tion is still being continued; her husband has provided her with teachers, who come daily. A more graceful or beautiful creature it has rarely been my lot to see. She receives her visitors and sits at the head of her table, as though she had been accustomed to her present position from her birth, and yet so modest withal.

There are also two Englishmen here: one is practising as a doctor, and many agreeable hours we have passed in the society of him and his wife; but the other is an exile, banished for forgery, which, from all accounts that we can gather, he never committed, but bore the blame for another, never supposing it would lead him into exile; that other never came forward, but, it is said, basely deserted his friend; he is now living a most unexceptionable life, respected by all who know him; he has a situation of great trust given to him. The trial proved too great for his wife, who followed him; she, poor woman, was a little deranged. I went to see her, she had expressed a wish that I should do so; for a while she sat and talked rationally enough. In her look there was more of sadness than insanity.

The balls and dinner parties to which we went were, with one exception, conducted in much the same way as those we attended in Petersburg and Moscow. Amongst the guests there was no mistaking the wives. of the wealthy miners. They were dressed with good taste-you will say, where is the Russian who does not dress well?—and wore a perfect blaze of diamonds.

The dinner party which differed from the others was at the house of a rich merchant, as well as gold-seeker; some forty persons were assembled. The archbishop,

CHAP. II. THE ARCHBISHOP AT DINNER.

37

the most important guest, sat at the head of the table, it being customary, at a merchant's house in Siberia, for the host and hostess to march up and down the room to see that each guest is well supplied, especially with champagne, which is drunk in large quantities. The hostess was devoted to her distinguished visitor, and took care that he was well plied with English porter as well as wine, which he appeared to appreciate, if one might judge from the quantity he imbibed, and there was not the slightest difficulty in inducing him to do So. Dinner went on smoothly enough till the sixth course, fourteen was the complement, when the archbishop desired to rise, having already more than satisfied himself that the dinner was in every way excellent. Το have seen the horror of the lady of the mansion would have amused you. However, she succeeded in soothing the worthy prelate, who sat down again and recommenced eating and drinking, as though he had been deprived of food for months. As for conversation, he was too much occupied to spare time for that; he indulged in a few coarse jokes, which, unfortunately, are everywhere tolerated in Russia.

Mr. Atkinson, who was seated on his left hand, made many efforts to draw the clerical gentleman into conversation, but all in vain; he gave up the hopeless task, and turned his attention to the gentleman who sat next him. As you know, it is customary for the gentlemen to sit on one side of the table, and the ladies opposite.

Two other courses had been served, when now the archbishop thought that, if everyone was not satisfied, they ought to be so. The quick, sharp glance of the

hostess had observed all; she was at his side in a moment; his leaving the table was not to be thought of, he must at any cost be made to sit still. The dinner was but half over a dinner that had been days preparing, and for which no expense had been spared; his rising would be the signal for all the other guests to do the same; he was coaxed and persuaded like a spoiled child to sit still; but he would no longer eat, only drink; he sat as sullen as if the rod. had been administered. The hostess whispered soft soothing words into his ear, she scarcely ever left him. He then gradually lay back in his easy chair, and dropped off into a comfortable sleep. The brow

of our hostess cleared up, she was able to continue her wanderings round the table. The descent of the sleepy god appeared not only a relief to the hosts, but to the whole party assembled; and, but for the noise of the revellers, the sounds which issued from the head of the table might not have been agreeable.

The dinner ended, all rose from table; two of the gentlemen approached the great dignitary of the Church, and supported him out of the room. No one took the slightest notice, nor spoke a word, and we saw no more of him. Some days after, Mr. Atkinson received an invitation from him; he also expressed a desire that my husband would allow him to see some of his pictures, and sent men to fetch them. The answer was, that, if his reverence would call, he should be happy to show him any drawings he had, but he never carried them to anyone, excepting to the Imperial family. The archbishop was, as you may judge, mightily offended.

Resume our Journey-Beautiful Flowers-The Banks of the Ob-A stormy Night Whistling for a Wind-Arrive at Barnaoul-Domestic Life in Barnaoul-Dinner with the Director of Mines-Pleasant Society Picnics-Tale of a Head-dress-Opposition to any further Progress.

Barnaoul, June 19th, 1848.

The

Ir is long since I took up my pen to address you. fact is, I have been ill; this rendered me incapable of occupying myself in any way. I am glad to say my indisposition-which was, no doubt, a severe cold-has been frightened away by physic and leeches, or perhaps by the sight of the veiled Tatar lady, who came to apply the latter; none but Tatars keep leeches here. I should have preferred one of the good-natured Russian peasants, with her rosy, chubby cheeks, to have acted the part of doctoress, rather than the ugly tawny-faced Tatar; but I had no choice in the matter.

I am not sorry we have quitted Tomsk : it is decidedly not a pretty town, though there are things of interest in it, and also some very kind, good people, who endeavoured to render our stay as agreeable as possible.

We left Tomsk on June 3rd, and a splendid morning it was for our journey. The water in the Tom was still

high, but we crossed without difficulty, and then what a lovely ride we had! The valley which we crossed was one sheet of deep orange colour, from the vast quantities of globe anemone growing there; and in some parts we came upon large patches of pale blue forget-me-nots, contrasting beautifully with the orange, and then the numerous shrubs, the blossoms of which gave forth perfumes which quite scented the air; it was a scene of loveliness such as I had never beheld. On reaching the woods, we came upon deep blue iris, and many other flowers; I frequently delayed our progress by getting out of the carriage to gather the sweet, wild, fresh flowers it was such a delightful change after the wearisome balls and dinner parties we had been frequenting. I would have lingered for days, had it been possible. After filling the carriage with flowers we continued our way. I daresay you will be astonished that we still found snow in many parts.

On

Our progress was slow on account of the many streams we had to cross, which was only accomplished with difficulty. At times, we had as many as six horses to drag us through the various pools of water. reaching the Ob, along the high banks of which we travelled, what a splendid view we had! The water had overflowed the valley in parts, more than twenty versts broad. The tops of the groups of trees rising above the water appeared like so many islands dotted over its broad surface in all directions.

We had now to descend the bank in order to cross the Ob; we found the water deep in many parts; at times, it was up to the bottom of the carriage and caused us