f a village. Throughout the whole of this province the climate is very
severe. For more than half of the year the ground is covered by deep
snow and the rivers are completely frozen. The arable land all told
forms little more than two per cent of the vast area. The population is
scarce and averages little more at the most than two to the square mile,
according to the latest figures, about 1905.

During the late fall and early winter, shortly after Company "A" had
been relieved at Ust Padenga, we were stationed in the village of
Shegovari. Here we had considerable leisure at our disposal and
consequently the writer began devoting more time to his linguistic
studies. Difficult as the language seems to be upon one's first
introduction to it, it was not long before I was able to understand much
of what was said to me, and to express myself in a vague roundabout way.
In the latter operation I was much assisted by a peculiar faculty of
divination which the Russian peasant possesses to a remarkably high
degree. If a foreigner succeeds in expressing about one-fourth of an
idea, the Russian peasant can generally fill up the remaining
three-fourths from his own intuition. This may perhaps be readily
understood when one considers that a great majority of the upper classes
speak French or German fluently and a great number English as well.
Then, too, the many and varied races that have united and intermingled
to form the Russian race may offer an equally satisfactory explanation.

Shegovari may be taken as a fair example of the villages throughout the
northern half of Russia, and a brief description of its inhabitants will
convey a correct notion of the northern peasantry in general. The
village itself is located about forty versts above Shenkursk on the
banks of the Vaga river, which meanders and winds about the village so
that the river is really on both sides. On account of this location
there is more arable land surrounding the village than is found in the
average community and dozens of villages are clustered about this
particular location, the villages devoting most of their time to
agricultural pursuits.

I believe it may safely be said that nearly the whole of the female
population and about one-half the male inhabitants are habitually
engaged in cultivating the communal land, which comprises perhaps five
hundred acres of light, sandy soil. As is typical throughout the
province this land is divided into three large fields