of the _troika_ that
the three horses that constitute it are harnessed abreast; and
that while the one in the shafts, whose head is upheld by a bow,
with a little bell suspended from the top, is trained to trot,
and never to leave that pace, however fast he may be driven, the
two who are harnessed outside must gallop, even if they gallop
but six miles an hour; though it is far more likely that they will
be called upon to do twelve. Lastly, the _troika_ must present a
fan-like front; to produce which the driver tightens the outside
reins till the heads of the outriggers stand out at an angle of
forty or fifty degrees from that of the horse in the shafts. At
the same time the centre horse trots with his head high in the
air, while the two who have their existences devoted to galloping
have their noses depressed towards the ground, like bulls running
at a dog.

There may be enough moonlight to read by when the moon itself is
obscured by clouds. But if it shines directly on the white ermine-like
snow, which covers the vast plains like an interminable carpet, the
atmosphere becomes full of light, and the night in its brightness,
its solitude, and its silence, broken only by the bells of some
distant team, reminds you of the calmness of an unusually quiet
and beautiful day. As you turn away from the main road towards
the woods, you pass groups of tall slender birch-trees, with their
white silvery bark, and their delicate thread-like fibres hanging
in frozen showers from the ends of the branches, and clothing the
birch with a kind of icy foliage, while the other trees remain
bare and ragged. The birch is eminently a winter tree, and its
tresses of fibres, whether petrified and covered with crystal by
the frost, or waving freely in the breeze which has stripped them
of their snow, are equally ornamental. The ground is strewed with
the shadows of the trees, traced with exquisite fineness on the
white snow, from which these lunar photographs stand forth with
wonderful distinctness. To drive out with an indefinite number of
_troikas_ to some village in the environs, or to the first station
on one of the Government roads, is a common mode of spending a
fine winter's night, and one which is equally popular in Moscow
and St. Petersburg. These excursions, which always partake more
or less of the nature of a picnic, form one of the chief pleasures
of the cold season. Of course such expeditions also take place
during the day, but, w