She also is on the point of departure, and I notice, with relief, that most of the crowd are making their way on board her.
The passenger-steamers on the Caspian are the property of the Caucase-Mercure Company, a Russian firm.

They are, with few exceptions, as unseaworthy as they are comfortless, which says a great deal.

All are of iron, and were built in England and Sweden, sent to St.Petersburg by sea, there taken to pieces and despatched overland to Nijni-Novgorod, on the Volga.

At Nijni they were repieced and taken down the Volga to the Caspian.
The _Bariatinsky_ was first away, her decks crammed with soldiers bound for Central Asia.

They treated us to a vocal concert as the ship left port, and I paced the moonlit deck for some time, listening to the sweet sad airs sung with the pathos and harmony that seems born in every Russian, high or low.