Ro ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE ARTES 218 17 SCIENTIA VERITAS LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN UNUM PLURIBUS UNL TCEBOR SI·QUÆRIS-PENINSULAM-AMŒNAM. CIRCUMSPICE THE GIFT OF Arthur Graham Hal1 Family } . = CIUD UNIV OF MIC H. ん ​IEE NONCONFUNDARIN TURNU SEARS ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION The RUSSIAN EMPIRE WROBERT AN ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE; EMBRACING ITS GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES, POLITICAL DIVISIONS, PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS, POPULATION, CLASSES, GOVERNMENT, RESOURCES, COMMERCE, ANTIQUITIES, RELIGION, PROGRESS IN EDUCATION, LITERATURE, ART, AND SCIENCE, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, HISTORIC SUMMARY, ETC., FROM THE LATEST AND THE MOST AUTHENTIC SOURCES. BY ROBERT SEARS. EMBELLISHED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS. AND Maps of European and Asiatic Russia. NEW YORK: PUBLISHED BY ROBERT SEARS, 181 WILLIAM STREET. 1855. DK 25 544 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, BY ROBERT SEARS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the District of New Jersey. STEREOTYPED BY C. C. SAVAGE, 13 Chambers Street, N. Y. C. A. ALVORD, PRINTER, 29 Gold Street, N. Y. PREFACE. HE volume herewith presented to the public was in course of preparation (to the extent, at least, of collecting material out of which to digest the subject-matter of its pages), for a considerable period anterior to the commencement of hostilities between the two governments occupying the position of principals in the present European war. That event, how- ever, with the solicitude it has very generally and very naturally created for reliable information, as to the character, history, and resources, of the Muscovite empire, whose position seems generally though perhaps erroneously to be regarded as so formidable and threatening toward other nations, has led to its publication at a somewhat earlier day than might otherwise have been determined on. But comparatively few of the descriptive works on Russia heretofore published, accessible to readers in the English language-those of recent as well as those of earlier date-have extended their range beyond St. Petersburg and Moscow, with perhaps the provinces immediately surround- ing them. This is to be accounted for probably in the fact that (with few exceptions) they have emanated from tourists visiting that country for health or pleasure; and the restrictions with which the government every- where trammels locomotion on Russian territory, with the miserable travel- ling facilities, and worse roadside accommodations, have generally been sufficient to deter them from penetrating or exploring to any considerable extent, the vast regions lying beyond the Muscovite capitals. And those works not comprised in this class, and which form the exceptions referred to above, do not cover, any one of them, but a fraction of this colossal empire. Thus Finland, the German colonies, Poland, Southern Russia, the Crimea, Kazan, the Caucasian and Trans-Caucasian provinces, Siberia, 4 PREFACE. and other divisions of the imperial domain, have each had its histori- ographer, but each has generally formed the subject of a separate work. While still other writers have limited the scope of their pens entirely to sketches of the people, the government, and institutions of the country. To obtain a knowledge, therefore, of the whole empire, called for the pe- rusal of so many volumes, and some of them not attainable this side of the Atlantic, that Russia has necessarily been a terra incognita to a large proportion of American readers. This deficiency in the means of accessible information, on most subjects so abundant in this country, suggested to the Editor the plan of this vol- ume. He felt assured that if he could furnish an illustrated description of every portion of the empire—of its institutions and people, its history, and in brief, everything requisite to a complete knowledge of "Russia and the Russians," full in details, yet carefully condensed, so as to bring the whole within the covers of a single volume, and thus within the means of every class of readers-he would essentially subserve the cause of popular infor- mation. He undertook the task, and the more completely to carry out his design, he has spared no pains in the endeavor to obtain, both in this coun- try and in Europe, every work that promised any additional or more recent information, or which might serve to verify that already in hand. The result of his labors is embodied in the following pages. Of the success which has attended them, he will leave to his readers to judge from perusal. The engravings (many of which are from drawings made expressly for this volume) have been selected with regard rather to the more practical purpose of illustrating the letter-press than the minor one of mere pictorial embellishment. A glance at them, however, will show that the latter con- sideration has not been lost sight of. They are all from the burin of WIL- LIAM ROBERTS, whose eminent reputation is an ample guaranty that they have been executed in the highest and most elaborate style of the art. Of the maps, it will be a sufficient assurance of their accuracy, to mention that they are from MORSE's geographical establishment, and are specimens of his beautiful art of cereographic engraving. The preparation of this volume has been a work of no inconsiderable toil, involving, as it did, reference to such varied and frequently conflicting authorities; and its mechanical execution has been attended with a far greater outlay than any of the Editor's previous works. But should it meet with but a moiety of the favor so kindly and generously accorded to his former publications, he will feel himself amply recompensed for his labors. OCTOBER, 1854. R. S. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. Boundaries Latitude and Longitude-Superficial Area-Comparative Dimensions—Russian America-Ural Mountains Caucasian Range Asiatic Russia Altai Range-Forests— White Sea-Baltic Sea - Its Extent - Gulf of Bothnia - Gulf of Finland - Euxine or Black Sea-Sea of Azov - Putrid Sea-Strait of Enikaleh - Caspian Sea - Its Position, Form, and Extent Its Islands - Its Fisheries-Its Harbors-Its History-the Sea of Okhotsk - Riv- ers the Dwina — the Obi— the Yenisei - the Duna-the Niemen - the Dniester— the Dnieper — the Boug― the Don-Attempts to unite the Don and the Volga the Kouban the Danube - Its Mouths—the Volga-Its Source and Course - Its Mouths—Its Tribu- taries Its Inundations-Its Commercial Importance-Lakes-Lake or Sea of Baikal Lake Ladoga-Lake Onega-Lake Peipus-Lake Ilmen- Bielo-Ozero Bielo-Ozero - Climate Storms the Miatjel—the Samjots - the Vinga-Its Terrible Devastations.... CHAPTER II. POLITICAL DIVISIONS—THE BALTIC PROVINCES. PAGE 13 Division-Line of European and Asiatic Russia— General Divisions-Table of Areas and Pop- ulations- FINLAND: Physical Aspect-Climate-Soil-Productions-Animals - Manufac- tures — Government-People-the Aland Archipelago — Chief Towns -- Abo-Helsingfors Sweaborg-Tornea Government of ST. PETERSBURG: Physical Aspect Climate — Pro- - ductive Resources Commerce Kronstadt-Its Harbor and Fortifications-ESTHONIA: Soil Animals-Thrilling Incident Revel — Its Harbor — Historical Incident - Catherinthal, built by Peter the Great- LIVONIA: Soil and Productions-Forests - Wild Animals - Hunt- ing Scenes - Rural Industry-Russian Coins- LIVONIA: Population - Government — Riga -Dorpat-Historic Incident of Schloss-Ringen -COURLAND: Physical Aspect-Soil and Productions Animals — Elk-Hunting — Mittau― Libau - Windau - History of the Baltic Provinces-People-the Lettes and Esthonians - the Jews- the Germans CHAPTER III. GREAT RUSSIA. .PAGE 41 - ARCHANGEL: Its Extent - Physical Aspect― Climate- Resources--People-Russian Lapland -the Laplanders — Nova Zembla - City of Archangel - History —VOLOGDA: Soil, Climate, and Productions - City of Vologda-OLONETZ: Soil - Resources - Petrozavodsk — Kargo- pole - NOVGOROD: Physical Aspect-Soil and Productions-City of Novgorod — Its History - РSKOV: Soil and Productions-Pskov the Capital Torepetz-Velikie-Louki-TVER: Productions-Manufactures — Commerce - Tver, its Capital-SMOLENSK: Soil and Produc- tions - Forests - City of Smolensk-Moscow: Its Extent-Physical Aspect-Climate- Natural Products and Manufactures-YAROSLAV Rivers and Lakes - Climate - Resources - City of Yaroslav - Its History -KOSTROMA: Soil and Climate-Products- City of Kos- 6 CONTENTS. troma - Nijnei-Novgorod -Soil and Productions- Manufactures - City of Nijnei-Novgor››d —Fairs - VLADIMIR: Surface - Soil and Products - City of Vladimir RIAZAN: Climate - Forests — Products and Manufactures — City of Riazan -TAMBOV: Resources - Forests Manufactures-City of Tambov-TOULA: Resources TOULA: Resources - City of Toula City of Toula-Market - Manufac- tures-History-KALOUGA: Climate and Productions - Manufactures-Exports - City of Kalouga — OREL: Its Rivers OREL: Its Rivers - Soil and Productions - Commerce - Town of Orel - KOURSK: Products-Exports - City of Koursk - Fairs-VORONEJ: Resources-Population - City of Voronej.. CHAPTER IV. .PAGE 81 LITTLE AND WESTERN RUSSIA. Lakes and Rivers Productions — Lithuania - Its History and People - TCHERNIGOV: Its Soil -Its Capital, Tchernigov - KHARKOV: Soil and Productions -- City of Kharkov - POLTAVA: Its Surface, Soil, and Resources — Town of Poltava — KIEV: Physical Aspect — Climate Crops-City of Kiev-Antiquities-History of Kiev- PODOLIA: Physical Aspect - Pro- ductions - Kaminietz - Balta — VOLHYNIA: Physical Aspect-Manufactures and Exports People - Jitomir - Berditschev - MINSK: Productive Resources -People-Its Capital MOGHILEY: Rivers and Lakes-Productions-Town of Moghilev-VITEPSK: Soil and Pro- ductions Its Capital-WILNA: Rivers and Lakes-Agricultural Resources - Animals Its Capital-Educational Institutions-GRODNO: Soil and Productions - People - Town of Grodno-BIALYSTOK: Its Resources - Bialystok, its Capital CHAPTER V. RUSSIAN POLAND. .PAGE 119 Former Extent of Poland Present Limits of Russian Poland - Population - Physical Aspect Climate and Soil — Productive Resources - Estates of the Nobility - the Peasantry - Position of the Peasantry-Villages - Domestic and Wild Animals Forests Minerals Manufactures — Commerce - Government - Religion Education - People - History Krakow, the Ancient Capital of Poland WARSAW: Public Buildings Suburbs Educa- tional Institutions - Manufactures and Trade- History — Other Towns.. — CHAPTER VI. SOUTHERN RUSSIA. .PAGE 137 BESSARABIA: Its Position and Physical Aspect Climate and Productions - People - History -Kichinev - Ismail Its Capture by Suwarrow-KHERSON: Soil and Climate - Industrial Arts — Kherson, its Capital — Historical Incident: "The Road to Constantinople”— Odessa - Its Trade Its Granaries Bazars-Vineyards - The Boulevard — Memorials of How- ard - Nikolaïev — TAURIDA: Position and Area - Its People - EKATHERINOSLAV: Soil and Minerals Climate and Products Game Manufactures-DON COSSACKS (Government): Physical Aspect - Climate - Productive Resources The Don Cossacks Their History Kreposts Nova Tcherkask — Teherkask - Taganrog― Azov... CHAPTER VII. THE CRIMEA. .PAGE/161 Salt Works-Chief Towns- Physical Aspect The Baidar Valley - Productive Resources Population Crim Tartars History - Sevastapol - Its Harbor and Fortifications - Ink- erman, the "Town of Caverns"- Ruins Simferopol - Camel-Carts - Fair - Races - the Tchatir Dagh Cave of Foul Kouba - Kisil Kouba - Pallas' Residence Kertsch Panti- capaeum, Residence and Reputed Burial-Place of Mithridates Caffa Baktchiserai (the "Seraglio of Gardens")- Tartar Houses Palace of the Khans Mausoleum of the Khans, "Valley of Jehoshaphat"- Tchoufut Kalè the Karaïte Jews - Mangoup Kalè — Novel Method of Shoeing a Bullock-Decay of the Tartar Race .PAGE 181 CONTENTS. 7 CHAPTER VIII. THE STEPPES OF SOUTHERN RUSSIA. Area and Physical Aspect Rivers Ravines - Limans Stavoks Climate Seasons Excessive Drought-Vegetation Burian Steppe-Fires Earth-Hares Mice-Wolves - Dogs - Bustard-Hunting Birds of Prey-Reptiles - The Toad-Shower - Lizards Snakes Locusts Their Devastations - Herds of Horses-The Tabuntshik The Horse- Stealer - Battles of the Horses Attacks of Wolves - Thrashing of Grain by Horses Mazeppa-Sheep The Tshabawn-Milking Sheep Herds of Cattle - The Tsherednik - Tallow-Houses - Wholesale Slaughter - Tallow-Market.. - CHAPTER IX. EASTERN RUSSIA. • .PAGE 208 Their Ex- Governments of Eastern Russia ASTRAKHAN: Physical Aspect-Soil-Productive Resources Salt-Lakes-Rivers-Climate — Animals — Fisheries - People - The Calmucks traordinary Emigration in 1770-'71-City of Astrakhan - Its Trade and Population-SA- RATOV: Productions-Sheep-Population - Commerce-City of Saratov - Other Towns- ORENBURG: Physical Aspect-Soil-Minerals - Town of Orenburg-Its Manufactures and Trade- PERM: Physical Aspect—— Climate — Gold, Iron, and Salt-Mines - Trade-Inhab- itants City of Perm Ekaterinburg― Trade in Precious Stones - VIATKA: Physical Aspect Productive Resources Commerce - Population - Viatka the Capital-SIMBIRSK: Climate and Productions - Its Capital-SAMARA: Area and Population - City of Samara — Its An- nual Fair - PENZA: Soil and Productions-Manufactures and Exports - City of Penza- KAZAN: Physical Aspect― Agriculture-Gardens - Population-- Cheremisses and Chuvasses -The city of Kazan - The Tartars - Their Costume-Tartar Women - Kremlin of Kazan — University — Manufactures and Trade-Inundation of the Volga-Foundation of Kazan - Its History-Its Conflagrations-Oliphant's Sketch of Kazan in 1853....... CHAPTER X. THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES. ..PAGE 244 Caucasian Tribes-GEORGIA: Its Position and Aspect-Rivers - Climate and Soil-Fruit- Its Vineyards-Wines-Domestic Animals -Roads - Manufactures - Female Georgians Classes History - Teflis - Its History - Other Towns - SHIRVAN: Baku-Abcheran Naphtha Springs-"Field of Fire"-Ghebers RUSSIAN ARMENIA: Physical Aspect — Gûk- cha, or Blue Lake - Mount Ararat - Volcanic Eruption of 1840 — Nakhichevan — Climate and Soil of Armenia - Inhabitants - Echmiadzin Armenian Language and Literature Erivan Akhalzik — IMERITIA: Physical Aspect - Natural Productions-Bees and Silk- worms Commerce MINGRELIA: Physical Aspect-Productions—GURIA: People People-Kou- tais-ABASSIA: Its Position - Industry-History- Anapar-CIRCASSIA: Extent and Physical Features Its Hydrography - Climate-Soil and Natural Productions Animals, Wild and Domestic - Minerals - People - Villages - the Chase and War-Circassian Women Domestic Habits-Physical Beauty - Education - Religion - Manufactures and Commerce — History — CAUCASUS: Physical Features and Climate-Stavropol - Other Towns - DAG- HESTAN: Physical Aspect — Bituminous Springs - Climate - Population-Derbent - Kouba - Tschetschenzes and Lesghians-The Caucasian War - Its History-Shamyl....PAGE 280 CHAPTER XI. SIBERIA, OR ASIATIC RUSSIA. Its Immense Extent-Physical Aspect - the Steppe-Forests Moorland, or Tundra — Stan- ovoy Mountains-Dry Lakes Samoides Ostiaks-Calmucks — Turkish Tribes-Buriats Tungusi - Yakutes Tchouktchis- History of Siberia-TOBOLSK: Soil and Productions Tartar Villages— City of Tobolsk — Climate — ToмSK: Soil and Productions—Tomsk, its Capital - YENISEISK: Variety of Soil, Climate, and Productions - Inhabitants-Krasnoiarsk Other Towns-IRKOUTSK: Physical Features - Climate - Forests - Wild Animals — A Bear Story - Domestic Animals - Crops-Minerals - Manufactures — Irkoutsk, the Capital 8 CONTENTS. - Its Police - the "Double Town"-YAKOUTSK: Its Rivers Productive Resources - Yakoutsk, the Capital — Its Trade - Inhabitants Climate-ОKHOTSK: Physical Features -Products-Town of Okhotsk-KAMTSCHATKA: Its Form and Physical Aspect― Mountains — Climate - Forests - Agriculture-Wild Animals — Inhabitants - Amusements — Houses — Dogs — Koriaks — Trade — History - History Government ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Discovery - Volcanic Formation - Earthquakes - Soil - Soil - Game Game Fish - Inhabitants - Manners and Customs - Religion - Government.... — CHAPTER XII. MOSCOW. .PAGE 323 Its Streets — Its Extent―The Kremlin — Bird's-Eye View - Spass Vorota, or “Gate of the Redeemer"- the Nicholas Gate - Ancient Palace of the Czars-Terema - Granovitaya Palata-Coronation-Hall the Throne - the Bolshoi Dvoretz the Maloi Dvoretz - Cathe- dral of the Assumption - Cathedral of the Archangel Michael - Cathedral of the Archangel Michael - the False Dmitri Church of the Annunciation - the Senate, Treasury, and Arsenal-Memorials of the Early Czars- Palace of Arms-"Monarch Bell"— Ivan Veliki - Its Bells-Cathedral of St. Basil -- Chapel of the "Iberian Mother of God"- Convents and Monasteries Maidens' Field Hospitals - Theatres-Gostinoi Dvor-Manufactures and Commerce - History. CHAPTER XIII. ST. PETERSBURG. .PAGE 351 Site of St. Petersburg-Its Divisions-Iron Bridge across the Neva -- Bird's-Eye View -- Foun- dation of the City - Its Perils-Inundation of 1824 Climate St. Petersburg in Winter- the Russian Stove - Double Windows- the Neva in Winter- Breaking up of the Ice-Its Celebration — Street Population - Nevskoi Prospect-the English Quay-the Mujik— Sweeping the Streets, a Punishment for Drunkenness. .PAGE 375 CHAPTER XIV. ST. PETERSBURG ·IMPERIAL PALACES AND PUBLIC BUILDINGS. d The Winter-Palace - Its Conflagration in 1837 —Its Re-Erection-Its Interior- the Hermit- age-Its Treasures-the Marble Palace the Taurida Palace-Its Orangery-Its Occu- pants-Hotel de l'Etat Major— the Alexandrian Column -- the Old Michailoff Palace —the Anitshkof Palace-the New Michailoff Palace- Little Summer Garden—the Red Palace - the Imperial Library - Museums-Academy of Fine Arts - Educational Institutions – Government Buildings- the Exchange-the Customhouse the Fortress, Arsenals, and Bar- racks - Historical Souvenirs - Equestrian Statue of Peter the Great-Monument to Suwar- Monument to Field-Marshal Romanoff..... .PAGE 399 row CHAPTER XV. • ST. PETERSBURG CHURCHES AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. Modern Church Architecture - Kazan Cathedral - Isaac Church - Church of St. Peter and St. Paul-Its Spire-Thrilling Incident - Its Vaults-Tombs of the Russian Emperors — Smolnoi and Nevskoi Convents - Monastery of St. Sergius — Preobrashensky Church — Trin- ity Church — Nicolai Church-Roman Catholic Church — Hospitals - the Foundling Hos- pital. CHAPTER XVI. MARKETS AND MANUFACTORIES OF ST. PETERSBURG. ..431 The Gostinoi Dvor--the Gostonoi Merchants- the Somovar― the Apraxin Rinok -Image- Sellers-Fruit-Stalls - Pastry-Stands-Tshukin Dvor-Bird-Market - Hay-Market — For- zen Meat-Market Sennaïa Ploschad - INDUSTRIAL ESTABLISHMENTS: Tapestry, Porcelain, Card, Cotton, and Paper Manufactories - Ship-Building.. • • .PAGE 452 CONTENTS. 9 CHAPTER XVII. THE GARDENS AND VILLAS OF ST. PETERSBURG. Catherinenhoff-the Summer Garden - Peter's Wooden Palace-the Wife-Market— Islands of the Neva-Kammenoi, or Stone Island-Yelagin, Cross, and Apothecaries' Islands — Count Strogonoff's Gardens Czarsko Selo: the Palace - the Arsenal-the Grounds-Paulofsky and Gatchina Strelna - Peterhoff- the Empress' Annual Fêtes at Peterhoff Old Castle of Peter the Great-Marly and Monplaisir - the Hermitage-Cottage of Catherine II. — Ropscha-Oranienbaum. .PAGE 466 CHAPTER XVII I. THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT. < the Absolute Power of the Sovereign — Organization of the Government by Peter the Great- Imperial Council the Senate the Holy Synod Committee of Ministers-Local Admin- istration of the Governments and Provinces — the Judicial System—the Police System — Its Corruption -- Thieves and Pickpockets - Punishments - the Rod-the Knout - Exile to Siberia Departure of Exiles the Journey their Number and Condition in Siberia — the Army-Its Organization - the Imperial Guard - Guard of the Interior- the Gendarmes - the Cossacks -- Conscription - Pay-Military Colonies - Insurrection of 1831 - the Navy - Its Extent-Its Efficiency Its Efficiency — Its History - Public Revenue-Its Sources-Expenditures - Public Debt. CHAPTER XIX. THE PEOPLE. ..487 The Nobility -- Its Division by Peter into Fourteen Classes-Titles - Powers of the Nobility— their Education and Habits- their Vassals — Attention to Manufactures - the Clergy, Mer- chants, and Burghers their Classification the Three Guilds - Citizen-Burghers-Re- spectable Citizens-Suburban Inhabitants—the Free Peasantry—the Serfs Marriages among Serfs and Free Peasants-Habits of the Russian Peasantry- Costume, Food, &c. — Superstitions and Vices—the Vapor-Bath -Public Baths....PAGE 511 CHAPTER XX. RELIGION -THE GREEK CHURCH. Serf Laws their Villages, The Various Religions in Russia - History of the Greek Church-Reforms of Peter the Great Points of Difference between the Greek and Roman Church—the Clergy— the White and Black Clergy — Monks — the Clergy of Other Churches - Incomes of the Russian Clergy — Nuns - Titles-Habits of the Priests - Devotion of the People to Pictures of their Saints Tolerant Spirit of the Russian Clergy.. .PAGE 533 CHAPTER XXI. FESTIVALS AND FASTS. The Easter Festival-Butter-Week - the Katsheli — Ice-Mountains — Admiralty Square during Easter-Equipages of the Grandees-the Wooden Theatres-the Burning Theatre-Its Victims Fêtes the Great Fast-Its Monotony - Palm Sunday - Easter-Eggs - Holy Thursday- Good Friday Easter Eve-Easter Kisses - Recollection Monday, a Festival- — Day in the Cemeteries.. CHAPTER XXII. LITERATURE AND EDUCATION. .PAGE 447 Early History of Literature-First Grammar of the Language-Michael Lomonosoff— Litera- ture during the Reign of Catherine II. - Cheraskoff, "the Russian Homer"- Other Poets- Progress of Russian Letters during the Present Century— Nicholas Karamzin Poets of the Nineteenth Century - Voyages and Travels - Alexander Pushkin Nicholas Gogol· 10 CONTENTS. His- Alexander Bestushev - Historical Romances Count Solohoupe - Female Writers torical Science - Statistics the Drama Theatrical Amusements Theatres in St. Peters- the Slavonic Dialects - Popular Instruction - Educational burg the Russian Alphabet Statistics.. CHAPTER XXIII. MEANS OF TRAVEL. .PAGE 567 First Railway in Russia Railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow - Oliphant's Description of a Passage over this Road Other Railways Projected Roads and Roadside Accommo- dation ― Sledge-Travelling - Posthouses - Posting — Cabinet-Couriers - Diligences - the Malle-Poste-Post Telega - Drosky - Ivoshtshiks - Pedestrian Privileges.... .PAGE 584 CHAPTER XXIV. HISTORIC SUMMARY- EARLY ANNALS. • Sarmatians and Scythians-Slavonians - Varagians Rurik Igor and Oleg - the Pet- chenegans the Drevlians - Olga and Sviatoslaff — Yaropolk — Vladimir — Yaroslav Monomachus-Conflagration of Kiev- Famine at Novgorod - Tartar Invasion - Yury I. — Batou Khan - Yury II. — Yaroslav II. - Yaroslav II. Alexander Nevski Alexander Nevski-Wars with the Tartars Ivan I. and II. — Dmitri III. and IV.—"Battle of the Giants" Vassili II. Ivan III. - Destruction of the Golden Horde - Vassili IV. Ivan IV. the Terrible - Origin of the Title "Czar"— Formation of the Strelitzes - Fedor I. - Boris Godunoff - Famine in Mos- the False Dmitris - Vladislaus - Michael Romanoff-Wars with the Swedes and Poles Alexis - Fedor III. - Accession of Peter the Great. COW CHAPTER XXV. .PAGE 597 M HISTORIC SUMMARY PETER THE GREAT TO NICHOLAS. Intrigues of Sophia, Half-Sister to Peter, to obtain the Crown—Joint Reign of Peter and Ivan V., with Sophia Insurrection of the Strelitzes - Deposition of Sophia Death of Ivan - War with Turkey - War with Sweden - Peace of Nystadt — War with Persia - Death of Peter His Character — His Manual Dexterity and Mechanical Knowledge-His Travels -- Cathe- rine I. — Her Previous History -- Her Measures - Her Death — Peter II. — Menchikoff – Anne- War with Turkey Ivan VI. Elizabeth Petrowna-War with Sweden War with Prussia- Peter III. His Assassination Catherine II. War with Turkey - Po- temkin Suwarrow - Partition of Poland - Catherine's Death Her Character - Paul I. - Events of his Reign - His Eccentricities - His Assassination Accession of Alexander I. -Treaty of Amiens - War with France - Battles of Austerlitz and Eylau- Treaty of Til- sit War with Sweden — Capture of Finland — Allied War against France Napoleon's Invasion of Russia - Battle of Borodino - Capture and Conflagration of Moscow Blowing up of the Kremlin Retreat of the French The European Powers allied against Napoleon His Character. His Overthrow — — A .PAGE 614 Death of Alexander CHAPTER XXVI. HISTORIC SUMMARY- REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. - Early Life of Nicholas - His Marriage and Family - Death of his Daughter the Grand-Duchess Alexandra Her Cenotaph at Czarsko Selo - Renunciation of the Throne by Constantine — Attempted Revolution Its Suppression War with Persia - War with Turkey - Cam- paigns of 1828-29 Polish Revolution of 1831 Its Suppression --Asiatic Cholera - Pro- tection to Turkey in the War with Mehemet Ali-Russian Agency in Crushing the Hungarian Revolution in 1848 - War with Turkey in 1853-'4 — Invasion of the Danubian Principal- ities by Russia - Destruction of the Turkish Fleet at Sinope Interference of France and England — Declarations of War by Turkey, France, and England Counter Declaration of .PAGE 647 Russia Conclusion ILLUSTRATIONS. .13 13 ICE-MOUNTAINS at St. Petersburg during Easter (See Description on page 549)....FRONTISPIECE Ornamental Title with Illustrative Vignettes – 1. Peter the Great working in a Shipyard in Hol- land; 2. The Building of St. Petersburg; 3. Cor- onation of Catherine II.; 4. Assassination of the Emperor Paul; 5. Napoleon in Russia; 6. The Burning of Moscow; 7. The Battle of Navarino. Hunting-Scene in Russia (Initial Letter)... PAGE 3 Map of European Russia (opposite). Winter Scene in Russia (Vignette). - ... Krepost, or Cossack Post, on the Circassian Frontier... Cossack Girl of Tcherkask. Crim Tartars. Map of Sevastapol City and Harbor of Sevasta pol.. Inkerman, the "Town of Caverns" Camel Cart... Cave of Foul Kouba. Tartar Whip PAGE 177 180 ..183 ..186 ..187 ..189 .191 ...194 ...197 Palace of the Khans. ..198 Altai Mountains - Peaks. of Chenune-Ouzoune, Tartar Village. .199 Katunya, and Arrhite.. .20 Tartar Guide .. ..200 Mouths of the Dwina. 27 Mausoleum of the Khans. ..201 Mouths of the Danube.. 30 Jewish Fortress of Tchoufut Kalè. ..203 Mouths of the Volga. .34 Mangoup Kalè.. .205 Horse-Boat, with Barges, on the Volga.. 36 Novel Method of Shoeing a Bullock. ..207 Russian Pilots. 37 Russian Elk and Bears. Winter-Travelling on the Steppes - Sledges..212 45 Summer-Travelling on the Steppes - A Taran- Peasants of Finland.. 47 tasse. 215 River and Town of Tornea, in Finland. 51 Bird-Hunting on the Steppes. 220 Kronstadt, the Port of St. Petersburg. 55 Invasion of the Steppes of Southern Russia by Woman of Esthonia abandoning her Children to Locusts... 225 the Wolves. .61 Egyptian Locust.. ..227 Preparing for the Chase. .66 Itinerant Horse-Dealer. .233 Elk-Hunting in Courland -"In at the Death".71 Hunters Encamped on the Steppe. .241 Gipsy Woman and Child. 76 City of Astrakhan. .245 Courland Jew with Dulcimer. .78 Calmucks. 247 Frozen Lake and Mountain Scenery in Lapland. 83 Shore Laplander | Astrakhan from the Sea.. 256 .85 Sheep from the Steppes of the Caspian.. 251 -- Mountain Laplanders. 85 The Chase - a Winter Scene .88 View on the Volga at Simbirsk The Jigoulee. 259 Chuvasses of Kazan.... .262 Monastery of the Annunciation at Novgorod....92 Posthouse on the Route from Kostroma to Yaro- slav...... Leather Gloves and Wooden Spoon of Kazan Manufacture….. .263 ...100 Interior of a Tartar House. ...264 Church of the Holy Women at Nijnei-Novgorod. 102 | City of Kazan before the Conflagration of 1842,265 Chinese Quarter of the Great Fair at Nijnei- Novgorod The Kremlin of Kazan. 269 105 Summary Punishment of a Mujik by a Cossack Cathedral of Nikolskoi, at Kazan. Tartar Mosque near Kazan.. ..271 279 at Nijnei-Novgorod……… ..106 Types of Caucasian Races. • ..280 A Tartar Wagon. 118 Obelisk at Poltava in Commemoration of the De- feat of Charles XII. of Sweden by Peter the Great Volhynian Peasant-Girl engaged in Spinning..129 Russian Village Party of Hunters.... Polish Bison (Urus), or Lithuanian Wild-Bull….144 Polish Jew at his Devotions | Georgians of the Heights of Teflis. Teflis, the Capital of Georgia ..286 287 • .122 Ararat, from the Plain of Erivan.. Patriarchal Church and Monastery of Echmiad- zin.. 291 .295 -.134 149 An Imeritian Prince, in War Costume. A Mingrelian Prince, in War Costume. Circassians ..299 .299 .306 Polish Exiles on their Way to Siberia. ..155 Circassian Females.. ..307 The Krakow Cathedral. Map of Odessa... City and Harbor of Odessa. The Boulevard at Odessa…. Cossacks of the Don.. ..160 Interior of a Circassian Armor Manufactory....311 165 Party of Caucasian Warriors descending the Mountains on a Predatory Excursion 167 169 Map of Siberia, or Asiatic Russia... 176 Kirghiz Merchant in his Tent..... ..317 .321 .329 12 ILLUSTRATIONS. Peasant Attacked by a Bear. Kamtschatdales Summer-House in Kamtschatka. Tobolsk, the Capital of Western Siberia..PAGE 331 | Exiles on their Way to Siberia Yakoutsk... 336 Regular Troops of Russia- 339 Irregular Troops of Russia. 343 Russian Silver-Rouble………. .344 Summer Villa of a Russian Noble PAGE 497 ..502 .502 ..510 Residence Map of Moscow 352 • General View of the Kremlin, Moscow .355 of the Kara Family at Tambov A Russian Merchant... .513 517 Cathedral of the Assumption, Moscow. · 360 The Bourgeoisie ―― A Russian Picnic. .519 The "Monarch Bell" of Moscow. 366 Russian Peasant and his Family. .523 Cathedral of St. Basil, Moscow VIEWS IN ST. PETERSBURG:- .369 Russian Peasants Building & Cottage. .529 Monk of the Greek Church. .533 Inundation of St. Petersburg in 1824.. 375 Philarète, Metropolitan of St. Petersburg. 535 -- Cast-Iron Bridge across the Neva. .377 Bishop of the Greek Church.. .538 Map of St. Petersburg. 379 Priest or Pope of the Greek Church. .538 Nevskoi Prospect. - .380 Deacon of the Greek Church. .539 The Neva in Winter. .388 Sub-Deacon of the Greek Church.. _539 Sweeping the Streets, a Punishment for Nun of the Greek Church.. 543 Drunkenness .396 Russians at Prayer .546 Nevskoi Prospekt (Second View). ..398 A Russian Carousal during Easter.. .654 The Winter Palace - Residence of the Im- perial Family.... Interior of a Russian Church The Assump- ..401 tion at Moscow. .559 Hotel de l'Etat Major, with the Alexandrian Column Easter-Kisses. .561 .411 Old Michailoff Palace, now the School of En- The Emperor giving the Cadets the Easter- Kiss .563 gineers.... .415 St. Isaac Square.. 422 The Bourse. .423 Hyacinth Bitchourin, Oriental Linguist........567 The Bolshoi, or Great Theatre of St. Peters- burg. .579 Equestrian Statue of Peter the Great, Admi- Winter Travelling - Sledges .585 ralry Square.……. 427 Office, Hotel des Malle-Postes. 430 | Departure of the Malle-Poste (Mail Diligence) from St. Petersburg.. 592 The Kazan Cathedral-the Metropolitan The Post-Telega.. .593 Church of St. Petersburg. 433 The Drosky .594 Church of St. Isaac... 439 Ivoshtshiks .596 Spire of St. Peter and St. Paul…. 442 Varagians Costumes of the Time of Rurik...599 Monastery of St. Sergius, Environs of St. Pe- Ivan IV. the Terrible. ..609 tersburg... ..447 Michael Romanoff.. 612 Saloon, Hotel des Malle-Postes. 451 The Gostinoi Dvor, during Easter .453 Cottage where Peter the Great lived while in Holland .613 - A Somovar, or Russian Tea-Urn.. 455 Peter the Great.. ..615 Cake and Tea Stall.. 457 The Empress Catherine I... - .619 Frozen Provision Market. 461 · Palace of Catherinenhoff.. ..467 Nurse, with Children, in the Summer Garden. 169 Noble's Villa on the Island of Kammenoi... .471 Imperial Palace of Czarsko Selo.. The Empress Elizabeth, Daughter of Peter the Great 622 The Empress Catherine II. .625 Field-Marshal Suwarrow .627 475 Paul I..…………… 629 Fête of the Emperor at Peterhoff- The Po- lonaise. Alexander I.. ...633 ..481 Napoleon witnessing the Burning of Moscow Monplaisir, Favorite Residence of Peter the from the Kremlin .642 Great, at Peterhoff.. 486 Nicholas I... 648 Battle-Scene (Initial Letter). 487 Cenotaph at Czarsko-Selo. ..649 Punishment of the Knout... 495 Finis" (Vignette).. ..672 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 ger Fiord Tornea L. 65 RUSSIA IN EUROPE Scale of miles 100 200 300 00 55 50 WE D 400 Tor Enara Dolgoi Kolgoney (L. Roushot Zavarot 60 65 70 D1 2 2 a z Poustor zersk & Pete E T Ousa R R. Ijma Kitidinal Kola The Is Mosselskaia Svintol Sviator Nos G. of P LA Panoi R. N Cabriox Tcheskain D Kendalaskaia Morjovers MalaiaZemlia J. Kovdorero Kemi Arctic Circle of Kundalaste TopL White Sea Sotovershot Go V.Deinsle L.Okladnikovo Mezene S a mo N A Kholmogorsicor Alesene.R. Ken rinstein Spinega oney Vigo Kholmaghor Ronega Onega R. Pinega. R ina R. Tornea R.jo Kinding L teaborg Brhestaa L.Vea Cartely Kajana Jidensalmi L.Pieli 唔​買 ​Pevienet L.Vodlo T ajanal Perineavoast erdobol 59 Onega Kargopole Lattha Lake OustVaga Vaschka Bothnia Jacobstail FeN Laoucas Sidby Biorneborg Tavastehus Abo Frederiksha Mand is 1012 Helsings forg Stockholm R Gotland R. Battic Pare We mo Bago Revel Homes Ness Arensing Per Winday Folding on monstrand Warvi Wesenberg ESTHONIA 117 stein gissen- Peipus 2469 stages Vallmons Ladoga Olongiz Tvir B 40 ST.PETRSHURG Pavlos Gattch ha ST. PETERS BURG tegra Biclat Bieloezersic Tikhvin 10 Chenkoursk Tage G Yarensk Wychegda.. Solvytchegodse Vielsk Vetikiustioug Tolma Soulchonal L.Koubinskoe Radnikov Oustioujna Grigolbatich Vologda Nicolshoe Tous Lask Lourd R. Nikolsk Nik Gorsloe Obi R. TOBOL D Petkhorske Stoliapa A Pechoral Joust Sysolske Sisola R. Viaka Ka Kama R. Teherdyn R Sosna R. IR Bogosioske M Gold Copper verkchotourie tobya Solilcumst Stopodskoi IAT KA Nolinsle Motopa 50Galitch piotikova Portos Pochekhon Dorpat No gorod Ilmen Borovitch gal LIVONIA SPskov Starnia Rous Astachkov Venden Tibau MitamovoRigaer COURAN Telsch WI Jarobstadt Charli I Peder R YAROSLAV Bolog igubim Makaric cKostroma Rybinsk Romov Yaroslav valdo vishni Volotchi Duglich KOS KONTS 120 Torjok V E22 R Tver Optchica Toppers Rev 10 Dunuburg Rejisa Vidzy Armelo Rossigny 4lBonir 'S Ⅲ . Niemen Kowno 58 Smorgon Wina! Lida Velikie Loun ITERSK Drissa Polotzk Vitensk 10 Borisov 15 Bielo gretchie olga 8 Rostov 6 Vertouga TROM A Kinechma Toure Powolski Chorda Perestart Souzdal BistroyVLADAR Aerandre Jure Polskumiki MOSCOW, Vladiir MOSCOW Borodino Mojaisk 385*** Viarman Versia Koloma SMOLENSK Serpoukhov SmolenskO11 Orcha bony Dorogo HILEV Grodno Minsking Plock Pułtusk Bielsk Triglo Volcariichk Ostrolenka GRODNO Novogrotek: ΚΑΙ Warsaw Siedlec 150 OF SP O Katisch 45 Pilic AND Pulawy Lublino Sandomi Kielce Krakow Kobyn Bug R Stonyh Nesvij Slutske Bobrowi 21stislaw 13 Oka Semenov R. Niatka Yarnsle Nijner-Novgorod Tcheboksar Perm Telysova olchanske Malmych Safapou Mamadyc 200 Makar Kormodemianske Vasill Kazainost NIJNE Arcamas Mouros Kustmo Kalugi zaraisk Metchovskiency KALOUGA 30 Moghiler Rostavl Bychov Kozelsk Toula Biele Bogorodsk NOVGOROD 6 KA Alanyra Troitske Farsoume Alenki Matna Tuazans Boskopin 5 TOULA Shas www. Briansk Molin Orelo Starapus R EL Noesa Kromy Moty Sie MINS Pinsic PripetR Ovrouch VOLHYNIA! Valdimir Lo Novgorgavalinsk Rogatches wing strog Jitomi Kievo Krements 6 Lemberg Storeinsturi Dn R Zamos R. Theiss R. US T Temeswar ster R 9 13 Teakov Patchini Simbirsk Spask Saranshe GOKerensk PEN Morchanskpenza Jefremov Ranenburg Karatchee Bolichoo-1014 Tambo 200 peisk 6 Livni Maloa khunelste Stenig Vanahej Novgorod Steersk Kours 23, JTCHERNIG OY Rylsk Tehyernigov12 Desna 16 Nejin Tavriskaia 19 KOR, SK Putevi Soudja strog Nedraliriopolia Biruch Staroi Oskoleajes ruoukio Romer (Alch Bhel Gorda 50 zastaraston (Zenko in Stevira Mirgorod POLTAV Staro Bielse 210 Osa Memzetinsk Weviansk Kunyour Birse Pielai NElbouga Tehistopote SIMBIRSK Stavropol Syeran 90 Kouneisk 6 Bourgoulma Beliebie Serghievsk Samara On Serdabsic Khvalinsk 50Petrovske Atkarsk AR A Ilan Navkoperse ovoiosklepavlovsk Bogodoukhov Valoniki KHAR KO quilling Dogoustuv Zotovorocha Pola 40.96 Barb KI maui L Ligum Staviansko Tcherkarementchoregs, Ouman Makhnovka radijske Voupisat E Krytow Kaminietz0130 ChoctinoMoghilev I R. 71 Balt Bitsy Olviopol Hermanstult Jassy Pruth R. Galat: elisaretgrad Novomoskovsk Don Starobielsic DonetR Elathermosta Paulograd Bahmou RIER SON Kichhingy 20 hendetivaspot Otch ako EKATHERIN OSLAV Dnieper Nikolies 20 126 Odessa o Akermann Akermannisopot 13 Ismail Eminch DON Novo TchenKakk 130 B. S Don R. Rekhov, Tagurous cherkasie Kherson Got Perchcop Mof the Simicropol4 Daynibe Erpataxia R CH 40 Widdin Danube R. TURKEY Constantinople ARCHIPELAGO Scutari 25 Bosphorus Bukchiserai Sevastapot 30 I A Mariange Sea of Azoy BRibadeh TMEA Fiskoe Tchalbassy Manytch A Labinskaia C C Kouban R Téodasia ofCaffe Meariedio Volsk T 0 35 Saratov OR Volga Kamychin Boudarinsko Tolohoi Ouzen Mataia Ousen Ozero Teltonskoe Volga B R Gold Mines Berezov Gold Talciceva Sterlitants Bogorostun B Bouzoutout Samara Lakes Taritzin sales Swamp Kamych Samarsk Tchernoilar AS TRKHAN Enouaieusk Bocholmen Astrachan A Stavropol R Gheorghievs CASS Saulgoum Kaich Sinou Trebicont 30 35 Mt.Elbranz 17,796 S SarpaR Sal Lakes a Kouman 40 of the Volga Mordok Kirlian IMERITIA Konfais Patio of Bowma R. Torkt Ore bure Salt Lakes ralR T Courici Agrakhan Terel Mts. Derbent Cancasus Teflis 30 GEOR Kour Elizabetpol 40 Lon.East from Greenwich Kouba Mines 65 60 katerinburg 55 Ural B. A R Bakuge Abcherun HIRVAN 50 Sea of Aral 50 ARY 55 45 40 OF CHAPTER I. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. USSIA, the most extensive and one of the most powerful empires of either ancient or modern times, occupies almost the entire nor- thern portion of the eastern hemisphere, em- bracing, in its immense area, more than half of Europe, and one third of Asia. It is bound- ed on the north by the Arctic or Frozen ocean; on the west by Sweden, the Baltic, Prussia, and the Austrian dominions; on the south by Turkey, the Black sea, Persia, Tartary, and the extensive Chinese territories; and on the east by the North Pacific ocean. In its largest extent, the Russian empire stretches from the western limit of Russian Poland, at the eigh- teenth degree of cast longitude from Green- wich, to the eastern promontory of the Tchuk- tchi territory, at the one hundred and nine- tieth degree east from the same meridian, thus including one hundred and seventy-two degrees of longitude; while from its most northern promontory, at the seventy-eighth degree of north lati- tude, to the most southern point, at the thirty-ninth degree north, it 14 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. comprehends thirty-nine degrees of latitude. Tooke, in his history of Russia, computes its extent to be nine thousand two hundred miles in length, and two thousand four hundred in breadth; while its superficial area included within the above boundaries has been variously estimated from six to eight millions of square miles. This (and it includes only the contiguous dominions of Russia) is three or four times the extent of the Roman empire in the height of its grandeur, and in the period of its greatest territorial amplitude. Exclusive of the above domain, Russia is mistress of Nova Zembla and most of the other islands in the Arctic ocean, of the Aleutian archipelago, off Kamtschatka, of Aland and other islands in the Baltic, and also of a very large tract in the northwest part of the continent of North America,* to the latter of which her claim is founded on the right of discovery in the sixteenth century. A better idea may perhaps be formed of the vast dimensions of the Rus- sian empire, by taking into view the fact that it is equal to two Europes, or the whole of North America; that it includes within its boundaries about one seventh of the terrestrial part of the globe, and about one twenty- seventh part of its entire surface. But by far the greatest proportion of this prodigious superficies is almost uninhabited, and seems to be destined to perpetual sterility; a consequence partly of the extreme rigor of the climate in the provinces contiguous to the Arctic ocean, and partly of almost all the great rivers by which they are traversed having their em- bouchure in that ocean, and being, therefore, inaccessible for either the whole or the greater part of the year. Russia is, in general, level, and comprises some of the most extensive plains in the world. The empire, however, is naturally parcelled into the two great divisions of European and Asiatic Russia, by the Ural mount- ains, which stretch in a north-northeast direction from the Caspian sea to the Arctic ocean; forming, through the greater part of their course, the boundary between Europe and Asia. Compared with the Himalaya chains, the Urals are very low in their general elevation, though some of them * The Russian possessions in North America consist of an extensive region in the northwest part of the continent, of which very little is known, except along the western coast. It extends from Behring's straits eastward to the meridian of Mount St. Elias, along both the Arctic and Pacific oceans; and from that mountain southward, along the coast chain of hills, till it touches the coast about the fifty-fifth degree of north latitude, comprising an area of about four hundred thousand square miles. The country is chiefly mountainous: Mount St. Elias is the most lofty peak, being nearly eighteen thousand feet in height. The coast line is irregular, being indented by large bays, formed by bold promontories and peninsulas. The climate is very severe, though not so extreme as is felt in similar latitudes on the eastern coasts. The country is subject to sudden changes, and frequent falls of rain in summer, and of snow in winter. The Russia Fur Company have a few factories on the coast and islands, but almost the whole country is occupied by various native tribes, chiefly Esquimaux. The commerce is mainly limited to the exportation of furs to Canton, and the import of provisions and agricultural supplies from the British possessions. It is of little value, and is constantly declining, as the sea-otter and seal are becoming comparatively scarce. The total population is estimated at about seventy thousand, inclu- ding the aborigines. New Archangel (or Baranoff), a place of about one thousand inhabitants, is the residence of the governor. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 15 reach the limit of perpetual snow, a circumstance which is not remarkable in their high latitude. Where the road from Moscow to Siberia crosses these mountains, the chain is about forty miles broad, but the ascent and descent of the road are so nearly imperceptible, that were it not for the precipitous banks everywhere to be seen, the traveller would hardly sup- pose he was crossing a range of hills. The average elevation of this part of the range seems not to exceed thirteen hundred and fifty feet, though some rocky masses rise perhaps a thousand feet higher; and the base upon which the chain rests is itself nine hundred feet above the level of the sea. Beyond fifty-eight degrees, the chain presents several summits which attain between two and three thousand feet; but the highest part of the range is situated to the north of fifty-nine degrees, and the highest of all, the Dan- eshken-kamen, lies to the north of sixty degrees. The summits of this northern part of the range have been ascertained to rise to between eight and nine thousand feet above the level of the sea; but the principal sum- mits are detached mountains, to the eastward of the main range. Lateral branches also extend eastward to a considerable distance into the plain. The principal chain bears successively from north to south the names of Poyas, the Verkhûtûrian Urals, the Urals of Ekaterinburg, and the Bash- kirian Urals. Several low branches diverge into the governments of Arch- angel and Vologda; but the principal subordinate or diverging chains are connected with the Bashkirian Urals. The mountains of Obtsheisyrt, which diverge from the western slope of the principal chain, are really nothing more than a long table-land of undulating hillocks, extending into the gov- ernment of Orenburg; forming, however, the northern limit of the depres- sion which surrounds and contains the Caspian sea. The chain of Moû- ghojar extends into the country of the Kirghiz, and seems to be connected with the plateau called the Ust-Urt, between the Caspian sea and Lake Aral. Subordinate to this last-named chain, or part of the same group, are the Great Bûrzouk, a chain of low hills, which extends in a series of rocky cliffs along the northern shore of the Aral, spreading out toward the west, and turning into the isthmus; and the Little Bûrzouk, which are sit- uated a little farther to the southeast, and terminate with a promontory at the northeastern corner of the Aral. The mountains of Nova Zembla may also be considered as an orographic connection or prolongation of the Urals. The principal summit is Glassowsky, about twenty-five hundred feet above the level of the sea. This range is very productive, both of the useful and precious metals, and precious stones. In all the vast country, extending on the west side of this central chain to the confines of Poland and Moldavia, there is hardly a single hill. The Valdai hills, or elevated grounds, between Novgorod and Tver, where the Volga, the Don, and the Dnieper, have their sources, are nowhere more than about twelve hundred feet above the level of the sea, the country ex- hibiting a waving surface, and without any considerable elevations. There is nothing, in fact, save the forests, to break or interrupt the course of the 16 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. wind, in all the immense space interposed between the Ural and the Car- pathian mountains. Another great mountain-range in Western Russia, is that of the Cau- casus, between the Euxine or Black and Caspian seas, almost at the southern extremity of the empire. The western part of the main cen- tral ridge slopes toward the Euxine; the eastern sinks into the Caspian in its southeastern peninsula. From this central chain numerous branches are thrown off. One of them, to the north, proceeds through the govern- ment of Caucasus into Astrakhan, and onward to the banks of the Volga, while the branches to the south traverse the greater part of the gov- ernment of Georgia, and in the south of that government link on with the mountains of Ararat. The highest point in the range is Mount Elburz, which stands near the middle of the central chain, and has an altitude of about eighteen thousand feet. The next highest is Mount Kasbek, which is nearly sixteen thousand feet high, across which is the celebrated Eng Pass, which gives Russia her only carriage communication with her Trans-Caucasian domains. The north side of the range is much more abrupt than the south. Great part of the mountains still remains to be geologically examined, but an admirable section is furnished by the Eng Pass, and has been fully described, particularly by Wagner, who not only travelled over it, but resided several months among the mountains of Kasbek, and ascended them to the limit of perpetual snow, According to him, stratified rocks appear at the bottom of the mountains, and rise to a considerable height on their sides. These rocks consist chiefly of thick beds of limestone, conglomerate, and clay slate. Higher up are seen immense crystalline masses composed of granite, sienite, ser- pentine, and gabronite. These masses, though higher in position, are evi- dently lower in the geological series than the stratified rocks, which in many places have been upheaved by them, and in consequence have a considerable dip. Highest of all is trachytic porphyry, which forms the great body of all the principal summits of the central range. That this trachyte is the most recent of all the rocks is proved by the fact, that in many places it is seen piercing them, and throwing them into the wildest confusion. Judging from the composition and general appearance of these great trachytic masses, Baron Humboldt and other celebrated geologists are of opinion that the Caucasus, and all the loftiest summits of the great moun- tain-ranges of both hemispheres, were upheaved contemporaneously, and within a comparatively recent period. The limit of perpetual snow in the Caucasus is eleven thousand feet, and hence, as some of the mountains rise from five thousand to nearly seven thousand feet above this, there is an ex- tensive range for glaciers. It would seem, however, that the supply of moisture which the atmosphere affords, is far less than might have been anticipated. Scarcely a single lake of any extent is to be found in the Caucasus, and the scenery thus remains destitute of that which constitutes PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 17 one of the most magnificent features in the Alps of Switzerland. Numerous cascades tumble down from the northern steeps of the Caucasus, but none of them are remarkable for either volume or height, and the only rivers of any consequence which are fed by them are the Terek, Kouban, and Kour. The minerals of the Caucasus, so far as may be judged from the very im- perfect examination of them which has been made, are not of great value. The only mineral which has yet been ascertained to exist in such quantities as to make it capable of being worked to profit is lead. Vegetation is very vigorous. Magnificent forest-trees clothe the higher mountain-slopes almost to an incredible height; lower down, all the finer fruit-trees of the climate are found growing in wild luxuriance; while lower still, where human labor can be made available, almost any degree of culture, however imperfect, is rewarded with an abundant crop. The ordinary cereals grow seven thousand feet above the sea level, while valuable shrubs, plants, and flowers, in almost endless variety, deck the valleys and lower plains. Animal is no less vigorous than vegetable life, and the forests abound with almost every species of game-among quadrupeds, wolves, boars, jackals, deer, goats, and hares-among birds, pheasants and partridges. A large species of wild cattle, called aurochs, roam at large, and the hares of the Caucasus have been famed from the remotest antiquity. Siberia, or Asiatic Russia, consists principally of a vast plain, slightly inclining to the north. This plain seems to be almost entirely steppes and marshes, intersected by large, sluggish rivers, which roll down an immense mass of water to the Arctic ocean. The steppes differ somewhat from each other in nature and aspect. In some places they are like the Ameri- can prairies, covered with abundance of tall, coarse grass; in others the soil is saline, the salt appearing in the form of an efflorescence mixed with the earth, or in ponds and lakes of salt water, but in general they consist of very loose soil, and contain many lakes, because the waters, finding no declivity, remain stagnant. In some places, particularly in the north and east, the plain is a bog, as level as the sea, covered with moss, which would be totally impassable, were it not that the ice, which never thaws deeper than a few inches, gives a firm underfooting. There are, however, in the south and west, many pasture and arable districts, where considerable quantities of oats, barley, and buckwheat, are raised, and also large forests. Toward the south and east, Siberia is in parts mountainous, being sepa- rated from the Chinese empire by the Altai range, extending from the eastern banks of the Irtish, a tributary of the Obi, eighty degrees east lon- gitude, to the shores of the Pacific, at the southern extremity of the sea of Okhotsk, opposite the island of Tarakai, one hundred and forty-two degrees east longitude. Its length, therefore, is little short of twenty-five hundred miles. The several chains which compose this mountain-system are chiefly found between forty-eight and fifty-two degrees north latitude, but some detached ridges advance to forty-five and fifty-seven degrees north. The breadth of the whole system is probably nowhere less than + 2 18 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. three hundred and fifty miles, and at some places it widens to seven hun- dred miles and upward. It is, however, not possible to determine it with any degree of exactness, since only the northern declivities of the range have been visited by travellers, the southern declivities lying within. the territories of the Chinese empire being inaccessible to Europeans. The most westerly portion of the system, between the river Irtish and the river Tshulyshman, the upper branch of the Obi, is properly called the Altai mountains, which name has been afterward used to indicate the whole system. This portion also bears the name of the Ore Altai, because it contains numerous veins of the precious metals. It consists of several ridges, which mostly run west-northwest and east-southeast. These ridges advance their western extremities close to the banks of the Irtish, where they are five or six hundred feet high; but at a distance of about fifteen miles from the river, they attain from three to five thousand feet, which elevation may be considered as the mean height of the greatest part of the ranges only where they approach the lake Teletzkoi and the river Tshu- lyshman, they rise still higher, and this part of the range is always covered with snow. Between the Tshulyshman and the great lake of Baikal, the mountains appear to form two great chains, running east and west. Both chains unite at about one hundred degrees east longitude, a considerable distance west of the lake Baikal, at the sources of the Selenga, the most considera- ble river which empties itself into the lake. The united chain is here called Goorbi Uhden Dzong, which name it preserves to one hundred and eight degrees east longitude, running in general east. On the east side of the meridian of one hundred and eight degrees east longitude, and the river Selenga, the direction of the mountain-chains composing the Altai system is changed; they run northeast, and form a very extensive mountain region cast of the lake Baikal. This region is called the Baikalian or Daurian mountains; but the highest chain belonging to it, and lying within the Chi- nese empire, bears the name of the Great Khing-Khan. The most easterly portion of the Altai mountains, between one hundred and twenty-two and one hundred and forty-two degrees east longitude, lies again nearly due west and east; but here it advances to fifty-six degrees north latitude, and is called by the Russians Yablonoi Kherbet, and by the Chinese Khing- Khan Tugurik. The Aldan mountains may be considered as a continuation of this latter chain. They separate from it at the sources of the river Aldan, a tribu- tary of the Lena, enclose the valley in which it runs on either side, and continue on the east side along the shores of the sea of Okhotsk up to the bay of Pershina, the most northerly corner of that sea. From this bay one branch runs northeast, and terminates at Behring's strait, with the East cape and the cape of Tchukotshoi-Noss. Another branch turns abruptly south, and traverses the peninsula of Kamtschatka, terminating at Cape Lopatka. The highest summit of the Aldan mountains, adjacent to the PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 19 road connecting Yakutsk with Okhotsk, was found by Erman to be a little more than four thousand feet above the level of the sea. But the chain traversing the peninsula of Kamtschatka contains several volcanoes, some of which rise to a great elevation. Erman measured three of them. The highest peak of the volcano of Shivélutsk (fifty-six degrees forty minutes north latitude) rises to nearly ten thousand six hundred feet; the volcano of Kliutshuvsk (fifty-six degrees four minutes north latitude), about fifteen thousand eight hundred feet; and that of Tolbatshinsk, a little upward of eight thousand three hundred feet above the sea. If the Aldan mountains and the range traversing Kamtschatka be considered as a continuation of the Altai chain, more than fifteen hundred miles must be added to its length. The physiognomy of the Altai mountains in their western and southern divisions is generally grand and interesting. The rivers, which are very numerous, flow rapidly with full streams; and the various forms of the stratified and metamorphosed rocks of the limestones, porphyry, and gran- ite, with the Bielki (white or snowy mountains) in the distance, lend to the scene the charm of perpetual novelty. The banks of the Katunya, in the heart of the mountains, present a landscape of the most impressive character; an immense wall of rock, extending from west to east, supports fields of perpetual snow and glaciers, from the midst of which rise nu- merous rocky points, pyramids, and truncated cones; while in the distance are seen the two towering peaks named the Pillars of the Katunya. These peaks, which are supposed to be the highest summits of the Altai mount- ains, stand on a wide and elevated table-land, lying between the sources of the Katunya, the Bielaya (falling into the Chuya), and the Berell, which joins the Bukhtarma. Glaciers, spreading from the bases of the Bielukha, or snowy cones, supply the fountains of these three rivers. The absolute height of the Pillars has been estimated, by Dr. Gebler, at eleven thousand, seven hundred and twenty-three feet, or, by Tchihatcheff, at twelve thou- sand, seven hundred and ninety feet. To the east of these pillars, the peaks of Chenune-ouzoune and Arhhite increase in number, and present forms still more deeply serrated. "In the course of all my long wander- ings," observes Tchihatcheff, "I do not remember ever to have admired a scene more grand or more magnificent." The accompanying view of these mountains (presented on the following page) is taken from the northern summit of the plateau of Saljar, a branch of the chain of the same name. In the eastern part of the Altai, where the clay slate predominates, the aspect of the country is more monotonous; the mountains lose all variety of form, and assume the character of long ridges. It is on these mount- ains of slaty structure that the most disagreeable characteristic of the Altai is chiefly developed, namely, the great extent of deep bog and morass, through which a horse crossing the hills must wade belly-deep even in the middle of summer, and not without the danger of breaking his legs, if he gets entangled in the boughs of the trees which lie buried beneath. 20 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ALTAI RANGE-PEAKS OF CHENUNE-OUZOUNE, KATUNYA, AND ARRHITE. The vegetation of the Altai is varied and abundant, and often vigorous. The local flora, to which ample justice has been done by the labors of Drs. Ledebour and Bunge, assumes the Asiatic character; the European type prevailing from the Ural mountains to the banks of the Irtish. The mountain-forests are composed of birch, alder, aspen, acacia, willow, larch, fir, and the Siberian stone-pine (Pinus cembra). This last tree flourishes at an absolute height of nearly seven thousand feet; and at an elevation of six thousand feet, where the snow rarely disappears before the end of May, it attains a great size, often measuring fourteen feet in circumference. The highest limit of the birch is about four thousand eight hundred feet; the dwarf-willows, and other underwood, cease totally about one thousand feet higher. The Altai mountains, and the adjoining ranges to the eastward, are the native home of the wild sheep (Ovis argali), which occupies the crags and most inaccessible rocky heights, leaving the hillsides and elevated valleys to several kinds of deer (Cervus elaphus, C. alces, C. pygargus, &c.). A marmot, peculiar to these regions, abounds in the vicinity of the snow. These animals are preyed on by the glutton and the bear. The royal tiger prowls through the steppes on the south, and haunts particu- larly the reedy shores of Lake Balkhash; it is not unlikely, therefore, that his predatory incursions sometimes extend into the Altai. The most distinguishing feature in the appearance of Russia is her vast forests. Schnitzler, who estimates the surface of European Russia at about four hundred millions of deciatines,* supposes that one hundred and fifty- * A deciatine is equivalent to about two and seven tenths acres. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 21 six millions are occupied by forests. They are so very prevalent in the governments of Novgorod and Tver, between Petersburg and Moscow, that it has been said a squirrel might travel from the one city to the other with- out ever touching the ground. The forest of Volkonski, at the source of the Volga, is the most extensive of any in Europe. In the government of Perm, on both sides of the Ural mountains, containing eighteen millions of deciatines, no fewer than seventeen millions are covered by forests! The forests of Asiatic Russia are also of vast size. In extensive districts, however, the surface is quite free from wood. This is particularly the case in the vast steppes or plains in the governments of Astrakhan and Tobolsk, which in many parts, indeed, are a mere sandy desert. The northern coast of Russia is indented with immense gulfs and bays; and its vast inland seas and lakes penetrate the land, forming many re- markable localities; and the straits connecting them with each other, and with the ocean, form so many grand military defences against the approach of an enemy, and also limitations to external commerce. The White sea is a large gulf in the Arctic ocean, about two hundred miles in length, but varying in breadth, the narrowest part being only forty-five miles across. It is mostly covered with ice during four or five months of the year. In its northwestern portion it is named the gulf of Kandalask; and on its southwestern side are the bays of Onega and Archangel. The Tcheskais gulf is another inlet in the Arctic ocean, separated from the White sea by the Shemo-Rhonskian peninsula. The strait of Waigatz, still farther east, is formed by the mainland and the island of Waigatz. The gulfs of Fin- land, Bothnia, and Riga, are large inlets of the Baltic sea, and form to- gether nearly the whole western maritime border of Russia. The Baltic is enclosed by the shores of Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Prus- sia, and Mecklenberg, and communicates with the Kattegat by three pas- sages—the Sound, the Great Belt, and the Little Belt. Its greatest length from north-northeast to south-southwest is nearly nine hundred miles. Its breadth is very irregular, and varies from forty to two hundred miles. Its area, including the three gulfs of Bothnia, Finland, and Riga, has been estimated at one hundred and sixty thousand square miles; and its basin, which receives the drainage of more than a fifth of the surface of Europe, is at least nine hundred thousand square miles. The shores of the Baltic, proceeding from the Little Belt in the west, and along the south and east as far as Dome's point, at the entrance to the gulf of Riga, are flat and sandy; and even toward the north, where the coast assumes a rocky char- acter, the beach seldom attains a height of fifty feet. The sea itself seems to partake of the character of its shore. It shelves very gradually, pre- senting scarcely any harbors which vessels of above three hundred tons can enter. Its depth nowhere exceeds one hundred and sixty-seven fath- oms; and, in general, is not more than forty or fifty. Owing to the gen- eral flatness of the coast, the Baltic is much more exposed than inland seas usually are to distant influences. The warm moisture accumulated 22 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. over the Atlantic, and wafted along by the prevailing west wind, meets with no interruption till it arrives at the Baltic, when it encounters the keen blasts of the Ural mountains, and of the steppes extending to the north of the Caspian sea, and is precipitated in heavy falls of rain or snow, which materially affect the composition of the water of the Baltic, and reduce the quantity of salt contained in it to little more than a half of that contained in the water of the North sea. This comparative freshness of the water of the Baltic, and shallowness of its bed, disposes it to freeze easily; and hence, though it rarely happens that extensive portions of it are entirely frozen over, its shores usually begin to be covered with ice before the end of December, and the naviga- tion of its harbors thereafter continues interrupted till the beginning of April. The shallowness of the water along the shores of the Baltic is obvious, owing in a great degree to the immense quantities of mud and sand deposited by rivers and torrents, the number of which has been esti- mated at two hundred and fifty; but it was early suspected that other causes were in operation, and the Swedish naturalist Celsius, followed by the more celebrated Linnæus, maintained that the water in the Baltic was gradually subsiding, at the rate of about three feet in a century. A more philosophical opinion, now more generally adopted, is, that the bed and the surrounding shores are gradually rising. Scientific measures have been adopted, for the purpose of determining the point; but, until the result is known, it is still a question whether the amount of alluvial depos- ite is not of itself sufficient to account for the phenomenon. The Baltic has no proper tides. Its surface is of too limited extent to feel the solar and lunar influences directly; and the passages which con- nect it with the ocean are too narrow to communicate the changes of level which the tides produce on the ocean surface. There is, however, a slight irregular change of level in the Baltic, of which no very satisfactory account has yet been given. The gulf of Bothnia forms the northern portion of the Baltic, between Sweden and Finland. It has fewer shoals than any other portion of the Baltic, and its harbors are better. The gulf of Finland forms the eastern arm of the Baltic, having Finland on the north, and the governments of Esthonia, or Revel, and St. Petersburg, on the south. The length of the gulf, from east to west, is about two hundred and fifty miles; breadth at the entrance, or narrowest part, forty miles; toward the head, where it is widest, about eighty miles. It receives but few rivers, and none of them, with the exception of the Neva, of any great size. The latter enters the head of the gulf, communicating with Lake Ladoga. The other rivers that may be mentioned are the Luga and Narva, which disembogue within a short distance of each other, near the head of the gulf, on the south side. It contains numerous islands, of which Kronstadt is the largest. There are various towns of considerable importance along its shores, St. Peters- burg occupying its eastern extremity. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 23 The Euxine or Black sea lies on the southern border of Russia, enclosed by the shores of Russia and Turkey. Its greatest length, from east to west, is about seven hundred miles; breadth, about three hundred miles; extent of coast, upward of two thousand miles: its area is variously esti- mated at one hundred and sixty and one hundred and eighty thousand square miles. It receives some of the largest rivers in Europe, and drains a surface of nine hundred and fifty thousand square miles; its waters are, in consequence, only brackish. Its depth in general is great, no bottom having been found in some parts with a line of one hundred and forty fath- oms, although, in a few places, as the strait of Enikaleh, it does not exceed ten, twenty, or thirty feet; while off the mouth of the Danube the water deepens so gradually from the shore, that the distance from the latter may be ascertained within half a mile by soundings alone. Throughout the whole of the Black sea there are scarcely any rocks, and almost everywhere are excellent anchoring-places. Storms are rare, and, when they do occur, are of short duration, seldom lasting more than twelve hours without considerable abatement. During the summer, north winds prevail, and south in the beginning of autumn and spring. The for- mer frequently detain vessels from the Mediterranean in the Dardanelles and Bosphorus for weeks together. The currents of the Black sea gener- ally have a tendency toward the Bosphorus or channel of Constantinople. There is no flow of tide in this sea, the slight difference of elevation that occasionally occurs arising solely from the winds and currents. The south- ern coast of the Crimea, and the coast of Anatolia or Asia Minor, and Cau- casia, abound in lofty mountains, which rise up immediately from the mar- gin of the sea, and afford excellent landmarks. On the northwest and north, the coast is generally low, and on this account dangerous, as it can be seen only from a very short distance. Harbors and bays are numerous, and many of them good; but there are none of any great extent. Those that penetrate deepest into the land are the gulf of Kerkinet on the north, between the Crimea and the mainland; the gulfs of Rassein and Burgas on the west, and those of Sinope and Samsoon on the south. There are no remarkable projections or headlands, excepting those formed by the western and southern extremities of the Crimea, and Capes Indjeh and Bozdepeh in Anatolia. The Black sea communicates with the Mediterra- nean by the Bosphorus (or channel or strait of Constantinople), the sea of Marmora, and the Dardanelles. There are few fisheries of any importance carried on in the Black sea, although it abounds with various kinds of fish, including porpoises, stur- geons, dolphins, mackerel, mullet, bream, &c. Seals, also, are numerous. One of the most extensive fisheries is at the entrance of the strait of Eni- kaleh, where considerable quantities of sturgeon are taken. The northern ports are frequently shut up by ice for three or four months in the year, or from about December to March. The Black sea extended, at a remote period, much farther east and north 24 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. than it now does, occupying the whole of the vast plains and steppes that surround the Caspian and the sea of Aral, in Tartary, neither of which had then a separate existence, being included in this great inland sea. The relative level of the Black sea, with the Caspian on the one hand and the ocean on the other, were long undetermined points, but seem now to be pretty well ascertained. It has been found that the Caspian is one hun- dred and one feet lower than the Black sea, and that the latter is precisely of the same level as the ocean. The Black sea was explored at an early period by the Greeks, who, from their ignorance of the arts of navigation and shipbuilding, represented it as beset with dangers of the most formidable kind; and who, it has been said, gave it the name of "Black" sea (Pontus Euxinus), as expressive of the dread and terror in which they held it-a feeling further manifested by their placing the Cimmerian land of everlasting darkness on its northern shore. Having gathered courage from experience, the Greeks, at a later period, formed numerous establishments along its shores, from which they carried on an extensive trade in slaves, cattle, and grain; and to this day their vessels are the most numerous in the Black sea, the greater part being employed in exporting the grain, hides, timber, iron, and furs, of Russia, and in importing wine and fruits, and the manufactures of England and France. The sea of Azov (called by the Russians More Asowskoe, and by the Latins Palus Maotis) forms the northern subdivision of the Black sea, with which it is connected by the strait of Kertsch or Enikaleh (anciently the Cimmerian Bosphorus). Its length, from southwest to northeast (from the strait of Kertsch to the mouth of the Don), is one hundred and sixty- eight miles; its average breadth, about eighty miles; and its area, about fourteen thousand square miles. The northern coast is, for the most part, bold and craggy, rising about one hundred feet above the water; the east- ern coast, inhabited by Cossacks, is very low, chiefly sandy, and intersected with lakes and morasses; the western coast is formed by the tongue of sand, called the Tongue of Arabat, which divides it from the Sibaché More, or Putrid sea; while the Crimea, and the territory of the Cossacks of the Black sca, form the southern shore, on which, here and there, are some hills, visible a considerable distance. Its greatest depth, between Enika- leh and Bielosaria, on the northern shore, is about eight fathoms; and it diminishes considerably toward the gulf of Don, several banks extending a great distance from the shore. The water is muddy, and, from the numer- ous rivers running into it, almost fresh. The sea of Azov has no remarkable current, the strongest never running more than one mile an hour; the navigation is generally stopped from No- vember to March by ice. Perhaps no body of water of equal extent so abounds with fish; the principal fisheries are along the southern coast, be- tween Cape Dolgava and the strait of Enikaleh, the sturgeon, sterlet, and other fish, from which are prepared, in large quantities, both caviare and PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 25 isinglass. The extreme western part of the sea of Azov, called the Putrid sea, is, during the greater part of the year, little better than a noxious. quagmire, and, at all times, wholly useless for navigation. The strait of Enikaleh is about eleven miles long, and four broad, though the navigable channel never exceeds one mile in breadth. A new island was raised in the sea of Azov, in 1814, by volcanic eruptions. The chief towns on its banks are Taganrog and Marioupol, on the northern shore, and Kertsch, on the western shore of the strait of the same name. The commerce of the sea of Azov has been much hindered, not only by the impossibility of navigating it during four months of the year, but also by the extensive activity of Odessa, which has deprived it of much of its trade. The Caspian sea (called by the ancients Mare Caspium, or Hyrcanium) lies between the thirty-sixth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, and the forty-sixth and fifty-fifth degrees of east longitude. Its greatest length, from north to south, is seven hundred and thirty miles; its greatest breadth, at its southern part, about latitude forty-five degrees north, is two hundred and seventy miles; its narrowest part is between Cape Apsheron in Europe, and Cape Tarta in Asia, being one hundred and fifty miles. It is bounded on the north and west by Russia and Persia, east by the Kirghiz steppe and Khiva, and south by Persia. Its area is about one hundred and forty thousand square miles, draining, in Europe alone, an extent of eight hun- dred and fifty thousand square miles. Although, at some points, the Cas- pian attains a considerable depth, Hanway having in one place found no bottom at four hundred and eighty fathoms, it is remarkable for its shal- lowness generally, especially along its shores, where it seldom exceeds three feet for a distance of one hundred yards from the land. Its eastern and western coasts, particularly the former, are deeply indented with bays and gulfs, while the southern shores are almost unbroken. The Caspian contains numerous islands, but not many of any great ex- tent. The largest are on the Asiatic side, the greatest number on the European, particularly about the mouths of the Volga, and along the coasts to the northeast and southwest of them, where they lie closely crowded together in countless numbers, most of them, however, being mere islets. The waters of the Caspian are salt, but not nearly so much so as those of the ocean. It has no tides, and no outlets, its superfluous waters being carried off solely by evaporation. Sturgeons and sterlets are caught in great quantities; and there are also salmon-trout, perch, two kinds of carp, and porpoises. Seals abound in the upper coasts, and tortoises between the mouths of the Volga and the Ural. Many thousand persons are em- ployed in the Russian upper Caspian fisheries, near Astrakhan, who take annually upward of seven hundred thousand sturgeons and about one hun- dred thousand seals. The only ports at all worthy of the name, on or near the Caspian, are Astrakhan, Bakou, Salian, and Astrabad. The navigation is at all times. difficult, and often perilous. Steam-packets on it have recently been estab- 26 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. lished by the Russians. Persia is bound, by treaty stipulations with Rus- sia, not to equip or maintain any naval force on this sea. The notices of early commerce upon or by way of the Caspian are few and uncertain. Even for several centuries after the Christian era, its au- thentic trading records are nearly a blank. The chief portion of the com- merce between western Europe and India was carried on partly by its waters, about the middle of the thirteenth century - Astrakhan, on the upper Caspian, and Soldaia, nearly in the same latitude, on the Black sea, forming the chief entrepôts till 1280, when the latter was superseded, through the exertions of the Genoese, for their own establishment at Kaffa; which then became the transit station for the Asiatic-European trade, and so continued till 1453, when the Turks, having seized Constantinople, and barred the Bosphorus, the accustomed trade was forced into other channels, and the Caspian deserted, except by the few vessels which carried on a small local trade between Muscovy, Persia, and central Asia. About 1560, an English trading-company endeavored to open up connec- tions, by way of the Caspian, with Persia and Turcomania, but with no good results. From that time till late in the seventeenth century, the annals of navigation give few notices of this sea. At the latter period, Peter the Great, partly in the hope of diverting the Indian trade into the direction of his southern dominions, caused the coasts of the Caspian to be explored by Dutch navigators in his pay. His intention was, as one means to his end, to found trading-stations on ground ceded by treaty, or taken by force, on the Persian seaboard. But this he delayed to do; and when he died, his project lay dormant, and the Russians made no encroachment beyond what Peter had already effected, till the reign of Catherine II., whose conquests in its southern region were not secured till the present century, under the emperors Alexander and Nicholas. The sea of Okhotsk, in the east of Asiatic Russia, forms a branch of the North Pacific ocean, and extends from the Kurile islands northwest to the coast of Siberia, about one thousand miles, with a breadth, between the northeast coast of China and the peninsula of Kamtschatka, of about five hundred and fifty miles. It contains several islands, the largest of which, Sagalin, is situated near its southwestern shore; forms a number of large gulfs, chiefly on the north, among others those of Tanish, Gijiginsk, and Penjinsk; and receives numerous rivers, of which, however, only one, the Amoor or Sagalin, is of great magnitude. The shores are covered with ice from November to April, but the main expanse continues open through- out the year, and being generally deep, without shoal or sandbank, affords a safe navigation, notwithstanding the fogs and storms with which it is often visited. The rivers of Russia are usually divided into five groups, or systems, corresponding to the seas into which they empty, namely, the Arctic ocean, the Baltic, the Black, and Caspian seas, and the Pacific ocean. The first division is by far the largest. It comprises in Europe the Dwina, the Me- PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 27 1 4 zene, and Petchora; while in Asia it includes, among a host of others, the Obi, the Yenisei, and Lena, three of the largest rivers of that continent. All these rivers flow from south to north, and the last three have a course of from two thousand to twenty-five hundred miles. Kownlowick, Anfal L The Dwina is formed in the government of Vologda, by the union of the Soukhona and the Vychegda, and, after an indirect course of four hundred miles, falls into the White sea, about thirty miles below the port of Archangel, forming a number of 640 islands, and branching off into several mouths. Its principal affluents are the Pingisha, the Keltma, and the Pinega, on the right, and the Vage and Emtza 40 "Elong Nikolskor Tschekamins Liazonin Tsouighla English Miles. 10 Novodviuskara 15 20 THE MOUTHS OF THE DWINA. Simbolsk Archangel 64°305.7at. on the left. The Petchora is a large river which has its source in the Ural mountains, and, after a course of about nine hundred miles, falls into a bay of the Arctic oeean by a great number of mouths. The Obi may be traced from the lake of Altyn, latitude fifty-one degrees north, if its source be not even followed along the Shabekan river to lati- tude forty-seven. The Upper Irtish flows into the lake of Saisan, whence it issues under the name of Lower Irtish, and, after a circuit of great ex- tent, joins the Obi, below Samarov: it rises about the forty-fifth degree, and ought perhaps to be regarded as the principal stream. However this be, the Obi, piercing the Altaian chain, and having received many small streams, passes Kolyvan, and at some distance to the north receives the Tomm and other large rivers from the east. Below Samarov, as already mentioned, it receives the great river Irtish, and runs into the sea of Obi, a gulf of the Arctic ocean. The Obi is navigable almost to its source, that is, to the lake of Altyn, and abounds with fish, but the sturgeon of the Irtish are the most esteemed. After it has been frozen for some time, the water becomes foul and fetid, owing to the slowness of the current, and to the vast morasses through which it flows; but the river is purified in the spring by the melting of the snow. The shores and channel are generally rocky, till it receives the Ket, after which the course is through clay, marl, sand, and morasses. The Yenisei flows through the central part of Siberia, its basin lying between those of the Obi on the west and the Lena on the east, and is sup- posed to comprise an area of nearly one million of square miles. This river rises in the Chinese territories, not far from latitude fifty-one degrees north, longitude ninety-eight degrees east, and proceeds at first westerly 28 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. for about five degrees of longitude, to near the point where it leaves the Chinese frontier. It then turns northward, and pursues generally a nor- therly course to the Arctic ocean, which it enters by a wide estuary called the bay of the seventy-two islands, the mouth of which is in about latitude seventy-two and a half degrees north, longitude eighty-five degrees east, about two hundred miles east of the gulf of Obi. The entire course of the Yenisei has been estimated at twenty-six hun- dred miles. Its chief affluents join it from the east, its tributaries from the west being of much less importance. Various towns in the upper, with Krasnojarsk, Yeniseisk, &c., in the middle and lower part of its course, are on its banks; and Irkoutsk is on its great tributary the Angara, which flows out of Lake Baikal. As far as Krasnojarsk it runs through a mountainous country, and thenceforward to Yeniseisk (where its width, when highest, is about one mile) its banks are elevated and precipitous. The last of these large rivers in Asiatic Russia is the Lena, which rises northwest of the sea or lake of Baikal, and pursues a northerly course till it is turned by a chain of hills, and thence till near Yakoutsk pursues a tortuous course to the northeast, a direction of considerable utility, and affording navigation to the remote regions. From Yakoutsk, the course is nearly due north, the channel being of great breadth, and full of islands. The basin of the Lena covers an area of about eight hundred thousand square miles. The rivers which fall into the Baltic, and its several arms, though of far greater importance, in an economical point of view, are of very inferior magnitude. The principal are the Neva (on which is built St. Petersburg, ten miles from its mouth), the Duna,* the Niemen, and the Vistula. The Duna rises not far from the sources of the Volga, and flows into the gulf of Riga below the city of Riga. It is navigable up to Velige, in the east- ern part of the government of Vitepsk. The Niemen rises in the govern- ment of Minsk, and flows into the Curische-haf below Memel; and the Vistula flows through Russian Poland, receiving in its course several con- siderable tributaries. The rivers which fall into the Black sea and its adjuncts equal those emptying into the Baltic in commercial importance, and far exceed them in length of course and volume of water. Among others are the Dniester, Dnieper, Boug, Don, and Kouban. The Dniester has its source in the Car- pathian mountains, in Galicia, and flowing in a south-southeast direction, along the eastern frontier of Bessarabia, falls into the Black sea, after a course of five hundred miles. It has no considerable affluents, and being in most parts shallow and rapid, is of little service to internal navigation, except during spring and summer. The Dnieper, which is one of the largest rivers in Europe, rises in the government of Smolensk, and, after * The Duna is also sometimes called the Dwina; but, without presuming to decide which is the more correct orthography, we have deemed it better to designate it by the former name, to prevent its being confounded with the Dwina falling into the White sea. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 29 a course of twelve hundred miles, falls into the Black sea at Kinburn, near Oczakow. It is broad and deep, and may be navigated with ease and safety from Smolensk as far as the city of Ekatherinoslav; but from the latter to Alexandrofsk it is interrupted by cataracts, which are impassable except for a brief period in spring and autumn. The Boug rises near the confines of Volhynia, in the northwestern part of the government of Po- dolia, and at first proceeds east, and then southeast, through that govern- ment, to Olviopol, where it enters the government of Kherson, which it traverses almost centrally from north to south, and falls into the estuary of the Dnieper, near Kherson. Its chief affluents are the Ingul, Balta, Tchertal, and Salonicha. It has a course of above four hundred miles, but its navigation is greatly obstructed by rocks and sandbanks. The Don rises in the government of Toula, and flows south, east, and ultimately southwest. In its course east, it approaches so near the Volga, that Peter the Great had undertaken to form a communication between them by means of a canal: this grand project, however, was defeated by the irruption of the Tartars.* This river, exclusive of its turnings and windings, discharges itself into the sea of Azov, about four hundred miles from its rise. The Kouban rises in Circassia, nearly fourteen thousand feet above the level of the Black sea, in the Caucasian mountains. It flows first north, then north- west, and ultimately due west; passes Ekaterinodar, and, traversing a level steppe, presenting to the eye only an interminable plain of reeds, falls into the Black sea, in the bay of Kouban. This river can scarcely be said to be navigable. The water at its mouth is so shallow as to admit only the * The following account of this and previous attempts to open a passage between the Volga and the Don, by means of a canal, we quote from a history of Russia published in the year 1710, during the lifetime of Peter the Great—in the same year, in fact, that the above enterprise by that emperor was suspended: "This passage was first endeavored to be cut by Sultan Selim, for the better transportation of his army to Astrakhan and the Caspian sea against the Persians, in 1560, but his design was defeated by the continual irruptions of the Cossacks and Russes. This enterprise lay dead till about 1693, when the czar employed an engineer, Colonel Breckel, to work on the com- munication; but being very ill used by Prince Boris Alexewitz Galliczyn, governor of the province, who openly opposed the work, and who would neither furnish men nor materials in pursuance of the czar's order, the engineer, to avoid his persecution, fled away to Persia. In 1699, another engi- neer, Captain Perry, was employed in this service, but met with the same discouragement from Prince Galliczyn as his predecessor; notwithstanding which, the work was carried on with pretty good success till the end of December, 1710, when the czar ordered it to be laid aside till after the war, since he could not so well spare the number of men required in the present juncture. The digging work is about half finished; twelve thousand men, and about five years' time, would serve to perfect the whole. The channel was to be large and deep enough for ships of eighty guns to pass. It is to be dug through near three English miles, in which space there is a large mountain, between the rivers Lavala and Camishinka: the first falls into the Don, about one hundred and thitv English miles from the canal, and the last into the Volga, about nine English miles from the canal. Six sluices are begun, but none finished; and six more are to be made in the Camishinka. In all, from the Lavala to the place where the Camishinka falls into the Volga, are sixty-two thou- sand three hundred English feet." The undertaking, though only temporarily suspended, it appears, was never resumed. The first attempt, by Selim II., to connect these rivers, it would seem, was interrupted by the Russians them- selves. Another account states that the laborers sent thither by the Turkish sultan were surprised and killed by a body of men of uncouth figures, strange features, and barbarous language," and who proved to be the subjects of his Muscovite majesty Ivan the Terrible. 30 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. smallest vessels. All the tributaries of the Kouban flow, like itself, from the Caucasus mountains, joining it on the left bank: the principal are the Zelentchuk, Urup, and the united streams of the Laba and Emansu. Its total course is about four hundred miles. Among the rivers which empty into the Black sea is the Danube,* which originates in two small streams that have their sources in the eastern de- clivity of the Black forest, in the grand-duchy of Baden, at an elevation of three thousand feet above the level of the sea, and uniting at Donaueschin- gen. Its general course is from west to east, falling into the Black sea by three principal outlets, called respectively the Kilia, Sulineh, and the Edrillis mouths, as represented in the subjoined engraving. Bratish I. Galatz Sereth R. Pruth L. Yalpouk L. Kallabouqu Kitai Old 10 Kartal Bra Hilby sakichi Gretzi Frikatche 45 Tchardçık N.lat. Tutaresk Tiltcha Beche Adji Gela Baba-dagh Ft St George Kishla E Ho ia Tom Sulinch th Bald& ruined 8 V battery Z9 Lainegel 45 N. lat Amolfali Digávéził, Light Georgief Edrillis M C 25 Kushla iman or Lake TÉ of Raselm Casatia English Miles. 0 5 10 15 20 25 29 E.long. alova Kutchuk M Cortiz, or Kara Kerman 6 or Portichev 1 ♡ 70 Soundings in fathoms THE MOUTHS OF THE Danube. The extent of the basin of the Danube is estimated at two hundred and seventy thousand square miles; the direct distance, from source to mouth, upward of one thousand miles; and its development—of course, including windings-eighteen hundred miles. From its source the Danube flows. northeast to Regensberg (Ratisbon), in Bavaria; when it takes a southeast- by-south direction, to Waitzen, in Hungary, previously passing Vienna and Presburg. At Waitzen it suddenly bends round, and flows nearly due south to the point where it is joined by the Drave, near Esseg, in Sclavo- nia; thence it runs south-southeast to Belgrade, on the northern confines of the Turkish province Servia, of which it subsequently forms the bound- ary, separating it from Hungary. Continuing its general easterly course, * Although the Danube may not be considered strictly a river of Russia, yet it being for about one hundred miles from its embouchure the boundary between Russia and Turkey, two of its principal mouths being within the Russian territory, and the principalities lying upon its borders being the theatre of the commencement of hostilities in the pending contest between the above-named empires, seem to render a description of that stream too important and interesting to be omitted. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 31 though not without some marked deviations, to the point where it is joined by the small river Bereska, it abruptly turns to the northeast, and contin- ues in this direction to Orsova, a distance of about twenty-five miles, when, by suddenly taking a southeasterly course, it fairly enters the Turkish European provinces, forming the boundary-line between Wallachia and Bulgaria. At Rassova, on the southeastern extremity of the former prov- ince, it takes a direction nearly due north to Galatz, when it bends round to the southeast, and, after a farther course of about eighty miles, falls into the Black sea, by the several mouths above enumerated. During its progress from its source, in Baden, to its embouchure, the Danube passes through Wurtemberg, Bavaria, the archduchies of Austria, and Hungary, and forms the boundary between the Hungarian Banat on the north, and the Turkish province of Servia on the south; and between the Turkish province of Bulgaria on the south, and the Danubian princi- palities Wallachia and Moldavia, and the Russian province of Bessarabia, on the north. • The great basin of the Danube has been divided into four minor basins. The first consists of a vast plateau of a pentagonal form, sixteen hundred and forty feet above the sea level, one hundred and fifty miles in length, and one hundred and twenty-five miles broad, surrounded by mountains, and comprising a portion of the principality of Hohenzollern, part of the kingdom of Würtemberg, and the greater part of the kingdom of Bavaria. This tract is, by far, the most fertile and most populous through which the Danube passes during its entire career. The second basis belongs to the empire of Austria, having Vienna nearly In its centre, and comprising the archduchy of Austria, Hungary as far east as Waitzen, and Styria. It is very irregular, and is bounded on all sides by very high mountains. Generally it is well peopled, well culti- vated, and the inhabitants industrious. The soil is rich in mineral prod- ucts, and the climate one of the best in Europe. The Danube here passes through a succession of the most picturesque scenery, till it passes Vienna. Below Presburg it runs with great velocity, and is crowded with islands. The third basin of the Danube comprises Hungary, east of Waitzen, and the principality of Transylvania, and consists of an immense plain, almost without undulations of any kind, and only about four hundred feet above the sea level. It is intersected by large rivers, with marshy banks, and interspersed with stagnant pools, saline and sandy wastes; rich, however, in mineral products, in flocks and herds, and in wines. It comprises about one' half of the entire basin of the Danube. The climate is bad, especially in the vicinity of the marshes, which cover a space of about three thousand square miles. The fourth basin comprises Wallachia, Moldavia, a portion of Bessara bia, and Bulgaria. This tract is flat, inundated, and marshy along the banks of the river; dry, mountainous, and difficult, on the borders of the basin. It is fertile in products of every kind, yet badly.cultivated; thinly 32 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. peopled, with miserable roads and wretched villages. The principal afflu- ents in this basin are the Aluta, Sereth, and Pruth. The latter tributary rises in the east side of the Carpathian mountains, in the southeastern part of Galicia; flows circuitously east, past Czernowitz, then south-southeast, forming the boundary between Moldavia and Bessarabia, and, after a course of more than five hundred miles, joins the left bank of the Danube, about twelve miles below Galatz. In its progress through Turkey, the Danube gradually increases in width from fourteen hundred to twenty-one hundred yards; and below Hirsova, in Bulgaria, it forms an expanse of water like a sea, and is studded with islands. Excepting between Drenkova and Kladova, the Danube may be said to be navigable for steamboats from Ulm, in Würtemberg, to the sea— although, in some places, rendered difficult by the occurrence of shallows and sandbanks, intersected by narrow and intricate channels. The outlets of the Danube are separated from each other by several low islands, cov- ered with reeds and trees. The greater part of the ships bound up the river enter it by the Sulineh mouth, it being the deepest.* The Danube receives sixty navigable tributaries, and its volume of water is nearly equal to that of all the rivers that empty themselves into the Black sea taken together. Its rapidity is, in many places above Orsova, so great, as to render any navigation, except that of steam, impossible; but below that * "Prior to the treaty of Adrianople" (between Russia and Turkey, in 1829), "the depth of water upon the bar at the Sulineh mouth of the river was about sixteen feet. There is little more than nine feet of water there now. The bar is formed principally of alluvial deposite, and not of sand washed up by the sea: consequently nothing could be effected more easily than its removal. As, however, it was not stipulated in the treaty of Adrianople upon whom this duty was to devolve, in the year 1840 Austria entered into a convention with Russia, whereby it was agreed that a tax should be levied by this latter power upon all ships entering the river at Sulineh; and, in consider- ation of this privilege, Russia became bound to keep the mouth of the river free from all such im- pediments as now exist. Since that period, the tax has been duly levied; while not only has the obligation arising out of it been totally neglected, but it has ever been the end and aim of Russia to allow this channel-which she is not allowed to fortify—to fill up, with a view of forcing the river and the trade through the northern or Kilia branch. This branch was formerly the deepest, and therefore that preferred by ships. In the hands of the Russians it 'silted up,' and the waters thus turned into the Sulineh branch, which became the more available. If the Sulineh should 'silt up,' it is probable that the Kilia branch would again be opened, and the fortress of Ismail would com- mand the trade of the Danube. "So long as the Sulineh mouth was in the possession of Turkey, every vessel leaving the river was compelled to drag a large rake behind her. This was sufficient to stir up the mud, which was thus carried away by the mere force of the current. Since then, vessels have offered to continue this practice, but have been positively prohibited from so doing. Indeed, it is absurd to suppose that Russia will take any steps tending to increase the trade of rival countries, by improving the navigation of the river on which their prosperity depends, simply because she is bound by treaty to do so. The consequence is, that the difficulty of entering the Danube is far greater than it used formerly to be, and numbers of foreign ships are lost upon the bar every year. But Russia is not satisfied with allowing nature to monopolize the work of destroying the Danubian trade: she has raised an artificial bartier, which is even more ruinous to commerce than that at the mouth of the river. The stringent quarantine regulations which have been imposed by her render it impossible for the produce of the Turkish provinces to find an outlet in this direction, which is consequently forced, at a needless expense, to Varna and other ports on the Black sea."—OLIPHANT's Russian Shores of the Black Sea. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 33 point its current is gentle and equable. A number of steam-vessels now ply on the river, between its principal towns. Before steam-navigation was introduced into the Danube, the boats which descended it were very rarely if ever taken back, but were broken up at the end of their voyage. The basin of the Caspian has to boast of the largest and most important of the rivers of Russia, and, in fact, of Europe, the Volga. This river was formerly considered as constituting a part of the boundary-line between Europe and Asia; but since the limits of these continents have been re- moved to the Caucasus and the Caspian, its basin, with those of its tribu- taries, lie wholly within Europe. From its source to its mouth its length is estimated at near two thousand miles, being about two hundred miles longer than the Danube. The area of its basin has been supposed to include upward of six hundred and thirty-six thousand square miles, or considerable more than twice as much as the basin of the Danube. The Volga has its source in a small lake at the western extremity of the government of Tver, in latitude fifty-seven degrees north, and longitude thirty-two degrees east, two hundred and twenty miles south-southeast of St. Petersburg; on the eastern declivity of the Valdai plateau, near the source of the Duna, the Dnieper, and other large rivers, at an elevation of about nine hundred feet above the level of the sea. It flows at first south- east, and afterward northeast, through the governments of Tver and Yaro- slav; at Mologa it turns to the south-southeast, which direction it generally pursues through Yaroslav, Kostroma, Nijnei-Novgorod, and Kazan, to the confluence of the Kama, about latitude fifty-five degrees north, and longi- tude forty-nine degrees east. Thenceforward it runs generally south-south- west through the governments of Simbirsk and Saratov to Tzaritzin, where, as previously remarked, it approaches within thirty-three miles of the main stream of the Don.* It then turns again to the southeast through the gov- ernment of Astrakhan, and pours itself into the Caspian, on its northwest side, through an extensive delta, by more than seventy mouths (the princi- pal of which are shown in the following engraving), the western and largest of these being in latitude forty-six degrees north, and longitude forty-eight * The attempts by Selim II. and Peter the Great to unite these rivers by means of a canal, have been made the subject-matter of a note on page 29. Oliphant, in his "Russian Shores of the Black Sea," has the following remarks in relation to the utility and practicability of such a union at this point: "It is inconceivable how the country can rest satisfied with the wretched tram-road which now connects two such important rivers as the Volga and the Don. So far from there being any natural impediment to the formation of a canal across the isthmus which separates them, it is a perfectly simple undertaking, and the difference of level being comparatively trifling. The advan- tages to be gained by the completion of such a work must be apparent. A mere glance at the map will show that a canal forty miles long at this point would connect the Black sea with the Baltic and the Caspian, and thus perfect a most elaborate system of inland communication. Nature has certainly done all that could be expected of her in this respect, and it seems hard that a government should not enable the inhabitants to avail themselves of the natural advantages which their country so eminently possesses. If water-carriage excels land-carriage in proportion to the bulk of the produce to be conveyed, surely where iron or timber form the articles of transport, there can be no doubt of the superior merits of the former, even were the additional expenses incurred by the pres- ent system out of the question, or supposing that a railway had superseded the tram-road." 3 34 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. degrees east. Throughout its long course it waters, with its tributaries, some of the most productive portions of European Russia, and the region English Miles 10 Kochkotschou Kourotsckinge 15 From Enota Solianka Kourotscheraha Nikolskand Ilmskaiu Mariandia Trotske Volga lin.Dois R. Volga Astrakhan Bachmu- konka Tscheghaanskoc tschough "Obraztskivo which was anciently the nucleus of the Russian monarchy. Tver, Yaroslav, Kostroma, Nijnei-Nov- gorod, Simbirsk, Saratov, 'Astra- khan, and several other towns, are situated on the Volga; and Kazan is on one of its tributa- 臀 ​ries, within a short distance of the main stream. The principal affluents of the Volga are the Tvertza, Mologa, Sheksna, Unja, Vetluga, and Ka- ma, from the north and east, and the Oka and Sura from the west and south. The Kama, which is by far the largest, is also the last important tributary which it re- ceives. It rises in the govern- ment of Viatka, and flows with a very tortuous course, at first north- easterly, but afterward in general south or southwest, through the governments of Perm and Kazan, and between those of Viatka and Orenburg. After a course of near- ly one thousand miles, it joins the Volga, bringing with it a volume of water nearly equal to that of the latter. Its basin is supposed to com- prise about one third part of that of the Volga. Perm is among the towns on its banks. Caspian Se a MOUTHS OF the Volga. The Oka rises in the government of Orel, through which, and the govern- ments of Toula, Kalouga, Moscow, Riazan, Tambov, Vladimir, and Nijnei- Novgorod, it flows in a very tortuous but mostly northeast direction, join- ing the Volga at Nijnei-Novgorod, after a course of nearly seven hundred miles. Its basin is supposed to comprise one hundred and twenty-seven thousand square miles. It has several important affluents. Though rapid, it is navigable to Orel, not far from its source. The waters of the Kama and Oka are, like those of the Volga, remarkable for their purity; and all of them are famous for their fish. The Volga is, in fact, believed to be more prolific of fish than any other European river; and its fisheries are an abundant source of employment and of food. The fish usually taken comprise sturgeon, the rose of which furnish the caviar, of which vast quantities are sent from Astrakhan to all parts of Russia, with salmon, PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 35 sterlet, tench, pike, perch, beluga, &c. The sterlet, a small kind of stur- geon, supposed to be peculiar to the Russian and Siberian rivers, is much prized by the Russian epicures. Exclusive of caviar, the exports from Astrakhan include large quantities of cured fish. From its abounding with islands, particularly in the lower part of its course, the breadth of the Volga is very variable. At Tver, however, it is nearly six hundred feet in breadth; at Nijnei-Novgorod, after it has received the Oka, about twelve hundred feet; and at Astrakhan it is usu- ally one and a quarter miles across. But this is not the case during the entire year, for, on the melting of the ice and snow in spring, it is subject to great risings, and inundates large tracts of the surrounding country. The rise begins in April; its height varies greatly in different places, but is greatest in the middle portion of the river's course. At Tver the total rise is about twelve feet above its summer level; at Yaroslav and Nijnei- Novgorod, eighteen or twenty; at Kazan, twenty-five or thirty; and at Saratov, from thirty to forty feet! But downward beyond this point, after which the Volga receives no affluent of any consequence, and its bed be- comes more capacious, the height of its rise gradually diminishes, being at Tzaritzin from twenty-five to thirty feet, and at Astrakhan only from six to eight, or seldom as high as twelve feet. The time of subsidence also varies considerably in different parts: at Nijnei-Novgorod the river is com- monly confined again within its bed by the beginning of June; at Kazan, not till the middle of the same month; and at Astrakhan it does not dimin- ish to its ordinary height till after the summer solstice. As before observed, the surface of the Caspian is one hundred feet below the level of the Black sea, which would give to the Volga (estimating its course at two thousand miles) an average descent of about five and a half inches per mile. From the junction of the Kazan with the Volga, the fall of the latter, Humboldt says, is greater than that of either the Amazon or the Nile, and almost as great as that of the Oder. Though rather a rapid river, yet, as it runs through a flat country, with an immense volume of water, in a bed unbroken by cataracts, though not free from sandbanks, it is navigable for flat-bottomed boats nearly to its source. Not far below this point the Volga is connected by a canal with the Duna, establishing a direct water-communication between the Caspian and the Baltic. The Ivanofska canal, in the government of Toula (which unites the Upa, a tributary of the Oka, with the Don), opens a communication (though a remote one) between the Caspian and the Black sea; and, by means of the Vischnej-Volotchok canal, between the Mesta and Tvertza rivers, and the canal between the Sestra and Istra, in the government of Moscow, Petersburg and Moscow are directly connected. Other canals connect the basin of the Volga with that of the Dwina, the lake Onega, &c. and nowhere else has so extensive a system of inland navigation been effected by artificial means, with so little labor. This navigation is, how- ever, suspended by the frost at least one hundred and sixty days each year. 36 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ROBERTS, SE HORSE-BOAT, with BargeS, ON THE VOLGA, Though the situation of the Volga, remote from the great marts of Eu- rope, Asia, and Africa, with its embouchure in the Caspian, renders it of much less commercial importance than it would be under other circum- stances, it is still the main artery of Russia, and the grand route of the internal traffic of the empire. It has been estimated that in the first thirty years of the present century, from six to seven hundred vessels a year came down the Volga to Astrakhan, while from three hundred to four hundred and sixty sailed from that port to others on the upper course of the river. Unfortunately, it would seem as if the Volga had been for some considera- ble period decreasing in depth; and it is said that of late years sandbanks have accumulated so much, particularly between Nijnei-Novgorod and Ka- zan, that the vessels laden with salt from Perm, which in the early part of last century used to bring cargoes of from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, can now only convey cargoes of about ninety thousand pounds; and, in the portion of its course now referred to, it is navigated with difficulty even by the two-masted vessels of Astrakhan. Owing to the flatness of the country through which they flow, and the vast length of their course, the rivers of Russia are but little interrupted by cataracts, generally flow with a tranquil stream, and afford great facili- ties to internal navigation. The severity of the climate no doubt prevents, during a considerable portion of the year, all intercourse by water; and, as already stated, renders the rivers falling into the Arctic ocean of com- paratively little value. Luckily, however, the frost, which interrupts navi- gation, affords the greatest facilities to land-travelling. The lakes as well as the rivers of Russia are upon a gigantic scale. The lake or sea (as it is also called) of Baikal, in the government of Irkoutsk, Eastern Siberia, is one of the most extensive in the world. Its greatest length, in a north-northeast and south-southwest direction, is nearly four hundred miles; but, where greatest, its breadth does not exceed sixty PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 37 miles, and is in most parts much less. It is of very unequal depth, sand- banks and shallows occurring alongside of all but unfathomable abysses. It is situated in a mountainous country, and receives several considerable rivers, while its surplus water is entirely carried off by the Angara, a large and rapid river, an affluent of the Yenisei. The fisheries of Lake Baikal are very valuable. Great numbers of seals, of a silvery color, are captured, the skins of which are sold to the Chinese. Sturgeon, to the extent of about one thousand poods* a year; salmon, &c., are also taken; but the grand object of the fishery is the omul, a sort of herring (Salmo autumnalis, vel migratorius), taken in vast numbers (about one hundred thousand poods a year) in August and September, when it ascends the rivers. The most singu- lar fish belonging to the Baikal is the golomynka (Callyonimus Baicalen- sis), from four to six inches in length, so very fat, that it melts before the fire like butter. The latter is never taken alive, but is cast dead upon the shore, sometimes in immense quanti- ties, after storms. It yields an oil, sold to great advantage to the Chi- The surface of the lake is fro- zen over from November to the end of April, or the beginning of May. The pilots and sailors who navigate the lake, speak of it with much reverence, calling it the Holy sea (Sviatore More), and the mountains about it the Holy mountains; and are highly displeased with any person who speaks of it with disrespect, or calls it a lake. nese. KOFERTS.X2, RUSSIAN PILOTS. In European Russia, the lakes of Ladoga, Onega, Peipus, Ilmen, and Bielo-Ozero, are of the greatest extent. Lake Ladoga lies between the government of St. Petersburg on the south, Olonetz on the east, and Vi- borg on the north and west. Its greatest length, from north to south, is one hundred and thirty miles; its average breadth is about seventy-five miles; and its area, six thousand three hundred square miles. It is the largest lake in Europe, and receives no fewer than sixty streams; the prin- cipal of which are the Volkhov and Siasi, which enter it on the, south, and the Tvir, which enters it on the east, bearing the surplus water of Lake Onega. It discharges itself at its southwestern extremity, by the Neva, which falls into the Baltic. It contains numerous islands, many of which are inhabited, and its shores are much indented, generally low, and send out so many shelving rocks into the water, as to make the navigation very dangerous. To avoid the danger, a canal, giving the Volkhov a direct communication with the Neva, has been cut along its southern shore. It A pood is equal to about thirty-six pounds. Ten poods make one berkovitz. 38 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. has numerous strong currents, and violent storms are frequent. It is well supplied with fish, and contains seals. Lake Onega lies near the centre of the government of Olonetz, and east- northeast of Lake Ladoga, next to which it is the largest lake in Europe. Its greatest length from north-northwest to south-southeast is one hundred and thirty miles; its greatest breadth is fifty miles; and its area comprises about four thousand square miles. It is of a very irregular shape, partic- ularly toward the north, where it is much indented, and forms numerous creeks, bays, and islands. Its shores are generally rocky, and its waters beautifully clear, and well supplied with fish. Its navigation is much im- peded by shoals and sandbanks. The principal streams which it receives are the Migra, the Shuia, the Vodla and the Vytegra. Its only outlet is the Tvir, by which, as previously mentioned, it discharges itself into Lake Ladoga; but the Murinskoi canal, by connecting its affluent the Vyterga with the Kayla, an affluent of Lake Bielo, has brought it into communica- tion with the basin of the Volga. Lake Peipus, or Tchondskoe-Ozero, is situated between the governments of St. Petersburg, Esthonia, and Livonia. Its greatest length is fifty-five miles, and its breadth thirty miles. The depth is considerable, and has floated twenty-four-gun frigates. It receives the Embach and Kosa on the southwest, the Tcherma on the east, and the Jettcha on the southeast; and discharges itself on the northeast, by the Narova, into the gulf of Finland. It is well supplied with fish. In 1702, a naval engagement took place on the lake between the Swedes and Russians, in which the latter had the advantage. Lake Ilmen lies in and near the western borders of the government of Novgorod. It is nearly in the form of an equilateral triangle, at whose northern angle stands the city of Novgorod. Its greatest length is about thirty-three miles, and its breadth twenty-eight miles. It receives numer- ous streams, and discharges itself, by the Volkhov, into Lake Ladoga. Its navigation is rendered dangerous by sudden gusts of wind. Lake Manytch, on the frontiers of the governments of Caucasus and the Don Cossacks, is sometimes also called Lake Ilmen. Bielo-Ozero (White lake) also lies in the government of Novgorod, about two hundred and forty miles east of St. Petersburg. It is twenty- five miles long, by twenty broad. Several streams flow into it, and it sends its waters by the Sheksna into the Volga. It is very deep, abounds in fish, and, by means of canals, communicates with the Onega, the Souk- hona, and the Dwina. Numerous other lakes, of less extent, are scattered throughout the coun- try, which (and the remark will apply to rivers, mountains, and other natural features of minor importance, not alluded to in this chapter) will be incidentally noticed in connection with the governments or provinces to which they respectively belong. A country like Russia, extending from the Arctic ocean to the Black PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 39 sea, might be supposed to have every variety of climate; and this is in some measure the case. When spring commences in one division of this vast empire, another experiences all the rigors of winter. With the excep- tion of the Crimea and the Caucasian provinces, however, no part of Rus- sia can be said to be generally hot; and even in them the frost in winter is often very severe. The climate of Russia is, in fact, proverbial for its severity; and this increases not only as we advance toward the north, but also as we advance toward the east; the cold being decidedly greater in Siberia than in the same latitudes in European Russia, a difference which is also sufficiently perceptible in the provinces on the east and west sides of the latter. This, no doubt, is owing to various causes; but principally, perhaps, to the greater cultivation of the western provinces, and their proximity to the Baltic; and to the vast extent of frozen sea and land traversed by the winds from the northeast. Beyond the sixty-fifth degree of latitude the ground is covered with snow and ice for about nine months in the year; and during the other three months ice is always found at a little distance below the surface. Grain-crops can not be depended upon in European Russia beyond the sixty-second degree of latitude; and the great agricultural provinces lie to the south of the fifty-eighth degree. The fruits of temperate climates are seldom met with beyond the fifty-second degree. Spring can hardly be said to have any place in the Russian calendar. The transition from frost to fine weather is usually very rapid. In a brief period after the snow and ice have disappeared, the fields and trees are clothed in the livery of summer, and vegetation makes an extraordinary progress. At St. Petersburg the summer is as mild and agreeable as in the south of France; but there, and in all the northern provinces, it is very variable. As we advance toward the south, it becomes steadier, and the heats increase. The autumn, or the period of transition from summer to winter, is the most unpleasant season in Russia: the sky is generally cloudy, and rains and storms are very prevalent. The Crimea, from its high southern latitude, and its being embosomed in the Euxine, has the most agreeable climate in the empire. The storms of Russia are a peculiar characteristic of the climate of that country. They are divided into three classes. The least violent and most common is called the miatjel. The second and severer kind occurs more rarely, and always in autumn or winter: it is the samjots. This storm is dangerous, and wo betide the traveller who finds himself exposed to its fury on an open country-road! Escape from it is out of the question. The driving shower of snow renders it an impossibility to keep the eyes open, and no horse will advance a step, flogged and spurred as he may be. The best and only possible means of safety, to a traveller thus exposed, is to throw himself flat on the ground, and let himself be snowed over, especially if he can reach the shelter of some little elevation which prevents the wind from getting a hold of him; otherwise it will take him up with irresistible 40 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. force, and whirl him like a feather in the air. But the samjots, terrible though it be, is a mere shadow of the vinga: the former it is possible to survive; but nothing withstands the latter. Fortunately, unmistakeable indications announce its coming for some days beforehand. Then nobody sets out upon a journey, not even to the next village, though it be but a mile or two off. Precautions are taken for the safety of the house, by pro- tecting it, on the north side with heavy stones, and by propping it up, as well as barns and stables, on the south side. The tabunen (troops of wild horses) scamper with all haste to the nearest forest; droves of cattle and flocks of sheep seek shelter wherever it is to be found. Whatever the storm overtakes upon the open plain-man or beast, caravans drawn by oxen or by horses-is lost, without a chance of rescue. An icy shower of snow is the forerunner of the terrible blast: it falls so thick, and drives so horizontally through the air, that to withstand it is impossible. This prelude to the hurricane is soon followed by the formi- dable blasts and circling whirlwinds which succeed it, and which gather up from the earth, like chaff from the thrashing-floor, the objects exposed to their violence, and hurl them to and fro in the air. And yet the rage of the unfettered element is not here at its height: for when the storm seems to have exhausted its fury in the manner described—often raging thus during a period of several days-then first begins the real tempest, a blast which nothing can resist. It uproots whole forests, tosses the lof- tiest fir-trees into the air like blades of straw, and often conveys them, high above the earth, whole miles away! It levels stables and barns, unroofs houses, and throws down church-towers, so that the district it has visited appears, after its destructive passage, and for distances of several days' journey, like a land ravaged by fire and sword. On all sides are seen herds of dead cattle, trees uprooted, and villages overthrown. In exposed situations, the vinga has been known to tear up isolated stables-to trans- port through the air their fragments and the cattle they contained—and far, far from the spot, to hurl these down shattered upon fields and roofs ! With varying fury the monster rages for some days, leaving behind him, on his departure, death, destruction, and lamentations. Happily, he comes but seldom; his visits are not for every generation: but when he does come, all that his icy breath touches is devoted to annihilation. POLITICAL DIVISIONS. 41 I' CHAPTER II. POLITICAL DIVISIONS. T was incidentally mentioned, in the previous chapter, that the Russian empire is parcelled into the two great divisions of European and Asiatic Russia by the natural boundary of the Ural mountains. In its upper part, the Ural range forms such a conspicuous natural barrier, that its title to fix the frontiers of Europe and Asia, so far at least as the governments of Archangel and Vologda extend, has been universally rec- ognised. To the south of this, however, authorities have differed as to what constitutes the true division-line of the two continents. Some, in giving the boundary, quit the Ural chain at the sources of the Vishera, a tributary of the Kama, follow it down to its junction with the latter-named river, thence down the Kama to its junction with the Volga, and finally follow the Volga to its mouth in the Caspian sea. This boundary has the merit of being well defined, and of giving a prominence to the Volga, whose mighty flood would seem almost to entitle it to be the boundary of a conti- nent. The line, however, more generally adopted by modern geographers, and which is the one adhered to in the maps attached to this volume, is to follow the Ural chain southward till it reaches the sources of the river Ural, and thence follow the course of this river to its mouth in the Caspian. This boundary-line is deemed the preferable one, as it has the advantage of being at once simple and definite. Between the Caspian and Black seas, the central chain of the Caucasus is now generally considered as the natural boundary-line of Europe and Asia; and consequently the Trans-Caucasian provinces, Georgia, Russian Armenia, Shirvan, &c., more strictly belong to Asiatic Russia. But, as the same physical region prevails on both sides of the Caucasian range, and the provinces on both sides are embraced in the same political government, we have, as the most convenient mode of describing them, included them all under the division of European Russia. The divisions of the Russian empire have differed materially at different periods. Peter the Great made some important changes in the distribu- tion that had existed previously to his epoch. The whole, however, was remodelled and placed on a new footing by Catherine II. in 1775. She divided the entire empire into three great regions—those of the north, middle, and south. Each of these regions was subdivided into govern- ments, of which there were at first forty-two, and at the end of her reign 42 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. fifty. Paul made some ill-advised changes on this distribution, which were set aside on the accession of Alexander. The existing political divisions were mostly fixed by the latter in 1822, nearly on the basis laid down by Catherine. The empire is divided into gov- ernments (exclusive of certain territories called provinces, or oblasts, not formed into governments). Of these governments, by far the greater num- ber belong to European Russia, which includes those classed under the general divisions of the BALTIC PROVINCES, GREAT and LITTLE RUSSIA, WESTERN, SOUTHERN, and EASTERN RUSSIA, RUSSIAN POLAND, and the CAU- CASIAN PROVINCES; while the vast tract of Asiatic Russia has been divided into only two governments—that of WESTERN SIBERIA, including the prov- inces of Tobolsk, Tomsk, and Yenesei; and EASTERN SIBERIA, Comprising the provinces of Irkoutsk, Yakoutsk, Okhotsk, and Kamtschatka. The following table, made up from the latest and most authentic sources, gives the names, with the superficial area in square miles, and population, of the governments and provinces into which the different sections of the empire are divided:- POLITICAL DIVISIONS. THE BALTIC PROVINCES :- Finland.. St. Petersburg. Esthonia... Livonia.. Courland.. AREA IN SQ. Ms. Pop. 1850. POLITICAL DIVISIONS. SOUTHERN RUSSIA:- Bessarabia.. AREA IN SQ. Ma. Pop. 1850. ..144.000... 1,539.000 16,000.. 808,000 18,600... 991,000 Kherson 36,000... 859,000 7,230. 317,000 Taurida. 30,000.. 584,000 17,340. 830,000 Ekatherinoslav. 35,000.... 888,000 10,000.. 564,000 Don Cossacks. 53,000...... 718,000 Total... -197,170……… 4,241,000 Total.... .170,000... ..3,857,000 GREAT RUSSIA :— ASTRAKHAN PROVINCES :- Astrakhan.... Archangel. Vologda. Olonetz Novgorod Pskov... ..350,000.... 258,000 Sarátov*. 150,000..... 839,000 Orenburg* 67,000. 268,000 55,000. 926,000 Total.. 21,900. 791,000 24,000... 1,354,000 | KAZAN PROVINCES :- 21.000..... .1,194,000 Perm.. 11,500.... 1,402,000 17,000......1,028.000 38.400.... 1,076,000 20,400.... .1,202,000 17,500.. 1,271,000 14,000... 1,393,000 24,000.... -1,786 000 Viatka.. Sibirsk* Penza.. Kazan... Total.. 12,000... ..1,251,500 CAUCASIAN PROVINCES :- 43,000... 290,000 73,000......1,753,000 .128,000. -1,987,000 .244,000... .127,000.. 52,500. .1,696,000 24,000.. 1,345,000 14,000.... .1,109,000 23,500..... 1,370,000 4,030,000 1,670,000 Tver... Smolensk.. Moscow Yaroslav. Kostroma Nijnei-Novgorod. Vladimir.. • Riazan Tambov.. 241,000 - - - - - - 7,190,000 - Toula Kalouga. Orel, or Orlov... · 10,560... -1,026,500 Georgia 18,000. 300,000 17,000.... .1,533,000 Shirvan 9,200.... 150,000 Koursk · Voronej. 16,000. .1,714,000 30,000. Armenia 8.000... 160,000 - 1,691,000 Imeritia. 4,830... 170,000 Mingrelia. 7,200. 430,000 Total... .917,260 22,004,000 Guria Abassia. 1,500. 65.000 2,640.. 52,000 LITTLE RUSSIA:- Circassia 32,250.... 550,000 Tchernigov. 23.000... 1,459,000 Caucasus. 40,000...... 150,000 Kharkov 21,000.. 1,497,000 Daghestan. 9,300.. 190,000 Poltava.. 22,000.. 1,820.000 Kiev...... 20,500... 1,638,000 Total.. 132,920.. 2,217,000 SIBERIA:- Total 86,500…………..6,414,000 Tobolsk. 694,000.. 985,000 WESTERN RUSSIA:- Podolia, or Podolsk…… Tomsk .. 380,000.. 779,000 15,000......1,737.000 Yeniseisk.. Irkoutsk. 945,000... 205,000 150,000... 507,000 Volhynia Minsk.. 29.000......1,474,000 Yakoutsk .1,400,000... 163,000 37,000 .1,067,000 Okhotsk • 170,000.. 8,000 Moghilev Vitepsk Wilna.. 19,300. 950,000 Kamtschatka, &c………… 81,000... 5,000 16.800.. 805,000 24,400.... 898.000 Total... .3,623,000. 2,652.000 Grodno... Bialystok. 15,000... 925,000 RUSSIAN POLAND. Total... 3,400...... 282,000 47,610 .4,811,000 These governments include in their amounts the area (39,000 sq. miles) and population (1,116,000) of the new government of Samara, 207,510.....12,949,000 formed of portions of them, by imperial ukase of December 18, 1850. GRAND TOTAL 6,019,360.....65,554,000 THE BALTIC PROVINCES-FINLAND. 43 THE BALTIC PROVINCES. FINLAND, called by the inhabitants Snomen-maa, or Land of Marshes, lies between the sixtieth and seventieth degrees of north latitude, and the twenty-first and thirty-second degrees of east longitude, forming the ex- treme northwestern portion of the Russian empire, including the province of Viborg and the western portion of Russian Lapland, which are politi- cally connected with it. It has on the north the Norwegian province of Finmark; on the east, the governments of Archangel and Olonetz; on the south, the lake Ladoga, the government of St. Petersburg, and the gulf of Finland; and on the west, Sweden and the gulf of Bothnia. Its length from north to south is seven hundred and thirty miles; its average breadth is about one hundred and eighty-five miles; and its area one hundred and forty-four thousand square miles. Its greater portion is a table-land, reach- ing generally from four to six hundred feet above the level of the sea, and interspersed with hills of no great elevation. In the north, however, are the Mauselka mountains, with an average height supposed to be between three and four thousand feet. The coasts, particularly in the south, are surrounded by a vast number of rocky islands, separated from the mainland and from each other by intri- cate and narrow channels, rendering the shores of Finland easy of defence in case of hostile attack by sea. But the chief natural feature of the coun- try is its myriads of lakes, which occupy a large proportion of its surface; and some of which, as the Enare, Saima, Païyané, and others, are of con- siderable size. The greater number of these are in the south and east; they have frequent communications with each other, and generally abound with islands, the natural strength of whose situation has been taken advan- tage of to cover them with batteries, some of them impregnable save to want or famine. There are no rivers of any importance. The climate is rigorous; even in the south the winter lasts seven months of the year, and the summer season, which commences in June, terminates in August. Dense fogs are very frequent; heavy rains take place in au- tumn, and in May and June the thaws nearly put a stop to all travelling.. In the north the sun is absent during December and January; but during the short summer, while that luminary is almost perpetually above the hori- zon, the heat is often very great, and near Uleaborg the grain is sowed and reaped within six weeks! The principal geological formations are granite, which very easily disin- tegrates, hard limestone, and slate. The soil for the most part is stony and poor; but how barren soever, Finland is more productive than the opposite part of the Scandinavian peninsula; and when it belonged to the Swedish crown, it furnished a good deal more grain than was necessary for its own consumption, and was termed the granary of Sweden. Barley and rye are the kinds of grain chiefly cultivated, and the rye of Vasa is 44 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. celebrated for its excellence: wheat and oats are but little grown. The peasants are obliged, from the humidity of the atmosphere, to dry all the grain in ovens, after which it will keep for fifteen or eighteen years. Pulse, hops, hemp, flax, and a little tobacco, are raised; and potatoes were intro- duced about the year 1762, but they have not yet been brought into gen- eral use. Only a small proportion of the surface is under culture. The land requires a large quantity of manure, and that in common use is wood- ashes, procured by setting fire to the forests and underwood, after which operation heavy crops are sometimes obtained. The natural poverty of the soil is such that, excepting in the southern province of Tavastehus, where it is deprived of a continual supply of artificial stimulus, the crops. rapidly fall off, and the cleared land is soon abandoned for another portion of soil, the wood on which is purposely destroyed. This plan of manuring the land, though well enough adapted to bring the fens covered with brush- wood under cultivation, is highly injurious to the forests, and consequently to one of the chief sources of national wealth. The forests are very exten- sive, and reach as far north as latitude sixty-nine degrees. They consist principally of pine and fir; but they contain also beech, elm, poplar, oak, ash, birch, &c. Timber, deals, potash, pitch, tar, and rosin, are among the most impor- tant products of Finland. Cherries and apples ripen at Vasa, and a spe- cies of crab-apple grows wild in the west; but other fruits, except a few kinds of berries, are rare. Next to agriculture, cattle-breeding and fishing are the chief occupations of the people. Pasturage is scarce and indiffer- ent, and forage rare; but cattle, goats, and hogs, which are fed upon leaves, straw, &c., are comparatively numerous. In the north, the peasants pos- sess large herds of reindeer. Bears, wolves, elks, deer, foxes, beavers, polecats, and various kinds of game, abound in Finland. Seal and herring fisheries are established on many parts of the coast; and the salmon and stræmling (Clupea harengus) are caught in great quantities in the lakes, supplying the inhabitants with an important part of their food. Iron-mines were formerly wrought, but at present only bog-iron is procured. Lead, sulphur, arsenic, nitre, and a little copper, are met with; salt is very scarce, and is one of the chief articles of import. The manufactures of Finland are quite insignificant. Except the prod- ucts of a few iron-forges, and glass, sailcloth, and hose factories, they are entirely domestic. The peasant prepares his own tar, potash, and char- coal; constructs his own boat-furniture and wooden utensils; and weaves at home the coarse woollen and other fabrics he uses. He often lives one hundred miles from any town, and is therefore thrown for the most part upon his own resources and ingenuity for the supply of his wants. In some districts the inhabitants never repair to a town but to obtain salt. The exports consist of timber, butcher's meat, butter, skins, tar, and fish, to other parts of the empire and to Sweden, with which countries the prin- THE BALTIC PROVINCES FINLAND. 45 ¡V.ROBERTS. SC. RUSSIAN ELK AND BEARS. cipal intercourse is maintained. There are a few good roads, made by the Swedes while they were in possession of the country; but they do not extend far into the interior. Post-horses are furnished, as in Sweden, by the adjacent farmers. In commercial dealings, the Russian is the currency established by law; but Swedish paper-money is in circulation, and is gen- erally preferred by the population. Administratively, Finland is divided into eight lanes, or governments, viz., Viborg, St. Michael, Nyland, Tavastehus, Abo-Biomeborg, Vasa, Ku- opia, and Uleaborg-kaiana; and these again are subdivided into fogderier, or districts, harades, &c. The chief towns are Helsingfors, the present capital; Abo, the former capital; Tavastehus, Vasa, Uleaborg, and Tor- nea. A Russian military governor resides at Helsingfors, which is one of the great naval stations of the Baltic, and is strongly fortified. Finland has a diet, composed of the four orders of the nobility, clergy, citizens, and peasantry, and a code of laws and judicial system similar to that of Swe- den; but the diet is rarely convoked, except to consent to the imposition of fresh taxes, a senate more recently established having replaced it in the exercise of its functions. The annual revenue derived by the crown from Finland is about one million dollars; the whole of it is, however, expended in the country. Among their privileges is the one that none but a native Finlander can hold any office of trust in the country. The regiments raised in Finland are also not promiscuously intermixed with the general 46 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. forces of the Russian empire; and their fleet, by far the best-manned por- tion of the Russian naval force, forms a distinct squadron under the Fin- nish flag. Almost all the population are Lutherans, under the bishops of Abo and Borgo; except in the government of Viborg, where they belong to the Russian (Greek) church. Public education is very backward; there is a university at Helsingfors, besides schools in all the towns, but there is a great deficiency of country-schools. On the western coast, and in the Aland archipelago (which is included in Finland),* the inhabitants are mostly of Swedish origin, and in the south- east of Russian descent; but the great majority of the population are Finns. The latter have, by many geographers, been identified with the Fenni of • * The Aland archipelago is a group of islands at the entrance of the gulf of Bothnia, between fifty-nine degrees fifty minutes and sixty degrees thirty-two minutes north latitude, and nineteen degrees ten minutes and twenty-one degrees seven minutes east longitnde, consisting of more than eighty inhabited and upward of two hundred uninhabited islets and rocks (shäron), occupying an area of about four hundred and seventy square miles, and divided into three oblong clusters by the straits of Delet and Lappväsi. The Baltic bounds them to the south; on the west the straits of Alandshaf separates them from Sweden, its width being about twenty-four miles; and on the east the straits of Wattuskiftet, which are scarcely two miles broad where they are narrowest, and about fourteen where they are broadest, interpose between them and the Finland shore. The principal islands are, Aland, which gives name to the group, Jemland, Lumparland, Ekeroe, Fogloe, Kum- Inge, Braendoe, Vordoe, and Hannoe. The population of the whole group is fourteen thousand, entirely of Swedish extraction. Most of the islands stand at a considerable elevation above the level of the sea, and are intersected by chains of granite rocks, which occasionally rise into peaks, and are full of hollows. There are no rivers, but many small lakes. The surface is either a thin layer of clay or rich mould, slatestone, or sand. The climate, though keen, and at times severe, is more temperate than that of Finland. There are extensive forests, chiefly of birches and pines; the pasture-grounds are very poor, excepting near some parts of the coast; and the arable land, on which rye and barley are mostly grown, produces a sufficiency for domestic consumption, the best yielding seven-fold. Hops, cabbages, parsnips, carrots, and other roots, potatoes, and a little flax, are likewise raised. Nuts form an article of export. The horned cattle, of which there are upward of twelve thousand, are small in size, and few of the cows have horns; the latter furnish the "Aland cheeses," which are much sought after, and made principally in the island of Fogloe. Of sheep there are above thirteen thousand, the wool of which is converted into coarse stuffs and sailcloth; horses and goats are also bred in considerable numbers. The fisheries are productive, particularly of herrings (strömlinge) and seals, of the first of which six thousand tons and upward are annually salted. Waterfowl abound. The exports consist of salt meat, butter, cheese, hides and skins, dried and salted fish, wood for fuel, &c.; and the imports of salt, colonial produce, iron-ware, woollens, cottons, and other manufactures, &c.-The Alanders are excellent seamen, and navigate small vessels of their own that trade with the adjacent parts; they are Swedes in their language, man- ners, and usages. There are a number of good harbors, many of which have been fortified by the Russians, who keep up a disproportionately large military force in the islands, as well as a numer- ous flotilla, called the "Skaerenflott.”—The islands contain eight parishes and as many churches, and seven churches or chapels of ease. Aland, the largest island, is nearly circular, being about seventeen miles in length and sixteen in breadth; it contains above nine thousand inhabitants, and has an excellent harbor at Ytternaes, on the west side, capable of containing the whole Russian fleet; and a citadel in which, it is said, sixty thousand men might be quartered! It is divided by a narrow strait from Ekeroe, the westernmost island, which has a telegraph, and is inhabited by the pilots who are employed by the Russian government for conducting the mails and travellers. On the eastern coast of Aland is the old castle of Castleholm, now in ruins. Kumlinge has a popula- tion of three thousand. —These islands were wrested by Russia from Sweden in 1809; and give the former a position from which they may easily make a descent on the Swedish coast. The first victory of the Russians over the Swedes, in the war with Charles XII., was gained in the neighbor hood of these islands, by Peter the Great, in 1714. THE BALTIC PROVINCES- 47 FINLAND. - ROBERTSIS www. PEASANTS OF FINLAND. Tacitus, and the Phinni of Ptolemy. There are, however, circumstances which give rise to considerable doubt respecting such identity. The Finns call themselves Sonomalaisetlo, or "inhabitants of the marshes." They have no analogy with the Slavonian or Teutonic races. They are of mid- dle height, and robust, flat-faced, with prominent cheek-bones, light, red- dish, or yellowish-brown hair, gray eyes, little beard, and a dull, sallow complexion. They are courageous, hospitable, and honest; but obstinate in the extreme, indolent, dirty, and it is said revengeful. They have not the gay disposition of their Slavonic neighbors, but are grave and unsocial. Almost every one is a poet or musician. 48 ILUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The customs and habits of the Finns have been handed down time im- memorial, and their costume forcibly brought their supposed eastern origin to the mind of Mr. Elliot, who observes, in his "Letters from the North of Europe:" "I could fancy myself in Asia. The peasants wear long, loose robes, of a coarse woollen manufacture, secured by a silken cincture, like the kummerbund of the mussulmans. Their dress, except the Euro- pean hat, resembles that of the Beoparries of Cabul. In Russia or Old Finland, the peasants wear a cloak or caftan, sometimes called a khalaat, resembling in form, as well as in name, the eastern dress." The Finns make frequent use of hot vapor baths, and Malte-Brun considers it certain that it was they who communicated the custom to their Russian con- querors. The Finns were pagans, living under their own independent kings, till the twelfth century; about the middle of which Finland was conquered by the Swedes, who introduced Christianity. The province of Viborg was conquered and annexed to Russia by Peter the Great, in 1721. The re- mainder of the country became part of the Russian dominions (also by conquest) in 1809. Abo (pronounced Obo), the former capital of Finland, lies on the river Aurajoki, between the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland. The streets of the town strike a stranger at first as enormously wide, though they by no means exceed the usual dimensions of Russian towns; but the low style of building, almost universal in this town, and the number of sites at present unoccupied by houses, joined to the solitary appearance of its almost de- serted thoroughfares, give an air of desolation to the whole place. The glory of Abo has indeed departed. It had once a flourishing port, and a well-attended university: its trade is now inconsiderable, and its university is removed to Helsingfors, the Russian capital of Finland. A destructive fire, the ravages of which are even now not fully repaired, came to give the final blow to the already sinking fortunes of Abo. This fearful conflagration, which took place in November, 1827, consumed nearly the whole city, including the university and its valuable library, and other public buildings. The fire raged for two whole days, and was not extin- guished until seven hundred and eighty-six houses, out of eleven hundred, were a mass of blackened ruins. When the town was rebuilt, the public edifices, as well as the houses, were placed at a considerable distance from each other, and the town now covers much more ground than formerly, though its inhabitants do not exceed twelve thousand, which, from being spread over so large a surface, do not give one the idea of amounting even to that number. Abo is the most ancient city in Finland; its history being coexistent with the reign of Eric the Saint, that is, from 1150 to 1160, the period at which Christianity was first introduced into this wild and cold region. The castle is as ancient as the town, and arrested more than once the on- ward march of the Russian armies. It was in the dungeons of this build- THE BALTIC PROVINCES 49 FINLAND. ing that Eric XIV. was imprisoned previous to his death, which took place some time afterward at Orebyhus. The castle is now used as a prison, and is garrisoned by half a battalion of infantry. The cathedral of Abo is also highly interesting-not, however, on account of its external appearance, which is coarse and heavy, but for the architectural structure of its inte- rior, which is of three epochs; but this cathedral is more particularly wor- thy of interest from its having been the cradle of Christianity in Finland: here the first episcopal chair was instituted, and for centuries the first families were buried. The vaults of the chapels are filled with their re- mains, and some of their monuments are not unworthy of mention. On one of them is an epitaph to Caroline Morsson, a girl taken from the ranks of the people by Eric XIV., and who, after having worn the Swedish diadem, returned to Finland and died in obscurity, while her royal husband, as has been before stated, ended his days in a prison. In the same chapel, and at the end of it, are two statues in white marble, the size of life, kneeling on a sarcophagus, supported by columns of black marble: these are the wealthy and powerful Clas Tott, grandson of Eric XIV., and his wife. In another chapel is the monument of Stalhandsk, one of the generals and heroes of the Thirty Years' War. The fire of 1827 completely gutted this church, and not only were the altar and organ destroyed, but even the bells were melted by the devouring element. Subscriptions have restored the cathedral; and a patriotic Finn, a baker by trade, who had amassed about fifteen thousand dollars in his business, and was without a near rela- tive, left that sum to purchase an organ at his death. Effect was given to his wishes, and an organ of five thousand pipes, the largest in northern Russia, now raises its decorated and painted head nearly to the roof of the building. Gustavus Adolphus founded an academy here in 1630, which Christina his daughter subsequently elevated into a university. Abo, like Amiens, Ryswick, and Cintra, is distinguished by a treaty, being the spot on which the relations between Russia and Sweden were settled by a peace during the last century. Here, too, Alexander and Bernadotte concluded in 1813 that treaty which arrayed Sweden against France, and placed the Swedish monarch, a Frenchman, in the anomalous position of fighting against his own countrymen. The town of Helsingfors is, historically speaking, comparatively of mod- ern creation, having been founded by King Gustavus Vasa in the sixteenth century: its name came from a colony of the province of Helsingland, in Sweden, which had been established in the neighborhood for several cen- turies. In 1639, however, the town changed its site, and the inhabitants moved their wooden houses nearer the seashore; and on the spot where Helsingfors now stands-war, plague, famine, and fire, ravaged it, each in its turn, and the end of a century found it with a population of only five thousand souls. At the present time it numbers sixteen thousand, exclu- sive of the garrison. 4 • ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. 50 • The Russians have greatly augmented and improved Helsingfors since it came into their possession, more particularly since the year 1819, when it became the capital of Finland; the removal to it of the university of Abo, and the senate, after the conflagration of that town in 1827, also materially increased its importance. The streets are long, broad, and laid out at right angles, as in most Russian towns. The houses are large and regular, and a handsome granite quay extends along the water in front of the town. Among the fine buildings worthy of mention is the senate-house. The chambers in which the various branches of the assembly meet, for the ordi- nary purposes of business, are simple, and furnished in good taste. The large hall, intended for the meeting of the senate on great occasions, con- tains a splendid throne for the emperor, who once presided in person; it is hung with portraits of former (Swedish) governors of Finland. The remains of the library, saved from the fire of Abo, is at present preserved in this building. It consists of about eighty thousand volumes, chiefly edi- tions of the classics taken by Charles XII. from the monasteries, during the Seven Years' War. An extensive collection of sagas, or traditionary records, and historical documents, relating to the history of Finland, unfor- tunately fell a prey to the flames. Another handsome building is the university, which has twenty-four fac- ulties and twenty-two professors, and where may be seen the act which incorporated that of Abo, with the signature of the illustrious Oxenstiern, the Swedish prime minister under Queen Christina. This was the oldest university in Russia, having been founded by Christina in 1630; that of Dorpat, which was founded eight years after, was closed from 1710 until 1799. Printing was not introduced into Finland until 1641, eleven years after the university was established, when Wald, a Swedish printer, made a contract with the rector, and established himself at Abo. The approach to Helsingfors by water is exceedingly striking: the har- bor is very extensive, and well protected by the works and fortress of Sweaborg, capable of containing twelve thousand men; these are built on seven islands, and from the extent of the fortifications, and the strength of their position, it has been termed by the Russians the Gibraltar of the north. The original fortress was built by Count Ehrenswerd, field-marshal of Swe- den, and completed in 1758. After the conquest of Viborg and Ingerma- nia by Peter the Great, it was the last stronghold of the Swedes. In March, 1808, it was besieged by the Russians; and, two months after, Admiral Cronstadt, who defended the place with fifteen hundred men and two frig- ates, capitulated to a force scarcely sufficient to man the walls! There are several agreeable walks in the neighborhood of Helsingfors; among them may be cited that to the forests of Standsvik, the solitary coast near Mailand, and the verdant gardens of Traëskenda. The town is much resorted to in summer by visiters from St. Petersburg, Revel, &c. Tornea lies on the northwest frontier of Finland, on a peninsula in the river Tornea, where it falls into the gulf of Bothnia. It has but about one RIVER AND TOWN OF TORNEA IN FINLAND, HABER THE THE BALTIC PROVINCES-ST. PETERSBURG. 53 thousand inhabitants. This little town, which was built by the Swedes in 1602, consists of two principal streets of wooden houses. It has a consid- erable trade in the exportation of stock-fish, reindeer, skins, furs, iron, planks, tar, butter, pickled salmon, &c. The climate is very severe, though less so, perhaps, than might be expected from its high latitude. In June the sun is visible, from a mountain in the neighborhood, at midnight, above the horizon. Tornea is celebrated in the history of science for the visit made to it in 1736, by the French academicians Maupertuis, Clairaut, Monnier, and Ca- mus, accompanied by the Swedish astronomer Celsius, with a view to the determination of the exact figure of the earth. The operations do not, however, appear to have been conducted with sufficient accuracy; and there is a discrepancy of about two hundred toises (twelve hundred feet) between the length of the degree, as determined by the academicians, and that measured by the Swedish astronomer Svanberg in 1801. This town, along with the grand-duchy of Finland, was ceded to Russia by Sweden, by the treaty of Frederickshausen, in 1809. Vexed as the Swedes-a proud and martial people-must be to see some of their finest provinces torn from them, and transferred to their more powerful neighbor, the separation was to the full as keenly felt by the Finns. Not only from forming an influential and integral part of a kingdom, were they at once reduced to a petty province of a boundless empire, but their ancient ties of friendship and affection were torn asunder. They can have no great sympathy with Russia-no fellowship in her glory -no anxiety for her distant conquests. But with Sweden it was far dif- ferent: the steel-clad Finns formed, under the mighty Adolphus, a part of that unconquered army that humbled to the dust the imperial pride of Austria; and, in later days, they shared under Charles XII. the glories of Narva, and their stubborn valor retrieved for a moment the waning for- tunes of the fatal day of Poltava. The very people are the same: the kindness, the open-hearted frankness of manner, the unwearied civility, and the scrupulous honesty, of the Swede, are alike to be met with throughout the whole of the western provinces of Finland. The traveller, during his wanderings, will hardly meet with a people so attaching, or with whom he will so soon find himself on terms of intimacy, as the Swedes and Finns. This remark perhaps requires qualification as applied to the peasantry of the more eastern provinces, of the unmixed Finnish race, who are repre- sented to be habitually grave and taciturn. The government of ST. PETERSBURG (being that in which the capital of the empire is situated) lies between the fifty-eighth and sixty-first degrees of north latitude, and the twenty-eighth and thirty-fourth degrees of east longitude; having the gulf and government of Finland and Lake Ladoga on the north, Olonetz on the northeast, Novgorod on the east and south- east, Pskov on the south, and Lake Peipus and the government of Esthonia 54 DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ILLUSTRATED · or Revel on the west. Its greatest length from northeast to southwest is two hundred and sixty-five miles, and its breadth ninety miles, comprising an area of about eighteen thousand six hundred square miles. It is, for the most part, a low flat, covered to a considerable extent with lakes and swamps, excepting small portions of the north and south, the former being broken by the low hills of Olonetz, and the latter partly traversed by a ramification of the Valdai mo ntains. The whole of its drainage is carried into the gulf of Finland, either directly by the Neva, Louga, and Narova, or indirectly by the Volkhov, Siasi, Pacha, Tvir, and Oiat, which have their mouths in Lake Ladoga. The climate is severe, and the soil by no means fertile; not above one third of the surface is under cultivation, and the grain produced falls far short of the consumption. The forests are very extensive. There are no minerals of any consequence. Manufactures have advanced with rapid strides, particularly in the capital, and trade, both foreign and domestic, is very extensive. For administrative purposes, the government is divided into eight dis- tricts. The greater part of it belonged to ancient Ingria, which, during the war between the Swedes and Russians, in the time of Charles XII., became the principal theatre of hostilities, and in consequence suffered dreadfully. Ultimately, Peter the Great succeeded in conquering it, and it was finally secured to Russia by the peace of Nystadt. St. Petersburg, the capital (which is fully described on future pages), had, up to the breaking out of hostilities with Turkey and the western powers, the most extensive foreign trade of any city in the north of Eu- rope. This arises not so much from its great population as from its being the only great maritime inlet on the gulf of Finland, and from its vast and various communications with the interior. By means partly of canals, but principally of rivers, St. Petersburg is connected with the Caspian sea, goods being conveyed from the latter to the capital, a distance of fourteen hundred and thirty-four miles, without once landing them. The iron and furs of Siberia and the teas of China are received at St. Petersburg in the same way; but, owing to the great distance of these countries, and the short period during which the rivers and canals are navigable, they take three years in their transit by water! Immense quantities of the less bulky and more valuable species of goods are also brought to the city during the win- ter upon the ice in sledges. The principal article of export is tallow; and next are hemp, flax, iron, copper, grain (mostly wheat), timber, potashes, canvass, linseed and hempseed, with their oils, furs, hides, leather, cordage, caviare, wax, tar, &c. The chief imports are sugar, and other colonial products; cotton yarn, raw cotton, and cotton-stuffs; dye-stuffs, wines, silks, woollens, hardware, fine linen from Holland, &c. ; salt, lead, tin, coal, &c. Kronstadt, properly the port of St. Petersburg, and the principal station of the Russian navy in the Baltic, is situated on the long, flat, and arid island of Kotlin, near the eastern extremity of the gulf of Finland, and KRONSTADT, THE PORT OF ST. PETERSBURG. ROBERTS THE BALTIC PROVINCES· ST. PETERSBURG. 57 about twenty miles from St. Petersburg. The town is built in the form of an irregular triangle, on the southeastern extremity of the isle, opposite the mouth of the Neva, and is strongly fortified on all sides. On the south side of Kotlin is the narrow channel, through which only one vessel can pass at a time, from the gulf to the capital, and scores of guns could here be brought to bear on an enemy, by means of a fortress erected on a detached islet; or, if arriving on the opposite side, by the batteries of Riesbank, and the citadel of Kronslot. The appearance of Kronstadt is respectable. It is regularly built, and contains many straight and well-paved streets, and several squares. The houses, however, are all low, being generally of one story, with those sin- gular red-and-green painted roofs common in Russia; and are mostly of wood, with the exception of those belonging to the government, which number nearly two hundred, and are nearly all built of stone. The town is entered by three gates, and is divided into two sections, the command- ant's division and the admiralty, each of which is subdivided into two dis- tricts. It is also intersected by two canals, which have their sides built of granite, and are both deep and wide enough to admit the largest ves- sels. The one, Peter's canal, is used as a repairing dock; and the other, Catherine's canal, for commercial purposes. Kronstadt contains three Greek churches: that of the Transfiguration, a large wooden edifice, built by Peter the Great, and covered with images; Trinity church, and St. Andrew's church, in the Byzantine style, with a handsome cupola. There are also two Greek chapels, and three other churches, one each for Lutherans, English, and Roman catholics. Between the two canals stands a handsome palace, built by Prince Menchikoff, now occupied as a naval school, and attended by three hundred pupils. The other public buildings deserving of notice are the marine hospital, fitted up with twenty-five hundred beds; the exchange, customhouse, admiralty, ar- senal, barracks, cannon-foundry, &c., and the small palace in which Peter the Great resided, and in the gardens of which are several oaks planted by his own hand. The shady alleys of the gardens form the principal promenade. The harbor of Kronstadt lies to the south of the town, and consists of three sections: the military or outer harbor, which is the great naval sta- tion of Russia, and is capable of containing thirty-five ships-of-the-line; the middle harbor, properly intended for the fitting out and repairing of ves- sels; and the innermost harbor, running parallel with the last, and used only by merchant-vessels, of which one thousand might lie in it. Two thirds of the external commerce of Russia pass through Kronstadt, although the depth of water at the bar is scarcely nine feet, and ice blocks up the harbor nearly five months in the year; the shipping season continuing only from May to November. Kronstadt has constant communication with the opposite shores, and steamers now ply regularly between it and the capital. The population in winter is not above six thousand, exclusive of the gar- 58 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. rison, and marine; but including these, in summer, it is not less than forty thousand. The Rev. J. O. Choules, who accompanied Mr. Vanderbilt in his excur- sion to the principal seaports of Europe in his beautiful steam-yacht the "North Star," in 1853, mentions an interesting characteristic of that nor- thern latitude which they witnessed, June 21, while anchored in the road- stead of Kronstadt: "This is the longest day [of summer], and the sun did not set till nearly ten o'clock, and then rose again before two; and all the interval was one continued bright twilight, so that we could read the small type of a newspaper on deck with great ease. At half-past twelve, a bright halo indicates the proximity of the sun to the horizon during his absence. All were on deck to witness the sun rise, and I do not think we shall soon forget the novelty of twenty-four hours' daylight in one day." The remaining Baltic provinces-ESTHONIA, LIVONIA, and COURLAND—— are situated on the south of the gulf of Finland, and to the east of the Bal- tic; and, from their importance in an agricultural point of view, rank high among the tributary lands of the great autocrat. They are also known as the German provinces, the higher classes having still retained the language and customs of their German ancestors. These provinces present an in- teresting field to both the student of history and the ethnographer. ESTHONIA (anciently Esthland, or Revel) is situated between the fifty- eighth and sixtieth degrees of north latitude, and the twenty-third and twenty-ninth degrees of east longitude; having on the east the government of St. Petersburg, on the south Lake Peipus and the government of Riga, on the west the Baltic, and on the north the gulf of Finland. Its area, in- cluding the islands belonging to it, is about seven thousand two hundred square miles. The surface of the country is generally flat, but diversified in parts with undulating hills. It contains many small lakes and streams, but has no navigable river. Its shores are bold and rocky. The climate is rigorous; the winters are long and severe, and fogs and violent winds are common throughout the year. The soil is in great part sandy, and rather infertile: the cultivable lands are supposed to compare with those which are unproductive, including the forests, &c., as one to three. Agriculture is the chief employment of the population, and more grain is produced than is sufficient for home con- sumption: it is principally rye, barley, and oats; but wheat and buckwheat, besides flax, hemp, hops, and tobacco, are also raised. The greater part of the grain not required for food is set apart for the purpose of distilling spirituous liquors, large quantities of which are consumed by the lower orders of the people, who are much addicted to the vice of drunkenness. Different species of pulse are extensively cultivated, and form a large pro- portion of the nourishment of the peasantry. Fruit-trees are neglected; THE BALTIC PROVINCES 59 ESTHONIA. but certain wild fruits are very abundant. The pine, fir, &c., are the most common forest-trees; but the oak, elm, and beech, &c., are met with. A good many head of live stock are reared, and some are driven into this province from other and distant ones, to be fattened for the St. Petersburg markets. The oxen and horses of Esthonia are very indifferent, as well as the sheep, goats, &c., though active endeavors have been made to improve the breed of the latter. Poultry is abundant. The lakes do not contain many fish, but the fisheries on the coasts are of importance to the inhabitants. Among the wild animals, may be enumerated a few elks; and the bear, wolf,* badger, fox, &c., inhabit the forests. * The wolf is the most common of all the wild animals in Esthonia. It is so great a torment to the peasants and shepherds, that the month of December, when cold and hunger drives the wolves oftenest to the dwellings of man, it is called by them “ Vilku Mehnes,” or Wolf's Month. In Janu- uary, the howling of the wolves is a common nocturnal music. The following account of an Estho- nial female abandoning her children to wolves, thrillingly illustrates the danger to which the inhab- itants of that region are exposed to attacks from these ravenous beasts. It also explains the scene given in the engraving on page 61: "An Esthonian woman, during the winter of 1807, undertook a journey to a distant relation, not only without any male companion, but with three children, the youngest of which was still at the breast. A light sledge, drawn by one horse, received the little party; the way was narrow, but well beaten; the snow on each side deep and impassable; and to turn back, without danger of sticking fast, not to be thought of. " The first half of the journey was passed without accident. The road now ran along the skirts of a pine-forest, when the traveller suddenly heard a suspicious noise behind her. Casting back a look of alarm, she saw a troop of wolves trotting along the road, the number of which her fears hin- dered her from estimating. To escape by flight is her first thought; and with unsparing whip she urges into a gallop the horse, which itself snuffs the danger. Soon a couple of the strongest and most hungry of the beasts appear at her side, and seem disposed to stop the way. Though their intention seems to be only to attack the horse, yet the safety of both the mother and the children depends on the preservation of the animal. The danger raises its value; it seems entitled to claim for its preservation an extraordinary sacrifice. As the mariner throws overboard his richest treas- ures to appease the raging waves, so here has necessity reached a height at which the emotions of the heart are dumb before the dark commands of instinct; the latter alone suffers the unhappy wo- man to act in this distress. She seizes her second child, whose bodily infirmities have often made it an object of anxious care, whose cry even offends not her ear, and threatens to whet the appetite of the bloodthirsty monsters—she seizes it with an involuntary motion, and before the mother is conscious of what she is doing, it is cast out, and the last cry of the victim still sounded in her ears, when she discovered that the troop, which had remained some minutes behind, again closely pressed on the sledge. The anguish of her soul increases, for again the murder-breathing forms are at her side. Pressing the infant to her heaving bosom, she casts a look on her boy, four years old, who crowds closer and closer to her knee. But, dear mother, I am good, am I not? You will not throw me into the snow, like the bawler?'-'And yet! and yet!' cried the wretched woman, in the wild tumult of despair, 'thou art good, but God is merciful!-Away! The dreadful deed was done. To escape the furies that raged within her, the woman exerted herself, with powerless lash, to accelerate the gallop of the exhausted horse. With the thick and gloomy forest before and be- hind her, and the nearer and nearer trampling of her ravenous pursuers, she almost sinks under her anguish; only the recollection of the infant that she holds in her arms-only the desire to save it — occupies her heart, and with difficulty enables it to bear up. She did not venture to look behind her. All at once, two rough paws are laid on her shoulders, and the wide-open, bloody jaws of an enormous wolf hung over her head. It is the most ravenous beast of the troop, which having partly missed its leap at the sledge, is dragged along with it, in vain seeking with its hinder legs for a resting-place, to enable it to get wholly on the frail vehicle. The weight of the body of the mon- ster draws the woman backward. Her arms rise with the child: half torn from her, half aban- doned, it becomes the prey of the ravenous beast, which hastily carries it off into the forest. Ex- 60 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. 1 A few mineral products are obtained in this province, but they are of no great consequence. Nearly all the manufactures are domestic: the peas- antry weave their own coarse woollens, and some very tolerable linen stuffs. In the islands, the building of boats is a principal employment. Distilleries are common in every part of the country, the free use of stills being one of the most important of their ancient privileges that the Estho- nians preserve. The chief exports are grain, spirits, salt fish, and hides; among the chief imports are herrings and salt. The port of Revel is the centre of the trade of the government. For administrative purposes, the province is under the superintendence of the governor-general of Riga, and consists of four districts (Revel, Hapsal, Weissenstein, and Wesenberg); but it has its own provincial council, judi- cial court, &c. Nearly all the inhabitants are Lutherans. A compara- tively very small proportion of the population is educated. Revel (called by the Russians Kolyvan), the capital of Esthonia, is situ- ated on a small bay on the south side of the gulf of Finland, two hundred miles west-southwest of St. Petersburg. Its population is about fifteen thousand. The city proper, included within the ramparts, is small; and although it has many good brick houses, its streets are narrow and irregu- hausted, stunned, senseless, she drops the reins, and continues her journey, ignorant whether she is delivered from her pursuers or not. "Meantime the forest grows thinner, and an insulated farmhouse, to which a side-road leads, appears at a moderate distance. The horse, left to itself, follows this new path; it enters through an open gate; panting and foaming it stands still; and, amid a circle of persons who crowd round with good-natured surprise, the unhappy woman recovers from her stupefaction, to throw herself, with a loud scream of anguish and horror, into the arms of the nearest human being, who appears to her as a guardian angel. All leave their work—the mistress of the house the kitchen, the thrasher the barn, the eldest son of the family, with his axe in his hand, the wood which he had just cleft to assist the unfortunate woman; and, with a mixture of curiosity and pity, to learn, by a hundred inquiries, the circumstances of her singular appearance. Refreshed by whatever can be procured at the moment, the stranger gradually recovers the power of speech, and ability to give an intelli- gible account of the dreadful trial which she has undergone. The insensibility with which fear and distress had steeled her heart begins to disappear: but new terrors seize her—the dry eye seeks in vain a tear she is on the brink of boundless misery. But her narrative had also excited conflict- ing feelings in the bosoms of her auditors; though'pity, commiseration, dismay, and abhorrence, imposed alike on all the same involuntary silence. One only, unable to command the overpowering emotions of his heart, advanced before the rest-it was the young man with the axe: his cheeks were pale with affright—his wildly-rolling eyes flashed ill-omened fire. 'What!' he exclaimed; 'three children—thine own children!—the sickly innocent—the imploring boy-the infant sück- ling-all cast out by the mother, to be devoured by the wolves! Woman, thou art unworthy to live!' And, at the same instant, the uplifted steel descends with resistless force on the skull of the wretched woman, who falls dead at his feet. who falls dead at his feet. The perpetrator then calmly wipes the blood off the murderous axe, and returns to his work. “The dreadful tale speedily came to the knowledge of the magistrates, who caused the uncalled avenger to be arrested and brought to trial. He was, of course, sentenced to the punishment ordained by the laws; but the sentence still wanted the sanction of the emperor. Alexander caused all the circumstances of this crime, so extraordinary in the motives in which it originated, to be reported to him in the most careful and detailed manner. Here, or nowhere, he thought himself called on to exercise the godlike prerogative of mercy, by commuting the sentence passed on the criminal into a condemnation to labor not very severe; and he accordingly sent the young man to the fortress of Dunamunde, at the mouth of the Duna, there to be confined to labor during the emperor's pleasure." * ESTHONIAN WOMAN ABANDONING HER CHILDREN TO THE WOLVES. ROBERTSS THE BALTIC PROVINCES — ESTHONIA. 63 lar. There are several Lutheran, a Roman catholic, and some Greek churches, all stone edifices; and various charitable and educational estab- lishments, the latter including a gymnasium, episcopal seminary, and a school (pension) for nobles. The castle, a modern edifice, is appropriated to the provincial authorities: the municipal officers, who are elected by the city, reside in the town-hall. The admiralty is the principal remaining public building. The suburbs, consisting mostly of wooden houses, cover a large extent of ground along the shore. Revel is much resorted to as a watering-place, and has some good warm baths, a theatre, several clubs or casinos, and three or four public libraries, one of which, the property of the city, is said by Possart to contain ten thousand volumes. This town is one of the stations for the Russian fleet, and has a harbor defended by several batteries. This port, which was materially improved in 1820, is deeper than that of Kronstadt, though more difficult of en- trance. The roadstead, formed by some islands, is well sheltered. The long duration of the frost is the principal drawback on Revel as a naval station, though that is a disadvantage which it shares in common with the other Russian ports in the Baltic. Though not connected with the interior by any navigable river, Revel has a considerable trade. Its principal exports are grain, spirits, hemp, flax, timber, and other Baltic produce; the imports consist of colonial produce, herrings from Holland and Norway, salt, cheese, wine, tobacco, fruits, dye-stuffs, cotton yarn, stuffs, and other manufactured goods, &c. • A portion of the customs' revenue is enjoyed by the town. Revel was founded by the Danes in 1218, and afterward sold by them to the knights of the Teutonic order. In 1561, it came into the possession of the Swedes; but, as before remarked, in treating of the province, it was taken from them by the Russians in 1710. Like ancient Thebes, Revel is entered by seven gates; they are all pic- turesque erections, decorated with various historical mementos, the arms of the Danish domination, the simple cross of the order on the municipal shield of the city. The Schmieedetforte is celebrated for a daring act of magisterial justice, which took place in 1535. At all times a petty ani- mosity had existed between the rich burghers and the lawless nobility of the province, who troubled the commerce of the city, and laughed at the laws of the former; and, on one occasion, the atrocious murder of one of his own peasants in the streets of Revel, by Baron Uxküll, of Reisenberg, so exasperated the magistrates, that they menaced the murderer with the utmost severity of the law if ever he came within their jurisdiction. Nev- ertheless, and despising their threat, the baron, attended by a slender reti- nue, entered the city in mere bravado; when the magistrates, true to their word, seized him, and after due trial he was condemned and executed in full view of his friends, without the walls, beneath the Schmieedetforte. Long and sanguinary were the disputes which followed this act; and, as some pacification to Uxküll's memory, the burghers walled up the gate- 64 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. way, which was not reopened till the beginning of the present century. In the summer there is an annual fair, called the Jahrmarkt, which is held beneath the old elm-trees before the church of St. Nicholas—a most interesting scene to the stranger-and forms the morning lounge of the inhabitants during that season of the year. In the evening, Catherinthal is the favorite promenade. This is an imperial lustschloss, or palace, at a little distance from the town, surrounded with fine trees and well-kept grounds, or what is here termed "ein superber park," which during six weeks of the summer months is thronged with fashionable groups, who eat ices, drink chocolate, talk scandal, and make love, as people do elsewhere. This residence, which is literally a bower of verdure redeemed from a waste of sand, is the pleasant legacy of Peter the Great to the city of Revel. Being a frequent visiter to Revel, it was here that he first erected a modest little house beneath the rocks of the Laaksberg, from the win- dows of which he could overlook his infant fleet riding at anchor in the bay, and which still exists. But a few years previous to his death, the present palace, within a stone's throw of his Dutch house-for all Peter the Great's own private domicils testify whence he drew his first ideas of comfort—was constructed, which he surrounded with pleasure-grounds, and presented to his consort, by the name of Catherinthal. This gift he increased by the purchase of surrounding estates to the amount of several millions of dollars-sufficient to have. assured to the empress, in case of need, a fitting retreat from the frowns of Russian fortune. These estates have been gradually alienated and bestowed on private individuals, and Catherinthal is reduced to little more than its gardens. It has been the temporary sojourn of all the crowned heads of Russia in succession; and the treaty of peace concerning Silesia (wrested from Austria by Frederick the Great in the Seven Years' War), between the two most powerful wo- men of coeval times whom the world has ever known-Maria Theresa of Austria, and Catherine II. of Russia-was here ratified in 1746. LIVONIA (called by the Russians Lifliandüa, and by the Germans Liv- land, or Liefland) is situated on the Baltic, having on the north the gov- ernment of Esthonia; on the east the lake Peipus, separating it from the government of St. Petersburg, and the governments of Pskov and Vitepsk; on the south the latter and Courland; and on the west the gulf of Livonia. Its length from north to south is about one hundred and sixty miles, and its average breadth one hundred and seventeen miles. Including the island of Esel, in the Baltic, it has an area of about seventeen thousand three hundred square miles. The coast and the greater part of the surface of this province are flat and marshy; but in the districts of Venden and Dorpat are some hills of con- siderable elevation; Eierberg, one of these, being nearly eleven hundred feet in height. There are several extensive lakes: the principal, Virtserf, which is twenty-four miles in length, by from two to six in breadth, com- THE BALTIC PROVINCES — LIVONIA. 65 municates with the lake Peipus by the Embach. Besides the last named, the chief rivers are the Duna, which forms the southern boundary, the Evst, and the Bolder-Aa. The soil of Livonia, though in some parts loamy, is in general sandy; but, being abundantly watered, it is, by proper manuring, rendered very productive. Rye and barley are the principal crops, and more of both is grown than is required for home consumption. Wheat and oats are less cultivated; buckwheat is raised on sandy soils; flax, hops, and pulse, are also produced, and the potato culture is on the increase: fruits are of very indifferent quality. In some districts, agriculture is tolerably well con- ducted. The forests are an important source of wealth, and supply excel- lent timber. They abound also with game, of which every landowner is the sole proprietor of all on his domain. In this manner, many noblemen, in addition to the bears and wolves, the latter of which are sometimes very destructive to the cattle, may count whole herds of deer, elks, foxes, and lynxes, among their live stock. But as in any of the German provinces it is never customary for one noble to exclude another from his hunting- grounds, each landholder is privileged to sport over the whole country. The rich landowners sometimes invite all their neighbors for twenty miles round to a great hunt (the preparation for which is seen in the engraving on the following page). The field is then taken for eight successive days against the shy inhabitants of the forest, in sledges, droskies, and coaches, or on horseback, accompanied by multitudes of peasants and dogs. The meals are taken under the shade of a lofty fir-tree, from which a lynx has just been expelled, or in the den of a bear which has just been overcome, or in the lair of a newly-shot elk. Sometimes a corps of musicians accom- panies the party, and cards and dice are seldom wanting. It might be imagined that Tacitus had made his remarks on the ancient tribes of Germany, in these haunts of their unsophisticated descendants; except that, instead of savages clothed in bearskins, these hunters are always well dressed, sometimes young and handsome, and generally well educated and intelligent. The assuming of the toga virilis was the great era in the life of a Roman youth. The fowling-piece is here an emblem of the same sig- nificance. Even little boys, as soon as they can stand alone, are initiated into the merry life of the hunter, and father, son, and grandson, often hunt together. The first elk shot by a nobleman's son is talked of half his life; and the last bear conquered by an old man, before his death, is long thought of with mournful pride by his friends. In some noble families the passion for hunting has taken such deep root, that every member of it is a modern Nimrod; while in others, few in numbers, a dislike to sporting is an heredi- tary characteristic. There are many noblemen to be found who were never out of their forests and wildernesses, who in the seventy years of their existence have used up more than a hundred calfskins for hunting-boots, and who have expended more saltpetre on game than their forefathers required to conquer the country! 5 66 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. REELETS Preparing FOR THE CHASE, The rearing of live stock, though not altogether neglected, does not re- ceive adequate attention; the breed of black cattle is, however, in the course of being improved. Horses and sheep are very inferior. The fish- eries, both on the coast and in the fresh waters, are important. Chalk, alabaster, and other calcareous materials, are abundant. Rural industry and the distillation of spirits are by far the most impor- tant occupations. The manufactures of this government are, however, more extensive than those in its vicinity. The peasantry spin linen yarn, and weave their own cloths; and in the towns, especially Riga, there are sugar-refineries, and tobacco, woollen-cloth, cotton, linen, glass, and other factories, which employ about four thousand hands, and produce goods to the amount of eleven or twelve millions of roubles* a year. * The etymology of the word "rouble" is from the Russian word rubleos, to cut, or hew off; as in former times silver was current only in bars, from which it was customary for a debtor to strike off with a hammer and chisel the amount which he had to pay. The rouble is of two kinds, very different in value: the silver rouble (which is the basis of all financial transactions), worth about seventy-five cents, and which is divided into one hundred silver "copeks;" and the paper rouble, about equal to a franc, or nineteen cents, and which is divided into one hundred copper copeks. The paper rouble was originally of the same value as the silver rouble, but it became very much depreciated in consequence of the vast quantities issued to meet the wants of the government. A ukase of July 13, 1843, created a new paper money (billets de credit), of the nominal value of the silver rouble, and intended to supersede the old paper rouble. Although guarantied by a fund THE BALTIC PROVINCES-LIVONIA. 67 The northern part of Livonia formerly constituted a portion of Esthonia, and the southern a part of Lithuania. The population consists of Estho- nians, Lithuanians, Russians, Germans, and (along a portion of the coast) Lives, the most ancient inhabitants of the country, and from whom it has derived its name. About eighty-five thousand of the inhabitants reside in the towns, and these, as well as the nobles, clergy, &c., are chiefly of Ger- man descent. Until 1824, the Esthonians and Lithuanians were in a state of predial slavery; now, however, they are free, but without the right to hold real property. The prevailing religion is the Lutheran; there are only about. twelve thousand individuals of the Greek church, and other professions of faith. Education is tolerably advanced in the towns, and the university of Dorpat, in this government, is the first in the empire. But, after all, few of the inhabitants are said to be receiving public in- struction. Livonia has a governor-general, whose authority extends over other Baltic provinces; but it has its own provincial assembly, magistracy, &c., and has preserved many peculiar privileges, among which is that of exemp- tion from the state monopoly of ardent spirits. It was divided into nine districts by Catherine II. Riga, the capital, is the centre of its commerce. The other chief towns are Dorpat, Pernau, Fellin, and Arensburg in the island of Esel. Riga, the capital of Livonia, is situated on the Duna, about nine miles from its embouchure in the gulf of Riga. Its population, including the garrison of ten thousand men, is about seventy thousand. About two thirds of the resident population are Lutherans, the rest consisting of members of the Russo-Greek church, Roman catholics &c. Riga is strongly fortified. It consists of the town, properly so called, and the suburbs; the former being entirely enclosed by the fortifications. The streets in the town are narrow and crooked, and the houses generally of brick. In the suburbs, which are much more extensive, the streets are broad and regular, and the houses mostly of wood. One of the suburbs lies on the left bank of the river, the communication with it being main- tained by a bridge about twenty-four hundred feet in length. Among the public buildings are the cathedral, consecrated in 1211, and rebuilt in 1547; the church of St. Peter, built in 1406, with a tower four hundred and forty feet in height, being the most elevated in the empire, and commanding a fine view of the city and adjacent country; the castle, the seat of the chancellery, and of the general and civil governors; hall of the provincial states, town-house, exchange, arsenal, &c. A magnificent column, surmounted by a colossal bronze statue of Victory, was erected in 1817, by the mercantile body, in honor of the emperor Alexander and the deposited in the vaults of the fortress of St. Petersburg, and receivable in payment of taxes, customs, and all sums due to the state, the heavy emission called for to meet the exigencies of the govern ment in the present war has caused them to fall rapidly in value, and they may reach as great a depreciation as that which befell the old issue. 68 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Russian army. Among the literary establishments are a gymnasium, a lyceum, a school of navigation, and various elementary schools, a public library, an observatory, a society of Lettonian literature, &c. In the library are contained a curious arm-chair that once belonged to Charles XII., a very old bible, some letters written by Luther to the senate of Riga, and a ball which is said to have been fired by Peter the Great in the siege of 1710, and lodged in the wall of the library. The esplanade and gardens, both in and near the town, are well laid out. There is a celebrated festi- val held here on St. John's day, the 24th of June, called "the Flower- Feast;” also one which bears the singular title of the "Hugger Sorrow,' in commemoration of a siege in which the inhabitants suffered greatly from famine. "" The manufactures of Riga are of no great importance, though of late they have materially improved. Those of cotton, cloth, and rugs, are the most important. There are also various sugar-houses, tobacco-manufacto- ries, breweries, &c. Owing to her situation on a large navigable river, Riga is the entrepôt of an extensive country; and is, in respect of foreign commerce, the next town in the Russian dominions to St. Petersburg. Grain used to be the principal article of export, but it is now far surpassed by flax and flax- seed, the exports of which have increased very rapidly. The other great articles of export are hemp and hempseed, timber, including masts and deals, hides, tallow, coarse linen, and canvass, &c. The imports consist principally of sugar, and other colonial products, dye-stuffs, wines, cotton, cotton-stuffs and cotton-yarn, woollens, salt, herrings, &c. There is a bar at the mouth of the river, which has usually from twelve to thirteen feet of water; and it is customary for vessels drawing more than this to load and unload the whole or a part of their cargoes at Bolder-Aa, a small port out- side the bar. The entrance to the river, at Dunamunde, is guarded by a fort, where is also the customhouse. The ships arriving at Riga vary from one thousand to fifteen hundred a year. If we may depend upon the offi- cial accounts, the city has increased very rapidly, though it has occasion- ally suffered considerably from inundations. Dorpat lies on the Embach, and on the high road between Riga and St. Petersburg, one hundred and fifty miles northeast of the former, and one hundred and seventy miles southeast of the latter city. It has over four- teen thousand inhabitants. The history of this town is a stirring and stormy one. The Russians from the east, the Teutonic knights from the west, the quarrels of both with the aboriginal Esthonians, and the bloody wars between the Russians, Swedes, and Poles, more than once laid it in ashes. Its university was founded by Gustavus Adolphus in 1632, the year of his death (while leading his troops at the great battle of Lutzen, against the Austrians), and, after various vicissitudes, it took refuge in Sweden, to avoid the Russian army, in 1710. Professors, students, libraries, muse- ums-all departed; and returned only under the auspices of the emperor THE BALTIC PROVINCES — LIVONIA. 69 • Alexander in 1802. It now contains forty-five professors, and six hundred or more students, and has a high reputation in Russia. Among the professors at this university one name may be cited of great fame that of Struve, whose astronomical labors have procured him a well-earned reputation throughout Europe. The observatory on the Dom- berg, from the character of the work done there, is ranked among the most celebrated institutions in this branch of science. Here is a great refract- ing telescope, the work of Frauenhofer, mounted in such a manner that the iron roof, revolving round a vertical line, affords complete protection from the weather without hindering the view of any point in the heavens. This was designed and constructed by Mr. Parrot, and so beautifully is it exe- cuted, that one hand is enough to impel and guide the machinery which moves the telescope and roof. The emperor Alexander presented the tele- scope to the university. Struve is now at the head of the observatory near St. Petersburg, and the telescope which he now directs toward the heavens is on a far more gigantic scale than his old friend of Dorpat. Some of the apparatus which was used in measuring a portion of the meridian of Dor- pat is to be seen here. The library has a very curious locality, being situ- ated in the ruins of the old Dom. The views hence are very fine. The broad crown of the hill, adorned by numerous avenues of trees, is called Cathedral place: the ruins of a church, destroyed in 1775, by a fire which consumed nearly the whole town, explains the origin of this name. On the Domberg are likewise the schools of anatomy and natural history, the museums, &c. The philosophical instruments are remarkable for their having been made for the most part by a Russian artisan of the name of Samoiloff. Of all the collections of the university, that of the botanical garden is the most complete; it contains more than eighteen thousand plants, some of which are not to be found in the other botanical gardens of Europe. Dorpat, like Revel, had once its corps of Schwarzen Haupter, or "asso- ciation of citizens for the defence of the city." It is now a mere convivial club. Among its treasures is a magnificent goblet of glass and gold, two feet high, on the side of which are engraved a beetle, a humming-bird, and a butterfly. Whoever could only drink to the beetle, was fined two bot- tles; whoever reached the humming-bird, only one; and he whose draught attained as deep as the butterfly, was exempt from fine. With the exception of the Dom, no vestige remains at Dorpat of the ancient Gothic nucleus of the town; all is new. The fortifications have, as at Frankfort and Hamburgh, been converted into agreeable promenades. A granite bridge over the Embach, which is navigable up to Dorpat, adds not a little to the appearance of the town. Near Dorpat is the picturesque ruin of Schloss Ringen, formerly one of the largest castles of Livonia. These ruins are a perpetual monument of the ferocious feuds between two neighboring noblemen, the lord of Ringen and the lord of Odempä. An old family quarrel between them had been 70 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. heightened by various personal insults into the deadliest mutual hatred. Notwithstanding this, they sometimes, when their interests demanded it, visited and entertained one another with outward civility. One day the lord of Ringen invited the lord of Odempä to a banquet. The latter came, enjoyed the feast much, and was particularly pleased with one costly dish, which his host strongly recommended to him—so much so, that he wished to know what it was made of; but this was a secret, said the lord of Rin- gen. As the visiter was returning to Odempä, however, a servant was sent after him, with a message, that if he remembered what the Persian king Astyages, son of Cyaxares, served up to his servant Harpagus, he would know how the delicate dish which had pleased him so much was composed. The horror-struck father flew home to seek his only little son, but sought him in vain: the lord of Ringen had served up to him for dinner his own son's heart and brains! The infuriated nobleman attacked Schloss Ringen that same night with all his men; and, though the lord of Ringen was prepared for the attack, yet the superhuman fury of the father, and the justice of his cause, over- came all opposition. The castle was stormed, reduced to ruins, and the hearts and brains of its defenders thrown to the dogs. The histories of these old Livonian castles are often very romantic and tragical; and, though these bloody feuds have been modified by the spirit of the age, the animosity of neighboring nobles now develops itself in in- terminable litigation. COURLAND (which the Slavonians call Kors, and the Germans Kurland) is bounded on the north by Livonia and the gulf of Riga, on the west by the Baltic, on the south by Wilna and a small portion of Prussia, and ou the east by Vitepsk. Its greatest length from northwest to southeast is two hundred and thirty miles; its breadth varies from one hundred and fifty miles, and diminishes from west to east, till it terminates almost in a point. It comprises an area of about ten thousand square miles. In the neighborhood of Mittau, the capital, the surface is diversified by hills of very moderate height-Huneinberg and Silberberg, the highest, not exceeding five hundred feet; but elsewhere, and particularly toward the coast, it is flat, and contains extensive sandy tracts, often covered with heaths and morasses. About two fifths of the whole government are occu- pied by forests, and there are no fewer than three hundred lakes, mostly of small extent; but Usmeiten, the largest, has a circuit of twenty-four miles, is in many places twelve fathoms deep, and abounds with fish. The principal rivers are the Aa and the Windau. The latter is above one hun- dred and fifty yards wide at its mouth, and is in course of being connected with the Niemen by a canal, commenced in 1825. The extent of the sur- face occupied by swamps and lakes produces frequent mists, rendering the air both damp and cold; but the climate, notwithstanding, is said not to be unhealthy. THE BALTIC PROVINCES 71 COURLAND. Agriculture forms the chief occupation of the inhabitants, and is in a more advanced state than in some of the neighboring governments, though the land is generally of a light, sandy texture, and requires to be frequently and heavily manured. The best soil is on the frontiers of Livonia, and yields large crops of barley and oats, but very little wheat. In the same neighborhood a little hemp and flax are grown. The grain produced ex- ceeds the consumption. Fruit-trees thrive tolerably well, but the produce is indifferent. Tobacco, too, is grown, but only in patches. The timber of the forests consists of birch, alder, beech, pine, and oak, but is not con- sidered fit for shipbuilding. The horses, cattle, and sheep, are generally of inferior breeds; but at- tempts have been made to improve the last by the introduction of the me- rino. In all the larger forests, the gigantic elk of the north abounds; but the German nobles take such delight in hunting it, that it seems likely to disappear in some districts. Elks are most numerous in eastern Courland, on the frontiers of Livonia, where twenty or thirty, and sometimes forty or fifty, are often killed in one day's hunting. The original (or Slavonic) ELK-HUNTING in Courland—“ IN AT THE DEATH.” W.ADSERTS.SC inhabitants of the country, behave more generously to this noble animal; and a female elk is often seen feeding, with her young ones, along with the shepherd and his flock. The elk has never been tamed, and all at- tempts to turn its gigantic strength to the service of man have been unsuc- cessful. Its flesh, which is a very frequent dish here, has a taste between that of beef and venison. The skin forms extremely hard and thick leather; it is in many places impenetrable to a musket-ball. An elk is seldom killed 72 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. by the first or second shot; they sometimes even escape with four musket- bullets in the body. The bear has quite abandoned this province; hares and deer are common, and the wild hog is a frequent guest from Lithuania. The fishing, particularly along the coast, is of an average annual value of about fifteen thousand dollars. The minerals are confined to a little iron, limestone, and amber. The manufactures are insignificant, with the excep- tion perhaps of tiles, which are made to a considerable extent. Distilleries also are numerous. Mittau, the capital, is the only town of any size; the principal seaports are Libau and Windau, both on the western coast. About half of the in- habitants belong to the primitive race of Lettes. They chiefly occupy the rural districts, and, up to 1820, were divided into peasants and serfs. At present they are free, but do not possess any property. The prevailing religion is Lutheran-the Greek church, notwithstanding the proselyting attempts of the Russians, barely counting fifteen thousand adherents. Mittau (Lettish, Jelgava), the capital of the above government, is situ- ated in a low, flat, and sandy district, on the river Aa, over which is a bridge of boats, twenty-five miles southwest of Riga. It covers a very large space, of which, however, a considerable portion is occupied by gar- dens, and is on the whole very indifferently built; the houses are chiefly of wood, painted green or reddish-brown. Many of the streets are narrow and crooked, but some are also wide, straight, and regular. The most interesting building is the castle, the residence of the old dukes of Cour- land (who governed the province after its recovery from Poland until its incorporation with Russia in 1795). It had almost become a mere ruin, when, in 1739, Marshal Biron, the favorite of the empress Anne, when he was chosen chief of the Courland chivalry, commenced a palace on the same site, which he completed after his return from exile. It stands on an island, surrounded by the canals of the Aa, and is built in the Versailles style. A fire nearly destroyed it in 1788, when it was rebuilt, and subse- quently became the residence of Louis XVIII. of France, when travelling under the title of Count de Lille. It is now inhabited by the chief officers of the city, and a portion of it is set apart for the imperial family. Among the other buildings of Mittau, may be mentioned four churches -a Greek, a Roman catholic, a Lutheran, and a reformed; three Jewish synagogues, a museum, a library of twenty thousand volumes, an observa- tory, a gymnasium with nine professors, a hospital, an orphan and a lunatic. asylum, a casino, and a theatre capable of containing three thousand spec- tators. Its manufactures, which are of little moment, include linen, hosiery, soap, and leather; and its trade is very limited. The population is about thirteen thousand. Libau (Lettish, Lepeïa) is situated on the Baltic, beside the lake Libau, being the most southern Russian port on that sea, and therefore possesses an importance from its becoming navigable earlier in the spring than any other. It is walled, and entered by a gate from the north. Its streets are THE BALTIC PROVINCES- 73 GENERAL SUMMARY. narrow, and mostly unpaved; and its market-place, though large, is irreg- ular. The houses are of wood, and only one story high. It has Lutheran, Roman catholic, and Calvinistic churches, a hospital, and an orphan asy- lum. The port, though commodious, has only from eight to twelve feet of water, and can not, therefore, be entered by vessels of much burden. It has, however, a considerable trade: the greater part of the produce of Courland, as cattle, linseed, grain, hides, tallow, &c., being exported from it. Its imports are chiefly colonial products, manufactured goods, wine, oil, fruits, &c. The distance from Mittau is one hundred and five miles. Its population is about five thousand. Windau is situated at the mouth of the river of the same name, and is the most northern town in the government of Courland. It forms a sort of miniature copy of Libau, and its importance is mostly a prospective one. The provinces on the eastern coast of the Baltic were originally peopled by tribes of Wendish origin, who held fast to their heathen rites and idol- worship long after Christianity was permanently established throughout the rest of Europe. Warlike, restless, and piratical, they were engaged in ceaseless struggles with the Danes and other powers of the north, but, above all, with the Hanse Towns of Germany, crippling their commerce, and threatening the very existence of the infant mercantile republic. A powerful fleet was speedily equipped, and a landing effected on the coast of Livonia. A species of crusade was preached against these warlike idol- aters, whose stubborn attachment to the dark rites and ceremonies of their forefathers defied the zeal and eloquence of the military prelates who founded Riga and Yorkeel toward the close of the twelfth century. These worthies established the order of the "Brethren of the Cross and Sword" (Schwert Bruder), the members of which were principally natives of Bremen and Lubeck, to the former of which cities Albrecht von Apelden, the founder of the order, belonged. In the full spirit of the name they bore, these warlike adventurers speed- ily enlarged the territories of the Hanse Towns. Ignorant of the language and despising the habits of the natives, their principal weapon of conver- sion to the true faith was that sword by which they held their footing on the shores of the east sea; though on one occasion the bishop of Riga is reported to have edified the minds of heathen Wends by a dramatic repre- sentation of a variety of scenes from the Bible, while all writers concur in describing the cruelties practised upon the unbelieving natives by these Christian warriors as of the most revolting and barbarous description. They were not long permitted to pursue their career of conquest and tyr- anny with impunity. On the north, they were compelled to recoil before the arms of the Dane; while the Russians, alarmed at the near approach of such formidable neighbors, roused the natives to avenge the wrongs of half a century of oppression: and the flame of insurrection spread far and wide throughout Livonia and Esthonia. Many Germans were cut off by hy 74 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. the insurgents; but at length Bishop Bernhard, falling upon their tumultu- ous forces with his disciplined chivalry, routed the Wends and their allies, and slew them mercilessly. The Russian town of Dorpat was taken, and a German colony established there, in 1220. The capture of the isle of Esel, to the rocky fastnesses of which the best and bravest of the Livo- nians had retired as a last refuge, and the voluntary conversion of the Courlanders, completed the power of the brotherhood. In 1230, Frederick II., emperor of Germany, conferred the conquered provinces as an imperial fief on Valquin, the grand-master of the order; and everything seemed to promise the rapid rise of a mighty kingdom- when a sudden attack of the Lithuanians laid low the grand-master and his hopes of conquest, and nearly annihilated the entire forces of the broth- erhood. The scanty relics of this powerful body now called for aid on their brethren the Teutonic knights, who were anxiously seeking a fairer field for military achievements than the East, where they were alike ha- rassed by the open violence of the mussulman, and the jealousy of the rival orders, the Templars and Hospitallers. The presence of these hardy war- riors restored the Christians to their former superiority in the field; and these new-comers soon rivalled the knights of the cross and sword in cru- elty, burning whole villages that had relapsed into idolatry, and making, in the words of one of their own bishops, "out of free-born men the most wretched slaves." As allies of the Poles, they built on the Vistula the fort of Nassau; and, sallying forth thence, took by storm the holy oak of Thorn, the chief sanctuary of the Prussians, and beneath its far-spreading arms, as in a citadel, the knights defended themselves against the frantic attacks of the idolaters. A general rising of the natives, and a war of extermination, reduced the numerous forces of the knights to a few scanty troops, and their ample domains to three strongholds; and, after various alternate defcats and victories, they were rescued from entire destruction by a crusade, under the command of the Bohemian monarch Ottokar the Great, who founded the city of Königsberg in 1260, and gave for a time new life and vigor to the falling fortunes of the northern chivalry. Internal dissensions, and the consequent establishment of a second grand- master, who held his seat at Mergentheim, weakened the growing power of the reviving brotherhood; and the fatal battle of Tanenberg, in 1410, gave a mortal blow to the importance of this "unnatural institution." But the knights still retained the whole eastern coast of the Baltic, from the Narova to the Vistula, and it was not until the end of the fifteenth century that the arms of Poland compelled them finally to relinquish their claims to the district of eastern and western Prussia. The ancient spirit of the order awoke once again in the grand-master Tlettenberg, who routed the Russians in 1502, and compelled the czar to agree to a truce for fifty years; but the stipulated time had no sooner elapsed than the Russians again invaded them: and, too feeble any longer THE BALTIC PROVINCES 75 GENERAL SUMMARY. to resist such powerful enemies, the knights were glad to purchase peace, and the undisturbed possession of the province of Courland as a fief of the Polish crown, by surrendering Esthonia to Sweden, and Livonia to the Poles, while the districts of Narva and Dorpat were incorported with the empire of Russia. Still the brotherhood existed. Without importance as an independent power, but valuable as an ally, its friendship was sought and courted by the various intrigues and commotions of the Russian throne during the early part of the eighteenth century. The office of grand-master or duke of Courland was last held by Marshal Biron, the French favorite of the empress Anne; and, in 1795, on the fall of Poland, and its partition by Russia, Austria, and Prussia, Courland was fully incorporated with the Russian empire by Catherine II. The only surviving relic of the Teutonic knights, besides the palace near Mittau, is the beautiful hall of the preceptory at Marienberg, in Prussia. "In June, 1809," says Menzel, "the king of Wurtemburg took pos- session of Mergentheim, the principal settlement of the Teutonic knights. The astonished inmates beheld with fury the new protestant officials, and rose in open rebellion against the proposed traffic with their rights. They were easily subdued and savagely punished; for they were condemned to the galleys, and compelled to work in chains in the royal gardens at Stutt- gard. Thus ended the far-famed order of the Teutonic knights." Almost the only mention of the order in the later history of Germany is the eleva- tion of the Swedish general Horn to the grand-mastership of Mergentheim, during the Thirty Years' War, in order to enable him to treat with the nobles and cities of the empire as an equal. The ancient palace of the Teutonic knights at Frankfort-on-the-Main is at present used as a barrack for the Austrian garrison. The inhabitants of Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland, have, in language and manners, much in common - much that is characteristic of the German Baltic provinces of Russia; but a more practised eye will discover much that is characteristic only of particular parts. The Livonian German is as different from the German of Courland, as the Saxon is from the Prus- sian, and the Bavarian from the Austrian, and they despise one another quite as intensely. Upon the whole, the Livonian is considered as the most refined and cultivated, the Esthonian as the best soldier, and the Courlander as possessed of most natural ability. Even within each prov- ince, differences may be observed between the inhabitants of different parts; and a practised eye and ear, for instance, can readily discover whether a German of Courland comes from the neighborhood of Libau or Mittau. In comparison with the Germans, Lettes, and Esthonians, the other ele- ments of the population, the Swedes, Poles, Jews, gipsies, and Russians, are very insignificant. Of these, of course, the Russians are by far the most important. A few small islands, Wrangelsholm, Nargen, Worms, Runoe, &c., are inhabited by a race of Swedisk origin, who preserve much 76 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. of their original Swedish character. The nobility of Swedish origin have, however, become thoroughly Germanized. The Poles are found occasionally in the towns, but they are few and scattered, and are completely lost among the rest of the population. The gipsies wander homeless through Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland, as through other countries, and continue their old nomadic way of life, in spite of the severest laws against them. They are less numerous in Livonia than in Courland. They employ themselves much in the same way as in other countries, namely, as horse-stealers, cattle-dealers, tinkers, &c. They are in many cases still permitted to remain under the command of their own chiefs or gipsy kings, because they pay more respect to them than to any other authorities, and because these chiefs can be made re- sponsible for the offences of their subjects. For instance, if a gipsy king is threatened with punishment for the thefts of his people, the offender is soon discovered. W.ROBERTS.SC GIPSY WOMAN AND CHILD. The Jews are seldom to be met with anywhere but in Courland, for in Livonia and Esthonia a Jew is actually prohibited from remaining more. than twenty-four hours in any town or city. In Courland, however, they are found everywhere-in the towns, villages, and estates (edelhöfen) – where they occupy themselves in agriculture, and in different mechanical THE BALTIC PROVINCES — GENERAL SUMMARY. 77 arts, as smiths, carpenters, masons, &c. In the towns they are also tai- lors, tinkers, glaziers, shoemakers, brokers, and shopkeepers; but the hackney-coachmen in the towns, and the innkeepers and brandy-dealers in the country, are almost exclusively Jews. They practise a variety of cun- ning and artful tricks in dealing out their brandy to the peasants, and induce them to drink by taking credit, receiving various little goods and chattels in payment for their spirits, and so on. In this way they often completely ruin the poor Lettes and Esthonians. More than a third of the beggars and mendicants of Courland are Jews, and the depth of want and misery into which these Jewish beggars are sunk is fearful to contemplate. As smugglers, the Jews on the frontiers of Courland and the Lithuanian provinces are so expert as often to defy the most rigorous precautions of the Russian government. The old ordinances of the dukes of Courland against this unfortunate race are ridiculous enough, and aim at nothing less than the immediate and total annihilation of Judaism in the country. They are generally en- titled "Ordinances for the total abolition of the Jews," and some of them commence thus: "It is our earnest will and pleasure that in six weeks no Jew shall anywhere remain within our dukedom." How little the Jews troubled themselves about the ducal will and pleasure, is proved by the fact that, instead of six weeks, one hundred years have passed without even decreasing their numbers. Another ducal edict commands that “all Jews caught in the streets shall have their horse and cart and all their property taken from them, shall be severely flogged, and then ignomini- ously expelled from the town." It is also added that all persons receiving, sheltering, or succoring Jews, "shall be punished in the most exemplary manner." These edicts, though they doubtless banished many Jews from the coun- try, had no lasting effects, for all the gaps were soon filled again. The Russian government, though it has not attempted total abolition, or banish- ment in six weeks, has yet attempted to curb, restrain, and put down the poor Jews, in various ways. At one time all Jews were to confine them- selves to agriculture; at another time all Jews without property were to be transported to Siberia, where the government would provide them with property. By an imperial ukase, issued in 1840, all poor Jews were to be collected, and brought together out of every town, by their respective coun- sellors or advisers (rathsherrn), to Mittau. There the rabbins assembled them, and set forth to them the condescending grace of their emperor, whose wish it was that they should henceforth be employed in agriculture—an occupation so much to be preferred to all others, and so peculiarly adapted for preserving men in the paths of morals and religion. "Endowed with rich presents by the charitable citizens of Mittau," we are told, "and full of gratitude to their generous benefactors, the emigrants set forth, followed by the tears and prayers of the compassionate." The rabbins, no doubt, endeavored to persuade the poor creatures that they were going to a land 78 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. 1 COURLAND JEW, WITH DULCIMER. of promise, but unfortunately the province of Kherson, their destination, has a very different character. The Russians of the Baltic provinces may be divided into those who only wander for a time about the country, and those who are completely domesticated. The Russian serfs easily obtain permission of their lords to wander out into the world and seek their fortunes, provided they pay a certain yearly sum as obrok, or service-money. Quick and shrewd in everything, though they never do anything thoroughly well, they are very useful in provinces like those of the Baltic, where industrious and intelli- gent workmen are scarce, and where they supply the deficiencies of the indolent and unskilful natives. The strong, lively, active serf of Russia THE BALTIC PROVINCES 79 -GENERAL SUMMARY. will perform three times as much work in a given time as a Lette or Es- thonian. In all labors which require skill and expedition, such as the laying out of a garden, the building of a house, &c., the German nobleman will rather employ Russian workmen than their own serfs. They are par- ticularly expert as carpenters, and make a good deal of money wandering from estate to estate with their tools slung at their girdles. The Russians have a greater genius and predilection for the trade of peddler and itinerant merchant than for any mechanical art. They travel about the country in little one-horse carts, vending Russian books, pictures, and fancy wares, as well as earthenware, tobacco, &c. But the Russians of these provinces do not confine themselves to mechanical pursuits; they often engage in speculations of various kinds. In spring they will buy up the future produce of the gardens from the lords of the soil, to sell the fruit afterward by retail in St. Petersburg. Sometimes they form compa- nies, and undertake for certain sums the erection of bridges, public build- ings, &c. Sometimes they hire large pieces of land in the neighborhood of towns, where they grow vegetables for the use of the citizens. A Rus- sian who yesterday entered the service of a merchant to pack hemp and flax in the harbor, will to-day turn codchman to a nobleman who wishes to cut a figure, with a fine, handsome, long-bearded Russian on his coach-box, and to-morrow will return home with what he has earned. The Russians domesticated in the provinces either live in the villages as peasants, or in the suburbs of the towns as citizens. The former chiefly employ themselves in fishing. The Russians are the most expert fishermen in the world on rivers, and their nets generally swim the pond or stream into which they are thrown completely clear of all living creatures; so much so, indeed, that when ponds are hired for a certain time, a stipulation will often be made by their owners that no Russians shall fish in them. The Russians who inhabit the suburbs of the towns are almost without exception of low origin; but many of them have in some way managed to free themselves from serfdom, and some have raised themselves to consid- erable rank and wealth, particularly those who trade between Riga, Revel, &c., and the interior of Russia, in wood, flax, hemp, tallow, &c. They inhabit the daily spreading and rising suburbs, demanding, with ever- increasing loudness and impatience, an equality of rights with the German burghers within the cities. The vegetable-gardeners in the environs of the towns are exclusively Russians; they spread themselves all round the cities with their cabbage and asparagus gardens. None know better than they do how to turn every warm ray of sunshine to the advantage of their plants, and how to protect them from the severity of the northern climate. If we cast a summary glance over the whole population of the German Baltic provinces, we find- The original inhabitants, the Lettes and Esthonians, are agricultural laborers, with a very few exceptions. 80 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The Germans are the aristocracy of the country, and consist of the nobility, living on their own estates, of the merchants and tradesmen in the towns, and of the literaten. The most rising and industrious class are the Russian settlers and travel- ling mechanics and tradesmen. The Jews are scattered through the prov- inces as innkeepers, small shopkeepers, and beggars, and the gipsies as thieves and horse-dealers. The whole population of the German Baltic provinces is about one and a half millions, and the population decreases in density toward the north. Of one thousand inhabitants, about nine hundred are Lettes and Esthoni- ans, fifty Germans, thirty Russians, five Swedes, and fifteen Jews. 6 As regards the primitive inhabitants of these provinces, the interesting but almost unnoticed races of the Lettes and Lithuanians are a perpetual and puzzling enigma. "Lonely and unconnected with any of the surround- ing nations," says Kohl, "they occupy their little nook of northern land, evidently unsimilar and unrelated to any European nation, and bear affinity only to the tribes that inhabit the far East, at the foot of Dawalagiri, or on the shores of the Ganges. Esmi,' I am-says the Lithuanian: ‘Asmi,' I am says the Hindu of the Himalayas. Eimi,' I go-says the Lette of the Baltic: ‘Aimi” is the Hindu word for expressing the same idea. On the Niemen, 'Divas' is the word for God: on the Ganges, 'Daivas' signi- fies the same. It is unnecessary to know more Sanscrit than can be learned from Ruckert's poems, to be struck by the extraordinary Indian character of the pronunciation, language, and tones, of the Lithuanian and Lette. The languages are the same in form; the pronouns, adverbs, and numerals, are similar; the names of the commonest animals, of the different parts of the human body, &c., are the same in the Sanscrit as in the Lithuanian. Indeed, whole Sanscrit sentences may easily be put together, which the peasant of the Niemen will at once understand. From these and many other proofs there can hardly remain a doubt that the Lithuanians and Lettes must have come more directly from the primeval birthplace of the human race than any other European nation. ( "The oldest historians of these tribes of the Baltic describe them as governed by a supreme high-priest, called the Krihvo,' and by subordinate priests, the 'Veideloten.' Groves of oak and other trees are named as the residences of these priests, and the temples of the deities they worshipped. This caste of priests was probably of Hindu origin and character, and lasted until Christendom and its popes expelled the heathenism of the north.” GREAT RUSSIA — ARCHANGEL. 81 CHAPTER III. A GREAT RUSSIA. RCHANGEL (or ARKANGHELSK), which is by far the largest govern- ment as regards territorial extent, and yet the smallest in point of population, in Great Russia, occupies the whole country from the Ural mountains on the east to the grand principality of Finland on the west, a distance of over nine hundred miles; and from the frontiers of Vologda and Olonetz on the south to the Arctic ocean and the White sea on the north, about four hundred miles. It includes the eastern portion of Russian Lapland, and also Nova Zembla (six hundred and fifty miles. long by one hundred and fifty wide), and some other large islands in the Arctic ocean. Its most eastern limit is about sixty-eight degrees east longi- tude, and its most western thirty degrees east; its most southern point is at about latitude sixty-one degrees north, and its most northern the ex- treme point of Nova Zembla, in about latitude seventy-six degrees north. Its area is about three hundred and fifty thousand square miles. The largest portion by far of this vast territory is condemned to perpet- ual sterility. The part of it within the arctic circle consists principally of an almost boundless expanse of sandy and mossy plains, having ice, even in the middle of summer, always a little below the surface. The country on this side the arctic circle consists, also, of immense plains, partly occu- pied with forests that cover more than half the entire extent of the prov- ince; partly, but in a very inferior degree, by low pasture-grounds; and partly with lakes, morasses, &c. The principal towns are Archangel, Onega, Dwina, Mezen, and Petchora. Owing to the severity and variableness of the climate, grain crops can not be depended upon: in consequence, even in the southern district, where the land is most fertile, they are but little attended to; though considera- ble quantities of hemp and flax are raised. The principal wealth of the government consists in its immense and apparently inexhaustible forests; but fishing and hunting are the chief employments. The reindeer is the domestic animal of the Laplanders and Samoides, the former occupying the northwestern and the latter the northeastern parts of the government. Among the tribes now mentioned, dried fish occupies the place of bread; and in the more southern districts, the inner barks of trees, and certain species of moss, are intermixed with meal, or substituted for it in the 6 82 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. making of bread. Horses and cattle are diminutive, and but little atten- tion is paid to their treatment. The district of Kholmogorv, on the Dwina, a little below Archangel, where the pasturing is exceedingly good, must, however, be excepted from this remark. A breed of Dutch cattle, im- ported into this district by Catherine II., and distributed among the inhab- itants, still preserves its superiority; and the calves of these cattle, being well fed, furnish the delicate white real so much esteemed at St. Peters- burg and other markets. Ship and boat building, and the preparation of pitch and tar, are carried on to a considerable extent. A good deal of coarse linen is made by the peasantry of Archangel, and of the contiguous districts; and they also manufacture a good deal of cordage, and immense quantities of mats, with leather, tallow, turpentine, potash, &c. The population of this province, though originally Finnish, is now essen- tially Russian. The Samoides, who are almost at the bottom of the scale of civilization, though spread over an immense surface, do not exceed six or seven thousand individuals. They are exempted from the obrok, and from-compulsory military service, paying only the issaak, or tribute im- posed on the Russian Asiatic tribes. The Laplanders, who are a little more advanced, do not amount to more than two thousand individuals. They are subject to the capitation tax. Russian Lapland (called by the natives Sameanda, by the Swedes Lapp- mark, and by the Russians Laplandiia) comprises that portion of the coun- try under the name of Lapland, lying between the river Tornea on the west and the White sea on the east, and is divided between the governments of Archangel and Finland. It has an area of about seventy thousand square miles, being of somewhat larger extent than that portion of Lapland lying in Sweden and Norway. From both position and physical conformation, Lapland is one of the most forbidding regions of the globe, consisting either of rugged mount- ains -some of them covered with perpetual, and many of them only for a short period free from snow- -or of vast monotonous tracts of moorland wastes. This extensive territory appears to have been at one time wholly occupied by the people to whom it owes its name; but its southern and better portions have been gradually encroached upon by Swedes, Norwe- gians, and Finlanders, till the Laplanders proper have, in a great measure, been cooped up within the arctic circle. There they retain their distinc- tive features and ancient customs, and find ample scope to follow their favorite modes of life, either as mountain Laplanders (Fjelde-Finner), lead- ing a nomadic life, and pasturing large reindeer-herds; or sea or shore Laplanders (Söe-Finner), who, too poor to possess such herds, have been obliged to fix their residence upon the coast, and subsist chiefly by fishing. The origin of the Laplanders, as a race, has greatly puzzled ethnographers, in consequence of their presenting a combination of physical properties not possessed exclusively by either the Mongolian or the Caucasian stock, but FROZEN LAKES, AND MOUNTAIN SCENERY IN LAPLAND. GREAT RUSSIA - ARCHANGEL. 85 belonging partly to the one and partly to the other. The prevailing opin- ion, however, is, that they are only a variety of Tschude, or Finns. Their chief characteristics are-low ROBERTS.S. 1. SHORE Laplander. 2, 3. MOUNTAin Laplanders. stature, seldom exceeding four feet nine inches high; great muscular power, shown both in their agility and in a strength. of arm, enabling them to bend a bow which an ordinary Nor- wegian could not handle; a large head; dark, long, and glossy hair; small brown eyes, obliquely placed, and without eyelids; high and prominent cheek-bones; wide mouth, with ill-defined lips; a scanty beard; and a skin of a yellow, dingy hue, probably rendered deeper than nature has made it, from living in smoky cabins, and neglecting habits of personal cleanliness. Their dress, at least that of the mountain Laplander, is com- posed almost throughout of reindeer-skin. With the hair turned outward, it forms an upper coat, a kind of trousers, sandals and shoes, gloves, and a conical cap. In summer, the reindeer-skin is often exchanged for a woollen coat, which, in the female, is converted into a kind of pelisse, and reaches to the ankles. The cap of the female also is distinguished by its loftier peak, and some attempts at ornament; and her shoulders are not unfrequently covered with a small shawl or plaid, on occasions of display. The Laplanders are not deficient in either intellectual or moral capacity. They are simple-hearted, hospitable, and apparently inclined, as far as their knowledge goes, to practise the duties of Christianity, which they all profess, under the form of Lutheranism in Norway and Sweden, and that of the Greek church in Russia. The greatest exception to this practice is an excessive fondness for ardent spirits. A more harmless vice is the ex- cessive use of tobacco. The number of Laplanders in Russia, Sweden, and Norway, is not supposed to exceed twenty thousand of all descriptions. Probably one third of them are nomadic. Nova Zembla (called by the Russians Novaia Zemlia) consists of two large islands in the Arctic ocean, forming a dependency of the government of Archangel, and extending from latitude seventy-one to seventy-six degrees north, and from fifty-three to seventy-seven degrees east longitude. They are separated from each other by the narrow strait, Matotchkin Shar; from the isle of Vaigatz on the south by the strait; and from the mainland on the east by the sea of Kara. Their greatest length from northeast to 86 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. southwest, as before stated, is six hundred and fifty miles, and their breadth one hundred and fifty miles. The far greater part of the interior is unex- plored; and even the northern and eastern coasts, where ice makes access almost impossible, are very imperfectly known. The southwestern and western coasts, which have been examined, are in the former direction generally low and flat; and, in the latter, bordered by sandstone cliffs, which, though not elevated, are very precipitous. The general slope of both islands appears to be toward Matotchkin strait, on which the mouths of at least fifteen small streams have been counted. Lakes also are numer- ous. The whole territory is wild and desolate in the extreme. The coasts swarm with seals, various kinds of fish, and vast flights of water-fowl. The interior, which is partly covered with stunted shrubs, short grass, and moss, is frequented by reindeer, white bears, ermines, and arctic foxes. Nova Zembla has no permanent inhabitants, but is visited by Russian hunters and fishers. Archangel, the capital of the government, is the principal city and port of trade in the north of Russia. It is situated on the right bank of the Dwina, about thirty-five miles above where it falls into the White sea, in latitude sixty-four degrees north. Its population, including that of the small dependent village of Solembolsk, is about thirty thousand. It is almost entirely built of wood, and has been materially improved since the fire of 1793. The principal building is the Gostinoi dwor, or bazar, for the exhibition and sale of merchandise, and its protection against fire. It is of stone, and of great extent. The marine hospital also deserves to be noticed. Archangel is the residence of a general and civil governor, and of an archbishop. There is an ecclesiastical seminary with nine professors, a gymnasium, a school of commerce and navigation, and some other edu- cational establishments. Notwithstanding its high northern latitude, and the lengthened period during which it is annually inaccessible, Archangel has a pretty extensive commerce. It owes this to its situation on the Dwina, one of the most important rivers of Russia, and which has been united by canals with the Volga on the one hand, and the Neva on the other. The greater part of the articles of export are brought by this channel, mostly from a consider- able distance, and some even from Siberia. The principal are grain, flax, hemp, timber, iron, linseed; vast quantities of mats, potash, tallow, tar, pitch, train-oil, canvass and coarse linen, furs, cordage, &c. The exports vary materially in different years, principally according to the demand for grain in foreign countries. The value of the imports, which consist prin- cipally of colonial produce, spices, salt, woollens, cottons, hardware, &c., is always much less than that of the exports. The harbor is at the island of Solembolsk, about one mile below the town; and the ships are princi- pally loaded direct from the prams, rafts, &c., that bring the produce down the river. There is a bar at the mouth of the river, with from thirteen to fifteen feet of water; and vessels drawing more than this must, of course, GREAT RUSSIA-VOLOGDA. 87 partly load and unload by means of lighters in the roads. There is a gov- ernment dockyard, with slips for building ships, about twelve miles below the town, where also are situated warehouses belonging to the merchants of the city. A fishing company was established here in 1803. Exclusive of the ship and boat building, and the manufacture of cordage and canvass before referred to, there is a sugar-refinery, several breweries, &c. The entrance to the Dwina, where Archangel was soon after built, was discovered by the famous Richard Chancellor, an English navigator, and founder of the "English Russia Company," who was the companion of Sir Hugh Willoughby in his voyage of discovery, in 1554; and from that pe- riod down to the foundation of St. Petersburg, it was the only port in the empire accessible to foreigners. In returning from his second voyage on behalf of the same company, attended by the Russian embassador and suite, Chancellor perished on the coast of Norway, in 1556. VOLOGDA, the largest government of European Russia, after that of Arch- angel, lies between the fifty-eighth and sixty-fourth degrees of north lati- tude, and the thirty-eighth and sixtieth degrees of east longitude, having on the north, Archangel; on the west, Olonetz and Novgorod; on the south, Yaroslav, Kostroma, and Viatka; and, on the east, the Ural mountains, separating it from Tobolsk. It comprises an area of about one hundred and fifty thousand square miles. Excepting in the east, where it is covered with the Ural mountains, the surface of this province is generally an undulating plain, comprised in the basin of the Dwina, which is its largest river. The general slope of the country is accordingly to the northwest. In the south and southwest, the soil is fertile, but elsewhere it is sandy or thin, and the greater part of the surface is covered with marshes, and forests of pine, birch, oak, &c. Though the climate varies with the situation, it is, generally speaking, very severe; it is far, however, from being unhealthy, and instances of lon- gevity are frequent. The grains principally cultivated are rye and barley; but the produce of grain is insufficient for the consumption of the inhabit- ants. Hemp, flax, and hops, succeed, as do beans and peas. Cattle and horses are numerous and good; but a large part of the government being unoccupied and in a state of nature, the chase necessarily occupies much attention (a characteristic representation of which, in winter, is presented on the following page). The forests, the principal source of wealth, are of great extent, those of the crown alone covering eighty millions of acres. Granite, marble, salt, flints, copper, and iron, are all obtained in Vologda. It has a large number of manufacturing establishments, principally for woollen and linen fabrics, soap, leather, potash, glass-wares, and paper. Distillation is also very extensively carried on. Furs, tallow, pitch, wooden articles, masts and timber, turpentine, and other raw products, are the great articles of export; being sent, for the most part, into the governments of Archangel and Tobolsk. 88 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ふい ​ROBERTS,SC THE CHASE IN WINTER. The population of Vologda is principally Russian, but includes some Zyrians or Surjans of Finnish stock; and, in the north, are some wander- ing Samoide tribes. Public instruction, owing to the thinness of the popu lation, is necessarily very limited; but it has been materially increased of late years. This territory is divided into ten districts. The chief towns are Vologda, the capital, and Velikioustioug. The city of Vologda, the capital of the above government, is situated near its southwestern extremity. It is built on both sides of the river Vologda, and is supposed to be one of the most ancient towns in Russia. The greater part of its houses are still of wood, but the buildings in stone are increasing, and several of its churches are of that material. It has two cathedrals, one of which was rebuilt in 1832. The palaces of the arch- bishop and governor, the prison, gymnasium, hospital, various asylums, and an episcopal seminary, are conspicuous edifices. Near the town is a famous convent, founded in 1371. Vologda has manufactures of soap, potash, cordage, bells, and tallow- candles, for which last it is famous over all the north of Russia. Its trade is considerable, which is principally with the Baltic, Germany, and Eng- land; also to Siberia, even to the boundaries of the Chinese empire. Its population is supposed to be from twenty to twenty-five thousand. The government of OLONETZ lies between the sixtieth and sixty-fifth de- grees of north latitude, and the thirtieth and forty-second degrees of east longitude; having on the north and northeast, the government of Archan- gel; on the southeast and south, Vologda, Novgorod, and St. Petersburg ; 1 GREAT RUSSIA — OLONETZ. 89 and on the west, Lake Ladoga and Finland. Its area, including Lake Onega, is about sixty-seven thousand square miles. The western part of this government resembles Finland, it being alter- nately mountainous and marshy, or covered with lakes. Of the latter, Onega is by far the largest. The principal rivers are the Onega (by which the lake Latcha discharges itself into the White sea), Vodla, Tvir, Suna, &c. For twenty-three weeks in the year the mean temperature is below thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit, and mercury sometimes freezes. Bleak winds are almost constant; but the country is tolerably healthy. The soil is thin, stony, and not very fertile. Except in the district of Kargopole, into which some improvements have been introduced, agricul- ture is very backward. The grain produced is insufficient for the wants of the population. The peasantry are supported chiefly on turnips, car- rots, and other vegetables, of which their bread partly consists, and on the produce of the chase, fisheries, &c. Hemp and flax are grown for expor- tation; but the principal source of wealth consists in the forests, which are of great extent, those belonging to the crown covering twenty-five millions of acres. Pasturage is not abundant, and few cattle are reared. Marble, granite, serpentine, alabaster, &c., are found; and there are mines of iron, copper, and even silver, though they are but little wrought. The poverty of the country obliges many of the inhabitants to emigrate annually into the adjacent governments, to take charge of cattle, hew mill- stones, &c.; and in summer the number of absentees is estimated at about a third part of the entire population. These circumstances are hostile to manufacturing industry; and, exclusive of the imperial cannon-foundry at Petrozavodsk, it has only a few tanneries and iron-forges. It exports raw produce to St. Petersburg and Archangel; from which cities grain, salt, spirits, and colonial and manufactured goods, are imported. The government of Olonetz is under the same military jurisdiction as that of Archangel, and is divided into seven districts. Education is under the superintendence of the university of St. Petersburg, and is very limited. There is but one printing-press in the province, and that is owned by the state. The inhabitants are principally of the Greek church, and subordi- nate to the archbishop of Novgorod. Petrozavodsk, the capital of Olonetz, is situated on the Lossolenka, where it falls into Lake Onega, two hundred miles northeast of St. Peters- burg. It is poorly built, has two wooden churches, a school and infirmary, an important cannon-foundry, a gunpowder, fulling, and several saw mills, and manufactories of iron and copper, which find their market at St. Pe- tersburg. It contains about eight thousand inhabitants, many of whom are employed in the iron-works and imperial foundries. Kargopole, another town in this government, possesses a flourishing trade, and Olonetz is not unworthy of notice, as it was there that Peter the Great first attempted to build a ship-of-war, to be employed on the lake against the Swedes. 90 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The government of NOVGOROD lies between the fifty-seventh and sixty- first degrees of north latitude, and the thirtieth and fortieth degrees of east longitude; having, on the east, the government of Vologda; on the south, those of Yaroslav, Tver, and Pskov; on the west, the latter and St. Petersburg; and, on the north, the last named and Olonetz. Its length, from northeast to southwest, is about four hundred miles; its breadth va- ries from forty to one hundred and sixty miles. It contains an area of about fifty-five thousand square miles. The surface of the country, which in the north is low and level, rises gradually toward the southwest, where the Valdai plateau reaches an ele- vation of one thousand feet above the level of the sea. The government is well watered: the principal rivers being the Volkhov, Mesta, Chexna, Mo- loga, Lovat, &c., some of which run toward the Volga, and others toward the lake of Ladoga. Among the lakes are those of Bielo-Osero, Voje, and Ilmen. The climate, especially in the north, is more severe than in the government of St. Petersburg, not being tempered by the sea-breezes. Except in a few districts, the soil of Novgorod is not eminent for fer- tility, and night-frosts often spoil the crops. Scarcely any orchard-trees are met with, but hemp and flax are grown for exportation, and rye, oats, and barley, are extensively cultivated. Timber is an important product; a large part of the government is covered with forests, those belonging to the crown amounting to seven millions of acres. Few cattle are reared. Next to agriculture, fishing is a principal occupation. The salt-springs of Staraïa-Rous furnish an adequate supply of salt for this government and that of Tver. Manufacturing industry is very backward: there are a few copper, glass, tile, leather, woollen-cloth, and other factories. The popu- lation have, however, a turn for commerce, and the different fairs and markets are well attended. Novgorod is divided into ten districts. Among its chief towns are Nov- gorod, Tikhvin, and Valdai. Except some Lutherans among the Finnish inhabitants, the population is principally of the Greek church. Education is very little diffused. The capital has a gymnasium, and there are schools there and in other parts of the government. There is not supposed to be a single printing-press in the province. This territory was made a sepa- rate government in 1776. The city of Novgorod (called Veliki, or "the Great"), formerly the most important in the empire, and capital of the government of Novgorod, lies on the Volkhov, near its escape from Lake Ilmen. It is about one hundred miles south-southeast of St. Petersburg. Its population, which, at the present time, does not exceed fifteen thousand, was estimated to have amounted, in the height of its prosperity, in the fifteenth century, to four hundred thousand, though this, probably, is much beyond the mark. At this period, Novgorod, with London, Bergen, and Bruges, constituted the four principal foreign depôts of the Hanseatic League; but the fall of the League, and still more the massacres perpetrated by the bloodthirsty GREAT RUSSIA — NOVGOROD. 91 barbarian Ivan Vassilievitch II., in 1570, proved fatal to this great empo- rium, and it soon after fell into all but irremediable decay. La Motraye, who visited it early in the last century, gives the following description, which will apply nearly as well in the present day :- Nothing is more deceitful than the view of Novgorod from a distance: its extent, and the number and height of its towers and spires, seem to announce one of the finest cities in Europe; but, on nearing it, the travel- ler perceives that its walls and houses are only of wood; and on entering, he finds it ill built and wretchedly paved. Only the churches and a very few private residences are of stone or brick. There may be from eighty to eighty-five churches, including those of the monasteries; besides which, the castle, a large fortress bristling with artillery, is the remaining princi- pal edifice." The town, in fact, though comprising a large space, consists principally of scattered groups of miserable habitations, separated by ruins or by fields, which it is evident had once been covered with houses. It is divided into two parts by the Volkhov, here crossed by a handsome bridge of eleven arches, which is almost the only modern structure in the city. The piles, &c., of this bridge are of granite; the rest is chiefly of timber. Its entire length is two hundred and seventy yards, and the breadth of its central arch eighty-five feet. In the Torgovaïa, or market town, are the govern- or's residence, an ancient palace of the czars, and most of the shops and warehouses. The Sofuskaïa, on the opposite bank of the Volkhov, is about one and a half miles in circuit, and surrounded by an earth rampart and a ditch. In it are the Kremlin, or citadel, the cathedral of St. Sophia, built after the model of St. Sophia at Constantinople, the archbishop's palace, and the various tribunals. The citadel is in many respects similar to the Kremlin of Moscow, having a stone wall, flanked with many round and square towers. The cathedral, built between 1044 and 1051, and repaired in 1832, has some remarkable bronze gates, with sculptures in alto-relievo, representing passages in scripture history; and many of the paintings on its walls are curious, being said to date from a period previously to the revival of the arts in Italy. Among its buildings, the monastery of the Annunciation, of which we give a view on the following page, is a remark- ably elegant structure. Novgorod is the seat of a military governor, whose authority extends over the adjacent government of Tver. It has a few manufactures of sail- cloth, leather, and vinegar, and some trade in grain. Though not the original capital of Rurik, it became the seat of the Russian government in 864. In the beginning of the eleventh century, the inhabitants obtained considerable privileges, that laid the foundation of their liberty and pros- perity; and as the city and its contiguous territory increased in population and wealth, they gradually usurped an almost absolute independency: so that, in effect, Novgorod, in the middle ages, should rather be considered a republic, under the jurisdiction of an elective magistrate, than a state 92 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ዝሃ BAGBERTS:SG MONASTERY OF THE ANNUNCIATION, at Novgorod. subject to a regular line of hereditary monarchs. During the twelfth, thir- teenth, and fourteenth centuries, Novgorod formed the grand entrepôt be- tween the countries east of Poland and the Hanseatic cities; and its wealth and power seemed so great and well established, and the city itself so impregnable, as to give rise to the proverb— "Quis contra Deos et magnam Novogordiam?” "Who can resist the Gods and Great Novgorod ?” But in 1477 it was obliged to submit to Ivan I., great-duke of Russia. So great was its riches, that in 1480, Ivan, after he had conquered the re- public of Novrogod, despatched from the city to Moscow three hundred chariots laden with articles of silver and gold. In 1554, it was visited by the famous Richard Chancellor (to whom we have referred in treating of the government of Archangel), who describes it as the "great mart town of all Moscovie, and in greatnesse beyond Moscow." But not long after, it was subjected, as already stated, to the scourge of the destroyer, and fell, never to rise again. The foundation of St. Petersburg took from it all hope of ever recovering any portion of its ancient prosperity. PSKOV lies chiefly between the fifty-sixth and fifty-eighth degrees of north latitude, and the twenty-eighth and thirty-second degrees of east longitude; having, on the north, St. Petersburg and Novgorod, of each of which governments it formerly made a part; on the east, Tver and Smo- lensk; on the south, Vitepsk; and on the west, Livonia. Its greatest length, from northwest to southeast, is two hundred and two miles, and its greatest breadth one hundred and ten miles, comprising an area of about twenty-two thousand square miles. The surface of the country is nearly flat, with a slope to the north, the GREAT RUSSIA -PSKOV. 93 direction taken by most of the rivers. None of these are of considerable size; but the government is, notwithstanding, well watered. At the north- western extremity is the lake of Pskov (twenty-seven miles long by fifteen broad), connected by a strait, three miles wide, with that of Peipus. The whole government belongs to the basin of the Baltic, the river Duna, which drains the southeast, carrying its waters into the gulf of Riga, and the Velikaia, Chelon, and Lovat, with other small tributaries, carrying the rest of the drainage into the gulf of Finland. Toward the southeast the coun- try is traversed by the Valdai hills. Immense numbers of blocks of granite lie scattered in all directions. Marshes are numerous. The atmosphere is usually damp, though, on the whole, the climate is far from unhealthy. The soil is thin, and not very fertile; but, owing to the fewness of the inhabitants, more grain is grown than is required for home consumption. The produce averages twenty millions of bushels a year, of which upward of five millions may be exported. It consists chiefly of rye, barley, and oats, the proportion of wheat being small. A good deal of hemp and flax is raised. The forests are extensive, and abound with game. Cattle are not of great importance, and bees are less reared than in most provinces. Manufactures have increased during the present century, but they are still of no great consequence. The leather of this government is much esteemed, but its principal wealth consists in its grain and natural produce. The government is divided into eight districts; the chief towns are Pskov, the capital, Torepetz, and Velikie-Louki. Its population consists mainly of Russians, with some Lithuanians and Finns. Public education is little extended, and until recently only one printing-press existed in the government. Pskov (or Pleskov), the capital of the government just described, is sit- uated on the Velikaia, one hundred and sixty-five miles southwest of St. Petersburg. It contains about ten thousand inhabitants. The city covers a large space of ground, and is divided into three parts, the Kremlin or citadel, the Middle Town, and the Greater Town, all surrounded with an earthen mound. All the private houses, and the greater part of the public edifices, are of wood. The finest buildings are in the Kremlin. Among others are the cathedral, of very little architectural merit, but gorgeously decorated; and the palace of the ancient princes of Pskov, now occupied by the archbishop. The number of churches amounts to thirty, but more than a third of them are in disuse. The principal manufacture is Russian leather; and there is a considerable trade in hemp, flax, tallow, hides, &c., with Narva, and other seaports, on the gulf of Finland. A great annual fair is held here in February, at which large quantities of woollen, silk, and cotton fabrics, leather books, jewellery, &c., are sold. Pskov is the see of an archbishop; and possesses a theological seminary, a bible-society, and a well-managed hospital. It is said to have been founded by the prin- cess Olga, toward the close of the tenth century, being mentioned in his- tory as early as 903. 94 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Torepetz, another important town in this government, is situated on the Toropa, two hundred and forty-five miles south of St. Petersburg. The population is about ten thousand. It is entirely surrounded by lakes and rivulets, and communicates by the Toropa with Riga, which renders it a place of some trade. It has thirteen churches, including a cathedral, and two convents. A few of its houses are of brick or stone, but the major part are of wood, the streets also being paved with planks. On an island in the Toropa is a dilapidated fort. This town, under the name of Kri- vitch, is mentioned as early as the introduction of Christianity by Vladimir, about 990. It was the capital of a republic, which lasted through the whole of the twelfth century, but which in the thirteenth became subject to hereditary princes. Toward the end of the fifteenth century it belonged to the Poles, but it was retaken by the Russians in 1500. Velikie-Louki, the other town previously mentioned, contains about seven thousand inhabitants, several churches, and about thirty manufacto- ries of leather, which is transported to the St. Petersburg markets, a dis- tance of three hundred miles, by water. This town was, in 1611, taken and burnt by the adherents of the pretender Dmitri. The government of TVER extends from the fifty-sixth to the fifty-ninth degree of north latitude, and from the thirty-second to the thirty-eighth degree of east longitude; having Novgorod on the north, Yaroslav and Vladimir on the east, Moscow and Smolensk on the south, and Pskov on the west. It has an area of about twenty-four thousand square miles. The surface of this government is generally more elevated than that of other parts of European Russia; and several large rivers, particularly the Volga, rise within its limits. In its western part are several lakes. The Volga has its source in the lake of Selighur, and afterward traverses the government in nearly its whole length from west to east. The climate is severe, and the soil is but indifferently fertile. The har- vests are precarious, and scarcely ever produce more than sufficient for home consumption. A good deal of hemp and flax, with beans, &c., are grown; but few kinds of fruit succeed. The forests are extensive, partic- ularly in the north, and about one million of acres of forest-land belong to the crown. Its manufactures are of little consequence, but increasing; those of dye- ing-materials and spirituous liquors are the principal; and there are others of bricks, glass-ware, ropes, leather, woollen-cloths, &c. This government is, however, distinguished for its commercial activity; and the capital of its merchants has been estimated at seventeen millions of roubles. The trade centres mostly in Tver, the capital, and is facilitated by the Vish- ni-Volotchk canal, which establishes a water-communication between the Baltic and Caspian seas. The district of the government traversed by this canal is inhabited by a tribe of Carelians, and in the capital is a German colony; but the population is mostly Russian, of the Greek church. This GREAT RUSSIA TVER -SMOLENSK. 95 government is divided into twelve districts; the chief towns are Tver, the capital, Torjok, Rjev, and Bejetsk. an Tver, the capital of this government, is situated on the Volga, which is here crossed by a wooden bridge five hundred and fifty feet in length, and on the high road between Moscow and St. Petersburg, ninety miles north- west of the former. Its population is about twenty-five thousand. In re- spect of the regularity of its streets and buildings, Tver ranks next to the two Russian capitals, but wants their bustle and animation. It is divided by the several rivers into the town proper, suburbs, and citadel. The last, surrounded by a rampart of earth, comprises the governor's residence, imperial palace, the cathedral, and seminary; and its numerous towers and cupolas give it, at a distance, an imposing appearance. The cathedral is a square edifice, with a lofty spire, surmounted by a gilt copper dome, and surrounded, lower down, by four similar domes. The seminary, founded in 1727, for the instruction of seven hundred pupils in the sciences and ancient languages, is established in a convent built in the thirteenth cen- tury. There are numerous churches, government buildings, barracks, inns, a theatre, &c., and several public promenades, planted with trees. This city owes its present regularity and beauty to a fire which almost totally destroyed it in 1763; after which the empress Catherine II. ordered it to be rebuilt on a uniform plan. Some houses are of stone, but the greater part are of wood; and the paving is mostly of the same material. An impost is levied upon every horse that passes the gates, expressly to pave the streets. Tver is a place of considerable trade, a large part of its population being merchants, or engaged in the navigation of the Volga. It is an entrepôt for grain from the south destined for St. Petersburg, and for goods con- veyed overland to and from Riga. It is of considerable antiquity, having been the capital of a principality as early as the middle of the thirteenth century. The town has frequently suffered from the plague, and been taken by both the Tartars and Poles; but it has remained, with little inter- ruption, attached to the dominion of the Russians since 1490. The government of SMOLENSK lies between the fifty-third and fifty-seventh degrees of north latitude, and the thirtieth and thirty-sixth degrees of east longitude, having the governments of Pskov and Tver on the north, Moscow and Kalouga on the east, Vitepsk and Moghilev on the west, and Orel and Tchernigov on the south. It comprises an area of about twenty- one thousand square miles. The surface of this government is mostly an undulating plain, in some parts marshy; in the north is a more elevated plateau, in which the Dnie- per and several other rivers have their source. The soil is generally fer- tile, and more grain (principally rye) is grown than is required for home consumption. Hemp, flax, tobacco, and hops, are cultivated. Cattle- breeding is less attended to; but a good many hogs are reared. 96 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The forests are very extensive, and are, in fact, the chief sources of wealth. Game is very plentiful; and bees are reared almost everywhere. Iron, copper, and salt, are found. Its manufactures are few, being nearly confined to leather, glass-wares, pitch, &c.; with sawing-works, distilleries, and a few carpet-factories, in the capital. The raw produce of the govern- ment is exported, in large quantities, to Riga, Wilna, and Moscow. Smolensk, the capital of the government, is situated on the Dnieper, two hundred and thirty miles west by south from Moscow. This city is of considerable antiquity. It was, in the ninth century, in a flourishing state, and independent until the year 881, when it submitted to Novgorod. Its population at the present time is about thirteen thousand. It lies on both sides of the river, and is surrounded by a massive wall, flanked with tow- ers. It appears to advantage at a distance, but is in reality a poor town, the houses being mostly of only one story, and built of wood; though since it was burnt by the Russians, previous to their evacuation of it in 1812, it has been partially rebuilt of stone and brick. The fortifications, however, remain pretty much in the same state as when Napoleon left them. Large apertures made in the walls have never been repaired, and the inhabitants seem poor and miserable. Here the French army, retreating from Mos- cow, had expected to rejoin the divisions left on the Dnieper and the Duna, and find their stores; but on their arrival they learned that Napoleon had altered his plans, that the ninth corps had not even halted in Smolensk, and that the provisions were all consumed. "A thunderbolt," writes La- baume, "falling at our feet, would have confounded us less than did this news; the little that remained in the magazines was, in spite of the guard, pillaged by the famished soldiers, who would not wait for the regular dis- tribution of their rations. This pillage led for the moment to abundance. At the unexpected view, our hearts once more expanded. One laughed with joy as he kneaded his bread, another sang as he cooked his meat; but most of our party, eagerly seizing the brandy, quickly caused the wild- est gayety to succeed to the most distressing sadness." On the 14th of November, 1812, Napoleon held here his first council of war. An iron pyramid has been erected in the city to commemorate the resistance made by the place to the French on the occasion above referred to. The city has three cathedrals, in one of which is a bell weighing forty thousand pounds; twenty Greek churches, three convents, a Lutheran and a Roman catholic church, a seminary, gymnasium, a military school for nobles, sev- eral hospitals, and carpet, hat, soap, and leather factories. A singular incident in Polish history is associated with this city. In the frequent wars between Poland and Russia during the middle ages, Smolensk fell into the hands of the former, whose victorious legions, forget- ting their own country and kindred, held the city captive several years, abandoning themselves to riot and debauchery with the Russians. Being thus deserted by their husbands, great numbers of the Polish women mar- ried the serfs on their estates, and armed them for defence. The intelli- GREAT RUSSIA- MOSCOW. 97 gence of these acts soon reached Smolensk, and the infuriated Poles com- menced their homeward march, breathing vengeance. A great battle was fought near Warsaw, in which the serfs, encouraged by the women, were the victors, and the differences in question were settled by a compromise. The government of Moscow (Slavonic, Moskva) lies between the fifty- fifth and fifty-seventh degrees of north latitude, and the thirty-fifth and thirty-ninth degrees of east longitude, having the government of Tver on the north and northwest, Smolensk on the west, Kalouga and Toula on the south, and Vladimir and Riazan on the east. It is of a very compact and somewhat circular form; its greatest length from northwest to southeast is one hundred and forty miles, and its greatest breadth one hundred and ten miles. It comprises an area of about eleven thousand five hundred square miles. The surface of the country is generally low, but undulating. No mount- ain occurs, and scarcely anything deserving the name of hill. The princi- pal heights are the river-banks, many of which rise considerably above the channel, and occasionally form very pleasing and picturesque scenery. The whole government belongs to the basin of the Volga, which, however, drains only a small portion of the north directly, the rest of the drainage being conducted into it by the Oka, and its tributaries the Kliasma and Moskwa. The tributaries of these streams, within the government, though small, are numerous. The only navigable streams are the Oka, Moskwa, and Kliasma. The climate is said to be temperate; but the range of the thermometer far exceeds that of the same latitude in western Europe, and the winter cold is extreme. The soil is only moderately fertile, and does not pro- duce more grain than supplies two thirds of the consumption. More than one half of the whole surface is occupied by wood, and the wants of the capital cause no inconsiderable portion of ground to be occupied with gar- dens and orchards. The pastures also are extensive, and great care and skill are displayed in the rearing of both cattle and horses. No metals are wrought; but freestone, limestone, gypsum, and potter's clay, are ob- tained. Large masses of granite, not forming part of the strata, but in the form of boulders, are scattered over the surface, and are turned to good account. All kinds of textile manufactures are carried on to a great extent in this government, and give employment to a population at once more dense and more industrious than exists within the same space in any other part of Russia. Not only in towns, but in hamlets, and in almost every cottage, the sound of industrial employment may be heard. Almost all the inhab- itants belong to the Greek church. For administrative purposes, Moscow is divided into thirteen districts. The city of Moscow, the ancient capital of the empire, and the present capital of the government, will be found fully described on future pages. 7 98 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The government of YAROSLAV (Slavonic, Jaroslavl) lies chiefly between the fifty-seventh and fifty-ninth degrees of north latitude, and the thirty- seventh and forty-first degrees of east longitude, having the governments of Novgorod and Vologda on the north, Kostroma on the east, Vladimir on the south, and Tver on the west. Its length from north to south is about one hundred and sixty miles, and its greatest breadth is nearly the same. It has an area of about seventeen thousand square miles. The surface of the country is almost wholly flat, being only occasionally broken by the high banks of its streams, or by low ridges; in some parts it is marshy. It wholly belongs to the basin of the Volga, which traverses the government in its centre; the other chief rivers are its tributaries the Mologa, Sheksna, &c., all of which have, more or less, an easterly direction. The lake of Rostov, in the south, is eight miles long by six broad, and there are nearly forty other lakes of less size. The air is pure, and the climate healthy, though the winter is severe, and the summer comparatively short. The soil is only moderately fertile. Rye, barley, wheat, oats, peas, &c., are grown; and Schnitzler estimates the annual produce of grain at about three millions of chetwerts:* a quan- tity insufficient for the inhabitants, who are partly supplied from the adja- cent provinces by means of the Volga. Its hemp and flax are excellent, and cherry and apple orchards are numerous. The gardeners of Yaroslav and Rostov are famed throughout Russia, and many are met with at St. Petersburg. Timber is rather scarce. The rearing of live-stock, except- ing horses, is little pursued; but the fisheries in the Volga are important. This government is, however, more noted for its manufacturing than its rural industry. Linen, cotton, and woollen stuffs, leather, silk, hardware, and tobacco, are the principal manufactures: but, independently of these, the peasants are almost everywhere partially occupied with weaving stock- ings and other fabrics, and making gloves, hats, harness, wooden shoes, and various rural implements. Commerce is facilitated by several naviga- ble rivers and good roads. Yaroslav is subdivided into ten districts; the chief towns are Yaroslav, Rostov, and Ouglitch. Its population is Russian; and the women are pro- verbial (among Russians) for their beauty. Only about one seventeenth part of the inhabitants reside in towns. In respect of education, the gov- ernment is comprised under the division of Moscow, and has numerous public schools and several ecclesiastical seminaries. The city of Yaroslav, the capital of the above government, is situated on the Volga, at the mouth of the Kotorosth, two hundred and twelve miles northeast of Moscow. It is well built, though mostly of wood; and is de- fended by a fort at the confluence of the two rivers. In its broad main street, which is ornamented with trees, are many handsome stone houses; and three convents and numerous churches contribute to give Yaroslav an * A Russian "chetwert" is equal to 5.362 Winchester bushels. Its capacity, however, varies somewhat in different localities. GREAT RUSSIA — YAROSLAV 99 KOSTROMA. imposing appearance. The Demidoff lyceum in this city, founded in 1803, has a good library, a cabinet of natural history, a chemical laboratory, and printing-press, and ranks immediately after the Russian universities. It was originally endowed with lands, to which thirty-five hundred and sev- enty-eight serfs were attached, and with a capital of one hundred thousand silver roubles; since which it has received other valuable benefactions. The same educational course is pursued as in the universities, and lasts three years. The establishment is placed under a lay-director and an ecclesiastic, and has eight professors, two readers, and forty professionary students. Yaroslav has also an ecclesiastical seminary, with five hundred students. A large stone exchange (Gostinöi dvor), a hospital, foundling- asylum, house of correction, and two workhouses, are the other chief public edifices. This city is the residence of a governor, and the see of an archbishop. It has about forty different factories, including three of cotton, four of linen, and two of silk fabrics, eight tanneries, and several tobacco, hard- ware, and paper-making establishments. Its leather and table-linen are much esteemed. The position of Yaroslav on the Volga contributes to promote its commerce, which is very considerable. Its manufactures are sent to Moscow and St. Petersburg, and a great many are sold at the fair of Makariev, in the government of Kostroma. Two annual fairs are held in Yaroslav. This is a city of considerable antiquity, being founded in 1025, by the famous Yaroslav, son of Vladimir the Great, who annexed it to the princi- pality of Rostov. It fell under the dukes of Moscow in 1426. Peter the Great was the first to give it commercial importance, by establishing its linen manufactures, since which its prosperity has been progressive. The population of the city is about thirty thousand. The government of KOSTROMA is situated principally between the fifty- seventh and fifty-ninth degrees of north latitude, and the fortieth and forty- eighth degrees of east longitude, having the government of Vologda on the north, Yaroslav on the west, Vladimir and Nijnei-Novgorod on the south, and Viatka on the east and southeast. Its greatest length is two hundred and seventy miles, and its breadth one hundred and seventy miles. It has an area of about thirty-eight thousand square miles. The country consists of wide, level plains, varied only by gentle acclivi- ties and elevated river-banks. The northern part is cold, humid, and swampy. Many of the swamps are covered with wood, and some of them contain bog-iron ore. What is arable is cold, and of indifferent fertility. Occasionally there are considerable extents of healthy ground, partly cov- ered with wood. The southern part, near the Volga, has an opener and drier soil, consisting mostly of clay, loam, and sand, but still only of mod- crate fertility. The climate is severe: the winter is long, and the weather stormy; the 100 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. summer is short, and is frequently misty. The chief river is the Volga, which, shortly after entering the government in the southwest, is joined by the Kostroma from the north; then, after a short turn to the south- southeast, proceeds almost due east, when it receives its important tribu- tary the Unga, and soon after, by a southerly course, quits the government. There are numerous lakes. Of these, the Galitz is ten miles long by five and a half broad, and the Tchuchloma is above five miles in diameter. Many of the houses in this government, and indeed through all the south and east of Russia, are constructed of timber, and have very peculiar forms. An interesting example of such structures is shown in the accompanying engraving. - POST-HOUSE ON THE ROUTE FROM KOSTROMA to Yaroslav. Large quantities of hemp and flax are raised in this province. These two crops form an important element in providing employment for the inhabitants. Indeed, the governments of Yaroslav and Kostroma may be considered as the chief seats of manufacturing industry, from which eastern Europe derives its supplies. Damask and linen weaving, with the numer- ous processes connected with them, give employment to a large population, in both the towns and throughout the district. Russia leather, also, both red and black (the former of cow, the latter of horse hide), is made in large quantities, and of first-rate quality. The bog-iron raised is usually smelted by the inhabitants themselves in small furnaces, and formed into the various implements required for their own use. The forests, scattered over the district, employ many hands in felling trees, cutting them for timber, firewood, or charcoal. Even the bark of the lime-tree is turned to profitable account, being largely employed in making mats, for which the district has long been celebrated. The fishing, also, is very productive. Many of the peasants are masons, carpenters, &c., who seek for employ- ment in the summer season in the contiguous governments, returning home in the autumn. GREAT RUSSIA - NIJNEI-NOVGOROD. 101 The city of Kostroma, the capital of the above government, is located on the Volga, at the confluence of the Kostroma with that river, two hun- dred miles northeast of Moscow. The population of the city is rising twelve thousand. It is of great antiquity, having been built in the twelfth century, and, as is usual with old Russian towns, is surrounded by a ram- part of earth, of which advantage has been taken to form a promenade. Its situation is elevated and agreeable, and, being the seat of both the civil and military government of the district, it contains a great number of pub- lic buildings, which, together with most of the dwellings, are constructed of stone. It has fifty churches, a monastery, an ecclesiastical college, a gymnasium, and a large stone building, or bazar, for the security, exhibi- tion, and sale of merchandise. Its manufactures, among which that of Russia leather has long been famous (and including also those of linen, Prussian blue, soap, and tallow, a bell-foundry, &c.), make Kostroma one of the most important towns on the Volga. Several fairs are held here, which are numerously attended by the merchants and country-people. NIJNEI-NOVGOROD, or LOWER NOVGOROD (vulgarly, Nijegorod), is situ ated in the central part of European Russia, on both sides of the Volga, between the fifty-fourth and fifty-seventh degrees of north latitude, and the forty-first and forty-seventh degrees of east longitude. On the north is the government of Kostroma; on the east, Kazan and Simbirsk; on the south, Penza and Tambov; and on the west, Vladimir. Its length from north to south is one hundred and eighty-five miles, and its greatest breadth one hundred and thirty-six miles, comprising an area of about twenty thou sand square miles. The surface of the country is flat, or gently undulating. The soil, which consists principally of sand and black friable mould, is exceedingly fertile ; and being (for Russia) well cultivated, this is one of the most productive provinces of the empire. Exclusive of the Volga, several of its affluents, including the Oka, Betlouga, Piana, &c., traverse different parts of the government, which is well watered, at the same time that it is not marshy. There are some very large forests, those of the crown amounting to about thirteen or fourteen millions of acres. The produce of the grain-crops con- siderably exceeds the consumption. Hemp and flax are very extensively cultivated. Great numbers of cattle and horses are bred, and the imperial government is taking the most effectual measures to improve the latter. This is a considerable manufacturing as well as a rich agricultural dis- trict. Coarse linen, canvass, and cordage, are the principal manufactured products; there are also some iron-works, with numerous distilleries and tanneries, soap-works, glass-works, &c. Its commerce is extensive and growing. The exports consist of grain and flour, cattle, horses, leather, and tallow; the manufactured articles specified above, with iron, timber, potash, mats, glass, &c. In carrying on this trade, vast advantages are given by the central position of the government, and its rivers and canals. 102 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Nijnei-Novgorod (Nijegorod, or Nijnii), the capital of the above gov- ernment, is situated in the angle formed by the confluence of the Oka with the Volga. Its stationary population is about forty thousand. It stands partly on a steep hill, about four hundred feet in height, the summit of which is occupied by the Kremlin or citadel, and partly on the low ground along the sides of the rivers. The citadel, from the ramparts of which there is a noble view of the Volga, Oka, and surrounding country, contains the government-offices, two cathedrals, built after the model of that of Moscow; an obelisk, seventy-five feet in height, erected in honor of the deliverers of their country, the patriotic citizen Minin and Prince Pojarski ; and other public buildings. The upper part of the town has several good streets; and being orna- mented by numerous churches, placed in conspicuous situations, has an imposing appearance. The lower town consists principally of a very long street, bordering on the Volga. With the exception of the principal pub- lic buildings (including the elegant church of the Holy Women, shown in our engraving), and a few private houses, the rest of the city is constructed 全脂 ​KÜBERTS.SO CHURCH OF THE HOLY WOMEN, AT NIJNEI-NOVGOROD. of wood. Among the establishments are three convents, a bazar, a gym- nasium, and four primary schools, an ecclesiastical seminary, and a large military school. The town is ancient, having been founded in 1222. The Kremlin was surrounded by strong walls and towers in 1508. A bridge of pontoons leads across the Oka to the splendid new bazars erected on the left bank of that river for the exhibition and sale of mer- chandise brought to the fair. These, which are divided into parallel rows, or streets, are constructed of stone, roofed with iron, having covered gal- leries in front, supported by eight thousand iron pillars. They are built. on piles, and, to guard against the danger of inundation, the ground on which they stand was raised about twenty feet. Being enclosed on three GREAT RUSSIA - NIJNEI-NOVGOROD. 103 sides by canals, and on the fourth by a navigable inlet of the Oka, there is every facility for the delivery and shipment of merchandise. The estab- lishment is of very great extent, comprising above twenty-five hundred booths; and is admitted on all hands to be at once the largest and most perfect of its kind that is anywhere to be met with. Including the church, dedicated to St. Macarius, the patron-saint of the fair, it is said to have cost in all about eleven millions of roubles. Nijnei-Novgorod has various manufactures, but it owes its great impor- tance almost entirely to its commerce. It is the grand entrepôt for the trade of the interior of the empire, and has, in fact, a greater command of internavigation than any other city of the Old World. Besides the grain, cattle, and other products of the surrounding country, the Kama, the prin- cipal affluent of the Volga, conveys to Nijnei the salt of Perm; the gold, silver, copper, and other metallic treasures, of the Ural mountains; the furs, &c., of Siberia; and even the teas of China. The silks, shawls, and other merchandise of central Asia, and the fish, caviar, &c., of southern Russia, come up the river from Astrakhan; while the manufactured goods of England and western Europe, the wines of France, the cotton of the United States, and the sugar of Brazil, are conveyed to her from St. Pe- tersburg and Archangel, with both of which, as well as with Moscow, she is connected by navigable rivers and canals. These advantages, joined to her situation in a fertile country in the centre of the monarchy, were so highly appreciated by Peter the Great, that it is said he at one time in- tended to have made Nijnei the capital of his empire; and it is, perhaps, to be regretted that he did not carry this project into effect. Latterly the commercial importance of Nijnei-Novgorod has been vastly increased. Previously to 1817, the great fair, now held here, was held in a less convenient situation at Makarev, in the same government, lower down on the Volga (which must not be confounded with Makariev, in the government of Kostroma, where fairs are also held). But the buildings for the accommodation of the merchants at Makarev having been accident- ally burnt down in 1816, government took advantage of the circumstance, to remove the fair to Nijnei. It begins on the first of July, and continues for a month or six weeks, and is well known, not only over all Russia, but over most other countries of Europe and Asia. It is carried on within the bazars already noticed, which were constructed by government for the ac- commodation of the traders, to whom they are let at moderate rents. The produce disposed of is classified as follows, viz.: first, Russian produce, raw and manufactured; second, merchandise from the rest of Europe, con- sisting principally of manufactured and colonial products; and, third, prod- ucts of China, Bokhara, the Kirghizes, and other Asiatic nations. The concourse of strangers during the fair is quite immense; so much so, that the population is then increased, according to the lowest estimates, by from one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand individuals. Here are seen dealers from India, China, Tartary, Bokhara, Persia, Circassia, 104 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Armenia, and Turkey; and from Italy, Poland, Germany, France, England, and even the United States. Theatrical representations, shows of wild beasts, and other diversions, are got up to entertain the multitude, but the engrossing spirit of trade overrides all considerations of mere amusement. Laurence Oliphant, who was present at the fair in 1852, thus graphically describes its appearance, in his late work on Russia :— "To us, as strangers, the earnest, business-like appearance of the people was especially striking. There was evidently no time to be lost in merry- go-rounds or penny shows. Here fortunes were to be lost or won in a few short weeks. The rich merchant had brought valuable wares from distant lands at an enormous expense; the poor peddler had trudged many a weary mile with his heavy pack: both had staked their all on the results of their transactions in the allotted time, and were in no humor to trifle with it. It had evidently never struck them that Nijnei fair was a place to which people would resort for either pleasure or instruction, or for anything but gold; and certainly, interesting though it was, some such motive as the last would be required to induce a second visit. "The fair is held on a low, sandy spot of land, formed by the junction of the Oka and the Volga, and which is subject to constant inundation in winter. The substantial part of it, inhabited by the wealthy merchants, is arranged in twelve parallel streets, composed of neat two-storied brick houses, the lower part forming the shops and warehouses, which are pro- tected by covered verandahs. Each street terminates at one end in a pagoda, indicating the Chinese quarter" (a representation of which is given on the opposite page); "while at the other it is connected with a square, where the governor's house and public offices are situated. "This respectable nucleus is encompassed by a deep border of tempo- rary wooden huts, inhabited by an indescribable swarm of ragged Tartars, Tchouvasses, Kirghiz, and Calmucks, besides the peasantry of the neigh- borhood, who frequent the fair with provisions, fruit, and all sorts of farm and country produce. A long bridge of boats across the Oka connects this busy peninsula with the hill on which is situated the town of Nijnei, com- manding an extensive view of the whole scene. Both rivers are covered with every conceivable shape and description of boat and barge; some from the distant Caspian, laden with raw or spun cotton, Persian shawls, Georgian carpets, and Bokharian skins, or dried fruits: these vessels, of square, unwieldy construction, are elaborately painted and ornamented, and on their decks are erected curious wooden habitations, from the peaked roofs of which flutter gaudy flags, while out of the carved windows peep eastern maidens. Others, rude and strongly built, have come down the Kama with Siberian iron or tea; while the more civilized appearance of a few denotes their western origin, and these have threaded their way from the shores of the Baltic, laden with the manufactured goods of Europe. On board this singular mixture of craft is found as singular a mixture of inhabitants, whole families coming from their distant homes to take some GREAT RUSSIA NIJNEI-NOVGOROD. 105 PLAY CHINESE QUARTER OF THE GREAT FAIR AT NIJNEI-NOVGOROD, share in what-now that the London Exhibition exists no longer in that capacity may resume its old title of the World's Fair.' "Our abode was situated in a suburb, on the opposite side of the river, so that it was necessary to cross the bridge of boats every time we wished to visit the fair; and here the confusion was always the greatest. We were obliged to struggle our way, if on foot, amid sheepskins, greasy enough to scent us for the rest of our lives, thereby adding to the store of fleas with which we had started from our lodging. Women, with waists immediately under their throats, and petticoats tucked up to their knees, tramped it gallantly through the mud, and made better progress than we could. A Cossack on horseback rode up and down the bridge for the pur- pose of keeping order amid the droskies, which, heedless of the rules of the road, dashed in every direction, apparently bent upon splashing those they did not run over. Drunken men continually stumbled against us; and when at last we reached the slough on the opposite side, the confusion and hubbub were greater than ever. The mud in the shallowest parts was at least two feet in depth, and nearly everybody waded about in it with Rus- sian leather jack-boots. Numbers of small shops surrounded the bespat- tered populace, while a few miserable attempts at shows only proved how little they were appreciated. "At the corners of the streets running into this delectable hole were sta- tioned Cossacks, who showered blows upon offending Mujiks (or peasants) with their heavy-lashed whips, without regard to the nature of the offence or the size of the victim. Turning up one of these streets, and penetrating farther into the fair, other scenes and pleasanter forms meet the eye. The 106 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. gay dress of the Georgian forms a pleasing contrast to the everlasting sheepskin; and, as we enter the shop of the Teflis merchant, beautifully- Thin embroidered slippers, rich ta- ble-covers, and the finest silks, are spread out temptingly be- fore us. . . . In the next shop are handsome furs and skins piled in every available corner, and the owner of the valuable collection stands at the door, his flowing robe and dignified demeanor betokening his east- ern origin. Aaron was, in fact, a Bokharian Jew, who delight- SUMMARY PUNISHMENT OF A MUJIK BY A COSSACK, AT NIJNEI. ed to show us his costly wares, even though there was no chance regaled us with almonds, split- of our becoming purchasers; and, finally, peas, and raisins-flattered, perhaps, by the admiration we expressed at the belt he wore, the buckle of which, composed of solid silver, was set with turquoises. But it would be hopeless to attempt a description of the costumes of the different merchants and shopkeepers, or to enumerate the variety of articles exposed for sale. “The Bokharians, Persians, and Georgians, inhabit one quarter, which is likely to prove the most interesting to the stranger; and I recognised, in the countenances of many of the representatives of these nations, a strong resemblance to some old Affghan and Persian horse-dealing friends. It is a convenient arrangement, no less for the sight-seer than the merchant, that the fair is divided into quarters, devoted to the sale of different mer- chandise. The Ketaiski Red, or Chinese division, is at once distinguish- able by the rows of square leather boxes which contain the tea. No Chi- naman, however, showed his pigtail in the crowd, much to our disappoint- ment—the transfer being made at Kiahta, whence the tea comes overland to the Kama, down which river it is conveyed to the Volga. In the cut- lers' quarter I was surprised to find so great a preponderance of Russian ware; still Sheffield maintains its own, and the prices are much lower than in St. Petersburg: indeed, this is the case with all English or foreign goods, which, though subject to a most exorbitant duty on entering Russia, may be procured more cheaply here, on account of the comparative facility with which they can be exposed for sale. The guild dues at St. Peters- burg are so high, that the merchant, after paying two thousand roubles (assignation) for his position in the first guild, and two or three thousand roubles more for his shop on the Nevskoi Prospekt, has but little margin left for his profits. "The whole system seems most elaborately devised to destroy all enter- prise, and to depress as much as possible the spirit of trade, in a country GREAT RUSSIA - ·VLADIMIR. 107 which naturally possesses it in but a very limited degree; and it must be long ere the resources of the country can be properly developed while the government seeks its own aggrandizement regardless of the prosperity of the community—since the protection it affords to home manufactures, by the duty on foreign goods, is effectually neutralized by the expenses attend- ant upon the sale and manufacture of the home produce itself. At Nijnei, however, these difficulties do not exist: the only expense is house-rent; and thus it happens that foreign goods are to be procured more cheaply here than they can be at a seaport seven hundred miles nearer the country whence they come; and, in some instances, the manufactured articles of a Russian town some hundreds of miles distant, are to be found here exposed for sale at lower prices than in the very town where they have been pro- duced an anomaly which is quite in accordance with the political econ- omy of the country. The palpable result of all this is, that the variety of goods brought to Nijnei for sale far exceeds what it would be were there not so many attendant advantages to counterbalance the expense of trans- port; and the traveller has only to wander along the narrow, insignificant- looking streets of the fair, to find articles which he would be unable to obtain in the handsomest shops of St. Petersburg and Moscow." The government of VLADIMIR lies between the fifty-fifth and fifty-seventh degrees of north latitude, and the thirty-eighth and forty-third degrees of east longitude, having the governments of Yaroslav and Kostroma on the north, Nijnei-Novgorod on the east, Moscow and Tver on the west, and Ria- zan and Tambov on the south. It comprises an area of about seventeen thousand five hundred square miles. · The surface of the country is almost a level plain, watered by numerous rivers, the principal being the Oka in the southeast and the Kliasma, a trib- utary of the Oka, running through the centre; both of which have, more or less, a northeasterly course. The soil is not generally fertile, and a large part of the government is covered with forests, marshes, pools, and heaths. Rye, barley, oats, summer and winter wheat, millet, peas, hemp, and flax, are grown; but the crops of grain are insufficient for the home consumption. The gardens and orchards are pretty numerous, and well attended to; and Vladimir is famous for its cherries and apples. A good many cucumbers and some hops are raised. Cattle-rearing is a secondary business, and is far behind. The forests are of vast extent, those belong- ing to the crown alone covering about one ninth part of the entire surface. Extensive and valuable beds of iron-ore have been found in the forest of Mourom; and at Vixa, on the Oka, are some of the most extensive iron- works in Russia. The poverty of the soil, and other concurring circumstances, have turned the attention of the inhabitants toward manufactures, which appear to have succeeded better in this than in most other Russian governments. The cotton manufacture, which is by far the most extensive, is principally car- 108 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ried on at Chouia and Ivanova, where, in connection with other branches of industry, it employs about one hundred thousand work-people. The manufacture of woollen and linen is of less importance; but about five or six thousand hands are employed in iron-foundries; and about fifteen hun- dred in glass and crystal works, exclusive of those employed in the pro- duction of leather, earthenware, &c. The various products of the government are sent down the Kliasma and Oka, or else to Moscow, by means of land-carriages. Grain, cotton-twist, and flax, from the neighboring governments of Kostroma, Yaroslav, and Nijnei-Novgorod, are the chief articles of import. Vladimir is divided into thirteen districts. The chief towns are Vladimir, the capital, Chouia, and Mourom. Vladimir, the capital of the above government, is located near the Kli- asma, and on one of its small tributaries, one hundred and ten miles north- east of Moscow. Its population is supposed to be about ten thousand. Vladimir occupies a site rather more elevated than the rest of its govern- ment. It is surrounded by a ditch and earth rampart, and, like almost all the ancient towns of Russia, is divided into three portions. Its principal street is long, wide, and lined with houses of wood and stone intermixed. The cross-streets are mostly mean. The principal structure is the cathe- dral of the Assumption, a square edifice, surmounted by five domes, and richly ornamented inside, though much less magnificent than formerly. There are about a dozen other churches. The former palace of the arch- bishop now serves for a seminary. The governor's house, courthouse, gym- nasim, a nunnery, &c., are brick edifices. Vladimir is not considered a wealthy town, or a principal emporium, owing partly to its distance from any large navigable river, and partly to the proximity to Moscow. Being, however, on the great road to the fairs of Nijnei-Novgorod and Irbit, and on the grand line of communication be- tween European Russia and Siberia, it often presents a busy and cheerful aspect. Some of its inhabitants are occupied in making linen-cloths and leather; and many others in the cultivation of fruit, particularly cherries, which are grown in great quantities in the neighborhood. The era of its foundation is uncertain: some authors place it in the tenth, and others in the twelfth century. Vladimir was, however, the capital of the grand- duchy of Russia from 1157 till 1328, when that distinction was transferred to Moscow. The government of RIAZAN lies between the fifty-third and fifty-sixth degrees of north latitude, and the thirty-eighth and forty-first degrees of east longitude, having the government of Vladimir on the north, Tambov on the east and south, and Toula and Moscow on the west. It has an area of about fourteen thousand square miles. The surface of the country is generally flat. The Oka, running from west to east, divides the government into two unequal portions of very GREAT RUSSIA RIAZAN. 109 different aspect. The country south of that river is the more elevated; the air is wholesome, and the soil fertile: in the north, on the contrary, the country is generally low, marshy, and covered with woods, or destitute of culture. More grain is grown than is required for home consumption, the average produce being between twenty-five and thirty millions of bush- els a year. The forests, which are very extensive, cover above a third part of the surface: those belonging to the crown comprise about four hun- dred and twenty-eight thousand deciatines, or twelve hundred and eighty- four thousand acres. Hops, tobacco, and garden-vegetables are, in some districts, raised in large quantities. The proprietors of the pasture-lands let them to graziers belonging to the Ukraine, who bring thither large herds. The breed of horses is good: the imperial government has a depôt d'etalons at Skopin. Bees are supposed to produce about two hundred and fifty thousand roubles a year. There are a few iron-mines and stone- quarries. The manufactures of this government have made some progress. Those of glass and hardware occupy the first rank; and there are others of wool- len, cotton, and linen fabrics, cordage, potash, soap, &c., with dyeing- establishments, tanneries, and distilleries. A portion of the manufactured goods is sent to Moscow, and, by way of the Oka, down the Volga; but the principal exports are the raw products of the government, consisting of grain, cattle, honey, lard, iron, timber, and wooden articles. The population of Riazan is principally Russian, but partly of the Tartar stock. The government is subdivided into twelve districts. The chief towns are Riazan, the capital, Zaraïsk, and Kasimov. Education is very backward, the pupils at schools and other seminaries amounting to only about one in a thousand of the population. The city of Riazan, the capital of the above government, is situated on the Troubege, a tributary of the Oka, one hundred and ten miles south- east of Moscow. Its population is about ten thousand. It consists of two distinct portions: an irregular fortress, with an earthern rampart, enclo- sing numerous churches, the episcopal palace, formerly the residence of the princes of Riazan, the consistory, &c.; and the town proper, in which are also numerous churches, with a fine edifice for the government-offices, several convents, a seminary and public library, hospital, &c. The town has greatly increased in size and importance within the last fifty years; but most of the houses are still of wood, and planks occupy the place of pavements in the streets. Riazan is the seat of a military governor, with authority over the gov- ernments of Riazan and Tambov, and of the chief judicial courts of each government. It has a gymnasium, to which a society of arts was attached in 1820; a school of drawing and architecture, founded in 1824; schools for the children of official persons, &c.; and several of the principal manu- factures in the government. The old town of Riazan, destroyed by the Tartars in 1568, is distant about thirty-three miles southeast. 21 110 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The government of TAMBOV is situated principally between the fifty-sec- ond and fifty-fifth degrees of north latitude, and the fortieth and forty-third degrees of east longitude, having the governments of Vladimir and Nijnei- Novgorod on the north, Penza and Saratov on the east, Voronej on the south, and chiefly the latter and Riazan on the west. Its length from north to south is about three hundred and fifty miles, its breadth varying from one hundred to two hundred and fifty miles. It contains an area of about twenty-four thousand square miles. The surface of the country is flat, except in a few parts, where it is slightly undulating. Its principal rivers are the Tsna and Mocksha, tribu- taries of the Oka, flowing north; and the Vorona, a tributary of the Don, flowing south. In the north the soil is sandy and marshy; a large propor- tion of the country, principally the marshes, being covered with forests: in the east, or steppe-so called from its being bare of wood-the soil consists principally of a black mould, and is comparatively fertile. Grain is the principal product; but, according to the official accounts, the crops are extremely variable, and scarcities frequently occur. The crop of 1802, for example, was estimated at fifty millions of bushels, and that of 1821 at only thirty millions of bushels. In 1832, an abundant year, about four and a half millions of bushels were exported to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Hemp is extensively grown; the value of the quantity exported amounting, according to Schnitzler, to one million of roubles a year. The forests along the Mocksha supply a good deal of timber for ship and boat building; and the inhabitants are there principally wood-cutters, carpenters, coopers, or pitch and tar makers. The peasantry are well treated, and in good circumstances. Cattle (principally brought from the steppes of the Don, the Volga, and the Caucasus) are numerous, and are extensively fattened for the neighboring governments, and for Moscow and St. Petersburg. The horses belonging to the gentry are good, and have been much improved by the stud kept by the Orloff family; but the horses of the peasantry are wretched. The manufacture of woollen cloth is carried on to a considerable extent in this province. Peter the Great established an extensive cloth-manufac- tory, for the service of government, at the village of Boudari. This, how- ever, was burnt down in 1836; but, having been since rebuilt on a great scale, it now gives employment to about two thousand males, and twelve hundred females: the consumption of wool is stated at fifty thousand poods a year; and besides furnishing four hundred and forty thousand arschines* of cloth annually for the army, it produces other goods worth one and a half millions of roubles. The province also possesses numerous forges, distilleries, tallow-factories, mills (of which a very fine one belongs to Count Koutaisoff), &c. The principal towns are Tambov, the capital, Morchansk, Chatsk, Elatma, Lipetsk, &c. The city of Tambov, the capital of the above government, is situated at * A Russian arschine is about three fourths of an English yard. GREAT RUSSIA — TAMBOV—TOULA. 111 ** about the centre of the province, on the Tsna, three hundred and eighty- five miles southeast of Moscow. Its population is twenty-five or thirty thousand. The town, which is about two miles in length, by one mile in breadth, was originally founded and fortified in 1636, as a defence against the incursions of the Nogai Tartars. The houses are principally of wood; but there are various stone churches, a large monastery, gymnasium, civil hospital, a military orphan asylum, &c. In the school of cadets at Tam- bov, about one hundred pupils, sons of nobles, are instructed in French, German, military exercises, &c.; and the most intelligent are afterward sent to the corps de cadets at St. Petersburg. A high school for young ladies was founded in 1834, and there are various other schools. Manu- factures of woollen cloths, alum, vitriol, &c., are established; and the town has an active general trade. TOULA, one of the most populous of the Russian governments, lies prin- cipally between the fifty-third and fifty-fifth degrees of north latitude, and the thirty-sixth and thirty-ninth degrees of east longitude, having the gov- ernment of Moscow on the north, that of Riazan on the east, Orel on the south, and Kalouga on the west. Its length is about one hundred and thirty miles, and its breath is about eighty-five miles, comprising an area of about twelve thousand square miles. The country slopes generally to the north and east, in which direction the Oka flows, forming its northwestern and northern boundary. The Don rises in this government. The surface is an undulating plain, and, though not very fertile, it produces a good deal of grain, with beans, turnips, mus- tard, flax, hemp, tobacco, potatoes, and other vegetables. The peasants, almost everywhere, have gardens in which they grow fruit, &c.; the cli- mate being tolerably mild and healthy. The rearing of cattle, horses, and sheep, is extensively carried on. Iron is abundant, and in the neighbor- hood of the capital, iron-mines extend over an area of ten square miles; but the metal is of inferior quality, and iron is one of the chief imports into the government. A bad sort of coal has also been met with; but wood and charcoal continue to be the principal fuel used in the forges and other factories. Forests cover about one sixth part of the surface. Dr. Lyall says that, south of Toula, there is not so profuse a waste of timber in the construction of peasants' houses as nearer St. Petersburg. Indeed, some of the houses are not built in the usual way, with trunks of trees mortised together at the corners, but consist of wattled wicker-work. The dwellings, or rather the huts, of the peasants, which range along both sides of the road, are more paltry in their appearance and more simple in their struc- ture than those between the capitals. Indeed, they gradually become more miserable as we proceed south, till we come to regions where stone abounds. Except in the capital, there are hardly any manufacturing establishments other than tanneries, breweries, and distilleries, the last two being on a very extensive scale. The exports consist principally of grain, hemp, and 112 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. flax, with cutlery, jewellery, &c., from Toula; the latter, with Bielev, being the chief seat of commerce. In this government is the canal of Ivanov, uniting the Oka with the Don, excavated by the Swedish prisoners in Rus- sia early in the eighteenth century. Toula has been a separate government since 1796: it is divided into twelve districts. The chief towns are Toula, the capital, Bielev, Vienev, Odöiev. Its inhabitants are nearly all Russians, with some German colo- nists. In respect of public instruction, Toula is subordinate to the univer sity of Moscow. The city of Toula, the capital of the above government, is situated on both sides of the Upa, one hundred and ten miles south of Moscow. The population, including the government workmen, but exclusive of troops, is probably between forty and fifty thousand. This town, the "Sheffield and Birmingham" of Russia, is one of the most interesting in the empire. Seen from a distance, it has an imposing appearance. A very handsome church, with white columns, appears above the town, which occupies an extensive vale, and is filled with spires and domes. The entrances on both the north and south sides are through triumphal arches, made of wood painted to imitate marble. It is divided into several quarters, the communication between them being kept up by a number of wooden and stone bridges; and there are several suburbs. There are two convents and twenty-six churches in Toula, all of stone; but the edifices which chiefly attract the stranger's attention are the gun- manufactory; the gymnasium for the government; Alexander's school, opened in 1802, for the education of youth, at the expense of the nobility; the foundling-hospital, a branch of that of Moscow; the house of correc- tion, prison, arsenal, theatre, gostinöi dvor, or building for the preserva- tion and sale of merchandise, &c. The shops in the latter present more activity and industry than are usually met with in Russian towns, and some of the merchants are reputed rich. There is a continual mixture of wood and stone houses; but some streets are lined on both sides with stone edifices, many of which are massive and in good taste. The musket-manufactory, though commenced at an earlier period, is indebted for its original importance to Peter the Great. It was remod- elled and improved by Catherine II. in 1785; but its present excellence is mainly owing to Mr. Jones, an English mechanic from Birmingham, who was invited into Russia in 1817. About eight thousand men and ten thou- sand women are employed in this factory, besides four or five thousand hands in subsidiary occupations. About seventy-five thousand muskets and fifty or sixty thousand swords are annually made here, exclusive of great numbers of carbines, pistols, bayonets, pikes, &c. The metal em- ployed comes wholly from Siberia, and is of excellent quality. The work- men in the gun-factory enjoy peculiar immunities and privileges; they form a separate body, and have their judges selected from among themselves. They are divided into five trades—barrel-makers, lock-makers, stock- GREAT RUSSIA — KALOUGA. 113 makers, furnishing-makers, and makers of small-arms. The arms made at this factory have been ridiculously depreciated by some travellers, and as extravagantly extolled by others. The exploits of the Russian armies speedily showed the entire worthlessness of the statements made by the English traveller Clarke as to the badness of the Toula muskets; and, in point of fact, though they want the neatness and finish of the muskets of Birmingham, they are of very good quality. Some also of the firearms and swords made here are very highly finished, but these are comparatively high priced. Among the other fabrics of Toula are mathematical and physical instru- ments, jewelry, and platina-wares, with silk and hat fabrics, tanneries, &c. The town is the residence of a military governor, with authority extending over the governments of Toula and Tambov, Riazan, Orel, Voronej, and sometimes Kalouga. Ancient Toula, which existed in the twelfth century, did not occupy the site of the modern town, though it was on the Upa, at no great distance. The present city was founded in 1509, by Vassili-Ivanovich, who fortified it with a stone and brick wall, &c. Its defences, however, were insuffi- cient to prevent its being frequently plundered by the Tartars, it being on the high road to Moscow from the Crimea. It has often suffered severely from fire, the last visitation being in 1834. The government of KALOUGA lies between the fifty-third and fifty-sixth degrees of north latitude, and the thirty-third and thirty-seventh degrees of east longitude, having the government of Smolensk on the west, the lat- ter and Moscow on the north, Toula on the east, and Orel on the south. It has an area of about ten thousand five hundred square miles. The surface of the country is an almost uninterrupted plain, watered by numerous rivers, of which the Oka and its tributaries are the principal. There are also several small lakes, and occasional morasses. The climate is one of the most temperate in Russia, being tolerably mild for the lati- tude. Winter sets in about the end of November, and disappears in March. The soil is mostly either sandy or hard clay, and not fertile. The forests occupy more than half the surface of the province, and the arable lands rather more than two fifths; but a good deal of manure is required to ren- der the latter even moderately productive, and the agricultural produce is not adequate to the consumption of the inhabitants. Rye is principally grown; but barley is a favorite crop, and other cereals-wheat, oats, mil- let, and also buckwheat and beans-are likewise cultivated. Hemp and flax are grown to a large extent; and, though much of it is worked up in the district, a considerable surplus remains for export, along with oil and oil-cake. Cattle are not numerous, and but little valued; but there are in the government two extensive studs for the breeding of superior horses. The fisheries are insignificant, and but little game is met with. Bog-iron is found, but in no great quantity, and a good deal has to be imported to 8 114 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. supply the various iron-works, which are numerous, owing to the abun- ance of fuel: a large quantity of iron, both pig and malleable, is produced. This government being so little suitable for agriculture, the attention of its inhabitants has been naturally turned toward manufacturing industry: in this respect, Kalouga ranks immediately after the governments of Mos- cow and Vladimir. A large number of workmen are employed in distille- ries and manufactures of sailcloth, linen and cotton goods, leather, soap, candles, and hardware. The manufacture of beet-root sugar has been for some years introduced. Nearly all the peasants' families employ a consid erable portion of their time in weaving. Many of the merchants in this government are opulent, and some have commercial transactions with for- eign governments, through Archangel. The chief exports are oils, spirits, potash, honey, linen, sailcloth, and other manufactured goods. The prin- cipal commercial towns are Kalouga and Borofsk. The government is divided into eleven districts, and is under the same military governor with Toula. Its scholastic institutions are under the university of Moscow, but they are extremely deficicnt; and until recently it had but one printing-press, which was the property of the crown! The inhabitants are nearly all of the Russian stock. The city of Kalouga, the capital of the above government, is situated on the Oka, near where it suddenly turns eastward, one hundred and five miles southwest of Moscow. Its population is about forty thousand. Al- though comprising no more than about four thousand houses, it is said to occupy a space of ten versts,* or a little short of seven miles in circumfer- ence, and is divided into three quarters by the Oka and its tributary the Kaloujeka. It is an ill-built town, with narrow, crooked, and badly-paved streets, and wooden houses. There are, however, some good public edi- fices, as the high church, government-house, town-hall, and theatre. Of the twenty-four churches, twenty-three are of stone; a convent, also a stone building, gymnasium, seminary for poor children of noble birth, foundling- asylum, several workhouses and hospitals, and a house of correction, are the other chief public establishments. Kalouga is one of the most important manufacturing and commercial towns in the empire. It has five sailcloth-factories, employing four hun- dred weavers and one thousand spinners; between thirty and forty oil- factories, numerous tan-yards, some sugar-refineries, and manufactures of woollen cloth, cotton fabrics, hats, paper-hangings, earthenware, soap, vit- riol, &c. Besides carrying on an extensive internal trade, its merchants make large exports of lambskins, Russia leather, and wax, to Dantzic, Breslau, Berlin, and Leipsic The government of OREL, or ORLOV, lies between the fifty-second and fifty-fourth degrees of north latitude, and the thirty-third and thirty-ninth * A verst is three thousand five hundred feet, three versts being thus about equal to two English miles, or ten versts to seven miles, as above stated. GREAT RUSSIA — OREL. 115 degrees of east longitude, having the governments of Kalouga and Toula on the north, Smolensk on the northwest, Tchernigov on the southwest, Koursk on the south, and Voronej and Tambov on the east. Its greatest length from north-northwest to south-southeast is two hundred and sixty- two miles, and its greatest breadth one hundred and twelve miles, compri- sing an area of about seventeen thousand square miles. This province, though generally flat, lies high, and is intersected by sev- eral ridges of limestone, between which deep, romantic valleys occasionally occur. The river-banks also are usually high, though sparingly wooded. The western and larger portion of the government is watered by the Desna, and several tributaries, and belongs to the basin of the Dnieper; the cen- tral and northern portion, watered by the Oka, which here has its source, belongs to the basin of the Volga; the whole of the eastern portion is drained by the Sosna and its tributaries, and belongs to the basin of the Don. The soil, though somewhat light, yields all kinds of grain, far be- yond what is required for home consumption, together with large quanti- ties of excellent hemp, a little flax, and some good hops and tobacco. Cattle are numerous; and considerable attention is paid to the rearing of stock, and improving the breed, particularly of horses. Manufactures have made very little progress in this government, and are almost entirely confined to articles of primary necessity; but the trade is considerable, and includes large exports of grain, flour, flax, hemp, honey, iron, steel, and iron-ware. Education, nominally under the superintendence of the university of Moscow, is in a very neglected state. There is only one printing-press within the government, and it belongs to the crown. The inhabitants are very industrious, and generally in good circumstances; but they have little enterprise. Orel (or Orlov), the capital of the above government, is situated on the Oka, two hundred miles south-southwest of Moscow. It is defended by an old fortress, and is divided into three quarters. The streets are narrow, either not paved at all, or paved badly, and the houses are generally of wood. The town was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1848, when up- ward of twelve hundred houses (fifty of them of stone), four bridges, and immense quantities of grain, and other merchandise, were destroyed. Pre- vious to the fire, there were twenty churches, eighteen of them of stone, but several even of them suffered greatly. It has manufactures of linen, tanneries, ropewalks, worsted-mills, &c.; but it depends chiefly on trade, for which it possesses admirable facilities, standing on a navigable river, in the centre of a fertile country, and possessing direct communication, by water, with the Baltic, Black, and Caspian seas. It hence forms a great central entrepôt for the trade which is carried on with all these quarters of the empire; and, in particular, is a principal purveyor of grain, cattle, and other provisions, for both St. Petersburg and Moscow. Orel is the see of a bishop; possesses an ecclesistical seminary, and a gymnasium ; and has several important fairs. Its population is about forty thousand. 116 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The government of KOURSK is situated in the southern part of Great Russia, between the fiftieth and fifty-third degrees of north latitude, and the thirty-fourth and thirty-ninth degrees of east longitude, having the gov- ernment of Orel on the north, Tchernigov on the west, Poltava and Khar- kov on the south, and Voronej on the east. Its greatest length from east to west is one hundred and seventy miles, and its greatest breadth from north to south one hundred and fifty miles. Its superficial area is about sixteen thousand square miles. The surface of this government is undulating, with numerous little hills and gentle acclivities; consisting of a rich, fruitful soil, and is studded over with towns and villages. The acclivities consist of shell-marl, lime- stone, and sandstone; and on the banks of almost all the streams, layers of chalk appear. The chief river is the Sem, which, rising on the eastern confines of the district, traverses it from east to west, on its way to join the Dnieper. The Donet also has its source here, and waters part of the south. The climate is mild and dry; and the rich soil produces abundant crops, at comparatively little trouble and expense. Grain is kept in caves (silos) sometimes for six or ten years together, and there is always a large surplus for exportation. Apples, plums, and cherries, abound. Agricul ture, and its usual attendant, the rearing of cattle, for which the pastures, which are excellent, afford ample provision, employ the greater part of the inhabitants, and leave only a small surplus for other occupations. These are chiefly manufactures of army-clothing, and other coarse stuffs for the use of the peasantry; also leather, soap, saltpetre, spirits, earthenware, &c. The exports are grain, cattle, leather, wax, and honey. There are in this government upward of three hundred thousand free peasants. Pub- lic instruction has made no considerable progress, there being only about one pupil to every four hundred inhabitants. Koursk, the capital of the above government, lies on the Tuskar river, near its junction with the Sem, two hundred and eighty miles south by west from Moscow. It has a population of about thirty-four thousand. It had a citadel and ramparts, but the former is in ruins, and the latter have been converted into public walks. The situation of the town is elevated; the houses are principally of wood, but many are of stone; the streets are nar- row, crooked, and ill paved. There are two convents, numerous churches, with a gymnasium, a normal school, a hospital, a foundling-hospital, &c. It is a thriving, industrious town, having numerous tanneries, tile and earthenware works, wax and tallow factories, &c. It carries on an exten- sive commerce with St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Odessa, sending to them cattle and horses, tallow, leather, wax and honey, hemp, and furs. The environs contain numerous gardens and orchards. Korennaia Poustyn, a convent in the vicinity of Koursk, is celebrated for a miraculous image of the Virgin, and for a great fair held annually on the ninth Friday after Easter, resorted to equally by merchants and pil- grims. The value of the horses, cattle, and other articles exposed to sale GREAT RUSSIA — VORONEJ. 117 at this fair has sometimes amounted, according to the official accounts, to about thirty millions of roubles; but this undoubtedly is greatly above the average of the sales. The government of VORONEJ (Sometimes Woronetz) is situated between the forty eighth and fifty-third degrees of north latitude, and the thirty- eighth and forty-second degrees of east longitude; having, on the north, the governments of Tambov and Riazan; on the east, Saratov and the territory of the Don Cossacks; on the south, the latter and the government of Ekath- erinoslav; and on the west, Kharkov, Koursk, and Orel. It contains an area of about thirty thousand square miles. The surface of the country is undulating, and the soil in general good; this being, in fact, one of the most productive governments in the empire. Its principal rivers are the Don, and some of its tributaries. The climate is comparatively mild, the rivers being covered with ice for only two or three months of the year, and the government producing most of the prod- ucts of temperate climates. In good years a surplus is raised of about seven and a half millions of bushels of grain beyond the home consumption. Besides wheat, peas, and beans, poppies, tobacco, hemp, and flax, are grown; and, in the gardens, melons, cucumbers, onions, &c., in large quan- tities. Watermelons, indeed, are cultivated for the markets of Moscow and St. Petersburg, being planted in open fields covering whole acres of land. In some parts of the province, canes and reeds are used for fuel, but in general the forests furnish a sufficient supply of firewood. Oaks are numerous and luxuriant; pine-woods are few. Cattle, horses, and sheep, are extensively bred. Honey is an important product. Iron, lime- stone, and saltpetre, are among the minerals. Manufactures of coarse woollens and other fabrics are rapidly increasing, while the number of dis- tilleries has latterly decreased; but we are not aware whether the produc- tion of spirits undergoes any corresponding decrease. The exports from the government consist principally of corn, cattle, skins, honey and wax, fruits, &c. This government is divided into twelve districts: the chief town is Voro- nej, the capital. Except a colony of Germans near Ostrogojesk, and some gipsies, the population consists, in the south, of Cossacks and White Rus- sians; and in the north, of Great Russians. Voronej is under the same governor-general with Riazan, Orel, Tambov, and Saratov. The city of Voronej, the capital of the above government, is situated on the river of the same name, near its confluence with the Don, and two hun- dred and ninety miles south-southeast of Moscow. Its population is about twenty-five thousand. The town stands on a steep height, and might easily be rendered a fortress of some strength, as it is not commanded by any other hill, and is partly surrounded by a marsh for several months of the year. It consists of three portions, the upper town, lower town, and the suburbs. It has some spacious streets, but a great many which are very 118 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. mean the suburbs are as black and gloomy as a country village. The principal street has a noble appearance, its sides being lined with massy and handsome edifices, many of them the property of the crown, as the governor's and vice-governor's houses, the tribunals, postoffice, commissa- riat, academy, &c. The Moscow (Moskovkaya) street is also very fine, and in it are the archbishop's palace, with an adjoining cathedral. The shops, or bazars, are very respectable. Voronej has some twenty stone churches, two convents, an exchange (or gostinöi dvor), for the warehousing, exhibition, and sale of merchan- dise, an episcopal seminary, schools for the children of the clergy, military, civil employés, and citizens, a hospital capable of accommodating three hundred sick persons, military orphan asylum, &c. This is one of the most flourishing towns in the south of Russia; and its merchants have long carried on a lucrative trade with the Black sea and the Crimea, and travel annually to Tobolsk to buy furs, which they afterward take to the great German fairs. The town has also some soap, tallow, leather, and woollen-cloth factories. It is supposed to be among the oldest Russian towns, and is spoken of as existing in the twelfth century. Here Peter the Great built a palace, and established a dockyard, arsenal, &c.; but the latter establishments were afterward removed successively to Ustea, Tavrov, and Rostov: and nearly all traces of the palace and magazines have been obliterated by the frequent fires from which the town has since suffered. LITTLE RUSSIA ———TCHERNIGOV. 119 CHAPTER IV. L LITTLE AND WESTERN RUSSIA. ITTLE RUSSIA comprises the four governments of TCHERNIGOV, KHARKOV, POLTAVA, and KIEV. The remaining governments de- scribed in this chapter constitute what is now denominated WESTERN RUSSIA; but most of the territory covered by these provinces is that an- ciently known as LITHUANIA (called by the Poles, Litwa; by the Germans, Littauen, or Lithauen; and by the French, Lithaunie). This territory, which, in the eleventh century, was tributary to Russia, threw off the yoke in the thirteenth century, and became a grand-duchy under Ringold. One of his successors, named Gedemin, subdued part of Russia; and another, called Jagellon, by marrying the Polish princess Hedwig, toward the end of the fourteenth century, became king of Poland, and thus united the grand-duchy to that kingdom. The courage and military skill which the Lithuanians had gained during their wars with the Teutonic knights, they turned against their neighbors subsequently with great effect. Their ar- mies penetrated to the Dnieper, and the shores of the Black sea; and by their union with the Polish crown, all the Lithuanian races were for two hundred years united under one head, constituting one of the most warlike and powerful monarchies in Europe at that period. On the first partition of Poland, in 1773, a considerable portion of Lithu- ania was appropriated by Russia, and formed into the governments of Mog- hilev and Vitepsk; the remainder, still united to the Polish monarchy, constituted six woiwods, or provinces- Wilna, Troki, Polozk or Vitepsk, Novogrodek, Brzesc, and Minsk-the first two forming Lithuania proper, and the other four Russian Lithuania. By the subsequent partitions of Poland, in 1793 and 1795, Russia obtained as much of Lithuania as formed the governments of Wilna, Grodno, and Minsk; while Prussia obtained a portion which is now included in the government of Gumbinnen, in the province of East Prussia. The original inhabitants of this region, including the Baltic provinces, as remarked in a previous chapter, were two tribes, Lithuanians and Lettes, which probably migrated from the confines of India at a very early period. The difference between these two branches of the same race is evidently of very long standing, and dates back perhaps to a period antecedent to their settlement in Europe. The descendants of both nations manifest but little 120 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. energy, strength, and resolution; their manners and customs are similar, but they exhibit many distinctions of character. The Lettes have never shown the greatness and strength, nor shared the glory of the Lithuanians, in their palmy days. They are of a softer, gentler, and more timid nature, than the latter, and have never been able to defend themselves in war. The government of TCHERNIGOV, or CZERNIGOV, is situated chiefly be- tween the fiftieth and fifty-third degrees of north latitude, and the thirtieth and thirty-fifth degrees of east longitude. It is bounded on the north by the government of Smolensk; on the northeast, by Orel; on the east, by Koursk; on the south, by Poltava; on the west, by Kiev and Minsk; and on the northwest, by Moghilev. Its greatest length from northeast to southwest is two hundred and forty miles, and its greatest breadth from east to west is one hundred and eighty miles, comprising an area of about twenty-three thousand square miles. The surface of the country, with the exception of a hilly district along the Dnieper, is a continuous flat, and the soil is almost unusually fertile. It is watered by numerous streams, the Dnieper flowing along at its west- ern frontier, and the Desna, with its chief affluents, passing nearly through its centre. It has also numerous lakes, though none are of great extent. All kinds of grain grow in abundance, but the crops often suffer greatly from hosts of locusts. Hemp, flax, tobacco, and the opium-poppy, grow well, and the gardens, in addition to the ordinary vegetables, produce hops, melons, &c. There is no deficiency of wood for either timber or fuel. The horses of the government are of the Ukraine breed, small, but active, and capable of enduring any fatigue. Great numbers of cattle, sheep, and swine, are reared. The oxen, in particular, are of a large size, and become remark- ably fat. Hunting and fishing yield but little produce; but much honey and wax are obtained from bees. The chief mineral produce is saltpetre, porcelain-earth, chalk, and a little iron. Manufactures were long insignificant, but have made considerable progress during the last thirty years. The distilling of brandy is carried on to a very great extent, and the inhabitants, unfortunately, are too much disposed to drink it. The interior trade of the province is almost wholly confined to the four annual fairs, which are held at Nejin. The principal exports are cattle, grain, brandy, honey, wax, and potash. The population almost all belong to the Greek church. The most important towns are Tchernigov, the capital, Nejin, Mglin, Staradoub, Novgorod-Sieversk, &c. The city of Tchernigov, the capital of the above government, is situated on the right bank of the Desna, eighty miles north-northeast of Kiev. It is a place of great antiquity, and contains numerous buildings of antiqua- rian interest. Its ramparts have been converted into pleasing promenades. It is the seat of an archbishop, and has eight churches-one of them, St. Sophia, supposed to have been founded in 1024-three monasteries, a gym- LITTLE RUSSIA KHARKOV. 121 nasium, and an orphan-hospital. Three important annual fairs are held here. The population is about eight thousand. The government of KHARKOV, or CHARKOV (Slavonic, Slobodisch Ukraine) is situated between the forty-ninth and fifty-first degrees of north latitude, and the thirty-fourth and thirty-eighth degrees of east longitude, having the government of Koursk on the north, Voronej on the east, Ekatherinoslav on the south, and Poltava on the west, and comprises a superficial area of about twenty-one thousand square miles. This, like the other governments of Little Russia, has a flat, monotonous surface, and a very fertile soil. It is divided into two basins, the larger occupied by the Donet, and Oskol, a considerable stream which joins it from the north; the less by tributaries of the Dnieper: none of its rivers are navigable, at least for any considerable distance. It has nearly two thousand square miles of forests, though the country is for the most part open. The climate is very mild, though the winter is rather severer than is usual in the same latitude, in consequence of there being no shelter from the north wind. The rivers freeze about the beginning of December, and break up in March. The summer is often very hot. Agriculture is the principal employment. All sorts of grain are raised, the produce in ordinary years amounting to above twenty-five millions of bushels, of which five millions are exported. Flax and hemp, tobacco, hops, &c., are also raised, and the potato is extensively grown. The cat- tle are excellent: there are few peasants without bees. With the excep- tion of distilleries, which are numerous, and some tanneries, and establish- ments for the preparation of tallow and saltpetre, manufacturing industry can hardly be said to exist. The population consists of Little Russians, Great Russians, and Cossacks. Some regiments of cavalry are colonized in this government. Kharkov, the capital of the above government, is situated at the conflu- ence of the Kharkov and Lopan, four hundred miles south-southwest of Moscow. It is built of wood, and has narrow, crooked, and dirty streets, which are without pavements; but the houses, being whitewashed, present a gay and cleanly appearance. The ramparts, by which the town was for- merly surrounded, have been converted into gardens and public walks. It is the residence of the provincial authorities, and has a cathedral, a gym- nasium, an ecclesiastical seminary, a museum, botanical garden, &c. Kharkov is the seat of a university, founded in 1804, and having upward of fifty professors. It possesses a library of twenty-one thousand volumes, and a valuable collection of medals. This town is the seat of a considera- ble commerce. Four fairs are held here each year, of which that called Krechtchenski (which continues from the third to the fifteenth of January), and the Trinity, are the most extensive: one of the fairs is exclusively or principally for wool. The population is about thirty-five thousand. The other important towns of the government are Akhtyrka, Bogodoukov, &c. 122 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. RAUD.DF/ 摹 ​OBELISK at Poltava. The government of POLTAVA (or Poltawa) lies principally between the forty-ninth and fifty-first degrees of north latitude, and the thirtieth and thirty-sixth degrees of east longitude, having the government of Tchernigov on the north, Kharkov on the east, Ekatherinoslav and Kherson on the south, and Kiev on the west. greatest length from north-northwest to south-southeast is two hundred and twelve miles, and its greatest breadth BUCKE Its a hundred and forty- five miles. Its area is twenty-two thou- sand square miles. The surface con- sists of an extensive and monotonous flat. Its soil is excellent. In some parts there is scarcity of wood. Besides the Dnieper (which flows along its entire southwest- ern boundary), the principal rivers are its affluents the Pir- iol, the Vorskla, and the Sula. This and the adjacent govern- ments form what is termed the granary of Russia. It is one of the best-cultivated districts of the empire: the return of the grain-crops is said to be as six to one, the total produce being about thirty millions of bushels, of which about eight millions are exported. The grazing-grounds are excellent, affording pasturage for large herds of the fine Ukraine breed of oxen, and for immense flocks of sheep, the breed of which has latterly been much improved. Some of the peasants have above one hundred bee- hives. Manufacturing industry has not made much progress; but there are fabrics of cloth and linen, with numerous distilleries, and establish- ments for the preparation of tallow, candles, &c. Large quantities of grain, tallow, and other products, are yearly sent from this government to Odessa, and even to Moscow, St. Petersburg, &c. LITTLE RUSSIA — KIEV. 123 Poltava, the capital of the above government, lies on the Vorskla, four hundred and forty-five miles south-southwest of Moscow. It stands on an eminence, and is built principally of wood, with broad and straight streets. There is a good square, with brick houses, embellished with a granite mon- ument (presented on the opposite page), in honor of its deliverer, and the regenerator of Russia, Peter the Great. It is surrounded by a rampart, and has twelve churches, of which one is a cathedral, a gymnasium, a con- vent, and a school for cadets. The trade, chiefly in cattle, grain, hemp, and wax, is considerable; and the annual fairs, three in number, are very important. The population is about ten or twelve thousand. Charles XII. of Sweden, having besieged this town in 1709, Peter the Great marched to its relief; and in its vicinity, on the 27th of June of the same year, was fought the famous battle of Poltava. The Russians gained a complete victory. The Swedish army was entirely destroyed: it lost above nine thousand men left dead on the field of battle, and from two to three thousand made prisoners in the pursuit; while the residue, consisting of about fourteen thousand men, under General Lewenhaupt, after escaping from the battle, were compelled to lay down their arms and surrender on the 12th of July. Charles, with only a small escort, effected his retreat across the Boug, and took refuge in Turkey. This great victory estab- lished the power of Peter on a solid foundation, and secured not merely his empire, but the success of his vast projects and plans for the civilization and improvement of his people. The government of KIEV (Kiew, Kief, or Kiow, by all of which names the province is known) lies lengthwise along the right bank of the Dnieper, between the forty-eighth and fifty-second degrees of north latitude, and the twenty-eighth and thirty-third of east longitude: bounded north by the gov- ernment of Minsk, west by Volhynia and Podolia, south by Podolia and Kherson, and east by Tchernigov and Poltava, from which last two gov- ernments it is separated by the Dnieper. It is two hundred and ten miles long, with an average breadth of one hundred and seventy, containing an area of about twenty thousand five hundred square miles. The surface is in general flat and monotonous, but undulating; intersect- ed occasionally by acclivities and hills, of moderate elevation, along the course of the Dnieper and other streams. The Dnieper hills extend into Podolia, where they merge into the Carpathians, of which they may be considered the last ramification, and throw off a branch, which, taking a northwestern direction, traverses the whole of the southern district. North of this branch the soil is rich, consisting of a loam, in which clay and sand are so happily mixed with vegetable mould as to yield the most abundant crops. South of these hills the land is poorer, inclining to sand and moss, but even there rich tracts are not unfrequent. The slope of the country is chiefly in two directions: the larger toward the Dnieper, which is the chief, and indeed the only navigable stream, and runs along the eastern 124 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. and northeastern confines of the district above two hundred and twenty miles; the other in the direction of the southwest, toward the basin of the Boug. Both of these rivers have several tributaries in the government. There are no lakes of any extent, but in the northern parts considerable marshes exist. The climate of this province is remarkably mild and dry. The rivers freeze in December, and are again open in February. In summer, the heat is so great, and the quantity of rain so small, that the channels of many streams become dry. Large crops of all kinds of grain are raised, and the return is said to be generally as six to one. Cattle are numerous, large, and of a fine breed, and much attention is paid to the dairy; the horses are small, but hardy. The forests are not very extensive, but the timber is of excellent quality. Manufactures, exclusive of those carried on in the houses of the peasantry, can hardly be said to exist. The principal trade of the province is in the hands of the Jews. There is a large export of grain, cattle, honey, wax, and tobacco. The city of Kiev, the capital of the above government, is six hundred and fifty miles south of St. Petersburg. It stands picturesquely, crowning several heights of undulating ground, on the right bank of the Dnieper, here crossed by a magnificent suspension-bridge, and properly consists of three towns, each of which has its separate fortifications and suburbs. The first is Petchersk, or, as it is called, the New Fort, which crowns a rugged steep to the south, and is a place of strength, having a rampart with nine bastions, and regular outworks. Besides the barracks, magazines, and official residences connected with the garrison, it contains several churches, of which the most remarkable is that of St. Nicholas Thaumaturgus, which is built of wood, and stands near the tomb of Oskold, a celebrated prince and saint, who is said to have been converted to Christianity in Greece. In the same neighborhood stands the famous monastery of Petscherskoi, surrounded by a wall eleven hundred yards long; so called from the Rus- sian word pestchera (a cavern), in which the monks are said to have dwelt before the monastery was built. This cavern, said to have been hollowed out by St. Anthony, contains a number of catacombs, forming a kind of labyrinth, filled with the bodies of saints and martyrs. His remains are therein preserved at the extremity of the labyrinth. This passage is about six feet high, but extremely narrow, and blackened by the torches of the numerous visiters. About eighty bodies are here preserved, ranged in niches on both sides of the passage, in open coffins, enveloped in wrappers of cloth and silk, ornamented with gold and silver. The stiffened hands are so placed as to receive the devotional kisses of the pilgrims; and on their breasts are written their names, and sometimes a short record of their virtuous deeds. These saints had died a natural death; but the most distressing part of the scene is a row of small windows, behind which the deluded martyrs had built themselves into a stone wall, leaving only those apertures at which to receive their food: these little windows close at once LITTLE RUSSIA — KIEV. 125 their dwelling and their tomb. The catacombs of Theodosius are to the south of those of St. Anthony, and are on a much smaller scale and simpler plan. They contain but forty-five bodies, and these remains are not so highly venerated as those in the other catacomb. The pilgrims to this monastery and catacombs amount annually to as many as fifty thousand, or more; some from one part of the widely-extended Russian empire, some from another. A few will toil even all the weary way from Kamtschatka, collecting on the road the offerings of those who are not able or not sufficiently devout to undertake the journey themselves. A short distance from the road which leads from Petchersk to the Podol, stands a handsome monument, that marks the fountain in which the chil- dren of Vladimir the Great were baptized. It is a stone obelisk, one hun- dred and fifty feet high; and close to its base is a wooden crucifix, bear- ing, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, the words-"Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." The administration of the baptismal rite to the Rus- sian people, at the period of the conversion of their renowned grand-duke, took place very near the spot on which this monument stands. The second town is Kiev proper, and occupies a height toward the north, lower than that on which Petchersk stands, and less regularly fortified. It contains the venerable cathedral of St. Sophia, founded, in 1037, by the grand-duke Yaroslav-Vladimirovich, to commemorate a victory. The chief object of interest in it is a marble tomb of its founder, the only one of the kind known in Russia, and said to give a good idea of the arts there in the eleventh century. Most of the houses in Kiev proper belong to this cathe- dral and the convent of St. Michael. The site of the Old Town (as Kiev proper is called), in remote ages, was the Slavonian Pantheon. There the worshippers of Perune, Horsa, Lado, and other idolatrous deities, rendered homage to their savage gods; and there the rough Christian Vladimir erected the church of St. Basil (still standing), on the spot long desecrated by the temple of Perune, the Russian Jupiter. The third town, called Podol, occupies the lower ground, and is inhab- ited chiefly by the middle and lower classes. It is regularly laid out, in- terspersed with trees and gardens, and presents a strong contrast to the old parts of the city, where at almost every turn the picturesque presents itself in great variety. Kiev has (in all its different quarters) some thirty churches; its streets are generally broad, and it contains an archbishop's palace, prison, town and military hospital; a university, founded in 1833, attended by about fifteen hundred students; an academy, a gymnasium, and a printing-press for the Scriptures and ritual-books of the Greek church. It has some manufactories of leather and pottery, and a bell- foundry, and is celebrated for its confectionery. Its trade has become extensive, particularly since Odessa was built; and it has a large annual fair in January, which lasts three weeks. Kiev possesses considerable historical interest, as the spot on which ; 126 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Christianity was first planted among the barbarous hordes of the steppes of Russia, and as having been, for a considerable time, the recognised capital of the empire. But it subsequently underwent many vicissitudes; being sometimes subject to the Lithuanians, the Tartars, and the Poles. In 1686, however, it was finally ceded to Russia, and has ever since con- tinued in her possession. It has a population of about sixty thousand. The government of PODOLIA, or PODOLSK, lies between the forty-seventh and fiftieth degrees of north latitude, and the twenty-eighth and thirty- first degrees of east longitude; and is bounded on the north by Volhynia, on the northeast by Kiev, on the east and south by Kherson, on the south- west by Bessarabia, and on the west by Austrian Galicia. Its greatest length from northwest to southeast is two hundred and fifty miles, and its greatest breadth eighty miles, comprising an area of about fifteen thousand square miles. The surface of the country, though on the whole level, is considerably diversified, being traversed from northwest to southeast by a low branch of the Carpathians, which gradually descends toward the east, and is finally lost in a kind of steppe. None of the hills of this branch have a height exceeding five hundred feet. They form the water-shed of the govern- ment, sending its waters on the northeast side to the Boug, and on the southwest to the Dniester, and ultimately through both to the Black sea. There are no lakes of any consequence. The climate is temperate, bring- ing both the vine and the mulberry to maturity; and the air is generally salubrious, though in some quarters endemical diseases occasionally prevail. The soil is very much encumbered with stones, but is, notwithstanding, of remarkable fertility, producing an amount of grain which, after satisfy- ing the home consumption, leaves about one third of the whole for export. The principal crops, after the different grains, are hemp, flax, tobacco, and hops, together with beans and various fruits. The culture of the vine is on the increase, though not yet of much importance; and orchard and gar- den husbandry is conducted in a negligent manner, notwithstanding which large quantities of fine melons, gourds, cherries, &c., are raised. The meadows and pastures are extensive, and of great luxuriance, rearing im- mense herds of cattle, which are of an excellent breed, and much prized in Germany, to which they are extensively exported. The sheep yield but indifferent wool. A good many hogs are raised, as well as poultry and bees. The forests are estimated to cover nearly three millions of acres, only a small proportion of which belongs to the crown; they furnish excel- lent ship-timber. Game is scarce, but the fisheries are highly productive. Saltpetre, lime, and alabaster, are the principal mineral products. Taken as a whole, this province ranked as one of the most valuable of Poland, as it now does of the Russian empire. Manufactures have made but little progress; except distilleries, there are only a few woollen-cloth, leather, potash, and saltpetre factories. The • 127 WESTERN RUSSIA — PODOLIA. trade, in addition to the export of grain to Odessa, and cattle to Galicia and Germany, embraces a considerable number of small articles, and is almost entirely in the hands of the Jews. Podolia is divided into twelve districts. It is one of the ten govern- ments privileged with respect to its judicial administration and the distil- lation of spirits. Education is under the superintendence of the university of Kiev, and is in a miserably-neglected state. There is only a single printing-press. The province is under the military governor of Kiev. The inhabitants are principally Poles, but include some Russians, and about one hundred and fifty thousand Jews. Most of the Poles and Russians belong to the Greek church. Kaminietz (Polish, Kaminiec Podolski), the capital of Podolia, is situ- ated on the Smotryez, about twelve miles from its junction with the Dniester, two hundred and fifteen miles southeast of Kiev, and three hundred north- west of Odessa. It is irregularly laid out, with narrow streets, and wooden houses. It has, however, some conspicuous edifices of stone and other solid materials; including the cathedral, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, a Gothic building containing fifteen altars and a nave, supported by one hundred and fifty columns. Near it is a column supporting a statue of the Savior. The church of the Dominicans, originally constructed of wood, in 1360, was rebuilt in stone after the expulsion of the Turks in the eighteenth century. There are in all five Roman catholic and four Greek churches, and one Armenian church, a fine edifice, completed in 1767. The Roman catholics have several convents. The other chief public buildings are the government library, circle school, and new gymnasium. The pop- ulation is about fifteen thousand. The town was formerly walled, but its works were levelled, by order of the Russian government, in 1812, though Balbi says they have been since restored. It is, moreover, defended by a citadel and another fortress: the former, situated on a steep, isolated rock, overlooking the town, might be made impregnable, but it is commanded by some more lofty adjacent heights. Kaminietz was, however, for a lengthened period, the principal bulwark of Poland on the side of Turkey. It was founded by the sons of Olgherd, in 1331, after that prince had wrested Podolia from the Tartars. It was soon after fortified, and in 1374 attained the rank of a city. It remained attached to Poland till its final capture by the Russians in 1793, except from 1672 to 1699, during which it was in the possession of the Turks. Among the chief towns of the province, after Kaminietz, is Balta, situ- ated on the Kadynia, near the southern boundary, and capital of a circle of Podolia. Before the annexation of this part of Poland to Russia, one half of the town belonged to the palatinate of Breslau, and the other to the khan of Tartary. Some excesses committed by a party of Cossacks here in 1767, were one of the ostensible causes of the war which broke out soon after between the Russians and the Turks, during which the town of Balta was laid in ashes by the former. 128 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The government of VOLHYNIA, formerly belonging to Poland, lies princi- pally between the fiftieth and fifty-second degrees of north latitude, and the twenty-fourth and twenty-ninth degrees of east longitude, having on the northeast and north the governments of Grodno and Minsk; on the east and southeast, Kiev; on the south, Podolia; on the southwest, Aus- trian Poland; and on the west, the palatinate of Lublin. It has an area of about twenty-nine thousand square miles. The surface is in general an undulating plain; and the hills, which are the last ramifications of the Carpathians, though they nowhere rise to three hundred feet above the level of the sea, give an agreeable variety to the scenery. The Boug rises in this province: the other principal rivers are the Styr, Goryne, &c., tributaries of the Pripet. Along some of these are extensive marshes and beds of turf; but in general the land is very fertile, producing at an average a considerable surplus of grain above the con- sumption. A good deal of flax and hemp is also grown. Agriculture is, however, not more advanced than in the Lithuanian provinces; and the gardens and orchards, particularly the former, are much neglected. The climate, though comparatively mild, is not warm enough for the vine. The forests comprise oak, beech, lindens, firs, pines, &c., and are very exten- sive, though only about two hundred square miles of forest-land belong to the crown. The pastures are excellent, and well adapted for the fattening of cattle; a good many sheep, hogs, and poultry, are kept. Volhynia has a breed of horses smaller than the generality of those of Poland. Fishing is an occupation of some importance; bog-iron, millstones, potter's clay, nitre, and flint, are among the mineral products. Though agriculture is the chief occupation of the inhabitants, the manu- facturing industry of Volhynia is greater than that of most other parts of Western Russia. The women, almost everywhere, spin and weave differ- ent fabrics; and leather, glass, and earthenware, paper, potash, tar, char- coal, &c., are generally made. The principal exports are, however, grain, cattle, hides, flour, wool, wax, honey, and other rural produce. The trade is principally in the hands of the Jews, of whom there are about forty thou- sand in the government. The rest of the population consists of Rusniaks, with Poles in the towns, and some Great Russians, gipsies, Tartars, Mol- davians, and Germans. The inhabitants are mostly of the Greek or united church. Volhynia is divided into twelve districts. The principal towns are Jito- mir, the capital, Berditschev, Storo-Konstantov, Ostrog, and Kremenets. Public education appears to be less backward in this than in most of the Russian governments. Volhynia, like Podolia, is subordinate to the mili- tary governor of Kiev, but is one of the Polish provinces which preserves, in some degree, its ancient constitution and laws. Jitomir (Polish, Zytomir, or Zytomiers), the capital of the above gov ernment, is situated on the left bank of the river Teterew, six hundred and seventy miles south-southwest from St. Petersburg. It is the see of both WESTERN RUSSIA 129 VOLHYNIA — MINSK. PORLUES.YS VOLHYNIAN PEASANT-GIRL ENGAGED IN SPINNING. a Greek and a Roman catholic bishop; has manufactures of leather and hats, and an active trade in linen, silk, and woollen goods, wax, honey, Hungarian wines, salt, and tallow. It also has four important annual fairs. Its population is rising thirty thousand. Berditschev (Polish, Berdyczew), another town in the government of Volhynia, twenty-five miles south of Jitomir, is an ill-built place, but con- tains several churches, and a large Carmelite convent, in the church of which is an image of the Virgin Mary, the object of pilgrimages. It car- ries on a considerable trade in grain, wine, cattle, honey, wax, and leather, and is celebrated for its quarterly fairs. At these, goods to the value of three millions of dollars are disposed of, and much business is done, espe- cially with Austrian dealers. An almanac of great repute is printed here. Its population is about twenty thousand, comprising many Jews. The government of MINSK lies between the fifty-first and fifty-sixth de- grees of north latitude, and the twenty-fifth and thirty-first degrees of east longitude, bounded north and northeast by the government of Vitepsk, east by Moghilev and Tchernigov, south by Kiev and Volhynia, and west by Grodno and Wilna. In shape it bears a considerable resemblance to an isosceles triangle, with its vertex in the north, and its base resting on the 9 130 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. south its greatest length from north to south is two hundred and ninety miles, and its average breadth one hundred and fifty, comprising an area of about thirty-seven thousand square miles. This government, though generally flat, is traversed in the north by part of the great dorsal ridge which forms the water-shed between the basins of the Baltic and the Black sea. To the former basin the northern portion sends its waters by the Duna (which, besides forming the northern bound- ary of the government, receives the Desna from within it), and by the Nie- men or Memel, which, together with its affluent the Vilia, rises in the gov- ernment. To the latter basin the southern portion sends its waters by the Dnieper, which, besides bounding the government on the southeast, receives from it the Berezina and the Pripet, each augmented by numerous tributa- ries. In this southern portion large marshy tracts extend on both banks of the Pripet, and in spring are generally under water, giving the whole country the appearance of one vast lake. In such circumstances, anything like a regular system of agriculture is altogether impracticable. Where the surface is more elevated, and less exposed to inundation, it is to a great extent covered with sand, or with a poor, sandy soil, it being only in par- ticular patches that a fertile loam occurs. Barley and oats are grown in far greater quantity than might be expected in the circumstances, and fully equal to the consumption. Hemp and flax are also raised in considerable quantities, and hops and tobacco occasionally. The chief wealth of the country is in its forests, which occupy a large part of the surface, and, where the ground is dry, yield excellent timber. A great proportion of the inhabitants are employed in felling it, and pre- paring it for market. Neither manufactures nor trade have made much progress. The former are in a great measure confined to linen-weaving; the latter consists chiefly of wood, mats, potash, meal, hemp, flax, honey, wax, and some horses and horned cattle. The inhabitants are mostly Rusniaks, of the orthodox or united Greek church, but Roman catholicism is generally professed by the higher classes. The women are handsome, and appear on the sabbath decked out in all their finery. The Jews in this province number about one hundred thou- sand. For administrative purposes, Minsk is divided into ten districts or circles― Minsk, the capital, Wilnika, Desna, Borisov, Igumen, Bobrowisk, Slutsk, Pinsk, Mozyr, and Retschitza. Minsk, the capital of the above government, is situated on the Svislotsch, four hundred and thirty miles southwest of St. Petersburg. It is irregu larly built, with narrow and dirty streets. The houses are generally mean, and of wood, but some fine edifices occur among the palaces of the nobility. It is the see of a Greek archbishop and of a Roman catholic bishop, and contains two castles, several Greek and catholic churches, a Greek monas- tery, a synagogue, and a gymnasium. It has manufactures of woollen cloth, hats, and leather, and considerable trade. Its population is fifteen thousand. Under the Poles, Minsk was the capital of the palatinate of the same name. WESTERN RUSSIA - MOGHILEV. 131 The government of MOGHILEV, or MOHILEF (Polish, Mohilow), lies mostly between the fifty-second and fifty-fifth degrees of north latitude, and the twenty-ninth and thirty-second degrees of east longitude. It is bounded north by the government of Vitepsk, east by Smolensk, southeast and south by Tchernigov, and west by Minsk. Its greatest length from north to south is two hundred and ten miles, and its central breadth one hundred and twelve, containing an area of about nineteen thousand square miles. Though containing part of the water-shed which divides Europe into two great basins, the surface of this province is generally flat, consisting of a very extensive southern and a much smaller northern plain. The former belongs to the Duna, and sends its waters to it by two small tributaries; the latter to the Dnieper, which, besides traversing a great part of it cen- trally, and forming part of its southwestern boundary, is also augmented within it by the Drutz on the right, and the Soj, with its tributaries Ostr and Besed, on the left. Besides these rivers, the government has several small lakes, and numerous large swamps. The climate is comparatively mild for the latitude. Much of the soil is fertile, and, though under very imperfect culture, produces good crops of rye, barley, oats, hemp, and flax; in other parts, the soil consists either of a cold, damp, hungry clay, or of a loose and almost sterile sand. A considerable portion of the surface is well wooded with oak and fir, and furnishes excellent ship-timber, particularly masts, which are floated down the rivers to the Black sea, and supply the dock- yards of Odessa, Sevastopol, &c. All along the banks of the rivers are rich meadows, on which large numbers of fine cattle are fed. Sheep also are numerous, and have been very much improved by crossing with the breed of Saxony. The rivers abound with fish, and the forests with game. Bog-iron ore occurs in extensive beds, and is worked to a very limited extent. The manufactures and trade are almost wholly in the hands of the Jews, and very insignificant. The former include a few coarse woollen, linen, and cotton tissues, candles, soap, glass, and leather; the latter is chiefly in timber, floated north by the Duna to the Baltic, or south by the Dnieper and its tributaries to the Black sea. There is also a small export of hemp, flax, tallow, and potash. For administrative purposes, the government is divided into twelve dis- tricts; its chief towns are Moghilev and Mstislaw. The inhabitants are mostly Russians and Jews, with some Poles, Lithuanians, Moldavians, and Wallachs; and their circumstances are, for the most part, far from com- fortable. Their religion is partly that of the Greek and partly of the Roman catholic church. Moghilev, the capital of the government, is situated on the right bank of the Dnieper, two hundred and twelve miles west-southwest of Moscow. It consists of four quarters, two of which are surrounded by a rampart, and form the town, properly so called; the third, built on a height, forms 132 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. the Kremlin, or citadel; the fourth is a suburb. The town is tolerably well built, partly, of stone and partly of wood, and the streets are wide and paved. Near the centre is a large octagonal square, surrounded by hand- some stone buildings; among others, the bazar, and the palace of the Greek archbishop. The number of churches is twenty, of which the Roman cath- olics have five, and the Lutherans one. The Jews, who are numerous, have two synagogues. There are also four convents, two ecclesiastical semina- ries, a gymnasium, high school, hospital, several poorhouses, and a prison. The staple manufacture is tobacco; and an extensive trade is carried on with Riga, Memel, Dantzic, and Odessa, in leather, wax, honey, potash, oil, and grain. Moghilev, besides being the residence of the principal authorities of the government, is the headquarters of the Russian "army of the west;" and is the see of both a Greek and a Roman catholic archbishop, the latter hav- ing authority over all the Roman catholics of Poland and Russia. Many of the Russian nobility reside here; and a great part of the ground in the vicinity is occupied by gardens. Its fairs are well attended. The epoch of its foundation is unknown. After several times changing masters, it was finally annexed to Russia in 1772. It has a population of about six- teen or eighteen thousand. The government of VITEPSK (Vitebsk, or Witepsk) lies principally be- tween the fifty-fifth and fifty-seventh degrees of north latitude, and the twenty-sixth and thirty-second degrees of east longitude; having the gov- ernment of Pskov on the northeast, Smolensk and Moghilev on the south- east, Minsk and Courland on the southwest, and Livonia on the northwest. Its area is about sixteen thousand eight hundred square miles. The surface of the country is generally level, though on the banks of the rivers there are occasionally some low hills. The rivers and small lakes are numerous: of the former, which all flow toward the Baltic, the Duna is the principal. Notwithstanding the soil is but of medium fertility, and agriculture is in a very backward state, more grain is produced than is required to supply the wants of the inhabitants. Hemp and flax are grown on a large scale, with peas, beans, hops, fruits, &c., in the smaller enclo- The forests are very extensive, two hundred and seventy thousand acres of forest-land belonging to the crown. The grass-lands are also ex- tensive, and a good many horses and cattle are reared, though of inferior breeds. The sheep yield only coarse wool; and honey is also of inferior quality. The mineral products and manufactures are insignificant; the last being, with the exception of a few cloth-factories, almost wholly re- stricted to distilleries and tanneries. sures. The trade of the government is facilitated by the Duna and the canal of Berezina. it is chiefly in the hands of the merchants of the principal towns, many of whom are Jews. This government is divided into twelve circles. The chief towns are Vitepsk, Wieliz, Dunuburg, Polotzk, and Rejitsa. WESTERN RUSSIA VITEPSK WILNA. 133 Vitepsk, the capital of the above government, is situated on both banks of the Duna, where it receives the Viteba, three hundred and thirty miles south by west of St. Petersburg. Its population is about eighteen thou- sand. It is irregularly built, and is surrounded by old walls: it has nu- merous Greek and some Roman catholic churches, convents, and Jewish synagogues. Though by far the greater number of its houses are of wood, it has some dwellings of stone, a high school, a bazar, an old castle, sev- eral hospitals, &c.; with manufactures of woollen cloths, and tanneries. The grand-duke Constantine, brother to the present emperor of Russia, and viceroy of Poland, died at Vitepsk on the 27th of June, 1832. The government of WILNA, or VILNA, lies principally between the fifty- fourth and fifty-sixth degrees of north latitude, and the twenty-first and twenty-seventh degrees of east longitude, having the government of Cour- land on the north, that of Minsk on the east, Grodno on the south, and Poland and Prussia on the southwest. It has an area of about twenty- four thousand four hundred square miles. This province is a vast plain; there being only, in different parts, a few sandhills, reaching sometimes to the height of two hundred feet, and abounding with fossil, shells, &c. Its principal rivers are the Wilna, a tributary of the Niemen, and the Niemen, which forms its southwestern boundary. Lakes are numerous, particularly in the east and northeast. The soil is partly sandy and partly marshy; but in many places it consists of a fertile alluvial deposite. The climate, though severe, is not so cold as in some of the adjacent governments: the mean temperature of the year is about forty-five degrees Fahrenheit. Agriculture is almost the sole occupation of the inhabitants, and rather more grain is grown than is required for home consumption. Rye is the grain principally cultivated. Hemp and flax are rarely grown; and hops and pulse are raised in gardens: fruits are neglected. The forests are very extensive, a large proportion of forest-land belonging to the crown: and there is a considerable trade in deals, timber, tar, potash, and other woodland products. Lime-trees are very abundant; and to this cause is attributed the excellence of the honey, for which this government is famous. The breeding of stock is neglected; the horses are, however, strong and active, though of small size, Game is very plentiful: elks, wild boars, bears, wolves, &c., are numerous; occasionally the urus, or wild bull, is met with; and fox, martin, and squirrel skins, are articles of trade. The mineral products are unimportant. Manufactures have increased a little of late; but they are still quite inconsiderable. Dr. Granville says of Chavli, a town of some two thousand inhabitants, in this government: "It consists of a long street of low, gable-roofed huts of wood, and presenting a general appearance of the most squalid misery. This may be considered as a fair specimen of the second-rate towns in the government of Wilna, and indeed all over Russia and Poland." The ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. 134 WIND RUSSIAN VILLAGE-PARTY OF HUNTERS. accompanying engraving shows one of these villages, where a party have just arrived from the chase. The trade of this government, which is almost entirely in the hands of the Jews, is principally in timber and agricultural produce, sent down the Duna to Riga, or by land into Prussia. Wilna is divided into eleven dis- tricts; the chief towns are Wilna, the capital, and Kowno. It is not sub- ject to the government monopoly of ardent spirits; and preserves several of its old forms of administration. As respects education, it is, though far behind, in advance of many of the other governments. Wilna, the capital of the above government, and formerly the capital of Lithuania, is situated at the confluence of the Wilenka and Wilna, ninety miles northeast of Grodno. It is surrounded by undulating hills, and en- closed by a wall. Its streets are narrow and crooked, and its houses mostly of timber, though it has several hundred dwellings built of brick or stone. Formerly a royal castle of the Jagellons existed here, but noth- ing is left of it except its ruins. The cathedral, founded in 1387, has some good paintings, and many chapels, one of which, appropriated to St. Casimir, and built wholly of marble, is very handsome. The body of the saint is preserved here in a silver coffin, made by order of Sigismund III., king of Poland, and weighing, it is said, three thousand pounds! The church of St. John is surrounded by the buildings of the university, founded in 1578, and suppressed by the Russian government in 1832. Here are in all about forty churches, numerous convents, a mosque, and four synagogues, a magnificent town-hall, an arsenal, exchange, theatre, two hospitals, barracks, magazines, &c. The governor's palace, and some residences of the nobility, are fine buildings. WESTERN RUSSIA- GRODNO. 135 Previously to its dissolution, the university of Wilna was in a flourishing state, and possessed an observatory, collections in mineralogy and anatomy, and a library of fifty-two thousand volumes. A medico-chirurgical school, to which are attached the botanic garden and some of the university col- lections, an ecclesiastical seminary, and two gymnasia, are the principal public schools: the greater part of the university establishment has been removed to Kiev. The city also possesses deaf and dumb and foundling asylums, various other charitable institutions, a few manufactures, and a considerable trade. Wilna was founded in 1322, and is reported to have had, in the middle of the sixteenth century, one hundred thousand inhabitants, though this, no doubt, is a gross exaggeration. Its present population is about forty thou- sand. It has undergone many vicissitudes, and often suffered severely from fire. It was taken by the Russians in 1794. The government of GRODNO is situated between the fifty-first and fifty- fourth degrees of north latitude, and the twenty-fourth and twenty-eighth degrees of east longitude, extending two hundred and seventy miles from north to south, and two hundred and thirty from east to west at the broad- est part, comprising an area of about fifteen thousand square miles It is bounded on the north by the government of Wilna, on the east by Minsk, on the south by Volhynia, and on the west by Russian Poland and the province of Bialystok. The surface of the country, with the exception of a few chalk-hills, is nearly an entire level, and a great portion of it covered with forests of pine and swamps, the former belonging chiefly to the crown. There are, however, extensive tracts of fertile land, which produce heavy crops of rye and barley, exceeding the home consumption. Hops, hemp, and flax, are likewise raised in considerable quantities. Fruits and vegetables are grown, but do not abound. The cultivation of bees occupies much atten- tion, and large quantities of excellent honey and wax are obtained. The forests abound with wild boars, wolves, and bears; elks and roebucks are also met with. The principal rivers are the Niemen, Boug, and Narew. The climate is extremely rigorous in winter, and the air is often damp and misty. Horned cattle and sheep are raised in considerable numbers. The minerals, of which there are few, consist of iron, limestone, building-stone, clay, and saltpetre. The manufactures, not very extensive, consist chiefly of woollen-stuffs, hats, and leather. The principal articles of exportation are grain, cattle, wool, leather, hops, honey, and wax, sent chiefly to Riga, Memel, and Königsburg. The greater part of the inhabitants are Rusniaks, except in the north, where Lithuanians prevail. The nobles are principally Poles, and com- prise about one twenty-fourth part of the whole population! The Jews number about seventy thousand. There are some Tartars and colonies of German artisans. The prevailing religions are the Roman catholic and 136 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. united Greek church. The government is divided into eight districts. Its chief towns are Grodno, Novogrodek, Slonim, and Volkovitohk. Grodno, capital of the above government, is situated partly on an emi- nence, and partly in a valley, on the right bank of the Niemen, two hun- dred and ten miles northeast of Warsaw. It is irregularly built, and con- sists of stone and wooden houses intermingled. Two or three of the streets are well paved and tolerably well kept, but the others are in great disor- der, and excessively dirty. It contains three handsome palaces, one of which was erected by Augustus III., king of Poland. The market-place is spacious and convenient. There are nine Roman catholic churches, two Greek, one Lutheran, and a synagogue; a gymnasium; a medical school, with a library, founded by King Stanislaus Augustus; a cabinet, contain- ing objects of natural history; a botanic garden; and some fine residences of the nobility. Woollens, silk stuffs, linen, hats, cards, firearms, &c., are manufactured, and there are three annual fairs. There is also a consider- able trade on the Niemen. Grodno is as old as the twelfth century, and was formerly considered the second town of Lithuania, and even disputed the superiority of Wilna. Its population is about sixteen thousand. BIALYSTOK is a province which formerly belonged to Poland, but was ceded to Russia by the treaty of Tilsit, in 1807, between Napoleon and Al- exander. It has the government of Grodno on the east, and is surrounded on all other sides by Russian Poland. It is divided into four districts. Bialystok, Sokolka, Bielsk, and Drohiczya-comprising an area of three thousand four hundred square miles. The surface is flat, with some slight undulations; the soil is generally sandy, but not infertile. It is bounded on the south by the western Boug, a navigable affluent of the Vistula, which is its principal channel of com- munication. The forests are extensive and valuable (two hundred and fifty thousand acres belonging to the crown), abounding with game, bears, wolves, &c. Agriculture is the chief employment, and considerable quantities of grain (especially rye and wheat), with linseed, hops, and timber, are sent to Dantzic and Elbing. The nobles are numerous, being estimated at nine thousand families, or fifty thousand individuals; but the great bulk of them are steeped in poverty, many being compelled to cultivate their little patches of land with their own hands, or hire themselves to others. Manufacturing industry is all but unknown, and only the most common and indispensable trades are carried on. Bialystok, the capital of the above province, is a handsome town of about eight thousand inhabitants. Its houses are constructed generally of brick, with the gables to the streets, which are straight and well paved. It has a criminal court, gymnasium, &c. The castle and fine domain formerly possessed by the counts of Braniski (who held the office of grand hetmân of the Polish crown), called the "Versailles of Poland," is the distinguish- ing feature of the town. RUSSIAN POLAND. 137 POLAND CHAPTER V. RUSSIAN POLAND. OLAND (called by the Latins, Sarmatia; by the Poles, Polska, signi- fying "Flat Land," or "Plain Country;" by the Germans, Polen; and by the French, Pologne) was formerly the name of an indepen- dent and extensive country of central Europe, comprising the territories between the forty-eighth and fifty-eighth degrees of north latitude, and the fifteenth and thirty-third degrees of east longitude; including, with Poland proper, Lithuania, Samogitia, Courland, the Ukraine, Podolia, and other provinces, now belonging to Russia, with Galicia, belonging to Austria, the province of Posen, and some other districts in Prussia. In its greatest prosperity it had about eleven millions of inhabitants, and an area of two hundred and eighty-four thousand square miles (being about equal in extent to France, England, and Scotland). Stretching, as will be seen, from the frontiers of Hungary and Turkey to the Baltic, and from Germany far east into ancient Muscovy, the territory thus bounded formed one vast and re- markably compact kingdom, divided into Great and Little Poland in the west; Masovia and Podlachia in the centre; Volhynia, Podolia, and the Ukraine, in the east; and Lithuania in the northeast: the principal subdi- vision was into thirty-one palatinates and starostys (or districts). The existing kingdom of Poland, however, constituted by the congress of Vienna in 1815, which is now united to the Russian empire, and com- monly denominated RUSSIAN POLAND, is of comparatively limited dimen- sions, extending only between the fiftieth and fifty-fifth degrees of north latitude, and the eighteenth and twenty-fourth degrees of east longitude; having on the north, Prussia proper and the government of Wilna; on the east, the governments of Wilna, Grodno (with the province of Bialystok), and Volhynia; on the south, Austrian Poland; and on the west, Prussian Poland (the grand-duchy of Posen) and Silesia. Its greatest length from east to west is about three hundred miles, and its greatest breadth from north to south two hundred and fifty, comprising an area of forty-seven thousand six hundred square miles, being a little larger than the state of New York. Of the population, about three fourths consist of Poles, one tenth of Jews, and the remainder principally of Russians, Germans, Tartars, and gipsies, the whole amounting to about five millions of souls. 138 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The whole country, except in the south, where are some scattered offsets from the Carpathian mountains, is an extended plain, with a general slope toward the Baltic, in which its principal rivers have their embouchure. These are the Vistula (with its tributaries the Wieprz, Bug, Narew, Pilica, &c.), the Niemen, and the Warta. The Vistula, after bounding the king- dom for a lengthened distance on the south, traverses its centre, leaving it near Thorn. The Niemen, Bobr, and Bug, bound nearly all the eastern, and the Prosna, a tributary of the Warta, a considerable part of the west- ern frontier. These rivers are all more or less navigable. There are innumerable smaller streams, Poland being an extremely well-watered coun- try; and, in the north, east, and west, are a great number of lakes and many very extensive marshes. The surface, though flat, is abundantly diversified, presenting alternately fertile grain-lands, savage steppes, rich pastures, sandy wastes, dense for- ests, and dreary swamps. The climate is rigorous: the cold of winter is often as great as in Sweden, in a latitude ten degrees higher; and in 1799 the thermometer descended to twenty-nine degrees below zero (Fahrenheit). In summer, however, the heat sometimes rises to one hundred and twenty degrees (Fahr.)! The mean temperature of the year at Warsaw is about forty-six degrees Fahr. The atmosphere is humid, rainy and cloudy days occupying half the year. Between the Vistula and the Prussian frontier the soil is generally fer- tile, the most productive districts being in the governments of Kalisch and Sandomir, and the neighborhood of Warsaw. In the northeast are also some very fertile tracts; but even there, and in the governments of Plock, Lublin, &c., the surface is in great part waste. "The traveller in Poland," says Burnett, "sometimes finds himself in an expanse of surface almost without a house, a tree, or any single object large enough to attract his notice. Soon, however, are descried the skirts of some vast forest fringing the distant horizon; and, on entering it, we proceed for eight or ten miles, more or less, winding with the road, through lofty pines, &c., precluded from the sight of all objects but trees and shrubs. Sometimes, in the midst of a forest, we meet with a small spot of ground (for example, of ten or twenty acres) cleared and cultivated; its sides prettily fenced by the green, surrounding woods. Sometimes a small lake is found thus situated, its borders ornamented in a similar manner: and these, generally speaking, are the prettiest scenes which Poland furnishes. These forests, in some places, are fifteen and even twenty miles in all directions. Indeed, if we exclude morasses and the level pasture-lands, perhaps not more than half the country, speaking generally, is cleared. At distant intervals are found plains of some extent, affording rich pas- turage. The best are those contiguous to the Vistula, some of which are periodically overflowed by that river. Such are those in the neighborhood of Warsaw, which supply that town with good butchers' meat." This description was written early in the present century; and, though RUSSIAN POLAND. 139 a considerable proportion of forest-land has been cleared in the interval, it is still substantially accurate. Of seven hundred and forty-one thousand acres (wloka) of land comprised in the kingdom, two hundred and fifty-five thousand are supposed to be arable; two hundred and five thousand in forest; one hundred and seventy-one thousand in natural pastures, rivers, and marshes; forty-six thousand in meadows; thirty-eight thousand occu- pied with roads and buildings, and twenty-six thousand in gardens. Poland has, for a lengthened period, been the granary of a great part of Europe. But Volhynia, Podolia, and Galicia, formerly included in the Polish dominion, were the principal grain-growing provinces; and within the limits of Russian Poland, except in one or two southwestern provinces, the land, according to Mr. Jacob, is so poor, that it can scarcely be made to yield a medium crop of wheat more than once in nine years. The soil is mostly thin, sandy, or sandy loam, resting chiefly on a bed of granite, through which the heavy grains gradually percolate. South of the Pilica, however, the appearance of the land and the face of the country improve; and as we proceed southward to the Vistula, the surface becomes more undulating, and the soil stronger and more tenacious. In this quarter there are extensive tracts of clayey loam, requiring three or four horses to plough it, and yielding, when tolerably well managed, excellent crops of wheat and oats. Where, in this district, anything like a system of rota- tion is adopted, the crops are very heavy. Some of the estates belonging to the nobility of the highest rank are of enormous extent; and, not long since, those of Prince Czartoryski and Count Zamoyski, taken together, occupied a space nearly equal to half the extent of England, or larger than the states of New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts! In the times of the republic, the former contributed twenty thousand and the latter ten thousand men to the army. Owing, however, to the practice of dividing the land equally among the children, unless a majorat be established in favor of the eldest son, which is some- times the case, much of it is possessed in smaller allotments. These, how- ever, we should still call large, for they mostly vary from five or six thou- sand up to thirty or forty thousand acres each. The rent and price of land are generally low, depending much more on the number of peasants than the extent of the farm. The crown-lands, comprising one third part of the whole surface, or about ten millions of acres, include perhaps two millions of acres of wood, the remainder being chiefly arable land, leased to tenants, who, in consequence, acquire right to the services that may be legally demanded from the peasantry. The tenants of the crown are ex- empted, as well as their peasants, from some taxes to which the other occupiers of land are subject, and in consequence the crown-estates are better stocked with peasants. With this freedom from taxation, and am- ple supply of laborers, the rent of eight millions of acres of land is said to have amounted in a given year to no more than four millions of florins (about half a million of dollars), or somewhat less than six cents the Eng- 140 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. lish acre. But a large extent of land is included in this average that is literally of no value; so that the rent of the cultivable land may be fairly set down at from twenty to thirty cents per acre. In point of fact, how- ever, the money-rent of land, in a country like Poland, without towns and without a market for its produce, affords no test whatever of its real value. Lands belonging to private individuals are rarely, indeed, ever let, except for services to be performed on the other parts of the same estates; and the value of the land is to be determined, not by the amount of the money- rent it will bring, but by the amount of subsistence it affords, or the number of individuals it will maintain in an average state of comfort, according to the customs and habits of the society. Formerly the whole lands of the republic were the property of the no- bility or gentry, and could not be held by any one else. The possession of land was, in fact, of itself a proof of nobility; and the owner of an estate of three acres in extent voted in the elections of nuncios, and, in respect of political rights and privileges, was on a level with the richest nobleman in the country. But this state of things is now wholly changed. Landed property is no longer the appanage of a particular class; but may be indif ferently held by nobles, burghers, and peasants. Jews only are prohibited from becoming proprietors of the soil, though they have numerous mort- gages thereon. When they foreclose, the lands must consequently be sold; and as the Jews, who engross the greater part of the money-capital of the country, can not become purchasers, the prices they yield are very trifling. Latterly, however, some modifications have been made in the regulations respecting the Jews, and various privileges have been conceded to them. The most numerous class of cultivators are peasants, who are a species of quasi proprietors of the lands they occupy, holding them under condition of working a stipulated number of days in each week on their lord's de- mesne, and paying him, in addition, specified quantities of poultry, eggs, yarn, &c. The extent of their holdings varies according to the quality of the land, the quantity of work to be performed, and of payments in kind to be made. On a large property examined by Mr. Jacob, the peasants had each about forty-eight acres of land, for which they were bound to work two days a week with a pair of oxen. If their further labor was required, they were paid at the rate of six cents a day for two days more; and if beyond that number, they received twelve cents a day. On another property the peasants had about thirty-six acres, for which they worked two days a week with two oxen; when called upon for extra labor, they were paid twelve cents a day for themselves and their oxen for the next two days, or, without the oxen, six cents. Under the republic the Polish peasants did not, in fact, enjoy as much consideration as the blacks of our southern states in the present day. They were the absolute property of their masters. Down to 1768, a lord who had killed his serf was merely amerced in a small fine; and, though in that year the offence was made capital, such an accumulation of evidence RUSSIAN POLAND. 141 was required to prove the fact, that the enactment was rendered quite nu- gatory. It was customary to make the serfs work five days a week on the estates of their lords; the latter also might seize on whatever wealth the serfs had accumulated, might inflict on them corporal punishment, and might sell them as if they had been so many head of cattle. The boasted freedom of Poland was, in truth and reality, merely the license of the gen- try to trample under foot the mass of the people, browbeat their sovereign, and sell their votes. It is due, however, to the nobility, to state that some among them—as the Zamoyskis, Czartoryskis, and others-perceived the miserable consequences of such a state of society, and were most anxious for the improvement of the peasantry on their estates, of whom they eman- cipated considerable numbers. Generally, however, the Polish gentry were not inclined to establish or give efficacy to any regulations in favor of the peasantry, of whom they scarcely considered as belonging to the same race of beings with themselves, or as entitled to the common rights of humanity. Under these circumstances, none will be surprised to learn that the Polish peasantry, at the dismemberment of the republic, in 1774, were in the lowest state of degradation, being at once ignorant, indolent, addicted to drunkenness, poor and improvident in the extreme. The servitude of the peasants was modified by the constitution of 1791, and it was wholly abolished in the grand-duchy of Warsaw (nearly identi- cal with the present kingdom) in 1807; the labor and services due by the peasants to their lords having since been regulated and defined by law. Owing to the ignorance of the peasantry, the influence of this great and salutary change was for a lengthened period less considerable than might have been supposed. Though the peasants may now leave one part of the country to settle in another, they must first pay off any debt that may be owing their lords; and from inability to do this, and various other circum- stances, they do not often quit the estates on which they were born. When a young peasant marries, his lord assigns him a certain quantity of land, sufficient for his maintenance and that of his family in the way in which they have been accustomed to live. Should the family grow numerous, some little addition is made to the grant. At the same time, the young couple obtain a few cattle, as a cow or two, with steers to plough their land. These are fed in the stubble, or in the open places in the woods, as the season admits. The master also provides them with a cottage, with implements of husbandry; in short, with all their little movable property. Owing to the powerful influence of old habits, but few peasants improve the little stock committed to their management; their conduct being most frequently marked by carelessness and a want of forecast. This, however, is by no means uniformly the case: there have been many instances of ac- cumulation; indeed, several of the peasants have become proprietors, while others have hired a larger extent of land. But it will require the lapse of a lengthened series of years before any very general change can be made in the habits and condition of the bulk of the people. 142 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Speaking generally, the houses of the Polish peasantry are miserable hovels. They are all built of wood; even those of the better class have merely the ground-floor. On the exterior they are, in every point of view, humble, very often mean in appearance: the interior is occasionally some- what better, though you look in vain for anything like comfort. There are usually two or three ordinary rooms, whitewashed, though only one serves, for the most part, as a sitting-room. The floors are sometimes of earth only, but more frequently planked. A bed stands almost always in every room. The villages, which are of the most wretched description, are thinly scattered, rather along the skirts than in the midst of the forests, and some- times in vast bare heaths, where no other object is to be seen. They con- sist of from ten to fifty miserable huts, rudely constructed of timber, and covered over with straw, turf, or shingles; and afford so imperfect a shel- ter, that the inhabitants are glad to stop up the chimneys in winter, and to be half smothered with smoke, rather than die of cold. Each of these huts consists generally of only one apartment, with a stove, round which the inhabitants and their cattle crowd together. Bad as these villages are, you may travel ten miles, even in the clear part of the country, without seeing one, or indeed beholding any human habitation. The common diet of the peasantry is cabbage; potatoes sometimes, but not generally; peas, black bread, and soup, or rather gruel, without the addition of butter or meat. Their chief beverage is the cheap whiskey of the country, which they drink in quantities that would astonish the best customers of the gin- palaces of England or of this country. Their houses generally have little that merits the name of furniture; and their clothing is at once coarse and disgustingly filthy. These, however, are only their general characteristics. The condition of the peasantry depends much on the character of their lords, and upon the more or less embarrassed state of the property on which they may be settled. On the estates of opulent and enlightened landlords it is wholly different from what it is on the estates of those of an opposite description, and may indeed be said to be decidedly comfortable. It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to state that, from the labor applied to the lords' estates being rendered as compulsory service, it is performed in the most negligent and slovenly manner possible. All the operations of husbandry are very ill executed: the ploughing is shallow and irregular; the harrows, with wooden tines, do not penetrate sufficiently to root up weeds in fallowing; so that the land is always foul, and in bad order. The same want of attention prevails in thrashing. In short, the natural effects of the system of duty-labor are strikingly visible in the whole admin- istration of most of the large estates where it is followed; and is hardly even prevented from exhibiting itself on the estates belonging to the few proprietors who have intelligent and active managers, and are free from pecuniary embarrassments. The common course of crops is the old system of a whole year's fallow, followed by winter grain, and that by summer RUSSIAN POLAND. 143 grain, and then a fallow again, so that one third of the land bears nothing. The winter crop, in the north of Poland, consists of wheat and rye, the latter being to the former nearly as nine to one, the little manure that is preserved being laid out on the wheat-land. In the southern part of the kingdom the wheat bears a larger proportion to the rye, amounting, on the more tenacious soils, to one fifth, and in some cases to one fourth part, or upward. On a well-managed farm in the province of Lublin, the quanti- ties of seed and produce are said by Mr. Jacob to have been as follows: Potatoes, about twenty bushels to the acre planted, and about two hundred bushels raised; wheat, two bushels sown, and from sixteen to twenty reaped; rye, two bushels sown, and from twelve to fifteen reaped; buck- wheat, three bushels sown, and from ten to fifteen reaped. The barley and oats scarcely yield four times the seed. The stock of cattle is small in proportion to the extent of land and the number of the inhabitants. The Polish horses, formerly held in high esti- mation, have much degenerated, and a good breed is to be met with only in a few studs. A miserable race of colts is employed to transport mer- chandise, and field-labor is almost wholly performed by oxen or cows. The latter are small, and generally kept in bad condition, both as to food and condition. They are mostly stall-fed, but, from negligence, yield very little butter, and no good cheese. Previously to the revolution of 1831, the total number of sheep in Poland was roughly estimated at three mil- lions; but, though the country is extremely well adapted to sheep-breeding, the Polish breeds were greatly inferior to those of Saxony, and there were very few flocks of fine-woolled sheep. Latterly, however, the Polish wool has improved very much in point of quality; and is now sent in large quan- tities to the markets of Leipsic, Berlin, and Breslau, where it sometimes. brings a very high price. Hogs, though not very numerous, are of a good breed, originally from Hungary. The burdens laid directly on the land are not very heavy. Tithes are moderate, and principally compounded for at fixed rates. A small sum is levied in each district for the repair of roads, bridges, and other local pur- poses; but that and the land-tax do not exceed twenty-five per cent. on the presumed annual value of the land, which is usually far below its real value. The other taxes fall equally on the different classes of the community. That on beer is let to farm by the government to the brewers. Heavy duties are laid on foreign commodities, such as sugar, coffee, wine, &c. The great mass of the population can not, however, afford to purchase such luxuries, but content themselves with honey, dried chicory, and whiskey. The forests are highly important, and in. the governments of Augustow and Plock they cover more than a third part of the surface; though in some of the other governments they have been much neglected, especially in the territory adjacent to Krakow, where, however, the place of wood- fuel is supplied by coal. Scotch pine, black fir, alder, aspen, oak, beech, ash, maple, linden, and elm, are the principal forest-trees, and the Polish 144 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Indi NAGBER AN POLISH BISON (URUS), OR LITHUANIAN WILD-BULL. oak and fir timber is of very superior quality. Most of the larger forests belong to the crown, and are felled in portions annually, so as to cut them every fifty years. Among the wild animals of Poland may be specified the bison (Polish, zubr), found in the vast forests of the province of Plock, traversed by the Narew. The emperor Alexander prohibited the chase of the bison, of which, perhaps, the only remnant in Europe is now to be found in Ploçk and the adjoining province of Bialystok. The other wild animals include the elk, roebuck, wild boar, badgers, foxes, hares, &c., the skins of which last form articles of export. Minerals are more numerous and valuable than might have been expected in so flat a country. Bog-iron is found almost everywhere; but the prin- cipal mining districts are in the south, in the government of Sandomir and in Austrian Poland. Coal is raised in considerable quantities at Bendzine, Reden, Niemcy, &c. Zinc, which is exported in considerable quantities, is found in the vicinity of Krakow; lead at Olhusz; and copper at Kielce. Iron of excellent quality is also mined in Sandomir. The domestic manufacture of woollen and other stuffs is universal through- out Poland, almost every agricultural family having a loom for the manu- facture of the coarse cloths required for their consumption. The yarn used to be partly imported from foreign countries, but lately a large spinning- factory has been established at Girardow, which occupies five hundred hands, and produces, besides yarn, a quantity of linen cloth. In 1829, the woollen cloth made in the country was estimated at seven millions of Polish RUSSIAN POLAND. 145 ells, worth upward of seventy millions of florins, about a tenth part of which was sent into Russia. During the disturbed period which followed, the production of Polish woollens sank to one third of what it had previ- ously been; but it has lately revived in consequence of the importation of Polish cloths into Russia, duty free, where they are in extensive demand for the clothing of the troops, and for other purposes. They are also sent in considerable quantities to Kiachta, on the borders of Chinese Tartary. Leather is the manufacture next in importance; and then follow linen and cotton fabrics, sailcloth, paper, bleached wax and wax-candles, alum and other chemical products, glass, printing-types, jewelry, carriages, &c. Gen- erally, however, these articles are produced on a very small scale; and, notwithstanding the cheapness of labor, they are mostly, from the want of skill on the part of the workmen, at once high-priced and inferior. Poland, in fact, is an agricultural country; and, except a few of the more bulky and coarser articles, it would, were the citizens permitted to resort to the cheapest markets, derive almost all its manufactures and articles of luxury from other countries, in exchange for grain, wool, timber, tallow, flax, spir- its, and such like articles. Spirits are distilled in every village from rye and potatoes, but their sale is still, as formerly, a manorial right, each lord of a manor having the exclusive sale of spirits within his domain. There are breweries in Warsaw, and in some other large towns; and mead, and drinks made from raspberries, cherries, &c., principally in the southern provinces, are favorite beverages of the people. Of late years several beet- root sugar factories have been established. The trade of Poland is almost wholly in the hands of the Jews. The internal commerce is carried on chiefly by means of fairs, at which, also, a considerable portion of the foreign trade is conducted. During the revo- lution of 1831, '32, the exports decreased greatly, while the imports were considerably augmented. Since that period, however, the balance has been in a great measure restored. England, Holland, and France, take off, through Dantzic, most of the grain which Poland has to export. But in years when prices are high in the former countries, and when, consequently, there is a great demand for breadstuffs in Dantzic, a good deal of the sup- plies brought to that port come from Galicia. Goods are conveyed in summer by heavy wagons, and in winter by sledges; but the roads are generally bad, and during the insurrection were much cut up. Latterly, however, the imperial government has been exerting itself for their im- provement. Steam-navigation is but in its infancy; and merchandise is at present mostly forwarded down the rivers by flat-bottomed boats to the Prussian ports. But Russia seems to be endeavoring to put a stop to the intercourse between Poland and the Prussian ports on the Baltic, by con- structing a great commercial road from the southwestern angle of Poland to the Baltic; and a railway has been projected to convey from Warsaw to the harbors of Windau and Libau, in Courland, the goods which formerly went to Tilsit or Memel, or by the Pregel to Konigsberg. A similar pur 10 146 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. pose is served by the canal of Augustow, connecting the Narew and Vistula with the Niemen, and which is continued to the Baltic by the Windau canal, in the government of Wilna. The canal of Augustow is ninety-six miles in length, from five to six feet in depth, and of sufficient breadth for two large boats to pass cach other with case. It has seventeen locks, and several convenient basins in different parts of its course. It was wholly completed between 1821 and 1829, and is now the means of an active traffic. Notwithstanding these measures, the Vistula must be regarded as the great natural highway of the country, and Dantzic (formerly belonging to the Polish monarchy) her proper shipping port. Previously to 1831, Poland had its two legislative chambers, those of the deputies and the senate; but after the unhappy attempt at a revolution that then broke out, Russia suppressed these chambers, and Poland is now governed nearly in the same way as the other portions of the empire. The council of administration for the kingdom consists of three directors-gen- eral (of the interior, justice, and finance), a comptroller-general, and other persons appointed by the emperor. The reports of this council are submit- ted to the emperor by a secretary of state for Poland residing in St. Pe- tersburg. There is also in that capital a department for Polish affairs, to which the government of Poland is confided. The legislative power is vested in the sovereign, and the proposed laws for this kingdom are sub- mitted for his sanction by the Russian council of state. The local admin- istration of Poland is exercised by civil governors, with the same powers as those established in the different governments of Russia. The civil and commercial codes at present in force are, for the most part, the same as in France: the criminal code is modelled on that of Prussia and Austria. Personal and religious liberty are nominally guarantied; and those who do not interfere with politics are as secure in Poland as anywhere else. But those who wish to enjoy this security must have a care not to find any fault with any action of the government. The press is under the control of censors, who are stricter here than even in Russia. Justices of the peace decide in civil causes up to the amount of five hun- dred florins; above which the latter come before the tribunals of original jurisdiction in the capitals of the different governments. At Warsaw, be- sides a court of appeal, there is a supreme court of cassation, and commer- cial tribunals are established in all the principal towns. Criminal causes are tried in separate tribunals, of which there are four in the kingdom. Political offences come under the cognizance of a council of war, or a com- mission specially appointed. Until lately, upward of three fourths of the Poles belonged to the Roman catholic, or the united Greek church, the Greco-Russian communicants being but few in number. But of late the Russian government has, by every means, been endeavoring to shake the spiritual dependence on the court of Rome, not only of the Poles, but of the united Greeks throughout the empire; and the measures in this respect appear to have been attended RUSSIAN POLAND. 117 with so much success, that, previously to 1840, from three to four millions of the united Greeks, including most of those of Poland, had joined the orthodox Greek church. Until 1832, the Greco-Russians had no prelate in Poland; but at that period an archimandrite was appointed, who resides at Warsaw. The bishop of the united Greek church resides at Heline, in the government of Lublin. The Roman catholics have an archbishop and eight bishops, nominated by the pope on the recommendation of the emperor of Russia. There are a number of convents possessing territorial revenues; but the secular clergy receive a regular stipend from the government, the landed possessions formerly belonging to them being now public property. The parish-priests, however, receive tithes, the amount of which is some- times considerable. The Lutherans and Calvinists, amounting together to about two hundred and fifty thousand persons, are principally Germans. There are a few Memnonites and Moravians, and some Mohammedans. Previously to 1830, education in Poland was scarcely diffused at all, except among the nobility and upper classes residing in the towns, and the total number of persons receiving instruction at that period is said not to have exceeded sixteen thousand, or about one in two hundred and sixty of the population. After the suppression of the insurrection, the schools were shut for several months, and, when re-opened, were organized upon the same plan as those of Russia. Private schools are subject to the same inspection on the part of the government as public schools. The number of pupils in public and private schools amounted in 1839 to about seventy thousand, or one to every sixty-two individuals. In 1838, an order was issued by the Russian government, directing that there should be a teacher of the Russian language in every primary school; and that all children attending such schools should be obliged to learn the Russian language. It was also, at the same time, ordered that no individual should be em- ployed as a tutor unless he possessed a testimonial, signed by the proper authorities, certifying his ability to give instruction in the Russian lan- guage; and that no person unacquainted with Russian should be promoted to any civil or military employment. This regulation, as was to be expected, gave much offence to the Poles, and was the theme of much declamation in this and other countries. Rus- sia, no doubt, wishes to secure her hold over Poland; and everything that tends to Russianize the latter, and to give her people the same tastes, habits, and modes of thinking, as the Russians, must necessarily contribute to this end and it is undoubtedly thought that, of all the means to bring about this consummation, the gradual substitution of the Russian for the Polish language will be one of the most effectual. Nevertheless, this meas- ure is one of great injustice and hardship to the conquered race; indeed, among the numerous degradations to which foreign domination subjects the Poles, there is none to which they appear more keenly sensible than this attempt to complete their national destruction by the extirpation of their native tongue, which is said to be one of the richest and sweetest of the 148 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Slavonian dialects, and having a strong affinity to the Latin, the latter being much spoken by the higher classes. The Poles are the descendants of various Slavonic tribes, who, in the sixth century, having proceeded up the Dnieper, entered the basin of the Vistula, drove out the Finns-the original inhabitants-and made them- selves masters of the whole country, from the Warta eastward, and around the shores of the Baltic. They are a remarkably fine race of people, being well formed, strong, active, ardent, and daring. In their general appear- ance, they are said to resemble the western Asiatics rather than the Euro- peans, which has led some ethnographers to the belief that they are of Tartar origin. The gentry are haughty and brave, but, at the same time, frank and generous. The peasantry, however, bowed down by continual oppression, are cringing and servile; their whole behavior evincing the state of abject servility from which they are now being emancipated. The nobility are very numerous in Poland, amounting at present to not less than two hundred and eighty-three thousand individuals! According to the old laws of the republic, the nobles were terrigena: every person who possessed a freehold estate, how small soever, or who could prove his de- scent from ancestors formerly possessed of such an estate, and who had not debased himself by engaging in any sort of manufacture or commerce, was a nobleman or gentleman, the terms being in Poland synonymous. The gentry were all held to be equal to each other, the titles of prince, count, &c., which some of them enjoyed, not being supposed to add any- thing to their real dignity. Under the republic, the nobility were every thing, and the rest of the people nothing. The former were the absolute lords of their estates, and of the boors by whom they were occupied. They enjoyed the royal privilege of maintaining troops, and constructing fortres- ses; and they only could elect the sovereigns. No noble could be arrested without previous conviction, except in cases of high-treason, murder, or robbery on the highway; and then only provided he were taken in the fact! His house was a secure asylum to all to whom he chose to extend his pro- tection, whatever might be their crimes. Even his vassals could not be arrested, nor their effects seized; they were exempted from all payment of tolls and other direct duties; and though the king might bestow titles, he had no power to create a nobleman or gentleman, that being the exclu- sive privilege of the diet. Happily, however, this state of things has been wholly changed. Under the vigorous government of Russia (and the same remark applies to those divisions of Poland under Austria and Prussia), the oppressive privileges of the nobles have been suppressed; they can no longer trample with impunity on their inferiors, nor commit offences with- out subjecting themselves to the full penalty of the law; and a poor gen- tleman no longer considers it a degradation to engage in some department of industry. Though modernized in a considerable degree, the richer Polish nobles continue to live in large castles, in a state of rude hospitality, entertaining RUSSIAN POLAND. 149 SERRE பார் POLISH JEW AT HIS DEVOTIONS. great numbers of their dependents and such strangers as may happen to visit them. At these feasts the ancient custom of sitting below the salt is still kept up, the best dishes and the most costly wines being appropriated by the élite of the guests. The Jews are more numerous in Poland than in any other European coun- try, amounting to some four hundred and twenty-five thousand, of whom about four fifths live in towns. They are, as already stated, in the almost exclusive possession of the commerce of the country; they also are the 150 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. great manufacturers and sellers of spirituous and fermented liquors; ad- vance money on lands and goods; are the only jewellers and silversmiths; and carry on all pecuniary dealings. Those in the towns are mostly all burgesses, and they may be said to engross all the most lucrative business. But notwithstanding all this, the majority of the Israelites are extremely poor. They seem also to be in a lower state of civilization than any other class. Even the richer individuals, though they occupy the best houses in the towns, appear to care little for cleanliness or comfort; and the lower orders live in a state of filth and discomfort that would be intolerable any- where else. There are in Poland many instances of longevity, and, on the whole, the country may be said to be healthy; but the people are, notwithstanding, especially liable to endemical diseases, such as small-pox and fevers, which frequently make great havoc. Among the diseases peculiar, or nearly so, to Poland and the Lithuanian provinces, the plica polonica is the most remarkable. This is a disease of the head, which terminates by affecting the hair, which it dilates, softens, and clots into one undistinguished mass! This disgusting malady spares neither age nor sex, gentry nor peasants, though it is more frequent among the latter than the former. Various the- ories have been formed to account for its origin: most probably it is occa- sioned by the bad water, unwholesome food,. and filth of the people. Poland suffered much from the outbreak of 1831, in consequence partly of the destruction of property, and partly of the proscriptions and oppres- sive measures of the imperial government which followed its suppression. Within the last few years, however, the country has again begun to revive. The population and revenues have considerably increased; houses and other buildings have multiplied; old roads have been materially improved, and new ones projected; so that, on the whole, however depressed in some respects, the country is certainly advancing in improvement. The Polish army, which before 1831 amounted, in time of peace, to thirty-five thousand men, is now amalgamated with that of Russia. Poland was first raised to the rank of a kingdom by the emperor of Ger- many, in 1025, when Boleslaus Chrobry became its sole monarch. He belonged to what has been called the Piast dynasty, being one of the de scendants of Prince Piast, who, as early as 840, had been acknowledged chief of all the Poles who dwelt between the Vistula and the Warta. His reign was long and flourishing, and the prosperity which he had commenced was continued and extended under his successors, Boleslaus II. and III. The latter monarch, however, under whom Christianity had been intro- duced into the country, counterbalanced the good which he had done, and laid the foundation for a lengthened series of civil wars, and all sorts of disasters, by following the practice then common in Europe, of dividing his dominions, in 1139, among four sons, with only a nominal superiority in the eldest. The unity of the kingdom was thus destroyed, and its fur- ther development impeded by civil dissensions, which did not terminate till RUSSIAN POLAND. 151 1308, when the different portions of the monarchy were again united in the person of Ladislaus Lokietek, whose merits as a sovereign would have been more conspicuous if they had not been in some measure eclipsed by those of his son Casimir the Great, in whom all the qualities of a good and wise prince seem to have been happily combined. His reign, which began in 1333, and terminated in 1370, is the most brilliant in the Polish annals; still, however, the foundations were laid in it of that anarchy that destroyed the kingdom. Casimir, having no children of his own, the male line of the Piasts thus became extinct; and being anxious that the crown should devolve, at his death, upon his nephew Louis, king of Hungary, in preference to the legiti mate heirs, he obtained for that purpose the sanction of a general assembly of the nobles, and Louis agreed to the conditions under which they offered him the crown-establishing, in this way, a precedent for similar interfe- rence on future occasions. In like manner, Louis, in his turn, was anxious to secure the succession to his youngest daughter, Hedwig; but as this could not be obtained without innovating on the constitution, he endeavored to accomplish it by courting the nobility, and bestowing upon them privi- leges with so lavish a hand, as virtually to make them masters of the crown itself. Hedwig was crowned in 1382, and, by her subsequent marriage with Jagellon, grand-duke of Lithuania, united that duchy to Poland. The house of Jagellon continued to occupy the Polish throne for about two cen- turies, and the monarchy was thus truly hereditary; but at each change of a sovereign an assembly of the nobles or diet was held, at which the new sovereign was formally elected to the throne. On the death of the last of the Jagellons, in 1572, the throne of Poland became, substantially as well as formally, elective; and it was called, not a kingdom, but a republic. Henceforth, on the death of a sovereign, the nobility or gentry repaired in vast numbers, sometimes to the amount of one hundred thousand, on horseback, and armed, with crowds of attend- ants, to a sort of camp in the neighborhood of Warsaw, to elect his succes- sor, who had to subscribe, and make oath to observe, the pacta conventa, or conditions under which he had been elected. These were such as to reduce the royal authority within the narrowest limits, to secure and ex- tend the privileges of the nobility and clergy, and to perpetuate the degra- dation of the mass of the people, who, being serfs (niewolnik) in the fullest. extent of the term, were not supposed, in fact, to have any legal existence! At the death of Sigismund Augustus, the last of the Jagellon dynasty, Sweden, France, Austria, and Russia, all brought forward their candidates, and endeavored to carry the election by such appliances as the exigencies of the occasion might seem to justify—by violence, intimidation, intrigue, and bribery. Henry Valois, of France, was the successful competitor, but his reign was short and inglorious; and no great name occurs in the list of sovereigns elected under this monstrously vicious system, except that of the famous John Sobieski, the last great king of Poland, who mounted the 152 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. throne in 1674, having been highly successful as a general since the year 1648, and whose reign is rendered memorable by his numerous victories in Moldavia and Wallachia, and by his terrible overthrow of the Turkish besieging host under the walls of Vienna in 1683. * Exclusive of the diets for the election of the sovereigns, ordinary diets were held, at least, once every two years, at which all matters connected with the government of the country were discussed and decided upon. It is easy to see, from what has been already stated, that this form of govern- ment could not fail to produce great party contests and disorders, and that it must have afforded every facility to the surrounding powers for acquiring a preponderating influence in the diet. Probably, however, the abuses already noticed might have been repaired, but for the principle, if we may so call it, first introduced in 1652, that no decision could be come to upon any matter submitted for consideration unless the diet were unanimous. Hence the singular and extraordinary privilege of the liberum veto, by which any single member of the diet was permitted to interpose his abso- lute veto, and, by doing so, could nullify its whole proceedings! And, which is even more extraordinary, this absurd privilege, which allowed the whim, caprice, or bad faith of an individual, to prevent the adoption of any measure, however necessary and however generally approved, was, for a lengthened period, regarded by the Poles as the palladium of their liberties! It is plain, from these statements, that latterly the whole powers of the state were engrossed by the nobles, or gentry, many of whom, though en- joying the same political rights and franchises as the others, were misera- bly poor. In consequence, corruption, intimidation, and such like arts, had full scope in the Polish diets, particularly in those held for the elec- tion of sovereigns; and latterly the crown was, in fact, either sold to the highest bidder, or the election was decided under the influence of foreign force. And if, while the government was in this state of abasement, we bear in mind that the whole people, with the exception of the nobles or gentry, were serfs, on whom every indignity might be practised by their masters, it will be seen that the subversion of such a state of things might reasonably be expected. Even before the election of John Sobieski, schemes of dismemberment had been suggested by the neighboring powers; and though the brilliancy of his reign, and other encouraging causes, prevented them from assuming any definite shape, the disorganization of the internal government, and the anarchy which prevailed at every new election, made it obvious to all but the infatuated Poles themselves, that their execution was only postponed, and would sooner or later be effected. * The diets consisted-first, of the senate, composed of the bishops, palatines, or perpetual gov- ernois of provinces, castellans, or governors of towns, and the grand officers of the crown; and, second, of the nuncios, or representatives of the nobles, or gentry. These bodies did not, however. deliberate separately, but together; and, as will be immediately seen, they could come to no reso lution without being unanimous. RUSSIAN POLAND. 153 The partition of Poland had, in fact, been proposed by the Swedes, in the reign of Casimir V. (a short while previously to the election of John Sobieski), as the only method by which the disorders that agitated the country could be put an end to, and the inconvenience thence arising to the surrounding states be obviated. But it was not till more than a cen- tury after that the first actual partition was agreed upon, in 1772, by the emperor of Austria, the empress of Russia, and the king of Prussia, Fred- erick the Great, the latter of whom is said to have first proposed the plan of dismemberment to Maria Theresa, fearful lest Catherine II. should get the whole territory. By this partition, about a third part of the kingdom was dismembered, and added to the dominions of the partitioning powers, their respective shares being as follows: to Prussia, a little over thirteen thousand; Austria, twenty-seven thousand; and Russia, forty-two thousand square miles. But it was not to be supposed that, having once begun to share in so rich a spoil, these powers would rest satisfied with this acquisition. The pretexts for further interference still continued undiminished. Poland, as before, remained a prey to all sorts of disorders; and the Russian embas- sador, and not the king, was the real sovereign. In 1791, the majority of the nobility and gentry then assembled in a diet, which had been made permanent, being desirous to raise their coun- try from the miserable state into which it had fallen, and stimulated by the events connected with the French Revolution, drew up the projet of a new constitution on a more liberal and broader basis, abolishing the liberum veto, and making the crown hereditary, on the demise of King Stanislaus Augustus, in the Saxon family. This constitution was accepted by the king; but the great bulk of the nation did not, and could not, take any interest in the change: and the government were wholly without the means of supporting the new order of things. Russia had little difficulty in fo- menting fresh disorders; and the unfortunate Poles, with an imbecile sov- ereign, without forces, and abandoned and betrayed by their pretended allies, were again compelled to submit to a fresh dismemberment of their country. By this second partition, in 1793, Prussia obtained twenty-two thousand five hundred, and Russia ninety-six thousand five hundred square miles. Provoked by these repeated indignities, the Poles awoke from their stu- por, and, headed by the heroic Kosciusko, rose in rebellion in 1794. But it was too late; their means were totally inadequate to the struggle in which they had engaged. After displaying prodigies of valor, Kosciusko was defeated and taken prisoner (10th of October, 1794), and Praga, the suburb of Warsaw, being taken by storm, that city forthwith surrendered; and there being no longer any obstacle in the way, a dismemberment of the remaining territories of the republic took place in 1795, and Poland was finally obliterated from the map of Europe. Stanislaus Augustus, the last Polish king, degraded into a pensionary of the Russian court, died at 154 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. St. Petersburg in 1798. These successive partitions had given Austria forty-five thousand square miles of Polish territory, with five millions of inhabitants; Prussia, fifty-seven thousand square miles, with two and a half millions of inhabitants; and Russia, one hundred and eighty thousand square miles, with four millions six hundred thousand inhabitants. The powers who dismembered Poland had, in reality, nothing better to allege, in justification of their measures, than the robber's plea, that the power to commit an act makes it at once right and expedient! But, how objectionable soever the motives by which they were influenced, and how dangerous soever the precedent which they established, there can be no reasonable doubt that their measures have been decidedly advantageous to the great bulk of the Polish people. The vices inherent in Polish society were such that it is idle to suppose they could have been eradicated by any remodelling of the constitution. There was no middle class (or none worth notice) in the country; nothing between nobles, jealous of their rank and privileges, on the one hand, and newly-emancipated serfs, brutalized and degraded by a long course of oppression, on the other. To restrain the first within the limits prescribed by law, and to raise the second class, was a work that could only be undertaken by a powerful government, such as there were no means of forming out of native materials. It is to be regret- ted that Russia obtained the lion's share of the spoil; but even in Russian Poland the condition of the people has been very decidedly changed for the better, and in Austrian and Prussian Poland the improvement in their condition has been signal and extraordinary. A dawn of hope appeared in 1806, when Napoleon, during the campaign of Friedland, extended his protection over the Poles; and shortly after, in accordance with the terms of the treaty of Tilsit, formed the grand-duchy of Warsaw, which, increased in 1809 by the addition of western Galicia, which he wrested from Austria, extended over an area of sixty thousand square miles, and contained three millions seven hundred and eighty thou- sand inhabitants. But Napoleon, having now formed an alliance, offensive and defensive, with Alexander, against England, could not carry out his original desire and intention of re-establishing the ancient kingdom of Poland. After his fall, the congress of Vienna (1815), composed mainly of the spoliators themselves, naturally enough confirmed these spoliations; but by an arrangement which, in the circumstances, looks more like insult than generosity, erected the city of Krakow into an independent republic. About two thirds of the Russian share was completely incorporated with the general government, and ceased to retain any distinctive appellation; but the remainder was erected, as before remarked, into what was called the kingdom of Poland, and received a separate constitution from the em- peror Alexander, drawn up in a more liberal spirit than might have been anticipated. It appears, however, to have been more liberally devised than faithfully executed. Unfortunately, too, the disgust occasioned by the brutality of the grand-duke Constantine, commander-in-chief of the RUSSIAN POLAND. 155 HROBERTS.5C POLISH EXILES ON THEIR WAY TO SIBERIA,* Russian forces in the kingdom, conspiring with the excitement produced by the French revolution of 1830, and the abuse of Russia in intemperate and ill-judged speeches in the house of commons and chamber of deputies, which made it be believed that England and France were ready to assail that power, precipitated the Poles into an insurrection. They made a gal- lant stand in defence of their liberties, but in the end every vestige of their independence was totally destroyed. The confiscation of the property, and exile to Siberia, of the leading patriots, followed as a matter of course. The name of the kingdom remains; but its peculiar privileges have been subverted, and it is now substantially and in fact a part of the Russian empire. The city of Krakow, the ancient capital of Poland, and which, by the congress of Vienna, in 1815, was erected into a free and independent re- public, with a territory of four hundred and sixty square miles, after main- taining a feverish existence till 1846, was seized upon by Austria, and incorporated with her kingdom of Galicia. The cathedral of Krakow, a * This illustration is drawn mainly from the celebrated painting of the Polish exiles, by Sir Wil- liam Allan, the scene of which is thus happily alluded to by Christopher North : They are but one family, but in their sufferings they represent those of all sent to Siberia, and cold and base would be that heart which melted not before such a picture. Toward evening, fatigue has weighed them down,— one and all on the roadside; but there is no fainting, no hysterics. That man in Poland was a patriot-in the steppes of Siberia he is but a father! With humble, almost humili- ated earnestness, he beseeches the Bashkirs to let his wife and daughter, and other children, and himself, rest but for an hour! The Bashkirs are three; and he who refuses, does so without cru- elty, but, inexorable in his sense of duty, points toward the distance, a dim dreary way along the wilderness, not unoccupied by other wretches moving toward the mines!" 156 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. view of which is given at the close of this chapter, is a magnificent struc- ture, and justly celebrated from its being the resting-place of the remains of the kings and many illustrious men of Poland; among others, it con- tains the tombs of Casimir the Great, of John Sobieski, and of Kosciusko and Poniatowski, "the last of the Poles." Warsaw, the capital of Poland, is situated on the Vistula, six hundred and fifty miles southeast of St. Petersburg. Its population, including its suburbs, in 1850 was one hundred and sixty-four thousand. The city, which, with its gardens and suburbs, covers a great extent of ground, is on the left or west bank of the river, which is here about seven hundred feet broad, being connected with the suburb of Praga on the right, by a bridge of boats. A suspension-bridge was some years since projected instead of the latter, but the project has not hitherto been carried into effect. Warsaw, being situated partly in a plain, and partly on an ascent grad- ually rising to the river's bank, has a magnificent appearance from the St. Petersburg road. But though the contrary has been affirmed by some travellers, the impression of grandeur is not supported on entering the town. It has, indeed, many fine palaces, public buildings, and noble man- sions, and, latterly, its private houses have been improved by prohibiting the construction of new buildings of wood. But its streets, though spa- cious, are badly paved, badly lighted, and dirty; the greater part of the houses in the city, and still more in the suburbs, are mean and ill-con- structed, above one-fourth part of their number being at this moment of wood; and the whole town exhibits a painful contrast of wealth and pov erty, civilization and barbarism, luxury and misery. The suburbs of Praga, on the east bank of the river, once strongly fortified and extensive, is now all but deserted. There are still, however, several other suburbs of large extent; and those adjacent to the city proper are included within its ram- part and ditch. The principal public building is the zamek, a huge edifice, formerly the palace of the kings of Poland, and that in which the emperor still resides when he visits Warsaw. The hall of the Polish diet, a splendid gilt ball- room, and the national archives of Poland, are in this building; and the fine paintings of Canaletti, Bacciarelli, &c., with the library and other treasures, have been removed since 1831 to the Russian capital. There are several other royal palaces. That called the palace of Casimir, which was appropriated to the university, has in its square a statue of Coperni- The Palais de Saxe is a large building in one of the finest squares. At the back of this palace are the principal public gardens in the interior of Warsaw, which resemble in some respects the park at Brussels, though considerably larger. Another handsome public garden, much frequented at the fashionable hour of twelve, belongs to what is called the government palace. This latter is, perhaps, one of the most chaste and really beautiful architectural elevations in the Polish capital. It is strictly in the Italian style, and contains the national theatre, customhouse, high tribunals, and cus. RUSSIAN POLAND 157 WARSAW. : offices of the minister of the interior. The palace of the minister of finance, which is quite modern, forms, with the new exchange, a very imposing object at the end of the street leading to the Breslau gate. The Marieville bazar is a large square, the four sides of which consist of covered arcades, with dwellings for the merchants above, and shops for the merchandise under them; the latter amount to about three hundred, beside several warehouses. A great number of churches are to be found in the city, some of which are of really colossal dimensions, as the cathedral of St. John, and the church of the Holy Cross. In the former are an altarpiece of great merit by Palma Nova, and a large standard wrested from the Turks by Sobieski at the siege of Vienna. The Lutherans have also a magnificent church, erected at an expense of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, and superior in beauty and boldness of design to all the catholic churches in the place, having a dome and tower of prodigious elevation. Which way soever a traveller turns, he can not fail to pass some one of the monuments which stand in the squares to commemorate the reign of a sovereign, or the achievements of a Polish warrior. The colossal statue of Sigismund III., cast in bronze, gilt, and placed on a lofty pillar of marble of the country, produces a very good effect; and the equestrian group in bronze of Poniatowski, &c., by Thorwaldsen, is also worthy of admiration. Independently of the public gardens, Warsaw may be said to have in its vicinity some of the finest drives and promenades in Europe for width and extent. The numerous avenues of the Ujasdow, planted with lofty lime and chestnut-trees, are the rendezvous of nearly the entire population of Warsaw on Sundays and other holydays, and are admirably calculated for horse and sledge-races, both of which take place here. In the immediate vicinity is the royal villa, formerly the country residence of Stanislaus Augustus. The palace is built in the Italian style: Bacciarelli's paintings decorate one of the principal rooms; and it has a ball-room, ornamented with colossal statues in white marble; a chapel, with some curious works in mosaic, &c. In the park is a stone bridge, on which is erected the equestrian statue of John Sobieski. The view of the Vistula from the park is very fine; and a large island lying in the middle stream is much fre- quented in summer by the amateurs of aquatic expeditions. Among the other public buildings may be specified the Radzivil and Krasinski palaces, the barracks, mint, six hospitals, five theatres, and sev- eral good inns. Since the insurrection of 1831, a strong citadel has been erected partly in the view of protecting, but more of overawing the town. This citadel was built from the produce of a loan raised in Poland; and, in 1835, when the emperor Nicholas visited Warsaw in his way from the congress of Töplitz, he distinctly informed the civic authorities that on the first disturbance breaking out in the city, the guns of the citadel should level it with the ground! A cast-iron obelisk has been erected in the cit adel in honor of the late emperor, inscribed, " To Alexander, the conqueror and benefactor of Poland !" 158 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The university of Warsaw, established in 1816, had faculties of theology, jurisprudence, medicine, philosophy, belles-lettres, and fine arts, and a library containing, it is said, one hundred and fifty thousand volumes of printed books, exclusive of rare manuscripts, with an observatory and bo- tanic gardens, cabinets of natural philosophy, zoology, mineral, models, and coins, and printing and lithographic presses. Unfortunately, however, the university no longer exists, having been suppressed subsequently to the late ill-fated insurrection, its fine library being then, also, removed to St. Petersburg. Of late years there has been a Roman catholic college at Warsaw, with twelve professors; but the adherents of the Russo-Greek church are rapidly increasing here, as in all other countries subject to Russia, and have now a cathedral and other churches in the city. The Jews, of whom there are about twenty-five thousand, have several syna- gogues; the Armenians, too, have their places of worship, and the English have a chapel. Among the educational establishments, are numerous su- perior, special, and elementary schools; all of them being modelled on the new system, and having attached to each a native Russian, as a teacher of his own language, a considerable proficiency in which is now an indispen- sable qualification for holding any public office, how trifling soever. Warsaw has, also, a deaf and dumb asylum, a musical conservatory, societies of friends of literature and natural science, a bible society, &c., and some newspapers, and other periodical publications. These, however, are subjected to a rigorous censorship, and are, consequently, worth little or nothing. Its manufactures comprise woollen and linen cloths, saddlery, leather, carriages of different kinds, ironmongery, paper, and tobacco, with chemical and cotton printing-works, and numerous breweries. Warsaw is the great commercial entrepôt for Poland; and has two large fairs, in May and September, attended by traders from many parts of Europe and Asia, five banks, an insurance society, &c. In comparing this city with St. Petersburg, Dr. Granville says, "There is a notable difference between the general aspect of the inhabitants of Warsaw and those of the capital he had just left. The women here are handsomer than the men at St. Petersburg the impression I received was of an opposite nature. The absence of those semi-Asiatic costumes, which are so prevalent in all the streets of the Russian capital, tends, in a great measure, to give to the capital of Poland a more European aspect; but there is something else that contributes to produce that effect. The Poles are uniformly merry; they are loud chatterers, fond of amusement, and as partial to living in the open air, doing nothing, as the Parisian fainéants and the habitués of the Palais Royal, the Tuileries, the Boulevards, or the Luxembourg; to which class of people I should be tempted to compare them in many respects. They also do business differently: their shops and public places of amusement are more like those of any other European vity farther south; and their ménage appears to be much nearer to that of the French than of the Russians.' "" RUSSIAN POLAND-KALISCH-LUBLIN. 159 Warsaw, though a very ancient town, was not the capital of Poland till 1566, after the union with Lithuania; when the Polish diet was transferred to it from Krakow. The city was occupied by the Swedes in the middle of the seventeenth century, and surrendered, without opposition, to Charles XII. in 1703. In 1793, the inhabitants expelled the Russian garrison previously in occupation; and the town was successfully defended against the Prussians, in the succeeding year, by Kosciusko. But the suburb of Praga, being soon after taken and sacked by the Russians under Suwar- row, by whom a large portion of the inhabitants were put to the sword, the city, threatened with a similar fate, submitted to the conquerors. In 1795, Warsaw was assigned to Prussia: in 1806, she was made the capital of the grand duchy of Poland; and in 1815, she became the capital of the new kingdom of Poland. She was the principal seat of the ill-fated insur- rection of 1831. Kalisch, another Polish city, capital of the palatinate of the same name, is situated on an island in the Prosna, one hundred and thirty-two miles west-southwest of Warsaw. It is considered one of the finest cities of Poland, and one of the principal places in point of mercantile wealth and trade. It is surrounded by a wall, flanked with towers, and entered by four gates; and has ten churches, three convents, one synagogue, a Roman catholic gymnasium, with a fine library, and extensive scientific collections; a military school, theatre, public garden, house of charity, and three hos- pitals. The streets are spacious, and well paved, and some of them adorned with trees. The houses are well built. The most remarkable edifices are the palace of the voyvodes, in which the courts of law are now held; the cathedral of St. Joseph, the church of St. Nicholas, and that of the Luthe rans. It has linen, woollen, and leather manufactures; and six fairs are held annually. Kalisch was founded about 655, and was long the resi- dence of the dukes of Great Poland. At a little distance from the city the Swedes were defeated by the Poles, in 1706; in 1835, a grand military review was held here, attended by the emperors of Austria and Russia, and the king of Prussia; on the 18th and 19th of July, 1852, a considerable portion of the city was burned down. The population of Kalisch is about fifteen thousand, of whom about one fifth are Jews. Lublin, the capital of the palatinate of Lublin, is beautifully situated on a height above the left bank of the Bistritza, ninety-four miles southeast of Warsaw. It consists of the town, properly divided into a high and a low town, and surrounded by walls and ditches, and of a large suburb; but it is poorly built, most of the houses being of wood, and the streets uneven and irregular. It is the see of a bishop, and the seat of a superior appeal court; it contains eighteen churches, one of which is a cathedral, and at least three others are handsome structures; an elegant townhouse, a pal- ace, which belonged to Sobieski; a Piarist college, a diocesan seminary, central schools, an old monastery, a military house of correction, a theatre, an orphan and several other hospitals; possesses agricultural, scientific, 160 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. and musical societies; and has manufactures of woollen and linen cloth, a trade in cloth, corn, and Hungarian wine; and three annual fairs, one of which lasts a month, and is numerously attended by German, Greek, Ar- menian, Russian, Turkish, and other dealers. On a steep height near the town are the remains of an old castle, built by Casimir the Great. Its population is about thirteen thousand. The palatinate lies wholly within the basin of the Vistula, which bounds it on the west; it is extensively covered with woods and marshes, but has several tracts of good arable and pasture land. Its only mineral is bog- iron ore. Plock, capital of the palatinate of that name, is situated on the right bank of the Vistula, sixty miles northwest of Warsaw, on a height. It is walled, divided into the old and the new town, and has no less than twenty- five squares, of which one, in the old town, is very regularly built. It has a handsome cathedral, and ten other Roman catholic churches; a bishop's palace, in which the courts of justice hold their sittings; two monasteries, and a convent, a synagogue, Piarist college, a gymnasium, and several ele- mentary schools; a theatre, an orphan asylum, and poorhouse; and a con- siderable trade, particularly in skins; and several large fairs. Its popu lation is six thousand. Sandomir is another Polish town of considerable importance, situated on the Vistula, fifty-six miles southwest of Lublin. It is surrounded by a wall and fosse, and is entered by six gates. It has an old castle, seated on a rocky height, a collegiate church, four monasteries with churches, a syna- gogue, and a gymnasium. It possesses considerable general trade, and has a population of about three thousand. THE KRAKOw Cathedral. SOUTHERN RUSSIA-BESSARABIA. 161 CHAPTER VI. TH SOUTHERN RUSSIA. HE governments which are classed under the general name of SOUTH- ERN RUSSIA, are BESSARABIA, KHERSON, EKATHERINOSLAV, TAURIDA (with the CRIMEA), and the DON COSSACKS; and include that portion of the empire resting on the Black sea and the sea of Azov, and extending from the government of Astrakhan on the east to the Danube and its im- portant tributary the Pruth, which form the boundary of Russia on the west, separating the empire from the principalities of Moldavia and Walla- chia, the occupation of which by the armed forces of Russia led to the war of 1854 between that government and Turkey and the western powers of Europe. The territory covered by these governments consists principally of the steppes, an interesting feature of Russian topography, which will form the subject of a future chapter. BESSARABIA, once the eastern division of Moldavia, and now the most southwestern government of European Russia, is principally situated be- tween the forty-fifth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, and the twenty-seventh and thirty-first degrees of east longitude. It is bounded south by the Danube; north and east by the Dniester and the Black sea; west by the Pruth, which separates it from Moldavia, and by the Becko- wina, part of Austrian Galicia. It thus forms, between two rivers, a strip of territory three hundred and seventy-two miles long, by fifty of medium breadth, and comprises an area of about sixteen thousand square miles. On nearing the maritime borders, the province gradually widens, and naturally divides itself into two portions. The portion named by the Tar- tars Budjak, is composed of a flat, reaching to the seashore, between the mouths of the Danube and the lower course of the Dniester, and has the common aspect of the Russian steppes, being chiefly suited to the breeding of stock. No trees, a few shrubs only, are observed near the rivers; the lakes, or stagnant waters, are covered with reeds; and in the plains be- tween the marshes, the ox, buffalo, and bison, wander among pastures where the herbage rises to the height of their horns. The horse and the sheep exist in a wild state. The northern portion presents a hilly country, beautifully undulated, covered with noble forests, and extremely fertile. Wheat, barley, and millet, are the only species of grain that are raised, 11 162 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. yielding from sixty to a hundred fold. Hemp, flax, and tobacco, are also produced in considerable quantities. The climate is in general mild, salubrious, and agreeable; the grape, the finer kinds of fruit, and melons, growing in the open air. The chief mineral product is salt, obtained from lakes in the Budjak. Saltpetre, coal, alabaster, marble, and lime, are also found. Ismail, Akermann, Ben- der, Kichinev (the capital), Biltsy, and Choczim, are its chief towns. In the Budjak territory are met Russians, Cossacks, Germans, Jews, Bulgarians, Swiss vine-dressers, gipsies, together with Greek and Arme- nian traders. The northern part of the province, again, is almost entirely inhabited by the Moldavian race, the line of their villages extending along the Dniester, to near Akermann. Bessarabia was the fairest and most productive portion of Moldavia at the beginning of the present century, and perhaps has more capabilities, natural and commercial, than any portion of the Russian empire of the same extent. Yet, till very recent years, it has been strangely neglected, being poorly cultivated, and in many places almost deserted. The Russian government has established, in different parts of the territory, colonies of Bulgarians, Germans, Cossacks, and even some heretofore-wandering gipsy tribes. The people of Bessarabia are essentially agricultural; few of them take to trades: the few of those that exist in the country are entirely of the domestic kind. Of what is understood by the term manufactures, there are none, with the exception of tanneries, distilleries, and tallow and soap works. A good deal of inferior wine is made. The breeding of cattle is an important occupation of the inhabitants. The Moldavian peasants are generally frank, cheerful, and hospitable; but are said by the Russians to be indolent. Hommaire de Hell, however, asserts that in the Moldavian villages the houses are usually kept in the neatest order, and generally surrounded with gardens and fruitful orchards. The education of the people is at the lowest ebb. Bessarabia once formed the eastern district of the Roman province of Dacia. After various vicissitudes consequent upon the fall of that empire, it was invaded by the Asiatic Turks, and became a portion of European Turkey. It was ceded to the Russians by the treaty of Bucharest in 1812. At first, the Bessarabians were allowed to retain their peculiar laws and privileges undisturbed; but misunderstandings soon arose, and since 1829 the administrative institutions of the country have been assimilated to those of the rest of the empire. Kichinev, or Kishenau, the capital of Bessarabia, is situated on the Biok, a tributary of the Dniester. Formerly only a small, miserable town, it is now adorned with numerous handsome buildings, both public and pri- vate. It has fourteen churches, a gymnasium, and ten other schools; a library, and numerous manufactures of woollen cloth, &c. It has a popu- lation of forty-five thousand. SOUTHERN RUSSIA 163 KHERSON. Ismail is situated on the left bank of the arm of the Danube called Kilia, forty-three miles above the Black sea, and one hundred and twenty south- west of Odessa. It is strongly fortified, and being near the Turkish fron- tier, forms an important military station. It contains a magnificent palace, a Greek and an Armenian church, and a cloister. Its harbor is good, but its commerce is not as great as formerly; the chief exports are grain, hides, tallow, &c. The customhouse and quarantine are of the first class. Ow- ing to the shallowness of the water over the bar of the Kilian mouth, ves- sels bound for Ismail generally enter the Danube by the Sulineh or middle mouth of the river. This town was long in possession of the Turks. In 1790, a large Russian army, under Suwarrow, laid siege to it, but were repulsed by the garrison in eight successive assaults on the fortress. The Turks shouted and jeered, but Suwarrow determined to renew the attack. Among the eccentricities. of this famous general, was his habit of walking out alone in his camp long before daybreak, and saluting the first sentinel on duty whom he met with a loud crow like a cock! On the night of the first of December, knowing that the Turks were keeping a religious festival, Suwarrow issued the fol- lowing laconic proclamation to his troops: "To-morrow morning I shall rise at four o'clock, wash myself, say my prayers, give one loud crow, and take Ismail!" He kept his word: his troops rushed forward to the ninth assault; and although the Turks manfully defended the walls, the Russians finally scaled them, carried the fortress by storm, and put most of the gar- rison to the sword. The whole town was then given up to rapine and pillage, and made a heap of ruins. From this wanton destruction it has never fully recovered, but it is improving. Its present population is about twenty-two thousand. The maritime government of KHERSON, or CHERSON, lies between the forty-sixth and forty-ninth degrees of north latitude, and the twenty-ninth and thirty-fourth degrees of east longitude; and is bounded on the north by the governments of Poltava and Kiev, on the northwest by Podolia, on the west by Bessarabia, on the south by Taurida and the Black sea, and on the east by Ekatherinoslav. Its greatest length from east to west is two hundred and forty miles, and its greatest breadth from north to south about one hundred and sixty miles, containing an area of thirty-six thou- sand square miles. With the exception of that part of the government which borders on Podolia, and consists of the last ramifications of the Carpathians, and a tract of hilly land on the banks of the Dnieper, the whole surface is one uninterrupted steppe, destitute of trees, but covered with long grass. The soil consists generally of a mixture of loam and sand, not unfavorable to vegetation. The fertility increases inward from the sea, but ceases on approaching the hills. There is some good ground on both sides of the Boug, but between that river and the Dnieper, and along the shores of the 164 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Black sea, a dry, barren sand prevails. In many parts the soil is strongly impregnated with saltpetre. The chief rivers of the government are, the Dnieper, which waters both its northern and its southern frontiers; the Dniester, which separates it from Bessarabia; and the Boug, which trav- erses it a little to the west of its centre. It chief lakes are the Beloin, Jaiskoie, and Sasyk. The climate is diversified, and subject to great fluctuations. In winter the rivers are frozen for a short time, and in summer the heat rises to about ninety degrees Fahrenheit. Even this heat is often followed by cold nights, and by keen blasts from the north, which injure vegetation. Still both the vine and the mulberry thrive. Among the hills of the north good timber grows, and is extensively used by the navy of the Black sea. Agriculture is in a defective state, but considerable attention is paid to gardening, and cherries, melons, and all kinds of vegetables, are plentifully raised. Pasture being both good and extensive, the rearing of cattle may be regarded as the staple employment. The easy communication by the Black sea enables Kherson to carry on a good transit trade, particularly by its port of Odessa; but its own exports are only wool, tobacco, tallow, butter, cheese, caviar, and cattle. Its principal towns are Kherson (the capital) and Odessa. The inhabitants are chiefly of Russian descent, including Cossacks, but the number of Germans has been estimated at twenty-five thousand; and there is a considerable mixture of other races, as Moldavians, Wallachians, Tartars, Armenians, Greeks, Jews, &c. Kherson, the capital of this government, lies on the right bank of the Dnieper, about fifteen miles above its estuary. It is a place of great ex- tent, and is regularly built; but is in a very dilapidated state, and has lost almost all its former importance in consequence of the rise of Odessa. It is divided into four parts-the citadel, the admiralty, the Greek, and the military suburbs. In the first are the different government offices, and the residences of the governor and other officials, the courts of justice, the cathedral, the arsenal, and barracks. In the second are extensive docks, building-yards, and storehouses, which have almost ceased to be used. The Greek suburb is inhabited principally by citizens, and contains three churches (a Greek, a Roman catholic, and a Russian) and an extensive market-place. The military suburb has only three streets, one church, and a number of mean houses, occupied chiefly by mechanics and sailors. The port, owing to neglect, has become difficult of access, and its trade, with the exception of that in timber, which is still extensive, is chiefly transit to Odessa. The chief public works are the establishments for the washing and cleaning of wool, one of which employs six hundred hands. The pop- ulation is about thirty thousand. Howard the philanthropist died of fever here, on the 20th of January, 1790. Over his grave, about three miles north of the town, is an obelisk, erected by the emperor Alexander. SOUTHERN RUSSIA-KHERSON. 165 Kherson was founded in 1778, by Prince Potemkin, the powerful and wealthy favorite of Catherine II. When that empress made her famous tour to the Crimea in 1787, accompanied by Potemkin and an immense suite, the prince, in order to excite still further her already-inordinate am- bition for conquest, caused a guide-post to be erected on the route, with this significant inscription: "The road to Constantinople!" The hint was not lost the very next year Catherine once more engaged in war with the Turks, in which the Ottoman empire would have been utterly subverted but for a combination of the western powers. Prince Potemkin lies buried in the vault of the cathedral in Kherson. The emperor Paul ordered his body to be taken up and deposited "in the first hole that could be found,” but the command was in some way evaded. AAAA Water 0. Tanks 3 B A Y 3 Pratique 6 antine Harb? Fortress 9 Odessa, the principal mercantile city of southern Russia, is situated on the northern shore of the Black sea, ninety miles west-southwest of Kher- son, and three hundred and ninety miles north of Con- stantinople. The growth of this emporium has been quite extraordinary-its founda- tions having been laid, by order of the empress Cathe- rine II., so late as 1792, af- ter the peace of Jassy, with the Turks. It was intended to serve as an entrepôt for the commerce of the Russian dominions on the Black sea, and has, in a great measure, answered the intention of its founders. It has been said, indeed, that a better locality might have been chosen; and in proof of this, it is stated that there are no springs nor fresh water within three miles of the town; that the vicinity is compara- tively barren and without wood; and that, not being on or near the mouth of any great navigable river, its communications with the interior are diffi- cult and expensive. That these considerations have great weight is clear; but, on the other hand, the situation has the advantage of being central and salubrious. The bay, or roadstead (the figures on which in the above engraving give in fathoms the depth of the soundings) is generally open and easy of access, is extensive, the water deep, and the anchorage good. The port, which is artificial, being formed by two moles, is fitted to accom- modate three hundred ships, and has a lazaretto, on the model of that of Marseilles. The inconvenience arising from the want of water has been 1. Customhouse 2. Admiralty 3. Lazzaretto Fram Ovidiopol Scale in Miles 1 Map of Odessa. 166 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. obviated by the cutting of a canal, by which it is conveyed to the town; and, on the whole, it may be doubted whether any position could have been chosen so well suited to serve as an entrepôt. Latterly, the vicinity has also been signally improved by the formation of many gardens, and by the planting of extensive vineyards. The town is well built of soft, calcareous stone; but the houses being, for the most part, detached from each other, there are but few handsome streets. But a more serious defect is, that the streets are generally un- paved; and after rain the ground is so deep that, according to Mr. Eliott, “it is not uncommon for gentlemen to be obliged to leave their carriages in quagmires in the middle of the streets, and to send oxen to drag them out!" Some years since, a caricature of the streets was published, which represented a Frenchman, just arrived from Marseilles, sticking up to his knees in the mud, and exclaiming, "Je me fixe ici!" and under this was written, "How to establish one's self at Odessa!" In dry weather, owing to the limestone cliff on which the city stands, it is excessively dusty. But some of the principal streets are now either paved or macadamized, and in this respect the city has been materially improved. Toward the sea the city is defended by some batterics, and on its eastern side is a citadel, which commands the town and port. The space comprising the city and a small surrounding district, to which the franchise of the port extends, is bounded by a rampart. Though it can not be called a manufacturing town, Odessa has some fab- rics of coarse woollen and silk goods; and has extensive tallow-refineries, breweries, distilleries, ropewalks, &c. The trade includes, among other articles, grain, linseed, wool, iron, hides, copper, wax, caviar, isinglass, potash, furs, cordage, sailcloth, tar, beef, butter, and tallow. The last is the second great staple; but the first, and that which has made the name of Odessa familiar throughout the commercial world, is grain, the larger part of which is shipped to Great Britain. The granaries in Odessa are worthy of notice; they are remarkably well built with the stone found here. That of Sabansky, now occupied as a schoolhouse, situated on the ravine so called, is of immense extent, and has an imposing appearance from the streets looking toward the Lazaretto. The public slaughtering-houses are also on a large scale: many thousands of cattle are there annually boiled down for their tallow; it is a singular but not a very agreeable spectacle. Favored as Odessa is by its position on the sea, "it is surrounded on the land side," says Murray, "by a dreary steppe of so intractable a soil, that trees and shrubs, with the exception of the acacia, rarely attain any size, and in many places will not even live. The narrow strip along the sea- shore above mentioned is the only oasis of vegetation in the neighborhood of the city. Artesian borings have been made in the town to a depth of six hundred feet, for water, but hitherto without success. Fuel is likewise very dear." SOUTHERN RUSSIA KHERSON. 167 VIEW OF THE CITY And Harbor of Odessa Odessa enjoys an établissement des Bains, situated at the foot of the Boulevard, which is much frequented during the summer months, espe- cially by Poles, who come here to sell their grain, and disburse their money in pianofortes, English agricultural implements, &c. German mineral waters are sold at an establishment in the town garden. Another institu- tion worthy of mention is the Richelieu lyceum, a commercial college, in which the sciences and ancient and modern languages are taught by pro- fessors, chiefly German. There is, perhaps, no town in the world in which so many different tongues may be heard as in the streets and coffeehouses of Odessa, the motley population consisting of Russians, Tartars, Greeks, Jews, Poles, Italians, Germans, French, &c. At the Parlatoire of the Quarantine they may be heard in perfection. This is the place where the captains of vessels and the brokers and merchants of the town meet to settle their business; and here in little cells, but separated from one an- other by a wire grating, so that no contact can take place, parties can discuss their affairs without being overheard. There is a botanical garden near Odessa, but the difficulties of soil, drought, and frost, are highly in- jurious to the growth of plants. The Greek and other bazars merit mention. There is no regular mar- ket-place (Gostinöi dvor), as in other cities, but the Privosdni bazar is an excellent spot for observing local and national peculiarities, especially of the Moldavians, Jews, and gipsies. The latter are, for the most part, smiths; they live in tents, eat hedgehogs, and hocuss as in other countries. The women braid their hair into twenty tails, like the Tartars, smoke all day long, and, notwithstanding their wild and savage appearance, are not destitute of beauty; they have fine black eyes and well proportioned figures. 168 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. There are, in the neighborhood of Odessa, as previously remarked, large vineyards. In that of Count Woronzoff are from sixty to eighty thousand vines; the wine made from these grapes, however, is not so good as that of the Crimea. Vast numbers of melons are also raised in the gardens in the environs of the city; some of them are of the most delicious flavor, and so cheap that half the population live upon them and black bread during the summer: the universal favorite is the watermelon, which, if placed in ice for a short time before dinner, is in this season a most grateful fruit. The stone-fruit is very poor. Admiral Ribas was the first person who made any improvements in Odessa, but he was thwarted in his plans. In the year 1803, his measures were renewed; the population, however, as in all commercial towns of sud- den growth, was not formed of the best materials, being composed mainly of adventurers from all parts of the Levant, runaway serfs, and other itinerant persons. When the emperor Paul ascended the throne, in 1796, he gave the town considerable privileges; but its prosperity is chiefly owing to the duke de Richelieu, a French immigrant, who was subsequently appointed governor, and who, by his judicious administration, brought the commerce of the town into a very flourishing state. The principal streets were laid out by him, and his amiable and charitable disposition was such, that his departure was sincerely regretted by all classes. With every opportunity of enrich- ing himself, he is said to have left Odessa with a small portmanteau con- taining his uniform and two shirts, the greater part of his income having been disbursed in relieving the distresses of a portion of the population, who were always arriving in the greatest state of destitution. By an imperial ukase, in 1817, Odessa was declared a free port for a period of thirty years. In 1822, however, a rumor having spread that the freedom was about to be abolished, the foreign merchants were on the point of quitting the town, when the order was rescinded, and Count Langeron, the governor, who had advocated this measure, dismissed. The port has remained free up to the time of the existing war (1854), and, through the exertions of Count Woronzoff, has become the most flourishing one in the Black sea. His house, a princely mansion, is on the cliff at the end of the Boulevard, and, when resident here, he is particularly attentive to foreign- ers passing through. The exchange is situated at the other extremity of the Boulevard; the interior is handsome: balls are held in the principal room during the win- ter season, and are very numerously attended. The theatre is in the large square, near the Hôtel de Richelieu. Italian operas and French plays are performed here throughout the year. There is likewise a Russian theatre, for the accommodation of the Slavonic inhabitants. The principal promenade is on the Boulevard, which on Saturday even- ings is, by a sort of common consent, left to the Jews, who reside here in great numbers. There is in the centre of this walk a bronze statue of the THE BOULEVARD AT ODESSA. BEBERGLAS DE SOLARES YAUTOR ENTITETMETTWITERS MIJATO ல TIETEELLI 14 #1 THIS REAL AT AN AURO DE LA CU RA LA AL HD 40 41 4 SOUTHERN RUSSIA-KHERSON. 171 duke de Richelieu; he is looking toward the sea, and facing a monster staircase, which has been built on arches, and reaches from the Boulevard to the shore: this has cost an enormous sum of money, and its strength as well as use is so problematical, that an Odessa wag observed that Richelieu "would, in all probability, be the first person to descend it!" The museum and library are in the same house with the bureau of the military governor, situated opposite the Hôtel de Petersbourg, and in the very centre of the Boulevard. The library is small, but well chosen; the museum contains many objects of antiquity from the site of ancient Greek colonies in this part of the world, particularly from those of Olbia, Cherso- nesus, Kertch, Sisopolis, &c. Some of the vases and medals are worthy of observation, and a gold one of the time of Alexander the Great is in remarkable preservation. And last, though not least in interest, is a jap- anned flat candlestick, once the property of the philanthropic Howard: it is preserved with great care. The sight of this relic will call up a host of feelings connected with the remembrance of his fate, and emotions of ad- miration and respect for his unwearied exertions in the cause of humanity. Howard's last words to his friend Priestman are characteristic: "Let no monument or monumental inscription whatsoever mark the spot where I am buried; lay me quietly in the earth, place a sun-dial over my grave, and let me be forgotten." A plain brick obelisk, before alluded to, erected by the emperor Alexander, marks the spot where the dust of the philan- thropist reposes; but, beyond this, his dying wish has been regarded, sav ing, of course, its concluding clause: he will not soon be forgotten. The prosperity of Odessa sustained a severe check in the war of 1854, during which its trade was cut off; and it was bombarded by the Anglo- French fleet, under Admiral Dundas, who destroyed a great part of the fortifications, and sunk many Russian ships-of-war in the harbor. The population is probably about seventy-five thousand. The town of Nikolaïev is situated at the confluence of the Ingul and Boug, thirty-six miles northwest of Kherson. It is fortified, encloses a large space, and is remarkably well built, with wide streets and a well- planted boulevard. The houses are generally whitewashed or yellow- washed, which gives them a very cheerful aspect, and they are surrounded by large gardens. It has a cathedral, richly decorated internally; town- house, with two fine colonnades; and the admiralty, a very complete estab- lishment, in the form of a square; extensive dockyards, provided with ma- chinery, which is almost all British; and a harbor with deep water. In the yards of this town, vessels of the largest size are built, and there is an excellent hydrographical school, in which naval cadets are trained. The barracks for the seamen are extensive, and there is an observatory in the vicinity of the town, the view from which is very fine. The governor's house was built by Prince Potemkin. Nikolaïev was founded in 1791, and made the seat of an admiralty, and the principal station of the Russian navy in the Black sea. The progress 172 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. it made at first was very rapid; but it soon became stationary, and, but for the support which it receives from the government, would soon decline. The chief causes of this are, the neighborhood of Kherson, the formidable competition of Odessa, the want of good water, and scarcity of fuel. The population is about thirty thousand. The government of TAURIDA is situated between the forty-fourth and forty-eighth degrees of north latitude, and the thirty-second and thirty- seventh degrees of east longitude. It consists partly of the Crimea, or Crim Tartary, as it is sometimes called, and partly of a tract on the mount- ains lying between the Dnieper, the Black sea, the sea of Azov, and the government of Ekatherinoslav. Its area (including the Crimea) is about thirty thousand square miles. The mainland part of the government, which, though the least interest- ing, is the most extensive, consists almost entirely of vast, and in many parts sterile plains, denominated the Steppe of the Nogais, from the Tartar tribes, by which it is principally occupied. "These," says Dr. Clarke, "are a very different people from the Tartars of the Crimea; they are dis- tinguished by a more diminutive form, and by the dark, copper color of their complexions, which is sometimes almost black. They bear a remark- able resemblance to the Laplanders, although their dress and manner have a more savage character." About twenty thousand Germans are colonized to the eastward of the river Molotchna. The peninsula of the CRIMEA is one of the most interesting portions of the Russian empire; and a sketch of it, adequate to its importance, could not be given here, without extending the chapter to too great a length. A description of it is therefore reserved for another chapter. The government of EKATHERINOSLAV, or IEKATERINOSLAV, as its name is sometimes spelled, is situated between the forty-seventh and fiftieth degrees of north latitude, and the thirty-third and fortieth degrees of east longi- tude. It is bounded on the north by the governments of Poltava, Kharkov, and Voronej; on the east by the Don Cossacks; on the south by Taurida; and on the west by Kherson, with a separate portion in Don Cossacks, at the mouth of the Don. Its territory comprises an area of about thirty-five thousand square miles. The government is divided into two sections by the Dnieper, which in- tersects it in a semicircular course, from north to south, about three fourths lying east and one fourth west of that river. The eastern portion belongs to the steppe country of southern Russia, being flat, monotonous, without trees, often without water, and with a lean, saliferous soil. The western portion is more undulating, and more fruitful. The Donetz forms a part of the northeastern boundary, and there are sundry smaller streams, chiefly affluents of the Dnieper, and lakes and morasses are numerous. The minerals are granite, lime, chalk, salt, and garnets. The climate SOUTHERN RUSSIA 173 EKATHERINOSLAV—DON COSSACKS. is moderate and healthy: the winter is short, and the rivers are not very firmly frozen; the summer is very warm, and often without rain. Wheat, spelt, barley, and oats, are raised in quantity sufficient for local consump- tion; and hemp, flax, poppies, peas, vegetables, and fruits, are also culti- vated. Grapes and mulberries frequently suffer from frost; but melons, cherries, &c., succeed well. But the chief wealth of the government con- sists in its innumerable herds of horses, oxen, sheep (many of them meri- nos), goats, and swine. Bees yield a large return; and the silk-culture is carried on by the Greeks at Marioupol, and the Armenians at Nakichevan. In the steppes, wolves, foxes, hares, wild-cats, bustards, pelicans, par- tridges, quails, ducks, snipes, &c., are found; and in the rivers fish are very plentiful. Wood is wholly wanting in the east, and quite insufficient in quantity in the west; fuel consequently is scarce, and the poorer classes are fain to burn dung, litter, and heather. The houses are of clay, thatched with rushes. Of manufacturing industry there is little; still some cloth, leather, can- dles, and beer, are made, and tallow-smelting carried on; and there are over two hundred distilleries. The exports are chiefly fish, tallow, and other animal substances. The population consists principally of Russians and Cossacks; but there are several other races, among whom may be mentioned ten thousand German colonists. Education is in a very low condition. The government is divided into seven districts. Ekatherinoslav, the capital of this government, is located on the right bank of the Dnieper, two hundred and fifty miles northeast of Odessa. The streets are long, broad, badly filled up with houses, and very dirty. It is the seat of an archbishop, whose jurisdiction extends over the neigh- boring governments of Taurida and Kherson; and has three churches, a theological seminary, a gymnasium, ten public schools, government-offices, law-courts, barracks, several bazars, a public park, and botanic garden. In the vicinity is a large palace, in a ruinous condition, with extensive pleasure-grounds attached; once the residence of Prince Potemkin, who here entertained Catherine II. in 1784, at which date the city was founded, the empress laying the first stone, in presence of the emperor Joseph II. of Austria. It has some cloth-manufactures, and an important annual wool-fair. In its district are one Roman catholic and sixteen Memnonite colonies: the latter came, in the end of the last century, from the vicinity of Dantzic and Elbing, in Prussia. Its population is about twelve thou- sand. Among the other important towns may be mentioned Paulograd and Novonovskovsk. झ The government of the DON COSSACKS lies between the forty-seventh and fifty-second degrees of north latitude, and the thirty-seventh and forty-fifth degrees of east longitude. It is bounded north by the governments of Sar- atov and Voronej, west by Voronej and Ekatherinoslav, south by the sea of Azov and the Caucasus, and east by Saratov and Astrakhan. Its greatest 174 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. length from north to south is three hundred and thirty miles, its breadth from east to west varying from one hundred and thirty to two hundred and seventy-five miles. It comprises an area of about fifty-three thousand square miles. This government consists, for the most part, of one of those extensive flats called steppes; but there is some hilly land, particularly toward the north, which may be regarded as forming one of the last ramifications of the Caucasian chain. The soil is in general so very sandy as to be scarcely fit for cultivation. Toward the north there is some tolerably arable land, and along the banks of the rivers even a rich alluvium is found; but the south, where not absolutely waste, affords, at the best, an inferior pasture. The whole surface belongs to the basin of the Don, which forms a kind of semicircle around its centre, and, toward the eastern part of the govern- ment, approaches the Volga so near as to be, at one point, not more than forty miles distant from it.* The Don, besides watering the province centrally, receives several im- portant tributaries within it, and, after the confluence of the Manytch, has a breadth of about one thousand yards. The climate is, on the whole, mild and agreeable; but in winter both intense cold and violent storms occasionally prevail. The chief employment of the inhabitants is the rearing of cattle; but, where the soil is suitable, all the ordinary cereals and legumes are culti- vated, and yield good crops. Hemp and flax are also grown, and good wine is produced-part of it scarcely inferior to the light French wines, and part resembling Burgundy. From several lakes in the south large quantities of salt are obtained. Fish, including sturgeon, salmon, and carp, abound, and form a principal article of food. The caviar of this government is in great request, and forms a considerable export. The people from whom this government derives its name are not confined to it, but form the principal part of the population of several extensive dis- tricts in Russia, where, according to the localities which they occupy, they receive different designations, and are called Don Cossacks, Cossacks of the Black sea, Kouban, Volga, Ural, Siberian Cossacks, &c. The origin of the COSSACKS is involved in considerable obscurity. Their very name has been the subject of keen dispute, but the prevailing belief now is that it is of Tartar derivation. In general, it may designate any light-armed trooper; but it is often used in a mere vituperative sense, and applied to any member of a vagrant horde which roams or makes incursions into a district, and lives on the plunder of its inhabitants. Though the Cossacks possess several characteristics by which they are easily distinguished, they do not appear to have sprung from one original stock. There is evidently a mixture of blood among them. They bear a * See notice of attempts to unite these rivers by means of a canal between two of their tributa- ries, on page 29; also remarks of Oliphant on the practicability and advantages of directly uniting the main trunks of the rivers at this point, on page 33: marginal notes. SOUTHERN RUSSIA—DON COSSACKS. 175 * close resemblance to the Russians, but are of a more slender make, and have features which are decidedly more handsome and expressive. They have a quick, keen eye, and an ear which is ever on the alert; and are active, spirited, and brave. Their intellect is good, and they often exhibit a remarkable degree of acuteness. Education, accordingly, has made some progress among them; and their old capital, Tcherkask (or Staro-Tcher- kask), contains a gymnasium, in which the proficiency of the Cossack pupils would not suffer by comparison with that of any other town of the Russian empire. Their language is a mixture of Russian, Polish, and Turkish; their religion that of the Greek church, to which they are very strongly attached, and the superstitious practices of which they are par- ticularly careful in observing. In many of their domestic habits they con- trast favorably with the Russians. They are much more cleanly, and pay a greater regard to personal appearance. Like them, they often drink to excess, but seem more alive to the degradation which results from it; and, accordingly, when they do indulge in bacchanalian orgies, have generally the sense to keep them private. "Don Cossacks," remarks Oliphant, "are the most compound beings in the universe. According to Clarke, they are a mixture of Circassians, Malo- Russians, Russians, Tartars, Poles, Greeks, Turks, Calmucks, and Arme- nians! Others contend that they are almost of a purely Slavonic origin; and this seems to me the probable conjecture, as I could trace nothing whatever in their physiognomy to warrant the supposition of a Mongolian descent. They are, moreover, bigoted adherents of the Greek church, and have been Christians from the date of the first records we have of their existence. But if ethnologists have been at variance in accounting for their origin, etymologists have been no less at a loss in deciding on the derivation of their name, and have ended by leaving it an open question whether Cossacks are so called from the resemblance of that word to those in other languages, which signify, respectively, 'an armed man,'‘a sabre,' a rover,' 'a goat,' 'a promontory,' 'a coat,' 'a cassock,' and a district in Circassia." 6 The martial tendencies of the Cossacks are very decided, and have from time immemorial formed their distinguishing feature. The whole structure of society among them is military. Originally, their government formed a kind of democracy, at the head of which was a chief, or hetmân, of their own choice; while, under him, was a long series of officers, with jurisdic- tions of greater or less extent, partly civil and partly military—all so arranged as to be able, on any emergency, to furnish the largest military array on the shortest notice. The democratical part of the constitution has gradually disappeared under Russian domination. The title of chief hetman is now vested in the heir-apparent to the imperial throne, and all the subordinate hetmâns and other officers are appointed by the crown. Care, however, has been taken not to interfere with any arrangements which fostered the military spirit of the Cossacks; and hence all the sub- · 176 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. K.ROBERTS, SC. COSSACKS OF THE DON. divisions of the population into pulks and minor sections, with military heads, and of the villages into stanitza, still remain. Throughout the empire, wherever particular alacrity, vigilance, and ra- pidity of movement, are required, the qualities by which the Cossack is distinguished mark him out for employment. His proper sphere, undoubt- edly, is to act as a "light-armed trooper," and to be, as the celebrated Suwarrow emphatically expressed it, "the eye" of the army, protecting its rear in retreat, or pushing forward in advance, and making it almost impossible for a flying enemy to escape. How admirably the Cossacks are adapted to these purposes, was made known to all Europe during the dis- astrous retreat of the French from Moscow. The Russian government, however, has found other fields for the exer- tions of these fierce warriors. When a frontier is to be guarded, the quali- ties required very much resemble those which make the Cossack so valuable to an army in the field; and, accordingly, colonies of Cossacks have been planted on all the borders of southern Russia, along the Kouban and the Terek, and form a most effective barrier against sudden incursions by half- civilized tribes. In the Caucasus, however, the Russians have met with a foe of a differ- ent stamp; and, instead of having merely to repel sudden incursions, are obliged to fight for every inch of ground on which they plant their feet. In this way they have been constrained to fix upon a series of strong posi- tions, on which they have constructed a kind of forts, called kreposts. The nature of these, the sudden attacks to which they are exposed, and the mode of giving the alarm, so as to call in the aid of neighboring posts, are SOUTHERN RUSSIA DON COSSACKS. 177 A.ROBERTS.SC Krepost, or COSSACK POST, on the Circassian FrontIER. well exhibited in the accompanying graphic and very faithful illustration. In this service, Cossacks chiefly are employed; and, though that remark- able quickness of ear, by which they can catch the slightest sounds, at almost incredible distances, may fit them well for it, it certainly must be a service altogether uncongenial to their nature and habits. The Cossack is almost constantly on horseback, and is in his element when scouring the open fields. Here he is cooped up within a narrow space, and dare not venture a hundred yards beyond it, without exposing himself to the deadly aim of a Circassian. So monotonous is this mode of life-so different from that which he had been accustomed to lead-that the Cossack often abandons himself to despair, and disappoints the Circassian, by becoming his own murderer. Novo Tcherkask, or New Cherkask, the capital of the country of the Don Cossacks, is situated forty miles northeast of Azov, on an eminence, on the right bank of the Aksai. It was founded by the hetmân, Platoff, in 1806, the inundations to which Tcherkask, the former capital, was exposed, having rendered it necessary to remove the seat of government to a more elevated position. "In his anxiety to avoid the floods of the Don," says Oliphant, "the hetmân has fallen into the opposite extreme, and perched the new capital on a most unfavorable site. Eight miles distant from the river, it is unable to benefit by the increasing traffic which passes along its stream, and the approaches are steep and inaccessible in almost every direction. The only advantage which is afforded by its lofty situation is an extensive view to the southward, and in clear weather the snowy peaks 12 178 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. of the Caucasus are said to be distinctly visible. The population amounts to about ten thousand. The streets are broad, but the houses mean; and it is remarkable that the practice of raising them, as it were, upon stilts, like cornstalks in a farmer's 'haggard,' which was no doubt necessary in the old inundated town, has been continued by the working-classes in the new altogether it is a straggling, ill-laid-out place, in no degree calcu lated to realize the expectation raised by its approach through an ostenta- tious archway." Among the public buildings and institutions are the cathedral, a large hospital, an arsenal, and a gymnasium, where the Latin, French, and German languages, with history, geography, mathematics, &c., are taught. Tcherkask, the former capital of this government, is situated on the right bank of the Don, on an island formed by that river, the Aksai, and one of its branches, called the Vasilievka. It is thirty-seven miles east- northeast of Azov, and eleven south of Novo Tcherkask. The streets are narrow and crooked; and the houses, which are of wood, are for the most part built on piles, and raised five or six feet above the ground, on account of the inundations above referred to, to which the town is subject, from the beginning of April till the end of June. It has several public buildings, some of them constructed of wood, including seven churches, an academy, several schools, a prison, and a town-hall. It is the seat of a considerable commerce; and fishing is carried on to some extent. The foundation of this town is attributed to a colony of Greeks. Under the Russians it became the chief place of the Don Cossacks, and such it continued till the seat of government was removed to Novo Tcherkask. Its population is about fifteen thousand. Taganrog is a fortified seaport town situated on the north shore of the northeast angle of the sea of Azov, denominated the gulf of the Don, about ten miles from the mouth of that river. The foundations of Taganrog were laid by Peter the Great, in 1698; but it afterward fell into the pos- session of the Turks: and it was not till the reign of Catherine II. that it became of any considerable importance. It has ten churches, of which three are built of stone; a gymnasium, a poor's hospital, &c. It was in- tended by its illustrious founder to replace Azov, the ancient emporium of the Don, the port of which had become all but inaccessible; and its whole consequence is derived from this circumstance, or from its being the entre- pôt of the commerce of the vast countries traversed by that great river. The exports consist principally of grain, particularly wheat; iron and hard- ware from Toula; with cordage, linen and sailcloth, copper, tallow, wool, leather, furs, wax, ashes, caviar, isinglass, &c. The imports consist prin- cipally of wine, oil, fruit, dry-salteries, cotton and woollen goods, spices, dye-stuffs, tobacco, sugar, coffee, &c. By far the largest portion of the trade was formerly carried on with Constantinople, Smyrna, and other Turkish ports; and there is an extensive coasting-trade with Odessa and other Russian ports. SOUTHERN RUSSIA- DON COSSACKS. 179 Seeing that Taganrog was built to obviate the difficulties that had to be encountered by vessels entering the Don, through the shallowness of the water, it might have been supposed that care would be taken to place it in a position in which it should be, in as far as possible, free from this defect. This important consideration seems, however, to have been in a great meas- ure overlooked. The gulf of the Don is seldom navigable by vessels draw- ing more than from eight to nine feet of water; and even these can not approach within less than about seven hundred yards of the town. They are principally loaded by carts, drawn each by a single horse, the expenses. being very considerable. + To obviate these inconveniences, it has been proposed to make Kertsch, on the eastern coast of the strait of Enikaleh, a depôt for the produce of the sea of Azov. A new port was also established a few years since at Gheïsk, on the eastern coast of the sea; but its bay is rapidly filling up. Taganrog has a population of about twenty-two thousand. A steamer leaves twice a month for Odessa, performing the voyage in ten days! A glance at the map will show that in any other country the passage would not occupy three. Oliphant remarks that, "Notwithstanding the present increasing trade and population of Taganrog, I do not think that its pros- perity is at all of a permanent character. The harbor is one of the most inconvenient in Europe, and has by degrees become so shallow, that ships are obliged to anchor at a distance of twelve or fifteen miles from the shore. There seems no doubt that it is rapidly filling up. So recently as the year 1793, Professor Pallas records the launch of a large frigate upon waters. that lighters can now with difficulty navigate! As if nature were not doing enough to ruin Taganrog as a port, almost every ship that arrives contrib- utes something to the same end. The Russian government has strictly prohibited the throwing overboard of ballast, with which the majority of the vessels that annually visit it are laden; and the customhouse officials are enjoined to see that this order is complied with, by measuring the draught of water of every ship at Kertsch, and comparing it with that which she requires upon her arrival at Taganrog. Of course, by this reg- ulation, government has only supplied a new source of profit to the customs' officers, without in the least attaining the object desired. A bribe at Kertsch, in proportion to the amount of ballast to be discharged, has the instantaneous effect of lightening the ship; so that after she has thrown overboard a cargo of stones at the entrance of the Taganrog harbor, her draught is found to correspond, with singular exactness, to the measure- ment taken at Kertsch; and thus the expense, which would have been incurred by landing the ballast, is reduced to the more moderate sum to which the bribe may have amounted. The consequence of this system is, that the destruction of the harbor will proceed in exact proportion to the increase of the trade and mercantile importance of the town, until it be comes so eminently prosperous, that no ship will be able to approach it at all!" 180 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Moreover, the new port of Berdianski threatens to prove a most for- midable rival, as it affords facilities for discharging and loading cargo un- equalled by any other harbor in the sea of Azov. It is situated at the mouth of the Berda, and ships of considerable tonnage can lie close in- shore. Marioupol, too, is a large Greek colony, and, though not pos- sessing any great advantage as a port, it contains an indefatigable popula- tion. Indeed, to the mercantile skill and enterprise of the Greeks is to be attributed that increasing importance which the grain-trade of the southern provinces of Russia has recently assumed. The emperor Alexander, whose reign will always form a memorable and brilliant era in the history of Russia, expired at Taganrog, on the 19th of November, 1825. Azov is a fortified town, situated on an eminence on the left bank of one of the arms of the Don, near the northeastern extremity of the sea of Azov. This town was founded at a very early period, by Carian colonists engaged in the trade of the Euxine; and was called by them Tanais, from the river (Don, then Tanais), of which it was the port. In the middle ages it was called Tana. It came into the possession of the Venetians after the taking of Constantinople by the Latins, and was held by them till 1410, when it was sacked, and its Christian inhabitants put to the sword, by the Tartars. The latter gave it the name of Azov, which it still retains. Formerly it had an extensive trade, being the emporium of all the vast countries trav- ersed by the Don. But owing to the gradual accumulation of sand in that channel of the river on which it is built, and the consequent difficulty of reaching it by any but the smallest class of vessels, its trade has been entirely transferred to Taganrog; its fortifications have also fallen into decay; and it now consists only of a cluster of miserable cabins, inhabited by about twelve hundred individuals. This town, with a small adjacent district, is under the neighboring government of Ekatherinoslav. COSSACK GIRL OF TCHERKASK, A SOUTHERN RUSSIA-THE CRIMEA. 181 TH CHAPTER VII. THE CRIMEA. HE peninsula of the CRIMEA (the Chersonesus Taurica of the ancients) lies between the forty-fourth and forty-sixth degrees of north latitude, and the thirty-second and thirty-seventh degrees of east longitude. It is united on the north to the mainland by the isthmus of Perekop, five miles in width, and has on its east the Sivache, or Putrid sea, the sea of Azov, and the straits of Enikaleh, by which it is separated from the isle of Taman, being everywhere else surrounded by the Black sea. It is esti- mated to contain about fifteen thousand square miles. The Crimea is divided into two distinct parts, one lying north and the other south of the river Salghir, which flows from west to east, and is the only stream of any importance in the peninsula. The former consists almost entirely of vast plains, or steppes, destitute of trees, but covered with luxuriant pasture, except where they are interspersed with heaths, salt-lakes, and marshes. The climate of this region is far from good- being cold and damp in winter, and oppressively hot and very unhealthy in summer, particularly along the Putrid sea. The aspect and climate of the other, or southern portion of the penin- sula, are entirely different. It presents a succession of lofty mountains, picturesque ravines, and the most beautiful slopes and valleys. The mount- ains, formed of strata of calcareous rocks, stretch along the southern coast from Caffa, on the east, to Balaclava on the west. The Tchadyadag, or Trent mountain, the highest in the chain, rises to the height of more than five thousand feet above the level of the sea, and several of the other sum- mits attain to a considerable elevation. The climate of the valleys, and of the slopes between the mountains and the sea, is said to be the most delicious that can be imagined; and, besides the common products, such as grain, flax, hemp, and tobacco, vines, olives, fig-trees, mulberry-trees, pomegranates, oranges, &c., flourish in the greatest profusion. Professor Pallas, Dr. Clarke, and others, have given the most glowing descriptions of this interesting region. According to Clarke, "If there exist a terrestrial paradise, it is to be found in the district intervening between Kutchukoy and Sudak, on the southern coast of the Crimea. Pro- tected by encircling alps from every cold and blighting wind, and only open to those breezes which are wafted from the south, the inhabitants enjoy 182 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. every advantage of climate and of situation. Continual streams of crystal water pour down from the mountains upon their gardens, where every spe- cies of fruit known in the rest of Europe, and many that are not, attain the highest perfection. Neither unwholesome exhalations, nor chilling winds, nor venomous insects, nor poisonous reptiles, nor hostile neighbors, infest their blessed territory. The life of its inhabitants resembles that of the golden age. The soil, like a hot-bed, rapidly puts forth such variety of spontaneous produce, that labor becomes merely an amusing exercise. Peace and plenty crown their board; while the repose they so much ad- mire is only interrupted by harmless thunder reverberating on rocks above them, or by the murmur of the waves on the beach below." But if this description be as faithful as it is eloquent, it will not certainly apply to any other portion of the Crimea, not even to the famous valley of Baider. At certain seasons of the year the finest parts of the peninsula are infested with swarms of locusts, which frequently commit the most dreadful devastation, nothing escaping them, from the leaves of the forest to the herbs of the plain. Tarantulas, centipedes, scorpions, and other venomous insects, are also met with in most parts; and even to the south of the mountains the air in autumn is not everywhere salubrious, and ma- lignant fevers are not uncommon. Owing to the thinness of the population, and their want of industry, the Crimea, which in antiquity was the granary of Athens, and whose natural fertility is nowise diminished, does not produce a tenth part of what it might do. The steppe or northern portion is, in general, more suitable for grazing than for tillage, and is depastured by immense numbers of sheep, horses, and black cattle. Some of the rich Nogaï Tartars are said to have as many as fifty thousand sheep, and one thousand horses; and the poorer classes have one hundred of the former and ten of the latter! Thousands of cattle often belong to a single individual: camels also are abundant. The breed of horses is improved by crossing with Arabian stock. The sheep are mostly of the large-tailed species peculiar to the Kirghiz Tartars. The buffalo is domesticated, and yields a rich milk; and the culture of bees is a good deal attended to. Though they have renounced their migratory habits, the Tartars, who constitute the bulk of the population, have little liking to, or skill in, husbandry. Exclusive of milk and other animal food, they subsist chiefly on millet; producing, however, in some years, as much as one million of bushels of wheat for exportation. The mountainous, or southern portion of the peninsula, furnishes large quantities of indifferent wine, with flax, fruits, timber, honey and wax, &c.; but the cultivation of grain is so little attended to, that, even in the best years, its inhabitants have to import a large proportion of their supplies. The most important and valuable product of the Crimea is the salt de- rived from the salt-lakes in the vicinity of Perekop, Caffa, Koslow, and Kertsch. It is monopolized by the government, and yields a considerable revenue. The quantity exported from the lakes near Kertsch amounts to SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE CRIMEA. 183 from thirty to thirty-five thousand pounds a year: the lakes of Perekop are even more productive. At Koslow there is only a single lake. In 1833, the different lakes of the Crimea produced the immense quantity of fifteen millions, sixty-five thousand poods (two hundred and forty-two thousand tons), of which about eight and a half millions of poods were sold in the course of the year. From twelve to fifteen thousand men are employed in the works; each pood costs to the treasury four copecks, or thereabout, the expense of production being seldom greater than from six to ten copecks. Government sells this salt at eighty copecks per pood, except the portion destined for the consumption of the peninsula, which only pays fifteen copecks. Salt exported is charged with a duty of five copecks. Exclusive of salt and grain, the other principal articles of export are wine, honey of an excellent quality, wax, Morocco-leather, hides, a consid- erable quantity of inferior wool, with lambskins which are highly esteemed, &c. Silks and cottons, in the style of the Asiatics, form the basis of the import trade; and there are also imported woollen-stuffs, wine, oil, dried fruits, tobacco, jewelry, drugs, and spices. The only manufacture worth notice is that of Morocco-leather. The principal towns are Kertsch, Caffa (or Theodosia), Balaclava, and Koslow (or Eupatoria). Sevastapol, the finest harbor in the peninsula, is one of the stations of the Russian fleet. Baktchiserai was the old capital of Crim Tartary, under the khans; Simferopol is, however, the modern capital, not of the Crimea only, but of the entire government of Taurida. The population consists of Tartars, Russians, Greeks, Germans, Jews, Armenians, and gipsies. The variety of different nations found in the Crimea, and the fact that each lives as in its own country, practising its peculiar customs, and preserving its · religious rites, is one of the remark- able circumstances that render the peninsula so curious to a stranger. The number of Tartars has declined considerably by emigration and oth- erwise, since the occupation of the country by the Russians; but they still form the nucleus and principal body of the population. They con- sist-first, of Nogaï Tartars, living in villages, who pique themselves on their pure Mongolian blood; sec-. ond, of Tartars of the steppe, of less pure descent; and, third, of those inhabiting the southern coast, who arti CRIM TARTARS. 1 are a mixed breed, largely alloyed with Greek and Turkish blood, and despised by the others, who bestow on them the contemptuous designation of Tut, or renegade. They are all, however, attached to the Mohammedan 184 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. faith, and Simferopol is the seat of one of the two muftis of the Russian empire. The Tartars are divided into the classes of nobles (moorzas), of whom there are about two hundred and fifty, priests (mullahs), and peasants. A mullah is at the head of every parish, and nothing is undertaken without his consent. The peasants plough his land, sow and reap his grain, and carry it home; and it is seldom that the proprietor takes tithe of the priest. In summer, the feet and legs of the peasantry are bare; but in winter they are clothed after the Russian fashion. They are simple in their manners and dress; and their sobriety, chastity, cleanliness, and hospitality, have been highly eulogized, and probably exaggerated. They live principally on the produce of their flocks and herds; are wedded to routine practices; and if they be not, as Pallas seems to have supposed, decidedly averse to labor, they, at all events, are but little disposed to be industrious. The emigration that took place after the occupation of the country by the Rus- sians, was owing quite as much to the efforts of the latter to convert the Tartars into husbandmen, as to the excesses they committed. In their diet they make great use of honey, and are much addicted to smoking. Every family has two or more copies of the Koran, which the children are taught to read; but, in despite of this, and of the schools established in their villages, they are, for the most part, exceedingly ignorant. The Greeks established themselves in the Crimea, and founded several colonies upon its coasts, nearly six centuries before the Christian era. The country fell successively into the possession of Mithridates, king of Pontus, and of the Romans, Goths, Huns, &c. In 1237, it was taken possession of by the Tartars, forming one of the western conquests of the terrible hordes issuing from central Asia, under Zinghis Khan, which overran the Chinese empire, Persia, and other countries. About the same time its ports were much resorted to by the Venetians and Genoese; the latter of whom rebuilt Caffa (the ancient Theodosia), and made it the centre of their power and of the extensive commerce they carried on in the Euxine. In 1475, the Turkish sovereign Mohammed II. expelled the Genoese, and reduced the peninsula to the state of a dependency of the Ottoman empire, leaving it to be governed by a khan, or native prince. This state of things continued for about three centuries. The khans had moved the seat of government from the rocky fortress of Tchoufut Kalè to the valley of the Djurouk Su, and, as tributaries of the Porte, had reigned in their palace of Baktchiserai (Bagtchè Serai) for nearly three hundred years, when the bloody war which had been relent- lessly carried on between Russia and Turkey, and of which the Crimea had been in some degree the theatre, terminated in the treaty of Kainarjè. Devlit Ghiri, who had been invested with the dignity of khan by the sul- tan, was now deposed; and his brother Jehan, who for some time past had been retained a hostage at St. Petersburg (though he nominally held the office of a captain in the imperial guard), was placed upon the throne by SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE CRIMEA. 185 the empress Catherine—an act which was in direct violation of the princi- pal article in this treaty, in which the independence of the Crimea, as well as the free choice of its sovereigns, had been expressly stipulated. But it was not enough that a prince should be thus forced upon a coun try, in opposition to the will of the people: a mere puppet in the hands of Russia, he was compelled to show a marked preference for the power to which he owed his crown, and to introduce so many Russians into his ser vice, that he soon increased the hatred and disgust of his subjects, whose feelings of disaffection were secretly fomented by Russian emissaries, until they broke out into an open revolt of so serious a character as to oblige the khan to fly to Taman, where he remained until assistance arrived in the shape of a Russian army, which invaded the Crimea, and restored him to the throne from which he had been forced. During this period of the occupation of the province by the Russians, the most atrocious cruelties were perpetrated upon those who had been insti- gated to share in the revolt. So anxious did Russia profess herself to prevent the recurrence of such an event, that a proposal was made to the khan to retire from the throne upon a pension of one hundred thousand roubles a year, resigning his crown into the safe keeping of the imperial government-an offer which was entitled to some consideration in the presence of an overwhelming army ready to enforce its acceptance. The luckless prince, whose residence at the Russian court had taught him to estimate truly the value of promises emanating from such a quarter, per- sisted for some time in his refusal, but he found himself ultimately obliged to submit to the terms proposed; and, as he had but too justly anticipated, was confined as a prisoner at Kalouga, in which character he was, of course, considered undeserving of his pension! After in vain petitioning to be sent to St. Petersburg, Jehan was con- signed, at his own request, to the tender mercies of the Turks. By them he was banished to Rhodes, where he soon after fell a victim to the bow- string: so terminated the inglorious career of the last of the khans. An imperial ukase, issued by the empress Catherine, annexed this magnificent province to her fast-extending empire. Sevastapol (or Aktiar), the great naval station of Russia on the Black sea, occupies part of a considerable peninsula on the south side of the ex- cellent roadstead of the same name, near the southwestern extremity of the Crimea (three hundred and forty miles northeast of Constantinople), rising from the shore in the form of an amphitheatre, and consisting of a number of tolerably well-built streets, which either stretch south in parallel rows, climbing a steep acclivity, or transversely east to west. The main street, situated along the harbor, which is immediately east of the town, is lined with two-story houses; many of the others, though only of one story, being whitewashed, have a clean and cheerful appearance. The roadstead and harbor, and the extensive establishments connected with them, are by far the most important features of Sevastapol. The * 186 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. BLACK Targrinh C.Constantine Surma SEA Quarand Lazza rello Cometer JO értilly OF Fort THE HARBOR OF SEVASTAPOL Soundings in fathoms oukhaya Greeki Painoto Geck Golandiya Careening Buy Inkerm Light wost) Doc Miles 2 roadstead, entered from the west, stretches east for about three and a half miles, forming a deep hollow between lofty limestone-ridges, which com- pletely shelter it both on the north and south, from which the prevailing winds blow. Its breadth at the entrance is about thirteen hundred yards, immediately widening out to about one mile, and again diminishing till not more than six or seven hundred yards at its head. The average depth at the entrance, and for some distance within, is ten fathoms, but afterward shallows east to not more than four fathoms. The harbor proper is a creek, which opens from the roadstead, and stretches south along the east side of the town. It is above a mile and a half long, and at its entrance four hun- dred yards wide. In addition to its natural advantages, it has had all the improvements which art and unbounded expenditure could give to make it complete. The admiralty, arsenal, and public offices, are on the western- the hospitals, barracks, and magazines, mostly on the eastern side of the harbor. Toward the land side, no defences appear to have been thought necessary, but both the roadstead and harbor are protected by three batte- ries of the most formidable description. Two of these, called Constantine and Alexander, defend the roadstead, one being situated on each side of it; the third, called Nicholas, is situated in the haven itself, fronting the town. These batteries, which, according to some, are of the most perfect, and, according to others, of very indifferent construction, could bring twelve hundred guns to bear upon any fleet attempting to force a passage. The fortifications were commenced in 1780, when it was a mere Tartar village. The population, including military and marine, now exceeds forty thousand. Oliphant, who visited Sevastapol in 1853, thus remarks: "Nothing can be more formidable than the appearance of the town from the seaward. We visited it in a steamer, and found that at one point we were commanded by twelve hundred pieces of artillery. Fortunately for a hostile fleet, we afterward heard that these could not be discharged without bringing down SOUTHERN RUSSIA - THE CRIMEA. 187 ROBESTE LA SHOE CITY AND HARBOR OF SEVASTAPOL. the rotten batteries upon which they are placed, and which are so badly constructed that they look as if they had been done by contract. Four of the forts consist of three tiers of batteries. We were, of course, unable to do more than take a very general survey of these celebrated fortifications, and therefore can not vouch for the truth of the assertion that the rooms in which the guns are worked are so narrow and ill-ventilated, that the artillerymen would be inevitably stifled in the attempt to discharge their guns and their duty. But of one fact there was no doubt: that however well fortified may be the approaches to Sevastapol by sea, there is nothing whatever to prevent any number of troops landing a few miles to the south of the town in one of the six convenient bays with which the coasts, as far as Cape Kherson, is indented, and, marching down the main street (pro- vided they were strong enough to defeat any military force that might be opposed to them in the open field), sack the town, and burn the fleet. "I was much struck with the substantial appearance of many of the pri- vate houses; and, indeed, the main street was handsomer than any I had seen since leaving Moscow. New houses were springing up in every direc- tion, government works were still going forward vigorously, and Sevasta- pol bids fair to rank high among Russian cities. The magnificent arm of the sea upon which it is situate is an object worthy the millions which have been lavished in rendering it a fitting receptacle for the Russian navy. "As I stood upon the handsome stairs that lead down to the water's edge, I counted thirteen sail-of-the-line anchored in the principal harbor. The newest of these, a noble three-decker, was lying within pistol-shot of 188 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. the quay. The average breadth of this inlet is one thousand yards; two creeks branch off from it, intersecting the town in a southerly direction, and containing steamers and smaller craft, besides a long row of hulka which have been converted into magazines or prison-ships. The hard ser- vice which has reduced so many of the handsomest ships of the Russian navy to this condition, consists in lying for eight or ten years upon the sleeping bosom of the harbor. After the expiration of that period, their timbers, composed of fir or pine wood never properly seasoned, become perfectly rotten. This result is chiefly owing to inherent decay, and in some degree to the ravages of a worm that abounds in the muddy waters of the Tchernoi Retcka, a stream which, traversing the valley of Inkerman, falls into the upper part of the main harbor. It is said that this pernicious insect which is equally destructive in salt water as in fresh-costs the Russian government many thousands, and is one of the most serious obsta- cles to the formation of an efficient navy on the Black sea. It is maliciously said that, upon the few occasions that the Russian fleet in this sea have encountered a gale of wind, the greater part of the officers and men were always sea-sick! It is certain that they have sometimes been unable to tell whereabout they were on their extensive cruising-ground; and once, between Sevastapol and Odessa, it is currently and libellously reported that the admiral was so utterly at a loss, that the flag-lieutenant, observing a village on shore, proposed to land and ask the way!" • Inkerman, the "Town of Caverns," lies near Sevastapol. The curiosi- ties of this locality consist in the remains which exist there to tell of races long since departed. The precipitous cliffs, between which flow the Tcher- noi Retcka, are honeycombed with cells and chapels. The origin of these singular caves is uncertain; but they are supposed to have been excavated by monks during the reigns of the Greek emperors of Constantinople in the middle or later ages. When the Arians who inhabited the Chersonesus were persecuted by the Greek church, then predominant, the members of that sect took refuge in these singular dwellings, whose lofty and inacces- sible position rendered them to a certain degree secure. The largest chapel, which presents all the characteristics of Byzantine architecture, is about twenty-four feet long by twelve broad. Sarcophagi, usually quite empty, have been found in many of the cells; these latter are often con- nected with each other, and are approached by stairs cut in the living rock. Perched upon the same cliff, and of much earlier date than the caverns which undermine them, are the ruined walls of an old fort. Whether they are the remains of the Ctenus of the ancients, built by Diophantes, King Mithridates's general, to strengthen the Heraclean wall, or of the Theodori of the Greeks, or of some Genoese stronghold, is still a very open question. There can be no doubt, however, that the seat of government of the prin- cipality of Theodori stood formerly on this spot; but it is probable that its inhabitants were composed of Greek colonists, and not of Circassian tribes, as some writers have supposed. SOUTHERN RUSSIA· THE CRIMEA. 189 #INDALA IDEI INKERMAN, THE "TOWN OF CAVERNS.” The view from the high-road to Baktchiserai of the valley of Inkerman, with its perforated cliffs and ruined fortress (as represented in the accom- panying engraving), is as remarkable as it is beautiful. A romantic old bridge in the foreground spans the sluggish stream, which winds amid the most luxuriant vegetation. Simferopol (or Akmetchet), the capital of Taurida and the Crimea, lies in a central position, forty miles northwest of Sevastapol. It stands in a fine but not very healthy situation on the river Salghir, and consists of two parts one new built by the Russians, in the European style; the other old, and occupied by the Tartars. The streets in the former are wide and regular; and it contains the government offices, and a cathedral, said by Dr. Lyall to be by far the handsomest ecclesiastical edifice he had seen in Russia. The following is Oliphant's description of the modern capital of the Crimea, and its environs, as they appeared to him in 1853: "When the Crimea was ceded to Russia in 1781, the picturesque old capital of Bak- tchiserai was considered unworthy of being the chief town of the new prov- ince, and a gay modern city was laid out upon the plains of the Salghir, dignified with an imposing ancient Greek name, and built in truc Russian taste, with very broad streets, very white, tall houses, decorated with very green paint. If the population consisted entirely of Russians, the interior of the town would be as far from realizing the expectations which its out- ward appearance is calculated to produce, as Kazan or Saratov; but for- tunately for Simferopol, it was once Akmetchet (or The White Mosque'), and the inhabitants of Akmetchet still linger near the city of their ances- tors, and invest the cold monotony of the new capital with an interest of which it would be otherwise quite unworthy. 6 "Formerly the second town in the Crimea, and the residence of the kalga sultan, or vice-khan, Akmetchet was a city of great importance, 190 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. adorned with palaces, mosques, and public baths. It has now exchanged the eastern magnificence of former days for the tawdry glitter of Musco- vite barbarism. "The streets inhabited by Tartars are composed entirely of blank walls, and would therefore be the dullest places imaginable were it not for the people who traverse them. The houses are only one story high, and each is enclosed in a separate courtyard. The parchment windows which look out into it are placed so low as to be quite hidden from the street; and so the unfortunate females have not the ordinary amusement of eastern ladies, and no black eyes glance out of latticed windows upon the passenger as he passes beneath them. The Tartar women of Akmetchet, however, do not lose much by their seclusion. The streets have none of the life and bustle of a town like Cairo. The shops are few and far between, very small and poor, and kept by ugly, unveiled women. The beauties walk about cov- ered up to the eyes with the white 'fereedjè,' which reaches as low as the knee. Were it not for the bright-colored skirt which flutters beneath it, and the loose drawers that fall over tiny yellow boots, they would look precisely like animated bundles of white linen. The men occasionally wear the turban and flowing robe of the true oriental; but their costumes, always picturesque, vary so much as to be almost indescribable. "We soon got tired of wandering through this maze of narrow lanes, always confined between high, blank walls, and changed the scene by sud- denly coming upon the fashionable promenade, where the band was playing in cool, delicious gardens, to the gay world, who delight to assemble here and stroll upon the banks of the Salghir, away from the heat and dust of the town. The present governor, Pestal, a brother to 'Yes, it comes at last,' is, I understand, in high favor with the emperor. His house is a substantial, handsome-looking mansion. There are extensive barracks sit- uated a little outside the town, but the hospital alone is always in use; the rest of the building is only occupied occasionally by troops passing to and from the Caucasus. "There are no less than two hotels in Simferopol, and in the one we were at they actually gave us a sheet each, but, of course, no means of washing! Our windows looked out upon the principal street, and were always interesting posts of observation. Sometimes a lumbering noble- man's carriage, piled with luggage, and stored with provisions for a month, rattled into the town-the family being about to return to St. Petersburg for the winter, after spending the summer at their country-seat in the Crimea; or an unpretending vehicle, exactly similar to ours, jogged quietly past, crammed with Armenian merchants, some of whose legs, protruding from between the curtains, were presumed to belong to Armenians, from the perfume of Turkish tobacco which was diffused over the street during their transit; or a file of camel-carts, filled with straw, moved sedately along, stopping every now and then for a few moments while the drivers spoke to friends, when all the camels lay down: no amount of experience SOUTHERN RUSSIA-THE CRIMEA. 191 CAMEL-CART seemed to show them that it was hardly worth while to do this, consider- ing how soon they would have to get up again, and the great exertion it involved. Accustomed only to the camels and dromedaries of still more eastern countries, the appearance of this Bactrian camel was quite new to me. The two humps are generally so long, that, unable to sustain them- selves, they fall over, and often hang down on each side of the animal's back. The neck and legs are covered with long, thick hair, from which the Tartar women weave cloth of a soft, woolly texture. "In strong contrast to these singular carts, pert droskies were continu- ally dashing about. Though so small and light, all the public droskies here have two horses, generally very good ones, while the heat of the sun has rendered it necessary that they should, for the most part, be supplied with hoods; so that the atrocious little vehicle of St. Petersburg is con- verted at Simferopol into quite a respectable conveyance. Next door to our hotel was rather a handsome Jewish synagogue, in which school seemed perpetually going on. Simferopol contains about fourteen thou- sand inhabitants, of which comparatively a large proportion are members of this persuasion. “Fortunately the annual fair, which takes place in the first week of October, was being held during the period of our stay; and then it is that the greatest variety of costume, and all the characteristic features of the Crimea, are most opportunely collected for the traveller's benefit. To be properly appreciated, the fair of Nijnei-Novgorod should be seen before that of Simferopol, which we found infinitely more striking, perhaps be- cause we were completely taken by surprise when, quite unaware of its existence, we chanced to enter the market-place one afternoon. It is sel- dom that two races so widely differing in manners and customs, springing from origins so distinct, are brought into every-day contact in such a pal- pable manner as in Crim Tartary; and this mixture is the more interesting from the improbability of its existing very long in its present unnatural condition. "An enormous square, many acres in extent, contained an indiscriminate mass of booths, camels, carts, droskies, oxen, and picturesque grouns. 192 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Here may be seen the red-bearded Russian mujik, in jackboots and sheep- skin, in close confabulation with a gayly-dressed Tartar, who has just gal- lopped across the steppe, and who sits his horse as if he were part and parcel of him. He wears a large, white fur-cap; a red-striped, embroi- dered jacket, fitting close to his body, with wide, open sleeves; while his loose, dark-blue trousers are girded with a bright-colored sash, amid the folds of which the massive handle of his dagger appears; and his slippered feet are thrust into clumsy stirrups at the ends of very long leathers. His horse is a wiry little animal, possessing an infinitely greater amount of intelligence than beauty. Farther on among the crowd, and distinguished by his green turban, floats the robe of some pious hadjè; nor does he seem in the least scandalized by two young ladies in a drosky, not only devoid of fereedjè, but even of bonnets, and wearing only the jaunty little caps of the Parisian grisette. We might very fairly suggest, however, the propri- ety of their profiting, in some degree, from the example of the muffled females over the way, who seem afraid to expose to the profane gaze of men the dyed tips of their finger-nails! In the narrow lanes formed by carts and tents, Greeks, in a no less gay though somewhat different cos- tume from that usually worn in their own country, are haggling with Rus- sian Jews in long black beards, and long black cloaks reaching down to their ankles. It is an even bet who will have the best of such a bargain! Savage-looking Nogaïs, and Cossack soldiers, are making purchases from Armenian or German shopkeepers. There are large booths, like gipsies' huts magnified, which have no connection with the ragged representatives of that wandering race who swarm at the fair, but which contain quantities of most tempting fruit-huge piles of apricots, grapes, peaches, apples, and plums-of any of which one farthing will buy more than the purchaser can conveniently carry away with him. Besides these booths, there are heavy carts, with wicker-work sides, and ungreased, angular wheels, which make that incessant and discordant creaking familiar to those who have ever heard a Bengal bullock-hackery. Presiding over the whole scene, not in the least disconcerted by the uncongenial forms which surround them, are hundreds of camels, in all sorts of positions, chewing the cud with eastern philosophy, and perfectly submissive to very small, ragged Tartar boys, who seem to have entire charge of them, and who do not reach higher than their knees. Rows of shops enclosed this miscellaneous assemblage, containing saddles, knives, whips, slippers, tobacco-pouches, and Morocco-leather boots, all of Tartar manufacture, besides every de- scription of every European article. It was some satisfaction to feel, as we moved through the busy throng, in plaid shooting-coats with mother-of pearl buttons, that we too were adding another variety to the motley cos- tumes of the fair at Simferopol. "But the charm of Simferopol does not consist in the variety of races which inhabit it. Though it seems to lie in a plain, as approached from Kertsch, a great part of the town is situated upon the precipitous edge of SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE CRIMEA. 193 the steppe, whence a magnificent view is obtained immediately below; and at the foot of abrupt rocks, two hundred feet high, runs the tiny Salghir, dignified with the name of a river, and, if not entitled to it from its size, worthy the appellation by reason of the lovely valley which it has formed in its northern course. Orchards and gardens, containing every sort of fruit-trees, and abounding in rows of tall poplars, line its banks, until the hills, becoming higher and more thickly wooded, form a ridge, which is connected with the Tchatir Dagh (or Tchadyadag), a noble background, and which does full justice to this lovely picture. Nor did a closer ac- quaintance with the details of this view detract from our original impres- sions on beholding it. 6 "We determined to take advantage of the glorious weather to make the ascent of the Tchatir Dagh (the Mountain of the Tent' of the Tartars, Trapezus of the Greeks, and Palata Gora of the Russians). . We reached the giddy edge of the limestone cliff which forms the highest peak, a few moments after sunrise, having attained an elevation of over five thou- sand feet above the sea. We were well repaid for the fatigue of the ascent by the magnificent view we obtained from this point. Immediately at our feet, and so directly beneath us that a stone might be dropped perpendicu- larly upon the trees two thousand feet below, lay charmingly-diversified woods and meadows; curling wreaths of blue smoke ascended from clumps of trees scattered over the park-like scenery, while large herds of cattle seemed from their diminutiveness to have been peppered out upon the rich pasture-land. • "We soon accomplished the steep descent of the first thousand feet; and, mounting our ponies, attempted to pick our way over the rocks, to some caves, reported to be worth seeing. Our path-or rather where our path would have been, had one existed-lay over a large extent of strati- fied limestone, of a gray color. The rugged surface, strewn with huge fragments of the stone, was frequently indented by hemispherical hollows, in which grew clumps of trees, and which, had they not occurred so fre- quently, might have been mistaken far the craters of extinct volcanoes. "Whatever may have been their origin, they were the cause of incessant annoyance to us as we wound round them-the rocks becoming so sharp and jagged, that we were obliged to lead our horses a great part of the way. At last we descended into one, and the guides pointed to a small under a rock, into which we were expected to crawl, telling us it was the entrance to the cave of Foul Kouba, a view of which is presented on the following page Armed with a tallow-candle, I forthwith crept into the hole, scrambling on hands and knees amid a quantity of human skulls and bones, which rattled dismally as, one after another, we crawled among them. For twenty or thirty yards we thus proceeded, occasionally obliged to lie down perfectly flat upon the wet mud and bones, and burrow our way along—a mode of entry which reminded me of an unpleasant experi- ence I once endured in descending into an Egyptian mummy-pit. 13 194 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ROBERTS CAVE OF FOUL KOUBA. "At last we were enabled to stand upright and look around. A spa- cious chamber, about forty feet high, seemed supported by some huge sta- lactites. The largest of these was at least fifty feet in circumference; and if the cave had been lighted up with such torches as those used at Adels- burg, instead of with three tallow-dips, I have no doubt their varied colors would have produced a striking effect. I followed a clear stream through a small opening into what appeared another chamber, but could get no one to accompany me on an exploring expedition, as my companion felt too unwell to enter the cave at all. Montandon, however, says that Mon- sieur Oudinet, a Frenchman, penetrated half a day's journey into this cave without reaching the end. The innumerable skulls and bones lying strewn about in all directions told a melancholy history-a party of Genoese had been smoked to death here, during their wars with the Tartars in the thir- teenth century. "We were glad to get into the fresh air again, and, very hot and dirty, started for Kisil Kouba, another cave not far distant. The entrance to this was magnificent; and, after descending gradually for about a hundred yards, the cave increased to a breadth of thirty or forty yards, while its height could not have been less than sixty feet. Here, however, the sta- lactites were comparatively poor, though occasionally well-colored. It has never been fully explored; a stream, which we did not reach, becoming too deep to allow of its extent being ascertained." The celebrated traveller and naturalist Pallas lived for fifteen years in the town of Simferopol. It was his own wish to emigrate thither; and, to enable him to gratify it, the empress Catherine II. made him a present of an estate in the best part of the Crimean peninsula. But, being cut off from the society he had enjoyed in St. Petersburg, and exposed to family annoyances, Pallas became dissatisfied with the country and with the cli- SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE CRIMEA. 195 mate he had so highly panegyrized. Having sold his estate, he left Sim- feropol in disgust in 1811, and returned, after an absence of forty-two years, to his native city Berlin, where he died in the course of the same year. Kertsch, a seaport town of the Crimea, occupies the site of the ancient Panticapaeum, on a tongue of land forming a peninsula of the same name on the strait of Enikaleh, connecting the sea of Azoy with the Euxine, one hundred and thirty miles east-northeast of Simferopol. It is regularly and beautifully built, chiefly of stone obtained from the fine quarries of the neighborhood, and possesses great natural advantages for commerce. In 1827, it was declared a free port, and an extensive lazaretto was built, at which all the vessels coming by the Black sea perform quarantine. The number of vessels which touch at it in passing out of the sea of Azov aver- ages four hundred annually, and the number of coasting-vessels is from five to six hundred. The greater part of the inhabitants are employed in com- merce. It exports building-stone, and large quantities of salt, obtained from the neighboring lakes; and its herring and sturgeon fisheries are very productive. The ancient town of Panticapaeum was the residence and reputed burial- place of Mithridates, king of Pontus. A mound in the vicinity is said to be the tomb of that formidable and inveterate enemy of Rome; but this is contradicted by the most authentic accounts, which represent Mithridates as having been buried, by order of Pompey, in the sepulchre of his ances- tors at Sinope. The modern town of Kertsch is of very recent existence, and has risen up as if by magic; and, by its increase, has prejudicially affected some of the other ports. Its population is about twelve thousand. Caffa, or Feodosia (the ancient Theodosia), is another seaport town, situated at the western angle of a magnificent bay in the southeast of the Crimea. It is walled and well fortified, and contains numerous public buildings, of which the most worthy of notice are the three churches-a Greek, Roman catholic, and Armenian; two mosques, a spacious and com- modious quarantine, and a college, founded by the emperor Alexander, chiefly for gratuitous instruction in the modern languages. There is also a botanical garden, and a museum, which is rich in the antiquities of the neighborhood. The site and excellent harbor of Caffa would seem to mark it out as a place of great trade, but it has formidable competitors in Odessa and Kertsch, and does not seem destined to recover its lost importance. Caffa is a place of great antiquity, having been founded by a colony of Greeks from Ionia, in Asia Minor. It received its name of Theodosia from the wife of Leucon, king of the Bosphorus, who took it after a long siege, and soon made it a place of great importance. In the middle ages it passed into the hands of the Genoese, by purchase from the khans of the Crimea, and became the seat of an extensive commerce with the East, by the way of the Caspian and Astrakhan. At this time it is said to have had a population of eighty thousand; but, having been taken by the Turks 1 196 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. + in 1474, its prosperity rapidly declined. Much has been done for it since it came into the possession of Russia, and it is still one of the most impor- tant towns in the Crimea, but its population probably does not exceed eight or ten thousand. Baktchiserai (the "Seraglio of Gardens") is one of the most remarka- ble towns in Europe. It is situated on the Djurouk-Su, about fifteen miles southwest of Simferopol. It is the capital in which the khans or Tartar sovereigns of the Tauridian peninsula long held sway, as deputies or tribu- taries of Turkey, before Russia established herself in the Crimea. Bak- tchiserai is a place of great interest, both historical and local. The Tartar impress is still strong upon it. It stands at the bottom of a narrow valley, hemmed in by precipitous rocks, and watered by a small rivulet, by no means of the most limpid appearance, and consists almost entirely of a sin- gle street, built along the side of this rivulet, and lined with bazars and workshops, in which the Tartar toils, in primitive simplicity, in the pro- duction of articles of the very same form and quality as furnished by his forefathers two centuries ago! The town contains several mosques, which are usually embosomed among trees, and whose minarets rise high above the houses, and is adorned with numerous fountains. The number of houses in the town exceeds two thousand, inhabited by about ten thousand persons the majority of Tartar blood, the rest Russians, Greeks, Arme- nians, and Jews. The Karaïte Jews, a peculiar section of that people, carry on a considerable trade in common stuff-goods, mercery, and colonial produce. The main street above alluded to is nearly a mile long, and so narrow that two carts can scarcely pass. Fortunately this is a contingency which does not often arise; and the busy throng that traverses it, which consists almost entirely of Tartars, Karaïte Jews, and gipsies, is extremely incon- venienced by the appearance of a wheeled vehicle at all. In mixing with this nondescript populace, Oliphant remarks that his attention was divided between the variety of feature and costume which it exhibited, and the wonderful display of goods exposed for sale in the open shops. These are devoid of any front wall, and are closed at night by the wooden shutters which in the daytime form a sort of counter. Upon this the owner sits. cross-legged, earnestly engaged in the manufacture of the article he sells, and only allowing himself to be distracted from his occupation by the arri- val of a customer. From the manner in which these shops are arranged, the members of each craft would seem to be collected into divisions specially appropriated to them. Thus, immediately on leaving the khan, or Tartar inn, and turn- ing up the principal street toward the palace, a bazar is passed in which sheepskin-caps are fabricated. Beyond these come the workers in leather, encompassed by piles of saddles, richly-embroidered belts, tobacco-pouches, and absurd-looking whips, with a large, flat piece of leather at the end of the lash, and a knife concealed in the handle, like the one in the accompa- SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE CRIMEA. 197 nying engraving. Opposite are slipper-makers and tailors; while the cut- lers occupy a great extent of territory, and are famed for the excellent Tartar knives which they manufacture. "We were so long moving about from one set of these affable shopkeepers to another," says Oliphant, “that it was late in the day before I began to wonder whether we were never coming to a food-quarter. Hitherto, since leaving Sevastapol, we had feasted our eyes only, while our guide had subsisted entirely on pipes. Upon his now suggesting that we should go to a cook-shop, we willingly proceeded in search of one; and were attracted, by sundry whiffs redolent of mutton, to a large corner-house, whence arose a cloud of fragrant steam. Here a number of people were standing in the open street, diving into huge, project- ing caldrons of soup, whence they extracted square pieces of fat, which they devoured with great relish while strolling about among the crowd. Not entirely approving of this al-fresco mode of dining, and fearing that we might stand a chance of being run over while discussing an interesting morsel, we were glad to discover that it was not necessary to present a ticket of admission to a Batchiserai soup- kitchen: so we entered, and seated ourselves on a narrow bench, behind a very filthy plank intended to serve as a festive-board. Being fully exposed to the street, we were in a most con- venient position for the loungers in it to satisfy their curiosity regarding us, and accordingly we were mutually edified by staring at one another. TARTAR WHIP. "Our attention, however, was soon diverted to the head-cook, who brought us a boiled sheep's head in one hand, while with the other he at- tempted to catch the gravy that trickled through his fingers upon a loaf of black bread. These he set down before us on the cleanest part of the plank we could pick out, and evidently considered that our every want was supplied. We forthwith proceeded with our penknives to discuss the sheep's head, which seemed to have been previously stripped of everything but the eyes; and, with the addition of some kibaubs (square pieces of fat strung upon a reed), succeeded in accomplishing a meal, which sustained us for the rest of the day: not that it would be possible to starve in Bak- tchiserai; the heaps of delicious fruit with which the street is lined for some hundreds of yards would always furnish an abundant, if somewhat unwholesome meal. Grapes, figs, pomegranates, peaches, nectarines, and apricots, tempt the passenger to refresh himself at every step; 'while, as if in gentle remonstrance with his imprudence, innumerable fountains of the purest water gush out of the hillside, murmuring invitations to the thirsty soul which it is difficult to resist. From one of these, which has ten spouts, the sparkling streams fall upon slabs of marble. A continual babbling goes on in every direction as the clear little rivulets seem hurrying 198 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. away from the filth of the town, determined to lose themselves as speedily as possible in the waters of the Djurouk-Su. "" The far-famed palace of the khans occupies one side of a small square at the extreme end of the main street Crossing the moat, a painted gate- way with projecting eaves is passed, and the singular collection of build- ings which then meets the eye on every side is no less astonishing than delightful. To the right of a large grass-grown court stands the rambling, W.ROBERTS.50 PALACE OF THE KHANS. disjointed palace, with gaudy walls and highly-decorated trellis-work, fes- tooned with vines, and small lattice-windows looking out upon fragrant gardens; while above all is an octagonal wooden tower, with a Chinese- looking roof. On the left are a number of two-storied buildings, with verandahs supported by ornamented posts, and near them a mausoleum and mosque, with two tall minarets-the mark of royalty. A handsome fountain, shaded by willows, stands opposite the private entrance; behind it the court is enclosed by the walls of an orchard, situated on a rising ground, which is intersected by terraces. Looking beyond the immediate objects, the view is no less striking. The palace scems to be in the arena of an amphitheatre, of which the flat roofs of the Tartar houses-stuck, as it were, in rows against the sides of the mountains-represent the seats.* All over these mountains caves occur * The Tartars, unlike other people, generally prefer the steep side of a hill for the site of their villages, rather than those level situations vulgarly known as eligible building-lots." By excava- ting a space out of the hill, in proportion to the accommodation required, the architect is saved the trouble of building a back wall, while he simply fills up with mud the angles at the sides. The roof, which thus, as it were, projects out of the hill, is perfectly flat, and covered with mould. It extends beyond the front walls, and, supported by posts, forms a sort of verandah. Thus, when the traveller passes below one of these cottages, the roof is not visible at all; while, if he be above them, they would have the effect of diminutive drying-grounds for grain or coffee, were it not for the smoke that issues from the conical mud-chimneys. These serve not only as apertures for the smoke, but also as a means of verbal communication with the interior of the houses. On a dark SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE CRIMEA. 199 TARTAR VILLAGE. frequently, resembling pigeon-holes. Nothing can be more unique than the aspect of the town from the courtyard of the palace, while gigantic rocks, of grotesque shape, are poised in mid-air, threatening destruction to all that remains of the capital of this once-mighty empire. Entering the principal vestibule of the palace, the celebrated "Fountain of Tears," immortalized among Russians by the poem of Nicholas Pushkin, is seen. This hall opens, by means of arches, to the gardens of the seraglio; and, from it, dark staircases ascend and terminate in narrow passages, which again lead to spacious galleries, brilliantly decorated. Wandering through the latter, the visiter loses himself at last in a laby- rinth of small apartments, scarcely differing from one another, connected by doorways, in which swing heavy satin brocades. He glides noiselessly through them over the soft Turkish carpets, as if treading the chamber of death. There is something appropriate in the mysterious silence which characterizes all his movements, surrounded as he is by a luxury so fresh- looking and real, that it seems as though its possessors had but just van- ished for ever from the fairy scenes they had conjured around them. Here are broad crimson divans; richly-embroidered curtains carefully suspended over the latticed windows; and tapestry of costly satin, elaborately worked, concealing the walls, or hanging quaintly from semicircular projections over the fireplaces-a flimsy splendor, which was not allowed to fade and vanish with its original possessors, but is retained in all its gaudy coloring, as if to mock the memory of those to whose effeminate tastes it once had ministered. night an equestrian might easily mistake his way, and, riding straight over one of these roofs, make his appearance at the front door in a manner too abrupt to be altogether consistent with good breeding. The engraving which we give on this page presents a characteristic view of one of the numerous villages or hamlets of the Crim Tartars. 200 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. But Muscovite sovereigns have condescended to lodge in the former abode of the khans; and the guide, of course, imagines that the most in- teresting object in the palace is the bed in which the empress Catherine II. slept. The room of Maria Potoski, however, is fraught with more romantic as- sociations. Here for ten years the infatuated count- ess resided, hoping to effect a compromise between her conscience and her passion for the khan, by a life devoted to religious exercises, while content to reign, at the same time, supreme in the palace of the infidel. The apartments appropriated to her are lux- uriously arranged; and a lofty hall, with fountains. plashing upon slabs of marble, bears her name. Ad- joining it is a Roman catholic chapel, which was built expressly for her use by the amorous khan. TARTAR GUIDE, Many of the rooms are ornamented with represen- tations of birds, and beasts, and creeping things, in every variation of grotesque form; while, as if to compensate for this direct violation of the Koran, fragments of that sacred record are inscribed upon the walls. One of the most singular chambers in this most singular palace is a large glass summer-house, surrounded by a divan, and decorated in a most unorthodox manner, in which a fountain plays into a porphyry basin. It opens upon a flower-garden, at the farther end of which, shaded by a magnificent old vine, is a marble bath, prepared for the empress Catherine by the considerate gallantry of Potemkin, and supplied by cascades from the fountain of Selsabil. The favorite lived enclosed among delicious gardens, in the now-deserted harem, during the residence of his royal mistress in the palace, from which it is approached by a succession of pavilions and verandahs. Attached to it is the octago- nal tower; and authorities differ as to whether the khans reserved it for the use of their women or their falcons. As it is exactly like a large wooden cage, no light is thrown upon the subject from its construction. From between the bars a singular panoramic view is obtained of the town and palace. The palace first became the residence of the khans in the year 1475. "Having seen the former abode of the khans," says Oliphant, "we thought we would now visit their present resting-place. So, leaving the fountains to play and babble in silent halls, and the divans to grace unten- anted rooms, and the trees to blossom and perfume the deserted gardens, we entered the vaulted chambers in which the most illustrious khans re- pose. Here a venerable old hadjè held tremulously aloft the dim, flickering light, to enable us to look over the turbaned tombstones. Passing out, we walked through the cemetery, where vines cluster over the crumbling ruins that tell of departed greatness; and all seemed travelling the same road which the occupants of these sculptured sepultures have already taken.” SOUTHERN RUSSIA-THE CRIMEA. 201 MAUSOLEUM OF THE KHANS. The valley in which Baktchiserai lies almost concealed, terminates in a narrow gorge, containing caverns occupied only by gipsies. From this gorge the way emerges upon a dark, mysterious glen, heavily wooded with oaks and beech-trees. A winding path dives into its inmost recesses, and through a maze of tombstones, formed in the shape of sarcophagi, and cov- ered with Hebrew inscriptions. This is the "Valley of Jehoshaphat” — for centuries the cemetery of the Karaïte Jews, who still love to lay their bones beside those of their ancestors; so that the sleeping inhabitants of the valley of Jehoshaphat far outnumber the population of Karaïtes in any one town in the Crimea. The little path extends for nearly a mile, always surrounded by these touching mementoes of a race who, in whatever part of the world they may be scattered, still retain the profoundest veneration for a spot hallowed by such sacred associations. The grove terminates suddenly near a frightful precipice, from the dizzy edge of which a magnificent view is obtained. A few miles distant, the conical rock of Tepèkerman rises abruptly from the broken country, its beetling crags perforated with innumerable myste- rious caverns and chambers. Beyond, the Tchatir Dagh, with the elevated sea-range, of which it is part, forms the background of the rich and varied landscape. Following the line of the calcareous cliffs, a point is reached where the prospect in the opposite direction is still more striking. To the right, the 202 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. dilapidated old fortress of Tchoufut Kalè crowns the nearest height, while the monastery of Uspenskoï, built into the face of the overhanging rock, appears as if it had been excavated by the inhabitants of Stony Petra, rather than by monks of the Greek church. Here, too, compressed within narrow limits, lies the old Tartar capital, almost hidden by the gardens which clothe the valley in a mantle of richest green. Lower down, the precipices soften into gentle slopes, and the cultivation spreads over a great extent of country, through which the Djurouk-Su meanders until it falls into the Black sea, that bounds the western horizon. When the Tartar khans deserted Tchoufut Kalè for the lovely vale below, this singular stronghold became again exclusively the residence of the Karaïte Jews, who had lived there from time immemorial, and who are naturally bound to it by the strongest feelings of reverence and affection, since it has been alike the cradle of their sect, and the rock upon which they have ever found a secure refuge in times of persecution. Singular as it may seem, perched upon this almost inaccessible cliff is the headquarters of a sect whose members are scattered over Russia, Poland, and Egypt. As the population was said to be entirely Jewish, Oliphant remarks that he expected to find Tchoufut Kalè filled with picturesque groups of hand- somely-dressed men and lovely maidens; but he passed through the arch- way, and along the streets, to which the living rock answered the purpose of pavement, and still, to his astonishment, not a soul was to be seen! A few dogs flew at him, and obliged him to perambulate the rest of the town armed with stones. It seemed quite empty, for not only were the public thoroughfares deserted, but he could get no answer at any of the doors at which he knocked; so that he was beginning to suspect that the last inhab- itant must have recently got some one to bury him in the valley of Jehosh- aphat, when a husky voice murmured something through a crack in a shut- ter; and presently a decrepit, stone-blind old man, who might have been the individual in question, hobbled out with a stick, and offered to conduct him to the synagogue. This edifice is a plain building, differing in no respect from an ordinary Jewish place of worship. It contains some magnificently-bound copies of the Old Testament in manuscript. The books of Moses only are printed and taught in the schools. The Karaites profess to have the Old Testa- ment in its most genuine state. The derivation of their name has been ascribed to kara and ite, words signifying, in Arabic, "black dog"-a not unlikely epithet to be applied by Mohammedans to this despised race. A more generally received and probably correct derivation, however, seems to be from the word kara, "scripture❞—because they hold simply to the letter of scripture, not ad- mitting the authority of the Talmud, or the interpretation of the rabbis. Like all Jews, they display extraordinary care in the education of their children, who are publicly instructed in the synagogues. About five thou- sand Karaïtes are resident in Poland, who acknowledge the old rabbi of SOUTHERN RUSSIA- THE CRIMEA. 203 JEWISH FORTRESS OF TCHOUFUT KALE. Tchoufut Kalè as their spiritual chief. They are said originally to have emigrated from the Crimea. As almost all the Karaïtes are engaged in trade or manufacture, and as they observe the most scrupulous honesty in their dealings, it has naturally followed that they are a prosperous and thriving community; while, as if an exception had been made in favor of this portion of that interesting people whose unhappy destiny has been so wonderfully accomplished, prob- ably the only settlement exclusively Jewish which still exists is the fortress of Tchoufut Kalè. Its population has, however, dwindled down to a very small remnant, since trade has increased, and additional facilities have been afforded for settling in more convenient positions than upon the sum- mit of one of the highest crags in the Crimea. The population of the sea- port of Eupatoria is composed mainly of Karaïtes, nearly two thousand of whom are now resident there-and some of these are wealthy merchants. All devout Karaïtes scattered throughout the Crimea, when increasing infirmities warn them of approaching dissolution, are brought to Tchoufut Kalè to die, and to have their bones repose beside those of their forefathers in the lovely vale of Jehoshaphat. At There are only two entrances to the fortress, and the massive gates are locked every night. Down a long flight of steps cut out of the living rock is a well of delicious water which supplies the inhabitants, the situation of which, at the bottom of a valley, and far below the walls, would render the impregnable position of the fort utterly valueless in time of war. this well is usually stationed a man who fills the water-skins borne by don- keys to their master above, neither the consigner nor the consignee accom- panying these sagacious animals on the numerous trips which are, never- theless, so essential to the comfort of the inhabitants. Following the bank of the ravine, the monastery of the Uspenskoï (or the "Assumption of the Virgin Mary") is reached, where galleries are 201 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. suspended upon the face of a lofty precipice, beneath the stupendous rocks out of which the chambers are hewn, and out of which also are cut the flight of steps by which they are approached. The monastery is said to have originated at the time of the persecution of the Greek church by the Mohammedans, when its members were not allowed to worship in build- ings. In some places the windows are mere holes in the face of the rock, while in others the front is composed of solid masonry. A wooden veran- dah before the church is supported over the massive bells. Ahout twenty thousand pilgrims resort 'hither annually in the month of August. Altogether it is a curious place, and harmonizes well with the strange scenery in which it is situated; so that the monks deserve some eredit for adding to the charms of a spot already possessing so many at- tractions; and this is probably the only benefit their presence is likely to confer upon the community. The ruins of the celebrated fortress of Mangoup Kalè, a view of which is given in the engraving on the opposite page, crown the summit of a hill that terminates the vale of Balbeck, on the route from Baktchiserai to Yalta. The uncertainty which hangs over the history of these fragments of former greatness, tends to invest them with a mysterious interest pecu- liar to themselves. They are strewn so extensively over the surface of the rock as to leave no doubt of the magnitude and importance which once distinguished the city that crowned this mountain-top. They bear the traces of almost every race which has inhabited the Crimea, are pervaded by the very essence of antiquity, and are regarded by the Tartars with the profoundest veneration. And they are worthy of it, for they are their own historians; and an account of their former owners, and the vicissitudes these stones have undergone since they were first hewn from the solid rock, may at a future time be extracted from them by some antiquarian who has made it the study of his lifetime to worm himself into the confidence of such impenetrable records. Meantime, authorities differ very widely upon this matter. The name is frequently pronounced Mangoute. The latter syllable, signifying Goths, may perhaps lead us to suppose that it was derived from the possessors of that principality, of which this was at one time the capital. The Goths were expelled from the lowlands by the Huns in the fourth century, and still continued to live in an independent condition, defending themselves in their fastnesses from the attacks of those barbarians who successively possessed themselves of the remainder of the Tauric peninsula. According to some authorities, Mangoup remained the capital of the Gothic princi- pality until it was taken by the Turks in the sixteenth century; while others suppose that, after the conquest of the Crimea by the Khazars, it became a Greek fortress, and so remained until it fell into the hands of the Genoese, at the same time with the Greek colonies on the coast. This is probably the correct view, as the greater part of the remains are Gre- cian. Professor Pallas calls Mangoup "an ancient Genoese city, which SOUTHERN RUSSIA — THE CRIMEA. 205 * MANGOUP Kale. appears to have been the last resort of the Ligurians after they were driven from the coast." Still the chapel, which is here excavated from the rock, and the images of saints, which he describes as painted on the walls, may be traces of the Christian Goths no less than of the Genoese; but it is extremely improbable that such is the case. In 1745, Mangoup was occupied by a Turkish garrison for twenty years, after which it was taken possession of by the khan of the Crimea. It had been for many years inhabited almost exclusively by Karaïte Jews. These gradually dwindled away, until they totally disappeared about sixty years ago, and have left nothing behind them but the ruins of their synagogue and a large cemetery, containing tombs similar to those in the valley of Jehoshaphat. There is very little left of the massive buildings which once adorned this famous town, except the foundations. The lofty calcareous promontory upon which the fortress is perched, is about a mile long, and a quarter of a mile broad. Upon three sides it is surrounded by frightful precipices, while that by which alone it is accessible is defended by castellated towers, placed at intervals in the massive wall. At right angles with it, and inter- secting the narrow promontory, are the remains of another wall; and the most perfect building now existing is a square fort built into it, two stories high, and pierced with loopholes for musketry. The upper edge of the plateau is perforated by small chambers cut out of the solid rock, and ap- 206 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. proached by stairs from the upper surface. Many of these chambers are from fifteen to twenty feet square, and connected by stairs; but the work of exploring requires nerves rather stronger than people who inhabit houses instead of eagles' nests usually possess; and the steps hewn out of the face of the giddy cliff, Oliphant thought, were more picturesque to look at than agreeable to traverse. Who the dwellers in these singular cells can have been, it is difficult to conjecture; but they were probably inhab- ited before the town was built upon the rock above. If the ruins of Mangoup Kalè possessed no other merit, they serve at least as an attraction to mount the cliffs upon which they are situated, and the labor of the ascent is amply repaid by the view alone. A correct idea of the configuration of this part of the Crimea is also obtained from the fortress of Mangoup Kalè. A precipitous limestone-range extends nearly east and west, parallel to the sea-range; and upon the edge of the stupen- dous cliffs are perched the forts of Tchoufut Kalè and Mangoup Kalè. The whole of the country intervening between these ranges is intersected by lovely valleys, and watered by clear mountain-streams; their banks are highly cultivated, and frequent tufted groves betray the existence of the villages which they conceal. This tract is inhabited solely by Tartars, who seem to cling to their highland glens with the tenacity characteristic of mountaineers. They are a hardy, hospitable race, totally different from their lowland brethren. No Tartar ever dreams of walking from one village to another; but when he wants to pay a visit to his neighbor, like a true country-gentleman he rides over to him; and if he has not so good a horse as the squire, he has scenery at least which the other might covet, and can beguile the way with a contemplation of its beauties, if competent so to enjoy himself. To the traveller furnished with a government order, the Tartars are bound to provide horses at any village where it may be produced. These are often poor-looking animals, but active and sure-footed, and admirably adapted for the rocky passes which they are obliged to traverse; indeed, they de- serve great credit for the way in which they seem to cling to a mountain- side, for they are shod with a flat plate of iron, with a hole at the frog, which may be useful in stony deserts for protecting the hoof, but must cause many a slip over the smooth rock. Not content with shoeing their horses in this fashion, the Tartars treat their oxen in like manner. Their singular process of shoeing these animals is well illustrated in the engra- ving at the close of the chapter, on the following page. The animal is placed upon the broad of his back, and there secured—a man sitting upon the head. The four legs, tied together, thus point straight up in the air, and the smith hammers away at his leisure, enabled by his convenient po- sition to operate all the more skilfully. There is something excessively ludicrous in the operation; though, to judge from the scene presented in the engraving, with the assistant seated upon its head, in all probability the poor brute finds it no laughing matter. SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE CRIMEA. 207 "It was melancholy to think," remarks Oliphant, "that the inhabitants. of these lovely valleys were gradually disappearing under the blighting influence which Russia appears to exercise over her moslem subjects. Of late years the Tartars have been rapidly diminishing, and now number about a hundred thousand, or scarcely half the entire population of the Crimea. Their energy, too, seems declining with their numbers. Whole tracts of country susceptible of a high state of cultivation, and once pro- ducing abundantly, are now lying waste; their manufactures deteriorating, their territorial wealth destroyed, their noble families becoming extinct, their poor ground down by Russian tax-gatherers, and swindled out of their subsistence by dishonest sub-officials. "Ere long the flat-roofed cottages, now buried amid the luxuriant vege- tation of clustering fruit-trees, will crumble into dust, and with them the last remains of that nation who once occupied an important position among European nations. Is the only Mohammedan state still existing in the West to share the same fate as the kingdom of Crim Tartary ?" k1 ¡£D !e 10 SHOEING A BULLOCK 208 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. TH CHAPTER VIII. THE STEPPES OF SOUTHERN RUSSIA. HE STEPPES of southern Russia (or at least portions of them) have been casually noticed, in the descriptions which have been given in the immediately preceding chapters on the governments of this divis- ion of the empire. But they form so characteristic and so interesting a feature in the physical aspect of the country-as much so as the prairies of our western states, and which, in fact, they much resemble-that we will give place to a general description of them here, even though it may involve a slight repetition of what is incidentally presented in other chapters. The steppes, as they are generally called, extend from the borders of Hungary to those of China. They constitute an almost uninterrupted plain, covered in spring and autumn by a luxuriant herbage; in winter by drifting snows, heaped up in some places, and leaving the ground bare in others; and in summer by clouds of dust so excessively fine, that even on the calmest day they hang suspended in the air, having the appearance rather of a vapor exhaled from the ground, than of earthy particles raised by the agitation of the atmosphere. The slight undulations that occur assume but rarely the character of hills, but artificial hillocks or tumuli are frequently met with, the origin of which it is impossible to trace through the darkness of bygone ages. The most singular characteristic, however, of the steppe, is the absence of trees, on a soil remarkable for its richness and the luxuriance of its herbage. For hundreds of miles, a trav- eller may proceed in a straight line without encountering even a bush, unless he happen to be acquainted with the few favored spots known to the Tartar sportsmen, to whom they answer the purpose of game-preserves. Countless herds of cattle roam over these noble pasture-grounds, on which a calf born at the foot of the Great Chinese Wall, might eat his way along, till he arrived a well-fattened ox on the banks of the Dniester, prepared to figure with advantage at the Odessa market! The poor animals suffer much during the hot and dry summers, when every blade of grass is parched up; but the careful herdsman, who has provided himself with an abundant stock of hay, is able to keep his beasts alive till autumn returns to gladden them with fresh abundance. Wherever a ridge of hills occurs, of sufficient height to afford protection against the northern blasts that come sweeping in an unbroken course from SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE STEPPES. 209 the shores of the Arctic ocean, the character of the country is changed. In the Crimea, for instance, though the northern portion partakes of all the rude characteristics of the steppe, the south coast, sheltered by the central mountains, enjoys a climate equal to that of Italy, and allows the vine and the olive to be cultivated with as much success as in Provence. A country constituted by nature as are the Russian steppes, is evidently destined rather for a wandering and pastoral people, than for a settled and agricultural population; for in regions where but few prominent objects occur, there is but little to attach man to any particular spot. The Russian government, however, has undertaken the task of converting the nomadic tribes into settled agriculturists, and the steppe itself into one vast grain- field. German and Bulgarian colonists have been tempted, by the offer of peculiar privileges, to establish themselves in different parts of the country, in the hope that their example might gradually wean the native tribes from their roving habits. Where the colonists have been located in the vicinity of large towns, the plan has been attended with partial success; but the foreigners soon discover the capabilities of the country, and in proportion as their means increase, rarely fail to invest their surplus capital in the purchase of flocks and herds, the numerical amount of which constitutes the customary standard by which wealth is estimated throughout the steppe. The rivers which intersect the steppes, and which in spring are swollen by the rapid thaw of the accumulated snows of winter, cut deep furrows in the surface; and as they frequently change their courses, they occasionally leave dry ravines that break in some measure the uniformity of the coun- try. Little importance would be attached, in other parts of the world, to the trifling elevations and depressions thus formed; but in the steppe, the slightest variation of surface becomes a landmark of importance, and sepa- rate denominations are given by the inhabitants to every peculiarity of shape which the ground is made to assume under the action of water. Many of the rivers—indeed, all but the principal streams—are fed only by the rain and snow, and their beds, consequently, are dry in summer. Each of these ravines terminates in a waterfall, formed originally, no doubt, by the terrace that bounds the Black sea, and which in some places rises to the height of one hundred and eighty feet above the water level; but in proportion as the water wore away a channel for itself, the waterfall grad- ually receded, and, in the course of ages, made its way farther and farther into the interior of the country. The elevation of the ground being so nearly alike throughout the whole of the steppe, the ravines formed by the action of the rain-water are of nearly equal depth in every part of the country. They are seldom less than a hundred feet deep, and seldom exceed a hundred and fifty. These ravines, or vuipolotsh, with their lateral branches on each side, as their edges are at all times exceedingly abrupt, offer to the traveller, as well as to the herdsman driving his lowing and bleating charge across the plain, 14 210 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. an impassable barrier, to avoid which it is often necessary to go round for many miles. The consequence is, that several roads or tracks are always sure to meet at the head of a vuipolotsh, which thus becomes a spot of some importance throughout the surrounding country. In winter, the ravine is usually filled by the drifting snow, and is then extremely dangerous to any one not well acquainted with the country. Men and cattle are at that season often buried in the snow-drifts, and their fate is ascertained only when the melting of the snow leaves their bodies exposed at the foot of the precipice. The foregoing description does not, of course, apply to the larger rivers that are supplied with water throughout the year. The banks of these are less abrupt, but their elevation, though more gradual, is about the same, being seldom less than a hundred nor more than a hundred and fifty feet over the level of the water. The beds of these large rivers are in general remarkably broad, and are almost always fringed with a belt of reeds, six or eight feet high, that forms an excellent cover for every de- scription of water-fowl. While the action of the rain is exercising so powerful an influence in the interior, the sea, as may easily be supposed, is not idle on the coast. A very remarkable characteristic of the Black sea is, that at the mouth of every river a large lake is gradually formed by the action of the sea, and some of them are unconnected with the sea. These lakes are known along the coast by the name of liman. These limans are supposed to have been formed by the action of the sea driven into the mouth of the river by the violence of the prevailing storms, and constantly undermining the terrace of the overhanging steppe. During tranquil weather, an opposite action is going on. The rivers are always turbid with the soil of the steppe, and their water, arrested in its course by the tideless sea, deposites its sedi- ment in front of the liman, where a low strip of land is gradually formed. This natural mound, by which every liman is in course of time protected against the further encroachment of the sea, is called a peressip. Where the supply of water brought down by a river is tolerably large, the peressip is never complete, but is broken by an aperture called a gheerl, that forms a communication between the liman and the sea. Many limans, however, are fed by streams that bring down so feeble a volume of water, that the mere evaporation is sufficient to carry off the whole surplus, and the peres- sip in such cases becomes perfect, forming a barrier that completely cuts off all communication between the river and the sea. Limans so circum- stanced exercise a baneful influence upon the country, in consequence of the offensive effluvia that arise from the stagnant water in summer. Occasionally in passing over the steppe, the traveller perceives a slight depression of the surface, as if a mighty giant had laid his hand upon the plain and pressed it down. In such natural basins, called stavoks by the natives, the rain collects, and though the soil soon absorbs the water, the place generally retains some moisture long after the rest of the country SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE STEPPES. 211 has been parched up by the summer heats. The stavok, it may easily be supposed, is, at such a time, an object of no trifling importance to the herds- man, and is carefully guarded against the intrusion of strangers. A belief prevails upon the steppe that the stavoks are holes formed by the ancient Mongolians, who dug out the earth to form their tumuli; but there is no good reason to suppose that the depression has originated otherwise than by a slight sinking of the subjacent strata. The climate of the steppes is one of extremes. In summer, the heat is as intense as the cold is severe in winter, the waters of the Black sea exer- cising apparently but little influence in tempering the atmosphere. This is accounted for by the abrupt rise of the coast, which arrests the strata of air immediately above the surface of the water, and leaves a free course only to those portions of the air that fly at a higher level. The steppe, therefore, has usually an arctic winter and a tropical summer, and enjoys, only during spring and autumn, short intervals of that moderate tempera- ture to which its geographical position, in the temperate zone, would appear to entitle it. The core or substance of the long winter of the steppe is formed by the three months of December, January, and February, during which all the energies of nature appear sunk in an unbroken sleep; but though unbroken, it is by no means a quiet sleep that Dame Nature is allowed to enjoy during this period of the year, for the snow-storms are of frequent occurrence, and so excessively violent, that even the most seasoned veterans of the steppe stand in awe of them. Every road or track is frequently altogether effaced, the ravines are filled up, and cases even occur where men and cattle are suddenly caught by a drift of snow, and completely buried under its accu- mulating mass. The emperor Nicholas once, in travelling in a sledge across the steppes, was capsized in a steep ravine, and was taken up with a broken clavicle. To the more violent of these storms no traveller attempts to expose himself; and even the government couriers are excused if, during the three days-their usual duration—they remain closely housed at the station which they happen to have reached. The winter of the steppe, in intensity of cold, frequently surpasses the severest seasons known on the shores of the Baltic; and the cutting blasts from the north, sweeping huge masses of snow into the Black sea, often cover it with a thick coating of ice for many leagues from the shore. The steppe, accordingly, participates in all the severity of a Russian winter, but enjoys few of the advantages which to the northern Russian go far to redeem the intensity of the cold. In northern Russia, and even in the Ukraine, the snow remains on the ground during the greater part of the winter, and the sledges quickly wear the surface of the road into a smooth mass of ice, over which the heaviest goods may be transported with a speed and facility surpassed only by a railroad. The Russian, therefore, usually prefers the winter months, not only for travelling, but also for the convey- ance of heavy goods from one place to another. To the denizen of the 212 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ! ROBERTS.SO! WINTER-TRAVELLING ON THE STEPPES-SLEDGES. steppe this natural railroad is unknown. The storms that prevail through- out the greater part of the winter keep the snow in a constant state of agi- tation, and prevent it from "caking" on the ground. The snow, in conse- quence, never uniformly covers the steppe, but seems to lie unequally scat- tered over it in drifts, according as the wind may have wafted it about. When the snow melts on the steppe, the spring may be said to commence. This usually takes place in April, but May is sometimes far advanced be- fore the mass of water has had time to find its way into the rivers. During this melting season, the whole surface of the steppe is converted into a sea of mud, through which neither man nor beast can wade without positive danger. Through every ravine rushes a torrent of the dirtiest water that can well be imagined, and about the dwellings of men the accumulated filth of the winter is at once exposed to view, by the disappearance of the snowy mantle that, for a season, had charitably covered a multitude of sins. This operation is frequently interrupted by the return of frost, and the descent of fresh masses of snow-for there is no country, perhaps, where Winter makes a harder fight for it, before he allows himself to be beaten out of the field. When at last boisterous old Hyems has really been forced to beat his retreat, a most delightful period of the year succeeds, and the steppe, covered with a beautiful and luxuriant herbage, smiles like a lovely oasis between the parched desolation of the summer and the dreary waste of the winter. The whole earth now seems clad in the color of Hope, while the sky assumes that of Truth; and though it is certainly monoto- nous enough to behold nothing but blue above and green below, yet the recollection of past hardships, and the consciousness of present abundance, make the season one of rejoicing to the native, and even excite for a while SOUTHERN RUSSIA — THE STEPPES. 213 the admiration of the stranger. The latter, however, is certain, before long, to grow weary of a spring unadorned by a single flowering shrub, unvaried by a single bubbling brook. Thunder and lightning are frequent throughout May, but the thunder- storm on the steppe is, comparatively, but a poor kind of spectacle, there being neither trees nor rocks for the lightning to show his might upon, nor mountains, by their reverberating echoes, to give increased majesty to the pealing artillery of heaven; but these discharges of atmospheric electricity, though they want the grandeur of the Alpine tempest, are dear to the peo- ple of the steppe, where they are always accompanied by either showers or night-dews, so that as long as it thunders there is no lack of fodder for the cattle. In June, the lightning ceases to play, and the periodical drought an- nounces its approach, the whole month passing frequently away without depositing a particle of moisture on the ground. The consequences of this begin to manifest themselves in July, when the heated soil cracks in every direction, opening its parched lips in supplication for a few drops of water that are not vouchsafed. Heavy and tantalizing clouds, it is true, sweep over the steppe, but, instead of showering their blessings on the thirsty land, hurry away to the Carpathian mountains or to the sea. The sun at this season rises and sets like a globe of fire, but the evaporations raised from the earth by the mid-day heat seldom fail to give a misty appearance to the sky toward noon. The heat, meanwhile, is rendered intolerable by its duration, for anything like a cool interval never occurs, and shade is not to be thought of in a country where hills and trees are alike unknown. This season is one of great suffering to all living beings on the steppe. Every trace of vegetation is singed away, except in a few favored spots; the surface of the ground becomes browner and browner, and at last com- pletely black. Men and cattle assume a lean and haggard look, and the wild oxen and horses, so fierce and ungovernable in May, become as tame as lambs in July, and can scarcely crawl in August. Ponds dry up, wells cease to furnish water, and the beds of lakes are converted into sandy hollows. Water now rises in price, and becomes an article which it is worth a thief's while to steal. The few springs that continue to yield must have a guard set upon them night and day, or the legitimate owner will scarcely keep enough to slake his own thirst. At this season thou- sands of cattle perish on the steppe of thirst; while, as if to mock their sufferings, the horizon seems laden with humid clouds, and the parched soil assumes to the cheated eye in the distance the appearance of crystal lakes and running streams! In many respects the summer on the steppe is more cruel even than in the Sahara of Africa, or in the Llanos of South America, for in neither of these does the moisture so completely disappear from the soil, and in the African desert, wherever there is water, a little terrestrial paradise of date-trees and flowering shrubs is certain to be grouped around; but in 214 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. the steppe, even the rivers flow only between grass, and reeds are the only shrubs by which the banks are fringed, while from the parched and gaping earth not even a cactus or an aloe peeps forth, into which a thirsty animal might bite to moisten its lips with the juice. In August, the dryness of the atmosphere reaches the extreme point; but, before the end of the month, the night-dews set in, and thunderstorms are occasionally followed by rain. The leaden, dusty sky becomes clear and blue again, and everything reminds you that the delights of autumn are approaching. The temperature of September is mild and refreshing, and the detestable black dust of the steppe, kept down by frequent show- ers, no longer gives to every creature the complexion of a negro. A fresh, green herbage quickly covers the whole plain, and man and beast in a short time recover their strength and spirits. Delightful the autumn of the steppe unquestionably is, but short and fleeting are its charms, for October is already a gusty Scythian month, marked by cold rains and fogs, and usually closing amid violent storms; and as to November, that is set down as a winter month even by the most seasoned Russian. Every plant or herb on the steppe, on which the cattle will feed, is known by the general name of trava; and every woody, wiry stem, from which they turn away, is ruthlessly classed in the condemned list of burian. The thistle deserves the first place among the burian of the steppe. We have but little notion in this country of the height to which the thistle will often grow in southern Russia, where it not unfrequently assumes the form and size of a tree, overshadowing with its branches the low-sunken dwel- lings of the troglodytes of the steppe. In places peculiarly favored by the thistle, this description of burian will sometimes grow in such abundance, as to form a little grove, in which a Cossack on his horse may completely hide himself! Another description of weed that stands in very bad odor in the steppe, has been aptly denominated wind-witch by the German colonists. This is a worthless plant that expends all its vigor in the formation of innumera- ble threadlike fibres, that shoot out in every direction, till the whole forms a light globular mass. The little sap to be obtained from this plant is bit- terer than the bitterest wormwood, and even in the driest summer no animal will touch the wind-witch. It grows to the height of three feet, and in autumn the root decays, and the upper part of the plant becomes com- pletely dry. The huge shuttlecock is then torn from the ground by the first high wind that rises, and is sent dancing, rolling, and hopping over the plain, with a rapidity which the best-mounted rider would vainly attempt to emulate. The Germans could not have christened the plant more aptly; and, in bestowing on it the expressive name by which it is known among them, they no doubt thought of the national legends long associated with the far-famed, witch-haunted recesses of the Blocksberg. The wild dances with which fancy has enlivened that ill-reputed mountain are yearly imitated SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE STEPPES. 215 by the wind-witches on the steppe. Sometimes they may be seen skipping along like a herd of deer or wild horses; sometimes describing wide circles in the grass, sometimes rolling madly over one another, and sometimes rising by hundreds into the air, as though they were just starting to par- take in the diabolical festivities of the Blocksberg itself! They adhere to each other sometimes like so many enormous burs, and it is not an uncom- mon sight to see some twelve or twenty rolled into one mass, and scouring over the plain like a giant in his seven-league boots. Thousands of them are yearly blown into the Black sea; but with this salto mortale ends the witch's career, who loses in the water all the fantastic graces that distin- guished her while ashore. As next in importance among the burian of the steppe, the bitter worm- wood must not be forgotten. It grows to the height of six feet, and some- times, in a very dry summer, the cattle will not disdain to eat of it. All the milk and butter then become detestably bitter, and sometimes particles of the dry wormwood adhere to the wheat, in which case the bitter flavor of the plant is imparted to the bread. Botanists reckon about five hundred species of plants as native to the steppe, and each species usually grows in large masses. For leagues to- gether the traveller will see nothing but wormwood; and, on leaving so bitter a specimen of vegetation, he will come to a tulip-bed, covering many thousands of acres; and, at the end of that, to an equal extent of wild mignionette, to which cultivation has not, however, imparted the delicious perfume which recommends it to the horticulturist of more civilized lands. SUMMER-TRAVELLING ON THE STEPPES-A TARANTA-SE. For days together the tarantasse will then roll past the same description of coarse grass, ungainly to look upon, but on which the sheep thrive admi- rably, and which is said to give to Tartar mutton a delicious flavor that the travelled epicure vainly looks for in the gorgeous restaurants of Paris, or in that joint-stock association of comfort and luxury, a London or New York club. A singular phenomenon of the steppe manifests itself when man invades it with his plough. The disturbed soil immediately shoots forth every 216 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. variety of burian, against which the farmer must exert unceasing vigilance, or else farewell to the hope of a productive harvest. If the same land is afterward left fallow, the burian takes possession of the field, and riots for a few years in undisturbed luxuriance. A struggle then goes on for some years longer between the weeds and the grass; but the latter, strange to say, in almost every instance, triumphs in the end, and a beautiful pasture- ground succeeds, which goes on improving from year to year, till it attains its highest degree of perfection. A reaction then ensues: a species of coarse grass, known by botanists under the name of stipa pinnata, takes possession of the ground, which it covers with its hard and woody stems, till the farmer, taking advantage of the first dry weather in spring, clears away the whole plantation by setting fire to it. The burning of the steppe is the only kind of manuring to which it is ever subjected, and is generally executed in spring, in order that a fresh crop of grass may immediately rise, like a young phoenix, from the ashes. This department of Tartar husbandry is usually managed with much cau- tion, and the conflagration rarely extends beyond the limits intended to be assigned to it; but sometimes a fire rises by accident, or in consequence of a malicious act of incendiarism, and then the conflagration rages far and wide, sweeping along for hundreds of leagues, destroying cattle and grain- fields, and consuming not only single houses, but whole villages in its way. These fires are particularly dangerous in summer, owing to the inflam- mable condition, at that season, of almost every description of herbage. The flaming torrent advances with irresistible force, towering up among the lofty thistles, or advancing with a stealthy, snakelike step through the parched grass. Not even the wind can always arrest its destructive course, for a fire of this kind will go streaming in the very teeth of the wind, now slowly and then rapidly, according to the nature of the fuel that supplies its forces. At times the invader finds himself compressed between ravines, and appears to have spent his strength; but a few burning particles blown across by a gust of wind enable him to make good his position on new ground, and he loses no time in availing himself of the opportunity. A well-beaten road, a ravine, or a piece of sunk ground in which some rem- nant of moisture has kept the grass green, are the points of which advan- tage must be taken if the enemy's advance is to be stopped. At such places, accordingly, the shepherds and herdsmen post themselves: trenches are hastily dug, the flying particles are carefully extinguished as they fall, and sometimes the attempt to stop the course of such a conflagration is attended with success. Often, however, the attempt fails; and the despair- ing husbandmen see one wheatfield after another in a blaze, their dwellings reduced to ashes, and the affrighted cattle scouring away over the plain before the advancing volumes of smoke! The course of one of these steppe-fires is often most capricious. It will leave a tract of country uninjured, and travel for eight or ten days into the interior, and the farmer whose land has been left untouched will begin SOUTHERN RUSSIA 217 THE STEPPES. to flatter himself with the belief that his grain and his cattle are safe; but all at once the foe returns with renewed vigor, and the scattered farm- houses, with the ricks of hay and grain grouped in disorder around, fall a prey to the remorseless destroyer. The farmer, however, is not without his consolation on these occasions. The ashes of the herbage form an excellent manure for the ground, and the next crops invariably repay him. a portion of his loss. Indeed, so beneficial is the effect, that many of the large proprietors subject their land regularly every four or five years to the process of burning; but the operation is then performed with much caution, wide trenches being first dug around the space within which it is intended that the fire should remain confined. To the same process likewise are subjected the forests of reeds by which all the rivers of the steppe are fringed; but this is deemed so dangerous, that the law imposes banishment to Siberia as the penalty of the offence. Nevertheless, there are few places where the reeds are not regularly burnt away each returning spring-at which season, during the night, the Dnieper and Dniester appear to be converted into rivers of fire. There are two motives for setting fire to the reeds, and these motives are power- ful enough to completely neutralize the dread of Siberia: in the first place, the reeds serve as a cover to multitudes of wolves, which, when driven by fire either into the water or into the open plain, are easily destroyed by their remorseless enemies the shepherds and herdsmen. The second mo- tive is, the hope of obtaining a better supply of young reeds by destroying the old ones. The reeds, it must be borne in mind, are of great value in the steppe, where, in the absence of timber and stones, they form the chief material for building. The animal is not more varied than the vegetable kingdom; and both, to the naturalist, seem poor, though to the less scientific observer the steppe appears to be teeming with life. Uniformity, in fact, is more or less the distinguishing characteristic of the country, and the same want of variety that marks its outward features prevails throughout every class of its ani- imate and innaimate productions; but though few the species, the masses in which each presents itself are surprising. Eagles, vultures, hawks, and other birds, that are elsewhere rarely seen except singly, make their appearance on the steppe in large flights. The reed-grounds fairly teem with ducks, geese, and pelicans; the grass is alive with swarms of little earth-hares; larks, pigeons, thrushes, rooks, and plovers, are met with everywhere; and even butterflies, and other insects, appear in formidable masses. Among the latter, the locust (of which we shall have more to say by-and-by) plays a very important part. Few of these animals can be said to be peculiar to the steppe; but, though found in other lands, they are not found there under similar circumstances, and the peculiar character of the country exercises a powerful influence in modifying the habits and instinct. of animals. The traveller has no sooner crossed the Dnieper, at Krementchneg, in 218 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. the government of Poltava, than he sees a little animal gliding about every- where through the grass, and even along the high-road. This little animal is called by the Russians, sooslik; by the German colonists, earth-hare; and, by the scientific, Cytillus vulgaris. It is a graceful little creature, and quite peculiar to the steppe, never found in woody regions, and rarely even in the vicinity of a bush. It is particularly fond of the bulbous plants that abound in the steppe, and multiplies astonishingly. In manner and appearance it is something between a marmot and a squirrel, smaller than the former, and differing from the latter in the color of the fur and the shortness of its tail. The soosliks burrow under the ground, and hoard up a stock of food for the winter. Their holes have always two entrances, and it is easy to drive them from their cover by pouring water in at one end, for to water they have so great an aversion, that they are always observed to decrease in numbers in wet seasons, and multiply astonishingly in dry ones. The lively and frolicsome character of the sooslik is a con- stant source of amusement to a stranger. The little creatures are seen in every direction; sometimes gamboling together in the grass, at others sit- ting timidly at the doors of their houses, to watch the approach of an enemy. If a man or other strange object draws near, they rise upon their hind legs, like miniature kangaroos, and stretch their little heads up so high, that one might almost fancy they had the power of drawing them- selves out like a telescope. Their little furs are used by the women as edgings for their dresses, and entire cloaks and dressing-gowns are often made of them. Of all the quadrupeds of the steppe, the sooslik is by far the most abundant; it affords the chief article of food to the wild dogs, and is a constant object of chase to wolves, foxes, eagles, hawks, and other animals of prey. The next in importance among the quadrupeds of the steppe is the mouse, which frequents the granaries in immense numbers; so much so, that the farmers will sometimes set fire to a whole rick of grain, for the mere purpose of destroying the mice. The wolf of the steppe is a smaller animal than the forest-wolf, and dis- tinguishes himself from the wolves of other countries by his subterranean propensities. Natural caverns become elsewhere the refuge of the wolf, but on the steppe he burrows like a rabbit, and it is there by no means an uncommon thing to find a nest of young wolves several fathoms deep in the ground. In the neighborhood of Odessa, and the other large towns, these four-footed sheep-stealers are but seldom met with; but in no part of the world do they abound more than in the woodland districts by which the steppe is skirted, and from these haunts they sally forth in countless num- bers, to prowl around the flocks and herds of the open country. Every farmhouse in the steppe is surrounded by fences twelve or fourteen feet high to protect them against the inroads of the wolves, yet these banditti of the plain are incessant in their attacks, and cases are by no means un- common of their carrying off even infants from the cradle. SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE STEPPES. 219 The dogs of the steppe are the most vulgar and worthless of all the curs in the world. They are long-haired, long-legged, long-headed, and long- tailed, and have evidently more wolfish than doggish blood in their veins. Their prevailing color is a dirty grayish-brown, and, though little cared for by the southern Russian, their number is incredible, and fully equal to what it can be in any part of the Ottoman empire. Yet the southern Rus- sian never tolerates a dog in his house, nor ever admits him to that famil- iarity which the race enjoys with us, and to which the cat and the cock are constantly courted by the tenants of the steppe. Still, whether as a protection against the wolf, or whether in consequence of that carelessness which allows the breed to multiply unchecked, every habitation on the steppe is sure to be surrounded by a herd of dogs, that receive neither food nor caresses from the hands of their owners, but must cater for them- selves as well as they can. In spring, the season of abundance, when all the cattle and horses of the steppe run wild, the dog likewise wanders forth from the habitation of his master, and the puppies born at that period of the year are not a bit tamer than the wolves themselves, until the samjots of winter drive them back to the farmyards and villages. In summer, the dogs hunt the mice, rats, and soosliks, suck the eggs of birds, and learn even to catch a bird upon the wing, if it venture too near the ground; but in winter they are certain to congregate about the towns and villages, where swarms of shy, hungry, unowned dogs, are seen lurking about in search of any kind of garbage that may be thrown away. Dozens of them may often then be seen gathered about the body of a dead animal, and gnawing away eagerly at its frozen sinews. · In the country, the dogs are a subject of complaint with every one, and with none more than with those who devote some care to the cultivation of their gardens. The dog of the steppe is passionately fond of fruit, and will not only devour the grapes in the vineyards, but will even climb into the trees in search of pears and plums! The better the dog is fed, the more eager he will be after fruit, which is supposed to cool his blood, after too free an indulgence in animal food. Like the wolves, the dogs of the steppe burrow in the ground, where they dig roomy habitations, with narrow doors and spacious apartments, in which they find shelter against the heat of summer and the cold of winter. The half-savage state in which the dogs live, leads them often to pair with the wolves, and a kind of cross-breed ensues. These mongrels are useful in hunting wolves, whom they attack with greater animosity than any other dogs will do; and, when old, they are usually destroyed, their skins being nearly of the same value as those of genuine wolves. Among birds, none abounds more on the steppe than the bustard, or drakhva, as the Russians call it, which may be seen grazing in every direc- tion. It migrates from northern Russia on the approach of winter; but near Odessa, and about the mouths of the Dniester and Dnieper, it gener- ally remains all the year round. Bustards are usually seen in parties of ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. 220 W.ROBERTS,50 BIRD-HUNTING ON THE STEPPES. from twelve to twenty, but their gregarious habits increase in proportion as the winter advances, when from eighty to a hundred will often be found together. This, however, arises not so much from the sociable propensi- ties of the bird, as from the more limited extent of pasture to which it is then obliged to confine itself. If, terrified by the approach of a real or supposed enemy, one of these large flocks rises, the birds do not remain together, but fly away in different directions to their several nests. In June or July, they may be observed feeding with their young, and on those occasions the male bird is usually seen anxiously watching over the secu rity of his mate and little ones, whom he never fails to apprize of any dan- ger that may seem to be drawing near. His vigilance is so great, that it is extremely difficult to get a shot at them. The Russians maintain that the bustard knows exactly how far a gun will carry, and never gives the alarm a moment sooner or later than is really necessary! Nevertheless, the Cossacks, who are the chief sportsmen on the steppe, contrive to out- match the bustard in cunning. Sometimes they creep like snakes through the long grass, and come unobserved upon their prey; sometimes they lure the male birds by means of a little instrument made out of the windpipe of an ox, on which the treacherous hunter contrives to imitate with astonish- ing accuracy the cry of the female. The most remarkable kind of bustard- hunting, however, takes place in winter. The birds at that season creep under the thistles and other high weeds in search of some shelter against the severity of the cold. While in this position, if a hoar frost comes on, their wings become so incrusted with ice, that they lose the power of flying, SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE STEPPES. 221 and they then fall an easy prey to foxes, wolves, and, above all, to man. The Cossacks, on horseback, run them down with ease, and kill them with the blow of a whip. If the hunter has chosen his time well, and is nimble in the chase, he may expect good sport. Indeed, there are men among the peasantry of the steppe who have become comparatively rich by a few successful bustard-hunts. One man, it is said, killed a hundred and fifty bustards in one morning with his whip, and sold them at Odessa for four hundred and fifty roubles. In the north, ten or fifteen roubles are often given for one of these birds. Eagles, vultures, and other birds of prey, are sufficiently abundant, and have probably always been so; but of late years, since a portion of the steppe has been brought under the plough, a number of granivorous birds have made their appearance that were formerly altogether unknown there, and others that were formerly rare have multiplied in a striking manner. Of singing-birds, the lark is the only one known on the steppe; but in the gardens about Odessa, the nightingale is occasionally heard. Of reptiles there is no lack; frogs, toads, and snakes, abounding in every part of the country, notwithstanding the dryness of the soil. Toads, par- ticularly, display their ugly forms in every direction; and after a shower of rain they sometimes show themselves in such numbers, that it is difficult to walk a dozen paces without becoming the involuntary instrument of de- struction to several of them. Sometimes a remarkable phenomenon occurs in the summer months, known as the toad-shower. In June or July, and sometimes even in August, after a short but heavy shower of rain, the ground is suddenly covered with myriads of small toads, and no one can say whence they come, or whither, after a little while, they go. Of the numbers of these toads, strange stories are told. Millions and millions are seen covering the ground, like an army of locusts. It is quite disgust- ing to walk among them, for in stepping on the ground a man may crush forty or fifty of them at once. The wheels of a cart would be saturated with the juices of the dead toads, and incrusted with their loathsome bodies! In size they are stated to be all extremely diminutive, about as large as the young toads that appear early in the spring, but much more lively and active. Immediately after the shower, they are seen in the greatest num- bers; but they soon disappear, and on the following day not a trace is to be found of them, nor is it observed that, after one of these showers, the number of toads by which the rivers and ponds are peopled is ever mate- rially increased. Lizards are also numerous, and sometimes not less than eighteen inches long. A Cossack looks upon them with great dread; but a Cossack stands in awe of every animal formed differently from his horse, his ox, or his dog. Of all reptiles, however, the snake is the most abundant, though much less so in those parts of the country that are most thickly settled, particu- larly in those where the German colonists have been located, for the southern Russian is generally too much afraid of a snake to kill it, even 222 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. though it take up its abode under the same roof with him. "Let a snake alone," says the Russian, "and he will let you alone; but if you kill it,.its whole race will persecute you!" They believe in the existence of some- thing of a corporation spirit among the snakes, and maintain that the relatives of a dead snake will never rest till they have avenged his death. The snake, they believe, is in the habit of dispensing poetical justice tow- ard murderers in general, but more particularly toward those worst of murderers, the killers of snakes! The largest snake of the steppe is the Coluber trabalis, which, according to some, has been seen of the length of eighteen feet, but instances of nine or ten feet long are of frequent occurrence. Legends are not wanting among the Cossacks of gigantic serpents that, at no very remote period, infested the reed-grounds of the Dniester, whence they sallied forth to kill men and oxen, and now and then to amuse themselves by running down a rider and his steed, no horse being fleet enough to effect its escape, if one of these ogre snakes had once fairly started in chase of it; but these fabu- lous embellishments were hardly wanting, the plain truth being often for- midable enough. The colonists of two adjoining villages noticed for sev- eral weeks that large tracks were continually made through their grain- fields, as though a sack of flour had been dragged through them. They were at a loss to think who the trespasser could be, till one day a young foal was found half killed in the field, and from the appearance of the wounds it was immediately suspected that a large snake must be prowling about the villages. A few days afterward these suspicious were confirmed by the arrival of four or five carts that came galloping into the village. It was hard to say whether the drivers or the horses were most frightened. They had been camping out during the whole night on the steppe, as is commonly done by agricultural laborers, the great distance of the grain- fields from the farmer's house making it often impossible for his men to return home every day; indeed, during the busy season, they often remain on the steppe from Monday morning till Saturday night, and spend only the Sunday at home. They gave so formidable an account of the huge snake by which they and their horses had been scared, that the schulze (the first magistrate of the village) thought it his duty to order à levy en masse, and invited the neighboring colonists to join in the snake-hunt. About a hundred young men were got together, who sallied forth, armed with guns and clubs, and spent the whole day in beating every corner where the insidious game was likely to lie concealed. They found nothing, however, and were quizzed and laughed at on their return. But the schulze kept his party on the alert, and the next day the snake was again seen by some shepherds, who had fled with their flocks in dismay, but not before the huge reptile had killed one of their horses before their faces. The schulze and his posse comitatus took the field again, and this time they succeeded in getting sight of the enemy. Several shots were fired. The snake was wounded, and immediately took to flight, leaving a track of A SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE STEPPES. 223 blood to mark its course, which was pursued for some time till lost in the reed-grounds of the Dniester, where the creature probably died, for it was never heard of afterward. The length of the animal was estimated to be at least twenty feet. In the vicinity of the German colonies, few snakes are now seen; but in the more remote parts of the steppe there are still districts in which they abound to such a degree, that no herdsman will venture to drive his cattle there. The snake, however, is an enemy of little moment when compared to a small insect that visits the steppe from time to time, and often marks its presence by the most fearful devastation. This insect is the locust. It is sometimes not heard of for several years in succession, and then again it shows itself, more or less, every season for four or five years together. When the German colonists first came into the country, about forty years ago, the locusts had not been heard of for many years. There were two species of them known to exist, but they lived like other insects, multiplied with moderation, and were never spoken of as objects of dread. About 1820 it was first observed that the locusts had become decidedly more nu- merous. In 1824 and 1825 they began to be troublesome; but in 1828 and 1829 they came in such enormous clouds, that they obscured the sun, destroyed the harvests, and in many places left not a trace of vegetation be- hind them! The poor colonists were in despair, and many of them thought the day of judgment must be at hand. They applied for advice as to what they ought to do, but their Russian and Tartar neighbors could suggest nothing, the oldest among them having no recollection of such scenes of devastation, though they remembered to have heard of similar calamities as having occurred in the days of their fathers. Under these circum- stances, the Germans set their wits to work, and devised a system of oper- ation, by means of which many a field was rescued from the devouring swarms. + The colonists established for themselves a kind of locust-police. Who- ever first sees a swarm approaching is bound to raise an immediate alarm, and give the earliest possible information to the schulze, who immediately orders out the whole village, and every man, woman, and child, comes forth, armed with bells, tin-kettles, guns, pistols, drums, whips, and what- ever other noisy instruments they can lay their hands on. A frightful din is then raised, which often has the effect of scaring away the swarm, and inducing it to favor some quieter neighborhood with its presence. If the locusts have an aversion to noise, they are still greater enemies to smoking, against which King James I. of England himself did not enter- tain a more pious horror. The colonists, accordingly, on the first appear- ance of a fresh swarm, get together as much straw, vine-branches, and dry dung, as they can, and with these, fires are lighted about the fields and grounds which it is thought most desirable to protect. This expedient, however, is often a complete failure; for when one of these countless 224 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. swarms has dropped upon the ground, and proceeds grazing along in the direction of the fire, the mere weight of the general mass forces the fore- most ranks into the flames, where a few thousands of them perish, perhaps, but their bodies extinguish the fire, and leave a free field for the advancing enemy. Sometimes the colonists succeed by means of smoke in scaring a swarm, and making it take to the air again, and then great skill is shown in ma- king it fly away from the fields which it is wished to preserve. If a lake or the sea be near at hand, it is thought a great point to drive the locusts into the water, into which they fall in such enormous masses, that their bodies form at last little floating islands: upon these their more fortunate companions establish themselves, to the height of twenty or thirty inches! If a strong wind blow from the shore, these pyramids of locusts are, of course, driven out to sea, and nothing more is heard of them; but if the wind be not strong, they work their way back to the shore, where they soon dry their wings and prepare themselves for fresh depredations. The millions, meanwhile, that have found a watery grave, give a blackened hue to the foam of the breakers, and lie scattered along the coast in long lines, that look like huge masses of seaweed thrown up by the waves. The cun- ning of the locusts on these occasions is surprising. A swarm that, with the aid of a strong wind, has been driven out to sea, will often return to shore, not attempting to fly in the wind's teeth, but beating to windward, with a succession of tacks, in regular seamanlike style! The locusts appear to be aware that, in the village-gardens, they will find many things to please their palates; and, accordingly, they seldom fail to go a little out of their way when they see a village to the right or left of their line of march. The terror of a village attacked by one of these swarms may be more easily imagined than described. Fancy a heavy fall of snow, each flake a little black, voracious insect, and these, as they fall, covering the ground to the depth of two or three inches, while the air still continues obscured by the myriads that remain fluttering about! The roofs of the houses, and every inch of ground about them, are covered by a thick mass of crawling vermin, crackling, hissing, and buzzing! Every aperture of the house may be carefully closed, yet they come down the chimney by thousands, and beat against the windows like hail! During the locust-years, many of these swarms settled upon Odessa, covering the streets and public places, dropping by hundreds into the kettles and sauce- pans in the kitchens, invading at once the ballroom and the granary, strut- ting in the public walks by millions, and displaying their ugly antics alike in the hovel of the beggar and the fine lady's boudoir. The locusts of southern Russia are divided into two species: the Russaki, or Russians (Gryllus migratorius), which are about an inch and a half, and the Saranni (Gryllus vastator), which are about two inches long. Both are equally voracious and equally dreaded, and both are equally pro- duced from eggs deposited in the earth in August and September, by means 4 j INVASION OF THE STEPPES OF SOUTHERN RUSSIA BY LOCUSTS. POBERTS 15 SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE STEPPES. 227 of a piercing-tube or oviduct with which the female is provided. The ani- mal does not, however, bore merely with its piercer, but thrusts its whole body into the ground, in order that the eggs may be deposited as deeply as possible. There the eggs continue through the autumn and winter, and it is not till the end of April or the beginning of May that the young locusts begin to creep out of their holes. EGYPTIAN LOCUST. The millions of mothers that in autumn sank under the load of their eggs, now start up sixty-fold into renewed life. They have no wings when first born, but their legs immediately acquire vigor, so that they are soon provided with the powers of locomotion. They at once begin to eat, and a rich, grassy plain, if they are undisturbed, will perhaps be eaten bare in a few days; if disturbed, they commence their peregrinations forthwith, and the army seems to increase as it marches along. They go on rustling and crackling, and crawling over one another in heaps. They almost always proceed in a straight line, scarcely any object sufficing to impede their course. They climb over the roofs of the low houses, over fences and walls, march through the streets of towns and villages, not avoiding either man or beast, so that the wheels of a cart will at times sink several inches deep into a mass of locusts, while a pedestrian walking through them will often have them up above his ankle! Enormous quantities of them fall down into the ravines, and are carried away by the streams, which are sometimes so thickly covered with the black carcasses, that the water is completely lost to sight! The march of these young locusts is more dreaded even than the flight of the old ones: not having yet got their wings, they are not to be frightened away either by guns or drums; and to attempt to destroy them were hopeless, on account of their numbers- a few hundred thousand, more or less, making but little difference. They are inost greedy, too, when young; and, as the grass and grain are just 228 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. then most tender, the devastation is the more difficult to repair. It is true that, while in this state, their ravages are confined within narrower limits, on account of the slow rate at which they advance, an army of young locusts being seldom able to march more than two miles in a day. In three or four weeks they attain their full size. In the fifth week their wings are formed, and they begin to fly. From this time on, they cruise about the country in huge swarms, till about the middle of September, when, after an existence of four months, they all perish, but not before due provision has been made for their multiplication in the ensuing year. The largest swarms appear in the steppe about the middle of August, when they are supposed to be joined by considerable reinforcements from the south. Their flight is clumsy, and always accompanied by a rustling noise, which, when a swarm of them flies along, is as loud as that made by a strong wind blowing through a grove of trees. They can not fly against the wind, but, as has already been observed, they know how to work their way to windward, in true nautical fashion. The height to which they rise depends much upon the state of the weather. On a fine day they will raise themselves nearly two hundred feet above the ground. In gloomy weather they fly so near the ground, that a man walking through a swarm will often be unable to endure the blows inflicted by them as they fly up against his face, but will be obliged to crouch together and turn his back to the current till it has passed away. When flying at a great height, if they discover a fresh piece of pasture-ground, they sink slowly down till they are about six or seven feet from the surface, when they drop like a shower of stones. As soon as it rains, they always drop to the ground. They are rakish in their hours, for they often fly about merrily till near midnight, and seldom leave their roosting-places till eight or nine in the morning. A cloud of locusts is mostly of an oval form, some three hundred yards broad, and about two miles long. Sometimes a cloud will be seen to sepa- rate into two or three parties, that afterward unite again. What the thick- ness of such a cloud may be, it is difficult to say; but it must be consider- able, for not a ray of sunshine can pierce the mass, and the shadow cast on the ground is so dense, that, on a hot summer's day, it diffuses an agree- able coolness around. The sudden darkness occasioned by the appearance of a swarm of locusts on a fine day, is quite as great as that which would be caused by a succession of black, rainy clouds. In calm weather a cloud of locusts will fly about fourteen miles in eight hours. The ground honored by the visit of one of these swarms always assumes the appearance of a field of battle. In their eagerness to feed, they often bite each other; and, when falling down, many break their wings, and are unable to rise again with the rest of the swarm. It is difficult to estimate the numbers of one of these winged armies. The people of the country maintain that, when a large cloud of locusts falls, it will cover a piece of ground nearly three miles long and one broad, and in many places the creatures will lie three and four deep, and scarcely an inch will remain SOUTHERN RUSSIA — THE STEPPES. 229 uncovered! If there happen to be a tree near the place, it will seem ready to break under the sudden load. Now, allowing for each insect a surface of two inches by one, and making no account of the patches where they lie three or four deep, it would follow that a small swarm, covering only one square mile, must consist of not much less than two thousand millions of locusts! And every one of them, as the Russians say, has the bite of a horse, the greediness of a wolf, and a power and rapidity of digestion un- equalled by any other animal on the face of the globe! Though there are some descriptions of food for which the locust shows a partiality, the creature is seldom difficult in its choice, but eats up every green plant that comes in its way. The leaves and young branches vanish from the trees in a trice; a rich meadow is presently converted into a tract of black earth; the bank of a river is stripped with magical rapidity of its reedy fringe; and not a particle of stubble is left to mark the place where the green grain was waving but an hour before! The sound of the little animal's bite as it grazes, joined to the rustling of its wings, which it always keeps in motion while feeding, may be distinctly heard at a considerable distance: to any one near the spot, the noise is quite as great as that made by a large flock of sheep eagerly cropping the grass. If the grain is quite ripe, the locust can do it little harm; but whatever is still green is certain to be devoured. Sometimes a farmer, on secing the enemy's approach, will try to save a field of nearly ripe grain by cutting it down and carrying the sheaves home immediately, but the attempt rarely succeeds, for the inva- ding host advances its line of march, undismayed by the mowers, and will eat away the blades faster than the scythe can cut them. There are few things locusts are fonder of than Indian corn, and it is said to be a curious sight to behold a field of it vanishing before their ravenous teeth. The maize grows to a great height on the steppe, and makes a very imposing appearance as it approaches maturity. A small number of locusts, however, are able, in a few seconds, to perforate the plant like a honey- comb, and in a few minutes not a trace of it is left. Each plant is quickly covered with insects, while others are industriously working away at the root. Blade falls rapidly on blade, and at each fall a little swarm rises, to settle quickly down again with renewed voracity. If the corn was nearly ripe, the farmer has, perhaps, the consolation of seeing a yellow stubble-field remaining, to tantalize him with the recollection of the hoped- for abundance. In the costly gardens of the Odessa merchants, the locust is particularly destructive. It does not touch the melons, cucumbers, nor the growing fruit on the trees, but it ruthlessly devours the leaves and the stalks, leav- ing the fruit scattered on the ground, to wither with the bodies of the slam destroyers. The leaves, tendrils, and young branches of a vine, will be completely eaten away, but the grapes will be found scattered like so many berries below. Every tree in the garden, meanwhile, is bending under the unwelcome load; while the crackling of the branches, the tearing of the 230 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. bark, and the rustling of the wings, raise a din quite as loud as that of a carpenter's workshop, in which a score or two of men are sawing, boring, and planing; and when at length the swarm takes its departure, it leaves behind it a scene of such perfect desolation as no other animal in the world can equal. Even the dung, of which it leaves an enormous quantity behind, is injurious to the soil on which it falls; and, for a long time after a field has been visited by a swarm of locusts, the cattle manifest the greatest aversion to the place. "Here we are in the land of the tshabawns, "* is a common expression with Russian travellers on entering the steppe, where the first objects that usually present themselves to the stranger are some of the numerous flocks of sheep belonging to the wealthy nobles of Russia, some of whom count their woolly treasures by hundreds of thousands! To their owners, these flocks possess an interest beyond any that the steppe can offer; but, to a stranger, the wild and exciting life of the tabuntshiks is certain to present more attraction. We are accustomed to speak of the wild horses of the steppe, but the expression must be received with some allowance; for, in the proper sense of the word, wild horses have long ceased to inhabit any part of the steppe subject to Russia, nor have we any authentic record of the time when this noble animal ranged free and uncontrolled over the plains bordering on the Euxine. At present, every taboon, or herd, has its owner, to whom the tabuntshik has to account for every steed that is lost or stolen; and it is not till we reach the heart of Tartary, or the wastes that stretch along the sea of Aral, that we meet, for the first time, the horse really in a state of nature. Although, in a statistical point of view, the sheep constitutes a more important part of the pastoral population of the steppe-ten flocks of sheep, at least, occurring for one herd of oxen or horses-yet we shall venture, in our remarks on the nomadic life of this part of the empire, to assign the prominent place to the taboons, or breeding-studs, which serve to mount nearly the whole of the imperial cavalry, and from which, in a moment of emergency, the government might derive, for the equipment of an invading army, resources the extent of which are but little dreamed of in the more civilized regions of Europe. Many of the Russian nobles possess enormous tracts of land in the steppe. The scanty population has made it impossible to bring any very consider- able portion of their estates under the plough; and most of the wealthy landowners have, consequently, found it to their interest to devote their chief attention to the breeding of sheep, cattle, and horses. Even at a very remote period it appears to have been the custom of the lords of the steppe to follow a similar course of practice. The horses, more light of foot than either sheep or oxen, may be easily made to range over a larger * Tshabawn is the south Russian word for a shepherd. man charged with the care of a herd of horses. Tabuntshik is the name given to the SOUTHERN RUSSIA- THE STEPPES. 231 expanse of ground, and thus obtain support from land too poor to afford pasturage to any other description of cattle. A small number of horses, placed under the care of a herdsman, are sent into the steppe, as the nucleus of a taboon. The foals are kept, and the herd is allowed to go on increasing until the number of horses is thought to be about as large as the estate can conveniently maintain. It is a very rare thing, however, for a taboon to contain more than a thousand horses; but there are landowners in the steppe who are supposed to possess eight or ten such taboons in different parts of the country. It is only when the taboon is said to be full, that the owner begins to derive a revenue from it, partly by using the young horses on the estate itself, and partly by selling them at the fairs, or to the travelling horse-dealers in the employ of the government contractors. The tabuntshik, to whose care the taboon is intrusted, must be a man of indefatigable activity, and of an iron constitution, proof alike against the severest cold and the most burning heat, and capable of living in a con- stant exposure to every kind of weather, without the shelter even of a bush. When on duty, he scarcely ever quits the back of his steed. He eats there, and even sleeps there; but he must beware of sleeping at the hours when other men sleep, for, while grazing at night, the horses are most apt to wander away from the herd: and at no time is it more necessary for him to be on his guard against wolves, and against those adventurous dealers in horse-flesh who usually contrive that the money which they receive at a fair shall consist exclusively of profit (a characteristic specimen of which gentry, who are mostly gipsies, may be seen in the engraving overleaf). During a snowstorm, the poor tabuntshik must not think of turning his back to the tempest; this his horses are but too apt to do, and it is his business to see that they do not take fright, and run scouring before the wind. The dress of a tabuntshik is chiefly composed of leather, fastened together by a leathern girdle, to which the whole veterinary apparatus, and a variety of little fanciful ornaments, are usually appended. His head is protected by a high, cylindrical Tartar cap, of black lambskin, and over the whole he throws his sreeta, a large, brown, woollen cloak, with a hood to cover his head. This hood, in fine weather, hangs behind, and often serves its master at once for pocket and larder. The tabuntshik has a variety of other trappings, of which he never divests himself. Among these, his harabnik holds not the least important place. This is a whip, with a short, thick stem, but with a thong often fifteen or eighteen feet in length. It is to him a sceptre that rarely quits his hand, and without which it would be difficult for him to retain his riotous sub- jects in anything like proper order. Next comes his sling, which he uses like the South American lasso, and with which he rarely misses the neck of the horse whose course he is desirous of arresting. The wolf-club is another indispensable part of his equipment. This club, which generally hangs at the saddle, ready for immediate use, is three or four feet long, 232 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. A cask of water can never know with a thick iron knob at the end. The tabuntshiks acquire such astonish- ing dexterity in the use of this formidable weapon, that, at full gallop, they will hurl it at a wolf, and rarely fail to strike the iron end into the prowl- ing bandit's head. The club skilfully wielded carries almost as certain death with it as the rifle of an American backwoodsman. must also accompany the tabuntshik on every ride, for he whether he may not be for days without coming to a well. A bag of bread and a bottle of brandy are likewise his constant companions, besides a mul- titude of other little conveniences and necessaries, which are fastened either to himself or his horse. Thus accoutred, the tabuntshik sallies forth on a mission that keeps his dexterity and his powers of endurance in constant exercise. His thousand untamed steeds have to be kept in order with no other weapon than his harabnik, and this, as may easily be supposed, is no easy task. The hardships to which they are constantly exposed, and the high wages which they consequently receive, make the tabuntshiks the wildest "dare- devils" that can be imagined; so much so, that it is considered a settled point that a man who has had the care of horses for two or three years is unfit for any quiet or settled kind of life. No one, of course, that can gain a tolerable livelihood in any other way, will embrace a calling that subjects him to so severe a life; and the consequence is, that it is generally from among the scamps of a village that recruits are raised for this service. They are seldom without money, and, when they do visit the brandy-shop, they are not deterred from abandoning themselves to a carouse by the finan- cial considerations likely to restrain most men in the same rank of life. They ought, it is true, never to quit the taboon for a moment; but they will often spend whole nights in the little brandy-houses of the steppe, drinking and gambling, and drowning in their fiery potations all recollec- tions of the last day's endurance. When their senses return with the re- turning day, they gallop after their herds, and display no little ingenuity in repairing the mischief that may have accrued from the carelessness of the preceding night. The tabuntshik lives in constant dread of the horse-stealer, and yet there is hardly a tabuntshik on the steppe that will not steal a horse if the occa- sion present itself. The traveller who has left his horses to graze during the night, or the villager who has allowed his cattle to wander away from his house, does well to ascertain that there be no taboon in the vicinity, or in the morning he will look for them in vain. The tabuntshik, mean- while, takes care to rid himself, as soon as possible, of his stolen goods, by exchanging them away to the first brother-herdsman that he meets, who again barters them away to another: so that in a few days a horse that was stolen on the banks of the Dnieper, passes from hand to hand till it reach the Boug or the Danube; and the rightful owner may still be inqui ring after a steed, which has already quitted the empire of the cżar, to enter the service of a moslem, or to figure in the stud of a Hungarian magnate! SOUTHERN RUSSIA -THE STEPPES. 233 W.ROBURIS.go ITINERANT HORSE-DEALER. Accustomed to a life of roguery and hardship, and indulging constantly in every kind of excess, the tabuntshik comes naturally to be looked upon by the more orderly classes as rather a suspicious character; but his friend- ship is generally worth having, and his ill-will is much dreaded. At the horse-fairs, he is always a man of great importance. His horses are driven into the market in the same free condition in which they range over the steppe, for if tied together they would become entirely ungovernable. 234 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. When driven through towns and villages, the creatures are often fright- ened; but that occasions no trouble to their drivers, for the herd is never more certain to keep together than when made timid by the appearance of a strange place. In the market-place, the taboon is driven into an enclo- sure, near which the owner seats himself, while the tabuntshik enters along with his horses. The buyers walk round to make their selection. After saying so much of the tabuntshik, it will be but fair to give some account of the life led by the riotous animals committed to his charge. During what is called the fine season, from April to October, the taboon remains grazing day and night in the steppe. During the other six months of the year, the horses remain under shelter at night, and are driven out only in the day, when they must scrape away the snow for themselves to get at the scanty grass underneath. The shelter alluded to consists of a space of ground enclosed by an earthen mound, with now and then some- thing like a roof toward the north, to keep off the cold wind. There the poor creatures must defend themselves as well as they can against the mer- ciless Boreas, who comes to them unchecked in his course all the way from the pole. The stallions and the stronger beasts take possession of the shed; while the timid and feeble stand in groups about the wall, and creep closely together, in order mutually to impart a little warmth to each other. Nor is it from cold that they have most to suffer on these occasions. Early in winter they still find a little autumnal grass under the snow, and the ta- buntshik scatters a little hay about the stable to help them to amuse the tedious hours of night. The customary improvidence of a Russian estab- lishment, however, seldom allows a sufficient stock of hay to be laid in for the winter. As the season advances, hay grows scarce, and must be re- served for the more valuable coach and saddle horses, and the tabuntshik is obliged to content himself with a portion of the dry reeds and straw stored up for fuel! It will therefore hardly be matter of surprise to any one to learn that the winter is a season of sickness and death to the horses of the steppe. After the mildest winter, the poor creatures come forth a troop of sickly-looking skeletons; but when the season has been severe, or unusually long, more than half of them, perhaps, have sunk under their sufferings, or have been so reduced in strength, that the ensuing six months are hardly sufficient to restore them to their wonted spirits. From the hardships of an ordinary winter, the horses quickly recover amid the abundance of spring. A profusion of young grass covers the ground as soon as the snow has melted away. The crippled spectres that stalked about a few weeks before, with wasted limbs and drooping heads, are as wild and mischievous at the end of the first month as though they had never experienced the inconvenience of a six months' fast. The stal- lions have already begun to form their separate factions in the taboon, and the neighing, bounding, prancing, galloping, and fighting, goes on merrily from the banks of the Danube to the very heart of Mongolia. The most tremendous battles are fought when two taboons happen to # SOUTHERN RUSSIA- THE STEPPES. 235 meet. In general, the tabuntshiks are careful to keep at a respectful dis tance from each other; but sometimes they are away from their duty, and sometimes, where a right of pasturage is disputed, they bring their herds together out of sheer malice. The mares and foals on such occasions keep aloof, but their furious lords rush to battle with an impetuosity of which those who are accustomed to see the horse only in a domesticated state can form but a poor conception. The enraged animals lash their tails and erect their manes like angry lions; their hoofs rattle against each other with such violence, that the noise can be heard at a considerable distance; they fasten on one another with their teeth like tigers; and their scream- ings and howlings are more like those of the wild beasts of the forest than like any sounds ever heard from a tame horse. The spring, though in so many respects a season of enjoyment for the horses, is not without its drawbacks. The wolves, also, have to indemnify themselves for the severe fast of the winter. The foals, too, are just then most delicate, and a wolf will at any time prefer a young foal to a sheep or a calf. He is therefore constantly prowling about the taboon during the spring, and, as the weaker party, trusts to cunning rather than strength. For a party of wolves openly to attack a taboon at noonday would be to rush upon certain destruction; and, however severely the wolf may be pressed by hunger, he knows his own weakness too well to venture on so absurd an act of temerity. At night, indeed, if the taboon happen to be a little scattered, and the wolves in tolerable numbers, they will sometimes attempt a rush, and a general battle ensues. An admirable spirit of coali- tion then displays itself among the horses. On the first alarm, they come charging up to the threatened point, and attack the wolves with an impetu- osity that often puts the prowlers to instant flight. Soon, however, if they feel themselves sufficiently numerous, they return, and hover about the taboon till some poor foal straggle a few yards from the main body, when it is seized by the enemy, while the mother, springing to its rescue, is nearly certain to share its fate. Then it is that the battle begins in real earnest, the mares forming a circle, within which the foals take shelter. The horses, when they attack wolves, charge upon them in a solid pha- lanx, tearing them with their teeth, and trampling on them with their feet, till it becomes hard to say what kind of an animal the skin belonged to. With one blow the horse often kills his enemy or stuns him. If, however, he fail to strike a home blow at the first onset, he is likely to fight a losing battle, for eight or ten hungry wolves fasten on his throat, and never quit him till they have torn him to the ground; and if the horse be prompt and skilful in attack, the wolf is not deficient in sagacity, but watches for every little advantage, and is quick to avail himself of it: but let him not hope, even if he succeed in killing a horse, that he will be allowed leisure to pick the bones; the taboon never fails to take ample vengeance, and the battle almost invariably terminates in the complete discomfiture of the wolves, though not, perhaps, till more than one horse has had a leg perma- 236 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. nently disabled, or has had his side marked for life with the impress of his enemy's teeth. The wolf's system of warfare, however, is a predatory one, and his policy is rather to surprise outposts than to meditate a general attack. He relies more on his subtlety than his strength. He will creep cautiously through the grass, taking especial care to keep to leeward of the taboon, and he will remain crouched in ambush till he perceive a mare and her foal gra- zing a little apart from the rest. Even then he makes no attempt to spring upon his prey, but keeps creeping nearer and nearer, with his head leaning on his fore feet, and wagging his tail in a friendly manner, to imitate, as much as possible, the movements and gestures of a watch-dog. If the mare, deceived by the treacherous pantomime, venture near enough to the enemy, he will spring at her throat, and despatch her before she have time to raise an alarm; then, seizing on the foal, he will make off with his booty, and be out of sight perhaps before either herd or herdsman suspect his presence. It is not often, however, that the wolf succeeds in obtaining so easy a victory. If the mare detect him, an instant alarm is raised, and, should the tabuntshik be near, the wolf seldom fails to enrich him with a skin, for which the fur-merchant is at all times willing to pay his ten or twelve roubles. The wolf's only chance, on such occasions, is to make for the first ravine, down which he rolls head foremost, a gymnastic feat that the tabuntshik on his horse can not venture to imitate. As the summer draws on, the wolf becomes less troublesome to the taboon; but a season now begins of severe suffering for the poor horses, who have more perhaps to endure from the thirst of summer than from the hunger of winter. The heat becomes intolerable, and shade is nowhere to be found, save what the animals can themselves create, by gathering to- gether in little groups, cach seeking to place the body of his neighbor between himself and the burning rays of a merciless sun. The tabuntshik often lays himself in the centre of the group, for he also has nowhere else a shady couch to hope for. The autumn, again, is a season of enjoyment. The plains are anew cov- ered with green, the springs yield once more an abundant supply of water, and the horses gather strength at this period of abundance, to prepare themselves for the sufferings and privation of winter. In autumn, for the first time in the year, the taboon is called on to work, but the work is not much more severe than the exertions which the restless creatures are daily imposing upon themselves while romping and rioting about on the steppe. The work in question is the thrashing of the grain. A thrashing-floor, of several hundred yards square, is made by cutting away the turf, and beating the ground into a hard, solid surface. The whole is enclosed by a railing, with a gate to let the horses in and out. The sheaves of grain are then spread out and laid in strata over each other. In small farms, where only eight or ten horses are disposable for this kind of work, each horse is expected to thrash his thirty or forty sheaves; but SOUTHERN RUSSIA-THE STEPPES. 237 in larger establishments, where half a taboon can be set to work at once, a score of sheaves is the utmost ever allowed for each thrasher. On such a floor, supposing the taboon to consist of a thousand horses, five hundred score of sheaves will be laid down at once. The taboon is then formed into two divisions. The tabuntshik and his assistants drive their five hun- dred steeds into the enclosure, and, when once in, the more riotous they are the better the work will be done. The gate is closed, and then begins a ball of which it requires a lively imagination to conceive a picture. The drivers act as musicians, and their formidable harabniks are the fiddles that keep up the dance without intermission. The horses, terrified partly by the crackling straw under their feet, and partly by the incessant crack- ing of the whip over their heads, dart half frantic from one extremity to the other of their temporary prison. Millions of grains are flying about in the air, and the laborers without have enough to do to toss back the sheaves that are flung over the railing by the prancing, hard-working thrashers within. This continues for about an hour. The horses are then let out, the grain turned, and the same performance repeated three times before noon. By that time, about a thousand bushels (sheffel) of grain have been thrashed, after a fashion that looks more like a holyday diversion than a hard day's work. This description, of course, applies only to an agricul- tural establishment on a very large scale; and it may not be amiss to add that, in such a thrashing operation, more grain is wasted than is raised on many large farms in this country. Such is still the wild and chequered life of the horses on the steppe, and such it was in the days of Mazeppa;* but such scenes are becoming scarcer in southern Russia, in proportion as the population becomes denser, and some of the larger estates have been parcelled out among a greater number of owners. Should the Russian government succeed in the favorite plan of introducing a regular system of agriculture into this portion of the em- pire, the large taboons must gradually disappear, or recede farther and farther toward the confines of Tartary. Such a time, however, is yet com- * JOHN MAZEPPA, hetmân of the Cossacks, whom Lord Byron has made the hero of a poem, was born about the middle of the seventeenth century, in the province of Podolia, of a poor but noble Polish family, and became page to John Casimir, king of Poland. In this situation, Mazeppa had an opportunity of acquiring various useful accomplishments; but an intrigue was the foundation of his future elevation. A Polish nobleman having surprised Mazeppa with his wife, ordered him to be tied naked upon a wild horse, and committed to his fate. The animal had been bred in the Ukraine, and directed his course thither, where some poor peasants found him half dead, and took care of him. Their warlike, roving life suited his disposition; he made himself conspicuous and beloved by his dexterity, bodily strength, and courage; his knowledge and sagacity procured him the post of secretary and adjutant to the hetmân Samoilowitz; and, in 1687, he was elected in his place. He gained the confidence of Peter the Great, who loaded him with honors, and he was finally made prince of the Ukraine. But though a prince, he was still a vassal, and his restless spirit made him resolve to throw off the yoke of subordination. He joined with Charles XII., who had just given a king to Poland, and aimed, by his assistance, to throw off all allegiance to Russia. For a long time the intrigues of Mazeppa against Peter were disbelieved by the latter; but at length he openly joined the Swedish monarch, who, by his advice, fought the fatal battle of Poltava. He then sought refuge at Bender, in Turkey, where he died, in 1709. 238 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. paratively distant. The steppe yields grain, indeed, in abundance, when cultivated; but the difficulty of transport, and the absence of all material for the construction of good roads, oppose serious obstacles to the growth of grain, except in favored localities-as, for instance, in the immediate vicinity of rivers or of the sea. The life of the tshabawn, or shepherd, presents a singular contrast to that of the rakish tabuntshik; but the shepherd's quiet, unobtrusive course has comparatively little to attract the attention of the stranger. The lords of the steppe, indeed, are far from undervaluing their peaceful flocks; and when the wealth of one of the princely owners is spoken of, his sheep gen- erally serve as the standard by which the amount of his worldly posses- sions is measured. There are individuals in the steppe who are said to own upward of one hundred thousand woolly subjects, and most of these flocks have increased to their present amount within the last thirty or forty years. The Wallachian sheep is the most prevalent race. It is remarka- ble on account of the huge size of its tail, which consists of little else than a lump of fat, in great esteem among the Russians and Tartars. Merinos have, of late years, been likewise introduced, and are rapidly increasing in numbers. The tshabawn is, for the most part, a quiet, peaceable being. His char- acter is naturally modified by the habits of his usual associates, and, as he is not obliged to range over so wide an extent of the country as the tabuntshik, he is able to carry about with him a multitude of comforts, in which the guardian of the horses must never hope to indulge. The tsha- bawn has usually one or two large wagons, drawn by oxen, in which he carries with him his provisions and his cooking-utensils, together with the skins of the sheep that die, and those of the wolves that he has been fortu- nate enough to slay: for the tshabawn, with all his quietness, is as zealous a wolf-hunter as the tabuntshik, and quite as willing to increase his lawful gainings by the sale of a score of shaggy hides in the course of the season. Of the fat-tailed sheep there are two distinct races, the Wallachian and the Calmuck. The former really carries its fat about in its tail, which grows into a shape something similar to a pear, swelling at both sides to an enormous size, and tapering to a point at the extremity. The Calmuck sheep, which is rarely found in the western steppes, does not really carry its fat in the tail, but rather in two huge cushions, from thirty to forty pounds in weight, that strongly remind the stranger, who sees them for the first time, of the Hottenton Venus. With both, the fat in or about the tail is considered more valuable than that obtained from any other part of the animal. The severe cold of a Pontine winter, and the parching summer by which the dance of the seasons is so strikingly diversified, are replete with trials and sufferings for all the animals most useful to man. The hurricanes that sometimes sweep across the plain are frequently attended by the most dis- astrous consequences to the flocks. These make not the least attempt to SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE STEPPES. 239 resist the violence of the storm, but run away in a perfect panic before the wind, and are blown by thousands into the streams and ravines by which the steppes are intersected. The dull Russian shepherds, on these occa- sions, are of little value, and the dogs are not much above their masters in point of intelligence. The most sensible members of these communities are generally the goats, without whom a Pontine shepherd would never be able to keep his woolly charge in any kind of order. To every hundred sheep, therefore, three or four goats are invariably associated, to make up, by their wit and sprightliness, for the silliness of their companions! Until the autumnal storms are no longer endurable, the sheep remain on the steppe, and then return to winter in the miserable enclosures, where a little shelter against the north wind is mostly the only protection ever consid- ered necessary. The movements of an ottara, or flock, are, of course, much less erratic than those of a taboon. If the tshabawn comes to a fine pasture-ground, he seldom leaves it till the grass has been eaten away; and even when on the march, his encampment for the night is often only two or three miles from the spot whence he started in the morning. In good weather, to guide the flock is an easy task. The tshabawn follows his wagon, and the sheep follow him, his men hanging upon the flanks and the rear, to drive in stragglers, and to accelerate the progress of those who are all too dila- tory in their movements. Their long irliks are the sceptres with which the shepherds occasionally enforce their authority. These are crooks, nearly twelve feet in length, and may at any moment be converted into most formidable weapons, of either attack or defence. The wolf who has tasted one blow from the irlik of a tshabawn, is seldom fated to experience a second. In bad weather, and particularly during the autumnal storms, matters wear, as we have already hinted, a very different aspect. The wolves in spring are a constant plague, but a vigilant tshabawn may be on his guard against these rapacious beasts; and, besides, the more the wolves show themselves, the greater will be the number of skins to be disposed of at the end of the season. Against the snowstorm of the steppe, however, vigi- lance can avail but little; and whereas the wolf can but rarely succeed in the capture of even a single sheep, thousands may be buried in the snow- drift of a samjot, or blown over the edge of a precipice into a ravine, or into the yesty waves of the easily-agitated Euxine. Not a year passes away of which the tshabawn has not to recount various disasters caused by the samjots. In fair weather, the scene is, of course, a very different one. In his roomy wagon the tshabawn carries with him a multitude of little comforts; and if he comes upon a piece of good grazing-ground, he establishes him- self there for days together. His little kitchen is immediately put into order; onė kettle simmers away for himself and his men, and another for his dogs-a fierce and formidable set of animals, that are invaluable in a 240 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. country swarming with wolves. While one of the party acts as cook, the others are not without their occupation. One has perhaps been stripping the skin off a dead sheep; another has been acting the physician toward the sick members of the ottara; while several have found ample work in milking-for in a large flock there are often not less than five or six hun- dred sheep to be milked! The milk, placed in wooden vessels, is exposed to the sun, and converted into a kind of cheese, known throughout the steppe under the name of brinse. This cheese, as soon as the whey has been drained off, is packed into goatskins, with the fur turned inside. The skin gives it a peculiar flavor, but this, according to the opinion of the southern Russians, is one of its chief recommendations. Nor are the shep- herds without their sports while the mamaliga is simmering away in the sociable kettle. A day rarely passes away without a wolf-chase; a hare may frequently be run down; and, if the traps are attended to, many a piece of feathered game may be made to vary the monotony of their daily bill of fare. Nor are they without frequent guests to share the produce of their chase. Parties of hunters scouring the steppes in pursuit of game, peasants from Podolia and other parts in search of work, soldiers on fur- lough, deserters from the army, and runaway serfs from the interior of the empire, are constantly wandering about the steppe; and the tshabawn, with that ready hospitality seldom found wanting in any nomadic tribe, makes every stranger welcome to his frugal meal. The poor fugitive may pass the night securely under shelter of the tshabawn's dogs, whom no uninvited stranger ever ventures to approach, and in the morning the wan- derer will seldom be dismissed without some fresh token of the kindness of his host. When the evening meal is done, if the weather is fine, and no wolf in view, men and dogs are sure to pass an hour or two stretched before thei' blazing fire of dry reeds and grass. There the tshabawns confer on th politics of the steppe, or discuss the relative merits of the grazing-ground to which it will be most expedient to direct their next march. The coun! ended, the arrangements for the night remain to be made. The wagon is the lodging of the principal tshabawn-the ataman or chief of the ottera, as he is frequently called-and here also the guests of the encampraent are usually accommodated. The other tshabawns drive the sheep as closely together as possible, and then form, with their dogs, a complete circle round the flock. Each man throws his furs, that serve him for mattress and coverlet, on the spot assigned to him, and between every two beds the same measured interval occurs. The next thing is to make the beds for the dogs. This is soon done. So many dogs as there are, as many rugs are provided; and as each dog knows his own rug by the smell, all that is necessary is to lay the rug on the spot where it is wished the dog should take up his station for the night, and a complete cordon sanitaire is formed. A camp thus fortified may generally defy the wolf; still there are few nights pass away without an alarm, for the wolves will hover for many SOUTHERN RUSSIA 241 THE STEPPES. HUNTERS ENCAMPED ON THE Steppe. successive days and nights around a flock, in the hope of espying, sooner or later, an unguarded point, or of taking advantage of the panic into which the ottara is sometimes thrown by a sudden storm. The wide, unbounded extent of the steppe makes almost everything wild that dwells there; and as the horse assumes in a short time an air of wild- ness, so also the ox that ranges over the grassy ocean is a very different kind of animal from the ox attached to a well-ordered farm. On the steppe also you hear of house-oxen and steppe-oxen. The former are attached to the household, work for their owner, and graze only near his house. The breed of cows that prevails on the steppe gives but little milk. The German colonists have, in consequence, introduced cattle from Germany, and the same has been done by many of the principal landowners. The cattle of foreign breed, however, are still insignificant in numbers compared to the original race. This race, which extends over Southern and Western Russia, and a part of Moldavia, is large, long-legged, with long horns, and always of a white or silver-gray color, differing in many points from the Polish, the Hungarian, or the Tartar breeds. Such a herd of wild oxen is called a tshereda, and the herdsman who has the charge of it is called the tsherednik. A tshereda consists of from one to eight hundred head of cattle, and is a source of more profit to its owner than a taboon, inasmuch as an ox, for his tallow, will always com- mand a purchaser more readily than a wild, vicious, unbroken horse. In many respects the life of a tsherednik bears a great resemblance to that of a tabuntshik. In summer the cattle are out in the plain, and in 16 242 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. winter they are scantily protected by their airy sheds. The bulls and cows that are kept for breeding are never sold, but live and die on the steppe; but the young beasts are sold to the prekashtshiks, the commissioners of the St. Petersburg and Moscow cattle-dealers, or the great tallow-boiling estab- lishments. These men are continually travelling about from herd to herd, and, as soon as they have bought a sufficient number of oxen, send them off to their places of destination, under the care of their gontshiks, or drivers. The tsheredniks, like the tshabawns, serve on foot, the ox being less wild, and more easy to manage, than the horse. The ox is more choice, indeed, in his food, but then his meal is more quickly despatched, and his afternoon nap lasts all the longer. He bears the rain but ill, and is very impatient of heat, but in a snowstorm he is less apt to get frightened, and pursues his course regardless whether the samjots blow from the front or the rear. He will also endure thirst much better, and can go for two days together without drinking. With the wolf the ox is much on the same terms as the horse, though it has been observed that a wolf attacks a tshereda much less frequently than a taboon. The ox, on account of his long horns, is a much more for- midable enemy than the horse, and generally pins his enemy to the ground at the first attack. Nevertheless, the wolf does hover occasionally about the herd, and, if a lame or sickly ox happen to lag behind his companions, he frequently falls a victim to his vigilant and remorseless foe. The markets of St. Petersburg and Moscow are supplied with beef almost entirely from the herds of the steppe. It is also there that Russia derives her chief supply of tallow; and, in addition to the home consumption, about one hundred and fifty thousand tons of tallow are exported annually to other countries, while Russia-leather is noted and in demand for its supe- rior quality throughout the civilized world. At a very early period of history-perhaps so early as the times of Herodotus, but certainly in those of the Milesians-tallow was an article of export from Scythia. At present the large tallow-manufactories, or salgans, as they are called, are exclusively in the hands of the natives of Great Russia, who have their establishments in all parts of the steppe. They buy the oxen up, as above remarked, by thousands, and after fattening them up for a season, drive them to the salgans to be slaughtered. If the season is good—that is to say, tolerably moist, so that the animals may fatten well—the speculation is likely to turn out well, but a long-continued drought is ruinous in its consequences. The tallow-boilers remain empty, and the poor, meager ox has nothing left but his skin with which to pay the price of his board. After such a season, the owners of the salgans usually close their books, and declare themselves insolvent for they are seldom possessed of much capital, and generally carry on their operations with the money advanced by the merchants of the seaport towns. Near the end of summer the tallow-boiler begins to drive his oxen in small parties toward the salgan, a spacious courtyard, surrounded by the SOUTHERN RUSSIA THE STEPPES. 243 buildings necessary for the manufacture. There are large shambles in which to slaughter the oxen, and houses containing enormous boilers, in which to boil down their meat. Other buildings are set apart for the salt- ing of the hides, besides which there are countinghouses, and dwellings for the workmen. In summer the whole establishment is untenanted, save by dogs and birds of prey, who hover about all the year round, being attracted by the nauseous smell of the place; for during autumn the soil becomes so saturated with blood, that the smell continues for the rest of the year, despite the samjots of winter and the northwest storms of the spring. To get the oxen into the salgan, neither force nor blows would always suffice, but there are attached to every place of the kind a number of tame oxen, who are taught to entice their bellowing brethren to their fate. These traitors are brought out and mingled with the herd: they afterward lead the doomed and despairing multitude to the scene of slaughter; and when once the victims have entered the courtyard, the gate closes upon them, and they never come out again except as beef, tallow, and leather. About one hundred oxen are driven into the yard at a time, and of these twenty or thirty go into the slaughterhouse, in which six or eight butchers are kept briskly at work, who are spoken of as horrid-looking ruffians in sheepskin jackets, leathern breeches, and high boots, unsmeared by aught save the gore in which they constantly wade. The villanous stench and the awful spectacle in the slaughterhouse are said to exceed any that the mind of man can imagine. The business is usually carried on in the wet season, so that the whole salgan is soon converted into a swamp of blood and mud! As great expedition is required, the business of the slaughterhouse is per- formed hurriedly, and the poor animals are subjected to much unnecessary suffering. It would require more hands and more time than can be afford- ed in a salgan, to put an ox to death in the artist-like manner customary among our butchers. In the salgan the beasts are left loose: the big-booted murderers enter the place with their heavy axes, and, striking each animal a tremendous blow on the back, break its spine, and so bring it to the earth. Then snorting and bellowing the poor victims lie upon the ground, twenty or thirty of them at a time, helpless and unresisting, and a consid- erable time elapses before the whole of them can be put out of their pain. The ox has but little fat upon his loins and back; and, therefore, after the skin has been drawn off, three or four poods of meat are cut off, to be offered afterward for sale in the bazar. None but the poor, however, buy it; for the blow on the spine always has the effect of injuring the meat. The remainder of the carcass is then cut up, and everything cast into the boiler, with the exception of the intestines, which are given to the swine, of whom there are always a large number at every salgan, wallowing in the miry gore, and undergoing the process of being fattened up for the market. At every salgan there are usually from four to six boilers, each large enough to contain the meat of ten or fifteen oxen. The fat collects at the top, and is skimmed off with large ladles; and, before it has quite cooled, 244 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. it is poured into the casks in which it is afterward shipped. This first fat is the best, and is quite white; the second has a yellowish tinge. If a suf- ficient number of casks is not at hand, the hides are sewn together, and the tallow poured into them, till they again assume a form something like that of the living animal! Of these tallow-stuffed oxen a large number are usu- ally seen standing about the salgans. Another harvest of fat is obtained by afterward subjecting the mash of bones and meat to huge presses; but this after-tallow is of a very inferior quality, and is rarely exported. It is used for greasing wheels, and wherever a coarse kind of grease is required. The tallow is always in demand, and such is the eagerness to obtain it, that not only is a part of the price often paid beforehand, while the oxen are still grazing on the steppe, but the wealthy merchants of Odessa and their clerks are constantly parading their gay habiliments among the filthy abominations of the salgan, and crying out incessantly for tallow, tallow, and more tallow! The cashier, meanwhile, is busy in the countinghouse. The steward of the estate comes in to receive the rent of the land on which the herd has fattened during the season; the workmen come in for their wages; cattle-dealers come in to contract for so many hundred oxen; while some merchant standing by is ready, in his eagerness for the greasy treas- ure, to pay in advance for the tallow that has yet to be grown under the hides of those oxen; a colonist comes in to bargain for the fattening up of some two hundred hogs, which he afterward receives back walking masses of hog's-lard, too yellow and coarse, however, for the market, till the grunt- ers have been a little refined by sundry feeds of grain; Greeks from Con- stantinople come, as they did in the days when Olbia flourished; a wealthy nobleman perhaps is anxious to rent the whole salgan for a few weeks, hav- ing some thousands of oxen ready for the kettle, but no establishment of his own to boil them into fat and silver roubles; a swineherd comes in to buy sundry wagon-loads of the pressed meat wherewith to treat his interesting charges on the steppe; soap-boilers are there to bargain for the fat, turners to buy the horns, and tanners to carry away the hides; the Turkish cap- tains come eagerly to obtain the tallow in its greatest purity at the fountain- head, for tallow is too much esteemed by the gourmands of Constantinople to be idly wasted in enlightening their darkness: in short, however busily Death may be at work, there is, meanwhile, no want of either life or bustle in the salgan. Nor is it men alone that are eagerly running to and fro. The shaggy, long-haired dogs of the steppe arrive in swarms to batten on the refuse, or to lap the thickening gore in the loathsome well into which it has been drained. Even more numerous are the white sea-gulls, who, under their dovelike plumage, hide the hearts of vultures. They become so tame and bold in the salgan, that they walk fearlessly among the workmen, and will scarcely rise from their meal when driven with a stick. Such is the hideous scene presented by one of these dens of murder, where, in addi- tion to its other accompaniments, the air is heavy with myriads of insects, that seem to have been bred by the soil, soaked as it is with blood! EASTERN RUSSIA - ASTRAKHAN. 245 KRILEY ROBER:S. CITY OF ASTRAKHAN. CHAPTER IX. EASTERN RUSSIA. HE governments we have for con- venience grouped in this chapter, under the general designation of EASTERN RUSSIA, are those cover- ing principally the territory of the ancient Tartar kingdoms of Astrakhan and Kazan. They are generally known, and are classed in the table on page 42, under those more distinctive names. By a ukase of December 18, 1850, a new government was formed in Eastern Russia on the left bank of the Volga, and named SAMARA, consisting of three districts of the govern- ment of Orenburg, two districts of Saratov, and the districts of Samara and Stavropol in Simbirsk. As we have not the means of giving its bound- aries, or of ascertaining the proportions of its area and population contrib- uted by each of the above governments, its lines are of course not marked on the map, and its description is included in that of those governments. The government of ASTRAKHAN lies on the northwest coast of the Cas- pian sea, between the forty-fourth and fiftieth degrees of north latitude and the forty-third and fifty-first degrees of east longitude, having the Malaia Ouzen for its northeastern and the Manytch for its southwestern boundary. It is divided into two nearly equal parts by the Volga, which traverses it from northwest to southeast. Its coast-line, including minute sinuosities, is about five hundred and twenty miles in length, and is crowded through- 246 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. out its whole extent with small islands, rocks, and shifting sandbanks. The entire length of the province is three hundred and seventy miles, and its greatest breadth two hundred and fifty miles, containing an area of about forty-three thousand square miles. This government consists almost wholly of two vast steppes or plains, separated from each other by the Volga, the greater portions of which are an arid, sterile desert-forming, in fact, a portion of the steppes described in the last chapter. The largest tracts of this description are the deserts of Naryn and Sedok: the former, in which occur hills of moving sand, is situated on the northeast side of the Volga; the other on the southwest. The whole of Astrakhan was at one period submerged by the Caspian, as is evident from the saline nature of the soil, and the shells it contains; and as both are upward of eighty feet below the level of the sea of Azov, should any convulsion of nature cause a depression of the intervening land, Astrakhan would again be overwhelmed by the ocean! The soil consists generally of mud, salt, and sand, intermixed, and in some parts of extensive salt marshes, rendering it almost wholly one wide and sterile waste, destitute of wood; the few trees it has to boast of being met with on the banks of its rivers only. These are oaks, poplars, birches, and some mulberry-trees, the latter of which are found in greatest numbers along the Aktuba. Notwithstanding the general sterility of the country, a few fertile tracts are met with on the skirts and delta of the Volga, in- cluding some excellent pastures. Here grain is grown, but not in sufficient quantity to maintain the population, with some fruits, herbs, vines, tobacco, and cotton. Salt lakes and ponds are numerous throughout the province; the largest of the former, Baskutchatsk, is situated to the east of the Volga, and is about twelve miles in length and five in breadth. When evaporated in summer, these lakes and pools leave thick crusts of culinary, and, in some cases, Epsom salt. In this district, low hills of gypsum and rock-salt also occur; the former vary in size and elevation, the highest rising about sixty feet above the level of the steppe: they are mostly of semicircular form, and many of them are crater-shaped at the top. The salt-hills rise to about the same height, and contain gem-salt, above which is sandstone, and over that the common yellow sand of the steppe. The salt is colorless, firm, and contains clear and perfectly transparent cubes. The principal rivers of Astrakhan are the Volga (a description of which, with a map of its several mouths, is given on a previous page), the Aktuba, which runs parallel to it at the distance of two or three miles, and the Sarpa. The Kouma, which once formed a part of the southern boundary of the province, and represented on the maps as falling into the Caspian, does not now reach that sea, being absorbed by the sands some sixty miles inland. The climate is extremely hot in summer, and equally cold in win- ter; and is unhealthy to all but natives, from the quantity of saline par- ticles with which the atmosphere is impregnated. EASTERN RUSSIA 247 ASTRAKHAN. Pasturage and fishing constitute the chief occupation of the inhabitants: the former of the rural and nomadic tribes; the latter of the population on the coast and banks of the Volga. The live stock consists principally of sheep of the Calmuck or broad-tailed breed. Cattle and goats are also reared, the latter chiefly for their skins, from which Morocco-leather is made. The breeding of horses likewise obtains some attention, but they are diminutive and ill-conditioned. Some of the nomadic tribes have also large herds of Bactrian camels. The fisheries of the Volga are of great value, no stream in the world being more abundantly stocked with fish, particularly between the city of Astrakhan and the Caspian, a distance of about twenty-five or thirty miles. On this ground, an immense number of vessels and boats, and many thou- sand persons, are employed in spring, autumn, and winter, in taking fish, chiefly sturgeon, from the roes and bladders of which large quantities of isinglass and caviar are manufactured. The population of Astrakhan is composed of a great variety of races, including Russians, Cossacks, Tartars, Calmucks, Armenians, Persians, Hindus, &c. The most numerous are the Calmucks, who occupy large tracts of country to the east of the Volga. Of all the inhabitants of the Russian empire, the Calmucks are the most distinguished by peculi- arity of features and manners. They are, in general, raw-boned and stout. Their faces are so flat, that the skull of a Calmuck may be easily known from others. They have thick lips, a small nose, and a short chin, with a complexion of a sallow brown. Their clothing is oriental, and their heads are almost exactly like those of the Chinese. Some of the women CALMUCKS. wear a large golden ring in their nostrils. Their principal food consists of animals, tame and wild; and even their chiefs will feed upon cattle that have died of distemper or age, though the flesh may be putrid: so that in every horde the flesh-market has the appearance of a lay-stall of carrion! They eat likewise the roots and plants of their deserts. They eat freely, but can abstain from food for a long time. Both sexes smoke continually. During the summer they remain in the northern and in the winter in the southern deserts. They sleep upon felt, or carpeting, and cover themselves with the same. The Calmucks are a branch of the Mogul or Mongol nation, which origi- nally inhabited the country to the north of China. In the latter part of the seventeenth century, the Torgot and Derbet divisions of this tribe 248 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. descended to the banks of the Volga, extending their wanderings over the country of the Don Cossacks to the shores of the sea of Azov. About this time Ayuka Khan ruled over the whole nation. Shortly after his death, and while weakened by internal dissensions, the Calmucks fell an easy prey to the designs of the Russian government, and remained subject to the imperial sceptre, until, in the winter of 1770-'71, offended by the de- spotic measures of the empress Catherine II., half a million of the tribe wandered rather farther than usual, and ended by pitching their tents in the dominions of "his celestial majesty" the emperor of China-a warning to despotic governments not to trouble their nomadic subjects with the arrangements of the "home department." It was, indeed, as remarkable an emigration as the revenge that prompted it was signal; and we are irresistibly reminded by it of the only parallel instance which history records, of those wanderings in the desert of Sinai, undertaken under somewhat similar circumstances; and if the sojourning in the wilderness was of much longer duration in the one case, the distance travelled in the other was immeasurably greater. Unfortunately, a large portion of the Calmucks were left behind, having been prevented by an unusually late winter from crossing the Volga. Those who reached China, after a journey of eight months, were most cordially welcomed by the em- peror, who allotted for their occupation the Ily country in the province of Soongaria, and granted them many privileges, in consideration of their voluntary submission to his rule. To judge from the condition of the Calmucks who remained behind, their brethren in China probably made an exchange for the better; and doubt- less those who were left suffered for the independent conduct of this por- tion of the tribe. They are in a great measure confined to the province of Astrakhan, and those who are immediately subject to the crown pay a tax amounting to seventy-five roubles a family. There is a committee for the administration of Calmuck affairs at Astrakhan, the president and some of the members of which are Russians. Besides those who are under the dominion of the crown, there are sev- eral divisions of the tribe, each governed by separate princes. One of the most celebrated of these has built a palace on the banks of the Volga, not far from Astrakhan. This appears to be the nearest approach to a settled habitation that any of these restless beings have attained to; and so great is their dread of a more composed life and industrious habits, that, when they are angry with a person, they wish "he may live in one place, and work like a Russian!" Their principal animal food is horseflesh, together with koumiss, or churned mare's milk, from which a kind of spirit is dis- tilled. Camels are the indispensable attendants of their wanderings. They pay the greatest respect and veneration to their llamas, or priests, who, like their Russiun neighbors, take every advantage of the supposed character for sanctity with which they are invested, to impose upon a bar- barous and superstitious people; and there are now engrafted on their EASTERN RUSSIA 249 ASTRAKHAN original Buddhistic faith a number of mystic rites and ceremonies, which are by no means orthodox additions. Their priesthood is in a measure subordinate to the Grand Llama of Thibet. The Calmucks and Nogaïs are the only nomade tribes which inhabit the country to the west of the Volga. They share, to some extent, the steppes to the eastward of that river with the Kirghiz, who profess Mohammedan- ism, and, though a smaller tribe, occupy the territory allotted to them upon more independent conditions than do the Calmucks. The city of Astrakhan, the capital of the government of that name, is situated on an elevated island in the Volga, about thirty miles from its embouchure in the Caspian sea. It is irregularly built, having crooked streets, which are mostly unpaved and dirty, being covered with mud in winter and with sand in summer. Some of the houses are of brick or sandstone, but by far the greater number are of wood. There are in all about one hundred and fifty streets, fifty squares or public areas, eight market-places, eleven wooden and nine earthen bridges. In the upper part of the town stands the cathedral, from the towers of which, says Dr. Gæbel, "a fine view of the city is obtained, with its broad streets and canals bordered by trees, the haven covered with ships, and of the broad, majestic Volga, with its beautiful green islands." The cathe- dral is in the form of a parallelogram, with four small gilt and painted cupolas on the roof, and a large one in the centre for the admission of light. Its walls inside are hung with coarsely-painted pictures, set in costly frames, mostly of silver filagrane-work. There are, besides, some thirty stone and three wooden churches, and fifteen mosques; many of the former are richly ornamented and gaudily furnished. The other public buildings of note are the archiepiscopal palace, the government-offices, and the three factory-halls for the Russian, Asiatic, and Hindu dealers, or merchants. An interesting architectural antiquity is a small disused Moresco church, in the fort of Peter the Great, said to have been built by order of Ivan IV. Astrakhan is the seat of a Greek and Armenian eparchy, and also of Greek and Armenian archbishoprics. It contains a high court of civil and criminal jurisdiction; likewise a Greek theological seminary, a botanic garden, a gymnasium, and upward of twenty superior and ordinary schools, with about one thousand scholars of all ranks. The manufactures are in- considerable, not giving employment to more than two or three hundred work-people; they comprise silks, cottons, woollens, shagreen-skins, Mo- rocco-leather, and soap. The fisheries form the staple trade of the city, immense quantities of fish, caviar, and isinglass, being exported to foreign countries. In the fishing-seasons, from twenty to thirty thousand persons connected with the fisheries resort to the city. The haven of Astrakhan is now so sanded up as to leave only about six feet depth of water; so that large vessels have to land their cargoes on an island nearer the Caspian. A few steam tug-boats are employed in taking vessels up and down the river. In 1846, three iron steamers were started, 250 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. མ་ས་ད་ད་མ་མ་ ་ མ་ནས་ས་ நல் FELROBERT ASTRAKHAN FROM THE SEA. to ply between Astrakhan and the other ports of the Caspian. Previous to that period, there was but one steamer on the Volga, and it was of only forty-horse power. Fresh water being scarce in the city, some attempts were lately made to obtain an increased supply by means of Artesian wells, but none was found at a depth of four hundred feet. From some of the borings, however, there issued streams of carbonic hydrogen gas, which readily burnt with a clear flame. The population, as in the case of the province generally, consists of various races; but most of the trade of the place is in the hands of the Tartars and Armenians, the latter of whom are also the chief cultivators of the land in the vicinity. The city was once fortified in the oriental manner; and many vestiges of Tartar residence are met with in the neigh- borhood, including numerous graves, the stones of which have been taken by the inhabitants to form ovens. Several of the old embattled towers, and portions of dilapidated walls, still remain. In summer, when the ther- mometer seldom falls below ninety-eight degrees Fahrenheit in the daytime, the air is filled with gnats and other small insects, which are a source of much annoyance. The resident population of Astrakhan is about fifty thousand. SARATOV is an extensive government lying between the forty-eighth and fifty-third degrees of north latitude, and the forty-second and fifty-first de- grees of east longitude; having the governments of Penza and Simbirsk on the north, that of Orenburg on the east, of Astrakhan on the south and southeast, and Tambov, Voronej, and the country of the Don Cossacks, on the west. Its length and greatest breadth are about three hundred and EASTERN RUSSIA- 251 SARATOV. fifty miles each, and it comprises an area of about seventy-three thousand square miles. The Volga intersects this province from north to south, dividing it into two portions of nearly equal size, but differing considerably in general character. The eastern division is a wide steppe, destitute of wood, and cov- ered in many parts with salt-lakes, from one of which about two hundred thousand tons of salt are said to be annually obtained. The western divis- ion is in part hilly, and, though stony toward the south, has some tolerably fertile tracts in the north, where agriculture is the chief occupation of the inhabitants. Rye, wheat, oats, millet, and peas, are raised, and in ordi- nary years the produce, after supplying the demand for home consumption, leaves a considerable quantity for exportation. Potatoes, flax, and hemp, are also produced; and the cultivation of tobacco, hops, and wood, has been introduced by German and other colonists. The climate, in some situations, is sufficiently mild for the culture of the melon, grape, and mul- berry. The principal forest-trees are oaks, poplars, Siberian acacias, and firs. The woods are mostly in the northwest, and those belonging to the crown are estimated at about eighteen hundred square miles; but the sup- ply of timber is not adequate to the home demand. The rearing of live stock is conducted on a large scale in Saratov; and the more wealthy proprietors are endeavoring to improve the breed of sheep by the introduction of merino flocks. In addition to the common breeds, Oliphant mentions having seen, near the city of Volsk, in this prov- ince," an immense herd of sheep, which seemed, from their conformation in cer- tain quarters, to have been created ex- pressly for the purpose of being melted into tallow, as their wool-of a very in- ferior description-was of little value. What added to the grotesqueness of their appearance, was their perfect in- nocence of anything like tails! Nature seemed to have compromised this ab- sence with a fleecy 'bustle,' which sat upon them in the most ridiculous and undignified manner. However, to these bustles does Volsk owe its pros- perity; large herds of sheep, graced by this peculiarity, being driven up annually from the steppes of the Caspian to the towns on the Volga. The consignee of the flock we were then contemplating was said to be the rich- est merchant on the river—the countless millions of roubles which he was reputed to possess throwing Rothschild far into the shade!" SHEEP FROM THE STEPPES OF THE CASPIAN. The rearing of bees and of silkworms is on the increase in this govern- ment. The fisheries in the Volga furnish large supplies of fish, especially sturgeon, for both home consumption and exportation. Next to salt, mill- stones and a little iron are the chief mineral products. 252 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The population of Saratov is very mixed, including Tartars and Kirghiz, and on the Volga are numerous colonies, founded principally by German and other immigrants from western Europe-originally attracted thither by grants of land and privileges conferred by the empress Catherine II., in 1763. The colonists are free, and in most respects subject only to their own jurisdiction. They conduct the most important manufactures of the government, which consist of linen, cotton, and woollen fabrics, hosiery, iron-ware, leather, and earthenware. There are numerous flour-mills and distilleries. This government is favorably situated for commerce: it communicates, by the Volga, with Nijnei-Novgorod and the Caspian sea; and, by the Meavieditsa and Don, with the sea of Azov. The Tartars have a large trade in sheepskins, and the Calmucks in horses of a very fleet though weak breed. About five thousand merchants, trading in grain, salt, fish, caviar, cattle, tallow, tobacco, and fruits, had a few years since an aggregate cap- ital of about twelve millions of roubles. The imperial government derives a greater revenue from this province, in proportion to its population, than from any other in the empire. It is divided into ten districts. The pop- ulation are mostly of the Greek, protestant, and Mohammedan religions. Education, except in the schools of the colonists, and of the capital town, is at a very low ebb. A recent traveller states that drunkenness is very common among all ranks of the inhabitants, and that the lower classes in the towns on the Volga are more generally degraded and immoral than the people of any other quarter of the globe which he has visited. Saratov, the capital of this government, and called by the Russians the "Queen of the Volga," is situated on the right bank of that river, three hundred and thirty-five miles south-southeast of Nijnei-Novgorod, and three hundred and sixty north-northwest of Astrakhan. The population (inclu- ding military), according to the official accounts, exceeds forty thousand. It consists of an upper and lower town; but, though founded so late as 1665, it is neither regularly laid out nor well built. It has some good and even handsome stone residences; but most of its houses are of wood, and it has frequently been in great part destroyed by fire. There are about a dozen Greco-Russian churches, some convents, a protestant and a Roman catholic church, a mosque, and a gostinöi dvor, or bazar, a large stone building for the warehousing, exhibition, and sale of merchandise. Since 1833, a new and handsome archbishop's palace has been constructed; and there are several hospitals, a gymnasium, and an ecclesiastical seminary, established in 1828, and having about five hundred students. The inhab- itants manufacture cotton fabrics, cotton and silk stockings, clocks and watches, leather, wax-candles, tallow, vinegar, beer, &c. Owing to its intermediate situation between Astrakhan on one hand, and Moscow and Nijnei-Novgorod on others, Saratov has an extensive trade, its exports being principally grain, salt fish, hides, cattle, and native man- ufactured goods; and its imports, tea, coffee, sugar, iron, glass and carth- EASTERN RUSSIA 253 ORENBURG. enware, woollen, silk, and cotton stuffs, peltry, &c. It has three large annual fairs. The other important towns of the province are Tzaritzin, Volsk, Alexandrov, Kamychin, Petrovsk, Atkarsk, &c. The government of ORENBURG lies mostly in Europe, but partly in Asia. It is situated chiefly between the forty-seventh and fifty-seventh degrees of north latitude, and the forty-eighth and sixtieth degrees of east longitude. It is bounded on the north by the government of Perm; on the northwest by Viatka; on the west by Kazan, Simbirsk, and Saratov; on the south- west by Astrakhan; on the south by the Caspian sea; on the southeast and east by the steppes of the Kirghiz; and on the northeast by Tobolsk. Its greatest length from northwest to southeast is eight hundred miles, and its breadth about four hundred and fifty, containing an area of about one hun- dred and twenty-eight thousand square miles. The surface of this province is greatly diversified, consisting partly of lofty mountain-ranges, partly of elevated plateaux or table-lands, and partly of low and marshy plains. The principal mountain-chain is that of the Ural, which, entering the government in the north, traverses it in a south- ern but somewhat circuitous direction, and divides it into two unequal por- tions. The eastern portion, by far the smaller of the two, belongs wholly to the basin of the Arctic ocean. Its principal rivers are the Tobol, Abuga, Oufa, and Mijas. It contains numerous lakes-all, however, of small dimensions; and is extensively occupied by swamps and morasses. The western portion belongs to the basin of the Caspian, which receives its waters partly through the Biela, Samara, and other tributaries of the Volga, but to a much larger extent directly by the Ural, and its tributaries Or, Sakmara, Ilek, &c. A considerably part of the government is densely wooded, but a still larger part is occupied by immense steppes, on which trees are rare; and natural pastures are roamed over by vast herds of cattle and sheep. The best agricultural districts are on the northwest, where the surface is com- posed of hill and valley; and the soil consists generally of a black, fertile loam, capable of raising all kinds of grain, and actually raising it in such abundance, notwithstanding the very imperfect culture it receives, that a considerable export into the neighboring governments takes place. The minerals are extremely valuable, and furnish a large source of rev- enue to the state. They include the precious metals, particularly gold,. which abounds along the chain of the Urals; and in the plains on either side of it, but especially on the east, copper, iron, and salt. The working of these, and the different operations connected with them, employ a great number of hands; but manufactures, properly so called, have made little progress, though many home-made articles are very beautiful, especially light worsted shawls, and other fabrics made by the females, similar to those wrought in the Orkney and Shetland islands of Scotland. The trade, however, particularly with the nomadic and other tribes, is very extensive. 254 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. i The principal articles are grain, horses, cattle, sheep, hides, furs, honey, wax, metals, salt, tallow, and fish. Orenburg, the principal town of this government, is situated on a slope above the right bank of the Ural. It is fortified, and has spacious and regular though miserably-paved streets. The houses, though only a few are of stone, and the far greater number are of wood, are of a lively, pleas- ing appearance. It has a protestant, a Roman catholic, and eight Greek churches, all built of stone; two mosques, governor's house, and public offices; an exchange, a merchant-house, and a customhouse; a Bashkir car- avansary, a handsome building, with two turrets, where the business con- nected with the Bashkirs is managed, but no trade is carried on; an agri- cultural school, and the district and military schools, &c. The manufactures of Orenburg consist chiefly of woollen cloth (part of it army-clothing), leather, and soap; and there are very extensive establish- ments for smelting tallow. The trade with the Kirghiz, and other inhab- itants of the interior, is very extensive. It is not, however, carried on within the town, but about two miles from it, to the east of the left bank of the Ural, where the caravans from Bokhara and Khiva stop; and a car- avansary, usually called the tauschhof (exchange court), or menovöi-dvor, has been erected, the whole being protected by a camp of Cossacks. In the vicinity of the tauschhof are the immense smelting-houses referred to above, in which, in the course of a summer, the tallow of more than fifty thousand sheep is melted down. The population of Orenburg is about fourteen thousand. PERM (with the governments yet to be described in this chapter, com- prising the Kazan provinces) lies between the fifty-sixth and sixty-second degrees of north latitude, and the fifty-third and sixty-third degrees of east longitude; and is bounded on the northwest and north by Vologda and Tobolsk, on the east by Tobolsk, on the south by Orenburg, and on the west by Viatka. Its greatest length from northwest to southeast is five hundred and twenty miles, and its breadth about four hundred, con- taining an area of one hundred and twenty-seven thousand square miles. This government, being traversed from north to south by the Ural chain, is divided into two unequal portions, a western and an eastern- the for- mer, of course, in Europe, and the latter in Asia. The Asiatic portion, the lesser of the two, belongs to the basin of the Arctic ocean, which receives its waters through tributaries of the Obi. Of these, the most important are the Sosna, Lobva, Tura, Neiva, Irbit, Pishma, and Iset. In the south it contains several lakes, of which the largest is the Majan. The European portion belongs to the basin of the Caspian, with the ex- ception of a small portion in the northwest, drained by the Petchora, and of course belonging, like the eastern portion, to the basin of the Arctic By far the most important river in the European portion is the Kama, which, entering the government on the northwest, proceeds through ocean. لحه EASTERN RUSSIA -PERM. 255 it in a very circuitous direction, receiving numerous tributaries on either bank: of these, the largest are the Vishera, Kosa, Kosva, Obva, and Tchy- sovaia, with its affluent the Silva. From the principal Ural chain, the surface descends in a succession of parallel terraces. On the loftiest summits snow and ice continue for nine months in the year, and hence the climate, naturally rigorous, from its high latitude and inland position, has its rigor greatly increased. Beyond the sixtieth degree, regular culture becomes impossible, and the far greater part of the surface is occupied with forests and marshes. Extensive for- ests also stretch far into the south, and the soil being generally not very fertile, large tracts remain uncleared. The government is rich in minerals, and possesses extensive auriferous tracts, on which vast numbers of the inhabitants are employed in collecting gold, and there are also apparently inexhaustible beds of both iron and salt. The immense quantities of fuel required in order to work these ex- tensively and to advantage, give a great adventitious value to the timber of the forest, and make the surface covered by it of far greater value than it could be in any other form. Game, both large and small, is common in the forests, and many of the inhabitants gain a livelihood by hunting; fish, including both sturgeon and salmon, abound in the rivers. With the exception of several branches of industry immediately connected with the mines, there are few manufactures. The chief are soap, leather, tallow-candles, potash, and glass. The trade derives great facilities from the Kama and other navigable streams, and has acquired some importance. The principal articles are metals, marble, wood, salt, fur, tallow, and tar. Nearly three fourths of the inhabitants are Russians, and belong to the Greek church; the rest consist of Tartars, Tcheremisses, Bashkirs, &c.; and though many of them have nominally embraced Christianity, not a few are Mohammedans, and among others different forms of paganism are said to prevail. The governments of Perm and Kazan are under one military governor. Some exertions have been made to extend education, but the number of scholars to the population is only one in nearly three hundred. For administrative purposes, Perm is divided into twelve circles. The city of Perm, and the capital of this government, is situated on the right bank of the Kama, below the confluence of the Tchysovaia, nine hundred and fifty miles east by south of St. Petersburg. It is built with consider- able regularity, in straight and spacious streets, and is the seat of an arch- bishopric. It has two churches; several other public edifices, surmounted by spires; a gymnasium, theological seminary, a civil and a military hos- pital; extensive copper and iron smelting and refining works, which give employment to the greater part of the population; and a considerable trade with the inland districts. The inhabitants number about ten thousand. Ekaterinburg, Jekaterinenburg, or Yekaterinburg (Catherine's borough), capital of the Ural mining district, is situated on the Asiatic slope of the Ural mountains, in the government of Perm, and one hundred and seventy 256 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. miles southeast of its capital city, on both banks of the Iceth or Iset, at an elevation of nearly nine hundred feet above the sea level. The general external appearance of Ekaterinburg very much resembles that of one of the manufacturing towns of Europe. The streets are long and straight, but unpaved, having, however, planks or logs laid on each side for foot- passengers. The principal street runs parallel with the river, and is inter- sected by numerous smaller streets, leading directly to the bank of the Iset. A number of the houses are of wood, but there are also a great many of stone, built in a handsome and substantial style, and possessing as much internal comfort as exterior elegance. On the southeast bank of the river the buildings are spread over an extensive plain, which is connected with the city by a handsome bridge; these buildings include the government magazines, mills, factories, &c., and enclose an extensive square or mar- ket-place. The principal part of the town, however, is on the opposite side. Here the streets are spacious and elegant, and the stone edifices, the habitations of merchants and mine-proprietors, exceedingly handsome. In this quar- ter there are a public granary, a public sale-room, a convent, and several churches. The cutting, polishing, and engraving of precious stones, forms a princi- pal branch of industry in Ekaterinburg, and the art is here brought to the greatest perfection. Men, women, and children, are met with at every step, offering bargains of these tempting valuables, consisting chiefly of topazes, amethysts, crystals, jasper, &c. "The greatest neatness," says Mr. Erman, "is observable in the dwellings of those who work in these gems, who, even when in possession of considerable wealth, retain their native simplicity of dress and manners." The in-door dress of the women is the ancient sarafan, and a covering for the head, called a kakoshnik, having a broad, staring border, and sometimes covered with jewels. This head-dress is worn by married women alone; long, plaited tresses forming the distinction of the unmarried, who do not cover the head. The young men delight in flowing locks. Ekaterinburg was founded by Peter the Great, in 1723, and named in honor of his empress, Catherine I. It is regularly fortified, and, being sit- uated on the great road leading from Perm to Tobolsk, is regarded as the key of Siberia. Parties of exiles frequently pass through the town, num- bering annually, it is stated, about five thousand. The women are gener- ally in wagons; the men following, in couples, on foot. The population is from fifteen to eighteen thousand. The government of VIATKA lies between the fifty-sixth and sixtieth de- grees of north latitude, and the forty-sixth and fifty-fourth degrees of east longitude, having the government of Vologda on the north, Perm on the east, Orenburg and Kazan on the south, and Nijnei-Novgorod and Kostro- ma on the west. It contains about fifty-three thousand square miles. EASTERN RUSSIA 257 VIATKA. The slope of the country is toward the west and south, in which direc tions the Viatka, a tributary of the Volga, flows, traversing the govern- ment nearly in its centre. The Kama, which forms part of its eastern and southern boundaries, also rises in this government. The surface is gener- ally undulating, and even mountainous toward the east, where it consists of the lower Uralian ranges. The soil is mostly good, though encumbered in parts with extensive marshes. The climate is severe in winter, but not usually unhealthy. Agriculture is the principal occupation of the inhabitants, particularly along the banks of the large rivers; and in ordinary years more grain is grown than is required for home consumption. Rye, barley, and oats, are the principal grains; very little wheat is raised, but peas, lentils, and buck- wheat, are grown, with large quantities of hemp and flax. The surplus produce goes chiefly to the northern provinces of the empire. Potatoes are not much cultivated. Fruit is not plentiful; apples scarcely ripen. The forests are very extensive: they consist mostly of firs, intermixed with oak, elm, alder, lime, birch, and other trees. Cattle-breeding, though a secondary branch of indus.ry, is still of importance; and a good many small but robust horses are reared. Sheep are few. Furs, tar, iron, and copper, are among the chief products. 4 Manufactures, though not extensive, appear to be on the increase there are factories for woollen cloths, linen and cotton stuffs, paper, soap, pot- ash, copper and iron wares, &c., employing eight or ten thousand hands. About two million yards of woollen (and perhaps nearly double that quan- tity of linen) cloth are supposed to be annually made in the houses of the peasantry; and large quantities of spirits are distilled. Near Sarapoul is an extensive manufactory of arms; and at Votka, anchors, gun-carriages, and iron machinery of various kinds, are made on a large scale. The gov- ernment exports grain, flax, linseed, honey, tallow, leather, furs, silk goods, iron, and copper, to Archangel, and grain and timber to Saratov and As- trakhan. It receives manufactured goods from Moscow and Nijnei-Novgo- rod, tea from Irbit, and salt from Perm. Viatka, the capital, is the great emporium of the trade. The government is subdivided into eleven districts. Viatka, Slobodoskoi, Malmych, and Sarapoul, are the chief towns. The inhabitants consist of various races-Russians, Votiaks (of a Fin- nish stock, and from whom the province has its name), Tartars, Bashkirs, Teptiars, &c., professing many different religions. The Mohammedans are estimated at about fifty thousand, and the Shamanists and idolators at some three or four thousand. In 1831, there were only nine public schools, in which about eleven hundred and fifty pupils were receiving instruction; but the number has since materially increased. This government is united under the same governor-general with Kazan; but the Tartars and Finns are subordinate to the jurisdiction of their own chiefs. Viatka, the capital of this government, is situated on the river of that name, near the confluence of the Teheptsa, two hundred and thirty miles · 17 258 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. west by north of Perm, and two hundred and fifty northeast of Nijnei-Nov- gorod. Its population is about eight thousand. It has several churches. of stone, one of which, the cathedral, has a silver altar with bas-reliefs, and cost one hundred and thirty thousand roubles. Here are numerous convents, with an episcopal seminary, gymnasium, and high-school, founded in 1829. The city was annexed to the Russian dominions by the grand- duke Vassili-Ivanovich, about the middle of the sixteenth century. The government of SIMBIRSK lies on both sides of the Volga, between the fifty-third and fifty-sixth degrees of north latitude, and the forty-fifth and fifty-first degrees of east longitude; having on the north the government of Kazan, on the east that of Orenburg, on the south Saratov, and on the west Penza and Nijnei-Novgorod. It contains an area of about twenty-four thousand square miles. It consists mostly of a gently-undulating plain, having a black and gen- erally very fertile soil. The Volga passes through this government, and near its southern border it takes a bend to the eastward for a distance of a hundred and twenty miles, enclosing a mountainous peninsula, and form- ing an isthmus only nine miles across. The view on the opposite page shows the majestic Volga at this point. The river is here two miles wide, rapid and deep, and, for the first time, its left bank entirely changes its character: rising to a height of seven or eight hundred feet, the beetling crags overhang the mighty stream, and give an unusual boldness to the scene. Indeed, nowhere does the Volga, throughout its entire length, afford such striking views as are presented at this divergence. Besides the Volga, the province is watered by the Sura and other afflu- ents of the former. The climate is in extremes, the summer being very hot, and the winter equally cold. The Volga is annually frozen over for about five months. Rye, wheat, and other grain, are raised in quantities more than sufficient for home consumption. Hemp is largely cultivated, with flax, tobacco, poppies, &c. Except among the Calmucks, the rearing of cattle is not much attended to. In the north, the forests are abundant. Distilleries are numerous, the Russian grain-brandy being made here to perfection; and besides the coarse goods manufactured by the peasants, there are establishments for the manufacture of cloth, coarse linen and canvass, and coverlets, with glass-works, soap-works, candle-works, &c. Simbirsk, the capital of this government, is situated on an isthmus be- tween the Volga and the Sviaga. For a place of nearly twenty thousand inhabitants, it wears a mean and insignificant appearence-its situation, indeed, being its chief recommendation. It stands partly on an eminence, which commands a fine prospect, and partly on a plain. From the terrace, near the governor's house, a magnificent and expansive view is obtained over the basin of the Volga, which here spreads itself in narrow channels through the low land, beyond which the high hills of the Jigoulee bound the prospect to the south, while in every other direction the steppes seem EASTERN RUSSIA- SIMBIRSK—SAMARA. 259 VIEW ON THE VOLGA AT SIMBIRSK-THE JIGOULEE illimitable. Immediately at your feet are cottages and gardens, and on the opposite bank of the river are some large villages. The white sails of many pashaliks, glistening on the broad surface of the stream, and the occasional passing of a steamer, complete a charming picture. The streets of Simbirsk are broad and straight. The houses are mostly of wood, but neat and commodious inside. There are numerous churches, which, with one exception, are all of stone, and two convents. Near the terrace before alluded to, and in the centre of a square from which the principal streets diverge, stands a statue of Karamsin, the celebrated Rus- sian historian. The town is in. a fertile country; and, besides large quan- tities of grain, exports the produce of the fisheries on the Volga. There is an annual horse-fair held here; and the place is a good deal resorted to by the surrounding nobility. The new government of SAMARA, as before remarked, has been formed out of three districts of the government of Orenburg, two districts of Sara- atov, and of the districts of Samara and Stavropol in Simbirsk. It com- prises an area of nearly forty thousand square miles, and its population • may be estimated at about one million, six hundred thousand. The capital of the government is the city of Samara, situated at the con- fluence of the Samara with the Volga, five hundred and fifty miles east- southeast of Moscow. It contains two wooden and three stone churches; has manufactures of leather and soap; and carries on an extensive trade. The town is built on a sloping bank, is growing with great rapidity, and already numbers a population of fifteen or twenty thousand. It is said to be the busiest port on the Volga. Backed by an immense grain-growing country, it supplies a great part of the interior of Russia with wheat. No less than nine millions of poods are shipped here annually, and carried down either to Astrakhan, and so across the Caspian, or, on the backs of 260 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. camels, from Orenburg to the adjacent countries; or conveyed by water to St. Petersburg. Much of the sudden growth and prosperity of the city is doubtless owing to the introduction of steam-navigation on the Volga. At the great annual fair held here, the numerous races assembled at it are said to be even more diversified than at Nijnei-Novgorod. · Situated only about two hundred and fifty miles from the Asiatic frontier, a large trade is carried on with the inhabitants of those distant steppes, who flock hither in great numbers, the representatives of each tribe wearing a differ- ent costume. The rapid increase of the population of this town is but in accordance with the prospering condition of the new government of which it forms the capital. There is not a more highly-favored region through- out the whole Russian empire than Samara; and those inhabitants of the neighboring districts, who, belonging to the crown, have been allowed to migrate to this land of plenty, have done so to such an extent, that the population has doubled itself within the last few years. Where the Volga, more capricious than usual, reaches the most easterly point of its whole course, the city of Samara has sprung up; and, forming a sort of port for the town of Orenburg, which is situated on the Tartar frontier, it helps to connect the distant regions beyond with the Cis-Volgan countries, and thus, as it were, completes the last link of European civilization in this direction. The government of PENZA lies principally between the fifty-third and fifty-fifth degrees of north latitude, and the forty-second and forty-seventh degrees of east longitude; having the government of Nijnei-Novgorod on the north, Tambov on the west, Saratov on the south, and Simbirsk on the east. Its greatest length from east to west is one hundred and seventy miles, and its greatest breadth one hundred and forty-five, comprising an area of about fourteen thousand square miles. As a whole, this province is an extensive flat, somewhat monotonous, but occasionally intersected by small hills, which in the southwest form the water-shed between the basins of the Volga and the Don. To the latter basin only a very small portion of the government, drained by the Khoper and its tributary the Vorona, belongs; the affluents of the Volga are the Soura, Insara Isa, Moksha, Vad, and Vicha. The climate is mild and salubrious, though the winter cold is occasionally severe. The soil is fertile, and well adapted for raising all kinds of grain and roots. Hemp and flax are extensively cultivated, and tobacco and hops occasionally grown. The principal fruits are apples, pears, and cherries. The forests are extensive, and consist chiefly of beech, oak, birch, and alder. Considerable attention is paid to the rearing of cattle, particularly horses, of which several good breeding-studs are kept. The rearing of bees is so general as to form one of the most important branches of rural economy. All kinds of game abound, but fish are very scarce. The prin- cipal mineral is iron, of which valuable mines are worked in the vicinity EASTERN RUSSIA PENZA KAZAN. 261 of Troitsk. Millstones are also quarried extensively. The manufactures are chiefly confined to the cottages of the peasantry, where great quanti- ties of flax and wool are spun, and coarse stuffs woven; but there are sev- eral blast-furnaces and other iron-works, soap-works, glass-works, sugar- refineries, tanneries, and, above all, distilleries, which are both numerous and on a large scale. The chief exports are grain, flour, brandy, leather, soap, wax, honey, potash, wool, and timber. Education, nominally under the superintendence of the university of Kazan, is miserably neglected; and the only printing-press in the government belongs to the crown. Penza, the capital of this government, is situated on a height near the junction of the Penza and Soura, two hundred and ten miles south-south- east of Nijnei-Novgorod. It is meanly built of wood, with the exception of the cathedral, which is of stone. Besides the cathedral, there are eleven parish-churches. The principal manufactures are leather and soap, and in these a considerable trade is carried on. Penza is the residence of the governor; the see of a bishop conjoined with Saratov; and possesses sev- · eral courts of justice, a theological seminary, and a gymnasium. The pop- ulation is about twelve thousand. The government of KAZAN comprises that portion of the territory of the former kingdom which lies between the fifty-fourth and fifty-seventh degrees of north latitude, and the forty-sixth and fifty-second degrees of east lon- gitude; and is bounded on the north by the government of Viatka, east by Orenburg, south by Simbirsk, and west by Nijnei-Novgorod. Its average length is two hundred and fifteen miles, and its breadth one hundred and twenty-five, containing an area of about twenty-three thousand five hun- dred square miles. On entering the government from the west, the ground descends at first gradually, but afterward more rapidly, almost to the level of the Volga, and spreads into a plain clothed with the richest green, intersecting an ele- vated plateau on the right bank of the Volga, and terminating three or four miles toward the east in a range of hills. From this point, the ground on the left bank of the Volga rises rapidly, and strikingly contrasts with the low plains on the opposite side. The summit of this table-land is cov- ered with well-grown oaks, which form the commencement of an exten- sive forest. Many of the hills consist of a brilliant-white, slaty limestone, the strata of which have a considerable dip, and are occasionally pierced by natural passages, one of which, about two hundred and thirty feet in length, terminates in an alabaster cavern sixty feet wide. Though the surface is thus occasionally diversified by hills, and a low branch of the Ural mountains comes in upon the southeast, the general appearance is that of an extensive plain, watered by large navigable rivers. The Volga, proceeding from the west, winds along in a tortuous course for nearly a hundred and fifty miles; the Kama, from the east, after flow- ing nearly one hundred miles, joins the Volga, whose united streams, occu- 262 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. pying a channel nearly eight hundred yards wide, proceed south. In ad- dition to these, are numerous smaller tributaries and lakes, which, though individually not of large extent, are scattered throughout the district. The climate, on the whole, is mild. The winter is keen, but not protracted. Both spring and summer are usually serene, and in autumn all the vegeta- ble productions of the same latitude come freely to perfection. Among others, apples, pears, cherries, plums, and apricots, abound. Agriculture is extensively carried on, but not in a very perfect manner. In some parts, however, the Tartars seem to be careful husbandmen, and are particularly attentive to the harvesting of their grain. Hemp is grown to a great extent, and of excellent quality; and the oil obtained from its seeds, and from a kind of pistachio-nut which abounds, forms an important article of commerce. Flax, in both quantity and quality, is deficient. The inhabitants generally seem fond of horticulture. Almost every cot- tage has its garden, and patches of tobacco are often seen, particularly in the neighborhood of the Tartars, who raise it for their own use. The rear- ing of cattle forms a profitable employment in the meadows and pastures of the rich flats which border the numerous streams. There, also, much attention is paid to the dairy; the cows yielding a rich milk, of which large quantities of butter and cheese are made. The Russians form nearly a half of the whole population. The greater part of the remainder are Tartars, Cheremisses, and Chuvasses. The Cheremisses, who are most numerous in the western part of the province, are much smaller and weaker than the Russian peasantry, and are charac- terized by a peculiar shyness of both look and demeanor. Their dress, which is the same for both sexes, consists of white linen trousers, and an upper garment of the same material, fastened round the loins with a girdle, and generally embroidered in various colors on the breast and shoulders. Strips of cloth, which they wind round the leg, from the foot to the knee, are always black. Both men and women allow their long, black hair to hang about them in the wildest disorder. A. ROBERTS. SO. CHUVASSES OF Kazan. The dress of the Chuvasses very much resembles that of the Chere- misses, the chief difference being in the females, who wear a plate of copper hanging from the girdle behind, and strung with all kinds of metallic ornaments, which keep tinkling as they walk; while from their necks are suspended large sil- ver breastplates, about eight inch- es long and six broad, formed of coins. The men wear high black hats, tapering to the middle, but wide at the top and bottom, like an hour-glass. The above engraving EASTERN RUSSIA-KAZAN. 263 represents some of these singular people bearing fuel at a wood-station on the Volga. The Chuvasses are remarkable for timidity. This quality, which the first accounts of them mention as their most striking feature, seems still, notwithstanding their long intercourse with Russia, to continue unimpaired. They, as well as the Cheremisses, Votiaks, and other tribes, are supposed to have sprung from a combination of the Finnish and Mon- golian races, but they far more nearly resemble the latter. In the neighborhood of the city of Kazan the Tartars predominate, and are easily distinguished from the Russians by the dark color of their lean, muscular, and, as it were, angular visage; by the close-fitting cap on their closely-shaved skull; and a certain smartness of gait and demeanor. They have made considerable progress in civilization, and often contrast favora- bly with the Russian peasantry. The inhabitants of the government, generally, are active and industrious. Besides agriculture and wood-cutting, fishing in the numerous lakes and rivers of the district is a profitable occu- pation, and employs a great number of hands. The province, moreover, posses- ses numerous manufactures, the inhabit- ants excelling in leather-embroidery, and has an extensive trade, both internal and external, which the large navigable rivers greatly facilitate. Indeed, boat and barge building, for the traffic of the Volga, ist not an unimportant branch of trade. The city of Kazan, the ancient capital of the Tartar khans, and, next to St. Pe- LEATHER GLOVES AND WOODEN SPOON. tersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, and perhaps Odessa, the most important city in the empire, is situated between the left bank of the Kasanka (about four miles above where it empties into the Volga) and its tributary the Bulak, occupying a tongue of land which gradually rises like an island to a considerable height above low plains subject to inundation. It is four hundred and sixty miles east of Moscow. Kazan covers a space nearly six miles in circuit, and consists, like most other Russian cities, of three parts-the Kremlin, or fortress, on a con- siderable eminence; the town, properly so called; and the slobodes, or suburbs, inhabited principally by the Tartar population. The town is well built, and has broad and spacious squares and market-places; but in the suburbs the houses are principally of wood, and the streets, not being paved, are consequently in spring and autumn so wet and muddy as to be almost impassable to pedestrians. The greater part of the Tartar houses are built of wood, two stories high. Some, however, are of brick. The lower story of each serves for a barn, storehouse, &c., or is let for hire; the upper floor is inhabited by the owner. There is neither porch nor portico in front, the entrance to 264 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ROBERTSISE. INTERIOR Of a Tartar HOUSE. the premises being through a gate, leading into gardens with which each house is surrounded. The above engraving shows the interior of one of the Tartar houses of the meaner class. On the left hand is constructed the petch, or fireplace, which serves for warming the room, and for culi- nary purposes. The Tartars of Kazan are in general well formed and handsome; their eyes are black or gray; they have a keen, piercing look, a rather length- ened form of face, a long nose, lips somewhat thicker than those of Euro- peans, a black beard, carefully trimmed, and the hair entirely shaven from the head, which is covered with a small cap, called a tebeteika; their ears are large, and standing out from the head; they have a long neck, very wide shoulders, and a broad chest-such is the description Dr. Fouks gives of their form and physiognomy. They are, moreover, tall and erect; and their gait is manly and imposing. The doctor remarks that whenever he entered a Tartar mosque he was always struck with the fine and noble features of their elders, and he asserts his belief that the ancient Italian artists might have chosen from among this race most admirable subjects for their sacred pictures. He is not so favorable, however, in his descrip- tion of the Tartar women. He does not consider them good-looking; but then he had an opportunity of seeing only the wives and daughters of the poorer classes. In general, the Tartar women are middle-sized, and rather stout; like the men, they stand erect, but walk badly and awkwardly, a circumstance principally owing to the heavy dress they wear. They soon grow old-so much so, that a woman of twenty-seven has the look of one of forty: this is owing to the custom they have of painting their faces. Their complexion is rather yellow, and their faces are often covered with pimples and a rash, which proceeds partly from the habit of constantly lying on feather-beds, and partly from their heavy and over-warm clothing. The same authority, in a few words, thus describes the character of this race: “They are proud, ambitious, hospitable, fond of money, cleanly, tol- erably civilized (taking all things into consideration), intelligent in com- } 1:.. ROBERTY KAZAN, BEFORE THE CONFLAGRATION OF 1842. E EASTERN RUSSIA – KAZAN. 267 merce, inclined to boasting, friendly to each other, sober in every way, and 'very industrious." What is particularly striking is the tenacity with which the Tartars here, as elsewhere throughout the empire, have retained their national characteristics, customs, and manners, although nearly, three cen- turies have elapsed since this race was subdued by the Russians. The dress of the Tartars of Kazan of the better class is so different from that of every other nation, that it deserves a description. They wear a shirt (koulmiack) made of calico,,sometimes white, sometimes red; their drawers (schtann) are worn very wide, and are made likewise of calico, or occasionally of silk; their stockings, called youk, are of cotton or linen. A species of leather stockings, generally of Morocco-leather, called 'itchigi, red or yellow, are worn over the stockings, or sometimes are substituted. for them. Their slippers, called kalout, are made of black or green leather. Over the shirt they wear two garments, somewhat in the shape of a Euro- pean frock-coat without a collar: the under one, having no sleeves, is made of silk; the upper, with sleeves likewise of silk, is called kasaki. Over these they wear a long, wide robe, generally of blue cloth, called tchekmen, which is attached to the body by a scarf (poda). In a pocket of this gar- ment they keep their pocket-handkerchief, called tchaoulok. Their heads, which are shaven to the skin, are covered with a species of skullcap, called takia: this is covered, when they go out, with a hat (bourick) made of velvet or cloth, and ornamented with fur: the rich Tartars use for this purpose beaver-skins of great value. The Tartars get their heads shaved every fortnight, and trim their beards once a week; once a week they go to the bath. A very singular predilection exists among the lower classes—that of finding pleasure in being bled. This luxury they enjoy at least once a year; the spring is generally chosen for the enjoyment. A barber of Kazan (for it is the barbers who bleed there, as they did formerly in England and other parts of Europe) assured Turnerelli that he had let blood for upward of five hundred Tartars in one day, each of whom had paid him from fifty copecks to a rouble for the op- eration. He had in this manner earned upward of one hundred dollars for blood-letting alone! This was indeed profiting by the bloodshed of his fellow-creatures. The costume of the Tartar women of the higher classes is very rich and elegant. They wear a species of robe of rich thick silk or satin, the sleeves being very large and long, sometimes even falling as low as the ground; the upper part of these robes is embroidered in front with gold. Over this they wear a kind of capote, very wide, and generally made of gold brocade or some similar stuff gorgeously embroidered. They wear on their head a silk cap bordered with fur, which hangs down on one side and ends in a point having a golden tassel attached to it; this cap is also sometimes adorned with precious stones, and ancient gold and silver coins. Their hair falls behind in long tresses, the ends of which are tied up with bows of ribands. Sometimes these tresses are covered with long bands, to which 268 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. are attached various coins and ornaments. The Tartar women wear, more- over, a profusion of pearls, necklaces, gold and silver bracelets, finger- rings, ear-rings, chains, &c. The dress of one lady of rank, including her jewelry, sometimes costs not less than two thousand dollars! The Tartar women, as in all Mohammedan countries, are kept secluded in the houses and harems of their husbands and parents. They are allowed to remove their thick veils in their bedrooms alone: not their husbands' brothers, nor even their own uncles and cousins, are permitted to behold their features. They perform no labor of any sort, the concerns of the household being confided to old women and male attendants; the younger females having nothing to do but to dress, eat, drink, sleep, and please their husbands. They marry very early, sometimes in their twelfth year! A rich Tartar woman has hardly left her bed, when she begins her daily task of painting her face red and white; then she clothes herself in her gaudy vestments of gold and silver texture, and puts on her various orna- ments; and then throws herself on the soft Turkish sofa, on which she lies almost buried. The somovar (tea-urn) is then brought her. She makes the tea herself, and drinks cup after cup of it until the perspiration flows down her face, washing away at the same time all the paint with which she had adorned her face; this necessarily requires two more hours at the toilet, when she is ready for her breakfast, which consists of a variety of greasy dishes. This over, she again throws herself on the sofa, and re- mains there, half-sleeping, half-waking, till a female friend probably drops in to see her, upon which the somovar again makes its appearance, and our fair Tartar drinks again as much tea as she did in the morning—to say the least, not less than seven or eight cups. The harmony of her face is again destroyed by the copious flow of perspiration that ensues, and she is forced to paint her face afresh, in order to appear at dinner in all her charms in the presence of her husband. After dinner, tea is once more presented indeed, this beverage seems indispensable to the Tartars; they affirm that it is absolutely necessary to drink it, in order to facilitate diges- tion after their meals, and Dr. Fouks states that they eat three times as much as the Russians. Having partaken a third time of tea to her heart's content, our Tartar lady then enjoys a nap. On awaking, she sometimes takes it into her head to go and pay a visit to some female friend: for this purpose she changes the dress she wore in the morning for a stlll more expensive one; she then gets into a square, prison-like, two-horse carriage, and arrives at the house of her acquaintance, where, completely buried in the thick veils which cover her head and face, she makes her way to the apartment of her friends, scarcely daring to show the point of her nose as she passes along. The Tartar women of the richer class do not even enjoy the privilege of breathing the fresh air. They dare not go into their small gardens without covering themselves from head to foot, lest they should meet one of their male relations living in the same house! They hardly dare to look from their windows into the street, lest they should be seen EASTERN RUSSIA - KAZAN. 269 by some passer-by. Such is the life of the higher class of Tartar women. Monotonous and tedious as it is, they do not, however, complain, nor even find it painful: on the contrary, they look upon the mode of living among European women as sinful in the extreme; they believe that a European female will never go to heaven, and give thanks to God that he created them Mohammedans ! THE KREMLIN OF KAZAN. The citadel or kremlin of Kazan presents a very picturesque appearance. It is still surrounded by a stone-wall of great height, which was built by the Tartars, and is flanked by fourteen towers. There were also, at the period of the Tartar dominion, twelve different entrances; these have been reduced to three. One of them, the Spaskie vorota ("Gateway of the Savior"), passes through the lower portion of an ancient and curious tower, which has a claim to notice from the originality of its architecture. The interior of this tower has been recently converted into a military church, and is the fashionable place of prayer. Above the gateway is suspended a miraculous image of the Savior, before which hangs a silver lamp, lighted on holydays and days of devotion. Near the Spaskie vorota stands a small yet singularly-constructed church, dedicated to St. Cyprian and St. Justin. It was founded by Ivan the Ter- rible, on the very day that Kazan fell into the power of the Russians: Prince Kourbsky, in his annals, informs us that it was commenced in the morning, and finished before the setting of the sun. It formerly possessed several objects of antiquity, but these were consumed by one of the fires to which Kazan has been subjected. Beside this church rises the monastery of the Transfiguration, founded a few years later, and, which is held in great veneration by the Russians, in consequence of its having been the place of interment of a certain saint called Varsanofia, who was likewise the first abbot of this monastery. It has several times been ravaged by the flames; and at the period when the 4 270 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. rebel Pougatcheff laid siege to the fortress, it was almost entirely de- stroyed. Opposite this convent is situated the Etat Major and the mili- tary prison. The Cathedral of the Annunciation, a vast and imposing edifice, is the archiepiscopal seat of the diocese of Kazan. The architecture of this church, which is of the Byzantine order, is exceedingly curious; its belfry, in particular, presents an extraordinary appearance. This cathedral was built in the year 1561, according to a plan furnished by Ivan the Terrible. From the year 1596 to 1742, it was four times entirely consumed by the flames; and in one of these fires, that of 1672, not only was the church destroyed, but even the colossal bells were melted down by the fury of the conflagration. Most of the precious objects that were formerly to be found here have also been consumed at different periods-among the rest, the books of divine service, presented by Ivan IV.; the pontifical robes and ornaments, and several bells, gifts of the same sovereign; the autograph letters of St. Goury to Herrman, abbot of the monastery of Sviask, and numerous other relics and antiquities. At the present day, however, may be seen, among other curiosities, a gospel in manuscript, the only one of the books given by the czar Ivan that has been saved from the flames. In this cathedral, according to the annals of Kazan, was at one time likewise preserved a nail of the holy cross! Among the remains of Tartar architecture in the kremlin is that extraor- dinary structure the tower of Souyounbecka, or Sumbeka, which rises in the western portion of the fortress, near one of the gates at which the Rus- sians began the attack when they laid siege to the tower. The beauty of its architecture, the gracefulness of its form, and its perfect construction, can with difficulty be imagined by those who have not seen it. It is of a square shape, and composed of several stories, which gradually diminish in size toward the top; the last has a sharp, steeple-like form, ending in a point. It may be seen on the left in the foregoing view of the Kremlin. From the extremity of this lengthened cone rises an arrow of brass, which supports the Russian eagle placed above two crescents-an emblem of the history and fate of this town. Above the eagle is affixed a gilded globe, which is supposed by many to be of pure and solid gold. The Tartars attach a particular interest to this globe, for they suppose that it contains precious documents which relate to their liberty and religion. This tower is built of bricks, strongly joined together by a very compact and firm kind of mortar, which is doubtless the reason that this edifice has suffered so little from the ravages of time and the severity of the climate. It is two hundred and forty-five feet high: a staircase, formed in the interior, leads to its different stories; but the dilapidated state in which it now is, renders it very difficult, and even dangerous, to ascend. Close to this tower, and joined to it by a wall, is another building like the former, square, and of very considerable dimensions, the second story of which is surrounded by a vaulted gallery resembling the aisles of a EASTERN RUSSIA — KAZAN. 271 Gothic church. This edifice is likewise built of bricks: as its architecture resembles that of the tower, and is completely Asiatic in style, the period of its construction is evidently the same; there is no doubt that it served for a palace, or some similar building. This edifice and the adjoining tower have been perpetually the subject of dispute and discussion to learned antiquarians. Some, averse to every tradition that bears a tinge of romance and poetry, pretend that the popu- lar opinion, which states that the tower and palace existed before the con- quest of Kazan, is founded on error; and they assure us that the czar Ivan, after the taking of this town in 1552, built these two edifices as monuments of his victory and the downfall of the Tartars. Others suppose, on the contrary, that these ruins are a portion of the celebrated palace of the ancient khans: they say that the beautiful and unfortunate Sumbeka, whose name the tower bears, concealed therein her youthful husband, to protect him from the hatred of the Kazan grandees, who subsequently assassinated him. It was also on the tomb of this prince that, by order of the czar, the unfortunate Sumbeka was delivered up as a prisoner to the Russians. Such is the tradition commonly believed by the people, the truth of which is, moreover, corroborated by several authors who have written on the subject. The "Convent of our Lady of Kazan" is situated on a consid- erable eminence, and forms one of the most prominent buildings of the city. It contains two large churches: one for winter service, heated by the aid of ovens; and another, larger in its dimensions, for the summer months. The ar- chitecture of the latter is noted for its simple style, which gives it a grave and imposing appear- ance. The convent stands apart from the church; it is a large, plain building, with nothing re- markable in its construction. Its inmates are limited to fifty, ex- clusive of numerous novices. Many of the other churches contain specimens of an architec- ture even more elaborate than those of Moscow. Among them may be named, as remarkable ed- 1982 KIE SEE INTE CATHEDRAL OF NIKOLSKOi, at Kazan. ifices, the cathedral of Nikolskoï, and that of Peter and Paul, more modern than the first named. The city has in all about thirty-five churches, nine 272 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. convents, and sixteen mosques. Among the convents, the monastery of St. John the Baptist is an extensive edifice of an imposing aspect. In the middle town, which adjoins the kremlin, the grand appearance of some of the private houses, and the great extent of the bazar or gostinöi dvor, attest the high importance of Kazan at an early period. The bazar is surrounded by lofty buildings, chiefly of stone; and exhibits an immense. quantity of furs piled up in the fur-stalls; an endless variety of vegetable productions and fruits, both green and dried; and great supplies of fish, brought from the different provinces bordering on the Volga. The chief object of interest in the lower town is the university, built of white hewn stone, and its principal fronts adorned with Corinthian columns. It was founded to be a school of modern civilization, in a semi-barbarous district, and well fulfils its purpose. Besides the different branches of natural science, the study of eastern languages is carried on at the very source; while that of national history is encouraged, not only by the pecu- liar character of the library, but also by a remarkably rich collection of Russian and Tartar coins. In addition to the usual branches of manufacture, Kazan has some which are peculiar to itself. One is the preparation and staining of Russia-leather, a business in which the Tartars are particularly expert; and another, the making of a particular kind of soap, called muclo, which, cut into small pieces, and packed in boxes, is sent over all Russia. The town is well situated for a transit trade, carrying the manufactures of Europe north and east into Asia, and bartering them for the peculiar productions of those regions. In this way, particularly by the trade in furs and tea, many of its merchants are said to have accumulated great wealth. Kazan annually undergoes an extraordinary change, about the last of April, owing to the inundation of the Volga, which, swollen by the vast quantity of melted snow pouring into its channel, overflows its banks, dis- charging its waters in every direction over the level plains in its vicinity. The inundation in the neighborhood of the city often covers a space of from twenty to thirty miles. Although travellers suffer no small degree of inconvenience from this flood, the inhabitants of the banks of the Volga derive from it considerable advantages: to Kazan it becomes a rich source of prosperity, from the facility it affords of transporting the different prod- ucts of the province. The aspect of the town at this period is imposing and magnificent. Its numerous churches, with their gilded domes and lofty belfries; the Tartar mosques with their minarets, surrounded by glittering crescents: in fine, a thousand singular structures, of every form and color, seem to be grow- ing out of the immense sheet of water which lies around them. About the end of May, the inundation, which lasts for nearly a month, begins to subside. The waters are not long in disappearing. The earth they covered becomes muddy and slimy after their departure, but a burn- ing sun soon restores it to its former state. The grass springs up in the EASTERN RUSSIA-KAZAN. 273 plains, which for a short time look fresh and green; but this verdure lasts only as long as the earth remains damp from the effects of the inundation, and in a few days these plains become arid and parched, as is their wont. The town itself—which, in consequence of the thawing of the snow and the unfirm nature of the soil, becomes a perfect bog, in which the horses plunge to their very haunches-now experiences a change still more in- supportable. The mud, dried up by the heat of the sun, is succeeded by dense clouds of dust, which sweep through the streets of the town, depri- ving the unfortunate pedestrian of the means of breathing, and rendering his clothes as white and powdered as those of a miller. Then, to avoid being suffocated by the heat and dust, the greatest part of the inhabitants make a precipitate retreat from the town-the landholders to their estates, and the lack-landers to those of their friends whose hospitality affords them a refuge from the sensible calamity of a sojourn in town during this unpro- pitious and unhealthy period. The first foundation of the city of Kazan took place about the year 1265. Tradition gives the following singular account of its origin and of its name: Batou, or Batyï (the name is written in both ways by learned orientalists), a celebrated khan of the Golden Horde, about the middle of the thirteenth century, was in the habit of frequenting this valley, to enjoy his favorite amusement of hunting wild beasts, with which, according to the statement of certain historians, this country was at that time terribly infested, and also with serpents of enormous size. It was on the banks of the river called at the present day the Kazanka, and on the spot where the kremlin of Kazan now stands, that the repast of the sovereign and his companions was prepared in a large caldron, according to the custom of the nomadic tribes. On one occasion, however, one of the attendants charged with this culinary office, while occupied in filling the caldron with water, let fall the precious utensil, which was not long in sinking to the bottom of the river. The good khan Batou and his hungry comrades were deeply chagrined, when, in consequence of the utter solitude of the spot, which precluded all possibility of replacing the lost utensil, they found themselves reduced to the disagreeable necessity of going without a dinner on that ill-omened day. The impression created by that involuntary fast on the minds of these hungry disciples of Nimrod was so powerful, that thenceforward the river, which had been the cause of this painful privation, received from them the soubriquet of "Kazan," or the "River of the Caldron." Some time after, the idea having occurred to Batou of founding a city on the banks of that stream, he conferred the name of the river on the town. With regard to the word Kazanka, which designates at the present day the river that flows at the foot of the kremlin, it is evident that its termi- native syllable, ka, is a corruption of the original name, which the Rus- sians adapted to the character of their language, subsequent to their con- quest of the country. Kazan soon became a rich and flourishing town. About a hundred and 18 274 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. forty years after its foundation, it was besieged, for the first time, by Yury Dmitrievitch, brother to the grand-duke of Moscow. The town, after a protracted and desperate defence, fell into the hands of the invader, who quitted not the spot till he had razed every structure it contained to the earth. Its inhabitants were cruelly massacred. Kazan remained during forty succeeding years a wilderness. The second founder of Kazan was the unfortunate Oulou Makhmet, khan of the Golden Horde, who had been driven from his dominions by the Yediguai Saltana, a Tartar prince of Jaick. Makhmet, who had, accord- ing to the annalists, eighty-three sons, and almost as many wives, after wandering from desert to desert with his family and followers, finally set- tled on a spot not far from the ruins of the desolated town of Kazan. He did not, however, remain there long, but removed to a place about forty miles distant, where he founded the present city. This event marks the period of its second foundation, which took place in the year 1445. Kazan remained in the hands of the Tartars till about 1465, when it again fell into the possession of the Russians, Ivan III. succeeding in its reduction after two severe campaigns. But the Tartars were unsubdued, and in 1552 again took up arms against the Russians. They were once more reduced by Ivan the Terrible, who attacked Kazan at the head of a numerous army. For six weeks they made a vigorous resistance; but the city was ultimately taken, scarcely any of its valiant defenders surviving the event. By this capture of Kazan the Russian dominion was perma- nently established over the territory of the lower Volga. When Batou, the original founder of Kazan, bestowed on this town the ominous title of the "Town of the Caldron," he seemed as it were to have devoted it to the devouring element, which so often since that period has reduced it to ashes. Probably the history of no town ever afforded a suc- cession of such terrible conflagrations as that of Kazan. During the Tartar dominion we learn from its annals that it was several times devastated by fire-partly arising from accident, partly from the fury of enemies who besieged it. Subsequent to its falling under the Russian sway, at nine distant periods the flames have ravaged this unfortunate town. These fires, which seemed to increase in their fury and the extent of their rav- ages at every fresh occurrence, form nine remarkable and fearful epochs in the history of Kazan. The first, which occurred in the year 1595, consumed the greatest part of the town, and all the most remarkable buildings in the kremlin. The second fire, 1672, broke out in that part of Kazan near the kremlin. All the churches it contained fell a prey to the flames; and four colossal bells, which were sent from Moscow by Vassili-Ivanovitch, and which were suspended in the belfry belonging to the cathedral, were totally melted down by the violence of the conflagration. The third, 1694, ravaged nearly a mile in circumference of the town. The gostinöi dvor, with its numerous shops and magazines, six monasteries, EASTERN RUSSIA 275 KAZAN. several churches and streets, and the suburbs known by the names of the Zaseepkin, Krasnaya, and Feodoroffskaya, were reduced to ruins. The fourth, 1742, broke out in the middle of the night, burnt a very considerable portion of, the town, consumed some twenty churches and as many monasteries, and once more ravaged the gostinöi dvor and the streets in its vicinity. The fifth, which occurred only seven years after, began in the Tartar town, which it reduced to ashes. Three palaces-those of the governor, the commandant, and the archbishop-twenty-three churches, six monas- teries, all the bridges on the canal called Boulac, the chancery of the gov- ernor with its archives and papers, the arsenal with its contents, several streets and parishes, and a great number of men, cattle, and barks, fell a sacrifice to this conflagration. The details of the sixth, 1757, are but little known; but history informs us that it was as destructive and as terrible as any that had preceded it. The seventh, the work of the rebel Pougatcheff, who wherever he passed brought with him ruin and desolation, occurred in the year 1774. At that period the whole of the town, with the exception of the kremlin and the Tartar suburbs, were reduced to ashes! Two thousand and ninety-one houses, seventy-four government-buildings, the gostinöi dvor, with seven hundred and seventy-seven magazines or warehouses, and thirty churches, became a prey to the flames. The eighth fire took place in the year 1815, on the 15th of September, and is still fresh in the memory of many of the inhabitants of Kazan. It is said by eye-witnesses that in less than twelve hours the whole of the town, with its suburbs and villages, presented little else save a mass of burning embers! Several woods and forests on the outskirts of the town likewise took fire. The conflagration spread for miles around, destroying every object that it encountered. In a word, on that awful occasion, eleven hun- dred and seventy-nine private houses, eight hundred and ten government- buildings, one hundred and sixty-six streets, several churches, monasteries, manufactories, and magazines, were reduced to ashes! What was much to be regretted likewise was the destruction of the ar- chives of the town, with many valuable manuscripts relating to its history. As long as there remained anything to consume, the fire lasted; and when, for want of fuel, it became extinguished, Kazan presented a scene of inex- pressible desolation. Such were the eight terrible conflagrations which, in less than the space of three hundred years, ravaged Kazan: but this devoted town was yet destined to experience a new one, probably more violent and more terrible than any that had preceded it. We refer to that series of conflagrations which ravaged so large a portion of the city during the months of August and September, 1842. The first fire commenced during the night of the 26th of August, and in a short time destroyed a whole street of houses and stores, a college, and many fine houses. On the 3d of September the fire 276 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. showed itself in another part of the city. But. these were nothing more than precursors of the terrible conflagration of the 5th of September. A more tempestuous morning than that on which this terrible conflagra- tion took place was never known in Kazan a town whose hurricanes form one of the prominent features in its historical records. The wind raged with an incredible violence. Several preceding months of dry and scorching weather had gathered in the streets a deep layer of dust and sand; this, raised aloft by the fury of the whirlwind, so darkened the air, that at the distance of two or three yards nothing could be distinguished. The fire broke out in the street called Prolomnaya, at a hotel, known by the name of the "Hotel of Odessa," an elegant and costly structure, newly built; and, driven over the city by the high winds with unparalleled ra- pidity, consumed in the space of twelve hours thirteen hundred houses, nine churches, one convent, warehouses where large quantities of merchan- dise were placed on deposite, a great number of stores, and some institu- tions of learning. The university was in imminent peril, but was saved with the loss of the wooden circular moveable tower of the observatory. The burning brands, carried by the wind to the other side of the Kazanka, communicating the flames to the heaps of hay, and thence to the neigh- oring villages, they were rapidly reduced to ashes.* On the morning of the 6th of September, one half of the city, recently so beautiful, presented nothing but a heap of smoking ruins. The fire had hitherto spared that quarter of Kazan inhabited exclusively by the Tartars, and known by the name of the Tartar town, or suburbs; but the followers of Mohammed were not destined to be long exempt from the calamity which had befallen their Christian co-inhabitants. While the latter were mourn- fully contemplating the ruins of their houses and their homes, a terrible fire suddenly broke out in the above-mentioned quarter. It was about ten o'clock in the morning. Fortunately for the Tartars, the hurricane which had raged on the preceding day no longer existed, otherwise the whole of the Tartar town would inevitably have fallen a prey to the flames. As it was, the fire caused a fearful ravage: several streets were burnt, and some hours elapsed before the conflagration could be effectually extinguished. The close of that day brought little or no alleviation to the sufferings of * The American minister at the court of St. Petersburg, Colonel Todd, was at Kazan on the day of this disastrous fire. He had arrived there, with two travelling-companions, on the previous night, and had taken up his quarters in a hotel in the Prolomnaya. There the flames had surprised him, and he had removed to an apartment in the "House of the Nobility." Driven thence shortly after by the progress of the conflagration, he sought a refuge in a third hotel on the Boulac. The flames were not long in reaching him in his new place of refuge; and, for the fourth time on that eventful day, he removed with his suite to a distant inn on the suburbs. The same fate followed him there! At last, weary of flying from one abode to another, he resolved to return to Moscow. He accordingly ordered his travelling-carriage to be harnessed, and set out from Kazan, to which curiosity had carried him, and which he had seen in such a terrible state of calamity. He left with the governor-general of the town four hundred roubles for the benefit of the sufferers. We note this act of generosity with double pleasure; for it is agreeable to reflect that the first donation given on this disastrous occasion for the benefit of Kazan, was from the hand of an American citizen. EASTERN RUSSIA-KAZAN. 277 the unfortunate inhabitants. The night, like the preceding one, was passed under the cold and comfortless canopy of heaven. On the following morning the tocsin again rang, to announce the break- ing out of a fresh fire. It commenced in a street called Sabatchi Pereou- lok, or Dog street, which it reduced almost entirely to ashes. This daily occurrence of fresh fires now awoke a conjecture among the inhabitants of Kazan that this repetition of horrors owed its origin to wil- ful incendiarism. They now recollected that, during the first conflagra- tion, fires had broken out in several parts of the town in a totally opposite direction to that in which the flames were borne by the wind—a circum- stance difficult to be accounted for in any other manner. A singular mys- tery likewise enveloped the two succeeding fires: by degrees this terrible supposition became as general as it seemed probable. The police became on the alert. Its researches seemed to authenticate beyond doubt the ex- istence of a gang of incendiaries in the town. Upward of fifty persons were in a few hours apprehended upon suspicion: some had been found with matches and other combustible materials about their persons; several had been caught in the very act of setting fire to divers houses. The fourth day came, and with it a fourth fire! It broke out in that part of the Boulac which the flames had previously spared, reduced to ruins upward of twenty-five houses, and the grain-magazine of a merchant named Romanoff, which contained flour to the amount of a hundred thousand roubles. A committee for the discovery of the supposed conspiracy was now es- tablished. It was composed of the leading members of the inhabitants of Kazan. The latter assembled daily to invent measures for the safety of the town: unfortunately, little or no success followed their arrangements. Every succeeding day brought a fresh attempt on the part of the incendiary gang: in less than the space of a week, twenty repeated efforts were made to destroy the remainder of the town! Fortunately, however, the vigilance of the inhabitants kept pace with the perseverance of the villains who seemed to have conspired to leave Kazan a desert. Day and night senti- nels were stationed before every house, to have an eye on the passenger. Yet, notwithstanding all this caution, the evil did not cease: the hand of the incendiary found means to elude the general vigilance. The 19th of September was signalized by new misfortunes. The fire broke out in another part of the city, till then preserved, and destroyed twenty houses. Subsequently, several attempts were made to renew these horrors, but they fortunately proved abortive. The redoubled vigilance of the inhabitants, the measures taken by the police, and, most of all, the approach of winter, with its heavy rains and falls of snow, by degrees di- minished the general anxiety. The goods, furniture, and property, which had hitherto remained in the fields, were brought back to the town; and their owners, many of whom during this period of horrors had bivouacked like gipsies in the open air, now turned to seek a refuge for themselves 278 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. and their families in those quarters of the town which had escaped the con- flagration. But Kazan did not long remain in the state of desolation and ruin to which this frightful conflagration had reduced it. Like a phoenix, the town soon rose again from its ashes, more bright and splendid than ever. The riches of its inhabitants, the vast and lucrative trade it carries on with almost every part of the empire and with the East, and the great and active co-operation of the emperor Nicholas, who generously resolved that this ancient city should be immediately restored to its former splendor, com- bined to produce the same change as took place in Hamburg after the late fire a change which gave to both cities a beauty unknown to them before. Ere a year had elapsed, Kazan was again rebuilt, under the skilful direc- tion of numerous architects sent from St. Petersburg to superintend and hasten its reconstruction; so that entire streets, whose houses were for- merly of wood, could now boast of handsome brick habitations, of a new and more pleasing style of architecture. Fortunately, all the ancient structures of Kazan remained unmolested and unaltered; indeed, the fire seems to have respected these monuments, most of which escaped from the devouring element, or, if they were at- tacked by it, thanks to their thick walls and solid architecture, were able to set its power at defiance. This fire, therefore, while it gave fresh beauty to the modern portion of Kazan, did not in any way deprive the town of that antique historical character which gives it so great a charm in the eyes of the traveller. The population is about fifty thousand. The following sketch of Kazan is from Oliphant's "Russian Shores of the Black Sea." His "impressions" possess more than ordinary interest from their freshness, his passage through Russia being, as we have before had several occasions to remark, as recent as 1853:- "Situated on a gentle eminence, in the midst of an extensive plain, its many-colored roofs rising one above another to the walls of the kremlin, which crowns the hills to the extreme left, tall spires and domes appearing in every direction, and betokening the magnitude of the city while adding to its beauty, Kazan presented a more imposing aspect than any town I had seen in Russia, and seemed to vie with Moscow as to exhibiting in the most favorable manner the characteristic buildings of the country. Twi- light was just failing us as we entered the broad, deserted streets, and reached the principal hotel, where we secured rooms, and then sallied forth to see as much as we could by lamplight. . . . . At an early hour on the following morning we were up at daybreak, and on our way to the kremlin by four o'clock. We passed a number of houses which had been recently burnt down; indeed, the town seemed to have suffered from fire in all directions. The Kazansky, or main street, traverses the entire ridge of the hill; and, from the corners of the various intersecting streets, good views are obtained over the town upon each side. Following along it, past handsome, well-built mansions, and through the colonnade of a large bazar, EASTERN RUSSIA KAZAN. 279 or gostinöi dvor, we reached the kremlin, and, from the terrace in front of the governor's house, revelled in a most glorious prospect. Stretching away to the north, the eye ranged over a vast expanse of country, thinly dotted with villages and church-spires; while our position commanded a panoramic view of the town, which in no way belied my impressions of the previous evening. To the south, the Volga, with its steep banks, bounded the prospect, while the Tartar villages in the foreground, with their singu- larly-built mosques, seemed to invite a visit. One of the latter was a curiously-fashioned little edifice (as may be seen in the engraving given below), in its construction totally unlike any other building I ever saw. The effect of the scene was completed by the sun most opportunely rising, as it were, out of the steppe, tipping spire and dome, until we ourselves felt its genial influence. “Kazan has advantages which few other inland towns possess. The capital of an ancient kingdom, it is not the mere creation of government, kept alive, as it were, by law, and tenanted by compulsion: it rests upon foundations long since laid, and owes its present prosperity to its position on the great highway from Siberia to Moscow and Nijnei-Novgorod. It thus becomes an emporium for the productions of that distant part of the empire which pass through it. It boasts, moreover, manufactures peculiar to itself. The inhabitants are well known to excel in leather-embroidery: for workmanship of this sort Kazan is celebrated all over eastern Europe." DNIGHT Tartar Mosque near Kazan 280 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. 1 W HOPEATS,SC LO 5 7 TYPES OF CAUCASIAN RACES. CHAPTER X. THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES. HE Caucasian country has a very ir- regular outline, and forms a sort of isthmus between the Black sea and the Caspian. It is bounded on the north by the governments of Don Cossacks and Astrakhan; on the west, by the sea of Azov, the strait of Enikaleh, and the Black sea; on the south, by Turkish Armenia, the river Arras, and Persia; and on the east, by the Caspian sea. The principal feature of the country is the celebrated mountain-chain of Caucasus, which has been fully described on previous pages. This region includes several ancient kingdoms, states, and prov- inces, which have acquired historical celebrity. The inhabitants of the Caucasian country include a great number of tribes, evidently derived from a variety of stocks, and speaking a diversity of languages. The vignette at the head of this chapter presents types of some of the more important of these tribes. The portrait seen on the left, marked 1, represents a Tcherkessian, or Circassian; 2, a Mingrelian; 3, a Nogaï Tartar; 4, a Georgian; 5, an Armenian; 6, a Lesghian; 7, a Cos- sack of Terek. These tribes are all distinguished by one noble quality— an almost inextinguishable love of freedom; and in bodily constitution are at once so robustly and so elegantly formed, that what is known as the Caucasian race is universally acknowledged to be the finest type of man. The Russians first got possession of this country in the time of Peter the Great, who even extended his dominion along the Caspian sea into Ghilan ; but in the reign of Anne the military establishments were withdrawn to Kizliar, and a line of forts carried along the Terek for the defence of the THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES GEORGIA. 281 frontier. Mozdok was built in 1763, and from that point the line was extended gradually westward to the sea of Azov, along the northern bank of the Kouban. The wars in which the Russians have been engaged with Turkey and Persia, having led them again to the south of the Caucasus, they have been anxious to establish their authority over the intervening mountain-tribes, who, if not reduced to subjection, are likely to prove most troublesome and dangerous neighbors. In the course of time they may succeed in effecting their subjugation, but as yet their progress has been very slow. The government of GEORGIA (Russian, Grussia; Persian, Gurdjistan; the ancient Iberia) is situated near the centre of the Russian possessions, on the south side of the Caucasian range, between the fortieth and forty- third degrees of north latitude, and the forty-third and forty-seventh de- grees of east longitude. It has the province of Shirvan on the east; an Armenian mountain-range on the south, which separates the basin of the Kour from that of the Arras; a branch of the Caucasus on the west, form- ing part of the water-shed between the Caspian and Black seas; and the central chain of the Caucasus on the north. Thus, surrounded on three sides by mountain-ranges, Georgia is in a great measure shut out from communication with the neighboring countries, there being but one pass either across the Caucasus into Circassia, or across the western range into Imeritia. The length of the province from northwest to southeast, meas- ured on the best maps, is about one hundred and seventy-five miles, and its average breadth from one hundred to one hundred and ten miles. It contains about eighteen thousand square miles. The surface of Georgia is mostly mountainous, consisting of table-lands and terraces, forming a portion of the southern and more gradual slope of the Caucasus. The country, however, slopes from the south and west, as well as the north, to the centre and southeast, which are occupied by the valley of the Kour, an undulating plain of considerable extent and great fertility. Between the mountain-ranges there are also numerous fertile valleys covered with fine forests, dense underwood, and rich pasturages, watered by an abundance of rivulets. All the rivers have more or less an easterly course. The principal is the Kour, or Mthwari (the ancient Cyrus). This river rises in the range of Ararat, a little northwest of Kars. It runs at first north, and afterward northeast to about latitude forty-two degrees north, and longitude forty- four degrees east, from which point its course is generally southeast to its mouth, on the western shore of the Caspian. It is in many places of con- siderable breadth, and sometimes several fathoms deep; but its great ra- pidity prevents its being of much, if any, service to navigation; and hence rafts only are used upon it. Its principal affluents are the Aragwi from the north, which unites with it at Mtskethi, the ancient capital of Georgia, about ten miles northwest of Teflis; and the Arras (the ancient Araxes) 282 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. from the south, which joins it not far above its mouth, where its course deflects southward. casus. The climate of Georgia, of course, varies greatly, according to elevation. It is, however, generally healthy and temperate, being much warmer than that of Circassia, or the other countries on the northern slope of the Cau- The winter, which commences in December, usually ends with January. The temperature at Teflis, during that season, is said not to descend lower than about forty degrees Fahrenheit; and in the summer the air is excessively sultry, the average temperature at the end of July, in one year being, at three o'clock in the afternoon, seventy-nine degrees, and at ten o'clock in the evening, seventy-four degrees Fahr. The soil is very fertile; and agriculture and the rearing of cattle are the chief employments of the inhabitants. Wheat, rice, barley, oats, Indian corn, millet, the Holcus sorghum and H. bicolor, lentils, madder, hemp, and flax, are the most generally cultivated articles; cotton is found in a wild state, and is also cultivated. Georgia is noted for the excellence of its melons and pomegranates; and many other kinds of fine fruit grow spontaneously. Vineyards are very widely diffused, and the production of wine is one of the principal sources of employment. It is strong and full-bodied, with more bouquet than Port or Madeira; but from having generally little care bestowed on its manu- facture, it keeps badly; and casks and bottles being for the most part un- known, it is kept in buffalo-skins, smeared with naphtha, which not only gives it a disagreeable state, but disposes it to acidity. But notwithstand- ing these drawbacks, and its extensive consumption in the country, consid- crable quantities are exported. Mr. Wilbraham says that "the Georgians have the reputation of being the greatest drinkers in the world: the daily allowance, without which the laborer will not work, is four bottles; and the higher classes generallly exceed this quantity; on grand occasions the consumption is incredible." According to Smith and Dwight, "the ordi- nary ration of the inhabitants of Teflis, from the mechanic to the prince, is said to be a tonk, measuring between five and six bottles of Bordeaux ! The best wine costs about four cents the bottle, while the common is less than a cent." The multiplied oppressions to which the inhabitants have been long sub- jected, and the fertility of the soil, have gone far to extinguish all indus- try. The peasant thinks only of growing grain enough for the support of himself and family, and a small surplus to exchange at the nearest town for other articles of prime necessity. The plough in use is so heavy as to require six or eight buffaloes for its draught, and often double the number are used; the harrow is nothing more than a felled tree; and a great quan- tity of the produce is wasted owing to the grain being trodden out by buf- faloes. Domestic animals of all kinds are reared. The horses and horned cattle equal the best European breeds in size and beauty; and the long-tailed THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES 283 GEORGIA. sheep afford excellent wool. Game, including the stag, antelope, wild- boar, hares, wild-goats, pheasant, partridge, &c., is very abundant; bears, foxes, badgers, jackals, lynxes, and it is said leopards, are common. The forests consist of oak, beech, elm, ash, linden, hornbeam, chestnut, walnut, and many other trees common in Europe; but they are of little or no use. The mineral products of the country, though nearly unexplored, are be- lieved to be various: iron is plentiful on the flank of the Caucasus, and coal, naphtha, &c., are met with. The houses of the peasantry, even in the most civilized parts, are noth- ing more than slight wooden frames, with walls made of bundles of osiers covered over with a mixture of clay and cowdung, and a roof of rush. A room thirty feet long and twenty broad, where the light comes in at the door; a floor upon which they dry madder and cotton; a little hole in the middle of the apartment, where the fire is placed, above which is a copper caldron attached to a chain, and enveloped with a thick smoke, which escapes by either the ceiling or the door, is a picture of the interior of these dwellings. In the houses even of the nobility, the walls are some times built only of trunks of trees cemented with mortar, and the furniture consists of a very few articles. The roads, except that across the Caucasus to Teflis, which has been improved by the Russians, are in a wretched state. The vehicles in use are of the rudest kind, and all commodities, except straw or timber, are transported upon horses, mules, asses, or camels. The inhabitants never ride except on horseback. Coarse woollen, cotton, and silk fabrics, leather, shagreen, and a few other articles, are manufactured. The arms made at Teflis have some reputation; but most of the other goods are very inferior, and only enter into home consumption: Georgia, as before intimated, composes one of the Trans-Caucasian prov- inces of Russia. Their government is wholly military: and how little soever it may square with our notions of what a government should be, it is not ill fitted for the circumstances of the country; and there can not be a question that its establishment has been most advantageous to the great majority of the population. The Georgian ladies have usually oval faces, fair complexions, and black hair, and have long enjoyed the highest reputation for beauty in the East; the men are also well formed and handsome. This superiority in the phys- ical form of the Georgians and other contiguous Caucasian tribes, and the low state of civilization that has always prevailed among them, explains the apparently unaccountable fact that these countries have been, from the remotest antiquity down to our times, the seat of an extensive slave-trade. Latterly, the harems of the rich mussulmans of Turkey, Persia, &c., have been wholly or principally supplied by female slaves brought from Georgia, Circassia, and the adjoining provinces; and they also furnished male slaves to supply the Mameluke corps of Egypt and various other military bodies with recruits. 284 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. V In modern times the Georgians have been divided, with the exception of a few free commoners, into the two great classes of the nobles and their vassals or slaves. Previously to the Russian conquest, the latter were the absolute property of their lords, who, besides employing them in all man- ner of manual and laborious occupations, derived a considerable part of their revenue from the sale of their sons and daughters! Indeed, the daughters of the nobles not unfrequently shared the same fate, being sacri- ficed to the necessities or ambition of their unnatural parents! The Russians have put an end to this traffic; and they have also deprived the nobles of the power capitally to punish their vassals, and set limits to their demands upon them for labor and other services. There can not therefore be, and there is not, a doubt with any individual acquainted with the circumstances, that the Russian conquest has been of signal advantage to the bulk of the Georgian people. It is probably true, however, that the Russians are quite as much disliked by the nobles of Georgia as by those of Circassia; and those travellers who live with them, and credit their stories, will be amply supplied with tales of Russian barbarity and atrocity. With a settled state of affairs, Teflis, the capital, might again become, as in the days of the emperor Justinian, a thoroughfare for the overland commerce between Asia and Europe. The Georgians belong to the Greek church, and, since becoming subject to Russia, have been subordinate in ecclesiastical matters to a Russian archbishop at Teflis, who has three suf fragans south of the Caucasus. The clergy are generally very ignorant. A high-school in the capital has been recently erected into a gymnasium; and in addition to it, there are a few small schools, in which, however, very little is taught. No serf is, or at least used to be, instructed in read- ing, but all the nobility are more or less educated: the females of this class teach each other, and are commonly better informed than the males. The Georgian language is peculiar, differing widely from the languages spoken by the surrounding nations. Georgia was annexed to the Roman empire by Pompey the Great, anno 65 B. C. During the sixth and seventh centuries it was long a theatre of contest between the eastern empire of Constantinople and the Persians. In the eighth century, a prince of the Jewish family of the Bagratides es- tablished the last Georgian monarchy, which continued in his line down to the commencement of the present century. The last prince, George XI., before his death in 1799, placed Georgia under the protection of Russia (though up to that time it had been regarded as nominally a dependency of the Persian monarchy); and, in 1802, it was incorporated with the Rus- sian empire. In the present war (1854) between Russia and the Ottoman Porte, the frontiers of Georgia and Armenia were early the theatre of im- portant military operations, and the Russians falling back, Georgia was in the month of May declared independent; but it is highly probable that, by either reconquest or treaty settlement at the close of the war, the province will again fall under the sway of the czar. THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES 285 GEORGIA. Teflis, or Tiflis, the capital of Georgia and of the other Trans-Caucasian provinces, is situated near the centre of the country, on the right bank of the Kour, three hundred miles east by north of Trebizond, in Turkey, in a contracted valley formed by irregular mountains, parallel with the stream on the side of the city, and hills coming down in a point quite to the wa- ter's edge on the other. A circular fort covers this point, and, together with a small suburb, is united to the city by a bridge of a single wooden arch, thrown over the river; while the ruined walls of an old citadel crown the top, and extend down the side of a part of the opposite mountain. The old and native part of the city is built upon the truly oriental plan of irregular narrow lanes, and still more irregular and diminutive houses, thrown together in all the endless combinations of accident. Here and there European taste, aided by Russian power, has worked out a passable road for carriages, or built a decent house, overlooking and putting to shame all its mud-walled and dirty neighbors. A line of bazars, too, ex- tending along the river, and branching out into several streets, together with much bustle and business, display some neatness and taste, and is connected with two or three tolerable caravanseries. Several old and substantial churches, displaying their belfries and cupolas in different parts, complete the prominent features of this part of the city. In the northern or Russian quarter, officers, palaces, government-offices, and private houses, lining broad streets and open squares, have a decidedly European aspect, and exhibit in their pillared fronts something of that taste for showy architecture which the edifices of their capital have taught the Russians to admire. Teflis has the appearance of an excessively busy and populous place. Its streets present not only a crowded, but, unlike many oriental cities, a lively scene. Every person seems hurried by business. Nor is the variety of costumes, representing different nations and tongues, the least noticea- ble feature of the scene. The Armenian cathedral is a large and somewhat striking edifice. There are likewise two mosques; and, among the other places of worship, is a German protestant chapel. The city has also a French and a German hotel; they are represented, however, as being, in most respects, the re- verse of what they should be. House-rent is high, but otherwise living is not expensive. Teflis has many remarkable sulphureous hot springs, their temperature varying from one hundred to one hundred and twelve degrees Fahrenheit; and to these, it is supposed by some, the city owes its name. Over some of these the Russian government has erected the crown-baths, a plain edifice, but which, by being kept in good order, differs widely from all the other bathing-establishments in the city, and realizes a handsome revenue. Teflis is very favorably situated for trade, and its commerce is pretty extensive, having greatly increased during the period of Russian occupa- tion. Almost all the trade is, however, in the hands of the Armenians. * 36 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. 1830, scarcely half a dozen mercantile houses existed belonging to any other foreigners, and only one European consul (a Frenchman) resided GEORGIANS OF THE HEIGHTS OF TEFLIS. here. In the same year, the Russians founded a school at Teflis, which has since, as already remarked, been erected into a gymnasium ; and there are some other schools. Teflis, as well as Geor- gia in general, has for a long while been celebrated for the beauty of its wo- men; and, according to the missionaries, Dwight and Smith, "this has not been overrated, for we have nev- er seen a city so large a proportion of whose fe- males were beautiful in form, features, or complex- ion, as Teflis." It is said to have been pos- Teflis does not boast a very high antiquity. built in 469 by Vachtang, the founder of a dynasty which ruled from the Euxine to the Caspian. It was taken by the Tartars under Zinghis Khan, in the thirteenth century; subdued by the Turks in 1576; sacked by Aga Mohammed Khan, shah of Persia, in 1795; and finally fell into the session of the Russians, with Georgia, in 1802. It suffered greatly from the ravages of the cholera in 1830. It is the residence of the governor- general of Caucasus, and of a Georgian and Armenian archbishop. There are four newspapers published here in the Russian, Georgian, Persian, and Armenian languages, respectively. Its present population may be reck- oned at from thirty-five to forty thousand, the great majority of whom are Armenians, with some mussulman families. Among the other chief towns are Elizabetpol, or Ganjah, ninety miles. southeast of Teflis; Signak, fifty-six miles east by south; and Akhaltsike, a hundred and ten miles west, once the capital of a Turkish pachalic, and having forty thousand inhabitants, but now only thirteen thousand, chiefly Turkish Armenians: it has some fine churches and ruins. Warzich, in the volcanic region of the Trapovanie and the Kour, formerly the favorite resi- dence of the Armenian queen Thamar, is an extraordinary spot. It is a complete city, hewn out of volcanic stone, and contains three large churches, entirely cut out of the rock, subterraneous passages, innumerable chambers, finely sculptured, and the queen's summer and winter palaces. The whole country around is covered with lava and volcanic products of various kinds. * GAAAAAA The ALDI שה @@GAGGGGGOL HARRAH HAAHI TEFLIS, CAPITAL OF GEORGIA. “ICLETAHUAN BAN " ROBERTS: THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES—SHIRVAN. 289 The province of SHIRVAN lies on the south of the Caucasus, principally between the fortieth and forty-second degrees of north latitude, and the forty-seventh and fiftieth degrees of east longitude; having the Caspian on the east, Daghestan on the north, Georgia on the west, and the river Kour on the south, which divides it from Talysch, formerly a portion of the Per- sian territory of Ghilan. It comprises about nine thousand square miles. Shirvan (Shirwan, or Guirvan) was formerly a province of Persia. Its climate and natural productions are much the same as those of Georgia. It consists chiefly of a well-watered plain, which produces cotton, rice, wines, and fruits of various kinds; but along the shore of the Caspian there is a flat tract almost a desert. The inhabitants of this province are chiefly Mohammedan Persians. Bakû, or Badku, the capital of Shirvan, is situated on the southern shore of the peninsula or cape of Abcheran on the western coast of the Caspian sea, of which it is one of the most frequented ports. The walls of the town were formerly washed by the Caspian, but they are at present about five yards distant from it: the sea, however, has gained upon the land in other places, the ruins of ancient buildings being found at the depth of nearly twenty feet. It stands on a declivity, the summit of which is crowned by the palace of the former khans and Persian kings; is defended by a double wall and deep ditch, constructed in the time of Peter the Great, and has two strong forts, under whose protection vessels can anchor in from four to six fathoms water, within eighty yards of the shore, in a spa- cious road, sheltered from all quarters. The town is ill built, with crooked and narrow streets. The houses are small, with flat roofs coated with naphtha. The Virgin's Tower is the most striking object in the place. There are, however, several spacious mosques, public squares, marts, and caravansaries; a Greek and an Arme- nian church, and some Tartar schools. The chief exports of Bakû and its neighborhood are naphtha, salt, and saffron; in return for which it receives, principally from Persia, raw silk and cotton, rich carpets and shawls, rice, &c.; and from Europe all kinds of ironware and cutlery, cotton, linen, and woollen manufactured goods- thus becoming an entrepôt through which an important trade is carried on between the East and the West. The adjacent island of Salian has impor- tant fisheries. Bakû has a population of about six thousand. The jurisdiction of Bakû extends over thirty-two villages, with nineteen thousand inhabitants, of whom one thousand are Turkomans. The khan- ate of Bakû was formerly attached to Persia, but wrested from it by the Russians, under Peter the Great, about 1723. It was restored in 1735, but retaken in 1801 by the Russians, to whom it now belongs. The peninsula of Abcheran, or Apsheron, is rocky and barren, destitute of trees, and the water, obtained only from wells, is very brackish. It is in many respects a most singular region, and is particularly famous for its naphtha-springs. The quantity of naphtha procured in the plain to the 19 290 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. southeast of the city of Bakû is enormous. It is of two kinds, black and white, and its principal sources are about six miles from Bakû. The black oil shines with a reddish tint in the rays of the sun, and is used for burning and for coating roofs. The supply seems inexhaustible, some of the wells yielding fifteen hundred or two thousand pounds a day, and on being emp- tied immediately fill up again; the entire annual yield is upward of four thousand tons! Near these springs is the Artech-gah, or "Field of Fire," nearly half a square mile in extent. A stream of white oil here gushes from the foot of a hill; it readily ignites and burns on the surface of the water: and in calm weather people amuse themselves with pouring it into the sea, where they set fire to it, and it floats away, giving the waters the appearance of a sea of fire. The poor people obtain a cheap light and fire for cooking by driving a clay pipe or reed into the ground, and burning the gas which rises through it. The Persian ghebers or fire-worshippers likewise send the gas in bottles to their friends at a distance. The "Field of Fire" is in constant motion, and emits a flame without heat. Occasionally the whole region seems to be in flames; and it appears as if the fire rolled down the mountain-sides in large masses, with incredible velocity, presenting on a winter's night a scene of wonderful sublimity. In ancient times the burn- ing field was one of the most celebrated ateshyahs or shrines of grace among the ghebers or parsees of Persia, and frequented by thousands of pilgrims. They have still several temples here, and many of them spend their days in worship and in penitential exercises so severe as often to cost them their lives. The peninsula is likewise celebrated for numerous volcanoes, which discharge immense quantities of mud. RUSSIAN ARMENIA comprises that portion of the former kingdom of that name which lies south of Georgia and north of the Arras and Mount Ara- rat, being two hundred miles in length and about one hundred and thirty in breadth. It formerly constituted the Persian province of Erivan, by which name it is now sometimes known. It contains about eight thousand square miles. The country consists of a mass of mountains, crowding on each other and filling up the whole space with volcanic amphitheatres. One of the largest of these amphitheatres is occupied by the great fresh-water lake of Gûkcha (blue lake), called also Sivan, the surface of which is five thou- sand three hundred feet above the level of the sea. In the northwestern portion of the lake is an island called Sivan, with a monastery, twelve hundred yards from the shore. The lake is said to be unfathomable, and has the dark-blue appearance of deep water. A branch of the river Zen- gue, which passes the town of Erivan, carries the surplus waters of the lake to the Arras. The whole country in the neighborhood is volcanic. The soil of the valley of the Arras is extremely fertile, and the mountains are covered with pasture. Directly south of Erivan a small portion of the THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES 291 ARMENIA. Russian territory extends to the southwestward of the Arras, and in the southwest corner of this portion stands the famous mountain Macis (Agri- dagh), or Ararat, a view of which is herewith given. Årarat, from THE PLAIN OF Erivan. It consists of two mountains-the Great Ararat, on the northwest; and the Less Ararat, on the southeast: their summits, in a direct line, being about seven miles apart, and their bases insensibly blending into each other by the interposition of a wide, level, upland valley. The summit of the Great Ararat is seventeen thousand three hundred and twenty-three feet above the sea-level, and fourteen thousand three hundred and twenty feet. above the plain of the Arras. The northeastern slope of the mountain is about fourteen miles in length, and the southwestern about twenty miles. On the former, visible even from Erivan, thirty-two miles distant, is a deep, gloomy, crater-like chasm. The mountain is covered with perpetual snow and ice, for about three miles from its summit downward, in an oblique direction. On the entire northern half, from about fourteen thousand feet above the sea-level, it shoots up in one rigid crest to its summit, and then stretches downward on its southern side to a level not quite so low, forming what is called the "Silver Crest of Ararat." Little Ararat rises thirteen thousand and ninety-three feet above the sea-level, and ten thousand one hundred and forty feet above the plain of the Arras; and is free from snow in September and October. Its declivities are greater and steeper than those of the Great Ararat; and its almost conical form is marked with sev- eral delicate furrows, that radiate downward from its summit. The top of the Great Ararat was first reached, October 9, 1829, by Pro- fessor Parrot, who reports it to be a "gently-vaulted, nearly-cruciform sur- face, of about two hundred paces in circuit, which at the margin sloped off precipitously on every side, but particularly toward the southeast and north- east. Formed of eternal ice, without rock or stone to interrupt its conti- 292 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. nuity, it was the austere silvery head of Old Ararat." Toward the east, this summit is connected, by means of a flattish depression, with a lower summit, distant four hundred yards, and in like manner covered with ice. After remaining on the summit three quarters of an hour, determining the height, and making various observations, Parrot descended to the monas- tery of St. James; the third day after, he left it. The observations of Parrot have been in every respect confirmed by another Russian traveller, named Abich, who reached the summit of the Great Ararat without diffi- culty, July 29, 1845. He, with six others, remained an hour on the top, without experiencing any inconvenience from cold, so much felt by Parrot and his companions. All travellers attest the volcanic nature of the Ararat mountains, as evi- denced by the stones found on all their slopes, undoubtedly the products. of a crater. They are composed chiefly of trachytic porphyry, and on them pumice and various descriptious of lava have been met with. Reineggs avers that he saw the Great Ararat send forth smoke and flame for three days in 1785; but this is believed to be one of the many romances which that traveller has related. No such occurrence was remembered, in 1843, by individuals resident on the mountain at the period indicated, and no eruption is found recorded in the chronicles of the monastery of Echmiad- zin, though they extend back over a period of eight hundred years. All doubt as to the volcanic nature of the two Ararats was put an end to on July 2, 1840, when an eruption took place from the head of the great chasm, which destroyed the monastery and chapel of St. James, the village of Arguri, and their inmates. Dr. Wagner, an enterprising German trav- cller and naturalist, who visited the spot in 1843, gives in substance the following account of that event, as related by Sahatel Chotschaieff, brother to Stephen Aga, village elder of Arguri, honorably mentioned by both Par- rot and Dubois, and confirmed by other two eye-witnesses: "On July 2, 1840, half an hour before sunset, the atmosphere clear, the inhabitants of Armenia were frightened by a thundering noise, that rolled loudest and most fearfully in the vicinity of the Great Ararat. During an undulating motion of the earth, lasting about two seconds, which rolled from the mountain east and southeast, and wrought great destruction in the districts of Sharur and Nakhichevan, a rent was formed in the end of the great chasm, about three miles above Arguri, out of which rose gas and vapor, hurling with immense force stones and earth over the slope of the mountain down into the plain. The vapor rose very quickly higher than the summit of Ararat, and seems to have been wholly of aqueous com- position; for in the same night a heavy rain fell in the vicinity of the mount- ain—an unusual occurrence in this country during summer. The vapor at first was of various colors, in which blue and red prevailed. Whether flames burst forth could not be ascertained; but the pillars of vapor or smoke had a red tint, which, had the eruption taken place during the night, might possibly have exhibited flame. The blue and red tint of the vapor THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES ARMENIA. 293 soon became dark black, and immediately the air was filled with a very disagreeable smell of sulphur. While the mountain continued to heave, and the earth to shake, with the unremitting thunder, along with the sub- terranean cracking and growling, might be heard the whiz, as of bombs, caused by the force with which stones and large masses of rock, upward of fifty tons' weight, were hurled through the air! Likewise, the dash of the stones as they met in the air in their flight, could be distinguished from the thundering noise issuing from the interior of the mountain. Where these large stones fell, there in general they lay; for, in consequence of the gentle declination of the ground at the foot of the mountain, to roll far was impossible. The eruption continued a full hour. When the vapor had cleared away, and the shower of stones and mud had ceased, the rich vil- lage of Arguri, and the monastery and chapel of St. James, were not to be seen: all, along with their inmates, were buried under the mass of stones and mud that had been ejected. The earthquake, which accompanied the eruption, destroyed six thousand houses in the neighboring districts of Nakhichevan, Sharur, and Ardubad. Four days after a second catastrophe occurred, which spread still farther the work of destruction at the foot of the mountain. After the rent in the chasm, whence issued the vapor and stones, had closed, there remained in the same place a deep basin filled with water by the melting of the snow, by the rain, and by a streamlet from above, so as to form a small lake. The mass of stone and clay, which formed a dam, and surrounded the lake like the edge of a crater, was burst by the weight of water, and poured down the declivity of the mountain with irresistible force a stream of thick mud, which spread into the plain, and partly stopped up the bed and altered the course of the small river Karasu. A part of the gardens of Arguri that had escaped the eruption, were destroyed by this stream of mud, which carried trees, rocks, and the bodies of the inhabitants of the village, down into the plain, and to the bed of the Karasu. This stream of mud was three times repeated, and was accompanied by subterranean noises." 66 That Noah's ark rested on the top of Mount Ararat is not to be credited. The difficulty of the descent, and the low temperature of the atmosphere, which must have killed many of the animals, alike preclude the supposi- tion; and, moreover, the Scriptures do not say it rested on the top, but merely on the mountains of Ararat." If this be the mountain there re- ferred to which is somewhat doubtful, seeing that the olive does not grow near it the ark must have rested on one of its lower slopes. Nakhiche- van, eighty miles east of Erivan, claims the honor of being the oldest city of the world; and tradition affirms that Noah fixed his residence here after descending from Ararat. The name Ararat is said to be derived from Arai, a king who lived 1750 years B. C. He fell in battle, in an Armenian plain, which was hence called "Arai-Arat"—the fall of Arai. Before him reigned Amassis, the sixth from Japhet, who called the country Amasia; hence the name Massis, 294 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. or Macis, by which alone Armenians in the present day know the mount- ain. By the Turks and Persians it is called Agri-dagh. The third sylla- ble, dagh, means mountain; but philologists are not agreed on the signifi- cation of Agri. Owing to the great elevation of the country, the climate in most parts is rather severe; but though the winters last long, the summer heats are suf- ficient to bring all the fruits of the earth to perfection. Although severe, the climate is, however, considered healthy. The soil of Armenia is reckoned, on the whole, productive, though in many places it would be quite barren were it not for the great care taken to irrigate it; to such an extent, indeed, is the system of irrigation carried on, that in summer many considerable streams are wholly absorbed for this purpose. Wheat, barley, tobacco, hemp, grapes, and cotton, are raised; and, in some of the valleys, apricots, peaches, mulberries, and walnuts, are grown. From the nature of the country, the rearing of stock is carried on to a greater extent than agriculture. The horses are spirited, fleet, and fiery. Pines, birches, poplars, and beeches flourish, but there are no thick. forests except in the northern parts of the country. The flora is not so varied as might be expected in such an Alpine region; in several respects it resembles the vegetation of the Alps of Tyrol and Switzerland. The inhabitants are chiefly of the genuine Armenian stock; but besides them, in consequence of the repeated subjugation of the country, various other races have obtained a footing. Of these the principal are the Turko- mans, who still maintain their nomadic habits, and from whom the country has received the name of Turkomania. Of the Armenians, but about one half are in Armenia. The remainder, like the Jews, are scattered over various countries; and, being strongly addicted to commerce, play an im- portant part as merchants. They are found all over western Asia; about two hundred thousand are in Constantinople and its vicinity; numbers are in various parts of the Russia empire, Hungary, and Italy; some in Africa and America; and a large number in India, chiefly in the great marts of Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta. Everywhere they are engaged in banking and trading. In physical structure, they belong to the Caucasian race, and, in general, are well made. Their eyes and hair are black, their look lively, noses aquiline, and their complexion somewhat swarthy. The women are remarkable for the delicacy and regularity of their features. Like the Jews, whom in many respects they resemble, their ruling passion appears to be an inordinate love of gain, but they are generally esteemed honest. Their mental capacity is good, and those who are educated are distin- guished by superior cultivation and refined manners; but the mass of the people inhabiting their native country, in consequence of centuries of neg- lect, are grossly ignorant and superstitious. The Armenians embraced Christianity in the fourth century; and, in A. D. 536, separated from the Greek church, being dissatisfied with the decisions of the council of Chalcedon. In doctrine, they hold that there THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES — ARMENIA. 295 is only one nature in Christ, and that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father alone. They have seven sacraments, but, in the mode of using them, differ in several respects from the Roman catholics. They adore saints and images, but do not believe in purgatory. Their hierarchy differs little from that of the Greeks. The catholicus, patriarch, or head of the church, has his seat at Echmiadzin, a monastery near Erivan. A minority of the Armenians, chiefly those residing in European countries, acknowl- edge the pope, and conform, in doctrine and church-government, to the Roman catholic church. They are called United Armenians. BOMR 100% Patriarchal Church and MonasteRY OF ECHMIADZIN. The monastery of Echmiadzin, the seat of the catholicus, or head of the Armenian church, lies in the valley of the Arras, thirteen miles east of Eri- van, near the village of Vagarhabad, which is also frequently though im- properly called Echmiadzin. The monastery is surrounded by a wall thirty feet high, entered by four gates, and flanked by towers, which, as well as the walls, are built of brick, excepting the base, and furnished with loop- holes, giving to the whole structure the appearance of a large quadrangular fortress. The monastery was founded in A. D. 524; but the church it contains dates from the time of St. Gregory "the Enlightener," who intro- duced Christianity into Armenia, though various additions have been made to it in later times. The monks have here a printing-press and a seminary; but little good is to be expected from their labors, as they are unlearned, ignorant, and superstitious. The Armenian language belongs to the most distant offshoots of the Indo-Germanic root; but still, in its form and structure, has much that it is peculiar, and to the ear it is harsh and dissonant. The old Armenian language, also called Haican, which is that of literature, may now be con- sidered a dead language. In the new Armenian language, which is divided into four dialects not differing greatly from each other, there are many Turkish words, and the construction of sentences is regulated by the rules of Turkish syntax. With the exception of some songs collected by Arch- bishop Moses Choronensis, no specimens of the earlier Armenian literature 296 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. have been preserved. After the introduction of Christianity, a great taste for the Greek language and literature arose, and a number of works in Greek and Syriac were translated into Armenian. Before A. D. 406, the Armenians had no alphabet of their own, but used indifferently Greek, Syriac, or Persian characters. In that year, however, Mesrop Masdoty invented the Haican alphabet, consisting of thirty-eight letters (thirty con- sonants and eight vowels), called, from its inventor, Mesropian, and which still continues to be employed along with the modern alphabet. Armenian literature flourished from the fourth to the fourteenth century. Of this period, many writers have obtained a name chiefly as historians and chroniclers. Their works, which might throw considerable light on the history of the East during the middle ages, have hitherto been little con- sulted. Armenian literature began to sink in the fourteenth century, and since that period scarcely any original work of importance has appeared; but, in all their wanderings, the Armenians have preserved a taste for native literature, and have set up printing-presses wherever they have set- tled so that we find Armenian works printed in Amsterdam, Venice, Leghorn, Lemberg, Moscow, Astrakhan, Constantinople, Smyrna, Echmi- adzin, Ispahan, Madras, Calcutta, Batavia, &c. The most interesting col- ony is that on the island of San Lazaro at Venice, founded by the abbot Mechitar Pedrosian in 1717, who there established a monastery, academy, and printing-press, whence important Armenian works have continued to be issued down to the present time. According to the native historians, the name Armenia is derived from Aram, the seventh king of the first dynasty, who about B. C. 1800, gave a settled character to the kingdom. The Armenians call themselves Haics, or Haicans, and trace their origin, in their traditions, to Haic or Haico, the father and patriarch of the people, a contemporary of the Assyrian king Belus. Armenia subsequently fell into the hands of different rulers, and was exposed to many attacks. The Romans and Parthians had many fierce conflicts for its possession, in one of which the consul Crassus was defeated; but at last, under the emperor Trajan, Armenia Major became a Roman province. It afterward recovered its independence, and was under the rule of its own kings. Sapor, king of Persia, attempted its subjuga- tion in vain, and it remained free until 650, when it was conquered by the Arabians. After this, it several times changed its masters. In the thir- teenth century, it was overrun by the Moguls under Zinghis Khan. In 1552, the Turkish sultan Selim II. conquered it from the Persians. In 1604, Shah Abbas, emperor of Persia, in order to protect his domin- ions on the side of Armenia against the Turks, resolved to carry off the inhabitants, and to lay waste a large portion of the country, so that it might no longer be able to support an army! This monstrous resolution was executed with the most revolting barbarity. The inhabitants, driven off like cattle, perished by thousands, while their houses were burnt down, and every vestige of civilization obliterated. A part of the survivors were THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES-ARMENIA. 297 settled in the suburbs of Ispahan, the old Persian capital, where they were kindly treated; but the greater number, being located in an unhealthy part of the province of Mazunderan, were soon swept off by disease. Until recently, Armenia was divided between Turkey and Persia; but the former ceded to Russia, by the treaty of Adrianople, in 1829, a con- siderable portion of her Armenian territories; and Russia had previously (in 1827) acquired the entire province of Erivan from Persia. These ac- quisitions have been consolidated into the government of Armenia. Erivan, or Irwan, the capital of Russian Armenia, is situated on the left bank of the Zengue, or Sanga, a considerable river that flows from the lake Gûkcha, or Sivan, to the Arras, thirty-three miles north-northeast from the foot of Mount Ararat, on the border of the great plain of the Arras, and one hundred and six miles southwest of Teflis. The site of the town is three thousand three hundred feet above the sea-level. It stands partly on a hill, and partly on the margin of the stream, which is here crossed by a handsome stone bridge of several arches, and is very unhealthy during the summer heats. It contains about two thousand houses, interspersed with numerous gardens, and ruins of various dates, the whole fortified and protected by a citadel placed on a steep rock, more than six hundred feet in height, overhanging the river. This fortress, which is about two thou- sand yards in circumference, is encompassed by a double rampart of earth, flanked with towers: it contains the ancient palace of the khans, called Sardar, now the residence of the governor; a fine mosque, a cannon-foun- dry, barracks, &c. The town is irregularly built, with narrow and dirty streets; and the houses, which are built of boulders, and mortar made of clay and straw, give it a mean appearance. It has, however, a handsome bazar, with nearly eight hundred shops, besides several caravansaries, five Armenian churches, one Russo-Greek church, an Armenian convent, five mosques, some aqueducts of a curious construction, &c. An old tower, described by Chardin, has since been pulled down, and its materials used for building. The town has some manufactures of cotton-stuffs, leather, and earthenware; and, being on the caravan route between Persia and Russia, it has a considerable transit-trade. Its population is about twelve thousand, who are principally Armenians. The epoch of the foundation of Erivan is unknown. It was taken by the Persians in 1635. The latter retook it in 1724; but it was again cap- tured by the Persians, under Nadir Shah (commonly called Nadir Kouli Khan), in 1748. The Russians were repulsed in an attempt to take it in 1808; but they succeeded in 1827, and were confirmed in its possession by the ensuing treaty with Persia. Akhalzik, Akalzik, or Akiska, is situated in a district of the same name, one hundred and ten miles west of Teflis, on the left bank of the Dalka, ten miles from its junction with the Kour. It is without walls, but defended by a strong citadel, built on a rock, which, when it belonged to Turkey, baffled all the attempts of the Russians to reduce it. Akhalzik is the seat 298 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. of a Greek archbishop, and contains two churches, a synagogue, and sev- eral mosques—one of which, that of Sultan Ahmed, is built on the model of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and has a college and library attached to it. The latter was accounted one of the most curious in the East; but the Russians have removed about three hundred of the most valuable works to St. Petersburg. The neighborhood produces silk, honey, and wax, with excellent fruits, raisins, peaches, apricots, and figs. Some manufactures are carried on, and the inhabitants prosecute an active trade with various places on the Black sea. Formerly a large slave-market was held here, which the Russians suppressed when they acquired possession of the town. In the vicinity are some alkaline springs. The population, which includes Armenians, Georgians, Turks, Russians, and Jews, is about fifteen thousand. The former Turkish pachalic of Ahkalzik, or Tcheldir, as named by the Turks, forms now a political and administrative subdivision of Russian Ar- menia. It is a mountainous country, watered by the Kour; the climate is healthy, though the extremes of heat and cold are very great. The soil is fertile, producing maize, barley, tobacco, flax, and cotton, with excellent fruits. Game is abundant. Large numbers of cattle and sheep are raised, and much attention is paid to bees and silkworms. The population consists chiefly of Georgians, Turks, Armenians, and Turks. IMERITIA, MINGRELIA, and GURIA, the three most western Trans-Cauca- sian provinces, occupy the whole basin of the Rioni, enclosed on three sides by mountains, and open only toward the Black sea. The province of IMERITIA, or Imerethi, is bounded on the north by the Caucasus, east by Georgia, south by Armenia and Guria, and west by the Black sea and Mingrelia. Its greatest length from north to south is ninety miles, and its greatest breadth about seventy-five. It contains about four thousand eight hundred square miles. The surface of the country has a general slope westward to the Black sea, but is mostly very uneven and rugged, being traversed by ramifications of the Caucasus. The only streams are the Rioni and its tributaries. The climate is excellent, and the soil generally fertile. All the higher mountain- slopes are covered with magnificent forests; many of the loftier valleys afford luxuriant pasture; and in the lower grounds, notwithstanding the indolence and unskilful management of the inhabitants, heavy crops of wheat, barley, maize, tobacco, hemp, and madder, are raised. Fruit-trees grow spontaneously; and chestnuts, walnuts, apricots, cherries, &c., are found in abundance in every quarter. The vine also is said to grow spon- taneously, and is often found entwining itself with the trees of the forest. Domestic animals are not numerous, but game is very abundant. Considerable attention is paid to the rearing of bees and silkworms. There are no manufactures deserving of the name; and the trade, almost wholly in the hands of Armenians, Greeks, and Jews, consists chiefly in exports of the raw produce of the country-particularly wine, grain, silk, THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES- 299 IMERITIA MINGRELIA. wax, skins, wool, and fruit; and imports of woollen, linen, and silk goods, copper and iron ware, cutlery, salt, and colonial produce. The trade in slaves—males for the army, and females for the harems of the Turks- Was once the most important in all, but has been put down by the Russians since they acquired the control of the country. Imeritia, in the fourteenth century, formed part of the kingdom of Geor- gia. It afterward became independent, and was governed by its own prin- ces; one of whom, in 1804, voluntarily made it over to Russia. maallli IMERITIAN Prince. RABENISSE; MINGRELIAN PRINCE. The province of MINGRELIA (the ancient Colchis, and the scene of the fable of the Golden Fleece and the Argonautic expedition) is bounded on the north by the Caucasus, on the east by Imeritia, on the south by Guria, on the southwest by the Black sea, and on the northwest by Abas- sia. Its area is about seven thousand two hundred square miles. The surface of this province is generally mountainous, but slopes gradu- ally to the south, particularly toward the Rioni, its principal stream. The mountains are generally covered with magnificent forests; and both the lower slopes and valleys are fertile, yielding good crops of millet and abundance of excellent fruit. A good deal of silk and honey are likewise 300 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. produced. Mingrelia became a vassalage of Russia in 1803, but is gov- erned by its own prince, who takes the name of dadian. The province of GURIA, or GURIEL, is bounded on the north by Imeritia and Mingrelia, on the east by the district of Akhalzik in Russian Armenia, on the south by the pachalic of Trebizond in Turkey, and on the west by the Black sea. It contains fifteen hundred square miles. The country is chiefly forest; the soil is very fertile. The inhabitants are principally Georgians, with a few Armenians. Guria, the same as Mingrelia, is governed by a native prince, who acknowledges the czar's supremacy. Ignorance and vice are very prevalent, and even few of the nobles can understand their own language. The general condition of the people, however, is said to have been greatly improved through their con- nection with Russia. The noble can no longer deprive his servant of life, or sell him to a foreign master, as formerly. Koutais, Kotais, or Khouthaissi (the ancient Cotatis), the capital of the western Trans-Caucasian provinces, is situated on the left bank of the Rioni, about one hundred and twenty miles west-northwest of Teflis. It is embosomed in fruitful gardens; has in its centre a market-place, in the form of a large amphitheatre, where the inhabitants lounge away much of their time; and six churches, a seminary with one hundred pupils, and a public garden tastefully laid out. It is the residence of a governor and a bishop. The inhabitants, consisting, besides Imeritians, of a great number of Armenians and Jews, are chiefly employed in vine and garden culture. The population is about three thousand. The old town of Cotatis, or Cotaisis, the capital of ancient Imeritia, is situated on the right bank of the Rioni, to the westward of the modern town, and is reached by a stone bridge over the river. It is little more than a heap of ruins, among which, however, lie broken columns, and capi- tals covered with inscriptions. The province of ABASSIA, Abkasia, or Abchasia, is bounded north and west by the Caucasian range, which separates it from Circassia; east by Mingrelia; and south by the Black sea. It is about two hundred and sixty miles long, by less than thirty in breadth. This country is composed wholly of the southern side of the Caucasus mountains-some of whose snow-covered peaks are here from twelve to thirteen thousand feet high-and of the low plains intervening between these mountains and the sea. The prevailing geological formations are greenstone, porphyry, black slate, and Jura limestone. Immense forests of the finest trees (oak, alder, chestnut, &c.) clothe the mountain-sides, stretching down to the plains, whose Italian climate, ripen- ing maize, figs, pomegranates, the fruits of central Europe, grain, and ex- cellent grapes, invites to profitable cultivation; but the country is a waste, its numerous ruins alone proclaiming its former flourishing condition. Nor THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES- 301 ABASSIA — CIRCASSIA. do the Abassians excel in cattle-rearing or commerce-a little of the lat- ter, in felt mantles, fox and polecat skins, honey, wax, and boxwood, being carried on—any more than in agriculture. On the contrary, with such indifference are these branches of industry pursued, that by their means they do not obtain a sufficient subsistence; which, therefore, they eke out in the manner most congenial to their tastes, by plunder and robbery — occupations which, in them, have become a second nature. They were formerly well known as pirates on the Black sea, and many of them prose- cuted their fortunes in Egypt, where they rose by their bravery to eminent military rank among the Mamelukes. The slave-trade with Turkey for- merly constituted one of the chief employments, and tended greatly to reduce the population. Notwithstanding the watchfulness of the Russians, slaves are still secretly exported. The women are beautiful, and are much sought after in Turkey. The Abassians belong to the Circassian race, and distinguish among themselves five tribes-Abassians (or Abkases) proper, Bsubbes, Tsche- beldies, Aschawes, and Imuozahanes. Abassia, under the Byzantine em- perors, formed an independent state, separate from Georgia. In the elev- enth century, by heirship, it fell to the kings of Georgia, under whom it decayed; and in 1457 it fell under the supremacy of the Turks. In 1771, the Abassians asserted their independence; and, after various fortunes, about 1823, the reigning prince, Michael Bey, called on the Russians to occupy the country, which they did, by stationing troops at Anapa, Souk- goum-Kaleh, Tambor, Pitzunda, Gagra, and other towns. Anapa, situated on the Black sea, was formerly the chief emporium of the Turkish trade with the Circassian tribes, and from it the Georgian and Circassian slave- girls were supplied. The fort was constructed by the Turks in 1784, when the Russians took possession of the Crimea and the island of Saman. In 1791, the Russians carried it by storm. It was afterward restored to the Turks, who strengthened the fortifications. By a subsequent treaty the Russians again acquired possession. Its trade is chiefly in hides, tallow, wax, honey, &c. The population is about three thousand. CIRCASSIA (Tcherkessia, or Tcherkeskaia), the largest and most impor- tant country in the Caucasus, occupies nearly the whole northern slope of that range of mountains. It lies between the forty-second and forty-sixth degrees of north latitude, and the thirty-seventh and forty-fourth degrees of east longitude. At its northwest corner it reaches the Black sea, but, with this exception, it is bounded on the south and west by the main ridge of the mountains which divide it from the Trans-Caucasian provinces. The northern limit is formed by the rivers Kouban and Terek, which separate it from the government of the Caucasus. Toward the east it terminates at the junction of the little river Sunsha with the Terek, at which point a host of small streams divide it from the country of the Lesghians. In extreme length, from northwest to southeast, Circassia is about four hundred and 302 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. seventy miles; in its greatest width, about one hundred miles; in its least, about forty miles; and, at an average, seventy miles. It contains thirty- two thousand square miles. The physical features of Circassia have been generally described in the notice of the Caucasian range on a previous page, and what is peculiar to Circassia is only the consequence of that country's occupying the northern slope of the mountains. With the exception of the lowlands on the banks of the Kouban and Terek, the whole territory is broken into precipitous mountains, small table-lands, and valleys of the most picturesque and ro- mantic description. Its hydrography belongs to two systems, the waters of Kabardah (the eastern section) being all conveyed by the Terek to the Caspian, and those of western Circassia by the Kouban to the Black sea. The former river rises near the Kazbek, and, forcing its way through the pass of Dariel (the ancient "Caucasian Gate"), receives, directly or indi- rectly, thirty-five streams before it quits the Circassian country. Of these, the Malk, which joins it at its eastern bend, is scarcely inferior in size to the principal river. It rises near the eastern bases of the Elbrouz, and is itself the recipient of a considerable number of tributaries. The Kouban rises on the northern base of the Elbrouz, not far from the sources of the Malk, and receives the water of more than fifty rivers, thirty of which fall directly into its bed. It has every reason to be considered exclusively a Circassian river; for, though no part of its northern bank be inhabited by Circassians, it does not receive a single tributary, in its whole course, that does not rise within their territory. A similar remark will apply, in a modified sense, to the Terek, which, like the Kouban, does not receive a single stream from the north, and only one of consequence after entering the Tartar country east of Little Kabardah. The country between the sources of the Malk and Kouban is watered by various streams; and when it is recollected that, in addition to these, innumerable torrents pour from the upper ranges of the mountains, it will be evident that no land can be better irrigated. The water is in general clear and good, but occasionally impregnated with mineral and other extraneous matters. The tributary streams become flooded in winter, and extremely shallow during the heats of summer; the currents of all are extremely rapid, as are those also of the Terek and Kouban, except where the latter forms morasses, which it does in some parts of the flat country, when its course becomes sluggish, and its water thick and muddy. The climate, soil, and natural productions of Circassia, are also the same with those of the Caucasus generally; but the temperature is rather lower than on the southern slopes, except on the banks of the Kouban, where the greater depression more than compensates for the difference of aspect, and where the extensive marshes and the exuberant vegetation create miasma, which render it more pestilential than any other district in the whole region. There is a greater proportion of bare rock in Circassia than in Georgia and the other countries south of the main ridge; but on every shelf, and THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES 303 CIRCASSIA. in every rift, trees, grain, vegetables, and fruit of almost every kind, are produced from most fertile soil. The animals, also, are on the same scale of abundance and variety, whether the wild or domesticated tribes be considered—the quadrupeds, birds, fishes, insects, or reptiles. The Circassian horses are nearly as fa- mous, and quite as good, as those of Arabia. Cattle of all kinds are abun- dant in the extreme; and, in addition to the herds forming the numerous stocks of the pastoral population, the aurochs and argali (wild ox and sheep) still wander among the mountains, with the ibex and another beau- tiful variety of the goat. Game of all kinds, winged, hoofed, or clawed, are found in equal abundance, but differing in kind, in the mountains and plains; nor are beasts of prey, as jackals, wolves, bears, lynxes, and tiger- cats, &c., much less numerous, though they seem to be but little regarded by the natives. Wild-boars are found, especially among the swamps of the Kouban, and it is affirmed that the tiger is not wholly unknown. The rep- tile and insect tribes are equally numerous. In one of the campaigns of the Russians, besides the thousands who fell victims to the bad air, it is stated by Spencer that numbers died from the mortified bites of moschetoes. Both natives and Russians believe that the mountains abound in gold and silver, but apparently on no good grounds. Iron, however, lead, and copper, are found; and saltpetre is very abundant. Salt is nowhere found within the limits of Circassia; and since Russia has excluded the natives from the brine-pits in the Caucasian steppe, and sealed their ports against the trade of Turkey and Persia, they have been almost totally deprived of that necessary. The Circassians are divided into five classes. 1. Pschi, or pschech (princes). 2. Uork (ancient nobles). 3. The freedmen of these princes and ancient nobles, who, by their manumission, become themselves noble, and are called uork of uork. 4. The freedmen of these new nobles, called begualia. 5. The vassals, or tcho'kotl. Between the ancient and recent nobility there is no real distinction, except that, in military service, the latter are still under the command of their former masters; nor is there any great practical difference between the begualia and the tcho'kotl or vassals. The latter are, of course, the laborers, and are subdivided into such as are engaged in agriculture and such as serve the superior classes in the capacity of menial servants. Of the former, many are wealthy, nor is the state of any, one of great degradation, since there are very few if any offices of labor which prince or noble would consider derogatory to himself. To every princely house belongs a certain number of work, or usden, as they are called by the Russians; and the latter are the direct proprietors of the vassals. Of these last, though all are unquestionably slaves, those engaged in agriculture can not be sold singly; and the sale of any is so rare as almost to be prohibited by custom. On the other hand, it appears the vassal may transfer his duty to another usdan; which is, of course, a great protection from ill usage. The vassals pay no money-tax, 304 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. and though they are compelled to supply their lord with all he wants, yet this, from the check upon the noble's power just alluded to, extends no further, usually, than to bare necessaries; since, should the latter carry his demands too far, he runs the risk of losing his vassal altogether. The relation between prince and usdan is precisely the same as that between usdan and vassal: the noble must supply the necessities of his sovereign; but should the exactions of the latter become excessive, the former may transfer his allegiance to another prince. The usden must pay the debts of their prince, and the vassals those of their usden; and in each case the inferior must make good all losses sustained by his superior, whether from robbery or accident: by which arrangement it is evident that all losses or expenses are defrayed, ultimately, by the vassal. The head of the princely house is the leader in war; and his usden are bound to attend him with all their retainers, or as many as may be required. There is no people, not even the Arabs, among whom pride of birth is carried to a greater height than among the Circassians, especially those of Kabardah. In this district, if an usdan were to marry or seduce a prin- cess, he would forfeit his life without mercy; and the same result would attend the attempt of a begualia or vassal to ally himself to a noble house. An Abassian prince is, in this respect, considered equal only to a Circas- sian usdan, and can obtain a Circassian wife only from that class. The rigorous enforcement of this custom has preserved the different ranks very distinct, though Pallas has observed, even in the Kabardahs, some traces. which indicate a descent from Tartar mothers. It must be observed, how- ever, that there does not appear to be any restriction upon a man's taking a wife or a concubine from an inferior class; and the issue of such connec- tions take rank from the father, but are not accounted equal to the de- scendants of a pure stock from both parents. Thus, there are princes of the first, second, and third class, &c., according to the greater or less degree of inferior blood which they inherit from their maternal ancestors. This state of society, closely resembling the feudal institutions of the Gothic ages, seems to imply the division of the Circassians into two distinct peo- ple, a conquering and a conquered race; but when or how the present relations were established, is involved in impenetrable obscurity. The whole of the Circassian and Abchasian tribes live in small villages scattered here and there, without the slightest approach to anything resem- bling a city or walled town; indeed, the prince or noble has an unconquer- able aversion to any castle or place of artificial strength, which he regards as only fitted to restrain his state of wild freedom. He lives, therefore, in the centre of his village, which usually consists of forty or fifty houses, or rather huts, formed of plaited osiers, plastered within and without, covered with straw or grass, and arranged in a circle, within the area of which the cattle are secured at night. These primitive dwellings, which strongly resemble, in form and appearance, the humbler residences in Arabian towns, have, however, the peculiar recommendation of being unexception- THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES - -CIRCASSIA. 305 ably clean, which is also the case with the persons, dress, and cookery, of the inmates. From the slender nature of the buildings, they are evidently not formed for long endurance, and a Circassian village is, in fact, by no means a fixture. The accumulation of dirt in their neighborhood, the inse- curity of the position, and frequently even the caprice of the inhabitants, cause them to be from time to time abandoned. On such occasions the dwellings are destroyed, the household utensils packed up, and the whole colony migrate in search of a new abode. While stationary, however, there is much comfort in a Circassian's hovel, for those who can dispense with superfluities; but, as may be supposed, their domestic arrangements are of the most simple kind. The usual occupations of the higher classes are the chase and war, on which expeditions, or those of a predatory kind, they depart with no other provision than a little millet or wheat, and that without the slightest fear of suffering from want, since every man who possesses and can use a rifle is sure of finding provision on every hedge. In these expeditions the Cir- cassians carry with them tent-covers of felt, but chiefly for the purpose of protecting themselves from sudden storms, as, in fine weather, the hardy mountaineer throws himself on the ground, and sleeps with no other cover- ing than the heavens. While in his hut, the Circassian, of whatever rank, is his own carpenter, weaver, carver, and shepherd. It does not appear, however, that the higher classes often take part in agricultural pursuits, not so much because it is considered derogatory, as from that species of indolence (quite consistent with great occasional exertion) which recoils from regular and continuous labor. The occupations of the women consist in spinning and needlework. They make the clothes of their household, down to the very shoes, and also sad- dle-cushions, housings, and horse-trappings, and sheaths for the warriors' swords and poniards. They frequently excel in embroidery, are skilful dairy-women, and sometimes even noblewomen may be seen taking a part in field-labor. As in other half-barbarous societies, the greater portion of labor falls upon the females; but their condition is far superior in Circas- sia to what it is in most other eastern countries. As Mohammedanism is little more than a profession among these people, their habits, with the exception of some formal observances with regard to food, have undergone but little change by its introduction. The sexes mix freely together while unmarried, and,, under the restriction of caste, love-matches are probably as numerous here as in other parts of the world. The husband has, however, to purchase his bride of her father; and nei- ther husband nor wife, from the moment of their union, is permitted to appear in the presence of the parents for a year, or until the birth of the first child. It is a still more remarkable custom, that the husband must never be seen in company with his wife; and though the latter is permitted to receive without restraint the visits of strangers, yet the former is never present on such occasions, and the matrimonial correspondence is always 20 306 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. carried on by stealth, and in the utmost secrecy. The greatest insult that can be offered to a prince or usdan, is to inquire after the health of his wife or family! The son of a prince is committed, at the age of three days, to the care of an usdan, by whom he is brought up, and never again seen by his father till he is married: the son of an usdan remains in the paternal household till he is three or four years old, when he, in like man- ner, is consigned to the care of a stranger! The foster-father stands in every respect in the place of the natural parent. He receives no payment for his trouble, but claims all the duty and service of his ward. The cause of this very remarkable custom is said to be the wish to prevent the effect of indulgence consequent on a home education, in enervating the character; but though it destroys the usual affection subsisting between father and son, it establishes another not less strong between the guardian and his ward, which is usually as intense as any exhibited in the social connections of other countries. The daughters are brought up at home, and at the age of ten or twelve years have their waists enclosed by tight-fitting stays, or a broad band of untanned leather, which is never removed nor loosened till they are mar- ried. On the wedding night the husband cuts this boddice open with his dagger, an operation which is frequently attended with danger. As a fine waist is considered the great beauty of a Circassian, men are also subjected to a very heavy compression on that part, but nothing to that which the females endure. The girdle remains on the latter for a period varying CIRCASSIANS. RIGA from two to six years (a girl unmarried at seventeen rarely finds a husband), during which time the victim is growing;- and, in addition to this, they are (still further to "improve" the form) so sparingly fed, that the young unmarried females have often a look of ill health. The finest-looking women are the young wives. The Circassians have long been proverbial for their beau- ty of form and figure, especially the women; and, though they have in this respect been con- founded with the Georgians, yet all the accounts of the modern and the most accurate travellers concur in describing them as an extremely handsome people-tall, finely-formed, slender in the loins, small in the hand and foot, elegantly-featured, with keen, lively eyes, fresh com- THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES-CIRCASSIA. 307 CIRCASSIAN FEMALES. plexions, and remarkably intelligent countenances. Their bearing is manly and dignified; but they have a kind of lofty gait, which perhaps indicates, and may, at all events, be easily mistaken for, haughtiness. The dress of the men consists of shirt, tunic, and cloak, much resembling those of the Calmucks, but formed of better materials, and in general richer. The female costume is not very different except in being longer. The men crop the hair, leaving only a single lock hanging from the crown; they wear thick mustaches; and the warriors and learned classes (priests and physi- cians) suffer the whole beard to grow. The women's heads have luxuri- riant tresses, but both sexes eradicate every appearance of hair on all other parts of their bodies, by means of a caustic ointment of unslaked lime and orpiment. The princes and usden rarely go out unarmed; and in his coat- of-mail, helmet, musket, pistols, bow, quiver, and shield, the Circassian chief forms a most imposing and picturesque object. In this dress they pay their visits of state, and in this also they ride out on their warlike or predatory expeditions. The Circassian, like the Arab, is a strange mixture of ferocity and hos- 308 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. pitality. The unfortunate traveller who approaches his country without securing the protection of some chief, is seized as a slave by the first native who meets him; but, on the other hand, should this protection be extended, the whole power of the host, or konak, as he is called, is strained to pro- cure, not only the safety, but the accommodation of the guest. The form of granting protection is remarkable. The wife of the konak gives the stranger her breast to suck, after which ceremony he is regarded as her son, and the whole tribe as his adopted brethren. Robbery and plunder are considered honorable occupations: but the charge of thieving is ac- counted an insult, because it implies detection! The custom of blood- revenge, called thlil-uasa, is very similar to that of Arabia: in cases of murder, the friends of the murdered are allowed to take the life of the homicide, or that of any of his relatives within the fourth degree. The ransom by fine is, according to the Prussian traveller Pallas, never taken; but Spencer (a British traveller), on the contrary, affirms that it is almost always preferred. The exclusive nature of Circassian marriages has been already noticed. It is, however, as little inconsistent, that while a Circassian prince would unhesitatingly slaughter an usdan of his own tribe, or an Abchasian, who should presume to wed his daughter, he will as unhesitatingly sell her to Turk, Persian, Turkoman, Nogaï Tartar, or Calmuck! Spencer, who pro- fesses to admire every institution of these people, has ingeniously discov- ered that this practice has tended to refine and civilize the inhabitants of the Caucasus! He admits, indeed, that it has occasioned wars and feuds innumerable among the petty tribes, from the rapacity with which they have overrun each other's territory in search of beauty for the foreign mar- ket. The greater portion of the females thus sold have, however, always been from among the Trans-Caucasian people—the Imeritians, Georgians, Mingrelians, and Abassians—the Circassian slave-trade having been chiefly confined to the male sex, from which they supplied the Mameluke and other slave-troops of Egypt and Turkey. The laws of Circassia rest only on long-established custom. They are administered in a council of elders, but not always by the reigning prince, if any other of his rank possess the requisite qualities in a higher degree. The council consists not of princes and usden only, but also of the wealthier and more aged vassals, who, in the judgment-seat, are regarded as on an equality with the higher classes. The laws themselves are based upon the principle of retaliation, and the business of "the court" seems to consist of little else than the assessment of damages. Robbery of a prince is pun- ished by the restitution of nine times the property stolen; of an usdan, by simple restitution, and a fine of thirty oxen. The prince or usdan can scarcely commit a robbery on a vassal, since his abstract right to all the property of the latter is tacitly acknowledged; and the punishment of rob- bery by one vassal of another, appears to vary with the circumstances of the case. Fine, as among the Arabs, seems almost the universal punish- THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES 309 CIRCASSIA. ment, except in cases of murder and adultery; in both of which cases the punishment is left in the hands of the injured party. The offending wife has her head shaved, her ears slit, the sleeves of her garment cut off, and in this trim is returned, on horseback, to her father; who, if he can not sell, generally kills her. The paramour is certain of death, being a marked man by all the husband's tribe. Polygamy is allowed, but very rarely practised. The Circassians are very attentive to their breeds of horses, and have distinct marks to show the noble races from which they have descended. The stamping a false mark upon a filly is a forgery for which nothing but life can atone! Learning is a complete blank. The Circassians have not even an alpha- bet, and consequently neither book nor manuscript in their own language. The few who read, and they are very few, use the Tartar or Arabic tongues, both of which, the former especially, are very generally understood. Ev- ery tribe would seem to speak a modified language, since, within a narrow space, not less than seventy-two dialects, or patois, have been enumerated; and one particular spot, where this variety is more remarkably exhibited, has been surnamed, by Abulfeda, an oriental writer, Jebel-el-Alason (“ the Mount of Tongues"). These dialects totally differ from any other lan- guage at present known: their pronunciation consists of strange, uncouth, deep, guttural sounds, which European letters can hardly express, and European organs vainly attempt to articulate; and, what is singular (con- sidering the absence of written characters), and adds to the perplexity of the philologist, there is a secret dialect, apparently an old barbarous gibber- ish, peculiar to the princes and usden, and used by them chiefly on their predatory excursions. The religion of the Circassians exhibits a strange jumble of Christianity, Mohammedanism, and paganism. The first, unfortunately, has scarcely a nominal existence, and is chiefly discernible in a superstitious reverence paid to the cross, figures of which, in stone, are set up in many localities, which in consequence often become famous trysting-places, and at which some kind of worship is paid. The paganism appears in the homage which is rendered, principally by the vulgar, to two spirits, a good and a bad— Merem, a benevolent deity, and Tschiblé, the spirit of thunder. Moham- medanism, as before remarked, is the nominal faith, and exists in a more definite form. In some districts, considerable influence is possessed by its mollahs or priests, who latterly, in addition to their proper duties, act as teachers, and keep a few schools, in which—as there is no printed vernac- ular-Turkish, Tartar, Arabic, and occasionally a little Persian, are taught. The true Circassian education is that which the youths receive who are trained to war from their earliest years, and never cease from it till they are able to take the field. Arts, manufactures, and commerce, are at the lowest ebb among the Cir- cassians. The doctors are simply conjurers or saints, who profess to cure diseases by charms and the roughest applications of actual cautery. Their 310 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. success may be surmised from the fact that, notwithstanding the length and inveteracy of the war with the Russians, very few instances of maimed Circassian warriors are to be met with: to be wounded among these peo- ple is generally to die. Of artificers and skilled mechanics, there are only cutlers, armorers, and goldsmiths; who, however, exhibit great ingenuity in the construction and decoration of the warriors' arms. A view of the interior of one of their armor-manufactories is given on the opposite page. The art of preparing gunpowder has been known for ages in the Caucasus, and the abundance of saltpetre renders the inhabitants independent of other countries for this important element of warfare; their mode of manufacture is, however, very primitive. It has been already stated that the women are the great manufacturers of clothes, which may be said to be the only manufacture which these people possess. They formerly traded with Per- sia and Turkey for their chain and other armor, and with Tartar tribes northward for salt; the equivalents on their part being their children and cattle. The Russians have annihilated both trades; and this is said to be one great cause of the hatred entertained against them by the Circassians. The Circassians having no annals, and very few traditions, their early history is almost a blank. Much ingenuity and labor have been employed in endeavoring to trace their origin through the affinities of language. The success as yet has been very partial; but there can be no doubt that they came from the East. Authors differ, however, as to the nation or tribe from which they have descended: some maintain that they were originally Medes; while others affirm that they are a branch of the Arabians, whom they greatly resemble in their laws and customs: indeed, the Kabardahs claim this descent, and there is a common tradition among the Circassians that the whole people are descendants from Ishmael. They may be divided into two great classes: the Circassians proper, or Tcherkessians; and the Tschetschenzes, who inhabit Lesghia, or western Daghestan. They take the common name of Adighé or Adeches, a name denoting a mountain-ravine on the sea. But the word Tcherkessia is Tartar, and literally means cut the road; that is, highwayman or robber, one who makes communication unsafe. It also bears this signification: tcherk, to cut off, and kes, the head. The general name given to these people in the Caucasus is Kasack, whence some have inferred that they are of the same race with the Cos- sacks of the Don and the Volga, which is doubtless an error, for the word Cossack has a general and not a national signification, and means a man who leads a wandering and martial life. From these regions Greece received her first inhabitants, and in return appears to have sent back colonists, who settled on the Circassian coast, and ultimately fell under the Roman domination. In more modern times, between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, they became subject to the kingdom of Georgia, whose queen, Tamar, is said to have spread a knowl- edge of Christianity among them. In 1424, they threw off the Georgian yoke, asserted their independence, and not only maintained it, but extended W.ROBERTS.SC. ARMOR MANUFACTORY IN CIRCASSIA. THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES-CAUCASUS. 313 their boundaries so far, that they were at last brought into fierce conflict with the Tartars, who ultimately prevailed and made the Circassians their tributaries. They continued so till 1705, when they rose against their oppressors, and, by a decisive victory, effected their freedom. Their first connection with Russia took place in 1555, when the princes of the Besch Dagh submitted to the czar Vassili-Ivanovich. From that time the Russian power has been constantly increasing in the Caucasus. In 1781, Russia acquired the Kouban as a frontier; and, in 1784, the Turks built the fort Anapa, and thence directed their efforts to stir up the Circassians against their great enemy. Anapa, taken by the Russians in 1807, was restored to Turkey in 1812, at the peace of Bucharest, owing to Napoleon's expedition to Moscow. The quiet which followed this treaty was used by the Turks to convert the Circassians to Islamism, and thus implant in them an ever-during enmity to Russia. In 1829, Anapa again fell into the hands of the Russians; and, by the treaty of Adrianople, they also acquired all the other Turkish possessions on this coast. Upon this they ground their claims of sovereignty over Circassia, which in fact was never under Turkish rule. The claim was indignantly scouted by the Circas- sians, who, knowing that, under the vigorous government of Russia, their robberies would be repressed, as well as their traffic in slaves, flew to arms, and for many years maintained a brave but unequal struggle; most of the country meanwhile, with the exception of some mountain-fastnesses, falling under the sway of the czar. Though till recently (when they rose in a general rebellion during the Russo-Turkish conflict of 1854, the result of which it is now impossible to foresee) no open war has for some time existed between them, a single-handed border warfare has long been car- ried on with the Cossacks that on all sides surround and watch them. • The province of CAUCASUS is bounded on the north by the governments of the Don Cossacks and Astrakhan, on the east by the Caspian sea, on the south by Circassia, and on the west by Circassia and the sea of Azov. Its greatest length from northwest to southeast is about three hundred and eighty miles, and its greatest breadth from north to south is one hundred and seventy miles, comprising an area of forty thousand square miles. This province is traversed from north to south, near its centre, by a low ramification of the Caucasus mountains; but, with this exception, the sur- face is flat, consisting generally of an alluvion, which toward the east ap- pears to be of very recent formation. It is not traversed by any river of importance (the Kouma, since the lower part of its course was lost in the sand, no longer deserves the name), but is watered on part of its northern frontier by the Manytch, and on the southern by the Kouban and the Terek. The climate is in general very mild, and there are some fertile tracts, particularly in the neighborhood of the Terek, but a great part of the allu- vial flats is covered with salt pools and marshes, which make the soil where they prevail altogether unfit for cultivation. The injury is, in some meas- 314 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ure, compensated by the large quantities of excellent salt which is obtained from them. Some of the steppes yield tolerable pasture, on which numer- ous herds of cattle are reared. The chief products of the soil are grain, including Indian corn, and wine. The mulberry thrives well, and considerable attention has recently been paid to the rearing of silkworms. Bees also are carefully attended to, and honey and wax form a considerable article of export. Owing to the neighborhood of the warlike mountaineers of the Caucasus, a considerable army is always maintained within the province, and most of its towns are fortified. The population is composed of a great variety of half-savage tribes-Cossacks, Tartars, Circassians, &c., with some Rus- sians and Armenians. Stavropol, the new capital of the province, is a neat, fortified town, situ- ated near the Kouban., Gheorghievsk, or Georgievsk, the old capital, and still the residence of the goveruor-general of Caucasus, is a small town, situated on a steep height near the left bank of the Kouma, or Podkoumka, ninety miles southeast of Stavropol. It is regularly built, and contains a government-house, one Greek and one Armenian church, six hospitals (mainly for the use of the army), a lazaretto, and several granaries. The inhabitants are composed principally of Cossacks of the Volga, who are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and Russians and Armenians. The envi- rons are picturesque, and the air pure. The population is about three thousand. Konstantinogorsk, twenty miles southwest of Gheorghievsk, is celebrated for its sulphur-baths; and at Kislavodsky there is acid-water. Karass, a neat town situated between the two last-named places, at the foot of the Besch Dagh (five mountains, four thousand three hundred feet high), is remarkable for a colony of Germans and Scotch. Mozdok is a commercial town, and one of the principal military stations on the line of the Terek. It was built in 1763, under Catherine II. Kizliar is situated on the left bank of the Terek, fifty miles above its mouth. It is dull and sombre; a few of the houses are of brick, but the greater part are of wood. The situation being low, and exposed to inun- dations, is very unhealthy. The inhabitants are chiefly employed in agri- culture. Kizliar, being an entrepôt for the traffic between Astrakhan and Persia, carries on a prosperous trade, which is wholly in the hands of the Armenians. The exports are wine, brandy, oil of sesame, cotton and silk stuffs. The population, exclusive of the garrison, is about ten thousand. The triangular portion of the Caucasian country bounded by the river Terek on the north, the Caspian on the east, the summits of the Caucasus on the southwest, and Circassia on the northwest, is generally known by the name of DAGHESTAN, a name derived from the Tartar Tagh stan, sig- nifying a mountainous country. It lies between the fortieth and forty-third degrees of north latitude, and the forty-sixth and forty-ninth degrees of THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES—DAGHESTAN. 315 east longitude. Its greatest length is about two hundred miles, and its breadth forty, comprising about nine thousand three hundred square miles. This is exclusive of the western portion, called Leghistan, or Lesghia, which is estimated to contain six or seven thousand square miles. Daghestan consists partly-of plains, but, as its name implies, chiefly of mountains, offsets from the Caucasus, which separate deep valleys as they traverse the province southeast, toward the plains lying along the Caspian sea. They are chiefly of limestone. In the southern parts of the province are numerous bituminous springs, some of which are worked, and afford, in addition to petroleum, an inexhaustible supply of black and white naph- tha, while others have for ages emitted a burning stream, known by the name of Indian fire. (For a description of similar springs, see SHIRVAN, the adjoining Trans-Caucasian province.) Notwithstanding the generally mountainous character of Daghestan, it comprises many valleys and level tracts of great fertility. Its climate is various on the plains it is warm and unwholesome; on the slopes of the mountains it is more temperate and healthy; but still more decidedly so on the higher elevations. Agriculture is carefully attended to, and good crops of grain are produced; also silk, cotton, madder, flax, saffron, and tobacco. The vegetables and domestic animals are nearly the same with those of Europe. The wild animals are tigers, panthers, buffaloes, and camels, the latter also being domesticated. The population of the lowlands is composed of a mongrel race of Per- sian, Arabian, Syriac, Turkish, and Tartar origin, mixed with the original Caucasians. They are of middle size, strong, and active. The mountains are inhabited by a variety of Caucasian tribes: among the most prominent are the Insgushes, the Lesghians, the Kists, the Kumiks, and, above all, the Tschetschenzes. The mountaineers are generally tall and well formed. They are brave and hospitable; but revengeful, given to falsehood, theft, and intrigue, and noisy and boisterous in their convivialities. The people generally are careful agriculturists and industrious fishermen, taking stur- geon and turtle in such quantities as to form a considerable export trade to Persia and Russia. The religion is chiefly Mohammedan, and their lan- guage is composed of dialects of the Tartar tongue, mixed with Armenian, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew. The principal towns are Derbent, Tarki, Nizabad, and Kouba. Derbent is an ancient but decayed town on the Caspian, and formed for many centuries the key of the Persian empire in this quarter. It is sur- rounded by strong walls, built of large stones; and on the summit of the hill, on the declivity of which the city stands, there is a fort or citadel, of a triangular figure. The streets are very narrow, and the houses mostly of one story, with a terraced roof. Large quantities of saffron are grown in the vicinity, and the inhabitants prepare rose-water and opium; but the trade of the place is small. Its population, composed chiefly of Georgians, Armenians, and Jews, is about twelve thousand. In the neighborhood is 316 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. a famous tomb, said to be that of forty Saracen heroes, who were killed in battle against the "infidels," when Derbent was taken by the califs. The Mohammedan Lesghians still make pilgrimages to it. Kouba, fifty miles southwest of Derbent, is a considerable town; and at Bereiklei, twenty miles northwest, resides the khan of the Kaitaks, who bears the title of ouzmei, and exercises a sort of sovereignty over the Akushas and the Kubashas. The Tschetschenzes and Lesghians inhabit the northwestern portion of Daghestan, bordering on Circassia; and the latter are said to be the most predatory and ferocious of all the Caucasian nations. They are mostly Mohammedans, but a few vestiges of Christianity may be traced among them. They are divided into numerous tribes, whom the nature of their country keeps so isolated, that no such thing as a general confederacy or national union can be maintained among them. Their language has no analogy with any known tongue except that of the Samoides, of northern Siberia, to which it bears a distant resemblance: it is divided into numer- ous dialects, which have been reduced to eight classes, and the people using them comprise so many small states. The first of these is the Avar, which includes the Avars and fourteen other tribes resembling them. The Avars are believed to be the remains of the Avars, or Huns, who took ref- uge in this part of the Caucasus, and are probably of the same primitive stock with the Magyars of Hungary. The other chief tribes of Lesghians are the Akushas, the Kubashas, and the Kasi-Kumiks. The Akushas dwell on the Koisou, and form a republic, composed of about thirty villages. The Kubashas also live near the Koisou, in a large town of the same name, and eight dependent villages. They are a peaceful tribe, and are known throughout the East as the Zer-kherans, or makers of coats-of-mail: they manufacture splendid armor, and fine cloth or shawls, which they exchange for cattle and produce. The Kasi-Kumiks dwell on a branch of the same river, and are governed by a khan, whose authority extends over a hundred villages. He resides at Chahar, and can raise six thousand men. They are zealous Mohammedans, and fiercely opposed to the Russians. The Lesghians had long been the terror of surrounding nations; but, in 1742, they were driven by the arms of Nadir Shah to seek protection from Russia, and swear allegiance to the czar. It was during this war, that the shah (having retaken the Trans-Caucasian provinces wrested from Persia by Peter the Great) attempted with forty thousand men to penetrate the defiles of the Caucasus, but was defeated at the pass of Dariel, the dangers of which passage in ancient times gave origin to the Persian proverb- "When the king is too happy, let him enter Dariel !" Daghestan is the seat of the Caucasian war waged by Shamyl and his followers, the Lesghians, the Tschetschenzes, and other tribes of the eastern section of the Caucasian range. This fierce conflict between the mountain- eers of Daghestan with the Russians began about the commencement of the present century, on the absorption of this territory, with Georgia, by the Russian empire. It was formerly interrupted from time to time, but has WAROBERT CAUCASIAN MOUNTAINEERS ON A PREDATORY EXCURSION. THE CAUCASIAN PROVINCES DAGHESTAN. 319 now raged without respite for some twenty-five years. On the Russian side, Zizianoff, a prince of Georgian origin, was one of the first who, about forty years ago, struck the Tschetschenzes with awe. One of his most able successors was Yermoloff, equally respected and dreaded by the Caucasian tribes. He was recently living in Moscow, more than eighty years old, and in a kind of silent disgrace with the emperor. Paskiewitch replaced Yermoloff for a few years, and in 1832 was followed by Baron Rosen, to whose administration are ascribed the disasters suffered by Russia from 1832 to 1836. About the year 1823, a sect of religious enthusiasts sprang up among the ulemas or Mohammedan clergy of the Caucasus. Sheik-Mansour was the forerunner of this sect. Nearly thirty years after his death, Khasi-Mollah or Khasi-Mohammed, standing upon the new creed, raised the standard of religious fanaticism for the defence of the national independence. The principal feature of this new theology is the belief in a certain perfectibility of the worn-out forms of Islamism. Khasi-Mollah claimed to be directly inspired and advised by God; and the revelations thus received were com- municated by him to his immediate companions, called murides or murshi- des, who formed a warlike priesthood, and a kind of body-guard for the prophet. He was soon surrounded by numerous believers from all parts of Daghestan, and especially from among the Lesghians and Tschetschenzes. Khasi-Mollah warred for two years against the Russians, but finally, at the storm of the village of Himry, in 1832, he met the death of a hero and of a prophet, fighting to the last, and, even after he had fallen, exciting his companions by inspiring songs. All the murides fell with him on the battle- field. Among them was a young man named SHAMYL: struck by two balls, and pierced by a bayonet, he lay there, bathed in his blood, among the corpses of his companions. The history of Shamyl's escape after this battle is still unknown. A few months from the catastrophe of Himry, he was the first muride near the new Iman, named Hamsad Bey, who was assassinated by some of his rivals in 1834. Shamyl succeeded him, raised the standard of Khasi-Mollah, and the war of extermination began. He was born in 1797, at the same village of Himry, and at the age of thirty-seven became the chief of the Tschets- chenzes. In person he is of medium size, with light hair; his eyes, covered by long and bushy brows, are full of fire; his beard, though white, does not give him the appearance of age. He is very abstemious, eats little, drinks water, and sleeps but a few hours. For a long time the fastness of Akulcho was his residence, whence he darted upon the foe. "Mohammed was the first, Shamyl is the second prophet of Allah!" is the war-cry of Daghestan. In 1839, the Russian general Grabbe attacked Shamyl in his retreat of Akulcho. The fortress was dismantled by heavy artillery, but the Tschets- chenzes did not suffer at all. Sheltered in vaults and crevices, they rushed out to fire their deadly rifles, and then disappeared. Several assaults were thus repulsed by them; but finally the rocks were mined, and at the fourth 320 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. assault, after horrible bloodshed, the Russians took the fortress, on the 22d of August. But Shamyl was not to be found among the dead. With a few murides he had retreated to the caverns of the mountain. There they constructed a kind of raft, which they threw into the stream at the foot of the rocks. They sprang on this floating conveyance, while they were fired at from both banks of the river. All perished but one, who leaped into the current, reached a sure spot, and disappeared in the mount- ains. This was Shamyl. After this defeat, he visited the western tribes of the Caucasus, and preached among them the holy war against Russia, but without success. On his return he selected a new abode in the fortress of Dargo, situated in an almost impregnable position. Grabbe attacked him there in 1842. When the Russian army had completely entered the primitive forests and defiles around Dargo, it was surrounded by the war- riors of Shamyl, and more than half of it destroyed. This was the most terrible defeat sustained by Russia during this whole protracted contest. The war continued to be disastrous for the imperial troops. The com- manders were changed again and again, and finally Prince Woronzow was sent there with unlimited powers. At that moment the authority of Shamyl was absolute and extensive. He ruled the Lesghians (including the Avars), the Tschetschenzes, the Kists, and the Kumiks. Shamyl, not only a war- rior, but a legislator, had established over the unruly princes of these tribes a kind of theocratic monarchy; he had united tribes hitherto hostile to each other, organized a numerous military force, and in 1843 commanded above five thousand of the best cavalry in the world. His body-guard was then a thousand men. When Woronzow took the command of the Russian army, his first idea was to avenge the defeat sustained at Dargo. He cut roads through the forests, and indeed felled the trees entirely for miles of country. Heroic feats on both sides signalized this campaign; but Dargo was finally taken and destroyed in the course of the year 1845. In 1846, Shamyl descended with nearly twenty thousand horse upon the western side of the Caucasus, invaded the Kabardians, and, not being able to bring them to his side, pillaged the country, and returned to Daghestan without the Russians overtaking him. Since that time, Woronzow has slowly proceeded to enclose Shamyl in an iron circle, and the area of his activity has narrowed more and more. From time to time, he has been wont to rush from his retreat upon the enemy, and to inflict on him the severest blows, but has not been able to carry on the war on a large scale. A visionary priest, an enthusiastic prophet, a warrior and a legislator, for a moment it seemed his destiny to become the sovereign of the Caucasus, and to secure his country against the encroachments of Russia. More recently this has appeared impossible, and it remains to be seen whether it can be revived by the events of the Turkish war. One thing is certain, and that is, that whatever may be the final result, the Russian arms in Asia will meet no more redoubtable or heroic antagonist than Shamyl. 70 50 60 40 60 80 100 120 110 160 180 Nassyrsky Soukhay 70 RO Motter Kostin B Kalyoner L Naygarch E Obi R Arhaste a n d I. 货 ​Velanu C.Savero Vostochnot urbettle L Pudecisko Kutetni ff New Seteri Stolbovoi Khatanskava fiths. Swintoi Noss Khromsknia MURS the lensk Boutout Bustbe O S Bear is. Olens Oshanagar Sivilamsko RUSSIA IN ASIA Yenisei Piasina Doudinsko un g Nosovbe Denekino Ghighansk Tourouchansk Toungouskie impeiskniaj Karachinska Inbatskoe Surgout stiaks QAftim Oevedni Narim Pelimsk Laramski TOBOLSK Jalofitarovs Irtysch Tormekovi) Tenauska OTOMSK Attimske S K L BISK Tongouskaj Dorganova Erema racai Lureva schin Tara omare Telezinsk Lebiatel Semipolitin Bainsk R.Ob Barnauto Atchinsic OKholyvan Kouznetsk Beisk L.Taletsko 0.Kamehas OSártam Ourei Tonka Doublehevskaya Yeniseisko Angara R Sosnova Of QBiliorskaya Ishianova Korgina Oust Netka Nuskoic shiverske Kanskor Batoyskaid Krashoiarsky. Oudinsk Mednoi OSugansk I RK Trkoutsk UA SI lea R.Lenn Lena R.Yana R. Omolin Darevnia Sredne Anskoe Talakoo- makskot Tabalak Mama Olek minsk Baraldas Oust Viluiskoi T Yakutsk Tchorinsko Nelmskoi Vitimskaia Amga R..Aldan Ostrovach Tngusi Okirensk Cautskoy Vittim R. Dielema Stangro R. Ouriach R mekon Ladinariu ofMaiskaia Mat R Polco Maia R MIS Shantar Che Elizabeth C. North North Kolimskot S. Kolimskoi Ostrovok Zachversk Fast Cape CHOUKTCHIS AnadirseE 9V.Koliniskoklansk alima R Gijtginsk Novakong K Mis Son of 7 Yamsk Peninsk Anadir R Poustaretsk' KAMI Kaverke Sex or Kartgulatka Kamchatk Ouki Krû社 ​Bukhtarminsk I N EAS E Barginsk Kould Soratchie Nertchins Oudinsk Selinginste Mai-matshin Ourga E Zacza Viganski Nertchinskai R Novotzourqu I Saghatien doueveska M P 長 ​Foloma Oula Houim Tondon Cajou Merguen Saghatien Hotun Amur R. Teitcicar Hotun or V Kanitschatika of Saghallen Rotscherelskat agha Rimnik C. Patience AOT KA 21 80 90 Longitade 100 East from. 110 Greenwich 120 130 140 150 160 SIBERIA GENERAL FEATURES. 323 1 S CHAPTER XI. SIBERIA, OR ASIATIC RUSSIA. IBERIA, or ASIATIC RUSSIA, comprises all the north of Asia, extend- ing from the Arctic ocean on the north to the Altai chain of mount- ains on the south, and from the Ural mountains on the west to the Pacific ocean on the east. Behring's strait on the northeast divides it from the continent of North America. Its length from west to east can not be less than four thousand miles, and its breadth from north to south varies from one to two thousand miles, the whole comprising an area of about three millions, eight hundred and twenty thousand square miles. This immense territory has much less diversity of surface than might be presumed from its extent. Assuming the meridian of one hundred and five degrees as a line of demarcation, two regions will be formed-a western and an eastern-exhibiting a very marked difference in the configuration of their surface. Both regions have their greatest altitude in the south, and may be considered as a vast inclined plane, sloping gradually north to the Arctic ocean: but the eastern region is traversed in different directions by several mountain-chains; whereas the western region, with the excep- tion of the chain of the Ural on the western and that of the Altai on the southern frontiers, forms a vast plain, almost unbroken by any greater heights than a few hills and the banks of the rivers which wind across it. This plain, toward the south, has a height of about two thousand feet above the sea, but toward the north is so near its level as often to become exten- sively inundated. For convenience of description, this plain has been arranged, according to its productive powers, in four divisions-the steppe or pastoral, the agricultural, the woody, and the moorland or tundra. The steppe, occu- pying the most elevated part of the plain, extends from the southern fron- tiers north to latitude fifty-five degrees; and from the western frontiers, within these limits, east to the banks of the Irtysch. The greater part of it consists of what is called the steppe of Ishim, and has a bare and almost sterile surface, often incrusted with salt, but also occasionally covered with a scanty vegetation, and sometimes even enlivened by tracts of green pas- ture, over which the nomadic tribes roam with their flocks and herds. The agricultural division extends north to latitude sixty degrees, though its exact limits can not be properly defined by a parallel of latitude, since 324 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. they more strictly form a waving line encroaching or encroached upon by the other divisions, according as the configuration of the surface and prop- erties of the soil are favorable or unfavorable to agricultural operations. In many parts, where it borders on the steppe, it has much of the same character, and has only occasional tracts which have been or can be advan- tageously brought under the plough; and in many other parts, as the same vegetative powers which may be employed in growing grain naturally grow trees, primeval forests are often found; but still the term agricultural is properly applied to it, as it is only within its limits that agriculture is suc- cessfully prosecuted on an extensive scale, and occupies a considerable proportion of the inhabitants. The division thus named has an extent of about two hundred and fifty thousand square miles, and, under favorable circumstances, might furnish subsistence to a very large population; but, as yet, it is only the more fertile alluvial tracts adjacent to the rivers that have been brought under anything like regular culture. Within this divis- ion, though not properly belonging to it, is the steppe of Baraba, situated between the Irtysch and the Obi. The southern portion greatly resembles the steppe of Ishim, though on the whole it is not so arid, and has a more abundant vegetation. The northern portion, though flat and swampy, is covered with nearly continuous forests of birch and fir, haunted by numer- ous wild animals, including the beaver. This portion of the Baraba or Barabinza steppe may therefore be con- sidered as the commencement of the wooded division, which extends north to latitude sixty-four degrees, and in parts to sixty-six, though in the higher latitude the trees are seldom of very vigorous growth. The whole of this division is covered with vast forests of birch and different species of fir and pine. It is not at all adapted to agriculture, but barley and rye are occasionally cultivated. Wild animals are very numerous, and many valuable furs are obtained. The last division is that of the moorland or tundra, consisting of a low, monotonous flat, covered with moss, and nearly destitute of trees. It ex- tends along the shores of the Arctic ocean, and has so rigorous a climate, that even in summer ice is found a few inches below the surface. Here the reindeer exists in vast herds, both wild and domesticated; white bears and foxes are also numerous, and furnish valuable furs; and the coasts and mouths of the rivers are frequented by immense shoals of fish and flocks of fowl. One remarkable feature in the western part of the tundra is an isolated mountain-mass which rises with steep sides to the north of Ob- dorsk, about latitude sixty-six degrees, and forms a kind of range divided into five summits, the loftiest of which attains the height of about five thousand feet. Siberia to the east of longitude one hundred and five degrees, forming nearly one half of the whole territory, has a much more diversified surface than the western region; and, owing partly to its general ruggedness and elevation, and partly to the greater severity of its climate, has much less SIBERIA GENERAL FEATURES. 325 land adapted for agricultural purposes. The sea of Okhotsk has a bold and rocky shore, and the country behind rises with a steep ascent till a mountain-range is formed, with a general altitude of nearly three thousand feet above sea-level. This range, under the name of the Stanovoy mount- - ains, runs nearly parallel with the coast, till it reaches the frontiers of China, where it takes the name of the Jablonnoi mountains, and proceed- ing west, continues for a long distance to form the boundary between the two empires. It then takes the name of the mountains of Daouria, and throws out numerous ramifications, which, continuing westward, throw their arms round Lake Baikal, and cover almost-all the southern part of the government of Irkoutsk. Other ramifications, proceeding northward, form the water-sheds of the numerous affluents of the right bank of the Lena. On both sides of this river the surface continues elevated, and forms a table-land, the interior of which is still very imperfectly known. The best portions of Eastern Siberia occur in the south of the govern- ment of Irkoutsk, where, in the lower and more open valleys in the vicinity of Lake Baikal, cultivation has been attempted with success, and the oak and hazel, unknown in other parts of Siberia, are found growing freely. In almost the whole of the same government, where the configuration of the surface does not present invincible obstacles, all the grains of Europe are grown, and even the mountains and hills are covered during the greater part of the year with good pasture. Still farther north, in the government of Yakoutsk, as far as the town of the same name, grain is cultivated in patches in the upper vale of the Lena, though the far greater part of it is covered with fir and pine, with so much intervening space between the trees, that a good deal of herbage springs up, and helps to nourish the numerous herds of cattle kept by the Yakutes, and grazed chiefly on an immense tract of low land which extends from the Lena eastward to the Aldan. The northern part of Eastern Siberia consists of two distinct portions- the one extending from longitude one hundred and five degrees east to the lower valley of the Lena, and the other from that valley eastward to Beh- ring's sea. The former portion is very imperfectly known; but, from the modes of life pursued by the Yakutes, who have taken possession of it, it is presumed that it consists chiefly of pasture-ground well adapted for the rearing of cattle, or of moorland wastes, on which no other animal than the reindeer is able to subsist in numerous herds. The latter portion, as far as the Kolima, is traversed from north to south by chains of low hills, separated from each other by wide valleys or open plains, and generally overgrown with stunted larch and birch. In these valleys and plains are numerous lakes, generally well supplied with fish, and bordered by low banks, on which a rich grassy sward is often seen. Another remarkable feature in this locality is the number of albuty, or dry lakes, consisting of a kind of wide basins, so far below the general level of the surface as to have become filled with water when the rivers overflowed their banks, and 326 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. yet so shallow that the clefts produced by the winter-frost form natural drains, through which the water escapes, and leaves the lakes almost dry. The alluvial bottom, owing to the richness of the soil, immediately on the arrival of summer, becomes clothed with the finest turf. When the drain- age is less complete, extensive morasses are formed, covered only with moss or stunted larches, and so destitute of proper pasture, that the dis- tricts in which they prevail are almost uninhabited. To the east of the Kolima, branches from the Stanovoy mountains stretch northward, and form a series of ranges which frequently rise from two to three thousand feet. Some of these penetrate to the northern coast, and are seen forming precipitous cliffs at Swialoi Noss, Cape North, and other headlands. Other ramifications from the Stanovoy pursue an opposite course, and traverse the remarkable peninsula of Kamtschatka almost centrally to its southern extremity. The races and tribes scattered over Siberia are so numerous, that little more can be done here than to give the names of the more important. At least two thirds of the whole population is Russian, and consists either of voluntary immigrants, who have found it their interest to settle in the country, or of exiles and their descendants. In regard to the exiles, Sibe- ria is merely a penal settlement; and hence that portion of the population, which, as coming from Europe, ought to be the most civilized, is not likely to be the most exemplary. In those cases where the exile has been awarded for political causes merely, the individuals may be more unfortunate than vicious; but when it is the penalty of ordinary crimes, the individuals being convicts in the usual sense of the term, must taint society in the same way as in Van Diemen's Land and Australia. A more unsophisticated, and far more interesting population, is furnished by the indigenous tribes. Beginning at the Ural mountains, and proceed- ing eastward, we find the Samoyedes, or Samoides, in the northwest. Im- mediately south of these the Ostiaks occupy both sides of the Obi, up to the confluence of the Irtysch, the northern part of the steppe of Baraba, and the whole of the woody region eastward to the banks of the Yenisei. They live by fishing and hunting, and, though their physical structure is by no means robust, they display both great dexterity and courage in at- tacking the larger and fiercer animals, of both the land and water. Some of them have embraced Christianity, but the great majority are pagans, and continue addicted to Shamanism. In the south, among the Altai mountains, the Calmucks predominate, but have laid aside a number of the usual peculiarities of their race. They subsist chiefly on the produce of their horses, cattle, and sheep, and culti- vate a little grain and tobacco. They have some skill in mechanical arts, particularly in the working of iron, and manufacture their own gunpowder. Though not Buddhists, they are generally addicted to other forms of super- stition. Among the eastern slopes of the Altai are several Turkish tribes, known SIBERIA INHABITANTS 327 HISTORY. by the names of Beruisses, Beltires, Sagai, and Katschinzes. The last extend eastward to the banks of the Yenisei. The Buriats, the most numerous of all the Siberian tribes, dwell chiefly on both sides of Lake Baikal, and eastward as far as the Onon. They are of Mongol origin, and are closely allied to the natives of the northern prov- inces of China, in both language and customs. The Tungusi (Tunguzes, or Toongooses) are the most widely dispersed of all the native tribes. They are found along the shores of the Arctic ocean, from longitude one hundred and ten to one hundred and seventy degrees east; along the banks of the Yenisei as far south as the mouth of the Upper Tongouskai; and along the sea of Okhotsk as far as the town of that name; and thence southwest to the frontiers of China, in Daouria, and to the north of Lake Baikal. Parts of these extensive tracts they occupy exclusively, but others they hold in common with the Yakutes and some minor tribes. They are considered the best formed of the native Siberians, are very expert horsemen, live chiefly by hunting, possess such skill in the working of iron as enables them to prepare their own firearms, and are generally addicted to Shamanism. Among their great amusements are cards and chess. For the latter they carve chessmen very elaborately out of the mammoth's teeth. The Yakutes, as already mentioned, live intermingled with the Tungusi, and confine themselves almost wholly to the rearing of horses and cattle, and the preparation of dairy-produce from them. The herds of many of them amount to several thousand head. They have made considerable progress in civilization, and pay some attention to the education of their children. They are of Tartar origin, and not a few of them are nominal converts to Christianity, though the majority still adhere to Shamanism. The Tchouktchis occupy the peninsula formed in the northeast of Sibe- ria, by the Arctic ocean on the north and the sea of Okhotsk on the south. They are very jealous of their independence, and can scarcely be said to be nominally subject to Russia. Their language proves them to have a common origin with the Esquimaux. They consist of two distinct tribes, the one sedentary and the other nomadic. The former, inhabiting the sea- shore, subsist by fishing, in which they show great courage and dexterity, and, though not much given to hunting, kill common and white bears, and polar foxes; the latter live intermingled with the Koriaks, and occupy the interior, where they feed large herds of reindeer, and subsist almost entirely on their produce. Siberia appears to have been partly conquered by Zinghis Khan and his successors, but did not become known to Europe till the year 1580, when a Cossack, called Yermak Timofeyew, who had long robbed the vessels which navigated the Volga, finding himself hotly pressed by the czar of Moscow, crossed over into Asia with his accomplices. Their number suf- ficed to form a small army, and their courage soon enabled them to acquire extensive settlements. These Yermak offered to the czar, on condition of 328 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. obtaining pardon. The offer was accepted, and thus Russia for the first time obtained a footing in Asia. The territories thus conquered belonged to the Tartar prince Kutshum Khan, and included his residence, which, called by the natives Isker, and by the Cossacks Sibir, has given name to the whole country. The conquests of Yermak continued eastward, and, though interrupted for a time by his death in 1584, were gradually extended, till the whole country west of the Obi was subjected to the czar. In 1604, the town of Tomsk was founded, and became a centre from which new expeditions were fitted out and new conquests made. Private adventurers, instigated chiefly by the hope of plunder, proceeded in all directions to the southward, where, not without serious reverses, they succeeded in expelling the Kir- ghiz; and to the eastward, where they entered the basin of the Lena, sub- dued the Yakutes, and finally, after passing the Aldan mountains, reached the sea of Okhotsk. In the neighborhood of Lake Baikal a formidable resistance was made by the Buriats, but their subjugation was finally com- pleted in 1658. The town of Nertchinsk, which has since become so cele- brated for its mines, was then founded, and, two years after, that of Irkoutsk. A further extension of conquests to the south brought the Russo-Cossack adventurers into collision with the Chinese; and both governments taking part in the quarrel, a war, threatening the existence of one or other of the empires, became imminent. It was, however, prevented, partly by the in- tervention of the Jesuits resident at Pekin, and a treaty in 1689 definitively fixed the boundaries of the two empires. A second treaty, in 1727, con- firming the former, regulated the commercial intercourse, and confined it to the two localities of Kiakhta and Mai-matshin. Never has so large a territory been acquired at so little expense. Rus- sia, almost without any expenditure of her own means, and chiefly by the aid of a few Cossack adventurers, in little more than a century more than doubled her area. The greater part of it, indeed, is a frozen, inhospitable region, which must always remain comparatively worthless; but vast tracts enjoy a climate and possess a soil well adapted for agriculture, and seem destined, whenever the tribes roaming over them can be induced to settle down to a sedentary life, to become the abodes of a dense population, who, in addition to the resources of pasture and agriculture, will find almost inexhaustible wealth in mines and fisheries. Siberia is divided, as remarked in a previous chapter, into the two great governments of WESTERN and EASTERN SIBERIA: the former comprising the provinces of TOBOLSK, TOMSK, and YENISEISK; and the latter those of IR- KOUTSK, YAKOUTSK, OKHOTSK, and KAMTSCHATKA. TOBOLSK, the westernmost government of Western Siberia, comprises a large portion of the basin of the great river Obi, or the country between the fiftieth and seventy-third degrees of north latitude, and the sixtieth and eightieth degrees of east longitude: having on the east the government of WESTERN SIBERIA — TOBOLSK. 329 A KIRGHIZ MERCHANT IN HIS TENT. Yeniseisk; on the south, Tomsk, and the territory of the Kirghiz; on the west, the governments of Orenburg, Perm, and Archangel; and on the north, the sea of Kara, gulf of Obi, &c. Its area is about seven hundred thousand square miles. The surface of this vast province includes the four divisions into which, according to its productive powers, as described a few pages back, the plain of Western Siberia is divided. The tundra, or northern portion, is the most sterile imaginable, consisting of all but boundless moors and morasses, interspersed here and there with some stunted shrubs, and occu- pied by only a few Ostiak tribes, who subsist chiefly by fishing, and the chase of fur-bearing animals. Such is the severity of the climate, that this portion is usually covered with ice and snow for about nine months of the year; and, during the other months, ice is always found at a little distance below the surface. The agricultural portion includes extensive tracts watered by the Irtysch, a part of the Ishim, and the Tobol. Though not generally fertile, this dis- trict comprises some very productive tracts, and it has a considerable num- ber of towns, though few of them are of any great size. Even in this part of the government, the climate is very severe; for, though the summer heats be sometimes oppressive, they are but of short duration, and the winters are long and excessively cold. Rye, oats, barley, and buckwheat, are the principal crops. Iron and copper are extensively raised in various parts of the Ural chain, and gold and silver are produced both there and in the Altai. Soap and tallow works, tanneries, mat-manufactories, &c., are found in different parts: but the commerce of the government is of more importance than its manufacturing industry. Except the clergy, and persons in the govern- ment employment, all the inhabitants are more or less engaged in traffic, exchanging their sable and other furs, cattle, cassia, fresh and dried fish, 330 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. and game, with the Russian traders for grain, flour, hardware, &c. The merchants of Tobolsk, Toumen, and the principal towns in the south and west, send every summer boats laden with flour and other provisions, by way of the Irtysch and Obi, to Berezov and other small towns in the north, which return with cargoes of fish, and with valuable furs, procured from the Ostiaks and other tribes. These furs are afterward partly sent, with soap, tallow, and hides, to the fair at Nijnei-Novgorod; partly to the Kir- ghiz, to be bartered for horses, cattle, and cotton-goods obtained through Bokhara; and partly to Kiakhta, on the Chinese frontier, where they are exchanged for tea, silk-fabrics, and other Chinese products. The govern- ment, in common with the rest of Siberia, lies under the greatest disadvan- tages with respect to water-communication: the frozen shores of its northern coast are inaccessible for the purposes of trade; and its rivers, although cqual in magnitude to any belonging to the Asiatic continent, are covered with ice during the greater portion of the year. The most common mode of travelling, as likewise of conveying goods, throughout a great portion. of the government, is, as in the northern part of Europe, in sledges drawn by dogs or reindeer. Mr. Bell and Captain Cochrane agree in representing the Tartar villages in the agricultural part of the government as neat, clean, and comfortable. Their white, plastered chimneys and ovens reminded the latter of his own country (Scotland). The houses consist in general of one or two rooms. Near the hearth is an iron kettle, and at one end of the apartment a bench covered with mats or skins: on this all the family sit by day, and sleep by night. The walls are of wood and moss-a layer of moss between every two beams. A square hole is cut out for a window, and, to supply the want of glass, a piece of ice is often put in; two or three pieces will last the whole winter. They use no stoves, and have neither chairs nor stools. The furniture consists of a few earthenware utensils, and a set of tea-table appendages. The women never eat nor drink till the men have done, and then seldom in their presence. Owing to the thinness of the population, and the immense distances be- tween the different towns, education is very little diffused, and besides the schools in the capital, there are, perhaps, hardly a dozen in the rest of the government. Except Tobolsk, the capital, there are no towns of note. The city of Tobolsk, the capital of Western Siberia, and of the govern- ment of its own name (and, indeed, of the whole of northern Asia), is sit- uated on the Irtysch, close to its junction with the Tobol. The town proper is built principally on the flat summit of a hill commanding an ex- tensive view, and is surrounded by a strong brick wall with square towers and bastions. When approached from the west it has a remarkably fine appearance, and it really contains some good and solid buildings-most of the government-offices, and the residences of the Russian and German settlers, being within the walls. Along the banks of the river are suburbs, enclosed by a ditch and palisade, and inhabited mostly by Tartars. The ENROLLING LEXUMURS WROGLE TOBOLSK, THE CAPITAL OF WESTERN SIBERIA. • WESTERN SIBERIA- -TOMSK. 333 streets, which cross each other at right angles, are generally paved with wood. Among its public edifices, the most remarkable are, the cathedral, in the Byzantine style of architecture, with five cupolas, the archbishop's and governor's palaces, a monastery, and a large hospital. It has about twenty churches, chiefly of wood, as are most of the houses. The climate in winter is very severe, so much so as sometimes to freeze mercury; and, next to Yakoutsk, Tobolsk is one of the coldest towns in Siberia: but the dress and houses of the inhabitants being fitted to resist its influence, it is not so disagreeable as might be supposed, and, in other respects, it is not an unpleasant residence. The rivers furnish an inex- haustible supply of fish, and provisions, fur, and game of all kinds, are cheap and abundant; and shops, theatres, and places of public amusement, are numerous. Being on the great road from Russia to China, it is well supplied with most European and Chinese goods; and French wines, Eng- lish porter, and books of all kinds, are to be met with. Dobell says, "The society of Tobolsk may fairly stand a comparison with that of some of the best provincial towns in Russia." Among the inhabitants are many de- scendants of the Swedish officers, sent thither after the battle of Poltava, to whom Tobolsk is mainly indebted for its superior civilization. This city, which was founded in 1587, is the residence of the governor- general of Western Siberia. It has two ecclesiastical and several Lancas- trian schools, and various charitable institutions. No convicts or male- factors are sent thither from European Russia, although persons banished to Siberia for political offences are sometimes permitted to reside in To- bolsk. The population is from twenty to twenty-five thousand. The government of ToмSK lies principally between the fiftieth and six- tieth degrees of north latitude, and the seventy-fifth and ninetieth degrees of east longitude. It has the government of Tobolsk on the west, that of Yeniseisk on the north and cast, and the Altai range on the south. area is about three hundred and eighty thousand square miles. Its This province belongs to the pastoral and agricultural divisions of Sibe- ria, and in its general features closely resembles the more southern parts of the governments of Tobolsk and Yeniseisk. Large quantities of gold are obtained from the various gold-washings in this government. It has very few manufactures, but there are extensive forges at Kholyvan and Barnaul. Since 1838, Tomsk has comprised a portion of the government of Omsk, the other part of the latter government being included in that of Tobolsk. Tomsk, the capital of this government, is situated on the Tom, a tribu- tary of the Obi, six hundred and fifty miles east by south of Tobolsk. It has about two thousand houses, and from ten to twelve thousand inhabit- ants. Here are workhouses for exiles; coarse cloth, leather, and soap manufactories; barracks, public magazines, military and other hospitals; an orphan-house, a dispensary, &c. There are a number of handsome houses in Tomsk, but the town is irreg- 334 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ularly built, except the part that occupies a hill overlooking the river Tom and the country round. Next to Krasnoiarsk, Tomsk is said to be the cheapest and most plentiful spot in Siberia. Its principal buildings are the cathedral and another church, the tribunals, treasury (in which are the magazines of furs collected as tribute from the various native tribes), and two convents. The inhabitants carry on a brisk trade with the Cal- mucks and Ostiaks, in cattle, furs, &c.; and the town is an emporium for distilled liquors and Chinese goods. It was founded in 1604. The government of YENISEISK lies to the east of the governments of To- bolsk and Tomsk, and on the west of the governments of Yakoutsk and Irkoutsk, extending from the Altai mountains to the Arctic ocean. Its area is nine hundred and forty-five thousand square miles. This government includes almost every variety of climate, soil, and pro- ductions, peculiar to Siberia. Its southern inhabitants, like the patriarchs of old, dwell in tents, and, with their flocks and herds, lead a wandering life, changing from place to place as circumstances may direct, or Provi- dence guide them. Those who reside in the centre have fixed residences, and enter into all the pursuits of agriculture and traffic; while the more northern tribes are in a state approximating to savage wildness, and evince all the cunning and ferocity of their native wolves. The destruction of the latter constitutes their chief occupation and support; and after thus supplying themselves with clothing, the superfluous produce of their toil is disposed of to the Russian merchant, chiefly in barter for knives, tobacco, beads, or such other necessaries or luxuries as their own country denies, or savage taste directs. This province is admirably adapted for commerce, the fine and majestic river Yenisei running through its centre from south to north, and pouring its voluminous waters (the accumulation of numberless tributary rivers) into the Frozen ocean. Its horses and horned cattle are also more esteemed than those of any other part of Siberia. Krasnoiarsk (from Krasnoi, "red," and yar, "cliff"), the capital of the above government, lies on a low tongue of land between the Yenisei and Kacha, at their junction, in a plain of great beauty and fertility, two hundred and ninety miles east by south of Tomsk, and in the direct route from Western Siberia to Irkoutsk, Yakoutsk, &c. It is a place of consid- erable trade. The principal street is wide and well levelled, and is inter- sected at right angles by similar cross-streets, and in the middle of the town are two handsome squares. Many of the houses are built of brick, though the most of them are of wood, painted outside with bright colors. It has a cathedral and three other churches, and a synagogue; spacious public offices, the last generally of stone; and a large public factory, or workhouse, for the employment of the numerous artisan-convicts, in which the tanning of leather, and the construction of droskies, sledges, and all sorts of carriages, are carried on. There are numerous Tartar graves in EASTERN SIBERIA 335 IRKOUTSK. the neighborhood, and a fine collection of the antiquities which have been discovered is one of the most interesting sights of Krasnoiarsk. The dis- trict of country subordinate to this town is the most productive in the whole province for grain, cattle, horses, &c. Provisions are very plentiful and cheap; fish and game are also in abundance; and the neighborhood is famous for wild-goats, the flesh of which is said to be equal to venison. Krasnoiarsk within the last twenty-five years has risen considerably in im- portance; and it has now a brisk traffic in Chinese goods and agricultural produce. Its population is about eight thousand. Some of the other more important towns of the government are Yeniseisk, Suganskoi, Kanskoi, Korgina, Tonka, &c. The government of IRKOUTSK lies in the southern part of Siberia, be- tween the forty-ninth and sixty-third degrees of north latitude, and the ninety-sixth and one hundred and twentieth degrees of east longitude. It is bounded on the north and east by the government of Yakoutsk, from which it is separated by the Lena and Vittim; on the southeast and south by the Chinese empire; and on the west by the government of Yeniseisk. Its length from east to west is about eleven hundred miles, and its breadth about one thousand miles, comprising an area of one hundred and fifty thousand square miles. This territory is divided between three river-basins-the Amur, Amoor, or Saghalien, the smallest of the three, which drains the eastern portion, and carries its waters through Mantchouria, in China, to the sea of Okhotsk ; the Lena, in the north, which it drains in a great measure directly, and by its tributary, the Vittim; and the Yenisei, in the centre and west, receiving its waters through the Angara, supplied by numerous small streams, but more especially by Lake Baikal, which lies wholly within the government. The last two basins belong to the Arctic ocean, and are separated from that of the Amur by the Daouria mountains. The greater part of the government having a northern exposure, the cli- mate is more severe than usual under the same latitude, and in winter mercury often freezes. The summer is of short duration, though very warm; the air generally clear and serene. A great part of the surface is occupied by forests, which furnish excellent timber, and abound with all kinds of game. Bears are numerous, many of whom, during the severe winter of 1821, impelled by hunger, made their appearance in the imme- diate vicinity of Irkoutsk. One was killed within a peasant's cottage, and two in the very streets of the town. They were so emaciated, that the skins were of no value. A singular accident took place in the summer of the year above named. A peasant who resided at about four miles from the town, had a dancing- bear, which was considered so tame, that he had been exhibiting it, on the day in question, within the house of the commandant of Irkoutsk, for the amusement of the children. On their return home, Mr. Bruin becoming 336 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ROBERT. PEASANT ATTACKED BY A BEAR. stubborn, and refusing to travel as fast as his master wished him, the latter proceeded to beat him; when the infuriated animal turned round, seized upon him, and literally crushed him to a mummy! The pastures of this government maintain great numbers of cattle and sheep, the latter being chiefly of the native or flat-tailed variety; the breeds of cattle sent here and throughout Siberia have generally diminished in size, but improved in hardihood. The principal cultivated crops are rye and barley; hemp and flax also succeed well. There is not much fruit. Many indications of volcanic agency are discoverable, particularly in the northern part of the government, and earthquakes are not unfrequent. In the plain along the Angara, below the town of Irkoutsk, a fine-grained sandstone, of the carboniferous system, prevails; and strata of pure coal, nine feet thick, have been found in it. The mountains are generally gran- itic. The minerals are very valuable, and include gold, found chiefly in the lateral valleys which run from the central ridge of the Jablonnoi, sil- ver, lead, zinc, and tin. The principal mines are situated in the eastern part of the government, and are wrought, in the direction of the stock, over an extent of one hundred and sixty miles. In working the tin, splendid cells of rock-crystals, with green, yellow, and blue emeralds, and with to- EASTERN SIBERIA· 337 IRKOUTSK. pazes, are met with. Salt is found in great abundance in lakes and brine- springs, but is not turned to much account. Manufactures exist to a very limited extent, and consist chiefly of soap, leather, and glass. A considerable trade is carried on with China, through Kiakhta; and in furs, which, after metals, constitute the principal articles of export. A considerable proportion of the Russian inhabitants are descendants of exiles from the West. The natives in greatest number are the Tungusi, Mongols, and Buriats. The religion of the Greek church is generally pro- fessed, but many continue addicted to the practices of Shamanism. For administrative purposes, the government is divided into six districts or circles, of which Irkoutsk is the capital. Irkoutsk, the capital of the government, is situated in a plain, about twelve hundred feet above the sea-level, on the Angara, at the confluence of the Irkout. It is divided into two parts by the Angara, which is here about one thousand feet wide, surrounded by a wall and ditch, and well built, consisting of wooden houses, which are all neatly planked outside and painted yellow or light gray. The streets, though not paved, have wooden pathways for foot-passengers, and are kept in good order. Its agreeable climate, picturesque situation, the good breeding and wealth of its inhabitants, and its adaptation for commerce, conspire to make it the most important and flourishing city of Siberia, as well as one of the first towns of the Russian empire. One of the chief ornaments of Irkoutsk is a noble quadrangular parade, one side of which is occupied by the residence of the governor, and other public offices; and most of the houses have kitchen-gardens behind them. The principal buildings include a great number of churches (one of them a cathedral), most of which have been erected at the expense of rich and pious merchants; two convents; a handsome exchange, built of stone, and surrounded by stately poplars and pines; an admiralty, with dockyards on the Angara; the offices of the American Company, which would be consid- ered spacious and ornamental in any town of Europe or of the United States a school of medicine, a gymnasium, and several other schools; a public library of five thousand volumes, a mineralogical cabinet, two hos- pitals, a workhouse and house of correction, and a large and well-ventilated prison; the gostinöi dvor, or bazar, supplied with articles of Chinese and European manufacture; and in its vicinity are the markets, supplied with fish, flesh, meal, with its motley crowd of Buriats, Russian women, &c. The manufactures consist of woollen and linen cloth, hats, leather (com- mon and Morocco), soap, and glass. There are also several distilleries. The trade is in hay, tea, and other articles imported from China, and more especially in fur, for which the Russian American Company have here large warehouses. Irkoutsk is the see of an archbishop; and, being the residence of a gov- ernor, is regarded as the capital of Eastern Siberia. The police of the 22 338 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ?? city is so excellently regulated, that a person can not walk out after dark, without being challenged in all directions by a watchman. As a substi- tute for the watchman's rattle or club, and as a mode of communicating with each other, these guardians of the night carry with them a mallet, with which they beat a plank of wood, when the signal is repeated in suc- cession by each of them. The society of the upper class is quite European in its character, but many persons belonging to it have the misfortune or stigma of being exiles. The inhabitants generally appear to be very com- fortable. The population is from twenty to twenty-five thousand. Kiakhta (or Kiachta), and Mai-matshin (or Maimachen), constitute a sort of double-town (or more properly two towns, on the boundary between this government and the Chinese territory of Mongolia, one hundred and seventy miles southeast of Irkoutsk; the one town, called Kiakhta, belong- ing to Russia, and the other, called Mai-matshin, to China). It stands on a small river of the same name, two thousand feet above the sea-level, and was founded in 1728, on the conclusion of the commercial treaty between the Russians and the Chinese. It derives its importance from being the only recognised entrepôt for the trade between the two countries, and pre- sents a singular appearance from the striking contrasts it exhibits. In the Russian portion of the town, the houses of merchants of the better class have stairs and balconies in front, occasionally painted and embellished with architectural ornaments. Toward Mai-matshin, or the Chinese por- tion, a narrow door opens in front of a long wooden building, and leads into the inner quadrangle of a Russian warehouse. On the opposite side, a corresponding door opens upon a wooden barricade, and this barricade is the barrier of China, the door of which is closed at sunset, when Chinese and Russians must betake themselves to their respective quarters. The Russian side has an eagle above it, with the cipher of the reigning empe- The Chinese side, forming the entrance to Mai-matshin, is surmounted with a cone or pyramid. The effect produced in passing it is described by Erman as almost magical. The sober hues of the Russian side are, all at once, succeeded by fantastic, gaudy finery. The streets consist of a bed of well-beaten clay, kept neatly swept, but so narrow that two camels can scarcely pass each other. On either side are walls of the same clay, with perforations, forming windows of Chinese paper. These walls are the sides of houses, but are not easily seen to be so, in consequence of the flat- ness of the roofs, and the gaudy paper lanterns and flags with inscrip- tions, which line the streets, and stretch across from roof to roof. There are two Buddhist temples in the town, containing five colossal images and numerous smaller idols. The trade carried on is very extensive. The Russians receive tea to the amount of about five millions of pounds annu- ally, together with silks, nankeens, porcelain, sugar-candy, tobacco, rhu- bark, and musk; and give in exchange furs, skins, leather, woollen and linen cloth, cattle, and reindeer-horns, from the latter of which a gelatine is obtained that forms a much-esteemed delicacy among the Chinese. ror. EASTERN SIBERIA - YAKOUTSK. 339 The vast government or province of YAKOUTSK extends from the Altai or Stanovoy mountains on the south to the Frozen ocean on the north, hav- ing the governments of Irkoutsk and Yeniseisk on the west, and Okhotsk and the Pacific ocean on the east, and occupying at least three fifths of Eastern Siberia, or one million four hundred thousand square miles. The province is watered by the great rivers Lena, Yana, Indijirka, and Kolima, which supply vast quantities of fish. Iron, salt, and excellent tale, are the chief mineral products: game, of many kinds, is abundant. Large herds of cattle, &c., are reared near the town of Yakoutsk; and, notwithstanding the severity of the winters, rye, barley, and even wheat, are said to succeed well throughout the province, except in those parts which are so far north as to render the summer too short to ripen grain. YAKOUTSK. Yakoutsk, the capital of this government, is situated on the Lena, about eleven hundred and fifty miles northeast of Irkoutsk, and has all the char- acter of the cold and gloomy north. It stands on a barren flat, near the river. The streets are wide, but the houses and cottages are poor in ap- pearance, and surrounded by tall wooden fences. Here are five churches, a convent, a stone building (gostinöi dvor) for commercial purposes, and an old wooden fortress with its ruined tower, built in 1647, by the Cossack conquerors of Siberia. The town has, however, undergone great improve- ments in the last forty years. The Yakute huts have been replaced by sub- stantial houses; the windows of ice, or tale, have given way to glass in the better class of houses, and the more wealthy inhabitants begin to have higher rooms, larger windows, double doors, &c. 340 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Yakoutsk is the centre of the interior trade of Eastern Siberia. All the most costly furs, as well as the more common kinds, walrus-teeth, and fos- sil remains, are brought here for sale, or barter, during the ten weeks of summer, from Anabor and Behring's straits, the coasts of the Polar sea, and even from Okhotsk and Kamtschatka. It is not easy to imagine the mountain-like piles of furs of all kinds seen here; their value sometimes amounts to nearly three millions of roubles. Almost all the Russian set- tlers in Yakoutsk employ their little capital in purchasing furs from the Yakutes during the winter, on which they realize a good profit at the time of the fair, when they sell them to the Irkoutsk merchants. As soon as the Lena is clear of ice, the merchants begin to arrive from Irkoutsk, bringing with them for barter, grain, meal, the pungent Circas- sian tobacco, tea, sugar, rum, Chinese cotton and silk stuffs, yarn, cloth of inferior quality, hardware, glass, &c. But at the annual fair there is not the appearance of animation and bustle which might naturally be expected. The goods are not exposed for sale, and most of the purchases are effected in the houses or enclosures of the citizens. The traveller Dobell says that the inhabitants of Yakoutsk are hospita- ble and gay. Several balls were given during his stay, and the dress, manners, and appearance of the people, far surpassed what he expected in so remote a situation. The variations of climate here are extraordinary; for, though, on the whole, cold predominates to a very great extent-the thermometer in winter often falling to fifty-six degrees below the zero of Fahrenheit the heat in summer is sometimes not inferior to that of the torrid zone! Yakoutsk has a population of about six thousand. The government of ОKHOTSK forms a comparatively narrow tract, about one thousand miles long, with a breadth varying from eighty to about two hundred miles, stretching along the sea of Okhotsk, which washes it on the south, and partly separates it from the peninsula of Kamtschatka, and is bounded on the northeast by the country of the Tchouktchis, and on the northwest and southwest by the government of Yakoutsk. It has an area of one hundred and seventy thousand square miles. The coast-line of Okhotsk is indented by several large sea-arms, among which are those of Penjinsk, Gijiginsk, and Tanish; and its interior is traversed centrally, and nearly throughout its whole length, by the chain of the Stanovoi mountains, which here form the water-shed between the Pacific and the Arctic oceans; sending to the former numerous compara- tively short and rapid streams, which fall into the sea of Okhotsk, and giving rise to several large rivers-the Omolon, Kolima, and Indijirka— which flow into the latter. Notwithstanding the rigor of the climate, there are considerable tracts of heathy pasture and scattered clumps, chiefly of alder and birch, fre- quented by animals valuable for their furs. The coasts are well supplied with fish, and are often visited by large shoals of the whale-tribe. The EASTERN SIBERIA 341 OKHOTSK ——— KAMTSCHATKA. only domestic animals are reindeers and dogs. Amber is occasionally found along the shores of the gulf of Penjinsk. The government is chiefly used as a penal settlement for the most hardened offenders, and the inhab- itants consist, for the most part, either of them, or their descendants. Okhotsk, the capital of this government, is situated on a narrow tongue of land projecting into the sea of Okhotsk, at the mouths of the Okhota and Kuchtiu. It consists of several irregularly-placed clusters of indifferent log-houses, including a large magazine belonging to the Russo-American Trading Company; a church, several government-offices, a school of navi- gation, and an infirmary. The building-yards annually turn out or repair a considerable number of small vessels; and the harbor, though so shallow as not to admit large vessels, yet, being the best in the sea of Okhotsk, has a considerable trade. The population is about one thousand. KAMTSCHATKA, a long and rather narrow peninsula, lies between the fifty-first and sixty-first degrees of north latitude, and the one hundred and fifty-fifth and one hundred and seventy-fourth degrees of east longitude. It is bounded north by the country of the Tchouktchis, west by the gov- ernment and sea of Okhotsk, south and southeast by the North Pacific, and east by the sea of Kamtschatka. Its length is eight hundred and seventy miles; its breadth is very irregular, owing to numerous deep indentations, which exist on the eastern and contrast with the regular uniformity of the western side. At the middle, where it is widest, the breadth is two hun- dred and eighty miles; toward the north it varies from eighty to one hun- dred and fifty miles; while in the south it narrows rapidly on both sides, till it terminates in the low and narrow tongue of land which forms Cape Lopatka. It contains eighty-four thousand square miles. The country, as seen from the sea, is rugged and desolate. Through its whole length, from north to south, it is traversed by a lofty chain of the Stanovoy mountains, crowned with numerous volcanoes, many of them ex- tinct, but many also highly active. That of Kliutshewsk is sixteen thou- sand five hundred feet in height. It is particularly described by Erman, who, in 1829, ascended within eight thousand feet of the summit, and saw it in sublime activity, pouring forth a continuous stream of lava, which, at first opposed in its progress by masses of snow and ice, soon burst the barrier, and precipitated itself into the sea, with a noise which was heard for a distance of more than fifty miles! This mountain rises from a large base, which swells in an elliptic curve, furrowed by deep ravines, and crowned by four cones. There is nothing in its structure resembling a granitic mountain, or any other primitive rock. It is an augitic, amor- phous, and strongly-blistered mass, with large crystals of Labrador felspar. The volcanoes of Kamtschatka are evidently part of a continuous line of volcanic action, which commences in the north of the Aleutian isles, near Russian America, and extends, first in a western direction, for nearly two hundred miles, and then south, without interruption, through a space of 342 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. between sixty and seventy degrees of latitude, to the Moluccas, where it sends off a branch to the southeast; while the principal train continues west, through Sumbawa and Java, to Sumatra, and then in a northwestern direction, to the bay of Bengal. No part of Kamtschatka appears to be of primary formation. Supposing it divided into two sections, by a line drawn near its centre from north to south, the eastern section is wholly of igneous origin. The western section may be divided into two bands: one of which, comparatively narrow, running north and south, consists of the tertiary formation; while the remainder, forming the western side of the peninsula, is wholly secondary. The only river of any extent is the Kamtschatka, which rises at the foot of a mountain-knot in latitude fifty-four degrees, and at a level far lower than might have been anticipated in a country abounding in lofty mountain- ranges, the height of the source, above the level of the sea, being not more than thirteen hundred feet. It has a course of about three hundred miles, and is navigable for about one hundred and fifty miles. Its basin, forming the valley of Kamtschatka, becomes hemmed in by precipitous rocks toward the mouth of the river; but, farther south, it swells out sometimes to forty miles, and is by far the most fertile part of the peninsula. The climate is very severe, and much more so on the eastern than on the western coast. On the seacoast, vegetation does not begin before the end of April; but in the vale of Kamtschatka, in good shelter, it is a month earlier. Notwithstanding the severity of the climate, forests of considera- ble extent occur, consisting of several species of birches, pines, poplars, and willows; while there is an undergrowth of shrubs, on which numerous berries grow, among others the raspberry and currant. On many of the tundras, or moor-levels, particularly when the ground is dry or strong, grows a Lonicera, called by the inhabitants Jimolost, bearing a close re- semblance to the Lonicera cærulea of our gardens, with berries of a par- ticularly pleasing taste, and said to be very nourishing. The natural pas- tures are also numerous, and their rank luxuriance sometimes so great as to make journeying across them almost impossible. Agriculture is necessarily restricted to a few favored spots, as both cli- mate and animals fit for proper tillage are wanting. Erman, however, says that on the southern slopes, near the village of Kliutshe, are seen patches of turnips and potatoes, and also stems of hemp of the tallest growth. He adds that both summer and winter sown wheat, barley, and oats, thrive so well, that, were the surrounding plains carefully cultivated, they could furnish enough to supply the greater part of the inhabitants of the penin- sula with bread-grain. In the same neighborhood, also, he got richer and finer-flavored cow's-milk than he had ever tasted. The wild animals were at one time very plentiful, but have been much thinned by the hunters. Among them may be mentioned reindeer, wild- sheep, bears, otters, and beavers. The skins annually obtained, consisting chiefly of those of the fox and sable, have been estimated at thirty thou- 體 ​EASTERN SIBERIA-KAMTSCHATKA. 343 sand! Wild-fowl abound. Ducks, of which at least twelve kinds are enu- merated, are scen in all quarters; and lakes which, from being fed chiefly from hot springs, never freeze, are the winter resort of flocks of swans. The rivers and coasts teem with fish. In the former are several varieties of salmon, some of them peculiar to the peninsula; and on the latter are shoals of herrings and cod. Large numbers of seals are caught, and whales occasionally make their appearance. The Kamtschatdales are a peculiar race, and pre- sent many remarkable fea- tures. They are in general below the common height, have broad shoulders, and a large head. The face, and particularly the nose, is long and flat, the eyes small and sunken, the lips thin, and they have scarce- ly any beard. Their legs are short, yet they walk much, and with rapidity. Notwithstanding the rude- ness of the climate, they enjoy great vigor of consti- ५ KAMTSCHATDALES. tution, and are proof against every vicissitude of the seasons, and are sub- ject to few maladies. Their character is mild and hospitable, and they live together in great harmony. Indolence may be considered as their predominant vice. Their principal food is fish, which they devour with eager avidity, and without the least regard to cleanliness or delicacy. Having caught a fish, they begin with tearing out the gills, which they suck with extreme grati- fication. They cut out, at the same time, some slices of the fish, which they devour raw, and mingled with the blood. The fish being then gutted, and the entrails given to the dogs, the rest is dried, and is afterward eaten, sometimes dressed, but more commonly raw. The fish, however, which is reckoned most delicious, is salmon, dressed in a peculiar manner, called tchaouitcha. As soon as it is caught, they bury it in a hole in the ground, where it remains till it sours, or, properly speaking, becomes perfectly pu- trid. In this state, when a European can scarcely approach without being suffocated by the stench, the Kamtschatdale feeds upon it as upon the most delicious morsel! Their plates are never washed, and serve indifferently the dogs and their masters! The eggs of the wild-duck are also collected by the natives, and, being preserved in the oil of fish, form one of their favorite articles of food. The manners of the Kamtschatdales are lively and cheerful. Their 344 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. songs are full of gay images; and they possess the talent of mimicry in a remarkable degree. They are passionately fond of dancing, in which ex- ercise they shake off their natural indolence. Their favorite dance con- sists in imitating the motions of the bear-its gestures and attitudes in pursuing its prey, and in all other actions and situations. They are also fond of singing, and have agreeable voices, but their tunes are very rude. Unfortunately, this mirth is often purchased at the expense of decency; and the rules of chastity are little regarded by either sex. The women, at a particular season, go out to collect roots and vegetables for winter consumption; and this is a grand holyday with them. They have two kinds of habitations; one for winter, and the other for summer. The winter habitations are sunk some feet under the ground; the walls are formed of trees laid over each other, and plastered with clay; the roof is made slanting, and covered with coarse grass or rushes. The interior consists of two rooms, with a large lamp, fed with train-oil, and placed so as to warm both rooms, and at the same time to answer the pur- poses of cookery. These houses are often large enough to contain two or three families; and fifty persons have been known to take up their abode in one of them. In that case, the dirt, stench, and the smell and soot issu- ing from the lamp, are such as only a Kamtschatdale could endure. SUMMER-HOUSE IN KAMTSCHATKA, The summer-house is of a more singular construction. A number of posts, placed at regular distances from each other, and, serving as pillars, raise it to the height of ten to thirteen feet from the ground. These posts support a plat- form, made of rafters, and covered over with clay, which serves as the floor, whence the house ascends from five to eight feet, the roof covered with thatch or dried grass. This apartment composes the whole habitation, and here all the family eat and sleep. There are several summer-houses to one winter-house, and the inhabitants pass on a plank from one to the other. The object of this singular construction is to have a space sheltered from the sun and rain, yet open to the air, in which their fish may be hung up and dried. It is afforded by the rude colonnade which supports these structures, to the posts and ceiling of which the fish are attached. Another striking peculiarity of Kamtschatdale use of dogs for the purpose of labor and draught. to the rearing of the sledge-dog, a pack of which, consisting of from six to twenty, every Kamtschatdale justly regards as one of the necessaries of manners consists in the Great attention is paid EASTERN SIBERIA — KAMTSCHATKA. 345 life. These dogs are not remarkably large, though strongly built, rather long, with a high step, and short, smooth hair, of a color varying between yellowish-fawn and jet-black: in their general appearance they resemble the mountain or shepherd dogs of Europe. They are sagacious, and seem to enter into the very feelings of their masters. In summer, when their services are not required, they are set loose, and left to provide for them- selves, by ranging over the country, and along the sides of lakes and riv- ers; but, at the approach of winter, they return home in the most punctual manner. They are harnessed two and two, in trains perhaps of forty dogs, to sledges called nartas, consisting, in their most primitive form, of a box of boards about three feet along and one and a half in width and height, fastened to wooden runners, with which they often travel, at a rapid pace, forty miles a day. They are used in this manner, not only for travelling, but for conveying all sorts of commodities from place to place, one particu- larly well trained being placed in front as leader. The driver usually sits sidewise, like a lady on horseback, and urges the dogs by throwing at them a stick, which he afterward catches with great dexterity. Occasion- ally parties travel in company; and then, the eagerness and impatience of the dogs, and the rivalry of the kyoorshiks, or drivers, are worthy to be compared with the exertions of the high-blooded horses at our race-courses ; nor does the management and driving of the dogs require much less skill and attention than are needed in the latter case, to arrive at perfection, and gain the palm of victory. About a third of the inhabitants are Russo-Cossacks. The remainder, forming the native population, consists of Koriaks, or Korjaks, and Kamt- schatdales, the latter of whom we have already described. The former belong to the nomadic tribes of the north, and appear to have chosen Kamt- schatka as an asylum after their defeat by the Tchouktchis. The western coast, from Tigil northward, and indeed the whole peninsula beyond lati- tude fifty-eight degrees north, is occupied by them. They are of middle stature, lank and sinewy, with black, smooth, and rather long hair. Their language differs so much from that of the Kamtschatdales as to indicate a different stock. Their great occupation is hunting the reindeer. The Kamtschatdales present considerable diversity of both speech and exte- rior; and the Sedankaërs, on the west, regard themselves as a different race from the inhabitants of the valley of the Kamtschatka. One of the best features in the national character is the love of hospitality. The stranger is always sure of a welcome reception. The inhabitants are nom- inal converts to Christianity, but in some parts, particularly in the north- east, the old superstitions are said to linger. There evil spirits, and what are called kutcha, are the objects of worship. The trade of Kamtschatka, owing to the exactions of the Russian gov- ernors, who, in consequence of their great distance from St. Petersburg, or even Tobolsk, have few checks on their own cupidity, is of course extremely limited. Taxes are taken in skins; and the people complain bitterly that 1 346 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. no equitable system of taxation has been authorized by the imperial gov- ernment. Hence, wholly left to the mercy of individual officers, they justly apprehend the insecurity of property, and want the chief motive for im- proving the natural resources of the country. Labor is confined to the supply of merely temporary necessities; domestic comforts are little known or cared for, and affluence is scarcely ever attained even by the most provi- dent and laborious. Furs and dried fish are exported from the port of St. Peter and St. Paul, chiefly by the Russians and Dutch, who bring in ex- change rice, flour, coffee, sugar, brandy, and whiskey. Kamtschatka was first known to the Russians in 1690; but it was not until 1696 that Vladimir Atlassov, with a body of Cossacks from Ana- dirsk, invaded the peninsula, and made great part of it tributary to Peter the Great. Successive expeditions were afterward sent, and the Russians advanced farther and farther into the country, erecting forts and levying tribute. The conquest was completed in 1706, all Kamtschatka being surveyed and occupied by the invaders. The sway which they have established is represented as generally mild, with the exception of the inequality and favoritism in taxation. The na- tives are permitted to choose their own magistrates, in the same manner, and with the same powers, as they have always been accustomed to. The country is divided into four ostrogs, or districts, each of which is governed by a toion, or lieutenant, who is merely a peasant, like those whom he gov- erns, and has no outward mark of distinction. He has another under him, called yesaoul, who assists him in the exercise of his functions, and, in his absence, acts as his deputy. Their business is to preserve peace, enforce the orders of government, and collect the tribute, in furs, for the governor of Irkoutsk, the quantity of which varies according to the character of the governor, and the favor which particular persons happen to enjoy. For- merly it consisted of one sable from each individual, or more, if paid in an inferior sort of skin. The inhabitants, like all savage nations coming in contact with civilized, have suffered deeply from the connection. The introduction of ardent spirits, their avidity for which knows no bounds, has been productive of most pernicious effects. The Russian traders, who are well aware of this weakness, sell it at an extravagant price, and inveigle them to give their most precious effects in exchange for it. The small-pox also has been introduced, and has made dreadful ravages. The consequence is, that their number, which was at first estimated at fifteen thousand, has been re- duced to one half or one third. The Russian and Cossack soldiers have generally adopted all the habits of the natives, disuse bread, and even sell the ration allowed by the government; live dirtily on fish, use dogs for labor and travelling, and clothe themselves in skins. There is a class of criminals, convicted of murder and other atrocious crimes, who, as a pun- ishment equal to death, are banished to this remote and inhospitable re- gion: they amount to about one thousand, and are kept under the strict THE ALEUTIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 347 guard of the Cossacks and Russian militia. The commander of the troops resides at St. Peter and St. Paul, which for some years has been the chief place. Its population, however, is only about one thousand, while Nijnei- Kamtschatka, the former capital, has scarcely a hundred and fifty persons. There is an occasional and varying population of merchants, hunters, and seamen, who make a temporary residence in Kamtschatka. The ALEUTIAN ISLANDS (from the Russian word Aleut, "a bold rock") are an extensive range of small islands belonging to Russia, in the North Pacific ocean, situated between Cape Aliaska, in Russian America, and the peninsula of Kamtschatka, in Asiatic Russia; extending from longitude one hundred and sixty-three degrees west to one hundred and sixty-six degrees east, or for about six hundred miles, and forming, it may be said, a connecting chain between the Russian possessions of both hemispheres. They were formerly divided into three groups-the Aleutian, Andreno- vian, and Fox islands; but are now all comprehended under the name Aleutian, and are subordinate to the government of Irkoutsk. The first known of these islands was discovered, in 1741, by Behring, the celebrated Russian navigator, whose name it bears, and who died there; the others were discovered, at different periods afterward, by various Rus- sian adventurers, who sought these regions in quest of furs, particularly the sea-otter. They were subsequently visited by Captain Cook in 1788, who determined their exact positions. Those nearest Kamtschatka are Behring's and Miednoi, or Copper islands: the first situated in latitude fifty-five degrees north, and longitude one hundred and sixty-six degrees east. Southeast of the latter are the small islands of Attoo, Semitshi, and Agattoo, between latitude fifty-four and fifty-five degrees north. The An- drenovian group, or central part of the chain, lies between latitude fifty- two and fifty-four degrees north, and comprehends the islands of Kiska, Amchitka, Tanaga, Kanaga, Adagh, Atcha, and Amlia, with a number of smaller islands. Of the group nearest Cape Aliaska, called by the Rus- sians Syssie Ostrova, or Fox islands, the principal are Oomnak, Oonalashka, and Oonimack. Beyond these, to the northeast, lies the large island of Kodiak, generally considered as belonging to the group called Schumagin's islands, on which there is a village of about four hundred inhabitants. The largest of the whole chain are Behring's island and the island of Oona- lashka. The Aleutian islands are of volcanic formation; and, in a number of them, there are volcanoes still in active operation. At present, there are upward of twenty-four in this state, varying from three to eight thousand feet in height. In 1796, a volcanic island, now called Joanna Bogoslowa, rose in the middle of the line or chain of islands. It was first observed after a storm, at a point in the sea from which a column of smoke had been seen to rise. Flames afterward issued from the new island, accompanied by a frightful earthquake. Eight years after its emergence, it was found, 348 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. in some places, to be so hot that it could not be walked upon. It is now several thousand feet high, and twenty or thirty miles in circumference, and is still increasing in size. Earthquakes, also, of the most terrific description, are of frequent occur- rence in this region, agitating and altering the bed of the sea and surface of the land throughout the whole tract. The appearance of the islands is singularly dismal and barren: lofty walls of black lava rise perpendicularly from the sea; and beyond, steep mountains of rock shoot up to the clouds ; while the coasts are so encompassed with reefs and breakers as to render navigation among them exceedingly dangerous. The soil is, in general, very poor; but, in some particular spots, escu- lent vegetables thrive well; and some of the most eastern of the islands produce potatoes, and maintain considerable numbers of domestic cattle, although the latter do not generally thrive on these islands. Springs of water are numerous; and valleys clothed with a rich herbage, and capable of supporting herds of cattle throughout the year, are to be met with in some of the islands, especially Oonalashka. Bears, wolves, beavers, er- mines, and river-otters, are plentiful; while the Fox islands, as their name implies, abound in foxes-black, red, gray, and brown. The kinds of fish most usually caught are salmon and halibut; the latter frequently of immense size. Seals and whales are abundant on the coasts. The inhabitants—who seem to be a mixed race between the Mongolian Tartars and the North American Indians-are below the average stature, but stout and well proportioned. They have a round face, small eyes, a brownish complexion, a flat nose, and black hair. In the females, the com- plexion is of a lighter shade, and the hair approaches to brown. The dress, which is common to both sexes, consists of a frock of seal-skin, fast- ened round the neck, and descending below the knees. This simple dress is often ingeniously sewed and adorned with glass-beads, white goat's hair, and small red feathers. In their native state, they pierced the lower lip, the nose, and the ears, to suspend in them bones or crystal rings. The women wore around the neck, as well as the hands and feet, chaplets of variegated stones; and more especially, when they could procure it, am- ber. They also tattooed the body, adorning it with various figures; and, when the female belonged to a family of distinction, depicting on her per- son a symbolical representation of the deeds by which they had acquired renown—the number of enemies slain, or beasts of prey destroyed. The most striking feature in the constitutional temper of the Aleutians is a kind of passive quiescence and patient endurance, amounting almost to insensibility. Left to themselves, they will pass whole days in absolute idleness, scarcely opening their lips to give utterance to a single syllable, or making the least exertion to satisfy the cravings of appetite; and, on the other hand, when placed under a master, they will toil at any task which may be appointed them, slowly, indeed, but without interruption, until it is accomplished. Instances are even given in which they have THE ALEUTIAN ARCHIPELAGO, 349 carried this implicit obedience so far as to sacrifice their lives in endeav oring to perform impossible tasks, which senseless or tyrannical masters had imposed upon them! In the ordinary relations of life, the Aleutians exhibit much that is ami- able. Parents are treated with great respect and deference, and children are the objects of the fondest affection. The husband is addressed by the wife as father, and he applies to her the name of mother. The whole fam- ily appear to cling to each other, and take a deep interest in whatever affects their common honor and welfare. To this happy state of domestic life there must, however, be numerous exceptions. The existence of polyga my, and the still more monstrous practice of polyandry, seem almost in- consistent with the very idea of what is usually understood by a family. As might be anticipated, from the passive qualities of the Aleutians, they are not remarkable for their courage. Provided the destruction of their enemy can be accomplished, it seems absolutely indifferent to them whether it be by force or stratagem. The chief employments are hunting and fish- ing, and in both they show great dexterity. They will face the bear simply armed with a gun or a bow; and have even been known, when these weap- ons have failed, to encounter and overcome him with a knife. But the sea seems to be their proper element. In the pursuit of the whale and the seal, they are equally skilful and intrepid. The boat which they employ is a kind of canoe, called a baidar, consisting of a frame of wood or bone, covered with seal-skin. It is long and narrow, in general holding only a single person, whose bust rises out of a circular hole cut in the skin, which stretches from gunwale to gunwale, like a deck; and is so light, that a man can easily carry it. Fleets, consisting perhaps of one hundred of these baidars, each managed by double paddles about eight feet long, will ven- ture fifty or sixty miles to sea, and encounter all the perils of a stormy ocean, in quest of the sea-otter. While the men are thus employed, the women occupy themselves in covering canoes, and making mats, baskets, and other articles of straw, which display much neatness and dexterity. The food in common use is of the coarsest description-whale's flesh, al- most in a putrid state, and fish often of similar quality. Could anything add to the disgust which the very idea of such a meal inspires, it would be the filthy manner in which it is cooked; both the place and the utensils being allowed to remain in the dirtiest state imaginable. Notwithstanding the grave and almost demure manners of the Aleutians, they are not stran- gers to amusements, and even theatrical representations. They have both songs and dances, and a kind of dramas, in which some striking incident connected with their history is exhibited. The popularity of these is so great, as to have more than once collected crowds which caused a famine. The religion of the Aleutians was a ramification of Shamanism—a su- perstition before alluded to, prevalent in Siberia. They acknowledged a higher Deity, or Creator, but paid no worship to him, under the idea that he had left the charge of the world to certain good and evil spirits, called 350 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Kougakh, and Aglikaïakh. They worshipped the elements, and the heav- enly bodies, particularly the sun and the moon, which were supposed to have great power in human affairs: the sun, when blasphemed, striking the blasphemer blind by its rays; the moon killing him by the stones which she throws down upon him; and the stars compelling him to count them— a task, the performance of which cost him his reason. They had neither temples nor idols; but near every village, on a rock, or other eminence, was a supposed holy place, which the old men alone, and the priests, or shamans, were permitted to visit. On these, with mysterious ceremonies, they deposited offerings, consisting usually of the skins of wild beasts, or the feathers of aquatic birds. Amulets, or charms, were also in general use, some of them being supposed to secure their fortunate possessor against all accidents, and bring him off scatheless and victorious in every combat. The most effectual of these talismans was a girdle, composed of cords or grass, with a particular arrangement of knots. In regard to the immortal- ity of the soul, and the origin of the human race, the views of the Aleutians must have been originally derived from a Divine source. The strongest proof of their belief of the former is derived from one of the most horrid of their practices. On the death of a chief, his slaves were sacrificed on his tomb, that they might go and continue their services to him in the other world! The general idea was, that the disembodied spirit returned invisi- ble to its family, whom it accompanied for good or evil in all their excur- sions. It is even said to have been invoked by them, particularly when engaging in war, to avenge some insult that had been offered to the family. The original form of government was patriarchal. Every village, which, from the frequency of intermarriage, in fact formed only one family, was governed by its toiôn, or chief; and a union of villages, under some supe- rior toion, on whom valor or wisdom conferred the dignity, formed a kind of state. Under the dominion of Russia, all the primitive institutions and habits of the Aleutians have been greatly modified, and many of them have rapidly disappeared. Unquestionably, the best virtues of savage life have thus been lost; and one of the first effects of civilization was the introduc- tion of its worst vices, and one of its most disgusting diseases. But these are partly compensated by numerous blessings. The Aleutians have already acquired some skill in mechanical arts. Many of them have learned to read, and actually peruse the Scriptures in their own tongue. Their aban- donment of Shamanism for the religion of the Greek church, and the deep interest which they seem to take in its ritual, is probably much less the effect of conviction than of deference to the authority of their masters; but the fact that there are already four churches in the islands, thronged by native worshippers—that the vindictive spirit which at one time prevailed, and made family feuds implacable, has in a great measure disappeared — gives reason to hope that the Aleutians, instead of being regarded as sav- ages, will, at no distant period, be entitled to claim a place among civil- ized men. MOSCOW. 351 CHAPTER XII. N° MOSCOW. city has made a more conspicuous figure in the history of modern Europe than Moscow. It was one of the last scenes in the eventful drama of a period fraught with occurrences of mingled wonder and terror. Long the wonder of the world for its extent, and for the riches of its nobles, it became still more conspicuous in the annals of the world for the desolation which it suffered when at the height of its grandeur; and no stronger instance perhaps exists of the power of human labor, or of the resources of mankind, than the appearance which Moscow, risen from her ashes, presents at this day. The assertion sometimes made, that no city is so irregularly built as Moscow, is in some respects true: none of the streets are straight; the houses, large and small, public buildings, churches, and other edifices, are mingled confusedly together, but it gains by this the advantage of being more picturesque. The streets undulate continually, and thus offer from time to time points of view whence the eye is able to range over the vast ocean of housetops, trees, and gilded and colored domes. But the archi- tecture of Moscow, since the conflagration of 1812, is not quite so bizarre as, according to the accounts of travellers, it was before that event; nev- ertheless it is still singular enough. In 1813, the point chiefly in view was to build, and build quickly, rather than to carry any certain plan into exe- cution; the houses were replaced with nearly the same irregularity with respect to each other, and the streets became as crooked and tortuous as before. The whole gained, therefore, little in regularity from the fire, but each individual house was built in much better taste, gardens became more frequent, the majority of roofs were made of iron, painted green, a lavish use was made of pillars, and even those who could not be profuse erccted more elegant cottages. Hence Moscow has all the charms of a new city, with the pleasing negligence and picturesque irregularity of an old one. the streets, we come now to a large, magnificent palace, with all the pomp of Corinthian pillars, wrought-iron trellis-work, and imposing approaches and gateways; and now to a simple whitewashed house, the abode of a modest citizen's family. Near them stands a small church, with green cupolas and golden stars. Then comes a row of little yellow wooden houses, that remind one of old Moscow; and these are succeeded by one In 352 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. of the new colossal erections for some public institution. Sometimes the road winds through a number of little streets, and the traveller might fancy himself in a country town; suddenly it rises, and he is in a wide "place," from which streets branch off to all quarters of the empire, while the eye wanders over the forest of houses of the great capital; descending again, he comes in the middle of the town to the banks of a river planted thickly with gardens and woods. MOSCOW. Bouchiki AVISO. LOT From Voskresensk Mosk R kr From Sinalensk & Warsaw) 龍​」 目 ​自 ​Find of Sokolniki 200 Στα το Pokrovska Kapiloy -skoi To Vladin To Mading D.Andranovo S Trouzchol Folienzlehrevo The Sparrow From Kalougia Intended sile of St Sayurs- Temple Till English Miles 1. Kremlin. 2. Church of St. Basil. 3. Imperial Palace. 4. Military School. .1 2 To Serpoukhov & Toula 5. Convent of Novo Devitchei. 6. Convent of our Lady of the Don. 7. Convent of St. Daniel. 8. Convent of Simonovskoi. D. Dydrovcha D Kojouchovo D. Kachlika To Kolomma & Riazan R. Moskva 9. Hospital of St. Paul. 10. Hospital of St. Catherine. 11. Institute of Alexander. 12. Foundling Hospital. The exterior wall of Moscow is upward of twenty miles in extent, of a most irregular form, more resembling a trapezium than any other figure. Within this are two nearly concentric circular lines of boulevard, the one at a distance of about a mile and a half from the kremlin,* completed on both sides of the Moskva; the internal one with a radius of about a mile, spreading only on the north of the river, and terminating near the stone bridge on the one side, and the foundling-hospital on the other. The river enters the barrier of the vast city, to which it has given a name,† about the central point of the western side; and, after winding round the De- vitchei convent like a huge serpent, and thence flowing beneath the Tartar * In the ancient Slavonic, kreml, or kremen, signifies "stone;" and any fortified place is a kreml. Many Russian towns, as we have already had occasion several times to mention, have their kreml, or, as it is more properly termed, their kremlin. That of Moscow is, by pre-eminence, the kremlin. † Moscow, or Moskva, is the Russian mode of spelling the name of the river and town; Moscus, the Latin; Moscou, the French; and Moskau, the German. MOSCOW- THE KREMLIN. 353 battlements of the kremlin, and receiving the scanty stream of the Jaousa, issues again into the vast plain, till it meets the Oka, which joins the Volga, the king of the northern rivers, at Nijnei-Novgorod. On the north of the Moskva, streets and houses, in regular succession, reach to the very barrier; and though a vast proportion of ground is left unoccupied, owing to the enormous width of the streets and boulevards, the earthen rampart may truly be said to gird in the city. But in the other quarters, and particularly to the south, the city can hardly be said to extend farther than the outward boulevard. Beyond this there are vast convents the Devitchei, Donskoi (our Lady of the Don), and the Simon- ovskoi; huge hospitals—the Galitzin, the St. Paul, and the Cheremetieff, the largest of all; the race-course, and the beautiful gardens of the princess Galitzin along the banks of the Moskva; fields, and lakes, and marshes; but all these are within the outer enclosure of the outer wall. This will account for its seemingly scanty population (estimated from the last census) of three hundred and sixty thousand souls. The centre of this vast collection of buildings is the kremlin, which, with its beautiful gardens, forms nearly a triangle of somewhat more than a mile in circumference. The original founder of the city settled, without doubt, on the kremlin hill, which naturally remained the nucleus of the city at a later period. Adjoining this to the east comes the Kitai Gorod (Chinese city), which still preserves its ancient fence of towers and but- tresses. Encircling these two divisions, and itself bounded by the river and inner boulevard, lies the Beloi Gorod (White city). The space en- closed between the two circles to the north of the Moskva, and between the river and the outward boulevard on the south, is called the Zmelnoi Gorod (Green city). Beyond the boulevards are the suburbs. Previous to the conflagration of 1812, each of the four quarters was sur- rounded by a wall and bastions: but all perished in that mighty blaze, except the embattled enclosure of the Kitai Gorod, which escaped almost unscathed; and the pious veneration of the worshippers of St. Nicholas soon restored the broken walls and crumbling turrets of the kremlin, "black with the miner's blast," to their present perfect state. The de- fences of the remaining districts have wisely been dispensed with, and a style somewhat resembling that of its previous architecture was observed in repairing the destruction caused by the fire. But this remark does not apply to the interior of the kremlin, where the arsenal and the new impe- rial palace are in modern taste, and quite out of character with the ancient buildings within the walls. Before entering the kremlin, it is well to view it from one or two points on the outside; and the most favorable spot for this purpose, on the south side, is the bridge of Moskva Rekoi. From the river that bathes its base, the hill of the kremlin rises, picturesquely adorned with turf and shrubs. The buildings appear set in a rich frame of water, verdant foliage, and snowy wall-the majestic column of Ivan Veliki rearing itself high above 23 354 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. all, like the axis round which the whole moves. The colors are every- where most lively-red, white, green, gold, and silver. Amid the confu- sion of the numerous small antique edifices, the Bolshoi Dvoretz (the large palace built by the emperor Alexander) has an imposing aspect. The churches and palaces stand on the plateau of the kremlin as on a mighty salver; the little red and gold Church of the Czars coquetting near the border like some pretty little maiden, and the paler-colored cupolas of the Michalis and Uspenski churches representing the broad corpulence of a merchant's wife. The Maloi Dvoretz (Little palace), and the convent of the Miracle, draw modestly back, as beseems hermits and little people. All these buildings stand on the summit of the kremlin, like its crown- themselves again crowned with a multitude of cupolas, of which every church has at least five, and one has sixteen, glittering in gold and silver. The appearance of the whole is most picturesque and interesting, and it is certainly one of the most striking city-views in Europe. The northern side of the kremlin is the least attractive: a plain high wall with two gates separates it from the Krasnoi Ploschad (the Red place). The most adorned is the northwest side. Here, in former times, was the Swan-lake. It is now drained, and its bed forms the site of the Alexander garden, which stretches from the Moskva to the giant wall of the kremlin. What the Acropolis was to Athens, and the Capitol to Rome, the krem- lin is to Moscow. It is surrounded by a strong and lofty wall, embattled with many towers and turrets, and several gates. The most important of these is, beyond doubt, the Spass Vorota (the gate of the Redeemer). It is the porta sacra and porta triumphalis of Moscow. Through it entered the triumphant warriors of Vassili-Ivanovich, after the conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan, and those of Michael and Alexis, after the victories ob- tained in the Ukraine. Over this gate is a picture of the Savior, under a glass, and before it hangs a large, ill-formed lamp, in a massive metal frame; this is suspended by a heavy chain, and under it, to wind it up, stands a complicated old machine, that jarred and rattled here in the time of the czar Michael. A man, whose sole business it is to wind it up, has a table beside him with wax-tapers, which he sells to be lighted before the picture. This shrine is an object of the greatest reverence with the Rus- sians, although few know what it represents, it hangs so high, and the colors are so faded. This gate forms a passage through the tower, of about twenty paces long, and every one, be he what he may, Mohammedan, heathen, or Christian, must take off his hat, and keep it off, till he has passed through to the other side. Any one passing through, and forgetting to uncover, is immediately reminded of the fact, nor would it be safe to neglect the hint. This gate obtained its sacred reputation in the course of centuries, through many re- puted miracles wrought by its means. Often, as the people relate, the Tartars have been driven back from it; miraculous clouds have veiled the defend- MOSCOW — THE KREMLIN. 355 KAME GENERAL VIEW OF THE KREMLIN, Moscow. ers of the kremlin, who sought its shelter, while the pursuing Tartars were unable to find the entrance. Even the presence of the "temple-plundering Gauls," according to the Russians, only served to increase the renown of this gate. They thought the frame of the picture was of gold, and endeav ored to remove it. But every ladder they planted broke in the middle! This enraged the French, who then brought a cannon to batter down door and picture together; but, do what they would, the dry powder was pos- sessed by the devil of water, who was too much for the devil of fire, and would not explode! At last they made a great fire with coals over the touch-hole: the powder was now subdued, but it exploded the wrong way, blowing the cannon into a thousand pieces, and some of the French artille- rymen into the bargain, while gate and picture remained unharmed! The spoilers, now overmastered by dread, withdrew, acknowledging the miracu- lous power. Such is the story told by the taper-seller at the gate. The ori- gin of the custom of uncapping at the "Holy Gate" is unknown; several tra- ditions are extant, yet the authenticity of any fact is lost in the darkness of ages; but the feelings of devotion are still fresh and powerful, and it is to be doubted whether any bribe would be sufficient to induce a Russian to pass this archway, by either day or night, without uncovering his head. The emperor himself bares his imperial brow as he approaches the Spaskoi; the officer and soldier in all the pomp and circumstance of war do the same ; and thus tradition says it has been since the wooden walls of the first krem- lin were raised. The greatest care is taken not to allow dogs to enter by the Savior's gate-a proof that in a religious point of view the Russians look upon this animal as unclean. The Nicholas gate, although not so privileged as the Spass Vorota, has 356 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. also a wonder-working picture, that of St. Nicholas, over it. It was near the entrance of this gate that Napoleon's powder-wagons exploded and destroyed a large part of the arsenal and other buildings. The gate es- caped with a rent, which split the tower in the middle as far as the frame of the picture, which stopped its farther progress. Not even the glass of the picture, or that of the lamp suspended before it, was injured. So says the inscription on the gate, and the remarkable rent is eternalized by a stone differing from the rest in color. All the gates of the kremlin are connected by a strong and lofty wall, which encloses it in the form of a vast triangle with many towers. Within this wall are contained all the most interesting and historically important buildings of Moscow: the holiest churches, with the tombs of the ancient czars, patriarchs, and metropolitans; the remains of the ancient palace of the czars, the new one of the emperor Nicholas, the arsenal, senate-house, &c., and architectural memorials of every period of Russian history—for every Russian monarch has held it his duty to adorn the kremlin with some monument. The two most important remains of the old palace of the czars are the Terema and the Granovitaya Palata-the former containing the gymna- sium, the latter the coronation-hall of the czars. The main body of the palace was so much injured by the French, that no restoration was possible. In its place a new palace was erected, called the Bolshoi Dvoretz (Great palace), or, from its builder, the Alexanderski Dvoretz. The ruins of both the others are by the side of it, and connected with it by stairs and galleries. They were so desolated by the French, that door and window stood open to wind and tempest. The coronation-hall was restored long ago, and the emperor Nicholas has repaired the Terema. * Terema, or terem, is the name given in every Russian peasant's house to the upper part of the building, round which, sheltered by the projecting roof, a balcony runs, and where the daughters and younger children of the house are lodged. It may easily be imagined that the terema plays no in- significant part in the love-songs of the people. This part of the old palace of the czars is called pre-eminently the Terema. The building consists of four stories, of which the lowest is the largest, gradually diminishing, till the upper floor is so small as only to contain one room. On the space thus left by the retreat of the upper story from the ceiling of the under, a bal- cony is formed, with steps both within and without, ascending from one terrace to the other. On the lowest floor are the throne and audience- chambers of the czars; the upper one was the dwelling of the czarovnas (princesses) and the children. All these rooms have been repaired in the old Russian taste. The stoves are very peculiar in form, and all the plates of which they are composed ornamented with paintings. The walls are ornamented with decorations almost outvying the gorgeous glories of the Alhambra. They display an extraordinary confusion of foliage, vine-trel- lises, singularly-imagined flowers, woven in arabesques, and painted with MOSCOW — IMPERIAL PALACES. 357 the gayest colors. Or the painted branches are perched birds, yellow, blue, gold, and silver; squirrels, mice, and other small animals; on every bough hangs a load of costly fruit, and all sorts of knots and figures in gold are entwined among them. Here and there are portraits of the czars, ar- morial bearings, houses in miniature, and what not. Originals for these fancies were found in old churches, but of course the work of the modern artist is much more elegant, richer, and better executed. From one of the terraces of the Terema there is an entrance into the little church of the Redeemer, which was also plundered by the French, but re-endowed most magnificently with gold and silver vessels by the em- perors Alexander and Nicholas. This is ornamented with twelve gilded cupolas, the size of chimneys-the sight of which, no doubt, in the days of childhood, delighted many a czar. It was on the terrace-roof of the Terema, whence there is a splendid view of the city and its environs, that Napoleon placed himself on the first day of his very short stay at Moscow, to behold the beauties of his short-lived and fatal conquest. Connected also with the Bolshoi Dvoretz is the singular building of quad- rangular or cubical form, the Granovitaya Palata. On the second story is the coronation-hall of the czars, a low and vaulted apartment, the arches uniting in the centre, where they rest upon a thick, square column. The crimson-velvet hangings used at Nicholas's coronation still ornament the walls; they are embroidered in gold, with eagles bearing thunderbolts, and with the initials of the emperor: a golden candelabrum is worked be- tween each of these. The throne, under a velvet canopy, is opposite the entrance, and over the windows are the armorial bearings of the different governments of Russia. The pillar in the centre is divided by circular shelves, on which the regalia are displayed on the day of the coronation. Here the emperor sits enthroned, after the ceremony in the cathedral, adorned for the first time with all the imperial insignia, and dines amid his nobles. After that royal feast the room is untrodden, save by the curi- ous stranger, until death calls the reigning czar to the sepulchre of his fathers, and the gorgeous banquet is spread anew for his successor. A long, low passage, the walls of which were richly painted and gilded with barbarous devices, led to the room of state of the rulers of the olden time. They knew not of seat or throne, save the deep niches cut in the painted walls; and where, unless they far out-topped in stature the degen- erate mortals of later times, they must have sat with their royal legs dan- gling most uncomfortably in mid-air, as the niches are between three and four feet from the ground. It has been remarked that, on the spot where the main body of the old Tartar palace stood, the emperor Alexander erected the Bolshoi Dvoretz (Great palace). It is very lofty compared with its façade, but the whole effect is good when viewed from the base upward. The interior is not striking for either its decorations or furniture; nevertheless, the palace, though of such recent erection, is not without interest. The rooms, which 358 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. have been at various times inhabited by members of the imperial family, are in exactly the same state as when they left them; and the servants who show the building announce the history of each room as the throne- room of the emperor Alexander, the bath-room of the empress Maria Feo- dorovna, &c. Almost every room is illustrated by silent memorials of those who once occupied the apartments. In the apartment of the empe- ror Alexander is a pocket-handkerchief which he left here before he set out for Taganrog; there are also some instruments which indicate what his occupations were-as a rule, quadrant, black-lead pencil, India rubber, &c. His bedroom is as simple as it can well be: a bed with a straw-mat- tress, half a dozen leather-covered chairs, and a small looking-glass, make up the whole furniture. The Maloi Dvoretz (Little palace), adjoining the Granovitaya Palata, was built by the emperor Nicholas, and nothing like magnificence has been displayed; on the contrary, the furniture and general arrangements are, as in the private palace at St. Petersburg, of the simplest kind. This was the emperor's residence before his elevation to the throne, and, having spent the first years of his married life here, he is much attached to it. The musket of a common soldier is shown in one of the rooms, as a favor- ite piece of furniture, and with it Nicholas used to go through the manual exercise, while giving his little sons their first lessons in the art of war. Some Polish eagles are to be seen here. From the windows of this palace, the emperor, when residing at Moscow, shows himself to his admiring sub- jects, who assemble to see him on the parade-ground below. There are some interesting pictures here, by Bernardo Belotto de Cana- letto, representing scenes in Polish history. One is particularly interest- ing and beautifully executed, portraying very faithfully the "Election of Stanislaus Augustus by the Diet of Warsaw, in 1764." The king is rep- resented as crowned in the open air, on the field of Vola; and round his throne sit the nobility and clergy, the former with their swords drawn. In one of the rooms is the mattress of the emperor Nicholas, on which he lies without any other bed between, and stuffed so hard and light, that a shutter, in the absence of it, would scarcely inconvenience his imperial majesty! The library in the emperor's cabinet contains all the works that have been written concerning Moscow, in French, Russian, and German. In another of the apartments, and under a glass case, are a number of loaves, which have been presented to the emperor on his various visits to Moscow. When the sovereign arrives, it is customary for the golova, or chief person, attended by some of the principal citizens, to wait on him, and present on a silver salver and a gold salt-cellar, bread and salt, re- questing him to taste the bread of Moscow. The emperor thanks him, breaks off a piece of the roll, eats it, and then invites the golova to eat his bread—that is, to partake of a splendid dinner, prepared at the palace, at which he is presented to the empress and the different members of the imperial family. MOSCOW- 359 CATHEDRAL OF THE ASSUMPTION. It is difficult to say how many churches there are in Moscow, the several accounts differ so widely. Some speak of fifteen hundred, others five hun- dred, and one writer places their number under three hundred. Some include chapels, public and private, and those in convents, in the category; also the winter and summer churches, separately, for there is one for each season, as well as those which are joined together-and this mode of cal- culation would soon swell their numbers to thousands. There is exagger- ation in this, but there are some churches in the old capital which do in fact consist of several joined together, of which each has its own name, and is quite separate from the rest; in this manner the church of the Pro- tection of the Holy Virgin might be set down as twelve. It is sufficient to say, therefore, that the buildings in Moscow destined for Divine service are almost countless, but the quintessence and holiest of them all, in the eyes of the Russians, is on the height of the kremlin. This consecrated spot, the Sabornoi Ploschad (Cathedral place), has been surrounded by the emperor Nicholas with a lofty and magnificent iron gra- ting, and contains the Uspenski Sabor (cathedral of the Assumption), the Arkhangelskoi Sabor (church of the Archangel Michael), and our Lady of the Cave. It is hard to say which is the most important, but perhaps the preference belongs to the Uspenskoi Sabor, as the emperors are crowned in it, and the patriarch of the Greek church formerly officiated here. The name of a cathedral leads a western European or an American to expect great space and lofty arches, in which the voice returns in echo, and the eye loses itself in distance; but these expectations will not be ful- filled in a Russian one. According to the national taste, a church must be crowded with pictures and shrines: and thus, in this cathedral, eye and spirit are bewildered with the glitter of gold and the glare of color. The whole church is gilt within; even the heavy pillars that support the five cupolas are covered with this material from top to bottom, and the walls the same; and on this golden ground large fresco-paintings have been exe- cuted, the subjects taken from the Bible. The figures are gigantic, and distinguished by astonishing strength of grimace; they are said to have been painted by foreign artists at the command of the czar Vassili-Ivano- vich, but they are entirely Russian as well as the church, and the artists must have yielded to the national spirit. There is more gilding than gold in this church, for the French seem to have distinguished the true metal from the false better here than in the castle-chapel, where they left a quan- tity of gold, mistaking it for copper. The priests contrived, however, to secure a pretty little salvage out of the shipwreck of 1812-among other things a Mount Sinai of pure ducat gold, a present from Prince Potemkin. On the summit stands golden Moses, with a golden table of the law; and within the mountain is a golden coffin to contain the host: it is said to weigh a hundred and twenty thou- sand ducats. A bible, the gift of Natalia Narishkin, the mother of Peter the Great, is so large, and the cover so laden with gold and jewels, that it * 360 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. requires two men to carry it into the church; it is said to weigh a hundred and twenty pounds. The emeralds on the cover are an inch long, and the H 000 ROBERT. Cathedral OF THE ASSUMPTION, Moscow,* whole binding cost one million two hundred thousand roubles, a sum for which all the books in Moscow might be handsomely bound. Among the other remarkable objects in this church is the great chestnut- * A view of the interior of this cathedral is given on page 559. MOSCOW — HOUSE OF THE HOLY SYNOD. 361 colored wooden throne-seat of Vladimir the Great, enclosed within a house of brass-work, which the Russians say is an imitation of the tomb of Christ; and also a miraculous picture of the Savior. Here too is to be seen a nàil, claimed to be of the true cross, a robe of the Savior's, and part of one of the Virgin Mary's. There is likewise a picture of her, which, it is said, was painted by St. Luke, and brought from Constantinople by one of the early czars! The face is dark, almost black, the head encircled with a glory of precious stones, and the hands and body gilded. From the cen- tre of the roof is suspended a crown of massive silver, with forty-eight chandeliers, all in a single piece, and weighing nearly three thousand pounds. The pictures of the saints on the walls are twenty-three hundred in number; and besides these there are portraits of the ancient Greek and Roman historians, whose names, to prevent confusion, are attached to their resemblance. The cathedral of the Assumption was founded in 1325, and rebuilt in 1472. Here are the tombs of the patriarchs of the Greek church, one of whom, St. Philip, and honored by a silver monument, dared to say to Ivan the Terrible, “We respect you as an image of the Divinity, but as a man you partake of the dust of the earth!" The most notable object of the whole collection, however, is the golden shrine of the patriarch Nicon, in the sacristry, whose mouldering skeleton is here preserved, together with his wooden spoon. When he held the crosier, it was mightier than the sceptre in Russia, for he governed the indolent prince Alexis-Michaelovich (father of Peter the Great); but a conspiracy of the nobles drove him from power to the Bielosersk convent, where he had begun his career as a priest. Behind the cathedral of the Assumption stands the house which formerly belonged to the patriarchs of Moscow, now called the Synodalni Dom, be- cause a section of the "Holy Synod" has its offices here. It contains the library of the patriarchs, their treasury, and their wardrobe; and in the church attached to it is preserved the mir, the holy oil that is used in bap- tizing all the children in Russia. The books are kept in glass cases in the church itself; and in the mid- dle, round the pillar that sustains the vaulted roof, the vessels used in pre- paring and preserving the oil are ranged on semicircular shelves. At the baptism of the child, the priest crosses, with a small camel's-hair pencil dipped in the oil, the mouth, eyes, ears, hands, and feet: the eyes, that the child may only see good; the ears, that they may admit only what is good; the mouth, that he may speak as beseems a Christian; the hands, that he may do no wrong; the feet, that they may tread in the path of the just. The holy oil, the mir, which is to effect all this, is of course no common oil. The finest Florence is used, mingled with a number of essences, the quantity and quality of which are strictly defined; but the soul of the mix- ture consists of some reputed drops from the oil-flask of the Magdalen who washed the feet of the Savior! Two great silver kettles, the gift of Catherine II., aro used in the prepa- 362 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ration of the sacred oils: four weeks elapse before the mass is perfectly mingled, before the due number of prayers have been made, and before, amid pious psalmody, every drop has been refined and signed with the cross. From the kettles the oil is poured into silver jars, thirty in num- ber, the gift of the emperor Paul, and these are sealed with the seal of the synod, and placed on stages round the central pillar of the church. The quantity made at one time-about three and a half gallons-supplies all Russia for one and a half or two years. Every bishop either comes him- self or sends a confidential person to Moscow, to fetch a supply for his diocese, who receives it from the metropolitan. The cost of the whole is about five thousand roubles. Everything employed in the operation is silver, as well as the kettles and the jars to keep it in, the sieve for strain- ing, the spoons for stirring, &c. Among the patriarchs' books there are a number of rare bibles in differ- ent languages, so inestimably precious, that they are always kept under lock and key, and shown to no one. Thus, in time, they will be eaten by the worms without any person being the wiser. The four gospels, trans- cribed by the daughter of Michael Romanoff, and sister of the czar Alexis, are shown here. Every letter is carefully and beautifully painted. There is probably nowhere to be found such a monument of pious industry of so recent a date. The Arkhangelskoi Sabor (cathedral of the Archangel Michael), also in the kremlin, although dedicated to the angel of the flaming sword, has such very diminutive windows, that all the light of its jewels, and all the glitter of its gold, are barely sufficient to enlighten its blackened walls. The shrine that shines the brightest in the night of this church is that of a little boy, in whose name more blood has been shed than in that of any child in the world, and whose memory is now worshipped here. It is the last false Dmitri (Demetrius), who has long rested here, and enjoyed the homage of all Russia; and as he now makes no claim to an earthly kingdom, he enjoys his share in the heavenly kingdom uncontested. Of course, the Russians do not esteem him the false but the real Dmitri. The fact they adduce in proof of this is exactly what raises in others the greatest doubt. They say that, after the body of the royal child had been in vain sought for in Uglitsh, where he was murdered by the emissaries of Boris Godunoff, it arose, coffin and all, from the ground, at God's command, and presented itself to the longing people, whereby its genuineness was palpably mani- fested! Be this as it may, the mummy of a boy of five or six years of age, magnificently clad, is exposed on festivals in an open coffin. Every part is veiled but the forehead, which is kissed by his adorers. Above the cof- fin is the portrait of the little canonized prince, attached to a pillar, and set in a raised frame of the finest gold. Being well concealed, it escaped the French in 1812. How strong is the affection the Russians still feel for this last offshoot of the old Rurik dynasty was recently testified by a gift made to the young MOSCOW CHURCH OF THE ANNUNCIATION. 363 martyr, by the inhabitants of Uglitsh, of a new silver, candlestick, as tall as an ordinary man, with a profusely-decorated pedestal, and a large, flat top. On this top is a cavity in the centre for the reception of a thick wax- candle, with a number of smaller cavities around, for candles of different dimensions. A whole body must necessarily take precedence of a few drops of blood. Hence, a few drops claimed to be of the veritable blood of John Baptist after he was beheaded, are little regarded by the Russians, although set in gold, with diamond rays like the centre of a star. One would think that the blood of John Baptist was immeasurably dearer to Christendom than that of this royal child; but in Russia the Christian religion is everywhere overshadowed by the Russian. The pictures of Paul, Peter, and the other apostles, are seldom seen, in either the churches or private houses; whereas St. Vladimirs, Dmitris, Nicholases, and Gregorys, are met with at every turn. Even the Savior and Mary his mother must take a Greek or Rus- sian title before they enjoy meet reverence. The Iberian Boshia Mater, and she of Kazan, are quite other godheads from the suffering Virgin. The czars down to Peter the Great (since whom the sovereigns have been buried in the fortress of Peter and Paul, at St. Petersburg) lie in the church of the Archangel Michael. Their portraits, as large as life, are painted in fresco round the walls, each wrapped in a white mantle, by his own tomb, as if watching it. They are all evidently made after one pat- tern, and that no very choice one. The tombs are nothing better than heaps of brick whitened over. On the walls and cover of the sarcophagi are inscribed the names and paternal names of the czars, with the years of their birth and death. The tomb of Ivan the Terrible and his ill-fated son are here. A portion of the screen in this church is one sheet of pure gold. Close to this cathedral is an odd-looking church, which is constantly thronged with devotees. It is said to be the most ancient in Moscow. The walls are of immense strength. The church of the Annunciation has its floor paved with stones of all sizes and shapes—jasper, agate, and cornelian. Here is the royal seat of the czars, made of wood, covered with silver gilt, and shaped like a sugar- bowl, with a cover to match. This church is rich in relics of all the saints in the calendar, not a few in number; but the most remarkable object is a fresco-painting on the wall, representing an assembly of good and evil spirits, the latter headed by Satan himself, breathing flame and smoke, and horned, hoofed, and tailed! "The French," says Kohl, "left a large ham in pickle on the kremlin. The priests repeated with deep emotion the story of the French stabbing their horses in this church, and people from the provinces never hear this without shuddering, and swearing eternal hatred to that nation." In addition to the churches and palaces already enumerated, there is in the kremlin an immense pile of buildings called "the Senate," within the 364 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. walls of which are the offices of all the various departments of the local government. This building forms one side of a triangle, the remaining two being composed of the treasury and arsenal. In the vestibule of the treasury, or Orovjie Pallast, is a collection of busts of noble Poles, "quiet memorials of very unquiet gentlemen," mostly of the seventeenth and eigh- teenth centuries, finely executed, and evident likenesses; and on this, the ground-floor, there is also a very curious and large collection of the state- carriages of former sovereigns. Among them is that of a Russian patri- arch, which has talc windows; likewise a very small one that belonged to Peter the Great when a child; and a sledge fitted up like a drawing-room, in which the empress Elizabeth and twelve of her suite used to dine when on her journeys between the two capitals: it is not unlike the cabin of a ship, with a table in the centre; the interior is well but not luxuriously fitted up. Some of these ancient equipages have whole fir-trees for their axles! One of them is said to have been built in England. Here also is a model of an ill-conceived and extravagant design for a palace, which Catherine II. is said to have contemplated erecting on the kremlin hill. Everything, with the exception of the old churches and tower, was to have been levelled with the ground, and this giant palace, forming a screen round the whole, was intended to replace them. The circumference of the walls of this building would have been two miles; the model is said to have cost twelve thousand dollars! Luckily, some new freak of fancy interfered to save the kremlin from this threatened desecra- tion; and the model, beautifully executed, and capable of being taken en- tirely to pieces by means of numerous sliding panels, remains a memorial of the skill and dexterity of the artist. ✔ Here, too, is preserved the alarm-bell of "the mighty Novgorod," which, in the days of its power and celebrity, was looked upon as the palladium of that proud city, and the removal of which to Moscow was considered by the citizens as the final blow to its prosperity. Its size, though con- siderable, is here scarcely appreciated, from the immediate contrast with the "monarch bell," in the adjoining square. The chief attraction, however, is in the upper story of the treasury, where, in a suite of rooms, are collected and arranged the crowns of the early czars, warlike trophies and trappings, and a host of historical knick- knacks too numerous to mention. In one room is a man's saddle and trappings belonging to Catherine II., on which she used to exhibit herself to her loving subjects in the uniform of her guards—a very favorite amuse- ment of that empress; and certainly, to judge from the full-length picture, the costume became her bravely. The bridle-head and reins, as well as the stirrups and saddle-cloth, are most lavishly strewn with diamonds, amethysts, and large turquoises. Nor are memorials of the great Peter wanting. Among them are his huge pocket-book, of coarse leather; his immense drinking-cup; also a glass cup, with a ducat enclosed in it, blown by the czar himself; and nu- MOSCOW TREASURY-PALACE OF ARMS THE MONARCH BELL. 365 merous specimens of his mechanical skill and unwearied industry. A curious model of a ship, of silver gilt, sent to him from Holland, is worthy of notice. A large recess is occupied with a most miscellaneous assortment of clothes, belonging to five or six successive occupants of the Russian throne; the coarse brown frock of Peter the Great is ranged beside the splendidly- embroidered robes of his consort, and the still more gorgeous apparel of the second Catherine. Here, too, is the canopy of state beneath which, at the coronation, the emperor walks from his palace to the cathedral of the Assumption; while the whole extent of one long wall is occupied by an array of boots, from the massive and iron-bound jack-boots of Peter to the delicate beaver-skin of the emperor Alexander, apparently but little fitted for a Russian winter. In a court near the treasury, or, as it is sometimes termed, the Orushei- naya Palata (palace of Arms), are arranged the cannon taken by the Rus- sians during the disastrous retreat of the French in 1812. A trophy com- posed of them, erected in the most conspicuous spot in the kremlin, would make an excellent pendant to the column in the Place Vendôme at Paris, erected by Napoleon from cannon taken at Marengo and Austerlitz. Most of these guns, and others, are ranged in long rows, with small shields, erected on staves, to indicate to which nation they originally belonged. The arsenal, to the right of the senate, contains a magazine of weapons sufficient to arm a hundred thousand men, and a collection of standards of Russia's enemies. The spoils of Pougatcheff are the only objects of inter- est. This rebellious Cossack once terrified the Russian empire with can- non at which Russian children would now laugh. They are nothing more than clumsy iron tubes, and the coarse seam of the joining is visible. The flag carried before this plunderer is worthy of the ordnance, being of coarse sackcloth, with a Madonna painted on it. This rag was fastened to a staff which looks as if it had been fashioned by a bill-hook. The standard, how- ever, possessed, in all probability, a kind of sanctity, for a breach in the centre is carefully repaired with an iron ring. The muskets are principally of Toula manufacture, and in a press are kept specimens of the muskets of other nations. Close to the tower of Ivan Veliki, and reared on a massive pedestal of granite, stands the mighty bell, most justly named "the Monarch" (Czar Kolokol), for no other in the world may dispute its sovereignty. It was cast by the command of the empress Anne, in 1730, and bears her figure in flowing robes upon its surface, beneath which is a deep border of flow- ers. It is said that the tower in which it originally hung was burnt in 1737, and its fall buried the enormous mass deep in the earth, and broke a huge fragment from it. There it lay for many years, visited in its sub- terraneous abode by the enterprising traveller only, and carefully guarded by a Russian sentinel. In the spring of 1837, exactly a century after it fell, the emperor Nicholas caused it to be removed, and, rightly deeming 366 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. C THE GREAT Bell of Moscow. it to be one of the greatest wonders of this wondrous city, placed it upon its present pedestal, with the broken fragment beside it. The fracture took place just above the bordering of flowers that runs round the bell, and this piece is about six feet high and three feet wide. The height of the whole bell is twenty-one feet three inches, and twenty-two feet five inches in diameter, and it is in no part less than three inches in thickness. Seen from even a short distance, surrounded as it is on all sides by objects on such an immense scale, with the lofty Ivan Veliki towering immediately behind it, the impression of its magnitude is by no means striking: it is only when the spectator comes near to it, and stands beside the broken fragment of this metal mountain, or descends the stairs that lead beneath it and looks up into its capacious cavern, that he becomes sensible of its enormous bulk. This giant communicator of sound has been consecrated as a chapel, and the entrance to it is by an iron gate, and down a few steps that descend into a cavity formed by the wall and the excavation under it. 66 The Czar Kolokol" is highly venerated, for the religious feelings of the people were called into action when it was cast, and every one who had a fraction of the precious metals threw into the melting mass some. offering of either silver or gold; the decorative parts of it are in low relief, and badly executed. The largest bell in France, that of Rouen, weighs but thirty-six thousand pounds; the famous "Tom" of Lincoln, in England, cast in 1610, and afterward cracked, was not quite ten thousand pounds, though the new one is somewhat larger; the great fire-bell in the tower of MOSCOW- -THE TOWER OF IVAN VELIKI. 367 the city-hall at New York is only about twenty-one thousand pounds; but the bell of the kremlin weighs between three and four hundred thousand pounds! The value of this mass of metal, estimated from the present price of copper, must be upward of a million and a half of dollars. Bells, as well as everything else connected in the remotest degree with ecclesiastical purposes, are held in great respect by the Russian people, but that of the kremlin is recommended to especial veneration by the name of the "Eter- nal Bell." The tower of Ivan Veliki (John the Great) is a most singular building; rising without ornament of any kind to the height of more than two hun- dred feet, surmounted by a gilded dome, upon which, as on all the other gilded domes within the kremlin (about sixty in number), the cross is dis- played above the crescent. This tower, the loftiest and most remarkable in Moscow, is the campanile to the church of St. Nicholas the Magician. The summit is gained by a good staircase, and the view from each story, which serves as a belfry, stimulates the visiter to renew his exertions to reach the top. In the first of these stories hangs, in solitary grandeur, a bell, which, but for the mightier one below, would appear stupendous. It weighs sixty-four tons; it is consequently four times as heavy as the famous bell of Rouen, and six times that of the city-hall in New York. To ring it is, of course, impossible: even to toll it requires the united strength of three men, who, pulling with separate ropes, swing the vast clapper round, making it strike the bell in three different places. Standing under it, and with his arm stretched out above his head, the traveller, even if a tall man, will fail to touch the top. In the belfry above that in which this is suspended are two other bells of far smaller but still of immense propor- tions; and above these are forty or fifty more, which diminish in size in each tier successively. The tones of these various bells are said to be very beautiful. A superior dexterity in casting metals, traditionally preserved in this part of the earth from the earliest times, is proved by the bells now hang- ing in this tower, which were cast soon after the erection of the church in 1600. The largest, described above, is held sq sacred, that it is sounded but three times a year, and then alone; the others are rung all together, and an extraordinary noise they must make: but this din and jumble of sounds is that which is most pleasing to Russian ears! On Easter eve a death- like silence reigns in all the streets, until on a sudden, at midnight, the thunders of the guns of the kremlin, and the uproar of its bells, supported by those of two hundred and fifty other churches, are heard. The streets and church-towers are illuminated, and a dense throng of four hundred thousand people seems inspired with but one thought and feeling with mutual felicitations and embraces, all repeat the words "Christ is risen,” and all evince joy at the glad tidings. The view from the summit of this tower is one of the most remarkable in Europe. Clustered round it are the numerous gilt domes of the churches 368 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. within the kremlin, and those of the ancient and peculiar building called the tower of the kremlin ; among these are grouped the treasury, the bishop's palace, and other modern edifices, strangely out of keeping with the eastern architecture of the place, all of which are enclosed by the lofty embattled walls and fantastic towers of the fortress. Near the "Holy Gate," the green towers of which are surmounted by golden eagles, is the cathedral of St. Basil, grotesque in form and color; and winding under the terrace of the kremlin gardens is the Moskva, the silvery though narrow line of which may be traced far into the country. Round this brilliant centre stretches on every side the city and its suburbs, radiant in all the colors of the rainbow, which are used in the decoration of the roofs and walls of the churches and houses; the effect of this mosaic is heightened by the foliage of the trees which grow in many parts of the town as well as on the banks of the river. The Greek façade of the found- ling-hospital attracts attention from its extreme length and the style of its architecture, in such striking contrast with that of the town generally. The old monasteries, with their bright-blue domes spangled with golden stars, and minarets gilt or colored, particularly of the Simonov and Don- skoi, surrounded by groves of trees, lie scattered on the skirts of the town. Beyond these are the Sparrow hills, on which Napoleon paused ere he de- scended to take possession of the devoted city. No view of any capital in Europe can be compared with that of Moscow from this tower, except that of Constantinople from the Galata or Seraskier's, which surpasses it in beauty, for the horizon here is one unbroken line of dreary steppe, while at Stamboul the distance is formed by the sea of Marmora and the snowy summits of Olympus. In St. Petersburg, all is whitewash, and stiff and stately, but in her ancient rival all is picturesque; the city seems to work gradually upon the feelings as by a spell: her wild Tartar invaders and boyard chiefs of the olden time rise up in the imagination and people again in fantastic array the wide terrace of the old fortress; while the deeds of the foreign invaders of our own times impart a thrilling interest to the scene the northern limit of the long career of Napoleon's conquests. Descending from the tower of Ivan Veliki, the traveller may pass by the emperor's palace to the western gate of the kremlin, which, like the other three entrances, has a lofty, tapering tower of green and white, and a gilt eagle for its vane. Here a flight of steps lead into the kremlin gardens, which bound the whole western part of the fortress; these are beautifully laid out, and on this spot fireworks are let off on the eve of every festival. The cathedral of St. Basil, also called the church of the Protection of Mary, is situated on the Krasnoi Ploschad (Red place), between the walls of the kremlin and those of the Kitai Gorod (Chinese city), and an edifice more bizarre, in point of both form and color, can not well be imagined. Standing alone at the extremity of this wide area, the Vassili Blagennoi seems erected in this conspicuous situation as if to show how grotesque a MOSCOW —— CATHEDRAL OF ST. BASIL. 369 AN 16 DAK CATHEDRAL OF ST. BASIL, Moscow. building the ingenuity of man could devote to the service of his Maker. There are no less than twenty towers and domes, all of different shapes and sizes, and painted in every possible color: some are covered with a network of green over a surface of yellow, another dome is a bright red with broad white stripes, and a third is gilded! Some historians affirm that it was built to com- memorate the capture of Kazan; others that it was a whim of Ivan the Terrible, to try how many distinct chapels could be erected under one roof, on a given extent of ground, in such a manner that divine service could be performed in all simultaneously without any interference one with another. It is also said that the czar was so delighted with the architect, an Italian, who had thus admirably gratified his wishes, that when the edi- fice was finished he sent for him, pronounced a warm panegyric on his work, and then had his eyes put out, in order that he might never build such another!—a strange caprice of cruelty, if true-punishing the mau, not for failing, but succeeding, in gratifying his employer. The entire structure is far from forming a whole, for no main building is discoverable in this architectural maze; in every one of the towers or domes lurks a separate church, in every excrescence a chapel; or they may be likened to chimneys expanded to temples. One tower stands forth prominently amid the confusion, yet it is not in the centre, for there is in fact neither centre nor side, neither beginning nor end; it is all here and there. Strictly speaking, this tower is no tower at all, but a church, and the chief one in the knot of churches, the "church of the Protection of Holy Mary." This tower, one hundred and fifty feet in height, is quite 24 370 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. hollow within, having no division of any kind, and lessening by degrees to the summit; and from its small cupola the portrait of the "protecting Mother" looks down as if from heaven. This church is placed as it were upon the neck of another, from the sides of which a number of chapels pro- ceed-Palm-Sunday chapel, the chapel of the Three Patriarchs, of Alex- ander Svirskoi, and others. Service is performed in these on one day in the year only. The greater part is so filled up with sacred utensils and objects of adoration, that there is hardly any room left for the pious who come to pray. Some of the chapels have a kind of cupola like a turban, as if they were so many Turks' heads from which Ivan had scooped the Mohammedan brains and supplied their place with Christian furniture! Some of the stones of the cupolas are cut on the sides, others not; some are three-sided, some four-sided; some are ribbed, or fluted; some of the flutes are perpendicular, and some wind in spiral lines round the cupola. To render the kaleidoscope appearance yet more perfect, every rib and every side is painted of a different color. Those neither cut in the sides nor ribbed are scaled with little smooth, glazed, and painted bricks; and, when these scales are closely examined, they even are seen to differ from one another; some are oval, others cut like leaves. The greater part of the cupola-crowned towers have a round body, but not all; there are six- sided and eight-sided towers. From remote times wax-taper sellers have established themselves be- tween the entrances, and there they display their gilded and many-colored wares. From one corner the upper churches are gained by a broad, cov- ered flight of steps, which is beset day and night by hungry beggars who look to be fed by the devout. These steps lead to a gallery or landing- place which branches off right and left to a labyrinth of passages leading to the separate doors of the temple on the roof, so narrow and winding that it costs many a painful effort to work one's way through. In some parts they are convenient enough, and even expand into spacious terraces. Where they lead outward they are of course covered, and their roofs are supported by pillars of different forms and sizes. Whole flocks of half- wild pigeons, that build their nests here, are constantly flying in and out. Imagine, then, all these points and pinnacles surmounted by crescents, and by very profusely-carved crosses, fancifully wreathed with gilded chains; imagine, further, with how many various patterns of arabesques every wall and passage is painted; how from painted flower-pots gigantic thistles, flowers, and shrubs, spring forth-vary into vine-wreaths-wind and twist further till they end in simple lines and knots; imagine the now somewhat-faded colors-red, blue, green, gold, and silver-all fresh and gaudy-and the reader may in some degree comprehend how these build- ings must have delighted the eye of the barbarous Ivan! The chapel of the "Iberian Mother of God" (called in Russian the Iver- skaya Boshia Mater) stands at the foot of the hill by which the Krasnov Ploschad is reached, and close to the "Sunday Gate" (Voskressenskaia MOSCOW 371 CHAPEL OF THE IBERIAN MOTHER OF GOD. Vorota), the most frequented entrance to Moscow. The Red place is here entered by a double archway in the barrier-wall of the old Tartar division of the city; and between the two gateways, in a space about twenty feet wide, is the oratory in question. Georgia gave birth to the miraculous picture of the Iberian Mother: thence it passed to a monastery on Mount Athos, in Macedonia; and some centuries after, her reputation for miracu- lous powers spread to Russia, when the czar Alexis-Michaelovich, who flourished in 1650,"invited her to Moscow, and fixed her abode at the Voskressensk gate." The figure of the saint, resplendent with gold and precious stones, is placed in a kind of sanctuary, at one end of the chapel. Striking as the devotion of the Russian appears to be at St. Petersburg and elsewhere, it is not for a moment to be compared with what one wit- nesses daily in Moscow, not only in the churches, but also before the shrines. and chapels in the streets; and no Russian leaves or arrives at Moscow, on or from a journey, without invoking the Iberian Mother's blessing. Pass when he pleases, the traveller will remark that this chapel is beset by worshippers: the first step is always fully occupied, while others, una- ble to reach that more favorite spot, kneel on various parts of the pave- ment; and a greater degree of earnestness will be observed in the devo- tions of those who pray here than in any other church of Moscow. "" The doors of the chapel stand open the whole day, and all are admitted who are in sorrow, and heavy laden; and this includes here, as everywhere else, a considerable number, and the multitudes that stream in testify the power which this picture exercises over their minds. None ever pass, how- ever pressing their business, without bowing and crossing themselves; the greater part enter, kneel devoutly down before the picture of " the Mother,' and pray with fervent sighs. Here come the peasants early in the morn- ing, before going to market, who lay aside their burdens, pray a while, and then go their way; hither comes the merchant on the eve of a new speculation, to ask the assistance of "the Mother;" hither come the healthy and the sick, the wealthy, and those who would become so; the arriving and the departing traveller, the fortunate and the unfortunate, the noble and the beggar-all pray, thank, supplicate, sigh, laud, and pour out their hearts. Fashionable ladies leave their splendid equipages and gal- lant attendants, and prostrate themselves in the dust with the beggars. On a holyday two or three hundred passing pilgrims may be seen kneeling before "the Iberian Mother." Since the time of Alexis, the czars have never failed to visit it frequently; the emperor Nicholas never omits to do so when he comes to Moscow, and it is said that he has more than once in the middle of the night wakened the monks, in order that he might perform his devotions. The picture is also, if desired, carried to the houses of sick persons; and a carriage with four horses is kept constantly ready, in which it is transported with pomp to the bed of the dying. The visit costs five rou- bles, and a present is usually made to the monks. 372 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The churches of Moscow, as we have already stated, are almost count less. Scarcely a street can be traversed without a cluster of green or red domes and minarets meeting the traveller's eye. The convents and mon- asteries are also numerous, and situated, some in the interior and oldest parts of the city, others in the meadows and gardens of the suburbs, their walls embracing so many churches, buildings, gardens, and fields, and crowned with such numerous towers, that each looks like a little town. Those monasteries most deserving mention are the Donskoi (dedicated to the Cossacks of the Don), situated near the southern barrier, surrounded with ancient walls, painted in broad streaks of white and red, surmounted by battlements like those of the kremlin, and containing within its enclo- sure six churches and chapels, several courts, a plantation of birch-wood, and dwellings for the archimandrate and monks; the Simonovskoi, at the southeast corner of the city-wall, near where the Moskva quits it, and with more of the appearance of a fortress than a monastery, its lofty battle- mented walls being actually mounted with a few small pieces of ordnance; and the Devitchei convent, at the southwest corner, with walls, flanked by sixteen towers; a number of churches, one of them containing the tombst of several czarinas and princesses; and a churchyard, beautifully laid out with shrubs and flowers, and containing a great number of fine monuments. Close to this convent is the Devitchei-foll, or Maidens' Field, where the emperors, on their coronation, entertain their subjects. The emperor Nich- olas here, on that occasion, dined fifty thousand persons! Among educational establishments, the only one deserving of particular notice is the university, whose jurisdiction is not confined to the city or government of Moscow, but extends over the governments of Tver, Yaro- slav, Kostroma, Vladimir, Riazan, Tambov, Orel, Toula, Kalouga, and Smolensk. It was established by the empress Elizabeth, in 1755; it consists of four faculties, and is attended by about nine hundred students. Its scientific collections are poor, compared with the best of those in the west of Europe, but it is tolerably rich in anatomical preparations. In connection with it is a gymnasium, a library of fifty thousand volumes, an observatory, botanical garden, &c. Among benevolent establishments are the Alexander hospital and St. Catherine's hospital, both situated near the northern barrier of the city, and another hospital of St. Catherine, near the northeastern corner; two military hospitals in the eastern, a widow's hospital in the western, and St. Paul's hospital and the Galitzin hospital in the southern sections of the city. Another, the foundling-hospital, situated on the northern bank of the Moskva, a little to the east of the Kitai Gorod, has acquired more celebrity than all the rest; but whether it is entitled to be ranked among benevolent establishments is questionable, as all children, up to a certain age, are received on presentation, and no questions asked. The number actually in the house, or supported in some way or other by the institution, is upward of twenty-five thousand! MOSCOW — PUBLIC BUILDINGS — COMMERCE — HISTORY. 373 Moscow possesses two theatres-one, where the performances are in French; and the other, or Alexander theatre, where they are in Russian. Among the other buildings or places worthy of notice are the great riding- school, situated to the west of the kremlin, and supposed to be the largest building in the world unsupported by pillar or prop of any kind; the prin- 'cipal bazar, or gostinöi dvor, in the Kitai Gorod, a colossal building of three stories, where wholesale merchants, to the number of more than a thousand, carry on their trade; the Riadi, an open space in the same vicinity, occupied by narrow streets of shops; the barracks, along the east- ern side of the inner boulevard; and the race-course, a large oval space, elongated north and south, and almost touching the southern barrier. The number of open and planted spaces throughout the city is very great. Sev- eral of these, including the boulevards, have been already mentioned; and we may now add the princess Galitzin's gardens, stretching along the right bank of the Moskva, and beautifully laid out, but now partly occupied by the empress's villa; and the Sparrow hills to the southwest. Manufactures of various kinds are carried on to a great extent within the city; but they bear only a small proportion to those which are carried on, on its account, in the surrounding towns and villages. The principal establishments are for textile fabrics, chiefly woollen, cotton, and silk, in all of which much steam-power and the most improved machinery are em- ployed; the other principal articles are hats, hardware, leather, chemical products, beer, and brandy. From its central position, Moscow is the great entrepôt for the internal commerce of the empire. Great facilities for this commerce are given by water-communication, which extends, on one side, to the Baltic; on an- other, to the Caspian; and, on a third, to the Black sea; and also by the railway to St. Petersburg. In winter, the traffic over the snow in sledges is enormous as many as three thousand six hundred, loaded with goods. for Teflis alone, have been known to leave the city in a single year. Moscow, for administrative purposes, is divided into twenty-one districts; and is under the immediate charge of a general and military governor. It is the seat of important civil and criminal courts, and of various superin- tending boards of police, manufactures, trade, &c.; and has several liter- ary, scientific, and other societies; among which, one of the most prominent is the Bible Society, established in 1813. The foundation of Moscow dates from the year 1147. Its nucleus was the kremlin, which, at first, was nearly surrounded by a palisade, and formed an important military station. For a long time it continued to be a dependency on the principality of Vladimir; and, in 1238, when the cruel Tartar chieftain Batou Khan, a follower of the great Zinghis, devas- tated Russia, it was both sacked and burnt. In 1293 it was again sacked, and the inhabitants were dragged away into slavery, by Khan Nagai, an- other Tartar invader. It afterward became a prey to intestine dissen- sions several princes disputing the possession of it; but at last, Dmitri, 374 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. surnamed Donskoi, became sole master, and died in 1389, after having done more for its prosperity than any one into whose hands it had previ- ously fallen. From this time it became the capital of Muscovy, and con- tinued to advance in prosperity, though not without repeated interruptions by fire, pestilence, famine, and war. In 1536, the town was nearly con- sumed by fire, and two thousand of the inhabitants perished in the flames; · and in 1571, the Tartars fired the suburbs, and, a furious wind driving the flames into the city, a considerable portion of it was reduced to ashes, and not less than a hundred thousand persons are said to have perished in the flames or by the less lingering death of the sword. In 1611, a great por- tion of the city was again destroyed by fire, when the Poles had taken possession of it, under the pretence of defending the inhabitants from the adherents of Andrew Nagui, a pretender to the crown. And, lastly, in 1812, the emperor Alexander, unable successfully to oppose the triumphal advance of Napoleon's grand army, and rightly foreseeing that if the latter should winter in Moscow, the ensuing year would see him at St. Peters- burg, resolved to sacrifice the ancient, holy, and beautiful city, and thus insure the destruction of the modern Cæsar and his invincible legions. It was a dreadful alternative; but in the stern and barbarous governor of Moscow, Count Rostopchin, the emperor found a ready and willing instru- ment to execute the terrible mandate. The city was the idol of every Russian's heart, her shrines were to him the holiest in the empire-hal- lowed by seven centuries of historical associations, it was abandoned to destruction by the bigoted and fanatical populace, who had been taught by their rulers and priests to believe that "Napoleon wished to drive the Russians from the face of the earth!" Accordingly, having cleared out the inhabitants before the entrance of the French, as soon as the latter were established within its walls the governor commanded the city-prisons. to be thrown open and their miscreant inmates to fire the devoted town in all directions. The French made every endeavor to extinguish the flames, but in vain. Nearly four thousand houses built of stone, and seven thou- sand five hundred of wood, were destroyed in this conflagration. Although, since the foundation of St. Petersburg, Moscow has ceased to be the capital of the Russian empire, it is still, from the salubrity of its climate and its central position, a desirable place of residence. As such, it is the favorite resort of many of the nobles, who pass the winter in the greatest splendor, not being overshadowed, as at St. Petersburg, by the superior display of the court. Its present population is probably about three hundred and sixty thousand. ST. PETERSBURG-ITS SITE. 375 CHAPTER XIII. ST. PETERSBURG. HE site of the modern capital of the Rus- sian empire is one of the most singular that has ever been voluntarily selected for the foundation of a great metropolis; and yet, owing mainly to the genius and per- severance which have been displayed in overcoming natural disadvantages, ST. PETERSBURG has, within a compara- tively short period, acquired a magnitude and splendor which justly entitle it to rank among the first of European cities. INUNDATION OF ST. PETERSBURG IN 1824. The Neva, on approaching the termination of its course, turns first north and then west. After proceeding a short distance in the latter direction, it divides into three main branches; the first of which, under the name of the Great Nevka, proceeds northward; the next, or central branch, flows west-northwest, under the name of the Little Neva; and the third, forming properly a continuation of the main stream, and therefore called the Great : 376 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Neva, flows southwest, and encloses a large tract or peninsula surrounded by water on three sides, and contiguous to the mainland only on the south. The branches form a number of islands, the two largest of which, separated from the peninsula by the main stream and Great Nevka, are the Aptekar- skoi or Apothecaries' island on the north, and the Vasiliestrov or Basilius island on the west. In the northwest, subordinate arms of the river form a number of smaller islands, of which the more important are the Petrof- skoi, Krestofskoi, Kammenoi, and Elaghinskoi. These islands, particu- larly the two largest, a small portion of the right bank, and the whole of the peninsula on the left bank (forming a series of flats which, taken as a whole, have nearly an oval shape, and are so low as to be constantly ex- posed to inundation), constitute the site of St. Petersburg. The Neva, though a broad, lively, and pellucid stream, is generally shal- low; and at its mouth is encumbered by a bar with not more than nine feet water, so that the large vessels which are built at the city docks can only be transported as hulls, to be fitted out at the great naval station of Kronstadt, about sixteen miles below. Though an attack of the city by sea may be all but impossible, the approach by land presents no obstruc- tion to an invading force, except a deep ditch or canal, stretching across the southern part of the peninsula, and a citadel, situated on a low island, so near the centre of the city, that its guns, so far from defending, could not be used without demolishing it. The larger and finer part of St. Petersburg being built on the peninsula, takes the name of the Bolshaia Storona, or Great side; all the rest to the north, on the islands and right bank, is designated the Petersburg side. The communication between the former and the latter is maintained only by one cast-iron and three boat bridges, but the deficiency is supplied by numerous ferry-boats of uncouth shape and fantastic coloring, which are constantly plying to and fro. The iron bridge was built as late as 1850, and is a beautiful embellish- ment to the city. It being the first permanent structure ever thrown across the Neva, deserves more than a passing mention. The building of it was an engineering work of great difficulty; the unstable nature of the mud- bed of the river having thitherto been an insurmountable obstacle to the very necessary formation of a permanent communication between these two portions of the city. This was, however, effected by driving piles into the river-bed, and filling up the interstices with stones. Thus a solid founda- tion was obtained to support the weight of the granite piers, and to resist the pressure of the vast and rapid volume of water which, by the contrac- tion of the river, has here a depth of thirty feet. The entire length of the bridge is about eleven hundred feet, the centre arch being one hundred and fifty-six feet span. The arches at one extremity rest on a massive pier constructed at one hundred feet from the northern shore, with which it is connected by two bridges moving on pivots, to allow the craft to pass up and down the river. MAMAI MURARSERK CANS IRON BRIDGE ACROSS THE NEVA, ST. PETERSBURG. ST. PETERSBURG · THE IRON BRIDGE-GENERAL ASPECT. 379 Staraia Novaia Derania Deremia ur ST. PETERSBURGH English Miles Folduss Gotoday Vasiefoy G a 1 f of Finl Quarter Derenia Puhistrovna Great Oka Little. Okeria 1. Admiralty. Goutouerskoy Kiawnerskin P say. Grouchianof 2. Imperial or Winter Palace. 3. Equestrian Statue of Peter the Great. 4. Church of St. Isaac. 5. Taurida Palace. 6. Cathedral Church of Kazan. Glendaleva Rika 7+ Let's Dzera Gilhoo Schlus usselbury Т 7. Palace of the Grand-Duke Mi- | 12. Alexandrovskoi Platz Parad. chael. 8. Exchange. 9. Catherinhof Palace. 13. Preobrajenskoi Platz Parad. 14. Semenovskoi Platz Parad. 15. Ismailoff Platz Parad. 10. Monastery of St. Alexander Nev- | 16. Winter Provision Market. skoi. 11. Smolnoi Monastery. a. New Cast-iron Bridge, with gran- ite pillars, across the Neva. The bridge was completed on the 21st of November, and was opened by the emperor in person, after the priests had performed the ceremony of consecration, &c. In the accompanying view the artist has shown the bridge during the act of consecration. With the broad and lofty buildings on the quay, it forms a very effective coup d'œil. It is remarkable that this day was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the accession of Nicholas to the throne—a day considered fatal to Russian monarchs-and yet his confi- dence was so great, that he ventured without an escort, and attended only by his staff, who were almost immediately separated from him by the throng; not a soldier was to be seen in the neighborhood. The boat-bridges, previously mentioned, consist merely of boarded car- riage-ways resting on pontoons, and are so constructed that they may be easily taken to pieces and quickly be put together again, which is neces- sary to be done every season, to protect them from destruction when the Neva is filled with ice. Owing to the lowness of the site of St. Petersburg, though the loftier pinnacles and domes are seen at a considerable distance, the city, whether approached by land or water, can not be said to become distinctly visible before it is actually entered, and hence the general impression produced is greatly heightened by a feeling of surprise. The stranger suddenly finds himself between noble granite quays, bordered by edifices of almost unri- valled splendor, or in spacious streets of apparently interminable length, straight as an arrow, unbroken by the slightest unevenness, and lined with lofty buildings of uniform structure, often lavishly adorned, and, in color at least, resembling marble. It is true that the impression is somewhat 380 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. weakened by a narrower inspection, the greater part of the houses proving to be only of wood or brick, garnished with plaster. As it is impossible to obtain a complete view of the city from without, recourse is often had to the numerous towers, on which watchmen stand sentinel day and night, to give the alarm of fire; but by far the best sta- tion is the tower of the Admiralty, centrically situated on the northwestern part of the peninsula and the left bank of the Great Neva, and provided with galleries, from which all parts of the city may be seen in succession to the greatest advantage. Looking southward over the peninsula from this commanding position, three canals—the nearest called the Moika, next the Catharina, and last the Fontanka-may be traced, stretching circuitously from east to west, and dividing the whole space into three quarters, called respectively the first, second, and third Admiralty sections. AMLANANLAHERA Radiating immediately from the tower, intersecting these canals, and spanning them by beautiful granite bridges, are the three principal streets—the Nevskoi Prospekt, or Neva Perspective, on the right; the Gorokhovaia Oulitza, or Pease street, in the centre; and the Vosnosenskoi Prospekt, or Resurrection Per- spective, on the right. The eye wanders along these splendid streets from end to end without obstruction. They are all of great length, width, and beau- ty; but the finest every way, and the greatest thoroughfare of the city, is the Nevskoi Pros- pekt, which is two miles long, and one hundred and fifty feet in width, and has a double car- riage-way, with footpaths paved with granite, or avenues shaded with lime- trees. Beyond the Fontanka canal, both on the south and east, and bound- ed in the former direction by the city fosse, and on the latter by the main stream of the Neva, is a large space, almost entirely covered with build- ings, and forming, in addition to the three Admiralty sections already mentioned, the Narva, Karetznoi, Kojestvenskoi, and Foundry quarters. Considerably to the east, on the right bank of the river, may be seen the large villages of Great and Little Okhta. NEVSKOI PROSPEKT, ST. PETERSBURG. Turning now to the opposite side of the town and looking north, the busy scene presented by the river immediately below first attracts the eye, which then wanders along the splendid quay which lines the south side of 晶 ​ } ST. PETERSBURG - FOUNDATION. 381 the Vasiliestrov, and is bordered by a succession of noble edifices. The buildings of this island are chiefly confined to its southern and eastern por- tions; the western and northwestern, forming the far larger portion of the whole, is covered with trees or is under garden-cultivation. On the north- east the most conspicuous object is the citadel, situated chiefly on the small island of Petersburg, but also possessing an extensive outwork on the island of Aptekarskoi, from which it is only separated by a narrow channel. On the north of this outwork another quarter of the city commences, and takes the name of the Petersburg quarter. It is much less compactly built than the Admiralty sections, the buildings gradually becoming more isolated, and giving place to extensive parks and gardens. The same remark is still more applicable to the islands of the northwest, which are chiefly occupied by places of amusement, public gardens, villas, and country-seats. On the northeast, beyoud the Nevka, and on the right bank of the river, is the Viborg quarter, which has already acquired considerable extent, and is rapidly advancing in importance. A century and a half ago, the locality of St. Petersburg was inhabited only by a few scattered Finnish fishermen. But commanding the entrance to Lake Ladoga, it was a military position of some importance, and the Swedes had long maintained there a fortress, the possession of which had been unavailingly contested by the Russians, up to 1703, when Peter the Great made himself master of it. He determined to found upon this deso- late spot the future capital of his vast empire; and at once commenced the task, without waiting for peace to confirm the possession of the site. He assembled a vast number of the peasantry from every quarter of his empire, and pushed forward the work with the energy of an iron will armed with absolute power. The surrounding country, ravaged by long years of war, could furnish no supplies for these enormous masses, and the convoys which brought them across Lake Ladoga were frequently detained by con- trary winds. Il fed and worse lodged, laboring in the cold and wet, mul- titudes yielded to the hardships; and the foundations of the new metropolis were laid at the cost of a hundred thousand lives, sacrificed in less than six months! With Peter, to will was to perform: he willed that a capital city should be built and inhabited, and built and inhabited it was. In April, 1714, a ukase was issued, directing that all buildings should be erected in a par- ticular manner; another, three months later, ordered a large number of nobles and merchants to erect dwellings in the new city. In a few months more another ukase prohibited the erection of any stone mansion in any other portion of the empire, while the enterprise of the capital was in prog- ress; and, that the lack of building-materials should be no obstacle, every vessel, whether large or small, and every peasant's car, which came to the city, was ordered to bring a certain specified number of building-stones. The work undertaken with such rigid determination, and carried on with such remorseless vigor by Peter, was continued in the same unflinching 382 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. spirit by his successors; and the result was the present St. Petersburg, in its aspect more imposing than that of any other city on the globe, but bearing in its bosom the elements of its own destruction, the moment it is freed from the control of the iron will which created and now maintains it—a fitting type and representative of the Russian empire. The whole enterprise of founding and maintaining St. Petersburg was and is a struggle against nature. The soil is a marsh, so deep and spongy, that a solid foundation can be attained only by constructing a subterra- nean scaffolding of piles. Were it not for these, the city would sink into the marsh, like a stage-ghost through the trap-door! Every building of any magnitude rests on piles; the granite quays which line the Neva rest on piles. The very foot-pavements can not be laid upon the ground, but must be supported by piles. The remark was made by an English resident of St. Petersburg that larger sums had been expended under ground than above. A great commercial city is maintained, the harbor of which is as inaccessible to ships, for six months in the year, as the centre of the desert of Sahara! In the neighboring country no part produces anything for human sustenance save the Neva, which furnishes ice and fish. The sever- ity of the climate is most destructive to the erections of human hands; and St. Petersburg, notwithstanding its gay summer appearance, when it emerges from the winter frosts, resembles a superannuated belle at the close of the fashionable season; and can only be put in proper visiting order by the assiduous services of hosts of painters and plasterers. Leave the capital for a half-century to the unrepaired ravages of its wintry climate, and it would need a Layard to unearth its monuments. But sure as are the wasting inroads of time and the climate, St. Peters- burg is in daily peril of an overthrow whose accomplishment would require but a few hours. The gulf of Finland forms a vast tunnel pointing east- ward, at the extremity of which stands the city. No portion of the city is fifteen feet above the ordinary level of the water. A strong westerly wind, blowing directly into the mouth of the tunnel, piles the water up so as to lay the lower part of the city under water. Water is as mnch dreaded here, and as many precautions are taken against it, as in the case of fire in other cities. In other cities, alarm-signals announce a conflagration; here, they give notice of an inundation. The firing of an alarm-gun from the Admiralty, at intervals of an hour, denotes that the lower extremes of the islands are under water, when flags are hung out from the steeples to give warning of danger. When the water reaches the streets, alarm-guns are fired every quarter of an hour. As the water rises, the alarms grow more and more frequent, until minute-guns summon boats to the assistance of the drowning population. So much for the lower jaw of the monster that lies in wait for the Rus- sian capital; now for the upper: Lake Ladoga, which discharges its wa- ters through the Neva, is frozen over to an enormous thickness during the long winter. The rapid northern spring raises its waters and loosens the ST. PETERSBURG 383 GREAT INUNDATION OF 1824. ice simultaneously. When the waters of the gulf are at their usual level, the accumulated ice and water find an easy outlet down the broad and rapid Neva. But let a strong west wind heap up the waters of the gulf just as the breaking up of Lake Ladoga takes place, and the waters from above and from below would suffice to inundate the whole city, while all its palaces, monuments, and temples, would be crushed between the masses of ice, like "Captain Ahab's" boat in the ivory jaws of "Moby Dick.” Nothing is more probable than such a coincidence. It often blows from the west for days together in the spring; and it is almost a matter of cer- tainty that the ice will break up between the middle and the end of April. Let but a westerly storm arise on the fatal day of that brief fortnight, and farewell to the "City of the Czars!" Any steamer that bridges the At- lantic may be freighted with the tidings that St. Petersburg has sunk deeper than plummet can sound in the Finnish marshes from which it has so magically risen ! It is said that Peter the Great was warned of the danger to be appre- hended from the rising of the Neva, but that he would nevertheless persist in his enterprise. The following incident is related on this subject. He had already laid a part of the foundation of his new city in the marshes of Ingria, when he accidentally perceived a tree marked around the trunk. He approached a Finnish peasant, and asked him what that mark was in- tended to indicate. "It is the height to which the inundation rose in the year 1680," said the man, with naïve simplicity. "You lie!" cried the czar in wrath, "what you have uttered is impossible!" and with his own hand he cut down the warning tree. But, alas! neither the wrath nor the incredulity of the monarch changed the habits of the waters. During the life of Peter, the river seemed, in- deed, to respect his new creation; but scarcely was the founder of St. Petersburg laid in the tomb, when the inundations succeeded one another quickly. There were terrific ones in 1728, 1729, 1735, 1740, 1742, and above all in 1777, a few days before the birth of Alexander. In the last instance, the waters of the Neva rose ten feet higher than their ordinary level.* A catastrophe of the same kind, but still more fearful, was to close the life of that sovereign. On the 17th of November, 1824, a wind blowing from the west and southwest with extreme violence, heaped the waters of the gulf up into the narrow funnel of the Neva, and poured them, slowly at first, along the streets. As night began to close in, the waters continued to rise higher and higher-came streaming through the streets-lifted all the carts and equipages from the ground-rushed in mighty cataracts through the windows and into the cellars, and rose in huge columns from the common sewers. On Vasiliefskoi island and on the St. Petersburg * One of the unhappy victims of this frightful disaster was the princess Tarakanoff, daughter of the empress Elizabeth and of the count Alexis Rasoumoffski, who had been for ten years confined in the fortress, after having been seduced from Rome by Alexis Orloff. 384 ILLUSTRATED' DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. side the suffering was greatest, particularly on the latter island, where many of the poor were lodged in tenements of no very solid construction. Some of the wooden houses were lifted from the ground, and continued to float about, with all their inhabitants in them, without going to pieces. Equipages were abandoned in the streets, and the horses, unable to disen- gage themselves from their harness, were miserably drowned, while their masters had sought safety in some more elevated spot. The trees in the public squares were as crowded with men as they had ever before been with sparrows. Still the water kept rising, and toward evening had at- tained such a height, that it was feared the storm would tear the men-of- war from their moorings, and drive them in among the houses. The ca- lamity was the more destructive, as it had come so noiselessly upon the city, that none had imagined the danger so great as it really was. The emperor speedily gathered a few resolute men around him, sent some of them with assistance in all directions, and with others got into a bark, vis- ited the spots where the suffering was most appalling, and did not hesitate to expose his life to a thousand dangers, in order to rescue all whom he could reach, and to whom he could afford aid. The worst effects of the inundation were those that were operated unseen. Many houses fell in only on the following day, when the river had already returned into its accustomed bed; but from those that remained standing, it was long before the damp could be expelled. Sickness became general, and deadly epi- demics continued to rage in some quarters for many weeks afterward. The night was terrible. The waters had continued to rise until the evening, and should they continue to do so, there seemed to be no chance of escape during the pitchy darkness that might be looked for. Thousands of families, the members of which were separated, spent the night in tor- turing anxiety. Even the most serious things have often a ludicrous side on which they may be viewed, and, along with the gloomy recollections of that calamitous day, a variety of amusing anecdotes have also been preserved. A gardener had been busy clipping some trees, and had not noticed the rising of the water till it was too late for him to attempt to seek refuge anywhere but on the roof of an adjoining garden-pavilion, where he was soon joined by such a host of rats and mice, that he became apprehensive of being de- voured by them. Fortunately, however, a dog and a cat sought refuge in the same place. With these he immediately entered into an offensive and defensive alliance, and the three confederates were able to make good their position during the night. เ A merchant was looking out of his window on the second floor, when there came floating by a fragment of a bridge, with three human beings clinging to it. They stretched out their hands to him for help. He threw out a rope, and, with the assistance of his servant, succeeded in rescuing all three from their perilous position. The first whom they landed was a poor Jew, who trembled like an aspen-tree; the second was a bearded be- ST. PETERSBURG CLIMATE. 385 liever in the orthodox Russo-Greek church; the third was a bareheaded Mohammedan Tartar; and the rescuer himself a protestant, who supplied his drenched and motley guests with dry clothing and a supper. Many believe that, what with merchandise spoiled, houses destroyed, furniture injured, damage to the pavement, &c., this inundation cost the city more than a hundred millions of roubles, and that directly and indi- rectly several thousands of the inhabitants lost their lives on the occasion. In every street the highest point attained by the water is marked by a line on the sides of the houses. May the house-painters never again be em- ployed in so melancholy an office! Every inch that they might have had to place their marks higher, would have cost the city several millions in addition, and would have plunged at least a hundred more families into mourning. The climate of St. Petersburg oscillates continually between two ex- tremes. In summer the heat often rises to one hundred degrees of Fahren- heit, and in winter the cold as often falls to forty degrees below zero. This gives to the temperature a range of one hundred and forty de- grees of Fahrenheit, which probably exceeds that of any other city in Europe. It is not merely in the course of the year, however, but in the course of the same twenty-four hours, that the temperature is liable to great variations. In summer, after a hot, sultry morning, a rough wind will set in toward evening, and drive the thermometer down thirty degrees immediately. In winter, also, there is often a difference of thirty or forty degrees between the temperature of the morning and that of the night. The winter is considered to begin in October, and end in May; and in the beginning of October every man puts on his furs, which are calculated for the severest weather that can come, and these furs are not laid aside again until the winter is legitimately and confessedly at an end. The stoves, meanwhile, are always kept heated in winter, that the house may never cool. Inconsiderate foreigners attempt sometimes to follow the caprices of the climate, and often pay for their termerity with illness and death. When the mercury is at its lowest point, faces are not to be seen in the streets, for every man has drawn his furs over his head, and leaves but little of his countenance uncovered. Every one is uneasy about his nose and his ears; and as the freezing of these desirable appendages to the hu- man face divine is not preceded by any uncomfortable sensation to warn the sufferer of his danger, he has enough to think of if he wish to keep his extremities in order. "Father, father, thy nose!" one man will cry to another as he passes him, or will even stop and apply a handful of snow to the stranger's face, and endeavor, by briskly rubbing the nasal promi- nence, to restore the suspended circulation. These are salutations to which * Throughout the present work, Fahrenheit's thermometer must always be understood to be the standard by which the temperature is measured. Each degree of Réaumur (zero or 0 being at the freezing point) is equivalent to two and a quarter degrees of Fahrenheit, and each degree of Centigrade equal to one and four fifths of Fahrenheit. 25 386 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. people are accustomed, and as no man becomes aware of the fact when his own nose has assumed the dangerous chalky hue, custom prescribes among all who venture into the streets a kind of mutual observance of each oth- er's noses—a custom by which many thousands of these valued organs are yearly rescued from the clutches of the Russian Boreas. In this temperature, ladies venture abroad only in close vehicles, of which every aperture is closed by slips of fur. There are families who at this season will spend weeks without once tasting a mouthful of fresh air, and, at last, when the cold has reached its extreme point, none are to be seen in the streets but the poorest classes, unless it be foreigners, people in business, or officers. As to these last, the parades and mountings of guard are never interrupted by any degree of cold; and while the frost is hard enough to cripple a stag, generals and colonels of the guard may be seen in their glittering uniforms moving as nimbly and unconcernedly about the windy Admiralty square as though they were promenading a ballroom. Not a particle of cloak must be seen about them; not a whisper of com- plaint must be heard. The emperor's presence forbids both, for he exposes himself unhesitatingly to wind, snow, hail, and rain, and expects from his officers the same disregard of the inclemencies of the season. The Russian stove is built in a partition-wall, of either brick or stone, and therefore heats two rooms. These stoves are frequently faced with the glazed Dutch tile, which increases their power as to heat, as well as improves their appearance. On one side there is an iron door, inside which is placed a large quantity of split wood; and after this has been thoroughly burnt through, the man, whose business it is to look after all the stoves in the house, rakes the ashes well over to ascertain that every par- ticle of wood is literally calcined, and then shuts the yushka, a plate of iron which closes the chimney, and thereby prevents the heat of the embers from escaping thus the mass of brickwork is kept hot for many hours. The utmost care is required to ascertain with accuracy that not the smallest piece of wood is left burning when the yushka is put on; for, should that be the case, a poisonous gas is emitted by the wood, and fatal consequences may ensue to those who are exposed to its influence. It is by no means an uncommon circumstance to hear of people being suffocated by the fumes of their stoves. The temperature maintained by these stoves over the whole of a Russian house is remarkably constant and even so much so, that, in spite of the great external cold, there is a perpetual summer in-doors. No additional blankets are necessary, and no shivering and shaking is to be dreaded on turning out in the morning. Almost the only wood used in St. Petersburg as fuel is that of the birch-tree. It is the cheapest to be had in the neigh- borhood, and its embers are more lasting than those of the pine or fir. The double windows, which are universal at this season in the houses of the rich, and common in those of the poor also, contribute in a great de- gree to keep them warm. Early in the autumn every crack and cranny is ST. PETERSBURG- 387 WINTER—THE NEVA. closed with either putty or paper, save and except a single pane in cach room, constructed so as to open like a door; this is called a forteshka. The interstice between the inner and outer windows is covered to the depth of a few inches with sand or salt, to imbibe the moisture. The salt is piled up in a variety of fanciful forms, and the sand is usually formed into a kind of garden decorated with artificial flowers. These bloom and blossom through the winter in their glassy cases, and as in these arrange- ments every family displays its own little fancies and designs, it furnishes amusement, to those who are not above being amused by trifles, to walk the streets on a fine winter-morning, and admire the infinite variety of decorations presented by the double windows. Quite as much care is expended upon the doors as upon the windows. It is a common thing to pass, not merely two, but three doors, before you enter the warmed passage of a house; and this is the case, not only in pri- vate houses, but also in public buildings, such as theatres, churches, &c. In the imperial palaces there are English grates, but 'these would be poor substitutes indeed for the peetch (stove) in such a climate; still they are very agreeable accessories to comfort. In the large riding-schools and public buildings the stoves are of gigantic proportions, and highly orna- mented with trophies and warlike decorations. The heat emitted by these peetches is tremendous, and the sudden change from the intense frost with- out to the close atmosphere of a room thus incessantly heated, and never ventilated for months, must be enough to try the hardiest frame. In the cottages the whole family sleep on or round the stove in their clothes, and without any bedding; this is also the case with the servants in some gen- tlemen's houses. The poor suffer far less from cold in St. Petersburg than in cities under a milder heaven. In different parts of the town there are large rooms, which are constantly kept warm, and to which every one has at all times free access. In front of the theatres, large fires are kept burning for the benefit of coachmen and servants; but the furs and warm apparel in which even beggars are sure to be clad, and the air-and-water-tight construction of their houses, are the chief security of all classes against the severity of their climate. As soon as the thermometer falls some fifteen or twenty degrees below zero, the sentinels all receive fur cloaks, in which they look grotesque enough, when marching up and down in front of the palaces. With all these precautions, however, the intense cold that sometimes pre vails for weeks together converts many a specimen of living humanity into a senseless statue of ice. This is owing more to the manners of the peo- ple than to the want of suitable protection; to drunkenness and idleness among the poor; and to inconsiderateness among the rich. The northern winter imprisons the lovely nymph of the Neva in icy bands for five months in the year. It is seldom till after the beginning of April that the water acquires sufficient warmth to burst her prison. The moment is always anxiously expected, and no sooner have the dirty masses 388 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. THE NEVA IN WINTER. of ice advanced sufficiently to display as much of the bright mirror of the river as may suffice to bear a boat from one side to the other, than the glad tidings are announced to the inhabitants by the artillery of the for- tress. At that moment, be it day or night, the commandant of the fortress, arrayed in all the insignia of his rank, and accompanied by the officers of his suite, embarks in an elegant gondola, and repairs to the emperor's palace which lies immediately opposite. He fills a large crystal goblet with the water of the Neva, and presents it to the emperor as the first and most precious tribute of returning spring. He informs his master that the force of winter has been broken, that the waters are free again, that an active navigation may now again be looked for, and points to his own gon- dola, as the first swan that has swum on the river that year. He then presents the goblet to the emperor, who drinks it off to the health of the dear citizens of his capital. There is not probably on the face of the globe another glass of water that brings a better price, for it is customary for the emperor to fill the goblet with ducats before he returns it to the com- mandant. Such, at least, was the custom; but the goblet was found to have a sad tendency to enlarge its dimensions, so that the emperor began to perceive that he had every year a larger dose of water to drink, and a greater number of ducats to pay for it. At last he thought it high time to compromise matters with his commandant, who now receives on each occa- sion a fixed sum of two hundred ducats. Even this, it must be admitted, is a truly imperial fee for a draught of water, but the compromise is said to have effectually arrested the alarming growth of the goblet! It is generally between the 6th and the 14th of April (old style), or between the 18th and the 26th, according to the calendar in use in this country, that the Neva throws off her icy covering. The 6th is the most general day. It is usually about the middle of November, and more fre- quently on the 20th (2d of December new style) than on any other day. ST. PETERSBURG 389 OUT-DOOR LIFE. that the ice is brought to a stand-still. The departure of the ice, on the breaking up of the river in the spring, always forms an exciting spectacle, and crowds are sure to be attracted to the quays by the first gun fired from the citadel. The golden gondola of the commandant is not long alone in its glory, for hundreds of boats are quickly in motion, to re-establish the communication between the different quarters of the city. All the other harbors of the Baltic are usually free from ice before that of St. Petersburg; and a number of vessels are almost always awaiting, in the sound, the news that the navigation of the Russian capital has been resumed. The first spring ship that arrives in the Neva is the occasion of great rejoicing, and seldom fails to bring its cargo to an excellent market. It is mostly laden with oranges, millinery, and such articles of taste and vanity as are likely to be most attractive to the frivolous and wealthy, who seldom fail to reward the first comer by purchasing his wares at enormous prices. The first ship is soon followed by multitudes, and the most active life succeeds to a stillness like that of death. A stranger accustomed to the crowds and bustle of London, Paris, or New York, is struck on his arrival at St. Petersburg by the emptiness of the streets. He finds vast open spaces in which at times he beholds noth- ing but a solitary drosky, that wends its way along like a boat drifting on the open sea. He sees spacious streets bordered by rows of mute palaces. with only here and there a human figure hovering about, like a lurking freebooter among a waste of rocks. The vastness of the plan on which the city has been laid out shows that its founders speculated on a distant fu- ture. Rapidly as the population has been increasing, it is still insufficient to fill the frame allotted to it, or to give to the streets that life and move- ment which we look for in the capital of a great empire. On the occasion, indeed, of great public festivals and rejoicings, and at all times in the Nevskoi Prospekt and about the Admiralty, the movement is very consid- erable, but this only tends to leave the throng and bustle of the other quarters of the town far below the average. The population of St. Petersburg is the most varied and motley that mind can imagine. To begin with the military. We have the Caucasian guards, the Tartar guards, the Finland guards, besides a fourth and fifth division of the guards for the various tribes of Cossacks. Of these nations the élite are thus always retained as hostages in the capital, and their sev- eral uniforms are alone sufficient to present an ever-changing picture to the eye of an observer. Here Here may be seen a Cossack trotting over one of the Platz Parads with his lance in rest, as though in his imagination he were pursuing a flying enemy. Farther on, perchance a Circassian cava- lier, in his shirt-of-mail, and harnessed from head to foot, is going through his warlike exercises. The moslem from the Taurus may be seen gravely moving through the throng; while the well-drilled Russian soldiers defile in long columns through the streets. Of all the endless variety of uniforms that belong to the great Russian army, a few specimens are always to be 390 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. seen in the capital. There are guards, and hussars, and cuirassiers, and grenadiers, and pioneers, and engineers; horse-artillery and foot-artillery; to say nothing of dragoons, lancers, and those military plebeians the troops of the line. All these, in their various uniforms, marching to parade, re- turning to their barracks, mounting guard, and passing through the other multifarious duties of a garrison-life, are in themselves enough to give life and diversity to the streets. If, then, we turn to the more pacific part of the population, devoted to the less brilliant but certainly not less useful pursuit of commerce, we find every nation of Europe, and almost every nation of Asia, represented in the streets of St. Petersburg. Spaniards and Italians, English and French, Greeks and Scandinavians, may be seen mingling together; nor will the silken garments of the Persian and the Bokharian be wanting to the pic- ture, nor the dangling tail of the Chinese, nor the pearly teeth of the Arabian. The infima plebs bears an outside as motley as the more aristocratic por- tion of the community. The German bauer (peasant) may be seen loun- ging among the noisy, bearded Russians; the slim Pole elbows the diminu- tive Finlander; and Esthonians, Lettes, and Jews, are running up against each other, while the mussulman studiously avoids all contact with the Jew. Yankee sailors and dwarfish Kamtschatdales, Caucasians, Moors, and Mongolians-all sects, races, and colors, contribute to make up the populace of the Russian capital. Nowhere does the street life of St. Petersburg display itself to better effect than in the Nevskoi Prospekt. This magnificent street intersects all the rings of the city-the suburbs of the poor, the showy regions of com- merce, and the sumptuous quarters of the aristocracy. A walk along the whole length of this street is one perhaps as interesting as any that can be made in St. Petersburg. Starting from the extreme end, where a mon- astery and a cemetery remind you of death and solitude, you first arrive at little low, wooden houses, which lead you to a cattle-market, where around the spirit-shops may be seen swarms of noisy, singing Russian peasants, presenting a picture not unlike what may daily be seen in the villages of the interior. A little farther on, the houses improve in appearance: some are even of stone, and boast of an additional floor; the houses of public entertainment are of a better description, and shops and warehouses are seen similar to those of the small provincial towns. Next follow some markets and magazines for the sale of invalided furniture and superannu- ated apparel, which, having spent their youth in the service of the central quarters, are consigned in old age to the mercy of the suburbs. The houses, in the old Russian fashion, are painted yellow and red, and and every inan you meet displays a beard of venerable length, and a yet longer caftan (jacket or roundabout). A little farther on, and you see a few ivoshtshiks (drosky-drivers) who have strayed by chance so far from their more central haunts; a shaven chin and a swallow-tailed coat may be seen at in- ST. PETERSBURG 391 NEVSKOI PROSPEKT. tervals, and here and there a house assumes something like an air of state- liness and splendor. On arriving at a bend in the street, the huge gilt spire of the Admiralty is descried at a distance, floating apparently over the intervening mist. You cross a bridge, and begin to feel that you are in a mighty city. The mansions rise to three and four stories in height, the inscriptions on the houses become larger and more numerous, carriages- and-four become more frequent, and every now and then the waving plume of a staff-officer dashes by. At length you arrive at the Fontanka canal, cross the Anitshkof bridge, and enter the aristocratic quarter of the capi- tal. From this bridge to the Admiralty is what may be called the fash- ionable part of the Prospekt; and as you advance, the bustle and the throng become greater and greater. There are carriages-and-four at every step; generals and princes elbowing through the crowd; sumptuous shops, impe- rial palaces, and cathedrals and churches of all the various religions and sects of St. Petersburg. The scene in this portion of the street, at about mid-day, may challenge comparison with any street in the world, and the splendor of the spectacle is enhanced by the magnificence of the decorations. This part of the thor- oughfare, though about a mile in length, does not contain more than fifty houses, each of which, it may easily be inferred, must be of colossal mag- nitude. Most of these buildings are the property of the several churches that border the street-the Dutch, the catholic, the Armenian, and others -that received from Peter the Great large grants of land, of little value probably when first bestowed, but from which, as they are now in the heart of the city, splendid revenues are derived. The street from the Anitshkof bridge to the Admiralty is the favorite promenade with the beau monde of St. Petersburg. The buildings are magnificent, the equipages roll noiselessly over the wooden pavement of the centre, and the trottoirs (foot-pavements) on each side are broad and commodious. The northern, being the sunny, is the favorite side of the street for the promenaders, and on that side accordingly are the most mag- nificent shops. The people are civil, and quarrels and disputes are seldom heard. The Slavonian is by nature ductile and tractable; and the lower classes, from their childhood, are taught to behave respectfully toward their more fortunate fellow-men. The garrison of St. Petersburg seldom amounts to less than sixty thou- sand men, and constitutes, therefore, about one eighth of the entire popu- lation. Neither officer nor private must ever appear in public otherwise than in full uniform, and this may suffice to give some idea of the prepon- derance of the military over the civil costumes seen in the streets. The wild Circassian, with his silver harness and his coat-of-mail, gayly con- verses and jests with the more polished Russian officer, while their several kinsmen are busily engaged in cutting each other's throats in the Caucasus. Even in the streets of St. Petersburg, however, it is more safe to avoid collision with these fierce and chivalric mountaineers, who are sudden in 392 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. quarrel, quick to avenge insult, wear sharp daggers, and always carry loaded firearms about their persons. It would not be saying too much to affirm that half the inhabitants of St. Petersburg are clad in a uniform of one sort or another; for, in addi- tion to the sixty thousand soldiers, there are civil uniforms for the public officers of every grade-for the police, for the professors of the university, and not only for the teachers, but likewise for the pupils, of the public schools. Nor must the private uniforms be forgotten that are worn by the numerous servants of the noble and wealthy families. Still there remain enough of plain coats to keep up the respectability of the fraternity. The whole body of merchants, the English factory, the German barons from the Baltic provinces, Russian princes and landowners from the interior, for- eigners, private teachers, and many others, are well pleased to be exempt from the constraint of buttons and epaulettes. Indeed, so much that is really respectable walks about in simple black and blue, that a plain coat is felt by many to be rather a desirable distinction, although the wearer is obliged on all public occasions to yield the pas to the many-colored coats of the civil and military employés. The seasons and the variations of the weather bring about many and often very sudden changes in the street-population of St. Petersburg, where the temperature is always capricious and unstable. In winter, every one is cased in furs; in summer, light robes of gauze and silk are seen fluttering in the breeze. In the morning the costumes are perhaps all light and airy, and in the evening of the same day none will venture to stir abroad otherwise than in cloaks and mantles. The sun shines, and swarms of dandies and petites maitresses come fluttering through the fashionable thor- oughfares it rains, and the streets are abandoned to the undisputed pos- session of the "black people." One day all snow and sledges, the next all mud and clattering wheels. Nor is it merely the change of weather that alters the physiognomy of the streets. The various sects that make up the population of the town give often a peculiar character to the day. On Friday, the holyday of the moslems, the turbaned Turk, the black-bearded Persian, and the Tartar, with his shorn head, take their leisure in the streets. On Saturday, the black-silk caftans of the Jews come abroad in great numbers; and on.the Sunday, the Christians of all denominations come forth to their pious exer- cises or their various diversions. The different sects of the Christians, again, tend to vary the scene. To-day the Lutherans celebrate their yearly day of penance, and German burghers, with their wives and children, and with their neat, black, gilt-edged hymn-books under their arms, sally forth on their pilgrimage to the church; to-morrow the catholics are summoned to some feast or other of the immaculate Virgin, and Poles and Lithua- nians, Frenchmen, and Austrians, hurry to their stately temples. The next day are heard the thousand bells of the Greek kolokolniks, and the wives and daughters of the Russian merchants come humming and fluttering about ST. PETERSBURG-STREET POPULATION. 303 the streets in their gaudy plumages of green, blue, yellow, and red. But the great days are the public holydays, "the emperor's days," as they are called, when all the modes and fashions current, from Paris to Pekin, are certain to be paraded to the public gaze. It has often been remarked that there are few cities where one sees so many handsome men as in St. Petersburg. This is partly owing to the prevalence of uniforms, which certainly set off the person to advantage, partly also to the fact that all the handsomest men in the provinces are constantly in demand as recruits for the various regiments of the guards. Something must also be attributed to the constant efforts of the Russians to give themselves the most agreeable forms. In no other town are there so few cripples and deformed people; and this is not owing merely to their being less tolerated here than elsewhere, but also, it is said, to the fact that the Slavonian race is less apt than any other to produce deformed children. On the other hand, at every step you meet men whose exterior you can not but admire, and a moment's reflection must fill you with regret that there should be so few fair eyes to contemplate so many handsome specimens of manhood. St. Petersburg is unfortunately a city of men, the male sex being in a majority of at least a hundred thousand, and the women by no means equally distinguished for their charms. The climate seems to be unfavorable to the development of female beauty; the tender plants quickly fade in so rude an atmosphere, and as they are few in numbers, they are all the more in demand for the ballroom and the soirée, and the more quickly used up by the friction of dissipation. Whether this be the cause, or whether the Russian women are naturally less handsome, com- paratively, than the men, certain it is that a fresh, handsome-looking girl is but rarely to be seen at St. Petersburg. The German ladies from the Baltic provinces form the exception; and it is from Finland, Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland, that the gay circles of the capital receive their chief supply of beauty. To this it may be owing that the Russians have so high an opinion of German beauty that they rarely withhold from a Nyemka (German woman) the epithet of krassivaya, or beautiful. The ladies of St. Petersburg, though in such great demand on account of their scarcity, are liable, from the same cause, to many inconveniences. For instance, it is impossible for them to walk in the streets, even in broad daylight, without a male escort. The best hour for walking on the Prospekt is from twelve till two, when the ladies go shopping, and the men go to look at the fair purchasers. Toward two or three o'clock, the purchases have been made, the parade is over, the merchants are leaving the exchange, the world of promenaders wend their way to the English quay, and the real promenade for the day begins, the imperial family usually mingling with the rest of the loungers. This magnificent quay, constructed, like all the quays of St. Petersburg, of huge blocks of granite, runs along the Neva from the New to the Old Admiralty, and was built during the reign of the empress Catherine II., 394 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. who caused the canals and rivers of her capital, to the length of not less. than twenty-four miles, to be enclosed in granite. As in all water-construc- tions, the colossal part of the work is not that which meets the eye. The mighty scaffolding, on which the quay rests, stands deeply imbedded in the marshy soil below. Handsome steps, every here and there, lead down to the river; and for carriages large, broad descents have been constructed, and these in winter are usually decorated with all sorts of fanciful columns and other ornaments, cut out of the ice. The houses along the English quay are deservedly called palaces. They were originally, for the most part, built by Englishmen, but are now, nearly all of them, the property of wealthy Russians. On the English quay may be seen daily the élite of the Russian empire wearing away the granite with their princely feet. The carriages usually stop at the New Admiralty, where their noble owners descend, and honor the quay by walking up and down it some two or three times. There are no shops; and as the English quay is not a convenient thoroughfare, the promenaders are seldom disturbed by the presence of any chance passen- gers. The emperor and the imperial family are a centre to the groups that come to salute them and to be saluted by them. This forms a kind of connection for the promenaders, and gives a oneness to the assembled company. The emperor walks up and down upon an apparent footing of equality with his subjects around him; though these, in point of fact, stand about in the same relation to him that a child's doll does to the colossus of Rhodes. The Englishman buttons up his hatred of despotism in his great-coat, and scarcely condescends to touch his hat when he meets the "giant of the North;" while to the Russian by his side, a submissive de- meanor has by habit become a positive source of enjoyment, till he feels a real affection for those to whom the law gives the right of ordering him about! The master of some vast estate, in the Ural mountains or on the arid steppes, where thousands of souls must labor away for his exclusive profit, walks along the quay with as little pretension as the poor shopman, who can scarcely be said to have a property in his own soul, embodied as it is in the gay garments which he has such evident delight in displaying to an admiring world. The Russian of the lower orders is anything but an inviting personage, at first sight. The name by which they have been designated, in their own language, time out of mind, describes them precisely. It is tschornoï narod, "the dirty people," or, as we might more freely render it, "the great un- washed." An individual of this class is called a mujik, which is also a general name for peasant or serf. He is usually of middle stature, with small, light eyes, level cheeks, and flat nose, of which the tip is turned up so as to display the somewhat-expanded nostril. His pride and glory is his beard, which he wears as long and shaggy as nature will allow. The back of the head is shaved closely; and, as he wears nothing about his neck, his head stands distinctly away from his body. His ideal of the ST. PETERSBURG—THE MUJIK-DRUNKENNESS. 395 beauty of the human head, as seen from behind, seems to be to make it resemble, as nearly as may be, a turnip. He is always noisy, and never clean; and when wrapped in his sheepskin mantle, or caftan of blue cloth reaching to his knees, might easily enough be taken for a bandit. As he seldom thinks of changing his inner garments more than once a week, and as his outer raiment lasts half his lifetime, and is never laid aside during the night, and never washed, he constantly affords evidence of his presence anything but agreeable to the organs of smell. But a closer acquaintance will bring to light many traits of character which belie his rude exterior, and will show him to be at bottom a good-natured, merry, friendly fellow. His most striking characteristic is pliability and dexterity. If he does not possess the power of originating, he has a wonderful faculty of copying the ideas of others, and of yielding himself up to carry out the conceptions of any one who wishes to use him for the accomplishment of his ends.. There is an old German myth which says that the Teutonic race was framed, in the depths of time, out of the hard, unyielding granite. The original material of the Russian race must have been India rubber, so easily are they compressed into any form, and so readily do they resume their own when the pressure is removed. The raw, untrained mujik is drafted into the army, and in a few weeks attains a precision of movement more like an automaton than a human being. He becomes a trader, and the Jews themselves can not match him in cunning and artifice. The mujik is a thoroughly good-tempered fellow. Address him kindly, and his face unbends at once, and you will find that he takes a sincere delight in doing you a kindness. In no capital of Europe are the tempta- tions to crimes against the person so numerous as in St. Petersburg, with its broad, lonely streets, unlighted at night, and scantily patrolled; but in no capital are such crimes of so rare occurrence. But the mujik has two faults: he is a thorough rogue, and a great drunkard! He will cheat and guzzle from sheer love for the practices; and without the least apparent feeling that there is anything out of the way in so doing. But in his cups he is the same good-natured fellow. The Irishman, or Scotchman, when drunk, is quarrelsome and pugnacious ; the German or the Englishman, stupid and brutal; the Spaniard or the Italian, revengeful and treacherous. The first stages of drunkenness in the mujik are manifested by loquacity. The drunker he is, the more gay and genial does he grow; till at last he is ready to throw himself upon the neck of his worst enemy, and exchange embraces with him. When the last stage has been reached, and he starts for home, he does not reel, but marches straight on, till some accidental obstruction trips him up into the mire, where he lies unnoticed and unmolested till a policeman takes charge of him. This misadventure is turned to public advantage, for by an old custom every person, male or female, of what grade soever, taken up drunk in the street by the police, is obliged the next day to sweep the streets for a certain number of hours. In early morning rambles through the city, 396 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ROBERTS SCE PUNISHMENT FOR DRUNKENNESS SWEEPING THE STREETS. - the traveller may very frequently encounter a woful group, thus improving the ways of others, in punishment for having taken too little heed of their own. Jerrmann thus speaks of a party of females he saw atoning, broom in hand, for their improper nocturnal rambles: "Startling contrasts abound in St. Petersburg. One morning, before four o'clock, I was driving to the Neva baths, when suddenly, to my astonished eyes, the strangest scene presented itself. I beheld before me an al-fresco ball. A number of elegantly-attired ladies-some with handsome shawls, and feathers in their hats—were performing the strangest sort of dance, which they ac- companied with a sort of bowing motion, incessantly repeated. I could recognise no French or German dance in their singular evolutions. Could it be some Russian national dance, thought I. What kind of dance could it be that was thus danced in broad daylight on the public highway, and without male dancers? A few men were certainly there, but merely as ST. PETERSBURG - NATIONAL TRAITS. 297 lookers-on. I touched the arm of my ivoshtshik, called his attention to the group, and made an interrogative gesture. The explanation he gave me was doubtless very lucid and circumstantial, and would have been highly satisfactory, had it only been intelligible to me. Unable to under- stand a word he said, I ordered him, by the vigorous articulation of 'Pa- chol,' to drive up to the strange ball before the weary dancers could seek repose upon the stones at the street-corners. Drawing nearer and nearer, I yet heard no sound of music. At last we reached the Anitshkof palace, and found ourselves close to the scene of this untimely activity. A repul- sive and horrible sight met my eyes. A number of young women, appa- rently still fresh and blooming, with ruddy cheeks-but whether of artifi- cial or natural colors their incessant, monotonous bowing movement pre- vented my distinguishing—elegantly dressed in silks, jewels, and feathers, were sweeping the Nevskoi Prospekt under the superintendence of police- Some of them appeared overwhelmed with shame; others stared at me, at the ivoshtshik and horse, with perfect indifference, and seemed rejoiced at our passage, which suspended for a moment their painful and disgraceful occupation. They were a detachment of nocturnal wanderers, who, when returning too tardily to their homes from pursuing their wretched calling, had fallen into the hands of the patrol, had passed the remainder of the night in the watch-house, and were now atoning, broom in hand, their untimely rambles. I hurried off to the bath, glad to escape. from this degrading and deplorable spectacle.' men. "" Drunkenness and night-walking, however (we may add, en passant), are not the only misdemeanors thus punished, nor do the lower classes alone expiate their offences by "doing the state some service" in wielding the broom in the streets of Russian cities, Oliphant instances the governor of Sevastapol, whose peculations in the way of bribes and other perquisites were brought to light by a sudden visit of the emperor. No dilatory trial procrastinated the day of his condemnation. The emperor had scarcely terminated his flying visit, and the smoke of the steamer by which he re- turned to Odessa still hung upon the horizon, when the general command- ing became the convict sweeping. In a significant white costume, he was prominently displayed with the rest of the gang upon the streets he had a fortnight before rolled proudly through, with all the pomp and circum- stance befitting his high station! In vino veritas may perhaps be true of the juice of the grape; but it is not so of the bad brandy which is the favorite drink of the mujik. He is never too drunk to be a rogue, but yet you do not look upon his roguery as you do upon that of any other people. He never professes to be honest, and does not see any reason why he should be so. He seems so utterly unconscious of anything reprehensible in roguery, that you unconsciously give him the benefit of his ignorance. If he victimizes you, you look upon him as upon a clever professor of legerdemain, who has cheated you in spite of your senses; but you hardly hold him morally responsible. Upon 398 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. the whole, though you can not respect the mujik, you can hardly avoid having a sort of liking for him. Notwithstanding the general characteristic of laxity of principle, in- stances are by no means wanting of the most scrupulous and even roman- tic fidelity on the part of the Russians of the lower orders. It would be an interesting subject of investigation how far this patent trait of national character is to be attributed to inherent constitutional defects in the race, and how far to the state of serfdom in which they have existed from gen- eration to generation; but the investigation does not fall within the scope of this volume. Our friends in the greasy sheepskins or woollen caftans have strong re- ligious tendencies, though they may smack a little too much of those of the light-fingered Smyrniote who was detected purchasing candles to light before his patron-saint, with the first-fruits of the purse of which he had not ten minutes before relieved a gentleman's pocket! In all places where men congregate there are pictures of saints before which the mujik crosses himself on every occasion. In an inn or restaurant each visiter turns to the picture and crosses himself before he sits down to eat. If a mujik enters your room, he crosses himself before saluting you. Every church is saluted with a sign of the cross. At frequent intervals in the streets little shrines are found, before which everybody stops and makes the sacred sign, with bared head. The merchant in the gostinöi dvor or bazar, every now and then walks up to his bog or saint, and with a devout inclination prays for success in trade. NEVSKOI PROSPEKT, ST. PETERSBURG.-(Second View.) ST. PETERSBURG THE WINTER PALACE. 399 N° CHAPTER XIV. ST. PETERSBURG-IMPERIAL PALACES, ETC. O modern city can boast that it is so entirely composed of palaces and colossal public edifices as St. Petersburg. In some of these several thousand persons reside-six thousand, for instance, are said to inhabit the Winter palace during the emperor's residence in the capital; and the traveller, when he looks on this gigantic pile of building, will not fail to remember that it once fell a prey to the ravages of fire, at least the interior of it, and in a few hours the greedy flames destroyed much of those treasures and works of art which had, with extraordinary zeal, been collected during the prosperous reigns and magnificent courts of Elizabeth and Catherine II., and the less gorgeous but more elegant ones of Alexander and Nicholas. Kohl, speaking of the immense extent of this palace previous to its de- struction on the 29th of December, 1837, remarks that "the suites of apartments were perfect labyrinths, and that even the chief of the imperial household, who had filled that post for twelve years, was not perfectly acquainted with all the nooks and corners of it. As in the forests of the great landholders many colonies are settled of which the owner takes no notice, so there nestled many a one in this palace not included among the regular inhabitants. For example, the watchmen on the roof, placed there for different purposes-among others to keep the water in the tanks from freezing during the winter, by casting in red-hot balls-built themselves huts between the chimneys, took their wives and children there, and even kept poultry and goats, who fed on the grass of the roof! It is said that at last some cows were introduced, but this abuse had been corrected before the palace was burnt." The conflagration of the Winter palace originated in some defect in the flues by which it was heated; and, though the crown-jewels and much val- uable property were saved from the flames, still the destruction of property must have been immense, spread as it was over a surface of such enormous extent: the principal rooms alone, nearly one hundred in number, occupied on the first floor an area of four hundred thousand square feet. After the destruction of the palace, it is said that Count Barincky offered the emperor a million roubles toward the erection of the new edifice; a small tradesman fifteen hundred; and two days subsequent to the calamity, 1 400 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. a man with a long beard, and dressed in the caftan of a common mujik, met the emperor in his drosky, and laid at his feet bank-notes to the value of twenty-five thousand roubles. It is scarcely necessary to add that the emperor did not accept these generous offers of assistance. The inundations of the Neva, and the destruction by fire of the Winter palace, are two prominent epochs in the history of the city; and, as on every great emergency, the emperor, at this last calamity, failed not to show qualities which have made him eminently admired and respected by his subjects. The heroic devotion and disregard of danger exhibited by the firemen and mujiks are spoken of in glowing terms by those who wit- nessed the devastation of that fatal night, and it was with very great diffi- culty that many of them could be prevented from recklessly endangering their lives. Some, indeed, were lost; on learning which, the emperor ordered that the people should be prevented from entering the burning pile; and he is reported to have said, "Let it burn away, let it all go, but let not a life be endangered in attempts to save comparatively worthless property." Many of those who were in the building would not, however, leave; and, as a last resource, it is said that Nicholas ordered some offi- cers to go and smash the large mirrors with hammers, in order to prevent the soldiers and people from making any further attempts to save them. Another anecdote was current at the time, that the emperor, observing the danger attending the efforts of one party who were endeavoring to save one of these mirrors, and that it was impossible to attract. their attention in the confusion which reigned, threw his opera-glass at it, when the men seeing it broken, but not knowing whence the blow came, immediately desisted, and were thereby, saved. The gilt cross on the cupola of the private chapel resisted the fury of the devouring element, and, glowing with increased brilliancy in the light of the furnace around it, was watched by many an anxious eye in the crowd of believers beneath, who ascribed its preservation to miraculous intervention. This idea proved a powerful engine in the hands of the architect; for, under the conviction that a bles- sing rested on the palace, the workmen toiled with double assiduity at its reconstruction. In one point of view this destructive fire has proved an advantage, for the custom of consigning to solitude those suites of rooms occupied by a deceased sovereign had here closed so many of the finest apartments, that in a few more generations the reigning monarch would have been fairly turned out by the ghosts of his predecessors! In two years from the de- struction of this palace it rose again under the skilful hands of the archi- tect Kleinmichael, and the united industry of several thousand workmen, to its former magnificence, and is now, perhaps, the most splendid and largest royal edifice in the world. This imperial edifice is indeed commanding— presenting, as it does, a front toward the Neva of more than seven hundred feet; it also covers a very large space of ground, being nearly a third larger than the palace of the Austrian emperor at Vienna, and almost HJ M MROBERTS.SC. WINTER PALACE, RESIDENCE OF THE IMPERIAL FAMILY, ST. PETERSBURG. 26 ST. PETERSBURG- -THE WINTER PALACE. 403 twice as large as that of Naples; its form is nearly a complete square, the angles of which answer to the four cardinal points of the compass. Its long façades are highly imposing, and form a grand continuation to those of the Admiralty beyond it. In visiting the Winter palace, accompanied by one of the imperial ser- vants in livery, strangers have the opportunity of wandering through suites of splendid apartments, galleries, and halls, filled with marbles, malachites, precious stones, vases, and pictures; among them many portraits of the great generals and mighty men of Russia and other countries. Also one of Potemkin: he is represented as of colossal height and fine countenance, and as remarkable for the development of limb and muscle as for the soft expression of his blue eyes; in fact, to judge by this portrait, one would say that he was made to command an army of Cossacks, and trouble a woman's heart. Here also are several fine Murillos, and the "Adoration of the Shepherds," by Berghem, one of the finest works of that master. The empress's drawing-room is a perfect jewel of taste; and the chapel, St. George's hall (a parallelogram of one hundred and forty feet by sixty), and numbers of gilded chambers, one more gorgeous than another, form an almost wearying succession of magnificence. The hall of St. George is the apartment on the splendor of which the Russians most pride themselves. It is here that the emperor gives audience in solemn state to foreign em- bassadors. Near it is the gallery of the generals, containing portraits of all the distinguished officers who served under the Russian colors during the war of the French invasion and the subsequent hostilities, tiH Napo- leon's final overthrow. The most striking picture is a full-length of the emperor Alexander on horseback, of gigantic dimensions, and said to be the best likeness of him now in existence. At the entrance to this long gallery stand two sentinels of the Russian guard, still and motionless, looking as if they also were creations of art; and at each end are suspend- ed French eagles, the names of the principal battles that occurred in the war being written in large gold characters on the walls. Many of these pictures must be copies, as the soldiers they represent found a warrior's death on the field of honor long before this collection was begun. Beyond this gallery is the field-marshals' saloon. Here the portraits do not exceed eight or ten in number, for that rank is as rarely bestowed in Russia as it is in England. The duke of Wellington is among the distin- guished few; and the symbol which accompanies the full-length portrait of the hero of a hundred fights is that of imperishable strength, the Brit- ish oak. Beyond this is the Salle Blanche, the most magnificent apartment in this most magnificent of palaces, and so called from its decorations being all in pure white, relieved only with gilding. The dimensions are nearly the same as those of the hall of the generals. Here the court fêtes are held, which are reputed to form the most brilliant pageant of in-door palace-life to be found in Christendom. 404 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The diamond-room, containing the crowns and jewels of the imperial family, deserves notice. Diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, are ranged round the room in small cases of such dazzling beauty, that it is almost. bewildering to look at them. The crown of the emperor is adorned with a chaplet of oak-leaves made of diamonds of an extraordinary size; and the imperial sceptre contains one with a single exception the largest in the world, being the celebrated stone purchased by Catherine II. from a Greek slave, for four hundred and fifty thousand roubles and a large pen- sion for life. Bruloff's picture of the "Raising of the Serpent in the Wil- derness" is to be seen here. It has great merit and some defects; the figures are for the most part portraits of Israelites who inhabit the Ghetto at Rome, and the result therefore is really a Hebrew crowd. There is also, if not recently removed, the famous Chinese cabinet of Catherine, and a small room to which Peter the Great used to retire from the turmoil of public affairs. There was, in the last century, a palace called the Summer palace, on the Fontanka canal, but this was pulled down by the emperor Paul; the name therefore is now without meaning, for the castle built to replace the former was designated as the Michailof Samok, or castle. There is a telegraph in the Winter palace, close to the emperor's private apartments, by means of which he can transmit his own orders to Kronstadt, Peter- hoff, &c. Adjoining the Winter palace is the Hermitage, which it is a well-known fact that the great Catherine built as Frederick the Great did his Sans- Souci at Potsdam, and the Roman emperor Numa his Grotto of Egeria. But the Hermitage is no cloistered solitude-no rocky grotto hidden amid the waters of the Neva's murmuring sources-but a magnificent palace, second only to that we have just described; while within it is loaded with precious objects of art and vertù. The empress built this temple in order that she might retire to it in her leisure moments, there to enjoy the con- versation of the French philosophers and men of learning; and here, after the duties of the sovereign had been transacted in the Winter palace, she was wont to pass the evening, surrounded by all that could gratify the eye or the senses: musicians displayed their talents, artists their works, scien- tific men their speculations, and political men their opinions; for, in ac- cordance with the ukase suspended in all the apartments, perfect freedom and equality reigned; and the pictures which we see elsewhere only as allegorical representations of art-and-science-loving princes, were here ev- ery day realized. On the roof was a garden with flowers, shrubs, and trees, heated in winter by subterranean stoves, and illuminated in summer by variegated lamps, under the prismatic colors of which the brilliant as- semblage wandered. The Hermitage is connected with the Winter palace by several covered galleries, and forms a sort of continuation of that vast building. The principal façade faces the Neva. It has but little claim to architectural ST. PETERSBURG 405 THE HERMITAGE. beauty, and may be divided into three parts, each of which was the work of a different architect. The first part, which is united to the Winter pal- ace, and somewhat resembles it in style, was built by Lamotte, in 1765. The second part, which extends to the small canal connecting the Moïka with the Neva, was the work of the architect Velten, in 1775. The theatre forms the third part, and is joined to the rest of the building by a bridge and covered gallery. It was built by Guarenghi, and is perhaps the finest part of the Hermitage. The apartments of the entire palace are mostly decorated with costly ornaments in malachite, marble, or jasper, the mate- rials of which have been found and worked in Siberia. A thorough in- spection of the works of art here contained would require several days. In 1804, the Hermitage was finally completed under the emperor Alex- ander. Catherine not only built, or rather caused to be built, this luxuri- ous retreat, but furnished those who were admitted to her intimacy with the opportunity of becoming acquainted with those admirable masterpieces of art which had graced the walls of many of the royal palaces of Europe, and thus laid the foundation of that gallery of paintings which is now with- out a rival in northern Europe. In one of the rooms of the Hermitage is contained a most interesting collection of antiquities from the Crimea. It is wonderful that such costly relics (for most of them are of gold) should have been preserved for so many centuries. From ancient times the countless graves of the Greeks of Taurus and the Chersonesus (Crimea) have been objects of zealous re- search the Huns, the Tartars, and the Cossacks, plundered them in turns, and melted down the treasures found therein; and whatever the watchful- ness of the Russian government could rescue from the unhistorical mer- chants and robbers has been deposited in the Hermitage. The greater part of these rare specimens of Greek art were found in some of the vari- ous tumuli that cover the plain in the neighborhood of Kertsch (the ancient Panticapaum), and a few came from Olbia, a Greek colony planted in the Chersonesus by the Athenians. The choicest objects are the laurel-wreaths, of the purest gold, which adorned the victor's brow. Many of these are quite perfect, not a twig or leaf being deficient. A gold mask and shield are also very curious; indeed, the gold ornaments are most beautifully ex- ecuted, and may defy the Rundels and Bridges of our own days. Pictures as good as some of those in the Hermitage may perhaps be seen in other capitals, but a collection of antiquities similar to these will rarely, if ever, be met with elsewhere. In the centre room of the first long suite of apartments facing the river, is a full-length painting of Catherine I., surrounded by the marble busts of various Russian statesmen: this is considered the best likeness of Cathe- rine, as it is said to be the most flattering; the features are fine, and the expression of the countenance is mild and pleasing. In another portrait of that empress in the long corridor, which is expressly devoted to por- traits of deceased members of the imperial family (and to views of promi- 406 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. nent streets and buildings in the city as they appeared about seventy years ago), she is represented on horseback astride, and in man's attire. The Hermitage also contains the Russian library, consisting of ten thou- sand volumes in the Russian language, and founded by Catherine II. for the instruction and amusement of the numerous attendants who were at- tached to her luxurious court, and whose time would have hung heavily on their hands without some such resource. In the library are likewise the collections of Diderot, Voltaire, the marquis de Galliani, Nicolai Zim- merman the philosopher, Büsching, Tcherbatof, &c. ; in all a hundred and twenty thousand volumes. The donations of Voltaire contain numerous annotations in his own hand, and there are several unpublished manuscripts of the French philosopher, as well as a great number of his thumb-stains and "dogs' ears." It may be mentioned that, in addition to the paintings, drawings, and engravings, there are two rooms filled with a most extraordinary collection of jewels, cameos, intaglios, medals, snuff-boxes, étuis, ivory carvings, and articles of every kind of vertù; jewels, arms, and ornaments of the ancient czars, ormolu knick-knacks and valuable bizarreries of all sorts. Most of the snuff-boxes are jewelled, and very costly: one presented by the Turk- ish sultan to his "fond ally," displays a miniature of Mahmoud in his Eu- ropean costume, most beautifully painted on ivory. The entire surface is covered with large diamonds of the first water, and within the outer row in each corner is a still larger brilliant, dazzling to look upon. In one room is a superb vase of Siberian jasper of a lilac color, five feet in height, of exquisite form and polish. In another are two magnificent candelabra, said to be valued at fifty thousand dollars; two golden tripods, seven feet high, supporting the golden salvers on which salt and bread were presented to the emperor Alexander on his triumphal return from Paris in 1814, as emblems of Wisdom and Plenty; besides these tripods there are two gold salvers presented to the emperor Nicholas at his coronation by the nobility and merchants of St. Petersburg; a large musical and magical secretary, which opens spontaneously in a hundred directions at the sound of music, purchased by Alexander for four thousand dollars; also a clock called the Horloge du Paon, enclosed in a glass case ten feet high: the form of the clock is the trunk of a tree, the branches and leaves of which are gold; on the top sits a peacock, and when the chimes begin, it expands its bril- liant tail, while an owl rolls its eyes with its own peculiar stare, and, in- stead of a bell striking the hour, a golden cock flaps his wings and crows! In fact, these treasures seem to realize in all its truth the proverbial ex- pression of "l'embarras de richesses;" and the eye, wearied and satiated with them, reposes with no small satisfaction and interest on the simple and unostentatious dressing-case of the emperor Alexander: this is ex- tremely compact and plain, and, judging by so trifling a circumstance, marks the soldier and the sensible man. We have but touched on some of the treasures of this palace; but enough ST. PETERSBURG- 407 THE MARBLE AND TAURIDA PALACES. has been said to show that a hermit might boldly renounce the rest of the world if allowed to make his cell here, where half nature and half mankind are offered to his contemplation on canvass, in color, in marble, glass, and ivory, painted, chiselled, stamped, woven, and printed. The picture-galleries of the Hermitage are on the first floor, the large windows of which command a beautiful view of the river. In the court is a garden raised to the level of these rooms, which, with its flowering shrubs and evergreens, has a curious effect; for, from one window the Neva is seen flowing at a depth of about thirty feet below, while on the other side flowers are blooming, and a fountain playing, on a level with the spectator. The barracks of the Preobrajensky regiment of guards are attached to the Hermitage. This regiment is always on duty at the palace, and those among the officers who are lovers of the fine arts must feel great pleasure in being able so frequently to promenade these splendid rooms, surrounded by some of the best pictures in the world. It is, however, stated that the gallery at the Hermitage is, marvellous to relate, little visited by the higher classes in St. Petersburg. A theatre is attached to this palace, but not of very large dimensions. Performances sometimes take place, but there can be but little room for show or stage effect. The members of the court sit on chairs, in the pit, as there are no boxes or divisions. There is nothing particularly striking in the decorations. The Hermitage joins the Winter palace on the east. Then follows the Imperial theatre, some other palaces, the property of private persons, and, last of all, the Marble palace. This was erected by Catherine II. as a resi- dence for Prince Gregory Orloff, one of her favorites, who died before its completion; and its long façade, stretching by the river-side, denotes that it must have been at one time a handsome pile of building. It ought more properly to have been called the Granite palace, for much more granite and iron have been employed upon it than marble. The extraordinary massive walls are built of blocks of granite; the supports of the roof are iron beams; the roof itself sheet-copper; the window-frames gilded copper. This palace was inhabited by the late grand-duke Constantine, and has since been sumptuously furnished and decorated for the residence of the present grand-duke of the same name. The Taurida palace, a long, low building, with a badly-paved court in front and two projecting wings, is situated on the banks of the Neva, about a mile to the eastward of the Marble palace. It was named the Taurida in compliment to Potemkin, the conqueror of the khan of the Crimea, and presented by Catherine II. to that nobleman, and, oddly enough, was sub- sequently purchased from him. In the favorite's pride of power, and when his inordinate love of show and ostentation animated and adorned its noble apartments, this palace may have realized the expectations raised by its name: it now looks forlorn, and a picture of deserted magnificence. The exterior, can never have been beautiful, and the interior has been robbed 408 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. of the best part of its contents to assist in adorning other royal residences. On entering the building the stranger finds himself in a lofty circular hall filled with statues, many of them of average merit. Beyond is a ballroom of extraordinary dimensions, being three hundred and twenty feet long by seventy feet wide, which, opening on one side to the entrance-hall, and on the other to an extensive conservatory, from which it is separated only by a row of lofty marble columns, runs the whole length of the palace. The columns are encircled by rows of lights coiling round them like serpents, while three enormous chandeliers, each composed of two or three large rings, fitted with lights rising one above the other, are suspended from the ceiling. The very shrubs and pillars in the conservatory are transformed in like manner, and made to bear their share in the vast illumination. idea of the immense proportions of this ballroom may be formed from the fact that twenty thousand wax-lights are necessary to light it up com- pletely; and that the colossal group of the Laocoon, at one end, can be plainly seen from the other only by means of a telescope! A profusion of statues, many of them well executed, are arranged round this vast apart- ment, and a copy of the Venus de Medici and an hermaphrodite are worthy of mention. In the summer, the orange-trees, of which there are great numbers, are removed from the conservatory into the palace-gardens. Here Potemkin gave magnificent fêtes to his imperial mistress; and all that was bright, beautiful, and gay, thronged the mazy walks of the orangery in the long winter nights, turning their dullness into the wild revelry of a southern carnival. It must have been like magic to have passed from the frozen and snow-covered earth without to this magnificent ballroom, illuminated with its thousands of lights, and filled with perfumes that carried the im- agination to regions where an icicle was never seen, and the northern blast never felt. At these festivals the musicians were suspended in the chan- deliers. The last grand festival given in this palace was on the occasion of the marriage of the grand-duke Michael, when the present decorations were made. The marble is all false, the silver is plated copper, many of the pillars and statues are of brick and plaster, and the pictures of equivo- cal originality; the looking-glasses, though ten feet wide and lofty in pro- portion, are so badly made, that on examination the surface is found to be all in waves and full of bubbles, and it is evident they belong to a very early period of the St. Petersburg manufactory. The Taurida, now a kind of Hampton court, and inhabited by a few su- perannuated ladies of the haut-ton, is sometimes used as a place of recep- tion for the emperor's guests. Here once resided Louisa, the beautiful but unfortunate queen of Prussia, after the conquest of that country by Napo- leon in 1806; it was also tenanted by the Persian prince Chozro Mirza, during his embassy, when he came to deprecate the wrath of the mighty czar; and lastly, in 1830, by Oscar, crown prince (now king) of Sweden. The emperor Paul turned the entire palace into a barrack for his guards, ST. PETERSBURG ETAT MAJOR-ALEXANDER COLUMN. 409 but his son and successor Alexander restored it to its original purpose of a royal residence. It is still thickly garrisoned with imperial footmen, and kept in pretty good order; but it nevertheless, from the absence of furniture, looks, as before remarked, deserted and melancholy. The gar- dens are accessible to the public; they are tastefully laid out, and, consid- ering their vicinity to so large a city, their extent is immense. A table- cover, on which are some drops of wax which fell from the candles of Alexander, who frequently inhabited some apartments here, and some crayon drawings by his admirable consort Elizabeth, and other objects of the same kind, have a certain degree of interest. The Hôtel de l'Etat Major, or head department of the army, immedi- ately fronting the Winter palace, is likewise one of the many striking piles of buildings in the "City of Palaces," and remarkable for its vast extent and singular architectural ornament of a chariot of Victory, drawn by eight horses, which are rearing and plunging in all directions to the no small discomfort of the plumed and mailed lady who drives the team. From the arch over which the group is placed one of the most pleasing views of the Winter palace and likewise of the adjacent buildings may be obtained. In the open space between the Etat Major and the Winter palace stands the greatest monolith of modern times, the column erected to the memory of the late emperor Alexander-a single shaft of red granite, which, ex- clusive of pedestal and capital, is upward of eighty feet in height. This beautiful monument is the work of Monsieur Montferrand, the architect of the church of St. Isaac, and was erected under his superintendence. The shaft originally measured one hundred and two feet, but it was subsequently shortened to its present dimensions from a fear that its diameter was in- sufficient for so great a length. The base and pedestal is also composed of one enormous block of the same red granite, of the height of about twenty-five feet, and nearly the same length and breadth; the capital meas- ures sixteen feet, the statue of the angel on the summit fourteen feet, and the cross seven feet-in all about a hundred and fifty feet.* As the whole of St. Petersburg is built on a morass, it was thought ne- cessary to drive no less than six successive rows of piles, in order to sus- tain so immense a weight as this standing upon so confined a base; the shaft of the column alone is computed as weighing nearly four hundred tons, and the massive pedestal must materially increase the tremendous pressure. The statue was raised in its rough state, and polished after it was firmly fixed on its present elevation. On the pedestal is the following short and well-chosen inscription: "To Alexander the First. - Grateful Russia." The eye rests with pleasure on this polished monument; and in * It is said that Louis Philippe, in the days of his greatest power and prosperity, applied to the emperor Nicholas for a similar column out of his Finland quarries. The emperor begged to be excused. "He would not," he said, "send him a smaller one; a similar one he could not; and a greater one was not to be obtained.” 410 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. any other city its enormous size would make a greater impression. In St. Petersburg, however, where the eye expands with the vast surrounding spaces, it is seen under a smaller angle of vision. The place on which it stands is so vast in its dimensious, the houses around are so high and mas- sive, that even this giant requires its whole hundred and fifty feet not to disappear. But when the stranger is close to it and becomes aware of its circumference, while its head seems to reach the heavens, the impression is strong and overpowering. Already, however, it is said that an abominable worm is gnawing at this beautiful monolith, and it has likewise received a very sad and offensive rent from above toward the middle. It may be that the stone was at first badly chosen, or that the cold of St. Petersburg will not tolerate such monuments of human art. There are those among the inhabitants who think it a patriotic duty to deny the existence of the rent, which has been artfully filled with a cement of granite fragments. But in the sunshine, when the polish of the rent shows differently from that of the stone-or in the winter, when the hoar frost forms in icicles on the cold stone, but not on the warmer cement—the marring line is but too apparent. The idea of this column is, like everything else in Russia, religio-politi- cal. It was erected, as before remarked, in honor of the emperor Alexan- der, and is meant to eternalize with his memory that of the reconfirmation of the political constitution and of the security of religion. The mass of the Russian people have been taught to believe that the invasion of Napo- leon was not only an attack on the state, but also as one on their faith— (falsely taught, since Napoleon made war on the religious faith of no peo- ple or nation). Hence the erection of the angel with the cross on the summit. This column, whose capital and ornaments on the pedestal were formed from Turkish cannon, throws into one category all the enemies of Russia, the Turks, the French, &c., and is the sealing, ratification, and immortalization of all the modern victories of the Russian eagle. The Michailoff palace, or rather castle, stands on the site of the old Summer palace on the Fontanka canal, which was pulled down by the em- peror Paul, who built this of granite in its stead, and fortified it as a place of defence; and, according to Russian custom, which dedicates to protect- ing saints and angels not churches only, but fortresses, castles, and other buildings, it was dedicated to the archangel Michael. The castle has a more gloomy exterior than the other palaces of St. Petersburg, and is of an extraordinary style of architecture. It is in the form of a square, whose four façades all differ in style one from the other. The ditches, which originally surrounded it, are now partly filled up and laid out in gardens, but the principal entrance is still over some drawbridges. In the square before the chief gate stands a monument, insignificant enough as a work of art, wltich Paul erected to Peter the Great, with the inscription "Pro- dädu Pravnuk" (the Grandson to the Grandfather). Over the principal door, which is overloaded with architectural ornaments, is inscribed in 眼 ​น HOTEL DE L'ETAT MAJOR, AND ALEXANDRIAN COLUMN, ST. PETERSBURG. ST. PETERSBURG- 413 THE OLD MICHAILOFF PALACE. golden letters a passage from the Bible in the old Slavonian language: "On thy house will the blessing of the Lord rest for evermore.' "" This palace was built with extraordinary rapidity. Five thousand men were employed on it daily till finished; and, the more quickly to dry the walls, large iron plates were made hot and fastened to them for a time: the result was, that soon after the emperor's death it was abandoned as quite uninhabitable! The cost of building it is said to have been eighteen millions of roubles: had sufficient time been taken, it would not have amounted to six millions. The The halls and apartments of the castle are large and numerous. room in which the emperor Paul was strangled is sealed and walled up. The Russians generally do this with the room in which their parents die. They have a certain dread of it, and never enter it willingly. The empe- ror Alexander never entered one of them. Nicholas, however, who feared neither the cholera in Moscow, nor revolt in St. Petersburg, nor the dagger in Warsaw, but shows a bold countenance everywhere, has viewed these rooms several times. The apartment in which his father was murdered is easily recognisable from without by the darkened and dusty windows on the second story. The apartments of the beautiful Lapuchin are directly under, on the first floor, and are now inhabited by the keeper of the castle. The stairs which led down from them are broken away. During the reign of Alexander the castle fell so much into decay, that when Nicholas caused it to be restored it is said to have cost sixty thou- sand roubles merely to remove the dirt and rubbish. The painted ceilings have considerable interest. In one is represented the revival of the order of Malta, and Ruthenia, a beautiful virgin, with the features of Paul, seated on a mountain. Near her rests the mighty eagle. Fame, flying from the south in terror, announces the injustice done her in the Mediterranean, and entreats "the mighty eagle" to shelter her under his wing. In the distance is seen the island threatened by the waves and the hostile fleets. In another hall all the gods of Greece are assembled, whose various physi- ognomies are those of persons of the imperial court! The architect, whose purse profited considerably by the building of the castle, appears among them as a flying Mercury. When Paul, who was a ready punster, and who knew very well that all the money he paid was not changed into stone and wood, caused the different faces to be pointed out to him, he recognised the features of the Mercury directly, and said, laughing, to his courtiers, "Ah! voilà l'architecte, qui vole." The old Michailoff palace is now the abode of the school of engineers. One hundred and fifty young persons here receive their mathematical and physical education. Its gardens are filled with blooming young cadets, who play and exercise there; and the former audience and banqueting rooms are partly used as school, examination, sleeping, and eating rooms, and partly to hold collections of various objects of a very attractive kind, of the highest interest in engineering and fortification. It is wonderful to 414 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. contemplate the progress which the Russians have already made in this branch of military science. Russia, with reference to its military fortifications, is divided into ten circles. To the objects which relate to the fortification of each circle, a separate hall is devoted. In large presses, in the halls, are kept all the plans, general and special, of already-existing or projected fortresses. Each fortress has its own press for the matériel, in which are specimens of the bricks, kinds of earth, and the different rocks which lie in the neigh- borhood, and of which the fortresses are, or are to be, constructed. Lastly, on large stands in the middle of the halls, are to be seen all the fortified places in Russia, modelled in clay and wood, and with such exactness, that not the slightest elevation or sinking of the ground—not a tree or a house is forgotten. In this manner are presented, among others, the most stri- king pictures of Kiev, Revel, and Riga. It is worthy of remark that among them is a complete representation of all the castles of the Dardanelles, with their bastions and towers, and the most minute details of all the little creeks of this important strait and the neighboring heights and rocks. By means of these models, the whole of plan of attack on the Dardanelles could be directed from St. Petersburg. The mingling of the castles of the Dardanelles with those already garrisoned by Russian troops indicates that Russia covets them, and brings to mind Alexander's saying, that those straits, with Constantinople, formed "the key to his house." In one of the rooms is an extraordinary number of ukases and military ordinances, having reference to the erection of defences. They are signed, and many of them corrected, by the different emperors and empresses with their own hands. Catherine II., in particular, has made many corrections with a red-lead pencil; and Nicholas always makes with his own hand his amendments, alterations, annotations, and additions to his laws, decrees, and sentences. Here may be seen a hundred repetitions of those three important words, "Buit po semu" (Be it so), which are annexed to every ukase. Catherine's handwriting is bad, but the signature is never hurried; on the contrary, she seems to have taken trouble in painting every one of the Russian letters. All the long letters have a little flourish under them, which are made with a trembling hand; some are quite awry, nor are all the letters in a line; they are not joined, but nearly every one stands alone, and tolerably perpendicular, without flow or rounding: it is like the hand- writing of an old man. Even the individual letter will sometimes be formed of unconnected strokes. The whole is plain, and without any ornamental additions. After her name "Ickathrina" stands always a large dot, as if she would say, "And therewith punctum basta." The emperor Alexander wrote a fine hand. His name begins with a large, elegant A; the other letters, though narrow, are not very plain till the conclusion-the r is very plainly written and well formed. Under the name is a very long, complicated flourish, which looks confused at first, 口​ǔ 阅 ​道 ​MICHAELOFF PALACE, NOW THE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERS, ST. PETERSBURG. ST. PETERSBURG—THE NEW MICHAILOFF PALACE. 417 but the thread is easily found, as it is always very regularly formed, and in the same figure. Nicholas writes decidedly the best hand of all the Russian emperors; it is calligraphically irreproachable, regular, intelligible, and flowing. The emperor begins with an arching stroke of the pen, under which his name "Nicolai" stands as under a roof. The last stroke of the final i slopes under in a slender arch once or twice, is then carried upward to join the first line, and ends over the name in a thick, bold stroke made with a firm hand and with the whole breadth of the pen. The name is thus prettily enclosed in a frame. The Anitshkof (or Annitchkoff) palace, which stands on the Great Pros- pekt, in the neighborhood of the Fontanka canal, and closes the brilliant ranges of palaces in that street, is not unfrequently inhabited by the empe- ror. According to Kohl, it was originally built by the empress Elizabeth, and bestowed on Count Rasoumoffski; then twice purchased by Catherine II., and twice presented to Prince Potemkin. Another writer believes this palace to have been built by a merchant of the name it bears, and sold by him to one of the czars. It is now the favorite residence of the imperial family, and handsomely built, but has no particular historical interest. Here also the emperor Nicholas holds the greater number of his councils, receives embassadors, &c. Hence the cabinet of St. Petersburg may be called the cabinet of Anitshkof, as that of London is called the cabinet of St. James's, &c. There can be no doubt that the new Michailoff palace, the late residence of the emperor's younger brother, is the most elegant building in St. Pe- tersburg. It was built in 1820, by an Italian architect named Rossi. The interior is also decidedly the handsomest and most tasteful in decoration and furniture of all the royal residences. Its position, too, is highly stri- king— quite as much so as that of the Winter palace. Open on all sides, it expands its wings and courtyards in a most graceful manner; not a tower, house, or any other building, being near to disturb its outline. Behind the palace lies the "Little Summer Garden," as it is called, whose lofty trees and groups of foliage form a pleasing contrast with its elegant architectural proportions. Before the chief front is a spacious lawn, scattered over with graceful flowers and shrubs. An iron grille, the design of which is a model of good taste, divides the inner from the outer court; and the outbuildings, offices, and courts between them, are in such harmony with each other and the main buildings, that it is evident the whole was one design, and that nothing has been the result of after-thought. The stables and riding-school are particularly worthy of attention, and the latter is deserving of especial mention. In this school fifty young men are instructed in riding and in all arts that have reference to the manège; for this object, and for the fêtes in the riding-house, at which the court is often present, a number of the finest horses are kept, and both men and horses are so well cared for, that it is said to be a pleasure to walk through the 27 418 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. range of elegant dormitories, sitting, school, and saddle rooms. All these apartments have double folding-doors in the centre, which stand open the whole day. A long carpet is laid along all the floors down to the stable, and the inspector can overlook everything at a glance, and see what the young cadets are doing in their apartment. Kohl alludes particularly to the ventilation, and remarks that "it is wonderful how pure the air is kept; it is as if the stud were perfumed with eau de Cologne as well as the cadets." Their course of preparation extends over six years, and ten leave every year and join the army as riding-masters. Quadrilles and tournaments are sometimes performed by these youths and their horses in the presence of the court. These jousts sometimes take place in the even- ing, when the riding-school is splendidly illuminated and decorated for the occasion; among other wonders exhibited at these fêtes are six looking- glasses, so large that in them the youthful cavaliers can view themselves from head to foot. We must not leave entirely unnoticed a palace which stands on the south side of the Summer garden, and is known by the name of the Red palace a name for which it is indebted to one of the many strange whims of the emperor Paul. At a court-ball, a lady made her appearance in red gloves, which so enchanted Paul, that the next day he proclaimed red his favorite color, and ordered that the palace should forthwith receive that showy tint. In the same palace, his monogram, "P. I.," is so constantly repeated on every side and in every corner, that an Englishman, who un- dertook the thankless task of counting them, got as far as eight thousand, and then, through weariness, left off without having nearly completed his undertaking. Paul had many such crotchets. So fond was he of the gaudy and the motley, that one of his ukases was to the effect that, on one and the same day, all the gates, bridges, palaces, guardhouses, &c., in the whole vast empire, should be painted in variegated colors- a piece of childish folly, the results of which were, in time, of course, obliterated. The Imperial library, one of the most extensive in Europe, is near the Kazan church, and occupies a large building, which, with the Anitshkof palace, the Alexander theatre, and that part of the Nevskoi Prospekt facing it, forms one of the finest squares in St. Petersburg. This library is open. daily for reading, and on every Tuesday for public inspection. It contains four hundred thousand volumes, and about fifteen thousand manuscripts, viz., seven thousand two hundred Latin, two thousand two hundred French, two thousand Slavonic, twelve hundred Polish, nineteen hundred German, &c. The greater part of this valuable collection formed a portion of the spoils of Poland. The count Stanislaus Zaluski, bishop of Krakow, found- ed a splendid library, which was further increased by his descendants; and Andrew Zaluski, bishop of Kiev, bequeathed it to his country. In the middle of the eighteenth century it was transferred to Warsaw, and is said then to have contained three hundred thousand volumes. When Suwarrow conquered Poland, Catherine II. directed the library to be transferred to ST. PETERSBURG — LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS. 419 St. Petersburg. It was further increased, in 1833, by that of the prince Czartorisky, taken in the Polish campaign, and by a further importation from Poland of a hundred and fifty thousand volumes. The valuable books and manuscripts of Peter Dombrowski, purchased during the early troubles of the French Revolution, were afterward added to this vast collection. The manuscripts chiefly relate to the history of France, and form an invaluable series. They consist of letters from vari- ous kings of France and their embassadors at foreign courts, reports, secret state documents, and correspondence of different European sovereigns. These interesting papers were dragged from the archives of Paris by an infuriated populace, and sold to the first bidder. Dombrowski purchased them; and thus some of the most valuable of the state papers of France adorn the library of St. Petersburg. In this collection there is a highly- illuminated missal which belonged to Mary queen of Scots while living at the French court, containing several poetical fragments; also several let- ters addressed to the king of France during her imprisonment by Queen Elizabeth in Fotheringay castle. A volume of manuscript letters from English sovereigns is exceedingly interesting. The library and manuscripts of Count Schutelen have lately been added; and the numerous acquisitions of manuscripts during the wars with Turkey, Circassia, and Persia, have contributed to form one of the finest collections in the world. The printed volumes are catalogued in manuscript, according to language, names of authors, and matter; and there is also now a catalogue of the manuscripts. The collection of oriental manuscripts is most extensive. Several ex- tracts from the Koran, in the Cufic character, are said to have belonged to Fatima, the favorite daughter of Mohammed. Two presses in the manu- script-room are filled with the spoils of the last war with Persia; and a collection of manuscripts, of extraordinary beauty, presented to the empe- ror Nicholas by the shah of Persia, in 1829, is also to be seen. It would be impossible to enumerate even the most remarkable objects of this vast collection of works from every nation of Asia. The only other libraries entitled to particular notice are those of the Academy of Sciences, containing one hundred thousand volumes; of the Hermitage, before alluded to, with a hundred and twenty thousand vol- umes, of which ten thousand are in the Russian language; and of the Al- exander Nevskoi monastery, which, though very limited in extent (having only ten thousand volumes), has collections of manuscripts of very great rarity and value, The principal museums are those of the Academy of Sciences, occupying a large portion of the magnificent buildings of that celebrated body, on the Vasiliestrov, on the banks of the Great Neva, opposite to the Admiralty, and including an Asiatic museum, rich in all kinds of curiosities relating to the East; an Egyptian museum, with a few fine specimens of papyrus, but not otherwise interesting; an ethnographic museum, enriched by the 420 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. collections of various Russian travellers and navigators, and a general col- lection of coins and medals, in which the Russian series is very valuable and complete; a good mineralogical, and a remarkably fine botanical col- lection; a museum of natural history, containing an admirable collection of birds, exquisitely stuffed and well arranged; and, among the larger fossil animals, of which Siberia furnishes numerous specimens, a mammoth (perfect, with the exception of one of the hind feet), sixteen feet long, ex- clusive of the tusks, and at least two feet higher than the elephant. This huge inhabitant of our "earth in its vigorous prime" was found in 1803, by Mr. Adams, on the banks of the Lena, in latitude seventy degrees north. It fell from a mass of ice, in which it must have been encased for ages, and so fresh was the flesh of the animal, that the wolves and bears were actu- ally found eating the carcass! How it was preserved during the years that have elapsed since such stupendous beings as the mammoth and mastodon walked the earth with their brethren, is a question which gives rise to much speculation. It must be impossible to contemplate the gigantic structure of the skeleton without being struck with the wonderful power such a co- lossal brute must have possessed. How the earth must have shaken be- neath his ponderous and unwieldy gambols, when "he moved his tail like a cedar, and drank up a river and hasted not!" The skin of this antedi- luvian monster was covered with black bristles, thicker than horse-hair, from twelve to sixteen inches long, and with wool of a reddish-brown color. About thirty pounds' weight of this fur was gathered from the wet sand- bank on which it was found. From the position of the tusks, which extend laterally like two scythes in the same horizontal plane, it would appear that the mammoth, in defending itself, moved the head from side to side, whereas the elephant, in striking, tosses the head upward. In this collection are also large quantities of bones of several extinct species of elephant, one of which (named by Fischer Elephas panicus) seems to have surpassed the mammoth in size as much as the latter exceeded the Asiatic elephant! In addition to these, there are a great many skulls of the larger kind of ante- diluvian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros teichorhinus), which far exceed in size any of the living African species. } The Academy of Fine Arts, also situated in the Vasiliestrov, on the banks of the Great Neva, has a portion of its magnificent apartments occupied as a picture-gallery, but is better known as an artistical school. The other more important collections are the Romanoff museum, containing a large collection of minerals, models, and antiquities; and the museum attached to the mining-school, containing a large collection of fossil conchology, models of mines, mining instruments, &c., and distinguished by its miner- alogical treasures, unequalled in Russia, and thought not to be surpassed anywhere. But the most curious part of this valuable repository is under- ground, being a model of a mine in Siberia, exhibiting to "the life" the various practical operations of mining in that country. Furnished with lighted tapers, but no miner's dress, the visiter is led by the guides through ST. PETERSBURG · EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 421 winding passages cut into the bowels of the earth, the sides of which rep- resent, by the aggregation of real specimens, the various stratifications, with all the different ores and minerals and different species of earth, as they are found in the natural state: the coal-formation, veins of copper, and in one place of gold, being particularly well represented, forming an admirable practical school for the study of geology, though under a chilli- ness of atmosphere which would be likely very soon to put an end to stud- ies of all kinds. At the head of the educational institutions is the university, only founded in 1819, but provided with fifty-eight professors, and attended by about five hundred students. The Chirurgical Medical Academy, founded by Peter the Great, receives about five hundred pupils, and enjoys a high reputation. Military education, in all its branches, regarded as one of the first interests of the state, forms a conspicuous feature in the academical system of Russia, and is provided for liberally in numerous institutions. The mining-school, whose admirable mineralogical collections have already been referred to, is one of the most remarkable establishments of the capi- tal; it occupies a grand and imposing structure, so situated as to form a very conspicuous object from the sea. It maintains above three hundred pupils, who, after remaining eight years, and receiving a very liberal edu- cation, are sent to superintend the government mines in the Ural mount- ains (an important branch, particularly of late years, of the Russian rev- enue), or placed in the mint. The Academy of Fine Arts has a façade, fronting the Neva, four hundred feet long and seventy feet high, adorned with columns and pilasters, and surmounted by a central cupola, on which is placed a colossal figure of Minerva. This academy, as already mentioned, is partly appropriated as a picture-gallery, but also occupied as a school of art, in which three hun- dred pupils are maintained and educated. In addition to these, it furnishes residences to the professors, academicians, and other artists; so that the whole number of persons accommodated under its roof is estimated at not less than a thousand. The other principal schools are, the Technological institute, in which upward of two hundred pupils, sons of respectable tradesmen, receive a general education, and special instruction in the various mechanical arts, cotton-spinning, weaving, carpentry, &c.; the Central Pedagogical insti- tute, or normal school; two gymnasia; the Female institute of Smolnoi, where five hundred young ladies are carefully and gratuitously educated; the Ecclesiastical academy; the principal protestant, the agricultural, com- mercial, veterinary, and various other schools. With regard to public societies, the only one which can be said to have acquired a European reputation is the Imperial Academy of Sciences, which has long been distinguished for the valuable papers published in its "Transactions." Most of them, however, are not the production of native talent, but of such celebrated foreigners as the government has had the 422 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. wisdom to attract by the liberality of its patronage. Numerous other soci- eties of repute exist, under the names of Russian imperial, medical, phar- maceutical, mineralogical, economical, agricultural, educational, military, philanthropical, and artistical. The government-buildings of St. Petersburg, which may be properly mentioned in this connection, are in harmony with the immense empire to which they belong, and are generally characterized by their colossal pro- portions. The Admiralty, to which, as furnishing the best station for ob- taining a full view of the city, reference has already been made, is an im- mense brick building, situated on the north side of the square of the same name, and surmounted by a slender tower with a gilt cupola. The main part of the building, from the centre of which the tower rises, lies parallel to the river with its north side, but has its principal façade on the south, facing the square. The length of this façade is nearly half a mile; and at right angles to it are two sides, stretching from its extremities north toward the river; the east side fronting the Winter palace, and the west the Isaac square and senate-house, and each six hundred and fifty feet in length. ST. ISAAC SQUARE, ST. PETERSBURG. In the above engraving of the square of St. Isaac, the senate-house is seen on the right and the church of St. Isaac appears in the distance on the left. Between them may be seen the colossal equestrian statue of Pe- ter the Great, reduced, however, by the remote distance to diminutive proportions. A nearer view of this statue accompanies the sketch of it a few pages farther on. A large portion of the Admiralty is occupied as school-rooms for naval ST. PETERSBURG 423 THE EXCHANGE AND CITADEL. cadets. Immediately below it, on the north, lining the Russian quay, are the extensive dockyards: and in the immediate vicinity are a number of important public buildings; among others, that of the Holy Synod, where all the higher concerns of the church are regulated; the Hôtel de l'Etat Major, noticed a few pages back; and the war-office, conspicuous by its profusion of gigantic columns. THE BOURSE, OR EXCHANGE, ST. PETERSBurg. On the opposite side of the Great Neva stands the exchange; and west from it, fronting the Little Neva, the customhouse-both large and impo- sing structures. Immediately adjoining are two high and slender towers, adorned like the Columna Rostrata of ancient Rome, from which the ap- proach of shipping may be observed. These columns are hollow, and on their summits, which are reached by a flight of iron steps, are gigantic vases that are filled with combustibles on all occasions of public illumina- tion. The erection of the whole, including the quays, occupied nearly twelve years, from 1804 to 1816. The great hall of the exchange, which is of colossal proportions, is lighted from above. At either end on both sides are spaces in the form of arcades: in one of the first stands an altar, with lamps constantly burning, for the benefit of the pious Russian mer- chants, who always bow to the altar, and sometimes even prostrate them- selves, on their entrance, to implore the favor of all the saints to their undertakings. The citadel, with its bastions and bristling embrasures, mounted with one hundred cannon, and defended by a garrison of three thousand men, forms a very conspicuous object. Besides the church of St. Peter and St. Paul (which will be noticed in the next chapter), it contains within its enclosure the mint; and in its vicinity presents an object of great interest 424 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. in the wooden cottage of Peter the Great, consisting of three small apart- ments, one of them his chapel, and containing, among other relics of that extraordinary man, the little boat which he constructed, and which may be considered as the germ of the powerful navy which he afterward formed. Among the other government-edifices, the arsenals and ranges of bar- racks are particularly deserving of notice. The old arsenal, aʼn enormous building, was erected by Count Orloff at his own cost, and presented to the empress Catherine II. The new one was built by the emperor Alex- ander, in a very magnificent style. Both are filled with glittering weap- ons, trophies, old military engines, and antiquities of importance in Russian history. Among the trophies, there stands in one of the halls in the new arsenal a large Russian eagle, whose neck, body, and legs, are composed of gun-flints; the pinions of swords; every feather on the breast and belly is a dagger; every tail-feather a yataghan; the eyes, the muzzles of two black pistols; the gullet, the bore of a cannon: a terrible "Noli me tan- gere," a proper symbol of the Russian state, which has soared to its pres- ent height on the pinions of swords and bayonets. In another hall is a statue of Catherine in white marble, throned in a royal chair, and sur- rounded by all the emblems of imperial power. Her horse, a white one stuffed, stands near. The saddle is not a lady's side-saddle, but au ordi- nary man's saddle. Her passion for appearing on horseback, in male cos- tume, has been before alluded to. The statue was erected by Orloff (one of her chief favorites) during her lifetime, and presented with the building. Some of the historical souvenirs and antiquities are highly interesting: for example, the standards of the Strelitz guard, huge things made of pieces of silk sewed together, and adorned with many highly original pictures characteristic of that fanatical Russian prætorian band, who may justly be called the Janizaries of Christianity. Near the flags lie a number of the accoutrements of the Strelitzes, and the images of their patron-saints: each saint has its own little case, of which a whole row, fastened to straps, were worn on the breast, in a fashion similar to that of the Circassians. Some Russian cannon of the period are also placed here; they are very large, cast in iron, and ornamented with silver and gold. To every emperor and empress since Peter the Great a separate apart- ment is devoted, containing the costume, weapons, and utensils, belonging to them, with the instruments of war in use at that time, uniforms, &c. The uniforms of distinguished generals, with all their orders, crosses, and ribands, are here deposited in glass cases; many thousand ells of histori cally-interesting ribands figure among them. With the help of this cabinet a very good history of the Russian army might be composed. Ever since Peter the Great, the Russian emperors have voluntarily sub- jected themselves to their own laws and ordinances, and thereby given their subjects a great example. The pike which Peter carried as a volun- teer in his own army, the uniforms he wore as sergeant, captain, and colo- nel, the leathern shirt he wore as a carpenter, all of which are preserved ST. PETERSBURG- THE ARSENALS. 425 in the arsenal, constantly warn his successors to follow his example. In Peter's apartment there is still kept the cabriolet he made use of to meas- ure the roads; the number of revolutions made by the wheels is shown by the machinery contained in the box behind. On the lid of this box is a curious old picture, representing Peter's method of travelling. It is a portrait of the cabriolet itself, drawn by one horse, and driven by Peter. Behind him are newly-built houses, and gardens laid out; before him a for- est and a wilderness, to the annihilation of which he is boldly proceeding: behind him the heavens are serene, before him the clouds are heaped up like rocks. As this picture was probably designed by Peter himself, it shows what he thought of himself. In remarkable contrast with the little modest cabriolet of the road ma- king and measuring emperor is the great triumphal car, with its flags and kettle-drums, which Peter II. drove before the band of his guard, at the time when the ladies wore hoop-petticoats and the gentlemen long periwigs. Paul's rocking-horse; the Holstein cuirassiers of Peter III., who were so great a cause of vexation to the native Russians; Senka Rasin's state-chair of ebony, garnished with rude pistols instead of lace; the uniform of Gen- eral Miloradovitch, in which the hole made by the bullet that pierced his heart in the revolt of the 14th of December, 1825, is yet to be seen-all furnish employment for the imagination of the historian. In this collection the accoutrements of neighboring states have not been neglected; even the equipments of the Japanese and Chinese may here be studied. The cuirasses and coats-of-mail of the Japanese guards are made of tortoise-shell, which cover the whole body, and are put together in small scales: the face is concealed in a black mask representing an open-mouthed dragon! The Chinese soldier is clothed from head to foot in thickly-wad- ded cotton: if he can not move about much in battle, he must be, at all events, in some measure protected against arrows and cudgels. Grimacing masks are also in use among them. The timid have everywhere a great wish to infuse into others, by means of disguises, that terror which they can not inspire by their own courage. The Chinese weapons appear to have the same aim: among them is a halberd, of which the edge of the axe is nearly six feet long-an instrument of murder which would require a free space of ten feet in diameter for every soldier to wield properly. It seems destined for the destruction of giants, but a Roman soldier with his short sword would have been quite safe from them. Countless as are the uniforms here collected, there is scarcely one to which the Russians have not been opposed, the Japanese not excepted- and scarcely one from which they have not wrested some trophy of victory. Those in the arsenals of St. Petersburg consist of splendid silver shields of Turkish leaders; Polish, Prussian, French, and Persian flags; and at least a thousand ells of silk in Turkish standards, besides a large heap of crescents taken from the mosques. A cannon-foundry is annexed to the new arsenal, where a powerful steam-engine is at work. 426 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. In the western corner of the Admiralty square, and near the iron bridge, is located the well-known colossal equestrian statue of Peter the Great, mentioned a few pages back. The subject is admirably treated, and the idea of representing the emperor riding up a rock, on both sides of which and in front steep precipices threaten destruction, is as poetical a thought as ever sculptor entertained. It is said that Falconet, the French artist who executed this great work, was aided in his inspirations by a Russian officer, the boldest horseman of his time, who daily rode up to the edge of a high artificial mound the wildest Arabian of Count Orloff's stud, where he suddenly halted him with his fore legs pawing the air over the abyss below. The head was modelled by Marie Callot.* The emperor's face is turned toward the Neva, his hand outstretched as if he would grasp land and water. This attitude was bold and to the purpose; it is therefore inconceivable why the artist did not rest contented with it, instead of adding to the idea of power and possession which his attitude gave, the subduing a serpent which the czar finds on the rock, and which is trodden under his horse's foot: the charm of a great work of art is sinned against by this destruction of unity of action and idea. The spring of the horse, the carriage of the rider, and his well-chosen Russian costume, are, how- ever, admirable. The air-born position of the whole statue rendered it necessary that unusual precautions should be taken to preserve the centre of gravity: the thickness of the bronze in front is therefore very trifling, but behind it increases to several inches, and ten thousand pounds' weight of iron were cast in the hind quarters and tail of the horse—a tolerable aplomb.† • • s0 * "A young Frenchwoman, Mademoiselle Callot, a relative of Falconet the sculptor, since so celebrated, was also an artist, and resided for some time in St. Petersburg. The czar saw some of her statuettes, and their expression of combined power and gentleness made so strong an impres- sion on him, that he paid a visit, in strict incognito, to the artist's studio. There he made acquaint- ance with Mademoiselle Callot, and was captivated by her charms. The remarkable tenderness of her nature deeply impressed his stormy and passionate soul; the depth of her mind harmonized with his; a bond of sympathy speedily encircled them. During the most ardent period of their romantic love, Peter sat to her for his bust. The woman's tender affection combined with the art- ist's inspiration to produce the most perfect bust the world ever saw of one of its greatest men. What has become of that bust none know; but fact it is that, when Catherine II. conceived the idea of the grand equestrian statue I have described, and sent to Paris for Falconet to execute it, that sculptor made his studies for the head after the masterpiece of his relative, Mademoiselle Callot, who at that time was doubtless dead. Contemporaries, at least, who were acquainted with both works of art, declared the head of the statue to be an unmistakeable copy of that inimitable bust, whose unparalleled beauty was wonderfully well reproduced in Falconet's colossal work. Truly, nothing was wanting to the memory of the northern giant, but that love should transmit his portrait to posterity! Russian authors represent the liaison of the young czar and the French lady as one that exercised much influence on the fate of the country. "JERRMANN. †The Rev. Mr. Choules, who saw this statue when at St. Petersburg in 1853, says: I thought with pride on our own Mills, who has succeeded so nobly in his equestrian statue of Jackson, which is self-poised." The sculptor here referred to is Clark Mills, a native of New York, who designed and executed an equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson, and in which the horse bearing his hero appears gracefully prancing, and is poised upon his hind legs, without the slightest visible extrane- ous support. In this statue the artist has boldly and successfully relied on the truth of well-known mechanical principles, which assured him that by resorting to them he might entirely dispense with everything likely to interfere with the dashing effect of his work. The whole is cast from brass T W. ACDEA78. 08. EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF PETER THE GREAT, ADMIRALTY SQUARE, ST. PETERSBURG. ST. PETERSBURG 429 ·PUBLIC MONUMENTS. The huge block of granite which forms the pedestal, and weighs fifteen hundred tons, was brought from Lacta, a Finnish village four miles from St. Petersburg, and may have been torn by the deluge from the Swedish mountains. It was originally forty-five feet long, thirty feet high, and twenty-five feet in width; but the chisel was set to work, and, in cutting it, the mass broke in two pieces. These were subsequently patched together, and it now looks as unnatural as the imitative rocks seen on the stage. Some work may have been necessary to obtain a footing for the horse and give an inclination to the stone. This, however, must have been done without due precaution, for one third was taken away. It is now only fourteen feet high, twenty feet broad, and thirty-five feet long; the statue is eleven feet in height, and the horse seventeen. On the two long sides are chiselled the following inscriptions in Russian and Latin: "Petramu Pervomu, Ickathrina Vtovaya."-" Petro Primo, Catherina Secunda.- MDCCLXXXII. "" A laughable circumstance connected with this statue recently occurred at St. Petersburg. Some American sailors, who had been making rather too free with "the jolly god," sallied forth on a frolicksome cruise; and one of them, not having the fear of the police before his eyes, climbed over the wire palisade surrounding the statue, and, clambering up the rock, seated himself, en croupe, behind the czar! He was speedly dismounted, and after a night's confinement was brought before the divisional officer of police, when the case was summarily disposed of, and so heavy a fine inflicted that the offender naturally remonstrated. No, no," replied the officer, “we can make no abatement: if you will ride with great people, you must pay great people's prices!" 66 The monument to Suwarrow, Russia's most distinguished general, is on the Champ de Mars, opposite the Troitszka bridge-a most appropriate situation; but the work itself is generally regarded by critics as unworthy of the great marshal whose deeds it is intended to commemorate. It is a bronze statue, on foot, in Roman costume, wielding a sword in the right hand, and holding a shield in the left, in defence, over the crowns of the pope, Naples, and Sardinia, which lie at his feet. This refers especially to the campaign of Italy, in 1799. Nearly equidistant from the Academy of Arts and the Corps of Cadets is a monument to Field-Marshal Romanzoff, erected to his memory for his services against the Turks, in the wars ending with the conquest of the cannon taken by General Jackson from his country's enemies, and donated by Congress to the "Monument Society" for the purpose. It is cast in ten pieces-the horse being in four and the hero in six pieces—which are so riveted and rolled together as to present to the closest scrutiny the appearance of being cast entirely in mass. The weight of the work is nearly fifteen tons; and from the top of the pedestal to the highest point of the figure the height is about fourteen feet, while the height of the pedestal above the surrounding ground is about sixteen feet. This statue has been severely and we think, all things considered, unjustly criticised, as a work of art. It occu- pies the centre of a highly-embellished public square, opposite the presidential mansion, at the city of Washington. རྒ 430 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Crimea. The inscription on it is "Romantzowa Pobedam" (To the Vic- tories of Romanzoff). This monument is composed of half a dozen different-colored stones, and is ornamented with patches of metal besides. The obelisk itself is of black granite. It stands in a socket of red marble, whose base is of another color, in addition to which there are several strata of white marble; and the whole bears on its extreme point a golden ball, with an eagle hovering over it. In vain we ask what harmony the artist could find in all these various colors and materials. Fortunately, this artistical abortion will not last long. There are already several rents and splits in it, and so many pieces broken from all the corners, that it looks as if it had stood for cen- turies. It will soon sink under its own weight. The Egyptian sphinxes, which lie not far from this monument, before the Academy of Arts, seem to look deridingly on the unimposing obelisk. In defiance of the thousand years of warlike tumult-in defiance of the countless burning suns, of the endless series of days and nights that have passed over their heads-they look as youthful as if newly born; their skin as smooth and polished as when they came from the chisel. OFFICE, HOTEL DES. MALLE-POSTES, ST PETERSBUrg. ST. PETERSBURG-THE KAZAN CATHEDRAL. 431 CHAPTER XV. ST. PETERSBURG-CHURCHES AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. ST T. PETERSBURG, as previously remarked, is a creation of modern days; and therefore, compared with Moscow, has neither so many nor such remarkable churches as the old capital, though some are built in a pleasing style of architecture. The modern Russian church is a mixture of the Grecian, Byzantine, and Tartar; the Byzantine, which was brought from Constantinople with Christianity, being the most prominent. The plan of the building is a Greek cross, with four equal arms; in the midst, a large dome, painted green or blue; at the four ends, four narrow- pointed cupolas, their summits surmounted by four crosses; in front, a grand entrance adorned with many columns, and three side-entrances with- out columns. The difference between the Greek and the Latin cross with aisles is evident. Such is the exterior form of the greater portion of the Russian churches, including the thirty of St. Petersburg, constituting less than a tenth of the number dispersed through "Moscow the Holy." The interiors of those in the new capital are lighter, brighter, and more simple; in the old, darker, more overloaded with ornament, more varied in color, and grotesque. The Metropolitan church of St. Petersburg, dedicated to "our Lady of Kazan,” stands conspicuously on the right of the Nevskoi Prospekt, about half a mile from the Admiralty square, and retired from the street. A semicircular colonnade of Corinthian pillars, the two extremities of which project almost to the front of the houses, forms a screen to the cathedral itself, and the dome rises immediately behind the centre of the colonnade, where the chief entrance is situated. In any other place the effect of this semicircular line of columns would be imposing; but here, where every- thing around is on so vast a scale, it looks the very reverse: the columns are not so high as the adjoining houses, and even the dome is deficient in elevation. The Russians wish to unite in their capital all that is grand or beautiful in the whole civilized world, and this is intended for a copy of St. Peter's at Rome; but the puny effort is almost comic in its contrast to the mighty work of Buonarotti: the colonnade of pillars, which in Rome seemed necessary and suitable to circumstances, is here a superfluous and incomprehensible appendage. As an exception to the rule, one transept in the Kazan cathedral is shorter than the others—not, however, as some 432 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. have alleged, from the peculiar form of the Greek cross, but simply from the want of space on the canal side to continue the building. The eastern arm of the cross in all Greek churches is looked upon as the "holy of holies," and is shut off from the rest of the edifice by a screen called the ikonostast. This is set apart for the priests. Laymen may enter, but no women; not even the empress can go into that mysterious enclosure. Here stands a throne called the prestol, a kind of altar, be- neath a sumptuous canopy, frequently adorned with precious stones. The throne stands on a carpet, which reaches under the closed doors of the screen; and this, on solemn occasions, is spread out to a low square plat- form, erected immediately beneath the central dome: on this holy carpet no footstep, save that of the priest, dare press. Behind and in front of the screen the ceremonies and service are performed. The formalities are great: robes of costly materials are frequently changed; the genuflections are numerous and very low; incense is much used; there is no organ or other instrumental music, but the chanting is peculiar and striking. Ser- mons, so much thought of in other countries, form but a small portion of the Russian church service: a short discourse, a few times in the year, is the only homily which a Greek priest delivers to his flock. At the Impe- rial chapel, the Nevskoi monastery, and the Donskoi and Seminoff at Mos- cow, the singing is very fine. The bass voices are superb, and a kind of chant, which they keep up in unison, while the priest is officiating, is not easily to be compared with any other church music. It has somewhat the effect of as many double basses all executing the same short arpeggio pas- sages, and repeating it without any variation in the chord, time, or tone; when frequently heard, it is therefore tedious. One of the most impressive portions of the service is toward the close. The doors of the ikonostast are then shut, the chanting ceases, the incense- bearers withdraw, and every one seems breathless with attention. At length the folding-doors in the centre are reopened and thrown back, and the priest, carrying on his head an enormous volume, which he steadies with both hands, comes forward and commences a long recitation; during this every one bends low in an humble attitude of adoration. The large volume contains the gospels; the prayer is for the emperor. "The sensa- tion on this occasion," observes a recent traveller, "more than equals that usually seen in Roman catholic churches at the elevation of the Host. With this prestige for their sovereign, what might not the Russians do if circumstances should engage them in a national cause?" Indeed, the spirit of religious zeal which animates them is signally manifested in the struggle of 1854 against the Turks and their powerful allies. In Roman catholic countries the church-goers are almost exclusively women; and in France, southern Germany, and parts of Italy, a man in the prime of life is rarely seen within the walls of a church, except as a mere spectator. In Russia it is otherwise; and the outward forms of the Greek church seem to have taken as firm and enduring a hold of the men 11H 哲 ​ד' } THE KAZAN CATHEDRAL OF ST. PETERSBURG. 28 ST. PETERSBURG- THE KAZAN CATHEDRAL. 435 * as of the women, all classes alike participating in this strong feeling of external devotion. The first proceeding of a Russian on entering a church is to purchase a wax-candle, a plentiful supply of which is usually kept near the door, and the sale of which must constitute a very lucrative traffic. Bearing this in one hand, he slowly approaches the shrine of the Virgin, before which a silver lamp burns day and night; at a considerable distance from it he sinks on one knee, bowing his head to the pavement, and cros- sing his breast repeatedly with the thumb and two forefingers of his right hand. Having at length reached the shrine itself, he lights his votive candle at the holy lamp, sets it up in one of the various holes in a large silver plate provided for the purpose, and, falling low on his bended knees, kisses the pavement before the altar. His prayers are few and short, and he retires slowly with his face to the altar, kneeling and crossing himself at intervals. The Russians have so closely adopted the practice of burning tapers, that there is no interment, no baptism, no betrothing, in short, no sacred ceremony, without torch, lamp, or taper, to be thought of: fire is for them the pledge of the presence of the Holy Spirit; and hence illuminations play the most important part in the ceremonies of the Greek church. Al- though the Greek faith does not permit the introduction of images into their churches, its votaries are scarcely satisfied with mere pictures: they are frequently ornamented with materials of dress and jewelry, and, ac- cordingly, the face of the Virgin is the only part of the painting exposed to view, while the dress is covered with plates of silver or gold, and the head is almost universally adorned with a crown of jewels. The pictures are, generally speaking, mere heads of saints, very indifferently executed. Many of the jewels, however, are of great size and beauty. One of the diamonds in the Virgin's crown of "our Lady of Kazan" is considered second only to the famous diamond of the emperor; the water is question- able, but it is a very large stone. In the place before the cathedral of Kazan are two well-executed statues -one of Kutuzoff, prince of Smolensko, the other of Barclay de Tolly- two generals who distinguished themselves in the campaign of Moscow. The grand entrance-door in the centre beneath the peristyle is of bronze, divided into ten compartments, each containing a subject in bas-relief from the Old Testament; the intermediate spaces are ornamented with figures of saints in high relief, and heads in circular frames. The workmanship is, however, inferior. The interior is little suited to the wants of divine service as performed in Russia; and the altar is awkwardly placed at the side instead of oppo- site the chief entrance. In the niches along the sides of the church are colossal statues of the grand-duke Vladimir and Alexander Nevsky, St. John and St. Andrew. The general effect within is dark and confined, and travellers have expressed a regret that the fifty-six monoliths, the mighty giants which support the little roof, are not employed in a work 436 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. " more worthy of them. Apart from these architectural discords, the church is not wanting in interest. First of all, the eye is attracted by the silver of the ikonostast (the pictorial wall of the sanctuary). The balustrades, doors, and doorways of the ikonostasts, are generally of wood, carved and gilded, but in this church all its beams and posts are of massive silver! The pillars of the balustrade round the holy place, the posts of the three doors, the arches twenty feet in height above the altar, and the frames of the pictures, are also of fine silver. The silver beams are all highly pol- ished, and reflect with dazzling brilliancy the light of the thousand tapers that burn before them. Many hundred weight of silver must have been melted down to furnish the materials. The Cossacks, laden with no incon- siderable booty from the campaigns of 1813 and 1814-plundered alike from friends and foes in Germany and France-made an offering of this mass of silver to the "Holy Mother of Kazan," for the object to which it is now appropriated. Platoff, the Cossack hetmân, having also secured some booty in the retreat of the French from Moscow, sent it to the metro- politan, directing that it should be made into statues of the four evangel- ists, and adorn the church of the "Mother of God of Kazan." The Cos- sacks seem to have a peculiar veneration for this Madonna, who is half their countrywoman, for Vassili-Ivanovich brought her from Kazan to Moscow, whence Peter the Great transported her to St. Petersburg. Her picture, set with pearls and precious stones, hangs in this church. It was before this picture that Kutuzoff prayed before he advanced to meet the French in 1812, for which reason she is considered to be closely connected with that campaign. Here, also, is the monument of that distinguished man. Dauntless amid a despairing nation, he nobly sustained the courage of the monarch and the drooping valor of the Russian troops: but for him the sanguinary battle of the Moskva might never have been fought, and Napoleon would have marched without a blow to Moscow, and perhaps to St. Petersburg. The coup d'œil, on entering this house of prayer, is rather that of an arsenal than of a church, and this may be said of many other churches in this capital, for they are more or less adorned with military trophies taken from various nations of Europe and Asia. Here are to be seen the crimson flags of the Persians, which may be easily distinguished by a silver hand, as large as life, fastened to the end; also many Turkish standards, sur- mounted by the crescent-large, unsoiled pieces of cloth, for the most part red, and so new and spotless, that they might be sold again to the merchant by the ell, and giving the impression that they were surrendered without any very great struggle. Not so the French colors, which hang near them, and which offer a strong contrast: they are rent in pieces, and to several of the seventeen eagles only a single fragment is attached; these, with their expanded wings, which had soared in triumph over nearly the whole of continental Europe, look strange enough in the place they now roost in. Among these tattered banners is one of white silk, on which the ST. PETERSBURG 437 THE ISAAC CHURCH. words "Garde Nationale de Paris" are visible.. Here, too, may be seen the long streamers of the wild tribes of the Caucasus, and the silver eagles of Poland; and, lastly, the marshal's baton of Davoust (duke of Auerstadt and prince of Eckmühl), the "Hamburg Robespierre," whose atrocities will be remembered as long as a stone of that city exists under its present name. This trophy, which is kept in a glass case, was taken in the disas- trous retreat of 1812; it is said to have been lost in the wild confusion that everywhere prevailed, and was afterward picked up by some straggling Cossack. Keys of many German, French, and Netherland towns, before whose gates a Russian trumpet has blown in triumph, also grace the pillars of this cathedral; among them are those of Hamburg, Leipsic, Dresden, Rheims, Breda, and Utrecht-in all twenty-eight pair. To a protestant, these trophies, and the tawdry paintings, gilding, and jewelry, completely destroy all ideas of a devotional character. As the members of the Greek religion pray standing, the interior of their churches is always devoid of pew, bench, or chair; but there is in every church a place set apart for the emperor to stand in, which is raised above the floor, and usually covered with a canopy, or small dome. An exception is, we believe, made in favor of the present empress, on account of ill health. The Isaac church can not fail to excite the admiration of those who ap- preciate grand proportions, a simple but lofty style of architecture, and noble porticoes. The situation also is highly suitable, for it stands in one of the largest open squares in the capital, surrounded by its finest build- ings and monuments, and furnishes some idea of what Russian quarries, Russian mines and workmen, and a French architect, Monsieur Montfer- rand, can produce. Nothing can exceed the simplicity of the model: no ornament meets the eye; the architect has left all to the impression to be produced by its stupendous proportions. The original design of the cathe- dral at Cologne is said to be on a much smaller scale; the transept alone is a building of great magnitude. On the spot where the Isaac church stands, the Russians have been at work upon a place of worship for the last century. The original one was constructed of wood, but this was subsequently destroyed, and the great Catherine commenced another, which she intended to face with marble, and which, like many other of her undertakings, was never finished. The emperor Paul continued the building, but in brick. This half-and-half edifice vanished, however, in its turn; and under Nicholas the present magnificent structure has been erected-such a one as will scarcely find so splendid a successor. To make a firm foundation, a whole forest of piles was sunk in the swampy soil, at a cost of a million of dollars! The present building is, as usual, in the form of a Greek cross, of four equal sides, and each of the four grand entrances is approached from the level of the place by three broad flights of steps, each whole flight being com- posed of one entire piece of granite, formed out of masses of rock brought from Finland. These steps lead from the four sides of the building to the 438 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. A four chief entrances, each of which has a superb peristyle. The pillars of these peristyles are sixty feet high, and have a diameter of seven feet, all magnificent round and highly-polished granite monoliths, from Finland, buried for centuries in its swamps, till brought to light by the triumphant power of Russia. They are crowned with Corinthian capitals of bronze, and support the enormous beam of a frieze formed of six fire-polished blocks: Over the peristyles, and at twice their height, rises the chief and central cupola, higher than it is wide, in the Byzantine proportion. It is supported also by thirty pillars of smoothly-polished granite, which, al- though gigantic in themselves, look small compared to those below. The cupola is covered with copper, overlaid with gold, and glitters like the sun over a mountain. From its centre rises a small, elegant rotunda, a miniature repetition of the whole, looking like a chapel on the mountain- top. The whole edifice is surrounded by the crowning and far-seen golden cross. Four smaller cupolas, resembling the greater in every particular, stand around, like children round a mother, and complete the harmony visible in every part. The walls of the church are covered with marble, and no doubt this ca- thedral is the most remarkable one in St. Petersburg, and will supersede the Kazan "church of the Virgin" for great state festivals. The embel- lishments of the façade and windows have been intrusted to various artists. The group of figures on the pediment of one of the former was designed by a Frenchman, named Le Maire: the subject is the Angel at the Tomb, with the Magdalen and other female figures on the one side, and the terri- fied soldiers in every attitude of consternation on the other; these figures are eight feet in height, and bronze gilt. The great dome is of iron, and, as well as the whole of the bronze-work, was manufactured at the cele- brated foundry of Mr. Baird, of St. Petersburg. The interior of the church is far from being finished; but if the present design is carried out, it will be a mass of precious metals and stones. The malachite columns for the ikonostast, or screen, are fifty feet in height, and exceed anything that has yet been done in that beautiful fabric. The prestol for the inmost shrine is a small circular temple, the dome supported by eight Corinthian pillars of malachite, about eight feet high, with gilt bases and capitals. The exterior of the dome is covered with a profusion of gilding on a ground of malachite, and the interior is of lapis- lazuli. The floor is of polished marbles of various colors, which have been found in the Russian dominions, and the whole is raised on steps of pol- ished porphyry. There is, perhaps, too much gilding about this very beau- tiful work, but this is in accordance with its position in a Greek church. It was presented to the emperor by Prince Demidoff, who procured the malachite from his mines in Siberia, and sent it to Italy to be worked; its value is said to be as much as a million of roubles. From the rotunda over the great dome there is a fine view of the capital when the day is bright and clear, which is generally the case in the summer. * IDARI | | 1 + 1 ! ! 4 } } ! - CHURCH OF ST. ISAAC, ST. ISAAC SQUARE, ST. PETERSBURG. ล 18 ROBERTS SC ST. PETERSBURG CHURCH OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL. 441 The eye then wanders unobstructed over the whole extent of the imperial city. The broad Neva spreads its "breast of waters" in the warm sun- shine for many a mile, hemmed in at first between those massive quays of granite which have not their equal in Europe, and reflecting on its calm surface storehouse and palace; but beyond, no longer subject to man's control, its wide stream expanding forth, flows beneath the wooded shores of Peterhoff and Oranienbaum, where the wearied eye can follow its course no longer. Next to the churches just described, that of St. Peter and St. Paul, sit- uated in the fortress, is the most interesting. It was built by an Italian architect, under Peter the Great, and stands nearly in the middle of the city, opposite the Winter palace. Its pointed, slender tower, exactly re- sembling that of the Admiralty, rises like a mast three hundred and forty feet in height. For the last hundred and fifty feet the spire is so small and thin, that it must be climbed like a pine-tree. This spire, though prop- erly represented as fading away almost to a point in the sky, is in reality terminated by a globe of considerable dimensions, on which an angel stands, supporting a large cross. The following incident connected with this spire, as related by Leitch Ritchie, places in a conspicuous point of view that spirit of absurd daring which is one of the peculiarities of the Russian character: "The angel which surmounts the spire, less respected by the weather than perhaps his holy character deserved, fell into disrepair; and some suspicions were entertained that he designed revisiting, uninvoked, the sur- face of the earth. The affair caused some uneasiness, and the government at length became seriously perplexed. To raise a scaffolding to such a height would have cost more money than all the angels out of heaven were worth; and, meditating fruitlessly on these circumstances, without being able to resolve how to act, a considerable time was suffered to elapse. "Among the crowd of gazers below, who daily turned their eyes and their thoughts toward the angel, was a mujik called Telouchkine. This man was a roofer of houses (a slater, as he would be called in a country where slates are used), and his speculations by degrees assumed a more practical character than the idle wonders and conjectures of the rest of the crowd. The spire was entirely covered with sheets of gilded copper, and presented a surface to the eye as smooth as if it had been one mass of bur- nished gold. But Telouchkine knew that it was not one mass of anything; that the sheets of copper were not even uniformly closed upon each other; and, above all, that there were large nails used to fasten them, which pro- jected from the sides of the spire. "Having meditated upon these circumstances till his mind was made up, the mujik went to the government, and offered to repair the angel, without scaffolding, and without assistance, on condition of being reasonably paid for the time expended in the labor. The offer was accepted; for it was made in Russia, and by a Russian. 442. ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. "On the day fixed for the adventure, Telouchkine, provided with noth- ing more than a coil of cords, ascended the spire in the interior to the last SPIRE OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL, window. Here he looked down at the concourse of people below, and up at the glittering "needle," as it is called, tapering far away above his head. But his heart did not fail him, and, stepping gravely out upon the ledge of the window, he set about his task. "He cut a portion of the cord in the form of two long stirrups, with a loop at each end. The upper loops he fastened upon two of the project- ing nails above his head, and placed his feet in the others. Then, digging the fingers of one hand into the inter- stices of the sheets of copper, he raised up one of his stirrups with the other hand, so as to make it catch a nail higher up. The same operation he performed on behalf of the other leg, and so on alternately. And thus he climbed, nail by nail, step by step, stirrup by stirrup, till his starting- post was undistinguishable from the golden surface, and the spire had dwindled, and dwindled, and dwin- dled in his embrace, until he could clasp it all round. "So far, so well. But he had now reached the ball-a globe of between nine and ten feet in circumference. The angel, the object of his visit, was above this ball, and even concealed from his view by its smooth, round, and glittering expanse. Only fancy the wretch at that moment, turning up his grave eyes, and graver beard, to an obstacle that seemed to defy the daring and ingenuity of man! "But Telouchkine was not dismayed. He was prepared for the diffi- culty; and the means by which he essayed to surmount it exhibited the same prodigious simplicity as the rest of the feat. 66 Suspending himself in his stirrups, he girded the needle with a cord, the ends of which he fastened round his waist; and so supported, he leaned gradually back till the soles of his feet were planted against the spire. In this position he threw, by a strong effort, a coil of cord over the ball; and so coolly and accurately was the aim taken, that at the first trial it fell in the required direction, and he saw the end hang down on the opposite side. ST. PETERSBURG— CHURCH OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL. 443 "To draw himself up into his original position; to fasten the cord firmly round the globe; and with the assistance of this auxiliary to climb to the summit—were now an easy part of his task: and, in a few minutes more, Telouchkine stood by the side of the angel, and listened to the shout that burst like sudden thunder from the concourse below, yet came to his ear only like a faint and hollow murmur! "The cord, which he had now an opportunity of fastening properly, ena- bled him to descend with comparative facility; and the next day he car- ried up with him a ladder of ropes, by means of which he found it easy to effect the necessary repairs." In the vaults of this church repose the remains of Peter the Great and all his imperial successors. The preceding sovereigns of Russia were buried in the Arkhangelskoi Sabor in Moscow. Whoever has seen the monuments of the Polish kings at Krakow, or those of the English and French kings, and the Italian princes, will wonder at the simplicity and absence of ornament in this last resting-place of the Russian emperors, par- ticularly when he recollects the splendors of the Winter palace. The sim- ple coffins are placed in the vaults, and over them in the church is nothing further in the shape of a monument than a stone coffin-shaped sarcophagus covered with a red pall. On the pall the name of the deceased emperor or emperor's son is embroidered in golden letters, as "His Imperial Maj- esty the Emperor Peter the First;" "His Imperial Highness the Grand- Duke Constantine," &c. On some there is nothing but the initial letters, and here and there some unimportant trophy. On the sarcophagus of the grand-duke Constantine lie the keys of some Polish fortresses. Peter III., to whose remains his wife Catherine II. refused interment in this place of sepulture, rests there now. Paul placed both Catherine and his father there. A hundred cannon, impregnable bastions, and a garrison of three thousand men, defend the place, which can be desecrated by hostile hands only when all St. Petersburg lies in ruins. The Russian princes are the only ones in Europe, so far as we know, who are buried within the walls of a fortress. The youthful daughter of the emperor Nicholas, whose fatal illness short- ened her father's visit to England, in 1844, is the last of the imperial fam- ily who sleep here (with the exception perhaps of the emperor's son-in-law, the grand-duke of Leutchtenburg, who died in 1852). Her coffin, says a late traveller, "was covered with fresh and fragrant flowers, tokens of affection from many who knew and loved her, and numbers daily visit the last resting-place of her whose early death was so severe a blow to her family. . . . . To that gloomy church, unseen and unknown, many a fair daughter of the Russian noble often comes to pour forth her supplications for the repose of the dead and the safety of the living, and to strew roses on the tomb of one who, young and gay as themselves, died when most happy and when most beloved." The whole aspect of this church is dingy and wretched; and the vast 444 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. quantity of torn and tattered banners, and keys of fortresses, hung up in every part of it, give one the idea of being in some old-fashioned gallery of an arsenal. Many of the flags can not be looked upon without interest. Here are the Swedish flags taken at Poltava-the selfsame banners which Charles XII. fondly hoped to plant on the battlements of the kremlin at Moscow; the Prussian eagles, too, wrested from the veterans of the great Frederick; the horsetails of countless pashas, and their batons of office, curiously inlaid, and in shape very much resembling a small-headed ham- mer, with a long and tapering handle; seven French eagles; and, above all, the keys of Paris and many other cities and fortresses of "La belle France." A Turkish flag hangs here, on the tarnished silk of which is the impress of a bloody hand distinctly stamped, telling more forcibly than words of the death-struggle that accompanied the capture of this trophy, in defence of which life was thought well sacrificed. It is now consigned to dust and neglect, save when the chance visit of some curious stranger unfurls once again that wide-swelling fold, around which the storm of battle once raged fast and furious. There are some very large jewels in the dia- dem of the Virgin in this church, but they are of an inferior quality, or have been imperfectly polished, as they are dim and rayless. Among the sacred vessels here deposited are shown some turned in wood and ivory, the work of Peter the Great; and attention is generally drawn to one cross in particular, the centre of which is ornamented with a circu- lar slide of ivory, on which the crucifixion with the mourning women below are carved in bas-relief. A multitude of rays issue from the slide as from a sun; every ray is turned in ebony, in the ornamenting of which with all manner of carving an enormous degree of labor must have been ex- pended. The cottage of Peter the Great, on the same island, though at some dis- tance from the citadel, has been alluded to in the previous chapter. Of the three apartments into which it is divided, the inner one was his bed- room; the adjoining one his chapel, where the pictures that he worshipped are still preserved; and that to the right his receiving-room. The empe- ror Alexander covered the whole cottage in with an outer casing. It was here that the city was first commenced; and the wooden church, at the foot of the Troitsky bridge, is the oldest in St. Petersburg. Among the Russo-Greek churches, that of the Smolnoi convent is distin- guished for the taste of its decorations, and may serve as a specimen of the modern Russian style of church-architecture. It is more spacious than Russian churches are in general, and its five cupolas are placed in harmo- nious relation with one another. They are painted deep blue, sprinkled with golden stars. A high, magnificent, beautifully-designed iron grating —whose rails, or rather pillars, are wound with wreaths of vine-leaves and flowers, in iron-work-surrounds the courtyards of the convent; and above it wave the elegant birch and lime trees. Seated on a gentle elevation, on a corner of land, round which the Neva ST. PETERSBURG 445 SMOLNOI AND NEVSKOI CONVENTS. bends to the west, this cloister, with its mysterious reserve, and the alluring colors with which it is clothed, resembles a magic palace of the “ Arabian Nights." From the eastern suburb of St. Petersburg, and from Sunday street, which is a mile and a half long, and leads directly to it, the clois- ter is seen far and near; and, from all quarters of the empire, the ortho- dox believers bow and cross themselves at the sight of its cupolas. This building is dedicated to the education and instruction of young girls of noble and citizen birth, of whom not less than five hundred are brought up at the cost of the government, and three hundred at their own. The church of the cloister, which is open to the public as a place of worship, has something extremely pleasing in its style of decoration: only two colors are to be seen - that of the gold framework of the ornamented objects, and of the white imitative marble, highly polished, and covering all the walls, pillars, and arches. Several galleries, which are illuminated on high festival-days, run like garlands round the interior of the dome. Not less than four-and-twenty stoves of gigantic dimensions are scattered about the church, which they keep at the temperature of the study, and greet all that enter with true Christian warmth. These stoves are built like little chapels, so that at first they are taken for church-ornaments. The Russians love pomp and splendor in their churches. In this one, the balustrades surrounding the ikonostas are of the finest glass, and the doors are formed of golden columns twined and interlaced with vine-leaves and ears of grain in carved and gilded wood. The pictures of this ikonostas are all new, painted by the pupils of the St. Petersburg Academy. The faces of the apostles and saints, of the Madonna and of the Redeemer, in the old Russian pictures, have all the well-known Byzantine or Indian physiognomy — small, long-cut eyes, dark complexion, excessively thin cheeks, a small mouth, thin lips, slender ringlets, and a scanty beard; the nose uncommonly sharp and pointed, quite vanishing at the root between the eyes, and the head very round. In the new pictures of the Russian school, they have copied the national physiognomy as seen in the Russian merchants-full, red cheeks, a long beard, light and abundant hair, large blue eyes, and a blunted nose! It is wonderful that the Russian clergy have permitted this deviation from the old models; the new ones, however, are held in very little respect by the people, who reverence only the old, dusty, and dusky saints, and are as little inclined to accept faces they can understand as to hear divine service in a language they can comprehend for the old Slavonian dialect, which continues to be used, is unintelligible to them. The empress Maria, the foundress and benefactress of the con- vent, has a simple monument in the church, which is dedicated in her honor to St. Mary. one There are only two convents in St. Petersburg: this of Smolnoi only in name, for the empress Catherine's twenty nuns have long since been dispossessed by the eight hundred young ladies-and that of Alex- ander Nevskoi, for monks. The latter is one of the most celebrated in 446 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. "" Russia-a lavra,* and inferior in rank only to the "Lavra of the Trinity' in Moscow, and to the "Lavra of the Cave" in Kiev. It is the seat of the metropolitan of St. Petersburg, and stands at the extreme end of the Nev- skoi Prospekt, where it occupies a large space, enclosing within its walls churches, towers, gardens, and monks' cells. Peter the Great founded it in honor of the canonized grand-duke Alexander, who, in a great battle here, defeated the Swedes and the knights of the military orders, and whose remains were brought hither in a silver coffin. Peter's successors increased the possessions and buildings, and Catherine II. built its cathedral, one of the handsomest churches in St. Petersburg. For the interior decoration, marble was brought from Italy, precious stones from Siberia, and pearls from Persia. It is further adorned with some good copies after Guido Reni and Perugino. On two great pillars opposite the altar are two excellent portraits- Peter the Great and Catherine II.,-larger than life. These two, as "Founder" and "Finisher," are everywhere united in St. Petersburg. In a side-chapel stands the monument of Alexander Nevsky. It is of mas- sive silver, and contains not less than five thousand pounds of pure metal; it is a silver mountain fifteen feet high, on which stands a silver catafalco, and silver angels, as large as a man, with trumpets, and silver flowers, and a quantity of bas-relief in silver, representing the battle of the Neva. The keys of Adrianople are suspended to the tomb of St. Alexander; they are strikingly small, not much larger than the keys of a money-box, which, in fact, Adrianople has in many respects been to Russia. The Nevsky cloister has profited yet more by the presents sent from Persepolis to the northern Petropolis, when the Russian embassador Gri- boyedoff was murdered in Teheran, than by the Byzantine tribute. The Persian gifts consisted of a long train of rare animals, Persian webs, gold- stuffs, and pearls. They reached St. Petersburg in the winter. The pearls, and gold-stuffs, and rich shawls, were carried in great silver and gold dishes by magnificently-dressed Persians. The Persian prince Khosreff Mirza drove in an imperial state-equipage with six horses; the elephants, bearing on their backs towers filled with Indian warriors, had leathern boots to protect them from the cold, and the cages of the tigers and lions were provided with double skins of the northern polar bears. It was like a pro- cession in the Arabian Nights. The elephants, however, soon died from the severity of the climate. Among the individual souvenirs is an episcopal staff turned by Peter the Great, and presented by him to the first St. Petersburg metropolitan, and another of amber, from Catherine II. The library of about ten thousand volumes, independently of a number of very valuable manuscripts, concern- ing which many books have been written, contains many rare specimens of the antiquities of Russia. * The holiest convents in the empire, the seats of the metropolitans, are called lavras; the other convents are only monastirs. ST. PETERSBURG 447 THE PREOBRASHENSKY CHURCH. CHOBERTS. MONASTERY OF ST. SERGIUS, ENVIRONS OF ST. PETERSBURG. The monastery of St. Sergius (or Sergieff), a view of which is given. above, is situated on the route from St. Petersburg to Peterhoff. This monastery is the most noted place of pilgrimage in the environs of the capi- tal. It has four churches, a mansion for invalids, endowed by the Zouboff family, and a cemetery, which contains the tombs of the most eminent ecclesiastics and martyrs in Russian history. The Preobrashensky church belongs to one of the oldest regiments of guards, founded by Peter the Great, the "tenth legion" of the Russian Cæsars. This church (the Spass-Preobrashenskoi-Sabor) is one of the most considerable of the city, and, more than any other, adorned both without and within with trophies from conquered nations. The railing that surrounds the churchyard is formed of Turkish and French cannon. Every three of those three hundred cannon, one large and two smaller, mounted on a granite pedestal, with their mouths pointed downward, form a column. Around the cannon, chains of different thickness, gracefully twined, are hung like garlands between the columns; on the summit of each is enthroned a Russian double eagle of iron, with expanded wings. Within, the church is adorned with flags and halberds. The pillars look like palm-trees, of which every leaf is a lance! Here also travellers are shown a production of Russian inventive talent, the work of a common peasant. It is a large, splendid piece of clockwork, made by him in his 448 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. native village, bought for twenty thousand roubles by his lord, and pre- sented to the church. The works are said to be so good as to have stood in no need of repair during the eight or ten years the clock has been in the church. Trinity church is also a modern erection, like the Smolnoi convent, and very similar to it. The exterior offers an example of the fantastic manner in which the Russians often decorate their churches. Under the cornice of the dark-blue, star-bespanged cupola, an arabesque of vine-leaves and flowers runs all round. The garlands are held up by angels, and between every pair of them a crown of thorns is introduced as a centre. But for this martyr-token of Christianity, it would seem the gay temple of some Grecian god. One half, and certainly the more important half, of the churches of St. Petersburg, are the erections of the present century. The Nicolai church, the church of the Resurrection, and some others of the time of Catherine II., are not worthy of mention in an architectural point of view. In the church of the Resurrection are some very singular offerings to the saints; among others a patchwork quilt, probably the offering of some devout beg- gar, and containing the best of her rags. It was made out of a vast num- ber of pieces great and small, woollen, linen, and silk, worked with gold thread, perhaps taken from the cast-off epaulettes of some officer of the guards, and in the middle a golden cross was sewed on. In the Nicolai church, which is built in two stories, one for divine ser- vice during winter, and the other in summer, the four small cupolas are tenanted by a number of pigeons, who make their nests there, and are fed by the attendants with the rice which the pious place there for the dead. Among the churches of other confessions than the Greek, that built by the emperor Paul, when he assumed the protectorate of the Maltese order, is at least interesting. It is quite in the style of the old churches of the knights of St. John, and still contains the chair on which the emperor sat as grand-master of the order. The largest Roman catholic church is on the Nevskoi Prospekt, opposite the Kazan enthedral. The priests are Germans, and the service half Ger- man, half Latin. It is attended by the Poles and Lithuanians, to whom the chanting, by the congregation, of the "immaculate Virgin," "the Queen of Heaven," "the Tower of God," "the Fortress of Zion," &c., in itself sufficiently unintelligible, must be necessarily still more so here. The Russians rarely attend the Roman catholic service; if they go to any for- eign church, it is generally to the protestant. The catholics, Greeks, and Armenians (the latter of whom have also a very pretty church on the Nev- skoi Prospekt) hold to the doctrine of the Trinity; but the Dutch, it would appear, to a Duality—for on their church stands the singular inscription. "Deo et salvatori sacrum. This church, with its very rich dotation. dates from Peter the Great, when the Dutch were the most considerable merchants, and were endowed by the liberal czar with so much land within "" ST. PETERSBURG— HOSPITALS. 449 the city, that many a Dutch cathedral may envy the church of this little northern colony. The largest civil hospital in St. Petersburg is that of Oboukoff, situated on the Fontanka canal, and near the Semenovskoi parade-ground. All persons are received here. Those who are able contribute a small monthly sum toward its support. Twelve medical men are attached to this hospi- tal. An iron plate, with the name of the patient, the nature of the disease, the time of entering, and the course of treatment, is affixed above each bed. The bedsteads are of iron, and the linen remarkably clean. There is a school, belonging to this hospital, where youths are educated for hos- pital-attendants. They are taught to read and write, instructed in Latin, and in a smattering of medicine and anatomy, and at a certain age distrib- uted among the various hospitals of the city as subordinate officers. The military hospital contains about two thousand patients. The City hospital and the Imperial hospital, for sick poor, are both on a large scale. There is also an institution for deaf and dumb persons, a blind-asylum, &c. The richest and most considerable of the public institutions of St. Pe- tersburg is, however, the foundling-hospital. Well endowed from its very first establishment, it owes its colossal wealth to the bounty and particular care of the late empress Maria. Among other favors accorded to the hos- pital, she gave it the monopoly of playing-cards. The duty on these is very high, amounting to fifty silver copecks (about forty cents) a pack. In all the other countries of Europe put together there is probably not so great a consumption of cards as in Russia. Not only the long winter even- ings that is to say, the long evenings of nine months out of the twelve- and the Russians' innate love for play, make the sale of cards something almost incredible, but luxury and waste further stimulate the demand. In the higher circles, a pack of cards serves but for one game of ombre, whist, &c.; and even in the better sort of clubs, new cards are taken after every third game! It gives but a faint idea of the luxury prevailing in Russia, although this is but a pale shadow of that which formerly reigned.* The enormous capital belonging to the St. Petersburg foundling-hospital affords it abundant means to maintain itself on a level in every respect with * "A few years ago the charming countess Woronzow Daschkow gave a grand fête in the old French style. For that evening the whole house and its appurtenances were transformed, by the magic of her command, into a mansion of the time of Louis XIV. Corridors, staircases, saloons, boudoirs, all wore the character of that period; walls and ceilings, floors and windows, the furni- ture, the services, even the liveries of the laced footmen, with their long, powdered perukes—all was rococo. The entertainment lasted four hours, cost many hundred thousand roubles, and early the next morning everything was destroyed and torn down, in order to restore the house as quickly as possible to its former condition. The houses of all persons of quality are annually thoroughly new-furnished, that they may not be a single season behind the latest Paris fashions; and yet what is all this, compared to the mad prodigality of an earlier period? Previously to the accession of Alexander, a high-born Russian would have thought it a profanation of hospitality to use the same service for two feasts. The guests gone, the servants took everything that had been used at the repast-bottles, glasses, covers, plates, candlesticks, linen the whole furniture of the table, in short- and tossed it all out upon the heads of the rejoicing mob assembled in the street below! What would now be deemed madness, was then good taste." —JERRMANN. • 29 450 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. the first philanthropic institutions in the world. The institution is under the immediate protection of the present empress, who frequently visits it, often in company with her daughter the duchess of Leuchtenburg, watches over all its arrangements with true womanly care, and strengthens and improves it by her powerful patronage. The orphan who enters this chari- table house is cared for, not only in its tender infancy, but for its whole life. Unseeing and unseen, the woman on duty in the interior of the cham- ber receives the little helpless being whom the world and its own parents abandon. At the ring of the door-bell, she turns the exterior half of the coffer inward, her ear scarcely catching the last murmured blessing with which many a heart-broken mother commits to the care of strangers that which she holds dearest in the world. As soon as received, the infant undergoes a medical examination; and an exact record is made of every mark and sign upon its body and linen- of everything, in short, which came with it. Then it is washed, dressed in new clothes, a number is allotted to it, and it is given over to one of the nurses who are always there in readiness. On bright spring mornings, long lines of well-closed carriages may be seen driving slowly through the streets, conveying the nurses and their innocent charges into the country. There the children remain for some years, under the care and superinten- dence of physicians and officers of the institution, who regularly and strictly inspect the foster-mothers. The first years of infancy happily passed, the children are brought back to the foundling-hospital, and their education begins. The nature of this education depends entirely on the capacity and inclinations they betray. This establishment sends forth stout blacksmiths and ploughmen, just as it has also produced distinguished officers, sculptors, and musicians. Cooks from the foundling-hospital are much sought after; governesses that have been educated there are preferred to all others. When the lad has completed his education in the house which received him as a helpless infant, the choice of a calling is allowed him-more or less limited, of course, by the degree of ability and the conduct he has manifested. He may devote himself to science or art, to the military or naval profession, to some trade or handicraft-just as he pleases; and the expense of his education, previously borne by the hospital, thenceforward falls upon the government. To requite this, he is bound to devote his ac- quirements to the service of the state for a certain time. This, however, is not a very hard condition, since it ultimately leads to that which so many thousands sigh after for years in vain, namely, an appointment as soon as he is quite fit for one. Formerly these foundlings could at any time be claimed by their parents; but lately a ukase has put many difficulties in the way of such claims, if it has not, indeed, totally disavowed them. This decree was rendered neces- sary by the great abuses that arose from the facilities afforded to heartless and unscrupulous parents of getting rid of the care of their offspring's ST. PETERSBURG 451 THE FOUNDLING-HOSPITAL. childhood without urgent necessity. In this manner, children born in wed- lock were often temporarily committed to the care of the state, and taken back when their age and education rendered them profitable, instead of burdensome, to their families. The foundling-hospital (Vospitatelnoi Dom), like all the public institu- tions of the capital, has the air of a palace rather than a building intended for charitable purposes. It occupies with its courts, gardens, and depen- dencies, a space of twenty-eight acres, is close to the Fontanka canal, and therefore in the best part of the town. The main building is composed of what were formerly the palaces of Prince Bobrinsky and Count Rasoumoff- ski, which were purchased for the institution; but a number of additional buildings have since then been erected, and the whole may now be said to form a little district of its own. This hospital is of more recent origin than that of Moscow, of which it was only a dependent branch when insti- tuted by Catherine II. in 1770, but it now eclipses the parent institution. In 1790 it contained only three hundred children; but since the commence- ment of the present century, the number has increased with astonishing rapidity, amounting in all to about thirty thousand, and those annually admitted comprise eight or nine thousand. An institution like this is calculated to excite reflections in the mind of an American as to its expediency. If it is to be viewed in the light of a charity, it is a charity upon a very questionable principle. SALOON, HOTEL DES MALLE-POSTES, ST. PETERSBURG, 452 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. T CHAPTER XVI. MARKETS, ETC., OF ST. PETERSBURG. HE Russians have a very convenient custom for persons who are desi- rous of making purchases-that of offering for sale within the same building almost everything that is likely to be bought. This plan is, on the other hand, very disagreeable to those who have nothing to buy; for the bearded worthy who stands at every door of the Gostinöi Dvor is by no means content with verbally inviting the stranger to walk in, but seizes him by the arm or coat-tails without ceremony, and, unless he makes some show of resistance, the chances are that he will be transferred, nolens volens, to the darkness visible of the merchant's dirty storehouse. There is, in most Russian cities of importance, and generally in a cen- tral position, a Gostinöi Dvor, or bazar, where all the more important articles of commerce are collected for sale. It is generally a large build- ing, consisting of a ground-floor and an upper floor. The upper floor is commonly reserved for wholesale dealings; the ground-floor consists of a multitude of booths or shops in which the various descriptions of merchan- dise are sold by retail. The dwellings of the merchants are away from these markets; and, when the business-hours are at an end, each trades- man locks up his own stall, and the whole building is committed for the night to the guardianship of the watchmen and their dogs. The Gostinoi Dror of St. Petersburg is a colossal building, one side being in the Nevskoi Prospekt, and another in the Bolshaïa Ssattovaïa, or Great Garden street, through which, and some of the adjoining streets, extend from it a number of shops and booths, giving to that part of the town, throughout the year, the appearance of a perpetual fair. The better description of Russian goods are always found in the Gostinöi Dvor; those of an inferior kind in the adjoining markets, the Apraxin Rinok and the Tshukin Dvor, which lie a little farther on in the Bolshaïa Ssattovaia. Following the last-named strect, which is bordered throughout its whole length by shops and booths, the stranger will arrive at an open place, the Sennaïa Ploschad, or hay-market, which may be considered the principal provision-market of St. Petersburg. All the lanes and alleys that intersect the Gostinöi Dvor are thronged throughout the day by a stream of sledges and droskies, in which the cooks, the stewards, and other servants of the great houses, come to make their ST. PETERSBURG—THE GOSTINOI Dvor. 453 THE GOSTINO1 Dvor, at ST. PETERSBURG, DURING EASTER. daily purchases. In a city containing half a million of inhabitants, there must at all times be a great and urgent demand for an immense variety of articles; but there are many reasons why this should be more the case in St. Petersburg than in any other capital. In the first place, there is no other European capital where the inhabitants are content to make use of goods of such inferior quality, or where, consequently, they have such fre- quent occasion to buy new articles, or to have the old ones repaired. Then there is no other capital where the people are so capricious and so fond of change. The wealthy Russians are here one day, and gone the next; now travelling for the benefit of their health, now repairing to the country to re-establish their finances by a temporary retirement, and then reappearing on the banks of the Neva, to put their hundreds of thousands into circula- tion. This constant fluctuation leads daily to the dissolution and to the formation of a number of establishments, and makes it necessary that there should be at all times a greater stock of everything requisite for the outfit of a family than would be required in a town of equal extent, but whose population is more settled. A Russian seldom buys anything till just when he wants to use it, and, as he can not then wait, he must have it ready to his hand. Boots, sad- dlery, wearing-apparel, confectionary, and other articles, which in other countries are generally ordered beforehand from a tradesman, are here bought ready for immediate use. Each article has its separate row of shops, and the multitude of these shops is almost innumerable. If the throng of buyers is calculated to amuse a stranger, he will be 454 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. likely to find still more diversion, as he lounges along the corridors, in observing the characteristic manners of the dealers. These Gostinöi-Dvor merchants are almost invariably flaxen-haired, brown-bearded, shrewd fel- lows, in blue caftans, and blue-cloth caps, the costume uniformly worn by merchants throughout Russia. They are constantly extolling their wares in the most exaggerated terms to those who are passing by. Cap in hand, they are always ready to open their doors to every passer-by, and are in- cessant in the exercise of their eloquence, whatever may be the rank, sta- tion, or age, of those they address. They will not hesitate to offer a bear- skin mantle to a little fellow scarcely strong enough to carry it, recommend their coarsely-fashioned boots to a passing dandy, invite an old man to purchase a child's toy, or solicit a young girl to carry away a sword or a fowling-piece. Where the merchant does not act as his own crier, he usually has somebody to officiate in his place, and it may easily be imagined what life and animation these constant cries and solicitations give to the market. Preachers and actors have generally a tone peculiar to their sev- eral classes; and even so has the Gostinöi-Dvor merchant, whose voice may be known afar off, but who immediately alters that tone when a fish shows a disposition to fasten on the bait, for then commences a more seri- ous discussion of the merits and quality of his merchandise. No light or fire is allowed in the building, unless it be the sacred lamps that are kept burning before the pictures of the saints, and which are sup- posed to be too holy to occasion any danger. The merchants are, in con- sequence, often exposed to intense cold, but this they endure with admira- ble fortitude and cheerfulness. Over their caftans, it is true, they put on a close fur-coat of white wolf-skin, a piece of apparel worn by every Gos- tinöi-Dvor merchant, of the same cut and material. Even without including the peasants who offer provisions for sale, there are probably not much less than ten thousand merchants and dealers of different degrees assembled in the Gostinöi Dvor of St. Petersburg and its dependent buildings. Of these people, few have their household estab- lishments in the vicinity of the market, yet all have the wants of hunger to satisfy in the course of the day, and it may therefore readily be conceived that a host of small traders have attached themselves to the establishment for the mere convenience of the merchants. Among the streets and lanes of the bazar there are constantly circulating retailers of tea, with their large, steaming somovars;* quass-sellers, together with dealers in bread, sausages, cheese, &c.; and all these people receive constant encourage- ment from the hungry merchants. Careworn looks are as little seen in this market as grumbling tones are heard; for a Russian seldom gives * The somovar, a view of which is given on the opposite page, derives its name from two Rus- sian words, signifying "boil itself." It is a large brass or copper urn, in the middle of which is a cylinder containing a quantity of live charcoal. The top is like a funnel, and open. This is the place for the teapot, the fire at the bottom keeping the tea hot and boiling the water at the same time. A slice of lemon is used as a substitute for milk; and Oliphant remarks that he thought it a very agreeable addition. ST. PETERSBURG THE 455 • APRAXIN RINOK. house-room to care or melancholy, and yet more rarely gives utterance to a complaint. Nor, indeed, has he occasion; for, in this rising country, "Slava Bogu!" (God be thanked!) be the merchan- dise ever so bad, trade goes on nevertheless. In other countries, a merchant relies upon the goodness of his merchandise for custom; the Russian speculator be- lieves that, the worse his wares, the sooner will his customers want to renew their stock. SOMOVAR, The Apraxin Rinok and Tshukin Dvor, two mar- kets before referred to, occupy a piece of ground about fifteen hundred feet square-containing, therefore, a surface of rather more than two millions of square feet. The whole is so closely covered with stalls and booths, that nothing but narrow lanes are left between; and supposing each booth, including the portion of lane in front of it, to occupy five hundred square feet, which is certainly making a very liberal allowance, it would follow that there must be within the two bazars nearly five thousand booths, tents, and stalls. These form a city of themselves. The tops of the booths frequently project and meet those that are opposite to them, making the little lanes between as dark as the alleys of the Jews' quarters in some of the old German towns, or like the streets of many an oriental city at the present day. Through narrow gates the traveller will pass from the busy Garden street into this market-place, where a well-dressed human being will be looked for in vain-where all are "black people," bearded, and furred, and thoroughly un-European. With the exception of furs, many of which are of excellent quality, there are in the Gostinöi Dvor, properly so called, but the iron and wax shops where the articles are thoroughly Russian. Most of the merchandise con- sists of bad imitations of foreign fabrics. As the goods, so the customers. Both are Europeanized, for there is little in the Frenchified soubrettes, the lackeys in livery, the employés in uniform, and the foreign teachers, to re- mind one of Russian nationality: but a little farther on, when you enter the gates of the Apraxin Rinok and the Tshukin Dvor, you come to a market where sellers, buyers, and wares, are all equally and entirely Rus- sian; and here, in the very centre of the palaces and plate-glass of St. Petersburg, in this capital of princes and magnates, there is to be seen a motley, dirty populace, precisely similar to what may be supposed to have thronged the fairs at Novgorod in the middle ages, or may still be seen in the bazars of any of the provincial towns of Russia. Here, also, in the true Russian spirit, like has paired with like. In one corner, for instance, all the dealers in sacred images have congregated. The Russians, who believe themselves abandoned by God and all good angels as soon as they are without his visible and tangible presence-or, rather, who think every place the devil's own ground until the priest has driven him out of it, and who therefore decorate their bodies, their rooms, 456 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. their doors, and their gates, as well as their churches, with sacred images -require, of course, a very large and constant supply of those articles, of which, in fact, the consumption is enormous. The little brass crosses, and the Virgins, the St. Johns, the St. Georges, and other amulets, may be seen piled up in boxes like ginger-cakes at a fair. On the walls of the booths are hung up pictures of all sorts and sizes, radiant with mock gold and silver. Some are only a few inches in length and breadth. · Of these a nobleman's footman will buy a few score at a time, as necessary to the fitting up of a new house; for in every room a few of these holy little arti- cles must be nailed up against the wall. For village-churches, for private chapels, and for devout merchants of the old faith, there are pictures of several ells square, before which a whole household may prostrate them- selves at their ease. Some are neatly set in mahogany frames of modern fashion; others are still adorned in the good old style, with pillars, doors, and temples, of silver wire: some are new, and from the pencils of the students of the newly-established St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, but the greater part are old, and present figures often nearly obliterated by the dust and smoke of centuries. To these it is (particularly when they can be warranted to have once adorned the wall of a church) that the lower orders in Russia attach the greatest value, just as the German peasant prefers an old, dirty, well-thumbed hymn-book, to one just fresh from the binder's. In another part of the market will be found a whole quarter of fruit- shops, in which an incredible quantity of dried fruit is offered for sale. Each of these shops is as oddly decorated as its fellows. In the centre, on an elevated pedestal, there stands generally a rich battery of bottles and boxes of conserves, mostly manufactured at Kiev. Round the walls, in small boxes, the currants, raisins, almonds, figs, and oranges, are ar- ranged, while huge sacks and chests of prunes, nuts, and juniper-berries, retire more modestly into corners; and large tuns full of glukvi, a small red berry of which the Russians are passionately fond, stand sentinels at the door. These are mostly sold in winter, when they are generally frozen to the consistency of flint-stones, and are measured out with wooden shovels to amateurs. Inside and outside, these shops are decorated with large festoons of mushrooms, at all times a favorite dish with the common people in Russia. It is surprising that no good artist should ever have chosen one of these picturesque Russian fruit-shops for the subject of his pencil. Such a booth, with its bearded dealers and its no less bearded customers, would make an admirable tableau de genre. A little farther, and the stranger will come to whole rows of shops full of pretty bridal ornaments; gay metal wedding-crowns, such as it is cus- tomary during the ceremony to place upon the heads of bride and bride- groom; and artificial wreaths and flowers, of a very neat fabric-and all at very reasonable prices. A whole garland of roses, for instance, taste- fully interwoven with silver wire, may be had for fifteen or twenty cents; ST. PETERSBURG THE APRAXIN RINOK. 457 a bride can here be handsomely decorated from head to foot for one or two dollars; and, as among the humbler classes of St. Petersburg some thirty weddings are daily solemnized, without speaking of other festive celebrations, it may be imagined what piles of ornaments of various kinds. are constantly kept on hand to supply the wants of brides and bridemaids, birthday-guests, and the like. Whole groups of shops are filled with perfumes, incense, and various articles for fumigation; others with honey from Kazan and Toula, neatly laid out in wooden vessels some as clean as the milk-pans in the caves of Homer's Cyclops, while others, of a less attractive look, remind one rather of Limburg cheese in an advanced stage of decay. Here also may be seen the beer and cake and tea stalls, at which the peasants never fail to expend a portion of their gains. CAKE AND TEA STALL. The pastry-cooks have likewise their quarter in this market, where they vend the oily fish pirogas, of which the bearded Russians are so passion- ately fond. Here little benches are ranged around the table on which are placed the dainty delicacies, covered with oily pieces of canvass (for the piroga, to be properly enjoyed, must be eaten warm). A large pot of 458 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. green oil on a salt-stand of no ordinary size are the indispensable accom- paniments to the feast. Pass one of these shops, and throw an accidental glance at his wares, and the merchant will be sure to anticipate your de- sires: quickly he will plunge his tempting cake into the oil-pot, scatter a pinch of salt upon the dripping mass, and present it to you with the air of a prince! The sheepskinned, bearded Muscovite will rarely be able to re- sist the temptation: he will seat himself on one of the benches, and one rich, savory piroga after the other will wend its way down his throat, till his long and well-anointed beard becomes as bright and glossy as a piece of highly-polished horsehair! Some travellers may turn with disgust from the picture here presented to them; but others will be too much amused by the wit and politesse of the oil-lickers to expend much indignation on the venders of these pirogas. Even the coarsest and dirtiest article of merchandise will be presented with a courtly and insinuating demeanor by these rough-looking, bearded fellows; even a greasy piroga, dripping with green oil, will be accompanied by a neatly-turned compliment or a lively jest, and the few copecks paid for it are sure to be received with expres- sions of the warmest thankfulness. Almost every article may, however, be described as cheap and shabby; and yet what vistas of still worse and worse wares unfold themselves as the traveller wanders on to the outskirts of the market, where disbanded apparel and invalided furniture are exposed for sale! Things may be seen there of which it is difficult to imagine that they can still retain a money value-such as rags, bits of riband, fragments of paper, and broken glass; clothes that the poorest ivoshtshik has dismissed from his service, and pet- ticoats that the humblest housemaid has thought herself bound to lay aside. Yet all these things, and others, which a Gostinöi-Dvor merchant would scarcely use except to warm his stove, are not arranged without some show of taste and elegance, nor are they offered without a multitude of civil speeches and lofty panegyrics to the barefooted beggar, to the gipsy and the Jewess, who timidly hover around the poverty-stricken repositories, and cast many a longing glance at the various things with which they might cover their nakedness or decorate their huts, but the possession of which they are unable to purchase with the copper coin within their grasp. The crumbs swept from the tables of the rich are here gathered together and though the joint stock of many of these shops be not worth the silver rouble staked at a card-table in the saloon of a noble, yet each article has its estimated value, below which it will not be parted with-no, not for one quarter of a copeck! But perhaps the most interesting of this world of markets is that of the Tshukin Dvor, where the various species of the feathered tribe are sold. Here may be seen two rows of booths full of pigeons, fowls, geese, ducks, swans, larks, bulfinches, siskins, and hundreds of other singing-birds, form- ing the most picturesque and variegated menagerie that can be imagined. Each booth is of wood, and open in the front, so that the whole of its con- ST. PETERSBURG THE TSHUKIN DVOR. 459 tents may be seen at once by the passing stranger, who is saluted with such a concert of cackling, crowing, chattering, cooing, piping, and warbling, as would suffice to furnish the requisite supply of idyllic melodies for a hundred villages. Between the opposite booths are usually bridges, from which the pictures of saints are suspended, for the edification of the devout. On these bridges, and on the roofs of the booths, whole swarms of pigeons are constantly fluttering about, the peaceful Russian being a great lover of this gentle bird. Each swarm knows its own roof, and the birds allow themselves to be caught without much difficulty, when a bargain is to be. concluded. The pigeon is never eaten by a Russian, who would hold it a sin to harm an animal in whose form the Holy Ghost is said to have mani- fested itself. Pigeons are bought, therefore, only as pets, to be fed and schooled by their masters. The manner in which a Russian merchant directs the flight of his docile scholars is curious. With a little flag fast- ened to a long staff he conveys his signals to them-makes them at his will rise higher in the air, fly to the right or left, or drop to the ground as if struck by a bullet from a rifle ! The poor little singing-birds (the larks, nightingales, linnets, bulfinches, &c.) must be of a hardier race than in more southern lands; for, in spite of the bitter frost, they chirrup away merrily, and salute with their songs, every straggling ray of sunshine that finds its way into their gloomy abodes. The little creatures receive during the whole long winter not one drop of water, for it would be useless to offer them what a moment afterward would be converted into a petrified mass. Their little troughs are accordingly filled only with snow, which they must liquefy in their own beaks when they wish to assuage their thirst. Moscow is famed for its cocks, and here the Moscow cock may be seen. proudly stalking about, in cages and out of them. The best pigeons are said to come from Novgorod, and Finland furnishes the chief supply of singing-birds. Geese are brought even from the confines of China, to be sold as rarities in the Tshukin Dvor, after a journey of more than four thousand miles. Gray squirrels may be seen rolling about in their cages. like incarnate quicksilver; while rabbits and Guinea-pigs without number gambol their time away in their little wooden hutches. Within the booth, a living centre of all this living merchandise, behold the merchant, closely ensconced in his wolfskin, and ready to dispose of his little feathered serfs at any acceptable price. At the back of the booth, be sure there hangs a saintly picture of some sort, its little lamp shedding a cheerful light, to guard the feathered tribe against the evil influence of intruding demons! But there are evil spirits that the good saint can not banish. Man is there, to hold in chains or to sentence to death, according as it may suit his calculations of profit, or the caprices of his palate. On shelves around are ranged the trophies of his murder- ous tribe; and the northern swans, the heathcocks (reptshiki), and the snow-white partridges (kurapatki), are piled up under the very cages from 460 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. which the captive larks warble their liquid notes. It is astonishing what a quantity of these birds are yearly consumed at the luxurious tables of St. Petersburg. In winter the cold keeps the meat fresh, and at the same time facilitates its conveyance to market. The partridges come mostly from Saratov, the swans from Finland; Livonia and Esthonia must supply heathcocks and grouse, and the wide steppes must furnish the bustards which flutter over their endless plains, where the Cossack hunts them on horseback, and kills them with his formidable whip. All these birds, as soon as the life-blood has flown, are converted into stone by the frost, and, packed up in huge chests, are sent for sale to the capital. Whole sledge-loads of snow-white hares find their way to the market. The little animals are usually frozen in a running position, with their ears pointed, and their legs stretched out before and behind, and, when placed on the ground, look, at the first glance, as if they were in the act of esca- ping from the hunter. Bear's flesh also is offered for sale in this market, and here and there a frozen reindeer may be seen lying in the snow by the side of a booth, its hairy snout stretched forth upon the ground, its knees doubled up under its body, and its antlers rising majestically into the air. It looks as if, on our approaching it, it would spring up, and dash away once more in search of its native forests. The mighty elk, likewise, is no rare guest in this market, where it patiently presents its antlers as a perch for the pigeons that are fluttering about, until, little by little, the axe and the saw have left no fragment of the stately animal, but every part of it has gone its way into the kitchens of the wealthy. Similar markets for birds and game will be found in almost every large Russian city. Indeed, the habits and fashions of the Russian markets are completely national. Those of Moscow vary but little from those of To- bolsk; and Irkoutsk, Odessa, and Archangel, have shown themselves equally servile in their imitation of the metropolitan bazars. Beyond the Apraxin Rinok is the Sennaïa Ploschad, or hay-market; and here, again, the manners of the lower orders may be conveniently studied. The open space is frequently so crowded with them, that the police have some trouble to keep a passage clear in the centre for the equipages which are constantly coming and going, On one side of this passage stand the sellers of hay, wood, and, in spring, of plants and shrubs.. On the other side are the peasants with their stores of meat, fish, butter, and vegetables. Between these two rows are the sledges and equipages whose owners come to make their daily purchases, and depart laden with herbs and vegetables, the bleeding necks of the poultry often presenting a singular contrast to the splendid carriages from whose windows they are listlessly dangling. The sledges, after bringing the various commodities to market, serve their owners as stalls and counters. The matting thrown aside allows the poultry and meat to be arranged in a picturesque manner to catch the eye of the passing stranger. The geese are cut up, and the heads, necks, legs, ST. PETERSBURG 461 THE SENNAIA PLOSCHAD. and carcasses, sold separately, by the dozen or the half-dozen, strung ready for sale upon little cords. He whose finances will not allow him to think of luxuriating on the breast of a goose, may buy himself a little rosary of frozen heads, while one still poorer must content himself with a necklace or a few dozen of webbed feet, to boil down into a Sunday soup for his little ones. The most singular spectacle is furnished by the frozen oxen, calves, and goats, which stand about in ghastly rows, and look like bleeding spectres come to haunt the carnivorous tyrants whose appetites have condemned the poor victims to a premature death. The petrified masses can be cut up only with hatchets and saws. Sucking pigs are a favorite delicacy with the Russians. Hundreds of the little creatures, in their frozen condition, may be seen ranged about the sledges, with their tall, motionless mothers. by the side of them. FROZEN-PROVISION MARKET, ST. PETERSBURG, The anatomical dissections of a Russian butcher are extremely simple. Bones and meat having been all rendered equally hard by the frost, it would be difficult to attempt to separate the several joints. The animals are, accordingly, sawn up into a number of slices of an inch or two in 462 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. thickness, and in the course of this operation a quantity of animal sawdust is scattered on the snow, whence it is eagerly gathered up by poor chil- dren, of whom great numbers haunt the market. Fish, which is offered for sale in the same hard condition, is cut up in a similar way. The little, diminutive snitki are brought to market in sacks, and rattle like so many hazel-nuts when thrown into the scale. The pike, the salmon, and the sturgeon, so pliant and supple when alive, are now as hard as though they had been cut out of marble, and so they must be kept, for a sudden thaw would spoil them, and, to guard against this, they are constantly encased in ice or snow. Sometimes the whole mass freezes together, and the hatchet must then be liberally applied before the piscatory petrifactions can be liberated from their icy incrustations. So long as the frost keeps all liquid matter in captivity, and so long as the snow, constantly renewed, throws a charitable covering over all the hidden sins of the place, so long the ploschad looks clean enough; but this very snow and frost prepare for the coming spring a spectacle which no one wishes to look upon who would keep his appetite in due order for the sumptuous banquets of St. Petersburg. Every kind of filth and garbage accumulates during the winter; and when at last the melting influence of spring dissolves the charm, the quantities of sheep's eyes, fish-tails, crab- shells, goat's hairs, fragments of meat, pools of blood, not to speak of.hay, dung, and other matters, are perfectly frightful. The Zinnaïa Ploschad, near the winter-provision market, about a quar- ter of a mile from the Nevskoi Prospekt, is worthy of mention. Here the living cattle are disposed of; also sledges and country-wagons. Thousands of specimens of the Russian telega may here be examined at leisure. St. Petersburg and its neighborhood contain some splendid industrial establishments, particularly of the description which produces the more rare and costly articles required by that class to whom luxuries are indis- pensable. Among these may be enumerated that of the Gobelin tapestry, the porcelain glass, the playing-card, and one for cutting and polishing precious stones; also the cotton-factory at Alexandrosky, the paper-manu- factory, and the cannon-foundries. All these are either the property of foreigners or of the crown, or are under the management of foreigners, and serve as models to the whole empire. They are readily shown to strangers. It is characteristic of Russia that it had universities before schools, and tapestry-manufactories before it had learned to spin cotton. The Spalernoi manufactory is the oldest in St. Petersburg, as the academy built by Peter the Great is the oldest school. In that czar's reign, the workmen in the tapestry-manufactory were, one and all, French and Ital- ians; now they are, with the exception of the director, a designer, all Russians: the establishment is recruited from the great foundling-hospital. Ordinary carpets are made here for sale, but the real Gobelin tapestry is destined for the court alone. The numerous palaces, and the expensive ST. PETERSBURG—MANUFACTORIES. 463 • manner in which they are furnished, create a constant demand for these productions, which are also frequently required as presents to Asiatic and European potentates. The little boys, who come here as apprentices, first work at leaves and flowers at one color; then they advance to the shaded and varied leaves with several colors; then to stars, arabesques, &c. The drawings are placed directly behind perpendicular threads, and, while the outline of the picture is traced with a black coal, it is transferred to the thread, and the limits to the different tints are marked out. Every three or four weeks papers are fastened over the web, and, as it is finished, this is rolled up, so that it may not be injured during the tedious process of manufacture. Not only silk, but flax and wool are employed in this work: the brightness of the silk, the neutral effects of the flax, and the force of the wool, each render their several services. This woven painting, if not so enduring, is much richer than mosaic, which it more nearly resembles than it does anything else. The gobelin-tapestry manufactory of St. Pe- tersburg is perhaps one of the largest existing establishments of this branch of industry in Europe. The porcelain-manufactory, at which the fine vases presented by the em- peror to foreign princes are made, is on the road to Alexandrosky. An annual exhibition takes place here in the autumn, when many objects of great value and beauty are exposed for sale. The plate-glass manufactory is situated in the neighborhood of the Alexander Nevskoi convent. The wealthy Petersburgians carry the use of plate and looking glass to a high pitch of luxury: their windows are colossal; in garden-pavilions a whole wall is sometimes covered with looking-glass, and this is the case in pri- vate houses, where it is used to supply the place of pictures, and present at every turn the picture most admired of all—that of self. Some of these mirrors are eight feet wide, fifteen feet long, and an inch and a half thick. Articles of less value are also made at this manufactory; among them are curiously-cut glass eggs, which are purchased as Easter presents, and nar- giles for Persia. As much as fifty thousand roubles' worth is exported of these annually, and, though so fragile, are transported by land to that country. A glass bed of great value, presented by the emperor to the shah of Persia, an enormous mirror sent to the Turkish sultan, and the glass railings of the Smolnoi church, were made here. The glass-cutting department is perhaps the largest in Europe, but travellers can not be rec- ommended to bring their ears within reach of the crushing, scratching, and screeching, produced by the united industry of the three hundred workmen employed here. A characteristic anecdote of national intelligence is related in connec- tion with this establishment. The emperor wished to illumine the Alexan- der column in grand style. The size of the round lamps was indicated, and they were ordered at this manufactory, where the workmen exerted themselves in vain, and almost blew the breath out of their bodies in the endeavor to obtain the desired magnitude. But the commission must be 464 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. executed, that was self-evident; but how? A great premium was offered to whoever should solve the problem. Again the human bellows toiled and puffed, but the object seemed unattainable. At last a long-bearded Russian stepped forward, and declared he could do it; he had strong and sound lungs, and would only rinse his mouth first with a little cold water, to refresh them. Accordingly, he applied his mouth to the pipe, and puffed to such purpose, that the vitreous ball swelled and swelled nearly to the required size-up to it-beyond it! "Hold, hold!" cried the lookers- on, "you are doing too much; and how did you do it at all?"-"The matter is simple enough," replied the long-beard; "but, first, where is my premium?" And, when he had clutched the promised bounty, he ex- plained. He had retained some of the water in his mouth, which had passed thence into the glowing ball, and, there becoming steam, had ren- dered him this good service. The imperial cotton-manufactory, and that for playing-cards, at Alexan- drosky, are not unworthy of notice. The latter is under the direction of Mr. Delarue, said to be a relative of the partners of the London firm of that name; the cotton-manufactory and the iron-foundry at Copenha are under the superintendence of another Englishman, a General Wilson. The articles manufactured here are of various kinds: in one department cotton is spun, in another sheets and table-linen are wove, and in a third are made all the playing-cards used in Russia, for the manufacture of these, as before mentioned, is monopolized by the crown. About three thousand operatives are employed here; of these, nearly one thousand are foundling boys and girls, from twelve years of age and upward. At twenty-one the men are allowed to marry and quit the establishment, or remain as paid workmen; the girls may do the same at eighteen. The children on their arrival receive, in addition to their food, clothing, and lodging, small monthly wages, half of which is given to them by way of pocket-money, and the other half is placed at interest in a savings-bank, so that when they come of age or marry they have a little fund of three or four hundred roubles with which to begin the world. 66 Immediately on our arrival at Alexandrosky," writes Mr. Venables, we were taken to see the foundlings at dinner, which, as it was Lent (the only fast in the year which they are required to keep), consisted of soup-maigre, fish, rye-bread, and quass — all served in pewter. The day was an ordinary working-day, and our arrival was perfectly unexpected; yet nothing could exceed the neatness and perfect cleanliness of these young manufacturers, more especially the girls, whose hair in particular excited our admiration, every head being arranged alike, and with a de- gree of taste and neatness which many a lady might copy. Caps are never worn by the lower classes in this country; and certainly the well-brushed hair, drawn smoothly over the forehead and fastened at the back by a high comb, rendered the line of heads infinitely more agreeable to the eye, and at least as cleanly in appearance, as the row of mob-caps which would ST. PETERSBURG— MANUFACTORIES, ETC. 465 have been ranged down the table had these been English charity-girls. A wooden screen, about six feet high, ran down the middle of the hall, to separate the two sexes." Dinner over, a bell is rung, when the whole body, young men, boys, and girls, stand up and sing a hymn. The singing in the Russian churches is at all times imposing; but to hear a hymn sung to a Russian sacred melody by at least a thousand voices has in it some- thing so irresistibly touching, that nothing remains for the stranger but to yield to the impulse of feeling and join in this act of praise. At the con- clusion of this hymn, the bell gives the signal of departure, and the two sexes move out of the hall at different ends in the most orderly manner. This, like other public establishments in Russia, is a perfect model of cleanliness a fact the more striking, as the virtue is not generally prac- tised in private life, even among the upper classes. The machinery is for the most part under the direction of English workmen, about seventy of whom were employed previous to the war of 1854, and divine service was performed here every Sunday evening by the British chaplain. On the road to Peterhoff is the imperial paper-manufactory, and under the same roof is an establishment for cutting and polishing stones. In no court in the world are such quantities of jewels employed as in the Rus- sian. The emperor and empress never travel without taking with them a large jewel-casket, in order that they may leave behind them some mark of their favor. The most peculiar and beautiful objects to be seen here are the large malachite vases, the material of which is brought from Sibe- ria. Some of these are valued at a hundred thousand roubles, and formed one of the chief attractions at the London exhibition in 1851. Some of the private manufactories of St. Petersburg are likewise on an imperial scale. Among them are the foundries and refinery of Mr. Baird, and the cotton-spinning establishment of Baron Stiglitz. The principal manufactures of the Russian capital, in addition to those already mentioned, are woollen, silk, and linen tissues; carriages, leather, and articles in leather; mathematical and musical instruments; wax and sail-cloth, cordage, soap, tobacco, cabinet-work, jewelry, watches, and va- rious articles in gold, silver, mixed metals, and bronze. Ship-building, also, is carried on to a great extent, for the navy, in the public dockyards; and for commercial purposes at several private yards. The shallowness of the river, and the bar at its mouth, not admitting the passage of vessels which draw more than nine feet water, might seem at first sight to oppose an insurmountable obstacle to the building of ships-of-the-line; but the ad- vantages of being able to carry on the more important parts of naval archi- tecture within the capital, under the immediate eye of the government, are so great, that large sacrifices are made for the purpose, and the hulls when finished are floated down by means of camels and other ingenious and labo- rious contrivances, and the other equipments transmitted by lighters to Kronstadt, where the ships are finally fitted out for sea. 30 466 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. CHAPTER XVII. P THE GARDENS AND VILLAS OF ST. PETERSBURG. ETER THE GREAT, whose name is associated with every twig and branch of Russian public or social life, did what no ruler ever did before he built his capital on hostile ground. Often, while the building of the city was going on, he had to exchange the chisel and mallet for the sword, and drive back the enemy from the very gates of his infant capital. On one of these suburban battle-fields, he erected, in the year 1711, without the city and close to the sea, the castle and garden of Cathe- rinenhoff, as a memorial of a victory obtained over the Swedes. At first it was only the summer residence of his consort Catherine, and of the grand-duchesses Anne and Elizabeth. Their wooden palace stands yet, a view of which is given on the opposite page, but the gardens are greatly extended, and are full of bowling-greens and restaurants. For a long time these and the "Summer garden" were the only pleasure-resorts of the kind for the citizens; and still, probably from habit, these gardens are visited on the first of May. On that day all St. Petersburg is in motion: the poor on foot, the young exquisites on horseback, the ladies in their carriages—all flock to Catherinenhoff, to hail the coming of the fine sea- son, even though it be held expedient, as it generally is, to go well wrapped up in bearskins. Here may be seen half the magnificoes of the empire moving slowly past in their carriages-and-four; the senators, the star-cov- ered generals, the reverend bishops and metropolitans, the bearded mer- chants, and the "foreign guests" a spectacle of which, often as it is repeated, a St. Petersburger is never weary. The carriages move after a certain prescribed plan the whole day long, like horses in a mill. It is no less singular than true, that all the gay world throughout Russia are mo- ving about their many thousand towns, at the same pace, on the same day. The emperor, whose presence crowns the festival, is generally on horse- back, with the princes and a brilliant staff. His arrival is looked for as if he were the representative of the spring; and when he has passed by, the throng drop off one after the other, and go home again, as if the sun himself had disappeared. The far-famed Summer garden of St. Petersburg is situated on the Neva, close to the Troitzka bridge, and bounds the eastern end of the Champ de Mars. It is half a mile in length and a fourth in breadth, and is the oldest ST. PETERSBURG THE SUMMER GARDEN. 467 PALACE OF CATHERINENHOFF, ST. PETERSBURG. in the city. It contains a number of fine old trees, and is therefore of incalculable value in the centre of the stony masses of the capital. The grounds are laid out in a number of long avenues, interspersed with flower- beds, somewhat in the ancient style of gardening, with an abundance of marble statues of "Springs" and "Summers," "Floras" and "Fauns," and other divinities belonging to the same coterie. On the northern side is the celebrated iron railing which it is said an Englishman once travelled all the way from London to see and make a sketch of, and then returned, satisfied with his journey, not deigning to cast an eye on any of the other marvels of the northern city! This railing, which is about sixteen feet in height, is grand and massive; it extends nearly a quarter of a mile, and the gilded spikes give it a very elegant effect. The garden is attended to as carefully almost as those of Czarsko Selo, where a policeman is said to run after every leaf that falls, that it may instantly be removed out of sight! In autumn all the statues are cased in wooden boxes, to protect them against the rain and snow of winter, and all the tender trees and shrubs are at the same time packed up in straw and matting, in which they remain till the return of spring, when statues, trees, and men, lay their winter garments aside nearly at one and the same time. The grass-plots are regularly watered in summer, and the paths are 468 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. carefully cleaned and trimmed. And the garden gratefully repays the pains expended on it, for throughout the fine season it forms a delightful retreat; and its turf and its trees in spring are green and smiling, before any of the other gardens have been able to divest themselves of the chill- hardened grain into which their features have been stiffened during a six- months' winter. In one corner of the Summer garden stands the palace in which dwelt Peter the Great. It is a little, low, white house, with a few tasteless bas- reliefs, painted yellow. On the roof, between the chimneys, St. George, mounted on a tin horse, is in the act of piercing the dragon. In the inte- rior, a few articles of furniture, formerly used by Peter, are still preserved. The house seems to have grown ashamed of its littleness, for it hides itself completely among the tall linden-trees of the garden, as though fearful of intruding into the company of the stately palaces that have grown up around. How different it must have looked when it was yet sole lord of the wilderness-when it stood alone amid a mob of fishermen's huts! ! This garden is the great lounge of the population of St. Petersburg; it is the afternoon resort of crowds of the most charming children, who repair thither, escorted by their mothers and nurses, to people the solitary walks, and make the shrubberies resound with their innocent mirth. Fifteen or sixteen years later, these children reappear upon the same scene, but this time with less artless intentions, and to play a more perilous game. On Whit-Monday a strange spectacle is to be seen here, for on that day the celebrated festival of the wife-market takes place. Here, according to ancient custom, the sons and daughters of the tradesmen assemble in all their finery, to pick and choose a partner for life, or, at any rate, to lay the foundation of a future marriage; for, though this class still muster in great force on Whit-Monday, the practice is not so thoroughly carried out as it used to be. In former days, the girls on this momentous occasion were dressed from head to foot in all their best apparel, and decorated with every ornament they could borrow from their family. It is even said that " a Russian mamma once contrived to make a necklace of six dozen gilt teaspoons for her daughter, a girdle of an equal number of tablespoons, and then fastened a couple of punch-ladles behind, in the form of a cross Greek, of course." The islands of the Neva have been before alluded to. There are in all more than forty of them, great and small, some of which, although all be- long to the precincts of the city, are still completely deserted, inundated by the sea and the Neva, and visited only by seals, or by wolves who come over the ice during the winter, or by fishermen in a less inclement season of the year. Many of these swampy and birch-covered islets-such, for instance, as the Volny and Truktanoff islands—are scarcely known to many of the inhabitants of St. Petersburg; and it is a remarkable proof of the wildness and uncultivated region which surrounds the capital, at least on one side, that a man may, if he feel so disposed, kill either a bear ST. PETERSBURG—THE ISLANDS OF THE NEVA. 469 Ally v d W.ROBEP1S9c. NURSE WITH CHILDREN, IN THE SUMMER Garden, St. Petersburg. or a wolf between breakfast and dinner. In very severe winters, hungry wolves have not only approached the suburbs in search of food, but even the imperial palace! Kohl tells us of a lady who scared one of these ani- mals away with her parasol; and of another who, being surprised by a bear while reading in her villa in the environs of St. Petersburg, repulsed his advances by throwing her book, a novel of George Sand's, at his head. Five, however, of the islands of the delta, though originally yielding nothing but shrubs and a few old oaks, birches, and firs, were invaded by the gardener toward the close of the last century, and are now laid out in the most tasteful manner. Imperial palaces arose, too, under the creative hand of Catherine II., who made grants of land, and even whole islands, to her favorites, that they might build and lay out villas and houses there; hence, perhaps, the name datscha (gift) for villa, with which the Kam- menoi, or Stone island, is nearly covered. These buildings are in every variety of style, Gothic, Chinese, &c., and specimens are to be found of all ages and nations in gardening and villa-building; but, though costly and luxurious, they are destitute of the comfort of an English or American country-house. One charm, however, they have, and for this they are in- debted, singular enough, to the severity of the climate: the hothouses are as numerous as the villas, and in the warm weather the balconies, doors, 470 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. and windows of the datsches are adorned with multitudes of exotic plants. These villas are generally inhabited by the wealthier classes. There is, too, on this island a summer theatre, in which French plays are performed; an imperial villa, and the hospital for the disabled. The datsches of the nobility are all of wood, the emperor's alone being of stone, and tortured into every incongruous form that bad taste can de- vise; the whole touched up and picked out with painted cornices and pilas- ters, in red and yellow ochre, and, once done, left to the mercy of the seasons. Each has just enough ground around to give the idea of an Eng- lish tea-garden, with every appurtenance of painted wooden arch, temple, and seat, to confirm it. In this neighborhood is also a Russian village, wooden cottages with deep roofs, and galleries running round like the Swiss, ornamented with most delicately-carved wood. Of course, here is also plenty of red, blue, and yellow, for it would seem that without these primary colors nothing can be done. The love of red, especially, is so inherent a taste in Russia, that "red" and "beautiful" are, in a popular sense, expressed by the same word. But this is evidently the show-village of the capital, and almost entirely let to families for the summer. Joined to the Kammenoi, on the west, by a bridge, is another garden- island, called the Yelaginskoi, or Yelagin island, after the name of a fam- ily who once possessed it. It is now exclusively occupied by the imperial château and gardens. The court frequently reside here in the spring, the most brilliant season for the islands, but there is no amusement for the public beyond that of strolling about on foot and lionizing the emperor's datscha. This has the appearance of an English or American country- residence, with the gravel-walks and flower-beds in admirable order. The rooms are by no means large, but yet very well arranged for living in qui- etly and comfortably. The emperor's own apartment is a perfect "snug- gery" in its way. This island is said to be a favorite resort of the empress. The view from the château is delightful: first the gardens of the villa, then the broad sheet of the Neva with its verdant banks, and, lastly, the lofty spires of the capital are seen rising in the distance. A promenade, similar to that at Catherinenhoff, takes place later in the year on the Yela- gin island, at which the imperial family are present. This fête is more attractive, for the weather is more settled, and the scenery is much finer. To the south of the islands of Yelagin and Kammenoi is the Krestovsky, or Cross island, which lies before the courtly Yelagin and Kammenoi Os- troff, toward the sea, and is larger than the two former put together. Nu- merous avenues have been opened through the thick, primeval birch and pine wood of this island, and afford agreeable views of the gulf of Finland. This island is peculiarly the resort of the lower classes ot St. Petersburg : hither flock the mujik and the kupez in gay gondolas, to enjoy in the woods their national amusements of swings and Russian mountains; and here on holydays smokes on the grass under every pine-group the favorite somovar, ST. PETERSBURG THE ISLANDS OF THE NEVA. 471 NOBLE'S VILLA ON THE ISLAND OF KAMMENOI. round which may be seen encamped a party of long-beards, gossiping, sing- ing, and clamoring. The German part of the population have appropriated to themselves an- other island, that of Petrosky. The arrangements are on a smaller scale, and here only are to be found milk and cake gardens, coffeehouses and taverns. It must not be understood, however, that there is anything ex- clusive, for datschas, châteaus, and Russians, mingle here as elsewhere. The fifth garden-island is that of the Aptekarskoi, or Apothecaries' island, and here is the botanical garden, one of the most interesting sights of the capital. This is open to the public on Sundays and holydays. The sci- ence of hothouse gardening is here brought to the utmost perfection, and one of the finest assortments of tropical plants in existence has been col- lected amid the snows of the north. The establishment is under the direc- tion of a Scotch gardener, who has been eminently successful in propaga- ting and preserving the most delicate plants. The collection of orchi- daceous plants is one of the best in Europe, and agents are employed in many different parts of the world in sending home plants worthy of these immense conservatories. 2 Kohl states how the islands should be visited. "Call," he observes, "upon a friend, if you have one in any of these elegant swamp-villas, and enjoy the tea or evening collation upon his luxurious divans. Then, tow- ard sunset, have a gondola, manned by half-a-dozen sturdy fellows, and row down the arm of the Neva to the gulf of Finland. Watch there the globe of the northern-summer sun sink into the lap of Thetis, and hurry back through the magic July night, and row round some of the islands, 472 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. taking a wide sweep, for there is plenty of room here on the water also, punching and driving your gondoliers, meanwhile, to make them go the faster. Listen then from the water to the sounds from the thick forest, gaze on the lights from the fishing-villages, the late illumination of the brilliant datschas, and hearken to the nightly doings on the islands, where all is as loud by night as it was by day; and, at last, return home like a night-wandering ghost, when, toward one o'clock, the cold dew announces the return of the sun.' The gardens in Count Strogonoff's domain, where there is a fine park, are open to the public. Here is to be seen an antique sarcophagus and marble, vulgarly called the tomb of Homer, which was brought from the island of Ios, in the Grecian archipelago, at the end of the last century. It is ornamented with bas-reliefs representing scenes in the life of Achilles. There is a little book written thereon, by Heyne, the celebrated archæolo- gist and professor at Gottingen, which has been reproduced by M. Murall. These gardens, and those of Count Nesselrode, the chancellor of the em- pire, are open to the public daily. The villages of St. Petersburg, often spoken of by travellers, are the Great and Little Okhta, the Great and Little Derevnia, and the Tshornaya Retska. The houses in these villages are constructed of logs of fir-trees strongly put together; and are planted like soldiers, in one long, straight line. From the houses, hardly one of which possesses a tree, long cabbage and cucumber plantations stretch into the country on the land-side, while the road on the banks of the river is filled on holydays with carriages driving up and down as they do in the avenues of the "Garden-islands." Those persons whose revenues are too moderate for a Gothic or a Chinese datscha, engage a summer residence in some of these cheap houses, and enjoy there as much happiness as a somovar, a pack of cards, and a dusty, galloping drive, can afford them. A moving crowd is, however, always an animated sight, and in the private gardens at Okhta a German band plays. The gardens at Sergola are also open to the public. The Czarsko Selo, a royal residence, and favorite resort of the imperial family, is distant about fifteen miles from St. Petersburg. The road to it was made by the empress Catherine II., at a cost of a million of roubles. Soon after passing the Moscow barrier, two huge figures of bulls are seen in front of a building on the right of the road. This is the great cattle- market; and farther on is a triumphal arch, similar to that erected at the Riga gate. There is nothing to attract attention on this road, or anything to indicate that the traveller is in the vicinity of a large capital, unless it be the imperial milestones, which are of colossal dimensions; the main and two side roads are, it is true, of great width, but the open, uncultivated plain on either hand is swampy and flat. The road for the first five miles. to Czarsko Selo is that to Moscow, and at this point the former turns off to the right. Near here is the royal château of Tchesme, built by the em- press Catherine to commemorate the victory obtained by Orloff over the ST. PETERSBURG-PALACE OF CZARSKO SELO. 473 Turks on the coast of Anatolia. The edifice is in the form of a Turkish pavilion, with a central rotunda containing the full-length portraits of sov- ereigns contemporary with Catherine. Since her death, this palace has been deserted. In 1825, Alexander and his consort passed it on their way to the south of Russia; and, about eight months after, their mortal remains found shelter in it for a night on their way to the imperial sepul- chre. There is no other object of interest on this road. We have described the carriage-road; but the best and most rapid mode of proceeding to Czarsko is by the railroad, the first laid down in Russia, and which is more particularly noticed in another chapter. At the stations, droskies, or, in winter, sledges, are in readiness to carry the passengers on. For upward of a mile, before reaching Czarsko, the road is bounded on either side by a village which seems interminable-one long, monotonous row of wooden huts, with nothing to enliven them but a few bearded mujiks and ugly women. At the entrance to the grounds of the palace are two small towers carved with Egyptian figures and hieroglyphics, &c.; a bar- rier is here thrown across the road, at which a guard is stationed: the entrance, when completed, will be covered with iron bas-reliefs from Egyp- tian scenes, taken from the classical work of Denon on that country. Opposite the gate called the Caprice is a cluster of white houses, in two rows of different sizes, diminishing as they recede from the road, and con- verging at the farthest extremity-altogether a bizarre arrangement, and showing the magnificence of Russian gallantry. The empress Catherine II., at the theatre one night, happened to express her pleasure on seeing the perspective view of a small town; and the next time she visited Czar- sko Selo she saw the scene realized in a town erected by Count Orloff, at an immense expense, before the gate of the palace! The façade of the palace is twelve hundred feet feet in length. Origi nally every statue, pedestal, and capital of the numerous columns, the vases, carvings, and other ornaments in front, were covered with gold-leaf, and the gold used for that purpose amounted to more than a million of ducats. In a few years the gilding wore off, and the contractors engaged in repairing it offered the empress nearly half a million of silver roubles for the fragments of gold-leaf; but Catherine refused, saying, "Je ne suis pas dans l'usage de vendre mes vieilles hardes." The only gilding which now remains is on the dome and cupolas of the church, which are, as usual in Russia, surmounted by the cross and cres- cent. The front of the palace, toward the gardens, is tawdry, and glaring in green, white, and yellow, which at first sight appear to have been smeared on the walls in large patches and stripes, and have a most un- pleasant effect. The first portion of the building generally shown is the chapel, a spacious room, fitted up entirely with dark-colored wood, most lavishly gilded, even the ceiling being one bright sheet of gold. On the walls are some curious old paintings, particularly one of a man with a solid wooden beam projecting from his eye, nearly as large and quite as long as 474 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. his whole body; while the mote in his neighbor's eye is certainly most visible, as it is half as big as his head! A key of the city of Adrianople hangs beside the altar; but there is no other emblem of war's havoc and destruction within this temple of the Most High. The imperial family have a kind of gallery in the chapel, communicating with their various apartments in the palace, and situated immediately behind the screen or ikonostast. The palace of Czarsko was, at the emperor Alexander's death, aban- doned by the imperial family, and is therefore bare of furniture, though the walls and floors are decorated with exceeding richness. The former are either simple white and gold, or hung with rich silks; the latter par- quetted in the most graceful designs and tender colors, and still as fresh as when first laid down. One very elegant room is that called the Lapis-lazuli, in which strips of this stone are inlaid in the walls, and the floor of this apartment is of ebony inlaid with large flowers of mother-of- pearl, forming one of the most splendid contrasts possible. The room itself is not very large, but the effect is beautiful. Catherine II. has been frequently accused of vandalism in having the pictures in this room cut so as to fit the walls. A late traveller, however, after examining them most narrowly, declares that this sin can not be laid at her door. "The wall," he observes, "is certainly covered with pictures without frames, forming a complete lining, and a most comical group they make-Teniers' boors, with a beautiful Canaletti of the royal Polish Zamek, most lovingly fast- ened together, but their fair proportions have not been curtailed. Here is also a celebrated statue of the Savior by Danneker." But the wonder of this palace is the famous amber-room, the walls of which are literally panelled with this material in various architectural de- signs; the arms of Frederick the Great, by whom the amber was presented to Catherine II., being moulded in different compartments with the impe- rial cipher, the Russian E. for Ekaterina. Accustomed to see only small pieces of this beautiful substance, one can hardly believe that the large, rough fragments projecting from the walls are really amber. These are colored a pale yellow, and in several places groups of figures are formed with fragments of this precious substance ingeniously put together, while the frames are composed of larger portions. The effect produced by this species of decoration is, however, too fade and waxy to be pleasing. The bedchamber of Catherine is adorned with walls of porcelain and pillars of purple glass, and the bedclothes are those under which she slept the last time she was at the palace. In the banqueting-room the entire walls to the height of about nine feet are covered with gold, which is also laid on most lavishly on the ceilings in almost all the state-apartments. The Chinese room is remarkable for the taste with which everything is ar- ranged after the fantastic manner which is supposed to be that of the celes- tial empire. Two grand ballrooms are also conspicuous, the upper end of each being occupied by a collection of the most splendid China vases placed ST. PETERSBURG -PALACE OF CZARSKO SELO. 475 રા งาน METUNI IMPERIAL PALACE OF CZARSKO SELO. on circular tiers up to the ceiling, and marked with the imperial E. The whole palace, in fact, breathes of recollections of the great Catherine; and here are to be seen private rooms with a door communicating with the adjoining apartments, and the gentle descent leading into the garden by which she was wheeled up and down when infirmity had deprived her of the use of her limbs. "But the sentiment of the edifice," observes a recent traveller, "dwelt in the simple rooms of the late emperor Alexander, whom all remember with affection, and speak of with melancholy enthusiasm. His apartments have been kept exactly as he left them when he departed for Taganrog. His writing-cabinet-a small, light room, with scagliola walls-seemed as if the imperial inmate had just turned his back. There was his writing- table in confusion, his well-blotted case, the pens black with ink. Through this was his simple bedroom, where in an alcove, on a slight camp-bedstead with linen coverlet, lay the fine person and troubled heart of poor Alexan- der! On one side was the small table with the little green-morocco look- ing-glass, his simple English shaving-apparatus, his brushes, combs, and a pocket-handkerchief marked Z. 23.' On a chair lay a worn military sur- tout, beneath were his manly boots. There was something very painful in these relics. If preserved by fraternal affection, it seems strange that the same feeling should not shield them from strangers' eyes and touch. "The palace of the emperor Nicholas, originally built, upon the marriage of her grandson Alexander, by the empress Catherine II., excited very 476 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. different feelings. It was simpler in decoration than many a noble's at St. Petersburg, clean as possible, and light with the rays of the bright win- ter's sun. The only objects on the plain walls of the great drawing-room were a small print of Admiral Sir Edward Codrington, and the busts of the seven imperial children in infantine beauty. The emperor's own room, in point of heavy writing-tables and bureaux, was that of a man of business, but his military tastes peeped through all. Around on the walls were arranged glass cases containing models of the different cavalry regiments, executed, man and horse, with the greatest beauty, and right,' as a mili- tary attendant assured us, ' to a button;' and this, it seems, is the one thing needful. Paintings of military manoeuvres and stiff squares of soldiers were also dispersed through his apartments. 6 "Leaving this, we proceeded to the arsenal, a recent red-brick erection in English Gothic, in the form of many an old English gatehouse, and a picturesque object in the most picturesque part of these noble gardens. Here a few weather-beaten veterans reside, who, peeping at our party through the latticed windows, opened the arched doors; and, once within, to an antiquarian eye, all was enchantment. For several successions the Russian sovereigns have amassed a collection of armor and curious antique instruments. These have been increased in the reign of his present majesty, who erected this building purposely for their reception, and intrusted their classification and arrangement to an Englishman; and truly that gentleman has done credit to the known antiquarian tastes of his own land.” It would be impossible to enumerate the objects here preserved, consist- ing chiefly of ancient armor, weapons, and accoutrements, of every descrip- tion, for man and horse, from every warlike nation, both Christian and idolater. Figures in armor guard the entrance and lead the eye along the winding staircase, whence you enter a lofty, circular, vaulted hall, with oak flooring, and walls hung round with carbines, lances, &c., in fanciful devices, and where, placed on high pedestals in a circle round the room, are eight equestrian figures in full accoutrements and as large as life, like those of the English kings in the Tower of London. Between these you pass on to various little alcoves or oratories with groined ceiling and stained window, whose light falls on the gorgeously-wrought silver cross or precious missal of some early pope, or on the diamond-and-pearl-woven trappings of present Turkish luxury; or on the hunting-horn, with ivory handle of exquisitely-carved figures, of some doughty German markgraf of the olden time, or on the jousting-instruments and other playthings of the amazons of Catherine II.'s court. In a glass case in the arsenal are preserved the small silver drum and trumpet given by Catherine to the emperor Paul in his childhood; and beside them is the autograph letter of Bessières to Marshal Davoust, as governor of Moscow in 1812, ordering him to evacuate the city. In a recess are placed two sets of horse-trappings presented by the sul- tan to the emperor—the first on concluding the peace of Adrianople, when ST. PETERSBURG THE ARSENAL AT CZARSKO SELO. 477 the "yellow-haired Giaours" passed victoriously the mountain-barrier of the Balkan, and were well nigh at the gates of his capital. This saddle is superb, with its trappings of purple velvet studded with diamonds, and its stirrups of gold; but the other makes its glories dim the instant one beholds them together. This was given when the Porte sued as a suppli- ant to Russia for an auxiliary force to defend a tottering throne against a rebellious vassal (Mehemet Ali, viceroy of Egypt), after the fatal field of Konieh had witnessed the overthrow of the only army the sultan possessed. The diamonds on the pistol-holsters of this saddle are of unusual size, and their brightness perfectly dazzling, while every part of the saddle and bridle is actually covered with brilliants. Several swords, studded with diamonds, are also preserved here-for the most part presents from vari- ous sovereigns to the emperor Nicholas. But this pleasant arsenal, the only memento pertaining to this capital of modern objects and ephemeral fashions which recalls the past, would re- quire a volume to itself, and offers inexhaustible interest to the artist in mind, and a very treasury of beautiful subjects to the artist in profession. By command of the emperor Nicholas, a most careful and elaborate delin- eation of its contents, by the best artists of the day, and under the direc- tion of M. Velton of St. Petersburg, is going forward, to appear in num- bers, of which at present only a few have been completed. These are the most exquisite specimens of drawing and emblazonry, and offer an interest second only to that of the arsenal; but the price is high, being five hundred roubles a number! The grounds around the palace of Czarsko Selo are eighteen miles in circumference, and contain plenty of larch, oak, and elm, which flourish well. The gardens are said to be the most carefully kept in the world, the trees and flowers being watched and inspected with the most anxious minuteness. An old invalid soldier commands his five or six hundred men as gardeners and overseers. As before remarked, after every falling leaf runs a veteran to pick it up; and after a violent north wind they have enough to do, as may be well imagined. Every tiny leaf that falls in pond or canal is carefully fished out; they dust, and trim, and polish the trees and paths in the gardens, as they. do the looking-glasses and furniture of the saloons; every stone that is kicked aside is laid straight again, and every blade of grass kept in a proper position. An inquiry was once insti- tuted here about a broken flower, and carried on with as much solemnity as if it had been a capital offence. All the gardeners were called together, the inspector held the flower in his hand, and every possible question was put, as to whose division, and out of what bed, the flower might have been taken; whether plucked by a child, or broken by a dog: and this investi- gation proceeded with the most profound seriousness, and the closest con- templation of the corpus delicti-threats were lavished, rewards for the discovery of the offender were promised, &c. ; but with what success, never transpired. The cost of all this polishing and furbishing alone is above 478 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. a hundred thousand roubles yearly, but then the sacrifice keeps the gardens in the order of a ballroom. The odd caprices exhibited in the decoration of the grounds are really extraordinary, and so numerous, that it would be difficult to describe. them all. In one corner is the tower of the crown prince Alexander, an ornamental building in several stories, where this young prince resided with his tutor; in another are the baby-houses of the young grand-duchr- esses, where they carried on a mimic mènage. In front of a Chinese tower is a high pole, rigged like the mast of a frigate, where the young grand- duke Constantine (now holding a high rank in the navy) formerly prac- tised his "hand over hand" upon. On one of the ponds is a fleet of pigmy vessels, intended to amuse the youthful admiral in 'his professional studies. In addition to all these strange objects are a theatre, a Chinese village, a Dutch and Swiss cowhouse, a Turkish kiosk, a summer-house in the form of an Ionic colonnade supporting an aerial garden, planted with flowers, a Gothic building called the Admiralty, a marble bridge with Corinthian columns of polished marble; also rostral pillars and bronze statues which Catherine II. erected to her favorites— among these is a column to Orloff. There are likewise some commemorative monuments raised by Alexander to his "companions in arms," intermingled with fields of roses, hermitages, artificial ruins, Roman tombs, grottoes, and waterfalls. Since the death of Alexander, the palace has been untenanted except by servants. The imperial family, when they come here, inhabit a large building in the park. Like almost all other royal buildings in Russia, Czarsko owes its origin to Peter the Great. He erected the first house here, and planted, to his eternal praise, the avenues of plane-trees with his own hand; but it was the empress Elizabeth who built the castle, which was further embellished by Catherine II., and after the great fire it was restored by Alexander. The two imperial residences of Paulofsky and Gatchina, the favorite abode of the late empress-mother, but now seldom, if ever, visited by any member of the imperial family, are situated beyond Czarsko Selo; the one at the distance of about eight, the other about twenty-five miles. The gardens of Paulofsky are less magnificent but more attractive than those of Czarsko Selo. According to Swinin, the walks in these gardens amount to more than one hundred miles in length; and there is so much variety in the disposition of them, and in the shrubs and grouping of the trees, that Russian literature may boast of several books written on this subject alone! Paulofsky may also be reached by the railway. There are many villas there, and a band plays in the gardens during the summer months. These gardens, and the palace, are the property of the grand-duke Michael. The road to Czarsko Selo excepted, the coast-road to Peterhoff is es- teemed the most lively and best inhabited of any in the environs of the capital; the road, too, is broad, finely paved, with excellent bridges and handsome granite milestones. It is a proof, however, of the general mo- ST. PETERSBURG STRELNA AND PETERHOFF. 479 notony of Russian roadside scenery, that the verststones are almost the only, at any rate the most striking landmarks, and in this sense are really very useful. For instance, a St. Petersburgian, wishing to explain to a friend where his villa is situated, will say, "We are living this year on the Peterhoff road, at the seventh verst;" or, "The Orloff dutscha stands at the eleventh verst" "We will take our dinner at the traktir's (restau- rateur) at the fourteenth verst❞—as if these milestones were pyramids. But so it is there are neither valleys, brooks, nor smiling villages, gnarled oaks or giant elms, whereby to distinguish places, and people can find their way only by considering the position of the milestones. Peterhoff is distant from St. Petersburg about eighteen miles; the road to it is by the Riga gate, passing under the triumphal arch erected by the inhabitants to celebrate the return of the Russian army from Paris in 1814. This structure is cumbrous in the extreme, covered with sheets of copper, supporting a brazen triumphal car drawn by six horses abreast, in which is a figure of Victory. Shortly after passing the Riga gate, on the right is seen the old palace of Catherinenhoff, already mentioned as the rendezvous of the Russians on May-day. The castle is now deserted as an imperial residence, and is fast sinking into the bosom of the morass on which it was built; its decay was greatly accelerated by the inundation of the Neva in 1824. Beyond this is the Annenhoff lunatic-asylum, founded by the empress Anne, whose name it bears, which was removed here from its original situation within the city in order that the patients should have an additional chance of regaining their reason in the calmer situation and fresh air of the open country. As far as Strelna the traveller follows the great western road that leads to Germany, which here branches off to the south, while the road to Peter- hoff continues its course along the southern bank of the Neva. This alone of all the approaches to the capital is lined with the villas and country- seats of Russian nobles and merchants, many of which are alike conspicu- ous for their splendor and elegance, but seem almost without exception to be much better adapted for the warm and genial climate of some land of the sun than the stern, inhospitable shore of a sea which is frozen nearly half the year. At the distance of four or five miles from St. Petersburg the line of houses on the right hand ceases, and the wide expanse of the Neva spreads before the windows and terraces of the houses which border the road on the left hand. The palace of Strelna is a pretty Gothic building, situated on a com- manding position, immediately overhanging the Neva; but its interior is plain, and, with the exception of the ballroom, by no means splendidly fur- nished. Since the death of the grand-duke Constantine, this, like most of the other imperial residences near the Russian capital, has been untenanted. Hence to Peterhoff, a distance of about six miles, the road winds along the shore of the Neva, still presenting a succession of villas and pavilions, with gardens and Dutch cottages in every variety of shape. 480 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Nothing can be finer than the actual situation of the palace at Peterhoff. Built on the verge of a steep declivity, its windows command the whole extent of the Neva, from Kronstadt to St. Petersburg, with the green islands of the majestic river, and the shore of Finland beyond. But of late years it seems to have found but little favor in the eyes of the impe- rial family; and, though both garden and palaces are still kept in the strictest order, they are seldom visited by them except on the occasion of the annual fêtes. The gardens are not so extensive as those at Czarsko Selo; but their situation is far more beautiful, and their arrangement more tasteful. The water-works are considered but little inferior to those at Versailles. That called the Samson, in front of the palace, is a magnifi- cent jet d'eau, eighty feet high, and from it to the sea, a distance of five hundred yards, runs a canal, wherein are many smaller fountains. On each side of the fountain of Samson (so called from a colossal bronze figure tearing open the jaws of a lion whence rushes the water) are other jets d'eau which throw water vertically and horizontally; these basins are at the foot of the elevation on which the palace stands. In the centre is a broad flight of steps leading to the castle, and on each side a continuous range of marble slabs to the top of the hill over which the water pours down, the slabs being placed high and far apart, so as to allow lamps to be arranged behind the water. This is done at the Peterhoff fêtes referred to above. These renowned fêtes take place on the first of July (old style, which still prevails in Russia), when amends are made to this charming summer abode for the neglect to which it is doomed during the rest of the year. On that day—the 13th day of July of our style-which is the empress's birthday, and also her wedding-day, the people of St. Petersburg throng in vast and motley multitudes to the famous Peterhoff festival. It is difficult to give an idea of the immense concourse that flows thither. From the earliest hour of the morning, the Neva is covered with steamboats, skiffs, and gondolas, and the roads with vehicles of every kind, full of eager holy- day-makers, fearless of the dust so long as they reach the scene of enjoy- ment. There the accommodations prepared for them can not possibly suffice. Enormous tents are pitched, to afford rest and refreshment to the weary wayfarers; but so extraordinary is the throng, that it is scarcely possible to keep a place even if obtained: or else the heat drives one from under cover, to mingle and be carried along with the dense stream that fills every avenue. Hurrying from room to room, and from one garden into another, the morning passes away, and' at noon the empress appears on the balcony of the palace, and a military parade ensues. After the troops have defiled before her, the orderlies of the various corps march by, among which the Circassians are remarkable for their personal appearance, costume, and skill in military exercises. After the parade, which has been preceded by divine service, a court drawing-room is usually held; then comes a drive through the park, and FETE OF THE EMPRESS AT PETERHOF.-THE POLONAISE. 31 ST. PETERSBURG - FESTIVAL AT PETERHOFF. 483 then dinner, succeeded, toward eight in the evening, by a ball in the pal- ace. To this ball, every one, without exception, is welcome. The country- people, in their ordinary garb, mingle with the wearers of elegant dresses and brilliant uniforms; a mixture which, however, in no way diminishes the universal enjoyment. Suddenly the musicians strike up; through the folding-doors, thrown wide open, two chamberlains enter, and courteously entreat the assemblage to make room for their majesties, who are near at hand. Every one draws back, as much as the throng and pressure permit, and the Polonaise is danced, with the emperor at its head, through all the extensive suite of apartments. The entrance of the imperial couple is the moment chosen by the artist to illustrate the fête, as seen in the foregoing engraving. The stately form of the emperor, with the empress on his right, will be readily recognised in the picture. All present have an op- portunity of seeing their sovereigns, and all greet them joyfully as they pass, until the royal dancers, retracing their steps, conclude the dance in the same hall wherein they commenced it. At a signal from the empress, the whole of the vast garden is now sud- denly illuminated. This takes place as by enchantment. With lightning speed the countless flames ascend from the lowest branches to the very topmost sprigs of the trees. In less than a quarter of an hour, park and garden appear in a blaze. The waters of the fountains plash and ripple over steps which seem to burn. Lamps, ingeniously sheltered from extinc- tion, gleam through the falling water, whose every drop glitters, diamond- like, with all the tints of the prism. Eye can not behold a more striking and beautiful scene. The finest sight of all is the "Golden Staircase," already described, next to the "Samson"-fountains with which, in the opinion of some, even the Grandes Eaux at Versailles can scarcely be compared. And now imagine the monster illumination, reflected on all sides in the colossal cascades and water-works, and in the adjacent arm of the sea; imagine the melodious murmur of music issuing from the palace, and mingled with the whizzing of rockets, with the booming of cannon from the vessels at Kronstadt, and with the joyous songs of countless groups, who, having selected spots for their bivouac, lie around the fires in various and picturesque attire. All these things combine to render this one of the most beautiful festivals that can be imagined. At ten o'clock the ball ends; after which the court usually take a little drive on a sort of long droskies (jaunting-cars). On their return in-doors, the lights in the palace are suddenly extinguished. Gradually the walks are deserted by the promenaders, who establish themselves for the night under tents or beneath wagons, or round great watchfires-departing with the first dawn, by land and by water, to their respective homes. Thus ends the great holyday at Peterhoff, unquestionably one of the grandest and most agreeable of popular festivals. The emperor Nicholas, when at Peterhoff, does not occupy the imperial palace, but a wooden pavilion, in which he resided when grand-duke. 484 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The suite of apartments in which the emperor Alexander lived when last at Peterhoff have never since been inhabited; and everything remains as he left it. The principal attraction at Peterhoff is the old castle built by Peter the Great; and, although every emperor and empress has made alterations and additions, the character of the whole is the same as that of all the palaces built by that czar; even the yellow color, which was its original hue, is always renewed, and like them its architecture is very insignificant in character, and deserves as little to be mentioned with Versailles or the other French châteaux, which may have served as models, as the Kazan church deserves to be compared with St. Peter's at Rome. The interior presents in many instances the same curious mixture of simplicity and taw- driness as the old Michailoff palace and the Taurida in St. Petersburg, which have been described at length in a previous chapter. Here, however, are to be seen some beautiful tapestries, countless arti- cles of bijouterie, tazzas of porcelain, malachite, and marble, and a number of pictures chiefly representing the naval victories of Orloff and other Rus- sian commanders of Catherine II. In the castle is also one highly-inter- esting apartment, containing a collection of three hundred and sixty-eight female portraits executed by a certain Count Rotali for that empress during a journey which he made through the different governments of the empire. "They are all beautiful young girls, whom the count has painted in pictu- resque attitudes, and in their national costume, the inventive genius of the artist giving a different position and expression to every face. One pretty girl is knitting diligently, another embroidering; one peeps archly from behind a curtain, another gazes expectingly from a window; another leans over a chair, as if listening to her lover; a sixth, reclining on cushions, seems lost in thought. One slumbers so softly and so sweetly, that a man must be a Laplander in apathy not to wish for a kiss; this stands before a glass, combing her beautiful hair; that has buried herself up to the ears in fur, leaving visible only a pair of tender, rosy lips, and soft blue eyes gleaming from under the wild bear's skin." There are also some excellent portraits of old people-two in particu- lar an old man with a staff, and an old woman by the fire. This collec- tion is unique in its kind, and would be invaluable for a physiognomist, if he could be certain that these portraits were as exact and faithful as they are pleasing and tasteful. But this must be considered doubtful, for they all bear, undeniably, rather the stamp of the French school than of the Russian, Tartar, Finnish, or any other nationality, within the Muscovite empire. It is also accounted a suspicious circumstance that the portraits were painted by a gentleman for a lady; and probably behind every grace- ful attitude some flattering homage to the empress lies concealed. The other apartments do not contain anything very remarkable. In one are the little table and benches with which the emperors Alexander and Nicholas played as children; in another, some carving and turner's ST. PETERSBURG 485 MONPLAISIR, AT PETERHOFF. work of Peter the Great. In one room are shown the blots of ink, made by this emperor or that, while engaged in his boyish studies; and in an- other is seen on the ceiling an extraordinary picture, representing a whole corps of angels playing from notes! every one with his music lying on a cloud by way of desk!- while a fifth room contains all the gods of Greece, also reclining on clouds. Descending from the palace to the seashore, the garden is laid out in terraces, and adorned with fountains and waterfalls. The basins, the Nep- tunes, storks, swans, and nymphs, the tritons, dolphins, painted rocks, and grottoes, are copied from the engravings in Hushfield's "Art of Garden- ing." These are commonplace enough: not so the oaks and lime-trees, planted by Peter himself, which one can not pass without notice. The smaller buildings of "Marly" and "Monplaisir," which lie under these trees as wings to the larger edifice, remind the spectator, as the small house in the Summer garden has done, of the modest domestic arrange- ments of the carpenter of Sardaam, Holland-the great reformer of east- ern Europe. It was from these humble retreats that Peter the Great loved to contem- plate his growing power over the Swedes on the Baltic. In Monplaisir, a low, Dutch-built summer-house, the empress Elizabeth used to amuse her royal leisure by cooking her own dinner. In this lowly abode the great Peter breathed his last, and his bed is still preserved untouched since his death, and now fast crumbling to decay. The last act of his life, the attempt to succor a stranded vessel, was well worthy to close the busy career of such a being as Peter. A view of this favorite residence of the great monarch is given on the following page. The Rev. John O. Choules, in his visit to the Baltic in 1853, thus speaks of it: “Our first sight was the residence of Peter the Great; it is not far re- moved from the old palace. It is beautifully surrounded by trees, and the house is quite small, and not very unlike a Dutch farmhouse. Its interior is quite like some old houses that I remember on the Hudson river. In this snuggery Peter died. We saw the bed on which he breathed his last; the bedclothes are all preserved as when he occupied the chamber. the pillow are his caps and nightclothes, and his robe-de-chambre lying on the coverlet of the bed. Nothing can be more simple than all the furni- ture. The rooms are small, and you can fancy that the old people who live in the cottage have just stepped out. In the room adjoining the small chamber are his slippers, boots, and sedan-chair, and other articles of per- sonal dress. In a small corner-cupboard is his camp-equipage, as plain as tin, iron, and brass can be. The walls of the kitchen are covered with blue Dutch tiles. Nothing indicates that royalty ever resided here, but some good Flemish pictures and a few elegant Japanese cabinets and beau- tiful stands. His escritoire remains as he last used it. A long, narrow saloon, which is really a covered gallery, has many portraits; and here the emperor used to walk and receive his visiters. The dining-room was • 486 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. MONPLAISIR, AT PETERHOFF. a small apartment, with a circular oak table, and the panels of fine Japan- ese work; the lower wainscoting of old black oak. From a noble terrace, paved with marble, Peter could gaze upon his infant navy, lying off at Kronstadt. The rocks of the seashore come quite up to the balustrades of the terrace, and greatly add to the scenery.' وو The "Hermitage" at Peterhoff is chiefly remarkable for the contrivance by which the dishes and plates descend from the table through grooves cut in the floor, and are replaced by others without any servant being seen. "of The famous "Cottage" of Catherine II. is, without, all plain, even to poverty; within, all glorious and radiant with gold, and mirrors reflecting each object, giving the tiny dwelling an appearance of size and magnifi- cence quite astonishing. The present empress has a small palace in the park of Peterhoff, called Sniamnisky. There is likewise a low, thatched building, called the "Straw palace." In a piece of water in the gardens are a great many tame carp, which, says an English traveller, "are regu- larly fed, and come to the visiters as readily as the swans in James's park, London, or a parish-clerk for his Christmas-box." A few miles hence is the country-seat of Ropscha, at which Peter III. met his death by assassination. Beyond Peterhoff, in a situation, if possi- ble, more beautiful and commanding, stands Oranienbaum, now the prop- erty of the grand-duke Michael. It was originally bestowed upon Prince Menchikoff by Peter the Great, to whom it again reverted on the disgrace and banishment of that proud courtier. די. later THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT. 487 t CHAPTER XVIII. THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT. The HE emperor of Russia assumes the title of samoderjetz, or autocrat, and all power centres in and emanates from him. act of election of 1613, which conferred the crown on the house of Romanoff, recognises the absolute power of the sovereign. His will is unlimited, and his authority uncontrolled, except in the respect he may voluntarily yield. to established customs, to the privi- leges of certain classes, and to the prejudices of the people. A rever- ence for the emperor, amounting almost to idolatrous worship, is instilled into the Russians from their ear- liest childhood. Next to the name of God, the name of the emperor always occurs in the religious vocabu- lary of the people, in whose eyes the two names are next thing to synonymous. In every individual reign, however, the personal character of the sovereign must, in a great measure, determine that of the administration. Hence, under such a monarch as Paul I., the most extravagant decrees, the dictates of a mind bordering on insanity, had all the force of law, and exposed every subject, who ventured to disregard them, to the penalties of rebellion; while, on the contrary, under the late Alexander, the whole administration assumed almost a con- stitutional form, and the emperor himself publicly disclaimed despotism, by declaring that he was bound to rule according to law, and that, in the event of his issuing any decree not in accordance with it, the senate was entitled to remonstrate. To Peter the Great is due the credit of the formation of the government; though, subsequently to him, some changes and modifications have been introduced. Previously to the time of the reforms of Peter, the govern- mental machinery was not so complicated. In introducing the changes, Peter, in some instances, maintained, however, the old institutions, giving them a new (mostly Germanic) name. The emperor is the central point 488 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. of administration: everything emanates from him in the first instance, and everything is referred to him in the last, and his decisions are law. The public business is transacted under the emperor by different boards, councils, or colleges, which have each separate but sometimes not easily- distinguished functions. The principal body is the imperial council, for the most part presided over by the emperor in person, or a delegate of his sole appointment. It has no limit as to its numbers, but is divided into four departments-legislative, military, civil and ecclesiastical, and finan- cial. All matters coming under deliberation are decided by a majority of votes, either by the departments separately, or by the whole acting as one body. To each department a secretary of state is attached. The impe- rial council was established on its present footing in 1810, and was proba- bly modelled by Alexander after that of Napoleon. The body next in importance to the council is the senate, which is also presided over by the emperor in person. It is the supreme judicial tribu- nal, and issues decrees which have the force of law, unless the emperor interpose to prevent their execution. It is divided into eight departments, each of which is an appeal-court of last resort for certain provinces and governments. The decision of each department must be supported by a majority of two thirds of the members present; and, when this majority can not be obtained, a general meeting of all the departments is called to decide. The procedure is not public, and the whole pleadings are in wri- ting, each case being decided on a statement drawn up by the secretary, and certified by the party as correct. In a few cases, however, parties dissatisfied with its decisions may petition the emperor. The senators are mostly persons of high rank, or who fill high stations; but a lawyer of emi- nence presides over each department, who represents the emperor, and without whose signature its decisions would have no force. In the plenum, or general meeting of the sections, the minister of justice takes the chair, as high procurator for his majesty. Besides its superintendence over the court of law, the senate examines into the state of the public revenue and expenditure, and has power to inquire into public abuses, to appoint to a great variety of offices, and to make remonstrances to the emperor. Monthly reports of its proceedings are published in the gazette. The third college consists of the holy synod, composed of the principal dignitaries of the church, and to it is committed the superintendence of the religious affairs of the empire. The fourth college consists of the committee of ministers, of whom there are eleven, viz., the ministers of the imperial household, of war, finance, justice, interior, public instruction, imperial domains, postoffice, roads and public buildings, and the vice-chancellor and comptroller-general. The ministers frequently have colleagues, who supply their place when they are either sick or absent. They communicate directly with the emperor, or with his chancellerie particuliere, in whose hands all the executive authority is centred. THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT- THE JUDICIARY. 489 The local administration differs in different provinces; the imperial gov- ernment having always allowed conquered or annexed countries to pre- serve their own laws and institutions, except in so far as they were hostile to the general constitution of the empire. Finland, for example, has a special form of government; and the provinces wrested from Sweden by Peter the Great, together with Courland, and those formerly belonging to Poland, have peculiar institutions and privileges, which, however, have latterly been much modified. But, despite these exceptions, the form of the provincial government is, notwithstanding, sufficiently uniform. The empire is divided into general governments, or vice-royalties, gov- ernments, and districts. There are also, as already stated, extensive ter- ritories, which, from the thinness of their population, or otherwise, are not organized into regular governments, that are called oblasts, or provinces. The viceroys, or general-governors, are the representatives of the emperor; and, as such, command the forces, and have the supreme control and direc tion of all affairs, whether civil or military. All the functionaries within their jurisdiction are subordinate to, and make their reports to them. They sanction or suspend the judgments of the courts, &c. A civil gov- ernor, representing the general-governor, assisted by a council or regency, to which all measures must be submitted, is established in each government or province. In case of dissent, the opinion of the governor is provision- ally adopted till the pleasure of the emperor with respect to the matter be ascertained. A vice-governor is appointed to fill the place of the civil gov- ernor when the latter is absent or ill. There are also, in every govern- ment, a council of finance under the presidency of the vice-governor, who manage the crown estates, and superintend the collection of the revenue; a college of general provision, which has the direction and inspection of all charitable foundations, prisons, workhouses, schools for the instruction of the poor, &c.; and a college of medicine, which attends to all matters. connected with the public health, appoints district physicians, inspects pharmacopeias, &c. The districts have each their local functionaries. The towns have a municipal body, elected once every three years by the different classes into which the population is divided; and each town has, also, according to its importance, a commandant or bailiff, appointed by the crown, who has charge of the police, of the public buildings and maga- zines, and who executes sentences, pursues criminals, &c. The Russian judicial system is complicated, and not easily understood, except by natives. There are civil and criminal courts in every circle; and a supreme court of justice, divided into civil and criminal sections, is established in every government. Cases decided in the inferior courts may be appealed to it. Its sentence is final in all criminal cases, and in all civil matters relating to sums under five hundred roubles. Those involving property to a greater amount may be carried before the senate. It is a curious fact that, notwithstanding the despotical nature of the government, all the provincial tribunals consist partly of elective function- 490 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. aries. Thus, the superior court for a circle consists of a judge and secre- tary, and of two assessors chosen annually by the nobles, and two by the peasants; and the superior court of justice for a government, which is divided into a civil and criminal chamber, consists of a president, secretary, and four assessors for each chamber, two of the assessors being chosen by the nobility, and two by the burghers. It is, in fact, a principle in Russia that a portion of the judges in every court should belong to the same class as the party whose interests are under discussion, and be elected for that purpose by his compeers. In the case of the nobles and burghers, this is a most valuable privilege; but in the case of the peasantry, who stand most in need of protection, this privilege is quite illusory-their serfdom and ignorance making them utterly incapable of profiting by it. Previously to the reign of the empress Catherine II., the judges, particu- larly in the inferior courts, were wretchedly paid. That princess increased their salaries; but they are still far too low. And seeing that the judges are removeable at pleasure, and owe their situation to favor rather than to merit, we need not wonder that the greatest abuses continue to exist in the administration of justice. The proceedings are dilatory in the extreme. The prohibition against taking fees from suitors is rarely complied with; and in most tribunals it is affirmed that, if justice can not be altogether defeated, it may at least be indefinitely postponed, by dint of money. These abuses have, however, been in part, at least, obviated by the pub- lication, between 1826 and 1833, by the legislative commission, of an ex- tensive digest (Swod Zakonow, "Body of Law") of all the laws then in force relative to the rights of citizens and the administration of public justice. This publication has greatly simplified the law; and it is of vast importance from its being, as it were, a charter of rights which may be appealed to on all future occasions, and which it will be very difficult for any succeeding sovereign to abridge. But it would, notwithstanding, be idle to expect any very material improvement in the ordinary administra- tion of justice, until the judges be better trained, selected, and paid; and till the influence of public opinion, and of a comparatively free press, nei- ther of which has at present any existence in Russia, be brought to bear on the administration of justice, and of public affairs generally. The lat- ter, in fact, is the only security against abuse on which any reliance can safely be placed. Wherever judges are exempted from the control of public opinion, and the animadversion of the press, they are most com- monly the obsequious instruments of government, and seldom scruple to commit injustice when they believe it will be acceptable to their superiors. The system of police in Russia is efficient, and yet in many respects comparatively worthless from the lack of honesty in its members. They are quick in discovering thefts, in ferreting out the offenders, and prompt in the application of punishment; but so great is their faculty of retention, that a person who has been robbed never considers his chance of recover- ing his property so small as when the police have detected the thief! From THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT - THE POLICE. • 491 the thief's hands he deems it possible he may get back his own, but from the clutches of the authorities-never. So strong and universal is this feeling, that robberies would seldom be reported, did not the laws, in the interest of public security, render such report compulsory. Many instances are given by travellers in illustration of this feature in the operation of the Russian police system, one or two of which we will narrate: A Courland nobleman, Mr. Von H, lost some silver spoons, knives and forks, stolen out of his plate-chest. Some weeks afterward one of his servants came rejoicing to him: he had found the stolen goods; they were openly exposed for sale in a silversmith's shop-window. Mr. H- went to the window, recognised his property, took a police-officer with him, and made the silversmith show them the plate. His arms and initials were upon it; the dealer admitted he had bought it of a stranger, and offered to restore it to its rightful owner. Mr. H- Mr. H would have taken away his property, but the lieutenant of police forbade that, drew up a formal state- ment of the affair, and requested Mr. H, as a proof that the plate was his, to send to the police some other article out of the chest to which he affirmed it to belong. Mr. H-sent the whole case, with its contents, to the police-burean. He never saw either of them again! Mr. Von H-mentioned the circumstance to a physician, a friend of his, whom he thought very much to astonish. Astonished he certainly was —not, however, at the rascality of the police, but at the simplicity of Mr. H-, who ought to have known them far too well to have trusted them with his plate-chest. The St. Petersburg thieves are exceedingly skilful and daring. The doctor, above referred to, also had his tale to tell. He wanted a coach- man; one applied for the place just as his drosky happened to be at the door, and, by the doctor's desire, he drove up and down the street, to give a specimen of his skill, which was satisfactory. The doctor called to him to come up stairs, and sat down to dinner. The man did not appear: inquiry was made; he had driven away the horse and carriage, and was. nowhere to be found. The doctor made his report to the police, as in duty bound, but at the same time made a formal declaration that he renounced all claim to the stolen property, and declined taking it back again. The precaution was most judicious. He could not do without a vehicle, so bought another the same day; and when the police, six weeks afterward, brought him back horse and drosky, they were in so wretched a state, and the charges so enormous, that he was heartily glad to have it in his power to decline receiving his property, or paying the costs. The boldness of the St. Petersburg thieves is at least as striking as the rascality of those employed to detect them. Kakuschkin, a former chief of police, was not very popular in the Russian capital; but by the thieves he was especially detested, for his severity almost equalled their audacity. So there was a double temptation to despoil him-the gain to the spoilers, and the vexation of the spoiled. He possessed, among other things, a 492 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. magnificent porphyry vase, which stood upon a no less costly pedestal. How the thieves managed to steal the vase is still a riddle; but stolen it was. For six months the police hunted after it: not a trace but was fol- lowed up and explored; not a thieves' hiding-place but was examined; but all was in vain. At last hope was abandoned, and the authorities relaxed their vigilance. One day, however, a policeman went to Kakuschkin's wife, and took her the joyful intelligence that the thief was discovered, the vase already at the police-office, and that her husband had sent him for the pedestal, in order to identify the stolen object. Madame Kakusch- kin was overjoyed: and when her husband came home to dinner, she ran to meet him, in high glee. "Well," she cried, "and the vase ?"-"What vase?”—“The stolen vase, which has been found: the vase whose pedes- tal you sent for ?"-"Whose pedestal I sent for! Whom did I send ?" "A policeman."—"Say, rather, a policeman's uniform. I sent no police- man, nor have I heard aught of the vase, or of its pedestal." The following instance of the dexterity of a St. Petersburg pickpocket is related by Kohl: "The French embasssador was one day vaunting the dexterity of the Parisian thieves to one of the grand-dukes, and related many anecdotes of their address. The grand-duke was of opinion that the St. Petersburg thieves were quite their equals; and offered to lay a wager that, if the embassador would dine with him the next day, he would cause his excellency's watch, signet-ring, or any other articles of his dress which he thought most secure, to be stolen from him before the dessert was over. The embassador accepted the wager, and the grand-duke sent immediately to the chief of the police, desiring him to send the adroitest thief he might happen to have in custody at the time. The man was dressed in livery, instructed what to do, and promised a pardon if he accomplished his task well. The embassador had named his watch as the particular object of attention, both for himself and the thief; and when he had got the watch, the supposed servant was to give the grand-duke a sign. "The dinner began: the preliminary whet, the soups and the rôti, came and disappeared in their turns; the red, white, Greek, Spanish, and French wines, sparkled successively in the glasses of the guests. The embassador kept close guard on his watch, and the grand-duke, observing his earnest anxiety, smiled with good-humored archness. The pretended lackey was busily assisting in the removal of the dishes, the dinner was nearly over, and the prince awaited with impatience the expected signal. Suddenly his countenance brightened: he turned to the embassador, who was in deep conversation with his neighbor, and asked him what was the hour. His excellency triumphantly put his hand to his pocket—he had had it on his watch a few moments before-and to the amusement of all, but particu- larly of the grand-duke, drew out a very neatly-cut turnip! A general laugh followed. The embassador, somewhat embarrassed, would take a pinch of snuff, and felt in all his pockets for his gold snuff-box-it was *gone! The laughter became louder: the embassador in his embarrassment THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT — PUNISHMENTS. 493 and vexation had recourse to his seal-ring, to turn it as he was accustomed -it was gone! In short, he found that he had been regularly plundered of everything but what had been fastened on him by the tailor and the shoemaker of ring, watch, snuff-box, handkerchief, toothpick, and gloves. The adroit rogue was brought before him, and commanded by the grand- duke to give back the stolen property; when, to the great surprise of the prince, the pickpocket took out two watches, and presented one to the embassador, and the other to his imperial highness; two rings, one for the embassador, and the other for the grand-duke; two snuff-boxes, &c. In astonishment, his highness now felt in his pockets as the embassador had done, and found that he too had been stripped of his moveables in a like manner. The grand-duke solemnly assured the embassador that he had been quite unconscious of the theft, and was disposed at first. to be angry with the too-dexterous artist. However, upon second thoughts, the fellow, who had enabled him to win his wager so triumphantly, was dis- missed with a present, and a warning to employ his talents in future to more useful purposes." Property generally, however, throughout the empire, is as well protected as it is in any other country. The houses being commonly built of wood, fires in great towns are often very destructive, and the most effectual pre- cautions are taken to prevent their occurrence. All strangers arriving in Russia must produce their passports at the police-office, and notify their arrival in the public papers. The officers of police are empowered to dis- charge various functions besides those which come more peculiarly within their province, such as the decision of differences between masters and servants, &c. Capital punishments are rare in Russia, high-treason being the only crime visited with death. In its place are the rod and the knout. Sentences to punishment by the former often condemn to such a vast number of blows, that the hide of an elephant could scarcely withstand them: human nature must sink and expire under them. What man can endure four thousand blows of a stick? They would inevitably kill him, which is no part of the condemnation; and, as a proof that this is not desired, the sentence con- cludes by ordaining that, after the criminal has received his punishment, he shall be sent for life to Siberia. The officer in command of the troops ordered for the execution of the sentence is responsible for its being literally and completely carried out. This responsibility he lays, in his turn, upon the shoulders of the regimental surgeon. The delinquent-civilian or soldier, it matters not which— marches down the fatal street of men, with a soldier in front and in rear, whose levelled bayonets prevent his hanging back or unduly hurrying on. Upon his left walks the surgeon, holding the unhappy wretch's hand in his, and anxiously watching the state of the pulse. When its diminished beat gives token of danger, the punishment, on a signal from the medical man, is immediately suspended, the exhausted sufferer is placed on a cart, and 494 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. taken to the hospital. The horrible but yet humaner practice of the Aus- trians-to inflict the entire number of blows prescribed by the sentence, even though the latter portion of them fall upon a corpse-is in Russia strictly prohibited. The patient is taken care of in the hospital until re- covery, and then again beaten. If this process be often repeated, he usu- ally dies in consequence of his wounds; but in that case, "justice" has not actually killed him! Should he ultimately recover, he is sent to Siberia. It seems incredible, but is nevertheless true, that many criminals have thus taken, by instalments, four or five thousand blows, and lived to drag out many years of melancholy existence in Siberian deserts. The second and still severer punishment is that of the knout; but before this punishment can be inflicted, it must be proved that such a crime has been committed as would entail, in every civilized country, the penalty of death. For the knout is the substitute for capital punishment. It can not be inflicted without the emperor's own signature. As for the rest, though the sentence proceeds from the judge, its effect depends entirely upon the executioner who wields the knout. The criminal, surrounded by a guard of Cossacks, is conducted, half naked, to the place chosen for this kind of execution; all that he has on is simply a pair of linen drawers round his extremities; his hands are bound together by cords, with the palms laid flat against one another. He is stretched prostrate upon his belly, on a frame inclined diagonally, and at the extremities of which are fixed iron rings; his hands are fastened to one end of the frame, and his feet to the other; he is then extended in such a manner that he can not make a single movement. At a distance of five-and-twenty paces stands another man: it is the public executioner. He is dressed in black-velvet trousers, stuffed into his boots, and a colored cotton shirt, buttoning at the side. His sleeves are tucked up, so that nothing may thwart or embarrass him in his move- ments. With both hands he grasps the instrument of punishment-the terrible knout! This knout consists of a thong of thick leather, cut in a triangular form, from four to five yards long, and an inch wide, tapering off at one end, and broad at the other: the small end is fastened to a little wooden handle, about two feet long. The signal is given: no one ever takes the trouble to read the sentence. The executioner advances a few steps, with his body bent, holding the knout in both hands, while the long thong drags along the ground between his legs. On coming to about three or four paces from the prisoner, he raises, by a vigorous movement, the knout toward the top of his head, and then instantly draws it down toward his knees. The thong flies whistling through the air, and, descending on the body of the victim, twines round it like a hoop of iron. In spite of his state of tension, the poor wretch bounds as if he were submitted to the powerful shock of galvanism. The executioner retraces his steps, and repeats the same operation as many times as there are blows to be inflicted. When the thong envelops the THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT 495 THE KNOUT. body with its edges, the flesh and muscles are literally cut into stripes as if with a razor; but when it falls flat, then the bones crack: the flesh, in that case, is not cut, but crushed and ground, and the blood spurts out in all directions! The sufferer becomes green and blue, like a body in a state of decomposition. Դա PUNISHMENT OF THE KNOUT. ROBERTS The knout is fatal, if the judgment of the emperor, or the executioner, wills it to be so. Does the latter mean to be humane to his victim?-he kills him with the first lash; for so great is the instrument's weight, that it enables him to break the spine at a single blow! This is not, however, usually done, and the unfortunate culprit receives the whole number pre- 496 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. scribed, which rarely exceeds half a dozen. Here no surgeon attends, as on occasions of running the gauntlet, to regulate the punishment. If the criminal dies under the knout, no one is answerable-the motive for such exemption from responsibility doubtless being that the very first blow may be fatal. If he survives, he is sent to the hospital, and, when cured, to Siberia, where he disappears for ever in the bowels of the earth. When a Russian subject is condemned to Siberia, his beard is shaved off, and his hair is cut short in the shape of a brush, like that of the sol- diers, and quite close behind. He is dressed in a pair of linen trousers, a great-coat of very coarse cloth, a round cap, and enormous leather boots. In company with other exiles, he is then despatched, under an escort, to his destination beyond the Urals. Before starting, the convicts are in- spected by a surgeon, and those who are unable to walk are placed in car- riages; of the others, every two men carry a chain of about five pounds' weight, attached to the leg. They walk but fifteen miles a day; but they have to pursue their journey in all weathers, no matter how inclement, or how intense the cold may be. While en route, they generally experience much kindness from the Russian peasantry, who send them presents of their best food at every resting-place; and in large towns the excess of such contributions over what they consume is so great, that it is sold to buy them additional clothing. Wives are allowed, or rather expected, to accompany their husbands; but where any decline going, the marriage is dissolved-a consequence, no doubt, calling for serious deliberation. Leitch Ritchie, who witnessed the departure from Moscow of a party of exiles destined for Siberia, describes the scene as follows:- "The departure of the exiles for Siberia is a scene which should not be missed by the traveller: but, in order to let him enjoy it at his ease, one thing is necessary to be understood. The mere fact of transportation is not looked upon as a severe punishment; for the great body of the crimi- nals consists of persons who have been accustomed all their lives to a com- pulsory servitude as severe as that which awaits them beyond the Ural mountains. Condemnation to the mines in Siberia is what they dread- and with great justice; for this is a substitution for capital punishment, and answers the same purpose, only extending the time occupied by the act of dying from a few minutes to a few years. "In a temporary depôt, erected on the summit of the Sparrow hills, I found the destined wretches about to commence their march. A long chain secured both legs at the ankles, and, to prevent it from incommoding them in walking, was fastened to their belt, or sash. A great many were Jews, most of them mujiks; and all, with the exception of one man, were free from those physiognomical marks of atrocity which are commonly supposed to distinguish the guilty. Some carts were near, filled with their wives and children, and some of their male relations stood beside them unman- acled, who had likewise petitioned to be permitted to share their exile. In the middle stood a man who had a good deal of the air of an English THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT- -SIBERIAN EXILES. 497 EXILES ON THEIR WAY TO SIBERIA, dissenting clergyman; but the shape of his clothes and hat, and the large buckles in his shoes, seemed to belong to the fashion of an earlier day. His appearance inspired me with instinctive respect, and his face seemed absolutely to beam with the purest and noblest philanthropy. He was occupied in distributing moral and religious books to such of the prisoners as could read, and in hearing patiently, and often redressing instantly, their complaints. The exiles, on their part, seemed to look upon him as a friend-a father; but their affection was mingled with the deepest respect. Many prostrated themselves at his feet, as before a holy image, and touched the ground with their forehead. On taking leave, he embraced and kissed them all, one by one; and the rattle of their chains, as they began the march, was mingled with sobs and blessings. . . . . Dr. Haas, for this was the philanthropist's name, was in a kind of official situation, acting as the secretary of a charitable body; and he passed his life among the sick and the captives, in the double capacity of physician to the soul and body." The journey lasts seven months. In the Asiatic portion of it, the com- fort of the exiles is far less cared for; while, wearied out with their pro- tracted travel, their powers of endurance are proportionately lessened, and there is often great mortality: between 1823 and 1832 it amounted to about one fifth, and the average number of exiles was ten thousand a year. 32 498 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. On their arrival, the worst subjects are sent to the mines; and, in former times, they hardly ever again saw daylight, but by the regulations of the emperor Nicholas they are not kept underground more than eight hours a day, and on Sunday all have undisturbed freedom. Others of this class are confined to northeastern Siberia, the climate of which is especially severe. Those of a less heinous stamp are employed on public works for some time, and then allowed to become colonists. The least serious offend- ers are at once settled as colonists in southern Siberia, and thenceforth may be considered as quite free, except that they can not quit their loca- tion. In such a soil and climate, it is asserted by Haxthausen that, with industry, they may within two or three years find themselves established in good houses of their own, amid fields supplying every want of a rising family. It is also affirmed that the young people reared in these abodes turn out, on the whole, of most respectable character, and are associated with accordingly on the kindest terms by neighbors of other classes- especially by the peasants of native Siberian race, who, by-the-way, are all entirely free, and many of them very rich. As above remarked, with the exception of what the nature of their crimes may impose, no restraint is laid upon their freedom, or precautions taken to prevent their leaving. They possess no passports, and it is ex- tremely difficult to travel twelve hours anywhere in the Russian dominions without them. But in spite of the lack of the necessary papers, many exiles, after a longer or shorter stay in Siberia, manage to slip away to more congenial climes. The whole number of exiles in Siberia amount to about one hundred thousand, of whom about one fourth are females; most of the latter are, however, as already shown, voluntary exiles, who have accompanied their husbands or other near relatives thither. The military power of the Russian empire rests on an organized army and navy.* The first regularly-organized corps of infantry in the Russian service was the Strelitzes, who seem to have had their origin about the middle of the sixteenth century; and continued, till their suppression by Peter the Great, to constitute the principal strength of the army. They enjoyed various privileges; were always about the person of the emperor; and by their licentiousness and insubordination, as well as bravery, bore a close resemblance to the prætorian bands of ancient Rome, and the Jani- zaries of the Ottoman Porte. The abolition of this formidable corps, and the reconstruction of the army on a plan similar to that followed in the more civilized countries of Europe, was undoubtedly one of the greatest * The military power of Russia has been very much under-estimated by some writers, and as much exaggerated by others. Many of the details in our sketch of it we have gathered from an article, one of a series, from the pen of Count A. De Gurowski, first published in the "New York Tribune." He gives the most intelligible, and, after a close comparison with others, we are satis- fied, the most reliable account, of this arm of the Russian government. We are indebted to the same source, we may perhaps here properly acknowledge, for facts with which we have enriched one or two other chapters in this volume. THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT 499 THE ARMY. services rendered by Peter the Great. At his death, in 1725, the regular army amounted to about one hundred and ten thousand, exclusive of the imperial guard; and the success which attended his prolonged contest with the Swedes showed that this army became in time a match for the best troops that could then be opposed to it. Under Catherine II., the army was greatly augmented and improved. This able and ambitious princess increased the pay of the troops and offi- cers, and gave them a new, more commodious, and elegant uniform, than that formerly in use. She formed the Cossacks into a light cavalry, which, after being successfully opposed to the Spahis of the Turks, has since dis- tinguished itself in the great contests of more recent times. During the latter part of the reign of Catherine, the regular army amounted to about two hundred and fifty thousand men; and little was wanting to place it on a level with that of the surrounding powers, save the better organiza- tion of the commissariat department, and the choice of better-educated and more skilful native officers. It is, however, to Alexander and Nicholas that the Russian army is in- debted for the more efficient organization, discipline, and power, by which it is now distinguished. The momentous struggles in which the former was engaged called forth all the military resources of the empire; many abuses were rectified, and improvements introduced; and the armies of Alexander were at length enabled to contend successfully with those of the greatest captain of the age. Under the emperor Nicholas, the discipline and or- ganization of the army have been still further improved; and it is, at pres- ent, in a comparatively high state of efficiency. The Russian army was newly organized, by an imperial ukase of the 9th of August, 1835. Down to that period, two large armies were maintained; but those were then consolidated, and the staff of one of them reduced. The army is now divided into corps, divisions, brigades, regiments, battal- ions, and companies; the cavalry into squadrons, &c. A corps on full active footing is composed of three divisions of infantry and one of cavalry, with sometimes a division of reserve; the artillery of a corps consists of from one hundred and ten to one hundred and fifteen guns. A division is composed of two brigades, and a brigade of two regiments. A regiment in full ought to have four battalions, a battalion four companies, and a com- pany should have between one hundred and seventy and two hundred men. All these numbers are seldom complete, except in the imperial guard and a few of the other corps. According to the official reports for 1852, the armed force was in the following state: The corps of imperial guards, commanded by the grand- duke Alexander, the heir to the empire, is established in St. Petersburg, and for a distance of one hundred miles around that city. It consists of three divisions of infantry and one of reserve, of four divisions of cavalry, a large force of artillery, with from one hundred and twenty to one hun- dred and forty cannon, and a special body of field-engineers, sappers, and 500 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. a pontoon corps. Next comes the corps of the grenadiers. Its headquar- ters are in the ancient city of Novgorod. Its regiments are established principally in the military colonies. This corps has three divisions in full of infantry, and one of cavalry; the park of artillery amounts to between one hundred and fifteen and one hundred and twenty pieces. After these two separate corps come what is called the active army. It is composed of six corps (or nearly twenty divisions) of infantry, six divis- ions of regular cavalry, with an irregular one of Cossacks, &c., adjoined in time of war, and at least seven hundred pieces of artillery. This army is at present (1854) commanded by Prince Paschkiewitch, the governor- general of Poland, and commander-in-chief of the Russian forces employed in the Turkish war. Its headquarters are at Warsaw. It faces the west- ern frontier of Europe exclusively. It is quartered from the Baltic, through Lithuania and Poland, to the Danube, the Black sea, and the frontiers of the military cavalry colonies in southern Russia. A separate corps occu- pies the city of Moscow and several surrounding governments. The army of the Caucasus is composed of four divisions of infantry, one of regular cavalry, numerous irregular Cossacks of various denomina- tions, and a body of mussulmans and militia (chiefly Circassians and Tar- tars) from among the natives. A large proportion of the regular troops forming this corps are said to be Poles, the policy of the government being to withdraw them from their own country. A division of infantry occupies Finland, and another is scattered through Siberia. This active army is backed by a reserve, composed of twenty-five brigades of infantry and two hundred and seventy squadrons of cavalry. The military colonies for the infantry are formed principally in the gov- ernment of Novgorod, and partly in those of Pskov and Vitepsk. They are divided into twenty-four brigades. The colonies for cavalry are in southern Russia, in the governments of Poltava, Ekatherinoslav, Kherson, in the Ukraine, &c. They amount to seventy-five squadrons. To these are to be added the sappers and artillery reserve, with fifty-four parks of heavy calibre destined for the siege of fortresses, the military engineers, and military workmen, with a numerous train. Finally, there is the guard of the interior, formed of armed veterans, quartered in all the districts of Russia, and performing in the cities and boroughs the internal service. It amounts to fifty battalions, which, how- ever, are not full. In addition, there is a corps of gendarmes, containing eight brigades, horse and foot, and spread over the whole empire. It is commanded by Count Orloff, whose function answers to that of chief of the secret police. The gendarmes fulfil the duties of the police of the army during war, and of a political police through the country at all times. The officers of this corps form in all circles and districts the knots of that vast net of espionage extended over Russia and the entire European continent, as well as throughout a great portion of Asia. They are in close connec- tion with all the agents of the secret police. THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT THE ARMY. 501 The irregular cavalry consists principally of Cossacks. There are sev- eral denominations of them (as we have already mentioned, in the chapter on "Southern Russia"), derived mainly from the regions or the banks of the rivers along which they are settled. Their general and commander, or grand hetmân, is nominally the grand-duke (Alexander), the heir to the imperial crown, but each tribe may have its own principal and subordinate chiefs. They are divided as follows: 1. The Cossacks of the Don or Tanais, who are the most numerous. 2. Those on the shores of the Black sea, called Tschernomortsy. 3. Those of the line of the Caucasus, mainly on the banks of the Kouban. 4. Those of the government of Astrakhan. 5. Those of the government of Orenburg and the neighboring districts, commonly called the Cossacks of the Volga. 6. Those of the river Ural (ancient Jaïck). 7. Those of Siberia. 8. The Mesteheracks, who are a mixed race of Tartars. 9. The Cossacks of the sea of Azov. 10. Those of the Danube. The Cossacks muster in all seven hundred and sixty-five squadrons, each containing a few more than one hundred men, of which more than a third can be concentrated. In time of war they are supported by detachments of Bashkirs, Calmucks, Buriats and Tungusi from Siberia, mussulmans from the Trans-Caucasian provinces, Lesghians, &c. These Asiatic irregu- lars, as previously shown, form generally a kind of military posts or chain uniting the advancing army with the mother-country. Such was the case, for example, in 1813-'14, when they were extended from Siberia across the whole of Europe! We may thus sum up the whole bulk of the armed land-forces of the empire as consisting of seventeen corps, with four thousand nine hundred companies of infantry, fourteen hundred and sixty-nine squadrons of cav- alry, and three hundred and thirty batteries of heavy or light artillery — which, if full, would form an aggregate of over a million of men. More than a third of this number, however, must be deducted as not capable of being moved toward the extreme frontiers of the empire, as well as for incomplete numbers in the various battalions, companies, and squadrons. The remainder makes up the Russian warfaring army, which can be moved and directed by the order of a single man according to his sovereign will and pleasure. But natural impossibilities oppose and impede the concen- tration in one spot, and even in one region, of such enormous masses of men and animals. In the struggle with Napoleon, Alexander was unable to oppose more than two hundred thousand troops, and a still less number for the invasion of France in 1814; while in the Turkish war of 1828–’30 the Russian forces amounted to but one hundred and sixty thousand; but such numbers were required to fortify the principal points on the line of passage, that only twenty-one thousand were spared to cross the Balkan, and of these but fifteen thousand actually reached Adrianople. In the war of 1854, however, the imperial troops operating on the entire southern frontier greatly exceeded any former numbers. 592 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Some idea of the appearance of the finest regiments of the regular troops may be drawn from the accompanying engraving, in which figure 1 repre sents a grenadier of the impe- ROBERTEISE REGULAR TROOPS OF RUSSIA. 8 rial guard; 2, a chasseur of the guard; 3, a fifer of the guard; 4, a grenadier of the horse- guard; 5, a cuirassier; and 6, a hussar. In the more select regiments, the men and horses are classified in the most minute manner as to resemblance. In one cavalry regiment the horses are all black, in another they are all bay, &c. The men are arranged according to the color of their hair or beard, or of their eyes, and also the general shape of their features: so that in one regiment all have aqui- line noses, and black eyes and beards; and in another all have pug-noses, blue eyes, and red ocards—which latter class, by-the-way, describes the physiognomy and complexion of the genuine Muscovite. The general appearance of the irregular troops of the empire is shown in the accompanying group, in which figure 1 represents a Lesghian from western Dag- hestan; 2, a Don Cossack; 3, a Circassian, in full dress; 4, a "Tartar-Cossack" of the Crimea; 5, a Cossack of the line of the Caucasus; and 6, a Cossack of the Ural. The reader will bear in mind that the Circassians employed in the Russian service belong to the subdued tribes at the foot of the Caucasian mountains, a large portion of the mount- ain warriors being still hostile to the imperial rule. 1 3 5 KOJER T3. ¿C. IRREGULAR TROOPS OF RUSSIA, The foregoing gives a general idea of the Russian armed force. "It is undoubtedly strong for the defensive," says Count Gurowski, "but it is utterly impossible to throw these masses on Europe. Without mentioning THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT-THE ARMY. 503 the penury of the treasury-as on a war-footing the pay is nearly quad- rupled — to gather them together at any point within the frontier, would have the same effect as destruction by locusts for many hundred miles. The same result would take place if, in case of a war between France and Russia, the army of the czar should enter Germany, even as a friendly country. All would be destruction and desolation with friend as well as with foe. The region thus traversed would be reminded, not of Napoleon, but of the swarms of Attila-more disciplined, it is true, but, for the sake of existence and self-preservation, obliged to destroy and swallow all the resources within their reach. For such an impossible invasion of western Europe, the Russian masses might be divided into two parts, one entering Prussia and the other Austria. But such invasions in the present state of the world are impossibilities. Masses will be raised against masses, the invaded country stripped in advance of all resources to nourish the enemy, and, whatever may be the inborn gallantry of the Russian soldier-Napo- leon himself admired it—no army in the world can be for ever invincible." The drill of these forces is perhaps the best existing in Europe. But possibly they are overdrilled. Those acquainted with the mysteries of the military profession, affirm that in the firing of the Russian infantry as well as of the artillery, the principal object is a quick discharge—so quick, that neither the soldiers-of-the-line nor the artillerymen are able to take good aim; and thus, in a battle, out of the immense number of shots, com- paratively few are destructive. The army is formed by means of conscription, out of the taxed classes of the population, such as merchants, citizen-burghers, artisans, workmen, free-peasants, and serfs-every individual belonging to them being liable to compulsory service, provided he be of the proper age and stature. The levies are ordinarily in the proportion of one or two to every five hundred males; but during war the proportion is at least as two or three to every five hundred, and sometimes as much as four, and even five, to five hun- dred. This last proportion, however, may be taken as the maximum levy, and is rarely exceeded. The number of recruits to be furnished by the empire in general, and by each district in particular, is fixed according to the results of the preceding census. The nobles nominate such of their serfs as they please to complete their quotas, the only conditions being that they should have a good constitution, and be of the requisite size, and not less than eighteen nor more than thirty-five years of age; and, as idle, ill- disposed individuals are sure to be nominated in preference for recruits, those who are averse to the service endeavor to distinguish themselves by industry and good conduct. The recruits are first sent to the recruiting-establishments, and thence forwarded to the corps to which they are assigned. Nobles, magistrates, clergymen, and students, are exempted from the service. Merchants and traders enrolled in the different guilds are also exempted. The levies furnished by the Cossacks are regulated by particular treaties; and many 504 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. half-savage tribes are excused, partly on account of their diminutive size, and partly because of their great aversion to a military life. Generally, it is found that a levy of two on every five hundred males produces a sup- ply of about ninety or a hundred thousand men. Substitutes are allowed, and may be effected by mutual consent, provided the noble do not oppose it. The period of service is twenty years in the imperial guard, and twenty- two in the other corps. Every individual, with his family, if he have one, becomes free the moment he is enrolled in the army. In case of desertion, he is again enslaved; but desertion is exceedingly rare in Russia. The imperial guard is recruited from the grenadiers; the latter from the in- fantry of the line and the light chasseurs. A commoner can rise only to the grade of sergeant. A very extraordi- nary distinction in time of war may push him over the barrier, and make him an officer, with a possibility of further preferment. In time of peace, twelve years of service, combined with some natural capacity, can raise the son of a burgher to the grade of an officer. The grades of lieutenants and captains confer personal nobility, and with that of major it becomes. hereditary. From the nobility exclusively are derived the body of officers. in the army, while this class alone have access to the civil service. The choice between the two is free for any nobleman, but the military service has the precedency. A nobleman never begins his career as a common soldier. Numerous and various military establishments for every kind of military education, to which the nobles are almost exclusively admitted, prepare the youth from childhood practically as well as theoretically. The education consists of all the sciences connected with the military art, and with its highest branches, including the French language, Russian litera- ture, history, national and universal, geography, &c. A cadet, having gone through all the classes, enters the army with the grade of second lieutenant. Those who have been educated in civil establishments, gym- nasia and universities, entering as volunteers, are admitted as ensigns and cadets. They wear the uniform of the common soldiers, but with lace; are exempted, as all nobles are, from corporeal punishment; and, as soon as they master the rudiments of the service, become officers. For the children of soldiers, and, above all, for their orphans, establish- ments are provided where they are received from their earliest childhood, and trained for the military service. There they are taught to read and write the vernacular language, with Russian history, the general outlines of geography, and also arithmetic and drawing. Then they enter the ser- vice for life, or nearly so. They are placed in the topographical and engi- neer's corps, and at the telegraphic stations, which, in Russia, are exclu- sively for military use, and under the immediate direction of the emperor. The Russian army is supported at very little expense in time of peace. Exclusive of their pay, the higher class of officers receive considerable allowances, as mess-money, &c.; and they generally contrive to eke out their emoluments in various indirect ways. The pay of the subalterns is THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT- 505 THE ARMY. the most inadequute; and it is hardly possible for any one to serve as a subaltern in the cavalry, especially in the cavalry of the imperial guard, unless he have private resources. Officers are allowed, according to their rank, one or more servants (deutschisk), maintained by government, but equipped at the expense of their masters. They are taken from among the recruits, the least suitable for active service. The pay of a common Russian soldier does not exceed five dollars a year!--and various deductions are made even from this miserable pit- tance. He receives a new uniform each year; and is allowed, in addition, three barrels of flour, twenty-four pounds of salt, and a certain quantity of rye, barley, or oatmeal. On fête-days the soldiers of the guard receive a certain allowance of butchers' meat, but this is very rarely tasted by their fellows of the line. At home, the soldier is paid in paper; but when he crosses the frontier, he is paid in silver roubles: and as one of the latter is equivalent to four of the former, his pay when abroad is, of course, aug- mented in the same proportion. This may, perhaps, have been partly intended as a stimulus to the soldier to undertake offensive operations; but, besides having this effect, it was absolutely necessary, to enable him to subsist among foreigners without robbing. The cavalry-horses are very good; and, fodder being very cheap, they are well kept. Soldiers leaving the army on the expiration of their compulsory service, are entitled to a small pension; and those who have been maimed or wounded are received and supported in some of the hospitals established with that view in different parts of the country. Soldiers who continue in the army after their term of compulsory service has expired, acquire sev- eral advantages. They receive, exclusive of the retiring pension to which they are entitled, double pay; and after five years voluntary service, they are entitled to a retiring pension equal to three times their original full pay. The inadequate pay of the officers and men is the grand evil in relation to the Russian army. It compels all classes to resort to underhand meth- ods of making money; and hence the jobbing and corruption of the first, and the thieving habits of the latter. Government is plundered in every possible way; and while the army loses in strength and efficiency, it may be questioned whether it would not be more advantageous, even in a pecu- niary point of view, for government to increase the pay of the officers and troops, so as to raise them above the necessity of indulging in practices injurious to the service, of the existence of which it is well aware, but at which, as matters now stand, it is obliged to wink. Capital punishments are at all times rare in the Russian army, and are never inflicted except during war. In time of peace, culprits are uniformly condemned to transportation to Siberia, and to forced labor in the mines. Corporeal punishments may be ordered by the commanding officers of regi- ments. Soldiers who continue in the army after their full period of com- pulsory service is expired, can not be corporeally punished except by the command of a council of war. 506 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Generally, the Russian soldiers are, in respect of bodily vigor, inferior perhaps to those of England. They have little enthusiasm; and, in respect of activity and intelligence, are very far below those of England, France, and Prussia. On the other hand, however, they possess, in the greatest perfection, the two first qualities of a soldier-the most unflinching cour- age, and the most implicit obedience. Subjected from birth to a master whose will is their law, the habit of prompt and implicit obedience becomes, as it were, a part of themselves. Regardless of dangers or difficulties, they will attempt whatever they are ordered; and will accomplish all that the most undaunted resolution and perseverance can effect. They also endure, without a murmur, the greatest hardships and privations, and sup- port themselves in situations where others would starve. The military colonies of Russia are a sort of agricultural soldiers estab- lished by a ukase issued in 1818, agreeably to the suggestion of General Count Araktchief, the favorite of the emperor Paul and the companion of Alexander. The object was to create a military force at the least possible expense, by engrafting military service upon the labors of the peasants, modelled after the military colonies established by Austria between the Austro-Slavic and Turko-Slavic frontiers. For this purpose, certain dis- tricts belonging to the crown were selected in the environs of Lake Ilmen, in the government of Novgorod, and in some of the southern governments, the territory of which was distributed among the peasantry, at the rate of about fifteen deciatines, or forty-five acres of arable land to each head of a family, villages on an improved and uniform plan being at the same time erected for their accommodation. The stock and implements necessary for the cultivation of this land are furnished to the colonist by the crown, and he is charged with its cultivation, with contributing to the common magazine of the village, keeping up the roads, &c. ; the surplus produce, after these outgoings and the provision for his family are deducted, being at his disposal. A soldier is assigned to each colonist, to be maintained by the latter; but the soldier is, in return, obliged, when not absent or engaged in duty, to assist the colonist in the labors of his farm. The colo- nists, as well as the soldiery, are deprived of their beards, and wear uni- form, everything in the colony being subjected to military regulation. There is no restraint on the marriage of the soldiers; and their male chil- dren, and those of the colonists, are all bred up to be soldiers. The girls are educated in separate schools; and, though there be no regulation to that effect, are generally married to the young men belonging to the colo- nies. Exclusive of the principal soldiers already alluded to, there is in every cottage a substitute or supplementary soldier, generally a son of the colonist, who is bound to take the place of the principal soldier in the event of his death or sickness, so that the regiments distributed among the colonies can never want their full complement of men. The insurrection of 1831, among the colonists of Novgorod and Pskov, together with the causes which led to it, is thus related by the count de THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT THE NAVY. 507 Gurowski: "The military system was introduced with an iron hand, and an implacable rigidity akin to cruelty. Unmerciful corporeal punishments were daily occurrences. In the villages thus transformed the military offi- cers forming the staff ruled most despotically. Every sort of labor, as well as every movement of the newly-enslaved people, was directed by an order from the military commandant. Thus, an order issued from the headquarters of a district, would appoint for the whole colony-for exam- ple, a day for ploughing, another for sowing, another for harvest, and all agricultural labor was similarly arranged. The whole rural population was bound under penalties to move on the same day-nay, at the same hour. A peasant could not go to market nor sell an egg without a permis- sion from the officers. At the same time, neither his wife nor his daughter was safe from their lust. Assassination and punishments for it happened very often, but the system took root. However, during the Polish cam- paign, in the spring of 1831, when the colonies became liberated from the pressure of the grenadiers quartered among them, a terrible insurrection broke out. The greater part of the officers were killed. In several cases they were sunk in the earth to the waist, and then mowed with the scythe! Despair and vengeance animated the wronged, the oppressed.. These co- lonial and other insurrections give a foretaste of the character of a future vengeful uprising of the Russian serfs and peasants. "Finally, the rebellion was quenched in blood by Count Orloff. Numbers were decimated on the spot, and hundreds of families transported to Sibe- ria. Less cruel discipline, however, was thenceforth introduced, and it would seem that the next generation had become accustomed to the heavy yoke. Things now appear to go on there rather smoothly; but the curse of the peasants is poured out with every breath. The tradition of better times of old, and of ancient liberty, glimmers still at the domestic hearth. The time will probably come, and is perhaps not far distant, when these colonies, organized to shelter and enforce despotism, will become a deadly weapon in the hand of the avenger." The Russian navy is composed of three fleets or squadrons. Each squad- ron has a three-decker of from a hundred to a hundred and twenty guns, and eight smaller two-deckers, of from seventy to ninety guns, with six frigates and a very few steamers and other smaller vessels, sloops, schoon- ers, &c. Three squadrons form the fleet of the Baltic, and two that of the Black sea. Aside from these, there is a small flotilla in the Caspian sea, and a steamer and a few other vessels in the sea of Aral, in independent Tartary, where Russia is extending her influence. In the Baltic, as well as in the Euxine and the sea of Azov, there are numerous gunboats. All the vessels are well manned, but the quality of the men does not correspond with their numbers. Russia, having only a very slender commercial marine, has no great number of sailors, or of mas- ters and mates. The latter are nearly all foreigners on the small number of Russian commercial vessels, notwithstanding the existence of a law 508 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. according to which the master of a Russian vessel ought to be a native Russian. But this law is evaded, as there is no possibility whatever of finding such men. The sailors for the navy are selected principally from among the people living along the shores of the Baltic, the Euxine, and the sea of Azov, and from among the boatmen on the Don and the Volga. Greeks and Armenians may be found among the number. All these put together do not furnish, however, a third part of the required number, and the remainder of the crews is composed of men who, previous to enlisting, had never been on water, except perhaps in a ferry-boat. A great many Jewish conscripts are thus employed. The mass of the crews are in a season transformed into sailors by mere drill and force of discipline. The greater number can not even swim. The vessels of the fleets in the Baltic can scarcely be kept four months on the high seas, and those in the Euxine but four or six weeks longer. This is consequently the whole time which can be devoted to practising naval exercises and manoeuvres. The remain- der of the year, the crews are garrisoned in harbors, and trained in the military land-exercise. Thus, the greater part of the crews are not only neither real nor skilful sailors or gunners, but form scarcely second-rate infantry. ་ The officers are educated from childhood in special nautical establish- ments, and most of them, at least theoretically, are as capable and as well informed in all the specialities of the duty as those of any other service whatever. Russia is indebted for her naval power, as she is for her ascendency by land, her civilization, and, indeed, everything else, to the creative genius of Peter the Great. Previously to his accession, Russia had no seaport, other than Archangel, and did not possess a single gunboat. As soon, however, as Peter had acquired a footing on the Baltic, he set about crea- ting a navy; and, the better to qualify himself for the task of its construc- tion, he visited Holland, where he not only made himself acquainted with the principles of naval architecture, but with the practical business of a ship's carpenter, by working himself at this employment! The monarchs since Peter, and especially Catherine II. and the emperor Nicholas, have all exerted themselves to increase and improve the fleet; and it is now, perhaps, in as high a state of efficiency as it is likely to attain, under the disadvantages of which we have already spoken. The vessels, however, have little uniformity in their construction, some being as heavy as old Dutch galliots, while others are modelled on Eng- lish and American patterns. The material for the hulls, which is mostly oak, is inferior; not that there is a scarcity of ship-timber in Russia, but that the navy-yards and arsenals are under the same system of venality and peculation which pervades all other branches of the administration. Thus the vessels last only from ten to fifteen years. In general, the Russian navy is to be regarded as a defensive wooden wall, which can never be transformed into a formidable weapon of offence against Europe, or be THE IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT-THE FINANCES. 509 made to act single-handed against any of the maritime powers, with the exception of Sweden, Turkey, and the like smaller ones. An old proverbial distribution of capacities respecting the officers among the various grades of the service in Russia, assigns "the dandy to the cav alry, the learned man to the artillery, the drunkard to the navy, and the stupid to the infantry." So it was once, but so it is no longer, at least with respect to the infantry and navy. The infantry-officers, though they do not belong to the higher aristocratic class, are for the greater part well educated and tolerably well bred. The second son of the emperor, the grand-duke Constantine, is the grand-admiral and now the minister or sec- retary of the navy. From childhood he has been thoroughly educated for this purpose. This has given a stimulus to the service. Educated and well-bred youths, of higher family connections, enter it continually, and thus its ancient disreputable character is almost wholly changed. Owing to the low state of civilization in most parts of the Russian em- pire, and the want of manufactures and large towns, the public revenue is by no means so great as might be supposed from the vast extent of the empire, and the magnitude of the population. In consequence, however, of the cheapness of most of the necessary articles in Russia, and the small rates of pay of the soldiers and other public functionaries, her limited rev- enue goes a great way, and she is able to meet outgoings that elsewhere could not be met with less than twice or three times the sum. In the reign of Alexis-Michailovich, father of Peter the Great, the annual revenue of the government was but five millions of silver roubles, notwith- standing which his court was one of the most magnificent in Europe. He maintained a numerous army, and left, at his death, considerable sums of money. At the close of the reign of Peter the Great, the revenues had doubled, being over ten millions of roubles. The poll-tax produced four millions three hundred thousand roubles; the customs, one million two hundred thousand; the tax on brandy, one million; and the salt-tax, seven hundred thousand. In 1770, under Catherine II., the revenue was over one hundred millions, and at a later period of her reign it reached one hundred and seventy millions. In 1804, the revenue approached one hun- dred and nine millions. At the present time it is not under five hundred millions of roubles annually. The most important article of the revenue is the farming out of the man- ufacture of brandy, which produces one hundred and thirty millions of roubles. The customs occupy the next rank, and exceed one hundred millions of roubles; the poll-tax is about eighty millions; the obrak, or land-tax, produces from thirty to forty millions; the tax on guilds, or on the capital of merchants, from twenty to twenty-five millions; the postoffice about fifteen millions; patents, three or four millions; stamps, three or four millions; mines, twenty millions. To this must be added the appa- nages, the rents of the farms, the monopoly of tobacco, the duty on cards, the imposts on salt, and the crown manufactories, making in the aggregate 510 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. the annual amount of five hundred millions of roubles previously men- tioned. The taxes, it will be seen, are partly farmed, and partly collected by government-officers. There is, as already stated, in every government, a council charged with the administration of everything pertaining to the finances. Our information with respect to the expenditures of the Russian empire is less accurate than that relating to its income, most topics connected therewith being involved in a mystery which it is not always possible to penetrate. It is likewise evident, from the very nature of the government, that the official reports, especially in time of war, are not to be relied upon in the same degree as those emanating from the financial department of our own country or that of England. In time of peace, however, the in- come and expenditures of Russia are understood to be nearly equal; but during war, or on extraordinary occasions, involving an increase of expen- diture, the ordinary revenue is quite insufficient to meet the outgoings, and it is usual both to increase the rate of taxation and to resort to loans. The expense of the army and navy (the latter being about one fifth or one sixth part of the former) amounts to more than half the revenue. The next great items are the interest and sinking-fund on account of the public debt; the civil list, internal administration, public works, &c.; the diplo- matic service, and various other items. According to the report of the minister of finance, the public debt of Russia amounted, in 1853, to upward of three hundred millions of dollars, which the expenses of the war of 1854 must greatly increase. MOHET PY B * B 1 8 1 RUSSIAN SILVER ROUBLE. THE PEOPLE-THE NOBILITY. 511 P CHAPTER XIX. THE PEOPLE. OLITICALLY considered, the people of Russia are divided into four general classes the nobility, the clergy, the merchants and bur- ghers, and the peasants and serfs. Previously to the reign of Peter the Great, the Russian nobility consisted principally of the descendants of the ancient petty princes of the country, or of lords possessed of vast es- tates. They were in the exclusive possession of all situations of trust and emolument, to which they succeeded according to their rank. Peter, who early saw the disadvantage of this state of things, and the necessity of undermining the influence of the nobles, most of whom were violently op- posed to his projects for the regeneration of the country, had recourse, in furtherance of his plans, to the scheme of creating a new order of nobility. With this view, he divided all the civil and military functionaries in the service of the state into fourteen classes: enacting, at the same time, that the six highest classes should confer on the individuals in them the distinc- tion of hereditary nobility; that some of the other classes should confer the distinction of personal nobility, or of nobility for life; and that those enrolled in the others should be deemed gentlemen, or bien nées. Some modifications were made in this arrangement by the empress Catherine II.; but it is still maintained nearly as it was contrived by Peter the Great. The creation of a new nobility founded on merit, or on services rendered to the state, was, no doubt, a material improvement at the time. By illus- trating many new families, it has served to lessen the influence of the old nobility, and to liberalize the order, at the same time that it has opened a prospect to all enterprising individuals of rising to the highest dignities. On the whole, however, it would seem that the system, having served its purpose, might now be advantageously abandoned. In Russia, properly so called, the nobles are not numerous; but they abound in Podolia, Volhynia, and other provinces acquired from Poland, and especially in Poland itself, which has about three hundred thousand nobles! Few, however, of the latter possess estates, and many of them. are in a very destitute condition. In the Polish provinces, and in Cour- land, Livonia, and Esthonia, none but nobles can inherit landed property; but this is not the case in Russia proper, though, with the exception of the crown-estates, they are, in fact, almost the sole proprietors. 512 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The titles of prince, count, and baron, have superseded those formerly in use. In the government of Toula, there are said to be more than one hundred families having the dignity of prince! All the members of noble families are noble, and have the same title as the head of the family. On the death of a noble person, his estate is divided, according to a fixed scale, among his children of both sexes. Nobles are exempted from all personal charges, and from the obligation to serve in the army, but they are obliged to furnish recruits according to the number of their vassals. Nobles are also exempted from corporeal punishment; have leave to distil all the spirits required for the consumption of their establishments; may engage in manufactures or trade; have a right to all the minerals on their estates, &c. Precedence is determined, in Russia, by military rank; and an ensign would take the pas of a nobleman not enrolled in the army, or occupying some situation giving military rank. The property of a noble who has been condemned is not confiscated by the state, but goes to his family. The nobles likewise elect various local magistrates, assessors, &c., and deliberate at their meetings on different matters connected with the local administration. There is also in every government a committee of nobles to watch over the interests of the body, and to take care of the establishments that belong to it; and every circle has a committee of nobles who manage the estates and affairs of nobles who are under age. These privileges, which are obviously of considerable importance, were embodied and set forth in a ukase by Catherine II., in 1762; and another ukase of the emperor Alexander prohibits all govern- ment functionaries from interfering with the election of the assessors and other functionaries chosen by the nobles. It is not easy to form a fair estimate of the character of the Russian nobles. Generally speaking, their education is more superficial than solid; but many are, nevertheless highly accomplished. They are all well ac- quainted with French, and numbers with the English and German lan- guages; those who have travelled being distinguished by the superior polish and elegance of their manners. They are universally hospitable ; and most of them affect, and many relish, the society of literary men and artists. That they are more sensual, more given to ostentatious display, and less distinguished by a gentlemanly bearing toward their inferiors, than the higher classes in England and France, is no doubt true. But it is affirmed that the representations of Clarke, Lyall, and other travellers, of their caste, are, notwithstanding, mere vulgar caricatures, which, though they may perhaps apply to a few individuals, are generally quite as wide of the truth as M. Pillet's accounts of the women of England, or those of Captain Basil Hall and Madame Trollope with respect to the Americans. Considering, indeed, that the Russian nobility have no exciting political occupation, that in most parts of the empire there is no middle class, and that the occupiers of their estates are not freemen but serfs, the wonder is, not that their tastes and habits should be in some respects barbarous, but SUMMER VILLA OF A RUSSIAN NOBLEMAN, IN TAMBOV. ETTE 33 THE PEOPLE-THE NOBILITY. 515 that they should have made so great an advance as they have done since the reign of Peter the Great, and that they should be so intelligent and refined as they are found to be. The Russian nobles, like those of England and other countries in fendal times, are in the habit of keeping great numbers of vassals in their houses as servants. The number of such retainers in some great families exceeds all belief, amounting sometimes to above five hundred! They receive only a trifling pittance as wages, but that is quite enough for their wants, as they are fed and clothed by their masters. Several Russian noblemen have recently distinguished themselves by their attention to their estates, and by the efforts they have made to introduce the improved processes and implements in use in more advanced countries. In some instances they have brought land-stewards and laborers from Great Britain and Germany. Latterly, also, many of the principal nobles have become extensive manu- facturers, and some of the greatest manufacturing establishments in the empire are at present in their hands. They are driven, in fact, to adopt this course by the circumstances under which they are placed. All agri- cultural and most out-of-door employments being suspended during winter, the noblemen, who must provide for the subsistence of their serfs, whether the latter be employed or not, naturally endeavor to avail themselves of their services during the interruption of husbandry pursuits, by setting on foot some species of manufacture. The latter, indeed, is frequently car- ried on only during winter, the peasants being employed in agriculture during the rest of the year. When, however, a nobleman establishes a manufacture on a large scale, and keeps it constantly at work, the peas- ants are usually put on the footing of hired laborers, and instead of getting an allotment of land, are paid for their work, and left to supply themselves with necessaries. Some manufactures conducted in this way have been eminently successful: though it is hardly necessary to add that, if they be of the higher class, or require any peculiar skill, economy, or attention, they are not of a kind that can be successfully carried on by the agents of noblemen; and that the moment the protection afforded by oppressive cus- tomhouse duties, under which they have grown up, is withdrawn, they will at once fall to the ground. Mr. Coxe and Dr. Pinkerton, who are regarded as among the best and most trustworthy of the English travellers who have visited Russia, speak very favorably of the Russian nobility. The former says that, although they have adopted the delicacies of French cookery, they neither affect to despise their native dishes, nor squeamishly reject the solid joints which characterize an English repast. The plainest as well as the choicest viands are collected from the most distant quarters. At the tables of opulent persons in St. Petersburg may be seen sterlet from the Volga, veal from Archangel, mutton from Astrakhan, beef from the steppes, and pheasants from Hungary and Bohemia. The common wines are claret, Burgundy, and champagne; and English beer and porter may be had in perfection 516 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. and abundance. It is usual to take a "whet" before dinner; but the sto- ries engrafted on this practice, of the prevalence of inebriety among the higher classes, are pronounced to be wholly without foundation. In this respect their habits have undergone a total change since the days of Peter the Great, and they are now remarkable for sobriety. The peasantry, however, often indulge to excess in their potations. The lengthened stay of the Russian armies in the western and more civ- ilized European states, after the defeat of Napoleon's invasion, made a large number of the nobles, and of the more intelligent classes (which in Russia consist of the military officers), familiarly acquainted with a more advanced state of society, and a better form of civil polity. This circum- stance, also, gave an increased stimulus to the desire for travelling that previously prevailed among the nobility, many of whom withdrew to France, England, and Italy. It is not to be denied that the influence of these con- curring circumstances has since, on various occasions, made itself sensibly felt in Russia; and that the government has sometimes had reason to be- lieve that a considerable portion of the nobility, and even some of the most distinguished regiments of the army, would not be displeased to see some limit set to the powers of the czar. Next to the nobility stand the clergy, which number over three hundred thousand, and, including their families, nearly a million. As they will be fully and more properly described in the chapter appropriated to an ac- count of the church, we will pass them by here without further notice. The merchants, burghers, &c., comprise a class between the nobles and the peasants, and is thus alluded to by the empress Catherine II., in her instructions for a new code of laws: "This class, composed of freemen, belong neither to the class of nobles nor to that of peasants. All those who, being neither gentlemen nor peasants, follow the arts and sciences, navigation, commerce, or exercise trades, are to be ranked in this class. In it should be placed all those who, born of plebeian parents, shall have been brought up in schools or places of education, religious or otherwise, founded by us or by our predecessors. Also the children of officers and of the secretaries to the chancery." This body is divided into various classifications, as follows: 1. The class of the corporation legally called merchants; all of them must be in- scribed in one of the three guilds. 2. Respectable citizens. 3. Citizen- burghers not inscribed in any of the guilds; and artisans and mechanics, belonging to special handicraft corporations. 4. Freemen, such as dis- charged soldiers, emancipated serfs, and all others of free condition not belonging to any special corporation, but registered in the general one of the city inhabited by them. 5. Workmen, and all other inhabitants own- ing houses in cities, but not registered in the general or in any of the spe- cial corporations, can, if they choose, be called citizen-burghers, without, however, losing their privileges, if from the order of the nobility, or ac- quiring those of burghers, if still belonging to rural communes. THE PEOPLE- 517 -MERCHANTS AND BURGHERS. The three guilds into which the merchant class is divided are formed according to the amount of capital employed and declared by those wishing to get an inscription, on which an interest of about six per cent. is to be paid yearly into the treasury. The sum neces- sary for an inscription into the first guild is about twenty thou- sand dollars; for the third, or lowest, about six thousand. Aside from this order of merchants, all other burghers form a general body, whatever their trade or occupations. A corporation of handicraftsmen is formed of masters, foreman, and apprentices. The mem- bers of such a corporation are either for life, or temporary. To the first belong those born as citizen-burghers; to the sec- ond foreign artisans, free peas- ants, as well as serfs who have learned the special handicraft, or are received among the masters in the corporation, being thus inscribed for a certain time, without, however, be- longing to the general class of citizen-burghers. The body of workmen is composed of all registered in the records of the town, and not belonging to any of the above-mentioned classes; of men unfit for the military ser- vice, or those having furnished it; of foreign immigrants, artisans, or ap- prentices; but excluding those of bad character, and all those expelled for bad behavior, or for the non-payment of communal taxes, or the evading to fulfil personal duties. RUSSIAN MERCHANT. Any one enjoying the right to make a selection of a corporation, trade, or occupation for life, can enter the class of citizen-burghers, abandoning thus his inferior position, and passing over to this superior one. For this he must be legally and officially accepted by the community which he wishes to join. Exceptions exist for some artisans where the legal assent of the community to the act of admission is not necessary. Thus, for example, cloth-weavers, dyers and dressers, and machinists, can join a general city corporation or community, without obtaining the formality of its consent. Free or crown peasants can join the corporation of burghers individually or with their families, and so can rural communes, if they are traders, me- chanics, artisans, or manufacturers, but not as agriculturists. Individu- als passing thus from one state to another, must obtain the assent of the 518 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. commune which they abandon, as well as the acceptance of that which they enter. When this is to be done by a whole rural community, the permis- sion of the government is necessary. Widows and daughters of free peas- ants can, under certain conditions, become incorporated among citizen- burghers. Independent agriculturists (a kind of free yeomen), as well as emancipated serfs, cun join a city corporation with its assent. commune. Jews, as well as seceders from the national or orthodox Greco-Russian church, can only join corporations in Trans-Caucasian cities. Asiatic no- mades, of all races and kinds, Kirghiz, &c., can, at their choice, enter any city corporation whatever, and no objection can be raised to this by the The community of any city can erect a communal bank accord- ing to the prescriptions of special laws. No citizen-burgher can be de- prived of his standing or special privileges otherwise than by the verdict of a criminal tribunal. In all civil as well as criminal matters, if both the parties are of the same class, the case comes first before the board of magistrates. Merchants of the first guild, or their children, when the parents have belonged for twenty-five years uninterruptedly to the guild, have the right to enter the civil or military service under the same conditions as the chil- dren of personal nobles. Merchants of the second guild, or their children, can not enter the civil service at all, and the military only as volunteers, that is, with the right to leave it again at any time. All other merchants, citizen-burghers, or their children, are not admitted into the civil service. on any condition whatever; and when they enter the military, do not enjoy any kind of privilege, but are treated like all the common recruits. A citizen-burgher registered in one of the three guilds is free from the gen- eral recruiting to which all other burghers are subject. He also does not pay the state the capitation-tax, called poduschnoe ("from the soul"), as he already pays an interest on the capital for which he is inscribed in the guild. All other commercial taxes are paid by the burghers in common with the rest of the inhabitants. Any citizen-burgher can own houses or other real estate situated in cities or villages, or lots of naked land- that is, land without serfs. Citizen-burghers not inscribed in any guild, but owning houses in cities valued above five thousand dollars, are obliged to register their names at least in the third guild, and pay the interest on their capital. Such houses can be owned by widows or unmarried daugh- ters of the class of merchants, but on condition of registration in a guild. Merchants can belong to and be registered in rural communities according to certain prescriptions of the law. If a merchant, or in general any citizen-burgher, inherits any landed estates with serfs on them, the serfs are to be sold immediately to the crown-domains at the average price of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred dollars for each individual-the right of owning serfs being reserved exclusively to the nobility. The citizen-burghers can be deprived of their property only by the judgment of a civil tribunal. THE PEOPLE —“RESPECTABLE CITIZENS." 519 wwww MAOBERTS SC f THE BOURGEOISIE A RUSSIAN PIC-NIC.* ― No citizen-burgher registered in the general, or in any of the special corporations, can step out of it, and abandon the city where he is incorpo- rated, by settling in another, without the assent of the community or the permission of the government. Any citizen-burgher can pass into the close corporation of the merchants, on declaring the amount of capital required to be inscribed in one of the three guilds, and paying into the treasury the interest thereon. Each community can exclude any member under criminal condemnation, or of notoriously bad character. The city of Moscow has alone the privi- lege of giving up such individuals to the government, either as recruits to be reckoned as furnished in any future levy, or for the colonization of Siberia. Children of such convicts, above fourteen years of age, have the option either to follow the father or to remain in the community. Minors, not having a mother, never follow the parent when sent to Siberia. Above all the subdivisions of the bourgeoisie, and thus above the close. corporation of the merchants-even those of the first guild-rises the legal privilege of the respectable citizen (postchotnoi grazdanin). This is a privilege either hereditary or enjoyed for life. Children of personal nobles become hereditary respectable citizens. * The scene illustrated by this engraving is incidentally mentioned near the close of page 470. It represents a party of burghers, who, with their families, are enjoying a "Russian pic-nic," on a holyday, on one of the islands of the Neva. The "favorite somovar," it will be seen, characteris- tically occupies a prominent place in this picture of Russian social festivity. 520 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. One who, in virtue of the social position of his father as a merchant of the first guild, or as a savant, a physician, &c., has acquired the right to complete a course of studies in one of the universities of the empire, can petition the government to be included in the class of respectable citizens, on producing testimonials of having finished the higher studies, and of good conduct during his stay at the university. The same is conceded to artists when they produce testimonials from the national academies of art; to children of merchants of the first and second guilds, who have passed with special distinction through the studies of the universities, to pupils of special commercial schools, to artists who are foreigners by birth, &c. At first sight it would seem laudable that laborious and well-accom- plished studies, as well as artistical distinction, should open the door to a higher grade in the social scale. But, on more close consideration, this apparent liberality loses greatly in its character. It is deprived of the lofty spirit of universality which alone makes such distinction praisewor- thy; it has the narrowness inherent in exceptions and superpositions; it is a privilege conceded to one already privileged; it excludes here, as it does everywhere, the man of genius who by accident is not born in a certain privileged cradle; it reduces to some few what ought to be accessible to all: it is thus restricted, narrow, and exclusive. Vainly is it represented as being a stimulus to the acquisition of social distinction by intellectual labor, by mental accomplishments. It is so but partially, in a very limited way; it possesses the odor of caste, instead of having the elevated charac- ter of being for the benefit of the whole people; it shuts out the poor, the unprotected by purse or patronage; it is stale and musty in its nature, rather than bright and serene as ought to be a genuine incitement of true civilization, securing well-deserved social superiority and consideration to intellectual proficiency. Members of the merchant-class, on whom the government has conferred the honorary title of commercial or manufacturing councillors, if they have never suffered any criminal indictment, and never failed in business, can themselves, as can their widows, rise into the class of hereditary respect- able citizens. So can merchants, who have belonged uninterruptedly for ten years to the first, and for twenty to the second guild. And any one who has obtained the diploma of doctor or of master from any of the Rus- sian universities, can petition the government to be included in the class of hereditary respectable citizens. Artists and special pupils of the Acad- emy of Art have also this right on presenting their diploma of membership. Foreigners living in Russia, if they are savans, artists, merchants, or own- ers of extensive manufacturing-establishments, if they become Russian sub- jects, and have already belonged for ten years to the class of personal respectable citizens, have the right to petition for admission into the he- reditary class of the same title. The rights and privileges of respectable citizens consist in liberating them from the poduschnoe, or capitation-tax; from the recruitment; from corporeal punishment, by either civil or military THE PEOPLE-FREE PEASANTS. 521 judgment; and from having their heads shaved during arrest and pending trial. All the rest of the bourgeoisie, in criminal as well as in police affairs, are subject to personal punishment, inflicted by rods (palki), or the "cat-o'-nine-tails" (pletnia). Below the bourgeoisie-with all the above-enumerated subdivisions and various special corporations, from that of the merchants down to that of the workmen—there exists a still inferior class, called that of the subur- ban inhabitants, not separately incorporated, but administered by the boards of magistrates of the city to which they belong. It is composed principally of agriculturists or day-laborers, who thus form the last link between the bourgeoisie and the peasants. All other persons living in any city by special permission, and devoted to trade, or artisans, are called simply inhabitants or citizens (zytel, obywatel, from bywat, "to frequent"). The fourth and lowest class of the people of Russia, the peasants and serfs, are by far the most numerous. This class forms, in about equal numbers, legally and socially, two great principal divisions-that of the so-called free or crown peasants, and the serfs. The former are cut up into several subdivisions, according to the rights by which they hold prop- erty or soil, and according to the kind and the nature of the servitudes which they have to fulfil. The code of laws (Swod Zakonoff) calls the peasantry rural inhabit- ants, and divides them as follows: 1. Those inhabiting or settled on lands belonging to the treasury, or kazna (a word of Tartar origin). 2. Those on special crown-domains. 3. Those on lands forming the personal prop- erty of the emperor. 4. Those settled on lands belonging to the imperial habitations or palaces, dwortsowyie (from dworets, a palace). 5. Those settled on private lands—that is, on lands belonging to the nobility—or the class of serfs. Finally, a small number of freedmen, or freeholders, having lands of their own. With the exception of the serfs, all the others have certain special per- sonal rights, as well as special duties or services to perform-owing dues, most of them, however, rather communal than personal. Among these communal services, the principal are those pertaining to military colonies, already spoken of in the chapter immediately preceding; others, such as are attached to the imperial or governmental studs; others, to the mines of Siberia; others, again, who keep posthorses for public and governmental use. Villages of the latter tenure are called iama, and the peasants, iamschtschik.* There are several others of a similar kind. To the class of free peasants belong likewise foreign (mostly German) agricultural colonists-a kind of yeomen called adnodwortsy, from nobles having forfeited their privilege—and free agriculturists, all of whom pos- sess the soil as personal property. * "Foreigners," says Gurowski, Gurowski, “may may be struck at the often-repeated occurrence of so many consonants, as in the word iamschtschik; but in Russian, the sound composed out of schtsch is given by a single sign, or letter." 522 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. These last two, adnodwortsy and free agriculturists, live scattered in single habitations and on farms; all the other peasantry form rural com- munes, and enjoy the communal franchise. Thus the commune is the cra- dle of the social organism. The basis of the commune is the land on which the population is settled, and thus is incorporated with it. Every peasant not a serf must belong to such a commune, which may be large or small according to the quantity of land owned and the density of popula- tion. There are communes amounting to nearly twenty thousand souls. Such a commune is called wolost; it is composed of derewnia, or hamlets, and selo, or villages: just as an American township may embrace several villages. Several such communes form a rural district or canton. A vil- lage generally counts between six and eight hundred families. The internal police, the correction of small offences by short imprison- ment, or by no more than fifteen blows; the settling of contests among the members; the superintendence of a primary school, whose maintenance is obligatory; the administration of the recently-founded communal rural banks; the equal distribution of the military recruits from among families; in one word, everything concerning the internal administration and work- ing of the commune, is done by the commune itself. The commune is responsible to the treasury for the rent levied from each family having a separate communal household; this rent, called obrok, generally, through the whole of Russia, even on the estates of serfs, amounts to ten roubles. The commune also maintains the highways and roads on its own territory. The crown or free peasants, whatever may be the nature of their tenure, have no other special master than the sovereign or the government, and never can have another. Once the czars granted to individuals vast ter- ritories of lands, with crown peasants or serfs on them. This is the origin of many great fortunes in Russia, consisting in large estates, and hundreds. of thousands of souls, as that of Scheremetëff, Naryschkin, the Orloffs, and the Branickis, the last of which rose out of the ruins of ancient Poland. Peter the Great rewarded real services, as in the case of Scheremetëff; Catherine II. was very lavish to her favorites of every kind, and she thus laid the foundations of numerous large fortunes still existing in Russia; and Paul was most indiscriminate in bestowing his favors. For the glory of Alexander it must be recorded that in his youth, when under the influence of a generous and humane inspiration, he published a ukase by which it was henceforth and for ever prohibited to any sovereign to make donations of crown-peasants to any private individual whatever, or to sell them, or render them liable to any statute for husbandry servi- tude. The emperor Nicholas has thus far religiously maintained this ukase. Even in Poland, since the revolution of 1831, the emperor, in dividing the numerous estates of the crown, called starostwa, among the Russian generals and others of his servants, by a special clause in every grant directed that the statute labor existing until that time should ulti- mately become extinguished, and the peasant on such lands become the THE PEOPLE-FREE PEASANTS. 523 RUSSIAN PEASANT AND HIS FAMILY. free and independent owner of a suitable homestead. It must be men- tioned here that, in the actual kingdom of Poland, slavery was abolished by the late king of Prussia in the year 1800, when this part of Poland formed one of the Prussian provinces. This was confirmed by the code of Napoleon, introduced after the treaty of Tilsit in 1807, and is still maintained. But neither of these governments secured for the peasantry any homestead on crown or private lands. The free peasantry in Russia enjoy some rights and privileges, render- ing their position by far more supportable than that of the private serfs. It has been already shown that a free peasant can freely engage in any mercantile, manufacturing, mechanical, or other industrial pursuit, and establish his domicil in any city of the empire, if he possesses a permission of his commune, which permission can no wise be refused as long as the individual pays the obrok and the taxes in the commune to which he be- longs, and fulfils through any hand all other communal duties. Provided with such a permission or certificate, the movements and actions of a peas- ant are perfectly free. He can make proposals for all kinds of public jobs contracted with the government. In such cases, other contractors are 524 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. obliged to give securities; but a crown-peasant presents only the authori- zation of his commune. He can enter into the class of burghers by aban- doning his commune with its consent, passing thus into what is considered a higher social corporation. The chains of serfdom do not hang on him; but if he has no special mas- ter, he, like the burgher, has still to deal with rapacious officials. What is true of the one is still and even more largely to be applied to the other. Entering the superior corporation, the peasant can meliorate his position; but this melioration is very limited. All openings for education are abso- lutely shut before him; all that he can learn is to read and write wretch- edly. If there are exceptions, they are very rare, and, so to speak, rather the work of a miracle. Free agriculturists (wolnyë chlebopaschtsy) are principally manumitted serfs, with soil or without; and, in this last case, they can buy land from anybody. The manumissions with soil must be made by the owner during his lifetime, and not by will. If they are numerous enough, they form rural communes on the general principle; if not, they are incorporated in the existent ones. They can sell and buy lands, and divide them among their children, but in lots not under sixteen acres. They can contract for public jobs (podriad), enter guilds, erect manufactories, carry on trade, and enjoy all the privileges of free peasantry. There are still some few other kinds of privileged peasantry, but their number is small and wholly insignificant. As previously remarked, about one half of the Russian peasantry are serfs or bondsmen, attached to the soil (glebæ adscripti), rather than to the person of the nobleman, and thus they are at least not chattels. The power of the master is not wholly arbitrary and unlimited; but the servi tude is reduced to a certain method, regulated as follows by the civil law: By usage, the serfs are of two kinds-agriculturists and house-serfs — but the law does not recognise these distinctions. A ukase, published by Catherine II. in 1781, prohibited, for the future, the enslaving of the peas- antry. The ownership of a serf or serfs is proved by the census. The first census was made by Peter the Great in 1714; the next in 1744. In the present century the census is made every ten years. In the government of Bessarabia, neither Russian nor Moldavian nobility can own serfs from among the Russian peasantry, and other races can not be enslaved. This law was published to prevent the introduction of serfdom in a newly con- quered and annexed territory. It is a kind of "Wilmot proviso." The children of a male serf remain in the condition of the father, even if the mother belongs to a better class. If any nobleman sends, for punishment, his serf to Siberia, and the serf receives there lands from the crown as a colonist, his children, the males under seven years of age and the girls under ten, follow the father to the new condition. Colonized exiles in Siberia form successively communities of free peasantry. THE PEOPLE-THE SERFS. 525 A woman from a free class, marrying a serf, becomes free again as a widow; a woman from bondage, marrying a free peasant, becomes like- wise free. When the husband becomes free by law, or by manumission, or by contract, his wife shares his freedom ipso facto, but not the children they must be emancipated by a special act. ; If a master demands from his serfs anything contrary to law, as revolt, murder, or stealing, and they accomplish it, they are punished as his ac- complices. The serfs pay the expenses of the administration in each dis- trict. This is the only direct tax levied on the property of the nobility. In criminal matters, the serfs are judged by common criminal tribunals, before whom they likewise can appear in the character of accusers and witnesses. The law makes it obligatory on the serf to resist any attack made on the property of the master, as well as upon the honor of his wife and daughter. The owner can not force his serfs to marry against their will, or point out whom they shall marry; this provision of the law is very generally evaded. If a serf makes an unjust complaint against his master, or if he dares to present such a petition to the emperor, the peti- tioner and the writer of the petition are both most severely punished. In case of insubordination, disobedience to the master or the overseer, the serfs are punished by a military commission, and pay the expenses. thereof. All civil or police and military functionaries are prohibited to receive any denunciation made by the serf against his master, with the exception of a conspiracy against the person of the sovereign; or when the master tries to make a misstatement as to the census; or when, if a Roman catholic, he tries to convert his orthodox serfs. A serf can not change his master, leave him, or enter any corporation. For all these the consent of the owner is necessary. Without such a con- sent, serfs can not be received as volunteers into the army. Runaway serfs are returned to the owners at the cost of those who had kept or se- creted them. After ten years, a master forfeits the right to claim a run- away. Such claims, supported by proofs, must be made during the first year after the escape, if the master is in Russia, and in the course of two years if the master is abroad. If a servant is killed by accident, his owner receives from the culprit the sum of three hundred and thirty dollars; but if it is a murder, then the murderer suffers the same as if the crime was committed on any one else. In such a case, the owner of the murdered man does not receive any compensation. A serf, who is not a house-servant, must work for his master three days a week. He can not be forced to do any work on Sundays or any other church and parish holydays, or on the day of the patron-saints of the reign- ing sovereigns. The master can, at his pleasure, transform the house-serf (dworowoï) into a soil-tiller, and vice versa. He can hire his serfs to mechanics, manufacturers, and to any other labor whatever. He is the supreme judge in all civil contests between his serfs. He can punish them corporeally, but not cripple them, or put life in jeopardy. He can require 526 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. the assistance of the government for the coercion of his serfs. In case of a criminal offence, the master must abstain from any punishment, but de- liver the offender to the law. He can send serfs to Siberia or to any other penitentiary establishment. No serf can live in any city, or serve any person whatever, without the consent of the master, and the authorities are to see that this provision be not transgressed—and are severely responsible. The master gives to the serf a passport, and, furnished with this, he can move freely in the whole empire. The master has the power to transfer the serfs individually or by whole communities from one village, district, or circle, into another. Any nobleman owning serfs of any kind must have for every one at least twenty acres of land. Only a nobleman can receive a power of attorney for the buying or selling of serfs. The master can not hire his serfs to individuals whom the law prohibits to own serfs, nor let them learn any profession anywhere else than from masters inscribed in a guild. Serfs, either servants or agriculturists, held by those who have no right to own them, become free; that is, they become incorporated into the free crown- peasantry, and the unlawful owners pay a fine into the treasury. Families can not be separated by sale. The family consists of the pa- rents and the unmarried children, even if of age. The children form a family after the death of the parents. Serfs can not be brought to market, but are to be sold only together with the estate. If sold separately, the crown takes them as its peasants, and the transgressors of the law are fined. Serfs acquiring their liberty in such a way can make the choice of a mode of life, and of a corporation into which they will become inscribed. In cases of scarcity or famine, the owner can not send away his serfs, but is obliged to take care of them. He is likewise obliged to take care of the aged and the invalids. If there be any abuse of power by the master, any cruelty or rape, the law takes from the owner the administration of the estate, and puts it in the hands of guardians, or of a board selected for this purpose in each dis- trict from among the nobility. Such masters can not acquire new estates by purchase, and in aggravated cases can be given up to the criminal courts. For this the special decision of the sovereign is required. Like- wise the owners can not live on the estates whose administration is thus taken out of their hands. The villages or estates are responsible for gov- ernmental taxes. If a serf has a lawsuit, his master must prosecute it; and the master is answerable for the results whenever the serf has had his permission to enter into a civil liability. In criminal matters concerning a serf, the interference of the master is optional. Serfs can not be sold separate from the soil, or at any public auction in execution of the debts of the master. If one or more serfs sue, on legal grounds, their master for emancipation, having been brought into serfdom contrary to the provisions of the law-while the legal proceedings are pending, the master can not inflict on them any corporeal punishment under THE PEOPLE-THE SERFS. 527 the penalty of a criminal prosecution; nor can he mortgage or let them out by lease; and if the first court decide in their favor, and the affair goes to the court of appeal, the master can not give them to the military service pending the final decision. Serfs carrying on a legal trade, with the consent of the master, can not be given up by him as recruits, or for the colonization of Siberia. Serfs can not own immoveable property; all houses and lands possessed by them are the property of the master. Should a serf inherit such property, it must be sold, and the money handed over to him. Serfs erecting shops and manufactories, must have a special permission of the master, likewise for entering the guild of artisans, and for selling the produce of their in- dustry in cities and markets. For taking public jobs (podrïad), or keeping post-horses on public roads, they must have the consent and the guaranty of the master. The serf can lend out money on legal terms, but not take mortgages on land in villages or estates. Only with the consent of the master can they buy on credit goods for traffic-otherwise they can not be prosecuted, and any bargain or stipulation is void by itself. The master has the right to manumit his serfs individually, or by whole hamlets and villages, with or without giving them lands. A permission given by the master to his serf to marry a girl who is a pupil and educated in a public establishment for the children of burghers, is equivalent to manumission. A manumitted serf can not be brought again into serfdom. A serf can obtain his liberty by a legal juridical decision: 1. If he proves an antecedent right to liberty. 2. If his master does not belong to any Christian confession. 3. If the master has made a forcible attack on the virtue of his wife or daughter, or committed any other impropriety. 4. If the serf was made a prisoner by the enemy and carried beyond the fron- tiers of the empire-on returning, he does not return into serfdom. 5. If by the master he is given up to the disposition of the government. The serf obtains his liberty if he proves against his master the crime of treason, or a conspiracy against the life of the sovereign. A serf condemned legally to exile to Siberia ceases to be owned by the master; his wife, following him into exile, becomes free. A serf also becomes free if sold without lands, or if the buyer does not possess the quantity of land required by law, or if his family is separated from him by sale. These are the principal features of the legal organization of serfdom. As before remarked, part of the serfs are agriculturists, called pachatnaia duscha; the others house-serfs, or dworowaia. The agricultural serfs are settled in hamlets and villages, till their own soil and that of the manor- farm, fulfilling there all the labors of husbandry. In more populous vil- lages, and above all in large estates, they are organized in communes on nearly the same principles as are the free peasants. But such an organi- zation depends absolutely upon the will of the owner. It is mostly the case, where the arable land is not extensive enough, or for some other 528 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. reason is wholly abandoned to the peasants, and they pay for its use to the landlord a redevance or obrok, and in such case they are called obrotschnye duschy (renting souls); or the master receives from his farm-lands a cer- tain quantity of the produce of the soil: but all such arrangements depend absolutely upon the master. The house-serfs live on the manor and its immediate dependencies: they are often very numerous, and thus a heavy burden to the owner, sometimes even his ruin. They generally refuse to be settled as agriculturists, look- ing upon it as altogether below their condition. They constitute the male and female servants of the household, stewards, private overseers, house- hold artisans, mechanics, and workmen - sometimes even personal attor- neys when by choice or whim the master has given to such one a suitable education. Generally the master takes care to make the males learn some handicraft; and when they are able to earn their living, he gives them a permission or passport, and they go over the country in search of suitable employment. They, as well as all other serfs who are furnished with such a passport, can be called home by the master at any time. These wander- ing serfs are obliged to report to him their whereabouts; and they pay him a rent proportioned to their earnings, or the cost of their education. Others establish themselves as tradesmen, &c. The serfs compose, to a great extent, the floating population of cities. In the largest of them, as St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nijnei-Novgorod, &c., serfs can be found who are wealthy tradesmen. The obrok paid by them to their owner is generally the customary one, and at a rate not at all proportioned to their fortune. But they are completely dependent on the will of the master, who can recall and transplant them to any of his villages and hamlets. There are cases where masters are comparatively, nay, even positively poorer than their serfs, and still refuse to sell them their liberty, even for a large sum. Such a refusal is generally the result of an inveterate pride, and of a repul- sive feeling concerning emancipation. To a certain degree, the law watches, in a more or less tutelary manner, over the fate of the serfs. Its provisions have been enumerated. But abuse, or evasion of the law, can not be prevented. Its handling, its exe- cution, as well as the framing of public opinion, is in the hands of the nobility. Only very tyrannical abuses of power come to daylight. They are corrected either by the law, or by the interference of the sovereign, or, in the last and supreme appeal, by the sufferers themselves. The owners of large estates do not live on them, and sometimes do not visit many of them at all. The task of ruling the serfs is given up totally to overseers, who are generally severe enough, whatever may be their nationality, Ger- man or native. The small nobility commonly want more than their fortune yields, and, to get it, squeeze as much as possible the laboring serf; and, without being inhuman, they will not sacrifice their own well-being to that of the peasantry. In large estates-the prescriptions of the law to the contrary notwith- THE PEOPLE THE PEASANTRY. 529 standing—the marriages of the serfs are always made with the interference of the master or the overseer, but on such estates the choice of the serf is generally regarded. As the wife follows the husband, a maiden is seldom taken from a neighboring estate, except where the bridegroom is rich enough to buy his bride. In smaller estates, where the choice is more lim- ited, generally after the field-labors are over, in the fall season, the master calls the families together and inquires about their mutual inclinations, pays attention to them, and endeavors to arrange things by mutual agree- ment; but when all is of no avail, then he decides arbitrarily-points out the pairs, and then the ceremony is fulfilled by the parish-priest. Previously to the reign of Peter the Great, it was customary for the Russians, of all ranks, to marry their children very early, even before the age of puberty. Though restrained by Peter and Catherine II., this cus- tom of early marriage still prevails, and is said to be fraught with many pernicious consequences. A ukase, issued in 1801, prohibits priests from solemnizing marriages unless the man be eighteen and the woman sixteen years old. The Russian peasants generally are of a sound constitution, stout and firmly built, and mostly of a middle stature. They live in cottages, formed of logs piled upon each other, and built singly or together in villages, the D RUSSIAN PEASANTS BUILDING A COTTAGE, 34 530 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. gables to the road. Sometimes they consist of two stories, but more fre- quently only of one. They are heated with stoves, and, though dirty, are not uncomfortable nor ill suited to the climate. Their furniture consists generally of wooden articles, and a pan or two. Beds are little used, the family generally sleeping on the ground, on benches, or on the stove. The dress of the peasant consists of a long, coarse drugget coat, fastened by a belt round the waist, but in winter they wear a sheepskin with the woolly side inward. Their trousers are of coarse linen; instead of stock- ings (when not barefoot), woollen cloth is wrapped round the legs, and shoes of matted linden-bark are frequently substituted for those of leather. The neck, even in winter, is bare (a fact which, according to a French travel- ler, is a decisive criterion by which to distinguish the genuine Russian), and the head is covered by a peaked round hat or cap. The Russian peasant considers himself well fed if he have rye-bread, which is the staple article of food throughout the empire, and sour-cabbage soup, with a lump of fat, or hog's lard, boiled in it, by way of relish. He uses butchers' meat on holydays, and at other times eggs, salt fish, bacon, lard, and mushrooms, which, at the proper season, are extremely abundant, onions, &c. His favorite dish is a hodge-podge of salt or fresh meat, groats, and rye-flour, highly seasoned with onions and garlic. Salted cucumbers are a constant dish at the peasant's table all the year round. These and salted cabbages form an important article of national commerce. They are brought in large vats from the southern provinces, where the climate favors their production, to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other large towns, and here they are constantly on sale in the public markets; the preparation, in autumn, of a sufficient supply of these pickled vegeta- bles forming, in every family, an important part of domestic economy. This dependence of the Russian peasant on vegetable diet is, no doubt, a consequence of the extraordinary number of fasts and fast-days, of which he is a careful observer, and which are multiplied to such an absurd ex- treme, that it is said there are only from sixty to seventy days in the year on which it is permitted to use butchers' meat! Quas, a fermented liquor, made by pouring boiling water on rye or barley meal, is the common bev- erage of the peasant. But he is also very fond of mead, and still more so of brandy distilled from grain, and other spirituous liquors. The consump tion of the latter is immense, amounting to about one hundred millions of gallons a year, and furnishing annually, as before remarked, a large reve- nue to the government. The use of tea, however, is becoming more and more extended. A substitute for it, called izbitzen, consisting of herbs, honey, &c., boiled together, is also extensively used by the peasantry. "" The peasants are exceedingly superstitious. A vessel of "holy water' hangs from the ceiling of every room, and a lamp lighted on particular occasions. Every house is provided with a sacred corner, supplied with one or more pictures of their tutelary saints, coarsely daubed on wood, frequently resembling rather a Calmuck idol than a human head; but some г 531 THE PEOPLE THE PEASANTRY — BATHS. times they are of a better quality, and neatly framed. To these they pay the highest marks of veneration. All the members of the family, the mo- ment they rise in the morning, and before they retire to sleep in the even- ing, never omit their adoration to the saints: they cross themselves during several minutes, upon the sides and forehead, bow very low, and sometimes even prostrate themselves on the ground. Every person, also, on entering the room, pays his obeisance to these objects before addressing the family. The Russian peasantry have the vices incident to their situation. With a great capacity of endurance, and the most extraordinary talent for in- struction, they have but little active vigor or steadiness of purpose. In accosting a person of consequence, or from whom they expect any favor or advantage, they prostrate themselves, touch the ground with their hands, and kiss the fringe of his garments! Their insecure position makes them anxious to enjoy the present moment; and their masters being obliged to provide for their support when they are old and infirm, they have little motive to providence or forethought. When they accumulate money, they most frequently bury it in the ground—a practice common to all countries where property is comparatively insecure. The use of the vapor-bath is universal in Russia, not being reckoned a luxury but a necessary; and public baths are met with in all parts of the country. They are resorted to by the peasantry, at least, once a week. In St. Petersburg, the baths for the lower orders, which are in the suburbs, are very numerous, and the happiest account of them is that given by Kohl, the most accurate and the best descriptive writer upon Russian life. He thus remarks: "On Saturday evening an unusual movement may be seen among the lower classes in the capital. Companies of poor soldiers who have got a temporary furlough, troops of mechanics and laborers, whole families of men, women, and children, are seen eagerly traversing the streets, with towels under their arms, and birch-twigs in their hands. . . . They are going to the public baths, to forget, in the enjoyment of its vapors, the sufferings of the past week; to make supple the limbs stiffened with past toil, and invigorate them for that which is to come. Before the door, the words 'Entrance to the baths,' in large letters, attract the eye, and invite the body to enter. Within the doorway, so narrow that only one at a time can work his way in, sits the money-taker, who exchanges the ticket for the bath for a few copecks, and has generally a whole sack- ful of large copper coins by his side. Near him are a couple of women, selling schnaps and kalatshi;' while the people are thronging in and out as at a theatre. We first enter an open space, in which a number of men are sitting in a state of nudity on benches, all dripping with water and perspiration, and as red as lobsters, breathing deep, sighing, puffing, and gossiping, and busily employed in drying and dressing themselves. These have already bathed, and now, in a glow of pleasurable excitement, are puffing and blowing like tritons in the sea. Even in the winter I have seen these people drying and dressing in the open air, or, at most, in a 532 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. sort of booth forming an outhouse to the baths. Round it are the doors leading to the bathing-rooms, large wooden apartments, in which a heat of forty to fifty degrees of Reaumur [one hundred and twenty-two to one one hundred and forty-five of Fahrenheit] is maintained. A thick cloud of vapor conceals at first what is going on within; for nothing is at first visible but the feeble glimmer of the lamps breaking through a thick atmo- sphere, and the flame of the heated ovens. To remain here clothed is evi- dently impossible; neither would it be advisable for a well-dressed person to risk an appearance here as a mere spectator. I entered, therefore, in a state of nature, in which we are as much alike as one egg is like another. In any other costume the naked people would infallibly have ejected me speedily. Under this disguise I pursued my observations unmolested, the bath being by no means my object." There are three platforms, one above another, in these baths, and in the form of an amphitheatre, similar to those in the concamerata sudatio of the Roman baths, as shown in the paintings found in the baths of Titus. These steps are of different degrees of heat, and on them the bathers lie gener- ally on their backs or stomachs, while the attendants are employed in scourging them with birchen rods steeped in cold water; and here and there may be seen a papa holding his little boy between his knees, dili- gently occupied in improving the circulation of his rear; others stand near the glowing stoves, as if to increase the perspiration, which already runs at every pore; and others, again, descending from the upper platforms, have iced water poured over them by pailfuls. In the provinces, the baths are very indifferently, not to say badly con- ducted: there is no hot linen, and the temperature of them is very irregu- larly kept up by throwing cold water on large stones heated in an oven. At St. Petersburg they make use of cannon-shot. Excessive use of the bath injures the complexions of the Russian women; and it is said some ladies become so habituated to the leafy branches of the birch, that, by way of exciting a skin thickened by years of flagellation, they make their attendants flog them with bunches of nettles! RELIGION—THE GREEK CHURCH. 533 CHAPTER XX. RELIGION-THE GREEK CHURCH. M 777 OST religions to be found in the ancient continent have their adherents in Russia. A considerable portion of the less civilized tribes continue, more or less, addicted to their hea- then superstitions; the Jews in all parts of the country, except the centre, from which they are spe- cially excluded, have their syna- gogues, and freely perform their religious rites; Lutheranism is pro- fessed by the great body of Ger- mans and Swedes; and the Roman catholics form a large majority of the people of Poland. These, how- ever, are only important deductions to be made from the almost univer- sal ascendency of the Byzantine or GREEK CHURCH, which possesses numerous important privileges as the religion of the state, and is strong in the affections of the great body of the people, who give a very implicit if not enlightened assent to all its dogmas, and not only willingly perform, but appear to take wonderful delight in performing, its various minute and too often superstitious and even ridiculous ceremonies. In its general toleration of all other sects, it contrasts favorably with the western or Roman catholic church; though it lays itself open to the charge of in- tolerance toward its own members, by refusing to allow them, under any circumstances, to quit its communion: and when a marriage takes place between one of its members and a person belonging to another church, the children must all be educated according to the tenets of the established or national faith. ROSERFS.SE MONK OF THE GREEK CHURCHI. The Greek church strongly resembles the Roman or Western catholic church in doctrine, but differs essentially from it in government and disci- 534 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. pline. In the early ages of Christianity they formed but a single church; but a schism arose between the patriarch of Constantinople and the bishop or pope of Rome, a schism which had its ostensible origin in a few words' difference of creed; but it really arose from nothing but the ambition for supremacy of the two catholic prelates. The Roman bishop wished to keep the clergy unmarried, and proclaimed, in his confession of faith, the credo that the Son proceeds from the Father, and the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son, and is equal with them. The Greeks of the East maintained, on the contrary, that the Holy Scriptures do not forbid priests to marry; that communion should be in two kinds, and that the Holy Ghost does not proceed from the Son, but the Father only, and is equal to them. This was the commencement of the religious quarrel which brought about the separation and division of the Christian church. It was the policy of the monarchs to bring about a reconciliation, if practicable, and councils were called in which the rival pretensions of the two bishops were warmly and earnestly debated; the difference, instead of being healed, be- came envenomed, and the church was separated into two denominations, the Eastern or Greek, and the Western or Latin church, each claiming to be the orthodox and catholic church. The Slavons embraced the Christian religion of the Greek rite, and the bishops of Constantinople accorded them permission to say mass in the Slavonic language; but the Roman bishops interfered, and, by the ascen- dency of the Benedictines, imposed the Latin rite and communion. Angry dissensions and bloody persecutions arose from these events; but we will pass them over, and turn to the annals of the centuries immediately following. The pope of Rome, seeing several Slavic tribes thus with- drawing themselves from under his authority-among them the Armenians and others-tempered and modified his anathemas, and allowed the Greeks of Poland to make the double communion. Moreover, he dropped the catholic formula of the credo, permitted them to say mass in their native tongue, and finally conceded to all their priests, excepting the bishops, the right of getting married. The Armenians likewise obtained these advan- tages; and the concessions thus granted form another and striking instance of a schism approved of, or at least countenanced, by the pope. The church of Constantinople laid the foundations of the Russian church, principally by the action of the Byzantine emperors and their daughters, who, by marrying the savage Ros (as the Russians were called by the Byzantine historians), tried to soften their dangerous neighbors. Gene- rally, it was through the women that Christianity was introduced, and spread among the northern races. Being a daughter of Byzantium, the Russian church very naturally held under the patriarch of Constantinople, and was at that early period wholly independent of any action or inter- ference of the civil power of Russia or of the power of the Grand Dukes. After the fall of Constantinople into Turkish hands, one of the patriarchs fled to Moscow, in the sixteenth century, and thus a patriarchate was RELIGION THE GREEK CHURCH. 535 C MROBERTS SU PHILARETE, METROPOLITAN of ST. PETERSBURGH. established there. From this epoch, the Russian church, sheltered by the national independence, has looked on herself as being at the head of the eastern religious family. The patriarchs of Moscow long continued to preserve the independence of the church from the encroachments of the civil power, not, however, without serious collisions with some of the czars, and especially with Ivan the Terrible (Groznoï), who even im- prisoned and nearly put to death a patriarch. After the death of a patriarch, Peter the Great entirely abolished the whole institution, allowing no new election to be made; and thus assumed 536 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. a part of the power for himself and his successors. He instituted a board, under the name of the sacred or holy synod, formed of metropolitans, arch- bishops, bishops, and some lower members of the hierarchy, and appointed this synod to attend to ecclesiastical affairs of every kind. The decisions of this body, in spiritual matters, are understood to be wholly independent of the influence of the emperor. As to the administration, the power of the sovereign is supreme. In the synod, it is represented by the procuror, or imperial attorney, directing the deliberations and the administrative labors of the synod. The emperor nominates the hierarchy, and the synod gives them consecration. Peter the Great, and finally Catherine II., took away from the clergy and the monasteries all their property, which was very large. The whole hierarchy is now supported by the government. The religious spirit of the Greek church is perhaps more formal and less devout than that of sincere and believing Romanism or protestantism, and that philanthropic piety which is illustrated by the Sisters of Charity, for example, has no counterpart among the Oriental catholics. On the other hand, as during the primitive ages, the church developed itself principally through the Greek mind, and on the basis of the Greek philosophy there prevails in it a tendency to subtile speculation and investigation. In the bosom of Greek catholicism the so-called heresies of early times, such as Pelagianism and Arianism, had their origin. The sect of Iconoclasts. existed in Constantinople until the fall of the Byzantinian empire, and still has followers in Greece and Russia. Under the Turkish dominion the spirit of sectarian disunion has been checked in the East. In Russia vari- ous sects have sprung up, mainly since the fourteenth century. As the free reading of the Bible by the laity forms one of the fundamental usages of the Eastern church, dissensions have naturally taken place. Thus origi- nated the denomination of Roskolniks, who admit no higher rank in the clergy than that of parish priest; the Duchobortsy, who do not believe in the trinity, and reject baptism; others, again, who do not recognise any clergy at all, and have no churches; and others who emasculate them- selves after the birth of the first or second child. The most numerous sect is that of the Starowiertsy, who do not admit the slightest change in the external forms of worship, in the ornaments of the churches, in the manner of sounding the church bells, and in other particulars equally minute. It can not be said, however, that skepticism in any decided form has yet penetrated into the Eastern church. Nor has this church ever sought to encroach on the civil power, or to step out of its proper sphere in the decision of social or political questions. Religiously, its creed is not exclusive; it holds that whoever is baptized in the name of Christ will be saved. Justice requires us to add that stationary and lifeless as the East- ern church may be called, it has never in all its history used its power and thrown its influence against civilization and its discoveries. The Greek church may safely boast that it would never have excommunicated Gal- RELIGION-THE GREEK CHURCH. 537 ileo, nor protested against the theory of Copernicus, nor condemned vac- cination, or the culture of the potato. If much may be said against it in a religious point of view, it is only proper to adduce here what is so decidedly to its credit. The external manifestations of the whole Eastern church can be summed up in two principal characteristics: an unbounded suspicion and even ha- tred of all that is Roman or Latin, and an indestructible feeling of nation- ality. When Pius IX. became pope, he issued an encyclical letter appeal- ing to the Eastern Christians to unite with Rome. This offer raised the wrath of the Greeks and Slavons, and the patriarchs of Constantinople, Antioch, and Jerusalem, violently responded. In the numerous Slavic family this jealousy of Romanism extends toward the Poles, the Tschechs, and the Illyrians, all of whom are looked on with mistrust, as being of the Western church. Latinism is considered by the great mass of the Slavons as a growth strange to the domestic soil and of mischievous and pestilen- tial influence. This national feeling in the Greek church has for centuries. influenced the Greeks, and the Slavons south of the Danube, under the Turkish dominion; for centuries it has preserved the independence of Russia, and contributed to raise her to her present state. The Eastern church differs from the Roman in making the Holy Spirit proceed from the Father alone, and in denying purgatory, for which it does not find a satisfactory authority in the bible. It admits the same number of sacraments as do the Roman, but holds that baptism should be performed by immersing the whole body three times in water. Confirmation is ad- ministered after the ceremony of baptism by any priest, and not, as with the Romans, exclusively by the bishops. Transubstantiation is recognised in the administration of the communion as well as in the sacrifice of the mass, without, however, making the host an object of special worship. The communion consists in partaking of both bread and wine, the first leavened, the second mixed with water. Confession is obligatory; but it may be general, or special, or auricular, as the penitent chooses. Extreme unc- tion is bestowed not only on the dying, but when desired, on persons who are ill to any extent. Predestination is not admitted, nor the transfer of superabundant merits from one sinner to another, nor special indulgences for the dead or living. Though this church raises the Virgin above angels, seraphim, and cherubim, it does not accord to her the same prominent influence in heaven as do the Romans; though, in common with them, it recognises the worship of saints, relics, and holy places. It abounds in holy days, and observes and prescribes more fasts than the Roman church. The liturgy and ceremonies claim to be strictly conformed to those used in the earliest times of Christianity. The mass consists in the offering or sacrifice, the reading of the gospel, the epistles, the recital of the Lord's prayer, the Nicene creed, and other prayers aloud with the congregation, as was practised by Chrysostom and other primitive fathers. Preaching is considered as a secondary matter. No instrumental music whatever, but 538 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ஓ BISHOP.. COSTUMES OF THE GREEK CHURCH.. PRIEST. only choral singing, is used in the churches, and no stools, chairs, or benches, are allowed. Paintings are admitted, but no sculptures of stone, metal, or wood. The professed aim is to adhere exclusively to the author- ity of the gospels, and to the traditions transmitted by the apostles to their successors. Thus the authority of the fathers of the church is recognised so far as it is confirmed by the Ecumenic councils. The Russian clergy are divided into two classes, the "white" or secular clergy, and the "black" or cloistered clergy. The appellations are derived from their respective dresses, the one being clothed from head to foot in black, the other performing divine service in white robes adorned with gold.* Of the cloistered clergy, or monks, the Eastern church has only one order, instituted by St. Basil, one of the primitive fathers of the Ecu- * Although the name of the white clergy is, as is remarked in the text, derived from the color of their official robes, that of the other class is taken from their monastic or ordinary costume. While officiating as ministers of religion, their vestments, in both form and color, are regulated by the character of the service in which they are engaged. The costumes of several of the dignitaries of the Greek church (including that of a bishop, who must be one of the monastic order) in their official character may be seen in the engravings given above, and which, we may as well say here, en passant, are from designs taken from life by Paul Durand, and may therefore be relied on That of the metropolitan of St. Petersburg, on page 535, was also drawn from life, as correct. RELIGION — THE GREEK CHURCH. 539 DEACON.....COSTUMES OF THE GREEK CHURCH………….SUB-DEACON. menic church. From among the white clergy, who must be married, the çurates are taken, as are the other ranks of the hierarchy below the rank of bishop. All bishops must be unmarried, and monks. The members of the white clergy must be married, or at least engaged, before receiving the final consecration; but they can not marry twice, and on becoming widow- ers are obliged to enter a monastery. Thus a priest takes most devoted care of his wife to the utmost of his means and power. It is therefore pro- verbial among the people, to be as happy as a popadia, or the wife of a pope, which is the title of a priest, and is derived from the word papa. The white or married clergy form, in reality, a distinct caste; the male children following, generally, the condition of the father. This is, how- ever, the result of usage rather than of law. Nay, they even intermarry by Giraud. The white clergy, also, though officiating in white, generally wear brown or some darker color as their ordinary habit. Kohl remarks that many as are the risnitzi (wardrobes) of the Rus- sian churches that have been seen by travellers, to whom, moreover, the popes have often been goodnatured enough to serve as clothes-horses, it would yet be difficult by any expenditure of words to give even a feeble picture of a priest in pontificalibus. Such things must be left to the painter. It is enough to say that the enormous mass of gold and silk stuffs of various kinds which the Rus- sian clergy, like the catholic, have, in the course of centuries, laid their hands on, is such, that the toilet of the vainest worldling is moderate and modest in comparison. 540 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. among themselves. Thus the clergy form a class somewhere between the nobility, the bourgeoisie, and the people-less than the first, and superior to the two others. As a class, the clergy can not enter the nobility on an equal footing; and that very few marriages between them take place is, perhaps, principally on account of the poverty of the priests. For the children of the clergy to enter the body and share the occupations of the burghers would be looked on as a loss of caste. Few, therefore, of this class enter the public service, civil or military; and on the other hand, no nobleman ever takes "orders," with exception of now and then an old military veteran retiring to monastic life. The code of law, the Swod Zakonoff, gives the following definitions of the position of the clergy: The monasteries and convents are divided into three classes, and the dignity and precedency of their respective abbots and abbesses accords with this arrangement. The higher clerical hierar- chy, formed from the monks, consists of the metropolitan, the archbishop, the bishop, the igumen or abbé, etc. The titles of the white hierarchy are : protopresbyter, superdeans, deans, presbyters, protodeacons, deacons, sub- deacons, and common priest. Any one who takes monastic orders must receive the permission of the synod. The men must be thirty years of age-women, forty. If the can- didates belong to the taxed class—that is, if they are burghers, peasants, or serfs- they must produce a permission from their special superior. Married persons, or those not divorced, can not take orders unless both parties do it, and when there are no children under age. One can leave the order by permission of the superiors, and return to the social class to which he belonged before. For seven years, however, he can not live in the country where he was a monk, nor in either of the two capitals. Monks are exempted from military service, from the capitation tax, and from cor- poreal punishment. They can not own villages of serfs, or carry on trade. The order of the white clergy can be entered by any one, with the ex- ception of serfs. The wives and children of the clergy enjoy the privileges of this class, though they may personally belong to a lower order. Thus the children of priests, with few exceptions, are not obliged to look for another social position. They are exempt from military service. A priest can abandon his vocation and return to worldly life by the per- mission of the synod. (A Roman catholic priest never can.) Such a one returns to the social class to which he previously belonged, but he can not enter the public service until ten years after his renunciation. In all religious and disciplinary affairs the clergy are subject to and judged by their own hierarchy. In civil matters the case comes before the civil court, assisted by a deputy clergyman. Deacons and common priests are not liable to corporeal punishment. Clergymen can not own estates or serfs except when they are born nobles, or are decorated with a distinc- tion bestowing nobility. They can own houses in cities, and farms in villages, but they can not carry on trade. If the children of clergymen RELIGION PROTESTANT CHURCHES. 541 enter the military or civil service, they enjoy the privileges conferred on the children of personal nobles. The Roman catholic and the Greco-Armenian clergy enjoy the same. legal privileges as the orthodox. Each possesses its own special hierar- chy, whose decisions must be confirmed by the sovereign. The protestant clergy, which consists, principally, of Lutherans and Calvinists, have a hierarchy according to their own special organization.. Those wishing to be ordained are obliged to go through a whole course of protestant theo- logical studies, in one of the Russian universities, and then to pass an examination before their own superiors. No one can be a preacher under twenty-five years of age. Exceptions are allowed by the special permis- sion of the minister of the interior. It is under the control of this admin- istrative department that all the denominations, not orthodox or Greco- Russian, are placed. Individuals subject to the capitation tax must be furnished with an exemption from it before their ordination. Foreigners must have the permission of the ministry to preach, or to be settled over parishes. The affairs of the Lutheran church are administered by consistories, all of whose members take the oath of fidelity to the sovereign. Though a protestant clergyman be not noble born, yet, as long as he remains in this vocation, he enjoys the rights of personal nobility, and thus is exempted from the capitation tax. Houses in cities, owned and inhabited by them, are free from military quartering and from taxes. The protestant clergy have the right to organize a fund for their widows and orphans, with the permission of the respective consistories and of the minister. They can not carry on trade, or be artisans or mechanics. They can not be attor- neys in lawsuits not their own, or those of their wives or children; neither can they be guardians of orphans without a special permission of the con- sistory. In matters concerning their clerical condition, they are subject to the discipline of the hierarchy; in all others they are under the action of the general laws. When, in a criminal affair, an arrest of a clergyman is to be made, the consistory is to be instantly made acquainted with it. They can not be subjected to corporeal punishment. The widows and children of the protestant clergy enjoy all the privileges of personal nobles, with the exception of those born after the father has renounced the order. Widows and children enjoy for one year the income of the departed clergy- man. One abandoning the order, and not being either a hereditary or personal noble, is obliged to select a new mode of life, and become in- scribed in a corporation according to his choice. A clergyman can be dismissed and degraded by a criminal verdict, as well as for the transgres- sion of his duties, by the judgment of his special hierarchy. A clergyman, condemned to death, or to an infamous punishment—as for example to the pletnïa (a kind of whip which now generally replaces the knout), or to the mines, or to be branded—even if afterward he should be pardoned, can not recover his clerical standing, or the privileges connected with it. 542 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The clergy of the Greek or Russian church are educated in ecclesiasti- cal schools, kept by monks, and in monasteries, to which schools children of all other classes have likewise access. The regular theological instruc- tion is given there in separate classes. Children of priests can frequent other public schools-the gymnasia and universities, and generally, next to the class of the nobles, they have the easiest access to the means of instruction and education. The number of dioceses of the orthodox church amounts to nearly seventy, and that is also about the number of archbish- ops, bishops, and suffragans. The incomes of the Russian clergy are exceedingly small; the convents, with few exceptions, are very poor since Peter and Catherine II. de- prived them of their lands and their serfs, and reduced all monks and nuns to small pensions of the state. A metropolitan receives, as such, four thousand paper roubles (about eight hundred dollars); an archbishop has three thousand, and a bishop something less. In this proportion the in- comes decrease, till in the lowest ranks, their incomes often do not exceed the wages of a maidservant with us. The poor nuns, when they offer their little works to travellers, often complain of their poverty with melancholy faces; they receive only twenty-five roubles yearly (about five dollars), and what more they want they must work for or beg. It is not to be supposed that either nun or metropolitan could exist on such incomes as these. All must, therefore, be in the receipt of some extra revenue. The three metropolitans have each one of the greater lavras, or monasteries of the first rank. These convents serve them as residences, and the incomes annexed in lieu of benefices. When the metropolitans officiate at funerals, baptisms, &c., among the nobility, very considerable presents are made them, amounting often to five hundred or a thousand roubles. Taken at the utmost, however, the income of a metropolitan never can amount to more than thirty or thirty-five thousand roubles a year. The bishops, all additional sources of revenue included, have seldom more than twelve thousand roubles a year. Each bishop has a monastir (convent of the second class), whose income belongs to him, and it must also be observed that all the superior clergy have residences found them, in their convents or within the city, and are maintained and furnished with everything necessary, from servants and horses, down to dogs, cats, spoons, and plates, at the cost of the crown. The greater number are also provided with a country residence, with arable land, domestic animals, and furniture. The lower classes of priests have, it is true, none of these things; but neither do they starve. Every Russian, even the most miserly, seems to take a pleasure in filling them with good things. Kohl mentions a very rich, but very avaricious nobleman, who begrudged himself everything, but who, when a priest came to dine with him, produced all his best wines; a pope rarely came quite sober out of his house, and the holy man's car- riage would be packed with all sorts of dainties in addition. RELIGION- THE CLERGY. 543 The poor nuns seem to be in the worst condition, because they come so little in contact with the world, which might else bestow somewhat more on them. They must literally live by the labor of their hands; they may sometimes even be seen sowing and digging in the few poor fields which a convent here and there pos- sesses. They sometimes repair their own walls, and there is a church in Nijnei-Novgorod, said to have been built by the hands of nuns, probably under the direction of an architect, from the ground to the summit of the tower. They usually knit and weave stockings, silk and woollen girdles, purses, and other articles of clothing. and embroider priestly robes and draperies for wealthier churches and convents. ROBERTS RUSSIAN NUN. Poor as the Russian clergy appear to be with respect to revenue (some English bishops having, perhaps, alone, as much as half the dukhovenstvo or hierarchy of Russia), they are rich enough in titles, which are sometimes a yard or two long. If a person enter the apartment of a metropolitan, and address him, the title runs thus: "Vuissokopreosswäshtshennaïshi Vladiko," or if he write to him: "Yewo Vuissokopreosswështshenstvo Milostiväishu Gossudariu i Archipastuiru." The principal word may be translated: "His most high holiness." The whole address is something like: "His most high holiness the most dear and gracious lord, the lord arch-pastor." All these titles are most rigidly observed in addressing a letter; in addressing them personally, a little less strictness is permitted. Yet these very persons, who so load them with verbal honor, are not thereby deterred from sometimes laying aside all respect for the most high holinesses in a very unceremonious manner. So long as he is engaged in the performance of his functions the priest is treated with extreme reverence. Not only the laity kiss the hand of the chief priests after the service, but the inferior priests do the same when they receive the chalice, bible, or anything else from them; and without the church, when the priests make state visits, the ladies kiss the hand of the meanest of them, on which account many care- fully cherish a pretty hand, and decorate and perfume it when they pay these visits. These two occasions excepted, the priests enjoy no great personal influence or consideration. A priest's advice is seldom asked in family matters; even the domestic chaplains in great houses are there to : 544 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. perform divine service only, and never penetrate into the interior of fam- ilies, as the Romish clergy do. The Russian peasant, in cases of difficulty, rather turns to his saints' pictures, and invokes the sacrament rather than the priest who comes with it. It is remarkable, also, how little the people in the streets or houses of public entertainment seem held in check by the presence of a priest. Rarely is one seen appeasing a dispute, or exerting any moral authority to restore order; he passes on like any other indiffer- ent person. Moral influence, indeed, they have little or none; only with the saints in their hands are they feared or respected—only as directors of religious ceremonies-not as interpreters of the living word of God. How much more the Russian people are devoted to their pictures than their priests was proved in the most striking manner in the reign of Cathe- rine by an occurrence in Moscow. During the prevalence of an epidemic sickness, the government had caused a picture of the "Varvarian Mother of God," one of the most revered in the city, to be removed and put aside in a church, to withdraw it from the frantic kisses of the people, who in thus supplicating for help only spread disease further. The affair caused a riot. The people broke into the church, and compelled the priests to restore the picture to its place. The government thereupon applied to the metropolitan, who took it on himself again to remove the Varvarian Mother; which so irritated the people that they fell upon the metropolitan in the public streets, killed, and tore him in pieces. The priests naturally reap as they have sown. As they preach no lessons of reason or morality, they have no moral lever to put in motion; and as they only inspire reverence in their magnificent pontificalibus, little or none by their example and per- sonal qualities, the hem of their gold-embroidered yepitrakhils are con- stantly kissed, while their brown, every-day tunics, we are assured, often meet with hard knocks. The government uses them no better. The tem- poral power sometimes makes considerable inroads on the spiritual without calling the priests to counsel; and priests, like other public officers, are liable to hard reprimands and severe punishments. They may be sent to Siberia, or degraded to serve as common soldiers. The milder punish- ments are suspension from the exercise of their office, and degradation to the lowest offices in the church, or to the condition of ordinary monks. It is a well-known fact, that those who, on leaving seminaries, directly take orders as secular priests, though they obtain livings more quickly, never rise to the higher dignities of bishop or archbishop. They serve either as deacon and sub-deacon; or if, after leaving the seminary, they enter some other spiritual academy, they may become popes immediately. They have a right to marry like other men, but as they may only marry once, after the death of his wife a priest usually retires to a convent. Those only who submit to the severities of a conventual life, and, re- nouncing the happiness of marriage altogether, live only as half. men, are esteemed worthy of the highest spiritual dignities. They reach them by the several steps of novice, monach (monk), hieromonach (chief monk), RELIGION—THE CLERGY. 545 archimandrite (abbot), and so on. A nun is called monakhina, an abbess iyumena, denominations all taken from the Greek. The higher clergy also take masters' and doctors' degrees at the academies. The ranks of the clergy are recruited partly from themselves, partly from the lower classes of the people. The number of pupils obtained in their own families is not inconsiderable, for in Russia, also, the marriages of priests are usually very fruitful. The journal of the ministry for the interior gives on an average five children for every priest's marriage; this is for St. Petersburg. In the interior of the empire the average may be higher. The sons of priests generally follow the profession of their father; they are called popovichi. The extra demand is supplied by the free peasants and the burghers. The children of the nobles seldom or never enter the church as in catholic countries. "During an abode of several years in Russia," says Kohl, "I heard of but one employé who entered a convent in consequence of domestic misfortune; and of two officers who took the same step, from what motives I know not. I once found a Ger- man protestant in a Russian convent, whose talents and education had at his outset in life promised him a very advantageous career." So much for the outward condition and position of the Russian clergy. For the inward it must be owned, when we consider the whole system and its fruits during the course of centuries, and when we compare their deeds with those of the priesthood in other countries, they are a very insignificant body. They have done nothing super-excellent for the arts or for science, nor produced men who in any respect have done humanity great service. They lived, eat, drank, married, christened, buried, absolved, and died; and on the whole they have not done much else. There are, it is true, notabilities among the Russian clergy, but they are such only in Russia. Some things, however, are to be said in praise of the Russian priesthood. They are not less than other Russians distinguished for their toleration in matters of religion. It is true the matter does not lie very near their hearts; because they have few thoughts or ideas connected with it, which have become firm convictions, and are maintained as such; they are, there- fore, peaceful, not so much out of dislike to quarrelling as from a want of zeal and energy. It is a merit in them, nevertheless. Nowhere does this tolerant spirit appear in a more favorable light than on the frontiers of the Russian and Polish provinces. Here there are in many places only Greek and Roman catholic priests, and no protestant pastor. Should it happen that a foreign protestant is in want of spiritual assistance in sick- ness, or should the body of a protestant require burial, it is almost inva- riably the catholic who, in an inhuman and unchristian manner, refuses his spiritual aid, while the Russian gives his without hesitation. In such cases foreigners always apply to the Russian rather than to the catholic priests. Seldom is an unkind word heard from Russian priests when speaking of a person of a different faith; and those who understand German, will even go frequently to the Lutheran churches to hear the preachers. In the 35 546 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Baltic provinces, when the military, who happen to be stationed there, have no Russian church within reach, the Russian priests never hesitate to per- form divine service in a protestant church, and in the interior it has hap- pened that they have lent their own churches to protestants. In Austria, protestant churches are only called prayer-houses. In Russia the priests treat them as on an equal footing with their own. Neither do they hesi- tate to bury their dead in the same churchyards with the protestants. The cultivated part of the priesthood are much more inclined to the prot- estant than to the catholic party; more to rationalism than mysticism. Their libraries prove it. Niemeyer's works, his bible, the Stunden der Andacht, Schleiermacher's writings, and Neander's Church History, are frequently met with. The works of the other party are, on the contrary, very rare. When some recent occurrences in the Baltic provinces and in Poland are called to mind, it may be thought that the Russian priesthood are somewhat less tolerant now than formerly; and, in fact, it is only natural that, with the proud exaltation of political power, the church should also begin to lift up her head. As the government seeks to advance the political creed, the church may endeavor by more urgent zeal and greater energy to spread "the one and only true faith;" but if the church does take her share in the conquests, and appears to progress in those provinces, it does so certainly far less from its own impulse than in conse- quence of commands emanating from a higher quarter. !! Russians at Prayer. FESTIVALS AND FASTS-BUTTER-WEEK. 547 CHAPTER XXI. THE FESTIVALS AND FASTS. HE festival particularly distinguished in the Russian Greek church-- so much so, indeed, both in reference to the time it lasts, and the pomp of its celebration, that all other holydays sink to nothing before it- is that of Easter. As spring commonly sends many fine days as forerunners to announce its approach, so the Easter festival-"the festival," as the Russians term it-is preceded by a whole series of smaller festivities, and succeeded again by a kind of epilogue; and these holydays, taken all to- gether, stretch over no inconsiderable portion of the year-over two months. If we reflect that a Russian spends a sixth part of his life in keeping Easter, and that all the joys, sorrows, privations, business, work, and play, of the whole Russian people, during so considerable a portion of time, are determined by the festive occasion, it must be worth while to take a nearer view of a festival of so important a character, and so wide an influence; and in doing so the range of our lorgnette will be confined mostly to St. Petersburg. The Easter festival itself begins in the middle of the night of the Satur- day in Passion-week, and its joys are loud and incessant through the eight following days. This centre of festivity is preceded by a seven weeks' fast as a preparation for the feast, and before the seven weeks' fast comes an eight days' feast as a preparation for the fast. All these spring merry- makings may be thus divided into three consecutive celebrations. Firstly, eight days drinking and carousing, called by the Russians Mass- länitza (butter-week). Secondly, seven weeks' fast, called, to distinguish it from the other fasts, Velikoi posd (the great fast). And, thirdly, Easter itself, and its attendant train. In the great world of St. Petersburg, the approach of the great fast is announced by the balls and other carnival revels coming fast and furious, even as early as the beginning of February. For the mass of the people, the sports and pastimes with which they take leave of roast meat and other pleasures are all pressed into one week-the "butter-week," as it is called -which falls generally in the middle, or toward the end of February. The butter-week contains the quintessence of all Russian festivity, and, except the Easter-week, there is no week in the whole year which offers to a St. Petersburger such an abundance of earthly enjoyments as this. 548 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Firstly, as its name implies, the week is one of butter; butter is eaten instead of oil, which must be substituted during the fast-days. The Mass- länitza may be literally said to be redolent of butter. The favorite dish of this season is composed of blinni—a kind of pancake baked in butter- served up with a sauce of melted butter, and eaten with caviare. The blinni belong peculiarly to the butter-week, and are baked at no other time of the year; but at this season they are served up punctually at every breakfast. After a butter-week breakfast of blinni, nothing is more agreeable than a walk to the "katsheli," or swings, the usual amusement enjoyed between breakfast and dinner during the butter-week. It is the only one in which all classes of society partake in common, from the head of all, the enthroned summit of their Babylonian tower, down to the lowest and dirtiest of its base. The Russians delight as much in all motion where the limbs are at rest, and the body changes place by means of a machine, as they eschew all corporeal exercise, which keeps the muscles in play. Hence their pleasure in the Russian mountains, as they are called; in swings, sledge-driving, see-sawing on elastic planks, whirling through the air on roundabouts, &c. These are amusements in which a Russian's delight is part of his very nature, and they are enjoyed alike by prince and peasant. The fibres of the muscular system of the Russian are sluggish and unelastic; gymnastic exercises are nowhere more neglected. Their blood is voluptuous, their nervous system excitable; hence this swinging and gliding, this flying and floating without any effort on their own part, is peculiarly to their taste. Their inventions of this kind are innumerable; but the chief and crown of all Russian pleasures for the people is that expressed by the favorite word katsheli (swing), which includes all similar pastimes. For the erection of the katsheli of the butter-week they choose a large and particularly long piece of ground, which is never wanting in the ex- tensive Russian towns. In St. Petersburg, the icy floor of the Neva was formerly in use; but since the accident of some years ago, when the ice gave way under the pressure and swallowed up a multitude of the swing- ers, the Admiralty-square has been the chosen spot. Long trains of sledges, laden with beams and planks, are seen moving for days before in that direction, and soon, under the strokes of the ready Russian hatchet, theatres and other wooden buildings, which recall the palaces of St. Petersburg a hundred and forty years ago, are reared amid the splendid edifices of the Admiralty, the war-office, the senate and synod houses, &c. These booths are erected in long rows: among them are theatres capable of holding some thousands; and these ephemeral build- ings, aping the magnificence of stone buildings, are decorated with galle- ries, pillars, balconies, &c. At these theatres may be seen hundreds busily at work, and swarming like so many ants, with their hammers, saws, and FESTIVALS AND FASTS-ICE-MOUNTAINS. 549 hatchets affording no uninteresting spectacle in themselves, even before the stage has been prepared for the show. The most striking of these preparations are the ice-mountains, which form the subject of the frontispiece to this volume, and the method of their construction. A narrow scaffold is raised to the height of thirty or more feet, on the top of which is a gallery, ascended on one side by wooden steps; on the other is the great descent, very steep at first, and gradually declining till it becomes level with the ground. It is formed of huge square blocks of ice laid upon planks. Under a few strokes of the hatchet the beautiful crystal masses assume a regular form, and over the whole water is thrown, from time to time, which cements, or rather ices the blocks together. Where it is level with the ground, dams of snow are formed on either side, and the gulley between filled with water, which, freezing smooth as glass, lengthens the slide. Two such ice-mountains stand always opposite one another, so that their paths, only separated by the snow-dams, run parallel to each other. The invention of these ice-mountains has been credited to the English. They may have improved the mechanical part, but the amusement itself is an ancient and a national one, and is practised all over Russia. In the courtyards of most of the great houses in St. Petersburg there are such ice-mountains erected for the amusement of the children; and even in the halls of some of the wealthier Russians, elegant "rutschbergs" are to be found, with this difference, that the slide is made, not of ice, but of polished mahogany, or of some other smooth wood, down which the little sledges glide with great rapidity. These are peculiarly adapted to summer use when ice-hills can not be formed. There is a mahogany rutschberg even in the imperial palace. In every town and village these slippery declivities are crowded with youths and maidens rushing down with the swiftness of arrows. The sledges are made of ice, dexterously shaped into ships. In the hollow they lay straw to sit upon, and in front a hole is bored for a rope. In the climate of Russia these sledges are lasting enough. Kohl remarks: "I saw one morning, in St. Petersburg, a striking instance of how much these ice-mountains form a national amusement. I was by chance very early in a distant quarter of the city, and observed, mounted on the roof of a small building, a number of people, servants, women, and children, whose slippers and floating hair betrayed that they had not long left their beds. They seemed busy about something, and I concluded there must be a chimney on fire, or something of that kind. No such thing; they had formed a snow-mountain from the roof to the ground, and in a few minutes down went the whole company, shouting for joy, on a straw mat, which did duty pro tempore for a sledge." When all the booths, mountains, and swings, in the Admiralty-square are firmly fixed (that is, for the temperature of St. Petersburg, the greater part of the pillars having no other foundation than a hole in the earth filled with snow and water, which holds them as firm as a rock, unless the St. 550 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Petersburg February belies its nature), the fun begins on the first Sunday of the butter-week, and then the gliding and sliding, swinging and singing, whirling and twirling, tea-drinking and nut-cracking, that make up the Masslänitza go merrily on for the eight stated days. In a few days the snowy floor of the Admiralty-square is regularly paved with nut-shells, and looks as if a whole army of nut-crackers had encamped there. Nuts, sweetmeats, and honey-cakes, are the only eatables to be had. Eating- houses, wine and brandy-shops, are not allowed on the elegant square of the Admiralty, as they might give rise to indecorous scenes. A honey- cake may be eaten with grace, and so may a bonbon presented by a lover to his mistress: even a nut may be tolerated if nibbled at squirrel-fashion, and not demolished by an uncivil crash and a grimace. Cakes and tea may be nipped and sipped in public, but hunger and thirst let every animal satisfy in his own lair. The Russian street-merchants offer everything to everybody. Either very elegant people must buy very inelegant wares, or the sellers must be so persuaded of their excellence, or so bewitched by the vision of a few possible copecks, that they do not perceive how little chance they have of finding customers in such a class. In the front of the booths and theatres, swarming with the tea-drinking, nut-cracking pedestrians, there is always a broad space reserved for the equipages of the grandees, who make their appearance about noon, to see the fair. A universal driving in carriages takes place regularly in the butter-week at the katsheli, the Easter-week, and on the first of May, throughout Russia. On their estates, the wealthy Russians and their guests enjoy these gulanies in the evening; everything that can be called horse or vehicle is put in requisition; droskies, kaleshes, chaises, landaus, hunting and provision-carts, are mounted by the whole domestic population, and away they go coaching it through the country. The enormous number of equipages in a Russian city, where, from a tailor of any eminence up- ward, everybody keeps one, renders these gulanies very amusing. The luxury in this respect is greater, in fact, in some provincial cities than in the two capitals; as in the former there is no prohibition of four or six horses for certain ranks, and every one is at liberty to make his team as long as he likes, or as he can. The merchants are known by their brightly-furbished kaleshes, drawn by two black horses, with their manes plaited into a multitude of little tails. The foreign ambassadors generally adopt the Russian style in the number and caparison of their horses. The carriages go so slowly that their contents may be contemplated at leisure; fair young maidens, with their pretty French governesses; countesses and princesses, enveloped in their sables and silver fox-furs, reclining at their ease, and surveying the crowd through their eye-glasses; boys in the national costume, with their tutors; here a corpulent merchant with his long beard, and his equally jolly spouse; there a bishop or metropolitan, meditating on the vanities FESTIVALS AND FASTS-THE BURNING THEATRE. 551 of the world; then a foreign embassador; then a nuncio from the pope, reflecting on the increasing power of the northern heresy. Further on, twenty court-kaleshes, each with six horses, and filled with young girls- these are the damsels from the Smolnoi convent. English merchants, German artists, French doctors, Swedish professors, Turks, Persians, Tar- tars, even Chinese, and last of all an emperor and his whole court. We must do the St. Petersburg police the justice to say that the streets are rarely disturbed by any scenes of brutal intemperance. The very quiet nature of Russia intoxication may perhaps partly account for this. A Rus- sian coachman is often as full as a bottle in a bin, and yet shows no signs of any deficiency, till he fairly tumbles off his box. * Amusing as it is said to be to occupy a convenient place at this spectacle of the katsheli-where the Admiralty-square is the stage, buildings like the winter-palace, the senate-house, and the war-office, serve as side-scenes, and where the whole population of St. Petersburg appear as actors—still it is difficult to forget that the festive scene has witnessed two most tragi- cal occurrences; the one was the giving way of the ice on the Neva, when so many found a watery grave in the midst of their thoughtless merriment; the other, and more recent, was the burning of the wooden theatre. Few narratives excite more horror than those connected with the fire just allu- ded to. Thousands may die battling for freedom; we honor them, but their death fills us not with dread; they win a glorious name, and die with honor. Thousands meet their end upon the sick-bed; we weep for them, but it is the course of nature that they should die. But that thousands, by mere accident, in the midst of sports, in the most thoughtless revelry, should bid adieu to this fair world, to all their plans and hopes, stifled in a miserable wooden booth like so many rats and mice-this is fearful, and reminds us too awfully of the feeble tenure by which we hold existence. The wooden theatres at the katsheli are some of them very large. One in particular generally surpasses all the others in this respect, and is capable of holding five thousand persons. In this it was that the fire took place, when the scene was to represent some firework or illumination. At first those behind the scenes, hoping to extinguish the flames, said nothing about it; as they increased, the audience applauded loudly, supposing it to be the promised spectacle. Suddenly the bajozzo rushed forward, with a look of horror, shouting aloud, "We are on fire!-save yourselves, you who can!" The audience answered by loud laughter, at the admirably- feigned fear, as they supposed it to be. Thereupon, as it was impossible for him to make himself heard, the director ordered the curtain to be raised, and a mass of flame and smoke became visible. Screams of horror burst from the thousands of throats whence loud laughter had issued just before. Each grasped convulsively those dearest to them, and rushed to the doors. These were but few, the size of the place considered, and a fearful length of time elapsed before the foremost gave way to those behind. The flames in the meantime gained rapidly upon the pine planks around them, leap. 552 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ing from slip to slip, and already showing their fiery tongues among the dense mass of spectators. Most unfortunately it happened that one of the large folding-doors opened inward. By the pressure of the throng it was flung to, and could not be moved one way or the other. On the outside, the attempts to rescue the poor victims were at first feeble, for who in the midst of gayety dreams of such a fearful chastisement? Those within, in the meantime, compressed the anguish of years into a few minutes as they stood breast to breast shrieking in vain their frantic "Forward!" to those in advance. The whole mass were stifling, the flames leaping threaten- ingly over their heads; yet they were only separated by a few thin boards from the free bright air, and in a few minutes more they might have rent asunder their fragile tomb with their hands and teeth. Fancy sickens at the contemplation of the suffering of those minutes; only one risen from the ashes could truly paint occurrences that rent asunder the chords of life when suddenly awakened from the slumber of thoughtless enjoyment to the wildest pitch of terror and despair. The police would not at first allow of any individual effort for the rescue of the sufferers; a merchant who had seized a spade succeeded, however, in defiance of them, in dashing through a plank, and bringing nearly sixty half-suffocated creatures from this harlequin's hell. The worthy man was afterward rewarded for his act of courage and humanity by an order, and, as he was poor, by a pension of two thousand roubles. The terrible news soon spread through the town that Lepmann's theatre was on fire, and thousands struggling with the most horrible of deaths. The anguish became universal. The consternation of the city, the scenes. of agony and transport that followed, must have been seen to be understood. The emperor, who had left the winter-palace opposite at the first news of the fire, was met by shrieking and despairing women calling on him to save their husbands, sons, and brothers; he could only answer, "My children, I will save all I can." When the fire was got under, and life and flame within were extin- guished together, the dreadful task began of digging out the bodies. The sight was beyond all conception terrible when the fallen beams were re- moved, disclosing the heaps of charred and stifled bodies, which were dragged out with hooks, like loaves out of an oven. Some were burnt to a cinder, others only roasted; of many the hair of their heads was only singed, while on others it was burnt off; their eyes were destroyed, their faces black and calcined, yet some still were decked with the gayly-colored handkerchiefs and holyday-clothes, which the thickness of the pressure had saved from injury! These were far more terrible to look on than those entirely burnt. In one part of the building that remained standing, a crowd of dead were discovered in an erect posture, like an army of shad- ows from the lower world. One woman was found with her head leaning over the front of the gallery, her face hidden in her handkerchief. The number of those who perished was officially announced at three FESTIVALS AND FASTS-BALLS AND FETES. 553 hundred, but that is probably far below the mark. "I was told by one person," says Kohl, " that he himself had counted fifty wagons, each laden with ten or fifteen corpses; and others, who had every means of obtaining correct information, made an estimate, whose amount I am unwilling to repeat here, lest it should be thought improbable." Some were brought to life again; many died afterward in the hospitals from the injuries re- ceived. One little boy was found sitting, quite unhurt, under a bench, where he had crept when the falling fragments began to shower down fire and flame upon the heads of the doomed multitude. The beams and dead bodies had so fallen over him as to form a protecting roof against the flame and smoke, and there the child remained till he was dragged out. On the following day public prayers were offered up for the souls of the sufferers, on the place that had witnessed the scene of their last agony. The upper classes take part, as we have seen, in the common amuse- ments of the katsheli, but it is only for a few hours at noon; they resort then to other diversions, and revel after their own fashion. To speak first of the theatres. Many as there are in St. Petersburg, they are all in full play during the butter-week; while it lasts there is no rest for the poor actors. Toward the close of the week they play twice a day, morning and evening, French, German, Russian, and Italian. In the great theatre (the Bolshoi theatre, a view of which is given on page 579) the great masked ball takes place in the butter-week, and this may also be reckoned among the popular diversions, since every well-dressed person is at liberty to go, whatever be his rank, the emperor himself holding it his duty to appear there. When a Russian noble wishes to give éclat to his fête, his first step is to secure the presence of the emperor and empress as his guests. Every noble is at liberty to invite the emperor, who makes much less difficulty of visiting his subjects than would be exacted by the etiquette of most other courts. The fête-giver puts on his dress of ceremony and drives to court, where he signifies to the grand-master of the ceremonies that he wishes to give a ball, if it be the pleasure of the emperor and empress to honor it by their presence; and at the same time presents the list of the company in- vited, which is generally returned unaltered. Now and then a name is struck out, or the desire intimated that no foreigners be present, the empe- ror desiring for that night to be alone with his subjects. B- A chief article of luxury on such an occasion is the display of a numerous retinue. At one given by Count B————, a hundred servants in livery were stationed on the stairs alone. The servants of the house of course are not enough, and ten roubles an evening are paid on such occasions for a good- looking figure for the part. The liveries, of course, must be all new for the occasion; and at the count's fete fifty wore violet-colored velvet trim- med with silver, and fifty purple velvet with gold, the colors of the lord and lady of the house. On every stair stood alternately an orange or lemon-tree, and a velvet-clad domestic, from the house-door to that of the 554 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. saloon. The present empress is a great lover of flowers, consequently every ball in St. Petersburg presents a profusion of them. One room is generally arranged as a winter-garden, and rose-bushes and arbors of roses of every shade form inviting nooks for refreshment. Abundant as the diversions are during the Russian carnival, they double and triple during the last days of the butter-week. Fast and furious waxes the revelry during the three or four days preceding the great fast The schools break up, the public offices are closed, the great theatres give representations morning and evening, and the twelve bajazzos on the kat- sheli announce some novelty every five minutes; the rich give déjeûners dansants, which last till five or six in the evening, take a few hours' rest, and then make a new and brilliant toilette for a second ball at night. A RUSSIAN CAROUSAL DURING EASTER. Among the common people, in the meantime, the drunkenness of the evening concludes the intoxication of the morning; the public, wherever it is to be seen, seems in the best possible humor, and applauds everything and everybody. The emperor and all his court drive about in their brilliant equipages; down rush the sledges from the ice-mountains till the ice glows again; the swings are at full flight; the bells of the wooden houses in the roundabouts tingle without ceasing; the bajazzos announce from hour to hour how long the Masslänitza has to last: nimbly rolls his lesson off the tongue of him who shows the lions and the boa-constrictor, that he may despatch one set of customers to get as many more as possible. All the pulses of life beat prestissimo; all seem eager to drain the last drop in the cup of joy, until the hour of midnight strikes and proclaims the beginning of the fast. Every dancing couple is brought to a sudden halt, and every FESTIVALS AND FASTS—THE GREAT FAST. 555 one departs homeward to sweeten the tediousness of the fast with the remembrance of the enchanting joys of the last days of the carnival. The butter-week, as before remarked, is followed by the great fast, the severity of which banishes not only flesh and fowl, but milk, eggs, butter, and even sugar, on account of the small mixture of animal substance used in the refining. Soups made of kwas and mushrooms, fish, and cakes flavored with oil, tea and coffee with almond-milk, mushrooms again, with cucumbers in vinegar-those are the dainties that succeed the fat blinnis, rich pasties, cakes, and rôtis of the butter-week. Neither is wine or any spirituous liquors permitted, whereby a cook might give some spirit to his mushroomed, fishy, oily, fasting-sauces, or the tea-drinker to his watery beverage. The people of the lower classes exclude even fish in the first and last weeks of the fast, as they do on the Wednesdays and Fridays in the remaining five. These two days, which must always take precedence. of the others, are distinguished in the last week by total abstinence. The very strictly pious extend this additional severity of observance to the whole seven weeks, with a three days' total abstinence in the week before Easter. Even the upper classes observe the fasts much more strictly than they do in catholic countries. The first and last weeks, with the Wednes- days and Fridays of the remainder, are generally religiously observed. The greatest number of infractions of the fast bear reference to the brandy- bottle, the very point in which abstinence would be most beneficial; some maintain that the Russians drink as much of it during the fasts as at any other time. It is not, however, called brandy, but it is enjoyed under the disguise of all manner of euphemisms. It is remarkable enough how carefully a Russian watches that nothing of an animal substance pass his lips when he has really made up his mind to fast in earnest. A young girl will throw away a whole cup of tea directly, if she smell that her French governess has put cream into it in- stead of almond-milk. Occasionally mothers take it on themselves to give their little ones a dispensation on the ground of indisposition. After a fast-day breakfast, a walk on the Admiralty-place, to which peo- ple instinctively resort, is a most dismal affair. It is all scattered over with ruins of temporary houses and booths, the ground paved with nut- shells and orange-peel. The wooden horses of the roundabout stand idle, the gayly-decorated ships and swings lie shattered and heaped together like wood for burning, the smooth mirrors of the ice-mountains are broken up with iron bars; and the poor merry-andrew, the bajazzo, what has become of him?-he that, for days together, seemed inexhaustible in fun and jest? It is melancholy to see how rational he looks as he pants and perspires under the burden of planks, the sad remains of his fool's-palace. The thousand voices that stunned us but the day before are silent, or only employed in reckoning their gains or settling with their merchants. All arc stretching, yawning, and shuddering at the joylessness of the long seven weeks before them. 556 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The greater part of the public amusements, especially balls and plays, are strictly prohibited. Assemblies and soirées, without dancing or mask- ing, take the place of the tumultuous ball; and as cow's-milk is changed into almond-milk, butter into oil, and flesh into fish, so plays become pub- lic declamations and improvisations, operas change into concerts; and the theatre, which must not act plays, is open for tableaux vivants. The seven fasting weeks to the gay world are one long night, in which only the modest stars and moon faintly gleam, till all at once, like Apollo with his steeds of light, the bright sun of Easter breaks forth in full splendor. In the butter-week the dresses of the belles at a St. Petersburg party are glittering with a profusion of jewels. For the fasts, the brilliant diamond is too glaring; the single row of pearls in the hair, here and there the modest turquoise peeping forth like a violet or forget-me-not, and coral ornaments for the arms and throat, are alone seen at the reunions, where conversation and song have displaced the waltz and polonaise. * The fasting-weeks are the golden harvests of the musical artists; every evening some new singer or violinist is announced, with recommendations from Vienna or Paris; and sometimes one will undertake alone to amuse the St. Petersburg public, which would before have tasked the art of a hundred high priests of Thalia. The best of the fast-time amusements are the tableaux vivants, which are given with great taste and magnificence. The monotony of the fasts is now and then broken by the feast of some saint, which may fall in this time. Happy the saint thus celebrated; he may reckon upon numerous adorers; and happy the child whose birthday occurs at this time. He may be sure it will be kept till his eightieth year with great joy and festivity; first by his parents, then by his brothers and sisters, by blood and marriage, and afterward by his children and grand- children. Family festivals are deemed innocent things, quite suitable to the seriousness of a fast, and therefore people try to make them as splendid as possible. Palm Sunday is another very agreeable interruption of the great fast. The children's festival is celebrated on Palm Sunday. The scene of this pretty fair is under the arcades of the great Gostinnoi Dvor, and in the adjoining streets. Huge bundles of twigs are brought into the city by the peasants, some very small, while others are great branches, almost as big as young trees, to suit the various amounts of piety; for while the severe orthodox father buys a whole tree, which he gets blessed in the church, and afterward suspends under the pictures of his saints, his elegant son contents himself with a delicate little twig, which he cracks like any * In no country are so many diamonds and other precious stones displayed as in Russia. Not only every Russian lady of rank has her jewel-casket, in which, beside those ready set, she has a quantity of loose diamonds and pearls, to be arranged according to fancy at different times and places, but even the little girls have their caskets, containing dozens of rings, ear-rings, bracelets, &c., with which they are constantly decorated. How necessary they esteem them may be learned from the fact that a newly-married couple, whose whole capital was six thousand roubles, expended three thousand for jewels and ornaments, and the other three for beds, tables, and other furniture FESTIVALS AND FASTS-PALM SATURDAY. 557 ordinary whip. To these natural foundations are appended the palms which art has constructed to aid the poverty of a northern April. The bare twig is furnished with an abundance of leaves and flowers, some copied from nature, and some the production of a lively fancy. Some are made like the branches of fruit-trees, and hung with all the fruits of the east imitated in wax, with waxen birds and waxen angels fastened to the boughs with sky-blue ribands. A great number of natural flowers are also brought from the numerous hot-houses of St. Petersburg: centifolia, moss-roses, violets, hyacinths, and orange-flowers, for the elder sisters, who are not content to leave the fair with none but artificial flowers. As flowers alone would not be acceptable to children, sweetmeats and playthings are also to be had in abundance. The Russians have a peculiar talent for making figures and toys out of the most worthless materials in the world; straw, shavings, ice, dough, they turn all to account. The stalls for the sale, or rather the exchange, of saints' pictures, im- ages, etc. (for the Russian must not sell the picture of a saint, though he may exchange it, which he does sometimes for money), are also provided with a multitude of amulets, crosses, &c., of all possible sizes, forms, and materials; and if a person is not inclined to load himself with a heavier cross, he at least takes one of gingerbread, which he has the advantage of being able to eat when he is tired of carrying it. The dealers in plaster- of-Paris figures throng here in greater numbers than in their Italian father- land. As this is a regular national festival, the emperor holds it his duty to honor it with his presence, and brings all his sons and daughters with him. On a bright clear day, such as even a St. Petersburg April sometimes affords, Kohl remarks that a walk here among all these significant and insignificant people affords one of the most amusing spectacles of the season; it is, as it were, the morn of the night of the great fast. On Verbnoi Subbota (Palm Saturday) a great procession takes place, in imitation of Christ's entry into Jerusalem, and all stream into the churches, carrying branches, and singing. The priests sprinkle branch and branch- bearers with holy water, and add a blessing into the bargain; the greater number then carry away their palms. Whole groups are to be met with carrying them about till late in the evening-father, mother, and children, with the servants walking behind them; even the infant in the nurse's arms has a palm-twig, sprinkled and blessed, thrust into its tiny fist. As for the boys, the best use they can make of their twigs is to flog each other with them, which they do handsomely. Some of the more pious leave their branches till Sunday in the church, and many suspend them over their beds, ascribing all sorts of healing influences to the leafless twigs. The children also cherish theirs carefully, but for another purpose. It is the custom throughout Russia to punish those who sleep too late on Palm Sunday to attend early mass, by flogging them with the palm-branches. Girls and boys are all so eager to administer this discipline, that they lie awake 558 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. half the night thinking of it; and as soon as the day breaks, they are run- ning about in bands in search of and punishing the sleepers. This custom prevails throughout Russia, and the imperial children exercise the privilege as eagerly as those of lower rank. The Easter-eggs play a very important part at this time of the year. St. Petersburg, lying in a plain little peopled either by man or barn-door fowls, must procure her eggs from a great distance. Moscow in particular supplies large quantities. On a very moderate calculation, there can not be less than ten millions used at Easter in this capital; for, as it is always customary at Easter, on greeting an acquaintance, to press an egg into his hand, many an individual may consume his hundreds. Nothing is said to be more amusing than to visit the markets and stalls where the painted eggs are sold. Some are painted in a variety of pat- terns; some have verses inscribed on them; but the more usual inscription is the general Easter-greeting, "Christohs vosskress" (Christ is risen), or "Eat and think of me," &c. The wealthier do not, of course, content themselves with veritable eggs, dyed with Brazil-wood, but profit by the custom, to show their taste and gallantry. Scarcely any material is to be named that is not made into Easter-eggs. "At the imperial glass-cutting manufactory," says Kohl, "we saw two halls filled with workmen employed on nothing else but in cutting flowers and figures on eggs of crystal. Part of them were for the emperor and empress to give away as presents to the courtiers." As the latter receive many of these things, they, of course, give them away again to their friends and favorites, who, the next Easter, bestow them in their turn elsewhere; so that these eggs often travel to amazing distances. It is said that one, which came from the imperial pal- ace, passed through numberless hands of high and low, till its last posses- sor, having let it fall on a stone, pitched the fragments into the Black sea. The wax-fruit makers and confectioners produce some pretty pieces of workmanship, in elegant boxes filled with eggs of all sizes in regular order, from the mighty ostrich-cgg down to the nightingale's, and all in wax and sugar. Some are bonbonnières, and very costly presents are also offered in egg-shells; some are transparent, and in place of the yolk, contain little fairy bouquets, and some have a magnifying-glass neatly fitted in, and dis- play houses and trees formed in wax, pictures of saints, and tiny angels couched on roses. A considerable trade is carried on in such commodities. at Easter from St. Petersburg, which returns in imitative sugar the raw produce of the hen-house received from the provinces. On Holy Thursday the occurrences of the day are read out of the four Evangelists after mass. The priest stands in the middle of the church at a desk, on which burn three candles. The churches are in general thronged, and as every member of the congregation holds a taper in the hand, they make an uncommonly cheerful appearance. The poor take a pride in hav- ing these tapers as thick as they can get them, and may often be seen with beautifully-gilded tapers which have cost them a couple of roubles each. FESTIVALS AND FASTS-EASTER-EVE. 559 They are burnt throughout the Thursday evening, extinguished on Good Friday, and kindled again at midnight on Easter-eve. The streets of the towns and villages that are in general unlighted, are then gay with wan- dering illuminations as the taper-bearers go from one church to another; INTERIOR OF A RUSSIAN CHURCH THE ASUMPTION AT Moscow. and that the tapers may not be extinguished, which is looked upon as an ill omen, they are carried in paper lanterns. On Good Friday there is no further ceremonial than the erection of a kind of tabernacle in the churches; in general, a mere box laid upon tres- 560 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. 1 sels and covered with a cloth; on the upper side of the cloth, the body of the Redeemer is represented in painting, embroidery, or half-relief. This tabernacle stands there till Easter-eve, with only so many lights as are necessary to show the objects. The doors of the churches stand constantly open, and the people go in and out to kiss the simulated wounds. In the last days of the fast expectation is strained to the highest pitch. On the Saturday before Easter-day the thermometer of religious inspiration falls below zero. The lights, the singing, the bells, all the pomp of divine service is consigned to repose. The devout are thoroughly exhausted with abundant kneeling and listening to the long readings. Many have had nothing whatever to eat for the last three days, and are really half-starved. The churches are as dark as the grave; no priest shows himself on the Saturday evening till midnight. It is customary for one of the congrega- tion to take on himself the office of reading from the gospel. A desk, which lies an open bible, is placed in the middle of the church; one of the lower classes, who can just spell out Slavonian, will advance, light his taper, and read till some one else advances to release him. Except the beautiful church-singing, no custom of the Russian church seems so really touching and edifying as this public reading. on Toward midnight the throng increases. In St. Petersburg the court appears in the imperial chapel in full dress; and in the provinces the gov- ernor, with all his adjutants and officers in their splendid uniforms, attend the cathedral. The priests begin a mass, which is but languidly performed or listened to, till all at once, at the hour of midnight, the whole scene changes. The golden door of the "ikonostast" flies open, and the song bursts forth, "Christohs vosskress! Christohs vosskress ihs mortvui!" ("Christ is risen, Christ is risen from the dead!") At the same moment the illumination of the church is completed, not only the lamps and great chandelier, but the countless tapers in the hands of the congregation, which have been held hitherto unlighted. While the chief body of the priests, still singing "Christohs vosskress," remove the pall with the corse, two others, in their richest dress, pass through the church with censers in their hands, repeating the joyful words, and stopping before the shrine of every saint to swing the censer and make their genuflections, and before every group of devotees to bestow their blessing. The congregation shake hands, and kiss all with whom they have the most distant acquaintance. The singing of the priests meanwhile continues. They also embrace each other; the bishop, metropolitan, or whatever priest of the highest rank may be present, now places himself before the ikonostast, and bestows on every member of the congregation who approaches him his blessing and a kiss, with the words "Christohs vosskress.” The churches are illuminated without as well as within, and all the bells in the city ring out at once. In St. Petersburg, many of the streets and public buildings are illuminated ; rocket after rocket rushes along the sky, and the cannon boom at intervals, amid all the countless bells and voices echoing each other from all sides. FESTIVALS AND FASTS EASTER. EASTER-KISSES. Amid all this tumult, a procession, headed by the priests, all bearing tapers and torches, passes round the church; and then the last ceremony, the blessing of the food, takes place about three o'clock in the morning. The rich, who have the means of consecration at hand, do not find it neces- sary to carry their food to church, and moreover, they are sometimes quite content with the species of consecration a good cook bestows; but the poor can not enjoy their Easter-breakfast till it has been blessed by the priest;—perhaps they have a foreboding how ill it is likely to sit upon the stomach weakened by long fasting. The spectacle in the church is most extraordinary. They range all the dishes in long rows through the whole church, leaving space enough be- tween the rows for the priests to pass, till the increasing numbers compel them to form the lines without the church, and even a good way round. The huge, oddly-shaped loaves, called kulitshe, the towers of white cheese, into which colored leaves of spice are interwoven- the former decorated with flowers, the latter bearing a burning wax-taper on its summit-the heaps of red-colored eggs, lumps of sugar, pots of honey, plates of pre- served fruit—all these painted, illuminated, many-colored, strange-looking eatables, and collected in such quantities, must have a very singular effect. As the priest advances, sprinkling to the right and left, and pronouncing 36 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. blessing, while his attendant keeps up a constant chant, the people press closer and closer, crossing themselves, and keeping a sharp watch that their flowers and food get their due share of the purifying waters. The Russian Easter banquets must certainly be the most peculiar things of the kind that can be seen, both from the time at which they are taken (the sun often rising on the dessert), and from the appearance and demeanor of the guests. Whole colleges and corporations come in gala-dresses to pay their court. Thus the professors of a university pay their respects to the curator, the judges, secretaries, and other officers of the law-courts, to their president, &c. All is bowing, congratulating, and kissing. The cooks and confectioners give themselves a world of trouble to prepare their dishes with some reference to the time. Lambs made of butter are often paraded in the middle of the table, the fleece admirably imitated in the butter also; lambs of sugar, decorated with flags, crosses, &c. Many dishes appear in the form of an egg, which seems to be held almost as sacred. Some years ago, a court-lady gave an Easter-breakfast to the imperial family, at which every dish at table was served up in eggs. The soups sent up their savory steam from gigantic ostrich-eggs, furnished, as well as the other eggs for holding hot food, by the porcelain manufactory. Here eggs produced chickens full grown and ready roasted, and there a monstrous birth developed a sucking-pig; while pastics, puddings, creams, game, fruit, and jellies, blushed through egg-shells of fine glass. Lastly, by way of dessert, eggs of gold paper were offered, containing almonds, raisins, and sweetmeats of all sorts. To be thoroughly national, two dishes are indispensable at an Easter- breakfast-paskha and kulitsh. Paskha is made of curds beaten hard, and served in a pyramidal form; the kulitsh is a thick, round, cylindrically- shaped white loaf, sometimes made with a multitude of little kulitshi sticking upon it, like young oysters on the back of an old one, with plums, consecrated palm-twigs, &c., which latter always project a little from the Both must be decorated with flowers and wax-lights. crust. In the first place, all members One of the most interesting features of the Easter festivities is the Easter-kiss, already incidentally alluded to, and amusingly illustrated by the engraving on the preceding page. We will endeavor to give some idea of the extent of this singular custom. of a family, without exception, kiss each other: if the family consist only of ten individuals, there are at once ninety kisses. Then all acquaintance meeting for the first time at Easter, and even where the acquaintance is but slight, would think it a breach of politeness not to kiss and embrace each other with the greatest cordiality. If we suppose now that every person in St. Petersburg has, upon a very moderate average, a hundred acquaintances more or less intimate, that calculation will give for St. Petersburg alone, with its half-million inhabitants, a sum total of fifty mil- lion Easter embraces. Let us consider only on how large a scale many individuals must carry on the business. In the army every general of a FESTIVALS AND FASTS-EASTER-KISSES. 563 corps of sixty thousand men must embrace all the officers, every colonel, those of his regiment, and a select number of soldiers into the bargain. The captain salutes all the soldiers of his company, who are mustered for MROBERTS.5.0. THE EMPEROR GIVING THE CADETS THE EASTER-KISS. the purpose. The same in the civil department; the chief embraces all his subordinates, who wait on him in their gala-dresses. Considering how numerous are the divisions and subdivisions in a Russian bureau, the chief must have no little occasion for lip-salve on the following day; for these 564 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. official caresses are by no means mere matters of pretence, as they are sometimes on the stage, but real downright smacks, such as might be ex- changed by lovers. A subordinate officer has enough to do, who has often a dozen grades above him; but as to the poor dignitaries, they must be fairly out of breath. Herein, of course, as in all other cases, the largest share of business falls to the emperor's lot. Let us consider his numerous family, his enormous retinue, the countless numbers who come to salute him on Easter morning, those of the nobles whom he is more intimate with, and may meet by accident; and even then he has not done. On parade the whole body of officers, the cadets, and some of the privates picked out for the occasion, are honored with an imperial embrace, which is not refused even to the meanest sentinel of his palace as he passes him on Easter Sunday. As all these caresses are given and received with the greatest cheerful- ness, and amid smiles and handshakings, as if they saw each other for the first time after a long separation, or after some heavy and long-endured misfortune, it may be easily imagined how many gay and amusing scenes are passing in the streets and houses. "Christohs vosskress, Yefim Ste- phanovich" (“Christ is risen, Euphem Stephen's son"), bawls one bearded fellow to another. "Voyst venno vosskress?" ("Is he really risen ?") Then they seize each other's hands, embrace heartily, and finish with "Padyóm v'kabak brat" ("Let us go to the public-house, brother"); and to the public-house they go, where the brandy runs as freely as clear water in Mahomet's paradise. It is an exaggeration, however, to assert, as some travellers have done, that, under the shield of "Christohs vosskress," any stranger is at liberty to salute any unknown fair one. It is true that even in the higher circles some elderly gentlemen will take advantage of the season, and give. occasion for some badinage among the young ladies, though it is never taken amiss. The coachman and other male-servants kiss the children of their masters without ceremony, but only the hands of the grown-up daughters; the domestics on these occasions fill their pockets with painted eggs, one of which is presented to every one they salute, or from whom a trifling douceur may be expected in return. During the whole of the Easter-week the churches stand constantly open, and even the golden doors of the sanctuary, which remain closed through- out the year, excepting at certain moments during divine service, now admit the gaze of all. The more pious, generally, hear a long mass every morning before they hasten to their amusements. The holy days are closed by a "final mass," at the end of which "the division of bread" takes place. Large loaves are baked, the outer crust of which is colored red, and stamped with the words "Christohs vosskress ihs mortvui,” in gold letters. These loaves are cut into small pieces; the priests fill some baskets with them, carry them to the railing round the altar, and throw down the bits of bread among the people, who stretch out their hands with eagerness. The pieces are anxiously examined to see who has got the letters. Those FESTIVALS AND FASTS 565 RECOLLECTION MONDAY. who obtain the characters forming the first word of the inscription hold it for a particular piece of good-fortune; but the holders of the last word, "mortvui” (death), on the other hand, are much grieved, and esteem it a very bad omen. With this ceremony, as before said, the Easter-holydays, properly speaking, end. Everything, however, has a conclusion, then an end, and then a real and complete cessation. So there comes halting be- hind the Russian Easter yet another holyday, which may be said finally to close the doors of these festivals. It is the Monday after Easter, called by the Russians "Pominatelnui ponyedelnik" ("Recollection Monday"). This Monday is, no doubt, brought in connection with Easter, partly be- cause it follows so immediately, and partly because the resurrection of Christ has a natural connection with the hoped-for resurrection of those dear to us. To say the truth, Recollection Monday is a kind of monster of a holyday, for in the manner of its celebration religious gravity is so much revolted, and yet the feeling and fancy flattered by so much that is kindly, that we know not well whether we should condemn it for its inde- corum, or cherish it for its child-like simplicity. In the morning the people flock to the cemeteries, and after attending service in the chapels belonging to them, in memory of and honor to their departed friends, take a meal over their graves! At a very early hour the never-wearied holyday-folks may be seen setting forth, with bag and baggage, on foot and in vehicles. The food is carried in the first place into the chapels, and laid upon the table in the middle. There is generally a large round loaf in the midst of a dish; and round about it the red-painted Easter-eggs, salt, gingerbread, oranges, and lemons. In the midst of the loaf a lighted taper is always stuck, without which a Russian, no more than a Gheber, can observe a religious solemnity, the clear flickering flame being to him always a symbol of the spiritual. Every one has his loaf of a different form from the rest; one has added a dish of rice and plums, another a pot of honey, and a third some other dish, ac- cording to his means. On every loaf a little book is laid, called "books of remembrance," in which the names of the departed are usually inscribed. After the usual mass, the priests approach the strangely-loaded tables and sing prayers for the dead, swinging the censers all the while. They turn over the leaves of the before-mentioned books, and introduce the names there found in the prayer. When this general prayer and conse- cration is over, the people disperse about the churchyard; each party seek the graves of their friends, particularly of those lately lost, and weep over them. The greater number mourn in silence; but some, whose sorrow is yet new, cast themselves in despair upon the earth, and give it vent aloud. “On one occasion," says Kohl, "I noticed particularly one old woman, whose voice of lamentation resounded over the whole burying-ground. I went up to her and asked for whom she mourned. She raised herself and answered for a young married daughter. Then she threw herself down again with her face to the grass, and cried into the grave as if her child 566 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. could hear: ‘Ah, my, dearest daughter, why hast thou forsaken me? Ah, thou loveliest! thou young one! why hast thou left thy old mother with her seventy years? Couldst thou not wait till she had gone before thee? Ah, my daughter, is it not against nature that the child should leave her mother un'tended? And thy little son, thy Fedor, he too is left. Alas! alas! my daughter, son and mother are left alone!' Thus she mourned till the priests came to her grave. I can not express how deeply the lamen- tation of this poor old woman affected me, as she chanted her sorrow in a kind of church-melody; now and then ceasing entirely, and burying her gray careworn head in the grass. "" The priests in the meantime parade the churchyard with burning tapers and crucifixes, and perform a special service over every grave where it is desired, the "books of remembrance" being handed to them for the pur- pose. The priests are generally followed by troops of unfortunate persons, cripples and beggars, who expect to receive part of the food in alms. Some of the mourners give the whole of what they bring, and make thus a worthy offering to the departed. The majority, however, spread their napkins over the graves, arrange their food upon them, not forgetting the wine and brandy-bottles, and set to work with as good an appetite as if the day had been preceded by seven years' of Egyptian famine instead of a Russian Easter. The priests, of course, come in for a share, and taste something at every grave. Kohl remarks that he approached one com- pany, consisting of some official persons, among whom there was one dec- orated with a couple of orders. These people had covered a long grave with a large tablecloth, and had loaded it abundantly from a store in their carriage, which was drawn up close by, and out of which they were con- tinually fetching fresh supplies! Two priests were among the revellers in this group, and were challenged more frequently than any others of the party. Not before night are the dead left in peace in their last resting- place, and many, unfortunately very many, leave in a condition which may be said to have turned the day of remembrance into one of complete for- getfulness. The great excesses committed at this season are particularly misplaced, when the digestive system has been so much lowered in tone, and cause much sickness among the lower class of Russians; so that, for many, their holy days are attended by very evil consequences. The hospitals are never so full as after Easter; and, according to the statement recently made to a traveller by a Russian physician, statistical writers, in giving the bills of mortality for the several months, might safely quote the Easter holydays as in some measure accounting for the great number of deaths in the month of April. LITERATURE AND EDUCATION. 567 CHAPTER XXII. LITERATURE AND EDUCATION. W HYACINTH BITCHOURIN, ORIENTAL Linguist. ITH the exception of the writings of the monks, we have no trace of LIT- ERATURE of any kind du- ring the darker period of Russian history. Nestor, Ba- sil, and Sylvester-all priests wrote the annals of their times; Kyril, too, and many other holy men excelled in theological disquisitions, some of which are still extant; but almost every record of that early period was destroyed by the Mongol-Tartars of the Middle-Horde, who, for up- ward of two hundred years, kept the Muscovite princes in a state of subjection. It was not till the middle of the fifteenth century that Russia was once more free; but her people had been too long restrained from any attempt at enlight- enment, by their savage oppressors, to be able to compete with their more western rivals in the race for improvement: those fatal years had given them too long a start, and the Muscovites abandoned the idea of emulating this onward progress in despair. It was not until the accession of Peter the Great to the throne that any positive change took place; and during this period the more educated Russians were influenced by the Polish and German literature and languages, which may be accounted for by the fact, that Ivan the Terrible, when engaged in the siege of Kazan against the Tartars, obtained the assistance of certain military engineers from Ger- many, and who in many instances remained in the Muscovite service. The influence which those foreigners exercised was soon after visible through- out all grades of Russian society; and from that time the moral action of the example of western Europe upon the vast territories of the czars has been ever increasing and progressive. 568 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. It was in the reign of Ivan, too, that the first printing-office was estab- lished at Moscow; and in 1565 he founded a school of theology. The Machiavellic czar, Boris Godunoff, though his reign was short, also inter- ested himself in the education of the young Muscovite nobility of his time. The czar Michael, the first of the present house of Romanoff, and Alexis and Feodor III., the father and brother of Peter the Great, prepared the way ably for the rapid and gigantic strides of that master-mind among reformers. Peter the Great was essentially practical and a utilitarian. To teach his people the habit of looking for information into books, he caused a number of the best works to be at once translated into Russ, from the dif- ferent languages of Europe. He was vigorously assisted in his laudable endeavors by Theophan Prokovitch, the Archiepiscon (archbishop) of Nov- gorod, who from his virtues and talents was called the Muscovite Chrysos- tom, and who alone wrote no less than sixty works. In 1724 Peter founded the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg. His views were furthered by many gifted and excellent men; and last, but not least, by Gluck, the Livonian clergyman, who had been made a prisoner during the war of Peter with Charles XII. of Sweden, and who had brought up that interesting and humble girl in his modest household, who was afterward destined to become the empress Catherine I. of all the Russias. During this period of Russian history and the reign of Peter I., from 1682-1725, Prince Kantemir was perhaps the most brilliant literary light that Russia possessed: he was a great classic and linguist; he wrote upon very many subjects, and his satires are still greatly admired; he died in 1745. As lyric poets, two Cossacks particularly distinguished themselves, Kirscha Daniloff and Klemovki: the national songs of the former writer, about the heroic Vladimir and his gallant Boyards, are still admired and prized in Russia. About 1724, a Russian and a poet turned his attention to the nature of his native language, and its adaptability for poetry, and he strenuously suggested the adoption of classical metre, founded upon measure and quantity; but his efforts and almost his works were soon lost sight of, not- withstanding the warm co-operation of the empress Catherine, who even went so far as to impose as a punishment for any little fault of etiquette among her courtiers, that they should learn by heart a certain number of the verses of her protégé—their quantity, of course, being commensurate with the little offence committed. The empress Catherine I., Anna, and Elizabeth, were certainly munifi- cent patronesses of the belles lettres. It was in the year 1755, and during the reign of Elizabeth, that the university of Moscow was founded, among many other educational institutions, subject, of course, to a governmental censorship. The free erection of printing-presses all over the country was granted by a ukase in the year 1783, during the reign of Catherine II. The bulk of the people, had, of course, but little improved by these efforts LITERATURE AND EDUCATION. 569 at mental progress; and yet it was in the family of a humble fisherman in the north of the empire, from the neighborhood of Archangel, that Michael Lomonosoff was born, about the year 1711 or 1712. Notwithstanding every difficulty, he made himself a linguist, a scientific authority, and a philosopher; he for some time pursued his learned labors and researches at Freiburg, in Germany. Beside being the author of the Russian Gram- mar, he was the first to draw a distinct line of demarcation between the ancient Slavonic and the modern Russ-at least, as spoken in his day. He wrote a history of his country, and a long and sustained national epic poem, entitled the "Petroide," which, as may be conceived, was a lofty panegyric upon the talents and virtues of his imperial master. He wrote principally upon mineralogy and chemistry; he was also the author of sev eral respectable tragedies, and of many miscellaneous works. Lomonosoff, perhaps, can not so much be designated a great and original genius, as a man of the most enlightened capacity, and energetic talent. He is, how- ever, undoubtedly the father of Russian Letters-and was the first “litte- rateur" of European celebrity that the country had produced. After having been employed by the government with distinction for the greater portion of his life, he died in 1765, universally regretted throughout the empire. The reign of Catherine II., from 1762-1796, is one of the most brilliant epochs of Russian history; and the period between the death of Lomono- soff and the close of the century in which he lived, was particularly marked by the number of gifted and eminent men, whose unceasing energies tended to strengthen and nourish the tottering childhood of Muscovite literature as it then stood. The "Iliad" and "Eneid" were ably translated by Kostroff and Petroff; an excellent version of Pope and Locke was pre- sented to his countrymen by Popovski; and Ariosto and some portions of the "Inferno" of Dante were submitted to the empress by Bulgakoff. A contemporary with Lomonosoff was Cheraskoff, who has been called. the Russian Homer. Sumarokoff for a considerable time was his rival in public opinion. Both these poets were remarkable for their extreme fer- tility; and the number of tragedies, comedies, poems, and odes, which they produced so rapidly was the theme of never-ending astonishment and spec- ulation. But Gabriel Derjahvin, who was born about the year 1743, was incontestably the greatest Russian poet of the period. His ode to God has not only been translated into most European languages, but even into the Japanese, according to the Russian traveller Golownin, who saw it hanging in a place of honor in the temple of Jeddo; and it is a known fact that it is versified in the language of the Celestial Empire, where it is hung up in the palace of the emperor, printed on white satin and in letters of gold. Hippolyt Bogdanovich, a charming writer upon light and general subjects, and Chemnitzer, the fabulist, also flourished at this period. At the same era several eminent Russians occupied themselves with the for- mation of the national theatre, for which it was discovered that the Mus- 570 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. covite genius possessed a strong and decided natural aptitude. Kniashnin, Maïkoff, Nikoleff, Klushin, and Daniel von Wisin - the protégé of prince Potemkin were the authors of several chefs d'œuvres of dramatic com- position which have descended to our own day, and which afford as much pleasure even now to the Russian who witnesses them as upon the first occasion of their representation. The first Russian theatre was opened in Yaroslav in 1746, and the nucleus of a national stage was founded at Mos- cow in 1759; and in St. Petersburg the artistes were permitted to estab- lish themselves by letters patent as early as 1754. It will be observed that from the very earliest period the Russians have ever sought to annalize their national history with an undeviating devotion; and this can only be attributed to the feeling of patriotism that is, and has ever been, so widely diffused throughout the empire. Hence, from the most remote times, when the little learning that had found its dubious way to the hyperborean wilds of Russia was celled and isolated in the convents of the priesthood, as early even as the beginning of the twelfth century, the work had begun with the local histories of Nestor, which were con- tinued after his death by the priests: even during those fearful two cen- turies and a half when the Russians were writhing under the horrors of Tartar dominion. Unhappily these relics of the past are but of slight value out of Russia, and of little interest even to a Russian, as they treat only of the different phases of violence and anarchy, caused by the continual wars peculiar to all people in those dark times, and to the international feuds of the turbu- lent and powerful Boyards, which so particularly convulsed Russia, till the advent of the terrible Ivan Vassiliovich to the throne of the czars. But the period of which we are writing-the close of the foregoing century was rich, too, in the appearance of historians of different de- scriptions. Among the ranks of her men of letters, Golikoff, Rietchkoff, and Jemin, gave to the world several volumes, the contents of which were dedicated to particular portions and phases of the history of the country. Teshulkoff wrote upon the rise and progress of commerce in his native land; while Boltin, himself an historian of considerable merit, had the honor of reviewing the fifteen volumes of Russian history written by the accomplished Prince Tchetcherbatoff. Nor must Müller be forgotten: though his name be German, he himself was a Russian, and the whole of his existence had been dedicated to the furtherance and development of that Russian literature, of which he had himself, as it were witnessed the very birth. He published the first Russian periodical in 1755, the columns of which were principally occupied by historical subjects of interest to the Russias. The year 1724 witnessed the foundation of the Imperial Academy of Sciences; and in 1783 that of the Imperial Russian Academy; and in less than five years afterward, the last-named institution published the first (true) standard grammar of the language, together with an etymological LITERATURE AND EDUCATION. 571 dictionary of considerable pretension, and upon an arrangement of a novel nature. These important steps in philological advancement were particu- larly induced by the munificent patronage and general encouragement afforded them by the empress Catherine II. There was also a host of bibli- cal and theological writers at the close of the last century; and it were needless to name them all, except to state that Konnisk, an archiepiscon of Western Russia, and Platon Leovshin, the metropolitan of Moscow, were the most eminent of all these authors in dogmatic and speculative religion. Of the latter distinguished theologian, it may be as well to mention, that one of his most important works, entitled "The Summary of Christian Divinity," has been translated by Doctor Pinkerton, in his "Present State of the Greek Church in Russia." From the commencement of the present century, and during the reign of the emperors Alexander and Nicholas I.—from 1801 to the present moment the progress of Russian letters has been accelerated with a rapidity and success that are really marvellous. In the year 1820 alone, nearly three thousand five hundred works were produced, about a thousand of which had been translated from the French, English, and German tongues. This fecundity in literary productions may, in a great measure, be attributed to the liberal encouragement of the emperors, and the thorough reformation which they had set on foot in all the scientific insti- tutions of the country. The various existing academies were reorganized and extended, while four new universities were added to the empire. In 1823, a college was founded in the new capital, for the study and culture of the oriental languages; and a few years later Odessa boasted of a simi- lar school. The most marked success has attended them all, which was, no doubt, the result of the interest which the government experienced in the object sought to be attained—not the least salient proof of which was the express clause in the treaty of peace, which was entered into during the reign of Alexander, with Persia, in 1813, at Gulistan, wherein he stip- ulated expressly for the delivery to the Russian plenipotentiaries of five hundred of the most valuable manuscripts, the names of which had been drawn up by those distinguished authorities on Orientalism, Senkovski and his colleagues, and which were known to be in the possession of the Per- sians. They were afterward deposited in the Imperial library at St. Petersburg, for the use of the students of the oriental schools, which were no doubt originally founded for the training of diplomatic agents among those people, but which have, nevertheless, been of the greatest utility to the study of the philology of the East, not only for the Russians themselves, but for all Europe. Among these invaluable relics of past ages, are the Geography of Ptolemy, and some translations in the Arabic of several im- portant Greek and Latin works, of which the originals are no longer extant. Nicholai Karamzin is, however, the next literary luminary of whom we have to treat. He died in 1826. He died in 1826. His principal work is his "Istoria Ros- siskago Gosudarstva," or "History of the Russian Empire," but which 572 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. only extends to the accession of the present dynasty—the illustrious house of Michael Romanoff, in the year 1613. It consists of eleven volumes. And this most important production has been translated into the more prominent languages of Europe. Its second edition was published in 1818. His other voluminous labors have been collected and condensed into nine large volumes, which were again given to the public in 1820, in the form of a third edition. His career of literary distinction was commenced by a periodical work which he published under the title of the "Moscow Jour- nal." The second periodical which he owned and edited was the “Euro- pean Messenger.” Karamzin is essentially a Russian writer, and no Muscovite ever under- stood the pliancies and delicacies of his language so well; but the charm of his writings is so purely one of idiom, so entirely national, that it is next to impossible for a foreigner to appreciate him according to his merits. In his lyrical poems, and indeed throughout his entire works, there exist a warm patriotism, a national verve, a grace and an indescribable tender- ness, that must always endear them to his countrymen; while the learning and indefatigable research displayed in his superb "History of the Russian Empire" will ever constitute it the standard work upon this subject in the repertory of Slavonic literature: and it is, perhaps, from the period of his influence that the renewed energy to be remarked in literary taste in Rus- sia may be deduced. Ivan Demitriev, it is considered, exercised as much influence upon Rus- sian poesy as Karamzin had effected upon the prose of his language. He was as remarkable for the correctness of his style as for the richness and versatility of his imagination. Prince Viazemski, Rilejeff (who was executed for his share in the un- happy conspiracy of 1825), Vostokoff, the Slavonic philologist, Khvostoff Batjushkoff, Glinka, and Baron Delwig, whose works were reviewed in the French and English periodicals, are all esteemed as lyrical poets of more or less importance. Baron Rosen was also a very successful translator of Lord Byron, whose works were enthusiastically admired and imitated by Kosloff, who, notwithstanding blindness, lameness, and continued ill-health, dedicated his life to the literature of his country, in which he was emi- nently successful. Nareshnoi must not be forgotten in this rapid synopsis of the literati who distinguished themselves at that particular period. He is the author of "Bursack," a Malo-Russian tale. This work is a kind of Russian "Gil Blas." The first expedition of the Russians round the world was undertaken in the year 1803; and the travels of Admirals Krusenstern, Wrangel, Laza- reff, and Captain Golownin, say much for the enterprise and honor of Rus- sia and her sons. The voyages into China of Timovsky are already known and valued out of Russia, by means of translations. Bronevski and Mura- vieff fully explored the Caucasus and Taurida- the result of which is several volumes, replete with the most valuable information; while Bit- LITERATURE AND EDUCATION. 573 chourin has given one of the best accounts extant of Thibet and the country of the Mongols and Tartars. Martinoff excelled in his translation of the classics; and the "Jerusalem" of Tasso, the " Æneid," and "Iliad" were successively and successfully rendered into Russian by Vojekoff, Gneditch, and Mertzjakoff. It was then, too, that Ivan Kriloff became so deservedly popular as a fabulist. There is an air of nature, a sweetness about his works, that is not often found elsewhere. He was also acknowledged to have been the best speaker of his time of the Russian language, and has even been styled the Russian "La Fontaine." He has also been translated into German, French, and Italian. We now come to the time when Alexander Pushkin, the brightest genius of Russian poetical literature, had arrived at the zenith of his reputation, and stood, as he has since done, unrivalled and alone. He was born in 1793, and he died violently in the flower of his days, at the early age of thirty-seven, the victim of domestic unhappiness and of a terrible duel. Pushkin acquired his education at one of the imperial institutes. At the very outset of his career, a production which he thought proper to bring before the public, and which was conceived with too much latitude of sen- timent, procured his removal from St. Petersburg. He was, however, employed by the government officially, in the southern provinces of the empire, to which he was banished; and there can be no doubt that his genius became tinctured, and probably more developed, by the wild scenery and poetical influence of the semi-civilized region in which he sojourned. In the meanwhile the present august ruler of the Russias had placed the diadem of the czars upon his brow, and the imprudent poet was recalled. But the advent of the emperor to the throne had taken place amid an armed insurrection, and his majesty felt that to bulwark the Russias from foreign revolutionary example, the most legitimate and politic steps would be to bring her back to the full appreciation of her own old Muscovite nationality. The elevated and the educated classes who had so long been accustomed to look to France, England, and Germany, for their senti- ments, opinions, manners, and even for their language, had almost forgotten that they were Russians, in Russia. Between those higher phases of society and the masses an impassable gulf then existed: a more insurmountable one, indeed, than ever had been before or since, for its peculiarly antago- nistic form was the utter absence of the remotest sympathy between the classes the higher ones appearing, in fact, as if they were mere "sojourn- ers in the land" of the Muscovite "people." Pushkin had ever been remarkable for the nationality of his effusions, though he had also evinced in them a spirit of restlessness, and a yearn- ing after a vague independence, which seems to have even actuated him personally in the earlier and more stormy period of his brilliant career. The literary efforts born of this influence possessed a double character, for they were at the same time national and individual, and reflected the ten- dencies of Russian genius, and the individuality of Pushkin, and the poets 2 574 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. : who followed so enthusiastically in his steps; the effervescence of wild and uncontrolled passion, the pursuit of an impossible ideal, the worship of an indefinite and unknown liberalism, by turns opposed or gained the ascend- ency over the calm, measured, and hitherto acknowledged tone of Russian literary feeling. The fiery genius of Lermontoff was the first that identi- fied in his own writings this dangerous tendency of the school of Pushkin, which found its last representative in the literary efforts of a young con- temporary poet, Maikoff. Toward the latter end of his life, and even at the period of his reappearance in the literary circles of the metropolis, Pushkin, whose taste had been refined by study and experience, would fain have led back the national taste he had misled, to the more sober and classic path from which he had originally lured it with the perilous glitter of his own surpassing talent; but it was too late the fascination of his style had taken too deep a root in the hearts of the young writers of the day, who would soon have transformed what had been the self-possessed and sober Russian muse into a wild and licentious Bacchante. The em- peror, fearful of her doing herself and others, perhaps, an injury, confined her as closely to her home as was possible—the Russian heart-her proper dwelling-place, to the revival of the old Russian nationality. The most rigorous measures were adopted, even to the restriction of the absence of the wanderer from his Russian fatherland, to five years at the furthest, the institution of a severe censorship, and the interruption of the study of philosophy throughout the empire; though when safe from foreign propa- gandism, and within the cordon sanitaire of the protected interior, the grand work of general national progress continued with unabated vigor. Of the exalted opinions of these enthusiasts the only one tolerated by the government was the idea of Panslavism—that is, the incorporation into one vast whole of all the races of Slavonic origin. Alexander Pushkin was by this time highly patronized by his present Majesty, Nicholas I., and had been promoted to the honorable position of imperial historiographer for his laudable endeavors to repress the evil he had so powerfully, and perhaps unwittingly, induced; for his devotion to the cause of nationality, at that time so particularly encouraged by the govern- ment; and for his unequalled genius. But the chastened style of Pushkin wanted in power and originality what it gained in purity and legitimacy. He had harnessed his Pegasus to the car of expediency, and it had lost the use of its wings, if not the freedom of its action. It will only be necessary here to say that some of his works exist in manuscript, and are, for polit- ical reasons, preserved in the imperial cabinet. The last work of Alex- ander Pushkin was the "Istoria Bunta," or the history of the "Insurrection of Pougatcheff." The death of Pushkin was caused by a duel at St. Peters- burg, soon after his marriage, in 1835, when he fell a victim to jealousy and the machinations of others. Nicholas Gogol now appeared in the literary firmament, with the power and the intention to direct the genius of his country toward the new goal LITERATURE AND EDUCATION. 575 -nationality-and to this end he strove to awaken afresh the interest that the Russians had been taught to feel in their own character as a peo- ple. Gogol made it his study to examine and analyze Russian life in all its phases; and it was not long ere, by his instrumentality, a succession of romances and comedies, based upon the actual state of society, took precedence of the many works that would have perpetuated the fiery and dangerous inspirations of Pushkin, and of his school. This influence was so powerful, and its effects so successful, that when the revolution took place in 1848, there was but one tendency throughout the entire field of Muscovite literature-namely, nationality. Nicholas Gogol is distinguished from the other authors of his nation by a faculty of analysis and a creative power, rarely found united in the same individual. He is equally at home when painting outward and visible objects, with a graphic verve and sharpness of outline that is positively lifelike and startling; or when he applies his extraordinary talent to the innermost and secret phenomena of the human heart. His style is origi- nal and delightful; his passages of the most biting satire are followed by sudden bursts of tenderness, with an impulsiveness and nature altogether peculiar to the Slavonic genius. The melancholy fate of Alexander Bestushev should at least entitle him to a notice in this list of distinguished men of letters. He was a subaltern officer in the guard, and, like his friend and fellow-poet Rileyez, was fatally committed in the conspiracy of 1825. He was tried, found guilty, and sent to Siberia, having, of course, been previously deprived of his nobility. Afterward, however, and through the interest of the Miloradovich family, his sentence was commuted to service as a common soldier, in that portion of the Russian army then actively employed in the Caucasus. In this dis- advantageous position, by dint of sheer merit and gallantry, he again won his epaulets, and soon after died bravely by the bullets of the Caucasian mountaineers. He was the author of a highly-talented synopsis of Russian literature, and the editor of a very popular periodical, "Severnaja Swesda," the "Polar Star." He afterward wrote under the name of Marlinski; and his Cossack tales, and sketches of Siberia and the Caucasus, as well as his novels, are written with a freshness and spirit that are charming. His style has been likened to that of Spindler, the German novelist, and his contemporary. Historical romance is a very favorite study among the Russian literati. Among the workers in this field of Russian literature may be mentioned Galitsch, Laschetnikoff, Skobelev, Degouroff, Prince Odojevski Veltman, Dahl, who gives his works to the public under the pseudonym of Cossack Luganski; Grebenka, celebrated for his humorous sketches of Malo-Rus- sia; Gautcharoff, formidable for the keenness of his satire; Grigorovich, the novelist of the fields and the peasantry; and Boutkoff, the lifelike de- lineator of the social state and habits of the lower classes of his country- men. By the force of talent and perseverance, Boutkoff raised himself 576 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. from the very class which he paints so ably, and to the amelioration and advancement of whose moral position, to his honor be it said, he has dedi- cated his genius. Tourgenieff also should be mentioned, as having stepped down from the elegiac mood to go with the current of the common ten- dency in favor of romance literature. The scenes of his creations are almost all laid in the country and the provinces; and his best work in that genre, "The Recollections of a Sportsman," will be found in every Russian library. In 1841 the Count Solohoupe entered the arena of letters; but the greater part of the historiettes written by him, and published under the name of "Nason Griadutchi" ("The Narcotic"-or, more literally, "To Cause Sleep") had already been enthusiastically received in private; and they were equally applauded, when given to the world, by the public at large. His next important works are the "Tarantasse," "Ytchera i Seg- donia," or, "Yesterday and To-day," and the "Sotrudniki" ("Confede- rates"), which we believe to be the latest of his works, published as late as 1851. We can not here enter into a review of the works of this author, but we will merely add, that alike in the "Tarantasse," which is full of deep and manly thought upon the mighty resources and destinies of his country, and in the "Narcotic," which is the lightest of his productions-- indeed throughout everything he has written-there is a melange of keen observation, solid depth, and serious patriotism, of aristocratic finesse, humor, irony, and acute sensibility. The ladies, on the other hand, have shown by their efforts their willing- ness and power to further the cause of Russian belles-lettres. The names of Mesdames Pauloff, Panaieff, Teplef, Bunin, the Princess Yolhonski, and Helene Hahn, who has been compared, and not without reason, to Madame Dudevant (George Sand), are all celebrated; nor must the Countess Ros- topchin be forgotten, who has at once cultivated the bright fields of poetry and romance. The works of this lady are distinguished by the elevation of sentiment that pervades them, by the easy and artistic style with which they are sustained throughout, and by the fine and delicate womanly feel- ing that gives them their principal charm. The eminent success of this gifted lady is clearly accounted for, however, when we recollect that she is the authoress of a most elegant little poem, the subject of which is "How a Woman should Write.' "" If we turn to the consideration of historical science in Russia, we find that the archæological commission was opened in 1834, and the libraries of France, England, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and other countries, were visited at the imperial expense, and ransacked for data and informa- tion; and the first five volumes of Russian annals passed through the press in 1844. This institution, in conjunction with the historical and geograph- ical societies of Moscow and St. Petersburg, met with such success in these researches, as threw considerable light upon many portions of Russian his- tory, and added a fresh impetus to the pens of the scientific and imagina- LITERATURE AND EDUCATION. 577 tive writers of the day. Professor Ustraloff published in 1839 his "His- tory of Russia," in which the theory of Panslavism was developed in a novel and masterly manner. Its leading object is to represent the Russian empire as the natural and central head of all the races of Slavonic origin. This is a work of considerable importance, and was translated into German in 1840, one year only after its publication. Nadeshkin, too, wrote a book of decided interest to the Russian public, entitled, "Treatise on the Geography of the Old Russian World,” in which it was sought to trace the seats of the ancient Slavonic nations, and with very much the same tendency as the work of Ustraloff. Professor Kupffer, of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, made a voyage through the Ural, and published the results of his observations in 1833. Schurovsky visited the same regions, and wrote an historical and statisti- cal work in the year 1846. Hyacinth Bitchourin, the priest, whose por- trait is given at the head of this chapter, and others, still continue their useful researches among the wild Mongols and Thibetians. The govern- ment has lately caused to be written, the "History of the Commerce with Persia and Turkey," by the councillor-of-state, Von Hagemeister, the same who paid a scientific visit to the great London exhibition of 1851. And Chaudoir, encouraged by the same patronage, wrote his celebrated “Nu- mismatics of China, Corca, and Japan." Both these works are published at the same time in the Russian and French languages. In statistics, Constantine Arsenieff stands pre-eminent; his last work was published in 1848. But the works of Pallas, printed as early as 1771, of Krasheninnikoff, Lepechin, Richkoff, Tihihatcheff, and others, are still considered the standard authorities. Among the most approved historical novelists may be mentioned Bul- garin, Puschkareff, Swinin, Massolski, Zagoskin, and many more. It need hardly be observed that the history of their own country was the never- failing source from which they drew their inspiration and their subjects. Jevjenï Grebenka, and Kvitka, have written humorous romances in the Malo-Russian dialect, with a view to its cultivation; and the intention is most praiseworthy, if only for the wealth of Slavonic popular poetry, which is scattered over the Ukraine and Malo-Russia in general; indeed, wher- ever the Ruthenian tribes have wandered for a time, or settled definitely. The Russian drama has made rapid progress since the beginning of this century. The works of Shakspere and Schiller have of course served as models, and their masterpieces have long since been successfully translated and performed in Russian. The stage also now begins to assume a more decided and national character, and of late years many pieces and operas, of which the subject and music are essentially Russian, have been brought out. In comedy, Russia is very fertile; and among the latest productions are several which depict Russian society to the life. But it must be ad- mitted that the empire has not yet produced a great tragic author; and though her store of theatrical compositions is very ample, yet it is not so 37 578 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. select as those she possesses in history, poetry, and romance. The great- est possible facilities, however, have ever been and are still afforded to the development of dramatic talent in every form. During the reign of his late majesty, Alexander, and at present under Nicholas I., the theatres and the artistes of St. Petersburg and Moscow have been encouraged by the immediate imperial patronage, and are amply salaried from the privy purse. All dramatic artists who leave Russia after a stay of ten years, have a pension of four hundred dollars each, also out of the emperor's privy purse. From the enjoyment which the Russians of all classes take in every species of scenic diversion, the theatre is particularly a popular amusement. During the season at St. Petersburg, which continues the whole of the win- ter, residents may choose between the Italian, German, and Russian operas, the Russian and French plays, or the ballet, for there are always three or four foreign dramatic corps in that city at this time, and the performances take place every evening at each of the imperial theatres in rotation. There are, independent of the one near the Hermitage, three large theatres in the imperial capital: the Bolshoi, or Great Theatre (a view of which is given on the opposite page), on the square of that name between the Moika and Catherina canals; the Alexander Theatre, in the Nevskoi Prospekt; and the French, in the square near the palace of the grand-duke Michael. The performances at the two former are devoted to Russian and German plays, and operas, the latter to French and German dramas. The houses are spacious, very nearly semicircular in shape, and handsomely decorated; and a magnificent box for the imperial family occupies the centre of the first two tiers. The arrangements for the accommodation of the public is exceedingly good, every seat being numbered in such a manner as entirely to prevent confusion. The state box, however, is seldom used, the impe- rial family generally occupying one next to the stage, contiguous to that of the grand-duke Michael; opposite is one similarly decorated for the ministre de la cour. The entire pit is fitted with arm-chairs (kraslya), numbered on the back, the numbers commencing from the orchestra; and on obtaining a ticket at the kassa, on which the number of the seat is like- wise specified, an usher in the imperial livery at once conducts the visiter to his appointed place, and, in case it is already occupied, ejects the intru- der in the most summary manner. The ordinary price for these seats is one silver rouble, but in the two rows nearest to the stage they are two silver roubles. On extraordinary occasions, however, the public are put under extra contribution; and sometimes prices have been raised fivefold, an armchair in the pit being six silver roubles, or somewhat more than four dollars; the other prices are raised in proportion, and even at these ex- orbitant rates, every seat is engaged for five or six evenings in advance. T Excepting the Chinese, there is, perhaps, no language in the world so fraught with difficulties as the Russian. In the first place, the alphabet possesses nine more letters than the Roman or our own, and is made up of Greek, Roman, and Slavonic characters. In 1699, the first Russiau V WHOPEHTS THE BALSHAI, GREAT THEATRE, ST. PETERSBURG. LITERATURE AND EDUCATION. 581 book was printed at Amsterdam, and it was about the year 1704 or 1705 that Peter the Great himself made many alterations in the old Slavonic letters; for the purpose of assimilating them more nearly to the Latin ones; and the first Russian journal was printed with this type at St. Petersburg in 1705-four years after the foundation of that city—from a font which had been cast for him by artists brought from Holland. In the old Slavo- nic alphabet there are forty-six letters; but the modern Russian language comprises only thirty-five. In all matters, however, of a theological na- ture, the antique form is even now retained, and this constitutes the differ- ence between the "Czerkovnoi" and "Grashdanskoi," or the civil and church alphabet. This, in a great measure, must explain the difficulties which a foreigner would have to contend with, in attempting to render himself master of the Russian language; but if it were possible for him to do so perfectly, he would discover an extraordinary copiousness, a deli- cacy, and beauty of expression, that would indeed surprise him. The Russians, having been in the earlier and darker portions of their national history subjected to Scandinavian, Mongolian, Tartar, and Polish influence, have preserved many of the words and idioms of the several dialects. Another remarkable feature in the Russian language is the extraordinary facility of construction it admits of, and rarely with danger of becoming obscure or unintelligible: in this it much resembles Greek and Latin; but its leading peculiarity, and perhaps defect, is a paucity of conjunctions. And yet, on the other hand, this may account for the Russian language being so singularly comprehensive and distinct, since it can merely allow of comparatively short sentences; notwithstanding which, its adaptability for the purposes of poetry are incontestable; but whether it is really capa- ble of entirely following and imitating the classic metres, is still a vexata quæstio among Slavonic philologists. In common with all dialects of Slavonic origin, the Russian is also re- markable for its euphony and versatility; and it also embraces not only the sounds of every known language, but every guttural lisp and slur of which the human voice is capable. The language is also divided into three leading dialects. The first is the "Russian proper," or the language spoken in the two capitals, Moscow and St. Petersburg, and throughout the northern and central portions of the empire; it is the literary language of all the Russias. Secondly, in the southern and southeastern provinces the Malo-Russian is spoken- which dialect is supposed to approach nearer to the "old Slavonic” than any of the others: the idiom of Red Russia, in the northern and eastern districts of Hungary, and to the eastward of Galicia, inhabited by the Russniacks, is almost identical with the Malo-Russian. Thirdly, in Li- thuania and Volhynia, and other portions of Western Russia, the people speak the White-Russian dialect. The geographical position of these districts should fully account for the Polish words and idioms which are here to be found. This, the youngest of the Russian dialects-although 582 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. the first translation of the Holy Scriptures was made in it-is also the furthest removed of the three from the old Slavonic. The pursuit of literature, in Russia, as a profession, and as the sole object of life, is considered as something utterly inadmissible. All men, whether belonging to the fourteen classes of nobility or not, must follow a profession, or devote their time to the service of the empire, by attaching themselves to the army, the diplomatists, or the governmental offices. No amount of personal wealth or talent can absolve the individual from this moral duty to society and to the state. Peter the Great, indeed, enacted a most positive law to that effect, and though the edict may have fallen by the lapse of time into disuetude in its judicial capacity, its spirit still exists in full force. The "dolce far niente" existence of utter idleness and ca- price, peculiar to the wealthy and the "men of pleasure" of Western Europe, is utterly unknown in Russia; and the man who, in full possession of his health, strength, and faculties, would attempt to brave public opinion on this point, would soon find himself treated by society, in return, with the slightest possible consideration; and it is only during the hours snatched from the study or practice of a profession that the pen, in a literary sense, can be employed. Notwithstanding, however, the disadvantages under which literature in Russia labors, it is acquiring an importance which nothing now, it is be- lieved, can repress. This may be believed when it is stated that from 1833 to 1843 (a period of nearly ten years), according to the official re- turns of the minister of "Narodnago Prosvestchenija" (public instruction), no less than seven millions of volumes of Russian books were printed, and nearly five millions of foreign works were imported. In one particular year of that period, in 1839, eight hundred and eighty different works were printed and published within the Russian dominions; and an average of only seventy of this number were, translated from foreign languages. Though Russia still ranks among the more imperfectly educated coun- tries of Europe, the government has long taken a lead in the cause of popular education, and promulgated a complete national system, which, though not yet carried into full effect, has made, and continues to make, effectual progress. The basis of this system was laid by Peter the Great, and promoted by Catherine II., but is indebted for its fuller developments to Alexander and Nicholas. It divides the whole country into university districts, in each of which a university fully equipped either has been, or is intended to be erected. Each district extends over several governments, all the public schools in which, consisting of a regular gradation of gym- nasia, district and parish schools, are under the superintendence of the university. Other important schools, not subject to the same superintend- ence, are classed under the heads of military, ecclesiastical, and special. To give unity and vigor to the whole system, a special ministry of public instruction (incidentally alluded to above) is appointed, which forms one of the great departments of the state. T LITERATURE AND EDUCATION. 583 There are now (to briefly sum up the results of this national system) upward of two hundred and fifty thousand young persons in Russia receiv- ing instruction of some kind from fifteen thousand teachers, an average of one teacher to about seventeen pupils, a very favorable proportion to the student. Taking the entire population of Russia at sixty-five millions, one individual in two hundred and sixty receives the benefits of instruction. This is a small proportion compared with the United States, where, accord- ing to the last census report, four millions of youth, at the rate of one in every five free persons, are receiving instruction from one hundred and fifteen thousand teachers, in nearly one hundred thousand schools and col- leges. Nevertheless, two hundred and fifty thousand well-educated young persons, dispersed each year in the different quarters of that huge empire, can not fail to leave their mark upon the national character. We know more about the quantity than the quality of these schools, as Russian publicists have seldom anything to say on the subject; but it is generally admitted that the military institutions are of the highest order. The agricultural school of the imperial domain is said to be admirably managed, and is under the immediate supervision of Nicholas. Two hun- dred and fifty peasants are thoroughly instructed in theoretical and prac- tical cultivation, and are then sent to model-farms in various parts of the country, to set a reforming example to the neighborhood. The tuition lasts four years, and is divided into three periods. In the first year, the boys are taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and surveying. In the sec- ond, grammar, mathematics, and the elements of agriculture; and during the third and fourth, agriculture, practically as well as theoretically, and mechanics. Beside these branches, they are instructed in trades which may be useful to the farmer, such as tailoring, shoemaking, cabinet-making, cooperage, blacksmith's and carpenter's work, and in the construction of agricultural machines. A foundry, a brickyard, a pottery, a tanyard, a candle-and-soap factory, and a windmill, are attached to the school. It is not required that each student shall pursue all these branches. The teach- ers are to judge of the aptitude of each pupil, and to direct him accord- ingly; but every one, upon leaving the establishment, is expected to possess a thorough acquaintance with the general principles and practice. of agriculture, and a competent knowledge of the collateral branches. At the last exposition of the agricultural products of Russia, at St. Petersburg, the various objects sent in by this school excited great atten- tion. The leathers, in particular, were of so fine a quality that they were selected for exhibition in the World's Fair of London, in 1851. 584 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. CHAPTER XXIII. TH MEANS OF TRAVEL. HE roads of Russia, with the exception of a few principal lines, are universally represented by travellers as being the most execrable in Europe. The inconvenience and evils resulting from this fact, how- ever, are much lessened during a portion of the year, by the frost render- ing the worst roads fit for sledge-travelling, and during the warm season by the number of navigable rivers, and the extension that has been effected by the construction of numerous canals, giving a continuous navigation from the Arctic ocean to the Black sea, and from the Baltic to the Caspian, with an intersection of branch canals, by which all the great towns of the interior have ready access to their outports and to each other. The valu- able communications thus provided are about to receive a vast accession from the railway system, for which the configuration of the country affords unwonted facilities. The period is probably not far distant when the Rus- sian territory will be traversed with a network of iron, connecting all its important points both in the interior and on the seaboard, affording facili- ties, at all seasons, for the prompt transport of goods and merchandise, and to the man of business or the tourist an agreeable and rapid transit across the length and breadth of this mammoth empire. The first railway that was constructed in Russia was that leading from St. Petersburg to Czarsko Selo, a distance of seventeen miles. This road was opened in 1837. At the beginning, it was rather regarded with preju- dice by the mass; but as it was undertaken with the consent and counte- nance of the emperor, no one dared to raise objection. By the time it went into active operation, and the imperial family had passed and repassed several times in safety, it began to be looked upon with more favor, and it became quite fashionable to ride down to Czarsko Selo or to Paulofsky, the Vauxhall of Russia. Maxwell relates the following characteristic in- cident, connected with the early travel on this road:- "On one occasion, the confidence of the Russian public was interrupted by a serious accident. The cars took fire, and several people who could not or would not break open the doors of the carriage in which they were riding, were burned to death. There is nothing that so shocks a Russian community as accidents attended with loss of life. When Carter the lion- tamer went to St. Petersburg, he was permitted to exhibit his animals, but MEANS OF TRAVEL· RAILWAYS. 585 HOMEKTISC WINTER TRAVELLING SLEDGES. not to enter the cages, lest he would be devoured in the presence of the people. In consequence of this accident upon the railroad, no one would run the risk of travelling by steam to Czarsko; and the emperor, in a paroxysin of rage, ordered the president of the company to appear before him. This happened to be no less a person than a descendant of the great Catherine, a left-handed cousin of his majesty, and by universal report one of his most intelligent and faithful subjects. He was fortunately absent on a visit to his estates, in the south of Russia. Couriers were instantly de- spatched, with orders to the count to repair immediately to St. Petersburg, and report himself to his liege lord and master. He rode night and day, and reached the city in the evening. The autocrat was at the theatre. Thither went the count, and in the lobby adjoining the imperial box he received the indignant rebuke of his angry sovereign. Fortunately the tempest was partially allayed before his arrival; the count, moreover, was a favorite, and well knew the man he had to deal with. He received the imperial threats with due submission, and was dismissed with orders to be at the railway station at an early hour the next morning. He was there at the appointed time, and so was Nicholas. An engine was ordered to 'fire up,' a car was attached thereto, and away went the master and the subject for Czarsko Selo. No accident occurred. His majesty was gra- cious, the count was most agreeable. They returned in safety; and when they left the car, the emperor embraced the noble president of the railroad company avec effusion de cœur. Public confidence was restored, stock went up, and travel was immediately renewed." This road was followed by the great enterprise undertaken by the empe- ror, in which he took a deep interest, of a first-class railway from St. Pe- tersburg to Moscow, four hundred miles in length. In the prosecution of this work, the late Major Whistler, who was one of the efficient engineers of the western railroad in Massachusetts, was invited thither through the 586 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. agency of Mr. Bodisco, the Russian minister, and was employed in a very responsible situation in the conduct of the work, until his death, which took place a short time before it was finished. Under the agency of Major Whistler, a large number of American mechanics were invited to Russia, and employed in the construction of locomotives and machinery. This work was constructed under the direction of the minister of public works, Count Kleir Michel, aided by Major Whistler, and was opened on the 1st of November, 1851. It is found to be of immense benefit to the commerce of the country, and the business upon it is daily increasing. The passage is made from one capital to the other in twenty-two hours, which previously occupied four days, in diligent travelling day and night. Oliphant, who passed over this road in 1853, thus graphically describes the journey, and also alludes to some of the annoyances incident to travel- ling in Russia even by railway :- "We proceeded, bag and baggage, to the station of the Moscow rail- way. Only one train starts daily; and the hour at which this most import- ant event takes place is, or ought to be, eleven, A. M. Travellers are commanded by the government to be at the station at ten precisely; and even then they are liable to be told that the train is full — as it is quite an unheard-of thing to put on an extra carriage for any number of passengers. Having arrived, therefore, at ten minutes before ten, to be quite sure of being in time, our luggage was seized by a soldier, policeman, or railway porter (for they all wear somewhat the same uniform), and carried in one direction, while we rushed in another to show our passport for Moscow, to procure which we had been to three different offices the day before. Here the descriptions of our persons and our reasons for travelling, which it contained, being copied at full length, we were hurried to another counter, where we got it stamped; whence, catching sight of our baggage en pas- sant, we sped on to the ticket-office, and then, returning to our portman- teaux, we went through a few formalities, which ended in receiving a ticket to add to the number of those with which our pockets were now pretty well filled. The anxiety of mind which such a variety of documents causes is not to be wondered at, when the consequences which the loss of any of them would entail are considered. Ladies in Russia do not think of try- ing to carry their tickets in their gloves. We now betook ourselves to the waiting-room, which we should have thought handsome had we not been detained in it so long that we got tired of admiring it. For an hour did the destined occupants of the train sit patiently on the benches, every man with head uncovered; for even a skull cap is an abomination to a Russian under a roof. Every man in military garb seemed to have the entrée to the platform, while the doors were rigorously shut against us unhappy civilians. At a quarter before eleven, however, they are opened, a general rush follows, and we are hurried through a barrier, the doors of which close behind us. Soon the whole barrier becomes thronged with people waving their adieus as ardently as if we were booked for Australia. A bell, a MEANS OF TRAVEL-RAILWAYS. 587 whistle, and a sort of dull attempt at a scream, are, as in more civilized parts of the world, the signals for starting; we leave the weeping eyes and waving pocket-handkerchiefs behind us, and, in the course of ten minutes, find, to our satisfaction, that we have increased our speed to fifteen miles an hour. We have hardly done so ere we arrive at a station. Everybody rushes out and lights a cigarette. We are to stop here ten minutes, and the people during that time walk up and down the platform, and smoke; then we huddle into our old places, and have time to look about us. The carriages are large. Nobody seems to go in the first-class. A second-class carriage accommodates about fifty people. They are built as in Austria and America, with a passage in the centre, perambulated by a man in uni- form, who occasionally asks people for their tickets. He seems to make inquiry the first time to satisfy himself that you have got one, and after- ward merely as an amusement, which he apparently enjoys the more if he fancies you are going to sleep. The men are bearded and dirty, and relate stories in a loud tone of voice, for the benefit of the whole company, most of whom have evidently never been in a railway before. "At every station the same scene ensues. The unsmoked ends of the last station's cigars having been carefully preserved, are lighted afresh, and vehemently smoked on the platform during five or ten minutes, as the case may be. The stations are all very spacious, and uniformly constructed, with an immense domed building for engines attached to each. Though there is only one passenger-train daily, there are three goods-trains, always well loaded with inland produce, tallow, fur, tea, &c., or with cotton from St. Petersburg to the interior. I should hardly think the line could pos- sibly pay; but as it is a government concern nobody has any means of ascertaining this fact. Whether it pays or not, the railway traveller in Russia soon discovers that the requirements of trade are as little regarded by government as his own personal convenience; for the restrictive policy of the empire must ever neutralize, in a great measure, the beneficial effects of rapid internal communication, while the difficulties which have always been placed in the way of free mercantile intercourse exist in full force, though the physical obstacles by which it has hitherto been encom- passed are overcome. In fact, though the public can not but be benefited by the formation of railroads through a country, it is hardly for the public. benefit that railroads are constructed here. Russian railroads seem to be meant for Russian soldiers; and it is the facility thus afforded of moving large bodies of men, that invests this mode of communication in Russia with an importance which does not attach to it in Great Britain, or perhaps any other country in Europe, to an equal extent. When St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, and Warsaw, become connected, Russia assumes an en- tirely new position with regard to the rest of Europe. A few days, instead of many months, will then suffice to concentrate the armies of the north and south upon the Austrian or Prussian frontiers. Through this same quarter of the world, many hundred years ago, poured those barbaric 588 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. hordes which overran civilized Europe; it would, indeed, be a singular testimony to the spirit of the age, if the next invaders made their descent by means of railroads." The road from St. Petersburg to Moscow was hardly finished when the emperor ordered the construction of another gigantic road, between St. Petersburg and Warsaw. This road will be six hundred and seventy miles long. It will pass by the cities of Louga, Pskov, Dunaburg, Wilna, Grodno, Vileka, Viala, Niemen, and Narev. A company has also been formed at Riga for building a branch to this road, which is to unite that seaport with the city of Dunaburg, and thus connect Riga with the two capitals of Russia and Poland. This branch, the track of which was laid out by the engineer Gouzenback, will be one hundred and forty miles in length. It will keep along the right bank of the Duna, and will pass near the cities of Jacobstadt and Freidrichstadt. The capital is fixed at nine millions roubles. Another line is projected to unite Dunaburg, by Smo- lensk, with Moscow, and establish a direct communication between this ancient Russian capital and Warsaw by the route which was pursued by the advance and retreat of the French army in 1812. In the south of the empire, a company is about to undertake the construction of a railroad between Kharkov and Odessa. This road will cross the Dnieper, at Krementchoug, above the rapids which obstruct the navigation of the river. This road will benefit the commerce in grain in the same manner as the line from Dunaburg to Riga is destined to help forward that of linen and timber. Finally, in the kingdom of Poland, where for some years the line from Warsaw to Myslovitz (in Prussian Silesia) has been in full ac- tivity, two other lines are thought of: one from Warsaw to Bromberg, the other from the same capital to Posen; but the arrangements necessary to be made with the Prussian government for this purpose have not reached. a satisfactory conclusion. The line from Warsaw to Myslovitz, a little more than two hundred miles in length, puts the capital of Poland in com- munication by railway with Vienna and Berlin, and consequently with Paris. When the line which is to join Warsaw to St. Petersburg, is completed and opened for travel, the immense distance which separates France and Rus- sia may be travelled over in four or five days. It must be borne in mind, however, that all these projected lines have been more or less interrupted by the war in which Russia has unfortunately become involved with the western powers of Europe. Until superseded, however, by a general railway system throughout the empire, the wretched roads incidentally alluded to at the opening of the chapter must continue to furnish a serious drawback to locomotion on Rus- sian territory. A few details in relation to these roads and roadside. accommodation will not be out of place here. The whole distance from Odessa to Moscow is a mere track, marked by verst-posts, about ten feet high, and by them the traveller is guided across the open steppe; but these posts do not determine the width of the track; each carriage picks its own MEANS OF TRAVEL-ROADS. 589 way, either a hundred yards or half a mile to the right or left, as the horses or driver may think fit. This track can not be called a road, in the same sense that it would be in this country; it is merely traced over the natural soil, and there is not a shovelful of material laid down, nor is there any fencing or draining. In the winter, the verst-posts are the compass of the steppe, and without them it would be impossible to travel after heavy falls of snow; late in the season the track is so uneven that persons are often thrown with violence out of their sledges.* In wet weather it is almost impassable, and, after the thaw has set in, quite so, for a few weeks. Traffic is then almost suspended, and the transport of the mails becomes at this period a service of some danger, as the wooden bridges which have been taken up during the winter are not replaced till the weather is settled, and the Yagers are sometimes obliged to pass the rivers on rafts. In the latter part of the spring the ground is suddenly hardened in all its inequal- ities of ruts, holes, and hillocks, by the slight frosts which follow the thaw, and in the summer retains much of the inequality it then assumed, particu- larly through forests, where the track is narrow, and consequently more cut up. In the continuous heat of summer, which withers all the grass on the steppe, some inches deep of the surface is beaten into dust, and in windy weather a veil over the face is almost indispensable. In some districts, trees are planted by the side of the track, but they are not much more pic- turesque, and certainly in this season not more verdant, than the verst-posts. The road to Archangel is, in many parts, boarded with planks, laid flat across it; when quite new it is well enough, but wood, as a material for road-making, is not exactly suitable; there are still some corduroy roads in the environs of St. Petersburg. These roads are constructed of small trees and logs laid transversely, and bad as they are they have their value, for without them it would be impossible to get across some parts of the country. There is not, on the public roads, any fixed time or place for the travel- ler to take his meals, and no specified hour for arriving at or quitting any particular town. Some travellers, and we may add most Russians and all sensible persons, take care to order what is either ready or quickly pro- cured, and seldom keep the courier waiting; others, not sufficiently versed in the cuisine, order dinners of so many dishes, and the consequence almost invariably is that the stranger subjects himself to imposition by naming some dish not mentioned in the carte. In addition to this, the chances are that the horses are put to about the time the eatables make their appear- ance; the courier inserts his swarthy visage at the door, and after saying "Gotovo" (ready), vanishes, only to reappear again with his watch in his hand, repeating the magic word gotovo; a glass of wine, or something stronger, offered to the conductor, may have its effect, and if, as these men generally are, he is a good-natured fellow, the hungry traveller will be allowed to finish his dinner. * This {\rm of accident is «ptly illustrated by the engraving on page 212. 590 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The posthouses in most parts of the empire are mere huts, commonly constructed of mud or pine logs; in the latter case they swarm with cock- roaches; there is no accommodation beyond a table, chairs, and a rough cane-bottomed or wooden sofa, and the traveller has no right to expect more than to walk into the room next to that in which the padaroshnas are entered, throw himself upon it in his cloak, and there take his rest, "if rest it be which thus convulses slumber," for upon it he is not likely to sleep alone. The fair pilgrim on the shores of the Baltic describes these post-stations on the Riga road as "fine buildings outwardly, but otherwise whitened sepulchres." This charge will not hold good against those in the steppe, for there is no whitewash, and, therefore, no deception; they are what they appear to be, mud or wooden structures of the humblest kind. The following extract from the same author gives one a very cheerless idea of what may be expected even on the more frequented and macadamized road to the above-mentioned city: "At about three o'clock I alighted at a station-house of no very promising exterior. Anton (the servant) peeped into a room on the right and shook his head, into one on the left and re- peated the gesture; each was filled with smoke from a party of noisy ca- rousers. The host coming forward, I asked (for here German was a pass- port) for an 'ordentliches zimmer,' a decent room, in which I could dine. When looking round at his filthy floors, rickety chairs and smoking guests, he answered, with a shrug, 'Was können sie mehr verlangen?' ('What can you wish for more ?') I very nearly laughed in his face." On the cross- roads, and in the steppe, eggs and milk are generally to be obtained, but no butter, nor anything else but the black rye-bread; the latter very good fare for a Russian or a Spartan, but if the traveller is neither the one nor the other, he finds his gastronomic tastes severely tried. Russian families almost invariably sleep in their travelling-carriages, which are very pon- derous and roomy vehicles. Those who can afford it are accompanied by a kibitka, or telega, in which is placed their bedding and other comforts. more?') Posting is deemed at present the preferable mode of travelling in Rus- sia, it being the most rapid, independent, and, all things considered, the most economical. To travel post, it is necessary to be provided with a padaroshna, or order for horses, in which is inserted the name of the place which is the destined termination of the journey, the distance in versts, and the number of horses wanted. This is required to be shown at each post- station, as an authority to the postmasters to furnish fresh horses, and if mislaid or lost the unfortunate owner will be obliged to continue his jour- ney with peasant's horses, subject to all his caprices as to charge, hour of starting, and distance of each day's journey. The horses three, and sometimes four in number, are always driven abreast. The yamstchik or postboy, instead of riding, drives from the box or the foot-board; his beard and habiliments are not the most cleanly, and his love for vodka and gossip is intense. He knows only two paces, a walk and a gallop, and his course across the steppe is straight over every MEANS OF TRAVEL — POSTING. 591 hillock, and into every hole that lies in his way; the whip, a short but heavy punisher, and an inexhaustible supply of oaths, are not unfrequently in request. The more humane have recourse to kind words, and address. their horses in endearing terms, which are sometimes given in rhyme. A mare the boy calls "sudaruina," or good woman; a tired horse he ad- dresses as "starite," or old fellow. Collectively, they are called "golub- ki," or little doves. In the winter, a bell is attached to the pole of the carriage, to give notice of its approach, for the sledge glides noiselessly over the snow. A table showing the distance from one post-station to another, is hung up in every post-house, also the charge for each horse is stated; a book is also kept in which travellers may enter their complaints; should any difficulties arise, a request to see this book may have some ef- fect upon the dilatory and extortionate post-master. The official is bound to furnish at least the number of horses ordered in the padaroshna; but he may oblige the traveller to take more if the roads require it, and this he does sometimes to the extent of making him journey with six, and in very bad roads, nine horses; he may also, and often does, on the cross-roads, tell you there are no horses left but those which he is bound to keep for the mail or a court-courier; a douceur, however, properly administered to him or the yamstchik, will have a wonderful effect in producing the requi- site number of quadrupeds: the latter is occasionally the proprietor of the horses he drives. These bearded Jehus generally receive from thirty-five to fifty copper kopeks for the stage, according to its length. This varies greatly, viz., from twelve to twenty-eight versts: Russians give less, and when travelling on the public service seldom give anything. Many of the postmasters in the south of Russia are Polish Jews, and, though not more rapacious than their Christian brethren of the same trade, are quite as bad. In addition to these worthies, there is at each posthouse a government officer, called an ispravnik, who is supposed to be a check on the post- master; he is, however, generally his bosom-friend, but the palm of his hand is seldom shut. Sometimes the traveller by post chances to meet with a cabinet-courier, or with an officer travelling on service, to whose horses some accident has happened, and who forthwith, and without the slightest ceremony, stops the luckless stranger, takes the horses from his carriage, harnesses them to his own, and galloped off, perfectly indifferent as to the fate of the man whom he thus leaves houseless and helpless upon the emperor's highway. The cabinet-couriers incidentally mentioned above are worthy of a pas- sing notice. They are confidential persons, two or more of whom are con- stantly in attendance in a chamber of the imperial palace, to be despatched as occasion may require. They have their orders direct from the emperor, and at any hour of day or night, they are ready to receive instructions for departure, or for delivery of their despatches. The Russian couriers are perhaps the most enduring and hardworking class of men to be found in Europe. Seated on a board covered with a thick leathern cushion, in a 592 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. 7017 DEPARTURE OF THE MALLE-POST (OR MAIL DILIGENCE) FROM ST PETERSBURG. wooden vehicle, without springs or back to lean against, and on a level with the traces, the courier travels at full gallop over the most wretched roads, without rest or repose, to Odessa, to Chiva, or even to Port St. Peter and St. Paul, twelve thousand eight hundred versts from St. Peters- burg. Add to this, that the courier, so long as he is on Russian ground, is forbidden, under pain of dismissal, to close an eye in sleep. On such tremendous journeys as the last referred to, nature becomes at last too powerful for duty to resist her call, and the harassed courier allows him- self brief repose. But it has often occurred that when the despatches reached their place of destination, that the bearer was unable to deliver them, he lying a corpse in the carriage. Another popular mode of travelling on the principal routes in Russia is by diligences. Of these there are several kinds: The government or malle-poste, the public diligence, and the private or family diligence. The malle-poste, which accommodates four inside and three outside passengers, is the fastest and most comfortable. It is very capacious, and in winter warmly fitted up with a huge wolfskin wrapper for the feet and legs. The public diligences are slower, and carry passengers at a less rate of fare. The family-diligence is fitted up to accommodate parties of from eight to MEANS OF TRAVEL· VEHICLES. 593 twelve inside passengers. For family parties this mode of travelling has its advantages, and is a more independent mode of journeying than by the private diligence. Some of the Russian diligences are equal in style and comfort to any other European public highway conveyance. The conduc- tor's seat is in front; he is screened by a hood and apron from the pelting storm, and beside him, totally unprotected except by his sheepskin schooba, sits the yamstchik, with his low-crowned hat and broad band adorned with many buckles, and his thick yellow hair, cut, like that of all the lower or- ders, in a line from ear to ear. The number of horses is generally four, harnessed abreast; but to these two leaders are frequently added, and on the off leader is perched an urchin, the very fac-simile in miniature of the bearded driver, who sits with imperturbable gravity on the box. The ac- count given of the diligences of the "second établissement," by a traveller who recently visited Russia, is not so encouraging. He describes the vehicle as having imaginary springs, stony cushions, green baize lining, and inhab- ited by a thriving colony of bugs, and himself as having arrived at Novgorod with his teeth loose, and his limbs half dislocated. Some diligences are conducted by private proprietors, totally unconnected with the government. Another commodious and comfortable country travelling-carriage, much used in the interior of Russia, is the tarantasse, an engraving of which, crossing the steppes, is given on page 215. The name of this carriage is used as the title of a work from the pen of Count Solohoupe, alluded to in the chapter on literature and education. Another form of Rus- sian travelling-carriage is the post-telega, which is a small open wagon without springs, but strongly con- structed, so as to with- stand the roads and no roads of the country. To journey in this vehicle, one must be a native, for the jolting is annihilating, THE POST-TELEGA. and to prove what the concussions must be, the Russian officers put straw at the bottom of it, and not unfrequently a bed upon that; in these ma- chines they get over the ground at an amazing pace. Gathering up his six or eight reins, for there are two to each horse, and grasping his short severe whip, the yamstchik leaves the posthouse at a furious gallop, and keeping the horses at this pace nearly the whole stage, not unfrequently returns to his station with one less than he set out with. When the empe- ror's carriage breaks down, which is not an unusual occurrence in his rapid journeys, he is sometimes obliged to proceed in one of these rude convey- The kibitka is an improvement on the telega, having a hood and apron, so that there is more protection from the weather. ances. 38 594 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The hack-carriage or cab of St. Petersburg, and other large cities in Russia, is the drosky; but it is a most comfortless conveyance, consisting merely of a bench upon four wheels, on which the fare sits astride, as on a THE DROSKY. velocipede, and immediately be- hind the driver, who is not an agreeable person to be in very close contact with; at any rate, to those who are not fond of the odors of garlic, their favorite seasoning. Moreover, the wood- en pavement is at the best indif- ferent, and when out of repair, which is frequently the case, most abominable, and even worse than the stone pavement. Droskies for hire stand in the most principal streets. There is no fixed price whatever, as to distance or time; a most extraordinary thing in a country where the police seem to busy themselves about every- thing. To do the ivoshtshiks or drivers justice, they do not impose very exorbitantly, seldom asking more than twice as much as they will willingly take if a bargain is made before starting; and never attempting to demand more when the ride is finished than they have previously agreed for. The usual fare in St. Petersburg from one quarter to another is about twenty cents. As the distances are great, the most inveterate pedestrian will soon find these bearded Jehus, the ivoshtshiks, his best friends, and he will sel- dom have occasion to sing out "davai” (“here”) a second time; indeed, he need scarcely look at them; and if he only pause for a moment, seeming to muse upon the expediency of hiring one, half a dozen will instantly dart to the spot where he stands and offer their services. In Southern Russia the drosky has a back and the driver sits on a seat in front, at a more agreeable distance from his fare. On a good road, and with three horses attached to it, which are always placed abreast, the pace is grand and the motion very easy; the wheels are small, and the body, which is hung on C-springs, is very low. This vehicle is driven with one, two, or three horses; in either case one is in the shafts, to which a light piece of wood is attached, forming an arch over his head; the traces draw from the nave of the wheel; the bridle and other parts of the harness are ornamented with small bits of brass or silver. If two horses are driven, the second is always placed on the near side, his head drawn a little down and outward by a rein attached to it for the purpose; he is trained to canter and show himself off, while the other does nearly all the work at a rapid trot. When there are three horses, the one on the off-side is also harnessed with his head downward, and capers in the same way. A drosky well turned out in this manner, is by far the prettiest equipage of the three, MEANS OF TRAVEL-IVOSHTSHIKS. 595 and when going at speed, which is the usual pace, the horses have the effect of those in an ancient car. Droskies ply in all the large towns. uses. In winter the ivoshtshik uses the favorite national vehicle of a sledge, with which he continues to grind the pavement as long as the least trace of snow is to be felt under the spring mud. A covered carriage he never The cloaks and furs of his passengers must do the service that the roof of the coach does with us; and when well wrapped up in a series of protecting folds, the warm nucleus of life that occupies the centre, patiently suffers the pelting of snow, rain, and mud, till the end of his journey, where the dirty rind is peeled off, and the said kernel steps forth clean and un- spotted from his muddy covering. The ivoshtshiks of St. Petersburg appear to be a race of Hamaxobites (dwellers in wagons), leading a sort of nomadic life among the palaces of the capital. They encamp by day in the streets, and so do many of them during the night, their sledge serving them at once as house and bed. Like the Bedouin Arabs, they carry the oat-bag constantly with them, and fasten it, during their interval of leisure, to the noses of their steeds. In every street arrangements have been made for the convenience of the ivoshtshiks. Every here and there mangers are erected for their use; to water their horses, there are in all parts of the town convenient descents to the canals or to the river; and hay is sold at a number of shops in small bundles, just sufficient for one or two horses. To still the thirst and hun- ger of the charioteers themselves, there are peripatetic dealers in quass, tea, and bread, who are constantly wandering about the streets for the charitable purpose of feeding the hungry. The animals are as hardy as their masters. Neither care for cold or rain; both eat as opportunity serves, and are content to take their sleep when it comes. Yet they are always cheerful, the horses ever ready to start off at a smart trot, the dri- vers at all times disposed for a song, a joke, or a gossip. When they are neither eating, nor engaged in any other serious occupation, they lounge about their sledges, singing some simple melody that they have probably brought with them from their native forests. When several of them hap- pen to be together at the corner of a street, they are sure to be engaged in some game or other, pelting with snowballs, wrestling, or bantering each other, till the "Davai ivoshtshik!" of some chance passenger makes them all grasp their whips in a moment, and converts them into eager competi- tors for the expected gain. These men are, for the most part, Russians from all the different govern- ments of the empire; but among them there are also Finlanders, Esthoni- ans, Lettes, Poles, and Germans. They arrive at St. Petersburg generally as little boys of ten or twelve years old, hire themselves as drivers to some owner of hackney-carriages, whom they continue to serve till they have saved enough to buy a horse and vehicle, when they set up in business on their own account. Their trade, as are all trades in Russia, is uncontrolled by corporation laws; and should fodder grow dear, or business slack, the 596 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ivoshtshik packs up the few worldly goods he possesses, drives away to the south, and reappears in the streets of Novgorod or Moscow; thus, in pur- suit of fortune, they emerge now in one town and now in another, till enabled somewhere to form a profitable and permanent establishment. The constant plague of the ivoshtshik is the pedestrian, who in Russia is invested with immense privileges. In other countries a man thinks him- self bound to take care that he is not run over; but in Russia, he who walks afoot troubles himself but little about the matter, and thinks the coachman alone is bound to be careful. If the horse or carriage merely touch a foot-passenger, without even throwing him down, the driver is liable to be flogged and fined; should the pedestrian be thrown down, a flogging, Siberia, and the confiscation of the whole equipage, are the mild penalties imposed by the law. "Have a care," cries the ivoshtshik. "Have a care thyself, and remember Siberia," is the probably reply of the leisurely wayfarer. The moment the cry is raised that a man has been run over, a brace of butshniks rush out from their watchboxes, and the carriage, whoever it may belong to, is carried away as a police prize. The poor coachman is immediately bound, and the flattering prospect of an emigra- tion to Siberia is immediately held forth to him, whether the accident have arisen from his own fault or not. Cases of great severity sometimes oc- cur; but it is difficult to point out any other way of checking the wild way of driving in which the nobles frequently indulge. מוריה IVOSHTSHIKS. HISTORIC SUMMARY- THE SLAVONIANS. 597 TH CHAPTER XXIV. HISTORIC SUMMARY-EARLY ANNALS. THE earliest annals of Russia only furnish occasional glimpses of nu- merous barbarous hordes roaming over its surface. These nomadic tribes, classed under the common appellation of Sarmatians and Scythians, at a very early period began to menace the Roman frontiers, and even before the time of Cyrus the Great of Persia had invaded what was then called the civilized world, particularly southern Asia. They inhabited the countries described by Herodotus between the Don and the Dnieper; and Strabo and Tacitus mention the Roxolani, afterward called Ros, as highly distinguished among the Sarmatian tribes dwelling in that district. The Greeks early established colonies here; and in the second century the Goths came from the Baltic, and, locating in the neighborhood of the Don, extended themselves to the Danube. In the fifth century, the country in the neighborhood of these rivers was overrun by numerous migratory hordes of Alans, Huns, Avarians, and Bul- garians, who were followed by the Slavi, or Slavonians, a Sarmatian peo- ple, who took a more northerly direction than their predecessors had done. In the next century, the Khozari, pressed upon by the Avarians, entered the country between the Volga and the Don, conquered the Crimea, and thus placed themselves in connection with the Byzantine empire. These and numerous other tribes directed the course of their migrations toward the west, forced the Huns into Pannonia, and occupied the country be- tween the Don and the Alanta; while the Tchoudes, or Ishudi, a tribe of the Finnic race, inhabited the northern parts of Russia. All these tribes maintained themselves by pasture and the chase, and exhibited the usual barbarism of wandering nomades. The Slavonians, coming from the northern Danube, and spreading them- selves along the Dnieper, in the fifth and sixth centuries, early acquired, from a commerce with their southern neighbors, habits of civilized life, and embraced the Christian religion. They founded in the country afterward called Russia the two cities of Novgorod and Kiev, which early attained a commercial importance. Their wealth, however, soon excited the avid- ity of the Khozari, with whom they were compelled to maintain a perpetual struggle. But Novgorod found another and more formidable enemy in the Varagians, a race of bold pirates who infested the coasts of the Baltic, 598 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. and who had previously subdued the Courlanders, Livonians, and Estho- nians. It is not improbable that these Varagians formed a part of those Scandinavian nations, who, under the name of Danes and Saxons, succes- sively made themselves masters of England. To these bold invaders the name of Russi, Russes, or Russians, is thought by the most eminent authors to owe its origin. Be that, however, as it may, it appears certain that in these dark ages the country was divided among a great number of petty princes, who made war upon each other with great ferocity and cruelty, so that the people were reduced to the utmost misery; and the Slavonians, seeing that the warlike rovers threatened their rising state with devasta- tion, were prompted by the necessity of self-preservation to offer the gov- ernment of their country to them. In consequence of this, a celebrated Varagian chief, named Rurik, arrived, in 862, with a body of his country- men, in the neighborhood of the lake Ladoga, and laid the foundation of the present empire of Russia, by uniting his people with those who already occupied the soil. Rurik has the credit of being zealous for the strict administration of justice, and enforcing its exercise on all the boyars or nobles who pos- sessed territories under him. He died in 879, leaving an only son, Igor, who, being a minor, Oleg, a kinsman of the deceased monarch, took on himself the administration of affairs. The new monarch appears very early to have projected the extension of his territories, by annexing to them the settlement which the Slavi had formed about Kiev, against which he soon undertook a formidable expedition. He collected a numerous army, and, taking with him the young prince Igor, opened the campaign with the capture of Lubitch, and of Smolensk, the capital of the Krivit- sches. Having reduced several other towns, he advanced toward the rival city of Kiev, the possession of which formed the chief object of his ambi- tion. As he did not think it advisable to hazard an open attack, he had recourse to artifice; and, leaving behind him the greater part of his troops, he concealed the remainder in the barks that had brought them down the Dnieper from Smolensk. Oleg himself, disguising his name and quality, passed for a merchant sent by the regent and his ward Igor on business of importance to Constantinople; and he despatched officers to Oskhold and Dir, the two chieftains of the Kievians, requesting permission to pass through their territory into Greece, and inviting them to visit him as friends and fellow-citizens, pretending that indisposition prevented him from paying his respects to them in person. The princes, relying on these appearances of friendship, accepted Oleg's invitation; but when they ar rived at the regent's encampment, they were surrounded by the Varagian soldiers, who sprang from their place of concealment. Oleg, taking Igor in his arms, and casting on the sovereigns of Kiev a fierce and threatening look, exclaimed: "You are neither princes, nor of the race of princes; behold the son of Rurik!" These words, which formed the signal that had been agreed on between Oleg and his soldiers, were no sooner uttered, HISTORIC SUMMARY- OLEG IGOR. 599 200020000. 三​〇 ​VARAGIANS. COSTUMES OF THE TIME OF RURIK, than the latter rushed on the two princes, and laid them prostrate at the feet of their master. The inhabitants of Kiev, thrown into consternation by this bold and treacherous act, made no resistance, but opened the gates of their city to the invader. By this means, the two Slavonian states were united under one head. Having thus made himself master of the key to the eastern empire, Oleg prepared to carry into effect his ambitions designs against Constantinople. Leaving Igor at Kiev, he embarked on the Dnieper with eighty thousand warriors, in two thousand vessels. The inhabitants of the imperial city had drawn a massy chain across the harbor, hoping to prevent their land- ing. But the invaders drew ashore their barks, fitted wheels to their flat bottoms, and converted them into carriages, which, by the help of sails, they forced along the roads that led to the city, and thus arrived under the walls of Constantinople. The emperor Leo, instead of making a manly resistance, is said to have attempted carrying off his enemies by poison; but, this not succeeding, he was obliged to purchase from the conqueror 600 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. an ignominious peace. Oleg obtained the completion of his wishes, by the rich booty which he carried off; and his people, dazzled with his brilliant success, thought him endowed with supernatural powers. Oleg maintained the sovereign power for thirty-three years; nor does it appear that Igor had any share in the government till the death of his guardian left him in full possession of the throne, A. D. 912, at which time he had reached his fortieth year. He soon discovered marks of the same warlike spirit which had actuated his predecessor. Among the nations that had been subjugated by Oleg, several, on the accession of a new sov- ereign, attempted to regain their independence; but they were quelled, and punished by the imposition of a tribute. Igor, however, soon had to contend with more formidable enemies. The Petchenegans, a nation hith- erto unknown, quitted their settlements on the Yaik and the Volga, and made incursions into the Russian territory; and Igor, finding himself un- able to cope with them in arms, concluded a treaty of alliance. The Russian monarch was now far advanced in years; but the insatiable rapacity of his officers, ever craving fresh spoils from vanquished nations, impelled him to turn his arms against the Drevlians, for the purpose of obtaining from them an increase of their yearly tribute. In this unjust attack, he was at first successful, and returned loaded with the contribu- tions which he had levied from that people; but having dismissed a great part of his troops with the spoils of the vanquished, and marching with the remainder too far into the country, he fell into an ambuscade, which the Drevlians, now grown desperate, had formed, on his approach, in the neighborhood of Korosten. The Russians were overpowered, and Igor, being taken prisoner, was put to death. This occurred in 945. Before the death of Oleg, Igor had married a princess of a bold and daring spirit, named Olga, by whom he had one son, Sviatoslaff; but as he was very young at the death of his father, the queen-mother Olga as- sumed the reins of government. Her first care was to take signal ven- geance on the Drevlians, who, satisfied with the death of their oppressor, appeared desirous of renewing their amicable intercourse with the Rus- sians. Olga, concealing her real designs under a specious veil of kind- ness, appeared to listen to their overtures, and received the deputies of Male, but immediately ordered them to be privately put to death. In the meantime, she invited a larger deputation from the Drevlian chief, which she treated in the same manner, taking care that no tidings of either mur- der should be carried to the Drevlians. She then set out, as if on an ami- cable visit, to conclude the new alliance; and having proclaimed a solemn entertainment, to which she invited some hundreds of the principal inhab- itants of the Drevlian towns, she caused them to be treacherously assassin- ated. This was but the first step to the dreadful vengeance which she had resolved to inflict on this unhappy people. She laid waste the whole coun- try, particularly near the town of Korosten, where Igor had lost his life. For a long time she could not master the place, as the inhabitants, dread- HISTORIC SUMMARY- OLGA- 601 -SVIATOSLAFF. ing the horrible fate that awaited them from the revengeful spirit of Olga, defended themselves with valor and success. At length, being assured of clemency, on condition of sending to Olga all the pigeons of the town, they submitted; but Olga, causing lighted matches to be fastened to the tails of the pigeons, set them at liberty. The birds flew to their usual places of residence in the town, which were speedily in a conflagration. The wretched inhabitants, endeavoring to escape the flames, fell into the hands of the Russian soldiers, planted round the town for that purpose, by whom they were put to the sword. Though not uncommon in the annals of a barbarous people, this transaction is sufficient to hand down the name of Olga with detestation to posterity. This princess was, however, the first of the barbarians who professed to embrace Christianity. She failed in persuading her son to follow her example, but induced a few of her sub- jects to do so. It is probable that Olga retired from the administration of affairs soon after her profession of Christianity; for we find Sviatoslaff in full posses- sion of the government in 957, long before his mother's death. This prince has been considered one of the Russian heroes; and if a thirst for blood, a contempt of danger, and disregard of the luxuries and conveni- ences of life, be admitted as the characteristics of a hero, he deserves the appellation. He took up his habitation in a camp, where his accommoda- tions were of the coarsest kind; and when he had, by this mode of life, ingratiated himself with his troops, he prepared to employ them in those ambitious projects which he had long been forming. His first expedition was against the Khozari, a people already men- tioned, from the shores of the Caspian, and the Caucasian mountains, who had established themselves along the eastern shores of the Black sea. These people had rendered tributary both the Kievians and the Viateches, a Slavonian nation that dwelt on the banks of the Oka and the Volga. Sviatoslaff, desirous of transferring to himself the tribute which the Kho- zari derived from the latter people, marched against them, and appears to have succeeded in his design. He defeated them in a battle, and took their capital city Sarkel, or Belgorod. It is said by some historians that he annihilated the nation; and it is certain that, from that time, no men- tion is made of the Khozari. The martial fame of Sviatoslaff had extended to Constantinople; and the emperor Nicephorus Phocas, who was then harassed by the Hunga- rians, assisted by his treacherous allies the Bulgarians, applied for succors to the Russian chieftain. A subsidiary treaty was entered into between them, and Sviatoslaff hastened with a numerous army to the assistance of his new allies. He quickly made himself master of most of the Bulgarian towns along the Danube; but, receiving intelligence that the Petchenegans had assembled in great numbers, ravaged the Kievian territory, and laid siege to the capital, within the walls of which were shut up his mother and his sons, he hastened to the relief of his family. 602 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Having defeated the besiegers, and obliged them to sue for peace, he resolved to establish himself on the banks of the Danube, and divided his hereditary dominions among his children. He gave Kiev to Yaropolk; the Drevlian territory to Oleg; and on Vladimir, a natural son, he be- stowed the government of Novgorod. On his return to Bulgaria, however, he found that his affairs had assumed a very different aspect. The Bulga- rians, taking advantage of his absence with his troops, had recovered most of their towns, and seemed well prepared to resist the encroachments of a foreign power. They fell on Sviatoslaff, as he approached the walls of Pereiaslavatz, and began the attack with so much fury, that at first the Russians were defeated with great slaughter. They, however, soon ral- lied, and, taking courage from despair, renewed the battle with so much eagerness, that they in turn became masters of the field. Sviatoslaff took possession of the town, and soon recovered all that he had lost. During these transactions, the Greek emperor Nicephorus had been assassinated, and John Zemisces, his murderer, had succeeded to the impe- rial diadem. The new emperor sent embassadors to the Russian monarch, requiring him to comply with the stipulations of his treaty with Nicepho- rus, and evacuate Bulgaria, which he had agreed to occupy as an ally, but not as a master. Sviatoslaff refused to give up his newly-acquired posses- sions, and prepared to decide the contest by force of arms. He did not live to reach the capital; for having, contrary to the advice of his most experienced officers, attempted to return to Kiev up the dangerous navi- gation of the Dnieper, he was intercepted by the Petchenegans near the rocks that form the cataracts of that river. After remaining on the defen- sive during the winter, exposed to all the horrors of famine and disease, on the return of spring, in 972, attempted to force his way through the ranks of the enemy; but his troops were defeated, and himself killed in the battle. Yaropolk, the sovereign of Kiev, may be considered as the successor of his father on the Russian throne; but his reign was short and turbulent. A war broke out between him and his brother Oleg, in which the latter was defeated and slain. Vladimir, the third brother, dreading the in- creased power and ambitious disposition of Yaropolk, soon after aban- doned his dominions, which were seized on by the Kievian prince. Vladi- mir had retired among the Varagians, from whom he soon procured such succors as enabled him to make effectual head against the usurper. He advanced toward Kiev before Yaropolk was prepared to oppose him. The Kievian prince had, indeed, been lulled into security by the treacherous reports of one of his voyvodes, who was in the interest of Vladimir, and who found means to induce him to abandon his capital, on pretence that the inhabitants were disaffected toward him. The Kievians, left without a leader, opened their gates to Vladimir; and Yaropolk, still misled by the treachery of his adviser, determined to throw himself on the mercy of his brother; but before he could effect this purpose, he was assassinated HISTORIC SUMMARY VLADIMIR THE GREAT-YAROSLAV I. 603 by some of his Varagian followers. By this murder, which had probably been planned by Vladimir, the conqueror, in 980, acquired the undivided possession of all his father's territories. The commencement of Vladimir's reign formed but a continuation of the enormities which had conducted him to the throne. He began with remov- ing Blude, the treacherous voyvode, by whom his brother had been be- trayed into his power, and to whom he had promised the highest honors and dignities. The Varagians, who had assisted in reinstating him on the throne of his ancestors, requested permission to go and seek their for- tune in Greece. He granted their request, but privately advertised the emperor of their approach, and caused them to be arrested and secured. Vladimir engaged in numerous wars, and subjected several of the neigh- boring states to his dominion. He seized on part of the Polish territory; and compelled the Bulgarians, who dwelt in that which now forms the government of Kazan, to do him homage. He subdued the Petchenegans and Khazares, in the immediate neighborhood of the Kievian state; he reduced to his authority Halitsch (or Kalisch) and Vladimir, countries which are now known as Galicia and Lubomiria; he conquered Lithuania as far as Memel, and took possession of a great part of modern Livonia. This monarch, having settled the affairs of his empire, demanded in mar- riage the princess Anne, sister to the Greek emperor Basilius Porphyro- genitus. His suit was granted, on condition that he should embrace Chris- tianity. With this the Russian monarch complied; and that vast empire was thenceforward considered as belonging to the patriarchate of Constan- tinople. Vladimir received the name of Basilius on the day he was bap- tized; and, according to the Russian annals, twenty thousand of his sub- jects were baptized on the same day. The idols of paganism were now thrown down, churches and monasteries were erected, towns built, and the arts began to flourish. The Slavonian letters were also at this period first introduced into Russia; and Vladimir sent missionaries to convert the Bulgarians, but without much success. We are told that Vladimir called the arts from Greece, cultivated them in the peaceable periods of his reign, and generously rewarded their professors. His merits, indeed, appear to have been very considerable. He has been extolled by the monks as the wisest as well as the most religious of kings; his zealous exertions in pro- moting the profession of Christianity throughout his dominions acquired for him the title of saint; and succeeding historians, comparing the virtues of his character with the age in which he lived, have united in conferring upon him the appellation of "Vladimir the Great." His son Yaroslav, who reigned thirty-five years, and died in 1054, at the age of seventy-seven, was a prince of considerable attainments, and a great patron of the arts. The church of St. Sophia, at Novgorod, was by his order decorated with pictures and mosaics, portions of which are said to remain to the present time. His expedition against Constantine XI., who then held the sceptre of the eastern or Greek empire (though unsuc- 604 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. cessful), as well as his acquirements, and the splendor in which he lived, made his name known and respected throughout Europe. Three of his daughters were married to the kings of France, Norway, and Hungary; and his eldest son, Vladimir, who died before him, had for wife a daughter of the unfortunate Harold, the last of the Saxon kings of England. Yaroslav, at his death, divided his empire, as was usually the case, among his sons. Vladimir Monomachus, his grandson, who died in the early part of the next century, did the same; and as the Russian monarchs were blessed, generally speaking, with a numerous offspring (the last- mentioned sovereign had eight children), the country was continually a prey to internal dissensions and strife: and these family feuds were not settled until an appeal had been made to the sword, which, being conge- nial to the disposition of the people and the temper of the times, was fre- quently prolonged for years. In the year preceding the death of Monoma- chus, Kiev was nearly destroyed by fire; and, from the great number of churches and houses that fell a prey to the flames, that city must then have been of great extent and opulence. This calamity was followed in the succeeding reign by a still greater one, when the sister capital, Novgorod, was desolated by a famine so awful, that the survivors were not sufficiently numerous to bury the dead, and the streets were blocked up by the putrid corpses of the inhabitants! The reigns which followed this period of Russian history are distin- guished by little else than continual wars with the Poles, Lithuanians, Polovetzes, and Tchoudes, with this exception, that the town of Vladimir, built by Yury I., in 1157, became in that year the capital instead of Kiev. But a more formidable enemy than the inhabitants of the countries and tribes already mentioned drew near the Muscovite territory, in the person of Tuschki, the son of Zinghis Khan, who, emigrating with his Tartars westward, led them, about the year 1223, from the shores of the sea of Aral and the Caspian to those of the Dnieper. The Circassians and Polo- vetzes, having endeavored in vain to arrest the progress of the horde, were at length constrained to apply to their hitherto inveterate foes for assist- ance; and, the cause being now equally dear to all parties, the Russians made an intrepid stand on the banks of the Kalka. The impetuous attack, however, of the invaders was not to be withstood, and, the prince of Kiev treacherously abstaining from taking part in the battle, the Russians were completely routed, and scarcely a tenth part of an army composed of one hundred thousand men escaped. The enemy then pursued his way unmo- lested to the capital, which he took, and put fifty thousand of the inhabit- ants of the principality of Kiev to the sword! The further progress of the Tartars northward was marked by fire and sword; but, having reached Novgorod-Severski, they faced about and retreated to the camp of Zinghis Khan, who was at this time in Bokhara. Thirteen years after, Batou Khan, grandson of Zinghis, desolated Rus- sia afresh, committing every species of cruelty, and aggravated breaches HISTORIC SUMMARY—YAROSLAV II. - ALEXANDER I. 605 of faith with the towns who submitted to his arms. In this manner, the old provinces of Riazan, Periaslavl, Rostov, and several others, fell into his hands; for, with incredible apathy, and contrary to their usually war- like inclinations, the Russian princes neglected to raise any troops to dis- pute their progress; and Yury II., prince of Vladimir, was at this critical juncture occupied in celebrating the marriage of one of his boyars. At length, suddenly roused to a sense of his desperate position, he placed himself at the head of some troops hastily called together, and left his family under the protection of one of his nobles, trusting that his capital would be able to sustain a long siege. He was mistaken: the Tartars soon made themselves masters of Vladimir, and the grand princesses, as well as other persons of distinction, were burnt alive in the church in which they had taken shelter. On hearing of this tragical event, Yury marched with his adherents to meet the foe. The contest was sanguinary and short; but, after performing prodigies of valor, the Russians were borne down by overpowering numbers, and their prince was left among the slain. There was now nothing to dispute the march of the ruthless Tartars, and they pushed forward to within sixty miles of Novgorod, when they again turned round without any ostensible motive, and evacuated the Russian territory. The wretched condition into which the southern and central parts of the empire were thrown by these invasions, afforded a most advantageous opportunity for other enemies to attack it; and, accordingly, in 1242, and during the reign of Yaroslav II., the Swedes, Danes, and Livonians, sent a numerous and well-disciplined army to demand the submission of Novgo- rod. This Alexander, the son of the reigning sovereign, refused; and, leaving his capital, he advanced, unaided by any allies, to meet his oppo- nents, and fought the celebrated battle of the Neva, which gained him the surname of Nevski, and a place in the Russian calendar. The personal courage of Alexander in this battle was of the highest order, and mainly contributed to secure the victory. His memory is still cherished by the Russians, and the order instituted in honor of him is much valued. A cruel and constantly-fluctuating war with the Tartars-various incur- sions by the Livonians, Lithuanians, Swedes, and Poles-and the most frightful civil discord among the several almost regal provinces of Russia -consumed fourteen successive reigns, between Yury II., who died in 1238, and Ivan I., who succeeded his father in the principality of Vladimir in 1328.* At times, during this period, the Tartars, adding insult to * The reigns during this period were those of Yaroslav II., 1238-'47; Sviatoslaff II., 1247-'48; Michael II., 1248-'49; Andrew II., 1249-'52; Alexander I. (Nevski), 1252–'63; Yaroslav III., 1263-'72; Vassili I., 1272-'76; Dmitri I., 1276-'94; Andrew III., 1294-'1304; Michael III., 1304-'19; Yury III., 1319-'22; Dmitri II., 1322-25; Alexander II., 1325-'28. The last half century of this epoch Karamsin speaks of as the most disastrous period of Russian history. "The aspect of Russia was that of a gloomy forest rather than an empire. Might took the place of right, and pillage, authorized by impunity, was exercised alike by Russians and Tartars. There was no safety for travellers on the roads, or for females in their houses; and robbery, like a contagious muady, infested all properties." 606 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. injury, arrogated to themselves the power of protectors of this or that inter est; and, in the case of Ivan I., Uzbek Khan secured to him the possession of Novgorod, as well as of Vladimir and Moscow. Ivan's father had greatly beautified and improved the latter town; and Ivan followed his example, and made it his residence. Here also resided the metropolitan, and it therefore rapidly advanced in importance. Ivan's reign of thirteen. years was remarkable as improving and peaceful, and he exercised a sound discretion by building a wall of wood round the city, which supported a rampart of earth and stone. At the close of his life he took monastic vows, and died in 1341. In the reign of Ivan II., second son of the pre- vious monarch of that name, Moscow established its pre-eminence as a city, and became the capital of the empire. Ivan II. died in 1358, and was succeeded by Dmitri III., who died in 1363. The throne was then occupied by Dmitri IV., under whom, toward the close of this century, the Russians raised an army of four hundred thou- sand men, and met the Tartars near the Don, who were defeated with great loss. This terrible contest lasted three days, and was known in after-ages as "the Battle of the Giants." The victors, however, suffered greatly; and when Dmitri reviewed his army after the battle, he found it reduced to forty thousand men! This success obtained for him the surname of Donskoi. Subsequently, however, to this victory, the Tartars again ad- vanced; and Dmitri, betrayed by his allies, the princes of the neighboring states, deserted Moscow, which fell by capitulation into the hands of the ruthless invaders, who devastated it with fire and sword until it was ut terly destroyed, no building being permitted to remain except those which happened to have been constructed of stone by the grand prince. The character of Dmitri IV. is thus given by the metropolitan Cyprian "He knew,” says that ecclesiastic, "how to soften the kingly office by condescension, he was impartial in the administration of justice, and de- lighted to promote the peace and happiness of his subjects; his learning was small, but the rectitude of his disposition and the kindness of his heart supplied the defects of education, and entitle him to a distinguished place among Russian sovereigns." It was this prince who caused the kremlin to be erected of stone, and closed by a wall flanked with towers, which were defended by ditches surmounted with stone. Vassili or Basil II., who succeeded his father Dmitri in 1389, was also destined to see his country invaded by the Tartars under Tamerlane; but they never reached the capital, for he prepared to give them battle near the river Oka, when they suddenly turned round and retired, as their coun- trymen had previously done on two other occasions. The Russians attrib- uted this to a miracle performed by a picture of the Virgin Mary, said to have been painted by St. Luke. The barbarian horde, however, joined by the Lithuanians, afterward laid siege to Moscow, but were repulsed by the inhabitants, the grand prince having retired with his family to Kostroma Exasperated at this defeat, the Tartars in their retreat harassed the sur HISTORIC SUMMARY 607 VASSILI II.—IVAN III. THE GREAT. rounding country, and slaughtered the defenceless peasantry. Money was first coined in Novgorod during this reign, its place having hitherto been supplied with skins and pieces of leather: twenty skins of the martin were considered as equivalent to a grivna, the value of which was a real pound of gold or silver, of nine and a quarter ounces in Kiev and thirteen in Novgorod. During the reign of Vassili, Kazan was taken from the Tartars, and Russia was thrice visited with the plague and famine, while the ancient city of Novgorod was shaken by an earthquake after the greater part of its buildings had been consumed by fire. Internal dissensions broke out on the death of Vassili, a dispute having arisen respecting the succession to the throne between the son of that monarch and his uncle George. This was, by the consent of both parties, left to the decision of the khan of Tartary, who determined in favor of the former. Nevertheless, a civil war ensued, and George was for a short time in possession of the throne, when, finding himself abandoned by his party and his family, he restored it to his nephew, and returned to his principality of Halitsch. Complicated wars, Russian and Tartar, now followed; the principal incident of which was that Ivan, the prince of Mojask, in the interest of the traitor Chémiaka, induced Vassili to stop at the monastery of the Troitzkoi, to return thanks on his arrival from the Tartars, and, having seized him there, he took him to Moscow and put out his eyes. A few years after the prince of Mojask had committed this savage act, Vassili was restored to the throne, and died in 1462. The Tartars, under Makh- met, again possessed themselves of Kazan in this reign. Vassili II. was succeeded by Ivan III. The first exploit which the new monarch attempted was the reduction of the province of Kazan, in which he succeeded after two severe campaigns. The next was the subjection of Novgorod, in which he also succeeded, incorporating that city and prov ince with his own dominions, and, having received the oaths of allegiance of the inhabitants, he carried off with him to Moscow their celebrated town-clock, which he suspended in a tower before the kremlin, to be used only to call the people to their devotions. The next and most arduous undertaking was the destruction of the "Golden Horde," under Achmet, which he effected in revenge for the insult offered him by that khan in demanding the homage which he had received from his predecessors. Ivan spat on the edict and Achmet's seal, and put his embassadors to death, sparing one only to convey the intelligence to his master, who prepared in the following year to take his revenge; but, awed by the preparations made to receive him on the banks of the Oka, he retired for a time, and subsequently took the more circuit- ous route through Lithuania, from which country he expected support. The Russians, however, met and defeated a part of his horde, and were returning home, when the khan was met on a different route by the Nogai Tartars, who routed his army and slew him in the battle. His ally, Casi- ; 608 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. mir IV., also brought himself under Ivan's indignation, not only for this war, but because he attempted to poison him, and an incursion that he made into the territories of the Polish king was eminently successful. This powerful and ambitious prince also made treaties with and received embassadors from the pope, the sultan, the kings of Denmark and Poland. and the republic of Venice. He assumed the title of "Grand Prince of Novgorod, Vladimir, Moscow, and all Russia," and changed the arms of St. George on horseback for the black eagle with two heads, after his mar- riage with Sophia, a princess of the imperial blood of Constantinople. In fact, Ivan III. may be called the true founder of the modern Russian em- pire. Karamsin, the historian, thus describes him: "Without being a tyrant like his grandson, he had received from nature a certain harshness of character, which he knew how to moderate by the strength of his rea- son. It is said, however, that a single glance of Ivan, when he was ex- cited with anger, would make a timid woman swoon; that petitioners dreaded to approach his throne; and that, even at his table, the boyars his grandees, trembled before him"-which portrait does not belie his own declaration, when the same boyars demanded that he should give the crown to his grandson Ivan, whom he had dispossessed in favor of a son by his second wife-"I will give to Russia whomsoever I please!" He died, very infirm, in 1505, having reigned forty-three years. Wars between the Russians, the Poles, the Tartars, and the Novgorod- ians, again arose on the death of Ivan; and it was not till the death of Vassili IV., his successor, and a minority of twelve years had elapsed in the reign of Ivan IV., that internal cabals and intrigues were for a time suppressed. This monarch, the first to take the title of "Czar,"* married *We have adopted the more popular orthography of this word. Schnitzler, however, in his "Secret History of the Court and Government of Russia," although using the form czar in his work, seems to look upon tzar or tsar as the more prevalent and correct form. He makes the following observations on the orthography and derivation of the word: "There is a difference of opinion with regard to the orthography of this word. Formerly it was always written czar,' but since the com- mencement of this century the custom adopted by Le Clerc of writing it 'tzar' or 'tsar' has insen- sibly been established. The latter form is the only one which exactly corresponds with the Russian pronunciation. We have borrowed the form'czar' from the Poles: the Germans also have de- rived it from them, although in their language the word should be written 'zar,' their z being a harsh articulation composed of the two consonants t and s. But instead of pronouncing this word 'gzar,' as the French do, the Poles said 'tchar.' They now write 'car,' and pronounce 'tsar,' like the Russians, for their c corresponds to ts, and is never pronounced as k. It has been said that in the form 'czar' the etymology of the word may he 'perceived as derived by abbreviation from 'Cæsar,' emperor. To this conjecture, however, there is a sufficient objection, namely, that in the old Slavonic version of the New Testament the name of Cæsar is always given under the form of Kessar or Keçar, and that the title tsar' is given in it to kings and not to emperors. ('Isyde provélénié oth Keçar Avgousta' — 'Then went forth a decree from Cæsar Augustus.'-Luke ii. 1. • Vozdoditié ibo Keçaref Keçarevi.'· - Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's.' - Matt. xxii. 21.) It is true that the emperor of Constantinople receives the same title of ‘tsar' from the Russian annalists, but the more ancient give him also that of Keçar. Among the Slavo- nians that are not Russians the title of 'tsar' is but little known. But, then, whence comes it? From what source have the Russians derived it? teemed of Russian historians, says on this subject: Cæsar, as many have erroneously supposed, but an The following is what Karamsin, the most es- This word is not an abbreviation of the Latin ancient term of the eastern languages. Known HISTORIC SUMMARY-IVAN IV. THE TERRIBLE. 609 ** SC. وو IVAN IV. THE TERRIBLE. Anastasia, the daughter of Roman Yuryvich, who in the early part of his reign had the happiest ascendency over a character naturally violent and cruel. Ivan was at this period affable and condescending, accessible to both rich and poor, and his mental powers under her guidance were em- ployed in advancing the interests and happiness of his subjects. Ivan soon perceived that, to preserve his power, he must annihilate the Tartar do- minion. To this he felt that his uninstructed army was unequal: he there- fore established, in 1545, the militia of the Strelitzes, and armed them with muskets instead of bows, hitherto their arms, as their name imports, from strelai," an arrow." He then laid siege to and captured Kazan, taking the khan prisoner. He likewise defeated Gustavus Vasa, king of Sweden, in a pitched battle near Viborg; ravaged Livonia, taking Dorpat, Narva, and thirty fortified towns; and made war on the king of Poland because he had refused him his daughter in marriage. An unsuccessful campaign against this potentate, attributed by the boyars to the unskilful arrangements of the foreign generals, as well as the death of his wife Anas- tasia, whose controlling influence was no longer felt, led to the unlimited among us by the Slavonic translation of the Bible, it has been employed to designate the emperors of Byzantium, and more recently the Mongol khans. In the Persian language it implies the idea of a throne, or of the supreme power. It may be recognised in the final syllables of the names of the kings of Assyria and Babylon-Phalas-sar, Nabonas-sar, &c.' In a note the scrupulous histo- rian adds: 'In our printed translation of the Holy Scriptures, we always find it Kess, Kessar, in place of Cæsar. "Tsar" is quite another word.' is quite another word.' As it is habitually used with respect to the kings of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, and as Ivan IV. (Vassilievich) seems to have adopted it, more particularly after the conquest of these two neighboring kingdoms, Huppel thinks that it came thence, and that the Russian autocrats, after having gained this considerable extension to their territory, assumed the title of the vanquished sovereigns." 39 610 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. indulgence of his naturally ferocious disposition; and the remaining acts of his life gained for him, in the history of his country, the surname of "The Terrible." Independently of the many and dreadful acts of barbar- ity of which he was guilty, he killed his own son in a paroxysm of rage, but died a prey to the grief and remorse which this fearful crime occa- sioned him, after having endeavored to atone for it by giving large sums of money to different monasteries. He received the tonsure in his last moments. As a legislator, Ivan IV. was superior to his predecessors, having, with the assistance of his nobles, compiled a code of laws called "Soudebnik.” In his reign an English ship, commanded by Richard Chancellor, on a voyage of discovery, before alluded to, in the Arctic sea, anchored in the mouth of the Dwina; and, when the information of this circumstance was forwarded to Ivan, he invited Chancellor to Moscow, where, on his arrival, he was received with marked attention, and presented with a letter to carry back to his sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, expressing a desire to enter into commercial relations with England, and to have English artificers and workmen sent to him. It is curious that even at this early period the fair which he established at Narva was so glutted with English, Dutch, and French goods, that some of them were sold for less than the prime cost in their respective countries. Ivan controlled his religious prejudices, and tolerated the Lutheran churches of the German merchants at Moscow; but he never shook hands with a foreign embassador without washing his own immediately after his visiter had taken his leave! With a character so strongly marked by cruelty, superstition, and caprice, it is remarkable to find, not only that he was enterprising and intelligent, but that he should ever have entertained the idea of placing the Scriptures in the hands of his subjects in the mother-tongue: he did, however, order a translation to be made of the Acts and Epistles, and had it disseminated over his domin- ions. "In the memory of the people," observes Karamsin, "the brilliant renown of Ivan survived the recollection of his bad qualities. The groans had ceased, the victims were reduced to dust; new events caused ancien traditions to be forgotten; and the memory of this prince reminded people only of the conquest of three Mongol kingdoms. The proofs of his atro- cious actions were buried in the public archives; while Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia, remained in the eyes of the nation as imperishable monuments of his glory. The Russians, who saw in him the illustrious author of their power and civilization, rejected or forgot the surname of tyrant given him by his contemporaries. Under the influence of some confused recollections. of his cruelty, they still call him Ivan 'The Terrible,' without distinguish- ing him from his grandfather Ivan III., to whom Russia had given the same epithet rather in praise than in reproach. History does not pardon wicked princes so easily as do people." Ivan IV. died in 1584, having governed the Russian nation for a longer period than any other sovereign, namely, fifty-one years. HISTORIC SUMMARY FEODOR I. BORIS — VLADISLAUS. 611 Feodor I., who ascended the throne after the death of Ivan IV., and was a feeble and vacillating prince, died in 1598. His successor was Bo- ris Godunoff, the brother of Anastasia, the czar Ivan's first wife, who, like the English Richard, compassed the death of his nephew Dmitri, Feodor's younger brother, during that czar's lifetime; and therefore in Feodor ended the dynasty of Rurik, which duriug eight centuries had wielded the Rus- sian sceptre. Consequent upon this deed came all kinds of civil calami- ties, and in 1604 there arose a pretender to the throne in the person of a Russian monk. This man assumed the character of the murdered Dmitri, and, having drawn to his standard the Poles and the Cossacks of the Don, met Boris in the field, remained master of it, and in the space of one year seated himself on the throne. Nor was this civil war the only calamity which befell the Russians during the reign of Boris. Moscow was, in 1600, decimated by the most appal- ling famine that ever devastated the capital of a country. It is related that, driven by the pangs of hunger, instances occurred of mothers having first slain and then eaten their own children; and it is recorded that a woman, in her extremity, seized with her teeth the flesh of her son whom she carried in her arms. Others confessed that they had entrapped into their dwellings, and subsequently killed and eaten, three men successively. One hundred and twenty-seven thousand corpses remained for some days in the streets unburied, and were afterward interred in the fields, exclu- sive of those which had been previously buried in the four hundred churches of the city! An eye-witness relates that this awful visitation carried off five hundred thousand persons from this densely-peopled capi- tal, the population of which was, at the time, augmented by the influx of strangers. During this dreadful calamity, Boris, with justifiable violence, broke open the granaries which avarice had closed, and had the grain sold at half its value. Interminable and inexplicable troubles, a second false Dmitri, and other impostors, led to the occupation of Moscow by the Poles in 1610, who entered the city with Vladislaus, son of Sigismund, king of Poland, elected to the throne by the boyars, on condition that he should embrace the Greek religion. This gave great offence to the national feeling; and Minim, a citizen of Nijnei-Novgorod, called his countrymen to arms, and entreated the general Pojarski to take the command. This he did without reluc tance, and his army was quickly increased by the arrival of troops and money from various towns, and by the Cossacks and Strelitzes who flocked to his banner. Thus reinforced, they marched to Yaroslav, and afterward to Moscow, to which they laid siege, carried the Kitai Gorod by assault, and made a fearful slaughter of the Poles; when the inhabitants, driven to the last extremity by famine, surrendered, and Vladislaus abandoned the country. A fine monument, previously referred to, was erected in the open space, under the kremlin-walls, in 1818, to the memory of Minim and Pojarski. It represents the high-spirited citizen of Nijnei calling on his 612 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. countrymen to rid Russia of the foreign enemy, while Pojarski listens attentively to the stirring exhortation. With a vacant throne, and unembarrassed by republican feelings, the boyars, after the flight of Vladislaus, proceeded to elect as their czar Michael Romanoff, the son of the metropolitan of Rostof, who was, at the -- " 2000 00000002 ooooon000502000100 MICHAEL ROMANOFF. time, only sixteen years of age; and from him is descended the present imperial family. The usual routine of civil strife and foreign wars contin- ued after the accession of Romanoff; and that in which the czar was in- volved with Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, was terminated, not much to the advantage of Russia, through the mediation of England, France, and Holland. A treaty was signed by the belligerent parties on the 26th of January, 1616, which gave to Sweden Ingria, Carelia, Livonia, and Es- thonia, the Russians retaining Novgorod; and these terms seem to have been dictated by the czar's love of peace. The Poles were, at this time, masters of Smolensk, and ravaged the country up to the walls of Moscow, against which they made a night attack, but were repulsed; they remained, however, in possession of Smolensk, after sustaining a siege of two years. Dragoons are mentioned, for the first time in this reign, as forming part of a Russian army, and the czar was assisted in his wars by both German and French troops: these regiments served him as models for the organi- zation of the Russian army, which was further improved by the discipline introduced by the foreign officers in Romanoff's pay. HISTORIC SUMMARY 613 ROMANOFF · ALEXIS — FEODOR III. After a reign distinguished by an enlightened policy and virtuous habits, the czar died in July, 1645, at the age of only forty-nine years. His son Alexis, who was a prince of a mild and benevolent disposition, succeeded him. The chief events of his reign were, the marauding expeditions of the Cossacks of the Don, led by Rizan; a rebellion in the city of Astra- khan; and the appearance of another false Dmitri, who was brought cap- tive to Moscow, and put to a violent and cruel death. In this reign ship- wrights came over from Holland and England, and a Dutchman named Butler built a vessel called the Eagle, at Didiloff, the first ship that the Russians had seen built on scientific principles. Alexis died in 1676, and was succeeded by his son Feodor III., who died young, in 1682. During the short period allotted him for the exer- cise of power, he evinced every disposition to carry out his father's plans. He directed his attention to the improvement of the laws, and rendered justice accessible to all, and, in the words of a Russian historian, “lived the joy and delight of his people, and died amid their sighs and tears. On the day of his death, Moscow was in the same distress that Rome was on the death of Titus." The sovereignty of the Cossacks was secured to Russia in this reign. Feodor left no children, and was succeeded by his half-brother Peter, whom, some accounts say, was named by him as his successor. ✔ RESIDENCE OF PETER THE GREAT IN HOLLAND, 614 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. CHAPTER XXV. HISTORIC SUMMARY-PETER THE GREAT TO NICHOLAS. HE succession of Peter to the throne of the empire was by no means pleasing to the majority of the Russian nobles, and it was particu- larly opposed by Prince Galitzin, the prime minister of the late czar. This able man had espoused the interests of Sophia (the sister of Feodor III. and Ivan, and half-sister of Peter), a young woman of eminent abili- ties and insinuating address. Sophia, upon the pretence of asserting the claims of her brother Ivan, who, though of a feeble constitution and weak intellect, was considered as the lawful heir to the crown, had really formed a design of securing the succession to herself; and, with that view, had not only insinuated herself into the confidence and good graces of Galitzin, but had brought over to her interests the Strelitzes. These turbulent and licentious soldiers assembled ostensibly for the purpose of placing on the throne Prince Ivan, whom they proclaimed czar by acclamation. During three days these Russian Janizaries roved about the city of Moscow, com- mitting the greatest excesses, and putting to death several of the chief officers of state who were suspected of being hostile to the designs of So- phia. The princess did not, however, entirely gain her point; for, as the new czar entertained a sincere affection for Peter (who, as already seen, was only his half-brother), he insisted that this prince should share with him the imperial dignity. This was at length agreed to; and on the 6th of May, 1682, Ivan and Peter were solemnly crowned joint-emperors of all the Russias, while the princess Sophia was nominated their copartner in the government. From the imbecility of Ivan, and the youth of Peter (now only ten years of age), the whole power of the government in fact rested on Sophia and her minister Galitzin, though until the year 1687 the names of Ivan and Peter only were annexed to the imperial decrees. Sophia had scarcely established her authority, when she was threatened with deposition, from an alarming insurrection of the Strelitzes. This was excited by their com- mander, Prince Kovanskoi, who, demanding of Sophia that she would marry one of her sisters to his son, met with a refusal. In consequence of this insurrection, which threw the whole city of Moscow into terror and con- sternation, Sophia and the two young czars took refuge in a monastery, about twelve leagues from the capital; and, before the Strelitzes could HISTORIC SUMMARY- -IVAN V., PETER I., AND SOPHIA. 615 PETER I. THE GREAT. follow them thither, a considerable body of soldiers, principally foreigners, was assembled in their defence. Kovanskoi was taken prisoner, and in- stantly beheaded; and, though his followers at first threatened dreadful vengeance on his executioners, they soon found themselves obliged to sub- mit, when the most guilty among the ringleaders suffered death. The quelling of these disturbances gave opportunity to the friends of Peter to pursue the plans which they had formed for subverting the au- thority of Sophia; and their designs were favored by a rupture with Tur- key. The Ottoman Porte was now engaged with Poland and the German empire, and both the latter powers had solicited the assistance of Russia against the common enemy. Sophia and her party were averse to the alli- ance; but as the secret friends of Peter had sufficient influence to persuade the majority that a Turkish war would be of advantage to the state, they even prevailed on Galitzin to put himself at the head of the army, and thus removed their principal opponent. Assembling an army of nearly three hundred thousand men, he advanced to the confines of Turkey, and here consumed two campaigns in marches and countermarches, and lost nearly forty thousand men, partly in unsuccessful skirmishes with the enemy, but chiefly from disease. While Galitzin was thus trifling away his time in the south, Peter, who 616 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. already began to give proofs of those great talents which afterward ena- bled him to act so conspicuous a part in the theatre of the north, was strengthening his party among the Russian nobles. His ordinary resi- dence was at a village not far from Moscow, and here he had assembled round him a considerable number of young men of rank and influence, whom he called his playmates. Under the appearance of a military game, Peter was secretly establishing himself in the affections of his young com- panions; and he contrived effectually to lull the suspicions of Sophia, till it was too late for her to oppose his machinations. In the year 1689, Peter, who had now attained his seventeenth year, determined to make an effort to deprive Sophia of all share in the govern- ment, and thus secure to himself the undivided sovereignty. An open rup- ture soon took place, and Sophia, finding that she could not openly oppose the party of the czar, attempted to procure his assassination; but her de- sign was discovered, and an accommodation was agreed to, on condition that she would give up all claim to the regency and retire to a nunnery. She was consequently incarcerated in a monastery for the rest of her life. This princess was, considering the times in which she lived, a woman of extraordinary taste and literary acquirements. A tragedy, written by her when she was involved in state intrigues, and apparently absorbed in politi- cal turmoil, is still preserved. The commander of the Strelitzes, who was to have been her agent in the assassination of Peter, was beheaded, and the minister Galitzin sent into banishment to Archangel. Peter had now obtained the wished-for possession of the imperial throne; for though Ivan was still nominally czar, he had voluntarily resigned all participation in the administration of affairs, and retired to a life of obscurity. He sur- vived until 1696. The ruling passion of Peter the Great was a desire to extend his empire and consolidate his power; and accordingly his first act was to make war on the Turks, an undertaking which was at the outset imprudently con- ducted, and consequently unsuccessful. He lost thirty thousand men be- fore Azov, and did not obtain permanent possession of the town until the year 1699, and then by an armistice. In the following year he was de- feated in his intrenched camp at Narva, containing eighty thousand men, by eight thousand Swedes under Charles XII., then only a boy of seven- teen; and on many other occasions the Russians suffered severe checks and reverses. But at length the indomitable perseverance of Peter pre- vailed. In 1705, he carried Narva, the scene of his former defeat, by assault; and two years after, by the crowning victory of Poltava, where he showed the qualities of an able general, he sealed the fate of his gallant and eccentric adversary and the nation over which he ruled. In 1711, Peter once more took the field against the Turks; but his troops were badly provisioned, and, having led them into a very disadvan- tageous position, where they were surrounded by the grand vizier's army, he was only enabled, by a present of his consort's jewels to the Turkish HISTORIC SUMMARY-PETER THE GREAT. 617 commander, to negotiate a humiliating peace, one of the conditions of which was that the king of Sweden, then a fugitive in Turkey, should be permitted to return to his own country. From this period to 1718, Peter was constantly occupied in pursuing with vigor the plans which he had originated for extending the frontiers of his kingdom toward the west. In the latter year he drove the Swedes out of Finland, made several descents upon the coast near Stockholm, de- stroyed whole towns, obliged her navy to fly, and finally, in 1721, by the peace of Nystadt, retained Esthonia, Livonia, Ingria, a part of Carelia and Finland, as well as the islands of Dago, Moen, Esel, &c. Having now no enemy on the side of the Baltic, Peter turned his arms eastward, and took Derbend, on the Caspian, from the shah of Persia, in 1724-an inglorious conquest, for only six thousand Persians were op- posed to his veteran army of eleven thousand, besides Kalmucks and Cos- sacks. This was his last military achievement, for he died in 1725 (of a cold contracted in attempting to rescue some shipwrecked sailors near Kronstadt), in the fifty-second year of his age. His latter years were clouded by domestic infelicity: his second wife, Catherine, was more than suspected of being unfaithful to him; and his son Alexis was disobedient. The former he spared; the latter he brought to trial, and is believed to have put to death in prison—some accounts affirm, with his own hand! We have said that the czar's ruling passion was to extend his empire and consolidate his power, but he likewise possessed in an eminent degree the national characteristics-a persevering mind and a resolute will, which bid defiance to all difficulties. By the assistance of his foreign officers, he succeeded in forming and bringing into a high state of discipline a large army; he found Russia without a fishing-smack, and bequeathed to her a navy to which that of Sweden, long established and highly efficient, low- ered her flag; he built St. Petersburg, which may be said to float upon the waters of the Neva; he caused canals and other public works of utility to be constructed in various parts of his empire; endowed colleges and uni- versities, and established commercial relations with China and almost every other nation on the globe. The czar likewise possessed the capability of enduring privation and bodily fatigue to an almost incredible extent, and seemed to act upon the idea that, by his own personal exertions and the versatility of his genius, he could accomplish for Russia that which it had taken centuries to effect in other countries, and fancied that he could infuse into her citizens an immediate appreciation of the mechanical and polite arts, as well as a taste for those things which are seen only in an advanced stage of civilization. Peter devoted his whole attention and energies to this theory; and, though he could not compass impossibilities, he was enabled, by the uncontrolled exercise of the imperial will and in- exhaustible resources, to effect a most extraordinary and rapid change in the political and physical condition of his country. His manual dexterity and mechanical knowledge were great. Against 618 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. the expressed wish of his boyars and the clergy, who thought it an irreli- gious act, he left Russia to make himself acquainted with the arts and inventions of other European nations, and worked with an adze in the principal dockyards of Holland; he not only built, but sailed his own boat, which, as remarked in a previous chapter, is still to be seen in St. Peters- burg, as are specimens of his engraving, turning, and carpenter's work. He rose at four o'clock in summer; at six he was either in the senate or the admiralty: and his subjects must have believed that he had the gift of ubiquity, so many and so various were his occupations. He had also the virtue of economy, a quality rarely seen in a sovereign. He even found time to dabble in literature, and translated several works into Russian : among these was the "Architecture" of Le Clerc, and the "Art of Con- structing Dams and Mills" by Sturm; these manuscripts are preserved. During the czar's visit to London, he was much gazed at by the popu- lace, and on one occasion was upset by a porter who pushed against him with his load; when Lord Carmarthen, fearing there would be a pugilis- tic encounter, turned angrily to the man, and said, "Don't you know that this is the czar?"-"Czar!" replied the sturdy porter, with his tongue in his cheek, "we are all czars here!" Sauntering one day into Westmin- ster hall with the same nobleman, when it was, as usual, alive with wigs and gowns, Peter asked who these people might be; and, when informed that they were lawyers, nothing could exceed his astonishment. Law- yers!" he said, "why I have but two in all my dominions, and I believe I shall hang one of them the moment I get home!" The vices of Peter were such as to have been expected in a man of his violent temperament, despotic in a barbarous country, and who in early life had been surrounded by flatterers and dissolute associates. But it would be foreign to the purpose of this work to enter into a discussion of this nature. The Russians date their civilization from his reign; but a slight glance at the history of some of the early czars will show that, in many of the points on which the greatness of his reputation rests, he was anticipated by his predecessors. Dark and savage as the early history of the country is, an attempt at public education had been made, religious toleration and an anxiety to promote commerce existed, and the institution of a code of laws had already occupied their attention. The untimely deaths of some of these princes deprived Russia of monarchs far more be- nevolent than Peter-men of finer and more generous minds, and, though not so ambitious, quite as anxious for her welfare. Under their sway no such rush at improvement would have been made; no such influx of for- eigners would have taken place; but, if not so rapidly, at least as surely, these sovereigns would have effected quite as much real good. Peter left no code of laws established on the broad principles of justice; he travelled in England and Holland, but thought only of their navies, and wholly over- looked the great principles of their governments, by which he might have ameliorated the condition of his own. Trial by jury never appears to have HISTORIC SUMMARY 619 CATHERINE I. attracted his attention. The czar, it is true, reigned over a nation of serfs-so did Alfred the Great of England, and in the ninth instead of the eighteenth century. Peter was succeeded by his consort Catherine, in whose favor he had, some years before his death, altered the order of succession. She was the illegitimate daughter of a Livonian peasant. After some years spent in the service of a clergyman, she married a Swedish dragoon, who shortly afterward went on an expedition, and never returned. She then resided, it is doubtful whether as servant or paramour, with the Russian general Bauer, when Prince Menchikoff became enamored of her charms, and made her his mistress. Peter the Great now distinguished her by his notice, and she became at first his mistress and afterward his empress. W.ROBERT THE EMPRESS CATHERINE I. Catherine I. conducted herself with great gentleness and prudence in the administration of the government. She reduced the annual capitation tax; recalled the greater part of those whom Peter had exiled to Siberia; caused every gallows to be taken down and all instruments of torture de- stroyed; paid the troops their arrears; and restored to the Cossacks their privileges and immunities of which they had been deprived during the late reign. She concluded a treaty of alliance with the German emperor, by which it was stipulated that, in case of attack from an enemy, either party should assist the other with a force of thirty thousand men, and should each guaranty the possessions of the other. In her brief reign the bounda- 620 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ries of the empire were extended in the Trans-Caucasus. Catherine also founded the Academy of Sciences. Her indulgence in the use of intoxi- cating liquors produced a disease of which she died on the 17th of May, 1727, at the age of forty-one, having reigned only about two years. Catherine settled the crown on Peter, the son of Alexis, and grandson of Peter the Great, by his first wife, Eudoxia, and who succeeded by the title of Peter II. This prince was only twelve years of age when he suc- ceeded to the imperial throne, and his reign was short and uninteresting. He was influenced chiefly by Prince Menchikoff, whose daughter Catherine had decreed him to marry. This ambitious man, who, from a very mean condition, had risen to the first offices of the state under Peter the Great, and had, under Catherine, conducted the administration of the government, was now, however, drawing toward the end of his career. The number of his enemies had greatly increased, and their machinations succeeded so well, that Menchikoff and his whole family were banished to Siberia. The artful counsellors of the young monarch, instead of cultivating his naturally good abilities, encouraged him to waste his time and exhaust his strength in hunting and other athletic exercises; and it is supposed that the debility consequent on such fatigue increased the danger of the small- pox, with which he was attacked in January, 1730, and of which he died, at the age of only fifteen years. Notwithstanding the absolute power with which Peter the Great and Catherine I. had settled by will the succession to the throne, the Russian senate and nobility, upon the death of Peter II., ventured to set aside the order of succession which those sovereigns had established. The male issue of Peter was extinct; and the duke of Holstein (of Denmark), son to Peter's eldest daughter, was, by the destination of the late empress, entitled to the crown; but the Russians, for political reasons, chose Anne, duchess of Courland, second daughter to Ivan, Peter's half-brother; thus excluding her eldest sister, who was still living, because, as duchess of Mecklenburg, she was allied to one of the royal houses of Germany. In 1735, a rupture took place between Russia and Turkey, occasioned partly by the mutual jealousies that had subsisted between these powers ever since the treaty on the Pruth, and partly by the depredations of the Tartars of the Crimea, then under the dominion of the Porte. A Russian army entered the Crimea, ravaged part of the country, and killed a consid- erable number of Tartars; but having ventured too far, without a sufficient supply of provisions, was obliged to retreat, after sustaining a loss of nearly ten thousand men. This misfortune did not discourage the court of St. Petersburg; and, in the following year, another armament was sent into the Ukraine, under the command of Marshal Munich, while a second army, under Lascy, proceeded against Azov. Both these generals met with considerable success: the Tartars were defeated, and the fortress of Azov once more submitted to the Russian arms. A third campaign took place in 1737, when the Russians were assisted by a body of Austrian HISTORIC SUMMARY-ANNE-IVAN VI.—ELIZABETH. 621 troops. Munich laid siege to Otchakov, which surrendered, while Lascy desolated the Crimea. No material advantages were, however, gained on either side, and disputes arose between the Austrian and Russian generals. At length, in 1739, Marshal Munich, having crossed the Boug at the head of a considerable army, defeated the Turks in a pitched battle near Stavut- sham, made himself master of Jassy, the capital of Moldavia, and, before the end of the campaign, reduced the whole of that province to subjection. These successes of the Russian arms induced the Porte to propose terms of accommodation; but when, in the latter end of 1739, a treaty was con- cluded, Russia (probably through the influence of Austrian intrigue) again relinquished Azov and Moldavia, and only gained permission to build a fortress on the Don. The empress Anne rendered herself memorable by the decisive turn she gave to the contests which arose in central Europe. She assisted the em- peror Charles VI. of Germany; frustrated the schemes of the French min- istry for placing Stanislaus on the throne of Poland, and actually procured the crown for his competitor Augustus, the elector of Saxony. Her chief merit, however, was in advancing the commerce of the country, and estab- lishing silk and woollen manufactures—her chief folly, the building a palace of ice, to which she sent a prince Galitzin, one of her buffoons, and his wife, to pass the night of their wedding-day; the nuptial couch was also constructed of this cold material, as well as all the furniture, and four cannons which fired several rounds! Anne died in 1740, after a reign of ten years, and was succeeded by her great-nephew, Ivan VI., when only two years of age. He was the son of the princess Anne of Mecklenburg, the daughter of her eldest sister, who had married Prince Anthony Ulric of Brunswick-Beveren. The ad- ministration of the princess Anne and her husband, in the name of their son, the infant czar, was upon many accounts unpopular, not only among the Russians, but with other powers of Europe; and, notwithstanding a successful war which they carried on with the Swedes, the princess Eliza- beth Petrowna, daughter to Peter the Great by the empress Catherine, and born in 1709, formed a respectable party in her favor, by whom she was raised to the imperial dignity in December, 1741. The princess of Mecklenburg, her husband, and son, were made prison- ers, and the two former sent into banishment, to an island at the mouth of the Dwina, in the White sea, where the princess Anne died in child-bed in 1747. Ivan was for some time shut up in a monastery at Oranienburg; and, on attempting to escape, he was removed to the castle of Schlussel- burg, where he was afterward cruelly put to death. The war which had commenced between Russia and Sweden during the short regency of Anne of Mecklenburg, was now carried on with vigor and success by Elizabeth. The Russian forces took possession of Abo, and made themselves masters of the greater part of Finland. At length, in con- sequence of the negotiations that were carrying on relative to the succes- 622 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. E THE EMPRESS ELIZABETH, sion of the Swedish crown, a peace was concluded between the two powers, in 1743, on condition that Elizabeth should restore the conquered part of Finland. On the eastern frontier of the empire, however, the Russian arms were less successful, several of the provinces wrested from Persia by Peter the Great having been reconquered by Nadir Kouli Khan. Soon after her accession, Elizabeth determined to nominate her succes- sor to the imperial throne, and had fixed on Charles Peter Ulric, son of the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, by Anne, daughter of Peter the Great. This prince was accordingly invited into Russia, persuaded to become a mem- ber of the Greek church, and proclaimed grand-duke of Russia, and heir of the empire. Elizabeth now began to take an active part in the politics of Europe. The death of Charles VI., emperor of Germany, had left his daughter Maria Theresa, queen of Hungary, at the mercy of the enterprising king of Prussia, Frederick the Great (who immediately began the "Seven Years" War" by seizing the province of Silesia from the house of Austria), until a formidable party, more from jealousy at that monarch's military fame,. than regard to the interests of an injured princess, was formed in her be- half. Frederick, whose sarcastic wit spared no one, having satirized in some verses Madame de Pompadour, the powerful and vindictive mistress of Louis XV., the French monarch at once espoused the cause of Austria; and it is remarkable that, from a like trivial cause, the Prussian king HISTORIC SUMMARY 623 ELIZABETH PETER III. brought upon himself the vengeance of Elizabeth. Detesting Frederick for some coarse but truthful remark levelled at her mother, she made war on Prussia, which was conducted with great ferocity. Such was the mutual hatred excited by this contest, that after a battle the wounded soldiers of the two nations were seen tearing each other's flesh with their hands and teeth, even in the agonies of death; and Marshal Munich declared, in trans- mitting to the empress an account of a victory which he gained, but with the loss of half his army-" If I gain another such victory, I shall be com- pelled to go myself, on foot and alone, to St. Petersburg, to inform your majesty of the result!" Elizabeth persisted, however, in prosecuting the war; and was on the point of crushing the Prussian monarch, and posses- sing herself of his most valuable territories, when death suddenly closed her career, on the 5th of January, 1762, at the age of fifty-three, and in the twenty-first year of her reign. The taste of this empress for architecture greatly contributed to embel- lish St. Petersburg, and the Academy of Painting and Sculpture in that capital was instituted by her. She was, however, a model of dissimulation and hypocrisy; and, while from feelings of pretended humanity she abol- ished capital punishments (making a vow at her accession that none should take place during her reign), and deplored the miseries her troops suffered in the war with Prussia, she established a kind of star-chamber, in which justice and mercy were unknown. That her humanity was equivocal, is instanced in the shocking punishment which she inflicted upon the countess Bestucheff and Lapookin, who were publicly knouted, and had their tongues cut out, for betraying some secrets relating to the amours of the empress. On the demise of Elizabeth, her nephew, the grand-duke Charles Peter Ulric, ascended the throne, by the name of Peter III. This prince entered on the government possessed of an enthusiastic admiration of the virtues. of the king of Prussia, with whom he immediately made peace (thus saving that hero from his impending fame), and whose principles and practice he seems to have adopted as patterns for his imitation. Several wise decrees were passed by him: he suppressed the secret council established for the examination of political offenders, softened the rigor of military discipline, permitted his nobles to travel, lowered the duties in the Livonian ports, reduced the price of salt, abated the pressure of usury by the establishment of a loan-bank, and instituted other salutary measures. He might have surmounted the effects even of those peculiarities which were unpopular in Russia; but it is said that he aimed at reformations in his dominions which even Peter the Great durst not carry through-among which was his at- tempt at cutting off the venerable beards of his clergy, and his abolition of some established and favorite military fashions. He was, however, so weak and vacillating in his disposition, that he had no opinions of his own, but childishly adopted the sentiments of any person who took the trouble to teach him. His tastes were, moreover, entirely German, which amounted to a crime in the eyes of the nobility. His chief amusement was buffoon- 624 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. ery; and, as he was a comparative stranger to the country, its inhabitants, and their manners, he is said to have suffered himself to be persuaded, by those about him, that the Russians were fools and beasts, unworthy of his attention, except to make them, by means of the Prussian discipline, good fighting-machines! These sentiments regulated his whole conduct, and prepared the way for the revolution which afterward dethroned him. Peter was married, in 1745, to the German princess Catherine, born in 1729, and daughter to the prince of Anhalt-Zerbst. In addition to his other great faults, Peter was addicted to low society and to the most scan- dalous excesses; and Catherine, even in her youth, was by no means re- markable for chastity. With the inconsistency usually to be observed in such cases, each party reproached the other: Catherine, stung by her hus- band's brutality, became still more openly indecorous in her conduct, and Peter indulged in low wassail to such an extent, that he must have been deranged. The empress, who was as talented as she was ambitious, took every means in her power to secure the good will of her Russian subjects. She engaged in her party many of the principal families, and what Peter lost in popularity was gained by the emissaries of Catherine. While the latter, in spite of her intrigues, was thus high in the public esteem and affection, Peter became so infatuated by his disgust for Catherine and his son, and his passion for one of his mistresses, the countess Woronzow, that he determined to divorce and imprison the former, and make the latter his empress. Catherine saw her danger, and instantly formed her resolution, foreseeing that she must either submit to perpetual imprisonment, and per- haps a cruel and ignominious death, or contrive to hurl her husband from the throne. The proper steps to carry out her design were immediately taken; folly and imbecility fell before abilities and address; and, in three days, the revolution was accomplished. Peter was seized and sent as a prisoner to the small palace of Ropscha, about twenty miles from St. Pe- tersburg; but, as there were many who were dissatisfied with the new order of things, it was soon found that there was little chance of tranquil- lity while he lived. His death was therefore determined on; and, at the connivance if not at the positive command of the empress, the unfortunate monarch was assassinated by the hand of her chief favorite, Prince Alexis Orloff, in the thirty-fourth year of his age, after having enjoyed the impe- rial dignity only six months. This tragic event occurred in July, 1762, and in the next month the czarina was solemnly crowned empress of all the Russias, under the name of Catherine II. The reign of this extraordinary woman is one of the most remarkable in Russian history. In the early part of it she interfered in the affairs of Poland, which produced a civil war, and terminated eventually in the par- tition and conquest of that unfortunate country. In 1769, the Turks de- clared war against Russia, which was at first favorable to their arms; but they were afterward defeated with great slaughter on the Dniester, and compelled to abandon Choczim. At this period was fought the celebrated • HISTORIC SUMMARY-CATHERINE II. 625 1 THE EMPRESS CATHERINE II. action before Tchesme, in which the Turkish fleet was completely destroyed an achievement that was mainly owing to the gallant conduct of Admi- rals Elphinstone and Greig, and Lieutenant Dugdale, Englishmen in the Russian service. In a succeeding campaign, the Russians carried the lines of Perecop, in the Crimea, defended by nearly sixty thousand Turks and Tartars, and thus wrested that important and fertile peninsula from the Porte, while Romanzoff gained several victories in the Danubian provinces. These conquests were, however, dearly purchased. The plague passed from the Turkish into the Russian armies, and the frightful malady was carried by the troops into the very heart of the country: eight hundred persons died daily at Moscow, and the disease subsided only with the severity of the ensuing winter. It was at this period that the Calmuck Tartars (as alluded to in a pre- vious chapter), who had been for upward of half a century settled near the steppes of the Volga, north of Astrakhan, suddenly, and to the number of half a million of souls, left the Russian territory for their old haunts on the Chinese borders-an affront offered to them by the empress having been said to be the cause of this extraordinary flight. Every attempt at negotiation having failed, the contest with the Turks was renewed in 1773; and, although the Russians again suffered severe losses, Romanzoff brought the war to a successful termination. By the 40 626 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. treaty of peace concluded in the following year, his country obtained the free navigation of the Black sea, the cession of Kilburne and Enikaleh, together with a tract between the Boug and the Dnieper, and also the town of Taganrog on the sea of Azov. Russia restored her other conquests, and the Turks paid into the Russian treasury four millions of roubles tow- ard the expenses of the war; they also acknowledged the independence of the Crimea, which in the year 1784 fell altogether into the hands of Russia, as well as the island of Taman, and part of the Kouban in the Caucasus. Shortly after this, Catherine and the northern courts, in conjunction with France, jealous of the British maritime power, brought about a combina- tion against England, which was hastened by the following singular inci- dent: The British minister, suspecting that this intrigue was going on, desired Potemkin* to lay before the empress a memorial that he had drawn. up, which the prince promised to do. Of this memorial the French gov- erness of his nieces contrived to possess herself, and, after allowing the French minister to make his notes in refutation of it in the margin, re- placed it in Potemkin's pocket, who, ignorant of the circumstance, laid it before Catherine; when the empress, conceiving the notes to have been made by her favorite, formed a league with Sweden and Denmark, and announced her intention of supporting it with her navy. In 1787, Catherine made, in company with Potemkin and an immense suite, her famous triumphal progress to the Crimea, and the following year found her once more at war with the Turks. Soon after, Gustavus III. of Sweden, seizing this favorable opportunity, invaded the Russian territo- ries; this contest, however, produced no decisive results, and was settled by a pacification in 1790. In the close of that year, Constantinople trem- bled at the forward movement of the Russians; and the fall of Ismail under Suwarrow,† after the ninth assault, closed the war on the 22d of December. * GREGORY POTEMKIN, a prince and field-marshal, the minion of Catherine II., was born in 1736, in the neighborhood of Smolensk, of a poor though noble family, and was intended for the church, but obtained a cornetcy in the horse-guards. Over the empress, after the death of her husband, he acquired an unbounded influence, and he retained it till near the end of his life. He distinguished himself against the Turks, particularly in the war of 1788, when he commanded in chief. He died in 1791. † Prince ALEXANDER SUWARROW (or SUVAROFF), a celebrated Russian field-marshal, whose portrait is presented on the opposite page, was born in 1730, at Suskoi, in the Ukraine as some accounts say, of Polish parentage and was educated at the cadet-school of St. Petersburg. He distinguished himself against the Prussians during the Seven Years' War, in which he attained the rank of colonel; in Poland, in 1768, against the confederates; in 1773, against the Turks; and in 1782, against the Nogaï Tartars. For these services he was rewarded with the rank of general-in- chief, the government of the Crimea, the portrait of the empress set in diamonds, and several Rus- sian orders. In the war against the Turks, from 1787 to 1790, he gained the battle of Rymnik, took Ismail by storm (as alluded to above), putting twenty thousand men to the sword, and gained other important advantages. In 1794, he defeated the Poles who were struggling for freedom, ravaged the environs of Warsaw with the fury of a second Attila, and carried the suburb of Praga by assault. For this sanguinary conquest the empress created him field-marshal. After the death of Catherine, Suwarrow fell into disgrace at court, for venturing to condemn the love of innovation displayed by her successor; but at length the capricious Paul reinstated him in his favor, and in 1799 the command of the Austro-Russian army was confided to the hero of Ismail. While fighting HISTORIC SUMMARY-CATHERINE II. 627 FIELD-Marshal SuwaRROW. In this extremity, the western powers of Europe combined to save the Porte from destruction; and in 1791 Russia was forced to relinquish all the territory she had acquired, excepting that guarantied by the treaty of 1784. In the various wars in which Russia had been engaged with the on the plains of Italy, and opposed to inferior numbers of the French under Joubert, during the absence of Napoleon in Egypt, the achievements of Suwarrow seemed to justify the partiality of his sovereign, and the expectation of the enemies of France; but no sooner had he entered upon the mountainous regions of Switzerland, with the wary Massena for his opponent, than his laurels began to wither, and at the close of the campaign of 1799 the sun of his military renown set, never more to rise. More than once during this terrible retreat, when his native troops, disheartened at the lukewarmness of the Austrians, and benumbed with the cold, refused to proceed, the old veteran caused a deep trench to be dug in the snow, and, laying himself in it, called on his soldiers to ad- vance over his body! The appeal was effectual, and the army, reduced from fifty thousand to less than twenty thousand men, resumed its homeward march. On his return to St. Petersburg in Jan- uary, 1800, Suwarrow was coldly received by the emperor, and died on the 18th of May, in the same year, at his estate of Polendorff, in Esthonia, at the age of seventy-one. The emperor Alex- The ander erected to him a statue, to which, on its inauguration, Suwarrow's ancient companions-in- arms paid the military honors that he would have received himself, and the grand-duke Constantine pronounced his eulogium. Born with great talents and vivacity, Marshal Suwarrow possessed considerable information, and spoke several languages with facility. He exhibited, in a superior degree, boldness, activity, and the art of inflaming his troops, and attaching them to his destiny; but, as a general, he has been reproached with shallow combinations, manœuvres more rapid than wisc, and with having used victory to satiate revenge. It is difficult to mention this singular char- acter without mixed emotions of admiration and horror: in the appellations of "Ryminiski” and "Italiski," we pay respect to the conqueror of the Turks and of Moreau; but it is impossible to contemplate the hero of Warsaw and Ismail without deeply deploring the sanguinary scenes which were there enacted, and which will for ever remain to throw the dark shade of inhumanity over the most illustrious actions of the life of Suwarrow. 628 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Ottoman empire down to the period here treated of, it is computed that there were destroyed one hundred and thirty thousand Austrians, two hun- dred thousand Russians, and three hundred and seventy thousand Turks, in all seven hundred thousand men ! About this time the intrigues of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, for the partition of Poland, commenced, and, carried on for several years, were brought to a conclusion by two sieges of Warsaw: in the first, Kosciusko was made prisoner; and in the second the Poles, unassisted by his genius, gave way in that fearful assault which, on the 9th of November, 1794, consummated the ruin of Poland as a nation. In 1795, by the third par- tition of that unhappy kingdom, Russia extended her power toward the west as far as the Vistula. Catherine's subsequent plans of aggrandize- ment in Daghestan and on the shores of the Caspian were cut short by her death, on the 9th of November, 1796, in the sixty-eighth year of her age, and the thirty-fifth year of her reign. Ill as her power was obtained, Catherine used it wisely and well. The great talents for governing which she possessed are universally admitted; and, though her energies were principally displayed in carrying out her schemes of foreign conquest, she by no means neglected the interior econ- omy of her empire. Her views on all subjects were far more enlarged than those of her predecessors, and nearly seven thousand children were educated at St. Petersburg at the public expense. Catherine invited Pal- las, Eüler, and Gmelin, to survey her territories and describe their char- acteristics; and requested D'Alembert to undertake the education of her grandson, the grand-duke Alexander, which, however, he declined. The empress also confirmed the abolition of the secret state inquisition, and, by dividing the college of the empire into separate departments, facilitated the despatch of business, and rendered the administration in each more efficient. She founded schools and towns, encouraged foreign artisans and workmen of all kinds to settle in her dominions, and projected and com- pleted public works of equal magnificence and utility. With a view to check corruption, she raised the salaries of the government officers, abol- ished many monopolies of the crown, and issued a ukase which prevented any proprietor from sending his serfs to the mines, or to any distant part of the empire, except for agricultural purposes. But her amours in the meantime injured her as a woman, and her tyrannous conduct toward Poland is a foul blot upon her escutcheon as a sovereign. Ambition, how- ever, and lack of female virtue, did not wholly degrade her, for, as already shown, her internal policy was as much directed to the useful as to the grand; and, amid all the distraction of business and voluptuous dissipation, she found time to encourage literature. Indeed, she was herself the author of instructions for a code of laws, which she translated into German; and she wrote several dramatic pieces, and some moral tales for the use of children! Possessed of great beauty in her youth, Catherine preserved the traces of it to the end of her life. She purchased the praises of the HISTORIC SUMMARY PAUL I. 629 French philosophers, corresponded with Voltaire and D'Alembert, and complimented Charles James Fox, the great English orator, by asking him for his bust, which she placed between those of Demosthenes and Cicero. Some letters written by Frederick the Great to Peter III., found after his decease, which strongly recommended to him a change of conduct, and particularly pleaded in behalf of his repudiated consort, fixed Catherine throughout her reign in the friendship and policy of the Prussian monarch. In matters of religion she was tolerant from political motives, extravagant in an extraordinary degree, and, with a woman's liberality, paid well those who served her; and, though there are many acts in her reign which can not be defended, she did more for the civilization of Russia than any of her predecessors. PAUL 1, Catherine II. was succeeded by her son, the grand-duke Paul, by Peter III., who ascended the throne under the title of Paul I. This prince had attained his forty-second year before the death of his mother placed him on the imperial throne. For many years he had lived in a state of retire- ment, and had apparently been considered by the empress as incapable of taking any active part in the administration of affairs. It is well known that Catherine never admitted him to any participation of power, and even kept him in complete ignorance of the affairs of the empire. On the day following the death of his mother, however, Paul made his public entry into St. Petersburg, amid the acclamations of all ranks of the people. At his coronation, Paul decreed a law of hereditary succession to the crown in the male line, and afterward in the female, instead of leaving it to the caprice of the reigning sovereign. One of the first measures of the 630 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. new emperor was that of ordering the remains of his father, Peter III., to be removed from the sepulchre in which they had been deposited in the church of St. Alexander Nevski; which, after having laid in state for three weeks, were interred in the sepulchre of Catherine II., in the cathe- dral of St. Peter and St. Paul. He also, with strong marks of admiration and friendship, liberated Kosciusko from the prison wherein he had lan- guished in St. Petersburg since his defeat and capture in 1794. Few political events of any importance marked the reign of Paul previ- ous to the year 1798, when, in consequence of a treaty between Russia and the emperor of Germany, who were subsidized by England, an army of about fifty thousand men, under Field-Marshal Suwarrow, joined the impe- rialists in Austrian Italy, as already detailed. In 1799, the emperor Paul entered into a treaty of offensive and defensive alliance with Great Britain. This treaty was signed at St. Petersburg on the 22d of June; in conse- quence of which, a Russian fleet joined that of Britain in Yarmouth roads, and took part in the unfortunate expedition to the coast of Holland under- taken in the summer of that year. Soon after this period the Russian emperor began to show marks of mental derangement. His favors and his displeasures were alternately experienced by some of his most distinguished courtiers and adherents. Stanislaus, the deposed king of Poland, partook by turns of his beneficence and his severity; while to the memory of Suwarrow, who is said to have fallen a broken-hearted victim to the detraction of his imperial master, he raised a colossal statue of bronze; and on the days when he reviewed his troops in the square where the statue had been erected, he used to com- mand them to march by in open order, and face the statue. The ill success of the Russian arms against the French, augmented by the bad understanding which subsisted between his generals and those of Austria, appeared also to have an extraordinary effect upon the mind of Paul. Meanwhile, Napoleon had returned from Egypt, and was chosen first consul of France. He immediately liberated ten thousand Russian prisoners-of-war, and, presenting them with new uniforms and everything necessary for their long journey, despatched them to their own country, together with a friendly epistle to their sovereign. Paul was not yet so "insane" but that he could appreciate this truly magnanimous act as it deserved; and, from having been the uncompromising opponent of Napo- leon, he now entered into amicable correspondence with him, and became one of his most ardent admirers. He laid an embargo on all the English vessels in his ports, and induced Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia, to join him in the northern armed confederacy to resist the encroachments of the British government. This gave great offence to the mercantile classes, who preferred the English to the French alliance. The growing eccentricities of Paul exhibited themselves in the most fan- tastic manner. Among his ukases was one against the use of shoestrings and round hats; and in the number of queer whims which infected his HISTORIC SUMMARY-PAUL I. — ALEXANDER I. 631 brain was a rage for painting with the most glaring colors the watch-boxes, gates, and bridges, throughout the empire! This continued course of folly and caprice disgusted many of the nobles, who at length entered into a confederacy to prevent the ruin of their country, by removing the empe- ror. For this purpose they employed Plato Zuboff, the last of Catherine's favorites, who had been banished from the court in disgrace. In order to avenge this affront, Zuboff formed the design of murdering the emperor. He contrived, by his intrigues, to insinuate himself into the favor of Paul, and associated with the noblemen, in order the more securely to effect his purpose. Having taken their measures, the assassins proceeded to the imperial palace on the evening of March 22, 1801. The emperor, who usually slept on a sofa, in an apartment next to that of the empress, con trary to his custom, kissed the members of his family very affectionately, visited the sentinels at their posts, and then retired to rest. The guard being changed by officers who were in the conspiracy, the murderers pene trated with ease to the door of the emperor's apartment, where a hussar, whom it had been found impossible to remove, presented his musket. Zuboff cut him down with his sabre. The murder of his faithful servant roused the unfortunate monarch, who, springing from his sofa when the conspirators entered the room, at first endeavored to shelter himself behind chairs and tables; then, assuming an air of authority, commanded them to surrender as his prisoners. As they fiercely advanced toward him, he implored them to spare his life, offering to accept of any terms which they might propose. Finding supplication vain, he made a violent effort to reach the window, in which he cut his hand; and, being drawn back, he knocked down one of the assailants with a chair. The empress, awakened by the noise and turmoil, would have called for assistance, if a voice had not whispered to her to remain silent on pain of instant death. While the emperor made a desperate resistance, one of the conspirators brought him to the floor with a blow on the temples; when, recovering a little, he again supplicated for life. Another, taking off his sash, threw it twice round the neck of the defenceless czar; and one end being held by himself, while the other was given to Zuboff, they strangled their sovereign. Having accomplished the horrid deed, the assassins retired without molestation to their respective homes. Early the next morning the intelligence of the death of Paul (as having been produced by apoplexy!), and the accession of the grand-duke Alex- ander, were announced to the capital. The principal nobility and the great officers of state being assembled, Alexander was solemnly proclaimed emperor of all the Russias. As in the case of the murder of Peter III., none of the assassins of Paul were punished, but rewards were heaped upon them. How far his sons were cognizant of what was going on, it is impossible to tell; but it was generally believed that they were in the secret, and connived at it from a conviction that their father intended to immure them in a fortress. It is also a significant fact that, on the night 632 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. of the murder, the English fleet under Nelson was sailing into the Baltic for the attack on Copenhagen. The new emperor, on the day of his accession, presented himself at the parade on horseback, and was hailed by the troops with loud and cordial acclamations. In the following September his coronation at Moscow took place amid great splendor. Alexander was in his twenty-fourth year when he ascended the throne; and, from his amiable disposition, had ac- quired the love and respect of all his subjects. The first measure which he adopted, his opening proclamation, and his earliest imperial orders, all tended to encourage and confirm the hopes with which the Russian people beheld him mount the throne of his forefathers. In the same year he re- called the Siberian exiles, suppressed the secret state inquisition which had been re-established by Paul, and remodelled the senate. He likewise founded (in 1804) the university of Kharkoff, and emancipated the Jews. Alexander appeared desirous to cultivate the friendship of the neighbor- ing states, and especially that of Great Britain. His father, among other projects, had procured himself to be elected grand-master of the knights of Malta, and had laid claim to the sovereignty of that island. This claim, which had nearly produced a rupture between the courts of London and St. Petersburg, Alexander consented to abandon, though he expressed a wish to be elected grandmaster of the order by the free suffrages of the knights of St. John. In the meantime, a çonfederacy had been formed among the northern powers of Europe, as before intimated, with a view to oppose the British claim to the sovereignty of the seas; but by the wanton bombardment of Copenhagen, and the spirited interference of the British court, especially with the cabinet of St. Petersburg, the good understanding between Great Britain and the northern states was re-established, and the embargo which had been laid on British vessels in the Russian ports was taken off. A treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, between Russia and Sweden, was also agreed upon, to continue for twelve years. The most remarkable part of this treaty was the recognition by the court of St. Petersburg of the northern confederacy, which the amicable adjustment with Britain ap- peared to have done away. On the 25th of March, 1802, was signed at Amiens the definitive treaty of peace between the belligerent powers of Europe, by one material article of which the islands of Malta, Gozo, and Comino, in the Mediterranean, were to be restored to the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, under the joint protection and guaranty of France, Great Britain, Austria, Spain, Russia, and Prussia. Some time after the conclusion of this treaty, dis- putes arose among the contracting powers relative to the sovereignty of Malta; and the emperor of Russia (who now for the first time appeared personally among the potentates of Europe, and in June had an interview with the king of Prussia at Memel) insisted that it should be yielded to Naples, otherwise he would not undertake to guaranty the order of the HISTORIC SUMMARY — ALEXANDER I. 633 DO ALEXANDER I. knights, and would separate from it the priories of Russia. The retention of this island by the British forces, in direct violation of the treaty above referred to, was one of the chief causes of the renewal of the bloody con- test between England and her allies and Napoleon which so long desolated the face of Europe. Alexander watched with a jealous eye the violence exercised by France among the German states, and the encroachments which she appeared de- sirous of making on the free navigation of the Baltic. He had, in 1803, offered his mediation between Great Britain and France, but without effect, and both these parties strove to bring over the Russian emperor to their alliance. The court of London finally prevailed; and on the 11th of April, 1805, a treaty of concert was concluded between Great Britain and Rus- sia, to which Austria also became a party, in which the three governments agreed to adopt the most efficacious means for forming a general league of the crowned heads of, Europe to be directed against the powers of re- publican France. The ostensible objects of this league were the evacua- tion of the country of Hanover (then belonging to the crown of England) and the north of Germany; the independence of the republics of Holland and Switzerland; the re-establishment of the king of Sardinia in Piedmont (who had first attacked France); the security of the kingdom of Naples ; and the complete evacuation of Italy, the island of Elba included, by the French forces: but the principal motive, and underlying all others, was the desire for overthrowing Napoleon, the elective emperor, and reinsta- ting the Bourbons, to reign by "divine right," and thus presenting a solid 634 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. barrier against the future spread of free principles. For the prosecution of the great objects of this treaty, it was proposed that an army of four hundred thousand men should be levied. It was stipulated that these troops should be provided by the powers of the continent who should be- come parties to the league, and that subsidies should be granted by Great Britain in the proportion of over six millions of dollars for every hundred thousand men, besides a considerable additional sum for the necessary ex- pense occasioned in bringing them into the field. About this time, the occupation of Genoa by the French, in order to pre- serve it from an attack by the English fleet, was communicated to the dif ferent sovereigns of Europe, among whom it excited the highest indigna- tion. The emperor Alexander, incensed at this new act of Napoleon, immediately recalled his envoy; and this appeared to be the signal for hostilities on the part of Russia and Austria against France. Napoleon, well knowing the British government and aristocracy to be the main pro- jectors of all the coalitions against him, had collected an immense arma- ment at Boulogne for the invasion of England; but learning that Alexan- der, at the head of fifty thousand men, was rapidly marching to join the Austrians under the emperor Francis, for the purpose of secretly attacking France, he resolved to meet them on their own ground. With surprising celerity he traversed France and Germany, and, encountering the superior forces of the allies on the plain of Austerlitz, December 2, 1805, he utterly overthrew them. In their retreat across a lake, a large body of Russians were drowned by the breaking of the ice from the artillery-shots of the French. The emperors Francis and Alexander, from an eminence, beheld with anguish the complete discomfiture of their splendid army, and the latter soon after returned to St. Petersburg. When the news of this deci- sive battle reached England, the prime-minister Pitt remarked, "We may now close the map of Europe for years." His death, soon after, was hast- ened by chagrin. The consequence of these disastrous events to the allies was, first, a ces- sation of hostilities, and finally a treaty of alliance between Russia and France in 1806. Alexander, however, was determined to make one more effort to gain better terms from Napoleon. The Russian envoy at Paris, D'Oubril, had hastily concluded a preliminary treaty of peace between Russia and France. The terms of this convention, when laid before the privy council by Alexander, appeared so derogatory to the interests of Russia, that the emperor refused them his sanction; but at the same time signified his willingness to renew the negotiations for peace on such terms as were consistent with the dignity of his crown and the interests of his empire. The machinations of the British government, however, broke off the negotiations, and both parties again prepared for war. • In the meantime, the king of Prussia, urged on by the English and Aus- trian cabinets, prepared to oppose his efforts to the growing power of France. He collected an army of two hundred thousand men near Weimar and Jena, while the HISTORIC SUMMARY ALEXANDER I. 635 French forces assembled in Franconia and on the frontiers of Saxony. The same extraordinary success, however, was still to attend the arms of France. The Prussians were totally defeated by Napoleon at Jena; and on the same day was fought the decisive battle of Auerstadt, in which Marshal Davoust, with an inferior French force, com- pletely routed the enemy, who, besides numerous. infantry and artillery, had forty thousand splendid cavalry, commanded by the prince of Prussia. In these two actions the loss of the Prussians amounted to about twenty thousand in killed and wounded, and above thirty thousand prisoners. The lines of fugitives, converging from the fields of Jena and Auerstadt, fled tumultuously toward Berlin, which capitel Napoleon entered on the 27th of October. While the French were thus successful over the Prussians, the troops of Alexander entered Prussian Poland, and General Benningsen took up his residence at Warsaw, which, however, he was soon compelled to evac- uate by the French under Murat, who entered the city on the 28th of No- vember. After several skirmishes, in which the Russians were defeated, a dreadful engagement took place between them and the French at Ostra- lenka, about sixty miles from Warsaw. The fighting continued for three days, and the loss was immense on both sides, though the advantage ap- pears to have been on the side of the French. On the 26th of December the latter were beaten by the Russians at Pultusk, which terminated the campaign of 1806. On the 7th and 8th of February, 1807, the severely-contested battle of Eylau was fought, in which Napoleon commanded in person at the head of the imperial guards. Each side three times lost and won, the deciding move being made by Benningsen, who took Koningsberg by assault. At one time, while Napoleon was reconnoitring the field of action from a church, a detachment of Cossacks dashed up the streets of the town, and would have captured him, but for a timely charge of French dragoons. On the night of the 8th, Benningsen was reinforced by fifteen thousand Prussians, who wished to renew the battle on the third day, but at a coun- cil of war the Russian commander deemed it prudent to retreat, though greatly superior in force to the French. Several actions succeeded, at Spanden, at Lamitten, at Guttodadt, and at Heilsberg, in all of which the French had the advantage. On the 28th of May, 1807, they took Dantzic; and on the 14th of June the Russians appeared in considerable force on the bridge of Friedland, whither the French army under Napoleon was advancing. Here, notwithstanding the utmost efforts of the Russians, they were totally defeated by the French, who carried all before them. In consequence of this victory, the latter became masters of all the country round Koningsberg, and Marshal Soult entered that city in triumph. Thus concluded the campaign in Germany, in which the Russians sustained a loss of at least thirty thousand of their choicest troops. 636 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The defeats which the allied armies had suffered in Prussia and Poland rendered peace, on almost any terms, a desirable object; and Alexander found himself constrained to meet, at least with the appearance of friend- ship, the conqueror of his armies. Propositions for an armistice had been made by the Prussian general to the grand-duke of Berg near Tilsit; and, after the battle of Friedland, the Russian prince Labanoff had a confer- ence, for the same purpose, with the prince of Neufchatel, soon after which an armistice was concluded between the French and Russians. On the 25th of June, an amicable meeting took place between the emperors of France and Russia, in a handsome pavilion erected on a raft for the occa- sion, which was moored in the middle of the river Niemen. The result of this interview was the famous treaty of Tilsit, concluded between the em- peror of the French on the one part, and the emperor of Russia and the king of Prussia on the other, on the 7th and 12th of July, 1807. Alexander, by this compact, became the ally of France, and acknowl- edged the brothers of Napoleon as kings respectively of Naples, Holland, and Westphalia; he formally recognised also the confederation of the Rhine, and promised to acknowledge all the sovereigns who might hereaf ter become members of that confederation. He engaged that hostilities, on the part of Russia, should immediately cease with the Ottoman Porte. He undertook also to mediate for a peace between England and France. This mediation was declined on the part of the British government, until it should be made acquainted with the stipulations of the treaty of Tilsit, and should find them not conflicting with its own claims to the free navi- gation of the Baltic and the introduction of British goods to the continent. The grounds of this declination served as a reason for binding more closely the alliance between Russia and France, by breaking off the connection of the former with Great Britain. Accordingly, Lord Gower, who had succeeded the marquis of Douglas as envoy, received a note from the Rus- sian government, intimating that, as a British embassador, he could be no longer received at the court of St. Petersburg, which he therefore soon after quitted. • An embargo was now laid on all British vessels in the ports of Russia; and it was peremptorily required by Napoleon and Alexander that Sweden should abandon her alliance with Great Britain. An additional cause for the Russian declaration of war against the latter power was furnished by the second bombardment of Copenhagen and the seizure of the Danish fleet in the harbor by a British squadron; and, although Lord Gower had at- tempted to justify these measures, on the plea of anticipating the French in the same transaction, the emperor of Russia expressed in the warmest terms his indignation at this unjust and outrageous attack on a neutral power. A considerable Russian fleet joined the French, but the combined squadrons were compelled to seek for shelter in the Tagus, where they remained blocked up by a superior British armament; and another Russo- French fleet of fifteen sail-of-the-line that proceeded up the Mediterranean, HISTORIC SUMMARY- 637 ALEXANDER I. and advanced as far as Trieste, met with a similar fate. In fact, hostili- ties between Russia and England resulted chiefly in a cessation of trade. The demand of concurrence in the views of France and Russia made on Sweden, was formally repeated in a declaration of the emperor Alexander, published at St. Petersburg on the 10th of February, 1808. In this decla- tation, his imperial majesty intimated to the king of Sweden that he was making preparations to invade his territories; but that he was ready to change the measures he was about to take, to measures of precaution only, if Sweden would, without delay, join Russia and Denmark in shutting the Baltic against Great Britain until the conclusion of a maritime peace. He professed that nothing could be more painful to him than to see a rupture take place between Sweden and Russia; but that his Swedish majesty had it still in his power to avoid this event, by resolving, without delay, to adopt that course which could alone preserve strict union between the two states. The king of Sweden, however, determined to abide by the meas- ures which he had for some time pursued, and to accede to the terms of the convention which had just been concluded between him and the king of Great Britain. In consequence of this determination, a Russian army, under the com- mand of General Buxhowden, entered Finland in the beginning of March, 1808, and advanced against Helsingfors, which was occupied by a single battalion of a Swedish regiment. This small force retired into the fortress of Sweaborg, where they maintained themselves with great bravery till the 17th of April, when they were obliged to capitulate. The loss of this for- tress, though inconsiderable in itself, so highly enraged the king of Swe- den, that he dismissed the naval and military commanders who had been concerned in the capitulation. On the 27th of April, a trifling advantage was gained over the Russians near Rivolax, by the Swedish army, under General Count Klinspor; but this was only a transient gleam of success. The Russians soon overran nearly all Finland, took possession of Vasa, old and new Carleby, and reduced under subjection the whole province of which Vasa is the capital. The army of Klinspor, which originally con- sisted of sixteen thousand regulars, besides boors, was, by the end of the campaign, reduced to little more than nine thousand men. The king of Sweden, however, continued to send reinforcements to his armies in Fin- land; but no advantages of any importance were obtained, and the Rus- sions remained in possession of a great part of that province until it was permanently ceded to Russia by the treaty of Frederichausen in 1809. A second meeting between the emperors of France and Russia took place at Erfurth, in Saxony, on the 27th of September, 1808; Napoleon being anxious to secure the friendship of Alexander previous to his medi- tated subjugation of Spain. The English cabinet had now succeeded in forming another coalition against France, hostilities being commenced by her old ally, Austria, subsidized as usual by British gold, while Sir John Moore was despatched with a strong force to Spain. 638 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. As previously remarked, by the treaty of Tilsit, Alexander became the ally of France, and took part, as such, in the war now opened by Austria (1809); but his want of zeal in the cause was too evident to escape the penetration of the French emperor, and a growing coldness between the imperial allies began to appear, partly in consequence, it is said, of the remonstrance of Napoleon against the annexation of Finland. Austria completely humbled by the defeat of Wagram, was compelled to form an alliance with Napoleon. Great injury had, however, been done to Russian commerce, and heavy complaints made by merchants, in consequence of their ports having been shut against the English: they were therefore again opened to them, pro- vided they hoisted American colors, while French goods were very strictly prohibited. This induced Napoleon, in retaliation, to make himself mas- ter of the principal northern ports of Germany, and to incorporate the possessions of the duke of Oldenburg, a near relation of Alexander, with France. Against this proceeding Russia made a very energetic protest; and, in the year 1811, five divisions of the Russian army assumed a posi- tion opposite Warsaw. On the other hand, Napoleon caused the fortresses on the Vistula and Oder to be declared in a state of siege, sent thither large masses of troops, and occupied Swedish Pomerania, because Charles XIII. of Sweden adhered to his alliance with England. The contest in Spain, where Wellington was operating with a powerful British auxiliary force, was at this time daily growing more obstinate, and the large amount of men and money it consumed might well have appeared to Napoleon a sufficient obstacle to a struggle with Russia; but he calcu lated that his entire armies, amounting to nearly a million of effective men, would be sufficient for the conflict in both quarters: and he also relied upon a great mass of auxiliary forces, chiefly promised by the confedera- tion of the Rhine; besides his alliance with Prussia and Austria, which covered him on both flanks, and secured his retreat. He, however, made peaceable offers, through the count de Narbonne, his embassador at St. Petersburg: but the object of his mission being unattained, about half a million of soldiers, consisting of French, Germans, Italians, Poles, Swiss, Spaniards, and Portuguese, with more than twelve hundred cannon, were put in motion, about the end of July, 1812, to attack the Russians on the other side of the Niemen and the Vistula. To meet this invasion, Alexander, having re-established his alliance with Great Britain, made peace with the sultan, and withdrew his troops from the Turkish frontier. He also issued a ukase, on the 23d of March, order- ing a levy of two men out of every five hundred throughout the empire. The Russians, in three divisions, occupied a line including Kiev and Smo- lensk to Riga. The first western army, of one hundred and twenty-seven thousand men, in Lithuania and Courland, was commanded by Barclay de Tolly, who had till then been minister of war. The other western army, of forty-eight thousand men, was commanded by Prince Bagration. A .HISTORIC SUMMARY 639 ALEXANDER I. third body of forces, led by General Doctoroff, served to keep up the com- munication between the other two. All the disposable property and records had long before been generally conveyed into the interior. The first western Russian army in Poland was stationed along the Niemen as far as Grodno, and comprised six corps of infantry and two of cavalry. The second western army was in the vicinity of Honim, consisting of four battalions of infantry and one of cavalry. The communication was kept up between them by the hetmân Platoff, with ten thousand Cossacks, at Bialystok. The army of Volhynia, under Tor- masoff, at Lutzk, was composed of two divisions of infantry and one of cavalry, containing together about twenty thousand men; and there were additional corps stationed at other points on the western frontier, amount- ing to about forty thousand men more. The Russian plan of the campaign was, by retreating, to avoid a deci- sive battle, until the enemy should be remote from all his resources, and weakened by marches through a desolate region, and the Russian army should be so considerably strengthened by the accession of all the forces that might be, meanwhile, raised, as to have a decided superiority. Na- poleon's scheme, on the contrary, was, to use every effort to compel the Russians to battle, to destroy them after the defeat, and, pressing forward with haste to the capital, to proffer peace. But he not only entirely mis- took the character of his enemy, but he overlooked the important fact that, though the Russians might retreat, they would still be in possession of their resources. On the 6th of June, 1812, Napoleon crossed the Vistula, and on the 23d the Niemen, and pushed on to Wilna, the Russians carefully retreating, and leaving the French to pass that river on the 28th, and enter the town unopposed. Here the French emperor remained eighteen days, establish- ing magazines of arms and provisions, and then, after considerable manœu- vring, marched on Vitepsk, where he hoped to bring the Russians, under Barclay de Tolly, to a general action. The Russian general, however, declined, and retired to Smolensk. Fatigue, and want of all kinds, had meanwhile operated so detrimentally on the French army, that it was obliged to halt for ten days, during which the two Russian armies finally formed a junction under the walls of Smolensk. Napoleon, instead of fol- lowing the advice of his marshals, and wintering on the Duna, crossed the Dnieper and marched in pursuit of the enemy. The Russians now began to act on the offensive. With twelve thousand cavalry they attacked Gen- eral Sebastiani, and drove him back with considerable loss. On the 17th of August the main body put itself in motion to encounter the French army, which had, advanced, in order, if possible, to compel a general battle. When Napoleon saw his attempts to surround the right wing of the Rus- sians defeated, he ordered his own right wing, under Poniatowski, to hasten, by way of Ortza, by rapid marches, to cut off the Russians from Moscow. On the other hand, Bagration hastened to defend this road, and Barclay 640 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. de Tolly sought to.retard the French as much as possible. Smolensk, an old place, strongly fortified, and the whole position on the Dnieper, greatly favored his plan; and not till midnight of the 17th, after a loss of many thousands, did the French succeed in taking this bulwark, reduced, for the most part, to a ruin, its magazines having been removed or destroyed, and the houses set on fire by the departing inhabitants. The Russian army retired in haste, laying waste the country, and burn- ing all the towns through which it passed, while Napoleon followed, his troops suffering more and more from want and the climate. Up to this time, Barclay de Tolly, the Russian commander-in-chief, had been able to adhere to his plan of drawing the French into the country without risking a general engagement until a favorable opportunity should occur-tactics which were not liked by his army; and Alexander, yielding to the clamor of the nation, appointed Kutusoff to the chief command, who had reaped new laurels in the Turkish war just ended. The battle of Borodino, sometimes called that of Moscow, fought on the borders of the government of that name, on the 1st of September, was the result of this change of leaders. Reinforced by militia and reserves, Ku- tusoff resolved to await the enemy at the point above mentioned (about seventy miles from the city of Moscow), in a strongly-entrenched position. The French, came up, and a terrible, battle ensued. The combatants on either side amounted to about one hundred and twenty thousand men, and the killed and wounded in both to about eighty thousand, of whom the Russians lost upward of fifty thousand. The victory of the French would have been still more decisive, but for the refusal of Napoleon to allow the imperial guard to engage in the battle. The Russians continued slowly and sullenly to retreat toward Moscow, establishing their batteries wher- ever they could make a stand, even for a few hours. They drove before them the wretched serfs, blew up the bridges behind them, burned the towns as they passed along, and carried away or destroyed all the provis- ions and forage. For seven days, the French, emaciate and desponding, with tottering steps pursued their foes over the dreary plains. They were everywhere victorious, and yet they obtained no results from their victo- ries. Count Rostopchin, the governor, was making effectual preparations for the conflagration of the capital, and was urging, by every means in his power, the evacuation of the city by the inhabitants. About noon of the 14th of September, Napoleon, cautiously advancing through a country of excessive monotony and gloom, from the summit of the Sparrow hills descried in the distance the glittering domes and mina- rets of Moscow. He reined in his horse, and exclaimed," Behold! yon- der is the celebrated city of the czars!" After gazing upon it, through his telescope, for a few moments in silence, he remarked, "It was full time !" The soldiers, thinking that their sufferings were now at an end, and antici- pating good quarters and abundant supplies, gave way to transports of cxultation. Shouts of "Moscow! Moscow!" spread from rank to rank, HISTORIC SUMMARY- 641 ALEXANDER I. and all quickened their pace to gain a view of the object of their wishes. They approached the city; but, to their amazement, they met but silence and solitude. The astounding intelligence was brought to Napoleon that the city was deserted. A few of the miserable creatures, who had been re- leased from the prisons to fire the city as soon as the French should have taken possession, were found in the streets. They were generally intoxi- cated, and presented a squalid and hideous spectacle. Napoleon was amazed at the entire abandonment of the city. Rumors of the intended conflagration reached his ears. Such an awful sacrifice he had not sup- posed it possible for any people to make. None but a semi-barbarian na- tion, under the influence of an utter despotism, could be driven to such an act. More than a hundred thousand of the wretched inhabitants, parents and children-driven by the Russian soldiery from the city-perished of cold and starvation in the woods! Other countless thousands, who had attached themselves to the army of Kutusoff, perished from fatigue and exposure. Napoleon, as if to avoid the sight of the desolate streets, did not at first enter Moscow. He stopped at a house in the suburbs, and appointed Marshal Mortier governor of the capital. "Permit," said he, 66 no pillage. Defend the place alike against friends and foes." The sol- diers dispersed through the city in search of provisions and quarters. Many of the inhabitants had left in such haste, that the rich ornaments of the ladies were found on their toilets, and the letters and gold of men of business on their desks. On the morning of the 15th, Napoleon removed his headquarters to the kremlin. He immediately wrote to Alexander, proposing terms of peace, adding, "Whatever may be the vicissitudes of war, nothing can diminish the esteem felt by me for my friend of Tilsit and Erfurth." The day was passed in establishing the army in their new quarters. Some twenty thou- sand men and women of the lowest class, fierce and revolting in aspect, gradually stole from their hiding-places and mingled with the French troops. Ten thousand prisoners, whom Rostopchin had liberated, were stealthily preparing to convert the magnificent metropolis into a vast "infernal ma- chine" for the destruction of the French army. Immense magazines of powder were placed beneath the kremlin and other structures which would be filled with soldiers; shells and other destructive engines of war were secreted, in vast quantities, in chambers and cellars; the fountains had also been destroyed, the water-pipes cut, and the fire-engines carried off. About midnight of the 16th, the cry of "Fire!". was suddenly heard in the streets. Far off in the east of the kremlin, immense volumes of smoke and flame were rolling up into the stormy sky. Loud explosions of burst- ing shells and upheaving mines scattered death and dismay around. The flames spread in all directions. Mines were sprung, shells burst, cannons discharged, wagons of powder and magazines blew up, and in a few hours of indescribable confusion and terror, the whole vast city was wrapped in an ocean of flame. The French soldiers shot the incendiaries, bayoneted 41 642 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. NAPOLEON AT THE KREMLIN. them, tossed them into the fire; but still, like demons, they plied their work. Napoleon awoke early in the morning, and, looking out upon the flames which were now sweeping through all parts of the city, exclaimed: "What a frightful spectacle! such a number of palaces!—the people are genuine Scythians." During the whole of the 17th and the ensuing night the fire continued to rage, and at last reached the kremlin, forcing Napo- leon to retire to the castle of Petrowski, about three miles distant; but the flames abating on the 19th, he returned and occupied that portion of the kremlin which yet remained uninjured. "The churches," says Labaume, "though covered with iron and lead, were destroyed, and with them those graceful steeples which we had seen the night before resplendent in the setting sun. The hospitals, too, which contained more than twenty thousand wounded, soon began to burn—a harrowing and dreadful spectacle-and almost all these poor wretches perished! A few who still survived were seen crawling, half-burnt, among the smoking ruins, while others were groaning under heaps of dead bodies, endeavoring in vain to extricate themselves. The confusion and tumult which ensued when the work of pillage commenced can not be conceived. Soldiers, sutlers, galley-slaves, and prostitutes, were seen running through the streets, penetrating into the deserted palaces, and carrying away every- thing that could gratify their avarice. Some clothed themselves with rich stuffs, silks, and costly furs; others dressed themselves in women's pelisses; HISTORIC SUMMARY- 643 ALEXANDER I. and even the galley-slaves concealed their rags under the most splendid court-dresses: the rest crowded to the cellars, and, forcing open the doors, drank the wine and carried off an immense booty. This horrible pillage was not confined to the deserted houses alone, but extended to the few which were inhabited, and soon the eagerness and wantonness of the plun- derers caused devastations which almost equalled those occasioned by the conflagration."-"Palaces and temples," writes Karamzin, "monuments of art and miracles of luxury, the remains of past ages and those which had been the creation of yesterday; the tombs of ancestors and the nursery- cradles of the present generation, were indiscriminately destroyed: noth- ing was left of Moscow save the remembrance of its former grandeur."- "Not even the fictions of the burning of Troy," said Napoleon in after- years, "though heightened by all the powers of poetry, could have equalled the realities of the destruction of Moscow. Oh, it was the most grand, the most sublime, the most terrific sight the world ever beheld !" At length, on the morning of the 19th of October, after a stay of thirty- four days, Napoleon quitted Moscow and retreated toward Kalouga. His army numbered about a hundred thousand men, with five hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, and some forty thousand sick, wounded, and stragglers. To Marshal Mortier, with a band of but eight thousand men, was assigned the perilous task of remaining behind to superintend the evacuation of the city. The Cossacks crowded upon him in vast numbers. For four days, while the enormous mass of men and carriages were retiring, he defended himself within the massive walls of the kremlin, keeping the enemy at bay. In the vaults over which he stood and fought he placed one hundred and eighty-three thousand pounds of gunpowder. Barrels of powder were also deposited in all the halls and apartments. He was compelled to do this even while the flames of war were blazing fiercely around him. It might be necessary at any hour to retire before the accumulating numbers, and to apply the torch. A single spark from one of the enemy's guns would have blown the heroic soldier and his whole division into the air together! Having successfully protected the march of the army from the city, Mor- tier placed, in connection with the mines of powder, a lighted fuse, whose slow combustion could be nicely calculated. With rapid step he hurried from the volcano, which was ripe for its eruption. The Cossacks, eager for plunder, rushed within the deserted walls. Suddenly the majestic fabric was raised into the air. The earth shook under the feet of Mortier. The explosion, in most appalling thunder-peal, startled the army in its midnight bivouac. From the darkened and sulphurous skies there was rained down upon the city a horrible shower of fragments of timber, rocks, shattered weapons, heavy pieces of artillery, and mangled bodies! Napo- leon was thirty miles distant from Moscow. That terrific peal roused him from sleep, and told him that the kremlin had fallen, and that his rear- guard had commenced its march. Mortier hastened his flight, and suc- ceeded in rejoining the army. 644 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. And now the picture of the advance to Moscow was to be reversed. Hordes of Cossacks hung upon the rear of the retreating army, cutting off the stragglers, and committing every atrocity. Murat was defeated at Malo-Yaroslavitz on the 24th of October, and an unsuccessful stand was made at Viasma on the 3d of November. On the 6th, a winter peculiarly early and severe, even for Russia, set in-the thermometer sank eighteen degrees―the wind blew furiously over the desert country- and the sol- diers, vainly struggling with the eddying snow, which drove against them with the violence of a whirlwind, could no longer distinguish the road, and, falling into the ditches by the side, were quickly covered with the wintry mantle, and there found a grave. Others crawled on, badly clothed, with nothing to eat or drink, frost-bitten, and groaning with pain. What scenes did not the retreat then present!-discipline was gone-under such horrible sufferings even these tried and veteran soldiers could no longer obey their officers. Thus disorganized, they spread themselves right and left in search of food, and, as the horses fell, seized upon their man- gled carcasses, and devoured them raw like dogs! Many remained by the dying embers of the bivouac-fire, and, as these expired, an insensibility crept over them which soon became the sleep of death-thus thousands perished. On the 9th of November, Napoleon reached Smolensk, and remained till the 15th, collecting his scattered forces, now reduced to forty thousand effective men, when he set out for Krasnoi. Meantime, Kutusoff, with a hundred thousand Russians, advanced by a parallel road, and stationed himself across Napoleon's route; while the French rear-guard, under Ney, exposed to constant and harassing attacks from Platoff's Cossacks, was nearly destroyed. The emperor, however, pressing forward, succeeded in cutting his way through the dense masses of the Russians, though with the loss of more than half his imperial and young guards, which had been con- solidated. But from this time to the 26th and 27th, when the French crossed the Beresina, all was utter and hopeless confusion; and in the passage of that river, in the midst of a furious attack from the Russians, one of the frail bridges broke beneath the weight of artillery, baggage, and troops, with which it was burdened. A vast and frenzied crowd, strug- gling at the heads of the bridges, trampled upon each other, while cannon- balls ploughed through the living, tortured mass. Multitudes were forced into the stream, and with shrieks, which pierced through the thunders of the battle, sank beneath the floating ice. The exact extent of the French loss was never known; but a Russian account states that thirty-six thou- sand bodies were found in the river alone, and burnt after the thaw! The genius of Napoleon was never more conspicuous than on this occasion. It is the testimony alike of friend and foe that no other man could have ac- complished what he did in the awful passage of the Beresina. On the 29th, the emperor resumed his march, and was met by a convoy of provis- ions from Wilna. HISTORIC SUMMARY— ALEXANDER I. 645 The French were now upon the borders of Poland, and received sym- pathy and aid from the people. Napoleon, having brought the remnant of his army to this point, yielded to the advice of his counsellors, and on the 5th of December, in company with Caulaincourt and Lobau, and attend- ed by a small Polish escort, he set out in a sledge for Paris, leaving Murat to command in his stead. On the 10th he reached Warsaw, and, making a short stay, proceeded to Dresden, where he arrived on the 14th, and had an interview with the king of Saxony. At midnight, on the 18th, he en- tered his capital and the palace of the Tuileries. The Russians, meanwhile, under Wittgenstein, pressed hard upon the retreating French, until they reached the Niemen, the ancient boundary of the empire. At Kowno, Marshal Ney, with a handful of men, held the enemy at bay for four days; and seizing a musket, fought like a common soldier, until the last man had retired across the bridge: then deliberately walking backward, he fired the last bullet at the advancing Russians, and threw his gun into the stream. He was the last of the "Grand Army" that left the Russian territory. The losses of Napoleon in this terrible campaign amounted to about four hundred and fifty thousand men, of whom one hundred and twenty-five thousand were slain in fight; one hundred and thirty-two thousand died from fatigue, hunger, and the severity of the climate; and one hundred and ninety-three thousand were made prisoners. Thus ended the greatest military catastrophe that ever befell an army in either ancient or modern times, and which, though on a smaller scale, was realized to the Anglo- Indian army, while retreating through the gorges and ravines of the Khoord Cabul, in 1842. Enormous as was this loss, however, that of the Russians, including women and children, is affirmed to have been far greater! The emperor Alexander, who had hitherto only fought on the defensive, now resolved in his turn to become the aggressor; and, joining his army in Poland, published in February, 1813, the celebrated manifesto which served as a basis for the coalition of the other powers of Europe to destroy Napoleon and overturn the French empire. The king of Prussia at the same time summoned all capable of bearing arms to battle for their coun- try; and, though he did not then designate his object, his people, who for five years had been humbled and degraded, understood him, and, with un- paralleled enthusiasm, thousands poured forth to their places of rendez- vous from every section of the country. In vain had the French, with the aid of their last reserves and of troops drawn together in haste, made efforts to remain on the Pregel, on the Vistula, and on the Oder. The Russians advanced everywhere with superior numbers, and the French were obliged to retire behind the Elbe. Prussia now declared war against France, and concluded an alliance with Russia; the confederation of the Rhine was dissolved; and, although Austria yet remained neutral, the in- surrection was general in northern Germany. Meantime, however, much time was lost in negotiations with the king of Saxony; and Kutusoff died 646 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. of fever at Buntzlaw, upon which Alexander appointed Wittgenstein to the chief command. These circumstances were promptly taken advantage of by Napoleon; but, though this prolonged the contest, it proved but of little avail in the sequel. In August, the Austrians joined the allies; but the latter were defeated by Napoleon at the battles of Lutzen and Bautzen, and also on the 27th at Dresden (where, during a reconnaissance, General Moreau, the French traitor, was mortally wounded by the side of Alexan- der). On the 18th of October occurred the terrible battle of Leipsic, in which the French were overwhelmed by greatly superior numbers. The allies now rapidly advanced to the Rhine; and though Napoleon, with the broken fragments of his armies, continued the struggle through the winter, and gained victory after victory, his adversaries gradually environed him with half a million of men, and Alexander entered Paris on the 31st of March, 1814. In the subsequent negotiations which took place relative to the affairs of France, he exerted himself against the dethronement of Na- poleon, for whom he still retained the warmest personal friendship; this failing, he advocated a regency in favor of the emperor's son, the young king of Rome. But he was overborne by the English and Prussian com- missioners; and it was only by assuming the most energetic attitude, that he succeeded in procuring the sovereignty of Elba for the fallen monarch. During his stay in France he visited the ex-empress Josephine at Malmai- son, toward whom he exhibited the tenderest regard and sympathy. After the conclusion of peace, Alexander, in company with the king of Prussia and Marshal Blucher, visited England, where he was received with great distinction. It was on this occasion that Blucher (whose claims to civilization may be inferred from his habitual brutality and drunkenness, and his wish to blow up the monument to Napoleon in the Place Vendôme) received the honorary degree of doctor of laws from Oxford university! The "Holy Alliance" at Vienna, in 1815, having settled the affairs of Europe to their satisfaction, the emperor Alexander devoted himself to the advancement of his own dominions. The most opposite traits are found combined in the character of this sovereign: he was at once seen encour- aging bible-societies and the education of his people, yet interfering with the spread of political knowledge and of liberty in distant states. He was at times firm even to stubbornness, at others vacillating: his character baffles all who endeavor to describe him as he actually was. His dispo- sition, however, was kind and generous, his manners mild and amiable, and his moderation generally prevented him from abusing his unlimited power. He made many judicious alterations in the government; and, under the influence of his mother and the empress, the levity and extravagance of the Russian court were materially repressed. Alexander, attended to the last by his wife Elizabeth, died of erysipelas, in a small and humble dwelling near Taganrog, December 1, 1825, when on a tour of inspection through the southern provinces of his empire; and was succeeded by Nicholas I., on the 25th of the same month. HISTORIC SUMMARY — NICHOLAS I. 647 CHAPTER XXVI. HISTORIC SUMMARY THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. ICHOLAS PAULOVICH, who succeeded Alexander, and who is still on the throne of Russia, was born at St. Petersburg, on the 7th NTO of July (June 25, old style), 1796. He was the third son of the emperor Paul I., and seemed to have no prospect of mounting the throne. His education was conducted by his mother, Mary Feodorona, an intelli- gent and devoted woman, who exerted a great influence on all the mem- bers of the imperial family. General de Lambsdorf, the countess de Lieven, the learned Adelung, and others, were charged with the education of the young prince. They initiated him into the knowledge of modern litera- ture, political economy, the military art, and especially that of fortifica- tions. Nicholas did not lack a certain aptitude for study. His masters, however, conceived no very high idea of his capacity. He was taciturn, melancholy, and occupied with trifles. His most decided taste was for music; he even composed some military airs which are not without merit. At the time of Napoleon's invasion of Russia, Nicholas was too young to take an active part in that gigantic struggle. After the restoration of peace, he visited the principal battle-fields where the Russians had figured, and subsequently travelled in the various countries of Europe. In 1816, he made his appearance at the court of England, and received a very cor- dial welcome from the British aristocracy. On his return to Russia, Nicholas hastened to acquaint himself with the condition of the empire, visiting most of the provinces, and residing for a considerable time in their chief cities. On the 1st of July, 1817, he espoused the princess Charlotte, eldest daughter of Frederick William III. of Prussia: he is, therefore, the brother-in-law of the present king of that country. This lady (born July 13, 1798) embraced at once the religion of the Greek church, and assumed the name of Alexandra Feodorona. Of this marriage were born seven children, four sons and three daughters. The sons are-Alexander Cæsarovich (heir to the throne, and commander of the imperial guard), who was born in 1818, and married in 1839 to Maria Alexandrovna, princess of Hesse-Darmstadt, by whom he has sev- eral children; Constantine, grand-admiral of the Russian navy, who was born in 1827; Nicholas, born in 1831; and Michael, born in 1832. It will be observed that the sons of Nicholas have received the same names 648 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. " ང་་་ NICHOLAS I. as the sons of Paul, and in the same order. The eldest daughter of Nich- olas is Marie Nicolawna, who was born in 1819, and married in 1839 to Maximilian Beauharnois, duke de Leutchtenburg, and grandson of the em- press Josephine of France. The emperor, it is said, designed for this daughter a union which he deemed more in consonance with her own emi- nent position; but yielded his own wishes to hers, when he discovered her unalterable attachment to young Beauharnois, who was at the time a colo- nel in the Bavarian service. He died November 5, 1852. The second daughter is Olga, who was born in 1822, and was married in 1846 to Charles, prince-royal of Würtemburg. Alexandra, the youngest daughter in the imperial family, was born in 1825, was married in 1844, and died in August of the same year. It was her fatal illness which shortened the emperor's visit to England in that year, as mentioned in a previous chap- ter. The chamber in the palace at Czarsko Selo in which she sank to rest remains precisely as it was at that last sad moment: no hand is suffered to profane by its touch any object that belonged to her. In a secluded por- tion of the park, the cenotaph, a view of which is presented on the oppo- site page, has been erected as a tribute to her memory. In a niche stands her statue in marble, the size of life, bearing in its arms her infant, which perished almost as soon as born. The pedestal of the statue is covered with appropriate passages of Scripture. In a little summer-house near by hangs a portrait of the lamented princess, and beneath it is inscribed a sentence which was often upon her lips: "I well know, dear father, that you have no greater pleasure than to render my mother happy." HISTORIC SUMMARY- 649 - NICHOLAS I. R RUBERTS.SC. CENOTAPH ERECTED TO THE MEMORY OF THE GRAND-DUCHESS ALEXANDRA, at Czarsko Selo. Prince Nicholas did not at all think of the imperial crown until suddenly called to take it, in 1825, under the following circumstances. Next to Alexander, the grand-duke Constantine, then residing at Warsaw as vice- roy of Poland, had right to the supreme command. But Constantine was a strange, half-barbarous man. He was first married to a princess of the house of Saxe-Coburg, and aunt to Prince Albert of England; but such was his brutality toward her, that she was separated from him. Finally, he had conceived a passion for the daughter of a simple Polish gentleman, and to obtain a divorce from his former wife so as to enable him to form a matrimonial union with the latter he had secretly signed a paper renouncing 650 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. the throne of Russia. On the death of Alexander, Constantine, who had received intelligence of the event several days before his brother, faithful to his word, sent a number of letters to his family, in which he renewed his renunciation of the sovereign dignity, and declared that he acknowl- edged only Nicholas as emperor of all the Russias. In a manifesto pub- lished December 24, 1825, Nicholas gave an authentic relation of the cir- cumstances which had called him to the throne; and the next day received the oath of fidelity, and assumed the imperial sceptre as Nicholas I. The beginning of the reign of Nicholas was marked by a terrible strug- gle. A number of military officers belonging to the nobility, who had passed some years in Germany and France, in the wars against Napoleon, were dissatisfied with the despotic government established in their own country. They had organized secret societies, similar to the Tugendbund formed by the Germans, and sought the favorable moment to proclaim a representative government. They spread in the army false rumors that Nicholas was a usurper, that the grand-duke Constantine claimed the throne, and that he was marching with Polish battalions upon St. Peters- burg; and, by these misrepresentations, they induced the soldiers to revolt. The situation was extremely critical. Several of the regiments cried, "Live Constantine!" They had massacred two generals, seriously in- sulted the governor of the capital, and disdainfully repelled the Russian archbishop who came to urge them to obedience. Already they had ad- vanced turbulently to the imperial palace, and the populace joined the rebels, besides some men of the liberal professions who desired a change in the form of the government. If Nicholas had lingered a few hours in inaction, all would have been lost for him, and perhaps for his children. It was then that he displayed rare coolness, energy, and intrepidity. Accompanied by some hundreds of guards devoted to his cause, he mounted his horse, went to the place of revolt in the great square of the Admiralty, and, with a haughty bearing, called out to the rebels: "Return to your ranks! — obey!-Down upon your knees!" Quailing before the imperial order, and awed by the sacred character attributed in Russia to the empe- ror's person, most of the soldiers kneeled before their sovereign, and, in token of submission, grounded their arms. Those who persisted in resist- ance were shot down by cannon. On the night of the 25th of December, 1825, all was over: the crown was placed permanently upon Nicholas's brow. The punishments inflicted upon the conspirators were frightful. Many of them underwent the penalty of death. Others, to the number of several hundreds, were exiled to the snows and mines of Siberia. Soon after Alexander's death, a war with Persia broke out, in conse- quence of disputes arising from the non-settlement of certain boundaries between Russia and that power. Abbas Mirza, who had just then succeeded to the throne of Persia, thinking the moment propitious for attacking Rus- sia, at once marched over the frontier, and advanced as far as Elizabetpol, in Georgia; but the Persians were defeated, and driven back. War was HISTORIC SUMMARY-NICHOLAS I. 651 now immediately declared against them; and General Paskiewitch, being appointed commander-in-chief by the emperor, passed the Araxes, took sev- eral strong fortresses, entered ancient Media with no opposition, and forced the shah to sue for peace, compelling him to give up an extensive territory on the southwestern shore of the Caspian sea, with some provinces on the Caucasus, besides making him pay the expenses of the war, and the losses by the invasion. The war with Persia was scarcely ended, when Russia engaged in an- other—with Turkey. The Porte accused the Russians of having secretly fomented the insurrection of Greece, of having openly attacked and de- stroyed their fleet in the bay of Navarino,* with having violated the trea- ties of Bucharest and Ackerman, and established connections with the malcontents in every part of the empire. The Russians replied by accu- sing the Porte of having excited the mountaineers of the Caucasus to revolt, and invited them to embrace Islamism; with having violated or delayed the execution of all the treaties in favor of its Christian subjects, and arbitrarily closed the Bosphorus on various occasions, and thereby deeply injured the southern provinces of the empire. A declaration of war was issued by the emperor of Russia, and on the 7th of May, 1828, the Russian forces passed the Pruth to the number of one hundred thou- sand, including persons of all distinctions attached to the camp. Count Wittgenstein was commander-in-chief. The Turks were in no force to resist such a crusade, and retired as the Russians advanced, leaving an unobstructed passage to the invaders. In a short time the entire level country was overrun; Jassy and Bucharest occupied; Galatz, with its beautiful harbor, taken; and, in brief, the entire left bank of the Danube was occupied by the Muscovite troops. On the 8th of June, under the supervision of the emperor in person; the Russians crossed the Danube, and attacked and captured several fortres- ses and fortified towns. Ibrail, or Brahilov, the most important and strongest place on the lower Danube, situated near its left bank, and which had been besieged by the Russian troops under the grand-duke Michael * The history of the insurrection and declaration of independence of Greece is known. The Greek insurrection failed in Wallachia, in Moldavia, and in Macedonia, from want of cohesion; but in ancient Greece, where the inhabitants were more homogeneous and more numerous than the mussulmans, and, moreover, favored by their mountains, it took a more obstinate and decisive char- acter. Ypsilanti, Mavrocordato, Bozzaris, Kanaris, and a hundred other Greeks, acquired imper- ishable glory by their sustained devotion to the liberty of a country of which nothing remained but the name. The struggle had lasted seven years. France, England, and Russia, came to an under- standing that it was time to put an end to it, with all the more reason from its being highly injuri- ous to the commerce of the East generally, but especially to that of the Mediterranean. The treaty concluded by these three powers, on the 26th of July, 1827, pronounced and guarantied the inde- pendence of Greece, recognising her as a state, and circumscribing her within the somewhat nar- row limits she bears at the present day. The destruction of the Turko-Egyptian fleet by the com- bined squadrons of England, France, and Russia, in the bay of Navarino, October 27, 1827, was an event resulting from this treaty. The fleet consisted of seventy-nine Turkish and Egyptian vessels, which (with the exception of a few of the smaller craft, which were cast ashore) were totally destroyed, with seven thousand of their crews. 652 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. since May 11, capitulated June 18. The siege and capture of this place cost the Russians three thousand lives. The Russian besieging force, after the fall of Brahilov, was divided into several columns, and soon overran the whole level country between the Danube and the sea. Several engagements took place during July and August between the opposing forces in the open field, and, although the Ottoman horse maintained their superiority over the Muscovite, the inva- ding army (being reinforced with sixty thousand fresh troops) was too strong in infantry and artillery for their opponents, and the latter with- drew into their entrenched camp around Schumla. The emperor at first intended to hazard an attack upon this stronghold, the key to the Balkan; but the strength of the position, and the experience he had had of the tenacity with which the Turks always maintained their ground, induced him to change his determination. He left a sufficient force to observe Schumla, directed the remainder of the army against Varna, which was invested by both land and sea, and, after a desperate resistance, taken on the 10th of October. After the fall of Varna, the Russian generals were in hopes of being able to take Silistria, which had been blockaded by a force of ten thou sand men; but the approach of the autumnal storms, the scarcity of provis- ions and forage, and the loss from the ravages of the plague and the usual pestilential fevers of autumn-reducing, including those who had fallen in battle, the effective force of the army to nearly half its original number— rendered it evident that the reduction of this place could not be undertaken with any prospect of success before the following spring. The blockade therefore was raised, and orders given to retreat beyond the Danube. Leaving sufficient forces to occupy and maintain the captured fortresses, Wittgenstein commenced his retreat with the remainder of his army on the 15th of October; and it was conducted with so much secresy, that the Turks for some days were not aware of what was going on, and he at first sustained very little molestation. But this did not long continue. On the 19th, the rear-guard was attacked by eight thousand Turkish horse; and, though they kept their ground till the third corps, which was defiling, had got through, this was only done at a very heavy loss. After this, as the weather every day became worse, the retrograde movement became emi- nently disastrous. Eye-witnesses of both compared it to the retreat from Moscow. The Turkish roads, bad at all times, had been rendered all but impassable by the ceaseless passage of artillery and carriages over them during the summer, and the heavy rains of autumn. Caissons and baggage were abandoned at every step; the stragglers nearly all fell into the ene- my's hands, by whom they were instantly massacred; and Wittgenstein experienced, in his turn, the disasters which he had inflicted on Napoleon's army during the retreat from Vitepsk to the Beresina in 1812. At length the wearied columns reached the Danube, which they immediately crossed, and spread themselves in winter quarters over Wallachia. Thus ended in HISTORIC SUMMARY- 653 NICHOLAS I. Europe the campaign of 1828, in which the Russians, with the exception of the occupation of Wallachia and Moldavia (which were abandoned by the Turks without resistance), and the reduction of Brahilov and Varna, had made no sensible progress. Both parties, after it was over, found themselves on the banks of the Danube, mutually exhausted by the most urgent efforts. The campaign in Asia during the same year, though conducted on the part of the Russians with much smaller forces, was attended with, much more decisive results. The force under Paskiewitch, who commanded the army in Asia, was but about twenty thousand infantry and five thousand cavalry, less than half of which was under the immediate direction of the commander-in-chief, and achieved all the successes of the campaign; the remainder being destined to subordinate operations, intended chiefly to dis- tract the attention of the enemy from the main object of attack by the for- mer. With this force Paskiewitch pushed his way from Caucasus and Ararat into Asiatic Turkey, and took by storm the strong fortress of Kars, one of the most formidable in Asia, and the central point of Turkish Ar- menia, with all its arms and ammunition, and seven thousand prisoners. After this, several other fortresses fell into the hands of the Russians; so that, besides obtaining possession of Mingrelia and Imeritia, the whole pachalic of Bajazid, as far as the banks of the Euphrates, was conquered. The entire loss of the Russians in this campaign, by disease as well as the sword, was about three thousand. The winter of 1828-'29 was actively employed by both the Russians and the Turks in preparing for the opening of the next campaign. We have before remarked that the one hundred and sixty thousand Russians who had crossed the Danube during the preceding campaign had melted away before its close to half that number by fatigue, sickness, and the sword. These were reinforced by seventy thousand fresh troops, including twenty thousand hardy Cossacks; so that the Russians commenced the campaign in Europe, in the beginning of 1829, with at least one hundred and fifty thousand effective men, in Bulgaria and on the line of the Danube. Some minor operations were undertaken during the winter by the Rus- sian generals, to which they were tempted by the growing superiority of their forces. The Turkish entrenched posts at Kalè and Turnoid, on the left bank of the Danube, were attacked and taken the first on January 24, and the latter February 11. This success led to the capture of a flo- tilla of thirty gun-boats on the Danube, near Nicopolis, a few days after, which gave them the entire command of that portion of the river. A still more important acquisition was the castle of Sizepolis, a stronghold situ- ated on a rock projecting into the Black sea, a little to the south of the bay of Bocergas, at the eastern end of the Balkan. It yielded in a few hours to the cannonade of some Russian vessels-of-war, the garrison, con- sisting of one thousand Albanians, having evacuated the place. The cap- ture of this little Gibraltar secured to the Russians a position on the sea- 654 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. coast, within the line of the Balkan, and a means of communication between the invading army on land and their fleet on the Black sea. The decided superiority of the Russians at sea, in both the Mediterra- nean and the Euxine, gave them a very great advantage, which threatened to starve Constantinople itself into an early submission, and deprived the Turks of all possibility of transporting their troops or magazines by water. Admiral Greig, with nine sail-of-the-line, five frigates, and twenty-eight corvettes, carrying fifteen hundred and fifty guns, blockaded the Bospho- rus; while Admiral Hamelin (the present commander of the French divis ion of the allied fleet in the Euxine, now acting against Russia), with eight sail-of-the-line, seven frigates, and seventeen corvettes, shut in the Darda- nelles. The Turks and Egyptians, whose marine had been totally ruined by the battle of Navarino, had no force capable of meeting these fleets. Thus the entire command of the sea, with all its inestimable consequences, fell to the Russians during the remainder of the war. The success of Wittgenstein, in the preceding campaign against the Turks in Europe, had not been such as to justify his being retained in the command, and he was accordingly allowed to retire-a step deemed proper also from his age and infirmities. He was succeeded by Count Diebitch, the chief of his staff, whose abilities and success in the succeeding cam- paign fully justified the emperor's choice; for, although the Turkish army was greatly reinforced, and under the command of officers of high renown and unquestionable bravery, both the Russian generals, Diebitch and Pas- kiewitch, proved too much for them. Paskiewitch, who conducted the campaign in Asia, with a force which never could muster twenty thousand combatants in the field, achieved ex- traordinary successes. In the space of four months, from June to October, to briefly sum them up, he marched two hundred and fifty miles through hostile countries; beat and dispersed three Turkish armies, each double the strength of his own; carried by storm several entrenched camps and four strong fortresses; conquered Erzeroum, the capital of Asia Minor, and two entire pachalics; took two hundred and sixty pieces of cannon and sixty- five standards, and made prisoners the Turkish general-in-chief and three thousand soldiers. The sharpest contest of the Asiatic campaign was oc- casioned by the pacha of Vau's attempt to retake the fortress of Bajazid. The attack was made with seven thousand infantry and five thousand cav- alry, aided by the fire from a battery on a range of rocks, which swept the Russian troops on the flank and rear, and the fire of musketry from the Tartar quarter of the place. After thirty-two hours of incessant fighting. the Turks retreated. The brilliant successes of Paskiewitch were achieved with the loss of only four thousand men in killed, wounded, prisoners, and by sickness-a number singularly small, when it is considered that, during the whole course of the campaign, the plague raged in several of the towns which were taken. The campaign in the European provinces was quite as successful to the } HISTORIC SUMMARY — NICHOLAS I. 655 Russian arms. The invading army under Diebitch crossed the Danube from the 8th to the 10th of May, in two columns, at Hirchova and Kala- vatsh, immediately below Silistria. The latter place was at once invested by thirty-five thousand Russians, with eighty-eight pieces of cannon, while a covering or reserve army, of upward of forty thousand, was stationed a little in advance toward Schumla. Silistria has acquired an additional interest from the ineffectual attempt of the Russians to capture it, at an immense sacrifice of life, in 1854. It is situated on the right bank of the Danube, near the commencement of its delta, and in 1829 contained thirty thousand inhabitants, six thousand of whom were among the armed defend- ers of the place. It was at that time imperfectly fortified; and such had been the supineness of the Turks during the winter, that no attempts had been made to injure or demolish the approaches made by the Russians during the campaign of the preceding year: so that, when they returned on this occasion, they marched into the old works and trenches, as if they only had evacuated them the preceding day! The garrison, exclusive of the armed inhabitants, was nearly ten thousand, commanded by Achmet Pacha, a man of determined resolution and tried ability. Diebitch prosecuted the siege of this fortress with the utmost vigor, while a powerful flotilla, issuing from the upper part of the river, cut the besieged off from all communication by water on the west. But the Turks mnade a vigorous resistance, and recourse was of necessity had to the tedi- ous processes of sap and mine. During the progress of the investment of Silistria, a battle was fought, on the 11th of June, at Kulewtscha, about midway between Silistria and Schumla, between the Russian reserve under Diebitch (who had left the prosecution of the siege meanwhile to General Krasowsky) and forty thou- sand Turks under Reschid Pacha, the commander-in-chief of the Ottoman forces. This engagement continued for eight hours, and finally resulted in the discomfiture of the Turks, who retreated in confusion, and by a cir- cuitous route succeeded in re-entering Schumla. * The expedition, which resulted in this battle, retarded but did not sus- pend the siege of Silistria. On the return of Diebitch, active operations were resumed. The garrison, however, continued to hold out till the night of the 30th of June, when a great mine under the rampart having been exploded, made a yawning breach in it, which, by the concentric fire of the Russian artillery, was soon rendered practicable for storming. Seeing further resistance hopeless, Achmet Pacha, whose ammunition was now almost expended, agreed to surrender. The troops, to the number of eight thousand, laid down their arms, and were made prisoners-of-war. The armed inhabitants were allowed to retire without their arms, but none of them availed themselves of the permission. General Diebitch now determined on the daring step of passing the Balkan, in preference to the alternative of undertaking another siege to secure more effectually his line of communication. His plan being formed 1 656 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. accordingly, he invested Schumla with ten thousand men under Krasow- sky. Reschid Pacha, the grand vizier, in expectation of an immediate as- sault, recalled a portion of his troops from the mountain-passes, to aid in the defence of a position on which, in his opinion, everything depended. The defenders of the Balkan being thus seriously diminished, the Russian forces, to the number of twenty-one thousand, were enabled to force their passage across the mountains. The figurative comparison of the number of Diebitch's army to the leaves of the forest, which had been spread by the reports of the Bulgarians, acted like magic. The Turkish army, twenty thousand strong, deceived by these exaggerated accounts, retired to the ridge of low hills, twenty-five miles in front of Constantinople, which had so often in ancient times served as a barrier against the northern barba- rians. The Russian general, thus having an unobstructed route, resolved on pushing on to Adrianople. Leaving a force at different points to se- cure his line of communications, he advanced by forced marches, and encamped before that ancient city on the 19th of August. No preparations for the defence of Adrianople had been made, and a hasty capitulation. enabled the Russians to enter the town on the following morning. The better to subsist, and also to augment the report of the magnitude. and invincibility of his forces, the Russian general, like Napoleon after the battle of Jena, and with similar success, spread them out from the centre at Adrianople, like a fan, in every direction. While the advanced guards were pushed on the high-road to within eighty miles of Constantinople, the left wing, under Rudiger, advanced and took Midiah, within sixty-five miles of the Bosphorus, where it entered into communication with Admiral Greig's squadron; and the right, under General Sicorre, moved forward by Trajanopolis on Enos, in the Mediterranean, and met the fleet of Admi- ral Heiden, which was at anchor, expecting them, in the bay. At the same time, Krasowsky, by repeated attacks, so imposed upon the garrison of Schumla, that, so far from thinking of disquieting these movements, they decmed themselves fortunate to be able to preserve their own redoubts! Thus the Russian army extended from the Euxine to the Mediterranean, across the entire breadth of Turkey, a distance of one hundred and forty miles, and was supported by a powerful fleet at the extremity of either flank; while at the same time its reserve blockaded eighteen thousand men in Schumla, and its advanced guard menaced Constantinople. But the strength of their army was not equal to so great an expansion of its force, and was in reality on the verge of a most terrible catastrophe. In the middle of September, the force under Diebitch at Adrianople did not ex- ceed fifteen thousand men! An extraordinary impression was produced by these decisive events, both at Constantinople and over Europe. The terror in the Turkish capi- tal was extreme; for the Christians apprehended an immediate massacre from the infuriated mussulmans, and the latter were not less apprehensive of extermination from the avenging swords of the victorious Muscovites. HISTORIC SUMMARY-NICHOLAS I. 657 • The sultan (Mahmoud IV.) was besieged at one time by the violent Otto- mans, urging the arming of all the followers of "the prophet," and the most severe measures against the Christians; at another, with the most urgent entreaties from the latter, supported by the earnest representations of the western embassadors, to yield to necessity, and avert the threatening dan- gers by an immediate concession of the demands of Russia. Their efforts, joined to the exaggerated reports of Diebitch's force, who was repre- sented as being at the gates of the capital at the head of sixty thousand men, at length overcame the firmness of the grand seignior, and, with tears in his eyes, he agreed to the treaty of Adrianople-one of the most re- nowned in the Russian, as it was one of the most disastrous in the Turk- ish annals. By this celebrated treaty the emperor of Russia restored to the Sublime Porte the two principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, and all the con- quered places in Bulgaria and Roumelia, with the exception of the islands at the mouth of the Danube, which were reserved to Russia. All conquests in Asia Minor were in like manner restored to Turkey, excepting the for- tresses of Anapa, Poli, Akhalzikh, Abzkow, and Akhalkalaki, which, with a considerable territory round them, were ceded to Russia, and, in a mili- tary point of view, constituted most important acquisitions. All the privi- leges and immunities secured by former treaties were ratified in their fullest extent by articles five and six. An entire and unqualified amnesty was provided for all political offenders in every part of the Turkish dominions. The passage of the Dardanelles was declared open to all Russian merchant- vessels, as well as those of all nations at peace with the Sublime Porte, with all guaranties requisite to secure to Russia the undisturbed navigation of the Black sea. The indemnity to be awarded to Russian subjects complaining of arbi- trary acts of the Turkish government was one and a half millions of Dutch ducats, or nearly four millions of dollars, payable in eighteen months; and that to the Russian government, for the expenses of the war, was ten mil- lions of ducats, or about twenty-five millions of dollars. The evacuation of the Turkish territories was to take place progressively as the indemnity was discharged, and not to be completed till it was entirely paid up. Another convention, signed the same day, of still greater eventual im- portance, determined the respective rights of the parties to Wallachia and Moldavia. It provided that the hospodars of these provinces should be elected for life, and not, as heretofore, for seven years; that the pachas and officers of the Porte in the adjoining provinces were not to be at lib- erty to intermingle in any respect in their concerns; that the middle of the Danube was to be the boundary between them to the junction of that river with the Pruth; and, "the better to secure the future inviolability of Moldavia and Wallachia, the Sublime Porte engaged not to maintain any fortified post or any mussulman establishment on the north of the Danube; that the towns situated on the left bank, including Giurgeva, 42 658 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. should be restored to Wallachia, and their fortifications never repaired; and all mussulmans holding possessions on the left bank were to be bound to sell them to the natives in the space of eighteen months. The govern- ment of the hospodars was to be entirely independent of Turkey; and they were to be liberated from the quota of provisions they had hitherto been bound to furnish to Constantinople and the fortresses on the Danube. They were to be occupied by the Russian troops till the indemnity was fully paid up, for which ten years were allowed; and to be relieved of all tribute to the Porte during their occupation, and for two years after it had ceased." Though the campaigns of 1828-29 terminated to the disadvantage of Turkey, they are yet eminently calculated to modify the ideas generally entertained as to the great power of Russia in aggressive warfare, as well as to evince the means of defence, in a military point of view, which the Ottoman dominions possess. The Turks began the war under the greatest possible disadvantages. Their land forces had been exhausted by seven bloody campaigns with the Greeks; their marine ruined in the battle of Navarino; their enemies had the command of the Euxine and the Ægean; the interior lines of communication in their empire were cut off; the Jani- zaries, the military strength of the state, had been in part destroyed, in part alienated; and only twenty thousand of the regular troops, intended to replace them, were as yet clustered round the standards of the prophet. On the other hand, the Russians had been making their preparations for. six years; they had enjoyed fourteen years of European peace; and a hun- dred and twenty thousand armed men awaited on the Pruth the signal to march to Constantinople. Yet, with all these disadvantages, the scales hung all but even between the contending parties. Varna was only taken in the first campaign in consequence of the Russians having the command of the sea; the Balkan passed in the second, from the grand vizier having been out-generaled by the superior skill of Diebitch. Even as it was, it was owing to treachery and disaffection that the daring march to Adrian- ople did not terminate in a disaster second only to the Moscow retreat. The Polish revolution is the next important event in the history of Rus- sia. Although the immediate cause of this revolution was severe punish- ment inflicted on pupils of the military academy at Warsaw, there is no doubt that the Poles were encouraged to make the attempt by the success. that attended the Parisians in July, 1830, to secure to themselves a con- stitutional government. Accordingly, on the 19th of November following, the military cadets and students of Warsaw, joined by the Polish troops, seized the arsenal, with forty thousand stand of arms, and the insurrection became general. On the next morning, forty thousand troops and citizens were in arms, and the Russians were expelled from the capital. January 24, 1831, the Polish diet, which had been opened on the 18th of December, declared the absolute independence of Poland, and the termination of the Russian dominion; and, on the 25th, that the Polish throne was vacant. The object of the Polish revolutionists, however, was not to withdraw them- HISTORIC SUMMARY - NICHOLAS I. 659 selves entirely from the authority of the Russian emperor, but only to main- tain the privileges that were guarantied to them at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and to get rid of the tyrannous viceroyship of the grand-duke Con- stantine.* Nevertheless, they had now drawn the sword; and, although two commissioners were sent to St. Petersburg, to endeavor to effect an arrangement, the emperor refused to listen to them, and denounced the revolted Poles as traitors to whom no lenity would be shown. Marshal Diebitch, who had so successfully conducted the war with the Turks, entered Poland at the head of a large army. He advanced as far as Warsaw, and was victorious over the Poles near the walls of their capi- tal, February 25, 1831 (the loss of the Poles is stated to have been five thousand five hundred, and that of their enemies four thousand five hun- dred); but when Prince Radzivil resigned the command on the 28th, and Skrzynecki, then only a colonel, was appointed in his place, the Polish cause gained strength. This brave officer, though finally unsuccessful, like the heroic Kosciusko, proved that he deserved a better fate. On the 31st of March he was victorious over the Russians in a night attack. He ad- vanced cautiously, and, favored by the darkness of the night, reached their cantonments without being perceived. The advanced guard of General Geismar, consisting of eight or ten thousand men, was first attacked, and almost wholly destroyed: the Poles took four thousand prisoners and six- teen pieces of cannon. Immediately afterward he attacked General Rosen, who was posted with twenty thousand men at Dembe Wielski, and obliged him to retreat, with the loss of two thousand prisoners and nine pieces of cannon. Another important victory was afterward gained near Zelechow, when twelve thousand Russians were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners, with twelve pieces of cannon. During this action, the Lithuanians and Volhyn- ians, who served in the Russian army, turned their arms against the Rus- sians, and materially contributed to the success of the Poles. The peasants in various quarters of Poland now took an active part in the war, and hastened, with whatever weapons they could obtain, to the army. Insurrections broke out in Lithuania, Volhynia, Kowno, Wilna, in the Ukraine, and even in ancient Poland, as far as Smolensk. On the other hand, General Dwernicki, who had been sent to make a demonstra- tion in the rear of the Russians, and who had been victorious over them, was at last compelled to pass into the Austrian dominions, where he sur- rendered to the authorities of that country, April 27, with five thousand Poles. The ardor of the people, however, still continued, and hopes were * The following anecdote is well suited to give an idea of the gentleness of Constantine's charac- ter. During a grand review, he wished to give a foreigner of distinction a remarkable proof of the respect in which discipline was held by the soldiers. With this view, he approached one of the generals of the service, and, without a word of reprimand or advice, pierced his right foot with his sword. The unfortunate man did not move it was only when the grand-duke had withdrawn his weapon, the blood flowing abundantly, that he allowed himself to fall down! Facts of this kind, in a sufficient number, amply attest the ferocity of the viceroy of Poland. } 660 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. entertained in every country that the manly resistance of the Poles would induce other governments to interfere; but, unfortunately, Prussia and Austria, being themselves in possession of a part of the spoils of Poland, did all in their power to prevent interference, for fear of popular risings in Posen and Galicia; while France was too timid and cautious under Louis Philippe, and Great Britain was too much absorbed with domestic politics and the spirit of trade, to render essential aid. The military oper- ations on the part of the Russians were now prosecuted with new vigor ; and the emperor, who, in a manifesto addressed to the Russians, had called them the legitimate masters of the Poles, was ready to make every sacrifice to regain the Polish throne. The fate of the revolutionists was soon afterward decided. After two days' fighting, Warsaw was taken by the Russians (September 7, 1831): the confiscation of their property and exile to Siberia followed as noted on a previous page. Though many found an asylum in France, England, and other countries, they were mostly in extreme poverty, and were dependent on the benevolence of those who pitied their hard fate while they admired their patriotism. An imperial ukase, issued March 17, 1832, abolished the kingdom of Poland and its constitution, and incorporated it with Rus- sia as a province. The university of Warsaw was also suppressed, as a punishment for the part taken by the students in the insurrection. When Poland had succumbed, another formidable adversary confronted the Muscovite autocrat. We allude to the cholera, which made every- where horrible ravages. At St. Petersburg, a belief prevailed among the ignorant populace that the epidemic was generated by poison thrown into the wells by Poles. The rumor attained wide credence, and the peasants, to the number of some eighty thousand, rose, and, wild with rage, paraded the streets, assassinating every foreigner they met. They assembled at length in the Place Siennaïa, and, with frightful cries of fury and drunk- enness, menaced the capital with rebellion. This was so much the more to be dreaded, as at the moment there were no troops at hand. While the riot was at its highest pitch, and the excitement most dangerous, the em- peror was seen approaching, accompanied by a single aide-de-camp, and followed by hardly a hundred Cossacks. He moved on slowly and steadily through the incensed mob, to the very centre of the insurrection, and there looking steadfastly around, with undaunted gaze, he cried, in tones of thunder: "Down upon your knees! Upon your knees ask pardon from your God - you must expect none from me!" The immense prestige which surrounded Nicholas at that time, com- bined with such an exhibition of daring and courage, together with the effect of the herculean stature, the imposing mien, and the mighty and sonorous voice, struck the insurgents with such awe, that they with one accord knelt down, and offered no resistance, while a few of the Cossacks seized and bound many of their number. The rest dispersed in terror, and the rebellion was quelled as if by enchantment. HISTORIC SUMMARY 661 NICHOLAS I. In 1833, the sultan Mahmoud asked the assistance and protection of Russia against the pacha of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, who had risen in arms against him, had defeated the Turkish forces in several successive battles, had taken possession of Syria, and even threatened Constantinople. The emperor Nicholas readily responded to the call, and an army of five thou sand Russians encamped upon the Asiatic coast of the Bosphorus, while a Russian fleet appeared upon its waters. As the price of the assistance and protection thus rendered, and before the return of the Muscovite forces to their own country, Russia exacted from Turkey the offensive and defen- sive alliance of Unkiar Skelessi, by which both powers were reciprocally bound to furnish succor in case either were attacked; while, by a secret article appended thereto, the Sublime Porte was bound to close the Dar- danelles against any power with whom Russia might be at war. One aim attributed to the Russian emperor, in his connection with Otto- man affairs, was, to produce a rupture between France and England. If so, he was, in a measure, gratified in 1840; as the French government ad- vanced claims in regard to Egypt which displeased the London cabinet. Russia, Austria, Prussia, and Great Britain, were then allied together in favor of the sultan against the pacha Mehemet Ali, and France found her- self isolated. This was an anomalous and dangerous position. The sym- pathies of England and France, their commercial relations, and their ad- vanced civilization, required the union of the former with France rather than with Russia. The coalition was broken in 1841, and a general treaty of peace signed on the 13th of July by all the leading European powers, which re-established the inviolability of the Dardanelles, and thus abro- gated the offensive features of the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi. From that period till 1848, no important act marked the influence of Russia in the world's affairs. At the news of the revolution at Paris, in February of that year, the feelings of the emperor Nicholas were of a mixed character. On the one hand, he rejoiced at Louis Philippe's fall, for whom he always professed little esteem, and whose government had, sympathized with the exiled Poles; and, on the other, he feared the conta- gion of revolutionary opinions introduced into Poland. His apprehensions increased when he learned that Prussia and Austria shared in the vast democratic movement-that Berlin had risen, and that the imperial family with the obnoxious minister Metternich had been compelled to flee from Vienna. The Muscovite czar held himself in a waiting posture. He rec- ognised the republican government established in France, and continued to keep up friendly relations with the German powers; but at the same time he organized formidable armies on his southern and western frontiers, prepared every means of attack, and stood ready, arms in hand, to enter the field in support of the "divine right of kings," and against all revo- lutionary movements. An occasion soon presented itself in which he was called upon to employ a portion of his troops in the cause of monarchy. On the appeal of the 662 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. young emperor of Austria, Francis Joseph, for aid against the armies of Kossuth, Nicholas sent his Cossacks into Hungary, under the command of Field-Marshal Paskiewitch, who, with overwhelming numbers, finally van- quished the valiant Magyars, because, like the Poles in 1831, the Hunga- rians quarrelled among themselves in presence of the enemy, and of which the Russian commanders were not slow to take advantage. The ukase in which the czar announced that he should intervene for the assistance of Austria in this contest, was dated April 26, 1849. The chief reason given for so doing was the danger to which the Russian dominions must them- selves be exposed from the triumph of the Magyars, with the large number of Polish refugees said to be engaged in their forces; another motive was, however, also assigned, namely, the mission of Russia to restore religious and political orthodoxy to the bewildered and disorganized nations of Eu- rope. The Russian forces were put in motion simultaneously with this ukase. In all, some two hundred thousand men were employed for the purpose. One corps of from forty to fifty thousand, under General Paniu- tin, passed through Moravia by the northern railway, and entered Hungary northwest of Presburg; two other corps of some twenty thousand men each, under General Grabbe and General Sass, entered the country through the northwestern defiles of the Carpathians; the main body, under Prince Paskiewitch, a hundred thousand strong, came through the central pass of the same range, and marched down on the main road toward Pesth. Gen- eral Lüders, again, invaded Transylvania on the southeast, at the head of twenty thousand men, accompanied by the remnants of the Austrian army of Puchner, under Clam-Gallas, a new leader; and at the same time, another smaller Russian corps, under General Grotenhelm, came into that province on the northeast. The Austrian armies were also recruited, and again put in motion in the west under Marshal Haynau, a general whose blood- thirsty ferocity in Italy had already assured him an immortality of infamy; in the southwest under General Nugent; and in the south under Jellachich, the notorious Ban of Croatia. The entire force thus marshalled against this heroic nation scarcely fell short of three hundred thousand men! Against them was the army of Görgey, in and about the fortress of Comorn, on the Danube, between Pesth and Presburg, in all reckoned at ninety thousand; that of Aulich, about Lake Balaton, twenty thousand; that of Dembinski, in the north, forty thousand; that of Vetter, in the central region on the Danube, forty thousand; the corps under Perczel, Kiss, and Guyon, in the south and southeast, forty thousand; and that of Bem, in Transylvania, forty thousand. These numbers are to be taken as merely approximative: in the nature of the case the Hungarian armies contained a large proportion of irregular volunteers, who came and went according to circumstances. With such means the nation awaited the decisive shock, appealing to God and humanity to attest the justice of their cause. The popular enthusiasm was roused to an extraordinary extent by the crisis; Governor Kossuth and his friends traversed every part of the country as apostles of the crusade 1 HISTORIC SUMMARY - NICHOLAS I. 663 for liberty, and the clergy of all denominations vied with each other in zeal against the invaders. The contest, however, was prolonged for some three months only after the entry of the Russians, and was virtually ended on the 13th of August, at Villagos, by the treacherous surrender of Görgey, with his entire army, to Paskiewitch. This was followed by the surrender of all the strongholds in the hands of the Hungarians. Kossuth, Guyon (now commander-in-chief of the Turkish army in Asia), Bem, Dembinski, Perczel, and other eminent officers, with some five thousand troops, found an asylum in Turkey. There can be but little doubt that the Russian emperor's gold played a prominent part in the closing scenes of the ill-fated Hungarian revolution. Nicholas, so far as is known, asked no compensation from the Austrian emperor for this great service; he seemed to have lent his soldiers and his money with perfect disinterestedness. It was, however,.a great stroke of policy. Russia's preponderance over Germany was essentially promoted by this intervention. It is also worthy of remark that, during the Hunga- rian campaign, the officers and even the common soldiers of the Russian army treated the Austrians as inferiors and menials, showing them far less respect than they did the Magyars. These events bring the history of Russia down to the period immediately preceding the war she is now waging with Turkey, France, and England. The relations between Russia and the Ottoman Porte began to assume a threatening aspect some time before the final outbreak in 1853. The peo- ple of the Danubian principalities were not free from the revolutionary contagion of 1848, and a movement in that direction commenced in Mol- davia, whence it extended to Wallachia. It was finally suppressed, and an amnesty proclaimed by the youthful sultan, Abdul-Medjid. It furnished. a pretext, however, for the Russian emperor, in 1849, to send a division of his army across the Pruth, and occupy the principalities. He assumed the right under a construction of the treaty of Balta Liman, of April of that year. This treaty, however, provided for joint occupation, expressly stipulating that both powers should enter the principalities together, and this under peculiar circumstances, with an equal force. Russia, therefore, had no right whatever to enter them alone. It was only after lengthened negotiations with Great Britain, and the advance of a large Turkish force, that the Russian troops were withdrawn in 1850. Misunderstandings also arose between the two governments at the end of the Hungarian war, in 1849, principally on account of certain Poles, who, after having fought in the ranks of the Hungarians, were among those that sought refuge in Turkey, and were protected by the sultan. His re- fusal either to expel or deliver them up gave great offence to the czar, as also to the emperor of Austria in the case of the Hungarian refugees. Next came the question of the "holy places" in Jerusalem, where, by the influence of France, certain privileges had been granted by the Turkish government to Roman catholics, at the cost, as the court of St. Petersburg 664 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. believed, of the eastern or the orthodox Greek church. Thus the northern cabinet, which for years had been accustomed to have its will obeyed at Constantinople, saw twice in rapid succession another influence prevail there. A conflict between the Montenegrins and the Turks, in the begin- ning of 1853, increased the difficulty, as the hardy mountaineers of Mon- tenegro had for some time enjoyed the special protection of Russia; and, at the instigation of the latter, Austria now interfered to prevent their complete chastisement at the hands of Omar Pacha. Several other events of inferior importance thickened the cloud; and finally it was decided by Nicholas to make an imposing demonstration at Constantinople, without, however—as it was announced officially to other cabinets-any ulterior idea of war or conquest. In the first days of February, 1853, Prince Menchikoff, the emperor's minister of marine-one of the most eminent men at the court and in the councils of Russia, as well as a fervent follower of the Greek church and an enemy of the moslems-left St. Petersburg on a mission to Stamboul. After having reviewed the Russian fleets at Sevastapol and Odessa, the prince reached his destination on the 28th of February, and on the 2d of March communicated to the Porte his credentials. The first act of diplo- matic hostility began with the refusal by the prince to call on Fuad Effendi, the Turkish minister of foreign affairs, and the most decided adversary of Russia in the councils of the sultan. The Porte, however, yielded this point of etiquette, and the minister resigned his office. The other courts of Europe, and especially France, became uneasy at these Russian demonstrations, and a French fleet appeared at about the end of the month in the waters of Greece. England showed herself less sensitive at this period, and refused to move her naval forces in the Med- iterranean, keeping them anchored at Malta. The first point debated between the Russian embassador and the Porte was that of the holy places in Palestine. After some manoeuvring on the part of the prince, who originally wished to discuss the matter exclusively with the Porte, the French minister came in and shared in the delibera- tions. The whole seemed to take a satisfactory turn. The Porte issued a new firman, conceding what Menchikoff desired, and putting Russia on the same footing as before the recent grant to France. But Russia was not satisfied. After many circumlocutions, Prince Men- chikoff, in a note sent to the divan on the 5th of May, laid down his ulti- matum. This contained sundry claims never before preferred by Russia, as that the Porte should bind itself for the future never to lessen or en- croach upon any immunities enjoyed ab antiquo by the Greek church in Turkey, nor ever to allow any other Christian creed to predominate over it. A convention to this effect would have been an acknowledgment by the Porte of a religious protectorate to be exercised by the czar over its own subjects. Menchikoff demanded an answer to these propositions in the course of five days. The Porte, in a friendly but firm tone, refused to HISTORIC SUMMARY — NICHOLAS I. 665 make such a treaty, as destroying the sultan's rights of sovereignty. To this Menchikoff made an answer, and thus negotiations became protracted to the 14th of May. In this crisis, Reschid Pacha, one of the most enlight- ened statesmen of Turkey, was recalled to the divan. But this change did not prove propitious to the interests of Russia; and, on the 18th of May, the Russian envoy broke off all further communications with the Porte, and retired to a steamer waiting for him in the harbor. Thence he exchanged several notes with Reschid Pacha, but, as they could not come to any un- derstanding, Menchikoff left Constantinople on the 21st of May. Russia, at the same time that she sent her envoy, began to gather bodies of troops about Odessa and in Bessarabia. After the departure of Men- chikoff from Constantinople, Turkey also began to arm. Count Nessel- rode, the czar's minister of foreign affairs, sent a courier to Constantinople with a letter to the grand vizier, announcing that the czar fully approved the proceedings of his envoy; and that if the Porte should still refuse to subscribe to the treaty he had proposed, Russian troops would receive or- ders to enter the Turkish principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia-not with the object of making war against the sultan, but to obtain material guaranties until moral ones should be conceded to Russia by the Porte. To this the grand vizier answered with calmness and dignity, maintaining the grounds of the first refusal. The cabinets of Paris and London, seeing the gravity of the case, de- cided to send forward their fleets as a demonstration of their friendly feel- ings toward Turkey; and the united naval forces anchored, in the first part of June, in Besika bay, at the entrance of the Dardanelles. On the 11th of the same month, the cabinet of St. Petersburg published a circular ad- dressed to its diplomatic agents abroad, explanatory of the views of Rus- sia, and of the measures already taken to carry them out.. On the 25th of June, the emperor of Russia issued a manifesto to his people, announcing his purpose to sustain the religious rights of the eastern church, which he said were endangered in Turkey. The Russian troops, accordingly, crossed the Pruth, and entered the Danubian principalities. France and England seemed more united at this juncture, and a certain irritation prevailed in the notes now exchanged between Paris and St. Pe- tersburg. Austria and Prussia remained neutral, and the first offered her friendly mediation. Conferences were opened at Constantinople and at Vienna between the ministers of the four courts, and on the 1st of August a note was sent from Vienna to St. Petersburg and Constantinople offering terms of pacification. The czar accepted them, but the sultan introduced some changes and modifications, which were disapproved at St. Petersburg, and destroyed the first conciliatory attempts at diplomacy. New drafts, notes, and suggestions, were exchanged, but all of them without result. Russia having taken possession of Jassy and Bucharest, the capitals of the principalities, Prince Gorchakoff, the Russian commander-in-chief, suspended all legal relations between the two vassals of the Porte and their sovereign. 666 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. Turkey, in the meantime, concentrated her army along the Danube in Europe, and on the frontiers of Georgia in Asia. All efforts of diplomacy proved unsuccessful; and finally, in the beginning of October, the sultan issued a declaration of war against the autocrat. Omar Pacha (a Croatian by birth, and a renegade from the Austrian service), the commander-in- chief of the Turkish forces in Europe, addressed a letter to Prince Gorcha- koff, requiring him to evacuate the principalities within two weeks; other- wise he would proceed to execute the orders of his sovereign, and attack the Russian army. Gorchakoff replied that he was under the imperial commands to maintain his position. Omar kept his word. In the latter part of October he crossed the Danube at several points. The Ottomans seized the island of Kalavatsh, expelling the Russians from it, as well as the strong point of Oltenitza on the left side of the river, where they repulsed with great loss several attacks of the enemy. At Guirgevo, a point on the Danube between Kalavatsh and Oltenitza, the Turks were less fortunate. But not so in Asia, where they seized Nicolaiev and several other fortified places; and fought a battle at Batrum, against Prince Baratinski, in which both parties claimed the victory. On the water, the Ottoman cause suffered a great disaster. On the 30th of November, a Turkish fleet, consisting of seven frigates, three corvettes, and two steamers, conveying warlike stores to the Asiatic coast, entered the harbor of Sinope, where they were attacked by a Russian squadron of six line-of-battle-ships, two frigates, and four steam-frigates, under Admiral Nachimoff. After a gallant contest of about three hours, the Turkish ves- sels were destroyed, with the exception of one, supposed to have escaped. About three thousand of the marines were killed, and an immense amount of property was destroyed. One of the frigates, that of the commander, Osman Pacha, was captured by the Russians, but sank at sea as they were towing her on the way to the harbor of Sevastapol. After the destruction of the Turkish fleet, the guns of the Russian squadron were turned upon the town of Sinope, the principal portion of which they reduced to ashes. The Turks in this unequal conflict fought with almost unheard-of bravery, not a single vessel having struck its flag during the whole engagement. The intelligence of this affair created great excitement, not only at Con- stantinople, but in Paris and London. The allied fleets-consisting of fourteen English, twelve French, and five Turkish vessels-of-war-were immediately ordered to enter the Black sea, for the purpose of affording protection to the Porte. The admirals were instructed to protect all Turk- ish vessels of convoy, which were to keep along the Ottoman coast. The British fleet in the Euxine is under the command of Admiral Dundas, and the French under Admiral Hamelin. Omar Pacha continued to occupy Oltenitza, notwithstanding the increased Russian force in his front, until the continual rains so flooded the country as to oblige him to quit the low tract occupied by his troops. He there- fore recrossed the Danube, without any kind of molestation, leaving about HISTORIC SUMMARY 667 NICHOLAS I. fifteen thousand men in the tête-de-pont of Kalavatsh, to which strong en- trenchments had been recently added, armed with guns of heavy calibre, for the more effectual protection of this passage into Lower Wallachia. The four powers, England, France, Austria, and Prussia, continued ac- tively engaged in negotiating for peace. A new diplomatic note was agreed upon and forwarded to Constantinople, proposing that the sultan should send a plenipotentiary to some neutral point, to confer with a Russian em- bassador―the integrity of the Ottoman empire to be guarantied, and other points in dispute to be adjusted, in conformity with previous arrangements. The Turkish divan, on the 18th of December, consented to open negotia- tions, but reiterated its former declarations that the evacuation of the principalities should be a condition precedent to any discussion of the terms of peace. The sultan also claimed that, by the war, all previously- existing treaties had been abrogated. The emperor of Russia perempto- rily rejected the note of the four powers. The Russian ministers left Paris and London, and all negotiations were broken off, without any hope of renewal. On the Danube, meantime, fresh engagements took place, which resulted favorably for the Turks. On the 6th of January, 1854, they attacked the advanced guard of the Russian army near Citale, and followed up the ad- vantage there gained for three days in succession, finally routing their adversaries entirely, and driving them back upon Krajova, with a loss of Jeveral thousand men. The Turks then retired to Kalavatsh. Several severe skirmishes subsequently took place, in which the mussulmans were : victorious. On the 29th of January, the emperor of France addressed an autograph letter to the czar, stating that the differences between Russia and Turkey had reached such a point of gravity, that he thought it his duty to explain the part France had taken on that question, and to suggest the course by which he thought the peace of Europe could still be preserved. It was not, as he averred, the action of the maritime powers, but the occupation of the principalities, which had taken the subject from the field of discus- sion into that of fact. Still, even that event was not regarded as a cause of war; but a note was prepared by the four powers, destined to give com- mon satisfaction. That note was accepted by Russia, but commentaries were immediately added which destroyed all its conciliatory effect, and prevented its acceptance by the Porte. The sultan, in turn, proposed modi- fications, to which the four powers acceded, but which the czar rejected. Then the Porte, wounded in its dignity and threatened in its independence, declared war, and claimed the support of her allies. The English and French squadrons were ordered to the Bosphorus, not to make war, but to protect Turkey. Efforts for peace were still continued: other propositions were submitted; and Russia declared her intention to remain on the defen- sive. Up to that time, France and England had been merely spectators- when the affair of Sinope occurred, and forced them to take a more defined 668 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. position. It was no longer their policy that was checked; their military honor was wounded. Hence the order was given to their squadrons to enter the Black sea, and to prevent by force, if necessary, the recurrence of such an event. Arrived at this point, it was clear that there must be either a definite understanding or a decided rupture. If the czar desired a pacific solution, it was suggested that an armistice should be signed, that diplomatic negotiations should be resumed, and that all the belligerent forces should retire from the places where the motives of war had called them: the Russian troops would abandon the principalities, and the allied squadron the Black sea; and the emperor of Russia would name a plenipo- tentiary to negotiate a treaty with the sultan, to be submitted to the four powers. If a plan should be adopted on which France and England should agree, peace would be restored, and the world satisfied. If the czar should refuse this proposition, they must leave to the fate of arms and the hazards of war that which might be decided by reason and justice. This letter was regarded rather as a manifest to the French nation than an appeal to the czar. It was extensively placarded, and issued in immense numbers in extra editions of the government journal, the Paris "Moniteur.” A reply to this autograph letter of Louis Napoleon was received, in the latter part of March, from the emperor of Russia. He rehearsed the grounds of difference, claiming that his policy had been marked by the utmost forbearance and the most sincere desire for the preservation of peace. His occupation of the principalities, he says, was preceded and in a great measure caused by the hostile appearance of the combined fleets in the neighborhood of the Dardanelles: and the affair of Sinope was the consequence of the impunity with which the Turks were allowed to convey their troops, arms, and ammunition, to the Russian coast, for the prosecu- tion of hostilities. He had learned from the French emperor's letter, for the first time, that the Russian fleet was to be no longer allowed in the Black sea—that he was thus to be prevented from provisioning his own coasts. After such an announcement, he could not be expected to discuss even for a moment the proposition of an armistice, of the evacuation of the principalities, and of the opening of negotiations with the Porte. Threats would not move him. His confidence was in God, and his right; and Russia, he would guaranty, would show herself in 1854 what she was in 1812. An imperial manifesto was issued to the people of Russia, announcing that France and Great Britain had sided with Turkey, and that the empe- ror had in consequence broken off all intercourse with those powers. Thus, it added, England and France have sided with the enemies of Christianity against Russia combating for the orthodox faith. On the receipt of this manifesto, M. Drouyn d'Lhuys, the French minis- ter of foreign affairs, issued a circular to the French diplomatic agents, throwing the responsibility of results upon the Russian government, which had closed the door to the last hope of peace, and rebuking the emperor's HISTORIC SUMMARY 669 NICHOLAS I. attempt to enlist religious fanaticism on his behalf. France and England, he asserts, do not support Islamism against the orthodox Greek faith: they go to protect the integrity of the Ottoman empire against the ambi- tious covetousness of Russia. The withdrawal of the Russian embassadors from London and Paris has been already noted. That event was followed by a formal declaration of war. On February 27, the earl of Clarendon despatched a messenger to St. Petersburg with a letter declaring that, if the Russian government did not immediately announce its intention of ordering its troops to recross the Pruth, so that the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia should be com- pletely evacuated by the 30th of April, her refusal or silence would be considered equivalent to a declaration of war; and the British government would take its measures accordingly. The messenger was directed to wait but six days for a reply. The note was presented to Count Nesselrode on the 17th of March; and the answer returned was, that "the emperor did not think it becoming to make any reply to it." The receipt of this re- sponse led to the immediate issue, on the 28th of March, of the English declaration of war. This important document rehearsed rapidly the successive steps in the progress of the difficulty, conceding at the outset that the emperor of Russia had some cause of complaint against the sultan with regard to the "holy places" at Jerusalem, but declaring that these had been amicably adjusted by the advice of the British minister; and that the Russian envoy, Prince Menchikoff, was meantime urging still more important demands, concerning the position of the Christian subjects of the sultan, which he carefully concealed from the British embassador. These demands were rejected, and the emperor of Russia immediately sent large bodies of troops to the frontier, and took possession of the Danubian principalities, for the purpose of enforcing compliance with them. The object sought by the czar was virtual control over nine millions of the Christian subjects of the sultan, which the Sublime Porte could not grant without yielding to Russia the substantial sovereignty over its territories. It was therefore refused, and the French and British governments had felt called upon-by regard for an ally, the integrity and independence of whose empire have been recognised as essential to the peace of Europe; by the sympathies of their people with the right against wrong; by a desire to avert from their do- minions the most injurious consequences, and to save Europe from the preponderance of a power which had violated the faith of treaties and defied the opinion of the civilized world-to take up arms for the defence of the sultan. The declaration of war was debated in parliament at great length on the 31st of March. In the house of lords, the earl of Clarendon, minister of foreign affairs, contended that the object of the emperor of Russia had been to obtain such an ascendency and right of interference in Turkey as would have enabled him at any time to possess himself of Con- stantinople, and that this design had been steadily pursued in the face of 670 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. the most distinct and solemn assurances to the British government that he had no such purpose in view. If he had been allowed to carry this design into execution, Lord Clarendon thought it would not be too much to say that more than one western power would have been made to undergo the fate of Poland. It was not to protect her trade, nor to defend her India possessions, that Great Britain had resolved to go to war. For neither of these objects would she make the sacrifices she was about to make; but it was to maintain her honor, and to sustain the cause of civilization against barbarism. Russia had already reduced several of the German powers to a state of virtual dependence upon her, and it became absolutely necessary to place a check upon her future aggressions on the independence of Eu- rope. Austria and Prussia had both resolved to maintain a position of complete neutrality. This would be found, in the end, impossible; but, thus far, England had reason to be perfectly satisfied with the course they had adopted, although she received no guaranty as to their ultimate action. In France, proceedings in regard to the formal declaration of war took place, analogous in all respects to those of Great Britain. An imperial message was read to the chambers on the 27th of March, announcing that the last resolution of the cabinet of St. Petersburg had placed Russia in a state of war in respect to France-a war, it added, the responsibility of which belonged wholly and entirely to the Russian government. The cham- bers unanimously pledged the support of France to the coming contest. Both the English and French governments, in order to render the war as little onerous as possible to the powers with whom they remained at peace, issued a declaration, waiving the right of seizing an enemy's prop- erty laden on board a neutral vessel, unless it be contraband of war; nor would they claim the confiscation of neutral property, not being contraband of war, found on board an enemy's ships; nor would they (for the present) issue letters of marque, for the commission of privateers. On the 10th of April, a convention was signed at London, by the repre- sentatives of France and England, in which they agreed-1. To do what depends on them to bring about the re-establishment of peace between Rus- sia and the Ottoman Porte on a solid and durable basis, and to guaranty Europe against the return of those lamentable complications which have so disturbed the general peace. 2. To receive into their alliance, for the sake of co-operating in the proposed object, any of the other powers of Europe who may wish to join it. 3. Not to accept, in any event, any overtures for peace, nor to enter into any arrangement with Russia, without having previously deliberated upon it in common. 4. They renounce in advance any particular advantage to themselves from the events that may result. 5. They agree to supply, according to the necessities of the war, determined by a common agreement, land and sea forces sufficient to meet them. Lord Raglan (Henry Fitzroy Somerset, aide to Wellington at Waterloo) was appointed commander-in-chief of the British land forces, and Marshal St. Arnaud those of the French; and the two governments took immediate HISTORIC SUMMARY .671 NICHOLAS I. measures for despatching a hundred thousand troops to the theatre of war in the East, in the proportion of seventy thousand French to thirty thou- sand British. English and French fleets (the former under the command of Admiral Sir Charles Napier and the latter under that of Admiral Des- chines), numbering about fifty vessels, and mounting twenty-two hundred guns, were also despatched to operate in the Baltic; to which was subse- quently added a considerable land force composed of French troops alone. On the 12th of April, the Russian government published its counter- statement in reply to the English declaration of war. In the presence of such declarations and demands as those made to him by Great Britain and France, the emperor has only to accept the situation assigned to him, re- serving to himself to employ all the means which Providence has put in his hands, to defend with energy and constancy the honor, the indepen- dence, and the safety, of his empire. All the imputations which they have made against Russia are declared to rest on no foundation whatever. If their honor has been placed in jeopardy, it has been by their own act; for, from the beginning, they have adopted a system of intimidation, which would naturally fail. They made it a point of honor that Russia should bend to them; and because she would not consent to her own humiliation, they say they are hurt in their moral dignity. The policy of aggrandize- ment, which they attribute to Russia, is refuted by all her acts since 1815. None of her neighbors have had to complain of an attack. The desire of possessing Constantinople has been too solemnly disavowed for any doubts to be entertained on that point which do not originate in a distrust which nothing can cure. Events will soon decide whether Russia or the western powers have struck the most fatal blow at the independence of Turkey. The sultan has already renounced, by treaty, the distinguished privilege of every sovereign power, that of making peace or war at its own free will; and changes in the internal policy of Turkey have already been exacted far greater and far more fatal to her independence than any Russia ever desired to secure. It is for Europe, and not for the western powers alone, to de- cide whether the general equilibrium is menaced by the supposed prepon- derance of Russia; and to consider which weighs heaviest on the freedom of action of states-Russia left to herself, or a formidable alliance, the pressure of which alarms every neutrality, and uses by turns caresses or threats to compel them to follow in its wake. The true motive of the war has been avowed by the British ministry to be the abatement of the influence of Russia; and it is to defend that influence—not less necessary to the Rus- sian nation than it is essential to the maintenance of the order and security of the other states-that the emperor, obliged to embark in war in spite of himself, is about to devote all the means of resistance which are fur- nished by the devotion and patriotism of his people. He closes by denying that the responsibility of the war rests upon him; and invokes the aid of God, who has so often protected Russia in the day of trial, to assist him once more in this formidable struggle 672 ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA. The period to which we have now arrived in our historic summary pre- sents an appropriate place at which to close it. We have given the history and the leading incidents in field and cabinet of the contest in which Rus- sia is unfortunately involved with Turkey, France, and England, down to the period (April, 1854) when, all hope of reconciliation past, the several parties have formally signified their determination to leave its decision to the God of battles. Of the occurrences since that period of the move- ments of the Euxine and Baltic fleets-the crossing the Danube and occu- pation of the Dobruschka by the Russians-their repeated and desperate attacks on Silistria-their repulse and retreat across the Danube-their final evacuation of the principalities and the reoccupation of them by the troops of Austria-the vacillating if not treacherous course of the Aus- trian and Prussian governments-the events in the Caucasus,-while none of them have been of sufficient importance to materially change the aspect of the war, their details, obtained, as they necessarily must be, only through interested mediums, are as yet too conflicting and unreliable to be suitable for permanent record. They are of so recent a date, however, that (reli- able as they may be) they are undoubtedly familiar to all who feel an interest in the progress of the great struggle, through the medium of the newspaper press. محمد F BOOKS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE! HE present age is honorably distinguished from all former periods, by the eagerness manifested for every species of knowledge, and by the success- ful efforts made to diffuse USEFUL INFORMATION among all classes of the community. The elevation which Science and Literature impart to the human character, and the inexhaustible sources of refined pleasure which they open, justify the hope that this new impulse given to the public mind may be found one of the most effectual means of promoting the improvement of society. The advantages of such works as the follow- ing, are manifold: they are instructive as well as amusing; they famil- iarize us with the scenic features of other countries and communities- their Cities, Palaces, Churches, Public Buildings, Scenery, Architecture, Manners, Customs, Costumes; and, by enabling us to compare them with our own, they enlarge the mind and expand the intellect. They amuse in the hours of domes- tic and social intercourse-afford subjects for pleasing conversation-accustom our children through the medium of a noble art, to contemplate with awe and admiration the beauties of Nature—the won- Irous and magnificent structures raised by men's hands. NEW PICTORIAL WORKS! JUST PUBLISHED BY ROBT. SEARS. 181 William Street, New York City. A NEW AND COMPLETE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF CHINA AND AND INDIA; COMPRISING A DESCRIPTION OF THOSE COUNTRIES AND THEIR INHABITANTS, EMBRACING THE HISTORICAL EVENTS, GOVERNMENT, RELIGION,' EDUCATION, LANGUAGE, LITERATURE, ARTS, MANUFACTURES, PRODUCTIONS, COMMERCE, AND MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD OF AUTHENTIC RECORD, TO THE PRESENT TIME. EDITED BY ROBERT SEARS. Embellished with Two Hundred Engravings of the first order, illustrating whatever is peculiar to the inhabitants, regarding their Dress, Domestic Occupations-their mode of Agriculture, Commercial Pursuits, Arts, &c. They are accurate, and each one has been made expressly for the work. The volume forms a large octavo, containing about six hundred pages-printed in the best style, and on good substantial white paper. It is furnished to Agents, handsomely bound in muslin gilt, or leather, as the purchaser may prefer, at a very liberal discount, when quantities of not less than ten copies are ordered at one time. Price only Two Dollars and a Half. ADDRESS TO THE READER. AVING added another volume to his Library of Illustrated Works, the Publisher would embrace the present opportunity to express his grateful acknowledgments for the generous patronage which his previous various publications have re- ceived. And although it may not be proper for him to be over-assured as to the degree of approval which may be accorded to his work on China and India, he yet will frank- ly say that he gives it into the hands of the public with far less of apprehensiveness, than he has ever felt with any previous issue from his pictorial press. Comprising, as it does, an illustrated historical and descriptive account of two of the most populous, most wealthy, and most ancient na- tions of the world-nations that were not only in existence, but had made advances in civilization and arts even, at a period of time when the earliest European nations had not emerged from a barbaric state-it can scarcely fail to prove of exciting interest, even to those with whom, as a general thing, historic facts are dry and uninviting. PACHAKU:ON Though a taste for literary pursuits has been a characteristic of the Chinese from a remote period, they yet have not preserved any reliable account of the early ages of their empire. The only incidents of its ancient history are gleaned from its national annals; but these are so interwoven with the grossest fables that little or no dependence can be placed upon them. About the time of Confucius, however, their records, though still meager, begin to assume a more authentic form, and at this period commences the histor- ical sketch of China which is given in this volume, it not seeming advisable to occupy its pages with the extravagant details of Chinese mythology, to the exclusion of matter of more substantial interest. The recent opening of the ports of China to the commerce of foreign nations, and the consequent relaxing of that rigid policy by which that nation has heretofore kept itself so closely veiled from the observation of the rest of mankind, afford opportunities not before enjoyed, for acquiring a knowledge of its institutions, social, political, and religious — of learning new facts in its history, and also for the correction of many errors that have pre- vailed in relation to the character and habits of its people. This epoch in the history of China is coincident with the acquisition, settlement, and erection into one of the states of this confederacy, of California—in effect bringing the United States many thousands of miles nearer to the Chinese territory — and in point of facility of intercourse, placing this country in closer proximity to China, than any European nation. The interest, there- fore, which this last event has excited, and which the first furnishes the means of grati- fying, of obtaining correct information regarding this extraordinary nation, and especially of its commerce, its arts, manufactures, and productions, has a more substantial basis than the mere satisfaction of a commendable curiosity. The almost universal use of tea in this country, amounting to about twenty millions of wounds annually, rendering everything connected with this plant of interest, not only to the merchant and scientific man, but to the people at large, will justify the extended space which has been given to a full account of its culture and preparation for market. The experiment of the cultivation of the tea-plant in this country has been successfully made by a gentleman of South Carolina, who expresses the opinion that the climate here is adapted to its culture, from Maine to Florida. The day may eventually come when this universal luxury will be produced in this country to an extent that will entirely obviate the necessity of its importation. It may be thought that the great care and manifold ope- ADDRESS TO THE READER. - rations required in its preparation, with the cheapness of labor in China, wil ever prove a bar to its general cultivation in this country. But who that reflects on what American ingenuity, energy, and enterprise, have accomplished in overcoming obstacles to the suc- cessful prosecution of other branches of industry, can for a moment doubt that - adapt- edness of soil and climate to the production of tea being once ascertained - labor-saving improvements would be introduced, sufficient to admit of its profitable cultivation ? Than India, few countries on the globe, have experienced more revolutions, or been made the subject of so many able and interesting works. Its history, at every period, furnishes abundant materials for whole volumes, and, at different times, has been more or less connected with that of almost every known civilized nation. From the earliest times, its wealth, and valuable productions, have tempted other nations to invade its ter- ritories, or visit it for the sake of commercial advantages; in 'consequence of which, it has always been a scene of constant warfare, as well as of commercial enterprise, and the well-known adage, that Might overcomes right," has never been more fully or more frequently exemplified, than on the extensive plains of Hindostan. The exploits of the conquerors who made it the object of their warlike expeditions, as also the splendid pro- ductions of nature and art which were thence obtained, procured for it a great name even in the remotest eras of classical antiquity. It appeared to the imagination of the western world as adorned with whatever is most splendid and gorgeous, glittering, as it were, with gold and gems, and redolent of fragrant and delicious perfumes. Though there be, in these magnificent conceptions, something romantic and illusory, still India forms unques- tionably one of the most remarkable regions on the surface of the earth. The varied grandeur of its scenery, and the rich and copious productions of its soil, are certainly ot surpassed, if equalled, in any other country. .. There are four principal eras in the history of India: the early dominion of the Bra- mins; the Greek and Moslem invasions; the powerful and splendid empire of the Moguls. and the rise of the British sovereignty in Hindostan, which has long superseded that of the Mogul emperors as the dominant power, and has extended itself over parts of the country that never owned subjection to those mighty monarchs. It would be impossible, without greatly extending the volume, to speak individu- ally of any but the most prominent of the numerous kingdoms and principalities into which the country has been divided at every period of its history. The existence of some of these has been but transient, while others have flourished for a considerable period, under a succession of powerful and wealthy princes; but, from the days of Alexander the Great till now, each succeeding century has witnessed so many revolutions among the native states of India, that very few traces remain of what they have been. The native Indians consist of two distinct people, the Hindus and the Mohammedans, the former being the descendants of the ancient occupants of the country; the latter, of their conquerors, both Turks and Tartars. The Hindus, were, no doubt, in very distant times, a great people, but they have been for ages the prey of foreign invasion; and, although their princes have always possessed dominions in various parts of the country, and many of them have, even in modern times, been at the head of great monarchies, yet few were able to main- tain their independence after the establishment of the Mogul empire, when some of the native kingdoms were totally annihilated, and others became tributary to the conquerors. Still the Hindus have remained a distinct people. They have preserved their religion and peculiar customs unchanged, and have, from time to time, founded new states that have risen to great eminence, but which, like those also of Mohammedan origin, have gradually yielded to British ascendancy. In the preparation of this work, there has been ample material, so much presented itself of interest in relation to both countries. The better to give an idea of the quality and quantity of matters embraced in the volume, the following table of contents is sub- joined, with the list of engravings and maps, which are from authentic designs, and engraved expressly for the work. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHINA. CHAPTER I. EARLY HISTORY OF CHINA. ANTIQUITY of the Chinese Monarchy-Husbandry and Silk Weaving among the earliest Arts practised by the Chinese-High Estimation in which they hold Agricultural Pursuits - Invention of the Com- pass-Yaou and Shun-Yu the Great- Rise of Petty States Freedom of the Peasantry-Money of China- Public Markets-Archery Literature-Writing practised at an Early Period- Employ- ments of Women-Silk used for Clothing- Silk used for Clothing - Autumnal Festival - Distinctions of Dress-Origin of Confucius - His Character and Progress - Benefits of his Administration-His Writings the Foundation of the Chinese Government and Religion - Privileges of his Descendants - Chi-hoang-ti unites all the small States into one Monarchy-Wars with the Tartars- The Emperor builds the Great Wall - Destroys the Ancient Records - Custom of burying Wives with their Deceased Hus bands Mode of Succession to the Throne - Rebellion of Liu Pang. CHAPTER II. THE HAN DYNASTY. Foundation of the Han Dynasty-Paper first made in China- Various Uses of the Bamboo - Indian Ink-China unknown to the Greeks-Learning encouraged by the Han Princes- Nobility not hereditary Rank and Office acquired by Literary Talent-Religion of Budha Incursions of the Huns-Decline of the Han Dynasty -- War of the Three Kingdoms - Re-Establishment of the Monarchy - Revival of the Spring Festival - Rarity of Cotton-Clanship - Filial Duty a Point of Law-Laws of Inheritance- Marriages-Funeral Rites - Costume - Superstitions. C CHAPTER III. THE MIDDLE AGES IN CHINA. - · Hang-chow-foo the Ancient Capital Chinese Villas - Invasion of the Huns- The Tsin Dynasty over- thrown- Lieouyu proclaimed Emperor - Revives Learning — China divided into two Kingdoms Long Anarchy Chinese Trade with the Arabians and Persians-Union of the two Kingdoms Foundation of the Tang Dynasty- Tait-song-First Christian Missionaries in China - The Chinese discover the Art of making Porcelain - Construct Canals Canton a Place of great Trade - Hanlin College founded -- Art of Printing - The Tartars obtain a Settlement in China-Tait-sou-Illus trious Women-Tea in General Use among the Chinese-Wars with the Tartars. CHAPTER IV. FIRST TARTAR CONQUEST. Zinghis Khan-His Laws-Invades China - Establishes the Empire of the Moguls-Ortai madə Great Khan of the Moguls - Extends his Empire in China-Accession of Kublai Khan- Wars with the Chinese Emperors - Fate of the Infant Sovereign. CHAPTER V. THE MOGUL DYNASTY. Kablai sole Emperor-Peking the Capital - Paper Money-Great Canal-Europeans first visit China Marco Polo-Establishment of Post-Houses - Beneficence of the Emperor - Police of the Cities Kublai invades the Japanese Empire-Imperial Hunts- Falconry-Death of Kublai - Extent of the Mogul Empire -Its Decline and Fall. CONTENTS-CHINA. CHAPTER VI. THE MING DYNASTY. Tai-au― Nanking the Seat of Government-Ancient Institutions restored-The Emperor dies-- Disputed Succession-Yong-lo-Court removed to Peking-Tamerlane-Invasions of the Tar- tars-Portuguese reach Canton - Settlement of Macao-Spanish Colony- Cultivation and Use of Cotton-Jesuit Missions-Settlements of the Dutch and British-The Mantchow-Tartars - Rebel- lion- Li-kong proclaimed Emperor-His Cruelty-Is expelled by the Mantchows-Shun-che- Civil War. CHAPTER VII. REIGN OF SHUN-CHE, FIRST EMPEROR OF THE MANTCHOW DYNASTY. The Regency - Destructive Warfare - Siege of Canton - Subjection of the Empire-Shun-che assumes the Government-Russian Embassy-War with the Russians-Dutch Embassy-Koshinga — Shun-che dies- Kang hy succeeds. CHAPTER VIII. REIGN OF KANG-HY, SECOND EMPEROR OF THE MANTCHOW DYNASTY. The Regency - Christians persecuted - Kang-hy assumes the Government-Formosa surrendered to the Emperor - Commencement of the Tea-Trade - Chinese learn to cast Cannon Influence of the Jesuits-Treaty of Commerce between China and Russia-Conquests in Tartary — Medical Art in China - Death of Kang-hy-The Moguls. CHAPTER IX. REIGN OF YONG-TCHING, THIRD EMPEROR OF THE MANTCHOW DYNASTY. Ceremony of Installation-Expulsion of the Christians-Provisions in Time of Famine-Mode of Trading with the Russians-Russian Embassies- Death of Yong-tching-Installation and Vow of his Successor. CHAPTER X. REIGN OF KIEN-LONG, FOURTH EMPEROR OF THE MANTCHOW DYNASTY. Recall of Exiles-Christian Religion prohibited-Wars of Kien-long - Invasion of the Burman Empire - Conquest of Thibet-The Meaou tse - The Cohong - British Embassy - Reception of Lord Macartney at Canton-Voyage to Peking-Tien-sing-Zhehol-Temple of Poo ta-la- Reception of the Embassy-Grandeur of the Court Grandeur of the Court-Celebration of the Emperor's Birthday - Departure of the Embassy-Overland Journey from Peking to Canton-Emperor abdicates— Accession of Kea-king-Death of Kien-Long-His Character. CHAPTER XI. REIGN OF KEA-KING, FIFTH EMPEROR OF THE MANTCHOW DYNASTY. Character of the Emperor-Insurrections-Triad Societies-Ching-yih - Insurrection at Peking- Lord Amherst's Embassy-Mode of conveying Tea to the Ports - Tracking Barges - Tea-Districts- Responsibility of Magistrates-Literary Examinations - Death of Kea-king. CHAPTER XII. REIGN OF TAOU-KWANG, SIXTH EMPEROR OF THE MANTCHOW DYNASTY. Rebellion of the Meaon-tse- The Opium-Trade- The Foreign Factories - Proceedings of Commis- sioner Lin-British Factories blockaded - Opium surrendered-Disputes at Macao-British Fleet removed to Hong-Kong - Trade suspended-Admiral Quan defeated The Armament arrives from India- Attempt to destroy the British Fleet-Chinese Armies - The Capture of Chusan — Lin recalled-Keshen appointed Commissioner - Bogue Forts taken by Storm - Treaty with Keshen- British evacuate Chusan and take Possession of Hong-Kong - Second Attack on the Bogue Forts Death of Admiral Quan-Keshen disgraced - Troops raised in the Provinces - Chinese Army marches to Canton Commence Hostilities - Factories plundered - Canton taken - Ransomed by the Chinese-British return to Hong-Kong Capture of Amoy — Chusan reoccupied — Towns cap- tured-Battle at Tsekee British proceed to Nanking-Capture of Chapoo - The River Yang-tse- keang - The Golden Island -Capture of Chin-keang-foo- Nanking — Treaty of Peace - Foc-chow- foo - Victoria — Massacre at Formosa - Disturbances at Canton-Death of Elepoo— Appointment 8 CONTENTS-CHINA. of Key-ing-Death of Howqua - Supplementary Treaty Treaty with the United States -Treaty with France - Disturbances in 1847- Death of the Emperor - Public Mourning-Funeral Proces siens-Tombs of the Emperors - Accession of the present Emperor, Yih-Chu. CHAPTER XIII. GEOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF CHINA. Geographical Position and Extent of the Empire - Boundaries — Mountains, Rivers, and Lakes- Provinces: Number, Geographical Extent and Population of Each Their Produce and Climate -- Mineral Wealth. CHAPTER XIV. CITIES OP CHINA. General Features - Peking- Imperial Palace- Burning Glass prosented by the King of England to the Emperor of China — Nanking — Porcelain-Tower-Suo-chow-foo-Fang-chow-foo- Lake Sze- - hoo-Vale of Tombs-Tower of the Thundering Winds. CHAPTER XV. CONSULAR PORTS OF CHINA. CANTON: Whampoa Anchorage - River, Town, and Population - Hog-Lan Nev ard Cld China Streets - Lantern-Venders - Beggars' Square - Place of Execution — Prhi~ Buildings — Amox: Fortifications - Trade- Opium-Traffic - Joss Houses Inhabitants Foo-CEOW-FOO: Black-Tes District - The River Min- Mountain Cultivation - River Population - Porcelain Manufacture- Inhabitants - Opium Traffic-NINGPO: Pagoda, Triumphal Arch, and Temple - Manufactures Climate Trade- Houses SHANG-HAE: Woo sung River - City - Baths Population-Trade- Burial-Grounds. CHAPTER XVI. THE GOVERNMENT OF CHINA. - Shops - Fruits Emperor - Ministry-Various Tribunals: The Lei-pow- Treasury-Board-Board of Rites - Astr nomical Board - Distribution of Almanacs War Department-Criminal Chamber Board c Public Works - Espionage-Government of Cities - The Penal Code of China- Punishments - For Various Crimes and the Use of Opium-Laws for presenting Petitions - Code of Laws - Pro hibitions connected with those holding the Rank of Mandarin. CHAPTER XVII. EDUCATION, LANGUAGE, AND LITERATURE OF CHINA. Great Importance attached to Learning in China-Schools-Literary Examinations - The Lan- guage - Principles on which it is formed Illustrates the Origin of Languages in general — Speci mens of Chinese Characters, Ancient and Modern - Their Number - No Declension —Language less Difficult than commonly supposed― Literary Compositions - History - Chinese Map of the World-Chinese Geography — Extracts - Poetry - Its General Cultivation- Novels-Nature of these Compositions- The Drama - Character of the Performances. CHAPTER XVIII. THE RELIGIONS OF CHINA. Three Religious Sects- Confucian or State Religion - Rites and Ceremonies- Objects worshipped – Confucius - Budhists- Metempsychosis, or Transmigration of Souls- Anecdotes related by Pere le Comte-Introduction of Budhism into China - Budhist Priests - Grand Lama-Nuns - Prohibitory Commandments-Taou-tse-Description of Credulity of Han ou-ti-Joss-Houses -Jews in China- Mohammedans. CHAPTER XIX. PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN CHINA. Dr. Morrison, first Protestant Missionary to China-His Labors there-Leang Afa, Chinese Evangel- ist - His History-Death of Dr. Morrison-Distribution of Bibles and Tracts-Establishment of Presses-Dr. Milne- His Labors and Death-Increased Facilities since opening of Ports to Foreign Commerce-London Missionary Society-Miss Aldersey-Rev. Vincent Stanton Rev Georg Smith-American Missionary Societies - Local Missionary Societies. CONTENTS-CHINA. CHAPTER XX. WOMAN IN CHINA. The Social and Moral Position of Woman in China - Want of Education - Traditions of the Subjuga- tion of Woman-Maimed Feet- Personal Appearance - Length of Nails-Women's Apartments — Toilet-Tables Smoking - Marriage — Wives - Empress of China - Handmaids — Children of Wives and Concubines — Authority of Parents over Children-Infanticide - Foundling Hospitals - Early Marriages - Conditional Prerequisites-Ceremony of Marriage. - CHAPTER XXI. ARTS, MANUFACTURES, AND NATURAL PRODUCTIONS OF CHINA. < Farming Implements - Rice and Rice-Mills - Cotton - Silk — Tinsel-Cloths of Peking - Embroidery — Porcelain-Paper-Printing - Censorship of the Press-Carvings in Ivory, Tortoise Shell, and San- dal-Wood Mandarin-Boat in Carved and Perforated Ivory-Concentric Carved Balls-Lacquer Ware Copper-Ware- Copper-Money-- Sycee - Tea - Its Cultivation-Hyson or Green Tea Varieties, how produced — Pouchong-Tea, Preparation of― Roasting and Drying Processes - Roll- ing and Manipulation-Fictitious Means of coloring Tea-Inferior Teas - Effect of opening Ports on Price of Tea-Flavor of Tea-Chinese Connoisseurs of Tea- Effects of its Use - Mode of preparing the Infusion in China - Sugar - Tallow-Tree - Rice-Paper-Painting-Architec ture. CHAPTER XXII. MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS IN CHINA. Antiquity of Chinese Music-Musical Instruments- Heang-tei, or Clarinet-Horns - Chinese Organ- Kin, or Lute-Ur-heen, or Fiddle - Saw-been, or Three-Stringed Guitar-Pe-pa, or Four-Stringed Guitar - Yue-kin- Musical Notation- Drums - Gongs - Bells-Chinese Airs. CHAPTER XXIII. MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND GENERAL CONDITION OF THE CHINESE. Attention to Etiquette-Houses and Furniture Chinese Lanterns-Feast of Lanterns - Triumphal Arches - The Peasantry - Chinese Farms-Filial Affection - Household Gods Offerings - The New-Year's Festival - The Spring Festival — The Sixteen Discourses-Visiting — Smoking — Cos- tume Games - Dinners-Taverns. CHAPTER XXIV. CHINESE JUGGLERS. Definition of the Term-Gymnastics of the Chinese- The Emperor of Necromancers - The Basin of Water and the Fish- The Growth of a Shrub - The Production of Edibles from a Plate of Boiled Rice-The Murder and Resuscitation of a Child - Analogy between the Chinese and Indian Jugglers Growth of a Mango-Tree and Production of the Fruit by an Indian Juggler. CHAPTER XXV. THE OPIUM-TRAFFIC. Opium-Smuggling-Dishonored Merchant at Shang-hae- Dishonesty in Traders - Moral and Physical Effects of the Trade- Punishment for Violation of Law - Opium-Clippers- Rev. George Smith's Description of Opium-Smokers-Cultivation and Preparation of Opium-Religious and Moral Obli. gations of Foreign Nations-Amonnt of Opium consumed in China. CONTENTS INDIA. INDIA. CHAPTER I. EARLY HISTORY OF INDIA. Antiquity of the Hindu Empire- The Bramins-The Vedas-Laws of Menu-Institution of Caste- Religion - Independent States-Townships-The Tenure of Lands-Hindu Villages - Objects of Cultivation-Manufactures-Costume- Condition of Women- Commerce-Budha- Excavated Temples. CHAPTER II. INVASION OF THE GREEKS. Alexander the Great- The Kingdoms of India - Palebothra-Defeat of Porus-Advanced State of Civilization-Kingdom of Bactria - Ancient Trade and Manufactures. CHAPTER III. ARAB AND AFGHAN INVASIONS. The Afghans- Rajputs- Afghans conquer Lahore-Conquests of the Arabs-Expulsion of the Arabs Monastic Orders-Bramins - Sacred Books- Parias - Caste. CHAPTER IV. MUSSULMAN CONQUESTS IN INDIA. Turks invade India-Confederacy of the Indian Princes - Conquests of Mahmud, Ghazni — Invasion of Kanoj― Plunder of Mattra-Temple of Somnath-Death of Mahmud - Mohammed succeeds- Is deposed-Hindu Rajas recover their dominions Sultans of Ghazni remove their Court to Lahore-Dispossessed by the Afghans-Destruction of Ghazni - Temple of Juggernath - Festival of Juggernath. CHAPTER V. THE PATAN OR AFGHAN KINGS. Principal Kingdoms in India-The Rajputs-Conquests of Mohammed Ghori - He is assassinated- Slave-Kings-Delhi - Revolutions in the Government - Invasion of the Deccan Conquest of Deogiri - King of Delhi assassinated-Usurpation of Ala-u din-Invasion of the Moguls-Guzerat— The Parsees-Tyranny of Ala-u-din- His Death-New Dynasty - Faquirs. CHAPTER VI. INVASION OF THE MOGULS. State of the Country at the Accession of Gheias Toghlak-His Death-Mohammed the Third- Expedition against China-Misgovernment of Mohammed - Bengal erected into a separate State Hindu Kingdoms re-established-Court removed to Dowlat-a-bad-Death of the King-Accession of Feroze-His great Works-Tamerlane invades Delhi-Is proclaimed Emperor of India-Mas sacre at Delhi-Sultan Baber-Foundation of the Mogul Empire. CHAPTER VII. PORTUGUESE SETTLEMENTS IN INDIA. First Voyage of the Portuguese to India-Kingdom of Calicut Cochin - Proceedings of the Portu guese War between the Princes of Calicut and Cochin - Arrival of Albuquerque-Conquests of the Portuguese-Goa-Accession of Baber. CHAPTER VIII. THE MOGUL EMPIRE. Disturbed State of the Empire - Baber establishes his Authority-His Death and Character - Huma- yun-Re invades Guzerat- Portuguese assist the King of Guzerat- Build a Factory at Din — The King assassinated-Siege of Din-Wars of Humayun - Birth of Akber - The Sultan deposed — Death of the Usurper-Sultan Selim-Humayun recovers Cabul-Is restored to the Throne of Delhi- Diss. CONTENTS-INDIA. CHAPTER IX. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE HINDUS. Village-Republics - Hindu Cottages - Cooking-Religious Ceremonies - Festivals - Fairs - Marri ages - Funeral Rites-Suttees-Manners of the Great-Cities of India-Shops — Houses of the Nobles-Entertainments — Carriages. CHAPTER X. REIGN OF THE EMPEROR AKBER. The Regency-Character of Akber - He assumes the Government - Revolt of the Regent - Extent of the Empire Reforms in the Government - Conquests of Akber-Invasion of the Deccan Chand Sultana-Siege of Ahmednagar-Splendor of the Mogul Court-Architectural Works of Akber - Christian Missionaries-Public Schools-Portuguese superseded by the Dutch-British East India Company incorporated-Death of Akber-His Tomb. CHAPTER XI. REIGN OF JEHANGHIR. Nur Mahal-Her Influence in the Government - Mission of Captain Hawkins-English prohibited from trading to India-Insurrection in the Deccan Sir Thomas Roe's Embassy - The English per mitted to erect a Factory at Surat-Court of Jehanghir - Rebellion of Prince Shah Jehan - Mohaba Khan-Emperor made Prisoner - Heroism of Nur Mahal-Release and Restoration of the Empe ror-Death of Jehanghir. CHAPTER XII. REIGN OF SHAH JEHAN. Insurrection of Khan Lodi―The Mahrattas-Shahjee Bhonslay-Early Life of Sevajee—Shahjee usurps the Throne of Ahmednagar - Is deposed- The Kingdom annexed to the Mogul Empire - New City of Delhi- The Taj Mahal-New System of Assessment in the Deccan- War with the King of Gol conda - Illness of Shah Jehan - His Sons go to War for the Succession-Stratagem of Aureng- zebe - Abdication of Shah Jehan - Foundation of the Mahratta Empire-Imprisonment of Shahjee→ Conquests of Sevajee- Murder of Afzul Khan. CHAPTER XIII. REIGN OF AURENGZEBE. Civil War - Mahratta Country invaded - Bombay acquired by the British-Death of Shahjee Bhons- lay- Rise of the Mahratta Empire under Sevajee - Tyranny of the Emperor toward the Hindus Disaffection of the Rajputs-Death of Sevajee-Is succeeded by Sambajee - Execution of a Bramin-Rebellion of Prince Akber - Conquests in the Deccan Wars between the Mahrattas ind Moguls Progress of the English-Death of Aurengzebe-His Character. CHAPTER XIV. REIGN OF BAHADUR SHAH. Succession disputed-Azim killed in Battle-Bahadur Shah proclaimed - Affairs of the Mahrattas- Power of the Peishwas- The Seiks- Death of Bahadur Shah - Contest for the Throne. CHAPTER XV. REIGN OF FAROKHSIR. Factions in the Government - The Seiads-Mahrattas invade the Mogul Territories-Tamult at Delhi - Murder of the Emperor -- Persecution of the Seiks - New Privileges granted to the English. CHAPTER XVI. REIGN OF MOHAMMED SHAH. Accession of Mohammed Shah-Death of the Seiads— Rejoicings at Delhi - The Emperor makes Peace with the Mahrattahs - Bajee Rao Nadir Shah - Fall of Delhi-Restoration of Mohammed Shah Death of Bajee Rao-Ballajee Rao succeeds-Carnatic War- The Rohillas-Kingdom of Afghanistan founded - Death of the Emperor. 10 CONTENTS-INDIA. CHAPTER XVII. REIGN OF AHMED SHAH. Accession of Ahmed Shah-The Carnatic War - Tanjore - Siege of Trichinopoly - Capture of Arcot - The Rohilla War- The Punjab ceded to the Afghans - Disturbances at Delhi-Empero deposed - Alamzir the Second-The Mahrattas - Death of Raja Saho - Ambition of Tara Bye- The Peishwa usurps the Sovereign Authority—Joins the English in the Carnatic War- Levies the Chout-Tara Bye imprisons the Raja. CHAPTER XVIII. FALL OF THE EMPIRE. Ahmed of Durani - Ghazee-ud-din-Capture of Delhi- Plunder of Mattra-Ahmed makes Peace with the Emperor - The Pirate Angria-Capture of Severndroog and Fort Gheriah - Revolution at Delhi- The Emperor assassinated Mahrattas invade the Afghan Territories-Storming of Delhi — Battle of Panniput - Death of the Peishwa-Accession of Madoo Rao-Death of Tara Bye- Release of Raja Ram-End of the Mogul Empire. CHAPTER XIX. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN INDIA. The French surrender Pondicherry Madras - Progress of the English in Bengal― Aliverdi Khan Calcutta attacked by Suraja Dowlah- Fort surrendered - Dreadful Fate of the English Prisoners The Town recovered by Colonel Clive-Mir Jaffier - Battle of Plassey-Fate of the Nabob of Ben- gal - The Emperor Shah Alum engages in the War of Bengal - Oude-Death of Mir Jaffier- The English become Masters of Bengal. CHAPTER XX. REIGN OF HYDER ALI. Origin and Early History of Hyder Ali-His Progress - Usurps the Throne of Mysore-War with the English-Mahrattas invade Mysore - Hyder Ali cedes a Part of his Dominions - The Mahrattas form an Alliance with the English-Salsctte and Bassein ceded to the English-First Mahratta War- Capture of Gwalior- New War with Hyder Ali-Battle at Cuddalore - Death of Hyder. CHAPTER XXI. REIGN OF TIPPOO SAIB. War continued by Tippoo-Treaty of Peace-State of Mysore-Insurrection at Delhi- Barbarous Treatment of Shah Alum-Tippoo renews the War-Siege of Bangalore-Battle at Seringapatam— Peace concluded - Death of Sindia - Affairs of the Mahrattas - Tippoo corresponds with the Direc- tors of the French Republic - War renewed-Siege of Seringapatam-Death of Tippoo. CHAPTER XXII. BRITISH GOVERNMENT IN INDIA. Settlement of Mysore - Mutiny at Vellore-Surat and Tanjore acquired by the British-Treaty of Bassein - Mahratta War-Battle of Assave-Delhi and Agra taken by the British-Treaty of Peace concluded with Sindia-Progress of the British Empire in India-General Condition of the People. CHAPTER XXIII. KINGDOM OF CABUL. – The Afghans-Candahar-Timur succeeds Ahmed Shah-Revolution in Scinde - Death of Timur. Civil War- - Shah Zeman placed on the Throne - Deposed by Mahmud-Anarchy - Accession of Shuja-ul Mulk — Futteh Khan- Expulsion of Shuja and Restoration of Mahmud — British Embassy-— The English protect Shah Shuja - Mahmud deposed - Usurpation of Dost Mohammed. CHAPTER XXIV. ADMINISTRATION OF THE BRITISH GOVERNORS OF INDIA. MARQUIS OF HASTINGS: Pindarrie War-War of Nepaul- The Seiks - Runjeet Singh-Total Suppression of the Pindarries-Conquest and Settlement of the Mahratta States - Canals reopened - New Road of Mirzapore-Establishment of Schools College of Poona instituted - LORD AMHERST: - CONTENTS—INDIA. 11 Burmese War-Conquest of Assam Conquest of Assam-British Government declared independent - Mission of Ram- mohun Roy-Siege of Bhurtpore - LORD WILLIAM BENTINCK: The Thugs- Abolition of Suttee — Progress of Education among the Hindus- Monopoly of the China Trade abolished - The Presiden- cies - The Army-Progress of Periodical Literature in India-LORD AUCKLAND: Kingdom of Oude-Cawnpore-Death of the King of Oude- Disputed Succession-Lucknow. CHAPTER XXV. THE AFGHANISTAN WAR. Causes of the Afghan War The Chief Towns of Scinde taken by the British-Treaty with tha Ameers― March to Candahar-Restoration of Shah Shuja-Storming of Ghazni - Death of Runjeet Singh - Dost Mohammed made Prisoner-Insurrection at Cabul Assassination of the British Envoy-Treaty with Akber Khan- Retreat of the British Army-English Prisoners Assassina- tion of Shah Shuja- The British recover Ghazni and Cabul-Escape of the Prisoners-The Troops withdrawn-Dost Mohammed restored to the Throne - Ferozepore-Lord Ellenborough's Admin- istration-Hindu Festivals. CHAPTER XXVI. CONQUESTS OF SCINDE AND GWALIOR. Difficulties with the Ameers of Scinde - Battle of Hyderabad-Annexation of Scinde - Baiza Bye- Jhundkoo Rao-Jyngee Rao Sindia Mama Sahib appointed Regent of Gwalior-Dada Khasgee- walla - Battles of Maharajpore and Punniar-Surrender of Fort Gwalior. CHAPTER XXVII. WAR WITH THE SEIKS IN THE PUNJAB. < Lord Ellenborough recalled Sir Henry Hardinge appointed Governor-General-Revolution at Lahore-Assassination of Shere Singh- Accession of Dhulleep Singh- Troubles with the Mountain Tribes-War with the Seiks - Battle of Moodkee-Death of Sir Robert Sale - Battles of Feroze shah, Aliwal, and Sobraon-Total Defeat of the Seiks - Treaty of Peace - Acquisition of Territory- Treaty with Gholab Singh - Imprisonment of the Ranee Earl of Dalhousie appointed to succeed Lord Hardinge as Governor-General of India. CHAPTER XXVIII. A SECOND SEIK WAR, AND ANNEXATION OF THE PUNJAB TO BRITISH-INDIA. Revolt at Moultan- Murder of Vans Agnew and Anderson-Lieutenant Edwardes despatched to Moul- tan - Skirmishes with the Seiks under Moolraj-General Whish arrives with Reinforcements- Treason of Shere Singh-Lord Gough leads the Army to attack him-Battle on the Chenab-Death of General Cureton-Retreat of the Seiks Battle of Chillianwallah- Capture of Moultan- Forces under General Whish join Lord Gough- Battle of Goojerat-Surrender of Shere Singh and other Chiefs-Annexation of the Punjab-Its Extent and Value-Appointment of Sir Charles Napier as Commander-in-Chief- Conviction and Sentence of Moolraj-Destruction of the Fortress of Moultan- Arrest and Imprisonment of Seik Chiefs History and Description of the Koh-i-noor Diamond Out- rage of the Soldiery at Alipore — Troubles with the Afreedees-Gunpowder Explosion at Benares — Resignation of Sir Charles Napier-Appointment of Sir William Gomm to succeed him as Com- mander-in-Chief of the British Army in India-Deposition of the Raja of Sikkim, - CHAPTER XXIX. ARTS, CUSTOMS, PRODUCTIONS, ETC., OF INDIA. Trade and Manufactures of different Cities - Delhi - Benares- Travelling Benares-Travelling- Tiger-Hunting-Catch- ing Elephants - Hindu Servants Husbandry - Mode of Thrashing - Ploughing — Irrigation- Products-Indigo - Sugar- Tobacco odicals. Coffee Cotton - Silk Otto of Rose- - Oil-Mills - Peri- CHAPTER XXX. CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN INDIA. Paganism in India - Pioneers in Christian Missions - Their Labors and Success - London Missionary. Society-Church Missionary Society - Scottish Missionary Society-American Board of Commission. ers for Foreign Missions - Presbyterian Board of Missions - Baptist Missions-Biographical Sketch of Rev. Dr. Adoniram Judson - Description of Maulmain - Abolishment of Caste-Sketch of Rammohun Roy. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. CHINA. LANE SZE-HOO, and the Temple of the Thunder- ing Winda.. Engraved Title. Map of China. Vignette. Chinese Copper-Coin. FRONTISPIECE Swampan, or Arithmetical Calculator. Roman Abacus. The Empress and her Attendants proceeding to the Temple from the Mulberry-Grove. Confucius and his Disciples. Tartar Chief on his Charger. Great Wall of China. Burning of the Chinese Books. Ancient Husbandman. Maidens weeping with a Bride. Persons sacrificing at a Tomb. Summer-Villa. Lady playing on the Guitar. Ancient Archer. Boat drawn over a Canal-Lock. Weit-soong and his Court taken Prisoners. Zinghis Khan. Chinese sold as Slaves by the Tartars. Mandarin throwing himself with the Infant Em- peror into the Sea. Watchman. Celebration of the Emperor's Birthday. Dancing-Girl. Musical Instruments. Shield. Portuguese Ships and Chinese Junk 1. Chinese Harrowing. A Mandarin's House. Shaved Head. Mode of Fishing. Ceremony of Testing the Cannon. Giving out Corn during a Famine. The Emperor's Vow. Mountain Warfare with the Meaou-tse. The British Embassador receiving the Visiting- Ticket of a Viceroy. Procession of the British Embassy. Imperial Gardens at Zhehol. Imperial Gardens at Yuen-min-Yuen. Approach of the Emperor to receive the British Embassador. Taou-Kwang saving his Father's Life during an Insurrection. Tracking a Boat. Boat-Trackers refreshing. Appearance in Public of a Viceroy. Stone-Cutter. Matchlock. The Bocca Tigris. View of Macao. Camoens Grotto. Bay and Island of Hong-Kong. Habitations of poor Fishermen at Hong-Kong English Lady confined in a Cage. Soldier. Devotee consulting the Sticks of Fate Interior of a Budhist Temple. Golden Island. Victoria Town. Burial Procession. Emperor of China. Mountain Scenery. Entrance into the Hoang-ho. Ambulatory Cobbler. Street in Peking. Water-Seller. Temple of the Thundering Winds. Whampoa. Floating Houses with Shops. Duck-Boat. Ornamental Pleasure Boat. Street in Canton. Fortune-Teller. Foreign Factories at Canton. Lantern. Amoy. Foo-choo-foo, Ningpo. House at Ningpo. Interior of a Mandarin's House Shang-hae. Ceremonies observed during an Eclipse Ceremony of presenting the Almanacs Mandarin and Culprit. Visit of Ceremony to a Mandarin. Punishment of the Wooden Collar. Mandarin carried in State. School. Little Boy carrying a Load. Literary Graduates. Chinese Language illustrated. Dramatic Performances in the Open Ar Comedian. Portrait of Confucius. Budhist Idols. Budhist Priest at his Devotions. Leang Afa, the Chinese Evangelist Foot of an ancient Chinese Lady Foot of a modern Chinese Lady. Tobacco-Pouch. Rice-Mill. Bridge, and Junks of Commerce. Printer at Work. Cultivation and Preparation of Tea. Tr-been, or Chinese Fiddle. Sau-heen, or Chinese Guitar Chinese Music. Garden-Scene. Scrolls for Decoration. Feast of Lanterns. Joss-Sticks and Jar. Annual Spring Festival. Domestic Scene. Chinese Juggler. Mango-Tree. Palanquin. INDIAN HOOKA. Map of India. Vignette. INDIA. Hindu Idols-Vishnu, Siva, and Brama. Headman holding his Court under a Tree. Caves of Ellora. State Procession. Drum and Tabor. Temple of Somnath. Female Dancer. Temple of Juggernath at Orissa. Hindu Pilgrim. Tower of Kuttub Minar. ILLUSTRATIONS. Dowlat-a-bad, with the Hill-Fort in the Dis- tance. Vasco de Gama's Introduction to the Zamorin. Goa, from the Upper Curtain. City of Surat. Hindu Water-Girl. Hindu Postman. Wandering Faquir. Landscape and Temple in India. Ceremony of burning a Widow with the Body of her late Husband. Buffalo-Chaise. Tiger-Hunt in India. Gate of Akber's Mausoleum. Khan Lodi overpowered. Tomb of Shah Jehan's Favorite Sultana. Source of the Jumna. Afzul Khan in his Palanquin. Mahratta Chief, The Favorite Wife of Sevajee preparing fo the Suttee. Abboo, or Abboo-gush. Grand Mosque at Delhi. Chalees Satoon, or Pavilion of the Forty Pillars Town and Fort of Trichinopoly. Grand Temple of the Bull at Tanjore. Poona. Black Town of Madras. Madras Roads, with the Manner of hauling the Boats through the Surge. Palace of Mysore. Calicut. Street in Bombay. The Zenana. The Merchants of Calicut seized and chained to a barren Rock. Last Effort of Tippoo Saib at Seringapatam. The Lall Bang. Town and Fort of Agra. Afghan Shepherd. City of Cabul. Calcutta. Government-House at Calcutta. Ghoorka Chief. Hill Village. Burmese War-Boat. Chittapore Road, Calcutta. Palace of Allahabad. Soldier of the King of Oude. City of Lucknow. Fortress of Ghazni, with the two Minars. Bazar at Cabul in the Fruit Season. British Troops en route from Cabul. Bazar in Bombay. Dada Khasgeewalla. Fort of Gwalior. Seik Chief. Afghan Soldier. Weaver and Loom. Benares. Trapping Elephants. Hindu Farm-Yard. Indian Thrashing. Indian Plough. Machine for drawing Water to irrigate Land. Indian Oil-Mill. Afghan Lady in her Riding-Dress. 18 NEW EDITIONS JUST ISSUED. SEARS' PICTORIAL WORKS! HE PICTORIAL FAMILY BIBLE-being the Old and New Testaments, accord- ing to the authorized Version. With full Marginal References; Tables of the Weights and Measures of the Scriptures; a full Chronology, from the Latin of Calovius; a steel-engraved Family Record, for Births, Marriages, and Deaths; a superb and authentic Map of Palestine and the Holy Land. Illus trated by about One Thousand Engravings! 1450 pages large quarto. Price $6. SEARS' NEW AND COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE-from the Cre- ation of the World to the full Establishment of Christianity-with copious Notes, forming an illustrated Commentary of the Sacred Text. 700 pages octavo. Price $3. SEARS' NEW PICTORIAL HISTORY OF CHINA AND INDIA-comprising a Description of those Countries and their Inhabitants--embracing the Historical Events, Government, Religion, Education, Language, Literature, Arts, Manufactures, Productions, Commerce, and Man- ners and Customs of the People, from the earliest period of authentic record to the present time. Il- lustrated with two hundred Engravings. 600 pages large octavo. Price $2 50. 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CHRISTOPHER MORGAN, Secretary of State, and Superintendent of Common Schools, N. Y.; T. Ro- MEYN BECK, M. D., Secretary of the Regents of the University, N. Y.; the LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON Colleges, Academies, and Common Schools; Rev. ED- WARD HITCHCOCK, LL. D., President of Amherst College, and Professor of Geology, Massachusetts. From his Excellency HAMILTON Fisu, Governor of the State of New York. Mr. ROBERT SEARS:- ALBANY, April 10, 1849. Dear Sir: I have not had time, amid other engage- ments, for a very thorough examination of the series of Pictorial Works which you have been so kind as to send me. I have. however, examined them suffi- ciently to justify me in saying, that they are compiled with care, and are highly interesting and useful Family Books, pure in their moral tendency, and replete with valuable information. They are good books, and wor- thy of a place in our District School Libraries. HAMILTON FISH. From the Hon. CHRISTOPHER MORGAN, Secretary of State, and Superintendent of Common Schools. STATE OF NEW YORK, Secretary's Office, Department of Common Schools, ALBANY, April 10, 1849. Mr. ROBERT SEARS,-Sir: I have examined your series of Pictorial Works; I find them to contain a large amount of valuable information, and take pleasure in cheerfully recommending them as suitable Books to be introduced into the Common and District School Libraries of this State. CHRISTOPHER MORGAN. Recommendation of Hon. ROBERT H. PRUYN, GABRIEL P. DISOSWAY, JAMES D. BUTTON, JAMES W. BEEKMAN, and ALONZO JOHNSON, Committee on Colleges, Academies, and Common Schools. NEW YORK LEGISLATURE, April, 5, 1849. We have examined the PICTORIAL WORKS* edited and published by Mr. ROBERT SEARS, 128 Nassau street, New York, prepared for DISTRICT SCHOOL LIBRARIES, and are of the opinion that they deserve a place in these institutions-designed as they are for the diffusion of Useful Knowledge. * The Works alluded to, as having been examined and recommended for the libraries, are as follows: "A New and Popular Description of the United States."-" Pictorial History of the American Revolution."-"Scenes and Sketches of Continental Europe."-" Description of Great Britain and Ireland."-"Pictorial Family Annual."-"Treasury of Knowledge." "Information for the People."-"The Family Instructor."-"Pictorial Sunday-Book."-" Bible Biography."-" Bible History."-Second Series of the "Wonders of the World." ROBERT H. PRUYN, Chairman, GABRIEL P. DISOSWAY, JAMES D. BUTTON, From T. ROMEIN BECK, M. D., Secretary of the Regents of the Office of the Secretary of the JAMES W. BEEKMAN, ALONZO JOHNSON. University, New York. Regents of the University, } ALBANY, March 12, 1849. Mr. ROBERT SEARS,-Sir: I have given as much time as possible to an examination of your Partorial Works.. They are all interesting: compiled evidently with much care, and profusely illustrated with Engra- vings. I can not imagine more useful books to be introduced to Families, and particularly to our District School Libraries and Academies. You appear to have followed in the track of the "Library of Useful Knowledge," and the publications of William and Robert Chambers, and will, I doubt not, be rewarded with a portion of the popularity that has followed them in Great Britain. It is not, by any means, the least of the recommendations of your Books, that their morality is pure, and that they contain few lines which, on mature reflection, you would need to blot. T. ROMEYN BECK. From Rev. EDWARD HITCHCOCK, LL. D., President of Amherst College, and Professor of Geology, Massachusetts. AMHERST COLLEGE, Der. 25, 1848. Mr. ROBERT SEARS,-Dear Sir: I have looked over the entire series of your valuable Publications with much interest and profit; and am quite surprised at the amount of literary labor you have performed, and the research it must have cost you to obtain so many fine illustrations, while you have an active superintendence of an extensive business. I am also gratified at the decidedly moral and religious influence which your books will exert, and can not but hope that they will do much to counteract the effects of that light and immoral iterature which deluges the land, and like the frogs of Egypt comes up even into the kneading-troughs of our kitchens. May you live long to follow out and perfect your plans. EDWARD HITCHCOCK. JUST PUBLISHED, AND NOW READY FOR DELIVERY, NEW BOOKS OF PERMANENT VALUE. A New, Revised, and Enlarged Edition of the PICTORIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE UNITED STATES, for the New Year 1853, carefully corrected by the late Census, with full descriptions and correct illustrations of the GOLD REGIONS. The title of this new and elegant large octavo of 700 pages (cloth, gilt), is as follows: A PICTORIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE UNITED STATES: EMBRACING THE History, Geographical Position, Agricultural and Mineral Resources, Population, Manufactures, Commerce, and Sketches of Cities, Towns, Public Buildings, &c., of EACH STATE AND TERRITORY IN THE UNION; INTERSPERSED WITH REVOLUTIONARY AND OTHER INTERESTING INCIDENTS, CONNECTED WITH THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTRY. ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS, RETAIL PRICE, $3.00. A NEW and DEEPLY INTERESTING VOLUME. THE REMARKABLE ADVENTURES OF CELEBRATED PERSONS: EMBRACING THE ROMANTIC INCIDENTS AND ADVENTURES IN THE LIVES OF SOVEREIGNS, STATESMEN, GENERALS, PRINCES, WARRIORS, TRAVELERS, ADVENTURERS, VOYAGERS, &c., EMINENT IN THE HISTORY OF EUROPE AND AMERICA. Including Sketches of over Fifty Celebrated Characters. Beautifully Illustrated with numerous Engravings. By culling from history some of its most romantic and attractive features, and by presenting fragmentary sketches of those characters, which either by their sufferings enlist the sympathy, or by their exploits command the admiration of the world, the Editor trusts that he has prepared a volume which will prove highly acceptable to the public. The sketches presented are carefully pruned of any redundant matter, and contain only the actual incidents in the biographies of the persons pre- sented. The vicissitudes and adventures in the lives of the world's favored characters present some of the most charming and also thrilling passages in history. To peruse them is to excite the sympa- thies and deeply enchain the imagination. They are also fruitful in moral example. They present the most romantic features of history; a romance more wonderful than that of fiction. This volume, therefore, is well calculated to create and promote a fondness for the study of history. That it might fill such an office was the design of the Editor. The faithfulness with which that design has been carried out, he leaves to the judgment of his readers. One Vol., 400 pages, royal 12mo., cloth, gilt. PRICE $1.25. UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN A 3 9015 04683 9778 PESCRIPTION