Note 5 — Chapter III · THE URALS TO TIUMEN.

Concerning the weather in crossing Europe, I may say that, from the Russian frontier to the capital, on the 2nd and 3rd of May, a fire was provided in the railway carriage, and on approaching Petersburg there was just a little snow left here and there in drifts. On the 4th the last of the ice was floating down the Neva. In less than a week it became positively hot in the middle of the day, and the trees opened their foliage rapidly. At Nijni Novgorod, on the 15th, the foliage was all but full. On the banks of the Kama the trees were covered with leaves, which the captain of the steamer said had come out within the previous five days; and on the 20th, when stopping for wood, some of the passengers found strawberry blossoms and violets. Fine weather then continued up to the 23rd.