Tartar prisoners were set to work building a large bazaar and
trading hall. Despite its isolation the city thus became a
cosmopolitan center and up to the time of the world war Norwegian,
German, British, Swedish and Danish cargo vessels came in large
numbers.

"Every June thousand of pilgrims would pass through Archangel on their
way to the famous far north shrine, Solovetsky Monastery, situated on
an island a little more than half a day's boat journey from Archangel.

"The city acquired its name from the Convent of Archangel Michael. In
the Troitski Cathedral, with its five domes, is a wooden cross,
fourteen feet high, carved by the versatile Peter the Great, who
learned the use of mallet and chisel while working as a shipwright in
Holland after he ascended the throne."

To the sailor looking from the deck of his vessel or to the soldier
approaching from Bakaritza on tug or ferry, the city of Archangel
affords an interesting view. Hulks of boats and masts and cordage and
docks and warehouses in the front, with muddy streets. Behind, many
buildings, grey-weathered ones and white-painted ones topped with many
chimneys, and towering here and there a smoke stack or graceful spire or
dome with minarets. Between are seen spreading tree tops, too. All these
in strange confused order fill all the horizon there with the exception
of one space, through which in June can be seen the 11:30 p. m. setting
sun. And in this open space on clear evenings, which by the way, in
June-July never get even dusky, at various hours can be seen a wondrous
mirage of waters and shores that lie on the other side of the city below
the direct line of sight.

Prominently rises the impressive magnitudinous structure of the
reverenced cathedral there, its dome of the hue of heaven's blue and set
with stars of solid gold. And when all else in the landscape is bathed
in morning purple or evening gloaming-grey, the levelled rays of the
coming or departing sun with a brilliantly striking effect glisten these
white and gold structures. Miles and miles away they catch the eye of
the sailor or the soldier.

Built on a low promontory jutting into the Dvina River, the city appears
to be mostly water-front. In fact, it is only a few blocks wide, but it
is crescent shaped with one horn in Smolny--a southern suburb having
dock and warehouse areas--and the other in Solombola on the north, a
city half as large as Archangel and possessing