he treasury of this monastery is famous among
all who are specially interested in such matters for its priceless
robes and jewels, to say nothing in detail of the aggregated value of
its gold and silver plate. It is asserted that there are more and
richer pearls collected here than are contained in all the other
treasuries in Europe combined. Among other precious gems there are
several mitres which contain rubies worth fifty thousand roubles
each, being set with other jewels of appropriate richness. The
Troitzkoi was pillaged by the Tartars about 1403, and was besieged by
the Poles in 1608, at which time the walls were seriously injured;
but all is now restored to its original strength and completeness.
This ancient monastery stands at the opening of the valley of the
Kliasma, a region fruitful with the smouldering ruins of by-gone
cities so much older than Moscow that their names even are forgotten.
The country between the stream just named and the Volga was the grand
centre of early Tartar history. As in the environs of Delhi, India,
where city after city has risen and crumbled into dust, so here large
capitals have mouldered away leaving no recorded story, and only
enforcing the sad moral of mutability.

The idea of comfortable road-beds for the passage of vehicles and
good foot-ways does not seem to have entered the minds of the people
of Moscow. The cobble-stone pavements are universal, both in the
middle of the streets and on that portion designed for pedestrians.
These stones, without any uniformity of size, are miserably laid in
the first place, added to which they are thrown out of level by the
severity of the annual frosts, so that it is a punishment to walk or
to drive upon them. The natives are perhaps accustomed to this
needless discomfort, and do not heed it; but it is a severe tax upon
the endurance of strangers who remember the smooth roadways of Paris,
Boston, and New York. A few short reaches of the square granite-stone
pavements were observed, probably laid down as an experiment; but
great was the relief experienced when the drosky rolled upon them
after a struggle with the cobble-stone style of pavement. Many
otherwise fine streets both here and in St. Petersburg are rendered
nearly impassable by wretched paving.

One is struck by the multitude of pigeons in and about the city. They
are held in great reverence by the common people, and no Russian will
harm them. Indeed, they are as sacred here as m