four o’clock in the evening
At eight o'clock the next morning , the 24th of July , three strong horses were harnessed to the tarantass . Michael Strogoff and Nadia took their places , and Ichim , with its disagreeable remembrances , was soon left far behind . At the different relays at which they stopped during the day Strogoff ascertained that the berlin still preceded them on the road to Irkutsk , and that the traveler , as hurried as they were , never lost a minute in pursuing his way across the steppe . At four o'clock in the evening they reached Abatskaia , fifty miles farther on , where the Ichim , one of the principal affluents of the Irtych , had to be crossed . This passage was rather more difficult than that of the Tobol . Indeed the current of the Ichim was very rapid just at that place . During the Siberian winter , the rivers being all frozen to a thickness of several feet , they are easily practicable , and the traveler even crosses them without being aware of the fact , for their beds have disappeared under the snowy sheet spread uniformly over the steppe ; but in summer the difficulties of crossing are sometimes great .