While we were at dinner the cold sensibly increased, and on exposing my thermometer I found it marking -18 deg.  Fahrenheit.  Schmidt wrapped himself in all his furs, and I followed his example.  Thus enveloped we filled the entire breadth of our sleigh and could not turn over with facility.  A sharp wind was blowing dead ahead, and we closed the front of the vehicle to exclude it.  The snow whirled in little eddies and made its way through the crevices at the junction of our sleigh-boot with the hood.  I wrapped a blanket in front of my face for special protection, and soon managed to fall asleep.  The sleigh poising on a runner and out-rigger, caused the doctor to roll against me during the first hour of my slumber, and made me dream that I was run over by a locomotive.  When I waked I found my breath had congealed and frozen my beard to the blanket.  It required careful manipulation to separate the two without injury to either.

When we stopped to change horses after this experience, the stars were sparkling with a brilliancy peculiar to the Northern sky.  The clear starlight, unaided by the moon, enabled us to see with great distinctness.  I could discover the outline of the forest away beyond the village, and trace the road to the edge of a valley where it disappeared.  Every individual star appeared endeavoring to outshine his rivals, and cast his rays to the greatest distance.  Vesta, Sirius, and many others burned with a brightness that recalled my first view of the Drummond light, and seemed to dazzle my eyes when I fixed my gaze upon them.

The road during the night was rough but respectable, and we managed to enjoy a fair amount of slumber in our contracted chambre a deux.  Before daylight we reached a station where a traveling bishop had just secured two sets of horses.  Though outside the jurisdiction of General Korsackoff, I exhibited my special passport knowing it could not, at all events, do any harm.  Out of courtesy the smotretal offered to supply us as soon as the bishop departed.  The reverend worthy was dilatory in starting, and as we were likely to be delayed an hour or two, we economized the time by taking tea.  I found opportunity for a short nap after our tea-drinking was over, and only awoke when the smotretal announced, “loshadi gotovey"

In the forenoon we entered upon the steppe where trees were few and greatly scattered.  Frequently the vision over this Siberian prairie was uninterrupted for several miles.  There was a thin covering of snow on the open ground, and the dead grass peered above the surface with a suggestion of summer fertility.

Shortly after noon I looked through the eddies of snow that whirled in the frosty air, and distinguished the outline of a church.  Another and another followed, and very soon the roofs and walls of the more prominent buildings in Tomsk were visible.  As we entered the eastern gate of the city, and passed a capacious powder-magazine, our yemshick tied up his bell-tongues in obedience to the municipal law.  Our arrival inside the city limits was marked by the most respectful silence.