taken captive--that is, if she did not betray him! From here he escaped
precipitately with his cavalry across the river Mjaes.

Here Siberia commences, and here Russia has no longer villages, but only
military settlements which are divided from each other by a day's march,
across plains and the ancient forests, along the ranges of the Ural
Mountains--the so-called factories.

The Woszkrezenszki factory, situated one day's walk into the desert, is
divided by uncut forests from the Szimszki factory, in both of which
cinnamon and tin paints are made, and here are to be seen the powder
factory of Usiska and the bomb factory of Szatkin, where the exiled
Russian convicts work. At the meeting of the rivers are the small towns
of Stepnaja, Troiczka Uszt, Magitnaja, Petroluskaja, Kojelga, guarded by
native Cossacks, whilst others are garrisoned by disgraced battalions.
Hither came Pugasceff with the remnants of his army. Galiczin pursued
him for some time, but finally came to the conclusion that in this
uninhabited country, where the solitary road is only indicated by snow-
covered trenches, he could not, with his regular troops, reach an
opponent whose tactics were to run away as far and as fast as possible.

Pugasceff rallied to him all the tribes along the Ural district, who
deserted their homesteads and followed him.

The winter suddenly disappeared, and those mild, short April days
commenced which one can only realize in Siberia, when at night the water
freezes, while in the daytime the melting snow covers the expanse of
waste, every mountain stream becomes a torrent, and the traveler finds
in the place of every brook a vast sea. The runaway might still proceed
by sledge, but the pursuer would only find before him fathomless