[Illustration:  TAIL PIECE—­GAME]

CHAPTER XXI.

Above Albazin the Amoor steadily narrows; the hills are more rugged; the trees less luxuriant; the meadows fewer, and the islands less extensive.  On the morning of the 15th my thermometer was at +16 deg., and the trees on the shore were white with frost.  The deck passengers shivered around the engines and endeavored to extract heat from them.  The cabin passengers, excepting myself, were wrapped in their fur coats as if it were midwinter.  I walked about in my ordinary clothing, finding the air bracing but not uncomfortable.  I could not understand how the Russians felt the cold when it did not affect me, and was a little proud of my insensibility to frost.  Conceit generally comes of ignorance, and as I learned, wisdom I lost my vanity about resisting cold.

Nearly every day on the Korsackoff I was puzzled at finding laurel leaves in the soup, and did not understand it till I saw a barrel of beef opened.  There were lots of laurel leaves packed with the meat, and I learned that they assist the preservative qualities of the salt and give an agreeable flavor.  I can speak in favor of the latter theory, but know nothing about the former.  The ancient Romans wore laurel crowns, but they did not prevent the decline and fall of their empire.  Possibly the Russians may have better success in saving their beef by the use of the laurel.

During a fog on the river we grazed a rock, slid upon a sandbar, and then anchored, as we should have done at first.  When in motion we employed all possible time, and, considering the state of our engines, made very good progress.  Borasdine learned from our Cossack the explanation of this haste.

“The pilots, firemen, and nearly all the crew,” said the Cossack, “have their wives at Stratensk, and are anxious to winter with them.  If the boat is frozen in below there they must remain till she thaws out again.  Consequently their desire to finish the voyage before the ice is running.”

At Igiratiena I met Colonel Shobeltsin, an officer identified with all the movements for the final occupation of the Amoor.  In 1852 he made a journey from Irkutsk to Nicolayevsk, following a route up to that time untraveled.  He accompanied Mouravieff’s expedition in 1854, and was afterward intimately connected with colonization enterprises.  A few years ago he retired from service and settled at this village.  His face indicates his long and arduous service, and I presume he has seen enough hardship to enjoy comfort for the rest of his days.

His house was the best on the Amoor above Blagoveshchensk and very comfortably furnished.  In the principal room there were portraits of many Russian notabilities, with lithographs and steel engravings from various parts of the world.  Among them were two pictures of American country life, bearing the imprint of a New York publisher.  I had frequently seen these lithographs in a window on Nassau street, little thinking I should find them on the other side of the world.  One room was quite a museum and contained a variety of articles made by Manjours and Tunguze.  There were heads of deer, sable, and birds, while a quantity of furs hung near the door.