I immersed my thermometer and found it indicated 51 deg.
Walking on shore I was nearly overturned by a small hog running between my legs.

The brute, with a dozen of his companions, had pretty much his own way at Petrovsky, and after this introduction I was careful about my steps.

These hogs are modelled something like blockade runners: with great length, narrow beam, and light draft.
They are capable of high speed, and would make excellent time if pursued by a bull-dog or pursuing a swill-bucket.
[Illustration: RECEPTION AT PETROVSKY.] A peasant told us there were wild geese in a pond near by, and as the boat remained an hour or more to take wood, Borasdine and I improvised a hunting excursion.

It proved in every sense a wild-goose chase, as the birds flew away before we were in shooting distance.

Not wishing to return empty-handed we purchased two geese a few hundred yards from the village, and assumed an air of great dignity as we approached the boat.