal to their horses, and the speech they use depends much upon the character and performance of the animals.  If the horse travels well he may be called the dove or brother of his driver, and assured that there is abundance of excellent hay awaiting him at home.  Sometimes a neat hint is given that he is drawing a nice gentleman who will be liberal and enable the horse to have an extra feed.  Sometimes the man rattles off his words as if the brute understood everything said to him.  An obstinate or lazy horse is called a variety of names the reverse of endearing.  I have heard him addressed as ‘sabaka,’ (dog); and on frequent occasions his maternity was ascribed to the canine race in epithets quite disrespectful.  Horses came in for an amount of profanity about like that showered upon army mules in America.  It used to look a little out of place to see a yemshick who had shouted chort! and other unrefined expressions to his team, devoutly crossing himself before a holy picture as soon as his beasts were unharnessed.

A few versts from Achinsk we crossed the boundary between Eastern and Western Siberia.  The Chulim is navigable up to Achinsk, and during the past two years steamers have been running between this town and Tomsk.  The basin of the Ob contains nearly as many navigable streams as that of the Mississippi, and were it not for the severity of the climate, the long winter, and the northerly course of the great river, this valley might easily develop much wealth.  But nature is unfavorable, and man is powerless to change her laws.