Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1881-12-15
NUMBER 16.
al TraueIar On Mater-prInkIna.

Bed and board are the rub Of Sibe-
rian travel. You may safely rely upon
getting at any station supply Of boil
ing water, and probably SONG black
bread, but other than this ID all un Ger
tainty. In Western Siberia milk and
eggs are plentiful, the latter farthing
each; and everywhere, il You arrive at
dinner-time, there is chance Of get
ting some meat which you may or may
not be able to eat. The fact is, you
must take your own provisions, and tor
this winter is better than summer, BE-
cause then yon have simply to freeze
your meat and chop off piece with
your hatchet when required 40
is easy, moreover, to start with stock
Of frozen meat pies, one 81 which
thrown into hot water ID eatable i'm
few minutes; and SO with the lamps Of
frozen cream. Tea and sugar are car
ried of course by every Russian traveller,
and to this We added small quantity
of timed meat, fresh butter, auchOvy
paste and marmalade, the last two as
modifers in case we were absolutely
driven to black bread. These things
with stock of white bread taken from
the larger towns, formed a base,
for which, when we could
get them, we were thankful. If any
thing better fell in the way IL was 50
much to the good; if white bread and
butter failed, then we hoped for i'm
proved circumstances. These remarks
apply more especially to the hundreds
OF miles Of country between the towns,
in which latter we managed to1erabIy
well for food, while, as for beverage, we
always drank the water Of the place.
This has been my invariable plan.
My plan, whatever its merits or der
fects, has been tested in travelling round
the world, and with the exception Of
Madrid and Oporto) in every capital Of
Europe. I have used 10 filter nor
taken any special precautions, yet am
thankful TO say that it has not caused
me to suffer. The water Of the NeYa al
st. Petersburg acts incidentally, be-
lieve, on all strangers for day or two,
but this effect soon passes and does not
.vitiate my principle, which, to Judge
from my own experience, would seem
to be that when travelling persons in
ordinary health need not fear to drink
the water in common use.
I ought also to add that, in common
with my fellow travellers, I have never
found the necessity for alcoholic drinks
in long and rapid journeys. In 1874
the Rev. J. P. Hobson, the curate Of
Greenwich, and / travelled about 1000
miles a month. In 1878 MIR. Stone
(then a youth) and I travelled about
$500 miles in seven weeks, and last
year I travelled with a Harrow boy
bout 1000 miles in sixty-se7en days.
The severest work Of all, however, was
the Siberian posting of $500 milec- in
thirty-nine days. This means jolting
along on rough roads by night and by
day, in the course of which I slept in
my clothes every night but two for a
month, and no fatigue that I ever en-
dured equaled that of the first few days
travel in a Russian tarantass. Yet at
the close Of the journey I was better
than at the beginning. nor do I think
that was ever in sounder health than
after the five months journey round
the world, the 25, 500 miles of which
were tra7ersed in 100 travelling days,
at the rate, that is, of about 100
miles day. 1 write this with no
other feeling than the deepest thank
fulness to Him who is the author and
giver Of life and health, and would do
so with unfeigned humility, whilst
pointing to others who have done more.
Witness the wonderful travels Of MIR.
Goughl Again, Captain Virgins did
upward Of 5000 miles OF sledging ii
Siberia winter, in forty-three days.
without stimulants, and in a similar
manner my interpreter did 1900 miles
more Of summer posting than I.-Rer.
Henry Lansdeu