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SIBERIA
severity. The mercury in our thermometer indicated zero (Fahr.); our fur coats and the bodies of our horses were white with frost; and the broad, rapid current of the Shílka was so choked with masses of heavy ice as to be
THE SHÍLKA RIVER AND THE TOWN OF STRÉTINSK.
almost, if not quite, impassable. A large open skiff was making a perilous attempt to cross from Strétinsk to our side of the river, and a dozen or more peasants, who stood shivering around a small camp-fire on the beach, were waiting for it, with the hope that it would come safely to land and that the ferrymen might be persuaded to make a
