CHAPTER III
A JOURNEY ON THE SIBERIAN POST ROAD
(ATCHINSK TO MINUSINSK)
A TRAVELLER in Siberia always finds that there are two periods of the year in which he must not look for comfort in travel. The so-called roads are practically impassable for a month or six weeks during the spring thaw, and in the early winter. Nor are they always pleasant at other times; for in July the heat and dust from the friable soil cause no small discomfort. But even in the height of summer progress on the road is possible at a reasonable rate, whereas in spring and autumn travelling is almost impracticable.
The change from season to season is always sudden. The snow melts within a month: almost before it is gone the grass literally shoots up, and for a few weeks a vegetation of indescribable luxuriance abounds, such as one never sees in temperate climates. But when the moisture of the snow is followed by the dry heat of summer, the beauty of the vegetation begins to fade, the verdure disappears, and the landscape assumes the new charm of that glowing beauty which characterizes the steppes, until the winter begins to cover it again with its snowy mantle.
It was during the period of melting snow, when the roads were in an almost impassable condition, and the ice on the rivers had not broken sufficiently
