about thirty versts from the Altái Station. The Cossack family that constituted the "picket" occupied only one of the houses, and we therefore bivouacked in the other. Our sleeping apartment contained no furniture of any kind, its windows were mere rectangular openings in the wall without sashes or glass, and we were forced to make our beds on the rough-hewn planks of the floor; but the room was rilled with the faint, clean fragrance of pine shavings and spruce boards, the air that came in through the sashless windows was fresh from the flowery slopes of the hills, and we slept as soundly and awoke as much refreshed as if we had lain on couches of rose petals in the palace of the Tsar.
Tuesday, July 28th, we continued our ride up the valley of the Búkhtarmá in the general direction of the Katúnski Alps. The snowy range of the Great Altái could no longer be seen from the trail, and we did not catch a single glimpse that day of the group of colossal peaks at the source of the Katún; but the scenery through which we rode was, nevertheless, beautiful and picturesque. The high rolling foothills which formed the sides of the valley, and which concealed the peaks of the main range, were endlessly varied in outline and coloring; the valley itself was full of park-like openings and sunny glades where the soft green carpet of turf was sprinkled with violets, pansies, and forget-me-nots; and every verst or two a clear rushing stream came tumbling down across the trail from a melting snow-field in some deep shaded glen high up among the hills.
Early in the afternoon we reached a small Cossack village called Arúl, about thirty versts from Jingistái, and went to the house of the atamán to present our order for fresh horses. The atamán's son, a good-looking young fellow of twenty-two or three, soon made his appearance in full uniform, and said that his father, for whom we had inquired, was making hay on the mountain-side about twelve versts away, but that he would send for him if it was "shípka núzhni" [awful necessary]. We replied that we must have
