IN A COLD CLIMATE. 611

relate the particulars of, by which means the Russians travel more
in the winter than they can in summer; because in these sledges they
are able to run all night and day: the snow being frozen, is one
universal covering to Nature, by which the hills, the vales, the
rivers, the lakes, all are smooth and hard as a stone; and they run
upon the surface, without any regard to what is underneath,

But Thad no occasion to push at a winter journey of this kind;
Twas bound to Kngland, not to Moscow, and my route lay two
ways: cither To must go on as the caravan went, till I came to
Jarislaw, and then go off west for Narva, and the Gulf of Fin-
land, and so either by sea or land to Dantzic, where [ might pos-
sibly sell my China cargo to good advantage; or I must leave the
caravan at a little town on the Dwina, from whence I had but six
days by water to Archangel, and from thence might be sure ot
shipping, either to Nugland, Holland, or Hamburg.

Now, to go any of these journeys in the winter, would have been
preposterous ; for, as to Dantzic, the Baltic would be frozen up,
and LT could not get passage ; and to go by land in those countries,
was far less safe than among the Mogul Tartars; likewise to go
to Archangel in October, all the ships would be gone from thence,
and even the merchants, who dwell there in summer, retire south
to Moscow in the winter, when the ships are gone; so that I should
have nothing but extremity of cold to encounter, with a scarcity
of provisions, and must lie there in an empty town all the winter:
so that, upon the whole, I thought it a much better way to let the
eavavan go, and to make provision to winter where I was; namely,
at ‘Tobolski, in Siberia, in the latitude of sixty degrees, where I
was sure of three things to wear out a cold winter with; namely,
plenty of provision, such as the country afforded; a warm house,
with fuel enough, and excellent company : of all which I shall give
a full account in its place.

I was now in a quite different climate from my beloved island,
where I never felt cold, except when I had my ague; on the con-
trary, I had much to do to bear my clothes on my back, and never
made any fire but without doors, and for my necessity in dressing
my food, &. Now I made me three good vests, with large robes,
or gowns, over them, to hang down to the feet, and button close