With four horses abreast,—­two attached to a pole and two outside,—­we dashed over an excellent road leading back from the town.  There were three other carriages and two or three common wagons, in which the occupants rode on bundles of hay.  There was a little vehicle on two wheels,—­a sort of light gig with a seat for only one person,—­driven by a lady.  Five or six officers were on horseback, and we had a detachment of twenty mounted Cossacks to ‘beat the bush.’  Excluding the Cossacks and drivers, there were about thirty persons in the party.  A mysterious wagon laden with boxes and kegs composed, the baggage train.  The governor explained that this wagon contained the ammunition for the hunters.  No gazelle could have looked upon those kegs and boxes without trembling in his boots.

A range of low hills six miles from town was the spot selected for the hunt.  There were nine armed men to be stationed across this range within shooting distance of each other.  The Cossacks were to make a circuitous route and come upon the hills two or three miles away, where, forming a long line and making much noise, they would advance in our direction.  Any game that happened in the way would be driven to us.  We were to stand our ground with firmness and shoot any gazelle that attacked us.  I determined to fight it out on that line.

The road from Blagoveshchensk led over a birch-covered plain to the bank of the Zeya, four miles away.  We passed on the right a small mill, which was to be replaced in the following year by a steam flouring establishment, the first on the Amoor.  On reaching the Zeya I found a village named Astrachanka, in honor of Astrachan at the mouth of the Volga.  The settlers had lived there three or four years, and were succeeding well in agriculture.  They were of the class known as German Mennonites, who settled on the steppes of Southern Russia at the commencement of the present century.  They are members of the Lutheran church, and famed for their industry and their care in managing their flocks and fields.  The governor praised them warmly, and expressed the kindest hopes for their prosperity.

[Illustration:  THE AMMUNITION WAGON.]

We left the road near the village and passed through a field in the direction of the hunting ground.  Two men were at work with a yoke of oxen and a plough, whose beam rested on the axle of a pair of wheels.  The yoke was like the one in use everywhere along the Amoor, and was made of two pieces of thick plank, one above and the other below the animals’ necks, with wooden pins to join them and bear the strain.  The plough was quite primitive and did not stir the soil like an American or English plough.  At the hunting ground we alighted and took our stations.  The governor stood under a small oak, and the ladies rested on the grass near him.  I went to the next post up the hollow, and the other hunters completed the line.  Dr. Snider went to aid me in taking