"We had started with the intention of overtaking the sleighs before sunset, but our slow progress over the rough roads had so delayed us that the evening was well advanced before our destination was reached. The transfer of baggage was made in the moonlight; one or two small articles disappeared in the operation, but whether stolen or accidentally lost we never knew.
JUMPING AN "OUKHABA."
"In Irkutsk I had been told that a new sensation awaited me in the Siberian oukhaba, and I found it on the first night's travelling after leaving Krasnoyarsk. What do you suppose it was?"
Both the youths shook their heads and said they didn't know, while Doctor Bronson preserved a discreet silence.
"The oukhaba of the Siberian road," Mr. Hegeman explained, "is the equivalent of the 'hog-wallow' of the American one; the former is formed in the snow, and the latter in the bare ground. It is caused by the snow lying in drifts or ridges when it is blown by the wind, and also by the roads being worn with much travel. The road is a succession of ridges and hollows; the drivers go at full speed, without the slightest regard to the pitching and tossing of the sleigh, and the result is a severe trial of one's nerves. The motion causes a rush of blood to one's head, and develops what the Russians call 'the road-fever.'
"I did not escape the road-fever, and to this day I shudder when thinking of this part of my experience, the most disagreeable feature of the journey. My body was sore and stiff; at every jolt it seemed as though the top of my head would fly off; sleep was next to impossible; and when I did manage to slumber, my dreams were something frightful. My temper was spoiled, and a quarrel might have been created with anything and anybody without the least effort. The fever runs its course in two or three days, but may last longer; as long as the roads are bad the inexperienced traveller is liable to it. Sometimes the sleigh made a clear jump of five or six feet, and the wonder was that the vehicle did not go to pieces and leave us hopelessly wrecked."
Fred asked if any wolves were seen in this part of the journey or elsewhere in Siberia.