languages besides his own (and, as being especially useful on the Chinese frontier, he spoke French and German). Yet, on comparing notes, we found that I, as a subaltern in a British cavalry regiment in India, was drawing more pay than he was. And as for Mr. James, he could with his pay have bought up a dozen—literally a dozen—of these frontier corn-mandants. Where, however, the Russian had the advantage over us was in the matter of climate. It takes a great deal of money indeed to make up for the sickening weariness of hot weather in the plains of India. All these Russian officers about us were strong, robust men, bursting with health. Between them and a set of Englishmen in the plains of India in the months of July and August there was a difference which is but poorly compensated for by a few additional rupees.
After we had eaten and drunk and talked for some hours, the other officers went off, and the colonel said to us, " I don't know quite where you will sleep. There is a sofa for one of you ; the other two had better sleep on the floor." This we proceeded to do, and so passed our first night in Russian territory. The colonel had spoken of his Cossack hospitality being rough but cordial. It was both.
On the following day we started of for the larger station of Novo-kievsk, fifteen miles distant, and situated on the coast. On the way we met the commissaire, or chief civil official. He spoke English, and was very polite to us, and volunteered to allow us to go to Vladivostok—a trip which we should very much like to have made, but we could not spare the time for it. The fact of this Russian official being so civil to us, though we had no passports, was another proof of the friendly disposition of the Russians towards us. Novo-kievsk was a small place with a garrison of a battalion of infantry, a battery of artillery, and about a hundred mounted Cossacks. There were very few buildings besides the barracks. The roadways were unmetalled, and the whole place had a dreary,
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