Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XXI. Up the Yenisei
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
exiled criminal, together with a number of other criminals,
alone with the children, we found it advisable to have the
candle burning all night, with the revolver handy, closely
watching the rascals, who tried several times to get into
our room with the evident design of robbing us.
On our way we had to sift a number of carrier-pigeon
stories, which all resolved themselves, as we expected, into
more or less clumsy fiction.
In certain places travelling on the river was decidedly
dangerous on account of the quantity of water which had
become dammed up by the torosses. Twice the animals
went through the ice into the water, in a temperature of
some 20° below zero, in a blinding storm, and we narrowly
escaped drowning. Often, too, the sledges came to grief
among the torosses, which caused us much trouble and
delay. When some accident happened, the drivers would
cry out: “Propal! Propal!” a word very common among
Siberians, meaning: “Lost! Lost!” and at the sound of
this word of ill-omen I knew there was trouble in store.
There was little in our surroundings to compensate us
for the irksomeness of our journey. The endless monotony
of the torosses on the river, the low shores on each side
of us crowned by stunted trees, and a “station” with
poor dwellings and miserable people at distances of from
12 to 30 miles apart, combined to make it wearisome to
a degree. For the last thirty miles north of Turukansk
we travelled through the taiga, which, in spite of the deep
snow and the narrowness of the path cut through the
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
