Note 12 — Chapter XLVII · NIKOLAEFSK.

He had, indeed, already retired in a fashion; for the winter season at Nikolaefsk had become to him so insupportably dull, that for the last few years he had posted off in autumn to Petersburg and other European markets, and then, chartering a schooner of 350 tons with merchandise, he had either accompanied it round the remainder of the globe, or crossed the Atlantic to America to see his parents, and then sailed over the Pacific by the following spring. In this way he had several times made the circuit of the world, going west or east, as business or inclination decided. He allowed 18 days in winter for a sledge journey of 3,300 miles, from Moscow to Irkutsk.