Frank asked if it often happened that people were frozen to death in these Russian winters.
"Occurrences of this kind probably take place every year," was the reply, "but from all I have been able to learn I believe the number is exaggerated. In many cases it is the fault of the frozen ones themselves; they have been rendered insensible or careless by stimulants, and gone to sleep in the open air. The tendency to sleep when one is exposed to severe cold should be resisted, as it is very likely to be the sleep of death.
"There is a story of two travellers who saw a third in trouble; one of them proposed to go to the relief of the man in distress, but the other refused, saying he would not stir out of their sleigh. The first went and relieved the sufferer; his exertions set the blood rushing through his veins and saved him from injury by the cold, while the one who refused to render aid was frozen to death.
"It is a curious fact," said the Doctor, in closing his remarks upon the Russian winter, "that foreigners coming here do not feel the cold at first. They walk the streets in the same clothing they would wear in London or Paris, and laugh at the Russians wrapping themselves in furs. At the same time the Russians laugh at them and predict that if they stay in the country for another season they will change their ways. A stranger does not feel the cold the first winter as sensibly as do the Russians, but in every succeeding season of frost he is fully sensitive to it, and vies with the natives in constant use of his furs."
LEAVING ST. PETERSBURG.--NOVGOROD THE GREAT: ITS HISTORY AND TRADITIONS.--RURIK AND HIS SUCCESSORS.--BARBARITIES OF JOHN THE TERRIBLE.--EARLY HISTORY OF RUSSIA.--AN IMPERIAL BEAR-HUNT.--ORIGIN OF THE HOUSE OF ROMANOFF.--"A LIFE FOR THE CZAR."--RAILWAYS IN RUSSIA FROM NOVGOROD TO MOSCOW.
A day was appointed for leaving St. Petersburg. Notice was given at the office of the hotel, and the passports of the three travellers received the necessary indorsements at the Police Bureau. Trunks were packed and bills settled, and at the proper time a carriage conveyed the party to the commodious station of the Imperial Railway from the new capital of Russia to the old. But they did not take their tickets direct for Moscow.