CHAPTER II.
IN THE NORTHERN FORESTS Bird's-eye View of Russia--The Northern Forests--Purpose of my Journey--Negotiations--The Road--A Village--A Peasant's House--Vapour-Baths--Curious Custom--Arrival.
There are many ways of describing a country that one has visited.

The simplest and most common method is to give a chronological account of the journey; and this is perhaps the best way when the journey does not extend over more than a few weeks.

But it cannot be conveniently employed in the case of a residence of many years.

Did I adopt it, I should very soon exhaust the reader's patience.

I should have to take him with me to a secluded village, and make him wait for me till I had learned to speak the language.