One cabin was assigned to Borasdine and myself, save at meal times, when two other passengers were present.  One end of it was filled with the mail, of which there were eight bags, each as large as a Saratoga trunk and as difficult to handle.  The Russian government performs an ‘express’ service and transports freight by mail; it receives parcels in any part of the empire and agrees to deliver them in any other part desired.  From Nicolayevsk to St. Petersburg the charges are twenty-five copecks (cents) a pound, the distance being seven thousand miles.  It gives receipts for the articles, and will insure them at a charge of two per cent. on their value.

Goods of any kind can be sent by post through Russia just as by express in America.  Captain Lund sent a package containing fifty sable skins to his brother in Cronstadt, and another with a silk dress pattern to a lady in St. Petersburg.  In the mail on the Ingodah there were twelve hundred pounds of sable fur sent by Mr. Chase to his agent in St. Petersburg.  Money to any amount can be remitted, and its delivery insured.  I have known twenty thousand roubles sent on a single order.

Parcels for transportation by post must be carefully and securely packed.  Furs, silks, clothing, and all things of that class are enveloped in repeated layers of oil cloth and canvas to exclude water and guard against abrasion.  Light articles, like bonnets, must be packed with abundance of paper filling them to their proper shape, and very securely boxed.  A Siberian lady once told me that a friend in St. Petersburg sent her a lot of bonnets, laces, and other finery purchased at great expense.  She waited a long time with feminine anxiety, and was delighted when told her box was at the post office.  What was her disappointment to find the articles had been packed in a light case which was completely smashed.  She never made use of any part of its contents.

In crossing Siberian rivers the mail is sometimes wet, and it is a good precaution to make packages waterproof.  A package of letters for New York from Nicolayevsk I enveloped in canvas, by advice of Russian friends, and it went through unharmed.

[Illustration:  SCENES ON THE AMOOR.]

The post wagons are changed at every station, and the mail while being transferred is not handled with care.  Frail articles must be boxed so that no tossing will injure them.  My lady friend told me of a bride who ordered her trousseau from St. Petersburg and prepared for a magnificent wedding.  The precious property arrived forty-eight hours before the time fixed for the ceremony.  Moving accidents by flood and field had occurred.  The bridal paraphernalia was soaked, crushed, and reduced to a mass that no one could resolve into its original elements.  The wedding was postponed and a new supply of goods ordered.