uring four
months.

St. Petersburg has nearly two million inhabitants, which is rather more
than a hundredth part of the population of the whole Russian empire. The
appearance of the town shows that it is new, for the streets are
straight and broad. The climate is very raw, damp, and disagreeable, and
it rains or snows on 200 days in the year.

A walk through the streets of St. Petersburg shows the traveller much
that is strange. Tiny chapels are found everywhere--in the middle of a
bridge or at a street corner. They contain only a picture of a saint
with candles burning before it. Many persons stop as they pass by,
uncover their heads, fall on their knees, cross themselves and murmur a
prayer, and then vanish among the crowd in the streets. It is also
noticeable that this city is full of uniforms. Not only do the soldiers
of the large garrison wear uniforms, but civil officials, schoolboys,
students, and many others are dressed in special costumes with bright
buttons of brass or silver. But what especially attracts the stranger's
attention are the vehicles. Persons of the upper classes drive in open
sleighs and cover themselves with bearskins lined with blue, and are
drawn by tall, dark, handsome trotters. Sometimes also a _troika_, or
team of three horses abreast, is seen, one of the horses in the middle
under the arch which keeps the shafts apart, while the other two, on
either side, go at a gallop. The hackney sleighs are also common, so
small that two persons can hardly find room to sit, and as there is no
support or guard of any kind, they must cling to each other's waists in
order not to be thrown off at sharp corners. These small sledges have no
fixed stands, but they are drawn up in long rows outside hotels, banks,
theatres, railway stations, and other much-frequented places, and may be
found singly almost anywhere in the streets. The drivers are always
merry and cheerful, and keep up a running conversation with their
passenger or their horse, which they call "my little dove." All drive at
the same reckless pace, as if they were running races through the
streets.

St. Petersburg is rich in art collections and museums,
picture-galleries, churches, and fine palaces. The finest building in
the city, however, is the Isaac Cathedral, with its high gilded dome,
surrounded by four similar but smaller gilded cupolas. The cross at the
top is 330 feet above the ground, and the great dome is the first thing
in St. Pet