occasional
loop-holes in the clouds.

[Illustration: SEEING OFF.]

'Seeing off' consumed much time and more champagne. As we left the
house I observed Chase and Anossoff each putting a bottle in his
pocket, and remarking the excellent character of their ballast. From
the quantity that revealed itself afterward the two bottles must have
multiplied, or other persons in the party were equally provided. To
send off a friend in Russia requires an amount of health-drinking
rarely witnessed in New York or Boston. If the journey is by land the
wayfarer is escorted a short distance on his route, sometimes to the
edge of the town, and sometimes to the first station. Adieus are
uttered over champagne, tea, lunch--and champagne. It was nearly
daybreak when our friends gave us the last hand-shake and went over
the side. Watching till their boat disappeared in the gloom, I sought
the cabin, and found the table covered with a beggarly array of empty
bottles and a confused mass of fragmentary edibles. I retired to
sleep, while the cabin boy cleared away the wreck.

The sun rose before our captain. When I followed their example we were
still at anchor and our boilers cold as a refusal to a beggar. Late in
the morning the captain appeared; about nine o'clock fire was kindled
in the furnace, and a little past ten we were under way. As our anchor
rose and the wheel began to move, most of the deck passengers turned
in the direction of the church and devoutly made the sign of the
cross. As we slowly stemmed the current the houses of Nicolayevsk and
the shipping in its front, the smoking foundries, and the
pine-covered hills, faded from view, and with my face to the westward
I was fairly afloat on the Amoor.

The Ingodah was a plain, unvarnished boat, a hundred and ten feet
long, and about fifteen feet beam. Her hull was of boiler iron, her
bottom flat, and her prow sharp and perpendicular. Her iron, wood
work, and engines were brought in a sailing ship to the Amoor and
there put together. She had two cabins forward and one aft, all below
deck. There was a small hold for storing baggage and freight, but the
most of the latter was piled on deck. The pilot house was over the
forward cabin, and contained a large wheel, two men, and a chart of
the river. The rudder was about the size of a barn door, and required
the strength of two men to control it. Had she ever refused to obey
her helm she would have shown an example of remarkable obstinac