In the forenoon we rode out to the Russian settlement, to Niuchatun, to the Russian fort on the south-west, or to their entrenchments further out, near the salt-pans at the river mouth. Etzel was an excellent scout. On several occasions I was out with him alone, tracking Russian movements, reconnoitring their outposts, or observing what changes they were about to make in the disposition of their military forces around the town. The facility with which he got from point to point without being observed was as excellent as the inimitable manner in which he carried through the examination of the particular business he had set himself to investigate. He had an acute perception of military movements which might have an important bearing on the plan of campaign, and foresight so remarkable that it seemed to me he had a special faculty which enabled him to divine the intentions of the Russian officers directing the troops and superintending the construction of defensive works. Then, in scouting, he found the right clues quickly and followed them with unerring accuracy and admirable precision. In the afternoon we usually tried to see people who were in a position to have news, and when we saw them we worked to get the news. Between four and five o’clock the couriers came in by the west gate, and they had to be met personally or by a trustworthy Chinaman in our service. Last of all we wrote our telegrams and took them to the office at the Chinese railway station. This apparently simple matter was sometimes the most difficult part of the day’s work. When the river was hard frozen and the weather fair, we went on a _piza_, that is, a pair of sledge runners connected by some rough boards upon which a few reeds are fastened. The sledge is propelled by a Chinaman who stands with each foot on one runner and propels the contrivance with a boat hook. In this way, the two miles, in most favourable circumstances, might be accomplished in fifteen minutes. Then there was only the discomfort, the terrible cold and the incessant jolting over the rough ice to be endured but when the ice was bad, when there were cracks and pools to be avoided, and the probability of the ice breaking at any moment, then the journey had its dangers as well as discomforts. It might require forty minutes, or more, and as happened more than once to myself, the rider might slip through a crack in the ice and have an unrequired ducking. The risks were always increased when the crossing was made in the darkness, as ours were. By way of variety one might walk across the ice, or even ride over on horseback, or send a messenger. But the messenger could always be held up by a European, and the message be read before it was returned to him. Another way, if we were in time, was to post our messages across the river through the Imperial Chinese Post Office.