From Russia to Siam, With a Voyage Down the Danube

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Excerpt from From Russia to Siam, With a Voyage Down the Danube: Sketches of Travel in Many LandsOn the way down to the steamer on the Monday morning, I called at a baker's and bought a pound of biscuits, Huntley Palmer's - stale ones. I crammed them into my overcoat pocket. My luggage consisted of a very small bag holding my toilet accessories and a sleeping suit, my over coat, and a camera.Sortavala lies at the head of Lake Ladoga. SO completely does it appear to be shut in by the land that you wonder how the vessel will ever be able to get out of the bay. As you leave the quay the eye seeks everywhere for the exit and finds none. You make random guesses as to the position of the outlet, and each guess in turn proves wrong. At last you pass through a long narrow channel into the broad waters of the lake, a lake that has been familiar to you from your childhood as a broad blue patch upon the map of Russia. It is dotted everywhere with small sailing-boats, usually the property of the Karelians that tribe of Finns that inhabits the eastern part of Finland, and amongst whom have been longest and most vigorously cherished the songs and legends that constitute the glory of ancient Finnish literature.I was an object of interest to all the passengers on our tiny steamer, as soon as the captain, who possessed a fragmentary knowledge of English, had extracted from me the information that I was going to spend five days at Walamo. Said one, You can't smoke a second, You can't drink and a third, There are no amuse ments. The captain touched the tenderest spot of all when he protested in a gloomy voice, There is nothing to eat at Walamo but bread and salt. You'll die. I persisted in my resolve, and tried to imagine that I was a bold and fearless explorer.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.