From Paris to Pekin over Siberian Snows

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Victor Meignan. From Paris to Pekin over Siberian Snows

From Paris to Pekin over Siberian Snows

Table of Contents

FROM PARIS TO PEKIN

CHAPTER I. FROM PARIS TO ST. PETERSBURG

CHAPTER II. ST. PETERSBURG TO MOSCOW

CHAPTER III. MOSCOW—NIJNI-NOVGOROD

CHAPTER IV. FROM NIJNI-NOVGOROD TO KAZAN

CHAPTER V. KAZAN—JOURNEY TO PERM

CHAPTER VI. PERM—THE ROAD TO CATHERINEBURG

CHAPTER VII. OUR PARTY ON THE ROAD TO TUMEN

CHAPTER VIII. A PERILOUS NIGHT ADVENTURE ON THE STEPPE OF OMSK

CHAPTER IX. THE COLD ON THE WAY TO TOMSK

CHAPTER X. THE GOVERNMENT OF YENISSEISK AND KRASNOIARSK

CHAPTER XI. KRASNOIARSK TO IRKUTSK

CHAPTER XII. IRKUTSK

CHAPTER XIII. ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE BY A POLISH EXILE

CHAPTER XIV. IRKUTSK TO LAKE BAIKAL

CHAPTER XV. LAKE BAIKAL TO KIACHTA

CHAPTER XVI. KIACHTA TO MAIMATCHIN

CHAPTER XVII. MAIMATCHIN TO URGA

CHAPTER XVIII. URGA AND THE ENTRY INTO THE DESERT OF GOBI

CHAPTER XIX. CARAVAN ACROSS THE DESERT OF GOBI

CHAPTER XX. FROM THE GREAT WALL TO TCHAH-TAO

CHAPTER XXI. TCHAH-TAO TO PEKIN

CHAPTER XXII. PEKIN—DEPARTURE

Footnote

Note 1, Chap. II., Page 22

Note 2, Chap. VII., Page 127

Note 3, Chap. IX., Page 165

Note 4, Chap. XI., Page 188

Note 5, Chap. XII., Page 213

Note 6, Chap. XIII., Page 225

Note 7, Chap. XIII., Page 226

Note 8, Chap. XIII., Page 229

Note 9, Chap. XIII., Page 231

Note 10, Chap. XIII., Page 240

Note 11, Chap. XV., Page 278

Note 12, Chap. XVI., Page 287

Note 13, Chap. XVI., Page 301

Note 14, Chap. XIX., Page 347

Note 15, Chap. XIX., Page 350

Отрывок из книги

Victor Meignan

Published by Good Press, 2021

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The choice of fur is an important matter, especially at Moscow, where one’s individual value is appreciated by the value of the animal’s skin he wears. There is indeed a Russian proverb that seems to discredit this observation. “On vous reçoit selon votre habit, et l’on vous reconduit selon votre esprit.” But this apophthegm rarely serves as a precept in a society fond of showiness and imposing magnificence—a society that is closed against the most cultivated mind if the body be not decked in the skins of certain beasts.

It was a hollow rumbling sound in a deep gulf below. To the excited fancy of the wayfarer, it seemed, at times, the echoed roar of some angry demon imprisoned in the depths of an icy cave; and the traveller, listening as he is whisked along, is affected by a terrifying sensation of sinking, produced by the alternate rising and falling of the sledge over the undulating surface—a movement from which he involuntarily recoils. Just as in a carriage, when the horses are rushing on with uncontrolled impetuosity, he instinctively throws himself backwards, as if to struggle against the force that would hurl him to destruction, or, standing on the ridge of a precipice, he impulsively recoils towards surer ground from the abyss yawning to devour him, so, the first time he travels over the frozen river, he shrinks from a movement, but from one against which it is in vain to struggle; for, in glancing over the fragile partition, he finds he is contending, not to attain solid ground, for there is no shore of safety near for retreat, but hopelessly against his own weight. He is irritated at the presence of others there, at their not becoming as light as air; he is angry with everybody and everything that is heavy, because what aggravates the danger by its weight, men or baggage, is exasperating, and, indeed, not without reason, for every ponderous atom, in his imagination, exaggerates the imminence of that desperate moment when, without the resource of a jutting branch or anything stable presented providentially to his grasp, this frail, frozen floor should break under the weight like a pane of glass, and plunge him into all the horrors of a glacial sepulture.

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