Note 2 — Chapter XXXV · FROM STRETINSK TO UST-KARA.

He left it at Tiumen, where it still may be, for aught I know to the contrary; in danger, perhaps, of being immortalized, like another old “equipage,” of which the following story is told. The Russians apply the term “equipage” to any vehicle, whether on wheels or runners, and whether drawn by horses, dogs, deer, or camels. The same word “equipage” is used in Russian, as in French, to denote a ship’s crew. Accordingly, a few years after the disappearance of Sir John Franklin, the English Admiralty requested the Russian Government to make inquiries for the lost navigator along the coasts and islands of the Arctic Ocean. An order to that effect was sent to the Siberian authorities, and they in turn commanded all subordinates to inquire and report; whereupon a petty officer, somewhere in Western Siberia, was puzzled at the order to inquire concerning the English Captain, John Franklin, and his equipage. In due time, however, he reported, “I have made the proper inquiries. I can learn nothing about Captain Franklin, but in one of my villages there is an old sleigh that no one claims, which may be his equipage.”