mite agency in the Berber desert. Take away
the ebon blackness of the stony masses which have been there cast
forth from the bowels of the earth, and replace them on a smaller
scale by the crystal forms I have faintly attempted to describe,
and the resemblance would be striking.

Now we came to some fishing-huts, which were constructed on the
frozen river, the traffic in the finny tribe which takes place in
this part of Russia being very great, the Volga producing the sterlet
(a fish unknown in other rivers of Europe), in large quantities. I
have often eaten them, but must say I could never appreciate this
so-called delicacy. The bones are of a very glutinous nature, and
can be easily masticated, while the taste of a sterlet is something
between that of a barbel and a perch, the muddy flavour of the
former predominating. However, they are an expensive luxury, as,
to be perfection for the table, they should be taken out of the
water alive and put at once into the cooking-pot. The distance to
St. Petersburg from the Volga is considerable, and a good-sized
fish will often cost from thirty to forty roubles, and sometimes
even a great deal more.

We were now gradually nearing our first halting-place, where it
was arranged that we should change horses. This was a farm-house
known by the name of Nijnege Pegersky Hootor, twenty-five versts
distant from Sizeran. Some men were engaged in winnowing corn in a
yard hard by the dwelling; and the system they employed to separate
the husks from the grain probably dates from before the flood,
for, throwing the corn high up into the air with a shovel, they
let the wind blow away the husks, and the grain descended on to a
carpet set to catch it in the fall. It was then considered to be
sufficiently winnowed, and fit to be sent to the mill. The farm-house
was fairly clean, and, for a wonder, there were no live animals
inside the dwelling. It is no uncommon thing in farm-houses in
Russia to find a calf domesticated in the sitting-room of the family,
and this more particularly during the winter months. But here the
good housewife permitted no such intruders, and the boards were
clean and white, thus showing that a certain amount of scrubbing
was the custom.

The habitation, which was of a square shape, and entirely made of
wood, contained two good-sized but low rooms, a large stove made
of dried clay being so arranged as to warm both the apartments.
A heavy wooden door on the outside of