by the tug and the hawser carried back to the capstan, where it is
attached to one of the rope drums, and the boat with the barges attached
to it towed along by the horse gears described above winding on the
hawser. The advance continues without interruption day and night, the
launch taking a second anchor and hawser forward and dropping the anchor
in advance of the first by a hawser's length, so that when the capstan has
wound up the first hawser it finds a second one ready for attachment to
the rope drum. The launch receives the first hawser, picks up the anchor,
and passes the capstan to drop it again in advance of the anchor
previously placed, and carries the hawser back to the capstan, and so on.
A capstan tows twelve or more barges, placed in twos or threes beside and
close behind each other, with a load of a million pounds, or about 16,000
to 17,000 tons. From Astrachan and the mouth of the Kama the capstans make
during the season from the beginning of May to the end of July in the most
favorable case two journeys to the fair of Nishny-Novgorod; after this
time no more journeys are made, as the freights are wanting. At the end of
the up-stream journey the horses are sold, as mentioned before, and the
capstan towed down stream by the steam launch to Astrachan or the Kama
mouth, where meanwhile a fresh lot of barges has been loaded and got
ready, a new supply of horses is bought, and the operation repeated.

Besides these horse capstans there are steam capstans which are less
complicated and have condensing steam engines of about 100 horse power,
the power being transmitted by gearing to the rope drum. The rope drum
shaft projects on both sides beyond the boards of the boat, and for the
return journey paddle wheels, are put on to assist the launch in towing
the clumsy and big capstan boat down the river. The steam capstans tow
considerably larger masses of goods than the horse capstans and also
travel somewhat quicker, so that the launch has scarcely sufficient time
to drop and raise the anchors and also to make double the journey. We do