Note 3 — Chapter XLV · THE LOWER AMUR.

Besides these hundred-rouble notes I took, to pay for horses, £30 in one-rouble notes, the same amount in three and five-rouble notes, small silver coin to the value of 100 roubles, and a bag of copper kopecks, for at the post-houses they are not bound to give change, and the clerks gladly pocket the difference when smaller money is not forthcoming. In the peopled parts of the Sea-coast government there is a postal delivery once a week, at Okhotsk once a month, and at one happy place in the far north, I was told, the postman arrives but once a year! They have a “parcel post” in Siberia, by which packets must not exceed £500 in value, nor weigh more than 1 cwt. The rates are, for 200 miles, ¾d. per Russian pound, and ¼d. per pound extra for every 60 miles up to 1,600, Beyond that distance it costs ¼d. per pound for every 160 miles.