fe, some years since, in one
of the principal hotels of Moscow. A native, however, if the stove
should chance to be "covered" before the wood is thoroughly charred,
will detect the presence of the fatal gas almost instantaneously;
and having done so, the best remedy he can adopt for the headache
and sickness, which even then will inevitably follow, is to rush
into the open air, and cool his temples by copious applications of
snow. Persons who are almost insensible from the effect of _ougar_
have to be carried out and rolled in the snow,--a process which
speedily restores them to their natural condition.

One morning there was a fall of snow; and the cream was brought
in from the country in jars wrapped carefully round with matting
to prevent its freezing. Hundreds of cabbages and thousands of
potatoes, similarly protected, were purchased and stowed away.
Furlongs of wood (in Russia wood is sold by the foot), were laid
up in the courtyard; an inspector of stoves arrived to see that
every _peitchka_ was in proper working order; and an examiner and
fitter-in of windows was summoned to adjust the usual extra sash.
At last the windows had been made fast, each pane being at the
same time reputtied into its frame. On the window-sill, in the
space between the outer and inner panes, was something resembling
a long deep line of snow, which was, however, merely a mass of
cotton-wool placed there as an additional protection against the
external air. Indeed, the winds of the Russian winter have such
powers of penetration that, in a room guarded by _triple_ windows,
besides shutters closed with the greatest exactness, I have seen
the curtains slightly agitated when the howling outside was somewhat
louder than usual. "The wind," says Gregorovitch in his _Winter's
Tale_, "howls like a dog; and like a dog will bite the feet and calves
of those who have not duly provided themselves with fur-goloshes
and doubly-thick pantaloons." Such a wind must not be suffered to
intrude into any house intended to be habitable.

Besides the cotton-wool, which is a special provision against draughts,
the space between the two sashes is usually adorned with artificial
flowers; indeed, the fondness of the Russians for flowers and green
leaves during the winter is remarkable. The corridors are converted
into greenhouses, by means of trellis-work covered with creepers. The
windows of many of the apartments are encircled by evergreens, and
in the drawing-r