d dreary between the monotonous snow-covered banks. ON either side stretched the Kirghisz steppe. I was plunged in meditation, for the greaer part melancholy. Garrison life held few attractions for me. I tried to imagine what Captain Mironov, my future superior officer, would be like, and formed a picture of a severe, bad-tempered old man, oblivious to all but the service, and ready to arrest me and put me on bread and water for the most trivial offen