e; no discovery likely to affect human progress and brought
here for the entertainment of the intelligent, un-commercial visitor.
There are only the shop-keeper and his customer, though it is a
wholesale shop and on a very large scale.

The fair, moreover, has not the duration that is generally allowed
for an Exhibition.

[Illustration: NIJNI-NOVGOROD (BRIDGE OF THE FAIR).]

Though officially opened on the 27th of July, the fair does not
begin in good earnest till the 18th of August; and it reaches its
height on the 27th, when accounts are settled, and payments ensue;
after which, goods are removed, and the grounds cleared; only a
portion of the business lingering throughout September.

About half a score of days, out of the two months during which the
fair is held, are all that may have attraction for the generality
of strangers. And although many come from all parts of Russia, and
from foreign countries, I do not think they tarry here for pleasure
beyond two or three days.

It would be interesting to anticipate what change a few weeks will
effect in this scene which is now so full of life, bustle, and
gaiety; this stage, where so great a variety of human beings from
nearly all regions of the world, with their money or money's worth,
with their hopes and fears, their greed and extravagance, all their
good and evil instincts and faculties at play.

In a few weeks the flags will be furled, the tents struck; the
pontoon-bridge removed; the shops closed; hotels, bazaars, and
churches, all private and public edifices, utterly deserted and
silent; and every house stripped of the last stick of valuable
furniture; every door locked, barred, and sealed; the place left
to take care of itself.

For autumn rains and spring thaws must set in, when the seven or
eight square miles of the ground of the fair, as well as the country
to an immense extent, will be under water.

_THE VOLGA BASIN_

_THE GREAT RIVER--KASAN, TSARITZIN--ASTRAKHAN_

_ANTONIO GALLENGA_

It is hardly possible to travel on the Volga without falling in
love with the great river at first sight.

The range of low hills which we had on our right as we descended
the Oka continued now on the same side as we came down the Volga.
The Volga, however, has nothing of the wild, erratic instincts
of its tributary. It is a grand, calm, dignified stream, keeping
to its course as a respectable matron, and gliding down in placid
loveliness, without weir or l