ons. At lonely houses they could
always obtain them, and there they were received very hospitably, the
peasants often refusing absolutely to accept money, or at any rate
giving freely of all the articles they themselves raised, and taking pay
only for tea and sugar, which they themselves had to purchase. When no
such places could be met with they went down to villages at night, and
never failed to find bread and cakes on the window-sills, though it was
not often that meat was there, for the peasants themselves obtained it
but seldom. Godfrey had no fear of his money running short for a long
time. The six hundred roubles with which he arrived at Kara had been
increased by his earnings during the nine months he had been there. He
had spent but a few kopecks a week for tea and tobacco, and his pay
while he had been a clerk was a good deal larger than while he had been
working in the mine. Luka, too, had saved every kopeck he had received
from the day when Godfrey told him that he would take him with him when
he ran away. He had even given up smoking, and was with difficulty
persuaded by Godfrey to take some tobacco occasionally from him. Between
them in the nine months they had laid by nearly a hundred roubles, and
had, therefore, after deducting the money given by Godfrey to Mikail and
that paid for the gun and clothes, over five hundred roubles for their
journey.

They were glad, indeed, when at last they saw the broad sheet of Lake
Baikal. They had for some time been bearing to the north of west, and
struck the lake some twenty miles from its head. There were a good many
small settlements round the lake, a good deal of fishing being carried
on upon it, although the work was dangerous, for terrible storms
frequently swept down from the northern mountains and sent the boats
flying into port. The lake is one of the deepest in the world, soundings
in many places being over five thousand feet. Many rivers run into the
lake, the only outflow being by the Angara. Baikal is peculiar as being
the only fresh-water lake in the world where seals are found, about two
thousand being killed annually. The shores are in most places extremely
steep, precipices rising a thousand feet sheer up from the edge of the
water, with soundings of a hundred and fifty fathoms a few yards from
their feet. Fish abound in the lake, and sturgeon of large size are
captured there.

Godfrey knew that there were guard-houses with Cossacks on the road
betw