elbow, so that the vehicle cannot easily be upset; the elbow being a necessary appendage for this purpose to all sledges intended for country use. The kibitka has shafts, and is driven troika, that is, with three horses abreast; the traveller inside is able either to sit up or to lie down, stretching himself out as if he were in bed, the vehicle being built long for this purpose. The price of a first-rate kibitka is from twenty to five-and-twenty pounds.

The winter-roads in Russia were never known to be better than this year up to the present time, since the frost has been hard, and the quantity of snow on the ground moderate, both of which are necessary conditions to the comfort of the traveller.

As an instance of the cheapness of Russian travelling, for those who know how to make a bargain; a gentleman who came here a short time ago on business from Kalouga, a distance of four hundred versts, or about three hundred miles, said that instead of taking post-horses, he had hired an istvostchik with a very good kibitka and three horses for the period of his absence from home, at the rate of twenty-five roubles, or about a guinea a-week, the man undertaking to feed himself and his horses. On these terms the gentleman said that he was driven on his journey sixty miles a day, that is to say, that he performed the whole distance in five days. Some of the Russian breeds of horses are wonderfully hardy and enduring, and I am told that they will travel, espe

cially in winter when the draught is light, sixty, eighty, and even a hundred versts without rest, and without being the worse for their exertions.

I have continued through the winter to take exercise on foot whenever I have been able to go out, although walking is not very agreeable, owing to the slippery state of the footpath, and the necessary impediments of a heavy cloak and goloshes lined with fur. Few Russians like to use their feet when they can find any other mode of conveyance, and I should not have been likely to find any promenading companion, had I not been fortunate enough to meet with a countryman who has been four years in Russia, and who was established here not long ago as tutor in the family of General Arapoff. He is of an old Scotch family, has seen a good deal of the world, and was brought up to the bar. In conse quence, however, of loss of property and adverse circumstances, he found himself obliged to enter his present profession, and chance brought him to exercise it in Russia. He and I have usually walked together, and you may imagine the pleasure which we have had in meeting with one another in this `remote place, in talking English together, and in comparing the observations which we have made on the country.

Mr. R- tells me, that two years ago, at Moscow, he met with an adventure which proved sufficiently serious, and which had very nearly cost him his life.

I believe I have already told you that there are no regular hackney coaches in Russia, but that instead there are licensed istvostchiks as they are called, who stand in the streets with droskhas in summer, and sledges in winter, wearing, attached to their necks, a tin plate with their number stamped on it. These fellows abound here, and I believe in all other towns in this country, as well as in the capitals. They do not, in general, bear a very high character, and in large towns it is not considered altogether safe at night to take an unknown istvostchik in the street, especially in the winter, since robberies and murders have occasionally been perpetrated by these men, and a person wrapped up in a cloak is very defenceless against an unexpected attack.

To return to my friend's story: he came one night out of a coffee house at Moscow, stepped into a sledge, of which there were two or three waiting at the door, and directed the istvostchik to drive him to his lodgings. Unfortunately, he neglected to make the porter of the house take down the number of the driver, who in that case would have known that he would be responsible to the police for the safety of his fare. The night was bitterly cold, and R- was wrapped up in a fur pelisse with the collar put up round his head. Presently, as he was gliding quietly along, something was thrown over his head from behind, and he was dragged out upon his back on the snow he was, however, disengaged from the

noose, which slipped off his neck when he fell, and he instantly got on his legs and saw an istvostchik in a sledge driving rapidly away. His own istvostchik sat quite still, and made him understand that the other man was drunk, it being a fête day, and that his assault was only intended as a joke. R was not altogether satisfied with this explanation of the matter, but being in a lonely part of the town, and a good way from home, he at length got into his sledge again, having no suspicion that his own driver was a party to the attack, if a serious one had been intended. He, however, put down the collar of his pelisse, and kept looking over his shoulder to see that no one came up behind. While his attention was thus occupied, his driver turned suddenly into a dark street, nearly upsetting the sledge against the post at the corner, and almost at the same moment, a rope was suddenly thrown over Mr. R―'s neck from the front, and he was a second time dragged out upon the snow. Before he could rise, three istvostchiks were upon him, and they began stamping on his breast, and rifling his pockets, and on his calling out for the police, one of the men put his hand inside the rope around his neck, and nearly strangled him by twisting it, another thrust a hand into his mouth, but a severe bite made him quickly withdraw it, and R- at the same time succeeded in slipping the rope off his neck, otherwise he would have been undoubtedly mur

dered. To shorten the story, the *scoundrels at length left him for dead, concluding their ill treatment with two or three stamps upon the breast, and robbing him of a gold watch and chain, and two or three hundred roubles, and what was much worse, taking away his pelisse, cap, and gloves: thus exposed, he could not long have survived, in twenty-seven degrees of frost; he was, however, happily able to rise, and he saw the three scoundrels driving away as hard as they could in their sledges. He tied a handkerchief round his head, and knowing where he was, made the best of his way to his lodgings, which were not far off.

He, of course, immediately sent for a surgeon, but it was a period of six weeks before he recovered the effects of his ill-treatment, his face having been severely bruised, and his eyes almost forced out of his head. The police came in the morning to receive his account of the attack made upon him, and a week afterwards, when he was able to leave the house, the master of police sent for him, and made three hundred istvostchiks pass in review before him; he was unable, however, positively to identify the culprits,

* When we were afterwards at Moscow, on returning one night to our hotel, we found the porter in the act of expelling one of these istvostchiks, and literally kicking him out of the house, and our laquais de place observed that the servant was but doing his duty, for that these fellows were in general such rascals, that, as he expressed himself, "Poor as I am, I would not trust myself in one of their sledges at night, unless I knew something of the driver, for I should be almost sure to be robbed."