for that was its real name. It is, I am told, a native of the Sayan and the Altai mountains.*

It

I never saw an animal equal it in elegance of shape. It is very much like a deer, or more properly like an antelope. It is tall in stature, slender, and exceedingly graceful in its proportions, with thin feet and short tail. bears its neck high, and the hair is thin and smooth, and of a brown colour. I was informed that it usually had high horns branching out like the antlers of a stag; but at this season the animal was without any, and on the spot where they grow there was only a soft protuberant excrescence, covered with delicate hairlike moss. This horny protuberance grew so rapidly, that in the course of a few weeks, the animal's head was crowned with noble antlers. The moral I have described was kept in the stables of Prince Gortchakoff, Governor-General

*The moral is probably the argali, or capra ammon, whose horns, as mentioned by Mr. Cottrell, are immensely large, very spiral, and strong. The moral is very shy, and lives in the most inaccessible spots, like the chamois.

of West Siberia. It was very tame, and walked freely about the town.

These animals are generally very easily tamed; and many people who take a particular liking to them, keep a number of them as domestic cattle.

CHAPTER V.

Preparations for departure-Spring-The Upper Town - Ceyzik's house Prince Gortchakoff - His removal to Omsk-Roman Catholic missions-A real solitude-Embarkation-Cabin-Farewells.

It was on the 12th of May that we received an official notice from the GovernorGeneral to prepare for departure to Berezov. About this town, though a capital of an extensive district, and one next to Tobolsk in importance, so little was known here, that everybody with whom we spoke gave us a different account of it. In this one particular, however, all seemed to agree, that we could not expect to meet there any of our usual comforts. The first object, therefore, for our consideration was

to purchase a stock of commodities for our future household, as furniture and provisions, such as we thought would keep on our voyage. The whole of my time was now taken up with making purchases, packing and stowing the different articles, in which business I had every possible assistance from my countrymen, to whose kindness I was indeed much indebted.

The voyage by water would, I thought, after all, be more agreeable than travelling by land, and it mattered little how bulky or heavy were my purchases. The only drawback was, that I was obliged to limit my wishes from the insufficiency of my means.

The privation which, according to all accounts, I had most to apprehend in my future household, and most wished to avoid, was the supplies of the dairy; for I was assured that there were no more than two cows in the whole territory of Berezov. As for fruit, salads, and other vegetables, I was pretty sure that from the nature of the climate, they were quite out of the question, and could not at all enter on my list; but milk, cream, and butter-how could I be without them? From Tobolsk I could only transport melted

VOL. I.

G

butter; and as for tea, which is the only luxury known to the Siberians, and next to water is considered by them one of the principal necessaries of life—the very idea of such a beverage, as drunk by them, frightened me. I well knew that I should have to encounter it at every step, as it is deemed an indispensable item of hospitality; and I could never drink tea without cream.

Such are the petty miseries of our life. They are too insignificant to be even perceptible amidst strong emotions; but in the absence of such emotions, and under an utter apathy of life, even they are apt, contemptible though they be, to assume in our fancy the shape of grave and intolerable evils.

On the 15th of May, spring gladdened us with her first cheerful vernal smile. Warm and genial was her breath, moving the birch trees to spread out their long tresses, and deck themselves with foliage, struggling as it yet was beneath the brown tints of winter. Grass began to sprout, and vernal flowers were peeping timidly forth, and upraising their shy modest, variously-coloured heads to the sun, which tenderly kissed their brows with his